Chapter 9, Part VI: Did Someone Say Nelneth?
Written by Kyle
After defeating Zigorby the Weaver, the Platinum Talons find themselves floating in a black void along with a normal looking Zigorby who was awaiting their questions while holding the crumbling continent at bay. The first question they asked was if they had stopped the poison veil? She explains how this prehistoric, country-sized creature that had died centuries ago was being fueled by a corruption that kept this creature in a state of undeath and turned its entire body to a decaying rot. Its body and blood, held in horrible stasis by this power, became the poison that took so many lives on the surface of the continent.
Next, they asked how she become corrupted. Her response was that ORC had come to ask for entry into the Nexus, and she refused. They then used a ritual to put a curse on her. Some of the members involved were people named Helena and Rodrick, and another unknown person. Their leader was named Sila, but was not there for the ritual. Vance introduces himself as a great descendant and asks if he will inherit the castle and where the rest of the family is buried. The rest of the family lived in Glintcove and Terravox was buried somewhere in Glintcove.
After numerous questions, another figure materialized next to Zigorby. It is the Goddess Nihm. Nihm tells Vance how these special boy powers were given to his ancestors before and how he is the last in his bloodline to receive these special boy powers if the Talons fail their mission. They also asked for the location of Hellspear and the Bone Devil which are located in Palmedow and on Ardesia, respectively. Vance also learns that his father is still alive, but has "disappeared from view" according to Nihm.
Nihm then grants two of the Platinum Talons a brief existential ability to aid in their escape of a crumbling continent. She tells Xerxes that she had previously granted this ability to his mother, Vola, and she did not know that the power would take her life, but that Vola's sacrifice saved countless lives. Now, she knows that having two embody this ability would spare both of their lives.
At this point, Zigorby is struggling to hold the protective orb and cries out that we only have ten minutes to grab who we need to and escape. In Zigorby's final moments of protecting us, Vance casts a major illusion of Varista and Terravox in a lovely memory, leaving her with a final feeling of joy. Tears stream down her face as she mouths "Thank you" to Vance.
Nihm's power then combines Xerxes and Vance together into a large avatar of Nihm (Verxes) where they must work together to coordinate our escape. The Talons picked up Pluveria and headed to the castle and the avatar of Nihm tears open the holes of the castle to get to the abandoned mines back to Glintcove. Verxes then shimmies across a wall above a large chasm, using their agility to dodge out of the way of a falling wall. Ahead, there is a small wooden door which gets kicked down by a gentle kick of Nihm's big toe. Verxes then earthshapes the cheeks of the wall to the next obstacle which is a large stone wall. Using a spell to create stone stairs, they scale this wall until boulders begin to fall. Some boulders crash into Nohki and Pluveria, and Verxes eventually falls off the wall, taking some fall damage. The second time around goes a lot better and as they approach the city of Glintcove, the Platinum Talons head to the AGI to pick up the dysfunctional Gertie to return her to Adriana. Gertie is repetitively sweeping the floor until a hole appears. Impatiently, Nohki turns into a snake, constricts the construct and then slithers back to the giant Verxes.
Wet Willy awaits their return patiently in his boat, and as they embark, chunks of the land falls into the ocean with no sign of any poison. Back to their normal size, Xerxes and Vance now share a bond that they did not have previously. The Platinum Talons had won, but at the cost of a dying Tagg Dyson and destroying half of a continent.
As they sail towards the Arcademy, a yellow shooting star shoots over their heads towards the Southeast. Xerxes and Vance recognize this phenomena as it closely resembles the yellow shooting start seen after Bart died back in Boymin.
Tagg is struggling to come to peace with death and is very unsettled by the deal that Grey had offered. There was something taken from him. As conversation pursues, Tagg's head begins to hurt. A few moments later, Vance's head begins to hurts. Xerxes then recognizes a common theme between these random headaches: they occur when speaking of our retired Platinum Talon, Nelneth. Vance tries to cast an illusion of Nelneth, but the spell didn't work. Nohki contacts Chauncey and everything at the Wiltspar is fine, but Nelneth or Theana are non-existent according to those at the Wiltspar.
Tagg checks his hit list in his hat and Hellspear is still on the list. As the group hurts their head some more trying to remember their friend, a glowing object is seen drifting towards the boat. Vance climbs up the crow's nest to perceive the glowing item as Tagg ambitiously jumps in to the water to investigate. It appears to be a chunk of the enormous creature's heart. Tagg hears a voice in his head as the heart tries to take over his body. Tagg has a flashback of talking to Grey outside the gates of the gods and he feels a calling urge to picks it up. As Tagg climbs back on board, the object is actually a black shard, similar to the shard that Xerxes had found back when they fought Death Blossom and Hellspear. Pluveria has no idea what the shard is, but gives us the stone from Hymark the Provider's amulet.
Tagg aggressively asks Pluveria about his parents. Pluveria exlplains how Tagg's parents were honorable and remarkable treasure hunters and that he had killed them. Pluveria asked them to come out of retirement to do a job. A job to put back an artifact that was incredibly dangerous. The artifact being one of three stolen books of Thanastra. Vance sees that he is holding back information and casts suggestion on him. Pluveria says that he sent Tagg's father and pregnant mother on a suicide mission. After explaining the story, Pluveria claims that there is someone for Tagg to meet, but an overwhelmed Tagg needs to rest and process all of the tragedy he has faced recently.
Arriving back at the Arcademy, Teigrid rushes Pluveria and gives her father a hug. Nohki and Xerxes catch a glimmer of a glowing necklace she is wearing. Xerxes pulls her aside to ask her about the necklace and she begins to panic and asks if he can really see the necklace. She tried to take the necklace off for Xerxes to examine further, but it was not able to come off. Xerxes can see through the necklace and the longer he stares at the necklace the harder it is to see. He casts identify on the necklace and gets hit with the feeling of when he stood in front of the celestial gates. He feels the fear of death and the sensation of longing for something missing. The Vega twins are quite suspicious as they seem to know something about the necklace, but refused to say anything about it. Lady Selkath and Typhon greet the Talons as they begin to debrief the past few weeks. Typhon provides a grim update on the world and the Talons decide that Terriah deserves their aid next. After discussing the statues of Tagg's parents in front of Dyson Hall, Teigrid shares that those people are her birth parents as well. Tagg then hugs his newly discovered little sister! Typhon hints that Lady Selkath has the ability to use ancient magic to identify the shards, but she refuses to identify the shards, citing a vow she made that she cannot break.