Getting your bearings

[anonymousWavelength]

You take your place as the HEIR OF RAGE in the LAND OF FIRE AND LILIES.

Well. This is different.

Your hive is no longer by a tranquil lake. The glow of fire has not gone away, but the forest has. It feels humid and muggy where you are. Your hive appears to rest on a gigantic flat plant in the center of a gigantic pink flower. In the distance there are more plant-islands, each with their own flower, most with buildings in them. Some of the flowers are on fire, providing the only illumination in this place. You can't make out any shoreline for the gigantic lake you appear to be on, but there's a darker stretch in the distance that could possibly be one.

What is going on.

Beardad's still here. You might as well ask him.

--Show Spritelog--

ARUALE: what irs even going on here.
BEARDAD: You're in the Medium now.
ARUALE: oh, (oo).
ARUALE: so thirs irs where the game happens?
BEARDAD: That's right.
BEARDAD: Thirs irs your p)anet.
BEARDAD: There are other p)anets in the Medium. They will belong to your friends.
ARUALE: sweet.
ARUALE: speaking of friends, i shou)d probab)y tell )erena that i got in.
BEARDAD: Do whatever you think irs right.

[Shipfish]

==> Do tell Lerena that you are safely in the Medium.
OR
==> Ready your weapons. Didn't Kyanas mention something about monsters?

[anonymousWavelength]

==> Do tell Lerena that you are safely in the Medium.

That's probably a good idea. You take out your husktop, but she isn't online. You leave her a message anyway. She'll get it when she gets on.

[09:15]-- anonymousWavelength [AW] began pestering sadisticSylph [SS] at 09:15 --

[09:02] AW: hey
[09:02] AW: uh
[09:02] AW: i'm in the medium
[09:02] AW: stuff seems to be on fire
[09:02] AW: a)so i''m in a giant f)ower
[09:03] AW: don't know if that's norma)
[09:03] AW: anyway, it a)) worked out, so don't worry about me and stuff.
[09:03] AW: okay, bye i guerss

[09:03] -- anonymousWavelength [AW] ceased pestering sadisticSylph [SS] at 09:03 --

==> Ready your weapons. Didn't Kyanas mention something about monsters?

Your weapons? Yeah, you think she and Lerena both said something about fighting monsters. You get out your flail. This thing has served you well, but it's sort of crappy against high-level foes. As was recently illustrated. You wish there was some way to upgrade it. Oh well.

[Shipfish]

==> Go see what these free-to-construct items are all about.
OR
==> Look on the back of your captchalogue cards.

[Radiodragon]

==> Find some imps, and go nuts.

[anonymousWavelength]

==> Look on the back of your captchalogue cards.

Okay. That seems sort of random, but you will. You captchalogue a rock and flip over the card-charm. There's some sort of code on it, with random letters and numbers. That seems pointless.

==> Find some imps, and go nuts.

Imps? What imps? That's a weird thing to say OH MY GOD WHAT WAS THAT. You could have sworn you just saw some sort of black thing go behind that wall AUGH THERE IT WAS AGAIN. Okay. Okay, you're getting jumpy. There is absolutely nothing there YES THERE IS. Okay. Okay, breathe. You're just freaking out because you're disoriented by this new environment. Nothing is going on. Nothing is happening. You are going to turn around and everything will be fine and okay and there will not be a monster.

You turn around. There is a monster. Shit.

STRIFE.

You get out your mace and start swinging it around to build up momentum. The thing looks to be relatively low-level. It's shorter than you, so you'll have height and reach advantage. You have GOT THIS.

You smack the RUST IMP around for a bit. It really poses no challenge to you, a seasoned FLARPer. You almost feel sorry for the thing, but stop that ridiculousness when you completely exhaust its HEALTH VIAL and it drops some stuff. Sweet! You collect the stuff, gaining +5 IRON and +25 GRIST. You have no idea what that means, but it sounds awesome!

You scale your echeladder, gaining the much-coveted rung of SNAPPY IDEOLOGUE. You gain +15 GEL VISCOSITY, +20 CACHE LIMIT, 412 BOONDOLLARS, and your CHARISMA skyrockets to an astonishing 35!

Oh look, more of the little bastards. COME AT ME BRO.

After a good bout of ass-kicking, you seem to have cleared out your entire hive of the pests. Your echeladder's ascension has slowed somewhat, but that is to be expected. After all, it takes more to get to higher levels. You currently reside at CRIMSON FIREBRAND. Not bad for ten minutes' work.

Well that was fun. What now?

[Radiodragon]

==> Take stock of your grist and then..... GRISTMAS TIME IS HERE!!!

[Shipfish]

==> Pester Kyanas and ask her what to do with all your excess grist. She will know.

[anonymousWavelength]

==> Get trolled by Lerena

Well, okay then.

herobound.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=pester2&action=display&thread=54&page=1

==> Take stock of your grist and then..... GRISTMAS TIME IS HERE!!!

Welp, looks like it's time to make some useless stuff.

You start out making the rock. Yep. That's a rock, all right.

You captchalogue your FLAIL. You punch the card and go ahead and make a copy of the flail, since you have a feeling you can't get it out of the captchalogue card anymore. You put both cards into the TOTEM LATHE. You get......

TOM DAN THE FLAIL. ((it's this on a flail, sans shades. a2.twimg.com/profile_images/1589712792/tomdan.png ))

Well. Yeah. That is a rock on the end of a chain with a handle on the end. It looks heavy as shit. You try picking it up and swinging it, and feel a sudden urge to shout HERE'S TOM. That's quite enough of that.

You captchalogue a REVOLUTIONARY PAMPHLET. You combine it with the flail to get THE GLORIOUS FIST OF THE PEOPLE'S REVOLUTION. Sadly, your PRETENTION stat is not high enough to wield it. Yet.

You captchalogue an old shirt you had lying around and combine it with the pamphlet to create a TROLL CHE GUEVARA SHIRT. Perfect. You equip the shirt, and your PRETENTION stat increases tenfold! You can now wield THE GLORIOUS FIST OF THE PEOPLE'S REVOLUTION.

While you're at it, you combine your old FLARP outfit with the pamphlet. You get some snazzy DEMAGOGUE DUDS. They increase your charisma by a factor of ten, and make you look damn awesome to boot. This is so great.

You should probably make your husktop more portable. You combine the HUSKTOP with your GLASSES to make some sweet HUSKSPECTACLES. Oh yeah.

Time for some more weapons. You combine a PILLOW with the flail to get the GENTLE REBUKER. This thing is completely useless. And yet, so awesome. Pillow fights are going to be your BITCH.

Man oh man, so many awesome things to make. What's next?

[Radiodragon]

==> Look up and try to see that small red dot in the sky.

[Quakerlol]

==> Look up and try to see that small red dot in the sky.

Okay then. You look up and see a swirly red thing, waaaaaay above your hive. You have no idea what it could possibly be.

--Show Spritelog--

BEARDADSPRITE: It's a gate.
ARUALE: okay, since when (an you read my mind.
BEARDADSPRITE: I (an't
BEARDADSPRITE: I jurst figured that that's what you were wondering.
ARUALE: okay then.
ARUALE: what doers it do?
BEARDADSPRITE: The first gate gets you to your )and
BEARDADSPRITE: In thirs (ase, the LAND OF FIRE AND LILIERS.
ARUALE: (oo).
BEARDADSPRITE: Then the se(ond gate gets you to the next )and.
BEARDADSPRITE: Whi(h in your (arse is the LAND OF CASTLERS AND LIGHTNING.
ARUALE: is that )erena's )and?
BEARDADSPRITE: Very good.
ARUALE: i try.
ARUALE: so how do i get up there?
BEARDADSPRITE: We)), your server p)ayer irs supporsed to bui)d your hive up to it.
ARUALE: she's bursy right now.
BEARDADSPRITE: Yes, ursua))y there irs much more time for everyone to get into the Medium.
BEARDADSPRITE: But in your carse, another serssion was a)ready beginning
BEARDADSPRITE: And thus you had much )erss time to get a(()imated.
BEARDADSPRITE: But don't worry, on(e everyone irs in then the rursh wi)) be over and the game (an pro(eed ars norma).
ARUALE: so what doers that mean for me?
BEARDADSPRITE: It means that your server p)ayer wi)) not be ab)e to he)p you for a whi)e.
BEARDADSPRITE: So you wi)) need to dea) with things on your own.
ARUALE: that's not a prob)em.

Okay, things learned. What now?

[philosophersBones]

==> Get pestered by Kratus!

[anonymousWavelength]

==> Get pestered by Kratus!

What? Who the hell is Kratus? You don't understand. Hey look, your husktop is beeping at you. You ignore Beardadsprite for the moment. Time for learning the game later.

herobound.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=pester&thread=60&page=1

Huh. That guy was actually pretty cool. You didn't think that Stebia would ever be friends with a piehead, considering how sheltered she is. She probably doesn't know. You're sure as heck not going to tell her. You've never had pie, but it seems okay, and you are not blowing your one opportunity. Besides, Kratus seems like an okay guy, even though he names stalagmites and has weird grub issues. But hey, who doesn't have a few weird things? Not any of your other friends, that's for sure. You take a brief moment to reflect on how weird all of your friends are. Jegus, you need to hang out with more relatively normal trolls. Or at least, you should have before you started this game.

It hits you that you six are probably the only kids to escape the meteors, if Lerena is right about them. Wow. That really sucks.

Well, you've fulfilled your obligation to the server/client chain, and everyone is in now. There isn't a single thing to hurry for. What should you do?

[Shipfish]

==> Investigate your surroundings in more detail! Look for anything that moves, perhaps some non-evil creatures to interact with?

[Quakerlol]

==> Investigate your surroundings in more detail! Look for anything that moves, perhaps some non-evil creatures to interact with?

You decide to blow this popsicle stand.

--Show Spritelog--

ARUALE: hey
ARUALE: (an i go down there?
BEARDADSPRITE: I supporse.
BEARDADSPRITE: Although I wou)d (aution you against taking on anything too high-)eve).
ARUALE: what do you mean?
ARUALE: a)) the imps have been ridi(u)ours)y earsy so far
BEARDADSPRITE: True, but there aren't on)y imps to worry about.
ARUALE: (ome on, )ike what?

Suddenly the porch shakes. You steady yourself.

BEARDADSPRITE: Like that.

A gigantic hand reaches up above the railing. It grabs it, and hoists itself up over the edge. You take a step backward. The huge monster has some sort of a filter for a face, with enormous claws and a bushy tail. That's certainly different.

You hastily catpchalogue all the items you alchemized in your bracelet. You don't have time to equip everything, so it looks like you're going to be using your trusty old flail for now. Unless...

--Show Spritelog--

ARUALE: hey dad, (an you buy me some time with your sprite powers or whatever?
BEARDADSPRITE: I suppose so.

Beardadsprite starts firing lasers at the monster, knocking it back a little. You try not to be distracted by how awesome this is and go ahead and equip your TROLL CHE GUEVARA SHIRT, HUSKSPECTACLES, and THE GLORIOUS FIST OF THE PEOPLE'S REVOLUTION. Because damned if this thing isn't the best. You yell a little to get your AGGRESSION stat up

ARUALE: FURS RO DAH!

Your AGGRESSION stat soars through the roof! Bolstered, you charge at the thing, swinging that flail around like tomorrow isn't a thing. It smashes right into the monster's hideous face, cracking its HEALTH VIAL and shattering it into a major GRIST windfall!

You run around like a maniac, collecting all the SWEET LOOT and riding high on an adrenaline rush. This is going to be so easy.

--Show Spritelog--

BEARDADSPRITE: It's not over yet.
BEARDADSPRITE: Look.

You see two more huge monsters-

BEARDADSPRITE: They're (a))ed ogrers.

Okay, fine. You see two more huge ogres climb over the side of the building. Welp.