Endgame

That seems like an easy way to rack up a lot of money very very quickly.

I have never understood the concept of balancing before the quest starts. I balance the first battle beforehand, and tweak/retool all future battles after I collect the initial data.

And I think I've hammered out my second character, so expect another sign-up soon.

Woohoo if you want. It'll be much more lighthearted affair this time - 115 was grim and, to be honest, one of my sloppier hosting job. The Sky Is Falling will be much easier to digest. By the way... Has anyone spotted any meteors?

I'm getting back to hosting soon, and your party is pretty much the perfect level for it. (Approx. 15 is going to be the level for it, so from level 10-25.)

Lind, I'm guessing your quest is in the final stages, correct?

I don't suppose that's a Cactuar expy?

"I wouldn't worry, Lind. New quests appear like clockwork... sometimes there's a drought, sometimes there's more than the hall can handle."

"Urgh, that does sound awful... You routed them out though, I hope. Me, I haven't quested in a long while. Slayed a dozen demon hordes, repelled an archdemon, and I've been out of action for a long time."

I raise an eyebrow and shrug at Lind's sudden aggressive nature, and choose not to press on any more. "Magic lizards then. A bit like dragons, maybe? I heard they're quite magical, although not all you can read about them are true..." *I absentmindedly extend my hand to the dwarf, before realizing I wasn't entirely sure whose hand I was shaking.* "...Your name would be... Throlar, yes?"

"As in... Retiles. From outer space...?"

"Can't say I've heard a name like that before. Any exciting quests as of late?"

Oh, uh, you need to stab specific arteries when the round counter is a multiple of 7.2, but lets not get caught up in details... And no, LOTN, Heroica will remain micro transaction free.

"...Uh, I see. I don't believe we've met...? I'm Sorrow."

No, you just stab it a bunch then it goes bye-bye.

Also, there's a boss fight, but you assumed that...

I slip in through the familiar doors of Heroica Hall for the first time in a long while, and sit down. I order my usual - chicken, potatoes, and ice water - and eat, hoping I could spot a familiar face. My eyesight wasn't in top condition, though... Neither was the rest of me, really.

I never said what was falling, nor where or why. It involves romance, intrigue, epic battles, silly hats, refractive lenses, sounds loud enough to break every bone in your body, and more! (2 of the above were a lie.)

K-nut, let me give you a hint of my next project: The Sky Is Falling.

Well, it's been a while. Firstly, the more game pertinent matter: 105ers, you only lost time from my absence at the end of 105. All that was left after Masson lost his arm was to get on a boat and go home, and you guys did just that. That story is over. I don't know if my apology means anything at this point, but I really am sorry about what happened. It wasn't fair. I needed to sort some things out. During 81, my physical health was bad, and 99 was mental. 105, unfortunately, was both. It was kind of bitterly ironic - The Regret was devised during my first bout with depression (years before Heroica), and I ended up having a second while you were fighting him. I needed a couple of months to pick up the pieces. The way I started my hiatus was grossly irresponsible, however, and there is nothing to justify the dissappearance without notice. I'm finally back on track, though, and I managed to pick up the pieces. I'm feeling much, much, better now. I hope to continue questing and quest hosting (returning to much, much smaller scale plots, such as 36 and 70). So, yeah, I think I'll be reading through what I missed.

"No, no... The Regret is, for lack of a better word... Well, erased. I don't even think he's in the aferlife... Chances are, after all the things he did to warp his soul, he's just... gone."

The party drives their weapons through the inky blackness that was The Eternal Reaper's face. Their swords pierce something within the insurmountable darkness, dealing the killing blow to the once proud villain. "Peace, tranquility... I had forgotten what it felt like..." The Reaper's body falls limp. Without his hateful mind guiding the artificial collosus, it begins to come apart form the seams. The primordial souls, tempered by The Regret's will, begin to dissipate. His limbs crack and break, the winter wind carrying away the dust of The Reaper's corpse. The snow seems to halt in the air, the artificial storm that had ravaged the island for so long slowing to a halt as it's master passed. Utterly defeated, the party only watched in bitter victory as their adversary's body was decaying, and his mind and soul cast to oblivion. The Regret had finally found the death he had longed so long for. Masson gazes over the top of the observation deck. "Look." The tundra was littered with oculoids, their glowing eyes showing the movement of the malovelent marauders. The black swarm's movement spasms, then stops... The lights from their eyes flicker as their master passes, the mind that had dominated their own and controlled their actions quickly crumbling into nothing. Much like their master, the oculoids began to fall to pieces. Left braindead after the death of their master, their inky bodies come undone, plummeting from the sky and becoming nothing more than lifeless black splats on the floor. The Regret was dead, The Lifespark was one, and the Oculoids, bound to both, were forced to follow suit and perish with their master and origin. The Regret's other creations fall victim to the same fate. The rampaging Monolith Mk II's, The Regret's "perfect warmachines", reveal a fatal design flaw: their reliance on their maker. Their bodies fail and their minds wither, the steel giants collapsing in the snow, the hunters they were pursuing dispersing to enjoy their luck somewhere warmer. The Ameobosses that had trapped everyone on the island, made into even mightier leviathans by The Regret's consumption of the Lifespark, become braindead. They give one last pitiful moan as their consciousness dwindles to nothing. The crews of the ships being assaulted by the beasts whoop and cheer as they are slain, sinking into the bottom of the cold sea. One by one, each of The Regret's legions were reduced to nothing. "To think... We just watched *wheeze* three thousand years of insanity just... Fall apart." Alice looks at the blotch that was once Seerus, the Mastermind still gripping onto consciousness during the fight's finale. The destruction of The Regret was simply too much for the tenacious devil, and he too expires, reduced to nothing more than grimy sludge. "At least... At least she's avenged now. If he died because of The Regret's passing, the rest of the Oculoids definitely will." "Heroes... Thank you. He died long ago, but it seems like you were the ones to finally put my father's corpse to rest." "And put an end to my sin." "It's a, uh... pleasure, to put things to an end alongside you all. Really, truly." "Daranza The First and myself will warp you back to the village near the Citadel when you are done here. From there, assuming your ship is fine, you may return home. But first..." "There's a spirit here that wishes to communicate."

This isn't even my final form! Surely the stitches in my left leg will allow some sort of Power Rangers Villain-esque transformation.

"I am not looking for your sympathy. I am no longer even looking for your understanding. I only look for your jdgment, now." "...That's something I think we're all willing to deliver." QM Note: A certain veteran may want it!