Slightly delayed, but we're here now!

For the rest of September Polymegahedral Dice will be available at www.achaea.com/credits and lessons and credits will also remain on sale!

Lanterns will continue to be awarded as bonuses for dice rollers, and a polymegahedral dice has been added to the renown shop!

The full dice prize pool can be found at HELP POLYMEGAHEDRAL DICE, caches can be opened for Eldergods, Moderngods, and the new Memory talisman set!

Themed for the events of the past few months the Memory set contains the following talismans:

A miniature battle demon - TALISMAN INFO MEMORYDEMON

• Priced at 60 credits
• A minipet.

A reinforced barrel of explosives - TALISMAN INFO MEMORYBARREL

• Priced at 300 credits
• ROLL BARREL to use!
• This infamous barrel may be rolled in a direction, and once it gets rolling it will roll for up to five rooms in that direction. For each room it passes through, it will annihilate all stone or icewalls in that room.
• Note: It will not break walls in the initial room and requires they not be blocking the way, and closed doors as ever remain a foe too great for even the most mighty of magics.

A bound vow of vengeance - TALISMAN INFO MEMORYVOW

• Priced at 400 credits
• While holding this talisman, you may VOW VENGEANCE AGAINST .
• They must be visible to you on the same continent, and once your vow is in place if you kill that person within the next ten minutes you will be greatly healed in body.
• However, if you slay someone else first, your vow will come to nothing.
• This carries a ten-minute cooldown.

Shifting instrument - TALISMAN INFO MEMORYINSTRUMENT

• Priced at 500 credits
• This instrument has two functions.
• First, you may INSPIRE AUDIENCE once every fifteen minutes to give everyone who considers you a mutual ally in your location the aria defence (as long as they aren't deaf).
• Second, you may MORPH INTO to swap the instrument between various forms: harp, lyre, lute, and mandolin.

Dread wings of fathomless woe - TALISMAN INFO MEMORYWINGS

• Priced at 800 credits
• These grisly wings will serve as an alternative to wings of the eagle and will take you to the skies when invoked with the word DUANATHAR.

A malign heart - TALISMAN INFO MEMORYHEART

• Priced at 1200 credits
• If your starburst activates while holding this talisman, you will be inspired to great wrath, receiving a flat boost to your battlerage gauge.
• You will only receive this boost once every ten minutes.

A spark of hope - TALISMAN INFO MEMORYFLAME

• Priced at 1600 credits
• Drop this spark in a non-city outdoors room and it will grow into a flame.
• The next three corpses of people to be placed into the flame (PUT CORPSE IN FLAME) will be forced into the halls of the finality.
• Note, this will not work on anyone who died within the limits of a city.

Enjoy!

The Kartha have pitched camp and these are now accessible!

Throughout the month of September, these foreigners will be hosting games, conversations, and trading with anyone who wishes to take part. So you can learn about the Kartha, their culture, and their traditions.

You can take this one step further by affiliating yourself with one of the tribes. To do this, you must speak to Tolos, the Attendant, who will be waiting for prospective supporters at 'Atop the Great Rock'.

To sign up, you must DECIDE KUYABA, DECIDE NOKTOV, or DECIDE UCHENNY to join any one of the three, respectively. Be careful, however: once this token is cast, your affiliation CANNOT be changed!

To learn more about each tribe, seek out Storyteller Ilis of the Kuyaba, Calypse, an ashen crone of the Noktov, and Urzya Ylska of the Uchenny, and listen to their stories. This will give you a better idea of what each tribe represents and whether your personal preferences and interests will align with theirs or not.

After an initial 72-hour (3 RL day) period, the "open" portion of sign-ups will be closed. After that, anyone who signs up will be assigned to the tribe with the fewest members, to ensure that everyone has a chance to compete and make a name for themselves throughout the month.

When you have joined a tribe, you will receive a bracelet. Make sure not to lose this, give it away, or have it stolen! Your bracelet is your key to recording your participation in the September celebration events.

When you attend an event GIVE your BRACELET TO THE ROLL-TAKER. This denizen will update your bracelet with a charm, allowing you to keep track of how many events you have attended! This will also reflect how the tribe you have chosen to support will see you; the more you partake of and excel at the challenges the tribes layout, the greater your reputation with them will rise.

As the month moves along, more surprises are in store, so keep an eye on UPCOMING for the schedule!

Congratulations, Achaea, you got us to our 26th birthday! Expect to see shenanigans kick off this weekend across the land!

As we don't want to spoil the surprise just yet (keep an eye on UPCOMING), the only thing we'll give away (badum tsh) for now is the return of the HAPPYBIRTHDAYACHAEA command, use this at any point throughout September to claim 26 bound credits, once per character!

In the meantime, with the arrival of another month means our promotion updates!

BUT, the team is entirely wiped from the last few months of events, so our September promotion is going to be a little late. The renown bonus will remain as if it were August until we switch to Dice on the 7th.

So for now, lesson packages are available and credits are on sale at www.achaea.com/credits along with Prismatic tokens for the Wheel of Fortune. The credit sale is 40% bonus credits, 50% with Iron Elite!

Paper lanterns have also been added as a bonus items with a chance to be awarded on every spin, see HELP PROMO ITEMS for their details!

These lanterns can be lit, and they will fly up into the air to disappear and convey one of three gifts to the city as a whole! This will be either 5 credits in the city's coffers, a 15 minute critical hit bonus, or a 15 minute xp bonus!

If you are a rogue lighting a lantern the bonuses are the critical hit bonus or the XP bonus, rogue lanterns do not offer organisation credits.

Lighting more lanterns will extend the duration of the crit or XP bonuses, up as far as the end of September when the celebration, any lanterns, and any bonuses (regardless of duration remaining), will come to an end.

On September 7th we will be switching to Polymegahedral Dice with a new talisman set, we will announce the details of that when it is live!

Once again, Khalas strode alone. The Wanderer walked through the shattered memory of Krenindala, searching and seeking as He had done in the eons before Humanity.

With strikes aimed to send the Wanderer to His knees, five Gods coalesced upon Memory to assail Their lost Brother: Aegis, Neraeos, Vastar, Babel, and Valnurana. The confrontation was intense, with each blow and strike echoing across the breadth of Creation. Again and again, the warring Divinity coordinated Their attacks, striving to subdue Khalas and end His destructive ambitions.

Where Divine Fire raged, Krenindala broke. Where Smith-forged weapon struck, a new crater was born in the ancient memory of the Dragon homeworld. But the fury of the Lost God could not be quelled, not even as He lay impaled on the earth and Aegis loomed with His blade whirling overhead. Momentum began to build as Khalas roared His hatred, His vitriol, His justice.

Then the Warp Witch struck.

The Wanderer's hand rose in defiance to take the brunt of the blow. His Divine Fire fractured beneath the arcing blade of War as His blood spilled, and His severed arm fell away into the mists of Memory. Reality trembled with the tormented screams of Khalas, echoing through Creation with such warping agony to bend the Veil Extant and drag mortality into the battlefield of the Gods.

Khalas, maimed and wounded, rose with unyielding determination and venom in His eyes. He struck at Babel and Aegis, pushing back Neraeos with a blow to sunder a continent. The sky rained crimson as He freed himself from the encircling Gods, drinking the souls trapped within Thoth's dagger to restore His form. Booming across the landscape of Krenindala, the Lord of War shouted for the Divine to not let up and to leave the mortal adventurers to hold their own.

As the battle raged on against ormyrr, Dala'myrr, and a fury-fuelled Khalas, the Father of Dragons entered the fray with a roar to challenge the Lost God. Even Divinity backed away as the white-scaled form of Sycaerunax unleashed a blaze of dragonfire hot enough to ignite the heavens and strike Khalas dead on. The Wanderer buckled and staggered back with surprise writ on His face, but the once-leader of Krenindala did not let up. Claw and fang tore against the Eldest still-living Divine, shattering His girding Fire and forcing Him onto the back foot.

Looming over the broken and tired God, the Dragon Father unleashed a blast of breath to set the world aflame. Khalas screamed as His skin charred and His limbs shrivelled into burnt husks. But He endured. He took the raging dragonfire, and once the blaze had calmed He fled the battlefield.

For once, the Pantheon had managed to overwhelm the Lost God. But He was not dead yet.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Summary: While exploring the memory of Krenindala, Khalas was assailed by the Divine Pantheon once again. Blow after blow was traded, but ultimately He was overwhelmed by the His siblings and Sycaerunax, the Father of Dragons and forced to retreat from the battlefield with terrible injuries.

---

In a secluded corner of Memory, Khalas crawled and clawed forward amidst His own wept tears. As He reached a burnt hand forward, His student from eons past, Han-Silnar, came to His aide. Placing one arm beneath that of the Wanderer's one limb not mangled and ruined, the Aldar lifted Him up. Then, together, they struggled onward through a blasted landscape.

"Everything I have done… I only ever wanted purpose, Han-Silnar."

"Imagine the pain of knowing, of being told that He had no plan nor goal for Me as He did the rest. As He did even for the Aldar. It HURT, little brother."

"My Siblings denied Me even the chance to join Them. I wanted to help Phaestus at the forge. Train with Matsuhama. Learn with Lucretius. Laugh, and love, with Eros. Paint with Scarlatti. Dream with Valnurana."

Han-Silnar leaned the wounded God against a lone boulder amid the shattered world, kneeling before his once-Master as he prepared to ask Him a question.

"Do You remember what You said before, My Lord? That it was what she said? What she asked? Begged?"

Exhausted, wounded, weakened, Khalas' tired features shifted to an expression of confusion masking irritation upon his now-burned and scarred visage.

"Her last word. Before You gave her to the Legion," continued Han-Silnar with cold seriousness.

Khalas, the Wanderer said with annoyance, "Who?"

Only then did Soulfinder move, piercing deep within the Elder God as Han-Silnar took revenge for Enheduanna, for her suffering. The eyes of Khalas widened but briefly in shock as He slumped into His pupil's arms, and His last breath drifted from His lips.

The stars stilled in the heavens, and Creation wept for the death of Khalas, the Wanderer.

-

Han-Silnar quietly lowered the corpse of Khalas to the rocky ground, His body untouched and untouchable by decay in cessation. Finally, slowly, the Aldar turned his gaze towards the empty skies of Memory.

"It is done. I know You are listening for those words. You can show Yourselves now."

Gleaming clarion in the mist-shrouded depths, a shimmering archway opened wide as Lorielan revealed Herself with Vastar and Twilight not far behind. Wrath lanced through the usually calm countenance of the Jade Empress as She spoke firmly and concisely.

"You broke your word, Han-Silnar."

Without emotion, the voice of Han-Silnar rang in response, "The three of You tasked me to deliver Him. You did not specify the condition. I am bound to Your commands. Not to expectations You do not voice."

"You will regret your defiance, servant."

"I regret nothing."

Han-Silnar handed the bloodied Soulfinder to the Jade Empress, and as She left so too did he. Still bound, and never free.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Summary: Burnt and exhausted in the wake of His battle with Sycaerunax, Khalas sought His student for aid. In an act of betrayal against the Elder God and revenge for Enheduanna, Han-Silnar stabbed and killed Khalas with the Soulfinder. Lorielan, the Jade Empress expressed Her anger that Han-Silnar had slain Khalas rather than deliver Him alive, and returned the Aldar to his eternity of servitude.

Far along the endless roads of Memory, Khalas strode towards His brother, the ever-loyal Smith of Proteus. With His cowl draped over His grey-robed figure, the Wanderer spoke urgently, imploring Phaestus to join Him in the creation of a New World. But the Dwarf Father remained immovable as a mountain, steadfastly refusing the pleas of His older Brother.

Dismay washed over the Wanderer's face even though He knew this would be the response He would receive and confirmed a lingering suspicion: He would be abandoned by His siblings once again.

Ablaze with roiling Divine Fire, Khalas engaged Phaestus in a battle that shook the heavens. There was no flashy display or grandeur in Forge Lord's fighting style, only a steady and relentless rhythm of hammer against God. But the Wanderer endured, His strength was a consuming rage fueled by the burning desire to break free from the world His Father had abandoned Him in. His might was the caustic compulsion to destroy all that His Father had created.

Their clash intensified and the earth trembled beneath Their feet with each thunderous blow. Phaestus's booming voice rang out against Khalas, pleading for Him to see the madness of His ways. But no voice of reason could calm the boiling anger of the unrepentant Wanderer.

Or so it was thought, until the Smith's calloused hand reached out to His older Brother, offering a path away from violence - a road to the Beyond and a fresh start for the Lost God.

Khalas' eyes flickered with confusion and hope, but that optimism died as the venomous words of Black Pazuzu tainted the air with their honeyed sweetness.

"Liar."

"Does the God not remember His own promise? He seeks to slay you, Khalas."

Rage.

Fury.

Fire.

The Eldest still-living God lashed out at His younger sibling. Blow after blow fell upon the Dwarf Lord, hammering His skull against rock, shattering His body, and drenching Memory's path in Divine blood. As Death's blade loomed over Phaestus, Neraeos and Vastar intervened, trying to quell the relentless violence. But the Wanderer would not be stopped and turned His burning wrath against Them too. The Shield of Tides broke into fragments, unable to endure the onslaught of Divine Fire and clenched fist. The Skylord struggled and gasped for air as Khalas gripped Him by the throat. The God without a Realm was a force not even Sky and Sea could stand against alone.

In the midst of the losing battle, Aegis' voice rang across the breadth of Creation. He called for retreat in an effort to forestall the deadly defeat looming over the three Divine, and Twilight aided His command. Sudden darkness enveloped the battlefield, plunging it into impenetrable obscurity. When the light returned, Phaestus' broken body was gone, the Gods had fled, and Khalas stood alone, victorious but contemplative.

Pazuzu, Prince of Woe, emerged from the shadows, congratulating Khalas on His triumph. The Wanderer turned to the primordial Demon and asked him a single question:

"They spoke of something unfamiliar to Me. Bal'met? What is that?"

The Prince of Woe's mouth curled upward, his face breaking into a malevolent, too-wide smile as the veil of Memory descended to shroud history in its depths.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Summary: Khalas approached Phaestus upon the roads of Memory, pleading for Him to join Pazuzu's cause. Phaestus refused and the two clashed in a titanic battle that left the Smith broken and on the verge of death. Neraeos and Vastar intervened but failed to do any harm to Khalas before they were forced to flee with Phaestus' body in tow.

---

On the 24th of Chronos 923 AF the town of Caer Witrin was threatened by Yggdrasil's corrupted brambles.

It began with the descent of the Infernal Legions onto the Prime Material Plane. Hungry for flesh and blood, the winged demons ran the gamut of the village as Sapience's army rallied together and marched. Dragons took to the frontlines, staining their claws with black ichor as mages and warriors supported with a rain of fire, lightning, and arrows. With such a magnitude of force, the lesser footsoldiers of the Inferno were no match. Victory seemed all but assured until the heavens darkened and Regent Agmorin arrived.

With his Dreadblade hovering at his side, the Demon Prince cleaved through the armies of Sapience, rending them asunder to stain the snows of Caer Witrin crimson. Though droves of dragons and mortals fell before his Inferno-forged steel, the onslaught did not cease. Coordinate strikes forced Agmorin onto the defensive as he wove his blood magic into protective barriers and fleshy growths. But even that could not inhibit the soldiers of the Prime for long, and nearly a half-day later the lieutenant of Woe was forced to retreat.

Now unguarded, the corrupted brambles of the World Tree were no match for Achaea's brood of dragons. White-hot dragonfire blazed bright enough to illuminate the shadowed heavens, burning briar and thorn to ash and then naught as the fell shadow looming over the mountain town faded.

Caer Witrin was saved.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Summary: The mountain town of Caer Witrin was assaulted by the brambles of a corrupted Yggdrasil. Sapience rallied together and defeated Regent Agmorin, allowing them to burn away the brambles and save Caer Witrin from destruction.

On the 11th of Daedalan 923 AF, the citizens of Mhaldor gathered within the Black Cathedral for a dark communion and an even darker purpose. Blood flowed in rivers from their freshly slit throats, soaking into a pentagram of their own make as they performed a profane ritual: the summoning of Lord Malortis, the Portal Master.

The scholars of Mhaldor understood well that this ancient daemon never acted without a price, for his loyalty was first and foremost to himself. A bargain had to be struck to secure his services, and what could tempt him more than a taste of Divinity? With a quake that rumbled Sapience, Cooper Ikari rose as an Avatar of Malevolence and offered his blood, heart, and body to the slavering Lord Malortis. Tooth sank into flesh as claw tore apart skin, and when the flurry of crimson abated, the Portal Master was satisfied.

The price was paid.

Ascending out of the Black Cathedral to the cursed city of Kasmarkin, the Daemon Lord fulfilled his end of the bargain. A portal to the Inferno was opened, and Mhaldor was allowed to strike at Pazuzu's forces. Steel poised and magic crackling, the armies of the Baelgrim marched in, tearing apart the wasteland's demons before charging at their newest foe: Spall, the Gnarled Hand.

Panicked and flighty, the greasy demon threw flame after burning flame at the encroaching army of Black Hand and Sartanic devout, melting the overly brave and foolish into puddles of bubbling pitch. But any effort was meaningless in the face of such an overwhelming force, and it was not long before the Avatar of Evil stood atop a foul, rotting corpse. It took only minutes before the effects of Spall's demise were felt on the Prime Material Plane. Without the Gnarled Hand's ritualism to sustain it, the rift above Kasmarkin wavered and collapsed inwards, freeing Sapience from the ceaseless onslaught of the Infernal Legion's hordes.

With the violent closure of the Infernal portal came a promise sealed by Mhaldor. Born of Malortis' daemonic hand, their own flame-wrought rift to the Inferno would remain intact and afire on the Prime, allowing them to return the Legion's gift of endless slaughter to the demons waiting within.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Summary: Mhaldor performed a ritual to summon Lord Malortis, the Portal Master. In exchange for the blood of an Avatar, the Daemon Lord opened a rift to the Inferno, allowing the Baelgrim armies to slay the demon responsible for the Infernal Legion's transportation to Sapience.

---

Deep within Memory, the Black Prince Pazuzu strode under the high places where his judges had once sentenced him with banishment to the Chaos Planes for the crime of rebellion. A gloating smile reigned over his cruel face as he pushed over the stone bench from which the Even-Handed Goddess had declared the verdict.

"You are gone, and I remain."

The words rested heavy in the air. The certainty of inevitable triumph wreathed about the Inferno's Lord like a cloak. That inevitability, however, would not go unchallenged.

The Crown Prince had numerous dangerous enemies, not least the Bloodsworn Gods. Aurora and Deucalion, joined by the Merchant Lord Prospero, materialised to cast him from his lofty place. Wielding Their implements of war, the Divinities against him closed in before he could make for more favourable ground, and Pazuzu was forced to stand and fight.

He was forced, perhaps, but he was no less eager to battle.

Even with such resplendence as the trio of Gods brought to bear, Pazuzu fended Them off with the savage might of fang and claw. Whenever Deucalion's flame, Aurora's ivory, or Prospero's bronze struck the Demon Prince, he pressed on virtually unharmed. Ethereal sigils covered his body with every blow, and the bite of Their sacred armaments dissipated along his form.

The War Veil was proving a terrible tool in his hands. However, Aurora's might would not be denied even by this defence; She had come so far and endured so much that mere artifice would not delay the justice She and Her Bloodsworn had set out to mete. With the pressure of Deucalion's fires and Prospero's harassment, the Lightbringer finally trapped the Crown Prince's arm under Hers. The Scimitar of Dawn sheared across his mighty frame and left a minute nick in the War Veil's fabric, which She seized upon.

Throwing aside his protection with a yank of Her hand, Pazuzu now found himself under genuine threat from the assault of the Gods. A furious exchange ensued in which he gave it his all to destroy Them before They could destroy him, but in the end, justice was something even that ancient rebel could not elude.

Aurora buried Her scimitars in his chest and ripped them apart, leaving the Demon Prince a ruined corpse on the blackened ground.

Yet the War Veil was not the only ancient magic the New God had kept with him for such an eventuality. The virid glow of Gaia's ring bathed his ruined form, and he rose again, more terrible and dangerous than ever before. In his hand now gleamed the sword of Yen-Sorte, the Battlemaster, that fabled weapon known far and wide as the Rageblade.

Fueled by the ravaging harm inflicted upon him, the storied longsword proved too much even for the Lightbringer's studied swordsmanship. Prospero was similarly beaten back, and the Righteous Fire's flames went ignored in favour of retribution. Blow by blow, Aurora was put on the back foot and reduced to mere survival by the savagery of Pazuzu's killing frenzy.

Pressed to Her limit, She drew upon Her Divine essence and brought forth the radiance of the Morning Star. The light turned the ground to bubbling tar, and the flames of a new sun infused the Scimitar of Righteousness. She brought it down upon the Crowned Prince with all the unstoppable might of a just sentence.

The Goddess was thrown back when it connected with the Paincatcher Pazuzu now held in his other hand. Her body was rent open, and Her blood streamed freely from the grievous wound in a nightmarish scene. Her Bloodsworn was marred by the magic of the Protean shield's retribution, and She was now defenceless.

Pazuzu pinned Her arm to the ground with his foot and lifted the fell steel of the Rageblade high above Her, pointing its tip at Her still-beating heart.

"Aurora!"

Deucalion's voice resonated across Memory as He cried Her name. His fire blazed and enveloped Her, protecting Her from Pazuzu's assault for the split second it took the Merchant Lord to open a golden door for Them to flee through.

The New God Pazuzu relented and simply watched them leave, issuing his pronouncement in this fateful place as They withdrew from the battle.

"Enjoy what time is left to You before it runs out, for I will come for all of You."

"Believe that."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Summary: Aurora, Deucalion, and Prospero found an opportunity to assault Pazuzu as he visited the memory of his sentencing after the War of Humanity. Wielding the power of the War Veil, Lifegiver, Paincatcher, and Rageblade, the Crowned Prince not only eluded Their justice but grievously wounded Aurora before the three Gods managed to withdraw to safety.