Beware the Ides of March

Arden had long been relishing this opportunity. From the very beginning of her reign, Selika had been a problem. She wanted power for her own reasons and not for the good of the Clan or anyone else. Plagueis had become her own personal plaything and that something Arden wasn’t going to stand for anymore. While he knew he couldn’t do anything by himself, he had finally garnered the support he needed. Between some other members of the Summit and a couple extra Inquistorious agents he had smuggled in, he had enough strength to finally commit the deed. The time was close at hand and Arden was barely holding back with anticipation.

When Selika entered the meeting room without Abadeer at her side, Arden knew the plan was working. He just had to be delayed long enough and they’d only need a minute or two. As she moved around to her seat, Arden shot Laren a glance. With a fluid motion, the Bounty Hunter slid a blade out from his belt and plunged it straight into the Dread Lord’s ribcage. One by one the remaining members of the Summit joined in, repeatedly stabbing the Dread Lord, her eyes wide in surprise. Then Arden stepped over to her body now covered in blood. She looked him straight in the eye and said,

“And you, Arden?”

“Sir?” A voice seemed to come out from nowhere.

Arden pulled out his own blade and was about to plunge it into Selika’s heart.

“Sir!” The voice was insistent this time and caused Arden to snap back to reality. Instead of in the conference room at the Pinnacle he was in the cabin of his shuttle. He shook his head a moment and then keyed the intercom to respond.

“What is it pilot?”

The familiar monotone of the pilot crackled back through the intercom. “We’re on final approach to 10-Alliel. As requested the station has only just been informed of your arrival. The Taskmaster will have students in the Ring when you arrive.”

“Good,” Arden answered and then keyed off the intercom. Taking in a deep breath of the shuttle’s sterile air and shook his head.

“Someday,” he mused to no one in particular.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Azmodius sat in his office, reviewing the records of the trainees he had been tasked with overseeing with a look of frustrated boredom. In all his time within the Brotherhood he had never had such a static assignment. Leaning back in his chair he gently placed both feet up on his desk as he retrieved his pipe and a pinch of spice from his boot’s pouch and began smoking.

“Hmm. Seems Private Hiorte is doing quite well.”

“Is he now?”

Azmodius turned his head to see his boss, Arden, standing by the door. With a wave of his hand, the Battlelord cleared a path through the smoke and stepped in.

“You consider this good?” he said condescendingly.

“Considering he’s only been with us a couple weeks,” The Taskmaster replied as he retrieved two small glasses and a bottle of clear alcohol. “So what brings you out here?”

“What? I can’t stop by unannounced to check on my trainees?” Arden said while staring contemptuously at the glass he was offered. After sniffing it, his expression became even more dour, “I also want to be sure you’re producing competent members. I think you can guess how I treat failures.”

Azmodius stood up, “Not really sir.” Azmodius gave Arden a slightly annoyed look which was answered by a stern glare from the shorter human. After a tense moment, Azmodius finally spoke up.

“Perhaps you would like a demonstration?” He said as he gestured towards the door.

The two Plagueians passed several rooms before stopping at one. “I think you may remember this trainee.” Azmodius said as he opened the door. Inside, Obsidian was calmly reviewing lightsaber strikes and blocks with mechanical precision. “Obsidian, step forward. It’s time we show the Overseer how far you’ve progressed.” The Warrior said as he grabbed a training saber from the rack by the door.

“Yes sir!” the Adept yelled as he stepped towards the center of the room to face his opponent.

The two turned their sabers’ settings to the highest intensity before facing off.

“Begin!” Arden bellowed.

Obsidian readied himself as the Warrior stepped forward and struck downward at his head. The Adept quickly caught the strike, slightly bending his knees under the force of the blow. In what seemed like an instant, Azmodius stepped to the side and swung for Obsidian’s exposed body, narrowly missing as the human leaped out of the way. The taskmaster proceeded to press the attack, quickly following up strike after strike, leaving Obsidian with no other option but to block as he backed towards the wall.

Upon hitting the wall with the back of his foot, Obsidian’s frustration and anger began to build. Pressing off the wall behind him, Obsidian forced his assailant to give him enough room to initiate a battery of strikes. Each swing of his saber was easily blocked as the Arkanian fell into the flow of battle, angering the Adept further.

Obsidian’s rage peaked. He was exhausted and couldn’t manage to throw his overseer off. He wildly lashed out in a final attempt. Azmodius sidestepped and pressed his saber into Obsidian’s shoulder, forcing the trainee to fall on his back and let out a pained howl.

Arden called the match, “Enough!”

Azmodius looked up at the Battlelord before deactivating the saber still pressed in the Adept’s shoulder. “Well?” the warrior asked.

“I see his determination has served him well.” Arden motioned to the trainee whose saber was still lit in his tight grip. “Have his shoulder looked at, he fought well. Now…” the Human’s voice trailed as a scowl formed on his face. Looking back to the Taskmaster,

“Do you really expect me to drink that swill?

Familiar Territory

I have to admit, it seems rather odd that my first report in this tour as Rollmaster just happens to be on the Ides of March.Let's just say it made the topic of my report fiction rather easy to come up with. While I may have only been back on the job a short time, I definitely have experience in this position as this is my third stint in the job. I really enjoy working with the newer members of the clan and hope I can provide a wealth of experience to those folks.

All that said, there are a couple other key parts of the process of training new members. First, comes our new Taskmaster (Battleteam Leader), Azmodius. He’s gotten right down to business in the job and has been doing excellent work thus far. The other key part comes in assigning new Journeymen a master and that’s where you come in. If you’re willing to train a new student and are at least the rank of Knight or its equivalent, please get in touch with me as we have a couple of folks that will be in need of masters very soon. So it’s clear, there’s really only one criteria I look at when assigning a master and that is the fit between master and student. My goal is to pair up students and masters with similar interests and availabilities so that there is as much synergy as possible.

To our newer folks, in case this isn’t already clear, both Azmodius and I are always willing to answer questions, proof fictions, and provide any other assistance you need. Our clan is fortunate to have someone in it who currently or formerly served on the staff of pretty much every Dark Council office. Heck, we have several former Dark Councilors running about as well. Thus if there’s an aspect of the Brotherhood that confuses you, just ask in Telegram or e-mail me. If I can’t help you directly, I’ll point you to one of our experts. Personally, I’m the resident expert in the processes of the Voice office and the ACC, so if you’re having trouble with a character sheet, I can probably help.

Recent Happenings

• Atra discusses the upcoming Creative Writing Workshop for those who want to really expand their writing skills.
• Atra also appoints new ACC judges and gives out tips and tricks for the ACC in his latest Combat Master Report
• Wally updates the several Voice office guidelines documents and presents a new competiton series in his Voice Report
• New Reports from from Ajunta Pall and Karness Muur

Upcoming Things To Do

While there’s a number of ongoing DJB wide competitions of interest, I want to focus on something closer to home. Coming up on Monday we have our next clan-wide event...

Week One: 3/20 - 3/26

Week Two: 3/27 - 4/2

Week Three: 4/3 - 4/9

In the vein of past competitions, the Enemy Below event will be a three week event with a variety of events which will be judged by our Selika, Abadeer, and myself. What we’re doing a bit differently this time is how we’re assigning the teams. Instead of House vs House or a draft, our illustrious leader has derived a far more simple and elegant method, your PIN number. The teams have been assigned based on whether or not the last digit of your pin is odd or even. Thus, teams will be as follows:

TEAM EVEN	TEAM ODD
Laren Uscot	Furios Morega
Mailce	Kelly Mendes
Anakin.j.r.	Bal Demona
Azmodius Equesinfernum	Brimstone
Balis Umada	Kalon Tsucyra Entar
Dacien Victae di Plagia	Kul’tak Drol
Doku Rivendare	Lexous
Eiko	Misium
Jai'de Serpens	Nash Himura
Kadrol Hauen	Obsidian
Kryy Vitaan	Qoromos Aquilla
Malacath	Sekre Do Val
Mears Hiorte	Silent
Octavia Morgan Obrie	Taranae Rhode
Oric Ral	Teylas Ramar di Plagia
Pollus Paratus	Tra’an Reith di Plagia
Ra'gnar	Va’nia Drelik
Remurr Hijaa	Vanessa Rhode
Ronovi Tavisaen	Zuser Whuloc
Zanet Xox	XXX

One will be quick to notice that using this method, the members of the house summits end up on opposite teams. Personally, I think that makes this all the more interesting. You can look at the competition format and opening crawl on the main COMPETITION PAGE. Like our prior events there will be a wide variety of competitions each week including fiction, graphics, gaming, and other fun stuff. As for the plot details, well let's just say we have some fun stuff cooked up for this one. If I say much more than that, Selika might actually stab me.

I do want to emphasize one important aspect of events like this, particularly for our newer folks. Large events like this are a rare opportunity to do large numbers of competitions in a short period of time. Not only is this a chance to get a number of promotion requirements in terms of competitions in a rather short time, there other benefits as well. There will be a number of competitions in the event a offering Clusters of Ice and Clusters of Graphite. In addition, those who participate in a large number of events frequently are awarded merit medals. Thus, this in an excellent chance for our newer members to advance quickly.

Taskmaster’s Corner

And now we go to our illustrious Taskmaster in his lovely asteroid hidey hole:

Hello Plagueis! Some of you may know me from before my stint in the Rogues due to the dreaded RL, but now that that’s over, I’m glad to be back!

For those that don’t know me, I’m Azmodius Equesinfernum (Az for short). I’m a mechanical engineering student and work part time, so when I’m not doing all the things, I’m usually studying or catching up on sleep. I joined the DB a little over couple of years ago due to my close friend and DB master, Furios.

I am really excited to have been selected for my first role in clan leadership. Over the years, Plagueis and the DB has really changed me for the better and I’m glad to have been given the opportunity to give something back. So without further ado, Check out how awesome our Circle Peeps, Obsidian and Mears are doing!

Obsidian: 11 Shadow Academy Courses Approved Character sheet Two Crescents (One Emerald, One Sapphire) 2000+ words of character fiction Promotions from Novice to Acolyte

Mears Hiorte 19 Shadow Academy Courses Two Dark Pundit Degrees Approved Character Sheet Promotions from Apprentice to Private

And now back to the Pinnacle for a closing word from Arden!

Closing Thoughts and Moment of Zen

Well, it’s been an exciting month and the next one is shaping up to be a fun one around here. While I think it’s known my primary gaming activity these days involves large grey boats shooting at each other, that’s going to change a bit tomorrow. See, Mass Effect Andromeda drops for EA Access subscribers and, while it’s only a slight taste of the full game that drops next week, I for one am rather excited about it. I’m also rather excited to add another video game soundtrack to my collection. Yeah, that’s what I listen to at work. I’m a nerd, so what. For the moment though I’ve been enjoying the song Human that backed the official launch trailer.

As for the Moment of Zen, I leave you with an appropriate thought for the day.