Stalkers RPG Main Action and Team Status [SEASON 5]

[Neo Emolga]

Search (21) Edjas Memorial Public Library.

You decide to head out this morning to investigate the Edjas Memorial Public Library, which thankfully still seems to be in good condition and doesn’t look like anything related to OMEN and the earthquakes have affected it. But you still feel it’s worth checking out as there’s no telling who might have been in there when no one else was looking.

As the morning sunlight bathes the refuge area, you wake up and head outside to start your investigation. After walking down the road past the railway station, you see the large library come into view and the old beige and brown stone structure doesn’t seem to be in half-bad condition save for some dead overgrowth and some loose garbage. You search the exterior first, finding not much at first besides some refuse garbage and clusters of weeds, but around the back, you happen to find a dusty abandoned green backpack and black duffle bag that held some loose change. You gather up the coins and add them to your pack to save for a future purchase.

$65 Sochas$ has been added to Mistee’s Pack.

After clearing out the exterior, you then head inside, where you can see just from the entrance that the lights struggle to stay on, often not putting up a very good fight. Thankfully, there is still some dim light coming through some of the windows, but you imagine at night, the inside of this place must be entirely pitch-black, sometimes being illuminated by the flicking lights.

The interior of the library doesn’t seem that bad. Some books and reference materials are a bit scattered around and thrown about, but the majority of the interior’s bookshelves and sitting area furniture seems to be okay despite being dusty. It seems being close to the refuge area has kept it in good shape aside from some lighting problems, really only caused due to its lack of proximity to the power station. If it was just half a block closer, it likely wouldn’t have this problem and you even think some of the survivors might be using it. You figure it could have been a nice place for them to just get their minds off of things in a good story or research what they could in terms of farming, repair, building, and other skills that might aid in the survival of the refuge area.

You pass by a dusty gray magazine stand that still has a few issues from years go, back to the very day OMEN happened. You take a look through them and while most of them may not be helpful, such as magazines about beauty, sports, hobbies, and travel, you find an issue of “Influence!” and “Handymon” that look like they might have some good pointers, though they wouldn’t exactly get you to the point of feeling like a true professional after reading them.

You decide to take both of them with you.

[“Influence!” Magazine] (Gives the user the Diplomacy Perk for the Cycle it’s used) has been added to Mistee’s Pack.

[“Handymon” Magazine] (Gives the user the Repair Perk for the Cycle it’s used) has been added to Mistee’s Pack.

You then search through the many gray metal shelves of books covering all kinds of topics from fiction to non-fiction, but you can only take passing glances at the titles on the spines of the books with the time you have. There’s just no way to even read one book this morning, never mind the tens of thousands on these shelves. Meanwhile, a few books have fallen off the shelves, but nothing too chaotic.

The reference section and media materials seem to be okay as well, offering videos and audio materials on tape and data storage sticks. It seems they have quite a vast selection that you can’t help but spend a few minutes to flip through from classics to romance, horror, sci-fi, and many others, all with Pokémon as the main stars.

You then go into the children’s section of the library, where a large assortment of smaller and much more colorful books are available. Everything from short stories, poems, and books that encourage good morals and manners are easily found here. There are also educational books for children that teach counting, basic arithmetic, vocabulary, and the like. There are also smaller seating areas here, along with a colorful circular carpet mat that depicts a happy Eevee encircled by colorful letters and numbers.

You get to one shelf and something definitely feels strange, like a disruptive aura is coming from somewhere. You look across the shelf of books, probing them with your vines to see what’s going on. You detect something bizarre is hiding here, and you eventually find the source of it. One of the books has a Stalker’s presence, which you definitely know isn’t normal and isn’t something other Pokémon would be able to detect. You wrap your vine around it and hoist it down to get a better look at what exactly this thing is…

#Abomination Infestation (10 Sanity Damage, 10 Purity Damage)# Trap 40% Evasion Test: 86 out of 100: Success!

You quickly throw it aside, realizing it’s very, very deeply infected and corrupted. However, as you realize a Stalker has viciously tampered with it, you still feel inclined to see what’s going on with it to see if there’s some possibility of getting answers out of this terrible thing.

Carefully, you decide to delve into it, but from a very safe distance of at least ten feet, hoping that will be enough to keep you from succumbing to its malicious effects. And you use your vines to be able to do it, which definitely seems like the much safer option than looking at it up close. While you may not be able to get a close look at the intricate details, you can still see if you can discern at least some of what’s going on.

You flip it over to reveal the cover, and it doesn’t surprise you that this book has now been corrupted to be entitled “My Happy Massacre” and shows a repulsive scene of a young Pichu proudly standing beside a pile of bloody bodies that used to be young Pokémon. It’s hard to make out the details, but you decide not to take a closer look. You figure it’s bad enough even from ten feet away.

As you use your vine to flip to the first page, the story actually seems relatively normal in the beginning despite the filth all over the pages. It starts off with a young Pichu named Kibishi wanting to be the best Pokémon in the class at everything. But he can’t outsmart Vika the Teddiursa in math, isn’t faster than Druko the Snivy in running, and can’t build a tower of blocks as high as what Dimmie the Cyndaquil can build. He becomes very upset, angry, and jealous.

All along the way, the book is trying to teach the young reader some of the darkest, most vile words you can find, some of them even swears. Kibishi calls Druko a “muka”, which you realize is a very derogatory word in Veramo’s culture. Other words like “hate” and “holocaust” are emphasized, but ironically, special attention is given to the word “loathe” which you find can’t possibly be just a coincidence.

As you continue reading what you can from a distance, you see how the story progresses. An upset and jealous Kibishi meets with his carefree Pikachu friend, Fujun, who you quickly discover has the moral compass of a demon and looks like he’s had his eyes dug out by a shovel. Fujun’s solution to Kibishi’s overcoming his lack of prowess over his classmates is quickly revealed as Fujun helps Kibishi make demonic plots to brutally murder them like it’s nothing more than a childish prank and game. And Kibishi gets excited as that would leave him as the only capable contender remaining to be the best at everything…

It continuously gets more and more gruesome as you see Kibishi butcher Vika with a bladed weedwacker, decapitate Druko with monstrously large hedge clippers, and ram wooden blocks down Dimmie’s throat until she suffocates, followed by Kibishi ripping open Dimmie’s throat to get the bloody blocks back. It causes you to wince and use your vines to pull the deranged book away at times. You can only imagine what this looks like up close, but you have a feeling it would start directly eating away at your mind and soul if you did.

You get to the last page and shudder to think what might be the macabre grand finale of this psychotic sacrilege. Not surprisingly, it’s Kibishi and Fujun morbidly celebrating the Pichu’s gruesome and horrific victory over his massacred fellow students. And the victory meal just happens to be… Kibishi’s murdered classmates. Everything from their organs, blood, and flesh is served like a twisted, delectable feast for bloodthirsty monsters. Even from a safe distance, you feel quite queasy looking upon looking at Kibishi take a morbidly big bite out of Dimmie’s head…



You’re ready to just throw this monstrosity of children’s literature into a fire pit and incinerate it beyond reclamation, but then you suddenly feel a slight pinging sensation. Intuition suddenly reminds you this book wasn’t like this from the start. Something, almost like a vision, tells you a Stalker made it vile like this. It was really supposed to be something different…

You focus your mind beyond the inflicted corruption and realize it was originally supposed to be like this…

Spoiler:

It suddenly occurs to you now. This whole story was supposed to be completely different. The Pichu’s name wasn’t even supposed to be Kibishi, it was supposed to be Happi. The real way the book was supposed to go was Happi would try again, but still fail at overcoming his classmates. But even in the face of failure, Happi was originally supposed to respect his classmates for what they were capable of. And he was even supposed to find out he was the best in the class at fixing broken toys and the fastest at figuring out puzzles as a way of showing everyone has their own special strengths and that in truth, no one can be the greatest at everything. And in the end, Happi and his Pikachu friend, Heiwa, were supposed to have a party for the whole class to celebrate everyone’s special talents.

You are convinced whatever Stalker handled this made a complete blasphemy of this book’s intended story and message. You feel there’s something linked to the amount of corruption this book underwent…

Find the number of differences between the corrupted final page of the book and the original version…

#[Corrupted Children’s Book “My Happy Massacre”: <<Instances of Corruption>> / <<Glimpse of the Past>>] Abomination Infestation (10 Purity Damage, 10 Sanity Damage)# has been added to the Team Inventory.

You decide to stash the corrupted children’s book into a paper bag and you write “careful, deeply corrupted!” on it as a warning to anyone who isn’t aware of what’s inside.

After trying to purge those terrible sights out of your head, you head back to base, still feeling chills about what you just saw…

Mistee the Bulbasaur (S: Grass/Poison)

Health: 16/16 | Sanity: 20/20 | Purity: 24/24
Battle Stance: Tactical
Perk: Diplomacy | Abilities:
EQUIPMENT:
Attack Weapon: [|AW| Surgical Scalpel] (Adds 2 damage to successful attack rolls)
Defense Armor: <Empty>
Jewelry: <Empty>
Utopian Aspect: <Empty>
MERCENARIES:
#1: <Empty>
#2: <Empty>
PACK:

• $185 Sochas$
• [“Influence!” Magazine] (Gives the user the Diplomacy Perk for the Cycle it’s used)
• [“Handymon” Magazine] (Gives the user the Repair Perk for the Cycle it’s used)