Tweet
>ask HQ for a quarter
Uh...yeah, sure. Whatever.
"Alright then. Keep your eye on the slipgate." Within moments, a single shining silver quarter materializes on the slipgate.
Ray receives a quarter!
> make sure base is secure
"Courtyard all clear, sir. Nothing to report!" Drew replies.
"Exit slipgate secure, sir. Nothing to report!" reports Larson.
"All good at the mainframe, boss." Phoenix says. "I think I have something on Chthon if you have a moment."
You aknowledge and head that way. When you arrive, Phoenix shows you a report on the Elder Gods he found in the Research Dept.'s archives.
"Check this out. According to this, the Elder Gods were once the ancient rulers of Earth. They reigned long before the dawn of man, shaping our dimension to their liking. They accomplished this using runic conduits to channel power from four base magics of different dimensions; Earth magic from our realm, Black magic from the demonic realm of Hell, Nether magic from the interdimensional nether-realm, and Arcane magic from the realm of Quake." You nod along. "From the little that we actually understand about the realm of Quake, several millenia ago, it was a focal point for powerful Arcane energies where a plethora of magic-weilders gathered...wizards, warlocks, archmages, chronomancers, etcetera. When the Elder Gods from our dimension learned of from where their Arcane energies came from, they sought to claim it for their own...and they did. The denizens of Quake, as powerful as their magics were, were no match for the might of the Elder Gods and their humanoid minions. Those spellcasters that weren't obliterated or enslaved fled into an adjacent dimension. Shortly after their conquest of Quake, the Elder Gods learned that they had been banished by the former denizens to this dimension. Interdimensional travel became impossible to them, thanks to the magics of the defeated spellweavers. Aggrivated by their confinement, but content with their conquest, The Elder Gods reigned in their new dimension for eons. When our military first developed the slipgate barely a year ago, the Elder Gods saw that as a means of escape from their millenia of exile. The moment the first slipgate was switched on, here in this very base, mind you, thats when the Elder Gods attacked. They became unsatisfied with ruling only one dimension. They wanted to expand their conquest, including their former home realm of Earth."
You ask him exactly where all this information came from.
"You know all those runic symbols you find around the various lands of Quake?" You nod. "That's actually ancient writing some scribe was able to decipher years ago."
So...what's his point?
"Well, you remember the four runes you gathered to enter Shub-Niggurath's Pit?"
You scratch your head....
"Well...turns out that those four runes were actually the runic conduits I mentioned earlier...the ones that the Elder Gods got most of their power from. When you gathered them for yourself, not only did they give you the power to access Shub-Niggurath's own personal realm within Quake, they took a great deal of power away from the Elder Gods. This is one of the main reasons you were actually able to kill Shub-Niggurath. It's also why the Shadows were able to overpower Yogg-Shargoth and his minions so incredibly easily."
You yawn...
"Anyway, I think those runes may be the key to bringing Chthon back."
Alright. Makes sense. So....where are they? And how do you get to The House of Chthon, if it's even there anymore?
"That...I have no idea. We may have to get creative."
You call HQ.
"What now, sergeant?"
Why, general! So wonderful to hear your voice again.....you roll your eyes.
"You need the four runes? So....go get 'em! How the hell am I supposed to help you with that one? I dunno where you left 'em!"
...shit.
"You need to get your head back together if you want those runes. You're the only one who knows what you did with them! What else do you want?"
You ask him to put a scribe on the phone.
"Hang on." He drops the phone. I think he's thoroughly pissed off at you...
"This is Scribe Nickelson. What can I do for you, Master Sergeant?" Nice to hear some politeness for once. "We were actually just about to contact you with that information. Your Tech Sergeant must be one hell of a researcher. You should ask him if he wants to be a scribe." You remind the polite scribe that time is of the essence. "Right, sorry. So, you want to get to The House of Chthon? Well, unfortunately, our slipgates cannot send you there. There is no slipgate in that area that we can connect with. The only way WE can get you there is if we connect your slipgate to The Castle of the Damned. If we do that, then you'll have to traverse the long way through the Dimension of the Doomed. The problem with that is that the Shadows have likely altered the entire dimension so that getting through it in its entirety is impossible. If you really want to go about ressurecting Chthon, you may have to get creative with how you get there. As it stands, I don't have any idea how to get there. But I...WE all have faith in you. If you can make a Fiend into your own personal pet, this should be a walk in the park for you."
Hm. Well, HQ is pretty much useless right now. You ask the Scribe to request R&D to have more Reverse Polarity Magnifiers on stand-by. If you can aquire some more Shadow Pulse Rifles, then you can use them to outfit your base's Enforcers with some Lightspark Rifles. You also send over a Shadow Plasma Cell for R&D to examine. Perhaps they can duplicate the technology.
"We'll get right on that. Good day, sir."
You radio your companion to meet you at the mainframe. Time to head into enemy territory. Hopefully, your new weapon will be enough to erase all those Shadows. Hopefully, they're not waiting in ambush on the other side. But theres only one way to find out. You, your companion and your pet step into the slipgate and into The Heart of the Dimension. You take the corridor up to the rift that leads into Yogg-Shargoth's Pit. You step through the rift and fall to the bottom of the pit. As your current string of luck would have it, the entire pit is full of pissed-off Shadows ready to destroy you. They WERE waiting for you. FYL. Well....now what are you gonna do, genius?
>
Comment