Following their encounter with the moldstorm, the party decided to rest and recuperate. The heat during the night remained oppressive, forcing the environmental functions of their armors to work overtime and depleting their batteries. Despite that, they manage to spend a quiet night in the trees. When he awakens, Nict feels ill, but he struggles through and gears up.
In the morning of the eighth day, they head back on the trail of Paqual's group, which has narrowed even more to a single file. Soon they near a clearing. In it is a gigantic statue of a female elf reclining with an arm stretched towards the sky, while the other props her head up. Though made of stone, the statue's clothes are made of metal that has weathered over the last thousand years, with several spots having completely corroded away. The hand stretches about a hundred and twenty feet in the air. Around the edges of the clearing are a number of ruined buildings that have collapsed over the centuries, leaving nothing but rubble.
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| Stargazer statue in Ukulam |
As they emerge from the clearing, Yiris notices a sky fisher diving from the sky, and she reacts in time. Bratrizik and Nict are not so lucky, however, and do not notice the predator in the sky. All three of them are hit by the sky fisher's lasso attack, entangling them. Yiris replies with an arcing surge, severely damaging the creature, while Bratrizik adds to its misery when he casts mind thrust. Nict and BARGO also shoot at it. The sky fisher attacks a second time before it is defeated. Nict notices that Bratrizik has been shot in the back left shoulder during the combat, and that the bullet wound indicates it is from a large caliber. Bratrizik did not feel a thing, however. Where did the shot come from?
With the sky fisher dead, they make their way to the Stargazer's door. Both Nict and Bratrizik are shot multiple times as they attempt to determine where the attacks are coming from. Rushing the door, they quickly enter, and Nict spends a few minutes to regain some stamina. Inside this room they find a small cleansing pool, with several bas reliefs showing elven monks and priests doing ablutions. On the ceiling are several star constellations, with many of them not observable without advance telescoping equipment, something the ancient elves of Castrovel did not possess when this statue was built. One of them in particular seems very peculiar, but no one is able to voice why they find it strange. Bratrizik cleanses himself in the pool, while the others choose not to do so.
Two cultists ambush them as they climb the stairs. Yiris casts jolting surge and kills one of the cultists, while Nict shoots the remaining one and Brat breaks him by his last mind thrust . They loot the bodies and grab two defiant longswords, scatterguns, shells, field rations, and credsticks. They also find symbols of the Cult of the Devourer on the clothes of the cultists. Bratrizik removes one of the patches, and puts it in one of his suit's many pockets. Now they know who's backing Paqual's group.
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| Cult of the Devourer |
Nict climbs the staircase to the Reflection Room, followed by Bratrizik. Both of them are shot by a sniper again, and Bratrizik takes significant damage as he gets hit in the chest and falls down the stairs. They gather their wits at the bottom of the stairs, and take the time to heal themselves. Bratrizik comes up with a clever plan. He will use the bodies of the cultists as puppets to draw the sniper's fire. They will use the longswords to maneuver them in place, hoping that they draw the sniper's fire.
Unfortunately, as they prepare to implement Bratrizik's plan, a grenade is thrown down the stairs and explodes. Angry, Bratrizik storms up the stairs, returning to the Reflection Room. The sniper must be in the extended arm of the statue, so he rushes up, closely followed by Nict. The vesk is shot one more time, but finds a shirren atop the outstretched hand. The shirren attempts to drop another grenade, but Bratrizik uses telekinetic object to deflect it. Yiris attempts to daze the sniper, but fails. Nict fires a few shots on the enemy shirren. Bratrizik's last mind thrust attack staggers the sniper.
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| Salask, shirren sniper |
Salask is captured. Nict takes Salask's specialist coil rifle, which sports a weapon fusion. The 22 bullets also have a fusion on them. Yiris takes her secured comm unit. Bratrizik then shoots her, and Yiris hits her on the head, dealing the killing blow. They throw the body off the statue, and return to the relative safety of the Hall of Inscriptions to recuperate.
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| Stargazer clearing |
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