Kintobor

"I'm not talking about the individual watchmen. I'm talking about Cousland." Karie replies.

This is super cute! It's small, but you've packed some excellent details in the Fiat. Awesome job!

"You're worried about Cousland at a time like this?" Karie questions. "She's in bed with those pricks. For all I care she can drink piss and die." Karie follows Lawrence.

"Sounds like a good idea. I'm in. It'd look poorly on us if we didn't save these prisoners, and the fort would make a good staging area to mount a defence should the rest of the Founders try and take us on. My fellow heroes and I can recollect what has happened to us and how we came into the company of the Fae One." Karie motions to the fairy amongst them. "Don't worry, they're the real deal." Karie doesn't respond to Lawrence initially. She waits for a moment, calculating her response. "I know where my loyalties lie, and I know who I can trust, Boomers. Thanks for taking concern." Karie looks to Bellanote and hands her a Grand Tonic. "Looks like you could use one of these."

Karie coughs as dust from the rubble settles. When she notices the figures, she lends a hand out to the trio. "A pickaxe would've done fine, Throlar!" She continued to wheeze as she billowed the dust away with her hand. She smiled seeing who was on the other side. "It's good to see some friendly faces, Dyric!" She takes note of the others present, recognizing the dwarf but not the pale faced younger woman. "Come on out of there, you three. It looks like you've been through a lot." Karie rolls her eyes in displeasure. Speaking with Heckz wasn't one of her strong suits. "It's not about outnumbering them. Before you tagged along one of them nearly took out what you ran into minus Benji. These Founders are not to be trifled with."

Karie looked over the group, trying to discern whether or not going after the Rosier was a good idea with who they had on hand. "If you're going to take on the Rosier, than you're going to need more hands to take her on. I've fought an archdemon before, and it's not easy. The Founders were one thing, but archdemons are on a whole other level. I'm not opposed to tackling this together, Lawrence, if you can put your pride aside." "Are you willing to tango with me, Boomers?" Karie asks, a slight grin curling at the sides of her mouth. "Hmm. I don't like this. At all. If there's something there that was taken from the Dragon House, than it's likely the team that went there is already investigating it." Karie pulls out her Magic Compass and looks for Atramor's direction, hoping it correlates with the direction of Fort Bonaparte.

Karie shrugs her shoulders. "If you're chasing dark druids down, I'm fine with that. Since one of your comrades decided to speak up about what you've been through, I suppose it only fair to divulge what our group has accomplished. You may change your mind when you hear what we've discovered, so buckle in." Karie took in a deep breath. "We went to see Ulric and see what it is he wanted to see us about. He gave us the stone Byblos sent, and we have his support should we make an offence against the Founders. The Wolfgang is going to blow up the wall that divides the Hovels from the rest of the city. In return for his support, we are granting him some amount of charity. Ulric Wolfkin is not to be harmed. I don't support the Wolfgang, but ultimately we need his support if we're going to all make it out of this alive. We then went to the Eubric Herald to look into the Frustrated Filly and ran into Rook. The Herald will not support us after what happened at the bar two nights ago. He did divulge the location of our mystery writer, and we took flight to the Winking Gargoyle Inn. Turns out the mystery writer is Aša Nifelheimer, the Valkyrie. Hestia is with her husband in the Crystalline Sea with the remainder of the Bonaparte fleet. That's not all. Aśa's been investigating things discretely for awhile now. The Founders have been in Eubric for a few months it seems, and they've orchestrated everything. The Guild's expulsion, the Ziegfrieds family drama, all of it has been their doing. These bastards orchestrated the whole damn ordeal, and then galloped in to look like saviours. We were informed of a war in the Faerie from her, and then we as a group headed off to the Tri-tech company. It seems as if though that the Tri-Tech Company was being demanded to hand over their automatons, something I think we can all agree is a bad idea. Thankfully the Founders didn't get there hands on any of it, but the Mountain showed up to give us a hassle. He's still alive, but the important thing to know is this: the Faerie is dying. We managed to teleport there through the Tri-Tech company, and what we found was... disturbing. The Faerie is a bleak, dark place, with dead Fairy Dust falling like snow, but staining like ash. We managed to get to a tower covered in vines, and we wound the Fae One wrapped in white vines and dying. We rescued her and made our way back here. Someone was going through the portal before us. We found ourselves here, and we stumbled into you guys. And that's about it. That's our findings. Lawrence, is there anything you'd like to add to Germs recollection of what happened with your group?" Karie points to Elphaba, managing to clue together where she'd seen the green skinned woman. "I distinctly remember you owned a cart that drove itself and that you would come to the marketplace every now and again." Karie recalled. "That feels like it was ages ago. Might I ask why you never showed up again? You seemed to disappear."

"I suppose you could say that. I see you've picked up some friends as well." Karie points to the Sand Queen and the green skinned woman. "We just came back from the Faerie. Seems like the Dark Druids and the Rosier have been battering down upon the Faerie for some time. It's like a wasteland now, the whole place is dark and cold. We learned that Cain knew about the war going on in the Faerie. It wouldn't surprise me if Cain was murdered by the Founders to ensure he stayed silent on the matter. We also discovered that Byblos has been trying to contact us from a point near the Temple of Zoot." Karie shows Lawrence and the rest of the Hovels group the stone Ulric gave her group. "We were dealing with Dark Druids in the Faerie, and I assume now that They refers to them. The Rosier is here in Eubric, and we need to deal with her. Now." "Oh?" Karie inquires, getting down on level with the young knight, a spark lighting up in her eyes. "Boomers came close to dying? Sounds like he almost didn't come back in one piece. Seems like you had quite the adventure! Mind letting me in on what happened with the Founder? What about Boomers?" Karie grins. "We ran into one of the Founders as well: the Mountain. He tried to stop us from getting into the Faerie, but we certainly showed him a thing or two before we made our escape!" Karie buffs out her chest and comically shows off her muscles as she speaks about the Mountain in an attempt to relate with the little knight.

Karie bows to Torald, partially as a means for him to see how to properly do so. "Torald, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance. My name is Karie Alderflask-Cour. We were the group who went off looking for Ulric, and needless to say, we wound up finding more than we initially thought. There's a lot to go over, as we've been off on what could only be described as an adventure in itself. We've scoured Eubric for a mystery writer and have been to the Faerie and back, only to bring one of the Founders with us. More importantly, whoever's currently at the head of the Council running this city isn't the Founders. Euflear has confided with us that the Founders are indeed dead." "Why don't we start with your group. How did your investigation in the Hovels go?"

Karie focused on Lind as she prepared to go on the offensive. She patted Lind on the back, grinning while she did so. "If you feel like you were Heckz at one point, as if you were having a flashback, then you aren't Heckz now. If it means anything, Lind, I'm happy you're here with me. You're a good man, and a good friend. Now come on, we've got work to do."

Karie prepared to rush into combat as the shouts began, guitar at the ready. She rounded the corner, pick in hand and at the ready! "Have at you! You- oh... oh..." Karie put her pick in her pocket, somewhat disappointed, not at the lack of a fight, but at who they had found. Lawrence was in the group. Just her luck. "Well, long time no see, Lawrence. I see you're still in one piece." Karie commented halfheartedly. She put her guitar away. She couldn't remember who Lawrence was with or whether or not anyone here was new to the group. It didn't matter. Her focus was on Lawrence. "So... how did your investigation go? I believe you went to check out the temple in the Hovels, correct?"

"It's a lesson I wish I had learned earlier. Knowing what battles to engage in and when to walk away is leadership skills that we are going to need once all this is over." Karie replies, watching Throlar affectionately pat his broom. She watches him drift off down the tunnels, wondering what the dwarf had planned for the future. "Skrall, any idea where we are?"

Karie catches up with Throlar and leans into his ear. "You did pretty well back there dealing with Heckz. I probably would've killed him, myself, or came close to doing so. Me and Heckz don't get along." Karie follows Throlar through the portal.

Karie looked at Heckz in disbelief. She'd almost forgotten about him entirely, only for him to return from who knows where, right into her presence. She grimaced. "Just my luck..." Karie remarked under her breath, not wanting anyone to hear.

Really loving the livery of the engine. The flatbeds are nice too! I'm particularly smitten with the switcher, though. It's quite cute!

Wait, is that a cannabis greenhouse in the back of the bakery as well? I guess we know what kind of baked goods are sold at Budd's. I know this is called Budd's Bakery, but the standout piece here is the dispensary. I love the use of the giant palm leaf for a marijuana leaf sign, as well as the Rastafarian motif throughout the building. There's some clever parts usage in the module. Great stuff!

Moving through Valkyria Chronicles: Remastered. I'm quite surprised at how much I'm enjoying it. I picked it up on sale after hearing good things about it, and I'm not disappointed.

You're assuming it's the same set, though. That's like comparing the 2001 Hogwarts Castle to the 2018 Hogwarts Castle. I owned that set as a kid, and I can tell you, as much as I loved that kit growing up, the new one looks so much nicer.

My intention is usually build the set, appreciate the set, and then cannibalize the set for useful parts, but this isn't always the case. The Jurassic Park 25th anniversary kit was quickly demolished for pieces, while sets like the Vampyre Castle were kept around for almost five years before I cannibalized it. I still own several models that I, for whatever reason, cannot cannibalize. The Mystery Machine, the Ecto-1, the Delorean time machine, Mystery Manor, the Emerald Night, the Constitution Train Chase's engine, the Christmas Train from 2006, just to name a few.

OOC: I sent you the whole grid, but whatever, I think I have it. Karie looks confidently at the paper she was scribbling notes on. "I think I just about have this..."

OOC: Quick question on the nature of the puzzle. Do you want the location of the two golden runes on the grid, or which symbols the gold runes are? OOC: Nevermind, I think I have it.

I think the issue in doing James Bond as a theme is the more sexual nature of some of the movies. Goldfinger has a character named Pussy Galore, and it's not because she owns a bunch of cats. If Lego's going to do a set based off an Aston Martin and give it some cool James Bond style upgrades like ejecting seats and machine guns hidden in the car, and a rotating license plate, then I don't see the issue. Something along the lines of the Caterham has it's place, and there's a market out there for larger scale vehicle builds: the London Bus, the Tumbler, and the various Volkswagen kits prove that. They'll probably throw Sean Connery's Bond in minifigure form as an added bonus.

Those are pretty slick! The shipping containers are especially neat. I like what you did to get the surface of the containers the way they are.

Karie recuperates herself, relaxing a bit as the scene is dismantled. She takes a deep breath, then exhales. She takes another deep breath, then exhales. Karie nods at Throlar. "I'm fine. This whole scene just brings back bad memories. Visions that'll haunt me forever."

Karie frowns, not out of disappointment or anger, but genuine sorrow. Euflear had been through a lot, that much was certain. To bring this up now might have been too much. Karie rested a reassuring hand on Euflear's shoulder. "It's going to be okay. If what you say is true, than I do not believe that the Founders currently in Eubric are who they claim to be, but are imposters disguised as them. Who those imposters are, I'm not sure yet, but I doubt they have the best intentions at heart. I didn't mean you any distress. My name is Karie, by the way, Karie Alderflask-Cour. If it means anything, it's an honour being in your presence." As Karie came into view of the scene in the upper level, a gross chill crawled up her spine. She felt a sickness knot itself in her stomach as she backed up, a look of fear closing in on her. Visions of tentacled menaces raced through her head, grabbing and cloying at her with their inky tendrils. Karie had tried her best to remove any and all thoughts of Oculoids from her mind, but the lab equipment immediately repulsed her into a place she wished not to linger in. "I... oh, gods... I'm sorry, this is... I need a moment."