Maple Story

I

Arriving at Victoria Island,
A beginner marks the Perion Highland.
Each platform brings Jax one step higher,
To where Dances with Balrog tends his fire.
Jax pushes through a throng of warriors,
A message flies in from the couriers.
“Beginners have embarked to find their place,
Victoria’s Four Wiseman, judge each case,
And judged to be adventurers with grit,
Then give a taste of power to commit
To each a path to seek their destiny.
Revival now incurs a penalty.
Adventure waits for them here and beyond,
As well as enmity and friendship’s bond.”
Dances with Balrog speaks to Jax of will,
Courage, and strength, so that his limbs all fill
With new-found vigor, prompting him to go.
He takes in all the ancient highland’s glow,
He sees through past the dusty, lingr’ing haze,
A man, upon whose head a headdress plays,
Its feathers swaying amid the highland heat,
Enframe his skin which 90 years have beat.
Jax seeks the venerable, wizened man,
And speaks to him, the leader of their clan,
A man of gravity the town calls Black Bull.
He says, “The stumps outside that crops pull,
Seek revenge for how they have been cut.
Bring thirty branches at my feet to put,
And you will have my trust.” Jax takes his spear,
And in his jeans and t-shirt, has no fear.
The stumps roam at their will outside the gate,
The orange town’s constant battle as of late.
He digs his spear into a stump’s hard sides,
It cries and falls. More emerge as it betides,
So that Jax must step back from their advance.
He swings his spear, which off of rough sides glance
And makes them fall away and leave material.
The magic giving life is but ethereal.
The stumps fall from his spearhead’s constant threat,
Despite their numbers and their sticky sweat.
Jax spots a stump that fills his chest with dread.
Much darker than the others that it lead,
It has an axehead buried there to stay,
And lives despite the wound that could it splay.
As if by injury it gained more power,
It would not flinch, nor from his spearhead cower.
After a lengthy battle, it was felled,
And once dead, Jax a piece of wood beheld.

II

Skye seeks Athena at Henesys’ green plain,
Where an arena customs long sustain,
And at its end, the painted targets stand.
Skye, grown in skill, for whom a test is planned,
Understands the objective, golems dwell
Beneath old ruins, raised by a dark spell.
She must obtain the fragments of their core,
A block in which dark magic powers store.
Skye takes the portal to the grassy ruins,
And finds herself amid these rocky humans.
She fires two arrows both which strike at once,
Which being aimed well, stick rather than to bounce.
She takes the higher ground, but is surrounded,
They strike whose strength made Skye astounded.
They pummel who intrudes upon their fix,
The golems on the fragile bowman picks,
Until Skye, nearing death, a potion drinks,
And having that, the terror melts and shrinks.
She jumps down from where Golems have run o’er
To her last stand down on the temple’s floor.
The arrows sail once loosed from Skye’s bow
And meet their mark, as golems are laid low.
They fall away and in the rubble leave,
The orbs which all their heavy bodies heave.
Being given thirty orbs, Athena grants
Skye two choices on how she should advance.

III

Pat and Victoria each climb up higher,
Each boasting, calls the other liar,
Believing her own skill to be the best,
Both eager to put questions down to rest.
Inside Elinia’s woods two friends race
This jump quest which participants retrace.
Pat the assassin gains the upper hand,
Five steps ahead of where her friend’s feet land.
With measured jumps each floating block is passed
Being not too far, nor short, but fear is cast
When Victoria ties together jumps,
Placing her right behind the just passed clumps.
Pat must maintain her lead, and will not lose,
She keeps on hopping, focus in her shoes.
The floating blocks now change direction,
And go on ten more blocks in this next section.
The two are tied in pace, Pat leading still,
Until this sight more jealous thoughts instill.
Victoria flies on to close the gap,
And pressure starts to build and Pat’s nerves sap.
Then, rather than lament being outdone,
Pat watches how much longer she can gun.
Once she is out of sight, Pat starts once more,
And hops and finds each floating block’s sure floor.
She sees Victoria fall down unfinished,
And Pat’s lead is once more replenished.
Grounded, Victoria must catch her breath,
And looks up at the steps she stands beneath.

IV

Inside of Sleepywood Ant Tunnels wind,
And undead mushrooms disturb peace of mind,
The charms applied, make them two times as strong,
Than when they lived to see what came along,
To bump, harass and ambush. Underground,
They live without this spark and jump around,
And blind but not unfeeling terror’s sound,
It fills them with a frenzy most profound.
A mob of mushrooms fall as friends trek deeper,
A jester’s hat is found, a poor man’s keeper.
The path they leave behind is lined with charms,
A green curse-eye attacks, the group alarms.
Evil pervades those tunnels, somehow cursed,
But by a group of friends won’t be reversed.
Further on, Drakes roam dangerous and armed,
With claws and teeth to shred, and prove unharmed,
When bowman’s arrows miss, provoking one,
But striking true, no damage could be done.
They turn and take a path which brings them out,
A guard asleep on duty mans the route,
Which leads to Heresy’s the quiet town.
The friends who heard about the sauna gown,
Bring Rina what she seeks, some curse-eye tails,
For her unagi dish to which all pales.
They go deliver it to Ronnie,
Who in Ellinia’s woods grows scrawny.
Being given what he wants, he shares his book,
A book that the mischievous Lupins took.
Once back at Sleepywood, they find the man
Who owns the sauna, and gives it a scan,
And finding it is his, gives them their due,
A sauna robe for each from boxes drew,
And changing, friends go to the sauna’s room,
Where they put off the quests they will resume.

Maple Royals

I

Though no assassin, bandit, rogue, chief bandit,
Or hermit ever took a blow in dark sight,
The Tauromacis’ poleaxe,  touching land lit
And any contact made spun webs of arc light,
Thus wary foes knew well they hit their mark right.
With potions they adventure well prepared,
T’go further than end where the Kargo’s bark might.
For claiming items rare from battle bared,
To drag to crowds in Channel 1 that offers blared.

The First Capes Trade With Us to deep ends turned,
To end where, white fangs armed, the villain broods.
In caverns underground, the pillars burned:
Metal hoops, thieves; hearts, one mage; blue moon studs,
Fighters; and crosses, clerics; their light floods.
They stopped in ruins where they saw road,
To watch for dark-winged claws; t’hear thuds and moods;
And back and forth took portals that rooms showed,
And met down where they hoped to snag the motherload.

The thick haze permeated all the ground,
And colonnades stood bathed in twilight twinkle.
The enemy was nowhere to be found
And caused chagrin, so their noses crinkle.
Pillars climbed, their steps made posts sprinkle,
And their steps were mute amid the tall fog–
A Kandine, a Serpent Spear, or Hinkel–
Were images, mirages that which all slog.
Waiting bore down at the steps of Jr. Balrog.

The fog was lifted to an eerie ringing,
They saw the air shift when they heard the flapping,
The torrents pushed down from above them bringing
Jr. Balrog right on top, who grappling
On a post, swung towards hunters trapping.
One fighter, blazed in arms, two-handed sword
Sent through the air. He missed his target tapping
The cold floor. His friend for battle roared,
And both the fighters brought out fury that they stored.

The fighters closest to their foe attacked;
The thieves searched out his weak point in hind quarter;
While wizards from afar their magic stacked.
Quick flurries sent the fighters in disorder;
Dexterity they knew, that spare recorder.
The two withstood lunges and divide,
Each one to satiate his inner hoarder.
The fighters battled with the beast in stride,
And fought down in its range, helped by a bandit knifed.

The bandit strength then stirred, commanding knives:
The dark lord’s handiwork in savage blows
Was in his grasp surpassed, and dark flesh rives,
Gives six points jointly aimed, midst their fire throws,
A technique in which knife tips ‘tack in droves:
The stones of Perion, the Kerning hives,
Or earth reared up from ‘twixt Ellinia’s groves,
Or Scarecrows Henesys had made, arrives.
They fought for loot which Jr. Balrog took who took men’s
                                                                                        [lives.

He rained down meteors from upraised talon,
They through walls and fiery alley went,
Through meteors that fell, and past those fallen.
Despite their lives, the thieves in fight were valiant,
Their blades a blur ‘gainst claws most salient.
The chaos all around being self-same triggers,
Wrought by stars brought down in shows brilliant,
Disrupt and made the ground split open fissures,
So eruptions flew o’er earth and lit with figures.

The fighters could not bear the heat too long,
So they retreated, and upon a piece
Of ice touched, which by Faery powers strong,
Made so no pow’r would other states release,
A boon to fighters driving back the preasse.
They wet their beards, or on the forehead crease,
Then charged back in with effort to increase,
At Jr. Balrog limned in histories,
As Sleepywood’s past terror for past centuries. 
                            
The bandit’s luck thus far had him preserved,
But Jr. Balrog cornered down his foe,
And swiped with claws that reared sharp tips that curved,
To leave the bandit in a state of woe.
A wizard teleported, and did glow,
Her heart-shaped earrings glinted and they swerved
As she stood guarding him, her spells to throw,
Which, for such circumstances well reserved,
A cloud of poison gas spell cast that cover served.

Like dragons fought with griffons claw and talon,
‘Gainst the griffon’s beak and lion paws,
Its scales beat on, while feathers pulled were fallen,
Jr. Balrog’s fireball shot from its jaws,
Hurled at the targets hid, dark lines fresh draws,
But wildly missed the heroes in their shroud.
Then in their triple scratch, they felt his claws,
Which found the two who cried in terror loud,
And lifeless turned their bodies, them not being allowed.

They battled like famed Tristan of the past,
Their gladius blades strooke, would smash back foes,
And massive damage deal in right spots cast,
Their fury not abating, courage shows,
Against the one who walked on cloven toes.
His claws ripped through the air to counter back,
Their magic claws could cut down who they chose,
But fighters trained to bear the hard attack,
Well re-encountered with hard strikes and showed no                                                                                                      [slack.

The fighters of the First Capes Trade With Us,
Saw Jr. Balrog weaken midst their fury,
And every chance did take, that good chance was–
And lo! The beast was theirs to bury,
And much loot to claim. Through sweat, they hurry–
One could see three magic scrolls midst mesos,
A Kandine, and Ilbi stars that flurry.
Rich rewards for them who to the place goes,
Dangerous adventure from who not a trace shows.

II
What more was left, with Jr. Balrog gone?
The sanctuary under Sleepywood
Was emptied, leave the travelers who won.
They used their scrolls to get to town, for food,
Rest, and to spread news of achievements good.
Where Chrishrama loiters there exists a sauna–
Mr. Wetbottom’s the crew renewed,
Which outside breathed in damp air cleaned by fauna,
Making moves to find a bow or red katana.

They sink then lingering into a sleep,
Since Sleepywood’s charm was the law o’er all,
The group could not afford their place to keep,
When news of unexplored finds they did call
To carry out with the guild’s wherewithal,
But first they head to Perion to sell
And into channel one the First Capes fall
With items loaded, open air in which to yell,
Ilbis on sale for thirty million a shell.

A station opened recently to Orbis–
A town in the skies connected down
To where the Hectors farmed would clothe the garb-less.
Frozen tundra housed El Nath the town,
Beyond which Pepes skid, once having flown,
LargeYetis roamed at will and rumbling stepped,
With dark companions as it was known,
Them Pepes mount, who from heights on them lept,
Yeti and Pepe the two fought and by men clept.

To there the men of First Capes Trade With Us
Wend where Alcaster had for them a guest,
An ancient book of powers odious
Was lost to frozen mountains and time lest
Adventurers lent ear to his behest.
They found a girl to lead them to a tomb
A ring existed that its wearers blessed,
To be found buried with one to exhume,
They passed through Icy Fields that went to Where Cliffs  
                                                                                       [ Loom.

Jade the young green-eyed girl from El Nath
In Icy Fields Somewhere to Haunted Ground
Led First Capes Trade With Us who took the path,
And being led met those known as Eight Lines Round.
Who quoth: “For worse, the Yetis miss to wound
A misborne band of mostly bandits! Bah!”
Their guests then quoth, “Aside, please move around,
It is our turn to get at this old claw.”
By which case, groups went down, this item t’freshly awe.

The ring was handed o’er to Sergeant Bravo
By Jade their guide, a fighter and his friend,
Jake, Israel, Sammy and Gustavo,
All equipped Shinkita’s double end;
A mage a mitre wore, blazed azure bend
Argent, a pom-pom on the head; two clerics,
Trained in Ellinia, who could friends mend,
Their names being Acheron and Alrichs;
Thus they gave the ring to him while clerics healed with                                                                                               [lyrics.

They pass cold landscapes which pines filled in forests,
The Western White Pine’s five-prongs made its spines,
The Western Yellow Cedar’s bark was porous,
And one for rain coats, the other, medicines.
Subalpine Firs, among the latter, lines
Itself with boughs that made it good for beds,
Their young shootsn Sitka Spruces sweet designs,
And Shore Pine’s bark when torn, plates sheds
That can splint injuries—through there the journey heads.

The First Capes go to get ten thousand furs,
And fighters spy ahead a herd of Hectors,
Ray and Senshi charge the steaming curs,
Whose claws were fierce, but shields made good                                                                                                                                         [deflectors
Their canine pets were loot selectors.
Senshi’s mace was dominant in crowds,
And smashed their skulls and cut out useful sectors.
They fight until the loot all landscapes shrouds,
Their potions made for warriors their costs redoubts.

Their ops took them around to Haunted Ground–
And five miles past, a mesa all addressed,
Snow-covered, and all undulating found
Plains filled with Hectors, swarming in a fest.
And through the narrow gulch the First Capes pressed,
Their swords came cutting through and maces clonked,
The fighters kept the Hectors from their rest,
So battle choked the tide and map parts plonked.
The fighters spread five fields in temps that downwards                                                                                                  [plunked.

The torn cartography was brought to him,
Alcaster pieced together pages heaved
By Hectors, who they hunted and did trim,
The Ancient Book of Power’s, then believed
To lay in mountains, secret was retrieved,
Its resting place was in the Orbis Tower,
And ten tower floors they climbed and weaved
Through, and came to that Ancient Book of Power,
Underneath a statue where the sentinels did scour.

No more would that defiant tome resorted
To help the Black Mage in time of need.
Its magic sealed, the book no more reported
To the caster’s call, through Alcaster’s purging deed
Thus Alcaster awards Justice Capes, which speed
Them further on and them denote as level sixties
And hemmed in gold, give five of what they need.
Upgrades were made, and First Capes fly betwixt seas
Having equipped the right to venture to the pixies.

III
The city Orbis floated in the sky,
An ocean sat below: a cloud whose power
Was enchanted made so Orbis up could fly.
Beyond its gate, there led paths to a bower,
There, Nependeths travelers would devour,
Jr. Cellions with horns foes swarm,
The felines who would ram through constant stour;
And higher-living Cellions they then alarm,
Betwixt Lucidas that up in heights would bright skies                                                                                          [warm.

Alas! All this could be Dark Lucid’s method
Where by dreams he hatched and put to use,
To barrier Truth, he makes my death bed
From its life-thread. This poetic muse
Stirs not to frame recordings of that ruse,
Or be unhelpful in the mortal realm,
But of some decent leisure be to choose,
A tale of simpler times for rhymes to helm,
Which flows like figureheads men carved and formed of                                                                                                [elm.

Below them laid the pixie’s skies all terraced
‘Mong the clouds. Cascading levels stretched
Extending down through clouds that block the fairest
City that looked upon men and was hatched
In blueprint form, then to construction latched,
And, magic clouds granting flight, made airborne–
To rest in skies, forever in minds etched.
They meet the townspeople, and find hair torne
A faery in distress, her garments threadbare-worn.

A picture frame clings to her hands, her pet
Eliza, quoth then Kriel (as she was hight),
Has run amok, being crazed, and would none let
To come retrieve her, Kriel asked, “It does slight
Me so, to have my pet become the cause of flight,
And so I ask you brave ones, could you clear
The skies Lucidas mar and clear their blight?
Then maybe my Eliza, now in fear,
Will come back and be sweet like my Eliza dear.

Thus to the floating gardens First Capes went,
First past Nependeths, then by climbing ropes,
Through gardens of three colors made ascent,
And came to where the Cellions laid on slopes,
Once pushing through, the sky much wider opes,
And gardens far displayed hang high above,
A staircase to the skies they take. Each copes
To breathe the thinned-out atmosophere. The drove
Arrived at where the staircase ends and the doors shove.

Into a garden dark and rank they fill,
Wrought gates in ivy lined passed, they then searched
Jr. Lucida’s grounds to pass and kill.
Gardens of Darkness floating high besmirched
The fair sky Orbis filled and had researched.
Lucidas hunted down did darkness lighten,
So Eliza could leave from the place he perched,
And when two hundred less of them would frighten
Kriel’s Lucida, they all catch him so skies brighten.