[IC] The Illithid's Nightmare

[thenewflesh]

Captain Rogers was a charming, jovial type, with a beard that twitched in inexplicable ways whenever he smiled. Not at all the sort you'd have expected to be involved in a smuggling racket, but there you go. "I've got meself in a bit of a pickle, lads." he'd said. "The ol' jammer, I flew 'er into this big Flayer noggin by mistake, and now she's stuck there, and I can't keep smugglin' without 'er, you know? I'd be mighty thankful if ye gave me yer help in flying my baby back to this plane of existence. Might even give you somethin' somethin' for your help..." and then he'd given a big stage wink that hinted at a really large, significant, somethin' somethin'.

So thus it was that six very unlikely adventurers wound up shot through one of Captain Rogers' planar portals, through the chaos rifts and planar seas of Tzzem, past shadow planes, star systems, and space cruisers, into a small remote area of the interplanar void. You saw the Brain as you approached: huge, hulking, greyish-yellow, adrift in a murky soup of plasma, echoes, and half-forgotten nightmares. Asleep, but watchful.

But only for a fraction of a second; then you were hurled into the small cavern that you now find yourself standing in. The walls are greyish-yellow, the ceiling's dripping with a slimy viscous fluid that smells something like a cross between tar and rotten flesh. All about you, you can hear a deep, soft rumble. There's a passageway going down somewhere, deeper into the cavern.

[JbeJ275]

Kato pads off of the craft then looks around for anything that may have noticed our arrival.

Time to test the system, I'm rolling discernment [roll0]

[Plerumque]

"Every time." Daymt lets out a long, gusty sigh. "And I'm still hungover. Hey, fat bastard!" he shouts at the ceiling. "Don't s'pose you got any ibuprofen in that mucus of yours? Didn't think so," he adds as a thick glob lands in his ear. "Well, looks like the twain of us're to get... intimately acquainted over the next few days, so may as well make friends, eh?" He trips over to the tacky wall and gives it an embrace, then draws back, blinking at something in his hand. "Another one?"

Find Lost Objects: [roll0]

[Iceseer]

Shadow was very confused on the situation so decided to wait for the others to respond before he did anything. He whistled a merry tune while he did so.

[Iceseer]

Bored the shadow walked around looking for a secret entrance perhaps to a testing area so they could have a base in the area. Or a room filled with monsters to alleviate the boredom. It might give him the resurrection amulet he so craved or even some way to motivate his party members to action.


Eh I wanted to get a roll in to see how it feels and this was applicable.
Look for secret doors.[roll0]

[MHCD]

Spelljammer. Sweet. Been a while since I got to play one of these.

Max steps forward tentatively, then stretches, flexing his fingers and cracking his knuckles, eyeing his peculiar comrades. He opens his mouth to reply to the statuesque figure or gasp at the sight of the personified shadow - or maybe a little of both, but no sound escapes his lips.

Wait, no. This is weird. These rules are weird I don't like this body abort abort-

Max halts, then his arms snap back before he spams like a possesed breakdancer (though to be fair, he was figuratively possessed by a fan of breakdancing), nearly collapsing, then gaining control with a stab of fictitious focus, stopping his fall with a fist in the soft floor of the cavern. The intricate tattoo on his forearm seems to give off a faint glow for only a moment.

"Um. I'm okay! ...What about you guys?"


Attacking the floor, huzzah!
Wait, doing something wrong here.

[thenewflesh]

Damyt: The phone you fish out of the cave wall is already ringing. There's a voice on the other end. Shrill, feminine, tremulous. "Mr. Avery!" it shrieks. "You have to come help me, the spectres after me again, Mr. Avery!" There's a sharp buzz of static.

Kato: As peer into the passageway leading deeper into the brain, it becomes clear that somewhere in the shadows, dog-sized parasite (https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--ZZQFkX-3--/c_scale,f_auto,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/i5azmd9bl2kg8zjribiy.png) lurks, watching you.

[Monolilith]

Let's be honest - Artemyst has a flair for the dramatic, and not much else to their name. How else are they supposed to communicate? Swooning with pride when offered such a daunting mission, popping up and making vague grabby hands when the reward was implied, dancing around and seeming to practice obscure stories during the long, long mission out... Geez, do they ever... even need to sleep?

One can't imagine that they do. Or maybe its' just that they save their energy for communicating when they have to, because since they landed, they've been eerily silent. Well, they're always eerily silent. I mean, no gestures. And even now, they just seem to look around blankly, almost... trying to figure out how to make themself useful.

Artemyst isn't doing much, just trying to determine the nature of the weird mucous and also the walls. I'm assuming that's Cerebrality, so: [roll0]

[JbeJ275]

Kato: As peer into the passageway leading deeper into the brain, it becomes clear that somewhere in the shadows, dog-sized parasite (https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--ZZQFkX-3--/c_scale,f_auto,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/i5azmd9bl2kg8zjribiy.png) lurks, watching you.

OOC: The link is broken for me, Also yes, first combat

IC: Rarr!*Pounces*

[roll0]

OOC: I am currently at close range right?

Or do I need to roll something else first?

[Iceseer]

Shadow looks around. Sporting the dustmite he readies his crossbow to fire thankful for the poor lighting conditions.




Initiative:[roll0]

[Plerumque]

"Spring-Heeled Jack's Speedy Flatbreads, how can I help you?" Damyt says importantly into the receiver, before being overcome by his own cleverness and having to put the phone down for a few moments to giggle. He then notices the enormous dust mite, but figures cleaning is a job for other people and puts the receiver back to his ear. "Hello?"

Initiative: [roll0]

[MHCD]

Get us off the floor, you dolt - our first combat has started!

Max looks up and attempts to scramble to his feet and... do... something?

Wait, what do I do first in this game?

The same thing we always do, Pinky: roll initiative!


4d20

[MHCD]

[OOC: Okay, I guess you can't edit posts with die rolls. That makes sense. Here's the correct number of dice, labeled for your convenience.]

[roll0]

[thenewflesh]

Shadow: as you probe around the cavern, you notice that there's a small adamantium door in the wall, hidden by flaps of fleshy greyish-yellow matter. There's a small, dainty silver key in the lock, too.

Damyt: There's another sharp buzz of static "The Docks, Avery, I'm at the docks in the Hippocampus, please come quickly, I can't hide from them much longer..." implores the voice, and then there's the sharp metallic squeal of a microphone going rogue, and the line goes dead.

As you charge towards the parasite, Kato, the parasite scuttles backwards, and there's more movement in the shadows; a second parasite!
Parasite 1 initiative: [roll0]
Parasite 2 initiative: [roll1]

Artemyst, I just need to know what you're doing with that success, and everybody who hasn't rolled initiative can do that, then we'll get this first combat underway!

[Plerumque]

Damyt continues snickering into the phone, but like all good millenials he can multitask, and as he winds a suspiciously intestinal telephone cord around one finger, he also gazes contemplatively across the room. All of a sudden, he notices that someone seems to have left some garden rakes on the floor, where anyone could trip on them! Well, he won't make that mistake again.

Followed by Unfortunate Circumstances - [roll0]

Saving all successes as bonus dice.

[Plerumque]

A squeal of static in the receiver, and an underwater echo. "Not the emu! Please, not the emu again!" someone shouts, and Damyt leaps like a tap-dancer away from the phone... and directly into the rake, which of course swings up and nails him a good one right in the nose. "Okay, well," he says, swaying, "next time..."

[Iceseer]

Hearing the alarm of his team mates he quickly stops investigating the door and turns to investigate why they were alarmed. He was the parasites and so Shadow pulls out his crossbow and aims at at the first parasite and fires twice.

[roll0] shooting parasite 1

[thenewflesh]

The first bolt ricochets off the parasite's hard carapace. Its feelers twitch with primitive rage - as another bolt bounces harmlessly off it, too.

[Plerumque]

Damyt straightens up only to see both Shadow's shots go awry. "Sorry, bro," he mumbles. "Spen' too much time 'round me 'n' that'll happen. Maybe improve your fashion sense, though..." Seized with a desire to do something useful, he grips the garden rake and throws it up into the ceiling, dusting his hands with satisfaction before realizing it seems to have caught on something. Cautiously, he tugs on it.

Find Lost Objects - [roll0]

[thenewflesh]

A dissonant chord plays as a large bloody accordion falls from the ceiling in front of you, Damyt. It seems to be made, mainly, of cartilage and tracheae. It also seems to bleeding.

[thenewflesh]

You charge at the parasite, Kato, and tear into its flesh: you feel its antennae twitch in rage and pain.

[Plerumque]

Damyt picks up the accordion, not without distaste, and gives it a few practice wheezes. "I hear the bardic thing is in right now," he says, and begins to play.

Play the Accordion (including bonus dice) - [roll0]

[MHCD]

Max surveys the scene around him, and it all hit him again. Creepy, dog-sized iron-skinned parasites. Unexplained objects. A man-tiger. A living shadow firing a crossbow. A demigod playing the organ accordion. All inside of a giant spaceship monster thing. Farts. He would have bolted already, but it took him too long to gain his bearings. I guess it's a good thing I forgot to add our level to our initiative dice. You better be braver next time.

But then... music. Granted it still sounded like the rest of the horrifyingly organic ambient sounds here, but it was nonetheless somehow comforting, reassuring. That's it, just listen to the pretty music.
Now these people are our friends, so if we're going to make it out of here, we need to help them. Those parasites look tough, and the presence of that Damyt fellow may be affecting probability and not in our favor, so that's what you need to work with. Now focus...

Max nervously mumbles a mantra,"Shadow is a friend... Tiger is a friend... Music Man is a friend... Gotta help our friends... Shadow is a friend..."

6 Cer + 4 Lucid Dreaming + 3 Wrong Context Magic + 1 Inspire Competence = 14
[roll0]

[thenewflesh]

As Damyt plays a rather squelchy little ditty, he hears something resembling a very hoarse whisper coming from the accordion: "The antennae..."

[MHCD]

His mantra interrupted, Max steps back as if struck in the chest by a bowling ball, his ears ringing from the booming bass voice, the eerie accordion, and the broken focus. He shook his head, unable to register the volume of his voice.

"DID ANYONE ELSE HEAR THAT? THAT DIDN'T SOUND LIKE A PSYCHIC DEMON BEING RELEASED FROM SOMEONE'S SUPPRESSED SUBCONSCIOUS NGHTMARES, DID IT?"

[thenewflesh]

The parasite lunges back at Kato, who adroitly parries, registering yet another ineffective blow onto its carapace.

The other parasite suddenly joins into Damyt's dulcet ditty, singing in a strange, ancient tongue, its voice like sandpaper being run through a cheese grinder in a garbage compactor in a diseased balrog's larynx.

Sing hideously: [roll0]
Everybody roll their Save Vs. Illusion and Confusion.

[thenewflesh]

A third sound joins the parasite and accordion to form the musical trio from hell - a sort of deep mournful howl (like a wolf's, if wolves could have existential crises) that seems to emanate from... Max, somehow? But he's not moving his lips...

Max, you're thrown to the ground, violently dry-heaving, and then suddenly a sickly black cloud flies out of your mouth - a cloud arranged in the guise of May's mother's face the last night she lay upon that hospital bed. It's howling so loudly, with such pain and sorrow, that even the feral parasite stops in its tracks, antennae trembling.

Damyt, your accordion just LOSES it. It's like that time you were at the inn on magic mushrooms and the piano keys seemed to be playing themselves underneath you, only now it's an accordion, and it's sprouting teeth and teeth and eyes (god, so many eyes!) and it's wrenching itself from your grasp to charge the nearest parasite while playing a feverish gig.

4 dice base attack, plus 5 of Plerumque's bonus dice.
[roll0]
Parasite dodge: [roll1]

[thenewflesh]

The accordion sets upon the feral parasite, appendages flailing wildly at it, and successfully! The parasite recoils before the assault in pain.

The other one abruptly stops singing and suddenly begins digging into the grey folds of the floor, trying to burrow into it, away from this madness.

[roll0]
[roll1]

One failure! Somebody gets to throw that parasite a fact, first come first serve :smallsmile:

[Iceseer]

Shadow seeing a strange effect try to effect him goes onto to aim once more. Seemingly the effect made him more precise in his shot. Shadow hoped that the parasites would be harmed this time.

[roll0] if the bonus dice can apply at parasite 1
[roll1] if the bonus dice don't at parasite 1

[thenewflesh]

Attempting to burrow, the parasite manages to flip on its back, limbs flailing pathetically, just as a glob of the other parasite's blood splashes onto its eyes.

Shadow, your bolt cleanly slice through a chink in your parasite's chitin; with a terrible, yet somehow melodious scream it breathes (?) its last.

A strange thing seems to be happening to the remaining parasite as it struggles back onto its legs. As far as you can tell, it seems to be laying a large red egg with its beak. In large, neat letters, the egg is labelled "ACME TNT".

Lay explosive eggs: [roll0]
Resist: [roll1]

Success is. Bonus die.

[MHCD]

On his knees, Max coughed up chunks of dried insect husk and shadowy ectoplasm, covering his ears to block out the wailing, and surveyed the insane carnage around him.

What do I do, May?
...May?

Then he realized that she was gone, his brave guide now retreated somewhere he either could not find her or could not hear her. May would have laughed at the comically labeled egg, but Max had no idea what the words meant, only that it couldn't be good. He would have to do this on his own. An impossible feat sure, yet his companions were fighting anyway, and even succeeding, and he found hope in them. Whispering, "For my new friends", he shakily stood and addressed the horrific apparition in a quavering, but determined voice.

"Darkness-inside, you are now released to manifest your desire, and that is the immediate source of our tribulations, and the source of the bad-vibe sounds you hate." Max gestured to the parasite, and then to the egg. "And that is bad news. If whatever is in there gets out, we're done. Help us fight, and you'll live on."


So if this is to be commanded mentally or something, let me know, as I'm not sure what I should be rolling here. As it stands, here's my guess at a "persuade with reason" roll, since the thing already didn't like the music.
Sociality (2) + Only Sane (Wo)man (3) = 5
[roll0]

[thenewflesh]

May's mother's face nods, eyes tearful; then with a vicious scream the cloud hurls itself at the parasite.

[roll0]
Defense: [roll1]

[JbeJ275]

Grrr

Hitting it twice
[roll0]
[roll1]

[JbeJ275]

After rising to full height, Kato smashed a paw deep inside the parasite. With a sickening squelch, its organs flew across the room, leaving behind little but an empty exoskeleton.

[MHCD]

After holding back another sick-fit from seeing Kato's thorough disembowelment of the parasite, Max turns toward the psychic-demon-thing, a sober meekness in his tone.

"Thanks for helping us, Darkness-inside. I'm not really sure what to call you, but I guess that seems to fit for now. So, I don't think we're supposed to try and fight each other, and I did tell you you could live on if you helped, but now I can't hear May, and I don't think she can come back as long as you're here. So... I don't really know how to say this... but can you go back in? I promise to try and make sure you get enough release or "food" or whatever so you don't need to come out, and who knows - that might happen again anyway - but I think it's time, y'know?"

I don't know if you want me to roll anything here, or just go with story/roleplay.

[Plerumque]

"Hey, hey." Damyt gets down on one knee and holds out a hand to the accordion, still snarling a polka above one of the ticks' corpses. "No need to be like that, little buddy. You're with friends. Why don't you come with us, eh? I'm sure I have some treats here somewhere." He digs in suspiciously flat pockets.

Handle Animal - [roll0]

[thenewflesh]

Yeah, I suppose you only really need a check if you want to dictate what happens in the game world. Otherwise, I get to decide. That's what's kind of cool about Donjon: the results of all conflicts are GM-fiat until you make a check; then, whether you succeed or fail that check, you get a proper say in the game universe (either by using successes or, if you fail, narrating the result). Checks aren't about adjudicating your ability to perform a task in the game world (although they can be that too), they're a concrete mechanical way to empower you to alter the game world as you see fit.

Darkness-inside swings around - or at least, May's mother's face does, and in her eyes there an air of infinite disappointment. Then, suddenly there's a sharp television-screen crackle and May's mother's face disappears, being replaced by May's. She smiles at you. "There, Maxie, that better? The thing is, in this system if you actually wanted to banish me, you'd have to make an appropriate check. Otherwise I get to stick around until whenever God gets bored with me."

[roll0]
I guess you'd resist with Discernment?

[Plerumque]

The accordion leaps off the parasite's corpse, landing with a flatulent B flat, and looks up at Damyt expectantly. Unfortunately, Damyt hadn't thought through this far, and as the accordion begins to salivate (the drips sizzling on the ground) he realizes he has nothing in his pocket but an old drachma and a condom. He looks back down at the instrument, who looks back at him at least four times as much and bares its reeds. He grimaces, shifting from one foot to another until he realizes he's about out of time, and acts.

Withdrawing a tightly curled fist from his sweatshirt, Damyt hurls it towards the passageway leading down, and the accordion is off like a shot. He gallops after it, shouting at the others, "Come on! Before it realizes there wasn't anything in that fist!"

[Iceseer]

Hearing Damyt, Shadow goes to the adamantium door opens it and looks to see what's inside.


What would i roll to see what's in the doorway.

[MHCD]

Ah, I understand. Thank you for the explanation, and the perfect meta-response there.

Max's eyes widen in shock, and his mouth hangs open, but no sound escapes his lips. He would have fallen to his knees, had he not been locked in place, muscles paralyzed.


Discernment roll:
[roll0]

[MHCD]

Max manages to get a hold of himself, now sweating nervously and visibly, his face pale. This was nornally the part where he would run away, or where May would take over, but neither was an option at the moment. Not taking his eyes off May's face, he shouts to his companions before shakilyand rapidly addressing the thing again in one long breath.

"I'll be there in a second to join you guys, I just really have to try and take care of this first!

Okay, so you exist because of all the magic and messed-up stuff inside me, right, and you feed off feed off negative thoughts and suppressed supernatural junk? Well here's the deal: I'm afraid of everything, and that was before I was being attacked by parasite monsters in a living ship that I boarded with a shadow creature, a tiger-man, and a reality-warping demigod while struggling just to cast spells despite that being kinda the only thing I do besides running away and staying alive - and May, well either she's insane (or I am and I'm imagining her), or she's an endless source of repressed trauma and powers just wanting to sleep or wake up or go home - to say nothing of whatever stress she has in her past. So you can stay out here, run free and quickly starve like a bonfire, or get back in, go dormant, and live a long, fat-happy life."


Persusde through reason 2+3 =5
[roll0]

[thenewflesh]

As Shadow examines the secret door, Damyt, you're off down the mysterious passageway after a hungry instrument. The passageway widens, lowers, then curves - far ahead, you hear hollow echoes of deep and tediously slow metallic creaking not too far down the passageway, as if great cogs were turning.

Meanwhile, Kato, you're eating the parasite corpse and Max, you're having a conversation with your own repressed psychotic nightmares, and the TNT egg is just sitting there innocently

[Iceseer]

Shadow has watched the ancient show looney tunes before so figures acme tnt is harmless.

[thenewflesh]

Shadow, you open the door and there's a wash of painfully brilliant blue light. The passageway beyond the door is a long narrow corridor of the same disgusting greyish-yellow substance as the rest, but it's also lit with dozens and dozens of chandeliers burning extremely bright neon blue candles. That's the first thing that attracts your attention.

The second thing you notice is a massive array of tripwires, crossbows, pots of boiling oil placed precariously atop steel spikes, massive scythes, flaming torches swinging around metal chains, guillotines, suspicious red buttons labelled "Press At Your Own Risk", vials of bubbling green liquid in which you're pretty sure strange three-eyed fish are swimming about, and enormous dentures snapping violently at thin air. And beneath every candle in every chandelier is a vicious-looking razorblade.

Finally, you notice a massive adamantium door at the opposite end of the passageway with a sign above it: "Spelljammer Hangar", and beside it (and the door you just opened) there's a really complicated set of levers and knobs and buttons and switches.

[Iceseer]

Shadow says Traps. it was barely a whisper and in the tone of a curse. Shadow did not know what to do and he decided to let the others decide.

[MHCD]

A flash of smoke, a grumbling haze, and a screaming waft of brimstone later, and Darkness-inside was once again inside. After another coughing fit, Max wiped black, buzzing ectoplasm off his chin before turning to Shadow. His scouting appeared to be successful, but that was one scary hallway. Could a living shadow simply walk through there? Max had no idea what to think about any of this anymore, but he was ready to help, and he felt some mental strength returning now that that thing was no longer an external plague.

"Hey Shadow, do you think if you used some shadow-powers or something to make it through that hallway, you could disable the traps from the other side with that panel? Or maybe that egg thing could be of use? I'm not sure what it is, but I know it's gotta be dangerous. Whatever plan you guys pick, I think I'll be able to help out more this time."

Max takes a slow, deep breath, and focuses.


6 cer. + 4 cast + 3 gather + 1 bonus = 14
[roll0]

[Plerumque]

Damyt listens to the creaking, pausing for a moment in pursuit of the accordion. "Clocks, eh? This reminds me of something I heard recently... some new avatar of Britney's, or something." He stands there for a moment, hand on his chin, until he hears the instrument up ahead turn with a wheeze and start back in a slavering trot towards him.

Got the Godly Goss - [roll0]

[Iceseer]

Shadow replied We might be able to destroy some of the traps with the tnt. Going to the other side Doesn't appear to have a direct benefit for anyone due to the levers being on both sides of the hallway. But if you want me to do that. I could just walk through and try to dodge all the traps. Or perhaps hitch a ride on a moving boulder if we had any of those.

[MHCD]

"Those are some good ideas. I wouldn't want you to get hurt, but if you think you can make it... the ball idea sounds good, too - and maybe Damyt can even get his new pet to test the hall for us if that's the direction thing go. I just want to do better at supporting you guys, and I have a spell ready to go when we figure out the plan."

But Max still wasn't entirely sure about that last part, and the "higher fidelity" of his Individual Magical Effect was almost imperceptibly "glitchy", like a minor bug or lag in his IME graphics - nor was he sure if that was whispers of May's voice he was starting to hear again, his own terrified subconscious, or something else.

[thenewflesh]

Max raises his hands, and there's a loud bang, and a flash of light, and suddenly he isn't there anymore; all that's left is a puff of smoke, which rapidly dissipates. The ball's suddenly spinning around wildly. Four metal hands emerge from what can only be assumed to be the inside of the ball. The ball speaks in a thin robotic voice. "Shall I hurl myself down this hallway for you, masters?"

Damyt: The hallway seems to be the work of the goddess Tik d'Off, Goddess of Mechanical Contrivances and Inconveniences, fashioned as a gift to her lover Fikthys, God of Bureaucratic Errors (and accordionist supreme). It's the most irritating flush toilet in the multiverse; the levers act as a combination lock for the flush mechanism; alternatively, the toilet may be flushed by sacrificing a human being to Tik d'Off or Fikthys.