== > Deal with Cariel.

Will she just stop smirking! You turn to her to demand her immediate egress. She's over where your husktop was, polishing her throwing knife. And smirking, of course. The clockwork pendant around her neck ticks back and forth, its sound carrying bizarrely over Irisen's eerily still land. Though you know it's only still because his consorts were all oh-so-tragically murdered.

CARIEL: +— pleasanT, Isn'T IT? Those MeMos?

COANAN: Y0UR 4CC3N7 15 QU1T3 4NN0Y1NG, Y0U KN0W. 7H3 W4Y Y0U 3MPHA51Z3 C3RT41N L3773R5.

 CARIEL: +— The ShadowhunTers are a proud race. Though soMe of us May be lowblooDs, we are fIghTers. our greaTesT glorIes are our funny accenTs and our sTeaDfasT belIef ThaT The sky Is purple and MaDe of hedgehogs. 

COANAN: 15 7H3R3 4NY7H1NG, 4NY7H1NG 4B0U7 L1F3 7H47 15N'7 4 J0K3 70 Y0U?

CARIEL: +— noThIng comes to MInD.

+— speakIng of MInD

+— as The ThIef of MInD you shoulD be able To Do crazy shIT now. +— as The knIghT of voID I can...

She throws a knife at you. You try to twist, but just as it's about to hit you, it disappears. A strange ring of blue arcs out from where it was, then fades. Suddenly the knife is hurtling back, past you, and into her outstretched arm.

COANAN: 0K, H0W L0NG D1D 7H47 74K3 Y0U 70 M4573R?

CARIEL: Don'T preTend you weren'T shaken! Psh, mundanes. 

CARIEL: +— Hekata showed me a TxT of some walkThroughs she found, ouT by the furthesT rIng. Oddly, They were embedded In some sort of coMM DevIce floaTIng In the MIddle of space. 

CARIEL: +— They Talk a loT abouT The gaMe and The experIences of who wroTe IT. I can'T undersTanD a worD, but HekaTa adores IT. SomeThIng abouT "anoTher loquacIous InDIvIDual who MaTches Me In verbIage" or soMethIng, jeez. 

CARIEL: +— guess IT's a ThIng wITh lIghT players. 

COANAN: 73LL M3 50M37H1NG 1 F1ND R3L3V4N7, PL3453.

CARIEL: +— oh, you wanna snark-off?

COANAN: 1 W4N7. Y0U. 70. L34V3. COANAN: 1. D0N'7. L1K3. Y0U.

CARIEL: +— Dear Me. Is IT perhaps because I don'T resemble my sprite, lIzard boy?

She whips her blade around, darts toward your second gate, and phases up to it via unspecified void powers. Irritated, you watch her go and yell after her-

COANAN: 7H47 W45 4 73RR1BL3 C0M384CK!

But she's gone. Likely she didn't even hear you. How insufferable.

== > Go solve those murders you were talking about.

Oh my. It appears that some - ah, all - of these adorable consorts have tragically been murdered with a lovely canekind strife specibus. What a darned shame! Irisen's repulsive - sorry, lovely - consorts, all slain. Who could this serial killer be? you wonder idly.

== > Draw the outline around the body.

Oh, a shocking development! The mystery deepens. Well played, murderer. Well played. It seems the bodies have vanished! You, like every young troll, know that you should never turn your back on a dead body. Especially when you're the murderer. Well, you must go adventuring to find the body of the victim. Oh, the lengths you'll go to to satisfy your morbid curiosity.

== > Go through the gate.

You decide you'll probably go through the- what was that!?

> you there. BOY.

Did you hear something?

> stop wasting. time

> continue. your game before it is. too late.

You suddenly feel an inexplicable urge to continue the normal gameplay, abandoning your ridiculous side plot.

> call your. dragon.

For some odd reason, you feel compelled to bring Smaug along. As you head through the gate, you hear a loud "(O)(O)F!" Turning around, you see Ninfia crash-land into LoPaB with one of her flying fiduspawn. No point in sticking around now.

== > Be exile.

You are now the LACONIC MIGRANT in a deserted landscape dotted only with bones and rock piles. You, aided by the CLOAKED MARAUDER and the BOORISH CASTAWAY are attempting to find a new home to settle in for the night. Up ahead, you see a tower jutting out from a dune. The top appears to have a... frog on it? Pulling out your flat comm disk you picked up from the battlefield, you press == > Switch 9. It's this boy. You like this boy. He must be the leader of all his friends. Such logic! That mind... you don't often talk much to other carapacians, but you have no trouble dealing with your intellectual superiors. Unfortunately, his mind is too closed-off. He cannot hear your words.

== > Approach Frog Structure.

You approach the frog structure anxiously. It appears that there are cables along the sides. Was someone else here? Yes... it appears so. It seems a BEDRAGGLED RUFFIAN and a SOMBER PILGRIM have staked the territory first.

CM: are YOU talking TO that BOY again HIC

LM: ...

BC: grrr let's just get going alright? it's getting dark.

LM: ... 

BC: are you even listening?

LM: she was. here.

== > Think about your long-ago companion.

You think about the Somber Pilgrim, who you lost long ago while attempting to find a new home for yourself. You thought she was all the way across the Obstinate Ocean by now... but here she is, alive.Her lithe white form walks across your dreams...

== > Be the Somber Pilgrim.

You are now SP and you are attempting furiously to warn the MAID OF HOPE in the land of Shacks and Cryptids. You press == > Switch 1 on your ancient comm and she appears, deep in slumber.

> my darling girl, you need to awaken. 

You type as fast and as politely as you can, trying to wake her up without disturbing her.

> your dreamself is restless. tonight is the night.

> it has to be. you see, derse makes its first advance in only a few hours.

> the game will continue.

> awaken and stand with your friends.

You now need to contact a Dersian, so they can do their part to wake up their members. The only problem is you don't know any Dersian carapacians. Nasty fellows, they sometimes are. Not that you'd ever say it to their faces.

== > Contact the approaching figures.

There appear to be three Dersians arriving from the east.You... you recognize one.It has been a long time, now hasn't it, LM?Yes, it has.

Pressing the side button on your device, you send a series of Morse Code pings to the three figures.

== > Be the Laconic Migrant again.

You are now LM, furiously translating the beepings on your comm. CM is too drunk and BC's too dumb, but your skills are suited for this.

CM: the message is. this.

Contact anyone you can reach on your device. Derse is advancing and everyone needs to wake up. The archagent is rising again over the black queen and king. Man your battlefields. Awaken the children.

You turn to your two companions.

CM: We're going to need. backup. contact anyone. you can. reach.

CM: WOAH thats THE most WORDS youve HIC EVER said

CM: ...

You wiggle all the buttons on your comm, contacting anyone and everyone you can reach. The Scout? Yup. The Vagrant? Her, definitely. Soon, scattered over the wasteland planet, twelve Carapacians are waking the dreamselves of the twelve children. Quietly, you send a message back to SP.

== > Well that was odd.

It most certainly was. However, the Pilgrim's warning was just in time to awake the wayfaring soul it was meant for. At this moment, she is placed in the most precarious situation of her life - a game of war.