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| Mother-Guardian. From Here. |
Above Khirima strange winged things glided through new air.
The adventurers prepared themselves for further travel as best they could, while panic spread throughout the citizenry. It was decided that they would return to the forbidden temple and destroy it, as they had promised the druid. Edoni in particular wished to stop the poisoning of the earth, as the temple was the source of the same strange substances that had transformed he and Gerald when they had wandered too closely to it. Gerald was now experiencing a second transformation as well, with minute fungal growths began emerging from his skin. When they visited the priests they had no idea how to help him, and were sure he would soon fall dead.
There was word of an island rising up from the center of the lake, as had been spoken of in certain prophecies. A sign of She Who Never Lives, a goddess of purification, it was said. As this was near the path leading to the waterfall, which in turn would eventually lead them back to the temple, they decided they would visit it, and went to the shores to procure a raft. Perhaps it could help Gerald, perhaps not. He had little to lose.
The island was still, and very quiet. It was peaceful in the waters, a few miles from the shore. There were no clouds above it. The land was mostly flat, only gently bulging with a few small hills. A bright light shone from the center.They walked to it, and there was a great quadrilateral object, some kind of shrine or monolith. A bright white light emanated from it in all directions, but strongly on one side which created a sharply delineated shaft of brightness. Gerald stood before it, and the fungal wasting that was devouring him crumbled away. After this they left. There were no signs of She Who Never Lives.
They emerged at that same clearing near the river many hours later, though they saw no scaled and feathered creatures near the river's edge nor any silver in the dirt. Instead there was a mangled body in the clearing, a body nearly ripped in half. Edith walked up to it alone, and cautiously examined it. This body was almost naked, and very muscular. It was in perfect form beyond the fatal wounds, and the gore and dust that covered it. The hair was oiled too, and meticulously styled. In a pouch it carried a polished chunk of coral, and another object. A round thing, pale green. Like an egg.
On the face of the cliff behind Edith, above the entrance to the plateau, a massive insectile predator that stood roughly twenty feet tall at the shoulder pounced towards her, two pairs of wings buzzing in the hot air. It swung two claws at her as it lunged at her, each of these still bloody from the prior kill. One narrowly glided over her head, but the other gashed her arm quite deeply.
Edoni took charge, and ran up to it. Placing one hand on its four legged abdomen and another onto Edith he channeled life force out of its body and into hers, sealing up her freshly torn arm in an instant while the gargantuan insect withered. As it then drew back its claws for another pair of strikes Edith withdrew her rifle and hastily fired, with one lucky shot blasting apart most of its triangular head, and reducing one of its multifaceted eyes to a wet crater. It collapsed into the ground twitching, then dead. She took both the egg and coral with her, and they continued on.
To avoid the poison of the bloody crater, and more quickly reach the druid they took a different path than they had before, hacking through thick jungle and clambering up the sides of low mountains instead of navigating the muddy river.
After many arduous hours they saw a crumbling structure up above the trees, on the side of a foothill and they approached it seeking shelter. The heads of humans and flying men alike peered out, and they soon met Hums While Cutting and her husband John, an exiled. They were a small band of peace-loving flying men and Exiles who wished to live free of war and suffering, and were very eager to learn of the outside world.
They asked about the city. Was it truly paved with silver? Were all people welcome there? Did they live free of violence and confusion, unlike those in the plateau? While they were somewhat disheartened to learn that it would be somewhat different there than what they had believed, they were overjoyed to learn that the barrier had been removed; they would be leaving soon.
Gerald offered to remove her wings, by means of his enchanted bracelets, but Hums insisted that she liked them. Gerald then warned her that the people of Khirima might not be too accepting of her, in her current state, and so she best conceal her body with a cloak.
While this conversation occurred Nasr had wandered upstairs, and found an old tome. It was filled with magical incantations and strange glyphs. It spoke of Beseeching Gods and Unraveling Flesh, and John gave it to them as thanks for their good news. After resting there that night they departed: the Adventurers towards the druid and the Exiles and flying men towards a world that had no place for them.
After some travel they saw a massive toothed cat, gravely wounded, limping along the path that lay ahead of them. These severe and unusual wounds, visible from quite far, drew the Adventurers attention and they attempted to investigate them.
Nasr threw meat at the creature to try and distract or calm it as Edith approached, but it growled and pounced at them instead. Edoni blasted it with a shaft of light, wounding it further as the beam punched through its shoulders. It roared in agony. Nasr withdrew his net and tried to fling it over the creature, but could not entangle it.
Gerald then mounted it from behind as if it were simply an untamed mare, and grabbed its scruff neck firmly in both hands. This confused the creature to an extent that Nasr was able to ensnare before it tore anyone to ribbons with its fearsome dagger like claws.
During a few tense moments Edith removed some embedded debris from the creature's wounds, gruesome burns of some kind. This eased its pains, but not its confusion or fear. They all then ran off, with some meat left behind, before it tore itself free and then stalked away into the darkness of the jungle. They now followed the path it had left, the one leading to where it came from.
In a small clearing there was a dead man, clearly the victim of the beast they had just assisted. This man was dressed unlike any they had ever seen, in this strange land or any other. The clothing it wore was of one piece, from head to toe. It was all a silvery white, with no distinct division between leggings or jacket. No lines of stitchery could be seen, nor any buttons. What was left of it clung to the dead man's body with a somewhat uncivilized tightness. It also carried what appeared to be a most unusual sort of arquebus or musket, made of smoothly polished materials and with a soft glow emitting from what might be a series of tiny gemstones along the barrel.
Wanting to understand this odd technology, Nasr picked up this rifle and then aimed it towards a cluster of trees. He depressed the trigger, and suddenly a roaring green inferno flew out like a vibrating, orderly cloud in the shape of a pike. It struck the trees, and they seemed to melt while floating upwards and away like sparks. This caused shower of pale green effervescence before disappearing in the evening sky. Nasr kept the wondrous rifle, most eager for a chance to use it again.
Coming closer to the druid caused them to have to travel through the thickest of jungles, and after many hours accompanied by nothing but their own grunting and the sounds of slicing leaves and vines they heard the welcome sound of men and women from somewhere ahead between the trees. There was also a crashing sound, and the crunch of branches. A great commotion from an unknown source; there were no sounds of large animals.
Edith, in the frontmost position, saw the silhouette of a man. His arms were raised, and he was shouting in a panic. Many red stalks were moving and surrounding him, and a thicker one wrapped around him, then another and another. These stalks were covered in small spines, and these spines were tipped with glistening bulbs. These bulbs stuck to the man like glue, and this caused him to shriek in pain as well. The stalks then lifted him up, with some of his limbs flailing uselessly with others hopelessly stuck in place. He was held above the treeline for a moment, still screaming, then then stalks tightened around him. The force was enough to cut through his body like wires through a rind of cheese, and his innards sprayed out while his bones splintered loudly above the din, and his screaming was suddenly ceased.
These stalks all lead to more stalks, all connected to a central tangle and trunk held aloft by thick plodding roots which writhed and thrashed about. The countless stalks were covered with jungle detritus and the bodies of various animals and men, and now this all thrashed about through the jungle before them, the great trunk-like roots scrabbling like tentacle limbs with the dead bodies of those fellow explorers still held aloft in pieces. It did not seem to have eyes of any sort, but clearly seemed to have a distinct animosity towards animal life.
Gerald and Edith ran. A stalked launched towards Edith, and an orb struck her. It was like a crystallized glob of thick, impossibly sticky honey. It clung to her in long strings, but she was able to pull herself away a half second before dozens more enclosed her. The faceless tangle thrashed onward as they ran the other way. Edoni and Nasr, however, were ignored by it. They had been transformed by the druid, and were known by this monstrosity to be a kind of kin instead. Using the visible top of the druids home as a guide, they were able to regather and soon thereafter reached the base of the druids tower.
After much banging on the sides of the tower the Druid at last revealed herself, gliding down the face of it once again. She approached them silently, with a subtle and at best polite sort of expression on her wrinkled face. They told her what they had done: that they had only partially destroyed the temple, and so had destroyed the barrier alone, but would soon return to finish what they had begun. They also presented her with the seeds they had recovered from the strange tree found along the way. They hoped she would not be angry. She was not. She laughed.
In eliminating the barrier they had done enough. The earth would not suffer much longer. The great city was doomed now, as it would surely fall as the wickedness of the plateau spilled out and caused its ruin. The humans there would all die or flee in terror, and with it their customs would vanish. This meant the end of the tributes of silver, and without that silver the temples magics would cease to be, and the poison would not be renewed.
What was contained in the plateau would then spread thin outside it, and then someday dissolve itself through dilution with the World As It Would Be. Balance would be restored through this, and equilibrium reached. The boil had been lanced, so the earth would now heal. In time, but not human time, would all be well once again. Without human comfort, without human consideration. Her work was done. The earth did not suffer when humans did, after all. She walked away, and then glided up the tower, and was gone.
Although the druid was no longer a concern, the temple still provided them a simpler means of exiting the plateau, compared to simply marching back. They at least had some idea of what things would be found within there. Furthermore, there was more silver to be had, perhaps. They continued on towards it.
Upon reaching the vast expanse of white metal, the disc below a cloudless sky, they were met with another strange guardian. A polished red cube, 7 foot to a side, which levitated a few yards above the ground. From the center of each surface emerged a squiggling tube, and from the ends of these tubes whistling balls of flame puffed out in rapid succession. Not wishing to interact with this thing, lest it have violent intentions, Gerald attempted to Bind the creature with improvised magics. He failed miserably.
Deep within the hell dimensions the demonic lord called Kezgefligrox felt a tickling stimulation emanating from the precious little world of the Humans. It smelled a fool, tampering with forces beyond its control. Kezgefligrox would typically devour such a morsel when it presented itself without a second thought, and its great maw began to open.
Beyond this nibble, however, lie something else that captivated the attention of the fiend. A sparkling enigma of a kind that Kezgefligrox had never witnessed before, a vast tangle of strange manipulations and a locus of metaphysical oddments and novelty. This arrogant spell-caster would be a fine vessel for observation of this preternatural jewel instead of merely functioning as an appetizer. It took hold of him at once.
Gerald's jaw fell slack, and his pupils shrunk to pins. His eyeballs then rolled up into their sockets and glowed a bright and nauseating orange. Kezgefligrox then spoke with a voice of grinding glass and erupting bowels, attempting to make use of the human language.
IDIOTIC FLESH-MAGGOT! KEZGEFLIGROX, LORD AND MASTER OF ALL TORTURES NOW POSSESSES YOUR WORTHLESS BODY! A THING BEYOND YOUR COMPREHENSION LIES AHEAD, AND YOU SHALL GO AND LOOK UPON THIS FOR MY PLEASURE, LEST I REDUCE YOU TO ASHES AND TURN YOUR BLOOD INTO SNUFF POWDER!
They asked if it might help them, and it replied:
FOOL TRASH-GOBBLERS! THE GREAT KEZGEFLIGROX WOULD TRANSFORM YOUR EYES TO STONES AND YOUR SKIN TO SALIVA IF HE DID NOT HAVE SOME GREATER USE FOR YOU AT THIS MOMENT! GO FORTH AND VIEW THE THING BEYOND THERE, BEFORE I GROW MORE BORED AND INSTEAD TURN YOUR BLOOD TO CENTIPEDES!
Interrupted only somewhat frequently, they trudged onward as Kezglifligrox chuckled at the visions of mangled bodies along the horizon. They reached the same sword and rope they had descended once before, and slid down it. Gerald's orange eyes glowed in the darkness as they descended, little windows to the hell-dimensions.
There were no traces of their prior tamperings inside the temple. The walls were not smeared with blood or feces, and there were no corpses or scorch-marks. The great silver box lay near where it was found before, but disconnected from all wires. The ruined metallic things which flew, that they had smashed to bits, had not been replaced. There was stillness and cold light while they wandered, until all was suddenly consumed in the terrible brightness that they had felt before. A static-electric buzz, melting plastic fume aromas, and a crackling feeling behind and inside the eyes. A haze cleared, there were figures.
A stern voice, speaking in a strict and deliberate cadence. A man.
“My god, what’s happening? Tallius, what does your scanner read? I can’t ping our coordinates to Aleph-Tau Central. Markana? Markana are you there? Run a quark measurement-
“My god! I’m getting some kind of astrographic distortion. This can’t be right...wait!”
“Stop-
Don’t worry! We are peaceful”
Before the adventurers stood what could be called humans, though their foreheads were much broader and higher than any seen in even the most exaggerated of royal paintings. Their voices were human though, and the rest of their faces similar enough to humans too. They wore clothing like the corpse with the magnificent arquebus. The one who spoke the most, if not too much, was called Jolan and with him were Talius and Markana. He was Captain of the Aleph-Tau Exploratory Force, and these were his Cadets.
Communication with them was challenging, as they were not only distressed but prone to use strange terminology as they gazed about the room, and often looked at the odd chiming objects they attached to their belts in the midst of conversation. They called these “scanners”, and they used them to examine the Adventurers. While further conversation was attempted to explain these circumstances Nasr stole a scanner from the one called Talia.
“These people...they are human! But some are..partially vegetal? I’m detecting chlorophyllic cellular strata! What has happened here?”
Before they could answer he continued.
“My readings point to only one possibility. That...this is...a temporal anomaly! My god...we have to deactivate this facility. This facility, it could cause a continuum rupture. The whole federation could be at stake. All of reality! We can help you, will you help us?”
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