5.25

“Bah! You cannot stop me! The prophecy foretold that no man shall ever kill me and your party isn’t diverse enough!” - Tyrant Cornelius the End of Empires, best known for progressive tax reform, normalising same-sex marriage and dying a slow death of gangrene after getting scratched by his pet kitten Zoe.

“Hello?” Celigarn yelled into the empty room. The inn goers had long left, he heard Noam yelling some slurs earlier which might’ve driven them away, but overall he was just left on the floor of the inn.

“Anyone there?” he asked, just as a shadow came over him.

“What are you doing here?”

I put away my carving knife.

Noam was down and Tai was dragging his unconscious form as she slashed her way towards the tower. Her eyes were blurred by his own blood.

Such a simple solution to a hard question. Now that it no longer hid, we needed to blind ourselves rather than seek it.

Now, onto a more important question.

How do I get down quickly?

Tai wasn’t having much trouble now that she could ‘see’ the monster but now was perhaps the most important step. Quickly killing the enemy while the townsfolk were out. So it was imperative that I met up with Tai quickly.

I was slow.

But I was durable, short and vaguely rod-shaped.

And so, in the desperate need to keep tempo on our side, I, to my eternal shame, rolled down the circular stairs.

Soon hitting the ground floor, I hurriedly got up, dusting myself off just as Tai ran in slamming the door on a dozen charging serpents.

She glanced at me, confused, “How’d you get down so fast?”

“There was a secret shortcut I found,” I lied as I walked forward, eyes hardening slightly as I saw Noam’s unconscious body held behind her back. Quickly covering his wounds with Balm Spores. “This is a critical moment, we need to finish it off now.”

She nodded, just as beasts found the cracks in the tower once again. I quickly dabbed some of Noam’s blood on my eye as I turned to look at it.

Stats:

Body

Strength: 4-11

Agility: 6-8

Dexterity: 2-14

“Shillelagh,” not great stats, it wasn’t a physical hunter, Noam and Tai easily contended with it even when there were dozens.

“Our destination is the Orphanage of Tilt near the Inn,” I declared.

Her blade flashed as dozens of heads fell, their mist-like form still regenerating.

“And how do we get there?”

I raised my staff, slamming down on the severed heads and pulping them, “We fight.”

And she nodded, a grim, determined nod as she kicked open the door once again.

In front of us, dozens of the monstrous form slithered. Their faces just barely obscured by the blood. Crawling through the air and dirt, smiling with their viciously white needle teeth.

Whoever once owned those faces were long dead.

“Go!” Tai yelled as she took the lead.

Swing and Stab.

Stab and Swing.

An occasional Block.

Lao Lao wasn’t particularly good at naming attacks, but they worked for they did. And as Tai attacked through the waves and waves of enemies, she couldn’t help but notice a discrepancy.

Where once it was a tiring battle to keep track of multiple foes at the same time, none of which she could see clearly.

Now was almost a walk in the park.

Dustin stood behind her, only occasionally throwing an attack or blocking, but every one of these actions mattered.

His movements were crude and simple, but there was precious little wasted movement as he covered every angle Tai couldn’t.

Slamming away a head she couldn’t catch.

A puff of yellow to disrupt one while another held her blade.

An extra eye, who called out the location of enemies she couldn’t see.

As they slowly progressed towards the monster’s heart, she realised that their slower movement was a wasn’t a detriment. Dustin wasn’t a burden, in fact, with him at her back she felt like she had grown a new extension of herself, constantly there, constantly assisting. Even holding Noam’s unconscious body, she wasn’t unduly troubled.

Sometimes, she saw Dustin quickly adjusting to mistakes she made. An overextended attack led to a quick block by him, a failure to assess all angles covered by his eyes.

Even as the heads gradually increased in number and ferocity, they moved forward, until they were practically carving a path through a tide of monsters.

Still, they moved forward.

His actions were small, she realised.

They were never meaningless.

How many hundreds did they cut, bash and poison?

Carving a path of severed heads and necks, their mist-like forms broken and on the ground. So great in number they hung on the town like a heavy fog.

And so, two people stood and one hanging on a back unconscious in front of an empty church. It was a simple thing, not ornate, but colourful, the chalk and drawings of little children dotted the walls. It was a place that would’ve given the feeling of youthful joy.

That is if there wasn’t the massive stalk, created from hundreds of necks held together shooting out of the ceiling.

“They’re not attacking anymore,” Dustin muttered. Instead, the still solid faces hang back, at the edges of their perception, probing, watching,

Waiting.

“We could slash that thing,” Tai suggested, pointing at the massive collection of necks shooting into the sky. “Would be a start.”

“And if it heals back?”

“I don’t know then.”

“We’re making this up as we go,” Dustin quietly admitted.

For all their victories, they knew nothing on how to finish this threat for good.

“Not to mention…” the Accumulation had its heads all held back. Not doing anything where once they assaulted them at full force. To Dustin, it meant it had a card it hadn’t used yet. “At best we’re walking into a trap.”

“Do we have another option?” she quietly asked.

“Maybe if we had more time,” Dustin replied.

“And we may waste all the progress we just made.”

“That we might,” he admitted.

“So let’s go.”

“So let’s go,” he agreed.

And they stepped over the boundary, past the fence, through the gate. They felt it then, that feeling of Deja Vu, of feeling they’ve already done this.

They pasted the familiar doors. They saw the familiar drawings. They opened and looked at familiar and empty rooms of children.

Until finally, they came upon the dining hall.

There it lay, rotting food, its eaters long gone. Chairs fallen over, simple cutlery strewn and dirtied.

And there they saw it.

A massive, bulging stomach, from which all the necks led. Appearing like a transparent bubble of white flesh and membrane, black veins crisscrossed in eldritch ways. Too angular and chaotic to be natural formations.

And inside they saw them.

The final remains of someone, their flesh utterly melted, leaving naught but a flesh-coloured sludge wearing clothing. ‘Rhyme,’ Dustin thought as he looked at it.

And the other two, a girl with white hair and a featureless face, her body almost completely intact, a black, ragged cloak that seemed to hug around her. Above her, shielding her like a babe was a lizardfolk, his back held towards the ceiling of the fleshy ceiling as strange colourless liquids fell down. His back was almost entirely melted, sloughing off the sides in a green pool. He could see his exposed spine from there.

7. Utoqa might still be alive if you act fast enough. He’s durable, he might Survive, but I’m not sure about Celine and ******.

“Utoqa!” Dustin yelled, brandishing his staff as he finally, finally remembered.

Utoqa raised his head, seeing them, opening his mouth as if to speak, but Tai was already running, her blade brandished and glowing with aura-

“Close.”

Then they all froze.

A single head drifted in, it bore no face, it had no features, save the maw of needle-like teeth curled in a perpetual smile. Dustin knew that face.

It was the thing he fought in the landscape of souls.

“You came so very close,” the Accumulation of White Lies said. “But you cannot catch It. You cannot hurt It. You cannot kill It.”

Dustin broke out of the spell first. A shillelagh empowered staff slamming towards the monster’s head, but it dodged, moving swiftly away. “Now Tai!” he yelled, just as she forced her body to move. Rushing the last few steps towards the monster’s-

“Fade.”

And she slashed it, the blade passing through the mist like body, not even harming it one bit.

“You cannot catch me. You cannot hurt me. You cannot kill me,” the First Face sang, voice melodious and jarring, beautiful and horrific, calming and harrowing. “You can only-”

Dustin spat acid, the glob of green landing directly onto the monster’s head, melting through it.

““““““““““““You can only Fade.””””””””””””

And a dozen voices spoke. The heads, they all returned, surrounding them, and with them came a high whistling sound, repeated across dozens of throats. Sung with dozens of voices. And Dustin finally noticed that the needle-like teeth had holes in them, holes like a flute.

‘It comes when it has become quiet.’

‘It is closest when it is so quiet you remember you forgot the song.’

‘It attacks when you realise the silence is so quiet it drowns out all other sounds.’

‘So you must be scared of the deafening silence.’

And the realisation hit him like a truck. “SOUND!” Dustin yelled, “Tai! Cover your ears!”

The silence was not directly caused by its ability, but by when it turned off its ability. He could already feel it assaulting his mind, he could already feel the mists of forgetfulness worming its way through.

Tai immediately dropped Noam, covering her ears,

With both hands.

Still singing, the heads came through, biting onto her flesh. She tried to cut them off,

But she cannot do so whilst covering her ears.

Dustin threw out his arms, screaming as he cast Poison Spores all around them, but still, he was too late as he watched helplessly as she was dragged into the air. And inside the stomach, the corpse of the one that Rhymed finally broke, a new head sprouted from its remains. And only then, did the head grabbing Tai open unnaturally wide and swallowed her whole.

And he watched, as she fell into that transparent stomach. Rising as quickly as she can to run towards the edge. Blade out and slashing at the membrane.

But it softly bounced off.

She slashed and slashed at the stomach, but no matter what, she never made a single cut.

“You cannot come out,” the First Face sang. “It is your fault.”

Dustin tried to block it out, he held his hands by his head as the song continued to assault his mind-

And he remembered, he didn’t know where myconid ears were.

“It is not your fault,” the First Face laughed at him. “You weren’t the cause of all this. For you cannot defeat me.”

The myconid stopped. Alone within his shield of poison. The gibbering monsters mere metres from him, scratching for every weakness.

And he turned and stared at the First Face.

“You will lose,” he said, as certain as fact. “You will not win here. You will be beaten.”

It simply smiled, “You do not think so-”

“Oh I do,” he spoke. His form without emotion, like a doll, simply acting out the motions. “This entire time you’ve talked, you’ve spoken nothing but lies.”

“I speak only truth.”

“I will show you what ‘truth’ looks like,” he replied, and he smiled, a vicious villainous smile, for it had become stronger, strong enough for him to speak it, “Analyse.”

And the song was interrupted as the monster screamed and Dustin cackled. Both an ear tearing melody. One of fear and the other triumph! As he finally saw.

The Accumulation of White Lies

Racial:

Aberration of Memories Level 3

Stats:

Body

Strength: 8

Agility: 7

Dexterity: 9

Constitution: N/A

Stamina: N/A

Vitality: N/A

Mind

Intelligence: 9

Wisdom: 4

Charisma: 24

Soul

Will: 14

Psyche: 34

Perception:11

Traits:

Bardic Adept: This creature is a bardic combatant.

Ignorance: This creature may contest knowledge and perception checks targeting it.

Devour: This creature may consume an opponent. Keeping it inside its stomach and potentially eating killed opponents for benefits.

Ruthless: This creature will target downed opponents and finish them off when given the chance.

Hidden Traits:

?

Basic Combat:

Bite Attack: The Accumulation may attack with all of its heads, dealing puncture and slash damage. Should it succeed in such an attack, it may choose to grapple the target.

Sing: The Accumulation may stop singing or start a song with an additional head.

Wail: The Accumulation may let out a piercing scream, dealing Psychic damage to all creatures that can hear it.

Consume: The Accumulation consumes a creature, placing them inside its stomach. It can have up to three humanoid creatures inside at any time.

Digest: Creature’s inside the stomach of the Accumulation will take continuous Acid and Bludgeoning damage.

Immobile: The Accumulation is a nascent creature. Since it is recently born it does not yet know how to walk.

Grow Head: Whenever a humanoid creature is Digested, the Accumulation will begin growing a new head with fragments of the knowledge and skills of the humanoid creature digested to grow it.

Horrific Visage: Intelligent creatures that see a face that the Accumulation has grown will need to make a Mind or Soul save or take psychic damage. Damage and severity scale with the familiarity the target had with the face.

Conceptual Creature: The Accumulation is a conceptual entity, thus it is resistant to non-conceptual damage.

Aberrant Form: The Accumulation is a Huge Aberration, as such, it has the following immunities and resistances:

Damage Resistances: Psychic Condition Immunities: Blinded, Charmed, Grappled, Prone, Stunned, Unconscious

Fade:

Blind Song (Active): The Accumulation sings a song of oblivion, all creatures that can hear the song must make a Mind or Soul save against its CHA. Every additional head the Accumulation sings with slightly increases the DC of the save. On a failure, the creature loses all perception of The Accumulation’s existence while the song persists. An extremely high Mind or PER check must be met to even notice evidence of the Accumulation’s existence while under these effects.

Sea of Forgotten Faces (Passive): Whenever the Accumulation consumes a creature, memories of that creature will be forgotten so long as the creature remains in its stomach. If the creature is digested, the memory erasure becomes permanent.

Hidden:

?

Then it shot out screaming, the First Face shot through Dustin’s spores, uncaring of the pain as its teeth tearing off his Bark Skin and Bracken Polypores, until it reached his face,

Until it reached his eye.

Teeth extended, it grabbed the shattered Eye of Discovery, pulling at the thin threads of mycelium as Dustin grabbed it by its neck. A desperate tug of war for the Eye.

A tug of war which Dustin lost, as it tore out the Eye of Discovery.

He fell, the light of Analyse fading from his form as the monster laughed in victory and triumph. For it had stolen the Second Eye of Two.

And Tai watched helpless, as they lost.

Dustin awoke in the abandoned orphanage’s empty dining hall, surrounded by the broken fragments of his armour. Clutching his empty eye sockets.

And the first thing he said was, “What was I doing here?”