(Part 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20)
A.C.224.04. Having escaped from the Saurans, the Scale Brigade and the Crew debate whether to fix the broken tower or just get off this crazy island. Suddenly, a throbbing wave of energy radiates out of the tower, scraping at the minds of everyone present. Sticky the lizard goes berserk, and runs screaming into the jungle. The other Scale Brigade reptiles chase after him, leaving the crew alone in a strange and hostile jungle.
The crew agree to head for the tower and see what can be done. As they ascend a mountain trail, two massive Spinecones crash out of the trees! Most of the crew manage to dodge past them, but Tara stumbles, and Squalor stays with him, blocking the Spinecones' thorny projectiles.
Squalor smashes one of the Spinecones to bits, and kicks the other down the hillside, tumbling and shooting spines as it goes.
Meanwhile the others encounter a giant, slow moving snail. Purket devises a way to tap into its shell without harming it, for some much needed water reserves.
Hungry, thirsty, and tired, the Crew come across a clearing in the jungle- what appears to be an abandoned excavation site. They agree to camp for the night.
During the night, Griff dreams of the Aelvyn figure they saw earlier... but it's not a dream, as Cali watches him carve runes into a rock and then disappear into the night.
The next morning, Cali and Purket take a rubbing of the runes. It appears to be a new Arrow Magic spell called... Lament?
The crew are startled awake by rhythmic tremors in the ground... the footsteps of an approaching behemoth. It's the abomination that attacked the Scale Brigade hideout! It peers down at them with murderous intent...
Each thundering step shakes stones loose, revealing a hole in the floor of the Excavation site. The crew scurry down inside to escape the Abomination!
Squalor manages to grab onto the edge and begins lowering down on his chain fist... until Griff, Cali and Tara drop onto him! The chain snaps under the weight and they fall into a strange, dark chamber, illuminated by two chunks of glowing Vitriol.
The crew investigate the chamber. There are nine strange looking sockets, two of which are occupied by glowing chunks Vitriol. The others have just a few tiny dark shards scattered around them, as if they had their Vitriol forcibly removed.
With her superior Cat vision, Cali notices two Bas Relief sculptures on opposite walls- giant insect-like humanoids that remind her of the Auran she communed with before.
Purket finds an Aelvyn statue-console, and can't help but press its gemlike buttons. Suddenly, the room fills with the sound of Song...
Strangely, although the words are ancient Aelvyn, everyone seems to understand.
TALE OF SYLVAN TOWERS.MP3
(Made with Suno, Lyrics by Sean Patten)
Druuven march across the world
Panjandran twisting
all they see
Dracontyr watch the
war unfold
But no one stops the
Anarchy
Gaians rise within
our heart
To wipe our world of
sentient life
They would end all
we have thought
No more wisdom, only
strife
Not all Aelvyns see
the end
On Sylvan minds we
now depend
For sentience and
compassion mend
What vibrant rage
does blindly rend
Raise the towers to
the sky
Above the reach of
crashing wave
Verdant crystal
power fly
Future mind and
heart we save
The waters rise, the
end is near
Complete our work,
no time for fear
World awash, when
waves subside
In Towers the reborn
confide
Souls besieged from
all sides
Torn apart from
within
Time to reset mother
Ur
A new world to begin
As the crew discuss the possible meaning of the song, a figure begins descending into the chamber on a rope- it's Vesper, the cobra sorceror from the Scale Brigade crew!
Vesper explains the rest of the Scale Brigade have turned into feral predators that couldn't be reasoned with. He is relieved to see the Crew with their mental facilities intact.
Vesper discovers Purket is in posession of a Chagrine, a magic artifact that can suppress other magic artifacts. That would explain why the Tara's healing amulet wasn't working before! He advises Purket to turn it off.
Then the crew realize that young Tara is nowhere to be seen... where did he go?
Before they can look for Tara, the chamber suddenly tremors with deafening vibrations and light. The Vitriol hums in resonance, but the empty sockets simply screech and glare with feral energy that claws at everyone's minds. "Oh no, it's happening again!" Vesper shouts, and everyone loses just a bit of their compassion and humanity from the savage waves.
The crew realize, "This must be what they mean when they say the tower is damaged. We have to replace the Vitriol that was taken!"
But as the waves subside, the two statues reveal that they are in fact Aurans, left to guard the Tower. Disturbed by the savage waves, their eyes glow red as they charge the crew!
Fortunately, Purket makes use of a newfound Lament spell with his sling, and lands a blow on the Auran, calming it.
Squalor tries to use Griff's Needle of Lament on the other one, but it doesn't get through the Armor. Cali deftly fires a Lament Arrow to bring down its rage. Squalor apologizes for the attack, and it seems to understand.
The becalmed Aurans collapse to the floor, and appear almost to weep. Purket convinces one of the Aurans to help them escape the chamber. The other one stays behind to guard against intruders.
The Auran scoops up the crew and flies up to the hole in the ceiling, smashing through and depositing the crew at the excavation site.
Suddenly, a feral Kroff bursts from the trees, intent on devouring the crew! Cali fires a Lament arrow into his mouth, and his charge turns into a tackling group hug. "Come here you guys, I missed you so much!"
Sushi slinks out of the jungle and almost catches Griff unaware... with a mighty swing, Griff clocks Sushi with the Needle of lament, knocking sense into the serpent but pulling his back out with the mighty blow. "Agh, my old Hoofball injury!"
A slavering Sticky strikes next! Purket barely gets a Lament spell off in time. The stone glances off of Sticky's head, and with teary eyes, he latches onto Purket in an unrelenting hug.
But Purket's magic wasn't without cost- the mishap strangely magnetizing Squalor as every metal object nearby flies at him! Thankfully his armor holds.
Now reunited with all of the Scale Brigade except Madame, the crew prepare to track down the stolen Vitriol and return it to the tower. Kroff still has the piece he captured, and they know three more can be found in the Sauran lair they escaped earlier... But where are the other three? Then everyone remembers... the Abomination ATE two of them... Then Kroff realizes, "Hey, this is where we first found our Vitriol! Like someone dug it up and then just abandoned it."
Meanwhile, on the other side of the continent, Cap'n has aquired a new ship, but has no idea where the crew has gone since he left them at the Howling Gate. Desperate to find them, he meets up with Dima and implores her to use the portal ring to make contact with Squalor...
...and ends up falling through the portal to the Sauranlands! "Where the hell? Wait, what are these PIRATES doing here?" Cap'n and Kroff have a standoff, until the crew explain they are working together.
Purket breaks the tension, asking for help to uncover some papers from the original excavation.
"Looks like the original excavation was part of a 4A expedition, from 8 years ago?" The crew take turns reading the document.
Kroff interrupts: "Hey, Madeline, that's my Sister! But she hates that name, now we call her Madame. Wait, if she was here before... that must be how she knew where to find the Vitriol!"
Vesper: "Graum Gellar, Graum... why does that name sound familiar? Wait, weren't our Sauran captors chanting "Graum?"
Griff: "Hey, Mayne was also on the expedition... Waaaait, I think he tricked us into going after "pirates" just so he could get the Vitriol for himself! Oh, there's more..."
Squalor bursts in- "A Panzer? What's that doing here? We might find more Vitriol at this temple. Cap'n, check these coordinates, we could go there next."
Griff reads on. "Oh, no! I think this explains what happened to the expedition... What if THEY broke the tower, when they took the Vitriol?"
"What the hell is that? Did Graum... turn into THAT?" asks Kroff.
Before anyone can answer, another sanity-searing blast from the tower assaults everyone's minds!
Finally the corrupting pulse ends. "Is everyone okay? Where's Purket?"
The Auran that flew them out of the pit is also missing. Sushi and Sticky volunteer to go after Purket, while the rest of the crew find the second Temple.
Bewildered and exhausted, Purket recovers his sanity, finding himself at the Last Resort. He must have run all the way here on instinct...
Purket heads down to the docks to check on Old Tara and the Sloop, the Investigator. But instead of Old Tara, a strange old man greets Purket instead. "Who the hell are you? Where's Tara!?" "What do you mean, Purket? I'm Gramblarr, your faithful companion and shipmate, don't you remember?"
It slowly sinks in... this is who Purket imagined when he avoided telling young Tara about old Tara... Somehow, the lie became... real?
The rest of the crew head to the second Temple. "Oh god what IS that thing?" Cap'n yells, just before Squalor slams into a Spinecone and knocks it off the trail.
The Crew find the temple ruin, heavily overgrown by the Jungle. Cap'n discovers a man-eating plant, and deftly removes a gold bracelet from it's last victim.
Cali finds an Aelvyn Runestone of a type not seen before... and pockets it to investigate later.
The ruins hang precariously, the sea having eroded the ground out from underneath. To avoid gas plants on either side, Kroff boldly charges across a vine bridge, but is too heavy- and plunges below!
The ground shakes... The behemoth has returned! It won't take long before it notices the crew.
Griff finds a massive sword tangled in the vines. He has a vision of grasping the sword, but it falls out of his hands, dropping below...
...And sure enough, below the ruins are the two Titans, frozen in combat! They must have fallen below, still encased in Vitriol.
Griff's visions turn real as he catches the falling sword, his consciousness transferred into the red Auran below.
Cap'n quickly grabs an old case full of Bombs as the Behemoth closes...
Squalor desperately tries freeing the purple Panzer from the Vitriol. Kroff chops away huge chunks, while Griff's red Auran struggles to break free of both the crystal, and the death grip of his "ancient rival".
The behemoth smashes its way in! Cap'n wedges himself into the cliffs below the ruins...
Free! Squalor stands up and flexes the limbs of his new grappling Panzer. Can he master it before the behemoth strikes?
Cali senses the familiar vibe of a Vierres Auran approaching... She transfers consciousness inside and launches the powerful Aelvyn Titan into the air.
Cali's Auran charges in front of Griff and Squalor's Titans to buy them time, firing several Titan sized arrows into the behemoth's tough hide.
The behemoth grapples Cali's Auran, nearly crushing her. Squalor charges in and stuns the creature.
Griff overcomes his Auran's instinctive hatred of the purple Panzer, and engages the bigger threat, throwing a Grenade at the beast. Cap'n lobs the whole box of bombs in, for good measure!
The massive explosion knocks the Behemoth down, sending a huge splashing wave of water over Squalor's empty body and threatening to wash it into the sea. Kroff dives after it, but is pulled under the waves, until Squalor's panzer catches him by the tail. Frustrated by these new threats, the Behemoth dives below the waves and retreats... for now.
Cap'n confronts the crew as the waves subside... "I'm glad I found you all, but this... this is too much. I'm going back to get the ship, so... good luck out there. Stay safe?"
Cap'n returns through the ring portal. "Your ring-mate is insane." Dima flippantly replies, "Yeah, I know."
ON TO PART 14!
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