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IC: Reliable Narrator, everywhere Mazor felt magnetically attracted to the glowing orb. The lightning inside crackled and sputtered brightly as his hands wrapped around its surface. Heavy despite its size, it had the strangest feeling of surface tension when held. Was it a solid or a liquid? Before Mazor could think deeper, the world disappeared from view and his eyes rolled back in his emaciated skull. Everything happened between two instants. The world blinked and Mazor was gone. Crawling from the chrysalis of time, Mazor fell into the void. Without even a line to base reality on, Mazor existed alone. His thoughts rolled out from him, conversing with themselves. He saw his youth, his work with the Dark Hunters, his present life on the run, and strange and twisted versions of all the possible future lives he lived. He felt strangely connected to the nothingness of his own life in this place between time. It was comfortable existing without meaning or purpose. Mazor lost definition of himself. He was the void, the unspeaking unseeing unfeeling unthinking something found in nothingness. Was Mazor even something? Mazor let his existence, his subjectivity, spindle outward and unravel. Then the void pushed back. He had never been alone here. And all at once Mazor felt very real and very, very small. Something weird pet his mind as if he were nothing but a docile rahi, and then his eyes flickered open as he returned to reality. Mazor lay on the floor of the cavern in a pool of his own puke. Pushing himself up with an elbow he realized the orb had changed from a strange sphere to a tiny silver cube and his arm felt drenched as if a balloon filled with water popped in his hands. For everyone else in the grotto, when Mazor’s hand touched the orb the red glow of the suva pulsed twice then went out, as did all light in the grotto, and the party’s breathing echoed in the darkness. The silence slowly filled with the sounds of their heartlights beating in sync to something old. In the cave’s umbra something moved. It uncoiled from the shadows, dripped from the ceiling, and slowly twitched with pulsing veins around the party’s feet. It smelled of ash and rotting protodermis. The suva in the cave regained its glow after a few moments and Mazor slumped to the floor. Something changed: strange metal obelisks up to a toa’s height were embedded in the floor, walls, and ceiling. Red symbols written in an unknown and freshly painted script covered their surface, and the veins in the carved pillars around the suva pumped with an organic rhythm. The stalactites of repentant matoran gave off otherworldly moans but remained unmoving. The crew of The Ripple felt watched by something behind them, but no matter where they turned no one could be seen... Pridak leaned back into his sofa as Nidhiki exited the throne room, the softest tap of his Turaga staff echoing from beyond the closed door. The Barraki leader opened his mouth to speak, but a blinding flash of red light made him flinch. The world suddenly grew dark and cold. The stars flickered. When the suns reappeared the stars and moons remained in the sky. The world felt alien. The tides rushed away, pulled far out from shore, then rushed in with all the collected force. Ships battered against the docks and broke. "What was that?" Takadox yelped, his sensitive eyes most affected by the red blast. "A success," Carapar replied with a shrug. Kalmah looked out toward the sky from the window with a concerned frown… As the fight on the rocky beach began to cede to a Metru-Nui victory, a blinding band of red light filled the sky. It stretched across the Heavens in a wide ring to settle on the horizon. Time itself seemed altered and out of sync. As Pardehi worked to save Jephro his head turned as something twitched on the beach. He couldn't tell what, but something moved. Rose in the bluff saw something twitch as well out of the corner of her eye. The fingers on one of the dead moved. Surely it was just the newly arrived howling winds? In the City of Legends, Turaga Dume felt weak. His knees wobbled and he sank back into his desk chair as the sky permanently changed. Looking out through the open doorway to the balcony of the Coliseum, the elderly Turaga had a perfect view of the changes. "Did Artahka actually do it?" He muttered to himself. "He couldn't possibly have felt this desperate." A matoran page knocked on the hallway door and entered. She look terrified. With her were scholars from each Metru. "We need answers," the scholars said sternly. Not even a how are you how was lunch did you also see the freakish change in the sky? "I agree," Turaga Dume said as he regained composure. He tightly wrung his hands beneath the desk. "Lhikan said the heavens would change if his plan succeeded. I did not imagine he had this much sway with the stars. I will speak with him one more time. Maybe he's repented enough in that cell to be of use to his people." "Lhikan predicted this, but you didn't say?" "He's said many things. He was babbling when captured in the Great Temple. You don't expect me to take everything a murderer says seriously do you, Nuju?" "You should when he was the protector of this island. When prophets speak the faithful should listen." "Well," Turaga Dume sniffed, "he'd stopped being any form of prophet by the time he said anything useful. Leave. I'll get your answers." The matoran nodded and shuffled from the room. He heard them whispering in the hallway, then realized they'd seen him in a moment of weakness. The matoran needed a strong leader or they would fracture as they were prone, not an elderly man in glasses pinched to his mask. Rising, he approached a mirror in the corner of the office. He stared himself down, counting his flaws and hardening them, pushing his weakness and grief aside into the small metaphorical jar he kept tightly sealed in his heartlight. He froze as a shape appeared behind him. He knew who it was, but it didn't make sense. They'd plagued him in dreams for weeks on end. The shadowy specter placed a cold hand on his shoulder. He felt nails digging into him through his robes. Warm breath passed his audio receptors as they leaned down close and whispered; "Hello Turaga. It's time." As they made their way from the cave the crew of The Ripple stared in awe at the changed weather. The storm surrounding the island vanished, replaced by an eerie ring of crimson on the horizon in all directions. Wherever they looked, the color stained the furthest point. Further concerning, the stars and moons lit the afternoon sky alongside the twin suns. The tide came in harsher, and withdrew quicker and further than previously noted. Several dead fish floated on the water’s surface, and when someone got hit with sea spray they noticed it was oddly warm. Then they heard the howls of the haunted, and saw the swiftly shambling corpses of nynrah ghosts clambering ungainly and bloated from the wreck of The Tactical Panda.

Hmmmm...

Finally the 5th chapter "The Rahi breeding cycle" was translated. Thanks @The Shadow Imperator for editing. - The role of Rahi in the GSR world then and now; - Biodermis - early version of Protodermis; - The Biodermis Forge in MNOG and deleted quest; - Canceled Master Builder Book; - Strange lore of Rahi fusions; - Rahi and their offspring in games.

HelLO tHerE SwEeT ChILd... So today I visited a secondhand Lego store in my area. They had a small lot of Bionicle parts, with an unusual amount of Noble Huna's. A blue one (and a near complete McToran Maku body to boot, only missing the disk for Love Isn't Canon Day too!), an orange Huna, and the marbled black & silver one from Tehutti. I shoved them all into my parts bag and bought them, only to realize later, upon close inspection the Tehutti Huna was damaged. Honestly the only way I can describe it, since its not super visible from the photos, is it looks like somebody stepped on it! Ouch! The right side of the mask got stretched out and bent with several scratches. I already have a intact Tehutti Huna from that set, so the gears in my head started turning and I realized this broken piece offered an opportunity to do something unique. I found some Citadel brand paint at a local gaming store, and got to work: After a few layers of paint (turns out Citadel has some really neat mud textured colors), and I felt I got a really neat broken infected mask. Had to try it out on my G2 Vakama and the Tehutti set: Now Tehutti: Here it is side by side with the pristine Tehutti mask I have: Lastly, alone on a mask stand. Looking at it straight on you can really tell how the right side of the mask (our left) is stretched out due to the damage it has:

IC: Mazor-Mysterious Island @Unreliable Narrator Mazor nodded and reached to pick up the Orb. IC: Jephro-Beach Asault @Biological Chronicler Jephro sighed. "Well, one of the generals singled me out. I managed to beat him. And then the ground. " He pointed towards the crater where he had been fighting. "It just exploded."

The undead rising are Mazor-based. Imagine if a toa of fire had grabbed the orb. For full transparency since I got this question a lot and that means I probably didn't do a good job writing it out, raised dead are a short term effect and only recently deceased are brought back. This effect will fade in a matter of a few IRL days.

@Unreliable Narrator so if someone dies now after the skies have changed and that crimson wave went everywhere, will they be reanimated? Or was the wave only like a one-time thing that reanimated any current dead bodies?

IC: Paju-Black Spike Mountain Paju shook her head. "Not unless you think a smelly old pipe is valuable. Let's get moving!" She lept back on her vehicle. IC: Kane-Oma-Vista Baby Kane smiled, "My name is Kane-Oma."

GM IC: Diving Bell - Aqua Magna Shoreline The device lay half-buried in the sands of the shoreline, marred by claw marks and what looked to be burns, but still intact enough to function.

OOC: in before we get hit by cosmic waves IC Kanohi - The Taku Kanohi’s hands had trembled slightly at the mention of Po-Metru. He … he knew a number of refugees from Fe-Koro had immigrated there, as had some of the Matoran from Bo-Wahi. He … he wasn’t sure if he could face them, not after all he failed to do. His hand drifted over to the broken masks covering his body, adjusting them to hide even more of his orange and black body. Finally after some fidgeting with his armor, he managed to say, “When we arrive in Po-Metru, I-I-I will stay by the ship. Maybe I can fix the broken engine. At-at least I can fix the hull.”

we'd see the red effect in the sky but there's no corpses on the ship (hopefully, unless knichou's hiding something /s) so we won't know anything weird has happened those at the wreck and at the beach assault are probably the only ones who know there's a zombie apoc starting

IC: Vrokdann - Coast of Aqua Magna [the Aquarium] As soon as Vrokdann had finished her aimless angsting, the quarters' door slammed open. It was Waveahk, slightly more upset than usual, with orders to leave. "Huh? Leaving?" surprisingly, she did what an intelligent being would do and started following her 'boss'. "Had he said anything about leaving?" -Don't ask me, you're the one in charge...- "Oh, now I am, aren't I?" -What if we just shut up and follow for a change?! It might be wisest.- "And wise is good for me because...?" -Because otherwise you'll end up imprisoned, if not dead?- Vrokdann was walking as she had this meaningless dialogue. How she didn't bump into anything or anyone speaks lenghts about 'Drendakk''s ability to command her subconsciously...

Wow, this looks pretty creepy. Nice job.

IC: Pardehi - Silver Beach Assault - @Smudge8 "I hate it when the ground explodes too." he said, continuing to apply his remedies. "What did the general single you out for? I can't believe anyone that high up in the Barraki army could be that stupid. Maybe this war will be over sooner than we thought." IC: Barak - Ta Metru Furnaces - @Tarn@Darth Jaller Barak shrunk back at the site of the vahki guards at once. Once they detected him, there would be no maintaining his masquerade. "No, no,no!" Barak exclaimed, sounding more nervous and skakdi-like than he went. "This isn't the way it was supposed to go! We have to find another way in! Now!"

Narmoto

IC: Reliable Narrator Ga-Metru Okuo found several kanoka disc sellers in the neighborhood. The closest was a few blocks away from the college, with good ratings and Ga-Metru disks up to a power rating of four. He'd have to navigate the rooftops carefully with his new pal the containment sphere or risk getting spotted by the vahki. Speaking of… The bordakh chasing Waveahk proved difficult to lose. Their ability to swim confounded him after his initial exposure to the rorzakh. In the end, he realized the only way to out pace the robots involved going beyond their operating range from the charging hive they'd been assigned. Ooc: at work, any further posts from me delayed until done with shift.

So, my boss and coworkers and I discuss this every so often, and I've got it down to where I rank the LEGO Movies in this order: Batman Movie--it felt more streamlined and amusing and easier to follow than TLM The LEGO Movie--it was the first in the series and established a style and form that the others would follow, albeit with some aspects f it feeling jumbled (which makes sense, as it follows the play patterns of a child's mind, so it's expected to be a bit odd) but I otherwise loved it. TLM2--Like the Batman Movie, it was more streamlined and consistent, but it has the downside of being slightly less memorable and feels very much like a regular movie sequel in that the world and characters have already been established and the plot unfortunately makes it too similar to the original to be memorable on its own. It has it's moments, but not enough to measure up to the original. Though maybe I have to watch it a few more times in order to appreciate it more. The next movie they will produce. And the movie after that. And maybe the third one a few years after that, should be pretty good. The LEGO Ninjago Movie--Unfortunately, I really didn't like this one as much as I hoped to. It had none of the charm of the original LEGO Movie or the Ninjago series and most of the jokes were really forced and felt kinda bland in execution. Story was consistent, but wasn't engaging enough for me to care about it all that much. It gave us some fun new sets, but that was about it. It butchered the characters' personalities in all the wrong ways and, while I get that it was supposed to be its own thing, it just fell flat on its face and no amount of star power or my loyalty to the Ninjago brand could save it in my eyes. Yeah, there's my two cents. Don't spend it all in one place.

IC: Reliable Narrator | Barraki Island Capital “Come away from the window. You can’t hypnotize all of Metru-Nui just by staring at it,” said the soothing voice of Pridak as he lounged on the wide sofa he called a throne. Barraki Pridak was a warrior who loved comfort, pleasure, and his own achievements. His robes were white with red trim, silver bangles dangling from his wrists and the points of his mask as he swirled an ornate glass of bula berry wine. He watched Takadox staring out from the throne room toward a regal warship in the port. The blue armored Barraki’s hands were gripped tightly on the windowsill, his lips sneering and whispering curses. “Takadox I can’t hear you if you don’t speak up. You know this.” “Carapar did not have the right to take the mission right out from under me. He stole my prize. That orb was mine by right. The lands south of Destral are mine.” Takadox fumed and spun around, angrily gesturing toward Pridak. “Why do you let this happen? Why do you let him steal from me like this? After all my people have done for this cause, all the blood we’ve spilled, you just let him waltz across my borders and pis--” “I stole nothing, and we could hear you from down the hall,” Carapar replied, entering the throne room. His heavy footsteps echoed in the vaulted roof. They bickered in a large and ornately decorated throne room. Pridak never left except to wage war if he could help it, preferring to adorn every space with the trinkets of glory and victory on the battlefield. Tattered banners of fallen matoran lands formed the rug Carapar walked across towards his fellow kings. Kalmah Lord of Scars, the red warrior loved by his people, walked with him. His religious whips were wrapped around his arms as always. He tossed a war torn banner of another conquest on the ground, then kicked it toward Pridak. A mask bounced out, sliding across the stone floor where the carpet ended. Pridak tossed a pillow toward one of the piles of trophies near his throne. It jostled a heap of green armor, which rustled awake and rolled over with an aged cough to reveal a very much alive turaga of air. “What do you make of this?” Pridak asked. “A bad idea,” Nidhiki replied. “Cornering Metru-Nui's religion is only going to make it more aggressive. Artakha is a sacred land. Killing its leader isn’t doing you any favors.” “He was just an old man in a mask,” Kalmah said as he shrugged. His species were maskless air breathers, caring little for the ways of matoran or their needs after centuries of subjugation by a remote empire. "Besides, their faith is broken pile of lies. The truth should be known." Nidhiki rubbed his chin. “An old man and a pile of lies maybe, but a religious icon more importantly. His brother won’t take this well.” “Stop ignoring me,” Takadox blathered. The Barraki and the traitorous turaga ignored him. “Karzhani is just another old man with a mask,” Kalmah replied. Pridak nodded. “Mantax should be able to handle him alone, if he’s anything like his brother," Carapar suggested. “Where is Mantax, Pridak?” Pridak leaned back into his sofa and took a sip of wine. “He went to the front lines. Something about setting up a surprise.” Pridak’s wine glass lifted into the air as Takadox swiped it from his grasp. “I said stop ignoring me. Why do you let him insult my people like this? It’s unjust.” “You don’t get to have everything you want,” Carapar replied. “Stop whining about it. You were busy, I stepped in. The plan goes on. When I’m busy you’ll step in, as you always do.” “Are you implying something?” “No, I think I made it very plain,” said Carapar. The two barraki stared into each other’s eyes, rage filling Takadox’s and a bored glaze filling Carapar’s. Sparks flew between them. Kalmah stood by Carapar's side innocently, but Pridak noticed the warlord's whips loosening and his clenched fists. Takadox broke first, turning away grumpily. “Well, you owe me and my people an island for what you did.” He crossed his arms and stalked back toward the window to lean against the sill and stair at the sunset. Nidhiki chuckled. “You wage a war to destroy my people in the name of justice and equality and you squabble over rocks and islands? If only I was back in Metru-Nui. I could make everything so much easier and just kill her myself. I did it once, I can do it again." An uneasy silence filled the room. Pridak leaned forward, hands clasped in front of his mouth as he stared at the turaga who'd come to them with such a tempting offer so many moons ago. He'd been faithful, fulfilled his duties. Finally, Pridak whispered, “that can be arranged."

Nektann

I think fabSheers was probably thinking of the collecting poster that came with the packs, it has a little indicator of a mystery mask that shows the vahi, but in actuality it was the infected hau. they were probably planning to include the vahi before deciding to pack it as a bonus with the PC game instead!

I mean really the only way to do it is to gather data off their own mask packs. The only mask packs I have really opened large amounts of were the 2002 Gold Mask & Krana packs. I have opened five packs in total from that era, one USA domestic box in 2002; and four European packs in 2019. From those packs I got in terms of masks: 1 Gold Hau 2 Silver Pakaris 1 Gold Akaku 1 Gold Kakama 1 Silver Kakama 1 Silver Hau 1 Silver Miru 1 Silver Kaukau As for the Krana, my memory is fuzzy as to what I got in that 2002 pack; but to go off what I got in the packs I opened in 2019: Krana Xa: 1 Blue, 1 Tan, 1 Lime Green, 1 Black Krana Vu: 1 Light blue, 1 Gray Krana Yo: 1 Purple, 1 Yellow Krana Za: 1 Green, 1 Yellow, 1 White, 1 Gray Now in more regards to the international packs, I have seen 30 packs opened all at once and the haul posted online. Forgive me, I don't want to sort all the Krana from that post, but let me pull up the mask results from 30 international packs: 7 Silver Pakari 0 Silver Kakama 4 Silver Hau 3 Silver Kaukau 4 Silver Akaku 6 Silver Miru 6 Gold Miru 5 Gold Akaku 6 Gold Kaukau 9 Gold Hau 6 Gold Kakama 4 Gold Pakari Don't know if that is a large enough sample to represent the thousands of packs produced (hundreds of thousands? Who knows the production size of these runs?) But it might be a start.

IC: Akkitu- Black Spike Mountains Akkitu turned The Sight around resumed following Tekmo.

Axonn

Umbra

GM IC: Black Spike Mountains Nothing is immediately evident, though the craggy terrain leaves plenty of places to hide...

GM IC: Tekmo and co. - Black Spike Mountains The source of the smoke gradually makes itself evident in the form of another blast site. Mangled exposed pipes are once again visible from the crater left by the relatively recent detonation, which was clearly more forceful than the first. GM IC: Karzahni - Cliffside (Arkis' Office) "Very good," the creature all but purred, "I... thank you...?"

Nuparu

Kadin

This was absolutely fascinating to read. I can't wait for the next blog post!

Suukorak

“King of Sharks”

Lerahk

Kraata-Kal

Reidak

Great War

Electric Bug

Love this, you've successfully made me feel like I've somehow got another class this semester.

Sacred Fire

Arena Vulcanus

Kakama

Reidak

Papa Nihu Reef

Underwater Trap

Ka