The Relentless Slaughter [Round 3: Tormentorland]

The Relentless Slaughter [Round 3: Tormentorland]
#83
Re: The Relentless Slaughter [Round 2: S'kkoi]
Originally posted on MSPA by Ixcalibur.

Doubt was Martin’s biggest problem.

Well doubt and a group of dangerous fish-people who did not seem to hold any fondness for him.

The eel lady, who seemed to be the leader of the small group of fish people, didn’t believe him when he said that he was not of the Brotherhood of the Burning Fin, and that he had in fact never heard of the Brotherhood before now. Though to be fair to her, his voice reflected the uncertainty he felt on the matter. He certainly didn’t remember joining any Brotherhood of the Burning Fin, but who was to say what he had done in the time before he could remember? Samael had explained to him that he was in a battle to the death, but before then who knows what he was thinking? There was the potential he had joined up with them simply because it seemed like what he was supposed to be doing. Though that didn’t really explain how he had ended up on his own in the middle of the ruins; the place which was the first thing he could remember in this battle. No he figured he probably was not a member of the Brotherhood of the Burning Fin. Not that the eel lady who was leading the way down the tunnel was likely to believe him anyway; no matter how solid his conviction.

Martin was pretty confused. It was perhaps not his most immediate concern, but the fact that there were other people here had been bothering him, and finally as he came face to scaly face with those people he figured out what that concern was. It was that they lived here. They had not been put here as a hazard, this was their home, as bizarre as that might seem. Now, if he were the sort of person inclined to do this sort of thing, if he got some kind of weird kick out of strangers slowly murdering one another til only one remained, then he would want to set his conflict in a secluded environment; one where there was no possibility of a bystander contacting the authorities. What kind of person had so much power that they could do this kind of thing without fear of repercussions? It was a baffling thought, and more than a little chilling to imagine that one person could have all that power.

Of course all that was dependant upon Martin believing Samael’s explanation for everything that was going on here; an issue on which he was not one hundred percent certain. But how else could he account for his current form, for his current whereabouts, for the crab knowing about him and his malfunction? He sighed. Ever since his malfunction doubt had always been his biggest problem; his lack of memories, his lack of context, meaning he could never really be truly sure of anything. Well he was sure of one thing; this entire thing was giving him a headache.


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Samael continued to make his way down the dark tunnels. He had heard the echoes of Martin bumping into the fish people, but he didn’t really have a way to respond to that; turning around was not an option, there had been no alcoves in which he could conceivably hide and even then he doubted that his bulky form would go unnoticed. No, his only real option was to press slowly on and hope that some means of evading them would present itself before they caught up to him. Internally he cursed whatever crazy train of thought had possessed him to come down here.

The passage twisted around a final time and then opened up into a dimly lit cavern. It was… well… cavernous. Almost immediately the rocky floor dropped away on both sides, though the path that Samael had followed continued; a massive rocky outcrop stretching into the centre of the cavern. Throughout the cavern there were patches of moss-like bioluminescent algae emitting a faint pale blue glow. Samael hesitated at the entrance to the tunnel, peering down at the murky depths below the outcropping. He could not swim, and he was heavy enough that he did not doubt that such a fall would be, if not fatal, that at very least debilitating. A narrow ledge of rock stretched off to the right of the tunnel mouth, just wide enough to for Samael to stand upon, maybe, he was not really certain. It looked precarious, but the only other apparent option was the outcrop and really, he might as well paint a bullseye on himself.

Samael reached out with one of his stubby crab legs and hesitantly tested the ledge. Even under a tentative prod, part of the ledge crumbled away, dispersing dust into the water around it. Chunks of rock ricocheted off the cave wall as they plummeted into the murky abyss. Damn, he thought to himself, suddenly finding himself out of places to go with the sound of unfriendly fish-people getting ever closer.


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Martin kept expecting to run into Samael as they descended down the tunnel, but he never did, and soon they were emerging from the claustrophobic confines of the tunnel into a cavern that was practically agoraphobic. Martin, his limbs still pinned to his side by the bizarrely strong grip of the octopus ladies, had no choice but to follow the group into the cavern, along the rocky outcrop, to the point where it concluded; a heavy stone altar, discoloured from ink and blood.

“Great Mother!” The eel woman bellowed to the vast cavern. “We bring you one of the Brotherhood!” For a moment there did not seem to be any response. Martin glanced from one member of the Sisterhood to the next. Then he followed their gaze, down into the murkiness beneath him. In the depths something moved; something enormous. A dark shape grew and grew as it rose; an enormous mass of tentacles the colour of rust. It rose past the outcropping, finally coming to a stop in front of the group, its numerous tentacles trailing in the depths below. Massive inky black eyes regarded Martin coldly. The beast’s maw was filled with rows upon rows of razor sharp teeth and was large enough to potentially swallow him whole.

“Oh.” Caridea’s booming voice was tinged with what sounded almost like disappointment. Though perhaps not quite disappointment as such, more like incomprehension. “I don’t think I like this little man, who is he and why does he keep staring at me like that?” The eel lady rounded upon Martin and slapped him across the face with her tail.

“You are not worthy to gaze upon the wondrous visage of the Great Mother.” She snapped. “Avert your eyes while we decide your fate.” In the presence of the Great Mother doing what he was told seemed like a very good idea indeed. Though he stopped staring at her face, he found it impossible to avert his eyes completely; she was almost omnipresent, everywhere he looked in the cavern there was some part of her. “I apologise for this brother’s impudence, Great Mother.” The eel lady continued. “I found him-”

“I found another little man.” The Great Mother interrupted excitedly. “He was floating down down down into my deep dark depths on the back of a delicious green oval.” There was an awkward silence.

“That is…” The eel lady floundered for words to describe what that was, “fantastic.” She finished. “This man,” she gestured back towards Martin with a flick of her tail. “is a member of the Brotherhood of the Burning Fin and-”

“Loook!” The Great Mother raised one of her countless tentacles to just in front of the group. Contained in her grasp Samael looked equal parts terrified, bewildered and bored if such a mixture of emotions were possible. One of his claws was pinned by his side, and it was possible to see a slew of jagged cuts along the tentacle that held him. They were the best he could do, but bearing in mind the size of the Great Mother they might as well have been papercuts. “He isn’t very talkative.” The Great Mother mused as she shook him violently from side to side. “He didn’t want to play with Tabitha. He makes me very sad.” Tabitha, as Samael could rather unfortunately testify, was the bloated carcass of a blue whale. The Great Mother had been rather insistent that he play with her pet.

“Another infiltrator from the Brotherhood of the Burning Fin!” The eel lady exclaimed. “Who knows what diabolical machinations he would have put in play had you not stopped him?”

“What’s the Brotherhood of the Boring Fin?” Caridea asked curiously. She raised a tentacle from the depths; shaped like a scoop and filled with massive chunks of melon. She gulped it down happily.

“The Brotherhood of the Burning Fin is the cult lead by that blowhard shark Elder Carcharodon.” The eel lady practically spat his name. “It was probably these two that somehow disrupted our ritual to summon Soggoth.”

“Soggoth!” The Great Mother suddenly exclaimed. “We need to summon Soggoth! He whispers to me in my sleep. He is so very lonely. It is really quite sad.” There was a pause as her inky black eyes darted back and forth between Martin and Samael. “These little men don’t want me to see Soggoth?”

“Precisely, Great Mother.” The eel woman replied. “They are very bad men.”

“KILL THEM BOTH!” The Great Mother exclaimed. “Soggoth will be so pleased; he likes it when the little men bleed.” Martin’s heart pounded fast, or well it did not because he did not technically have a flesh and blood heart any more, but he felt that same panic. Maybe he hadn’t been all that panicked before now because everything felt so unreal? It still felt pretty unreal so that likely was not the problem. More likely it was that before the sight of the Great Mother he had not really believed that these fish people could kill him.

“I’m not with the Brotherhood!” Martin exclaimed, finally finding his voice. “I don’t know any Brotherhood and I don’t know Soggoth.” It was at this point, as the multitude of fish people prepared to sacrifice Martin and Samael, that the voice of the void ripped through the world, demanding the blood of a god; demanding the death of Dorin.

“Soggoth!” The Great Mother pressed her face up against one of the numerous openings dotted across the walls of the cavern. “Great Soggoth! Mighty Soggoth! How handsome you look! I will find you your Dorin! I will open the way for you!” In a quick movement Caridea was back before the group of visibly concerned looking fish people. “These aren’t a Dorin!” The Great Mother scoffed at Martin and Samael. “Get out there and find a god called Dorin!”

“You heard the Great Mother!” The eel woman snapped. “We don’t have time to deal with these two.” For the first time in a good ten to fifteen minutes Martin felt the pressure upon his limbs lift. The members of the Sisterhood were not wasting any time. They were halfway to the tunnel entrance already and they were moving faster than they had when they’d dragged him down here.

“…And don’t you dare let that Brotherhood find it first. Soggoth is mine, all mine!” The Great Mother called after them.

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Re: The Relentless Slaughter [Round 2: S'kkoi] - by Ixcaliber - 03-09-2012, 08:11 AM