Floating in the void is a large steel circle covered in a layer of grass and soil.

Both gravity and an atmosphere seem to be present, despite this mass only having a diameter of a mere one hundred feet.

Notably, each blade of grass is identical except for one which has been plucked without disturbing the surrounding soil.

There are also six bedrolls in the center of the landmass, each made of a blue fabric.

Various faded scents hang in the air, such as; Blood, dung, putrid sweetness, and mothballs

The wind is almost nonexistent by your ankles, and if you can reach up to 7 ft, you will find it is a gradient where it's still fairly light but more tangible.

At first glance, most people would probably think it would be pretty cool to some how live out something like a video game.

But Otto Bruckner did not look like he was having fun. The somewhat tall, fat, thickly build man stood bare chested, pale and hairy, with a wooden club balanced over one shoulder. The very rough and primitive looking kilt at least covered his waist down to his knees, but he stood barefoot in the somewhat cool, wet, stinking terrain that Emily had unofficially dubbed the "Sweatrag"

His newfound calling, aside from his Barbarian "Class", had been digging up and destroying the "plumbs" that seemed to grow within the Sweatrag. He had smashed two of them, the second significantly larger than the first, and was currently puzzling on how to get at his third.

It was disgusting work, to say the least, everything about it made his skin crawl and his stomach turn. But to Otto it was worth the peace of mind that came with knowing that he was doing his part to keep these things from emerging in the pitch black "night" of their new home.

His friend and companion in this task was Arjun Gandhi, who was currently pointing out what he believed to be the nearest recessed "plumb", his undeniably useful magical senses beyond the ken of the more mundane Barbarian.

"You ever go to the beach and dig for clams?" he asked the group as he gingerly walks over, his bare feet squelching in the damp, and then used his club to forcefully prod at the spot Arjun had indicated.

OOC: I don't want to interrupt the flow here, so I'm going to assume Arjun weaeve'd you another club as you two talked, since the one from your last encounter is long gone. Since this is my independent decision, I won't punish him for it even though he's already on the edge of disaster with all the overusing of his magic he's been up to

The barbarian stomps along barefoot, and reaches the spot his friend with magic eyes had pointed out. The strange resistance he feels underneath his club is telling that something unseen is underneath.

Otto takes a step back off the mound concealing the forbidden fruit. He has a frown of distaste on his face, but an eager desire grows within him to crush this thing to a pulp or perhaps to toss it off the edge of this small yet fathomless world.

OOC: The latter option would increase your Throwing Skill XP, which you haven't started levelling yet
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:36, Tue 22 Mar 2022.

Unless I am mistaken, Otto still has the Two Handed Wooden Club that he purchased with hiss Market Coins via Arjun?

OOC: I must have forgotten about that, my bad. Editing my previous post.

No problem. Lots of material here.

"Yup..." Otto affirmed, then reached down to once again open the abscess in order to pry the thing out. He was not all together confident that smashing it would be completely effective given the spongy texture of the terrain, and he wanted to be sure he broke it free of the "root" lest it heal or regrow.

"How far you think I can huck this thing?" he asked Arjun off hand, curious himself how all the numbers translated to physical results.

With the conversation at an end while Otto continued his hunt for plum-like truffles, Emily read the screen in front of her and nodded to herself.

In the end, the privilege of naming came with responsibility.  "They have not explained the parameters explicitly," she said to those still there, "but they responded to the names discussed., so my working assumption is that, existing place names and names referring to the places' origins are unacceptable, negative sounding names are positively discouraged,  while merely descriptive names are not recommended. One name was recommended and it may work as an experiment in the magic of naming and so..."

She paused dramatically and said, {SYSTEM} I name this disc 'Sweet-smelling Swamp. "

Then she called over to Arjun and said,  'Arjun, I still have market coins, if I transferred some to you, you could buy a spade. That would aid Otto in his work, I imagine. "

As Emily says so, you all watch and nearly fall over as under your feet...

VLOOORSH!!!

With a wave of motion and a wave of nausea you all blink and find yourselves standing on... somewhere else.

You look around - half fearful for a moment that you were transported to another world AGAIN - but find all the surrounding discs are identical to how you left them.

The only difference... is where you're standing!

Gone is the strange, pink and gray folds of the 'sweatrag' disc... instead, you find yourselves standing in a thick mass of brown and muddy sludge!

Furthermore, you are ankle-deep in it. You can also all see that the disc itself has expanded longer outwards, and the terrain has become even more hilly, with the immediate hill that was before you now reaching up to the shoulders of your tallest, and probably shadowing your shortest.

However, you can all see that in addition to the mud are ponds of what looks like extremely brackish and filthy water! And, underneath those, you can see the original fold-like material of the 'sweatrag' disc, but their color has gone a dark gray ashen hue, also they have become soggy to the point of looking like they'd fall apart at being poked, and they are now many times more wrinkled than a prune.

Another thing is that in the five places Arjun had mentioned there were plums, you can now spot larger lumps, which are stretched thin and greenish, like disgusting boils. They seem to sit on the edge of the brackish ponds, and you can also see the hint of strange roots connecting them thusly.

Perhaps strangest of all, floating above the island, is a window that you all can see!

As the group discusses possible names for the disc, Emily tries to specify any parameters.

After a fairly long moment of no response, a window emerges.


And just then, you all hear a sound from the previous location of your target.

"Ngaaaahhkkkk!!!" though it doesn't come from human vocal cords, it is very clearly a scream of distress and pain.

You all watch in that moment, as the being you had previously chased stumbled and sways from behind the hill, straining and spasming from some sensation...

The creature is pudgy and purple, about the size of a medium dog, but with six legs and bulging eyes the color of shit. It is fairly wrinkled, covered in dirt and has a tubular snout like an anteater on it's face...

You watch as it screeches before falling back and beginning to... change shape...

In that moment, Dmitri gets a very quick message, completely shattered yet clearly filled with utter shock and horror

'{[Declaration of pain]} ghikniaak gaggaa- {What did you do}?!!?!?!??!?'

And in the next moment, you all cannot help but stand still and shocked as, like a wave, the entity before you changes to match your surroundings.

It's skin becomes a deep and dark brown, it's snout thickens into a full on trunk, now with four nostrils with three layers of membranes, and lots of little cilia (?) inside.

The eyes bulge off the head and roll back, completely changing position to that of a hippopotamus on cocaine. The color changes to a putrid dark green , like rotting compost.

The feet of the six legs become thick and stumpy, while the legs strangely become thinner and then shorter to support the body... The actual being is less wrinkled now, yet more... lumpy? It looks like it lost weight - well proportionally, as it is now up to your waists easily instead of by your knees.

The knees become sharper with a strange scaled plating, and a tail emerges from the back... slime drips from it, and it is also made of some sort of dark chitinous material...

Then, lastly, a thin layer of perspiration appears on it as it's pores engorge, and it stumbles once before raising it's head to all of you.

A deep, bellow, guttural voice that sounds halfway between a grumble and a noisy belch emerges, "BUHRAWWAKK" gone are the noises of 'gah' 'nak' as it's facial structure has totally changed. The creature flares it's nostrils then, which unbelievably stretch to nearly the size of Emily's torso, each orifice large enough to insert a basketball.

Then, it takes a step back and with a change in posture as the shadows cling and linger to it's body...

BWASHooooooom!

The creature does not charge you all, but instead disappears faster than you can track it. It leaves a trail of some kind leading up and around the hill, and then some more away... but your vision is blocked.

---

Well then, what shall you all do?