>>1515028

Title Soundtrack: Stranger Things Title
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RcPZdihrp4

Previous Threads: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=Nightmare%20Planet

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ravenkingquests

Discord: https://discord.gg/t7DHUPk

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>>1515034

Character sheet:

Vanessa

A sensitive soul. Beautiful and weird, charming and vulnerable.

Look: Dainty, disheveled
Age: 17
Origin: Mysterious transfer student

Stats:
Dark +2
Hot +1
Cold -1
Strong -1

Traits:
Growing Pains: Whenever you fail a roll, gain experience.


I upgraded your trait to activate unlimited times per thread, so feel free to fail to your hearts' content, anons. If necessary, I'll switch it back later.

>>1515028

Soundtrack: Solar Fields -- Discovering
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UU4nEOYisCs

The five of you set out north, to the hills. Jason leads the way, carrying a sports bag full of supplies over his back as he pushes his way through the forest, trying to find a trail. Tyler follows him, at times pointing out a route he could take, other times stopping to peer at something he's noticed with a mixture of doubt and curiosity. You're in the middle. Sam is behind you, looking around nervously, clutching the straps of her heavily laden backpack. Kate takes up the final position, baseball bat at the ready, peering at the forest shadows with watchful intensity.

You're in a fucked up situation, you think. You don't know where you are, or where you're going, or what will happen to you. You might never be rescued, or see another human being again. You and the others might just wander through these woods until you starve to death or get eaten by a monster.

But it could be worse, you tell yourself. You've each got a backpack full of supplies, useful things that came with you in the "event" that brought you here. You're someplace where there's trees and animals, so you can probably find something to eat and water to drink. And the people you're stuck with here haven't immediately turned on or killed each other.

Who knows? You might even become friends.

Kate did her best to catch you when you fell from the tree. And even though you were annoyed at Jason for breaking up your Disney princess fantasies by killing that dragonmoth, he was just trying to protect you. With the two of them around, if something snarling with fangs reveals itself from the shadows between trees. maybe you'll actually have a chance. Maybe. Anyway, it gives you a bit of a sense of security, and you're no longer so on edge. As long as you don't have to face all this alone, you can handle it.

>You no longer have the frightened condition.

>>1515069

QM note about conditions:

Both you and NPCs can have conditions, which could also be called status effects. They can be anything: wounded, ashamed, inspired, disoriented, covered in blood, marked as prey.

When a condition -- yours or someone else's -- would put you at an advantage in your situation, take +1 to your roll. When it would put you at a disadvantage, take -1 to your roll.

Most conditions can be removed when you take appropriate action to relieve the problem, or on successful Cold rolls.

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>>1515069


The sense of strangeness mixed with familiarity as you walk through the forest is unreal. In many ways, this isn't so different from the woods you used to walk through every day back (on Earth, you think) home, you tell yourself. The sunlight still shines through the leaves of trees, falling in dappled shade on the moss and dirt of the ground. It's almost the same. But it's all so different as well.

The trees are huge, or all twisted around in knots. None of the leaves or flowers or bushes are familiar. Some of the grass is blue or purple instead of green. The animal calls in the distance send chills down your spine. The scents are all wrong. Even the sun in the sky is a brilliant almost-white shade of blue instead of the golden hue you're used to.

And of course there's that giant fucking planet in the sky.

Nobody is saying much. Everyone's dealing with their own shit, you figure, looking around at their grim faces. Trying to come to terms with what's happened to them. With the idea that they might never see their parents, friends, or pets again, or even their entire world.

Do you say something to the group as you walk?

>Ask what they think they'll find in the hills.
>Tell them to look out for anything dangerous.
>Tell them to look out for anything useful.
>Describe the weird dragonmoth creature you saw last night
>... add that Jason cruelly murdered the helpless critter.
>... add that it could've been dangerous, and Jason defended you.
>Ask about their favorite movie, or something else casual.
>......
>Write-in

>>1515097
>Ask about their favorite movie, or something else casual.
>Tell them to look out for anything useful.
Keep morale up

>>1515108
>second

>>1515108
>third

"Let's stay on the lookout for anything useful while we're walking, guys," you say.

"Like what?" asks Sam.

"I don't know. Food. Water. Usefully shaped rocks. Anything we can use." Maybe a spaceship and a navigational map with EARTH handily labelled on it, but somehow you doubt you'll find one of those wandering around in the woods. To try and keep people's spirits up in the meantime, you say, "So what's everyone's favorite movie?"

"How exactly are movies relevant?" Tyler asks. "We might never see a screen again." He struggles over a large tree root blocking your path. You're hoping he helps you over it with your short legs and all, but he just turns his back and keeps walking. Hmph.

"I just thought it would be a good way to get to know each other," you say. You hop up and grab onto the root, hauling yourself up. "Give us something casual to talk about." You scramble over the root and drop down to the ground. Made it. No thanks to Tyler. You stick your tongue out at his back, then turn around to help Sam over.

"I think it's a great idea," says Kate. "Sam, why don't you start?"

"M-m-me? Umm, uhhhhhh ..." Sam drops to the ground beside you. She casts her eyes around, looking anywhere but at another person. "I guess ... I like ..." she trails off, mumbling something at the end that none of you catch.

"Sorry, what was that?" asks Kate.

"You can tell us," you say to Sam. "It's only the four of us. I'm sure whatever it is, it can't be worse than Jason's."

"Hey!" he calls out from the front of the line, trying to push his way through a tangle of underbrush.

"C'mon, Sam," Kate says. "It's just--"

"I like Army of Darkness!" Sam practically shouts, forcing out the words. "Bruce Campbell has a chainsaw hand and a shotgun and he fights zombies and there's skeletons and he fights his evil twin and drives a car and ... um ... yeah, it's, uh ... it's cool ..." Her sudden burst of courage drains away. Guess that was all she had for now.

"Did you say a chainsaw hand?" Kate asks. "That sounds, um. Interesting. How about you, Jason?" she calls out to him at the front.

"Obviously the greatest action movie of the twentieth century, Die Hard," he calls back.

Kate laughs. "I should have guessed. Mine's just as bad a cliche, though. It's Clueless. "Hey, James Bond, in America we drive on the right side of the road!"" she says, imitating Paul Rudd's voice.

"What about you, Tyler?" you ask.

"I haven't thought about it, but I suppose it's Ghost in the Shell," he says. "It's a Japanese animated film from 1995 about cybernetics."

"Oh, you're one of THOSE," Jason says, laughing. "You like Japanese cartoons, huh? I knew there was something off about you."

"D-d-do you have a body pillow with the Major on it?" Sam asks.

"It's not -- it isn't about -- the implications of cybernetic identity are -- " Tyler takes a deep breath and visibly throttles back his annoyance. "Whatever. It doesn't matter."

>>1515287

"Thanks for telling us, anyway," you say. "I guess that just leaves me. Mine's ..."


>Beauty and the Beast
>The Notebook
>A Fistful of Dollars
>The Matrix
>Requiem for a Dream
>Tetsuo the Iron Man

>>1515302
>>A Fistful of Dollars

>Beauty and the Beast
This would be blatant foreshadowing on our characters "problems".

>>1515302
>A Fistful of Dollars

>>1515302
>Slumdog Millionare

>>1515302
>>A Fistful of Dollars

>>1515287

"It's a classic gunfighter movie from the sixties," you say. "A Fistful of Dollars, starring Clint Eastwood."

Kate says "Oh, is that the one where he's like, "Do you feel lucky, punk?""

"No, in this one he's a cowboy who cleans up the town. I always liked the swagger he had." You draw yourself up, stick your thumbs in your belt, and squint at Kate, like you imagine The Man With No Name would. "I don't think it's nice, you laughin'. You see, my mule don't like people laughin'. He gets the crazy idea you're laughin' at him. Now if you apologize, like I know you're gonna, I might convince him that you really didn't mean it."

"So, uh, do they apologize to his mule?"

"No. So he blasts them."

"And this is the good guy of the movie?"

"Well, he's the main character, but he's not really a good guy."

Something always drew you to that world. The desperate gunfights in dusty towns, the long journeys by horse across empty plains, the cold and collected smirk of Clint Eastwood's character. Something about the power of a gun, perhaps. Guns are great equalizers. Someone as small as you could still fire that great big revolver, even if it knocked you off your feet.

You take a moment to catch your breath. From here you can see up through the trees to the top of the mountain you're travelling towards. It still looks a long ways off.

>>1515378

As you travel, you notice that some of those glowing wisps are still active, slowly drifting and floating in the air, seemingly at random.

"Have you noticed these wisps of light things?" you say to Sam, pointing to one of them. "What do you think they are?"

"I'm n-n-not sure. Bugs? Weird dust motes?" She laughs nervously. "Spirits of the damned? "Don't follow the lights,"" she adds in her best Gollum voice.

>Try to catch one.
>Examine one from a distance.
>Throw something at one.
>Leave them the hell alone.

>>1515389
>Leave them alone
We ain't getting into some B horror movie trope

>>1515389
>Examine one from a distance.

>>1515389
>>Examine one from a distance.

>>1515389
>Examine one from a distance.

>>1515389
>>Examine one from a distance.

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>>1515389

You take a moment to move closer to one of the wisps and examine it, but cautiously, keeping a safe distance.

Their movement doesn't seem to follow any rhyme or reason. They don't always follow the wind like a windborne seed would, but they don't fly around in circles like bugs, either. They just drift languidly around in three dimensions.

You look for something in the center of the light, trying to see if it's an insect like a firefly, or maybe if it has a "core" like some jellyfish. You can't see anything like that, though. Just a ball of light floating around. Could it somehow be an actual, living ball of light? Is it even alive, or is it just a giant, glowing dandelion seed?

You can't tell without getting closer, and you're not doing that. You aren't going to be that girl in the horror movie who pokes her nose into something weird and dies first. The wisps will have to remain a mystery for now.

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>>1515435

Jason brings the group to a stop.

"What's up?" you ask him.

He points up, and you follow it to see some strange fruit hanging from a curved tree. The fruit is yellow-orange-pink and has weird fuzzy nodules all over it.

"It's like a koosh ball," you say. "A koosh fruit."

"What about it?" asks Tyler.

Jason says, "Should we -- you know -- try eating it?"

"No way," Sam says. "I am not eating some fucking alien fruit or whatever while we still have chocolate bars."

"We don't know how long we're going to be here," says Jason. "In theory, we should eat anything perishable we find first, and save anything that will last. Even if we do get rescued, we might not have enough food to last until then."

"He has a point," Tyler says. "Our food supplies will last us perhaps five days. More with rationing, perhaps. But whether or not you accept my hypothesis on where we are, you have to admit that rescue, if it comes, could be some time. We may have no choice but to learn to live off the land."

"So what does that mean?" Kate asks. "We just start eating things we come across and see if we die or not?"

Tyler shrugs.

"Well, that's just fucking great."

>>1515467

>Eat the koosh fruit (+Cold)
>Convince someone else to eat it (+Hot)
>No thanks

>>1515470
>>Eat the koosh fruit (+Cold)
Do it for the vine.

>>1515467
>Eat the koosh fruit (+Cold)

>>1515470
Nevermind, fuck it.
>Eat the koosh fruit (+Cold)

>>1515471
>>1515481
>>1515486

Roll +Cold (1d10-1) to eat the koosh fruit and let's see what happens.

Rolled 1 + 1 (1d10 + 1)

>>1515494

>>1515495
Wow.

>>1515495
>rolled an actual 0

Fucking what

Rolled 2 + 1 (1d10 + 1)

>>1515494

Rolled 2 (1d10)

>>1515494
-1

>>1515495
>>1515499
>>1515500
Why are we even alive

What is the purpose of this cruel existence?

>>1515504
We roll 1s and 2s.

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>>1515495
>>1515499
>>1515500
>>1515504
>>1515505

0,1,1 for a result of 1

Officially the worst three rolls in all of my quests so far, so that's an accomplishment I guess.

Writing.

>>1515467

You screw up your courage and say, "I'll do it."

Kate says, "Are you sure?"

Jason says, "Look, you don't have to--"

"No, you're right. We have to try eating something eventually, and this thing is as good as any to try. Just, um--"

"What?"

"Can you get it for me? I can't reach that high."

"Oh. Sure." Jason coughs to hide a smile and reaches up to pluck one of the fruits for you. "Here you go. Good luck, I guess."

You look down at the fruit in your hand, feeling its fuzzy texture. Okay. This is no big deal. Just imagine you picked it up out of the fruit section at the supermarket. Don't think about how it might be based on a different ecosystem, might contain completely different biological chemistry, or even left-handed DNA -- assuming these are even based on DNA to begin with! You just don't know anything!

Fuck. All right. No sense in waiting around for this and letting your fear get the better of you.

Chomp!

For a moment, everything is fine. The fruit has a unique tang to it, an odd sour sweetness. You chew it a few times, feeling the juice flow through your mouth. The fuzzy koosh nodules tickle the inside of your cheeks.

Then you panic. Something primal in you reacts in violent repulsion against this violation of your mouth. Holy shit! Alien fruit! Poisonous! FUUUCK NOOOO--

You gag and spit the fruit out in chunks on the ground, coughing violently.

"What happened?" asks Kate with concern. "Did you feel something?"

"No," you admit. "I just freaked out for a moment. I think it's actually fine." You wipe your chin off, feeling ashamed and embarassed. Everyone stifles their laughter.

Jason says, "Don't worry, I've seen worse throw-ups at parties, believe me. You swallowed some of it, right?"

"I think so, yeah."

"Okay, if you're still standing, that's a good sign. Let's take the rest of these with us, and if Vanessa's still okay in a few hours, we can try a little more."

"Thanks for trying it for us, Vanessa," says Kate. She holds back a chuckle. "I can see why you freaked out."

"Yeah, th-thanks," says Sam.

"No problem," you say, trying to laugh it off and ignore the panic-induced adrenaline coursing through your system.

>+1 Stress

Current status:
1/5 Harm
1/5 Stress

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>>1515553

You come across Jason and Tyler discussing something that Jason is holding. It appears to be --

"A blue rock?" you ask them. "What's so interesting about that?"

"I was just asking Tyler that question," Jason says. "You seem like the type of guy to know your geology. What do you think?" He tosses the rock to Tyler, who catches it and carefully squints at it up close. He taps it with his knuckle, then scratches at it with his fingernail.

"Certainly possible," he says. "We'd have to try it and see."

"What is?" you ask.

"Knapping. The formation is quite unusual, but the lithic reduction process should work similarly to flint."

"Napping? What does a rock have to do with having a snooze?"

Tyler allows himself a thin smile. "I mean hitting rocks with other rocks to make tools. Like the cavemen did."

"Oh! I see now. So you think we could use these blue rocks to make tools?"

"As I was saying, it's certainly possible."

"Our tools right now are pretty limited," says Jason. "We've got a crowbar, a baseball bat, and a couple of knives, but nothing like a hatchet." He tries pulling on one of the tree branches, to no avail. "And I don't know if you've noticed, but these trees are fucking tough, and they don't leave a lot of branches lying around on the ground. Getting firewood or logs or branches or whatever will be hard -- unless we try making our own axe. Might think of some other things that'll come in handy later."

Tyler shrugs. "Do what you want. I still hope to find more sophisticated tools."

"Still hoping to find an alien city somewhere, huh? I guess that's fine. I'm going to stick with what I know for now." Jason picks up some of the blue flint and stuffs it in what remaining space he has in his bag. "I don't want to slow us down, so I'll bring some along and try it out later. What about you, Vanessa?"

>It's a great idea. I'll bring some too.
>It's a good idea, but I'd rather save the space.
>It's not a good idea. We should try to keep our loads light.

>>1515597
>It's a great idea. I'll bring some too.
So long as they aren't too heavy. We can always shed weight if needed.

>>1515597
>>It's a great idea. I'll bring some too.
We can help, we're not just cannon fodder.

R-right?

>>1515597
>>It's a great idea. I'll bring some too.

>>1515607
>>1515608
>>1515617

>It's a great idea. I'll bring some too.

Also, I forgot to mention:

>Growing Pains: +1 Experience

You gained your first experience point for puking up a harmless alien fruit. Congratulations.

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>>1515597

"It's a great idea," you say, sliding off your backpack and unzipping it. "I'll take some too. I don't have a lot of room left in here, but I'm sure you're right when you say having tools later will be useful for -- for something."

You and Jason collect what you can of the blue flint and stuff it into your bags. "The good thing about using up our food supply is we'll have more space to carry things," Jason says wryly. "With the rope and canvas, extra clothes, the food we brought with us, the fruit, and now these rocks, I'm just about out of space."

"Me too," you say. "I can probably fit, like, one more thing in here. I'll have to make it count."

Tyler has been looking off into the distance for most of your conversation. You thought it was just him being himself, but he suddenly asks, "Do you hear something?"

"No, what is it?"

"I think it might be a stream. This way." He leads you off in a slightly different direction than the one you were travelling.

"How will we know where we're going?" you ask him.

"The mountain's our landmark. Besides, we don't exactly have a precise destination in mind. "Go north to the hills" was as far as we got."

"Do we have a compass to tell where actual north is?"

"I did find one, yes, but --" Tyler stops, rummages in his pocket, and shows you a compass. The needle swings wildly and unpredictably. "It isn't much use to us. Whatever's going on with the magnetic field here, it'll make navigation that much more difficult."

After some time making your way through the thick forest, you come across a peaceful stream winding its way through the woods.

"It appears to be water," Tyler says doubtfully.

"What else could it be?" Jason asks.

Tyler adjusts his glasses. "There are many, many substances which appear to be water but are terribly poisonous to the human body."

Jason glances at you, then back to the stream. "You tried out the last one, so I guess someone else had better step up." He kneels down and carefully dips his finger into the stream.

Suddenly he reels backwards, clutching at his hand. "Ah god! My hand! Fucking shit --"

"Jason!" You kneel beside him. "What happened? Did it hurt you? Is it acid?"

He lets go of his hand, revealing he's totally unharmed, and grins at you. "Gotcha."

You feel your fists tighten. "Why you--!"

Tyler gets down on one knee, dips his hand in the stream, and takes a drink. After a moment, he nods. "Water."

"Phew," says Jason. "That's one survival issue taken care of, at least. Without food we could go on for a while, but without a source of clean water we're just fucked."

>Load up everyone's bottles and get moving.
>Suggest following the stream for a while.
>Shoo the boys away so you can take a bath.
>Splash someone.

>>1515697
>Load up everyone's bottles and get moving.
>Splash someone.
Fucking Jason

>>1515697
>Load up everyone's bottles and get moving.
>Splash someone.
>Suggest following the stream for a while.
if there was a village it would probably be near a source of water.

>>1515711
Second

>Load up everyone's bottles and get moving.
>Suggest following the stream for a while.
Better than nothing right?

>>1515697

You plunge both hands into the stream and splash Jason with as much water you can. "Dumbass! Don't scare me like that."

"Oh, so you admit you were worried about me?" Jason grins and splashes you back just a little, a casual flick of water that still draws an "eek!" from you when a few drops of the cold waters splash your face.

The group drains most of their remaining water and fill up their bottles from the stream. "We should boil this later," says Kate. "Who knows what little creepy crawlies are in there."

"Good point," says Jason. "We've got matches, so now we just need to find something we can use as firewood."

"Why don't we follow the river for a while?" you suggest. "We can stay by a source of water, and it might lead us to the mountain. Better than nothing, right?"

Tyler says, "No reason not to, I suppose."

"Sure, but let's take a minute first." Kate sits on the ground next to her bag. "Phew. We've been walking all morning. It must be noon, right? Or whatever the equivalent is." She flops onto her back, her arms stretched out, blonde hair spread over the blue and purple grass. "Let's take a break."

You all take a moment to sit down and eat something from their pack. Through the trees, you can just see the top of the mountain you're travelling towards. Everyone watches it together as they eat.

"What do you think we'll find there?" asks Kate.

"An active civilization," says Tyler. "Or at least the remains of one. I'm hoping for active, since of course they'd be more likely to have a functional version of whatever mechanism brought us here."

"That would be so cool," says Sam. "A whole alien city, maybe. Wh-what do you think the people here are like?"

"Impossible to say for certain," Tyler says. "Taller than us, I suppose I can conjecture, due to the lower gravity."

"Personally I think you two are crazy," says Jason. "If anyone lives here they're more likely to kill us than help us. I just hope we find enough food to survive, and this blue flint stuff and other resources to start work on a proper shelter."

"H-how else do you expect to get home, though?" says Sam. "I-I mean, if this is an empty planet, we're pretty much stuck here ..."

"Good question," he says. "I just know I'll need to stay alive to do it."

"What about you, Vanesssa?" asks Kate. "What are you hoping to find up there?"

>An active civilization.
>A dead one.
>Food and resources.
>Unicorns.

>A dead one.
>Food and resources.
the "people" will likely be hostile, and either kill us or lock us up.

>>1515812
>A way to get home...

>>1515812
>>Unicorns.
>Food and resources.

>>1515812
>>Food and resources.
One step at a time.

>>1515812

"I don't know," you say. "Unicorns?"

That at least gets a smile from Kate. "Seriously, though."

"Seriously? I'm with Jason on this one. I want to find a way to get home as much as the rest of you, but I think he's right. If anyone lives here, they'll try to kill us or lock us up before they help us. I like to hope for the best in people when I can, but we don't even know if these are people."

"Hey, what if they are?" says Sam. "M-maybe we'll find a research station of human scientists, and it turns out this is their base for some super-secret dimension warp technology they're working on. And it was just some weird accident with their machine that brought us here. They'll just make us sign some papers to say we won't tell anyone, and warp us back to Earth, a-a-and everything goes back to normal."

"That would be awesome," you say. "But I don't think we can expect that, you know?"

Kate says, "My dad tells mes, "Hope for the best, but plan for the worst.""

"Right, exactly. So yeah, I hope we just find enough koosh fruits to get by and maybe stock up on some extra. As we get into the hills, maybe we can find enough of these blue rocks and shit to make tools and a shelter. I kind of hope we find some old ruins we can hide out in, maybe even some old alien tools or something. But we should focus on the situation we're in now, and look for food and resources."

"Sounds good enough to me," says Kate. "I still hope we'll find our way home or get rescued, but it's true that we have to eat until then. So let's work on that." She gets to her feet, massaging her legs. "Oof. I think I'm ready to get moving. How is everyone?"

"Good to go," says Jason.

"F-f-five by five," says Sam.

"Ready," says Tyler.

"Hold on one second," you say. You go back to the river and splash Jason again, then stick your tongue out at him.

"You little bitch," he says, growing affection in his voice.

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>>1515872

Midday, or something like it, passes into afternoon as the blue-white sun moves across the sky. It seems like sometimes the star passes below the horizon, and sometimes it disappears behind that huge planet in the sky. Whatever passes for day and night here might not be as predictable as you're used to.

"Holy shit!" Kate says suddenly. You wheel around to see her staring agape into the forest to the side.

"What is it?" you ask. In response, she points.

You follow her finger to see a dragonmoth perched on a branch, some fifty feet away. It's different than the one you saw earlier. It's covered in brilliant emerald green fuzz or furr, and only has the one set of wings, but broader and more colorful ones.

Sam sees it as well. She pulls her hood over her head and huddles behind Kate.

"What the hell is that?" Kate whispers urgently. "It's -- it's a -- a creepie crawlie!"


>I saw one like it last night.
>Maybe it's harmless.
>It might be dangerous.
>Let's catch it and eat it.
>Let's catch it and tame it.
>Let's just leave it alone and keep moving.

>>1515893
>>I saw one like it last night.
>>Maybe it's harmless.
>Let's just leave it alone and keep moving.
As much as I wanna tame it, WE CAN'T TAKE CHANCES

>>1515896
Good call right here

>>1515896
Second

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>>1515893


"I saw one kind of like it last night," you say. "I think--"

"You what?!" says Kate, loudly. "I mean-- you what?" she says, lowering her voice to a harsh whisper, covering her embarassment with anger. "You didn't think to tell us you saw an animal? A weird fucking animal like that one, no less?"

Tyler says, "I have to agree. I -- that is, we need as much information as possible to figure out our situation. When you found out there was wildlife here, you should've informed us right away."

"Hey, I saw it too," Jason says. "Lay off her, all right? We didn't think to mention it, that's all. Everything else is so fucking weird, what's one bird-lizard-bug or less?"

Sam is watching the creature intently as it flutters its wings rapidly while remaining on the branch. Its long tongue flickers in and out. "It's like part dragon and part ... moth?"

"That's what I thought, too," you say. "I was thinking of it as a dragonmoth. The one I saw last night was different, but I mean, how many types of butterfly are there? It makes sense there would be more than one kind. Anyway, I think it's harmless. It eats nectar or bugs or something, so even if it has a stinger or poison or something, I doubt it'll attack us if we leave it alone. Let's just--"

You're about to say that you should be on your way, when a pale shape flashes out from the shadows. It has the size and agility of a small fox or a huge weasel. Screeching a harsh cry, the feathered beast slams into the dragonmoth and rakes it with its talons, then, clutching the prize in its beak, dashes off into the forest, its wings flapping flightlessly.

And just like that, they're both gone.

The five of you stand there, trying to process what you just saw.

"I guess now we know there's predators too," Jason says eventually.

File: makrosul_by_interstellard(...).jpg (130 KB, 1290x619)

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That's all for tonight, but I'll be back tomorrow to continue strange journey of Vanessa and friends. Thanks for playing.

>>1515972
Thanks for running, boss!

>>1515964

Everyone talks over each other for a minute, trying to voice their opinion on the creature you just saw snatch a dragonmoth away in its talons and sharp beak.

"What should we do?" Kate says. "Are we safe from those things?"

"Something that small wouldn't predate on creatures our size," Tyler says. "Probably."

"Probably?!"

Tyler shrugs. "It would be a mistake to assume everything about this ecosystem functions as ours does."

"I-it was like a dinosaur," Sam says.

"What?" Jason says. "No it wasn't. Dinosaurs are big lizards, right? This had feathers, it was like an evil bird or something."

"B-b-but the s-s-scientists now are saying they think dinosaurs had feathers. S-s-so that's what a r-r-raptor would look like in real life. Part bird, part dinosaur."

"Great," Jason says. "So the dragon-bugs get eaten by dino-birds. I can't wait to find out what eats dino-birds."

"We should decide what we're going to do if we run into another one," says Kate.

>Let's stay the hell away from those things, they're dangerous.
>It's pretty small, something like that wouldn't attack us.
>It might attack us, but we could fight it off.
>One or two is fine, but what if they come in packs?
>Maybe we can eat one.
>Maybe we can tame one.
>......
>Write-in

>>1518892
>>One or two is fine, but what if they come in packs?
>>Maybe we can eat one.
Or
>Maybe we can tame one.
If we manage to catch it

>>1518892
>One or two is fine, but what if they come in packs?
>We need something to ward them off

>>1518892

"One or two is fine," you say. "We can probably chase them off. But what if they come in packs? What if one of us gets jumped by eight or ten of them?"

The group looks at each other in unease.

"Good point," Jason says. "Until we know more about those things, we should avoid wandering off anywhere alone. I mean, we should avoid that anyway. But you know. Now we know there's a chance you could get jumped by ten beaked dino weasels. So be careful."

"Tyler," Kate says. "Do you know about anything on Earth that small that hunts in packs?"

"I believe there's a type of mongoose," he says.

"So it could happen. All right, we'll stick together and stay on the lookout."

"We need something to ward them off," you say. "Maybe a torch? Even just a big stick would be useful."

"Maybe so," Jason says. "Give one of those things a good thump, knock it down or kill it, that might give his friends the idea to go find something easier to take down."

"Maybe then we could eat it," you suggest. "Or if we caught it alive, maybe ... tame it?"

Even Kate can't manage to find anything nice to say about that one.

"Okay, maybe not," you admit. "But eating it could work, right?"

Everyone looks at Tyler.

"It's possible," he says. "Our experiment with the fuzz fruit proves that the basic biology here isn't completely toxic to us. We'd have to figure out how to hunt or trap one, though. I doubt they're so innocent as to let us walk up to them and stab them. If we got one and cooked the meat, it would eliminate harmful bacteria. In theory that should follow the same rules." He pushes his glasses up. "That's assuming it isn't venomous. And that we can catch one at all."

"Leave that to me," Jason says. "I know how to make some snares and things like that."

"M-me too," Sam says. Everyone looks at her, surprised. "It's true, m-m-my granddad used to take me out on these nature walks and he would teach me stuff. I p-p-practiced. I could even s-s-shoot a bow. If we had one."

"All right, I guess you two are our official hunters and trappers for now," Kate says. "When we stop for the night, maybe go through our supplies and see what you can use for that."

"We're on it," Jason says, raising his hand for a fist bump with Sam. She shyly returns it, not looking at him.

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>>1519003

You enter a clearing featuring big bulbous plants, taller than you, but shorter than Jason. They feature a single, central bulb with stamen-like growths protruding from an opening in the top, surrounded by long, curving growths like tree branches.

Jason says, "Hey, that's pretty handy. We were just talking about getting big sticks for everyone, and look what we found.

"I don't know," Kate says doubtfully. "What if it's like a big venus flytrap?"

"Only one way to found out," he says. "This might be our only shot at finding some easy firewood."

Jason very carefully edges towards the plant. When he gets close enough, he jabs at it with its crowbar. Nothing happens -- no poisonous spores are released, the plant doesn't become an Audrey II and consume Jason.

"Phew," he says. "Okay, I think it's just a stick bush." He grabs one of the "sticks" and yanks experimentally. It snaps off easily. "Nice. I think these will burn. Everyone grab some, and we'll use this to make a fire tonight."

"We could also use them as handles for the flint-like rocks we found," Tyler says. "Attempt to fashion a crude axe or hammer. Although we'd need something to use as a fastener."

"I've got a rope I found in the math teacher's pickup," Jason says. "I could cut some of it off and we could use that. Although maybe we should save it in case we need to use it as, you know. A rope."

"Wh-what about our spare clothes?" Sam says.

"That could maybe work, but only for a few swings, I bet," Jason says. "We might be better off saving those too. No laundries around here, if you get splattered with alien blood or something."

>Find a big stick to use as a weapon
>Find a long stick to use as a walking stick
>Gather enough sticks for a fire tonight
>Get extra sticks for toolmaking later
>Try to make something now, using a piece of the rope (axe, hammer, spear, other)

>>1519043
>>Find a long stick to use as a walking stick
>>Gather enough sticks for a fire tonight
>>Get extra sticks for toolmaking later

>>1519047
Second

>>1519047 #
Third

>>1519043

You cautiously put your hand out and wrap your fingers around one of the stick-like protrusions. It feels like smooth wood, like an arbutus tree. It takes some work, but after a few tugs, you snap it off near the base. In this way you gather enough sticks to fill the rest of your bag -- enough to add to the fire tonight, and to try making some tools once you find something to tie the blue rocks to them.

You also find a nice, long stick you can use as a walking stick. It'll help you conserve a little stamina as the trek goes on, and although it's not the easiest thing to swing around as a weapon, it'll still provide more protection from those dino-bird snatchers than your bare hands.

"All right, we've got our fire material," Jason says. "Make sure everyone grabbed some smaller sticks as well, for kindling. This grass should be fine as tinder. With all that together, we can get a campfire going, have something like a hot meal tonight."

"Sounds good to me," Kate says. "I'm starving after walking all day. Even a warm can of beans sounds like a feast right now."

"We'll make camp soon," Jason says. "I'm guessing we've got a few hours of daylight left before the sun goes down. We'll keep our eyes open for a good place to stop before it gets dark."

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>>1519098

You're starting to get hungry, too. The food you've got is pretty basic, but you're looking forward to tucking into some of it once you stop for the night. Your stomach growls audibly at the thought.

As you follow Tyler through the forest, your eyes are caught by a strange color. You notice a bunch of dark violet-colored berries. Looks like your second weird fruit of the day, then. Maybe you can try eating these ones without everyone looking at you. Then you won't look like such an ass if you freak out and spit them up.

>Eat them.
>Eat them, but tell the others first.
>Convince someone else to eat them.
>Pick them and save them for later.
>Leave them alone.

>>1519114
>>Eat them, but tell the others first.
Catch me if I pass out, ok?

>>1519116
Second.
Even if I'm convinved this is a trap

>>1519116
Round 2

>>1519119
Oh yeah, it's most definitely bait

But nothing ventured, nothing gained.

"Hey guys," you call out. "I found some black berries here. Time for our second taste test of the day, all right?"

"Only if you're sure," Kate says. "We have enough food for now."

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? We have to figure this stuff out eventually." You pick one of the black berries off the branch, rolling it between your fingers, feeling its smoothness. A sudden fear assaults you, but you fight it off. Somebody has to do this. "All right, here goes." You pop the berry into your mouth and chew down. A tart, juicy sweetness fills your mouth.

"It's not bad," you say, swallowing. "It's kind of sweet. Hmm." You eat a few more. "Yeah, I think it's fine. If I'm still okay a little while later, I guess we can add a second fruit to our list of food sources."

A little while later ...

"HUARGRGHHH," you say as you vomit the day's meals out onto the purple grass.

"There there," Kate says, gently patting you on the back. "Just get it all out."

"I'm sorry," you mumble, wiping the puke off your chin. "I shouldn't have eaten so many. I just wanted to -- urp --" You feel the queasy surge coming from your stomach again. "Hold on -- BLUAARGRGH--"

"It's fine," Kate says. "Like you said, we have to figure this stuff out eventually. You're going to be okay, just got to sick it all out. Right, Sam?" she says, looking at Sam, who's behind you holding your hair back out of your puke. Kate quickly delegated roles -- she probably has experience helping pukers at weekend parties.

"Uh, r-right," says Sam. "Y-you're going to be fine, Vanessa. (Is she going to be fine?)" you hear her add in a whisper to Kate at the end.

"(I don't know,)" you hear Kate whisper back. "(I hope so.)"

"Don't mind me," you say. "Just go ahead and start HUUAAHHGHGH--"

>+1 Harm

Current status:
>2/5 Harm
>1/5 Stress

As the sky darkens, and what passes for evening comes around, Jason spots a good site to make camp, under the shelter of the steep side of a hill. Everyone drops their bags, grateful to be done for the day. You weren't exactly pushing yourselves on the pace, but nobody except Jason is used to physical activity all day like this. You sit down on a rock and stretch out your legs in front of you.

Tyler gets the fire going, while Jason uses the rope to tie up the canvas over the place where you'll sleep. Kate mends a rip in her jacket with her sewing kit. Sam scribbles away in her notebook with her headphones on, not looking at anyone.

Your stomach feels pretty bad, but you think you can eat something and keep it down. You'd better, or you won't have any energy tomorrow. You unzip your bag and take a look at the food you have stored.

For dinner, you decide to eat 2 of these:
>Fuzzfruit (2)
>Candy Bar (3)
>Canned Peaches (2)
>Peanut Butter (3)
>Pork & Beans (2)
>Salty Crackers (4)

While you're eating, you:
>Talk to someone (say who)
>Think about something (say what)
>Take our your sketchbook and draw something you saw today (say what)
>Space out

>>1519202
>>Fuzzfruit (2)
>Salty Crackers (4)
>Take our your sketchbook and draw something you saw today (say what)
Draw whatever the hell that predator was.

>>1519202
>>Fuzzfruit (2)
Might as well acclimate ourselves to them so we don't get the shits later
>Peanut Butter (3)

>Take our your sketchbook and draw something you saw today (say what)
Moth thing
>Talk to Kate

>>1519211
Second

>>1519202
>>Fuzzfruit (2)
>Salty Crackers (4)
>Take out your sketchbook and draw something you saw today
Dragonmoth
>Talk to Tyler

>>1519229
Seconding the Tyler part

>>1519202

Despite your experience with the berries, you're still convinced the fuzzfruit is fine. You ate a decent chunk of that a while ago, and nothing bad happened. You figure you might as well acclimatize yourself to them so you don't have any ... unfortunate business later. You've heard what happens to people who eat too much fruit.

You eat through the fuzzfruit. It's quite sour, almost citrus-y. The koosh fuzz on the rind gives it a bizarre texture that you roll your tongue around on, examining the new sensation. If you knew more about these, you might peel them first, but you know that some fruits keep most of their actual nutrition in that part, so you'd better down the whole thing. You mix it up with some saltine crackers, enjoying the contrast of the saltiness and crunchy texture.

>-2 food

As you finish up your last few bites, you rummage through your backpack and pull out sketchbook and pencil, then begin drawing. The encounter between the dragonmoth and ... whatever the hell that predator was is still fresh in your mind. You do your best to draw both of them, sketching the feathered, sinuous predator alongside the delicate, furred dragonmoth. Your tongue sticks out as you try to shade in the patterns on the dragonmoth's wings and the predator's feathers.

Once that's finished, you pack up your sketchbook, brush the crumbs off your shirt, and go plop yourself down next to Tyler. "Hi."

He glances at you, meeting your eyes for a moment, then immediately looks away. "Hello. Do you need something?"

"Just wanted to talk."

"Oh. I see. Um." Tyler clears his throat and pushes his glasses up. "What did you want to talk about?"

You shrug. "Didn't have anything specific in mind. Just thought we haven't had a chance for a proper conversation."

You say to him:

>Pretty fucked up situation, huh?
>Do you think we can get back to Earth?
>What was your life like before all this?
>Are you really smart enough to skip two grades?
>Got a girlfriend?
>What's up with your attitude? The rest of us are trying to get along.
>Write-in

>>1519254
>>What was your life like before all this?

>Pretty fucked up situation, huh?

>>1519254
>Pretty fucked up situation, huh?
>What was your life like before all this?

what was your life before
whats with the attitude
are you smart enough to skip grades

try not to bring up bad memory's with him, keep moral up

>>1519254
>Pretty fucked up situation, huh?
>What was your life like before all this?

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>>1519254

"Pretty fucked up situation, huh?" you say.

A chuckle escapes him. "You could say that. Stranded on an exomoon by an unknown force, possibly never to see Earth or humanity again. "Fucked up" is putting it mildly, to be certain. Still, I suppose there are benefits."

"Benefits?" you say. "Like what?"

He seems like he's about to say something, then stops. "It gives us a purpose," he says eventually, although you're pretty sure he was going to say something else. "Anything else you had going on, whatever popularity contest or ladder of ambition you were struggling to climb, all of that takes a backseat to our survival. Fighting to survive is more satisfying to us on a primal level than our usual petty social contrivances. Is it better? Hard to say. Certainly more ... immediate."

A smile flickers across his face, then abruptly shuts down. His expressions appear and disappear suddenly, like he's turning a switch on and off.

"Think of it this way," he adds. "You won't have to study for exams while you're here."

"That's right! I didn't even think about that. I was not looking forward to Math this year. I guess we have to look on the bright side wherever we find it, right?"

Tyler nods. He's still looking away from you, out into the growing darkness outside of your camp. He hasn't looked at you once since the start of this conversation.

You forge onwards. "So what was your life like? Before all this, I mean. You're obviously a smart guy. I guess you study a lot?"

"I study and learn, yes. Humans have accumulated a vast breadth of knowledge over the years. I never run out of subjects. When I have spare time I read, or watch films. I, uh." An awkward laugh escapes him. "I don't socialize much, as you may have realized by now."

"Hey, that's okay. I'm not one of these popularity queens, you know? I don't judge people on the number of friends they have or some bullshit like that. I think you're an okay guy, Tyler, even if I don't get you sometimes. Maybe I'll figure that out. It looks like we've got time to get to know each other, after all."

"That we do," Tyler admits.

"What about friends? School club?" you ask. "A cat?"

He shakes his head. "Not useful."

You're hoping he follows up on that, or asks you something in return, or does anything to help carry the conversation. When you don't get anything, you say, "Okay, well ... I'm going to see if Jason needs any help finishing the camp setup. If you want to talk about anything, you know where to find me, right?"

You stand up and are about to leave, when Tyler says, "Vanessa." You stop and turn around. He hesitates, searching for the words, then says, "I apologize for my demeanor. I know that it can be difficult to talk to me. Thank you for the effort."

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>>1519318

The five of you spend the rest of the evening staring into the fire, occupied with your own thoughts. Eventually it gets dark enough that Jason says he's putting the fire out, and everyone should get some rest for tomorrow's journey. Once everybody is settled, he kicks dirt over the fire, extinguishing the flame, and the camp fades to darkness, lit only by the reflected luminosity of the ever-present planet overhead.

You yawn and stretch as you settle down. You don't have an actual blanket or sleeping bag, just some padding made from your spare clothes. Fortunately the grass and ground here are pretty soft. So far, this isn't even the worst camping trip you've ever been on.

You shuffle in your makeshift bed, and think that you need one last drink of water before sleep. You push yourself up and turn towards your backpack --

-- and see that one of the feathered predators from earlier has somehow silently pulled open the zipper, and currently has its long neck stuck into your bag, rooting through it.

>Scare it off (+Strong)
>Kill it (+Strong)
>Stay cool and look around for something useful. (+Cold)
>Don't panic, call for help. (+Cold)
>Try to be nice to it? (+Hot?)
>Write-in

>>1519329
>>Scare it off (+Strong)
Grab a stick, whack it

>>1519329
GRAB THAT LIL SUMBITCH!

KILL IT FOOD FOR THE FOOD GOD
CHICKEN FOR THE CHICKEN THRONE

>>1519329
>Stay cool and look around for something useful
>Don't panic,call for help
Might be more of the things close bye

>>1519331
>>1519333
>>1519335

Roll +Strong and let's see what happens. (1d10-1)

Rolled 7 + 1 (1d10 + 1)

>>1519343

Rolled 4 (1d10)

>>1519343

Rolled 6 - 1 (1d10 - 1)

>>1519343

The creature has tossed one of the sticks you packed out of your bag. You slowly pick it up, thinking that you could kill it and eat it, or at least just scare it off and make it stop stealing your food. When you judge the moment is right, you raise the stick up and swing it down as hard as you can. You're not used to this sort of thing, though, and you end up shutting your eyes at the wrong moment. Your strike goes wide, just grazing the animal. It lets out a squawk and a screech as it withdraws from your bag. Its head lunges forward as it pecks at you rapidly with terrifying speed, its fanged beak clacking and cawing, wings flapping around your head. You shriek as you wave your stick around wildly, now trying desperately to scare the thing off.

Finally you succeed, and the creature flees, squawking angrily, into the shadows between the trees. You check yourself for scratches or pecks, but it looks like you managed to fend it off with the stick. Your heart is pounding out of your chest, sure, and you're breathing heavily, and gripping the stick with white knuckles, but at least you're okay. And the food is okay, right?

You check inside your bag and realize that not only did the goat-raptor thing eat the rest of your fuzzfruit, but when you missed your swing earlier, you struck one of your cans of pork & beans directly. You can maybe scrape up the beans and stuff them back into the mostly-intact can, but you've got bean juice all over your stuff now. Great. Just fucking fantastic.

Kate and Jason come running over. "What happened?"

"One of those fucking feathered things just snatched some food right out of my bag. I'm okay, it just got in my face when I tried to scare it off." You try to catch your breath, trying to calm yourself down, and to not think about that sharp beak darting within just a few inches of your eyes.

>-1 Fuzzfruit
>+1 Stress
>2/5 Harm
>2/5 Stress

>>1519388

Kate and Jason do their best to reassure you, saying that they'll collect all the bags in one place where the person on guard duty can watch it. They agree that you're exempt from that tonight what with the predator attack and the poisonous berries. They'll be nearby with weapons ready to go all night, they remind you, and you feel a bit better by the time they head back to their own improvised beds of spare clothes on purple grass.

It's been quite a day, what with the exploring a strange land, using yourself as a test subject for unknown fruits and berries, and fighting off a bizarre feathered predator. At least you're starting to get to know everybody. And your bruises from falling off that tree are starting to heal. So that's something.


>1 harm healed
>1 stress healed
Current status:
>1/5 Harm
>1/5 Stress

Tonight you can just get some sleep, you think. You yawn and turn over, snuggling into your sweatshirt pillow.

Hopefully you don't have any weird dreams tonight. No giant shadows in sepuchural halls filled with incomprehensible echoes, wanting something from you, demanding--

No. That definitely won't happen, you tell yourself. You're going to have nice dreams where maybe you and Kate can go and eat ice cream and play with puppies together. Everything is going to be fine, you think as sleep overtakes you. Everything ... is going ... to be ...

File: forest animated.gif (6.53 MB, 400x300)

6.53 MB GIF

>>1519508

And then ...

... something ...

... happens.

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>>1519530

You wake up.

You look around.

There's no sign of the camp, or of the others. The forest lies still and dark.

"Kate?" you say, getting to your feet. "Jason?"

Something is wrong. The air is filled with an intense pressure, like taking off in an airplane. You look down at your hands. Why is everything red? Should it be red?

"Tyler?" you call out to the empty woods, your voice quavering a little. "Sam? This isn't funny!"

You look up.

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>>1519546

Soundtrack: Transistor OST -- Cut Apart
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieTtWb7oHIo

A red planet rises in a crimson sky, a vast orb of blood and terror. Red light shines down on you, staining you and the world with a baleful luminosity.

"What--?" You stumble back a step, barely catching your balance. "How could I ... what happened ...?"

Did it happen again? Did you -- transport? Leaving the others behind?

Your heart pounds in your chest. "Kate!" you shout at the top of your lungs. Don't freak out, you tell yourself, panic surging in your chest. Don't freak out --

You freak out. You start running. You can't help yourself. Your heart pounds. Breath sucks in and out of your lungs uncontrollably. The twisted branches of fire-blackened trees tear at your clothes. A tiny part of you knows you should stay cool and try to take stock of the situation but -- but -- "Jason! Tyler! Sam! ANYONE!"

You're lost. You're alone. This is it. This is the worst thing that could happen. This is --

Without warning you emerge from the woods into a wide clearing and in the center is -- is --

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>>1519560
>>1519560

T͖̻̟̺̊ͬ̌̽̓̇̆̓ͧ͐͘͜͟͡A̴̸̠̗̩͕͚̻̠̝͈̩̦̫̦͖͍͕͖ͤͫ̋̀̊̇ͯ͑͛̒͗̽̑̉́R͓̻̭͚̮̤̩͇̠̙̜̩ͭ͒̑̑̚͢G̸̨͎͉̥̦̬ͦͫ̋ͭ̊ͯ̈́͌̂̈́́̃ͦ͟͜͡E̷̛͉̣̟̙ͫ̏͆ͮͫ̒̂̑̊ͩ̀̀̄́̈́͊̚͞Ţ͈͈͙̠̦͈̩̥͚͚̯̤̬͙̼̹̥͆ͩ̄̈̏̾̂̀̕ͅ
̨̯̬̯̜̳̝̙̥̝̓ͮ̄͒͒ͨ̓ͩ͑̓̔̃ͣQ̜̦̤̺̼̻̪̱̼̥̗͚͚̻̎̊̒̔ͨͦͣ̂͐̋̕Ų̴̡̧̪̭̦̻̺͙̤͉͚̦ͤ̊́̃̐ͤ́͊͊̓ͩ̽̍̈ͤ̚̚͡ͅĘ̵̵̝̦̥̣̩̫̘̦̞͔̭̠͈̠͎̤͚ͣ̓ͦ̈̈́̈́̀ͅR̠͉͓̭̬̰̦̜̟̖̣̖͔̞̻̥͑̓ͫ͐̀ͮ̃͘Y̵̧̪̖͈̞̞̖̫̪̗͔̮̜̻̥̜̎̀ͦ͆͐̉̈́͋͛̂͑̿͐̄͊̏̈́͜
̸̝̞̰̟͎̞̰̟͑͌̽̏̊̈̽̆̄̍͝R̸̩̱̫̖̰̣̜͙̝̱̠̜͈̞̰̯̖̰̰̋͛̈ͧ̔ͩͮ̏̈́͝Ȅ̵͈̥̦͍͉ͩͬ͒̓ͫ̉̉̔͛ͧͭ̈́̆̀ͤ̐́̚͜͟S̡̺͔̖͕̬̭̭͍̩̙͐͌͌͛ͬ͊̎̋̊ͪ́ͮ͛̋̊ͧ̍͠P̠͓̞̝̪͔̦̜̙̝̘̦̗̖̹͌ͩ̌̉̓̽̑ͯ͌̐̂̓̊̽͑͑̊͠ͅǪ̸̤͕̰̣̞̬̯̰̩̼͎̘͈̬̱͕̪͈ͦͮ̓͋͌̄͘̕Ñ̶̳̗̣̗̗̯̼̹ͧ̊̾ͫ̓͂̄̈̋ͦ͗̓ͧ̿̉̀͆̚͟D͎̤͈̺̠͈̽ͤ͋̃̏̒̌̓ͧ̿̀͊͑ͤͫͦ̕͝
̡̗̫͕̻̬̹͖̗͚̹ͮ̊ͫ̓̒͂̒͊̂ͬͨ̊ͨ̚͟Ç̡̨̖̯̖̞̠͇̺̳̞͕̤̤̤̩̐̽̐ͣ̂̾͐͛͂͊̔̎ͫ̇ͨ͒̚Ȯ̸̻̣̙̙̪̿̽ͩ͑̊͋̀͢D̻̤͙͈̯̱̯̮͔̆̐ͪ̐̍̇̔͘E̻̦̝͖͚̠̝̩̫̩͐̓͑̓̂ͤ̌̓͆́͐̚͡͝
̶̧͓̩̙̗̖̺̠̝͕ͩ̀̓̊ͪ̇͌͒ͫ͢͢͡Ḓ͉̤̘̦̟̣̯̜ͤ̃ͭͧ͟͜͟͝U̢̢͎͇̳̤̱̪͓͖̺͚̭̟͈͇̘̻͙̒͆̇̇T̵̸͉̪̮̯͚̝̦̣̞͎̳̮̣̙̗̣̭̥̱̓́͂ͣͬ̏ͤ̃ͯͤ̈́̎̾ͩ̓̎͋ͤ̾͞Y̧̧̳͙̜̫̙͖͙̫̍ͫ̂͊̈̚͡
̧̧̢̦͚͎͚̦͙̻̗̞͇͓͖̜̫̫̖͕̞ͯ͋̈́ͫ͐̈́̾ͯ͞͡Ṣ̷̥͈͈̱̪͓̭ͪ̂̇ͩ͌ͮ̌́̿̏͠W̶̳̗̰̻̝͈̪͇̒ͩͨ̊̇͗̑̑ͦ̓͒͒̑͞͞͡O̵̮͕̮̞̫̺̟̱̬͖̻͙̠̗̪̜̙͈͊ͮ̊͗̑̎͡ͅŔ͇̟̰̤̻͍̙̜̺̙̎ͦ̏̓̏ͮ̾̄͘͝Ḍ͚̻͖̯̺̣͍̯͍̺̦̤̼͔̈ͦͯ̈̍͆̾̇ͬ̒̋̀ͦ̿͗ͤ́́͢ͅ
̶̷͙̪̪͇̣̈́̓̃̿ͮ͌̽̏͑ͧ̽̂͂͑͋̽͡͠M̤͎̺̝̣̻̮̬͖̟͍͖̣̥̝̬͔̓̑͊̐ͪ̑ͭ̌̂͌͘͜ͅI̶̷̮͔̝͈̺̙͕̫͚̙̝̫̫̰͍̭̿ͮ̉ͧ̎̃̌ͩ͗ͣͫͦ͌ͭ͆͊ͭ̃͝D̛̻͖̩̬̞̼̠̭͊̇ͧͮͬ̓͒̍̉ͬ͑͗̍ͣ͒̾͜͞ͅN̗̭͎̭̠̳̯͖̣͓͖̪̖̂̎ͪͮ̿̆ͬ̎ͬ͂̈͟͠I̭͕͍̞̠̭͖͎͂ͭ̾́̿ͤͤ́̀̄̀̀ͅG̵̢̙̖̰̭̭̰̦͍͔̰̣̻̥͇̣͈͍̾̄̀̋͆̊ͣ̊ͦ͗͑̿ͩ̽̓͐͞͝͡H̵̢̻̠̟͙͍̘͚̬̱̱̗͖̞̜͂̃́́̄̑̒̽̚͠T̛͇͚̣̗̜̩́̈̔̒͑͌̂̇̈́ͮͨ̏͂̈́̐͋͛͘͘͟

>>1519560

Okay, a little voice inside you thinks, as the rest of you screams in panic. You were wrong. This is the worst thing that could happen.

(... are we supposed to react to this, or are you just not finished posting?)

>>1519575
I think the corrupted text is: "Target Query Respond Come Duty Sword Midnight"

Whatever is going on it does NOT sound promising o_o

>>1519904
Its called a cliff hanger

>>1519904
>>1520051

It is a cliffhanger, yes. I could've been more specific about that.

I'll be back tonight to finish this thread. See you then, anons.

For later then, This alien is possibly psionic if its interacting with us in an unconscious state, note that and count numbers or card combinations in our head whenever ones around.

>>1519575

The dark, metallic shape looms over you, the height of a two-story house. Its obsidian carapce gleams in red reflection under the crimson sky. It blares dissonant machine sounds at you, although you can swear you hear words in there, that you can almost understand what it's saying.

One of the eyes in the helmet begins to glow, the same red as the sky above. Mechanical clanking and crashing metal fill your ears as the being stirs to life. It flexes one of its fists, then the other. Vents in its back hiss as they issue what might be steam. The red light in its eye wavers for a moment, like a bad TV set. An eerie howl resounds from within, like a siren, or a wolf.

>"Hello?"
>"I come in peace!"
>"Now see here, mister--"
>Run away.
>Stand your ground.
>It doesn't matter, this is just a dream, right?

>>1522750
>Stand your ground.
More like paralyzed from fear.

>>1522750
>>"Hello?"
>Run away.

NOPE.JPG

>>1522750
>"Hello?"
Is this the mech to pierce the heavens with?

>>1522750
>"Hello?"
>Stand your ground.

>>1522750
>"Hello?"
>Run away.
if it starts doing anything agressive, RUN FOR YOUR GODDAMN LIFE

File: glowing eye.jpg (31 KB, 312x257)

31 KB JPG

"H-hello?" you say, your voice shaking. "Can you understand me?"

Another harsh blast of almost-words erupts from the machine.


Ĩ̹͡͝ͅN̪͎̂̾̔͑̄͝C̢̢̤͎̘͖͎͈̯̏̄ͯ͊̑̚U̦͈̹͚̱̼̓̽ͩ̋́ͯͧ͡ͅR̦͍̻̂̾͗̓́̉͘͢͠S̷̥͙̥̥̺͚ͬͪ́͜I̴̤ͪͦͪ̄̋̚͝Ơ͕̯͆̒̾͊͠N̹̥͎̣̮͉̆̓͂̈́ͨͩ͑̚͡ͅ
̷̨̩̟̀ͮͨ̋P̢̱̼̜͈͇̥͕̄ͣͩ̓̀̃̃͢R͓̠ͨͭ͋̄͋̎ͫ̉͘͝O̗͓̪͈͔̳̹̮͒̋̆̒͠T̷̞̬͇̤͕͎̓͘͢O̙̙͛ͬ͋̏̐̑C͇̫͇̻̮͚̱̒͋̎͑͒O̷̗̘ͮ̃͊̐ͧ̏͠L̼͈͈̻͓̠͍̦̓ͣͫͭ͐̽̀ͅ
̶͓̟̝̬͓̫̣͎̌͆̈̾̆́́Ď̻͓̪̫̒͢I̧̬͈͊ͪ̂̍̃͐A̳͔̞̪͍̤͍̎Ģ̖̩̪ͪ̎̔̂̓N̛̩̞̝̺̙͍̜͊ͦ̌̋̈ͤͪͩ̍́͘Ỏ̟ͫͫ̊̂S̝̩̝̹̟ͣ̃̀͌Ě̟͖̯̦ͤͪ͠
̗͖̼͎̜̉̃̔̎́̕͝D̯͈̭̗̗̤͍̺̎I̴͉͓̫̹̹̮̫͚͑͐ͫ̽̊͌̀͢ͅŞ̴̞̜̱̼̆̈́͊͛ͬ̈́̎̈́S̮͍̓ͣ̂ͯ̐̉̌̌͢E̵̴̼̮̻̗̱C͍̦ͬͦT̰̫̗͔͓̫͔ͪͩ͋̑̽̎̓͐̾͜
̴͉͂̓̊͜C̺͋̽̍̓̀Ḁ̛͓̘͉̀ͦͨͭͤU̷̡̟̦̒̿̆̾͊̑̌̆T̙̝͎̒̊̍̊͞Ë̡̻̪͙͈͑͌͐ͯ͢Ṙ̢̙͓̺̮͕̮͕ͣ͒ͣ̒I̵̜͒ͩ͒ͯ̈Z̷̡̮̠͔̳̈́͗̑̾̾Ě̴̟̼̖̝̤͓͌͊ͣ̑͝


You look down and see that its feet are surrounded by grass and strangling vines, that it must have been here for some time. That is, until now. Vents lower down on the robot vent steam, and its legs begin to move. First one leg rips free from the carpet of vegetation, then the other. It begins to walk, ponderously, the ground shaking with each step.

It's coming towards you.

For a moment, you stand your ground. Not out of bravery, or anything like that, but simply because you're too terrified to run. Your knees are shaking, literally -- you always thought that was just a figure of speech. Your pounding heart feels like it's about to burst out of your chest. You should run away, or hide, or do something, you know that logically, but you're paralyzed with fear.

Then something inside you snaps and screams "Run, idiot!' and you do.

Sprinting through the dark trees, barely able to see in the darkroom light of that red sky. Branches rip and tear at your clothes. One snaps into your face, slashing your cheek and drawing a gasp of pain. You stumble over a tree root and slam into the ground, covering yourself in dead leaves or whatever this detritus is that you're running through.

You hear a tearing, cracking sound and look back to see the machine is following you. It shoves its way into the trees as easily as you'd push through a curtain, roots ripping from the ground, the huge trunks collapsing to either side. You scramble up to your feet and start to run again, but you're already getting out of breath. The machine pursues, relentless. You're just barely faster than it, but you can't keep going like this.

File: kate portrait.png (146 KB, 318x318)

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>>1522914

Your hands strike stone, and you realize you've run into the side of a steep hill. You look up, searching for someplace to climb up, there's nowhere to grab onto within reach. You try to jump, but you can't make it.

You turn around, your back pressed against the rock.

A huge mechanical hand comes out of the darkness and pushes aside the tree in front of you. The machine emerges from the shadows. Its single red eye glows, the other remaining a dark, empty socket. Steam hisses from its vents.

You wish that Kate were here.

It doesn't make any sense -- what could she do against a twenty-foot robot? Really, you're glad that she's safe, wherever she is, instead of here about to be killed by a black robot in a shadowy forest.

Even so. If Kate were here, you might feel a little better. You remember her smiling as you passed her the baseball bat you broke car windows with together. "I'll be your protector, okay?" she said.

You feel something close, something from outside, a presence -- a warmth -- and you reach out with your mind --

"Kate?"

"Vanessa?!" Somewhere, you get the sense of her turning around, searching for you. "Where are you?"

"I'm here," you say. Not understanding. Just following your heart. "Take my hand."

You reach out with your hand into empty air, and at the same time you gather your feelings and you reach out with your mind and heart, and--

--you touch something--

--a brilliant white light shines in your hand, blinding against the dim glow of the red sky--

File: HEARTBREAKER.png (558 KB, 1306x7278)

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>>1522928

Soundtrack: Persona 5 OST -- Will Power
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgpu6NrqXdc


The white light fades to a rosy pink, like a beautiful dawn.

"What ...?" Kate asks dreamily. Her voice comes to you, as though from a great distance, but also right next to you, at the same time. "What is this?"

"You're -- it's a --" The light in your hand coalesces into --

"I'm a fucking SWORD??" you hear Kate yell.

"I don't know! I guess?! Can you see anything?"

"I think so. Yeah, I can." Kate's voice is equal parts curiousity and terror. "It's like I'm in looking through smoke, or a window. I'm still at the campsite, I think? But I'm seeing something totally different. Oh, shit! Watch out!"

Kate's warning alerts you to the mech's fist swinging in your direction. You throw yourself backwards, tumbling on to the grass, just before the huge fist slams into the ground, leaving a sizeable crater in the dirt.

"What's going on?" Kate asks, bewildered.

"I have no idea," you say. "I woke up in this red forest and this thing came after me, and, and I just thought about who could protect me, and I thought of you, and now I have a pink sword?!"

You push yourself up to your feet, just in time to dodge the next attack from the mech. It's fast, way faster than anything that size has a right to be. You just barely have time to avoid those blows, and if just one strike actually landed, you'd be pulverized in an instant.

"Kate, I -- I don't know what to do --!"

"Fight back, Vanessa!" Kate says, determination filling her voice. "I have no idea what's happening, but I'm with you. We'll do this together. Whatever it takes."

You tighten your grip on the sword.

A name whispers itself to you, in your own voice.

HEARTBREAKER

>While wielding Heartbreaker, you can attack by rolling +Hot instead of +Strong.

The machine takes two steps backwards and plants its legs. Steam erupts from its vents.


R̖͕͊̓̔ͧ̔ͩ̀͟Ë̙̫̮̖́͘V̶̧̩̫͔̠̘̬̈́̒ͭ͑ͯ͢I̙̞ͤ͆̕S̥̞̩̗͕̱̬͙͖Ê̞̜̘̹̒̇̇̀̚
̡̖͔͐̐͟P̺̟̤̣͚̖̦ͭͫͫ̓̆̈́R͕̫̉̿̆͘O̤̞̝͈͈̪͚̖͋͂T̞̹͔ͧ͊͊͊ͪ̑͘ͅÒ̯̹̝̣́̋́̚͝Ċ̶͈͎̗͍͇̂̌̉̈O̯̣ͫͤ̓͑̒̿̎͊̚L̬͔̗͍̻͔͑͗ͪ̄ͯ̆
̵̫̱̪̜͈͙̳̦͎̀͐̓̏ͭͬ͢D̸͚̩̰̣͙͕̗͖̮̽̾̄̏ͦ͝E̴͔̬̙͗̽̄ͤͧ͆͂B̵̭͈͎̘͈̰̆͆̍ͬ͂͐ͮ͢R̶̫͔͙̽͢Ì̷̢̻͉̣́̏̀̎̆̊D̵͇̳̞͇̈́̔̓͐͐̚Ḛ̮̜͖̤̣̼͕̒ͬ́̓͗͢͟
̙̺͙͇̤̽ͯ͆͑̓̋ͅͅC̖̖̟͐̍̏͝A̗̤͖͕͓͇̔͒̓̃͊Ṷ̴̐͛̾̀͑̒͗ͅT̶͍͓͎ͯ͊̋ͯ͆ͧ͂͆̕E͉̺ͨ͐̿ͧ̏͡R̢̗͍͖̫̣̜ͪ͆ͪ͢I̸̙̼̓̉͂̏Z̡͈̤̪͍͕͂ͨ̎ͮ͗̃̚͜Ȩ̧͔̠̙̪̺̱͒ͯ̊ͧͅ
̛̳͙̬̘̣̫̫ͭ̋͒Ē̘̙̜̺̪̞̍͠X̡͕̙̳̫̹ͭ̀̌͂̑̀͠P̛̭͗͊ͤ̌͡Ư̞̺̘̖̔͊͐̈́ͣ͌ͯ͜N̢̩̺̪̙͚͇̰͙̾́G̴͚͔̝̳̳͍̜͎̊̃Ě̶̯͇͎̬̈́͐̏̚̚


It's hesitating. This is your moment.

Attack options:
>Go straight at it
>Counter its attacks and cut its hands
>Climb the thing and stab it in the head

>>1522954
>>Climb the thing and stab it in the head
We're smol, like a spider monkey

>>1522954
>Climb the thing and stab it in the head
Let's go at this Dragon's Dogma style

>>1522954
>Climb the thing and stab it in the head

>>1522961
>>1522963
>>1522968

Roll +Hot (1d10+1) and smoke' em.

Rolled 6 (1d10)

>>1522996
+1

Rolled 10 + 1 (1d10 + 1)

>>1522996

File: 5828815+_eb9557964b583ff1(...).png (231 KB, 900x827)

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>>1522998

Looks like he, ah, really got the POINT

>>1522954
>>1522998

Courage wells up in you like a fire. "Let's do this, Kate. I don't know what the fuck this thing is, but I won't let it take me down. Let's fight back."

"I'm with you," she says. "Kick that thing's ass!"

Heartbreaker is four, maybe five feet long, with a thick, single-edged blade. It's heavy, but you can lift it. Raising it over your shoulder, you charge the machine, a battle cry tearing its way out of your throat. Your shoes slam on the grass, the weight of the sword bears down on your arm, but you don't feel tired. You feel great. You feel lighter and stronger than you've ever felt before.

The machine raises an arm, and a cylinder inside it begins to spin. It speeds up, mechanical clunking quickly turning into a buzzsaw snarl. Machine gun fire bursts from the arm, the flickering muzzle flash blinding in the dim light. Bullets streak through the air by you, striking the dirt by your feel. One tears through your jacket. Then one hits home and you feel a searing pain in your forehead and stumble to a halt --

>+2 Harm
>Current Status: 3/5 Harm

"Oh fuck," you gasp, the pain radiating through your body. Blood drips into your eye, but you can barely tell, the whole world is already colored in blood. "I can't -- it's too much --"

"Don't worry," you hear Kate saying. "I've got you." Somehow the pain dims. It's still there, burning and raging, but somehow a comforting presence is between the two of you, keeping the pain at bay like a hungry, snarling wolf outside a solidly locked door.

"How did you do that?" you wonder.

"No time to figure it out," she says. "Duck!"

You drop to the ground, and the autocannon fire passes right through where your head was a moment ago.

Gripping Heartbreaker tightly with your right hand, you scramble forward and leap at the machine's leg. It has plenty of exposed machinery and piping. Plenty of room to grab on with your free hand. Dragging the heavy weight of the blade behind, you clamber up the machine's back. It furiously claws at you, like a man trying to scratch its back, but you twist your weight and swing the sword to defend yourself. It cuts through the machine's fingers, even from a one-armed swing.

The machine's vents open in front of you, and you realize you're about to get a jet of hot steam in the face. Before that can happen, you push off with both feet and leap high into the air. With your left hand, you catch onto the horn-like protrusion coming from the back of the machine's head, dangling in the air as the hot steam vents just below your feet and to either side of you.

Getting into position on the machine's shoulders, you raise the sword, angle it down, and ram the point straight into the back of the machine's head. You bury the blade to the hilt. Something black and warm and spurts out from the wound, like hot blood or oil. The machine lets out an agonized screech. Alarm lights flare. Electricity crackles around the blade and into you, but it doesn't harm you.

>>1523129

You twist the blade, and wrench it sideways, and sever the machine's head. A jet of the black liquid erupts from the stump.


-̡͇̰͈̱̈̽ͬ́-̠̼͍͈̗̇̈̆̿ͨͦͮ͗̚͟R͇̺̟̗̘̪͍͑̾͛̏̓̎̈̒ͬ͝O̢̹ͣͨ̏̓͌́̃͛T͇̍̔͢O̫͕̳̳ͯͦ̍͌ͧ̂̚-̛̬͍̠̬͚̓̒ͤ̽͂
̡̱̣̜̣̳͉̩͙̊̏ͩ̒́͐́-͉̹̰͙̠ͬ͋ͬͫͮͮA̠͉ͬ̇̉̄̆ͦ̐Ḻ̬ͤ͊̓̉̈́̀ͮ̓̍̀͘I̟͚͓̫̫͕ͬ̂ͮ̌̔Z͈͚͚͇̱ͨ̆͒̓̆̎͛̚͞I͉͖͍͔̩̮̟͍͋ͣ̽̽̽͌̚͠͝-̴̻ͣͭ͆̐ͬͩ͐͡-͎̭͔̘͎̭͋͊̆̔̒̊͊͡
̭͛ͫ̄̎͜-̵̥̞̻͐͑̾̃͊ͬA̖̟̬̼̤ͤ̆͆̉ͩ͒̎̍͝͠͞Ŗ̼̦ͫ͘͜G̠͕͖͉̩̬̪̞̃̂̈́̑ͫ̐ͭ̈́͟ͅ-̠̻͇̔-̢̝̹̤͎̪̬͐ͣ̐͂ͩ͐́
̵̩̼̟͍͙̱̗̆̌̐͞ͅÈ̴̤̝̜͈̭̎̄͌̋̍̇̕͠R̻͉̔̓̔ͮṘ̷̘̠̘̭̔̕O̞͎̍́͗̆ͭ̾̂͊R̸̪̙̬̪̜̥ͦ̉̀ͯ͝͝
̶̢͓̳͓̭͈͆ͩ̀̌͌̄̃̌ͩE̗̥̖̝̯̟̯͗̈ͦ̀R̳̩̤̭̯̦̈͊̍ͦ́R̦͇̥̥̂ͩ̏ͯ̈͌ͮ̃̄̀͡O̟̣̯͇̬̪̜ͩ͌͒͊̀̏͢Ŗ̵̩̦̺͈̹ͧͣͤͨ̔̂͢
̰̝͈̇̎̌͋͆̾͒Ê̡̼͎͓̻̟̬̓̾͊̍R̟̺͍̪̱͙͒͛̑͞Ȑ̮͉͍͖̖̜̬̺̋̿ͬͧ̄͘͡O̵̟̙̘̯̯̒ͪ͠͡ͅR̶̢̛̹̫̤͓͖ͦ̈̉̽͐͐͑͌ͩ


The machine takes two heavy steps forward and sinks to its knees. You hop off onto the grass, just before it collapses in a crescendo of grinding metal.

Silence.

"We did it," you say, barely believing it. The sword falls to the ground from your nerveless fingers. "We ... did it ..."

The ground rushes up to meet you.

File: night sky.jpg (66 KB, 800x450)

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>>1523135

"Vanessa? Vanessa!"

Through the darkness, you hear someone calling your name. As though swimming out of the dark depths of the ocean, you make your way back to the light of consciousness.

You slowly open your eyes. At first all you see is a blur of color, but after a moment for your eyes to focus, you see Jason standing over you, a look of concern on his face. Sam is sitting next to you, clutching one of your hands. Tyler is a few feet back, his eyes narrowed as though this is a puzzle he's trying to solve.

"Good to see you're awake," Jason says.

You cough. Your throat is dry as hell. "What happened? Where's Kate?"

"I'm here," you hear her say. You push yourself up to a sitting position to see her nearby, wrapped in a big sweatshirt as a blanket. She looks unharmed.

You're back at the campsite, in the green forest. Nothing has changed. Everyone is here.

Was it all a dream?

You put your hand to your forehead. There's a nasty scratch where the machine grazed you.

"Guys, I -- I had the weirdest dream about fighting this big robot thing. It had this black armor and it was like twenty feet tall. But I'm not sure it was just a dream, you know? I know that sounds crazy, but you've got to believe me--"

You break off when you see Jason and Sam glance at each other. A chuckle escapes Jason.

"What's so funny?" you ask.

"You don't have to try to convince us," he says, and points behind you. "Take a look."

You turn around to see the headless corpse of the machine you just fought. Black ichor oozes from the stump, a plume of smoke rises from the body.

The impact of that suddenly hits you. The fight was in the red forest. But the body is here, in the green forest.

Kate sighs. "I thought being dumped on an alien world was bad enough. Guess our situation just got way more complicated, huh?"

Above you, the ringed planet watches silently from the darkened sky.

>>1523187
Closing Theme: Hyper Light Drifter -- Vignette: Panacea
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfPapxO550o

That's all for thread 3, everyone. I hope you're enjoying Nightmare Planet. Thanks for playing.

>>1523194
fuck yeah raven, hell of an end to the thread. I'm honestly more into nightmare planet than OWQ at this point