The end of Monstrosity is here. After a month of fearsome combat the nightmare has come to an end! Great work from everyone! This report features the closing fiction, results, and a bunch of club news!

Ritual Cave
Judecca

Xen’Mordin spun in place taking in the vastness of the cavern. He took a few steps closer to the altar in the center of the cavern. There was a pool of blood and a hand, Vanis’ he assumed, that appeared to have been partially digested. Even remaining stationary, the vast void inside the mountain still felt to spin. Xen had experienced many forms of the Force manifesting itself in the galaxy, and none had ever left him feeling so queasy.

“Sir we have incoming!” one of the soldiers shouted from across the cavern. Xen’s hand went instinctively to his lightsaber as he spun to the entrance from the jungle, where lights were now beginning to bounce of the slick rock and shimmering crystals. Xen let out a quick sigh of relief relief sensing allies. The sigh was cut short as he sensed something different accompanying them.

At the front of a small squad of soldiers came the Duros, known to only a small few as Cipher Three and to many more as Dek Rott. He was gripping tightly to the shoulder of a slumped long headed alien. Xen’s eyes narrowed as he realized what it was. While none in the Cocytus system had known what they truly looked like, there was no mistaking it, its appearance had been found crudely depicted in archeological sites around the system. A Rakata.

“This is Akazel, and he has,” Dek paused for a moment throwing the ancient being to the ground next to the altar. Dek took a breath and continued, “a solution for our problem.”

High Altitude Transport
Caina
Elincia careful continued to monitor the bomb as the transport shuttered with turbulence. It was a simple solution, one she was particularly proud of. The Elincia-class Flame Warhead. She of course had to name it after herself, especially given how quickly she pulled it together in her lab on Judecca. One big FWEC bomb and at least one of the planets in the system would be safe.

“Doc, you sure this will work?” the pilot inquired through the comms. The Torgruta smiled. Soldiers always were leery of the unorthodox, but once used, clung to it with a fierce dependency.

“Oh it will work. This colossus isn’t just sitting in an ice shell, it literally is made up of ice. Getting rid of ice is easy. That much salt would be impractical but, I think the fire will be more than adequate.”

In the cockpit, the pilot shrugged and focused on the task at hand. He adjusted their course slightly. They only had the one FWEC bomb, and if they missed their window they would drastically need to change plans. At this altitude it would be tricky, but they couldn’t risk flying any lower. The Colossus had been throwing ice spears that had already taken down over a dozen ships. And for as many calculations she had ran, Elincia wasn’t 100% on the safe distance for the bomb.

“Prepare for the drop, t-minus 20 seconds,” The voice of the pilot rang clear in the shuttle. Elincia stepped back and turned to look out the window. Somewhere far below was the colossus. Part of her felt a pang of guilt, wishing to study the monster more fully. Regrettably there was no time for that now.

The ship was nearly silent as the FWEC finally made the drop. Seconds ticked by, then came the flash and the unmistakeable sound of agony. The ice was screaming, and then it was silent.

Tetoulichican
Ptolomea

“We really don’t get paid enough for this,” Archangel complained as he rolled around a corner, sweat beading on his head. The grenade he had thrown went off with a bang, a noise followed by a yelp from one of the forest beasts. It was a stretch to call the beast’s cry anything more than an annoyed shock. Their skin was thick and tough. The real screams were from the civilians attempting to get away from the beasts, and the military that was trying to kill take them down.

None of them wanted to be marked down as collateral damage.

“You get paid?” Reiden asked faking shock.

“Yes, not enough. Try to keep up Reiden,” Arch replied. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He reached out through the force, letting his rage and anger and hatred for the situation flow over him. With a click, his green lightsaber snapped to life, and he pushed himself back around the corner. He found him staring deep into the eyes of one of the beasts, a mere foot away.

“Fwec,” He managed to get out while he slammed his right hand forward, driving his lightsaber straight through the eye of the beast. The forest beast spasmed before collapsing dead to the ground. Reiden popped his head around the corner.

“Why didn’t you try that sooner?” he pried.

“I haven’t seen you get that close to one of these things. You are lucky I’m not roasting you on a spit to attract them at this point,” Arch said eyes not leaving the corpse of the beast.

“One down. Four to go,” he muttered.

Outside Nas Modeh
Antenora

Fighting a worm had turned out to be more difficult than expected.

At least that is what Delak kept telling himself now that he had left the safety of a Star Destroyer. Attempts at orbital strikes had proven to do no more than literally pounding dirt.

“Time to get creative guys,” he said through gritted teeth. Several other members of Shadow Guard shuffled awkwardly in the sand.

“What if we create a giant fish monster to try to eat the worm?” Kyo suggested enthusiastically, grin on his face.

“What a fish? Don’t be silly that would never work,” Delak started. He gestured around them.

“Not enough water on this rock for that.”

“I’ve been analysing its movement, If I’m right it should be heading toward this canyon. It surfaces regularly every twenty minutes or so. It should appear here. If we deploy some electro-nets in the area we might be able to keep it stunned long enough to bomb it to hell before it re-submerges,” Chrome said pointing to a holo-projection map of the planet.

“Solid plan, let’s try it. What’s the worse that can happen?”

20 Minutes Later
“This was a stupid idea!” Aule yelled, barely dodging one of the nets. The nets had shocked the worm just fine, only now it was kicking up a new storm of dust, along with the still powered nets. Aule saw another fighter to just ahead of him not get so lucky, ship shutting down before plummeting to earth.

The Twins Judecca

Lexiconus let the the waves of madness flow over his mind. In a way it had become comforting, the constant thrum in his chest as he stared up at the giant Abyssal. The Quarren felt nothing resembling sadness as he led his team over the rubble that had once been one of the proud and giant statues. The white rock was quickly crumbling to white dust.

The Abyssal moved slowly, tentacles probing the darkness. When it first emerged from the depths, some had made jokes about it being a distant relative to Lexic. If only that had been the case, they might have had an easy way of killing it, or at least sending it back to the depths. Nothing had managed to reach it. Projectiles turned to dust. Energy dissipated. And now Lexic was leading a last ditch attempt on foot.

Regrettably, one by one the soldiers he led fell to the floor, unable to progress forward.

Weak Minds. Lexic thought for a moment as another fell to the ground screaming.

Lexic let out a watery chuckle at the sight of the human writhing on the floor. He managed to make out the words fluffy and wisconsin, whatever that was. Lexic looked back up the beast. It was mesmerizing the way it moved, and yet didn’t move. If Lexic had to call it anything it appeared to be bubbling.

Lexic did a double take, that couldn’t be right. And at that moment his head cleared, and the abyssal melted into a dark mist, that raced along the ground straight toward the ocean.

Ritual Cave

“It’s done!” Akazel screamed as he fell from his hands and knees, face smacking into the hard ground of the cave. Xen’Mordin took a step back and let out a deep breath. It had been a battle of a different sort, but eventually the ancient alien broke down and triggered the dissipation of the monsters.

Scholae Palatinae had fought long and hard to defend their system, and now they could celebrate their success against the nightmares of their home.

Three Days Later
Imperial Palace
Judecca

Polis Jones came rushing into Xen’s office, covered in dust.

“You will not believe what I found in the temple on Antenora,” he said eyes wide with excitement. Xen held up a hand before shrugging to Dr. Rei.

“As I was saying, we are ready to proceed at the facility. G14-D05 is proving to be oddly cooperative with us now. I expect we will be operational within four months, fully by this time next year,” Elincia said quickly, shooting a glare out the corner of her eyes toward Polis.

“Excellent,” Xen said. Elincia gave a quick head bow and swiftly exited the room bumping into Polis’s assistant Karen in the doorway. Xen held up a hand signalling Polis to continue. Polis reached into his satchel and pulled out an ornate box placing it carefully on Xen’s desk. The room felt suddenly very cold. The hairs on Xen’s neck stood on end.

“There was a set of chambers we weren’t even aware of underneath the temple, it was the damage done stopping Lord Onasi that exposed them. In them we found this, which at first I thought would make a most excellent addition to our Antenoran wing at the museum,” Jones spoke quickly.

“At first?” Xen questioned.

“Yes… we ran some tests on it. Very much not native to the planet. In fact it isn’t even that old. Nearest estimate puts it at made around 50 years ago. No idea how it got there but it must have been fairly recently. And our scan’s haven’t been able to see what’s in the box. And, uh, to be honest I can’t find a way to open it,” Polis continued.

“He even tried smashing it with a hammer,” Karen added grinning. Xen ignored the comment, eyes glued on the box. He reached out a hand instinctively, pushing his will beyond the confines of his physical body. There was a click as an interior locking mechanism moved in place.

“That I think is because this wasn’t meant for just anyone to find,” Xen said sliding the lid of the box slowly back. A red light was revealed as the lid moved. The chill in the room got worse and all three shot glances around the room at the apparent sounds of whispers coming from the shadows.

Xen peered into the box, mind racing.

“You are going to forget you ever found this. Not a word,” He said firmly making eye contact first with Polis and then with Karen.

Intel: The Imperial News Net - Monstrosity Results!

Investigative Journalism (Long Fiction 1)
1st - Eetherbiail Zarih’Taen
2nd - Archangel Palpatine
3rd - Lucyeth
4th - Lexiconus Qor
5th - Delak Krennel

The Awoken (Long Fiction 2)
1st - Archangel Palpatine
2nd - Lexiconus Qor
3rd - Lucyeth

This isn’t where I parked my car (Short Fiction 1)
1st - Elincia Rei
2nd - Archangel Palpatine
3rd - Jorm “The Jester” Na’trej
4th - Dek Rott
5th - Kyo Akumo

Hounds of the Cocytusville (Short Fiction 2)
1st - Elincia Rei
2nd - Archangel Palpatine
3rd - Lexiconus Qor
4th - Eetherbiail Zarih’Taen
5th - Lucyeth

Path of the Soul (Short Fiction 3)
1st - Archangel Palpatine
2nd - Lexiconus Qor
3rd - Lucyeth

Temple of the Forgotten (Run-on)
1st - Dek Rott
2nd - Rosh Nyine
3rd - Lexiconus Qor
4th - Calindra Hejaran
5th - Archangel Palpatine

Gypsy Danger (Gaming)
1st - Jorm “The Jester” Na’trej
2nd - Delak Krennel
3rd - Lexiconus Qor
4th - Ulfsark
5th - Eetherbiail Zarih’Taen

Never Start a Land War in Asia (Battleplan)
1st - Elincia Rei
2nd - Archangel Palpatine
3rd - Lexiconus Qor
4th - Dek Rott
5th - Jorm “The Jester” Na’trej

Clicky Boom (Graphics 1)
1st - Delak Krennel
2nd - Archangel Palpatine
3rd - Jorm “The Jester” Na’trej
4th - Malodin'Tater
5th - Kyo Akumo

Halls of the Mountain King (Graphics 2)
1st - Archangel Palpatine
2nd - Kyo Akumo
3rd - Dek Rott
4th - Elincia Rei
5th - Delak Krennel

Wake of Destruction (Graphics 3)
1st - Archangel Palpatine
2nd - Dek Rott
3rd - Delak Krennel
4th - Lexiconus Qor
5th - Lucyeth

Fall of the Infinite (Poetry 1)
1st - Archangel Palpatine
2nd - Dek Rott
3rd - Elincia Rei
4th - Delak Krennel
5th - Lexiconus Qor

Fall of the Ancient (Poetry 2)
1st - Zagro Fenn
2nd - Dek Rott
3rd - Elincia Rei
4th - Archangel Palpatine
5th - Lexiconus Qor

The Coming of Shai-Hulud (Flash Game)
1st - Reiden Karr
2nd - Elincia Rei
3rd - Kyo Akumo
4th - Eetherbiail Zarih’taen
5th - Chrome

Heart of the RAGEMaker (Comic)
1st - Archangel Palpatine
2nd - Kyo Akumo
3rd - Elincia Rei
4th - Lexiconus Qor
5th - Reiden Karr

Things that go BLANK in the night (Mad Lib)
1st - Reiden Karr
2nd - Zagro Fenn
3rd - Archangel Palpatine
4th - Eetherbiail Zarih’Taen
5th - Dek Rott

Legends of Old (Trivia 1)
1st - Elincia Rei
2nd - Archangel

The Pokedex (Trivia 2)
1st - Chrome
2nd - Reiden Karr

Homeward Bound (Trivia 3)
1st - Zagro Fenn
2nd - Reiden Karr

Monstrosity Overall Results

1st - Archangel Palpatine
2nd - Lexiconus Qor
3rd - Elincia Rei
4th - Lucyeth
5th - Dek Rott
6th - Delak Krennel
7th - Eetherbiail Zarih’Taen
8th - Kyo Akumo
9th - Reiden Karr
10th - Jorm “The Jester” Na’trej

Intel: Brotherhood Wide - The Force Awakens

A lot of you had heard rumblings of a Great Jedi War hitting us for the month of December. Sarin has decided it should be a more laid back and fun venture to celebrate the release of Episode 7. As such, the DC is running a set of competitions that will span the entire month!

The DJB Episode VII Celebration! is up and live with several different competitions to keep you entertained! No leaderboard, no clan vs clan action, just a lot of fun and many many medals to be won!

Intel: Brotherhood Wide - The Equites

One of the many things the MAA keeps an eye on is how promotions are working in the club. After a lot of review, Aabsdu has released a new set of timeframes/requirements for what to expect in the Equite ranks. Equite ranks have a long history of being a bit difficult to manage due to the lack of set guidelines compared to reaching Knighthood. The minimum timeframes for all four equite ranks have been shortened (and given hard minimums). For those of you who don’t want to read Aab’s explanation this is the breakdown.

• To EQ1: 2 months minimum; 4 months average
  
• To EQ2: 4 months minimum; 6 months average
  
• To EQ3: 6 months minimum; 12 months average and 3 months of CON-level leadership or equivalent
  
• To EQ4: 8 months minimum; 16 months average and 6 months of CON-level leadership or equivalent
  

This is very exciting news for everyone, and I am very excited about being able to promote people earlier than we use to for these ranks.

Intel: Brotherhood Wide - Achievement Hunters

One of the newest additions to the site went live in toward the end of November. Trophies are now live on the site, and you can see how many you have earned and what for by visiting the Trophy Tab of your dossier. Total trophies are also displayed in the upper right of your dossier.

One thing related to these, that was stressed heavily the MAA, is that trophies do NOT count for anything promotion or medal earning. they are a fun bonus set of things to unlock and earn but nothing directly from the trophies themselves will be used. All recommendations will continue on just like they did before trophies went live.

Intel: Brotherhood Wide - The Battlefront

Battlefront finally went came out just a few weeks ago, and I know a lot of you are already playing it (regrettably I haven’t had a chance yet). The FIST put out a rather lengthy report regarding the implementation of Battlefront to our gaming set up so please read it if you are going to be playing with fellow club members. I hope to get a chance to play you guys soon (PS4 for me).

Obviously people are excited for a new SW game, but don’t feel like you can’t continue to earn CFs and CEs from all the other supported gaming platforms!

Intel: The Imperial News Net - The Coming Days

I want to give a quick shout out to Wally who helped me by blind judging the Mad Libs event! Thank you WALLY!

Between the DC’s Celebrate Episode 7 competitions, the holidays, and of course the movie itself, December is shaping up to be a full month of very exciting things. I do want to remind everyone to avoid posting spoilers to your fellow members who may not have gotten a chance to see the movie.

In the tradition of jumping on the bandwagon, I also spent a while taking some questions in on telegram as #AskTheXen.

Archangel asks: Are you done grading?

• Yes, now I am.

Archangel asks: When is the next Dark Paladin being created?

• By end of the year.

Jorm asks: When will you throw the next big comp at us?

• Sometime early next year.

Archangel asks: When will be get getting our fleet reset?

• No idea. That comes from Sarin.

Lucyeth asks: When can we expect another House Feud?

• This will probably be the next clan level big comp we have, so early next year.

Lexic asks (after two failed attempts at spelling fwec): Any update on military management?

• No, see above.

Kyo asks: How does it feel going from several weeks of badgering many people to do monstrosity competitions, to several days of many people badgering you to mark monstrosity competitions?

• Appreciative that people were into it enough to want results right away. ;)

Archangel asks: If Reiden gets EQ2 will you resign from the overwhelming stress of getting him to stuff for said promotion?

• It will probably kill me first.

Archangel asks: What should I get, brisket, sausage, or chicken?

• All three. But mostly brisket.

Lexic asks: what special drink do you have during the holidays? Where can you locate it?

• Uhhhhhh. Nothing different than what I can have the rest of year.

Lexic asks: Who do you share the holidays with? Is there anyone you're looking forward to seeing in this special time?

• Share the holidays with my family and friends. Pretty much people I see pretty regularly as is. I do have a friend moving back out to the area I live after being gone for a few years, so that is pretty cool.

Archangel asks: Name your three favorite authors and their best book.

• Rothfuss - Name of the Wind, Sanderson - Words of Radiance, Dumas - The Count of Monte Cristo

Reiden asks: How happy are you that you're finally done grading ALL of the Monstrosity events and can finally go on vacation?

• So happy. Going to go soak in some Disney fun now. :D

I will be contacting each of the winners of Monstrosity to work out the names of the monsters, and getting the wiki page for the event up and live. Go out and have a fun month Scholae!

For the Empire!

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