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>>39815407

You abandon that thought when you spot what appears to be a map on the wall.

It’s a difficult task to make anything out on its blood stained face, but you make out a few pertinent words.

YOU ARE HERE.

The words listed above its illegible station name, and a deep cross mark has been cut into the map for further emphasis.

You suddenly catch a single word written in fading blood and realize what it’s trying to convey.

WE ARE HERE.

Unsettling.

You discover from the map that your compass is pointed, not toward the end of the line, but toward the stop known as Cherry Tree Station.

At least you know where you’re going now…

>Proceed in the direction of Cherry Tree Station.

>Write in.

>>39815447
>Write in.

Nope the fuck out of there.

>>39815447
If we can escape then >>39815512
Otherwise
>Proceed in the direction of Cherry Tree Station.

Hello there!

>>39815512
>>39815586
Just in case you don't remember, the portal back home isn't anywhere nearby, and the compass points toward the direction of the portal.

>>39815447
>Proceed in the direction of Cherry Tree Station.
>>39815617
Heya Auri! Good thing we got the compass in the first thread

>>39815617
yeah that's what I thought, figured other anon might know something I didn't

>>39815512
>>39815586
>>39815702
Hello!

They all end up in the same place, so...

>Writing!

>>39815735

You’ve never actually delved before without knowing exactly where the portal back home is, finding it should be your first priority.

These stations are a few miles apart, so you’re in for a trip if the portal turns out to be several stations away.

You can only wonder what type of place is the spot where all these lines converge.

Without any more deliberating, you walk off the platform and take flight down the dark passageway.

Traveling is a bit slower than you would prefer, but in the absence of any sort of light, only instinct guides your way, after all. Instinct often guides you into an outgrowth of flesh, hitting into the hot breathing mass, and feeling it recoil as you do.

You dismay as the walls around you begin to leak, the tepid dew lands on your bare flesh unobstructed, like a beast salivating over its downed prey

It’s hard to know that you’re moving at all…Are you moving at all?
You halt your flight to turn behind you.

Nothing but pitch blackness.

You quickly turn back…But did you turn back all the way? Should you turn further? Would turning further, actually turn you the wrong way?

You shiver in pure anger and frustration, and decide to head in the direction you’re facing currently.

Wait…

Your ravenous blue flames illuminate a great deal of the tunnel. You laugh in sheer relief. You’re not helpless, far from it actually.

With renewed vigor, you make your way to Cherry Tree station, the flesh walls shrinking from your flame’s intense heat.

Light begins to fill your view, and not before long you’ve made it to the next station…

[1/2]

>>39816783

Only, there’s actually no station here. The rails beneath you continue on into the distance and eventually reach another dark tunnel, but this place, this place is open to the elements. Unfortunately your compass continues to point toward the dark tunnel.

There’s much around actually, an endless sandy plain with a slight intermittent breeze of unknown source lightly pushing around the endless gore covering the sand. An ancient tree stands out of the vacant ground defiantly, its dead and gnarled branches sticking straight out to the hazy sky in hopes of something that will never come.

A small hunched figure near the tree catches your attention, and you hastily make your way over to it.

Much to your confusion, it’s a young woman with long brown hair, wearing a dirty dress. She’s crouched low to the ground with her hair covering her face, her hands and feet stained heavily with blood and she doesn’t seem to be notice you.

She’s preoccupied with something, by the sucking sounds you hear coming from her, you guess that’s she’s eating.

>Get her attention

>Move on.

>Write in.

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>>39816833
Forgot the pic.

>>39816833
>Get her attention

With fire. Lots of fire.

>>39816833
>Get her attention
"Hey, so, a bunch of weird voices invited me here, do you know anything about that?"

>>39816833
>Move on.
Nope, fuck you, nope

Rolled 1 (1d3)

>>39816912
>>39816922
>>39816951
Tie breaking roll time.

>Writing the winner. Update may be sooner than usual, depending on how wins...

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>>39817036

There’s absolutely nothing around here to eat other than the viscera on the floor, and given the state of her hands and feet…

You invoke your flame. “Hey.” You impatiently call out to her.

Her chewing ceases, and a chunk of flesh drops from her hands with a wet splash.

You stir up your flame, its greedy anticipation to attack its target tangible through your hand.

The woman slowly stands, she makes a noise that sounds like light sobbing, and for the briefest moment, you wonder if you may have reacted a little too rashly.

That is until she turned around.

Instead of a normal face, a huge mouth of endless pointed teeth greets you in with frenzied undulations. Your unforgiving flame greets her, setting her alight in a pillar of blue fury. An unreal and strained screech emits from the spiked pit it calls a mouth.

It echoes into the emptiness, a revolting death knell, before its body is reduced to little more than a small pile of black cinders.

Thankfully, you got the jump on it before it could attack you. Unfortunately, its last parting song seems to have awakened
something…things under the sands.

You crouch to take off, but before you do, a hand shoots out of the ground and wraps around your ankle, and then multiple hands burst from the ground, latching onto your bare legs.

The activity of the sand around you tells you that there are at the very least a dozen more of, whatever she was, around you. You could fight them all, but the journey ahead of you might be long, so conserving your energy may be the wiser choice. Then again, you certainly don’t want these things trailing you.

>Break free from the ones attacking you, then fly for the tunnel.

>Kill them all.

>Write in.

>>39817492
>>Kill them all.

>>39817492
>Kill them all.

Now can we use lots of fire?

>>Break free from the ones attacking you, then fly for the tunnel.

>>39817492
>Kill them all.
Yes this pleases me

>>39817590
>>39817601
>>39817646
Roll 1d20, please. Best of three.

Rolled 3 (1d20)

>>39817673
Channel my inner pyromancer

Rolled 12 (1d20)

>>39817673

Rolled 20 (1d20)

>>39817673

>>39817698
Heh.
>>39817712
Would you look at that!

>Writing~

>>39817698
>>39817727
( ._.)

>>39817727

You won’t be stopped, not here, and certainly not now.

Wrathful flames forms around the base of your legs as you take off. The arms of your assailants fall away from your legs like melted butter.

The stench of burnt fat reaches you as you fly above the ground, you see the whole group of attackers ambling to follow you. They all appear similar to the original, with only slight variations to the length of the hair, and the condition of their dresses.

You drop a dense ball of flames directly onto the group and watch through squinted eyes as it chains between all them, linking them together in violent strand of bright blue light.

The shot flames seems to consider all the individuals to be one target, and they ignite, as the first did, the flames joining together in a burning storm, which leaves nothing but char in its wake.

Feeling slightly winded, you descend to the smoldering ground to make sure there are none left waiting beneath. Large jagged clumps of solid glass mark where you slaughtered your attackers, and the ground moves no more. Only the branches of the blackened tree sway in the wind.

This place was likely very beautiful, once, but in the end, all things must run their course.

With nothing left for you here, you fly back to the metal rail, and continue on your way.

This darkened tunnel of flesh breathes and quakes from your flame just like the last. While traveling, you can’t help but feel that all this meat around you has a personality of sorts. It feels as if it’s watching you, but when you turn your attention toward it, it shies away.

The path opens up to another underground platform. The path of the tunnel begins to curve, but your compass continues to point in the same direction.

[1/2]

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>>39818661

Upon entering, you spot a few individuals in dingy robes crowded around each other. You’re ready to strike at them, that is until you see that they’re actually only having a conversation with each other.

A young woman from the group notices you and calmly approaches you. Her face is a mess of heavy scars, leaving no discernible features other than her mouth.

“You came out from the wastes? Oh, you must be terribly hungry. We have food if you want some.” She reaches out for you tentatively.

You back away from her hand. “Umm…” Her calm demeanor juxtaposed with your surreal surroundings, catches you firmly off guard.

You can only wonder what makes this group different from the one you annihilated earlier.

“We have food…” She stops, turning her back to you.

She begins to peel away her dirtied robes, exposing her skin to you, and the sight almost makes you sick to your stomach.

Dozens of gaping holes dot her back. Clenching open and closed like fleshy valves. Then a small creature pokes its way into the open, stretching its pink body blindly into the air, and then several more join it.

“Take some if you’re hungry. We always have more.” She takes a few steps back to you, offering the fetus-like creatures to you, for your consumption.

You fight the urge to set her ablaze where she stands. If nothing else, you can ask her for directions to confirm what your compass is showing you.

>Refuse, ask her for directions.

>Refuse, continue on your way.

>Burn them all.

>Write in.

>>39818698
>Accept, eat one
Don't knock it until you've tried it

>>39818698
>Refuse, ask her for directions.
Yeahh no thanks

>>39818698
>Refuse, ask her for directions.

>>39818761
You're a bold one, I'll give you that.

>>39818840
>>39818852
Pass on her free sample.

>Writing

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>>39818698
Hello au-
Jesus cripes watching this at lunchtime was a bad idea

>>39819871
Hello there! At least we didn't decide to make one of the fetuses our lunch.

>>39818892
She hasn’t attacked you, and more importantly, she can still be useful, so there’s little sense in killing her.

But, wow. She is most certainly one of the most revolting things you’ve ever seen, and that’s actually quite an accomplishment.

“I’m…not hungry, thank you anyway.” You respond stiffly, not entirely sure the proper etiquette for this sort of thing.

She pulls her robe back up. “Our offer still stands in case you change your mind.” She begins to walk back to her group.

“Wait…” You grab her hand, your whole body tenses as you feel how bizarrely warm she is.

She stops at your behest, and turns to you with a smile.

“I was wondering if maybe that path branches nearby?” You pull her hand toward where you’re headed.

Her mouth tenses in thought. “We know of no branches in the area. But there is one at the next structure if you continue to follow the path. It leads in two different directions, but one will lead you to that direction eventually.” This time she holds up your hand to indicate the direction.

You let go of her hand. “Thank you…” You feel slightly apprehensive given that you wanted to set her and her whole group on fire only a short time ago.

“We’ll be waiting if you need more help.” She nods to you her farewell and returns to her group.

[1/2]

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>>39819911

If you didn’t know better, you’d swear that they are human, but nothing human could live here for long on their own.

Your journey continues, and you pick up the pace, eager to be free of this oppressive air. A sharp pain is beginning to form in your stomach from the stench, and the large amount of traveling you’ve done only aggravates it.

The arrow on your compass slowly shifts in direction as you pass through the turning tunnel.

After many minutes of travel, the tunnel opens up to a large and completely abandoned city. The architecture once again seems human in design.

You soar high to survey the area.

The buildings themselves are unremarkable, all covered with large piles of flesh at their bases, and dust everywhere else. But in the distance you see something quite remarkable.

All the viscera you’ve seen thus far, pales in the amount that’s collected in the distance. It’s easily the size of a small mountain, and all the way from here you can see it pulsing with life.

That is the junction of all the paths you saw on the map. But your compass points in the opposite direction.

Your mouth feels incredibly dry as you stop to consider your options.

That’s the core of this whole area, and if there’s anything of note to be found, it’s very likely going to be there. The same follows that if there’s something potentially dangerous to you in the area, it’s also very likely to be there.

You’ve traveled several miles now, and you’re eager to return home, alive. But the desire to know what’s there beckons as well.

What’s your choice?

>Head to the junction of the paths.

>Head home.

>Write in.

>>39819976
>Head to the junction of the paths.

>>39819976
>>Head to the junction of the paths.

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>>39819976
>Head to the junction of the paths.

>>39819976
>Head to the junction of the paths.

>>39819976
>Head home.
This one's not going to be on me.

>>39819976
>Write in.
Head for the exit first, and locate it.
after that, investigate.

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>>39820001
>>39820040
>>39820044
>>39820055
Here we go.

>Writing~

Pic related to this vote.

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>>39820180

>>39820180

There’s no turning back now. You will know what’s there.

The light tapping of your footfalls echo through the empty city. You pass by towering structures of buildings. What’s left of your society has only a very few of these things left standing, but you heard that there were many more, lost well into the past.

Steam is visible rising from the carpet of meat covering the city, its height rises as you continue to approach the junction.

Overgrown cars and trucks litter the city streets, all of them seemingly left behind in a great hurry.

You fly over an endless pit in the ground, only to find that the ground has closed up behind you as you land.

Walking through the city confirms a suspicion you thought at first impossible. This was brought here. The city, the railways, all of it. All of it was brought to this realm, very likely with its inhabitants as well

Why? WHY?

You want to know why. You need to know, so that you can figure out how.

How...

Your walking finally takes you to the base of the flesh mountain. You could have flown here in much less time, but if you had, you’d might have skipped over the conclusion you reached.

A cavity in the colossal mound opens up for you, as you threaten it with your flame, and you walk into what you feel might be the core of this realm.

You fall.

[1/3]

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>>39821051

Weightlessly, you tumble into a black abyss. You fall for so long that your proprioception is thrown for loop and you wonder if you’re even still falling.

Somehow, the complete and utter darkness is comforting, warm, and almost familiar…

Then the light of thousands of tiny red orbs come into view. As you fall soundlessly, they grow larger and larger, until a single orb fills the entirety of your sight.

They were never tiny, just far off to begin with. All of them encapsulate sizable chunk of humanity, you see that most of them are large cities, with towering buildings as you walked through before.

So, this is where they went…

All the encapsulations are interconnected with almost impercitble thin fibers. If you had to guess, you think you’re traveling through one right now. But as the railways all junction single point, so too do these enormous orbs. All connect to a single brilliantly red, small spot in the void.

That’s where you’re headed.

You close your eyes, and allow yourself to fall blissfully through the abyss. There’s only one thing missing right now, but she’s…long gone.

After falling for what feels like hours, you the sound of air whipping past you forces your eyes open.

[2/3]

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>>39821089

Your wings slow your fall, as you descend into a small enclosure made of nothing but dark tissue.

You softly land in this unremarkable place and see nothing.

Then, at the center of the room, the dark flesh converges nosily into a single individual.

Viscera clings to every part of her body, a viscous mucus oozes out of every one of her orifices, and you can see the steady pulse of her body through every part of her.

Her body morphs continuously to maintain her form.

She’s hideous.

She’s magnificent.

She truly one with this place, this realm.

The long dark hair on her head flows as she settles to the ground. Her face is undeniably beautiful, and is all the more so, with all the ugliness around her.

A small smile forms on her face, striking something in your mind that sets your emotions to a calming tranquility.

She opens her eyes and warmly looks at you. “Hello, Sophia. It’s been so long since we last met…”
~

>>39821132
Okay, unfortunately I'm going to stop here for tonight. I want to thank everyone that played! As always, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to post them in the thread, and I will do my best to respond to them.

If not, then I wish you a good day/night, and hope to see you again next time!


>(Twitter)
https://twitter.com/QM_Auri

>>39821162
noooo too soon

>>39821162
Thank was the entity who gave us the robe since we delved here too soon, right? Thanks for running!

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>>39821132
Oh god.
what did we just

>>39821222
I think so too, but it must be done!
>>39821247
You're very welcome! That's actually not the Ancillary Manta, but don't give up that train of thought.
>>39821251
Maybe??

>>39821251
Nah, I'm sure it will be fine...

>>39821287
Is she connected to her? Or related to us?

>>39821162
Thanks for running Auri!

>>39821287
Maybe?
Uh, anyway, thanks for running Auri.

>>39821315
Yes. I'm assuming that by related to us you mean connected to us (correct me if I'm wrong), which would also be another yes.
>>39821330
You're very welcome!
>>39821351
You're also very welcome! Oh, I had very lamely read your first statement as "Oh god, did we just..." So that's why my response may have been confusing.

>>39821401
Are we the lost princess of the innermost realm?

>>39821447
That's a heck of a question, haha. If you'd please indulge me as to how you came to that conclusion, I'd appreciate it.
If you don't feel like it, then I'll answer anyway, I just want to know what you know, so to speak.

>>39821502
thx 4 runin budi gud thred

>>39821502
didn't grievermon call us a princess?

hey i've been gone a while are we still sexually harassing our apprentices because that was the best part of this quest

>>39821511
You're very welcome!
>>39821522
He called us "Little Empress."
>>39821525
Not for quite some time.

>>39821502
We've been called princess, the mantas who are guardians of realm gates are interested in us, that memory of gramps and our parents and the reference to our second form race never coming to the city.

The memory implied we're from the planes, and we were important, Grievermillion called us nobility, our second form is instantly recognized as a race of power from a far away realm, and the mantas know us, they knew of us before we met them.

>>39821574
Take a look at sealing magic on our character sheet too.

>>39821522
Just noticed you called him "Grivermon." That gave me a good laugh.
>>39821574
>>39821605
It's a bittersweet moment when someone figures out one of your quest's secrets, but good job. You're not 100% there, but you're well on the right track.

>>39821548
>He called us "Little Empress."
Coulda been a error in translation or something you never know!

>>39821654
Our dad was the king who died that the Viviomancer talked about wasn't he?

>>39821677
I'll take your word for it!
>>39821691
Shh...Once one thing gets figured out, it just snowballs huh?

>>39821726
Yeah it does. Meaning Taking Izu on delves may not be the greatest move. Still I figured out a grand secret on my own. I feel gratified. Still that means in a delve we're either mutating our friends or they were never regular humans to begin with.

>>39821754
Things to consider in future threads. I see that there's still plenty of secrets left, but good job for this one!

With that, I'll be stepping out for tonight. Until next time!