Jacob's Visage Unlocked! The Drifter King!
over 7 years ago – Mon, Nov 12, 2018 at 05:24:54 AM

Well hi there! We hope you had a great weekend.

We've been making some good strides with the campaign. How good? Well, we unlocked some new cool stuff, which we'll get into in a second. And we're currently 1 image away from unlocking our last current social stretch goal. You heard that right: 1. Stinking. Images. LOL!

I'd say do you think we can do it, but, I mean, it's 1 picture. So of course we can do it! Someone get to uploading! =D

We should have more info coming on Ward in the next day or two, as well as the next stretch goals. But, in the meantime, let's talk about Jacob.

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JACOB'S VISAGE

Jacob is still very much in-process. We haven't worked out his ability yet, and we don't have his sculpt yet. (Unsurprisingly.) But we can at least take a look at his story.

--

"I did this for you," Jacob says. "You're the only thing that's kept me going. I - never thought I'd make it this far. I thought I would have joined you long ago. But… But at least you're here now." Tentacles spiral up his boots, entwining tenderly around his calves.

--

"This way," the man, Jacob, says, his helmet and spine glowing with soft blue light. "We're going to gather the rest of your team, and then we're getting you out of this hellhole."

"How?" you ask, shaking your head. "The submersible crashed!"

"I'm here, aren't I?" Jacob replies. "And once we get back to my ship, the one I came down on, we'll use it to send the things in this place back to where they belong."

"But - there's so many of them between us and there," you whisper.

Jacob raises his ore cutter. "That's why I brought this along," he says. "It's great at halving my problems."

--

Dropping his helmet onto the pulsing, bulbous mass creeping across the floor, Jacob wipes tears from his eyes. "I've missed you," Jacob whispers. "So, so badly. When you left, you took my soul with you."

Long, spidery fingers trail down Jacob's chest.

--

Jacob is running full-tilt down the corridors, not caring if the horrors hear him. He swings the ore cutter with unbridled fury, ripping into anything that dares to approach. His roar is only matched by the squeals of the horrors he is hacking to pieces.

A new terror approaches. Jacob looks up at it, and lowers his weapon.

"It can't be," he murmurs.

"What are you doing?" you yell. "Kill it!"

Jacob's weapon clatters to the ground. Cursing, you raise your gun and take aim.

"NO!" Jacob screams, throwing himself in front of your gun. You stare, jaw dangling in shock, as your SMG's bullets burrow through Jacob's armor to bury themselves in his flesh.

"Not… her…" Jacob says, sinking to the ground.

--

"Darling," Jacob's wife coos, stroking his face with one clawed hand. The buzz of her voice is like a symphony to Jacob's ears.

--

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THE DRIFTER KING

We have some art to show you today for the winning Epic Monster from the vote we held earlier on in the campaign. May we present to you the Drifter King.

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It rises majestically before you, enthroned on its towering rocky seat. A scepter crowned with otherworldly fire burns like a maddening beacon in the night, its multitudes of thick, meaty tentacles coiling, curling, and whipping against the slimy, barnacle-encrusted stone of its dais. Staring in wonder at its magnificence, you can't help but sink to your knees. Tears well up over your eyelids and streak down your face. Reaching a hand up, you wipe them away and wonder briefly how your hands became streaked with blood.

Around you the world shimmers and shakes, reality slowly fracturing as the king's court assembles from the cracks in-between the worlds. The creeping courtiers pantomime and cavort, their movements flowing into an eldritch play that would drive even the sanest person into gibbering fits. You begin to laugh, clapping your hands, as your face starts to harden. A symbol shimmers in the air: the sign of the king.

As the courtiers collect you to offer you as a gift to the king, you realize that all of reality is nothing but a stage, and life a production of little more than sound and fury. Meanwhile the audience, beings beyond time and dimensions, look on in laughter and callous impassivity. As the king begins to feast you realize you desperately want to weep, but you can no longer move your mouth to make the sounds. Your face has become a rigid mask. Leaning down, the king removes it for you.

--

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The Drifter King is officially available to add to your pledge today. It is not included in any pledge level, so if you would like it then be sure to add it. It costs $16 for new backers or $13 for returning backers.

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To add this add-on to your pledge, go to the blue "Manage your pledge" button (in the upper-right corner on a computer or along the bottom of the campaign's main page on mobile), then click "Change your pledge." Next add the amount of the add-on that you want to your total and save your changes. That's all there is to it!

Now, we also said that we would give three random backers who voted a free copy of this add-on. As such, we would like to congratulate Fox Whisperer, AsAufMe, and Christopher Hawkins! Enjoy your free Drifter King!

That's all for today! However, I also wanted to remind you that you can still enter your ideas to possibly help bring Evil Jon the Cat to life! Just head over to https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/diemensiongames/deep-madness-second-printing/posts/2341053 and comment with your best take on the card. Furthermore, I'm a couple days late on this, but I'm going to try to have the first part of the Choose Your Own Terror story out later today. And last but not least, tomorrow (Tuesday) at 2pm PST we will be doing another Kickstarter Live event! Be sure to stop by with your questions and say hi!

Talk to you soon, everyone! Thanks for being a part of this campaign!

Help Us Design Some Cards
over 7 years ago – Sun, Nov 11, 2018 at 06:39:52 AM

Hi, everyone. Hope you're doing great!

Yesterday I asked you another loaded question. Very simply, I wondered aloud if anyone would like to help us design some cards. Well, the answer was pretty varied (everything from shrieks of glee to "Ooh! Ooh! Pick me!"), but the overall vibe I got was that you were saying, "Sure. I suppose we could do that."

So let's… talk about that more in a minute.

First, let's look at how our last couple of social achievements are coming along!

Man, we are getting so close to unlocking that next scenario! SO CLOSE! Think we can do it by tomorrow?

Also, we are getting much, much closer to unlocking Jacob's Visage! We're currently less than $10,000 away from unlocking it! Think we can finish that amount off today? (I think we can!)

Well, that's it as far as our stretch goals for today. Now, let's get on to some news, both good and bad.

THE BAD NEWS

So, as a few of you know, one thing we have received many, many requests for is a third plastic token pack. We've also had requests for a hardback rulebook that would contain every rulebook, scenario, etc. We've been looking into both of these things, and we are very sorry to announce that we don't think we'll be able to make these happen for this campaign. It'll just take more resources than we currently have to do these right now. As such, it's with a heavy heart that we have to announce these two items need to be tabled for now. We're very sorry for any disappointment this causes. But who knows, maybe we'll be able to revisit these things at some point in the future. It just probably won't be this campaign.

THE GOOD NEWS

Some of the other things we have received many requests for are monster cards for the Weird Statue, the Cthulhu-ish Sculpture, and, yes, Jon the Cat. (ESPECIALLY Jon the Cat.) Well, we're certainly open to the idea of making these cards, but we have a stipulation: You want them? Then you're going to help make them. =D

Because he is by far the most popular, let's start with Evil Jon. You're going to tell us what his special abilities are. What his stats are. How he acts. How hard he is to kill. What it takes to escape him. If you have any inspiration for the art that you've stumbled across. Even what his official names is, if you have a different idea than the one mentioned. In short, you're going to help us design this card.

So, here's how it's going to work. You're going to put your best ideas for Jon in the comments section. You can completely fill out his card, or you can just fill in the part that you like best. We will be looking for:

• His name
• His madness rating
• His wounds and resistance
• His damage and range
• His action pool
• His special abilities
• His trap rating
• Any images you have in mind for his picture.
  

We'll give it several days, then we'll collect the best ideas, synthesize them, and put them to a vote. Who knows: the winner may very well end up becoming a permanent part of Deep Madness.

Feel free to work together in designing this card, too. This can be a collaborative effort. (Maybe start a thread on the Facebook group to get everyone's opinions. You can reach it at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1212223532134342. Or in the BGG forums: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/202077/deep-madness.) Also, just to be clear, we reserve the right to veto, rewrite, tweak, or otherwise butcher your creations to our hearts' content. Because we're brutal like that. =D

But we have one more treat for you today. We want you guys to go wild with your creations, and not feel limited to just this one. So, if you have a creative streak (and access to Photoshop), then we've decided to make tweaked versions of our PSD files available to you. Not as a stretch goal or anything; just because we think you're cool. (Due to copyright issues we can’t supply the font files we use, so feel free to change the fonts to whatever you have on hand.)

Download Monster Card PSD Here

Download Investigator Card PSD Here

Download Item Card PSD Here

This is your chance to potentially leave an indelible mark on Deep Madness. Let's get creating!

Monstrum… And a Question
over 7 years ago – Sat, Nov 10, 2018 at 06:13:24 AM

There you were, having yourself a fine, average Saturday, when suddenly MADNESS DESCENDS FROM ABOVE LIKE A PLAGUE OF FLYING JELLY SCORPIONS WITH WEE LITTLE BABY FACES! AAAAHHH! RUN AWAY!

Ahem. Now that that's out of the way, how are things?

The campaign keeps rolling on, and we have more fun stuff for you today. First, a video popped up in my news feed today that headlined with Deep Madness. DM's only in it at the start, but it's a pretty fun little mention (she calls us "the success story of the week." Blush.) 

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Next, we also have part two of Adam's playthrough for Rolling Solo!

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We're also getting close to finishing our next social stretch goal, which is for a brand new scenario utilizing The Faces of the Sphere!

Be sure to keep chipping away at the BGG stuff so we can get this scenario in the bag! (We're getting so close!)

Also, be sure to keep checking in at Kicktraq so we can stay on their Top Ten list!

Thanks, everyone! You're the best!

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MONSTRUM NEWS

Well, you've been wondering when it was coming. And the answer is… Today. Mostly.

That's right, we finally have details we can shed on Monstrum!

Monstrum is the second box in our storage solution (with Profundum being the first. Read more about Profundum Here.) And it will be one premium box. Here are a few of its features:

• Monstrum's cardboard will be double thickness. This will be one big, sturdy box.
• It will contain 6 layers (!) of foam inserts. You heard that right. 6.
• It will measure 435mm x 323mm x 280mm (or 17.16in x 12.72in x 11.02in). Which means it will have the same width and length as Profundum, but it will be almost three times as deep!
• It will hold every miniature currently available for Deep Madness. Which, as of this moment, is over 260 miniatures.
  

In short, this box truly is a monster. Even just writing this, I kept thinking, "Wait… It's almost a FOOT DEEP?" But I think that, for many collectors, it may be a dream come true. For those who are searching for the perfect storage solution, this could be exactly what you're looking for.

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We'll have more info for Monstrum and Profundum in the coming days, so stay tuned.

In other news, I asked yesterday if people would be interested in doing a little Choose Your Own Terror story with me, and the answer seemed to be pretty positive. So, what I'm thinking is we'll give it a spin, but I won't put it in the main updates. Instead, I'll make a separate update just for the story, so that those who don't want to participate can just skip over it without missing any important stuff. (While this will mean more updates, hopefully this will be a best-of-both-worlds situation.) I'm getting close to finishing up the first part, so you may even see it later today. We'll gauge the interest off of the initial one, and then decide how far we want to take this. =)

Well, I think that will do it for today. Oh, wait -- I forgot. I said in the headline that I was going to ask you a question, didn't I? Yeah, I sure did. All right. Well, here goes: who'd like to participate in helping us design a card (or two - or maybe even three) for Deep Madness?

The Visage of Horror
over 7 years ago – Fri, Nov 09, 2018 at 06:24:11 AM

Hi all! It's time for your daily dose of Deep Madness!

Today we'd like to focus a little bit more on The Faces of the Sphere. And we're going to start with a change that we've been toying around with.

THE VISAGES

When we announced that the creatures in The Faces of the Sphere would be called Sphere Faces, we heard from a number of you that you weren't thrilled by the name. So, we thought we'd experiment a little bit, and see if we could settle on another one. We threw around calling them Refractions, the Transmuted, or a number of other choices. But at last we decided we'd try out the name Visages. (For those who aren't familiar with the word, Visage is a very deep, profound word which means… Face. Yep. We went creative with this one. =D)

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THE RELIEF EXPERT IS LOOKING STRESSED

Now, as we (strongly) hinted in the last update, our next stretch goal is coming - and it's none other than Jacob Clarke! Jacob's driving force for even coming to Kadath was to avenge his dead wife (and to stop others from sharing her fate), and so it seemed only appropriate that he and she would have a tearful reunion in Jacob's Visage.

Jacob's Visage will be joining the fray when we hit $560,000! Score!

Now, some might be wondering why we're seeing Jacob's image before we've even seen Ward's. Well, Ward's is coming, no doubt about it. But our artist got really excited about "Dead-ing out" with this one and jumped the gun a little bit on it. But don't worry: we should have Ward's Visage within the next couple of days to show you.

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SIZE COMPARISON

Now, some have wondered how the size of the Visages would compare with other miniatures, and if these figures would actually be worth the purchase. So, we thought we'd see what we could do by offering you a size comparison of the Visages next to their original forms. Here they are:

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ARTHUR'S CORRUPTION

Now, let's take a look at another of the Visages: Arthur.

--

Arthur stumbles and falls in the knee-high murky water, cursing as his metal case slips from his hand and disappears into the dark, silty grime. This is too much. He is so tired of trudging through this hell. He used to be someone. He had power - real power. Influence. Wealth. How did he ever come to be this low? How could his sins, which seemed so small with distance, have condemned him to this cesspool?

--

The facility seems almost peaceful for a moment. Perhaps you finally have an instant to rest. Sinking to the floor beside Arthur, you offer him a canteen. He takes it with a nod and guzzles its contents. You still can't completely figure Arthur out. He's undeniably smart. Maybe even a genius. There's a quickness behind his eyes, as if decisions and calculations are taking place instantaneously. But there's also something almost… dirty about him. You wonder if he'd stab you in the back if it meant he could get ahead. No, surely not. That's probably just this place affecting you. If anything could make you paranoid, it would be Kadath.

"So Arthur, I never asked you how you landed this cushy gig," you say, trying to make conversation.

Arthur chuckles, running one hand through his hair. "So you've never heard of me before, eh? Well, that's -" He stops abruptly, a look of alarm dashing across his face. He scrambles to his feet. Turning, you see it enter the room.

--

Arthur's hand wraps around his briefcase, half-buried in mud and grime. Finding the handle, he jerks it upward. The only problem is, the muck it's sunk into comes up as well. The slimy dirt is alive. It swirls up Arthur's arm and, as he opens his mouth to shout, it pours down his throat. Arthur feels his feet become enveloped in vile excrement, followed by his legs. Then, in a flash of panic, he realizes what this dark ooze truly is. It's his past. It's every person he lied to. It's every friend he stabbed in the back on his way to the top. It's his lies. His heartlessness. The charcoal that has entombed his soul.

Arthur wants to scream, but the filth is still choking off his air and filling his mouth. He feels it filling up his stomach, bulging out his gut. His body begins to twist and snap as it starts to change. New appendages are pushing out of his back. His arms are elongating and thinning, his right one displacing his shoulder blade as new limbs join it that seem to belong to some enormous viscous insect. Another arm sprouts from his side that looks half human, half diseased spider leg. As his stomach ruptures, allowing his diseased innards to spill out, his briefcase also bursts open, allowing a myriad of tentacles and arms to tumble into the open air. At last Arthur can shriek in pain and horror. The sound that emerges is far from human.

--

The creature that is shambling towards you is a horrific amalgamation of bulging human cadaver, black widow, and grimy squid. Perhaps you would feel sorry for it if it weren't so horrifically revolting.

Behind you, though, you hear Arthur begin to sob. "I didn't deserve this!" he yells. "It wasn't my fault! I'm no worse than any of the people who put me here! You can't do this to me. You can't!"

You have no idea what he's babbling about, until it at last hits you: in some sick way, what you're looking at is a reflection of Arthur's diseased soul. And he knows it.

--

Arthur's Visage directly affects the items you carry, and the future of the search deck. If you perform an attack while it is in the same room then be sure you use your least favorite weapon, because you will have to discard it as soon as the attack is over. Now, it's not all bad news: you will then be able to draw the top three cards of the search deck and decide from amongst those what your replacement will be. But if you have to use your one gun that rocks the world, then you will lose it and potentially get nothing but a utility knife to replace it with.

So the question is, do you chance it?

Well that's all for today. We'll be back tomorrow with more fun. But, until then, have a great day!

(Also, a side-note. At the start of this campaign I promised that we would have a Choose Your Own Terror story that would be taking place during the campaign. But I just realized we're now 14 updates in and haven't even started it yet. Is that something you guys would be interested in us moving forward with at this point? Or do you think there's enough story-driven stuff going on in the campaign right now? Let's discuss that and the newly-coined Visages in the comments.)

About Lucas, Shattered Seas, and Another Glimpse Into the Future
over 7 years ago – Thu, Nov 08, 2018 at 06:17:10 AM

Another day, and more Deep Madness descends! Man, you guys seem to have really liked Profundum. (Which we're thrilled about, by the way.) Yesterday was one of the biggest days as far as funding since the first couple days of the campaign! Thanks so much to everyone who upped their pledges, and welcome to our new friends!

We've got some more fun stuff and news for you. But, first of all, Beasts of War posted their playthrough video! They didn't use sanity quite as we would recommend and they died horribly, but they seemed to have fun doing it. =) Here's the video:

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We also didn't realize it, but back when we launched we were mentioned on Mark van Der Upwich's blog on BGG, where he says, "Get what you want or get what's new… But get it!" So that's pretty cool. You can check it out (and the other games he mentioned) at https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/82562/final-roll-kickstarter-news-episode-187-tuesday-oc.

One last thing: there are several places where constant exposure can really help the campaign out. One is Board Game Geek, where we have been on The Hotness pretty steadily since the campaign began. (However, we have slipped a couple spots in recent days, so if you'd like to pop over there and help us finish off a couple of our last remaining social stretch goals you can find our page at:

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But another one is the website Kicktraq. Kicktraq has a Top Ten list on their website that shows off what projects are currently getting the most attention on their site, and Deep Madness has been on there pretty regularly since launching. But in recent days we've slipped off a couple of times, so if you wouldn't mind helping us out you can go to the like below and see some cool stats, add some nice tags, and ensure that we stay on that Top Ten. =) Thanks so much! You all are the best!

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ANOTHER STRETCH GOAL BUSTED!

Speaking of those social goals, we've beaten another one! Woohoo! What have we unlocked this time, Johnny?

Well, Byron, I'm glad you asked. Today we've unlocked the audio book for Deep Madness: Shattered Seas! Everyone in both the first and second campaigns will get this, and it should be quite a bit of fun when it's finished. We might throw in some atmospheric sounds and other extras, too, to make this a very tense and exciting experience.

This means we're only two more achievements away from another scenario! SCORE!

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LUCAS KANE

So I said yesterday that we'd focus a little more on Lucas Kane, and now we're going to. This might not be our last look at Lucas because the character is still very much in development, but I wanted to give you a few insights into him, anyway. For starters, in a few graphics and text blurbs we initially said that Lucas was going to be a mathematician. Whoops. Turns out he's a marine biologist. Why the change? Well, there's two reasons. The first is because I am not so good with the maths, and the only reason to have a mathematician as a major part of the story would be if it could add something measurable to the plot. But I'm just not sure I could do that, whereas I am much more likely to be able to work in marine biology. (Trust me. It'll be great. =D) The second and more important reason, though, is that it felt much more natural for the character. But enough about that. Let's focus a little on his back story.

--

Lucas Kane doesn’t spend a lot of time thinking about his past, because every time he does it feels like sharp pieces of glass are piercing his brain. Furthermore, when he tries to sleep he sees the most horrible things: flames consuming the world, and mind-rending monstrosities arising to stalk the streets. What disturbs him the most about these events, though, is that they don't feel like dreams. They feel like memories.

Lucas, a marine biologist, has been brought on to serve as a consultant during Kadath's construction and subsequent operations to ensure that the facility's environmental impact aligns with international law. To begin with it is simply a figurehead position, but shortly Lucas' collected samples begin to take on an increasingly mutated and alarming aspect to them - a problem that worsens drastically with the retrieval of a mysterious sphere from the depths. Lucas begins to fear that something is going terribly wrong in Kadath. But then he meets a teenage girl named Regan, and everything changes.

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We're still working out some of the niggling details about Lucas, such as his abilities and his sculpt. (You know, the minor stuff. =D) However, here are a couple of work-in-progress shots of Lucas's investigator card and miniature. Now, please keep in mind, these are far from finished. We've asked for some further tweaks to the miniature from the sculptor (he looks a little too put together for what we've imagined), and we obviously aren't going to leave his second ability as "Now you just see something useless." (His first ability's not really real, either – though it could be a kind of superpower if it were.) But they'll give you an idea of what we're shooting for, and it'll also show you a new look that we are considering for his card. Be sure and tell us what you think of it.

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SHATTERED SEAS TEASER TWO

Now I'd like to give you your second taste of Shattered Seas. This won't make a lot of sense if you missed the first part, though, so if you haven’t watched/read that one be sure to check out its update at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/diemensiongames/deep-madness-second-printing/posts/2335364 before reading any further. (Also, sorry for my speech seeming to be set at fast-forward during the start of the next teaser video. It does slow down once I reach the story. I promise.)

--

The water grew warmer, and then the man felt seaweed and anemones brushing against his toes. Something smooth and fleshy slid across his shin.

The world burst into focus as sand enveloped his fingertips. The man scrambled up onto the shore and whirled around to see what was behind him, falling on the wet beach with a thump. His heart stopped in his chest.

Other people were crawling out of the surf. Or at least they had likely been people at one point. A ten-foot-tall man stumbled as he stood up, his arms and legs unnaturally long, like taffy that had lost its shape. As he gained his feet, though, his torso bent backwards, his hands splashing down into the waves as his body became an inverted human “U”. Then his head drooped downward, his mouth elongating further and further until his hair drug in the sand. A guttural sound emerged from the thing’s cavernous gash of a mouth that was far from human.

A woman, meanwhile, rose from the waves. As she did, however, her legs dissolved underneath her, her shins ripping off at the kneecaps before her thighs disengaged from their sockets. Her waist was the next to go, leaving ropes of intestines trailing out behind her. Still she advanced, though, pulling herself forward on arms that cracked and shifted. Then the crab legs slid out from the depths of her guts, and as she looked back at her new appendages she screamed.

The man felt his whole body threatening to seize up on him. His mind couldn’t process the things he was seeing. Perhaps that was why it was some time before he saw the thing rising from the water.

The crown of the creature’s head formed a wake on either side as it advanced, its scales slick and gleaming. More of it arose from the ocean as the water grew shallower, and soon its bouquet of black fish eyes could be seen gleaming like clusters of caviar in the sun. Next its mandibles emerged, churning as they dripped. Then the spines. Then the whipping tendrils.

The man howled. Scrambling to his feet, he forced his limbs to obey him as he ran up the beach for the forest in the distance. His mind was frozen by numbing shock, his heart hammering in abject terror. Behind him he still heard the shuffling, scuffling, slithering procession of the damned as they made way for the monstrous horror that followed.

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And that's it for today! We'll have more of the story coming your way in a few days, and there's more fun to be had tomorrow. Have a great day, everyone, and we'll talk with you again --

Oh no. Not again.

It's hazy, but I see it moving. In the distance. Something's approaching, surrounded by tendrils… I see a man… And a woman… No, what is she --