A tail recounted by Cygnus Veil after the events of [REDACTED] [REDACTED].
In a bustling pub in Magnimar, a disheveled yet energetic figure retells her adventures of old…
A Tale of Giants
“A Tale of Giants you see!” a lengthy elf bashes her heel on her table as she stands up splashing a mug of grog all over the ground. People turn out of a mix of curiosity and annoyance. This elf was well known in these parts, she was a member of the famous and notorious Sandpoint Scoundrels that went on many perilous missions and saved countless untold lives from the atrocities of evil and ill-intended. Even the pub itself, the Rusty Clanker, was founded by a member of the Scoundrels. She was rather skinny but well-built, she had purple-black hair with white hair growing at the roots, and a small black horn sprouting out of forehead. Black marking coiled down her face and limbs, these stood as proof of her journeys.
The elf would come by here and there whilst in a good mood and preach about her adventures to those who passed by. She even built up a reputation of sorts, people would sit around or turn their chairs to listen to her tales of ruin, glory, and peril.
“There we were…in the legendary city of Xin-Shalast, the ruins of an ancient civilization”. She lowered her body, speaking softly and building tension through her movements. She began to retell a story that would make even the greats quiver in their boots.
✣✾✣
“Oh shit…” A massive door lay ahead of the group of newly deemed heroes. The elf from before, this time her hair almost black, stood with her hands behind her head gazing up at the incomprehensibly-big structure.
“Well, we have to get the door open somehow, stand back everyone.” A man with a large shield stepped up unshaken by the fissage.
“Let’s try our best to be careful now, we’re already overstaying our welcome after all.” A woman piped up from behind as she kept her hand rested on her greatsword, her armor quietly clanking in the wind. The wind whipped through this city of giants, doors for all sizes could be seen in the scrawling town.
“Chill out would’cha? This isn’t our first time somewhere where we kill-on-site, Sally.” A younger man itched the back of his head and stepped up, placing his hand on Sally’s shoulder.
“I know, but even so…”
“Quit your yapping, Sven, let me help.” The elf jogged up and found a grip on the massive stone door.
“I’ll stand watch.” a homunculus, or what seemed to be an artificial man stood and watched vigantly around the unending town. He wielded what he called a “Tool ,created by man, to exterminate xenos, such as yourself.” It had a barrel of pentagonal metal with an inner barrel of geometrical madness and engineering genius was notorious for slewing foes from a safe distance. He didn’t like me too much, the guy had issues.
“Ready, Cygnus?”
“You bet, big man.” With a heave, the elf, Me of course, and the brawny human Sven began to tug on the door. After some time, some more of the members all grabbed on and pulled. Some helped, some hindered, like the smug faced kid from earlier.
“““Heave-Ho!””” The door pulled open just enough for a less-endoured person, such as myself, to slip through. Some of us however, like Sven and Sally, both with annoyingly large chests needed an extra couple inches to squeeze through.
“Gus, cast fly on me, no way I’m doing this.”
“No fuck off, I need to save my strength for important things, like myself and fighting.” With a sigh, the elf turned and glanced up the endless staircase, each step rising over around ten feet high.
“Come on, let’s get climbing. This vantage point is crucial to get a good idea, plus if it’s safe it could be a great place to rest.” Sally grunted as she heaved herself up the stairs. Of course I helped her, the woman was coated head to toe in armor, even though I didn’t want to or anything, there was nothing else to do.
Time passed, a lot did. We took some breaks here and there but the wind was getting louder, the small cracks in the stone allowed for the air to whistle through, it was as if the tower itself was singing some deathly tune.
✣✾✣
“What? You climbed up all those stairs that easily? And what do you mean ‘cast fly’?” An older man piped up, elbowing his friend who seemed to have agreed.
The elf looked down at him, he flinched a bit as she replied.
“It’s a spell, you know magic and shit? C’mon you lowlife have to have read some books here and there yeah? Look, it took a while, but why do you care what happened while we climbed? We haven’t got to the fun part yet.”
The crowd Oohed a bit at Cygnus as she nodded, “Hey barkeep, a round on the house for all the folks listening, they’re gonna need it!”
The bar cheered as the bartender stroked his beard and sighed.
✣✾✣
“Ahh, fuck that! My legs are so sore, and I’m the athletic one!” The elf finally pulled herself up the last step, collapsing onto her bottom, rubbing her legs. She turned to see the rest of her party a couple steps behind all huffing and puffing.
“C’mon you slow pokes, you have to see this view!” The elf popped back to her feet and began to walk over the edge of the tower. It was huge, the top of the tower had a ceiling hundreds of feet high, with massive openings for viewing pleasure that the cold and thin mountain wind poured through.
Some time went by and the party eventually regrouped at the top of the tower. They stood in the center, admiring the masterful craftsmanship of the tower. Designs ingrained in the stone, carved and rounded to perfection. If we had a dwarf in the party, thank whatever we didn’t, he probably would have creamed himself, hard.
They made their way over to the edge and what they saw was truly beautiful, the spiraling and outrageous forbidden city of Xin-Shalast. Buildings of truly tremendous scale, all different sizes, laid side by side with an internal road leading all the way up to a mountain with a horrific face gazing down at everything below it.
“Ok...let’s take a few...to take a break.” said the boy with the curly hair as he laid onto his back catching his breath.
“Yes, Sven made us something to eat.” The elf turned and ran back to the center of the tower.
Some time went by, the clanking of pots and pans and banter filled the huge hall. Suddenly, the machine raised its head and looked around.
“Oi what’s wrong, jealous you can’t partake?” Cygnus snickered to herself as she took a whiff of her soup.
“Silence xeno, I do not require nutrients like lesser creatures, such as yourself. I think I may have heard something out of place.” It stood up and turned towards the staircase. In response the elf stuck her tongue out in its direction and went back to eating.
The curly hair boy, oh his name is Gus, went to sip his soup but a large bang made him flinch and splashed some in his face, spilling just a little bit onto his fancy robes he likes so much.
“Ah, what the fuck?” Sally, the blonde-haired girl with the long hair and greatsword, spit some soup out in response, trying not to laugh. Cygnus on the other hand, may have laughed too suddenly and began to choke on the soup, she rolled on her back coughing and laughing. Sven instead calmly sipped his soup, still slightly unsatisfied with the repetitive and generic taste of his creation.
“Something comes.” The machine stood tall, drawing its weapon.
We all stood, drawing weapons and getting ready.
Thump, thump, thump. With every couple seconds the tower rumbled below us. Someone or something big was climbing the stairs, a hell of a lot faster than we did.
First we saw its face, then as it approached, its torso kept rising from under the floor. This thing was massive, one could even say gargantuan, easily around 40 to 50 feet high. To me, who was a satisfying six feet, he was towering over us. He had deep black skin, burning red hair, massive tusks with crazy runes tattooed that slowly pulsed with light as it moved. It had armor similar to the style of Sirin’s, she’s my daughter by the way, a dragonslayer too actually, it’s not important. He slowly drew his massive sword, it rang with a horrible Ka-cling as the small metal loops along the blade bounced off one another.
“Ho-ly-Shit.” My mouth was agape, sure. It was huge! I can’t believe these mofos got this big! But something else was getting ready, the bloodlust was pulling through, baby! No time to be scared, it was murder time, hot and served on a silver plattor.
Well that was until Sven, our biggest toughest guy got nailed by his sword and went flying 15 ft away…
“Run! Jump off the edge! Get the fuck out of dodge!” I yelled, first ran Sally, then Gus, Sven recuperated and got up holding the rear, then the machine took off we just called him Clanker actually. Sally jumped off the edge, the wind catching her golden hair, then realizing she can’t actually fly on her own, Gus dove off after her. Like a bullet he flew off the side of the tower, slamming into her, he cast fly on her, then with his hand on his chest he cast fly on himself. The kid sure was gifted, and man that was badass. Sven took another hit, getting blasted off the edge this time, but his hand to his chest and activated his celestial wings, who then took flight. Finally me, with a rude gesture I jumped off the edge with a quick flip, slammed by fist into my chest and out sprouted my celestial wings. Beautiful wings glistened and sparked in the dim sunlight that peered through the hazy sky. We all glided off the tower, we fell for a short while, until well, it jumped too. This massive creature jumped off the tower with us, chasing us with terrifying veracity.
“Ohh Shiiit!” With a quick roll, I spun out of the way before it could slam into me like a meteor crashing into the surface. Drawing both swords, I bit my lip with entisipacing, now this is a fight!
It slammed into the ground with such force, some smaller buildings nearby crumbled instantly.
As soon as it touched the ground, all hell broke loose. Sally drew her greatsword and with immense force took a strike at the creature. Sven landed cleanly on the ground and began to draw the creature's attention. Clanker, landing on a nearby rooftop doused the beast with hot balls of lead. Gus, like a mystical beast, flew by, strafing with various types of magic, lighting the sucker up with a show of true magic prowess. Then came me, and oh boy it was a bloodbath.