Atlantis: The Battle of Gorgos

Here we are in Atlantis again; last time here is the thing mushroom mushroom. ANYWAY.

Our heroes are preparing to leap into battle with the Gorgons, but then they notice that Imani is glassy-eyed.

Indeed, Imani finds herself in the jungle, before the god Eloah. He asks her, again, his riddle: If you make a hole in me, I have fewer holes. What am I?

Imani is not particularly well-versed in solving riddles, and asks Eloah if she can ask her friends for help. The god agrees, and suddenly all four of them find themselves in the jungle.

The talk about it for a bit - maybe it's conceptual, like a story or a plan having holes? A play on "whole" vs "hole?" Akala notes, though, that the wording of the riddle suggests something that start with holes, like perhaps a screen...or a net. That's the answer Eloah was looking for, a net or a web. He gives each of them a sip of water from the lagoon, and they feel stronger and healed. He warns them that they have all seen beyond, and that's going to be significant if they survive today. 

And then here they are, back in Gorgos, heading into the city of Ogara! The heroes split up. Akala takes to the sky, looking for targets to hit with her leech-bombs, and Eithne follows her on the ground. Imani and Thanos go charging toward the palace, searching for Amara. 

Eithne spots a contingent of Gorgon warriors about to pepper Akala with arrows when she hits their line of sight, and who should be commanding them but Sarangerel, the Blind Naga of Tu-Holo! Eithne summons up a fireball and hurls it at the building upon which they're standing, but the Naga senses it and springs clear! The fireball explodes and sends the Gorgon warriors scattering, however, and Akala continues on. She spots a battle between Gorgons and the mercenary army of Queen Nyavinghi, and throws one of the leech-bombs at the Gorgons. Horse-sized leeches explode out of the broken jar, horrifying the Gorgons and giving the mercenaries a chance to break through.

But in the palace, Imani faces off with Queen Uzoma. Uzoma reaches out and a slave hands her her mong, and she cuts the slave's throat with one smooth motion. She charges at Imani and wounds her, but Imani backs up and charges. Thanos glances to the side and sees Zaramamma, the Naga of Nazca, attacking him from the shadows! She slices him with her wicked glass-lined weapon, and he bleeds, but he puts it to good use.

Thanos flings his blood at the naga and sets her ablaze. Imani's charge strikes true, impales the Queen, and hurls her against a wall. She stands, but unsteadily. Outside, Sarangerel wraps Eithne up in her coils. Akala hurls another bomb and strikes another blow against the Gorgon warriors.

Eithne casts a spell and starts to freeze the Blind Naga. She bites into Eithne's shoulder and tries to poison her, but Eithne manages to resist it. Inside the palace, Thanos endures another attack from the Naga, but draws his gladius and runs her through, conjuring up lightning as he does. For a moment she is illuminated by blinding light, and then she slumps, dead.

The Queen charges at Imani and drives her mong deep into the Taurean's gut. Imani falters, feeling life ebb from her, but she has a bull's tenacity. She strikes with her mong, and Uzoma falls forward, dying. "This won't save her," she whispers. "Killing us just gives Set the power to resurrect our brother."

Outside, Eithne redoubles her efforts, and freezes Sarangerel solid. She shatters and the chunks fall to earth (ew), and at this point the ground around the palace begins to shake. Thanos, seeing that Imani is wounded, casts a spell and merges his flesh with hers, turning them into an unholy abomination but allowing his body to heal hers. Unfortunately, it also infuses her with the violence and darkness that Thanos carries with him, and she charges off into the palace, slaughtering anything in her way, searching for Amara. 

Akala swoops over the palace and sees dust rising up, as though something massive that was buried around the palace is unearthing itself. She flies off and finds Queen Nyavinghi, and tells her of the situation - Uzoma is dead, and if they can find Amara she can assume the crown. The Mercenary Queen says that they've been concentrating on the palace, but there's a place off to the east that has a strong contingent of warriors for no reason she can tell. Akala flies off to investigate.

Inside the palace, Thanos casts a spell to find Amara, and sees her - and Imani's parents - tied to stakes in the obsidian pit where her brother was killed. Imani sees it, too, wheels around and runs out of the palace.

Eithne is there alone when what shook the ground is revealed - Apep, the giant serpent, rears up out of the dirt! Its flesh is rotting and it's clearly undead, but it's no less huge and dangerous. It strikes, picks Eithne up, and swallows her. 

Akala sees this and, horrified, throws her two remaining leech-bombs into Apep's mouth. It suddenly finds itself with a mouthful of horse-sized leeches, but it can eat things that are that big, so apart from having its mouth stretched out this isn't too deadly for it. In its gut, Eithne steels herself and casts a spell, slicing it open from the inside. She falls out, wounded but alive.

All four of them meet back up at the front of the palace, and Imani tells them that Amara is about to be executed. Eithne tosses her leech-bomb up to Akala, and Akala flies off as fast as she can and the Thanos/Imani creature follows, but that leaves Eithne alone to deal with Apep! She hurls an ice-spell at it, but it flicks its tail at her and she barely braces in time to avoid getting squished.

At the pit, Imani's mother is cut free and about to be beheaded, but Akala arrives just in time. She drops her leech-bomb and huge leeches pop out, distracting the guards and letting Imani's mother run off to free her father. Akala hurls a javelin at one of the guards and impales her, and just then the Thanos/Imani monster arrives.

Thanos casts a spell and kills two of the guards, their bones bursting out of their bodies. Imani yells at all of them at Uzoma is dead, and Amara is now the Gorgon Queen! The guards, thoroughly horrified by what's talking to them, obey, and just then, Eithne focuses the power of the sun into a beam and cuts the giant serpent in two. 

The serpent falls into pieces, and with that, the Battle of Gorgos is over. 

That night, Queen Amara looks out over the city, and the heroes (bandaged, of course), accompany her. She glances at Imani and smiles. "Now we can show them what the power of Set can really do." She waits for Imani to react, and then winks. "Kidding."