The gap between the massive marble worktables of the giant's workshop was wide enough for adventurers to walk five abreast, and felt like a strange mix of an alleyway and a tunnel. There was an opening far above, where warm glow stone light shone brightly, but it felt more like a distant light at the end of a cave than true open air to the alleyway. As they neared the end of the alleyway, they approached a large vertical crack in the marble walls behind the worktables.

The walls of the crack were rough and uneven, and splintered off down multiple paths. It felt even more like stepping into a very tall cave than the alleyway they had just traversed, and the sparsely placed glow stone fragments that dimly lit the passage added to the effect. Gargoyles clinging to and deftly traversing the walls overhead directed the adventurers down the correct branches of the passage, and after a short while of agonizingly slow travel through the cracks, the crowd filtered out into something like a cavern.

Under normal circumstances, Iris would have considered the artificial cavern to be quite large, but by her recently skewed standards it was actually quite small. The ceiling was only a few dozen feet high, and the roughly rectangular room was only about half the size of Giantrock City's Underbelly. It was, however, absolutely packed with buildings. On the ground floor, all but a few were constructed of rough cut marble bricks, while the second and occasional third floors were primarily of ramshackle wooden construction.

The marble walls were a strange mix of flat, polished surfaces and roughly carved, almost cave-like surfaces. Along the exposed walls were a dozen or more structures carved directly into the marble, most were faced with either a wooden or marble brick wall, as if a large cavity had been hollowed out and a single front-facing wall had been built to close them off. There were no foot paths leading to most of these dwellings, they were evidently unnecessary for the gargoyles who could both climb walls and fly.

When the last of the crew had crammed into the cavern, a few gargoyles stacked bricks and planks into a makeshift platform near the center, in what was effectively a town square. Meredith stepped up onto the platform and addressed the crew.

"Listen up, dogs," Meredith projected her voice throughout the cavern, "we're guests here, and if you can't already tell, the Gaping Maw is at the mercy of our hosts. While we're here, minor infractions will be met with swift and harsh punishment at the hands of myself and the captain. Anyone who commits a major infraction will be handed over to the Monuments to face customary local punishment -- a few of you will remember what that looks like."

Murmurings spread through the crowd, and Iris overheard someone mention "the pit."

"Our hosts have been kind enough to mark a few of the tunnels for us," Meredith continued, "the tunnel behind me marked with an X will take you to the chamber where we'll be setting up camp, the tunnel to my left marked with a circle will take you to the market, and the tunnel marked with a square will take you to the mines. We'll be here for a while, so feel free to take up work if you can find it. Any questions?"

"What counts as an infraction?" someone shouted.

Meredith sighed, "if you wouldn't do something on the Gaping Maw, definitely don't do it here. Better yet -- if you wouldn't do it in the captain's quarters, don't do it here. Act right, stay out of trouble, and don't get stepped on."

"When do we get to pillage something?" another voice called out.

"When the captain says so," Meredith replied sharply, clearly stressed by the task of keeping the crew out of trouble, "we all know that pillaging is on hold until the hydra is returned to sea, get over it. If you really need to blow off steam, I'm told the mines have a monster problem, go down there and kill something."

"What about--"

"No more questions," Meredith cut them off, "get somewhere, all of you."

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"I don't think she likes her job very much," Autumn observed.

"I think it's the crew she doesn't like," Eli said.

It didn't take long for the crowd to start moving. Most headed for the crack in the wall marked with a large black X, apparently marked with charcoal, towards their camp site.

"Alright," Eli clapped his hands to get the party's attention, "let's go claim a good spot for camp-- where's Iris?"

"Wait for me!" Autumn shouted, already hurrying after Iris towards the passage to the markets.

"Guys--" Eli started to call out, then stopped and sighed.

"I'll ensure the chef stays out of trouble," Adan said.

Eli almost startled at the words. Adan stood so still and silent that Eli often forgot he was even there.

"Do me a favor and look after the other one, too?" he asked.

"Of course," Adan nodded before heading after Autumn and Iris.

"I guess we'll--" Eli began.

"Actually," Victoria interrupted, "I left something back at the ship, I'll catch up."

She shifted into her spectral form and floated back in the direction of the Gaping Maw.

"Why do they always run off like that?" Eli asked Titus, who shrugged.

______

Victoria floated through the thick marble walls until she reached the giant's workshop. Hovering mostly submerged within the wall, only the ghostly form of her face peaked out at the Gaping Maw. Gargoyles swarmed it like ants to a candy, and major work was already underway. With the captain nowhere in sight, she sunk back into the wall and reemerged in the huge hall down which the ship had been carried by giants.

She retraced the path the ship had taken through the halls, staying hidden in the ceiling and using her auravision to navigate. It was easy enough -- the giants had bright, powerful auras emanating from their chests and heads, which made it trivial to follow them the paths of the halls while her normal sight saw only darkness within the marble she passed through.

She soon reached the chamber of the monuments, where large round cuts of marble had been rolled into place to block the four entranceways. She stayed within the walls and flew to the ceiling of the chamber, where she poked her face out just enough to see and hear. Far below, only a tiny speck on the central platform of the chamber, was the Shark Titan.

Victoria was able to recognize Monument South from the earlier conversation she had witnessed, and from there could infer the names of the others. Monument West was the one who leaned forward with his hands clasped, apparently quite interested in the Shark Titan, while Monument East sat casually, almost sprawled across his throne. North and South both sat upright, maintaining the posture one would expect of a statue.

"This is the first word we've gotten of the little city's fall," Monument West said, "an outright coup is unprecedented behavior for Morose. What do you suspect are their intentions?"

"The agent leading the coup spoke of the Millennium Mandate, and a war for the crown of gods," the captain had more to say, but was interrupted by the grinding of stone as Monument west abruptly sat upright in his throne.

"They intend to see the prophecy through," Monument North spoke, a hint of astonishment in his voice, "they're making a play for power at a time like this?"

"The hypocrisy and hubris of demi-gods knows no bounds," Monument South said.

The monuments were still and silent for a moment, and then Monument East spoke, "perhaps there is more at play than the folly of aspiring gods. A dragon visiting the lands should tell us all we need to know about the severity of our situation."

"Indeed," Monument West said, returning to his contemplative posture, "I fear fulfillment of the prophecy is imminent, with or without the help of the gods."

"What is this crown of gods?" the Shark Titan asked.

A quiet moment passed before Monument West answered, "it is as it sounds. The god who holds the crown is the god above all."

"It has not been held for millennia," Monument North added, "it was lost in the War of Rebeginning, eons ago, before even we sat upon our thrones."

"How does one obtain this crown?" The Shark Titan asked.

"Do not pursue the crown," Monument West instructed fiercely, "you will die like all the rest."

"Except for the one who gets it," the captain countered.

"Convince yourself if you must," Monument West waved a hand that sent a breeze across the room, "I will mourn your passing for a moment. I will not, however, assist you with this great mistake."

"Tell us more of the dragon," Monument North changed the subject, "what is his role in this?"

Victoria listened as the captain told his perspective of the dragon's arrival in the Great Forest, and described the knowledge he and his fellow titans were able to stitch together following the incident. The conversation continued on for over an hour, circling back to earlier topics as the monuments relentlessly mulled over the situation, and occasionally disagreed on how concerned they should be, or if any action on their part should be taken. Though no singular moment stood out to her as the information the Dreamweaver hoped to obtain from the meeting, she committed as much as she could to memory with the intent of relaying it all back to the Dreamweaver.