Amezwar's Story: Chapter 2

VS Quiahuitl: Trust and Loyalty

| Prologue/Introduction | | Table of Contents | Profiles | Non-Gamer Primer |

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Open on Grand Festival Hub

Amezwar and Feriel are on-screen, with them is Izlan, a human woman whose armor marks her as a fellow knight.

Izlan: Chief, should you really be telling us all this? You might get in trouble with King Xamida.

Amezwar: In case you haven’t noticed, there are Lunans here at this tournament. We can say what we want within our own borders, but I’m sure the Lunan nobility and others who lived through the Bloody Day will be pissed off if they overhear our distorting of events.

Amezwar: It’d be better if we could avoid causing any incidents.

Feriel: I don’t understand why Lord Massen gave us a false version of the story in the first place. What would anyone have to gain from that? Nobody in Lunis would believe it. 

Izlan turns and looks both ways.

Izlan: Lord Massen probably didn’t want to risk going against the king’s story. You’re a farm girl aren’t you, with taxes like what we have, do you honestly think the king has a firm grasp on what the world outside Mount Pheona is like?

Amezwar: (Or Massen was setting us up to look like idiots and anger Aodh.)

Amezwar: Izlan, it’d be better if you saved that kind of talk for a more private setting. 

Amezwar: As the dragon of fire, the avatar of flames, King Xamida feels Aodh’s proper place is with us in the land of fire. Though Aodh has never once agreed with that. I suppose King Xamida wanted the people of Pheona to share his belief.

Feriel: I can understand corrupt officials taking for themselves, and I know how important it is to have a dragon ally. But what does lying about something like the Bloody Day do? Does our belief matter that much? 

Izlan: Well if I had to guess, he probably wants to make it seem like Aodh not being on our side is the Lunans fault, and not his for being constantly rejected by Aodh. Nice to know what the king’s priorities are.

Amezwar: Let’s not concern ourselves with understanding His Majesty’s decisions. Our mission is to triumph in this tournament and demonstrate the power of our motherland. Now let’s get to the arena.

Amezwar: (Izlan is probably right, but the king is the king.)

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Exploration Start

The path to the next battle has some slants along it, try getting a feel for how that sort of terrain interacts with your attacks. And of course keep eavesdropping on the various NPCs for the gossip.

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Gossiping Pheonan Merchant: Honestly, banditry has been sounding more appealing than honest work with some of the recent policies. Maybe I should catch a ride to another land instead of going back. 

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Proud Xilian Noble: Those volcano worshippers in Pheona are nothing more than a bunch of has beens, Our Revered Lady won’t have any real problem this round.

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Perplexed Thrall: Master Hákon seems so satisfied with his fight last round you’d think he won it. Guess I shouldn’t complain, Master Hákon isn’t the kind to take out his anger on others, but an unhappy master never means anything good. 

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Approach Quiahuitl to start the next battle.

Exploration End

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Amezwar: Huey Chihuatlatoani Quiahuitl, it is an honor to be in your presence.

Quiahuitl: Chief Knight Amezwar, I’ve heard enough of your strength to be honored by your own presence. 

Quiahuitl: Though I hear not all of your countrymen appreciate that strength. Word of the injustice you faced by being thrown in with your treasonous relatives has reached the empire. Why not go somewhere that understands the importance of strength and practicality?

Quiahuitl: Pheona is a land of rich tradition, but its stagnant and isolationist ways are making it fade into insignificance, especially in this new age defined by the dragons. Meanwhile the Xilaman Empire is on the rise with only its own power, and it could use your strength.

Amezwar: (That’s a rather direct move, she clearly did her research on me though. Didn’t she have her uncle executed for owning the wrong books or something? I don’t think running away to Xilaman would change much in the end.)

Amezwar: My loyalty remains with the land of fire, though I’m honored to have received the offer. Like you say we are rich in tradition, my order goes back to the ancient tribal days of our land, in fact it once was a tribe. I can’t abandon it.

Quiahuitl: I see. Well then, there’s nothing else to say. Let’s see what form the arena takes for us.

Amezwar and Quiahuitl walk off-screen to the right.

Transition to Burned Grove

The stage is set on a small pyramid in a grove, fighters can duke it out on the pyramid’s flat top, or go down the steps to the forest floor, where you’ll quickly run into the trees that serve as the stage’s walls.

In the background are burnt trees, giving the stage its name. A statue of a female talpman stands in the background on the top of the pyramid.

Amezwar and Quiahuitl are standing at the top of the pyramid.

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Battle Start

It’s time to get used to more involved stages, like this one with the steps on either side of the pyramid giving it sloped surfaces to stand on. When you’re on a slope your attacks will be angled appropriately, but if you’re not on it then it can deny some of your range.

Pushing Quiahuitl all the way to the corner will require navigating those slopes, or you could try to keep it at the top of the pyramid. If she gets the high ground start mixing in jump attacks to push her back. 

Generally Quiahuitl will try to get close and use moves with low start up, it’s best to block once she gets in range and wait for an opening to counterattack. If she looks like she’s about to use her ball projectile hold off on attacking and wait to bounce it back at her. 

You don’t have to deal with enemy super moves yet, but you have access to your own. Descending Lava is good for when you’re on the wrong side of the stage, letting you essentially swap sides. Volcanic Retaliation will be fairly easy to trigger with how aggressive Quiahuitl is in this battle, and it’s good to get a feel for how to make it work for trickier battles later on.

Battle End

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Quiahuitl is visibly injured.

Quiahuitl: Damn it. You’re even more powerful than I expected. Don’t waste that strength on the wrong master.

Quiahuitl turns around and walks away.

Amezwar: (Well she’s certainly displeased. Hope this is the last of her efforts to steal me away.)

Amezwar walks off-screen as well.

Transition to Grand Festival Hub

Amezwar walks on screen and approaches Massen.

Massen: Amezwar, congratulations on your victory.

Amezwar: Thank you Lord Massen.

Massen: I had a look at the bracket, you’ll be facing King Eamon of Lunis next. Why don’t I handle negotiating with him about Aodh? Your triumphs so far will mean little to the king if you don’t recruit the avatar of flames. 

Amezwar: Leave it to me, this is my mission. You’re only an observer, I advise keeping it that way.

Massen: You should trust the negotiator to handle negotiation. If you really care about succeeding you should know your own limits.

Amezwar: My position involves more talking than you know. It’s simpler to have one person handle all of this.

Massen: You should be aware that you’re not the only one here with an objective greater than winning the tournament. In fact, there are some people I need to meet with at this moment.

Massen walks off screen.

Amezwar: (Should I have Izlan track him so he doesn’t fuck this up? No, that’d be too much based on too little. But next time I ask this question, the answer will be yes.)

Chapter END

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Note from the Author: In trying to take more of a week by week approach to Amezwar’s story I opened myself up to the greatest challenge of serial fiction, developing a new idea that goes against your plans after already setting them up.

Thankfully it’s early on so it shouldn’t be too obvious, but Massen has gotten heavily reworked between chapters. I had to constrain the reworks to keep it consistent with what the first chapter already defined however. Izlan also changed a bit in revising this chapter, but her lack of prior appearance made retooling her much easier.

Optional Discussion Prompt: What did you think of the logo up at the top? Since I can’t draw the characters directly, I went for a more symbolic approach. And thinking about which font to use for the title has been a new experience, the current one is Vinque by Raymond Larabie.

As for the story itself, are there any characters you’re hoping Amezwar will interact with?

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| Prologue/Introduction | Table of Contents | Profiles | Non-Gamer Primer |