Legend Event On Hallow Ground [Halloween Mini Event - Organic Woods - Malakath]

[Velaeri]

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Characters selected for this thread are: Violetta Amrita Primrose Necro Lizard Crux Karnage

The Organic Woods

You awaken.

You know not where you are or how you got there, but you know that you are not alone.

Nearby there are others, rousing from their own strange sleep.

You remember a dream, but the details are faint. A ghoulish figure in chains and tattered robes, a foreboding and miserable sound like a ghastly murmur.

You don't know why, but you feel the figure was speaking to you. Even though you could not understand what it might have been saying, your soul translates an unknowable language of feeling.

You have been chosen.

There is something you must find and you must find it before the night is done.

You don't know what or where, but you feel an intense pull on your mind to delve deeper into this eerie landscape, for surely it hides a secret...

... something of great power and value.


But these lands also hold great dangers.

Do you accept the help of the others and work together to solve this strange mystery? Or do you forge ahead alone and claim this strange power all for yourself?

All you know for certain is there isn't much time to decide...

 

[Pantomime]

The smell of blood hung still in the windless air. There was a chill that clung to the clothes and dug deep into the bones, giving breath to the superstitions that not even the sun could warm this place. The night was given life by a low-hanging reluctant moon, scattering the gloom of the Organic Woods into patches and mosaics of tree shadows, tilting over muck and peat as they rattled against one another. There was no breeze to speak of, yet the sound of clattering trunks gave the impression of bone wind chimes and skeletal remains, performing a chorus to the everlasting danse macabre.

The aura of the woods was inescapable, like a dark hand slowly gripping the chest or tightening the laces of a corset. Breathless, one might find that the terrain of this place was far beyond the only obstacle that blocked their path. Wails and eerie songs, hinting at the fates of those who journeyed to this place, cascaded through the realm in volumes that ranged from simple whispers to outright cacophony. A whisper breaches the mind, a scream cues for the warning, and the howl is for something deeper, when the Rubicon is crossed.

From the trees, one could see ornaments of green and red. With deeper inspection, it was clear that these dangling baubles were the remains of former visitors, coated in blood and rot and hung out to dry. Beneath them and through hollows and old worn footpaths that spanned the hummocks and defoliated trees, braided ravines and water-ways filled with hot bubbling blood coursed and meandered along exposed trunks and pits.

But the music of the woods, ghastly and deranged, was not all that could be heard through the pitch of night. The moans and groans of those left behind and uninvited, mutated by the aura and wandering the woods to pick clean the bones that were in reach, provided an unnatural timbre. And deeper yet was the rhythmic bass of what could only be interpreted as the gait of a giant beast, sending vibrations through the disconnected pools of crimson. From that origin, a beacon of misty red stands at the center of the Organic Woods, illuminating a monstrous silhouette of a roaming creature to the likeness of a padding tomcat circling a bowl of milk.

For those who venture here, there is but one course of action. The beacon must be sought. And madness stands in the way.

 

[Karnage]

Upon waking up, Karnage felt that chill of undeniable fear coursing through his large, heavy body. It weighed down on his mind, on his shoulders, on his chest. Like a cat trying to suffocate him by sitting on his chest to stare at his face.

Sitting up, his large eyes surveyed the land, but really it was his electromagnetivity that told Karnage of this new place he was in. Although in this environment his electromagnetivity was dull and hazy. He had never been without it.The Kamo huffed, and got to his feet, looking at all the weaklings around him. Soft, little squishy meat packets. Like captain and Sabine and Rickel!

There was no way they could have carried Karnage here. Did they have the same message he did?

“Oi oi oi! Whose hid it? Where da thing at?” Karnage said, looking around. His eyes squinted as if it could help him see better, but really he was trying to focus. Beacon. Where was the beacon? More importantly: what was a beacon? “Eets serious.” The Kamo huffed, turning his large hands into fists.

 

[Violetta Amrita Primrose]

The tiefling arose to noises and scents that assaulted her with their despair fueled presences. She bolted upright, confused and terrified of the new nightmare she had woken to. A hand on the hilt of the sword she'd taken off a corpse not two days prior. She had been in the savannah, no? With that warrior. Why was she here?

The acrid stench of the place nigh overwhelmed her. Viscera seemed to pulsate throughout the haunting biome. She knew from one glance that wherever the hells she was, it was a place of pure malice.

Yet something hanged in the air. A feeling of strength by supernatural means. It spoke in her mind about itself. Some beacon, some pulling answer. There was a destination here. But the woman had known many struggles, and this place would try and stop her. She could tell.

Violetta looked around at the others rising from their apparent forced slumber as she slapped away some disgusting mixture of red, bulbous fluid that clung to her cloak and overalls. The man-shark thing spoke abrasively about what she had to guess was the beacon. Her eyes turned towards him, but her body did not.

"I suspect we're to find out. If we'rent killed first."

 

[Necro Lizard]

As his eye balls frantically danced behind his heavy eye lids, a sweet smell of death and decay fed nightmares of a troubled past.

With a sudden jolt, Necro Lizard gasped awake! He shot to his feet with both excitement and fear. Excited by the familiar scents drifting through the air, but scared by the possible memories this place might hold.

Stepping forward slightly, crunching steps through rotten bones, Necro Lizard notices that he isn't alone for there are others awakening besides him.


Are the dead rising?! he thought to himself as he questions if this is reality or just another nightmare.

 

[Karnage]

Karnage opened his mouth to speak the pretty lil meat-sack with horns. His razor sharp teeth gnashed together instantly as the Kamo felt a tickle in his throat. He tried to hold it back, breathing out harshly through his small nostrils, but the more he tried to contain it then the greater that tickle grew.

Without warning, he began bellowing with laughter. His downturned mouth was gaping wide, wanting to stretch even wider. His entire body shuddered from the laughter. It didn’t stop there. Unfortunately for everyone around Karnage, he was a clapper.

Soon enough the large sharkman was clapping his hands frantically together, his long tail swinging back and forth— and luckily enough, far from range from all the others gathered here. Jumping from leg to leg, the shark man’s laughter only grew in frequency and volume. Tears dropped from his eyes, partially from his heaving lungs and ragged breath, but mostly because of the horrors going on in his mind.

A blood feud! Nasty, nasty thing. It reversed a lot of Karnage’s common tongue back into the chopped up speak of his early years, when he was still a wee lad. With his father and mother and sixteen siblings, swimming the seas!

They were tough! They were family! They were—

All getting murdered before his very eyes.​

Karnage, somehow through his laughter, released a laughing roar of pure pain, falling down to his knees and punching the ground furiously. Still laughing, of course.

 

[Crux]

Usually, when Crux passed out, whether it be from drink or exhaustion or a lucky shot from an enemy, he woke up in the same place hours later. This was different. The man let out a groan, holding a hand to his temple as he sat up in the fleshy, muddy much laden with jagged bone underneath him. Where in the bloody hell was he? The place reeked of death and decay, and Crux grimaced as he pulled his hands from the macabre soup of viscera he'd woken in, bringing himself to his feet.

Something unholy dwelled here, something evil. Quickly moving his hand to his hip, he found that the Whipblade was still with him, and his armor was intact. Good. There was simply no way he was getting out of this living nightmare without a fight. Though the forest stretched out into the fog for miles, the trees reaching up and curving in like a massive ribcage, Crux had never been frightened by such scenes before, and he would not start now.

Of course, the same might not be said of the ragtag group that he now noticed rising around him, looking just as confused and disoriented as he. Though in a strange twist of fate he wondered if he wasn't the most normal looking of all of them. A horned woman, a figure shrouded in a dark cloak, and what could only be described as a walking shark were his companions.

"Wonderful. Ensnared in a forest crafted from feverish nightmares and they had to go and give me company." He muttered as the Shark babbled on about some beacon. The word caused a nagging sensation in the back of his skull that caused him to take a few steps forward through the bloody slog. "I'm more concerned with where the hell we are. Am I the only one who doesn't remember how I got here?"

It was a possibility. Crux tended to... forget things, when he got carried away.

 

[Rahma]

Last among the group to pull himself to consciousness was the far flung Rahma. His rousing was slow at first, belayed by the fog of disorientation and pounding headache that bewildered him. As he went from lying on his gut to all-fours, then to a kneeling position, he began to clear off the muck that had been plastered to him. Only once the scent of rot assailed his nostrils like a chariot running into a stone wall did he realize that he was covered in...guts? Discarded flesh?

Confused fatigue rapidly shifted to disgusted panic as Rahma wiped the stuff from his form as best he could, senses on overdrive as he looked about him. A disgusting, pulsating landscape surrounded him as far as the eye could see...for better or for worse, he wasn't the only one who had apparently been sucked into this bizarre situation. A human, a komodi or a tiefling (he could never pick them apart), some sort of hooded halfbreed, and a shark-man. Perhaps the latter was a beastfolk of some sort.

Rahma's upper ears twitched as the forest moved around them and he clasped a hand over his nose. If the smell was bad for the others, they were much worse for the demi-jackal. His ears were then assaulted with raucous laughter as the shark began punching the earth. Ground-flesh. Whatever.

"Can you take it down a few dozen notches? My head is killing me." He griped. Not to mention, the uproar was drowning out the sound of everything else, and was likely drawing the attention of...whatever occupied this foul place.

"Can't remember a thing. Last I recall I was...patrolling, I think." Rahma answered the human as best he could. To his actual memory, he was schmoozing up a pair of dancers at the Viper's Den whilst he was supposed to be patrolling, but nobody else needed to know that. Twin brother and sister, too; he cursed his rotten luck that he wouldn't get to see how that concluded.

 

[Necro Lizard]

Starvation, ripping at his gut as if it was making a meal of itself.
Laughing, followed by pounding noises echoed around the field of blood and bones bouncing back off the tree line back at the strange beings gathered with no direction or meaning.
Agitation struck Necro Lizard like a lightning bolt as he tried to figure out what was causing that dreadful sound. As he peered up and to the left, a small red cap mushroom caught his gaze, gleaming as if the sun was bouncing a god like reflection off of it.

There's no sunshine in this horrid place?.. Necro Lizard thought to himself with suspicion.
Before he could think further, he found himself slowly reaching for the mushroom with no control.

Necro Lizard knew that something foul was at play here but could not do anything to stop himself as his hunger ran rampant.

-

This red cap mushroom was a 'Blood Red Psil cap'. It had the highest quantity of Psilocybin known to Man, elf, Orc or any other being for that matter. Psilocybin causes intense hallucinations which last for just a few minutes. Unfortunately for the user, time feels a whole lot slower and 1 minute can equal to anything from 1 hour, to 1 day. The most dangerous thing about taking a 'Blood Red Psil Cap', is that the user can forget to eat or drink for such a long time that Death can pluck them from this world.

-

Snapping the juicy red mushroom from its stem, Necro Lizard took a huge bite. Crunching and glaring, like a puppy dog eating his first treat, he did not stop until the whole thing had been devoured.
After licking his lips with pure delight, he looked up to find the world slipping away from under him. All of a sudden, he was back there.. Back in that dreadful place.. Orc monsters surrounding him in a shadow like form..

Screams of a familiar voice could be heard in the distance. As Necro Lizard pushed through the shadow figures and headed towards the sound, he could see a fallen figure on the ground, draped in a black, silk robe. This is where the screams were coming from.. He reached out, grabbed a hold of the hood and threw it off the mysterious being to see who it was that sounded so familiar. The most demonic, ugly, smelly, disgusting Orc screamed in Necro lizards face..

SHE'S MINE NOWWWW!

Necro Lizard panicked, filled with anger and hate he reached for his weapon but it was not there. As he looked back towards the hideous Orc, he was gone! The smoke like figures had all gone too as the world started to melt away.

Finding himself back in the bloody and Boney bog, he concealed the tears running down his cheek from the others and climbed back to his feet. Taking a sip from his almost empty canteen, Necro Lizard questioned how many hours he had been lost in the nightmares of his past..

 

[Violetta Amrita Primrose]

She went to speak again to the shark-thing when it uproared in a terrifying laugh. Her back foot slid backwards, blade being drawn with a deft and swift hand. She did not aim it at the creature but kept her eyes on him as her body finally forced itself to face him.

What in the devils?

What had happened to him? He just fell out, and his laughter held a twinge of misery on it. Especially when he struck the ground. The thing was suffering.

Gooseflesh crept across her spine as she tried to piece together what had happened.

Others spoke. Several of them.

The reptilian one also reacted in a burst of confused emotion. She knew. She knew that something was wrong, causing this madness. Something nearby.

Violetta yelled;

“Move yourselves from ere’! The place intends to make us it’s prey! Do not let i-“

But she could not finish. A sharp ringing struck her skull. An invisible pressure crashed down on her as a counter to her warning. She tried to take her own advice and found herself incapable of moving her feet any further.

“Oh… Gods…”

The gravity of this place made itself known on her shoulders. A boulder of hatred that had forced her to be its personal Sisyphus. Yet she could not push back. Her feet sunk into the crimson muck giving the illusion that it was actually shoving her to the ground.

Her vision spotted. The ringing persisted. She would collapse, she could feel it. The cloak of this world wrapped itself around her violet flesh with meaning to choke her to death.

Violetta fought, aggravated and stubborn. She would not be bested by a nightmare. This place was crimson, and spongy. It could bleed.

That meant it could die.

But it wasn’t the wrath of the forest that gave her pause when she tried cut a wound into herself to help her focus. The spots in her vision began to take shape. Forms of people. Forms of tieflings.

Her people. No, not just that. It was her parents. Appearing in glimpses before her. She hadn’t seen them since they’d been slain in the raid so many years ago.

They spoke, but their voices sounded underwater. Muffled by whatever this madness was bringing. There were few words she could make out.

Faerie. Rebirth. Ritual.

She did not know what it meant. Truthfully, she didn’t care. All this did was infuriate her further. Her family was dead. How dare this fucking place remind her of such a tragedy. She was so fucking sick of tragedy.

Through gritted teeth she spat;

“I will… See this place… Burn…”

 

[Pantomime]

The wails around them syncopated and shifted, the harmony and heart of this land thumped to an unnatural rhythm. While the world was chilled and humid simultaneously, creating an atmospheric paradox that drew deeper the mania around them, the wind was still ever removed from the woods. Next to the group, as if it had been there all along, a figure stood wheezing and coughing. Its form approached nearly 15 feet in height, though such stature was twisted and stumped by a pronounced hunchback, marked in the crimson garbs that covered it.

As Karnage released his howl of pain and laughter, twisted together by the madness of the trees and despair of unforeseen visions, the figure approached like a curious child. What flesh was exposed was gray and twisted, its disposition and purposes were foreign beyond the strange approach to the figure who seemed so fervently distraught. Its clothes were fashioned of felt and golden trim and a scabbard of bone hung from his hip by a band of stretched flesh. Its right arm was displaced, sticking out from his back and curling about like a prehensile tail, decorated in polyps of rotten flesh. Where the hand should have been, there were three claws, waving about like a palm frond. Its left arm was properly placed but where a hand should have been, there was a wide mouth filled with shark-like teeth.

Eyes of pitch black stared out from a mutated cephalofoil. Where the head should have been much like Karnage’s, it was twisted on a 90 degree angle. Where the mouth should have been, where the scalp should have been, shark-like eyes looked on in confusion from elongated protrusions.

As if instigated by the pounding of the mud and peat, the creature lunged forward to attack Karnage with its hand-mouth and rows of serrated teeth.

Behind the group, in the opposing direction of the red mist beacon, galloping could be heard. Far in the distance, as if in reaction to being within viewing distance, a horde of flesh sacked creatures moved from running on all fours to standing upright. They were not without form but what form was there was twisted and demented. One had noticeable curved horns protruding from their chest, another was covered in gas green fur from head to waist, another was draped in black hair that hung down to its feet, and another had warped jackal eared shaped appendages where its arms should have been. And behind them, countless figures of varying propositions followed.

Spoiler: The Uninvited

And like children cautiously approaching the dance floor to find their partner, they lumbered with groans of agony and listlessness towards those unfortunate enough to be in this place.​

Karnage | Violetta Amrita Primrose | Crux | Necro Lizard | Rahma ​

 

[Crux]

Crux heard the outbursts from some of the others quite clearly, but wrote them off as panic-induced hysteria. It wasn't a normal being who could handle this type of environment, so steeped in wicked energies. No, Crux needed to find his own bearings, to tune himself to this place so he could navigate and conquer it just like any other hostile land he'd found himself in. To that end, he raised his hand into the air, focusing as he took some of the silent, sinister energy from the air into his body. Every place had an aura, and Crux could taste them, could learn more about his surroundings just by letting a part of said place inside of him.

This time, it was a mistake.

Immediately a sharp pain rang out through his body, the magic he'd taken burning him from the inside and spreading like poison as it began to cloud every sense. His tongue felt limp and numb, vision grew spotty, and the cries of the strange lizard-like creature became little more than a hum carrying through the air. Bringing his hands to his skull, Crux groaned, simmering with anger at his own foolhardiness. "Took too much for such an unfamiliar place." was what he meant to say, but it came out a muffled mess under the cloud of the woods' energy.

What really caught his attention though, was when somebody answered him.

"You always were brave, darling."

Crux knew that voice. Vaguely, but he knew it. Raising his head back up to the fog-choked labyrinth of blood and bone, he saw both of them, his parents standing with smiles on their dirty faces and the same bloody rags they'd been adorned with when he'd watched the Orcs behead them in front of him. They weren't alone, either. a crowd of people behind them stood too, Orcs and Humans alike, their faces obscured by blood, bodies riddled with missing chunks and gaping wounds.

He remembered them. They'd been the ones he killed when...

No.

No, it didn't matter who they were. Who any of them were.

His parents just stood there, smiling dumbly at him in front of the parade of corpses he'd left in his wake, almost like they were mocking him about what he'd become. Perhaps there was a time he would have felt upset, or sad by this vision before him, but the child who'd been their son was long dead, and Crux cared not for remembering the fallen.

And so, without a word, he turned away. Just in tame to face the new horrors approaching them all from the rear. Grotesque, nightmarish beings, but... These were far less difficult to look at than the mirage behind him was. The unholy were his specialty, and in a fight against these many-limbed horrors, Crux felt right at home.

The sound of the whipblade as it smacked the fleshy, bloodsoaked ground in front of him rang out, the segments of the blade detaching along the thin steel wire and dragging across viscera and bone as Crux drew a line before him.

"Ready yourselves, if you don't intend to run." He instructed the others, though he still wasn't sure they could hear him, either because they were panicking, or because his tongue was still being uncooperative. The painful magic still coursed through his veins, but he could vent it out with a little exertion...

 

[Rahma]

At once, the others around Rahma muttered their nonsensical mutterings. The hooded one devoured some local flora. The horned one gave an obvious warning, then a vow of enmity. All just noise. And among the noise, a shrill cry. One hauntingly familiar. Rahma turned to look, away from the rest of the group, somewhere deep into the woods. It continued on, the sound of deep, tortured lament. Then he saw her.

"M...mo--?"

Rahma took a single step forward on unstable feet, on knees that had already gone weak. He fell, fists plunging back into the muck. He panted breathlessly, shaken, vision fighting for clarity even on the ground that was just inches in front of him. The demi-jackal looked up; gone. Nothing. Surely she was just a hallucination conjured by the landscape around him. No, maybe this was all some terrible dream instead.

Once more Rahma picked himself up, though this time he realized he'd inadvertently palmed something that was down in the muck below. He uncurled his fingers and shook his hand clean to reveal what looked to be the skull of some small canid, perhaps a fox. The demi-beast's pupils dilated.

That had to have happened for a reason, right? That didn't just happen. No way! The skull was probably the thing the group was meant to find. Or related to it. Or related to something related to it. It didn't matter. What mattered was that this skull meant something. Especially since he'd just seen his dead mot--

The sharp metallic crack of Crux's whipblade followed by his call to arms shook Rahma from his stupor. He tucked the fox skull into his sash and drew his katars, turning to look for whatever was about to bear down on the group of stragglers. Only to see...uh...
"What in the fucking Six, Hundreds, and Three are those?"

Rahma took one cautious step back, though his katars were up in a fighting posture. He couldn't help but pick out the one that seemed to be trying--and failing--to look like him...and the flashing images of a woman from his memories, draping herself over its shoulders, screaming and crying. Again, he tripped, having to catch the skull with one of his katars before it fell from his sash.
"Fuck!"

 

[Necro Lizard]

Trying to trace the nightmare vision, trying to get back in it to see the one he lost.. Necro Lizard was oblivious to his surroundings in these fragile moments of remembering.

A loud noise rung out from near by, snapping Necro Lizard out of his inverted gaze of confusion. It seemed like the others had seen something behind and were readying for battle. Looking back over his shoulder, there it was... A hord of foul beasts heading their way.

Scarpering franticly around the ground, Necro Lizard clumsily collected more bones to add to his collection. If he was going to summon bone creatures to aid in his defence, the measly 20 bones he had on him would not be enough. Using the new bones collected from the stench ridden muck, he cast 'Summon Bone Creature'. Necro Lizard was thrown to the ground in pure denial!

'That means.... that means.... that means these bones do not belong to just animals and creatures... they belong to Humans! Elves! Orcs! '

He couldnt be completely sure to who these bones belonged, but the nagging energy in the air portrays misery and torment from these unfortunate souls.
Using the 20 bones already in his posession, Necro Lizard cast once again and raised two bone creatures. He slowly lifted with both arms, his wooden scythe in a defencive position and glanced over at his new team mates with a gentle nod.

Necro Lizard spoke to himself with a soft vengeful whisper: 'Lets kill them all....'

 

[Violetta Amrita Primrose]

Violetta had been one of the unluckiest, finding herself next to the extraordinary creature of flesh. Its cough had resonated as if it was in her ear. This was only because it was so close, if not nine and a half feet into the air.

Move.

Her left eye looked up at the grotesque mockery of a living thing as she tried to will her legs to just fucking move. It seemed however, that the beast was more interested in the shark-thing than it was her. The horrors here were not like the hellish monsters she'd seen in her village. They were malformed, difficult to look at due to their wayward anatomy. And now their howls were coming from behind her, as well.

Her fury had been honest, but it had been brief. So much was dawning on here as these things appeared. How right she was about them being prey. Were she a smarter woman, she may be able to determine whether or not these beasts could be put to their grave or not. But Violetta had not yet met the being that didn't fall to death.

Her blade lowered to her calf, and she dragged it swiftly across her own leg.

A yelp of pain came from her as her blood was fed to the ground beneath her. Focus now returned to replace fear, shoving it back to the depths.

Curse Epressa. Curse Arethil. For all the harm it showed her these days. For all the monstrosities and sacrifices it forced upon its denizens. The fury found its home again. It was never long gone from the woman who'd been pushed to the edge time and time again by the will of this planet.

She hated it. She hated everything. And if it wanted her dead...

She would make it the worst task this place had ever undertaken.

Valkyrian Fury​

Her cloak thrown from her shoulders to reveal the muck-soaked farmers clothing beneath. Her eyes riddled with absolute rage, to the point that anyone could tell she was not thinking straight.

"If this place wants blood, then it shall have it."

The thing that pestered the shark-thing was closest, which made it her immediate target for the mounting anger that now blinded her soul. This awful forest had been foolish enough to show her it's weight, teach her what its pressure felt like. She would make sure that it regretted it.

A stomp of her foot planted her beside Karnage and the thing that eyed him. Blood flew up from the soaked earth in a ring from the impact. Violetta brought the mightiest upper swing of her blade she could muster, aiming to dismember the foul thing.

 

[Karnage]

Karnage didn’t quite care about what was happening to the others around him. They weren’t his Family or his Crew. Plus, the psychosis did affect him more than the sharkman could ever realize. Even with that strange beast creeping up on him, Karnage continued his laughter and punching, picturing the bloody face of a Kamo instead of just the ground.

Then, out of nowhere, it had stopped. The urge to laugh, the visions of his shark people family. His ribs ached, but Karnage blinked slowly, getting his bearings. He was vaguely aware that everyone from before had moved, and was also aware of the approaching enemies. He snorted furiously and stood up, pivoting on his heel with a fist poised.

As Violeta used a blade, in tandem to her impact, Karnage’s fist would meet the disfigured face of the creature. The Kamo roared, feeling himself— especially after he began catching his breath— get reinvigorated.

A pulse struck him. A red one. As the creature staggered back, Karnage would see that red beacon. There it was! That was the beacon!

“Weez goes dere an’ weez goes fast or weez die.” Karnage stated, as if he knew anything— which really, would you want to trust a shark man that struggled in counting his own fingers?

 

[Pantomime]

| Karnage |​

The Uninvited, who had taken to the form of Karnage as its intended victim, was struck doubly with impressive effect. The first strike sent the teeth enhanced appendage to the ground, squirming in the bloody muck as it chewed on an unearthed root with vigor. The second attack came quickly in tandem, striking the beast hard in the centerpoint between its eye protrusions. Caving in what could have been considered its face, the creature turned and flicked its prehensile tail at Karnage, evidently intending to strike Karnage across the chest with the razer clawed tail.
​

| Violetta Amrita Primrose |
​

Distracted by the bloodlust that surrounded her, the beast with curled horns breaching out from its chest, took to a running gallop, perceiving itself to be outside of its victims attention. Once close enough, it took back to its curious childlike movement before prostrating itself on the ground near the Tiefling. Tilting its head to the earth, where the ear should have been, a toothless mouth opened to reveal a serpents tongue that lashed at the ground. It lapped at the blood spilled from the thigh, mumbling with the sort of glee an animal would have with it's choice meal.
​

| Necro Lizard |
​

The gas green fur covered creature bristled in sight of the mage, flaring out its fur like hackles across the majority of the skin. The first bone skeleton summoned came to existence in proper form. The second, however, was something mutated and strange. Legs where arms should have been, arms where the hips should have been, and the head where the chest should have been. Without hesitation, the deformed skeleton turned towards the other summoned skeleton and began to weakly attack with little effect. The uninvited lifted its maw towards the sky and slurped at the cold chill, pleased with the molestation of magic that occurred.
​

| Crux |
​

Another approached, body nearly obscured in hair as black as night and coated in a thick lacquer like grease. What light shone down from the moon reflected off the hair, sending scatterings of light against the blood soaked ground. Lifting its arms as it approached, which ended in a terminus of nubs and bones with no hands in sight, the hairs of the creature began to turn over on themselves. Soon, they formed elongated black whips, turning the creature into nothing more than a living and groaning cat of nine tails with useless appendages. As if on command, the whips began to lash out at the ground, knocking free dirt and blood, as it slowly lumbered towards Crux.
​

| Rahma |​

Another approached. From its chest, large pincer like appendages jutted out from the body where the arms should have been. It's legs where triple jointed, coming to sharp points at the base. Each step was labored as it struggled to extract the sword like legs from the ground, though its purpose drove it. As it drew near, it began to run its arms against one another, producing the grating sound of sharpened bone against bone as the flesh peeled away, slumping to the ground in sickening splats.
​

| All |
​

With the exception of Karnage, a fear impales all those who stand before the horde. The will to fight, the will to stand ones ground, quickly dissolves in the face of the growing horde that is swelling behind the vanguard ranks of the transformed Uninvited. For those who stand their ground, the fear is nearly crippling. But for those who break free of it, they might find themselves agreeing with the mangled statements of their Kamo teammate.​

 

[Crux]

So, it was a formal occasion then? Crux wouldn't think creatures so unsettling in appearance to be such good practitioners of battle etiquette, but if the strangers that this nightmare had brought him together with could handle themselves, he certainly wouldn't deprive the opportunity to show their mettle. Besides, the one who seems most interested in him was putting on such a compelling display he would almost feel remorseful not to return the favor by offering it his full attention.

There were no eyes to look into, nothing but a black mass of flailing appendages whipping back and forth with enough velocity to rip flesh and rend bone if not treated with the proper respect. There almost seemed some level of mimicry to the otherworldly thing, how it used a bastardized version of his own whipblade, multiplied and corrupted. The figure approached him clumsily all the same, the muck of avarice beneath them both a hindrance to even the horrors of the deepest reaches.

"I've faced greater horrors than you. Try your luck."

Crux's bravado was slightly hollow; If tasting the aura here had told him anything, it's that his body wouldn't tolerate its presence inside of him. That meant drawing in energy to use his full potential wasn't an option, and that alone put him at a disadvantage. The air here was so thick with it, he'd have to control his temper, or he'd start siphoning without realizing it.

That in mind, he stepped back, watching the erratic movements of the horror, waiting for the right moment. He'd never admit it aloud, but even now his entire body screamed for him to flee, to turn away from the wretched thing. It was a sensation Crux was quite unused to, one that unnerved him with its presence. It was with steeled resolve and clenched teeth that he swung the whipblade horizontally as the many tails of the monstrosity neared one another, aiming to snare them all at once and bring it to the floor.

 

[Violetta Amrita Primrose]

The limb of the creature fell to her blade with unnerving ease. It hadn't even tried to avoid the blow. It just continued to be an impediment to their march, with the shark-thing as its main target. Her rage continued to boil. If it was going to let her kill it, then fine. It would be her pleasure.

As her next attack was preparing to meet the things flesh again, her periphery caught the act of what looked like prayer taking place next to her. Before she decided to strike, she turned to face whatever had approached her from her flank. What she was...

Earthshattering.

It looked like a disfigured and rearranged mass of her own horns. The facial features were spread away from their normal positions to give it a surrealist painting appearance yet plastered against skin it looked... Wrong.

Its tongue flicked forward, licking up the blood that had left her leg by her own volition. The edge of that tongue even brushing against her spotted skin and leaving a sticky mark of bright red just below her self inflicted wound.

This thing. It broke her.

Valkyrian Inadequacy
​

The anger she had let free had only proven to be a hindrance. She failed to aid the shark-thing and had allowed whatever was planned for her to catch up to her. She was powerless here, wasn't she? Her hands shaking was displayed by the rattle of the short sword she carried. Tears welled in her eyes. When violence fails someone who knows only that, panic is not far behind.

The shark-thing spat an accented declaration of their doom, and she knew it was right. But she was paralyzed again. Stuck there and forced to stare at the twisted mockery of her horns as it fed upon her essence.

She slowly moved back from it, as that was all she could manage while keeping her eyes on it.

 

[Necro Lizard]

Disgusted by his own creation, Necro Lizard peered with eyes wide open at the horror that stood before him.

As fear ran through his every cell, as the sweat started to drip off his forehead and as the realisation hits of something terrible at hand. Necro Lizard reaches out to the deformed minion and with one swift grip and pull, he completely removes its spine rendering it a pathetic pile of bones like before.

Looking at thE green mass of who knows what, Necro Lizard could see how much the thing was enjoying this manipulation of his creation.

Fear surged through his body with no control. His wooden farmers scythe, held in his right hand, started turning black and began emanating a dark green glow..

Necro Lizard was confused and almost threw it to the floor. All of a sudden, a memory creeped into his mind of this powerful weapon obtained not so long ago. A memory showing the power that fed this wretched weapon... The power of his own fear...

With a cheeky smirk, Necro Lizard peeked from under his black robe at the deformed creature ahead. Knowing that things are about to get very interesting, he began to laugh with evil intentions.

 

[Karnage]

Perhaps spunky girls who knew their way with a sharp piece of steel tended to bring out that soft side of Karnage only people like Sabine and Rickel got to see. Whatever it was, Karnage didn’t hide it. With perhaps a too harsh shove, Karnage made sure he was in front of Violetta as that monstrosity of himself— not that Karnage thought it represented him in any way, his mind too small to handle a inward idea like that— attacked. Karnage took the slash to his chest, but it was worth it.

With one strong hand he grabbed that tail and made sure to wrap it around his hand like it was a rope— a practice he was rather good with since living on the Icarus. With a bit of fancy footwork, the sharkman used all of his weight and strength to then swing that mass of flesh around. Veins popped and protruded like roots of raw power underneath his gray skin.

With a roar of frustration, Karnage pulled that tail and the creature close to him, bashing his large head into it before kicking it back, hopefully tearing it’s tail off with all the wear and tear. Karnage didn’t stop, leaping onto the creature, pummeling it with stomps and then his heavy fists, over and over until he could feel nothing but mush.

Standing up, he looked around, seeing that a majority of the group wasn’t moving. Didn’t they—

“MOVE!” He roared, barreling his way over to Violetta, picking her up and throwing her over his shoulder. He looked around. He didn’t like dogs, they were smelly and barked too much. He also didn’t like lizards, they were creepy— like spiders. As for Crux? Karnage thought he looked sneaky. Karnage hated sneaky. “Weez runs fastest.” He informed Violetta, and began running towards that beacon.

Violetta Amrita Primrose

 

[Rahma]

Unlike the others, there was presently no fight in Rahma. As the spear-armed creature bore down on him, its pin-sharp legs jutting into the ground as it barreled towards him, Rahma only had the will in him to block and deflect its blows with his katars. He let the bone talons glance off the steel of his blades a few times, backing up with each strike, before finally letting one of them slide down the blade as he guided the strike directly into the side of a tree, where the skewering appendage got stuck.

One breathless strike severed the other limb at the elbow, and Rahma immediately turned to flee, leaving the creature to squeal and pull at its own limb, still stuck. The wound, Rahma noted, didn't bleed.

Most of the others seemed intent on trying to draw some sort of foolhardy last stand here. The flickering images of a wailing, bloody woman that were assailing Rahma every few seconds gave him no such false bravery.
"The fuck is wrong with all of you?..." He panted, shaken to his core. "Do you wanna die?! We can't STAY here!"

Of all people, the walking shark was the only one with any kind of sense. Rahma had no clue if the brute had any sense of direction, he just knew he needed to be anywhere but here. He ran after Karnage, leaving the others to do as they would, regardless of what fate that left them. His mother smiled at him.

 

[Violetta Amrita Primrose]

She was unsure of what might begin to snap her out of her panic induced motionlessness. Even as Violetta made strides backwards, she didn't make very much progress at her current pace. The horned monstrosity seemed content to drink at her spilled blood and so maybe if she didn't agitate it, it wouldn't-

"What the hell?!"

She managed to blurt out as she was hoisted over the shoulder of the hulking shark creature who she had just registered had been speaking to her. She watched the distance between her, and the mockery of her skull grow swiftly, and her senses began to return to her while she was away from it.

Grateful, but irritated, Violetta looked over her shoulder to the back of Karnage's protruding eye.

"Oi! You've a lotta nerve for pickin' me up like that!" Her voice softened. "But thank you. I couldn't m'self move."

She turned her gaze back to behind them, where Rahma seemed to be following behind. She gave him an awkward wave that said, 'what a day, right?'

 

[Rahma]

Rahma glanced upward as he ran behind Karnage to see the horned woman from before staring back at him, rousing him from his nightmare if only for the moment.

He blinked at her, then grimaced.
"That's one way to put it."

 

[Pantomime]

| Crux |​

The monster did not respond to the taunt. Despite the presence of a mouth, behind the lips was nothing more than a black abyss that led to an internal void surrounded by mealy flesh and varicose arteries, heralded by rows upon rows of serrated teeth. No tongue, no thoughts to move it, just momentum and inertia of flesh seeking out more flesh. And as the whip blade struck against the whips flinging about from the creatures crown, it wrapped successfully around them. But rather than constricting it, it cut straight through, like a knife through noodles. The ends of the whips plummeted to the ground and like slinkies sent down the stairs, the severed whips took on a life of their own and through end over end locomotion, began barreling towards Crux like worms with a purpose. And from the beast, the severed remains of the whips grew back to original length, lashing outward at the mud and peat.
​

| Necro Lizard |
​

The beast donned what could have been interpreted as a moment of confusion. Tilting its head, it looked on at its intended victim, as the green gas fur bristled once more. Lifting its mouth to the sky once more, the creature shook violently and croaked, as its armed exploded in a spectacle of green and gore. The fur covered flesh blossomed back as chitinous bone jumped out of the shoulder socket. The limbs formed were not entirely different from the scythe that Necro Lizard carried. A jumble of arm and leg bones, meshed together, that terminated in what could have been a mutated hip bone, sharpened to a point. Flaring its chest forward in a animalistic display, it charged with arms swinging.
​

| Rahma Karnage Violetta Amrita Primrose |
​

As the trio begin to find themselves removed from the place of battle, they would find that the horde that was chasing them stopped their pursuit, instead circling back to attack those who had not withdrawn. Those who would not stand their ground may find that the horde seemed to purposefully stop chasing them, as if there was something in the heart of the Organic Woods that gave them pause. Above the trio, the Moon cut through the barren trees, casting shadows on the blood ground. Shadow of branches, shadows of trees, and shadows of the dead that hung above them in pieces, dripping blood from taught rope. If they listened closely, they might even hear whispers of regret, guilt, and animosity. And even further behind those hanging remains, the beam of red mist, like a pillar rising to the heavens, shined in the distant dark. Ever occasionally, the red light was interrupted by the pacing of a gargantuan silhouette.​