Logout of Cthulhu: A Lovecraftian LitRPG novel (Cthulhu World Book 1)

by T. K. Kato

  Yeah, it’s a pet peeve, okay?

  Just like the damn door, it seemed the designers wouldn’t let me cheat my way up to the top of the tower. Grumbling, I lined up my jump to the nearest gear. Okay. Maybe it wasn’t in the best shape ever. But it wasn’t a far jump. I could do this.

  I shook my hands ready, then took a running leap. I landed on the giant stone gear, my footing unstable, and slipped to one knee. The impact stung, but at least it didn’t take off any HP. After pausing a moment to rub my knee, I stood up and engaged my next objective. There was another gear across from me at a slight elevation.

  A short hop. No difficulty here. I made another running jump and landed on the second gear, this time sliding more gracefully despite the moving platform.

  Across from this one, I saw a gear interlocking vertically with it. Now, see, this was some platformer shit I would never even consider doing in real life. But what the hell? It wasn’t real now, right?

  I grabbed the lip of a notch as the gear turned. It hefted me up, further and further, until I was finally able to rise into a standing position. The mechanism turned mercifully slowly. Still, my position was precarious. This gear carried me high enough I could half-step, half-jump onto another horizontal one above me.

  I did so, then found from this gear I could spot a balcony leading outside. The gap between the gear and the balcony was only about a foot. Still, a running jump off a moving platform would take some timing.

  After lining up the jump, I ran forward. My foot skidded a little, but it was too late to alter my jump. Rather than risk falling, I leapt. My momentum carried me right into the wall beside the balcony. The impact knocked me down, and I landed on my ass.

  -1 HP

  Well, could have been worse. I peered over my shoulder down into the drop inches away from where I landed. Could’ve been much worse.

  From the balcony, I passed through an archway leading into a large room. In the center of the room floated a sphere that looked like water. As I moved closer I caught a glimpse of something inside that water. It was almost like the sphere served as a window to another place.

  Through that distorted window, I saw something moving in the shadows. Actually, it was almost like the shadows themselves were moving. A slick, black, amorphous blob drifted through enormous submerged buildings.

  The very sight of it sent me backpedaling, hand over my mouth. What the hell had I just seen? Whatever it was, I didn’t really want a closer look.

  Eyes averted from the sphere, I skirted the edge of the room until I came to an arch, beyond which lay a stairway. These stairs wrapped around the outside of the room in a slow spiral rising up the tower. Sparing a last glance at the water sphere—yeah, I couldn’t help myself—I exited the room and began climbing those steps.

  It took several minutes to reach the top, a long climb that had me sweating and panting by the end of it. Eventually I came to a landing on the roof of the tower. There I stood for a moment, hands on my knees, trying to catch my breath.

  When I looked up I spotted a big ass lever, exactly like you’d expect to find in any RPG.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  Game 2, Verisimilitude 0.

  As original as I’d seen these designers get, they sure didn’t shy away from borrowing the classics. Yeah, I get it. They had to make the game accessible to the player base, right? I mean, if the Deep One city was truly alien, how would a human player ever hope to navigate? So, I supposed I could accept small sacrifices in believability in exchange for a game that was actually fun to play.

  That being the case …

  I strode over and pulled the lever. It was stuck tight in place and took an enormous amount of effort to throw back, creaking with each inch of progress I made.

  Finally, once it clicked all the way into the other side, the sound of stone grating on stone echoed through the city. I could only assume that was the circular stone door opening, finally offering me a way deeper into Y’ha-nthlei.

  Yeah, and I half-expected a Zelda chime to ring out. No such luck though.

  As I moved toward the edge of the tower, another sound reached me. Rushing water. I hurried my steps. A very slight stone rail rimmed the tower, rising up only to my knees. From the edge of this I gazed out into the city. The water level was rising rapidly.

  It continued to go up until the bottom levels of the tower had flooded and many of the walkways I had used now lay underwater. And still it rose, finally settling at a level maybe fifteen feet below the top of the tower on which I stood.

  So it seemed there was no going back the way I’d come.

  Seeing no alternative, I reluctantly climbed onto the lip around the tower. All right. No other way, right? On the other hand, jumping into dark waters that might house Deep Ones did not sound appealing. I had no illusions about my ability to best these creatures in their own environment.

  Water combats: usually not in the PC’s favor.

  Unfortunately, though, from here I couldn’t clearly see the landing that had housed the stone door. There were the roofs of other buildings just above the water level still, but I lost Sanity almost every time I attempted to spatial warp. I couldn’t have that much left.

  “Huh. Actually … Access menu.”

  Stats:

  HP 19/23

  Dex 27

  Might 29

  Cha 24

  Stealth 34

  Sanity 10

  Lore 16

  Currency 11

  Inventory:

  Flashlight

  Lock picks

  Crowbar

  Deep One book

  Jerky

  Bandage

  Eldritch Powers:

  Telekinetic Blast

  Telekinetic Lift

  Tongues

  Camouflage

  Spatial Warp

  Psychometry

  Yeah, getting pretty low. In truth, I didn’t see any signs of Deep Ones at the moment. Maybe my last battle with them had scared them all off or killed them all. Wishful thinking, I know, but I didn’t really see an alternative. I clearly wasn’t done with the city, and I needed what little sanity I had left.

  So I took a deep breath and leapt off the tower. The short fall gave me a split second to consider what a stupid idea this was. Fifteen feet down and the water slapped me hard.

  Flailing, I swam back up towards the surface, burst through and sucked down another breath. Then I began to swim toward the nearest rooftop. It was a short distance, but the waters were cold and uncomfortable. Also, swimming in sneakers—it sucks.

  When I reached the other roof, I climbed up onto the thankfully flat surface. Even as I did so, from the corner of my eye I caught a massive shadow surging through the waters. Yelping, I backed away from the edge.

  Nothing there … Whatever it was had gone out of my vision for now. Was it the same thing I’d seen in the sphere inside the tower? The thing had looked bulbous and amorphous, no doubt one of Lovecraft’s other nightmare creations. I knew I should’ve been able to call the name to mind, but honestly those days with Elise were a long time ago.

  Even thinking of her freshened the hurt she’d given me. Damn her. I couldn’t even …

  Slowly I turned about, scanning the horizon for a sign of that shadow. There it was. Already forty or fifty feet away and heading in the opposite direction. That meant I was safe for a moment, but who knew how long that would last?

  I blew out a long breath to steady myself. All right, I had to do this. There was no choice, really. The next rooftop wasn’t more than twenty feet away from here. I could make it. Except that thing was no doubt much faster in the water than I was.

  I needed an edge. I couldn’t spatially warp without losing Sanity, but I did have other powers. I tapped my chest to activate camouflage, then immediately jumped into the waters and began swimming for the next rooftop. Adrenaline sent me surging forward, heedless of the cold or my own fatigue. Carelessness sent those same waters splashing up m
y nose and into my mouth.

  Desperately, I made my way toward that other roof, suddenly aware that I truly was not a fast swimmer. When it finally came within reach I scrambled onto it. Even as I did so, something splashed behind me.

  A pair of black, slick-looking tentacles surged out of the water and slapped around at the space I had just occupied. One of them smacked against the rooftop mere feet from where I stood, throwing up chilling water and landing with squelching plops.

  -1 Sanity

  I slapped a hand to my mouth to stifle a scream.

  My heart was racing, pulse pounding in my years. What the hell was that? I barely dared to breathe. The tentacles slapped around a moment more. Then they slithered back into the waters, rejoining the shadowy blob. That hideous abomination circled the tower in a slow circuit.

  It couldn’t see me. It couldn’t see me, but if I moved it might hear me. I stood stock-still until the creature—whatever it was—finally swam further away.

  Screw this. Using my powers might cost me Sanity, but at this rate I was losing that anyway. And if that thing got a hold of me? Well, I’d lose more than Sanity.

  I tapped off the camouflage. Then I slowly turned until I could spot the circular door. It was on a wall perpendicular to my current location, and thus not quite underwater. Having had more than enough of the black blob in the waters, I created a spatial warp directly onto the landing.

  I fell through this, landed on my knees, and gasped with relief despite the vertigo of the relative change in gravity.

  -1 Sanity

  Yeah, whatever. As long as I was away from that thing.

  Finally, I rose, and headed through the now open doorway.

  Beyond the door I found a large pool—almost a lake in size—rimmed by a stone path skirting its edge. That strange green glow that I had seen in the outer city permeated these waters as well. Based on what I’d seen out there, I could only assume this represented Deep One quarters.

  So the monsters lived in here, in the inner part of the city. The great door sealed this section off from air-breathers like me, but I assumed there had to be some connection to the outer city. A connection only usable if you were a Deep One or otherwise able to breathe water. They still needed air for the tourists—or their human cultists.

  Though the waters were murky, despite the lights within, I was able to make out shadowy forms swimming beneath. Not only that, but I spotted structures down there.

  With a watchful eye on the waters below, I began to skirt the path around this lake. I guessed it was over a hundred feet across, maybe well over that. I made my way slowly, as stealthily as I could, in the hopes of avoiding contact with more Deep Ones. Much as I wanted to use the camouflage, I feared I couldn’t afford to risk losing Sanity because of these guys.

  I made it maybe halfway around when the first of the dark forms surged up from the lake, trailing water behind it and landing on the path ten feet ahead of me. Reflexively I checked both my palms forward, sending a telekinetic ripple cascading into the unfortunate Deep One barring my way.

  13 Damage

  13 Damage

  The Deep One splattered and I ran forward, giving up on any attempt at stealth. I had gone no more than a few steps further when another pair of Deep Ones crawled up onto the path.

  They didn’t seem inclined to learn from their predecessor’s mistakes, and had clustered close together. I jerked both palms out again, launching yet another set of telekinetic blasts.

  13 Damage

  13 Damage

  13 Damage

  13 Damage

  -1 Sanity

  The Deep Ones exploded into green particles and evaporated in midair as I continued to rush forward. Behind me, I heard splashing as more of them crawled onto the path. I spared them a glance over my shoulder but didn’t want to risk losing anymore Sanity trying to blast them if I didn’t have to.

  I kept running, but the path was slick and my foot slipped on water. I skidded along the floor and slammed into the wall, then toppled to the ground. A second later the Deep Ones behind me had hopped almost directly over me.

  With a guttural cry I launched another telekinetic blast pair. They splattered my foes once more and I scrambled back to my feet. Stumbling along in the wet ground may have made me look comical. But I was in no situation to enjoy the sight of myself. Instead I careened about just trying not to plummet down into the lake, where I’d no doubt be beset by far too many foes to handle.

  Continuing my half-run, half-slide, I reached a tunnel exiting this chamber. Strange green lights emanated out of that tunnel. I had no idea where it would lead to or what might come out of it, but it had to be better than staying here and fighting a potential army of Deep Ones. I raced forward, skidded on the ground, and slammed my shoulder into the side of the tunnel.

  -1 HP

  Ow. I glanced over one shoulder while rubbing the other. No more of the creatures were following me, perhaps having had enough of my telekinetic blasts. That was good. By my estimation, I had almost no sanity remaining.

  What exactly would happen when I reached zero? I wasn’t sure I wanted to know… But at this rate I expected I would soon find out.

  The tunnel wound around a long way, giving me enough time to catch my breath and slow my pounding heartbeat. Unfortunately, none of my foes here had a gun I could steal. Which meant unless I was going to beat on the Deep Ones with a crowbar, using my power seemed the only way I could confront them. That or running.

  As I advanced further down the tunnel, I began to catch wind of a discordant chanting. My power to interpret the Deep Ones’ twisted speech seemed intact, and I expected them to be calling up Cthulhu once more. This time, however, they appeared to be calling forth something else. Something to deal with an interloper. No doubt they meant me.

  Only when they named the abomination did it click into place for me.

  A shoggoth.

  I had definitely heard of that thing before. It was one of those horrors Elise had once thrown at us—one that had ended in a TPK. An amorphous black monster that had wiped out our entire party.

  That had to have been the thing I saw in the waters. If it had gotten hold of me…

  More cautious now, I edged my way forward down the tunnel. At the end of it I came to a landing where a circle of cultists stood before a balcony, chanting their unholy chant. I tapped my chest to activate the camouflage, then crept forward until I drew near to them.

  The balcony itself extended out into a path that wound around the outside of this great circular chamber. Unable to help myself, I stalked to the edge, needing to see whatever they were trying to call up from below.

  What I beheld dwarfed even the horrors my own mind had conjured up. Many stories below where I stood, a black and green ooze slithered slowly toward the spiraling path. At this distance, I might have mistaken it for some bubbling tar, except that every so often, bits of it manifested into tendrils ending in claws or hands or mouths. Or bulbous green eyes. The whole thing was maybe fifteen feet across, and all of it a massive protoplasmic horror.

  -5 Sanity

  Sweet Jesus! I backed away from the ledge, mind reeling and unable to reconcile the monstrosity I had just seen with any semblance of earthly life. These cultists were calling this abomination up to kill me. To consume and absorb my flesh in its entirety. Calling up this shoggoth—and I could think of nothing more monstrous that I had ever seen.

  Rage beyond anything I had ever felt filled me. I stalked up behind the nearest cultist and cracked the crowbar down on the back of his head.

  27 Damage

  The bloodied cultist fell, and all the others stopped chanting as one. I didn’t care. They had brought this thing up. They had to die!

  I pressed my hands together before my chest and jerked them apart, opening a rift beneath the feet of three of them—a rift with the other end opened in the air above the pit. Those three cultists fell screaming, shrieking for story after story, before finally landing atop
the very horror they had called forth.

  -1 Sanity

  My camouflage had dropped, but the remaining cultists—three of them—didn’t race for me. One ran for the path descending along the chamber. The other two made a break for the exit I’d come in.

  I focused on those two little shits first. None of them were getting away. Not after this.

  I jerked both palms forward, sending twin waves of telekinetic blast at the two cultists.

  26 Damage

  26 Damage

  A single blast would’ve been enough to disintegrate both cultists. The two blasts together tore them to shreds and sent particles careening all over the room, drifting down from the air. I giggled at the glorious sight of their destruction.

  Then I spun on the last remaining cultist, a little jackass futilely running down the path toward the shoggoth, as if the monster might protect him.

  So I was probably doing him a favor as I launched another blast at him.

  26 Damage

  -1 Sanity

  Oh, well. Suppose I should see how it all turned out. “Access menu.”

  Stats:

  HP GGGGG

  Dex BU56

  Might X% gbu^(

  Cha T@&J

  Stealth &=N

  Sanity ZZZZ

  Lore #&#

  Currency N(7)

  Inventory:

  ~Y~

  Eldritch Powers:

  Z24

  XLM5

  KSB67

  8842KI

  RR99

  TC4E

  Oh my. Well, that didn’t look too good. Suppose that meant I was at 0 Sanity now. I giggled, my laughter turning into a full chuckle. Yup. I pretty much had gone ape shit on those cultists. And these were the results. Can’t say mama didn’t warn me.

  I probably should’ve been scared shitless, but what the hell?

  The most horrible abomination on earth was down there waiting for me. I wouldn’t want to disappoint it.

  And so I started down the path into the abyss.

  I followed the long, winding path down toward that shoggoth. Part of me knew it was madness to continue. But most of me just didn’t give a damn. My feet seemed to move of their own accord, carrying me ever closer to my inevitable confrontation. I mean, you can’t avoid the final boss, right?