Union Roleplayers - Recaps, Plots and Banter.

The End Is The Beginning Is The End

Some things start quite innocently…

When the Militia investigated the rise of pro-mutant group Amanecer del Mutante and took down one of their ringleaders in the Hollows, they had no idea of the events that would unfold. Escaping the hideout just in time to avoid being buried alive inside its collapsing frame, they had no idea that their actions had led to the destruction of an ancient temple beneath that contained a relic capable of manipulating time at its user’s whim. Although thought lost, one knew of its existence, Lord Erebus, who on learning of its destruction descended into a vengeful rage. Manipulating the temporal shockwave created from the device’s explosion, he sent it howling in the direction of the Militia’s base, The Dugout in King’s Row.

The first anyone knew of the shockwave was when it hit. Random and indiscriminate in its effect, it displaced Crimson Archer, The Amber Banshee, Bastinado, White Vampyr, Wavekite as well as nearby German hero Uebermensch sending them through time to the Mediterranean town of Elna somewhere in the second century CE. Stunned by their arrival, they shared their experiences realising that an object of some sort had been visible as they fell through the time warp. Seeing a golden sceptre that manipulated time, they were under no doubts as to what had brought them here. Bastinado noted that a broken message had been left on his phone by Portal Corps, requesting assistance. Could this have been the cause of their time-jump they wondered? Adapting to the time zone, White Vampyr was able to steal some sailcloth at superspeed, enough to fashion rough clothes from it. The Amber Banshee secured a robe from an enclave of mystics who welcomed the strangers while Bastinado took on a cadre of soldiers who had been tormenting peasants, securing a set of stylish armour.

Having rescued a number of the mystics, they were able to confirm that the device, known as the Omnichronotron, had been fashioned by the genius blacksmith Ion but had recently been stolen by the brutal overlord Dominus. The heroes realised that the only way to retrieve the device was to liberate the town by taking down Dominus himself. Fighting overwhelming odds, the team broke his power base, even some of the strange machinery he had brought back from the future. It was during shutting down one of the robots that The Amber Banshee received a stunning shock from one of the devices that took her out of the fight for a number of minutes.

When Dominus fell, the team retrieved the Omnichronotron and activated it, hoping desperately that it would return them back to their home time. As the lights swirled and flashed, the party accelerated in time, returning to Kings Row. But it was not the Kings Row they remembered. The place was ruined, destroyed, as if it had been hit by a nuclear bomb. Locating a nearby Vanguard base, they discovered the horrible truth. This was Paragon in 2039, they had jumped too far ahead! Thirty years ago, the Rikti had managed to reconnect with their home world, bringing through a legion of motherships to decimate the entire world. A newspaper cutting found by Wavekite confirmed that the Rikti had formed multi-dimensional alliances, placing portals in alternate dimensions similar to their own and then linking them like a giant series of batteries. The first sign of them becoming operational had been noted by Portal Corps moments before they had left. Suddenly, the broken message made sense: without them there to respond, the warning signs had gone unheeded. This future was the direct result of their absence from the time stream at a vital point in human history.

The Omnichronotron lay dark and lifeless in Amber’s hand. Vanguard scientists, intrigued by the device deduced that it required a temporal portal to work through. Elna had been rich in them whereas this area was relatively lifeless. However, the Rikti, where they had been experimenting with forming a stable link to their homeworld might have something the time trapped team could use. White Vampyr believed that she could manipulate the energies of a Rikti portal so that it could become a focus for the device. It was worth a try. Forming an uneasy alliance with Vanguard, the team agreed to help them in return for being given locations of possible Rikti portal activity. Only too glad to join them was Leo Wright, a member of the New Vigilants who had been swept forwards to this time by the temporal displacement wave. Together they battled the Rikti only to find a more pressing threat. While Wavekite worked with Vanguard to locate a stable portal, the team was shocked to be joined by The Portent of 2039. Older but none less deadly, The Portent revealed that Lord Nemesis, still active in this time zone, had learnt of the Rikti attempts and the Omnichronotron. With a combination of the two technologies, he would be able to travel to any time in any dimension. It was imperative that he was stopped.

Fighting together, the team found more allies, Leatherette, Solarsmash and Danitaras who assisted them in fighting their way past both Rikti and Nemesis into the heart of the Rikti portal operation. In a last stand, they stood against an army of foes, impossible odds. Knowing that the only thing preventing this nightmare future was returning the team to their own time, The Portent told the team he was ‘going to buy them some time’. He threw himself into the horde of Nemesis troops, overloading his critically damaged armour. The explosion devastated the army and shook the room as the team watched aghast. But The Portent’s sacrifice bought Bastinado enough time to jury rig an emergency teleport for the team to the steps of the portal where White Vampyr manipulated its energies to change it from a dimensional rift to a temporal one. Tearfully, The Amber Banshee operated the golden rod, focussing their intent on the right time and the right place. Home.

With a boom, the team returned to King’s Row, 23rd January 2009. It was as if they had never left. White Vampyr collapsed from the exertion of focusing the portal and was rushed to the Watchmen's Bunker for treatment, Bastinado attending to her. Running to see what had caused the sound, Luna Starbright and the present day Portent found the tired and bedraggled team frantically trying to establish what time and date it was. They had succeeded, returning one hour before the activation of the Rikti’s portal network. Rushing to Portal Corps, the team surprised the staff there by asking about an anomaly they’d only just spotted. Setting up the jump, the team joined Calm Lightning, Gall and Damsel who had been assigned to investigate the strange signal.

Entering into the strange dimension, they were attacked by a number of psychically powered soldiers. Amongst them, a Nictus spy, sent in advance, prepared his weapon to fire at Luna. Running to stop him, Amber found herself unexpectedly flying, speeding towards the foe before he could fire. A life long dream realised, but when she realised she was hovering in the air, she fell, unable to work out how or why she had managed to fly. But there was no time to waste. Battling through the hordes, they found one of the Rikti allies who was acting as a psychic focus for the portal network. In an epic battle, they defeated her, removing the most vital link with only minutes to spare. With no focus, the network collapsed, leaving the Rikti with no way of communicating with the teleporters in the network.

Tired, spent and exhausted, the team emerged from the other dimension back into present Earth, victorious, the enemy plans defeated.

((And that’s how The Militia, first formed at level 1, and the Hyperion Watchmen hit level 50 over the DXP weekend. Congratulations to all who dinged the big five oh and many thanks to all those who joined us during the weekend. ))

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@Dante EU - Union Roleplayer and Altisis Victim
The Militia: Union RP Supergroup - www.themilitia.org.uk

((*Casts Howling Twilight on the thread.* Time to bring this thread back to life methinks. It's hard to keep track of events in the Unionverse without a dedicated thread to post recaps in. Please ignore the thread's tendency to shuffle, moan and declare its desire to eat brains... I'm sure it will pass.))


The Militia

Responding to a report of Kings Row citizens being attacked by 'shadows', the Militia deployed to discover strange, dark beings chasing civillians around the streets. Although the creatures could be attacked, they also absorbed energy and rebuffed any attempts to scan them for information. As the attack spread throughout the area, the Militia were able to locate two objects, an urn and an obelisk that seemed to be motivating the shadows. Once reclaimed the attacks stopped for no apparent reason although it was too late to save two victims who had been reduced to nothing but bones by the Shadows.

Still recovering from their disturbing encounter, the team were relieved to respond to a request from Portal Corps to retrieve a probe sent to another dimension that had stopped working. Dealing easily with the werewolves that roamed that world, they found the probe, broken and in pieces only to be attacked by the mysterious shadows again.

Consulting with their allies in the Shades of Darkness, the team were able to establish that the Shadows were not magical but had been summoned by magical means. And although the objects they had retrieved were unusual, they all had one thing in common: they had come from other dimensions not out own. But the still the mystery continued, what are the Shadows and what do they want?


The Cadre

Conflict abounded as rivalries between members of the villainous group came to a head on Thursday. Deva, still recovering from her attempted suicide had to deal with the dual annoyances of Little Death and Lily Pink goading her while remaining furious at The Atavist, who was responsible for saving her life, much to her chagrin. Warplocke just about managed to keep order, mainly by ordering the team out of the Devil's Candy strip club (which doubles as the Cadre's base) and into battle against the Malta Group. Despite bruised bodies, nothing was as bruised as some people's egos once they emerged.

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@Dante EU - Union Roleplayer and Altisis Victim
The Militia: Union RP Supergroup - www.themilitia.org.uk

23/01/2010

The conflict between Heroes and Villains came to a head with united Villain forces, headed by the Krimzon Guard of Arachnos, along with Corporation and Court of the Blood Countess members, punching through to Atlas park itself. Arachnos combat engineers attempted to deploy temporal anchors, to bring the alternate reality of 'Recluses Victory' to this dimension. Despite a valiant stand by some of the Cities more powerful Heroes, the united wave of villains and elite Arachnos forces was too much.

Atlas, however, remained largely as it was, due to intervention by the full might of both the Vindicators and Freedom Phalanx. With express orders to not engage Statesman, the Krimzon Guard were forced to withdraw, though not before stealing the flag from city hall (since replaced, to cover it up) as a trophy for his Lordship. Facing the overwhelming combined might of the two greatest Hero teams, there was little option but to fall back.

It was, however, a phyrric victory for Paragon. The zones of Bloody Bay, Sirens Call and Warburg were under the control of the Court, KG and Corporation respectively. It had been proved that the inhabitants of the Rogue Isles were not to be trifled with.
Nor, most likely, was the war even close to over...

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The Militia

Confusion and mystery still abound as the team looked further into the ‘Shadow’ creatures that had attacked citizens last week. Establishing that the creatures seemed to be attracted to objects that had come from other dimensions, their first target was to contact various collectors of other-worldly curios in case they were attacked. Most of them reported burglaries of some kind but one collector had already been killed by the Shadows whereas another, Robert Hemlock, set his security force on the Militia and fled.

As he ran, he taunted them, claiming that they would never save the ‘Isotopian’ world. A quick check revealed that he was referring to a dimension found by Portal Corps that despite being dangerously radioactive, was a paradise, inhabited by people unaffected by the radiation.

When they arrived, they found a world on the brink of collapse. Blackened, bleak and desolate, it was infested with the Shadows. Unable to stay long due to the radiation, the Militia were able to save five citizens in danger of being eaten by the Shadows and retrieve a journal detailing the coming of the creatures before they had to leave. As they prepared to go, Crimson Archer saw in the sky a huge ‘crack’ through which millions of the Shadow creatures were pouring. That was enough for the team to exit, immediately.

Within 12 minutes of returning home, contact was lost with the Isotopian world, never to be re-established.

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@Dante EU - Union Roleplayer and Altisis Victim
The Militia: Union RP Supergroup - www.themilitia.org.uk

((Some belated updates for The Cadre villain rp group. The Cadre is brought to you by the people behind The Militia on Union and concerns a gang of criminals brought together under duress by the mysterious Mason. They operate from a ruined chapel beneath the Devil’s Candy strip club in Port Oakes. The group meets on Thursday evening and enjoys in game roleplay, forum roleplay, character, super group and community plots.
If you are interested in participating visit www.themilitia.org.uk or talk to @Romanov, @Dante, @Wolfram or @Wild Red in game.))

The Cadre

Feb 4

The Cadre continued to prepare themselves for the planned strike against the family of monsters that have declared a blood feud against them.

Nadja Romanov, Julius Byrne, Deva and Zajin raided a Council cell who had stolen some research and genetic material from the Crey scientist MacMurray. The material is key to the biological weapon being developed by Arachnos scientists within Arbiter Krieger’s unit to eradicate the family.

Infiltrating the Rogue Islands water company is also an intrinsic part of the plan and the Cadre then abducted one of the managers after defeating the private security. Zajin killed the manager and assumed her identity in anticipation of the final offensive against the family.

Feb 11

Hank Delacroix, Little Squeak, Deva and Julius Byrne met in the Cadre's lounge beneath the Devil's Candy and discussed their feelings on the planned bio-weapon strike against the monster family. Byrne and Deva expressed misgivings about the weapon, Byrne considering it too reminiscent of efforts to exterminate mutantkind, Deva concerned that the virus would get out of control.

The group travelled to St. Martial to combat a group of Knives of Artemis mercenaries that Arachnos wanted removed. Shortly afterward, Byrne received a call from an Arachnos contact informing him of a major Nemesis Army offensive against Grandville. Not wanting to get on the Spiders' bad side when the Cadre already had enemies on all sides, the four attacked the Nemesis beachhead and destroyed four of the attacking Mole Machines, though not without all suffering some degree of injury.

Deciding that they'd earned a rest, the group retired to the redside bar of Pocket D, where they discussed Deva's suffering at the hands of Mason, the perils of Valentine's Day, and the trustworthiness of Morgan and Jasmine. Having resolved to question the Atavist on the nature and disposition of his god, Squeak left to rest up at the Candy, Byrne walked Deva home, and Hank set out to feed and replenish his strength.

Feb 24

Nadja Romanov and Warplocke (Hank Delacroix) met beneath the Devil’s Candy and discussed a general sense of unease that they both felt. A calm before a storm maybe. They decided to take the initiative and see if any of their rivals or enemies were plotting against them.

They decided the best way to do this was to talk to investigative reporter Harry Gordon who had a reputation for being in the know about the machinations of the rival factions of the Rogue Island. As luck would have it, his reputation had seen him abducted by the Carnival of Shadows. Nadja and Hank had some fun dispatching the Carnies before Hank had a man to man talk with Harry.

Harry told Hank that Longbow were planning a strike against one of the islands players. The formidable Agent Crimson was in town and Nadja and Hank speculated that he could be looking for payback against the Cadre for their numerous clashes with Longbow and other heroes.

Joining forces with a mysterious armoured brute called Night’s Champion, Hank and Nadja launched a surprise attack on Longbow and captured Agent Crimson. Crimson told them that the target was in fact a Crey facility and the strike was to be led by no less than Ms. Liberty.

In the mood for action and tempted by the opportunity to poke around in Crey’s files by the organisations own invitation or cry for help, Nadja, Hank and Night’s Champion defended the base from the Longbow assault. Nadja uploaded several files from the lab mainframe before inviting Hank to call on her later that evening.

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@Romanov
Nadja Romanov, Lily Pink, Little Death - The Cadre
Estoque, Bastinado, Spidermonkey, Chic Doyle - The Militia
Miss Teen, Dead Reckoner, Dee Dee Diablo, Kaneko

The Militia

Even the Rikti are not safe from the Shadows it seems. Following leads provided by Vanguard, Karnac, Estoque, Mr Sandman, Bill Marcone and their stalwart ally Powerstone found the Rikti attempting to build a ‘dimensional stabiliser’ – a device that prevents breaches in reality. If they were attempting to locate components for the device peacefully, all would have been well but then, this is the Restructurists for you.

Foiling the Rikti’s assault, the Militia were able to establish that they were building the machine to try and repel attacks by the mysterious Shadows. It seemed that they were being attacked for being ‘not of this dimension’, a quality that appears to attract the Shadows’ ire. Following the defeat of their leader, the Rikti fell back, probably to lick their wounds and consider their next move.

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@Dante EU - Union Roleplayer and Altisis Victim
The Militia: Union RP Supergroup - www.themilitia.org.uk

((April 8th))

The Cadre

Following the attacks on the Devil's Candy and the stone gated portal beneath, The Cadre leaders were keen to send a message to their rivals and enemies that they were not vulnerable.
Third Degree Byrne, Warplocke, Devastatia and Lily Pink met in the Cadre’s base to discuss a plan of attack on an underwater Longbow outpost. However, as invariably happens when Deva and Lily are together, the conversation soon turned to insults and animosity. It culminated with Deva causing Lily pain with one of her psychic assaults.
But Byrne and Hank were able to finally direct the team to attack the base.

During the successful assault, the Cadre discovered information about a strike on villainous factions on the Isles by no less than the Vindicators. With their numbers boosted by Little Squeak and Tarana the decision was made to make a show of strength as well as getting some payback against Paragon’s heroes who they had faced in the past.
Tarana had returned from a break overseas and seemed refreshed but her fighting ability and strength had not been dulled.

The Cadre defeated Luminary, Mynx, Valkyrie and Ms Liberty as well as the Longbow forces supporting them. However, the strike was put in jeopardy by the behaviour of Lily, Deva and Little Squeak. It started when Deva, due to a side affect of her possession by a force or forces behind the portal beneath the Candy, vomited acid on Lily’s favourite boots. Lily retaliated by swinging her pink wrench, Mr Rusty, at Deva’s shoulder and injuring her. The heated argument during a lull in the battle against overwhelming forces was only put on hold when Deva consented to buy Lily new boots in addition to giving her the jacket she was wearing.

The feud reared its head again, however, when the full force of a Ms Liberty roundhouse kick felled Lily. Barely conscious and with her ribs cracked, Lily was stamped on by Little Squeak presumably out of some loyalty to Deva.

Hurt and feeling persecuted, Lily turned her fury on Byrne and Hank for not taking action against the mouse or Deva. Only Tarana supported Lily, perhaps seeing her younger self in the firebrand. Lily called both the men pussies and questioned their ability to lead the team resulting in a tense stand off with Byrne. However, due to her injuries, Byrne made the decision not to do anything terminal to Lily but reniforced that her behaviour could have serious consequences. It was agreed they should all retire to the Devil’s Candy.

Back at the base, Hank aided Lily’s healing but she was still very angry. Even Deva’s delivery of the promised boots and jacket didn’t appease Lily who forced Deva to get Squeak to admit she had stamped on her deliberately.
As the drama continued, Deva became so angry with Lily that she carried out an attack of unprecedented magnitude conjuring up Lily’s most painful memory and forcing her to relive it. Lily was overwhelmed and ran from the room in tears, only pausing to accuse and threaten Deva.

Perpetuating his reputation as the Cadre’s resident nice guy, it was Hank that followed Lily. During a long and honest conversation they both shared secrets about their pasts and presents, including their secret relationships to Cadre leader Nadja Romanov. Hank also confirmed that the story of Nadja making preparations for the final battle with Mason was to cover for the serious magical injury she had suffered. Lily also explained the root of her dislike of Deva.

Meanwhile, Byrne stayed to discuss the situation with Deva and Little Squeak. Although still furious at the three of them, he was able to get them to agree to back off and stop rising to Lily's childish goading. Little Squeak stated that she did not recognise some people as members of the pack, something which Byrne made a mental note to tell Nadja of, along with a report on the mouse's behaviour.

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@Romanov
Nadja Romanov, Lily Pink, Little Death - The Cadre
Estoque, Bastinado, Spidermonkey, Chic Doyle - The Militia
Miss Teen, Dead Reckoner, Dee Dee Diablo, Kaneko

The Militia

And people think it’s just the Freedom Phalanx that have trouble with evil twins…

After the assault on the Hub, FBI agent Michael Thunderhorse tracked the culprit to a cave in Salamanca which appeared to be heaving with rogue members of the Lost and a bunch of animated corpses. Before the team could engage though, they received a distress call from former member Weatherfront who requested urgent assistance in battling a giant amongst the hills. Once the giant was sent sliding to the bottom of the valley, the Militia headed on to the cave.

Wading their way through the ranks of the Lost and the shuffling zombies, they noticed that many of them had a devotion to ‘her’ or their ‘queen’. It wasn’t long before they discovered the villain who had attacked the Hub and according to Mr Sandman had killed Robert Hemlock, the leader of the cult who supposedly was summoning the Shadows.

As Bill Marcone, Commander Snow and The Amber Banshee joined the other two in battling against her, three things became apparent: The woman, the self-proclaimed Lady Shadowsong was the spitting image of Amber, she was very arrogant and imperious and finally, confirming the theory that she was a dimensional double, The Amber Banshee was unable to use her sonic power against her without harming herself. When defeated, Shadowsong dissolved into smoke, promising that they would meet again. A further inspection of the cave revealed elements of her plan to target the Carnival of Shadows for their psychic masks.

Following leads provided to them by MAGI and Powerstone, the trail took them to Peregrine Island, where they discovered the Carnival on a rampage, enraged by a series of attacks on them by Shadowsong’s minions. As they attempted to quell the chaos, it became apparent that the queen’s target was none other than Vanessa DeVore who had gone into hiding to avoid the conflict.

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@Dante EU - Union Roleplayer and Altisis Victim
The Militia: Union RP Supergroup - www.themilitia.org.uk

(An excerpt from the Nighthunter's online blog, accessible in-character, where the Priest is talking about the Halloween Party in Dark Astoria)

Wednesday 20th October: Party at the Crossroads

Recognising the strain of monster-human relations since the Open Season bounties, which pitted monster hunters, mercenaries and undead against one another, and the year-long Demon War between the Nighthunters and the Countess, I decided something positive and light-hearted must come of it. Both the Countess Bathory and her Court, myself and my team have lost close friends and family members in the conflicts, and recently, the two of us have managed to put all of that behind us. So I arranged a video-based viral advertisement asking the peoples of Paragon City and the Rogue Isles to do the same and try to resolve their issues. After all, monsters are people too, and people too can be monsters. I asked that we all look beyond our differences and come together this Halloween to do what we love to do most; party. I asked that we embrace the beauty of these wondrous monsters and celebrate the horrors of the Living Dead.

The party went on from six in the evening until near on midnight and the turn out was spectacular. Some of the names and codenames picked up at the crossroads includes Charlie Donovan, Alena Corvas, Agent Buzzclaw, Claire, Lady Darkheart, Artemidos, Ghostwind, Dominic, Sarah Black, Maria Jones, Damzel, Colonel Reynolds, Konrad, Tyran Gar, Amy Zon and Amy who all arrived in time for the Monster Disco, Zombie Barbeque and Ghoul costume contest, to which Ghostwind was winner of. As more guests arrived, people helped themselves to 'zombie fluid' apple juice, 'vampire blood' fruit punch, 'ghostly' grape beverages and 'witch's potion' booze. On the barbeque was slimy duck, roast pork, chicken drumsticks, lamb chops and spare ribs.

Among the late arrivals were Powerstone, Nightmare Miror, Mirror Walker, Boundless Skies, Starjet (Mistress Rose), Captain Flair, Maiden of the Layline, Donna Lodge, Tyger, Lightning Kiss, Riotknight and Common Sense. As part of the theme, a Night Fever radiated from my Michael Jackson 'Thriller' costume and although it was heavily resisted by Alena Corvas, the dancing decease infected the giant Amy Zon, Agent Buzzclaw and one Sarah Black. The four of us promptly hit the Tomb of the Midnight Squad and gave the performance of our lives. Much fun was had and most importantly, the guests were well entertained.

However, shortly after the show, events took an interesting turn. The shamans local to Moth Cemetery show me a certain level of respect, brought about by their understanding of what would happen should they cross me. Earlier, we had entered a peace treaty where they promised to practise no ill-magic and even gave their word that the giant monster Adamastor would be kept at bay, unless provoked. They explained that he was being kept under control and should he have any reason to pass by our gathering, they would have him demonstrate for us, some fascinating cultural 'party tricks'. I took this to mean the usual funny dancing and beating of drums. Little did I know the beast would descend on my friends and allies and try to kill us all. Sadly some mild injuries were sustained but fortunately we were able to quickly neutralize the violent monstrosity and send his body into banishment. It certainly seems my trust in the Banished Pantheons has yet again been betrayed. However, something at the back of my mind suspects foul play. Somebody or something wicked may have angered the beast and lured it onto us. If not something recklessly done for the fun of it, then perhaps this is some kind of cruel political plot, hatched to undermine my reputation among peers and sabotage the respect I've worked so hard to salvage. All angles will be covered while myself and my team investigates.

No longer a safe area for fun and merriment, we retreated to Pocket D for a drink and some socialising. Here the remaining party was joined by Longier, the Countess Elizabeth Bathory, Eciffi, Xyn, Technomancer Tank (Alexia Morgan), Morrighan Spireside, Mobile Turret 219 and one Unforgiven Whisper. After a few drinks the Countess descended to some suspiciously inappropriate behaviour and that for me was the end of the night. In hindsight, I would say it was a most successful start to the Halloween season and tomorrow's events should prove challenging indeed. If last year's occurrences are anything to go by, we can expect zombie invasions, a deadly apocalypse, more giant monsters, an eternal night and door-to-door trick or treating. - Priest

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