maskormenacelogs | And never mind that noise you heard

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And never mind that noise you heard

WHO: Everyone who wants
WHERE: A charming De Chima Park
WHEN: September 2-9th
WHAT: The tale of the Gibbering Mouther and you
WARNINGS: NPC (possibly PC) death, body horror

De Chima, city of technology, of medical advancements, and of.. horrible gibbering monstrosities of madness and mayhem? That’s right, for this week only, the beautiful face below has taken up residence under the bridges of a local De Chima park, only a few minutes drive from downtown.

Yeah. Heroes are seriously needed.

Those, imPorts and natives alike, that come within a quarter of a mile of the beast will begin hearing maddening whispers, a cacophony of voices and guttural sounds from the mass of mouths. These whispers can have a few initial effects: the person simply freezes, standing still and becoming entranced with the noise until someone helps them; moving in a random direction in utter confusion; or attacking the nearest person in their distress. Finally, though, the creature will compel them to come closer, closer. Once people come too close, the monster will absorb them into its wriggling mass, killing them and adding another horrible mouth to the whispering creature.

Those strong of mind or will can resist simply being absorbed, but will have to contend with the many bites the monster can inflict, as well as blinding spittle — that’s right, all of the creature’s mouths can spit globs of nasty up to a distance of 15 feet that explode like a flash grenade and blind anyone looking at that moment. For any imPort that does get eaten, the mouther will find the nanites too much for it and will spit the body out (after a light, lethal gnawing. but at least you aren't part of the horror and can do your on respawn). Also, the ground around the mouther is incredibly hard to walk through. We're suggesting range attacks, but follow your heart.

On the bright side, you’re heroes! You can fight this, you can win. It’s a tough monster, but with enough effort imPorts can kill it. When the creature vanishes it will leave behind all the loot (wallets, watches, all other non-biological items) that people absorbed into it were carrying. Curiously, these items also include some (strictly non-magical) items that seem out of time — gold coins, maces, quarterstaffs and other fantasy medieval paraphernalia.

On the downside, the monster came in with re-spawn. An hour after being killed, another one will ooze its way into the universe under a nearby bridge. Some tag-team monster hunter shifts may be needed until this dimensional instability ends.

Have fun, and ask any questions on the OOC post here!

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"I've only ever heard of them in stories. I'd imagine if we can just inflict enough damage to the body itself, it'll die. You wouldn't happen to have anything explosive, would you?" He frowns, shaking his head. "These damn whispers. I've got a few spells that should at least weaken it, or keep it from spitting at us."

He pauses. "By the way, should things go badly for me, get away from my body as quickly as you can."

"I do. You're sure it's not... sentient?"

He hesitated to kill people. These days.

Most of the time. At the other person's words, Oliver cocked his head.

"Alright. But why?" That was a worrisome statement.

He stops himself from rolling his eyes. Heroes. He'll never understand their hesitancy to kill anything that might be sentient, no matter how much of a clear, active threat it is. "Definitely not."

"Because I will explode," he says simply, pulling a bit of spider web out of a pouch and chanting words in a different language. Thick strands of webbing shoot out from his hands and bind the Mouther under the bridge, between two of the supports. Now, at least, it can only move a few feet. That doesn't stop it from luring people to it with whispers, though.

"Alright." Hey, he tried, okay?

Oliver blinks at that. "Huhn. Okay. Then I will get away as fast as I can."

As the other casts... a spell? Huhn. Different magic from what he has seen, but not bad. As he cast a spell, Oliver pulled out an explosive head, fixed it to an arrow and took careful aim.

When one of the mouths opened in the central area, he fired, hurling the explosive into the beasts.

A moment later, a huge chunk of the beasts exploded out, one side of it turning into gore and torn flesh.

it was still moving, though, and he swore. At least it looked hurt bad.

"Tough bastard."

Kang smiles wryly, surprised that it's taken so calmly. Most humans have a different sort of reaction to finding out how draconians die.

"Well, we know it can bleed. That means it can die." More chanting, but this time it's a bolt of lightning that jumps from his fingers, filling the air with the scent of ozone and hitting the Mouther on its opposite side. Several of the mouths make a horrible screeching noise as another chunk is badly burned, but it still doesn't die.

Oliver has dealt with some shit, okay? It will be something he will be more weirded out by later, when his combat brain is down.

Oliver nods as he sees the lightning affect it, and follows suit, firing an arrow that sends a hefty electrical charge into it, burning and sending more screams and murmurs into the air. It seems to stagger, and list to one side, and Oliver starts hoping they might be ablet o stop it.

"It does not seem to like electricity at all."

"My daughter would kill to have arrows like those," he smiles, shooting another lightning bolt that sends parts of it flying into the air. By now, it's moving weakly, and there's blood and ichor everywhere. "What else can they do?"

Oliver grins, then sobers. "Is she here?" He dreads the answer, knowing the pain of being separated from a child all too well.

"This, for one." He attached an arrow he had specially made, and then aims carefully. With a final motion, he looses it, and it flies true, and right before it hits, splits, sparking out several smaller arrowheads that in turn shatter impact, sending incendiary pieces of metal burning into the creature.

It roars, and rises up as high as it can, it's screaming increasing then ceasing as it collapsed into a pile of stinking, and broken, goo.

"That worked. Finally. I hope that was the only one here." he moved toward it slowly.

Kang shakes his head, his voice a bit wistful, "No, she isn't. My world apparently isn't very popular with the Porter." He watches as the arrow splits, making an appreciative noise. "If she ever does show up, I'll be sure to introduce you. There aren't many draconians that specialize in archery. We tend to gravitate more towards blades."

Finally, it's done. His snout wrinkles at the smell, "Definitely dead. I don't think these things move in packs. Every story I've ever heard mentioned only encountering one."

Oliver nods, knowing that pain. "I left my child behind, too, back home."

Of course, he had left his daughter behind before he had come here, but that was neither here nor there.

"I'd be honored to meet her. If she is anything like her dad, she sounds like a good person to know." He nods to Kang.

He nods again and shifts forward a little, wary, eyeing the corpse. "I'm still new here, Is there anyone we can call to collect this... thing?"

"It's better that she isn't here. She has younglings of her own, and as much as I miss her, I would rather she didn't know what this feels like. Knowing that we aren't missing anything at home only helps a little," his wings rustle slightly.

Then, he smiles. "Hopefully one day it will all be voluntary."

His snout wrinkles further and he scratches his jaw as he considers. "The police, I'd imagine. Though, they're probably already working on keeping civilians from the area."

"That makes sense. I know that feeling." He shakes his head, feeling odd that he had resolved to leave even before this, but feeling like, in a way, he was living on borrowed time.

"Good idea." Oliver nods and fires off several texts to the police non-emergency lines, knowing several units are in the area.

As he stepped closer, he noticed a fglint in one of the wounds and slipped closer, slowly sure the thing was dead. Glove on, he reaches in, and pulls out a small handful of gold coins.

"That's different. This thing has gold inside it?"

He shakes his head to clear it from gloomy thoughts and carefully approaches the corpse, "Times like this, I envy humans and their weaker senses. I won't ever forget this smell." A pause. "Gold? Why would it have gold inside it?"

"I wear a small item as part of my outfit, it blocks the smell, mostly." He was very, very glad about that."

He wiped the gold coins off with a baby wipe he pulls from one compartment as he shows them to the other man. He'd never seen their like before and they had a crown on one side and a faded face on the other, most of them, though a few were a different shape with what looked like a dragon on one side and an old man on the other.

"I think they may come from former victims..."

"Smart."

Frowning, he takes a few of them to get a better look. "Hmm. Real gold, so definitely not from here. As far as I can tell, they're not Krynnish, either. At least, if they are, they're either not from one of the major nations or they're from a different time period."

"That makes sense. Who knows exactly what world these things are from? Or time?"

Looking closer, he spots something else in the wounds. Reaching in carefully, he pulls out a few wallets and jewelry.

"Definitely from victims. Apparently this thing has fed... on more than one world." He nods to himself, putting the things next to the body/

He nods, picking out what was once a rather nice black leather jacket. It's clearly from a biker, with a few patches intact despite the shredding. "At least they'll be able to identify some of the victims."

"Good." He waves at the police above, one of whom has been sneaking glances from the bridge as they were working, and the man nods back.

"They can take the cleaning up and contacting victims part. I think our part here is done."

"Right," he grunts, standing back up and wiping his hands on his kilt. "Unless they need a statement from us."

"True. Either way, I'm glad that worked as well as it did. The reports I had heard did not make me hopeful."

It's nice that something went smoothly for once.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

And never mind that noise you heard

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Oliver can finish it off!

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So laaaate

Slowtime is love!