[IC] New Crobuzon & the World Beyond

[Selina Parcellus]

Selina responds simply by smiling and bowing her head slightly in a brief nod, before sweeping her arm in a gesture that suggests the group please continue their journey. In that one simple movement, she is doing exactly what the vestige has been asking for the entire time (which is also what Selina herself has been urging since the moment they landed in these godsforsaken caverns), but also not even speaking. Let's see what that vestige has to say now.

[GM Marvel]

You all trek off into the blackness.  Selina's Cameo was lighting the way but the darkness still felt like it was pressing in on top of you like a heavy blanket. Even the air seems stale like you're breathing in the warm, dank, exhalations of some massive beast, which in a way you were.  The land was a living organism, with all the sweat, bodily fluids and fetid excrement a living creature expels.  There are points where the flesh beneath your feet is thinner allowing you to vaguely see strange organs pumping blood and other fluids, that keeps this massive living thing alive.  At about the 30 minute mark you arrive at a field of gaping eyes of sizes ranging from halfling sized to huge 20' diameter orbs.  Making things creepier, as you pass, the eyes turn to watch you.  They were probably attracted to your light but it was still unnerving to be stared at by scores of unblinking, bloodshot eyes.  Around 50 minutes into the trek you finally see a wall with boulder.  As you walk closer you quickly realize the boulders had completely transformed into giant chunks of stinking flesh with what smelled like the worst body odor you've ever imagined.  A combination of sweat, excrement, bacteria and yeast, all combined into a biohazardous soup, oozing from between the chunks of flesh, hair, teeth and bone.

[Selina Parcellus]

[[Spoopy.  OOCly, I'm suspecting some massive Hallucinatory Terrain effect, but Selina can't possibly know that so I'll react as she would.  Also, you said "about 50 minutes", which means that Conviction has already worn off.]]

To say Selina was disgusted would be an understatement.  The hideousness of this 'living' land knew no end.  Thankfully, for her sake, the effects of others' bodies was not something she truly feared.  She grew up in a convent surrounded by some of the best healers in the land.  She had trained in Medicine and Biology since the day she began to walk and talk.  She was a Cleric of the highest caliber.  She could be disgusted by something and still move on.  No.  Her fear was something else entirely.  And everyone except Elphaba had witnessed it firsthand.  This was not going to break her.  Not when they were all so close to the end.

She purses her lips and stones her features.  "A wall.  A wall of flesh.  I wonder if it reacts in the same way flesh normally does..."  She draws her weapon, hearing the sharp hiss of sound curling off the edges.

[Betimi]

Completely unperturbed by either the darkness, nor the oozing mass of boulders Betimi moves closer to look for any way past.  

"Do we have any magics that can melt away large volumes of flesh? I do not think stone shaping magics would work, even if we had them."

[GM Marvel]

"Does anyone want to volunteer to be a gelatinous cube or some other ooze or flesh devouring creature?" Elphaba says with a small grin.  "I have one more Polymorph that's itching to be used."

Simon examines the fleshy mass of boulders then softly says to himself, "That's odd."

[Selina Parcellus]

Selina quirks one brow at Elphaba...then decides against speaking up.  Then she quirks it again at Simon's musing.  "What is?"

[Crozar the Sunspot]

Walking through the fleshly territory, Crozar noted the expression of disgust and discomfort that passed over it's companions faces.  It was an interesting experience to see mammals going through the same kind of gut-twisting reaction to a bigger mammal as the cacatae of felt on a smaller scale with normal mammals, and watching it play out gave Crozar a level of abstraction from the revolting and repulsive terrain.  The plant man was glad, as this land expressed all the less pleasant features of a giant mammalian monstrosity, that they had not come upon whatever orifices it used to consume the raw material that it expelled all over Kubo.  

Even with the distraction of his companions, the overwhelming and disturbing oppression of the surrounding dark and seemingly endless skin had begun to wear on Crozar's mind.  So long separated from the warming caress of Sunshad, it could feel a depressive funk that was almost as alien to the generally upbeat plant-man as Betimi or Elphaba's vestiges settling into it's mind.  Particularly the field of eyes began to play tricks on it's mind and even when they were past it, Crozar could still feel the weight of that multitudinous unblinking gaze at it's back.  

As the group came upon the fleshy boulders that seemed to block the entrance of the cave, Crozar was momentarily stunned, flooded with the hundreds of mouth sores and similar diseases that it had seen among the mammalian inhabitants of New Crobuzon.  Trepidation obvious in its voice, Crozar asked, "Elphaba, are you sure that this cave is an actual cave and not a feeding orifice for whatever this land has become?"

[GM Marvel]

Selina quirks one brow at Elphaba...then decides against speaking up.  Then she quirks it again at Simon's musing.  "What is?"

"Oh?" Simon exclaims as he's startled out of his deep thoughts.  "Ahhh... well it's odd, at least to me, that so much corruption of the flesh seems to be focused on this spot.  Obviously everything has been really disgusting but this place seems particularly nasty."  When Crozar mentions the possibility of this cave being a feeding orifice, Simon raises an eye brow and says, "Considering everything that moss touches seems to be transformed into some kind of fleshy thing, I think Crozar's concerns are well founded."

[Kubo]

"Does anyone want to volunteer to be a gelatinous cube or some other ooze or flesh devouring creature?" Elphaba says with a small grin.  "I have one more Polymorph that's itching to be used."

Simon examines the fleshy mass of boulders then softly says to himself, "That's odd."

"It didn't cause me no harm last time!", exclaims Kubo

[GM Marvel]

As the group came upon the fleshy boulders that seemed to block the entrance of the cave, Crozar was momentarily stunned, flooded with the hundreds of mouth sores and similar diseases that it had seen among the mammalian inhabitants of New Crobuzon.  Trepidation obvious in its voice, Crozar asked, "Elphaba, are you sure that this cave is an actual cave and not a feeding orifice for whatever this land has become?"

"All I knew was this 'cave' was blocked.  I honestly don't know what's beyond.  I only know there's a cave because I did some scrying and for an instant I saw a tunnel but then something blocked my divination and I couldn't reestablish it again.  And it's possible you could be right.  The mouth of the cave could be a literal mouth but it's doubtful.  If it were a feeding orifice why hasn't it fed on the boulders of flesh pressing up against it?  You'd think it would have quite the feast but the entrance is still blocked."