The investigations continue, but oh
If there are no crawlers here, why did they go?
Also what’s with the ancients and building architecture around the six elements? Is there something in common here with the pedestal in the Standing Storm?
Probably a prototype. See the storm was just a machine to charge up lacrima as the ancients didn’t have innate magic and had to do it through natural charging lines, which is slow and the lacrima can be “contaminated” So either a smaller one, or probably the prototype as the text in the previous room said “lacrima lab”
Not everything is subject to burning @Fredy, (smile) First Falst looks over the scene like an archeologist then Dainix looks it over like crime scene like a scout/cop and Alinua didn’t notice any threat to der bois. Hmmm…
…Those are hands. Those are hands reaching down towards them. I don’t think the pillar was melted by heat, I think it might’ve been melted by caustic slime. Exactly what the fresh flipping f*ck is this thing, anyway? Is it a bunch of cave crawlers that somehow fused together and mutated? Is it a single cave crawler that mutated far beyond what I thought possible for even life corruption to induce? Was this the thing that killed the poor burrower wyrm? How can two already injured humanoids expect to survive against this thing?? Good job, Red, it’s filling me with worry and dread.
Agreed, and I think a good chuck of fear lies in how unknown this creature is to us. Tynan was hyped up but well understood, the first Automaton had a few pages before it attacked and info could be found on the Aurora tumblr, and a similar thing with the obsidian ghosts. But this? I can’t think of any Aurora lore byte that mentions a creature like this; Red’s policy of writing a story and not a wiki pays off.
Either it’s something known in universe that Red has deliberately not alluded too. Or, more frighteningly, this is something unknown to most of the world (thus omitted by Red’s rule about only revealing lore that’s common knowledge in universe) which our gang may not know how to counter.
Now that you pointed it out I see the hands. And oh my gosh that’s freaky. I think they just might need the rest of the gang to show up in order to get out of that sticky situation.
They couldn’t stand the sight of that gaudy chandelier, duh.
I guess it’s possible the crawlers could have still had enough humanity in them to decide to take whatever this was, before their minds become totally wired towards hunger, though I doubt it. I’m sticking with my “Collector took it” theory for now.
I wonder. Was this dais a kind of forge that the Ancients used to make unique fused materials, maybe even soulcrystals, for their uses? Or could it have been an experiment setup to test the nature of the object, or manipulate it to their means?
Or, more pertinently, could that large, strange, D&D Jelly Cube looking thing be the very object that was once on this dais? Some unknown creature, weapon, or substance that the Ancients kept at bay on the dais until the crawlers disturbed it and set it free? From the dragon skeleton and that crawler hand sticking out of it, my sense of unease has not transitioned to full on fear.
Prediction for next week: Falst and Dainix will look up, see this thing, get fearful at first but then calm down slightly when they realise it’s not moving … then Alinua’s and Erin’s excavations above them disturbs it, and they have another fight for their lives.
Not sure if it is:
a) gelatinous/mold/slime-type monstrosity
b) Some kind of Cave crawler rat king
c) Somehow both
Nonetheless, it is leaning towards nightmare-fuel and likely to be the actual cause of death for the dragon. Also, one hell of a cliffhanger, Red is on her mean streak ._.
Naw, I guess Red is just acting like a Shojen Jump writer but since she’s an amateur artist she can borrow what she wants from any field she wants. If that’s true I hope she get to finish it before her life does!
Beware the Blob, it creeps
And leaps and glides and slides
Across the floor
Right through the door
And all around the wall
A splotch, a blotch
Be careful of the Blob!
going off other’s suggestion that the dais was some kind of elemental fusion device plus the melted look of the Ceiling Blob, I wonder if the crawlers accidently activated the dais and caused a load of them to get fused together
A new rule when entering any large round room – Always examine the ceiling first. Examine it very carefully.
Also, the thing that was taken was probably the Void Hammer mentioned in the sign on the door earlier. Still dunno what it is, but at least it has a name.
So the main questions now is what was on the dias and who took it?
I know the obvious and most logical idea is that it was a cave crawler that took it, but it has a few holes that bother me.
Cave crawlers have been regressed to their barest instincts. So they’re really only attacking things so they can eat it. They never really showed any sign of higher thought (like strategizing and coordinating with each other for example). So what would make one of them think. “Hey this thing on the dias looks cool, I’ll take it.” If they can’t really think to that degree in the first place?
So I believe that something sapient must have taken it. And based on the comment that the stone lacrima was making something solid, I’d say it was the prison the collecter was keeping Vast in.
The last we saw those two was when the Collecter was interrogating Vast on his disappearance. And whatever Vast must have told her encourage her to move base. (Maybe she was afraid of Kendal tracking her, espiecally if Vast intentionally put that idea in her head so he could keep Kendal safe)
Additionally, the prison may have been the Ancient’s design. They were already researching lacrima’s, so why not also find a way to study large amounts of soul energy? And Collie coud have found the tech and decided to use it to study a god’s soul. (Especially since, based on Dainix’s comment on a previous page implies that the ruins are connected to the singing caves so Collie could’ve stumbled on this room)
The scratch mark my have been from a chimera? Or maybe a cave crawler got inside the chamber after the fact.
If you bothered to read this whole thing, Thanks for hearing my thoughts!
PS i wrote this yesterday so some stuff may have been rendered outdated by this page, feel free to poke holes in my theory
mmm…my original theory stays the same (tho I’m currently burned out from a 3 hour botany lecter so I my brain is probably to fried to think). If you want my thoughts on what I think the goop monster is….wild guess a bunch of cave crawlers melted together? Maybe they tried to eat each other and this is the result
Well that goopy-looking void creature is terrifying. They’re gonna need VD’s help with that I bet. Hopefully they get there on time.
“Find out on Monday!” as if this isn’t the perfect point in the story for a POV change. Mark my words, the next installment is gonna be a POV change in some capacity. This isn’t a derogatory statement I just happen to adore cliffhangers. Thank you for making this!
What if the Ceiling Soup was the Ancients’ first attempt at a homunculus?
Also homunculi do exist in this world, you can find some info on them in the The Seventh Element tab under Extra Lore.
Hear me out. Read said that homonculi are made form all 6 elements and require maintanance. the device myb churned out homonculi as labourers and now that they have had no work on them for god knows how long they fell apart and became whatever this is.
As best I can tell, it was hidden farther above and is now coming down because it somehow sensed the boys, which . . .
btw, I’m from The Future ~ooh~ and know what happens next, but glort’s introduction is still absolutely CHILLING no matter how many times I come back to this page
I have a small feeling that the ceiling soup is related to the adamantite encompassing V.D. but the ratio of life energy to the rest of the elements is WAYYY off, so it turned organic
I wonder if the ancients knew what adamantite was, would help explain why they were trying to replicate it
Hey fun fact! If you go back to https://comicaurora.com/aurora/1-22-3/ when Alinua was trying to find the two ginger boys you can see some very melting hands on the bottom right corner.
I know this is probably meant to be funny, and it REALLY IS, but for some reason, instead of breaking the tension is any way, your poem actually scared me WAY more than the page on its own. Maybe it’s the clipped sentences? Like, seriously, it gives me the shivers. Good job.
For mobile readers.
Alt-text: if Dainix had a nickel for every time he’d realized that
Image source: crawler
He’d have two nickels. That’s not very many nickels but it’s still weird that it’s happened twice.
The investigations continue, but oh
If there are no crawlers here, why did they go?
Also what’s with the ancients and building architecture around the six elements? Is there something in common here with the pedestal in the Standing Storm?
Probably a prototype. See the storm was just a machine to charge up lacrima as the ancients didn’t have innate magic and had to do it through natural charging lines, which is slow and the lacrima can be “contaminated” So either a smaller one, or probably the prototype as the text in the previous room said “lacrima lab”
Examine what’s left
And realize what’s missing
Amalgamation
HUH?? WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!
Can’t think of much else to say, except that I really hope Alinua and Erin arrive soon.
Last time I can remember seeing something ancient and arcane with all the elements present, Erin got a roommate in his brain.
Wow, that sure looks like a body horror
ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew BURN IT WITH FIRE
in other thoughts, looks almost… like oil? The colourful reflections, yet seemingly lack base colour?
Not everything is subject to burning @Fredy, (smile) First Falst looks over the scene like an archeologist then Dainix looks it over like crime scene like a scout/cop and Alinua didn’t notice any threat to der bois. Hmmm…
but Arson is the only true way of being
Generally speaking, fire when trapped underground is inadvisable.
Ah yes, the classic slime. Wonder how Red’s going to make this cute monster into nightmare fuel.
I mean slimes are nightmare fuel by default, JRPGs just made them look cute.
…Those are hands. Those are hands reaching down towards them. I don’t think the pillar was melted by heat, I think it might’ve been melted by caustic slime. Exactly what the fresh flipping f*ck is this thing, anyway? Is it a bunch of cave crawlers that somehow fused together and mutated? Is it a single cave crawler that mutated far beyond what I thought possible for even life corruption to induce? Was this the thing that killed the poor burrower wyrm? How can two already injured humanoids expect to survive against this thing?? Good job, Red, it’s filling me with worry and dread.
Agreed, and I think a good chuck of fear lies in how unknown this creature is to us. Tynan was hyped up but well understood, the first Automaton had a few pages before it attacked and info could be found on the Aurora tumblr, and a similar thing with the obsidian ghosts. But this? I can’t think of any Aurora lore byte that mentions a creature like this; Red’s policy of writing a story and not a wiki pays off.
Either it’s something known in universe that Red has deliberately not alluded too. Or, more frighteningly, this is something unknown to most of the world (thus omitted by Red’s rule about only revealing lore that’s common knowledge in universe) which our gang may not know how to counter.
Now that you pointed it out I see the hands. And oh my gosh that’s freaky. I think they just might need the rest of the gang to show up in order to get out of that sticky situation.
They couldn’t stand the sight of that gaudy chandelier, duh.
I guess it’s possible the crawlers could have still had enough humanity in them to decide to take whatever this was, before their minds become totally wired towards hunger, though I doubt it. I’m sticking with my “Collector took it” theory for now.
I wonder. Was this dais a kind of forge that the Ancients used to make unique fused materials, maybe even soulcrystals, for their uses? Or could it have been an experiment setup to test the nature of the object, or manipulate it to their means?
Or, more pertinently, could that large, strange, D&D Jelly Cube looking thing be the very object that was once on this dais? Some unknown creature, weapon, or substance that the Ancients kept at bay on the dais until the crawlers disturbed it and set it free? From the dragon skeleton and that crawler hand sticking out of it, my sense of unease has not transitioned to full on fear.
Prediction for next week: Falst and Dainix will look up, see this thing, get fearful at first but then calm down slightly when they realise it’s not moving … then Alinua’s and Erin’s excavations above them disturbs it, and they have another fight for their lives.
We’ve seen the top of that crack before, (two pages ago) that thing wasn’t there before it is most definitely moving.
Haven’t commented in like two years but this felt important.
Ceiling soup.
Not sure if it is:
a) gelatinous/mold/slime-type monstrosity
b) Some kind of Cave crawler rat king
c) Somehow both
Nonetheless, it is leaning towards nightmare-fuel and likely to be the actual cause of death for the dragon. Also, one hell of a cliffhanger, Red is on her mean streak ._.
Naw, I guess Red is just acting like a Shojen Jump writer but since she’s an amateur artist she can borrow what she wants from any field she wants. If that’s true I hope she get to finish it before her life does!
Beware the Blob, it creeps
And leaps and glides and slides
Across the floor
Right through the door
And all around the wall
A splotch, a blotch
Be careful of the Blob!
going off other’s suggestion that the dais was some kind of elemental fusion device plus the melted look of the Ceiling Blob, I wonder if the crawlers accidently activated the dais and caused a load of them to get fused together
A new rule when entering any large round room – Always examine the ceiling first. Examine it very carefully.
Also, the thing that was taken was probably the Void Hammer mentioned in the sign on the door earlier. Still dunno what it is, but at least it has a name.
Theory time,
So the main questions now is what was on the dias and who took it?
I know the obvious and most logical idea is that it was a cave crawler that took it, but it has a few holes that bother me.
Cave crawlers have been regressed to their barest instincts. So they’re really only attacking things so they can eat it. They never really showed any sign of higher thought (like strategizing and coordinating with each other for example). So what would make one of them think. “Hey this thing on the dias looks cool, I’ll take it.” If they can’t really think to that degree in the first place?
So I believe that something sapient must have taken it. And based on the comment that the stone lacrima was making something solid, I’d say it was the prison the collecter was keeping Vast in.
The last we saw those two was when the Collecter was interrogating Vast on his disappearance. And whatever Vast must have told her encourage her to move base. (Maybe she was afraid of Kendal tracking her, espiecally if Vast intentionally put that idea in her head so he could keep Kendal safe)
Additionally, the prison may have been the Ancient’s design. They were already researching lacrima’s, so why not also find a way to study large amounts of soul energy? And Collie coud have found the tech and decided to use it to study a god’s soul. (Especially since, based on Dainix’s comment on a previous page implies that the ruins are connected to the singing caves so Collie could’ve stumbled on this room)
The scratch mark my have been from a chimera? Or maybe a cave crawler got inside the chamber after the fact.
If you bothered to read this whole thing, Thanks for hearing my thoughts!
PS i wrote this yesterday so some stuff may have been rendered outdated by this page, feel free to poke holes in my theory
So! How does the handsy nightmare goop change your theorizing?
mmm…my original theory stays the same (tho I’m currently burned out from a 3 hour botany lecter so I my brain is probably to fried to think). If you want my thoughts on what I think the goop monster is….wild guess a bunch of cave crawlers melted together? Maybe they tried to eat each other and this is the result
I, uh, don’t suppose that’s SCP-999 coming down for a hug
Another Crucible? The melted parts and claw marks would indicate that. Maybe this is where they get made?
SLIME! SLIME! SLIME! SLIME! SLIME!!!!!!
Just can’t catch a break
WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!
Hands! ☺
Ohhhh NOOOOO that is not what that smiley looked like on my end— DIAL IT DOWN ABORT MMISSIOOON~~~~!!!
Well that goopy-looking void creature is terrifying. They’re gonna need VD’s help with that I bet. Hopefully they get there on time.
“Find out on Monday!” as if this isn’t the perfect point in the story for a POV change. Mark my words, the next installment is gonna be a POV change in some capacity. This isn’t a derogatory statement I just happen to adore cliffhangers. Thank you for making this!
New Challenger Approaching:
SHOGGOTH!!
I see Red has found the only way to make the Gloom Hands from TotK scarier.
THAT’S A
THAT’S A HAND
that’s a hand up there oh gosh that thing is horrifying I love it
It looks to me like some kind of amber… I have no idea where Red’s gonna take this but I am 100% here for whatever she’s cooked up
There once was a creature of slime
That sat and bided its time.
On the ceiling enthroned
Its senses are honed
To slay without reason or rhyme.
Oh no, is that the remnants of unethical magic I see?
aah……….. that’s a good question….
Show of hands, how many hands did you count in the goo of horrors?
I got 8 … WHY ARE THERE EIGHT HANDS IN THAT THING?!
Actually, I just saw a 9th hand. I should stop looking at the goo, it’s only getting worse.
MYSTERIOUS COLORS, UNLIKE ANY SEEN ON EARTH— (i am forcibly removed from the comments section)
oh no the well got you
(Looks above in the last panel)
What…
The fuck…
Is that?!?!?!
…They both threw Nat Ones on their spot check, I see.
Second rule of dungeoneering: check the damn ceiling!
(Also: ew. There are several explanations I can think of for that eldritch horror, and I don’t know which one is worse)
*Amalgamate theme starts playing*
Because there’s something worse there already! Yay!
Ceiling soup ate the crawlers for them how kind 🙂
AAAURGJ WTH WHAT IS THTWT ????? EW
What if the Ceiling Soup was the Ancients’ first attempt at a homunculus?
Also homunculi do exist in this world, you can find some info on them in the The Seventh Element tab under Extra Lore.
or a lot of them fused?
Holy shit slime bossfight slime bossfight!
Hear me out. Read said that homonculi are made form all 6 elements and require maintanance. the device myb churned out homonculi as labourers and now that they have had no work on them for god knows how long they fell apart and became whatever this is.
… They didn’t miss a spot check, it wasn’t there before.
As best I can tell, it was hidden farther above and is now coming down because it somehow sensed the boys, which . . .
btw, I’m from The Future ~ooh~ and know what happens next, but glort’s introduction is still absolutely CHILLING no matter how many times I come back to this page
I just realized that my previous comment could imply that glort isn’t actually that terrifying; don’t worry, first-time readers, it gets worse.
I have a small feeling that the ceiling soup is related to the adamantite encompassing V.D. but the ratio of life energy to the rest of the elements is WAYYY off, so it turned organic
I wonder if the ancients knew what adamantite was, would help explain why they were trying to replicate it
Oh! Adamantine? Or something else…
THE OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOZE
DRRR DRRR DRRR
Gray Ooze has entered the chat.
Hey fun fact! If you go back to https://comicaurora.com/aurora/1-22-3/ when Alinua was trying to find the two ginger boys you can see some very melting hands on the bottom right corner.
Oooo good catch!?
I think I can see a slightly melted face in the same corner too.
That’s a lotta hands, dude. Like, how big are your sinks?
Gotta at Least be 8 hands up there.
Congratulations.
You are an octopus.
I know this is probably meant to be funny, and it REALLY IS, but for some reason, instead of breaking the tension is any way, your poem actually scared me WAY more than the page on its own. Maybe it’s the clipped sentences? Like, seriously, it gives me the shivers. Good job.
a gloom spawn….
Yeah, gloom spawn was my first thought as well. Except this one can CLIMB, so our heroes are extra fucked.
Thanks, I can hear the panic-inducing music in my mind now.
Look on the bright side! Once they beat the Phantom Ganon, Falst will have a new weapon.
Goop and Gwyneth Paltrow at it again I see
TL:DR: Wait a minute… We’re doomed aren’t we?
WHAT THE HELL, WHAT THE HELL, WHAT THE HELL, WHAT THE HELL!!
Creepy black ceiling gloop giving me the ick
Ooh, is this the carrion crawler I’ve heard Red mention in a few asks way back when?
…I don’t trust Falst’s doubt in the first panel. Maybe that’s a me problem, but… he kind of sounds like he has a theory he’s not sharing.