The Aggrieved Stranger

**The Aggrieved Stranger** is a questline that centers on the Veruki woman, last of her kind, Lyris, and her unwillingness to move on from the death of her husband Morys.

## Events

### Cliffside Massacre (temple entrance to Capital City)

Rei's first meeting with Lyris is at a temple in-between the land outside the Capital City and its inside. After deating the Crater Oroborous Remnant, Rei has the ability to break down the Dreg wall barring the way from the Starseed crater and the land in front of the Capital City. After slashing at the wall's eye and bringing the wall the down and making her way through the smallish group of floating islands beyond, Rei comes to a high cliff, framed on either side by giant Veruki statues. She comments that this is Veruki architecture and makes a comment about realizing that the Ultravoid was what happened to them when they vanished 100 years ago.

Making her way up the cliffside, she comes to a small temple that acts as a hallway through the cliff's rock and into the Capital City. In the temple, she meets a Veruki woman who's kneeling by a stream of water in the centre, in the centre of which is the Rascal Brambleseed's tree. The woman is surrounded by countless dead bodies of other Veruki, whose corpses have been burned, mummifying them. Trying to talk to her, Lyris tells Rei that she is looking for someone she knows, another survivor, and says they may be in the apartments, the clocktower or the Ironroot Basin. She says, however, that she dearly hopes he's not in the Ironroot Basin. Rei then ventures into the ruined Veruki Capital City, which she finds has been invaded and partially broken by the alien parasite known as the Dross, but they are long gone now.

Rei wrote down a recount of these events on the map of her Multi-Tool titled "Cliffside Massacre."

### Clocktower Revolt (Capital City Clocktower)

After Rei climb the Capital City Clocktower in the city beyond and destroyed the Dreg Anomaly hiding in its ruined rooftop, a gap in the floor is revealed, leading to the inside of the clocktower and its clock mechanism. In there, Rei meets Lyris once more, who is trying to communicate over a radio. Rei, listening to Lyris' radio report, learn sher name and realizes that she is engaged in some kind of military operation that would have ended the Dross invasion. At least this time, Lyris seems to recognize Rei being there, but doesn't know who she is or even where she herself is. The Clocktower room is covered in home-made explosives and farming tools sharpened and made into weapons, and holds a book that used to have instructions on how to befriend people that has had words crossed out and replaced with plans for attack.

Lyris is also missing a leg, which she has replaced with a purple alien leg (the leg of a dead Dross).

Lyris tells Rei that she forgot her post, and Rei asks her what that post was, and Lyris tells her it is the apartments.

Rei wrote down a recount of these events on the map of her Multi-Tool titled "Clocktower Revolt."

### A Once Nice Life (apartment complex)

Rei found Lyris again waiting in a derelict apartment, waiting for her beloved as if nothing had happened. In the apartment, Lyris has a picture of her and her husband from years ago tilling soil into a vase with an inscription that cements their love for one another. There is also a journal in the apartment with each page repeating the same events: her husband left her to go foraging, but had left her some sweetberries in the icebox. But with each page the wording become more and more desperate to the point of sounding insane in the end, mentioning and being shocked at finding her own throat sore, her paws muddy and no berries in the icebox. Lyris tells Rei that her beloved is not there, but that he had left her a note stating that he had left her berries in the icebox but that she did not find any there. Lyris tells Rei that her husband is in the Ironroot Basin.

Rei wrote down a recount of these events on the map of her Multi-Tool titled "A Once Nice Life."

### Hive Mind (Dross hive in Ironroot Basin)

In the Ironroot Basin, Rei finds a giant Dross hive. She finds the insides has been scorched by burning explosives, and she finds Lyris beating at the dead corpse of a Dross matriarch in anger and damning it for what the Dross had done. Lyris also mentions that she could not have known "he" would have been there, with a sad tone in her voice.

Rei wrote down a recount of these events on the map of her Multi-Tool titled "Hive Mind."

### Special Place (Dross hive in Ironroot Basin)

Lyris has a moment of clarity and remembers where her husband is: under the sacred tree in the Forest Altar, just beyond the bridge in Ironroot Basin. Rei sets off for the Altar.

Rei wrote down a recount of these events on the map of her Multi-Tool titled "Special Place."

### Forever Remembering (Forest Altar in Ironroot Basin)

Beneath the sacred tree in the center of the Forest Altar structure, Rei finds Lyris hunched over a mount of dirt that marks the grave of her husband, Morys. He has been dead for a long time and by the looks of it, Lyris has been meeting him there since long before Rei even came into the Ultravoid. Rei realizes that Lyris' memories have been affected and believes the Ultravoid is the culprit, making her forget again and again that her husband is dead and that he didn't just recently go out to forage for them, causing her to relive these horrible events. Rei believes there is only one way she can help Lyris move on: activating the Starseed.

Rei wrote down a recount of these events on the map of her Multi-Tool titled "Forever Remembering."

## Trivia

* In reality, it is not the Ultravoid that is affecting Lyris' memories but the activation of the Starseed by Rei's hand, enforcing the time-loop that it created.