Re: Incarnation

The party exit the stairway and find themselves in a large room set up in a way that invokes the image of a grocery store. Isles stretching downward from where they are, all of them seemingly empty. This time there are three doors. One on each side and one on the far end of the room. Racknar thinks for a bit on what room to pick first. “I don't think this'll be like the first floor with one having a key to move forward. We'll likely have to clear the rooms before we reach the warlock of this floor.”

The group looks up and down the empty isles for a bit before moving on, just in case they find something. After confirming that they are, Racknar made his way to the door that would have been on his right when he first entered this floor. He closed his eyes, took a big despite breath, and pushed it open. The group walked into what looked like a large meat locker with hooks hanging from above. All the hooks looked like they once had something hanging from them but were liberated of the weight.

The hooks, stained bloody and empty, simply dangled back and forth. Inside the room were a group of ten humanoids. They looked similar to the Limboian shades, gangly gnaught things. Even skinnier than the previous shades, looking emaciated and starved. They had sickly looking yellow-orange colored skin and stubby horns. With claws and teeth the group was savagely devouring something made of flesh. From the look of it, it was a pile of more similar shades. Cannibalized out of desperation for more food to satiate the hunger that could never be satisfied.

Davy accidentally bumped a hook causing it to make noise, getting the attention of the gluttonous shades. They all stop mid meal to turn their beady looking eyes on the party. One word in infernal escapes the bloody lips of the demons, a word Racknar didn't need Ariagoria to translate. The infernal word… for “meat”.

The shades screech as they practically clamor over one another like desperate parents during a black Friday sale. As they approach, Racknar and crew already have their weapons drawn. Marionette quickly cuts down the first to come into her range, taking three attacks to do so. Krys kills one of the shades by landing three arrows, the last of them sinking into the creature’s skull Ariagoria makes her mace glow and slams it down hard on a shade that tries running up to her and crushes its skull. Davy fires a purple ball of lightning at one, injuring it but not killing it.

Three of the remaining eight shades slash their claws into Racknar, but all the cuts are shallow. One shade tries to attack Marionette but she dodges. Four shades run after Ariagoria and one even puts a solid gash in her arm with another grazing the ribs. Ariagoria chooses not to use her hellish retribution. Racknar then takes out all three of the shades attacking him with a single blow each. He then moves to Marionette and kills the one attacking her. Only four shades left.

Mari shadow-ports behind one of the shades and cuts it down, Ariagoria then uses her glowing mace of holy light to smash the skull of a second. Krys and Davy team up to kill a third from a distance. Finally Racknar beheads the fourth. With the room clear they go back to the main room.

Davy spins around as he walks “You know I at least thought the demons would get tougher the farther we went.” Racknar responded “They do. Though shades are always the weakest, a shade from a deeper hell is always stronger. In fact, assuming average damage, Krys shouldn't be able to kill a gluttonous shade in a single round. Average damage of twenty one per round versus an average health of twenty eight.”

Ariagoria “I have no idea where you are getting these numbers from or even what you mean by average damage. Maybe you should explain it. We don't have to go straight to the next room.” Racknar sighed. “I may have mentioned before but I noticed a lot of parallel between this world and stuff you'd find in the game Creatures and Catacombs. I've been using the numbers from the game and for the most part my math has been accurate.”

Davy did a hand wave “wait… how would you use numbers from the game? Isn't it dice rolls?” Racknar nods his head. “I use the average numbers. Though I sometimes forget to calculate small things. For example, a greatsword is two de six meaning you roll two six sided dice. The average roll is three for six in total. Though some say the average is three points five making it seven I haven't been counting that. Since our weapons are high quality I work under the assumption they count as masterwork. That's plus one to damage and accuracy. I also assume I've got a max possible strength score under normal circumstances giving me plus five, the belt increases that by one. So that's seven giving me an average of thirteen or fourteen per hit.”

Davy puts his hand on his chin “What about critical damage?” Racknar simply states “The chances are like five or ten percent so I just ignore that. So far most enemies have died around when I expect them to, based on the numbers.” Mari then asks “By most you mean you've been off.” Racknar nodded then started walking to the next door. “I know this isn't a game with health bars, especially considering armor doesn't work like in the game. But doing the math helps me focus.”

There are nods and sounds of understanding as Racknar leads the group into the second room. This one looks like it had them in an area that looks like they are outside, standing on the grass. Not far from them however, the grass turned to thick mud. The group could see a red barn in the distance, a single silo at its side. From the mud emerged gluttonous shades. There were also gluttonous hellhounds, who had yellow-orange skin like the shades and skits and their body with teeth inside like extra mouths. The mouth was much deeper and contained more teeth then the previous Hellhounds.

Finally from the mud came these grotesque obese abominations with more rolls than skin and wide mouths, their hands were replaced by mouths for grabbing instead of fingers. The rotund and sickly looking things had a similar skin color to the other demons that came from the mud. Racknar grumbled. “Oh great, Gluttonous Globs. Slow, but they are meaty tanks. Damage sponges.” There were eight shades, six hellhounds, and four globs.

Racknar gripped his swords tightly. “Take out the hounds and shades as quickly as possible. I'll distract the globs till the smaller demons are dead.” Mari gets to work right away, shadow-porting behind one of the hellhounds. She cuts into it three times before it dies. Krys fired three arrows into one of the shades, killing it. Ariagoria runs up to a hellhound and smashes its head in using her holy energy charged mace. Davy decided to buy Racknar more time by casting Eldritch Hunger on the blobs to slow them down further as well as do damage.

The remaining four Hellhounds all go after Racknar and start clawing at him, giving him a few glancing blows. Three of the seven shades go after Racknar as well, swarming him. The other four try to attack Ariagoria but can't seem to land a blow. Racknar lets out a roar as his swords burst into blood red flames and cut down the four Hellhounds with four mighty swings. The globs can be heard making noises from the black blob that Davy put them in, but don't emerge from it.

Mari shadow-ports to help Ariagoria by taking out one of the four shades attacking her. Krys shoots at a second shade by Ariagoria giving her only two targets. She slams her holy energy mace into the ribs of one the two, blasting a huge hole in its side and killing it. Davy focuses on keeping the spell active and on the globs. The three shades by Racknar claw at him more but can't seem to do much. The final one by Ariagoria outs a deep gash in her side.

Racknar cuts down the three Shades that were attacking him with three attacks before he runs to the blob of darkness and slashes his sword into it, trying to blindly hit a glob. It's not clear if he hit anything but shortly after the four globs exit the sides of the spell with clear signs of cold and acidic damage on them. Mari takes out the final shade, cutting into it three times to do so.

Krys fires three arrows at one of the globs, although they sink in its shallow and the demons don't even react. Davy drops the spell he had up and launches a purple lighting ball at the one Krys shot. Ariagoria takes a moment to recover, using magic to mend her wounds. Racknar goes for the one Krys and Davy attacked and tries to cut into it with his blood red flaming swords. He makes five attacks instead of his normal four but unfortunately they either bounce off or make shallow cuts.

The lumbering masses all go in to grapple Racknar, their mouth hands biting down on him. They then start to try and tug of war for him. Racknar shouts “Davy, cast Eldritch Hunger again. Don't worry, I'll be fine.” Mari does her best to try and damage the globs by throwing three daggers into the one Krys shot. The daggers don't sink that deep and the globs don't even react. Krys fires another three arrows into the same target with little effect. Ariagoria runs in and slams her glowing mace into the back of the same target everyone else has been hitting, blowing a chunk of its body off with holy energy.

Ariagoria then has to back away as Davy casts Eldritch Hunger covering Racknar and the four Globs. As the party waits outside of it, Mari notices Davy started counting as soon as the spell activated. “One two three four five six.” He then puts out a finger and starts over. “One two three four five six.” Two fingers up. This continued till eventually Davy had five fingers up. Racknar slid out of the black mass with the mouth-hands still but down on him writhing like worms, no longer attached to their owners.

After a bit the Globs lumbered out of the darkness of the spell trying to chase after Racknar. As soon as the group could see them they attacked. Krys launching arrows, Davy dropping the spell to sling a purple bolt of energy, Ariagoria running in to slam her glowing mace into one and blows a chunk of fat off it. Racknar pulled the mouths off himself and went back in with his swords to cut into one of the demons with a chunk blown out of it killing it.

When the remaining three try to attack Racknar, he jumps backwards out of the way easily since the demons no longer have arms. The Globs fall face first leaving them open to a flurry of attacks from the party. Once the Globs are dead, Racknar nearly flops into the mud. “That…. Sucked.” He does a health potion. Ariagoria looked around. “Hey guys, where did the door go?”

The party looked around and none of them could see the door they entered from. Racknar then pointed to the barn “Lets see if we can go inside there.” The group then starts trekking through the mud to get to the barn. Halfway there, a sudden sound is heard just before something bursts out of the ground taking Mari into the air. It looked like a giant worm, with sickly gray skin and what looked like a mouth with human teeth. It had Mari in its teeth and was just about to bite down.

“Mari!” Racknar yelled before dashing in and sending his four swords into the thing in a single swing, cutting the creature into four bits and freeing Mari. Racknar then lifted her out of the mud and ran into the barn with the rest of the party following quickly behind. Once inside the party cleans up and uses a first aid kit to patch any remaining winds on Racknar and Ariagoria. Racknar looked over Mari's body and saw some damage. He pulled a scroll of mending from his bag and used it to repair the damages to her body.

“Are you okay? That work almost got you. I should have been watching out for that since those things are known to hide in the mud of Gluttony.” Racknar checks Mari's lags to make sure the mending spell worked. Mari nodded “Y-yeah. I'm fine now. It hurt a bit but I'm okay now, thanks to you.” Racknar nodded “Just looking out for my fellow party member.” He then sits and looks out the barn window in the direction the door to this room used to be. “I think there is still one worm in the mud somewhere. You guys wait here while I try to find it. They aren't hard to kill, just sneaky.”

Racknar gets up and heads back out of the barn, leaving the rest of the party inside. The party starts to clean themselves off a bit as they wait, having a moment where they could talk. Ariagoria sat next to Mari “So… that Racknar right? He saved your ass then carried you into a building.” Mari avoided eye contact with Ariagoria “Y-yeah. He's so cool.” Ariagoria nods “Too bad he's a big idiot and has no idea how he affects others most of the time. He just does stuff in the moment that to him seem perfectly normal. Like he has no idea that “common courtesy” isn't actually a thing and most people aren't nice for no reason or simply because it's the right thing.”

Mari nods as she picks up her knees and puts her face in them. “I know. It actually feels kinda silly to get so flustered about it. He's just being nice.” Ariagoria put a hand on Mari's shoulder. “At your age it's natural to develop harmless crushes.” Mari lets out a soft sigh “Yeah, right.” Krys looks over to Davy. “I noticed you counting to six and keeping track of it earlier. What was that about?”

Davy shifts a bit. “In that game Racknar brings up, a round is six seconds. The spell I used does damage at the beginning and end of a turn in the game. I was tracking the number of rounds spent in the spell's area.” Krys shook their head and chuckled “I mean I guess the spell does damage over time either way.” Racknar re-enters the barn. “I found and killed the other worm but still no door. Have you guys-”

Racknar noticed a door at the back of the barn. “That wasn't there before. Must be the way out. Let's go.” Racknar walked over and through the doorway with the rest of the party following. Once on the other side they find themselves in what looks like the inside of a bar or restaurant. Tables with stools all around the room with a counter on one end and a kitchen behind it. Out from the kitchen comes a spindly man. Skinny to the point of anorexia and abnormally pale. The man is in chief's attire. “This guy looks like he's made of toothpicks and barely alive. What a disappointment.” Davy stated bordely.

Racknar then reminded them “This guy's still a warlock, so don't let your guard down.” The man shakily gestured with his spindly arm. “Have a seat. There are menus at the table. Take your time.” The party members looked at one another, clearly confused. The man looks at them and gestures to the tables a second time. “I'd rather not fight. I'm not as agile as the person you fought before me and I'm not as strong as the person above me in this tower. Sure I could summon minions to defend me, but if you kill those I'm dead in one hit.”

Racknar scratched his head. “So can we go to the next floor then? No offense but I don't trust any food you plan to make.” The mage groaned “Unfortunately you have to defeat me for the door to show up. However, it doesn't have to be a battle of strength. I propose an eating contest. If one of you can outpace me in eating a meal, you win.” Racknar put his hand on his chin. “Am I allowed to choose the meal? I'm so hungry I could eat a horse.”

The man smiled devilishly. “Your order is coming right up.” he then vanished into the kitchen. Ariagoria groaned “He's going to bring out lice horses now, isn't he?” Racknar chuckled “He thinks he's one since no normal person would actually eat a horse. Cooked or otherwise. Jokes on him, my first meal was a liquified deer. I'll drink the horse before he can even gut the thing.” Davy then replied “That's kinda fucked up, but as long as we win I guess.”

After a while the Warlock did in fact bring in two live horses, handing one to Racknar. “Alright, meals are here. On go we'll start eating. Three, two, one, go.” The mage slits the horse's throat and starts ripping into its sides with his bare hand and eating handfuls raw. While that mage is distracted with his grotesque meal, Racknar starts wrapping the hose up in thread. Eventually the horse is in a cocoon in a surprisingly short time.

While the mage starts chewing on raw intestines, Racknar bites his horse with his fangs, the creature still struggling as he does so. After about a minute Racknar bites into the cocoon and starts drinking the liquified horse. Every so often Racknar could be heard making gagging noises. Then he picks up the cocoon and finishes the meal before tossing the webbing aside. “Done, I win.”

The mage was about halfway done with his horse. “Wait what? How? You… you cheated somehow!” Racknar crossed his arms. “Says the guy that intentionally took an offhand comment literally in the hopes I would back out or otherwise hesitate and give you the easy win. I used the natural tools at my disposal and won fair and square as it were. Now let us pass.” The mage starts running their hands through their hair aggressively in frustration. “No, this can't be. I've never lost an eating competition in my life.”

Racknar sighed “Sorry dude, but there's a first time for everything. If it's any consolation, I didn't enjoy my meal at all.” The mage lets out a sound of frustration and anger as they make an attempt to cast a spell. Racknar moved quickly and decapitated the mage in a split second leaving his head on the floor. “Should have just let us pass.” Racknar stated coldly. A new door appeared giving them a way forward. “Let's go, we're done here.”

Mari then asked “So just out of curiosity, what does liquified animal taste like?” Racknar paused to look at her “Well the venom pre-digests the victim into a slush. What do you imagine that would taste like?” Mari responded quickly “I imagine it would taste like vomit.” Racknar gave a slight nod “You'd imagine correctly. It's gross. Let us move on.” The group collects themselves and goes through the door, ready or not they have to take on three more floors yet.