1.1 Ao Shen to the West

This recap covers the brief mythos of the Inventor Lovers, the exploration of the construct-infested areas to the west of Fengqi, and the journey through Ao Shen's clocktower.  

The Inventor Lovers

During the few weeks following SKRUNGUS' last mission, the guild had garnered some notoriety, but most of the members found themselves doing minor unchallenging tasks just to keep the guild afloat. Within that time period, rumors began bubbling up to the surface concerning what lay beyond in the Chaos-infested lands of what used to be human-controlled territories. Many were convinced that there was some connection between a famous human legend and the nature of the Chaos monsters that roamed mere miles outside Fengqi. With word of constructs being active in conjunction with eyewitness accounts of large clocktowers zapping boats south of Fengqi, it seemed that these monsters must have been shaped by the Inventor Lovers, Ao Shen and Jing Shen.   Centuries ago, Ao Shen and Jing Shen were a husband and wife duo whose engineering skills could not be rivaled. They built everything together, including household contraptions and even their own home. The two were happy, yet they were unable to conceive a child of their own. So, in their desperation to make a family, they opted to construct a child instead. However, the pair could not agree on how they would make this robot child as Ao Shen was intent on creating something beautiful and natural, while Jing Shen was determined to make something rational and ordered.   In the midst of these heated debates, the monarch of the time, Empress Liang, caught wind of the Shens' wondrous inventions and offered them both positions as Royal Inventors. Unfortunately, Ao and Jing kept butting heads on almost everything, eventually leading to the mass creation of dozens of constructs in an effort to one up one another. To the Empress' dismay, these constructs caused such a ruckus that she was forced to split the couple in order to save the palace. Ao and Jing then did their own work separately and in secret. Who knows what they made in separation, but what is known is that the two eventually got back together in the afterlife.   What does this mean for our protagonists? Well, it means that such creatures like the weird triangle robot they encountered might not just be a random freak of nature. In fact, there might be a blueprint that these Chaos monsters follow that is linked to the regional mythos. Such information would be crucial in pushing back the Chaos.  

The Western Clocktower

Once preparations were complete, Badice, Lyca, and Haliah set off to explore the western forests beyond Yongmei Bay which surrounded Fengqi. Their primary objective was to infiltrate the mysterious clocktowers that prevented naval travel beyond the bay. Having chosen the western clocktower at random, the party decided to head there posthaste and devised a strategy for crossing the bay's water to save time. Through the persuasion of a fisher, water walking, and thunderstep, the three managed to scale the rocky shores and arrive at the western peninsula.   After reading some rock literature and fighting off some robot dolls and their robot pets, our protagonists were in possession of several mysterious colored crystals. They soon figured out that these crystals were created using the life force of plants and animals and that their color changed when exposed to different elements, like fire and ice. This information enabled them to enter the Clocktower itself and begin their infiltration.   Ao Shen's clocktower was SKRUNGUS' first official dungeon, and it was quite a doozy. With seven floors themed around the primordial elements (the D&D damage types), the party had to work their creative muscles to gather enough colored gems to keep moving up the tower. Along the way, they slashed and blasted dozens of clockwork critters until the boss himself, Ao Shen, began communicating with them. However, something was...off about him, and when the trio reached the top floor, they soon saw why.   Ao Shen was a praying mantis robot, and not the beautiful artsy human nerd of legend. And apparently, he wanted to hire the party as minions through a mahjong interview. That's right, Lyca, Badice, and Haliah's first epic boss battle began with a board game. But what an exciting game it was! They pried some juicy information from Ao, including the existence of one 'Clockwork Empress' and the location of a secret entrance to the Empress' lair, the Mechanical Dam.   The party, now satisfied with the information they acquired, decided that Ao Shen deserved to die. And die he did. Sort of. His form collapsed into itelf, creating a strange crystal in its place.   And with that, the clocktower was disabled for good. Our heroes then made their way back to Fengqi by clearing some bridges of baddies, and began planning their next move.   Little did they know, however, that they would soon be working with a new, yet old, set of allies.