The Story of the Four

From Caelwiki

Transcribed from inside the vault

L'Ouie: Optico! Wake up, I see someone!

Player: !!!

Optico: Speak up stranger, let me hear you.

Player: Umm...Wha?

Optico: Wha to you too stranger, We are the builders of this land. I am Optico, the brains. I envisioned this city and everything within its walls.

L'Ouie: What? What balls?

Optico: And this is L'Ouie, the artist. He drew every plan for every wall of every building.

L'Ouie: Filling? No, I like my cake plain, thanks!

Muter: ...

Optico: And my silent friend to my right is Muter, the brawn. He carved every stone of every path of every room.

Optico: We are the brothers, the creators of this land. We are three, and with The Eternal, we are the Four.

The Four: Our Story begins before the time of this world was written, during the days of the first age...

The Four: We were researchers for the king of Ilduran, one an expert in masonry, the other in scripture, the third in decoration and the final in entertainment.

The Four: Our combined talents made us quite famous in our world, but fame is pointless in an era of destruction.

The Four: The day came when it arrived. It took the form of a young boy. It walked our lands looking for signs. One single sign that would show it that it was time.

The Four: And when the time came. It grew. It took the form of a shapeless being, a mass without weight, yet with enough to crush those beneath it.

The Four: We the four acted quickly, and focused our energies on a mutal task. Building a haven from this evil. We were not the only ones to do this.

The Four: A draconic species older than us yet at the time more primitive, found a way to isolate themselves from its grasp. We tried to our best to replicate what they had done...

The Four: but they would not give us the missing link to their technique. Even so, we tried our best. We built this city and everything in it, piece by piece on a clearing near the Gulf.

The Four: Where the green men had built theirs grounded with roots, we made ours float. We lifted from the ground and rose above the trees, where we could see all and hear all.

The Four: We watched in horror as it swept across the land, turning all it touched to black. People ran, and it would chase, at times faster than light, yet before striking, slower than mud.

The Four: It fed on the screams of his victims, as it was inches away from them, then absorbed them in when it had taken what it wanted.

Optico: The sights I saw were so intense, that one eye jumped right out of my head and ran away. The other glazed over to shield itself.

L'Ouie: The screams I heard were so loud, that I tore my own ears off to block out the sounds.

Optico: Trying to prove he was stronger than it, our brother Muter resisted the temptations to rid himself of his senses and never looked away.

Optico: Finally, when his mind could take no more, he broke into a chilling scream, lasting the next twenty years. Only after we sewed his mouth shut did we finally get rest.

The Four: Our brother, The Eternal took minor physical punishments from all this, but his fate was worst. When it finally ate all below us, it climbed.

The Four: It rose above our walls and crept through the floors. Finally, it stopped in front of our brother, and formed a face in its mass to speak to him.

The Four: It gave him eternal life. A curse on his soul. He was to guard a special gift given to him by it, in exchange for eternity.

The Four: This gift was sealed in this safe, and would stay here as long as our brother had the will to guard it. If he should ever fail his task, the gift would begin to count.

The Four: We do not know what the count is for, could it be to begin the end of our brother's life? Or to signal the return of the shapeless mass? We do not know...

The Four: ...and this is a question which has tormented our brother for ages. As we grew old and died, he continued on with his task of protecting this safe.

The Four: Finally, he has given up, and you have opened the thing which he has devoted his entire life to. He may now rest as we have, but the task is now on your shoulders.

The Four: The torment is now in your mind, the mystery of the ticking clock. You may choose to ignore it or not, but the countdown has begun.