When I awoke, we were in another metal city, this one in ruins. Somehow the angles were wrong, but I didn't learn why until much later. When I awoke, I was in the air-ship, Logrim beside me. His body still lived, but his soul would not return.
I don't know what Anderson did with the remains to this day.
Elle and Kol returned to the ship eventually, with a man in plate mail in tow. The aura of righteousness radiating from him marked his nature as a paladin, the ram's horns jutting from his helm spoke to him being a hellbred. Elle and Kol themselves were...different. They carried themselves differently, with greater confidence than before. Their hair had turned white, though they hadn't aged. Kol didn't want to discuss it, and Elle...I didn't see her again until much later. This is a transcript of what they did while I was gone, from her perspective...
So we all drew from that magic deck. You and that short guy just collapsed, which was really weird. Not as weird as the rest, though. When I drew my card, I just got this feeling, like...like someone hated me. The big guy with the horns, though, that was really weird. When he drew it, this light came on. I couldn't see for a while, but when it faded he was wearing this cape thing. Fur and sable, very fancy. I thought about trying to take it, but...really, how would I sell something like that? Even before the whole zombie thing.
I remember that cloak. If you had taken it, it would have started complaing about you stealing it.
...Riiiight. Anyway, after that we found the doorknockers. When we mimed knocking on a door with them, a door appeared out of thin air. The door would lead to-
I know. That's where we are now. Would you mind explaining about the city now?
Yeah, yeah, keep your shirt on.
I don't care how drunk we were, there is no way that was my idea.
Then why were you wearing my stuff, moron? Anyway. The city, New York. I'd been there before, but it was really different...the streets...didn't add up, somehow. Anderson put the VTOL done on a building, so we could go find the tower thingy. The walls were covered in pictures, and what I think were words, but none of us could read them. Even looking at them made us feel sick.
When we got out of the building, my thought about the streets turned out to be right. Everyting was off, in ways I still don't get.
We did find the tower, on the edge of the harbor. On an island...sort of...I don't know what that stuff was. More importantly, there was a huge gate behind the tower. Like, the tower was just big enough to block the door. We didn't know what to do about that, so we went to the tower. The entrance was already open.
No guardian?
Well, there was a skeleton. Huge, winged thing, three heads, looked like it was made out of several different animals...it had a goat head, a lion head, and something I didn't recognize, since you ask.
Sounds like a chimera. I don't think you could have talked past that very easily.
Like I care! Inside, the big doorway was already open, and there were people inside, doing some kind of ritual. They had the sword, and it looked like they were gonna claim the tower. And, they did. For Cul...Cuth...Theelu...
Ah. I know what you're refering to.
You just keep gettting freakier, man. Anyway, I guess Culthegoo wasn't good enough, because the tower came down. The cultists seemed upset, they didn't even bother leaving.
But when the tower came done, the giant gate opened. The thing that came out...it was kinda green, vaugely human-shaped...but it had big wings, and lots of tentacle things where the mouth should have been. I can barely think about that thing, even when it was that long ago. That's when our hair turned white. Anyway, the thing headed for the ocean. We tried to run, but no matter how we ran, it always seemed to be behind us. We did get clear, but we had to meet Anderson outside the city.
Ah. That's about when I woke up.
Yeah. Wearing different armor, and with that dark smoke coming off of you.
Hmm. Put like that, I think I understand your upset now.
Glad to hear it. It really was way freaky. So I decided to leave and do my own thing. This ring meant I didn't need food or water, and I could take catnaps and feel like I slept all night. So I didn't need anyone else.
So are you done with the crappy reporter deal yet?
I suppose so.
Good. I'm outta here. See you around, I guess.