Forbidden

The Forbidden Hatchling

I'll tell you how to do it, but you didn't hear this from me. And I'm not responsible for the consequences. You've been warned.

You can only access the Forbidden during the night of a full moon. Leave your lights off, only the screen itself and perhaps the moon in the window should be providing any illumination. Exactly at midnight, go to the AH and go to the dragon search. Leave the other options blank but select for Obsidian in the primary color only. Look through the first three pages of dragons. You will find a triple obsidian Nocturne with Plague eyes. The name will be Forbidden, and the price will inexplicably be a single gem. Buy it. Place it in the last slot in the second page of your lair- if you have a one page lair, place it in the last slot.

If you go to the Forbidden's page you will notice that while it is supposedly a Plague dragon, the eyes are not the right shade of red, and in fact, they seem to glow. If you look too long at your new dragon's face, you may find that it appears to look back. Ignore this. The plague icon will not always appear quite right, either. If you see it out of the corner of your eye, it will look like an element you haven't seen before, and the icon for it will appear black.

If you like, you can equip a familiar, but you will notice that when you try to bond with it, the messages aren't quite right. The Forbidden's familiar will begin with Wary as usual, but the next day it will be Nervous. The day after, Frightened, and the day after that, Horrified. If you bond with your familiar again, instead of treasure, you will receive a Ghostly Aura, and won't be able to bond any more afterward.

Once the Forbidden is in your lair, you can NOT exalt, trade, sell, or otherwise get rid of it until you complete the process, so be sure this is really what you want to do. If you try, your dragons will disappear one by one- not exalted or traded, but simply gone as if they had never been, taking any items with them. This will happen to any new acquisitions as well. A new dragon will be gone each day until you are down to a single dragon, the Forbidden itself, which will afterward be inexplicably unable to be bred with any other dragon. Should you leave FR in response… well, let's just say I wouldn't try it.

You will notice that once the Forbidden has been added to your lair, your dragons will begin to move around your page(s) without you having done so. None will want to remain close to it for long. The image of any dragon that has been next to the Forbidden will change. Marks will show up as if they've been gored by claws or teeth, and blood will appear to run from these wounds. Closer inspection will reveal a subtle change in the facial expressions of these dragons, as if they are ill at ease or in pain. Don't attempt to unequip your inexplicable new accent, there isn't one. A day away from the Forbidden will correct these anomalies.

Do not attempt to fight the Forbidden in the Coliseum. Enemies will appear in the venue, only to seem to leap out of it again. Left with only your team to fight, the Forbidden will turn to your dragons and scratch them until they pass out- these dragons will now appear with the wound images on your page.

When your new dragon reaches sexual maturity, select a dragon of the opposite sex- type, color, and genes are irrelevant. Breed them to the Forbidden and keep this dragon next to it on your page- for the duration of nesting, the mate will be immune. If you have chosen well and pleased the Forbidden, regardless of other factors one of the offspring will be a clone of the parent (if possibly the other sex). Name this hatchling Forbidden and immediately exalt the first Forbidden- its life cycle is now complete. If you do not exalt it, the marks will begin to appear on your dragons again, but instead of going away, they'll get worse. Every dragon in your lair will be afflicted, until finally their images will appear to be lying still in a pool of their own blood. The next time you log in, all your dragons, including the Forbidden and its hatchling, will be gone, and any dragons added to your lair will disappear mysteriously.

If there are other hatchlings in the Forbidden's nest, you'd do well to sell or exalt them right away. If you don't, you will find that matters are taken out of your hands in the form of the dead dragon image in the pool of blood the next morning. The Forbidden does not like competition.

You're almost to the final phase of things. On the night of the next full moon, 5 minutes before midnight, put the Forbidden on AH for a single gem. If it doesn't sell at or shortly after midnight, you must cancel the auction and exalt it immediately. Doing so will end the Forbidden's cycle, but will result in dire consequences- from now on, all your dragons will be cursed with one-egg nests, and you'll experience glitching in Coli as enemies will still flee from dragons tainted by the Forbidden's influence.

If it does sell, you're in the clear, but this is also the point of the Forbidden's highest power and it may try to escape the confines of your machine. For the next week, you must not ever leave your computer/tablet/phone/whatever you use to play in the dark. Sleep with a ring of salt around the bed, and try to have a lamp on if you can. In the event of a power outage, stay within the salt ring and do not look toward the computer- if you should happen to gaze upon the Forbidden, your sanity will not remain intact. Do not leave the ring of salt until the sun rises, for any reason. You may hear noises, do your best to ignore them.

If you survive the week, you will be blessed with incredible luck- rare drops, an abundance of found eggs, festival loot, and handsome returns on your Coli efforts. The Forbidden rewards its servants.

Your dragons, however, will occasionally seem to have eyes that glow red, but only for an instant- another glance at the screen and they will appear as normal. You may want to keep the lights on during the full moon from now on. Just in case.

x

Yeah, I’m dragon trash, an overly-educated loser on the wrong side of thirty, making up for the disappointment of a failed marriage and a (hopefully very temporary) move back in with the parents by spending all my free time playing with drawings of imaginary dragons. I could be writing the Great American Novel or something I guess, but frankly it’s more satisfying, and takes a lot less of the energy I don’t have right now, to decorate my fake critters and feed them fake food and pretend they understand and care about me. I don’t have any kids (considering how things are with Mister It’s Complicated, that’s for the best). Heck, I can’t even have a DOG right now. You can pry my pixel dragons from my cold, dead fingers.

Heh. Well, maybe I shouldn’t put it like that.

No, that’s silly, the whole Forbidden thing was just a story… right? I mean, of course it is! I wrote the bloody thing myself. Nonsense and rubbish, and far from my best work. It’s not even scary…

Well, except for the voice a few nights ago.

I fell asleep propped up in bed with the laptop, fighting in Coli. No lights on, just the glow of the screen and the fainter glow of my ventilating laptop stand. I drifted off, but only for a few minutes. Something woke me up… a noise? As my eyes blurred into focus I realized I could still hear whatever woke me- some kind of a whispering in a growly voice. I didn’t have Spotify on for a change. Was there an ad with sound? I hate those, I thought, I’m going to refresh the page and-

-I stopped mid-grumble, staring at my screen in confusion. There was the Coli, in the Ghostlight Ruins. I thought I’d been grinding in the Mire? And instead of my B team, the lone fighter was Forbidden. I never fight with Forbidden, he’s practically just there for decoration. I didn’t do that in my sleep, did I?

The whispered growl moved to the forefront of my focus, because finally I was fully awake and aware that it was actually words being spoken. Rather than some kind of sound effect, the eerie voice was actually saying something. It was soft. I strained my ears, listening.

“You have not fulfilled your end of the bargain. Perhaps you need reminding of what I can do for you… and what I can do TO you.” This phrase repeated three times before I noped right over to the sidebar and clicked on a link, any link. It happened to be Dominance. At the top was an all-black flag, no symbol on it. I blinked, and Plague was on top, just as it had been earlier in the day. Phew.

Chalked it all up to a weird dream and went to bed for real, and didn’t really think much of it until the next day…

Man, I had a lucky day. Found an egg in gathering, and a ring. Went to grind for a while and got two apparel items, three Ambushes, and another egg. Pinkerton gave me a familiar I didn’t have before, that you can only get from him or a chest. Wow! What a haul. Sold a hatchie on AH in minutes. Autosold the Coli junk and bought a gene for a project dragon. Had some fun playing dress-up with the new apparel and then called it a day.

That night I woke up around midnight to the glow of the laptop… but I’d turned it off before bed, hadn’t I? I couldn’t see the laptop very clearly- it was several feet away and I wasn’t wearing my glasses. I thought I saw a shadow in the corner of the screen, just for a second, as if an insubstantial black claw was crooked out, looking for a hold. I blinked and it was gone, but I heard the growly whisper again.

“The Forbidden rewards its servants… and punishes those who defy its wishes.”

I sat up bolt upright in bed- did I hear that? Did it say what I thought it said? But the computer was off and I realized, it must have been another dream. Geez. Was I really frightened by a dippy story I myself wrote, to give some people in a game a chuckle and/or brief shiver? Maybe it was time to think about that Great American Novel after all. Shook my head, went back to sleep.

When I woke up today and checked on my dragons, several had scar apparel I don’t remember putting on them. I went to the Forbidden’s page, just… to check on him, I guess.

There was the story in the bio. Except wait, extra text on the bottom?

Look, I may have written the stupid thing. But if this is really happening, there are a few details I never added that now I kinda wish I had. Chief among them being- I have no idea what it is the Forbidden eats. Tonight, I’m sleeping with the laptop in another room. Possibly inside a ring of salt.

And maybe every night after that.

Unearthly Onyx Grasp

Apparel

Ghastly hands of the coldest mist, reaching for the moonlight.

1500

Unearthly Onyx Clawrings

Apparel

A set of metallic rings and shining ghostly gems adorn the back legs and claws.

1300