History Recap / DungeonKeeperAmi

Since the Baron will be able to track down where Ami was arrested and thus trace her dungeon, Ami and her minions make preparations. The Reaper instructs her that she needs to learn a [[DemonicPossession minion possession]] spell and use it to invade another Keeper's mind, in order to take the knowledge of how to build more Dungeon Hearts. She succeeds in learning the spell, but takes over ''his'' body full time for several days, leading to a funny NotWhatItLooksLike situation that begins her reputation as a sadistic AnythingThatMoves predator (an asset, in the Underworld, but a RunningGag amongst her friends). Snyder also assists her in designing a practical animated golem, to provide disposable shock troops.\\\

After transferring her minions and resources to the new dungeon, Ami imprisons Tasbaal in her original dungeon, and leaves Malleus' concubines there to be rescued, before appearing to the Baron's forces in an ice golem body, seeking a peaceful resolution. When he rejects her overtures (as expected), she simply directs him to her dungeon's location. However, she provides a decoy Heart, leaving the real one hidden, inactive, and disconnected, rather than dead.\\\

While all this has been happening, the remaining Sailor Senshi on Earth have been attempting to track Ami down. They are able to scry on her, but are confused and perturbed by the changes in her appearance and her dealings with dark creatures. They also attempt to interrogate a youma, leading to a situation where General Jadeite is humiliated by Luna, and is imprisoned in Endless Sleep by an angry Queen Beryl (sooner than canon).

In the aftermath of Ami's defeat of the Avatar, the dark god Crowned Death steals the Avatar's Mantle to use in a blasphemous HumanSacrifice ritual. Ami gathers her forces to interrupt the ritual and rescue the intended sacrifices, then forms a temporary international coalition that tracks down and destroys Crowned Death's underwater fortress-temple, breaking most of his power in the world.

Having gained some breathing room, Ami arranges for Snyder to introduce her at a Light temple so that she can explain her situation and seek help. The attempt is a partial success; the Light gods view her memories, accept her story, and are sympathetic, but their power to help is limited by the fact that her soul is in the realm of the dark gods. Furthermore, since she is a conduit for the dark gods, the Light forbids her from returning to her own world. However, they do offer the option of a safe imprisonment, living endlessly in a monastery with a shielded Dungeon Heart. Ami turns down the offer on the grounds that the other Sailor Senshi need her help to protect Earth. The Light further informs her that the only possibility to retrieve her soul is to worship a dark god -- thus transferring her soul out of limbo into that god's possession -- and then persuade that god to return it. Overall, Ami is disappointed, but is at least allowed to freely leave.\\\

In preparation for Azzathra's duel, Cathy puts Ami through an intensive fitness and training regimen, including sparring against Cathy herself and a dragon. Ami also learns some of Jadeite's teleportation and flight spells, and designs a suit of magic PoweredArmor that can further enhance her strength and speed; the principles are then used to create an animated Reaper puppet for her to fight.\\\

When the ice ship reaches the Avatar Islands, Ami finds a variety of crystal Dungeon Heart that does not require the dark gods' blessing to create, and thus would be less vulnerable to retaliation like the plague. However, this type of Heart depends entirely on gold and similar precious materials, instead of providing a pool of mana, requires different room designs, and cutting off the dark gods would have side effects like losing access to the imp creation spell. Despite the drawbacks, she and her advisors agree that transitioning to a crystal Heart is necessary, as the plague or similar punishments will inevitably come sooner or later. She carves out a large iceberg from the North Pole and constructs a crystal Heart there, in preparation to make a floating dungeon that can sail to the Avatar Islands for further research and development.\\\

Returning to the Avatar Islands, Ami creates a second crystal Heart there. Unfortunately, the new Heart reacts poorly with the organic Heart docked nearby, causing a dominance battle that ends with the organic Heart exploding. The detonation also attracts the attention of Keeper Zarekos, who overruns her new dungeon with ghosts and vampires and destroys the new crystal Heart, hurling Ami's body into the realm of the dark gods, where Azzathra tortures her and promises to claim her soul when she dies. Jadeite sends her the life energy that he had collected on Earth before being exiled, to help her return; he succeeds, and she returns to her remaining crystal Heart, but Azzathra activates the two-day countdown to the duel, thwarting her hopes of avoiding it.\\\

Unfortunately, Ami finds that her strategic retreats have given her a poor reputation and hinder recruitment of soldiers. She settles for hiring goblins, who take over many of the jobs usually performed by imps (which she can't use with her crystal Heart), and begins teaching them the Reaper's equipment spell. Snyder is also able to obtain information about the weaknesses of vampires, although he is attacked by bounty hunters in the process, revealing that Ami has become a high priority target.\\\

The Sailor Senshi are chasing General Jadeite through a series of portals, but Sailor Mercury fails to keep up when the latest portal closes, and is trapped in an abandoned dungeon. There she finds a Horned Reaper who has been trapped for centuries, and who instructs her to claim the Dungeon Heart and become a Dungeon Keeper, in hopes that he will find a chance to escape. Ami is skeptical and suspicious, but after studying the Heart at length, she attempts to draw on its extensive magical power directly to help disable him -- which, in combination with the blood spilled on it from her rough landing, is enough to form a bond and make her a Keeper anyway, awakening the dungeon.\\\

When they arrive, the capital is under attack by Keeper Arachne, and the mayor quickly puts Ami on a front-line assault team in lieu of other punishment. Her team is captured and imprisoned, but she is able to use her Senshi magic to escape, and summons the Reaper to her location, devastating Arachne's spider forces and assisting Baron Leopold to destroy Arachne's Dungeon Heart. In the process, however, Ami's true identity as a Keeper -- not just a minion or runaway child -- is revealed, and the Baron turns on her, as well as on Jered, Cathy, and Snyder, whom he accuses of being in league with her. Knowing that they don't have a real chance of clearing their names, they take their chances with Ami, accepting employment with her so that she can transport them to her dungeon.\\\

Since the Baron will be able to track down where Ami was arrested and thus trace her dungeon, Ami and her minions make preparations. The Reaper informs her that she needs to learn a [[DemonicPossession minion possession]] spell and subordinate another Keeper in order to take the knowledge of how to build more Dungeon Hearts; she succeeds in learning the spell, but takes over ''his'' body full time for several days, leading to a funny NotWhatItLooksLike situation that begins her reputation as a sadistic AnythingThatMoves predator (an asset, in the Underworld, but a RunningGag amongst her friends). Snyder also assists her in designing a practical animated golem, to provide disposable shock troops.\\\

Upon excavating an Underworld portal and visiting a nearby town, however, the Reaper turns on Ami and breaks his minion bond, rejoicing in his new freedom and promising revenge for humiliating him. She is hard-pressed to beat him, but after she briefly possesses Cathy in order to stave off her own body's injuries, Cathy retains access to her Senshi abilities; finding himself facing ''two'' empowered opponents, the Reaper retreats.\\\

Ami hires new minions from the Underworld, including Tzerk the tentacle blob and Tasbaal the former high priest of a dead dark god. Based on Tasbaal's information, she is able to complete a working golem design, and selects the dungeon of Keeper Malleus as her target for evacuating before the Baron finds her. After a hard assault, she and a golem army succeed in reaching Malleus' Dungeon Heart and forcing his submission, after which she ransacks his (centuries of) memories, then executes him in disgust at the rampant unrepentant horrors she found.\\\

After transferring her minions and resources to the new dungeon, Ami imprisons Tasbaal in her original dungeon, and leaves Malleus' concubines there to be rescued, before appearing to the Baron's forces in an ice golem body. When he rejects her peaceful overtures (as expected), she simply directs him to her dungeon's location. However, she provides a decoy Heart, leaving the real one hidden, inactive, and disconnected, rather than dead.\\\

While all this has been happening, the remaining Sailor Senshi on Earth have been attempting to track Ami down. They are able to scry on her, but are confused and perturbed by the changes in her appearance and her dealings with dark creatures. They also attempt to interrogate a youma, leading to a situation where General Jadeite is humiliated by Luna, and is imprisoned in Endless Sleep by Queen Beryl (sooner than canon).

[[/folder]]

"Strange Trolls" to "Musings" (about 153 thousand words)

"Vampire Solution" to "Catastrophic Failure (part 2)" (about 172 thousand words)

In the aftermath of Ami's defeat of the Avatar, the dark god Crowned Death steals the Avatar's Mantle to use in a blasphemous HumanSacrifice ritual. Ami gathers her forces to interrupt the ritual and rescue the intended sacrifices, then tracks down and destroys Crowned Death's underwater fortress-temple, breaking most of his power in the world.

Introduces the sub-plots for Ami and Jadeite's relationship and Ami's preparations for the expedition to the Avatar Islands. Also, as a desperate insurance against the risk of dying in the duel and being claimed by the god of violence, as well as the first step toward locating and recovering her soul, Ami becomes a worshipper of Metallia, goddess of the Dark Kingdom.

Marda is also quite unimpressed by Ami's goblins. However, Ami then reveals that they are not intended to be infantry, but rather pilots for remote-controlled magical robots. While the reaperbots prove to be no match for warriors like Marda, they are considerably faster and stronger than the goblins' native forms. They also require considerable amounts of gold for power; Ami can afford it due to her synthetic sapphire production, but does not reveal this source to Marda, leaving the troll puzzled.\\\

Ami leads the initial assault on Zarekos' lands in the body of the third freed youma, this one left practically mindless by long sensory deprivation. Her reaperbots take heavy casualties, and she herself is wounded by Zarekos -- who manages to draw blood from her true body and the youma at the same time -- but she successfully destroys a Dungeon Heart, clearing an area where she can establish a foothold free of Zarekos' influence. To her concern, the youma -- tentatively named "Tiger" for her orange and black stripes -- retains Ami's form even after she stops possessing it in order for them to be healed.\\\

The Light speaks through the Avatar and negotiates with Ami, agreeing that the Avatar will not attack her on the Avatar Isles in exchange for freeing him. Ami also informs the Light about Queen Metallia, whom they had not previously encountered, and provides her notes on Dungeon Heart creation and modification, since previously no-one with that knowledge had gone to the Light gods to pass it on. In exchange for the notes, they provide the Sailor Senshi with a crystal ball to allow for full two-way scrying. As a parting gift, the Light appoints her Empress of the Avatar Isles, so that she can spin her release of the Avatar as a clever blackmail plot, instead of revealing her true allegiance to all her minions and the other Keepers.\\\

Scrying reveals that Marda and the trolls have prepared a ritual to cleanse the Avatar's Mantle. Once done, it transforms Marda back into the form of a human male: the Avatar of the Light gods. Ami goes to talk to him, willing to cooperate or leave, but he declares his intention to destroy her and any other Keepers he finds -- although the Light then instructs him to take her alive instead. Ami retreats to her dungeon, where the Avatar follows, intending to imprison her as the Light had originally offered. He proves to be NighInvulnerable to every attack she can throw at him, but she takes him by surprise with a hidden electromagnet that she constructs in a wall behind him; with him pinned by his armour, her Keeper powers consider him to be her prisoner, allowing her to confiscate the mantle and thus cut off his instant {{healing|Factor}}.\\\

Scrying reveals that Marda and the trolls have prepared a ritual to cleanse the Avatar's Mantle. Once done, it transforms Marda back into the form of a human male: the Avatar of the Light gods. Ami goes to talk to him, willing to cooperate or leave, but he declares his intention to destroy her and any other Keepers he finds -- although the Light then instructs him to take her alive instead. Ami retreats to her dungeon, where the Avatar follows, intending to imprison her as the Light had originally offered. He proves to be NighInvulnerable to every attack she can throw at him, but she takes him by surprise with a hidden electromagnet that she constructs in a wall behind him; with him pinned by his armour, her Keeper powers consider him to be her prisoner, allowing her to confiscate the mantle and thus cut off his instant {{regeneration}}.\\\

Introduces the sub-plots for Ami and Jadeite's relationship and Ami's preparations for the expedition to the Avatar Islands. Also, as a desperate insurance against the risk of dying in the duel and being claimed by the god of violence, Ami becomes a worshipper of Metallia, goddess of the Dark Kingdom.

Zarekos then launches an assault on her iceberg with thousands of ghosts, supported by earthquake spells that crack the ice and create multiple breaches. Ami is hard-pressed, but while tracing the damaged ice, she discovers the lurking spiders and is able to set them loose on the ghosts. Jadeite then uses an advanced glamour to temporarily reseal the ice, and Keeper Morrigan, recently arrived on the islands, launches an assault on Zarekos at the same time, causing Zarekos' forces to retreat. Ami then robs Morrigan's treasure room and catches Zarekos with a teleport that takes him to open ocean in a part of the world exposed to daylight, causing his vampire body to be destroyed and not respawn.\\\

However, the new dungeon is in dwarf territory, and when discovered, it triggers a nationwide coordinated response. Ami attempts diplomacy, but to no avail, and narrowly beats off an initial strike. The Avatar copies Mukrezar's ring idea and sends a double of himself, who unsuccessfully tries to persuade the dwarves to call off the assault; he then fights for the dwarves, but allows himself to be "beaten" in order to prompt a retreat.

However, the new dungeon is in dwarf territory, and when discovered, it triggers a nationwide coordinated response. Ami attempts diplomacy, but to no avail, and narrowly beats off an initial strike (with the help of one of the Avatar's doubles, who fights for the dwarves but allows himself to be "beaten" in order to prompt a retreat). Investigating the country further in the aftermath, she finds extensive rail networks, and realises that they are capable of bringing overwhelming force to bear; she goes alone to the city of Salthalls, home of the duke over her dungeon's territory, to plead her case.\\\

The dark god Crowned Death, desperate for revenge on Ami, turns the magic of her Dungeon Hearts against her, driving her off the Avatar Islands. Ami is forced to relocate to dwarven lands, where she quickly faces a large-scale assault, but is able to capture a city in self-defence and begins to establish herself as a recognized and legitimate ruler.

Ami is forced by Crowned Death to relocate to dwarven lands, where she quickly faces a large-scale assault, but is able to capture a city in self-defence and begins to establish herself as a recognized and legitimate ruler.

Ami makes contact with the last living survivors of the Avatar Island wars, a band of war-hardened Trolls and their abrasive leader, Marda. From the very beginning, it is clear that Marda is more than meets the eye. However, as all parties involved have bigger problems, and Marda is reluctant to share details, an uneasy alliance is begun to bring down Keeper Zarekos, ruler of the islands. The arc concludes with Zarekos' defeat and the revelation of Marda's true identity as the Avatar of Light himself -- who doesn't tolerate Keepers. However, Ami outwits and defeats him, with the Light gods agreeing to a non-aggression pact and granting her the title of Empress in exchange for freeing him.

Continues with Ami's efforts to find a way back to her home dimension, including meeting with the Light, the united gods of Good, who are sympathetic but unable to help her because her soul is in the realm of the dark gods. The dark gods are offended by Ami's attempt, and force her into a rigged duel against the Reaper to prove her worth.