This current city event is on a massive scale due to how many people are playing.
“Hey there. I was just checking one of my books in real life.”
“Did you find anything?”
“It turns out that ‘Jack-O’-Lantern’ is one of Nyarlathotep’s avatars.”
“Are you for real?”
“He’s a bug-eyed man with a grinning jack-o’-lantern for a head. He also carries a smiling pumpkin with him, and in certain situations may even have a minion in tow (2d10).”
“No one’s said anything about seeing that man yet.”
“If you look at the light of his lantern and fail a POW check, you end up charmed. Then he leads you to a forest or a cliffside and kills you. Even if you succeed at resisting his charm, failing another POW check against Jack fills you with fear, so you’ll abandon your equipment and your fellow players to flee.”
“In this game, POW is probably spirit. That ‘fear’ doesn’t sound like a status ailment either.”
“Yeah, I bet it’s something unique.”
“There’s one more piece that seemed important. Jack can also hear and see through the glow of all other pumpkins too. Apparently, he can even make them shriek, and he can also control the vines of pumpkins growing in fields.”
“I haven’t heard reports of anything strange happening in the fields.”
It doesn’t sound like we have any information about field activity at this point.
If Nyar really is both the cat and the pumpkins, it doesn’t seem like he’s doing more than teasing us. He has quite the wicked personality, after all.
I believe I mentioned Hastur and Cyäegha on the BBS, but not the cat itself. I may as well tell the others, as there’s no value in keeping it a secret.
“I actually saw a cat in the Medium, but it had three burning eyes.”
“Three burning eyes? Isn’t that one of Nyar’s avatars?!”
“I got close to it, thinking it was a normal cat, and once I realized it was Nyar, he clicked his tongue at me.”
“Three burning eyes are the mark of the haunter of the dark, right? That thing is super weak against light.”
“Maybe it won’t run if we cast Night Vision instead of Light?”
“Nah, it still runs either way.”
“If it really is Nyar, we can’t stop him from having his fun with us. It’s impossible to know unless we see the cat’s face, but if it does turn out to have three eyes, please be very careful.”
“Roger that.”
“Got it!”
All right, I think I’ll try gathering information on my morning stroll. I just hope something in town has changed.
No, I can’t find any obvious differences from yesterday. After all that talk about the “barrier,” I wouldn’t be surprised if, at some point, we find that part of the town itself has disappeared. The residents only spoke of coming and going through the barrier, to be fair, so perhaps the campfire’s true purpose is just to prevent things from getting out of control.
Having made no significant discoveries, I have no choice but to return to the town square.
I’m hungry. Meat would really hit the spot right about now. I think I’ll make Hamburg steaks with demi-glace or soy sauce. Demi-glace sounds like a lot of work, so soy sauce it is.
I’ll need enough for my party, my sister, Tomo, and the others. Three parties’ worth of Hamburg steaks should do the trick. It’ll be first come, first served for whatever portion is leftover.
I’ll mix a few kinds of meat together, since I’m making so much. I open my cooking kit, mince the meat up nicely, chop up some vegetables, and mold the steaks into the right shape. Then I coat the steaks in an even layer of flour and put them in a frying pan. If the juices coming out of the patties are clear when I press down on them with chopsticks, I’ll know they’re ready and I can swap them out for the next batch.
“Hamburg steaks!” cry two voices in unison.
“Oh, good morning, you two.”
“Good morning!”
I see the twins are awake. I suppose it’s already that time of morning, as I spent an entire hour walking around to look for new changes.
“But there’s no rice!”
“Oh, you’re right, I’m missing a staple food. How about I make some bread instead?”
“Then they’ll be hamburgers!” they cheer in unison.
That sounds like a good idea. I’ll make buns to put them in. There’s just one little problem—I’ve never actually made bread in a bun shape before. But it’s too late to back down now. I want the twins to be able to enjoy their meal.
I stash my Hamburg steaks in my inventory for the time being to focus on making bread. I’ll aim for round slices, each a bit larger than the steaks themselves.
I’ll also ask the twins to work on grating daikon for me. Ms. Trine appears to be holding the stand for Mr. Ame to grate the daikon on.
“How much should we grate?” they ask.
“You can use the entire daikon since there are a lot of people to feed.”
“Okay!”
They’re certainly enjoying the task. I don’t know what could be so fun about grating a radish, but I won’t question it. All I want is the daikon grated, in the end. I don’t think their arms will get tired either, since this is a video game.
I season the grated daikon with my seasoning kit I obtained from a previous event and slice the buns horizontally. Then I add the grated daikon and Hamburg steaks, drizzle them with sauce, and close it up with the other half of the bun.
“Bread! Meat! Bread!” the twins chant.
I see. These are more like hamburger sandwiches, as a matter of fact, so I won’t argue.
I’d like the twins to try their servings right away. They can’t eat without Enchantment, so I’ll use it on the sandwiches before handing them over.
I clean up my cooking kit before eating my own sandwich. I’m sure my sister and the others are still sleeping, so I’ll leave them a message about the food.
Yes, as expected, this is actually quite difficult to eat. Although that really doesn’t come as a surprise, since the Hamburg steaks I made are the kind you usually eat with a dinner knife.