The Yearly Report

Early in the year, the Bloodwing were ambushed were just outside the city of Cala Mondrago by the Daughters of Baba Yaga, a coven of witches that integrated captured alien technology into their eldritch magic. Bloodwing was kidnapped, but the Yaga ship was intercepted by Nova and Six just as the demon dealt vengeance to his captors. Ash was catapulted to a digital dimension by strange energies, and joined a rebellion in that world to prevent a genocide. Bloodwing realized he had been infected by a witch's curse soon after he boarded the Sixes and Sevens as his body quite literally fell to pieces.

When Bloodwing was returned to the site of the altercation, Qlippothic (who gave up a chance a becoming fully human to rescue her brother) and Koen used Bloodwing's remains to form a conduit through which Ash (and his fellow survivors of the failed resistance, dubbed the Digital Knights) returned to our world. Bloodwing cast a Homunculi ritual to turn his detached pieces into miniature versions of himself to wreak havoc on the witches alongside the Digital Knights.

As I was observing from afar, I failed to notice a "noob" avatar by the name of "Bishop3" sit next to me in the sandspeeder, and in typical outlander fashion refused to leave even when the Yaga ships returned for a pitched battle. Little did I know that Mr. Bishop3 was actually my clone-brother Marcus Gabriel Mason!

I had to sabotage my own vehicle to disarm Marcus and keep the sandspeeder from plowing through the city itself. Things went from bad to worse as Marcus's psychic essence transferred to Ash, who aimed his weapon at me. Qli fired from a distance, destroying Ash's frame. However, Ash had self-ejected his hard drive into the sand nanoseconds before the moment of impact, and Marcus had likewise fled the doomed construct's body.

It was a Phyrric victory. Half of the Digital Knights had fallen, and just as we were surveying the carnage, the city of Cala Mondrago exploded before our eyes. The chained genii that powered the newest of the Steamlands revolted and turned the artificial oasis back into the dust from whence it came.

The flock of Bloodwing homunculi migrated to Steelhead, where Duchess Fauve Aeon used her stitchpunk magicks to resew the demon into a new bishoen form.

Just as we were catching our breath, we received word from my father that the Demon Wasps had hatched a new queen, and had opened a portal to conquer a nearby dimension. We boarded my ancestor's airship the Bloodwing's Revenge and tesseracted to that world, where we allied with Captain Helen de Fer of the pirate airship Dame de Fer and slew the gargantuan Queen of the Demon Wasps.

A few months later I was summoned to deal with a zombie-plague spreading through Steelhead. This was a curiously morphic affliction that managed to overcome even my own defenses, and I succumbed to the madness of Undeath. It took a time-travelling member of the Steelhead Air Force to shoot me with an antidote from my own inoculation gun!

After using the new serum to cure the rest of Steelhead, I returned to New Babbage to investigate a time-travelling artifact warning about something called the Dark Aether. Since the entire city seems to be coordinating on solving this issue, I took a hiatus to regain my strength.

Now, it saddens me to relate...

Last week, Ash had located the factory where the Daughters of Baba Yaga were building their attack craft in the Siberian wastes. Qlippothic, Ash, Koen, Bloodwing and Xavael, along with the remaining contingent of Digital Knights assaulted the factory and destroyed it. However, there were losses on our side.

The Clockwinder informed me that a faraway explosion had unbalanced some of his pendulums. He pointed Northeast. My instruments confirmed a seismic disruption from the site of the factory. After Bloodwing destroyed Baba Yaga, the factory self-destructed in a ball of atomic fire. The Bloodwing's Revenge barely escaped the blast zone, but the far-reaching electromagnetic pulse obliterated the surviving Digital Knights. Qlippothic and Koen stayed behind in an attempt to disarm the self-destruct mechanism. I must assume they tesseracted away before the explosion. But they could be anywhere and anywhen. I can do nothing but wait for them to return.

As always, we hope you have enjoyed the tales of our adventures. And as we say before the start of every year, our greatest adventures are yet to come!

Sincerest Wishes,

Dr. Darien James Mason

P.S. I also published a story in Tales of New Babbage Volume I. Profits go to maintaining the city. GO BUY IT!

Happy Holidays to You and Yours!

Happy Chanukah and Merry Christmas!

I received the most wonderful gift today...



A copy of Tales of New Babbage Volume 1, with a retelling of my story "The Sulphurstick Girl"! All proceeds go to the server costs of the city! A perfect stocking-stuffer for your little urchins, in addition to the lump of coal she's been begging you for!