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childrenofbahamutlogs2025-02-01 12:10 pm
diceofthegods) wrote in childrenofbahamutlogs2025-02-01 12:10 pm
EVENT #2: BRAIN BOGGLING
A CRASH IN THE NIGHT
In the dark hours of a snowy early morning, a sudden BOOM can be heard all across Town. It is swiftly followed by sounds of warping metal and then a screeching crash. Curious, albeit groggy, residents emerge only to find a smoking wreck just a mile outside of Town.
The strange craft appears to be almost nautiloid in shape with wrenched, broken tendrils streaming out the opening.
Much of it is metal although some of it almost seems... organic.
Those who with to get a closer look will be met by Charlie and Dimitri who are already on the job. They request curious onlookers keep their distance since this craft is, without a doubt, tremendously dangerous.
Later in the day, there appears to be an outfit of officials coming from the west to investigate and clean up the wreckage. Thankfully(?), you will all find out soon enough what's going on.
The strange craft appears to be almost nautiloid in shape with wrenched, broken tendrils streaming out the opening.
Much of it is metal although some of it almost seems... organic.
Those who with to get a closer look will be met by Charlie and Dimitri who are already on the job. They request curious onlookers keep their distance since this craft is, without a doubt, tremendously dangerous.
Later in the day, there appears to be an outfit of officials coming from the west to investigate and clean up the wreckage. Thankfully(?), you will all find out soon enough what's going on.
INVESTIGATION & PROTECTION
Deathcard Cabin by Jonah Senzel
4:07 / 13:06
▶︎
From the Inscryption OST: A unique and haunting sound paired with a unique and haunting game.
Charlie reports to the citizens of Town that an Illithid cargo transport. The pilot did not survive the crash, but they appeared to be transporting some kind of new breed of Intellect Devourers.
"We do not yet know what this new breed is capable of, but..."
Charlie does give everyone a rundown of what an Illithid and what an Intellect Devourer is, what they are capable of, and a keen warning to tread lightly. Many dead ones were discovered in the cargo but several of the enclosures were damaged in the crash and the likelihood of escapees is high.
Charlie reiterates: These creatures are to be killed on sight, or contained until someone can kill it. If you are not confident in your combat abilities, please remain in your homes as much as possible and seal all openings to your dwelling. Those who are capable though are urged to begin patrols of Town alongside Slayd, Dimitri and himself to ensure that Town and the surrounding areas are safe.
Please travel in pairs or groups, do not be alone! Attack from a distance when possible. Hoshiko will offer her assistance as a markswoman as well by picking off any Intellect Devourers from a distance that she can for those that are forced to travel alone. (Don't worry about any jokes she makes of her service not being cheap though. Charlie wouldn't actually let her charge you anything.)
Unfortunately, not even they can predict the blizzard that rolls through Town in the midst of all this. If you happen to see anything skittering through the snow, don't panic too much. It could just be a tiny woodland creature looking for a warm burrow to hide away in!
At least you hope it is.
"We do not yet know what this new breed is capable of, but..."
Charlie does give everyone a rundown of what an Illithid and what an Intellect Devourer is, what they are capable of, and a keen warning to tread lightly. Many dead ones were discovered in the cargo but several of the enclosures were damaged in the crash and the likelihood of escapees is high.
Charlie reiterates: These creatures are to be killed on sight, or contained until someone can kill it. If you are not confident in your combat abilities, please remain in your homes as much as possible and seal all openings to your dwelling. Those who are capable though are urged to begin patrols of Town alongside Slayd, Dimitri and himself to ensure that Town and the surrounding areas are safe.
Please travel in pairs or groups, do not be alone! Attack from a distance when possible. Hoshiko will offer her assistance as a markswoman as well by picking off any Intellect Devourers from a distance that she can for those that are forced to travel alone. (Don't worry about any jokes she makes of her service not being cheap though. Charlie wouldn't actually let her charge you anything.)
Unfortunately, not even they can predict the blizzard that rolls through Town in the midst of all this. If you happen to see anything skittering through the snow, don't panic too much. It could just be a tiny woodland creature looking for a warm burrow to hide away in!
At least you hope it is.
PROMPT #3
Hybrid intellect devourers are unique from the regular ones in that the goal is not to kill their target, but to gather intelligence and act as a kind of spy network.
They will flee when confronted directly by greater numbers, but will attack a lone target. They do this by jumping at the target's head and wrapping a wet tendril around their neck. They will choke who they've wrapped around if anyone tries to remove it. They are also far more likely to try and attack sleeping target (hence the advice to keep your homes closed!).
These hybrids emit spores that will keep the target asleep during feeding. Their primary goal appears to be infiltrating the targets' minds and absorbing some of their memories. The target will have their mind left mostly intact... though they may suffer short term memory loss, confusion, distress, fatigue and head pain.
Here's where the fun starts!
Once one of these critters has fed on someone, they are onto their next target. When a fed Intellect Devourer feeds from another target, that target may absorb some of the previous target's memories. This can span across multiple victims and be erratic in whose memories taint whose mind. The memories will cross-pollinate in the form of dreams or waking visions and hallucinations.
If one of these creatures is killed, it will explode, releasing a powerful psionic wave and the memories it had absorbed from any recent targets. Anyone within ten (10) yards of the dying creature will be afflicted with extreme head pain in the short term and also witness the memories of it's previous victims.
Enjoy your muddled memories and leggy brain-hunting!
The outfit of people who have come to investigate are from New Svihelen's disaster containment squad and are investigating the hybrid creatures and the possible reason for an Illithid ship to crash here of all places. Right now, the running theory is that interference from the selfsame summoning circle that brought you all here could have caused the interplanar navigation systems of the ship to malfunction but nothing has been determined yet.
Eventually, these creatures will all be rounded up and taken care of. They are persistent and stealthy though in their efforts to survive above all else. Charlie assures that they're doing all they can to make Town safe once and for all but it will take some time.
They will flee when confronted directly by greater numbers, but will attack a lone target. They do this by jumping at the target's head and wrapping a wet tendril around their neck. They will choke who they've wrapped around if anyone tries to remove it. They are also far more likely to try and attack sleeping target (hence the advice to keep your homes closed!).
These hybrids emit spores that will keep the target asleep during feeding. Their primary goal appears to be infiltrating the targets' minds and absorbing some of their memories. The target will have their mind left mostly intact... though they may suffer short term memory loss, confusion, distress, fatigue and head pain.
Here's where the fun starts!
Once one of these critters has fed on someone, they are onto their next target. When a fed Intellect Devourer feeds from another target, that target may absorb some of the previous target's memories. This can span across multiple victims and be erratic in whose memories taint whose mind. The memories will cross-pollinate in the form of dreams or waking visions and hallucinations.
If one of these creatures is killed, it will explode, releasing a powerful psionic wave and the memories it had absorbed from any recent targets. Anyone within ten (10) yards of the dying creature will be afflicted with extreme head pain in the short term and also witness the memories of it's previous victims.
Enjoy your muddled memories and leggy brain-hunting!
The outfit of people who have come to investigate are from New Svihelen's disaster containment squad and are investigating the hybrid creatures and the possible reason for an Illithid ship to crash here of all places. Right now, the running theory is that interference from the selfsame summoning circle that brought you all here could have caused the interplanar navigation systems of the ship to malfunction but nothing has been determined yet.
Eventually, these creatures will all be rounded up and taken care of. They are persistent and stealthy though in their efforts to survive above all else. Charlie assures that they're doing all they can to make Town safe once and for all but it will take some time.
Notes
⁂ The partner plotting post for this event/quarter is also up!
⁂ Additionally, we have a state of the game post available for people to read about updates, clarifications, and housekeeping items!
⁂ If you have any further questions or feedback about this event specifically, please comment here!
⁂ For even more ambient event music, you can check out this this playlist!
⁂ Full Navigation ⁂
⁂ Additionally, we have a state of the game post available for people to read about updates, clarifications, and housekeeping items!
⁂ If you have any further questions or feedback about this event specifically, please comment here!
⁂ For even more ambient event music, you can check out this this playlist!
cw: Violence, death
Time stops, and then reverses. The spear backs out of Dimitri's stomach. The blood spray rushing back and the skin repairing. He had not moved fast enough. He could not move fast enough, not for Byleth to get his attention in time. Not for him to intervene in those seconds.
The scene plays again, Byleth lashing out with the length of the whip-like Sword of the Creator. He tries to parry the incoming spear with the edge, but it falls just a few inches short even fully extended. The spear goes in, the blood comes out, plunging deep and Dimitri makes that awful guttural, gurgling sound.
Again.
Time stops, and then reverses. The spear backs out of Dimitri's stomach. The blood spray rushing back and the skin repairing. This time he aims for the wielder. Perhaps if he can reach him, or even distract him enough? He tries. The Sword of the Creator lashes out again, falling short, but creating a cracking sound near the target. The man turns, but the spear still goes in, the blood still comes out, and Dimitri makes that heartbreaking sound.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Time stops, and then reverses. The spear backs out of Dimitri's stomach. The blood spray rushing back and the skin repairing. Byleth is exhausted. This time he reaches not for his sword, but the dagger stowed in his belt. He throws it, and it embeds in the enemy's eye. The man cries out, and drops his spear. Dimitri turns now to deliver his own for the killing blow.
Byleth breathes out, wanting nothing more than to drop to his knees in that moment. But that is just one enemy. Just one of his beloved students saved in one instance.
This is a war.
no subject
Battles are something that Themis is intimately familiar with. That particular brand of carnage that is all-out war. His own life circumstances allowed him to see far more than what a mortal would have been able to, much like it appears Byleth was able to. Rewriting the past seconds by seconds in order to try and save those dearest to him.
Pushing beyond limits until the fight is done, refusing to allow for any other outcome, it is a familiar thing.
Themis watches. Understands. And grits his teeth to endure whatever is to come next.
no subject
Eventually though, he begins to soften. He begins to understand.
He begins to love.
The rest is chaos. Some of it, Themis knows. Some of it, he doesn't. Layers upon layers of inherited memories. The confusion and conflict of being uncertain if his feelings are even his own any more.
Themis will wake with a pounding, screaming headache, and the alarmingly familiar sense of being... a multitude. Something he has unfortunately experienced before.
The loss of the self.
Like a vibrating image, eventually, each reality slides back into place, forming a whole.
no subject
But then comes the rest.
Themis knew of what happened, intellectually. It is entirely another thing to experience it first-hand. It rips at his psyche in a way none of the other memories or explosions thus far have been able to, driving sharp stabs of remembered agony deep into his marrow. It mixes with the pain of the present, pain that is not his, and for a single horrifying instant, his sense of reality slips from his fingertips.
It takes everything Themis has to wrestle the frayed threads of what this world should be back into his present state of being. Leaning clear of Byleth, he retches onto the floor, the violence of the motion - while terrible - manages to anchor him into his own body. There are tears on his face that he roughly scrubs away with a sleeve, spitting to clear his mouth before turning back to Byleth.
Having something to do is all that he can cling to to push himself. A goal. A loved one to help. He will have to care for himself later, to process everything that he bore witness to, that he had experienced, but for now he compartmentalizes and slams the lid tightly shut on top of all of it.
He pulls Byleth into his lap, stroking at his hair. Hopefully he wakes soon. When he does, he'll be treated to Themis looking absolutely haggard.
no subject
Vision slowly coming into a wavering focus.
"Themis?" He groans, even at the sound and volume of his own voice. The look on the man's face, pallid and slicked with sweat, and the smell of sick...
"You look. Terrible? What- what happened?" He tries to sit up only to be quickly thwarted by the way his balance whirls when he moves.
no subject
"I killed the creature that was attempting to feed on your memory. It, subsequently, detonated next to us, causing psychic damage as well as dragging my consciousness into some of what I assume are your more vicious memories." Understatement, but still.
Though he looks awful he has strength enough to steady Byleth as he wavers in place. "Be still, please. I have been told that the experience afterwards is extremely disorienting."
no subject
"I'm sorry you had to... to see all of that." No doubt no worse than what Themis had endured himself, this he knows for a fact. That said, he surely doesn't need any more trauma to add to the bucket.
"Please. Try to pay it no mind. As much as you can. It is far in the past now."
no subject
"I am no stranger to war, and the horrors found therein."
no subject
They will, at the very least, be all right. Albeit a bit worse for wear on either end, but mutual support is key.
"Still. I wish it weren't so."
no subject
"I feel the same for you, dearest one. Would that we could pluck the suffering from one another's histories, but instead we must make do with comfort and care well after all has been done."
A deep inhale comes, followed by a slow, slow exhale.
"But I would not change my own fate. It allowed me to meet with you, after all," spoken with exactly as sappy of a tone as the words would imply, voice less roughened now that he is more stable. "Is there aught I may do for you?"
no subject
"I agree. I wouldn't be here were it not for everything that has happened to me. Suffering is a hard teacher, but one that eventually becomes a more distant ache. The reminder to not waver." He's not as flowery with his language, and he is fine with that. He will leave the poetry to those it is more suited to.
"Come to bed with me. Just- just to rest. I think we both deserve some... undisturbed rest." He moves to gingerly push himself up, turning to help Themis with him. "Does that sound all right? Just a nice nap, curled up with each other, yes?"
no subject
"I would enjoy having your head upon my chest, yes." Byleth has always enjoyed hearing his heart beat, steady and strong, while he relaxes. And the weight of his beloved has quite a bit of appeal to him right now. He guides them both to Byleth's bedroom and takes a moment to lock and seal all doors and windows.
The vigilance will allow him true rest.
After, he shrugs off his robes and footwear, leaving him only in his podea. He rests his mask upon the pile of clothing as one final act before slipping beneath the blankets. It takes a brief moment of shuffling to find a comfortable position for his wings but afterwards he is able to settle.
no subject
Gratefully, Byleth sheds his own garments until he remains in his smallclothes and crawls into bed, slotting himself into the smaller man despite the extra appendages and horns. It's always been easy to get comfortable with him, hasn't it?
In this world and the last. The added fur and feathers makes it even more so. He goes about to gently trace his claws around Themis' scalp and through his hair. He recalls that he quite likes this too.
no subject
Not a purr, not quite. Nor is it quite a rumble.
It's something halfway between the two, and though he does not cease it once he notices, there is a catch in Themis's breathing when he becomes aware of it. He does not tense, no, and it is obvious that his enjoyment of the scratching and petting has been made stronger by his draconic traits.
His cheeks color, and his voice comes as a whisper. "My apologies for the disturbance."