BREEEEAAAAAAARRRRKKK!!!
Hmmm.... This is not at all how I pictured Hong Kong.... The Chinese have a very different architectural style than the Japanese.... Very sinister-looking.... Does this look right to you, Mosura?
BUZZZZZZZZZUUUZZZZZZUUUZZZZ!!!
Nope, not really.... Very different than I imagined.... Evil-looking, really....
RREEEEAAAAAAARRRRKKK!!!
I'm gonna smash it!
Gojira stomps out of the harbor and obliterates a domed basalt building on the water's edge, caving in a section of the harbor sea wall as well.... The gricks squirming within are crushed dead under the collapsing masonry and the Kaiju's gigantic foot....
BBBUUUZZZZZZUUUUZZZZUUUZZZ!!!
Dammit, Gojira! Stop it, you big idiot!
Mosura flies around in front of Gojira, facing the King of Kaiju and flapping her massive wings furiously, accidentally contributing tornados to the destruction of Carcosa....
The King in Yellow perceives a commotion from the south end of Carcosa.... Something has caused mass death and destruction in the harbor district....
Rising from the ornately and sinisterly decorated throne, carved from a single massive block of yellow amber, the King in Yellow sweeps out of his court, tattered robes flapping in his wake, and flies out of a high window in his titanic palace, and southward over the grim cityscape, intent on discovering and eliminating this new threat to his city....
Has Cthulhu come to strike at me? Nay.... I would have sensed his coming before now.... This is a foe unknown to me....
Buzzing and whirring out of a bank of clouds several hundred yards behind the two Kaiju, the gyrocopter of Dr Yamamoto whizzes after the colossi....
Now.... The Kaiju Sensei is recharged.... I MUST succeed today.... I MUST gain control of Gojira and Mosura.... But.... What is this!?.... THIS is not Hong Kong.... What has happened!? Is my brain tumor causing me to hallucinate this nightmare ruins where Hong Kong should be!?
The mad scientist brings the gyrocopter in for a closer look at Carcosa....
Gojira hears the familiar buzzing of the mad scientist's gyrocopter....
RRRREEEAAAAAAAAAARRRRRKKKK!!!
Not this a~~+!$% again! He seems immune to my atomic breath.... Maybe I can eat him?
Gojira stomps angrily back into the harbor, splashing up another massive tidal wave that pounds Carcosa.... He wades toward the gyrocopter....
BBBUUUUZZZZUUUUZZZZUUUZZZ!!!
What, that little flying thing? What IS that thing, anyway?
Curious, Mosura follows Gojira after the gyrocopter....
Oh, no!! I've been spotted.... Here they come! Well, this had better work this time....
Dr Yamamoto pilots his gyrocopter around within range and concentrates, activating the Kaiju Sensei in hope of dominating Gojira....
Dominate monster (DC 30) on Gojira....
Will save vs DC 30 dominate monster fails! Gojira is dominated!
Suddenly, the King of Kaiju halts in his advance, and stares with massive, glassy eyes at the gyrocopter....
S*+~! What's this!? The little flying thing seems to have taken control of my body! Dammit.... This can't be good!
Hai! Hai!
Yes! Yes! Success! Gojira is now under my mental command! I shall test to be certain.... Bow before your new master, Gojira!
Dr Yamamoto giggles insanely....
Gojira bows before the hovering gyrocopter....
Dammit! This blows!
BUZZZZZUUUUZZZZUUUUUZZZ??
Uh.... What are you doing, Gojira? Are you okay?
In Japanese: Yes! Excellent! It worked!.... And now you, Mosura....
Dominate monster (DC 30) on Mosura....
Will save vs DC 30 dominate monster fails! Mosura is now under Dr Yamamoto's mental command!
Uh-oh.... S&&!! What just happened!? That little flying thing has somehow gained control of me! Not good....
Mosura hovers in place before the gyrocopter, awaiting Dr Yamamoto's mental command....
In Japanese: Beautiful! I am Master of Monsters! Now.... The Kaiju Sensei has one charge left for today.... Rodan, or Anguirus? Hmmm.... I already have a flying Kaiju with Mosura under my command, so maybe Anguirus? Then again, one cannot have too many flying Kaiju.... I think Rodan next.... Wait, what is that yellow thing flying toward us?
Dr Yamamoto squints at the approaching form of Hastur, The King in Yellow....
Meanwhile, in Sarasota:
The park by the marina, formerly known as City Island Park, is rededicated as Kinyama Memorial Park, to honor the first of the Fierce Ones to fall in battle against the minions of the Great Old Ones....
The partly-decomposed remains of Kinyama the kitsune pistolero are exhumed and reburied in this new location, with a statue of the fallen hero, masterfully rendered in marble by the Alfheim sculptor Erolas Otorius, to mark the grave....
The brave, fallen Jaegers are interred here as well on Patriots Day, September 11, 2013....
All of the individual, unique headstones share one thing in common.... They are engraved with insignia that declares the fallen's rank and division in the Jaeger League....
A consecration ceremony is presided over by a very pregnant Kate, Sister Maria De La Rosa, and Daisy, to bless the grounds of the Kinyama Memorial Park as a sacred place for the burial of heroes....
Will save vs DC 40 unspeakable presence fails!
The already insane Dr Yamamoto beholds the unspeakable presence of The King in Yellow, and quakes with fear and confusion!
Oh God.... What in the HELL is THAT!?.... My mind can't take this! No!....
Is this some new nightmare born of my brain tumor!?.... What....what....what....what IS that thing!?.... It's blowing my mind....
Confusion result
Dr Yamamoto bangs his head repeatedly into the cockpit windshield of his gyrocopter, dealing himself damage....
He whimpers and drools as his mind struggles to coalesce again in the face of utter madness incarnate....
Initiative
Initiative
Initiative
Initiative
Let these colossi know the splendor of The King in Yellow as well....
Insanity (DC 30) at Gojira....
Will save vs DC 30 insanity succeeds!
BBRRREEEEAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRKKKK!!!
I get it, you're creepy and mysterious.... Big deal! I'm colossal and relentless, little yellow creepy thing!!
Two minutes of Gojira vs Mosura....
BUZZZZZZUUUZZZZZUUUUZZZZZ!!!!
HEY!! Nobody picks on Gojira without getting a piece of me first!!
The moth-like Kaiju zaps the King in Yellow with a bolt of magical lightning! (DC 41) that deals electricity damage!
Reflex save vs DC 41 lightning breath weapon succeeds....
Hastur takes 9 electricity after resistance....
Hastur!
Mothra!
Gojira!
Dr Yamamoto!
Eeeeeek! Breeeeeek!
HEEEAAAAAAAARRRRRKKKK!!!
You look flammable. Are you flammable?
A beam of fiery red force lances out of Gojira's mouth at the King....
Atomic breath weapon (DC 42) deals fire damage, and force damage!
Reflex save vs DC 42 atomic breath weapon fails!
Hastur takes 34 fire damage after resistance, and 72 force damage! Further, The King in Yellow is staggered for rounds by the devastating energy!
Confusion momentarily recedes and Dr Yamamoto has a moment of lucidity....
He gives a desperate and unnecessary command to the Kaiju:
Attack that yellow thing!!
The King in Yellow veers back toward a harbor-side building of weathered stone....
The edge of the tattered robe sleeve snakes forth and caresses the wall of the building, magically inscribing the Yellow Sign upon it!
All who behold the Yellow Sign must succeed at a DC 40 Will save to avoid becoming dominated by Hastur!
In Aklo: Behold the Yellow Sign!
Will save vs DC 40 domination of the Yellow Sign fails!
BBBRRREEEEAAAAAAARRRRKKKK!!!
Whaddya got there, a pretty picture? A drawwwww....
All hail the King in Yellow.... Long live the King.... In Yellow....
Will save vs DC 40 domination of Yellow Sign fails!
BBUUUZZZZUUUUZZZZZUUUZZZ!!!
Whatcha got there? A pretty flowerrrrrrr.... Hail the King in Yellow! Long live the King in Yellow!
Will save vs DC 40 domination of the Yellow Sign fails miserably!
Oh.... I see now.... The beauty of the Yellow Sign.... I understand, now.... Long live the King in Yellow....
HOHOHOHOHO!! I know better than to look upon the Yellow Sign.... Fools, all of them! HEHEHEHEHEE!!!
Marcus bolts awake in a cold sweat.
"What...what in the hell was that?" he says to himself, trying to piece together what he'd just seen.
He turns to Marie and gives her a quick rundown of what he'd seen.
"That was crazy. Godzilla and Mothra stomping through Tokyo and Hong Kong? I mean, I've had dreams like that before, who hasn't, right? I'd write it off as just another awesome dream...but that thing at the end. The Yellow Man...something about him..."
"He's bad news, Marie. I'm more scared of that thing than I've been since these powers awakened in me."
He settles back to still his heartbeat and try to relax a bit.
"I need to tell the others, assuming they don't already know. Before the moment passes and I go back to thinking the dream was a great call to adventure or something stupid again." he says a bit glumly, harshly judging his usual nature in his terror induced lucidity.
He stomps off to find Derrik or one of the others, his step already lightening and the brain twisting horror already fading into the pleasant buzz of his usual brand of madness again.
After the moving ceremony for a Fierce One she never had the privilege of meeting, Allison wanted to be alone for a while. She roamed the streets of Sarasota cloaked in invisibility observing the chaos and ruin. Mostly she noted the horrific emptiness. A city once bustling with people now in ruins.
Somehow while aimlessly wondering through abandoned and smashed storefronts she found her way into a used record store. Something she had almost forgotten about in this new world. She fondly reminisced back to her childhood in Munich and spending hours listening to CDs of American and British bands.
Finding an old Bowie LP somehow unscathed amid broken glass and debris, she popped it onto a display turntable. She crafted together an illusory generator made real through mystic might. She laid back on the floor with a pair of headphones she found a few aisles over. Amid the sounds of "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars," Allison accidentally drifted asleep...
---
Allison shot awake instantly with a sharp pang in her back. Jumping to her feet she looked around seeing a horrid landscape of post-nuclear fallout. The world was in black-and-white with pops and scratches like film grain. Huge katakana characters and occasional kanji would burst into the sky like fireworks. ゴジラ Go-Ji-Ra! モスラ Mo-Su-Ra! ハストル Ha-Su-To-Ru!
Disoriented and confused, Allison began to walk around this nightmarish city.
Explosions and ear-splitting roars rose and fell at random. A flock of mutated moths whizzed past her. Small lizards sporadically rained from the sky like a monsoon before ceasing just as suddenly.
The chaos began to grow and grow. Each event stranger than the last and driving the doktor closer to madness in this movie world. Finally she saw what she needed to see... Burning bright like a cigarette burn on a film reel was the Yellow Sign.
----
Allison woke up covered in sweat the next morning alone in the abandoned store. Her illusions long since faded. The words from the dream echoing in her mind and her warning from Loki resonating more clearly than ever before.
Daisy drifts off into a deep sleep after the funerals of the Jaegers, feeling conflicted, because she knew it was within their power to raise them from death.... All of them.... Even this Kinyama might not be too long gone, for all she knew....
It was dreadfully expensive, yes.... But what price can you put on a human life, really?
Where do you draw the line?
She has nightmares again.... She only has nightmares when Cthulhu sends them....
She has otherwise mastered her dreams....
Cthulhu whispers of a King in Yellow named Hastur....
She's stuck ankle-deep in muck, and a mountainous reptilian horror thunders toward her from a great distance....
With the gigantic, saurian menace flies a vast moth-like monster, and upon its back rides a figure in tattered yellow robes....
Daisy does not try to run away through the muck, as much as her dreaming brain tries to tell her she must....
She makes note of the terrifying details, especially the figure in tattered yellow robe riding upon the moth-like monster....
Then she awakens herself to go and tell the other Fierce Ones what she has dreamt....
Meanwhile, in Meridian State Park:
Leading his warband of demons--hezrous, rutterkin, vrocks, and kalavakuses--Grizzlegob the glabrezu ventures to the forest where his great, great grandspawn Koran's pack of loyal and savage weresquatches roam....
In Abyssal: You weresquatches don't speak the lingo of the Abyss, but I know you get the gist of what Grizzlegob says!.... Get a good sniff of me, weresquatches! You'll find something familiar in my scent.... I'm your alpha's great, great grandsire! So you'll heed my command as you heed his! You will regard my demons as members of the pack! We shall run wild together under the swollen moon, and feast on the flesh and blood of evil mortals and monsters alike! HAHAHAHAHA!!!
The weresquatches rally around this newcomer who smells similar to their alpha....
Howling their acceptance of Grizzlegob and his demons into the pack, a wild rumpus begins in Meridian State Park!
Dreams from the Yellow King?
Radsworth frowns at how far he still must go to be impervious to such machinations, but is more currently concerned about the giant monsters escorting an already powerful enemy.
Still, he thought he had a measure of how to combat the foe. He waits, sipping tea and listening to Mi Suns stories of Jaeger duty while he waits for the others to congregate. He knew they would.
"So then I threw a whole boatload of shurikens at the enemy. I've been developing my skill there, since I'm a lot smaller than these cultists. Anyways, the cultist got pissed and summoned some monsters with damage resistance, thinking that my attacks couldn't penetrate. So I did like you said, and just left and hid for like 10 minutes then attacked again after the summon left. After awhile, he was down to summoning badgers and crap. That's when I drew my weapons and engaged in melee. That wand you gave me helped, the one that summons monsters. Every time he looked over his shoulder at it I cut him somewhere deep. Finally.. he died.. weezing and coughing and not nearly so smug. I never felt better about anything Rad."
The FOs meet over breakfast and coffee in the fest hall the morning of September 12 to discuss the dreams they feel sure are sent by Cthulhu, warning of the rise in power of The King in Yellow in Asia, and his monstrous allies, colossal Kaiju of Japanese legendry....
So, the general theme I'm seeing in each of these Cthulhu dreams is that a creepy godlike entity with a Godzilla and a Mothra is threatening Cthulhu's supremacy, and Cthulhu's whining to us about it so we'll go squash another of his dangerous problems, at great risk of peril to our selves.... Do we jump? And if not, at what cost?
What choice is there? Let the King in Yellow make our greatest enemy seem like the good old days?
"Well at the very least the guy's got a lot more STYLE than ol' Cthulhu. Takes a special kind of guy to make daisy yellow intimidating-No offense Daisy- and you've got to give him brownie points for taking over God-Freakin-Zilla to help him out."
"I must confess, I have never seen the Godzilla films. Exactly how dangerous is this creature?"