UnwillingEldritchHorrorofFortune
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Chapter 177: Village of Sickness
🕑 Added 2024-08-16 03:45:35 +0000 UTCI watched in fascination as the town transformed under the crimson light. The dusty, empty roads blossomed with strange red flowers while the trees sprouted fleshy, grotesque fruits. Vines crept up the decrepit houses, encasing them in a horrible wiggling cacophony of living, wreathing plantlife, and strange bioluminescent eyeball creatures floating in the air, providing the village with splotches of green against the red backdrop.
“It is too late!” the old man cackled as he changed along with the village once the eldritch moonlight bathed his body. He closed his eyes and laughed maniacally. “Bask in the glory of the Blood Moon, outsider!”
His limbs elongated to ludicrous lengths, his skin expanding so quickly that his flesh ripped and bloody muscles pulsated under the light. His face contorted to become a mockery of the human form, its shape elongating so that his mouth almost reached his stomach, and worse yet, a second misshapen head appeared on his shoulders. It was shrieking silently, as if in eternal torment.
The once quiet village started to fill with bustling noise as more and more mutated villagers exited their homes. Some of them were fleshy beasts like the old man, but a lot of the others seemed like horrid specters and poltergeists, their shrieking forms ready to pounce on me just as soon as the moon’s light could fully engulf this place.
As I watched this crazed transformation, a thought occurred to me. If these weird old villagers considered me an outsider, and no amount of talk could convince them otherwise, then what if I showed them that I was different? I heard the old man compare the Aspirants as nothing more than a disease, and I think I had the perfect tool to cure that. Yeah… it could work.
Hey, Noe, do you think you can turn me into Dr. Walter the second that weird light touches me?
“Of course, my Host,” she replied with a playful tone, “I can do better. Please observe.”
I nodded and saw the moonlight start to creep into my position. As soon as it touched my feet, I understood what Noe meant. As the crimson light touched my feet, the old shoes I wore transformed - remarkably similar to how the old man transformed - into the old leather boots of Dr. Watler. As more and more of the light bathed over my body, more of my fragile human form was changed into the good doctor’s, and by the time the moon was fully overhead, I felt the familiar strength of my new form.
The old man reopened his eyes and screamed, “Now it is time to di-”
He, along with the rest of the villagers paused as they saw my augmented form, their once bloodthirsty visages turned into ones of confusion.
I gave the people around me a friendly wave and my patented smile. “Um, like I said, I’m not like the normal outsiders. I’m a doctor, can we please talk first?”
The old man closed his elongated mouth, and even his creepy conjoined twin thing stopped its shrieking. The other villagers moved around me, not out of malice like before, but simply because they were curious about this strange new member. A quick glance around showed me that these villagers were all elderly individuals like the old man before me, and another idea formed in my head.
Clearly, my transformation put a wrench in the villager’s plans to attack me outright, but I don’t think it’ll be quite enough to get them to trust me. There was still an air of caution and distrust palpable here, but I think I had a way to cut through this caution. If there’s one thing I know about an isolated place like this, it’s that these people were probably quite lonely. Sure, they might try to eat or kill outsiders, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t miss the olden days when more people were around. And if they were like any of the old grandpas and grandmas that I’ve seen before, then they’d have a soft spot for kids.
I clenched Molly’s charm while they were still disoriented by my transformation and quickly called for Alice and Toby. The two appeared before me, in their transparent forms, but as they bathed in the crimson glow of the moon, their ghostly, incorporeal bodies seemed to solidify. After a few moments passed, I couldn’t even tell that the two weren’t here in person, although they still retained their ability to float about.
“Uncle Watler!” Alice exclaimed once she saw me, before ramming into me with a hug-tackle. “We missed you!”
Toby was a little more composed and only gave me a neat little bow. “Hello Dr. Walter, um, I’ve been taking good care of Alice like you said!”
The villagers at this point just watched the exchange, clearly unable to understand what was going on, but the kids were already doing their magic. Some of the horrible banshee things had reminiscent smiles on their faces, and the overall air of malice was all but gone now. Even the old man couldn’t help but smile as he watched the two children.
I smiled as I peeled the giggling Alice off my chest and gave Toby a nice pat on the head. “I missed you two as well. Now say hello to the nice people here.”
And of course, they didn’t even blink when seeing the horrid forms of the people here. Alice turned to the gathered villagers and gave them a cute curtsy. “Hello grandpas and grandmas! I’m Alice, it’s very nice to meet you.” Her eyes all but sparkled as she floated around in circles, marveling at the new location. “Wow… I had never seen so many people before, I’m usually always with patients or doctors, but I knew Uncle Walter would show me cool things!”
Toby took it further and went up to each villager to shake their hands - or er, hand-adjacent appendages. “Um, it’s nice to meet everyone, I’m Toby…”
“Oh, um,” the old man said, “It’s nice to meet you two as well.”
I smiled again. “Like I said, I am a doctor, and I am not here like the other outsiders. That’s part of the reason why I’m here. Can we please talk first?”
The gatekeeper nodded absent-mindedly as he gazed over at Alice, who had managed to catch one of those glowing eyeball things. She waved it around and gestured for Toby to come play as well.
I frowned. “Hey, stop that Alice! You should ask for permission before you play with other people’s things!”
“No no,” the old man said quickly, waving for Alice to continue as a smile crept up his long face, “It’s fine, the Lanterns are more like pests than anything, let them play. It’s just… it’s been a very long time since we’ve had children grace this village.”
“Alright,” I said before turning to Alice, “And what do we say to the nice man?”
“Thank you Grandpa!” she replied, “Come on Toby, come over here! Let’s see how many we can catch!”
The boy turned to me, seeking permission, and I nodded with a chuckle. It seemed he was still the same shy kid I remembered. He quickly scrambled to catch up to Alice, disappearing into the sky.
“Don’t wander too far!” I shouted, “And make sure you come back when I call!”
“Okay, Uncle Walter!”
One of the black-cloaked banshee things came over and gave me a polite nod. “My sisters and I will watch over them, we’ll make sure they don’t stray from the village, if you don’t mind, of course.”
Several other disfigured ghosts came over and each of them offered a warm welcome.
“Thank you, and please, if you will,” I answered, “Those two can be a handful.”
One of the sisters chuckled, although the sound was more like nails on a chalkboard than a standard laugh. “We don’t mind. They remind me of my own children.”
I turned my attention back to the old man as the old ladies flew off. “So I can assume that this means we can talk like civilized folk now?”
He blinked a few times before turning back to me. “Ah, I apologize, doctor! I… that was rude of me to assume you were like the others.”
It looked like he wanted to get on his knees to kowtow to me, but I quickly stopped him. “Nonsense, I can understand your point of view. As I said, I’m here precisely because of those outsiders, and I’m not sure if you know, but there should be an especially large horde of them making their way to his lovely village.”
“Thank you, thank you,” he repeated, “Please, take a seat.” He waved his walking stick around and a few of those horrible vines grew out of the ground to form ersatz chairs and a table. He took one of the seats and gestured for me to take the opposite.
“And yes,” he continued, “I have heard that there is a large group of outsiders making their way to the southern entrance. With the moon out, their progress should be hindered, but they will make it to the village soon enough.” He sighed. “I fear that many of us will lose their lives this time, trying to drive out so many of the accursed outsiders.”
I gave him a sympathetic nod. “I know, this isn’t the first time that something like this has happened, and it’s not just your village either.”
“I just wish we knew why these freaks won’t leave us alone,” he muttered, “All we want is to live in peace, but year after year, on the Day of Damnation, these creatures come to invade our lands. As you can see,” he pointed at the villagers, “we simply don’t have the numbers to deal with them anymore.”
Now that he mentioned it, the once deadly-looking villagers didn’t seem all that deadly. Here, on the outskirts of the town, there was only something like 20 or 30 individuals. I saw that many of the old buildings were still empty, even with the radiant glow of the moon, and an atmosphere of melancholy seeped into the village. They must have lost a lot over the years.
“I suppose that is why I was so hesitant to hear you out, stranger,” he continued, staring into the horizon where Alice and Toby were playing, “We have been without hope for too long.”
“And you and your people have suffered too much, for too long,” I said, “That is why I am here. I am a doctor, but I do not cure just physical diseases, I cure the malignant creatures that plague worlds like this one. I am here to help.”
The old man turned his gaze to me. “But… no offense, doctor, but this disease will not go away by simply eliminating the outsiders now. They will be back the next year, just as they have come back the year before. I am not sure how you can solve the crux of the problem.”
“I understand,” I replied, this time putting Noe’s emotional redux skills to the test.
Amp up those feel-good feelings, Noe!
“Acknowledged.”
Luck Charges: 1501/1577
“But as I said,” I continued, “I have seen similar occurrences happen in a multitude of places like yours. Those two children come from one. I might not be able to cure this disease immediately, but I can give you a fighting chance, to tell you more about the blight that you are facing. I can bring hope. That is why I need to speak to the head of the village.”
“Truly?”
I nodded, and I just had to do one last thing to cement the goodwill of this group of people. With just 30-odd people, the next step of my plan should be feasible. “You don’t have to believe just my words. I will show you through action. Now, although I am here to help the village, I am also a physician, and I can see that it has been many long years since you and your people have seen a doctor. I can help alleviate some of your ills.”
I sat up from my seat and took out the Director’s surgical tools from my inventory. I placed it on the table and spread out the instruments. “I can see from a glance that there are a number of pains that assail you.”
I studied his body as if I knew what I was doing before pointing at a few places. “Lower back pain, not to mention poor diet,” I pointed at the weird face thing on his shoulder, “and that twin of yours has some muscle pain as well. Additionally…”
I continued to list random terms and disorders off the top of my head, watching as my Charges went down and only stopped when I saw that the old man was thoroughly convinced of my medical acumen. I was doing all of this to make it so that my identity as Dr. Walter couldn’t be questioned, since most people trusted people in positions of authority, and I honestly did want to help these poor people out after hearing their story.
Luck Charges: 1455/1577
The old man nodded fervently, his eyes wide, “You’re correct, doctor! How can you tell all that with just a glance?”
“I’m the best Physcian at Hope’s Memorial,” I said with a grin, “It’s what I do. Now let me help you and the rest first. Please call the rest of the villagers that wish to be cured, and form an orderly line here. I’ll do my best to help.”
Comments
Seen Death
What a nice doctor!
