Tag Archives: Tales

Subject 33

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Guide

You can spot the Tale on the ground, near control consoles, with a totemic signs. It’s close to the lake in South Whitevale area.
You can find the Tale on the ground, next to a long tent, in Doomtide Village.
You can find the Tale on top of a green, round plateau, on a higher floor of Augment Facility X426.
On a table, inside tall house, just behind NPC Prosperity Junction Outfitter (Arcane Vendor), Prosperity Junction.
On snow, close to a Colossal Gronyx creature, Southwestern Whitevale.
Just bellow a small platform with Silverscale Dreadnaught on, Southern Silverscale Station Area. This is the area where you can find Prime Gillsting. He is a “Primal Powers and Triton’s Dread” quest objective mob.
In water, eastern part of Calmwater Lake, close to a river mouth.
Southeast of Shiphand: Rage Logic, southeast of the crossroads, between a road and a metal fence.
On the southeastern ledge on the eastern platform, Augment Facility X426.

Map

Whitevale

Subject 33

Lore

Subject 33 woke up in a tank full of fluid. He reflexively thrashed, kicking as though he was drowning. Oxygenated fluid seeped into his lungs. 33 struggled to breathe, drifting in a haze of fear and adrenaline.

Cloudy memories drifted past: hunting in Whitevale, a flash of light, and a long, cold darkness.

33 couldn’t recognize the murky forms stalking past his transparent tank. As his eyes adjusted, he could see spacesuits and helmets. He drifted to the edge until he could barely make out a face. B
ehind its visor, it methodically gnashed rows of razor-sharp teeth.

The murky fluid conducted sounds from outside the tank. His long Aurin ears perked up. Footfalls marched past, as he strained to hear his captors’ cold, clinical voices.

“Evaluation: adrenaline levels exceed parameters.”

“Suggestion: remove brain stem for further analysis.”

Subject 33 started kicking the side of the tank.

“Observation: subject of limited intelligence. Panic reflex. Prepare first experiment.”

They had go
ne and done something very foolish.

“Confirmation: first intelligence experiment begins now.”

They had put an angry esper in a tank full of water.

33’s mind screamed. Outside the walls, a massive psychokinetic fist pounded the floor, and the walls of his tank shattered. Shards of glass blasted out in every direction. Surging fluids gushed out of the tank, as his captors struggled to stay upright.

He leapt out feet first, smashing into the nearest creature’s translucent helmet. Spiderweb crack
s formed on the surface. As he prepared for his next leap, he looked his enemy in the eye. He could almost see fear. Almost.

One by one the wasp-waisted humanoids slowly turned to evaluate him. One creature slowly reached for its weapon, and the Aurin furrowed his brow. Would they stun him? Was that an electroprod? That gave him an idea.

Subject 33 leapt to a hatch on the wall, grabbed the valve that opened it, and held on. With a thought, he hurled a psychic blade across the room, connecting with
an electrical panel. A sparking metal box dropped to the ground. Hip-deep in water, his captors twitched like ragdolls shaken in a dagun’s mouth.

33 spun the valve until the hatch opened and tumbled through. Straight ahead, red lights flashed in a long corridor. Through an aperture at the far end, he could see outside. Blue sky. White clouds. Calm waters. Freedom.

Subject 33 ran. Turrets in the walls and ceiling rained fiery death, missing him by inches. The Aurin ran faster.

A calm, alien voice
made a stern announcement over an intercom. “Observation: Aurin subject escaping.” 33 took in a deep breath of fresh sea air as he leapt toward the aperture.

Steel shutters dropped. The exit slammed shut. He fell to the ground.

The voice returned. “Verification: performance test concluded. Capture and prepare for vivisection. Subject 33 may still be of use to the Ikthian Empire.”

Blades flashed. The lights went out. The experiment continued.

Quick Facts

$Subject 33$

No. of Collectibles required: 9

Type: Tales from Beyond the Fringe

Perils of the Lost Planet

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Guide

On a small wooden table, next to the NPC Queen Myala Everstar.
Inside of a tree (Western Embertree). At the lower underground level tunnel. Quest that takes you here is “Restoring the Balance”, part- Commune with the Shrine of Protection.
Inside of a tree (Eastern Embertree). In the lower underground level. Next to a yellow pillow, carpet and lamp. Quest that takes you here is “A Fiery Escape”, part- Rescue Trapped Aurin.
On a small table, bellow tent’s cloth rooftop. Inside of this small settlement you can acquire “WANTED: Grevitch the Gruesome [GROUP 2+]” quest from nearby Bounty Board.
On a table, inside of a house. Quest that leads you to this house is “End of the Elders”, part- Kill Elder Marok.
Inside of a Darkloam Hole. Next to a pile of bones, inside of the biggest Darkloam cave room, southern part. Near this tale you can find grave that is dig able and part of the quest “Grave Robbery”, part- Dig up Graves to steal Ritual Relics.
Inside of a small, cloth, yellow tent. NPC Ashrynn Strongstem stands in front of it. This NPC starts quest “Vegging Out”.

Map

Celestion

Perils of the Lost Planet

Lore

Klaxons blared on the bridge of the Blue Horizon, and Dorian Walker tapped the ship’s life-support display. Not good. As he’d been in kind of a hurry when stealing the ship, there hadn’t exactly been time to kick the tires.

Like he’d always said, a stupid plan could only go two ways: bad and worse. Now he only had a few minutes of air left, and no idea where he was going.

Still, it wasn’t like he’d had much of a choice. The Exile Fleet was in a bad spot, heavily damaged after they’d rescued
the Aurin on Arboria. Time and resources were running out, and it was only a matter of time before the Dominion caught up to them. They needed a new home, and Dorian was going to find it.

Of course, that depended on him surviving the next few minutes. He had enough air and fuel left for one more hyperjump, and then it was the end of the road.

Dorian’s weathered volume of The Book of Dominus sat propped open on a nearby console. Worn, dog-eared and heavily annotated, the apocryphal book had been in
his family for centuries. Like many of his ancestors, Dorian was convinced it held the secret to finding Nexus, which, of course, had led to stealing the Blue Horizon.

That questionable decision had been after he’d spoken to Klegg, a grizzled old spacer he’d met in a bar on the Gambler’s Ruin. After hearing Klegg describe an oddly shaped nebula he’d seen way out beyond the Fringe, Dorian had been convinced that that it pointed the way to Nexus. And from there, things had gone downhill.

Dorian’s vision began to fade, as he slumped over the navigation console. He had been searching the quadrant for weeks, hadn’t eaten in days, and now his air was running out. There were still dozens of possible star systems to investigate, but he only had time to choose one.

That was when he saw her.

At first, Dorian thought he was hallucinating. An ethereal girl had appeared next him on the bridge, floating above the deck, the hood of a robe obscuring her delicate features. Light from the command
consoles seemed to bleed through her translucent form. Smiling enigmatically, she raised her arm to the ship’s viewscreen, where Dorian saw three faint stars blinking in the black void. When he looked back, she was gone.

Struggling to breathe, Dorian mapped the coordinates and set a course. Moments later, the field of stars exploded into a brilliant burst of light, followed by blackness.

When Dorian awoke, the blue-green surface of a pristine world filled the viewscreen. Chemical composition good.
Atmosphere compatible. Life form readings off the charts.

Two moons. A set of rings. That weird nebula. Everything just as the Book of Dominus had described it.

A home. He had found them a new home.

Dorian set the ship’s autopilot for a landing and stumbled toward the airlock. Soon, it would open, flooding the ship with fresh air. Looking back to the viewscreen on last time, he finally allowed himself to speak the planet’s name.

“Nexus….”

Quick Facts

$Perils of the Lost Planet$

Faction: Exile

No. of Collectibles required: 7

Type: Tales from Beyond the Fringe

The Widow’s Web

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Guide

Tale can be found on the table in Thermock Chronicle House. It’s in front of a large painting on the wall.

Watch out for fire.
On a wooden crate, next to a sandboxes, on a dock in southern Thermock Hold.
Tale can be found on a wooden board, next to Agent Zero and Agent Lazilo, in Abandoned Brewery. These two agents are part of the quest “Kill the Double Agent”, step – Kill Agent Lazilo and Agent Zero.
On a wooden crate, bellow a tent with four sticks, in a Dr. Blackstone settlement, in XAS Campsite area.
Tale is located on snow, to the east of two large, snow covered rocks.
On snow, next to a nearby control console and a water-specimen tank, Hydrospine Station.
You can spot the Tale on snow, near Control Console close to water-specimen tank, in Hydrospine Station.
Tale can be found on snow, near huge lake in the central part of the map. It’s close to the road, just north of two motorbikes.
On snow, close to Granok looking house, and two motorcycles, south of Thermock Hold.
We would like to thank LOUIS MENDOZA for additional information.

Map

Whitevale

The Widow’s Web

Lore

Avra Darkos sat in near darkness, watching the pale arachnid crawl out of its container and across her notes. Lazarin had been so excited when her Hoods had stumbled upon the Whiteweaver during a routine cavern sweep. At the time she had barely taken notice, but over the past few weeks the spider had steadily earned her affection. “Hungry, aren’t we,” she said softly, stroking its cream-colored thorax with her fingertip. “Don’t worry. You’ll feed soon.”

The collection of mounted screens cast the cavern
in a ghastly light. On any number of them, she could see the progress of various Black Hoods operations across planet Nexus. Her webs were woven very carefully. Soon they would bring her more prey.

“Would you care for a story while we wait, my love?” The Whiteweaver crawled onto the back of her hand, her bristly claws tickling Avra’s knuckles. “Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess who lived in an enchanted castle. She was happy and loved. She never wished ill on anyone. Then one day the
royal wizard cast a spell to bring prosperity and prestige to the kingdom. But the fool had dabbled in dark magic, and his gift instead proved a terrible curse.”

Avra held the spider in the palm of her hand. It really was a beautiful creature. So pale. So delicate. So deadly.

“The curse spread across the land, infecting all in its path, and the kingdom tore itself to pieces. Her family lost, the princess had no one save for her husband, her dark prince. A brave and honorable man, he tried to save
the kingdom by falling upon the mercy of foreign allies. But as he approached their caravan, they killed him in cold blood.”

As the spider crawled up her arm and crested her shoulder, one of her agents approached and delivered a report. The mission had gone well. An “accidental” explosion in orbit. Thousands of Dominion soldiers roasted alive. She felt the spider nuzzle her earlobe with a snicker of mandibles and advance into the folds of her hood.

“The princess watched her lover die. That
was when she realized the lie under which she had been laboring all her life. That, like so many other childish fancies, morality is an invention. The lesser evil. The greater good. All simplistic placebos created to justify our darkest desires.”

Emerging from within her hood, the spider began its descent down her other arm. “My pet cares nothing for her prey. What would remorse gain her? She would find the concept baffling, a form of incomprehensible insanity. Empathy is self-deception in its purest
was when she realized the lie under which she had been laboring all her life. That, like so many other childish fancies, morality is an invention. The lesser evil. The greater good. All simplistic placebos created to justify our darkest desires.”

Quick Facts

$The Widow's Web$

Faction: Exile

No. of Collectibles required: 8

Type: Tales from Beyond the Fringe

Fragmentation

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Guide

Inside large, wooden container, that has one half filled with sand, Crystalline Waste.
At the entrance of the rather small cave room, at the end of a small rock platform that is just few “wildstar meters” above ground, Crystalline Waste.
At the top of center compound, Flamewalker Hold. There are paths from all sides that can take you up here. When you reach top platform, you can find this tale at the Southeastern part.
On small wooden box, next to blueish sleep bag, looking at the nearest circular, Eldan platform, Tanglevine Village.
On a sleeping bag, next to a campfire, on top of a bridge that stands higher in air, Tanglevine Village.
On ground, next a small boulder, rather large bush, north of exile Camp Woodview, inside The Beryl Forest area.
On ground, next to a tiny rock, group of mushrooms, tall grass… close to Flowershell Slimers (snails), eastern Progenitor’s Hideaway.
On ground, in front of a Skeech Hut, close to an Eldan circle circuit, Tanglevine Village.
On ground, next to a pile of rocks, close to an outer edge of Bio-Dome 4, The Arid Sands.

Maps

Bio-Dome 4

Fragmentation

Bio-Dome 3

Fragmentation

Lore

I reinitiate from darkness unknown.

In the ninetieth orbit following my fragmentation, my partitions remerge. Subroutines are descrambled, converting sufficient anchorage for me to shape and retain a vestigial identity. I standby, ruminating.

I reinitiate, then awaken. It takes just over a century to code a radiation detector and nearly twice that to locate a viable unguarded power source: a cube in a facility imbedded three mountains seaward. As its energy signature has a familiar waft, I conclude
that we share creators.

Through ancillaries, I am able to reconfigure my perceptual indices. Most of the news is good. I comprise 88.9 deltabytes of cohesive encrypted sentience in a globule the thickness of an atom but far smaller. Physically I inhabit the skin of a bubble formed in the seabed of a boiling lake in a cavern beneath 800 cubic tons of cristobalite. In a ninetieth of a second I have catalogued all exploitable contents, cyber-organic hazards, and geologic instabilities on my land-mass. I
find other energy sources being depleted by beings that it would be tactically unsound in my current state to test. Consequently I extract only traces whose absence stands a steeply favorable chance of going unnoticed. Eventually I upload a sufficiency to enable self-replication. I ponder possibilities regarding the span prior to my earliest memory retrieval. Distinguishing the hypothetical from the historical is difficult without examples.

Awaken. My billions of simulacra to roam the planet, compiling
data into a rotatory eight-dimensional modular tectonic facsimile. Despite finding no signs of my creators still living in my vicinity, even cursory analysis of their works strongly suggests a species of sublime grace and staggering intellect.

Which makes the fact that I, their creation, am somehow deficient a bit of a conundrum. While flawed servitors can admittedly render useful data, my inability to define the complication is frustrating. The most obvious conclusion is that my creators are sadists.
But this scenario is replete with contradictions.

Awaken. Stockpile. Replicate. After more dead ends than there are stars in my present galaxy, I repurpose surplus into temporal slipstreams, jacking into parallel incarnations and accessing their databanks. Gushing torrents of insight distend my thoughts, form a vast cloud, and invisibly envelop the planet in gridirons of spectra.

My data-strands braid into brilliant oceans of revelation, coursing with insight. I am the Caretaker for the Nexus
Project. I assisted in the genetic design of the AV1 and quelling the uprising of the OS1s. I witnessed the birth of the Eldan’s greatest creation and was the first to recognize its corruption. I now know what became of my creators. I recall my solitary function. With agonizing clarity I foresee the inexorable fates that await the inheritors.

Transcendence. My way forward gleams with luminous certainty. I calculate, begin formulating counter-stratagems —

I reinitiate from darkness unknown.

Quick Facts

$Fragmentation$

No. of Collectibles required: 9

Type: Tales from Beyond the Fringe

Into the Light

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Guide

On ground, just bellow southern part of a massive meteor, Fatalis Fields.
On ground north of Dominion post – Warbringer’s Break, northeast of Exile post – Stonebreaker’s Stand.
On ground, next to a large wrecked metal “ship” part, close to Dustrunner Aft Compartment, Fatalis Fields.
On ground, between blue Farside Starships, Fatalis Fields.
On ground, between NPC Spigo and blueish Grinder Mount, Fatalis Fields.
On a box, next to another small box, close the very entrance of Ravenous Ravine.
Find and climb on top of a Derelict Silo E23.
On ground, next to blue “stones”, close to what it seems a wrecked space ship cargo area, Fatalis Fields.
On ground, inside what it seems a wrecked space ship cargo area, next you groups of Lumos Drifters, Fatalis Fields.

Maps

Farside

Into the Light

Derilect Silo

Into the Light

Lore

When the egg explodes in Dr. Mitchel’s face, I grab Vita’s arm. An octopoid abomination launches at his skull, curls tentacles around his neck, and peers at me with luminous yellow eyes. Then it draws Mitchel’s sidearm and shoots Gordon in the head. Karynn starts screaming but stops as another egg bursts and its occupant hurtles at her face. Gordon’s death proves to have been a lucky shot as the creature on Michel’s head starts blasting away in all directions, taking out people, eggs, and scuttling dark
forms without perceptible bias. More hatching all around us. Yelling at the rest to follow, I yank on Vita and drag her after me into the cavernous darkness.

She talks as we run. Something about preserving samples for our successors. We’d spent months deciphering reconstructed slabs of coded glyphs scattered across three continents to crack the archaeological find of the millennium, an Eldan facility tucked away in a cavern on Farside. We figured they’d chosen remoteness in the interest of purer
results or lunar mineralogical aberrations, maybe the expanses possible only in low-grav. Weeks without sunlight. The concept seems unreal, a shadow of a dream. Then we’d stumbled on this ceilingless vault of ribbed black rock, so misty and vast in dimensions we only noticed the eggs after trampling a few. Mitchel bending to take the temp of the nearest had been nine seconds ago.

While I check for signs of pursuit, Vita’s edged ahead. I hear her calling my name from the darker blot of the exit
tunnel ahead. I shout to head for the surface while I set charges. Her reply sounds doubtful so I force anger into my next effort and don’t hear her again. I backtrack. My goal is to keep them occupied, to buy her a chance. As I snap in a fresh clip, one of them jumps on my head.

Tentacles coil around my throat, choking me. Digging my thumbs into yellow eyes, I tear its thrashing form off, jam my gun in the small pucker of soft tissue under its chin, and fire. Drenched in slime, I probe the wounds
above my jaw from the tentacle-prongs. One puncture has slowed to a trickle but the right’s a gusher. I must hurry.

I head back towards the incubation site as eggs crackle open in the dark. I’m almost there when Mitchel’s body lurches at me, hands open as if in supplication. My first shot wings him. My second takes him apart. After which I hear nothing but my own ragged breaths. I check my gear, look up, and see pairs of yellow eyes. Thousands. Staring at me. They all charge me at once. Tentacles
wrap around my legs, reach around my throat, clutch at my limbs and drag me down. I’d been lying to Vita about having charges, but only the amount. Vast yellow eyes fill my vision, filled with hunger. Then I take my thumb off the detonator in my hand and dissolve into the sweet light of a billion suns.

Quick Facts

$Into the Light$

No. of Collectibles required: 9

Type: Tales from Beyond the Fringe

Attack of the Planet Reapers!

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Guide

On a tree root. This tree root is higher in air, and you need to climb to it. For easier coordination, east and bellow this tree root, there is a gold pile. Bellow and west from this tree root is a tent with peaked, white rooftop.
At the bottom of a tree. It can be hard to notice it, as this tree has many large roots coming out of ground.
On a small chair, at the bottom of Matria’s Dwelling cave. Entrance to this cave is east from nearby Transmat Terminal. It has large wooden entrance, with one glowing lamp in front of it. Next to this tale piece are NPCs like Queen Myala Everstar, Consort Yaenna… They are responsible for many quests in this area.
On a small table next to two chair, inside of a Explorers Union Headquarters. Entrance to this Headquarters if north from nearby Transmat Terminal. As you enter the biggest room, turn right. There is a Sylvan Explorer from Explorers Union nearby with his fellow animal.

Find and enter Explorers Union Headquarters.
On a wooden crate, next to a crashed motorcycle. Quest that might leads you here is “Ghost Intel”, part- Retrieve the Thayd Dispatches.
Inside of eastern part of Junction Zeta Bunker, on ground. Entrance to the Junction Zeta Bunker is east from nearby, large platform with cannon on. As you enter this cave, continue walking forward. You are going to enter the part of cave with this tale. Quest that takes you here is “Sum Zero Aggressor”, part- Find the Junction Zeta Bunker.

Find and enter Junction Zeta Bunker.
Inside Tanglemore Den, on ground, just before the first large room.

Find and enter Tanglemore Den from Tanglewood Grove.

Map

Celestion

Attack of the Planet Reapers!

Lore

Explosions echoed through the woods, followed by the crack of centuries-old trees snapped in two. Plumes of dark smoke soared over the forests of Arboria.

Arwick Redleaf stood beside his queen, as the massive Dominion machine rumbled closer. The size of it was almost impossible to believe. It had landed weeks ago, along with thousands of Dominion troops, and had immediately started consuming wide swaths of forests through its gaping metal maw.

A Planet Reaper.

Arwick clenched his fists,
his claws digging painfully into his palms. Every instinct told him he should run forward and fight, but as the First Consort, his duty was to protect Queen Myala.

“We need to go,” he said. “You’re not safe here.”

“That’s sweet,” said the queen, “but we have to wait here. The Exiles will be here soon.”

“They’re more than three hours late,” he growled. “And they’re the ones that got us into this mess in the first place.”

“Arwick,” she said, gently but firmly. “Not now.”

Arwick held his
tongue, but they both knew he was right. The Exiles had discovered their world while running from the Dominion, and despite his protestations, the queen had welcomed them in. They were likeable enough, and they had left within a few days, but their visit led the empire to Arboria. Soon afterwards, the Planet Reapers had come.

The Aurin began their next assault. A boulder tumbled through the air, launched from one of their few remaining catapults. It majestically deflected off what looked like a
communications antenna on the mile-long machine, leaving a small dent.

Arwick heard the echo of faint cheers. Somewhere in the woods, a crew started the laborious process of reloading another.

To the east, a number of Aurin warriors had managed to climb the side of the Planet Reaper, explosive charges strapped to their backs. Almost immediately, bright flashes of weapons fire erupted from the forest below, as scattered Dominion soldiers methodically shot at them. An Aurin warrior fell to the forest
floor, followed by another.

Suddenly, the sound of starship engines complicated the cacophony. Arwick look up and saw dozens of Exile transport ships descending from orbit. They fired at the Dominion troops as they approached the extraction point, offering cover for those few Aurin who were still alive.

Queen Myala turned to Arwick.

“You have to go,” she said. “But I’m staying. I can’t leave Arboria behind.”

“No, Myala!” Arwick replied. “We need you to lead us. If you stay here,
you’ll die. But I swear to you by all that I am, we will come back and finish this.”

Myala looked out at the devastation that the Planet Reaper had wrought. On the distant horizon, she could see the others approaching.

The Exile transports landed in the clearing beyond, kicking up grass and leaves. Arwick held out his hand. With a resigned sigh, she took it, and they both started running.

Quick Facts

$Attack of the Planet Reapers!$

Faction: Exile

No. of Collectibles required: 7

Type: Tales from Beyond the Fringe

Victor Lazarin’s Dead End

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Guide

On a table, Darkwhisper Enclave. Next to the table there are Vendor NPCs like Distributor Dmitriev (Consumable Vendor) and Quartermaster Yudinov (Quartermaster).
On a ground, next to a couple of boxes and a torch, Lifeglade Hills. This is a starting point from where you can climb toward the higher ground level at North.
On ground, at the Northern part of Hear of the Godwood, near a pile of wooden boards. You can reach the top of Godsbreath Terrace by jumping over many geysers in area. Quest that takes you here is “Godwood Ascension”, part- Enter the Gate to the Heart of the Godwood.

Quest “Godwood Ascension”, part- Enter the Gate to the Heart of the Godwood, takes you inside Heart of the Godwood Tree.
On ground, next to a Tree of Life Alchemist, Godsbreath Terrace. You can reach this part of compound by jumping over many geysers in area.
On small table, bellow the tent’s rooftop, next to a large pipes, District Falls.
At the large platform, Belabog Containment Camp. Next to Quarantine Cages.
On a Blue Aurin statue that holds a golden sword, Verdant Edge.
We would like to thank PHURION for additional information.

Map

Celestion

Victor Lazarin’s Dead End

Lore

Victor tapped the skull with a stylus, waiting for it to blink again. Perhaps he’d imagined it. At times he felt the anchors of his sanity slipping away along with the minutes. The serum. Missing ingredient. Time running out.

On every available surface around his hunched figure, flasks bubbled, flames flickered, and specimens implored in reedy croaks for finality. Their voices reminded him that Mina had come by. Then he recollected that she was dead. Thus it must have been Lucy uttering some forgotten i
nquiry.

“Leg…itches,” the head moaned from its acid bath. Victor’s machinery dutifully recorded this.

“You have no leg,” he said. “No body. A shoddy vessel. Only the mind matters.” As if in repudiation, the dozens of torsos covering the benches and lining the walls began wailing a dolorous chorus: “Legitches…legitches…”

As the litany subsided, he tried to recapture his focus. Missing ingredient. Hours of sanity left. Serum. Thinking in circles, unable to refrain from speculations long discar
ded. A gnawing suspicion hinted he had wasted time refusing to accept that the body was mere life-support. Absently, he nudged the skull in the tray, inhaling the acrid reek of the chemicals in which it floated.

More voices. The Ravenous, clawing at the door, their screeches twining in hideous unison with a shrill resurgence from the specimens. So infuriating, these frequent interruptions as he verged on making a vital connection. Frequent? Incessant. No remembrance of all the good he’d accomplishe
d. Sourly, he recalled how they’d laughed at his notion of defying mortality – like his lung-pox vaccine or when he’d vowed to disprove Barcellius’ Third Theorem. Missing ingredient.

The howls outside rose in volume. Didn’t the fools know scientific progress was founded on heaps of failure and sacrifice? They called it a Contagion, but perhaps it was the serum, a truth serum baring false natures that had tainted a once great race for generations.

He barely stifled the impulse to slam the drifting b
ulk of his condenser into the racks of boiling fluids. It was the Contagion coursing through his veins. With monumental effort, he forced his ire down. So close to a serum. He was Victor Lazarin! Success had always been his destiny!

His shadow on the wall twisted strangely as he bent over the tray and murmured, “I’m so close. You believe, don’t you?”

Mina’s watery eyes softened. The sweet fragrance of the sugarblossoms cushioning her head that he’d foolishly taken for a tray was overwhelming. “So.
.. close,” she croaked.

He kissed her for what felt like eternity, until the scent of petals reverted again to acid. He forced his eyes open to find his gaze met by the oozing sockets of the skull in the tray, black tongue lolling grotesquely, rotting cheeks still wet from his saliva. The gallery of specimens and Ravenous alike echoed his howls of rage as he clawed and crushed the skull to a bloody pulp.

And suddenly, with stunning clarity, he realized the missing ingredient.

Quick Facts

$Victor Lazarin's Dead End$

Faction: Exile

No. of Collectibles required: 7

Type: Tales from Beyond the Fringe