Night 3
News of Varl's death did not reach Aloy, so when she found Sona and the rest of the war party, she assured the War Chief that Varl was guarding the gates to their home. Sona was relieved, having just lost one child. She was not ready to lose another.
On her journey to track down the war party, Aloy had met several interesting characters. Everyone seemed to need or want something from her. She spoke with a man who only appeared as a hologram, projected through her Focus. He spoke in vague terms and did not give his name, only implied that she needed to track down the Eclipse, and that he could assist her further from there. Though he was offering help, Aloy could not shake the feeling that there was something off about this man.
Her first priority was to find the killers who had attacked The Proving and almost taken out Sona's war party. She tracked them to the Red Echoes, overlooking the Eclipse campsite in Devil's Grief. Here the land was tainted, the machines had become corrupt. A deadly red light emanated from the seams in their metal bodies. They listened only to the voice of the Buried Shadow - even she could not override them.
She set off to scout the Eclipse camp, leaving Sona and the War Party to make preparations. The camp was quiet - too quiet. As she stalked from tent to tent, it became clear that the Eclipse were no longer here. They had left in a hurry - had someone tipped them off?
A metallic scraping alerted her to the presence of a machine. She turned to meet a horrifying sight. This machine was unlike anything she had ever seen before. It towered over her, moving towards her on six stout legs, several large weapons attached to its head. Unlike most machines, it did not resemble any animal - it only recalled images of death.
It started firing at her with everything it had - multiple turrets, a grenade launcher, even a flamethrower. Aloy attempted to flee, aware that there was no way she could take on this beast on her own. But there was nowhere for her to hide, the landscape around her too flat, and she had strayed too far from the war party camp.
Up on the ridge, War-Chief Sona heard the sounds of turret fire, and looked down into the valley. She watched Aloy turn to face the machine. She watched the turret fire rain down all around her. A moment later, she closed her eyes, but the images played on the backs of her eyelids.
The Seeker had fallen.
Dead is @Dinashadow, who was Aloy, the hero of our story and a mason JOAT. Each night she could choose to override the machines, scavenge an ability from the dead, hoard an item, or listen in on a PM.
The Seeker is gone. Who now will rise up to defeat the Eclipse and their Buried Shadow, before they plunge the world into darkness? And what of this man, who had known so much of the Eclipse, but shared so little before her untimely demise?
The practical challenges that lie before us are staggering in both scale and complexity, but not insurmountable.