The Cobra King's Return

Sector Gamma Adventures 1

The ground around them began to squelch even more, as dozens of figures emerged from behind the pulsating mounds and dripping trees. These were the All-Eyed Kin, the citizens of Vermentra, and they were a horrifying spectacle. Their bodies were a grotesque patchwork, asymmetrical and chaotic, like nightmares stitched together by a mad tailor. Eyeballs, thousands of them, covered every inch of their flesh-on their backs, embedded in their knees, sprouting from their fingertips, even blinking from inside hidden orifices within their mouths. They blinked randomly, a ceaseless, disorienting flicker of pupils, and some were clearly watching specific people at all times, their gaze unnervingly fixed on Peti and Hokori.

They possessed dozens of arms and legs, growing from unnatural places-shoulders, hips, even necks-twitching and spasming like a bundle of worms. Their skin was a disturbing patchwork: some parts smooth and glistening, others wrinkled and sagging, still others crudely stitched or stapled together with thick, sinewy thread. Patches of their flesh were alarmingly transparent, revealing pulsating organs within or oozing, viscous fluids. Instead of hair, small, writhing fingers grew from their scalps, twitching constantly. Many dragged or even carried extra limbs they'd clearly amputated from others, either as gruesome trophies or perhaps with the intent to reattach them later.

They moved with a strange, shambling grace, a collective, unsettling hissing sound accompanying their approach. Their myriad eyes, blinking in discordant rhythms, swiveled to fixate on the newcomers.

Peti and Hokori instantly recoiled. The sheer, overwhelming wrongness of their appearance and the pervasive stench of flesh and decay made their stomachs clench.

The Kin didn't speak with words, but communicated through a horrifying symphony of eye movements, disjointed limb gestures, or by bending over and vomiting bile that formed crude, shimmering symbols on the ground. They began to swarm Peti and Hokori, not with immediate hostility, but with a deeply unsettling, grotesque curiosity. Long, spindly fingers, tipped with tiny, blinking eyes, reached out.

One creature, its face a swirling vortex of small, twitching eyeballs, reached for Peti, its hand opening to reveal a hidden mouth in its palm, its fingers tipped with what looked like tiny teeth. It tried to pry open his mouth, its multitude of eyes attempting to "see inside him."

Peti roared, a sound of pure disgust and revulsion, and instinctively kicked out, a powerful, sonic-infused boot sending the creature sprawling. "GET OFF ME! DON'T TOUCH ME!"

Another, with an extra arm growing from its neck, reached for Hokori, its fingers attempting to force open his eyelids, to truly "see" his celestial light.

Hokori flinched back, his body glowing with a furious burst of white energy. He punched the air in front of it, not to harm, but to repel, sending a shockwave that pushed the creature away with a disgusted grunt. "AHH! Keep your... whatever that is... away from me!"

The All-Eyed Kin recoiled, letting out a series of disjointed, guttural sounds: "Ahhh...! Ohhh...! Ehhhh...! Uhhhh...!"-sounds that were chillingly similar to those of a disabled or distressed person, yet coming from these monstrous forms, it was unsettling. They were puzzled by this refusal, their thousands of eyes blinking in confusion, tilting their malformed heads.

As the swirling mass of Kin momentarily hesitated, Peti's sharp eyes, still capable of piercing through layers of grotesquery, found one. It was slightly less... mutated than the others, its patchwork skin perhaps a little smoother, fewer redundant limbs. He lunged towards it, his voice raw with desperation.

"Hey! You! Where are we?! Are there any normal people here?! Any... anyone who doesn't look like a walking meat-tumor?!"

The creature recoiled from Peti's direct question, its eyes blinking rapidly. It raised one of its many hands, pointing at Peti's relatively unblemished body. Then, it scraped a finger against the ground, and its mouth in its palm opened, vomiting a glistening, black bile that quickly formed shimmering symbols on the ground. Peti, having seen Kaelen's illusions, recognized the visual language, and the words formed in his mind: