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>>45383682
We last left off our Haunting of The Deadman's Tunnels, all of our haunters by our side as we have gotten to the source of the madness saturating the air. After scraping some plasm to work with by frightening the mortals in the upper levels, now we come face to face with a monstrous visage. A rat the size of a man standing tall and brimming with absorbed Madness in the depths of the Tunnels.

Visible only in the spirit world, the visage sees you and your team in plain view as the maddened mortals you stepped in front of to save from the creature continue to eat the manifested rats that swarm all over them. The mortals were the apparent victims of the creature as well as the source of the Madness feeding it's energy, which now rests somewhere in the vicinity of a Rank 8 Haunter.

The Rat King looks at you with its glowing red eyes,

"Who... defies... The Rat King..."

What do you do?

>Answer assertively
>Answer cautiously
>Write in

>>45383800
>Answer assertively

>>45383939
Assertive it is! Writing

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>>45383800
>>45383800
>>45383800
You stride forward, meeting the Rat King's gaze.

"Stand down, Haunter. I'm a Spectre with the Bureau." you answer, "Sent here to investigate the disturbances on the Plasm band. I can't let you keep harming the mortals directly."

The Rat King's gaze seems to pierce right through you. If spirits like you had a spine, it would probably be crawling. You find yourself thankful that the spirit world doesn't transfer things like smell, because just the sight of it causes you to think about having a shower.

The spirit world churns a bit as the creature laughs heartily, stressing the plasm band as it almost inhales the madness pouring out of the mortals behind you.

"Chkckckckck..." chitters the Rat King in a sort of laugh that seems to echo around you. "The Rat King is no spirit." it says in its scratchy, hollow boice. "No Spectre can command me."

Technically true, but not entirely so you knew. Creatures like this were born of mortal fear, much in the same way your own Haunter Skitter was born from the collective arachnophobia of mortals. Though while Skitter was a sort of branch-off from the main manifestation Queen Aranae, this Rat King seems to have utilized the Madness around him to grow into something more. If he manifested in the wild, he wasn't under Bureau control. And if he wasn't a trapped spirit, he couldn't exactly be persuaded to join in exchange for his freedom, which was the usual protocol.

Of course, since you technically found the source of the disturbance, you could always opt to retreat to the Bureau and have them come and deal with the Rat King. You've already filled the letter of your assignment. The rest is up to you.

>Threaten to stop it
>Try and persuade it
>Retreat to the Bureau for reinforcements
>Write in

>>45384411
>Try and persuade it

>>45384621
Going diplomacy. Writing!

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>>45384411
You opt for the diplomatic approach. "Humans are not toys, Rat King." you say. "Slowly siphoning off madness is one thing, but you're doing too much too fast. You've caused so much disturbance that even the humans are taking note. Above you is at least one medium and a few others with spirit-catching equipment."

"Let them come. The Rat King has lots to show them." it says, waving a claw dismissively.

"Causing more upset will only bring more mediums and maybe even some psychics. Unless you can drain enough Madness to fight an army of humans, you're going to end up captured or banished. That is, unless the Bureau comes after you first and subdues you. If you even accidentally give the humans hard evidence of the Spirit World, they might even cut your access to the plasm band entirely."

"Shhh!" The Rat King flinches, seething at the thought.

Cutting a spirit's access to the plasm band is the harshest punishment the Bureau can hand out. It wastes a lot of energy, but cutting off a spirit means they cannot gain more energy from Plasm or even Madness. Without access to more energy, the spirit burns itself out until there is nothing left. Souls generally pass on into True Death, and concepts like the Rat King fade back into whatever subconcious void they were birthed from. A creature like this would simply go on until it used up its collective energy, slowly returning to haunt only the darkest corners of mortal fears.

You can see the thought of this fate scares even a creature like him.

>Speak more of cutting him off
>Speak of the humans coming for him
>Write in

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>>45385027
Gonna go ahead and close up for the night. Figured more people would show up as we went on, but seems participation is down today.

Ah well, shit happens.

As always, thanks to everyone who participated. Updates are on the twitter feed,
https://twitter.com/Grub0830

and I'll catch everyone hopefully next week.