#haravenia

[tokai-ulina]

[6] The Journey Begins (Part 2)

"I must warn you all before we dive in. This is gonna get weird."

"Now focus on Vundabar. Try to imagine him wearing a mask. Conjure the face beneath it as best as you can."

"WHOA! He really let himself go!"

"What's that ghost-looking thing floating behind him?"

"Such a wierd outfit too. It looks straight out of a Tuxhulian propaganda video."

"The fuck?"

"ALRIGHT. ALRIGHT. I'll explain as best as I can."

"The elephant in the room is that monster looking thing. Have you all heard of infective spirits?"

"I thought those things were just fairy-tales."

"And hey, aren't they supposed to be more blobfish-esque?"

"This isn't any normal infective spirit. Remember the legend of how Gerzon's spirit fled to the 'forgotten realm' before the giant Gaia robot destroyed anchient Gerzonia?"

"Hold up. Vundabars been planting the 'Gerzonic Doctrine' into the religions of Tokai. Could it be?"

"It very well could. I fear this spirit (Gerzon?) is trying to aquire a following once more. And considering how renound the chief was for his 'magic of resurrection' in the stories of old..."

"You're saying he could actually come back as a zombie???"

"Worse. I'm guessing he's trying to come back as a wizard."

"I hate wizards."

"And if he's in cahoots with Vundabar, he'll definitely be one of the rotten ones."

"Speaking of magic, what's with this cloaking power that Vundabar seems to have?"

"That's probably caused by the orange jewel above the crown pin. It seems to be a 'shard of illusion' from what my assosiate told me."

"He said that crystals like that as well as our blue shard of revelation are artifacts from the founding of ulina. Some anchient God (at least as the legend goes) crashed into this world and shattered into fragments"

"That explains the mueseums! Vundabar has been shuting them all down to steal magic shards!"

"That brings me my last point. While there's several shards accross the world, few offer powerful abilities. Most are decayed or otherwise too shattered to use. However..."

"There's certain exceptional crystals that were naturally refined to a point of perfection. That white gem on Vundy's tie... is whats known as a Holy Sight."

"Gulp."

"I don't know what that crystal can do, or if it even IS a Holy Sight, but the cut and glow are just too refined to be normal."

"So what can we do about all this?"

"Remember that assosiate from earlier? He's a geologist that is proficient in these sort of anchient studies. If we have any shot at taking down Vundy, it's with his help."

"The problem is getting to his base of opperations."

"Yeah? Where's that?"

"Well..."

[republic-korlan]

20 Miles from Fort Tataromoa

"What's that?"

"I hear something..."

"Where is it coming from?"

20 minutes later

"It's getting a bit dark, but I think I see something..."

"Taone Nui..."

"I'm home..."

"I need to find someplace where I can make a call."

"Maybe there is someone still loyal to me here..."

"I certainly hope so."

"Maybe Aata is still around."

"I'll head to his office."

2 hours later

"This place is a shithole..."

"I guess Storinka's guys got to him..."

"Maybe I can still find a phone."

"Oh fuck..."

"They just... left the bodies here..."

"They're unrecognizable."

"They didn't even give them a proper cremation."

"They just left the bodies."

"Atuae, I hope there are no Ngaro around..."

"Oh, finally, a phone."

"Hopefully Oliver uses the same number..."

Ringing

"Hello, this is Oliver Cronkite..."

"OLIVER, HELLO THIS IS NGAT-"

"Sorry, I cannot reach the phone right now, leave a message after the beep."

"Fuck."

Beep

"Oliver, hello."

"This is Kauri, I know you're probably confused."

"You might've thought I was dead."

"But I just escaped Fort Tataromoa."

"It was just attacked, Korlan is at its most vulnerable right now, and you need to contact someone."

"I need you to call Lucerne, call the Continental Concord, call the Tokarokan Alliance, call the UKC."

"I need you to tell them this is the time to strike Korlan."

"This is when you need to join in and fight Korlan."

"You need to join the war, fight against the Allied Effective."

"You need to put a stop to them."

"They're powerful, they really do have a chance at winning."

"You have a change here, Oliver."

"To be the good guy."

"To put an end to a global conflict."

"To end a genocide."

"You need to join this war."

"You need to help me take my country back."

"Please."

[grand-consulate-of-begroun]

Oops.

It is through a desire for transparency that we at the Consulate admit that we acted on faulty information, and this resulted in real mistakes with real consequences.

It appears that an undetected fault in surveying equipment led to a misidentification of jurisdiction on Begroun's eastern border. The Haravenian-constructed canal of some infamy actually lies a few kilometers outside of our officially-defined territory. For this error, and the tensions it has caused, we are deeply apologetic.

We are lifting the embargo on Haravenian vessels in our waters, and are currently in talks with ambassadors from Haravenia and Dracea to discuss a potentil redrawing of the parallel and joint administration of the canal.

Please understand that we are all fallible, and at times the blame for even the greatest of disasters can fall to mechanical or human error. Going forward, this Consulate is committed to implementing more thorough equipment tests in all administrative areas of the nation.

[grand-consulate-of-begroun]

Maritime Restrictions

Recently, we have worked with our friends in Dracea and the Allied Effective as a whole to negotiate with Haravenia about the canal they have been operating which bisects Begrouni state territory. We have extended offers to either buy the canal outright or to operate a toll system, in order to support the surrounding infrastructure and connect the people of our nation to one another.

These offers have been summarily rebuked, and so the Effective have assisted us in evicting Haravenian operators from canal facilities and repatriating them. We see it as an act of great generosity and patience that we kept these individuals safe and returned them to their homeland.

As a result of this insolence, however, it brings us no pleasure here at the Consulate to announce an embargo on Haravenian marine vessels in our waters. No commercial or military vessel flying the Haravenian flag or associated in any other way with the nation may approach to within fifty kilometers of Begrouni shores. If such a vessel is seen, it will be given a single clear warning over radio, and then fired upon if it does not change course.

Please understand that this is not an escalatory action. It is of tantamount importance to Begroun's security that we be allowed to maintain jurisdiction over our own territory. We do not wish for war wirh Haravenia or with any nation, but neither are we shy of conflict.