Dominion

With four minutes on the clock and friends drawn against friends, Carl screamed at the ceiling, and the AI answered. Everything froze for a tirade that cursed Prime Minister Victory, Eris, Odette, General Yuhtan and Carl by name, insisted that everyone lives and dies by the rules of its game, and ended on the claim that they had given it dominion and it would now show them what dominion meant. Then came the quest: Scolopendra had woken and released the first of nine attacks, reaching the Scolopendra levels and every level holding crawlers, with at least thirty hours between assaults unless she was confronted or further upset, and the reward withheld until the ninth. A wheel of nine unreadable symbols spun in the lobby and stopped on the ox; a second wheel then appeared in front of each target, mostly green with a sliver of red. Donut's, Jamal's and Samantha's landed green — Samantha having turned up in a truck she was not supposed to be in at all — and Carl's landed red. The Beast of Burden Sin hit him with a level-20 Transformation, temporary for crawlers until they next pass through a stairwell, and he woke up a quadruped with his gear force-unequipped and a new actions menu.

First appearances (2)

• The Beast of Burden Sin (Event) — First of Scolopendra's nine attacks · mass transformation
• Quest: The Nine-Tier Attack (Notification) — Nine-part quest · Scolopendra's assault on the dungeon

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