I, Danica Amandine will journey into the bowels of the Dungeon Shame tomorrow evening at 10pm, sword in hand.

I seek a sign.

If you wish to join me, pick up your sword and gather at the mouth of that evil place and we shall make our way together, for better or worse.

~Danica.

Wednesday November 30th, 2011 @ 10pm EST, meet at the entrance to shame, outside.

The Knights of the Crux Ansata had gathered in the throne room of Castle Britannia and awaited our leader, the Lady Danica. Upon her arrival, she got straight to business, telling us that we were going to attempt to remove the final three locks imprisoning her sister Charlotte. The worry and emotion was evident on her face as she told us that she didn’t know what would happen, but she was not going to allow her sister to be in pain any longer. Bound and determind to free Charlotte, we headed for Trinsic.

We soon arrived at Trinsic’s jail and without delay squeezed into that same tiny cell that we had been in on two previous occasions, and entered the mind of Charlotte for what would be the final time. At first all was quiet, with the exception of Charlotte, who, encased in her skin of marble, stood alone quietly repeating her broken thoughts out loud:  “The child is to blame… I opened the door.  I let him in… The slithering snake, the wound at my back…” If she was aware of our presence I do not know, but soon the Memory of Danica joined us and our attentions turned to her.

“So you have come once more.”

The memory glanced over the crowd for a moment before asking us why we had returned. Shouts of freeing Charlotte arose all around and wih a small nod, the Memory told us that if we were seeking to finish what we had begun, we had best get started.

“You know the key.”

The crowd fell silent. The key. What was the key? The Knights looked around at eachother in confusion. After a minute the Memory asked in surprise “Is there no one that possesses the key?”  My heart sank. In all our eagerness to get here and finish our task, we had forgotten the key! “No one knows the key? You had it when last you came.” A few more minutes passed, and still no one could remember the key. Amid the murmurs of the other Knights, I could hear Charlotte still speaking her thoughts: “The dark man, the bloody face…  The pearl turned to coal… I am coal.  I am nothing now… Nothing.  I am nothing now.  There is only void.” Suddenly a single voice spoke out above the rest:

“moobbnnaae eeeaen booll oom nnebat”

The key! Turning my attention quickly to the speaker, I realized it was Solus; the same knight who had spoken the key during our last visit. However, any sense of relief and gratitude was quickly overshadowed by the subsequent arrival of the Keeper of Keys and the ensuing chaos of battle. Each battle went like clockwork: First the Keeper of Keys went down, then the Star of Adhara followed soon after. At long last the final lock was activated and a Figment of Bellatrix appeared before us.

We fought long and hard, and we had finally won. Or had we? The Memory of Danica faded, for the real Danica was pushing her way past the Knights, towards her sister.

“Charlotte?”

Slowly looking up, a look of surprise seemed to cross Charlotte’s face. “Sister you’ve…..Grown up.” With a small tremble in her voice, she added “They will never forgive me for letting him in… Me… I am to blame…” We watched quietly as Danica tried to comfort her sister, “We were children, you didn’t know what you were doing.”

Hearing those words, Charlotte collapsed and began to cry. Kneeling next to her distraught sister, Danica tried to convince her to return with us, to leave this nightmare. Between sobs, we could hear Charlotte refuse. “Sister… No… I can’t… You have grown up, I have not… My body is his… It is too broken. I am broken and I have never grown up.” Despite Danica’s continual attempts to convince her sister to come with us, Charlotte’s guilt and despair seemed to run so deep that she could not convince herself that she was not to blame.

“Leave me sister… Let me die… Please…”

“CHARLOTTE I WILL NOT LEAVE HERE WITHOUT YOU!”

Danica was crying now, desperate and determined to save her sister. “Thank you for coming… Thank you for trying…” Charlotte looked sadly at her sister before speaking again. “Some things are Order, some are Chaos… This is Order… It was written in the stars.” Danica, looking long and hard at her sister, replied “Then you leave me no choice Charlotte. There is a way…” She seemed to almost smile. “I will take your spirit into my own. We will be one.”

The Knights of the Crux Ansata watched in stunned silence as Charlotte disappeared into the body of their leader. We did not have time to fully understand what had happened, as we heard Danica, this time speaking to us. “We must leave this place… Quickly before it crumbles around us. Back to Trinsic, Quickly.” Bolting for the exit, the Knights flooded out of the jail into the streets of Trinsic.

Danica turned to speak to us again, though she seemed suddenly exhausted. “I am very tired, taking the soul of Charlotte into my own has exausted me. But I must warn you. Before, the change… My sister forced the daemon out of her body. He is here, in trinsic somewhere. Find him, and kill him in my sisters name. Destroy him and take revenge for my family.”

Many of the Knights quckly ran off in search of Sapkbreu, but I remained behind for a moment. While hurriedly tending to my dragon, I overheard a short exchange between Danica and Queen Arya that started to cause me worry.

“Danica?”

“Yes?”

“Will you be alright?”

“I… I don’t know.”

 Shortly after Danica’s departure, Sapkbreu finally showed himself. Looking down upon the Knights gathering around him, he began to speak. “Miserable Fools! You took my little princess away from me!”

“YOU WILL PAY DEMON!” cried Anora Knowles. Sapkbreu turned his attention to her and laughed arrogantly. “Pay? I have spilled more of your blood over the years than you could ever exact upon me. Do you not see that I have already won?”

“My only fault was being too visible. Next time I will work in the shadows. I will not go back into bondage and slavery.” I heard Anora call out again “There is no next time for you Sapkbreu! It ends here. It ends now!” The daemon laughed again. “You will not destroy me. Your death comes quickly.” I could see Solus step forward and speak the key “moobbnnaae eeeaen booll oom nnebat.” With a scream of pain and rage, Sapkbreu came at us with the intentions of destroying us all.

Unfortunately, in all his arrogance, Sapkbreu had underestimated our abilities. We perservered and with a final push, destroyed him once and for all. Yet I still worry. How will Danica be affected by the merging of her soul and her sister’s? How will this development affect the Knights of the Crux Ansata? Is this the end of the Knights, or a new beginning?

Faeryl Tyr’athem                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Atlantic News Reporter
Knight Captain of the Crux Ansata

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Lords and Ladies of Sosaria!

A grand feast will be held this Sunday, November 27th at 9:00 pm under the eastern skies.

Come drink and be merry at our Feast of Giving and Thankfulness.

To be held in the city of Haven, near the bank.

Discuss this article

Monday, November 21st 2011 @ 7pm EST, Join us for another zany adventure!

Meet at the Throne Room of Castle Britannia.

Wednesday, November 16th @ 9pm EST – Meet and Greet with Atlantic’s Newest EM.

When I first got the news I was approved to be a Shard Reporter I began thinking who I could interview. I needed people that most would find to be an intriguing personality. After all, that’s what makes for a good read. As I thought about it, the Crux Ansata had just celebrated the promotion of their first ever Knight Captain. My pondering was done. Who better to kick off a series of interviews about Atlantic folks than the first ever Knight Captain. A rank that requires a good amount of effort and work to attain, not to mention many, many deaths. With that said, let’s begin…..

 How long have you been roaming the lands of Britannia?

I’ve been roaming the lands of Britannia for just under five years now. If I did my math right, that would be roughly twenty-four Britannian years.

Have you always been the type of person that made sure you attended all the EM Events you could?

 I definitely haven’t. While I’ve been to the occasional event run by the various EMs we’ve had on Atlantic since the program was started, they never really held my interest for long. Sure they were fun to an extent, but I wanted something different, something with more appeal than races and other little games.

A figure dressed in green, blending into the colors that surround it, made its way to the center of Yew. Standing by the portal leading to the Elven city, one that was not there in ages passed, pulled the hood of her cloak back revealing the features of a human female. Tall and slender she was, with a shape and presence that would and does catch the attention of many.

She knew of the days when this town was bustling with activity, for she was young then and so very wide eyed taking it all in. The majority of her days spent never really knowing if the choices she made were the right ones in those special times, she smiled almost to herself. She recalled learning two important and special things about these lands of Sosaria: we would never grow old, and never truly die.

Focusing on those days her eyes closed slowly as the sights and sounds came washing over her… Men in green armor running to and fro, welcoming new citizens to their lands, or guarding it with their lives. Many a time forcing the Stormreaver Orc hordes back to their fort south of Yew, or other times fighting off a more sinister foe, men that had gone red from the spilling of so much blood. She closed her eyes tighter as she drifted even further back in time, a time when she met great new friends, and lovers, having wonderful adventures around the forests of Yew, or even more risky times in the carernous dungeons of Wrong. Suddenly her nose took in a scent, a distinct smell causing her to remember the winerys of Yew, where often she would drink with fellow adventureres, or even foes.

Her hand went to her cheek as her eyes open, wiping away at the tears. She so hated that about these lands and thought to herself why do these wonderful vibrant memories have to bring about such a torrent of emotions always seemingly ending in grief? Her eyes caught a piece of paper nailed to a tree, was it a bounty for a murderer?? No, of course not, those days had long since passed when you could bring a murderer’s head back to town and collect a tidy sum slaying him for his crimes.

She further cleared her eyes, what was this? She began to read:

OCTOBERFEST 2011

On the last Thursday & Friday of the month of October (the 27th & 28th) the A Sosarian Empire Alliance will be hosting an event located at the center of Yew (Trammel). Enjoy new adventures… meet with old friends and acquaintances, and make new ones as we have planned two evenings with a focus on enjoyment and fond memories.

Join us on Thursday at 730 pm eastern time to enter into the Halloween Costume contest (hosted by Clan Moor) followed by the Box Stacking Event relying on your wits to be the first to finish (rules provided at event sight / hosted by the Vampiric Order) and the last event of the evening the Boozefest – you just have to be there to believe and enjoy this riddlefest of booze and questions (hosted by the A Sosariian Alliance Event Master Corinthian (YEW).

And on Friday test your skills firing small, sharp wooden sticks at targets in the Archery contest at 8pm eastern (hosted by YEW), followed by the Amazing Yew Race race against time (hosted by TWT & H*W) and top it all off with a Halloween Dinner (hosted by the Serpents Cross Tavern and their renowned catering crew.

Hope to see you all there.

(This event and gathering is NOT an RP event in the traditional sense, providing only light rp with a brief foundation of the announcement of it)

“Think you can stop me? THEN COME GET SOME!!!”

The citizens of Atlantic had been challenged, and yesterday at high noon, they answered with what could only be described as a spectacular battle.

It had started out innocently enough, if one can consider taunts and slander innocent that is.

“Is this all you miserably ungrateful people could muster on a Saturday?”

“You don’t really look that evil.”

“Well, lets see what this world is made of shall we?”

“YOU’RE GOING DOWN!”

“Alright, those who wish to be squashed under my thumb like ants… Come with me.”

EM Bennu’s evil counterpart led us from the House of Virtues to the Britain graveyard and with a cry of “LET’S GET IT ON!” commenced trying to squash us like the ants he had just compared us to. He started the battle with a few Logs and some Bennu Birds. After a short time I found myself wondering if that was the best he could do. Apparently it wasn’t. Over the din of battle, I could hear Evil Bennu’s shouts of “You have no idea how dead all of you are!” It wasn’t long before the Relict Muses appeared, tougher than the Logs, but they too fell to our strength in the end.

“Poor little daemons.” I could see a wicked smile cross his face “We need more death, time to ramp it up a bit!” With that we were suddenly surrounded by Rabid Bennu Fans and Warhounds. Excrementals and Foul Winds soon joined the intensifying fray, along with packs of Hellhounds that forced people to split their focus regularly, slowing our progress.

Still far from finished, Evil Bennu summoned evil laughter and icky arachnids along with more Hellhounds and Putrefiers. Having watched his monsters fall around him seemed to have angered the evil EM. With an evil laugh, he declared When even his Relict Spider Larvae of Doom failed to stop us, Evil Bennu took matters into his own hands.

“Very well…”

 I turned to hear the evil EM better.

“Now you face the uncontainable rage…”

I braced myself for what was to come next.

“OF EVIL EM BENNU!”

He came at us full force, hitting us hard and tearing into our armour. More Hellhounds, Pyres, Poison Elementals and evil twins of pets, warriors and mages alike sent the scene at the graveyard into complete chaos. The final fight was long and hard, and with the near constant barrage from all sides, it at times seemed impossible. After what seemed like an eternity, Atlantic emerged from the fray victorious.

We returned to the House of Virtues where after a short time we were greeted by our EM Bennu, who explained to us that his evil twin likes to sneak out around Halloween. I heard someone in the crowd call out “We beat the evil out of him!”  With a small nod, Bennu agreed.

“Till  next year.”

Knights of the Crux Ansata,

The time has come to breech the mind of Bellatrix Adhara and do battle with the first of the locks within her mind to free Charlotte Amandine.

Guard your thoughts well, we will not be alone in that place.

Sunday October 23rd @ 10pm EST

Come to Trinsic Jails near the Main Gate.

~Adamu Edom