Chrysalis

I'm a little nervous. What's the story going to be? No matter what I don't think it's going to be something I like. Don't keep me in suspense, let me hear the damage. Just how bad are things going to be. The three guards remain perfectly still during this time, watchful and poised they don’t miss a single movement I make. The three older shapers are a little more mobile, but not much. I get the feeling that these Golgari are a little more attached to stone than just having different varieties of it for skin. They are unusually still when they don't have to be moving, as if becoming a rock themselves.

[You know the purpose of our Cult?]

[Absolutely. You desire for a twentieth ancient to take its place amongst the other nineteen. Something about 'closing the circle' or some such.]

She nods her head in agreement.

[That is correct. We seek to empower a monster in order than it may come to dominate the lower Strata and achieve a tier of evolution on par with the existing ancients.]

I'm a little surprised to hear that.

[Do you actually know what tier the ancients are?] The theoretical maximum tier? I wonder how high it is! Ten? TWENTY?!

[No, we don't.]

Dang.

[To our knowledge there have been only two conversations between the sapient races of the surface and the ancients. During the Cataclysm we now refer to as the 'Time of Rending', the mana level in the Dungeon rose to unprecedented heights. When the tunnels connected to the surface, mana from the centre of Pangera flooded the skies, followed a tidal wave of monsters that nearly washed away any remnant of civilisation on this world.]

Yikes.

bad. How long

wrought are legend to this day. Scholars debate the history of these events, for not much that was written during that time survives today, but we do

how monsters get stronger

we believe to be true. So why consume so much? Could

these people think they were trying to be helpful?! Crazy

[Sure…] I lamely agree.

given to the knowledge that was passed on from a dialogue between a powerful Kaarmodo Wizard and Arconidem, who rose under their lands. For us,

say? The

snap

share,] the words are sharp,

sure. No need

relax about half a

share our goals are not able to

course it is. Gotta … you just gotta love them ancients. Worms. The whole

and fervent love of the ancients and worms. For

about the last wave?] A new voice breaks into the conversation, younger, a little more light than the

could I? It was the first wave

first, but eventually turned into a boon for the colony, enabling us to harvest experience and Biomass at an unprecedented speed. By the end of it, I'd started hoping it might stick around. The solid defences we encountered on the way down to the second strata gave me pause though. There may have been more going on beneath us than

upper strata rose beyond what we would expect, by far, and the duration of the wave was much longer. Even now, the mana

and its never gone back to the level I experienced then. I can't say I never wondered why that might be

is another brief pause as