The finale rolls on! This one opens with a bit of humor.

These epic missions are a pain to produce, but hopefully they're worth reading which would make it worth it. Next up, we start bringing the player characters and their support together as they deal with the after effects of the various battles and look for a way out of Hey Daze!

Once again, I had a little help in writing it, which usually makes for a better Finale.

 
Opening by Cameron

Kadlin stalked through the corridors of Hey Deze, knowing the elves were behind her. The demons ignored her. She was dead. She belonged here. Dead and walking around was just fine in this realm.

A towering arch demon came toward her, sniffed her, and passed on. She turned toward him and called up her power, binding him under her command. "There are intruders that are coming to invade. Elves. They are among the living and have no place here. They even give life to machines. Stop them."

 
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by Dash

Lou glared. "Look, pal..."

Jay shrugged. "What?! I tried everything else!"

"You barely tried anything!" Lou complained. He was still tied up by that annoying magical rope.

"I already tried," Jay said. "I tried magic scissors, you'd think for sure those worked, and it cost me six and a quarter percent of my soul! Talk about a ripoff. And a woodpecker."

"That one hurt," Lou admitted.

Jay ignored the comment. "Penguin teeth. Normal children's scissors, which was probably a waste of time at that point. Utility blade. Giant sword."

"Which wasn't sharp at all."

"But did look cool."

"True," Lou admitted.

"And finally, I even tried ripping it off with my bare hands. I got rope burn. So the only answer is to use both of these at once," Jay said. Referring to the blowtorch in one hand and the chainsaw in the other.

"Wouldn't be safe to use one at a..." Lou started. Okay, it wouldn't kill him, he was an all powerful demon. But it would probably hurt. A lot. If, no, when Jay messed up.

"What?! Can't hear you," answered Jay, who'd already started up both the blowtorch and chainsaw. Feeling like it was the right thing to do, Lou let out a shrill scream.

 
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by Dash

Wolf's eyes seemed to light up for a brief second.

His allies had scared off the necromancer Bones and left Dr. Darth and Hunk battling each other. Quite the brilliant move by Wolf, if he did monologue himself. Neither situation would last, though, and Wolf knew it. Scaros would inevitably attempt to ambush them, and sooner or later, Hunk and Darth would either stop fighting, or one would finish the other and come to finish off the Fumblies extraction team.

Hay Daze, or Hey Deze, call it what you will, was a patchwork of weirdness. Patches were like you'd expect of a hellish dimension, but other spots seemed almost mundane. Grassy fields in places seemed to stretch on forever. The scenery had seemed somewhat stable. Not as stable as reality. But something caught Wolf's eyes in the far distance. A mountain range seemed to spring up out of nowhere. Odder still, as Wolf focused on it, he realized there was a town, no, a city, sitting between them and the mountains which had seemed to spring out of nowhere.

"This way," Wolf ordered.

"Well, we're already following you," Red pointed out. He and Green had come with Becky. The brothers were the only two Goblins Becky had taken from her personal squad. Fumblies had a much smaller army of his own, including of course a handful of brutes.

Then of course there was Cattaras, brother to Catrina. Catt let out growl, his eyes narrowing as he took in the distant city and mountains. "Looks like trouble you want us to head into. I'm okay with that."

Becky grinned. "Hurray! Mountain climbing!"

Red sighed. "Mountains in Hey Daze, who knew?"

 
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By Mitch

As they rested after the last grueling battle and before the next, Catrina looked over at the panthress. She might not know exactly who Fahari was, but her look, the way she carried herself and especially the way she fought told her what she was. And right now that was a lot more important!

<Honored sister,> she started, bowing her head- but got no further before Fahari laid a paw on hers. "It would be rude to talk to each other in our own language. Besides, Mr. Blackpaws knows of your plight, as does most of the Kingdom by now." She chuckled and actually smiled. "Your brother, it seems, has not been tight lipped about his own transgressions."

Todd looked over from where he was working at making field rations palatable- a difficult task even when it isn't being done in Hey Deze. "What, she's going to start on that now?" But it was with a lighter air than any reproach. He came over, keeping one eye, one ear and half his nose on the pot. "Yeah. The big furball's been tearing himself up about it- especially after he found that letter you wrote."

Fahari nodded to the vullpin bard before turning her golden eyes on Catrina again. "As may be it is no secret what has happened to you. And-" Fahari smiled again, "It is little secret that many who are here are being led by faith to find you and save you from this." She swept her paw around, then dropped it back to her lap. "But we can discuss such matters later from the comfort of the Weeping Tree."

"Except one thing," Todd spoke up, "this demon, the one that took you over? What happened to her?"

Catrina looked away for a second before answering, staring at the mountains that had sprung up in the distance. "She.. it.. no. She wasn't really a demon. But she was demonic in a sense. I had met her before- a short meeting and I was in control enough to break away before any confrontation." She sighed, afraid she wasn't making a hell of a lot of sense.

"Look.. I'm no monk. But what she was .. and still is... is that part of me. Hm. you know how we're always thinking evil stuff? Like who would look best as centerpiece of their own funerals? Or what we could do with some sweet thing next door?" She gave a particularly amused smile at Todd with that one, causing the vulpin to blush and swish his tail.

"I dunno." Todd interrupted, partly out of need to say something in defense of someone's honor, if not his own. "I doubt Becky's ever had a mean thought in her life."

Catrina chuckled. "One and one and two is eight. Yeah, Becky's an exception to every rule out there. But what I'm talking about is this. We all have a dark side. Maybe even her. Some of us let it grow until it takes over. Some of us... well, the letter explained what all happened- let's just leave it at that. Besides, I think dinner's ready."

She smirked at Todd's next words, all curses as he had let his half attention slip, but was still able to save dinner, if barely. They ate for awhile in silence, other than polite dinner talk- mixed with impolite after dinner suggestions from Todd, which the others politely deflected- for now.

Afterward as the trio cleaned up their camp and made ready to move on Todd glanced around. "Okay.. where to now?"

Catrina glanced at Fahari and she nodded back before speaking. "The mountains."

Todd groaned, but before he could protest Fahari agreed. "Yes, they were forced up as we watched- as if to keep us away from some place."

"Or too make us think that," Todd countered. "Could be leading us into a trap!"

Fahari nodded. "Perhaps, but I believe that if they wished to 'trap' us they would make an easy way."

"Besides," Catrina added, "Hey Deze is a trap honey- from beginning to end!"

"All right, all right!" Todd threw in the towel. "But you two are gonna be massaging my poor paws when this is over."

 
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Hey Daze's version of Lone Starr
By Dash

Jarlsboris Wildfall let out a pained moan as his vision started to clear. He was vaguely aware someone was holding him up, helping him move, before his eyes opened and the painful memories rushed back into his brain like tiny needles.

Right, the monster. Wildfall had figured the beast to be intelligent. Intelligent enough to be distracted by a few well placed insults and focus on Wildfall. It worked; it gave Cyber Sunset the opportunity to escape the monster's grip.

"Huh, wha.." Wildfall started. "Good," Sunset said. "You're awake. And it looks like we know where Dash might be. See the city in the distance?"

"Urgh," Wildfall complained. "Seems like a long walk. Wake me when you get there?"

Sunset nudged him, getting him to walk on his own. "If you can complain, you can walk, Wildfall."

Wildfall's response was, of course, to let out a dramatic sigh.

 
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The Suddenrise Mountains
by Dash, assistance from Cameron

 
Back at the newly raised mountains, things continued to be strange. Konall was mad, which wasn't strange. But he wasn't killing anything, and that was.

Instead, Konall was mining. He grumbled about having to make his pickaxe from puny diamonds instead of reliable meat, but he tunneled out the dirt, stone, and netherrack that stood between him and his goal, cursing all the while.

A familiar voice cut through the noise of mining like, well, a diamond pickaxe through demonic stone. "Ah, I thought I recognized the cursing."

Konall growled at Fahari's voice, but mostly at seeing Catrina with her as they approached. "What happened to you back there?"

Catrina gave a half smirk back at his growl. "Not what they hoped to have happen, thanks to some help from friends."

"You mean after some fast footwork from Fahari here," Todd remarked, grinning at his alliterative skills. "All I did was stand there and look sexy."

Zed grinned unexpectedly. "I guess you'll have to find a new job now that I'm here."

Catrina laughed, maybe for the first time since she'd entered this Goddess awful place. "Boys, boys. Not to bust your bubble but Fahari here is already taken." She grinned at the panthress. "Although I warn you I'm gonna do my best to turn you on to a certain goofy tiger."

"Perhaps we should focus on our goal," Fahari responded, eager to get off of the topic.

"Yeah," Konall said, picking out a seemingly random direction. "Let's go."

"I would suggest this direction instead," Fahari suggested. "There is a town in the distance which reminds me Honorburg. The city which Sebastian Dash spent so much time at. It might be related to his presence here."

"Sure," Konall said, changing directions as he took the lead. "That's what I meant to say."

They weren't aware that they were now being tracked.

 
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by Dash

Moments ago, Bones had seen the fruits of his traitorous stance against his former boss Sir Fumblies fail to come to fruition as he was forced to abandon the skeletal dragon he'd fought hard to tame. Bones had managed to summon a portal to escape into a more dangerous part of Hey Daze. As soon as he stepped through, a figure shoved him aside and vanished through the portal, carrying a small, badly wounded demon.

The figure exited on the other side and quickly ran into a familiar face. Her travelling companions Todd and Fahari had kept going, except Catrina was a bit behind the others at the time.

"Oh," Jay said. "Hey, Catrina. I found Lou."

Jay held Lou out like, I don't know. A prize demon? Catrina winched at the sight of the demon, who was rather badly mauled.

"Hey, Cat," Lou said as if he had maybe a scratch at worst. "What's up?"

"What got ahold of you?" Catrina wondered. "Demon bosses? Underworld zombie penguin mafia hit squad?"

"Jay's rescue attempt," Lou replied with a shrug.

"Ouch."

"I know right?" Lou said. "I'll get you outta here once I get more than 5 percent of my blood back in my body. Won't be long."

"In the meantime," Catrina said. "We'd better catch up with the others."

Even as Catrina stopped to greet Lou and Jay, Konall finished explaining his original plan to find them.

Konall looked up with a deadpan expression. "Anyway, I’d say the mining worked. I found you all.. wait.. Where's Catrina?"

"She's trailing behind,” Todd answered. “Said she heard something and wanted to see what it is.”

"Hopefully she won’t get lost again," Konall responded.

"Rarw!" came a very familiar voice from above them. They looked up to see Aleena and three other elves watching them silently. Konall expected to be pounced, but Aleena seemed to be moving gingerly. Even so, he scooped her up in his arms, only to notice she seemed to be in pain.

"What's wrong?" Konall asked.

"Your sister," Aleena replied, recalling the brutal fight between Kadlin and the four space elves.

Konall growled. "I'll kill her!"

"I'll be fine," Aleena insisted. "We'll have to find her first, and.."

The sound of a dimensional rift opening distracted Aleena. They looked up to see Kadlin standing there next to a portal out of which updated, more powerful and monstrous looking versions of Goblin brutes poured out.

"For you, the good news," Kadlin said, a wicked smirk on her face. "Is you won't have to find me. For me? The good news is that I'm about to kill all of you. Destroy them, Goblin smashers!"

Do I even need to say it? The battle was on!

 
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by Kris and Dash

On the other side of the portal from where Fumblies had exited, the portal changed colors from a dark demonic red to a bright blue as the texture shifted from smoke and demonic to something almost techno. Futuristic in nature. It somehow looked more.. serene. Perhaps this made what happened next a little less surprising.

Sir Fumblies, Cattaras, the brutes and Fumblies' hired guide Wolf, still in full werewolf form, watched the portal's change with curiosity and apprehension. A few seconds pass by allowing Twitch and Zap to come through with the rest of the surviving Goblins now noticing the portal.

"Great looks like we have company." Twitch comments in a parody of enthusiasm while he nods towards the portal.

"Who?!" Becky asked, suddenly on the scene and paying attention. "Is it Zanthie Wolf?"

"No," came Dash's voice through the portal, followed by Sebastian Dash himself along with the elves Tarvel and Glyn. "Been a hard day. I see you got to Hey Daze, Fumblies."

"You could say that Dash." Fumblies nodded towards the battlefield and shrugged. "Already won a couple of battles and dealt with a traitor. So how about you?"

"We fought entire armies of demonly beasts," Tarvel said with a grin. "Outsmarted and outfought them."

"Had to deal with Dr. Doom and Hunk again in addition to the power of Bones and his control over the demonic undead in the cemetery." Fumblies gave the rather condensed reply to Tarvel's report.

Glyn's eyebrow raised slightly. "Did I mention they were giant? And a couple of them spit acid."

"Whatever; that doesn't explain why we are all gathering here instead of elsewhere in Hey Daze." Fumblies retorted as he moved the conversation from the otherwise inevitable bragging contest that was bound to happen. Glyn just smirked.

"We were forced to run through a scenario in a simulation of Honorburg," Tarvel explained. "Sparring the confusing details, Glyn was able to hack into the 'systems' of Hey Daze to summon us some help from the scenario itself. As it played out, he was able to hack into the teleportation systems of Hey Daze. For some reason, it brought us here."

Fumblies nodded. "Well we just finished up the fighting here so not sure what else we need to do here."

"Give me an hour or two," Glyn proclaimed. "I should be able to analyze the data. Then we can try to set up a system for.. Oh. Nevermind." Glyn had noticed Becky pointing towards some mountains in the distance. "Sure, we could check there."

"Sounds like a plan so shall we get going?" Fumblies was at the point where he just wanted to get this over with so he could move on to dealing with Philler and his role in the events that had recently happened. In fact, they all looked pretty eager to get moving for their own reasons. Especially Cameron, wait.. who?!

It wasn't terribly long before they were close enough to the mountains to spot the battle.
To be concluded in part IV

Wow.

Action, humor, great characterization. That Finale had it all, didn't it?

Konall, Aleena and Catrina are reunited. Dash, Fumblies, Cattaras and Becky are together.. and Kadlin attacks! Hard to believe there's only one part left.. the fourth part of the Finale is next!

(Wow, these are some short notes for such a long Finale.)