Apocryphal Onslaught CYOA
It should be noted that most Cursebearers do not have Hunger's ludicrous rate of growth. Certainly, they grow swiftly, but not so swiftly that they brush up against the third level of Curse Mitigation in a paltry 2 years. Thus, it is quite common for them to fall into a death spiral of barely scraping by in their task while recovering from whatever disaster Apocryphal has unleashed. Others, however, manage to infuriate Apocryphal in their efforts to overcome her challenges. Oh, she might become upset over someone dismantling her carefully crafted challenges by powering through them like a gorilla, as Hunger did, but there are a handful of ways to cause her to forgo 'May you live in interesting times.' in favor of 'Just die.' and some unlucky or stupid Cursebearer has done just that.
Thus, she has decided to take the kid's gloves off and put in effort akin to combining All That Matters and Mordred relative to the power of the Cursebearer in question, so the Apocryphal proc should be treated as the Cursebearer's equivalent of a 5-Pick fight, possibly worse. As an opening move. Now, Apocryphal will be preparing further eruptions of bizarre chance in disfavor towards the offending Cursebearer, but what form does this opening move take?
[ ] The Hateful Chaorrupted Glitch
Across the multiverse, there are many viral entities and pseudo-entities, contagious forms of energy, even some self-spreading memetic hazards, which are commonly referred to as 'Corruption' by those who deal with them on a regular basis. 4 such corrupting forces have made contact, clashed, and subsumed each other, or joined forces, depending on your point of view.
First, Hate. A black substance formed when a single individual is hated by an entire species. It stains the body and soul alike, providing power at the cost of suppressing positive emotions and influencing those afflicted with it towards murder at best, and omnicide at worst. It's nature is such that it can only be destroyed alongside it's host. While it's relatively easy to purge, this will merely force it out of the host in question, leaving it free to look elsewhere for a suitable target for it's manipulations.
Pros:
+Physical and mystical parameters are bolstered an order of magnitude, which can be combined for a multiplicative effect.
+Provides a dramatic boost to healing, restoring lost limbs in moments. This will happen automatically unless the host manages to suppress Hate's influence.
+Can exist outside of a host, and if necessary use corpses as hosts. This will leave it burning accumulated energy for each action taken, as it normally relies on the soul as an energy source, but it can be useful for ambushing targets which believe their enemy defeated, and while it will weaken as the fight goes on, it can be a very powerful combatant.
+Due to the circumstances of it's rise, it grants access to eight special magics. Determination is the most potent, but most generalized, able to form constructs and provide a larger than average boost to parameters, though all eight can provide this to one degree or another, as well as a minor regenerative effect. Blades and manipulation of space-time can be said to be it's specialties. Bravery can make attacks explosive for extra damage potential, grants pyrokinesis, and manipulate attack vectors. Justice can fire powerful beams of energy, and inflict a poisonous secondary effect based on the target's karma. Kindness can further boost healing and generate shields. Patience can manipulate time, but is generally used for strings and other forms of entrapment, including whips, though this is technically just making a singular very thick string and using it in a specific way, and razor-wire. Integrity excels in the creation of constructs, and is capable of the most complicated constructs. It can also alter gravity for a targeted entity. Perseverance grants defense-piercing and healing-resistant wounds. It is also allows users to persist for a short time after having technically died. Finally, Fear provides the ability to generate illusions, which draw on the target's insecurities and fears, and use a special move known as Rhabdophobia, which steals their magic. Once stolen, this magic will continue to drain the target's reserves, but will be under the full control of the Fear user, including preventing the spell from being canceled by the original caster. Each magic is indicated by, in order, red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, indigo, purple, and pink.
+Can automatically infect souls it comes into close contact with, though most of the time this requires separation of body and soul, and active infection efforts are needed, and Hate normally contents itself upon obtaining a powerful host. However, should that host die, Hate will use whatever their body has left to attempt to transfer to a new host, or spend a few moments independent to do so on it's own initiative.
+If Mental Pollution fails, it is possible for Hate to assume direct control, though this can in turn be resisted.
Cons:
-Hosts are suffering Mental Pollution effects, and strong bonds can interfere with Hate's control. Hate is aware of this, and will usually seek to sever those bonds in a permanent fashion.
-Healing ability is normally unlimited. However, suppressed/tamed Hate will either not provide it or provide it only at the cost of weakening that suppression temporarily. In addition, if acting outside of a host, healing wounds drains the limited pool of energy, so healing will slow as the fight wears on.
-Via a mixture of acquired poison immunity and a strong will, it is possible to tame Hate. This is known as Animosity. Animosity will take advantage of emotional turbulence, but this generally requires something on the order of a loved one being murdered in plain view.
-Kindly individuals are resistant to the Mental Pollution effect, allowing them to more easily shake off Hate's influence. While even minor grudges can be amplified, there are limits to Hate's ability to convince others.
-While base form is reasonably stealthy, with the sclera turned black, as Hate is used more, particularly when regenerating, the staining increases in severity until the host is little more than a black figure.
-Which magic is being used is always indicated by their magic changing to that color. This makes it relatively easy to predict what abilities are in use at any given time.
-It seems to require a sapient host, as a byproduct of it's need for a soul.
-Purification of a Hateful individual is generally as easy as exposing them to pure versions of the corrupted magics they use, though there are recorded instances of a loved one breaking through to them.
-It is unclear what the upper limit on it's ability to infect entities is, both in terms of being able to control them and in terms of being able to infect them at all. It is, however, confirmed to be capable of controlling entities capable of destroying cities in a few attacks without issue.
Infection Vectors: Ingestion, being hated by an entire species, being assaulted and possessed by independent Hate. Notably, direct physical contact is normally as safe as doing so with murderous Corrupted entities ever gets. It's when it gets inside that you have a problem.
Second, Chaos. A purple energy, which is not good or evil, or even truly capable of fitting in with one or the other. It's influence inflicts mutations and degradation of mental stability, but provides immense power and new abilities in return. While it often inflicts mutations, these mutations are beneficial with surprising frequency. Or at very least the Chaoruppted no longer care if they aren't. Much like Hate, Chaos possesses it's own sentience and will, though it can be leashed if you know what you're doing.
Pros:
+An order of magnitude increase in physical and mystical power.
+Unlocks new capabilities, usually based on their desires. A vampire might find their siring of new vampires enhanced. A knight might find their swordfighting enhanced by a second set of arms, and so on. Mutations are often beneficial in one way or another.
+This is one of the few Corruption types that can corrupt the very ground and water, in addition to non-sapient animals and plants, weapons and armor, buildings, etc. Really, nothing seems to be outright immune. Even entities such as the guardian of a universe's flow of time and Death may be affected.
+As Chaos Magic is itself contagious, not to mention physical contact, fighting Chaoruppted in any major capacity is a risky proposition, and when the very ground beneath your feet can be Chaorrupted, siege tactics such as 'poisoning' water supplies are perfectly viable.
+There are only a handful of cures, all of which are derived from body fluids harvested from embodiments of Chaos. It is otherwise not possible to cure Chaos corruption once it has been inflicted, only delay the final transformation into a servant of Chaos or resist it's whispers.
+As Chaos Magic can corrupt individuals, this is a Corruption type that can be spread by force. Corrupting targets at a distance is not beyond a dedicated effort, though it's generally easier with proximity.
Cons:
-Loss of mental stability can cause major issues in planning and sudden bouts of pettiness or madness. While fitting for Chaos, it makes organized prosecution of any sort of military campaign difficult.
-Even willing hosts see their mental stability degrade if they use Chaos, if not to the same degree. With the exception of beings strongly associated with Order or embodiments of Chaos, this cannot be entirely avoided, though it is possible to channel this madness constructively.
-By the same token, it is possible for strong-willed individuals to resist Chaos for long periods, though repeated doses of Chaos Magic will dramatically shorten this timespan.
-While mutations are often beneficial, they are not always, and eyes and tentacles in places they do not belong, not to mention a near universal tendency towards purple eyes and outfits does not lend itself to subtlety. It is possible to disguise this, but difficult.
-It takes immense willpower, but it is possible to actively resist the control of Chaos even after it has tossed aside the pretense of free will. In addition, if one accepted Chaos willingly, they are highly resistant to Chaos attempting to control them.
-While it can assume direct control, normally Chaos simply puts a thumb on the moral system of any given host. They might begin treating a beloved pet cruelly, but they would not intentionally send them to their deaths. They might declare war on their own town or nation, but their motivation is generally either resentment stoked by Chaos or an effort to bring their former comrades into the fold. Often, Chaos preys upon those already inclined against the established order for one reason or another. Thus the ability of the strong-willed to resist the mental contamination, as they cling to their ideals and previous decisions. They can even 'listen in' to Chaos and give advice on it's plans.
Infection Vectors: Direct contact, exposure to Chaos Magic, ingestion of Chaoruppted food or drinks.
Third, the Corruption. Once upon a time, a lemon-headed demon discovered a strange substance, or perhaps entity depending on your perspective, and intended to use it for his revenge against a blue-haired boy for being humiliated. Unfortunately, he would find himself being used in turn, as the entire world paid for his hubris. A strange black and pink ooze spread across everyone. In hours, an entire city was overrun. In days, it was everywhere.
Pros:
+In a unique turn, the Corruption can be spread by sound. While direct contact also works, sound allows for a much faster spread. If you can hear Corrupted individuals, you are at risk.
+Emotional instability and exhaustion dramatically accelerate Corruption, even in individuals normally able to resist. The Corruption is smart enough to understand this and bring in Corrupted friends and family to negatively impact a target's mental state.
+Provides a moderate power boost. Nothing huge, but enough for a normal human to dodge machine-gun fire from a few feet away. Regeneration is more impressive, as severed limbs can be reattached without issue, at least if done within 15 minutes or so.
+Corrupted are capable of pooling their power. A crowd of Corrupted can grant minor benefits to a chosen champion in their efforts to Corrupt a particularly hardy individual. They can also 'tag in' when this is happening in order to wear down their opponent and grant a reprieve to their own side.
+While reversing Corruption for any given individual is relatively easy, unless you are at the very beginning of the outbreak, much like zombies, they never come alone, and curing Corruption can only be done via direct clashes with the Corrupted in question.
+The Corrupted operate in a hivemind structure dedicated to spreading the Corruption. Thus, if one knows where some holdouts are, you can assume the rest know. While individuals retain some personality quirks, the original personality is buried in it's own subconscious, usually unable to even perceive what's going on.
+While things like the ground and buildings are generally slower to be Corrupted, to the point they generally don't fully Corrupt until Corrupted have overrun the area, machines and the like are vulnerable, regardless of if they possess any kind of AI.
+Corrupted are granted an adaptive, mutative ability. This is connected to, but separate from, their increased infectivity as time passes. Unlike Chaos, this is always beneficial.
Cons:
-While sound is a very dangerous vector of infection, it is dependent on proximity, as sound loses energy exponentially with distance. Additionally, the power of a given individual influences their ability to infect others. Normal human children would have some issues doing more than causing people 20 feet away some 'scarring' though as an individual spends more time Corrupted they gain more power, at least in terms of infecting others, which also applies to resisting de-Corruption efforts.
-Sound is it's primary vector, but it is possible to turn this against the Corruption and use sound to free the Corrupted.
-Similarly, emotional connections can be used to accelerate de-Corruption efforts, though this advantage usually favors the Corruption, if only via weight of numbers. Seeing your entire family Corrupted will affect you more than your valiant fight would affect them.
-As a rule, reality-warping entities, such as Shaggy and Tricky the Clown, are either categorically immune, or capable of using the Corruption for a power boost.
-The black bodies with pink eyes and teeth, sometimes alongside hair or clothes, crying pink ooze tears are incredibly obvious. Corrupted tend to rely on zombie tactics such as outlasting their targets or drowning them in numbers, though they can be surprisingly tactical in the effort.
-A strong enough shock to the system can allow the individual to begin fighting from the inside, allowing particularly strong-willed individuals to free themselves. While this is happening, their body will remain inactive, leaving it vulnerable to other Corrupted.
-Inanimate objects are not particularly potent sources of corruption, though it is not recommended for non-Corrupted individuals to remain in contact with them for prolonged periods.
Infection Vectors: Direct contact, sound.
Finally, there was the Glitch. It's exact origins are unclear. It seems to have simply appeared on day and begun attacking worlds. The masses of sickly grinning Glitched individuals, swimming in a pitch black mass broken up by their faces and spots of color that served only to make it look even more like a mix of TV static and a glitching computer screen, grew ever larger, with no clear path to containing them, much less curing them. Still, the misfits left behind struggle on...
Pros:
+Significant power boost across all parameters, at least in regards to combat.
+Glitched individuals gain pseudo-immortality, reviving from the Glitch whenever they are slain or take mortal wounds. By the same token, minor wounds can be restored without issue. It is also possible to dive into the Glitch to avoid most attacks, and the Glitch is much more difficult to dispel than most individuals, and nearly impossible to deal with via physical attacks.
+Glitched individuals gain stretchiness to their limbs and bodies and flexibility in general that would be more at home in Plastic Man of Mister Fantastic than a normal individual.
+Glitched individuals can corrupt others in moments, and each individual can generate a larger mass. It is also possible to detach portions with mixed and matched pieces of various Glitched individuals and send them off to hunt individuals.
+Technically, no known cure exists.
+Entities such as Shaggy are very much vulnerable. Entities like Hunger and the maiden are not immune.
Cons:
-Glitched individuals seem to lose most of their higher functions, becoming little more than zombies. There are exceptions, but most will at most mindlessly repeat select phrases. Their combat prowess is normally unaffected, however. If they make use of advanced technology such as guns, things like ammo will not be a problem, as this is apparently considered part of healing them of wounds.
-Glitched individuals have permanent wretched grins, often in impossible configurations even if one were willing to break their jaw, blank white eyes, and constantly leak Glitch ooze. To say they aren't stealthy is an understatement. Frankly, the psychological impact of their appearance almost rolls back around to being a positive.
-The Glitch cannot remain for significant periods without a host. In theory, once it's left a given world behind, visiting that world is perfectly safe.
-Much like Hate, it seems to be possible to tame the Glitch, allowing it to be 'cured' in other individuals by treating one as a Can for the Sealed Evil. They can even heal others as if they were still Glitched. This is not a common ability.
Infection Vectors: Direct contact. Glitched individuals can also eject Glitch mass one way or another for a mid-range means of corrupting others.
Synergies:
Stealth mode: Individuals can revert their appearance to that of early infection by Hate. Their sclera are black, but they are otherwise indistinguishable to a normal entity, provided you cannot see their soul.
Ridiculous power boost: Synergistic power boosts result in any and every infected individual becoming almost 150,000 times as powerful across all physical parameters and the mystical. Healing abilities are Cell/Deadpool-like, regenerating from things like liquification/near-atomization in moments. Major increase to even an archmage's versatility. Infected are also conventionally immortal, with aging halted. Most disabilities are healed or accommodated to ensure the individuals in question contribute, with raw healing abilities usually doing the trick.
Multiple means of coercion: Mental pollution, mental contamination, assuming direct control, reducing them to zombies, this new form of Corruption can use any and all means of directing individuals under it's sway. The requirements to resist it's commands undergo a similar rise. The methods are favored in the above order, to more easily put tactical acumen to use.
Massively more infectious: All vectors are available. Synergies such as the Glitch being able to infect others in moments and Chaos' ability to infect water supplies are validated and the Corruption's ability to spread via sound makes it so that an infected individual needs only to get within shouting distance of a river or the like. A single individual can leave a world overrun in hours even with prepared resistance, minutes without that. The requirements to resist infection skyrockect. Curing individuals becomes almost impossible. Even Cursebearers are vulnerable.
Negated mental demerits: No loss of intellectual or tactical prowess despite the nature of the Corruption. Even with the most severe of controls, tactical acumen remains intact.
Modified hivemind: Like the Protoss, infected individuals remain discrete, but are also fully capable of sharing information between each other. If one knows, they all do, and they can all contribute to what to do next. Sensory data can be collated and cross-referenced, allowing individuals with strong sensory abilities and/or high speeds of thought to dramatically improve the response times and reaction speeds of all nearby individuals, dramatically improving their combat performance against ostensibly stronger opponents. For example, an infected Hunger's sensory suite would be available to other infected, at least in terms of what he could perceive.
Moderately adaptive: Individuals can adapt to enemy combat tactics in combat-relevant timeframes. This ranges from increases to speed and strength, to sprouting more limbs, to simply developing new spells. This in turn synergizes with the hivemind synergy, allowing nearby infected to begin adapting before they've even joined the fight.
Ignores status effects: Most transmogrifications, mental influences, diseases, etc. are of no consequence. For example, petrification is healed as if the infected was nearly atomized.
Stabilized Forms: The greater stability and healing abilities of Hate and the Corruption have rendered the mutative qualities of Chaos and the twisted forms of the Glitch more stable. Mutations are more potent and always beneficial, and the infected have far more influence over their forms. Pure strain Hate is capable of dramatically shifting it's form, such as changing the shape and size of it's limbs for movement or combat, so this makes sense.
Shared Powerups: The goal of the Hateful Chaorrupted Glitch is to spread to as many individuals and locations as possible. Empowering all infected individuals aids that goal. When no ready means of spreading quickly or to known locations is available, resources and research efforts will be divided between empowering existing infected. Everyone will work together towards this shared goal, regardless of any previous bad blood or even an outright inability to coexist like Fire and Ice Elementals. They will not have a choice in the matter. Thus, running away, even to parallel universes, is not a valid strategy, as they will find a means of reaching you sooner or later, and likely be even stronger by the time they get there. Be wary of an entire universe or more united in the singular purpose of reaching yet more places and growing more powerful, particularly with benefits like these. A likely early adaptation is the development of diplomats via a modification of their sound-based contagion, such that even entities resistant to direct infection, either by active defense or conceptual resistance, might be persuaded to simply give themselves over.
[ ] The Supreme Demon King.
Over the years, many Demon Kings throughout the multiverse have been struck down by summoned Heroes. Their resentment and hatred has slowly congealed into a super-evil. A Demon King with hundreds of cheat abilities and oceans of power. It's goal? Destroy every hero it can find, and ruin every world it can reach. No longer does conquest interest it. Everything will burn, and the Cursebearer will be no exception if it has any say.
Having learned a great deal from it's thousands upon thousands of constituent instances, it possesses many, many unique magics, both spells and systems, artifacts, pieces of esoteric knowledge, and immense genre savvy. In fact, it can at times be too genre savvy and incite retribution from cosmic laws such as Rule of Funny. Still, oceans of power sufficient to destroy planets with a finger-flick from a few thousand miles away from the surface is not going to fall to such amateur hour tripe as absorbing too much power and exploding. Not directly anyway.
If they have any weaknesses, it's that they at most have a handful of lieutenants, and more likely operate alone. Their generals always failed them, as did their armies of minions, so they intend to do all this themselves. In theory, if you gathered heroes from all of the universes they in turn draw from, you could overcome them. They did it once before, after all.
[ ] Beyond Nidhogg.
Yggdrasil. The reincarnation system. The afterlife bureaucracy. The laws of physics. All of these systems that support the functioning of your cosmology are being destroyed. It does not matter how strong you are when the underpinning of reality that allow your soul to exist cease to function. This thing will not stop until your universe has been processed down to the last quark and mote of spirt, before moving on to the next. There will be no escape. Either fight, or die.
Once Beyond Nidhogg has arrived, you have 5 minutes before the laws of physics and equivalents begin to visibly break down. You have at hour at most before your universe, for all intents and purposes, does not exist. Then it will come for you.
AN: This is basically a discussion-generator Omake, as all CYOAs are intended to be. I'm kind of surprised how sparse it's been recently. A bunch of faces just missing. Should we like, PM some people or something? We all know how the Alert system can be. Sharkey might want to jump in here at the end, for example. Anyway, assume that the Apocryphal proc in question is massively out of the league of whoever the Cursebearer is. Hunger as of Procyon might be dealing with Beyond Nidhogg, for example.
In the Dreams system, Hate and Chaos would grant 5 +s to physical parameters and Magic, while the Glitch and Corruption grant 3(rough 4.2 multiplier) and 2(rough 2.6 multiplier), respectively. This adds up to 25 +s. Meaning a normal human (assuming 2 in each as the average) would have a multiplier of 148,131 applied to their Strength, Vitality, Agility, and Magic. This applies to anyone, regardless of baseline. This ignoring the incredible ease of corruption and the number of extra abilities they are granted.
The Supreme Demon King is somewhere between
Exdeath and Spiritomb in terms of makeup, though he's much stronger than Exdeath. Even if it's the lingering remnants of countless Demon Kings, it's still countless Demon Kings. All of their experience gives him ridiculous amounts of Age and Treachery to draw upon, in addition to power beyond reason relative to his multiverse.
Beyond Nidhogg is like the collapse of the Astral Hunger just pulled, but every vector is being attacked, and there isn't a safe location to hide in if you like existing.
4360 words, discounting this line.
