Beg to Differ

Beg to Differ
Date	6/9/24
Storyteller	Unseelie
Tier	Any
Player Characters	Siltmean the Craftrat, Shadefrost, Omen, Boophis Bright-Eyed, Seskro
Rewards	275 xp compound eyes formula, crab milk, tiny horned crabshell necklace, minimum wage
Result	success
Author	Siltmean
Downtime	3

Log

Crab Cave

• Go to crab cave immediately
• See notice on boarded-up entrance
• Some changes beneficial, some not
• Written by "Josephine Falling" of the Oakridge Village Council
• Head in
• Crabs everywhere
• Pouring out of opening in boarded-up cave
• Shadefrost uses quill to open up magic passage for us to go through
• Small lake of pink goo amidst tons of crabs
• Tendrils floating into the air
• Examine pink goo
• Seems alive
• Dies when separated from pool for too long
• Seskro dips hand in
• Scales go from blue to red
• Jumps in pool
• Leaves minute later fully red
• Lightning breath becomes red
• Barbell (Omen's Familiar) is pushed into pool
• Comes out a Barbazu
• Immediately reverts
• Outlier to every other experiment ran
• Test fire and lightning on goo
• Can be hurt, can be cut
• No pain response
• Go deeper in
• Pass by bigger crabs
• Antlers, mushroom features
• Animals and like default to crab?
• Best running theory so far
• Keep going deeper
• Reach bottom of cave
• Giant purple mass with blue orbs scattered about
• Upon approaching it messes with our minds
• Wants to know more about us
• Wants to change us to fit our desires
• Will stop if target is uncomfortable with process
• Is possibly the dragonfly that escaped before
• Didn't seem to recognize me
• Orbs were very eye-like for a bug
• Seskro states desire to become more dragon-like
• Grows spikes atop head
• Barbell has horns now
• Decide to leave mass alone for now
• Doesn't seem intent on harm or forced transformation so far

Oakridge

• Head to Oakridge to explain the situation with the cave
• Opinions on cave are mixed
• Village was previously mostly human
• Now a diverse mix of races thanks to cave
• Josephine Falling is "authority" on the matter
• Go to get into contact with them
• Seskro knocks over bucket full of crab-likes
• We get roped into helping find crab-morphed creatures in the village
• Do the same for the council hall
• Finally get to talk with Josephine
• Not particularly interested in opening up cave
• Compromise with keeping it closed but let people visit if desired
• Unlikely this will actually be done, however
• Go into square to inform people of the cave situation
• Some receptive, some not
• Find out crab-morph population growth was gradual, not explosive
• Running theory is that creatures with no innate desire or ideal form default to crab
• Creatures capable of rational thought can choose their forms

Recommended path forward for Onadbyr

• Monitor situation carefully, but not intervene unless danger is shown
• Dragonfly was originally kidnapping and forcing changes
• This should be kept in mind before blindly trusting it
• Seems willing to concede to change-ee's feelings for now
• Look for way to separate this transformative ability from the need for the sole creature
• Potential for application similar to sex shift potions
• Lifespan of goo is extremely short as-is, however
• Am personally willing to conduct research on this if funded
• If issues arise, dragonfly mass seems fully immobile
• Should be easy to dispose of