8-56. A City Under Siege
Elijah tumbled free of the sphincter, gasping for breath in his human form. For whatever reason, his Ring of Aquatic Travel hadn’t worked in that horrible space, so he’d very nearly suffocated. But that was far down his list of most disturbing things about the experience.
He’d been swallowed before. He had been digested alive while inside a monster’s stomach. But spending nearly half an hour slowly being forced down a compressed, fleshy tunnel filled with mucus was definitely worse than anything else he’d ever been through.
Pushing himself to his hands and knees, he hacked up the mucus he’d inadvertently swallowed. It was a disturbingly large amount, and from the twisting in his stomach, he knew there was quite a bit more that was beyond his ability to regurgitate. Hanging his head, he spent a long while trying to simultaneously catch his breath while wrapping his mind around what had just happened.
Primal Realms, it seemed, could be very different. The Desolate Reach had allowed them to investigate and prepare without forcing them to enter. This one – called Chimeric Forge – was clearly very much unlike Elijah’s previous experience. The most obvious difference was that it hadn’t waited on his consent before dragging him inside, but he suspected that it wouldn’t end there.
To figure out what was going on, he raised his head and looked around. Already, he’d used Soul of the Wild to parse the basic features of his surroundings, but because he wasn’t in any immediate danger, he’d stopped there. Now, though, he could see things in much greater detail.
He had appeared in the center of what looked like a courtyard. Walls of rough stone rose all around him, reaching a height of more than a hundred feet. The ground was almost entirely bare, save for a few fleshy tendrils emanating from the sphincter from which he’d come.
But Elijah was not alone.
A tall figure stood only fifteen feet away. They were incredibly thin, and Elijah estimated that they were at least ten feet tall. More distressingly, their proportions were entirely wrong. That observation was confirmed when they swept their grey hood back, revealing their head.
They spoke, but Elijah had difficulty paying attention to their words. He was too focused on the enormous black eyes, pale blue skin, and sleek shape to focus entirely on what was said.
He shook his head. “I’m sorry, what?”
“This is an auspicious day, champion. You have come to save us, have you not?” the creature asked. The voice was like a thousand hisses all twirled around one another, though with a hint of an ethereal echo giving it an even more distinct sound.
Just then, Elijah felt a notification begging for his attention. So, before answering the alien-looking creature, he focused on the message that appeared before his inner eye:
| You have entered Chimeric Forge. To conquer this Primal Realm, you must save the city of Vey’thaal by braving the Abyssal Glassworks, forging a path through the Veinroot Hollows, and finally, dismantling the Forge of the Fleshwright.
|