Mordax et al

It seems that I have received this question so many times now, I can no longer avoid it. Yes, I have been avoiding it, as I am certain some of you suspected. Why am I on Derse? Why am I not playing the game? Why are we still in the medium? These are all very good questions– questions that, once I answer them, I am sure will cause some of you to look upon me with disdain.

I do not know where to begin. Let me begin by telling you, reader, a little bit about me. My mother called me Celia Warden. Prophecy calls me the Maid of Blood. When I was eleven years old I stopped dreaming– I woke up on Derse. Its an amazing thing when a little girl suddenly finds herself in another world, with the ability to fly, and all the inhabitants in awe of her. Does it surprise you I took to sleeping much more than would otherwise be healthy?

The more time that I spent awake on Derse the more it felt like home. Can you imagine that, reader? Coming to a new world, a stranger in a strange land. To walk in the streets of a city both alien and night by night increasingly familiar, where everyone knows who you are and no one says your name. Speaking with queens and courtiers, visiting shops and landmarks. Slowly growing to know the inhabitants, to gain friendships and petty enmities. Making it a home.

The world reverses: time on Earth is time asleep. And yet…

And yet even among friends under the twilit sky, sharing drinks– because a race of immortals doesn’t know not to give a 12 year old alcohol– it is impossible to escape to escape the reason I am there. I am doom. I am the destroyer. I am the heavy hand of fate.

What happens when you tell a little girl she’s going to kill all of her friends?

For a while, I coldly plotted murder. Of course that was before I knew how we’d all get to the medium; that it would be me, and my precious few online Earth friends playing what seemed like an innocent game. Six of us. Maid of Blood, Thief of Rage, Heir of Space, Prince of Time, Page of Void, Bard of Hope.

By now you understand. I am a saboteur. I swore an oath to the Black Queen herself not to allow Derse and the Medium to be destroyed.

From the moment I began the session with my fellow players I was against them in little ways. I prototyped the most deadly thing I could find on-hand, a model of a fire breathing dragon. I’ll admit to being a distinctly… unhelpful server player once my charge had gotten safely into the medium. The sort of thing you could pass off as careless accidents. I got out of my own server’s view as soon as possible and met with an envoy from Derse as planned. I caused distractions to give them an opening to meddle with alchemiters and other equipment. Malfunctions were passed off as glitches, at first. When our space player started breeding duties, I came to the planet myself, and rewired that machine too, to destroy the chances of breeding the hated frog.

All of these were delay tactics. I wanted something that would put the final nail in the coffin of the session and end the possibility of creating a new universe. I came up with a lot of schemes, each one more complex and nonsensical than the last. None of them would have worked; and I was unwilling to kill one of my fellow players. I kept up my tricks as my fellows progressed. I grew in myself as Maid of Blood, and through my abilities, I am ashamed to say I fostered infighting between my human friends to bog down the quest and confuse our goals.

Finally our Space player created what I knew to be a completely unviable. Of course no one else knew that and so, with the reckoning not in sight, they wondered what to do now. Some of the more bloodthirsty, or at least proactive, players convinced the others that it would be in our best interests to make a preemptive strike against the Black King with the element of surprise on our side. At the very least we wouldn’t have to dodge meteors while we fought him. While I had no love for the Black King myself, his death would be a blow for Derse, and I feared, a mark on my own loyalty and carefully won reputation.

While my fellow players were plotting away– with my minimal involvement– I met with the Queen and Agents on the matter. Here I was at a tipping point. It was not likely, that I would be able to conceal whatever my actions were from my fellow players. It was time to commit, and I had to be ready. I steeled myself, and asked what should be done. I knew that I would have to fight against my fellow players if the Queen wanted it, but the idea soured me.

The debate was…. intense. Jack of course took a ‘kill em all’ approach– his idea was to assist in the murder of the players, and then take out the Black King. No one could say it wasn’t ruthlessly efficient, if it could be pulled off. I pointed out that if we went ‘all in’ here, and lost, there would be no future opportunity; the medium would be doomed, and more immediately, we’d all be dead. with the Dignitary’s support I put forth another plan– let the King be killed, if he could be killed, then I would bring the scepter back to the moon, and Derse would have lost nothing but one incredibly unpleasant man.

The Dersite monarch agreed, only thanks to her hatred for her husband and with my solemn vow to bring the scepter to her. She swore she would kill me otherwise– I could tell she was extremely worried about a double cross, despite my loyalty up to now. I could not blame her; if it had been a true frog and I had persuaded her thus, the players victory would be all but at hand, once the last of the denizens were faced. It was a serious gamble for her. It was a gamble for me, too.

To say it was a slaughter would be an exaggeration; at the very least it went off without a hitch. We attacked in the middle of the night, and after a gruelling fight, vanquished the unsupported Black King, unknown to my fellows, the Queen’s spies watched. My friend the Dignitary had come for the occasion. It was him who would report to the Queen if I didn’t get the scepter. I lied as glibly as I could, grateful for my element once again. I set them to fighting about who should have the scepter, and ended up with it, almost by default.

Some of the others wanted to stay on skaia and celebrate our victory, but I pointed out that we were still surrounded by a hostile army that would be regrouping soon, and besides, I didn’t want to leave the scepter on Skaia too long, in case someone got ahold of it. In this case I meant anyone who wasn’t her majesty, but I certainly didn’t want them to know that. As soon as we dispersed, and I believed myself to be in the clear, I made my way to the Dersite ship that was waiting for me. We shared drinks on the ride back to the moon. There was only one problem.

Leon, the Prince of Time, was waiting for us, just far enough above Derse. Floating there in his purple pajamas. My pesterchum beeped at the same time the pilot saw him. He called me out; of course, he had unraveled the entire scheme. He wanted me to come out and face him. Before I could respond, the Dignitary ordered the pilot to go right through him.

I don’t know what happened next. I don’t know if anything *really* happened next– if were merely skipped one moment to the next, or if a thousand possibilities played themselves out over lifetimes before time returned– the next thing I knew we were in the wreckage of the ship, crashed by the palace of Derse. Six Leon’s were dead and in various pieces around. The pilot was dead too; the Dignitary was holding the scepter and it was covered in blood. My hands were latched around the neck of another Leon, and his knife was buried in my stomach. Above the Black Queen was locked, briefly, from my perspective, in combat with another. She dropped his broken body and it landed right in front of me. I dropped the lifeless one in my hands too. I believe I vomited. I know I lost consciousness.

I ascended in the tombs below the surface of Derse as the fully realized Maid of Blood, brought there by the Black Queen.

And then, as they say, the shit really hit the fan.

I won’t bore you with details, reader, though you may ask for them if you like. Suffice it to say that my session is a slowly unfolding catastrophe. We have been here nearly two years now, and it is my intention that there will be no end to it. With my fellow players, I have few friends still left, though perhaps not to my credit, more than none. Things have mostly settled, though occasionally the more stubborn players make a bid to derail my plans and find a way to complete the game. The last two months have been one such time, hence my absence.

As much as I enjoy updating this blog, the safety of the medium, and Derse comes first. But things are quiet now. Peaceful. Ask away.