The Chained Watcher

Moon Big?

(My writer's brain is fighting itself. On one hand, having a mildly angsty bit would be good for the story's plot. On the other hand, *grabs character* I dun wanna hurt the bean.)

~~~

With the Watcher behind the Church gone, there was no longer any chance of them turning this war around.

More and more of their temples were destroyed, much to the pleasure of the players. Some of them had taken to recording the destruction for everyone else who stayed back at home to watch. Grian himself had taken to sneaking in and egging the statues first, taking selfies with his handiwork in the background before eradicating the place with copious amounts of TNT. 

The rule of the empires was starting to destabilize as border kingdoms withdrew from the war. None of them wanted to be next in the path of the opposing side, and with that in mind they announced their peaceful surrender with varying levels of grace. Corrupt nobles gathered all they could before fleeing their territories, knowing from previous examples what their fate would be should they stay.

Several other players had gone to look at their old base, and marveled at the magical feeling pervading the air there. Theories were being tossed around on what would happen to their current base when they left. Would it too come alive? Some of them had started making subtle design changes to account for this, and hopefully encourage certain things to happen.

Someone had even built a mysterious archway both here and at Sanctuary, with layered glass and end rods to create a fog effect like a portal. With enough luck, it would turn magic and connect the two bases together after they left. Another beacon had been acquired, and was being rigged to go off when it was time to leave.

Preparations were underway to keep the waters around the island safe, with large quantities of magma blocks and soul sand planted at the bottom to create a barrier. With any luck, the bubble columns would keep any raiders or pirates from being able to bring their ships close, though there was a safe path if you knew how to find it.

And eventually, they were ready.

~~~

The subtle pull from the portal had appeared again, drawing all the gleeful griefers from their willful destruction of any and everything belonging to the Church. Much like last time, they wrote their names in a book that they would leave here for future intrepid explorers to discover. After all, who knows what could happen while they're gone? Fifty years is plenty of time for some kind of natural disaster to strike and drastically change the state of the world. And who can guarantee they would end up in the same place again?

Everyone gathered around their way home, and the beacon people set it off again. Watching the beam of light stretch up into the sky, Grian thought about what they had accomplished this time.

This time their base had ended up with a much more secluded vibe, accentuated by the empty oceans surrounding it. He hadn't gotten to help with that too much, since most of his time was spent scouting and dealing with the Church's temples. Still, things had worked out in the end, despite how terribly wrong it tried to go.

Doc, Pearl, and Iskall now knew his secret, and their reaction hadn't been too bad at the time. They were still a little off-put by his presence, but since they weren't brandishing weapons in his general direction, he was of the opinion that that counts as a win. Hopefully they would get comfortable with the idea of him being a Watcher at some point.

The Heroes summoned by the Church had tried to convince him to bring them along when he left, since they weren't originally from this world either. Now, as much as he'd like to help them, there was no guarantee that Minecraft would connect to their old world in the first place, and even then over fifty years would have passed. His only advice for them was to study the Church's summoning spell and attempt to reverse engineer it.