[Mafia] Witch Trip

[TheOtherCG]

"Um, it's complicated..." Abigail glances at Taira.
She knew very well that the Rangers will not believe their story about being playthings of a sadistic spirit witch and who'll better come up with a convincing alibi then the team Skeptic herself!

[PopcornPie]

"May the gods come and torture you to your last breath, Delilah. May you endure these cruel games forever. May you even be executed a thousand times over. Same for you, Fentiriss and Lukanios. Gave my life for you...and you selfishly condemn me to this painful demise. I would never have given my life if I knew what terrible people you all were!"

[PointMaid]

...This is real, now? Can I get a drug test or something? I think I ate hallucinogenic mushrooms. It was so weird. I don't take drugs. Someone must've slipped them to me. Have you seen my friend Brenna? She was supposed to meet me for this hikiing trip.

[Mr. Lee Hammer]

"Well, you all look like you were all roughed up. Let's get you all back into shelter. Get you all some warm food, maybe a shower." Some of the Rangers get in the Jeeps and leave space for the survivors.

[TheOtherCG]

Abigail sighed. She had her hopes up for Taira. But this at least gives her an idea for an alibi.
"So um, we got lost. Then we got hungry and we ate some strange looking mushrooms and we started to hallucinate. I think the hallucinations drove some of us mad to the point they just killed themselves or each other."

[Kennifer]

"Wow, rude. I was just doing my job. And I even did what you asked and shot you in the head so you'd die instantly. If I was actually sadistic I could've burned you slowly."

Okay, maybe a bit less pity.

[PopcornPie]

"You want rude? If you gave yourselves to Agatha, I would still exist. My sacrifice led to this moment, and as thanks, I am condemned to this while you go free. Fuck all of you, I hope you all go to Hell."

The Salting

Unfortunately, Nature remembered what she'd said about it. It remembered that she had reconsidered her relationship with it. Quinarva begins to flail, dangling before everyone in tears. "Nature, help me!" It simply grows the grass beneath her into mighty ropes to keep holding her up.

"Please! I didn't mean to ruin the game for everyone! I was just trying to help Susan, not fail Agatha! And Lukanios and Fentiriss convinced me to say those things about nature! I never meant any of it!" The nymph begged. A tighter squeeze brought her to sob.

"Okay, okay! I was willing to let them die! They mean nothing to me, they're all worthless mortals! I only wanted to leave with my life, I didn't care about the game! Give me another chance, we'll do this whole week again and I'll kill all of them! I can still do it! Look, they're right in front of me!" Once again, she is horrendous at lying, and she is briefly burned with fire. She ruined the game for everyone, and is responsible for Agatha's death; There is no excuse or deal she can make now. "What are you going to do to me?"

A few white grains appeared from the aether and drizzled to the ground…More salt. And Quinarva's claws were forced onto it. Instantly, the pain of a thousand stabs rocketed up her forearm and got her to shriek until her throat hurt. Interestingly, the hand that had touched the salt began to soften and melt until it was lifted out.

"I don't want to go. You can torture me for thousands of years if you want. I just don't want to go! Don't do this! Just one more chance! I'll murder thousands in Agatha's name! And get away with every single one! I promise!"

As it happens, Nature signaled wild crows to go and grab salt from wherever they could find it. And it was all dropped-you guessed it-on Quin. Just that little drizzle for the signal, and then it all came raining down at once from every source. No inch of her spirit was left unsalted. A third degree burn was a singe compared to the sheer agony this was. Quinarva's spirit screeched loudly enough to make cliffs crumble as she kicked and writhed like a feral animal. Her spirit sizzled, then her entire form liquefied like ice cream on a hot day.

"IF I'M EVER RESTORED, I'LL DESTROY ALL OF YOU, DO YOU HEAR ME?! AAAAAALLLL OF YOOOOOOOOUUUU! DAMN ALL OF YOU! NONE OF YOU FILTHY, THOUGHTLESS DEVILS DESERVE LIFE OR SALVATION! AS LONG AS YOU LIVE, YOU'LL REMEMBER THAT YOU DID THIS TO ME! MAY YOUR SCARS REMAIN UNTIL YOU ARRIVE IN THE DEEPEST PITS OF THE NETHERWORLD! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

The crazed nymph continued to scream vengeance until she was melted down to her head. Finally, nothing was left but a puddle of ectoplasm, which was soon also devoured by the salt. Make no mistakes. The scum is gone for good. This is the fate she made for herself.

Her body was left draped on a sapling, however, to ensure that the example made would be a permanent impression. The seed was now black, wrinkled, and disgusting, and the earth around it had more than enough salt to ensure it would not germinate further.

FINAL DEATH.

...Wait...wait.


The rotted black seed was still growing. Rapidly. Into a monstrous dead plant. It just kept germinating on its own, swallowing the sapling Quinarva's body was draped on. It remained there a while, before its rotting leaves cracked apart. Out came the nymph's corpse, reanimated and still rotting, not a trace of the original Quinarva to be found. Its eye sockets had pinpricks of white inside their soulless pits.

As soon as the empty shell could think about itself again, it realized there was this coldness inside its chest cavity. Something used to be there. And it pondered and decided it wanted a new one.

Quinarva was forever gone.

This was the birth of the Blackwoods Husk.

[Mr. Lee Hammer]

"Oh, and did you say Brenna? We have one there who didn't make the trip. She was looking for a Taira."

[TheOtherCG]

"Oh and our hiking instructor fell off a cliff and fell for his death earlier! That's how we got lost!" Abigail continued as she's brought inside one of the Jeeps.

[Oggy123]

Anya then gets in one of the jeeps, bringing her magpie along.

[PointMaid]

Brenna! You're okay! You wouldn't believe what I hallucinated.

...Or maybe, knowing you, you would. You did think this place was haunted, after all. I think the place is just full of hallucinogenic mushrooms growing all over, though.

[PointMaid]

(Taira also gets in a Jeep)

[Despair's Archon of Memes]

Naomi promptly gets on one of the jeeps... but not before slipping out a picture of the entire crew together taken during the hike...

... I'll remember this... for better or for worse.

[Florien]

Oh also magic is real and witches and ghosts and shit exist, this place was previously hazardous and now is not, and you should probably convert to Veltirissichyianism right now because you need to get science up on this arcana and get some better gods, because uhh your current ones seem prone to being dicks to suspected spellcasters from what we've seen.

Yeah you should probably figure out what the deal is with that, do some science on your world's versions of magic. Get somewhere with that. It's replicable, I'm sure. Free advice for your society, yeah? And get one of you or all of you working together on conquering the world, I don't get the deal with all the languages you have, fix that. Come on, you've tried it before, with your horse-riding guy on your steppes and your weird gay kid who invaded persia or wherever. One of you will eventually stick it out and win. You could have a much better world that way.

Oh and it's the mythical Brenna! You know what, fuck you. You're kind of the worst from what Taira told us. I don't know why she tolerates you, you believe things without meaningful reason to do so. Bet you're like those people who are into that "arrange how your house is lain out to let the magic do the thing right". Or into acupuncture. Reconsider your life and actually study these things more scientifically! Taira likes you, but I never will and I hope you die.
...
Aaanyway.

The pair get in a jeep.

DRIVER! Drop us off at... fuck, where's the gate out? Drop us off at the nearest crack in reality. Try uhh...

Fentiriss pokes at the GPS for a bit, entirely without permission.

Try there. That seems like the kind of place where we broke in. Also don't buy gold it's a scam. Free advice, yeah? You seem world-conquering material.

[Mr. Lee Hammer]

"You'll get to see Brenna again when we get back to base. Come on, everyone."

The Jeeps go back to base with all the survivors, hoping to tend to everyone who made it out alive. But not all of them leave. A few stay behind and explore the forest. Seeing all the carnage that happened. One of them goes into Agatha's burnt-down shed.

"So the legends were true.... Agatha..." The ranger deeply inspects the remains.

"Mike, what are you looking at over there? Mike?"

Then all of a sudden, a ghostly essence slowly comes down to the remains and stares a hole into Mike the Ranger. The essence quickly flies right into him, absorbing itself right into his body.

"Mike, we need to go. Come on!"

Coming... "I mean, I'm coming!" Mike runs back into the other ranger as they drive off together.

Fools. They should have known I will never truly die, the ranger says in Agatha's voice. It's clear now that something is about to happen when they return back to camp. Whatever it may be, Agatha is planning to regain her foothold once again.

THE END

RESULT: TOWN VICTORY

Agatha will return in Witch Trip 2