Finishing Repairs
After fixing the first hole, Ascii and Dhovos went to fix the second hole, while Moxmen went to scout out some of the other rooms, and Ignis and I made sure no other beasts came through the hole. Indeed, a giant squid tried to crawl through the hole, but a few quick hits from each of us put it down before it could cause major damage.
Dhovos and I then went to scout out another
room, while Ascii and Ignis finished the repairs. Within the room we
found, unsurprisingly, two more sharks. One of them tried to attack
Dhovos, but I took it out with a quick arrow to the head - the other was
more slippery: it managed to dodge around Dhovos' trident and my
arrows, and went straight for my leg. Thankfully, Ignis managed to kill
it with his fire magic before it tore off my whole leg. It's a shame to have to these down like this, but sadly we really didn't have much of a choice...
The Raiding Party
With
the repairs finished, we went to catch up to
Moxmen. We found him talking to a few avian folks
who called themselves Crows, and claimed to be "the raiding party".
After exchanging a few words, they attacked us. At first I tried using
my bow, but the closed quarters made aiming difficult, and I wound up
almost hitting Moxmen multiple times. A small group of Crows then tried
to come at us from behind and flank us, but a blasting stone took care
of the lot.With Ascii and Moxmen holding off a large group of Crows behind a door, Dhovos, Ignis, and I decided to go around and do a flanking maneuver of our own - but by the time we got in position, all the Crows were either dead or ran away.
The Undercaptain
Among the Crows, it seems there was one fellow who stayed behind, bruised and beaten by his own crew. His name was Griff, and he explained to us that he's the Undercaptain of the ship, and his crew just tried to mutiny against him. We tried to get him to tell us who or what the captain is, but he really didn't give us much information.
Anyway, during the conversation I saw that both Moxmen and I were wounded: he from the Crows' blades, and me from the shark's bite. I handed him a small piece of Ambrosia and took a part for myself. His wound healed normally, and he felt much better. Mine, on the other hand, didn't. My Ambrosia exploded in my face, knocking all of us against the walls, and nearly killing poor Griff. In all honesty I'm not quite sure what caused the explosion, but my theory is that this world's ambient flow of Essence behaves differently from the way it does back home: instead of flowing neutrally around objects and creatures, it pools inside any conduit that already contains Essence. This behaviour might explain how whoever built this ship was able to create an energy crystal as large as the one in the engineering room: they only needed to provide a relatively small amount of Essence, that Essence drew in more Essence, which in turn made it attract even more. What I'm not sure about, however, is whether there's some effect that places a limit on this exponential growth, or if the metal structure is itself the limiting factor, preventing the crystal from exploding.
Either way, the moment I bit into my piece of Ambrosia, all the built up Essence got released violently, and I thank the Light and the Spirits that no one died.
The Stowaways
Undercaptain Griff begrudgingly agreed to take us to see the captain, but not without warning us about The Enforcer - a mighty beast with sharp claws, that makes sure everyone on the ship follows the captain's orders. Before going up to the higher decks, however, we decided to take a brief rest, regain our composure, treat my as of yet untreated shark bite, and actually properly introduce ourselves.
Dhovos and I found that our worlds are remarkably similar, though he mentioned something about "copper dragons", and I'm not quite sure what those are or how they're different from a normal dragon.
Ignis said that he's a warden from a prison planet. I'm not even sure how a planet can be a prison, and honestly I'm relieved that he's one of the wardens, because I sure wouldn't want to meet a prisoner who needs a whole planet of wardens to guard them.
Ascii then said that he's a "robot", which from what I gather is a form of homunculus, except with a body made of metal instead of clay or straw. He mentioned that he was abandoned by his creator for ten years, which is something that I can honestly barely fathom - from what I read creating a homunculus means putting a large piece of your soul into the artificial body, orders of magnitude more than what goes into Energy Crystals or even Attunement Crystals. How could one simply abandon part of themselves in outer space?
Then Ascii hit even harder: he asked Dhovos and I if we're human.
What was I supposed to answer, honestly? I tried giving him the simplest and most honest thing I could think of, that I'm half human, but he pressed me for a more concrete answer. I've been trying to avoid thinking about this for so long, putting it off as a philosophical question that I'll answer once I have the time, and here comes this "robot" and puts me on the spot, forcing an answer. What do I tell him? How am I even supposed to know? I mean, my body doesn't look or behave like a human, in that aspect I'm completely Felid, to the point where I still don't go into large cities by myself, always going with either my mother or my uncle, just so they don't chase me out for being different. On the other hand, I have the gift of Enchanting, which is completely undocumented among any form of Fey or Elemental, and so far seems unique to humans. Does that make me human?
I felt like I was taking too long to answer, so for now I just said that I am human. I don't think that I even convinced myself of that, but it seemed to be enough for Ascii.
The Enforcer
Philosophical conundrums temporarily put to rest, we continued onward to meet the captain. Griff led us up the stairs and through a series of corridors, then stopped before a large door. He seemed terrified of The Enforcer, that waited beyond the door. We knocked on the door, and came face to face with The Enforcer, who turned out to be a large humanoid bear wearing ornate bronze armour. Nirka Gorfangnuks ordered Griff to return below deck, and agreed to help us meet the captain.
She led us to a small room, a sort of pantry or storage room, then brought us a few bowls of fruit and vegetables. She explained to us how she used to be a warrior and a princess of her kingdom, but when The Beast threatened to destroy her people, she pledged her service to the captain in exchange for her kingdom being spared. She asked that if we end up meeting the captain, then to try and negotiate for her release from his service.
She then told us how we can get on the captain's good side: recently all his meals have been served cold, and she said that if we were to solve whatever is preventing the meals from being warm, he'd be sure to like us. Dad always said that the quickest way to a person's heart is through their stomach, and it seems like that rule even applies to the spirits in this world, like the captain. Nirka then set us on our way to the galleys, where the food is made, and bid us farewell.
Utter Chaos
We emerged up the stairs to absolute chaos. There were earth elementals fighting animated pieces of furniture, causing pieces of clay, dust, wood, and splinters flying all across the room. Moxmen tried to separate an elemental from a wardrobe and ask what was going on, but they just ignored him and were instantly back at each other's throats. We made our way to a door on one side of the room, where we saw a few more elementals and some very strange metallic contraptions that I'm almost certain are a form of weaponry.
Past that room we reaced the forge. This was a large, hot, humid room, full of busy elementals running around, and one angry fellow who looked like a dwarf, but with glowing red eyes and his arms were made of stone with fiery red runes. He introduced himself as Alephe, and told us that the elementals are in fact extensions of himself. This suddenly made me realize a fact about Ascii: this dwarf clearly had dozens of homunculi, and barely seemed to flinch at the thought of them being destroyed by the animated furniture in the other room. The mages in this world must either be incredibly powerful, to the degree that they can effectively throw away parts of their souls without any worry - or they have found an alternate way to power their autonomous creations, one that doesn't rely on its creator's Essence. Both options seem terrifying and with vast implications for all disciplines of magical research, and I'm not quite sure that I understand it all just yet. I suppose I'll have to research these questions further.
Back on topic, Alephe told us that his Claymen (his name for the homunculi), are starving. They usually eat potatoes from the galley, but they have recently been barred from entering. This means that they cannot run the forges as efficiently, causing all the captain's food to be served cold.
Reaching the Galley
We decided to go to the galley, and figure out why the claymen can't eat there anymore. We went past a few claymen and found a room full of furniture. At first everything went smoothly, I managed to blow up the majority of them with a single blasting stone, while Dhovos, Moxmen, and Ignis each handled a few of the stragglers. Then things got messy. Two side rooms opened up and animated furniture started flowing out. I got badly burned and wounded, but thankfully Ascii managed to pull me out before anything irreversible happened. The problem was that this put Ascii in the same dangerous position that I was just in, and all the furniture leapt up at him. The robot fell almost instantly, and I was sure that he was dead.
We fought on against the furniture and finally cleared our way to the galley. Ignis said that Alephe can almost certainly heal Ascii's injuries (he said that he can "repair" him, though I'm pretty sure that's just metaphorical), so we decided that we would go back there immediately after going to the galley.
Agonizing Negotiations
In the galley we met Alephe's sister, Alepha. She runs the kitchens, and explained that her brother's claymen were no longer allowed into her kitchen because they were always covered in soot and coal dust, and her children (apparently the furniture were also a form of homunculus) refuse to be used when so dirty.
Neither sibling would agree to talk to the other directly, so we ended up going back and forth between them to negotiate some agreement. Seriously, these dwarves were worse than my cousins, and I won't deny that I considered just blowing a hole in this ship and letting it sink at some point.
Long story short, we got the dwarves to agree on some arrangement, Alephe healed Ascii, and we finally got to meet the captain.
The Captain
We entered the captain's quarters, and came face to face with him. Sort of. From what I understood, "the captain" was actually a group of spirits, each handling a different aspect of the ship. Anyway, this part of the captain took a humanoid form that seemed to be made of shadows, and was wearing a form of black-and-white suit. After I introduced us and told him that we sorted out his cold food situation, we convinced him to let us get off the ship, along with Nirka. The only problem was that the captain apparently can't return us back to our respective worlds, instead he's taking us to a city where we would supposedly be able to reach other worlds.
The Aftermath
We're now arriving at a strange looking city, with strange looking ships. This place is supposed to be a hub from which we can go back to our worlds, and I certainly hope I can return home. This was the strangest day of my life, and I can't wait for it to end. I honestly want nothing more than to wake up and find out that this was all just a dream.
Then again... do I?
The people I met here are some of the most unique individuals I have ever met, some of them seem like they come from civilizations with far more advanced magical capabilities than our own, and honestly, I almost feel like I belong here. I know it's weird, but these people are just as lost as I am, they're just trying to adapt to a whole new world with a whole new set of rules, and I feel that going through this with all of them made us bond at a level that I don't know if I ever felt with anyone back home.
Anyway, I'm still going to try and head back home. I need to make sure my family is ok, that no one got hurt when the portal that led me here opened.
Here's hoping.