The giants held the now thoroughly broken maw of the ship closed as they carried it down another series of halls and ultimately into what appeared to be a workshop. Solid cuts of marble served as worktables that lined the walls and were lightly covered with scraps of wood and stone, while shelves carved directly into the walls held giant sized hand tools for wood and stone carving. Like most of the mountain, the room was lit with giant glow stone crystals set into the ceiling, bathing the room in a warm yellowish light that almost mimicked sunlight.
If the workshop had been built to size for humans, then the relative size of the Gaping Maw would be equivalent to a large wheelbarrow. Far too big to be placed on any of the worktables, it was instead settled onto two sawhorse-like structures with deep divots down the center for carefully cradling the ship along its curvature. It seemed, by all means, that the giants had been expecting their arrival – and had perhaps even worked on the ship before.
With the Gaping Maw in place, the giants allowed the broken bow to fold down and rest atop a block of marble one of them slid into place below it. After which, they moved a few wooden tables -- about a quarter of the height of the marble worktables, far too short for any but the smallest giants to use effectively -- against the hull of the ship on either side and at the stern. The surfaces of the tables came up to approximately the waterline of the ship, and on them was what appeared to be approximately human-scale ladders, except that they were absurdly tall. Then, the giants wordlessly made their exit. The crew gathered conspicuously on the main deck, some patiently waiting for the opportunity to disembark, while the newer members seemed confused and unsure of what to expect.
After the giants had cleared the room, movement scurried on the walls. Dozens of tiny creatures -- at least, tiny from a giant's perspective -- scampered out of cracks in the marble, clinging to the walls like ants before launching off and gliding with bat-like wings. As they grew nearer, they became recognizable as gargoyles, like Killup.
The vast majority of the gargoyles landed on the tables surrounding the Gaping Maw and began lifting the ladders to prop up against the hull. A small contingent, however, consisting of only six gargoyles, landed on the quarterdeck before Captain Clement. Unlike Killup, who had adopted the characteristic fashion of a pirate or sailor besides his propensity for not wearing shoes or a shirt, these gargoyles wore rough, layered cuts of cloth in various shades of grey. In addition, they each wore tool belts weighted down with various carpentry and stone working tools. Like Killup, however, they also didn’t wear shoes and the cloths draped over one shoulder couldn’t adequately be described as shirts. One of them, who appeared the oldest based on the grey tufts of hair growing out of his pointy and elongated ears, was wearing a bright yellow-orange sash.
From the main deck, Iris observed the gargoyle with a sash approach the captain, but the first ladders had reached the railing and the crowd was quickly funneling her towards them as the crew climbed overboard and down the ladders. She stuck with her party until they reached the ladders, at which point she instead stepped over the railing and dropped over the edge.
The foot of her walking stick landed first, absorbing enough momentum for her to land safely in a crouch. That was a bit nerve wracking, as she had intended for it to absorb all of her momentum so she could land lightly on her feet. It quickly occurred to her that she hadn't accommodated for the stick's maximum capacity of energy, and mentally noted that she should be careful to make sure it was completely empty before using it to land large falls in the future.
Surrounding her on the table -- which, from her perspective, was a wide open platform suspended several deadly falls above the floor -- were dozens of gargoyles already setting upon the task of repairing the ship. They carried over supplies such planks and nails before flying back for more, while others set up work stations with parchment schematics of the ship and various blank sheets for planning and notes. The gargoyles mostly ignored the crew, save for a cheery few who happily greeted them and directed them towards the ladders affixed to the legs of the table at every corner, which led the rest of the way down to the marble floor.
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Iris was still struggling with nausea and dizziness from the mindboggling scales, and leaned on her stick for balance while she waited for her party before descending further. Eli and Titus made the dissent without issue, and Victoria simply floated down in her spectral form, but Autumn – who was afraid of heights -- struggled. Autumn had avoided looking over the railing, or even outright acknowledging the height of the ship, as much as possible during their journey. Now, she was forced not only to face the terrifying descent down the height of the Gaping Maw once more, but to do it with the added height from being suspended on the giant sawhorses.
With quite a bit of help from Victoria, both in the form of calming effects from summoned cards and kind words of encouragement as she flew back up and lingered beside Autumn as she descended, Autumn finally reached the table. She promptly sought out the middle of the platform, the furthest possible point she could find from any edge, and doubled over to catch her breath.
"I fucking hate it here," she gasped.
"We're not done yet," Eli said, "there's still another ladder to go."
Autumn groaned and almost turned green.
Titus nudged Eli with a sharp elbow, giving him a scolding expression.
"What Eli means," Victoria took over, "is that the hard part’s over. The next ladder down is way more sturdy, and it's not as far down."
It was, actually, approximately the same distance from the table to the floor as from the main deck to the table, but Autumn didn't need to know that.
"Clear the table please!" A gargoyle shouted from across the platform, "work to do!"
Autumn sucked in a big breath and stood upright, "alright, I'm ready, let’s do it."
"Are you sure--" Victoria was cut off.
"I'm getting it over with!" Autumn insisted as she marched towards the corner of the table.
Iris peered over the edge of the platform as Eli took the lead climbing down the ladder, followed by Titus and then a nervous but committed Autumn. She could stick the landing if her stick was emptied of all energy before she leapt, but there wasn't anything around that she could get away with smashing to pieces. She guessed that she could probably just dispense the energy into the air, maybe creating a gust of wind or something, but she wasn't certain how much commotion that would cause and wasn't about to risk distracting anyone during their precarious descent down the towering ladders. Instead, she opted to take the fall the old fashioned way.
"Just think of it like jumping off cliff onto a monster," Victoria was saying to Autumn.
"That would be easy!" Autumn yelled, "jumping is easy, you're only up high for a second!"
Iris dropped past them, plummeting towards the floor below.
"Like that!" Autumn shouted.
Iris kept plenty of space between herself and the floor when she first blipped upwards to reverse her momentum. When she reached the peak of her upwards arc and her momentum zeroed out, she quickly blipped three times in quick succession to bring herself just a few feet above the floor, where she landed comfortably.
The marble floor was quite regular, all things considered. The square slabs it was built from were impossibly wide to be anything regular sized folk could have built, and the gaps between slabs were sometimes as wide as inches, forcing intimidating steps across dark gaps every few hundred feet, but still, Iris found the solid floor beneath her to be a comforting dose of normalcy.
Looking up and around the workshop was a different story. She very much felt like an ant on the floor of a house, and it genuinely felt like her mind wasn't equipped to comprehend such scales – not just as far as perceiving them, it felt like even knowing something so huge existed was somehow knowledge her mind would prefer not having. Looking up at the Gaping Maw was particularly strange, as she could have never imagined she would see the ship propped up like a hobbyist's scale model.
Killup's feet pitter-pattered across the marble as he flew down and landed in a jog that brought him just before Iris.
"Pretty neat?" he asked.
"Terrifying," she corrected.
"You probably get used to it," Killup shrugged and began to walk off, "tell chef I'm taking family leave."
"You guys get family leave?" she asked.
"Not if you ask for it!" Killup called back before breaking into a quadrupedal sprint across the floor, towards the gap between two giant marble block worktables.
A while later, the party was finally gathered on the floor beneath the Gaping Maw, waiting on Autumn to shake off the last of her nausea. The many adventurers who had descended from the Gaping Maw by that point were being funneled by gargoyles towards the same gap between tables that Killup had scurried into. With no other direction, the party joined the slowly moving crowd.