Veliky needs to stare almost directly upward to make eye-contact with Beist. If he weren't the largest creature she'd seen before, he definitely is now. It's certainly impressive, but her awe is overwhelmed by annoyance.

"'No offensive spells,' huh? You didn't think this was worth mentioning?" She rubs her eyes with a sigh. "This makes things substantially easier. Beist, once Zak destroys the statue, just pick up whatever crawls through and throw it over the cliff. Don't even need to use your eyes, just feel around for it."

She snaps her fingers, and an identical Veliky clone^[1] appears beside her, straightening her outfit. The real(?) Veliky gestures to the simulacrum.

"This clone is going to stay here and lend support. The rest of my company will be outside; they'd just get in the way. All units, follow me. Beist, Zak... well, I guess I'll know when you're done."

Most of Veliky's company march out of the courtyard. The three that remain are the replicant, now covering her own eyes with her arm; Lag Switch, still in the wagon in Beist's arms, seemingly hovering in a way that defies logic; and Fisher, who's still dangling from the wagon after it was picked up.

---

1. Replicant

Beist growled as he watched Veliky walk away. He was angry and annoyed at how she seemed to not care at all that her actions had been wrong. She even turned things back on Beist by implying he should have mentioned that he could do this. He hadn't mentioned it because he was ashamed of this form and only used it when he had to or found himself transforming against his will out of anger. Him being truly angry was a rare occurrence. He was able to just brush off most things like insults or threats, but he was very passionate about his work and currently all of that work was in the wagon she had wanted to carelessly thrown down the mountain, not to mention the sleepy little bat hanging from the ceiling inside. Beist couldn't believe the nerve of this Halfling!

Beist calmed down some when he heard a small screech from Dora near him. He looked down at her. She was still blindfolded, but she could clearly tell he had been upset and felt the harness be removed from her. His ears drooped in embarrassment and he reached a single finger down to pet her head.

"I'm alright Dora. I'm sorry to scare you. I just can't believe the nerve of someone right now." he called down to her in a low voice, trying to stay quiet and soothing despite his voice being several times louder and deeper now.

He left his wagon safely far from the cliff and the stone dragon and stood behind Zack, ready to face whatever came after the path was cleared. He lowered his blindfold over his eyes. He didn't like going along with Veliky's plan. His impression of her right now was terrible. But, he didn't want to get into a fight with them while a clear threat was so close, so he accepted their plan for now. Though, he was hoping to crush the basilisk instead of flinging it away. The venom would be an excellent alchemical ingredient that he didn't want to throw away.

"Let's get this over with, then."

Zak watched incredulously as Veliky created a duplicate of herself and took the majority of her minions and left the immediate area, leaving her clone behind. Again, taking control without any discussion. For a brief moment, Zak considered turning around and retreating back down the trail. His business up ahead was not pressing, and this obstacle appeared to be life-threatening. Was it worth the effort and obvious danger? Zak’s ire had dissipated for the most part, but Beist’s anger was still palpable, and Zak completely sympathized with the giant’s feelings. Zak sighed, resigned to stay and help find a way to get through the pass. As Beist said, let’s just get this over with.

Zak climbed up an outcropping and perched on its ledge out of the direct line of sight from any creature that might emerge from the opening once the drake’s petrified body was destroyed. Knowing that he would have to hit it with more than one blast, Zak delved deep, gathering his mana. Zak’s body hummed giving off a light green glow, and the sparks at his fingertips grew in size.

“Ginma give me strength,” Zak murmured, as he raised his arms, both hands pointed directly at the petrified drake’s head. “Be ready,” he yelled. Fire exploded from both of his hands, the bolts crackling as they struck the drake’s head and neck. The drake’s head burst into flame and broke into pieces. Chunks fell to the ground, leaving a headless statue in front of them, fire crackling as it spread to the rest of its body. At least the drake won’t wake up, Zak thought, raising his arms to strike again.

This time lightning bolts erupted from Zak’s fingertips, thick white beams of light flashing bright before exploding into the beast’s torso. Streaks sparked across its chest merging with the flames already devouring its body. As they watched, light and fire ravaged the drake’s entire body slowly causing cracks to spread open. Within minutes, the entire body crumbled to the ground, leaving a large pile of debris lying in the opening to the pass.

His senses on alert to anything coming through the pass, Zak took a deep breath and listened. Unfortunately, all he heard was the sound of the destroyed drake shards bouncing against each other as they settled on the ground. Zak tensed, prepared to fight.

While the actual Veliky is stationed safely outside, the Repliky can only stand and wait, covering its eyes with one arm. It isn't afraid of dying, of course, as its demise would be completely inconsequential. But, sharing Veliky's personality and, therefore, thinking pattern, she does hope that Beist can deal with whatever crawls through so that they can move on. They've already wasted enough time here.

"Local units, report: unknown hostile detected."

That's Fisher. She'd forgotten about that bot; last she saw it, it was hanging from the wagon. It must not've registered her command properly - not an infrequent glitch, unfortunately. But if it can see the creature, and it hasn't been petrified...

The replicant uncovers its eyes to the revelation of something Veliky had never seen before. Is this what a basilisk is? No, it can't be, it hasn't turned the clone to stone. In fact, the replicant can't even see clearly if it has eyes at all.

What she sees is a creature not unlike an ant, or perhaps a termite, but it's roughly the size of a wolf. Of course, giant animals aren't that much of an oddity in Charon, but this one sets itself apart. Where insects are normally protected by chitin, this one possesses a coat of fur, patterned like that of a leopard. Its only parts not covered are its yellow antennae and mandibles. It marches brazenly through the gateway, over the rubble of the petrified drake, seemingly oblivious to the hostile presences surrounding it, not even the gargantuan Beist, who stands poised to strike.

Beist is confused. He stood there, ready to strike whatever monster charged through the rubble and tried to attack him, but there was no roar or screech that he had read basilisk made. There was no sound of charging. It was quiet. He wanted to take off his blindfold and look, but it could be a fatal mistake to do so. If the creature just hadn't come through yet, he might make eye contact and be petrified. He didn't know what to do.

"Uh... Is there nothing there? I can't stay this size forever, you know." he called to the others.

He finally decided to be safe and use a magic he had been learning. He sent out some tremors through the earth through his feet, silently mapping the area around him and picking up on the creatures nearby. Once the tremors returned to him, he gained some clarity on the situation.

He removed his blindfold and looked down at the giant ant-like creature. It was clearly not a basilisk or any other creature he knew of that could petrify. He knew a little bit about such a creature. It was a Stonecutter Ant. They're completely harmless as long as you're outside their nest and don't provoke them. They eat stone, so they have no interest in harming living creatures.

He slowly shrank back down to his normal, though still very large, size. His horns returned back from being antlers and his snout shortened back into his face. His legs returned back to their non-digitigrade shape. He slipped his robe back onto his shoulders once his transformation was complete.

"Why, it's just a stonecutter ant. It's harmless as long as you don't provoke it. There's also no other creatures past the rubble of the drake. I believe this one is most likely a scout. It should go back to its colony soon to inform the others of this meal it found. They eat stone, so it was most likely taking a sample bite out of the petrified drake before."

---

Ground Tremors

A laugh escaped Zak’s lips as he caught sight of the supposed monster that came through the pass. It was large, but no petrifying horror. Gray might even be bigger than the creature. He supposed it still could be dangerous, especially if it had any friends.

“I think it’s safe to look,” Zak said, but Beist didn’t seem to hear. The giant stilled for a moment, and then shrank back down to his normal size. Amazing, Zak thought. Not only physically exceptional, but Beist knew things too.

A stonecutter ant, huh? Zak thought, having not heard of such a beast. From the looks of things, the giant furry insect was not a threat, at least not at the moment. The ant’s head was already deep into the remnants of the drake, devouring its meal.

Zak jumped down from his perch and moved to where Beist was standing. “Looks like the ant might just clear the pass for us, eh? If it’s a scout, we need to try to move on quickly then. How much do you think needs clearing to get your wagon through?” Zak looked at the stonecutter ant who was still munching away, and shook his head. “Pretty big sample bite, I’d say.”

The whole spectacle is greatly anticlimactic in the eyes of the disappointed Veliky replicant, who had been created for this exact purpose. What a waste of mana... or maybe not. She can remain for a while longer, after all.

As Zak and Beist are deliberating, the replicant walks to the outward gateway and beckons. Then, over the course of some half a minute, Veliky's company crowds back into the courtyard. The false Veliky briefs the real one, who looks over the scene with perplexity. In fact, even as she listens, she spots something quite odd that the others had not.

Around the insect's neck (or whatever it's called) is a large collar made from brown leather. To be certain, this could mean several things, good or bad.

The true Veliky approaches behind Zak and Beist.

"So, stonecutter ant? Are these things normally domesticated?"

The ant doesn't seem bothered by their conversation over it. It does, in fact, appear about as intelligent as an ant.

"Either way, if you're waiting for it to clear a path big enough for the wagon, then we should scout ahead on foot in the meantime. This thing obviously didn't petrify the drake, so something else did. Eyes low."

Now traversable, the gateway looms with uncertainty. In hindsight, it is almost preferable that some ungodly creature had crawled through. Now, all pretence of preparedness is gone, replaced by nervous anticipation. Veliky stares into the aperture, which leads into a long, ruined hall lined with stairs and arrow slits.

"...Well, at least we have the bots. They'll take point, as will the copy; if they get petrified or eaten, no loss... for you two, at least. I need to pay for them."

But her demeanour changes, her face sinking into a leer as she crosses her arms.

"Anyone want to voice a complaint about that plan?"

Beist walked over to Dora and pulled her makeshift blindfold up, off of her eyes now that there was no apparent danger. As long as there was nothing with petrifying abilities, she should be fine. She could handle one of these ants, and if too many did show up she could fly away. He left the cloak wrapped around her head in case she might need it later.

"Hmph. No complaints this time, since you're not destroying someone else's property without consent. I don't expect a sincere apology from someone so rude, but I'll be expecting repayment for the broken harness." he said to Veliky as he opened the back door of his wagon and went inside to shoo the robotic dog out and grab the sleepy vampire bat hanging from the ceiling. He didn't feel comfortable leaving them here alone while they slept. He held the still sleeping bat up to one of his horns where their claws took a firm grip and they hung down.

After locking the wagon up again, he and Dora walked behind Zack and noted the way they had been able to store the large wolf they'd had with them away safely. He thought maybe he should find something like that for Dora at some point. He looked at the stonecutter ant and also now noticed the collar around its neck. That was odd. He'd never heard of anyone wanting to keep such creatures as pet. He stroked his beard with a hand as he thought about why someone would want one. They'd be difficult to feed anywhere other than a mountain, and even then they don't just eat any rock they find.

"No, stonecutter ants aren't usually domesticated. They'd be very difficult to feed since they have such a unique diet. Believe it or not, they have a refined palate when it comes to stone, they won't just eat any rock they find. That's why it's taking such a large sample bite. It's digging deep into the drake to make sure the stone is consistent all the way through. If this one really is domesticated, which it might be from the collar, that's very odd."

The ant was some kind of pet? What in the hells? Zak thought, confused. Why would this creature have a collar? Zak moved forward to investigate their way through the gateway now that the obstacle had been removed. As he peered into the opening, it was as he remembered from his previous visits. The gateway led to a hallway lined with ominous ancient arrow slits, threatening unseen danger even though Zak knew full well that only long gone ghosts stood behind those walls.

Ghosts might not be a threat at the moment, but whatever had petrified the drake was still a concern. Whether or not he agreed with all of the halfling’s ideas, she at least came up with possible solutions for them to try. Had to appreciate fast thinking in these types of situations.

Sending the bots to lead them through sounded like a solid plan to Zak. “Solid plan, Veliky. I’ll follow behind. Those arrow slits are the least of our problems, I would think. The petrifying creature could be ahead, and perhaps a large group of these stonecutter ants could cause us problems as well.” He paused, scratching his head. “And their master? …so strange, but something we need to be ready for, I suppose.”

Zak looked at his companions, and let out a deep sigh. “Regardless, we should get a move on, eh? Ready?”

"Yes. Lets."

The first few minutes in the fortress proper are relatively uneventful. The architecture, especially the parapets and arrow slits, are reminders that this was a place built for war, that people would've fought and died here. But, being a well-trod path around the mountain, it is not as dilapidated as one might think. That isn't to say that it isn't in dire need of maintenance; and perhaps some decoration, as well; just that it isn't any immediate threat of collapse. It is dark, but the party possesses enough light between them to guide themselves (arguably foremost among these lights is the blast of fire persistently spewing out of the horse-bot's back).

Oddities do become apparent - or, rather, recurrent - as the party proceeds down the ancient hall. There are more statues: men, women, and monsters, not unlike the one outside. As well, more of these stonecutter ants - living ones - can be seen, albeit sparsely, skittering about, ignoring the party and instead chewing through the numerous statues. Their behaviour is strange, especially to Beist, who generally knows how ants normally act; though their movements are swift and steady, their actions are confused, hesitant, in a manner somewhat reminiscent of how ants behave when intoxicated (which isn't as uncommon as one might think). And all of them are wearing collars of the same make.

Then they hear it, echoing down the stone halls, muffled behind the stone walls: speech. Bellowing, boisterous, masculine speech that only grows louder as they proceed. It's coming from just behind a door to the side, from which firelight pours through a crack. The voice is clearer now.

"Yes!" it shouts. "Ha hah! A throne worthy of an emperor. Just you wait, my loyal argonauts; soon, people from across the nation... no, the world, shall travel to this hall to bear witness to my glory!" There's something strange about the voice. It's perfect, clear, unnaturally so.

The Veliklicant eyes the door with concern and perplexity. Who else could possibly be here? Presumably, a person should be more friendly than whatever caused the petrification of all those creatures, but Veliky takes no risks.

"Stalker, scout that room, but don't enter."

In fearless obeisance, the spider-bot produces a beep of recognition, then, with high-pitched, but quiet hissing noises, it crawls to the crack in the door and peers through.

What lies beyond is what used to be a dining hall. A long, decrepit table stands forefront and centre, and torn, red banners line the walls. At the opposing end of the table is a huge, ramshackle throne built from ruined furniture. But it's the room's inhabitants that are most eye-drawing.

Approximately half a dozen stonecutter ants are standing still (a highly unusual behaviour) around a tall and incredibly built man with long, white hair and a matching beard. He wears a form-fitting cuirass with musculature carved into its plate, but his well-muscled arms and calves are exposed. In one hand, he wields a trident of gold (in colour, likely not in make). In the other, he wields something far more unusual: a severed head with snakes for hair, by which he carries it.

The warriorly man turns around, and Stalker can see his eyes clearly. They glow of the purest white seen only in clouds. But so too does Stalker meet the eyes of the gorgon's severed head... and turns to stone in front of the party.

Veliky's clone looks back to Zak, Beist and the true Veliky.

"...I think we just found whatever's been doing this."

Beist watched the mechanical spider transform into stone right in front of him. He wasn't entirely shocked to see it happen, but he was surprised to hear a man's voice coming from the room. Was the one who did it a Gorgon? Did that mean they had spotted the spider, since they needed to make eye contact to do such a thing to it? They could be coming through that door any moment now. He lowered the blindfold over Dora's eyes again and listened with his eyes closed. He didn't hear any footsteps coming from beyond the door, just the continued sound of laughing. Were they not coming?

"Well, it's not a basilisk or a cockatrice, since neither of those can speak or tame other animals. Our enemy must be a Gorgon, then. A bit of a shame, since I was looking forward to acquiring some basilisk venom..." He whispered to the others, mumbling the last part a bit. He really did want some basilisk venom, but this was an opportunity as well. He'd never met a Gorgon before and was interested. They might even be willing to talk, though they did seem a bit eccentric. No, he sounded downright crazy.

"Do either of you believe he would be open to a civilized discussion, or does he sounds a bit mad to anyone else?"

As they traversed the well traveled path through the fortress, Zak became increasingly concerned. Statues in the same state as the drake stood silent along the way, sending a clear message that the culprit who did the deed was likely to be nearby. Confused stonecutter ants scurried about from statue to statue, feeding upon the stone remains, and every last one of them wore a collar.

“Careful,” he murmured to his companions. Before he could say anything more, a voice could be heard up ahead, yelling about a throne and anticipated glory. Veliky as per usual took control and sent her spider-bot Stalker in ahead of them. Thank the gods she did because poor Stalker turned to stone right before their eyes.

Damn, Zak cursed under his breath. In that room was a crazy creature that could petrify an individual with just a look. “I doubt a civilized conversation will get us anywhere. He sure doesn’t sound sane to me. Besides, those statues we just passed made it quite clear what’s in store for anyone who intrudes. How in the hells do you deal with a foe you can’t look at? I mean, sacrificing more of your bots, Veliky, won’t give us any help at this point. We’ll still have to face this dude to take him out.”

Zak frowned, a lone idea forming in his mind. “How about we lure him out here somehow? Then we might be able to ambush him from each side without making any direct eye contact. What do you think?”

"I think that's an excellent plan." The fact that Veliky delivers compliments and derogations with the same cadence makes it difficult to gauge her candidness. "And I have just the means."

Is this the real Veliky, or the fake one? It's difficult to tell at this point, and it's about to become even more confusing. One of them snaps their fingers, and a third Veliky^[1] pops into existence. The clone needs no instruction - it already knows what's going on - but it addresses Zak and Beist.

"Two birds, one stone. I'll go in and try to talk him down. If that goes badly, I'll lure him out here and we'll ambush him. I'll be immune to the petrification on account of not being real."

It soundlessly stretches its fingers. With all the confidence of an illusion with no capacity for physical pain, the clone strolls into the room.

"Tell me, Calais! Should the banners be white or gold?" he asks an ant. No response.

The Veliky-clone stands near the door, hands clasped behind her back. After several seconds, the statuesque figure has yet to notice her. To a degree, the clone is mentally unattuned from what it's seeing, as it knows that information means little to the true Veliky. Still, it's certainly a bizarre sight. His equipment is of a make Veliky's never seen before, and he doesn't look like he'd be from Zeinav or the Mesa. Could he be from overseas? The glowing eyes are also highly unusual, but Veliky has seen stranger.

One thing the clone can tell for certain that the gorgon's head appears to be the source of the petrification.

"Both! Ha-hah! A brilliant idea!" The man, who bears the aura of a mythical figure, raises his arms triumphantly. Is he... okay? Mentally? Maybe they should just leave him alone. But, then, he's proven himself to be a danger on the road.

...Either way, that he hasn't noticed the clone yet is becoming slightly absurd.

"Ahem."

He instantly wheels around to face the slight intruder. His malicious intent is made clear by his first reaction: to hold the gorgon's head high, its eyes piercing the clone's. But, of course, nothing happens.

"What?!" he shouts. "What sorcerous wretch have the Fates conscripted against me today?! Begone, foul servant of Phorcides!"

Phorcides? That's a strange name. Definitely foreign.

"Well, I don't know who Phorcides is, but I'm afraid being gone isn't an option. May I ask who you are, and if you legally own this fortress?"

The self-proclaimed lord's eyes flare in anger. His hair seems to rise of its own, like it were floating in water.

"You dare to intrude upon the house of Hekton, Son of Heracles, and you know not its master?!"

"Right, well, returning to my question of legal ownership..."

Obviously not willing to engage in any more conversation, Hekton grabs the longtable with one hand and flings it at the spectral clone. Of course, it passes right through, dealing no damage, but crashes into the wall behind. The old, brittle wall crumbles, raining bricks atop the heads of Rook and Bishop and crushing Vampire outright. The light of the dining hall pours into the hall outside, illuminating several more intruders.

"What?! Invasion! Argonauts, these foes are beyond you. I shall destroy them myself!"

He raises the severed head again, petrifying Rook and Bishop instantly! The rest of the party are lucky to still be behind cover, out of the head's sight - and to have it outside of their's. The clone quickly scampers into the hall through the newly-created aperture, reporting its findings in a rush.

"Crazy guy, carrying a head with snakes for hair, strong as damn giant, run!"

---

1. Clone Self

Beist is standing in the hall, waiting for the Veliky duplicate, or Veliky triplicate, to come back and announce the man's intentions. Whether he wanted to talk or to fight. What he wasn't expecting was for the wall ahead of him to suddenly erupt, sending stone and dust everywhere. He coughed and closed his eyes, waving the dust away from his face. When he finally could see again, the two mechanical servants that had been there were replaced by stone statues. Well, this certainly wasn't good. He had also heard the Veliky triplicate's return and shout of what exactly they were all facing. It certainly seemed the man was not willing to talk.

He was carrying a head with snakes for hair? He didn't just have snakes for hair? That was odd. So the man wasn't a Gorgon himself, but had the head of one. Beist felt sorry for whoever that Gorgon was. Maybe they would have been willing to talk. His throat still a bit rough from all the stone dust, he began to back away, also motioning Dora to back up as well. He gently plucked Bull from his horn and placed his on Dora's back.

"Dora, go back. It's too dangerous here. Keep your eyes closed once you're out there, and don't look back." he said.

The Griffon turned around and headed back out into the courtyard. She should be safe out there. Now, Beist just had to worry about the other two people with him. He looked to make sure neither of them were buried in any of the rubble, intending to help them out if they were. Once they were safe, they could all get out of this hall and back to the courtyard.

Zak waited impatiently for Veliky’s clone and minions to move in and scout out the situation. House of Hekton? Son of Heracles? Foul servant of Phorcides? …these words meant nothing to Zak.

A loud crash boomed as one of the walls cracked and broke apart before his eyes. Was that a table jutting out of the newly formed opening? Veliky’s minions had not fared well from the onslaught. Her clone rushed out of the opening, yelling about some kind of snake covered head that they should run away from?

Run? No way Zak was going to flee. A miscreant this powerful needed to be stopped before causing any more chaos and death. The pass was too important of a gateway to the mountain summit to allow this madness to continue. Both the sorcerer and that gorgon head needed to be destroyed.

“Be ready,” Zak quietly told his companions, making a quick decision to make another attempt to lure Hekton into the hallway.

“Enough,” Zak yelled, waving his hand at the battered table littering the doorway⁽¹⁾. The table began to move, righting itself and catapulting back into the dining hall. It was probably too much to ask for it to hit anything, but it might be a bit intimidating and confusing.

“Hiding behind your underlings, eh? Your pitiful Argonauts. Are you a coward? Come out here and meet your doom,” Zak taunted with a confrontational sneer evident in his voice. Zak concentrated and sent a message directly into the madman’s mind⁽²⁾, hoping to unsettle him and cause him to behave impulsively. “Coward. Come out here and face me. Coward.”

Zak found a position away from both the doorway and the newly destroyed wall so that he wasn’t in direct eye sight if or when Hekton came through the door with his pet head.

---

(1) Telekinesis
(2) Message