Day 3: Monster Arrival

Morning-Afternoon: 11:00am - Evening

[ IRL Timeframe: May 8th - ~~May 22nd~~ May 29th, 2019 ]

It's monster time.

Wherever your hero is when 11am rolls around, they're in for a change. At 11am on the dot everyone will start growing more and more transparent until, at 11:15am, they pass out momentarily. When they wake, they'll find that they aren't where they were before. More importantly, they'll find that the world is not as they left it. When they look around, or on their phones, they'll see that the date is 01 AW and the specific day is one day after the Wizard was defeated, the first time, by the first set of knights. The newspapers all around the city reflect a dramatic change in the world, though several characters may remember the change if they were alive for it.

While the island is still devoid of its inhabitants, the characters will find that they are now able to locate each other. They can text freely, they can team up, but even if they do they'll feel an inexplicable pull towards those they woke up with. More importantly, they'll each feel a pull towards another presence.

All six teams of heroes will feel a presence following them, an unmistakably menacing feeling that, if they stay still, gets closer and closer with each passing moment.

Third Morning Event: All Cities: The Past.

The Weather
Alive, but with what?
64°F / 18°C
There is only wind, the air crackles with electricity.

Prompts:

11:00am Bamborough: The heroes have been shaken up, at 11am on the dot everyone will start growing more and more transparent until, at 11:15am, they pass out momentarily. When they wake, they'll find that they aren't where they were before. Haizea and Olivia will wake on the edge of the fountain in Bamborough's resort hotel lobby. If they're unlucky, a hand, a foot, or their entire body may end up tumbling into the water of the fountain. Down by the water, Joanna and Web will wake up on their backs in the sand with the ocean water lapping at their feet and legs. If they stay laying there for too long, they'll end up underwater. How did Web make it from Far Haven to Bamborough this quickly?

11:00am Craydon: The heroes have been shaken up, at 11am on the dot everyone will start growing more and more transparent until, at 11:15am, they pass out momentarily. When they wake, they'll find that they aren't where they were before. Gail and Seth wake up in hanging hammocks in one of Craydon's fancier cabins, with a small assortment of fruits, veggies, and little bite-sized sandwiches laid out on a platter in the middle of the cabin. How anyone got Gail into a hammock is anyone's guess, but somehow he's going to have to make it down. Fortunately there's a little ladder on the wall, maybe that will help? Gyre, Rory, and Luka, meanwhile, wake up on the floor of the cog train as it's making the last leg of its trip up into Craydon's central train station. If they stay laying on the floor for too long, the train will take them all the way back to the base of the mountain. How did Luka make it from Far Haven to Craydon this quickly?

11:00am Far Haven: The heroes have been shaken up, at 11am on the dot everyone will start growing more and more transparent until, at 11:15am, they pass out momentarily. When they wake, they'll find that they aren't where they were before. Zafika and Matilda wake up in the elevator of one of the tallest buildings in town. The soft 'ding' of the elevator stopping at every single floor on its way down to the lobby is a gentle wake-up call for them both. The elevator is set to stop at every floor all the way down, and it's at about floor 15 when they start waking up. If they wait too long, it'll go all the way back up to floor 56. Terrence and Garrot, meanwhile, wake up on the roof of the local theatre. The sounds of still-airing movies are audible beneath them and the constant thrum of the air systems around them will bring them back to consciousness pretty quickly. Not to mention the unrelenting wind blowing from the storm. How did Garrot make it from Bamborough to Far Haven this quickly?

12:00noon, The Monster [Phase 1], Bamborough, Craydon, Far Haven: The third monster is here? If your characters stay put, they'll feel a menacing presence getting closer and closer but they won't see anything. If they stay long enough, something invisible will start shoving them. A shove here, a push there, the attacks will come from multiple directions and will persist until your character falls over. Whatever's happening, something's here and it's insistent. How are the heroes supposed to fight something they can't see?

1:00pm, The Monster [Phase 2]: For most of the heroes, the hour between noon and 1pm is spent being filled with more questions and no answers. Why were there invisible monsters shoving them around? Any heroes that tried to attack them just swished through empty air. Why couldn't they be hurt?

There isn't an answer to that question, because the real third monster arrives just in time to distract the heroes. At 1pm on the dot, every hero's monster pull will aggressively alert them to an approaching presence. In the same way that someone hears a plane approaching from the engines, it's a feeling that practically advertises the arrival of something horrible.

All six groups of heroes will be treated to a monster that is easily the stuff of nightmares. Imagine a child with yellow skin, but no face, no hair, no details of any kind. Except for eyes, three eyes (two humanoid, one forehead) this time. Just very clearly the shape of a child. The legs are entirely humanoid, but the arm is a mass of arms, all in varying lengths and with such weight that the body is leaned over and using that arm mass as another leg.

Also every child is split in half from the head down, meaning each half-child has one leg, a half body, half neck, half head, one and a half eyes, and a mass of arms. The teams of Haizea, Olivia, Gail, Seth, Zafika, and Matilda will all be treated to the left-half children. The teams of Joanna, Web, Gyre, Rory, Luka, Terrence, and Garrot will be treated to the right-half children.

These monsters will arrive slowly lumbering down the street, one and a half eyes scanning around them as they approach. The air around the monsters steams as if the ground were on fire, the monsters' image rippling in the rapidly rising air.

The Princess will discover that he has an advantage in this scenario. He can feel that there's something more to this, that there's something in the ground that he can control. If he tries to focus on it, he'll find that he can set the ground ablaze simply by focusing on it. The range isn't overly far, though, no more than thirty feet. He'll have to plan carefully if he wants to heat things up!

?:00pm, The Monster [Phase 3]: Unknown. Will be revealed if triggered or no later than May 22nd.

Procedure:

Reply to the appropriate toplevel comments for events below. Indicate if a post is a private conversation with "Private" in the subject otherwise all threads should be open to interaction with others. Plan OOCly how you'd like to toss everyone around.

Important: If your character makes an attack against the monster (or stays still for longer than 3 in-game minutes), write [Character does ____] at the end of your tag and send a ping on Discord to get a reply to the action.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Honestly, should the monsters do anything that they do? They don't exactly follow any rules or laws..." Zafika whispers, still annoyed by that giant sea urchin monster. Stupid thing with its stupid fucking extending leg spikes...

"Either way, there's a five feet radius around it where the air is steaming, if we can use weapons with a longer reach than five feet, we should be able to damage it. It seems slow too, so the faster we can attack it, the better." they explain, and... glance down at Matilda's heels. Those are going to be a problem. Thank goodness she can teleport. "Use your energy for teleporting yourself back and forth, I can manage on my own."

"Muraj, I need a glaive, around eight feet long, blade 30 or so inches long." As they make their request they grab their dagger, and whoop, there it goes, changing into a glaive. It's heavier than what they're used to, but hopefully they'll adapt quickly. "Can you have your companion give you something like this? Don't worry, they're not as heavy as you'd think."

"You have a point..." Matilda agrees, but she's still pouting. The giant sea urchin may have been ridiculous, but a cartwheel is a lot easier to deal with than steam. She tries to feel brave as she tugs the bow she'd been wearing around her neck loose- nodding along at the instructions as she ties her hair up.

"Cif-- I need-- one of those, please?" Her voice is upbeat but steeped in uncertainty at the same time. Oh, dear, it's not as heavy as she thought, but it's awkward, and she fumbles around a little bit as she tries to balance the thing and pull her goggles back down. She's still nervous, but seeing everything bathed in rose makes her feel more at ease instantly, and she adjusts her grip. "Right. I'll just hop back and forth. Let me know if you need me to get you out, too."

Zafika watches Matilda fumble around for a bit, but once she seems to have her bearings a little, they take a step towards the street again. "I'll keep that in mind.. but for now, focus on keeping yourself safe, okay?" They glance back at her one more time, before they run out of the alley and take a sharp turn right towards the monster.

They're heading straight towards it head first, but before they get to the steam-zone, they veer to the monster's right side and... run past it. But the moment they're behind it, they do a quick 180 turn, using that to add some more force to the slash of their glaive. Time to test if this thing can stay upright without its leg.

[Zafika attacks the monster with a slash aimed to the back of it's knee to cripple it further.]

Matilda nods, watching them run out of the alleyway, before she herself moves to peek around the wall and---

Holy shit, what the fuck is wrong with that thing. She makes a soft 'eep'ing sound - but Zafika's running in, so she should too, probably?

[Matilda teleports in, jabs at the monster kindof blindly with her weapon, and then tries to teleport the fuck out of there because it's hot]

The monster is not fast, fortunately for Zafika. The slash works shockingly well, the knight's glaive sweeping in past the heated zone without any problems. There's a truly terrible 'slorch' sound followed by a splash of yellow gunk on the ground. The bottom of the leg flops onto the ground and the monster's entire body falls hard to the side. It lands on its all-armed side and suddenly it's using its multitude of arms as legs instead.

Matilda's arrival and blind stabbing are successful at causing some damage, yellow gunk splattering around from the injuries to the monster's front. But its arms are surprisingly quick, three of them whipping up to grab Matilda's glaive and hold it. It's going to hold her weapon in place firmly, not releasing it.

And she's either going to have to teleport without her weapon or she's going to have to teleport with her now-attached monster friend.

That's not good!

For a moment, Zafika's poker face falters and their eyes widen, because holy shit that was more efficient than they had expected. Maybe they should consider changing up their default weapon, at least for now.

Their amazement is cut short when the stench of the monster's blood hits them, almost making them gag again, and they see the monster grab Matilda's weapon, fuck those arms are going to be a real pain aren't they? "Matilda! Have Cif change your weapon back to a rapier to get it free!"

Since they assume that'll work, they go ahead and aim a stab right to the monster's back, where, on most creatures with near human anatomy, its heart and lungs should be. And just in case they add some of their own body weight to the stab to get through the ribcage. The faster they get it dead, the less time they have to spend with surrounded by the disgusting smell in the air.

[Zafika goes and aims a nasty stab to the monster's ribcage]

Edited 2019-05-28 17:57 (UTC)

Thankfully, Matilda’s too terrified to teleport away with her new monster friend— though her limbs shake, even as Zafika shouts back at her, and she wants to throw up. “C-Cif, rapier please—-“ She squeaks out. She doesn’t try and fight— there’s only one thing she can do.

[Matilda squeezes her eyes shut and tugs backwards on her weapon.]

This is bad for everyone! Nothing quite like the stench of rotten fish and strawberries together with petrichor to make someone feel ill. There's not quite as much sulphur scent right now but that probably wasn't far off. But their assumption that Matilda can change her weapon is as far off as can be. When Matilda tries to get the weapon changed, Cif responds in a panic that the weapon won't change! Oh no!

All at once, the monster lurches and grips Matilda's glaive with more of its arms and it starts pulling itself towards her while pulling the weapon into its mass. It's getting hotter and hotter as it gets closer to her. Come here, Matilda, let the monster boil you!

At least until Zafika's stab happens. The glaive, which the monster notices how similar it is to Matilda's, sinks right into the center of its mass. A moment later there's a gush of horrible sulphur-smelling yellow blood goop. At the same moment, the rest of the monster's hands swing around and grip the weapon where it's stuck inside of its mass. It grips this one, too, holding it and preventing it from coming out.

That's. Not good.

Zafika notices that Matilda's weapon isn't changing, and they yank at their weapon to get it free so they can cut hers loose, only to find out that the monster has latched onto their glaive too. And that the temperature is rising. Fuck!

They wrack their brain for a backup plan, before remembering what they'd talked with Muraj about their power. It's not invisibility, but light reflection... yes. Yes, this can work, they tested it out earlier too. Hopefully it'll have the effect they hope it'll have.

"Matilda...! I need you to trust me, I don't know if this is going to work, but I need you to trust me and do as I say!" They almost, almost look Matilda in the eyes, but they are looking at her intensely, mouthing 'close your eyes' at her, almost whispering it in hopes that she'll understand because they absolutely cannot risk the monster knowing what they're planning. "When I say now, do that, and pull on your weapon as hard as you can."

They wrap their tail around their own glaive for some added pulling strength, before taking a deep breath and starting to focus on a spot right in front of the monster's face. At first, they create a nice, gently glowing spot into the air, the light very much like that of a firefly's glow. They move it about a little, to get the monster's attention to this spot of light that's just, floating there, in front of its face. But while they're at it, they focus more power to it, preparing an explosion of light to blind this thing. Just when they feel like they can't keep suppressing it before it blows, they shout at Matilda, "Now!", and close their own eyes just in time to avoid a bright flash reminiscent of a phosphorus grenade, if not even brighter going off, easily visible from pretty much anywhere from Far Haven. While the flash goes off, they yank on their weapon with the strength they have -including in their tail that can pull a certain Dr. Murtakhor around- and pray that the blinding flash gets the monster to let go.

[Zafika sets off a huge, bright flash of light at point blank in front of the monster to blind it and to get it to let go of their and Matilda's weapons.]

Useless dog! Matilda shoots a betrayed look at Cif, resisting the urge to release the weapon and get the hell out of there. It's hot- helplessly hot, especially under the ridiculous amount of layers and frills that she always wears. Thankfully she has her gloves on, or she might struggle to hold onto the weapon. She barely registers Zafika's shout, but when she does--

"I'm already pulling with all of my unbridled force!" Matilda snaps, but she closes her eyes again, relaxing her grip for just a moment--

[Matilda yanks once more as the flash happens]

Wow!

Wow!!

Wowowowow!!!!

Zafika's plan goes off without a hitch. The monster goes rigid as the flickering light appears, its attention fully on counterattacking this new threat. But a moment later, the world goes white and the monster's balance is immediately thrown off. It topples backwards, limbs going slack and releasing the weapons. All of its eyes are glazed-over white as it slumps on the ground. A moment later its arms shift up to rub at its eyes once. Twice. Again. Again.

It's going to need a moment to recover, it can't see! What now, heroes?

Zafika ends up stumbling backwards too when the monster releases their weapon, but they quickly find their balance, relieve that this did indeed work, thank heavens. They open their eyes to see the monster rubbing at its eyes, and somewhere at the back of their mind, they feel sorry for it, because even with their eyes closed, that flash was bright.

But that fleeting moment of compassion is quickly shaken off, because they're done with this day, and through that, done with this monster too, and as much as they like warmth, this is too much. So, they bring their glaive up, and slash at the monster again. Except this time, they're aiming for it's neck.

[Zafika wastes no time in attacking and going for a decaptitation]

Matilda’s grateful for her goofy goggles- without them, that flash might be painful, even with her eyes clenched shut. When she peeks out through the warm rosy tint, she barely has the time to feel sorry for it— she’s still pulling the weapon back, hard, and the impact sends her back, flat on her rear in the street. “O-ow—“ She whines, but her hands on her weapon and she’s back to her feet in a hurry, teleporting back from the monster a few yards- close enough that she can watch Zafika carefully for any signs of distress, but a safe enough distance for her to try and regain herself.

In a miraculous turn of events, Zafika misses the monster's neck and hits nothing, the monster turns and kills both knights! It's an upset of massive proportions! It's a catastrophe! The monster won!!

At least that's what the monster is thinking, cooking up a plan to kill both Zafika and Matilda as soon as its vision comes back. That's all it's thinking up until the moment Zafika's glaive slides through its throat like a hot knife through butter. Immediately following the decapitating strike, the monster's neck pours pudding-consistency liquid out all over the ground. It drains like a tube of toothpaste, deflating horribly on the ground for a few moments.

The whole area smells like rotten eggs and petrichor.

Once the monster's pudding-consistency insides have drained to its outsides, the remaining outsides of it dissolve into goop as well. It's all awful, it's all goopy. It's all over.

The (half) of one of the third monsters is defeated!

Oh thank fuck. Zafika had started to run out of ideas for what to do if the monster had started it's grabbing again, so they're very relieved when their glaive practically slides through the monster's neck. Not, that the relief lasts for very long, because oh that's so disgusting, the sight of the monster draining and the smell that hits them right after make them gag, and they're quick to back away from the spreading pudding-like puddle. No more monster goop on them, thank you very much.

But now that the monster is dead and the adrenaline is draining from them, the exhaustion from doing something as big as that flash hits them, and they use the glaive for some minor support as they sink to their knees on the ground. It's a very familiar feeling, almost physical exhaustion without actual soreness, and it gives them very unpleasant memories to training their petrifying power.

Meaning it's time to sweep those aside and distract themselves from the memories. "Matilda, are you okay? Did you get hurt?" They sound concerned, but also fish around for their phone with unsteady hands, and quickly type a message, admittedly making unusual mistakes because they're not focusing on it that much. The moment that's done though, they place their blindfold over their eyes again, welcoming the familiar weight and the darkness that comes with it.

Oh, gross, gross, Matilda did not teleport far enough away to avoid the nastiness gushing out of-- ugh, gross, it totally looks like toothpaste, how is she going to brush her teeth tonight? She chokes back a gag-- but Zafika sounds kind of worried, which makes her feel weirdly warm, fuzzy and... cared for inside? What is this feeling? Her cheeks flush, and she teleports over to Zafika's side instantly, glad to avoid the sloppy monsterness between them.

Her hand falls to Zafika's shoulder because now it's Matilda's turn to look and sound concerned. "I'm alright. Are you? You look positively expended. Uh- no offense! You were stupendously phenomenal out there!"

Matilda, the feeling is friendship, you sweet baby girl.

Zafika turns their head in Matilda's direction, giving a relieved sigh when she says she's alright. "Yeah, I'm fine. That flash just took way more energy than I thought it would, I need to sit down for a little bit." They actually shift to a more comfortable position, crossing their legs and laying their glaive down onto their lap. They'll have Muraj change it back to a dagger soon, but only after they've had a moment to rest. "You did great as well, Matilda."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Day 3: Monster Arrival

Morning-Afternoon: 11:00am - Evening

The Weather

Prompts:

Procedure:

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