Welcome

To part 2 of the Autumn Fest event! Discover what lurks in the woods.

Story

You begin to wander, when you’re approached by that cherub phim from earlier. “Hey!” They call out with a smile and a wag of their tail.

You squint as you try to remember their name. They close the gap quickly, and you smile at them. “It was Nellie, right?”

“Yeah!” She says, happy that you remembered. “Are you enjoying yourself so far?”

You nod, smiling. “It’s a beautiful farm you have here. Just got done with the corn maze. It was hard—took me a bit, but it was fun!”

Nellie grinned, “It took a LOT of planning. Not just the maze, but everything,” they admit, seeming a bit tired. Their smile looks a bit more forced now. “I keep hearing everyone talking about a monster, or something,” she says, tail hanging low. “I assured them that there were no owlbears around, or anything, but they still seem nervous.”

You feel a bit unsure of what to say, thinking back about everything you heard tonight. It makes sense that the host would be concerned about everyone’s worries and wants to make sure they feel safe. Plus, Nellie clearly worked hard on the event. It’d be a shame for them to feel unhappy with the results.

“How about we look around the area for a bit, double check everything? One of the phims I spoke to mentioned some torn up trees that fell down? Maybe we can check there.”

They seem surprised that you offered to help, thinking it over. “I don’t want to pull you away from the festival,” they murmur, looking at the ground. You shrug, mentioning that it’s fine. This seems to encourage them slightly, and they look up at you and wag their tail. “Okay… I think that’ll work,” she says. She seems a bit unsure, but eventually seems to become confident and nods. “Let’s do it!”

You hadn’t realized how dark it had gotten since you got to the festival. The sun had gone down while you were in the maze, and now that you strayed away from the festival, it was even darker. There were no lanterns or firepits, and the lively din of the others was hardly audible now. The beautiful, vibrant forest was now dark, and a cool night breeze ruffled your fur and made you shiver.

Nellie makes small talk, joking about how cold it is now that summer is ending. They say that autumn is their favorite season though, which is why they wanted to host this festival and welcome it with everyone. Overall, they’re a very cheerful and chatty person. You feel a bit bad for not talking to them, but you feel like you need your whole focus just so you don’t trip over the craggly roots sticking out of the ground.

They go deeper and deeper, until eventually you spot some claws on trees. You point them out, and the two of you go even further along that route. Then, you see it—trees torn apart. Perhaps that’d be putting it too lightly. Some are torn in jagged halves, half still in the ground while the other lies nearby. Some trunks are torn into such small pieces that you couldn’t believe they were part of such big trees. A few trees are completely uprooted.

“What the,” you exclaim, eyes widening. “This couldn’t have been an owlbear, but what could it have been? Could it really have been a mons-” you turn around to see Nellie’s expression and thoughts, but you realize that the cherub phim is nowhere to be seen. You look around wildly. “Nellie?”

You call out louder: “Nellie?”

A branch cracks behind you, and you jump slightly and whirl around. It’s hard to make it out due to how dark it is, but you can tell it’s a massive figure—larger than any Elysiphim, owlbear, or animal you’ve ever seen. It must be two or three times taller than any phim you’d ever seen. Maybe… 20 feet tall?

You immediately take a step back.

“I was really hoping you wouldn’t go this way,” the creature says. The sound of their voice changes from the start of the sentence to the end. Initially, it was clearly Nellie, but then it deepens and turns into something monstrous. “Now, I can’t have you running your mouth and ruining my festival?”

Adrenaline forms so quickly that you feel like you might be sick. With horror, you realize that this monster in front of you is somehow Nellie. You can see the similarities through the small bits of moonlight that can make it through the canopy. The wings, the brownish fur color… but everything else is different. Their fur is now overgrown, long talon-like claws come out of their paws, and much of their body is exposed bone. Their skull, the vertebrae along their spine, their ribs, and their entire tail.

When they open their mouth to speak, you can see the glints of saliva from their teeth illuminated in the moonlight. “I guess I can tell you now… my real name is Nêr.”

You continue to step back, but with how large they are, one of their steps is eight of yours. They narrow the distance, making a sickening clicking sound. Their neck is long and bent at an unnatural angle. As you slowly scamper back, your paw slips on something smooth—that cracks under your weight. You look down briefly, and what greets you is without a doubt, a skull.

An owlbear skull.

There’s a laughter from the beast, and you quickly raise your head. Its jaw clicks as it opens it’s mouth wider, before lunging directly at you.

You quickly roll away and begin running away. It follows you, almost leisurely—as if it knew that you would tire, eventually. That you could not escape. In the back of your mind, you too realize this. Besides, where could you run to? You wouldn’t dare risk the lives of the other festival goers. And it knew the forest here far better than you did.

No.

You quickly stop, spinning around on your paws.

You had to stand and fight.

For a moment, the beast seems surprised by this, but its tail of bone swishes in a happy way. “Interesting… you’re braver than I thought,” they muse to themselves, their grin looking terrifying. “Or far more stupid,” they amend, chuckling. Or, well, at least you think it’s a laugh. It’s hard to tell.

Prompt

Fight Nêr, and work together to defeat them! Once they are defeated, a special reward will appear in the event shop! Damage will be given in addition to your riyal, so calculate your riyal first, then add in the damage calculator! All damage will be wiped from player accounts once the event is over, but you will keep all riyal rewards! You can find the new seasonal event prompt here! Complete it to earn autumn items used to craft a wonder pouch as well as bone shards to craft your very own new pet, the Skullbeast! To begin crafting, head to the activity button and navigate to crafting!