The Pall
Written in 2018, by MPR (aka Snargfargle)
Note the names are members of the WOWS forum. This type of writing gets them involved in the story and brings it closer to home for them. The contextual meaning of the names is clear enough though so the story can be read and enjoyed by anyone.
Chapter 1
A pall had drifted over the forest. Something was wrong but nobody knew exactly what. Things seemed normal enough but something wasn't quite right. Even the mighty HazardDrake felt a stirring of dread. The Snargfargle sat and pondered. He hadn't felt a disturbance this great in the biosphere for hundreds of years, and that was when the Kizarvexis volcano system erupted. He called upon the eldritch power of the Staff of Ages but it could not detect the cause of the disturbance. "A lot of good you are, old friend," the Snargfargle chuckled.
He would have to seek the assistance of the humans. "The humans." The Snargfargle chuckled again. "When did I start considering myself other than human?", he thought. "Of course, I guess that they would not recognize me such, for when I was born we were not yet what is now considered "human." "They have evolved in one direction, while the Staff of Ages has kept me alive and changed me in another." "They probably don't even see me now as one of their own." The Snargfargle knew well that the modern humans considered him a god, but he didn't dwell on such nonsense. How he had come to possess the Staff of Ages, which he had carried for nearly an aeon, is another story.
The Elegant_Winter turned into an even more elegant Spring. Flowers were blooming. An EAGLESQUAD1 was rebuilding a nest in the same tree where their ancestors had nested for over a thousand years. The Snargfargle recalled that he, himself, had planted that very tree when a landslide had denuded that part of The Forest. How many trees had he planted over the years? The Snargfargle had never really thought on this but there were entire forests that had their beginnings in a small grove that he had planted to amuse himself. Not The Forest, mind you, though the Snargfargle was an integral part of its ecosystem. The Forest was even older than the Snargfargle, and was here when he first ventured to the continent during the previous Age of Ice, long before Man was to set foot on it.
The Snargfargle pondered on those millennia he had spend alone and the strange beasts, now long gone, that had once roamed The Forest. Among them the RedSeaBears and their translucent subspecies, the BearlyHereBears. He also thought about those the strange elemental beings, the Corrossyph. When the Sargfargle was young, his tribe had once worshiped these mountain elementals, but he had not seen one in untold ages.
Little did he know that during all those years of loneliness, he was being watched, for the Alien_Observers had been monitoring the planet for tens of thousands of years. They classified the observation of humanity as the X07PROJECT. The Observers were an ancient civilization with colonies that spanned many star systems. But they only observed and never interfered, letting nature take its course until a species developed interstellar ships. The current Observer, NCC81701, sat in his cloaked ship and watched the Snargfargle examining his staff. He wondered if the large, green creature understood just what he had there? That staff incorporated technology from beings even older and more powerful than the Observers. Even they didn't know the staff's full potential, but they knew that it was something very powerful indeed. Perhaps this being was the one who would lead humanity to the stars? The Observer searched the data file on the Snargfargle. Hmm, it appeared that this being had once before led humanity to a new age by teaching them about fire. In fact, in human myth he was known by a name other than "Snargfargle," in those ancient writings, he was Prometheus.
Chapter 2
On his way to meet with Dr_Venture and CompassRose, the Snargfargle startled a covey of Crokodone, which began to scamper away into the woods. The Snargfargle's mouth began to water, for although he was the protector of The Forest and its inhabitants, he also was part of the cycle of life. The Snargfargle had been eating meat before he and other proto-humans even knew how to cook it. He was especially fond of roast Crokodone, and nobody's roast Crokodone tasted any better than that prepared by CompassRose. The Snargfargle picked out a fat buck Crokodone and flung the BrushWolf 's skull he carried, more for show than as weapon. Of course, with thousands of years of practice his aim was perfect and the Crokodone expired painlessly, it's brainstem crushed.
The Snargfargles true weapon was the Staff of Ages, though he kept its abilities hidden, even from his closest friends. To them it was just an old stick decorated with an odd assortment of parts from long-extinct animals. However, the Staff of Ages was a weapon, and a powerful one indeed. With it the Snargfargle could have defeated entire armies. In fact, he had done just this in the past.
"Snarg the Hunter," he thought. He again chuckled to himself, for he had actually once been known by that name, until he had picked up another one because he would often rather think and experiment than hunt. The Snargfargle recalled a companion who, in ages past, had hunted by his side. She had been a wild thing, more a creature of the woods than a human herself, and a mighty huntress in her own right. She had invented a weapon with which she could send sharpened sticks to a great distance, and with a great deal of accuracy, once one had practiced enough with it. Many the Quaffer (a type of large proto-Crokodone that had long since gone extinct) had she she brought back from a hunt for the Snargfargle to clean and cook for their supper. The Staff of Ages had kept her alive as well, for thousands of years. However, as she ventured farther and farther afield, as was her wont, she eventually aged and died. The Snargfargle still mourned her loss. The tribe had called her "Artie" but the humans had another name for her, as they did for the Snargfargle, in the ancient writings of Man she was known as Artemis.
The Snargfargle still remembered how pleased she had been that day when lightning struck a dead tree and it fell, in flames, onto a bull Quaffer. The scorched meat had a pleasant taste indeed. The Snargfargle had collected a burning branch and kept the fire alive by feeding it other branches and logs. Soon, everyone in the tribe was coming to roast their meat on Snarg and Artie's fire. However, the day came when the earth shook and the hut collapsed, dousing the fire. The Snargfargle thought long and hard on how to obtain another fire. There must be another way than to wait until a lightning bolt to hit a dead tree.
Then, one evening, about the time he had gotten used to the taste of raw meat again, his companion cried out in pain. She had been sharpening one of her hunting sticks sticks by twirling it against a log. The Snargfargle, who in those days was just "Snarg the Thinker," (a somewhat derisive name given to him when he started hunting less and thinking more by a tribe that considered the best acton to just be reaction) found that the end of the stick was hot, very hot. In fact, the stick was blackened as if it had been in a fire itself, although the Snargfargle knew it hadn't because he had seen his companion cut the twig from its branch only moments before.
With some trial and error (and no help from the Staff of Ages, for this was many years before the Snargfargle and Artemis discovered it when they went to investigate the strange, fiery boulder that fell from the sky), he discovered that the faster he twirled the stick the hotter it got. But how to twirl it fast enough to set it ablaze? The Snargfargle pondered this for several days, until he one day he figured out the trick as he was watching his companion string her bow. Ah, ha! He quickly grabbed the bow, eliciting a thwack on the head from his companion (did I not tell you she was a wild thing) and a tirade of disapproval in the rudimentary language they both shared. That is, until he showed her what he was thinking of.
The snargfargle twisted the string of the bow around an arrow stick and then, using a piece of bone to protect his hand, pressed it hard against a dead log, while spinning it with the bow as fast as he could. Soon, smoke appeared, and then the glow of an ember. The Snargfargle knew how to nourish an ember as he had done so many times while keeping the tribe's precious fire alive. He fed the tiny ember it's favorite food, dried plant fluff, and blew the breath of life into it until a tiny flame appeared. The tribe once again had a fire!
The Snargfargle and his companion were not reticent either about sharing their newfound knowledge for they were intuitive teachers. They freely shared anything they learned that might help the tribe. Soon, most of the members of the tribe were fashioning bows and arrows and making fire for themselves. The word spread to other tribes, who sent emissaries to the couple to learn their secrets. Soon "Snarg, the thinker" was known far and wide as The Snargfargle, "fargle" being the tribe's word for a great shaman. Another tribe (one which would, thousands of years hence, develop a culture that eventually would span half the known world), called him "Thinks Before," in reference to his habit of thinking before he acted. In their language, the word for forethought was "prometheus."
Chapter 3
The Snargfargle arrived at Dr_Venture and CompassRose's house, which was deep within The Forest. Compass Rose's, ancestor, JohnPJones had built it with his own two hands after he returned from serving in the navies of several countries. History recorded "JP" as dying young but, in fact, he retired to The Forest to spend the remainder of his years in study and contemplation. The Snargfargle knew the Jones family well, as did they he. By the way, "Compass" was Rose's real first name as her mother, the famous explorer Hunter_Steel , had named her after the antique piece of direction finding equipment that another ancestor, who was known as Khafni to the locals, had had carried in the Great War. Like "JP," history had recorded "Khafni" as dying young too but "Lawrence of Arabia" had, himself, retired to The Forest.
The Snargfargle thought of poor Hunter and wondered if Compass would have turned out any different had her mother not perished on that rescue expedition to the Arctic and her father, Captain Lionel92 Jones, had not done the same fighting in his own war. There was more than a bit of Artemis in Compass and the Snargfargle oftentimes wondered if they might have not actually shared a common ancestor. The girl couldn't be direct descendant, of course, for although the Staff of Ages maintained the life of its bearer and those who had been near him for many decades, it's eldritch emanations also rendered them incapable of bearing their own children. Though the Snarg and Artie had raised many children, all had been orphans or had been given them to raise in secrecy by parents who thought the children's lives in danger. Many of these children had become quite well-known in myth and legend themselves, but that is another story.
The Snargfargle was quite fond of Compass, as she was of him. In fact, she called him "Papa Snarg," and pretty much could get him to do anything for her. In years past, the few local villagers who ventured deep into The Forest, would sometimes stare in amazement at seeing this tiny girl riding on the great, green creature's shoulders, pointing to each new thing she saw and jabbering questions a mile a minute.
However, the Snargfargle had not seen CompassRose in years, until recently. She had moved to the city to pursue her education, which is where she met Dr. Venture, who was considered one of the world's most eminent scientists. Like Compass' mother and father, Venture was a well-known adventurer. Compass too was making herself a name as a physicist and biologist. The Snargfargle thought that if anyone could help him find the source of the disturbance it would be the doctors Venture and Jones.
But talk would have to wait until after supper. There was a yummy Crokodone to clean and dress and then roast with vegetables from and herbs from the garden. The Snargfargle could hardly wait, though if the truth be told he was something of a master chef himself. One didn't cook for oneself for the entirety of human history without learning a bit about how to make food tasty.
The Snargfargle was not uneducated himself. One does not live for over a million years and not pick up a thing or two. Yes, the Snargfargle was that old, for the tribe of proto-humans he had been born to had been classified by modern humans as H. erectus. Once the ice opened and the way was once again made clear, the Snargfargle had traveled back to the Old World, where he had studied most of the verbal and written knowledge of humanity and, if the truth be told, had contributed a great deal to this knowledge himself, either directly or through his influence.
Though he liked to present himself in the guise of an ancient tribal shaman, complete with Roc skull helmet and grumpymunky skull necklace, the Snargfargle had the knowledge equivalent of over a dozen PhDs in as many disciplines. The fact was not lost on him either that, although he had always been a thinker in his own right, that the Staff of Ages had greatly enhanced his innate mental acuity. Lately, he had been thinking that he should let Compass and Venture examine it. This was a bit ironic because Compass had equipment in her lab that was currently doing exactly this. She had known since was first able to walk that "Papa Snarg's" old stick wasn't just any old stick. In fact, part of the reason she specialized in the graduate research she did was so that she could figure out just what it was and where it had originated. Many was the time, when Papa Snarg was sleeping after a big meal, that she had closely examined the staff. Beneath its camouflage of ancient accouterments (which were quite interesting in themselves) the staff, with its strange hieroglyphs, seemed like nothing of this world. Of course, she was not wrong in this assessment.
Chapter 4
Meanwhile, the Alien_Observer was having troubles of his own. Something had been disrupting his instruments for weeks now. Suddenly, his warp engines, and his impulse engines too, completely shut down. There was nothing he could do but transfer to emergency power and initiate an emergency stasis field to attain a gravity NeutralState before he crashed onto a rocky, deserted island jutting from the sea just off of the coast from The Forest. When the dust settled, the Observer noticed that his cloaking device had been damaged and that his ship could now be detected. However, at the moment, being detected by the humans was the least of his concerns. His instruments were going crazy in a Flashtirade of disconcerting data; every monitor flashing the warning senseNOTmade. It was as if a hole had been ripped in the universe not far from where his ship had crashed. However, even this fact wasn't as disturbing as what he detected pouring through the rift. Terra-forming and mutagenic nanogenes! This was a clear indication that a trans-dimensional species was invading and attempting to change this world, if not the galaxy itself, to suit themselves. This threw the "observe only, never interfere" pact out the window because now the entire galaxy was facing an imminent threat. The Observer, NCC81701 , quickly began formulating a plan to contact the humans.
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Back at CompassRose and Dr_Venture's place, the trio was sitting down for a beerandasmoke. It should be said here that they weren't smoking tobacco, which is bad for your health, but a combination of medicinal herbs that the Snargfargle had long-ago concocted to maintain the immune systems of his friends and anyone else who would listen to him. Getting someone to listen to him was becoming more and more difficult, however, in this age of skepticism where humanity considered him to be a mere myth to be scoffed at and those few who saw him with their own eyes generally blocked the memory from their minds because he didn't fit into their paradigm.
Suddenly, the Staff of Ages began to glow with an eldritch yellow light. Well, so much for keeping it a secret from these two. At the same time, in the lab, Rose's detection equipment began to go, well, "bonkers" would be the non-scientific term for it. As Dr_Venture passed his rock collection on the way to the lab to see what was going on he noticed that a tiny crystal shard there also was glowing with the same light as the Snargfargle's staff. He had found the shard in one of the three ruins that were on separate islands just off the coast. Nobody living knew what those ancient towers had originally been used for or what long-lost civilization had erected them. They had been in ruins long before Europeans settled on the continent and even the Amerindians only knew them in their mythology as the "Three Brothers" who had once protected the coast. Yes, nobody living knew what the towers had actually been used for. Nobody living, that is, except for the Snargfargle, who well knew the purpose for which they had been erected; for he, himself, had helped build them.
The Snargfargle quickly explained to the doctors why he had come, and they just as quickly revealed to him what they had been up to in the lab. The trio then determined that they could use the Staff of Ages to enhance the monitoring equipment. Their combined equipment showed that there was no longer just subtle disturbance occurring in the The Forest. Just off the coast it was as if the universe itself was being torn asunder. The Snargfargle looked at the data and thought, with considerable alarm, "Oh no, it's happening again!"
Chapter 5
Earlier, we spoke of how the Snargfargle had once used the Staff of Ages to defeat an army. This was millennia ago, when the North American continent had been home to a great civilization, highly advanced in the arts, philosophy, and sciences. However, one year a rift had opened off the west coast of the continent and through it poured an immense horde of strange creatures. These creatures appeared as a motley assortment of beasts from the depths of nightmare, though they were all of the same species, only having different forms due to the machinations of their bio-wizards. The humans named the forms based on their own mythology. The_first_harbinger's of doom were the stealthy Shadowrigger1, which spread out as advanced scouts. Deadly in their own right, the Shadowrigger were followed by the even more fearsome zFireWyvern and the strange Erebthoron. FInally came the leaders and wizards of the horde, the Koschka and the Kraayt. The horde has no desire to interact with humanity other than to destroy it, for they wanted the Earth for themselves.
The human inhabitants of the continent and the Snargfargle stood against the hordes of darkness for a thousand years, fighting innumerable battles from one coast of the continent to the other and then back again. The hordes were immensely powerful and, although the humans were too, they were slowly pushed back. Everywhere the hordes went they left chaos and destruction in their wake. Finally, the only untouched area of the great landmass was a few thousand acres of ancient forest near the coast where the rift itself had opened. Why the hordes had not already decimated this area was a mystery to the humans. Perhaps it had been protected in some way.
Of course, we now know what the Snargfargle and the inhabitants of the continent did not, that above the forest hovered a cloaked Alien_Observer starship. The wizards of the horde could detect that something was there but could not locate it. The horde had therefore, for the most part, left the area alone because they wanted nothing to do with beings of advanced technology. However, since said beings seemed only to watch, and never to act, the hordes felt free to ravish the rest of the land. There was also another reason why the hordes had left this part of the ancient forest alone; a reason which we will discover shortly.
One misty morning, from the depths of the forest where the Snargfargle and the last remaining humans had gathered to fight their last stand, emerged a creature of myth. The weary warriors rose to attack this new monstrosity but the Snargfargle stayed their hand. He knew that this was no denizen of an alien horde. This was a creature that was more myth than legend even an aeon ago, when he had been a proto-human living on raw meat and whatever other edible things he could hunt or gather. The Snargfargle had only seen one of these creatures before and thought them long extinct, though he suspected that their numbers had once been great, as evidenced by the fossilized bones that he occasionally found jutting from a rock outcropping. This was the last remaining member of a species that had developed an eldritch intelligence in a time when mankind's ancestors were little more than squirrel-like creatures scampering in the trees. The Snargfargle could sense that this ancient "dragon," the HazardDrake, wanted to convey a message. However, even with the help of the Staff of Ages he could barely understand what the message was, so different was its mind from the mind of Man.
Finally, the Snargfargle pieced together that this creature knew of the location of a crystalline boulder that had fallen from the skies and split apart in an ancient time before humans had first set foot on the continent. The Snargfargle had seen many meteors fall from the sky in his long life and had investigated more than a few. He knew that, though most meteorites were simply iron-rich rocks, that one in a great many was something else. He had discovered the Staff of Ages in the hollow core of one such meteorite. If a fallen rock could impress a being of myth such as a Hazard Drake then it was well worth investigating.
The Snargfargle and a few still-wary warriors and scientists followed the Hazard Drake into the forest until they came upon a deep, overgrown, crater. At the bottom of the crater was what appeared to be a gigantic geode, its interior sparkling with scintillating, glowing crystals. As the Snargfargle approached the meteorite with the Staff of Ages these crystals began to emit a high-pitched whine and glow with an even brighter yellow light. This was why the Hazard Drake had approached the humans in the first place, for he had watched his prized crystals glow each time the Snargfargle had journeyed through the forest, though to a much lesser extent than they were doing now. The Hazard Drake had been fighting its own millennia-long war to keep the denizens of the horde from entering its forest, which was the other reason why they now left it alone. It had been observing the Snargfargle and his staff for thousands of years and well knew of its power. If the staff and the crystals were somehow linked then perhaps the humans could use them to assist it in its fight.
Chapter 6
The scientists quickly organized a team to remove the crystals and transport them to their laboratory. The Snargfargle had to remain somewhat distance from the crystals, for when the Staff of Ages he had been brought too close, one crystal had emitted a searing yellow beam of light that had pierced a fist-sized hole completely through the heart of a mighty redwood tree, after which it had exploded into dust.
It didn't take long for the Snargfargle and the scientists to draw up the plans to create a weapon array, which they hoped would be powerful enough to defeat the horde command center and seal the rift. On three islands would be built three towers, at the tops of each tower would be placed a crystalline matrix. The crystalline matrices would be tuned to emit a their energy beams only when the Snargfargle brought the Staff of Ages to the central tower and touched it to the key matrix. It was hoped that only one tower would be enough to seal the rift but three would be constructed just in case.
The Horde was not going to make the construction of these towers easy and battles raged for months while the towers were being constructed. Many a time did the elite warriors of humanity, the GhostSwordsman, the HazardDrake and the Snargfargle fight side-by side as they built and defended the towers. While the humans and the Hazard Drake would never be exactly friends, they did develop a mutual respect for each other. In fact, if the truth be told, even the mighty Hazard Drake was more than a bit in awe of the Snargfargle and his staff and wanted him as an ally much more than as an enemy.
Finally, when all hope seemed lost and all that was left was to die with honor, the towers were completed. The Snargfargle and the scientists then used the array to to destroy the main horde and close the portal from whence they had emerged. In the process, the crystals disintegrated and were lost (that is all but a single forgotten shard, which Dr_Venture was to find thousands of years later). However, sub-hordes of the army of darkness remained to ravish the land and it was several hundred more years before the Snargfargle and the ghost warrior society he commanded (and who were kept alive for all those years by their proximity to the Staff of Ages) were able to exterminate the last of the hordes. Some say that a few denizens of darkness escaped and still lurk in the darker regions of the continent to this day.
The victory was a Pyrrhic one, however, as the war decimated the once-vibrant civilization to the extent that it never recovered. Although the Snargfargle and the few remaining philosophers and scientists tried to keep the culture alive, with the great libraries and centers of learning gone and the need to eke out an existence at the forefront of everyone's mind, the few remaining human bands soon reverted back to neolithic tribes. These tribes then took new names for themselves and developed new legends and mythologies. The ghost warriors too settled down and the Snargfargle left to live alone in the forest. In another thousand years, even in the oldest tales of the descendants of the ghost warriors, there was no mention that their ancestors had once been the protectors of Atlantis.
Chapter 7
The Alien_Observer accessed the human Internet and sent out a series of coded messages. Perhaps with them he could alert the humans without revealing himself completely. While researching a possible source for more crystals, Dr. Venture stumbled upon and decoded the Observer's messages while researching. The source of the arcane crystals was the other dimension itself! The Snargfargle had wondered if this were the case for the crystals that he had used all those millennia ago had come from a meteoric vessel of a type that had seen only once before, that which had held the Staff of Ages. If the portal was to be closed, then a ship would have to be sent through it to the other dimension to retrieve more crystals.
The trio quickly made plans to contact Lord_Zath , whose political power would enable them to gain access to a naval research vessel. CompassRose would command a team of scientists and go through the portal to obtain the crystals while Dr_Ventureorganized the rebuilding of the towers. Of course Zath's bodyguard, and forest warden, brdhntr, would come alone. And just try to get Ensign_Cthulhu to stay behind. In fact, Cthulhu's Academy roommate and Zath's nephew, 1Sherman , would also be joining the expedition. Sherman and Cthulhu had known each other all their lives. Sherman had grown up on the estate and could always be seen in the company of his old companion, Ghostdog1355. In fact, Zath ("Zath" was a family name as well as a title) oftentimes referred to them as "Peabody and Sherman." Sometimes he would shake his head at his nephew's antics and wonder if the dog might be the smarter one of the pair.
The hounds, Ghostdog and Sovereigndawg were brought from their "kennel" (actually the kids' old air-conditioned and heated playhouse, for the hounds led a comfortable, though active, life) to assist the expedition and even kittens pikohan and RiverTheIdiot , who had, by now, almost grown into full-fledged cats, came along for the ride.
The research vessel RivertheRoyal was loaded with supplies and the crew, scientists, and adventurers all boarded. A US Marine commando122 team would act as scouts and defend the scientists as they ventured on land to search for the crystals. The Snargfargle, of course, would join the group, for without the Staff of Ages to help detect the crystals it would be very hard to find them indeed. Lord Zath's colleague and neighbor, LordBenjamin also would come along, for he too had been a renowned explorer and adventurer in his day. Captaining the research vessel would be the legendary sea dog Kapitan_Wuff. As many books had been written about Wuff as had any captain in history, though even he had to admit that many of the stories, though based on fact, were somewhat "embellished" for literary purposes.
As the research vessel approached the rift, its engine died and power failed. It was only a fortuitous combination of wind and currents that pushed it back far enough from the rift so that power could be restored. The captain, under Compass' advisement, headed the ship back to port. Something would have to be done about this before they could venture through the rift. Then, Compass spied an old paddle-steamer with a load of tourists sailing past the rift and having no problems whatever. A message was quickly sent to the tour boat company and arrangements made to obtain the old steamer for the expedition.
The paddle-steamer was quickly refitted with the very best of 19th Century scientific and military technology, as it was found that modern tech was somehow rendered inert by the rift. The refitting had to be done in haste, however, so the steamer still retained most of its odd tourist-trap embellishments. Who in their right mind would mount an excessive number of sails onto a paddle-steamer, give it a fancy figurehead, name it "Transylvania," and then affix a big lighted sign proclaiming "TREATS," in ten-foot high letters, to its hull? If the former crews and captains of the ship could see it now they would roll over in their graves, for the ship had once been a proud warrior. The old paddle-steamer had once served the Union Navy during the battles of New Orleans, Vicksburg, and Richmond. The ship that was now called "Transylvania," had been the USS Miami.
Chapter 8
The Miami (aka "Transylvania") sailed through the portal and the world waited. Would the explorers be able to find the crystals needed to seal the rift? The world waited, and waited. Something was wrong! They had been gone far longer than planned and there had been no communication for weeks. A search and rescue team would have to be organized.
The call went out for still-functional antique ships and for veteran crews to serve them. Finally, seven ships of the right type were found, two battleships, three cruisers, and two destroyers. All had been in use on a monster movie set and had been draped in outlandish accoutrements and tagged with just as outlandish names. Because more than one actual ship represented a single ship in the movie, the two battleships were "Jackal," the three cruisers "Igor" and the two destroyers "Blade." As outlandish as these ships appeared, they were still functional warships at the core and it didn't take long to refit them with 19th-Century technology and weaponry. The seven ships then passed through the rift and out of sight.
Will our intrepid heroes be able to find the "Transylvania" and bring back Compass and her expedition? Was the Snargfargle able, using the Staff of Ages, to locate the crystals? What terrors and instruments of destruction would they have to face on the other side? Will they be able to bring back the crystals in time to complete the tower array before the nanogenes terraform Earth and change its inhabitants into prey suitable for the hordes to feast on. Will the re-built towers be able to amplify the eldritch power of the Staff of Ages so that the Snargfargle and Dr. Venture can close the interdimensional portal? Or will the armies of darkness pprevail?
Well, what say you? Will they prevail? Did they prevail? You should know. For those brave heroes manning the ships of the rescue expedition included you! How did you fare in Saving Transylvania?
