diary of pvt. Odyssia Moore (excerpts 1-3)

24 Oct, 2026

alternate views of events by referee: 1, truffle pig: 1 | 3, mary land: 2 | 3

7. Sir Erik, Lord of Trollhättan Keep

   He was weak and hesitant and easily cowed by a single report of my firearm and his entire demense brought under our sway and turned toward the hillbeasts vexing our borders.

   One gun, solitary, is enough to undo them. It is gratifying to see it proven.

   When the hillbeast Big Thumbs struck him and he fell limp from his horse, he became more liability than benefit to us and so I pulled him out of sight of his men and slit his throat, simply to cut short the entire affair. It was more useful that his expensive lord's armor be worn by Mont Kaskad anyway, as although the weapons of NATO are supreme, in purely defensive measures we backward folk of Blackmarsh still appear to retain some small measure of dignity. (I will however make use of whatever is available to me in making my arguments.)

   Of course, I had to shoot off the beast's striking hand in retribution - it is a matter of respect. He is 'Big Thumb' now (singular, hah), and so in his memory at least I will persist eternal.

   Addenda: Discovered the fool's surname. Lord Frostglen! Absurd.

8. John Iroquois Running-Water II

   I copy this name from the USA OKLAHOMA identification card commonly held by residents of Earth-2 NATO prime kingdom Armorica, as I did not stop to learn it beforehand.

   He talked loud and fast and in my hearing only for profiteering and aggrandizement. I bade him speed his graft which his quick glare showed low appreciation for - but we had two other vehicles to recover after this one and I found his entire manner irritating.

   When the explosions began he fled like a coward, and because time was short and we still needed the controlling key for the vehicle, I ran him down and shot him in the back.

   The pellets caved him in I believe all the way through to his chest, but I was not able to examine the full effect because this was about when the helicopter arrived and the shooting began. His wallet contained the above-mentioned identification and a single FEDERAL RESERVE NOTE TWENTY DOLLARS and a picture of a woman with a cold and acidic smile and 1 or 2 or 3 glassy-eyed children (I do not recall) staring and a small fetish of sinew in the shape of a spider's web entangling a fat green fly. The note I have kept; the rest is burned.

   He did not have the key to the vehicle, so I also had to grab the strongbox he had abandoned guarding and inside it was additional FEDERAL RESERVE NOTEs in great quantities later counted to thirty-five-hundred, and the keys to our target and many other vehicles.

   I suppose the vehicle was also his, and so too then the glossy pamphlets of brazen women presenting themselves (many and various), and the jars of worms that Mary Land let crawl all over her body and under her clothing, and the Smith & Wesson Model 500 that I then used to threaten the other profiteer we encountered later in the evening.

   But I already have a weapon that I quite like, and so I gave the Smith & Wesson Model 500 to Johan.

9. devotee of deposed sky tyrant (name unknown)

   The old men of the wood worshipped a tyrant who lives in the sky. And then the men of the Grand Kingdom came, and said this was wrong, and that the men of Blackmarsh should rather worship a different tyrant who lives in the sky. And then the men of NATO came, and their soldiers claim to worship yet another tyrant who lives in the sky (but this one truer and better and more virtuous than the others!) And so the old men of the wood retreated, and continued to worship their sky tyrant in secret, rather than submit to the other two, as if any of this made any difference at all to anyone.

   Stupid. We slew them with breaching charges and grenades and machine rifles and poisonous gases. Their high ritualist survived long enough to call lightning upon us, but then the ceiling fell on his head, because it is foolish to think the sky cares a whit for anybody.

   Brick says that we should make of this man a servant and convice him to worship the sky tyrant of Earth-2, that his faith is an asset and that we should resolve this with words.

   But I do not care. His faith is poisonous, and he speaks it in thunder, and I will not allow another word of it to escape his lips.

   Death to tyrants. Off with his head.

• note: on the child Melissa

  A slave killed her masters today.

  Her father sold her to Mary Land for two tomcats. This is the value of a woman's life in Solna - measured in beasts. Less even, as he threw in a shovel and a handful of coins as well.

  But we offered her a NATO weapon and she accepted. And we showed her how to use it and she did. First on a young man - a peer of hers I assume - shot dead in the street. And then - at our request - on the youth that led us to the sky-worshippers, the collaborator. And then, on returning to the village after our raid on the sky-worshipper's compound, she used it on her father. Bastard.

  I told her this was good, and that this was freedom, but that also it was but the beginning of the path. She said her mother must be next. I agreed.

1. starting a new list (todo): NATO soldier Chet Ramírez

   I wanted to shoot him there, but they were many and we were few and though my confidence in NATO armament is high, confidence in my conditioning does not yet match. There is still much further to go.

   But he asserted authority over me, and that is no longer something that they are allowed to do without inviting a response. It is simply a matter of locating the proper venue.