Jake. 8th of January

A year had passed and Jake was better. He had also gained something of a social media following, starting with the defeat of the undead, druid giant. This had increased with his successful soloing of a [Dark Knight of Chaos] in a fight in a forest. He had received a few hundred challenges to duels and after the holidays he had not lost any of them He did not announce this and that kept the challenges coming.

Travis and his new [Paladin] character had helped with training and duels. Characters that died against necromancers usually could not be revived, much to many players and commentators disgust. Together, Travis and Jake had fought through dozens of cursed and chaotic creatures, overthrown the three hill forts that threatened their town’s line of communication and completed the quest line that proved their ‘ancestor’s’ innocence of a dozen crimes and gained an ‘ancestral title.’

Faithful Sons. (Copper.)

+1 reputation with all Lawful characters and +10 with all Morgans. +1 leadership with non-player-characters under your control who share your character’s last name.

John had almost entirely resigned from the game, having gotten to state level in his archery and joined a debate club. Jade, Michael and Helen had been more available, but they still offered John a spot before their raids. Helen had a cousin, Francine, who had not once stopped mentioning that she had been 3rd in a First Person Shooter tournament the year before, regardless of the setting. According to Helen, it had made the funeral for their grandfather especially awkward, but they needed another Singer, especially one with a supporting instrument, so Francine got to come along.

The snow outside and the wind made gaming the best use of the day and preparations for the final battle were happening. Jake and his party were going to break their Chaotic Altar.

“So do we sing to break it, or are you going to have to hit it with a sword?” Francine asked as she started a fire.

“Yeah, either would work, but I am not planning to risk a sword on that. I have a very nice sledgehammer for this.”

The sledgehammer came out and Jake hit the chaotic altar over and over. Within two minutes it had broken. The others than gathered various pieces and threw them into the fire. Most of the pieces were revealed to be flammable and the rocks made little shrieks and howls before breaking into smaller pieces. Jade had her character sing throughout the process a song of ritual cleansing.

As the act ended Jake frowned and said, “I expected the songster energy reader would show a bigger change.”

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“What does that thing even do?” Francine asked as her character ended her part in the cleansing song.

“It is supposed to read the songs in the area. Basically, if a chaotic singer has been doing dark rituals or sacrifices, it makes the area around it harder to sing in. These altars amplify that effect, but even once they are removed, they leave something like a scar on the ambient song energy.”

“This seems like a lot of work for the coders,” Michael commented as he nosily set his controller down and started eating something.

“Where did you even get popcorn?” Jade asked in disgust.

“I made it. Still want some?”

“No, I am content with being alive.”

Michael laughed evilly before seeming to remember that Helen was on the call and then he asked, “Did anyone else have a cooking class this week?”

Jake tuned the rest of the conversation out as he looked over his reader. They had definitely done good work, but it was almost like another chaotic altar had been built while they had been destroying this one. If it was a different online game, he would think one had been spawned in as a direct response to his team’s work. But Heroes by Decree didn’t do things like that. Had someone gone over to Chaos or was one of the chaotic lords breaking their bonds months early?

Published to the well-known social media site Clicker. (Published the 8th of January)

Well known streamer, Aadvik Patel, Lord of (e)Cycles, has demonstrated an innovative way to gain levels in Heroes by Decree at an extraordinary rate. After months of streaming on other games, he has revealed his big plan to make preparations for the arrival of the forces of Chaos. Watch the linked video to see his full plan.

He has reached out to the company and received confirmation that this is not an exploit that will be patched over the week and as such he has encourages others to make their own preparations.

Jake. 16th and 17th of January 2104.

Jake wanted to throw his cellphone across the room as he finished the video, but he restrained his temper. ‘The Lord of (e)Cycles’ was actively ruining things. Most people would think it was fine to summon chaotic creatures, provided you killed them all, but that ignored the energy field of the world. In the videos going around, something like two-hundred chaotic mini-incursions had been summoned and destroyed. On the surface this was a perfectly acceptable use of mechanics, except that the mini-incursions always built an altar, if given five minutes of alone time. This was done though as the experience gained for destroying a force guarding an altar was much greater than forces from a random chaotic incursion. On the surface this looked like a win/win for the players, but even if the altar was destroyed that meant that part of the game map would permanently be scarred.

Jake tried to think of an upside, but with more groups doing it, it could very well spread. Players eager for quick leveling might very well ruin the rare, but valuable Singer class months before the final battle with Chaos.

Jake thought about writing an organized Click or repost an explanatory statement, but he was not in the mood to do that, so he settled for making a few memes of the streamer’s less than handsome face on various parts of a horses, centaur’s and his unique half centaur. To these memes he then added colorful expressions or phrases like, “Lord of Cycles? Nah, more like Lord of Chaos.“

Previous haters to the streamer Aadvik Patel quickly swarmed onto the memes and Jake ended up missing his usual bedtime organizing more coherent criticisms and explanations to what the streamer had done that was wrong. By midnight he had organized his expanded following into a pressure group. By 1 on the next morning a challenge had been reiterated three times, across three social media platforms. By 2:30, the challenge was accepted and the time of the duel had been set.