peckenpaugh | HE IS HERE

Entry tags:

! ic/ooc,
* endgame

HE IS HERE

the vines have run wild

it's over Everything is in shambles. Walls and floors torn and broken from roots and branches sprouting through. They block doors and crowd passages and pulse with sick life. The Thing sits in the center of it all, angry and starving, its trunk both still and moving in ways you catch only when it is in the corner of your vision. Branches that look less like bark and more like skin stretch in every direction, lush with shadowy leaves and dotted with bits of glowing blue. The ruined floor is littered with those little twinkling dots. Seeds. Everywhere, seeds. They hang on boughs, and rest on banisters in the upper levels. The one thing in this nightmare that doesn't radiate that awful, pervasive hunger.

The roof is gone, replaced with a writhing canopy of shadow and muck. Some parts of it are complex spiderwebs of tendrilly shapes, others solid formless movement. The only consistent thing about it is that it is terrible to behold, faintly nauseating to look at for too long. Ash rains down between gaps in its branches, and what glimpses of sky are visible are nothing but swirling gray clouds. What stars still shine are magic, man-made, floated between balconies by prom committee before the dance.

Those remaining begin to stir. Each one of you has heard Pocket's words, "Find the roots." And if you want to save your friends, your family, the holler — hell, maybe even the world — that's exactly what you're going to do.

You climb from protective cocoons of dying moss, push your way past walls of solid ice, emerging into utter destruction. Things move and make noise at the edge of your vision, but for now, at least, all is calm. What to do? Where to start?

it's ruined Among the twinkling maple seeds are the dropped possessions of students and staff, lost when they were pulled away. A compact mirror, a cell phone, a pair of glasses, cups of punch spilling across the floor. A single red heel sits at the edge of the jagged pit that peers down into the Sorting Path. The air here is hot. Too hot. If you jump, you'll surely be boiled alive.

Though locked when everyone tried to flee, vines and roots have torn the doors to the auditorium off their hinges. The splintered remains of heavy oak doors litter the entrance halls and stairwell alcoves, leaving an open path outside. Not that you'd want to flee, by the looks of it.

A cool night breeze is the only relief from the growing heat of the auditorium, yes, but even that is tainted by the heavy scent of flowers. Outside, vines and purple flowers have exploded over every surface. They climb up lamp posts, engulf buildings whole, hang from trees. It would be beautiful if it weren't horrifying. Campus is unrecognizable.

there is no hope Roots and vines clog the way to the Sorting Path, and most stairwells are completely obstructed by the growths of that horrible tree. Up above, something buzzes and wails, a mockery of a cicada's cry, and beyond that the twittering of birds nesting in the tree's highest branches.

Pouch coalesces in the middle of it all, a one-winged magimagicicada, weak and weary but undaunted. Resolute, if not reinvigorated. He bends down to touch a seed, and the moment his obsidian fingers light on it, a blue-white portal to somewhere else rips right through reality. A memory begins to play. Somehow, the bug seems to know what he's seeing.

She gave us what we need, the one who ran says to the gathered students, his voice in their heads as much as the air. Let's all not let her down, huh?

Find your friends. Find my siblings. It's time to fight.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Dazed students are still wandering the wrecked prom dance floor when the branches overhead begin to rustle, crack, snap and pop. The air feels dense, heavy with the weight of something horrible. Above, it seems there is only that writhing mass of not-quite-tree. But no. Look close. There's something there. Something not like the rest.

It falls.

Thunk, crack, thud, splat.

The Horror splayed out on the floor before you looks a bit like someone's dropped a plate of spaghetti bolognese from fifty foot up—and by the smell, two week old bolognese. The pile of meat is still, just a moment, then it twitches. Tremors from the middle to its disgusting wormy ends, until it rears up, tendrils unfurled, looking for something to eat.

THIS CREATURE IS AGGRESSIVE. DEFEND YOURSELF:

[Please be sure to check in with your inventory before participating in this first encounter. Thank you!]

Edited 2020-06-01 18:00 (UTC)

NAME: Imogen Rainwater
WHAT DO THEY DO?: She's taking mega-beater swings with a floorboard at any nearing tendrils.

These disgusting tentacles sure are quick! (ROLLED 6) But Imogen manages to smash a few beneath her improvised weapon. They split and squish with a satisfying squelching sound, leaving smears of tar on the floor.

The Horror seems to keep tendrils in endless supply, however. It whips at Imogen (ROLLED 6) but manages only to snap her shoulder like a rattailed towel.

NAME: Mary Grace O'Malley
WHAT DO THEY DO?: Mary Grace takes the shredded strip of her formal skirt and tries to trap as many of these stank ass meat tendrils with it as possible. If rooming with Wyatt Webberley has taught her one thing, it's how to handle food smell.

This is a cowgirl who knows her way around a rope, and she manages to hogtie a whole bunch of tendrils (ROLLED 10), momentarily preventing the Horror from retaliating.

NAME: Tony De Witt
WHAT DO THEY DO?: Tony takes a flimsy, wooden chair from what was once the refreshments area and mercilessly beats this especially UNrefreshing meat wad with all of his brute beater strength.

With the Horror partially bound by Mary Grace's roping skills, Tony goes ham on the monster's core (ROLLED 8). The Big Man beats the thing until each swing flings flecks of foul-smelling black tar back, but the Horror's insides just roll on itself. It seems this thing is endless!

NAME: Eddy
WHAT DO THEY DO?: Eddy grabs a dinosaur head that looks suspiciously like Barney's (not historically accurate!) and swings with, uh, athletic noodle strength. Anything near his feet get stomped on hard.

(ROLLED 9) Eddy's swinging and stomping bats away several tendrils, but the Horror (ROLLED 2) gets Eddy right in the gut with a swirling braid of wormy appendages. That's going to leave a bruise.

This seems to embolden the thing, if it can feel anything at all, because it puffs up suddenly, bursting out of the restraints and lurching forward with a disgusting splort.

NAME: Audrey
WHAT DO THEY DO?: Blind with a rare fury, she picks up and flings whatever even sort of sharp debris she can find. Glass shards. Plastic forks and knives. Her queen tiara, probably.

With impressive force and focus Audrey (ROLLED 9) Moon Tiara Actions the prom queen crown and a wad of glass and splinters right into the heart of the horrible thing. It quivers and belches unstable, but just won't stop.

The Horror shakes and whips and grows, its core bubbling like chili in a cauldron. It lashes out.

IMOGEN manages to just barely avoid another tendril snap.

MARY GRACE neatly dodges a clump of worms aiming for her feet.

TONY's sleeve rips when a tendril drags across his right upper arm. Then, warm and wet feeling, red, and sharp pain. Somehow, these things can cut.

EDDY puts his bendy skills to work, ducking a swinging tentacle like it's nothing.

Audrey sees the tendril coming her way, but can't duck the wooden floorboard it tosses in her direction. She takes a piece of wood to the face, sustains a cut to the forehead.

From the auditorium's front entrance, two familiar figures appear.

In great sweeping strides, Ludwig Lukashenko sprints into the room, mustache still magnificent, his wand arm extended.

"GLACIUS!" shouts the former teacher, in his instantly unrecognizable, definitely not Quebecois accent.

One spray of ice blankets the Horror. Then another as Lukashenko shouts, "GLACIUS!" again. Then, like a blur, something leaps.

Bub.

The school's groundskeeper crashes into the frozen monster, and for a few moments, from what you can see, he is anything but human. Moving too fast to really be seen, he effectively disassembles the pile of frozen, rotting meat.

Bub stands up from the shattered, sloppy, slush remains of the Horror without a speck of grime on him. He steps carefully out of the mess to stand silent next to Mr. Lukashenko.

"I was hoping I'd get to use my panini press," Lukashenko sighs. He indicates the iron he's holding in his other hand, dangling from the end of its electrical cord.

Bub shrugs at him. Maybe next time.

"Yes, we have more important things to do, huh?" Lukashenko says, then, to the gymnasium, "We must get you to safety. Come, we know a place."

[LU LUKASHENKO & BUB can now escort students to the safety of the Old Train Car by passing through the bathroom mirror in Central Classrooms. They're leaving now with a herd of freshmen, but will not force any of you to come along if you do not want. They will make trips back and forth to escort rescued students throughout the night.

We will respond shortly with Tokens earned!]

"Yeah! Take that!" Felicity yells at the slushy meat, stomping around in her heels in the puddles of rancid mess. "Now hand over our friends or you can expect more of that!"

Edited (hi! felicity contributed!) 2020-06-01 19:44 (UTC)

"Fuck yeah!" Eddy yells along, wincing past the forming bruise on his stomach.

Then he moves to check on Audrey because that looked even more painful.

She’s okay. A little stunned. She wrinkles her nose, mostly concerned with trying to process what on earth just went down. “We didn’t even get to give him any pudding.” She murmurs, finally computing what the warm liquid emanating from her forehead is. She wipes at it absently with the back of one hand.

Edited 2020-06-01 19:58 (UTC)

Mary Grace squirts a hot sauce packet on the meat puddle for good measure. "Get spiced, motherfucker." She doesn't check on anyone else. Because Mary Grace is perfectly fucking fine, and that's all that matters, ain't it?

Imogen, Mary Grace, Tony, Eddy and Audrey all receive 5 tokens each for contributing to the Horror's demise.

Audrey receives 1 bonus token for Sailor Mooning her Prom Queen tiara like true royalty.

You can check your token totals in Pouch's shop here, and maybe see if there's anything worth grabbing while you're there!

Edited 2020-06-01 19:59 (UTC)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

HE IS HERE

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ENCOUNTER: From Above - IT ATTACKS!

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ENCOUNTER: From Above - Tokens!