Part 20: Just Because It Sounds a Bit Like PIE-lon

Just Because It Sounds a Bit Like PIE-Lon...

Doesn't mean there's any hot, tasty fun to be had. This is probably the worst damn direction to approach the Eastern Docks, as you'll soon see.





The tunnel widens, the floor flattens, and bits of masonry appear. This route leads you into an old Shaper facility buried in the limestone and gypsum cliffs. The air back here is stale and dank, and small creaks and drips echo unpleasantly in the dark.

Luckily enough, as you cross the threshold from re-graded tunnel floor to mostly intact tiled floor, a floor lamp lights up, illuminating not only Zeniel but also most of this chamber.



Zeniel's proximity causes an automatic door to slide open. You see something else glowing -- it looks like a pylon, and an active one at that. You curse your abysmal luck...



Placid saviour and RickVoid strike first. The substance the pylon was manufactured from proves vulnerable to their spittle. You're grateful that nothing you've encountered so far has been proof against it.



You're less grateful after the pylon counter-attacks. It spews a series of searing orbs that leave most of your team gravely wounded and on the verge of death. Worse, your creations reel from shell shock. You order a barely-responsive Zeniel out of the way and push for your ranged creations to finish the pylon off. It explodes in a shower of sparks and an ominous burble...



If these are the traps Narsu meant, you're nervous about what awaits you here. You draw back and tend to your creations' wounds. None are lost, but that's more a matter of luck than anything else. You've never encountered a pylon til now, but you've heard of them -- terrifying tools whose only real weakness is that they're stationary like turrets. They're a similar technology to power spirals, but you doubt you can ever get close enough to try to manually disarm one.

Pylons are the devil. Obviously they can't be disarmed, they're a mob. Their ranged attack targets multiple foes like searing orbs. The attack stuns on a successful hit, reducing target AP by one or more. If you close in on a pylon, it can use a slowing attack and an energy-based single target attack. When you destroy them, they explode into poison. There are some exploity ways to defeat them, but I usually don't favor those methods. All said, the pylons are worse than turrets.



Zeniel notices the second pylon before you do. You order the clawbug to draw back behind a nearby wall, then you have your artilas and fyoras approach separately in hopes that the pylon can't strike more than one if they're well-spaced.



The pylon releases a beam of scintillating light that focuses on GreatEvilKing, who struggles to shake off the energy's influence and misses its next shot. Idhrendur, backed up by Zeniel, is able to pass through the automatic door, catch the pylon unawares, and finish it off.



You investigate the nearby cabinets now that this room seems relatively safe. All you find are whips and cuffs. You're not sure that you want to know what this place might have been for back in the old days.



Another pylon awaits you in an alcove around the corner. Placid saviour does credible damage to the thing, but eats another strong blast of magic in turn. RickVoid trades attacks with the pylon, but your team takes the worst of it, with both artilas and Zeniel in wretched shapes thanks to the pylon's powerful, punitive searing orbs.

Still, a lone pylon isn't enough to stop your creations. When the pylon inevitably explodes, you once again heal up your team and advance further down the hall.



You unlock the lever and pull it. The door slides open immediately...



Zeniel immediately explodes in a cacophony of magical fire that disorients and stuns GreatEvilKing and RickVoid, who are unlucky enough to be close to the door but fortunate enough to be hidden by the walls.

From your narrow vantage, you see posts for restraining creations as well as a central shaping platform and a few oddly placed, stand-alone walls. There's also a platform with another ancient, decaying control panel here.



You said you'd try to find Anfisa's key, so despite Zeniel's death, you must press on. Your artilas slither through the door and press themselves against the northern wall in hopes that they might be out of range of the second pylon. Idhrendur and GreatEvilKing follow, crowding each other into the corner until idhrendur scores the finishing blow.



The second pylon gets its share of blood, though. RickVoid, GreatEvilKing, and idhrendur all eat searing orbs even as you finish blessing them with improved reflexes. Still, haste enables your fyoras to put the pylon down before it can recharge for another shot.

Once more, you pour out essence on healing your badly mauled creations.



Exhausted, you decide it's time to retreat for now and reinforce your team with a fresh creation. May it last longer than Big McLargeHug and Zeniel.



You take a breather in Kazg. Though you can't shake off the prickling feeling of hostility here, you manage to get some rest by holing up in the northeastern sector. None of the Takers harass you.

On your way out of the eastern fortress gate, you pause to create a roamer in full view of the guards there. Even if they hate you, they can't hide their awe at the naked power of creation which only Shapers command...

If you don't count the pretenses of thieving Sholai.

You think that Like Clockwork will be able to serve you well. You've learned more about shaping roamers than you knew back when you created PurpleXVI. But perhaps you won't immediately return to that hell of pylons Narsu guided you to... Combat with regular rogues who can only punch and kick might be better.



You return to the canyons that lead to the refugee caves.



Unsurprisingly, your previous skirmishes didn't fully purge the battle alpha threat.



But with five creations capable of ranged, magical attacks, a single alpha doesn't stand a chance. By the time the rogue reaches your vanguard, it's already the walking dead. RickVoid's last strike is merely a formality.



You intend to head back into the caves, but not only do you meet a battle alpha coming from the east, but it also has an ally trailing behind.





Though placid saviour takes another serious beating, all of your creations survive, and the wretched battle alphas fall.

Near the secondary shaft leading into the limestone caverns is a tiny, dead end cavelet full of trash and bones that some of the alphas have been using as a den. You clear everything out, netting some coins and pods for your trouble.

Instead of going further into the caves this time, you stick to the canyon. Being out in the sun is a welcome change after the oppressive darkness of the pylon facility.



An obelisk just before the canyon turns south says, "Kazg - West; Primary Docks - Southeast; Holding One - Northeast; Holding Two - North."

You wonder if Holding is like the High Defense Cells you passed through days ago... They may be worth checking, if only to replenish your much diminished supplies.



Next time: There Is No Substitute for Competence