Part 46: The Darkest Secrets

: I’m screaming internally. And a little externally.

: Luckily, one of us has the decency to not tease me like that.




: Now, at last, the stars themselves revoke their station in the night, and we have finally achieved an inkling of this…!



: Our final two available perks are the first-level perk Hex of Victory (Bertrude does five more points of damage to her adversary’s pyre provided her own pyre has more Pyrepoints. Combined with Hex of Defeat, this essentially gives her a +5 buff to Glory), and the second-level perk Greater Blast (Bertrude’s Aura is fired in a wider angle)

: There isn’t anything I can say about Greater Blast that I haven’t said before. Making it wider might be a stealth-nerf, and its width was never a problem to begin with.

: Hex of Victory and Hex of Defeat together would essentially put Bertrude’s base Glory at 30, which would make her tied with Jodariel; Bertrude is already a bit of a murder machine, and I’m not about to object to making her even scarier.




: You overhear some of your companions reflecting on this.

: She hath passed from this place, along with all her eccentricities.

: May her absence spur us on to greater glory.

: You wonder who, if anyone, among you shall be the next to go.

: Our Plan approaches a key turning point. Let us ensure it soon comes to fruition. Not only for ourselves, here… but for our companions and our loved ones in the Commonwealth. But, we have little time now for reflection into this. Look yonder, Reader! The stars demand we go, already. Let us help them usher in the end of all of this.





: Look at that ledger. The next Liberation Rite is happening immediately after this regular Rite. Lendel and Barker are practically neck-and-neck.





: Before you vote on who and where we should play next, ask yourself the following questions about each of our possible options. Up until now, I’ve tried my best to refrain from influencing your decision on where we should go, but this time, I’m going to remind you of everything we know and what we don’t know about our potential opponents.

: Regarding Manley, the two times we have played against him are during our very first journey to Mount Alodiel, a lifetime ago, and the Liberation Rite following that one. On top of that, we’ve only been to the Isle of Khaylmer once. We only learn why someone’s been banished to the Downside when we play them in a non-Liberation Rite after the first round, so we haven’t yet learned why Manley is in the Downside, and if we’re curious, this would be our last opportunity to find out.

: Regarding Lendel, we haven’t visited the Pit of Milithe once since our initial journey, and its page remains locked in the Book. If we don’t target him, it’s likely he’ll be our opponent in the Liberation Rite, and if we do, and we succeed, we will almost definitely play Barker on Mount Alodiel instead (Udmildhe went down by four points when we defeated her at the Spring of Jomuer, and there is only one point separating Lendel and Barker). If you want to hear the Dissident’s version of Never To Return, this will be our only chance.

: As for Ignarius… we know why he’s here; we’ve been to the Ridge of Gol; he’s already lost all hope of escaping once more and he’s clearly beat up about his inability to play Sportsball like he once could. Opting to go to him would just be kicking him when he’s down. Do you really think Ignarius deserves that? Come on.

: So, with that out of the way, who are we going to go after for this first and final regular Rite of this cycle? Do we target Manley and the Chastity, ranked fifth, at the Isle of Khaylmer? Do we target Lendel and the Accusers, ranked second, at the Pit of Milithe? Or do we target Ignarius and the Tempers, ranked sixth, at the Ridge of Gol?

: Lemme know by tomorrow!