Editing World on Fire (section)

==== Monsters ====
{| class="sortable wikitable" cellpadding=5px
! Location
! Type
! Message
|-
| style="text-align:center;" | 0, 25, 0
| style="padding-left:7px; padding-right:5px; white-space: nowrap;" | {{Cn|Halfling (Factory)|name=Halflings}}
| style="padding-left:7px; padding-right:5px;" | No one seemed to heed me in this house. The old woman was laying the table, and the children were playing by the hearth.<br>“Did that [[Frederick]] put you up to this kind of follies? Don't you trust that devil! What's he doing at the graveyard? Casts spells on dug-up graves? You'll be lost with him, just like your good-for-nothing mother. Tut, tut. Hey… ya sit down and have a meal with us—can’t let a guest go hungry now, can I? There's not much, just steamed turnips—but still a dinner. Just don't think of sweet-talking us into your silliness. We're not going anywhere, we've got a lot to do. No reason to.”<br>I realized words were useless, but I didn't refuse a snack. The old woman had mentioned something about my mother, but I didn't remember her, and no one had ever told me a word about her. I tried to get her to talk over the meal—but the harridan pretended to be deaf.</br>
|-
| style="text-align:center;" | 6, 26, 0
| style="padding-left:7px; padding-right:5px; white-space: nowrap;" | {{Cn|Demon}}s
| style="padding-left:7px; padding-right:5px;" | These things are already here, too! Did they really come on the rocks from the sky? And where are the blacksmiths who forged their horseshoes? Are they coming next?<br>The monsters split into groups, as if planning to pincer me and my companions. They were certainly more intelligent than animals—and there were getting more and more numerous! Sure, we had our slings ready, and enough stones for all of them, but I wished we had something stronger.</br>
|-
| style="text-align:center;" | 6, 26, 0
| style="padding-left:7px; padding-right:5px; white-space: nowrap;" | {{Cn|Horned Demon}}s
| style="padding-left:7px; padding-right:5px;" | The two-horned creatures were noticeably different from their lighter-skinned kin, not only in appearance but also in behavior, just like adults are different from a bunch of feckless teens. They were clearly better organized, so they spotted us earlier. The creatures quickly banded up into several squads and attacked.
|-
| style="text-align:center;" | 10, 17, 0
| style="padding-left:7px; padding-right:5px; white-space: nowrap;" | {{Cn|Devil}}s
| style="padding-left:7px; padding-right:5px;" | On our way, I tried to entertain myself in some way, keep from succumbing to horror and despondency. I painted in my mind a picture of a stern smith shoeing the screaming horned creatures. The reality turned out to be far beyond anything I could have imagined; there, in what had once been the village square of [[Dry Ryehill]], I saw… him.<p>The word "[[devil]]" came to mind, for according to the drunken [[monk]] whose ranting I had once listened to in the local [[tavern]], there was nothing more horrible than the [[devil]], either in this world or the other. The top of the two-legged creature's head, crowned with twisted horns, was visible even over the roofs; each clawed foot seemed capable of easily covering and crushing a [[halfling]]; and a scythe that could surely cut down a young grove glistened in its hands. That was when I realized: the horned ones have no farriers. The devil just wags his finger at them, and they rush to shoe each other, or even themselves, fighting over hammers and nails.<p>Apparently what I had seen disturbed my mind; I tried to stay on the edge of madness, while it threw more and more absurd visions at me. My companions told me later that I was laughing and shouting "get some longer, sharper nails!" as they dragged me into the bushes away from the road.<p>“There, there, lassie,” [[Kosta]] muttered, trying to calm me down. “Sure, that’s a big beastie, yeah, a foul one—but I'll hit it square in the eye with the firecracker, and then we'll see who’s got the reddest nose in this village! Empty your pouches, lads! We'll teach the [[devil]] how to celebrate the New Year our way!”</p>
|-
| style="text-align:center;" | 11, 17, 0
| style="padding-left:7px; padding-right:5px; white-space: nowrap;" | {{Cn|Demon}}s
| style="padding-left:7px; padding-right:5px;" | These creatures looked simpler than the one in the pit—they had no metal ornaments on their paws, and only one horn, thick and short. They exchanged jerky guttural noises, as if they were barking at each other, but I could see they understood each other much better than dogs. As soon as the pack spotted us, however, the quarreling stopped. With their hooves digging up the ground, the creatures rushed into the fight.
|-
| style="text-align:center;" | 13, 26, 0
| style="padding-left:7px; padding-right:5px; white-space: nowrap;" | {{Cn|Arch Devil}}s
| style="padding-left:7px; padding-right:5px;" | I think I lost my mind, thinking we could handle this gang of [[demon]]s. I realized too late that my impulse had been madness; they spotted us, and it was too late to run....
|-
| style="text-align:center;" | 14, 20, 0
| style="padding-left:7px; padding-right:5px; white-space: nowrap;" | {{Cn|Rogue}}s
| style="padding-left:7px; padding-right:5px;" | We followed the tracks, and presently they led us to a clearing where some ragged men were tramping about. They looked like brigands, and they could hardly have been anything else. They were hastily gathering up their belongings. A lanky, scraggly man was explaining something to the leader, dressed a bit nicer than the others. The tall man turned at the noise and shouted, pointing his finger at us. The ringleader nodded and drew his sword.<p>“I told you!" the lanky one shouted, "You shouldn’t have come after us!”</p>
|-
| style="text-align:center;" | 15, 31, 0
| style="padding-left:7px; padding-right:5px; white-space: nowrap;" | {{Cn|Halfling (Factory)|name=Halflings}}
| style="padding-left:7px; padding-right:5px;" | After the battle against the [[devil]], we searched every corner of [[Dry Ryehill]]. I feared that [[Frederick]]'s burned and mangled body was about to emerge from the rubble. However, we found no corpses in the village, but we saw many tracks, as if the owners of the big hooves were dragging something behind them. The tracks led to the eastern outskirts of the village, and the nearby forest had been burned to the ground.<p>Suddenly, swerving between the black, ugly dead trees, a small group of [[halfling]]s came running straight at us.<p>“There! There!..” They shrieked, running at a steady gallop. I managed to catch a ginger boy with a crazy look in his eyes, and my companions grabbed the others. The redhead caught his breath and blurted out:<p>“They took our folk, and now they're executing them, and not to death, even worse! Help, good people, don't let the wicked do such a thing! This is a fate worse than death, worse than anything in the world…”, and he burst into tears.</p>
|-
| style="text-align:center;" | 16, 12, 0
| style="padding-left:7px; padding-right:5px; white-space: nowrap;" | {{Cn|Halfling (Factory)|name=Halflings}}
| style="padding-left:7px; padding-right:5px;" | “It fell from the sky, can you believe it? I saw it myself! There it is, in the hole. Too scary to approach.”<p>“I don't see no hole in the sky. Are you seeing things, brother?”</p>
|-
| style="text-align:center;" | 16, 15, 0
| style="padding-left:7px; padding-right:5px; white-space: nowrap;" | {{Cn|Halfling (Factory)|name=Halflings}}
| style="padding-left:7px; padding-right:5px;" | “Whatta boom! I swear, my shutters hit the wall and came to bits....”
|-
| style="text-align:center;" | 17, 13, 0
| style="padding-left:7px; padding-right:5px; white-space: nowrap;" | {{Cn|Halfling (Factory)|name=Halflings}}
| style="padding-left:7px; padding-right:5px;" | “What are you doing here, wench? Heard you like to look at weird things, so go over there... Like the look of it? Eh? Struts about the place all the time, never once looks what’s at her feet; nay, likes staring at the sky way more, and now there's a gift fell down from there... Remember the hitchrail over there? Now it’s a hole in the ground as big as a gate where it was, and the horses are all gone…”<p>“She and her sorcerer brought us bad fortune!.. Not even old [[Aiker]] remembers anything fall from up there, and he’s old enough to have seen a living [[giant]]... if the old buzzard isn’t making it up...”<p>“It’s black magic, that’s what I’m saying! The evil one reached up from his mountain with his magicks and tore off a piece of the firmament! Lucky no one got hurt…”</p>
|-
| style="text-align:center;" | 20, 32, 0
| style="padding-left:7px; padding-right:5px; white-space: nowrap;" | {{Cn|Pit Lord}}s
| style="padding-left:7px; padding-right:5px;" | The wind blew a pall of stinking smoke in our direction. With it a great, desperate, almost inhuman shriek came to us, and then we heard an eerie, rumbling voice, which seemed coming from beneath the ground. We rushed into the smoke, and after a hundred paces we saw a picture that made our eyes water.<p>In the middle of once was a meadow, now just a circle of scorched earth, there was something like a huge hearth with a flat stone cauldron, its walls red-hot, and around it a lake of thick fire slurry was glowing and gurgling. Knee-deep in it, as if ignorant of the heat, tall, mighty creatures with bright red skin were standing, and a few more giants of the same kind were driving a few stumbling [[halfling]]s to the cauldron with long whips. Farther away, near the burned trees, the horned beasts, already familiar to us, were standing guard over a large crowd of villagers.<p>The [[halfling]]s were brought to the cauldron, and among them I recognized [[Maltman]], the innkeeper from [[Dry Ryehill]]. Before I knew it, the red giant had swung his whip in a fiery line, and three unfortunates fell dead. The crowd began shrieking again, while the monsters seemed to be doing their usual, enjoyable work—tossing corpses to each other, easily tearing them limb from limb, putting them into the cauldron... One of the creatures looked inside, then, apparently satisfied, made a sign to the others. The giants stared at the cauldron, gestured with their hands some, roared, and their eyes glowed. Then, the voice we had heard from afar sounded again, as if the hell itself had spoken! The flesh of the executed instantly burst into flames, turned into a disgusting mash, boiled up into a huge cap of brown foam, fell, and in the midst of the cauldron the ugly figure of a one-horned monster appeared. Its body was billowing smoke, and the drying sludge dripped down its body with a hiss.<p>The ginger boy was right; fate worse than death exists now.</p>
|-
| style="text-align:center;" | 21, 22, 0
| style="padding-left:7px; padding-right:5px; white-space: nowrap;" | {{Cn|Halfling (Factory)|name=Halflings}}
| style="padding-left:7px; padding-right:5px;" | Everyone in [[Eeofol]] had heard of [[Tavin]]—but not everyone spoke of him favorably. The [[halfling]] who left his home village of his own free will to join the [[Erathia]]n border guards was hardly a role model they wanted for their children. Years of military service had left visible marks on the hard face of the commander—his faded eyes were deeply sunken, his nose was broken, and his thin cheek twitched distressingly every now and then.<p>“What's going on north?” [[Tavin]] asked, wasting no time on greetings.<p>“I have death at my heels. We've broken away, but the villagers…”<p>"Good as dead," the commander snapped. “The forests here are already crawling with creatures, and any day now they will be under every bush. In the south and west, everyone who didn't escape has already been turned into meat. I led the advance party of the Guards, followed by the rest of the men under Captain [[Xarfax]]'s command, a half-day’s march behind us.”<p>“Followed? Were they attacked by the horned beasts on their way?”<p>“No, they came just fine. There's only one way out of here, but that's where they're standing now... just them. I served with [[Xarfax]] for 15 years. And today, when I went to rendezvous with his unit, he ordered his men to cut out my liver. We barely got away and hid behind those flimsy walls. Now we're figuring out how to make ourselves tasty so the [[devil]]s don't get bored eating us.”<p>“[[Tavin]], we need to get through. There's still hope of rescuing someone, but we need to get to the north road. Your commander is a traitor, but together we can...”<p>[[Tavin]] grabbed me by the collar with a snarl and yanked me into the air like a sack of rags. His gaze was frightening.<p>“Fool! Stupid girl! [[Xarfax]] did not betray. The [[devil]]s bewitched him, you hear that?! You're going to take your dolts with the firecrackers and we're going to beat this foolishness out of the old man! And then you're going to get whoever you can… and go do what you're gonna do. I don't want to know anything about it, so I won't tell anything when they catch me and roast me over a slow fire like a Bluemeadow sausage.”</p>
|-
| style="text-align:center;" | 29, 32, 0
| style="padding-left:7px; padding-right:5px; white-space: nowrap;" | {{Cn|Demon}}s
| style="padding-left:7px; padding-right:5px;" | It's those horned slop buckets again, but now the first move is mine! Ha, let's see what you're worth when my hands are untied!
|-
| style="text-align:center;" | 31, 20, 0
| style="padding-left:7px; padding-right:5px; white-space: nowrap;" | {{Cn|Arch Mage|name=Arch Magi}}
| style="padding-left:7px; padding-right:5px;" | The [[mage]]s appeared suddenly, as if a veil of invisibility had fallen. Of course, I could feel their presence. These are powerful [[mage]]s—their energy cannot be hidden. Very good. Even stronger ones could have taken care of that.<p>“Renegade [[Frederick]]!”<p>Their leader's voice came from all directions at once, as if from the sky. No echo, no whisper of leaves or wind, just impassive speech pouring straight into my ears.<p>“The [[Council of Bracada]] knows of your dark deeds: your forbidden practice of [[necromancy]], your stealing of the [[skyship]], your disgraceful flight from [[Bracada]], and your ties to the renegade [[Khazandar]]. However, you have done no harm to the living and so you deserve a fair trial and a fair sentence— we will guarantee that the punishment does not include death. Lay down your weapons, release the mana from your body, and approach us. You know it full well: by following this path you have fallen into sin. The dark books may give knowledge, but it is always laced with poison of pain and death. A researcher must not spread it. You still consider yourself a seeker, don't you? Redeem yourself, [[Frederick]], and live on as a honest man.”<p>My lips spread into a smile. I've heard it all too many times.<p>“Gods! [[Liston]], it's you, isn't it? Still working as a heavy club in the grip of [[Gavin]]’s morality police? Any you had so much potential back in the day. "Renegade [[Frederick]]" is even flattering to hear. But "renegade [[Khazandar]]"?! Isn’t that too big for your britches? Even your superiors haven't dared to decide anything regarding him yet; I would have known it otherwise. There's too much of his merit, too many other respected wizards in the [[Bracadian Academy|Academy]] who won't let you dumb thugs take down the best mind in [[Bracada]] based on ridiculous speculation—and [[Magnus]] himself hasn't spoken yet. "Forbidden practices"! Do you realize how ridiculous that sounds? Tell me, former colleague... is there really a big difference between [[Naga]]s and [[Medusa]]s? Oh yes, the [[Medusa]]s are the result of a twisted process that causes the surviving objects to rage and feel anguish. How could I forget! And [[gremlin]]s differ from [[troglodyte]]s only in the fact their slavery is signed by magical contracts and seals—am I not confused? Everyone needs servants. And putting the souls of fallen warriors into statues to get sapient [[titan]]s is, of course, fair to the dead and purely academically impeccable. Well, well, well, why blushing so much? Let's start exchanging spells. We won't ever get each other, [[Liston]]. Your mind is not free…”</p>
|-
| style="text-align:center;" | 33, 24, 0
| style="padding-left:7px; padding-right:5px; white-space: nowrap;" | {{Cn|Automaton}}s
| style="padding-left:7px; padding-right:5px;" | The legacy of the [[Time of Wonders]] is truly priceless. Rulers and warriors yearn to find armor and weapons dating back to those times, but they are not what matters to someone who wants to change the whole world in time. I've spent a long time gathering tiny scraps of ancient secrets to build something of my own from them... and I've gotten somewhere. My machines are still very vulnerable, their propulsion systems are unstable and inefficient, but they are reasonably autonomous and capable of making simple decisions on their own—and that's something, wouldn't you agree!<p>The [[automaton]]s and assembly line await!</p>
|-
| style="text-align:center;" | 33, 34, 0
| style="padding-left:7px; padding-right:5px; white-space: nowrap;" | {{Cn|Walking Dead}}
| style="padding-left:7px; padding-right:5px;" | Stopping for a second, I dug into my memory. No, there shouldn't be anything in the cemetery that would be important right now. Except for a couple of... things that might come in handy for experiments someday, but I changed my field of scientific interest quite some time ago. Not that anyone cares. Just once can you… no, it's true what they say; only the dead don't care about reputation.
|}