Amezwar's Story: Chapter 3

VS Eamon: Consequences.

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

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Open on Grand Festival Hub

Amezwar and Feriel are on-screen. Izlan approaches them.

Amezwar: Izlan, you seem to have been talking to the Lunans quite a bit. What do they say about King Eamon?

Izlan: From what I hear the commoners like him and the nobles are uneasy around him, he cracked down hard on all the noble infighting. He’s done a ton of reforms too, completely restructured some organizations.

Izlan: You know, they’ve been trying to innovate how they fight too, trying to get the best techniques from around the world. Might be a good idea to do the same. 

Amezwar: We are a people of tradition. Our fighting style was developed through ages of use and practical experience, it will change when there is a need for change.

Izlan: But what if that change doesn’t give us time to adapt? The people of the Revolving Sea are really into war you know, and slavery. Right now they’re busy fighting each other, but if some of them start looking at us…

Amezwar: Then we’ll fight them off, and if we lack the techniques needed to win, we’ll create them. But we won’t know how to do so before the battle begins. And if we prepare to fight them too much, another enemy could take us by surprise.

Izlan: You’re not wrong, but I don’t think I am either. Feriel, what do you think?

Feriel: Me? My parents taught me it’s better not to say anything other than questions on things I don’t understand. I haven’t been a knight for a full year yet. 

Amezwar: Your perspective is still worth something, though to be honest, it won’t change my stance on this either way. But for other matters I’d prefer to know what all of the knights think.

Feriel: Well, er, this isn’t entirely relevant, but are you on some kind of secret mission? I get the feeling I’m not really in the tournament for the same reason you are.

Feriel: Whatever it is, I’d like to help. I don’t think I’ve really been able to do my part for the order yet.

Amezwar: Many hands make light work, but it’s easier to be precise with only one set of hands. And in the event of a failure, it’s better not to have everyone know about it.

Amezwar: Just focus on what you’ve been ordered to do, and I’ll focus on my orders. Which at the moment is getting to the arena to fight King Eamon.

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Exploration Start

There’s not much of note on the walk to the next fight. You have to do a bit of jumping over obstacles, and it might be a good idea to pay attention to the height of your jump, it will help with the next stage. And there’s more gossip to listen for.

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Veteran Mondragean Mercenary: You know I did some work in Lunis after the Bloody Day, the new king wanted to settle things with some of the noble factions once and for all. He has the perfect mix of kindness to allies and viciousness to enemies that you’d want from royalty.

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Relaxed Lunan Noble: Technically, King Eamon shouldn’t even be king. But Aodh put him on the throne, he’s done well as king, and we’ve all learned our lesson about angering Aodh. Things are more peaceful without having to worry if Aodh might burn your hair.

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Haughty Pheonan Noble: I hear a good number of the Volcanic Knights are former bandits now. An elite order like them should be drawing from nobility, not criminals. What is Amezwar thinking?

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Keep walking towards the arena, eventually a small cutscene will play of Amezwar walking off-screen.

Exploration End

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Transition to Lunan Throne Room

A chandelier hangs over the fighters, while an empty throne looks on from the background. Banners decorate the white walls of the throne room. 

Amezwar: King Eamon, an honor to be in your presence.

Eamon: Unfortunately, I can’t say the same. Not after what your countrymen have said.

Eamon: Your king saw one of the great tragedies of our history, one many still bear scars from, and invented his own version of it because he can’t accept that Uncle Aodh detests him.

Amezwar: I had no hand in that, and enlightened my subordinates to the true story once I heard it.

Eamon: Perhaps, but you’re still one of his servants. And I had to endure a Pheonan noble speaking to me as though that story was the truth, and he told me about your aims with Uncle Aodh.

Eamon: Apparently ‘leave me alone you fucking creep’ is too nuanced and subtle for your king to understand.

Amezwar: (Was that noble Massen? Either way, so much for getting an introduction to Aodh.)

Eamon: Here’s a message you can take back to your king. If we don’t receive a formal apology and compensation for his misrepresentation of the Bloody Day two cycles of the moon from now, then we are enemies.

Eamon: I’ve already informed the relevant isle councils that they may have to choose between trading with Lunis or Pheona. By the way, your country could stand to guard the exclusivity of its exports better. Not that there’s much of that left to protect now.

Amezwar: (Fuck! This escalated fast, and I doubt he’d be so brazen if there was still a chance to foil his plans. King Xamida will not like this news. Too many people are already resorting to banditry, if the economy gets even worse…)

Amezwar: Then there’s nothing left to say. You’ve won this encounter no matter what, so the least I can do is keep my place in the tournament. Let’s see how powerful that sword Aodh gave you is.

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Battle Start

Guess who has infinite meter for this battle? No, not you, Eamon. Which means he’s free to spam his super moves whenever he wants, so expect to take a beating in this battle. 

The stage is deceptively simple, that chandelier hanging in the center does damage if you collide with it. So your air mobility is restricted on this stage, but Amezwar won’t need his air attacks on this stage generally.

Eamon’s main characteristic is that attacks will do more damage up close, so try to keep him away. Unfortunately he does have a projectile where he shoots out fiery copies of his own sword.

One of Eamon’s supers, Sunset Sword, is a larger and slow moving version of it that can cover his approach, and he likes to use it as soon as the battles. Thankfully you can reflect it, but the timing will be tricky at first.

When Eamon gets up close he can go for Infernal Vortex, a spin attack that generates a tornado of fire with a relatively small width but a height of the entire stage (so don’t try jumping over Eamon) that leaves you knocked down right in front of him. 

Like with other projectile havers, the key is to keep Eamon at just the right distance where you can poke him out before eating a projectile, or reflecting the projectiles back at him. Of course what Eamon is really looking for is a chance to get close, so don’t expect him to stay out of range for long. 

Once you get a chance to start your offense, you don’t want to stop unless you have to. Your Volcanic Retaliation super is a good way to steal back momentum, and an aggressive character like Eamon isn’t too hard to use it against. The consequences for letting Eamon get in on you are steep, but you have plenty of tools to keep him out.

Keep a cool head, work out the patterns, and you’ll make it through this battle.

Battle End

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Eamon and Amezwar are both heavily injured.

Amezwar: (This is the shittiest win I’ve had in a while.)

Eamon: Disappointing. If you served someone else I’d compliment your skill.

Eamon walks off-screen.

Transition to Grand Festival Hub

Massen on screen. Amezwar walks in.

Amezwar: Lord Massen, did you speak with King Eamon before my match?

Massen: Yes. Unfortunately he seemed rather vexed by me, and was unwilling to help.

Amezwar: He mentioned you. Remember what I said about staying as an observer? You’re aware that how the king described the Bloody Day is a twisted retelling of it, right?

Massen: …Well that explains things. We’re on the same side, I’m only trying to help. You’re a warrior, not a diplomat. You should have told me I had the story of the Bloody Day wrong.

Amezwar: (And you should have known it wasn’t the truth before telling it to us.)

Amezwar: If what Hákon told me is right, there’s a chance King Eamon won’t be able to mention this to Aodh before I reach him. But there’s something we have to deal with now. King Eamon is demanding an apology and compensation from King Xamida for that distorted retelling of the Bloody Day.

Amezwar: If he doesn’t get the apology, Lunis will formally declare itself an enemy of Pheona. He didn’t mention going to war, but it sounds like he already has everything he needs to ruin us economically.

Massen: And King Xamida is so proud that still won’t be enough to force an apology. The people suffer enough without active economic sabotage from another kingdom. Fortunately I have a solution.

Massen: We can settle this without our king ever learning of it. Neither king needs to know who really wrote the apology if it has the right signature.

Amezwar: That’s… underhanded. I have to agree that apologizing for anything is unlike King Xamida however.

Massen: For the good of our kingdom, I need you to trust me on this.

Amezwar: Very well then.

Amezwar: (He knows how to forge documents... Izlan, I hope your bandit skills haven’t rusted too much.)

Chapter END

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Note from the Author: Here’s some more direct political action for you. And while not stated outright, I hope Izlan’s backstory is mostly clear now from that last line.

Originally Izlan was going to be a noble, so part of the prior chapter’s editing involved changing her dialogue to be less formal and more rough. Having supporting characters like her helps convey the sense that each character is coming from their own part of the world.

As always feedback is appreciated.

Optional Discussion Prompt: What do you think of Eamon’s demands, and Massen’s plan to handle it? Would you consider Eamon’s scheming justified?

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