Chapter Twelve: Sins of the Callans
Written by Ethan
Danvers was pleasantly surprised that the transformation from human to Nemarus was more uncomfortable than painful, considering the rapid rate at which the change had occurred. He’d barely taken a sip of the abyssal nectar before a feeling of lethargy overtook him, followed by a blurred vision rich in color that swirled like oil in water. Soon after, he felt a series of tugs reminiscent of having his body stretched by a physician, and then slowly came to with Adan standing over him, a stoic nod indicating success.
He understood that at one time, the transformation was a rite of passage as opposed to a means to an end. In those previous transformations, the anointed felt every bit of the process, and their survival was not guaranteed.
Adan must have known better than to subject the old fisherman to such an ordeal, and had likely poked at his mind after she’d inserted the knowledge scale, numbing his ability to feel pain while the change was underway. It was a kindness Danvers appreciated, though the necessity for it made him doubt even more whether he was the right person to take the journey with her. He’d seen Morwell yank large fishing hooks out of his skin without flinching, and the scars that ran across his body told the tale of a man built for punishment. He would have been a better choice. Danvers smiled at the idea of a giant, half-fish half-Morwell terrorizing the depths. He missed his friend dearly.
Looking down at his fish-like form, Danvers couldn’t help but be slightly revolted at first. He felt foreign in his own body, every movement causing his fresh scales to crackle ever so slightly. Simply breathing made him shudder; his newly-formed gills made a raspy sound as they sucked in air. His fingers, now webbed, felt heavy and imprecise, like he was wearing welding gloves. The realization that he was no longer human was profoundly impactful, but Danvers wasn’t given much time to dwell.
Adan grabbed him by his long, newly-finned arm and pulled him towards the corridor at the back wall of the chamber to a circular indentation that began to glow as she approached. She turned to the man, giving him another quick once-over, and then held her hand in front of the object, closing her eyes in concentration.
After a few quiet moments, aquamarine beams of light crisscrossed the wall, weaving in and out of one another until a luminescent tapestry appeared to form. Soon, the surface began to quiver and bubble, small waves growing as the light took on the characteristics of the surface of a small-but-violent sea.
As Danvers peered into the anomalous object, the scale began to relay knowledge to him and he understood that they were about to step through a portal into the realm of the Nemarus, a sub-sea domain far beneath the surface of the world he knew.
Thanks to the memory scale, Adan didn’t need to warn Danvers about the flood of information he was about to receive. The sheer volume of it would be more overwhelming than anything he had experienced so far. He turned to her and nodded, acknowledging that merely wondering what lay beyond the portal would equate to a tsunami crashing into his mind. There was far too much to comprehend - eons of history and beings and objects for which his human mind had no frame of reference. He would need to piece everything together slowly, bit by bit, or risk losing his faculties all together.
Danvers gritted his teeth and silenced his mind, focusing less on the entirety of what lay beyond and honing in on what lay just on the other side. He denied anything outside of what he could physically see, disallowing his mind to fill in the whys, whens, and hows until he felt properly in control of which information it was allowed to analyze.
The space beyond the entrance looked similar to what he’d known from his experiences swimming beneath the waves and looking for seashells as a boy, but there were alien differences that instantly elicited wonderment. The light came from below and not above, a massive sphere of bright blue illuminating the underwater scene. His brain urged him to investigate the sphere deeper, but he quickly changed his focus, switching his concentration to the large, fibrous growths that dangled softly in the flowing depths and disappeared below. These were the roots of the boko tree.
He couldn’t help but let his mind wander a bit upon the realization that the legend of the boko was so far outside his own comprehension. Few of the massive tree colonies still existed on the surface even before the shift, so he’d never run across them himself. But the trees were known the world over, though by different names and with varying degrees of cultural importance. The information pulled from the scale made him realize that even his limited understanding of the trees was completely wrong.
The trees were not individual plants, but rather a single organism with branches that spread across the globe, with roots that reached down to the center of the world and into the dark realm beneath. Its wood and sap were resistant to the most powerful magic and its bark was nearly impenetrable by modern tools, though it was possible to harvest fruit and smaller outgrowths. Many cultures believed these were gifts from the gods and only took what they needed out of fear that they’d be punished.
Before Danvers could allow himself to slip deeper into the history of the boko, he felt a massive change in the air around him and realized that they had crossed through into the sub sea. Adan was swiftly pulling him through the water towards a multitude of round, bulbous objects that hung far off in the distance. They resembled Ylvers Blooms, but on a massive scale. Soft green lights orbited each of them, fondly reminiscent of arriving safely at a busy port at night.
As he gazed out onto the marvelous scene, he came to understand he was looking at the central hub of Nemarus society, known as Vandenala. While different groups of Nemarus were spread across the globe, each responsible for protecting the oceans, Vandenala was where they housed their most important artifacts and knowledge, and where they returned every so often to discuss important matters. Vandenala was completely surrounded by a great bulb produced from one of the main root systems of the boko tree, and the only way to enter was through the portals they had just used. Gaining access by cutting through the exterior was infeasible, even for the Nemarus, and likely impossible.
Vandenala was the Settlers first creation, the base of operations for their expansion on the surface, meaning that it existed in the void between the new world and the old. The great blue orb at its center was in fact an energy source and protective ward that's properties were a mystery even to the Nemarus. Despite being their most trusted subjects, the Settlers still chose to keep many secrets from the Nemarus.
“Adan, where are we going?” Danvers said aloud. The scale’s power was incredible, but his mind was starting to grow tired and he yearned for a simple conversation to break things up.
“We have a visitor to speak with,” she replied. “A very powerful Magi who we came across recently in a rather miraculous turn of events. He’s one of the keys to our plan.”
Danvers knew the story almost as soon as she mentioned it. Adan let go of his arm and stopped swimming while the memories played through the man’s mind. The Nemarus had found a child in the stomach of a massive sea beast that was lodged in the reef surrounding Vlyk, an island in the Outer Rings. It appeared to have gotten stuck there when the oceans were drained in that region, as most sea life tended to get sucked away along with the water. The sea beast itself was unlike anything they’d ever seen, but its lack of deterioration and biomechanical composition gave them the impression that it had been engineered by someone with advanced scientific knowledge - the sort of knowledge they assumed that only the Settlers possessed.
The Nemarus had brought the creature back to Vandenala to investigate, only to find an odd, nautilus-shaped container within. Soon, they were greeted by the voice of an old man speaking directly into their minds, introducing himself as Corrilous Hallister, a well-known and incredibly powerful Magi.
When the Nemarus opened the shell, they found a crimson-skinned boy around the age of ten; clearly not the famous Magi they were expecting. Hallister had done his best to explain the reason for his appearance, but the fact he’d survived an attack from Laureena was of more interest to the Nemarus. He’d just barely made it off the island, and not without the sacrifice of two Touched who had been in his employ. Hallister knew all about the Nemarus and was more than happy to help them with their mission. Even more, he claimed to know how to stop the entity that was controlling Laureena.
“Is he strong enough?” asked Danvers.
She turned to him slowly, a tinge of concern etched across her face.
“Perhaps too strong; he didn’t even need to drink the abyssal nectar to survive down here. The force field around his body was strong enough to protect him from the pressure, and somehow he is able to create his own air. But we’re not in the position to be picky, and he’s been cordial enough. We must trust him for now.”
There was something in the way Adan spoke that made Danvers uncomfortable, as if she was knowingly taking a major risk, introducing pieces into a game that she couldn’t control. Still, he didn’t know the whole story here, and so he wasn’t sure whether or not he wanted to press her further on the issue. He turned away from her, not wanting her to see the uncertainty in his eyes, and leaned against a boko root dangling at his side.
As Danvers touched it, his field of vision expanded, and in that moment he understood that simply touching the roots allowed him to see the land far above, to trace the root system up the surface. He grabbed onto the root excitedly, hoping to use it like a periscope, but all he saw was darkness. He knew from Adan’s memories that he should be able to see the world above, but he couldn’t see anything, and it made him strangely sad. Regardless, Danvers decided to touch every bit of the root system around him anyway, looking for a sign of hope above.
Adan, slightly annoyed but humoring the man’s curiosity, allowed him to continue with his task. Time may have been of the essence, but Danvers’ full comprehension of the bigger picture was integral to their next steps.
He felt a tingling sensation in the back of his head, a signal that he was about to receive an information dump from the scale. He readied himself, and soon the darkness in his eyes began to melt away, revealing a somber scene that he knew was an imprint of the past from when Adan herself had come in contact with the roots.
The vision originated from a vantage point high above an island, indicating that the boko there was a towering hulk that had stood for thousands of years. Sounds of nature were suddenly drowned out by the whirring of machinery and the sound of splitting wood. He watched in horror as legions of armored men with massive saws and advanced machines chewed their way through the forests, rising smoke darkening the sky. Soon they reached the base of the tree, his view suddenly growing blurry as something cut away at the boko’s trunk. Moments later, the vision ended.
He recognized the symbols on the side of the vehicles. They belonged to a notorious band of nomadic Techniks called the Free Roamers. At one point in time, they had the global monopoly on construction and manufacturing, their rise to prominence coming out of the blue. Back then, they were known as Tollstrungs Co. and were owned and operated by two brothers named Dallon and Cret Tollstrung. They were ruthless businessmen from the start, their thirst for power growing exponentially after the Capital began contracting out to them due to their ability to work on projects that no one else could. The rapid expansion of the mainland in the last few decades was largely due to the efforts and abilities of the Tollstrungs.
Despite their role in the Capital’s expansion, the Tollstrungs were not immune to the laws restricting the use of magic and advanced technology. And despite their lobbying efforts, they found themselves just as constrained as the rest of the population. But unlike the rest of the population, they didn’t abide by the restrictive legislature for long, and began to work as if the mandates had never been passed. Doing so pushed them to work with more and more subversive and unsavory groups - groups that were happy to gain any edge they could over the Capital.
The Capital could not allow the Tollstrungs’ actions to go unpunished, and after all negotiation efforts failed, an Iso unit was sent to their offices to arrest the two. It ended in a firefight that left Dallon paralyzed from the waist down and Cret with horrific scaring across his face and torso. Still, the brothers escaped, and were rumored to have set up a base of operations in the Outer Rings.
Danvers thought back to those times, remembering a few of his fellow fishermen talking in hushed tones about purchasing black market hulls and gear that could withstand the harshest of environments, some even claiming that they kept magic creatures at bay. But Danvers had always scoffed at the prospect of doing anything to draw the eye of the Capital. He’d fished for too long to worry about harsh weather, and when it came to defending against the monsters that had begun to appear more and more often during that time, he had a giant former Iso for protection.
Morwell had once told him: “Ain’t gonna lie, my superiors feared the Tollstrung boys almost as much as they feared Hallister. Something about the knowledge they possessed felt...otherworldly. Hallister’s library was pulled together over many years, and we knew where most of it came from. But the Tollstrungs just sort of showed up one day with machines that even our scientists couldn’t figure out. Unfortunately, Cret and Dallon disappeared before we could learn much more.”
Danvers touched another root. Blackness. Then another. Nothing could be seen. Had the Tollstrungs - and the Capital - cut down all the trees connected to these ancient roots? Something inside the old fisherman yearned to find proof that the boko trees on the surface were not completely destroyed. Adan tried to pull him away, but Danvers stood resolute.
“There has to be one,” he said, emotion welling up within him.
And then, after only a few more attempts, Danvers felt immense relief to find a root that granted him a view of the surface, and not just a catalyst for recreating a memory of the past. Through the root he saw a small, heavily-wooded island just outside of the outer rings, with a ramshackle hut surrounded by a dense swamp. A four-legged beast resembling a short, malformed horse stood grazing on reeds that sprung up through the muddy surface. Suddenly, the door to the hut flew open and out stepped a massive, broad creature with filthy clothes. Its skin was green, but it wasn’t Aquine, or Nemarus. This was something else entirely. There was music blaring from the hut, and Danvers could barely make out lyrics that sang of the stars and the unceasing passage of time; of glittering gold; of breaking molds.
The oafish creature effortlessly trudged through his boggy yard to a massive pile of crumpled metal, tattered garments, and broken Callan bodies. There were vehicles that had been overturned, and Danvers recognized the emblem of the Free Roamers on them here too, but this wasn’t a memory like before. Several of the trees in the area were gouged and splintered, but the Technik loggers had been stopped before they could clear cut this boko grove. They had wandered into the wrong swamp. The green ogre stopped for a moment, taking in the corpses and smiling before sucking in air and spitting a large glob of mucus onto the pile. It seemed that at least in this part of the world, wherever it was, the boko had a protector who wasn’t plagued by the selfishness inherent to the Callans.
Danvers took his hand away from the root, and when his vision returned underwater he realized that Adan was touching the root as well, seeing what he had seen. She was smiling. Seeing this, and thinking back to the memory of the Free Roamers he had seen before, Danvers began to realize that there was a significant level of distrust for the Callans intermixed in Adan’s memories - an emotional residue that flavored what he saw as opposed to leaving him with an objective view of past events. He had assumed that she was concerned with their well-being, but as he absorbed more and more of her memories - saw things through her eyes - he found that she possessed a deep-rooted disdain for the race.
Until then, Danvers had been able to hold back the onslaught of information pushing at his mind, but the weight of this realization caused the feeble dam to finally break. Danvers lost control over his thought processes and a thousand-year flood of information rushed through, drowning his senses. He saw the Callans escape from a hellish world, flawed but with the capacity for greatness. He saw them build incredible cities and create beautiful art that told stories spanning the entirety of their history. He saw them spread across the globe - slowly at first like leaves blowing on an autumn day - but their pace quickened until eventually they swarmed islands like locusts. In this moment he saw their greatest weakness: an insatiable and mindless hunger that plunged their society into chaos.
As decades passed before his eyes, an underlying frustration that Adan had felt grew stronger and more intense as she witnessed the world inching closer and closer to collapse. Anger was merely a punctuation to these scenes; the consistent tone was one of helplessness.
The Nemarus had been aware for quite a while that something catastrophic like the Shift was going to occur, but were shocked when the pillars began to rise. They thought this ability was possessed solely by the Settlers. Upon further investigation, they discovered that the decimation of the boko groves had left countless entryways to the underworld unprotected, allowing horrific ancient creatures known as underdwellers to rise up to the surface. Now free from their prison, these creatures were drawn to any and all sources of magical energy, absorbing it and growing strong enough to corrupt the barrier orbs on islands all across the world.
“Wait...did we cause the Shift?” Danvers gasped. Adan didn’t respond, instead tightening her grip on his arm beginning to swim again with a quickened pace. It gave him all the confirmation he needed.
The remainder of their journey to Vandenala was uneventful. The dull, dark water held little to see aside from the massive boko roots and the hub on the horizon. Upon reaching the odd-shaped buildings that were the centerpiece of the Nemarus base of operations, Danvers was somewhat disappointed to see that it too was rather plain.
There was a single, albeit gargantuan building that resembled a bee hive made of shells, flanked on either side by slightly smaller versions of the same design. In the front was a single large opening covered by a translucent film that contracted when someone passed through it. The most interesting features of the buildings were the green lights he’d first noticed upon entering the realm, lights that turned out to be man-sized jellyfish that circled their exteriors, glowing rhythmically as they illuminated the area around Vandenala. Outside of that, it was a strangely unimpressive site, though one that was discreet enough to avoid unwanted visitors, if any were even capable of traveling so far underwater.
As they made their way to the entrance, Danvers noticed a large group of Nemarus swimming towards them. He never asked Adan how many of her kind there were, though he got the impression they were not abundant.
The Nemarus were not gods. They lived and died just as other creatures did, though some, like Adan, lived far longer and possessed rare abilities and knowledge. He felt the tingle in the back of his mind again and refocused onto what was happening in the moment, fighting the urge to drift back into the long and storied history of the Nemarus.
Danvers watched the group as they made their way through the water, noticing immediately that their movements were not nearly as smooth as that of Adan, or even the Nemarus that was leading the group. It was a clumsiness that reminded him of the time he taught his own daughter to swim. She’d taken to the water quickly, but there was little refinement in the way she moved in the sea, her arms and legs splashing wildly, the smile on her face the only indication that she wasn’t drowning.
He couldn’t be too critical, considering he himself was barely able to make progress underwater without Adan dragging him by the arm, but he was new to this world. As he passed by, Danvers noticed that the group possessed facial features closer to that of an Aquine than a Nemarus, and some of them even sort of looked like Callans. Danvers hadn’t seen himself in a mirror since the transformation, but seeing their faces, he assumed that he probably looked somewhat similar. Then the realization hit him.
“I’m not the only one am I?” he asked, peering deep into Adan’s eyes. While the memory scale gave him knowledge from the past, it wasn’t giving him a clear picture of what the Nermarus’ plan was now.
“No. You are not.”
“And did they have the scales inserted as well?”
“No, they did not,” she replied, tugging at his arm to encourage him to keep moving. “They are merely refugees from the broken world above. You and Hallister are different...you are key to our plan.”
Adan had referred to a plan multiple times, but for some reason the scale did not enlighten him as to what it was, as if that portion of her memory had been wiped clean prior to insertion...or had been developed very recently. Perhaps there hadn’t been a plan before, and the arrival of Hallister had inspired them to act when they’d already seen the end was inevitable. But Danvers had seen her memories of Hallister arriving in Vandenala, so that couldn’t be the case. More likely than not, Adan had chosen not to include the plan with the other information she had given him.
Danvers began to grow nervous as he realized Adan held all the cards. She had his best childhood memories, teleported him to an impossible location only to fill his mind with eons of knowledge that he assumed was true...and then turned him into a fish. Did she even intend to help Laureena, or was there something he missed in his blind pursuit of finding his granddaughter? Adan broke the silence, causing Danvers to flinch in fear.
“I sense your worry, Faullen. I’ve been purposefully vague about our next steps because I didn’t want to overwhelm you immediately after you took on the scale. To put it simply, the world above is all but lost...but we believe we can stop it from getting worse and restore the world to its original state.”
“Go on,” he said, not entirely sure what she meant by original state.
“When the underdwellers began to make their way to the surface, we feared that their goal was to bring down the columns of our world, collapsing them and returning us all to the horrific times of our forebearers. They can corrupt the barrier orbs that keep this world aloft, that much we knew, but corrupting those orbs should not give the underdwellers the ability to create columns, only to destabilize the ones that already exist. But they did not collapse the existing columns. Instead, somehow, the underdwellers began building columns to a new world above. The end result is quite the same either way, unfortunately, with this world destroyed and in darkness. It appears that the underdwellers want more than they once had, which is not surprising considering the sort we are dealing with. They are wretched, greedy creatures. But their greed has left them vulnerable. Because every column--”
“Needs an orb,” Danvers finished her sentence. She smiled.
“Precisely. And by destroying those orbs, we stop their progress.”
“Are you about to tell me I have magical orb destroying powers that I’ve never known about?” asked Danvers.
“Unfortunately, no, but that would be convenient. Destroying the orbs is not an easy task and we do not possess the power to do so. But the creature possessing your granddaughter does. It is called Värlof, one of many supposed deities that existed in this world long before the Settlers came. Most understood their limitations and fell in line once the Settlers began to reshape this world. Värlof however continued to be a thorn in our side, even stopping progress upward by destroying the orbs, which caught the Settlers off guard.”
Upon the utterance of the name, Danvers felt the scale begin to paint a picture of a living flame that burned as hot as a sun, ravaging the world indiscriminately for eons. He saw the Nemarus coming together in the early days, struggling to contend with the creature, until the Settlers gifted them with special containment orbs that acted as pocket dimensions, tricking the raging deity into thinking it was actually banished from reality. Danvers remembered them not stopping with Värlof, instead opting to imprison all the similar deities as a precaution, regardless of the severity of their behavior.
“But why me? What can a musty old fisherman do against a fire god?”
“We are connected Faullen, but not in the way you think. The act of receiving the Ylvers Blooms was a tradition started ages ago to monitor the Callans. It is one thing to see the feats you accomplished - building cities, developing new technology - but we were more interested in the qualities that gained you favor in the eyes of the Settlers. And time after time our suspicions turned out to be correct: Your kind was losing the positive qualities that once earned you salvation, and instead starting to act more and more like those who oppressed your ancestors. But you were different, Faullen. Humble, content, and loving.”
“And a drunk,” said Danvers, embarrassed that he of all people had caught the eye of the Nemarus when the world was filled with such clearly better specimens.
“A habit derived from hardship on the surface, from seeing your family torn from you. Yet you always maintained hope. We knew you’d do anything to help your family, so maybe your family will do anything to help you.”
“I sure hope so,” Danvers said, his eyes misting.
“Värlof has corrupted the containment sphere that once kept it prisoner and now lives inside it like a shell, corrupting and controlling Laureena from inside. It has gained enough power to exit the sphere for brief periods of time, but it still needs Laureena as its vessel in order to move through the world with any sort of autonomy. We believe that they are somewhere in the Northern Plateaus now, but are planning to attack the Capital in order to destroy the rest of the Touched, and then move on to the orbs holding up this world. Our plan is to draw them towards an island called Veru, just outside the Capital, using you as bait. We think - hope really - that there is still enough of Laureena inside to redirect Värlof, and you are our best chance. Once she’s there, Hallister will attempt to reverse the corruption on Värlof’s containment orb and re-imprison it. Once it's captured, then we can utilize its powers via a control incantation that Hallister has been developing.”
“I’ll do anything to save Laureena,” said Danvers. “She’s all I have left.”
“I didn’t think otherwise.” Adan motioned towards the entrance with a sweeping gesture. Danvers started to follow her inside, but then stopped.
“I’m still confused. Why are you giving other Callans the abyssal nectar?”
“That is where things grow complicated,” sighed Adan. “The plan is sound, but there is a catch.”
“Always is.”
“The Shift has spread through most of this world, which means the new world above is progressing. Destroying the orbs will cause everything that has been built above to come crashing down, causing a cataclysmic effect on the world you know. It is very unlikely that anyone or anything on the surface will survive. This is why we’re trying to save as many as we can with the abyssal nectar, to allow them to live here where it’s safe, to help rebuild a better world.”
“You’re suggesting that to save the world, we have to destroy it?” Danvers could barely get the words out.
“The world that the Settlers built was already on its way there, Faullen. The predecessors to the Callans may have been slaves to the underdwellers, but they didn’t survive so long in such a horrible place because of their morals. Once they were given a new world of their own with complete independence, they forgot everything their ancestors had learned, everything they had fought against. Those of us who stayed underwater could see what was happening above, could see the Callans advance their technology to the extent that they could destroy the boko trees. But the Settlers didn’t allow us to confront the Callans directly. By the time we started influencing their leaders, it was already too late. They’d already set into motion what we now call the Shift. The Callans may not have created the new columns rising into the sky, but their careless actions allowed them to ever be built.”
“There has to be another way,” said Danvers, shaking his head.
“If the new level above is completed, the sky will be blacked out and your world will die anyway. And we will be imprisoned as our ancestors were before.”
“But, what if this is what the Settlers want? Aren’t they the only ones that can create new worlds? New levels above old ones?”
“We do not know how these creatures - the Vist - have gained the ability to build columns, but it was not gifted to them by the Settlers,” she scoffed. “That is not their plan.”
“What is their plan then?” Danvers asked, growing impatient.
“We Nemarus are their most loyal subjects. They would have come to us before such an undertaking would be enacted.”
“But, when was the last time you spoke with them? What if they found new subjects?”
Adan paused, her expression growing cold.
“You may have the scale, but it seems your vision is still clouded by your Callan beliefs, by the fallacy that the world is yours and was made to sustain you and only you. The Settlers hoped for utopia, but the freedom given to you underworld refugees has led all of us to an apocalypse.” Her tone shifted frightfully. “We must start over, with or without you.”
Danvers glared into her eyes, looking for any sign that her approach was fueled by fear, but her resolve was strong. It was hard to argue with her logic: He’d seen what his kind had done to the world, and the visions the scale had shown him made it clear that their impact on the world went deeper than he ever could have imagined. But Adan’s definitive stance gave Danvers the feeling that this plan may have crossed her mind even before the Shift, though he didn’t dare reveal the suspicion to her. As if sensing his newfound distrust, Adan gave Danvers a warning:
“I gave you a choice before, Faullen Danvers, but we are past the time of common courtesy. We need you to draw Laureena to us. Assist us in this, or we do not need you at all.”
Fate Index:
1. Antagonist gains great power
2. Protagonist’s hangover leads to some incredibly fortuitous turn of events
3. Protagonist has/develops some incurable urge they must sate daily
4. Someone gets refueled
5. Protagonist’s identity is thrown into question
6. Flashback episode
7. Protagonist gets overzealous and makes a major mistake
8. A character begins to doubt reality
9. A great artifact of the past is found, calling to a new owner
10. Something consequential turns out to be an illusion
11. Shrek and Donkey cameo
12. Betrayal
13. Protagonist finds powerful item or treasure
14. Magic finger traps, but for the brain or heart
15. Millions of insects start their march to devour everything in their path
16. After a long string of losses, a character begins to succeed only to jeopardize someone else's success
17. Protagonist takes up cause of beleaguered
18. Razor clams
19. Protagonist becomes famous
20. Improbable infant survival
Outcomes Used:
11. Shrek and Donkey cameo
20. Improbable infant survival
Added outcomes:
An antagonist is offered a moment of possible redemption but must decide to act on it
(thanks to Hittle)
Nothing happens when something is supposed to happen
(thanks to Chuck Struggler @strugglers_band on Instagram)
