Welcome to Battles Beneath the Stars, a webserial styled like the guide and script of a non existent fighting game. If you’re new to this story, be sure to start at the prologue, from there each character’s story branches into its own version of events, so you won’t need to read anyone else’s story to follow this one. And if you just want other parts of the newsletter you can adjust which segments you receive here.
Last time we began following Eamon, the current king of Lunis, who has quite a bit riding on his performance in the tournament. He’s also looking to reunite with his father’s friends and found one of them, but the ones competing in the tournament still have yet to show themselves.
| Prologue/Introduction | | Table of Contents | Profiles | Non-Gamer Primer |
Open on Grand Festival Hub
Nevan is standing on screen. Eamon walks on screen with Ciara.
Nevan: Your Majesty, I see you’ve reunited with one of the former king’s entourage.
Ciara: You look familiar… oh.
Nevan: Struggled to recognize me with long hair? It took a while to grow it back after the red dragon burned it.
Nevan: Of course you made your stance on that event quite clear.
Ciara: I wrote that ‘most’ deserved it, yours was a case where he was overeager.
Nevan: That’s one word for burning my hair in response to criticizing bad economics. King Fintan himself apologized to me and compensated me, he made his dragon apologize as well but a child would have been more skilled at pretending to mean what they said.
Nevan: Where was that in your account of their story?
Ciara: Not once did I pretend to be impartial.
Eamon: Argue over this later. The next round of the tournament is soon, and I need to think about how to handle Aris’s odd fighting style. Ciara, do you have any insight on countering that sort of power.
Eamon: (Uncle Fintan, is this how you felt keeping the nobles from killing each other and Aodh from killing them?)
Ciara: Using it the way he does takes concentration, and it’s easier to keep something intact than to create it, that’s why they don’t vanish when he gets hit. Don’t give him any pauses, I think if you keep him focused on your sword he won’t be able to set up any tricks.
Eamon: I did notice a few times his fake machines attacked while nobody was in range last round. That must be the compromise he had to make for them to stay around so long. Which means if they do come up I should be able to evade them.
Ciara: That sounds right.
Eamon: We’ll see if it is soon enough, my performance in the tournament depends on it.
Eamon walks off.
Nevan: Now if you’ll excuse me, I believe we’d both prefer watching the match away from each other.
Ciara: That’s correct.
Exploration Start
You should take the time to practice anything that didn’t seem to work out when put against an actual enemy before you move on. And while you do you can poke around to find some more people to eavesdrop on, it will take a bit more searching this time.
Irritated Lunan Noble: Can people shut up about who killed King Eamon’s father or ordered him killed already? It’s pretty obvious why he went after the Phantom Constellation, and whoever hired them probably died in the Bloody Day.
Awestruck Lunan Attendant: Being by a confidant of the king like Lord Nevan is as close to King Eamon as someone like me could hope to be.
Embarrassed Xilian Merchant: All anyone wants to talk to me about is my city’s reputation for assassins. Ours don’t even sound as impressive as the ones in Lunis, like those Phantom Stars or whatever, I bet they’re known for more than a mushroom obsession.
Once you go far enough you’ll see Aris standing around. Approach him and the next cutscene will take place.
Exploration End
Aris: King Eamon, it has been a while.
Eamon: The same to you.
Aris: How is your kingdom these days?
Eamon: There’s always some old feud to risk reigniting things, the nobles hate each other just for the fun of it I think. And now I need to keep two people I trust from arguing long enough to actually get something done.
Eamon: On the bright side killing the leader of the Phantom Constellation and what must be a majority of his followers either crippled them or made them extinct. Your suggested strategies were vital for that.
Eamon: (If only we had gotten the information on which one exactly killed my father.)
Aris: Directly targeting an order of assassins is still one of the riskiest things I’ve seen someone do, but I trust you didn’t forget the many warnings my strategies came with. Any survivors will target your court either for revenge or to rebuild credibility.
Aris: Monarchs who get overconfident destroy much more than themselves. Even if you’ve built up an immunity to all poisons, I doubt the same is true of others in your court like Nevan.
Eamon: Hard to get overconfident when I need to constantly fight to prove I’m more than just Aodh’s stand in.
Eamon: Speaking of fighting…
Aris: Yes, we should get to the arena.
Eamon and Aris walk to the right.
Transition to Photens
The stage is set in the middle of a desert village. At the center is a well, inside a structure that’s like a wallless tent, except it’s clearly made to stay. The well itself is in the background, but the flat roof of the structure is both a ceiling and platform.
At both ends of the stage are a small sandstone building. Their flat roofs are also part of the stage. A barrier of golden light on each end stops fighters from going past the roofs to the other side of the buildings.
Eamon and Aris stand at opposite ends of the well.
Battle Start
You’re on another big stage against a trap using character, though this is wider and less tall. Like you were advised in the cutscene, get aggressive fast so you can take the momentum. You don’t want Aris to set up his siege engines.
If Aris does get to put one up, which he will if he can knock you down, he has a few options. He has a mini siege tower that can serve as an obstacle and be pushed by attacks, a ballista that will fire forward, and a catapult firing in an arc. The latter two have a notable delay between appearance and activation.
You can break the machines by attacking them, or wait for them to vanish while being out of their range. The mini siege tower is most likely to be used, which will make approaching harder, so if you see it hit it.
The hazard for the stage is that sometimes a sandstorm will happen, in which case you need to get into shelter in the center of the stage. Standing outside cover makes you take a bit of damage each second. Being forced into close proximity actually works in your favor here, so make the most of it.
Keep up the momentum and you’ll move on to the next round.
Battle End
Eamon and Aris are back at round start positions.
Eamon: Good fight.
Aris: The same to you.
Aris: Be careful King Eamon. This tournament is the perfect chance for all sorts of people to strike. Never assume you are safe.
Chapter END
Note from the Author: Ciara and Nevan’s exchange was something I had a little too much fun writing, sorry Eamon. Facing two trap based characters in a row might be a little easy for Eamon, but going forward he’ll have more difficult match ups.
| Prologue/Introduction | Table of Contents | Profiles | Non-Gamer Primer |