Lord Joyde The Madman: Heylo, everybody! How are you all doing?

Oh my dear god... the newest chapter for Euphoria is my best hit yet.

Lol. You guys sure love Audrey, don't you?

Fifty comments within the first five hours... may not seem like much, but its the most I've ever gotten!

Don't mind me guys and girls! I'm just a line break...

The Following Day... - After Royal Etiquette class - The Headmasters Office -Alice's Point Of View

"Hmm? You appear to be somewhat disgruntled, Alice. More so than usual... Did something bad happen recently?" The headmaster, bless his ancient elven soul, asked me with a frown upon his face.

I just let out a massive sigh as I dropped my school bag onto the floor next to the wooden door to his office."Royal Etiquette was trash."

He blinked and laughed."Watch your language, young lady. If that class can teach you anything, then proper curse words is one of them which means you have something to gain from it still."

"I can exchange them, right?" A nod as the old man pulled out a strangely familiar scroll out from under his desk."You can, but only within five months of the years start and only one of your classes."

He shook his head in negative as he looked at the scroll he pulled out."Hmm, no, not this one... humph!"

Quirking an eyebrow in curiosity as the old man reached deeper into his own desk as he set the former scroll aside, I watched in wonder as he pulled out a more intricate version of the previous magic scroll."Ah! Here we are..."

Taking the apparently correct scroll into his hands, he approached me and placed the parchment on the ground between us. The magics contained within the scroll then burst outwards, momentarily bathing the room in pink, arcane light."Ugh!.." I had to shield my eyes from the brightness but the moment I could see again revealed a rather amazing contraption had appeared in front of me.

"I.. Is this... Marden?" I asked the headmaster, causing the old man to smile as he waved one of his spare wands, causing small air elementals to carry two chairs down from whatever storage he has hidden above the myriad shelves full of books."Short for Martial Destiny, an elven .. strategy game, should we say, not much different from the chess usually played by human nobility, but much more magical."

The former magic scroll had contained a massive rune-etched table which had numerous magical lines imprinted onto whatever dark wood it was made off. These runic etchings would react whenever more than one person's mana touched the table and activate, causing the normally flat surface of the table to twist and turn into a miniature battlefield, with the units which are used by each player for combat forged straight out of that players... destiny."I.. I've heard of this game before but I never thought I'd see an actual board for myself."

My wonder and amazement pleased the old man as he nodded with a prideful grin."Indeed. Only a select few of these still exist, most of them having been outlawed by the Empire. Thankfully, my board was out of the reach of that misbegotten Empress."

"Outlawed? Why?" I asked, more than a little bit confused. Why would anyone outlaw something like this?

The old man sighed, seemingly remembering some very dark and dreadful things from his past."Listen Alice, this game... Marden is not a simple clockwork of runes. It is actually connected to forces beyond our reality. Things and monstrosities which are fully capable of reading the fate of us mortals and controling our fragile minds without us even realizing it. The Empress has outlawed this game since it was a near perfect way for these malignant terrors to enter our world and consume the minds of the players as it tampered with their own destinies."

"So playing this is dangerous? Why bring it out then if you don't intend on playing a round with me?" He smiled at me."Oh I do intend to play some rounds with you, Alice. This is... an idea I had while dreaming yesterday. I hope to use this game in order to prepare you for the trials to come. Assuredly, you will face many dangers related to battlefields and this game will allow you a truthful window into the strategies involved in nearly all forms of warfare in general."

"Let me guess, you have some kind of special protection that will shield our minds from being invaded by monsters from the beyond?" Another nod, this time slow and uncertain."I do but I'll be honest and say that even with that protection we should not play for very long. Should one of our battles last for longer than thirty minutes, we can and will pause it for another day in order to allow minds to retain full cohesion."

"Okay... so how do we start?" A bright smile etched itself onto the old mans lips as he replied."Oh, just place your hands onto those round runes over here... oh, and Alice?"

"Yes, headmaster?" Quirking an eyebrow at the old man, I felt as if the shadows behind me began to retreat hastily as his gaze turned dark, much like that of his son."I want you to remember that this game reads the destinies of those involved and that the units are born of the players own fates. Meaning that what you see here may guide you in the real world so long as you can interpret the game correctly... thing is, you can also see the units belonging to your opponent."

"So.. whatever I see, I keep it to myself and, in turn, you'll do the same?" A grim nod was given as I steeled myself and leaned into my chair as I placed my hands onto the aforementioned runes, feeling my mana flowing into the board.

Within seconds, the flat surface twisted itself and changed coloration, creating a rather strange map of terrain. A single giant river split the supposed battlefield in half, flowing from the lower south-west to the upper north-east in a perfect line. Many smaller offshoots spilled out of the lake, with only a few flowing into it originating within the snow-drenched mountains of the west side of the map.

An entire mountain range filled the left and upper right corners of the map, considering that it was in the shape of a perfect square with the remainder of the world clouded in inpassable shadows. The lower right side of the map was connected to the rest of it via a large wooden bridge which opened the way into what appeared to be a rather verdant valley filled with rich farmlands and many small villagers but no larger settlements.

On the northern edge was what appeared to be a small, man-made enclosure with a war camp full of ... soldiers within it. Although, I'm not sure that what I am looking at are soldiers at all.

"ROOARGH!" A massive orcish figurine stood out among the swarm of other units, reacting with realistic sound as I felt myself reaching out to it with my mind.

Its name appeared to me within a suddenly formed blue box of some sort.

Warforged Champion

Hero Unit 8/3/10

--> an old, to his race ancient, orc who has seen numerous battles and participated in countless raids. With the blood of the living flame rushing through his veins, this orc has vowed to serve his Blessed Lady through war... and peace.

Abilities: Commanding Presence, Chaotic Warsong and Cleaving Blows.

Commanding Presence - units within the range of this ability (3 tiles) have their attack/defense/morale points raised by 2.

Chaotic Warsong - a horrid howl which tears the morale of nearby foes. The closer the enemy, the greater its effect (max 1 tile away, up to 3 morale damage per howl).

Cleaving Blows - attacking with this unit deals damage to a maximum of three units in a frontal cone, but each enemy struck increases the cooldown time for the next available attack.

A primary assault unit, meant to charge into the fray immidiatelly with its high attack and morale... yet its low defense makes me want to keep it in the back line and make good use of its aura. The howl ability when combined with the cleaving blows makes for a decent hit-and-run tactic, but for that to be effective, I'd need to have a lot of information about the enemy.

"Insaniam est virtus!" A crescendo of maddened voices echoed from the sidelines, revealing three units of heavily armored infantry and two units of equally heavily armored cavalry standing side by side.

Caedean Crusader

Infantry Unit 2/2/10

--> once regular soldiers, these human men and women have been made to witness the horrible truth of the world. They have stared into the void and, while clearly not quite sane, snapped out of it, still human. Their loyalty to the Blessed Lady is only matched by their savagery and madness.

Abilities: Funeral March and Echoes Of Infinity.

Funeral March - for each unit that dies on the battlefield, regardless of affiliation, increase attack and defence permanently by 1 while losing 1 point of morale.

Echoes Of Infinity - should the morale of the Caedean Crusader unit reach the value of 0, they will gain +5 to all stats for one round and attack the closest unit to them. After the round of berserking, the Crusaders reset their Funeral March and control of them is given back to their rightful leige.

"Uhh...." I found myself grunting out in confusion and inability to comprehend.. this.

What does Caedean even mean? And what exactly is a Crusade anyways? Some kind of religious warbard, I guess."Having trouble with your units, miss Pendragon?"

The old headmaster asked me as he waved his hands around, seemingly posistioning his own units which were still concealed and invisible to my eyes."Y-yeah... I don't know what to make of them."

"Don't worry child, they are borne of your own destiny... controlling them will be as natural to you as breathing." He calmly responded, years of experience clear from his tone as I nodded and continued my inspection."Remember, the goal of todays match is not to actually play it but to assess your forces and find out which unit is there and why. We have an entire year in front of us and many such matches to play so there is no need to rush."

A nod was his answer before I finally continued."CHAAARGE!" A plethora of warcries caught my attention.

Ceadean Charger

Cavalry Unit 2/5/5

--> though fewer in number and perhaps much weaker mentally than their infantry brothers and sisters, these people have witnessed the end and came out changed, yet still sane. Regardless, their loyalty to the Blessed Lady is only matched by their ability to guide their less-sane brothers and sisters in arms on the battlefield.

Abilities: Preternatural Inspiration and CHARGE!

Preternatual Inspiration - grants any friendly unit another an extra move during your turn. (cannot stack)

CHARGE! - rushes a maximum of 3 tiles forward, with each tile adding a +1 to attack. Each enemy unit which is killed by charge permanently increases this units morale by +1. This ability may only be used once per battlefield.

Huh. So these guys are easily the answer to the Champions weakness... maybe if I used Preternatural Inspration on him first and then moved? However, doing so would probably cost me the element of surprise and weaken the overrall effectiveness of CHARGE!

And using it on the crusaders just seems wasteful.

Hmm, maybe since I have two of these units, I could cast i-no, that makes no sense. Take a move to give a move.

I shook my head, thats stupid.

A deep sigh escapes me as I turned towards my last unit. Another orc, from what it looked like. It reminded me of ... of the old madman who screamed obscenities at me back at the castle."THE WORLDEATER CALLS!"

Maddened Volhv

Elite Caster Unit 0/1/&

--> a weak and physically pathetic old orcish shaman who has fallen to visions of insanity and chaos, yet has also gained the power to spread his madness to both empower his allies as well as doom his enemies.

Abilities: Horrifying Visage, Know THIS!, Boil Blood and Hungering Aura.

Horrifying Visage - when enemy units first see the Volhv, their status is changed to "Terrified" which makes them unable to attack the Volhv for the next turn.

Know THIS! - Deals -1 morale to any enemy unit, with each consecutive cast increasing the power of the spell by +1. Can only be used on elite and heroic units.

Boil Blood - when used on allies, grants +1/+1/+1. When used on enemies, deals -2 morale damage and -1 physical damage.

Hungering Aura - any ally within 3 tiles of the Volhv is granted lifesteal, restoring +1 defence on attacked unit. This value cannot bypass the original maximum of selective units.

Ahh, this makes more sense now.

Basically, attack is the damage units deal to other units.

Defence is their health points.

And morale is.. well morale."What happens when a units morale is depleted?" I asked the headmaster, who merely blinked in surprise."Your units are affected by morale?"

"Not all of them, why?" He made an ooh face before replying, causing me to tilt my head in confusion."Well, when a units morale reaches zero, they run away from the battlefield."

I feel stupid just asking that. That was obvious.

Shaking my head out of my stupor, I continued my questions."A lot of my units mention these things called tiles.. what are they supposed to be?"

"Well, if you would just look at the map for a moment, you would see that the terrain is divided by four regions and that each regions is divided into twenty five tiles, which makes one hundred tiles per battlefield." There were indeed hexagonal shapes etched into the ground, clearly visible now that I knew what I was looking for.

I guess they mark where I can posistion my troops."You may have also noticed that while each one tile can only hold a singular unit, your War-Camp is a special tile which can hold them all and grants a defensive bonus to all friendly units inside of it, but staying inside of the camp for the entire game is considered a cowards way of playing the game." He added on to my previous question as I nodded in approval."That does sound kinda cheesy to do."

"I'm glad you agree with me. Now, I suppose you've managed to grab a feel for your units by now, yes? Why don't you try deploying them around?" He urged me on as I blinked."Uhh, how do I do that exactly?"

"You may have noticed that your units react whenever you focus your mind upon them. Once you do this, simply think of them moving to a select tile within their reach and they will do as much." He explained as he threw a look at the clock. It would appear that time was running out.

Oh well, might as well try my best."We march!"

My orcish Warforged Champion exclaimed as I willed him to move forward, instinctively making him be the front of my army. Both of my cavalry units were sent to his sides, ready to support him whenever needed. Hmm, their extra move ability cannot stack, but nobody ever said that you couldn't cast it from one cavalry, use the move and then use the other cavalry afterwards... Thats something I've got to try!

Anyways, I motioned the Volhv to go next, making him the well-defended middle of my army."Annihilation... commands me!" He screeched in protest, yet in a tone full of glee. Truly a madman, isn't he?

My remaining forces, that is to say the Caedean Crusaders whom I had no idea where or what to do with, were made to be his side and rear guard, sourrounding the Volhv on all sides with the intent to protect him. What if the enemy had some kind of ranged attack, though... the Volhv only has 1 defense and zero personal attack without spells, balanced out by the fact that his morale is limitless.

"Thats enough for today... any more and we risk exposure to otherworldy monstrosities. I-I... I don't know how you managed to stay unaffected for so long, little Alice... do you not feel the touch of insanity upon your mind?" The headmaster asked me, his voice weakened as I blinked at him in confusion, the table resetting itself into the magical scroll it originated from."Uhh... no, I don't. I feel perfectly fine?"

"Then your mental fortitude is either massively higher than mine, which isn't that much of a stretch considering what you've survived, or you are already infected by one of these beings, which is impossible." He concluded with a sigh."Still, to have a little girls mind be stronger than mine... ahh, is this what growing old feels like?"

"Well, I wont lie to you sir, you are rather old." I laughed at his antics as the old man shrugged at me, thankfully not catching my cringe as Chaos entered my thoughts.. clearly, I am immune to this game solely because of its influence.

Well its and that of the ring... as I'm sure that whatever power it possesses comes from something equal to Chaos by now.

Anyways, guess that means this session is finally over. Goddess, this was a long bloody day!

Don't mind me guys and girls! I'm just a line break...

Betcha didn't expect them blues, now did ya?!

But, well I figured I might as well.

Btw, the more I think this magic board game up, the more it reminds me of Warhammer, even if I've never played anything of its franchise.

Strange... Oh well, time to go to sleep....

And yes, its fucking 3:20 here where I am, get over it.

Anyways, read and review! And Good Morning/Day/Night to you all! ADIOS FOR NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!