The Endless Houses

The Quarter-Ling avatar looks up from the ground ready to cut the fishing line, but Kozue manages to calm the confused creature down. He can’t remember his name or how he had acquired the runes on his body. Kozue takes him in, feeds him and starts to study the strange symbols. There is a map tattooed on his back and words scratched into his skin: “Find Soba” on his shoulder and “Mother Silicon” next to a building on the map. She identifies one of the symbols, a triangle marked “Sky”, that signifies a portal to the fast stars.

Beyond the Dead Bridge lays endless ruinland, a mind-numbing grid of abandoned houses strangles by slow-ivy. Glowing figures lurk in the shadows. They make camp in a surprisingly well preserved high rise. Naida scouts the surroundings and spots a group of silk veiled nomads with their velblood camels. Sherman befriends them with the rest of his rabbit monkey stew. Naida buys a batch of their spider silk.

Kozue prepares a ritual to help the Quarter-Ling avatar recalling his name and trace back his memories. She carves a network of grooves into the ground leading to a placeholder of the avatar's name. She then cuts into a vein on his arm. When the blood finds its way through the maze the mechanical eyes of the avatar light up and Teredo mutters: “I need to go to the Dark Hospital”. Drained from the power of the reversed augury Kozue falls to the ground, lifeless and without a heartbeat only to be revived by Naida. However Teredo turns around and flees when Sami Zivani, the Ultra, steps forward and asks him to take her to the Dark Hospital.

They travel for a week and finally reach the Fools Wall, a radiation blast berm of earth, sand and dead dryland coral that marks the edge of the Last Camp. Inside of the Dwarven autowagon N’Keth hears the warning sound of a hidden meter reading: “Electro-magnificent Radiation”