As I was flying through Space and Time, I couldn't help but feel like I hit the hard cap on some sort of time limit. Like. He really yeeted my ass.
—-----
I didn't open my eyes, they simply materialized that way and allowed me to see the dank room.
Dank in a bad way.
It smelt like a moldy wine cellar and judging by the hard stone floor, it might just be one.
I looked around and saw the cube pattern on a few items, so this was probably a safe space for me, but I held my purse tightly anyways.
I stood and palmed a book that was in a different language and then sighed as I tried to read. 'Why no auto translate? I feel like we should have at least 1 learned language if the DM is trying to even BE fair.'
I shook my head, DMs were always the true big baddies.
Thumps were coming from above and a series of latches were obviously being undone in haste.
'Should I yell out here's Johnny? No..no.'
The door creaked open and light burst into the dim room. I heard a huff and a puff as they came down a hidden staircase.
'How did I miss STAIRS?' I was upset with myself slightly, but to be fair, there was a solid stone wall BLOCKing the view…ha..ha.
They spun around the wall/corner and a chipper woman lit up the room, "HELLOOOO! I am so glad you selected us, please, come with us and we can get to work-"
I interrupted politely, "Who are you?"
I could see the gears turning and I might have even heard one of them too…
"Mandy, Mandy Stanhope. Gosh, it is so nice to meet you." She rolled with the punch like she was a professional.
Or.
She was one of THOSE people, you know, preacher's daughters.
I instantly looked to the Hispanic man standing next to here and pled for help.
He nodded and cracked a smile, "Hello, my name is Diego, I am from administration and we were sent to bring you up to speed with the situation."
I nodded sagely, "What now?"
Mandy was about to burst with joy but she couldn't interrupt Diego as he responded with, "Well. You have been out of the loop for the past few weeks."
She added, "26 days."
He grimaced, "...26 days, yeah."
I could read horror on his eyes but he hardened, "We are going to get you up to speed and focused on getting some levels. How much "fantasy" experience do you have, this might be a lot for you?"
I nodded, "I play D&D regularly, but I might be rusty on a lot of new fantasy genres."
He smiled, "What edition?"
I frowned.
He nodded, "Ah, a fellow 3.5 enjoyer?"
My frown deepened as he laughed.
He smacked me on the shoulder, "Hey, cheer up. The world is actually pretty different, but a ton of freedom remains." He looked over to Mandy, "She is a priest, like you, and she has rather potent healing magic."
I nodded, "Yeah, I have what he called, True Healing."
The pair looked at each other before Diego spoke, "He said that? TRUE healing?"
I nodded and looked in my bag for something sharp. 'Huh, odd.'
I opened it and saw a void.
"What the hell is this bag?"
Diego blew past the question, "BoH, noob. Now. Do you know how to use your spells or?"
I nodded, we were speeding through this whole "catch up" period.
But clearly we weren't going fast enough for her.
Mandy grabbed my hand and pulled me.
I ran along as they clearly needed me for something. We booked it up the weird stairs and went straight outside of the smallish church.
I was watching where my feet were going because it was a freaking mud pit, a single misstep and my shoe would be sucked right off my foot.
I noticed the smell, it was that authentic renaissance quality, somewhere between roasting meat and vaguely sexual.
I looked to the side and saw a man moving a huge piece of lumber by himself.
'Holy fuck. Super powered construction workers? Oh no…HIDE THE BEE-'
I felt the squishy mud give out as I sunk and instantly stopped Mandy.
"Ah, hell." I pulled my foot to no avail, I'd have to abandon the shoe and get out.
But just then, from my side came, "AQUA EXILIUM!"
I felt my foot stop sliding as the mud solidified into a hard soil.
I looked at the woman and nodded in thanks as Mandy and Diego rushed us forward, hopefully I'd see her again.
But.
For the meantime, I might as well dodge the planetary fucking muck.
—-----
I was pulled towards an out of place stone building that was surrounded by men in mixed armor.
Some had leather caps, others had some sort of turtle shell strapped to their noggin. It was almost funny how weird, yet cohesive they appeared.
I noticed a sigil on a flying tattered cloth. It appeared to be a vertical US flag with the cube crudely drawn on it in, red paint? Odd choice. But I guess beggars can't be choosers.
Mandy re-grabbed my hand tightly and pulled me towards the leather flap covered door.
She knocked on the leather and Diego opened it from the inside with a rushed expression.
I turned to my side and realized he had vanished into the building without me noticing.
"Jesus, don't do that."
They squinted at me, obviously confused as they shrugged it off and pulled me into the building.
Mandy ran off and I was genuinely worried about getting mud on their nice…cold stone floor. It actually really reminded me of an Orc fortress now that I was thinking about it.
Diego rounded the corner and I noticed a "command room" in chaos.
"Private Jackson!"
"Yes, Sir!"
He nodded and handed him a letter, "Retrieve Captain Jefferies."
I instantly noticed, "Jim Jefferies?"
My hard look instantly cut through the bullshit decorum as he nodded with a glazed face.
He stuck his hand out to shake, "Nice to meet you, son, I am Colonel Workman."
I could tell the lack of military guidance was difficult for him, because the vein was betraying his poker face.
I looked around at the 30 people who had wide eyes.
I muttered back as I shook, "Yeah, nice to meet you, sparring the apocalypse."
I turned to gauge the response and noticed Jim being carried in on a makeshift transfer board.
He was missing his legs.
I felt the reality of it all sink into my soul, it was really real. Jim.
He could read my grief instantly as tears began to stream down cheeks.
....
For a moment I felt something notice me. The same consciousness came to judge, whatever it was, it was observing my pain.
But this time I wasn't under the ocean, I was on a beach, and I could feel its empathy.
It was but a gesture, a nod. But it approved of my desire. My urge to consume my friend's Anguish.
I could smell the wound, it was…different…more of an absence. An abstract refutation of existence.
I could see it. His legs, or where they were. They were right there, highlighted in red air.
The "magic" flowed out of me, a purple mist entered into his stump as flesh became fluid, "CONSUME!"
The room stood still as my mist then flowed into the space that was his leg. It felt good.
I looked down and noticed my lower leg was decaying at a visible rate. 'Holy shit.'
I crumbled as Jim screamed in pain, "AHHHH! FUCK! WHY DO YOU HAVE TO BE A DICKHEAD DOOD?" He grasped at the limb and felt the fleshy mass growing at a visible rate, it had burst through the quick hem in his pants and was now disgustingly awesome. Bone was jutting out of his stump and muscle was stretching in the open air, yet the pain was leaving him.
In a short 30 seconds, Jim was able to wiggle his toes again, well, on one leg at least.
—---------
I came to under a sea of soldiers who were panicking, most were watching the older Colonel, some were still staring at me.
"WHAT THE HELL, DOC?" Workman was yelling at another older man.
"I am telling you, his foot is fine, are you sure it wasn't an illusion?"
The man in the white coat turned to me, "Ah, hello son, how are you feeling? They tell me you experienced some sort of backlash?" As I didn't respond, he just looked around at the faces that were frozen and then he turned around, "You know what? Screw it. You are ALL INSANE!"
He flung his gloves into the trash and walked out of the main room.
We all watched him leave while muttering about Devil Worship and people being possessed.
Jim smacked me, "Dick. Warn a brother before you regrow his leg, it HURTS."
I nodded, "To be fair. I forget about you, "weaklings" all too often."
We smiled as I noticed that nobody else wanted to be the next one to speak.