Disappearing Hogwarts #6

HeadQM

Archive: https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.<wbr>com/qstarchive.html?tags=Disappeari<wbr>ng%20Hogwarts
Character Sheets: https://pastebin.com/mTYzU5uL
Twitter: https://twitter.com/head_qm

--

In the last thread you:

> Got shot at with blanks by Harry Potter

> Snuck into St. Mungo’s and discovered who were the hosts of Rowena Ravenclaw and Godric Gryffindor

> Found the entrance to Avalon and discovered you’d need all three Deathly Hallows to open it before Salazar broke through it

> Discovered that the Beast is actually Merin, fragmented beyond recovery

> Discovered the Fifth Founder was also Merlin, in a different body

> Joined forces with Brighton, put Godric into his head, and Rowena on Raven’s

> Learned the Dark Mark from a crazy Death Eater

> Cast the Dark Mark to distract Potter while your allies stole the Elder Wand and the Cloak of Invisibility

> Opened up Avalon and defeated Nimue, the Lady of the Lake of Rot

And now…

You five stand in the Dark cavern, only the dim blue sparks delineating the area around as each of you process Merlin’s story in your own way. He had looked into the future and seen doom, then done his best to stop it. For at the very least three thousand years, he had succeeded.

Then he made a mistake, and became a being of pure destruction which will end the world if it ever escapes your head. Yet his efforts had saved the world for another millenia.

Now it is your turn to save the world from him, except you aren’t nearly as powerful or as knowledgeable as Merlin. But unlike Merlin, you’re not doing it alone.

“So, what do we do now?” Arty asks.

“I felt a passage opening on the other side when I was waking up,” you say. “Should let us move forward, hopefully to somewhere I can put my mind back together.”

“Elliot, I have to warn you,” Helga says inside your head. “Whatever comes next, I won’t be able to help.”

“Why not?”

“There is movement in the forest,” she says, in a low tone filled with worry. “The Beast is prowling.”

You feel a chill go through your spine.

“Very well,” you say, not quite managing to keep a hint of fear from seeping into your inner voice, the memories of your other encounters with it flashing through your mind. “Then keep watch. We’ll manage without you.”

--

You fly one by one over the Lake of Rot, first Apollo, then Arty, then Linda and finally Brighton, then move down the new tunnel, each holding on to the robes of the person in front. The cane guides your way ever downwards, and looking behind and above you, you can see the path you’ve made roughly forming a great downwards spiral, down and down towards an unknown fate.

The cavern is slippery and you take your fair share of scrapes and tumbles on your way. Why Merlin figured it was necessary to make the way to Avalon in such a way, you do not know. Perhaps it made sense in his mind. Perhaps it was simply a challenge of magical engineering, and to create the Elixir of Life such structure was needed. Perhaps there was an unknown reason which you will never discover. Still, you keep on going only to reach a circular room with flat ground. On the opposite end from the one you entered, a great set of double doors, closed.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

You approach, slowly.

“Uh, Elliot? I don’t feel so good,” Apollo says.

“What’s wrong?”

“I- I don’t know. I- I feel thin. I feel-” you can hear his ragged breath, almost gasping. You reach for him, holding on to his shoulder, and he stumbles and holds on to you. A few seconds go by as his breathing stabilizes again. “I’m- I’m sorry. It’s better now. I don’t know what that was.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, I’m good.”

You tap your cane again to get a better look at the room and freeze.

Arty is not there.

Linda is not there.

Brighton is not there.

Only you and Apollo remain.

[Cont.]

>>5977242

“Arty? Linda? Brighton!?” You shout.

“Arty! Arty!” Apollo shouts by you, much, much louder, and far more scared. “ARTY! Expecto Patronum!” The spell fails to make even a spark against the impossible darkness.

“Apollo! Calm down! They… they can’t be far.” You are just as worried as he is, as the only way out of the room is the way you came. Arty had been holding on to your robes until the moment you stepped back to check on Apollo, you’re sure of it. She and the others had simply Vanished. But you know that if you lose your mind... Apollo isn't one to keep his head straight when his sister is in danger. “Merlin didn’t create this place as a trap. It isn’t meant to kill people.”

“But you said it was ancient, right? It could be broken, it could be-”

“It isn’t. Things like this don’t break. The inner workings of this place might just have taken them away. Separated us for some reason. They’ll be fine.” You force yourself to say the words, for his sake more than anything else, as the doubt creeps into your mind. “They’ll be fine.”

You still spend some time searching for them, going back tapping your cane, but they’re not there. They’re not anywhere.

“Right, we… We need to find a way to move forward.” There is not much confidence in your words, but you say them anyway. “A way to open the door. Let’s start there.”

You hear Apollo hyperventilating by your side, and he nods so hard you can hear it from just the ruffling of his robes.

The door seems rugged and with some texture, almost as if something was written or carved into it. The poor vision your cane gives you, however, doesn’t allow you to get a good sense of what's on it, so you resort to touching your way through it. There appears to be definitive shapes on it, but it is difficult to make out what it represents.

“Apollo, think you can figure out what is carved here? Maybe it's ancient runes.”

“I… I can try.”

You tap a couple of times to give him a better notion of where you and the door are, so you see as he reaches out to it, touches the stone and-

There is a loud rumbling noise of stone grinding against stone, and the doors open.

“What did you do?”

“Nothing, I just touched it.”

Tap. Tap. Tap.

You tap, but your sparks do not seem to make it through the archway.

“Right. That’s not worrisome at all. Well, then, cane-wielding men first.”

You step through the archway and come out… In a worn down, filthy muggle apartment. The lights are off. There is mold growing on the walls and infiltration on the ceiling. The floor looks like it hasn’t seen a wet rag in months, there is the sound of a jackhammer coming through a closed window mixed with some unrecognizable jingle, the smell of filth and car exhaust fills the air. It is very muggle, and not in a good way. Somewhere in the apartment, a child is crying their lungs out.

[Cont.]

>>5977244

“I don’t know if you can hear me, but you can come!” You shout back. “It’s looks safe… ish.”

Apollo appears a few moments later, jumping through the apartment’s closed door. He looks around, frowning. Then his eyes go wide in fear.

“No. No. Not here. You shouldn't-” And you can only watch as he fades into nothingness and disappears.

--

You spend several minutes trying to discover what happened to Apollo, to no avail. Calling his name or even the most powerful spells you know produce no results. It takes a long time for you to grit your teeth and move forward, telling yourself that they must all be fine, that Merlin has not created this place to kill people. Forwards, because backwards is not an option.

The window a few meters away gives way to a barrier of blackness and can’t be opened. The light switches don’t work, but you can see well enough in this level of darkness after what you’ve been through. You move until you exit the corridor, which gives way to an even filthier living room. An ancient tv, a sofa that was once a light tan but is now brown with scratch marks from some animal, a pile of letters in a table.

Through another doorway, you can see a kitchen, spoiled food on the table with flies flying around it.

But in the living-room, in a corner, a christmas tree, undecorated, broken and without any gifts below it. In the other corner, a small boy, not two years of age, in a fetal position, holding on to his hair as if trying to rip it out, face buried on his knees. Hanging from a rope in the middle of the room, a woman with ginger hair and rope around her neck, gently swaying from one side to the other a couple feet above the floor, a chair fallen below her.

The baby cries somewhere else in the house, her screams piercing your ears, louder than the jackhammer, unbelievably loud.

Apollo had told you about this once, though you hadn’t quite understood it. But now you know why the door had opened at his touch.

Because this is his worst memory. Because someone like Merlin would never bring someone here without peering into the secrets the person did not want him to know.

What do you do?

> Write in

Anonymous

>>5977246
>Comfort the child-Apollo
>Avert both our eyes from his dead mom

>>5977244
>But in the living-room, in a corner, a christmas tree, undecorated, broken and without any gifts below it. In the other corner, a small boy, not two years of age, in a fetal position, holding on to his hair as if trying to rip it out, face buried on his knees. Hanging from a rope in the middle of the room, a woman with ginger hair and rope around her neck, gently swaying from one side to the other a couple feet above the floor, a chair fallen below her.

>The baby cries somewhere else in the house, her screams piercing your ears, louder than the jackhammer, unbelievably loud.

off to a
start

>Write-in
>Make sure the father is absent. If he is, comfort the boy and quiet the baby. If he isn’t, find some way to get the kids away from him.

Could try to comfort the kids simultaneously by bringing the boy to the girl’s room and see if that helps either of them. Maybe Baby!Apollo finds comfort in seeing Arty safe even as a kid.

drawfag reporting
glad to have you back HeadQM!
we are so back!
>dead mom hanging
>babies crying
yeah...its good to be back...yayyy....
now, on to business

>Write in
>make sure Apollo is fine, maybe comfort him a bit
>immediately look for Arty
we know she was..."abussed" or at the very least we suspect she was, those loud cries arent bringing any calming thoughts right now, better be ready for the worst and interfere.
but i have a sinking feeling we miiiight not be able to do so if this is a memory, we might not be able to change that, i really hope im wrong tho

>>5977294
+1
Some people do deserve to suffer and die, laws and morals and society be damned. This is a fact of life.

>>5977246
Well then. I just woke up and need to think about this for a moment.

Can I offer anyone an Arty in these trying times?

<s>The hair might be a touch too red but this is pretty close to what I consider "auburn", given I have auburn hair.</s>

>>5977246
>“There was… a very old memory. Someone crying. A broken tree. Old. And I wanted there to be something under it. But it was empty. The house was dark. My stomach growled. And the tree was empty. And feet, turning one way, then the other. Flying. The feet were flying. And there was crying. And she was so loud.” He says, and there is a deep anguish in his voice, his chopped phrases difficult to parse his meaning. “And this time… This time the tree was new. And there was so much under it. And… and I wasn’t starving. And the tree was full. And I… I didn’t know what to do.”

Well I had assumed the feet going one way and then another was Apollo talking about when he tossed their "caretaker" out of a window. And the reason why Arty could see Thestrals was due to seeing that happen, not her mom hanging herself. By a fucking rope when she had a new born child and an infant son due to the horrid situation they were living in. I suppose their mom had gotten knocked up by someone, had twins almost a year apart from each other and couldn't keep up with things like bills? I would assume at that point, she didn't have a husband or what not nor familial connections to help her out. I suppose the caretaker was just who found them. So at least in might not have been dad who tried and maybe molested Arty.

Are we going to have to go through each of our allies worst memories now? Because only one person was supposed to come here and at this point he should have had most of his extraneous memories ripped away by Nimue?

>>5977246
>Help the small boy up. Tell him to be strong. Hold his hand Help him to the room with the crying girl. Try to help them out of here.

<s>So... we might have to go through Arty getting kiddie diddled. Brighton going through his worst memory, probably including Frank and Alice. The thing that made Linda into Raven. Fun. I fucking hate Merlin.</s>

>>5977464
What is Elliot's worst memory then? Last Light Redux? I wonder if Apollo and Arty and Brighton will be there with us, or if they are each in somebody else's worst memory vision? If Arty, Apollo, or Brighton - let's face it, it'll be Arty - ends up in Elliot's, will they end up seeing Salazar as Lily in Last Light? She's gone from reality, but not from memories. Memory also means Pensieve could be used later on

I spent a week binging up to this point, thanks for the fantastic quest so far HeadQM.

[SPOILER]The whole section with Avalon and the Lady of the Lake gave me some massive Tainted Grail vibes which I absolutely loved.

>>5977577
I'm still reading through thread 3 properly, but I skimmed my way to here after finishing thread 2. i don't think Elliot and Arty will be able to make it to graduating from Hogwarts without a kid on the way. <s>That's going to be one more thing on the Arty pile to deal with. She's going to kill herself from overwork with everything she's taken on herself, and she's not even asian. She has an insanely reduced lifespan, and she's only going to reduce it further with her constant tasks</s>

>>5977594
Enjoy the Christmas portion of the quest anon. <s>You will need it.</s>

Seeing his best friend die and not being able to stop it would probably qualify as the worst thing Elliot has gone through, given he came from a pretty normal, stable home and one of our goals is to figure out how to beat death.

Arty has show to be... somewhat self destructive in her own adorable way. Knowing you are going to die by like 35? What is the point of not doing everything at 100 percent? Why NOT ride giant monsters that could eat your face off? Why not try and buy like half the people in the school a Christmas gift; its not like you are going to need the money anyway.

I think part of why Apollo didn't go Dark after all they went through, all the power he has, is that he had his sister with him. I also think that until recently, he was probably the only thing keeping her from engaging in even more self destructive tendencies. To stick with him for as long as she could, and try to help him.

>i don't think Elliot and Arty will be able to make it to graduating from Hogwarts without a kid on the way.

Well there are free anti-pregnacy potions in the nurse's office.. I expect it will be about one month after our fantastic wifelette gets her diploma until we get the good news of the first of a very large number of kids being on the way.

>>5977683
<s>I'm still waiting on Apollo to develop some magical video games for witches and wizards with his magical autism.</s>

>>5977683
>Christmas portion
I already did. That's why I said there is no fucking way Arty will not have a baby in her before graduating. That will take ungodly levels of restraint on both her and Elliot's part (and on the part of the QM), and with all these nonstop revelations and life-threatening perils left and right, well... I suppose being for children and teens is why Harry never got to the point he did in his books. Unless here in the quest canon, that bit is an embellishment or omitted, and Elliot is following in Harry's real footsteps in this?
>free anti-pregnacy potions in the nurse's office
No guarantees on them being used :^)
>one month after our fantastic wifelette gets her diploma
You are assuming nobody will die before the 7th year ends

>>5977691
He reduced Arty's lifespan to like 30 years. In exchange, his own lifespan is how long now? 250 years, give or take? If he learns enough about muggle tech to sate his real clinical autism, he might end up doing much more than that in the wizarding world

>>5977692
>>5977683
For the record I'd rather not get Arty pregnant while we're smack dab in the middle of all these extremely dangerous adventures.

>>5977701
Should we even be thinking about getting her pregnant at all? Pregnancy is super rough on the average person, and I'd imagine it would be even worse for someone of Arty's body size.

>>5977701
>>5977707
Which is why I'm saying we need to endure until year 7, AFTER this entire plot ends and Merlin is gone

>>5977707
Absolutely, we should knock her up as many times as she's down for... Once we've used ancient and powerful magic to bolster her body's defenses. Short chicks can have kids, but women (let alone teenagers) with congenital conditions that dramatically reduce their physical capabilities and lifespan? Maybe not. Definitely not while they're running around fighting dark wizards and time-monsters. Imagine if she miscarries? She'll be crushed.

>>5977692
I think Arty and Elliot would be, ah, safe in any intercourse they ended up having. Our other best friend has a mom who is 29. Despite her kid now being like 17.<s>Which is pretty fucked up, if you do the math.</s>

There are male anti-pregancy potions as well. Just double up and it should be pretty fool proof. I imagine both Arty and Elliot are responsible enough to not bring another life into the world before it is time.

<s>There is also always anal.</s>

If Arty dies before she graduates, I will flip the table and vote for Elliot to become Wizard Hitler 3.0

I believe most witches and wizards in this version of Harry Potter live to be around 160, per QM. So it is more like Apollo accidentally took like a 130 years off his sister's life span. <s>The longest a Rowling approved canon wizard lived was around 400 years, if they weren't Flammel or Merlin. I wonder if he was a twin as well.</s>

>>5977691
It would amuse me severely if he decided that, no the Department of Mysteries is not for me and founds the magical equivalent of Nintendo. Becomes a wizard Gabe Newall.

>>5977701
I mean she wants a lot of kids, at some point... just maybe not before we sort shit out with us having a gate to Nothingness stuck in our soul, have at least one powerful Ancient wizard trying to come back, may be murdered by a guy so famous they renamed Halloween after him, and while Elliot hasn't even taken the magic equivalent of his SAT yet. Ect.

>>5977707
>>5977713
I have a number of female friends who aren't much larger than an Arty and have had miscarriages just due to stuff. Miscarriage in the early stages of pregnancy is fairly common. It is when if is in the latter part that it gets to people.

Arty may not even be able to have kids, given early developmental malnutrition, her condition, and what not. What we saw in the Mirror was a bunch of kids and grand-kids, with the people we love being whole and hale. The Mirror which the two smartest of the Founders concluded was a torture instrument, something that would show you what could never be.

>>5977743
> It is when if is in the latter part that it gets to people.

I've known women who've given natural birth (not via c-section) who've developed physical and mental issues from it, such as perennial tearing making sex not enjoyable for months afterward, incontinence, PTSD, amongst others. It just seems like pregnancy and childbearing would be torture for Arty if she survives unless we were to find some way of magically strengthening her body or her lifeforce.

>>5977752
Pregnancy would probably not be... hugely fun, in a physical sense. At least she hooked up with a dude who is like 5'3 so the kids will not be huge. I am sure after this long the magical community has some stuff to help. Potions or something. Magical healing is also pretty great if it is applied soon enough and we are also muggleborn. So prenatal vitamins, good nutrition, and just going to an ordinary hospital are on the plate.

Wizards are apparently a good deal tougher than your bog standered human, up to and including Arty, to a degree.

As for the mental part? I mean one of her big dreams is having kids. Having them and being in a safe stable situation, I suppose we can add. Given her mom apparently roped herself due to a combination of post-partum depression and the bad situation she was in.

<s>Arty dying shortly after her first child was born, only getting to spend a few hours with them would be a kick to the teeth and be a pretty tragic end to an already tragic life. Also good motivation for Dark Lord Hallaster to take the driver's seat. Elliot conquering the magical world while wearing a baby wrap and having a bag full of bottles and diapers is pretty fucking funny to imagine.</s>

If Arty decides she does want to give childbirth a real shot, I can imagine it would only be after we can find a way to get her lifespan back to normal, at the least. I figure that should fix up most physical issues as well. I hope. I don't think Arty would want to bring a child into the world if she could be dead before the child even entered Hogwarts.

somebody mentioned wedding dresses in the K&Q thread, so i got inspired and did this, i´ll probably finish it this weekend

>>5978264
That is great. I almost spit some of my Whiteclaw out on the key board. I fucking love smug Linda. We honestly need more of that in our lives. Scowling Apollo is pretty amazing.

And of course, Arty fantasizing about being lowered down to her wedding by a giant man-eating spider prop with a couple of tears in her eyes... Or knowing her, just a real one she made friends with. We should 100% percent have the small Acromantula Arty gave belly rubs to as our ring bearer.

Thank you very much for the art, anon. It has made the quest even better than it already is.

<s>Do wizards even have traditional weddings, unless they are muggle-born? I assume most of them aren't really Christian in the normal sense, given that an adult witch or wizard could replicate most of the miracles Jesus performed, aside from the last.</s>

Also I found out trying to figure out that question, that boss-witch Mcgonagall was married at one point and that, if QM is taking any more from the really bad play, Draco's wife had a malediction, a blood curse, which is why he is their only child.

One of the ways that curse manifests is frailty.

Arty is frail, by witch standards, and has a drastically reduced life span. The heritable part of a malediction is only passed on to the same sex children. So if mom got it, you do as well if you are her daughter.

Maybe the healers and Arty are incorrect, she is misdiagnosed and that is why she was born like this?

HeadQM

>>5977445
That looks awesome, anon! Love it! Did you draw it, or who did you commission it from?

>>5977725
>Our other best friend has a mom who is 29. Despite her kid now being like 17
Linda was 14 when she said her mom was 28, so it was just a teenage pregnancy when her mom was 15-ish, nothing tragic.

>>5977743
>>5977752
Healers have solved most muggle afflictions, so anything that doesn't kill you outright or that doesn't have a magical nature can be countered with relative ease. Pregnancy is certainly one of those things as plenty, if not most, healers are women and would have worked on how to fix illnesses deriving from it.

So unless there was something magical in the pregnancy, for example the man being a vampire and the baby draining the mom from the inside or some other insanity, the mom is probably safe, even someone as magically debilitated as Arty. If people in countries with great healthcare live in the "first world", Wizards live in the "zeroeth world". They wouldn't let things like mere non-magical illnesses affect them. I mean, look at Harry. The books say the Dursleys literally starved him so much his stomach hurt and his ribs could be seen through his skin, and he still turned out fine (and somehow, a kind boy instead of someone deeply traumatized and scarred). <s>Because despite what some parts of the fandom might want people to believe, the Dursleys were fucking awful people and should have both been arrested by social services, and the only reason they weren't is because Dumbledore probably interfered so Harry would remain under his mom's Blood Protection</s>

>>5978264
Is that a spider-silk dress? Because yes, she would absolutely rock that as soon as she figured out a way of not making it stick to literally everything she touches.

--

You take a few moments to look at the body. You can’t see its face, either because Apollo doesn’t remember it or because he has blocked it off his mind. In any case, it looks like it has been hanging for at least a few days. Either way, it is clear this hasn’t happened today. But the boy isn’t old enough to know that what happened in front of him isn’t going to change.

You can feel his feelings faintly, as if hearing a conversation through a wall. And you can feel he doesn’t know why his mom isn’t speaking to him anymore. Is she mad at him? Is she angry? Did he do something he shouldn’t? And the screaming and the noise, the noise, the noise that keeps ringing in his ear. The screaming, it’s so loud.

You reach out for the boy, standing between him and the body, but your fingers go through him. Yet he shifts, as if you had affected him on some level.

“I’m sorry this happened to you. I’m sorry.” You gently pass your hand through his hair, trying to share some warmth with him, even through the veil of this memory. “But we need to move. We need to go. Mom isn’t going to wake up. You need to be strong. You need to be strong for your sister.”

[Cont.]

>>5978370

You can hear soft sobs coming from beneath the blond head of hair, so you stay with him. Your mom would know how to deal with this. She’d worked with children who had been abused, one way or the other. She had been taught when to wait, when to stay away, when to touch them, when to hug them. You hadn’t. So you simply sit by his side, the side of your leg touching his, to show him you are there.

You keep on talking in a soothing tone, slowly, calmly, gently. You tell him how brave he is, how strong he will become. You tell him how he’ll go to a brilliant, brilliant place with magic and beauty, where he’ll never be hungry, where people will cherish him. More than once, you hear his stomach growl. The jackhammer stops, eventually, but the baby keeps on screaming endlessly.

Yet the child stops sobbing. His grip on his own hair relaxes. He looks up, face covered in tears and snot.

“Do you want to stand up so we can leave this place?”

He stands up. He stumbles out of the room, to the corridor, and you follow him. He pushes open a door, and in that small bedroom you see a double bed. The right side of the bed is messy, while the left side is only stirred on a smaller patch, close to the pillow. Without space for another bed, Apollo slept with his mom. The remaining space in the room holds a crib on the floor, one of its fenced walls broken so it no longer properly does its function of not allowing the baby inside to escape. Still, she’s laying there, auburn hair and tiny, too tiny, too thin, screaming in hunger as loud as her lungs allow.

Apollo just stands there, and the confusion and sadness inside him slowly turns to fury.

“Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!” He shouts, his face red. “She’s mad because of you! SHUT UP!”

But little Artemis Pertinger does not understand, and keeps on screaming. Apollo climbs on the bed and picks up one of the pillows.

“Apollo, what are you doing?”

He comes back, forcing himself through the broken fence of the crib. Then he takes the pillow in his two small hands, and places it over Arty’s face, pressing it down, muffling the sounds and blocking all air from going in. Her tiny body struggles against it, her faint screaming still heard through the pillow.

“Apollo! Apollo, stop!” You try to pull him off her, but your hands pass through him as if he was smoke. “Apollo, listen to me! You need to stop! You’ll kill her!”

But he doesn’t listen to you. Instead, he keeps pressing the pillow down, smothering Arty. You panic. You don’t know if this will do something to your Arty, but you certainly don’t want to risk it. You try taking the pillow away from him. When that fails, you try to summon the pillow to you. When that fails, you try “Expelliarmus! Stupefy!” but none of it works. You are forced to watch as Apollo holds the pillow over her face and slowly, excruciatingly slow, the screams stop.

The room fades around you, until all that is left is him, her and the pillow.

[Cont.]

>>5978371

“I didn’t know.” Says a voice behind you. You spin, wand at the ready, only to see Apollo, the grown up version. He usually doesn’t look people in the eyes when talking, but this time he seems to not know where to look, eyes wandering everywhere but at you. He looks… ashamed, almost horrified with himself. No. Terrified of himself. “I- I didn’t know. I just wanted her to stop screaming, I- I didn’t know. They came, they helped her, made her breathe again, they said she’d be ok, but I- I didn’t know it could- I didn’t- I would never-”

> Hug him
> Say it’s fine, he was just a child
> Chastise him for hurting her
> Ask him if she knows
> Other (Write in)

Anonymous

>>5978374
<s>I too have wanted babies around me, even those of my relatives, to die so that I would not have to hear them scream anymore. At the same time, I wanted to burst out sobbing alongside them and comfort them, like nobody does for me. At the same time, I wanted to brutalize whoever was letting this pain happen to the baby. Even now, "grown up" and able to stand and walk away from almost anything, and knowing better than I did at a young age, the mixture of contradictory feelings still return at times. It's only if I'm forced to remain around young children or babies, which does make some sense. Likewise, whenever I see childcare facilities or daycare buildings, I am filled with an inexplicable yet gentle sorrow I don't know why I feel yet I still do. I don't think I ever will either, outside of paying a decent shrink lots of time and money to help me figure this out.</s>
In other words, autism is a curse and trauma is a bitch.

> Ask him if she knows
I can't even do the funny Riddler meme about this option. The moment is too despair-filled for me to do so

>>5978374
>Ask him if she knows
>Other (Write in): "it wasnt the magical pregnancy, wasnt it? it was this...she was "gone" for enough time to cause the damage"

holy shit HeadQM, i saw the update through my phone and it was so fucking good it actually made me get up, turn on my laptop and immediately post. NOTHING has made me get up of bed this fucking fast in years, you absolute genious writer

>>5978370
>Is that a spider-silk dress?
it is now, please feel free to use these ideas if you/we ever get the chance!

>>5978424
Dont fucking say that, Apollo doesn't know Arty's got her days numbered.

>>5978374
> Ask him if she knows

>Tell him that even if Arty didn't before, she would always forgive him. That he made one mistake when he was desperate and didn't understand what he was doing and has spent a lifetime making up for it. Assure him that she would still dearly love him, no matter what. That you forgive him, despite how much you now care about his sister. He can regret what he did but doesn't have to to live in constant pain because of what happened.

Hey, wizard therapy sessions are a go! Didn't think this was how they would end up happening but...

So I suppose this part of the "Merlin Trials" are meant to show you your deepest regrets? After all the good happy memories were stripped away from Merlin's current life, he would be confronted with his greatest failure; being unable to stop Atlantis from destroying itself so completely they were functionally ripped from time. So his resolve could reforge itself as many times as needed.

>>5978383
I too have a touch of the 'tism, though it is mostly offset by being fairly smart and having been well socialized. <s>You can make the argument I am not THAT smart because I have spent a large part of life on a Mongolian Basket weaving website.</s>

>>5978370
That would be commission from Indonesian Gentleman who did one of Elliot a while back. Assuming nobody dies, I was thinking of getting him to do a few more so all Elliot's friends <s>and Brighton</s> can get some more art. He also has a buy 10 get 1 free deal so I am going to need you to create like 5 more interesting, important characters. Otherwise I may just have to commission Arty in mildly lewd poses 5 times.

I am also glad I misremembered how old Linda was when she told us how young her mom was.

>>5978444
>that spoiler
I have been here since 2014, and if all goes well I will remain here until I die

>>5978370
>she would absolutely rock that as soon as she figured out a way of not making it stick to literally everything she touches
Many spiders can produce multiple types of silk, some of which are sticky and some of which are not, to make it easier to navigate their webs

>>5978374
> Ask him if she knows
Eesh.

>>5978448
I have no intention of leaving this place anytime soon. 4chan, despite as low as it has fallen in some regards, is one of the last bastions of the old internet. This place was here for me at bad points of my life and points that were great.

>>5978468
There is a sticking charm so there must be an anti-sticking one as well. And muggles are already experimenting with spider silk stuff for things like body armor. I am sure wizards have figured out spider silk clothing, though I suspect it would be fairly pricey. Which is fine. We are going to give our cute future wife anything she wants. Springing on a nice wedding dress is nothing.

>>5978424
What >>5978432 said. Not here, not now. Apollo needs his head in the game

>>5978481
Well said

what do you guys mean Apollo doesnt know? i was under the impression he did, anybody got any confirmation for this?

So because I do medical stuff for a living and somethings were bugging me.

The average EMS response time in Britain is about 10 minutes, for the most severe type of issues. So lets say it was like two minutes for Apollo to stumble to a neighbor's door or for one to come in. I doubt a two year old staved autistic boy could reach a phone to call 999 or at that point even knew which buttons to press to get help.

Call it 15 minutes to get a paramedic there, accounting for having to say what was going on and to do the dispatch.

That is a lot of time for someone who is still in the crib to go with out oxygen to the brain. I have seen people including babies in a NICU come back from worse though that was in the hospital and they received ACLS. I have personally brought someone back after 45 minutes of cardiovascular function stopping during my set of compressions. I know wizards are more hardy than IRL humans but does Arty have a bit of brain damage? Like not super bad, she can obviously function like a "normal" person but is stupidly nice and has very little fear response to obviously dangerous shit like befriending huge magically resistant beasts which she has no hope of taking down or escaping from, given she can't apparate yet. Damage to the amygdala or limbic system can cause people to have inappropriate responses to things like extreme fear of things or the complete opposite.

And yeah the update was great but Arty's sad back story got even worse. Smothered in the crib by her brother, had her mom kill herself, endured years of neglect, was physically and sexually abused, saw the same brother who accidentally tried to kill her kill the guy abusing her, had to live on the street shortly, found out she will never have anywhere close to her normal magical strength or life span, again due to her brother... and still loves Apollo and tries to help him.

Still tries her best everyday. Works hard. Wants a family. Is in love with a guy who may very well be the next Dark Lord because she believes in his better angels; has told the "greatest" living wizard to fuck off and fought an insane patricidal man to protect Elliot to the point she almost died. Oh yeah, she also got told by the universe that no, she is not actually happy and that is why she can't summon up a cute silver bunny to protect her and the people she loves from voids in reality.

I mean fuck. She is either the emotionally and mentally strongest person alive or is really screwed in the head to deal with all the shit that happened.

Either way, Arty is a best.

>>5978615
https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.<wbr>com/qstarchive/2023/5831320/
>“Apollo doesn’t know. I never told him. It would be… cruel. I told you once. Magical twins are a strange thing. They can feed off each other in the womb. Take things they shouldn't. Like magic. Like time.”
READ. THE FUCKING. QUEST.
GAAAAAAAAAH!

>>5978628
>a post from november from last year
mother fucker i dont remember every single post and im not reading the entire fucking quest just to find a single line of text

>>5978640
I dunno anon, seems like a preeetty important scene to me, you know, storywise, character defining... no harm no foul but I'm not always gonna be here to spoonfeed you.

>>5978656
>>5978628

You should simmer down. Not everyone is going to remember every detail, even important ones. Realistically, whether or not she told Apollo hasn't come up since or been immediately relevant, until just now like six months later IRL and probably even longer in-universe. It's both understandable someone would forget, and even quite in-character for Elliot to blurt it out under such shocking circumstances if it came down to it. Anon asked because he wasn't sure, which is fair and fine.

>>5978374
please stop hurting me qm

>Hug him

>>5978705
Mistakes from misinformed anons are well documented quest killers. If me being a little rude makes an anon second guess and fact check by themselves I consider it a net positive, and if they don't its not really a loss. More important now than ever when the tension ramps up and we've been invested in this for months. We are not getting another Dissapearing Hogwarts Quest, y'know?

>>5978735
nah, my guy, you need to calm down a bit more, im the drawfag, i care about this quest, i really do, i simply forgot about that line and im at work, ok? not everybody is gonna be able or have the time to re-read the entire fucking quest for stuff like that, you are WAAAY too invested on this, we all are to varying degress, but you are taking it to another level, im not gonna remember every single line of dialog, neither will other anons and im sure even HeadQM will eventually forget about something, now, if its either a very important detail or a single uninteresting comment mentioned from any of the characters, thats irrelevant, you gotta understand that everybody has different things going on every day all the time.
so chill

>>5978754
I for one am autistic enough to remember details like these in games and shit, but even then we are fallible. It is up to others to archive dive and ctrl+f their way to look back at missed details. He could have been a bit nicer about it, yeah, but I think in this case he's right about >>5978628. You don't need to read the entire fucking quest as you said in >>5978640, when this quest is 5 full threads in and easy enough to search through. The line from Arty about Apollo not knowing because she didn't tell him is also character-integral enough that remembering it is a lot easier than remembering other passing information, I believe.

In short, I think you are being a faggot here. This time, the fault lies with you.

>>5978754
>>5978640
With the way you're posting about this, maybe you just had a bad day. I think maybe I was too harsh in >>5978775 too. Fuck, man...

>>5978735
Being unnecessarily mean to people also kills quests, now more than ever due to the reduced player base. Some people who read this stuff do not even speak english as a first language yet still engage and put time into these things.

If a mistake is getting a load of support, correcting it vehemently is one thing. Otherwise, just say no man you are wrong, here is why.

Or don't I am not your supervisor.

I mean I have reread this thing more than once and I get shit wrong too. QM admittedly misrecalled and said that Hannah Longbottem, nee Abbott owns the Three Broomsticks vs. The Leakey Cauldron and now that is an important fact in universe.

>>5978718
The pain will continue until moral improves.

>>5978791
>>5978775
>>5978735
>>5978754
Let's all just agree that it's a good thing that some anons are very observant and invested, and have a keen memory, to help guide us towards the optimal solution and avoid an embarrassing and/or disastrous faux pas? This is a great quest with a very civil playerbase, and I think we should endeavor to keep it that way.

>>5978819
i can agree to that without problems

>>5978819
>>5978826

I agree.

Besides, Arty would be sad if we fought too much.

Also fuckers, a losers bracket is now going to be hosted with the King and Queen tournament. So I expect all of you to vote for our girl so she can at least be the Princess of /qst/.

>they asking for colors for the characters for the loser bracket
i think >>5977445 should do? is the color of her hair the right one tho?, thats like, the only thing im not sure

HeadQM

>>5978921
I'd say that if it was in a person, this would be about right as the light and texture would bring out the red more, but at least for me, in a drawing the red maybe should be more pronounced. But I'm also fucking terrible with colors and can't draw for shit, so there is that.

Also, I got distracted reading the old threads of the quest and didn't get the update done yet. Probably a good thing that my own writing entertains me, but y'all are going to have to wait some more

Anonymous

>>5978928
I for one don't mind at all. I just finished reading thread 3 (this guy >>5978826 on mobile)

>>5978928
This entire Christmas mini-arc in thread 4 is great from start to finish. <s>Meanwhile I've been wishing painful death on my own family for approximately 20+ years, but I'm so cursed that the powers that be are doing all they can to keep them alive and intact, preserving them of any comeuppance or consequence for all they've done to me. They are made to continue living specifically to ruin my current life as long as humanly possible. Total boomer death worldwide cannot come soon enough.</s>

>>5977239
what would have happened if we had failed in the rot late

>>5979379
>>5979416

I imagine just a lot of brain damage. Maluses or what not Helga was already trying to find Elliot. Him screaming as his core memory was being ripped away would have maybe ended up as the same as when he glassed Nimue and hit a bitch with a guitar. QM is probably not going to end the quest over one failed roll.

<s>If Elliot does shit his rolls up bad enough or we make very bad choices but have the Beast out of our soul, it would be interesting to play as Arty or Linda/Raven who are now trying to find a way to bring Elliot back and save the world.</s>

HeadQM

>>5979379

Depends on how bed the fuck up was, and would take a significant amount of bad rolls and decision, but worst case scenario would be a catatonic Elliot devoid of any memories with the rest of the group trying to put him together somehow, and even if they did, it would come with severe trauma. With him "empty", it is possible Helga would have been able to take over, though I hadn’t decided on how exactly it would go. But your roll advantage was pretty good, so I was confident it wouldn’t come to something that bad.

Now for a slightly stranger update. Please just go with it.

--

“Does she know?” You ask. You don’t use an accusatory tone, just questioning.

“No. A neighbor had called the police because of the screaming, they- they arrived- if they hadn’t-” He’s shivering, and for a moment you still see the small boy, crying because his mom wouldn’t answer him. His next words are almost begging. “Please don’t tell her. Please, I- I wouldn’t- If I knew-”

And so Apollo finally makes sense. He had hurt Arty once and been saved by luck, by a neighbor who had happened to call the police at the right time, by someone who had also been annoyed by Arty’s screams to the point they had called someone to intervene. If things had gone a little different, if things had gone slightly worse, you wouldn’t have a girlfriend today, and Apollo… Apollo would have gone into a path you could only fear. But things had happened to work out, and now that he had grown up, now that he knew what he had done, he couldn’t bear the thought of ever letting that happen again.

If he accused himself with the same strength he had accused you when Arty had disappeared after her patronus attempt… That certainly explained him. Explained the trauma. Explained why he was so overprotective. Why he was so broken. Not everything needed an explanation, but that certainly explained it.

Had Arty been right in not telling him of her condition, about how much she’d live because of what he had taken from her in the womb? He had too much on his mind already, but maybe he thought her frailty was his fault. That him suffocating her had crippled her. You couldn’t discover if he did or not without telling him the truth about her, and it was not your secret to tell, nor was it the time to tell it.

“Apollo, it’s fine.” Your voice is gentle, a feather’s touch. “You didn’t know. You were hungry, scared, angry and sad. You were just a kid without his mom. I forgive you, and I have no doubt Arty would forgive you too if she knew. She would still love you.”

“She- she wouldn’t-”

“She would. Because your sister is the kindest soul I’ve ever met. You made a mistake once. You don’t need to spend the rest of your life punishing yourself for it. And she would tell you you were being silly for thinking that.”

[Cont.]

>>5979586

“She would hate me.”

You put your hands on his shoulders, so he doesn’t have any options except looking at you.

“She would love you just as much as she does now,” you say. “And I know that your brain is telling you that that’s wrong and creating all these awful scenarios where she hates you. I know. But it is wrong, because sometimes that’s just the way brains are. Because if she was here right now, she would flick your forehead and tell you you’re being weird, and that you should listen to the people who care about you. Because that's what I'm doing, and she is a far, far better person than me.”

And Apollo cries on your shoulder like a child.

== == ==

You fly one by one over the Lake of Rot, first Apollo, then Arty, then Linda and finally Brighton, then move down the new tunnel, each holding on to the robes of the person in front. The cane guides your way ever downwards, and looking behind and above you, you can see the path you’ve made roughly forming a great downwards spiral, down and down towards an unknown fate.

The cavern is slippery and you take your fair share of scrapes and tumbles on your way. Why Merlin figured it was necessary to make the way to Avalon in such a way, you do not know. Perhaps it made sense in his mind. Perhaps it was simply a challenge of magical engineering, and to create the Elixir of Life such structure was needed. Perhaps there was an unknown reason which you will never discover. Still, you keep on going only to reach a circular room with flat ground. On the opposite end from the one you entered, a great set of double doors, closed.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

You approach, slowly.

“Uh, Elliot? I don’t feel so good,” Apollo says.

“What’s wrong?”

“I- I don’t know. I- I feel thin. I feel-”

His voice suddenly cuts off, and when you reach for where his outline is, your hand goes through his sparks.

“Apollo?” You tap the cane again. He’s gone. “Apollo!”

“Apollo!” Arty shouts, and so do Brighton and Linda. There is no answer.

“Oh, oh no.” Linda says. “I’m not feeling well either.”

You jump to grab her outstretched hand and hold it tight. “You are not going anywhere!”

You tap the cane feverishly against the floor, as if not losing sight of her could stop her from disappearing. And it does. You hold her tight, and she leans against you, breath ragged for several long seconds before she finally steadies herself.

“Ok, I… I think I’m alright now.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, thanks… Oh no.”

And you turn around to see Arty and Brighton are nowhere to be seen.

--

“What did you do?” You ask a few minutes later after failing to find the others, when the great doors of the room open.

“Nothing, just touched it to see if I could figure out what is engraved on it!”

Tap. Tap. Tap.

You tap, but your sparks do not seem to make it through the archway.

“Right. This’s not worrisome at all. Well, then, cane-wielding men first.”

[Cont.]

You step through the archway and come out… In a familiar room. The remains of two great sets of armors are scattered through the floor. On one end of the room, a door is blocked by a great metal block. On the other, a great set of ornate double doors, closed.

Linda steps into this reality a few moments later and immediately freezes.

“This is…”

“Last Light,” you nod, mouth suddenly dry.

“H- how?”

“I don’t know. But we haven’t been sent there. That block of steel blocking the exit was the one Lily conjured.”

“Is… Is this real? Can it be real?” She asks, with an almost begging tone.

“I don’t see how. Time rules say you can’t go back in time more than a few hours. I don’t think even Ancient Magic can go around that.”

Linda takes a fiercer look.

“Let’s find out, then.” She rushes to the closed set of doors and pushes them open. Inside you see a moment, frozen in time. In the background, the great repository of magic, locked in its dark-silver cage. Raven standing over the body of Lily Potter, wand still smoking from the Avada Kedavra, utter fury and sorrow on her face. You are fallen by their side, arm torn clean off, looking feverish and delirious. And close to the entrance, at your feet, the body of Taylor Cycad, eyes open but unseeing.

“Oh look at that,” Linda says, voice filled with spite. There is an almost outraged look on her face. “How nice of this place to bring me here.”

“Linda-”

“No. Not Linda. Not right now.” There is ice in her voice, like you’ve never heard before. She crouches down by Taylor and gently closes his eyes. She presses her forehead against his, then stands up and marches towards the frozen copy of herself.

“Move,” she tells herself. “I have some business to attend to with this one.”

She flicks her wand and her copy disappears. She jumps over Lily’s body, cold fury in her eyes.

“I didn’t get to enjoy this last time. Wasn’t in the right state of mind, really. Well, I am now.” She raises a closed fist and brings it down on Lily’s face. It lands with a wet crack as it breaks the redhead’s nose. “Oh good, she didn’t just disappear. I can take my time, then.”

“Linda! Raven! Stop!”

She brings her fist down again and again, each time with a crunching noise. This is not like last time, however. Last time, the real one, she had been in grief, out of control, frantic strikes without aim. This time… This time every blow is cold and controlled, but not lacking in strength. They are the actions of someone who wants to see the other one hurt. They are the actions of someone who could cast the Killing Curse again and again, the look of someone who, if given the chance, would cast Crucio until the person went insane.

[Cont.]

>>5979589

You hold her bloodied fist the next time she raises it.

“Raven, stop!”

“Why!?” She turns to you, eyes wild, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Why? Why shouldn’t I just beat this bitch’s face into a pulp, huh? This is clearly just a memory, my memory, so guess what? I’m going to do whatever I want with it! So get out if you don’t want to see it! Or stay and pass me that rock! I want to see what this whore’s brains look like!”

> Hold her and stop her
> Leave the room, let her to her devices
> Hand her the rock
> Stay by her side, wait until she is done
> Other (Write in)

Anonymous

>>5979591
>> Hold her and stop her
Come on, she had enough already

>>5979591
ooh, so we are living everyones worst moments at the exact same time, huh? aight, thats cool, shit is gonna fucking SSSSSSSUCK when we get to Arty...

now, bussines as usual:

we helped Apollo calm down by letting him talk about it, he told us what happened and finally got it out of his chest, him telling us helped us helping him.
following that logic, i wanna say:
>Stay by her side, wait until she is done
then
>let her cry in our shoulder
because she will, she says that the tears are long gone, but this is gonna open up the floodgates again, let her get it out of her chest and then we pick her up just like we did with Apollo and tell her that she wasnt aiming at Lily, she was aiming at Salazar and she knows it, she just hasnt been able to move pass Lily´s body
hope this makes sense

>>5979591
>Remind her who she really hates
"It wasn't her, Raven. She was just a victim, her body being puppeteered by the monster who tricked her, manipulated her, abused her, and broke her. Lily Potter was a good person, just like Taylor. She was my friend, and I already lost her once. Please... I don't want to lose more friends, Linda."

>>5979603
I get the sentiment, but taking out rage in violent ways doesn't actually help most people to calm down and become more measured, controlled, and less violent. It reinforces a specific, unhealthy anger response. At least, that's what a lot of psychology seems to show.

 The more comfortable she is casting Avada Kedavra and Crucio, the more comfortable she is with breaking open the face and skull of a teenage girl for the joy of it, the less healthy, sane, and able to come back from it she will be.

In HP terms, letting Linda/Raven work out that hatred muscle increases the odds she goes Dark.

>>5979591
>You are just defacing the body. Lily had been dead for a long time before then. Taylor, he wouldn't want this. He wanted... well he was weird. Just like you and me. It's probably why we became friends. But he wouldn't want this. Taylor Cycad was so kind, and he wouldn't want this. For the girl he loved to hate this much. To grieve this much. We are going to bring him back and if not that? We are going to make him proud. I am so, so sorry Raven. I can't promise it will be okay; the only thing I can promise is that we will stop this from happening again. I, Dark Lord Hallaster will ensure it. But, if you must do this? I will hold the rock with you while we make sure the Potter family can't have an open casket funeral. You offered to use another Stone with me before, right? I am so sorry. I... should have been stronger. Strong enough to have never brought you and Taylor in to this.

>>5979603
I wonder what Arty's will actually be? Her being molested, living on the street? Finding out her life-span and magic had been stolen by Apollo? This thing showing her that aside from that he had almost killed her, and now that is her worst experience? So many fun options!

I can probably guess what Brighton's is, considering I have had to interact with Grandparents who had Alzheimer's so bad they couldn't even remember who their own daughter was.

>>5979637
>>5979603
I wonder if the other 4 are also going through each other's worst memories individually, including Elliot's? This certainly makes for an intense bonding session

struggled the most with the shoes of all things...but i think this should be a pretty decent wizarding wedding dress, right? inspired mostly by old victorian dresses and Helga herself, lemme know what you guys think, im going to bed now

>>5979607
>>5979591
Supporting.
Also, if this vote wins, we should probably actually go in detail with what exactly Lily went through. IIRC only Elliot was given the vision of what she went through before she died.

>>5979720
+1 this too
Linda doesn't know what Elliot saw from Salazar. All she hates Salazar for is killing Taylor, and doesn't know a thing about the girl that was there before. It's only natural that Linda equates Salazar to Lily's exterior, with what she has to work with. Elliot never thought once to tell her or anybody else this entire time since Last Light happened, which is still unbelieveable to me somehow. I don't really dislike it or see this situation born from that lapse in information as drama bait, as it's such a personally transmitted vision that of course he would not consider it. He told everything else to Linda and the others, just not this. Now because of that, we're getting this scene and Linda still not having got over Last Light to the extent Elliot has. This is the exact sort of thing I would want to punch Elliot for, for forgetting to tell the Lily backstory vision. So what if he never had a pensieve around? I don't think the QM is at fault for pulling a gotcha on us plotwise either. I bet he deliberately had this left out in-story so he could make it come up here for some spicy suffering. Could we the players have remembered it and put it in as a write-in? Yeah. Is this exactly like how we forgot all about the calendar change detail? Kinda. Does it ruin the quest? Not really.

>>5979709
I think the shoes look fine. The slight heels on them are cute and the dress looks good. I have no clue what wizard fashion is like in regards to weddings unless they just dress up like muggles.<s> I do need Arty in impractical high heels at some point. Could she even walk in them, given she has never owned a pair? Who knows? </s>

>>5979720
>>5979726

I feel like we probably told Linda/Raven what Lily went through at some point, in the background.

Maybe glossed over some parts because Elliot would probably be uncomfortable with exactly describing the things Cocksucker/Salazar/maybe Merlin made her do to herself as a child or young adult.

We did explain to the twins what happened in the train with Linda filling in the parts we couldn't deal with and everyone but her crying some.

I think this is more Linda confronting her rage and hatred for someone who couldn't control her actions at that point. The irrational hatred of them after the monster in Lily's body killed her lover and took the arm off of her other best friend and the only thing she could take her anger out on was the body. The fact that she probably hates herself for being able to cast the Killing Curse and then defacing the corpse of Lily despite not knowing time was going to be rewritten. That she would have to look Potter in the eyes, knowing that she had done that. Knowing that the person in the body who killed Taylor is gone but still feeling like she wanted to do the same thing once more. Drive a knife into their heart again and again. Strangle someone for all eternity.

>>5979708
I suspect only the guy with the cane gets to see the worst parts of the person or people they came down with. I don't think Merlin would want someone he dragged down here finding out his darkest secrets.

>>5979768
Then will Elliot basically spill it all once he's through all four of them, plus himself? It also occured to me we have no idea how time is passing outside this Avalon trial path. The moment the party appears outside, they might all get insta-Stupified by at least 2 dozen aurors stationed as guards in the time since the message at the gate was discovered.

Completely unrelated but I read this going through thread 4
>“Wait, can actual ghosts have children?”
>“No,” Linda says immediately.
There must have been at least one madlad student throughout Hogwarts' recent history who decided to fuck Moaning Myrtle by any means possible. I bet this unknown guy spent many many months of his years here constantly sneaking to the girls bathroom she hangs out in, from the moment he awakened to his ghost girl fetish all the way to his graduation. Imagine.

Hey writefag, that pdf in thread 4 is lost to me. All the posted pdfs do not open with the suptg pages. I haven't tried opening them from another archive site yet though, just so you know. The file.io link in thread 4 is dead, and the google docs link is killed from breaking terms or service or whatever

>>5979771
I think when we make it through the memories of our friends, it will be up to the players if we want to spill the tea. I would suggest not doing so, letting everyone choose on their own if they want their worst parts revealed to one another. We already know Apollo desperately wants Arty to not know he almost killed her, that mom killed herself. <s>She was googling who her parents were because she doesn't know mom roped herself. She wanted a chance of their mom being around. Maybe someone to reconnect with. Who would be there at her wedding. We don't know who dad was but I now don't think it was the same person as their caretaker.</s>

We also know that Arty doesn't want her brother to know that he stole her magic potential and lifespan in the womb. When we told the twins and Brighton about what happened at Last Light, I am pretty sure we left out the part where Raven used the Killing Curse and then tried to destroy Lily's body and I am sure that is something she doesn't really want spread.

After this is over... a group therapy session might be in order, lead by an entire bottle of Firewhisky.

>>5979774
So wanting Myrtle to really "moan"? I mean she was weirdly endearing in the 4th movie... but she was also kind of a creepy stalker. I guess some are into that. I am sure in a 1000 years, yeah at least one person has tried to fuck a ghost. Hell one of the two romance options QM bet on is less than a ghost, just a spirit living in our head. <s>And she did want to fuck us when drunk and horny, the one time. Could we have gotten the spirit of Helga Hufflepuff knocked up? </s>

>>5979858
>group therapy session might be in order, lead by an entire bottle of Firewhisky
Gather in the Room of Requirement, and Elliot opens with his own worst memory as the leader and to make it easier for the others to open up with theirs?
>letting everyone choose on their own if they want their worst parts revealed to one another
But for that, Elliot will need to talk about what even happened in this sequence, which will let all 4 of them know that Elliot knows. Catch-22
>really "moan"?
EXACTLY. I don't think ghosts can take their clothes off or interact in any way with anything physical in the castle? I forgot how ghosts work in HP. Far as I assume, knowing nothing, that the most this mystery guy could have ever done with her is jerk off inside her form and that's that.
>creepy stalker
Probably mellows out with a living bf for 7 years. Thing is is that Mrytle has been a ghost since Chamber of Secrets events. This quest takes place in 2024-25. Checking the wiki, Mrytle died 1943. That's 81-82 years of time in which at least one guy must have went all in on her for years. Wiki also says she did leave Hogwarts to go harass her bully on her brother's wedding day, and they got the Ministry to kick her out back to the school. It seems she can leave and go wherever anytime, but she decides to stay at Hogwarts on her own volition. She isn't even limited to the bathroom where she died either. There's potentially nothing stopping her from constantly trailing after a guy she likes every waking hour all the way to and from their dormitory. She's plenty thirsty enough as both the books and the movies point out. All it takes is one degenerate teenage wizard boy to return the feelings and take things many, many steps further... Why is there no good material of this?
>that spoiler
Didn't Helga get married while she was alive? Or not? I think even if we get her a new body somehow, as hot as it is and as appealing as it is to me, that route will never happen

>talk about group therapy
i support this idea, could be a great team building exercise, specially now that we have Brightorn in our side with Godric inside him, so maybe its best if we manage to integrate him by making him open up to us

>talk about moaning Myrtle and preggin Helga
i mean...im sure it would be an interesting...experiment...
when Helga was Faith she was pretty into us for a bit, i do wonder if there is some of that remaining inside Helga, i would be down to giving it a go if Arty is ok with it, mostly for testing pourposes, who knows...Arty has been pretty forward with us, maybe she is a bit of a freak inside and is willing to give it a go too, at least once.

>>5978287
reminder that Jesus may have also been "Merlin"

>>5979911
I am categorically against trying to swing a threesome with Helga Hufflepuff.

>>5979981
Likewise. No haremshit allowed.

>>5979967
If he is, what can we do about it?

>>5979967
And maybe Moses or King Solomon, given some one "like" him is referenced in ancient Hebrew scrolls. Merlin had been for like 3000 years before he fucked the pooch with the Inderdict.

>>5979899
I can't find any thing about Helga being married. She was close with Rowena, possibly VERY close, but who knows?

Hepzibah Smith, the woman who had her Cup when Riddle found it, claimed to a descendant of Helga's but that might have been a lie to make her seem more important.

>>5979911
Linda/Raven has speculated that Arty is probably pretty kinky. I doubt she is down with true polygamy but might be okay with sharing a few times? As long as she is there. And when we got jerked off in the forbidden forest, our connection to Helga was probably so strong she got to have a first hand view of it and maybe shared our senses to a small degree. She also stared at Arty's fap bait Christmas gift, so who knows. We probably need to have a discussion with her and Arty before we really have sex, unless we can get her a body of her own before that due to Hufflepuff being able to share our senses and look through our eyes. <s>I have implied that Arty might be a touch bicurious in a couple of my shitty fanfics, if she trusts the other girl and they too love Elliot, so even if it doesn't happen in quest, I can make it happen in a fanfic of a fanfic!</s>

>>5979848
I was starting to edit it and a couple of the others with the intent of placing them all in a stable place soon, so I will focus on that one first and post the version 2 in a little while. There are only small edits for clarity, grammar, intent, ect so it should be basically the same as the OG.

Also, the loser's bracket of the King and Queen of /qst/ it taking new IPs, if anyone hasn't already posted over there for votes, if anyone here missed the initial registration period. Go and make sure Arty gets a cute, tiny princess crown!

>>5980074
>spoiler
we take those, do it!

>>5980089
<s>After I finish the worst thing I have put to paper, one trying to figure out what would make Elliot able to cast the Killing Curse when seeing his best friend murdered didn't do the job, I might just cleanse my pallet with something involving Arty getting railed from behind by Elliot while eating Raven out. Quite possibly involving Helga jerking off in our head and commenting a tad. </s>

Before that, I need to finish something that made me slightly sick to write, add a couple of things since QM upped the game and the update with Arty being smothered in the crib after her mom hung herself was very disturbing.

I need to dream bigger.

I remembered I do like creative writing after almost a decade of being to busy to try it again so y'all are going to have to deal with my shitty lewd and altfics till the quest ends.

>>5980074
>placing them all in a stable place soon
Yes please, do this. Do not lose your precious work

>>5980132
As long as you don't become a pest or egotistic nuisance and ruin this quest, your OC is all good in my book

>>5980189
I have backed up these things locally pretty well, I just don't want to pay for the kind of file sharing that used to be free. Pastebin can apparently detect "offensive" content now and I got an auto ban from google drive when I tried there with a burner account.

I don't think I am egotistical or harass people but who knows? I would never try to tell the QM my interpretation of something is more correct than the guy giving us free entertainment. Anything I put into a poorly written fan fic is completely non canon unless bossman says otherwise and I wouldn't want it to be different. I write this stuff because it amuses me. If 2 or 3 other people get some enjoyment from it? That is just a bonus. <s>QM said he did liked the idea of Elliot giving Arty a plushie Nundu after I put up the Valentine fic, and might incorporate it, which made my day.</s>

HeadQM

>>5979981
So am I. There is a reason why kissing Arty was a "Lock in" option, so no cheating or sharing, not even with your mind-demon. <s>If Arty dies, however, feel free to have Elliot share his grief with whoever he wants.</s>

Also, good god this was difficult to write and it was just half of an update. I should kick the part of my brain who thought writing the equivalent of several therapy sessions back to back would be a good idea. Well, here it is. I'll post the rest of it once I'm finished.

--

You keep on holding her hand, but your tone grows softer.

“It’s not Lily you hate, Raven. It’s Salazar. He lived in her body, but he was never her. He tortured and killed her long before Last Light. And before he killed her, she was my friend. She was yours. She was Taylor’s. And he wouldn’t want to see her like that. And he wouldn’t want to see the girl he loved like this.”

“Then he shouldn’t have died!” She shouts, and there is rage and tears in her voice. “He shouldn’t have stood in the way of that spell! He shouldn’t- He shouldn’t have left me!”

You kneel by her side.

“Then be angry at me. Then hurt me. Because I was the one who brought you into this. I was the one who should have seen December First coming. I was the one who should have been better prepared, who should have been strong enough to keep both of you away from danger.” You take her closed fist and press it against your own cheek, closing your eyes. “Hurt me, if you need. But not Lily. She was just another victim. Like Taylor. Like you.”

You release her hand and wait. It takes a long while for her to say anything.

“Why does it still hurt?” She asks, voice shaking. “I cried. I grieved. So why does it still hurt so much?”

“Because you loved him. Because he loved you. Because you each made each other better, and now that that part is gone. And where he was, there is a void that hurts. And I wish I could say I knew a way of making it better. Or that it’s going to get better. I wish I could. But that’s just not how grief works.”

“Most days are fine. Most days I don’t remember him. But sometimes… Sometimes when we’re at the Three Broomsticks and you’re not looking,” she says, sounding ashamed. “I look at you and Arty and, and I just get so angry. Because I could have had that. I could have been that happy. I could… I could have had him for so much longer, looking at me the way you look at her. And I didn’t. And it makes me feel angry at you, at her, makes me want to tear both of you apart. And then his voice tells me to stop thinking like that. And I do. But sometimes I remember what Potter said in that Defense class, that it takes a broken soul to cast the Killing Curse, and I feel like I’m broken, that I’m dirty that- that it would be so easy to just go with that feeling, to make other people hurt because that would make this thing inside me hurt less…”

[Cont.]

>>5980554

“Raven was meant to be a dark witch,” she says. “But I didn’t know what that really meant when I came up with her. Now… Now I see just how easy it would be for Linda to become one.”

You pull her close and hug her tight.

“I’m sorry,” you say. “I’ve been so busy with all this and with Arty that I ended up forgetting about you.”

“You shouldn’t have to remember me. I’m not your girlfriend.”

“But you are my friend, and I still love you all the same. And I don’t want to see you go down that path. I want to see you do great things, things that will make Taylor proud once we get him back.”

“I wish I could believe in that the way you do,” she says, face buried in your shoulder. “I wish I could really believe we’ll get him back.”

“The alternative is to let the pain live on. I don’t believe that there is anything after death, so I need to believe we’ll see him before that. I need to believe there’s a way to undo it. Otherwise… Otherwise it hurts too much, too. And if I keep telling myself that, if I keep chasing it, maybe one day it will be true.”

There is a long silence between you.

“You can almost make me believe.” There is humor in her words, but no mirth. “You should be a priest.”

“I’d be a hack.”

“All priests are hacks.”

“Then I’d fit right in.”

Another long moment of silence.

“I’m sorry. You’re right, Lily didn’t do anything wrong. But it’s her face that haunts my nightmares.”

“You have nightmares?”

“You don’t?”

You shake your head, still holding on to the hug. “Not anymore. Arty and Helga… They help me. Maybe someday Rowena will be able to help you too.”

“I’d like that. But while that doesn’t happen…” She pulls away from the hug and presses her forehead against yours. “I can’t believe in what you believe, but I can believe in you. So don’t you dare die, Elliot Hallaster. You have to live long enough to prove me wrong.”

Anonymous

>>5980554
>If Arty dies
>IF
>Implying there is a possibility of this happening
do you FUCKING DARE to take her away from us, i´ll actually hunt you down if you do

>>5980211
OneDrive works well and has some sharing options.

>>5980641
Cringe.

HeadQM

>>5980641
Haha, sorry, anon, let me fix that:
*when

Anonymous

>>5980641
I mean... if we had the twins come down to Last Light and shit had shaken out like it did before there would have been a d4 rolled instead of a d2 for who died. Everyone is up for grabs.

>>5980671
I might give that a shot.

>>5980556
>“I can’t believe in what you believe, but I can believe in you. So don’t you dare die, Elliot Hallaster. You have to live long enough to prove me wrong.”

That hit pretty differently.

I suggested that maybe Arty should become a wizard therapist when she graduated at one point. It turns our we were the real one all along.

<s>The Arty one of these is going to be amazing.</s>

>>5980691
Not if we can help it, faggot. <s>As long as you do not railroad us into the max suffering trauma just for the hell of it or to spite us, we'll be fine</s>

HeadQM

>>5980924
Nah, that's no fun. Tragedy for the sake of tragedy gets boring. Tragedy when the players make poor decisions which lead to a horrible fate, however, is fair game.

== == ==

“Uh, Elliot? I don’t feel so good,” Apollo says.

“What’s wrong?”

“I- I don’t know. I- I feel thin. I feel-”

His voice suddenly cuts off, and when you reach for where his outline is, your hand goes through his sparks.

“Apollo?” You tap the cane again. He’s gone. “Apollo!”

“Apollo!” Arty shouts, and so do Brighton and Linda. There is no answer.

“Oh, oh no.” Linda says. “I’m not feeling well either.”

You jump to grab her outstretched hand, but find just air.

“What’s going on here, Hallaster!?” Brighton asks as you tap your cane, frantically looking around.

“I don’t know, Brighton! Just stay close!”

The three of you gather back to back to back, you tapping the cane with one hand while the other is intertwined with Arty’s.

“Elliot?” Arty asks, and you can feel the fear in her voice. “I’m… I’m feeling sick, too.”

“No, no, no, you’re not going anywhere!” You pull her hand open and force the cane into her palm, closing her fingers around it. If there is any chance this is happening to the others because the wielder of the cane iss seen by the cave as Merlin… Then you are not letting her be dragged by whatever it is that is taking the others. You hold your hand around hers and wait long long seconds, and they do not disappear.

“I… I think I’m good. The nausea stopped.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah.”

“Brighton, you alive?” You tap the cane, but he’s nowhere to be found. “Ah, crap.”

--

“Well, then, cane-wielding men first!”

You step through the dark archway and come out… in a downtrodden muggle home. It has clearly seen better days, and it is poor, but not dirt-poor. The wooden floor is marked and scratched, but clean. In front of you, there is a living room with the tv left on, but there are only blurred images and sounds coming through it, no one watching.

Arty appears by your side a few moments later.

“Elliot? What… What are you seeing in front of you, right now?” She says, wand pointing forwards, swiping the room, ever so slightly shaky. Her face is steel, an expression you’ve rarely seen on her before.

“A muggle living room, I think. But I don’t recognize it.”

“I do. This is where I lived. This is where I lived before the ministry found me.”

“This can’t be real, can it?”

“No. This house burned down.”

“Right. Let’s keep our wands ready, then.”

You step through the living room slowly, wands always covering all entrances, moving steadily. You pass by the entrance to the kitchen, plenty of empty glass bottles by the trash can, but otherwise empty. You keep on moving down a corridor, past a bedroom with a double bed, then finally a smaller bedroom.

In it, a small auburn-haired girl is taking care of a blond boy. In her hand, a bundle of dishcloth filled with ice, which she was carefully pressing over a big purple spot on his back.

[Cont.]

>>5981241

“You can’t make him mad, Pollo!” Says a voice that is just ever so slightly different than the one you know. She looks so small, even smaller than you expected.

“I don’t know why he got mad. I just told him-”

“He doesn’t like it when you talk back to him.”

“He doesn’t like it when I exist.”

“That too. Is it better now?”

“I think so.”

She puts the bag of ice down, then dives under her bed. She comes back up with an old-looking coin purse. It doesn’t look too full, but there is enough there to jingle.

“I think I can go to the pharmacy and buy something for the pain. I don’t know how much it costs but I think I have enough.”

“Don’t bother.”

“You’re silly. I’ll be right back.” She stands up from the bed and heads out the bedroom past you, when you hear the sound of a door slamming open.

“Apollo! Artemis!”

The boy stands up, pulling his shirt down and rushing out.

“Was this-“ you start asking, but she cuts you off.

“The day he died, yes,” Arty says, somber. “Apollo always took the worst of his beatings, always got in the way when he was angry. It got worse as time passed.”

“Did- did he ever-”

“No. Not like that. He was a horrible man but… He wasn’t a monster.”

“He beat Apollo purple.”

“And he’s going to pay for it. Come.”

She leads you to the kitchen, where a burly man, clearly intoxicated, is holding the younger version of her by the cheek with one hand and the coin purse with the other.

“I forgot to hide it,” the Arty by your side explains.

“Now what is this, huh? Money? Have you been stealing from me?”

“No, it’s-”

“Don’t you lie to me, girl!” He shouts, shaking her by the painful and already reddening pinch. He pushes the coin pouch against her face. “I house you! I feed you! And you steal from me, you little whore!”

He throws her to the floor, and the massive size difference between his adult form and her childish shape is clear. And it is also clear he’s not pulling any punches. If she had been a muggle, something would have broken. He pulls out his belt, folds it in half and slams down on her leg. She’s wearing shorts and the leather hits skin, leaving a deep red mark on it. Artemis screams.

“Get away from her!” Apollo shouts, jumping to grab his arm. The man lifts him and tosses him away, the boy falls to the ground with a painful thwack. The man raises his arm again and brings it down.

There is a boiling fury inside you, feral. Even if that was not your girlfriend, seeing this done to a child makes you want to jump at that man’s throat and destroy him. Arty puts her hand in front of you, stopping you.

“Watch,” she says.

“I’ll! Teach! You!” Each word is a blow of the belt. “Not! To! Steal! From! Me!”

The belt comes up red with blood.

[Cont.]

>>5981242

“I said, GET AWAY FROM HER!” Apollo screams, and the air itself seems to shift with magical power. The table, the fridge, everything that isn’t bolted down in the kitchen, with the exception of Arty, is launched across the room. The man is lifted up and thrown against the oven and halfway through the glass window above it. The blow forces the air out of his lungs in a scream of pain.

Both children simply watch as he howls, impaled into the twisted pieces of the oven and on shards of glass from the window. Apollo helps her up, and the man is still gasping for air as he bleeds. They watch, faces of steel, hand in hand as their “caretaker” suffers.

Then Apollo raises his hand at him and opens his mouth. But for a moment, he doesn’t seem to know what to say.

It’s small Arty who suggests the word.

“Crucio.”

“Crucio!” Apollo shouts, and the spell takes. The man screams even louder, and louder and louder.

The vision fades, leaving only the two children in darkness, faces filled with anger, and the broken man in front of them.

“H-how?” You ask, the confusion briefly rising over the anger.

“Some spells take years of research to discover. Some only need the right frame of mind. The Killing Curse has been invented over a hundred times, with the same incantation, the same wand movements, in many different places across the world. The other Unforgivables have smaller numbers, but the story is the same. Apollo had the intent, I had the will, and together… Magic happened.” Her words sound halfway between sorrowful and detached. But she does not cry. “I showed him the path, he walked it for us. I wish something else had happened. I wish that vile man had died then and there, that we hadn’t had the chance to make him suffer even more. But I don’t regret making him suffer. Even though I know it’s wrong. Even though I know he had a drinking problem, even though I know people shouldn’t just suffer, even though I wouldn’t have done it today… I don’t regret it. And I don’t feel like a bad person.”

“No one would ever tell you that, Arty,” you say. “Not a single person would ever tell you you were a bad person.”

“I know,” she nods, still looking at the man. “But seeing him scream… I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it then, and there was a tiny bit of me who enjoyed it now. When I discovered that I would… that I wouldn’t live very long, I decided I wouldn’t hold grudges. I didn’t have the time for them. I got over a lot of stuff. I wish I could get over this, too. I wish I didn’t have to carry this. I wish I didn’t have to know that I could want someone to hurt so much. I wish I could forgive him. Not because of him. Because of me.”

> One day, you’ll let it go. I’ll make sure you have all the time in the world to do so
> Some wounds never fully heal. There is no shame in living with the scars
> He deserved it. Remembering how you got rid of him shouldn’t be a weight on your shoulders
> Other (Write in)

Anonymous

>>5981243
alright, wasnt as bad as i was expecting it to be, still fucked up but not the worse i had in mind, so im glad

>He deserved it. Remembering how you got rid of him shouldn’t be a weight on your shoulders

ok, basic lineart is done<br>i´ll do the inking tomorrow along with some coloring, this should be ready to post in the K&Q thread by saturday

>>5981243
You told me you loved every part of me, Arty. I love every part of you. Every single one. You were shown by this person that causing other people to suffer was okay, acceptable. You guided Apollo so he could take out revenge on this man. Asked him to do it in your name, with out knowing what it would truly mean... And you feel terrible about it. You would never have another person do this for you, right? You would not use your magic to just cause another to suffer now would you? You and Apollo were suffering so bad it makes me sick. But the thing that made this whole thing happen was you wanting to help your brother. Get him some relief from his pain. You had found what you could as a 7 year old girl and stashed it away and wanted to use it, not for yourself but for a person you loved. However much you wanted this person to hurt, you wanted Apollo to not hurt more. And I love you Arty. So much it stings, in a good way. So please forgive yourself some.

>>5981305
this would be good in any other context but honestly I would think after seeing someone viciously beat a small child before being impaled and brutally tortured by two children (one of whom is your girlfriend) they wouldn’t have this many words or this much unequivocal praise to give
I hope QM saves this to use for some other time but for now i’m gonna have to go with

>>5981243
>He deserved it. Remembering how you got rid of him shouldn’t be a weight on your shoulders

>>5981243
> Some wounds never fully heal. There is no shame in living with the scars
Take it from the guy with the demon inside him and a scarred arm.
<s>oh god, we're chuuni, aren't we?</s>
Glad to see Arty never got molested, though! Whew. This is still awful, though. Fuck that guy.

>>5981243
>He deserved it. Remembering how you got rid of him shouldn’t be a weight on your shoulders

>>5981389
It took you THIS LONG to notice our chuuni main character? <s>He's not really chuuni though, despite his circumstances making him out to be one by force</s>

>>5981243
>> Some wounds never fully heal. There is no shame in living with the scars

>>5919642
>one of the things Potter said was kinda suspicious is that we have scars from a childhood injury
I felt the need to ask this. How do you guys think he'll react if we tell him that he was right about suspecting the childhood injury scars were important?

>>5981512
Probably smugly. I suppose we will need to not get immediately shot by him when we see him next, for figuring out a clever was to fuck with the Hogwart's security system, stealing 2 of the most powerful artifacts in the world, desecrating his mentor's grave, learning one of Wizard Hitler's calling cards under his nose, finding not one but 2 places of power...

<s>Depending on how this shakes out, we may end up getting another student killed as well. Just the cherry on top.</s>

I also have a crazy conspiracy theory which implies Arty may be insane and evil which I need to retype, since I accidentally deleted it.

>>5981421
Picrel

>>5981548
I think finally relenting and giving Potter some info at all is wise, even though he will autistically run with it. Otherwise he will eventually say fuck it and cast gun on Elliot. This entire quest we have been keeping him one-sided after all the good he did do. Question is what do we tell him?
>The Beast/Merlin rabbit hole
>The Founder shades
>Lily/Salazar and Taylor time corrected
What else?
>Arty may be insane and evil
I think this is too crazy to be real. If it is real and she was playing 5D wizard chess for more than 6 months without dropping a single facade, we're doomed. Also the Occlumens tutoring bits didn't seem to hint at anything bad with her

>>5981557
If we tell him about having a creature in our soul which we believe will destroy everything in the world if we die and give any kind of proof, he probably would decide to go with the cut off Elliot's arms and legs, rip out his tongue, keep him on wizard life support till he can figure out a way to fix things option. At least try and buy the world more time. I think deep down he likes Elliot due to seeing a bit of himself in him due to both of them being tossed into situations they had no control of and trying to make the best of them. Trying to fix them. Trying to save the world but...

Harry is also kind of egotistical however. I don't doubt if he became sure that if he was correct, that Elliot could end the world, would do so... he would do the ethical calculus and do something to try and stop it.

We don't have a concrete way to prove the Founders are real, yet. Telling him about their being others "like us" would not likely end well. Get Linda and Brighton hurt alongside Elliot.

We can not tell him about Lily, unless it is a last resort. According to what he said about what he saw in the mirror, his greatest desire is to have his family healthy and happy and whole. He would rip apart the world if he learned what had happened to Lily. Apollo was very much correct about that. Potter is an asshole but he is also kind and good. If he knew that a child of his suffered like that, had hurt so before being killed, he would end up undoing the world by trying to fix what had happened.

Perhaps the best option is to gaslight him, make us think we are comically evil. Emphasis on the comical part.

I really feel like our disk four boss boss fight will be against Harry.

Hopefully when we get to disk four and not before then.

Now to get back to writing why Arty has been manipulating us the whole time. Elliot and the players themselves. How she manipulated her brother from childhood. How everything is part of her plan. That due to how she was born and the things which happened, she had to learn to to play multi-dimensional 5-D chess in order to make the world pay.

>>5979848

https://rentry.org/gk3km2h3

Here you go. Like I said, I will put the pdfs somewhere better after I run through them again to fix stuff, I did end up changing a few small parts, just due to knowing a bit more about Arty now or reading certain bits and realizing that was not what I wanted to convey.

>>5981243
> Some wounds never fully heal. There is no shame in living with the scars
First option is bittersweet considering how she won't live for long (could be interpreted as a promise on our part), the third option doesn't sound psychologically healthy although I can't really explain why.
Middle option sounds fine, but what really sold me on it was the chuuni part that one anon mentioned. I like the write in though, it's good and I hope we can use it but I agree that now might not be the right time.

>>5981243
> One day, you’ll let it go. I’ll make sure you have all the time in the world to do so
Y'know, there's already a source of immortality in the HP world available for anyone willing to put up with the downsides, i'm dissapointed no one has suggested it as a last resort

>>5981673
Unicorn blood?

There have been canonically shown to be quite a few means to preserve yourself to greater or lesser extents... at costs.

<s>The only true way to fight death is to pass on part of you to those you love, those who walk the same path as you, follow your footsteps or else walk beside you. Your ideals or genetics. Voldemort... he put part of himself into creatures, objects because he had no one he loved and trusted, because he could not love. Because... well a lot of reasons, I suppose.
</s>

>>5981651
I think the last option feels bad because we would be pushing her towards a dark path. One we don't want her to walk. The middle option feels like the safe one. The first feels kind of hollow right now...

>>5981701
>Unicorn blood?
Think a more permanent solution. Also one that's not exclusive to HP.

>>5981243
voting
> Some wounds never fully heal. There is no shame in living with the scars

>>5981722
I got nothing man. I was thinking converting to Christianity and saying your prayers ever night might be an answer given that according to most currently popular version of that cosmology, you get to "live" forever alongside god even after mortal death.

<s>Also reminds me I was planning on writing a very short fic involving Elliot getting Arty to come with him to a small Hogwart's Easter service; not because he really believed in it but because he had good memories of going to church like twice a year with his parents as a kid. Wanted to try and share that experience with her, even if both of them still remain functional atheists which is what I imagine most wizards are. Just to give Arty an experience she might not have gotten to have as a kid.

And then write a couple of pages of her getting fucked stupid in her Sunday best while deciding to scream out "Oh God" vs. "Oh Merlin." Maybe ending with Elliot giving her a chocolate bunny and Easter basket.</s>

>>5981755
Have you not read My Immortal, you fraud? The answer is Vampirism. -D, see me after class.
Seriously, that should be the first thing anyone thinks about if they wanna live forever. Granted, Wizards probably hunt them like rats so most people would get filtered but we aren't most people.

>>5981610
>Now to get back to writing why Arty has been manipulating us the whole time. Elliot and the players themselves. How she manipulated her brother from childhood. How everything is part of her plan. That due to how she was born and the things which happened, she had to learn to to play multi-dimensional 5-D chess in order to make the world pay.
I hope this isn't a common running thread in all your fics about this quest, because that would be very boring and stupid to me

>>5981765
No, I haven't. The last fanfic I recall reading some of was either Harry Potter and the Nat 20 or Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality.

Vampires are apparently illegal to just straight up kill, like werewolves, unless they do something wrong. Can vampires who were wizards even still use magic? And the oldest vampire I could find out about on the wiki only lived like 200 years. Might be because at some point you end up just cracking and start assaulting people for their blood and get destroyed or that they just have an expiration date.

If things got desperate enough... Arty becoming infected might extend her life span I suppose.

<s>And her relying on Elliot for blood, him cutting open his hand and feeding her is pretty fucking hot. Him loving her even after she became like that, doing what he had to to ensure her survival is pretty hot. But we are playing a Harry Potter quest not a Twilight one.</s>

<s>Is the fic you referenced any good? I have free time for the next few days.</s>

>>5981812
Figures JK would make vampires shitty like everything else, I'm just going to ignore that. Nat 20 is actually where I got the idea, Milo is the one who thinks voldie was a vampire cuz he does't know he's a complete moron.
Its a shitty joke fic making fun of emo girl and draco simps, but its funny enough that it got pretty famous, arguably the most well known HP fic. Fucking Linda is a reference to it.

>princess voting has started
>the sayan girl is easily the most popular
god dammit, we have to vote for her opponents so we can get her out, sayans are OP as fuck

>>5981778
It isn't.

This was just a crazy conspiracy theory I thought up coming back from the store after reading the last update. I am 99% sure it isn't correct in any way so probably wont even post it, but who is the last person Elliot would see coming? It just was interesting to speculate on a very dark timeline.

I typically just made the lewd version of her just very horny and broken to a degree. Since I was working from the assumption she had been sexually abused and not just all the other kinds. Had occasions of having issues with intimacy, with being with a man but pushed through it for Elliot. Became more comfortable with it but could still be weird to a degree. Was very Hufflepuff in a lot of regards. So if you want to read my crappy fanfic of a quest, you don't have to worry about that, at least.

This one doesn't even feature her and is not lewd at all unless a kiss counts. It is probably my personal favorite since it gives Apollo some spotlight.

https://rentry.org/iey5nf8c

>>5981862
I don't really like vote rigging but I am not into muscle girls and while I need to catch up with the other quest, the previous one was very good.

HeadQM

You stand in front of her, blocking her view of the man, and wrap your arms around her.

“Some wounds never fully heal,” you say, planting a kiss on top of her head. You pull out the glove on your left hand and gently caress her cheek with your scarred hand. “There is no shame living with the scars. They just show you were strong enough to survive.”

She leans against your touch, closing her eyes.

“If you could get rid of your scars, wouldn’t you? If you could not have them-”

“Then I wouldn’t. But I can’t. And maybe there is a way to make them go away, maybe there is a way to fix them, but while I don’t find that way, I can either wince when I look at them, or accept that it is just the way things are.”

You take her hands in yours and place your glove on them.

“But if you say you will try, not saying that it was right, not saying that it was wrong, but simply accepting it was a thing in your past, just like any other day… I’m willing to do it with you.”

She finally looks up at you.

“You’ll be the one who has to walk with it exposed,” she says.

“And you’ll be the one who has to talk about it. I’m not sure if mine is worse.”

“Talking is pretty difficult…” She says, biting her lower lip. “But maybe not in front of Potter.”

“Merlin, no. He doesn’t need any more reason to think we’re all evil. But with me, with us… You don’t need to hide it.”

She stands at the tip of her toes and looks again at the man. Then back at you.

“Alright. If it’s with you… I can try.”

And she smiles. It’s not a big smile. It is shy and meek. But it is better than the steel that was there moments before.

== == ==

You feel yourself gasp as three different sets of memories clash within your mind, all happening in parallel. You fall to the floor, once more into the darkness.

“Hallaster! Is that you?” Brighton’s voice asks, sounding both surprised and relieved.

“Yep,” you say, gritting your teeth through the thankfully brief headache. “I’m here. Is everyone here?”

“I am.”

“Still here, yeah.”

“I’m with you.”

“Lovely.” You push yourself up, tapping the cane to make sure everybody looks alright, or as much as you can do so in this darkness.

“What happened?” Brighton asks. “Three of you just started feeling sick, then disappeared. And Hallaster disappeared too.”

“As best as I can guess, Merlin. A way to show… a person’s deepest secret, or maybe their worst day, as far as I understand.”

“Doesn’t sound pleasant.”

“It wasn’t, but we got through it. What I don’t understand is why you weren't pulled in too.”

“I don’t have secrets, Hallaster. Or trauma.”

[Cont]

>>5981943

“You don’t have trauma?”

“Not on a day, no. My grandparents? Yeah, it hurts. Hurts like hell. But I grew up with it. My worst day was the day my hopes of them getting better were crushed, and you were there for that. Hells, you caused it.” He sighs. “Not everyone has a tragic backstory filled with tragedy, Hallaster, even if you seem to have surrounded yourself with people who do. Really, most of Hogwarts is just fine. I don’t know where you found these.”

You give a tired laugh, a mean voice echoing back at you.

“You like broken things, Little Elliot,” Salazar had told you, and he might have been right.

“So, what do we do now?” Brighton asks.

You turn to look at the door which you have crossed three times now, and tap it with the cane. You hear the sound of stone grinding against stone, and it opens, letting in bright, blinding white light.

“If I’m right,” you say, putting your hand over your eyes to stop some of the light from hurting your eyes. “Albedo. The purification, where all the foulness of nigredo is washed away.”

“So, that should be good, right?” Arty asks, hopeful. “It should be nice?”

“Somehow, I doubt it.”

And you step through the archway once more.

-- Interlude --

Things were happening in a flash, a whirlwind of information with Nienna right in the middle of it.

A while ago, about the time the prisoners had gone wild, the Dark Mark had been seen above Hogwarts, five students had been reported as missing and, if she had overheard the conversation between Potter and the Minister correctly - completely by accident, of course - the Elder Wand had been taken, along with something else.

Potter, the Minister and her husband had descended upon the prison like a thunderstorm, barking orders that no one dared refuse. All prisoners had been chained and put in iron gloves, in addition to being in their cells. Then, Potter had descended to the deepest cell, the one with the man with no name and crazy eyes, and shouted at him for a while. When he left, carrying something wrapped in a thick piece of fabric and with the Minister right after him, Weasley had stayed behind interrogating the other prisoners.

And while he was doing that… Nienna might as well do some investigating of her own. If she didn’t find anything, no harm done. If she did, she could give it to the Ministry, use it to finally move her career forward.

Or, alternatively, she could sell the information to the highest bidder and buy herself a nice house somewhere without dark wizards. She still hadn’t decided which way she’d go.

“Potter seemed awfully angry with you,” she says through the thin slot on the door.

“Curious little birdie, aren’t you?”

“Always. I was in Ravenclaw, after all. So, what did you do?”

“Nothing. Didn’t you hear? I’m innocent.”

[Cont.]

>>5981945

“Of course you are. Everyone here is. But if you were to have done something… well, that would be interesting, wouldn’t it? So why don’t we make a deal? I can’t get you out of here. No one can. But-”

“Potter can.”

“No, he can’t. Not even him. There are enough security enchantments here that an army wouldn’t be able to break these walls down.”

“If you say so, little birdie,” he scoffs.

“So I can’t get you out," she says. "But I could get information out. Or in. If you were to give me something useful to know in return, I mean.”

“Nienna!” Comes a voice from above. “What are you doing there?”

“Just checking if Potter didn’t rough him up too much! Wouldn’t want us to deal with a rotting body in addition to whatever it is that is going on out there!” She shouts back. Then, in a lower voice. “Think about what I said.”

And she skips back up the tower.

-- Interlude Over --

Sorry for the slow update rhythm, but life started happening on the day after I started the thread, coupled with these being difficult updates to write.

I have a birthday tomorrow, so I'm not sure I'll be able to post, but things should return to one post a day soon.

Anonymous

WHO is DOWN THERE?! my paranoia is gonna kill me now with this "thread of information leaking"

>>5981952
It's our wonderful tutor

What's more concerning is what came out in cloth.

>>5981955
+1 to this sense of dread.

>>5981949
Thanks for the heads up, HQM.

>>5981952
It is Crouch. He used his "little birdie" term with this ladder hopping and previously stated corrupt cop. Guess we won't be getting any more lessons if we make it back from Avalon since this silly bitch is probably going to enable Barty to escape. She was in Ravenclaw but wasn't smart enough to not be caught for shit and demoted, was she?

Nienna is a Tolkien reference but not sure if that means anything.

I am glad the shit storm we caused is spreading. These interludes are pretty fun.

Now the big questions are what was Potter carrying after a visit to Crouch and what the REAL reason Brighton didn't have his darkest secret, most horrible memory revealed.

I will think on it and maybe come up with some insane ideas regarding those answers.

>>5981945
Happy birthday QM. Mine is pretty soon as well.

>>5981982
Just to elaborate,

>“No, he can’t. Not even him. There are enough security enchantments here that an army wouldn’t be able to break these walls down.”

Grindlewald got out of US Wizard max security. Crouch and Black managed to escape Azkaban, something people thought was impossible. Voldemort was able to blow a hole in the same place and spring his best followers from it. Voldemort was also able to invade Hogwarts, despite it being protected by it's Ancient magic and a large number of skilled adult wizards plus a fuck ton of teen ones. She had just heard that an object of Power had disappeared from what is likely one of the most secure places in Britain. Harry managed to break into Gringrotts when he was still a student, something also though impossible.

Never say something is impossible lady. Especially when similar things have happened in living memory.

>>5982138
Never read it before. I recalled a couple of anons asking in the 1st thread if Raven's name was a reference but that is it.

<s>I took a look for like 5 minutes last night and... yeah. Not my cup of tea.</s>

So went and thought it over, my crazy conspiracy about Arty.

How the fuck did she know an appropriate incantation for the Torture Curse, being able to guide Apollo to use it? Yeah, people can independently derive spells but these are grown wizards. People who know magic exists. She was an 8 year old girl in a terrible situation who had, supposedly, no idea magic was real till Apollo tossed an entire kitchen at a guy. And even though he wanted their caretaker to suffer too... she knew how to guide the guy to use a massively powerful and evil curse. To use it with out a wand. Accidental magic can be strong, very strong, but casting a real spell with no wand like Apollo did?

Wandless magic takes incredible skill. Even Dumbledore for all his power and experience couldn't toss real spells out; he could light candles or maybe summon small objects to him, ect.

But he pulled off a real spell after his initial use of magic, a powerful one, taught to him by his 8 year old sister by telling him the right word to use and intentionally getting caught and taking a beating because she tried to "help" Apollo; put him in the right frame of mind....

I don't think an abusive caretaker who beat them bloody is paying for shitty Latin lessons.

Where on Earth would a small girl learn that? Why could her and Apollo just stand there holding hands while torturing a man as he was already dying?

>They watch, faces of steel, hand in hand as their “caretaker” suffers.

I will remind ya'll that per Arty the house burned down after this.

Or was burned down. I wonder if there was a small auburn haired girl there who would have thought of that, to hide the evidence. To help give her a tragic enough back story that no one would ever suspect her. One who could have slowly emotionally manipulating her far more powerful twin for years, being nice to him, trying to "help him", had figured out that he tried to kill her and maybe succeed to a degree then used that subtly against him to turn him into her attack dog.

When they had been enrolled in Hogwarts, perhaps this young girl got a job at a very popular tavern, endeared herself to the owner who just so happens to be the wife a professor, then used that job to scout for a mark. Happens to be one showed up who "saved" her from a person he already didn't like, based on Elliot's memories, then told the entire inn he was going to find a way to live forever. Specifically mentions a certain place and then proved himself competent.

Acted vulnerable toward him, shared her back story so he would want to protect her more. Accepted him despite his weird eccentricities and then because of his physical damage.

Arty is a psychopath who may very well have a large part of Merlin in her, the bad part.

>>5981812
>Vampires are apparently illegal to just straight up kill
Lorcan d'Eath spent nineteen weeks at number one on Magical Britain's music charts and was essentially Justin Timberlake for the magical girl set in the 90s.

>>5982180
「My Immortal」 is an old meme, a classic example of an incredibly bad fanfic (almost certainly a deliberately bad one) in which all the main characetrs of Harry Potter become goth Satanists and fall in love with a Mary Sue named Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way.

>The conspiracy
Harry Potter disappeared a bunch of glass and freed some snakes without a word or gesture OR wand, right?

>shitty Latin lessons
Assuming what we just learned from Arty is accurate, any wizard anywhere in the world who derives a killing curse independently learns the words 'avada kadevra', so likewise, 'crucio' must be a universal word of power, rehardless of your spoken language or culture.

>>5981945
>five students had been reported as missing
SUSPECTED missing, damn it! There's no way they checked every single named spider we hid at school already.
Unless they're talking about a different set of five students. Which would be very concerning if so.
Time to paranoia theorycraft on which other five students it could be.

>>5982180
If it comes to light that the Sorting Hat considered putting Arty in Slytherin, exactly like how it considered putting Elliot in Hufflepuff, I will write in Elliot proposing to marry her on the spot

>>5982181
So you all know how Arty mentioned at one point that you can't heal a soul? You recall who also had a damaged soul?

Someone who was an orphan as well? Who's mom died not to long after he was born as well. Her grew up in squalor, in a terrible environment?

A certain guy who also did some pretty fucked up shit as a child?

One who could also control animals?

<s>This convoluted theory is probably not correct in the least but was fun to think about. That a 4'7 girl with less magic than an average 14 year old was the real final boss of the quest. If I happen to be right.. well QM would certainly have done a good job with this twist. After all, who would suspect Arty.</s>

But any way, I was going to probably commission another thing for our tiny evil master-mind of a girlfriend soon so I need to know if people think a playboy bunny suit is better or a muggle "sexy witch" Halloween costume is better. I am leaning towards the bunny suit.

Either way she is getting that pair of impractical high heels which was mentioned at one point.

>>5982852
>muggle "sexy witch" Halloween costume
This one, please
>convoluted theory
If it happens, I'll still vote to go all the way with her. If not, then I'll be glad we don't have some dumb subversion happening for the sake of trauma twist

>>5982854
+1 to everything this anon just said

>>5982858
>new ip
ooh god dammit, my energy flicks for a second and everything goes down to shit, drawfag reporting again, i guess
fuck, now i gotta check if the K&Q thread is fucked too...

>>5982847
>I will write in Elliot proposing to marry her on the spot

I was going to suggest, if both of them make it through all this, and make it through the year that we propose. Not get married right right then and there but like a two year engagement, so Arty can finish school. Maybe ask if mom has grandma's old engagement ring we could give her.

Even if she did turn out to be evil... I would still want her, yah.

>>5982858
If sexy witch seems to be more popular or what not, I suppose I will start looking at reference images. I have a generic idea of what your basic white girl version should look like but there are different styles.

>>5982972
>Even if she did turn out to be evil... I would still want her, yah.
if anything, that only makes me want her more, can you imagine? our own gremlin evil spider queen

>>5982985
Evil girls as well as unstable ones are hotter. This has been proven. So slightly evil is the only way that a 10 could be any better than she already is.

>>5982972
You mean 1 year, right? Because the quest started in Elliot's first week of 6th year. This means by the end of the 6th year, there will only be one year left. You'd want the timing to happen so that once they graduate Hogwarts the marriage happens that same week

>>5983033
I was saying more as so Arty could finish her education.

So if we proposed at the end of this school year, there would be the engagement and she could complete her 6th and 7th years since she is only 15 right now.

If she really, really wanted to, you can stop your magical education after 5th year and not get your wand snapped by the wizard feds as long as you completed your OWLs in 5th year.

Her idol, Newt Scamander was suspended from Hogwarts sometime after his 5th year.

Also guess what one of mister Scamander's middle names was?

Motherfucking Artemis.

Pertinger may be a regional variation on the name Pettinger. A family who has a family motto which roughly translates from Latin to:

"Courage against difficulties."

Seems quite appropriate for Arty.

>>5983152
I see. I forgot Arty is one year below Elliot. At this rate, there might be no way out of her dropping out one year before the end, unless we wait REAL patiently

>>5983219
I mean, Elliot came from a good home and has a mom who has specifically warned him about teen pregnancy. Arty wants kids but also doesn't want Apollo to kill her boyfriend for getting her knocked up while in school. She is saving up money specifically to pay for her 7th year instead of relying on charity, so she has no plans to leave early. Wizard birth control is very good. And if she get preggers while she was still at Hogwarts, like if she is so hyper fertile normal anti-pregnacy potions just don't work? I mean she couldn't be the first in 1000 years. I am sure they have accommodations; you can also take the Wizard equivalent of a GED exam in the form of a WOMBAT test and get your diploma. And I think even if they didn't have accommodations, Elliot would make them.

If she leaves early, it would probably be due to getting kicked out because of being involved in Elliot's bullshit, if anything.

<s>I do now want a picture of a slightly older Arty with a small baby bump and happy tears in her eyes telling Elliot that it is going to be twins.
</s>

>>5983671
Would that really be cause for celebration, knowing what happened to her and Apollo?

>>5983672
I think her and Elliot will be better parents than her mom and their caretaker were. And magical twins don't always end up taking stuff in the womb. Fred and George Weasley were just fine and so are Summer and Winter Nott.

We are also going to fix her problem so even if they were born like she and Apollo were, we can help them.

>>5983692
Makes sense. All we can do right now is wait for HeadQM to post his update

VOTING FOR ARTY HAS STARTED
I REPEAT, VOTING FOR ARTY HAS STARTED
THIS IS NOT A TEST!
BE SURE TO VOTE FOR HER
i will be delivering her wedding outfit in a few hours, to help with the fanart

>>5983769
Oh shit. It has begun...

The time of prophesy has arrived.

We will get a tiny princess crown for her.

<s>If she doesn't win having some art of of her with a Burger King crown Elliot gave her would be very fucking funny.</s>

Arty´s wedding outfit has been posted in the K&Q thread along with my vote<br>however, thats just the lineart, i´ll post the colored version here in a few hours

I left for a bit to go work why is everyone discussing teenage pregnancy

>>5983945
Maladapted anons are the bread and butter of the site, I don't know what you were expecting.

>>5983945
Someone brought it up and the rest of us needed to ensure QM know we weren't in favor of it.

>>5983945
>>5983950

I mean, I was arguing that it wouldn't happen. Just to be fair.

I have a lot of fetishes but that isn't one.

>>5983944
It looks really good bro! I like the difference in "wedding" Arty's face and "daydreaming" Arty's face. It is cute.

Also still just love smug Linda.

Our girl does seem to have a fair lead so far.

Since everyone in the loser's bracket will get some art from OlympusQM, any thoughts on what we would like to see?

<s>Also, since I have in it my head to commission a couple more pieces at some point let me know if you are interested. You probably deserve some money, given how much art you have given out for free.</s>

>>5983971
Problem is he keeps bringing it up, guy just does not believe in birth control. Here's a tip: lets just pretend he's not here.

HeadQM

Once your eyes finally adjust to the light, you see the room you are in. It is, as best as you can describe it, a great castle made of white marble, though the culture eludes you. “Older than ancient Egypt” is your best guess, but it could be anything. Great pillars rise to your left and to your right, embossed illustrations on the walls showing what appears to be people battling, but it is difficult to be sure without a close examination, and it is difficult to examine closely without getting blinded, since even after several minutes of being there you still need to squint to cope with the light that seems to come from every direction.

“Where are we?” Brighton asks. “Are we still under St Mungo’s or have we been transported somewhere entirely?”

“I don’t think it really matters. Apollo, can you check if we can send patronuses yet?”

He does so, but his silver bear refuses to appear.

“Right. Cane, can you do anything?” You tap it against the floor and a red line briefly appears coming from its tip, slithering its way over the floor and disappearing in the distance. “Right... Are we supposed to follow it?”

“Uh, Elliot?” Linda says, pointing at one portion of the wall. “Take a look at this.”

The mural depicts a series of pictures, the first of which appears to be a bull-like creature causing havoc to a city by breathing fire over it, then two warriors fighting it and defeating it. Then there is a congregation of people of great importance looking displeased, demanding something, followed by one of the two warriors looking queasy, then ill, until finally dead. The other warrior despairs over the body of his friend and leaves his city behind.

“Oh come the fuck on!” You shout.

“What is it?” Arty asks.

“The Bull of Heavens… was supposedly killed by Gilgamesh and Enkidu. The gods got mad the pair had killed their creation, and demanded one of them to die. So, Enkidu became ill and passed away, which led Gilgamesh to become fearful of death and set out on a journey to find a way to become immortal.” You rub the bridge of your nose in utter disbelief. “The Epic of Gilgamesh is the single oldest written story we know of, we’re talking ancient Sumeria, four thousand years ago.”

“You don’t think-”

“I honestly don’t know. Was Merlin Gilgamesh? Is this here just because it was the first story of someone seeking immortality? Or was Gilgamesh someone else who was after immortality too, and who Merlin either helped or just watched from afar for his own amusement? I have no idea. It all seems equally likely.”

[Cont.]

>>5984008

“What is the meaning of this?” Hisses a voice behind you, sounding displeased. You all turn, wands raised, to see… Yourself. Same look, same voice, same vests, same scars. It doesn't look like a ghost, just a perfect reflection of you. There is just something slightly off about his eyes that you can't quite pinpoint.

“Uh-huh,” Linda says in a tone of voice that makes it clear there is no remaining space in her for surprise. “So that’s what’s happening right now.”

“They do not belong here,” the not-you says, a strange look in his eyes. As he speaks, his tone climbs in fury. “The living have no business in Kur! Was Arthur not enough? Must you bring chaos to my lands once more!? Must you disrespect us at every possible point!? Have we not suffered enough!?”

It takes a moment for your mind to gather its pieces from being blown. Whatever is happening, whoever this creature is, it clearly hasn’t realized you are not Merlin. Would he be as angry if he knew you weren't him, or would knowing only make things worse?

If you are not mistaken, Kur was the old sumerian afterlife, though you don’t remember much more than that. It is possible you could get information from this creature by pretending to be Merlin, but if it realizes the ruse it could become more violent. At the same time, you could pretend to be Merlin and try to get it to help you get through this place, at the cost of not asking him anything. Or you could reveal who you are, and ask for help.

What will you do?

> Pretend to be Merlin and focus on gathering knowledge (What questions will you ask?)
> Pretend to be Merlin and focus on moving on from here/finding a way to regain your memories
> Reveal you are not Merlin and ask for his help
> Attack before he can react
> Other (Write in)

Anonymous

>>5984009
oh boy, we cant just catch a break, cant we?
i say
>Reveal you are not Merlin and ask for his help
if we have any chance of doing this peacefully i say we take it
if he finds out we bullshiting him, things most likely will get ugly
he clearly hates Merlin, maybe if we tell him we are here to stop him or put an end to his shit, maybe he could ally with us?

ok, i think i bit more than i could chew with these shadows, not hard, but time consuming, so this wont be ready tonight as i wanted it to be, but at least im done with them, next step is light and finally color
hope you all enjoy this so far

>>5983973
>any thoughts on what we would like to see?
how about Arty riding an acromantula while pointing ahead as if looking for adventure and enjoying herself?
>spoiler
i mean, i wont say im NOT interested, but how? i dont have any accounts on anything

>>5983974
I won't bring it up again this entire thread just to be "fair" to you, okay?

>>5984014
+1

>>5984009
>> Reveal you are not Merlin and ask for his help

>>5984077
That would be funny. Arty totally would saddle up on giant dangerous creature and ride toward adventure.

As for the other point, I have no clue if you don't want to set up an account on something like paypal. Just asking because you have put a
lot of effort into contributing to the quest.

If you decide here is the burner email I set up to pay for IGs art and paying for part of the Q&K competition.

<s>Stuff4Quests@proton.me</s>

>>5984009
So is this guy Nergal or Neti? Just the shade of an Atlantean?

It is also fun that in quite a few ways we are mirroring Merlin and a lot of immortality/power seeking people, including the first "hero" extant in written legends.

>We seek to oppose Merlin. Make it so he could never trample among the dead again. I understand it is Hell down her. Can I offer you a glass of water, a libation to sooth your suffering and anger.

<s>I will also remind anons that how Gilgamesh lost the cure to death after journeying below to find it was he left it on the side of a river for a minute because he wanted to drink and wash up some, since he was on his way back to Uruk and obviously needed to look his best.

Then a tricky snake ate the herbs which would grant him hiw youth once more.

Campbell had categorized one portion of the Hero's journey as the part where he descends into the underworld or into and returns with the "Elixir" after his many trials.

The Fool's journey in Tarot mirror's many of the part of that journey.

Being ignorant, a "Fool" finding his friends, the Magician, the high Priestess, the Lover, the Heirophant... ect. And then he must endure struggles, including the Tower card which represents adversity or great misfortune. He then must confront the Arcana representing Death and overcome it. Only then can the Fool advance towards ultimate freedom, power over his own life.</s>

>>5984077
Could you link your art blog or site?

>>5984132
I do not have an art site yet, I have a deviantart page, but it’s literally empty and doesn’t even have the same name I use now
I’ll try to get everything in there soon tho, just gotta pay to change the name, i’lll link it up whenever I do that

>>5984097
<s>>paypal
ooh, i actually think i do have an account there from long ago, it should work, i´ll send you an email when i get out of work</s>

>>5984265
<s>Cool. I hope you have a good day at the job.</s>

>>5984009
> Reveal you are not Merlin and ask for his help
Looks like we share a mutual enemy, sort of.

Ok finally finished reading thread 5. I am fully caught up now.

>>5984374
Amazing start to finish. It'll be additionally better when the drawfag and writefag can archive their shit properly, but still very good. Do you think we can walk straight out of the path to Avalon when we're done here, or will we get autoteleported out and the place seals up again? It's just a straight path from the doorway in through the statue section, then around the lake of rot, then down the stairs to the trauma door, then through it into this white castle afterlife zone

>>5984388
>when the drawfag can archive their shit properly
i´ll set up my deviant art page soon, just need to get some important expenses out of the way soon, then i´ll dump everything there, i promise
i wonder if i should make a pixiv too?

>>5984388
>Amazing start to finish.

Even during the first thread it had good writing and it only got better as I imagine QM got a better handle of where he wanted to have the campaign go. I also thought Arty's little accent in our first couple of interactions was cute even though she dropped it eventually.

I am sad you couldn't be there for things like our first attempt at war crimes or rolling for Elliot's dick size and coming up with 1's again and again. That was probably the moment that as a player laughed the hardest. <s>Get it? Hardest?</s>

I will try to work on sticking the now like 100 pages of shit I have written as fanfics of a fanfic somewhere soon, as I was trying to go through and make them less bad; I have no clue why suptg decided to not archive pdf's for /qst/ when I swear it used to.

I will also post the short shitty thing I wrote speculating if Arty ended up being evil tonight likely.

I was planning at one point to put the updates in into a pdf but I have probably abandoned that project for now, since I wanted important posts, write ins to be added for context and it is a bitch and a half to find all of those and add them.

>>5984403
Doubling up is never a bad thing. I think I still have a pixiv too, from back when I still drew some.

Also, it looks like Arty is going to take her 1st round by a good margin!

>>5984419
I seem to recall the reason cited for not archiving PDFs was disc space. Not quite sure I follow that since a PDF is just as subject to the filesize cap as an image and the proportion of PDFs is tiny compared to images. Suptg is best part of 20 years old though so maybe things worked differently on 2007-chan.

>>5984424
Lord Licorice does this shit for free so I can't really blame him for his choices.

Anyway, back to writing about Arty having manipulated everyone around her for her entire life and when she had ultimate power in front of her, she turned away because she had truly fallen for Elliot and loved him. <s>Him and the twins which are on the way.</s>

Why yes I am a hack and love angst and cliches.

HeadQM

>>5984388
>>5984419
>I also thought Arty's little accent in our first couple of interactions was cute even though she dropped it eventually.

Yeah, she was supposed to be scottish-ish, I think, but then I decided I know shit about accents and would either not be able to keep up with them or forget to put it in every other phrase, and just dropped it entirely.

My biggest curiosity about a PDF would be just to see how much I wrote in total. I feel like it is a lot, but then again, I have two other TTRPG in which I put far too much time DMing

Also, thank for the compliments! They do help and motivate a very great deal!

--

“I am no Merlin,” you say, wand still pointed at your clone. “And these are not Arthur. We are here because Merlin failed and fell. But there are those who seek his power to bring great doom upon the world, and we are here to ensure they never do.”

Your face seems to retract from its fury then ponder this for a moment.

“The Thief of Atlantis cannot fail. He has the Sight Beyond Sight.”

“There are shadows that not even the Sight Beyond Sight can pierce. Merlin walked into such a shadow, and there he perished.” You say. There is something in this person’s tone of voice, like that which you’d expect from someone telling a tale of old. You feel inclined to follow suit. “Yet still he tries to flee from death’s grasp, yet if he succeeds, he will bring doom upon the world and darkness upon the earth. That, too, we seek to mend, if not in this place, then on another.”

“If the Thief has perished, humanity is soon to follow,” he insists. “And your journey is in vain. We do not believe you. No man’s hand can end him.”

“It was no mere hand which felled him. It was his own. His Greatest Work went awry and took him with it. Believe me or not, we have gathered his Cloak, his Wand and his Stone. Merlin would not part with such, if he was not dead. Nor with his haven’s location.”

He takes a moment to consider this.

“The Thief is no more?”

“Not for a millenia.”

“Yet his work endures. That may be an acceptable way to interpret the visions of the Sight Beyond Sight, though whether that means life has any hope of surviving, we do not know. We are filled with grief.” His face did not show any changes to reflect any sadness. “For the Thief was the greatest of those who remained, even if that is as little a praise as one can give.”

“Who are you to speak such from the Great Merlin? Who are you to call him a Thief?”

[Cont.]

>>5984715

“We are Irkalla, and We are that which the Thief stole and remade. We are the last Great Work he took for himself before being banished. We were the guardians of where the Great Ones rested. We are now the guardians of these lands, where the tears for the dead which the Foul One above purified are turned to power through the distillation of Time. A process which We cannot stop, and which your companions’ presence disturbs. We are the guardian of the Grail of Memories, where the one with Sight Beyond Sight can remake himself for his next life.”

“And how can one reach the Grail of Memories?” You ask, a moment of relief going through you. “For the Foul One above has done her duty even when her master has already fallen, and injured me greatly. My memories must be put back to where they belong, before they fade into nothingness.”

“You must undergo the Test through which Merlin put himself through. To live is to improve. To live is to become better. Or it should be. For those who have Life Eternal, it must be. And so, upon his return, he faced an Echo of his old self in battle, for he must prove to himself he was better than he was before. You must do the same.”

Your stomach sinks, and for a moment you forget about talking like an old legend.

“I… I need to fight Merlin? I mean, Lailoken?”

“No. For the Thief brough another here. Another, which he tried to bring back from the dead. We warned him it would not succeed. This is not this place’s purpose, and he failed. Yet that body is still within us. That body is our memory. He is the one you must face.”

“Arthur,” you whisper. That was certainly an improvement to facing the most powerful wizard in recorded history, though there was some part of you who had many problems with facing the Once and Future King. It at least brings you enough calm to speak anciently once again. “And what shall be the nature of such a duel?”

“That which the Echo does best. There have been battles of wits, there have been battles of power. What it will be, we do not know.”

You nod.

“May I have my allies with me in battle?”

“That will depend on the Echo’s wishes. Once I bring him forth, you shall be at his mercy.”

“Wait! Before you go, may I ask you more? There is much we do not understand, much we do not understand.”

Your clone ponders for a moment, before nodding.

“Very well. Ask, and though there is much I do not know, I shall answer what I can.”

> What will you ask before the Echo is summoned? (Write in)

Anonymous

>>5984717
jesus fucking christ, i was not expecting it to go this well with our clone, yet the situation grows dire by the minute...i dont think i have the mental capabilities at this time of the night to ask a proper intelligent question, so i´ll go with the next best thing i can do:
>"should we come victorious from this duel, would it be possible for whatever magic that resides deeper within these walls, be capable of..."mending" a broken soul? a stumped magical source? for one our companions is in need of such magic, we do not seek to abuse its power, simply mend a terrible and unfair accident, would they be able to use it and come forward with a renewed spirit and vigor?"

there, please somebody ask something more relevant to our main quest, for i´ve asked about our adorable companion to the best of my insomniac limited ability

>>5984732
or...you know, something along those lines, dont wanna put Apollo in the spotlight

>>5984732
I really have nothing to ask him which is clever. We could check to see if he knows about Excalibur and whether it still rests in this place. Ask if he knows how long he has been active for, to get a better timeframe on when Atlantis existed.

I love how Merlin stole/ re purposed magic AI's when he fled. At least this one seems more civil than Nimue, slimy bitch.

It is also fun he took Elliot's appearance and our next challenge will be to over come King Arthur. Elliot is the next coming of Arthur, the greatest king in British history. I doubt we are getting in a sword fight. King Elliot when?

I imagine it is either a test of rulership qualities, being just, fair, clever and wise.

That or a battle which tests your ability to unite and lead people, since Arthur was the one to lead his people to defeat the Saxon invasion. That would be a good way to make our army bonus relevant again, since for now we stopped participating in Battle class.

If the latter is true, Raven will be invaluable.

>>5984717
>"That mural there, that is the story of Gilgamesh the king. Even outside here, in the rest of the world, that is the oldest story still known that survived to the present. How is it related to Merlin and this... process he devised here?"
I am half-tempted to ask him about the Mirror of Erised and Atlantis, or about what happens to this place once the trials end. The latter is kinda dumb because of course Merlin made it so he goes back out with the three hallows released from the gate, otherwise this entire place loses the reusability that Merlin has relied on for so long. I imagine he made it straightforward and idiot-proof on purpose for his own convenience too, because the path from the way in to this section is completely linear. But anyway, how can we ask this guy about Atlantis?

>>5984762
The Excalibur/Caliburn question is also another good one, but I don't know how much time we have to ask him things. With Nimue we had no time because every question cost memories as permanent stat loss. Still suck we lost like 9 potions stat, but we can always relearn and return to form. Elliot has Most Potente Poisons completed and has his own notes plus Snape's 5th year book. He can make a potions comeback

>>5984788
I could support asking about the Mirror, since I have theories about it. And Caliburn/Excalibur seems appropriate, give its connects to the the legend of the lady of the lake. It might just be a metaphor for how Merlin himself tossed himself into the lake to be reforged, but it has been referenced a couple of times already.

>>5984717
I have no idea what to write in and am too busy to come up with something

Just wanted to say that this is fucking awesome

>>5984788
I’m gonna second this anon’s idea, at least, since it’d be worth bringing up the mural when we have time

>>5984717
I'm >>5984307

>>5984788
I'll back the Arthur and Gilgamesh questions, especially Arthur since we're about to throw hands.

technically, we can ask more than one question, right? he did said: "I shall answer what I can.”

HeadQM

>>5985225
Yes, you may ask whatever you want (whether he will answer or not, or take offense to it or not, that is something else entirely)

Anonymous

>>5985238
So basically it's
>Gilgamesh questioning
>Arthur questioning
>Mirror of Erised questioning
>mending broken soul questioning
Hmmmmm... I wonder what would happen if we took Alice and Frank through the Avalon trials. Would they get their memories and mind back, or are they perma-goners?

>>5985241
It honestly would have been interesting to see what would happen with Frank/Alice or rather Goddy/Rae with us, considering they knew Merlin and Rae had some of his memories. Might have been useful but I do think getting them in healthy young bodies is going to pay dividends in the end. Linda and Brighton were already pretty good duelists and magically powerful by normal 16 year old standards. They haven't been trained by a crazy death eater like us and Arty but them eventually being able to get a power and skill boost is going to probably be really helpful when we eventually have to take down Potter in the end game.

We do probably need to figure out if Brighton knows any Occulemency and if not, try and get him some lessons.

Regardless, if we still have the battle classes for a while after Avalon shakes out, Linda is going to be a beast with the smartest of the founders to advise her. She was already smarter than us with tactics.

I am also glad way back in thread 1 we picked Raven to be one of our best friend. She is snarky and amusing. Her accidentally getting a broken nose from Taylor when we first started Battle class and given him shit saying she was going to call the Aurors for him being a woman beater was great. Her Muggle studies specialty and being able to give a banked roll saved us a couple of times in the fights, even if it seems like the second or third least good specialty an ally could have. I also wonder what it would be like if we pursued her as a love interest. Her speculating on if Rowena could give her a futa cock and would be DTF was one of the funnier things I recently recall.

<s>And gave me a little bit of incentive to try and write a brief sex scene about it, even if futa is not one of my many fetishes. If the founder of Ravenclaw was as thirsty as "Faith" was after a 1000 year long dry spell? She might do it. Plus given how familiar she is with her "toys", Raven could probably manifest a few in her dreamscape. Picrel is why Raven knows you cant have kids from a ghost, btw. </s>

I will go ahead and support all these questions QM.

>>5985397
>spoiler
do it in your next fanfic

>>5985592
I might give it a shot and see what I can come up with, if I like what I put out. I probably could use a pallet cleanser if I manage to finish the "evil Arty" one and the very disturbing other one.

I managed to get the really fucked up part of the other one done but I might try and make it even worse. The part where

<s>Arty is tortured and sexually assaulted by Crouch who has smuggled in a real wand in front of Elliot. Has her vagina turned into a bloody mess by him and breaks to the point she begs Elliot to kill, her all for the purpose of forcing him to use the Killing Curse.</s>

Now I just need to write the aftermath.

So some wholesome futa goth teen on 1000 year old ghost might be what I need.

I had also considered a wholesome one, aside from all the sex at the front, where Elliot proposes to Arty.

>>5985607
>that spoiler
Very despicable. Question is how can Potter even let this happen? Anyway, the rest of the fic ideas sound good

>>5985607
>spoiler
oh man, kinda would have preferred if you had keeped it a secret, but still eagerly waiting for more lewd fanfics

>>5985611
Takes place after a theoretical version of Avalon with his time turner destroyed and Crouch blocked off Appiration/Portkeys once they got there. Had his old house elf who found out he was alive, the one who got him a real wand, cause a disturbance at Hogwarts when Potter dropped us off to distract him. Only way left to make it to the island is with brooms which would give him plenty of time to do this, given it is in the middle of no where.

>>5985616
I assure you, I am not writing it because I get off on any part. It was more just, "What would make Elliot hate enough to use that spell when what was describe as a demon killing his best friend couldn't" interested me.

I do love my angst and whatnot, but this is in no way meant to be a lewdfic. <s>I am sure there is someone out there who would use it like one.</s>

It is the worst thing I have ever written, and I like Arty enough to commission art of her.

>>5985612
The fact that someone cares enough to be sad about the spoiler and reads this shit fills my withered, blackened heart with joy, enough I could cast a Patronus if I had a wand.

>>5985627
>The fact that someone cares enough
>someone
>check IP
>new one
FUCK THIS INTERNET!
its me, the drawfag
oh great, now i have to check the K^Q thread again

>>5984097
hey, sorry it took longer than expected, i send it to you already

>>5985739
I got the email bro. How about a quick head shot of a smug Linda, something like what you did for her in the spider wedding photo?

HeadQM

>>5984732
“What do you know about the magic below?” You ask. “You said it could not bring someone back from the dead. Then what can it do?”

“We do not know for certain. We are not one of the Great Ones, only their creation. We do not possess knowledge ourselves, only a blurred view of it, like a man walking through fog. No, less than a man, for we are not truly alive, nor do we truly think.” Irkalla says, and it is strange to see him say he does not think. He seems pretty thinking for you. “We are but a cog in this machine, and it is a machine to create a body. But a body needs a spirit, and that this Great Work cannot create. It can only move and repair.”

“What do you mean, repair?” It is Brighton who asks, jumping at the opportunity. “There are… there are people we know. They were tortured to insanity. Can it- can this heal them?”

“We do not know. There is Khet and there is Sah, there is Ren and there is Ba. There is Ka and there is Ib, there is Shut and Sekhem. Not all can it heal. Not all can be healed. We do not know which is which. We do not know what is needed to achieve the Thief’s Great Work. All we know is there are some it cannot create or repair.”

Brighton turns to you.

“What is he talking about, Hallaster?”

“Those are Egyptian,” Linda says, cutting in. “They thought the soul was divided into eight parts. Body and spirit, name and personality, life essence and heart, shadow and form. I suppose that a dead body, like Arthur’s, doesn’t have something that it needs for Avalon to work. Or maybe it lacks too many of them. I suppose that if it could bring back a dead body to life… It would also just be able to create a brand new person out of thin air.”

"Why is it talking about Egyptian stuff? Hallaster said it was sumerian."

“Because it isn’t speaking modern English either,” you say. “The most recent person it spoke to was Merlin, who spoke ancient English. So it is using our knowledge, filtering its speech through what we know. It is… translating as best it can. Some things are bound to come out with some imprecision.”

>>5984762
“There are many stories in this place,” you say. “Or at least people who are stories in my time. Gilgamesh on the walls. Arthur, which you said is resting below. What are they? Why are they here?“

“The Great Ones did not age,” he says. “How, we do not know. But still, some died, for the flesh is frail and can be sundered. We were the keeper of those who fell. Yet there were some who were not content with this. Those who feared death even then. The one on the wall is one who did not accept his fate, for given eternity, everything that has any chance of happening will happen, and so, as there was a chance of them dying, they would die in time.”

[Cont.]

>>5985957
“When his lover died from the cursed blood of a foul beast, he sought a way of stopping it from ever happening. He left the lands of the Great Ones, in search of a solution. It is then that he found one of the Lessers, and from their union the Thief was born. How his story arrived at your ears, we do not know, for it happened in a time before history, and when the Land of the Great Ones ceased to be, it did not happen at all.”

“In some stories, Merlin is said to have no father. Because his father was an Atlantean. Because his father was erased from time,” you whisper in disbelief. Others said his father was a demon, also because he had been Atlantean. Both had been true. It was almost ridiculous how a lot of the legends fit, once you saw the stumbling path through time they had taken. You shake your head, getting back to asking questions. “And Arthur?”

“That one, we do not know. Merlin insisted he needed to be brought back, that maybe this Great Work would bring him back if given enough time. We told him that he would not succeed, for not even the Great Ones had done so, and he was Below them. He dismissed us. And time has passed, and we have not felt the Basin of Life ever deplete, nor Arthur ever wake.”

A far less important but still quite relevant thought crosses your mind.

“Did… did Merlin bring Arthur’s sword with him to this place?”

“Elliot!” Arty chastises you.

“Look, I’m curious to know if I can claim rulership of Britain, alright?”

“He was brought with his armor,” Irkalla says. “Whether he carried a sword or scabbard, we did not see.”
>>5984788
“There was this Artifact we found. A Great Mirror which surpasses any other Ancient Artifact I have ever found. Would you happen to know of it?”

“No,” Irkalla says. “If Merlin possessed such Great Work, he never brought it through us.”

--

You sigh. There were a lot of “We do not know”s in that conversation, but you suppose that if you asked the Sorting Hat about the inner workings of Hogwarts, his answers would also be filled with unknowns.

But now you knew the Atlanteans had been immortal, at least when it came to aging. And it still hadn’t been enough for them. Merlin’s father, whoever he had been, had searched for a way of making them all truly immortal, even to the death of the body.

And either the wizards of Atlantis all had their Horcruxes in Atlantis when it was destroyed, or… They had never managed to produce them, which is an encouraging thought, if you think about it. It means they didn’t know everything, that mere Lessers had done something they hadn’t been able to.

Because Voldemort had survived the death of his body, even if at a high cost.

[Cont.]

>>5985958

“What happens with this place when we pass?”

Irkalla points to your cane.

“The Line of Reality brings with it the Essence of the World Outside and carves an open path so that the energy can flow. And, at the end, the spiral becomes a circle, the Great Work done, and the cogs are removed from the machine.”

You didn’t understand half of that, but you’re pretty sure that means you’ll have an easy way out and the Deathly Hallows with you. Good, at least one less thing to worry about.

“Very well, I think that is everything I wanted to ask. Bring on Arthur.”

He nods. “Good luck, Elliot Hallaster. May you succeed where Merlin has failed.”

Your clone fades, and there is silence. Then, slowly, the scenery around you starts to shift. The white walls become gray stone. The embossed images become paintings or windows, and through the windows you see great green hills, then the sea.

“So it seems I must face a battle once more,” says a voice in front of you. You turn to see a handsome man in his forties, maybe fifties. He wears armor, a beautiful red cape, and a crown over his dark-brown hair. He has a beard, and eyes that look tired, not from sleep, but from something much deeper and far more difficult to heal. And despite the weariness, he looks royal and kingly, the way all tales say a king should look. “I can only hope for a worthy opponent, for a worthy death has been denied to me.”

You look around and realize that you are sitting opposite to him at a table. A Round Table. If you weren’t in the middle of the biggest heist in history, you’d squeal. By your side, two on each side, are your friends.

“Your Majesty, it is a great honor to meet you,” you say, not quite managing to keep your voice from shaking.

“It is no honor at all, for you do not meet me.” He says, and it pains you to see him like this. If nothing else, it reflects how Arthur had been on his end days. Hurt. Exhausted. Wanting to lay down and rest for a long, long time. “I am but a shadow, a passing lie. For there are no true thoughts within me, I know that above all. Yet perform my duty I must, and so test you I shall.”

You nod.

“Very well, your majesty. What shall be your test?”

[Cont.]

>>5985960

“It would not be fair of me to choose our battle. I am a king, you are but a child. So, a choice. I was a strong man, so we may battle like we did in my time. With swords and shields, with sweat and grit. You against me.”

“Yet I was also a wise man. I passed judgment against people, as was necessary for a king. I negotiated, I threatened. We shall test your wisdom against mine. Three scenarios I shall place before you, things that happened in my life, problems that I faced, and you shall tell me your solution. If I judge them worthy, if I judge them wiser and fairer than what I did in life, then you shall pass.”

“But I was also a leader. Not all battles I fought personally, but I had to know who to send to them. I had to know the weaknesses of my soldiers, the strength of their fist and the power of their character before sending them to battle. Me and my four soldiers against you and your four, each in a different situation. You choose which of yours to send on each confrontation, each one once, and if your win most of them, you may pass.”

“What will you choose, Elliot Hallaster?”

> The Test of Strength
> The Test of Wisdom
> The Test of Leadership

You may also write in any questions to attempt to ask him throughout whatever trial you choose.

Anonymous

>>5985962
>> The Test of Leadership
this feels like the one we'd have the best chance of succeeding at

>>5985962
>strength
nah, we arent that strong nor clever enough to beat him in magicless combat, thats a hard pass
it has to be either wisdom or leadership

>Wisdom
a good option, but there are many things we dont know, context we lack, Elliot is something of a history nerd, but i doubt he or anyone has enough TRUE information about Arthur himself and maybe some of the stuff he know could be wrong
i say Elliot would know he is wise enough to know he isnt wise enough

>Leadership
this has to be our best shot at beating him
we are basically a power rangers team, we have different strengths and we know our team, we´ve commanded an army before and we won the "war", Elliot gazing into the mirror, pulling the heist of the millenia and stealing the 3 most powerful magical artifacts to get here to begin with is proof enough.
we´ve lead our team through the lake of rot, tanking the hit, we calmed them when they had to face their worst memories to move ahead.
we are not the GOAT at anything, but we are a great lider and having OUR ENTIRE TEAM make it here basically intact shows we know what we are doing and are at the VERY LEAST competent at being the lider

my vote is for
>The Test of Leadership

>>5985962
> The Test of Leadership
This one is cool

>>5985993
>>5985985
>>5985988
>>5985995
We got any questions for the big A-man himself? Excalibur/Caliburn? His armor? If we can do anything with his body, if Merlin couldn't revive him and Merlin is gone now? Maybe carry his corpse out of Avalon to give him a proper burial? Maybe ask him questions about Merlin as a person? Fuck, Arthur isn't even Arthur but an artificial AI facsimile made to play a role here in this process for Merlin to "reincarnate" himself.

>>5986008
>Maybe carry his corpse out of Avalon to give him a proper burial?
i like this one, it would show him we have compation, even if its for whats basically a magical AI

>>5986011
>walk out of Avalon path gate
>dozens of aurors stationed in the secret lab outside
>all point wands at the new arrivals
>suddenly notice the dessicated corpse with a crown being levitated next to Elliot
>"Ladies and gentlemen, I give you... King Arthur!"

>>5986011
unlikely that this ghost Arthur knows much more than the others we talked to
>>5986012
lmao

>>5986011
>compation
jesus christ, im more tired than i thought... COMPASSION
also, lets not be cocky with this guy, AI or not, if we treat him with respect, it coud give us good boy points

>>5986014
Finally, it's time to unsheath this clip
https://youtube.com/watch?v=hMoSe-V<wbr>36yw

>>5986016
I don't want to do it for good boy points. I want to do it because it is right, and in-character it is a way to satisfy a grand Slytherin ambition in a good way. Elliot finally physically surviving an ancient place, overcoming an ancient deadly trial, and bringing back ancient loot and evidence of his high achievement worthy of renown

>>5986022
im not saying we should do it JUST because of that, but hey, any extra bit we can milk to increase or success is welcome in my book

>>5985962
> The Test of Leadership

This one seems the best though I bet it will tire out our companions some before a final fight.

The test of strength might be an acceptale option, as long as our sword is our wand, given how much we have specced into battle magic but it is also risky.

The test of Wisdom might be alright, if we, the voices in Elliot's heads a clever; we have been shown to be both that and the opposite.

If someone comes up with a good argument for Wisdom, I can change my vote. Otherwise being a good leader sounds best and probably most SlytherPuff out of the options.. Maybe Arthur will let us give a quick speech to our allies to rally them.

>>5986012
Imagine him doing that but also having his top-hat, monocle, and shitty fake mustache on with Excalibur on his waist. Declaring he is their new god. Make it two for two on desecrating corpses today, what with Dumbledore's.

Also now the Atlanteans remind me a bit of elves, the fantasy kind, what with being unaging but still mortal.

The separation of a person into 8 parts reminds me of Voldy and his Horcruxes. While the Atlanteans may not have known of them, Merlin had to given they we invented at like 1000 b.c. by a ancient Greek dark wizard named Herpo the Foul.

>>5986092
QM explicitly specified "swords and shields" for the strength test

>>5986107
He has also used the term "Brandish your wand like a sword" multiple times. I don't think Arthur is going to consider it a fair test if he goes at a 5'3 16 year old with no real training while the kid only has muggle arms. It doesn't really matter since one option is near unanimous.

Any way, for any one who wants, here is the evil Arty fic. Not the one with fucked up stuff just and idea if she was a bad guy.

https://rentry.org/ygdrxax8

>>5986156
>evil Arty
sweet, gonna read this when i get home, thanks!

>>5986156
>I was a strong man, so we may battle like we did in my time. With swords and shields, with sweat and grit.

<s>I just realized if Arty clears her next round with a good match up, her next one is going to be vs a character from the longest running draw quest I can recall. Might not look good for her at that point.</s>

>>5986156
I'll be honest, your writing just doesn't do it for me, chief.

>>5985962
>Test of Leadership
we didn’t lead that army for nuthin’
let’s power of friendship our way OUTTA HERE

>>5986315
That is fine.

<s>I do this shit for myself largely because it amuses me and I have a lot of free time now. I do think the stuff I am managing to get to paper has improved in some ways since I had a drunk thought which lead to writing the first thing so I am happy about that. I cant draw for shit but this quest was there when I was pretty depressed last fall so I want to give something back.</s>

>>5986298
Like I said I took no real pleasure in trying to write that aside from overcoming the challenge of it, due to being fond of our wifelette.

>>5986322
You keep calling her "wifelette". Why that specifically?

>>5986156
welp, just read all of it, nicely done, i would be 100% down for a bad path alternate timeline with Arty and this helps scratch that itch, nicely done

>>5986339
Thank you for the compliment and looking at it.

<s>I was relatively happy with how it turned out given it was inspired by my insane idea she is secretly evil and a I wanted to give teen-pregancy-fag something if he wanted to read it. I am also okay with her being just a little evil if we become a real dark lord.
</s>

>>5986325
It seems pretty unanimous that Elliot does intend to marry her at some point. You could even argue her promising to stay with us till the end means we are kinda married but it is probably just stupid teen love stuff. She is our waifu, however. But she is comically small to the point she could be mistaken for a student 2-3 years younger than her according to thread 1, and the 1st time she kissed Elliot, she had to pull up a box to stand on, even though he is small as well. Therefore the diminutive "-lette". Also I just like the term.

Hey QM I am going to need to know how busty Raven/Linda is for no particularly important reason. I imagine at the lower end of "normal"? Or is she big titty goth GF material?

>>5986357
>teen-pregancy-fag
THAT'S ME, YOU NIGGER!
>the explanation
Cool, thank you

>>5986461
Who are you calling nigger, nigger!

<s>I am not really into that because I had a scare when I was like 17. It WAS honestly a bonding experience, aside from the fear. She was a half year younger than me and we were both stupid teens. We spent every day together after she told me and we bonded a lot before we tried to double check, to get the most out of it in case one of our parents flew of the handle. Then thankfully she had the time of the month and we decided to be a bit more more careful. Use protection kids.</s>

>>5986471
Ok I finished reading it
><s>But I won’t let you destroy the world… I love the world because it gave me you.</s>
Godly line
>the entire wedding sequence
Kino. Contrived as hell like all fanfictions tend to be, but still nice

>>5986553
Thank you for looking at it! I liked that line pretty well. I try, and this thing was based on a weird idea I had while drunk, so I did what I could. Fanfiction based on fanfiction based on stuff a waitress scrawled on a napkin is interesting to write. I enjoy it though, given I that I have put like 80,000 words to the page now. But I needed a new hobby and if the girl who wrote 50 Shades could make it by starting as something based originally on motherfucking Twilight penned under the name "Snowqueens Icedragon", I might as well have some fun and try even if I do it for free. I will probably post a rewrite of a pre-Avalon date, with extended sex part later, just to get it out of my system. I need to move some files to the new computer first.

>>5986458
despite my inner coomer, i havent been able to imagine any woman besides Helga as anything remotely big, an update about their descriptions would be cool

HeadQM

>>5986458
I'd imagine slightly smaller than average, but not flat enough for her friends to tease her about it. Definitely noticeable under most normal clothes.

>>5986953
I have a general rule that boob size descriptions should be only included for the same reason as dick size descriptions: when it is relevant to the character’s personality or story, society’s treatment of that character, or strikingly abnormal, otherwise it’s usually just about the author mentally jerking off. Everything else can be left to the imagination of the readers, or specified when the plot requires it.

That being said, the only ones I particularly imagine as busty are Amalia and Helga, and before that Lily, simply because she was meant to be both a year older and also The Hottie (tm). Everyone else varies on the normal range, except for Arty who is a smaller size.

If there’s anything or anyone specific you’d like to know, just let me know

In unrelated news, I have been staring at an empty page for almost two days now, to the point I’m almost fading to black and fading it back in after Elliot magically beats the challenge. I had a pretty good idea of the two other challenges, and I hate all of you for picking the one I had mentally handwaved as “something related to some of the members of the Round Table, I’ll figure it out later” without realizing it was the most complex of all of them. <s>More like hate myself for giving the damn option.</s>

Well, back to staring at the empty page. Sorry for taking so long.

Anonymous

>>5987021
that is a pretty wise rule, no wonder the quest is good, if you manage to set important ground rules like these its only natural the story will be naturally great, as a coomer and resident drawfag you have my respect and admiration for sticking to it

>unrelated news
uff, man, im familiar with that feeling, if there is anything we could do to help you with this part, dont doubt on letting us know, we all want whats best for the quest and you, so take your time and ask for help if needed, im sure somebody could give you some sort of inspiration in someway

>>5987021
>Well, back to staring at the empty page. Sorry for taking so long.

It is fine my man. However, we must hurt you for you to grow.

<s>We also missed out on big titty librarian girl by going for the tiny eternal semi-loli. I think it is a good trade, though I was considering convincing people to try and pursue Amalia since I like blondes and appreciate big tits, even if I like the other side more. Before our micro GF was an option of course. There are studies showing large boobs are less sensitive than smaller ones, just saying. Also, a new idea... a side to side breast size ranking chart. Helga looking smug at the left-hand side. Arty with an annoyed look as she stands at the end of the right-hand one.</s>

>>5986953
I, too, imaged most of the female cast being basically normal, aside from Helga. That was my general experience, when I was in high school, aside from the one girl I knew who choose to get breast reduction surgery due to her tig old bitties giving her back problems.

>>5987021
>boob size descriptions should be only included for the same reason as dick size descriptions: when it is relevant to the character’s personality or story, society’s treatment of that character, or strikingly abnormal, otherwise it’s usually just about the author mentally jerking off. Everything else can be left to the imagination of the readers, or specified when the plot requires it.
Good QM practice
>hate all of you for picking the one I had mentally handwaved
>hate myself for giving the damn option
Bad QM practice

Guys, I think we might have broken the QM.

HeadQM

>>5987165
> Bad QM practice
I am aware, but know that the part about hating people was an attempt at a joke. Yesterday was a bad day, and I apologize for the particularly foul mood.

>>5987748
Nah, just a bout of shit that I had to deal that crept into the quest. I found my footing and I'm back to writing. Should be done soon-ish

Anonymous

>>5985962
>>5987748
I'm willing to change my vote to a Test of Wisdom, if need be.

>>5987758
I think he is alright, apparently. Interested with what he cooked up.

>>5987756
I understand. The past few days have been very annoy/hectic for me as well. I don't know why all this shit has to happen at once.

If it makes it any better, the Arty art for the losers bracket got posted in the K&Q thread, and looks nice.

HeadQM

>>5987767
>If it makes it any better, the Arty art for the losers bracket got posted in the K&Q thread, and looks nice.
Oh, I saw it. And I thought Lily was the one with legs for days.

--

“I would not say I am weak,” you say. “But I cannot compete with you, your majesty. I would not say I am unwise, but I have not even lived two decades yet. And I have not commanded my men to die for my cause… But I have led them into battle. I have sent them to fight for me and convinced them they would win even when things looked dire. And I have won. Not always, but always when it mattered the most. I choose the Challenge of Leadership.”

Arthur nods.

“Very well then.” The two chairs on both his left and right were filled by four shadowy figures, semi-transparent and almost human-like. You can’t quite make their features. “Percival, if you would.”

One of the outermost shadows stands up and you can feel your brain filling in the empty space of his face with what you’ve seen in paintings and illustrations. A young and noble knight of blond hair, probably in his early twenties. Yet there is a detail that you feel being… original. Both his hands are dark, as if covered in dark soot, or maybe even burnt to charcoal.

“When I went in search of the Grail,” the shadow of Percival says. “I met its guardian, the Fisher King. He was injured, he told me, for having defied the will of the Grail. I did not know it at the time, but he could only be healed after a certain question was asked and I… I took far too long to realize what said question was. Talk to the Fisher King, show me there is someone within you who could have done better, show me there is one who could have seen the truth before me, and I shall allow them to pass.”

You frown. In the known story, Percival, which in some versions was Gwain or Galahad, had passed by the Fisher King once and not asked the question, since he had been taught “not to ask unnecessary questions,” and only returned years later. There were different versions of what “the question“ was, but you figure that it won’t be anything obvious.

Your knowledge of life-extending related things and myths in general might give you an edge, or even the whole challenge, and going on the Quest For The Grail is literally your thing but… It isn’t a task of power, but of wits. Someone else might also be able to get through it and leave you free to do something else.

> Elliot goes on The Quest for the Grail
> Brighton goes on The Quest for the Grail
> Linda goes on The Quest for the Grail
> Arty goes on The Quest for the Grail
> Apollo goes on The Quest for the Grail

[Cont.]

>>5987777

Once you choose, Arthur nods to the shadow on his other side. “Galahad, and you?”

You feel your brain filling in the gaps once more. This one is also young, but more androgynous. Handsome, but at the same time beautiful, with almost golden hair.

“When I went in search of the Grail,” says the shadow of Galahad. “We found the Castle of Maidens under siege by a pagan lord who wished to force one of the many beauties who lived there to marry him. We fought to free them from their aggressors but… There was foulness at play that we had not expected, of which we were not warned. I lost men. Too many men. Enough that I asked Arthur to rid me of my title, but he did not. Show me that someone could have done so without losing so many, show me that someone could have gotten through with less bloodshed, and I shall allow them to pass.”

The Castle of Maidens… that story had so many versions that it wasn’t even funny. At least half-a-dozen knights supposedly went there. There was always a siege, but in some versions it was the knight who created the siege to free the maidens from evil rulers, and sometimes they broke the siege to save them, and sometimes, Morgan was there to mess things up and put everyone against them, even the ladies.

All of your friends are army leaders, and so are you, but who would fare best against the “foulness” Galahad mentioned? Who can best see through a trap like that?

> Elliot goes to The Castle of Maidens
> Brighton goes to The Castle of Maidens
> Linda goes to The Castle of Maidens
> Arty goes to The Castle of Maidens
> Apollo goes to The Castle of Maidens

Two choices for this update. Remember, you may only choose each person once, and there are still three more tasks to come (or less, if you win a streak of three, but you know what I mean).

Anonymous

>>5987777
> Elliot goes on The Quest for the Grail

>>5987778
> Apollo goes to The Castle of Maidens

fuck, the pressure begins
>>5987777
>It isn’t a task of power, but of wits
this one fits either Elliot or Brighton...
but i´ll vote for:
>Elliot goes on The Quest for the Grail
out of all of us, i think its safe to assume we have the most wits of all, plus his knowledge about this kind of stuff gives us an edge, best to take the most victories we can guarantee

>>59877781
this one is a bit easier to me
they mention "Foulness at play".
the only one besides us that has gone against "untold foulness" would be Apollo since he survived AND beated Dumbledore´s skelleton, he commanded his own army and was pretty succesful at it, so it just makes sense for Apollo to take this one
i vote for:
>Apollo goes to The Castle of Maidens
on this one
<s>>inb4 Apollo gets mad pussy from saving all the maidens as an unintended reward</s>

>>5987777
>Elliot goes on The Quest for the Grail
>Apollo goes to The Castle of Maidens
Straightforward

>>5987797
>accidentally added a one to the second post
woops, my bad
i'll re-link it just in case
>>5987778
>>5987797

>>5987756
Mentally handwaving your own given options and giving options you are not prepared to write are the bad QM practices, OP. <s>Hating your playerbase is a horrid QM practice, try not to to it</s>

>>5987777
> Arty goes on The Quest for the Grail
The bit about “unnecessary questions” and him taking far too long to ask one makes me think that knowing about the Grail is a misdirection. Cleverness and wisdom might get in the way as well since you’d expect that out of someone searching for the grail. Perhaps a kinder person would ask the right question first?

> Raven goes to The Castle of Maidens
She’s the most well-versed in warfare thanks to her hobbies, and is bound to have picked up more esoteric knowledge of these legends on account of being friends with us for hears. She has Rowena in her, even if she isn’t active. Finally, if anyone is going to know about foulness it’ll be the persona of a woman who wanted to be a dark witch. One that knows how to cast the Killing Curse.

>>5987777
> Apollo goes on The Quest for the Grail
He's a very direct fellow. I think he could get to the heart of it.

>>5987778
> Linda goes to The Castle of Maidens
Battle tactics are her strong-suit.

>>5987777
Nice get.

>>5987972
I will support this.

Percy was too concerned with the grail to be concerned with what was really important. Arty would be happy to get it I am sure if she could get a regular life span out of it, but she doesn't seek it like us. And while she is more clever than she seems at first pass, she is also kind. I think she would be able to understand both aspects of what is required for this task.

It is explicitly said to not be a task of power.

I was going to say Brighton but this is better.

Raven knows about traps, she even told us about that famous chink thing. She is also a girl, which I think is important for this task, and would be able to see through a woman like Morganna who was supposed to have orchestrated the whole Castle/Isle of Maidens thing.

>>5988029
IT JUST HIT ME
"ARTHUR" CAN ALSO BE SHORTENED TO "ARTY"

>>5987777
>Elliot goes on The Quest for the Grail
I get that it could be a misdirect, but I honestly don’t think Arty has the right mindset to ask the right questions. (Also, if the black hands came from not knowing the question in time, maybe we shouldn’t risk Arty taking that kind of scarring.) Meanwhile, Elliot is a Slytherin raised among Slytherins and a pair of people extremely fond of technicalities. I can’t think of anyone better <s>and safer</s> to send.

>>5987778
>Raven goes to The Castle of Maidens
The one who does war tactics as a hobby is an easy pick. If nothing else, she’ll probably enjoy it quite a lot regardless of the outcome, so we might as well send her.

>>5987777
> Arty goes on The Quest for the Grail
The most empathetic of our crew.
>>5987778
> Linda goes to The Castle of Maidens
The most tactical of our crew.

>>5988033
So... is going to be the Queen of Magic Britain? Her coming in to strike down Salazar or even Potter with the sword of legend, one she could only retrieve because she didn't seek its power but only wanted it to help her boyfriend not die, would be pretty cool. I had imagined her coming to our aid at our lowest, with Godric's sword in her had, riding a dragon and leading an army of magical beasts before... I suppose I will replace a proto saber with an over large arming sword in my head.

Picrel.

>>5988059
I don't think we are passing this test with lawfare like we might have learned from mom and being a Slytherin. As much as we don't want Arty to get hurt, ending up sending everyone else and our self on tasks and stopping her from going might hurt her more than getting a few scars.

The Fisher King awaits a hero to heal him. I think asking him why he has not used the grail, why he hasn't healed himself when it was right there are going to be the correct things. Offering to give him some power from the Grail to help him when it is retrieved.

Arty is self-sacrificing to the point of hurting herself, perhaps due to what she had Apollo due as a child.

She would ask for the grail because she wanted to help the Fisher King and others, not for her own sake.

>>5988059
The other reason not to do the Grail is because we can’t go on the last two challenges and we’re a pretty good all-rounder. This also seems like a really good pick for Arty, so we don’t have to weigh using her in the later rounds.

It’s also validating we trust her more than we’re scared for her. Given that she knows we’re afraid of her pushing herself too hard and that she hates being coddled too much, it’s not meaningless. That extra trust that we’ll use her effectively even here, in Avalon facing off against trials devised by the most powerful wizard anyone can recall, could matter later in all this BS.

If we want to get by on a technicality later, Arthur didn’t say we were limited to just one challenger per confrontation, only that we had to win the majority and we could each only be used once. If we beat these two we could try stacking everyone else into the third challenge to overcome it. Risky move since we’d likely lose later challenges by default, but it wouldn’t matter if we already won 3.

>>5987748
the only time we really broke the storyline is when we found out info months in advance of when he had originally planned to tell us

>>5987778
>> Linda goes to The Castle of Maidens

>>5987777
>> Arty goes on The Quest for the Grail

>>5988213
If we send Arty on the grail quest I think our best piece of advice would be to not think like us. Percival was focused on looking for and learning how to use the grail, as we no doubt would be. Use her own judgement on what is needed, not what she thinks ours would be.

Any advice we could give Linda? Think like Raven would and sufficient quantities of explosives solve most problems?

>>5988439
I think equal amounts of Linda and Raven would be required. If it ends up having Morgan/Morganna at play like one version Elliot mentioned and the ladies of the castle turn against the force trying to break the siege, having a girl there is probably going to help.

Knowing what C4 is, how it works, and being magically powerful to transfigure it might be a good thing as well.

Also, apparently the siege is occurring somewhere speculated to be Avalon, so... yeah.

For Arty, yeah just say to be her, I agree. Not take anything she hasn't earned. Could be why Percy has his hands burnt black. He didn't earn the grail and still tried to grasp it.

In that hypothetical case, Arty Is literally the best one for that task. She wants to earn everything she has and would resist the urge to grab the Grail even if it was right there if she didn't think she earned it.

>>5988363
Getting to bond more with Helga when she knew who she was better, before we should have figured it out, was worth it. I regret nothing in.

Figuring out where Avalon a bit quick may have bought us more prep time and training time, so I don't regret doing that either.

>>5987777
> Arty goes on The Quest for the Grail
>>5987778
> Linda goes to The Castle of Maidens

>>5988480
We are ahead of the curve repeatedly. The one time we were not was Last Light, but I think we did good to not go there early because then Salazar would have let loose much faster, or have gone for the repository by himself on his own, and then it would be too late

>>5988502
Last Light was kind of bullshit with the whole calendar thing

>>5988480
Irrelevant lust-provoking image aside, you raise a very valid point. Good insights, anon!

>>5987778
Changing >>5988024 to send Arty to the grail, instead.

>>5988511
We missed the clues. It is what it is.

>>5988529
I think we didn't realize this was that kinda game where making those connections ahead of time mattered vs characters doing things.

Since that point we've made connections even harder to notice than that. If the qm made a similar situation with lower stakes, that'd prob been caught too.

Meanwhile we notice we have Helga more than a month ahead of when we should've.

>>5988529
Konata is always relevant, my friend.

>>5988511
I recall actually chuckling when Taylor bitched about the Julian/Gregorian difference. Just thought QM was a nerd and never thought about it after thread 1.

>>5988606
>>5988502
QM did promise to make his twists even more convoluted, so we have to keep on our toes, gentlemen.

HeadQM

Uh, Part 1 of the update with Arty and the Quest is done with... 11k characters. Seems I got over that writer's block. I'm going to sleep now and review it and post it when I wake up (and hopefully trim it down at least a bit)

>>5988606
>I think we didn't realize this was that kinda game where making those connections ahead of time mattered vs characters doing things.

That was the narrative point of Last Light. It was the moment the character’s, and by extension the players’, perception shifts into the “oh fuck, this is real and has consequences” mode. It was meant to be the point where Elliot realized the magnitude of the task ahead of him and truly comprehended the stakes, the point where he realized he needed to up his game, that he needs to pay attention to detail because a single mistake can lead to doom, to him and the people he loves dying. (And it would have been an even greater dick-punch if you had romanced Lily instead of Arty)

Not every moment is planned as a narrative device or turning point, but Last Light sure was. There was the chance of you seeing Julian/Gregorian coming, which was definitely a possibility, but I did not expect it to happen (and would have to have changed my plans if you figured it out, much like I did when Anon figured who Faith was)

There are connections which Elliot will make on his own, and some which he will need your help. Theorycrafting in the thread is definitely included in Elliot’s thoughts, and any theory seriously discussed here that he can easily check will be checked, because if you can think about it, Elliot can think about it. For more complicated or harder to confirm theories, y’all will need to use at least a weekly slot to do some sort of a plan for checking it out, if confirming whatever crazy theory you guys come up with is even feasible.

Anonymous

ok! this should be the final WIP post before i post the entire thing completed
just one question, what color would her wedding shoes be? white? Hufflepuff yellow? black?

>>5989052
>11k characters
holy shit, post it all, i do love me BEEEG updates!

>>5989064
>forgot the fucking WIP
getting sleepy here...

>>5989065
Amazing work. The colors you have for her dress really seem to compliment her skin tone, hair, and eyes, I think. Can't really comment on the shoe color. I am bad enough with them that when a previous girlfriend and I went to the store to pick some paint out, she ended up telling me to just go and look at the chainsaws because I thought all the blues looked the same.

>>5989052
>Multipage update

>Arty either making this challenge her bitch or failing super bad

Stop QM, my cock can only get so hard.

HeadQM

I would just like to say that these tasks have right people for them which will just solve it without rolls, have answers which will depend on a dice roll, and wrong answers, and I have already decided beforehand which is which.

Feel free to attempt to figure out the nature of the Grail along with Arty, if you wish.

--

“Arty, will you go face Percival?” you ask.

“Me?” She says, surprised. “But- but I don’t know anything about the Grail! I mean, I’ve heard you talk about it, but I never really studied it!”

“I know,” you nod. “But Percival did, and it didn’t help him. He roamed for years searching for it before he got it, needing it to prove himself to Arthur. Because he focused so much on it, he didn’t stop to care for the sick king in front of him. But you would never do that.”

She swallows hard. “You’re sure?”

You smile. “I am. I trust you, Arty.”

She bites her lip, but nods. “Alright. Take me to the Fisher King!”

Percival’s shadow steps forward, and as he does the room around you turns into a battered wasteland. The grass looks sick, the plants are dying and browning. The broken ruins of a castle sit by a lake, and by the lake there is a small camp with a firepit, then a weathered harbor.

“Let us go, then,” Percival says. “Let us meet the Fisher King.”

Arty starts distancing herself from you, takes a last glance back, then follows him. She goes away for a bit, then the terrain shifts and you almost lose your balance as the ground below you moves. It takes you a while to realize what is happening, as you have basically become a third person camera for Arty, moving only relative to her, but not the world.

“What- what is going on!” Brighton shouts as he falls to the floor, disoriented. “Stop moving!”

“She can’t hear you,” Apollo says, and it is true. He has his eyes closed, clearly looking like this is the only way he isn’t going to throw up from motion sickness. “She is in her task now.”

Only you and Linda, who have some experience with computer games in third person, manage to deal with the movement.

Arty and Percival walk towards the lake for a while.

“Are your hands alright?” She asks.

“No,” he answers. “They will hurt for the rest of my life. The pain will not be kind to me. It will take the love of Blanchefleur for me to stop hurting, but that will not happen for many years.”

“What happened to them?”

“To tell you would be to defeat the purpose of this task,” he says. “For my injuries and that of the Fisher King are one and the same. But they weren't like this when I met him.”

And, as they walk, his hands clear, becoming normal and whole.

When they reach small harbor they find a man of tanned skin and white hair. The man has a fishing rod, not between his blackened and useless fingers, but between his toes. In a corner, among many useless belongings, is a crown, clearly not used for a long, long time.

[Cont.]

>>5989258

“Hail, oh old king!” Percival says. “It is I once more, Percival, knight of King Arthur's Round Table! Bearer of the purest heart, seeker of truth! I stand before you, servant of the righteous cause, bound by duty and honor to serve the realm! Grant me thy wisdom, O Fisher King!”

Arty looks surprised for a moment.

“Ah, and I am Artemis Pertinger! Student of Helga Hufflepuff and… bearer of the… whatever. I am here to help you… Or something like that.”

She immediately looks displeased with herself.

The old King simply shushes them. “Shhhh. I’ve almost caught lunch.”

The two wait in awkward silence as the king watches the water, gently tapping the rod with his feet for a few minutes, until something bites. He struggles for a bit - “Do you want help?” “No, I got it!” - before managing to yank it out of the water. It flops on the floor of the harbor, and he struggles to kill it - “Sir, I can do that for you!” “No, I got it, really!” - then finally shove a stick through it and put it over the fire, all without using his hands.

“Ah, now that that’s settled!” He plops down on the grass by the fire. “You return, Percival. How has your quest gone?”

“Poorly,” Percival says, and there is annoyance in his voice. “For what I sought has been with your majesty the whole time.”

“Indeed it has. It is my duty to protect it. It has been my family’s duty to guard it since time immemorial. But I grow weary and my line ends with me.”

“Then give it to me. I shall take it to Arthur, and there is no nobler man to hold such an artifact.”

“I would if I could, son of Pellinore, but the Grail is not that easily bequeathed. While my hands are burnt, I may not pass them on, and they may only heal once the right question is asked.”

“Then what is the question?“

“That I cannot tell you.”

“Then how-”

“Ah, ah, ah,” the king says, shaking his finger. “It is her turn to ask, now. You came with a challenger. You have the nobility’s right to ask first. She has the right to ask second.”

“What happened to your hands?” Arty asks.

“They were burnt by the Grail when I defied it.”

“Where is the grail?” Percival asks.

“Here and there. I could not tell you one place to look for it.”

“Why did you defy it?” Arty asks.

“For love. My line is chosen by the Grail, and we must marry the ones it choses for us. I refused.” He raises a ruined hand, waving it at the wastelands around them. “I paid the price, and so did my lands.”

“How can the grail not be in one place? Have you broken it?”

“Only one question at a time.”

“Is the grail split in many pieces?” Percival asks through gritted teeth.

“No. It cannot be broken by any means known to me.”

[Cont.]

>>5989259

“Do you regret it?” Arty asks. “Defying the Grail? Marrying the one you loved instead?”

“I regret that she died before me. I regret that my people suffered because of my choice.” The king’s eyes grow weary, looking at something in the distance, something none of you can see. “Being with her? No. Not for a moment. She made it all worth it.”

“What are all the protections of the Grail?” Percival asks.

“Me. Itself. The foolishness of those who attempt to use it. Nothing more, nothing less.”

Arty stops for a moment, furrowing her brow.

“Did you know, at the time? Did you know you were defying it? Or were you tricked?”

“One cannot be tricked into defying the Grail. One must make the choice of sane mind.”

“Have you ever used the Grail in any way?” Percival asks, irritation clearly showing in his voice.

“Yes, twice. Once when I was given the burden, as it is custom, and another, when I betrayed it. I felt it was the right thing to do, to deliver it my choice personally, even if it was not required of me. I poured wine into it, and with my right hand I raised it to my lips, and the wine tasted sweet. I made my choice, fully and irrevocably, and with my left hand I raised it to my lips, and the wine tasted sour. The flames engulfed the hands which held it and burned them. And my love cried over them and soothed their wounds.”

“It sounds cruel,” Arty says. “The Grail. It didn’t need to hurt you. No one does.”

“That is not a question! And that’s heresy!” Percival says, but the king interrupts him.

“Shush, boy. I did not say you could only ask questions. Indeed, girl. The Grail can be cruel. But it was made in pain, and so pain it takes. I took my oaths upon it willingly, knowing the cost.”

“Why ‘oaths’?” She asks. “Wouldn’t one be enough?”

“No. Not for the Grail. First I took an oath that I would not bring it harm. And then I took an oath that others would not harm me. So I protect it, and it protects me.”

That’s when you see it. That’s the moment you figure it out. If only Arty could realize…

“With its own definition of protection, clearly,” Percival says, looking around. “Then would the Grail be revealed if I were to strike you down?”

“You would not be able to strike me down. Though I suppose that if you did, it would be revealed, in a way.”

Percival puts his hand on his sword. “Shall we put that to the test?”

“Not your turn to ask a question.”

You can see the gears turning in Arty’s head as she frowns, trying to put the pieces together. Would she see it? Would she realize it?

“What do you need to protect it from?” She asks.

“From the foolishness of men who would use it with ill intentions.”

Percival pulls his sword out of his sheathe, holding it in both hands.

“What are you doing!?” Arty shouts.

“This man holds the Grail which I searched for so long! The Grail which belongs to the King of Britain! I shall not let him keep it for himself!”

“You are not hurting him!”

[Cont.]

>>5989261

“Indeed he is not,” the king says. “Let him do as he wishes. Though I shall count the strike as a question.”

“I can’t let him kill you!”

“You will not, child.” The king’s voice is firm. “Step aside.”

Arty looks from one to the other, as if trying to decide what to do.

“I promise I shall be fine, Artemis.” The king says, once again. "Trust this old king. I do not lie."

She looks at him… then takes a step back. Percival holds his sword with both hands, raises it high in the air and brings it down.

A scream fills the air.

And Percival falls to the floor, hands engulfed in flame.

“I told you. You cannot harm me. Shame that you do not use a sword for a single hand. You might have been able to save one of them.”

The knight keeps on screaming, shuffling on the floor before desperately crawling to the water and jumping into the lake.

Arty’s worry turns into a frown. The frown deepens.

“Would he have only lost one hand if he had struck you with a dagger?”

“I suspect so.”

“Then-”

“His turn,” the king says, nodding with his head to the knight in the lake.

She looks at all the splashing, displeased. “He might take a while.”

“I have nowhere else to be. I believe my fish is ready, would you like to have some?”

“Why, yes, thank you!”

The two eat, and a few minutes later a drenched and furious Percival climbs out of the lake, hands ruined like you had seen him originally.

“You… you use witchcraft!”

“I am protected by the Grail, child. You’re the one going against its wishes. It is your turn to ask a question.”

“What? I’m not playing any more of your games!”

“Then you shall return to your king with nothing to show, and useless as a knight. Those hands will never heal.”

A wave of horror washes over Percival’s face when he realizes what he’s done.

“No. No! I must have it!”

“Then ask the right question.”

“WHAT IS THE RIGHT QUESTION YOU BLASTED OLD MAN!?”

“I’m afraid I cannot tell you,” the king says, calmly. He turns to Arty.

“Did both your hands burn because both your hands were holding the Grail?”

“I am unsure, but both my hands were holding the Grail at that time, yes.”

“How-” Percival says, shaking in both anger and agonizing pain. “How- how can you stand this? It… it hurts. It hurts so much.”

“Love. Love makes it bearable. At least it did for me.”

“But you said…” Arty is thinking. Still thinking. Still trying to put together the puzzle. “That with your left… And then your right… And then you drank it… And it is here and there…”

[Cont.]

>>5989263

You have your hand balled into fists, whispering to nothing, as if hoping she could hear you even though you know she can’t, as if you could beam your thoughts directly into her head.

Please…

She approaches the Fisher King, and reaches out. He puts his hands into hers.

Please realize that a grail is just a fancy name.

She looks at the burnt and scarred hands. It is not a pleasant sight. Still, she looks at them with kindness.

Nothing more, nothing less than a fancy name.

She looks at the patterns of where the flames left their marks, molded by what he was holding when they burned.

Grail is just another word… for a Cup.

“Are there two Grails?” She asks.

The man smiles.

“And that… is the right question.” In the man’s now intact hands, he holds two large, roughly hewn wooden cups. One of them is made of lighter wood, and is filled to the brim with blue flames. The other is darker, filled to the brim with purple fire.

The Cup of Promise and The Cup of Sorrows. The Holy Grail. Created not from the death of the Son of God, but by the inconsequent hands of Atlantis.

The artifact Merlin had needed to break magic asunder, delivered to Arthur by Percival, and delivered to Merlin by Arthur. Still an artifact of Power, just not quite the one you expected it to be.

The lake, the king and Percival disappear, only Arty remains.

“Very well, Artemis Pertinger.” King Arthur looks pleased. “You chose your question wisely.”

And even through the relief of seeing her return safe and unharmed, some part of you still finds the time to be amused by his choice of words.

Anonymous

>>5989266
>Merlin used the fucking Holy Grail

I wonder if we know enough to tell Potter almost everything and still force him to leave this work to us?

We know how Merlin and the founders came to die (and we suspect it’s because Salazar predicted Merlin’s reason to bring them together and sabotaged him so he was caught in it too) and that the Time Turners brought them back indirectly. We know Merlin seeks to use us as a gate to the world, one that Helga has kept sealed. We know that if we die, she can’t seal it anymore, and apparently we don’t need to be alive to let Merlin through. It’s why the Dementor was so persistent in trying to kill us. We know Salazar is still alive like Helga, and is seeking to claim Merlin’s broken form as a puppet in some manner, and that he, like the other shades, can hop between bodies. Death of the host forces it, but it seems they can hop bodies even while the host lives if the target is close by. We learned that through Godric and Rowena. Merlin should follow the same rules, hence our death allows him to escape anywhere that can host him. Who could be a better host for the greatest wizard we know of than Potter?

So the reason so many prophecies end with Potter getting involved is because he did something that triggered the end. He killed us and failed to contain Merlin because he didn’t know enough to stop him from taking him or someone else over and crushing the wizarding world. He went after Salazar newr the repository and got possessed, leading to his eventual corruption by Salazar instead. We learned enough to tell him about the shade hopping, yet when he went to Avalon to stop Merlin’s last failsafe he was turned into a vessel directly instead of us. At least, I suspect this last one will be true by the end.

We never knew enough to prevent those scenarios once we told him what we did know, not until now.

Ultimately, we’ll have to stop Merlin and Salazar. Merlin, because we are his gate to the world and no one knows enough to change that. Salazar, because we’re his best chance to put Merlin on a leash. He can run away from Potter and the others. He won’t run away from us.

What we’d want from Potter is three things. The first is to find the a way to drag the Time Turners out of the void. Doing so should allow us to end the threat of Merlin escaping himself. Without time, the shades in the Void felt and did nothing. Merlin won’t allow it to happen easily, which leads into the second. We’ll want anything he knows of that can defend us against the Void, because we’ll need to pull Merlin into a fight to distract him from Potter’s plan with the time turners. Third is some form of contingency to seal us away without killing us. If we’re possessed by Salazar or Merlin, his only immediate recourse is to use our body as a prison. It may not work, but far better for these knowledgable and powerful people to be in the body of a teenager than some adult. We’re weaker, and he knows it.

>>5989258
>“What- what is going on!” Brighton shouts as he falls to the floor, disoriented. “Stop moving!”

>>5989259
>Percival, knight of King Arthur's Round Table! Bearer of the purest heart, seeker of truth! I stand before you, servant of the righteous cause, bound by duty and honor to serve the realm!
But then
>Percival asks through gritted teeth.
>Percival asks, irritation clearly showing in his voice.
>Percival puts his hand on his sword.
>Percival pulls his sword out of his sheathe, holding it in both hands.
>“This man holds the Grail which I searched for so long! The Grail which belongs to the King of Britain! I shall not let him keep it for himself!”
>Percival holds his sword with both hands, raises it high in the air and brings it down.
For all your big talk, you still act like a total intemperant brigand

>>5989279
if pulling the Time Turners out of the void is possible, in theory could it be possible to also pull out Helga, Rowena, and Godric?

>>5989279
<s>Besides, I think we know enough now to suggest we’re not “real”. The gate in us should have always existed, but if Helga was defending us all along we’d have met her far sooner like Lily met Salazar. But if Lily can be erased from time, someone can be added as well. If we simply came into being as a sixth-year because of Merlin, with Helga pushed into us because she had no host and the sheer power of the act swept her up as well, it’d explain our weak connection in spite of our age. The idea that Hogwarts and those connected to the shades (Harry due to his connection with Merlin’s artifacts and Hogwarts, Lily because of Salazar) were unable to be overwritten due to their connection to the timelessness of the void/sheer power needed for it would explain their “forgetfulness” as well.

There is a chance, however small, that the only way to seal the gate and end the threat of Merlin again would require us to undo our existence. Time makes only the adjustments it needs to, so acts such as the time turners being taken from the void would happen anyway.

It would mean Arty would never know us. Possibly that no one would remember what truly happened at Last Light, correcting the dual memories we never should have had while it edited Linda. Not unless she keeps the shade of Rowena at the time. Same with Brighton. Only they might remember we ever existed. And they may not want to.</s>

>>5989301
Sounds like a real worst end scenario there, buddy.

>>5989279
...Are Dementors the ghosts/shades of Atlanteans?

>>5989319
>Merlin is a fucking Super-Dementor
that actually makes so much sense

>>5989304
The worst-case scenario is more likely if we can’t get the time turners out of the Void. It’d make sense that the reason the shades and Merlin can seemingly edit so much time is because they’re connected to them. We could probably find a way to use them to erase Merlin’s gate by having the shades do battle with Merlin for more scraps of his knowledge. Not a permanent solution in that case though.

But us being an addition to the timeline rather than Harry, Hogwarts, and Lily forgetting us seems way more likely. With how far-reaching the time editing shown by Lily’s death can be it’d make more sense for select individuals to have protection against it in that instance rather than they were specifically targeted for memory erasure.

I wonder if we got the gate in our sixth year because it roughly lines up with when Salazar would have ended the world through Last Light anyway? We didn’t need to exist for that to happen, Salazar was already working towards it with Lily. Merlin would have basically told time “add this person into existence and make sure they have a connection to me” and the timeline went “creating this kid and making the connection at this time causes close enough to the least disruption to what I already have, fuck it”. If we can own the stone without explanation then the gate could start existing without one too.

The real kicker there would be if neither of them actually made us and we came into being because Salazar and Merlin battling caused so much damage to the timeline that we were put in place by time itself trying to find a way to stabilize and prevent the events.

Some greater overarching spell that prevents a timeline from occurring where every human dies out could fit canonically and explain why we didn’t all die when Merlin stopped saving the world. Merlin gained power because he was “picked” to shield humanity. When it became untenable because Merlin became the threat instead, time/fate contrived for others to fill in that gap. Potter was one such person. Perhaps timelines getting overwritten is far more common than anyone realizes, and only Merlin’s own interference from the void is why anyone is aware of this gap. Must be the one dead zone for timeline rewriting because it was never meant to have “time” to begin with.

>>5989319
Could be? The alternative suggested is that they were house elves. At the very least it’s safe to say dementors were created when someone or some group decided to mess with the void.

>>5989286
Well, he was talking to the same dude who had the grail, knew he was looking for it, but still let him wander around for years searching for it. No wonder he'd be fucking pissed.

>>5989337
>Elliot, Merlin, and even Potter are creations of the universe (or God? or... DEATH?) to protect the flow of time and the existence of the world.
Possible. Would that make us something akin to Century Babies from Planetary?

>Merlin made us.
If THIS is possible... Could it be Merlin's consciousness still exists, inside or outside of The Beast? His desire to protect and preserve the world, even against his darker aspect?

>>5989337
Are we REALLY gonna persona 3 this shit?

>>5989404
Though cool, I would rather not have it happen

>Arty did it
holy shit, my nerves are a wreck after reading all of that
>all this theory crafting right after it
im too stupid to understand most of it or maybe i havent payed as much attention as i thought i was doing, but none of that sounds good at all...

>>5989401
I doubt Merlin would have made us to protect the world. Far more likely it would have made us because it needs a host. All the founders do, why wouldn’t he? Maybe he can exist without one later, but I’m sure he needs a foothold first.

It’s clear the Beast is much greater than the founders are now, hence the need for a “gate” to enter through instead of however the founders came through.

>>5989404
We do have wizards, and we’ve learned there were plenty even greater than Merlin. I don’t think the universe would be protecting us all itself in some way, that’d be weird. I could absolutely believe that outrageously powerful spellcasters crafted a spell that would ensure humanity survives even if it means rewriting time. Powerful to the point it even keeps muggles from ending the world with nukes. Hell, divination may simply be a way of tapping into that spell to force an outcome and we’ve all forgotten too much to understand how it works.

What would be more wizardly than creating a concept of fate where one never existed?

>>5989574
If he need a host and purpose-built us, why choose someone to manufacture some friendly, empathetic, and borderline-Hufflepuff, and assign him to a loving, kindly couple who would instill the sorts of values Elliot has? If the Beast merely made us to help it/him manifest and destroy the world, why not make a Voldemort or Crouch or LeStrange? Or even a Potter or Arty or Apoll...,Someone raised in shitty circumstances, with every reason to embrace The Beast? They'd be easier to turn Dark and destructive, or to manipulate towards such ends.

If Merlin/The Beast created us, it either 'rolled' poorly in generating us and our backstory or our creation was motivated by something at least somewhat positive.

>>5989304
Seems on par for the course.

>>5989404
>Are we REALLY gonna persona 3 this shit?
And just like that, the cool factor of that theory has gone down by 20%

>>5989605
>letting that kill the cool factor for you
Nigger

>>5989591
I’m thinking he was able to create someone as a host, but couldn’t choose what was created or how they fit into the world. Much like how Salazar couldn’t choose how Lily’s absence from the timeline was dealt with, Merlin/the Beast couldn’t choose how his host was inserted. He must have only had the power to ensure that one WOULD exist.

Because… he tapped into divination maybe? It shows you the future, and whatever you see will happen. Maybe it’s really connected to something that creates and enforces an event, and we can only use it to create future events through “divination”. Merlin knows how to do it with the safeties off, so to speak, so when he tells it “show me my host” it will create one for him by editing the past as well. Doing it that way could have exhausted the power of whatever spell he tapped into, causing divination dry up indirectly until it recharges. That’d benefit his ends too since no one could divine who his host was until after he devoured them.

That honestly would have been enough if Helga wasn’t involved. Another flaw in his plans, in part because the founders seem to carry bits of Merlin in them now. He can’t be as smart or masterful with the skills he does have without all those pieces.

<s>I feel like I need an empty wall, a bunch of articles, and way too much red marker and string.</s>

>the sayan keeps winning
at this rate she is gonna be our biggest thread for that crown, she needs to go down

>>5989723
I should be voting in that more often. I admit I came into this quest only because I saw this in the tournament and decided to give it a whirl.

I’ll rep Arty in the next vote she comes up in.

>>5989727
its not enough to vote for Arty, you also need to vote for whoever is that sayan's enemy so she can lose, thats what i tried to do whenever she shows up anyway

>>5989730
dragonball is going to be VERY hard to beat

>>5989741
well, we better all do our part and vote against her, not many matches left before we get to it, so we have to focus fire

>>5989748
Her quest's been going YEARS and has the power of one farmboy's multiverse autism fun behind it. It might be impossible

RQM

>>5989730
Strategically voting to sabotage someone else rather than voting for who you like, just to win a LOSER'S Bracket, would be super lame and probably earn this quest a bad rep on the board, at the very least leading to backlash against Elliot in the actual king tourney. I would like to formally request you chill and just have fun.

Anonymous

>>5989790
<s>Agreed. I may be the biggest Artyfag in this quest, but if I don't know the quest or whatever, I just vote for who is cuter/cooler. I want a tiny princess crown for her, but not at the expense of other people not having fun. Arty wouldn't approve of sabotaging people. She wants to earn what she has after all.</s>

Now to get to reading all the crazy conspiracy shit that was posted when I decided to go out for the day.

>>5989266
Lurker here
Just wanted to say that I really enjoyed your portrayal and interpretation of the Fisher King. One of my most favorite stories in Arthurian legend. Nice job QM.

im gonna take a small break from doodling this week, i´ll continue with the other stuff i had in the backburner later.<br>hope you all enjoy this thing!

>>5989967
Amazing. All hail the Queen of both Elliot's heart and of spiders.

>>5989967
Now I’m imagining Linda getting Arty into wargaming by showing Arty there’s a Wilderness faction made up of nothing but magical creatures.

Cue mechanized infantry battalion vs. spider swarms and hippogriffs vs. auror squads.

HeadQM

>>5989855
Thank you!

>>5989967
I love it, anon! Thank you so much for the art! I love their expressions!

>>5989790
Agreed. If we're to win or lose, let it be fair.

>>5989404
Considering I have never played any Persona, I can guarantee that if any plot points ever happen to coincide, it is not intentional (mostly because every single thing I heard about those games make them sound like a fucking fever dream)

--

Arty scurries back to your side, looking proud of herself, and you look proud of her.

“Linda, you up for tackling the Castle of Maidens?”

“Leading a charge to save a bunch of helpless maidens?” She asks. “Yeah, I can do that.”

“Be careful. In some versions of this story, they say Morgan was there. And you won’t be fighting with wands.”

She nods. “Swords and shields, bows and arrows. Yeah, I got it. Let us go, Galahad.”

Armor appears around Linda, replacing her clothes. A sword at her hip, a helmet at her head. The room around you changes to be green forests surrounding a lonely castle in a great clearing by a river, with an army of men surrounding it, Linda and Galahad standing atop a nearby hill.

“There it is, the Castle of Maidens,” Galahad says. “Lord Tallidés has put it under siege, and it is our duty to rescue the fair maidens that live within.”

“Wait a sec, I can’t see crap in this thing.” Linda struggles with her helmet before managing to pull it out. “Ah, that’s better. Right, the situation doesn’t look good. How many men do we have?”

Galahad turns and waves to the space behind them, where a small army stands at the ready. Still, they are outnumbered.

“Huh, we’ll need to be clever about this.”

Galahad and Linda retreat from view, then spend several minutes devising a plan and coordinating their troops. Once they are ready, they descend upon the besieging army like a storm, Linda directing the archers to support the horsemen, Galahad charging with the infantry, striking and pushing them into the river. Once the enemy is in the water, the archers can pick them off one by one, and though they have suffered some losses, the result of the battle is a definite victory.

“This is still not over,” Galahad shouts as the battlefield is calming down. “Where is Tallidés!? Bring him here so he may answer for his crime!”

A loud scream comes from the castle.

“Help! Please!”

They charge towards the partially broken main gates, where a beautiful woman, with moon-bright skin and white gold hair, dressed in fine silks is waiting for them with a fearful look on her face.

“Please! Their lord has broken through with some of his men! They have my sisters!”

“Open the gates so we can march in!”

The castle’s gate creaks open, what remains of the army marching through. The woman, more beautiful than anyone you’ve ever seen, clutches at Galahad and Linda’s hands.

“Please! My sisters! Please hurry!”

[Cont.]

>>5990549

Even you, at this distance, are entranced by her sheer beauty. You feel the need to go there, to aid them in saving the other women of this castle. It’s Arty’s small whisper at your side that brings you out of your trance.

“Oh no.”

You look back, trying to see what she sees, knowing that even if you do, there is nothing you can do to help.

“Of course, milady. Do not be afraid,” Linda says, posing gallantly. “Raven Everdark is here to help you! Lead us to them!”

They charge in, searching for the remaining soldiers as the woman goes with them, attracting every glance. Up they go, until they find a group of men threatening a group of equally, if not more, beautiful and scantily clad ladies. Another battle follows and though there are more losses, they once again come out victorious.

And the vision does not yet fade.

The women cheer in happiness as the last enemy falls, thanking, hugging and kissing the soldiers.

“Oh brave warriors! I am Lorelei, lady of this castle! Please, let us reward you for your bravery! Rest with us before going on to your adventures!” One of them says. They pull the soldiers, Galahad and Raven away from all the dead bodies and into a room, and soon silver platters with fruits arrive. There the women talk, cheer, compliment and feed them. One by one, they convince the soldiers to remove their heavy armor.

The enemy is dead, after all. No need to keep that bothersome thing on, is there?

Out come the breastplates and the helmets, and the beautiful women of the Castle of Maidens mingle with them. They touch them gently, softly, all of them entranced by their beauty. The women are in smaller numbers, but in mere minutes they have all the soldiers at their fingertips.

You scream for Raven to snap out of it, but she doesn’t listen.

Then the touches begin to grow more intimate. Firmer. Closer. They turn into hugs. The hugs turn to kisses to the base of the neck. Raven moans, a moan that should only be given in a bedroom, but she does not seem to care, and neither do the men around her, their hands in breasts and buttcheeks, their tongues intertwined with those of their rescuers. Some have their own private beauties, some share, so that everyone is involved.

And the beautiful Lorelei, straddling Raven, kisses her.

“No, I… I shouldn’t.” Raven says, sounding confused for a moment. “I-”

She’s interrupted as the woman shuts her up with her tongue once more. Raven loses herself for several long seconds before pushing her away again.

“No. I have… I have a boyfriend.”

“He won’t know,” the blonde says. “It will stay just between us.”

She tries to go for another kiss, but Raven stops her.

[Cont.]

>>5990550

“I will know.” You see her struggling to regain her thoughts. “I will know.”

“I’m sure I can show you things he never would. There are things only us ladies can do.” One of Lorelei’s hands goes down to Raven’s breast, the other tries going down further. But Raven holds them.

“I said no.”

“Come on, just another kiss,” she says, with a sultry smile. “I’m sure it will change your mind.”

You can see when Raven’s mind snaps fully into focus, her face turning to anger.

“No!”

She pushes the woman away from her and she falls to the floor with a painful thud.

“Gah! You vile little bitch! Fine, we do this the hard way! Come, sisters! We shall feast for weeks!”

And balls of flames appear between her now sharp fingers, feathers grow from her arms as her body’s shape changes to something beastial, the true form of a veela.

She lets out a long thrill and her sisters respond. Their faces elongate into sharp, cruel-beaked bird heads, and long, scaly wings burst from their shoulders. Their fingers, already touching the soldiers, sink into their flesh as they grow into talons, making the men scream.

Linda scrambles for a sword, but there are none nearby. She ducks as a ball of fire flies over her head, diving under a table. She rolls and crawls as battle crashes down around her, grabbing one of the metal plates and using it as an improvised shield to block the attacks.

“Crap, crap, crap!”

> Roll a d100+15 for Raven (+25 from her natural prowess, -10 from the clusterfuck around her). Bo3, DC 90

Anonymous

Rolled 44 + 15 (1d100 + 15)

>>5990551
>DC 90
fuck! cmon dice gods! your last roll was great helping Elliot, lend us your strength to our friend!

Rolled 63 (1d100)

>>5990551+15
Whooops, shoulda went for Apollo. Oh well.
Fuck them up, Lady Everdark.

Rolled 59 + 15 (1d100 + 15)

>>5990551
Hopefully this doesn't mean Apollo is going to have to do one that doesn't fit him.

>>5990556
>>5990557
>>5990566

Fuck.

At least we didn't send Brighton, that would have probably been an auto fail. Hopefully Raven gets more than 1 chance at this. Apollo might have been better for this due to being... Apollo and immune to thots. Raven was still probably a good choice for this just due to being a girl and wiping the floor with the army with no rolls and being able to resist that bitch's advances due to her love for Taylor. <s>It is cute as fuck she still says he is her boyfriend despite him being dead for like 3 months. Also now I am thinking of Raven/Veela thot smut.</s>

I did think she would be able to see that this was a trap but maybe her strategy game autism got the better of her.

>>5990471
I bet there is a Wilderness faction in that wizard 40k game we got Raven a few pieces for at Christmas. Getting Arty into it so Raven has someone to play with would be funny, especially since she is a good commander.

>>5990549
The persona games are good if you dont mind a bit of grindy game play. Persona 3 is one of my favorite games, to the point I own all the versions that have been released in the last like 20 years.

>>5990597
>went from Elliot/Apollo as choices
>to Arty/Raven
See >>5989258
We had Apollo right initially, I'll bet, but we shifted to having Arty right. So now we're 1-1 because we failed the rolls

>>5990659
Elliot may have been the actual best for this last one honestly. He is a good commander, could have resisted the veela thot, and because of Crouch's training could likely out fight everyone here in a physical altercation.

However, if we had, did have to roll and still got the same BS mediocre stuff as we have for the whole quest it might not have mattered.

I really did think Raven would be able to see this was a trap.

We still have another smart good commander to use for one of the tasks so maybe Brighton can be useful.

My only worry about Apollo now is sending him on a task which ends up being physical/magical might, since he is still recovering from magical exhaustion.

Depending, we might want to send Elliot on the next thing, if it was the one meant for Raven despite it not being the one he is best suited for it just because he has us in his head, and we could possibly help to pick up the slack. IDK, need to see how this one shakes out and what the next one is.

>>5990675
If we had won this too, we'd be 2-0, and we need best 3 of 5 to get past this trial. I wonder if we fail, will it have all been for nothing? Or did Merlin fail at least once too?

>>5990678
He isn't all knowing or all powerful so I could guess in all the times he came down here he had to fail at least once. He obviously didn't fail that often, considering he designed the trials and managed to keep making new bodies for himself.

I am really not sure how QM would deal with us failing to make it through, all the way to the end of this place, since this is supposed to have stakes, but I assume he doesn't want a rocks fall everyone dies thing. I am going to guess if we fail, it won't be good for Elliot regardless of what happens

Rolled 27 + 15 (1d100 + 15)

>>5990686
That was very much the wrong dice wtf
I must be rustier than I thought

Rolled 1 + 15 (1d100 + 15)

>>5990689
This is how you do it.

>>5990704
Hahaha.

It is probably good I have bad timing and miss a lot of the rolls.

This is the second nat 1 I have rolled for Raven when it didn't count. The other one was for how many sex toys she had in her suitcase. Perhaps the dice hate me for all the porn I have written about these characters.

>>5990551
I don’t suppose she can use the banked army roll since she’s leading a group in combat and is always present in those study sessions?

>>5990725
That would be pretty great but I doubt it is going to be allowed. It would be perfect since the last one we had was literally 90.

>>5990706
>>5990704
>>5990689
>>5990686
>all these miserable rolls even with the wrong die

>>5990866
It seems Raven/Linda is as hated by the dice Elliot is; maybe more. Makes some sense, given she is our bestie. Maybe we should have shouted "Fuck 'em up Dark Lady Everdark" while rolling?

I think the only time we got 3 rolls above a 90 before modifiers was when we fought the Inferi to save Arty. Maybe her being in danger is the key for good rolls in this quest.

We have come in clutch a few times but this game has some of the more cursed rolls I recall seeing in quite a while.

Lets hope Apollo's chadness extends to dice when it is his turn.

>>5990881
I just think DC 90 is unreasonable most of the time.

>>5990926
With 3 rolls and a +15, I think we had better than a 50/50 shot at success. I haven't double-checked, but Meta's AI tells me it was a bit over 58%.

>>5990551
Dc 90 is kind of insane what the fuck

>>5990942
for Elliot it wouldnt have, but for Linda/Raven? yeah, bit bullshit

>>5990932
It’s the basic calculation for probability where you take the chance of not getting it on one roll raise it to the number of rolls, with the number being your chance of failing every roll.

0.74^3 (subtracting 15 from the DC gives an equivalent result to adding to our roll, and we win in the event of a tie) yields a 40.5224% chance of failure. The inverse of that, 59.4776%, was the success chance.

So yeah, better than 50/50 in our favor.

>>5990947
you forgot the variable of the cursed rolls we´ve had pretty much this entire quest, other than a hanful of exceptions, our rolls have usually been shit even with bonuses

>>5990926
>>5990942

I think the only part that annoyed me was her losing 10 on her roll, not that it would have mattered. We chose poorly for this quest and a real chance of failure is better than some quests I have seen where the MC almost can't lose. There is one power fantasy one running where in the like half dozen threads I read before dropping it, the protag only failed one or maybe two rolls.

I do hope Raven gets a chance to turn this shit around and maybe only gets injured. I still think she should have been the best option here based on her background, knowledge base, understanding all women are harpies when they want to be, ect. But maybe it was a mistake sending the girl who seems like she might be a bit bi into a castle full of maidens, even if her love for Taylor prevented an auto fail. IDK.

Arty and Linda are both good choices cuz they know how to fight with their hands to an extent.

Apollo is way too reliant on his raw magic.

>>5990999
True. He was also magically and physically exhausted from fighting Dumbledore's skeleton. He might have been able to see through the trap or just completely shrug off the Veelas' supernatural beauty due to the 'tism but who knows if he could have convinced the knights to not go in for an orgy, since he is not good with words. He is the physically strongest of our group, been described as being stronger than a boy his age should be and is 6'1 though.

I am starting to wonder if my first guess that Brighton was the worst choice is completely off base and he would have been able to lead the knights well and immediately tell the bird thots were up to something. Hell, maybe he is gay in secret and wouldn't be affected by them at all; he just keeps his floozies around to keep up his cover because he is in the closet.

Elliot might have been the best choice, given his army roll bonus and loving Arty enough to not be affected by the thottery. He was able to tell what was up when watching Raven, but he also had figured out what the correct question was in Arty's trial. Maybe he auto passes any one trial but we only get to use him the single time?

>>5990999
Apollo was probably the correct choice regardless. Anyone who would have resisted their advances at the start would spring the trap early, before they had disarmed the rest of the knights. Falling in battle would NOT have disqualified him either, the goal was to have less casualties than the challenger and the rest of the knights would have had a better chance.

I regret voting for Linda over Apollo, but such is life.

>>5991021
Honestly, Elliot totally would have got got, remember early days with Lily?

>>5991027
Back before he had found his true love? Yeah, he was kind of a push over, but he did push Lily off when she cornered him and drunk kissed him. Apparently resisted her advances one of the times he got obliviated at the Quidditch field too. Friend zoned her so hard, her soul died.

He is <s>and by extension us</s> kind of a white knight, hence Salazar saying he likes broken things, so who knows. I guess it is a moot question now. Maybe if Raven can survive by the time the rest of her party dispatch the Veela she can still pull out a win because fewer people died when they broke the siege because of her better tactics, since the win condition is just fewer casualties than before.

<s>What if these aren't visions/trials, but we are actually going back in time each time and changing things so it helps Merlin more?He did create the time turners and while modern magic doesn't let you go back more than 5 hours, this place was created by the Atlanteans and repurposed by Merlin. Maybe they Butterfly Effected themselves out of existence by doing the same kind of shit we are. Instead of physically going back, us and our friends are just sending information backwards to crucial points, one that Merlin knew could be changed in a way that benefited his future plans.</s>

Also, I am really getting the feeling Arthur is just another identity of Merlin. His body is supposed to rest down here next to Lailokens. We know Lailoken was just Merlin in a wig. So yeah Arthur was down here because he retired that personality. I can't figure out why Merlin would willingly bring another to his ace in the hole live forever cavern with him; like even if they were the best of friends or even lovers, Merlin knew it wouldn't matter in the end since the next time he came down, he would be ridden of any attachment he might have had by Nimue. Merlin knew he would be gone for a while, even if he couldn't see why exactly but would return. Arthur is called the "Once and Future King"; predicted to come back to lead Britain once more, lead it to a new golden age. Sounds oddly similar to a man who you could call the King of Magic planning to return after an extended absence. Hmmmmm.

>>5991068
It could be that Arthur wasn’t another Merlin identity, but was expected to be in the future. Arthur’s “spirit” is missing, which is all that Merlin is now. If he went through all this here, he may be able to inhabit Arthur’s body and return with it. Much better than Elliot’s body, that’s for sure.

So Arthur was groomed with his own legend so Merlin could supplant it later?

>>5991088
>Merlin was a groomer

Sounds possible. We know this guy has a very loose concept of ethics. He cheated on Rowena multiple times as Lailoken, lied for years to her, abandoned her after she just had his child, then came back and sacrificed the mother of his child. Honestly, if Salazar does end up being why Merlin's ritual sucked him in as well, my opinion of him would go up quite a lot.

Not sure which idea is more likely. Merlin could create a new body here it seems. I am also pretty sure he left the means for a copy of himself to take over someone else. A spare body isn't unlikely. Probably had other fail-safes to ensure his return we haven't considered yet.

Wizards. No sense of right and wrong.

>>5991142
And a number of wizards who do don’t care. Right, wrong, I’m the man with the wand so what I say goes.

I’m willing to give credit for sabotaging Merlin to Salazar until proven otherwise. It’s not enough to make me respect the man, but credit where credit is (likely) due and we’re absolutely leveraging it to put Merlin away for good if possible.

… unrelated, but if we do convince Potter to pull the Time Turners out of the void then do you think we can also convince him to stash them on a deep-space satellite somehow? Probably a safer alternative than keeping them on Earth or launching them into the sun. <s>I’d normally bet on launching things into the sun being a safe disposal method, but I’d have also thought tossing them into not-really-metaphorical nothingness would also work and that proved incorrect. Better to not risk our only sun.</s>

>>5991157
I like the idea Cocksucker is actually Merlin and not Salazar, that Sally was a hero the whole time aside from being a petty asshole and racist. Especially since we found out the whole idea of blood purity was just something Merlin planted in wizardkind's heads to control the population. Or at least was a hero in the end, Snape style. Hell could be him leaving Hogwarts was to figure out what he could to defeat Merlin and the whole muggleborn disagreement was just a cover. House of the cunning after all. Guess we will find out. Would be a pretty interesting reveal.

I am not even sure they can remove the time turners from the Void. We can always see when this shit shakes out, and we reach a point telling Potter the real story without him going apeshit and doing something dumb that destroys the world. Might be Ancient Magic is what it takes, our connection with Helga being great enough she could manipulate it through Elliot in order to remove them. Launching them into deep space sounds better than the sun, just in case they like speed up its aging somehow or loop its time so much no light escapes. We could also maybe toss them in the storage space in the Mirror, possibly. They would be safe in there as long as it was kept secret where they went, since the Mirror is going to be around till the heat death of the universe.

>>5991204
>>5991157
Throwing the timeturners into unknown-space is 100% how you end up sparking an alien invasion or creating a time-warping SpaceGodzilla.

>>5991207
So what you are saying is volume 2 of the quest would be Wizards vs Aliens or kaiju. Sounds like a win-win to me.

>>5989301
>>5989337

Those are interesting theories. I had actually briefly considered that Elliot would have to sacrifice himself, toss himself through the Archway in the ministry and that the Founders would end up back in the void to contain the Merlin Beast, keep it from escaping again at some point along with Elliot. Something I really don't want to consider. If that does end up being what we have to do, we are getting Arty pregnant before we sacrifice ourselves, so she has something to remember us by. Being a single mom is hard but she would have Helen and Kendrick there to help. Linda would make a good god mother. And if what had happened, what Elliot did to save the world was known, those kids would be treated like magical royalty. Hope it doesn't come to that.

As for us not really existing before September of last year... I mean it is possible. Does that mean our mom and dad never existed either? We talked about it some in thread 1 but now that we have more info it MIGHT be possible. I speculated once that Elliot was like a "Counter Guardian" from Fate. That we just appeared to save the world and would disappear when it was done. Might be possible Merlin used another Grand Ritual to ensure someone would be there to do it if he was destroyed or turned evil, ergo Elliot popping up right when someone had to stop Salazar from ruling the world. The Cup of Sorrow can bind the entire world to a contract after all.

The Potter's and Hogwarts might have been protected from the world inserting memories of us in them because of Ancient Magic. Potter just so happening to have the Cloak and/or Map with him at the time and Lily having the stone with her having recently stolen it; those bits of power leaking out protected them. Hogwarts' enchantments are made of Ancient magic, of course. The Wand was in Dumbledore's tomb, so no one had that one at the time.

It is possible.

Elliot slowly fading during his and Arty's marriage ceremony would mirror a certain scene from an anime I know QM has seen, since one of the original spells in quest is a green drill shaped spiral of energy named Lagann which pierces things.

>Must be the one dead zone for timeline rewriting because it was never meant to have “time” to begin with.

Makes sense why it could get him as well. If time didn't exist there till recently, it would be a blind spot for him I imagine, something his Sight Beyond Sight wouldn't see coming, something that could take him out. Also I just realized that was a ThunderCats reference. I knew it was familiar. I, too, was a child of the early 90's. I would have a giggle if the true title of Excalibur was "the Sword of Omens".

Anyway, if we get a trial from Gawain I think that is going to be the one to send Elliot to, since there are a few parallels or similarities between our boy and him, in some of the legends at least. Unless we are going with the idea that the person most opposite of the knight is better.

>>5991562
If we were inserted, fate/time should have made small changes where possible so our parents likely existed. Could have been they were already married but had no kids. A longer reach could have been that they never met and were independent when a change caused them to meet instead, paving the way for us. Seems like more work than just finding a couple without kids to plonk one down on retroactively though.

If we do a timeline sacrifice, I don’t think we’d be having any kids. If we do the more ordinary “die to save the world” route I’d prefer to not burden her as a single mom without some time for her to think about it. She wants to be one, sure, but we couldn’t give her the number of kids she’s (currently) looking for.

Of course, my mom wanted more kids until after she had my ADHD-riddled ass and learned how hard keeping up with just one was. Maybe Artie would dial back her expectations because “pushing through exhaustion” with your kids isn’t going to be good enough for her.

>>5991562
>one of the original spells in quest is a green drill shaped spiral of energy named Lagann which pierces things.
That is stolen from the fat californian redditor jew's famous masturbatory fanfic, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, as well as Prismatis and the slow moving blade that vaporizes things if touched and many other great and interesting ideas. That fanfic is a goldmine, but it is also a physical easy-to-point-to example of why 4chan has always maintained that reddit is BAD.
>a certain scene from an anime
The Gurren Lagann ending SUCKS
Samurai Jack Season 5 (which I still remember being in the /co/ threads for so many years ago) copied it almost exactly too, though it sucked less there
>a ThunderCats reference
Is it? How sure are you?

>>5991571
Naturally, it would be up to her if she wanted to take that on if Elliot had to die to save the world. It would also depend on if we can get her anywhere close to a normal lifespan, since especially after she learns her own mom roped herself and that is why she was never able to meet her, I doubt she would want to bring a kid into the world if their dad was dead, and she would die before they even graduated. Even though she wants 'em, and they would have a good support network via their grandparents, her brother, Linda, ect. Arty is too kind to make them go through her dying.

These are worst case scenarios, of course. It also relies on her not dying in the next few in game hours.

I do think she would be okay if she knew she would live long enough to take care of them. She isn't afraid of hard work though, and Merula seems to have done a pretty good job by herself considering how well the Snyde girls turned out.

<s>I also now know what a Merula cup is now which is great. Go me for googling her to check something and finding that.</s>

>>5991615
I liked it better when I thought QM had great taste in anime. I only read a bit of Methods of Rationality years ago. I recall seeing that the dark ritual Linda mentioned on the train was a reference to it, the one with a sword and a rope. A green drill of energy just screams that anime, however, so maybe that fic used it as a reference? GL did come out before it.

And that is the only place I recall seeing "Sight Beyond Sight", so if there is another, that is fine. You seem more well versed in Harry Potter fan fiction than me.

And Gurren Lagann is kino, even the ending.

>>5991625
>I thought QM had great taste in anime
What if he still does? How are you so sure?
>maybe that fic used it as a reference?
You are a retard for even asking it when it is so blatant and intentional already, and that fic is filled with fucktons of other blatant and shameless references
>only place I recall seeing "Sight Beyond Sight"
I don't even remember that
>You seem more well versed in Harry Potter fan fiction
Nope
>even the ending
I like how the guys behind that one Super Robot Wars game hated it so much they made Nia remain in existence and have at least one kid with Simon. Now that's how it should have been

>>5991616
>spoiler
finally, another anon that sees the might of the powerful witch at Hogwarts: Merula Snyde
shame it wouldnt be Merula herself but her daughters, still good tho, i´ll take any Snyde content we can get

HeadQM

>>5990926
If it was one dice? Absolutely. But with Bo3 the odds are much higher (the average is 80), and it is what I take into account when making the DCs, and it does skew them up.

When I was deciding what system to use, I had to choose between a more stable system with more consistent results (say, 1d20+bonus) or a system with more variability but more interaction (more people can roll and there is more room for consistent growth with 3d100). I chose to go with the latter, but that does come with its own set of problems.

As an example, in D&D, a DC of 5 would be a Very Easy task (80% chance of success), while an easy task would be DC 10 (55%). With Bo3d100, the equivalent DCs would be 60 and 78, approximately. With a +15 bonus, as the other anons pointed it out, there was a 59% percent chance of success. (Not that D&D is the epitome of game balance, but just so you can see how things compare and the method to my madness.)

The biggest problem with the Bo3d100 is that is "bunches up" the results, making it so the probability climbs too fast in the lower ends. So from DC 85 -> 90 -> 95 -> 100 the probability goes 40% -> 30% -> 17% -> 3%, dropping off a cliff at the end, instead of being evenly distributed. Maybe by next quest I come up with a system that is less cramped, but that's what it is for now.

If you want to look behind the curtain and peek at the actual probabilities, you can always look here https://anydice.com/program/363f0 (and click on "At Least")

--

“Crap! Crap! Crap!” Raven crawls under the tables as fire rains down upon her. People scream and shout, fighting with whatever is at hand. “Why don’t I have my wand when I need it!?”

The burning table above her is flipped, and the now fully harpy-like Lorelei reaches down towards her with her sharp claws.

“Come here, little girl! I just want a bite!”

“Fuck off!” Raven swings the plate in her hands, slamming it against the veela’s face, who stumbles backwards. The girl uses the opportunity to scramble to her feet and dive towards where a few discarded swords lie. She swigs them around to keep the veelas away, but the blade is far too heavy for her to use properly. She looks around, and you can see her calculating, you can see the moment she decides there’s no saving it. “Crap. If I die here, do I die outside or do I just fail?”

She asks more to herself than anyone else, and receives no answer.

“Yeah, this is a bloody mess. Lesson learned, never trust a nice arse, no matter how nice it is. And here I thought I’d need to teach one of the boys that lesson.” She throws the sword at an approaching creature and grabs a shield off the floor. “Screw it! Sorry Elliot!”

Holding the shield in front of her, she runs and dives directly through the closest window.

“Hope this river is deep enooooough!”

[Cont.]

>>5991667

She falls at least thirty feet holding the shield above her like the world’s smallest parachute before hitting the water feet first, then hitting the ground under the water about three meters later. You can hear her scream through the bubbles.

She struggles with the water and the pain, but manages to force herself to the surface before collapsing on the shore, taking deep breaths through gritted teeth. It still takes long minutes for the fighting above to end and Galahad to stumble out the front door, alone and covered in blood.

The Castle of Maidens fades, Linda’s clothes return to normal and the room with the Round Table appears back into view.

“You bloody idiot!” You say, worried, dropping down by her legs where a bone is very much piercing skin. “Did you really think the shield would help you?”

“Not on the air,” she gasps. “Figured it might in the water.”

You shake your head. "Bone's half-fucked. We're going to need to put it in the right place before healing."

"Is it going to hurt?"

“Like a bitch.”

“Cool. Give me something to bite, at least.”

“Can’t. Someone is going to need to turn a Wiggenweld down your throat, so try not to grit your teeth. Brighton, hold her in place, will you?”

After a bit of coordinating and you passing orders, Brighton holds her by the shoulders, you grab her foot and pull. She screams bloody murder, but Arty manages to drown her with at least half a bottle of the potion, and you eventually feel the bone heal. You let go of her leg and her screaming eventually subsides, reduced to gasps and teary groans as Brighton finishes up with a few minor healing spells.

"Thanks... And sorry."

You shake your head, calmer, now that you’re sure she is mostly fine. "It's fine. Just don’t give me another heart attack like that."

“I was pretty sure that if I fell with my feet first I wouldn’t die.”

“There are limits to what my potions can do, or healing spells. For some things I’d have to get Apollo to lug you out of here to St. Mungo’s. I can’t heal your femur out of your ribcage.”

She laughs at that, or tries to, before groaning in pain.

“I can’t believe I fell for a Veela. I’d heard about them but… That’s some real powerful stuff.”

“Brighton and Elliot almost went to help you fight for them,” Arty says, but there is a mocking tone in her voice.

“Well, obviously,” Brighton says. “It wouldn’t be a very good trap if you could easily avoid it just because you knew it was there. And I didn’t have to avoid it. I’m not dating anyone, I can enjoy the show.”

“Wait, you’re not?” You ask, confused.

“No, why?”

“Then… You know what? I don’t want to know. Are you good, Linda?”

“I’ll live. Just let me lay here for a while, I’ll be up in a bit. Your Wiggenweld packs a punch.”

You stand back up, cleaning up the sweat that had soaked you as you saw your best friend jump from who knows how high.

“One out of two,” Arthur says. “And you didn’t even lose your chosen. Very well.”

[Cont.]

>>5991668

“What… what happens if they die during your tasks?”

“They die. Injures will be just injuries, as there is no magic here to replicate what the Grail did to poor Percival throughout his life, but death… well, that is quite permanent.”

You ball your hands into fists. You had just sort of assumed that… That Merlin wouldn’t have put death traps into his Great Work. And he hadn’t, because these challenges wouldn’t have been challenges for Merlin. He would have been perfectly safe. But not you and your friends, mere mortals.

You breathe deeply, trying to regain your composure.

“Very well. What… what are the next challenges?”

Arthur turns to one of the two remaining shadows by him. “Gwain, if you would.”

The shadow takes the form of a handsome and muscular man, of dark hair, strong jaw and piercing eyes.

“When I served at my king’s side, there was once a great celebration during New Year’s. There, this knight, of green clothes and even green skin, appeared. He issued a challenge against the bravest of Arthur’s warriors: To strike him with his own axe, and that in a year and a day he would return the blow. I did not hesitate, took his axe and chopped off his head in a single blow.” Fear creeps into the knight’s voice. “Imagine, to my horror, that he stood up, put his head back onto his shoulders and strode off. I knew I had signed my own death, but I was no liar. A year and a day later, I strode into the Green Chapel, where I would fight for my life and my honor. To this day, what I faced there terrifies me. Be braver than me and conquer the challenges there, and you shall pass.”

The Green Knight… There was some variation of that story, but not much. They all ended with the knight simply nicking the neck of Gwain, but you find it unlikely that’s how it really ended. If what he said was true, then this Green Knight had to be some sort of magical entity. You knew headless ghosts existed, but they shouldn’t be able to affect the world around them. You knew dullahans as mythical creatures, but as far as you knew they weren’t real.

Whatever it is, it will require someone able to adapt to whatever this thing is, and be able to fight it, without a wand.

> Elliot goes to meet The Green Knight
> Brighton goes to meet The Green Knight
> Apollo goes to meet The Green Knight

[Cont.]

>>5991671

“And for the other one?” You ask.

Arthur takes a deep, deep sigh. “Sir Lancelot, if you would.”

The shadows takes the shape of… A beautiful woman in her fifties, dark flowing hair with just a tinge of white, a chiseled face and powerful physique. She wears a dark armor and has a killer look on her face.

“So I guess Stay Night missed which seat at the Round Table it was, then,” you say to no one but yourself, but you do hear Linda snort a laugh from the floor.

“In my foul quest to seduce the innocent Queen Guinevere, I once pursued her through many perils. One of such perils was the Sword-bridge. The river below it was black and raging like a storm, so deep and bottomless that were I to fall, I would be lost to the salt and the waves of the distant sea.” As she speaks, the words seem almost forced out of her, and Arthur looks on with a sour expression. “The only crossing was a bridge made out of a gleaming sword, polished and sharp. The gap was too long to cross with a leap, and on the other side, two lions awaited me, posed to attack. My lust was greater than my sense, and through great pains and injury I made it across. Show me you can cross it too, and you shall pass.”

You take a moment to process the words. In the original tale, Lancelot crossed the sword-bridge to rescue Guinevere, Arthur’s wife, from a kidnapper. In the tale, he was also her lover. This means that either the tale is severely wrong about what happened, which wouldn’t be a first, or… Or Arthur resentment was leaking into “Sir” Lancelot’s shadow.

In any case, Lancelot was supposed to have removed his gauntlets to get a better grip on the sword and just crossed the hard and painful way, on his hands and knees, coming out on the other side bleeding profusely, but alive. Fortunately for him, the lions had happened to be illusions and he was not eaten alive. Whether that was true or just part of the story, you don’t know.

Crossing the Sword-bridge won’t be easy, most of all without a wand. Maybe there is a better way, a cleverer way, or maybe whoever does it will have to grit their teeth and get through it like Lancelot. You have… Unfortunate experiences with high amounts of pain, so maybe you could get through, even if you don’t like the idea. But you also don’t like the idea of sending either Brighton or Apollo to it.

> Elliot goes to cross The Sword-bridge
> Brighton goes to cross The Sword-bridge
> Apollo goes to cross The Sword-bridge

Vote wisely. Unless both succeed, whoever is left will have to face Arthur in his own challenge.

Anonymous

>these tasks have right people for them which will just solve it without rolls, have answers which will depend on a dice roll, and wrong answers, and I have already decided beforehand which is which.
Arty was right for Percival's. This means she was roll-reliant or flat wrong for the other 4.
Linda was not right but a roll could have got her through.
We cannot reuse people in these Arthur trials. This means Linda was the right person for either Gawain or Lancelot or Arthur, not for Galahad. But we do NOT have a guarantee that it goes
>1 full correct, no-roll
>2 partial correct, dice needed
>2 full wrong, auto-fail
HeadQM could have made somebody have one person be full correct for 2 trials, partial correct for 1, and full wrong for 2. It is not a guarantee how he decided these.
We have to decide 2 right now and not 1, so we cannot decide the final 2 based on how the first 1 goes. We are currently 1-1.

>>5991675
I personally think Apollo to Gawain, Brighton to Lancelot, Elliot to Arthur... but there's no guarantee our protag is the right man to face Arthur's trial just because he's the protag and Arthur is Arthur.

>>5991677
>>5991675
Look

>>5987777
>It isn’t a task of power, but of wits.
But Arty got past with compassion and care, looking at the king's hands.
>show me there is someone within you who could have done better, show me there is one who could have seen the truth before me

>>5987778
>who would fare best against the “foulness” Galahad mentioned? Who can best see through a trap like that?
Linda failed because it wasn't actually the trap, but minimizing casualties that was the end goal
>Show me that someone could have done so without losing so many, show me that someone could have gotten through with less bloodshed

Now look at these

>>5991671
>what I faced there terrifies me. Be braver than me and conquer the challenges there
>require someone able to adapt to whatever this thing is, and be able to fight it, without a wand

>>5991672
>My lust was greater than my sense, and through great pains and injury I made it across. Show me you can cross it too
>Maybe there is a better way, a cleverer way, or maybe whoever does it will have to grit their teeth and get through it like Lancelot

>>5991675
>>5991677
>>5991680
My ID keeps changing, but a
I am the same person for fuck's sake. I might be reading too hard into these descriptions

Me in >>5991681
>>5991668
>“It wouldn’t be a very good trap if you could easily avoid it just because you knew it was there. And I didn’t have to avoid it. I’m not dating anyone, I can enjoy the show.”
Is this the QM's way of saying Brighton would be the best one for that? Instead of causing the fight to break out and making the veela go raptor mode, he'd fuck them alongside the knights and have 0 casualties because he's going along with them and not against them?
>There was foulness at play that we had not expected, of which we were not warned
The "foulness" is just "the tower's actually filled with magic harpy monstergirls"? And Brighton would "fare best" against it by... simply accepting the foulness isn't even anything bad? He'd just win with his dick? This means Galahad did exactly like Linda, or Linda did exactly like Galahad did, where they saw through to what was going on, and decided to reject it

The knights of King Arthur, looking back, weren't really that knightly were they?

HeadQM

>>5991692
Ask me again once all the tasks are over and I can say who's who on each task. And, of course, always take Brighton's word with a mountain of salt. He does think too highly of himself.

And yes, Linda did what Galahad originally did, eventually breaking out of the seduction and getting attacked, though he fought his way out while trying to save his men, while she jumped out of the window because she couldn't fight out of there, nor did she care about the other soldiers (because they weren't real)

Anonymous

>>5991671
>Whatever it is, it will require someone able to adapt to whatever this thing is, and be able to fight it, without a wand.
>Apollo goes to meet The Green Knight
he doesnt have a wand, but he isnt useless, didnt he manhandled us a couple of times before when he got mad with us about Arty?
he also beat the fucking magical skelleton when it attacked him by surprice, if that doesnt prove he is able to adapt to anything, i dont know what is

>>5991672
>Maybe there is a better way, a cleverer way, or maybe whoever does it will have to grit their teeth and get through it like Lancelot.
i feel like its cliche but we are going against Arthur, thats just a gut feeling.
But Brighton feels like the best for this one, he is extremely clever and top of his class in Ravenclaw so he is VERY smart, his ego has been his donwnfall so far and right now, in this test, i dont really SEE something that could trigger his ego.
he fucked us in battle class with a mandrake, that was very clever of him (much as it pains me to admit it)
he is also not a stranger to pain, he tanked the trap that Potter set up in his office during the siege of the magical items.
he can figure out a way across the bridge
>Brighton goes to cross The Sword-bridge

these are just my ideas and current votes, im willing to change them later if anyone has a better idea

>>5991671
> Brighton goes to meet The Green Knight
We did pick him for Godric, and he’s always been resourceful in the army matchups. Elliot feels like a bad choice given his fear of death and quest for immortality.

> Elliot goes to cross The Sword-bridge
Well, as pointed out we have a high tolerance for pain. Apollo is bigger and stronger but size doesn’t always translate well to climbing. Some hand or footholds are small, and could break with enough weight.

It’ll mean Apollo is the one to face Arthur, but I don’t believe that’s a bad choice per se.

I’d be willing to switch for Apollo facing the Green Knight and sending Brighton to Arthur if it comes to the final round.

>>5991699
Yes please. And explain your logic behind your choices too, when that time comes.
>Linda did what Galahad originally did
Then that makes one thing clearer, thank you.
>always take Brighton's word with a mountain of salt. He does think too highly of himself
It does make me wonder if the veela were always planning to kill and eat the rescuing knights from the start, or if they felt they had to on the spot when they got rejected? Galahad and his cohort did stop the siege and those veela woman were begging for help to save their friends. They could have transformed and killed the sieging enemy knights anytime. Why didn't they? Eh whatever, I'll be laughing if you do confirm Brighton was right and slaying birdpussy was the correct way to survive without anybody dying

>>5991703
>>5991704
On one hand, Apollo has the power to face the Green Knight.
On the other hand, Brighton has bravery from Godric in him plus his Gryffindor blood.
On one hand, Elliot can endure the pain and pass over the sword. He did get Crucio'd briefly by Salazar in Last Light.
On the other hand, Brighton has nothing to enable his pompousness in this challenge. Just him, the bridge, the sword, and the area to work with.

I thought a bit, and I assume Linda would have been the one for the Lancelot challenge. Edgy goth girl to edgy goth girl communication.
I also thought about it, and realized if Brighton and by extension the QM are correct in >>5991692, and if I'm right in >>5991675, then 2/3 of these remaining challenges are roll-reliant or autofail for Brighton since the Percival challenge was autowin for Arty already. Apollo and Elliot are even bigger mysteries when it comes to this. Curse this choice paralysis!

>>5991635
Like I said, only every read a bit of that thing years ago so I don't know how derivative it is. And I recognized that Lagann was likely a reference to the anime 1st time it was used and mentioned it; part of what amused me about this quest. I however do not have perfect knowledge, and apparently Lagan is a word in at least 3 languages.

Also here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btj<wbr>bqisVQSU

>>5991672
>>5991671
Need to think about these for a minute.

I am still going to give an analysis and vote, but... wouldn't the thing a good leader do is ask his knights what they thought before reaching his own conclusion. For their advice? Apollo once said that was why he thought we won at least our 1st battle. What is the point of having soldiers if you don't listen? Arty may have not believed she would wipe the floor with the first challenge, and we could have told her she would, but more opinions and what not is not a bad thing. This challenge is about knowing where people are best used and people can have incorrect opinions about what they can do but if we can, would it hurt to... ask Brighton and Apollo what they think. Ask Arty and Raven? The latter two might not be eligible to do another challenge, for better or worse, but there is no rule that they can't advise their "king".

Is that maybe the trick behind this? So we don't have to rely on our imperfect impressions of people and what they can do? Most of the time when we fought our battles in class, one lieutenant usually had given a plan which was going to give us a better chance after all; along with clever write ins, that is what lead us to victory.

>>5991750
I’d back asking them and seeing their thoughts. The pointed questions to ask are if there’s anything that they fear enough to paralyze them (Green Knight challenge) which Elliot can admit to the answer being yes. I expect Apollo would answer the same if Arty were to disavow him. Not sure about Brighton.

I expect whatever the Green Knight is, they (or the chapel) has an effect that forces whoever faces it to suffer their fears during the fight. Only reason I can think of for the horror he faced. Brighton has the least trauma out of everyone here.

For the bridge, Elliot can attest to his pain tolerance after training, and if love/lust is a real factor for some reason then we can always imagine we’re going after Arty. Though if any of us have a fear of heights… doesn’t Apollo have one? He hated getting on brooms.

Nevermind, Apollo is out of consideration for the bridge. He’d likely auto-fail from climbing the wall over the put. It’s between us and Brighton.

>>5991759
>>5991750
supporting asking for their opinion and vetoing Apollo from the bridge one if necessary, thats an important point we havent considered until now

>>5991750
+1 this
Don't even decide right now, just stop and ask them. Maybe if Elliot explains his reasoning for picking Arty and Linda for those two, the others can figure something out. Bringing up these >>5991715 >>5991759 and other points could help them help us to decide

>>5991759
Apollo doesn't like heights and gets motion sick, apparently. I am leaning towards Brighton for the Green knight because he could probably figure out you can strike someone down without dealing a blow which will kill you when it is returned. Just hook the axe behind their leg and put them on the ground. Boom, you both struck them down and struck them in a way that won't kill you when they return the blow. Could also strike them down with your words, in theory. Green knight sounds fey, which Potter implied were real, and as long as you fulfill the word of the contract, the spirit, killing him, doesn't matter.

Elliot doesn't like broom riding but is okay with it unlike Apollo. He/we can probably figure out a clever means to cross the bridge and wouldn't be motivated by lust so would be able to maybe find a better way. Maybe ask Guin perhaps if she can turn the sword blade from her side with us so we only have to walk across the flat of the blade? At the same time, if it came to a roll, Elliot does also have a lot of experience recently crossing over large bodies of dark liquid. Might also have his pouch with the broom we stole and an erudus potion so he doesn't get fucked up if he does have to do it the hard way.

Still probably going to check out the legends and think about it some while making dinner. It seems we have to send the person most unlike the knight who originally did the deed for an auto win, I think.

Its her time!
i repeat! its her time!
vote for Artemis Pertinger now!

>>5991963
Woooo Arty time!

Vote you fuckers!

>>5991704
+1

>>5991671
>>5991672
> Brighton goes to meet The Green Knight
> Elliot goes to cross The Sword-bridge

>>5991997
<s>Damn, our girl going 8-0 in less than 30 minutes.</s>

>>5991775

I will hold off my vote till seeing if we can consult with our knights. Maybe see if we can give a rousing speech too. I am pretty sure I know how I will vote but still.

>>5991671
>>5991672
> Brighton goes to meet The Green Knight
> Apollo goes to cross The Sword-bridge

HeadQM

I’m writing the update of you talking to them, but I’m going to list the current votes as they are here and count them towards the next vote also. If you want to keep them the same after the update, you don’t need to do anything. If you want to change your mind, please also backlink to your previous vote to make my life easier

>>Apollo goes to meet The Green Knight
>>5991703

> Brighton goes to meet The Green Knight
>>5991704
>>5992016
>>5992033

--

>Brighton goes to cross The Sword-bridge
>>5991703

> Elliot goes to cross The Sword-bridge
>>5991704
>>5992016

> Apollo goes to cross The Sword-bridge
>>5992033

Anonymous

If we manage to clear these, and Apollo doesn't have to do a task, I hope he doesn't think we didn't trust him to do a good job. He IS starting to be more normal, so I hope he isn't offended.

Granted, if we screw one up he will be the one facing Arthur's own trial, so that might have the opposite effect since we saved him for probably the most challenging test.

Despite trying to kill Arty, he is one of my favorite characters. Apollo's a good boy.

>>5992108
we already know about his fear of heights

>>5992094
Thank you for giving us that leeway to change votes based on new info

>>5992208
It would be kind of unfair to lock those votes in when we were going to learn stuff that might be relevant. It is nice that QM decided that yeah we can consult with our friends since it is more work for him.

I only hope we don't fuck up worse because we got their opinions.

>Arty won
lets fucking goooooo!
we against the rabbit on the next one

Woooo Arty made it to the semi-finals! Bad news is her next challenger is Ruby from the oldest quest I can recall. The one that basically started our hobby on 4chan.

I expect all of you to get in there in a couple of days.

Good news is, if she loses it is to a cute bunny. Hell she would probably vote for Ruby instead of herself if she got the option.

>>5992671
I, uh, have a confession for you anon.

<s>I’ll vote for Ruby if I do show up.</s>

Like you said, at least Arty would be losing to a traumatized bunbun. That’s gotta be an acceptable loss in her book.

>>5992693
Damn you Brutus!

It is fine though. The OG vs what is likely to be a filthy space monkey would be fine to see. I will be making the thing I am working on 20% sadder and more angsty if she loses by a single vote, however.

<s>If she does get knocked out, anyone think they could photoshop a cardboard Burger King crown on one of her pictures? I like the idea of Elliot taking her out for muggle fast food to cheer her up.</s>

>>5992746
drawfag here, i gochu, i´ll make it a piece later
but fuck me, if she loses because of a traitor in this thread, amma call him out in the drawing

>>5992697
Ah, but your mistake was thinking I was ever on your side!

Which I am, admittedly. Just not in this case. I binged Ruby Quest in the archives over a decade ago. It was a bit surreal trying to read over it again specifically for the king and queen thread and remembering I’m part of the old guard now. Some people still haven’t read it yet and don’t remember a time before /qst/, but I do. Any older and I’d vote for phasing.

>>5992746
It’d be better to have something like Ruby, Arty, Linda, and Elliot sitting down for Linda’s wargames. Ruby grew up on the /tg/ board, that’s gotta count for something in that department.

>>5992758
Everyone is a newfag forever, newfag. <s>Me as well.</s>

But yeah I remember reading through them all god knows how long ago. I recalled an old ass Harry Potter Quest I read a few threads of and wanted to go back and check it out recently. Motherfucking 12 years old.

And I just want to get a crown for her, even if you have to fold it out and it smells a bit like fryer grease.

Betraying a tiny Hufflepuff girl will end in picrel.

>>5992755
Amazing as always. That would be funny to call out this Quisling.

<s>I will email you this weekend about the commission, it has just been a shitty annoying week or so.</s>

>>5992094

> Brighton goes to meet The Green Knight

Seems reasonable, he's a noble fellow, and he's adaptable.

> Apollo goes to cross The Sword-bridge
I'm guessing this is the one that Linda would have auto succeeded at. Apollo with his strength I think would be the best substitute.

Which leaves us against King Arthur. Duh anons. You really think a test of leadership the correct choice isn't for each leader to challenge each other?

>>5992872
Thinking about it more and I'm guessing each person has an Auto-Suceed/Auto-Fail for a particular challenge, and rolls for the ones that they don't quite fit but still have a chance at.

Assuming this is correct, and assuming that we're meant to fight Arthur and fight him alone, let's try this out.

>Quest for the Grail:
Arty auto-suceeds (which we witnessed)/Apollo auto-fails (duh)
>Castle of the Maidens
Apollo auto-succeeds (too autistic to drop his guard or let the troops take off their armour)
Brighton auto-fails because I'm guessing he's tooting his own horn here. Or maybe he's gay, I dunno.
>The Green Knight
Brighton auto-succeeds. General Gryffindor nature and ability to adapt fits Brighton here, plus he strikes me as the kind of guy to be able to fight without a wand.
Auto-fail: No idea. Could be either Linda or Arty. I'm guessing Linda because I suspect Arty auto-fails the next one and the success seems like it would fit Linda.
>Sword bridge
Auto-success Linda. Obvious experience dealing with high pain.
Auto-fail Arty. Doubt she's be able to drag herself across a sword though maybe I'm underrating her.

>>5992880
I was thinking Apollo would auto-fail the sword bridge because of the height. Be hasn’t been good with heights historically, his broomriding is atrocious.

I think Elliot would auto-fail the Knight.

>>5992880
Some parts of those sound correct, but I don't think the last couple are entirely right. Assuming there isn't a clever solution for the sword bridge, I don't think Arty auto fails, necessarily. She was beaten pretty often as a kid after all. And if done correctly, the green knight shouldn't involve any fighting, since it was said the dude got his head cut off and still was fine. Trying to outfight a fey immortal isn't going to work. Plus the challenge is to be braver than the knight in the Green Chapel when faced with what is in there and survive a return blow; a test of both cleverness and bravery. For the sword one, if it is a question of dealing with pain, Elliot has the most experience with that, for now.

I have been leaning towards Brighton/Elliot for these but I feel like Elliot might be meant for Arthur as well. Why I suggested getting out teams thoughts.

Could be we are misinterpreting Apollo and it is less heights that bother him and just that he gets super motion sick. He did come to face Elliot in thread 1 by flying in on a broom and seemed okay when he landed that time but it was flying point A to B; maybe it was just all the advanced flying in the other battle made him sick. Would be a means for QM to be tricky with us.

You know, we might be working under a false assumption. That Apollo would have been the best for the second task. He dosen't like people fucking with his head, evidenced by not wanting a Founder in it. Him and Riley have something going on. He probably would have responded like Raven did but stay and fight instead of running, risking more injuries if he failed his roll because he is loyal to his men, even if they aren't real. There was no indication the Veela were going to do anything but fuck everyone's brains out until Raven rejected one.

Brighton could have just gone with it and there would be no casualties. Or he might have figured it out in time, given he figured out Potter had a time Turner even before winter break.

If that is true, our idea he is best for the green knight is flawed and there is a better choice, unless the ideal one was Linda, in which case I suppose it is a moot point.

Just saying. But I guess we will know more soon.

>>5993056
Also just because, how the fuck are veela even a thing? They don't have any men; they are an all female race. Children of them and humans come out as half-veela. They shouldn't exist, they would have died out since full veela wouldn't be able to be born. Are they hermaphrodites and a female veela can temporarily become a male to mate with a female? At certain points are they parthenogenic and can give birth without a mate, basically cloning the mother? WTF Rowling.

>>5993068
Should have just gone the standard monstergirl trope of the boys being human but the girls being veela, with half-veelas maybe being uncommon chance occurences whose children can be either humam boys or further-diluted part-veela girls. This way new veela can only be born from full-blooded veela and not from partials

>>5993068
Last ADHD post but I think I figured out Veelas.

<s>They were created by the Atlanteans, like house elves. Instead of being general purpose slaves, veela were created specifically as sex slaves/living sex dolls. Get young veela, groom it, have it imprint on you, mind rape it into loving you unconditionally and have them created with rapid maturation. In a few years, which is nothing when you are immortal, you have a completely devoted sex toy which is always horny because that is how they were designed. It has a built in defense system if anyone but you tries anything by turning into a fireball tossing, screeching monster with wings so it can escape back to you, and no one is going to want to fuck that. Only the veela's owner gets them as a supernaturally beautiful nympho. When the veela's expiration date is up, parthenogenesis occurs, a clone daughter is born, and you can do the whole thing again while mom takes care of their needs till sexual maturity and she dies. An eternally renewing, eternally young looking sex slave. </s>

<s>The kind of fucked up part is why they were made to be able to have children which seem to always be girls and inherit the supernatural beauty. Well, its not really incest and or pedophilia if they aren't fully what Atlanteans considered human. </s>

>>5993130
I don't think it's that deep. Not every magical race needs to be related to horrific experiments or punishments from ye olde ancient whizzards, genetic compatibility aside. I think that magic can manifest in quite a few different ways in beings, and that the magical 'genes' just expressed themselves in different ways that ultimately ended up producing a lot of different human-adjacent entities over thousands/millions of years. I mean, just going off of strictly interbreedable races, the list is pretty big - goblins, giants, veela, vampires, elves, trolls, and POSSIBLY merfolk, centaurs, or hags.
Evolution theory aside, it could also be the result of magic just deciding to make some of these things at some point. Pulling ideas from the collective unconsciousness to create an entire race of beings, or arranging for the circumstances of their birth in other cases (i mean, you can make a basilisk by hatching a chicken egg under a toad, so who's to say there isn't a method to birth a pure veela with otherwise ordinary seeming things?)

>>5992872
Apollo would get fucked by his fear of heights

>>5993184
Probably true. Regardless, Veela probably aren't going to likely be relevant to the quest again after this. They are probably all female because Rowling just didn't think it through but wanted to add some flavor to Fluer so boom; she is part supernatural siren/nymph/harpy.

I realize the "Atlanteans did everything" theory is about on the level of the "Merlin is everyone" theory but it was fun to think about.

>>5993258
We need to confirm he is; in that one battle he leaned over and puked off his broom, he told us he didn't like flying, not heights. Didn't specifically say it was being up high that was the issue. Got motion sick just a little bit ago from watching Arty move in third person. So it might just be that.

Hopefully the strategy discussion IC will clarify which it is.

HeadQM

>>5992693
That is fine, Anon. I know no one both me and Arty would be happier to lose to than Ruby.

>>5992758
> I binged Ruby Quest in the archives over a decade ago
Same, man. I read Ruby Quest when Nan Quest was being run, still in /tg/, and it already had a few years then. Feels a bit insane that it is almost old enough to drink.

And what became of cat and hare?
Did they break free to purer air?
To guess their fate we shouldn't dare
Perhaps their tale closed well.
But for all the beasts trapped in the Nether
All life from out the loch and heather
The flock that could not work together
Are sure still trapped in Hell.

Probably going to binge Nan Quest soon. I remember it being very good, but not a single thing about the story.

--

You turn to your friends, even those who have already completed their part in this challenge, and tell them what you know of the Green Knight and the Sword-bridge.

“So, what do you think?”

“I think that I’m not going to get beheaded or fuck up my hands and legs,” Brighton says.

“Yes, Brighton, I am aware. I expect whoever goes on to these tasks will perhaps find a better way. The Green Knight didn’t kill Gwain, but something else happened there, something that was probably not very fun. I expect anyone who goes to face him to either be able to get through the same thing or find a way better way through. Same thing for the Sword-bridge.”

“The stories as we know them are wrong,” you say. “They were warped by time and superstition. There was magic there, in every single one of these occurrences. Magic that these knights, these muggles, faced and defeated. I’m asking you to find a way to be better than them.”

Brighton scoffs. “Fine, Hallaster.”

“So, any suggestions on who faces who? Or what the real danger could be in these tasks?”

“The Green Knight could just be a wizard who decided to mess with them,” Linda says from where she’s lying. “Someone controlling a mannequin from afar, or something.”

“Wouldn’t Merlin have done something about that?” Arty asks.

“Where was Merlin during all this?” You ask Arthur. “Wasn’t he in your court?”

“Merlin came and went as he pleased,” he answers. “He would offer me advice, sometimes he would offer me his powers, but not often, and then leave for weeks, months, sometimes even years. It was rare such occurrences happened while he was still there.”

“Right, so Merlin is out of the question,” Arty says, biting her lip. “Maybe some other magical being? I mean, many were extinct through the centuries. Something clever, like a goblin or a centaur, maybe even a hag, could maybe pull that off.”

“So, someone that can negotiate might be good,” you say.

[Cont.]

>>5993307

“If this Green Knight really is a lost creature, maybe they got all killed off for a reason,” Brighton says. “People don’t go out of their way to exterminate creatures that keep to themselves.”

You simply stare at Brighton.

“Fine, people don’t often go out of their way to exterminate creatures that keep to themselves and whose death doesn’t bring a profit,” he corrects himself. “I don’t see it being a threat to anyone’s gold. And magical beings don’t have a track record of being reasonable. I mean, have you ever tried to argue with a goblin or a centaur? Might as well be talking to a brick wall.”

“If it is a magical being, you don’t need to fully convince them to stop. You just need to appease them,” you ponder for a bit. “But it doesn’t need to be a magical being. Like Linda said, it could just be a wizard who thinks they’re funny. In which case, you’ll need to defeat them without magic, same as a creature.”

“So we either need someone who is good with people,” Arty says. “Who can out-talk whatever the Green Knight is, or someone good in a fight, who can pass… whatever it has in store for Gwain.”

“Uh, I don’t think I fit,” Apollo says. “I’m not good with people and… I’m strong, but without my wand… I never fought without my wand.”

“How about you, Brighton?”

“My father and Potter are friends,” he says. “Take a guess.”

“Brighton-”

“I know how to punch, Hallaster. I can get by without a wand. And I know a fair bit about talking to magical beings, I had to deal with them when I was a kid in the Three Broomsticks.”

“Good. Then we’re both decent in a fight, but I think I’m better with people than you. You know more general knowledge about the magical world than me, I know more about this period of magical history. It should be about whether we guess this Knight is a wizard or a magical being.”

“What about the Sword-bridge?” Apollo asks.

“Can you deal with the height?”

“If there’s ground nearby. I don’t have a problem with bridges, or tall towers. It’s the lack of everything that gets me. But the sword part of the bridge doesn’t make me comfortable.”

“Brighton?”

“No problem with heights. I have a problem with slicing up my hands in a thousand pieces.”

“How about you, Elliot?” Arty asks, a bit sheepish. “You know… If you really think about it-”

You groan. You hadn’t thought about it, but yes, the deep-seated fear you had of ice-skating was precisely because you thought about someone skating over your fingers. Would you freeze up if you were the one who had to go through it? You didn’t know the answer to that question.

“Maybe. Still, I hope there is a better way than crawling over a razorblade.”

But there is still just the question of whether you’d simply freeze over the simple concept of the task. Phobias are not exactly rational.

[Cont.]

>>5993308

You figure it is more a question of whether this is a problem that can be solved through the use of force, say, pushing a tree down and over the river to make a bridge, in which Apollo would do better, or some clever solution such as improvising a hang-glider from leaves and sticks, which you and Brighton would do better.

It still isn’t an easy choice, but at least now you have some more information. So, once again, who will go on each task? (No need to vote if you already voted and don’t plan to change your vote)

You can also let me know if there is anything specific you’d like to ask your teammates about themselves to help with the choice (probably should have said this earlier) and I’ll answer it if possible.

> Elliot goes to meet The Green Knight
> Brighton goes to meet The Green Knight
> Apollo goes to meet The Green Knight

> Elliot goes to cross The Sword-bridge
> Brighton goes to cross The Sword-bridge
> Apollo goes to cross The Sword-bridge

Anonymous

Elliot to Green Knight
Brighton to Sword Bridge
Apollo to Arthur's finale
That's what I think, this is NOT A VOTE. I will vote when I get home and not on mobile

>>5993308
Damn, I was going to mention Elliot's fear of ice skates but thought it wouldn't apply. He was fine fighting all those chess pieces with sharp ass swords.

Gonna try and think about this while I have to do a few things; do you have a time in mind for when you are going to call it, QM? So I know exactly how long I have to overthink this?

HeadQM

>>5993329
I'm thinking a day and a half-ish. I usually post at 6/7am-ish UTC, except when I don't finish revising it in time, go to sleep and revise it in the morning (which was what happened today), so that is the idea: Leave it for today, start looking at things at about this time tomorrow and close it a few hours later.

I'll give a closing call a few hours beforehand.

Anonymous

>>5993341
Cool thanks. I was just wondering if you would end it early, since quite a few people made their decisions.

>>5991672
>>5993311
My PC post is in >>5991775 and I mobile posted here >>5993318

Here's my vote now:
> Elliot goes to meet The Green Knight
> Brighton goes to cross The Sword-bridge
I hope we don't die

>>5991672
>>5991704
I’ll change my vote to back >>5993413, which is
> Elliot goes to meet The Green Knight
> Brighton goes to cross The Sword-bridge
because of the ice skate fear. I hadn’t considered that, and it’s real enough to worry about. We can deal with pain, but phobias are another matter.

Hopefully the Green Knight’s fears are easier to manage.

Here is what I think.

Apollo wasn't going to be the best choice for the 2nd trial; Brighton was. So any trial we send him on will need a roll now. We have Apollo and Elliot who can still auto pass a trial. I don't think the 5th one with Arthur is going to be his, if we don't pass these. I think there is something to sending a person seems unlikely to a given trial has some merit. Arty didn't think she was right for the Grail trial and she beat it. I think Linda might have been meant for the Green knight. So with the idea that the people you wouldn't expect are correct and Brighton's intended trial done I choose:

> Brighton goes to meet The Green Knight
> Apollo goes to cross The Sword-bridge

If that is right we get 1 auto win then a roll. If Elliot is meant for the 5th, boom.

>People actually voting Elliot to not go against King Arthur
Anons, why? Isn't it obvious that we as leader will be the one to beat King Arthur? I honestly don't think Apollo or Brighton have it in them to challenge the Once and Future King himself.

>>5993480
I wonder if we do happen to win with what is chosen this round and Elliot already has done a task, if we could ask Arthur's shade to let Elliot attempt his challenge as well, since at that point the test will have ended and the 1 quest per person rule wouldn't matter? Just to see if we could have overcome it. Maybe unlock some secret info or a reward?

But yeah I am pretty sure if it ends up 2-2, Elliot is supposed to be the one to do it. Oh well.

>>5993311

>>5992016
I'm switching from this to:
>Elliot goes to meet The Green Knight
>Brighton goes to cross The Sword-bridge

>>5993480
Neither of these is an ideal challenge for Apollo, and I don't want ego to sabotage us.

Arty vs Lucy is a go! Go show her some love!

>>5993597
first thing i did as soon as i came back from work, looks like she is has more popularity than i thought

>>5993518
To be fair, I think one of these being his auto success quest is more likely than Arthur's if it wasn't the Castle of maidens. Could be wrong though.

>>5993603
Indeed. <s>I thought this was going to be super neck to neck but it is 10-3 with like 15 to 18 people voting in most of the previous rounds. Could still be and I don't want to jinx it though.</s>

fucking hell, this is probably the hardest a vote has made me think so far, gotta sleep on it

>>5993311
I don't intend to change my vote. I still think that Brighton for GK and Apollo for SB is ideal.

<s>Not really relevant to what is going on, but I kind of realized as well as wanting her own kids, Arty might also be interested in adoption, given what happened with her and Apollo. She is also probably a great candidate, since I have no doubts she would love those kids as much as one that shared her blood, which is adorable Just a random tangent that popped into my head.</s>

i´ll be switching my vote from >>5991703 this
to support >>5993518
anon has a point, even if Apollo´s fear doesnt cripple him midair, he is still the bulkiest of us, thats gonna be a problem for him to manage in there
AND
he is shit with people, if whatever challenge he has to face against the green knight can be solved vie talking, which, ideally would be the best case scenario, he wouldnt do well there either.
He has been a pretty good leader in the army battles, so he could still face nicely against Arthur
as much as i wanted to face leader to leader, best to not get ego or emotions get the best of us
my vote is:
>Elliot goes to meet The Green Knight
>Brighton goes to cross The Sword-bridge

HeadQM

I'll be closing the votes in 6 hours. Cast or change your votes now or regret forever! (Or don't, I'm not your mom)

Anonymous

>>5994401
I'll only feel bad if we fail the entire Merlin gauntlet or an ally dies. I still maintain DC 90 is bullshit btw

>>5994421
I really hope I just overthought things with what I suggested.
And everyone else got it right. If we can even just auto pass one of these, we still have a shot.

Either Brighton or Apollo hasn't had their auto win quest yet, maybe even both, so all we need it to choose one of these correct and we at least would get to have a 5th round.

Still really feel like Elliot is supposed to do Arthur's but oh well.

Maybe we should have gone for the test of Wisdom?

<s>If Arty dies we riot.</s>

>>5993311
>Brighton goes to meet The Green Knight
>Elliot goes to cross The Sword-bridge
Fuck it, there wont be any need for Apollo to face Arthur if we win the fucking thing first

>Arty made it to finals
lets fucking GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
only one obstacle left and its the biggest one...

>>5994648
Woooo!

I think she has a chance vs the ape girl influencer thot, but it will be close AF.

HeadQM

It appears the votes stand like this right now:

> Brighton goes to meet The Green Knight
>>5992033
>>5992872
>>5993442
>>5994551

> Elliot goes to meet The Green Knight
>>5993413
>>5993433
>>5993518
>>5994347

--

>Brighton goes to cross The Sword-bridge
>>5993413
>>5993433
>>5993518
>>5994347

> Elliot goes to cross The Sword-bridge
>>5994551

> Apollo goes to cross The Sword-bridge
>>5992033
>>5992872
>>5993442

Which is a tie between Brighton and Elliot on the Green Knight, but Brighton's victory on the Sword-bridge (by one vote. if >>5994551 had voted differently, it could have been a double tie, which would have been honestly impressive).

I don't think a tie on an important decision had happened on this thread yet, so it was time.

I'll consider Brighton as going to the Sword-bridge, as he has the victory there, and Elliot going to the Green-knight as consequence. Closing the votes and writing!

Anonymous

>>5994838
oh man, its happening
hope it all goes well, im nervous anons

>>5994838
Fair.

<s>Fingers crossed this goes alright...</s>

>>5994847
Me too. I really hope I am wrong. Really, really hope. Because if I called it... my Sight beyond Sight may be growing too strong for me to control...

HeadQM

“Right. I’ll go face the Green Knight. Brighton, you go to the Sword-bridge. We find a way to deal with whatever is in there, preferably without dying.”

“Don’t fuck it up, Hallaster.”

You turn to the shadow of Gwain and nod.

“Let’s go. Take me to the Green Chapel.”

Gwain nods, and once more the terrain shifts around you, but unlike other times, your friends disappear with it as your clothes vanish and are transformed into armor and your wand into a sword. The room around you becomes the bottom of a barren and gray cliffside, a strange view that doesn’t look like anywhere you know about in the British Isles. In a crevice on the cliff, there is a strange house, painted entirely a sickly light green from top to bottom. There are no windows on it, and to call it a “chapel” is definitely a curious choice, as there are no obvious religious symbols on the outside.

You two stop at the door.

“I shall wait for you here,” Gwain says.

“You are not coming?”

“I have already faced that which is inside once. Its challenge is for one person. Go, the Knight will recognize you as if you were me.”

“Anything you can tell me before I go in?”

“You already know as much as I did when I walked into this house. I can share no more.”

You nod, leaving him behind and swinging the door open, entering the mouth of madness.

Every inch of the wall is splashed with a different bright color, like an artist that has gone mad. There are prayer benches thrown around in off position, some even hanging still in the air. There are bookshelves, their books spilling out as if the whole thing had been struck by an explosion from behind, but the tomes are frozen in place as they fall. The paintings on the walls have impossible scenes, images filled with things that only look like something when you’re not paying attention, but shift into an incoherent mess the moment you focus on it for too long. Not only that, but the room itself is far larger than it should have been from the outside. There are windows, open windows, but looking out from them makes your head hurt.

And the mannequins. There are wooden mannequins sitting at the benches, even those that are upside down. There are wooden mannequins reading the books, even those that are flying through the air in disarray. There are wooden mannequins admiring the pictures that have insanity on them, and there are wooden mannequins admiring the view on the unseeable windows.

And, somehow, despite these faceless mannequins all looking like they are frozen and focused on their task… every single one of them also seems to be looking at you.

The door slams behind you, and you instinctively reach for a wand that isn’t there. Instead, you hold on to the handle of your sword, ready to pull it out the moment these mannequins give any signal of moving.

[Cont.]

>>5994991

In the middle of what was once a pew, the Green Knight sits, his armor the same shade as the exterior of the Chapel. His face, with a twisted grin and a very large nose, is the same color.

What is clear to you is that, whatever this is, it is no common wizard. There is either ancient magic or something else involved.

“Gwain! You really have come!” He says in a high-pitched voice. It has a mocking tone, not one you’d expect from a knight.

“Yes,” you say, taking the role of Gwain. “I have come, as promised, to fulfill my part of our deal.”

“My, my, my,” it says, putting each hand to one side of his head and pulling it off his neck. He tosses it from one hand to the other, playfully, the mouth still moving as it speaks. “I’d heard of a Knight’s word being his bond, but I never thought you would follow it to your death!”

“I agreed to your challenge, though I admit I did not expect it to go the way it did,” you say. “I am here to fulfill the second part of its arrangement… Though I hoped I could convince you to settle its conclusion in another way.”

It stands up, looking curious, then shoots up, flying through the air and right through a mannequin, then bouncing off a bench, sending it flying off to crash into the wall while he did a twirl and then stopped upside-down, holding his head by the hair right in front of your face.

“Ohhh, does the great knight of King Arthur plead for his life?”

It is the flying that does it. Because there was only one person in recorded history who could fly unattended, and that was Lord Voldemort. So this is not a wizard. Yet you can feel his breath on your face. You had seen him pass through matter, but also affect it. So it is not a ghost. It is something in between.

It is a poltergeist. A spirit of chaos. Unkillable, because they’d never been alive, and the only way of getting rid of them was warding them off from their place of haunting for long enough, months, years or more, until they dissipated. Their powers varied greatly, from Peeves, who could play pranks and cast minor spells, to reports of some creating entire haunted dungeons in folded spaces. They rarely killed people, and when it happened it was usually an accident… but some were known to cause enough torment to send their hauntees to St. Mungo’s insane asylum.

Chaos formed it and fed it, so anywhere with a lot of people, most of all teenagers, coming and going could create one. Which makes it all the more strange, since this chapel is in the middle of nowhere. It shouldn’t have been able to form in such desolate place, much less leave to go find Arthur’s court.

[Cont.]

>>5994992

Something doesn’t add up, still. There is something you aren’t seeing, something in this creature isn’t right, even if you don’t know what. You’ve only dealt with Peeves but… This one seems more insane, more deranged than him.

You could continue to pretend to be a muggle knight, ignorant of his true nature and see what he has in store for you, or you could reveal that you know what he is. He stares at you, waiting for an answer.

> I am pleading for yours. If you kill me, whatever you are, Merlin will come. Against him you have no chance.
> I am hoping we can come to an agreement. If you kill me, who will tell others about this wonderful place?
> Of course I am. After all, I couldn’t be pleading for yours, could I, poltergeist? No, making you vanish is not within my powers, but definitely are within those who will come seeking me.
> I would never dream of pleading for my life with a poltergeist. But making a deal for my life with a poltergeist? That I could do.
> Other (Write in)

Anonymous

Guess I will think about this overnight. Just woke up to get water and saw updoots.

So Brighton might have been the best choice here? Since he is clever and has dealt with magical beings. That or Linda, b/c clever and likes Dark shit I guess.

so, i have 3 theories for this
1: this poltergeist is looking "more insane, more deranged" because its actually "dying" and will disappear soon since it is so alone all the way out here in the middle of nowhere without chaos to feed from and its trying its hardest not to disappear by causing chaos itself in this place and feed itself, he is desperate to feed, so it planned this encounter a year and a day later to get enough nourishment from this encounter to "stay alive" for a bit more
so we could maybe appease it by causing some chaos ourselves OR remove the chaos and starve it to "dead"

2: the reason this poltergeist is "alive" all the way outhere in the middle of nowhere is because its not feeding from the chaos of this area, but the entire country/continent/world? and this happened to be middleground where he can absorb all that chaos while still being in the middle of nowhere.
Its not the poltergeist of the chapel, its the poltergeist of Europe/Britain/wherever we are

3: it is known that some poltergeist can become powerful enough to cast spells, Peeves can do it.
maybe this one is so powerful that he used transfiguration to turn people into mannequins but still keep them alive or revert the transformation to use them later?

in any case, i have ideas for each scenario, but i still have my doubts about it all, but perhaps, it could help making the gears move a bit in our collective brains

1: this one could work for both ideas 1 and 3.
IF (and thats a MASSIVE if) im correct and the mannequins are important, we could destroy them to make him lose his source of nourishment
i was going to say "free them" by changing them back to humans, but we dont have our wand and i dont think we can do wandless magic

2: if he is actually that powerful, we stand no chance in a duel and even if we did, "hurting it" its gonna be practically impossible, so our best option would be to fool it into signing a contract making him surrender to us, poltergeist are chaotic, but it seems like they can be controlled or bound to contracts, perhaps giving him something in exchange for his surrender could do it?

i hope im not sounding crazy here, but maybe this could help bring up ideas

Making a deal is probably the way to go since that was a bigpart of Gwain and the Green knight. Making a deal and holding it up fully.

Also big part was that the knight was not who had seemed to be and was in fact King Bertilak. So this is crazy, but what if Peeves was the Green knight in the past. He didn't manifest because of Hogwarts, he was said to have come with the building.

Tell him were Hogwarts would be built in a few hundred years in exchange for not harassing the Round table?

>>5994996
> I would never dream of pleading for my life with a poltergeist. But making a deal for my life with a poltergeist? That I could do.
He obviously has some means to leave this place to collect new 'visitors' to his so-called chapel without our aid. it's how he challenged Gwain to begin with, right? And that process is probably sustaining his un-life... But maybe we could make the process less arduous and complicated for him? Bring a better class of entertainment into his existence? He must want SOMETHING.

>>5994996
>”The terms were simple. A blow to the neck I gave, a blow to the neck I will receive. As you did not die, I should not die. But I would understand what I bargained with now that it has proved it isn’t simply a man.”
>”Can you tell me more of why you issued your challenge over such a long period of time? Why you did it at all? How a poltergeist could exist here, so far from others?”

I’ll try a write-in. Asking what the hell is up with all this makes sense, and we can brush aside questions of how/why we can guess what he is by pointing how weird it was. Of course we’d try to learn more about it! Merlin should have had knowledge or books for us to glean from, and legends could have told us some things. We just couldn’t fully succeed without speaking to the Green Knight.

>>5994996
> I would never dream of pleading for my life with a poltergeist. But making a deal for my life with a poltergeist? That I could do.

>>5994996
> I would never dream of pleading for my life with a poltergeist. But making a deal for my life with a poltergeist? That I could do.

all we have to do is the proper deal and we win

>>5994996
> I would never dream of pleading for my life with a poltergeist. But making a deal for my life with a poltergeist? That I could do.
Wheel and deal

>>5994996
I guess I will support

>>5995340
>>5995579

I don't have anything for this, it has been a draining few days.

WE IN THE FINALS! WE BEAT THE MONKEY!<br>only one last thing to do now anons! vote for Arty and give her the victory! we can do this!

currently making 2 drawings for Arty, one in case she wins and one in case she loses, you better not fucking make me post the losing one, guys...

>>5996034
>implying she hasn't

This is the girl with a split tongue, a trunk full of sex toys, and a hippy mom. If we ever needed a hook-up for some goblin pipe weed for example, I bet she has a guy.

>>5995868
<s>Im not going to jinx it but you might work on the loser one more. She is behind right now. I really thought if it was anyone but monkey girl she would have it in the bag but I didn't realize how much people like Finn's. Don't play but I read the archives.</s>

>>5996155
<s>yeah, i started with that one because she was behind when i saw the current votes, i was hoping she would pull ahead this morning but i dont think she will...im mad</s>

>>5996237
<s>We still have time. Magic is making the impossible possible!

If not, she had a good run. Maybe just be sad her crown is from Burger King and Elliot has a nice fancy one when he is King.</s>

>>5996300
<s>you are very close, i finished the doodle yesterday before i went to bed, i based it of your previous burger king request, but i changed just a couple of things to tug at the heart strings of people who didnt vote for her
im gonna make them feel bad for crushing her dreams</s>

HeadQM

“I would never dream of pleading for my life with a poltergeist,” you say, and he looks both surprised and delighted for a moment. “But I shall argue that a contract where one of the parties deceives the other about the nature of what is happening is no contract at all. A blow to the neck I gave, a blow to the neck I will receive. As you did not die, I should not die. That sounds more than fair to me.”

“Oh ho ho! Sounds like Merlin is making school for little muggies! What a pleasant surprise!”

“You know of him?” You ask, surprised.

“Of course I know of him!” The poltergeist says, twirling in the air. “Who doesn’t!? Had to wait to make sure he wasn’t there before appearing, after all! Didn’t want him spoiling my fun!”

“Why? Why did you go to King Arthur’s court and not anyone else? Why did it have to be me? Why wait a year?”

“Why? If I went around always asking why I wouldn’t get anything done!” He perches atop a bookcase, holding himself there with one hand as if gravity applied to him. “But I shall humor you! It is because I needed someone stupid enough to chop my head right out, honorable enough to come here once my powers were back from that little adventure, and strong enough to do the thing I’m going to make you do in exchange for not cutting off your head! It’s simple, really!”

“So you need me for something.”

“Need is such a strong word! More like… I’m heavily incentivized to wish it done.”

“Right. I still don’t understand how you could go that far. Or even exist this far from everyone, really. I thought your kind needed people.”

“And we do! That’s why I’m so bored! I’m all alone here in this middle of nowhere! I need people, I need FUN! I’m going craaaaaazy in here!” He swirls around the whole room as he speaks, but when he lands his grin turns sour in an instant. “So I need you to destroy the thing that’s keeping me here, so I can go find somewhere else better to be. There is an artifact down below, something that generates enough chaos to create something like me. I want it destroyed.”

That was… odd. You had never heard of a magically generated poltergeist. But if it was possible…

“And you didn’t want Merlin to hear about it because if he came here he wouldn’t destroy it. He would take it for himself and possibly keep you stuck with it.”

It wasn’t entirely true, you know it. It is possible Merlin hadn’t known about it, after all he wasn’t omnipotent, and it wouldn’t matter to him unless it came to threaten the world before his prophecies ended. But it was also entirely possible that he knew, and had allowed this to come to pass for a certain purpose.

But to the poltergeist, who didn’t know what Merlin really was, the most obvious view of Merlin was of a great wizard who loved strange and powerful artifacts, and who would certainly love to put his hands on one that could manufacture poltergeists.

[Cont.]

>>5996426

“Exactly!” He says, excitedly. “Wouldn’t want him to be a party-pooper, would we, Gwain?”

You shake your head, laughing. You can’t even begin to think what the real Gwain had made of all this, not knowing what you know. It had probably been utterly terrifying. I mean, it still is, but not more than some other stuff you’ve gone through.

“No, no we wouldn’t. Very well. Show me the way to the basement, then. What should I call you on our journey?”

“Our journey? Oh no, no, you’re going to go down alone. If I could go down there and do it, I would have done it long ago! And you can call me Fastidio, if you want.”

“Very well, Fastidio. I will return with your broken… thing.”

“Good, and I shall not cut off your head.”

He snaps his fingers and a trapdoor at the far end of the pew opens.

“Any advice?”

“Hum… Try not to die. Or fall!”

“Thanks.”

You climb down the ladder of the trapdoor into complete darkness, and it doesn’t take long for it to snap shut behind you. You keep on going down, until you reach the… floor, or what is currently the floor, as you have basically just entered what appears to be a cross between an Escher and a particularly psychedelic Dali painting. Stairs go every which way, sideways, upside-down, or simply twirling through space. Forms which appear to change and shift as they move around, going from one deformed object to the other as they float about.

In the distance, something is spinning and shining like a small sun.

“Well, that’s obvious enough,” you tell yourself before heading towards it.

At first it is easy to follow the paths, but they soon become more treacherous and winding. “Not falling” becomes harder, then harder still when gaps in the way appear and you need to jump while in a space deprived of the concept of "up". The shapeless objects which appeared small and upclose prove themselves to instead be huge and far away, and more than once you need to dive out of their way to avoid falling.

Still, all and all, you seem to be doing surprisingly well.

And that’s the moment Dali shifts into Beksiński, and amusement becomes horror.

The pale and soft tones become brash and aggressive, the dreamlike surroundings become a dystopian landscape filled with eerie figures, and otherworldly scenes that blur the line between reality and nightmare appear floating in the air. It is intricate and grotesque, precise, horrifying. Limbs are distorted and space itself becomes warped too, visibly so, in great bubbles of semi-transparent red.

You pull out your sword and poke at the red bubbles with it. Forwards becomes left inside it, and the sword violently bends that way at the midway point. When you pull it out, it remains bent.

“So I guess we don’t want to touch those. Aaand this thing isn’t going back into the scabbard, is it?”

[Cont.]

>>5996428

So you continue down the path, jumping over bottomless pits, dodging reality warping bubbles, fighting off aberrations straight from nightmares with a bent sword and thanking Merlin for having an insane Death Eater as your teacher, because you’d definitely have died by now without him. The further you go, the worst it gets, until you are dripping with sweat and panting in exhaustion.

The core of this place is a few meters in front of you, what appears to be a structure of hundreds of rods connected to a single spinning orb at its center, maybe the size of a grape, each rod connected to another rod spilling freely, all wildly flailing around in random directions and passing through each other as they also spin wildly in place. It reminds you of a lovecraftian beast of tentacles, if its tentacles were mechanical and the beast was having a seizure.

It is also on a platform separated from all other platforms by a gap of about five or six meters.

“Fucking hell,” you say, wiping the sweat off your brow. “That’s fucking bullcrap. At least it looks stable and safe. Eye of the hurricane and all that.”

You look around, searching for a way over, but there is none. You look down at the gap, and it looks to be an abyss into impossible horror. You swear for a bit, before resigning yourself to the long jump.

You unfasten your breastplate, letting it fall into the nothing below. You do the same to the rest of your armor, until you are in medieval underwear. It isn’t very fashionable, but it is lighter than carrying several pounds of steel with you.

You take a deep breath and take your distance.

“You know,” you say. “Having a couple of inches of height would really help right now.”

You take off running and leap.

Somewhere you can’t see, Arty screams as she sees the jump is too short, as she sees you’re not going to make it.

You see the edge of the platform go past you as you fall down, just out of reach of your fingers.

[Cont.]

>>5996430

But not out of reach of the bent sword on your right hand. You slam against the wall, hooking it to the top of the platform, all your weight being held by your grip on the handle of your blade.

“Ahhhhh! Shit! Fuck!”

You swing side to side, gritting your teeth through the pain, grabbing on to the handle with the other hand, pulling yourself up, the muscles in your arms screaming at you, until you manage to roll over the edge and onto solid ground.

“Ah! Haaaaa! Haaaaaa! Fuck you!” You say, gasping for air as the adrenaline rushes over your body. “You gave me Gwain’s task but not his leg size!”

You curse at the sky for a bit more for a while, until your heart no longer feels like it is going to hammer its way out of your chest. You stand up, looking at the miniature sun that is the core of this place.

You lift up the bent sword that just saved your life.

“You are, without a doubt, the shittiest ancient artifact I’ve ever seen.”

And you bring it down, shattering its connections. The horrors fade, the chaos around you disappears, and you find yourself back in the chapel.

“I’m free! I’m free! I’m freeeee!” Fastidio shouts in ecstasy, twirling through the air. Around you, the madness of the place slowly begins to fade. The windows show the outside, the paintings fade, the mannequins disappear, and the green off the poltergeist’s skin starts to flake off. “Oh, Gwain, Gwain! What a fantastic knight you are!”

“I have done as you asked,” you say. “Shall I have my blow now?”

“Indeed!” He flies down, picks up the green axe and swings it at full force at your neck. You just have the time to give off a exhasperated scream before it passes harmlessly through you. He laughs, twirls and takes a bow. “And with that, I am out of here!”

He dives out through the wall and disappears.

“Well… All is well that ends well,” you say. “Though I don’t know if whoever he ends up haunting will agree that this is a happy ending.”

Fastidio’s face appears once more through the wall.

“Oh, and you might want to run. I think that thing down there is going to explode dramatically!”

And you run out into the cliffside, run until your legs scream at you, run until you see a blinding flash behind you and the earth shakes.

The desolated lands disappear, and you are once more in the presence of King Arthur and your friends.

You grin, breathing deeply.

“Well, that’s two out of thee-” And that’s when the air is forcibly pushed out of your lungs as you are tackled into a hug by a little auburn-haired Hufflepuff.

Anonymous

YES! oh thank god, that was the correct answer!<br>now we need one more

btw, give Arty a kiss while she is on top of us, gotta let her know we also missed her and were worried

>>5996431
Fastidio. Peeves. Why, of course.

>>5996440
We're going to be snogging right here with her brother in full view. Ah fuck it, let him see it.

>>5996431
>>5996428

Ah shit, I forgot about Fastidio. <s>Since his quest was a stupid PS5 exclusive.</s> Well calling him as really being Peeves was close enough for me to be okay with it.

So all we need is for Brighton to not fuck up. Then Arthur vs. Apollo don't have to be a thing.

Yeah, I am sure Merlin was interested in being able to preserve a "spirit" in a nearly impenetrable locked space... for good reasons.

So just in case Arty loses in the tourney, here is a rewrite of an older fic, now with more lewds and other stuff.

>>5996462
we need to remember to ask Peeves if he recognizes that name when we get back

>>5996487
If him, Fastidio, and Bertilak/Green knight are all the same dude, I would laugh.

I also think maybe the things we just saw at the end
>The pale and soft tones become brash and aggressive, the dreamlike surroundings become a dystopian landscape filled with eerie figures, and otherworldly scenes that blur the line between reality and nightmare appear floating in the air. It is intricate and grotesque, precise, horrifying. Limbs are distorted and space itself becomes warped too, visibly so, in great bubbles of semi-transparent red.

Might be a depiction of Atlantis' last moments for some reason. I also wondered why that name rang a bell.

>>5996498
>Might be a depiction of Atlantis' last moments for some reason.
Doubtful. I think it's just the manifestation of pure Chaos.

>>5996498
what >>5996530 said
it's chaos bro, I don't need to explain shit

>>5996530
>>5996534

Maybe. Thankfully, in this whole ordeal, we haven't seen other scenes which happened in the far past.

>>5996477
>V2
is this a rewrite of a previous fic or a new one? asking because im saving these and i´d like to differintiate and tag which ones are which

>>5996626
Thank you for caring enough to check it out; it is like 90% new but recycles some of the stuff from the pre-avalon date one. I intended to just add some extra seggs to that one but ended up wanting to do something more. It is mostly new aside from part of the middle which was just recycled.

So I would consider it a whole new one, especially with the extra non-lewd/romantic stuff.

I just put V2 because I had been fucking with it for a while.

Your picture in
>>5996621

was amazing. Apollo looking pissed at Elliot and Linda just looking sad in the back ground sold it.

If you ever wanted to do quick sketches, the, "chibi" characters are fun. I can't help wonder what the "chibi" Arty would look like.

>>5996661
>I can't help wonder what the "chibi" Arty would look like.
i can do that easily, i´ll try to deliver one tonight
and thanks! i appreciate you linking it!

Now I do need to know... what would Arty order at a McDonald's/Burger King/Wendy's?

I am going to guess a double what ever, with everything. Medium fries, extra salt. A small shake, and a medium soda. Maybe a side of chicken nuggets.

A Baconator at BK?

Maybe go with a happy meal at McD's with stuff on the side, just so she could get the toy, and she doesn't get to eat muggle food often, to keep it as a collectable?

I am positive she would love chocolate frosties and hot fries. It does seem that Wendy's is uncommon in the UK, however.

Oh fuck! She has never had like southern fried chicken, has she? So when we get her to spend summer with us, we have to go to like a chicken joint with her and Apollo. <s>I am going to vote for her to come stay with us over the break, even if she thinks she needs to work, once we get back from Spain.</s>

>>5996661
my pleasure, i really like your stuff, hope you can keep doing more of it in the future, this one has to be my new personal favorite tho, they way you wrote the romantic but cheese lines near the end sounded legit, like something people of their age would actually say, great job on that

>>5996735
she would definitely get a medium, large would be too much for her, mostly the soda, those cups hold way more liquids than one would think
she would definitely go for a happy meal, food PLUS a toy? she would love the concept alone
>friend chicken
KFC is a global brand, right? we need to get her some of that, maybe both the regular crunchy and the spicy recipes, wonder which one of them has the biggest spiciness tolerance?

btw. was that you who made the small fanfic with the winner?

i wonder, will we have summer vacations? we had the winter break a bit after our first big adventure<br>im sure this one counts as the 2nd and after all the stress we had, a beach episode would be a nice rest/interlude, just like the xmas updates

>>5996820
Yeah. The Burger King called to me and I felt his spirit take my body, then I woke up like 10 minutes later and that was posted.

>>5996913
Up to QM I suppose. If nothing else, I hope we get a highlight reel of the trip with Arty to Spain. Granted, that might be called off now that a good portion of the world thinks Wizard Hitler is back, and the third Wizarding War is about to pop off. Not an excellent idea to go out of country on a trip like that with your newborn twins, autistic wife and a couple of 16-year-olds, like Rolf planned to.

Though we have to make sure we don't die down here, in the bowels of the earth, and that Potter doesn't kill us afterword. And that the Ministry doesn't kill us. And that rogue aurors don't kill us. And that we didn't set off the wizard versions of the Troubles by casting the mark. <s>Reminds me, QM said there are only 2 means of long range communication in the wizard world. If the Dark Mark counts, I suppose that makes a third. Wonder if we can figure out how Voldy made that spell and get sick tats for our followers-friends. I suggest it just be dickbutt.</s>

We might have to wait for that beach episode, basically.

>>5996820
Also, thank you very much for enjoying these dumb things I write to pass time. I do try to remember what I was like as a love struck 16-year-old when writing some parts. It sometimes requires a lot of alcohol and listening to the shitty music I did back then but it is fun.

<s>I can guarantee you will hate what I am working on next. I thought I couldn't do worse than what I had been working on before since that was the point, but sometimes I surprise myself.</s>

I wonder if I should try to write a short evil Elliot one at some point to go with the evil Arty one.

>>5997060
>evil Elliot
i would read that, it could be fun

>>5997315
What do you think? Evil all the time, or just broke after Taylor died? Sociopath or psychopath?

Regardless, I wouldn't have him kill/hurt Arty. I don't think. You can be evil, but not Evil. Or maybe make it even worse that he does. I don't want to ape QM with a last minute face/heel turn I don't think, since Elliot being evil is on the tin. Lacks the stuff the Lily reveal had.

I have written far too much nice stuff, so I might start on that idea and finish up on the horrible shit already in the works.

>>5997360
could do some timeline fuckery where he ends up going along with "Lily" instead of friendzoning her so hard she fucking dies and turning evil

>>5997360
>Evil all the time, or just broke after Taylor died?
definitely after Taylor died
Sociopath or psychopath?
sociopath definitely
>You can be evil, but not Evil
yeah i agree, actually i dont really see Elliot as a villain, i just cant see him doing evil for the sake of being evil...an anti-hero tho, doing the "wrong" things for the "right"reasons? i can totally see him doing that
it could also work to bring Arty along and both be "evil" while still keeping their lovely "dark lord and dark princess" chemistry

>>5997367
I still love the fact that friendzoning her destroyed her soul. Like I am sure Sally made her keep fit and look after her appearance so much just so he could use that to influence other people if needed and Elliot just shrugged it off at the end. Said, "Nay, I have my tiny badger wife, begone thot".

I might try one like that with it actually being Lily vs Cocksucker at the wheel and just saying fuck it, being evil is more fun and gets shit done, at some point.

>>5997370
I was thinking of maybe if Elliot ended up being the one to use AK instead of Linda and it started a downward spiral. Have Arty try to stop him but be unable to do it, kill him, and instead joining him. She did say till the end after all. Though I would hate to show Potter was right and she DID need or want us that bad and would go along even if we went Dark.

But yeah, Dark Lord and Lady Hallaster is fun. I also love the idea of Raven being our vizier <s>who might be planning to overthrow us and take Arty as her own</s>. I will also make Brighton be our garden keeper in every timeline.

Thank you both for the feedback.

>>5997479
>Brighton is the Biff Tannen of the Disappearing Hogwarts multiverse.

HeadQM

I am physically unable to write a short update.

>>5996623
Well, it happens. It was fun anyway, and second place is pretty good. Besides, it brought some new players to the quest! Thanks for everyone who voted for Arty, it warmed my heart.

>>5996735
She would definitely ask for the biggest, greasiest looking sandwich, with large fries and nuggets, not manage to eat even half of it, then look embarrassed as Elliot and Apollo finish her meal for her (or maybe insist on taking it home so she can eat later, even with Elliot protesting and saying reheating fastfood is a sin).

--

From the floor where Arty is lying on top of you, you kiss her forehead, gently weaving your fingers through her hair.

“That was a pretty scary jump, huh?”

“It was,” she says, voice muffled by your clothes. “Don’t do that again.”

“I’ll try not to.”

“Well done, Hallaster,” Brighton says, reluctantly. “You didn’t fuck it up.”

As far as Brighton goes, that was high praise.

“Thanks. Your turn now, Brighton. Be careful. I doubt the bridge is only going to be a bridge.”

“Yeah, I’m aware.” He turns to Lancelot as you and Arty stand back up. “I’m ready.”

“Very well,” Lancelot says in a cold tone, almost cruel. Gone are the walls of the room, replaced by a beautiful scenery of grass, the smell of the distant ocean filling your lungs. You find yourself watching over Brighton riding a horse up the green mountain-side, now in full plate armor with a helmet, much like Lancelot at his side.

As he crests the slope into a flatter area, you see the mountain is actually part of a narrow and steep fjord, 40 or so feet separating both sides. After a fall of far too many meters, a dark river filled with sharp rocks violently flows below, leaving no doubt that if the fall failed to kill you, the water would.

“Lovely,” Brighton says, dismounting and peeking over the edge. Curiously, Lancelot does the same at the same time, and with exactly the same inflection of displeasure.

“I was told there would be a bridge here,” she says, frowning. “That it was the only crossing in three day’s travel. Yet I see none.”

“That is because I removed it,” says a voice behind them. “And shall replace it with something more suitable for someone like you.”

They turn, and in front of them is an middle-aged man in light-blue robes with small stars twinkling across it. A little out of shape, with a small paunch. Taller than average, but somewhat stooped. A bearded face groomed with care, and green eyes. Ancient, ancient green eyes.

He wears a silvery, almost fluid-like cloak over his robes. He has a ring with an octagonal dark stone set upon it on his left hand. He holds a gray, knobby wand on his right.

A chill runs down your spine at the look of disgust on Merlin’s face.

“Merlin!” Lancelot says, sounding relieved. “Thank God, you are here! Guinevere has been abducted! We require your aid to rescue her!”

“No,” Merlin says, anger in his eyes. “You require my help to bed her, Lancelot.”

[Cont.]

>>5997621

“What?” She says, sounding shocked. “I- I would never-”

“Do not lie to me, Lancelot!” Merlin bellows, and it is like thunder. The very air around you seems to darken. “There is nothing my eye cannot see, there is no lie it cannot pierce! You have betrayed your King, Lancelot! You have betrayed those you have sworn to love and protect. How could you? How could you?”

There is barely contained fury within him, and Lancelot cowers in fear.

“I- I-”

“You are a fool, that is what you are! The both of you have hurt Arthur more deeply than you can possibly imagine!”

“He does not know! We made sure to never-”

“Of course he knows! Do you think him blind? Do you think him daft? He knew the day it happened! He has known it ever since. Only he refuses to heed my advice and keeps trying to earn her love back, love he never truly had. He refuses to heed my advice and throw both of you out of the highest window!”

Lancelot is quivering in both horror and shame.

“We never meant for it to go this far!”

“Really? And how far did you mean it to go? Did you intend on stopping it after the first time you sullied her? Or the tenth? Tell me, Lancelot, Whore of Benoic! When did you mean for it to stop!?”

Lancelot averts her eyes, looking away into the depths of the river. Her voice is meek and quiet.

“Please. Merlin. I… I just wish to save her. I just wish that which is best for her.”

“If you did, you would have left her with her husband.”

“I…” Lancelot forces the words out of her mouth. “I shall leave her. If that is your wish, I shall leave her. I shall rescue her and leave her in Arthur’s care.”

“No, you shall not,” Merlin says, and his eyes narrow. “You shall do no such thing.”

He raises his wand and waves it, and a blade appears connecting both sides of the fjord. Two lions appear on the other side, too, guarding it. He flicks his wand once again and Lancelot and Brighton’s gauntlets are launched off their hands and into the waters below.

“You wish for a bridge to reach Guinevere? Here is your bridge.” Merlin says, voice dripping with cruelty. “You wish to cross it and save your lover? Then you shall have to destroy the hands that made you a knight, the hands you used to pleasure her, the hands you used to stab your king in the back. You shall cross it, Lancelot, and if you survive the lions which hunger for your blood and get her back, you will flee. You will run. You will run with her as far as you can run, over land and over water. You shall take her away from Arthur, for I do not want to see you ever again.”

[Cont.]

>>5997622

“And I leave you with this knowledge, oh dark knight. If you attempt to go around, through the closest bridge, she will be dead by the time you arrive. And if you rescue her, know this: just as she did with Arthur, she shall do with you. One day, she shall betray you. She shall hurt you. You shall spend the rest of your days wondering if she has done so already. And when you come to know the pain you have caused your king, when you scream at the heavens for forgiveness for the hurt you’ve caused, when you beg for relief from the wrenching agony in your heart,” Merlin gets as close to Lancelot as he possibly can, flicking his wand to force her to look him in the eyes. “I will be there to say ‘no’.”

And he apparates away.

--

“Holy shit,” you manage to blurt out once you remember breathing again.

“Merlin was furious,” Linda says. “No. He was out of control.”

“Well, boo-fucking-hoo,” Arty says, sounding mad. She’s in front of you, your arms wrapped around her. “Big talk for someone who cheated on Ravenclaw for who knows how long.”

“In another life,” you say. “Maybe… Maybe when he came here, maybe when he viewed his memories again… Maybe he saw how he had hurt her. And when he saw someone doing the same to someone he cared for, he got mad. Not because he was mad with Lancelot. Because he was mad with himself.”

“I don’t buy it. He had plenty of years where he was both Merlin and Lailoken.”

“Maybe he stopped cheating on her during that period. Maybe by then he was already ‘bedridden’,” you say. “There is a lot about him we don’t know.”

“Stop trying to defend him!”

“I’m not trying to defend him, I’m just saying he saved the world a lot of times, so maybe he deserves the benefit of the doubt.”

“Maybe they were all virgins that were going to be sacrificed to summon the Unseelie to destroy the world,” Linda says with a smirk. “The only way he could possibly have stopped that from happening was with his dick.”

“You are all terrible.”

--

Brighton paces from one side to the other, Lancelot’s shadow and everything she brought having long vanished. On the other side of the “bridge”, the two lions eye him hungrily.

“No trees to chop, nothing to build a bridge with,” he mutters, thinking. “Maybe if I…”

He approaches the sword-bridge and tests it with a grass leaf. It cuts through without effort, extremely sharp. He then pulls out his sword and tries pressing it against the bridge, but it slides off. He tries using his armor to sort of pad the bridge, but it is too thin for anything made of metal to balance on top of it. He tries using some of the leather straps of his armor, the fabric of his clothes, anything to create a buffer between him and the bridge, but nothing works.

“I’m trying to outsmart bloody Merlin.” He tells himself. “A pissed off Merlin who probably wasn’t thinking straight, but still, Merlin. This doesn’t bode well for my hands.”

[Cont.]

>>5997624

He looks around some more for resources but, though beautiful, the terrain offers him nothing of use.

“Right… I’m trying to think like Lancelot, but that’s stupid because Lancelot thought like Lancelot and she got out of here with bleeding hands. So let’s not think like her. That leads to the question, what would guilt-ridden Lancelot, who was a crap knight but still a knight, not do?”

That’s when he looks at the horse and grins.

“Why, hello there, friend!”

--

“He’s not going to do what I think he’s going to do!” Arty shouts by you.

“He absolutely is.”

--

“Mother- fucker- heavy- piece of crap-” A blood covered Brighton grunts as he pushes half of a horse’s carcass onto the sword-bridge a few minutes later. It sinks onto the metal with a disgusting noise. “There! Enough flesh to keep this thing stable and if it didn’t cut through Lancelot’s fingers it won’t cut through this thing’s ribcage. A third of the way there. Now for the rest of it.”

He makes sure all the pieces of his armor are back on before taking one of the horse’s legs he’d cut up before and holding it with his left hand. With his right he holds his sword.

“Heeeeere kitty kitty.”

The two lions watch him intently, licking their lips.

“Can a lion make a jump this long?” He asks himself, stretching the meat over the cliff. “I don’t know, but let’s see if a tasty meal convinces you to try, huh? Come here, kitty kitty.”

One of the lions crouches down, getting ready to pounce.

“Good kitty, come here.”

The temptation becomes too much for one of the creatures and it shimmies back before darting forward and leaping over the rift on the earth and directly at Brighton. The Ravenclaw raises his sword at it, impaling it through his neck and chest, and the 400 pound creature slams against him at full speed. They tumble, the lion still clawing at the armor even as it dies.

Brighton rolls the creature off him with great effort and stands up, panting, sinking the sword on the ground to use as support as he recovers his bearings.

“One down, one to go-” The second lion tackles him from behinf, biting and scratching at anything it can as Brighton fights for his life. Fortunately, the creature claws at the well protected chest. The real problem is the massive weight of the creature, pouncing on top of him again and again. He struggles, the sword almost out of his reach from when the lion hit him.

He grabs the sword by the blade and sinks it into the beast, as he shouts “Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you!” Again and again as he desperately stabs at it from his position below him. Animal against man, lion against ravenclaw, hunger against rage.

When the beast dies, Brighton simply lays there, breathing.

“FUCK YOU, HALLASTER!” He shouts at the sky.

[Cont]

>>5997627

Shaking, he stands up, looking at his hands. They are covered in scratches and cuts from the sword.

“Bloody hell.” He says, shaking his head. “Precisely what I didn’t fucking want. Better than doing it the stupid way over Merlin's magic sword, I suppose.”

A whole lot of pushing and grunting later, the sword-bridge has been adorned with the carved bodies of a horse and two lions, and Brighton crawls over them to the other side before collapsing on the grass on the other side, utterly drained.

The fjord disappears and the room with King Arthur returns. You already have the Wiggenweld ready to pour down his throat.

“I’m not going to lie, Brighton,” you say as you feed it to him. “That was badass.”

“Fuck you. Fuck Merlin,” he says between ragged breaths. “And fuck you too, Arthur.”

King Arthur smiles.

“Well done, Elliot. Well done all of you. You have proven yourselves worthy to pass.”

“Thank you, Arthur,” you say. “Before you go… Is there anything you’d like us to do? If we reach Avalon, if your body is there, is there anything you’d like us to do to it? Bury it somewhere?”

He looks at you, and the sheer exhaustion in his voice is enough to bring you to tears over what this man has endured, so much of which you will never know.

“I have no family. Guinevere left me and Mordred betrayed me. Just let me rest. Somewhere I can watch the sun set over the sea. Somewhere beautiful. Somewhere… somewhere peaceful. Somewhere… finally… peaceful.”

You nod, your voice strained.

“I will. I’ll make sure I’ll lay you to rest. Go now, King Arthur. Be at peace.”

The shadow of the Once and Future King bows his head at you, and gladly fades away into nothingness.

Anonymous

>>5997621
KFC is better reheated, clears out a lot of the excess grease

Oh wait the update's done right now? OK

>>5997627
>>5997629
I FUCKING KNEEL BRIGHTON

>>5997629
Now we need to make sure Arty doesn’t kill him for what he just did to the horse.

But seriously, kudos to Brighton for out-of-the-box thinking. Here’s to hoping he doesn’t die later, he’s a good rival.

>>5997629
DUDE! You didn't ask him where's Excalibur, Rhongomyniad and Carnwennan! Goddammit Hallaster.

>>5997691
Pretty sure Excalibur is cursed/horcrux. So... yeah.

I guess Apollo would have been the man for the job, with the Veela? And if it came to it, Linda/Raven would have been best for Arthur? That is pretty cool. Once and Future Queen of Britain.

>>5997627
I kneel Brighton. Being kind of a sociopath who is fine with killing your horse seems to have been the ticket. Kinda fucked but can't argue with results.

Also fuck Merlin, spangly robed hypocritical asshole.

Additionally, I suppose we are levicorpus'ing the body of King Arthur out of here. That will be fun for Potter and the Aurors to see. Two acts of grave robbing on a single day.

Need to find a nice place, maybe on a cliff on the western side of the isles, to put him.

>>5997709
>on a single day.
Elliot... It's been a whole year outside the construct... You have to wake up...

Did we ever figure out what was the cup of sorrow? Goblet of fire is one part of the Holy Grail, but what's the other?

holy shit, Brighton, you absolute fucking derranged maniac, im seriously considering putting you in the movie poster now, that was amazing

>>5997709
I'm not reading your slop matpat, and that's still just one of the three weapons i mentioned.
>>5997714
If I had to guess, its floating in the darkness beyond time after the ritual ate Merlin and the Founders

>>5997718
>I'm not reading your slop matpat, and that's still just one of the three weapons i mentioned.

Okay... kinda weird, but you do you. But that is just a theory... a QuestTheory.

>>5997714
It probably got sucked up in the ritual. Or it is down here in Avalon. I don't recall an artifact like it being in the books, so who knows where it is.

>>5997717
That would be funny. I am now referring to Brighton as MC HorseKiller or HorseMutilator in the future.

>>5997712
Us being down here for like a year would be a way for a soft reset to happen... we come back and the hunt for us is off because they think we are dead, and they have to deal with Death Eater terrorists from us casting the mark. Kek. There are plenty of stories where going to a magic land fucks with how time flows for you vs everyone else.

>>5997629
Brighton is now my favorite character.

HeadQM

>>5997659
It took me a good while to think of a feasible way of getting through a fucking blade bridge without coming out the other side completely fucked.

>>5997709
Yeah, though Arty would maybe have also succeeded with the veelas, too. I hadn't quite decided on that. Linda was the one for Arthur. Everyone else would struggle on the Green Knight because the only other person who has anything close to the level of physical endurance that Elliot has gained from Crouch is Arty, but she has her own set of problems (besides being even shorter than he is)

So the final ideal order was Arty, Arty/Apollo, Elliot, Brighton and Linda, with everyone else needing rolls or straight up failing (Brighton with the Holy Grail, for example would have been a straight up fail since he isn't really the kind to give a shit).

>>5997784
Really anon? All it takes is a little horse dismemberment to change your allegiance?

Anonymous

>>5997833

Linda n' Arthur would be cool.

Also yes, the horse dismemberment was cool. Then again, not needing a horse to get around helps disassociate the though.

>>5997833
Arty and the Veela sounds like it might have been funny. Yeah, I can kind of tell Brighton doesn't really give a shit, what with the horse dismemberment and such. Even if it is just in a memory/vision, killing the horse to help make a bridge isn't something most of the crew would consider. I wouldn't have considered it either.

>>5997987
>killing the horse to help make a bridge isn't something most of the crew would consider. I wouldn't have considered it either.
And that's why he's in Ravenclaw

>>5997833
What would Arthur's challenge have been?

>>5998061
House of the intelligent, wise, and animal murderers.

>>5998082
A good question, if you can answer QM. Also, were there any other auto fails aside from Brighton and the Grail?

<s>For his B-Day or Christmas, we are totally giving Brighton a MLP figure with a detachable head.</s>

>>5997833
If Taylor was still alive and we didn't have brighton, which would Taylor autosucceed at?

HeadQM

>>5998082
That's staying a secret for now (you never know, maybe there will be somewhere where the same general idea can be used, wouldn't want to spoil it)

>>5998087
> Also, were there any other auto fails aside from Brighton and the Grail?
Grail: Brighton (doesn't give a shit)
Maidens: Brighton (would have gotten his dick sucked, then disemboweled)
Knight: Linda (not enough physical readiness to get through the gauntlet)
Bridge: Arty and possibly Apollo (wouldn't have come up with any bright ideas and wouldn't be able to get through the dumb way)
Arthur: Apollo

Elliot doesn't get one because he has MC privilege, but on the Sword-bridge it would have been a open write in scenario. If none of you managed to come up with a good enough way across, he'd have tried to cross it the dumb way and lost to the lions.

Anonymous

>>5998201
>(would have gotten his dick sucked, then disemboweled)

Hahahaha holy shit that is funny. He at least he a BJ before dying.

But damn, this thing was no joke. I am really glad we didn't have to send Apollo for the last task then, in the end.

>>5998201
I look forward to a point in the story again where we are out of the lethality sequence. Also hilarious and sad that Brighton would have failed so badly, and that the veela girls were in fact all straight up evil and going along with them would not stop them from eating all the knights. Guess I was wrong earlier. Total harpy death was the solution all along

>>5998305
I was wrong about that too. I thought they just wanted some dick and got pissed about being denied/outed as Veela. I mean, we have several examples of Veela/human crossbreeds, so I didn't think they were going to eat their partners after getting deep dicked. Thought they just brought the crazy fireball tossing harpy out just when pissed off at you.

I was pretty off about most of these, honestly.

I am also curious how Apollo would have solved it. Realized they were fucking with his head before even going inside, which he doesn't like at all, and commanded the knight to enact TVD?

>>5998323
Green Knight was a physical test instead of a negotiation or talking one, and sword-bridge was one of creativity and brains instead of a pain endurance one. We were so off the mark on these it's a miracle we all voted Elliot Knight and Brighton Bridge before. We were THIS CLOSE to failing by sending Brighton to Green Knight and Elliot to Sword Bridge

>>5998330
Yep. Brighton would have got a roll, and MAYBE we could figure it out as Elliot, but we have shit luck with dice, so then Apollo goes and auto-fails.

Also though, the Maidens was about tactics and maybe stopping the knights from doing what ye olde timey conquering forces were wont to do after "liberating" places, hence the tactician female. The vaguely bicurious female tactician lol. Yeah in retrospect, that was kinda silly.

And I guess I have underestimated how out of shape Linda is. I thought half a year of battle classes would have gotten her in shape a bit, but Arty, despite being a foot shorter and frail, is physically more capable than her. That 90DC was probably pretty generous, I guess, for her to fight off a bunch of harpy girls...

Her making the roll and ending up soaked in blood from smashing bitchs' faces in with the edge of shield would have been pretty amusing though.

>>5996477
I just finished this, writefag. I am in deep pain once again because of it. Thank you for writing this and the others. Now I will have to go to bed when I get home so I can silently cry into my pillow

>>5998305
If veela are like humans in any way, it's probable they have a variation within their species as to propensity to violence. These ones might be more murderous than average, essentially a bandit band that also steals semen... Or the Dealcouer's ancestor could have been unusually peaceful, like a token good monster-girl.

>>5998481
It's my pleasure to make you cry. Thank you for checking it out.

<s>If I can ever get it done, there is one I am working on which is intended to be about as sad as I can make it. So maybe stock up on clenex wipes.</s>

HeadQM

The medieval room around you fades, and the bright white halls return. You take a while to make sure everyone is alright and healthy, before looking for Irkalla, but you do not see him anywhere. You tap your cane on the floor and a red line appears once again, guiding you deeper and away from the black door back to nigredo.

“Well, you guided us once, so show us the way again.”

You follow the line, forcing yourself to not spend hours examining the embossed illustrations on the walls. The path isn’t that long and mostly straight with the eventual stairway down, until you reach a circular pool of liquid. Silvery light shines from it, bright and cloud-like, as if its contents were light made liquid. It gently slopes downwards, like a shallow basin.

“It’s like a massive pensieve,” you say.

“Didn’t your clone say he was the guardian of the Grail of Memories?” Arty asks.

“I would say this fits the bill.”

“And that’s the way forward?” Apollo asks, pointing to a door on the other side of the pool.

“To either citrinas or rubedo, depending on which interpretation of the Philosopher's Stone recipe you believe in. Or maybe it just had a black and white theme and it’s just Avalon. Who knows?” You shrug. “Either way, I doubt that it is going to open without me going through the process.”

“And you can put your memories in place?” Linda asks.

“Hopefully.”

“Alright, dive in. And don’t drown. You survived a lake of rot, we came too far to lose you to a damn puddle.”

You nod.

“I’ll be right back.”

You take off your shoes, socks and your robes, until you are just in your pants and shirt. With one foot, you touch the liquid, and it feels like it almost isn’t there, as if it was the exact temperature of your body. You start to make your way into it, the floor proving to not be as slippery as you expected, and soon you are wading through it with the liquid at your waist.

“Well,” you shout at your friends who are watching you intently. “See you in a bit.”

And you dive.

--

You are in a white space, floating. You look around, then up, then down, which is when you see the cube coming up, or you falling down to it, fast.

It is a few meters away from you, and you come to a sudden halt as it stops as its middle is right in front of you. It is not solid. No, instead it is composed of hundreds of dark spheres the size of your head, about twenty of them in each direction in a neatly spaced grid. You look down at your hand, and wrapped around it is a rosary of black beads, from each of them a small line comes, leading to each of the thousands of spheres.

You breathe a sigh of relief. Your memories, safe and sound.

[Cont.]

>>5999164

You wander around, peeking into them and watch your days pass inside each of them. Each of your days as a sphere. You touch them and they join your body, join your mind where they belong. It is a slow process touching one by one, some five thousand of them now that you’re sixteen, and you can only wonder if the process was the same for Merlin, checking each of his days of a hundred-year life one by one, or if you were special because of what happened with Nimue.

In the end, it doesn’t matter. They'll all get back where they belong, and for now that’s what is important to you.

You go through all your years, gathering them. The earliest ones are faded. The more recent ones are firm and tough. Each its own. After a good half-an-hour of collecting, you are done… Yet there is one more. One memory that isn’t dark, but tinged slightly red, as if to show it was important.

Carefully, you touch it, and you understand it.

It is the one memory, if Merlin was to somehow lose all others, the one memory he needed to always remember, that all his selves needed to know above all else.

It’s the instructions on how to use the Elixir of Life in the depths of Avalon to create a body of unimaginable power and pour a soul into it.

Simple, easy, made it so there could be no possible mistake and in just a few short minutes, engraved into your brain with letters of fire twenty meters high.

You know then that, like the words of a prophecy, this knowledge can never be erased from your mind without destroying it whole. While you remain, it will remain with you. You might not know how Avalon creates its elixir, or why its structure is the way it is, or why so many steps and fanciful areas, but you know that it takes a hundred years to gather its power and a hundred more to create its liquid. You know how to take it and create the body Merlin would have crafted for himself.

And you feel yourself fade away, trying to return to reality.

But you can also feel something else. Older memories. Ancient memories. Ones that don’t belong to you but that lingered here because they were important. Because they mattered. Yet there is not enough time. You can only reach out to one of them.

> The Day I Was Banished From Atlantis
> The Day I Watched Atlantis Fall
> The Day I Bent Fate And Forged the Prophecies

Anonymous

>>5999165
> The Day I Bent Fate And Forged the Prophecies

Tough choice but knowing more about his BS Sight beyond Sight seems helpful.

>>5999165
>> The Day I Bent Fate And Forged the Prophecies
>>5999167
agreed
knowing why he was banished or how atlantis died would be useful, but knowing how he creted all this prophecy bullshit could prove essential to control it, evade it or walk around it

>>5999179
Yeah, we know he was Banished for being a half-breed already. Probably for overstepping his position as one by fucking around with stuff he wasn't allowed to, or taking great works for his own. Interesting to know exactly what happened but eh.

Knowing exactly how Atlantis deleted themselves is a close second for me, since that would be good to understand what happened so we don't screw the pooch like they did but considering a Prophecy is currently screwing us, seems best.

If someone has a good argument, I would change my vote though.

>>5999165
> The Day I Watched Atlantis Fall
Ayo this could tell us WHERE atlantis was. Which I suspect will soon be relevant in another arc.

>>5999187
we can't exactly go to somewhere that literally doesn't exist anymore

>>5999165
>> The Day I Bent Fate And Forged the Prophecies

>>5999165
> The Day I Bent Fate And Forged the Prophecies
Atlantis. Home. Least it was before I went and fucked it up

>>5999249
Well said. As far as we know, the only things left from there are the artifacts Merlin stole, maybe some left over from Atlantean diaspora, and the blood in wizardkind's veins.

But there is also Agartha, Hyperborea, Lemuria, ect that we can raid the ruins of.

And because we have been lied to about the Hall and when we went there were blindfolded, knowing about prophesies seems the most interesting.

>>5999255
I think Merlin, Lailoken, what ever didn't cause the fall, probably. Hell, part of why he got kicked out may have been because he tried to warn them. I am curious to a degree about the "Gods" who sent the Bull of Heaven, which Merlin's dad and his bud slayed. Who are the "Gods"? A race even greater than the Atlanteans?

>>5999322
>Hyperborea
I fear that our true foe may be Yakub, the greatest wizard of all time.

>>5999165
> The Day I Watched Atlantis Fall
I’m willing to stick to theorycrafting for how Merlin bent fate (I’m assuming divination as we know it is actually tapping into a spell he created that only shows futures that don’t eliminate his existence) but I can’t theorycraft well enough to figure how they erased themselves.

Semi-related, is there an explanation for how information can supposedly only go back 5 hours, but we can view the future way beyond that? Supposedly divination always comes true, so that implies the future is sending information way past that 5-hour mark to influence the past.

We know there’s no limit because our whole past was rewritten after the fight with Salazar, but I assume wizardkind has had to make up explanations for why that discrepancy exists.

>>5999411
Could be the 5 hour limit is something Merlin imposed at some point because the Atlanteans tried to go back WAY more and butterfly'd themselves out of existence. He did create the Time Turners after all; maybe that was as much as he though was safe, even for him, to do. Maybe they tried shit with the Cup of Sorrow, and it only affected them because how the ritual was made it would only affect them, since they considered non-Atlanteans to be non-human? Merlin did use it to create the Interdict and got scooped up accidentally and tossed into the void so we know shit with it can backfire. The 5-hour limit might be a limit of modern non-Atlantean magic, and they could do more back then. Or if you go back further, you end up always creating a timeline which you would never have tried to go back at all, and therefore you don't, and it solves itself. I hate time travel shit in general.

Prophecies can come true because it will happen no matter what, or they can be misheard or misinterpreted and people do shit they wouldn't normally do because of that and makes it happen. Or even hearing it correctly, it shifts your behavior in a way that makes it happen. There are also ones like about Voldy being defeated, which can have multiple ways to resolve themselves; Harry or Neville could have either been the one named in it, for example.

If Voldemort had just ignored the damn thing, he probably would have won.

But Helga did speculate that the reason prophecies were no longer being made is that there were so many timelines where things couldn't be changed, where doom was certain, and that if you aren't able to change it, why would you see them at all?

>the future is sending information way past that 5-hour mark to influence the past.

As I said, prophecies might always be true, but we have shit like Neville/Harry and the fact that Elliot could just trip when helping his future daughter with a school play and "rip the stars from heaven" by tearing down part of the set with stars on a shitty black cloth sheet. Could end the world by playing a video game where he destroys Earth. All true, but not like people would assume.

Why I think learning more about Merlin's Hall of them is a good idea.

>>5999331
>We wuz wizards an' shit

>>5999506
I agree that the 5-hour limit is likely an arbitrary one imposed by Merlin and no one knows enough to circumvent it, but I wanted to know if there was an “official” explanation for it among wizards. The discrepancy exists yet Harry was super confident about that limit and I’m trying to wrap my head around what a “reasonable” explanation to square that contradictory piece of info from the wizarding world’s perspective is.

Do they just ignore it? Spout some BS about how the future is treated differently than the past even though it’s just a different frame of reference and shouldn’t matter? Say that time turners and divination follow different rules without considering how divination gets around it? I’d love it if the accepted reasoning is “Merlin was a dick” but I doubt it is.

>>5999574
think the colses we get is the explanation in the play, but it doesn't really explain it much further anyway

>>5999331
Kek. Can you imagine?

>>5999165
> The Day I Watched Atlantis Fall

>>5999637
>the play

Ewww. And QM has said that aside from names and directions the trio went, he really isn't using anything from there.

<s>Is it as bad as it looks just from summaries and clips?</s>

It may be that a person can only go back 5 yours, but just info can go back further? Or prophesy is more like seeing how shit is going to play out, an excellent prediction that is just magically enhanced? If you subscribe to a hard determinist view of the universe, if you have enough knowledge of the past and present, what will happen in the future is easy to see. One of Merlin's 'IRL' powers was perfect knowledge of the past, so maybe that is why he had such powerful Seer abilities.

Like I said, I hate time travel stuff in general, and Rowling's whole Wizarding World starts to fall apart if you look too closely.

>>5999756
i liked it, even though the plot got stupid when <s>"voldemort's daughter"</s> showed up

>>5999760
Yeah, when I found out spoiler is when I lost any interest I might have had...

>>5999772
spoiler is only in the end and a bit near the start, a minor character despite being the main antagonist

im sorry? what the fuck is this about a play and that spoiler? this is the first time i´ve about any of that

>>5999776
There is a Harry Potter Stage Play that takes place post books. It has Harry's son, Albus, and Draco's, Scorpius, as 2 main characters. It involves time turners.

>>5999776
It is called Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, btw.

It is widely reviled by the larger fandom, though I have only read snips of the script, synopses, and some clips.

<s>Yeah turns out snake hitler had a kid with Bellatrix in it.</s>

>>5999785
>>5999778
>cursed child
ahhh, its that one, i´ve heard of that before
>spoiler
fucking how...

>>5999788
Yeah...

She also apparently could out duel Potter, and it takes like all the original cast plus the kids to take her down.

This quest, written for free on an Indonesian Cave-painting website, is better than this multimillion dollar production seems to be.

Spoiler also looks like she browses tumbler and identifies as a dragon-kin. Oh she and has zoomy back tats.

>>5999793
please stop, the more i know about it the worse it gets, its hurts reading this

>>5999795
she's only actually in it for about 10-15 minutes and has basically 0 relevance to anything, despite being its main villain, the timetravel mess is much more interesting

>>5999798
You know... that makes it kinda worse sounding.

Main villian.

Zero real relevance.

IDK, haven't and won't watch it, so maybe it isn't AS bad as it seems. But just seeing the actress for her in I guess the biggest production was enough to turn me off of it. Also, from the stuff I know, the time turner shit sounds pretty dumb.

>>5999165
> The Day I Watched Atlantis Fall
I'm guessing this has more info on the artifacts, the Mirror, the Goblet of Fire, the Cup of Sorrows, etc. We probably want to catch up on why those are important. Also what getting wiped from time entails since that may help us with Lily and Taylor down the line.

>>5999165
> The Day I Watched Atlantis Fall
This is arguably the most important event in history, ironic since it never happened!

>>5999746
Yes, I can imagine.
>"You all played your parts exactly as I expected, my creations. From the moment that I created the first white wizard, I had manufactured absolute victory over my enemies. Your very essence commands you to do my bidding, pulling you inexorably towards a destiny of my own creation. Everything that your people have ever done was all in service to me, from the greatest of heroic deeds to the most vile of dark magic. Merlin was merely a puppet obeying his strings. And now, thanks to him, I have been reborn - the only one for whom the rules he placed do not apply to."
>"Holy shit, why is your head so big?"

>>6000204
An opponent not fit for Lord Hallaster, Dark Lord Hallaster, or even Bright Lord Hallaster. The only one who could stop him would be <s>Grand Wizard Elliot</s>.

><s>"Shut up nigger."</s>

Had another thought. We now know how to use Avalon’s elixir to craft a powerful body and shift a soul into it.

By thinking through that process enough, we could also figure out a way to create a terrible body and pour a soul into it. Like Salazar.

I think we have our primary solution to the Salazar problem. Put him in a crafted body, kick him back into the void once the Time Turners are out of it. Or work with Potter to figure out a modified form of creating horcruxes that uses Merlin’s elixir or its general principles to sever the soul and the horcrux spell to shift it into an object and figure out what to do with it from there. Skips the murder step in exchange for possibly using some of an Elixir that takes over 200 years to form. No biggie.

>>6000432

What we could do is make a body for Helga and have her transfer into it. Once she got used to it, she should be able to use Ancient magic, and we know Isadora could use her power to take parts of a person's soul, like pain or suffering, and rip it out. I am sure Hufflepuff Prime was a better witch than someone who came 400 years after her.

Get Helga in a body, help her relearn all the shit she forgot, then get her to use ancient magic juju to pull Cocksucker out of Scorpius.

Also has the benefit of denying him or Merlin a body for a couple of centuries if we can't destroy this place in the end.

And regardless, we have to do something with the elixir, make sure it can't fall into the wrong hands. Pour it down the drain if that is what it takes.

If this shit shakes out in a way where Potter doesn't kill us, moving St. Mungo's anywhere else would be good. Avalon requires distilled pain to make the Elixir so if there isn't a hospital right above it, it would stop working in the future, if we can't burn this place to the ground. Make this location unplotable, put every charm around to make it impossible to enter, ect.

>>6000454
This is of course assuming the Gate went with her, or we found a way to seal it up. Get the time turners out of Nothingness, or what ever.

>>6000454
Wasn't it implied in a prior thrwad that Avalon si part of the reason St. Mungo's works so well as a place of healing, too, though?

>>6000454
If we chose to give it to one of the founders, Godric or Rowena would make more sense. Too risky to get rid of Helga. Even if the gates moves with her there’s no guarantee that she’d be able to fight it like she does now when she’s also managing a physical form. If it doesn’t move then we’re boned anyway.

It’s been way longer than intended between uses, so I assume it’s “overflowing” and contributing to the health of people in St. Mungo’s, but that also implies a proper use of the process is a one-time deal with no extra. Using only part of it to purposely corrupt the process could be useful in itself against Merlin and Salazar. Depends on how well we can figure out other uses for the potion though.

>>6000467
It was. Unlike the ancient magic jar that we destroyed earlier, removing Avalon should have a noticeably negative effect on others.

I am willing to turn over that decision to others later if possible. We shouldn’t be the only one making decisions that may doom the world centuries from now, there’s so many decisions like that to make!

>>6000524
There's a sort of appeal in not using the Elixir and simply having the excess life energy generated go back up to help cure people in the hospital. I wonder if once the Elixir is used, St. Mungo's will not help people recover as well? It needs pain from people to charge the process for 100 years. I don't think using it to give Elliot and Arty immortality will work, since Merlin had to keep using it to reincarnate himself for so long. Neither Elliot nor Arty will ever want that if the other isn't there with them. And by design the Elixir is only for one individual.

HeadQM

>>6000467
>>6000524

It is the other way around. There was a place of healing, and Avalon was built under it because it was a place people would gather with their sick. As Nimue said "This was always a place of healing, and, as such, always a place of pain. And he harnessed that pain, diminished it, to create a pure Essence."

Avalon was built there because it uses the pain of others, both physical and emotional, and the place with most pain is the place people go to get rid of it. "The walls of hospitals have heard more prayers than the walls of churches," or however that saying goes.

Anonymous

>>6000524
We did say we would get her a body... if we could without just leaving the Gate unguarded, we should. This is the best chance we might ever get.

>>6000535
>simply having the excess life energy generated go back up to help cure people in the hospital

That is also tempting, if possible. Giving people like Alice, Frank, and even Gilderoy their lives back.

If a small sip, dose, what ever could give Arty a normal lifespan, not immortality even, I know how I will vote, however.

>>6000536
Ah, thanks for clarifying. I thought that was how it was written but figured we learned that the book had the two flipped for some reason. With how much has passed into legend I could see someone saying Avalon was placed in a location of healing if they didn’t realize that Avalon itself generated that effect to make people consider building one there.

The fact that Avalon diminishes pain by using it does mean it assists in making St. Mungo’s what it is though. No idea how quantifiable that pain reduction is compared to the norm, so we run the gamut of nobody noticing Avalon’s destruction to St. Mungo’s suddenly having trouble keeping patients stable with their current procedures since they’re different from comparable hospitals that don’t have Avalon to work as a balm.

We could also bungle things and have it feed the pain back into the area, causing staff and visitors to share the burden of the patients. This is ancient engineering and we’re a sharply-dressed monkey, what do we really know about taking it apart?

>>5999165
I just realized:
Is Helga getting memories back too in this pool?

>>6000611
That... is a very salient question.

>>6000611
>>6000625
If she did, the next question would be if she picked up any additional ones from Merlin. She’s pretty sure her prophecy knowledge came from him after all.

>>6000611
i wonder if the pool could "cure" Lockhart's memory destruction

>>6000648
That'd imply we may obtain memories from when we got obliviated by Salazar.

If Helga gets some recovery, the other house heads should probably take a dip too.

>>6000651
would they get any benefits from it tho? i don think they have manifested inside them yet, they havent given us any signs of it so far, still support the idea tho

>>6000653
they said it'd take a bit before they woke up again

>>6000611
Oh god, is the BEAST going to regain MERLIN'S memories?

>>6000719
Seems hard for it to filter through us, Helga, and the gate to get to Merlin.

It seems unlikely that any of the others are getting memories though. We’re the one poking the crystals after all.

I’d expect we would get more of their memories if anything. Kinda like how we’re grabbing one of Merlin’s memories right now.

>>6000773
I hope you're right, anon. Something tells me the Beast, armed with knowledge and expertise, would be a far more dangerous prisoner.

>>6000795
Speaking of dangerous prisoners, what's everyone's over/under that Crouch is gonna use the dumbass prison guard lady to escape? I am like 100% on it. I mean, when is he going to have a better chance than when all this shit is going down?

I would also like to remind people that the now 1 armed attacker who loved exposition is still on the loose. <s>Also still pretty sure it is Bill or maybe Percy Weasley.</s>

>last update was 2 and a half days ago
i know it means nothing, but im always nervous when it takes longer than usual to get an update, feels like a massive thing is about to happen, which, i mean, it is, but my nerves cant help it, its like the update is building up

>>6001672
You have no idea how bad I want to shitpost worst-end scenarios in response to your comment. I already had to delete one since it involved Arty and figured it would hurt other anons to think about.

I don’t have much else to contribute unfortunately. My HP knowledge is rather lacking compared to others in the thread.

HeadQM

>>6001672
I would never drop a massive twist after almost three days of waiting, anon, don't be ridiculous :)

--

You are atop a mountain on the coast, watching the sea to the south, to the east and to the west. The sun is setting soon, and you wait with a heavy heart, not even the salty smell of the sea filling your lungs can stop your gloom.

It is happening today. You can feel it, like a man on a beach watching the unstoppable tsunami approach, knowing doom is at hand. It feels like poor design that it happens on such a beautiful day, but it soothes you that maybe they will have a nice final sight.

“You said it would be a nice day,” a voice comes from behind you. “You haven’t gotten it wrong yet.”

You turn to see the old woman approach. She looks… old. Too old. None in the City have ever looked like this. There are too many wrinkles. There is white hair. There is ugliness. You don’t know what your father ever saw in her, how he could ever have thought her beautiful.

Yet you still love her just the same, so who are you to judge?

“Mother,” you say in a chastising tone. “I told you not to come.”

“And you knew I would.”

“I can’t see everything. Just the important things. Time-”

“Yeah, yeah,” she says, waving her hand. “Time this, time that. It still sounds like nonsense.”

She was cleverer than the other mud people, but she still struggled with the simplest of concepts. You sigh, shaking your head and flicking your fingers. It cleans some of the filth off her, enough to soothe some of your pain at her state, but not enough that she notices it and complains.

“So, what is all this, then?” She asks, pointing to the pile of artifacts on the floor. There are many of them, in many different shapes.

“Things I stole from the City. Some are things they won’t miss because they think they’re trinkets, even though your people would think whoever wields them is a god. Some are things they won’t miss because they’ll be gone by then.”

“Shouldn’t you hide them, then?”

“No need. In moments, Time will force them to be in places they couldn’t have possibly arrived at, lost and scattered, and I shall spend the next seven decades searching for them. Some to use, some to destroy.” She looks puzzled at your words, but doesn’t question. She turns to the landmass to the south, beyond the sea.

“You know, I always wondered what was over there.”

“Your people have boats already, don’t they? I’m sure they can barely stay afloat but-”

“Women can’t go on boats,” she states simply.

“Ah. I can change that.”

“Don’t you dare. Your father has already done too much damage with this devilry already.”

“It’s not devilry, it’s… Forget it. I can take you there, some day.”

“That would be nice.” She shimmies under your arm, and she feels frail. Weak. It makes your heart ache. “Tell me about the future, Merl.”

[Cont.]

>>6001714

“In… Many, many moons, more moons than you have days,” you say, waving your hand and summoning a soft seat for you to share. You turn it towards the east before sitting down. “There will be a people called the Greek, born in islands far in that direction. They shall build with white stone, and their cities will be grand, and their names will echo through time. They will have great boats that can sail the sea, and they will reach out to discover what is out there. And they shall pass between this mountain and that mountain,” you point south, to the other landmass. “And exit into an ocean that is bigger than they can comprehend. And they shall name these mountains over a great hero of myth, and put in great letters a warning for would-be sailors that there is nothing out there, that in that direction there is only blue, forever.”

“But they’ll be wrong,” you say. “Because there is. It is just far, far away. Too far for them to reach with what they can do, too far for them to reach with what they know. But it is there, and it is a land as vast as this one, and with many, many beauties.”

“Will they ever get there?” She asks, like a curious child.

“I do not know, I can’t see that far. But I suppose they will. That is the beauty my people looked away from in horror. The ever moving progress of generations. When you don’t die, you don’t create great things for others, you create them for yourself. But you? You who know you won’t live long? Those brightest among you, they begin things that will outlive them. They start processes, things which will move on, which will improve, which will make the ones after them great. They share, because they know they won’t be here forever, and if they don’t share the things they’ve built with others, once they’re dead it will be lost.”

“I would like,” she says. “To live forever.”

“I know,” you say, pained. “I’m sorry I can’t make you a new body.”

“It’s fine. You are here now, and that is what matters.”

“Ah, would you look at the time,” you say, wiping away the tears. You flick your finger and the couch slowly turns so you can watch the sunset, then you put your hand in hers. “Pay attention now. I’ll try to hold the view for you.”

You hold on to her hand and watch. Slowly, the great sphere of fire dips down under the horizon, its light shimmering over the water and the waves in reds and yellows and purples. Just as it disappears, in that lost moment between day and night, there is a flash of green and, just at the edge of the horizon, Atlantis flickers into view.

[Cont.]

>>6001716

Towers of gold and diamond and marble and obsidian. Spires of platinum guarded by great silver dragons, defying the dying light of the day as they glow with warmth. Roads that stretch ever on, filled with perfect people surrounded by glimmering magical barriers, flying around, clueless to their impending doom. It is marvel made manifest. It is beauty made into reality. It is everything anyone could ever wish for, times infinity.

It is your old home.

You tighten your grip on her hand using your magic to allow her to see it for just a while longer, extending the instant as she gasps in awe, tears welling up in her eyes.

“It’s…” She begins saying, but there are no words to describe it. For someone who lived her life in mud huts, it might as well have been heaven.

And if you ignored all the flaws in its people, all the greed, all the arrogance and callousness… It had been.

There is a point of darkness in the middle of the city, seen even through metal and stone and flesh. It grows in an instant, expanding to cover everything, all the gilded towers, and the people, and the beauty, and more. It goes over the sea, covering an area so large you fear it might reach you.

But it doesn’t, and just as quickly as it happened, it is gone, having never happened at all.

It didn’t even disturb the waves.

“Why, that was a nice sunset,” your mother says beside you, her memory already gone. She wouldn’t remember that moment, you know it. She wouldn’t remember your father. It was a testament to her strength that she could even remember you, and you don’t doubt that strength is why your father loved her. She can see something is wrong with you. “Is everything alright?”

“Yes, mom, it’s just…” You stand up, voice garbled. “It’s nothing. There is… There is something I need to do now. Can you find your way back to the village?”

“I can. Be well, Merl.”

“You… you too.”

She leaves, passing by where moments before there were artifacts and now there is nothing, and you reach out towards the horizon. It is a strain on your powers, but you know where it is, so it doesn’t take long to find. It comes towards you, stopping but a meter from the edge of the mountain. It stands there, the only remain of what was once the greatest civilization to ever exist, hovering impassively. Impossibly.

And it shows you in Atlantis, with your mother and your father, all accepted and cheered.

And you cry, for you know that will never happen, for Atlantis is dead and gone, and dead is a long, long time.

--

[Cont.]

>>6001718

You burst out through the surface of the liquid with a gasp, scrambling for air. You saw it! Atlantis! Past the Pillars of Hercules, past Gibraltar, just like in Plato’s notes! It was everything, everything the stories and myths had said and more, just so much more! And there were artifacts, so many artifacts, the Cups, the Hallows and others, and the Mirror at the end, who had taken the full force of Atlantis’ annihilation and survived unscathed!

And Merlin. A kind Merlin. A gentle one, with a different face. One that hadn’t gone through thousands of years of struggle. One that had loved his mother and longed for the brotherhood of his peers. One that had been there to watch, because he needed to see, because he needed to be sure. One that hadn’t yet realized the size of the task ahead of him.

Your head is still spinning as you climb out of the pool, shaking the silvery liquid out of your hair. A hand offers you a towel, and you accept it, drying your face.

“Had a nice swim, little Elliot?”

You freeze, a chill running down your spine. You put down the towel and see nothing less than seven masked men in the room, and Scorpius smiling. There are three more slumped in a corner, either stunned or dead, and Arty, Apollo, Linda and Brighton all tied up, gagged and without their wands, struggling against their bonds.

Four of Scorpius’ men have their wands pointed at your friends. Three of them, including one with only one arm and a cracked mask from which a tuft of red hair peeks through, have their wands pointed at you, and so does the Malfoy heir.

“If he tries to react or hex me at any point, kill the little one before doing anything else,” Scorpius says to the others without taking his eyes out of you, still smiling politely but forcedly. His left eye is red and twitching, and as he stretches his hand towards you, his movements are stiff. “Now, little Elliot, your wand. Handle pointing towards me, if you don’t mind.”

> Write in

Anonymous

>I would never drop a massive twist after almost three days of waiting, anon, don't be ridiculous :)

oh, you can eat my entire ass HeadQM
HOW THE FUCK DID THEY GET THERE?! THERE IS NO POSSIBLE WAY THEY SHOULD BE THERE!

we have to get through to Scorpius himself and Bill Weasley behind that mask there
if we can't get through to either, this becomes impossible

>>6001738
The door to Avalon path was still open
The scanner stick put the colored dots on all the walls
They just walked all the way through the trials we already cleared

>>6001739
bullshit, if they are there then why isnt Potter there too?
no way in hell he isnt huntting us down by now

also, dont think i didnt noticed the reference HeadQM, you cheeky fuck<br>https://youtu.be/lAzzdITK3MU?si=bIP<wbr>hM6uIKYmOMAa9

>>6001720
I knew this would happen from the moment the door wasn’t closed behind us but somehow I had hope that it’d be Potter getting here first instead of Salazar

We are so incredibly fucked bros

holy shit HeadQM, you actually got me excited and worried and hyped and stressed all at the same time, curse you, but god damn, you are good at this<br>im gonna take a shower to clear my head and think about what the fuck can we do here...

>>6001752
I don't think there was a way to prevent anybody from entering. The door wasn't able to be closed, it stayed open didn't it?

>>6001757
let's look first at the scene
>seven masked men
>Scorpius
8v1
>three more slumped in a corner, either stunned or dead
They had 11 total going into this place
>Arty, Apollo, Linda and Brighton all tied up, gagged and without their wands, struggling against their bonds
Wandless nonverbal magic could do something, but then they die
>Four of Scorpius’ men have their wands pointed at your friends
Out of reach
>Three of them have their wands pointed at you, and so does the Malfoy heir.
The immediate threat
>only one arm and a cracked mask from which a tuft of red hair peeks through
This motherfucker >>6000815 was correct. It's Bill or Percy, and we can use that to our advantage. That's an opening
>If he tries to react or hex me at any point, kill the little one
The chain
>His left eye is red and twitching
>his movements are stiff
No way he went through the Lake of Rot. Maybe he had somebody else do it, and that somebody got carried out of here? He sure as hell didn't go through any Arthur trial, and he didn't go into the pool when Elliot was in it since he's out here untouched.

The rest of the scene from >>5999164
>The path isn’t that long and mostly straight with the eventual stairway down, until you reach a circular pool of liquid. Silvery light shines from it, bright and cloud-like, as if its contents were light made liquid. It gently slopes downwards, like a shallow basin.
>You take off your shoes, socks and your robes, until you are just in your pants and shirt.
All we have is the clothes on Elliot's back plus his wand of course.

We are SCREWED

>>6001720
>"Salazar. Pleasure to see you again. Oh, and Scorpius too, I suppose. You there, Weasley, I assume you and the rest have all figured out what this is about: long-dead witches and wizards being resurrected by ancient magic. did your boss tell you he has an old racist snake-fellater in his brain?"

>>6001864
>>6001720
ACTUALLY, adding to this, bluff to insinuate he cast the Dark Mark. Meld truth and fiction.

>"When I saw that stupid snake-skull in the sky, I knew you were about to make your move. Embarrassed I beat you here?"

After all, who is the more likely candidate to stir up blood-purity fanatics: a pair of mudbloods, a pair of (at best) half-bloods, and Neville"I killed Nagini" Longbotoom's kid, or the son of a pure-blooded Death Eater?

>>6001869
>>6001864
This sort of double-bluff might be very interesting if we can pull it off

>>6001872
Right?? Come on, anons, it's the best idea I could come up with!

>>6001873
Problem is if Scorpius was somewhere known and could not have been in the Forest to cast the Dark Mark

>>6001874
If he says that, act surprised. Roll with it.

>"Wait, you were? How the hell did you pull that off, then?!"

If these guys don't know about our training with Crouch, there's no way they know of WE could have learned the Mark and, with our ancestry, it legitimately makes no sense for us to be Death Eaters. For anyone who doesn't know exactly what madness has been happening in our life, Scorpius LEGITIMATELY seems like a more likely Dark Lord, ESPECIALLY since he's a weird, smug shit telling them to kill a little girl.

<s>Well, a very short teenager with a birth defect, but still.</s>

>>6001877
OK, what do we do about Percy or Bill behind that mask?

>bluffing our way out of this
i was actually thinking about this exact same thing.
>we cant do anything with our wand or Arty immediately dies
>if we do a quick shield spell for her, then either us or our friends die, followed by Arty
>we cant attack Scorpious/Salazar because then Arty dies

our best chance to get out of here alive (and probably in one piece...probably) is if we out-snake snake prime.
IF we are going with the assumption that those masked men arent secret blood eaters and are just some VERY confused police men being misguided by snake prime, then revealing enough of whats going on is very likely to make them doubt and probably get some of them in our side, we know Percy Weasley is stupid enough to fall for it, he did so before when Voldermort was being reborn, but i think that would be a bit metagaming, since i dont think we´ve even meet any actual member of the Weasley family, but regardless, if our assumption is true, he WOULD be the very first one to betray them, he isnt bad, just stupid

If they are all actual blood eaters (which i dont think they are) they would still struggle a bit to act on his orders, they want mud-blood genocide, not all-life-including-them genocide, so that SHOULD be enough to make them think twice about this entire thing

so, i guess im supporting these
>>6001864
>>6001869
maybe a couple of jabs at his ego, calling him out and putting on the spot should break his charade

<s>please, this NEEDS to work...</s>

>>6001880
If he's not a magic-racist (which would be a weird shift of a Weasley kid), then managing to convince him Scorpius is a Death Eater hosting the ghost of Salazar Slytherin will turn him against him. Even if we can just make him think it MIGHT be true, it could buy us a precious delay.

Well RIP Atlantis. Sounds like they got Akira'd. Wonder what really happened to them, something of Merlin's doing or their own folly? And why did the Mirror survive the fall? Is it older than Atlantis itself?

>>6001864
>>6001869
Supporting.

>>6001770
>All we have is the clothes on Elliot's back plus his wand of course.
There's also the deathly hallows, which only Salazar should know about. If we can figure out how to get our hands back on them, we might have a fighting chance.

>>6001935
sounds like it was Merlin's doing

HeadQM

>>6001935
>>6001938
That was not the feeling you got from the memory. It wasn't guilt Merlin felt. It was powerlessness.

Anonymous

>>6001935
>the deathly hallows
>get our hands back on them
They are part of the fucking door to the Avalon path outside in the secret lab under St. Mungo's. They will only be ejected once we complete the Avalon trials and do something with the Elixir and the perfect vessel. They are a non-factor here

>>6001720
>Voice in your head just telling you to kill children and not molest them? Thats good I suppose. Met Nimue I gather? Lovely lady.

<s>Fight, Malfoy.
</s>

>Weasley I am in fact disappointed in you though. What you do behind a mask. Ginny would be horrified at what you are doing, she seemed like such a nice person.

>You need me alive and unconscious otherwise I would have got a stunner or a green bolt to the face the second I was out of that pool. So no I shall be keeping my wand I think. And if you so much as touch them I put it to my neck, and you know exactly what happens then, don't you "Malfoy".

>>6002204
Oh hey, yeah, we're a walking reality bomb. If we die, game over for everyone. We should abuse that more.

>>6002249
Yeah and Scorpy knows it, though I am pretty sure Cocksucker is at the helm right now.

One thing... how the fuck did they even make it down here. We had the cane to help us. But spells seem to not really work down here. Lumos didn't do shit, Patronus didn't work. Nimue was probably up and running once more.

Did Malfoy/Cocksucker have to go through the worst memories of his goons? That is a lot of people.

Is this even real?

>>6002263
>how the fuck did they even make it down here
We marked the walls with the cane on the way in. They just followed the linear path.
>Did Malfoy/Cocksucker have to go through the worst memories of his goons?
I had the thought he sacrificed all of Scorpius' memories to Nimue, so he's the only one piloting now with Scorpius mindwiped or gone. I could be wrong though

>>6002365
don't think that would really work with how the lake fucks with your head

>>6002365
I was thinking the sparks faded after a few minutes.

I think Scorpy is fighting back some, which is why his body isn't working well, and one eye is bloodshot. From Cocksucker attempting to assume total control and someone fighting back.

>>6002368
Then I'm wrong

>>6002447
What if one of the party landed a spell on him before they got suppressed? Good point on the Scorpius rebellion

>>6001864
>>6001869
We're Slytherin, so this could be our best shot.

>>6001864
>>6001869
>>6001877
+1 all these
Talking is all we can do here with nothing but wand and clothes on Elliot

>>6002474
Could be, but if Cocksucke/Salazar wasn't in to total control, I assume he would fight from the back where he was safe. He did bring a bunch of dudes, unlike last light.

Hell maybe Linda did get shot in, given how much she hates the guy who killed Taylor.

>>6001681
Rewrite it and post it. I literally have a thing written about Arty being evil posted, and one of her being molested by Crouch while he makes Elliot watch 3/4 of the way done.

>>6002513
>one of her being molested by Crouch while he makes Elliot watch 3/4 of the way done

>>6002515
Trying to write the worst thing I could. Something that would make Elliot use Avada Kedavra when seeing his closest male friend killed didn't.

>2 days and 17 hours since the last update
>last update was around the same timeframe and it put us in this awful situation we are currently in
oh god, i hope nobody dies...i mean, nobody from OUR team that is...

HeadQM

>>6004755
I promise it isn't intentional, just have a lot going on right now. And when I'm not dealing with stuff, I'm playing Hades 2, so that also gets in the way. I should get an answer to my stuff soon and it should improve for at least a couple of weeks (and then I'll probably have to search for an apartment, which might make things difficult to update often, but we'll deal with that when it happens)

--

Crap. Crap, crap, crap.

You are good with a wand, but not even you can take eight full-grown adults by yourself, even if one of them is missing one arm and the other one is apparently being forcibly mind-controlled by Salazar. They’ve got the drop on you and your wand is in your pants, which might as well be a mile away.

You can’t fight your way out of this, not without your friends. But perhaps you can out-wit him?

“Salazar, pleasure to see you again. Oh, and Scorpius too, I suppose. You there, Weasley,” you turn to the redheaded naked wizard. “I assume you and the rest have all figured out what this is about: long-dead witches and wizards being resurrected by ancient magic. Did your boss tell you he has an old racist snake-fellater in his brain?”

“Oh, so you’re still going with that story?” Scorpius, or is it Salazar, scoffs. “What is more likely, Elliot? That I am Salazar reborn, or that you are just a wannabe Dark Lord? Did you know Potter sent out a call for aurors to find you? Why, I think it is pretty clear who here is dripped in Dark Magic. I mean, the Dark Mark, Ellot? Really?”

Craaaaap. Right, maybe you could turn this on him?

“You framed me!” You say, sounding shocked.

“Framed you? No. Gotten Ranrok’s descendant to create the designs to a drill that couldn’t ever possibly work for a lack of an appropriate powersource, then leave it where your allies could find it so you would rush your plans and reveal your real self? Absolutely.”

And inside your head, as he locks eyes with you, you hear his voice.

“How’s Goddy? Still a self-righteous prick? I admit I was quite surprised when I saw him and Rowena here. Figured it was only a matter of time until they did something stupid enough and got your attention, and from that to you discovering Avalon… It was only a matter of time. Thank you for going to the trouble of stealing the Deathly Hallows for me, by the way. It would have been and awful lot of work.”

“Now, your wand, Hallaster,” he says out loud so everyone can hear it. “I will not ask again.”

“Shouldn’t we just stun him, sir?” The redheaded man asks.

“No. Hallaster may be Dark, Mr. Red, but he is clever. He forced me to find this place and discovered how to open it. We may need him to help us find a way down.”

“A way down? Sir, we should go back! Warn Potter and the ministry!”

[Cont.]

>>6004767

“And then this place shall be locked by the Unspeakables for Merlin knows how long! Do you not know what this is!? This is the pathway to Avalon! The land of healing!” Then, while his face is still turned away from everyone except you, while he still holds his grin on his face, his voice turns sorrowful and sad. “It is the only place that can heal me from the curse he cast on me. If we go back now, I shall be dead in a few weeks.”

“Sir, I-”

“That is all I ask of you. I got you all this far, did I not? Wasn’t everything I said about Hallaster proven true?”

“It… It was, sir.”

“Then help me, Mr. Red. I do not wish to die, and this is the only place that can save me. Once we reach the end, once we find a cure, we can call the ministry. Please.”

It was all said with the perfect intonation of a man begging for his life, acting worthy of the king of Slytherins.

“Oh, that is such bullcrap! He-”

“Silencio!” Salazar flicks his wand, and the words stop coming out of your mouth. “Mr. Blue, Mr. Green, seize his wand and that cane.”

Two burly men approach you, and after some struggle the cane is wrenched out of your grasp and the wand out of your pockets, the first going to Scorpius’ hands and the second going into Mr. Blue’s robes.

“Bind his hands behind his back and tie him to the others,” Salazar says.

He approaches the door on the other side of the silvery pool and taps on it with the cane. It slides sideways, revealing a long yellow corridor leading downwards.

“Very well, everyone. We go downwards. Leave the fallen, they’ll be here once we return.”

-- Interlude --

A while has passed now, and things have reached a stable level of awful tension. The place is still in lockdown, there is a country-wide search for a sixteen year old boy that the ministry had been surprisingly fast to agree to, and Weasley had left frustrated after questioning the Death Eaters.

I mean, things are still insane and everyone is ready to snap at the smallest sound, but it has been that way for enough tense hours that it is a new normal.

This meant it was time for Nienna to see what she could get.

“I’m going to check on the prisoners,” she says, standing up.

“We’ve done that three times in the past hour,” Kal says.

“Yeah, but if I don’t go for a walk I’m going to hex someone.”

“Fair enough. Don’t take long.”

She stands up and starts off from the top of the prison, making her way down the spiral corridor. She follows procedure, checks on every cell, does everything by the book. At least until she reaches the door with the nameless prisoner.

“So, have you given it some thought to my proposal?” She asks through the small window on the door.

“I have, little birdie. I think I might have something you want.”

“And what do you want in exchange?”

[Cont.]

>>6004769

“There is an old man, died maybe, twenty? Thirty years ago? Hard to tell the time here. His name was Bartemius Crouch.”

“Your death eater friend?”

“Heh. No. His father, little birdie. The one who locked up so many of my colleagues. The one who sent so many of them to the Dementor’s Kiss. If anyone still misses him, if anyone still grieves for him after all this time, well, I want to make them suffer just a little bit more.”

“I won’t torture anyone for you.”

“Nothing crass like that. All I want you to do is go to his grave and carve something small for me there, little birdie. Something that will make them look for him. Something that will make them hope. Something that will make them think that maybe, just maybe, he’s still there, that someday he’ll just walk through the door like nothing happened. Make them yearn for a return that won't come. Something to make them look when there is nothing to find.”

“I… I don’t know if I can do that. That sounds cruel.”

“What part of coming to make a deal with me made you think this would be fun, little birdie? Either do it or don’t. But don’t stand there without making a decision.”

“What- what do I even write?”

“I don’t know. That’s up to you.”

“I’ll… I’ll have to think about it.”

“See you then, little birdie.”

-- Interlude Over --

You all go in a line, Salazar and Mr. Red in front, you and your friends follow one after the other, a rope tying you all together, then the rest of Salazar’s men. As they had been organizing you, Linda had forced herself in front of you, and now you can see why.

She’s signaling.

“Kick my feet if you see this,” her hands say, over and over. You gently kick her as you walk. “Scorpius came out of nowhere, followed our sparks through the dark. We took down three of his men. We're mostly fine, but they roughed up Apollo. They can't wake up their allies, this place’s magic doesn’t let them.”

You wish you could tell her good job on the three hits, but this is a one way conversation, with you now both gagged and silencio-ed.

“They think you’re evil. Potter made you persona-non-grata, got everyone looking for you and the ministry was happy to go along," she continues. "Scorpius told them you cast a curse on him, forced him to use his father’s resources to find Avalon as it was the only way to cure him. The drill was a bait. They never had a way to power it.”

You want to scream. You had known you’d been facing Salazar, and still fallen for it. How long had he known? Could you have avoided this if you hadn’t gone with the Dark Mark plan? If you had kept Rowena in Alice Longbottom so she could undo the protections and alarms on the path to this place? Or were you doomed from the start? Again he’d tricked you. Again you had put your friends in harm’s way.

[Cont.]

Anonymous

>>6004767
I'd probably have leveraged the fact Neville is with us. But welp.

HeadQM

>>6004770

“If it hadn't been the drill, it would have been something else, Elliot. You can't beat yourself up.” Helga says in your head. “This is Salazar we're talking about. He would have found a way. This is no time to despair, this is the time to think. There is still some time until you reach Avalon proper. You can beat him. We can beat him.”

The room opens up into a great yellow golden dome, the floor covered in sand. In the middle of it there is a large golden sarcophagus, almost Egyptian in nature. Standing in front of the sarcophagus is a great female humanoid figure, three meters tall and with muscular arms and legs, with the head of a white-haired jackal.

The masked men point their wands at it.

“Calm, gentlemen,” Salazar says. “These are guardians of this place. I do not believe they intend to do us harm unless we attempt to harm them. That is not to say they will not harm us accidentally, of course, but let us keep our wands at bay for now.” He turns to the creatures, raising the cane. “Who are you, oh guardian of Avalon?”

The creature simply stares.

“I’m talking to you!”

Still, silence.

“Ah, I see,” he says, frowning. “See, gentlemen? That is why we kept the wannabe dark wizard awake. It seems he started this process, so he must be the one to complete it.” He flicks his wand at you and your gags are unmade, the silencing spell gone. He forces the cane into your hands. “Here you go, little Elliot. Show us the way forward.”

And inside your head you hear him again.

“Do not attempt to do anything foolish, boy. I am smarter than you, I have more resources than you, and even before I was cast into darkness by Merlin I had a century more experience than you. I spent weeks building a narrative for them, one where you are the villain. Potter’s reactions to your Dark Mark only served to confirm it, and not all of those masked are aurors. In fact, after that last meeting with Potter, most of them aren’t. They would gladly crucio a child, if given the chance, and if you test me I’ll make sure there is nothing left of your friends’ minds. From what I hear, one of them would be quite at home on the upper wards of St. Mungo’s. Now be a good hostage and play your part.”

He pushes you forwards towards the dog-headed woman.

“Welcome home, master,” she says, yellow eyes staring deeply at you. Her voice is… stilted. Unnatural. It feels less well made than the others. “Are you ready to receive judgment?”

You ponder your words carefully. Could you manipulate this somehow? Your mind keeps racing, trying to find a way forward, a way to beat Salazar. But no matter what plan you come up with, someone dies. Arty dies.

[Cont.]

>>6004773

“This life was… problematic,” you say. “Our memories are jumbled. Who are you? What will happen here?”

“I am sorry to hear that, master. I am Anput, and this is the Chamber of Reflection. You shall enter the sarcophagus, and there images of your past selves shall gather and judge you. They shall weigh your deeds and reflect upon what you did right or wrong, and what you need to change. Each of your generations shall speak, and with them you shall reflect on your choices.”

“Why, that seems awfully interesting.” Salazar says, stepping forward. “I wouldn’t mind a chat with Merlin.”

Anput drops on all fours and growls.

“You are not master! Only master can go!”

To speak with Merlin, or at least his other incarnations, could be extremely useful. But at the same time, having time without Salazar close by would be useful too. Perhaps you could convince the creature to let him go in your place?

> “Let him pass, Anput. I require an outside view of myself, so he shall go in my stead.”
> “I guess we don’t have a choice, Scorpius. Unless you want to fight the incredibly ancient dog-lady?”

Anonymous

>>6004776
>implying Salazar would fool or be accepted by Merlin after one tried to save the world since a time before recorded history.

But also if we don't go, we may lose the opportunity to save time.

We could just straight up let him decide whether he wants to be obliterated by Merlin or let us save space time. He doesn't seem to understand quite what's at stake given he didn't dip in Abledo nor Nigredo.

>>6004788
severely doubt just letting him through would be a good idea, but going in could also give us a chance to expose to the aurors with him that we aren't evil

>>6004767
hey dont worry about it, no pressure, take as much time as you need, i was merely pointing out the coincidence of long time = big stuff happening
hope everything goes well for you

>>6004770
>>6004773
I'm starting to reach a point where even if Elliot dies and everybody is erased by black hole beast Merlin being released, I will be content because at least every single shitter in the story is also gone. And we're only in Act 2 of this quest supposedly. I'm too tired of constantly being doomed from the start.

>>6004788
Do we just ask Salazar to flip a coin or rock-paper-scissors us for it? I'm too hopeless to consider much about the plot anymore.

>>6004796
If we go in and Elliot is judged and his heart is eaten, out comes Beast Merlin and game over. If Elliot is judged and found just, we get... something.

This is starting to remind me of the Mirror of Erised. Can we Quirrel this fucker here?

>>6004773
>This is no time to despair
I'll just be over here despairing and +1 whatever plan anybody posts that sounds good enough or entertainig enough I want to see it happen for the sake of reading it happen

>>6004802
the big question here is if it considers Scorpius and Salazar the same person

>>6004808
I'm not surprised Scorpius is going along with all this without a single act or indicator of doubt or rebellion or objection. He only ever bothered when his fucking house founder tried to make him drink whiskey and not wine. Like father like son. Must be quite the gullible twat.

ok so, here is what im thinking
so far every plan we´ve had, Salazar is one step ahead, he is ready for every plan we throw at him.
his goons arent evil, just retarded and misguided.
Scorpious is gone by now, i dont think there is any reason to try to save his ass.
Salazar is waiting for us to make our move/plan so he can counter us...
...so what if we dont have a plan? what if we just react?

my idea is this, we go by ourselves and get the judgement, here is the kicker, she didnt say Merlin´s past selves, she said OUR past selves, i dont think we have reincarnated hundreds of times, so we only have ourselves to judge
BUT if im wrong and we get judged by Meriln, we get to that sarcophagus do whatever we need to do and then figure out whatever that has to happen, so far we´ve gambled a lot with plans, maybe its time with gamble without a plan?

Also, Anput seems to be loyal to us and willing to protect us
we could tell her that our friends are needed/essential "this time" for the process, that should grant them protection while we do whatever we need to do, if Anput believes this, any sudden movement by Salazar of his goons would immediately make her hostile towards him, and given how she is an ancient being, i dont think even with his entire team he would be able to defeat her, its a huge gamble, and barely a plan, but Salazar is expecting us to do something, so what if the one that does something is the guardian instead?

im rambling at this point, i hope im making myself clear or my point is getting across or at least able to give people ideas

>>6004776
> “I guess we don’t have a choice, Scorpius. Unless you want to fight the incredibly ancient dog-lady?”

>>6005046
Do we look him in the eye and go "Hey Salazar, shitty founder of my shitty house, are giant dogs anything like giant snakes? Because you're one massive bitch, you know that?" then walk into the cool coffin?

>>6005057
holy shit, i vote for this, fuck it if we resetting the timeline might as well fuck with him at this point

>>6005057
I want to give him a massive middle finger as well. Instruct Anput to start ripping them to shreds if they so much as touch a hair on our friends heads while are under. She is a good puppy after all.

Will reread some. Also another fanfic is done, just had work and a bunch of other shit to do today.

>>6005057
Kek, support.

>>6004884
Remember, we have always have the nuke button of threatening suicide. Ends it for us, but it ends everything for Salazar and everyone else too. To hell with plans, we'll act completely insane and make everyone else cope around it!

>>6005062
>>6005067
>>6005068
I didn't mean it as a vote, but fuck it. I'm too into despair to care anymore!!! Move your +1s here then

>>6004776
>Look Salazar in the eye and go "Hey Salazar, shitty founder of my shitty house, are giant dogs anything like giant snakes? Because you're one massive bitch, you know that?"
>Instruct Anput to start ripping them to shreds if they so much as touch a hair on our friends heads while we are within.
>Stride into the coffin. Blow a kiss at Arty before we step inside.
Let's fucking rock

anybody got that /qst/ header with the "do it" post that rolled a 1 and had a nuke after it? that sounds appropriate right now

>>6004776
> “I guess we don’t have a choice, Salazar. Unless you want to fight the incredibly ancient dog-lady?”
Like >>6004884 said, I’m wondering if we’ll be judged by ourself instead of Merlin. I’ll also back
>”Anput, please ensure the guests do not attack each other.”
to enforce civility. That doesn’t make it impossible for some of them to attempt escape potentially. No idea how Anput will characterize an attack, but that’s on everyone else to figure out if they dare.

While walking away, toss in
>”With how our environs function I’m doubtful your illustrious self can readily parasitize another host upon forced eviction, Salazar. Centuries of experience forced to puppet a young prince of Slytherin and a younger delver of ancient secrets for paucity of options. Marionettes as we are, I remain compelled to speak to the puppetmaster.”
>”If you succeed, fuck trying to cage him. The world beat Voldemort so it can beat you, but he was so much better than you both. Erase him and be done with it.”

I’d say Merlin, but I don’t want to risk breaking Anput by having “Merlin” say Merlin should be destroyed.

He can’t gag us again if we’re to do the trial, and he can’t torture/silence anyone if Anput is on guard. Won’t stop him later, but better to keep chipping away at the others while we can.

>>6004776
> “I guess we don’t have a choice, Scorpius. Unless you want to fight the incredibly ancient dog-lady?”
I think Merlin would have an 'emergency phrase' we could use here. Learn it. Use it.

>>6004767
>redheaded naked wizard
Wait, he's what?? <s>Typo of 'masked'?</s>

>>6004770
Crouch, you sly son-of-a-bitch, what are you REALLY up to?

>>6004772
I did include that in my posts, but also we got silencio'd before we could really launch into a speech, drat it all.

>>6004776
> “Let him pass, Anput. I require an outside view of myself, so he shall go in my stead.”
Let Merlin pass judgement on the fucker who probably got him mindbroken and wants to use his beastly remains to take over the world. Seems like the kind of thing old Merle would judge UNKINDLY.

Get fucked, Salazar.

HeadQM

>>6004767
>>6005213
>redheaded naked wizard
Fuck, yes, masked, Merlin I proofread things three times and shit like this still comes out.

Anonymous

>>6004769
Oh boy. Anon might be right being concerned about Winky.
That gives me an idea. Lily was Mr. Red's niece... maybe we could use that?

>>6005266
nobody remembers her but us and Salazar, doubt it would have any effect

>>6005278
We could try jostling his memory, we are in an Ancient place, we could lore dump about the fall of Atlantis to segway into timeline deletion... Just as an idea.

>>6005290
If we survive this he’d mention it to Potter. Potter has seen the mirror, he’d know there’s a truth about Lily being real even if he doesn’t want to believe it.

I’d say let it lie. I’d only go as far as mentioning Salazar had another host before.

>>6005321
I thought no one held any delusions of not coming clean to Harry after all we've done, guess I was wrong

>>6005330
I want to come clean to POTTER, not to these randos who will spread the rumors far and wide

>>6005336
Provided we can do that before we're out of here. You're assuming too much too early anon

>>6005337
Bitch, rumors getting out is the least of our concerns. If they get that far that means we lost. The time to think ahead was like a thread ago.

>>6005338
You want to spill EVERYTHING to everybody here? And then you want to Obliviate all 8 of these goons? And Scorpius/Salazar?

>>6005340
If it helps winning the race why the fuck not. Has the direness of the situation not been drilled into you yet?

Just saying, I see some support for letting Scorpy go first but no idea of what we'll do if he actually gets out. And on the other side, trying to diss him like a cringy online chat loser doesn't really get us closer to escaping safe and sound. Help me find some faith in the playerbase, anon.

>>6005349
But it'll get to him, which is what matters

>>6005330
we tell him ourselves, AFTER we've stopped him knowing about it from destroying world

>>6005355
I didn't argue otherwise but cool

Alright. So Scorpy/Salazar has planted the idea Elliot is evil into all the people who are not hired guns. We have a one armed Weasly to work with. Scopius is fighting back hard, enough it is making him pop a blood vessel in his eye. Linda is smart eough to help us with some weird code we likely developed with Taylore. We have a dog girl who will attack people because she thinks we are Merlin and He was crap at making AIs. Also time bomb in our head. Helga back in play.

We can figure out a solution to this.

One thing we do not let happen is let Salazar into the thing. If he was afraid, feared it he sure as shit would not be saying he is going to try and go into the casket. He is pretty smart... don't think letting him is a great idea.

>>6005372
Ambition will be his undoing, as it so often is for the scions of our house.

...

But, uh, not Elliot. Obviously.

>>6005372
What's more slytherin than reaching out for power and getting burned to shit for it.

This guy already thinks he can tame a nothing that Merlin had to set up a shit ton of work for.

Also consider the fact Merlin has a guardian at Albedo. He had a safeguard past 2 trials.

ok, im not HeadQM and this might be just me, but it feels like this particular voting session is kinda chaotic and all over the place<br>i feel like we should call an organization vote to make everything clear, is it just me? anyone?

>>6006078
Maybe if people GREENTEXTED their VOTES it would help.

HeadQM

>>6006078
What? The question at a fundamental point of the quest where you are facing your nemesis being an utter mess to understand? Nonsense, anon! That would never happen!

But seriously, the votes are a mess, or at least the discussion is, but it seems like the consensus is at least for Elliot to enter the sarcophagus. The votes below are the only ones that are greentexted and quote the post with the question:

>>6005046
>>6005070
>>6005106
>>6005190

And one going against it:
>>6005213

I'll leave it for a couple more hours before closing the votes so people can tag any posts that are meant to be considered votes or vote differently. Please quote the post with the options and greentext your votes when you vote, it does make my life a whole lot easier.

Anonymous

>>6006270
Even if no one supports my write-in, at least I did it properly. Greentext votes ftw.

>>6005372
I don’t think we need to make any major moves yet. This clearly isn’t the time for it. Linda hasn’t been able to coordinate with the others yet, Scorpius is still fighting, and the minions are inured against us.

We’re fighting on an asymmetric battlefield. Salazar has experience and more powerful people on his side. We have knowledge, specifically of Merlin and this place, which outweighs his since the founders only seem to have scraps of Merlin’s knowledge. The vote boils down to how we can best manipulate things to our favor more: build on our information advantage, or sacrifice some of it to chip away at his own advantages.

Getting more info seems like the best call because it builds our advantage on information while he can’t get a stronger hand than he currently has with his pieces. Allowing him to go into the trial gives him the chance to learn something of value (we didn’t expect to learn how to use the Elixir in our last section, but we did and this can teach something similar) while we may fail at cracking his grip over the others. More time alone may also allow him to take more “robust” methods against his host that he can’t while under surveillance.

Stack the deck against him as much as we can before we make our actual move. We’ll likely only get one real shot.

>>6006305
hadn't even thought about him not knowing how to use the elixir, holy shit

>>6006305
He can't Legilimens or Veritaserum Elliot either because we have Occulumency learned. I think that even with my vote to do an insult jab at him, there could be things we say or do to give Scorpius strength to keep fighting better from the inside. Or at least destabilize Salazar enough to Scorpius can reassert control.

>>6006334
hopefully Scorpius's soul didn't get destroyed

>>6004776
> “I guess we don’t have a choice, Scorpius. Unless you want to fight the incredibly ancient dog-lady?”

Guess I will go ahead and lock my vote in for this.

>>6006310
That is a very good point. Right now, only we know how to use the Merlin juice.

He tries to hurt Arty and our friends though... well I doubt we can take these guys on but... he needs us sane and alive. We have the fact everyone in this place aside from Nimue thinks we are Merlin right now. Have the bomb in our head if it comes down to it.

>>6006305
I agree completely with doing all we can to stack the deck... surely at least one of his henchmen have issues with torturing kids for example.

We will need to get our friends and our wand back before doing something... can't accio them due to how they are enchanted even if we get ours. Gonna need a pretty good distraction. Arty can fight pretty well and Apollo has retard strength and has already killed a dude to protect his little sister.

Gonna need to wait for a perfect moment, use this place against them in every way we can. Without our help they managed to deal with three guys... we can probably put 2 more on the ground by ourselves if we get a chance.

>>6006366
"Mr. Red" is likely our best option since he was already questioning "Scorrpius" earlier

looks like we are locking down our answer now
very well, i am >>6004884, just posting from work
but it seems that after all my ramblin, i didnt really actually vote, so i´ll do that now
>“I guess we don’t have a choice, Scorpius. Unless you want to fight the incredibly ancient dog-lady?”

>>6006310
Yeah, pretty important piece of info that if he had and we didn’t we’d be a lot worse off by the end! Best to keep trying to stack that one advantage to make our opening later.

>>6006334
It’s what I was going for with my write-in too. Put on the silly facade because it’s something everyone has likely heard about, and drop it at the end asking Salazar to kill what he’s seeking. Give Scorpius an idea of the stakes and potentially rattle the others since we’re asking him for a rather odd request. It’s not much, but I don’t think anything we could do know outside our choice of heading in or not will be very impactful in this moment.

Maybe the others can take the time granted from the ridiculous speech to do something on their own for a later advantage.

>>6006366
If we’re out of ideas, I’d say do something as simple as have Helga blind us while we make the elixir and admit it to Salazar afterward. If even we can’t tell if we truly made the potion correctly, he can’t do anything other than roll the dice. There’s only one potion, Occulumency means he can’t rip knowledge of it out of our head reliably, he can’t torture anyone until we admit if it was done correctly or not since even we won’t know, and if he leaves now Potter will eventually come and destroy this place.

He’d be up against Fate in a way he can’t bend to his whims. A truly bad place for him to be in when fighting against Merlin’s plans.

The real kicker is that having him take the potion is probably our best move. He gambled a surprising amount on us finding a way in when he chose not to. He may not know exactly how Avalon or the Elixir works, only that it’s one of Merlin’s many ways of returning, and we can use that.

Put him in another body when he doesn’t expect that to be the result and he may not have time to cripple Scorpius fully. That means Scorpius could order the goon squad to help us instead.

>>6006413
don't think we know any way of forcing him out other than killing Scorpius, unfortunately

>>6006421
The elixir is used to pour a soul from one body to another. It didn’t say outright it’d kill the old body, though it’s implied a body without a soul can’t live since Arthur is like that.

But Scorpius has two souls in him now. Taking the elixir may only shift only Salazar over since he has the lesser connection to Scorpius’ body, and Scorpius would live since he still has a soul.

Probably no way we’ll really know until we do it, but I would heavily suspect any plan that seemed guaranteed to work anyway. I’ll be open to more ideas as we learn more about Avalon and Merlin though.

>>6006435
Just keep an open mind for it later. I refuse to trust any ideas that don’t have obvious risks given who we’re up against, and at least a sabotaged soul transfer is something we can be reasonably certain he has no direct defense against. The risks are in what he can do in Arthur’s body even if weakened and what happens to Scorpius.

>>6006446
we did also promise Arthur that we'd get his body out of here

>>6006446
We could always try shifting Scorpius over instead. The instructions mentioned how the body would be uber powerful, the guy might be pissed he can't inhabit his original but it's better than being dead. Plus we'd cement him as a certain ally.

>>6006485
how exactly are we supposed to explain Scorpius now being fucking King Arthur?

>>6006376
Agreed. Kinda thinking this might be Percy now as opposed to Bill... he was a little shit heel but not evil.

It seems there are two kinda of person with Scorpy right now; people trying to do the "right" thing and just fucking mercs. If we can convince the ones who are good... well 5 relatively skilled teens and a couple of adults probably have a fighting chance. We have been battle maxing for a reason. With potions and Helga we have a better bonus than Potter. Not sure what we will see in the casket. But Harry should also be on his way soon as well, he should be able to figure out where we went after all. If these guys can make it down he will too. Delaying tactics are on the table. If Arty and Apollo used magic, the Trace should still be working and tell the cops their general location, especially since there is a nationwide manhunt for the five of us right now. Potter does think we plan on killing our little badger wifelette for some dark magic shit. Wouldn't put it passed him to have even put some tracking spell on her previously.

I am also now concerned about Crouch staging a prison break out and coming to fuck with us more, assuming we survive this crap. If Winky is the one to get the message on his dad's grave... house elves are able to Apparate in Hogwarts, have weird magic that gets around a lot of protections and as long as she doesn't directly fight she can cause a bunch of trouble.

Also another fanfic.

>>6006515
question there is whether the Trace works in here with how other stuff didn't

>>6006515
>new fanfic dropped
ooh shit, with this and that gravity falls fanfic im reading, its gonna be a good night

Wait a fucking sec... most of these people are ones who will kill and torture kids for money... we get them down there... tell them exactly what the Elixir can do... sow a bit of discord? Well someone willing to kill kid? Sounds a lot like someone who will shoot his allies in the back for ultimate power. Someone who isn't a mind ghost probably can't transfer into a new body... but they don't need to know that. We could even create the body... have Helga go for it first. We know how strong she was in her prime, scary as hell and could fight Nimue to a standstill. Old Sally might have a bit more experience possessing bodies but... huh. A possibility. It takes a while to manifest but if it was a body completely without a mind? She could maybe get up and running quick, considering Merlin designed this shit as he did. How would his new body even live if it took a few weeks for him to man the helm with no food or water? He wasn't even supposed to bring people down here. The mind transfer should work almost instantly. We get Helga in there first... well it is explicitly stated Salazar would be unstoppable if he got a body which could use magic like they did 1000 years ago. Maybe that is our in?

>>6006522
Normal spells worked after we got past Nigredo since our friends fought with Scopy's men. I assume the Trace is strong enough to work considering it is a nationwide enchantment but do they know if it doesn't? We can surely pretend it does... people who think a magic swat team is on the way make poor decisions, especially ones who likely care about their reputations like "Mr. Red".

I should have added that if we get Helga into a new body, she would need to return to keep the Beast at bay. We likely have a few minutes till it starts fucking shit up, given Sally thought he had enough time after killing us to take the Ancient Magic from the repository before. It would be cruel to make get her own body before having to return and leave it behind... but if it is what is needed, the kindest of the Founders would do it. She already got hurt pretty well fighting Nimue with us after all.

>>6006523
Is Gravity Falls any good? I never watched it and I need things to do while I am off. Saw a few clips before, but that is it. Also if I can force my self to finish it, I will try to put out the second thing I have on the burner tonight since my insomnia is acting up. Only have like four pages and then I can get started on the Raven/Rowena futa thing unless I decide to try a short thing with Apollo and Riley.

Once more thank you for reading the dumb shit I put out, though I do like this one pretty well.

>>6006552
I liked Gravity Falls, though the ending was a bit rushed and Mabel's arc was weaker than Dipper's by a wide margin. I think it could make for good fics, and a good quest even.

>>6006552
>Is Gravity Falls any good?
good? nah, great, dare i say probably the best disney show from the last 2 decades easily
it has some cringe jokes that aged like milk under the summer sun and a couple of low points, i wont lie, but its one of those things thats part of the charm i guess, cannot recommend it enough
only has 2 seasons so you can binge it in a weekend, tho if you are not hooked by the end of the first season, then its pretty fair to say that it may not be for you, but its totally worth a shot

also, just finished the fanfic, the beginning had a bit of a rocky and VERY sudden start, felt awkward to read, but after that, it became pretty fucking good, like, holy shit, i actually felt something there, couldnt dethrone the last one as my favorite, but its pretty close to it. nicely done

>the second thing
take your time

>Raven/Rowena futa thing
nevermind, hurry the fuck up, i wanna read this, my inner coomer is begging for this

>thank you for reading the dumb shit
thank (You) for making really good dumb shit

>>6008151
he is has been a bit busy lately, give him time, cant rush greatness

HeadQM

>>6008151
Always am, anon. Just busy with life.

--

“Do you really want to face the ancient dog-lady that is part of your only means to create a Merlin-like body for yourself?” You ask.

“It is not living,” Salazar says, holding his wand pointed at Anput. “Merlin couldn’t have created something that lived for this long. It is just a construct, like all the others.”

“A construct that may or may not be a fundamental part of this place,” you say. “And which may cause it to fail if destroyed. Do you want to take that risk?”

He stays silent for a moment.

“Psh. Very well,” he says, putting it down. “Go ahead, little Elliot.”

You pass by Anput and pat her head. She seems to enjoy it and waggles her tail.

“Keep them civil, Anput. Don’t let them fight.”

She gives a growl of approval and nods. The golden sarcophagus slowly opens, and for your relief there aren’t a bunch of spikes on the inside, iron-maiden style. It is a simple, empty, golden sarcophagus standing upright.

You step in and it closes. You expect it to be dark, instead it looks like an open space without floors or walls, ever so slightly tinged yellow. There are several long seconds where nothing happens, enough that you begin to wonder if you need to do something, until you hear a voice.

"Och, ah didnae see this comin'."

You turn to see a handsome, strong and well built man with bronze hair and beard. His muscular, hairy chest is half exposed though his robes.

"I was expectin' an auld man, nae a young lad. Wha are ye, an' hoo did ye manage tae get past the ither layers?"

Holy fucking balls, it’s Lailoken, you realize. Though you can see some semblance of the man sculpted in the statue of the “Architect of Hogwarts” in the castle, it is clear it was sculpted to greatly improve the man’s appearance of respectability, as this person is very much disheveled. Then again, maybe he got his act together by the end of his life. And with an unbearably strong Scottish accent. Atlantis-era Merlin didn’t have an accent but this version has one? This is utter bullshit.

“Ah, hello, Lailoken, sir. I am Elliot Hallaster, a student from Hogwarts. I’m here because… Because your plan failed, sir. When you tried to create your Interdict, it took you with the other Founders. It corrupted Salazar and now he has returned as a spirit, and is trying to use Avalon to create a new body for himself!”

[Cont.]

>>6008217

"Is that true? Ah see... Weel, Ah widnae ken onything aboot ony o' that ye juist said." The accent is so thick it is difficult to parse the words. You can feel your brain filling in the gaps, some part of you knowing Lailoken was scottish and putting the accent in there simply because it ‘made sense’. You try to make your brain stop being an idiot, trying to actively force yourself to believe he couldn’t possibly have anything close to recognizable speech, so there was no reason he should have any accent at all. It takes a moment and you give yourself a headache, but his words become retroactively clear. “Is that true? I see... Well, I wouldn't know anything about any of what you just said.”

“What? Sir, your plan-”

“We don’t remember plans here,” he says, now still sounding Scottish, but more of a british-actor-making-a-fake-scottis<wbr>h-accent accent than whatever that thing he was speaking before was. “We are only a semblance of personality. An aggregate of emotional data, joined to serve as a mirror for us to judge ourselves.”

“Like the Sorting Hat,” you say. Also, you are pretty sure the real Lailoken would have never said ‘aggregate of emotional data’. These things are really messing with your head.

“I wouldn’t know. The purpose of this place is to reflect and decide how we are going to lead our life, to try and find a way to endure the Great Work ahead of us, a way to remain sane when everyone we love is bound to die, when we need to save the world three times before even having breakfast.”

“You… you create your own personality?” You ask, massaging your temples.

“In a way. It is more a… discussion of things that worked and didn’t work in our past lives, and a decision of what we’re going to do now. For example, in the life before this one, I was a strict man, always following the rules. It was a pain, and I was glad to have him rest. This life was far more pleasurable and relaxing for my mind but…” He seems to have a hint of sadness in him. “It did end up hurting people I loved. We expected a return to something akin to our original selves would have been fun, last time.”

And you understand him, somewhat. Merlin, for all his greatness and power, was still human. A single man drifting through time, alone. To be yourself, by yourself, for so long… You can see how it could be difficult, or even impossible. Eternity wasn’t meant to be lived alone, after all, and Merlin had found a way to make sure he’d endure.

“It was the only way we found to stay true to our task,” he says. “Even with all the other measures in the chambers above, this was still needed. Sometimes we regret the decisions our past selves made, but… We each deal with the consequences of our mistakes our own way.”

[Cont.]

>>6008219

“I understand, sir. But please, is there any way you can help me?” Your headache is getting worse, now a throbbing pain in the back of your head. “There are people here, inside the path to Avalon, who wish to use it to create a body for themselves. A body worthy of Merlin. And with that, they will destroy everything. Everything you fought so hard to protect.”

“I see. That is grave news indeed. Yet I do not know what you wish for me to do. I do not exist outside these moments. In fact, I do not exist at all. I am merely a reflection of you passed through a filter, and a poor one at that. There should have been many of me here, many versions. But you cannot hold them all inside you. Even me is already giving you pain.”

“Ah, so that’s what that is.” The pain slowly turns into a pounding. “Is there nothing you can tell me?”

“If what you say is true, if I am truly dead, then humanity is doomed. Sooner or later, you will find a way to end yourselves, possibly this very force which seeks to create a body for itself will be the cause. But… there may be a way to cut at least this thread of doom, something I know because I am part of Avalon itself.” Lailoken looks at you, and his face is grave and serious. “The Elixir of Life is powerful, but it has a flaw. It is volatile. It will quickly vanish if perturbed, and evaporate after enough time, which is why it must always be refilled. Yet it can also be destructive. If the Green Death was to touch it… The energies would annihilate each other, violently. It would start a chain reaction that would consume Avalon whole, destroying everything in it. Everything in miles would become a hole in the ground.”

A blast with that much power, with that much magic… It would kill everyone in it, take St. Mungo’s with it and a good chunk of London. Could it take the Beast with it? Could it take Salazar once and for all? Would it be worth it?

“I see this does not please you,” he says. “I chose to save the world because I knew I would survive any attempts on my existence. You do not have this luxury, child. If you wish the world to keep on going, you may have to give your life for it.”

“I… would very much prefer things to not come to that, sir.”

“I find life does not care about what we prefer. For example, you would prefer to keep on chatting, yet if you do you will soon collapse from the strain.”

He is right. The headache is now a massive migraine pounding at your skull. You have time for a last question, but not much more than that.

What will you ask?

> Who were you in your previous life? Before you were Laloiken, I mean.
> I think I know one of the people you might have hurt in your life. Your wife. Is there anything you’d like me to tell her?
> Write in (Other)

Anonymous

>>6008223
>Who were you in your previous life? Before you were Laloiken, I mean.
good to know the Elixir is highly volatile

>>6008223
>If the Green Death was to touch it…
wait, so...we have to avada kedavra the potion in order to trigger it? and the results would be a literal magical nuke that could eliminate the beast AND Salazar too? well shit, looks like we have our McGuffin, sadly, i dont think thats even remotely survivable for us...damn, thats a tought one...

>What will you ask?
>I think I know one of the people you might have hurt in your life. Your wife. Is there anything you’d like me to tell her?
i feel like if we tell her (when we can, of course) any info coming directly from him, it could help her remember stuff and maybe even give us some important info, its a stretch, but fuck it, its not like we have that many options anyway, we might not even survive this

>>6008237
+1
Imagine if we throw the Elixir into the path of Salazar's AK and everybody fucking dies.

>>6008223
Green Death being Avada Kedavra? Shame only one of us can cast it. I suppose letting some evaporate and then blasting it may result in a lesser explosion. We’ll see what we think of that later.

For a question, I’d say either
> I think I know one of the people you might have hurt in your life. Your wife. Is there anything you’d like me to tell her?
or
> How else can the Elixir be misued?

I’m currently voting for the former. I suspect we’ll get no other easy answers from him.

<s>He’s suggesting Merlin put something in place to always ensure he’d have a chance of returning. Time manipulation? The Void being timeless could be why he was left alone until Time Turners were pushed in. A dead world has no chance of bringing him back, so whatever he did to create prophecies is sufficient to defend the world even without his direct presence so long as he exists somewhere, and his erasure would end that specific protection.

Not that it’d change much. The world survived long before Merlin too. Alternatives must exist.</s>

>>6008223
>Is there anything else you can tell me about the creation process, perhapes even the next trial? The other founders... they escaped the darkness as well. I have Lady Hufflepuff in me where she holds back a beast I believe may be related to how your old home destroyed itself. The others... would it be possible to try and portion out the Elixir create more than 1 body, 3 perhapse, not as grand as yours, more like a normal one for our kind. They deserve another chance at life, after theirs we cut short. After how kind the girl in my head has been to me and what she endures.

Awesome, we have an extra nuke button we could employ possibly. Next step is probably going to be try and get our wand back. We also need to stall to give Harry time to find us, try and turn "Mr. Red" and anyone else with a shred of morals.

>>6008281
We could also ask if the elixir can only be used to make a new body or if it has the power to restore Arty's lifespan, heal a shattered mind.

>>6008252
Technically, Elliot still has the opportunity to still use, AK; the vote was so close it wasn't sealed to us. If something rocks him, traumatizes us enough.

<s>Something like Arty of even Linda being killed, tortured in front of him for example.</s>

And on that last note here is a new thing. No it is not RavenXRowena, still working on that one but I have like 2.5 pages down.

Also can't use reentry anymore because the site thinks it is spam, lol.

>>6008394
>torture porn just dropped
oh boy, this one is gonna hurt to read, i´ll save it for when i get home

>>6008394
iirc another bit of AK is that the hatred is only necessary for human target

>>6008394
>ask if the elixir can only be used to make a new body or if it has the power to restore Arty's lifespan, heal a shattered mind.
changing to this

>>6008394
>if it has the power to restore Arty's lifespan
uuh! i almost forgot about that, changing >>6008237 to this
our priority until the bitter end!

>>6008223
Changing vote from >>6008240 to
>ask if the elixir can only be used to make a new body or if it has the power to restore Arty's lifespan, heal a shattered mind

I have to wonder what doom he was saving the world from when he made the interdict. Or was it many? Is there a chance that Merlin blinded himself to prophecy, only seeing that doom and ignoring the other alternatives? Kind of like the Golden-Path from Dune. We probably can't get away with asking about Merlin's prophetic powers, but maybe something more general about the supposed end of the world.

>>6008409
>>6008412

Yeah since I suggested it might as well vote for it. I do want to get the other founders bodies, but I care more about securing a way for our waifu to not die in like 2 decades.

Changing

>>6008281

To asking about using the Elixir for Arty/ Frank and Alice.

>>6008223

>>6008237
True enough. Harry can use it on a spider, after all. A pot of Merlin Juice should be even easier than that. Though, really hope it doesn't come down to the nuke buttons.

>>6008395
Hope you enjoy. I did give it a happy ending but... well, trigger warning I suppose. I did not enjoy having to write parts of it, but it turned out a bit less sickening than I thought it would, given how fond I am of Arty.

<s>I may try to write something worse in the future but for now it is wholesome 17-year-old bisexual girl on 1000-year-old witch time. If I don't get distracted this weekend, I will try to get it out since it should only end up like 10 pages.</s>

>>6008520
It might be that he knew he was going to not be there, be back for a while? Knew something was going to happen if not the specifics and needed to do something which would persist till he returned, something to keep the next generations from doing dumb shit easily. He had already been going about ending the bloodlines of people who could use Ancient magic for some time already, and used the four greatest magicians of the era as sacrifices, preventing any but Sally from passing on their knowledge.

Might not have seen exactly what could happen. His sight not reaching to the point muggles made atomic weapons, nerve gas, engineered plagues, ect; though he would be back sooner.

>>6008544
alrighty, just read the entire thing, fuck you for puting Arty through all that shit, still, not as bad as i was expecting it to be, so thanks for that.
still not sure of its MY favorite, but its definitely your best one so far, the ending was great too, i only wish we get something like that near the end of this quest, i salute you and thank you for all of these.
now i gotta return the favour and do some more art for both the quest AND your fanfic
godspeed you magnificent bastard.

>>6008878
Haha, thank you for reading these and for all the art. I am trying since it is fun to do, aside from some parts. <s>I did kind of get sick at THAT part in this one.</s> That was difficult, probable why I toned down some of it from what I initially was planning. Turns out I am a big softy and prefer small character interactions, some only slightly sad shit, and the fight scenes were enjoyable to write.

<s>I will also keep putting the spiders and giant murder bee where I can. Spiders because your art made me laugh out loud when I saw it, the bee because she is cute and a reference to Hogwarts Interbellum Quest which I recently reread and died too soon.</s>

I have trouble with sex scenes sometimes some but hey, practice makes perfect and the RavenxRowena is like 75% fucking, aside from set up and just a sprinkling of angst. Got another couple pages done before I started to burn out and needed a nap. Going to try and not insert TOO much of my own fetishes in to these but an Arty one with some BDSM might eventually appear.

I went back to one of the first ones... it does need some polishing. Oh well, it now has 90% more Merula in it, which is only like 1.5 pages granted. So if nothing else that will have improved when I collate these, put them all in the same place eventually.

Your compliments and knowing at least a couple of people check these out means a lot to me.

While I am at it, thank you, QM. I haven't been this interested in a quest, in some make believe characters in quite a long time. I am very glad I decided to pop on the board and found this thing one Friday night back in fall.

HeadQM

>>6008907
Awww, thank you for the compliment and for the fics (though I probably won't be reading that last one)

--

“The Elixir of Life,“ you say while forcing yourself to stay, if only for a little longer. “Could it be used to create more bodies? Ones not as grand, perhaps? Could it be used to heal minds?”

“I do not know if it could be used to heal minds,” Lailoken’s shadow says. “The Elixir is a powerful thing of great potential, but if it can do so, such a thing it has never been done within these walls. As for creating more bodies, if done quickly, yes. Once perturbed, the Elixir will vanish in minutes. The transferring of the soul and the pouring of the power into it is done in instants, yet the creation of the body takes time. If you had more than one wizard to do so, perhaps even several people could be created. Yet though they would be magical, they would not be able to wield the Powers That Be. And there lies the problem.”

“The process needs to be reset. Avalon was created to make the Elixir of life, and with little to spare. Once it is used, the body of Avalon must be purged of its remains so it can begin again, and that takes someone who can use powers like mine. If you were to spread the Elixir of Life among more than one body, those who inhabited them would not be able to reset the process. Avalon would grow cold and useless, until someone capable of using the Powers That Be appears once again.”

“I… I see.” So, either one body with the power to control Ancient Magic, or several without it, and without the power to ever use Avalon again. That… is not an easy choice. “Thank you, Lailoken. Not only for this, but for everything. You saved the world until this day. I’ll do my best to make sure it stays saved.”

“Good luck, child,” he nods. “May you find a way to live. May you find a way to not allow the world to fall.”

He fades from view, and the pressure inside your skull stops growing before it cracks open. You stay inside the sarcophagus until it has mostly vanished, then push it open to find a bloody scene. In a corner, surrounded by blood and with a leg missing at the knee, is one of the masked men. He’s being held back by two of his companions.

“I’m going to fucking kill this bitch!” He shouts as he tries to escape the others’ grasp.

“I told you to not antagonize her, Mr. Purple,” Salazar chastises him. “What on earth did you expect to happen?”

On the other side of the room, gnawing on a bloody leg, is Anput.

Good dog.

“Ah, Elliot. You return,” Salazar says, pleased. “Mr. Purple here had an accident, but he’s mostly healed. Someone transfigure him a peg-leg and let us move on. We can get him a new one once we are out of here.”

[Cont.]

>>6009834

There are some minutes of scuffle as Mr. Purple arranges a new leg while giving foul looks at Anput, and soon you are ready to proceed. All your friends seem to be with just as many bruises as before you went in the sarcophagus, and you are, for now, allowed to stay both ungagged, with your cane and with your hands in front of you instead of the back like Arty and the others.

You tap the cane against a rectangular ident on the wall, and that section evaporates into nothing. Behind it is a circular tunnel of red. It isn’t blood red. It isn’t crimson or carmine. It is simply pure and utter red. The walls glow with the color, tainting everything that comes close to it. Not only that, but the walls seem twisted, as if they were made out of thick red ropes wrapped around a hollow tube into a spiral.

“Why, that looks friendly,” Salazar says. “You first, little Elliot.” And he pushes you into it.

--

The tunnel is long, continuing its wide downward spiral. Except that now you’ve gone on for so long that its curvature is drastically noticeable as you reach closer to the end. The red almost hurts your eyes, and you feel like you’re in an oven even though there is no heat. You make your way through rubedo, the final stage of an alchemist’s Great Work.

In nigredo, the memories were taken. In albedo, they were analyzed and put back together. In citrinitas a new personality was decided. Yet you still do not know what the reddening will do. You are almost afraid to discover.

After some minutes of walking, you reach a wide and tall circular room. There is a single, narrow path that reaches a slightly wider platform in the middle of the room, then continues to the other side. Where there isn’t a platform there is-

“Oh fuck, boss! Is that blood!?” One of the masked men shouts, covering his nose to stop the smell of iron from coming in.

A massive pool of blood floods the room everywhere that isn’t the way between both sides, maybe a millimeter away from going over the floor, if even that.

“So I assume we don’t want to fall into the ominous pool of blood inside the ancient magical structure,” Salazar says. “Or would you disagree, little Elliot?”

“No, you’re right,” you nod. “Though I don’t have any idea what this place is for. All other rooms had guardians. This room feels different.”

“Well, feel free to go to the center. Though do remember that if you try anything, well, we have your friends.”

Gently, carefully, you make your way to the middle of the room. As you step, the blood ripples in waves around you, even though you are not touching it. Once you reach the central platform, you can see more clearly the other end of the path, and within it a door. Even in the red light you can read the words, written in many different and ancient languages.

“Magnum Opus”

[Cont.]

>>6009835

In the center of the door, a circle, within a square, within a triangle, within a circle. The alchemical symbol for the Philosopher’s Stone. You can feel it, Avalon, just on the other side.

You would be excited if you weren’t both terrified and too busy trying to find a way out of the mess you’re in.

Before Avalon… maybe this place can give me some advantage, or a weapon? Something!

You look around, trying to find some sort of symbol, but you can find nothing until you look up. The rope-like formations of the walls climb high, tracing the shape of an enormous eye, either looking down upon you or up into the world above.

“Fate,” you whisper, low enough that no one else can hear, the realization dawning upon you, some fragment of a memory that isn’t yours fitting into place. “This is where he looked ahead. This is where he decided what he was going to do.”

Not even Merlin could hold the weight of all possible futures on him all the time. Prophets saw things in glimpses, prophecies, and even then only in bursts. It stood to reason that Merlin was not unlike that. Yet he needed somewhere to force himself to see beyond, to reach into the future and find a path which would avoid destruction. A place created not to store the tellings of fate, like the Hall of Prophecy, but to watch it fully.

A place that could only be used by a seer.

“Helga… Do you think you could use it through me?”

“It… it is possible, though I would have to take my eye away from the Beast. I cannot fathom neither how the room will react to someone like me attempting to use its power through you, nor can I know what it will do since Fate is in such a compressed state. I still cannot use my powers of foresight normally, it is like staring into the sun.” Her voice comes into your mind, sounding hesitant. “This place was made for Merlin, Elliot. The dark room has nearly killed you. We don’t know what this could do!”

[Cont.]

>>6009836

“It could show us the future,” you say. “It was what allowed Merlin to see how to save the world again and again.”

“It could kill you.”

“It could give us a path to victory.”

“Or it could explode and kill everyone in the room, or leave you so hurt you’ll be able to do nothing against Salazar! We're dealing with magic we can't even begin to comprehend! If the powers in this place go out of control, I won't be able to stop it! We could lose everything!”

“So, little Elliot! Found anything?” Salazar shouts from where he stands with his allies and your friends at the edge of the pool of blood.

> Attempt to use Helga’s prophetic powers with the Pool
> Move on from the room and into Avalon proper

Additionally, write in anything you’d like to attempt or do while in here or while entering Avalon (cut your bindings on the edge of the pool, invoke your latent vampiric powers to hypnotize Scorpius, charm Salazar with the power of friendship, or whatever crazy plan you come up with). These might happen or not, depending on the number of votes and feasibility given what happens with the vote above.

To make my life easier since I already predict this will get messy, any of the suggested plans must be in greentext and tagging this post.

Anonymous

>>6009839
jesus fucking christ HeadQM, this shit is getting more and more convoluted by the post, its getting hard and frustrating to even think what we could possibily do that wont explode in our faces
...
WITH THAT BEING SAID
>Attempt to use Helga’s prophetic powers with the Pool
+
>Write in
time to use our ACTING skills, if we even have one
>head to the center of the room and pretend we are having some sort of revelation or magical mind thingy thats telling us what to do next
>act hyped and excited
>tell Salazar we ALL need our wands if he wants to continue and that we need everyone in the center of the room with us, EVERYONE, including him
>even hug him if necessary due to our "hypeness"
>tell him they all need to form a circle around us because you saw a ritual performed by Merlin, but you arent skilled enough to cast multiple sources of Lumos, so you need their help too
>our team in one side and Salazar and his goons in the other or maybe everyone mixed up with the other, whatever gives us the best surprise advantage or bluff
>tell him we all need to cast Lumos as some sort of significat ritual or something that lets us "iluminate fate" enough to make everyone somewhat blinded by the light
>before that, tell Linda using our secret hand code to push them into the blood or go for the kill and book it to the door at our signal
>use Wingardium Leviosa and Lumos to pretend we are getting some magic stuff transfered into us while levitanting
>wait until Helga gets whatever info she can get
>while they are all distracted looking at us give the signal with out hand code while pretending we have some sort of seizure while screaming so the hand signal is disguised
>go for the kill if possible then book it to the door and close it while they are either dead or trying to get out of the thick pool of blood
>profit???
we´ve had crazy plans before, we tried having no plan, time to go fucking crazy and risk it all
you guys ready to die? cuz we might, but fuck it, im sick and tired od Salazar´s shit

>>6009839
> Attempt to use Helga’s prophetic powers with the Pool

>Alright, fuck. So anyone who is going to try to get through this last door, they are going to need to be close to me. I need everyone near. Everyone including my comrades because I will not just leave them. I need my wand for a couple of minutes; keep yours pointed at me if you need but I am the only one here who knows how this shit works, Sally. Went through all the trials. Talked with Lailoken.

So... I assume there will be a check like when Helga tried to predict McGonagall... we might not have her for any final fight. But this can give us a chance, show us a path forward.

Elliot has also jumped forward into danger at every chance, hesitating now would be suspicious. I do think we can probably knock Mr Purple at least into the lake at least, have Apollo body check him, Arty sweep the peg leg, given she has been through as much with Crouch as us, and he has a stick for one leg.

>>6009888
I will also support trying to signal to Linda we are going to try something, maybe use any code words we might have developed when we talk to Salazar.

So otherwise... we could get one of the founders a body which could use "the Powers that Be" or maybe get them all just normal wizard ones...

Or... we know a certain girl and love her who needs a better body, needs her soul healed.. We could try and put Arty into the single Merlin tier body. There is like a manual soul transfer device there, has to be... we could make her a demigod, if we have some time, get a chance.

>>6009834
<s>Not sure if you mean the one I posted last time, RowenaxRaven futa thing I am working on, or the one with Arty BDSM that may or may not be a thing. Regardless, please never feel obligated to read the shit I post. I am pretty happy with the one I posted, however.</s>

>>6009839
>> Attempt to use Helga’s prophetic powers with the Pool

>>6009839
>>6009935

I suppose if using the room wins

>Give Helga a mental pep talk

>Helga, we have until we make it past that door untill Salazar starts killing our friends, forces me to show him how to use the elixir one way or another. We are running out of time and options. Even with a few already down, with one missing a leg, we aren't beating that many people by ourselves even with all the power you can lend me. I don't like gambling... but I trust you. Completely. I know you can do this, use Merl's power to show us a path that will lead to victory, to everyone not dying. We got this far by trusting each other, right? So trust me on this. You CAN do it and I can do what comes after. And... if we can make, stop them, find a way to win? We can get Rae and Goddy bodies. Get you one, if you think you can drag the Gate with you. Maybe create a better body to get Arty's soul into. But we need a path to victory and I am running short on ideas that don't invole magical nuke buttons. I have faith in you, the woman I once gave the name Faith to. And... if I am wrong... I want you to know it was the greatest of pleasures to have met you, shared my soul and time with you. Had the kindest witch of all time, one of the greatest as well as my headmate. I couldn't have asked for better. But I suppose that is premature however; we ARE going to win after all, PuffPuff.

>>6009839
> Attempt to use Helga’s prophetic powers with the Pool

>Turn to Salazar, tell him we'll give him a body only so long as he's willing to let Helga, Godric, and Rowena one too. If he even thinks of harming our friends he can say goodbye to any chance of us letting him have anything. And try and ask him what daddy Malfoy would think if he never got to see his son again.

Remember, we hold some cards here. We are the only one who knows how to create and use the elixir, and we also have the nuke button of threatened suicide/nuclear elixir if pushed to it. Also Salazar is hopefully still struggling with Scorpius, maybe we can push that.

>>6010240
I mean, the second thing is mostly just fluff since I like it when QM has Elliot do little speeches and since she seems kinda hesitant. I am sure she would go with which ever option we choose.

I think our main objectives need to be:

1. Get the info from Helga on how we have a chance to flip this.

2. Get a wand, if possible. We might be able to knock one dude out without it due to being fit and Crouch's training but past that we are screwed.

3. Somehow signal Linda we are going to try shit so she is prepared, can possibly indicate to the others shit is going down subtly.

We are going to be on a relatively small place bordered by shit you probably don't want to fall into and the henchs are probably going to have to be single file to get close to us if we get them to start coming over by fooling them into thinking otherwise they will get left behind or what not.

Could also say that the crimson liquid will be rising up once Elliot opens the door so it can be refined into the Elixir/Stone, since we are the only one how knows how this shit actually works, maybe

But getting them in close and not able to just start pelting us with a barrage of spells seems good.

Could also let them know that this place is going to get a hard reset and anyone not in the final chamber is getting deleted so a couple might want to go retrieve their friend before that happens; bring down their numbers when we make our move.

Apollo has his retard strength, Arty has trained as hard as us, Brighton claims to know how to fight some and Helga can boost our physical skill as shown at the ice rink... If we get some prophesy cheats, get the drop on them, have our wand at least it might work out.

IDK, kind of a really bad situation.

If we make it to the final chamber and stuff is still fucked, we don't have a lot of options. Disturb the Elixir and stall. Nuke if we can get us or Linda a wand. Kill ourselves and make sure every one loses.

>>6010357
Given his stiff, fucked up movements and popping an aneurysm in his eye, I am pretty sure Malfoy is fighting back. If we have a chance, trying to encourage him might buy us some time, though all Sally has to do is tell the goon squad to start shooting.

Salazar should also know Helga leaves means the beast gets out and kill us all unless he already has the power to control it. Mentioned wanting to rip Helga out of our head at last light and torture her if he had the chance, so IDK. Might be a last ditch plan since he would just have a normal wizard body if we make more than 1 and this place would be useless after.

>>6010365
he doesn't know that he would just have a normal body in that scenario, that's another advantage for us

>>6010376
Might be an alright back-up. Like it is an adult wizard body, sure, probably pretty powerful. Helga has told us she couldn't teach us the spells she knew in life, but Sally would probably have Lily's spell repertoire since he was in her for like 14 years. So we just have to fight a supercharged version of her; maybe a few more tricks from Scorpius. If we can get rid of the goons, it might be doable since we have more allies. Raven and Taylor both added a +5 last time. Apollo will probably do a +10. No idea about Arty, but she has fought a gimped Crouch to a standstill before.

<s>And hey, Taylor added a +10 when he died for a round. When Arty does, it will probably be like a +20!</s>

>>6010393
I really don't like the thought of using the elixir to make multiple new bodies, because then it kills this entire place and Avalon forever since nobody will ever have Ancient Magic again

>>6010400
maybe that's a good thing after all the shit we've seen

>>6010400
I mean the way I envisioned it we just blatantly lie to his face and then give someone else the full power body and keep Avalon safe with the healing magic. We just draw him in with a half-truth, since it's what he wants anyway.

>>6010405
Who do we give the full power body to? Elliot himself? Arty? Godric or Rowena?

>>6010408
Probably Godric or Rowena, I'm thinking. We could give it to Arty but that puts a giant target on her back, plus Godric or Rowena would make the most use of it. Anyway, I doubt we'll be able to just grab it, we'll probably have to destroy it at somepoint to stop Salazar from using it. Or, even, we make it and threaten to blow ourselves up if Salazar doesn't spill the beans. The dude's a snake but I suspect his self-preservation instinct would trump his spite, he didn't escape the void just to get blown to bits after all.

>>6010408
giving it to ourself causes the same issues as giving it to Helga

>>6010415
a simple solution would be "accidently" spilling it since it quickly disappears

>>6010408
If there is like a manual device, Arty. We might not ever find another way to help her with her magic power and lifespan, given this is the "Last Great Work". If we give it to someone else... that might be it. Need more info.

If somehow Helga could use Ancient magic to get rid of the Beast that is a second place for me. Plus we know she is scary AF with her real powers from her fighting Nimue; also know she wouldn't misuse her power. If we go that route, she might be able to fix Arty and Frank/Alice, IDK. Modern magic can't help them, but Ancient stuff might.

Not sure if we could even give it to Goddy or Rae given they aren't active yet.

>>6010400
Avalon won't be full again for a couple of hundred years, so Elliot and everyone he knows will be dead by then. I don't mind this place being gone if that is what it takes in the end.

>>6010421
The gate is connected to our soul which we would be transferring, and Helga can body hop into Super Elliot. She kept the Beast at bay for at least some amount of time before she could even manifest a form for herself. Plus, Elliot would have enough power he could probably do something to keep it sealed up for a while with that kind of power.

Having him take it is kinda low on my list since he has never been power hungry and what not, but it is better than nothing if it comes down to it. Spilling it is an option but Salazar will do his damned best to kill Arty and our friends out of spite. Still an option like the nuke buttons, but not ideal.

>>6010510
>Elliot gives himself the super body
>but people he cares about dies over it
>he thwarts the Beast but still has more to do
>Avalon and the knowledge of the Elixir remains
>Elliot BECOMES the new Merlin

>>6010516
That would be something, alright. We are in the same house as him, have a couple of other parallels probably. Merlin did know he would be gone for a while but come back; maybe that is one of the ways "he" could return, even after becoming ultra dead.

If that happens, though, I am all for becoming the real Dark Lord Hallaster. Why would we want to save a world that took everything from us after all?

>>6010516
if soul transferring can be done, a way to revive the dead likely is possible

>>6010555
We would need the soul. If the stone is down there waiting to retrieved, maybe a tiny chance, assuming it actually shows you a persons spirit, not some imitation. Irkalla did say that this place could "move and repair" and it can create the body, naturally.

It would depend on if there is a means to retrieve a spirit we can find.

We know there is some means or series of events that can let Helga and the gang returning, but their deaths were kind of odd.

Also, gonna emphasize the 'repair' part, considering we have a LOT of Merlin pieces in one place.

One more little bit of paranoia... the reason we stole the Hallows, made it down here is because Rowena talked about the "Ranrok" drill, gave a timeframe for it being complete. If we didn't do shit Salazar would have had no way down here unless he wanted to try and break in to steal them, which would be really fucking hard givens Hogwarts defenses against outsiders. We were given incorrect info by a woman who is supposed to be very, very smart. The drill didn't have a way to power it. She commented on the state of this age's magic, even. Hmmmm.

Wonder if she loved Lailoken/Merlin more than she disliked him. Got us all down here for a chance to bring him back? Unlikely but a bit interesting.

for the looks of it, it seems that using the powers is gonna win
question....what do we do if Salazar pulls ANOTHER bullshit move and is prepared for whatever happens next? are we really using the nuclear option?
like, sure, im down for it if we dont have any other choice, just wondering...whats gonna cost us this time? you know...besides being the epicenter definition of a nuclear magical explosion?

>>6010604
>the unclear option
>the one that kills everyone in the area, quite possibly including us, Helga, Linda, and ARTY
Never.

>>6010604
the cost is that us and a large chunk of london fucking die in a wizard nuke

>>6010604
If our closest still living friend or Arty dies, I am voting that Elliot start AKing people at the least since it makes sense from a RP perspective, given how close we were before. I know it is not an insta win button, but at that point it makes sense to me.

If both die... I like Apollo and Brighton has grown on me since he got some development, but the nuke is now on the table. It is useful as a negotiation tool but only if we are willing to use it. Really hoping it doesn't come down to that.

Gonna probably avoid it but who knows.

>>6010604
Game end the quest so hard we rewind time or force the QM to collapse

>>6010612
Technically everyone dies unless the nuke sends the Beast back, since a bit after we and Helga die it gets out.

Can't we technically force Salazar to help fight the shadow while we follow the instruction.

We can LITERALLY tell him the truth and he can't do shit about it.

>>6010665
Okay. I may have had a stroke or something but I have no clue what you mean by this. Like I waited 20 minutes after I read this because I woke up and was still groggy but I still got nothing, man.

>>6010619
>we rewind time
You know, we still don't know why Eliot got wiped from Hogwarts and Harry's memory in the first place...

>>6010793
If Salazar doesn't help keep the beast in check then he dies too.

>>6010857
Can he even help without popping in our head? Can you have 2 mind people at the same time? If he gets a body which can use Ancient magic, sure could do something, but then he is just going to kill us all, try and fail to harness the Beast, and end the world.

That did make me think though; all the other people have the 1 founder and are young; have some spare room in their soul. We have Helga and the Beast or at least the portion which can reach out from the gate. Is our soul overcrowded b/c of the extra thing? Are we slowly dying from being overcrowded?

>>6010857
the only one who can do that is Helga

>>6010665
Salazar is trying to control and weaponize the Beast. If we ream up with him, he'll backstab us and either take over the world (f he succeeds) or doom the world (if his cocky ass fails).

>>6010857
For that 1st point since I kinda was more focused on the other Thing, we have had a couple of pretty good theories even if we have 0 way to really prove them because we don't have enough info. I am somewhat partial to the one that says we only existed when reality rewrote it'self when Helga who was carrying the gate escaped because it needed someone able to house her and the gate and no one like that was real so, boom, meet Elliot Hallaster; gave us parents and a backstory because of course a 16 year old boy need those. Manifested us at Hogwarts because that is the largest existing epicenter of magic around. Wasn't able to insert us into 2 peoples memories because they had a mind person/soul in their head now or in the past. Wasn't able to effect the school due to all the Ancient magic so it doesn't consider us real, less than even a spider who has a name. Gave us friends because of course a guy going to school for 6 years would make some. Manifested us as literally 100% average aside from giving us a couple of hobbies we excel at since that makes sense.

Not amazingly likely but I like it because it means more angst when we choose to send the beast back/destroy it and let Helga rest, Elliot might end up fading away because why would we exist any longer if our purpose was over?

Yes I love angst, why do ask.

>>6011054
The point was that we're not at the end of the instructions. The beast has to be held back while Helga handles the seeing required by the instructions. Salazar doesn't know it may be unnecessary, but we can literally point at the eye and tell him we need to follow those instructions, but only Helga can far see.

He wants to harness the beast, but that's not feasible without the elixir. Therfore, he is "forced" to help in order to keep along with the instructions merlin set up. If he doesn't, then we're stuck. If we fail to hold the beast back while Helga sees, everyone dies anyway.

Essentially, either the elixir journey is over or he increases his own chances by helping hold off the beast. No real space for backstabbing when such a move will ruin everyone.

That is the true slytherin Xanatos gambit here. Some other anon please tell me what other valid good moves Salazar has in this situation?

>>6011139
>Some other anon please tell me what other valid good moves Salazar has in this situation?
literally anything? he has bullshitted us with less, the drill being a very clear and recent example, he WILL pull some bullshit out of his sleeve, he probably already knows how to tame it or control it and is playing along with us and waiting for us to make our move so he can counter it

>>6011139
I mean, he always has the option of torturing and of starting to kill our friends and Arty to make us do what he wants. I don't think the player/Elliot would be able to hold out while our closest friend or wifelette are being crucio'd. That might give Elliot reason to try and fuck him over even more than I am sure he already suspects, but it is certainly an option. Not that creative but he has a grip of men, our wands, is very clever and experienced, ect.

We do have some cards, a couple of rocks fall, everyone dies buttons, but he is in a superior position right now.

What confused me was him helping with the Beast issue, since he has no way to do that we know of right now.

One big card we have I think is that he is on a time limit. Potter will figure out where we went, likely soon, and show up with a dozen Aurors and half the teachers. He probably isn't lying his way out of getting caught with all our comrades being hurt and tied up. Having the same dude Potter cut the arm off of in his gang.

This of course presents it's own issues for Elliot as well, since we are wanted right now and Harry getting down here presents the chance he figures out too much, somehow learns about his daughter being deleted, having access to the elixir himself and a good reason himself to make Elliot use it for him. He is very good at scanning minds, can probably rip the knowledge of how to use it from us.

I am also now paranoid Salazar has some veritserum and will force it down our throat when we make it to the last chamber, so we can't fuck him over by lying about how to make the body. We might have become good enough at Occulemency to just shut up, but I now wish we had brewed up the counter to that stuff during our time prepping.

Very concerned, actually, since Scorpy is another potions dude and has more than enough resources to makes some truth serum.

>>6011201
On the 4th note, recall that there is a portrate in the lobby by where the excavation entrance is connected to McGonagall's office. Scorpy's men might have all been disallusioned, had standard invisibility cloaks or something but that many people would be a bitch to hide. If that thing saw him or the dude with 1 arm for even a second, Potter is already on his way since he can put 2 and 2 together.

>>6011209
Potter figured it out VERY quickly, he altready had a patronus following us while we hadn't even arrived to St. Mungo's yet

>>6011212
You don't need to know where someone is to send a Patronus, it can only return a message from the person it is sent to, and cannot tell the sender where they are.

Otherwise, Apollo wouldn't have freaked out when Arty didn't return his after her failed attempts and pinned our boy to the wall; he and Elliot wouldn't have needed to ask Potter to use the Map to find where she was at, crying.

While I am sure he has likely figured it out by now, or has very strong suspicions, that isn't the reason.

Thinking about it... mom and dad, Linda's too, probably got their doors kicked down by now, mind scanned, then obliviated as muggles don't have rights under wizard law. Fucking magic cops.

>>6011278
>mom and dad, Linda's too
uuuh, i almost forgot that wizards could just do that if they wanted, if they fucked with mom and pops, i say heads will roll

>>6011278
I guess to expound. Yeah he knew probably 30 seconds after the mark went up Elliot and his allies had a good chance to be involved, given Elliot and Arty are the only ones with access to anyone who could teach the mark, aside from the students who have old Death Eaters for parents, or ones suspected as being ones. So easy deduction when added to all the rest of Elliot's BS; the fact we knew sectum sempra and used it like a week before, ect.

I am a bit surprised Draco got here so quick, relatively, given both him and his dad I guess mom too, are all former death eaters. Would have though there would be no way the Auror's would have left them after going to Malfoy Manor till this shit was figured out. Maybe Draco was already out and about, I guess. Had the goon squad <s>whose code names are a reference to Reservoir Dogs I think, lol</s> on retainer at all times.

Unless... no. Surely one of our group isn't a traitor and tipped him off that tonight would be the night. That is silly.

>>6011291
>traitor
...oh please, dont give me more reasons for paranoia, i was already suspicious about Brighton

also, when Potter inevitably comes to fight and acuses us of being a fucking death eater, lets not forgot to point out the former death eater family we are currently dealing with that Potter himself had butted head withs before and that is suspicious that they are even involved at all, i feel like that hasnt been brought up enough, specially since they are also Slytherins and have access to many ways of escaping blames and pointed fingers

>>6011288
I don't think the Auror's would actually hurt them, Potter would flip his shit after this shakes out but... you just made me think of something.

Salazar/Draco has people in the ministry. Was able to get some corrupt aurors and likely a fucking Weasley to help. What if... he managed to get some he turned to be the ones to show up to ours and Linda's houses? Abduct Mom, Dad, Linda's mom, and her little sister? Use them as a trump card, threaten them?

Or fuck, he could just have had hired wands wait till the good cops were done interrogating them, pop in and snatch them.

Fuck. I am going to not give QM more ideas.

>>6011298
>>6011301

Too late.

And yeah... Brighton gave me an odd feeling, a tad.

And I guess the Malfoys are "good guys" now. They even remain on the Board of Hogwarts Governers because wizards are dumb as hell. and Draco is filthy rich/connected. Its like hiring fucking Nazi's for high ranking position after WW2. Oh wait, that is a real thing that happened.

I will point out that threatening people only works when you actually let it get to you, and if what you're being threatened into doing will kill them anyway then you might as well fight back. You can only push someone so far.

Can we please clarify what the fuck we're voting on? What exact plan?

>>6011343
I think
>>6009935

Is the only one with a +1. Which seems to be an attempt to convince Salazar to give us our wand and friends and walk through the door.

>>6011343
seems like the general consensus is to convice him to give us our wand and our friends while alerting Linda of what will we try to do since she is the only one that understand our secret signs

If we want and pick the thing I suggested:

Could add more to it. Tell them that because it had been so long since the elixir had emptied this reservoir was almost over flowing, why it was so close to the path. Normally Merlin could take a nice stroll to the door but we are going to have to book it. That you really probably don't want that essence to get on it, since it is made from 1000 years of distilled pain and would probably make crucio look like a nice summer vacation to Spain; and besides, befouling it before it was distilled with a human life... it wouldn't work, not become a true stone. Produce the Elixir as it should be any longer. After all Merlin came down here alone aside for 2 instances. The place was never designed to accommodate multiple people, even if he had tried to use it as such before. Why the pathway is meant for a single man.

Try and sell the lie more. Or not.

Not a vote but maybe a suggestion if people like it.

So I just recalled something that might be salient soon. When were in the lab before going to enter Avalon, someone suggested leaving a message kindly suggesting Potter not kill us and let us explain. I thought we were going with a post-it note or something.

Nah we used magic fire. Underage magic fire which triggered the Trace, since we weren't in magic wonderland.

I think he is alot closer behind us than I thought.

Fuck might have even been how Scorpy realized shit was going down, since the Malfoys own life half the people in the ministry. Potter has also been stated to be very good at Disillusionment and is friends with the Minister who has people who know a new spell that no revealing charms get through.

<s>They special forces squad and him are already here and waiting for a chance to make a move.</s>

Just food for thought.

>>6012234
>Underage magic fire which triggered the Trace
>special forces squad and him are already here and waiting for a chance to make a move
I seriously hope so. Getting Salazar to go on a villain rant to lull him into an easier state might be a good play. Elliot being casual with him about his ambitions might be a good way to do that.

>>6012234
Also... recall during an interlude how Potter went down to see Crouch with the Minister then came back up, and it was noted he had some wrapped up thing with him?

He smuggled someone to replace Crouch transfigured into an object or who was a small animagus, had Hermione detransfigure the replacement while he shouted to cover the sound of it, gave the replacement some Crouch based polyjuice, shouted some more while Hermione transfigured the real Crouch into an object or animal to bring out.

Grindlewald escaped US Nurmengard similarly.

We even had the dumb prison guard say no one could get "Crouch" out and "Crouch" literally said Potter could.

Hahahaha.

Now the question is whether it is because he needed a pipe hitter or wanted to do some enhanced interrogation on the real one since he probably figured out who taught us the Mark.

<s>If either of these 2 are right I am sleeping on my couch from now on since that is what I did when I figured out a couple other twists.</s>

HeadQM

“Helga, we have until we make it past that door for Salazar to get everything he ever wanted and become free to kill my friends,” you say. “We’re running out of time. We’re running out of options and I don’t have a plan on how to stop eight adult wizards without my wand. We need this. We got this far, right? We… We can make it. Just this last step. We find a way to win, a way to get you, Rowena and Godric new bodies. Maybe even get Arty a new one. We do this, and we get to go home. But this is the only way through.”

“Are you sure?” She asks.

“I’m not sure of anything at this point. But I’m out of options. It’s either this or going through the door.”

You can feel her hesitate.

“Alright. I trust you.”

You look at Scorpius.

“I’m going to need my wand.”

“Why?”

“Because this stupid contraption requires me to use magic, Salazar. Keep your wands pointed at me if you want, but I need my wand to get us through. And I need everyone close.”

“What does it do?”

“I don’t know. It could open the door. It could flood the whole place with blood. I just got the barest of glimpses on how to operate it, not its function. If I knew what half of this nonsense did I would be teaching at Hogwarts, not studying there.”

Scorpius’ body shrugs.

“Very well. Everyone, keep your wands on him. Mr. Purple, keep yours pointed at the redhead. You know what to do if he attempts to betray us. Mr. Blue, toss him his wand.”

Your wand flies through the air and you snatch it before it hits the floor. Right, one problem down, a billion more to go.

“And everyone needs to stand on this platform with me.”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“This was made for one person to cross, Salazar! Getting everyone together-”

“Is not happening, Hallaster. Once you get past this nonsense, if only one person can get through I will shoot you and find a way through the rest of it myself. Right now you are a useful tool, little Elliot. If you stop being useful, I’ll start being less kind to you and your dark acolytes.”

You tighten your lips. It had been unlikely to work, but you had to try.

“Very well, then. The consequences are yours.”

You leave the cane on the floor, where it stands upright, light the tip of your wand, then start drawing in the air while leaving a trail of light. It doesn’t serve any special purpose, you just need to buy time. With the right hand you carve mystical-looking shapes in the air, while with the left you, slowly, form signals. Signals saying “Get ready for anything.”

Scorpius would maybe have seen it, after all he was also a Slytherin from recent years, but you suspect Scorpius is no longer in control.

Once you see the look of realization in Linda’s face you allow the light to fade.

“Very well. Let’s see what this does.” You say out loud, holding on to the cane. Inside your mind, you tell Helga, “Let’s do this.”

[Cont.]

>>6012307

You close your eyes, the connection between you activates, and for the first time you can feel something else crossing through it. Not power and guidance, but something else, something incomprehensible to your mind. It comes from her, goes through you and into the cane.

The surface of the lake of blood begins to ripple. Gently at first, then it becomes rougher as more and more of the unknown feeling goes through you.

Then the blood starts to boil.

“Elliot!” Salazar calls out in a warning tone. “What is happening!?”

“I’m trying to deal with this thing! Shut up and let me work!”

Great bubbles rise to the surface of the liquid, popping with low sounds. It starts closer to the platform you’re in, but it slowly spreads to the entire surface.

“What is going on, Helga!? Talk to me!”

“I’m- I’m trying to see- I- I can’t-” Her voice sounds strained, as if she is exerting enormous effort. “It’s-”

Hundreds of thick strands of boiling blood rise up from the pool and join at a point above your head, then they separate into thousands of thinner strands, each of them going in a different direction. Or at least they try to. Some force mashes them together, intertwines them, as if to form a single great rope from all the strands in a chaotic string of crimson.

“Fate! The strings of fate!” Helga shouts in your mind. “They’re- too tight! Too bright!”

The blood keeps on flowing, pouring more and more into the rope of fate which begins to grow and twist and entangle with itself. One loop, then another, and another, and another, an impossibly tight knot of destiny which grows bigger and bigger.

“I can’t stop! I can’t stop looking!” Helga shouts, and there is horror in her voice. “It doesn’t let me stop!”

You try to let go from the cane, but you can’t, as if an electric current is keeping your hand glued to it. You try pushing and pulling away, but it refuses to move, stuck in place.

“Helga!”

“Too much! It’s too much!” She screams in pain, and you scream with her as the full blast of fate’s light tears through your connection. It is like staring into the sun, no, a million billion suns. Your eyes, usually black when you connect with her, shine bright white, like two great lighthouses inside your head. The masked men recoil in horror and surprise as the red-tinted room for a moment becomes bathed in an alabaster hue, shielding their faces from the light.

There is a sudden bang and you are flung backwards, slamming with your back in the narrow path, and the light fades from your eyes just in time for you to see the massive Knot of Destiny hovering just above where the cane still stands, immovable.

The great twisting blob of boiling blood that represents the future hangs there for an instant, then explodes.

> Roll to protect yourself from the blast. d100+20 (+45 from Battle Magic, -25 from doing the seer's equivalent of looking into the sun with a telescope). Bo3.
> DC 80 to avoid some damage, DC 100 to avoid most damage

Anonymous

>>6012250
The scarier thing might be if he wasn't here for good reasons... that somehow he ended up as the real bad guy. Going after the same thing Elliot is because somehow he figured out Lily II was real or has Merlin in him or some shit. <s>Or has Voldy in there still because that part of the books, where the portion is destroyed, is just pure BS.</s>

Rolled 98 + 20 (1d100 + 20)

>>6012309
Bright Lord Hallaster! Bright Lord Hallaster! Bright Lord Hallaster!

out of all the potential things i had expected to happen, the blood all turning into a single orb and exploding wasn't one of them, holy shit

Rolled 47 + 20 (1d100 + 20)

>>6012317
HOLY SHIT! FUCKING AMAZING ROLL!
BRIGHT LORD HALLASTER! LETS GOOOO!
rolling to get this done

>>6012317
Damn. Close to a crit. Would we have become a seer if that roll was a bit higher? Hahaha. Best roll I have got in the game I think.

You must "whatever" Lord Hallaster post for good rolls, it seems. Fuck 'em up Lord Hallaster also works it seems to give good results.

>>6012327
yeah, gotta keep that in mind whenever the next roll comes, thats our official mantra now

also, since we tanked most of the damage, we gotta get rid of the goons while everyone is distracted/in pain from the explosion, surely we arent the only ones affected by it, now its our change to free our team and get their wands back

>>6012337
They should also maybe be kinda blinded, between fate twisting into a knot and exploding and Elliot just flashing the whole room with his eye beams. Could be a good time.

If we can get up quick, hitting "Mr. Purple" would be good, since he is the one with a wizard gun to Arty's head. Assuming Apollo hasn't already popped his balls by then from kneeing him in the nuts with retard strength for putting a wand against his sister, of course.

I hope Helga is okay. She took most of the strain.

So weird idea before I try not to post more conspiracy theories for now...

It seems like a decent number of us agree that "Mr. Red" is a Weasley. What other Weasley is there? One who might have a decent amount of experience doing undercover work. Would probably notice if one of his brothers had a missing arm which apparently can't be regrown, even after like a month and a half? Guy who is now the head of the magic cops? Wasn't there when his wife and best friend went to talk with a mad man despite that being his job now. Who is probably good enough to be able to partial human transfiguration to make it look like his arm was missing. Was warned that there was a conspiracy in the Aurors and his wife bodyguards?

<s>The Mr. Red we have here right now isn't the one from the fight, it is Ron who replaced him when Salazar summoned his crew to try and stall when he could, try and prevent kids from dying, keep us from pushing buttons we shouldn't until the other got here. Inside man time.</s>

While trying to research this, I also found out they cast a nigger as one of Ron and Hermione's kids in a production of the play thing. I hate Harry Potter and the Cursed Child soooooo much fucking more now.

>>6012572
Of course their kid was black. Hermione was black in the play. And potentially in the book, according to Rowling, who deliberately left her ethnicity ambiguous according to her own interviews. Weird thing to get bent out of shape about.

>>6012636
Rowling commented on this, but I genuinely have no interest in starting a /pol/ debate. You can always look up the interview.

>>6012653
<s>Oh, yes. It most certainly is...</s>

>>6012317
BRIGHT LORD HALLASTER! BRIGHT LORD HALLASTER! BRIGHT LORD HALLASTER!!!

HeadQM

Rolled 30 (1d100)

Do not mind the dice rolling behind the screen

Rolled 17, 17 = 34 (2d100)

>>6012977
Forgot the other 2 dice

Anonymous

>>6012977
>>6012979
Every single one of these people rolled bad. I bet one of them is Salazar

>>6012977
>>6012979
I will in fact mind it. But holy crap, double 17s?

>>6013001
I... really hope it is not our comrades and/or Arty. We have 4... so maybe it is just the 3 closest people to the fate knot bomb, regardless of if it is our dudes or Salazar's? Sally should be the closest person behind us since he was going to shoot us in the back and rush the door if we tried something, so yeah, hopefully he is one of the ones who got fucked.

I will also remind people the last 2 times QM said to not mind his rolls, it was for who got fucked by an Ancient magic corrupted gobbo and if it was Taylor or Raven who died from Salazar AK'ing them.

Thank you for making me worry when I have a meeting with the medical board in a few hours.

Really fucking cool, bro. <s>It's a joke, this is shaking out to be one of my favorite part of the quest, aside from wholesome Christmas stuff.</s>

>>6013079
That was a 1d2 coinflip. This is one 1d100 and 2 d100s separate from the first one. Clearly first is for one person hopefully Salazar, and the other 2 are for allies or unknowns. Or maybe the 2d100 is for Scorpius and Salazar in their struggle, and both failed equally badly in winning over each other

>>6013098
Sally vs. Scorpius would be good, a nice little bonus to blowing up the fate knot. Scorpy didn't seem like a terrible person from what we know. He seems to be fighting back after he realized he done fucked up by having Salazar tell him what to, and I would really not like one of the richest, most powerful families in magical Britain on our ass because Scorpius died down here with us. Blame Elliot. <s>Assuming we don't all die down here, in the bowels of the Earth.</s>

If we get some chance to help him fight back, might be a decent idea to do it.

I kinda regret not just coming clean with the dude when he still had mostly all of the control, trying to help keep Salazar at bay earlier. Probably would have been hard, maybe backfired hard but being piloted while you are still in there is like nightmare fuel.

>>6012977
>>6012979
Low is good, right, right? Unless it's to do with the Founders, which means they're probably in a spot of trouble.

>>6013156
Oh crap.

Had not considered that... Like our roll would have counted for our mind person in this case and the other 3 are for the others?

Or, since QM said he meant to roll 3d100... fuck is it for Helga and how fucked she is from staring at the sun? IDK.

Guess we will see? I would be sad if it is bad for us after getting a good roll for us, for once.

>>6012977
>>6012979
really now, THATS how you gonna make me start my morning? aight, bet

>>6013146
But what does it mean if both Scorpius and Salazar rolled equal 17s? Did they both mutually eat shit?

>>6013362
if thats what that means, then we eating good, both eating shit can only be a good thing for us

>>6013362
Cross counter, double knock out?

Or maybe DBZ fusion dance because of how unlikely matching dice are on a d100? But due to the shit roll, the resulting Scorpyzar isn't more powerful, just vastly more retarded.

Picrel

>page 10
update soon? we gotta, right? so far every thread has ended up in what i would call a small resolution or a cliff hanger, i wonder whats HeadQM cooking this time...

>>6014407
Avalon end will be the end of this "Act" but not the end of this thread it seems

>>6014409
Really hope we end up with Disappearing Hogwarts: Book 2 and do our 7th year, after act 3 or 4.

<s>If we end up dying and not nuking the world or something when we go, I would also accept Arty Quest, her doing her 6th year and trying to find a way to bring Elliot back. Or fuck, Raven Quest even, her trying to bring back her two best friends. Or just moving past it, learn to live with the lose I suppose, IDK.</s>

>>6014552
<s>reviving the dead is theoretically possible with the knowledge of how Merlin's body-transfer process works, just the issues of how to actually get a dead person's soul, getting a body for it, and getting more elixir</s>

>>6014552
>spoiler
lets hope it wont come to that, but if it does then im 100% supporting

>>6014586
Atlanteans weren't the only Ancient civilization... maybe.

Brighton currently has "Lemurian" parasites in his throat. Atlantis and Lemuria were said to be opposing factions. If one is real, why not believe the other is as well? Plus we have Ker Ys, Thule, Agarth, Hyperborea, ect. If spoiler happens... who is to say they didn't find a means?

<s>An Arty quest where she has to learn to just accept Elliot is gone while dealing with her own BS magic adventure shit, life, and school would be pretty kino.</s>

HeadQM

>>6014407
Update is coming in a bit. I planned to finish Act 3 with this thread, then take an extended break, but life got in the way of things moving faster. This weekend I'll be getting heavily drunk, so there will be no update.

Page 10 lasts a while, and I'll try to post more regularly after sunday without rushing and hopefully we'll get to the end before the thread dies. If not, we'll just have a thread with a handful of posts. Not ideal, but it will do.

Anonymous

>>6014667
I'm going to lose my shit if we ever find proof of Yakub's existence in this quest

>>6014679
>extended break
just out of curiosity, any idea on how long this extended break will be? i dont mean to push or rush, just asking to mentally prepare for the draught
<s>hell, i might even start my own quest...maybe</s>

>>6014680
If we find out the progenitor of wizard kind was a big head nigger I will laugh my ass off for a good 10 minutes.

>>6014679
>Extended break

Ahhhhhhhhh

>>6014684
If you run something, I would check it out. Might sooth the pain of this being gone for a while.

No capcha, it is not WAY 0K

>king thread is up
its our time boys, remember to vote for our boy!

HeadQM

>>6014684
Probably a month or two, unfortunately. I’m moving places and will probably have my hands full for a while.

>>6014875
Cool! Don't forget to reserve an IP! >>6014808

--

There is no time to speak, there is barely time to think as your thoughts form “Protego!” and uncountable droplets of blood splatter against the magical shield. You hear other people shouting the spell, followed by cries of pain from those who cast it too late, or at the wrong angle, followed by loud splashing and brief sounds of drowned screaming. You scream too as it hits your feet, the protego only covering above your knees.

And you see. Flashes. Images. Possibilities. A garden. Grass. Blue light. You walking through a door bathed in red light in a hundred slightly different ways. Then the visions fade, and agonizing reality sets in once more.

“Ahhh! Glacius! Glacius!” You frantically cast the cooling spell at your legs, but it is already too late. The blood soaked your robes, transforming it into a scalding rag that sears your legs. The potionmaker part of you briefly remarks that blood should have completely boiled away at such temperatures, but it is quickly overridden by the part that is forcing yourself to not grit your teeth so you can properly enunciate your spells. “Glacius!”

Once your legs are no longer actively burning, only severely burned, it takes you just an instant to remember your friends. You stand up to go to them, your legs screaming at you, and limp in their direction.

“What the hell was that, Hallaster!?” Salazar shouts, furious. His face is clear of the liquid, but his torso looks soaked and his eyes look even more bloodshot than before.

“I don’t know! Some security system, like the rest of all this nonsense!”

He grabs you by the collar of your robes and pulls you close, practically hissing at you. “Do not fuck with me, little Elliot! What the hell did you do?”

“I don’t bloody know! You think I planned on burning my bloody legs and my friends? Half of the crap in this place tried to kill me, Salazar! Don’t throw a hissyfit when it tries to kill you too! Now let me check on my friends!”

You push past him, sparing a glance at the two bodies floating on the still bubbling pool not too far from where Linda lies, covered in blood and painful blisters, still untreated as the masked men are focusing on healing themselves. A little further away, Brighton, who managed to jump backwards into the tunnel quickly enough to escape unharmed. To the right is Apollo, back completely soaked in steaming blood, gritting his teeth as he struggles to move from where he’d jumped on top of Arty, who seems completely unharmed.

“Glacius! Glacius!” You shout, cooling Linda and Apollo down, the boy collapsing on the floor, gasping in pain and relief. “Accio pouch!”

[Cont.]

>>6014932

Your pouch comes flying out of the pool and you let it fall on the floor before cooling it and shoving your hand inside. You pull out a Wiggenweld potion, but it immediately flies off your hands.

“I’ll be having that, thank you very much,” Salazar says, uncorking it and downing it.

You reach inside for another one, only to be tackled to the floor by an utterly deranged Mr. Purple, covered from head to toe in blisters and wounds, who wrenches the potion from your hands before frantically drinking it like a man dying of thirst. Some of the wounds close, but not all of it, and you know it isn’t because of the quality of your brew. This will take more than mere potions to heal, but he doesn’t care. He tosses the bottle away before reaching into your pouch for another one.

“Careful, Mr. Purple. I suspect he has more than just Wiggenweld in there,” Salazar says, pointing Scorpius’ wand at you. “Pass it around once you’re done. He was the one who caused this ruckus, only fair he pays for it. Also, Mr. Silver, wand on the girl, please.”

“Corr and…” Mr. Silver starts, then corrects himself. “Mr. Green and Mr. Brown are fucking dead.”

“This little bitch kicked them in! I saw it!” Mr. Purple says, furious. He grabs Linda by the neck and lifts her up, slamming her scalded body against the wall, and even through her gag you can hear her scream.

“Let her go!” You shout, pointing your wand at him.

“Why? This little bitch killed my friends! I think she should join them!”

YOu point the wand in the other direction. “Salazar! Get your man under control before I kill everyone in this room!”

“Really?” Salazar asks with an amused tone. “And how would you do that, I wonder?”

“He means it,” says a voice coming from one of the masks. That is enough to make everyone stop what they’re doing and look at the man. “I saw it.”

“What do you mean, Mr. Gray?”

“We’re in a room with only one exit,” Mr. Gray says, sounding haunted. “He doesn’t mean to kill us, not really. Only hurt us. He fires a bombarda at the corridor. He thinks he can protect himself and his friends if he protegos himself quickly enough. He’s wrong. The walls can’t give in. The air has nowhere to go. We’re either crushed by the pressure or fall into the lake. We die before we’re finished screaming.”

That… that couldn’t be right, could it? You thought- you figured if you protected yourself- You hadn’t really meant that threat… Or had you? Was there a future where that happened and you succeeded in saving your friends?

“I- I saw it too.” Mr. Blue says. “Or… Or is this the time he pulled an exploding potion off his pouch when we weren’t looking?”

“What are you two talking about?” Salazar hisses.

“The flashes. When the blood hit.” Mr. Red says. “It- It was the future! Didn’t you see it?”

[Cont.]

>>6014935

You see Salazar calculating for a moment. Could he have not been able to see it because he wasn’t that body’s soul? Had Scorpius seen it instead? “I saw… nothing that made much sense. I guess I didn’t get as wet as everyone here. Very well, then. If fate says it must be so. Mr. Purple, please put her down. She will answer for her crimes once we get out of here.”

Mr. Purple snarls, then throws Linda on the floor.

“Has everyone gotten a potion?” Salazar asks, and there are nods from all the masked figures. “Good, then let us move.”

“My friends haven’t. I’m not moving until they get something.”

“Your wand first, then.”

“Not a bloody chance,” you say, still pointing towards the stairwell, though now that you know the results of your actions your hand is shaking. “I can bombarda faster than any of you can hit me, I promise you that. They get their potions, we can talk wands.”

Salazar frowns, analyzing the situation.

“Fine. Give them a couple of potions. And make sure not to stay within kicking distance of the pool, for Merlin’s sake!”

“Last of your stock,” Mr. Blue says, tossing you two final Wiggenwelds. You briefly remove Linda’s gag before pouring it in, and relief washes over her pained eyes.

“You good?”

“Could be better. Your legs got hit.”

“I’ll live. It won’t heal you fully, I think there was something in the blood that doesn’t let the wounds close properly, but it’ll ease the pain for now.”

“Thanks for the warning.”

You kiss her forehead before going to Apollo. You’re careful to not turn him on his back as you feed him the potion.

“You’ll be alright, big guy.”

“Don’t… don’t kill us.”

“I won’t. Thanks for protecting Arty.”

“Always will.”

You look at Arty and try to give her a reassuring look, and she returns with a look as if asking "what do we do now?" but you don't have an answer. Once your friends are healed, the masked crew gags them again.

“Now, little Elliot. Your wand, before I need to resort to more physical coercion.”

You look around. Two of them are gone, that still leaves six against one, yet they are closer to the pool. If you can just knock them into it, maybe with Helga’s help…

“Helga, do you still have enough for one burst of power?”

“I… I can’t, Elliot.”

“Come on, just one last push and-”

“I can’t! I… I can’t…” And there is grief in her voice as she speaks. “I can’t see. I can’t see, Elliot.”

You feel something cold sink in your stomach.

“You- You mean-”

“It’s dark. It’s all dark. I… I can’t see the forest. I can’t see my hands.”

“Oh Helga, I’m… I’m sorry. I didn’t… I didn’t mean to-”

“I told you, Elliot! I told you it was dangerous!” Her voice flares up with anger, then dies down, becoming mixed with pain and sadness. It hurts you, too. “I… No. I was the one who went with it. I should have told you no. I should… I should have chosen differently.”

[Cont.]

>>6014936

“I’m sorry, Helga. I’m so sorry. I- I’ll-”

“Your wand, Elliot!” Salazar shouts, breaking you away from your thoughts. He and his goons now all have their wands pointed at you. “Now!”

“I- uh-” You stammer for a moment, trying to find the words, but none come and you simply allow your wand to be taken. What had you done? What did you do to the one person who sacrificed everything to help you?

You stumble forward in a haze, as if trying to find a way to fix things, a way to make things go back to the way they were, but there is none. You are pushed forwards inexorably by the march of time, who does not stop to let you grieve the blindness you had caused your friend.

“There is your cane, little Elliot. Now, onwards.”

You take the cane from where it stands hanging in the air, approach the final door and tap it.

The door opens slowly, and sunlight floods the room. Beyond, you see blue skies, green grass, flowers. The air is sweet, and decorating the small island are great stones made of glass-like material which refracts the sunlight into ever-present rainbows. The grass ends in sand, which gives way to a perfect blue sea, stretching into infinity. The sun is bright, but not overly hot. The wind blows just right for it to refresh you, and for a moment the simple beauty of the place takes your breath away.

You know it isn’t real. You know it is impossible to create an extended space this large. You know somewhere the sea ends and the illusion begins. Yet it is enough to soothe some of your weary soul, if only for a moment.

In the middle of the room, several meters away, there is a great slab of black marble-like stone. Lying on top of it, as if resting, lies the perfectly preserved body of King Arthur Pendragon, the Once and Future King, in full armor and wearing a golden crown, holding his sword over his chest. By his head rises a pillar of gold, maybe waist high, with a basin resting atop it from where a liquid of pure white drips onto his forehead, ever so slowly.

The center of Merlin’s Great Work.

The source of the Elixir of Life.

Avalon.

-- Interlude --

There is a knock on the metal door, and Crouch smiles within the darkness of his cell.

“Yes, little birdie?”

“I’ll do it. But you have to give me something worth it.”

“I knew you’d make the right choice, little birdie. Now, here’s something interesting for you to think about…”

And Bartemius Crouch Junior starts talking, to his own amusement and to Nienna’s horror.

-- Interlude Over --

Everyone slowly pours into the island in awe. Well, almost everyone.

“There should be another body in here,” Salazar says, frowning as he steps past you. “Well, no matter. This will do.”

“Not so fast.”

Salazar turns to face Mr. Purple, who has his wand pointed at him.

“What are you doing?”

[Cont.]

>>6014939

“Me? Oh, I don’t know. Maybe pointing my wand at one of the four Founders. Maybe pointing it at a rich brat who got himself into far too much trouble. Because, you know, I also got covered in blood, not that you cared. Felt it in my skin as it burned almost my whole body. And I also saw some things. Some futures. And wouldn’t you know it? In some of them you do get to use the pretty little liquid in that bowl! But let me tell you, what comes out of it doesn’t look like a Malfoy, not one bit.”

Mr. Red backs away until his back is against the solid frame of the door, breath ragged.

“So here I’m thinking that maybe you didn’t tell us the truth about this whole thing, that maybe the boy isn’t lying all that much,” Mr. Purple continues. “And that maybe I’m just not getting paid quite enough to lose a leg, my good looks, two of my friends and probably my job. Here I’m thinking that maybe in one of those futures that I didn’t see, maybe I’m the one getting a brand new body out of this deal.”

Mr. Red falls to the floor unnoticed by the others, dropping his wand to the floor, grasping his face with his hand. His voice comes out slow, strained, almost pained.

“I… I had a niece? Wha- How? How could I forget…”

“You fool, you have no idea how to use this thing!” Salazar shouts.

“Yeah, but the boy does. And he doesn’t have a wand.” Mr. Purple’s wand never wavers from Scorpius. “So here I am thinking… Why should me and my mates risk letting you do what you want… When we can just do what we want?”

Scorpius’ face becomes cold.

“Gentleman. You may follow this fool. Or you may kill him and those who agree with him, and whoever does so gets an extra hundred thousand galleons.”

It takes only an instant for the spells to start flying in all directions.

And as you look around, trying to decide what to do and where to jump for cover, an odd chill runs down your spine.

“Elliot,” Helga says, voice filled with fear. “It’s the Beast. It’s coming! My defenses can hold it for a while, but without seeing anything I can’t stop it!”

What do you do?

> Tackle Mr. Blue and attempt to recover your wand and pouch
> Rush to untie your friends
> Dive for Mr. Red’s wand
> Hide, try to focus on your mind and help Helga
> Other (Write in)

Anonymous

We CANNOT let anybody in the party die
We CANNOT let Salazar win
Even if the party is untied, they have no wands
Percy remembers Lily existing now, but he doesn't know Lily was Salazar all along
I don't know if we can fix Helga's blindness in time, but everybody here needs Elliot alive to use the Elixir. If he's out of commission due to the Beast, they're all doomed anyway

>>6014940
> Tackle Mr. Blue and attempt to recover your wand and pouch
If Elliot dies, it's game over
If anybody of Elliot's dies, we can ruin the Elixir forever by simply tipping it over or something
If the Elixir is ruined, Elliot has no more leverage over the masked guys
Without any more reason to be in Avalon, the masked men kill everybody including Elliot and the Beast is freed, game over

We go for Mr. Blue, pull a "You saw futures! You KNOW! Help me out and we'll live!" or similar, and hope he backs us up.

>Helga got fucked up
ooooOOOOOOOH CMON THE FUCK ON!!!
could we NOT get progressively worse each time?!
>Other (Write in)
ok, they KNOW we aint fucking around and they need us if they ever want to get the fuck out of this place, lets fight with them to take down Salazar, he is our biggest inmmediate threat
we NEED the goons in our side, we have to convince Mr. Blue to protect us while we build our team back up, just enough to give them their wands and untie them, after that, its All Vs Salazar, he HAS to go down NOW

HeadQM

>>6014959
The golden basin appears to be affixed to the floor, so not easily tipped. You also get the feeling that they didn't all see the same things, some saw more, some less, some saw different paths altogether.

Anonymous

>>6014962
We CANNOT kill Salazar. If he dies he goes to another body again.

>>6014977
we dont have to KILL him, just fuck him up until he is crippled and unable to move ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
probably cast a groupal petrificous totalus so he has no chance to even scratch his ass

hell, i say use diffindo to chop-off his arms and legs, cauterize the wounds so nothing can grow back with incendio and the punch him in the throat so he cant speak at all
brutal but non-lethal damage
im sick of that piece of shit, anything just to have him trapped in a the magical equivalent of pic related

>>6014996
no, i am most DEFINITELY not ok, i want Salazar to be fucking gone, all of the bullshit we´ve gone through because of him is starting to feel like the torture parts of fanfic anon´s works
also, what did we get from Helga looking into destiny? did she get Stevie Wonder´d for nothing?

>>6014940
> Rush to untie your friends
Friends first. :( I'm so sorry, Helga.

>>6015018
Aww that is sweet. Never thought about taking a character's eyes out, eye's which can't be healed because they are a mind ghost. Might have some new inspiration, heh.

> Hide, try to focus on your mind and help Helga

>Weasly fucking fight! Fight for something good and right. For that girl who never was.I am going to need help here!

>>6014936
>you kiss her forehead before going to Apollo

That is sweet, given we do love her a friend; likewise Arty getting shielded by her brother was great even if it harmed him in a place he had been hurt before.

>>6014940
>Weasly fight back! Don't just lay there! Get them untied!

>Helga you and I are connected right? Take one of my eyes. Use it!

>>6015069
god, they did her nicely in this art.
legs for days, thats that good shit

>>6015084
Olympus QM draws like that. You should see their other art; some of it for Queen of /qst/ is like 80% leg

>>6014983
Can't be too much or then Draco hates us. Scorpius is still in there
>Salazar shouts, furious. His face is clear of the liquid, but his torso looks soaked and his eyes look even more bloodshot than before.

>>6015018
>all of the bullshit we´ve gone through because of him is starting to feel like the torture parts of fanfic anon´s works
I agree
>did she get Stevie Wonder´d for nothing?
She barely even saw anything with how hard the plot and muh destiny is cucking her. She couldn't even see anything normally before this. QM really said "no future sight" all quest to the character with future sight, and now he's punishing her and the players for the blood pool vote. Might as well sacrifice her seer powers entirely to get her regular sight back. The most useless and unused power ever. I've kept thinking how Helga is nothing more than Beast denial and a powerful buff in battle and some nice lines, and nothing else. She really got dealt a raw hand

>>6015069
Yelling at Weasley to help might ne interesting

>>6015084
I noticed when I saw at it again that it kinda looked like she is trying to stand on her tip toes to look taller, which is cute and has heels on the shoes to boot. But yeah, my head cannon now is that while being tiny/petite, Arty does have a nice set of legs.That Elliot is even more of a leg/ass man than I already thought of him as.

>>6015126
>She really got dealt a raw hand

Since this is taking a break for a while soon, I might write something about her getting a scarred "raw" hand in a slightly different timeline and in a good place, in a better way. Manually. Also, something else raw, rapidly and hard. She was intended to be one of the love interests after all... might as well give her some love, heh.

<s>I tried to start on some Arty BDSM fic shit and guess fucking what? It turned in to Apollo and Elliot bonding interactions, Riley coming over to Helen and Kendrick's house during the summer and both of them being awkward for different reason during the set-up. We Apollo fic-ing now boys. Wholesome interactions, Elliot showing his future brother-in-law how to fight like a Muggle some, Apollo and Elliot kicking the shit out of a group of urban scholars who tried to give them and Riley crap at the shopping arcade, and maybe Apollo's soul getting sucked out at the end.

Rowena/Raven is still cooking, but I do not know how to write one girl giving another a futa cock to fuck her with, so it is going slowly.</s>

>>6014940
>> Rush to untie your friends
need to get them now while the others are all distracted from the chaos, we need any help we can get and we can deal with the Weasley's mental crisis after

>>6015126
>some of it for Queen of /qst/ is like 80% leg
ooh i´ve seen them, they are all great, us legs fans are eating good there
>>6015126
>Helga is nothing more than Beast denial and a powerful buff in battle and some nice lines, and nothing else. She really got dealt a raw hand
i mean...yeah, the most useful she has been so far is as dice rolls bonuses
>Yelling at Weasley to help might be interesting
i was thinking about this, once we deal with Salazar we then have to deal with Mr. Blue, making Weasly side with us is probably our best next move

>>6015282
>my head cannon now is that while being tiny/petite, Arty does have a nice set of legs.That Elliot is even more of a leg/ass man than I already thought of him as.
my man, that was my headcanon all along, thats why i´ve been trying to make her legs as nicely as possible in all the fanart i´ve done, but now that i know this is a more shared view of her, i miiiight make her just a bit thiccer, just a bit...
>new "raw" fanfic idea
you have my interest...
>spoiler
you now have ALL of my attention! cant wait to read both of those
>Rowena x Raven
try going for the hentai route, women are curious but naturally good at sucking dick, its just the receiving end of the deal that is getting the "new" experience, also, no fucking way Raven doesnt know how to suck dick, she has at the very least seen a few dozen hours of porn at some point

>>6015517
>Linda's head game
Taylor <s>RIP</s> told us she can hold her breath for a really long time, and she had a tongue split, so...

>>6015069B
>>6014940

> Hide, try to focus on your mind and help Helga

Gonna modify it a bit.

>Weasley! Get the fuck up from the floor and help me to keep Salazar from ending the world! Unless you WANT to join Lily that badly! Ask Salazar what he did to that kind girl with green eyes before she got erased if you need more motivation. Get our allies untied and a wand for me!

We really need to help Helga. We have a possible/probable ally in Mr. Red so we need to be Slytherin and use him. One because while sowing discord with the prophecy shit and gaining a possible ally, we did fuck Helga up in doing so, and she is all that is standing between us and everything ending. Two, it is also the right thing to do if we hurt her with that choice.

Red has a wand even if it is at his feet, we don't have jack and his brother, shit, and we probably aren't getting 4 people untied in a fire fight, though I do suspect Brighton has his already undone his and is just keeping up appearances to wait for a good moment, given everyone here lost sight of him for a moment when he dove out the door before the blood rain.

We need as many allies as we can get and right now we only have one possible person who can maybe help our friends. We could try, and do their bonds ourselves, either faction of the people fighting need us to tell them how to use the Elixir but that doesn't mean someone cant just stun us to keep Elliot around till after they get done quarreling. Torture us or our friends till we break.

Name-dropping Lily II to the Weasley and mentioning a feature only someone would know from having met her will probably bring him to our side.

>>6015539
If this does win, or regardless I suppose... we are going to really put to point that under no fucking circumstances can Weasley ever mention Lily to Harry or Ginny. Assuming he even makes it out, might even have to obliviate him, messily I suppose since we aren't that good with said spell. He might get a pass just because he is an associate of Harry's but shit, he is still probably getting truth serum'd by the ministry given he was involved in this plot.

>>6015720
we could try making an agreement to say nothing about his involvement in exchange for him not saying anything about Lily, not sure how well that would work though

>>6015720
we can tell him that specific piece of information is the ENTIRE reason we are going through all this shit, technically not a lie, that bit of information is one of the few things that will cause the end of the world, maybe not by our hand, but Harry´s

>>6015522
>Head game
kek

Though I had planned for it to be the other way around... I was going to mention her tongue in some way, because it is pretty hot.

>>6015517
>thicc Arty

Arty will always be a waif in my mind, have a thigh gap, but... well she has canonically been eating like twice as much as she had before due to training with Crouch. Some nice thighs along with girl abs is a pretty nice picture in my mind.Thigh job in a fic? Who knows.

I would like to say something before the thread dies on this page 10. If or when Elliot ever says out loud that the Sorting Hat wanted to put him in Hufflepuff first, if Arty admits in response that the Sorting Hat wanted to put her in Slytherin first, I vote for Elliot to drop everything he's doing and start aggressively making out with her immediately. Yes, even if they are in a hostage situation with wands pointed at both of them. Yes, even if they are in public.

>>6015756
>Thigh job in a fi-
YES! DO IT!

>>6015774
+10
dont care about if it fits their personalities or not, thats just hot

almost forgot, im wanted to ask this before the thread dies<br>what are we going to do while HeadQM is away? do we make a couple of threads while he is away? do we just hibernate while checking the catalog?

>>6014940
>“Elliot,” Helga says, voice filled with fear. “It’s the Beast. It’s coming! My defenses can hold it for a while, but without seeing anything I can’t stop it!”
Oh. Here comes Merlin.

>>6015891
I'd check it out if someone wrote a non-canon side-story quest. Maybe fanfic anon.

>>6015891
>>6015952

I might post the shit I am working on in QTG or something. Commission something as a nice surprise for the next thread, perhaps.

I am not sure if I would be comfortable running something unless I had explicit permission from QM, and it would probably be something silly and dumb like Linda/Raven slice of life even if he signed off on it.

>>6015804
1 page down, and we are already getting to it, since the only set-up is Elliot and Arty chilling in the bed and her not wanting to go all the way that night but wanting to do something.

>>6016598
absolutely BASED beyond belief

>2nd to last thread in the catalog
death soon, both in thread and in-quest

>>6018069
>new ip
shit, now i gotta check in the king and queen threads again...

HeadQM

>>6018069
Well, crap, I'm finally alive again after sleeping for a total of 16 hours today. Getting utterly shitfaced gets more consequences every year that passes.

Anyway, here's the link to the archive. Don't forget to vote even though I'm an dumbass who forgot to change the number when putting the title. I'll create a new thread tomorrow, even if it will probably only be a handful of updates until we reach the end. I'll ping on QTG and twitter once it is up.

https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.<wbr>com/qstarchive.html?tags=Disappeari<wbr>ng%20Hogwarts

Anonymous

>>6018189
You can ask Lord Licorice on Discord or via email to fix the archive, if need be.

Thanks for running!

>>6018189
>16 hour sleep
damn, those are always good
thanks for everything HeadQM, we´ll most likely keep that new thread alive between me (drawfag) and fanficfag, maybe you can call it thread 6.1, since it wont have many updates

>>6014940
>Try and talk to Mr Red, get him to snap out of it and help.

One last vote for the road.