EVENTS:


Eigla’s eyes widen as she recognizes the danger she’s in. Thinking fast, she fills her mind with memories of accepting Rosa, then grips her own shoulder. With a quick pull, her entire left arm is disarticulated, dozens of writhing maggots and vines fleeing the severed limb to climb back onto her torso. Throwing was never her forte, but she still manages to chuck the arm at the meatblob, and it lands straight in the middle of one of its eyes.

The creature reels in surprise, the side of its face melting into a thousand grimacing faces as it scratches futilely at its damaged eyeball.

Meatblob: ”AAAAH! Why are you doing this, Eigla? You’re only delaying the inevitable! I survived the kiln of the atom, and was thrice reborn in its fires! Recognise when you’re outmatched!”


The pause is just long enough for Eigla to jump on Bigrosa’s shoulder, before the ground quakes as the meatblob surges forwards, using the damaged truck as an improvised climber’s pick to launch itself up the cliff face. Hitting the ground with a thud, its collapses into an amorphous puddle for a moment, before sprouting armored, arthropod legs, and massively extending its neck like a nightmarish crossbreed of spider and brachiosaurus.


Rosa lets out a loud, echoing howl of warning, and feels gun ports open on her back to shoot at the monster, thought the bullets sink harmlessly into its sheer bulk. She starts trundling down the side of the hill, but the meatblob is close behind!

Meatblob: ”Where is she, Eigla? Let me end this nightmare! This is all her fault, Eigla! I am an abomination, but I was spawned from HER sin!”


_________________________________


Malia begins to worry. Rosa and Eigla have yet to return from the coast, and Klimt... Oh, there he is, and Sally is with him. Were they discussing something in private?

Sally: ”Yeah, ye can. Follow my lead.

AHEM.

MATEYS! CREWDOLLS AND SEA DOGS, OUR TIME HAS COME! TOO LONG WE’VE STARED AT THA’ CURSED KRAKENS AS THEY HARRY OUR PORT, BUT NO MORE! TODAY, WE TAKE THE FIGHT TO THEM! THE SANDS ARRR’ GONNA RUN RED WITH THEIR TAINTED INNARDS, AND WE’LL BRING BACK OUR SAILORS! TODAY WE DIE IN GLORY, ONCE AGAIN! A THOUSAND BOTTLES O’ RUM TO WHOEVER FELLS THE FIRST BEAST!”


Cheers erupt across the courtyard as nautical dolls raise their cutlasses and board their war buggies. A crude black flag is raised atop the stilt-walker’s main platform, while Kelly and her subordinates look in surprise and consternation.


Kelly: ”What. WHAT. WE HAVE A PERFECTLY DEFENSIBLE POSITION, WHY ARE YOU *CHARGING* THE MUD KINGS, YOU’RE GOING TO BE DECIMA-“

Sally: ”Oh, don’t try ta stop me, sister. Ye know I’d beat you in a melee. I’m doin’ what I shoulda done the moment the dirt-caked bilge rats showed up.

OI! KLIMT-BOY, REDHEAD. ARE YE WITH ME? LAST ONE TO THE BATTLE’S DAVY JONES’ CHEW TOY!”

She starts climbing onto the stilt-walker, waving at all of you with one of her drills. Following would probably be dangerous and reckless... But maybe she could break through the siege?

EVENTS:


Meatblob: "You... What?"

The meatblob reduces its pace, slightly disconcerted, then a flash of realization sweeps across its face. With one of its bony legs, it messily tears off half its face, dislodging Eigla's arm from its eye, then immediately chomps down onto it in a grisly buffet, like a starved dog desperately devouring a slab of rotting meat. Rosa takes the chance to sprint away, trying to leave the monster's line of sight, but there's only so much a sea creature can do on land.

When the blob finally gets up, its mauled cheek has been replaced by an oversized, grotesque mockery of Eigla's body, stretched like a tanned hide to cover the previously exposed skull. Blood streams from its eyes and mouth as it laughs a haunting, pained cackle.


Meatblob: "You still don't understand? You, you can't put two and two together? You would harbor this, this changeling, not even knowing the pain it has caused? HAH. HAAAAAAAAAAHHAHAHAH- *COUGH* *HACK*

...

Perhaps it's for the best. The one to survive should be the innocent. Do your worst, Eigla - defend me with all your might, as the shield you were made to be. Mourn and cherish my memory, even though it's a miserable pile of lies. Maybe then, something good may be left of this wretched life of mine.


ROSA! I KNOW WHO YOU ARE, EVEN IF YOU HIDE IN THAT SHELL OF CORRUPTION AND METAL. WE WERE BOTH BORN COWARDS, BUT WE DON'T NEED TO DIE AS SUCH. TURN AND FACE ME!"


The creature is now standing almost fully up, its form coalescing into something grotesquely humanlike, nearly forty feet tall. It is still for the moment, but there's no telling at what speed it'll move when it decides to do so.

Bigrosa is now almost at the base of the hill, and is able to see a few of the mud kings through the mist. Their movements seem hurried, moreso than before. It might be in response for her earlier call for help, but she feels something else in the air, an undercurrent of adrenaline and blood - The unmistakable smell of war.




______________________________________


Klimt and Malia and Emilia hop onto the stilt-walker as it lumbers out of the Rig's walls, followed closely by the rest of Sally's battallion. Its great strides make short work of the rugged terrain, and within a few minutes they can see and smell the enemy - A great horde of inhuman, tentacular beasts, trundling through the mists like a single, impossibly large sheet of animated muck.


Sally: "FIIIIIIIRE!"

The walker stumbles as the great mortar atop its back lobs several hundred pounds of explosives towards the mud army, and the other vehicles follow suit with their respective machineguns and harpoons. Like a postapocalyptic analogue to a napoleonic firing line, the Rig's forces advance at full tilt, unloading deafening volleys of fire and death with every step.

Klimt grits his teeth. The cacophony of explosions, the smell of sulfur and gunpowder... Memories of the War threaten to flood into his mind, but he shuts them off. There's no time for distractions. Malia simply regards the combat interestedly, taking in the novelty of such large scale carnage.


Within seconds, the two forces have collided, armor plates and barbed wire smashing against bone and mud. Flesh and metal fly across the air, and screams join the symphony of gunfire. Sally steps atop the railing of the walker's deck as it clumsily kicks and stomps the monsters beneath.

Sally: "Prepare ta' board, landlubbers."

In a Giant's Stride, she's gone.

EVENTS:


Breathing deep, Eigla feels her throat shift and unfold like a set of bellows, boosting the volume of her questioning scream, almost matching the thunderous intensity of the meatblob's maniacal war cries.


Eigla: "I still have no idea what you're talking about! Have you considered explaining!?"


The monster steps closer, shifting its mass forwards as it struggles to remain bipedal. A thousand faces press against the distended skin of its abdomen, most of them belonging to either Eigla or Rosa, but some bearing the mouthless visages of the factory's guards, or the vague quadrupedal forms of timber wolves. For a fleeting moment, Eigla thinks she sees a familiar bearded face amid the chaos, but it soon disappears.


Meatblob: "That, is the entire point, Eigla. What do you think has twisted me so far out of shape? I know what she has done, what I have done, and it eats away at my soul.

What good would you knowing the nature of her crime do? The hate would unmake you, as it's done to me."


Rosa stands her ground, though she cannot tell if it's defiance or merely fear-induced paralysis. The Echoes writhe inside her, trying futilely to process their precarious situation. Through her rangefinder, she can't help but stare at the the meatblob's form, as it slowly coalesces into a copy of her own, and takes several more tentative steps towards the two Dolls.

Meatblob: "Come, Rosa. We can't redeem ourselves, but we can try. You've willingly stepped into me, twice before - Deep down, you know it's the right thing to do. It's time to die."



_____________________________


Klimt decides to not follow behind Sally, instead bracing himself as the stilt-walker stomps at the creatures below. The mud kings seem to lack any of the larger units he's expecting, instead relying on sheer numbers and brute force to try and overwhelm the Rig's forces. A crude strategy, certainly, but it seems to be working.

He feels Emilia touch his shoulder - The barrage of gunfire makes talking impossible, but her eyes let him know, in no uncertain terms, that she approves of his decision to stay. Malia, on the other hand, seems to be preparing herself for combat, and a voice on the back of his head suggests that she'll aid him if he chooses to fight.

"You are deformed. Whatever strata the meatblob is made of enhances emotions beyond any human extreme.
The blob was fanatical when we first met it, though Eigla was calm.
You became nihilistic and maddened when I joined you, despite my conditioning.

My pattern's nature means that even if Eigla wasn't all there in the arm you consumed, I certainly was, even moreso after you ate my body. And yet you persist in your drive.
I am confident I can handle any guilt thrown at me. Whatever my past was... I am no longer that past. I can accept it, however painful. It may hurt. But I have too much to live for now to choose death willingly.

So, something in you causes this. You seek oblivion because your substance forces action, and blinds you to alternatives.
You want death. You need acceptance."

Hum.
Hum to the blob. Show me your pain, then. If it is so terrible, it will crush me and you win. If I'm right, I will help you.
Hum to the kings. If you want unity and togetherness, now is the time. I have never, and will never, have greater need of you than now. And this one as well. It is hurt and tainted, and alone. Come to me. Help me. Help me help the demon.

"Eigla. I may be about to do something stupid."
Holding off on the stupid for now.

EVENTS:


The now fully-formed Rosa squats in front of Eigla and Bigrosa, looking at them a single bloodshot eye, as the Eigla growing from its skull convulses weakly. Surprisingly, its voice seems... Stable, almost calm.


Meatblob: "Stubborn as always - I did not expect otherwise.

Sigh.

I don't seek violence, or acceptance. There's just an order, to things. Laws that must be obeyed. I- Hah, I had thought to spare you - the both of you, from the truth, but I see that won't work.

Let me show you, then."


The creature opens its mouth, cheeks unravelling to let its jaw drop almost all the way to the floor, as its throat bulges outwards, tonsils expanding into a fleshy, tentacular mass, covered in nervous tissue. A few dozen heads sprout from it, talking in lieu of the meatblob's disabled vocal organs.

Meatblob: "Come. I doubt you'd let me eat either of you, so I offer my own throat. See what I have seen, as I saw it when I first devoured that cursed arm."


__________________________________________

Klimt signals his intentions to Emilia, then begins walking towards the edge of the platform. She extends an arm to try and stop him, but moves too slowly. Using a tentacle like a bungee cord, he flings himself towards the muck below.


...


Mud. That's the first thing he notices, as he tries to steady himself amid the debris littering the battlefield. Every movement takes effort, as the very soil seems to try and suck him below. Emilia hits the ground a few feet behind him, while Malia calmly lowers herself from the platform with a spool of thread.

The explosions seem more subdued here, as the piles of dead mudmen and broken vehicles serve as sound barriers. There is no sign of Sally, and the few Dolls that are visible amid the carnage are far too damaged to be of use.

The ground shakes as the stilt-walker stomps again, and you realise what it had been trying to fight - A pair of mud kings are restraining the machine's hind leg with their tentacles, as a large mass of mudmen tries to climb onto the metallic structure. They do not seem to have noticed you yet - Could be a good chance to slip by and go look for Sally, or attack them from behind.