[SD:OA] Corruption Most Foul - Chapter 7
Added 2025-06-02 12:27:09 +0000 UTCWith the entire crew alerted, there is no surprise on their part when the first incursion made itself known.
Out from the brush cover burst a cavalcade of monstrous humanoids. A group of thirty or so cultists charged at the workers processing what repair supplies had been on the ship.
Oh, and what passengers had stuck around finally took notice something was up and ran screaming towards the ship.
Gem doesn’t blame them. They look out at those charging down on them and their hackles raise as a grimace paints itself on their face. These cultists were truly something else.
Some might think that with them being a chaotic sort, these seemingly chaotic cultists would match wavelengths. Gem can tell that was a false comparison.
Humans with overly wide-set eyes, clammy skin, and hints at scales. Catkin that had lost their fur, yet not like a hairless cat and with needle point teeth. A single lizardkin with their scales peeling off to reveal another layer of scales beneath that Do Not Look Right. And a few other oddballs. Though yeah, it seemed to mostly be humans and catkin.
And while they were acting chaotically, looked somewhat random? Gem denied them! The changes were odd, but all aiming towards a goal. One presumably put in place by their object of worship. Maybe that being was of Chaos, but Gem doubted it was purely of Chaos. This stank too much of evil.
And stank in general. As the sailors brought their weapons up and June cast her buffs where needed, the smell washed over them. An odor of fish rotten even in ancient times, compounded upon by a sickly sweet scent of fresh gore.
Corruption.
Gem grabbed the Wind Blade they had been channeling with both hands and pulled. Their claws extended into the fabric of the magic as it widened. Then they punched it, sending a sheet of wind outward.
What was once a blade, now a wall, pushing away the rank odor, if only for a moment. Though it also does a decent job at also blasting away a few of the cultists.
Gem throws a couple regular Wind Blades at the fishy does that went around that attack. Though their flashy showing seems to have only spurred the disgusting freaks who would give away their freedom for power unearned.
Gem’s lips thin and ears lay back. They Will Not Touch Them! Both their hands once again grip the next Wind Blade. Except this time, they act as if to bend it in half.
The blade does not bend, it shatters and every single shard is blasted towards the enemy.
Another two blades are formed and pumped point blank into one of the catkin cultists. They had tried to sneak up on Gem, but how could Gem not notice them?! Their closeness sends shivers down their spine and causes the fur all over their body to stand on end.
No way to miss that!
Gem takes a final blade in hand and uses it as if it were some normal dagger and not wind. All to stab the catkin cultists now bleeding on the ground for even daring to think their disgusting self could approach them!
Everyone else is now watching this final bit go down. While the fight wasn’t easy, Gem acted as quite the distraction, pulling aggro from most of the enemy cultists. Which made sniping them down much easier, especially with how Gem managed to pull a bunch of crowd control tactics out of their hat.
As that final cultist dies, June, with great purpose and noise, clomping their feet as they approach Gem and then she hugs them from behind. “They’re dead now. Calm down. Whatever afterlife might take them, they are beyond us.”
Gem replies through gritted teeth, “Well. That wasn’t expected. Or pleasant. Not pleasant. At All!”
Emrys approaches from the side, “Um, yeah, I guess starting alignment locked would have downsides behind being mobbed in the starter town.”
Gem let out a breath through their nose. “Those Things. They were chaos CHAINED. Corruption most foul. I could feel it in the depths of my being. Like, not in my mind or a specific part of my body.”
Gem frowns, “Actually, that was pretty weird? I could feel it, but like, the feeling was there. A specific point within, but now physical? How’s that work?”
June laughs, “I’m going to guess the system was making you feel it in your ‘soul’. Which, of course can’t actually be done, so they had to come up with something.”
Gem shakes her off, “Meh, I think if I’m expecting it, I’ll be fine. Just kind of took me out of nowhere!”
Samuel shrugs, “Whatever the case, let’s turn our attention to your Wind Blades. Or rather, how very un-‘Wind Blade’ like they ended up being there a couple times.”
June, “Well, pretty sure their skill was nearing level ten. They must have gained whatever last levels and unlocked the next rank.”
Samuel waves her explanation off. “No, I get that. Rather, don’t you have to Choose your ranked-up version before getting access to it?”
June shrugs, “Eh, if I had to guess, the system probably lets you gain access to the effects if you manage it in the middle of battle and are judged as unable to step back.”
Emrys smirks, “That seems like a very ‘rule of cool’ type of thing to do.”
June nods, “Most likely. The point is to make SoulDive fun. Now Gem, go and find somewhere private. I’m going to guess we’ll have more fights and while you could tap into the options early this time, you won’t get a second chance.”
Gem shrugs and heads to their cabin. Where they pull up their full status, just to give a looksee.
{
Name: Gem Paroxysm
Species: ChaosKin (Chaos)
Level: 9
Stats
Body: B
Mana: S+
Stamina: B-
Resistances
Air: S
Skills
Sense Mana lv4
Lesser Mana Control lv6
Wind Blade lv10 [Rank Up]
Assay lv3
Fishing lv5
Equipment
GP: 53
Backpack 1D
Armored jacket 1D
Armored cargo shorts 1D
Ring of the Frog [3/3] 1D+
Lazy Turtle Buckler [2/2 a day] 5D+
Scroll of Rest 5E
Short Spear of the Piercing Winds 11B+
}
“Oh! My body ranked up to B! That’s nice, though yeah, Wind Blade capped. Oh, and why didn’t I use my spear? Blarg, their nonsense really messed with me. Now let’s see what our options are! Rank up Wind Blade, please!”
{
☆ Wind Blade
The basic Wind Blade spell, but better! Can be charged once for every star.
Wind Projection
Project solid shapes of wind for varied effects.
Shattered Sky Fall
Blast a multitude of wind shards at your enemies.
}
Gem frowns, “A star? Really? Like, I knew they called spells where you just advanced the spell without fundamentally changing things ‘star spells’. But a one star Wind Blade is literally just a star symbol tacked onto the front? And I’m still tempted to take it?”
Not that this came from nowhere. For Gem, Wind Blade filled a specific role and the other options all seemed to do new things. Which isn’t bad, but it seemed to be at the expense of the old.
Gem sighs, “Fine. Give me the one star version. I’ve already shown I can warp this spell like putty in my hands! Don’t think I won’t do it on my own!”
Not that they let it drop and when they get back to the group, goes right up to June. “You seem to know stuff. Why is the direct rank up of skills done with stars? Couldn’t they just be like ‘Wind Blade+’ or ‘Wind Blade D’?”
June shrugged, “The problem with that is skills don’t all start at an E grade equivalent. And a plus? You’d end up with the same nonsense. A three star Wind Blade isn’t any sillier than Wind Blade plus plus plus.”
Emrys laughs, “Well, I like the star system! Anyway, what do you put the over under on more cultists showing up today?”
Gem rolls their eyes, “Chained up fanatics. They’ll hold some sort of ritual tonight to ask for further guidance and attack early tomorrow when inevitably prodded to do so. What with us being ‘worthy’ sacrifices or some such?”
Emrys shrugs, “Well, we’ll just have to wait and see.”
Which is exactly why they did. And while no more of the cultists ended up showing themselves at the beach. Going by the state those passengers that were returning are in or not returning at all as the case may be, the cultists didn’t chill out. Though thankfully the sailors who went out for wood returned completely unharmed.
And to be fair, those sailors were all decently leveled compared to what the attacking cultists seemed to be at. Not that anyone doubted there are more powerful cultists around. The rabid attacks are likely more to cull the weak and judge the ships strength than a serious attempt.
With the logs brought back and the cultists now clearly notified of their presence, the ship sent up a flare spell to call anyone who is still out there back. Which angered a few of the passengers that had gotten roughed up while out and about. After all, if they had a signal flare, why didn’t they call everyone back as soon as they knew what was up?
Sssally didn’t even need to appear to handle this. The 1st officer was more than enough to handle the ruckus. Though it probably helped that, the well muscled and quite tall catkin was going shirtless during his explanation.
Not for any fun reasons, either. Rather, it revealed the nasty network of scars the man had built up over the years.
A line across his chest that looked like something tried to bite off an arm and much of his torso. Large pockmarks where something had cost the man more flesh than not. Plus a bunch of more generic slashes and tears.
So there he stood, “Calm down! I will not take any backtalk about my Captain! Yes, we had flare magic. No, we weren’t going to use it unless necessary.
“We needed that wood! And you all? You didn’t have to leave! We never said it was safe! So if you’re feeling lily-livered all of the sudden, feel free to go hide in your cabins!”
Which thankfully a good portion of them did as it allowed the crew to focus on repairing the ship. Though a few did peak their heads out to complain about the noise when the crew kept working through the night. They were summarily ignored. The ship would sail at dawn with the tides!
Which, of course meant in the pre-dawn light, the cultist showed up in force. Intent on preventing the sailors from finishing the repairs and escaping. And there wasn’t just the mongrel horde of altered normal folk.
As Gem rightly points out, “That looks like a Deep One!”
Sssally can only sigh and nod, “Well, I guess it isn’t Just a kraken cult.”
Though yeah, it is still at least partially a kraken cult as besides those fishy freaks, there were more than a few beings trading out their sanity for fanged tentacles and pointy squid heads.
Sssally roars, “Protect the workers! I’ll take the Krakenfolk shaman while my first mate will pin down the Dagon’s spawn!”
Then she launches herself off the deck of the boat, directly at a cloaked being towards the back which was at least twice as tall as everything else.
Well, besides the giant right in the middle of the pack. The being was thrice as tall as the others around it and carrying a runed pillar over its shoulder. That one was the spawn and the scarred catkin first mate is already charging it.
Though not before it gets a chance to wave the pillar towards the repair crew on the beach. As it does so, an ethereal wave of sludgy water surges up out of the ground.
The catkin smirks and flexes at the water, shoulder checking the wave in the process.
Every scar on his body lights up and projects outward like one of those toy planetariums. Except instead of points of intangible light, rays of salt crystal spear outward and suck up the wave.
Then the catkin is into the horde, a sphere of bloody salt rolling over mooks. The cultists underfoot are not even worth the small amount of energy expended to crash through them, let alone him paying attention to them enough to burst his way open.
The spawn heaves their pillar up overhead and muscles it back down at the approaching threat.
Salt meets the greenish soapy pillar and both stop. The pillar suspended in the air. The catkin almost pushed back, yet standing strong, his feet radiating the force through the sand causing it to jump for meters around.
All to the backdrop of an even bigger wave of water attempting to manifest.
Sssally is already on the Krakenfolk shaman who has thrown off their cloak to reveal the mostly squid with a bubble of water surrounding them. Not that they need the water to breathe, but rather it seems to be some sort of special water. A focus with which they are channeling the tidal wave of deep sea muck and inky water.
Sssally is battering on them with her fists as her scales seem to bulk up and extend their edges outward. All to chip away at that water, both focus and shield for the Krakenfolk shaman.
