Saturday, August 21, 2021

Hunger Pains - By S.E. Lindberg

Introductory story for the Exalted Blasphemies - Fan-Made Expansion for Diemension Game's Deep Madness board game; designed for the Epic Monster: Omega Ravenous. Phil Blake championed the Expansion set, and there will be another post for how to access/download/print that.  For now, enjoy a short dose of horror by S.E..... get lured into Deep Madness.







Game Overview for "Hunger Pains" (featuring Epic Monster Omega Ravenous)

Dome Three Mess Hall closed at 10 p.m.. It will not open to employees again until 4 a.m.. That is hours from now! Stomach growling, mouth salivating, head aching, you are starving. Who has hours to wait? In minutes, hunger promises to spark some desperate, preternatural urge to hunt. Recalling the Mess Hall has vending machines, you stride there boldly in pajamas. Slippers beat the vacated corridors, footsteps echoing over buzzing fluorescent lights.

The vaulted chamber of the Mess Hall rivals a gymnasium. Three trains of tables run parallel across the greater length. Each line has ten tables positioned end-to-end, and each table spans six feet. White linens adorn them. The Hall is devoid of life, as empty as your stomach. Where are those vending machines?

What’s this? The tabletops are not flat. Gossamer veils cover amorphous heaps. Perhaps the staff has prepared a special breakfast—the cloths must cover hundreds of chafing dishes. Who needs vending machines if there is a buffet available? Sudden abdominal cramps compel you to collapse. Crawling, while cradling a roiling tummy, you approach a table. Grasping for support, the cloth gets in the way. It’s not linen. Tugging on it more, a blanket-sized gauze pad spills onto the floor. Red gore streaks the shroud.

From the opposite end of the chamber, wet slaps demand attention. Peering around the endcap, a humanoid creature can be seen in the distance, its ribcage split open like a turned mouth, a tentacle-like tongue flapping from a malformed head. Red gore splatters as it mounts a table. It pays no attention to you. Whatever it is, it is hungry; and it has a carcass to eat.

Food! Swelling organs push against your ribcage, buckling the sternum. Pain lances through each rib as they strain. Rolling in the fetal position fails to alleviate the pressure. Your heart rate plummets abruptly. An aura of peace stills any panic. Four more beasts have joined the first. As the pack grows, any reluctance to rise wanes. Pain and mental resistance recedes.

Standing, the tabletop comes into view. Food is not on the menu. A splayed deceased miner lies supine and naked. A recent, unfinished autopsy left its raw internals exposed. This not a cafeteria table. This is a gurney. This is no Mess Hall, but a mortuary. How did you get here?

The ravenous creatures across the Mess Hall do not radiate fear now. Dozens feed in a cluster, focused and frenzied. As they aggregate, fear lessens. They do not appear like grotesque demons anymore. They are familiar and share a common hunger, an urge to consume. Succulent, human meat beckons. It looks delicious! You lean into the offerings. A cannibal is born.

“Intrusion Alert!” the intercom sounds as emergency lights strobe. “Dome Three, Level Two, Mess Hall. Alert!” A band of investigators armed with crowbars, axes, and utility knives breach the chamber interrupting the feast to attack…