Carnival - A LitRPG Apocalypse

Recap:

I figured it would be a good idea as we embark on the second trilogy to recap what has come before.

On the 24th of October 2024 the system came to Earth in advance of an invasion by the Void Imperium. The system was light on details but offered everyone over the age of 16 an Essence that unlocked an ability.

John Borrows was a run of the mill kind of guy who was perhaps more focused on doom prepping than was healthy. He was living with his precocious (and foul mouthed) 11 year old daughter when the system arrived. He was given the power of Teleportation and Evie, his daughter, was given the power of Electrogenesis after John gave her an Essence.

They spent the few hours they had before the first of three waves the system had promised was unleashed on their sleepy market town in North Yorkshire… making friends and murdering pigeons, as you would in an apocalypse. In the process they got some levels and forged an alliance with Bob and Katie. He also gave his dog an Essence and accidentally created a playful and slightly insane dog supremacist.

In the course of the first wave John was killed. He briefly met some beings who seemed to be gods before Katie rewound time. As time resumed John lost an arm to an assassin creature instead of his head. Unconscious from blood loss he was carried to the final fight against the Queen of the swarm attacking Normanby. He came to and was able to deliver the killing blow to the much higher level monster. The group who had been fighting the Dracorat Queen then Joined the nascent Carnival. After some light looting and bonding with Bob, a mechanaut whose ability initially let him create ambulatory war machines, they ended up at the meeting the system sanctioned and got to meet the Overseer of the Waves, an entity appointed by the system to handle Earth’s integration into the system.

Human nature being what it is, a faction emerged within the 600 odd survivors that sought to take control of the ravaged community. This faction kidnapped Evie after she bungled an attempt to rescue one of her school friends from the other faction. This resulted in John going murderhobo briefly and slaughtering the man as well as some of his goons. Unfortunately John also discovered that killing a human allowed you to take all of their spent Essence.

A man named Hargreaves stepped up and took control of the situation. He seemed like a godsend, taking responsibility for organising the town's efforts to prepare for the second wave. Unfortunately he had an ability to enslave people, leaving them unable to act against his wishes. He secretly enslaved Katie and Greg, another member of John’s team.

Hargreaves came up with a plan that forced a higher rate of injury and death on the other survivors when they engaged the second wave. These losses were sent to an enslaved medic who allowed them to be killed and their Essence harvested.

As the Cyclopean monstrosities took control of the surface the humans were forced to hide in the tunnel system they had built beneath their now lost fortress. The losses did not endear the leadership to the wider populace and the harvest Essence was used to boost up some of Hargreaves enslaved fighters, making them stronger than the Carnival. At a contentious meeting Hargreaves revealed a little of his hand and asked the Carnival to plan an attack on the monsters on the surface rather than throw more people at the problem. The Carnival came up with a plan to bury one of the beasts and leave it to suffocate.

In a remarkable backfire, Hargreaves decided to live stream the attack and introduce a gaseous drug into the ventilation of the Underground. The drug was intended to elevate people's moods and induce a mild form of euphoria, giving him an opportunity to stage a PR coup, regaining his lost prestige. Unfortunately the drug had been designed by a half mad chemist with brand new superpowers. It had been intended to be used on the Cyclopean monstrosities in much higher doses. The drug had unanticipated side effects on the humans. The medic Hargreaves had suborned was released from her bondage while under the drugs effects and shared with the crowd what Hargreaves had made her do with the injured from the failed attack. She then committed suicide. This sparked a wave of emotion, fuelled by the drug in the air, that resulted in an explosion of violence as the crowd lost control and went on a rampage.

The people slaughtered their leaders and themselves. Only the Carnival and a handful of elderly and children were spared. The Carnival had been on the surface and Bob quickly cleaned the air in the rooms where the elderly were babysitting the kids while their parents were at the meeting Hargreaves had called. By the time the monster they had buried finally died only a handful of the people at the meeting were still alive. Of the hundreds who had survived the first wave only 60 odd people remained. Most of them were retirees and children, outside of John’s team. John was given enough Essence by the Carnival to level him up high enough to be able to easily slaughter the remaining monsters.

The Overseer appeared and had a far more convivial conversation with John before sending the survivors off to the third wave without any chance to prepare.

The third wave involved sending them off-world. The survivors were ported to Hell World. Due to a quirk of the system the world was configured for people with an average level of three. John was level 16 at this point and he had adapted his teleportation power to be brutally effective in combat. The rest of the Carnival were level 11. The old folks and the kids were all level 1 or didn’t have a level, which brought the collective average down to the point the challenges presented by Hell World were trivial to the team. Unfortunately they also had no food or equipment and Bob’s storage space, which contained a modest industrial complex and tons of materials, was sealed for the duration.

They also had to shepherd the elderly, children and a handful of survivors from the madness of the Underground across an endless grassy plain to reach the mountain looming in the distance, the only landmark of note on the world. Their only food was poisonous wasps that swarmed out of hidden nests every hundred metres. Unfortunately if not cooked properly the wasps retained their poison. One of the survivors from the Underground was the creator of the drug that had driven everyone insane.

An unbaked wasp was used to murder him. While investigating the death John accidentally ate the murder weapon (they were very tasty and he assumed the wasp was perfectly safe as it came from their stores) and fell deathly ill. While they were trapped a grass dragon attacked them and the rest of the team killed it. Whoever had killed the Professor remained a mystery that caused strife within the group.

Evie and Vic (John’s lady friend who joined the Carnival at the end of the first wave) were not shy about explaining what they would do to whoever had caused John to be poisoned. Suspicion naturally fell on the people who had survived the madness in the Underground. This led to a fracturing of the group with a handful of people refusing to travel by the handy dandy teleportation option. The Carnival eventually cleared out the monsters on the mountain and dealt with the high level dragon guarding the exit back to Earth. Afterwards they took the time to farm Essence for the lower level members of the group and harvest alien resources they anticipated would be unavailable back on Earth. Oh, Bob died, but he kind of got better.

On returning to Earth they found the world overrun with low level monsters and very high level monsters, nicknamed tribulations, were inhabiting the ruins of the old cities. After killing so many people these boss creatures became the ultimate threat, hard to kill and capable of spawning lesser versions of themselves that spreadout to infest the nearby countryside.

The Carnival helped save a few towns and made some friends. They accidentally unlocked a territory aspect of the system and made the bookish Anna, Evie’s friend, their new baroness. Other nobles began to emerge as Normanby reached out to other survivors, offering aid and information. John began to establish the portal network he unlocked as a result of using the wish-stone that he received at the end of the first wave.

Unfortunately human nature is human nature and despite their efforts other potentates took issue with Normanby, now renamed Wayfaire, and their power. Not only did they have the Carnival to act in their defence, the Carnival being the most highly levelled people anyone knew about, they also had access to Bob’s rapidly diversifying magitech products and control of the portal network.

In an effort to foster unity among what remained of humanity Wayfaire decided to form an alliance to kill the tribulation in Middlesbrough. Despite some issues along the way that showed some of the other factions couldn’t be trusted an alliance was formed. John was less than happy about this, having been forced to stay his hand when he really felt some frontier justice would have been beneficial.

The attack on the tribulation resulted in a shocking but inevitable betrayal. Adrian, the most troublesome of the new barons, had a stealth team lead the tribulation from Newcastle down to join the fight just as he backstabbed the frontliners of the Carnival to steal the kill for the tribulation and take the Essence. In the aftermath he slaughters all of his people who aren’t of use to him and sets off north in stealthed airships to establish an empire based on slavery and killing humans.

John is less than happy as he ends up cleaning up after Adrian’s atrocities. He vows no mercy to the Scunners, as Adrian’s faction is nicknamed.

Book three covers the war on the Scunners. The Carnival eventually get a lead that allows them to begin taking out the Scunners hidden bases. After struggling to make any further progress John eventually stumbles on a solution and uses a powerful psychic to map out everyone in Scotland. The Scunner bases are highlighted and destroyed, culminating in a brief but terrible fight against Adrian who had been able to level to 30, far stronger than John. John was almost killed in this battle and Bob and the friendly dragon/flesh tinker Pete, an eight year old boy from north Wales, Six Million Dollar Man him. The end result being he is vastly stronger and more durable than he was, but still not on a par with a dedicated physical power.

The team took a few days to unwind, playing cricket on the moon. Bob had set up a satellite network and a space station in the L4 Lagrange point between Earth and Luna with the help of John and it would play an important role in things to come.

They went to help Pete’s family who were dealing with some strangely intelligent monsters around Birmingham (UK). It turned out the monsters had been largely tamed by a new faction: the Beastfolk. They were largely made up of permanently transformed humans who had taken on bestial characteristics.

A meeting was arranged between the various factions.

Ascension was a religious cult that had set up shop in the once again boggy and misty Fens in East Anglia. Led by the Twins, Felix and Felicity, they had formed a new religion that they proselytized for constantly, gradually expanding their influence. Due to the large numbers of powerful healers in the church most towns were more than happy to let them build a church.

The Rump, or the Southern Faction, had inherited a lot of the old military and relied on a powerful psyker to let them fight above their levels.

With the Welsh folks whose story began in Weretiger, the Beastfolks and Wayfaire these five groups represented the major factions in the UK at this point although there were many warlords and petty barons ekeing out a life between their lands.

A loose agreement was made not to allow people of very high levels to take part in internecine strife, the damage someone like John could do at this point was on a par with nuclear weapons. The factions all agreed that the tribulation inhabiting the centre of London had to be dealt with as it was such a high level its spawn were driving out the other monsters. They estimated they had a few years before the Shadeworm would have taken over the entire country.

A large battle ensued with each of the factions contributing in their own ways. The Welsh were led by formidable champions like Owain the Weretiger and his son Pete, a shapeshifting dragon who operated in support of the Beastfolk due to their small numbers. Wayfaire and Ascension worked closely together, partially as a result of the Twins mad adoration for John after it was disclosed he had died and met the gods of the system, The Rump pushed in from the south relying on seemingly antiquated pre-system weapons.

The Shadeworm called back the most powerful of its children and the Carnival were forced to pull them away from the parent creature to be fought by the factions. Once they were distracted the Carnival made a play at the main creature but it was almost impossible to damage in any serious way. Despite orbital bombardments, swarms of drones, droids and pet monsters as well as the best efforts of the Carnival, John is eventually forced to use a trump card he and Bob had deemed too dangerous to use on Earth.

He entered the beast (phrasing), like Jonah and the whale, before opening a temporary portal from the surface of the sun. The resulting firestorm threatened to overwhelm the entire city of London but Vic was able to step in and contain the worst of it. She was also pregnant at the time with John’s future daughter.

A new organisation was set up, independent of any faction for everyone over level 25. The idea was to remove the most powerful people on earth from factional infighting and establish them as preservers of the species. The invasion by the Void Imperium that was promised on the first day of the system was drawing ever closer and the world needed an organisation dedicated to preparing for that inevitable day. Fifteen years have now passed since the signing of the Accords and the founding of the Accordance which marked the end of book three.

Prologue:

The Legate smiled politely at the petitioner. Some of his colleagues in the Imperium took a cold attitude to their lessers but Anton was a student of history. Many times the equestrians had been brought low by the plebs, either through revolt and violence or through sessecio plebis, essentially mass strikes and walkouts that left the nobles of a town or city to fend for themselves. As the inheritors of Rome and rulers of Italy he felt it wise to study the flaws of his predecessors.

He had no intention of ever doing menial chores and scutwork again so he made sure his name was always spoken of fondly by the common folk. It was simply good policy so he had warmly thanked the assistant who had shown this strange man in.

As the door closed behind her Anton rose and offered his right hand to the man. His eyes quickly took in what he could and he filed the information away in his mind. Ebony skin, clipped hair and intelligent eyes. His clothing was nondescript, he could have passed as an average bloke from before the system in slacks and a pastel coloured shirt.

“Thank you for taking the time to see me, Legate Anton,” The man began in a pleasantly melodious voice. “I believe we have some interests in common. Since the advent of the Accordance… well it has become difficult to advance as one might wish.” His lips formed a smile, teeth flashed but Anton was focused on his eyes. They didn’t change at all.

“The Accords are working well, sir. As a founding signatory the Imperium fully supports the efforts of Unity and Mars.”

The man’s face fell into a parody of disappointment. “Legate, the signing took place before Europe was reclaimed. The ‘war’ between the Accordance and the Imperium took place before your nation signed. Of course it wasn’t much of a war was it? When the Traveller and the Mech came to pay you a visit the Imperium folded like a deck chair under an overweight British tourist. Setting aside somewhat recent history, the main problem we all face is Identify. Look at me and use the skill, if you’d be so kind, Legate Anton.”

Anton didn’t appreciate the high handed attitude of the man, his version of history was closer to reality than the face saving myth Anton had proposed. It was never a polite strategy to call a powerful man out when he told a lie though. Anton Identified the man.

Name: Johnson Goodman

Level: 16

Ability: Wish Fulfilment

“Wish Fulfilment is as unusual ability, Mr. Goodman. Perhaps you’d like to explain the scope of the power?” Anton said politely.

“Use Identify on me again.”

Anton’s left eyebrow twitched. He was one of the twelve most powerful men in the Imperium. The other eleven Legates were all on par with him at level twenty four and there were a number of equestrians at level twenty three. Everyone who spoke to him did so politely. He suppressed his anger and did as he was rudely requested.

Name: Willem Badman

Level: 23

Ability: Whatever I Want It to Say

Anton repeated the test, shocked at the changed result. His hand slid towards a button under his desk casually as he spoke. “That is very interesting but I’ve dealt with psykers before. We have protocols in place that will prevent any influence you exert over me from causing serious harm. You have put yourself in a very dangerous position, friend.”

“Hardly, Legate. I am here to help anyway so there is no need to continue reaching for your panic button. It won’t matter even if you do. In fact perhaps this would be a prime opportunity to demonstrate the value of the service I am offering. Please go ahead.”

Anton prided himself on being an excellent judge of character. The words, the micro expressions he was capable of examining almost in slow motion as a result of his power enhancing his reflexes enhanced his pre-system honed ability to read people. HIs reflexes weren’t up to the speedsters that had undergone the biological and mechanical augmentations that “members in good standing” received from the dragon and the Mech in the Accordance but they were still far beyond anything a baseline human could be expected to manage.

Nothing this man said was striking him as untrue. He knew he was subject to mental manipulation but the only people higher level than him were all part of that ridiculous superhero club. Anyone who reached level twenty five had to either join or retire and those who refused to join were closely monitored. He got the records from Unity just like the leaders of every other faction. If there was a way to beat Identify… that would dramatically change the balance of power that had grown up in the fifteen years since the Advent.

Anton brought both his hands back onto the surface of his mahogany desk and smiled thinly, having chosen not to press the button that would summon his security teams and alert the Accordance. “You have my attention, whoever you are. I may not be buying but I’m interested in what you seem to be selling.”

“Oh, you’ll be buying, friend Anton. This is the tip of the iceberg.” White teeth flashed in a smile that felt distinctly sharklike to the Legate.