Board 8 > The Notes of Cain, Topic 2 [CYOA]

(+) Yeah! (+)

kappa
---

MariaTaylor posted...

this chapter included honestly some of my favorite passages that I had planned in mind for some time now, though I was never 100% sure of course how exactly it would happen or which characters would get to these locations first. hopefully stuff like Maria discovering the skull and -almost- touching it were impactful for the readers in the same way they were for me.

(also still weird because nfun decided to meta troll by naming his character after me)

That was definitely my favorite part of the chapter :)
---

10. King Hippo
(111111111) A. Legendary PUNCH OUT
(11111) B. Front line blocks, back line retreats
(1) C. Everyone run for your lives!

11. Excavation Group
(111111) A. Research the Elder Gods
(1111111) B. Eradicate Monsters
(1) C. Loot and Leave

The Ditch Party
Dismas the Guilty - eddv
Maria Taylor - nfun
Abom, the Chained Man - decider
Cata Spade - Cata
Goetic - lefty

The Shell Party
Torin Gemmason - Mana
Lancer Aaron - FB
Enoch the Wanderer - crazy
Jen Lowell - pk2k
Leone the Cat - CPU

The Moth Party
Captain Punch - xey
Owen the Coward - stan
Beastkin Zephyr - ermine
Matsuda - trdl
Fakeru, Lucky Girl - fake
Jamison, Inspector - maniac
Gunslinger Kidd - drak
---

I'll wait for votes on 11 to settle but looks like next chapter is gonna be a Matsuda POV where we brawl it out with KING HIPPO
---

For those who are about to die, I salute you.
---

For 11 I'm swapping to B
---

Y'all are no fun, choosing NOT to go the eldritch horror route
---

Pretty sure we are going that way like it or not.
---

I don't want Enoch to have tentacles in his trenchcoat thx
---

This is next chapter is going to be BLOODY.
---

11A

come on, people
---

running some errands today. I may not be in the mood to write when I get finished. hard to say.
---

I did a bit of writing today, and I know we're already on 3 days now, but I just don't have it in me to finish right now. Have a lot of other stuff to do around the house today which means my day isn't really over to the point where I feel content relaxing and focusing on writing.

It's possible I write something during the night, but if not I'll definitely get to this tomorrow.
---

Take your time.
---

Better to write quality when you can rather than rush and not have it feel right.
---

You have a life beyond writing these updates, we understand completely. :D
---

Once upon a midnight dreary...
---

Been busy so glad I'm not behind lol
---

I'm finishing cleaning my kitchen today and will write the rest of the chapter after I finish doing that + eating dinner

it's taking longer than I thought it would!

(started cleaning last night, still haven't finished)
---

Entry 12: Worse Than Devils

As Abom and Cata were walking behind, Dismas was leading the group with his arms crossed behind his head. They slowly made their way down into the tunnels. Maria, walking slightly behind Dismas, was reading through a book. As usual, she wasn't watching where she was going. It seemed her attention was more focused on the information in front of her rather than where her feet were taking her at the time.

"If... we see anything with water," she spoke at last, almost to herself, "I think that's a good time to turn and run away."

"Water?" Cata inquired. "Can't you swim? Or are you just afraid?"

"Well, I'm afraid of this." Maria turned over the book and showed it to him. The picture of a truly terrifying creature. "They called it a Water Horse in these notes. But to me, it looks like something much scarier than a horse."

"And no," she added, "I cannot swim."

Even Dismas had to stop and take a look. The illustrations inside showed a monster with a tank of a body, the ability to move surprisingly fast, to overtake its targets in and around the water, and with crushing powerful jaws with two deadly long spears protruding from below. "... I don't envy the ones who have to face off against that thing."

//###//

At that time, Yoshiki Matsuda was staring down the same creature as it came lunging for him. Yet, while he was looking it dead in the eyes, and read its clear killing intent, his mind was clearly somewhere else. He wasn't in the present. Maybe it was just his life flashing before his eyes. All he saw at that time was his past laid out before him.

Sometimes you win, but sometimes you would lose. Aren't you afraid of losing? If you're afraid of losing, if you can't handle the fact that you'll eventually lose in the end, then this game isn't for you. That was the world Mastuda had grown up in. Has father was the kind of man who was afraid of losing and so he never made any moves.

Matsuda couldn't let it end like that. He couldn't be like that.

From a young age he had admired and looked up to his father, but those feelings grew sour and turned into resentment. How much better might their lives have been if Yoshiki Gorona had given it his all? Rather than camping at the foot of the mountain he could have at least tried to climb it. Would his mother still be alive today? They might have been able to afford better doctors, better treatment for her.

But, no, that was his old way of thinking. His childish way of thinking. As he got older, as he became more independent, as he separated himself from his father, after his mother was gone, Matsuda started to find the world was a lot harder than he ever imagined. Sometimes you win, but sometimes you're going to lose, right?

"Isn't that the way things are supposed to work?" He would lay in bed at night, his chest hurting. Sometimes on the verge of tears. He could barely afford to pay for his own cost of living, and sometimes he couldn't afford it. And when he got behind on payments this would only create new debts and new fees that would push him further and further down. "Aren't I supposed to win sometimes? When does that happen?"

It was when he was at his absolute limit that he decided to try his luck at gambling for the first time. He couldn't bet much, and so he took the longest odds possible. It didn't matter. He already had next to nothing. If he lost anything he might as well lose it all. But if he won...

No, this story doesn't end like that. He lost. He was forced to go back to his father and look for reconciliation. And he found it. Their relationship improved. But he knew the debt he brought with him had created a hardship for his father, and although it was unspoken between them, it was something he had to live with.
---

It was two years before Matsuda was ready to go out into the world on his own again once more. There were still many things he didn't understand. He was still young and foolish. He couldn't figure out why his father pushed himself to work so hard for the Lord, without ever truly being recognized or rewarded. Even though that man was always sick and tired these days, even though he had picked up extra work to cover the debts of his son (and Matsuda knew this is what was going on, and it hurt him even more to know it), his father kept working hard every single day.

Matsuda didn't have the strength of his father, but he couldn't recognize that strength either. He still thought that he needed to be someone who wasn't afraid of losing. Only, now, he had learned a few things. He had his own strength. The next time he went to the gambling hall he made a safer bet. If he lost, he'd still be able to cover the next round, and the next after that. And if he won, he would be able to keep playing.

More than that he learned to play against the odds in a long term sense. He would win sometimes. He would lose sometimes. Knowing that he simply had to find a consistent way of doing things so that when he won it would allow him to play more games, and when he lost it wouldn't deplete his net amount of funds completely. Matsuda began to get better at this.

Matsuda started to become someone who didn't need to work at all. He could simply make money by using this strategy of gambling. It didn't hurt that he had started to figure out how some of the games worked, after so much practice of playing against the odds, that he could predict in a meta sense when it was safe to bet high and when it was better to hold off or to bet low.

It was during this time that he started to develop a reputation.

It was during this time when he first started to make enemies.

Luthor Breddick, a middling tier member of the Thieves Guild, had been placed in charge of watching over the gambling parlor during that time. Needless to say, the point of the house was to win. The house was supposed to win more bets than they lost, and bring home money at the end of the day. Now, Matsuda, by himself, wasn't going to put them out of business.

However, Luthor always felt like they weren't making as much money as they should have been. Not as much as they could have been. And as he quietly watched Matsuda he began to feel like Matsuda by himself was a representative symptom of this curse which had afflicted him.

Luthor was someone who wanted to raise his own position in the world, and he was someone who didn't like the idea of losing. He wasn't someone who could really play the game correctly. He went with the motions and always expected to win in the end. He went with a safe bet every time and never understood why he had been stuck in the same position for so long.

It was during a particular day, at a particular Iron Jack table, when Matsuda was on a particularly notable winning streak. This was the moment that finally broke Luthor; He saw Matsuda there, not afraid of losing, and finally making a push that would show him a great path forward. It made Luthor come face to face with his own inadequacies.

He took a seat beside Matsuda at that moment, before the final hand was ready to be dealt.

Matsuda was watching carefully. Not just the deck, not just the game, not just thinking about his odds, but he knew what this meant. He recognized who had sat beside him and likely why. Today, though, things were going good. Better than they ever had before. He had started this winning streak by betting a small sum, but he had continued to let it ride as he began to watch how the cards were released from the deck and considered his odds of winning at each stage.

At this point he was sitting on a payout around forty times as large as what he had put in.
---

With one more win he could double that again, and walk away with eighty times profit after sifting through almost the entire deck. And his odds of winning in this situation, based on the last five cards left, were better than losing. He knew that. And Luthor might not have understood everything that was happening, but he must have known that if Matsuda was betting here that Matsuda must have understood something about what was going to happen with those last five cards.

"Will you double it again?" the dealer asked. His eyes nervously went to Luthor. Other people in the hall had begun to take note of the situation. Luthor hadn't come alone, either. Two big men had joined him in watching Matsuda for what would surely be the final hand here.

"Of course," Matsuda said.

"I don't think you want to take that bet, Ante," Luthor told him. The last bit was delivered in a sarcastic tone. Someone who was always going to up the ante would get himself into trouble someday. That day was today. It was clear from the tone. "We both know what will happen if you do."

"Then you should know that it's a bet I definitely want to take," Matsuda said with a cocky smile. Oh, he was still so young and foolish back then. Sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose. That was the way of things, right?

Fuck no.

That wasn't the world he had born into.

That was an illusion that children told themselves.

In this world, sometimes, hell, maybe even most of the time, the game was actually rigged. No matter which cards came down next, Matsuda would never see his payout. All he saw were the cobblestones as he was forcefully, literally, and physically thrown out of the casino. He found himself coughing, though he wasn't bleeding anywhere that he could tell.

His eyes stung. Something had hit him in the nose but he wasn't sure what it was. Too much of that last action had been a blur, after Luthor's resigned sigh and somewhat pained smile. As much as the man enjoyed finally punching down on Matsuda, he had seen those last five cards himself. It mentally hurt him, in this situation, more than Matsuda was physically hurting. He knew that this idiot who wasn't afraid of losing had really been on the verge of actually getting somewhere in life. It pissed him off.

It pissed him off more than he could put into words.

Luthor's face was almost turning red as him and his goons stared down at Matsuda. "You know I could fucking kill you right now, and no one would know or care?" Luthor said. His hands clenched and unclenched into a fist. "How does that make you feel?"

Matsuda was breathing heavily now. No one would care? That was... probably close to true. However, he knew it wasn't entirely true. His dad would definitely care. It was just... that man... wouldn't be able to do anything about it. An honest hardworking man whose son had been unjustly murdered would have no way of going against the Thieves Guild by himself.

He had dedicated decades of his life toward working for the local Lord, but he wouldn't be rewarded. That's because, in the world where Matsuda had been born, the game had been rigged from the very start.

"No, I think I'll spare your worthless life as long as you learn your place. You could have walked away with a nice little profit, but you had to keep pushing it. You little shit." Luthor thought about kicking him while he was down, but then he decided he liked feeling high and mighty in that moment. He backed off, enjoying the view. He was looking down on Matsuda for once. "What do you think? I just saved your life. Don't you have something to say?"

Matsuda thought about it for a moment.
---

He thought about how awful life in the city of Hendrake had been. He thought about the Censors who oppressed the people, and the Thieves who took advantage of the people who were already oppressed. How it was impossible for normal folk to get by, because of the stupid war between the childish cops and robbers that had been shooting back and forth at each other for his entire life.

He thought about his honest, hardworking father, and how that man hadn't moved an inch forward despite the fact that he kept trudging on and walking his hardest every day. He had been walking entirely in place. And it was all because of people like this who took advantage of the system and exploited everyone else. And, at the end of the day, guys like Luthor didn't even get anywhere in life.

He looked up at the pathetic man who, in a fit of childish rage, had taken his payout, and yet would still remain in the same place while being exploited by his own kind. And he knew nothing except for pity in that moment. Then, as the pity began to subside, his true feelings came up to the surface. The hatred he had felt for his entire life and had always kept bubbling quietly inside somewhere.

At that time it boiled over, and Matsuda couldn't stop it from releasing.

"Just one thing," Matsuda replied. "You guys are worse than Devils."

He rose to one knee. "Cowardly. Ineffectual. Exploiting others just to get by. And, you know what, Luthor, I think at the end of the day you're probably pretty unsatisfied with your own life, too."

"How does it feel to know that you make life worse for everyone else and you don't even gain for it?"

"How does it feel to be a true piece of shit?"

They put him back down on the ground, and it didn't end there.

As Matsuda was staring death in the face he remembered the feeling of being beaten and battered over nothing. Whether he stood up or if he had laid face down in the mud and said "Thank you, Luthor, for graciously saving my life," had never made a difference. He could be licking the boots of the Lord right now and it would all end up in the same place.

Eventually, in the end, like everyone else, Matsuda was going to lose. Completely. The most devastating bet of all was his own life. And that was something no one could keep riding forever. Back then he had survived. Today he might die. Today he saw the killing intent in the gleam of its eye, that monster before him, as its hot breath overtook his body with a soundless roar. It was like standing at the edge of a valley filled with wind and wanting to turn back, but knowing that he was being pulled forward.

Captain Punch roughly slammed into Matsuda with his elbow, knocking the man away. At the same time, Punch planted his feet and pushed outward with his other arm. He was, foolishly, to no end, trying to hold the monster at bay. He succeeded at forcing Matsuda back and away from the initial strike, but as for stopping the enemy -- that was destined to be an utter failure. That was a bet that nobody could win.

There was a singularly devastating -SNAP- as Punch's entire arm, shoulder, and part of his upper torso were crushed with a single bite. He was ripped off of his feet and thrown face first into the ground at the feet of the monster. It pulled back for a moment, as if it were thinking for dragging Punch into the water with it.
---

Then, as it saw the terrified company of humans trapped in the narrow corridor before it, the monster thought better. It thought to destroy them all. This creature had been bred with an instinct of hatred for humans, and it would kill everything that it thought that it could. And in that moment it thought it could destroy all of them. And so it would.

"Attack!" Punch commanded them, through blood streaked lips. His body was half submerged in the water, his face and hair all wet, blood streaming down his torso as he hung out of the mouth of the enemy. Then his lower body curled and he planted one of his feet against the bottom edge of its jaw. His other hand pulled back and clenched into a fist.

"Don't stop attacking! Split your backs if you must!" He hammered the enemy with his punch, crushing its snout with as much force as he could muster. As he continued to pummel it, he tried to spur the others into action. There was no way he could pull himself free. But Punch wouldn't lay down and die either. He was going to go down fighting. "You think this thing will let us go if we give up and run? Our only chance .... is to fight!"

It was something Matsuda had always known. He was someone who never learned his lesson. And, in this kind of moment, he'd always do the same thing. It was impossible for him to passively watch on and take the safe way out. He raised the gun and realized if he shot at its face again he might hit the Captain. And, beyond that, the last shot had seem to do nothing.

Instead, Matsuda turned the barrel of the gun upward and blasted away at the ceiling.

A shower of rocks and dirt came flying down from above and struck the creature in the eyes at that moment. Matsuda backed away while using this screen of debris as cover. It was better to let everyone get into the proper position so that they could all attack together. The best course of action was if-

Splash, splash, splash! It came barreling forward through the shallows. Punch had been discarded and trampled beneath it as it shot forward in a full barreled rushing motion. Gunslinger Kidd was there nearest for some reason. Perhaps he had been moving into a position to attack, but at that time all he could do was brace his body for the incoming tackle.

Kidd's shoulder broke as the creature slammed into him, and he found himself dragged beneath its hooves. He rolled to one side and the other, with no clear purpose or direction, only hoping to avoid having his skull split open. Though the water around him was swirling around in the chaos and he felt something bump against his side, Kidd somehow felt that his brain hadn't been smashed to pieces.

Punch grabbed onto the back leg of the monster with his one remaining good arm, even as it tried to charge past him. There was no way he had the strength to stop it or slow it down, but he hadn't stopped attacking. Hell, he didn't even have a weapon.

At that moment he had somehow risen to half of a standing position, though he was still being dragged forward by the enemy, and was totally unable to slow it down. As he looked past the enemy, Punch locked eyes with Owen. The other man had raised the axe above his head but his eyes were filled with tears as he saw the enemy charging at him.

Owen looked past the eyes of the monster and saw Captain Punch, there, staring back at him. Owen was quivering with fear. And in that moment he realized that Punch was trying to tell him something.

"You can't die here," Punch said. "As long as you survive, I'll live on inside of you. And you'll keep Tristan's memory alive as well. So... no matter what... you have to survive, okay?"
---

Owen thought about it, but he didn't know how he was supposed to stay alive in this situation either. However, at that time, it was too late to ask Punch what he was supposed to do.

The back leg of the enemy shot behind itself and the hard-bottomed hoof crashed into the side of Punch's face. His skull cracked right on the side of his eye socket, sending the eye blasting out through the front of his face. And all through a mangled shower of blood and brains, Punch lost his grip and went face first into the water.

Owen swung the axe down with all of the force in his arms, though his grip was weak. And as the creature swung its head at the weapon, all it accomplished was knocking the axe out of Owen's hands and sending it flying. He felt a shock go through his body as his arms went numb. The force of this reflecting attack drained the force from his body and sent him stumbling away into the wall.

"Fah! Get back!" Jamison was shouting from somewhere past Matsuda. Somehow he was the only one who hadn't gotten trampled. And, from the moment Punch had commanded them to attack, Jamison had been shooting rounds into the creature. Those hadn't slowed it down at all, but they had been pelting its hide nonstop from the end of his gun.

Matsuda held onto his head, shaking it slightly. Was that what that banging sound had been? Jamison had been shooting the entire time? Matsuda examined his own gun and realized there were no more rounds left in the shotgun right now. There was no way he'd have time to reload it.

Then, having nothing else to rely on, he reached into the breast pocket of his jacket and retrieved a poker chip. He began to walk toward the exposed back of the enemy.

"Hyaaaa--!" Fakeru jumped straight up in the air, a trail of water following upward from beneath her. The enemy lunged with a snapping motion, trying to bite her body in half. Her back touched the high ceiling as she propelled herself higher than the enemy could reach, though its teeth nearly closed in on her glowing sandals from below.

In that moment, with her back against the ceiling, she braced her shoulders against the stone and kicked downward, nailing it right in the snout with her foot. For whatever little amount that accomplished, probably nothing, she at least had the courage to fight back in that moment.

"Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, huh?" Matsuda muttered to himself. "But, looking at it, isn't this a place where I couldn't possibly win?" Was the game rigged against him once again? Had the designer of this shitty world already decided that he was going to die no matter what?

Maybe, in that case, Matsuda should do as much as possible to help the game come to a satisfying conclusion. Even if he was going to die he could at least help look after the others.

As the monster came back down, it felt an unwelcome surprise waiting for it. Zephyr had known that his weapon was not going to pierce the hide of the monster. And, in that instance, he knew that because of his small size he probably wouldn't be noticed right away. In fact, everyone here might have forgotten about him completely.

But he had pulled his arrow back and waited, biding his time. He just needed to line up one good shot and make that one count. That one arrow needed to be worth just as much as all of the supporting gunfire coming from behind.

Even as Jamison emptied the shells from his gun and began to reload it, Kidd had somehow pushed himself up with one elbow. Kidd was fumbling with the gun in his hands now, trying to hold it level forward, and find a way to help with the supporting fire as well. Even though the guns didn't seem to be having much effect... maybe... if they shot it enough times it would finally give into blood loss and stop moving.
---

Though, as it flailed in its current stage of blood rage, Owen was barely able to scramble away. And as Fakeru slowly levitated backwards and away, she realized she was losing height. Eventually she'd fall low enough that the enemy could lunge back up into the air and reach her again.

In fact, in that narrow corridor, even an enemy with animal intelligence realized the same thing. It had slowed down to a careful gait, choosing to let Owen escape. He was cowardly and unarmed, he wouldn't be a problem. It kept its face steady, its eyes focused, and stalked toward Fakeru as she was slowly falling down.

And that was his vital mistake.

As he kept his head still for just a few seconds, that was all it took for Zephyr to find his shot. Suddenly an arrow nailed the enemy right in the eye, burying itself in the face of the monster. It let out a pained and yet sickeningly powerful roar as it began to shake its head back and forth.

As it suddenly lost half of its vision in that moment it couldn't understand what was stuck inside of its eye or how to get rid of it. Snapping its head left to right it bit and swung its neck wildly, trying to smash anything in front of it. It ended up charging right underneath Fakuru, but this also had the effect of blocking the gunfire from behind; Jamison and Kidd couldn't continue shooting with her in the way of the enemy.

Then, Zephyr realized, he had made a vital mistake as well.

The enemy was now directly on top of him and trying to trample him from above.

All he could do was scream, jumping left to right, as it bucked back and forth, smashing with powerful hooves. With his small body it would only take one hit to completely kill him. Yet, at the same time, with his small body he was probably the one with the best chance here of avoiding that rain of lethal strikes. The monster lashing out at him once it saw he was there, that little ferret, dancing back and forth, trying to swallow it whole. Yet Zeph somehow always remained one step, one inch, ahead of it.

The creature, growing frustrated spun with a powerful force and smashed open one of the doors as well as part of the wall. Zeph was forced to retreat away from the splashing rubble or force being hit by environmental hazards that might have broken his small body. At the same time, the enemy had managed to turn away from him -- leaving only his thick and powerful hide exposed. That was a spot that Zephyr likely couldn't damage with his arrows.

Even if it had been unintentional, Zephyr was forced to fall back again and consider his options. Yet, as he saw Owen there, curled up on the ground, his hands over his head, shaking with fear... Zephyr realized that he, himself, was also shaking. What was going on? His heart was racing but it wasn't excitement. All he could see was the inside of those jaws and how close he had been to death just moments ago. Zephyr, who had always been brave, was legitimately afraid. And his mind was finding every excuse possible to stop him from going back into that warzone.

"Side door!" Jamison yelled. His gun was fully reloaded now. The monster was looking down the hallway. At Fakeru, at him, at Kidd, at Matsuda. The four of them, along with the corpse of Punch, were now in the path of its next charge. "Take the side door!"

He was talking to Fakeru above everyone else here. It didn't matter which door she opened. There might be something inside of there, but it was a risk she needed to take. If she remained in the open hallway and faced this creature in a charge she would be instantly killed. All she could do was get out of the way and allow the others a chance to fire one final hail of gunfire... and hope for the best.
---

Fah grabbed one of the door handles and, thankfully, it wasn't locked or stuck or jammed, or blocked from the other side. She flung the door open and threw herself through it even as the monster barreled past her.

As soon as the path was clear, Kidd began firing his weapon. After shooting five of his bullets, he waited with the final one. He wanted to make sure the enemy was as close as possible and that he could land the most effective shot that he was capable of firing.

Jamison shot every bullet from his clip and then took his own advice. One of the last doors along the hallway had already been battered down. And before the creature could reach him, he ducked into there and took himself out of the passageway, out of the harmful path of the enemy.

However, Matsuda was looking at Kidd, and realized that Kidd couldn't move from that spot right now.

If Matsuda ran away... it meant he'd be leaving Kidd to die here.

Though, honestly, maybe he was just trying to make himself feel heroic by saying he was doing it to save Kidd. The truth was that the poker chip was already in his hand. This was something he had already decided on doing.

He held it in front of him, twirling the chip across his knuckles, making it glimmer faintly with a light that didn't seem to be there. It reflected in an alluring, mesmerizing way as he strode forward calmly to meet the charging foe. Matsuda locked eyes with it, unable to turn away. Just as he had done in that alley against Luthor. He knew the odds were stacked against him here, but he was too immature to back down.

The creature actually slowed its charge as it watched the hypnotizing trick being played out before its eyes. The dancing light seemed to catch its attention. And though Matsuda wasn't holding a weapon, though he had no way to take advantage of this, he had brought the charge to a halt. The enemy was standing right in front of him now.

Every few seconds, a heavy burst of air seemed to erupt from its nostrils. It was thinking, now. Matsuda knew. He didn't have more than a few more seconds. He had bought some time but, really, this was it. It was one of the few little tricks he had picked up and it was going to have to pay off now or never. But if he shouted, if he said anything, if he tried to give instructions, it would alert the monster and probably cause it to attack.

All Matsuda could do now was bet on his companions to know what to do.

And, during that time, Kidd had been lining up his final shot.

Matsuda found himself wondering what those last five cards were, from back then.

Kidd's bullet slammed into the other eye of the monster, sending out a spurt of blood and blinding it instantly. With an arrow in one eye and the other one shot with gunfire it couldn't see anything. And, honestly, with that bullet, it had likely reached the brain or somewhere near it. Even as blood was dripping from every gunshot wound on its hide, and now leaking from the two holes in its face, the hulking form of the monster was letting out heavy.... pained breaths. And it was starting to slow down.

Matsuda watched the enemy carefully and realized that it was dying.
---

O Captain, my Captain...
---

Then, with its final burst of strength, its final action, it lunged forward and captured Matsuda's entire upper torso inside of its mouth. He felt one of its long tusks impale him through the liver, even as his back broke. But he didn't feel much else after that.

Matsuda had lost.

[End]

Punch and Matsuda have been moved to the graveyard.

12. What will the Moth Team do?
A. Press on with this group.
B. Explore this zone carefully and then head back.
C. Full retreat back to the Shell Party, immediately.

Also, Zephyr has become DEMORALIZED. At this time, Ermine can choose if Zephyr wants to press on with the quest or if he'd rather give up and go home. If Zephyr retreats now he'll be guaranteed to survive to the end of the story, but he won't be involved in any of the final conflicts. If Zephyr does continue to move forward, his effectiveness will be decreased and his chance of dying will be increased until someone inspires him and cures his DEMORALIZED status.

If for whatever reason Ermine isn't around for the next few days, the rest of you can either vote Zephyr out or vote for him to stay.
---

A. all guts all glory
---

Well
it died.
Was it worth it?
---

A, keep movin forward
---

The Ditch Party
Dismas the Guilty - eddv
Maria Taylor - nfun
Abom, the Chained Man - decider
Cata Spade - Cata
Goetic - lefty

The Shell Party
Torin Gemmason - Mana
Lancer Aaron - FB
Enoch the Wanderer - crazy
Jen Lowell - pk2k
Leone the Cat - CPU

The Moth Party
Owen the Coward - stan
Beastkin Zephyr - ermine [DEMORALIZED]
Fakeru, Lucky Girl - fake
Jamison, Inspector - maniac
Gunslinger Kidd - drak

Graveyard
Tristan - Punch couldn't save him.
Ignael Gades - He didn't sacrifice himself for the rest of the team because he liked them, you b-baka!
Seth, Golden Agent - Was actually pretty interesting, so I'm sorta bummed I had to kill him off. Oh well.
Punch - Punch couldn't save himself.
Matsuda - You lost.
---

C.
---

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QEZO5G_8mk" data-time="

RIP Punch. You punched good
RIP Matsuda

12. A
---

crazygamer999 posted...

Well
it died.
Was it worth it?

Yup.

A.
---

Punch de Puncher
---

Punch died doing what he loved: punching stuff. RIP

C
---

Damn we lost 2 great members and now Im demoralized too :(((
---

So the hippo was actually killed, sweet. We lost two great guys, though I figured the death count would have been higher.

R.I.P Punch and Matsuda.

B.
---

The problem I see is that who is going to inspire Zephyr?? Id say maybe Matsuda could as we were together the whole time but hes dead now. Giving up isnt an option since Im not about that but damn, I dont want him to be useless and die either
---

yeah Matsuda going down here was a big factor into why Zephyr became DEMORALIZED

FunnyBusiness posted...

So the hippo was actually killed, sweet. We lost two great guys, though I figured the death count would have been higher.

I feel like this was a pretty heavy loss and I also put a ton of focus into Matsuda's characterization for this chapter, so I didn't want to overshadow that with a gratuitous death count. better to hold off and let everyone have their own moment before the end.
---

Zigzagoon posted...

The problem I see is that who is going to inspire Zephyr??

hopefully Enoch pops in
---

Side Game: Make Contact

Using the Skull of Commune, it's possible for the Elder Gods to transfer knowledge or even power from one facet of reality to another. With this ability the players will be able to influence the game world in a unique way. A stat boost associated with one character can be transferred to a character in another group. Don't worry -- The original character doesn't lose any of their stats, it's just a raw boost for the new character.

For those who interacted with the Skull of Commune, they can impart the following bonuses:

Dismas: +Stealth
Mara: +Intelligence
Abom: +Resistance
Cata: +Skill

Here is how the Make Contact bonus works. The person who controls the original character and the person who controls the target character are not allowed to Make Contact. Meaning, someone else must transfer the bonuses between characters. As an example... to transfer the intelligence from Maria (nfun) to Leone (CPU), it has to be done by someone that is not nfun or CPU.

Also, if you already Make Contact one time, you can't do it again. This is to prevent one person from transferring all four bonuses.

The short version; Simply pick a character from the list above (not your own character) and transfer the listed bonus to a character that is also not your own character.
---

Give ABOM's Resistance to OWEN
---

Dismas gives Stealth to Leone.
---

resistance well help owen a lot, getting through the mental strain and stress of what's going on around him right now. plus he's a bit on the squishy side so any bit of tanking potential helps.

the already stealthy leone with added bonus stealth is interesting!
---

Transfer Maria Intelligence to Torin
---

I will be having Zephyr stay in since it wasn't clear in my previous post. It'll probably end up sucking but there's a chance someone helps him out I suppose.
---

I cant help but feel a little irritated that Matsuda got hit with what felt like rocks fall u die. Probably just salt on my end.
---