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A Series of Unfortunate Complications

It was supposed to be a simple job for a detective of his talents: Alarming disappearances from the local homeless population, going back at least several months. Trace their footsteps, see what threads each of the victims had in common, and use that information to track them down.

Well, at least that part was simple, as was breaking into the warehouse where they were all being housed. It wasn’t until he found the victims inside that things got complicated. Whatever mental and physical conditioning they had undergone while in captivity had left them without their wits, little more than frenzied goons out for whoever crossed their path. In more ideal conditions, and with time, the mind mage was confident that he could reverse their condition.

But time wasn’t on his side, for no sooner than he got there were they set loose, likely a silent alarm or hidden camera he missed during his infiltration. Fortunately, his planeswalker contact, a native to this plane, had furnished him with a weapon more appropriate to this new world and taught him the basics of its use. However, at the end of the day, it was still one wolfkin versus a group, and he made his escape as soon as he could find an opening.

For a planeswalker, it is always an option when faced with adversity to vanish, disappear into the Blind Eternities and find a new place to stay. However, he was hired to do a job, and his professional pride wouldn’t allow him to leave these poor souls to their fate. No, he had to regroup, contact his client, plan out his next steps, and shake the thugs that were once the selfsame people he was hired to rescue.

He knew it wouldn’t be easy, but he also knew that he was the man for the job. Few people are as versed in the mind and all of its splendor as Enigma, the Mind Mage.

This piece from LittleBadWolf in August of 2022 was an excellent excuse to delve a little more into this yet-unnamed Cyberpunk plane that I had established with the work I commissioned off of Vallhund.

I’m always opened to expanding this into something more than one-off stories, but that would involve establishing a brand new world from scratch, and likely a new cast to go with it. Since Crossroads is still full of rich story-telling potential, I doubt that will come to pass anytime soon.