Oh, dear. If the hallucination was covering up what I can only assume is blood, then what about the hallucination you sensed in the hallway? Quickly turn and look up and down the hall. If there isn't obvious carnage, blood and gore there, touch the red smear on the floor with a finger, then bring it to your face to smell and taste to confirm if it's blood or not. Is the smell of it the sharp smell you couldn't identify?

You better run back to the holding cells. If there's something going around attacking and killing folk while hiding itself in hallucinations, Khoros, Astarte and the spiky noxan wouldn't see it if it shows up there. That means Khoros can't protect them or himself from whatever it is. Y'all need to move as a group to be safe.

Penelope 2018/04/07(Sat)18:51 No. 877756 ID: 4ccc6a
File 152315227180.png - (232.66KB , 800x600 , xq454.png )

You take a deep breath to try to calm yourself, but all you get is that same scent from the other hallway - just as strong and just as sharp. Your brain finaly makes the connection: it is definitely blood.

You approach the door, hand trembling as it rests on the handle... but you can't quite bring yourself to open it.

You are torn with indecision.

So... you review the facts:

- If you would take any harm or injury, you will instead go back to being ethereal.
- You still have nearly an hour left in this physical form.
- While manifested physical, you cannot use your ethereal abilities. This includes Ethereal Vision.
- Khoros is watching over Astarte and the other noxan back a little ways away.
- The hallway that you are in RIGHT NOW seemed fine. The only places you were hallucinating in were this little alcove, and in the corridor right by where Khoros and Astarte are. That particular hallway was a couple minutes' walk away.
- You are currently not hallucinating... although you so desperately wish you were.


Do you enter the room or do you return to Khoros and Astarte?

>>877756
open door if its anything dangerous we can teleport back to astarte when we get ganked

Go in, if somebody's hurt we might be able to help them. If it's a monster we can always yell for khoros

>>877756
Pull back, pull back. We are no fighter and we do not want to set off a trap.

>>877759
Khoros is several minutes walk away; Says so right in the update. He's out of earshot.

>>877756
Open the other door. I doubt there's any survivors in a room with enough blood to leak under the door.

>The only places you were hallucinating in were this little alcove, and in the corridor right by where Khoros and Astarte are.
>...and in the corridor right by where Khoros and Astarte are.
Run back to Khoros and Astarte! Whatever is using hallucinations to cover up itself and signs of its killing was back there. It likely is going for those in the holding cell room and they don't have any way to see it to protect themselves. You also smelled blood in the air back there, which either was from a fresh kill or from blood stuck to the killer. You need to warn Khoros and Astarte and be there to spot the hidden attacker(s) for them.

>>877756
Enter the room.

Run back to them!

Something is very wrong here. I vote that we fall back to Koros and let him know what we found.

Open door!

Penelope 2018/04/07(Sat)21:10 No. 877779 ID: 4ccc6a
File 152316062776.png - (48.76KB , 800x600 , xq455.png )

>Open door

Penelope 2018/04/07(Sat)21:10 No. 877782 ID: 4ccc6a
File 152316065081.gif - (221.92KB , 800x1000 , xq458.gif )

You stare and stare and stare and hope something, anything changes. That the bodies littering the floor, cut and shredded... that they... but...

No. Nothing changes. No matter how hard you stare.

It's real.

>>877782
I still don't believe Laertes is real. Someone is still trying to fuck with our heads. We still have no significant evidence Laertes is anything more than a horror story. Use Ethereal Sight, check where Melinoe and Khoros/his second piece are.

When the violence happened we saw roughly where they were before. Now we can get a second point of data for that. See if either of them could have done this.

Also check the bodies for life signs. Are any of them still alive?

>>877782
No. We won't be powerless this time.

...heck, if anything this just confirms "Laertes" is nothing more than a scare tactic.

>>877782
check bodies, look around, realize that someone is fucking with you and suddenly remember that we are down a party member outside the building maybe go pick them up first.

run back, go get Khoros

>>877784
>Use Ethereal Sight, check where Melinoe and Khoros/his second piece are.
Can't use Ethereal abilities while physically manifested. Says to right in >>877756: "While manifested physical, you cannot use your ethereal abilities. This includes Ethereal Vision." That's something I really wish we had known before choosing to go physical rather than stay ethereal.

>>877790
Oh right. In that case, we could punch ourself to go Ethereal so we can use the sight again. I would rather we tried to find a survivor first though; can't administer any kind of first aid while ethereal. Check nearby rooms.

Penelope, do you trust your brother? You do, completely. Then trust that what he said before, that Laertes is not real. That Laertes is but a figment your sister whipped up, and that Melinoë in her nightmares believed real. He does not exist unless you believe he exists, and then only in your mind. Something is wrong, but it's not Laertes is real.

This is might be connected to Melinoë somehow. Maybe when she ramps her power up all the way her nightmares infest the minds of those in a wide area around her? ...Or if she ran across someone or something with the power to make a person's fears or nightmares manifest... That'd be Bad Fuckin' News.

Close this door and then swing the door on the right open to quickly glance in and check for survivors, then rush back to Khoros and Astarte to report.

>>877795
>fears or nightmares are manifesting
Some kind of bogeyman... that sounds a lot more likely than Laertes being real. It picked up on the alien noxans' fears of meat-eating predators, and also both Melinoe's and our fear of Laertes.

Well shit on a turd sandwich. We were just here a few minutes ago.

...Yeah, time to report back to khoros. Maybe check the other door by opening it a tiny crack. DO NOT make any noise.

Check the room next to this one.
Then we should check back with Khoros.
Lastly, we should try to contact Melinoë as I believe she's the one that holds the answers to this mystery.

Return to Khoros

Penelope 2018/04/08(Sun)11:07 No. 877861 ID: 4ccc6a
File 152321083290.png - (216.26KB , 800x600 , xq458.png )

>Check bodies to see if alive
... none of the nox— of the BODIES are in one piece. T-they are definitely not alive.

>Check other door
You try the other handle. It is locked.

>Back to Khoros
Yes. Khoros! Khoros will help! You turn around and prepare to head down back towards Khoros and Astarte and the other noxan, but you hear a scuttling sound from the opposite direction. You glance over at the source of the noise.

>>877861
Chirp at it!

>>877861
wave

Get back to Khoros, that's probably his bit. We need to get everyone out of here.

Note that this Khoros' fragment may be hallucinating. So be prepared for it to be hostile.

Just wait and see how it acts first.
If it doesn't attack you, then hug it and carry it back to Khoros. In either case, you can't show it what's inside the door, as there's no guarantee what it sees inside will be real.
If it attacks you, then we'll need to evade it and run past it back to Khoros..
No, the situation may be direr even. It's possible that the hallucination is transferred to the Khoros where he is now, causing him to attack the ones he's supposed to protect. We may need to knock this fragment out right now.

Penelope 2018/04/08(Sun)11:33 No. 877873 ID: 4ccc6a
File 152321241127.png - (216.86KB , 800x600 , xq459.png )

You chirp at the Khoros fragment!

>>877873
.......I don't think that's Khoros.

>>877873
run to it if its hostile we need to get to Khoros and astarte quick and we can't teleport while physical.

>>877876
Politely ask Khoros to stop killing people while backing towards the room we know Khoros is in.

>>877875
>>877876
see top link

>>877873
If there's so many fragments.. does that mean Khoros came here? But if he split himself up then.. wouldn't it mean there was a fight?

>>877876
Khoros? Brother? Why are you here?

Walk to him. However, be extremely careful in case he's being manipulated.

Penelope 2018/04/08(Sun)11:42 No. 877881 ID: 4ccc6a
File 152321295978.png - (229.54KB , 800x600 , xq461.png )

>Brother? Khoros?

We should run, very quickly.

Stand firm. He can't hurt us.

>>877881
Move to the side. Maybe he's rushing towards something behind us?

>>877881
Ask his permission to possess him.

Penelope 2018/04/08(Sun)12:04 No. 877890 ID: 4ccc6a
File 152321427839.png - (175.04KB , 800x600 , xq462.png )

>Sister...
>It has been a long time.

>Father misses you.

Penelope 2018/04/08(Sun)12:04 No. 877891 ID: 4ccc6a
File 152321427942.png - (43.05KB , 800x600 , xq463.png )

>...aren't you happy to see me again?


CHAPTER FIVE
END

(Note! This thread will be closing soon! However, you are encouraged to go visit the disthread in the meantime! https://tgchan.org/kusaba/questdis/res/119482.html <3)

Welp time to struggle and eventually go ethereal from either struggling too much and hurting ourselves or Evil Khoros hurting us.

Then I guess the first person we warn is Khoros, since we like him better than Melinoe and presumably Melinoe is either not very far into the facility or has already seen him and run the fuck away.

Okay? This is like really bad, isn't it?
WHAT IS GOING ON?

Part Three now up! https://tgchan.org/kusaba/quest/res/877908.html