Wizards, Warriors, Free maidens, and Enlightened Men, this is an interactive story! You shall see at the end how you can help. I beg you do not despair; please read on through the end of the tale. The fate of the world may well rest upon you! ================================================================================================================================================================= The snowflakes canvassed the small forest village as far as the eye could see. The frigid cover of snow made many of the most routine tasks near unbearable. But there was one thing for which Jupiter thanked the fallen snow – it provided preemptive warning of any of the dark elves that were stealthily wandering about the Spiritwoods. No one knew why they had arrived on the shores of Sosaria, or even when, but since their arrival they had dealt havoc and death across any who cross their paths unwittingly. Fortunately, the villagers could see their footprints approaching if they neared the perimeters of the village. Jupiter was pleased at first when he heard tales of the bravest warriors of the land banding together to assail the dark elves’ fortress and topple its frozen pyres. But after repeated stories of the same fortress rising over and over again, he became concerned. All the warriors who told the tail of their heroic attempts gave the selfsame description of the elves’ embattlements. And all of them claimed to have just freshly destroyed it, not even a day after the last hero had reported the same thing to Jupiter. “You say you just returned from the elves’ fortress?”, Jupiter would ask one hero. “Aye, and we fought hard and true, and burned the fortress to the ground!,” came the flamboyant reply. And all of the warriors and heroes were seemingly oblivious to any sort of chronological discrepancies with their reconciliation of the events. But how could that be? He had already heard reports that the fortress was destroyed the night before, and a fortnight before that. How were these evil cloven of elves able to rebuild their fortress at this unnatural pace? Jupiter scratched his beard as he puzzled over the purpose for these elves’ arrival. He rested his hand on the table a moment and then realized there were markings on the reverse side of his arm. Markings he didn’t remember placing at all, but which were clearly in his writing: “12/12/2012” He ran his hand over the date on this forearm, and then looked up at the current calendar, his calendar read it was the year 2014; what then did his mysterious clue to himself mean? ================================================================================================================================================================= Jupiter couldn’t believe it at first. He had traveled the lands and searched every historical archive he could find; there was absolutely no evidence that the age of Renaissance had even occurred! This was not a matter of a few missing tomes or poor record keeping by one lazy historian of a remote village; an entire year was missing as if torn right out of the pages of every historical archive. Every history book; every guardsman’s patrol log; even the personal journals he found; everywhere was missing this year, and there were none who seemed to even notice. Jupiter immediately set out to inquire of the usual suspects. Perhaps this was some nefarious plot of the Associates; were they truly brazen enough to dry loot an entire year from Sosaria? Or perhaps even a common thief had gone and stolen far more than a letter from the alphabet? But these suspicions were all met with dead ends as it seems the effects of the missing year extended to them as well. None of them recalled any of the events during that year. He could find no evidence of extortionate permits being executed. Nothing except the dark elves… everyone seemed to remember the elves. It was the one thing that was constant. Jupiter felt he was going mad. For some reason the events of the entire year were held in his memory which no one else seemed to recall. No one remembered the night that dreadful spire of hell ripped asunder the wheat fields of Skara Brae. There were none who shared his common memory of the plague creatures that sprang out of the deserts; nor of the heroic deeds of Sir Mars as he fought at the gateway of Wrong. There was no record of the True Knights of Britania fortifying the western edges of Spiritwood to help defend Paws against evil. All these tales were lost to the world, and wreaking havoc on Jupiter’s psyche. Did they actually happen? He was certain they had; at least at most hours of the day he was certain, but there were moments, just seconds really, which nearly drove him mad with doubt. The pain of these stories being lost to time was unbearable, and thus, Jupiter set out to adventure with everyone he could. Perhaps if he could get just one person to remember, perhaps that might break the powerful curse of the dark elves! And so he set out with the Company of the Vigilant and many others to hunt the dark elves where ever they were found. He visited the Dark Elves’ fortress himself to see their deplorable citadel. Jupiter slew countless rangers and bear-riders, and as he did he began to realize the power of the dark elves’ curse was to possess the warriors of the land with distractions. It was merely the elves’ phantoms that were being destroyed. And while everyone was thus consumed, it was a simple task for them to slowly devour the life force from the inhabitants and thus steal their memories too. ================================================================================================================================================================= ADVENTURERS! Will you Help Jupiter in his quest?! Please! Help record the epic adventures, the stories, and the great excitement that occurred during 2013! These do not need to be elaborate stories, anything that you did during 2013, if possible with visual documentation (screenshots). A simple caption or a fanciful story all submissions are welcome. Did you attend the same event or were you present at the same time as somebody else? Please post it again. Repetition is a great way to validate the event actually occurred! No story is too small, no moment is too inconsequential! Anything that proves 2013 actually happened is desperately needed! For instance, did you build a city called Wispfelt this year? Did you slay your first Shadow Wyrm this year? Did you best somebody at Chess, or did you have a band of friends you enjoyed hunting with? Did you visit Santa Clause at the Post office? Did you slay a worthy adversary or did you murder your quarry with brutality? These are all worthy of Jupiter’s quest to restore the memory and historical records of 2013. Please just don't re-post a story you've already made. If you already have a story, please just post a link to it. If the tale has never before been told, please post it here. Your reward will be in knowing that you played part in breaking the curse of the dark elves and restoring the year of 2013!
Re: The Year That Went Missing! - Village of Paws Here Jupiter and Kiln of Paws search for clues in the dank dungeon of Wrong. Jupiter teams up with C^V to fight back against the dark elves!
A very clever ruse by the dark elves! I too have journeyed to that same fortress and have seen their towers burn with my own eyes. Upon hearing your news, David Hasselhoff commissioned a bard to commit this tale to poem, so that it would not be forgotten. It is a pretty poor poem; I think he overpaid, but it shall be remembered nonetheless!
