Chapter 4 - Into the Shadows

After multiple successful adventures with Liza and Cosmo, our heroes reach The Hive and battle the great Phantom King. However, their work is far from over. Cosmo quickly begins preparing for another mission. Meanwhile, Greely continues his studies on the phantoms, and things take a turn for the worse.

Our heroes arrive with Cosmo to a gloomy scene in front of a dark tower. It’s raining phantom sludge, and it’s causing plants to become corrupted. Cosmo explains that the tower was built by the Alphas as a defense against the phantoms, but that now it’s been taken over and turned into a dungeon by the enemy. With the front door locked, Cosmo proposes that the heroes get captured on purpose, escape the dungeon, rescue any trapped prisoners, and then explore to learn the phantom’s secrets. The heroes agree to the plan, and approach the tower while Cosmo leaves to investigate where the sludge is coming from, and heal the nearby plants.

The heroes make a scene outside, and are quickly captured and thrown into a cell in the dungeon. Through a gap in the wall, the heroes are able to speak with another prisoner. They inform the heroes that their friend Andy used to stay in the cell, and that he found a switch that opened a secret door. The heroes find the switch the other prisoner speaks of, which opens the door as promised. It leads to cave tunnel they travel through.

As the heroes travel upwards, they dodge Phantom Watchers, solve light and mirror puzzles, and battle phantoms. Floor by floor they slowly climb, conquering each and every challenge the phantoms had set up. Finally, they reach the seventh floor, and approach the balcony. There, they are greeted by none other than Greely. He berates the heroes for putting themselves into danger, but is surprised that they managed to reach the top of the tower. His words are cut short, though, when the world shakes.

The heroes take the parachutes and make their escape by jumping off the edge of the tower. After landing, they meet up with Cosmo once more, who has also made the same discovery: The phantoms are using the volcano to rain sludge upon Jamaa. The heroes then immediately tell Cosmo about Greely’s secret, and head off to the volcano. If it were to erupt, Jamaa would be completely destroyed.

The heroes make their way to the base of the volcano with Cosmo just in time. The earth shakes as the volcano is on the verge of erupting. Cosmo informs the group that Graham is already waiting for them at the top, and needs their help. The heroes begin their trek up the side of the snowy mountain. The path is heavily guarded by the phantoms and phantom watchers. All the while, flaming falling phantoms rain down on the heroes. As the heroes climb, the snow melts from the lava breaking through the surface. One by one the phantoms are taken out by boomseeds, and our protagonists reach the top. There, they meet their fourth alpha: Graham.

Graham greets the group, glad to see they’ve survived the climb. He explains that the phantoms have corrupted the volcano from the inside out, but that he happened to find a secret entrance they can use to get inside.. He also gives the heroes a gear. Phantoms have stolen Graham’s spotbrights, an invention of his, and hidden them away. Spotbrights generate light and are excellent phantom fighting tools, but the phantoms have broken them and they’ll need to be repaired. Graham leaves the heroes with an inspiring message, and the group enters the volcano.

Inside the mountain, the group journeys through a dark cave until they find themselves in front of a giant door. Same as the one inside The Hive, it requires four lava crystals to open. The heroes split up to solve spotbright light puzzles, blow up phantoms, and retrieve each crystal. The phantoms have set up an elaborate pipe and walkway network, which pours phantom sludge into the lava pools surrounding the stone islands the heroes must walk along. They’re able to plug up the pipes, but extensive damage to the lava has already been done.

Once the four lava crystals are put in place, the door opens to a walkway to the next island… a dangerous metal bridge over lava. Suddenly, the heroes are ambushed on both sides! But they persevere, and climb up to the ridge of the volcano.

The heroes travel along the outer ridge, looking over Jamaa Township while phantoms fly out of the depth of the volcano.

Heading back inside, the group discover an interesting secret passage leading to Greely’s study. Bookshelves stocked to the brim, a chalkboard full of notes, and a desk.

The heroes continue onward in the final stretch towards the center of the volcano, solving puzzles, plugging up phantom pipes, and destroying phantom sprouters. The path is dangerous, going around the edges of cliffs and on the top of scaffolding. They travel down to the lava’s surface, leaping across stones melting into the magma. Finally, they come face to face with a giant stone door in the shape of the wolf. As expected, a certain wolf of note appears outside.

Greely is furious to see the heroes, believing he had everything under control before they arrived. The wolf alpha explains that as soon as he found out about the volcano, he did everything he could to keep it from erupting. But now that the Phantom King has been alerted to the animal’s presence, the eruption has been sped up. Greely reluctantly asks the group to keep the phantom king busy while he focuses on stopping the eruption. As asked, the heroes step through the door to the arena.

The group finds themselves in a situation not dissimilar to one they’ve been in before: On a small rocky island in the middle of a lake of lava. The Phantom King’s strategy is mostly unchanged. He attempts to slam down onto the heroes, stunning himself, which the heroes exploit to drop boomseeds on him. This time, however, flaming phantoms rain onto the island. The battle is long, but since the Phantom King hasn’t adapted, the heroes triumph and force him to retreat after many boomseed blasts. Greely then reappears with news…

The group exits the arena to find the volcano falling apart. They run across fallen pipes back towards the exit, passing by the remains of previously solved puzzles. Thankfully, the heroes are able to escape by walking along a pipe leading to the outside world.

Once outside, the heroes look up to the sky and see a blazing inferno. The pillar of fire stretches high into the sky, but then… it stops. The fire takes on a dark purple hue, and the pillar shatters and crashes back down into the core of the mountain.

The heroes meet up with Liza, Cosmo, and Graham in a snowy field at the base of the mountain. The alphas are glad to see that the team survived. But… the group is unsure of what happened to Greely. If he hadn’t stayed behind, the entirety of Jamaa would have been destroyed. Yet the hero was not there to be congratulated. Nobody knew how Greely would be able to make it out in time, or where he could be now.

The alpha of the wolves could be gone forever…

After the dust settled at the volcano, Graham assembled a monkey search team to try and figure out what happened to Greely. The heroes arrive inside the volcano mid-search and are greeted by Graham, who explains the situation. The group passes by the wolf gate they previously saw before their battle with the phantom king, now collapsed into a pit and corrupted by phantom energy.

Ascending up the side of the volcano, members of the search team have found pages of Greely’s journals scattered about. Each page is accompanied by a symbol, as well as snippets of Greely’s research.

“None of the other Alphas suspect a thing."

“After I meet with the phantoms tomorrow, my plan will be underway.”

“I’ve done it! I now have the power to travel through the phantom portals!”

The heroes arrive with Graham in Greely’s study. The entire place has been torn to pieces. Books and their pages are scattered on the floor, and the furniture is falling apart. Graham remarks that Greely used to always disappear for long periods of time, with none of the other alphas knowing where he was. Now, he realizes, Greely must have been coming to the hideout they now stood in. Graham also discusses the contents of the journal entries with the heroes. He fears that Greely may have been working with the phantoms, as much as he doesn’t want to believe that to be the case. The group turns their attention to a large door with a combination lock at the back of the room, unsealing it with the three symbols from the journal entries. The door opens, revealing a tunnel deeper into the volcano.

Traveling through, the heroes and Graham find that this area of the volcano is fairly intact. They come across a strange machine made by Greely, as well as his tools. The machine lacks a power source, but otherwise consists of a few faucets with a drain underneath. After crossing a bridge over lava, they find a room with the well-hidden phantom portal that Greely was using to communicate with phantoms. Graham notices an extra phantom crystal, but is unsure of its purpose. The heroes deduce that the crystal could be used to power the machine outside, based on the drawings near it. After inserting the crystal, phantom goop begins to pour out of the faucets. The heroes step into the goop shower, and find their appearance change to that of a phantom. It turns out to be a disguise machine.

Graham is taken by surprise by the heroes approaching him in their disguises, but is impressed by Greely’s invention. He figures that Greely disguised himself as a phantom and escaped the eruption by going through the phantom portal. He’s unsure what is on the other side of the portal, but asks the group to head in to look for Greely now that they’re disguised. Before he leaves to explain their discovery to the other Alphas, he warns the heroes of Greely’s power, and to be extra cautious if he actually is working with the phantoms.

The group enters the phantom portal and find themselves inside a strange phantom cave called the Phantom Vortex. Almost immediately their phantom disguises wear off, throwing away the stealth option. After breaking through a few phantom pods in a tight corridor, the heroes enter a truly massive cavern. The floor is a deep purple with jagged spiral markings, and phantom thorns creeping around the rocky walls. Glowing green phantom slime is being poured from pipes at the edge of the room into the center, all flowing into a massive hole in the ground. Finally, suspended above the bottomless pit in the center of the room is a crystal cage containing none other than… Greely! Within the wolf Alpha sits near motionless. He doesn’t even try and communicate with the others. The hanging, locked cage is connected to four chains that are locked to the ground as well. It becomes immediately clear that the group will have to search the Phantom Vortex for the five needed keys.

Four of the five keys are hidden deep within the vortex, each one surrounded by all manner of dangers. The heroes make their way through the trials, dodging watchers, destroying pods and sprouters, encountering phantoms, and detonating plenty of paintseeds. Along the way, they discover something they definitely weren’t meant to see. On a wall of the vortex is a series of six wanted posters, one for each of the Alphas. Greely’s, of course, is marked off as complete. That wouldn’t be the case for long, hopefully, as one by one each of the chains on Greely’s cage are detached.

The final chain breaks, making it the time to figure out where the fifth key to the cage could be. However, before the group could have a moment to think, sirens start to blare across the central chamber. Gates blocking in the heroes rose from the ground and a dark shadow descends upon them from above. The brave adventurers are confronted by not one, but two phantom kings! The invading animals finally caught the attention of the superior phantoms, and now they intend on ensuring the group pays the price.

An intense battle breaks out between the two kings and the heroes. Electricity crackles through the dark aura of the vortex as the kings slam into the ground with all their might. They call upon their subjects, and the obeying phantoms come in droves. Although the heroes became surrounded on all fronts, they manage to find openings in the king’s attacks. They drop countless boomseeds on the invading hoard, and expertly dodge the strikes of the dark army. Finally, after an epic and explosive campaign, the kings retreat. On the way out, one of them thankfully drops the key the heroes seek.

The key is inserted into the lock, shattering the crystal prison and freeing Greely.

And with that, Greely and the group head back towards the portal. Once they arrive, they realize there’s a slight problem. The portal won’t function without phantoms nearby, and the disguise machine is on the other side. It seems that they may be trapped within the Phantom Vortex for who knows how long. Thankfully, as if right on cue, the portal turns a familiar bright green as Graham, Liza, and Cosmo arrive. They’re taken by surprise, not expecting to immediately confront Greely. Cosmo in particular tells the wolf Alpha he better start explaining himself quickly.

Greely understands their concern, but assures the group that this entire situation happened for good reason. He tells them that for a long time he believed that the phantoms were beings of corruption and chaos. He thought that there was no order behind their efforts at all. That was until he began to hear word of a place where thousands of phantoms are created daily; and that that was where the phantom leaders gathered. That location is known as the phantom fortress. Cosmo immediately dismisses the idea, saying that everyone knows the phantom fortress is a silly myth.

Greely was prepared for that response, however. He admits he would have agreed with Cosmo up until very recently, but that he found something to prove its existence, which he shows to everyone: The Phantom Fortress Beacon. The device reveals the location of the fortress to whoever holds it. Graham is fascinated by the discovery, but questions Greely further. He asks why Greely had a disguise machine and phantom portal in his hideout. Greely replies that his plan was to come to the Phantom Vortex in search of the beacon. He had hoped he could snatch it and leave without a trace, but he was caught and imprisoned. He thanks the heroes and the rest of the Alphas for coming to save him, and admits he is in debt to them.

The group talk amongst themselves a while longer, and the heroes quickly catch up with the other Alphas. Cosmo congratulates the bunch on battling two phantom kings at once. Graham is interested in how Greely was able to make his disguise machine. Liza recalls the stories she has heard about the Phantom Fortress. The Alpha’s work is nowhere near done, and there are many preparations to be made if they wish to head to the dreaded Phantom Fortress.