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Challenge #04875-M126: Wrath of the Dark

Deep below the vale of ancients, in ruins so deep and layered as to become a cave-like labyrinth, is an effigy of a goddess. A small posse of dare seekers ignore the fell myths whispered of the buried divine, though they may come to wish they had heeded the warnings... -- Deathshead419

The world was built by Dragons, then built upon by various civilisations. Some cities, like Arbordeep, have been built up on previous iterations of Arbordeep as various cataclysms, floods, and built-up silt have buried the old ones. It's just one among many such places with a thriving Undercity and links to the Everdark.

The tunnels and caverns may not have been linked originally, but various burrowing species have made them so. It is whispered that one may be able to walk around the world in the Everdark without once glimpsing sunlight. No-one is known to have done this, since the Everdark is thriving with assorted terrors. Living nightmares that have never needed eyes to see. Things that subsist solely on the filth that oozes from above. Abominations created by mad mages that have created their own ecological niche. And, of course, Dragons that like the dark.

If the theoretical traveler attempts to delve in the Everdark under Val'eon, they would find the labyrinths of built stone. Buried by the ages. Some legends say that the buried buildings were made by the first Elves who were born with little magic in their blood. This band of exiles created architecture to last beyond the end of the world.

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Challenge #04874-M125: Educating a Royal Pain

The Swan Prince Odilio Magustine Jestarion Francas has learned from Trudy that there is no easy way out of his curse. His only hope would be to earn the love of a lady. But what can a swan offer a damsel or maiden fair? Perhaps something to do with flight could open the door he’s looking for…

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04851-m102-with-adequate-reason -- Deathshead419

The kiss of a virgin wasn't hard to obtain if you didn't mind the slobbery attempts

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Challenge #04873-M124: Fishing For Converts

A new faith in a single God has captured a polity, raising or replacing the old temples and extinguishing the old gods. All except one, a "Tree Mother" whose grove Deep in the wilderness has been out of reach, for all who have tried to burn her put have returned shaken, wounded, or not at all.

Yet one priest is insistent, and takes the task of eradicating this last bastion of paganism to heart. -- Deathshead419

The story is told of a

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Challenge #04872-M123: Best Defence

Yu-Cian was conscripted for his year of service in the city watch some months ago. Since then he has been mocked mercilessly by the veteran who signed on for life, has had his wages stolen by his sergeant, and was even spat upon by merchants leaving the city who assumed he was there for a shakedown.

So imagine his surprise when one of the horsemen of the plains arrived one night and had a civil conversation with him after all this time.

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Challenge #04871-M122: Clutch Clowder

A basket of kittens is left at the doorstep at one of the rare times that Wraithvine's portable tower is visible to those around hir. The mother had died of illness, and the person caring for them finds they don't have the skill, patience, or fortitude, to bottle feed and tend all six. Which requires getting up every couple of hours to feed them, then tending to them to get them to go to the bathroom, then keeping them warm, and feeding

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Challenge #04870-M121: The Right Fulcrum

"You can have money or you can have Justice." - Which do you choose? -- Prompey

[AN: Very sorely tempted to do so many Leverage riffs]

The right to reign is often accepted to mean: anyone who reigns has all the rights. And when anyone is both rich and powerful, they can take what they want and make consequences happen to others. Naturally, the people on the wrong end of that exchange tend to get irritated by that attitude.

So rebellions rise

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Challenge #04869-M120: Medically Necessary Dangerous Friend

I have the rare type - O negative blood, a universal donor. I'm also scared of needles. My kind, at least to me, pax humanis friend helps me with this anxiety so I can donate and save lives. --Anon Guest

Medical practice always needs blood. At least, it does in this particular neighbourhood of the Edge Territories. I heard from some traders that the Alliance can just make whatever blood they want. There's like special cloned bone marrow units that do it.

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Challenge #04868-M119: Tested Not in Vein

Legend holds of a harsh God, who’s marked have the blood drained from their bodies until expiring, this life force fueling the God’s power. The God has no use for the souls of those who are not devotees. So what happens when Elizabeth is dragged into the body of a ghoulish divine and accidentally invokes the right rite to bind her soul to her blood and become a simple blood cell inside the sepulcher halls of Godly flesh? -- Deathshead419

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Challenge #04867-M118: The Seeds of Ghosts

Deep in the boggy fen country, a village where cremation is customary is haunted by specters of the burned dead. These ghosts encroach closer and closer to the realm of the living with each passing night. The Elders send a letter, pleading with Wraithvine for aid against their supernatural tormentors.

Wraithvine sets out sure that this is caused by some readily explainable phenomenon, either by man-made hoax or mundane magic or perhaps a scorned local God. The Truth is far stranger than

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Challenge #04866-M117: Dredging Up Blessings

Eons ago, a temple with ten divine statues sank into the sea and then were pulled into the mantle of the planet itself. Now they have come to life, trapped below the crust of the world. Only Nalani and Vykoria can plunge down a lava plume and guide these divines into the light, though a path no human has ever walked will be treacherous and full of dangers unknown to mankind.

Sequel to: https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04849-m100-stolen-mercy -- Deathshead419

Vykoria

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Challenge #04865-M116: End an Angry God

An ancient inscription upon a Stele has brought Wraithvine to another monument upon the shores of a primordial lake. Here ze finds an aged icon of a long forgotten god and the pronouncement upon his pedestal which has waited all this time… -- Deathshead419

Wraithvine should have become used to finding quests in museums. People left messages for hir to unriddle long-term problems, or seers put things in hir way. Ze could never tell. Either way, they were very good at leading

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Challenge #04864-M115: Always Welcome

Dex was taking a vacation from the palace with his family. Unfortunately, it becomes quite stormy. But, fortunately, his parents' place wasn't far, and it'd been quite a while since they'd visited the farm. -- Anon Guest

They had been on their way to Waelrin's capital and castle when the threatening storm started to beat their carriage around. The good news, for King Kormwind Arachis Felbourne Whitekeep, tenth of his name (Dex to his friends), was that they were close to Dromlynne.

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Challenge #04863 -M114: Love of Perfection

A skilled Sculptor has created a beauteous statue of a woman. It is so beauteous that the sculptor has fallen in love with her. And so the Sculptor implores the Gods to bring her to life so that she might become the Sculptor’s wife. Boons from the Gods always come with a price, especially ones reflecting love. And it may be that the Beauteous woman will wish to sculpt the Sculptor into her vision of an ideally aesthetic form… -- Deathshead419

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Challenge #04862-M113: Fearsome Hero Hunvug

In a Tavern on the outskirts of Pildile, four men gather around a table for drinking, dicing, and a night away from the troubles of the world. Only, all four saw a hero’s exploits first hand, yet, none of them have the same story of what really unfolded… -- Deathshead419

Three beers in, Vaelin muttered, "Bloody heroes..." He took another swig before taking his turn at the dice.

"Aye," rumbled Goran. "Breaking in where they don't barge in, sticking their noses

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Challenge #04861-M112: The Path to Fates

Deep in the vales of the Winderwrung Crags, legends speak of a beautiful figure whose serenade echoes across the range. Some say this singer leads climbers to their doom, others speak of surviving blizzards by that heavenly voice. One has at last set out to see if the legends hold any truth or are only traveler’s tales… -- Deathshead419

The valley is plentiful, and those who live there know well why every building stands on stilts or pillars. Even the horses

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