2021-01-23 Ia, Ia, Vhjunka Fhtagn! Part 1

Iä, Iä Vhjunka fhtagn!
Harvey finds a Nightmare
IC Date	23rd of January, 2021
Players	Harvey, Gogh as Cthulhu ST.
Location	Below United Salvage Scrapyard
Prp/Tp	Storyline PRP
Spheres	Ratkin / Wyld / Gaian / BOO WEAVER!
Theme Song	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwHzmPYrROY - Iä Iä!

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  Iä Iä Vhjunka Fhtagn!

The United Salvage Yard. The home of the Noble Magic Rats. The trophy of victory over the Get of Fenris. The place Gogh bit one of them. It's a good place. It's also a dump. This does not take away from the fact that, to an Engineer, it's near heaven. There is junk everywhere. There are materials. There are all sorts of things. And there is solid, heavy earth, for digging and tunnels!

Over the buildings comes a large drone. It moves low, and it moves fast; buzzing over the rooftops as if to minimize people being able to catch sight of it. It whurrs over the United Salvage yard. The Ratkins territory now. And it was time they started to deal with it. The drone comes to a landing on top of a pile of wrecks, its blades stopping. From the little canopy under it comes a black rat. He stops, rising up on his hind legs and sniffing in the air. Metal. Rust. Oil. It is all there. This is home. He glances down at the ground, peering about. Is it all safe?

Safe. Yes. Well, home. Safe. There are so many shiny things! The smells of oil and gas and other things that EXPLODE. Not much. But they are here! So many things. Hmm. There are no rats, though. No skittering friends. Perhaps the drone noise scared them. There are little tunnels, though! Along the base of the stacks, and deep between them

But they should be here. The rats should be here. The engineer lets out a keening sound, a call for rats! He then lowers down on all fours and begins to climb down from the large stack of cars. Something easily done, easily completed. Climb, jump and leap until he is finally on the ground. There are tunnels here. And he needs to find the rats first. To find out what they are doing, what they are up to and that he does not do something to upset their homes. So into the tunnels he goes!

It's far too quiet. There should be skittering sounds. There should be sniffs of scents of markings and musk. Of food. There is, instead, as the Patchy Black Rat descends, scents of ... lightning? Like the air before a storm. Like a place of Weaverness with a thousand buzzing picturescreens! Out of place! Wrong!

A few meters into the tunnels, and Harvey stops. He peers about the dark place and activates his Darksight. Sniffing in the air, he realises that indeed something is wrong. He lets out another keening sound, trying to call the rats before he goes deeper into the tunnels. He needs to find their nest.

From below, there is a shrill, answering keening sound. The cry of fear. Of terror. Of pain. Then nothing. Another little burst of that scent wafts up from below. The tunnel resolves in that ghostly sight in the tunnels takes shape. It's strange. Strange. Not the neat scrabblings of digging or burrowing. There are ridges. Then another. Then another. Smooth, then a moment's roughness, scrabbling along.

Patchy Black Rat looks at the sides of the tunnels, taking note of them. But it is the sound of fear that he takes most note of. Whatever else is in here with him and them, it is them that he needs to find. The rats. Their kin, even if not kinfolk. So he puts in some extra speed. Not without checking first, but hurrying along now.

Another keening screech. Another waft of ozone. This is closer. And now Harvey can see them, in the darkness. Panicking rats. Screaming rats. Rushing up the strange tunnel, at him, keening for their lives! A sniff. Kin. Kin. And SCREAMING

He pushes himself to the side, allowing the rats to pass him. As they run past, he squeaks out for them to hurry up. Hurry to the surface. He will save them! He will keep them safe! He will fight whatever comes! He tries to move forward, though, if the rats rush past him. So he can put himself between whatever comes for them and them!

Scents of terror wash past. Reality shifts - the smell from below is of the Shiny Place! Ozone and capture and screaming kin fleeing! There are children! There are strange marks in the ears! He sees it all, he hears the screams, and then ... then he sees what they flee from. It pulsates up the tunnel. It floops. It blurps. It spasms up the tunnel, filling it from top to bottom, side to side. Then another spasm of the same viscious fluid substance, opening and filling again in that blurping, pulsing expansion! Coming for him!

Well, that is not good! Not good at all! At least he is between it and the rats. But there is no way he can fight it in rat form! Too small! Too weak! Too .. death! So, he does the next best thing! He.. uh.. bravely decides to lead it to the surface where he can fight it proper! So, he turns and as he turns he begins to move for the surface as well! Or, if he is lucky, find a sidetunnel to lead it along!

It does not take long. He shepherds the screaming, keening things up, and then there is a small fall. A small twist in the tunnel. He can dive in! But the other rats are not far ahead. They are slowing! And still it comes, blurping and plumging and slurping up in pulses!

He lets out a loud, shrieking sound to this, shrieking for the rats to move faster! He puts all the rage he can into it, forcing them to move along faster! FASTER! He stops at the other tunnel, at its entrance. He shrieks and hisses obcenities at the blobbing mass to then, at the last second, darting down the other tunnel, hoping to lure the other creature with him.

He dives down. There is a moment of rushing pressure as the air is pushed past him, stinking of that sparking smell of burnt air and too-fresh sparks. Then Nothing. It is quiet. The thing ... has ignored him. But he can see it. It is a deep, rich, viscous lilac, , pulsing and rippling. Like the guts of some massive thing.

Nope! Won't do. He turns around quickly and rushes back! This time, he does not hesitate. This time, he rushes up to the thing and attacks. He aims to find a part of it and bite into it, using his sharp incisors! *CHOMP MAFAKKA!*

The thing RIPPLES. There is a SCREECH from below, felt through the chomping jaws! And then, the whole thing pulses, shivers, and begins to recoil, folding back in on itself, again and again, pulling back down the tunnel! The Rat has a moment - hang on, savage, release?

Don't mess with a rat with sharp incisors. Like, sharp. Very sharp. He then lets out a sudden shriek! He's angry now! VERY ANGRY! That one attack made his blood boil and his anger erupt. His front paws with its claws dig into the mass, hanging on as he begins to bite harder! Deeper! Cutting through and cutting off. This thing wanted to mess with rats? Well, now it has an insane Engineer to mess with!

The thing recoils. It shreds under his teeth, under his claws, leaking a vile-tasting fluid that shimmers against his dark-seeing eyes. It rushes back through the tunnels, deeper and deeper, shrieking ... until suddenly it's not, suddenly the rushing walls open up. It is an open place. His eyes can make out tiny glowing things, here, there. He sees the ... the pseudopod attached, rushing back along the arm of a robed human, lifting it up in stunned silence. Not human. NOT HUMAN. There are ... too many fingers, the skin is deeper and richer in color than monkeyskin. And there are great teeth in a large mouth. And there is a squirming sack in the other hand. The keening and screaming and terror fill his ears and his mind

Harvey hangs on for dear life! Trying to find a good place to bite again! But he does not have time to do that. The tentacle thingie pulls him into this large area, this large cavern like place. And as he sees the .. creature .. he lets go. But even before he hits the ground, the rat is no longer a rat. He explodes up into the Warform of the Ratkin. You think a Garou Crinos form is dangerous looking? They can almost look cute. But the Ratkin warform? Rat and Man melded into one. It should be enough to stir anyones nightmare. In his right paw, he holds a sawed-off shotgun. Around his waist in a belt hangs his Rattery fetish. He SHRIEKS at the creature, and then just .. lounges at him!

The large Crinos that is Great Balls of Fire will give this creature pause. It will give it a reason to never go against Rat again. A large, hissing ball of INSANITY rushes against the creature and, once he gets close enough, rams the shotgun up against it and presses the trigger. It goes *BOOM* and fires concentrated storm of pellets at the creatures guts!

The creature lets out a screech of horror and pain - keening itself, dropping the bundle of rats in a sack, the sack spilling open and the rats inside screaming and scrambling. And there are more screams coming from deeper in the gloom, in those winding, strangely-cut tunnels. It pulls out a strange, slim rod from those robes, held in six fingers and two thumbs; and then that scent of burning, tortured air erupts again as lightning leaps from the silvery rod at the attacking Rodent of Unusual Shotguns!

The rats are STREAMING up the tunnel. Fleeing, keening, the stench of terror and blood and ozone filling the air, all around the legs of their savoir! But the figure, falling back, peppered with pellets ... levels the rod again, falling and stumbling back as that head almost splits in half, teeth spilling out both sides, massive fangs, screaming and echoing in the darkness as the lightning leaps out once more at the Engineer!

Crackling and sizzling now, the large War-Rat that is Great Balls of Fire is not doing too well! Not built for direct confrontations, the creature is doing bad. His fur is almost on fire from the lightning that shoots out from the creature he is engaging. He can feel the pain surging through his body, he can feel the anger surging. But he can also feel his muscles no longer responding as they should. The pain is too great! And he can feel himself starting to lose. But he does not stop. Having called on his inner rage, he powers through once more as he follows the creature as it retreats. He fails to avoid the lightning, getting struck once more. But now? Now he is up against him! he shoots off his shotgun again, once more striking with a full size of pellets into the creatures gut! He then lunges at him! His large, sharp Crinos incisors dig into the shoulder of the creature, biting hard!

The thing crashes down in a splurt of sickly yellowish fluid that leaps into the air as it hits the ground. The ground is trembling, under the War-Rat's feet, even as the lightning dances along his fur, sparking and shocking and puffing it out and making him seem even bigger than before! That silvery rod *snaps* as it hits the floor, a hiss of smoke and something more escaping, something virulent and vile billowing out from the twisted technology. The last of the swarm escapes up the tunnel, and the target of the War-Rat's ire lies on the ground, leaking and ... settling, thinning, spreading out like a too-rotten tomato dropped onto the ground. Like cheese melting under a heat lamp. He can *feel* the trembling coming from around corners, as many feet slap against the floor. What to do? What to do?!

Maybe fifty yards again. It's hard to tell. The rushing air, and the subdued keening of the fleeing kin. The oozing of the downed ratcatcher. A moment, strangely, of peace and stillness amidst the chaos. But there are feet approaching. Slapping on stone. And then a burst of that smell and sickly-sweet scents from that oozing figure, as something shatters, deep within that yellowish-pink mass

Still hurting from the electricity that struck his body, Great Balls of Fire fails to find the peace he needs to let his body heal. But the sounds, the smells and all the other things has him shrieking in anger! He does not have any of his gear with him. No way to make bombs. No way to prepare. This was unexpected. But the thing on the ground? He aims his shotgun at it and SHOOTS once more, for good measure, into the mass!

The shotgun blast tears away the robe. The Engineer can see the vile truth. What lies below is a pulsating and shivering yellow mass of pseudopodea, swarming from two large holes in the creatures body. Under it, the thing wriggles and squirms in a cocoon, twitching like a fetus in some horrific, insane womb, as sparks fly and lights flash under the translucent ... muck. The head is too large. The hands have too many fingers. The teeth are vile and huge and the mouth nearly splits the head in half. And it is barefoot, with long nails. Nails are scraping on the rock as feet slap and run and close in!

Is it still moving? It is still moving! Or is it? It does not matter. Great Balls of Fire has more shots left. He lets out a loud, shrieking sound as he moves upon the creature on the ground. This.. weird.. strange mass of blobby blobbness! He lets out a really earpiercing sound as he aims the muzzle at the creature on the ground, to then begin to fire. *BLAM* *clickity* *BLAM* *clickity* *BLAM*. Three shots ring out. Three empty shells pop out of the side of the shotgun. Three sets of swarms of pellets explode out from the shotguns muzzle to slam into the blobby mass of flesh on the ground before him.

The strange ooze shudders under the first shot. The shotgun pellets are captured, and they begin to dissolve in that ... that STUFF. The second disrupts it even further, and the third sends gobs of it flying, as the twitching, mewling thing underneath is exposed! All the while, that rumble closes. And then there are. More. MORE. More things. Robed. Their heads opening to expose those rows of teeth, emerging from tunnels into that open space. More hands reaching into robes!

Well, no. Nope. Very much nope. There is a time for heroics, and a time for getting the fuck out of dodge. When more of them coming into the open area, and him out of bullets and no ingredients for bombs? The large ratman turns and darts for the tunnel he came from earlier! Reaching it, he tries to go for his rat form as he dives into the tunnel. Time to flee with the rest of the rats!

The Engineer can hear them behind, as he flees and scurries. And then he can feel ... pressure. Rushing up from below. Air being pushed up. SOMETHING is filling the tunnel behind him ...

All of this was not expected! And it has caught him a bit winded. But he still has more to give. When the thing is chasing him, the rat lets out sound of fright before he puts all of his efforts into running. Filling his lungs with air and just pushing forward! Fighting through the pain and the fatigue. But up the tunnel he goes, fast and quick and safe! The black rat is built for survival and survive he does!