User:Plumbledoor

I decided to start this journal with joining the Spiral Order, I don't know, I feel something's going to happen. I've been assigned with the many knights who were to go with the Skylark, and Ozlo, the leader who is with us, has taken interest in this planet called Cradle, asking for scanns of the surface, I've been allowed to see some of these, there's something strange about the planet, but I have no idea what it is, just, something...

I'm in a rescue camp on the surface of Cradle, we have no idea what happened, but the Skylark crashed! Escape pods were sent everywhere, I landed in a rural environment, attacked by these cameleons and what seemed to be cubes of jelly! I feel this place will only get stranger. Not long after I got here, Geken arrived, my long time comerade, he too was attacked by these kind of monsters, as well as robots of sorts.

Tomorrow we're heading to where base is for now, an intel knight called "Kora" tells me it's in a town called "Haven" but it's across a Chasm of sorts.

I've looked down into this chasm, there are gears, huge ones that appear to be turning parts of the world under ground, but down there are more grounds, it's difficult to describe, it's like this world has floors, and underground is another world, looking carefully, I can see mechanical worlds, grassy, even castles! I'm sure the Order will have me going down there at some point, but it seems I will have to tomorrow to cross this chasm, for now I'll sleep by the campfire.

We made it to Haven getting throguh the Chasm, more monsters appeared down there, seems this planet's got a lot more worlds hidden down there, and all sorts of sources for creatures.

Haven is a town reguarly enhabited by "Strangers" tall guys who like Crowns, the currency on this planet, not quite sure what they use them for, but they say "Shinies are always appreciated" They've given us all basic supplies so long as we mine for them, it doesn't seem like a fair deal on their half, but if it keeps them happy and my fellow knights going strong, I guess it's good. There are also these birds the Strangers call "Snipes" I have no idea how it is they fly, but they're all over the place on the surface, with their quirky little chirps, a garden is set up specifically for them it looks like.

Spiral HQ have already been getting me into the ranks, mainly exploration missions into the Clockworks through a place called the Jelly Gardens and somewhere called the Scarlett Fortress. I've discovered more stange monsters down there and I know this planet will only get more interesting. I've also been told about Gremlins, the supposed creators of Cradle who really don't like us being here. Why is not imediately clear.

Desna and her Recon rangers are a group of elite Knights who are usually sent on "Danger missions" Other knights can sign up to do these missions too, though I would generally be a blunder one one of these. A new mission has been assigned to them recently about some kind of message being alerted to Spiral HQ coming from inside a mehcanical facility. Spiral HQ also released these prize boxes out to knights with an electronic theme, they called it Surge, I got a box which got me what I think was the rarest item available, Hacked Aura!

Sitting in the Snipe garden, some knights turned up and started putting up messages on the coms about "Free Acessory Giveaway"

Naturally, knights flocked to the gardens, a que eventually formed, and knights were arriving faster than leaving, I'm still wondering how these knights got all these accesories. I didn't get one myself, I wouldn't feel right just taking free stuff...

So many bombs... those gremlins are out to get me. On an expedition with Lord-Geken, we were looking for arenas and Danger rooms to build our fortunes and levels on our gear, we came across an arena that favoured Gremlin warriors, those last rooms are usually nasty, but this was the worst, no Mecha Knights, Gremlin Darkfang Bombers instead, the entrie floor was covered in gunpowder, Geken stood his ground, but I'm amazed how I managed to do anything, heh, guess me and Buster make that good a team.

While down in a Wolver den, I found a huge sword, the design was strange to me, not like a Leviathan Blade, or Cold Iron Carver, it was larger than even the ones Guardians branded, and the design was different to those Trojans used. Taking a closer look at it, it had symbols and works etched into it, it claimed to be some sort of Star map, perhaps the pilots of the Skylark would have use for it, after inspecting it, I found tresure buried near the surface of the mound it was bore into, for some reason, I don't think it was there beforehand, but then I'm not sure about a lot of things on Cradle

I met Nonna today, a Gremlin from Emberlight, she runs an "Adoption Agency" where knights can adopt lost young monsters, I always wondered where those pouches came from. Nonna herself was nice, it's good to see Gremlins were against the Crimson order before we crashed on Cradle, I like Nonna, caring and compassionate, even if the price for an adoption was a bit high for me...

We were sent to find a book that had records on this fortress, the "Firestorm Citadel" and see if we can find it's origins before we are sent to assault it. Of course this pitched us against ghosts and those crazy Grimalurks, those things annoy me, when I venture alone, they're not abother, since only one seems to find me. But the more of us there are in a group, the more we attract, which is why I preffer smaller groups or being alone on some expeditions. I guess they're attracted in larger numbers to a larger collection of souls together.

Inside the keep we found a tome which described the Citadel, it said the Kingdom of Almire was grand before neigbouring cities declared war against Almire, where the Lord, Vanaduke then fled to the mountains, when he returned, the tome seemed to describe him as a monster of fire, igniting the kingdom which then destroyed the city. From what I could decipher, it suggests Almire was not this deep beforehand, if there were neighbouring cities, perhaps it was on the surface beforehand, or even from an entirely different world, considering Almire is supposedly thousands of years old. I don't know for sure, like all things on this planet, its all theories so far...

I've been thinking about the core, Cradle, the Gremlins, everything, how it all fits into place, and my theory so far is this...

I think this planet's alive, the Core at least, and it made the Skylark crash. I think it knew we would go looking for it seeing it as an energy source that could salvage the Skylark. Why it wants us to pirsue it? Because it wants us to fend off the Gremlins, as to why the Gremlins want the core when they supposedly build the planet protecting it, I think there was a leader before Tinkazar who headed the planets construction, and that they were overthrown by Tinkazar, causing the outcasts to form and build Emberlight for those who opposed his ways, perhaps this previous leader is now deceased, or possibly sealed themself within the core? Perhaps that leader is the one who made the Skylark crash and saw us as their saviour? That part I'm still debating about. As for the Swarm, I think it is a weapon of Gremlin origin under the order of Tinkazar, if there even IS a Tinkazar, it's difficult to say if the Gremlins have this leader if he's never seen by them but his Crimson Order. All I know for sure is that core WILL open again, if I'm the one to see it when this happens I doubt, but someone will.

It had been noticed, the construction work going on to the east of the Haven Town Square, groundbreaker knights were working on paving over to a new section of Haven. It had been discussed between knights a lot about what was going on over there, but now the debris has been cleared and almost everyone flocked over there to see what was going on. Guildhalls had been constructed, a place where guilds could create a place to call home. Curious about the halls, I toured some halls of some friends, as well as the names I had noticed a lot, one guild in particular has my attention. I visited the guild of my friend Captnight who is with Exalt.

This guild's been very accepting to me, I've been visiting this hall a lot recently and caught the attention of one of the Guildmasters, Zeeca, he strikes me as this wise sensei. He asked me about me joining Exalt, I must have made an impression, considering Exalt has a little application process to go through, but when I said to Zeeca I was considering founding a guild of my own, he sent me an invite then and there in case I decided not to. A week or so later, I made use of that invite.

Talking in the guild hall, Guttler, one of the officers suddenly approached me, saying it's time I took the Mebers test. A bit spontanoius, but I was still good to go for it.

The test was to go down to a Tier 2 location arena and survive solo while an officer or Master watched and reviewed me, it felt tense knowing Guttler was reviewing my abilites, but it was a good thing I was up against slimes, with buster, those slimy buggers don't stand a chance, I must have been quite focused since I even managed to take on all 8 Gun Puppies at once and survive un scathed!

After the final arena, Guttler then promoted me to Member, and a lot of members were overjoyed about it. I'm going to like Exalt, I'm going to like it a lot.

The winter festival of Haven, Winterfest has arrived. I like the cold, I'd much rather preffer it to being too hot, some of this armour's like a furnace sometimes... which is one of the reasons for liking my Guardian armour, it's flowing and cooling, which is also why I now wear my Skolver coat a lot, just the sound of the wind makes me shiver.

The order has also been called up for help in Winterfest, like a lot of traditions during winter, gifts are given to others, though it seems Emberlight is being threatened by these "Grinchlins" green furred Gremlins who are sabotaging the festival, which is why Emberlight have called upon us to deliver presents around and fend off the Grinchlins under the watch of "Impostoclaus" a jolly big jelly.

On an expedition with my comerade Phyll, we came across a wrecked campsite, there we found a lone knight terrified of what happened, he tells up the campsight was attacked at night and he only managed to survive by hiding, I can't imagine the things that happened in the attack... let alone what would have been capable of doing this, if knights were camped out at this depth, they must have been good ones, are we dealing with something new?

I seriously love this guild, we met up in the town square by the auction house earlier after coming back from helping Emberlight, Aki needed to check on her auctions, she's always got something she's got her eye on that girl. Anyway, Oten took out a snowball, just standing there in a threatening manner, so I took one out in response, of course, another knight did so and eventually more or less all of use were armed to the frost, eventually someone threw one, and all heck broke loose!

It's been floating around in my mind, the thought of taking on a Shadow lair, I mentioned it while chatting with the guild, Aki was quick to say she would help me out, I like her dedication to her guild and its knights, I can see why Zeeca took her on.

About the lair, I am always the one to take on a challenge beyond their depth, I'm just hoping I can deliver a performance that will live up to any expectations that might be upon me, the main thing that has me concerned is the Swarm, they can enhance regular enemies, I have enough trouble with regular fiends! But beasts will be the first theme, the first gate I am allowed access to is through a plagued Wildwoods, so I feel conifdent now that I have a full Mercuiral Set, I can see a difference in the piercing damage on my trips to the Jelly palace, so it should help me in the woods.

Well, here I am at last, entering the Citadel.

Zeeca, Akikita and Hayashi are with me, this place seems daunting at a first glance, but then I would think a huge flaming castle filled with undead monsters would probably give the jeebees to most, but that's partly the reason why I'm not fretting as much as you would think, Undead, one of the more simpler monster families to fight I find, and with the ammount of them in there, Buster's going to have a field day in there.

After returning from the Citadel, I got calls coming through on the ComLink

After that little ceremony, I returned to the guildhall, to then find at the enterance most of Exalt waiting for me, who also gave me the same reception as the Spiral order.

I think back to when I first landed on Cradle, I had no idea what I was in for really did I? Back then I was a rookie getting used to the basics, exploring this new world, anxious about some of the threats I would have to face. I had no idea that some months down the line, I'd be here as a Vanguard in this guild with a whole group of new comerades and a formidable knight. Of course I'm still a moron at times when in the fray, but then that's just me.

We're here in the shadow lair, and things are certainly different, what Aki describes as "Spinny balls" are floating around everywhere more or less, just generally traps floating around, but then of course there's more in these woods than just the beasts that formerly inhabited this place, a lot more undead enemies, Howlitzers and Zombies are littered around the place

Anyway, I should get back to paying attention, we've arrived at what looks like where I first fought the Snarbolax, but I've seen two of them here, and they appear to be rabbit, poisoned as such, it must be the Swarms doing, we're entering the Snarbies lair now, so better replace this journal with a sword once again.

Inside the Sanctuary felt... plaid, the Clockworks always feel like a threat as such, normally I love the exploration of the place, though more recent I've found monsters to be eliminating that enjoyment, things are becoming more serious.

The Sanctuary however, all I could hear, no gears or clockworks, just a pleasant hum, as if listening to an aura, I know that makes no sense, but I have no other words to describe it.

Also, within the Sanctuary, I recovered this stone, perfectly smooth, holding it I could hear something like a message, much like that of the Recon Modules, though in my mind, again, it makes no sense, but it's something that can't be worded.

Taking the Vets test of Exalt meant going back to the Citadel, though I find myself returning here a lot, the constant resurections of the Citadel means the constant resurections of the undead within its walls, and where there are monsters, there is loot. I know, rather harsh means of returning to this cursed kingdom, hopefully one day we can find a way to truely free the souls here... Within the Citadel, we ventured to the second floor, Guttler was once again the Officer to asess me, the only room I had concerns about was that one with the Homing Launcher puppy, they're bad enough, though something in the Citadel keeps reconstructing it, so it was best to avoid its detection, slightly easier said than done, still, it was less hasstle than I thought it would have been.

Upon the completion of the floor, I became a Veteran of Exalt.

While it wasn't a nightmare, I got a scare from this dream I had, that Echo Stone I got... it spoke to me again, I don't recall what it said this time though. As I was sleeping in the Guildhall, I could hear the voice again, I can't decipher whos it is though, is it Alpha Squad? That seems hardly pheasable, though I feel it may be the core itself. Reviewing my theory of Cradle, perhaps the Swarm and what is within the Core have been at war for many a milenia, and the core was a way to stop the war, only the swarm is more persistent to finish the fight? Or is what lies within the core very much the same as the Swarm? It is also thought that Tinkazar was actually the one to design the clockworks, perhaps there was no leader before him? Though I can't find myself to belive that the Gremlins are trying to stop the release of the Swarm, their behaviour seems that of hostile to eachother even, Warmaster Seerus was planning to eliminate the others of the Crimson Order, and I think he and Herex may have a rivalry, he thought we were assissins sent by Herex at first. Ugh, there's so much left to theory, I'm going to have to sit down and think about all this carefully at some point, when I'm not so shaken up and can think straight though.

The date is set, I will be returning to the Shadow Lair, once again acompanied by Aki, Skruzo and Hayashi. This time we return to the Ironclaw Munitions Factory, it seems the swarm has made its influence on this place too, spreading fire and napalm across it, even the Roarmulus Twins are supposedly back

I sometimes think back to Isora, my home back there... the knights I knew there, I wonder if they know we're still alive here on Cradle? But then seeing the good in all this, I remember that if not for the Skylark crash, the adventures here on Cradle, I'd not know many more knights, or Exalt for that matter, I bet I wouldn't be the knight I am today

I thought of something... back when I first went into the clockworks, that aretifact we surrendered to Razwok, we never found out what it was, I remember it so clearly all of a sudden, the way it seemed to respond to the environment, how it rearranged itself, as if it were unlocking something... it's a long shot but... was that... the key to the core? I remember Razwok said he "delivered the aretifact" but to who? Tinkazar? For some reason, I doubt he was with the great colony, he didn't bear the gremlins Emblem, and he was in a ground floor facility with no other gremlins to be found, it wouldn't make sense, unless he had different masters, did he serve the Swarm somehow? Whatever the motives, he was very scared we had taken whatever that was, it would make sense it was connected to the core.

That day, when I first came to Cradle, I remember it so well all of a sudden, I close my eyes and picture me in my rookie gear, proto sword and shield in hand, orange colour, Lord-Geken there with me, ready to take on the world, I open my eyes to see me now, a lot has changed, I'm taller now, and my colour lighter, guess it just shows all those rookies, even the begging ones, we all started out that way.

Once again I set foot in the tainted lands of the shadow lair, this time embarking through the Ironclaw factory, and... yeah, I always had a problem with fire and this place... I combusted a lot it seemed, even so, the team was particuarly loony on this day, even if I had a comms glitch and my voice wasn't properly broadcasting to the team, I need to remember to check my settings and functions properly before setting out on something as big as this. Either way, we faced an upgraded version of the Roar Twins, spweing fire and flame as well as their regular rockets and lasers, though this proved to be simpler than reaching the things even. Nevet the less, we made it through, faced the void again and ended up in the sanctuary, another Echo Stone was there, I retrieved it for later proper analysis.

This confirms my theory from before, Tinkazar, if it even was him to made the clockworks, originally designed the core to protect whatever is in there from the swatrm, originally with good intentions, he has now turned against it and the clockworks have become a dangerous world out to get anyone who enters its paths. I also seem to be right about whatever's in the core fleeing the swarm, Tinkazar appeard to originally agree to protect it, making a "Pact" but apparently went mad and is now out to get it. This must also be the explanation to the Emberlight Gremlins and the outcasts, they are stull true to the pact of protecting the core. If this is right, then perhaps I was also right about the Core making us crash to come and save it, that part I don't know.

What I do know is that there must be more of these Echo stones, so I will find them and piece together the rest of this story before I make my final theory. That core has a secret, and I WILL figure it out

The Spiral Uplink was updated by HQ today, messages and info displayed to us in a different way, it looks handy for the most part, but I find it hinders me somewhat in places, such as me finding it difficult to see my health condition, however, seems that monster research has payed off, they managed to integrate a health display system into the targeting control, I can see info about what I'm attacking now, that will surely come in handy, also an uplink from my shields barrier, I can see the health of it more clearly now, it would be handy to see how much damage its getting and exactly what enemies I need to generaly get out the way of as opposed to tank it.

While working to help Biscotti with her... situation, I returned to Haven to then be approached by Aki, she asked to talk in the guildhall. Once there, she started talking about how she was now the only GM left working in Exalt, and how she was considering what would happen to the guild in the future, she kept on leading on saying about how she needed people she would rely on, my mind was saying "Is she about to ask me what I think she's going to ask me?" and then she did Aki hit me with the question "Do you want to join the Officers of Exalt?" It pretty much left my mind blank, but after a few minutes, I was on my Officers test, to take on the Gauntlett alone, it's always good to come out of one of those challenges successfully, and after that, and being donned an officer by Aki, I know I'm a Spiral Knight now.

p.s. Popcron Chicken and storking the cat

Well journal, it's been a long time since I last made an entry, almost two years in fact. Let's not delay and get the main details down shall we? First thing to note. I've become the head Guildmaster of Exalt. Our past management has moved on and gave the reins to me, something I honestly didn't think I'd be entrusted with. A long time has passed and now Exalt is a relic of what it used to be, a relic that I need to protect and restore, and I have someone here to help me, Rhea, she's been an officer for a long time with Exalt and recently she's been the only reason I can keep this place going, so I've made her my second in command as a fellow Guildmaster. The other thing to report, it's happened, the Core has opened, and I've been inside. I was also right about that artefact we recovered all those years ago, it WAS the key to the core. Herex, one of the notorious members of the Crimson Order invaded Haven and stole it back, then used it to open and enter the core in an attempt to obtain the energy inside. Why, I'm not sure, though I was right about another thing, the Swarm is indeed a weapon created by the Gremlins, as far as I know that is, either case, Herex used the swarm to invade the core, which is indeed alive. The only thing I could do was follow. I entered the core to track down Herex, but I coundn't find him, I have no idea what his fate was, but I managed to fight through the swarm and reach a different Sanctuary inside, where I found them, Alpha Squad, or at least what was left of them, only their battle sprites were there to pass on a message to us, that we, the Spiral Knights, need to protect the core, or else terrible catastrophe will happen.

This proposes one final question I want answered. Who is Tinkazar? I still stand by my current theory that Tinkazar has been assassinated by the Crimson Order and his reign is currently being made a feud to keep control of the Gremlin armies. Only time will tell, until Spiral HQ decide what to do about this new information concerning the Core, all we can do is wait for further orders, other than continue to work for the Strangers and defend the core.