Play Testers Wanted

Play Testers Wanted: Pt. 12

First, I hope this finds you healthy and happy. This one was another fun piece to write and flesh out as it went. Feel free to vote, comment, and offer up suggestions. I'll take them into consideration if I can.

Earth 9919: Impossible and Beyond

Mist shrouded trees greeted me on the other side. I pulled up and easily rose above them and took in the very earthly scent of cedar, pine, and flowing water. While it had been winter on one side here it was either spring or fall. The evergreens left me guessing but soon that was the least of my concerns. The sky was darkening, and I suppose the sun had already touched the horizon. Speaking of the horizon, a great mountain range dominated the landscape. The mountains had a strange regular shape to them. I gained altitude and headed for the far side of those rolling jutting stony protrusions. I felt my mind playing tricks as I swore, I was flying over a sloping hip, a very womanly hip as of some reclined beauty. But that wasn't possible! That hip was thousands of feet high. The minutes ticked by as I swung over the ridge and beyond.

"By Anackire," I cursed for below me the hip led southerly to a range in the shape of a dancer's legs. I banked and headed north. Miles of hip dipped to a torso shaped ridge capped with two great ornamental breasts miles across. The great feminine body was twisted with hip touching the ground, yet her breasts aimed at the sky. Her slender neck two miles long and led to a cyclopean head carved into the face of god like perfection. Was this the body of an earth goddess? Was this her corpse or did she yet live? Dare I reach out and attempt to touch a living mind?

"Coward!" I cried and let the thermals hold me aloft above her parted lips. I drove my consciousness down into the rock.

'Goddess? Dost thou yet live?' I sent unsure and fearful. I was an insect to be swatted out of the sky if I proved an annoyance.

One of her arms ran along her torso and under her breasts. The other ran above her head away from her body into the woods and vanished under the canopy of treetops. Had this range of mountains somehow been carved with unearthly skill? Who so ancient a people could have fashioned such a fantastical adoration of the female form? The task was beyond reason. Miles upon miles of cold dark stone formed for worship and praise.

'I must continue to seek out understanding.' I sent before I turned west and left the impossible figure behind me. Had Steph ever seen anything like this? Twenty miles or more from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet. Was she Gaia sleeping and this the dawn of this world's history? Anything was possible. The lightning blast leapt from a series of rolling hills. It missed me by scant feet and prepared I raised a shield around me so that when the second attack came it deflected harmlessly away. I looked down and spied the group of six creatures, one of them was lowering the lightning gun. I winced when I heard their harsh piping voices. I was prepared when the collective of six minds attempted to pierce my thoughts.

'Rude!' I sent in response.

'Sentient!' One of them excitedly exclaimed mentally.

'Alien,' Another growled menacingly.

'Vote.' Yet another of the collective urged.

As they voted I circled above them. They spent the next few hours debating what to do with me. While I minded them invading my thoughts, they didn't fear me listening in on their surface thoughts. They were torn between destroying me outright, dissecting me, or attempting to communicate with me. I examined them and recognized them as one of the Oldest Races of Earth. In one of Steph's books of lore they were called the Elder Things. The main portion of their body was about seven feet in height supported by a series of five powerful segmented legs that ended in what the author had called a pseudo foot. A series of multicolored tubes crowned their head and was the source of their piping voices, whistling breathing, and occasional shrill swallowing sound. On either side of the torso were bat like membranous wings that when they were stretched out, as they were now, spread out a full fifteen feet from tip to tip. Located about mid torso and spaced equally around their 'equator' were five articulated arms that ended in six manipulator tentacles. The arms ended in thin dexterous tips that hinted at the ability of these beings to produce fine craftsmanship or delicate surgeries.

If the stories were true, they were extremely gifted genetic engineers and much of Earth's life was because of their manipulations. I shifted into their form but instead of the dull brown blending to steely greys I chose a more monochromatic color scheme with a black torso lightening only as far as gunmetal grey. It took time to get used to their sensory organs and the massive brains hidden within their tough leathery torsos. Much like a cephalopod they had multiple brains scattered over their form giving them a resilience few other creatures I had encountered. The lightning gun was once more aimed in my direction.

'Shoggoth?' One of them questioned.

The mental image in its head was terrifying. A shifting mass of pseudo flesh that could adopt any function or shape they might require. Their organic technology was embodied in these servitors. They erected their homes, their other machinery, and fought for them as foot soldiers in their ongoing war against the Many Angled Ones. I am not being disrespectful as the entire species are capable of reproduction on their own, so the sense of gender is alien to them.

'Shifter.' I sent since their spoken language was beyond me. 'Shall I take on a less distasteful form?'

'Our form is hardly distasteful as you say. Why are you here?' It asked while the other five observed and listened in.

'My world is threatened by the Many Angled Ones. I seek any weakness they might possess.' I replied and that sent them into a mental frenzy. As they buzzed around like angry hornets I looked around, sniffed the air, and discovered a host of other senses these primordial beings possessed. Was it the fact that fucked a Skrull, or the mask, or the training from the Ia' Kandri that gave me access to these amazing experiences? How do you put into words sensory input that are so alien to anything that I have yet encountered? Their visual organs allow them to taste the entire electromagnetic spectrum. The infrared portion had a lemony flavor while x-rays had a slight bitter aftertaste to them.

'We will help you, if you aid us.' The speaker for the Elder Things announced tearing me away from the chocolatey goodness that was the ultraviolet end of things.

'I never knew that sight could be so delicious,' I replied almost drunkenly. 'What can I do for you?'

'A rogue Shoggoth is creating chaos at one of our mana processing plants. We need you to set things right.' It explained. 'Here are the coordinates for the installation. Good luck, you are going to need it.'

They spread their wings and flew off. I pulled down my HUD and found I was suffering from sensory overload and advised to change to a less complicated shape. I reverted to the eagle form, checked my current location and then where I was meant to go. I was able to pin the new location to my HUD and follow it as I flew. I wondered what mana processing was. I launched into the air and pondered why I never did this earlier. This isn't as fast as teleportation but much more fun. I reached the plant before midnight. The structure was a series of cyclopean blocks carved from black basalt and polished to a mirror like surface. A deep ruddy glow came from the heart of the complex.

I circled over that portion and discovered that it was in fact an open volcanic rift. At first, I thought I was seeing waves of heat distortion but in fact there were creatures crawling in and out of the vent. I watched fascinated as the Shoggoth leaving the rift moved to a portion of the plant and spat out ingots of bright blue glowing material. That must be raw mana I was seeing. Was it a power source? Did they use it for magic, technology, or did they practice technomancy like the Svartalfar? A shrill piping filled the air as and the Shoggoth seemed to lose concentration and fell into the rift or spat out incomplete ingots that shone with a ruddy light before falling apart and darkening. The piper was a massive Shoggoth, thrice the size of his fellows.

"Fuck me, no wonder they didn't want to deal with this thing." I cursed. How the hell was I supposed to tame it? These things crawl in and out of superheated fissures all day every day. Energy based attacks were going to be useless that leaves my Darksaber out of the mix. Its plastic nature and shapeshifting made it nigh on invulnerable to conventional weapons. The only thing that might work is mind altering spells or abilities. I wonder if Kiai-Jutsu might work. It seemed like a good first attempt. Let's see if I can calm it, or perhaps put it to sleep. If I took on the form of an Elder Thing, it might improve my chances of success. I shifted back to their form and glided down and landed far enough away to be able to teleport if I had to.

"Calm yourself big fella," I crooned using the gentlest voice I could. "Everyone calm down and go back to work."

The others did just that. They never hesitated to comply with my orders. However, this big motherfucker had a mind of its own. He fought me tooth and nail. Something was going on and the shininess of his flesh dimmed as he changed. He shifted to a standing position as his outline took on a definite humanoid form. By that I meant a rudimentary head, torso, arms and legs took shape. His height tripled and when it popped vestigial wings, an octopoid head, groping talons, and facial tentacles I knew I was going to have to change up my attack plan. It roared sending the other Shoggoth into a panic. It was like a cattle stampede as they raced from the complex into the untouched wilds beyond.

"Fucking fuckety fuck," I cursed. "Just had to do that huh." I let my gut guide my actions and in that way my form became that of a dragon. The change happened without conscious thought. Before I knew it, I was eye to eye with the rogue. He struck without hesitating. His claws raked my armored chest and the pain snapped me out of inaction. "Yeah... fuck you too!!" I raged and returned the favor. My talons slashed its face, but the damn thing just shifted and healed instantly. We exchanged strikes as a storm formed above us. I reached out for a mind and found nothing, well nothing that passed for true sentience. It was a malfunctioning machine that wasn't quite self-aware, but I felt I was on the cusp of it. A particularly painful strike got a knee jerk reaction from me.

"Eat this motherfucker!" I screamed as an earth-shattering blast of lightning struck the area and forced the Shoggoth into its gelatinous form. "Ha! Did that hurt!! How... about... this???" The world went white as I rained down blast after blast of star hot plasma. I felt a rage that consumed me utterly. In the end the only thing left was a bubbling puddle of goo. I fried the remains as the six Elder Things teleported into view. I felt their arrival before I turned to face them. "It is dead, I can summon the others back if you wish."

"You can," one of the replied in perfect English. "Do so, I find that intriguing."

I sang softly and soothed the herd before urging them back to work. They rolled back into the rift and soon the cycle was restored. I levitated one of the ingots for inspection. While they discussed about what they had just witnessed I examined the mana alloy. It was a brilliant mix of a metal and a power source. A weapon forged from this would likely have a keen razor-sharp force field around it allowing it to slice through just about anything and deliver a cauterizing effect while it slays its target. The possibilities just got more interesting from there.

"We will show you how to seal away the Many Angled Ones," they agreed to keep their word and teach me. "Keep it as a token of our appreciation."

"Your people are truly amazing," I said.

"We know." He replied casually. "Follow us... once you've shrunk down."

'Trophy Earned: Shoggoth Wrangler.'

I shifted from the draconic form I had taken. One of them touched a small device attached to a cunningly concealed harness it was wearing. A portal opened and all of us traveled to the citadel of the Elder Things. It was monstrously huge and there they lived in their millions. I was informed that they owed their peace and prosperity to a flexible caste system. Infants of their race were tested across the board to find the best niche for them to serve society. If they tired or wished to improve their status they could apply to an academy and train for a new position. Over the millions of years their race had flourished they found a certain amount of leniency was a good thing.

I got the full tour of the key locations of the city and even got to view the foundry and other places where the mana ingots were processed and turned into tools, weapons, and even works of art. Their own technology rivaled if not surpassed the Dark Elves in a few critical schools of thought. I won't lie, I was finding ways of not just using the ingot in my grasp but how to somehow make my own. Their workstations far outstripped anything I had ever seen. It made the one on my ship look primitive. They could create flexible panels of mana alloy that were one molecule thick and produced an amazing amount of energy.

It was this development that allowed them to manufacture their signature lightning guns that were so effective against the Many Angled One's minions. They were just the basics in the Elder Thing's arsenal against the world changing threats offered by these extradimensional beings. I spent hours watching and touching the thoughts of engineers, craftsman, and artisans to see how they manipulated the unique alloy. The one secret they kept was its manufacturing. I didn't blame them. If I had something like this, I'd lock it away in a vault at the core of a planet. I was pondering how to apply this to the Darksaber to improve its damage and versatility. I could potentially double if not triple its damage, vary blade length with a thought, and who knows what other nasty surprises I could come up with.

Once my tour was completed, they handed me a spell tome that instructed me how to fashion something called an Elder Sign. It was one-part mystical seal and one-part crucifix. It could hold them at bay and if placed in direct contact with said bad guy it would drive them back to their home dimension or if a containment area is prepared, seal them away there. My first thought when I handled the pyramid shaped device was that it was akin to a holocron, I was wrong. They directed me to a reading room. Dozens of immobile Elder Things stood transfixed as they held the open devices that gave off a shimmering light and a variety of pleasant scents.

"Here," the librarian said showing me how to open it. "Hold it close in this position and breathe normally." I stood within a specialized spell circle, held the device against my chest under my chin. I triggered the switch and opened the tome. I breathed in through my nose and out my mouth. The scent was faint at first but grew stronger quickly. The sculpted hallucination hit my brain and replaced everything else my conscious mind was processing.

"Attend." The Elder Thing said in flawless English. "First, you must gather the following ingredients..." The tome had everything needed to not just create an Elder Sign but a containment cell as well. I watched and tried to memorize the vast quantity of information being given to me. "Stop! Have you never experienced a living tome before?"

"No. This is my first." I explained and the instructor made what sounded to me like a rude piping noise as he reverted to his native language.

"My apologies for such foul language." He said.

"That is okay, I don't speak your language." I replied.

"Unacceptable! How am I to convey the subtle nuances of this art to you. Let us begin anew. I am designated Third Dawn of the Seventh Moon."

"My friends call me Ghost, or Ghost Fire if you prefer a more official form." I said.

"I do not understand. What is a friend?" He fired back and I knew he was serious.

"It is a social designation for someone that I trust and whose companionship I enjoy." I stated attempting to pass on so alien a concept to him.

"I do not understand. That would imply there are members of your species that you do not socialize with or as you put it enjoy their company." He said with a clear tone of shock in his voice. "Are you not mentally bonded at birth?"

"I am unusual for my people. We do not typically possess telepathy and our spoken language is limited." I replied and that sent him into a piping frenzy.

"A misspoken word... chaos... how do you keep from conflict amongst yourselves?" He asked and saw the answer in my thoughts. "War amidst your own... unforgivable."

"We are limited by our evolution. So many flagrant issues with biology alone." I said and he tied into my surface images of using the mouth for eating, drinking, breathing, and speaking.

"I agree. Your species is very inefficient." He stated. "Let us begin our first language lesson."

So, it began. I thought Svartalfar sword combat was difficult. It didn't begin to touch the complexity of thought and mechanism attached to the language of the Elder Things. I spent more and more time in their form to simply be able to produce the sounds required. It was Ossus all over again. I lost track of time but eventually I mastered enough rudimentary skill to 'read' the tome and others they deemed me worthy of possessing. Creating an Elder Sign was a long and arduous process. It would have to be to lock away an ancient god. Then the impossible thought entered my mind, could rune magic be used to lock up said ancient god? A rune item or weapon with a dark entity in it, how cool would that be. What could possibly go wrong?

I closed the book and examined the spell circle I was standing in. I memorized it so that I could dissect it later. No need I discovered, one of the other books possessed precise directions on creating it and its varied uses. Amongst the primary purposes was long term study since its magics kept the being inside of it fed and all bodily processes maintained. They really took education to the next level. I thanked the librarian and that took nearly an hour to explain the concept of that particular human cultural interaction. I was offered two ingots of mana to perform a lecture on basic human culture. They were so intrigued by the alien concepts they wanted to know about specific city states and individual cultures. In the end I earned a whopping twenty ingots explaining our culture as varied as it was to them. For their entire existence there had been one people, one culture, and a single society. They had a field day listening to the nature of human laws and how wide and inconsistent they were.

"You mean to tell me that rules in one location can differ from another that is across an imaginary boundary?" One of them asked.

"Yes, but there are typically governmental laws that outweigh local ones, usually." I replied.

"How do you avoid anarchy and utter chaos?" Another asked.

"Patience and understanding usually win out." I said. "They have a phrase we are only human. Which means, we are flawed but we do our best."

"Logical for such a limited species," one of them commented and the group agreed.

"Humans value freedom over logic," I added.

In the end they paid, quite well I might add, for a complete rundown of religious, cultural, and even spiritual traditions. I spent weeks there going over a huge variety of subjects that they found interesting and I was happy to go into whatever level of detail I was able to. They were a methodical race and dissected every mote of data I provided them. I'd give a lecture one day and they would return with a hundred or more questions the next. One thing the Elder Things didn't possess and found almost blasphemous was the concept of artificial intelligence. The closest thing they had were the Shoggoths. But even then, they were designed as a slave race and barely registered on the sentience meter. There were the occasional rogues but that didn't seem to bother them. They simply destroyed the offending batch and tweaked the next generation to improve their control over it.