Here we go with the epic Finale, as we bring in the core cast not yet used in Finale parts 1 or 2. This is definitely a thrilling conclusion, in my biased opinion! It's all been leading up to this!

(Although technically that is pretty much the case with every final bit of Mission Finale by design. You get my point.)

 
Presently

Groar looked confused.

That was slightly different than usual; Groar, like most yeti, usually just looked angry and ready for a fight. The yeti glanced from Lord Spookyraven to the angry looking dwarf and back.

"Hey," the dwarf said, still glaring. "Don't look at me like that. We worked out a deal. I'm just gonna need you to do me a lil favor, buddy. Can you do that?"

Groar looked more confused but then nodded.

"So I'm gonna need you to listen to our new friend here," the dwarf answered. He then turned to yell the giant, who was still nursing his frozen hand. "Alright!! Big fella!! TIME to get off you lazy ass and do a little good here!"

"Pardon me'ith?" Renaissance Giant, still looking bored and disinterested, nevertheless looked up at the new figure standing next to Lord Spookyraven. "You knave! You klazomaniac churlish bore! Dare'ith not to order around your betters!"

The temperature in the room dropped noticeably as the winged yeti turned towards the Giant, for another fight - but the not-quite-tall enough dwarf reached up to his shoulder, patting it. "Shut up! We're on the same team, pal! And this is Lord Spookyraven speaking! Right, pal?"

Spookyraven, a decrepit looking figure under tattered robes, moved slightly, indicating towards the roof.

"Yes," he answered, his voice coming simultaneously from nowhere and everywhere at once. "Defend our stronghold."

With that, the roof quickly split in twine. The giant noted the force field was gone, and that two figures were flying on, quickly zeroing in on the mansion. He stood up, growing in size. As he stood, tripling in size and more, his leg caught the side of the mansion, causing the whole mansion to shake.

Nearly thrown off his feet, the dwarf yelled to him, "Watch it, you stampcrab!"

By Dash

----------------------------

Much earlier, outside of the manson and force field. . .

Earlier, the odd individual known as Hardwire had taken to standing guard near a certain point on the strange force field surrounding the Spookyraven mansion and several surrounding buildings. He'd been there a while when he suddenly spotted an even stranger fluctuation than the ones he'd already been reading. This reading seemed like another random power drain but clearly was something different. He moved to investigate.

He wasn't the only one trying to understand what was going on; there were dozens of curious individuals and adventurers surrounding the force field, all wanting to get through for their own reasons, which ranged from selfish and petty to altruistic and heroic.

Sir Fumblies, sole remaining leader of the Blood Clan, had felt a strange vibration coming from the force field a while earlier and cast a detect spell on the field as Wildfall watched on. Wildfall was probably even more impatient and frustrated by the whole situation than Fumblies. After all, he'd screwed up and let Mary Kate get sucked into that thing and separated from him.

Wildfall shook his head as he waited. Minutes turned into, well, more minutes honestly as he began tapping his foot impatiently, twirling his shillelagh impatiently. "What's the hold up? Can't you move any faster? I have to get to my Mary. Girl didn't exactly pack an overnight bag." Wildfall tried to sound casual, but a distinct sense of frantic worry had crept into his voice.

"Oh, silly me," Fumblies answered through gritted teeth. "'Move faster.' Why didn't I think of that? This is a sensitive spell, Jarlsy; would you like to try casting it while I sit here complaining? Besides, it would be easier to focus on the task without so many distractions."

Wildfall frowned. "Well quit chattin' it up with me, and get to work, please! I don't know if I mentioned it but . . ."

"Yes, yes," Fumblies answered. "'Your Mary' is in there. I've been listening, but nevermind that now. It might be useful if you could . . . wait a second, that's an odd sensation."

Wildfall looked befuddled. "You want me to make an odd sensation? That doesn't make sense. What're ya talking about?"

Instead of answering, Fumblies suddenly took off towards the far side of the force field, leaving a confused and irritated Wildfall behind. Suddenly all the frustration and irritation that Wildfall felt came to the surface and he began beating on the force field with his weapon. Of course that didn't hurt the force field any but Wildfall was able to get some of the frustration out of his system.

Fumblies heard roaring in the distance, towards where he was heading. At a spot near the edge of the town, Sir Fumblies saw a familiar scene unfolding in the far distance where he caught sight of two rat-like thugs. Although he wasn't sure from the quick glance if they were Muri-dan or not, they were clearly pushing something through a hole in the force field.

A hole in the force field! The next thing Fumblies knew, some random turtle tamer hesitantly snuck through the field. Fumblies tried to call out for him, but he was still too far away. Fumblies took off towards the force field, realizing as he moved that the field was rapidly starting to close!

As he got closer, Fumblies could see that the hole was now smaller than the size of the child-ghost which resided in his armor. Fumblies desperately threw a constant stream of fire at the hole, hoping to burn it open, even as Fumblies moved towards the force field.

The raging blast of fire caught the hole, and for a moment, seemed to be working as the hole got slightly larger. This only lasted a few seconds and it started closing up again, more or less ignoring the flames.

Fumblies cursed and then jumped back as a voice behind him commented, "Interesting idea, but it doesn't look to be working, does it?"

Fumblies glanced over at Hardwire. "We shall see, but if you're going to stand there, either give me some useful advice or kindly give me a few moments of silence, please."

"Well, actually," Hardwire answered. "You should consider using.."

"Ice!" Fumblies suddenly remembered. "Right." He reached for a spell parchment in his robes, retrieving it and holding it in one hand. He had studied them extensively so there was no need to read it. The parchment itself would still power his non-fire elemental spells. In this case, he created a large chunk of ice inside of the force field. Unfortunately, it was quickly crushed as the force field sealed itself up anyway.

"Well, that idea didn't work well, now did it?" responded Hardwire as he paused and scratched his chin. "That force field was too hot from all the fire attacks you threw at it."

"You might think so," Fumblies answered, arms dropped to his side. "But no, my detect spell conclusively proved it was non conductive but nevermind that. We're going to have to get through in quick order; there are innocents on the other side of that force field who may be in grave danger, and that's even before we get into the possibility of my archenemy Kwadlin being involved in this chaos. Whatever you have planned, we should enact it now."

"Well then we better put our heads together and get this taken care of before this Kwadlin beats you to it," replied Hardwire.

Fumblies turned to glare at Hardwire but right then, Wildfall rushed up, impatiently turning towards Fumblies. "Well this is just great, here you two stand having a hen fest when you should be getting thru that infernal barrier," snapped Wildfall. "Ya know what, it's fine. Maybe I could go get you a ham sammich or something while you two go over the finer points of force field etiquette or something."

Fumblies snickered. "Do you even know what 'etiquette' means, m'boy?"

Wildfall frowned. "Pretty sure it doesn't involve getting through a force field, from the looks of it."

"True enough, lad," Fumblies answered, turning his attention to the force field. "But we've found a weak spot, so we just need to get through it, and fire magic obviously isn't going to work."

Fumblies heard a chuckle and turned to see a wood elf standing there, a brunette with silver highlights in her hair. She smiled and looked Fumblies over. "Figures. Don't mind me, I was just passing through in my way to see the Council. I thought I heard a disturbance here. The name is Iris, by the way."

"Well good luck," Fumblies answered bitterly, "as they've proven to be less than useful to me lately. But even so, it's going to be up to us to solve this problem as always, and the sooner we can get this force field down, the better."

Iris sighed. "Yeah, they seem more interested in dining out than working today. Still, I feel like I should let them know about the creature that entered the force field about a twenty minutes ago."

Fumblies and Hardwire looked puzzled. "Do you mean the winged yeti? That was just now though, so are you referring to another monster?"

She tilted her head. "Winged yeti? No, I was talking about one of the giants from the sky."

Fumblies felt his blood run cold. "It would seem our mysterious guest is assembling quite the army in there."

"A winged yeti, huh?" Iris suddenly felt like she had eyes on her and glanced up towards the rooftops, discreetly looking around. She saw a figure dart back behind a smokestack and wondered who was the one watching them. Her eyes stayed fixed on the smokestack, which the figure stayed hidden behind.

SnowCat shook her head, thinking to herself, I know I'm being quiet today, so how is that the second person to nearly spot me?! This place is worse than any of the islands around Honorburg I've ever been to. Can't a girl sneak around in privacy anywhere?

On the upside, the new vantage point gave her a clear chance to see a bunch of figures approaching on the ground, being lead by the very same figures she was trailing just earlier!

She was too far away to pick up what they were saying but as it turned out, Becky Joy was just discussing her recent meal with Sherri and John, anyway. The two were leading a pretty good size group as they walked towards Fumblies and Wildfall.

"There you are, Fumblies," John said, sounding serious. "We brought your crew and a few others."

"Good, good," Fumblies replied, although his attention clearly was on other matters. "But we still need a way through the force field."

One of the random Knob Goblins who'd followed Fumblies to Seaside Town walked up and tried to lick the force field but he just cut his lips and tongue on it.

He jumped around, yelping in pain. A couple of Vikings walked over to calm him down but Fumblies just ignored it. "Although we've found a weak spot on the force field."

"We could probably do something with that," Sherri said. She glanced over at the Knob Goblin, who was jumping in place. "Although I wouldn't have suggested licking it."

Fumblies suddenly had a thought and turned to Hardwire, whose face lit up. They both said at the same time, "Ice magic!"

Becky cheered at the idea. Meanwhile, John turned to Iris, whose eyes were still on that building's rooftop.

"Hey," Sherri said, noticing his attention. "This is John, and I'm Sherri. You seem distracted. Is someone watching us?"

"Iris," she answered. "I thought I saw someone duck behind the smokestack. I'm sure of it, but I don't think they're dangerous. Just seems a little strange."

"Let us take care of it," Sherri answered.

Iris started to ask what she meant when Sherri suddenly leaned down slightly, and then leapt, with her amazing abilities taking her all the way to the far end of the rooftop in the distance. Shocked, Iris turned to John. "Did she just. . ."

"Yup," John answered. "She's quite the jumper, but watch this."

John then leapt as well. His jump only took him to the side of the building, but he effortlessly pulled himself up and over the edge to the rooftop.

"Who's up here?!" Sherri asked angrily. "Why are you watching us? Who are you with?!"

SnowCat came out with her paws, err, with her hands held up to indicate she wasn't dangerous. "I'm not a spy. Well, I guess I am."

John and Sherri took fighting stances. "What are you spying on us for?"

SnowCat quickly corrected herself. "No, no, I'm not spying on you! It's just a part time job. I'm just trying to see what is going on here, honest."

She flicked her tail and tried to make a cute expression. "Come on guys, take me with you."

"Not yet," John answered. "First we need to make sure you're legitimate, so we need to take you with us."

Sherri thought it over. "So I guess the answer is yes?"

John looked to her, thought it over a minute and laughed. "Well, technically, but I want to see if she seems on the up and up before we trust her."

"Hold on to us," John said. "We'll jump you down."

SnowCat backed off slowly and revealed a grappling hook at the end of a rope. "It's okay. I've got this grappling hook and I know how to use it."

Sherri shrugged. "Suit yourself."

John just nodded. "Okay."

With the two watching, SnowCat walked over to the ledge of the building, unslung the grappling hook and shrugged as she looked over the edge. Then she walked over to the door leading to the building and used her grappling hook to pry the door handle off before walking into it, leaving Blackeagle to look at each other, shrug, chuckle and follow.

By Dash- assisted by Binajane

----------------------------

Koumori had heard the fighting but was having issues finding it thanks to all the bats swarming the area. He tore through them with a blinding urgency, realizing his friend Mary was in danger.

His attempts to communicate with the bats proved useless. They were single-minded in their blind rage, obviously under the influence of the evil Boss Bat or one of his allies. So Koumori tore through them as they attempted to fight him but it took him longer to find the fight than he would have figured.

He hadn't imagined it would be so close to the mansion, either.

The first thing that caught his eye- barely- was the superspeed battle which pitted Cattaras Whiteclaw against two members of the Trinity, the enhanced Muri-Dan known as Jerome and Mortimer. Although it was hard to tell for certain, Cattaras seemed to be holding his own against the Muri-Dan, so Koumori turned his attention towards Mary, who had a battle of her own going on!

His thoughts were rushed and panicked.

I have to get to Mary, I wish I could communicate more with her. She doesn't even know my name. What is that flash and blur? I can't see where I am going. Too close to the mansion; must quickly swerve. Where is Mary?! Ah- there. Too many enemies around her and no one to help her. Just the turtle and his friends; they're too slow. I have to get there and fast. I promised that I would protect her. I have to - need to - save her.

Nearby, Cattaras's fight raged on against the Muri-Dan and it continued to move at a blazing speed. Every time he got one of the two Trinity members down and started beating on him, the other Trinity member would sneak up from behind and try to choke Cattaras or jam an elbow into his ribs or grab him by the tail. Some dirty trick to keep Cattaras from finishing him off. Just then something swooped down from the sky and caught the attention of the Muri-Dan and they stopped fighting Cattaras and turned their attention to the intruder.

"Want bat stew suddenly," Jerome growled, licking his lips.

Mortimer just nodded. With their lightning-like speed, they went after the bat now swooping over them. Cattaras reacted just as quick though, rushing to grab both of their tails as they jumped. Cattaras flung them back, allowing Koumori to continue on his flight uninterrupted.

However, it was enough of a distraction for the Boss Bat to sneak up and grab Cattaras from behind, wrestling him to the ground. Meanwhile, Bob's spooky pirate skeleton wandered into view. It had been following him the whole time but trailing back, which is why we didn't notice it earlier. But luckily, it snuck into the force field before Bob did.

Several large rats rushed towards Bob, trying to bite him, but Shelldor, who had taken the lead, snapped ferociously at them, causing them to hesitate. Meanwhile, Bob's grue jumped off his shoulder and skittered towards the nearest dark alley to torture the rats scurrying around in the darkness. Bob's annoying spooky gravy fairy flew into the battle, swinging her pitchfork doing the Three Stooges eye pokes on the rats.

Hurry as he might, Bob kept stumbling over the tiniest pebble on his way to help Mary. Bob tried hard to get to Mary but his fighting prowess was just not there. Meantime, Mary struggled to catch her breath from the hard blows to the gut that she had sustained thanks to the baron. Her whole body ached from the blows she had gotten from the walking stick. Panting heavily, much like an overheated dog, Mary struggled to land any solid blows to the baron and his rat friends. She lashed out with fists that felt like tons of steel and legs that felt like wet noodles but she was determined to fight as long as she could. "OMG, wish I had my herbs here to give me some strength. Don't know how much longer I can last," she said to herself. She could feel the baron and his rats were moving in to finish her off.

The Baron lifted his jewel encrusted walking stick of his head, and let out a loud yelp, dropping it to the ground below. Mary noticed a turtle biting at his ankle. "OMG my rescuer is a TURTLE?" Mary staggered in on wobbly legs to prevent the baron from attacking her rescuer and suddenly was bowled over by the blur she had been calling the Catman. Mary fell to the ground but struggled to get back up, only to have a rat-like foot shove her back down.

"Hey Jerome," the Muri-Dan standing over her said with a cruel, sadistic smile. "Let's take this one back to Stewie as a gift."

Mary struggled to get free but her strength was rapidly giving way to fatigue. She had nothing more to give to the battle and felt the end was near. All she could think of now was how much she missed Wildfall and her parents and how they would feel losing her.

By Dash and Binajane

----------------------------

Warning: Minor cursing

As Blackeagle made small talk with SnowCatCuties and Becky finished off her 'cold dog,' Wildfall watched the action intensely. Sir Fumblies had organized a precision strike as he called it, although to Wildfall it just looked like a bunch of mages pouring magic at a force field.

Wildfall could see blurs of action here and there beyond the shield. It was weird, like he could see vague shapes of buildings, but actual people were more obscured by the strange field.

Even so, he could tell by the movements something was going on, either a fight or a party, but Wildfall seriously doubted it was ideal conditions for a block party, even in a Kingdom as "irrelevantly weird" as Loathing.

It looked like a serious fight and he was just glad Mary would be smart enough to avoid that.

Sparks had placed a device near the force field meant to channel and heighten Fumblies attacks but since he was using fire magic, added to Becky's ice magic, it quickly overheated and exploded.

Becky honestly looked amusing, holding her 'cold dog' in one hand and pouring ice out of her other hand. Even that mage McChilledice was getting in on it, using a handheld device to drop the temperature around the force field at an exact spot.

Several minutes passed. Becky quickly finished off the last of her meal and moved to using both hands to pour the cold into the attack. Wildfall walked over to Blackeagle, grumping, "This is fruitless. They are never gonna get through and Mary is in trouble."

"Maybe we should give them more time," Sherri suggested.

"Or," John said, "we could look around town to see who else is trying to get through."

"I'll go with!" SnowCatCuties cheerfully offered. "I could use a tour around this city, anyway. And you two look like you know the city pretty well."

John laughed. "We actually are new to this place as well. We haven't explored much. Becky is our guide but she's busy."

SnowCat turned to Wildfall, who was still intensely watching the shield. "How about you? Do you know your way around the city?"

Wildfall ignored her, still watching the shield.

"Soo.. no?"

"Wha?" Wildfall turned briefly to her. "Oh, sure. But I don't wanna miss anything here if something goes down. Maybe Sherri and John (I think it's John) could help you explore the city."

"Yeah," Sherri answered. "But we don't know our way around the city, either. It might be good to get away from the force field, though. I keep thinking I see horrible images in the distance, but then it turns out to be nothing."

SnowCat looked surprised. "Me too! I thought it was just my imagination or something."

Wildfall began to get the sneaking sensation he was going to be recruited as a tour director any minute, which didn't really appeal to Wildfall at all. Luckily, he caught sight of a solution nearby. "Hey, there's a friend of mine. Her name's Sassy Snake. Her friends could probably show you around the city. Specially the big one. He seems like the smart one of the group."

"I'll go say hi, thanks!" Snow said, walking off. "Talk to the big one, smart one, got you."

As she walked off, John chuckled and asked, "Is he really the smart one of the group or were you trying to be funny?"

Wildfall's eyes were back on the force field for a moment, but he turned his attention to Blackeagle. "Well, sarcastic, not funny. I was gonna tell her I really meant 'Talk to Bristle's gal,' but it sounds like it'll be funny so why spoil a . . ."

Whatever else Wildfall had to ramble on about was interrupted by a loud explosion from nearby, the sound of winter blizzards and thunderous storms and what have you. The mages and elemental techs were thrown to the ground, and the force nearly took Wildfall off of his feet.

It had also left a sizable gap in the force field. Wildfall turned briefly to see the others, most of whom were still standing. Then a small girl pushed past Wildfall and ran into the hole in the force field as she yelled, "Mommy! Have to get to my mommy!"

Befuddled, Wildfall started to follow her and suddenly notice the rest of the shield started to crack. Doesn't matter, can't risk it resealing. Gotta move my Ireacan butt! Hang in there a bit more, Mary.

The force field exploded as the others tried to recover. This time, Wildfall was thrown back several steps. As he stumbled forward, trying to regain his balance, he noticed the oddest sight in the sky. Wildfall could clearly see one of the space elves delivering an adventurer- what was his name, Dash? Quickie? Speedbutt? Anyway, the elf had wings and was carrying someone directly towards town.

Wildfall sighed. This town was almost half as weird as Honorburg sometimes.

"Well," Fumblies admitted, getting up to his feet. "I was only going for a hole in the force field but I suppose this will do as well. Thank you for your help, gentlemen, but I think we can take it from here."

"I'm comin, Mary!" Sailor McGuffin yelled, dragging a less willing young gal (Tomato) behind him. Wildfall and the pair rushed in and quickly saw the battle in the distance.

He didn't get far before a mammoth rumbling shook the entire area. Wildfall looked around and spotted the mansion. The roof was wide open! Then Wildfall instinctively scanned the rest of the area around him.

Closest to the mansion, he could see some familiar faces - Boss Bat was holding onto Cattaras, trying to bite him with both heads, with a flock of bats swarming in front of him. Past that were waves of bats, rats, and a handful of confused-looking Muri-dan. And past that . . . Oh Pete-damned no!

Ratsworth and Mary Kate were going at it again, only this time, she wasn't doing so well. Ratsworth had her on the ground, with his tail around her neck, and Mary was barely struggling anymore. Wildfall's eyes narrowed as he started closer. The grip was tight, but she would last until he got there at this rate, unless Wildfall did something stupid and let himself get ambushed by rushing in.

McGuffin pushed past Wildfall, yelling, "Come on, kid! We gotta get over there to help her right now!"

Wildfall thought about warning him but it was too late. McGuffin rushed off but in his haste, attracted the attention of one of the superfast Muri-Dan, who rushed over, tripping him up. Wildfall didn't take the time to think, didn't bother, pulling his weapon of choice, his solid oak shillelagh and preparing to attack. McGuffin pulled a knife. Not a smart move against a speedster. Before he could even register the pain of the Muri-Dan twisting his wrist, the Muri-Dan had the taken the knife and pressed it against McGuffin's throat, teasing it and taunting the sailor. Wildfall instinctively went to throw his weapon, hoping to distract the Muri-Dan but Wildfall's mind managed to act quicker than his instinct, stopping him. He could make the shot - probably - even from this distance but one misstep and the Muri-dan would realize it's coming and easily swerve out of the way. Then Wildfall would be on his radar and he wasn't fast enough to . . . Wildfall might have facepalmed for missing it, but there wasn't enough time. So instead, he turned towards a closer, bigger target, turning and taking a few steps towards his target to get a running start. As his right hand pulled something from a hidden pouch on his outfit, the southpaw Wildfall hurled his solid oak shillelagh at the Boss Bat, catching him hard in the kidneys and forcing his grip on Cattaras to loosen.

Cattaras caught the Boss Bat with a series of impossibly quick elbows, then slipped free, catching his breath as he looked to Wildfall. Cattaras started, "Thanks for the-"

Wildfall interrupted, flashing a fist (which held a set of solid wooden oak knuckles over it) towards first the Muri-Dan standing over Sailor McGuffin and then towards his poor Mary Kate, who looked to be in serious dangers. "Two problems. Could ya?"

"Sure thing, squirt," Cattaras answered, with the last of his voice trailing off as he moved in a chi-inspired burst. As he dealt with that, Wildfall turned towards the Boss Bat.

Without taking his eyes off the threat, Wildfall kneeled over to retrieve his momentarily discarded weapon. "Now to beat up a couple knuckleheads."

Fumblies and the others were right behind Wildfall. A couple of the Muri-Dan walked over, spears in hand, but they were quickly taken down by John and Sherri, who then took their spears as rewards. SnowCatCuties stayed back while Becky followed Fumblies, not sure of what to do cause she just didn't know, ya know?

That's when the giant stood up, and immediately started growing back to his full size as he stepped out of the mansion. He quickly picked out his first target, attacking the winged elf, Jen who was carrying Sebastian Dash along with her on a harness.

Dash muttered something to Jen, who let him loose right as the giant reached for the two. Dash brought his broadsword to bear as he fall, twisting and turning to first avoid the giant's extended hand, reaching to contain Dash. Dash then brought his broadsword down the side of the giant's arm, drawing screams of pain from the giant, who managed to quickly flick Dash away, sending Dash towards the cold, hard ground below. Luckily, Jen swooped back to grab Dash. As she swooped down, the giant produced an incredibly large turkey leg out of nowhere and hit her, sending her and Dash spiraling out of control towards the Wrong Side of Town.

Iris, John and Becky Joy had been leading other adventurers in when a cloud of rats and bats descended upon them, attacking in a swarm. Iris's flame magic and Becky's icy winds proved an effective defense against the countless enemy. Although Blackeagle (John and Sherri) were more limited in the number of enemies they could fight at once, their fighting prowess and superhuman strength made them more effective than most.

From a distance, Linger balled up his fists as Sassy noted, "That's a lot of bats. We should probably help. Plus, Doser Crystal Ice, I'm sure you can imagine that there will be potentially many wounded for us to attend to. So we'd better be prepared for that."

Noticing the shift in her tone, Crystal Ice (formerly Caramel Ice) stiffened slightly. "I would tend to agree, Master Sassy. It does seem to be quite the dangerous situation. Although the guys seem eager to get involved."

Indeed, Linger had rushed into the fight head first with a mighty roar while Ice's love interest Bristle had moved himself into an advantageous position to start lobbing metal seeds from his slingshot at any bats or rats which had gotten on their side of the fight, so to speak.

"Linger, slow down!" Sassy called, rushing to keep up. "We need to stick together! But get Pete first!"

Tomato and Gem stayed close to Sassy. Gem glanced back and saw curious adventurers approaching in the distance, but they were far off and didn't seem too eager to join the fight without knowing what was going on or what's causin' all of this (WHOO!!). Gem didn't really blame them.

A Muri-Dan stalked towards Sherri. Before Sherri could even make him regret his poor lifestyle choices, SnowCatCuties jumped out from the shadows of a nearby building and took him down with a single strike to the back of the thug's head.

More bats swooped in. Sassy and SnowCat switched to archery. Sassy relied on her crossbow while SnowCat used arrows and her bow which she had spent countless hours tinkering with. Iris considered joining them but for the moment her fireballs and assorted flame attacks were working quite well. The ice mage's frigid wind attacks even helped with the stench of burning bats!

Iris caught sight of an odd happening out of the corner of her eye. To be sure, the sight of a half orc wizard in armor, which had a mage's robe over it, was odd enough. When the half-orc started getting bigger, the sight just, well, grew weirder.

Meanwhile, little Pete, having snuck in thru the hole when it opened, ran over to Mary and tried to wake her up. Witnessing the scene of Mary on the ground and little Pete trying to revive her, McGuffin fought his way over to where Mary laid so that he could check on her well-being. When he got close enough to Mary, he reached in his bag of supplies and pulled out a bottle of Eight Hour Herbergy Drink, gave it to Pete and said, "Little girl, give this to Mary, but have her drink it slowly so she doesn't choke." Pete nodded, took the bottle and, holding Mary's head with one little hand, placed the bottle to Mary's lips and let her drink the contents. McGuffin and some of Bob's familiars continued to fight off the rats while they stood in a circle around Mary and Pete to protect them from further attack. Sir Fumblies grew himself as far as he felt comfortable with but the Giant was still noticeably taller. Much bigger than Fumblies. Fumblies didn't want to risk forcing himself to grow further again but as he was debating it in his head, a large figure (though small compared to Fumblies and the Giant) threw itself at Fumblies, who found himself being physically attacked by something with wings as the temperature dropped rapidly around the beast, freezing Fumblies. Fumblies was momentarily distracted as he noticed the creature was a yeti, but bigger. And winged. It let out a loud "GROAR!" and shoved Fumblies, forcing him to nearly trip over a building and sending adventurers scrambling to get out of his way.

Suddenly the massive doors on the mansion flew open with such force that they were totally knocked off their hinges as Lord Spookyraven walked out.

Mary was starting to rouse after consuming the drink that Pete had helped her get down. Her mind still not clear, causing her to not make sense when talking. "Force field… crack.. can't get to Wildfall…. help wounded….. too many rats….. arms heavy... can't breathe.." Mary rambled on, trying to clear her thoughts. Through her hazy vision she thought she saw that McGuffin was in trouble but couldn't tell if it was real or her imagination, having been choked out earlier. Everything was like she was seeing things in a fog. Struggling to her feet, she staggered toward him and saw he was surrounded by not only the Muri-Dan but now some skeletons had entered the fight. She stumbled to get to him. "H a v e t o h e l p!" Mary panted.

Behind McGuffin, Sassy whispered something to Linger, who started tearing a line through the cloud of rats and bats, while Blackeagle and SnowCatCuties simply snuck around the distraction to get to the main battle. Meanwhile, McGuffin swung his knife with all his might at the Muri-Dan and smaller rats and thought to himself, "Whew, sure glad these aren't as fast as the other two were." From the corner of his eye he could see Mary staggering in his direction. Bob's grue and the spook gravy fairy moved towards McGuffin. The grue and fairy beat Mary to him and started assisting in the fighting, giving McGuffin a little relief and leveling the playing field to some extent.

Mary's batlike friend (Koumori) was trying to get to her and suddenly realized that the little girl was in danger now that Mary had started toward a battle. He had to make a quick decision and swerved his flight away from Mary and went to protect the little girl. Arming his wings with his knives and using wits and all his other weapons, he flew into the creatures near the child, doing his best to keep her safe.

Pete saw the batlike creature swooping toward her and instinctively threw up her arms to protect her face when she realized he was not attacking her but the creatures around her. He tried to motion to her by waving his wing and she smiled, knowing somehow that he was there to protect her. One of the rat like creatures standing on his hind legs tried to sneak up behind Koumori, who zipped up in the air, looped around behind the creature, and kicked it hard in the back, sending the rat crashing down.

Something else caught Mary's attention; the corpse like robed figure strode closer. Before she could even react to that, something seemed to appear right in front of her. Suddenly she was isolated by two Trinity members as they started shoving her around, toying with her, taunting her by calling her a bitch child and other offensive remarks and taunts. Terrified, Pete started screaming and throwing rocks to try to chase them away. One of the two Muri-dan turned on her and was quickly engulfed in a circle of flames thrown by Iris.

Meanwhile, Cattaras (using his chi) seemed to appear out of nowhere, holding the Muri-Dan in a bear hug. The Muri-Dan struggled to get free but Catt held on tight enough to keep the Muri-Dan from escaping, stumbling forward and backwards, roaring definitely.

Using his chi, the other Muri-Dan broke free of the flame sphere and tried to superspeed out of town, only to collapse nearby. Meanwhile, Cattaras gasped as he felt someone grab him from behind. Specifically, he felt two long dead hands resting on his shoulder as a bolt of energy went through him, forcing him to release his hold on the Muri-Dan.

Cattaras collapsed in a heap as Mary and McGuffin looked over in surprise, seeing Lord Spookyraven standing behind him, looking revived. The corpse-figure let out an eerie sounding chuckle that made the hair on the back of McGuffin's neck stand up. Behind Lord Spookyraven, the adventurers scattered suddenly as Groar and the Renaissance Giant sent the oversized Fumblies crashing into a nearby building, nearly collapsing the side in before Fumblies started shrinking to his original size.

Meanwhile, an angry feminine voice rang out, startling Lord Spookyraven and catching his attention. It was a single word- no, a single name.

"Cattaras!"

Jen swooped down, dropped Dash behind Spookyraven, and stood in front of him. "Enough! This ends now!"

Broadsword flashing in the moonlight overhead, Dash jumped at Spookyraven, trying to end the fight preemptively. Spookyraven's shield blocked Dash, sending him down and cut-blocking Dash. (Heh heh.)

Jen fumed as she formed her cysuit into a rather large machete and started chopping away at the shield.

Mary clenched her fist, looking for an opening. Yeah, right. He just took down Catboy and Swordsperson. I'm sure he's quaking in his boots at the thought of my bare knuckles.

Nearby, the winged yeti and the giant were trying to pound on Sir Fumblies, but a bright shield, glowing pure white, protected him. Frustrated, the giant turned and noticed Spookyraven was in trouble. As Jen dove, Spookyraven shifted slightly, avoiding her attack and letting her crash into Dash. Spookyraven then turned and stalked towards Mary Kate, with Sailor McGuffin standing to her side. Taking advantage of it, the giant pulled out a small vial. Well, it was probably half as big as Mary's torso. It bubbled and bounced inside the vial, a strange looking liquid that looked like a mix of brown, rusty red, and the color of "Eh, I can always do it later. Or I can nap later and do it after, once I wake up a bit."

The giant hurled the vial, which crashed directly between Dash and Jen as the two stood up. Jen summoned a helmet that clamped over her head, and Dash coughed a little, but seemed otherwise unaffected.

"Guess it was just for show," Dash said. "Shall we?"

Inexplicably feeling a sense of procrastination, Jen stared off into the distance. "I better ruin a quick full diagnostic on my suit and make sure it's working."

"Yeah," Dash said, nodding. "I'll take the time to polish my blades. Let me know when you're ready."

Mary watched on, stunned at the heroes' sudden nonchalant indifferent attitude. So much so that she ignored the advancing figure of Lord Spookyraven until a hand pulled her back.

Mary suddenly realized with relief McGuffin was standing on one side of her and Wildfall was to her other side!

As Mary looked at Wildfall, tears streamed down her cheeks as she convulsively sobbed, "I.. I.. thought... I.. I.. would... never... see.. you.. again."

Wildfall smirked, holding an arm protectively around her. "Sorry I took so long. Force field had a pesky habit of gettin' in the way. How are ya holdin, gal?"

Mary dried her tears and tried to get her foggy brain to focus but replies were disjointed. "Feel force field all around... bats and rats everywhere…. giant things and skeletons… winged 'bears'... all over the place. Do you want nutmeg or vanilla in your potion, honey?"

"Ooookay," Wildfall answered. "I'm gonna mark you as 'winded.' Hang in there, girl, can't have you on the sidelines yet. We still got Gran'pa Mummy here to deal with. Let me guess, short, ugly and gruesome; you're everyone's gran'pa and everyone's mummy, right?"

Lord Spookyraven glared and spoke- to the degree you could refer to a voice emanating from a long decayed jaw as 'speaking.' "Cease your clownish babbling. It is time for you to be shuffled off of this mortal plane of the living. Prepare for your end!"

Sassy Snake and Iris started leading the others towards Lord Spookyraven but Boss Bat, Baron Ratsworth, Groar and his six and a half foot dwarven friend formed a line, blocking them as the giant continued to try to pound through Sir Fumblies' force field.

"We might be in for a rough fight, everyone," Sassy suggested. "Stay on your toes and protect each other or none of us will make it. First, we need to go through these jerks!"

"Then we blast through!" Iris yelled, channelling her flames at the line of enemies. Becky joined in with her icy attacks, making sure not to be close enough to let the different attacks neutralize each other.

Groar stepped in front of his allies, shielding them with an icy shield. The beast then blasted through their attacks with his own icy attacks. Iris rolled to the side, but Becky took the blast and was sent flying backwards.

Tomato, Blackeagle and SnowCatCuties rushed to attack the winged yeti, who used his wings to send John and Sherri flying back. Snow jumped back just in time to avoid the attack but landed wrong, seeming to twist her ankle. Tomato stumbled back, nearly passing out in fright.

"Get 'im, Linger!" Sassy yelled. "Bristle, cover him! Doser Ice, aid me!" Sassy moved to tend to to Snow, John and Sherri, as well as the other wounded. Linger charged at the enemies with Bristle using his slingshot to provide cover. In the background, the Renaissance Giant continued to pound away violently on the force field around Sir Fumblies.

Meanwhile, the others faced off with Lord Spookyraven. Some vermin moved into attack. Wildfall kicked a couple of smaller rats out of the way while Mary, although still cross-eyed and starry-brained, punched a bat out of the air. Dash and Jen were still preoccupied and had started to walk off for lunch, oblivious thanks to the chemical attack from the earlier procrastination potion.

"I don't know what to. . . " Wildfall started. "Words fail me.. Come on, Mary, shake it off, girl. Are ya with me?"

Mary shook her head and nodded. "Yes, I'm not!"

"Under the circumstances. . ." Wildfall rushed forward and slammed his solid oak shillelagh into Lord Spookyraven's chest. It barely had any effect, even when Wildfall did it a second time. Wildfall blinked. "Do ya mind fallin' over? I'm on a schedule here."

Lord Spookyraven blinked; a burst of wind send Wildfall flying backwards on his Ireacan arse. "Schedule interrupted."

Mary walked forward uneasily. "I can still kick my ass by your I'm alone, Mister. . . . mister dumbname."

Lord Spookyraven gave her a confused look. "Pardon me, ma'am?"

Mary paused. "Let me put it like this."

Then she slugged him in the jaw as hard as she could with enough force to stagger even the immortal. She followed that up with another hard punch to his nose (knocking it off of his face) and a right hand that hit him in the temple. As Mary beat him, however, Lord Spookyraven made a tiny gesture. In response, a dark void opened up behind her. A hand, almost as big as Mary, reached out to grab her and pull her to the ground before slapping her around a few times.

"Now, as I was saying." An extremely loud crash interrupted Spookyraven, who looked up to see the Renaissance Giant had crashed into his mansion. Lord Spookyraven "spoke" - and it sounded more like a growl this time. "Will you mortals keep down this infernal racket?!"

Through her blurred vision and tears, Mary looked over to see Sir Fumblies moving towards them. And he wasn't alone- there were several brutish looking figures behind him! The winged yeti charged at him as Koumori moved to help Mary move out of the way of the fight. Fumblies tripped and stumbled, but still avoided the winged yeti's charge, letting him crash into a nearby wall where several brutes jumped on the yeti, beating it down.

Ratsworth and Boss Bat started to command their minions to attack but Fumblies just flicked his wrist and blinded them with a small, bright flash of fire. The Muri-Dan rushed up to attack Fumblies, but the brutes picked them off one at a time. Fumblies didn't flinch, even when a couple of times, the thugs got within inches of his face before the brutes and assorted Knob Goblins, ninjas and the singular panda monk picked them off.

Even as Koumori ushered her to safely and turned to get Wildfall and the others, Mary looked on in awe as Fumblies stood face to face with Lord Spookyraven.

Several tense seconds passed when a voice yelled, "Stop fighting, you two!"

Fumblies turned to the new voice, not bothering to point out the fighting between the two hadn't actually started yet. He saw several penguins coming, including both Council members and their bodyguards. Then there were regular town guards behind them, trying to get the fighting to stop. And there, right along with them, were the human members of the Council - Howe, Cheatum, and Dewey.

Lord Spookyraven, obviously interested, held a single hand up and shot a beam of black light into the sky. It acted as a beacon as the forces of the Somber Six fell back.

"What is the meaning of this?!" Fumblies demanded.

"We're putting a stop to this battle," the head penguin ordered. "We'd like to discuss a few things with this man."

"This 'man,' by which I mean this decrepit old fool," Fumblies responded hotly, "has been terrorizing Seaside Town. You have no authority to interfere in Blood Clan business!"

"This is council business, actually," a penguin responded flippantly. "We sent you on this quest, and we appreciate your service. We'll make sure you're well rewarded."

"Well that's all good and well," Fumblies answered. "But this still doesn't answer the question of why you're stopping the fight. Or should I say, temporarily stopping it."

Another council member spoke up. "Well, we have authority in this town. And we feel we may have acted in haste in ordering his forcible removal."

"We'd like to talk to him," another chimed in. "In the interest of public safety."

One of the Council lackeys chimed in. "Maybe we should consider making the half-orc a temporary Council member? In the interests of his generous contributions towards public safety."

Fumblies considered the idea and nodded. "I think it would only be fitting to have a member representing the prestigious Blood Clan, as we are currently the most powerful and influ . . ."

Fumblies stopped talking as the head Council member had already interrupted. "Oh, no, no. That would require a formal vote at a formal full meeting of the Council and it's not entirely appropriate to be suggesting such things. Nevertheless, I suppose I could grant him a seat at the table to voice his opinions. Or his onions, if for some reason he happens to own an onion which doubles as a part of his ventriloquism act. Assuming he has such an act, of course."

"Alright, fine," Fumblies responded, ignoring the last part.

Randomly, the Council member pointed to Mary. "Oh, and bring the girl. We could use her to fill our quotas for Ireacans, women, and bare fisted brawlers."

Iris, Koumori and Wildfall helped Mary to her feet, celebrating.

"Very well," Fumblies said, signalling for his forces to finally stand down. "What prompted you to change your mind on this mission, anyway?"

"Our guest," a council member said, pointing over at a previously unseen figure in red and green. "Father Crimbo said he wanted to talk to one of their members and that we should, and I paraphrase, 'knock our flapping ship off.'"

Fumblies narrowed his eyes looking over and then laughed dismissively. "I've had the honor of meeting Father Crimbo only a year ago and that is not Father Crimbo. That looks more like his scrawny, drunken brother."

"Kid, Call me uncle." The drunken bum in red and green stumbled over, his stench assaulting those around him. He lifted his 40 ounce unrefined pure alcohol to his lips and took another disgusting slug, nearly collapsing against the closest graffiti covered wall. "You're right about one thing, jerkwad. I ain't. . . . I'm not no Father Crimbo. I'm way better.. And zese guy's're gonna help me prove it to all of ya, real, real soon."

Fumblies just shook his head, looking the disgusting scene over as the Council's goons moved to start tidying the place up.

Dear readers: Stay tuned for more Uncle Crimbo in the next mission. Holiday 2017

by Binajane and Dash

----------------------------

Warning: Remainder of Finale contains cursing, graphic violence and material of a slightly sexual nature

Earlier, while Cattaras Whiteclaw, Morlencir Princess Jen and Sebastian Dash had headed towards Seaside Town, Aleena chose to single handedly engage both the Jester King of Beasts and the Black Paladin. She got the better of the Jester King before trickery and a previously unseen ability allowed Black Paladin to possess Aleena's cysuit and take it over. Most recently, he had forced her to battle Catrina, with Catrina completely unaware that the Paladin now controlled Aleena's cysuit. She only knew the "Paladin" looked and acted differently as he battled her. As that battle roared on, elsewhere, in a part of the ship near enough to be convenient yet far enough away to not look so, Todd Blackpaws paced near his two less active companions. Fahari was doing that thing she did whenever she got in a jam- which looked like nothing in his eyes but she called 'centering'- and this new girl?

She said she was from the Far Woods. Imp hunter. She looked frustrated and lost without her weapons. She explained she wasn't sure how she got here, but she was looking for the space elves. She wanted to join them.

Todd had chuckled, hearing this. "Should tell ya about a mate of mine who 'joined up' in front of everybody… girl had quite the stamina…"

"Haha, I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about," Alys said nervously.

"Really?" Todd remarked with a raised eyebrow. "Girl as pretty as you, I'd think you'd…"

"What my friend Mr. Blackpaws is trying to say," the pantheress said without opening her eyes, "is that we are familiar with the group you are trying to join, and have contacts within them." She ignored the vulpin's snicker.

"Oh! Then when we get out of here, I'd love to meet them. Perhaps I can offer them something new."

Fahari cut off her friend's snicker laden reply before he could dig himself deeper, muttering a hopeful, "I'm sure you can."

"We need to find a way out of here with what we have on hand. Hmm," Alys softly muttered to herself.

"Well, one thing you can forget about, darlin', is gettin past these doors easy." Todd jerked a thumb at the door to their cell. "If this were any lock in the Kingdom, it'd be my bitch, but this thing? No keyhole, for starters…"

Fahari turned her attention away from Todd's mini lecture on lockpicking, sensing... something. Suddenly she hissed as Catrina staggered through the hall and came up against the nearest wall, muttering something that sounded like 'okay, bob THEN weave…'

"Hey! Naked cat lady! Get us out of here," Alys called. Catrina's head snapped to the source of the cry- but not as hard as the pain train that Black Paladin was driving to her!

"Ouch," Todd muttered, "think maybe we better wait until she deals with that."

"We can help you fight if you know of a way to free us!"

Black Paladin grabbed Catrina by the neck. The gauntlet shapeshifted into a noose that rapidly began to squeeze tight. In victory, Black Paladin lifted the dying Catrina off her feet. Tentacles emerged from the armor, wrapping around Catrina's wrists and ankles, pulling her into a spread-eagle. The act took pressure off her neck and she took a few desperate gasps of air.

"Um… you might not want to watch this, darlin.'" Todd muttered at the wood elf. Fahari's eyes narrowed.

"I did not think that Paladin's armor worked that way…"

The noose vanished and Paladin flexed his arms as he attempted to refocus himself. His helmet split open revealing the face of Aleena!

"Help me," she begged as further tentacles emerged to her horror. And Catrina's.

By Catrina & Aleena

Probably my favorite section of this part of the Finale- and one of my favorite sections of recent missions- is the stretch of story that starts with Mary and Wildfall facing down Lord Spookyraven- and ends up with the face to face confrontation with Spookyraven and Sir Fumblies, who made a hell of a return to action this mission!

This mission and the last helped kick off the Somber Six story, which will continue next with a Holiday mission, for which roleplaying is underway. But that's next mission, although you can see the setup here with Uncle Crimbo.

Thanks to everyone who helped make this mission another amazing success! I like where AIL is heading and I sincerely hope we can keep the momentum rolling into 2018! See you for the next update, everyone!

(As I write this section, we're at the very last few days of November 2017.)