Vitreous Orange has lost contact with his polybodies and is feeling a little out of sorts. Renko puts the headdress back on and finds that there is actually a comments section - they are able to write comments to their companions in the comments of the game, and communicate that way. They are still unsure if they are in a virtual world, or a real world with their original one being the facsimile. Eventually they compare notes about the meteor striking the Earth and decide that, matrix or not, they are in the same level of reality as each other at least.
The adventurers left on the moon are unwilling to travel instantly to the Spectrum City via the headsets as they will lose their gear and treasure. So Sissy and the remaining Vitreous polybodies and the King, stepping up now the Renko is absent, decide to work together to get the crystal power walkers to the surface.
They manage to get them up to the surface of the moon, but as they have inadvertantly shifted the moon it is looking much harder to transfer them to the surface of the Grasslands. Vitreous' two other polybodies buy a complicated pulley system and they attempt to rig it up to move the large power walkers. They attach one end to a rock on the moon and the other to a stout tree stump in the swamp. Miraculously, it works! Both exoskeletons are carefully shifted down and the adventurers clamber down after them, glad to leave the moon behind.
Counting their loot, they go to find Life-Is-A-Game and tell her that they could not find her friend in the moon. Orca Malificent, the Ultra possessing the body of Dante Thunderstone , pleads with her to tell them the location of the sky key. He tells them that the meteor was the first sign and there will be others. She relents, and finally admits that she doesn't actually know where a sky key is. She lied to try to get them to help her. Orca wonders if he should get revenge but instead they decide to grab their loot and travel with all haste to catch up with their companions in the Spectrum Palace.
As they travel Renko and Vitreous party and debauch themselves to pass the time. Vitreous finds himself sold into a pit fighting gang, but manages to escape. Renko makes friends among the Satraps (as much as anyone can befriend strange alien spacesuited figures). They learn of the Temple of th eWelcoming Eye, in the centre of the Palace compound, and Renko uses his connections to wrangle an invitation - at a cost of $500.
Meanwhile the King leads the others to the Spectrum Palace. He manages to use ancient codewords to decommission an enormous and ancient robot half buried in the wastes that tried to come alive and destroy them. But otherwise their journey was uneventful.
The group is reunited, pleased that they are in the same reality. Renko sells another of his famous returning brooches, and Sissy befriends a local merchant by the name of Boderic.
They ask around and find an excellent lead that there is a sky key that can be found in the Dark Light Path beyond the Ivory Plains. This is the last sky key they need. They immediately cash out and buy supplies for the long journey westwards.
On the trail, the grasslands give way to dry pale earth. On their fourth day of travel, they come across a large group of rotted zombies, dancing continually in a circle. Sissy shouts insults at them and, roused by the sight of warm flesh, they break their dance and rush towards the caravan. They quickly decide that the best thing to do is flee, and they leave one of the ponies behind to cover them - the undead fall apon the poor creature and they are able to get away.
In the Ivory Plain Renko unfortunately is infected with a lung fungus - it is not fatal but he has an incurable and persistent cough that reduces his endurance. The plain falls away to the endless paths and gullies of the Dark Light path. They descend into the calderas and steaming chasms and come across an encampment of Quarterlings. They greet the party warmly, and announce that they have been given visions and have been waiting for them to give them their final directions. They say that the Dead Eye of the Blue god keeps the key, in the nexus of cables, 4 days hence. The caravan worries about their supplies but their final quest is so close they decide to head off immediately.
After avoiding many cloud-herds of chemovores they come across a great chasm in the side of a gulley, with many cables and wires running to and fro. Inside is a great pit, and they see many pale worms writhing amongst the wires and cables. They manage to create a diversion and enter the tunnel without encountering the worms, and find themselves at the pit - they see a cable car dangling from the edge, and an enormous god like churning black void at the centre of the pit. The void addresses them, introducing itself as the Blue god, and says it will help them but they must each give up a dream. They discuss and agree to do so. They seem to have little choice.
Renko gives up his dream of ever becoming a proper magic user and graduating. Sissy gives up his dreams of becoming a super cool assassin. Vitreous gives up his dreams of being rich.
Renko then gives up his soul - and in return the Blue God directs them to the cable car - they manage to work the controls and bring the cable car up, and inside they find several mummified people - it looks like their minds are connected to some sort of device which they activate and it turns out to be an encyclopedia of the world long gone. They quickly find the files on the sky keys - and they follow the instructions to learn the last one. The encyclopedia entry goes on to say that the keys are used to bring the great sky elevator down and they must be used at the short of the Black Ocean in the Black city.
They clamber out of the pit and return to the quarterling encampment, almost entirely out of supplies. They manage to trade for two weeks of supplies to keep them from starving, and set off immediately for the Black city, via the Forest of Meat, where they hope they can get some more food. I mean, if they can't find a square meal in the forest of meat, where can they? As they set off they discuss trees laden with juicy steaks and roasted chickens...
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