The Finale kicks off in this first part, which has a very simple subtitle: Finale to "Battle" starts here!

Since it was a smaller issue in scope of active players, I felt obligated to throw in an extra big surprise at the end of this, to directly set up the next mission.

That's a bit later on. The first part establishes both the main Finale story, and a subplot set in the past, which also helps set up the next mission, ominously named "Enter Hey Daze."

Plus, this one's got the Goblin King, whom I've had fun doing so far, a little interaction between Dash and Vixen, some more Feena and Catrina, and just basically, a lot of setting up for hopefully a fun aventurers.. count the Elite Seven who appear in this one...

J

KOL- the very recent past. . . .

Something is amiss in Seaside Town.

Something is pretty much always going on in the Town, but this time, it's something totally unusual, and unexpected, beyond that. Seaside Town.. Ya know it, ya love it.. or tolerate it.. The home to a wide assortment of freaks, scum, and what have you.. (And occasionally, what have nots, as well....) Remember the Market Square? Yeah... On this strange day, the Market's closed.

It should be noted at this point the Market *never* closes.. Not for night, not for holidays.. one of the benefits of being an eternal demon is no need for time outs, sleep, or weekly worship service... what, with the burning of the skin and all..

While some traders come and go, the Market stays there, as still as the untouched wind.. but like we've noticed.. today's different.. something's very weird in the air, too..

As Catrina Whiteclaw and Sebastian Dash soon found out, the Market is CLOSED. It was a nasty omen, and a sign of things ot come...

=-=-=

The present

The Goblin King let out a cackle that would send chills through a stone statue, so sinister and annoying it was.

"Let them come!" He declared to no one in particular. "Personally, I bet I could beat that stupid smirk off that tiger's face anytime I wanted!"

He referred to Mtiger, if you wondered.

Knob Goblin life continued around the King more or less as usual, despite the attention of those around him being focused on him. Muscled, trained Elite Guards stomped around, on the lookout for any signs of danger, while Knob Goblin chefs brought in and out various buttery, slimy overspiced foods for the Knob Goblin bards and mystic advisors to chew on.

Stepping over the broken egg shells and discarded comics scattering the floor, the Goblin King surveyed his kingdom.. miserable though it was. "You don't think they'd be able to find their way into our hidden cove, do you?"

"UMmmmm, yep!" A confused oaf of a guard answered. He quickly fixed his answer. "Oops, I mean nope!"

"They'd BETTER not get in, or it's your skin, pal!" The King paced around, stopping a helpless chef assistant who was on his way.. wherever. "You, what have you heard about the invaders?"

"They're steaming hot soup lacks the proper spice to be considered top notch?" The chef assistant asked as he cowered.

"You disgust me!" The King of the Knob Goblins spat as he shoved the assistant to the side. The King continued pacing, occasionally stopping to sit majestically in his throne so he could chew on some Knob Goblin sausage, dipped on Knob Goblin honey butter, the world's most slimy butter, along with some Degarssi grown bread.

"Sir!" The Knob Goblin Elite guard broke through the chaos of the room with a professional demeanor surprising for a Knob Goblin. He then switched to the King's preferred form of address. "Your kingly awesomeness!"

"What IS it?"! The King demanded.. in a whiney voice. "Can't you see I'm busy trying to be awesome here?"

"Yes, King, but you instructed me to bring you the latest progress reports on the attack on the rival clan bases." With that, he pulled a thick stack of documents from a pouch, and presented them to the king.

The Goblin King impatiently snatched the papers, and glanced through them.. A Knob Goblin who can read is likely relatively rare. "The attack is finally starting? Good.. ah, but what's this about resistance?"

"We're focusing our efforts on a single enemy to start with, Sir awesome," the Elite Guard responded. "The Kingdom of KOL, as they call themselves.. Unfortunately, their defenses are proving somewhat.. annoying."

"A challenge!" The Goblin King roared. Er.. more of a loud squeak. "Awesome! I wanna go there and watch the butt being kicked by my Knob Goblins!"

"That might be a bit dangerous, Your Kingship," The Elite guard responded, voice thick with worry.

"Oh, I know!" The King answered, rubbing his hands together. "Deliciously dangerous!"

"That doesn't make sense, sir."

"I say it does!" The King insisted. "Besides, I can always take a few Elite Guard with me.. or better.. a couple members of the Elite 7!"

"It just seems like risk without reward, with all due respect, your Awesomenimity."

"But the reward is seeing my loyal troops in action," The King replied with what very well have been a sarcastic whine. "Yes, this should prove to be most enjoyable. Prepare me a battle report.. I'm taking to the field as soon as possible, and I'm not taking any more objections to my awesome idea!"

"Yes, sir," the guard meekly replied, even though he knew deep down, this was a bad idea...

=-=-=-=-=-

A familiar phrase kept running through Dash's mind.

"To the last breath, we oppose them! For justice!"

At the moment, he couldn't remember where he'd heard it. But with him and Vixen having already been through several fights, and with more waves of enemies due soon, it certainly seemed to fit the moment.

"I think this's the last of them," a burly KOKOL knight called out as Dash, Vixen, and the KOKOL forces finished off several normal looking, if oversized, waves of bats and rats. "For now, anyway."

"About time," Vixen rested herself on her walking staff. "That was a lot of critters."

Even though they fought each other, the number of rats and bats going at it was something of a distraction. There were also various Knob Goblin scouting teams to dispatch. Dash couldn't imagine what had prompted the attack on the simple outpost. Dash had found a few spare moments to try to get an answer from the various soldiers, guards and researchers around the base, but he wasn't able to get a single answer. Everyone had differing opinions on this one.

Though classified as non-crucial, the information gathered by the half dozen or so scientists KOKOL employed had potential for both profit and military strategy. In fact, those were the primary purposes of MTiger funding the outpost. Artistic pursuits were also pursued here, and it served as a waypoint for weary KOKOL travelers.

Fortunately, a handful of them were at the post even now. Farmer Jones, who tended a small groove of meat tree orchards, was often allowed to stay with the post for a minimal fee during his travels across the Kingdom. Some thought of him as an unofficial ally of KOKOL.

Right now, he stayed inside of the outpost's main area, content to let the guards and soldiers do their job of protecting the place.

"You should rest that shoulder," Dash advised Vixen.

She brushed him off. "It's fine."

"At least get it bandaged!" Dash insisted. He turned to a nearby soldier. "How's our doctor doing with the injuries?"

"Last I heard, sir, he seems to be coping, but there's been a lot more activity than he's used to." The soldier saluted briefly; his mind, like Dash's, was still on the fights yet to come.

Dash turned to Vixen. "You should really see the doctor before we get the next wave of attacks."

Vixen growled softly. "I said it's fine. Drop it."

Dash paused, then reconsidered pressing the issue. "If you're sure.. .. you didn't lose Catrina's katana, I hope?"

Vixen pulled it free from the ground. "Still got it. Don't worry, I got it covered. Thanks for letting me use it."

"Well, she'll be wanting it back when she gets here."

"Gotchya," Vixen answered. "Do you think more are coming?"

"I'd imagine so," a voice called out. With the rugged good looks of a potential Seaside Town street entertainer, it would have been easy to dismiss the battle prowess of the blond mercenary who rode up to the gathered warriors upon a mighty looking steed. Easy, but also ffool-hardy and deadly in battle. "I certainly HOPE so! I don't think I quite earned a bonus from those battles yet."

Dash had immediately called into question the wisdom of hiring an unproven pair of mercenaries when KOKOL had already set it's forces into play, but he was rebuked by the head of security, Lt. Fuhler, who explained there simply wasn't enough defense to last them until KOKOL could send some meat for the defense. Besides, they were talented brothers.

Dash, even more so than Vixen, was still a little unnerved when the blond rider dismounted his horse, who them promptly turned into almost an exact version of his rider. Both brothers shared this morphing ability. Dash had idly wondered upon first hearing of the ability if they'd be able to communicate with Dash's horse, Españolola. In truth, Dash wasn't sure he really would want to know the answer to that, even though Españolola often seemed to show an intelligence and empathy that surprised Dash.

Vixen let out a sigh. "I can see more coming in the distance already."

Dash scrutinized the distant landscape, trying to pick out what her fox like vision had spotted now.. Ahh.. there.. in the distance. "That'll be enough to keep us busy for a while. Can you tell who's with the group?"

"It just looks like a bunch of Knob Goblin thugs to me." Vixen shrugged. "Probably mostly guards. And some clown looking .. thing."

Dash frowned. "Jester King of Beasts, I'm guessing."

Vixen laughed, clearly not impressed. "Who?"

"Jester King of Beasts," Dash explained, "Is one of the Elite 7. Seems to control animals, obviously, and he can also make himself intangible. Can't be touched when he is."

"Ouch," Vixen replied. "Sounds like a tough one to defeat."

"Viciously tough," Dash confirmed. "But we know of one weakness. He seems to have trouble maintaining his 'untouchable' form consistently. If we can force him to keep phased, we should be able to find an opening we need."

Vixen's response was simple. "Hopefully." She strained her vulpine vision to it's limits. "That's strange..."

"What?"

"That.. Jester King, as you called him.. he's splitting from the others."

Dash shrugged. "Maybe he's lost his fighting spirit after his last run in with Feena."

Vixen hadn't a clue as to which run in Dash was referring to, so she just shrugged and nodded. "Maybe."

"In the meantime, please get yourself inside and have a doctor check that arm out," Dash expressed with an almost brotherly concern. "We're not going to have horribly long before we get thrown into the next fight."

"Alright, fine," Vixen conceded. "But he better not try telling me to 'sit this one out!'"

She got up, with a huff, tossing Dash the spare katana before rushing inside the nearest building...

-=-=-=-=-

KOL- the very recent past, 25 minutes later

"Ohhh, baby, you've come to the right spot, baby! Slick Rick, the slllllllllickesssssssssst lich this side of the Grave of Bugmeat Brown, he's the Lich To Goto, Baby©! Market Demon, prepare to be amazed!"

"Just help me get the gate open," the unusually nervous Market Demon responded. "Or else."

"Sooo, what's the occasion? OHhhhh yeah!"

"Like I said," the Demon said, "I just wanna visit my momma, and see if she sold yet." Then he paused, and out of habit, added, "Or else."

"Ohhh, yea, baby. Slick Rick remembers you tellin' Slick Rick that. But that ol' coon Slick Rick, he ain't convinced. Whoo! Er.. I mean.. oh yea, baby." Slick Rick looks like a slicker version of most slick lihcs, which are themselves 'a lot like the other lihcs, only a lot smoother.' So, yeah.. he's smoother AND slicker than the average lihc. I'm not sure if he can go to Space Mountain all night long or not. "But Slick Rick, he's gotta admit, he's kinda curious as to the REAL deal behind those wheels rollin' in yer head."

"Fine, then I simply need to get this item and myself OUT of the reach of certain.. forces.. in the Kingdom. And the best way to do that is to head home to the underworld. Ever been there? It's a delightfully hellish place."

"Then we gotta get to scamming! Ohh!" Slick Rick then busted a phat disco move to show off his exuberance.

"Scamming? Explain yourself, or else," the Demon calmly replied.

"Yeah! See, we gotta come up with a lil sllllllllllick hijinx, and get them idiot Friars to do somethin' they're gonna regret.. Ohhh, baby! That'll hit the spot. Nothin' like a demon and a lich workin' together to scam a few humans." "Then we'd better hurry," the demon responded. As one, the two said, "Or else! Ohh, yeah, baby!"

Now that's slick! (Or else.)

=-=-=-=-

Back to the present...

Back to business after their little roll in the grass....

They kept downwind of the latest threat, wanting to access this threat before deciding if they should engage it. After moving a safe distance from the army, Catrina let out a growl.

"Grillhamo's got himself an impressive little army," she admitted. "What's an Elite Seven member doing on a simple outpost raid, though?"

"Did you SEE that one he kept referring to as the Black Paladin?!" Feena asked, a quick shiver running down her tail. "Grillhamo seemed to refer to him as a superior. Maybe we're dealing with two Elite 7 members?"

Catrina shrugged. "I don't know, hun. I just wish we had time to take them down and make it a non issue."

"Yeah, about that," Feena wondered aloud. "Why didn't you want us to attack while we had the element of surprise?"

"Not our job, at least.. not now," Catrina answered in a calm, strategic voice. "We need to defend the outpost, and we can expect to find Dash and the others down there. It might be better to have a united front against one.. or possibly two.. Elite 7."

"Good point," Feena admitted. She wasn't really sure she wanted to battle them out here, anyway. "Plus, we'll be able to make much better time on our own than that group there is going to make."

"Exactly." Catrina nodded. "We'd better get riding."

"I bet you're anxious to see your Dash again, huh?" Feena smiled as she said it.

"Well, maybe," Catrina said, visibly blushing under her fur as the two started for the Outpost, far, far in the distance...

Things were likely to get worse before they got better (assuming they WOULD get better), but at least she'd be reunited with Dash and Feena, and hopefully Vivace, for it all...

(Edit and note: Several NPC's were taken from Funki's original NPC thread, which we'll be reposting on the new forums soon: Original link - http://z15.invisionfree.com/kingdomofkol/i...hp?showtopic=81 )