Recognition of Atlantis

For some time now, the people of Earth had been generally aware of Atlantis’ existence, and that it was built around The Volcano. Before now, however, Atlantis had never reached out to be recognized as an official city-state in the eyes of the law.

Several Atlantian natives were sent out into different parts of the world on a trainboat to bring back anyone who wanted to see their home city.

Among the participants of the journey were: μ Zick, a Human cleric who dreamed of discovering musical talent and becoming a bard; Phoebe Alakah, one of the Atlantian Gnomes who was to act as a guide; Tiranda Whipserwind, an adventurous, tomboyish Elf girl; and another Atlantian girl who had somehow contracted amnesia since leaving Atlantis, she did not even remember her own name (though she would come to be known as Melancholia).

As soon as Pheobe met Tiranda, they got along very well. They did everything together while on the trainboat. They ate meals together, made plans for what they would do in Atlantis together, and defeated the sword-wielding six-armed dog goddess who attacked the ship together. On one occasion, Tiranda entered the kitchen, which was a mistake. The monsters who cooked meals couldn’t help but attack the innocent Elf, and although she prevailed, she left afflicted with a curse that changed her gender. Whisperwind’s first name was now Tirian, and he fully accepted the change. He was never the type to complain about life, especially since he was now (for some reason) physically stronger, and his relationship with Phoebe was unchanged.

Melancholia had no direction in life. She followed the others around in hope that she would either find out something about her past life, or that they would help her become a new, fully developed person. She knew only one thing about herself, and it was that she held a magical lock-and-key, which she suspected would transform into a portal doorway and summon a tentacle demon. She held onto this in case it was a clue to her past life.

The trainboat arrived at Atlantis and the people started scaling their way down the slope of The Volcano, where the city of Atlantis was built. Atlantians themselves, a species of aquatic Gnome, could breather the water easily even without the magical influence of the Volcano, but thanks to it, even land-originating people could breathe happily within the boundaries of the submerged city.

μ Zick immediately intended to leave Phoebe’s guide and find a bank where he could exchange the money that he had for Atlantian currency. But to his surprise, along the way he found an abandoned Siege Engine off the side of the road. He took it, and bought some handles from Tirian, which allowed him to ride the Seige Engine like a vehicle, then went on his way to the bank.

Shortly after, Melancholia encountered a small dragon which took a liking to her. She identified with it and hoped that this would be her first step to finding a new persona for herself.

Phoebe, not entirely sure how to perform as a tour guide, decided to take Tirian and Melancholia to the nearest library, where they could read about Atlantian history, if they so pleased. However, Tirian could not read Atlantian text (Melancholia could read Atlantian Text, because she was raised in Atalntis, although she does not remember this). Phoebe ended up reading a story book to Tirian, who was listened intently.

As the sun began to set on Atlantis, the monsters started to wake. Due to the magical aura of The Volcano, anything evil has a much higher power level during the night than during the day, and they did not hesitate to utilize this ability. A medusa broke through the library's window, and attacked the crew. Although they ended up defeating it, Pheobe had been turned to stone, presumed dead. No longer having a guide to Atlantis, Tirion and Melancholia asked someone who happened to be in the library at the time, Cerulean Kalayu, to bring them to a safer place, and he reluctantly obliged.

Cerilean brought them to his house, which was so far down it was off the slope of The Volcano. Along the way, a small flying monster killed Melancholia's shoulder dragon, which began the process of sending her into a crippling depression from which she would be given her name.

When the group reached Cerulean's house, they found that it had also been ransacked by monsters, which attacked them. An unfortunate result of this attack was that Tirion Whisperwind was once again hit with a gender-swap curse, returning him to his original female body. So Cerulean lead them to the next safest place he could think of, the Plutonium Dragon Bar and Grill.

Meanwhile, μ Zick had locked himself in one of the bank vaults to protect himself from the Atlantian night. In the vault, he found several useful weapons which he attached to the Siege Engine, including the unnatural axe, rapier of unfairness, eleven-foot pole, buckler of swashing, the staph of napalm, and, as he had dreamed, the ability to become a bard. Once he deemed the Siege Engine powerful enough, he left the bank and headed down to meet with the others again, completely demolishing any monsters that got in his way. He found his friends and Cerulean Kalayu in front of the Plutonium Dragon, so he parked the Siege Engine in front of the building and came inside.

Inside the bar a fight had broke loose. Not a fight with monsters, but a simple magic bar fight, which Tirion and μ Zick decided to participate in, just for fun. Cerulean decided to take advantage of the commotion and steal Zick's Siege Engine from out front, and Melancholia was so absorbed in her own melancholy that she really wan't paying attention to anything that was going on around her.

After a while, her depression reached a level that she decided she no longer had anything to live for, so she decided to summon her tentacle demon and let herself be killed by it. but she seemingly wasn't even allowed that privilege, as when she opened the doorway portal, nothing came through it. The demon had been a figment of her imagination all along. She fell to her knees and started crying in the empty doorway.

Tiranda Whisperwind won an arm-wrestling contest with one of the bar tenders, and therefor won one magical favor from him. She asked for him to turn her back into her male body, which is the one she preferred having.

μ Zick had a successful career as a musician, writing, preforming, and producing many popular songs.