Chapter 21 < Chapter 22 > Chapter 23
Chapter 22 - "Angels and songs"
I'm at my core with the whole Ashranie tribe. After hearing Orsha out, they are paying their tribute to the fallen ones with a moment of silence. But while one could hear a needle fall in this room, my inner self is in tumult:
I was thinking about sorting out my goals, and there are, like, a ton of things coming into my mind. Things I need to get my hands on. Things I need to clarify. Things I need to finish ... this is too much! I need some kind of graphical or physical outlay of the tasks I burden myself with ... Haven't I seen some research about that?
Opening the menu and scrolling through the list, I quickly find it:
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"Scribing" (Lords Power) - 50 DP
- Allows to transfer thoughts into written information.
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And now that I look for it, there's actually another interesting one:
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"Personal Database" - 50 DP
- Allows to make and organize notes, write down information, and draw basic outlays in the mind of the dungeon, invisible for everyone else.
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That second one actually sounds more useful in my situation. Sure "Scribing" would have other convenient uses. Like communicating with people who can't talk via the spiritual link for example. But the "Personal Database" promises a specialized area for the exact purpose of organizing. It has even the same cost. This could be the assistant, I was looking for.
By browsing further through the list, I once more realize how much potential the research wields. Getting one of them done, could easily throw off my current planning and set totally new priorities. There are some projects that especially catch may attention for that exact reason:
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"Event Log" - 100 DP
- Gives access to the "Event-Log menu", which lists all important events.
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And:
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"Additional Dungeon Information" - 100 DP
- Gives more information to the Dungeons Info-Screen.
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The first one would give me a list with all important events. This could provide me with some insight on the dungeons functionality. Maybe it could even solve some mysteries. For example; why small amounts of my DP are disappearing from time to time. Even now: I remember the amount being at exactly 1018 DP, right after I finished with the maze. Now It's at 994 ... 24 DP gone in two hours. Sometimes it doesn't change at all, but this time it's fast ... Could it be because of the spawned creatures? Do they need DP to keep going? But I already had this problem before my first creatures were spawned ... Maybe this research project can provide some insight to that.
The second is a bit mysterious, and doesn't give much detail. It simply promises more Information on the dungeon screen. No clue what it will show me, but more information is always welcome.
The good thing about both of them is, I don't need to rely on someone for those info. Like, I don't need to break my head on the Ashranies mystical explanations for it. Sure, they have the best intentions, but sometimes I've just no idea what they are talking about. And I also don't need to rely on Marsif and his people to keep their promises. Who knows when they will appear again ...
Another two that could be really useful are:
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"Food Creation" (Lords Power) - 300 DP
- Enables the creation of food for herbivore and carnivore inhabitants.
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And:
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"Plant creation" - 500 DP
- Gives access to the "Plants menu", for creation of different plants, useful and decorative.
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While being a bit more expansive, they both sound, as they could solve my worries about the food supply. The first just seems to create consumption-ready food. The other offers me the ability to make plants. And it's not saying "Plants for food", but "Useful plants". I wonder what this "useful" may all include?
Somehow I think; both of them will be very beneficial in the near future. The refugees may bring some basic provisions with them (At least, that's what I was promised) but I would need to feed them somehow later on.
Again, this is a lot to consider and it all looks important. So, should I go for the "Personal Database" as soon as the current "Economics"-Research is finished, which should be in tomorrows early morning? ...
Honestly, the information-projects look more important right now! My planning would probably go to hell after I researched them anyway!
...
Suddenly, Hassak calmly reaches out to Orsha and she gives him back the ceremonial staff. This thing actually bothered me from the very beginning, and I decide to stall my planing for after the meeting, and give in on my curiosity:
Me: [Sari, what does this stick stand for?]
Sari reacted like she was waiting for me to say something. I think it's the first time I didn't scare her by speaking up suddenly.
Sari: [It contains the authority to speak to the tribe.]
Me: [So you can't just speak?]
Sari: [No. Hassak gives and takes authority in big gatherings.]
It must be to ensure order. If everyone would just talk as he pleases, it would end in chaos. This is not a dumb decision, and much less mystical then I first assumed.
Hassak looks through the faces of his tribesmen, to see if someone else might have something to say. Suddenly, I have an Idea ...
Me: [Sari, what do you think if we lighten the mood a bit?]
She hesitates for a moment.
Sari: [... How does Kalifos want to do that?]
Me: [Remember how Hoko asked me to make a hunting ground, to train the young hunters?]
Sari: [Yes?]
Me: [The first part of it is finished and ready to use. I think, at least Hoko would be glad to hear that. Or is the time inappropriate?]
Sari: [Ah ... no, but ...]
She swallows what ever the end of that sentence should be.
Me: [What's the matter? Are you not allowed to talk to the tribe?]
Sari: [... Only Hassak decides ...]
She's becoming increasingly more nervous, which is getting visible on the outside too. Her Eyes are fixed on that ceremonial staff, held by Hassak, like it's a snake that could jump her any moment. I would thank their gods, if they would have any, for his sharp eyes. He noticed her nervous look and after a moment of consideration, offers her the thing.
Me: [See?, it's fine!]
Sari: [Sari ... never ...]
Never what? She never officially spoke to the tribe? In that case, it would probably be a good experience to her.
Everyone else: "Hooo ... ?"
Realizing the she's getting the attention of everyone around, Sari quickly begins to shrink in her pose, and for a moment I catch myself wondering, how small she actually could become? Her eyes start to jump from face to face, like an animal looking for an escape route. Finally she stops on Orshas eyes, making an expression like she's bagging for help. Orsha, on her side, not sure what the matter is, just helplessly stares back at her.
Sari: [... Orsha is much better in speaking to tribe!]
Sari's trying to escape the situation. I think, right now she would gladly hide under the first stone she could find.
Me: [Yes, but Orsha was gone to meet with Hassak's group. She does not know about it. You have seen it with your own eyes. You've also fought the creatures. Even got a trophy! You certainly have a story to tell.]
The tension rises, and I begin to doubt if it would be such a good Idea to push her further. I still think it would help her to overcome her fear of people, but if she doesn't want to, I have no right to force her. Hassak seems to share this opinion, as he silently retreats the offered stick. Then he cuts off the whispers in the background by standing up, and raising his arms. After a few more moments, I hear him humming. It slowly becomes louder. Soon single words can be traced in it and not long after, it evolves into a wholesome song. The rhythm is off and I don't recognize any rimes, but he's clearly singing.
To my question, the relived but still nervous Sari explains that now, that everyone had said their good-byes to the fallen, Hassak sings a farewell song to their souls, so they will arrive in the eternal hunting ground in good spirits. It's a lonely and sad song, that much I can tell even without translations.
I can't help, but open my soul menu ... They are still there. All 5 who died in the battle during the storm, plus the 2 injured who didn't survived the night, as well as the 4, who fell in the fight on my first day. 11 Ashranie souls, bound to my dungeon ... I feel bad about it. Like I'm betraying them, even if I can't help it!
I could just release them, even while I don't really know what happens with them after. Hopefully, they won't start haunting this place after that ... Telling Hassak the truth sounds like the right thing to do, but who knows how the Ashranie will react to that. They are nice and understanding so far, but if I mess with their beliefs, they may even become hostile ... Keeping it to myself would be the most secure choice, but there may come the day when I "have" to tell them for whatever reasons. And the more time passes until then, the more difficult it will be for the tribe to swallow the truth. I don't want it to end in a riot, or anything the like!
What a dilemma ... I successfully avoided to deal with this question until now, but this is just running away from the inevitable. Sooner or later, I will have to deal with that, so it could as well be now!
I chew the options over in my mind one more time. And while keeping the souls is tempting, I realize that it's just me being greedy. As far as I can tell, the Ashranie don't try to trick or deceive me, so they deserve the same treatment.
Alright, I made up my mind: One after another, I open their soul-options screens and press the "release" button ... There's no showy reaction, no flashing light, no ghostly Ashranie waving at me while they fade away into the distance. They just disappear into nothingness. [Rest In peace guys ...]
Sari: [... The Ashranie hunters will not have much rest at where they go.]
Me: [Ah, right. They are not called the "Eternal Hunting Grounds" for no reason, right?]
After Hassag's song ends, the tribe slowly dissolves. Most of them went to prepare the tents/huts for the returned expedition members, since they don't have a place to rest yet. Some others attend their guarding duty. I've something important on my mind too:
Me: [Sari, I have something to take care off, so, I'll leave you for now, but I would like to speak with Hassak after he settles in. There are a few things we need to discuss.]
Sari: [Yes ... Sari will tell Hassak.]
Seems like she's getting used to speaking with me. At least her voice is not shaking anymore, afraid of saying something inappropriate.
After canceling our connection, I immediately return to my previous task-organizing plans. For that matter, Hassak's "talk-stick" gave me quite the idea: Just as the stick stands for something very specific and important, I can find items and goblets that stand for specific tasks - or better say "goals"- that I set for myself. I wouldn't need to phrase or write things, just find a place-holder for each of my goals, go to a place where no one stumbles upon it and sort them in the order I need. And voila, I would have my priority list.
First, the right place. [... Let's see ...] After a careful look at the map, I decide to go for the deepest part of the maze. No one would go there without a good reason, and it's not inhabited by monsters yet.
Next are the place-holders: For this I grab a helmet of the equipment pile and start collecting small goblets of all kind. An empty flask that symbolizes the goal of finding stable DP sources. A little bone for getting rid of the skeletons in the tower, a knife, that stands for my wish to strengthen our fighting capability, and so on ...
It took a while to get all the goals together in my mind, and it was even harder finding matching items for them. Now that I have everything together, it turns out to be more then I expected! [So many things to do!] It looks overwhelming at first, but that's not something tat would discourage me now. I organize them in three categories and sort them by importance:
The short-term goals are things that I can get my hands on right now. I put them in the following order:
1. Get a closer look at the engraved giant metal ball.
2. Determine research priorities.
3. Inspect the pile of equipment for something useful.
4. Think about how to handle Archeon in the future.
5. Inspect the drawers, that where taken inside to dry off.
6. Clear the skeletons from the tower.
7. Rush some easy to get achievements.
The middle-term goals are ones, that need some preparation first, or a longer time to finish:
1. Dig out some homes for the refugees.
2. Try to get some fast breading critters as a consistent source for DP/souls/food.
3. Finish the Maze.
4. Find out how "bonding" works and get on it if it's worth it.
5. Get a better overview of the local area.
And finally the Long-term goals. These are things that are mostly out of reach for now:
1. Find consistent ways to get DP.
2. Learn about dungeon abilities and how to use them efficiently.
3. Find ways to highen the fighting capabilities of the dungeon's inhabitants.
4. Find out how I came into existence, and where the three Dark-Elf souls on my sol-list came from.
5. If bonding proves beneficial, bond as many people as possible.
After the last rigging and reordering of some items, I take a last look at the finished result. When I started, I felt overwhelmed and burdened by the shire amount of things waiting for my attention. But the more I emerged myself into it, the more it felt relieving and liberating at the same time. The amount of goals did not become less, but having them spoken out and ordered, released me from a good part of confusion. And there's also that sense of having a purpose in my existence again.
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Now that I'm finished, I feel a bit of tiredness sticking to my mind. Nothing to worry about, but if it gets worse, I should consider resting before it gets out of hand again. I take a look at the clock:
[5:45 PM]
[The time is sure flying!] I wasn't aware of it before I had a clock, but now it's worrying how fast it passes by. this makes me want to finish at least one of the goals before the day ends. "At least one Goal a day!" that sounds like a motivating and reasonable schedule. At least for now ... The current top priority goals are: "Inspect the engraved sphere", "Build homes for the refugees" and "find ways of consistent DP income".
While the last one is the most important, I can't think of any solutions other then attracting more foes to my dungeon. And I'm not ready to bring more "honorable sacrifices" upon the Ashranie. Maybe we can arrange something with the lizard-man, but that needs to wait until my talk with Hassak. The second goal is something, I would like to stall for after my conversation with him too. Depending on their assistance, the results may greatly differ in the end. This leaves me with the mysterious sphere in the tower.
When I arrive at the towers second floor, where the artifact is located, I find two Ashranie-guards curiously inspecting it already, while taking only occasional looks over the broken wall. [I'm not the only one bothered by it, huh?] I join them in their long silent looks, and also try to get an overall impression on what I have in front of me. The hunters almost jump over the wall in shock when I pick the sphere up and rotate it, to get a better look at all angles.
... My inspection lasted for hours. The pictures engraved in it are more chaotic than I noticed until now. At first, it seemed like a depiction of one specific happening. But the more I looked at it, the more I notice a flow of events. What makes it really difficult is, that it doesn't have a "top" or "bottom", which made it hard to find the beginning and the end of the story. The sun is already close to the horizon, when I think that I roughly understand what it shows:
It begins with armies of angels and monsters battling each other. The angels have some other forces on their side, but they seem less important. The monsters on their end got five abominations, all different from each other, but all nightmarish in their appearance. It looks like they are the leaders of the demonic creatures. The angels seem to have some kind of flying battleship, which looks more like a fortress to me, from where they are attacking.
The next scene shows several important-looking people with crowns above their heads. The middle one has angel wings, and is depicted larger then the rest. They stick together their weapons, which I assume is meant to be an alliance.
In the next picture, some kind of event happens: On top of the flying fortress something shines brightly (or explodes?). The angels seem overjoyed about it, while the demons are leaning away and cover their faces. Maybe it's a weapon of some kind. No matter what it was, it seemed to shift the tides of the battle in favor for the angels.
What follows are three similar scenes where in each of them an overwhelming force of angels defeats a force of the monsters, and slays one of the big abominations. The angels carry shining weapons, always backed up by the flying fortress. while the monsters are shown fleeing in between the scenes. The other kings are shown at the back of the angels army, but there are no pictures of them fighting.
The last scene is shown in more detail then the rest and takes up almost a third of the sphere. It shows, what I suppose is a big hole in the ground with flames bursting out of it. It's spiky edges are showing upwards, like something exploded or erupted there, forming the crater. Judging by the demons fleeing towards it, I can imagine what it was. The angels are all around the gaping hole, and are seemingly chanting something. big chunks of rocks are raining upon the hellish entrance. If I have to guess, they are sealing the gates of hell, or something.
All the pictures are framed by lines of text, which carefully separates them from each other. [I really wish, I could read it ...] Whoever made this, had a lot of free time to waste his craftsmanship on a cannonball. Still deep in thoughts, wondering if what I look at is a piece of history, a fanciful legend, or a straight forward fairy-tale, I get interrupted by a voice in my mind.
Orsha: [Orsha is calling the great spirit "Kalifos"!]
Now, that sounds official.
Me: [I'm here. What can I help you with?]
Orsha: [Hassak desires to talk with the great spirit.]
That came sooner then I thought. I wasn't expecting him being ready until tomorrow. When does this guy rest?
Me: [I'll be there in a moment.]
I cancel the link, while still swallowing my recent impressions.
The sphere is probably just a small piece of a huge puzzle, but it seems to be an important one. I hover up in the sky and take a look over the landscape, which the setting sun painted in a warm orange tone. The two broken towers in the east and west of my position look like they could have been destroyed in the same way as this one. Meaning that there could be similar cannonballs there too. The sphere I inspected is not a piece of mass production from what I can tell, it's too carefully made for that . Even if they tell the same story, the people who made them could have given a focus to some different aspects, making the story more complete, the more pieces I gather. The question is, how to get them ... if they are there at all.
But that's a worry for another day. Right now there's someone waiting for me ...
Hm.... this should be interesting!
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