The stench of the Fishing Hamlet was unique. The place was incredibly old, with much of the architecture being ramshackle huts. The wet wood and smell of potent fish created an odd aroma. One that stirred some truly unsettling feelings for Gehrman.
On one hand, there was the memory of all of this being covered in viscera and blood, Old Gehrman standing over it like mad god.
Then there was Johann, fighting desperately against incredibly powerful beasts. At that point, he had reached a level akin to the most legendary of hunters. In order to reach the Fishing Hamlet he had to defeat the remnant of Ludwig, turned to beast, multiple powerful Kin of the Cosmos, and Maria herself.
That fight against Maria had been particularly harrowing, in her desperation, she had used all of her abilities as a Vileblood. Explosions of fiery blood extended her strikes and made them far more dangerous.
And yet, Johann had stood over her collapsed body, undaunted.
Even then he had died multiple times to the beasts that prowled the ruins of the Fishing Hamlet.
As Gehrman walked with light steps, the wet squelch of the ground below him echoing ominously, he saw something that he had not taken note of in either of his encounters.
A creaking wooden sign.
On it, dark letters could be faintly made out.
"Welcome to Innsmouth, Whaling Settlement."
Innsmouth.
For some reason, assigning a name to this place made it feel…different. Though he couldn't possibly describe what made it so.
What was more interesting was the second part. The descriptor of "whale hunting" was something that was also news to him.
Gehrman's brows furrowed.
Pieces started to click into place. That carcass on the rocky shore appeared like a whale at first glance. Its grey blubber and smooth skin was disturbingly familiar to that of a grey whale that appeared in these parts.
Could it have been possible that the reason the entity had washed up on that shore was because the people of this hamlet, of Innsmouth, had mistaken it for a whale and harpooned it.
Perhaps, that was the reason the townsfolk had been cursed to be such odious things.
It was vengeance, or rather divine retribution.
If one considered the Great One's divine that was…
Gehrman suddenly got an idea, one that he would soon employ as he saw the first citizen of Innsmouth.
It was easy to tell that they were from the hamlet. After all, they had already undergone the transformation that made them harrowing beasts, their fishy appearance and awkward movements made it clear that they were not human from the first glance.
But to Gehrman's surprise, when he looked into them with [Eyes on The Inside], they weren't entirely Nightmare Creatures either.
A small, yet pure soul existed within the creature, an Awakened Soul Core. It was surprising to see in what was supposed to be a mundane human, but what was far more shocking was that it was currently coexisting with a vile core of darkness.
One that belonged to a Corrupted Beast.
Yet the powerful Nightmare Creature that had parasitized the humans had clearly not destroyed the villagers mind completely.
"Outsiders…what do you want," the fish-man said in a low groan.
With his [Sixth Sense] he could tell that Maria's rising tension had reached a peak, and she was almost ready to take out her Rukuyo and cut the thing down.
And she could have done it too.
With [Eyes on The Inside] still active, he could see the Transcendent Core that now sent powerful Essence through her beautiful body.
In the last Nightmare she had been a master, but that had changed. It seemed that this version of Maria was closer to the true version that had existed in Yharnam.
Gehrman gave a subtle movement to indicate to her to relax, then he spoke in a slow and easy voice.
"We have come seeking the voice from the sea. The mother of the waves."
Something appeared to ripple under the blubbery flesh of the villager, causing an unnerving reaction.
"Ah," the pitch of the villagers' strained voice went up. "You hear the call of the Great Kosm? You have come for blessing?"
Gehrman's demeanor turned downwards and his face became remorseful.
"Sadly, we have not. The both of us are beholden to another, you see. A sister to Great Kos, another god of great honor," he said with deep respect. "Yet the call we hear is one of undoubtable truth. Our god whispers, seeking for reunion with humanity and the cosmos. To this end, we have come seeking you, to ascertain the willingness of Great Kos, and ask how we might evangelize for her."
The fish-man stared at him (or at least, he would have if the thing had eyes). The slight ripple beneath the thing's flesh became more pronounced and quick. It did not follow a discernable pattern, but Gehrman suspected it was not random.
It's almost like it's speaking…is it a hive mind infecting the village?
It seemed a plausible theory, but there was not enough evidence to prove it.
After some time though, the thing finally stilled and the villager stood up straighter. His back cracking combined with the quiet wet sounds of his skin folding combined to make a truly grotesque noise.
"You speak half truths," the thing said eventually. It was not entirely malicious, but it was more hostile than neutral either. Then the fish-man raised a webbed finger at Maria, causing her features to tense. "She is of a brood that comes from Formless Oedon, and you are an avatar of the Moon Presence. Neither such being seeks such things you describe."
Gehrman blinked.
There was a lot of useful information in that line, but he did not have time to parse through everything. He needed to respond before the town of Innsmouth and the Corrupted parasites that housed it turned against them.
Keeping a remorseful facade, Gehrman nodded. "Indeed, such are we blessed and cursed. Yet those Great Ones do not hold chains around us, and we have both chosen to follow another: The Daughter of the Cosmos."
"The one left behind."
This time, the parasite did not ripple. The fish-man spoke as if he had long known about Ebriteas. And maybe he did. Currently there were only two Great Ones whose presence had somehow physically manifested something akin to an avatar. Ebriteas was obvious, though echoes of her existed in different dreams, she was not fully ascended like the other Great Ones.
Beings like the Moon Presence, for example, could pick and choose their presence in any given reality or dream, though they could exist in all of them. That entity could very well have manifested in Yharnam, it had spread the beast plague, after all, which was a part of its essence. Yet it did not, only allowing a singular avatar to form when–
Gehrman suddenly clenched his head and groaned. The pale purple fog clung to the memory of the Moon Presence's descent and the events that followed in a tight cage of indescribable power.
The blood in his brain felt searing hot and the pressure behind his eyes exploded exponentially. He thought for a moment that his eyes were about to pop out of his skull.
Maria, thoroughly unnerved and blindsided by this whole experience made no move, instead only staring at Gehrman in silent horror. Praying that this was all a part of his plan.
Oddly enough, she would soon conclude that it was, since the fish-man suddenly stirred.
His top half seemed to shiver and undulate like some odd dance. It stepped backward, as if in alarm, but then just as fast it stepped forward.
"The sea waves nurse the shore, forming a most sublime coast. The great lake seems undisturbed. Uncanny," these nonsensical words snapped Gehrman back to reality.
"You need not believe us," Gehrman said with a grunt. "But the Healing Church which we hail from wishes for the worship of all gods. Undoubtedly, Kos is one of those worthy of great prayer. Please, if you will, if you can, transcribe to us some of the secrets of the seas."
The fish-man stood incredibly, totally still for several seconds.
And the Workshop Hunters mirrored the perfect stoicism.
Eventually, a gurgling sound escaped from the fish-man, though the meaning of it was decidedly unclear.
"Follow me. Speak in the town. By the well."
…
Innsmouth was much like the version that existed in the Old Hunters Dream that Johann had traveled to. The ramshackle wooden housing, metallic reinforcements, and worn down architecture all painted the same eerie, ghastly picture.
The only difference was, now he was not getting assaulted by the townsfolk. Instead they simply turned their featureless faces to observe him as they shuffled slowly about. They appeared to all be doing menial tasks.
He saw a few polishing some metal harpoons. Others carried pots with oil with them. And still others slowly walking about, likely on their way to another task.
"Kos has blessed all, I see," Gehrman said offhandedly.
A groan came from their guide.
"Corrected," he gurgled.
The distinction seemed odd, but very important.
"When did the truths come to you?" he asked.
"411 days. She washed up on our shore. A holy medium."
Gehrman kept his facade neutral, but hearing the familiar terminology made him almost flinch. The fact they also described the body of this Great One in the same way as Laurence and the Healing Church did was unsettling to say the least.
They had been mutated by Kos.
It wasn't until much later, but the Healing Church too were mutated. Though in their case, Ebriteas's blood seemed to have awakened a beastly seed that had long been secretly planted in humanity.
Still, though they were so different, the similarities were indeed uncanny.
"Great Kosm, Great Kos, she lay flesh upon our land. The reason we can not know. She was adrift for long. Certainly. Why she graces us now… perhaps she sees us."
The ramblings of the villager sparked a bit of confusion in Gehrman's head as he struggled to piece together the theories and newly uncovered memories.
Initially, Gehrman suspected the reason for Innsmouth being the place where Kos ended up was because She had been mistaken for a whale and harpooned. Then, the hamlet was cursed into these monstrous forms.
But this didn't line up perfectly with what he now knew. These people currently still had their wits about them, and indeed they seemed to coexist with tiny parasites of Kos that could have easily snuffed them out.
No, the reason they had all even attacked Johann was because that dream had been a punishment. A hell for Old Hunters who had succumbed to blood lust.
That was what Simon, the one sane fellow he met in the dream, had insinuated. And indeed it explained the presence of other Hunters using Old Hunter tools.
And though Johann had made his way into the dream through odd means and was still sane (comparatively), he had no clear distinction between the rest of the Hunters there.
When he had initially made his way to the Fishing Hamlet, he had even seen a fish-man muttering great curses to "the bastards at Byrgenwerth". And since the Workshop Hunters had ties with Byrgenwerth, it stood to reason that it was for that reason that they all held murderous intent to Johann.
But that crime that caused the dwellers of Innsmouth to curse them had not yet occurred.
At the moment, they were simply creepy fish people who had yet to do anything expressly wrong.
At that moment though, Gehrman's train of thought trailed off abruptly as he felt an incredibly powerful presence.
Two of them.
Ah, I remember the well now.
Indeed as he stood next to the small cobblestone circle and peered down he could feel two creatures who he remembered with great malice. They had killed him a dozen times themselves, and had given him just as much stress, if not more, than those Living Failures at the Research Hall had given him in the area before.
These creatures didn't even have names or designations.
And yet, when he looked down into the well, the dark swirling corruption that he saw was more profound than anything he had ever seen.
There was no Awakened Soul inside, there were only two Great Soul Cores within each of the creatures.
Great Monsters.
Nightmare Creatures of the 5th Rank.
He could feel a chill run down his spine and he could sense Maria having the same reaction.
"Great bodies of water house great wisdom. Wisdom we can not know," the guide suddenly said, staring down into the well. "She tries to teach us. But we are too animal to appreciate it."
Gehrman let out a neutral hum, not trusting his words.
The two creatures were not too far below them. And at their Rank, they could cross the 30 meter distance and break through the cobbled ceiling in a second, maybe less than that.
Yet despite their nature as Nightmare Creatures, they stayed put.
This place, Gehrman thought. Is insane.
…
Long Authors Notes so it's in the Chapter:
Got a good amount to go over here. Firstly, yeah, this is a day late and its only one chapter. Sorry.
My explanation:
For the first time in my life I had a day with absolutely zero breaks. I went from waking up, to practicum, to eat, to volunteer work, to class, to volunteer work, to class, to club stuff, and immediately to bed.
No reading, no gaming, no socializing, and no writing.
Now NOT every day was like this, but I'm not gonna lie this shit broke me a bit. I know, it's probably an easy day for some (and, to be fair, the volunteer stuff was my fault, but I like working with the Red Cross and they only come around once every few months so I kinda had to).
Classes also suck TREMENDOUSLY. I'm waking up at 6:30am for 3 days a week and 8:45am for the other 4.
TLDR: I'm being a bitch. But I feel like if I go on hiatus I'm never finishing this. So I'll keep writing, but its probably gonna be one chapter a week for a while so you should probably just stack up for a bit.
Anyway on to the actual shit in the story. Getting back into Bloodborne (on my NG+3 run btw and just beat Ludwig) and I'm getting inspired for a lot of stuff. Hopefully that means that though I'll be posting less the quality will be higher.
We're dealing with a lot of confusing dream and metaphysics again and it's probably gonna get even more confusing from here. But just like when you play Bloodborne, strap in and just feel the vibe, no need to think too deeply about stuff or really understand what's going on.
Naming the Fishing Hamlet Innsmouth is something I have ALWAYS wanted to do. Like, since chapter 1. I actually read H.P. Lovecraft's "Shadow Over Innsmouth" before playing Bloodborne so seeing it while also having knowledge on the source material made it a lot better. Check out the story, or just watch Overly Sarcastic Production's YouTube video on H.P. Lovecraft for a fun lil synopsis of that and some other Lovecraft short stories.
I could yap about this stuff all day so I'll cut myself off here and just leave you with a reminder that since we are going further back into the past than the last Nightmare, both Caryll and Gairm are still alive in this version (and they will make reappearance).
That's all for now. Thank you for the continued support.