The Redemption of Jericho Swain
Chapter 18: Meetings
Swain had not even batted an eye when Nasus had told him he would be taking the girls' place for the mission to Zaun. Acting with a confidence that practically told the group that it had been his plan all along, Swain had gladly agreed, noting that the superior fighting experience that Nasus possessed and his nature as an extremely durable immortal being would make sending him much less risky.
Thus, Nasus found himself skulking stealthily along the streets of Zaun, a feat which did not come naturally to intimidatingly large creatures with golden armor and glowing red eyes, and even with a cloak, the cheap concealment charm Nasus had bought, and a sense of grace developed from years of walking in a world built for those smaller than he was, he had to step carefully to avoid being blindingly obvious. Still, he managed to keep a relatively low profile as he approached the ambush location.
The darkness wasn't much of an obstacle to Nasus, and he was easily able to see the life force radiating off of the lookouts who guarded the warehouse, allowing him to easily evade them, glad that not all bushes were as heavily enchanted as those on the Fields of Justice. Opening the warehouse's slightly rusted door ever-so-slowly, he was suddenly able to hear voices talking softly from within.
"How long till they get here? The Prophet said that they got the information, and that their new accomplice, Swain, had even paid their way onto a zeppelin," asked a husky-looking man dressed in purple robes who was seated at a table along with several other identically dressed people.
"I dunno, man. All this waiting is making me nervous. It's gonna be worth it, though, to be on the winning side of the upcoming war," answered a second male. "I hope we don't screw it up."
"Don't you guys worry, the Prophet must think we have potential if he's letting us do something so important on our first mission!" This voice was female, and incredibly enthusiastic for someone trying to talk quietly, Nasus noted as she continued to talk. "I mean, why else wouldn't he bother giving us some higher ranking babysitters?"
"Probably because this plan put the lot of you at risk," said Nasus with a sigh of annoyance as he stepped into the open, prompting the group to gasp in collective surprise, and one of the unfortunate cultists to fall out of his chair. "He most likely didn't want to risk anything of value during this ambush. Nonetheless," Nasus continued with a flat expression, "I shall have to see if anyone here knows anything of interest. Those who surrender will be spared the pain that shall shortly be delivered to those who do not. It is not unreasonable to think that those who were chosen to lie in wait might be more helpful."
"He's just one... I mean, I know that he's a champ-champion," stuttered one of the cultists, "He's just one guy."
Nasus chuckled quietly as he raised his staff. "And you have just one life. Shall we weigh the difference?"
- - - -
Swain's safehouse was covered by a deceptively humble potion shop run by a colleague of Singed. Magical emissions from the various arcane concoctions served to conceal the bunker built into the ground below, and many of the best spells money could buy were also dedicated to the same task.
Within the bunker, Riven and the six Equestrians were watching quietly as Swain let an identification spell pass over him. Shortly thereafter, a heavy steel door opened, and the group was able to get a clear look at where Swain hid in times of trouble.
"I thought the Institute of War was fancy...," commented Rainbow Dash as her foot sank into the lush crimson carpet that covered the floor.
Swain smirked briefly to himself as he eyed one of the masterfully painted landscapes that rested on the darkly finished wooden paneling covering the walls. "I occasionally host high value dignitaries and such here. Of course, I have to wipe their memories of this place afterward, but luxury makes them much more receptive to long periods in a bunker. Their complaining is a headache I would rather not deal with." Swain paused as they reached a lobby. Several glowing lines of color ran across the walls into different adjoining hallways. Swain pointed at a blue stripe and began to explain. "These lines of color serve as a navigational guide. Blue leads to the common living space, which adjoins to a series of private suites that you may make free use of. Red goes to the library, orange goes to the laboratory, and green goes to the kitchens. Pink leads to the gymnasium, which is stocked and prepared for the needs of a champion. All of those you are free to make use of, but the purple stripe goes to the section that you are not permitted to access. Take the rest of the day to familiarize yourself with these surroundings. We shall meet tomorrow at noon to discuss further moves against Malzahar and his ilk. Please note that we are not the only ones here. If you see one of my employees at work, please do not keep them from fulfilling their tasks. If you need to contact me for any reason, simply place your hand on the pad attached to any of the crystal screens scattered throughout the facility. If you would excuse me now, I have business to attend to."
His explanation complete, Swain exited the room, leaving the seven people to their own devices. Rarity chose to immediately retire to one of the bedroom, with Fluttershy not far on her heels, praying nobody noticed the worry on her face. To nobody's surprise, Pinkie immediately bolted for the kitchen, and with a shrug Applejack followed, muttering about keeping Pinkie from getting them kicked out. Riven and Rainbow Dash decided to explore the gymnasium, leaving a very indecisive Twilight Sparkle to try to weigh the merits of the library versus the laboratory.
It took several long minutes of agonized thinking, but she eventually settled on spending some time in the laboratory perfecting her latest spell, which Pinkie had promised to help her with once she could get it prepared. As she walked briskly towards the laboratory, she pondered her brilliant idea of using their links to the Elements to try and draw out some of their power. The reasoning she had given the others was that they might be able to use the magic to help Nasus' brother, but beneath that drawing power from the Elements would provide a trail of magic to follow back to their homeworld.
So caught up in her thinking was she that it barely dawned on her that she had reached her destination. The contents of the room where enough to make her squeak with delight, however. Her eyes darted from the rows upon rows of chemicals on myriad shelves, to the catalogue that explained them, to a large enchanting altar stocked with various chalks and powders and other tools for inscribing runes. Tucked away on one corner of the room were a series of glass containers and tubes used for distillation, along with a familiar figure which instantly captivated Twilight's attention.
Several emotions flashed through her mind. Confusion, followed by blinding panic, which was replaced by a brief moment of absolute calm before Twilight finally settled on what she felt was the most appropriate emotion. She summed up the absolute rage coursing through her with one word that promised the release of many nights of nightmares and pent-up wrath. "Singed."
small updates are fine, just keep the story at the pace you need to make it as good as it has been or better
At least you're giving it some love. Just do as much as your time permits, I don't even think "an update a week" is mandatory ( though much appreciated ).
Just when I thought no league fimfictions existed...
i just realized that tomorrow it will have been a year since i first posted this to fimfiction
Don't worry Twilight, Singed can't do anything after the nerfs
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I found that the nerfs didn't really change much for me. What really messed with my Singed was the removal of Force of Nature. It was a wonderful item for him, with the combination of MS and survivability.
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Singed still impossibly tanky with high damage output
Good thing Elise op
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My Irelia and Nasus also miss Force of Nature.
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I play Singed. Ult+Ghost+Boots of Swiftness means no one can catch me or run away. Rylai's and Rod of Age adds tankyness and kiting ability. Add AP items to taste.
Also, His laugh is completely OP.
I would rather get small updates once a week than go months without. No worries.
2370653 I dunno, FoN was all about magic resist for me. I feel like now, Singed doesn't have an effective tank item for magic resist besides abyssal, which isn't really pure defense.
2371680 It's still possible to compensate for the lost defense in the form of bveil, but to be honest, it was the combination of the three stats that made it so great for him. If singed gets out of a fight, it's usually with less than 100 hp if you're doing it right, and it was just a match made in heaven to have MR/MS/HP5 on one item.
No trouble at all, I would rather see smaller updates than no updates.
Nice to see ya back, and this is a great lead in chapter.
Two quick questions though:
1) Is Twilight a pony again? Because "As she trotted briskly towards the laboratory..."
2) Are you as frustrated as I am that Riot keeps changing the Champion backstories, Trundle and Sejuani being the most recent examples. I find it just absolutely wrecks any of the non-fighting interest to be found in the game. In a more story based games I'm sure some fans would riot from stuff like that.
Always love this story, and REAAAAALLY looking forward to Twilight/Singed reunion conflict!!!!!
Can't wait for more!
Edit: PLUS, them retconing everything could make it really hard to keep this story consistent.
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1)Nah, still human. Trotting when applied to humans refers to a pace slightly faster than the average walk, but slower than a jog.
2)Sej wasn't really changed all that much, but Trundle's retcon wasn't really needed, imo. His story was just fine, it was his inability to touch anything with a dash or a blink that kept him from getting picked when almost everyone who comes out nowadays has a dash or a blink. He's not bad in a fight, but he's so dependent on it staying in one place that as a jungler, he's just outperformed by everyone else, and though he could be successful in top maybe, he just doesn't do anything that isn't outperformed by other tanky dps.
Back on the original subject, though. The retcons do get annoying, and in my opinion, are unneeded, and it makes writing harder. My explanation of Renekton's backstory is actually a hybrid of the old one and the new one. The old Renek backstory was elaborated on in Nasus' background info, and portrayed Renekton as merely deluded into thinking himself a god, while his current story shows him as being completely insane. The real trouble is that they don't always announce when they tweak a backstory.
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Finally, an update to one of my stories! So many of the ones I'm following have been on hiatus for so long, I was starting to go a little .
I honestly prefer shorter updates to longer ones. Keeps the story fresh in my mind. I may just end up going back and re-reading this just to refresh my memories (not that I mind). Looking forward to picking up this story again!
This was me when I heard there was a BRAND new chapter to this story:
i.imgur.com/8Jsavnnh.jpg
2372179 They changed Renekton's Backstory!? Huh...
The most frustrating retcons I've read have got to be Warwicks and Sorakas. They completely changed WW from a brilliant alchemist turned werewolf, to just a headhunter (basically). Though at least his still has some sort of relationship with singed
And while I was talking more backstory then gameplay I agree with you on Trundle, you can do massive amounts of damage with his chomp but with an equal amount of gold other champions can usually top it. It would've been so easy to just add a paragraph or 2 on how he decided to take over a different troll tribe and become its king...
Thanks for responding as well
i don't think you need to say trotted when she is in human form.
never the less, welcome back
You know...I just realized something.
Even though we have this whole internal dispute with Swain dealing with Noxus and whatnot...we haven't seen anyone else from that city-state. I mean, I get that Riven and Swain are the most interesting to write about, given their lore and what not, but what about LeBlanc and her Order of the Black Rose? What about Darius and his brother, Draven (the biggest annoyances of the League when fed)? Hell, what about Talon?
Though I do like the small side-focus with Celestia and the Void. I can just imagine her storming Valoran, and not even
Teemo and his MOTHERFUCKING SHROOMSa full team gank could stop her.Also, welcome back. I missed this story
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An important lesson gleaned from League of Discord was that having a billion characters doesn't do justice to any of them, as evidenced by the complete lack of development for Ryze and Ezreal the first time around. The LoL universe is simply too big for me to do more than giving a cameo here and there to various non-essential characters.
On a side note, I do intend to go back to League of Discord and rewrite Celestia to be a bit more awesome than I wrote her originally.
EDIT: Also, since the use of the word 'trot', while technically correct, seems to confuse so many people, I'll go ahead and edit it out.
Yay, an update!! I freakin love this story, btw
Needs more Anivia. (no I will never stop saying this) GaHHHHHHHHH perfect cliffhanger point.
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I'm a singed main. I know.
Dun dun dun...
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Do you follow the spike rule? If it has spikes on it, buy it. Items include: The trolling waistcoat, the OP broomstick (Rylai's), and many more. Plus, drunken rage mode is an OP ultimate :C.
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That seems like a good plan, though I almost never manage to fill those last couple slots. Singed moves so fast he is always ahead of his time.
I will be mildly disappointed if Leona doesn't hear about the breakthrough of Void!Celestia, provided that happens (I think it will) and react with horror.
And then Diana can gloat.
Also I imagine Rainbow Dash has a pretty good opinion of Janna, given that her mere presence makes everyone faster.
2376533 When i first posted this story to fimfiction, it was already several chapters in. Hence, everyone commented on the most recent chapter at the time, while not commenting on the previous.
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I actually just found out that a lore retcon is currently in PBE for Volibear and Anivia. Anivia's is kinda weird and a really huge departure from her original story, but if they're going to mass retcon everything, i suppose it's innocent enough.
Volibear, on the other hand... It has him, on a hunch, basically, starting a quest to force his people into war in some sort of messed up darwinian theory that it'll make them strong enough to survive some battle that he can't even confirm will happen? Hasn't he ever heard of a standing army and formalized training? Seems pretty dumb.
Now, the thing that bothers me most about this, if it does go live, is that they're gradually rewriting the entire universe of LoL. I'd be more okay with it if they just rebooted all of the lore at once, but the way they're doing it leaves a lot of conflict with the previous lore, and each revision takes away from the foundation that was already established, leaving holes everywhere.
http://www.reignofgaming.net/news/23809-unofficial-pbe-patch-notes-for-4-4-2013
2377617 Le sob....
You know, I shoulda seen this coming after they stopped the lore journal, and started coming out with champions every other week basically. With all the new champs they just work on the mechanics now and not the backstory, but I guess that's what workin for em...
And agree with ya on Volibear, they did almost a 360 on his character as a champion in the new lore.
At least on the positive sides lots of new skins
regular updates are preferred to large updates
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Singed is an inspiration for trolls everywhere. I must admit, I respect Riot for making him so trollish xD.
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It's just so beautiful! I've playing Singed in 3v3s, and it is insane. I got a triple kill while the enemy team was pushing our last turret. We won as they respawned. Also, one of my games had an enemy Jarvan... I was able to reach and fling him from outside his ult. He also called it a gas chamber after I killed him while trapped by his ult under his tower. Singed is new troll king.
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Singed is probably related to Josef Mengele, but that's besides the point. We all know Singed is the ultimate troll.