The Aquanaut had set anchor a few hundred feet from the shore. Captain Raine informed Skelwulf and he'd leapt from the ship, swimming faster than any of their dinghies could take him.
“Remember, I'll check in every day at dusk. Two days with no checks, you're free to go,” he'd reminded her before his swim to shore.
Skelwulf sniffed the air as he ran tirelessly through the woods. The ruins of Saltwatch gave him pause, and he slowed to a walk as he passed through.
Vines had grown over houses before themselves shriveling black and dry, leaving each building looking like it had cracked like glass from foundation to peak. Worse still were the bodies. Standing in midwalk, sitting at overgrown tables, lying in the streets were vine covered skeletal remains. He saw items born upon many of the dead, etched runes long drained of magic.
The pulse he'd felt days ago had invigorated him, bringing to his mind numerous possibilities. If the Astral Collector had been destroyed as he thought, the magic of the surrounding area would begin its recuperation to normal levels. The astral energy would begin flooding in, causing manifestations of life to hasten the return of the delicate balance.
He stopped in front of what had been the town's inn, kneeling to inspect a small leafy green plant that had sprouted through a crack in the stone street. He plucked it and rolled it between his fingers, enjoying the vibrant smell emanating as he crushed it.
He turned to the south and continued running, leaping over the inn and other buildings that stood in his way.
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Luma and her crew arrived in Alogow several hours after Zeff had begun his trek north to investigate the energy pulse. She issued commands for storing their loot and her crew set about returning to their assigned living quarters.
With a flap of her wings she alighted onto the balcony that held one of their water collectors, pouring a glass for herself. She set her retrieved sword on the small table and picked up the note left behind by Zeff.
Captain,
I'm sure you felt the pulse of energy that passed through this area. Our sensors indicated that the pulse came from the north, likely from Gronwood or Saltwatch. I've gone ahead to investigate and will report as soon as I return.
Zeff
She had indeed felt it, as it nearly knocked them from the air. She re-read it again and slowly stood, returning her sword to her side. Hopping down to the ground, Luma called out to her crew.
Though mostly Mothkin, her crew has several Chimerans, two Dwarves, and one Elf, who currently served as her new second in command.
First Mate Ellisandra Woodwalker was, for an Elf, bulky, her thick, ropy muscles largely on display as she wore a loose fitting vest with only the lowest button secured and the billowy silken pants common for those who dwell in the Sand Sea. She wore no shoes, preferring to feel the ground beneath her with no barriers, and she carried no weapon.
“Yes, Captain?” Ellisandra said as she lived nearest to Luma's quarters. Her voice was soft like rain falling through a leafy canopy.
“Zeff has ventured north in pursuit of whatever caused the pulse we felt on our journey here. After you've rested, take a few of the crew and make sure he's okay. I don't know what he'll find, but I presume he'll need help and he's proven himself worthy of our crew time and again.”
“Yes, Captain!” She said with a salute, heading back among the crew to issue new commands.
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The creature that strode from the portal was bipedal and looked like a tangled mass of vines, overlapping lines forming its musculature, its eyes pools of glowing amber. It looked around at the mass of fleeing confused steelbeaks, and at Nate and company fighting what remained.
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“What is that? And how do we stop this?” Nate asked as Terry approached the vine monster. It stood almost twice as tall as Terry, but when they neared each other, the creature's eyes widened and it turned to run away.
“Shambler!” Zeff said as Terry, instead of rushing the shambler leapt at the portal, biting a cartoonish hole in the side of the portal as he devoured the energy.
“Great idea, Terry! Keep eating!” Two more shamblers stumbled out of the portal. “We'll keep them busy.”
The shamblers were brimming with astral energies. Nate could sense the power emanating from the creatures. “These are tougher than anything we've faced before,” he whispered to the group.
“Is it weird that I'm kind of excited?” The look on his face quickly shifted to determination as Fuzzball surged forward, a strike from the nearest stretching out into a thick root sphere that launched the sasquatch rolling through his patch of garden.
Nate loosed the rest of his arrows, which did almost nothing to the shamblers, and switched to his elemental bolts. The obvious idea was fire first, and like kindling the forwardmost shambler was set ablaze. Its eyes shifted from amber to red and the flames across its body changed to green in a wave centered from its chest.
Nate fired ice next to counter the flames, but the shard of ice melted away. He shouted to draw the attention of the other shambler. He fired ice into the new one, and it changed into an icey shambler, its eyes a cold blue.
He motioned for them both and they charged at him. He triggered his Lucky power as they each swung fists at him, and he opened a portal beneath him, landing softly on the grass about 20 feet behind his original position.
Fire and ice crashed together. The forces, naturally opposed, manifested as anger within the shamblers and the two began to fight among themselves, trampling several steelbeaks that were pursuing Zeff.
The mutinous combat only lasted a few seconds before their eyes shifted back to amber and the ice and fire dissipated. They each turned to glare at Nate. They charged at him, and he made to run away.
Loud pops and twangs sounded from the road as bullets and arrows pierced Nate's pursuers. Ellisandra leapt over the fence and charged at Zeff, who had just received a nasty gash from a steelbeak.
Nate could see she was strong, both physically and using his aura. She extended her left hand flat, her fingers melding together as they turned metallic, a blade piercing through the steelbeak's hard skull.
“Elly!” Zeff said with relief. “Captain sent you?”
“No time for that now, kid.” She held out her right hand with her fingers splayed. It became a buckler just as another steelbeak pecked down at her, glancing off.
“Right!” Zeff reached into his backpack and rolled a 6 inch cube into the grass. It expanded into a tripod mounted turret, the barrels etched with runes. He hefted his wrench as another of the crew stepped up to start laying out ordinance.
“You had that this whole time!” Nate chastised him through chat as he summoned his bow and continued running and shooting at the shamblers.
“It's very costly to use and its cooldown is long. Didn't want to waste it,” Zeff said as he deflected the downward chop of a steelbeak, sparks flying from his oversized wrench.
A hail of large, magically strengthened bullets tore the leg off one of the shamblers.
“Good call. Who are these new peo-” the shambler caught up to Nate and punched him hard in the chest, sending him into the air. Fuzzball caught him and set him gasping on his feet.
Fuzzball's rage was evident in his face as he turned to the shamblers. “You made me damage my own garden!” He stepped toward them, plants growing up around his legs and over his arms, growing in an instant what looked like oversized acorn shells over his fists.
Though he was almost half their size, his fist struck theirs with more power than Nate had ever seen Fuzzball use. The plant life of the shambler's arm turned against the rest of the shambler, whipping to wrap the creature like a cocoon.
Terry had the portal down to half its original size as three more shamblers squeezed out. Terry, whose stature had been increasing with each bite, now stood nearly twelve feet tall, making shorter and shorter work of the portal as his mouth grew ever larger.
“Part of the airship crew,” Zeff answered through the chat. “Elly is the first mate.”
“She's the elven T-1000?”
“What?”
“Never mind. Tell them I'm going to send them chat invitations.”
They were confused before the message came through.
“Elly? My name is Nate. The big purple one is my familiar Terry. Don't shoot at him. The sassy sasquatch is Fuzzball. He's with us too.”
“How are you-”
“Not important right now. Let's finish this.”
A loud burp that sounded more like a sonic boom cascaded across the field.
Quest: Portal Problems complete. Rewards have been added to your inventory.