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Challenge #03489-I201: Keeping the Balance

A person, a historian who wrote the chronicles of the world once asked, what happened to all the kingdoms, empires, and other lands where the corrupt leaders were felled by Wraithvine the Eternal, and there ended up power vacuums? Did he leave the lands in such a state, to go to war with itself as new powers tried to claim the thrones? Or did he find a way to rule them, until ones could be found that were worthy of such seats of power? -- Anon Guest

Nature hates a vacuum. Wraithvine hates a power vacuum. After ze ended the first few reigns of terror, and learned about those who vie for power, ze never set out to disrupt a tyrant monarch without someone worthy of rule waiting in the wings. If a lost scion didn't exist, ze had ways of creating one.

And, of course, it never hurt to have a team of strong and righteous allies to provide said scion with a better ethical model than the tyrant. Including hir own.

Wraithvine never did it for vainglory. Ze had learned humility during several millennia of hir immortality. Sometimes, ze managed to skate through history without leaving a mark anywhere. This despite changing political spheres wherever ze may wander.

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Challenge #03488-I200: Trouble From the Little Things

A broken-hearted child who was severely scolded and reprimanded all because they were trying to be kind, now hesitates to help even when asked. Constantly terrified they are going to be shouted at for doing even the smallest thing for anyone. They've taken to isolating themselves, afraid of being around others, and in need of a lot of therapy.

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-03334-i046-satans-cobblestone -- Anon Guest

[AN: If you actually read that story, there's not a lot of yelling. Frustration

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Challenge #03487-I199: And Your Choice of Dipping Sauce

A group of humans invite a large group of Vorax, as well as other factions of their kind, such as the farmers, the factory workers and so forth, to a huge planet that's a foodie paradise. Shelling out the time to take them to an all-you-can-eat-high-calorie-lots-of-meat buffet. Why? Just for the fun of it. -- Anon Guest

It's not often that one invites the enemy to a dinner date. Neither side was truly prepared, but the Humans knew how to do peace

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Challenge #03486-I198: All Turned to Ash

At the end of it all, The Void returned, now white as fallen snow. It swept across The Great Canvas, consuming all in its path.

In the destruction, there was absolute chaos. In the emptiness that followed, there was absolute order. Both found harmony, in the end, and everything was still. Silent. At peace, forevermore.

Battles long past, alliances forged, the endless struggle of order and chaos, all lost to time, like footsteps in the snow.

So ends The Great Canvas. --

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Challenge #03485-I197: A Terror in Tulle

Never, EVER, assume, just because the human's so much smaller than you, that you can just bully them. You will NOT like the results! -- Anon Guest

There is an ancient Human saying, Never trust a very small girl in a frilly pink glitter tutu with a sword. The reason why it's a Human saying is only known to those who work at Renfairs. It certainly wasn't known to the attacking pirates when they encountered the equivalent of a lost tourist bus.

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Challenge #03484-I196: A Basket Full of Trouble

A young Tiefling brings a bouquet of flowers to Vee and Amatu while Wraithvine deals with the local authorities after picking up the young magic user they met.

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-03371-i083-deja-vu-all-over-again -- Anon Guest

[AN: The WHOLE adventuring party so far is: Wraithvine, Amatu, Pondermore, Vee, and Rawr. Our little thief makes six. That's a pretty full adventuring party. Therefore, Tiefling has to be a recurring NPC. It's usually a FIVE man band for a reason]

"Posies, Daisies, lu-u-ucky

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Challenge #03483-I195: Don't Touch or Else

A very arrogant soldier in town shoves past Wraithvine and friends to scream at a person who was carefully packing some exotic pets into their carry cages to take them to the next town. Wraithvine warns the guard "Do NOT touch the animals!" The guard ends up with Wraithvine trying to save what's left of a badly poisoned hand. -- Anon Guest

It happened so fast. From, "Oi! Do you have a license to be doing that?" through, "Don't touch those!" to,

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Challenge #03482-I194: The Time-Out Chamber

A Knomira is locked up for throwing a very violent temper tantrum in a shop which caused a large amount of damage to property and some injuries to various cogniscents. Now they're throwing another violent tantrum, because they're still locked up, and being required to go to therapy. -- Anon Guest

The habitat was a pale and inoffensive grey. Every possible surface was padded with cellulose fabric and cellulose stuffing. It did not help Marciatrude's general mood to know that any surface

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Challenge #03481-I193: Let's Dumb That Down For You

Despite multiple times being told NOT to do it, a Knomira ends up mixing multiple cleaning chemicals to "Clean their room properly." Ends up in an ICU pod with many in hazmat suits trying to clean the mess. -- Lessons

When she woke up, Iyn had the terrifying realisation that she was not breathing. She could glimpse the edges of some complicated machinery on her face and chest. She could not move. The screen above her eyes faded out from colourful blobs

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Challenge #03480-I192: Same Song, Different Singers

A ruler had just ascended the throne, and began to look into the reports of what was going on in the kingdom. They knew some of it, but until their father retired, there was little they could do. Now, they were going to crack down on the mistreatment that so many, like the Tieflings, Kobolds, and other "lesser" races, were receiving at the hands of the authorities of this nation. -- Anon Guest

Being unwelcome is a self-defeating life. One is judged,

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Challenge #03479-I191: Ring the End of Melancholy

See the comments on this link for the prompt? Long story short, he's been sent by the gods into the elf's life because Wraithvine NEEDS him.

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-03379-i091-eternal-regrets -- DaniAndShali

[AN: The comment in question is, "The more I read of Amatu the more I really think his quest is to help WRAITHVINE bring the light back into hir life. I'm starting to think the poor immortal elf has endured so much pain hir heart is starting to

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Challenge #03478-I190: Staying Up For Storytime

It's late at the Inn, but Vee can't sleep so sneaks out of the room to go down to sit by the fireplace and get some tea. The child of a family that's also visiting sits near Vee and asks her to tell a story about her adventures. -- Anon Guest

"You do understand that I'm twelve," said Vee. "Twelve-year-olds aren't expected to be Adventuring very much."

The kid, half Vee's age and full of fanciful thoughts, scowled at this. "But you're

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Challenge #03477-I189: You're Adopted Again

It is my honest opinion, reading your stories, that Amatu and Wraithvine are becoming as close as brothers. Even if they are not by blood, the bond is obviously forming. -- Anon Guest

[AN: Amatu and Wraithvine are vastly different in ages.]

Sometimes realisation creeps up on a mind like a nervous houseguest at a party where they only know a couple of people. Though in this case it isn't awkwardly asking where the bathroom is. In other times, just like now,

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Challenge #03476-I188: Sturdy, Reliable... Ancient

They are stranded on a very primitive world, the technology here being pretty much obsolete. Good thing the friend they have with them still knows how to use this old tech. They'll need it to try to call for a lift home.

((Inspired by all the videos of teens and younger trying to use things like walkmans and rotary phones, and realizing these once very common pieces of technology are completely foreign to them.)) -- Lessons

They should not be here. They

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Challenge #03475-I187: Conflicting Values

A young magic user has only one special ability. When they sing, they heal those that are sick and / or injured. A powerful ability that, sadly, the greedy tend to covet. Good thing they've gentle friends to help them. -- Anon Guest

Blessed was a blood-red Tiefling. Hir eyes were pitch black, and only someone who knew hir could tell where ze was looking at any given time. Ze had wickedly spiked horns, and cruelly sharp fingers, as well as hooves that

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