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(You) Are Moldy McMoldface, and you're currently ego-searching. Seated in your empty concrete room in your evil lair – a long-abandoned Bastion floating fortress – you tap the mold tentacles on the phone. Thanks to Snail Guy – one of your minions, NEETing enthusiast, and filthy gacha game enjoyer, the base actually has enough electricity to charge phones. Where Snail Guy is stealing it from, you have no idea.

You look through the internet, taking quiet satisfaction in what you see. Several days ago you and your other minion – Rayle, a centaur-ish girl with anger issues, took out the main magic orb that hosted ALL of the League of Myths servers, beating up a stray weaboo hero in the process. The reactions by humans on the internet are quite varied. The filthy casuals and shitters who play that terrible game (you would know, you were one of them) cry in anguish, as you wanted them to. The investors also cry in anguish at losing their money printer. The general masses, on the other hand, are mostly relieved at the staggering 0 casualties, an extreme rarity when a MONSTER is involved. Many more humans make memes and jokingly suggest the next targets for "that weird monster's" apparent gamer rage. Pfft. Like you care about their opinion. You totally don't.

So far, working for IO has been less scary or exciting than you expected. For the last several days all you did was steal magic-conductive marble to make your base a floating fortress once again. IO hasn't been telling you where exactly you would be flying, but you assumed it has something to do with the location of MONSTER KING'S prison.

Even with the City under martial law by now, stealing the marble in bulk wasn't that hard. What would be hard is the next part.

The alarm on your phone sounds, you stow the device inside your SHELL – a high-tech stealth suit, currently holding the mold cloud that is your actual body, and walk to the war room to speak with the team, including the newest addition. Or oldest, depending on how you look at it. Before recruiting you, Rayle and Snail Guy, IO had already had a helper, a scaredy, nervous, and kind of annoying monster girl that went by Psy. Psy has unreliable but potent psychic powers, including mind control/reading, and can therefore extract useful information out of prisoners. Something that you would need to do soon. To operate, besides the marble lining, your Bastion needs a magic orb of great power and somebody to operate the system. You and IO have planned to steal both the orb and the necessary skillset tonight.

You walk into the war room and see Psy on her phone, cheeks red, muttering "ehehe.." in a creepy way. After she moved in, you quickly learned that Psy is a massive pervert who spends most of her free time consuming yaoi "art" and "literature" in truly monstrous quantities. You jolt her out of her bliss.

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– "Psy! Has IO given us the plan yet?"

The girl monster squeals and nearly drops the phone out of her sweaty palms. Her fat, flabby ears twitch in annoyance.

– "Uh.. yeah. Yeah, he actually did. I think boss left already. Uh, what time is it? Oh shit!"

She fumbles around with a paper map laid out on the table.

– "DO NOT WORRY. YOU'RE RIGHT ON TIME."

A deep and oddly casual voice of IO comes from the side, making both of you jump. Psy drops her phone this time. The giant monster's ability to be unseen and unheard seems to not come from any power but from a skill honed for who knows how long. You're still having trouble getting used to it.

Snail guy and Rayle come into the war room next, both taking nervous glances at IO. Rayle, your self-proclaimed rival, gives you a nod. IO stretches his spiked limbs and gestures on the map.

– "SO. THIS IS A MAP OF THE RITUAL SITE IN WHICH HUMANS TAKE MAGIC ORBS FULL OF RAW POWER AND ATTUNE THEM TO COMPLEX SYSTEMS: THE BIGGEST OF MECHS, WIDE NETWORKS, OTHER HUMAN-MADE TOYS. WE NEED ONE TO POWER THIS.." He taps his spike on the concrete wall. "..OLD WARHORSE AND GET IT TO FLY, CLOAK, TELEPORT, EVERYTHING."

– "THE HUMAN WITH THE RIGHT SKILLS TO DO IT WILL BE INSIDE TOO, INSTALLING THE ORB INTO SOME GIANT ROBOT. THIS IS WHY PSY WILL BE COMING WITH YOU. SHE WILL TAKE THE KNOWLEDGE WE NEED."

IO places one of his spikes on Psy's shoulder, making her shake with terror.

– "NOW, MOLDY, THIS ONE IS GOING TO BE YOUR CALL. DO YOU WANT ME TO HELP IN A FRONTAL ASSAULT? OR WOULD YOU RATHER HAVE ME CAUSE A DISTRACTION TO HELP YOU WITH INFILTRATION? HUMANS ARE READY FOR WAR NOW, WHOLE CITY SCARED AND TWITCHY. EVEN FOR ME, PURE STEALTH WOULD BE TOO TOUGH OF A SELL TO RISK IT."

IO flashes you a grin. Despite having much more experience, it seems to amuse him, leaving the strategy to you.

HOW DO YOU HEIST?

>LOUD. Bust down the front door with IO. Massive human respose will be despatched, but with IO's help you should be able to quickly bulldose your way through.
>QUIET. IO will go on a very enthusiastic walk several blocks away. Probably eat a bunch of people. All avaluable local forces will be pulled to fight him, leaving you to do the infiltration. If caught you will be on your own.
>SUPER QUIET. Actually, you don't need IO's help. He can haul some magic marble, you still need much more of that. This will leave you with a tough infiltration to pull off. You could probably do it without much casualties, if you give a damn about such things. (IO will probably still eat someone, you know him)
>(Write-in?)

>>6391128
>LOUD. Bust down the front door with IO. Massive human respose will be despatched, but with IO's help you should be able to quickly bulldose your way through.

Welcome back QM! Glad you're still around!!

>>6391128
>QUIET. IO will go on a very enthusiastic walk several blocks away. Probably eat a bunch of people. All avaluable local forces will be pulled to fight him, leaving you to do the infiltration. If caught you will be on your own.
I really want to fight alongside IO, but our strengths are in our stealth. Good to see you back, WispQM! This quest has been kino.

>>6391128
>SUPER QUIET. Actually, you don't need IO's help. He can haul some magic marble, you still need much more of that. This will leave you with a tough infiltration to pull off. You could probably do it without much casualties, if you give a damn about such things. (IO will probably still eat someone, you know him)
Mama didn't raise no coward, easy mode is for CHUMPS

To anyone who wonders about the last conversation with Rayle from the previous thread, it still concluded, just off screen. I wanted to jump straight into action, since I was out of it for so long. The winning vote was a "there are pros and cons to staying a monster, idk" write-in.
Reminder on your posessions and abilities, in case anyone needs it.
>SHELL - stealth suit(no sleeves). Offers no protection but you can turn invisible. You can swap shells if given some time to settle into the new one.
>MOLD ELEMENTAL CORE ABILITY SET - you can form tentacles, puff spores and extend strands of mycelium along surfaces to feel out an area or maybe even tangle someone's feet.
>THE STICK - your loyal bonded weapon, an enchanted piece of rebar. Reappears inside your shell on command.
>COMBAT ART: Swordbreaker - can shatter most inanimate objects
>ONE(1) perfectly mundane HE grenade - loot form defeated Street Samurai

>>6391128
>QUIET. IO will go on a very enthusiastic walk several blocks away. Probably eat a bunch of people. All avaluable local forces will be pulled to fight him, leaving you to do the infiltration. If caught you will be on your own.
I'm not jazzed about him eating people, but that's sort of unavoidable when working with Io, and we have no better option.

Welcome back, QM!

>>6391143
>To anyone who wonders about the last conversation with Rayle from the previous thread, it still concluded, just off screen.
Well, if you ever want to revisit it when you feel like it, I'm sure nobody would complain.

>>6391154
+1 to this. It did seem like a meaningful moment.

>>6391128
>QUIET. IO will go on a very enthusiastic walk several blocks away. Probably eat a bunch of people. All avaluable local forces will be pulled to fight him, leaving you to do the infiltration. If caught you will be on your own.

>>6391168
Yeah, it was basically the culmination of the whole "Humanity" issue in the first thread. I think it was a nice write-in for Moldy.

But still, I do get why QM would want to jump into action, so I don't blame him.

>>6391128
>>QUIET. IO will go on a very enthusiastic walk several blocks away. Probably eat a bunch of people. All avaluable local forces will be pulled to fight him, leaving you to do the infiltration. If caught you will be on your own.

Welcome back, QM!!!

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>>6391154
>>6391168
Sure, you have a point. Then FLASHBACK today, actual update probably thursday. The QUIET approach seems to have won.
Doing things kind of backwards over here, but it should be fine.

ANYWAY, FLASHBACK TIME
(Few days ago)

Snail guy slithers away. You and Rayle sit near a wall. She's chewing on her finger.
– "Hey, can I say something uncool? Don't tell Snail."
Damn, you have no idea where she's going with this, but you're pretty sure you're not equipped for it. You nod anyway.

– "I kind of hoped humans off MK and then we would all turn back." Rayle lets out a chuckle. "There. Lame."
– "Thought you liked being a monster?" You try to make your voice neutral. You don't really know what to say anyway.
– "I.. guess I thought so too. But the extent of my ambition was trashing the fast food joint I worked at, and I guess, fighting you. Did both of those days back. So when I'm not in a fight, I just feel myself going insane, I guess. Until I'm like that giant eyeless fuck. Or worse, Pantera."
Remembering the hat-wearing feline monster actually got Rayle back to the healthy seething level. "Hope that bitch bought it in the research center."
You sit silently for a moment while your rival/minion/kind of friend(?) works through her thoughts.

– "What about you, Moldy? Would you want to go back to human? Or do you like the monster life better?" Her tone is distant. Talking to Rayle without constant banter feels weird, but you consider answering truthfully anyway.

Then you consider some more. The pause stretches on, way into the awkward territory. Rayle shuffles while casting glances at you.

– "What? It wasn't that lame of a question, come on."
You wave your tentacles a bit.
– "No, no, I'm just thinking.. Well, turning into a monster got me to stop playing League so that's something."

Rayle snorts. You pat yourself on the back for good deadpan delivery and continue.
– "Okay, but seriously I don't.. hate it. Having power, the ability to actually do things that I want."
– "Like running around destroying vidya?" Rayle raises an eyebrow at you. She's smirking a little, but without mockery in it.
– "Yeah, why the hell not? Gotta have a hobby. And kicking HEROES over feels good too."

Rayle chews her leathery lip.

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– "I mean yeah, it does. It'll feel good to finally get one over you too. Maybe fuck up Pantera if she survived. But like.." She waves her hand a bit. "..you know?"
You think you do.
– "Sure, there are cons, but if IO's plan comes through, then the biggest one will be gone. Also meeting you and Snail was pretty cool." You try for sincerity and receive a groan in response.
– "That's so cheesy."
– "Don't care."

A couple of beats pass, the evil pony still chewing on her lip.
– "The idea of going crazy makes me nervous, okay?" Rayle crosses her arms and squares off against expected mockery. You just shrug.
– "I'm pretty sure we'll be fine. We can tank the madness. Also, not like I wasn't full of resentment as a human. What would I even go back for? My life sucked."
The words come out with an unexpected level of bitterness. Oh great, now you're the one oversharing. Rayle sits in silence for a moment until you break it.
– "So you wanna go back.. what would you even do if you went back to human?"
– "I uhhh.. would go to college, I guess? That was the plan. Until I got stuck in fast food for years."

You chuckle without a mouth. You've been getting pretty good at doing this.

– "Surprised you even kept the job for that long with your temper."
Rayle narrows her eyes and puffs out some steam, familiar anger somewhat subdued by amusement.
– "Yeah? Surprised you talk so much shit about other people's gaming skills and tastes, since you were in silver."

You gasp, deeply offended, and lean into the bickering. Both of you feel awkward after sharing too much and are in silent agreement to just go back to bants for now. But your minion seems reassured. And maybe you got something out of this conversation too. A chance to sort out your thoughts on your new condition. Soon you separate and get ready to meet IO's mysterious extra helper. Hopefully they aren't too weird.

FLASHBACK OVER

I really can't imagine it'll be as easy as tanking the madness

BUT

It's good to see them bond.

>>6391605
Agreed on both counts.

>>6391582
Good flashback, OP. I'm glad we got to see it.

>>6391128
>QUIET. IO will go on a very enthusiastic walk several blocks away. Probably eat a bunch of people. All avaluable local forces will be pulled to fight him, leaving you to do the infiltration. If caught you will be on your own.

>>6391126
Glad seeing you back, man
>>6391582
Thanks, OP

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You stare at the map for some more seconds and decide on the basic distraction plus infiltration combo. If it ain't broke.. IO grins at you knowingly.
– "HOARDING YOUR KILLS FOR YOURSELF? HAH! I UNDERSTAND. LET US BOTH EAT WHAT WE KILL. NO STEPPING ON TOES." Neither of you have toes. You bet IO thinks he's hilarious.

Snail Guy bravely volunteers to guard the base, and despite knowing damn well he just doesn't want to go outside, you don't object. The base itself has become an important part of your plans, and someone probably should stay and keep watch over it anyway. Besides, while Snail could be of help in a frontal assault, he isn't really the best stealth soldier.
IO takes off into the tunnels. Reluctantly, you and the girls follow him, then split after a while and take the rooftops instead. You have been avoiding the underground since your brief time in the monster army, wary of running into your "fellows." You'd take a ride on the roof of a train again, but with the curfew in effect, train tracks might be too well observed to slip by. So legwork it is.

Legwork for you and Rayle. Psy has quickly proven to be too flabby to hop from rooftop to rooftop, and so, to evil pony's great dismay, had to be carried on horseback. Being ridden made Rayle really mad for some reason, and you don't envy the first guy she's going to do a silent takedown on. For now, with no good punching targets in range, the pony has been bitching non-stop instead.
– "..and the Snail too! What a bitch! He keeps skipping our adventures!"
You make the usual noncommittal hum and are surprised when Psy actually pipes in.
– "W-well after scolding him with telepathy for a bit, he agreed to come help us if the operation turns loud.."

Both you and Rayle give her *the look*. You go first.
– "You can do that?"
– "Uh, yeah, it's way easier to do psy-things to people who aren't resisting it turns out.. Well, at first I tried to get into his head and fix his horrible taste, but he's so stubborn and it didn't work, but I did figure out how to talk to others that way.."

Her barrage of words ends with abrupt awkwardness. The girl monster is still constantly sweaty and nervous, but getting away from IO seems to have loosened her up a bit.

Rayle snickers and elbows you.
– "Hey look, another "good taste" distributor, now we have two on the team."

Without waiting for you to respond, Psy starts defending herself.
– "It's v-valid! Snail is an incel problematic hetslop consumer, and he doesn't understand that gacha waifu #2 and gacha waifu #3 are totally yuri-coded! Less merciful and b-benevolent monsters would have him pay in b-blood!" She deflates a little. "But you know, I am merciful and that other thing, so I'll just fix everyone's taste with mind control." Psy crosses her arms, closes her giant eye, and nods with self-satisfaction.

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You.. try not to judge much, despite the growing headache.
– "Okay.. just don't go on a murder spree on the middle of a stealth mission."
The militant fujo rapidly shakes her head, ears flapping.
– "No, no, don't worry. If I kill all humans, no one will be left to write more BL. I don't really.. you know.." Psy pauses and hangs on tight to Rayle while you all jump the gap between rooftops. "..if you want all the uh.. meat to yourself, then, uh, go ahead, I'll pass."
You inform Psy that you or your minions haven't been into people-eating much, and then return the conversation to the practical track.

– "Okay, okay, so you can do long-range comms? With your mind? Could you put us all on the same channel?"
– "Uh, no, I can speak into your head and listen to your answer, and that's kind of it.. I've been using it to annoy Snail Guy and not much else.."
Rayle shrugged.
– "Could be useful. But if you try to mind control me, I'm punching you. A lot."
You chime in right after the casual threat.
– "Can you call IO that way?"
Psy shuffles awkwardly.
– "I didn't establish contact with him that way. I uh.. r-really don't wanna get into his head.."
Understandable. You let the matter drop and focus on jogging.

***

The gang is planted on the rooftop outside the ritual site. You can actually see most of the inside from this vantage point, which reminds you that this place usually isn't used for anything military-related, just infrastructure. Well, not today. It's a big open-air area with several buildings that slopes down in large steps. Workers and vehicles move around, floodlights illuminate the area. Roughly in the middle, at the deepest point, there is a ritual square covered in thick cables and glowing lines. A towering, crab-looking war mech is standing there. Humans really are preparing for war. Good thing you're about to steal that mech's would-be power source.

The muffled explosion sound perks all of you up. IO must have begun his "walk." By his own admission he's not immortal or all-powerful, and he usually wins fights by only taking the fights he can win. Translation: he'll pull a lot of people but retreat if the risk becomes too much. You're on a timer. Five feds in their usual formalwear (and shades at night) exit the main gates with their cases ready. They have a brief hurried conversation, leave one woman at the gates, hop on an army APC, and rush towards the action. Several more cars soon follow out of the gates. No hero presence it seems, feds and heroes never got along.
It was time to go. Your target is the ritual square.

HOW DO YOU INFILTRATE

> Find a blindspot and hop the fence. Move from cover to cover. Risky and basic, but without complicated things to execute. Psy can help you locate the people and anything with a mind, to better avoid them.
> There's an underground acess nearby, take that, look for a way in. The site is probably reinforced against underground incursion, but with your "shatter" combat art, no physical barrier will be enough. Alarms or subterranian explosives might be bad though. Will get you very close to your goal immediately if sucessful.
>All in on Psy. The g-woman is still near the gate, nervoisly smoking. If psy could mind control her, the fed could sneak you all in in her car. That would require Psy to not fumble.
>(Write-in)

>>6392472
> There's an underground acess nearby, take that, look for a way in. The site is probably reinforced against underground incursion, but with your "shatter" combat art, no physical barrier will be enough. Alarms or subterranian explosives might be bad though. Will get you very close to your goal immediately if sucessful.
If we're doing stealth, then SPEED is our next greatest asset. Being very close to our goal immediately is good because it also means we can escape sooner.

>>6391582
Very soulful flashback, WispQM, it really hit me in the feels.

>>6392472
> There's an underground acess nearby, take that, look for a way in. The site is probably reinforced against underground incursion, but with your "shatter" combat art, no physical barrier will be enough. Alarms or subterranian explosives might be bad though. Will get you very close to your goal immediately if sucessful.
This is the plan with the least moving parts.

>>6392472
>> There's an underground acess nearby, take that, look for a way in. The site is probably reinforced against underground incursion, but with your "shatter" combat art, no physical barrier will be enough. Alarms or subterranian explosives might be bad though. Will get you very close to your goal immediately if sucessful.
Stealth approach hasn't failed us till now.

>>6392472
> Find a blindspot and hop the fence. Move from cover to cover. Risky and basic, but without complicated things to execute. Psy can help you locate the people and anything with a mind, to better avoid them.
We don't know how reliable Psy is yet, and the underground is going to be where they expect monster attacks to come from.

>>6392472
>> Find a blindspot and hop the fence. Move from cover to cover. Risky and basic, but without complicated things to execute. Psy can help you locate the people and anything with a mind, to better avoid them.

>>6392472
>All in on Psy. The g-woman is still near the gate, nervoisly smoking. If psy could mind control her, the fed could sneak you all in in her car. That would require Psy to not fumble.
Time for the dike washing

>>6392472
>Find a blindspot and hop the fence. Move from cover to cover. Risky and basic, but without complicated things to execute. Psy can help you locate the people and anything with a mind, to better avoid them.

>>6392472
> Find a blindspot and hop the fence. Move from cover to cover. Risky and basic, but without complicated things to execute. Psy can help you locate the people and anything with a mind, to better avoid them.
Least risky and let’s us assess Psy

>>6392472
> Find a blindspot and hop the fence. Move from cover to cover. Risky and basic, but without complicated things to execute. Psy can help you locate the people and anything with a mind, to better avoid them.
also its so good to have you back QM
this was one of my favorite quests so im happy to see the continuing adventures of Moldy Snake building our exterior nirvana

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Basic infiltration wins! This and the glue factory, Moldy crealy prefers old school "just hop the fence and avoid the cameras" stealth.
Roll 3d100, Bo3!
DCs are 30/60/90

Rolled 7 (1d100)

>>6393640

Rolled 24 (1d100)

>>6393640

Rolled 53 (1d100)

>>6393640
THESE ROLLS SUCK

>>6393660
Well, at least we cleared the first DC. Not a total loss...

>>6393677
Though, technically speaking, these are 1d100s, not 3d100s

>>6393660
Hey, you didn't get instantly discovered! Instead you get *complications*
>>6393679
The rolls are correct, three d100, taking the best. I've caused confusion with calling it wrong before, maybe I did again.

Rolled 65 (1d100)

I like rolling dice, so I will roll one even if it was all rolled already.

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>>6393686

>>6393682
>Psy trys to make Rayle and the G-Woman kiss because her yuri fetish makes her powers activate sub consciously

>>6393855
But Psy is a fujo