Trying to remember the layout of the munitions plant, Tickafir sneaked through the noise filled weapons factory. "Let's see, was it left up around right right left, or left left down over right under? Rust! This place gets more confusing every time!" He mumbled angrily in his head, "This will be easier when I don't need to watch out for surveillance. I hope." He decided to go left right down over around in, but it was a dead end, with a weird looking vehicle at the back. "This looks like that war tank project Dandir was working on, but smoother and more compact. Hey! If I bring the Renegades a working weapon, maybe that will help my case! I will have to find more." Marking this spot electrically with his Darkfang wand, Tickafir went back to looking for the security room, but with a small skip in his step. Not even paying attention very well, he failed to notice a small shadow, flickering from corner to corner behind him, until he heard a quiet buzz of a saw. Quickly rolling forward, a handsaw shot straight through where his neck was just instants before! "Ghostmane! he thought, jumping to his feet and whirling around, just barely dodging another saw, which cut his shoulder instead. Blocking a blow to his face, he kicked a gear behind the gremlin's foot, and hit at the devious ninja's chest. As the elite stepped back to avoid getting hit, he tripped over the gear, rolling backwards up onto his feet, then turned and ran towards an exit. "If he gets away, then the whole factory will know I'm here!" Thinking quickly, Tickafir shot a bolt from his wand at a hinge on a nearby door, knowing the Ghostmane would just dodge the bolt, but he couldn't dodge an entire door falling on him! Shedding his cloak, he took the others and put it on, putting his own in a bag, then dashed for the exit to the higher workers passages. Following the signs to the camera base, which couldn't be found in the normal working zone, the young gremlin stopped outside, and thought up a plan. Quietly opening the door, he slipped in and ghosted up to the leader, then grabbed him and twisted him around, snapping in the unfortunate employee's face, "Seerus wants you out, now!"
"Bu-bu-but sir, we have to stay here and guard the factory!" he stuttered, almost fainting from fear. "Do I have to show you how much I really care about that? Now get out! You can come back in two centi-cycles." he snarled at the guard, hurling him out, "And the rest of you, do I need to show you also?" Watching as they ran for the door, he felt a little bit sorry for playing on their fear of the Crimson Order, but he had work to do. Getting to said work, the mechanic opened the panels on the controls, and fiddled with the gears and wires, making it so the factory would appear all fine and dandy, and there would be no easy signs of tampering. Heading out, the disguised gremlin continued his mission.

((whoo! now i know why you guys post such long stories, that was fun! oh man, this is so long XD ok, im not sure how the whole time thing works, i got confused right at the start, but tev explained, so quicent-cycle is just a mix of words that basically means an hour. and that vehicle looks like the picture made by Robobucks, found here- http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/23657?page=4#comment-309304 -used with permission.))

((edit again-replay to above @tev a quicent-cycle was me making up a word for four centi-cycles, because quad is four. i was just screwin around i think))

((That's a good idea for the times, Treaman. I don't really remember who came up with a cycle=a day, but at first I thought a cycle was a year. XD What does everyone else think?

... we seem to have fallen off the front page again. Hope everyone is doing alright, since I've seen some of our players (including those who are usually active posters throughout the Treasure Vault) missing from the forums entirely the past few days.))

The Yesman darted off in a randow direction, probably to do some important task. Vakros wondered how anyone, or anything, could consantly live with a strict schedule, places to see, people to meet, things to do. He was much more of a layed back sorta guy, or at least he thought he was. Hoped he was.

"Soo.. do you think we'll finally get some sort of explanation as to what we're supposed to do?" As he finished, his brow furrowed in annoyance.

"They better, or I swear I'm gonna go to Rultaos personally and..." He stopped there, as he was uncertain of what he would do to Rultaos. Probably ask him nicely, considering it would be a giant stone horse-like knight thingy versus a Gremlin if it came to a fight. A Mender at that.

"We better get going before that Yesman comes back, they're pretty dangerous."

Mialii

"Interesting ..." Mialii answered slowly once Terarr had run out of words. His explanation honestly didn't help much, but it was likely none of her business anyway. Gremlins were alive, after all.

The nurse was about to say something else when she heard a stirring and a faint "Mew" behind her. Turning, she saw Konjuring Kat opening his eyes blearily and gazing at her in a disoriented sort of way.

"Oh!" she squeaked, and turned to Terarr. "Excuse me- my patient is waking up." With that, she floated to Kat's bedside to do an examination.

"How are you feeling?" Mialii used her most soothing purr to speak to the groggy spookat. "You've been out for quite awhile."

((Either Terarr can do something here, or I'll do some fast-forwarding in my next post as Mialii.))

* * * * *

Bettit

Bettit stared after the Yesman for a moment - she had never actually seen one close up before, so this was really the first time she had seen one clearly - before picking herself up from the grass and dusting off her pants as she contemplated Vakros' question.

"I'm not sure ... he said it was an update, not a clarification," she said slowly, cocking her head to the side at the mender's aborted tirade. The young demo couldn't help but grin because he sounded so silly, and reached over to knock the back of her hand against his arm with a laugh.

"Yeah, let's just go."

((I'm going to leave it at this for the moment and write up the actual contents of the update meeting after I get a little sleep. See you guys in about four hours! XD EDIT (two hours later): Toddlers need to learn the fine art of sleeping in.))

* * * * *

The Update Meeting

The three Pit Bosses stood a ways behind Takun and watched the named mission members enter the tent.

First was the blue phantom, clutching his armful of scrolls and papers. He looked a bit contemplative, and was closely followed by a quicksilver (about whom the Pit Bosses could tell little ... they always had trouble reading slimes). A few moments later, a pair of gremlins arrived: an oddly-colored male and a small female. They were talking quietly, but became silent as the tent flap fell into place behind them. The male looked a bit annoyed, while the other seemed more amused.

"Thank you for arriving in such a timely manner," Takun greeting with his usual placid ease. "We've learned something which may affect your missions and it was important that we imparted it to you before you left to fulfull them."

He paused while his words were met with nods or murmurs of acknowledgement.

"After the unfortunate events this afternoon, Gassek, Fautren and Aslend-" here Takun indicated the Pit Bosses behind him "-recieved information from the perpetrator that the Crimson Order may have a way to track the movements of members of The Clockwork Renegades." He let this sink in a moment before continuing. "This has not been fully substantiated - and if it is the case, we do not know their methods - but with the four of you and any you choose to include on your missions going into gremlin territories, we felt it necessary to alert you to the possibility."

The Pit Bosses watched as the expression on the faces of the phantom and gremlins changed. They still couldn't figure out what the quicksilver was thinking.

Takun turned to Elias and Snarp. "You mission was already a dangerous one; this adds a certain additional risk. The specifics have not changed, but keep in mind the possibility that as watchers, you may be also watched."

The stranger then turned to Vakros and Bettit. "While you will not be going into Colony territory, it would be easy for agents of the Crimson Order to hide among the gremlins of Emberlight. Considering this, you will need to be particularly selective when speaking to possible recruits. Do any of you have questions?" He added to all four of them.

The Pit Bosses stood by; there was always the possibility that any questions would require answers from them.

The kat nurse, Mialii, went over and checked on Konjuring Kat and said that she would be busy for a bit. "No problem." Terarr said as he left the tent. He looked at the artificial sky. Was it just him, or did it seem to be darker then last time he saw it. "Oh well, if it's a problem then I'll leave it to the officials. It's probably my imagination." He thought to himself ((Not that he could think to someone else, but it sounded better then just "He thought")). Terarr wondered when the mission would start. It's already been a while, and it looked as if it was already planed. What was keeping everyone back? Terarr knew that he and a lot of others weren't going anywhere because nobody old them to, but what was keeping the leaders from telling everybody else to go now? Was it because the leaders thought that there was something out there so they only wanted to get the missions started if they had to? "This wait is making me think things. Come on, danger? What could stop the Renegades?" He mumbled. But he didn't convince himself. The wait was defiantly making Terarr nervous.

Mialii and Konjuring Kat

Once Mialii had examined Konjuring Kat and deemed him fit for travel, the two spookats emerged from the tent into the endless artificial sunshine of the Treasure Vault. Being ghosts, they didn't need much in the way of supplies, so their only luggage was a small pouch containing the nurse's tools that she carried by a strap.

"I'll go ahead and meet our escort," Konjuring Kat told his nurse. "Since you were going to go and find our devilite."

"Oh yes, Terarr should be around here somewhere," Mialii purred in response, watching Kat head toward the place they were slated to meet the contingent of zombies that were to accompany them to Moorcroft. The little devilite couldn't have gone far, so she didn't think it would take too terribly long to find him. Hopefully he would be ready to go when she did.

Terarr looked around and saw people all ready to go on their missions. "Oh, no!" Terarr cried. "Everybody's ready to go but me! I don't even know where to get supplies. Oh, I know! I'll ask Mialiii. I hope she knows where to get some stuff." Terarr did a detour and headed back to the medical tent. Then he saw Mialii already out. He rushed over to the female spookat. "Mialii, do you know where I could get some supplies? I just noticed that it's almost time to go!"

Scharr

Scharr had a natural connection to the IMF, a certain wireless access that let him into any systems of the factory. He could access the surveillance cameras without having to directly plug into the mainframe. He could disable certain security mechanisms. Sometimes, he nullify a construct threat entirely by simply overriding its code. All of this was because he was build here, built to be the first of a line of ultimate protectors of the IMF.

At some point, the Gremlins had actually believed that the IMF would win them the war. Being sent to work there was a great honor, and for a time, it seemed certain that the factory would produce endless rows of invincible constructs.

The first of these constructs to be fully completed was the Roarmulus project. It seemed perfect. Knights hate gun puppies, so why not make them bigger? It seemed like a good idea at the time. But alas, they were fatally flawed. It ended up that any competent squad of knights could breeze through them with minor troubles.

After this, hopes for the IMF's success were crushed. Combined with dwindling gremlin support for the war, the IMF fell nearly into ruin. Eventually, Seerus took it over and turned it into his personal workshop.

But none of that history mattered now to Scharr. He tapped into the cameras once again, in order to check whether the path ahead was clear of gremlins. As he did so, there was a flicker, and the cameras went dead for a moment. When they came back online, Scharr noticed that certain hallways were set to play an empty loop of hallway.

One of those hallways was the one he was in. Behind him, he heard the distinctive footsteps of a gremlin, about to come around the corner.

Everything had happened so fast; he had gotten lost, finally found some maps, ended up sidetracked by Terrar, and found Snarp only to be called back without getting a good 5 minutes glance at any one of the charts... and now he already had to LEAVE!
He approached the tall cloaked figure at the head of the room, "uhmm..." he held up the armful of charts.
Takun received them under his own arm and reminded Elias of his name, "did you get a chance to check through them?" Elias dropped his head in distress. "Might i suggest just taking routes that will lead down and northward? That is probably where you'll find the easiest point of entry, Just as long as you dont go too far." He handed back 3 of the scrolls to Elias. "These should help more than those others, it should lead you somewhat close the Grand Palace perimeter, though there are a few locations you will have to pass that may not be on them, so that could cause problems. Best of luck to you both, farewell."
Elias checked the charts, and saw tunnels and wilderness, and luckily no haunted areas... though that may be part of the 'unmapped sectors.' "Well Snarp, you ready?"

As Elias conversed with Takun, Snarp was already getting ready to go. The quicksilver had slung a satchel filled with video and data modules over its main mass, using one of its thorns to keep the bag on itself. Then it went over to Elias, saying,"Hey, Elias, let's get going. You done yet?"

((Good luck, Azure! Have fun! And hopefully an internet connection.))

Fridge was currently face-down on the ground, wondering what had happened. One moment he was charging towards the enemy, the next, he was on the floor. However, before he could process anything more, his proximity sensors alerted him to something approaching really REALLY rapidly. At the last second, Fridge rolled out of the way before a large, gelatinous, and thorny mass impacted with the ground, fracturing the floor where his head was a moment before.

The Defiler slowly stood up and grinned at Fridge in a somewhat grotesque way. It was especially creepy seeing that twisted smile on his eerily zombie-like head. With little warning, the monstrous mutant went on the offensive, as his construct arm opened up to reveal an array of missiles, and shot them all towards the Mecha Knight who was still trying to recover from the Defiler's battering ram attack. Fridge raised his shield as the projectiles launched towards him. Although his shield was small, he quickly maneuvered it to intercept the shots towards him. He managed to deflect most of the missiles, but a few still managed to hit him. Luckily the damage done was relatively minor, but he knew he wouldn't last if he kept taking hits like that. With a running leap, Fridge reclaimed his sword from where it had impacted the ground, and once again got into a battle stance. After a moment of sizing up each other, the two opponents charged together to begin their clash anew.

---000---

Dagren was still trying to make his way to the knights. Luckily, one of the knights (the leader probably) was helping keep the enemy off of his back with her gun, but still some enemies were managing to get uncomfortably close. Dagren snarled at a Jelly Cube that was approaching him and smashed it to slimy chunks with a swing of his Thwack Hammer. As he finished off the jelly though, he noticed that some missiles were headed this way!
(This is happening right before the Defiler attacks Fridge and the missiles he had shot at the group before being distracted)

Alarmed, Dagren saw that they were on a direct course with the knight party! As fast as his legs could carry him, he leaped and pushed the knights out of the way, causing the missiles to impact with the wall instead. Unfortunately, they were also incendiary missles, so he caught on fire from the splash damage.

"ARGH!" Dagren flailed around a bit as he attempted to put out the flames that were licking at his fur and clothes. He eventually managed to get control over the flames, but now he was even more singed than before. "This day just keeps getting better and better!" Dagren grumbled to himself.

However, he still had a task at hand, and he took a quick look at the situation. The enemies were still coming, there was no way out, and all he had at the moment was his Thwack Hammer. Maybe he should have thought this out a bit better...
He took a glance at the knights who were staring at him with a sense of curiosity and hope. As much as he didn't want to admit it, he didn't want to let them down. He paused in thought.
Dagren then got an idea. A very dangerous idea, but it might just provide the opportunity to escape.

"Catch!" He yelled at the Defiler, who was currently sparring with Fridge, who was surprisingly holding his own. The Defiler had only a moment to wonder who said that, when he caught a Thwack Hammer to the face. Dagren had flung his Thwack Hammer at the Defiler!

As the knights looked on in horror at what the gremlin had done, the Defiler slowly turned around to face them. His jaw was dislocated and was missing a few of his teeth. And he looked PISSED.
He immediately sent a laser beam at Dagren who quickly dodged. It instead blasted apart an unfortunate infected zombie instead.
Dagren smiled slightly to himself. If he could pull this off, then they should have a way out of this situation.
"Hey you misshapen moron! Ya missed me!" He taunted in an extremely derisive voice.

The Defiler was livid now and while growling in frustration, sent an even bigger laser beam at the impudent gremlin. Again Dagren dodged, and a cluster of infected monsters were vaporized by the intense heat.

"How's that zombie head holding up for ya; how do you even live without a brain?" Yet another blast of energy ensued, and the Defiler was breathing extremely heavily, toxic gasses beginning to seep out of the various holes in its torso.

"You know, I've seen some stupid monsters before, but you really are something else!" Dagren remarked while pretending to strut around arrogantly. "I'd compare you to a slime in the no-brain category, but that would be an insult to slimes really..."

That did it. The Defiler could take no more. Insulting his intelligence was the last mistake this gremlin would make; the Defiler was once a renowned scientist for crying out loud, and NO ONE would demean him like that! (refer to the Defiler's original bio)
With a feral scream of rage, he began attacking anything and EVERYTHING wildly. He shot of lasers, missiles, spiked projectiles, blasts of energy, and various noxious gases were jettisoned into the surrounding air.

"Are you CRAZY?!" yelled the knight in Angelic armor to Dagren. "You just made things worse!"
Dagren in response pointed at the surrounding horde. They were getting caught in the crossfire, greatly decreasing their numbers and in many cases incapacitating them to the point of beyond recovery. Dagren then spotted an opening in the crowd, and began leading the squad out towards the nearest elevator. One of the knights had to be supported by a teammate as they fled from the scene.

Unfortunately, although violent, the Defiler's tantrum was short-lived. As it regained clarity, it noticed that the Knights were escaping! As he got ready to pounce upon them and finally rid himself of the irksome gremlin, he was knocked down by a stunning blow from behind. Not to mention, he was suddenly on fire.

---000---

TS13 had stuck up behind the Defiler while it was distracted and decided to do something useful. With a mighty swing of its arm, the Redward bludgeoned the unsuspecting monster, temporarily stunning the Defiler and also lighting it on fire. In fact, the fire was proving to be an excellent distraction, seeing as the gasses leaking from the Defiler were actually quite flammable and the Defiler was rolling on the ground in pain. TS13 turned towards the retreating knights and saw that one was injured and was currently being supported by a teammate, slowing the entire group down. TS13 approached them, scooped the knight up in its arm, and begun carrying the knight to the elevator much to the knight's surprise.

---000---

Fridge was exhausted from the fight and really needed a recharge. While Dagren was taunting the Defiler, he had retreated and had begun helping holding back the horde alongside TS13. However, he noticed that Dagren was now retreating and waved at him to signal the full retreat. TS13 was already with them, holding an injured knight. Fridge trotted as fast as he could away from the field of battle, now littered with corpses, injured infected creatures, and a screaming, flaming Defiler. Fridge saw everyone get on the elevator, and Dagren was already punching in the coordinates to get everyone out of there. Fridge sped up his trot to a run as he rushed to get on the elevator as well.

On the way there unfortunately, his damaged and stressed systems let out yet another malfunction, sending him careening into the group, thoroughly shocking all of them as well with his body. The group collapsed into a tangled mess of bodies and limbs.

Dagren let out a weak gasp from underneath the body of TS13 as the elevator ascended.
"I really hate that Mecha Knight."

((Whoooo... long entry...))

((Sorry about that ... added that sentence as an afterthought and hadn't re-read your post first. Fixed it to time all this after you guys step out, whenever that will be))

Terarr followed Mialii to where the supplies were. When the supplies came into sight range, he gasped. "I do NOT need that many supplies," was Terarr's first thought. The second was "Why do we need to recruit undead if we have enough Renegades to need this many supplies?" He examined the supplies and saw some REAL traps. "These traps make mine seem like silkwing food." he said to himself as he picked one up. "Surely I'm not aloud to use these things!" But Mialii took him to these things, and nobody was making him leave, as well as the fact that he was going on the mission was all for him taking them. Actually, the fact that he wanted them so badly was mostly the reason he took them without asking, but that's besides the point. He looked at the bombs, and took a few. He also saw some furniture in the supplies. He chuckled at the thought of actually THROWING some. Then he thought, "Why not? All the other devilites do it." But he decided not to. After all, he could throw his traps. Wait, he was on to something. Throwing traps? He always placed them before hand, before. But THROWING them. It was perfect! He thought about that on the way to the elevator. The elevator closed around them, and they plunged into the depths of the clockworks.

((Woah, that was a lot of typing. I now REALLY wish I could do this all the time. It is AWESOME!!! :D))

((Well, I just got over my lazy disease. So, I'm posting :D ))

Hanaphs followed the Trojan through the lifeless city. [What the heck happened to all the Devlites? It's like the parts of the Citadel that's been recently burned out!] The Slag guard thought. He was confused more than he was afraid, making his slag a dark yellow. The city seemed so eriee. He was used to much more active places.

Rultaos told him to stay, so he did as ordered. He stood there waiting, looking around him every once in a while. Suddey, a variety of trash was thrown at him. He lost all hints of fear, and was now just purely confused; yellow. He was too late to block with his sheild, so that, along with his spear, was knocked out of his hands. He sheilded his face with his arms, and yelled, "What the heck?! Evil dumpster!?"

The nonstop garbage projectiles were starting to annoy him. Slowly, he turned from yellow to a crimson red. "Stupid trash-spewing monster! DIE!" He yelled as he uncovered his face, and grabbed a trashed-filled bag from the air. His eyes were a slanted and anger-filled. Being hotter than usual when mad, the bag caught on fire. He tossed the flaming trash straight into the dumpster.

((I love Hanaphs's mood swings XD ))

((Tev, I actually already know what happened to moorcraft, but thanks for the heads up. ;) ))
Mialii asked who was here on the last trip, and some of the zombies told what happened. "Wow, this defiler guy must be really good. To bad he won't join us in the Renegades. I bet we could really get something done that way. Oh, well." Terarr looked around the ruined library. It looked even worse than last time. Wait... It was! Somebody messed with it. Probably some gremlins or something. He thought about setting some traps for them if they try again. Some of the traps that get someone stuck there would be good. He shook his head. He needed to focus on the mission at hand. "I was here a while ago, and I did a bit of exploring. The place that spiralians aren't aloud is that way. That's where you'll find the good fighters. Th elders are over there, and I once went with a few of my friends there to here some of their stories. They're great story tellers, but that's about it."

Hanaphs watched the Blarful Devlites run away. "Well that makes more sense." He said as calmed down into a green, satified with his work. He heard fimmiliar footsteps and got a pat on the shoulder. The Slag Guard took his advice, and would try not to get himself killed with mood swings. Even though Blarful Devlites wern't that strong, netheir was Hanaphs.

With Rultaos's directions, Hanaphs grabbed his spear and shield, and walked causually to the elevator. He steprd onto the metal machine and took an idle guard stance, a position that looked causual and off-guard, but really made him ready for anything. Except being pushed off a cliff. That didn't really have a position to save yourself.

((Treaman...so...I can take control of your character? Mods, is this within the rules?))

((Well guys, I am sorry about being SO LAZY that I couldn't do this earlier, but...

I am officially resigning from the roleplay. :(

I thought that I may as well take a minute to tell you all why I'm leaving, so here it it:

1. I am overextended. Between making time for just plain playing games for fun, big exams coming soon, my Minecraft server that I recently started dedicating, music, and real life in general, I NEVER have the time to do what I need to do. I decided after careful consideration that I would drop this.

2. The roleplay and becoming a mod has made into work. Like Tev said a while back, "A good roleplay is one of my chief amusements in life, so this is really less work, more play." If this isn't fun for me anymore, why would I do it? I have much more, to be honest, important responsibilities elsewhere. While I was posting regularly, I put a lot of time into my posts. I couldn't just log on, post some story, and leave. When i post a section, I am thinking about it for hours or days beforehand, thinking about how it will benefit the story as a whole, what kind of scenes would fit, what my character should do. That is simply more time than I am willing to invest in this.

3. It is becoming harder and harder for me to try NOT to simply take over the story. Since the first few pages when I joined in, I have had a master plan of how I wanted the story to go, with this particular description and that scene and whatnot. But I have been able to force myself so far to let others join in and direct how they want, even if its contrary to my designs. That has been a little difficult for me, and its just not something I want to have to stress about right now.

4. I am just kind of done with it. I believe that almost all people can eventually get tired of roleplays, and even in this one we have had several people drop out already. I have managed to stay for the longest other than Azure, Windsickle, and Za-cK, but it just isn't as fun as it used to be. I have been in my share of roleplays; this is not my first. This is the sad but inevitable truth, that I will eventually tire of them and move on.

These are my reasons for leaving. I sincerely had a ton of fun with you guys, even the ones that left. I have always found forum roleplays as kind of wonderful, as they provide an opportunity for people of any skill level in writing to jump in and experiment, without having to worry about big plot designs and all that stuff that comes with writing a full story. Tev, Zack, and Azure, I hope to you the best luck in moderating the roleplay.

Tevokkia, keep it together, I know you ended up taking over a lot of that work while Azure was gone, and kind of clung to the job after he returned. You saved this roleplay from page two a few times, and certainly it would be dead if not for you.

Zack, you have stuck to it from the beginning. You had, I believe the first or second reply for a character application, and never once did you give up on it. Thanks a lot for helping out and making it fun.

Azure, I thank you for, again, being loyal to the RP and also just providing us with the opportunity to write. You kind of stated up a wave of Creature bases fanfictions, of which I believe were rare before you stated this. If we had been knights instead, it surely would have become boring and we all might have left. Good thinking.

Windsickle, you stuck to the roleplay even though you weren't really able to post anything real for about 5+ pages. That's just plain cool.

Flyingninza, I have a special apology for you. I stopped posting right when you needed me to be there for our encounter, and I believe that it slowed down your posting quite a bit. I am really sorry that it worked out that way.

To everyone else (of which I'm not going to list, because I will miss someone): All of you are what make the roleplay from a pitch to a story. Thank you all for giving me a really fun time.

As for my characters, of course the mods can decide, but I think I owe Scharr to Flyingninza, as my laziness and bad timing held him up for a while. As for Torx, he can be controlled by Tevokkia and Isis, as they have done the most for helping me develop his character and background.

Keep up the good work guys, and don't let the Renegades fall out of memory! I will be checking from time to time (I hope) to see how the story's been going. You will still see me in game occasionally too, but I don't play that much.

Bye!

-Necroterra

(Wow, im closing this tab for the first time in this way, so sad :( :( :( )

))

((Sorry to see you go, Necroterra; it's been fun playing with you. I don't know how much of the things that we had discussed were also discussed between yourself and Za-Ck or Azure, but I'll keep them in mind going forward.

In light of this, though ... I really think it's time for an in-game mod meeting, if that's possible, since we now have a lot of hanging pieces of storyline that we should decide what to do with. Azure, I saw you on 5 or 6 hours ago (about 10pm Zack and my time). Is this a time that you can be on another day?))

((It was fun man, maybe I'll see ya around. I'll try and take care of Scharr for you. @some mod, is it cool if i keep posting from Tickafirs perspective, but still use Scharr? Unless they separate.))

EDIT--((Ok, thanks for clearing that up. Someone else should probably use Scharr here, because I don't know him well enough to gauge his reaction to a "Ghostmane" who knows he's a Renegade.))

((Well, we'll figure it out, then ... since Torx and Scharr are both being relegated to NPC status, are we opening up to new characters once the missions are complete, or going to keep the status quo for now?

I had better report now that from Saturday of this week to Saturday of the following week, I will essentially be out of the country, and do not know whether or not I will have internet access - if nobody hears from me by late Sunday, you can probably assume that I do not. XD))

((We decided awhile ago that we wouldn't take apps even if there was an opening while we were on missions, so we'll figure out whether we're opening up between now and when everyone gets back to base))

((That's good then, Ebil ... I had just remembered you saying awhile back that you were only going to read the first page and the last three. And very sorry to have taken so long to get this up. D:))

Let's Split Up!

Mialii heaved a sigh, which made her ghost bell ring. "Well, let's get going that way, then," she said in reply to Terarr, and they all headed in the direction that the little devilite had pointed.

"Why don't we split up?" the spookat nurse suggested as she and Konjuring Kat floated along in the middle of the group of shambling zombies, Terarr trotting along between the two ghosts. "Kat and I will each take part of the escort and start talking to anyone we meet, while Terarr can take the rest and see if there are any fiends around that he can talk to."

((I figure this will be a good way to assume that the NPCs do their job without my having to type out every little detail, and still let Terarr have his adventure in Moorcroft ... so let's just follow the devilite for now, shall we?))

Of Gremlins and Gossip

It turned out that Torx was not, in fact, home, so Bettit and Vakros headed back to the elevator. By the looks on their faces, most observers would assume that they were headed to a funeral.

As the two approached, they noticed that the small group of gremlins that had been loitering near the elevator earlier was still there. They were all dressed either in neutral gear or that which identified them as Emberlighters, and some of them were carrying the sorts of backpacks that meant they were expecting a bit of a trip.

* * * * *

Merrett had been waiting for a short while with the seven other gremlins for the last two of the recruitment party to show up; if they hadn't planned on splitting up which areas of Emberlight the different teams were headed towards, most of them probably would have left by now.

But as it stood, they were waiting on Vakros, who Merrett knew by name and face even though be didn't know the gremlin personally (it was always a good plan to recognize your local menders), and his partner, whose name was unfamiliar. The thwacker wondered briefly whether it was a new recruit or just some nobody.

Finally, he spotted them coming, both of them looking as though they had swallowed a chunk of Dark Matter. Merrett waved at them. "Nice of you to join us!" he called, appraising this new gremlin as they walked up. She responded to his scrutiny with a watery smile and took a half step behind Vakros, so he mentally dismissed her as uninteresting and turned his attention back to the mender.

The rumors seemed to be true; Vakros was looking a bit ... different, nowadays. Merret didn't have much tact, but he did have enough not to say anything about it.

Someone else, however, did not.

"So uh ... how'd you manage to turn yourself the wrong color?"

The question came from Kostlo, a recent exile from the Colony, who was promptly elbowed in the ribs by the female next to him. Asteria was a quick-footed albino who no one had ever heard speak, and was constantly at Kostlo's side. Despite this, no one seemed particularly sure whether the two were a couple.

The rest of the party seemed to be torn between interest at the potential gossip and rolling their eyes at yet another delay.

* * * * *

Bettit hadn't realized that there would be others on this trip, and she didn't much like the way that the big thwacker who had called out to Vakros and herself was looking at her. She tried to put on her cheerful face, failed, and sidestepped behind her friend ... maybe he knew the guy.

She didn't get to find out, however, because another gremlin in the back called out a question that she didn't understand, at first; she had mostly assumed that Vakros' coloring had been an unusual family trait. She stepped back out from where she had taken refuge from the thwacker's gaze and looked up at the mender, hoping the question wasn't going to be something upsetting ... especially considering the mood he was already in.

((Sorry to put Vakky on the spot there, Isis ... I just thought it was kinda' weird that he changed color literally overnight and nobody had actually said anything about it. >.> *ducks and hides*))