A Crown of Broken Runes (ACOBR)

Trickery Afoot

A week had passed, and the hermits were all worried. Tensions were high, but they simply went about as normal. They had to keep up the norm. Give no indication of a plan. Still, they worried. Grian had not messaged any of them, not even in the private chats. No portal had opened. No contact of any sort. No way to teleport them without risking falling into the void. Until now.

Now, yet another Watcher stood before them.

"Hello?"

The creature chuckled a bit. Cleo, Doc, and Ren had been mining for diamonds, preparing armour and supplies for the battle ahead. Now, Ren was frantically notifying Xisuma, alerting the admin to the opportunity. His ears were flat against his head, betraying his fear.

"Hello players. I... I thought I would let you know that we found your dear friend conspiring to turn on us! How odd. He was trying to open a portal back here! Foolish, foolish. Nevertheless, I have been tasked with notifying you of this. Do not try to resist. We will return shortly to do away with this troublesome world, it has proven to be too much of a distraction for our dear Xelqua."
Cleo stepped forwards threateningly, her teeth clenched.

"You absolute d*ck!"

Doc glanced at her, a bit surprised.

"He's a hermit, you idiot! What did you do?"

"I think you'll find that he is not a hermit. We had him first, after all."

Before they could protest, it began to turn away, its tail's deep purple feathers sweeping along the cave's floor.

Ren nudged both of them, and whispered, just loud enough to hear.

"Xisuma's on his way, we need to stall!"

Doc spoke up this time.

"Why do you want him anyway?"

It worked. The Watcher turned, a smile playing across what little was visible of its face.

"He is ours. He will pay for his disobedience, yes, but we need him. He is our one and only successful-"

It seemed to remember that there were players listening, suddenly pausing, and turning to leave again.

"Ah, that is information that players such as yourselves should not possess. Farewell."

Doc called out, trying to get it to stop, but the portal snapped closed. Cleo breathed a sigh of relief as she spotted Xisuma around a corner, communicator in hand.

"Please tell me you've got it, cause we need to go get Grian."

Xisuma nodded grimly.

"I'll go round up everyone."

~ ⬩ ∴╎リ⊣ᓭ. ∴╎ℸ ̣⍑ ⬩ ~

Zed, False, and Wels sat in a circle, looking at the chart before them. If they were going to have to fight these things, they were going to need to know everything about them.

She looked at their catalogued list, scratching in more details.

They seem to have abilities that feed off of fear, as Grian's do.

The glowing eye above their heads is how they see.

They all seem to be at least a metre taller than the average person.

Leader is the tallest.

Crystal: flowy clothing, looks like a dress, short tail. Likely the one who blew up Grian's base, seems to enjoy using an explosive similar to a small end crystal with a much bigger explosion.