You head over to a bunker, which the Caelum Mages seem to be inspecting now that they've made it down the stairs.

One bunker seems to gather a significant amount of attention, and you head for that one with Linna at your side.

Caelum Red Mage: "Zeigel, one more body. And a letter of some sort."

The two of you reach the bunker's open door, where you see several smashed control panels, and a chirop with another pulped head. Beside the body is something resembling a construct rifle, and numerous mana stones litter the floor.

Sitting on a ruined control panel are some papers with handwriting on them.

Linna picks up the papers and begins reading them, taking a couple of minutes to finish before handing them to you.



I knew it was going to happen one day. Someone would be bringing down the hammer on this facility, either Teleiat deciding enough is enough, or some other faction disgusted with the scum that is us.

We've uncovered something horrible. Magic has always been just out of our reach when it came to observation. Scientists can observe their particles, but for centuries all we could do was study the effects of magic, not magic itself.

Through our experiments, we have discovered the first concrete, what do I even call it, a piece, that makes up the nature of magic. This piece that we tried to deny no matter how many times we've confirmed its existence. If you have already figured out what Heartstones are, this discovery is many times worse.

Do not repair the machines, do not make sense of their wreckage. Heartstone must not be repeated.

Another facility somewhere in Siana has been performing similar work to ours, or has already completed their project. They must be stopped.

Matis Emiel, I'm sorry for everything.

-Project Director Koa Tsinthula

____________________


You hand the soldier 5 silvers and then leave the armory, and then Vranhal, heading towards the bridge once again.

You can see the leviathan in the distance, doing its terraforming of the land.

____________________


You walk on the facility grounds, the Caelum mages giving you odd looks but otherwise not paying you much attention.

Locating the building that John's supposed to be in, you head in. It looks like it's a reception room. A desk, a few chairs, a rest room, and some stairs going down.

Taking the stairs down, you find yourself in a large room. Eight offices, four on each side of the room, and ahead is a large metal wall, with what looks like a damaged twisted opening leading down a hallway. Caelum Mages are in the hall, looking around. P'orihc seems to be here as well, drooling in the corner as if he was braindead.

Ignoring the inactive chirop, you head down the hall, passing rooms full of dead chirop.

Tabi: "What happened here?"

Caelum Black Mage: "Bastards locked themselves up and then took their own lives before we got to 'em. Documents burned, machines smashed. Everything wiped out before we got in."

The two of you reach the end of the hall, where an elevator and stairwell greet you.

Caelum Black Mage: "Elevator's safe if you want to use it. Zeigel and John already used it to get down."

You nod to the Caelum mage and head into the elevator box with Tabi, pushing an arrow-down button. The doors slide closed, and the box begins descending.

The backside of the elevator box is a wall of clear glass-like material, allowing you to see what's waiting for you.

A massive, artificially lit chamber comes into view. Shaped like a dome, you can make out wrecked machinery at the edges and a particularly large wrecked machine in the center. Several ramp-like structures are at the edges as well, with the sloping surface facing towards the center. A door on the backsides indicate that they're some sort of small shelter.

Circular lines painted on the floors mark out distances from the central machine, each ring with their distance numbering in several places.

Once you reach the bottom, the doors open and you step out. Caelum mages are all over the place, checking out wrecked machines and the shelter-like structures. One of the shelters has a particularly large gathering of mages, and one of them waves you over.

You put on your new equipment and head for Venari. Or, you would've, but you see something strange to the north.

An armored human-shaped figure approaching the bridge, coming from the direction of Magusalto. As it approaches, you notice how worn out the armor is.

Heavily constructed full-plate covered with scratches. Worn crimson paint and nearly erased golden trim. A large sword sheathed at the back.

A familiar voice booms from the armor.

Rauha: "Greetings, Vandolf. Good to see that you are still alive."

____________________


Crouching down, you inspect the chirop's badge and confirm that she is, indeed, the highest ranking official of the project. Project Head Koa Tsinthula.

The body is still warm.


Linna: "Aye. The grounds have been secured, now we collect what information remains and send a team to take it to Vranhal and Esthen. The project staff that are still alive will help with cleaning up, and ensuring the remaining Products grow enough that they would no longer need the incubators.

What to do with the Products, test subjects, Heartstones, everything else. We'll wait for a decision for Lord Elizabeth and the Second. They'll probably discuss the matter."

Rauha: "The Curator and I explored Nullam for a team to cross the western plains so we could reach Uniof. It took a while, but we found a brave team of adventurers that would escort us across. They were experienced in fighting the beasts that lay claim to the area.

Before we left, I felt, a sense of duty, you could say. Leviathans have not been fought for hundreds of years on this continent, there would be little information left on tactics against them. But I possess such information. I had to return.

The Curator let me use this old relic so I could travel on my own, and now I am here."

You give him a grin, and then the two of you head across the bridge and towards Vranhal.

Even with your speed, Rauha is able to keep up, probably through the armor's capabilities. You reach the gates of Vranhal in no time, with the guards on top the wall greeting you again.

Your message has been sent.

Rauha: "Vulkan, after the flame dragon's core that this sword is built from. The paint wears off, since they hadn't figured out colored AM yet, but the armor does regenerate. A powerful construct for such a relic, the Curator was generous."

The two of you enter the city and then the capital building, soon pushing through the office doors where Elizabeth is still seated behind her desk, Torrent and Liam in their same positions.

Elizabeth: "Welcome back. So, this is Rauha."

Rauha: "What you see is an old suit of construct armor, but that is unimportant.

To the point - you need to slay a leviathan. I imagine you have already discovered its thermal barrier."

Elizabeth: "Yes. We have not yet found a way to get through it."

Rauha: "While the barrier is up, the leviathan's scales are softened by the heat, but the defense the barrier provides more than makes up for it. The scales are also able to regenerate during this phase.

However, the barrier cannot be maintained indefinitely. The leviathan will deplete its energy and the barrier will drop, the scales will cool and become extremely hard and cease to regenerate.

You must strike precisely when the leviathan depletes its reserves. The barrier will be down, its scales will be unable to regenerate, and will be soft from the heat. If you wait too long, it will cool and become nigh impenetrable.

As for where to strike - all of the leviathan's scales are layered in a way so they slant backwards. Attacks from the front and sides will almost always glance off. From the back, it is easy to get a projectile into the seams of their scales.

Your target is the core, the size of a small house, located in the leviathan's rib cage. Under the base of the leviathan's tail, you are able to fire a shot that, if the scales are still soft, can slip between the gaps, enter the leviathan's body and into the rib cage, striking the core."

The lord feverishly writes down notes.

Elizabeth: "How durable is the core?"

Rauha: "I imagine one of your kinetic snipers should be able to destroy it with a well-placed shot."

Elizabeth: "It will be difficult getting into position, and the core is still a difficult target with how large the leviathan's rib cage is."

Rauha: "Aye."

Elizabeth: "Well, we're much closer to a plan now. Your assistance is greatly appreciated, Rauha."

The former leviathan gives a bow while Elizabeth rises from her seat, carrying papers and storming towards the door.

Elizabeth: "Let's get a team together."

MLC I don't think they need the runes at all at this point. Also don't drag me into your leviathan proctology nonsense I want nothing to do with getting close to it.

"You're staying here to oversee it then, I take it?"
Andrew, any word on how many Heartstones were in that cache?

You and Rauha follow Elizabeth as she navigates the halls with Torrent and Liam in tow, reaching a large empty meeting room.

Elizabeth: "No offense to John, but I'd rather have someone with more experience taking the shot.

Planning on using runes, though. When we're trying to fire at something the size of a small mountain, a house-sized core is tiny. A fragmentation or homing bolt would work a lot better than a plain bolt."

A few minutes pass before several more people enter the room - the magister, general, some young woman in a black mage robe and a pair of glasses that's missing a lense, and Riimuk.

____________________


Linna: "Yes."

Andrew: One moment.

The Caelum mage says they're kept in something that looks like a briefcase with cushioned slots, twenty in the case. He sees about thirty cases, eight of them are full so far.