So There Was This Man, And He Might Have Gone Sticking His Nose In Some Places It Didnt Belong Some Time

So there was this man, and he might have gone sticking his nose in some places it didn’t belong some time ago. He wasn’t a bad guy at all, just stumbled one day into an encounter with a reality-breaking, immensely powerful artifact he was completely ignorant of. Very shorty after he discovered this magical item, he endures a near death experience followed by the deaths of multiple people in his general vicinity.

Horrible things happen that seem inexpiably tied to the powers he’s suddenly found in his possession. You find out most of this backstory via the notes and contextual breadcrumb trail of clues that slowly hint at the fact that- oh shit. That’s you. You’re the dude. You’re the man and you forgot about it because the consequences of your bumbling actions wracked you with so much guilt and fear that you sought supernatural means of erasing the memories from your head. And it worked.

And what did you have to fear, exactly? Well, hostile eldritch creatures that seemingly have been brought over from another dimension, for one. Inconveniently, you literally begin to lose grip of your sanity and hallucinate even more potential threats if you linger in darkness for too long. Light sources are your respite. Also, no pressure, but apparently something really big is really pissed off that you still haven’t set the balance right and returned the artifact it was watching over, and it’s hunting you and it down for the entire story.

You come to terms with not only this, but also the fact that you are the cause of everything messed up going on in the plot and your selfish past has been the root of a lot of innocent people’s misfortune and suffering. Otherworldly forces, via the persona of an old man, have been pulling at your strings for a very long time to manipulate you into fulfilling a chain of events that would end up literally tearing a rift between two worlds as we know them.

Eventually you learn all you need to in order to confront the person you used to be and the malicious force you are helping, and that final confrontation presents you with a crossroads decision that will determine your fate and the success of the evil.

You can put a stop to the forbidden ritual, right the wrongs of your past, surrender the cursed item and atone before yourself and its guardian.

Or,

You can prove yourself spineless, selfish, and pathetic to the end, and see through the completion of the forbidden ritual. The evil force gets to cross through the created rift, and a happy ending is had by maybe one.

And also nothing is scarier than the thought of being in the water. There’s crazy shit in water sometimes.

Anyone else realize yet how tantalizingly close Dredge and Amnesia: The Dark Descent are to telling the exact same narrative just with a tiny pinch of variables moved around?

Every Dredge Aberration (2024), Part 7

A door opened, the wound left growing.

Along grotesque procession, the ichor’s flowing.

It seeps through rock to blacken the blue,

Molds flesh like clay, turns nightmares true.

It creeps in to stay, feeling, growing,

And bringing its tarnish up to you. ₊˚.༄

Clutching Nautilus ˚.༄

Encyclopedia #142

Aberrant form of nautilus

Description:

The hand of some forgotten sailor, taken refuge from an ancient storm. Today, at last, it comes ashore.

Comment: In this one image alone I find myself in desperate need to make a vital note for refernce- do not. DO. NOT. Perish at sea in the territory surrounding the Marrows. To not lose oneself to the depths is, yes, a sound goal for any who lend their soul from the safety of land and into the trust of crew and craft, but I’m speaking of a danger worse than drowning. Perhaps I am speaking of a threat more dreadful than death itself, still watching the ribbon light of the worlds splintering apart the dark. The Deep isn’t so wasteful of its catches as man. Once it clutches a gift from above, it only throws it back for a cost no sane mind could bear to pay. Even after all this time, are my hands forever to be ones that only take… because I fear the bite of what wants to be fed?

How to catch: Tread the Gales, where the water shimmers black, and welcome this oceanic mistake’s homecoming with the powers of your infused winch. While the advanced hoist can accomplish the same thing, I do note that the winch has a 10% faster fishing speed and can be obtained for a lower investment cost.

Vagrant Sollasina ˚.༄

Encyclopedia #143

Aberrant form of sollasina

Description:

Five sensing spears quiver and guide. Two stalks erupt from the shell, with eyes to see the unseen.

Comment: I see strange directions for this ancient’s evolution to choose. It is impossible to know what the creature has been shaped to detect, whether it is desperate to find, or avoid what it senses. A fun side fact more about its untainted relatives is that there was once found a fossil of this genus in England, given the actual species name “Sollasina Cthulhu”.

How to catch: This is another dweller of polluted patches. Switch to an advanced rod designed for shallow casting.

Bifurcated Gar ˚.༄

Encyclopedia #144

Aberrant form of abyssal gar

Description:

A once strong body now divided, clinging to life through coiled channels of blood and bile.

Comment: A living testament to how the strength of the whole is only meaningfully counted by the strength of its bindings. A poetic art piece from the Deep, this metaphor for our dance- a glossy sludge making traffic between two halves of what once touched.

How to catch: You will not only need the aid of equipment specialized for casting through the corrupt oil, but also with the length to reach the abyssal depths. As such, the infused hoist is the only candidate for the job.

Slivering Lancetfish ˚.༄

Enclyclopedia #145

Aberrant form of lancetfish

Description:

An outward reflection, turning, coiling inward. The thrust of introspection, lost to self-obsession.

Comment: And so the spiral, well… spirals. There’s nothing to be said to add upon this concept, but it’s one of my favorite new discoveries since the rig was revealed. It checked off for both fantastic and dreadful even at first glance.

How to catch: While lancetfish are an elusive deep sea predator, unusual seismic disturbance has brought them to the cliffs with the other out of place fish. Any advanced rod for coastal catching will do.

Splintered Crab

Encyclopedia #146

Aberrant form of rock crab

Description:

Amber glue holds shattered fragments. A deep dweller cracked from the pressure.

Comment: Another turn, another puzzle to this creature’s characterization as literal or figurative. Already this transformation from shell to stone is strange enough, but the crab’s insides of sap reveal a whole other layer of impossible anatomy. For what it could be, the market has definitely lowballed the fisherman on what payment they offer for even one of these. Still, at least one specimen must be brought to the Painter at Little Marrow, going toward the ability to use Maple Orange pigment for your vessel customizations.

How to catch: Rock Crabs will readily be taken up by crab pots in the Gale Cliffs region, lurking depths shallower than 25 meters.

Cortex Decorator

Encyclopedia #147

Aberrant form of decorator crab

Description:

Folds of orange tissue tower from its head. Scything limbs administer the structure.

Comment: A delightfully skin-crawling addition to the day’s catch. Taken by the encyclopedia’s word, the skittering one has sculpted the very mound protruding from its own carapace. To what ends, it can’t be known. Either way, one of these is the other half of the requirements for Maple Orange boat paint.

How to catch: Before leaving the Cliffs, it is well worth investing into obtaining a Mouth of the Deep crab pot, which will be invaluable to helping catch larger mutagenic crustaceans such as these. The item goes a long way to allowing the player to keep investing research parts into engines, rods, and nets at this stage, rather than the expensive crab pot upgrades that otherwise would be needed for effective harvest of this size of crab and up. Shares a region with the rock crabs and their own aberrant, albeit preferring much shallower water. Keep your crab pots to 5 meters and below in the Gale’s bay.

Cystic Trilobite ˚.༄

Encyclopedia #148

Aberrant form of trilobite

Description:

An ancient infection, carried through time. Impatient in dormancy, it rises from the rocks.

Comment: One of the most eerie things the first beings who study the Deep and its influence is to realize, we are the last beings to have caught its attention. The forces beneath these waves have been awake longer than we can fathom.

How to catch: Any functioning crab pot, placed between 0-50 meters of depth by the cliffs, always in the oil slick, will have a chance at yielding one of these. For best chances, stick to a depth of 25 to 50 meters, to avoid wasting trap slots on the native crabs.

Invaders are listed left to right, top to bottom

To be honest with how much Dib sticks his fat, nosey head into all kinds of business and dark places where it doesn’t belong… if Nny happens to exist on the same plane, I’d be more shocked if he wasn’t once an entire preoccupation of Dib’s in the past, or currently one on the side.

Think about it. A series of unsolved homicides and kidnappings all linked by these two facts:

- Every body found has been completely drained of blood.

- Despite maintaining a very active murder spree and being brazen enough to even massacre several victims in broad daylight, the suspect has never been apprehended or even named. They have what seems only appropriate to call a supernatural advantage at evading the authorities.

Even if dib hasn’t met Johnny C, he definitely knows Johnny is out there. He may be a little misled on what Johnny’s deal is, but he’s got an investigative eye on the case.

As I was drawing the Nightmare Nny cameo from IZ, I had a thought. Does the existence of this Nny in the dimension in Dib's head imply that Dib and Nny have crossed paths? Bc, for the most part, all the horrible creatures in Dib's head had counterparts to his real life, no?

Also, side note, poor Dib. That kid's fucked up

In case any of you forgot or don’t know what Bloopin sounds like because it’s very important to this vision

Zim and Gir have to go off world for a while. Important A-plot business. Eats up quite a few days of Earth time.

Naturally, Dib notices their absence and takes this as the perfect opportunity to make another break-in attempt at Zim’s base. Gets past the gnomes with one of his magazine doohickeys or science gizmos. Stops cold in his tracks after landing in the living room. There’s a heavy, colorful fog lining the ceiling in ghostly wisps. A foul, akrid odor clings to the air.

Sitting on the couch, covered in cheesy crumbs, open bag of space-Doritos beside him, is Invader Skoodge. Dib has never heard of or seen Skoodge. The guy is open mouthed and staring blankly at the Monty Python sequence playing out on the TV screen. He doesn’t seem to notice the new presence until Dib gives a confused “Um….”

The line of drool that was threatening to reach Skoodge’s shirt retreats back into his mouth. He turns slowly and stares hard at the intruder for a second of focusing. “Oh…” He smiles and greets with a “hey guy” and a half-hearted wave, and then he sinks a bit deeper into the sofa with a complacent expression.

“Bloopin” is playing in the background during this whole thing.