EverEpic

[Maharg67]

EverEpic One 18.1(36)

Samson gained a second grey envelope that had vouchers to the value of $4,500, cash to the value of $5,000 and a thick black, golden embellished, booklet of bits of valuable information and clues to finding more. He was still getting one fatecredit per second along with a bonus, now and then, of 10,000 fatecredit. There were also maps of the Hopelands and the greater region it was in.

The Foremale Estate was starting to really prosper and the greedy eyes of distant relations fell upon it. They dwelt in Hopevale, in a small urban estate there, and did absolutely nothing for the good of the family. They demanded large sums of money, or even control over the country estate, but they had no legal grounds for any such claims and so were simply rejected.

The Foremale Estate became more attractive to criminals so security was beefed up with repairs, new equipment added and the hiring of new guards who often had guard dogs with them.

Debts were paid off, including gambling debts to the evil Jim Jones Hayden. Hayden demanded extra but only got what he was owed. The criminal acted as if he had been cheated, which was a dark irony if ever there was one.

Samson authorised emergency no interest loans to be given over to other Estates in the area. He did so with out thinking about it too much; it went along with strong Estatefolk traditions as held by very many Estate Families. It was a quiet kind of philanthropy.

Monies were donated to the local Orders of Compassion, be they the Brotherhood or Sisterhood.

A local, secondary, electric railway line had major repairs begun on it. The railway line was used to mostly carry produce from the Estates and local farms, plantations and other but it also carried local people and sometimes such as livestock.

His auntie deal with taxation matters and the Hopelands taxation officials were happy just to be up to date with one of the Estates. Estatefolk were very reluctant to pay taxes and very clever at creating avoidance schemes. Samson made sure the Foremale Estate was fully paid up to the extent of gaining 'government taxation incentive bonuses and credit'.

Certain people tried to induce the family into scams and did not even gain entrance into the estate.

[Maharg67]

EverEpic One 19.1(37)

He had so much to learn and knew it. The young man wanted to acquire much more knowledge about the mansion before he actually began to explore the generally isolated and not much used area let alone sealed off areas of that were long forgotten by most, being forbidden to enter.

The mansion had once been not just a castle but part surrounded by a small walled city. There had been the Foremale Estate Kingdom that was destroyed, along with most of the castle and the linked city, by the Darkjover United Kingdom. The Foremale Family had survived by surrendering to the mysterious, menacing and evil natured Darkjover Estatefolk. About a century later the TriLegions had arrived and had utterly destroyed the Darkjover people, putting many of them to death for officially unspecified crimes.

It was an open secret that the TripleEmpire seemed to be out to destroy dark cults and other kinds of such organisations along with dark knowledge.

Somehow the Foremale Family had survived, regained their estate and then began to thrive.

Samson, himself, was starting to feel overwhelmed by what all that he needed to do despite the assistance of the Rhodes Sisters.

The big old main library, of the mansion, was very important to him. He loved the feel, the look and the smell of the place. Samson had spent much of his earlier years reading many books there. Afterwards he had been allowed to borrow some from there but it was not enough.

It was when he was sitting at a big old slanted reading desk, with a great big volume in front of him specialising in the history of the dark arts in the Darklands, that he felt an odd sensation flowing through him, mind-body-spirit wise. He tried not to show it openly as around him bustled librarians, library assistants and clerks. He had donated $10,000 to the mansion libraries to help make his being there easier, especially as the workers there had gained fairly small but welcome boosts to their income.

Other: “A new phase has begun for you. Samtha has come into existence and she is both you and yet not you. Samtha is semi-independent to you as you are semi-independent to her. Samtha has appeared in Hopeville. You can communicate with her any time.”

For the moment he had no need to for he had strong, subtle, impressions of what she was doing except for he privacy barriers. She had the same awareness with him.

He returned to reading the long, long winded, writings before him. Every so often he shook his head in wonder at the extreme arrogance, amazing convolutions and constant stupidities that had come from a supposedly great expert in the dark paranormal. The man was Sir Uervalis, self proclaimed sage and knight of the glorious Diamond Kingdom of the Darklands. Except that there had never been such a kingdom.

Suddenly it hit him! He remembered some of the clues that had come with the information cards in the second grey envelope. Then he began to see the cleverly hidden coded message before him, decoding it with the clues that were actually a key to the code. Going back many paragraphs he found that the so called Diamond Kingdom was the Foremale Kingdom of his distant ancestors.

[Maharg67]

EverEpic One 19.2(38)

At that moment a very soft shivering, shimmering effect went through the big library chamber. Yet none in it, except a large cat who had followed Samson into the room, seemed to notice. He looked up and around. There were the big old wooden bookcases, slanted reading desks, horizontal writing desks, books in display-cases, books lining the walls along with balconies, rampways and much else. Outside scholars were sometimes allowed to study there, at a price or even for free in very few cases; they were always watched carefully.

Then he saw them, being hard wooden elevator doors inset into a stone wall, that is elevator doors he knew had not been there before. They were identical looking to those of the other elevator, the one that had 'always been there', that was in a far distant part of the same chamber.

Samson went back to reading the coded message and found that it was directions to finding something called the 13 Diamondafa Vaults deep down inside the castle. Yes, it spoke of the castle and not the mansion but it was a part of castle that had survived the huge and brutal attack on that fortress.

He went through the big volume again, even checking if items were hidden in the covers. One of the librarians frowned at him as he checked the thick leather but said nothing. This was probably because the other, older, man was curious to see what Samson might come up with.

Samson turned and spoke to Head Librarian Jarlvenz Terrentino. “There is something hidden inside the cover of this book but I do not wish to damage the book. Also the thing inside could be dangerous. Where here can I work on this in safety.”

Jarlvenz nodded, gravely. “Then you had better come with me to a room we librarians have set up just for such situations. Do you have something to do with the appearance of that second elevator, along with some other features in the library?”

The younger man showed his surprise. “The elevator is pretty obvious but what else had appeared?”

Jarlvenz chose to show him instead of just speaking of such matters. There were three special sections added to the library that were filled with perfect copies to be found in other places, both on and off the estate. One was on the metaphysical arts, another was on more modern scientific works and the last was a audio visual library with tapes, reels, vinyl records and other such items.

Then there was a separate library specialising in things that Samson loved, had interest in, including comic books, traditional story pictures and much else. Jarlvenz did some seem impressed by the expensive leather bound anthologies of comic books. The big collection of paperback novels, and other public press works in paperback, had him shaking his head in wonder. There was much more else in that place including protected collections of posters, figurines and jigsaws.

Jarlvenz snorted softly. “I doubt that anybody will be interested in visiting the new Samson Foremale Library.”

He turned out to be very wrong!

[Maharg67]

EverEpic One 20.1(39)

Samtha awoke in basic gear of denims and leathers, along with a canvas backpack and a pouch dotted belt. As she made her way along a fairly busy secondary street, in the city of Hopeville, she managed to blend in to the local crowds quite well. Yes, she was attractive but there were plenty of other attractive women there, many of them dressed to attract attention.

The items had appeared with her, as part of the Fategame, but she also had cash to spend. Yet she was aware that the urban environment that she was in was a place where everybody was watched. It was not a very large city but it was the capital city of the Hopelands.

Samtha was like a female version of Samson.

When a young male thug tried to pinch her bum, she slapped his face with amazing speed and efficiency. He cried out but did not retaliate when other people laughed at him and some other men frowned hard at him.

It was strange to see how normal the city looked compared to the dark stories of it when it had once been the fortified city of Sturmgovent. It was a quite modern metropolis, by Hopelands standards, with safety-bicycles, buses, a relatively smaller number of cars, delivery vans and trucks. More adults rode the bicycles, big ones, than did children and there were big delivery tricycles. There were still people riding horses and horse drawn vehicles.

Then she was turning into a doorway to a moderate priced hotel that included its own more basic diner and fancier cafe. Tourism was not huge in the Hopelands but there was a fair flow of tourists who came to the Hopelands to gawk at the distant Jagged Mountains, the Estatefolk and other local sights. Along with the tourists were local guides, prostitutes, sellers of souvenirs and others who made money off them.

Rosie Rhonda was waiting for Samtha, sitting in a corner booth, with a teapot of hot tea waiting along with cups, saucers, a small jug of fresh milk, sugar cubes, a plate of butter-biscuits and even some small vegetable pies. Rosie wore clothes of a 'sexier' nature that was a kneedress with short narrow side slits, a low neckline and a cut out circle over her belly-button. The two appeared quite differently from each other but this not an odd thing in Hopeville.

Rosie began pouring tea for both of them. “Another brutal death has taken but this one has nothing to do with any kind of attempt to summon lowly demons. Or at least we do not think so. We picked up what information we could but people have become more wary all of a sudden. Even reliable sources of information have dried up. There have been more soldiers, those TriGuards, arriving and government spies hanging around this city.”

Samtha sipped her tea after Rosie gave it to her. It was a large elegant teacup.

High over the doorway hung a strange crystal dotted device that looked like a heavy distorted version of a wind chime that was obviously to heavy to be shifted by anything but a very strong wind. It was a spirit-chime and Hopelanders were reluctant to speak openly of such, even with each other.

Samtha spoke. “You have any more details on the murder?”

[Maharg67]

EverEpic One 20.2(40)

Rosie nodded her head. “The murdered man was a low life smuggler who specialised in ancient artifacts, both human and nonhuman. He is the kind who would steal a Waygate if they could get away with it. His torn up body was found in a laneway next to the Hopeville Temple of Holiest Truth. It is a rather bizarre but supposedly harmless cult. Yet there are some odd whispers about it, very odd.”

Samtha looked thoughtful. “Was the man killed by any kind of powerful demon?”

Rosie shrugged. “I do not know because the body was whisked away by the TPMI before I could even get a proper look at it.

Samtha sighed. “Really, Drashina Thornburn you must learn to be nicer about people when pretending to be Rosie Rhodes, the sweet sister of the Rhodes Triplets. Of course I know you are not Rosie for the same reason I know you are Drashina. You are deeply linked to Samson and I am deeply linked to him.”

The fake Rosie changed with a shimmering effect but only the face. She still had the other features being the same.

Drashina shrugged, in a very elegant manner. “It is good to be alive in this way. I have decided to work with you, though I am linked to a villain, because I have a strong 'sense' that there is something very wrong here in this area. I glimpsed Phanto but did not catch up to him so another main character has emerged from Samson's mind to walk this world.”

Phanto was an elusive, sneaky, neutral character who traded in knowledge, especially secrets. He had some impressive tricks of being elusive, fast and agile. He vanished often in plain sight or so people would declare who saw it happen.

Samtha ate a butter-biscuit and then started on a small spiced vegetable pie. Drashina frowned softly as if wanting the other woman to hurry up and get on with 'it'. When Samtha had finished eating the pie, she frowned at Drashina. “Please do not lie to me again, as you just did, for Samson is deeply linked to Phanto and so I am also deeply linked to Phanto.”

The villain frowned hard. “Oh, yes we talked and I gained some information from him but it was at a price that disgusted me, the sleazy little man. At least he got none of my money. Well it was he who told me that the slaughtered smuggler was killed in a strange way that did not indicate any kind of demonic attack. I need cash if I am to help you and your comrades.”

Samtha nodded. “Yes, of course, but no more testing and no more lies. Will $1,000 do for now? Somebody can get quite a lot for that much money in this place.”

Drashina smiled. “Imagine what I could do with $10,000 and some floating around the local casinos, nightclubs and other seedier places.”

Wondering if she was making a mistake, Samtha passed it over.

Other: “In this case it is a gamble worth taking. She will make good on her promise.”

[Maharg67]

EverEpic Zero

Story Directions Continued on from #26

*Introduced the characters of Rosie and Rachel Rhodes, the triplet sisters of Rhonda Rhodes, and the character of Drashina Thornburn the villain.

*Introduced the concept of the Hopelands like Havenlands.

*Samson discovers, enters, his Fatedomain for the first time. Sees a Fatewheel but is unable to go near it as yet.

*War breaks out to the west, closer to the Jagged Mountains, as muties and abomibeasts try to invade the Hopelands.

*The TPMI-SIRIO Taskteam theorises that, through readings of 'local energy patterns' that some faction appears to be trying to open a transdimensional gateway to a darker extradimensional realm of some kind. This has been causing collateral damage such as the opening of wild rift gates and the need to close Waygateways.

*It is revealed that all Waygateway travel has become more dangerous and thus more restricted. Nothing alive is allowed to travel through the Waygateways any more. Disasters happened with people coming out possessed, recently dead coming out undead and other troubles.

*Revealed are the crimes of the MassDynamics Corporation, in the UIC, and the great disaster of the experimental gateways that led to the destruction of the UIC Citystate of Eurolin.

*When attempts are made, more locally, to summon lesser demons instead come through more powerful ones that attack the summoner and others. This proves to be a strong possible answer to the gruesome murders that have been happening.

*Exchanges of information begin between Samson's people and the TPMI-SIRIO Taskteam.

*The invasion, from the Jagged Mountains, ends when it turns out it is not really an invasion but a transmigration of refugees. Agreements are made.

*Introduction of the Jagged Estatefolk and Estates; a dark history.

*Where are the elite fighting forces of the TripleEmpire and what are they doing?

*The TPMI-SIRIO Taskteam move into a fixed up older fortress base along with others who will support their efforts. It is Fortress Freedom.

*Increasing revelations about the Fategames, Fatelords and related subjects.

*Troubles with Peter Daviding in the Taskteam at Fortress Freedom.

*More summonings related murders, by powerful demons, are taking place. It is suspected by the TPMI-SIRIO Taskteam that most are not known to them.

*Olivia Dunham speaks of 'seeing things out of the corners of her eyes' that do not really belong in that dimensional realm.

*Olivia, and Scully, meet a lesser demon who is shoved through from a demonic realm, by a more powerful demon, and then dragged back again. The demon has a message that speaks of the more powerful demons being 'dragged' through the gateways opened in the summonings of lesser demons.

*Samson gets a second grey envelope with more resources. Samson had been distributing resources, to the area, through both his mother and through the Rhodes Sisters. This has helped both his immediate people and others in the area. There are other ramifications.

*Samson learns, relearns, the darker histories of his family and estate. In the main library he finds a hidden coded message in a big old tome. The coded message is linked with something called the 13 Diamondafa Vaults. There is some kind of 'reality shift' and new features appear in the library including a second elevator to unknown destinations.

*Samtha comes to exist in Hopeville.

*Samtha meets with Rosie Rhodes who turns out to be the villainous Drashina Thornburn who was testing Samtha.

*The existence of Phanto, another materialised character of Samson's novels, is noted.

*There is the fear of what some unknown faction seems to be trying to do and the damage it will do but also what 'higher powers' might do in response to such happenings.

Edited July 14, 2013 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

EverEpic One 21.1(41)

The third grey envelope arrived and this time it was clear that both his mother, and aunty, could see it clearly and knew it was special. The envelope was to be opened in the office this time but before that happened, Samson had things to show the two women.

He had written down a decoded version of the coded version of the message hidden in the big old tome. It was directions to something called the 13 Diamondafa Vaults. His Aunt Sallie did not know of it but Salisha did so. Sallie was not offended that she had been kept away from such knowledge for she preferred to deal with what she called the 'practical and solid world'. Salisha, like her son, was fascinated by the mysterious and paranormal.

Salisha nodded as she also examined the basic map that had been found inside the book cover of the big old tome. Along side the map were others of the estate and the mansion, that had come with the first grey envelope, one being on the inside of that envelope.

Samson had regen-rejuvenated the book and the head librarian had smiled as if realising just how many valuable, but damaged, texts could be fixed up.

His mother looked troubled. “The Legend of the 13 Diamondafa Vaults goes right back to the Foremale Kingdom. It speaks of powerful ancient alien artifacts, that were in the thirteen big chambers, that the Foremale Kingdom used to gain wealth, power and influence. The Foremale Family was wise enough, at least, to use them carefully but they should not have used them at all. It was that which drew the attention of the evil Darkjover Kingdom that conquered our ancestors' foolish little regime.”

Foolish little regime? Samson had never heard much about the Foremale Kingdom, which was odd for Estatefolk tended to be overly proud of their pasts. Other Estates had kingdoms in their past and liked all to know about it even if the actual kingdoms were only mythological.

He frowned. “What did the Darkjover Kingdom do with the 13 Diamondafa Vaults?”

His mother responded with obvious bemusement. “Nothing because the vaults somehow vanished from where they were. The damned Darkjover scum destroyed the Foremale Kingdom, our castle and killed many of our people for nothing. Then they enslaved the survivors after killing a few more of us in anger at not gaining the 13 Diamondafa Vaults. The Darkjover were one of the most brutal of the Jagged Estateclans.”

Estateclans? It was not a term that was used often in those days. It had started going out of use after the TripleEmpire conquered the Darklands and turned them into the Hopelands.

Salisha went on speaking. “The TripleEmpire destroyed them not long after its forces entered the Jagged Hills. With out warning they launched a massive assault on the massive Darkjover Estate and that monstrous castle of theirs with its many horror stories of slavery, insane debauchery, torture, blood games and heavy use of black magics. It is said that the battle lasted for over five days with a whole TriLegion attacking the Darkjover Estate along with a large number of military airships. Many died in the fighting but many victims were freed. The estate, the castle, were destroyed and then forbidden to any to live there. The TriImperium does not give much information about what happened there and why.”

[Maharg67]

EverEpic One 21.2(42)

Patterns were forming that appeared to be building towards one big pattern of events, factions and other factors that could explain what was going on.

He opened the grey envelope and out slid the contents. There was $10,000 in cash, a secured bank cheque in Samson's name for $20,000, the ownership leases for three estate properties, the same for two properties in Hopeville, $15,000 worth of vouchers and two expensive high quality, paid for, Hopelands Lottery Tickets each being worth $50.

Sallie smiled. “Your mother and I could do much with all of that.”

Samson smiled back. “That might be the case but you are not getting it all.” He slid the $10,000 cash across the table. “That is yours to work with.” Then he sorted through the vouchers and passed over half of them to his mother and aunt. “These are also yours to work with.”

Then he made the rest of the items vanish, except for the grey envelope, before after he had examined them carefully. “Three estate, and two urban, properties now belong to me. The Brownlingo Estate was confiscated by the Hopeville Savings Investment Bank and was bought for myself. They border our own estate, as you know. I want to make a telephone call to the Brownlingo Elders, such as they are.”

Sallie was looking perturbed. “I really do not understand your attitude. We could expand the Foremale Estate into the defunct Brownlingo Estate, creating plantations, fruit orchards, crops and livestock yards there. True, the Brownlingo rabble would have to leave but they made a mess of their finances and so why should we...” She stopped abruptly as she realised that her sister and nephew were giving her rather stony looks.

Samson gave his mother the say, so angry was he.

Salisha spoke with a cold voice. “Not only are they a close cousin family, the Brownlingoes have helped us many times with out asking for anything in response. They have also provided us with many of our workers and low cost produce that has kept our estate viable. You have been acting rather oddly, in the past months, Sallie.”

Sallie smiled but it did not reach her eyes. “I am simply aware of the potential that the new prosperity of the estate gives the family to make a greater profit, to secure ourselves for the future and to raise our kudos amongst the Estatefolk.”

Yet Samson, studying his aunt, 'sensed' that she was not being totally honest. Yes, she was hiding something and that was surprising for it was not normally her way.

Other: “I will have the Rhode Sisters check into Sallie Foremale!”

Samson: “Do so for the whole Foremale Family and all those on the estate holding important official positions. I do not like this decision but I think it must be done despite my feelings.

Samson opened up the envelope to see on the inside a line drawing 2Dmaze with some odd, but hardly exotic, features to it. He knew of no maze existing in the estate.

[Maharg67]

EverEpic One 21.3(43)

Salisha smiled with fond memories. “That is a big old maze long ago abandoned except for caretaker work done on it every month or so. It is at least two centuries old in its current form and we do not know how old it actually is. Father, your maternal grandfather, took me through part of it when I was a child. We did not go too deep for there is far more to it than that map indicates. It has a funny way of making people get disorientated and it almost seems to change as one goes through it.”

Mazes? What about mazes? Then he remembered that mazes were often used, over a thousand years ago, as difficult approaches to entrances to hidden places. They were the first testing, the first barrier, for anybody trying to get to something else.

Samson steepled his fingers in front of himself, which was something he did sometimes while deep in thought. “The second elevator, in the main library, did not open for me when I tried it but perhaps it will open for me now.”

Then he changed subjects again. “From now on I will be taking all items, that need regen-rejuvenating, and returning them in time according to how much regen-rejuvenating has to be done. The use of energies will be more useful that way and I can do more; this is necessary since the amount of damaged items I gained was far more than I indicated I wanted to have delivered to me.. I will need to work out something for those who need to be healed.”

The two women just smiled at him but he could almost hear their minds working on how best to take advantage of the changing situation; they were Estatefolk, after all.

[Maharg67]

EverEpic One 22.1(44)

“The man died of being clawed to death and it was meant to seem like a terrible demonic murder but it was no such thing.” Patty, the CrystalMage, was carefully examining the wrecked corpse of the smuggler that had been found in a little used laneway. “What killed him was a very nasty claw shaped weapon of some kind.”

Scully was also examining the corpse, being a forensics doctor trained in the Yorkton Medical Academy, Yorkton being the BigApple of the UIC. “I have heard that certain dark cults have been known to use such devices in cases of ritualistic sacrifice or even just murders designed to express their power.”

“Not a very efficient way to kill anybody unless the user of the weapon is very well trained, and experienced, in its use.” Samsha, who looked almost identical to Samtha, was a young woman who came through an open doorway into the mortuary examination chamber. She stood in a fairly immodest leather fighting outfit and had a impressive looking bow over her shoulder along with a pair of short ninja style swords at her belt. “My name is Samsha and I will be your link to the Fateplayer, if you so wish it.”

She stepped closer to the dead body. “Yes, the wielder of this weapon is very experienced with such device, very well trained with such. I would say that he, or she, is a rather nasty expert in such things. The body was found next to the Hopeville Temple of the Holiest Truth. Perhaps that is no coincidence.”

Patty shook her head a little. “You could think about putting some more clothes on or at least something more modest.”

Samsha pouted. “Really, you are no fun! I find that my outfit is very useful when fighting, or influencing, many men and some women. The weapon is called a democlaw of which there are different kinds being one handed or two handed versions being wide claw or narrow claw, long claw or short claw. This looks to have been a two handed short wide democlaw. The death looks nastier than it would have been for the victim would have quickly gone into shock.”

Scully snorted softly in bemusement. “Yes, it would be most effective against many men. The Temple of Holiest Truth, do you know something of it?”

“Just that its leaders, and most devout followers, are crazier than a man smoking mindflowerin.” She shook her head. “They hate demonic cults but are, in their own way, no better for they consider themselves better than others. They also believe that humans are the only beings who have souls and the only ones who can go to 'heaven'. Oddly enough they think that humans are the only ones who can go to purgatory or hell. The false demonic killing might just be an attempt to set them up by some kind of demonic followers.”

At that Patty nodded. “Yes, if you can not summon up a real demon than try using fakery. Somebody might be worried about all of the demonic deaths leading people to their true demonic following groups. Still, we need to check out the Temple of Holiest Truth so as to make sure. You will need to change your clothes if for no other reason than to blend into our group.”

At that Samsha pouted.