Part 30: It's No Nausicaa
It's No Nausicaa
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You enter a maze of narrow valleys. The walls are dead, bare stone, scoured out of the rock by centuries of harsh winds. Nothing grows up here.
The wind howls up and down the valleys, making it impossible to hear or think clearly. You find, however, that the howling sounds are not merely the wind. Mixed in, you can hear snarling.
It is hard to see, because of the dust stinging your eyes, but you think you can see flickers of movement down the paths. You aren’t sure if you actually saw something but, if you did, it was moving very fast.
You follow the blur westward into the canyon and quickly find yourself enfilade. More hazy figures race at you from the rear, but fortunately -- or is it unfortunately? -- they mingle with your team's formation. At first the insubstantial ghosts don't notice you, but that changes quickly.
The ghosts are as fast as they are hard to see, and they're almost past you before one turns. You think it points and opens its mouth, but you're not sure. It screams, though, an unearthly noise that would turn anyone's bowels into water.
The ghosts struggle against their momentum or maybe against the wind, but when they finally hit, they hit hard. GreatEvilKing and idhrendur take the worst of it. The wind walkers are swifter than your team even with the speed enchantment. Only raw strength saves you. That, and MagusofStars' fear effect, which convinces even one or two of the wind walkers to flee.
You turn back when the last wind walker dissipates, fully intending to retreat. But when you reach the exit, MagusofStars emotes an awful sensation to you all. There's another wind walker north of the exit, close enough that you could close the distance with a sprint. It hasn't noticed you yet, and it seems to be alone -- but so did the first ghost.
Reluctant to hurl your team into another bloody fight, you nevertheless give the order to fire. The wind walker shudders at the first blow. Your creations manage several shots before the wind walker gets within arm's length of MagusofStars. Meanwhile, you heal up your fyoras. They're so battered that you enhance your efforts with the precious healing spores.
MagusofStars screams at the wind walker's touch. Strange energy crackles between them and disappears. You're not exactly sure what it is, but it's not good.
Nevertheless, the wind walker falls apart before it can strike again.
Then you see another lone ghost ahead. You cast speed over your team and begin the process again...
And again...
And again. You lose track of how many of these wandering ghosts you banish this way. Just when it seems no more will come, you head north.
Another wind walker appears behind you, as oblivious as its predecessors, and your creations send it back to whatever limbo it belongs to.
But it has companions, too. Clearly there are at least three patrols here. You encountered the first on your way west, the second one by one, and the third has managed to catch you by surprise again. MagusofStars drives one off, but another flies at you.
You raise your sword to strike, but the wind walker flits under your guard. Its touch steals your breath. Your heart feels like it's being crushed. When the ghost briefly relents, you stagger back and voicelessly direct your artilas to fire on it.
After this glorious clusterfuck, Solution gains a level. She probably shouldn't be rewarded for charging belly-first into ghost murder. It really sends the wrong message to someone who should just sit down and do her homework. I increase her blessing magic to 5 and magic shaping to 10.
Once you've patched up your team, you head east through a tight pass into another messy tangle of defiles.
At the eastern end of a sharply curved passage is evidence of more ruins. You don't have much time to inspect them, as another wind walker swoops through your team. Your creations turn on it before it recognizes them as foes. MagusofStars sends it screaming out of sight.
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You enter a warm, comfortable, steaming bathhouse. The moment you step inside, the sound of the wind outside dies off. The warmth immediately makes you feel comfortable and drowsy.
The objects inside the room are very strange. They're very slightly insubstantial. If you concentrate, you can almost see through them.
There are two pools at the south end of the room. Strangely, they are still full of water. After all these centuries, they are still ready for use.
It's obviously magic, but try as you might, you don't detect any malice here.
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The pool looks very warm and welcoming. The steam smells bitter and sour. It has a sharp, medicinal smell. It would be very easy to slip into it for a few minutes of relaxation.
You use the pool.
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You slip out of your armor, first checking to make sure you are safe from immediate attack. Then you get into the pool.
After a while, though, your anxiety is too great. It's unwise to be vulnerable out here, but it's been days and days since you had a proper bath at all, let alone a moment of relaxation to yourself.
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You regretfully leave the refreshing pool behind.
This pool does actually restore Solution's health and essence, but not without an irritating price. The dialogue box is triggered by your proximity to the pools, so you'll probably have to exit the dialogue several times to loot the place and leave.
You dress and head north, past a monolith and toward what looks like the entrance into another ruin.
When another wind walker appears, you brace yourself for another challenging skirmish. But it came alone -- perhaps one of the survivors that MagusofStars terrorized. It falls this time.
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The moment you step inside this passage, you stop hearing the howling of the wind outside. It becomes very quiet. There are bones all over the floor of the passage. Some of them are very old. And some of them are not old at all.
It's icy cold in here. You feel, despite yourself, extremely nervous.
Along the way, you pick up all manner of weapons long since lost amid the bones.
You take the ring. You might have a use for it, and this ancient mummy does not. Still, you feel a terrible trepidation as you do...
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You easily slide the ring off of the finger. It comes away smoothly, as if it has been taken off and put back on many times before. The wind dies down, but you hear, in the distance, many angry howls.
Supposedly, if we go back and use the fantasy jacuzzi now, we'll die. I didn't test it out, but if the thread is interested, I can see if there's unique dialogue for dying in a ghost hot tub.
You slide the lid back over the sarcophagus and fit it carefully as though to disguise that you were ever here. Then you walk very quickly -- not quite a run -- out into the canyons.
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This is an old ruined home. Very old. It looks like the hovel of some of the natives who lived here before the Shapers came. But it can't be, because everything looks new.
You look at the items closer. They are strange. They have a hazy, slightly insubstantial quality, as if, if you turned away, they would disappear. But, when you touch them, they feel solid enough.
Above the wind, you hear a sound coming from farther in. It's a rattling sound, like the lid of a box bouncing up and down.
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There is a box here. It has the same insubstantial quality as everything else in the room.
The most interesting thing about the box is the way the lid is rattling on top. It almost looks like there is something inside, trying to push its way out.
You don't kid yourself with thoughts of not opening the box.
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The box contains nothing but dust, but it seems to be vigorously swirling around under its own power. Then it swirls out and forms a pair of figures.
Fooling with what these ancients left behind is proving as dangerous as touching an unattended Shaper experiment.
One flees thanks to MagusofStars. The other flits this way and that, dodging your creations' attacks. The effort is wasted -- its defeat is a matter of time. You pore through the litter here and find old javelins, swords, and even something that looks a lot like an essence pod.
As you leave the dwelling, the other ghost surges toward you. But without its partner, it's much less of a threat.
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You find several dead outsider soldiers. The bodies are frozen stiff. Terrified expressions are frozen on their faces.
You check the outsiders' bodies for useful equipment, then leave them. The earth here is much too hard to dig graves in, and you can't be sure when more ghosts will appear. At least the wind walkers treated the bodies respectfully.
After MagusofStars hits another wind walker, you wind up chasing it north, past another monolith.
It leads you straight to another pylon.
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This is an ancient stone pillar, far older than anything the Shapers built here. It must have been placed here by one of the natives who lived on this island long before the Shapers arrived. The cliff walls have sheltered it from the wind.
You notice that one part of the pillar has been worn smooth. There are also carvings on the pillar. Some of them depict crude, humanoid figures, all in a long line, touching the pillar as they walk past.
You touch the bare spot and once again are stung for the effort. You're not sure why you bothered. At least it didn't leave a mark.
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From here, you can get a good look at the gateway. It's not Shaper construction. It's a ruin, many centuries old. It was carved out of solid granite, which was how it survived centuries of scouring by the harsh wind.
What remains of the architecture is strange, alien. You haven't seen anything like it before. It's incredibly square and angular, not curved like large Shaper buildings.
The note about the curves of Shaper buildings took me a bit aback, given that the limitations of the game's design really prohibits putting down round buildings and curved walls. All this time, I thought Shaper architecture was brutalist.
This must be the ghost gate the Junkyard servile mentioned.
At first, the battle seems to go well. There are only a few ghosts here and they're of a much weaker sort than those roaming the defiles.
But even weak shades are strong in great numbers. You quickly find yourself outmatched two to one. Though your creations are still landing successful blows, you're afraid. You're too weighed down with everything you've picked up to be much help.
You take out the ring you stole from the northern crypt and jam it over your finger. Then you throw down everything else that's slowing you down.
Your creations struggle valiantly, but with you tangled up in loot and salvage, they're on their own. And your inability to support them has a price.
Idhrendur dies silent and surrounded by ghosts. GreatEvilKing screeches as its partner is overwhelmed, but the fyora can't help idhrendur any more than you can.
The ghosts move on to MagusofStars next, but you're able to hasten your creations now that you aren't weighed down. Desperate to keep them all alive, you break into another pouch of powerful healing spores. As your creations fight to keep the ghosts away from you, you throw more spores and crystals into the fight, pouring out all that you have to keep them, and especially embattled MagusofStars, alive.
At first it seems like you might succeed. The ghosts drop off, several blasted into mere motes. But MagusofStars quails and bobs in the air, oozing ichor and obviously disoriented.
You pump all the healing craft you can into keeping the vlish alive while your artilas fight off their own attacker.
But no matter how hard you try, you still fail. The last ghost wads MagusofStars up like a scrap of paper with its unseen power.
Your rage and regret are white-hot, but your creations, not you, deal the finishing blows to the last ghostly protector of this gate.
The gatehouse is desolate. You turn back rather than cross the threshold. Your remorse is too great to take that step forward right now.
You return to the junkyard where Proof awaits. She seems pleased to see you, but you can barely manage normal courtesies.
"I killed all the shades at the gate to the ruins," you say.
"Thank you, Shaper. I do not know if that will help. Perhaps there is nothing to scavenge beyond. But we will try. If you wish, I can let you buy some of our rare items."
You peruse her goods, but in the end, you don't buy any of Proof's special stock.
You stop at the library in Pentil. Learned Dayna is sensitive enough to keep a respectful distance. After several hours of uselessly sitting at one of the long tables, staring at equally useless records, you decide it's time to shape some replacements.
Then you pay a visit to Ellhrah. You've made all the use of the Obeyers that you can.
"I am saddened that you have chosen to support a sect opposed to us. Still, I eagerly hope for a chance to change your mind," he says.
Of course your alliance with the Obeyers has reached his ears. You shrug. "I met Control Four," you tell him. "It seems wise. I can't kill one of our creations in such a way."
Ellhrah looks angered by this. "You made it, Shaper! You made that thing, and it slaughters my people! How can you be so cold, so callous, as to hesitate for a moment to destroy it! Shaper, you seemed to truly care about us. I am disappointed."
But you didn't make it. That thing predates even your parents and grandparents. It's likely you're not even distantly related to any of the people responsible for Sucia Island.
Yet you've benefitted from what they did. You can't deny that much. Still, having responsibility for all this pushed on you... it's too much. You leave without asking him about joining the Awakened.
You pass through the ghost gate after all.
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You climb up into a rocky, arid valley. It's very cold, and there isn't much living up here. Just some carrion birds and scraggly plants.
There are some items in the dirt nearby. You look closer and find rusty tools and stone blocks. They're all mossy and quite old, at least a century, maybe more.
A nearby obelisk has an interesting inscription: "Diarazad." That is an archaic Shaper term, the name for a reputed ancient burial place for the first Shapers. It's just a legend. Nobody knows if Diarazad was ever an actual place.
This can't actually be Diarazad, of course. It's not old enough, and there wouldn't still be construction materials around. There probably are some Shaper ruins around here.
There is also something dangerous up here. There's a lot of bones on the ground, and they're not old.
Someone made it here before you, or these turrets are unusually long-lived.
Turrets aren't the only things you have to worry about, though. TooMuchAbs and Random Asshole are struck from behind by a strangely transparent Sholai. The warrior managed to charge right by before you or your creations could respond, and zapped your vlish with some strange energy.
But even the strangest outsiders aren't immune to acid.
Two more Sholai warriors come from the north, both under the same enchantment as their dying fellow. You wish you could get your hands on one of them long enough to figure out the spell, but evidently the effect fades along with the target's life.
Now you've killed three outsiders. You wonder what Trajkov will think about that.
After another run-in with a stealthy Sholai, you head north and destroy more turrets. The outsiders must have placed them here to protect their stake.
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These were once very cramped workers quarters. Everything of value was looted long ago. You doubt that anyone has lived here for centuries.
The wind is less oppressive up here than down in the valley. Some brush and grass have gained footholds here and there, bravely defying erosion.
Another day, another pylon.
The same dialogue pops here when you interact with the pylon. Solution is stung once again, because why not?
It's tempting to let your creations sip from this pool, but the skeletons around warn you off.
I managed to not get a screenshot of the room, but it's not much different from the last.
These are certainly shaper ruins. As you check out a destroyed Shaper statue, another sneaking Sholai rushes RickVoid from the south.
Random Asshole handles the north. Even turrets aren't immune to terror.
The Sholai have truly resilient fighters. Try as it might, TooMuchAbs can't run this one off.
At last, both the turret and the warrior die, leaving you free run of this pathetic camp.
The piled up bones past this obelisk create a foreboding atmosphere. You're not sure what's beyond here, but it makes you nervous.
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This old Shaper obelisk is worn, but still readable. It says:
DIARAZAD
It's a shame that these graves have been so thoroughly smashed up. If they belonged to Shapers, you might have learned something from your predecessors.
You stumble over another boneyard to the north.
But there are still plenty of turrets to clean up around here, so you're not quite ready to leave.
Perhaps all these ruins were knocked down to build up the columns in front of the gateway by the outsider camp.
It's hard to be sure. These huge masonry columns aren't in that great of shape themselves, but they still seem plenty sturdy. You don't know enough to say if they were built from salvaged blocks.
The nearby lever is almost totally hidden by a shrub. You're not sure why it was placed so far away from the door itself, nor why the mechanism is out in the open, rather than in a sheltered gatehouse. You examine the lever, but you can't find a way to unlock it without using up your tools. Without any particular reason to get past this gate, you decide to leave it alone for now.
You return to the junkyard and approach Shock with your scavenged Shaper equipment.
He takes the apparatuses you have found and inspects them. "Excellent. This will help my work much. Thank you, Shaper." He pays you 40 coins for each piece of equipment.
Then you head east once more.
Next Time: Eventually, All Things Merge Into One