The weary party passes by an inn the next day, where a cloaked figure sitting in the shadows suspiciously eyes them.
"Good day, friends," the man replies. "Yes, I can see that you are very distrustful of my guise. Looks may be deceiving, however. Behold!"
The man tosses back his cloak and reveals a sword-hilt glowing blue...
"...then...are you..."
"...why yes, my friends. I am one of the order of the Retainers of Light."
"the - what!!?"
"The Retainers of Light," the man said, "in eternal servitude of the White Castle of the land of Ref."
At this, the party stirred. What White Castle?...was he talking about the Judge?...in any case, this might have been a person working in the name of spam...
"...I thought I told you that looks are deceiving?" the man mumbled. "I can tell you a great deal of the beginnings of the Spam invasions, and how they have managed to cause the land of Ref great evil."
"...three score ago, you will remember that a great shadow struck; it was, indeed, nearly dominant, until the allies of Justice disbanded the axis of evil. Now, however, we of the White Castle have reason to believe that Spam is a foul reincarnation of the dark shadow."
"Darth Sith?" one person inquired.
"BE MINDFUL OF YOUR THOUGHTS!" boomed the man. "Darth Sith does not stand long, he is to be replaced by Darth Vader if you need to know!...
...the question of Darth X is not to concern you, though. What I think you really need to know is how to balance your mindforce."
"Our... Mindforce?"
"You never knew your abilities to use magic? Your minds are divided into the Warrior, Spirit, and Summon. This is a large secret; most will refer to it as a balance of Power, Wisdom, and Courage, but now the secret of the Virtues seems to be fading.
Warrior magic is similar to the Black Magic of Final Fantasy. You, my friends, may not be able to learn this without joining the White Castle, and I do not want that to happen. I will, however, leave with you some of my Rune-Books; I think I have enough for all of you to learn several spells.
Spirit magic is like White Magic of FF. This is a very simple magic, basically it involves a very simple incantation or play of words. In fact...in most of you, I think your Mindforce is most inclined towards this one.
Summon magic is the most mysterious magic of them all. It takes a great deal of Mindforce to bend your will in the direction of summoning even so much as an arrow to strike a foe. Summon-spells can only be learned if you manage to first break the blades of twenty-five other opponents. Unfortunately, even if I wanted to, my Retainer's Edge is wrought of mithril-silver and possesses the Spirit Shield of the White Castle. I...don't know...but as far as I have seen, it was able to absorb some of the Spam-forces' most powerful spells."
"Umm....look, dude, I know you're good and all, but get to the point! We want to know all this magic trash!"
"Fine," the man grumbles. "For your reference, I am LieutenantEagle, the Pyro-Retainer of Light. Now then.... Gilthoniel, a Elbereth, incantus luminari.."
...The party is stunned as a pile of Rune-Books appears before them.
"All right. Please be careful when reading through these...if your Mindforce is bent in the wrong direction, there is no telling where you will end up. I once got thrown into the End of Time when I was a Paladin-Apprentice. Should you ever encounter need for my summons, here." LieutenantEagle gives the party a shuriken. "When you toss this Summon-Shuriken at a servant of Spam, I will come to your summons."
"....but, Lieutenant, what if we hit someone who is not a Spam-servant?"
"That is no problem. The Darth-Shield will simply bounce the Shuriken off a person who is not a Spam-servant. I shall be leaving you now, fare thee well. Apparus chateau blanc!"
[MG I think your adventure might now be even more interesting. If not, eat the shuriken]
|