Auric Hulk

Introduction:

The Auric Hulk can be seen from miles and miles away, as the first thing you'll notice is the massive Lighthouse spreading a red foglight out through the mist at the base of the Aurorren Highlands. Stepping out of the Capital City, you'll be able to see this light as it guides you through the grasslands towards home. Crossing those hills, you'll start to see the mountain become fuller, small dark spires with glowing lights giving the imprint of lattice against the black of the mountainside. Your horse takes a road through a thick forest, and for about an hour of riding, you finally clear through it, revealing you are standing on a large hill extending down into a valley. Beginning at the base of the valley, the road becomes cobblestone, and consumed by a mass of metal buildings. The buildings cluster together, and dots of people are seen walking between them, laundry hanging from wires, and rusted lightpoles jutting out of the metal shacks, giving a soft illumination to the night that's left. The sun is burning orange on the horizon and the first hints of daylight give your road the much needed glower you need to begin to see the finer details of the Auric Hulk just beyond the thousands of houses.

The Auric Hulk itself is a flayed and dismembered ship, curved and long, bulky and tall, with it's insides spilling out in the form of tall buildings. Several different layers can be seen as sunlight glints off the steel railing, the various decks jutting out with guardsmen seen as just hazy dots on patrol across it. The entire ship is slowly being taken over by trees that stand around majestically on the top back of the deck. The massive red foglight seen hours earlier is a towering metal cobbled together antennae that stretches up off the ship like a leafless tree. At the very top is a misty red orb that rivals the sun in magnificence. Large magical constructs are seen floating around, buzzing like bees around the ship, grabbing weak pieces of metal and flying down to a scrap-yard. Some of them seem like they're made of wood, floating around the top of the ship and are removing tree branches, or are seen cutting away debris from the trees growing atop it.

Your eyes are interrupted gazing at the hulk when you notice the metal shacks have gotten much closer. People, humans mostly, are opening their garage doors for the morning. Each one holds a unique history to it, and you stop and stare at the junk people have collected. One older gentleman is brushing out the dust of a woodworking shop, behind him are massive blackened logs, and many different sawblades. Another tan woman's shop shows her fascination with bullet casings, and she sits at a table surrounded by shells and gunpowder, sipping a large Beer mug and eating a sandwich. The road has become a soft concrete and the houses become more and more elaborate in design, with multiple tiers and various scrap-parts connecting the city buildings. It is clear that this city was built out of the remains of the large ship itself. After a few minutes of navigating the streets, avoiding the traffic of carts holding scrap-metal and materials being pulled around the various drives, you make it to a large fence.

Beyond the fence is a large stretch of dirt between you and the hulk, where armored guards can be seen nodding off at the watchtower, holding onto cheap looking rifles that look twice over repaired. You find your way to the fencegate and a young boy jumps out of a small house to greet you. He notices your insignia on your jerkin and leaps back into the small shack, where you can see him step over a sleeping old man to pull a lever, which quietly clanks the gate open. After tying your horse aside, you begin walking further in. Gazing up at the hulk again, you notice that vines have started to twine down the sides of the deck, sneaking into ripped away holes in the ship. the entirety of the Auric Hulk towers above you, hiding the mountainside as you walk into the peeled away hole. The grounds are becoming alive with people, walking from room to room carrying tools in their hands. You get a chance to peak into these rooms, where one man is seen organizing large metal arms on a table. They look lifelike, and there are wires poking out of them leading to somewhere unseen. You walk into a large foyer, a circle room with lights that spread all around it in a pattern. It's large enough to fit a dragon or two in here, with multiple tiers rising up from the center and out towards the top. Spiral Stairs lead your eyes from one floor of people moving carts of fibers around, to the next where two guards are pointing down at something, holding guns at their hips, their eyes hidden by the darkness between the plates of armor. You notice the architecture here is woven into the rock, rather than carving around it.

You step lightly as every-now and then, your foot gives way almost through the sinking of the twisted metal. The ship will probably never be operational again, and it's framework is being carefully taken apart, which becomes weirdly obvious as you notice holes in the floors staring down to the previous levels. You round your way up to the very top of the ship, where the tree roots have started to grasp and take pieces of steel with it. You had to pass through a security checkpoint, talked to a wizard about some technology, and flashed your insignia which granted you access to the command deck. At the base of the Antenna controls, wrapped in wood, is a dark and mysterious door closed shut by vines. Hardly anyone stands around up here, and there is only a flood-light glowing dimly in the corner, where a softly buzzing wooden construct is laying on a table.

The vines pull away the stones making a doorway, and from inside you see a Silver Creature on a background of meshed technology. Your eyes are fixated on this tall Silver Humanoid as it steps out of the mysterious black room. It is Teravis himself, Leader of the Auric Hulk to which society springs forth from his efforts throughout the hundreds of years he's existed. His armor is rigid and beautiful, with two dark holes illuminated by a purple light where his face would be. All along his right arm is a wooden shield built into his armor, covered in a green and pink light that seems to fade and glow at random. Several smaller jewels are built into wood, with veins of electricity running up it. This is the legendary Phantagris 2, to which Teravis claims his most recent advancement in the merger of nature and science.

His voice is warm and tired, it reminds you of a hard days work. You remember historians saying that Teravis is nearly 500 years old, and that he's survived this long protecting civilians from the first tribe of humans. He walks passed you, and you see the vines replacing the stones in the doorway, the weird glow of the room fading as he walks down. Everywhere he goes, everyone cheerfully greets him, with several wizards seeking his approval of their latest experiments. You follow him around silently, and every now and then when he's inspecting some new invention, he glances back at you to smile, as if seeking your approval as well. Further on and up, you walk out onto the deck of the ship where several guards raise a greeting to Teravis. From the side of the deck you can see a good portion of not just the valley, but the Capital City as well as the Grassland Cities, and the desert peaks. Far off in the distance you see a dragon carrying a weight of goods in a large sack on it's stomach. Teravis raises his hands out to the public, and several people clap at him, though most people are busy with their tooling and repairing. He remarks this is tradition, but he would rather they be invested than serve him. Turning, he starts to walk up a ramp towards the crawling vines and canopy forest that lives on the back of the ship. after several minutes of following, he stops as a large platform once used to launch ships, now overgrown in moss. A Massive Copper Dragon waits to commune with Teravis, and the two share jokes about the previous week, before settling on business. Move goods here, direct guards there, see to the transport of these things, all very routine; and the Copper Dragon takes flight back up to his mountainside mansion. Teravis invites you in for breakfast, and hands you a flask of water, though doesn't eat or drink anything himself. He spends the next 20 minutes while you eat performing parlor tricks and common magic, small acts to entertain you. He acts like a childless father, eager to make you smile.

History: