The Heart of the World is the sixth and final episode of season 16 of Dimension 20, The Ravening War.
The Scrumptious Scoundrels must prevent a cataclysm that would decimate Calorum.
Introduction[]
As our unlikely troupe of allies and friends over these many years of war have come together and trekked beneath the city of Pangranos, as war begins to rage above, you follow the mycelium network and the Saprophian fungal folk, discovering strange phrases, discussions of an event, where this mycelium heart has made a deal, and been convinced to work with the FDA, the Sanctus Putris, to release toxic spores into the throes of this wars above, and wipe out a mass number of Calorum's strongest. The following decay spreading across the land will be enough to keep the Hungry One at bay, and save the world from an eventual apocalypse.
Or so they seem to believe. You may have your own unique ideas of where they tread. By pushing through these caverns, slaughtering members of this strange Illulminati society, treating with some of the Saprophians, asking them questions, making friends, telling them to stay safe and out of your way, you've gathered robes, and, through illusion and deception, approached the center of the Saprophus society where there is a massive, coliseum, cathedral-like structure of ancient stone, the mycelium gathering in brilliant, glowing, blue light. You step past the guards, ascend the steps, and enter the open doorway that leads to the chamber within. As you rise to the apex of the stairs and glance over, you can see the vibrant glow within this long, oval-shaped room. This is ancient grainstone and petrified wheat products: massive, long, dried, and carved buns, bagels, muffins; things that have been brought here as symbols of what once and still decays in the lands above Ceresia, and here reside as symbols of what feeds the people of this land, monuments to that which is left behind and forgotten, discarded to fall away, and bring life to this fungus, to this heart of the mycelium, and the people that live with and around it.
Within this chamber, you also see a number of cloaked figures, hooded and robed. A number of remaining members of the architects sit, facing towards the back of the chamber where, within these old ruins, this majestic, gargantuan, gathered cluster of pulsing fungus forms a singular being, this incredible, overwhelming entity that fills the entire backside of the room rising up and clinging to the ceiling, and creating the ceiling above. This pulsing mass, all the light being pulling from the mycelium into it, this is the Heart of Saprophus. This is the Heart of the World that you touched five years before. And there, you see it. Incredible, more than you could have imagined. As you begin to step past the threshold, the blueberry guard that escorted you along the way shouts out to break the low chanting and murmering of these gathered members of the Sanctis Putris.
Synopsis[]
Led by the blueberry Architect guard the disguised Scrumptious Scoundrels enter the room of the Heart of the World. Sitting at the top of a pedestal that connects to the base of the Heart: the full-standing Archbishop Camille Colliflour. She holds a Bulbian staff organically combined with alien metal blades like that of Flakey Smuthers, though much larger. Senator Ariana Gemelli also reveals herself, staring at the "captured" Delissandro Katzon. Saprophian guards line the walls, and a 10 - 12 foot bolete mushroom being, initially just thought be to be part of the myceliem, crawls forwards as a formidible fungal foe. This is the Saprophian elder. Deli and Amangeaux Epicée du Peche are pushed to their knees in front of the three who now gather in the center of the room, and Amangeaux spins them the tale that they, acting as a united front of Meat Lands and Fructera, were looking for an alternate entrance into Ceresia, and unwittingly found themselves in Saprophus. Temporarily cowed, Archdeacon Raphaniel Charlock, after getting the go ahead from Karna Solara, subtly casts Shatter, aiming for Colliflour. She is able to steady herself by catching her staff onto the ground, and immediately pinpoints the source of the attack. Charlock takes no time to contine his attack. His life since his meeting the FDA has been focued on this moment, and in his tunnel vision, tries to attack the Camille again. However, he is thwarted as his second Shatter is dispelled by another of the FDA agents in the room, something not unnoticed by Sir Colin Provolone who promptly attacks the Architect. The archbishop doesn't seem to be particularly phased by this aggressive display, though, and, as the work must be done, begins to chant to the great Deus-Pa'Zuul. Distracted by Colliflour's chants, the team doesn't initially notice their old partner, Darren “Dishless” Quichéi, until he steps out from behind one of the old rock croissants and rushes Amangeaux, slashing her with his sword. The fungus elder, talking in a way that shows he's trying to imitate what he's seen in others, then makes a proclamation. Those that had previously inhaled the fungal spores, hear him say, "It must be done. All must be sundered, the cycle broken. Calorum must be sundered," shooting poison spores at Amangeaux, Provolone, and Charlock.
Delissandro has his own tunnel vision. The last time he had written to his aunt Gemelli had been right after the assassination of Queen Pamelia Rocks, which had only warrented a brief, dismissive response. Not only that, but he knew through his skáld, Karna, that she had, not only been carrying on a professional relationship with the Imperator Focaccia, but a romantic and sexual one as well. Dropping the charade of being a prisoner, he goes up to his old flame, and demands of the senator why she lied; that she had promised, if he had united the Meat Lands, she would come to him. She simply replies that she didn't lie as Basha Myaso united the Meat Lands, not him. In his anger at how he had been betrayed, he runs towards Ariana, throwing his spear, Detriter, at her. Before she is able to respond to being hit, she is distracted by the chanting of the archbishop as well. She had believed the's Fellowship's plan would only be focused on taking out the armies above that had accumulated in Pangranos. However, listening in reveals a very different plan from Camille:and, as she chants, the metal begins to grow out of the staff Colliflour is holding. Realizing that the plan was now one of utter annilation, the wounded senator turns on her compatriot, trying to shake and then stab her to her senses. However, the Archbishop Colliflour isn't fazed, and continues her rabid chanting. The air is almost electric as the air fills with the feelings of worry and disappointment as the Heart of the World expresses its confusion as to what's happening."Deus-Pa'Zuul. Bulb and Hungry, they are but two of the three. The three before us must now fall as well. The cycle be broken, life rendered, nothing but shadow, darkness. Deus-Pa'Zuul. Deus-Pa'Zuul. The teeth come, and take everything to nothing. Deus-Pa'Zuul."
It is then Raphaniel, listening to the chanting and holding the alien metal in his hands, comes to an epiphany: Deus-Pa'Zuul = Disposal. The Hungry One completes the cycle of the Bulb. So how can it be the real enemy? All his life he had believed that the visions he had seen of destruction were that of a blender, blending everyone down into a smoothie of unity even the Bulb couldn't provide. However, that was a lie. The do not exist for food to be consumed, but to be destroyed. Finally understanding, he says, "What is food if never on is fed when, with strange disposals, even death lies dead?" He drops the steel blade, knowing he has once again not been chosen by his god. He takes the Shard of the Bulb out of his pockets, and telepathically makes Amangeaux promise that she will survive. He then goes on to explain the secret that the FDA had held over him. Through cups of tea, the radish had gradually poisoned her husband, King Arthur Cardoon, resulting in his impotency. Leaving Amangeaux stunned, Raphaniel screams, "Resplendent light upon us from above, for in the grace of the Bulb, we shall all be made clean! May its great glory gift us all with the promise of eternal joy!" and dashes straight into the Heart of Saprophus, Karna helping push him forward.
The light of the sun is scary to those that dwell in darkness. The elder winces from the light of the Shard as Charlock runs past, and the feelings of confusion and fear within the Heart of Saprophus amplifys as the Shard is brought closer causing it to try and retract into itself. In the middle of her chanting, blood running from her mouth from the Senator Gemelli's wound, Archbishop Camille turns to Raphaniel and says, "You've always been chosen, and there's still time to join us," reaching out her hand to the frantic radish, inviting him to join Deus-Pa'Zuul in resplendent annihilation. Right as Charlock is about to answer, Amangeaux pleads with him not to leave her. He apologizes to his friend that hopefully she will understand what he must do, and turns back to Colliflour. Knowing that, for the first time, the secret socity that runs the world has invited him in, he replies, "You had your chance. I'm no one's pawn," and, holding the glowing Shard of the Bulb, dives into the Heart of Saprophus. As the Shard begins to light the fungal form from within, masses of the mycelium begin to pull back and quiver. The elder begins to writhe in pain, and the screams of thousands of Saprophians echo through the caverns.
Sir Colin rushes towards the still chanting from of Archbishop Camille Colliflour, attacking her. While her body initially crumbles, it rises back up taller than the knight despite her appearingly feeble form. She begins to laugh, "He's coming." Camille's body then begins to underdo a brutal transformation. Her shoulders rip out of her robes, muscles bulging. She rises even taller, and metal blades shoot out from her fingertips. Where her mouth once was is an 8-foot hole leading into a void of nothingness circumferenced by layers of spiraling, grinding metal teeth. Lifting her arms, the ground begins to shake, and similar voids of metal teeth rise up from earth. Everyone, FDA member and Saprophian alike, are terrified by this new development. Everyone except the mushroom elder, that is. As the disposals rise up from the group, Dishless is their first casualty, as he is sucked down into one of these voids, the metal teeth grinding him into nothing. A purple berry FDA member and a Saphrophian warrior quickly follow suit being sucked into the whirling blades.
Brushing off the pain of being rejected by the pastrami sandwich she loved, Karna, in a cloak of invisibility, rushes behind the monstrous form of the archbishop, stabbing her with her Reaper blade (and hits Ariana as a petty bonus). However, as the black gooey blood pours down Camille's back, it's hard to tell if she even noticed. She still doesn't seem to notice as Deli continues with a barrage from his spear. Even Amangeaux's crossbow bolt to the eye doesn't seem to faze the Avatar of Deus-Pa'Zuul. Instead she claws at Colin, her finger blades running through him like butcher knives. The mushroom elder joins avatar's side, unleashing more spores, causing Senator Gemelli to sink into a mindless hallucination. When the Avatar moves one of her disposals, unale to fight back, she is sucked in, and rended asunder.
While all this terror and destruction is happening, Raphaniel Charlock is lost within the depths of the mycelium, feeling the calm welcoming embrace he had felt five years before. Furthermore, though it had intially rejected him those years ago, now it asks him for help. Covering the Shard to protect the fungus, Charlock completely opens his mind to the Heart, allowing it access to every memory and nightmare he has ever had of Deus-Pa'Zuul, explaining that their bolete elder had brought in a being worse than the Hungry One, one bent on the utter destruction of everything. He includes Solara, follower of the Hungry One, into this mental channel too, just to show how they are all on the same side. "Better that a soul should feed someone then be thrown away."
The thoughts of the radish blend with those of the myclium, sharing its thoughts with him. It reveals that, for thousands of years, Saprophus has been more than just and underground society, but the third part of the cycle of Calorum. The Bulb gives life and light, the Hungry One consumes and gives shadow, and the Mycelium is what brings the cycle back between the two. It is the balance between the three that allows life to continue. Through this connection Raphaniel is able to understand better than anyone, the true nature of the universe, and, while he spent his entire life feeling alone, finally feels connected, not just to the Mycelium, but to the entire world of Calorum itself. He is able to sense that Saprophus was, in fact, ready to disperse its poison throughout Pangranos. However, it was under the understanding that this would feed its people for generations to come, and furthermore, save the world in the process. The turn to Deus-Pa'Zuul was very much a betrayal of their agreement. He explains to all Saprophians that Archbishop Colliflour lied to them, and that helping her and Deus-Pa'Zuul would lead only to the destruction of everything, including Saprophus. Utilizing a Saphrophain warrior that he made manifest through his healing power, the radish conveys the importance of taking out the Avatar by throwing her into its own disposal voids.
With the newfound understanding of the Mycelium, the fight continues, the fungus restoring the fallen Saphrophian warrior who aids in their battle, and later sending healing spores to their new allies. As the Avatar of Deus-Pa'Zuul tries to pull Delissandro into her maw, he hears a shout from his skáld, inspiring him to break free. However, this is at a cost. Using up all of her gifts from the Hungry One, the rot has increasingly showed on her body. Despite this, she continues to use her magic Reaper dagger toward the Avatar, causing her to turn towards the pepper, sucking her into the whirling maw, and only barely managing to excape from it. For his part, Katzon turns toward the bolote mushroom, pushing him into one of the disposal voids in the floor. Colin, screaming, sneaks up and attacks the Avatar...before promptly running back to safety. Karna, however, is not so lucky. Exhausted, she feels the suctioning pull of the Avatar's disposal blades. However, she remembers that she already died nine years before, her life since merely being a bonus. Sure, the Hungry One may be the devil, but how bad can he truly be if she was allowed to be present knowing the love and trust of friendship and romance? Her last look is to Deli before letting go, being sucked back into the whirling blades of Deus-Pa'Zuul. Deli looks back just in time to see her smiling at him before she is decimated.
Shocked at the murder of his beloved skáld, Delissandro turns all his attention attacking the former archbishop, Amangeaux also coming up with her own sweep attack...before running away to Colin. This doesn't spare them from an attack from the elder, though, spraying them and Deli with poisoned spores. All the combined damage finally begins to show on the Avatar, though, the body starting pull apart, black ooze leaking from the exposed blades within.
The Avatar of Deus-Pa'Zuul isn't done, however, shifting the disposal void from the elder to the Heart of the World itself, and another of its disposals taking out the newly created Saprophian guard. Within the Mycelium, Raphaniel Charlock is unable to escape. As he is sucked into the blades, Raphaniel muses how he wasted his life doing horrible deeds in the service of people who ultimately lied to him. He prays that, while his mind and heart are right to be disposed like garbage, let his body serve the Mycelium, the only place he has ever felt at home. As Charlock is being consumed by Deus-Pa'Zuul's blades, he mused that, in an odd way, the thing that always haunted him as the eventuality he would meet, also delivered him to be the closest he's ever been to anything that mattered.
Having lost two of his comrades, Sir Provolone resolves with Deli that there really is no other choice but to attack. Crying, shaking, and pissing himself in fear, the knight, visions of his compatriots in his head, rushes the Avatar, and in a flurry of wild blows, launches the Avatar into one of its own disposal voids. The metal upon metal grinding causes the blades to break and spark, flames bursting from both disposals, leaving nothing but mangled metal rings. Realizing the futility of its own attempts at nihilism, the elder bolete mushroom shrivels up and expires. The battle over, Amangeaux desperately tries to telepathically reach out to Raphaniel and Karna, and getting nothing in reply, falls to her knees sobbing. Delissandro goes over to Colin, and in a daze, congratulates is old friend, who accepts the compliment in just as big a daze. After asking whether the attack on Pangranos is still going to happen, Chief Katzon, for the second time, puts his can to the mycelium connecting his consciousness to the fungal heart of Saprophus. The emotions that almost overwhelms him are those of gratitude, the entire kingdom finally understanding the complexity of emotions that surface dwellers deal with every day. The Mycelium reaches up to the surface, and for the first time the sounds of the ensuing war are heard within the underground chamber. The fungus then withdraws, collapsing the tunnels it created to the surface as it does so. Wondering if the mycelium will let them go, Delissandro then gets visions of the other FDA members being ripped apart by the Saprophian citizens in order to ensure their silence. The survival of Saprophus has always centered on its secrecy from the surface world. With these visions comes the question, "Can you keep a secret?" While initially torn, he knows he can, and asks the others if they can as well. The former queen just laughs, knowing that so many people died for the secret she kept, that she had her baby's father killed so that he couldn't tell anyone that her baby was his and not the king's. She then conveys as best she can that, as keeping the secret is the only way her baby can survive, she can keep their secret too. Rounding out the group, Colin touches the mycelium for the first time, and tells it matter-of-factly, that he will keep their secret as they simply have to.
However, the Heart of the World knows it must protect its people, and the three understand that if they do not leave Saprophus now, they will stuck there forever. They run to the entrance doors, blocked by a giant petrified roll. They manage to push the boulder out of the way as the mycelium begins to expand towards them, a lone FDA agent consumed as the fungus emerges from the walls, shifting from comforting blue to deep purple. The eyes of the Saprophians shift to that purple as well, and come after the fleeing trio. While in their chase, Delissandro falls into the pit of rot that took the lives of Aaron Fontina and Flakey Smuthers, the group make it to the entrance that they arrived from, the worker Saprophian who had first spoken to them still there. However the entrance itself is completely collapsed. Amangeaux frantically pleads to the Saprophian for another way out, who tells here to follow the path that it had originally been hiding. It is also collapsed, but it's the best way out. Running as hard as he can, Deli slams into the cave in, opening their way to the surface. Chief Delissandro succumbs to his injuries. However he is stabilized by his friends just as the tunnel recollapses behind them. As the three begin the process all of what had just happened, they hear in the distance the horns of victory. The Battle of Pangranos is won, and the Ravening War is over.
In the following days, the three remaining Scrumptious Scoundrels learn of how General Rococoa of House Rocks fell in the battle. However, in a vengeful fury and focus, the armies were able to retaliate, and Count Gustavo Uvano was able to shoot a legendary arrow into the heart of the Imperator Focaccia and his nationalistic rule. In its stead, the countries of Calorum come together to create unity among the fractured lands. The Concord is forged among the nations, and performed under Bulbian Oath. This expands the power of the Church beyond Vegetania, establishing worship of the Bulb as the de facto religion of Calorum. The Pax Calorum is established to centralize and maintain balance of the military forces between the nations, bolstering the central power of the Concord. Finally, the lauded hero of the Battle of Pangranos, Gustavo Uvano, is declared emperor, ruling from The Great Pyramid of Food within Comida.
The first thing Colin Provolone does is renounce his titles, both "sir" and "skáld". In the following years, Colin works to ensure that the Santus Putris truly is no more. He spends the rest of his life hunting down any hidden pockets of the Fellowship of Destiny's Architects that are still functioning within Calorum to ensure the world is rid of them.
In the final moments of his life, Archdeacon Raphaniel Charlock gained a greater understanding of the cosmos than all his research put together, a common theme among the supposedly holy men and women of Calorum. He realized that he leaves little truth behind, most of his writings are the scrawls of a fanatic running purely on spite. His last moments of terror are of realizing the hollowness of the nature of the universe laid out in his research, and its focus on the end of days. So much of what he uncovered was completely wrong in his understanding of the Divine. However, no one but him knows that. Certainly not Archbishop Camille Colliflour's successor, Belizabeth Brassica, who finds this writings on things like the Ramsian Doctrine, the Prophidian Heresy, and the threat posed by the Sanctus Putris. She also discovers Charlock's role in ensuring King Cardoon's lack of heir, and how, in doing so, it would likely result in war. Taking that knowledge, along with the elimination of the FDA, both unknowingly from within Saprophus and knowingly through Provolone's efforts, gives Belizabeth Brassica the edge she needs to rise through the ranks of the Bulbian Church.
Chief Delissandro Katzon is never is able to resolve the willingness and excitement he had felt at being a pawn for the mechanations of others. He knows that, if he returns to Carn and his previous life, he may once again be put in that position of manipulation. So one day, Deli simply vanishes, never to be heard from again. Like his mother before him, he travels north, and lives the rest of his life as an outlander of the Meat Lands, each morning watching the Bulb rise over the Northlands. Before she died, Skáld Karna Solara left a note on Delissandro's bed before the group headed off into Saprophus. He reads it for the first time during one of these bulbrises:Amangeaux Epicée du Peche is wracked with guilt, knowing she should have died instead of Karna Solara. She thinks about the evil that she and Raphaniel Charlock had done in their lives, and just wanted to disappear. However, she remembers the safehouse they had stayed in in Comida all those years ago. After finding her way in, she searches the place for anything Karna may have left behind, of her intel, or her network, anything. Knowing that she no longer had any power from her station, with Karna's information, she might be able to fix things from the inside. Scattered throughout notebooks and hidden in floorboards are all sorts of onion vellum covered in Solara's seemingly unintelligible chicken stratch. However, when stacked together, Amangeaux is able to see a list of ledgers, balances, and all the secrets that Karna hadn't taken advantage of yet. While there is no amount next to it, among the names is that of Van Pinnonoir, the father of du Peche's son, and the reference to the false evidence that was planted to condemn him. After gently tearing that part out of the book and burning it, the former queen takes the leverage back to Uvano. She tells him that, as his spymaster, she could use the information to do great good for him behind the scenes. The new emperor accepts the former queen's offer, and in the coming days, she learns to disguise herself and carry false images of her self just as her former friend once did. As she gains more and more skill as a spy, she speaks to Karna every day, tellling her how happy she is that Solara found love before she died."My chief,
Baseline trust. The only secret I have left is that I love you, and I'm not brave enough to say it to your face. But if you call, I will come. Always. Thank you. Thank you for your friendship. Thank you for your trust. And thank you for giving me something to believe in beyond the horrifying inevitability of the Hungry One's embrace."
― Signed, Skáld Karna Solara of Scoville
Outro[]
In the wake of all this, the time of great peace does ensue between the nations as old kings pass their thrones to new generations of heroes, one such being the surviving heir to Castle Candy, and his burgeoning royal family of House Rocks.
But that's another story.
Timeline & Locations within Calorum[]
Timeline[]
- The year of the Bulb 1195
- The Battle of Pangranos
- Several days after the Battle of Pangranos
- The end of the Ravening War
- The establishment of the Concordant Empire
- Crowning of Emperor Gustavo Uvano
- Establishment of The Great Pyramid of Food (Comida, Fructera) as nation capital
- Creation of the Pax Calorum
- Establishment of the Church of the Bulb as national religion
- The Battle of Pangranos
Ceresia[]
Fructera[]
- Comida (mentioned)
- The Great Pyramid of Food (mentioned)
The Meat Lands[]
- Carn (mentioned)
Saprophus[]
- The Heart of the World
- The under hollows
- The rot chamber
Featured Characters[]
The Scrumptious Scoundrels[]
- Amangeaux Epicée du Peche
- Colin Provolone
- Chief Delissandro Katzon
- Skáld Karna Solara (†)
- Archdeacon Raphaniel Charlock (†)
New[]
- bolete mushroom elder (†)
- unnamed Saprophian guards (†)
- unnamed purple berry FDA member (†)
- unnamed FDA members (†)
Returning[]
- Senator Ariana Gemelli (†)
- Archbishop Camille Colliflour (†)
- Darren “Dishless” Quichéi (†)
- Emperor Gustavo Uvano
- unnamed blueberry FDA guard (†)
- unnamed FDA guard (†)
- unnamed Saprophian worker
Mentioned[]
- King Amethar of House Rocks (implied)
- King Arthur Cardoon (†)
- Pontifex Belizabeth Brassica
- Chieftess Cleva Katzon
- Imperator Focaccia (†)
- General Rococoa of House Rocks (†)
- Van Pinnonoir (†)
- Amangeaux's unnamed wine grape baby
- unnamed Saprophian civilians
Quotes[]
- "What is food if never on is fed when, with strange disposals, even death lies dead?" - Archdeacon Raphaniel Charlock
Trivia[]
- Clips from the trailer of A Crown of Candy are shown in the episode's closing monologue.