It has been 4 months since Lord Whelan has died. Aurea has had a period of peace...until now. The AI (Aurean Intelligence) has intercepted a transmission from the far northwestern edge of the galaxy, the Tatian Empire. Inquisitor Rhys, Lord Ombra, and Lord Whelan had all been working for its leader, Tate, all along, and now he has the Key to the Jungle. He is planning to use it for his own nefarious purposes on Planet Squid, the home planet of Garett. Realizing that this has something to do with the prophecy he found while building the Great Wall of Astrás, Weasel gathers Ryan, Nate, Maxwell, Garett, and Taftenkhamun together and they redesign the Pa-Ankh, making it suitable for space flight. Since the prophecy is top-secret, Weasel cannot take his own army with them. As a result, Weasel, Ryan, Nate, Maxwell, Garett, and Taftenkhamun are on their own as they sail through the cosmos to Planet Squid. When they land, they discover a quaint planet resembling the African Savannah and inhabited by anthropomorphic African animals. When they arrive, they ask a Zebra named Tristan where Tate’s army went. He says they were last seen going deep into the Savannah, but they will need to ask the guard before they can go there. The guard says that he has other problems he needs taken care of, so he tells them to go deal with a lion merchant named Noah he finds annoying. Noah says that Zebu Bandits in Baobab Market keep stealing his crafting goods and the guard won’t do anything about it. After Maxwell roughs up a few bandits and returns the goods, Noah relocates to Baobab Market and sells everyone new clothes and weapons. They then tell the guard that Noah will no longer bother him, and he is glad to hear this. However, he says that they must first get approval from the Baobab Council in Baobab Crown before they can go out into the Savannah. However, Tristan warns them that the council is “torn by petty arguments and personal agendas and start more wars than they stop”. They speak first to a hyena named Imbuka Pridefall, who comes across as jarring and mean-spirited. She tells them to go annoy a lion named Mufasa Brokenfang. Mufasa tells them to go get a map of the Savannah before he gives his permission. Weasel sends Nate into the Map Room, and inside, Nate finds a strange alien with a military uniform on. The alien attacks him, but Nate kills the alien before he can find out who they are or who they are working for. When Nate brings back the map and tells everyone what happened in the Map Room. Mufasa says it was probably one of Tate’s elites or something. Mufasa gives them his official permission and then tells them to talk to another councilor named Yengwayo Zebu. Yengwayo says before they go into the Savannah, they must prove capable of defending themselves. Yengwayo tells them to rough up some bandits in Baobab Market, which Garett easily does. After this, Yengwayo tells them to talk to Imbuka Pridefall, but she has mysteriously vanished. Instead, they talk to her assistant, a landsquid named Malusi Goodheart. He says they must first show kindness by roughing up more bandits and returning the goods that they stole to their rightful owners. After Taftenkhamun does this, they are granted official permission to enter the Savannah, and they promptly ask the guard to open the gate, which he does. The guard tells them to look for a lion that acts like a zebra. His name is Germie Jreene. It is said that Germie knows everyone and everything about the Savannah and if anyone can find Tate and his army, it is him. When they reach the Zebra camp in the Savannah, they find Germie Jreene, who looks vaguely familiar to Garett for some reason, but Maxwell assumes this is nothing. Germie says that the human general sent here by someone named King Arturius, Morgan, has gone missing. They investigate Morgan’s hut, which looks like a tornado touched down in it. Germie says that last he remembers, Morgan went to see the Gazelle Tribe. They will need to speak to their king, Carter of Payne. Once they find Carter of Payne, he says that he recovered a to-do list from one of Tate’s henchmen, and he’ll give it to them if they fix his tribe’s well, which they do in less than an hour. They return to Germie Jreene with the list and it reads, “Step 1: Use Tainted Agave to Poison Watering Hole. Step 2: Use Hyenas and Poisoned Lions to Defend Proud Rock. Step 3: Ambush Morgan and take her to be The Scarred One’s Pet in Exchange for Golden Crown. Step 4: Send the Unbound to Zulundi”. Germie says he finds this list very troubling, and that they need to get permission from the Lion Tribe to investigate the Watering Hole. They talk to their king, Kovu Longspear, who says that the Zebra Iklwa Warriors have been raiding their supplies and they need Weasel and his friends to recover them. After Weasel roughs up a few Iklwa Warriors, they give the supplies back, and Weasel and his friends return them to Kovu Longspear. In return, Kovu lets them walk through his lands to the Watering Hole, which, as the to-do list says, is poisoned. They report back to Germie Jreene, who says that they need to report back to Tristan in Baobab for an explanation of the events that are transpiring here. After Tristan reads the list, he says he finds this very disturbing. He says that agave, the plant that poisoned the Watering Hole, is from a planet called Aztlan and normally has healing properties. However, when tainted with Shadow Magic, it becomes poison that temporarily flips the personality of whoever drinks it. When Weasel and his friends ask what Shadow Magic is, Tristan explains that it is a special power invented by some crazy person on Eaglypt a while back and is considered the most dangerous power in existence, as it inverts everything it touches. He then says that he knows who this “Unbound” person is: his evil twin brother, Jermie. It is revealed that Germie Jreene’s real name is Jermie Greene, and he has been leading Weasel and his friends into a trap since they arrived in the Savannah. Tristan then explains the story of how Jermie was once a good man, but he learned Shadow Magic from an Aztlanian priest visiting the planet. He soon lost control over it and became evil and manipulative as a result. He wanted to rule Planet Squid for himself, and raised an army to conquer the planet. He almost conquered the whole planet, but Tristan led a resistance deep in the jungles. Eventually, Jermie was cornered in the underwater palace he had constructed at the bottom of Mirror Lake, where he planned to rule the planet from. After a lengthy siege, Jermie surrendered and peace returned to Planet Squid. As evil as Jermie was, Tristan could not bring himself to kill his own brother, instead choosing to lock Jermie away in a prison deep in the jungle and send the only key, the Key to the Jungle, to Aurea for safekeeping. When Lord Whelan’s army fled Aurea, they took the key with them and gave it to Tate, fulfilling the first part of the prophecy. Tristan added that based on his appearance in the Savannah, his appearance on the to-do-list, and the fact that Tate busted him out of his jungle prison, Tate is probably trying to get into Mirror Lake, take control of Planet Squid for Jermie, and in return, learn Shadow Magic from Jermie. After Tristan hands Weasel and his friends a bag of KFC, the only thing that can undo the poisoning of the Watering Hole, he tells Weasel and his friends to go into the Savannah and confront Jermie. However, when they get back into the Savannah, they find that Jermie has mysteriously vanished. They check his hut, and in there they find an alien that looks vaguely like a chupacabra. He says his name is Sir Will of Cole and this hut will be the site of their deaths before attacking them. Eventually, Will is injured by Ryan and forced to leave, but not before revealing that he is one of Tate’s warlords, his direct henchmen, on the same level that Inquisitor Rhys, Lord Ombra, and Lord Whelan were. They return to Tristan, who says that the presence of Tate’s warlords in the Savannah is very troubling. He says they need to look for a cave next to the Watering Hole, where the poisoned Queen Khwezi Ghostmane is. He also says that if she is cured by the KFC, then the rest of the Lions will be, and they could take back Proud Rock. When they enter Khwezi Ghostmane’s cave, they see someone in a prison cell in the back who reveals that they are indeed Morgan. After they defeat Khwezi Ghostmane in battle, they force her to eat the KFC, and she reverts to her old self and agrees to free Morgan, who gives them a brief origin story before joining the group. She says she does not know where Tate or his army is, but they must climb Proud Rock to stop Tate from getting the Golden Crown of The Lions. However, because of the way Tate’s forces were guarding Proud Rock, they could not exactly launch a frontal assault. They must reach the top using a siege tower. With no army on the planet, Weasel and his friends rally the lions into an army and use local resources to construct siege engines and a siege tower. While the siege is successful in allowing Weasel and the lions to infiltrate Proud Rock, Morgan is captured during a raid and is forced to become the pet of The Scarred One while Jermie runs off with the Golden Crown of The Lions. After Weasel, his friends, and the lion army defeat the Scarred One and free Morgan, the Lion King, Simbarius I, is cured of the tainted agave and tells them that Jermie ran off to Zulundi, which is only accessible via the Elephant Graveyard, domain of the Hyenas, Storks, and Wildebeest. He sends them beyond Proud Rock into the Deep Savannah, which they traverse to reach the Elephant Graveyard. When they reach this desolate wasteland, they find nothing but gigantic elephant bones the size of 3-story buildings and dreary, desiccated rock. No signs of life at all. When they go inside one of the skeletons, they find a half-destroyed wildebeest village there. The wildebeest say that Jermie and his army had just gone through there and ransacked the village for supplies. Weasel and his friends then head into the elephant’s ribcage, where they find a party of Wildebeest Warriors who say that their king, Nkosenye Nsizwa, has been captured by Tate’s army. They point to a cave he was taken into, and Weasel and his friends go in. In the cave, they find an alien dressed like the one Nate encountered in the Map Room of Baobab Crown. After this alien is killed by Morgan, they free Nkosenye Nsizwa, who returns to the wildebeest village and tells Weasel and his friends where Tate’s army is camped. Tate’s army is encamped outside the Graveyard District and in the adjacent Geyser District, in the shadow of a rocky bluff. As a result, Weasel and Nkosenye hatch a plan to ambush Tate’s camp that night. However, when the wildebeest warriors are mobilized for the assault, Tate’s forces are well-prepared for this and a battle ensues. Tate’s army is eventually forced to flee to the Hyena Bluffs, the fortress where Lord Whelan was born. With no way to get the materials for a siege train, Weasel and his friends decide to sneak in the next night using a bungee cord. Once inside, they sneak around until they find Cole, leader of the Hyena Resistance Movement. They help Cole spread news of the resistance movement throughout the fortress, and eventually they are able to recruit a force large enough to drive Tate’s army out of the fortress and the Elephant Graveyard altogether. Weasel and his friends return to Baobab, where they tell Tristan what happened. Tristan says that in Zulundi, they need to find someone named Sizani Sunrunner, who can lead them to Reshon Zebu, the Shaka Zebu (or Zebra King). When they arrive in Zulundi, they find Sizani Sunrunner, who says that the Shaka Zebu has been possessed by Shadow Magic and Zulundi has descended into civil war, with zebras that are black-with-white-stripes fighting the ones that are white-with-black-stripes. She tells them that they need to find a neutral party or else they will be deceived, so she tells them to look for Jeering Emeer, Reshon’s magician, who cannot tell which side he belongs to. When they find Jeering Emeer, Morgan says that he looks vaguely familiar, but is dismissed by Ryan. Jeering says that in order to break the spell over Reshon, they need the Golden Shield of The Zebras, located in the tomb of Cory Zebu, Reshon’s grandfather. However, in order to get in there, they need to restore the Star Obelisk in the part of Zulundi controlled by the white-with-black-stripes faction. However, that faction is very unfriendly to outsiders, so they will have to ally with the black-with-white-stripes faction and take it by force. Jeering says that Kaleel Zebu, Reshon’s heir, is the head general of the black-with-white-stripes faction and that they should talk to him. Kaleel Zebu tells them to raid the enemy camp that night, which they succeed in doing. Ryan captures their leader, Captain Matthew Hooks, who tells them where the obelisk is in exchange for his release. They go to the Star Obelisk and learn some Star Magic. Sizani Sunrunner then explains that Star Magic is one of the three Astral Schools, the opposite power of Shadow Magic. They then report back to Jeering, who sends them into the tomb of Cory Zebu. Inside the tomb, they are attacked by two giant spiders that Maxwell promptly kills. When they descend deeper into the tomb, they find none other than Jeering in there, who reveals himself as Jermie Greene. He reveals that he is the one who bewitched Reshon, then had Weasel and his friends unlock the tomb door so that he could steal the Golden Shield of The Zebras and give it to Tate. He then uses Shadow Magic to reanimate the ghost of Cory Zebu, and commands him to attack Weasel and his friends while he escapes. During the battle, Garett’s sword is broken. Eventually, Weasel defeats the ghost of Cory and cures his spirit of the Shadow, but Jermie had already escaped. Cory then gives Garett his old Quagga Blade to replace the latter’s broken sword. They then return to Baobab and tell Tristan of the chain of events that unfolded in Zulundi. He says that Jermie and Tate have crossed the Great Central Desert and have crossed the Great River to Squid Town. To get there, they will need to find someone who can sail from Baobab Market to Squid Town. They go to the dockside and ask for the help of a sailor named Hannibal Onetusk. Hannibal says that his ship is broken and that they will need a new Waterdrive Motivator. He tells them to find his friend Chu Barca in Elephant Graveyard who has one in his shed. They go to Elephant Graveyard and talk to Chu Barca, who was born with a bizarre throat disorder that only allows him to growl and roar instead of talk. They ask random people if they can find a translator, but Cole, who has now become the Hyena King, explains that the only translator was stolen by Tate’s army. Cole, however, says that he himself understands Chu Barca’s speech and offers to come with them on their journey. They go back to Chu Barca, who, after some talking using Cole as a translator, agrees to hand over the Waterdrive Motivator. They then head back to Baobab Market, where they install the Waterdrive Motivator in Hannibal’s ship, repairing it. Hannibal says that he calls his ship the Century Falcon, the fastest hunk of junk in the Savannah. When they arrive in Squid Town, they find that the city is being invaded by zebras from Zulundi. Weasel and his friends immediately seek an audience with the Landsquids’ King, Lord Jimenez. When they are denied entry by the guards, Garett reveals that he knows Lord Jimenez personally and they are let in. They tell Lord Jimenez that he needs to stop his war with Zulundi immediately if they are to be able to focus on tracking down Jermie and stopping Tate’s evil plans. Lord Jimenez says that he is at war with Zulundi because he believes that the Zebras kidnapped his son, Prince Jack of Cotton. Unless Jack is found, he says, then he will not make peace with the Zebras. Immediately, Weasel suspects that Jermie and Tate are behind this somehow. When Weasel and his friends leave the palace, they interrogate a group of Landsquid troops outside the palace. When they refuse to answer their questions, Nate and Morgan defeat them all in battle and force them to answer. They say they know nothing, but Imbuka Pridefall, the councilor from Baobab may know something. Weasel asks what she is doing in Squid Town, and the Landsquids reveal that she is a double agent, living in Squid Town, but allowing Tate and Jermie to listen in on the affairs of the Baobab Council. Garett then turns the Landsquids over to Lord Jimenez, who locks them up for treason. Meanwhile, Weasel, Cole, and Morgan break into Imbuka Pridefall’s house to find her gone. However, they find the address of Malusi Goodheart, the other Landsquid Councilor. By the time they get halfway to Malusi Goodheart’s house, they see him being carried off in chains towards the harbor by a group of Landsquids similar to the ones they just interrogated. They report the situation to Lord Jimenez, who says that they are probably being taken to Tate’s fortress of Waterfront upriver. They then ask Hannibal Onetusk to help them sail to Waterfront, but he says that Tate’s army has set up a barricade on the river blocking the way to Waterfront. He sends them to investigate the barricade, but they fail to find any weaknesses. He says that they will have to kill the guards and then blow it up the old-fashioned way. When they get to the barricade, they easily kill most of the guards, though Nate takes a while to kill Lord McGrew, the head of the guards. Weasel then blows up the barricade with TNT he stole from one of the guards and they report back to Hannibal, who sails them to Waterfront. When they arrive in Waterfront, Garett defeats a few more Landsquids in battle and forces them to reveal that Malusi is being taken to the prison in the city center. When they try to walk in, they find the door magically locked, and even Star Magic is unable to open it. They interrogate more Landsquids and find out that there is a Landsquid in The Sook named Elliot Frasier who knows how to open it. Once they track him down and enter his tent, they find him in the middle of a conversation with none other than Imbuka Pridefall. Garett says that in the name of the Landsquid Tribe, they are under arrest. However, Imbuka Pridefall manages to escape while they are fighting Elliot. Weasel and his friends, even with all their strength combined, only barely manage to defeat Elliot, especially when he uses the powers in an Eaglyptian artifact that he carries with him. Once they defeat Elliot, he offers to reveal to them what they need in exchange for his freedom. He reveals that he is another one of Tate’s warlords and that in order to open the door of the prison, they need to sing the Charm of Making: “Wrando ar fi! Yr wyf yn gwneud plygu realiti i fy fympwy!”. Elliot then escapes. They then go to the door of the prison and sing the Charm of Making, causing the door to fly open. After defeating several guards, they are able to free Malusi Goodheart, who they take back to his house in Squid Town. Malusi explains that Imbuka Pridefall is going to Tate’s Fort in Waterfront to meet up with Jermie before he heads upriver with an entire legion of Landsquids to Drum Jungle. Here, he plans to mine Shadow Stone to rebuild Jermie’s Palace at the bottom of Mirror Lake and to get the Golden Spear of The Gorillas from Harambe, the Gorilla King. Weasel, his friends, and Malusi then go back to Waterfront, where they break into Tate’s Fort. After dealing with the twenty or so Landsquids in there, they find Imbuka Pridefall, who Taftenkhamun defeats after a lengthy battle. Malusi then leaves Tate’s Fort, dragging Imbuka with him in chains. Weasel and his friends then reach Jermie, who reveals that he is also one of Tate’s warlords before attacking them all. Once Jermie is eventually defeated by Garett, they leave the fort and return to Hannibal. They tell Hannibal what Tate and Jermie are trying to do in Drum Jungle and he agrees to take them there. When they arrive, Cole roughs up some Gorilla Highlanders and forces them to tell him where they can find someone who knows where Harambe is. The Gorilla Highlanders tell them that a Chimpanzee named Caesar knows where Harambe is. They talk to this Caesar and he says that Harambe’s Palace can only be entered by jumping over the railing above it, but they would need something to help them survive the fall. Caesar suggests building a bungee cord out of very thin strands of Shadow Stone, which they will have to steal from Tate’s mines. Once they get to the mines, they defeat some Gorilla Mistwitches, but cannot get any tools to mine Shadow Stone from them. However, they find an abandoned mining vehicle nearby and decide to use that. Once they have the Shadow Stone, they report back to Caesar, who tells them that they will need to ask a crazy Witch Doctor named Olorunyomi Abioye who lives deep in the jungle. When they get into Olorunyomi’s Hut, he tries to eat them before he is defeated in battle by Morgan. After his defeat, Olorunyomi performs a spell on the Shadow Stone, making it into a bungee cord. They then report back to Caesar, who sends them to the railing over Harambe’s Palace. Once they use the bungee cord to get into Harambe’s Palace, they are attacked by a giant Gorilla, who they soon discover is Harambe himself. Harambe then proceeds to drag Cole around the Palace, almost killing him. However, Morgan shoots Harambe from behind with several arrows, killing Harambe. Just then, Jermie walks in and says that he used the kidnapping of Prince Jack of Cotton to lure them out here and then have them kill Harambe so that he could take the Golden Spear of The Gorillas for himself. Weasel and his friends leave Harambe’s Palace and report back to Caesar, who says that he has figured out where Tate and Jermie are keeping Prince Jack of Cotton. Caesar sends them into a cave deep in the jungle, where they find Jermie with Prince Jack of Cotton by his side. On his other side is a short alien in Tatian Army uniform who is none other than Tate himself. After Weasel defeats Jermie, the curse over Prince Jack of Cotton is broken and the latter says he is going to return to Lord Jimenez. However, Tate then reveals that Prince Jack of Cotton gave him the Golden Scimitar of The Landsquids, completing his set of the 4 artifacts needed to enter Mirror Lake. With that, Tate and Jermie leave. Weasel and his friends report back to Caesar, who says they must hurry back to Tristan if Planet Squid is to survive. When they report back to Tristan, he says that they must use the Mirror Lake Entrance at the back of his hut to get to Mirror Lake, and then kill Jermie before the latter and Tate reach the Sunken Palace.