PLANET MANTIS
Neptune, Uranus
This album follows the events of a DnD campaign I run with a group of close friends, where the team is tasked with travelling to another dimension to search for a missing exploration party.
album art by celestialshibe
PLANET MANTIS
The year is 2100. It has been 48 hours since all contact was cut by the missing exploration party in Dimension 66A. Ishaan Laghari, their mission control, sends a new team through a portal in a desperate attempt to search for the party.
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Here will begin documentation of the findings of this new, ragtag team: Miette, Garden, Janque, Caw, and Wendy.
Our team finds themselves sent to a dense jungle, inhabited by strange mantis-like people who introduce themselves as Phpenye. The team was quite concerned at first, but these mantis people were very kind and welcoming ; one of these more powerful Phpenye was even able to grant the team the ability to speak and understand a dialect of Shpre, the Phpenye language.
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It seems here the planets are much larger and more visible in the sky. They seem integrally tied to Phpenye spirituality, as they inhabit islands each named after one of the planets. It is here the team learns they landed on Yhngnyem, the island of Neptune.
Phpenye
Oceans at Night
As the sun begins to set, the team has secured a boat to another island in this archipelago. The team breathes a sigh of relief as their long day comes to a close in the quiet ocean.
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Late at night, however, the boat is derailed by pirates from the Cult of Jupiter, a technological organization beginning to cause more and more havoc in the area. Could this be connected to the missing party they were looking for?
The boat derails on a couple of small islands off the coast of Neptune. One of these islands has a large cult base in it, so the team decides to break in and they are, surprisingly, treated as if they were members of the cult already. They are given orange robes, a telltale clothing of the cult, and try their best to blend in while asking questions to their "fellow" cult members.
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Cult Commander Khke, however, sees through this façade and attempts to trap them in the robes using some strange technology. The team is able to escape with the help of some mysterious, rainbow-robed mantises who quickly leave without saying a word.
Undercover
Chaos in Cloudway
The team reaches the next major island: Fwnyet, the Island of Uranus. They dock at Cloudway and find a solicitor from the Cult of Jupiter, named Yan. This is the same name as a young woman in the missing party... But she's a mantis? She seems to have the energy of a human...
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Chaos ensues as Fef'u, the Uranian cult commander, fights back to keep control of her. There's panic in the middle of the town, but the team is able to swiftly take care of Fef'u and the rest of the Jupiter guards present.
In the middle of the chaos, Yan sees the face on Garden's socks and speaks quietly. "Ishaan..."
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It seems she is beginning to... Remember...!
Ishaan Socks
Neptune, Uranus
We conclude this volume of the PLANET MANTIS documentation with the two energies that the team was given so far in their journey.
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It seems the planets here hold some kind of power, and the fellows who facilitate that energy are beginning to die out unexpectedly from the cult's deliberately malicious actions. The team is told that in order to truly defeat the cult and get the missing party back, they'll need the energy of all the planets scattered across the islands.
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After learning the original fellow who taught them the language was recently killed by the cult. The other fellows on Yhngnyem grant Janque with the Energy of Neptune, allowing him to breathe underwater and control water with enough practice. "Khpw ngi nw peifaht nwndei" - It's what Ngi would have wanted.
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Caw is granted the Energy of Uranus, allowing him to fly high and control wind, of course with enough practice as well.
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With Neptune and Uranus behind them, our team must march on. What else could be waiting for them on the other islands?
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Next stop: Mercury.