Sweat trickles down your face as you move through the early morning light, only to be trapped within the confines of your gas mask. For others this would be a constant annoyance but not for you. The mask is like a second skin to you, the side effects of which so fargone now that you've long only took slight note. Still, it's early morning and the day is already heating up like this. You know it's going to be a busy day even beyond the task at hand.
If you looked up, you're sure you'd see a breathtaking vista of the hilly Purgaran countryside tinted a brilliant shade similar to the meat of a blood orange. A poet would have a field day with Purgare, all contrasts of life and death. Ash fields and steam vents from the old volcano and the Reaper's Blow lay somewhere out there, usually too far from here to be too much of a bother beyond how they color the atmosphere. Not today, though.
Your eyes are trained on the cloud of mosquitos swarming around you, trying to find a vulnerable spot in your suit, buzzing incessantly when they find one as if frustrated before moving onto others in the vain hope of something better in the craggy attempt to shield themselves with dried mud and ash. They aren't as well-equipped as you, but you've been among them long enough that they've begun to take basic precautions even without your suggestion.
>>44392417
For the most part, though, the mosquitos aren't your concern. They're unqieldy at best and seem to be only looking for a blood meal. The thing that has your attention is the movement of the other arthropods. Ticks and bedbugs scurry across the ground, heedless of light in neat little rows as if they were ants. Around you fleas jump in a singular direction. Your mollusk twitches weakly in its prison atop your splayer. Not that you'd need it to read the signs right now.
It's fascinating, really. No one really knows at this moment how they do it, but the control's so absolute over them that you can't help but admire it from a sick perspective.
Your thoughts consume you for a time as you read the signs that you almost retaliate violently when someone touches your shoulder. "What is it," you snap, perhaps too harsh considering your own complacency.
It's a young woman, sun-tanned and smiling in a way that's condescending. She wears simle armor with a stylized Baptist cross set upon the pauldrons. "Watch where you step, doctor. I think we're close..."
>Sir
>Ma'am
>>44392430
>Sir
>>44392430
>Sir
>>44392430
>unqieldy
What word did you mean?
>>44392593
Unwieldy.
What do you mean by mollusk or splayer? Are we half bug?
>>44392430
>Ma'am
Spital a shit, NEOLIBYANS STRONK
>>44392659
Tools of your trade, helpful in the ways of murder and detecting things that which need murdering. It'll be explained in due time, friend.
>>44392430
>>Sir
>>44392478
>>44392524
>>44392808
Alrighty. Writing.
>>44392674
IF NEOLIBYA SO GREAT HOW COME YOU NEED HELP FROM SPITAL
>>44392674
Fuck off neolibyan shill, you're too busy fighting fucking plants to do shit.
I wanna join in but what the fuck is Neolibya and Spital? Would like a bit of knowledge before I jump in to pick choses.
>>44393034
Don't worry anon, I don't know jack either, but in my opinion exploring the new setting is half the fun.
>>44393034
Go look up Degensis, it's some polish post-apoc rpg which either recently got translated or recently came out.
It's a pretty great and stupidly in depth setting. From the skimming I've given the second book, it boils down to this.
The apocalypse came in the form of a meteor shower.
Said meteor shower released an infection which crept over the environment and began to infect humans.
Various cultures have developed in the thousands of years since the apocalypse and fight back against the Homo Degenesis, the new human race formed by the virus.
The Neolibyians are black people who instead of fighting Homo Degenesis in Europe fight super plants in Africa.
The Spitalians are basically Knight Hospitaller except with the Homo Degenesis instead of Muslims.
Anyone with more knowledge than my admittedly limited supply please correct any mistakes.
>>44393107
Did I say second book? I meant the first. The first book is all setting and an interesting read. Haven't touched the second which is apparently the rules.
>>44393125
Got a wiki link or something in English? I only know some German and fuck all Polish.This sounds pretty fucking pimping from your brief summary.
>>44393143
It's been translated, you can get it all in english now. Wait for the next Degensis general, they have a mega link which I've lost.
"...The others can feel it."
You look up at her incredulously. "Of course we're close," you wave at the mass of creatures trying to cling to you and the occasional swatting invoked by the others who are having trouble with their mud shield, the pesticide you'd applied to them, or both. "Unless this pestillence is an illusion? Would you like to inform the men this is nothing, or shall I, Sofia?"
The woman merely answers your pessimism with an indulgent smile, running a hand through the bound mass of dark hair atop her head. "If you're done with your grousing, friend, you might want to take a better look at your surroundings, now that I have your attention."
You eye her witheringly behind your mask which you doubt is transmitted that well and bring your attention to the hillside she gestures to. You search for anything you might have missed in your analysis before finally making something out. When you do finally make out what had Sofia stop you so abruptly you feel your face freeze up. Peripherally you find yourself grateful that the mask is there to keep others from making out your expression.
>>44393295
It's subtle. If you aren't looking for it, you'd never see it to begin with, and even in your search it'd be all too easy to miss it. Hovering roughly halfway up your shin level is a small thin line less than a meter in front of you. You crouch down, using your splayer as a prop as you examine it more closely. Calling it a line might be too much. The thing is immaterial, a strand of psychokinetic force as thin as a wire and more punishing than any blade. It's a snare, one so effective that countless people and animals alike have fallen to its wrath over the centuries only to have such plague swarms as the creatures around you suck dry as much as they can from the wound and anywhere else they can latch onto.
"Thank you," you finally mutter as you pull yourself back to a standing position. You keep your eye on the warping of that line across the countryside and return to Sofia. The two of you head toward the rest of the group, who have stopped to wait for you. You can tell they're uneasy; throughout the morning your mollusk, the mass of cow muscle trapped inside its prison of amniotic fluid atop your spear-like splayer weapon has been twitching. It's to be expected, of course. The fluid and filaments keeping the mollusk in place react to the Primer pollen and sepsis infecting the pestilence readily, keeping them under control of the Psychonaut that had created that thin line of energy that had nearly taken your leg off.
Now it spasms as you near the others. It's violent, demanding attention. Since you've been assigned to this village, it's never reacted so horribly. This is new. "Stop gawking," you admonish, bringing their attention back to the here and now. Most at least have the decency to look embarrassed about how quickly their minds were taken off tasks, while a few others still can't keep their eyes off of the mollusk.
>>44393317
"You don't need to be so harsh, doctor," Sofia states sweetly as she moves through a quick check of the rifle she'd brought along for the mission. "I'm sure all of this once caught your imagination, too." As soon as her attention moves from you, though, her attitude changes noticeably. "Okay, gentlemen. Satan has given us something of a trial today. One that we cannot fail, or the people attacked last night will not be the only victims. Make your final preparations, for the psychokinetic certainly already is. Watch out for its traps. This will not be easy."
The group moves closer together, preparing individually while you.....
[Choose up to two options.]
>Reapply any pesticides you used on everyone again.
>Check your own weapons and ammunition.
>Offer to take point. You know more about these creatures than anyone else.
>Ask Sofia about the plan. You might have more experience but she's the lead on this operation.
>Look for anymore traps in the immediate vicinity.
>Write in.
>>44393034
For the books and such, just check out this post.
>>44316494
The main website also has some basic info about all the shit going on in the world. I just thought in media res would be a fun way to start the quest.
>>44393334
>Reapply any pesticides you used on everyone again.
>Ask Sofia about the plan. You might have more experience but she's the lead on this operation.
>>44393365
Thank you very much, I didn't even connect the dots to that.
>>44393334
>Ask about the plan
>Check your own weapons and ammunition
>>44393334
>Ask Sofia about the plan. You might have more experience but she's the lead on this operation.
need to know the score befor it happens
>Reapply any pesticides you used on everyone again.
apparently we are the doctor it's what we do.
We don't seem to be the most preceptive to take points, and the soilders have been told to look for traps.
Also, for your perusing pleasure, this is a map of the Degenesis world. Please be aware that the Mediterranean is currently drying up due to an encroaching ice age, hence the land bridge and much wider area Europe has in general.
Where we're at is Purgare, somewhere between L'aQuila and Perugia and very close to the Balkhan border.
>>44393407
>>44393371
Alright, I guess we're going with this, then. Writing.
>>44393548
>near the Balkhan border
Are we gonna have to go after one of the sonic fuckers?
>>44393107
Neolibyans are more merchant than fighter, and they like hunting THE MOST DANGEROUS-ER GAME, Homo Degenesis.
>>44393771
Yeah I know they're merchants, I just meant their main faction enemy (aside from all the europeans) are the crazy ass plants.
Had forgotten about the hunting craziness though.
>>44393174
Here's the MEGA links for the books if people want to do background reading
https://mega.nz/#F!4llFxaSJ!-s8AP4HjornW2PDjuMfl1w
The next general is probably going to be a while, if it turns up at all, the last threads petered out pretty quickly. With the exception of a spectacularly aggressive Helvittican fanboy
>>44393696
Nothing of the sort. Though you may hate me regardless.
>>44393888
Oh piss, we aren't going crater diving in Nox are we? Fucking psychokinetics man
You move through the small group, checking for any signs that they'd been compromised by primer pollen or if any of those who'd been bitten have had any adverse reactions. Things don't seem so bad, much to your own satisfaction and one by one you start to apply a pesticide you've kept stored inside your field kit. It's no true killer. You wouldn't apply it to their skin if it was. It's more of a deterrent that most of the creatures trying to swarm steer well clear of. That doesn't mean it isn't pleasant, and you can see those who aren't that well-covered by mud and ash tyring to keep themselves from scratching where you apply it.
"Do you have everything in order?" Sofia asks as you move from one man to another.
"Of course I do," you tell her, not quite looking at her as you examine a bite cluster on the arm of one of the group. "I'm no rookie. What I want to know is what we're going to do when we find this poor creature."
"Sympathy for the Psychonaut from the Spital?" Sofia inquires. Her voice still has that pleasant lilt but you aren't fooled.
>>44394211
"Caution for the group. I don't quite fancy dying today, and I doubt your God would be so pleased to find the rest of you slaughtered," you enunciate in a lilt of your own, trying to mock her tone but it falls flat on your accent.
"It's well in hand, friend," she tells you, and then in a tone that lets you know she's addressing everyone she starts to speak. "What we are going to do is fan out. We've found our first thread already. It wouldn't be placing those out if we were not close. Our friend the good doctor from..."
[choose one]
>Borca (Mountainous, ashen country. Birthplace of the Spital, ruled in equal measure by law, religion, and science. Analogous to Germany.)
>Franka (Overrun by a species of hive-mind psychic beings. Nearly lawless, caught daily in a struggle of survival. Analogous to France.)
>Pollen (Frozen tundra. Wild wastes ruled by roving clans of varying technological ability and the spread of strange and deadly fractal oases. Distrustful of Spitalians but still allow members to recruit.)
"...will be at the center of the search with me. We will be using his staff to discover the area this creature is in and move accordingly. If you see anything, tell us immediately. The temple city has let us know that these things are more devious than we'd imagined, so it may not be until it is upon us that we will even know we have found it. Be careful. No one dies tonight." She looks at you intently. "Are you ready?"
"Of course," you tell her.
>[Continued]
>>44394229
[Choose up to two options.]
>Let Sofia be the one to keep a look out as you make sure you're following the right direction.
>Keep an eye out as well.
And
>Arm your splayer
>Load your rifle with [Fungicide | Pesticide | Incendiary fuel] (Choose 1)
>>44394243
Pollen
Trust Sofia to do her job
Ready splayer
Ha ha, time for CQC.
>>44394229
>Borca (Mountainous, ashen country. Birthplace of the Spital, ruled in equal measure by law, religion, and science. Analogous to Germany.)
I like it.
>Keep an eye out as well.
Just step where she steps in the process
Ready the..ehhh... I defer to other anons in this matter while i check out that book
>>44394243
>>Let Sofia be the one to keep a look out as you make sure you're following the right direction.
She's knows what she's doing.
>Arm your splayer
I can't recall much about this weapon, but I do know the ammo for our rifle can be used as currency.
>>44394481
Your splayer's pretty much a souped up spear. Mounted on it is a mollusk which detects infections of primer pollen and sepsis (The stuff that's infecting the psychonaut and the bugs) and the spear tip is powered electrically to be able to open up into a three-pronged blade that you can impale, cut, and grab with.
Your rifle is pretty much a glorified spray weapon. It blasts powerful chemicals that are designed to kill things with the fuel types I mentioned.
>>44394575
Oh, it sounds the better choice for hunting
>>44394243
Pollen
Load pesticides
>>44394613
>>44394548
>>44394481
>>44394396
Alright, looks like we're following Sofia and using our Splayer for what's to come.
We have two votes for Pollen, one for Borca, and one who didn't vote for an origin. Anyone else care to vote for an origin?
>>44394713
I'll vote for Borca, just to be an awkward bastard.
>>44394923
>>44394613
>>44394481
>>44394396
Alright, then. Polish German it is. Writing.
>>44394923
>Not going for the strength bonus from pollen and becoming the punch doctor
You easily fall into a comfortable role for you as the group starts to spread out, finding more psychokinetic disturbances or otherwise keeping an eye on you and how that biological mass twitches at the butt of your splayer. You move the weapon into a defensive stance and follow a close distance behind Sofia. Everyone else has moved far enough away that she starts speaking to you in a low tone.
"Isn't this exciting?" she asks you as the two of you change direction once the twitching of the mollusk starts to die down.
"You Baptists have a strange sense of excitement," you reply as the two of you toe over another warping of psychokinetic energy. The swarm seems to be growing thicker, now noticeably sparkling your view with their presence. "Most would be terrified."
"Of course, there's reason to be frightened," Sofia agrees quietly. "But think of it. We're so far from any spore fields here. It'll be miles still until we're under any sort of cloud from the volcano. What is a psychonaut doing out here?"
"Everywhere else is probably already spoken for," you tell her, watching now as the mollusk starts to spasm more erratically. "Psychokinetics can be...territorial. We've seen them kick out others before. This one's probably been wandering until it found Colmurano. Probably came up from L'Aquila."
"It's a far distance to travel, is all," she says. "I wonder what kind of test God is making for us."
>>44395376
"It's no god doing this," you tell her. She's a decent friend, really. But you grew up in Pollen during the days when the warlord Chernobog fell and the Scourgers and Hellvetics vied for any piece of Brno they could get. Your only saving grace was being found by the Spitalians and taken to train in Borca before you could fall into slavery at the hands of the Scourgers or worse from the power vacuum among the Pollners. "Random chance, a freak accident. Alien meteor fungus. Take your pick, but it certainly wasn't a god."
"You have too little faith," she mutters, resigned.
"And you have too much," you fire back. The two of you stop, though, as the mollusk starts to go crazy inside its case. You frown and Sofia looks at you, curious. "We should be seeing it," you tell her and her own face mimicks yours as she starts firing off in rapidifre Purgaran to the others. They all go on high alert and you...
>Try to warn them about what may come
>Be on the lookout, too
>Something's strange. Hold them off on whatever they might be doing.
>Write-in
>>44395284
I was unaware we were getting racial modifiers.
>>44395411
>>Try to warn them about what may come
After that psychic razorwire trap I'm anticipating an ambush of some form.
>>44395411
>>Something's strange. Hold them off on whatever they might be doing.
Did we just stumble on a new spore field about to go live? What the hell is up?
>>44395686
You'll have to see.
>>44395411
>>Something's strange. Hold them off on whatever they might be doing
>>44395411
>somethings wrong, Warn them.
Alright, gonna hold them off and warn them. Writing.
Also, for anyone who's new to my quests, I tend to utilize write-ins fairly often and they have done much to dramatically change the story in the past. Don't be scared to place a write-in if feel you have a better solution.
>>44396314
Sofia's men start to converge, navigating the hillside you've come to a stop at as they look high and low for any sign of the psychokinetic that you haven't already detected. The mollusk is still going insane and your sense of anxiety mounts as the seconds grow longer. Something isn't right. You--
"Stop!" you say, no longer caring whether or not this is Sofia's show. Everybody looks at you, startled. And now you see it. Shimmering bits of air, odd distortions, lancing out and growing from every direction. "This is a trap." Your Purgaran is garbled as you state your warning. "Get as much space away from wach other as you can."
"Doctor?" One of the others, a man you've seen in Colmurano but never actually got to speak with, asks. His tone is as worried as yours is. Good. Purgarans are an overly religious bunch. If you can get them scared, it preys on old warnings and ghost stories. They become easier to get to do what you need.
"It's hiding itself," you tell them. "I don't know how, but it's making sure we can't see it." You look around, hoping to see something, anything that can help you but the psychokinetic is still nowhere to be seen. "But it can see us. It's...look." And they do. The psychokinetic fields have grown sharper, closer together that even a blind man can see the distortions like heat radiating off of concrete. "Get away and don't come close to ANYONE."
>>44396692
Hesitantly a few of the ones you'd already identified as fearful move away from you and Sofia, and she actuall scowls at you. "You would deny them this? Let it try and snare us." She raises her voice so it almost rings across the hillside. "We are Purgare! No hellspawn will dishonor us so!"
It happens so fast that after you realize it happens you have to bite back on you turning to Sofia and rubbing it in her face. The man you warned had kept moving, apparently not as careful as he'd have liked. All he had time for was a panicked scream before his leg is completely severed by a growing psychokinetic field. The others watch in horror as even that's interrupted. Like a series of invisible lances, the man's torn apart and the swarms, no longer held back by the deterrent of mud and pesticide, descend on him in droves.
You hear someone retching behind you.
From there it's all a blur. The ground beneath the man that was wells open and his remains, the pestilence, everything is swallowed into the ground as something atrocius makes itself known.
It's human- vaguely. Once upon a time. But the fungal infection of Primer pollen and its rotting into sepsis has long metamorposed this man into something else, a bloated creature that towers above the rest of you, belching gore over a midsection that burns like a funeral pyre.
>>44396709
Homo Degenesis. Psychonauts. The cause for the attacks on Colmurano and Europe at large, plunging it into the hell it is now.
It screams with the whine of mosquitos, of the skittering of ticks and fleas and bedbugs and any number of bloodsucking creatures, strong enough to knock those closest to it back. You stand tall, expectant while the others try to recover from the first psychonaut they'd ever seen alive. You don't envy their naivety. While your neoprene body suit ensures that the biting creatures can't do much to you, the others won't be so lucky if the psychokinetic manages to override the revulsion caused by your chemicals. That's not even mentioning the razor sharp fields it's threatening to deploy.
Choose up to 2.
>Rally the others
>Get Sofia's head back in the game
>Wade through the pestillence.
>Hang back.
>Switch out for your rifle and load [Fungicide | Pesticide | Incendiary fuel]
>Write in.
>>44396726
>Switch out for your rifle and load incendiary fuel?
>DAMN IT FEMALE, GET BACK INTO THE SPIRIT OF KILLING THE MUTANT.
>>44396726
>Rally the others
>Get Sofia's head back in the game
"If this is the test you wished for DON'T FAIL IT NOW!"
>>44396752
Supporting, nothing drives off biting insects like smoke.
>>44396819
Wait, i am confused; do we capture it alive, or dead?
>>44396842
You're gonna be killing it. There's pretty much only one breed of Psychonaut that are even remotely benevolent, and it sure as fuck ain't this guy.
>>44396786
Supporting
Get our group to actually be useful
>>44396882
>thinking the pregnotics are benevolent
They're up to something, the filthy posthumans
>>44396726
Load fungicide
Rally Sophia
>>44396986
Oh, I agree entirely. But at least the Pregnoctics aren't actively raping your face with a corkscrew dick at every opportunity.
>>44396986
>They're up to something
Aren't we all?
>>44397098
Alright, we're definitely rallying Sofia.
We're tied between burning them down and rallying the others, so please decide on one or the other, doods.
>>44397170
Allright, I defer to burning. Let' show them an example if we want to rally. changing>>44396786
but i'm still with living with her words. If she wanted a test, let's not fail it. She already couldn't hold her promise that no one dies today.
>>44397227
Sweet. Writing.
Shit, guys. Forgot. Roll dice+4d6
>>44397098
There's that part of Hybrispania where space is getting warped, I blame them for that.
Rolled 4, 5, 4, 3 = 16 (4d6)
>>44397417
Well time to be a hero, or a memorial
Rolled 2, 6, 6, 6 = 20 (4d6)
>>44397417
PURGE THE MUTANT
>>44397637
SATAN, YOU GLORIOUS BASTARD.
Rolled 5, 2, 5, 2 = 14 (4d6)
>>44397417
Emperor guide my blade!
>>44397656
PURGE THE UNWORTHY FROM MY FACE MORTAL.
You react quickly to the situation before it becomes too much of a cluster that you can't salvage it. You and Sofia are the only ones carrying rifles, and even then, hers is the only one that actually fires bullets. Everyone else has swords or makeshift weapons made from whatever they had on hand in the village. There are certainly guns in the village, but your group was dispatched under the impression that whatever psychokinetic lay in waiting, it would be young and weak at best. You're wrong.
You drive the blade of your splayer into the ground and grab Sofia's shoulder, jerking her roughly to get her out of the shock she's undoubtedly feeling. She yelps and then turns to look at you, distracted by the crawling mass of arthropods searching for a place to tear in. Already a few have started on a meal and you quickly knock them off. "What happened to your god, Sofia?" You shout practically in her ear as the others start to scream, scrambling to escape from psychonaut, pestilence, and kinetic field alike. "What happened to Purgare? Are you just going to die like a child among wolves?"
"No," she says weakly.
"I can't hear you over your sniveling," you shout, your voice practically incomprehensible behind the gas mask.
"I said no!" She shouts back, and you can see outrage in her face. You allow yourself to grin since she can't see it. "For Colmurano!" she cries out, readying her rifle. Her shout is met by a few others, and you turn your attention to the task at hand.
>>44397827
You unsling your rifle and move through your ammo belt until you find what you need. It's a bit cumbersome, but at last you manage to load a fuel tank into your rifle and start a spark, aiming at the psychokinetic. It's moving now, shielding itself from the blows of one man who's ignoring the biting sting of pestilence around him, trying to hack away at the hulking beast. He's surprisingly successful, finding the patches where the psychokinetic hasn't yet found a way to shield itself while exploiting the traps it's placing for him against it.
"MOVE!" You scream as loud as you can, but you doubt it's heard that well from behind your mask. Still, the gist seems to be understood, for Sofia and the others move just enough for you to get a good mark. You pull the trigger and intense heat flares from the nozzle of your rifle, red-gold flames explode out, burning, engulfing everything in its path. You swear you can hear the pestilence cry out its pain but you stay steady.
You are Spitalian, a doctor sworn to eradicate illness from the world, and Psychonauts, the Primer, and everything they bring are just a new and stubborn disease. The psychonaut is losing control, you can tell. Beams of force field energy ebb and flow, trying to get to you but missing their mark, twisting and warping, trying to protect where it can't, not against fire. You can feel the fuel tank getting lighter, but the creature's burning, dying, the pestilence along with it. Gunfire joins your unrelenting spray and you end it before the nozzle begins to melt.
You watch with extreme satisfaction as the creature stumbles and falls, still aflame. The Colmuranos fall upon the burning creature and hack, releasing more pestilence attempting escape, only to be met by flame now reaching inside, baking it.
>>44397841
Eventually it gives its last rattle of dying breath and Sofia leads the others in a victory cry. "PURGARE!" It rings across the hills, scaring beasts off as they practically dance around the hulking mass that was the creature. "COLMURANO!"
>"PURGARE!"
>"COLMURANO!"
>"SPITAL!"
>"Whatever."
>Study the hole it came from.
>Congratulate them.
>Write-in.
>>44397848
SPITAL!
>>44397848
>Spital!
>Now let me see this fucking hole, That's new.
>OH and make sure nobody is infected?
>>44397848
>Study the hole it came from.
Give a slight compliment to Sofia. Not a full congratulation, but at least she didn't wet her pants like the rest.
>>44397848
>SPITAL
>study the hole it came from
>>44397848
What does the second option translate too? Sorry for not being very up to date on the fluff.
>>44398092
You're a town doctor for a little commune called Colmurano that's under the control of one of the big farming families in the area. It's just a specific part of Purgare where this is taking place.
>>44397848
>>"SPITAL!"
>Study the hole it came from.
>>44398114
Oh right, right, thanks for clarifying.
>>44397990
>>44397848
Oh and the guy who had the ball to swordchop the thing. Maybe even learn his name.
Their enthusiasm is infectious. For a Purgaran, killing aa Psychonaut is almost a rite of passage. Rumors float about of psychonaut parts bought and sold for young villagers too cowardly to actually face one to bring back home to their family and their augurs to fawn over. You let out a loud "SPITAL!" from behind your mask and the others look at you encouragingly. It's a nice feeling.
Still, you're a doctor and a Spitalian at that. You've sworn your life to eradicating the infection and now isn't the time to just doff things off. You sidestep the creature and make for the hole it'd made for itself to ambush you. Next to it you can see the mildly-dessicated lower half of the man who you'd tried warning's leg. The bugs that had swarmed it have now gone, either having rejoined with the psychokinetic or perhaps released back into the world at large. You aren't overly concerned. They don't contain nearly enough of the Primer to be a problem.
You peer into the hole and study it closely. It isn't obvious, but you've been trained to notice the signs. Lining the wall seems to be Primer, though none of it looks active. Still, who knows what could be done with this amount if some pore person or animal came around to it?
As you're thinking it over, one of the others meanders over to you with a bit of a smile on his face. The mop of curly dark hair typical of Colmuranos is matted with mud and sweat, and hazel eyes smile at you. From the bites he's suffered, he's likely the one who risked himself to keep the Psychonaut off balance. "That was...amazing!" he says at last. "More than the elders ever said fighting one would be like, I can't believe this was just...sitting here like that!"
>>44398524
"Well, this isn't exactly a normal case," you inform him. "I don't know where this guy came from."
"Maybe he took the Burn and came here?" he asks. You shake your head.
"No," you tell him. It's impossible to be made into Homo Degenesis via Burn, a virulent drug made from Primer and gaining traction wherever the black market could safely deal it. It's not something that your people like being known, though. The mystique behind the drug helps you control how many people actually attempt using it. "Not looking like this," you tell him instead. You shrug since you can't offer any facial expressions for him. "You did good," you offer finally. "I was honestly impressed."
"Thank you, doctor. My name is Luca, by the way."
"It's a pleasure to meet you," you tell him, shaking his hand. "I'm....
(CHOOSE YO NAME)
>Bartosz
>Henryk
>Jakub
>Tomasz
>Rafal
>Nikodem
>Write-in
>[Continued]
>>44398536
"It's a good thing we had you here," he tells you. "I don't think we would have beaten it without that fire."
You shrug again. "You would have managed."
"Perhaps," he says and then leans forward, trying to get a look into the hole. You snap out, grabbing his spattered shirt and pulling him back onto his bottom. He looks up at you with an outraged look.
You wag your finger at him and shake your head. "Trust me, you don't want this infection," you tell him before looking back in the hole.
>Destroy everything in there with [Fungicide | Fire]
>Collect a sample to send to your superiors, then destroy it.
>Leave it be.
>Write in.
>>44398536
>Tomasz
>Collect a sample to send to your superiors, then destroy it.
>>44398536
>Kane
>Collect sample to send to your superiors, then destroy it.
>>44398544
>>Nikodem
>Collect a sample to send to your superiors, then destroy it.
>>44398536
>Nikodem
Niko, your doctor
>>44398544
>Collect a sample to send to your superiors, then destroy it.
>>44398536
Wow. Those names are very Polish.
>Nikodem
>Collect a sample to send to your superiors, then destroy it.
>>44398840
>Inb4 we befriend a chronicler who gives us a radio we use to constantly hail him.
>>44398712
>>44398840
>>44398907
Writing.
>>44398536
>AdolfThe Fourth Reich must rise again!
>Collect sample to send to your superiors, then destroy it.
You move back a bit and undo your field medic kit again while Luca watches you. You look over the objects in the pack roll and finally find what you're looking for: a tool you've been given specifically for collecting samples and a small vial. At the edge of the hole you carefully scrape pollen from the side of the hole and deposit it into the vial. With that done you stopper it up and carefully swab the outside clean with fungicide before placing it in a secure pocket.
You roll the pack back up and stand, motioning for Luca to move back even further. For a moment you consider just blasting the hole with fire, but the tank you have is the only one in your inventory, you don't want to waste it all in one day. Instead you unscrew the tank and replace it with a canister of fungicide. While not as dramatic, it'll do the job.
You liberally apply the agent into the chasm, watching as the white residue is coated with a brownish liquid, going back and forth a few times until you're sure the entire area's been coated. With that done, you turn back to the others who have already begun tearing apart the remains of the psychokinetic. It's a practice you don't approve of, them keeping a creature that was once teeming with Primer pollen and sepsis, but it's pretty much a wash at this point. You simply order one of the others to save a piece of the midsection as part of your sample collection, and you all start heading back to Colmurano. You notice the mollusk has stopped twitching.
You talk among the others as you head back, all of you more at ease as you head back to the town. There's no sign of the pestilence anymore, or at least there isn't any organization. Things have returned to the natural order, which is a good thing. Anything else would have been a trigger for a hunt you honestly don't want to do right now.
>>44399869
You all make it back to Colmurano easily enough. It's a small village owned by the Spadaro family, the clan which set itself up as the ruling party in this valley. They're farmers mostly, and would normally not even rate your services with only a few hundred people in the village, but an epidemic had been spreading through the valley the year previous. You were dispatched from the Holy City to take care of it, and your orders have kept you there since.
You don't hate it, but the place is...backwards to you. You're a man of science, and even in the Anabaptist-controlled Holy City, there was room for science. Here in this part of Purgare, though, mysticism reigns supreme. If they aren't a priest, they're some town medicine man, shaking their heads and laughing as you try and convince them their holistic medicines are doing nothing to cure their people.
You've learned to live with it, though. This isn't Borca. It isn't even Pollen, where you could simply brute force your way into convinceing people that your way is correct. You'd need some grand gesture of idiot-powers to make your point, but your time here's at least garnered you some respect. Even the medicine men send their charges to you when it looks like their craft isn't working. It's nice.
>>44399879
You've been set up in a small home in the center of town, where you head to once you get into the village proper. After your piece of Psychonaut is deposited in a jar, the others leave you to your work. You decontaminate your suit before anything else, then the room before shedding your equipment. First your helmet and pauldrons bearing the Spitalian red cross, then your gas mask.
You shake yourself loose and check yourself in a mirror. Your head's shaven clean, no beard, and barely any hint of eyebrows, just enough to maintain protection from the glare of the sun. Hair is an inconvenience, something sickness and spore infection can cling onto. Spitalians remove any that isn't absolutely necessary.
You place your equipment in a storage closet and get to work, writing out notes about the incident and your findings, mopping sweat off your brow as you work. As you're working, someone crashes into your house, laughing madly as they do so. You barely even react. You know who it is already. "Niko! Niko, what a beautiful day it is outside," he calls out and your assumption's confirmed. Claudio, a Scrapper that you employ regularly for his migratory habits to the Holy City. "I heard you had a momentous battle today! A Psychokinetic! And so far away from a spore field, too!" You ignore him steadfastly, focusing on your report. He doesn't take the hint, crashing through the house until he finds your office. "Niko! I've come from the City, and you wouldn't guess what happened while I was there."
>"Go away, Claudio."
>"I swear, if you've broken anything..."
>"Really? Well, don't keep me in suspense!"
>"Hey, I have a job for you."
>Write-in.
>>44399892
>"Really? Well, don't keep me in suspense!"
git
going
>>44399892
>I have a job
>But first, Don't keep me in suspense.
>>44399892
>>"Really? Well, don't keep me in suspense!"
Oh boy, I like this party. Purgan Anabaptist, Purgan Scrapper, Pollner(don't remember their adjective) Spitalian.
>>44399892
Suspense
>>44400428
Pollner's correct.You still haven't met the entirety of your party.
>>44400648
I guessed as much. I'm betting we get one or two from Balkhan, maybe one outta Africa.
"Well, don't keep me in suspense," you respond absently, still focused on your report for anything to really set in. You don't get much farther, though, because in the next moment your desk is occupied by the very large and very dirty frame of Claudio. You growl and push yourself away from the man, salvaging your notes before anything can happen to them. "What was that for? You could have at least washed up before you came in!"
Claudio shrugs. "You weren't paying attention. Besides, everyone knows you have the best soaps in town. None of that disgusting stuff your doctors send you, either. The real thing."
"Fine," you grouse. "But later. What happened in the city?" He lifts his arms as if looking for validation.
"That is what I am asking! I'm doing a job for this strange fellow, Jan. He's a Chronicler, comes all the way to the city from Dresden for a piece of Stream technology. I haven't told you about this," he says, suddenly serious. You cock your head, incredulous. Who would you tell all the way out here? "He seems strange, but aside from you, I haven't had a decent job in months, so I take it. All the way near the old volcano, in a city buried under ash. Very dangerous. I have to dodge 'nauts and less welcoming clans everywhere. They threatened to throw me into the Reaper's Blow. Me!"
>>44401194
"Claudio," you warn mildly.
"Right! So my job is done, everything in order. I go back to the holy city where I'm to meet Jan to finish the job. Very strange, he wouldn't even meet me in Roma and it's so close. So I try to go to the gates, and you wouldn't believe it! They're barred. Not just by the Baptists, either, but Judges and even your doctors, dressed all in your hazard suits!"
This catches your attention. While not necessarily part of the Protectorate, the Judges and Anabaptists have had an amicable enough relationship that they've allowed something of a tenuous coexistence, taking on the harder jobs that the Baptists don't want to take part in. For all three branches of the alliance to show up in one place, and in the Holy City, no less... "Did they say why they wouldn't allow entry?"
Claudio shakes his head. "Nothing. Not even the bog standard 'this is a drill' they say whenever they're feeling lazy that day. But it's not a problem for me, I go around into one of the old sewer tunnels they forget are still there. Of course, I'm a Scrapper, so I have to be extra sneaky but I get in, give Jan the artifact he wanted me to find, and I leave. But strangest thing of all, when I'm there, everyone else is inside. Do you know what's happening?"
>>44401213
"How could I?" you ask. "Everything I get is through the radio. No major broadcasts in week and certainly nothing like..." you shake your head. "The Judges. What the hell is going on?"
"I have no clue, but." He smiles widely and starts pilfering through a drawer. "I go now to take a bath. I don't want to ruin your poor country nose, doctor."
"Hold on," you tell him. "I have a job for you."
Claudio whines. "Can it wait? It's not so short a distance from here to Roma. One end of the country to another! I smell!"
"Yes," you agree. "But you have a tendency to forget if I don't cross your palm, first."
"Fine," he huffs as you lay out your need for him to return to Roma with your notes and samples in tow. "But your preserving methods are good. I will leave in a week." You dismiss him then and return to your notes.
>>44401231
You actually manage to finish things up while Claudio's still in the bath. It's been a productive day, and you actually smile to yourself when you look outside. It's not even afternoon yet. Things are looking up. You leave a note for Claudio in the strange hieroglyphs he's literate in letting him know you're doing some house calls before you leave.
It's refreshing, moving through the town without the weight of your gear beyond your field kit. Purgare is usually much too hot for you, who spent most of his life in the tundra of Pollen and the high mountains of Borca. You're a city child through and through. Colmurano is different from everything you've ever known, usually in a good way. Wood and plaster and ceramics are what keep the rustic homes together, and the rolling hills are something that's always amazing to look upon in the burning red of the dawn and evening times, and even the spewing gases on the distant horizon of never-healing wounds upon the Earth don't seem threatening.
You're about to make your first stop when it happens. The ground rumbles and shakes. It's nothing quite so new to you. Purgare and Balkhan are infamous for their quakes, and the Eshaton, the meteor event that sent the world into chaos so many centuries ago, has only exacerbated the problem. But this is different. This isn't the brief and horrendous shutter of a normal quake.
You feel disoriented with the upheaval, a roil like waves on solid ground. You feel sick, and there doesn't seem to be an end in sight to the quake. Wailing of citizens grabs your attention, and with it an old memory.
"No," you say to yourself. "Not here. Not now!"
>This can't be happening
>See if you can help anyone
>This place doesn't deserve it
>Go to the edge of town
>What do I do?
>We can't be saved.
>We need help.
>Stay put
>Write-in
>>44401248
oh fuck
A spore field? Here?
>>44401248
>>See if you can help anyone
shitshitshit
>>44401463
SHITSHITSHIT
>>44401248
>See if you can help anyone
Is there anyone else around right now aside from our two voters?
>>44401712
I'm trying to learn how to DM a game so I am lurking.
>>44401712
Just got here and I enjoy watching this crash and burn.
>>44401712
i'm actually IN a DnD game right now, Sorry. i'm here.
>>44401773
>>44401900
>>44401933
Don't feel pressured, guys. I was just curious and wondering whether I should take a break and ask anons to keep this bumped through the night, call it off here and pick up later, or continue on right now.
>>44401712
Likewise lurking, running the adventure from the back of the D:R book for some friends. Sorry!
>>44401248
>We need help
>This can't be le happening
>>44401961
Your call BB, I'll be tomorrow if I see it up.
>>44401248
>>See if you can help anyone
>>This place doesn't deserve it
Just got back from a buddy's house and glad I haven't missed this.
>>44401982
>>44401971
>>44401591
>>44401321
Roll. dice+4d6 and then pray for those sixes, guys.
Rolled 1, 4, 1, 4 = 10 (4d6)
>>44402024
BIG TWETIES
Rolled 3, 6, 5, 3 = 17 (4d6)
>>44402024
Time to be the best Spitalian, or not, we'll see.
Rolled 2, 4, 3, 2 = 11 (4d6)
>>44402024
Rolled 2, 2, 5, 6 = 15 (4d6)
>>44402024
KALI-YUGA, SHOW ME THE WAY!
Rolled 6, 2, 5, 3 = 16 (4d6)
>>44402024
we're boned aren't we?
>>44402246
I spaced out trying to write the reply, so my reply is you're going to have to wait until tomorrow to find out.
Fellow anons, please keep the thread bumped. I hate having to end a quest on a roll without you guys even seeing the results.
Required listening.
https://soundcloud.com/tobiaslilja/there-is-no-other-degenesis-trailer-mix
For the guys new to Degenesis: pic related are Spitalians with splayers minus mollusk.
>>44403258
A Scrapper, the kind of folk that Claudio belongs to.
>>44403283
And an Anabaptist, the religious folk Sofia's a part of. She should have the funky forehead tattoo, too.
Bumpin for potential
Okay, so
>post-apocaliptic setting, mixiture of modern and medieval elements.
>Meteor shower, new mushroom-pollen-mutagen things changing flora, and fauna alike
>Breed new human-monsters: Homo Degenesis
>Survivors, normal humans, make factions. Factions come together because of the common struggle humanity has to endure.
here i become a little uncertain but:
>The factions are the Judges, Anabaptists, and Doctors (us)
>The Europian alliance of the factions called Spital
>Purgare is a province of Spital
>We are in Colmurado a village in Purgare
>>44406274
What you list as factions are cults, which are mostly independent of nations or states.
>>44406274
Spitalians are the doctors, and regions are usually separate from factions/cults.
>>44406592
>>44406853
Okay, so we have feudal lords as well, and the Holy City is a common capital for all the factions/orders/cults
>>44406274
The game defines characters in a Archetype/Region/Cult way. Archetype is pretty much personality. Region is where you come from, effects some of your stats. Cult is which of the groups you belong to, also effects some stats.
Regions are Hybrispania (Iberia, fighting a suicidal guerilla war against the Africans with help from their Degenesis, Degenesis is Pregnotics, who see the future) , Franka (France and UK, channel has dried up, either slaves to or fighting desparately against their Degenesis, Degenesis is Pheromancers, who use pheromes for controlling people), Borca (Germany, which is trying to rebuild civilization, don't remember Degenesis), Pollen (Poland, mostly nomads scraping a living as the Spore Wall, a giant mass of Primer fungus slowly crawls west. Degenesis is Bio-something I don't remember name, who reshape their body for abilities), Balkhan (Balkans, many groups fighting amongs each other as usual, Degenesis I don't remember name, but they do stuff with sound), Purgare (Italy and Alps, full of Anabaptists, Degenesis are Psychokinetics, do space-time warpy stuff), and Africa (major economic power, has no Degenesis, instead has Psychovores, which are really dangerous plants that fuck with your mind (those who live near them lose their language, stuff like that).
>>44406960
Holy City is capital for the Anabaptists. I'll post a description of the Cults after I get breakfast, unless someone beats me to it.
>>44407035
That cleared up a lot. Thanks.
>>44407056
Cults: I'm gonna go over the ones we know and that I expect to show up.
Anabaptists are a Gnostic Christian cult, then is most prominent in Purgare. They don't like Degenesis, and they have special oils they use for anointments that do stuff like relieve pain and make you healthy, among other things.
Spitalians are a bunch of doctors operating out of a large pre-Eschaton (asteroids) hospital that they've been expanding over the years. It now has a city formed around it, of people that have fallen ill and traveled there for aid. Spitalians are all almost totally hairless, having shaved it off for hygiene reasons. They don't like Degenesis or Primer either, so they're relative allies with the Anabaptists. They've got the kit we've seen so far, the Splayer, Fungicide rifle/sprayer, suit. All of them have medical training.
Scrappers are people who scavenge the ruins. They generally have equipment that they made themselves or scavenged.
Judges are a group from Borca who are a bunch of people who go around enforcing the law. They all imitate the original Judge, wearing similar clothes and carrying similar weapons, the hammer and a musket (which they mass produce.) They control several cities in Borca, but the threat of the nearby Clans are rising.
Clans are the various tight-knit family groups that make up the majority of the populace. They can be anything from a group of families running a farm, to a band or marauders, to a group that operates steam trains (which is a canon group). They vary in pretty much everything.
>>44407056
Yes and no. They have Cathedral City in Borca which is the seat of power for the Protectorate (Borcan alliance of Anabaptists/Spitalians/Judges). I can't remember if there's another city for the Anabaptists, but we're in Purgare which has Rome and the Vatican so I figured it made sense if the Anabaptists took over what remains of the site.
Also writing. Sorry for the delay, my neighbors were noisy as fuck last night and I couldn't get to sleep.
For those of you who don't have it, btw my twitter is http://twitter.com/bardbarianqm
>>44407445
From the in game posts it seems that this is set after the events in the book, since Chernborg is dead as fuck. Or did I just misread?
>>44407901
Nah, Chernobog's dead as a doornail, the pheromancers are slowly invading Hellvetica, fractal forests are popping up all over the place in Pollen, etc, etc.
>>44408069
Alright, I guess the Anabap's took Rome from the hive of scum and villainy that was there? Apocs must be fucking pissed about that.
You stumble through the half-cobbled streets of Colmurado and find yourself in the dirty alley of city you haven't seen since childhood. The world explodes around you, and you need to help. You need help. The shelling has gone on all night, and you have no clue how things are going to progress from here. Chernobog styled himself as a god whose people would be lost without him. It hasn't been twelve hours since his death, and his prophecy rings true.
A rocket explodes nearby and you're flung through the alley and into the clay wall of one of the village houses. You get to your feet and try to get to the front door, but the roil is getting worse. You have to work through it. You have to make sure your charges are safe.
"Niko!" You look up and your heart stops as you see the dour countenance of Pawel. You haven't seen him since...how is he in Colmurado? "Niko, get your head in the now!" he shouts and you gasp as your face stings from a blow you didn't anticipate. "Are you ready?"
You look around and find yourself in a place that no one wants to go to. Pollen floats through the air on feather-like wisps. Once you thought they were a beautiful sight, but that was before you saw what happens when someone takes in too much of the spores. You've seen their psychonaut children, ugly little leeches that are hunted to slaughter in Brno.
>>44408163
The spore field stretches on for a kilometer at least, concentric rings of collapsed earth, like a target. Somewhere out there are the biokinetic psychonauts, but they don't concern you. You're here for the Primer pollen, the spore cusps from which they grow so Pawel can make it into that drug, Burn. He promises you protection for that, and that's what you need.
No one's around to help you. You almost fall into the deep chasm of the spore field as the earth roils again and a strong arm catches you. You look up, panicked, and instead of Pawel's face you see Claudio, his deep brown hair limp and damp, his traveling gear thrown on haphazardly. "Are you okay, Niko?" You don't do anything this time? What's real? Is this Pollen or is this Purgare? Does it matter?
"Doctor!" he shouts as the ground heaves again and you wheeze as Claudio's fist lands into your gut. HE holds onto you until the shock ends briefly before letting you go. You look around. You're still in Colmurano. Claudio's still around you, and the epoch seems to be calming down, but you aren't out of the proverbial woods yet. "Are you here, now?" You nod and Claudio gives you a strained smile. "Then we must be heroes again today. They are meeting in the town square. It seems safest. But not everyone is there."
[Choose up to 2.]
>Ask who's missing
>Immediately start searching houses
>Order Claudio to the town square
>Two heads are better than one. Bring Claudio with you.
>Write in
>>44408177
>Two heads are better than one. Bring Claudio with you.
>Ask who's missing
>>44408177
>Two heads are better than one. Bring Claudio with you.
>Ask who's missing
>>44408177
>>Ask who's missing
>>start helping
>>send Claudio to square
>>44408100
It'll be a plot point.
>>44408236
>>44408194
Writing.
You shake yourself out of your funk, or as best you can. You haven't thought that much about Brno since...well, you were still a boy when they finally took you away from there and out of Pollen. You don't care to count the years. "Who hasn't shown up, yet?" you ask and brace yourself as another roil moves through the ground.
The two of you ride it out before Claudio deigns to speak again. "I saw your priest in the village, Sofia. She says the augurs haven't been seen since the quakes began." You wince at that information. You're a man of science so you carry a disdain for the mystical as a rule. You even have explanations for the weirder aspects of the Primer pollen. For the most part you can tolerate the augurs and fortune tellers that dot the Purgan culture, spreading animal guts around and calling them omens. When their medicine fails, your order steps in. There's something of a respect. Rubio and Ines, the two oldest and most insane members of Colmurano, are something else entirely. They send you the sick that wouldn't visit you otherwise, but it's always with backhanded comments or outright verbal assaults.
Suffice it to say, you weren't the most popular person in the village when you were first assigned here. Things haven't really improved since then.
Ines and Rubio share a home at the top of the hill that Colmurano's built upon. The two of you move through the town, taking stock of the damage. From outside it doesn't look so bad. Pots are broken and toppled, roof tiles are everywhere, but no major collapses of anything beyond a hole in the roof of the chapel you notice as you move beyond the crowd gathered in the leveled out area that serves as the village square.
It isn't too long before you make it to their home. Despite it taking the place of honor in the village, the home belonging to the augurs of Colmurano is ramshackle. You'd be sorry for the state of it if you hadn't seen it before the quake. The house is a hoarder's paradise. Herbs and trinkets and what you're sure is trash litter the ground. Most of it was there before the quake, and the two of you head into the house cautiously. Claudio makes a noise of disgust and you bite back a snicker. He shoots you a glare and you put your hands in the air in mock surrender.
Deeper into the house you start to hear gentle muttering and the two of you look at one another, perplexed. It's not a language either of you recognize, but you've known the occupants long enough to tell the smoker's rasp that belongs to Ines. "Ines?" You call out. She doesn't respond and the two of you navigate further into the house.
Finally you pinpoint her location and you find Ines sitting in her divining room. Old cards featuring strange images are spread out in an array that plaeases you from a geometric perspective. Across from her sits Rubio, completely silent with his head hanging foreward. You frown and move toward the elderly man, shaking him slightly. When he doesn't respond, you move to lean him back and his head flops with the motion, revealing a nasty gash on his forehead that has long stopped bleeding. He stares out at the world with sightless eyes, and you leave him be.
"Ines?" You call out instead, and still she pays no attention to you, laying out another card.
>Shake her.
>Shout at her.
>Force her out.
>Get Claudio to help you.
>Ask what she's doing.
>Write-in.
>>44408873
>Shake her.
>>44408873
I write in!
>>44408873
>shout at her
no knowing what happens if you touch her in this state
Rolled 4, 2, 5, 1, 4, 1 = 17 (6d6)
>>44408960
>>44408873
Ask what she's doing
>>44408914
>>44408966
>>44409294
Writing.
>>44409756
Good to see this is still going on, and I didn't miss it.
"Ines!" You say again, this time raising your voice. It's as ineffective as ever. She gives no pause to her actions. She doesn't even acknowledge your presence and that's worrying. No matter how much the three of you have argued in the past, the two of them never have pulled behavior like this. It could be shock or some kind of trauma, but you'd need to examine her more closely.
You consider your options. If she's like this it wouldn't be wise to move her. She may be combative once moved from whatever...trance she happens to be in. She may snap out of entirely. She could be hurt, ut you don't have a choice. If what's going on is what you think it is, you need to leave before another quake starts up. The other houses stand fine, but you have your doubts on this one.
Before you can make your decision, though, Claudio steps in and makes it for the both of you. "Ines!" he shouts as well, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her firmly."INES!" He says again right in her face and you wince as he pairs it with another, rougher shake. Ines is so old and Claudio is the epitome of exuberant youth, a bear of a man, and sometimes too enthusiastic for his own good.
"INES!" he shouts again, but instead of shaking her, he slaps her across the face and your eyes widen.
>>44410161
"What the hell was that for?" you ask, appalled. Claudio looks at her and still she continues muttering, staring vaguely at her cards. It's as if you and Claudio aren't here.
He shrugs. "It worked with you."
"Are you-" you cut yourself off and shake your head. "Nevermind."
You return your attention to Ines and lean slightly on the table. It's your last bet. You doubt it'll work, but your only other option is to take her out forcibly. You try to ignore the fresh corpse of Rubio next to you and stare at the array of cards she has in front of her. "What are you doing?" you ask her.
She mumbles something you can't quite make out, but the measure of her voice changes into something almost recognizable. You prompt her again and her voice rises. "The path is a tumult. Death awaits us, and not even your medicines may save us from what is coming. A field of pollen grows, and in the wind more pollen comes. Tides of death and red water. Beasts churning up the land. The crow swarms and the lion hunts. So much uncertain. It's unclear, I can't--"
You look up and Claudio's staring at both of you. You can see the fear in his eyes, plain as day. "Alright, Ines," you say.
>Tell me what you know.
>Sounds fascinating, but we need to get out.
>What happened to Rubio?
>Write-in
>>44410175
>Sounds fascinating, but we need to get out.
>>44410175
>Sounds fascinating we need to get out
>>44410175
>Sounds fascinating, but we need to get out.
Do you have any idea where would you like to conclude this quest? I am not familliar with the setting, but so far the global situation looks Warhammer-like FUBAR.
>>44410246
It's coming up within the next post or two. I just wanted to get this scene into part 1.
>>44410175
>Tell me what you know
>BUT WE GOTTA FUCKING GO.
>>44410299
No I meant do have a concept for the ending of the sotryline, not just this session.
>>44410369
Oh, yeah, I definitely do.
>>44410302
This
Alright, writing.
You fight the urge to mock her but suppress it. "Ines, that sounds all very fascinating, but if you haven't noticed, we're experiencing some-" another Earthquake interrupts your explanation and the three of you tumble over. For a moment your mind reels and you're in the cold tundra of Pollen once more, falling, falling down a cliff face, screaming as the wall scrapes and tears at your body. All of this just to make Burn. Pawel stands at the edge, watching impassively as you-
-hit the floor. Spice from a broken pot fills your nose and you're back to your senses in the broken old home of Ines. You shake the memory away. Ines is scrabbling for her scattered cards and you look at Claudio, who's also begun to recover. "We need to go. NOW!" Claudio nods and picks Ines up easily. Once in his grip she begins to thrash like an imp, protesting as Claudio drags her out of the room.
You follow him out, giving one final look at the sprawled corpse of Rubio on the floor. You can recover him later. Your own safety is more important, and now you can hear the groans and creaking of the house, independent of the quake which has already ceased.
You gingerly step out of the house and thank whoever's looking out for you that you're out. Looking at it now shows the strain that it's been put under. It's noticeably leaning. You'll have to tell Sofia that Ines can't come back here. Not until one of the craftsmen can actually come around and see whether it's worth saving or not. You turn away from the house and your breath leaves you.
>>44411140
The valley you'd spent all morning in outside of town has changed. Several kilometers from where you found the psychonaut, beyond the groves that make Colmurano's livelihood, is the symbol of your order's new enemy. A massive crater has formed where once there was hilly terrain. It isn't so large right now but you can already tell it's only going to get bigger, more ridged as the ground continues to collapse in the future.
The freshly-turned earth reveals what you've missed the entire time you've lived here. Somehow the Primer pollen made it to the valley. You don't know how, but you can see it speckled within the rock and fresh soil, even from here. You already know that feather-shaped spore pods are tumbling in the air, looking to fall and populate new land and infect plant and beast alike. You've only seen the greater version of this with your own eyes, but there's no mistaking what it has to be.
It's a spore field. The biggest threat anyone could imagine to their lives and livelihood, and you and Sofia are about the only ones prepared enough to know how to deal with it. And your panicked state was right. You can't deal with this. Not alone, at least. Claudio seems just as stricken as you when you finally get over your awe of this new formation, and you pat his arm softly, grabbing his attention. You beckon him to the road and he nods.
The two of you make it back to the town square without incident. You can hear the questions of your fellow townsmen, but it's as if you're underwater. Only muffled sounds and oppressive background. As soon as Sofia confirms everyone who's alive has made it, you leave, ignoring questions and looks alike, back to your own home. You find your pauldrons and place them back on, check your supplies, and then take stock of the damage, though only one thing concerns you right now.
>>44411156
When you were assigned to Colmurano and the Spadaro clan, your Spitalian superiors brought with you a shortwave radio in case of emergency and right now you can't think of a bigger emergency than this. You test it out and make sure it's in working order.
In the background you hear someone entering your home, but the voices already tell you who it is. Claudio, and he's brought Sofia with him. You pay them and their information and questions no heed. These are your people, and you can't...you're no help in this.
You power on the radio and set it to the emergency band, sending a test code out and receiving a quick response. Good. "Holy City, this is Doctor Nikodem Szajda of Spadaro Valley."
A few moments of silence before a response comes through. "Go ahead, Szajda."
"Within the hour, a latent spore field within the valley has become active and manifested, into a stage one crater. Possibility of Mother Spore field is uncertain at this time, though activity has seemed to stabilized as of now," you pause in your explanation and take a steadying breath. "I am the only Spital in the area and do not have the resources necessary to eradicate the field alone. Requesting immediate deployment of assistance in eradicating the threat and for guidance on how to proceed in the mean time."
"Niko?" Sofia asks cautiously and you hold a hand up to silence her. The three of you wait rather impatiently for what feels like hours before a new voice comes over the radio.
>>44411170
"Am I speaking with Szajda of Spadaro?" the voice sounds older, more disciplined. Subconsciously you snap to a higher state of alertness.
"This is Szajda," you reply simply.
"Szajda, we've heard your request," the man on the other end tells you and you feel yourself relax. Even Sofia and Claudio pick up on your relief and the two of them cheer behind you. "Deployment of a response team at this time is denied." Your heart feels like it stops and you lean in toward the microphone. Claudio protests loudly and Sofia is the one to quiet him this time. "Per guidance from high command, you are to do what you can to persuade the citizens of your area to evacuate the area. Regardless of failure or success in this endeavor, your time in the valley is over. Report to the Holy City at your earliest convenience."
----------
And this is where we're stopping, folks. Hope you had a fun time.
>>44411185
sheeeet
can't wait for the next time.
thanks for the quest
>>44411185
Thanks OP, you have given me some good information about the Degenesis world and how my party is going to interact with it. Even though you made clear that it's extremely unlikely, I had no idea spore fields could just pop up out of the ground like that.
>>44411185
Whelp, Looks like its time to get everybody and fuck off.
Also, So are we infected with the spores...or something else? Sense breathing them in is bad?
>>44411185
looking pretty good so far QM hoping for more soon do you have a twitter where we can keep track of future sessions?
>>44411238
Thanks to you, too. I'm glad you all are enjoying this.
>>44411245
iirc it's a slow process and usually you see early warning signs, but sometimes their growth can be asymptomatic and just come out of nowhere. If not then just remember I'm already fucking with a lot of concepts they had and it adds some tension anyway.
>>44411248
That's something you'll have to wait and see. You weren't infected today, though, if that's what you mean. Some of those memories may not exactly be what they seem either. The shit that happened with Niko was as a young kid.
>>44411257
Thanks. You can follow my twitter on @bardbarianqm
can we fuck claudio
>>44411346
Ah, I was talking about the memory flashback thing.
Is it sad if this thread alone has interested me in possible buying the game?
>>44411248
Spore infection can be removed, to a degree.
>>44411379
If you guys try to build up to it, I suppose. I thought you all would be waifuing Sofia, but yeah, I'm not against it.
>>44411380
just as keikaku.
>>44411563
Sleepers a best waifus~
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=Spitalian%20Quest And we're archived!
>>44411721
>wanting pure spitalian master race to stick his dick into disgusting subhuman sleeper filth
i seriously hope you scrappers don't do this
>>44411946
We can clean the hole first, Its fineeeee.Wtf wafius in this anyway? That seems weird and I thought we our kids if we have spores in us would be subhuman anyway?
>>44411946
We just make the holes on them. We don't stick it in.
