PART 14
(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. Purket and Gramblarr prepare to sail up the coast, hoping to reunite with the rest of the Crew. But a red fox approaches in a rowboat. He introduces himself as Louis Vulpin, an Arbalest University scholar. "Is Vesper here? This is the Last Resort, right? I've come to study Aelvyn ruins."
Purket explains all the craziness that has gone on since arriving in the Sauranlands, including... having invented old Gramblarr. Louis is convinced the bird has lost his mind, or is a compulsive liar. But he agrees to come along on their journey to see some ruins at least.
Purket picks up the trail the others left behind at the third Ruins site, and invites Louis to come along. Gramblarr returns to the Last Resort in case any others stumble back there. As Purket and Louis push through the undergrowth, the ground begins shaking. "Oh no, Graum is back!" Louis eyes Purket skeptically. "Sure, a giant monster I suppose?"
But instead, they see what looks like a four legged treehouse with tiny lizard people riding. Louis says "I say we blast them just to be safe. "No, they're so cute!" responds Purket. The little lizards run in circles, shouting "Tall ones! Aaaagh!" Purket manages to calm them down, and they explain their "Awakened one" just had its Vitriol core taken, and is now defenseless. They describe the "Tall One" that took it: a big scary alligator lady with a feather on her head. "Must have been Madame", Purket surmises.
Suddenly, the other crew members burst out of the jungle in their Aurans and Panzers. "Aaaagh, more Tall Ones!" Purket explains "No, these are my friends." Cali's Auran reaches adoringly for the small ones, and they run screaming. Squalor's panzer agrees to give them the Vitriol Core they just recovered from the ruins site. In exchange, they offer everyone a ride, and protection from the "Sky Piercer's screams". Somehow they have devised a protection from the mind eroding blasts coming from the tower.
Louis can't help but notice Cali's Aelvyn artifact recovered from the ruins. "Wow, that looks like a Gaian soundstone. Can I see that?"
He twists the artifact, and music blares forth!
GAIAN SONG.MP3
(Made with Suno, Lyrics by Sean Patten)
Wolf howls, snarls
Hawk soars, dives
No doubt, no blame
No guilt, no shame
Our pride, false
We are not gods
What have we wrought
With cunning thought
No more words
Just heartbeat, breath
Howling, howling
Awoooo! Awoooo!
The forest calls
Rivers sing
Mountains echo
Nature's ring
Feel the wind
Touch the earth
No more words
Life, death, rebirth
Our pride, false
We are not gods
What have we wrought
With cunning thought
No more words
Just heartbeat, breath
Howling, howling
Awoooo! Awoooo!
As the song plays, several crew members turn near-feral. Purket and Louis shake off the urge to attack each other as predator and prey... Louis explains "The Gaians believed sentient life was the cause of all the problems in the old world. Interesting solution."
The Awakened One reaches the Sauran infested temple, where the crew hope to recover three more Vitriol Cores. Purket and the three Titan pilots smash their way in.
Cali and Squalor go down one corridor, and fend off several Sauran sentries.
Purket and Griff (in his Auran) explore the other branch. Purket finds a weak spot in the walls, and bombs it open while Griff keeps attacking Saurans at bay. The hole leads to the central chamber, and they head inside.
Sauran warriors fill the chamber, attacking from all directions! Squalor manages to stage-dive onto four Saurans at once.
Griff smashes one of the bigger brutes off the plinth with his Auran's sword, clearing a path to the Vitriol.
But as Purket sneaks towards the Vitriol, a hideous creature drops down into the chamber and slams into the floor. It's a giant, twisted alligator-thing that could only be... Madame? Still clutching the Vitriol she stole from the small ones, she lets out an ear-piercing scream!
Griff grabs his Needle of Lament and jams it into the Madame-Abomination, but it fails to pierce her tough hide.
She retaliates by clawing into Squalor's Panzer, tearing the head apart!
Meanwhile Cali's Auran hurls the Saurans at each other, as the others desparately grab the Vitriol cores before Madame can eat them.
As Madame chases after them, Cali knocks her down into the pools below.
Still clutching one of the Vitriol cores, Purket blindly scrambles for the exit. Griff's Auran picks him up and flies out. Purket is convinced he's actually flying as he is carried off.
The awakened one carries everyone back to the Last Resort, where Sushi and Sticky await them! With everyone united, they unload the Vitriol Cores and plan how to get the last two Vitriol Cores from the Behemoth's stomach, assuming they are even still intact in there. It's only then that the crew realize... "Wait, what if the Behemoth is... the expedition leader, Graum?"
Desperate for materials to repair his damaged Panzer, Squalor resorts to using parts of... himself.
On watch aboard the Investigator, Cali spots a huge wave approaching- it's Graum! She blasts him with a cannon, but it barely slows him down.
As Squalor grapples Graum, Griff bravely jumps from the dock to Squalor to the beast's back! Their attacks drive Graum under the surface.
But moments later, Graum bursts up from below the docks, snatching Sticky and a piece of Vitriol before consuming both!
Desperate, Purket uses arrow magic to cast a piece of Vitriol at Graum, who swallows the bait. The arrow magic takes hold, sprouting plants and flooding waters inside Graum's gut.
But it's not enough to stop Graum, who ambushes Purket from behind and eats him- and the last Vitriol - whole!
Diving below the waves, Graum begins a Vitriol-fueled transformation, hideous green glows lighting up the bubbling surface as the others watch in horror.
Safely inside the Last Resort, Louis watches in awe as all the crazy things Purket told him come true before his eyes.
The transformation complete, an even more massive and hideous form of Graum surfaces, and chomps the Investigator in half!
Deep within Graum's gut, a dazed Purket splashes down next to Sticky, still alive. Along with the consumed Vitriol, Graum's gut is choked with oxygen-providing plants and acid-diluting water, thanks to Purket's arrow magic spells.
In response to Purket's plight, the Wryneck Auran that he befriended in the Tower has come to his aid- diving straight into Graum's enormous mouth!
Griff follows suit in his Auran- it's the only way to get past Graum's toughened hide. Soon the four of them are united in the belly of the beast.
Purket transfers into his Auran, grabs Sticky, and uses teleporting arrow magic to throw him outside of Graum.
The two Auran pilots then gather up as much Vitriol as they can carry...
Desperate to rescue her friends, Cali fires a Scent Arrow into Graum's nose, with the most nauseating garbage stink on it possible. Graum looks ill...
Suddenly, Graum's gut empties itself violently, spewing forth the two Aurans and bits of Vitriol everywhere!
The final piece of vitriol shoots into the sky. Squalor lifts Cali's Auran up into the sky, launching her towards it for a perfect mid-air catch!
Finally purged of the corrupting Vitriol after 8 years of insanity, Graum shrinks back to his original self, crawls onto the docks, and collapses, exhausted...
Weary of battle, the Aurans depart to rest and recover... but also to distance themselves from the crew in case they succumb to another psychic scream from the tower.
Squalor must now contend with his own dismantled body, the parts used to repair his Panzer. He wonders if Rusty could help... and uses his ring to contact Dima and Rusty at the Agrippa stronghold.
Conversing through the ring portal, Rusty is able to gather enough parts to repair Squalor, but warns that all is not well at Agrippa. Squalor agrees to exchange his new Panzer for the parts, but when they open the portal wide enough to get a Panzer through, they can hear the distant screams of two distant (and strangely familiar) voices. They complete the exchange just before the portal collapses.
The crew cobble together a new body for Squalor, with Kroff's help.
Graum, semi-recovered from his ordeal, insists the crew must help him gather all the Vitriol and return to Arcadia with it. Clearly he has no idea how much time has passed, or that he nearly ate everyone while in his Abomination form... Even showing him the 4A logs, it hasn't sunk in yet what really happened! When Graum asks what happened to Madeline, the crew reply that she is still... "At Large."
The crew call the Small Ones over. The "Awakened One", their walking fortress, agrees to take the crew to the Tower to return the stolen Vitriol.
Meanwhile, the Scale Brigade "convince" Graum to stay and help repair their ship, so they can get home.
Protected by the Awakened One's mind shield, the crew arrive at the dig site and drop inside, along with the Small Ones who insist on coming along. They manage to get all nine Vitriol pieces in place, and the tower begins its self-repair sequence, ending the mind ravaging waves for good.
...But then, the Tower booms out an announcement- it will now resume its original purpose, to broadcast sentient life energy to the world in the wake of the Great Cataclysm! Before the crew can understand, the platform they're on SHOOTS upward, ascending at a terrifying rate.
Soon the platform bursts from below ground into the blinding bright sky- it's all the crew can do to hold on.
Higher and higher they ascend up the tower, until, above the clouds, they are surrounded by giant Pterodactyls!
Cali fires a shrieking arrow that deafens everyone, and the winged beasts crash into each other, stunned.
The tower platform continues to ascend, and looking up, the crew can see some kind of... Fortress in the sky? Before they can guess how it could even exist, the Sylvan tower SMASHES into it, nearly throwing everyone over the edge!
With nowhere to go but inside, the crew discover a room filled with strange books and artifacts. The crew excitedly grab relics and tomes from the shelves. Purket grabs a large tome entitled "Prescience: A Pawpup book."
But then, a shrieking band of Gaian Aelves bursts in! They must have hitched a ride on the tower platform somehow, and rush the Crew, determined to purge these "sentient interlopers" from their "world".
The crew flee down a corridor, and stumble into a large chamber filled with scattered books and papers and... what could only be... a Dragon!? The mythological creature seems mildly annoyed at being interrupted in the middle of a good book.
Then the Gaian elves burst in! The Dragon breathes a sparkling, foggy cloud of breath over everyone, which strangely seems to calm them. Then it speaks in a booming but eloquent voice. "Gaians? You claim to abandon rational thought and live the way of nature... but if that were true, would you not be free of this hatred of sentient thought? Go, return to your jungle, and trouble yourselves no further. Live your lives as you see fit, and we shall live ours."
With this, the Gaians, last living members of the Aelvyn race, solemnly file out of the Library.
"Now where were we? Ah yes, introductions. Logos, dragon of Reason. And what are you all doing here?" The crew try to explain their outrageous adventure, and Logos just nods. "So you're not only responsible for the Sylvan tower crashing into my library, it seems you have also purloined some of my literature. Your curiosity is commendable, but you must offer something as compensation. Does one of you have the only surviving copy of... Sables' Fables?" Purket offers their copy of the infamous book, in exchange for the massive Pawpup book he took earlier, which he cracks open. The pages unfold to reveal a wonderful and terrifying landscape in paper... growing larger and larger... as the crew are sucked into the book!
CONTINUE TO PART 15!
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