childrenofbahamutlogs | EVENT #2: BRAIN BOGGLING

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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.

INVESTIGATION & PROTECTION

Deathcard Cabin by Jonah Senzel

4:07 / 13:06

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Click here to listen.

From the Inscryption OST: A unique and haunting sound paired with a unique and haunting game.

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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.

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.

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!

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Maybe he'll come out of one of these without tears and/or snot spilling over his face one of these days! Maybe someone has nice memories without entirely new kinds of terrible things happening in them! Rosie is not one of these people, and he did have a feeling that she'd had it rough, but... he would have preferred that she didn't and he's upset about it!

He rubs at his face without thinking about it; the echo of that guy's hand left a crawling feeling worse than the psychic headache.

"Forget about me, are you okay?!"

She does have some nice memories, she'd argue, but the bad ones... do definitely tend to stick out more. Don't they? Maybe she'll make it up to someone by them getting a nice memory of hers. Or, you know, just sharing one authentically.

"I- Well, yeah? Aside from the headache and some scratches, I think I'm fine." Her brow furrows as she zeroes in on Popp a little more intensely. "Wait- what did you see?" That has to be what he's talking about, right? She should have figured, but ugh. Her memories just being out there for all to witness is really frustrating.

""There was this guy, he..."

On the surface it doesn't even sound that bad when he tries to find the words to describe it! She got grabbed and chewed out for not focusing on her job, which is a painfully familiar experience.

"...You were so happy about your music, but he was so mad about it."

Ah. Popp doesn't even need to describe him and Rosie knows. "Yeah, that was Charlie." It must have looked bad, right? It always did from the outside. But she saw so much of him that no one else did; they were special to each other, they only understood each other in certain ways.

Or, at least, that's what she told herself for a long, long time. Since coming here? She hasn't been so sure.

"He got frustrated with me getting distracted from what we were trying to do," she confirms. "But, like- All relationships have bumps, y'know? We fought about it sometimes, sure, but he was just trying to keep me focused on what was most important."

What Popp is trying hard not to think about, and failing, is an old conversation about women, and how of course he'd want to get with a sexy babe who did whatever he said. Apparently, in order to get a woman to obey your every whim, you have to be kind of...

"Yeah, but, Rosie, the way you felt about him..."

He closes his eyes and says the next part all in one breath, because he never talks about this stuff. It makes him feel weak and small to admit that it bothers him, and he probably would've let it slip away if he hadn't just had that very specific burst of self-loathing.

"It was kinda like the way I'd feel around my dad right before he'd haul off and hit me."

Edited 2025-03-06 03:08 (UTC)

Oh.

There were a lot of things she anticipated him saying, but that definitely wasn't one of them. His life seemed so whimsical and full of adventure that she... had a hard time imagining the harsher realities of her world applying to others. Part of her hates that it's just universal, really, that sometimes parents are cruel to their children. That there isn't a place to escape that sort of thing.

But another part of her - an awful, ugly part - is almost a little glad because it does mean no matter where she goes, she isn't truly alone. It's not that she would wish it on anyone, of course, and obviously wants the opposite to be true. Yet, the hint of relief buried beneath all that is there too. "I..." she tries to start, wondering what she could even say.

"I guess I didn't recognize," she manages, "it was kind of the same." While she doesn't clarify, she is speaking to a similar thing that Popp experienced with her own father. "The, like- Anxious anticipation, almost, of waiting for that other shoe to drop. It always would, eventually, but I just- I thought if I did better, if I learned and tried harder then he wouldn't- Maybe he'd see, someday, why I loved music like I did." The further away from all of it she gets though, the more she starts to wonder if he ever would have.

If she would have ever been enough to make that happen. "Or maybe he at least wouldn't get so angry. He never hit me." But, she doesn't say, she'd seen him strike others. Misto wore a scar across his face for trying to defend her against him once and she realizes now how easily it could be her sporting it instead. "Not that he had to, I guess, to be fucking awful sometimes. But, like. At least there was that."

He flops down on his back in the snow, still avoiding the chance of eye contact. Popp likes to present his past in a certain kind of light, and he is a guy who has exciting adventures in a bright world full of monsters and heroes... There just happens to be a very dull prelude to all of that.

"Well... that's good - you definitely wouldn't have deserved getting hit! I was kind of a handful as a kid, though, and I wasn't even willing to put in the work to make him proud of me. I just wanted him to like me because I was his son."

He's trying to sound light-hearted about it, like it's stupid that it could still bother him. There's a fragility to the lightness that Rosie can probably identify, because she has much more experience at what he is doing here.

In a similar vein, he suspects she might feel a little better about having this in common because this is also how he feels, it really sucks but it also feels better not being alone and also, there's no way to say that you're grateful for this out loud without coming off like a huge asshole! Even Popp wouldn't say that!

"...He never played it all slow and purposeful like that guy, though, he'd just get madder and madder and then boil over all at once. Sometimes I'd mouth off just to get it over with. I hated working at the shop, so I was always in a bad mood, too. I ran off for good the very day I found out about something I actually wanted to do with my life."

Slow but purposeful is one way to put it. Rosie does wonder how much he was aware of what he was doing, and how much was just... He didn't know any other way to be. He'd spent so many of his lives alone and afraid; it made sense, honestly, why he acted as he did and lost himself a little at a perceived lack of control. It made sense but it didn't excuse it any. That's the part she has trouble with still though.

"I'm sorry," she says, first and foremost. "You shouldn't have had to work for that? But I get it, actually. My dad also wasn't great and got even worse after my mom died, so- It felt like nothing I could do was enough for him either. It's why I kind of set out on my own when pretty young too." Well, that and the fact he tried to kill her. Definitely wanted some distance after that, understandable!

"How old were you? I mean, I guess it doesn't really matter but- I am glad that you did find something else you wanted to do. Something better. I thought my thing would be music, but... That didn't keep me safe, unfortunately." Charlie did though. At least, he kept her safe from things that weren't him.

Popp winces, his voice cracking a little out of sympathy.

"Oh, that's really bad. I've never even thought about how bad he'd have been if Mom wasn't around. She was the only person he'd listen to during one of his moods."

As much as he does miss his mom, He's not sure if even she could save him if he went back now. Jenk's had quite some time to stew over his ungrateful son. He probably would not literally kill him? Probably. Popp does not even like to gamble normally, let alone with his life.

"I left when I was thirteen, but I wasn't really on my own. I caught up to Master Avan right out of town, after all."

He scratches the back of his neck. How badly is he willing to embarrass himself in front of Rosie...

"At the time, I wasn't second guessing my luck, I was just so happy to be away from my stupid hometown and learning magic and doing well enough at it to get praised. I felt the world light up every time he'd smile at me. He scolded me pretty often, too, but not like, you know. He was nice about it."

Pretty badly, honestly! He's not going to talk about Avan changing his life while trying to suppress any of the raw fondness he feels about him, what Rosie makes of that is up to her! He grumbles a little when he talks about being scolded, but in comparison to the bitter way he talks about his father, it's flavored with an embarrassed sort of affection.

Sometimes, she does wonder how things might have been different if her mother had lived. Dwelling on "could have"s though never really did her any good. Just like how Popp doesn't want to consider what returning home now might look like, Rosie doesn't really want to consider the possibilities of her own life trajectory.

She listens to him talk though about Avan, which- That's cute. They're cute. For all her teasing, she does hope that things work out between them genuinely. "Sometimes, you just need that person to give you a little nudge I think." For once, she doesn't tease or make anything too embarrassing of it. "Actually, why I like music is because of someone like that. I got... caught up in some bad stuff after leaving my home myself and, well, a person there who loved music taught me all about it." She's simplifying, really, but only because talking about their respective abusive parents was probably heavy enough without adding 'I was enslaved in a fight-to-the-death demon ring' to it all.

"It was one of the only good things about being there with him, honestly, so- I get it! Not exactly the same, but. I did always think of him whenever I performed and it helped when I got anxiety about it. He never actually got to see me finally do it, but- I like to think he would have enjoyed it all the same."

She's not even teasing him after he left that target right on his back? Rosie, are you feeling all right - well, no. She's definitely not, and hasn't been for a long time! He caught the never actually got to see her do it part of the explanation. This guy is... probably dead, huh. He pats her shoulder with a lot of feeling. This is also entirely too relatable.

"I think he'd be glad to see you safe and still singing, too. That's part of learning, right? Paying tribute to the person who taught you?"

He is definitely dead. And while she likes to believe he can see her from whatever beyond exists, it's still not the same as him being there.

"It is," she agrees. "So, I do want to get back into music here for him." For her, too, but that's harder to articulate. Of course, it's for her! Still, it's easy to think as well that if it's only for her then it doesn't really matter. If someone else is counting on her though? It can be the nudge she needs.

"It's been a rough winter, I think it'd be super good for morale to have a beautiful woman singing in town."

It's occurring to Popp, once again, that they have a lot in common when you ignore the surface and he is certainly more likely to work on things if other people are relying on him.

"Could you... sing something right now? Something nice?"

It's nice to be relied on, isn't it? Rosie also prefers to be the one whose shoulder is used to spill tears rather than the other way around. It's for that reason that she doesn't mind adhering to that request with a nod.

"Sure! Let's see..." Something nice? Well, she's not sure if it's nice in the way he's thinking of, but it is nice to her. So, she hums the first couple of bars before starting to sing: "I never thought I'd be driving through the country just to drive with only music and the clothes that I woke up in.

I never thought I'd need all this time alone, it goes to show: I had so much yet I had need for nothing but you."

There's a certain melancholy to the lyrics but it's a beautiful song, and the melody is upbeat. It's about going through it but in a... hopeful way? They don't have the internet or even radio where Popp is from, live music is what they have and he doesn't hear it often enough to take it for granted.

He's not going to outright interrupt but he does whisper "wowwww" more quietly than Rosie is singing a few times, eyes shining.

She'll definitely be singing more in coming months, hopefully, once she establishes her own little place to. While she'll host other bards as well, well- Hopefully, no one could fault her for taking the spotlight at her own inn now and again. For right now though, in this moment? It's nice to sing for just an audience of one. To know that her voice is appreciated and that it helps.

That's all she ever wants to do: help.

When she does, she ends in another soft hum to fade out the last couple of notes. "So! What did you think?"

All right, now he can applaud! Making noise feels like breaking a spell - trust him, he knows all about spells.

"I really liked it! That was amazing! It was sad, but in a good way?"

He wipes at his face in case he's been crying, which isn't actually the case this time. He will be at the inn on music nights.

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EVENT #2: BRAIN BOGGLING

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extends the content warning to include discussion of child abuse

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cw: reference to attempted filicide

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finally. popp gets some therapy.

music therapy for the soul!!

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