This post is by guest writer Erin Burke.
Mind of the Dragon
32 Season of the Zephyr 1329 AE
Can you believe it? Another lost city! This time, it’s the fabled Rata Novus of the asura. I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised as the dense jungle here could hide anything, especially if it is hidden underground as is the case with this rediscovered city. Taimi is over the moon with this news and excitedly begins preparations. She has taken extra care to copy the map and glean any additional information from Kiru about the lost Rata and the surrounding area.
Meanwhile, Canach has gone ahead and discovered a small Pact camp made up of survivors of a prisoner caravan. As I approach, I catch a glimpse of the sylvari in the torchlit cavern. Even in the light, he seems covered in shadow, both literally and figuratively. I see a dark aura around him, and while his demeanor still feels resilient, I can tell he is beginning to falter under the Elder Dragon Mordremoth’s cushing will. Is it possible he is about to turn on us and serve the dragon as his sylvari brethren before him? He insists he is alright and I turn my attention to Lieutenant Morrison.
The Pact Lieutenant tells me she was in the same caravan as Zojja, Thackery, and Trahearne, who stayed behind so the others could escape. My heart falls at this news. I was hoping, perhaps naively, that it would be easier to track down the remainder of the Destiny’s Edge heroes. Fortunately, Minister Humli, the last prisoner to see the legendary heroes alive, escaped and is currently hunting a creature that has been causing the camp trouble.
We track the monster down, but it looks nothing like any Mordrem I have ever seen. It is enormous with a smooth, insectoid exoskeleton and a tail that shoots a concentrated, blue viscous liquid.
The sticky stuff glows and lights the cavern around us, and I can see the minister lying in a heap behind the creature. I can’t let him die!
Not before I find out what he know of Thackery and the others’ fates. We dodge the monster’s attacks and take it out, but it isn’t easy. I rush over to Humli who tells me Destiny’s Edge were taken south with other prisoners. Then he slumps dead, a noble hunter felled by his quarry.
I can hear chittering further down the passage to my left and a sinking feeling sets in. I creep over to a nearby ledge where I can feel ley energy emanating from deep within the cave. The clicking of mandibles and joints is almost deafening and I peer over the wall to see an army of the same creature we have just finished off.
There are also smaller versions of the beast skittering around the floor of the cavern, lit by the ley energy that seems to come from both the walls of the cave and their own bodies. Braham comes up behind me, but I wave him away. We aren’t even going to attempt to go through this.
Our attention is divided between moving on to Rata Novus and following the caravan. I still believe in what Taimi says about the Novan scientists contributing their research to help fight all the Elder Dragons. And so, I decide to stay with the little asura with Canach and Baraham in tow, while Rox and the others continue tracking the caravan. Fortunately, Tizlak and his Nuhoch tribe have been aware of Rata Novus for ages, but have avoided it as most of the roads there are too treacherous to to cross on a regular basis.The insect like creatures, the “chak” as the hylek call them, have many nests scattered throughout the underground tunnels here. However, if we clear out these tunnels, perhaps we could make some headway towards the lost city. Tizlak points us to a particular path his people deem the safest and we venture forth.
A series of portals leads us haphazardly through the tunnel system to the great city, now a great ruin. I can see a cloud of disappointment appear briefly over Taimi’s face, but before long she is racing excitedly through the tumbled pillars and arches as if searching for something.
As I see her small form flit off into the darkness, I hear shuffling coming from behind a fallen wall. It’s a sylvari, deep in the throes of agony from Mordremoth’s mind control. Canach insists on approaching the other sylvari despite my protests. He asks the other what the dragon has planned, but after a brief moment of clarity, his companion slips once again into the dragon’s control. Canach returns to us, this time splattered in the blood of his fellow. I console him the best I can and we move on, as Taimi is spotted excitedly jumping at a short rock formation near her.
The small scientist clambers up into her faithful golem robot Scruffy and begins analyzing the stone. According to her, there is a current of ley energy stretching under the city which the asura of the now dead city tapped into and used as an energy source. She prepares to activate this pillar, but warns us the energy will attract the insect like chak to the area. Sure enough, as soon as she starts the process chak rise out of the ground to harvest their share of the energy. The team pounds away at wave after wave as Taimi, safe within Scruffy’s armored form, hurries to other pillars and activates them. We finish off the last of the chak, just when the final pillar comes is powered up.
Next, we follow the stream of power to its nexus which Taimi says is probably a laboratory. Despite the power surge, only minimal light is emitted from the stones and our intrepid asuran points out the large shafts of sunlight that seem to suddenly filter down from above. Apparently some kind of system that funnels sunlight into the depths has been activated. Something else has been turned on, and we see an old golem, not unlike Scruffy, lumber toward us. The city’s defenses have been activated, but they don’t recognize us as friend. We’ll have to fight our way through the golems and cannons as once again Taimi is responsible for tracking the flow of current to the hidden lab.
The tunnel leads up to a lab fully equipped with what looks like an asura gate. Taimi powers up the gate, but the energy attracts a giant chak. We carefully engage in battle, trying not to damage the already ancient technology.
With the chak out of the way, the asura gate powers up properly. Fortunately, the gate doesn’t fall apart until everyone is out and safely on the other side.
We land in large room walled off from a larger area peppered with long dormant machinery, and populated with a crowd of chak all feasting on the ley energy. Across the expansive room, we can see a blast door with a dragon on it, however both the door down into the room and the blast door are not functioning. In order to restore power, we have to fix the broken energy conduit running along the wall. There’s only one way to do this, Taimi will have to use her golem circuitry to bridge the gap in the broken conduit. Taimi insists on making her own decision in the matter, but she is also unsure if Scruffy will survive as she instructs him to grab the broken and sparking wires. Energy flies out of the robot and Taimi looks on in sadly as Scruffy falls to pieces at her feet. The door is open, although we still have the chak to worry about.
The energy fiends won’t be a problem for long since Taimi has a plan for them, too. While we protect her, she will recalibrate the lights of what is basically a the large telescope so that they are aligned with the lenses and become a singular heat ray. We quickly make our way through the room, following the tiny scientist up into the machinery as she rearranges the lighting. When she is finished with her work, the chak stand little chance. The heat from the ray threatens to cook me in my own armor and I deftly dodge out of the way just before it hits the chak and fries them to ash.
With all obstacles out of our way, we are finally able to enter the central computer room and power it up. There, Taimi explains that while there is plenty of information on the asura’s long hated enemy Primordus, only scant knowledge exists of Mordremoth and the other Elder Dragons. However, there is one hint that each dragon has a weakness.
I tell the others to take heart and get ready to meet up with the others. With Scruffy gone, Taimi is physically helpless in a fight. She elects to stay behind and study the lab, even with the ever present danger of the chak.
I return to camp to see that Rox has left a string of signs in the guise of marked rocks. I follow these, often times into dangerous Mordrem territory.
Finally, I arrive at the Pact camp of Dragon’s Stand and meet up with Rytlock and the rest of the team. Still with his blindfold wrapped tightly around his head, he never fails to look through me, almost into my soul.
“Greetings, Kat. Are you ready to fight a dragon?”
You can watch the full video adventure here.