Cycle 8
Your Death March in April
This thread is now marked as [18+] for explicit gore and disturbing content. Proceed at your own risk.
Between Kiryuu's leaving, an announcement from a battle-worn Levi, and the expeditionaires frantically searching for their friends, the entire camp exploded with activity. With each passing minute, the number of players began to thin out—that which was Levi's ideal scenario had become Childress' fear. She lived in a completely different world from that of Travelers', one full of beauty, wonder, and unimaginable cruelty, one where she couldn't simply log out when things get tough.
Childress sighed. The pearly ivory vow hanging about her neck felt a lot heavier that night, carrying the deaths of those under her charge and that of the exploration party. She wished she had the freedom afforded to Kiryuu and the other Starcalled. However, someone had to make the hard decisions, to bear the weight of their unrealized dreams and an unfulfilled promise of a better future.
Childress clutched her whistle tightly and raised it to her mouth before she passed a low-pitched and mournful call through her piece, signaling the beginning of the death march. There were calls for landers who couldn't be revived to stay behind. She found the concept utterly ridiculous. A Whistle always stays with her company when death has set his eyes on her. If Urukkhan found her this time, she would answer death's call with a sword through his smug face. It's only fair, right?
When it was time to head out, if your awareness is 40+, Misha from the Lions would have asked you to work with other guides to escort what's left of the expedition toward the Kurungaar Mother by following the markers Kiryuu had left behind.
The trip that followed took you through the twisting and winding of the weaves and knee-deep mud fields as the midnight sprinkling of rain raced the beads of sweat down your face. Your path put you on a cross-path through some of the
wonders the explorers had treaded, but you had neither daylight nor the time to admire them.
After an undisclosed amount of time, you finally reached the last of Kiryuu's markers, which was at the border of the Tangleweaves, from which a sharp transition between elevations stopped you midtrack. You had arrived at the edge of a massive crater that dipped downward in an inverted cone with giant rocks, roots, and other natural obstacles that peppered the slope. At the center of this conal recess was the corpse the supposed demon corpse kneeling on one knee. Everything up from the waist of the vaguely humanoid form had been stripped clean of flesh. Its gargantuan horned skull was propped up by a thick, spiky spine connecting the exposed skeletal structure to the bottom half, where only some flesh and stringy gray tendons clung to the decayed frame. If you looked hard enough, you might have been able to make out remnants of the demon's ruby-red skin that had not been claimed by decomposition.
Even without magical sensitivity, you would have been debilitated by the visible vortex of magical energy emitting from the corpse. For those of you with any sort of magical sensitivity, you would have been able to feel the magical light burning a hole in your eyes, a viscous pungence that tickled the back of your throat, an overwhelming rot stink, and needled-pricking on your skin regardless of how far away from the demon you might have been.
The more observant of you would have seen Kiryuu sprinting toward the writhing mass of insects beelining toward the demon corpse while a Magia chased after him. The closer to the tainted carcass the giant crawling insect got, the more erratic its flying kin became. At a certain point, the swarm of fliers between the Mother's back folds spewed out like locusts above their carrier. Some of them splatted themselves on the rocky hindrances. Some attacked themselves while others ripped off their own head then the Red Fever rage hit.
Finally, with the flying swarm repositioning itself, you could see the missing explorers trapped inside one of the folds on the back of the carrier.
Shit. Something that big shouldn't have been able to get here this quickly… Shit!
When she noticed the swarm's strange behavior and their carrier's heavily damaged lower half, everything instantly clicked in her head. The Kurungaar Mother had probably reached a point where it no longer cared about self-preservation and had become a puppet dancing to the fever's tune.
Childress blew her whistle to beckon the group's attention. Kiryuu, who was fighting off the vicious flying insects, heard the call and looked up and frantically waved at the rest of the group.
Before any calls was made, the massive crawler managed to close the distance between itself and the demon's corpse. Then, without wasting a second, the insect lunged at the corpse and began devouring the corpse, gnashing the bones and slurping up the flesh.
Seconds after the Kurungaar Mother did, the horns from the demon's skull burst out of the insect's head. It didn't take very long before the insect's head began enlarging itself like a balloon until it exploded, splattering a cyan liquid everywhere as a wave of magical energy passed over the expedition, throwing those who could not withstand the supernatural force to the ground (flavor: make a Save (Will – DC 65) or be knocked down). The detonated crawler stood utterly still for a few seconds afterward as if death had taken hold of it. However, it wasn't long before life returned to its ligament as it pointed its still-intact mouth flaps to the sky and let out a horrifying screech.
HEY! GET IN POSITION NOW!
(She shouted.)
YOU LOT, WITH ME. YOU LOT OVER THERE, ON LEVI AND MISHA. YOU LOT BACK THERE, ON CHAD AND TREVIS, STICK TOGETHER WITH YOUR SQUAD AND GET DOWN THERE. WE CAN'T RETREAT NOW GET TO WORK BEFORE IT STARTS ATTACKING!
Meanwhile… for those of you who has been captured by the Kurungaar Mother, you were unable to escape the fate that had completely and utterly crushed the brightest smiles among you (
@Kamala Graham). When the Kurungaar devoured the demon corpse, you had the front row seat to yourselves as you watched the explosion up close. The intensity of the magic felt as if your entire being was like a completed jigsaw puzzle being thrown on the floor, once it was broken, it was going to take a lot of time to put it back together.
[ The Narrator has redeemed an unclaimed nat-1 from Cycle-2 rolled by Lucy. ]
As if fate had come back to claim its due, one of you had been chosen (1d15 (1) = 1
@Shane). The moment you felt yourself skipping the 7
th, 8
th, and 9
th stack of Red Fever and gained the Red Fever (10) condition, you feel every cell in your body screaming as the demonic magic welled up inside you. Others may not be aware, but it had become evidently clear to you that fate had given you a role on the big stage. Your body began to engorge starting from your toes. The magic was forcing your cells to divide ad infinitum as your health began to tick down toward zero, to almost everyone there except yourself.
The moment the magic inside you ruptures, it won't discriminate against friends or foes, but could this be a blessing in disguise? Only you can make the final decision: will you stay or will you go?
