To be fair, it's kind of hard to prepare for an underground jungle that's about 80 square meters.That does not excuse this.In my defence, only Yunikki was an accident. So Sucy just ran in there and to get shitfaced?Kind of exactly what happened. Didn't figure her for a narcotics person...Oh, believe me, she is most certainly a narcotics person. She had some of the best stashes around. It kept me down for hours. Well, whatever. How long will it take before they stop drooling?...Somewhere between half an hour to a full hour. They'll have a buzz for a while after that, as well, but a first-timer is going to feel absolutely wretched... Might want to remove Nikki's helmet, she's going to vomit. You put Sucy and Yunikki next to eachother, grumbling the whole time. This place is well-lit, even without the torch. There are holes that allow natural light to enter the caves, and even the occasional bit of seeds and dirt. So there's a whole patch of green here, where the spiders rarely ventured. With good reason, some of these plants look ready to eat anything smaller than them. You're not one of those things, of course, but the smaller spiders keep away. Although it may just be the light, on second thought...
Combination of factors. Who cares?
Regardless, these plants look to be useful for the alchemists. Useless for the traps you have planned, however, as the vampire is immune to most poisons. You'll have to use more physical ways to damage him. Of that, there is no short supply. Fire is quite easy to use, after all. As it stands, however, you work with webbing traps. Most of the floor is already rather sticky, but leaving behind pads of added silk prove to be enough to get somebody stuck. But you just can't make very complex traps with what's available...
You'll have to rely on the spiders to get anything done in the way of traps, you suspect. The best you can do is a tripwire. The occasional swinging rock...
The cave is very defensible regardless of traps, however, so you won't be in trouble. You will be using the Queen's chambers as your base of operations, however. The one remaining hallway, to the north-east, was filled with...
Well, you discovered how spiders mate. In the case of the giant types, there's just a massive amount of spiders in one cave getting ready to fertilize the eggs. While this wasn't mating season, these spiders are still ready to go and VERY aggressive. They're a little bigger than the average warrior spider, but they lack the weapons. Their mouths aren't really sharp in any way, meaning all they can do is swarm the threat and bash their abdomen against it. Considering their size, however, that would have been enough...
It worked well enough on the undead spider you carried around, to say the least. They must be a little smarter to know the difference, as well. Another thing to note. That also marks the end of the caves, with just one last thing of interest.
There was a small pile of clothes, jewelry and similar bits of scrap lying around in the breeder den. They seem to be from the east, according to Eveline, implying that they're former "guests" for the vampire.
How did they get down here? For that matter, how did the bear's victims get here?
Maybe this isn't as secure as you hoped... But they won't expect this place. It'll have to do.
The first hunt is coming up soon. You'll take down your first patrol, and see how the thralls work in combat. Sucy and Yunikki are still too out of it to fight, Sucy being a little too slow and Yunikki vomiting in the bushes outside of the cave. Meandra and Eveline will have to take care of them, or they might wander off someplace dangerous. Considering there are generally only four or so per patrol, this shouldn't be an issue. You've got a decent horde of spiders with you, regardless. About fifteen spiders are willing to follow you outside of the den, and the small ones don't go into the light. You wonder who so few warriors are joining you, but perhaps more will come of you throw your first bit of pheromones. These pouches are very numerous, and very small. You need very little to get the spiders to go nuts on a target, so you can carry quite a few. The green patch in the caves also allows Eveline to create them out of the leaves that are available there. Resources will not a problem in the least.
The first two are coming. These ones look to be enthralled caravan guards. You saw a few of them when the eastern caravans came through town. They're bundled up in heavy robes, although some leave their chest exposed. Mostly, they tend to hide their face for some reason. The scars are a mark of pride and experience, and the one in front has many scars indeed. His skin is graying, though. He must have been enthralled for a long time already.
Experience alone won't help you against a force like the vampire.
Standing ready in the woods, you prepare your pheromone bomb. A quick throw later, and it splatters against the side of one of the thralls. All at once, the spiders screech and roar as they charge forward. With combined efforts, they run down the first two, tearing at their flesh and vomiting up their poison. You enter the fray yourself, as well, using the spiders as a distraction. The first two guards may have fallen to the spiders, but once the guards can get fighting, they don't gain much effectiveness in comparison to when they were fighting you. But then again, these guards aren't driders, nor are they immune to the spider's poison. Enthrallment still requires some of the bodily functions to continue, it seems. You barely had any work to do when you got there, and you barely lost five spiders. You put one of the corpses on your back, and your spiders follow suit on dragging them with you. It seems they understand the basic idea of hunting well enough, so you're a few corpses richer. These thralls have no souls, of course. They are still undead, even they do require breathing and circulation.
Before you finish up entirely, however, you see one more caravan guard approaching down the road. He must have been part of the group you are still carrying away, perhaps in order to scout or to deal with this exact situation where a group disappears. If you didn't spend so much time carrying the bodies, you would have missed him. You decide to not leave this to chance.
Waiting just at the edge of the forest, the closest part to the road, you prepare yourself for an ambush. In and out. Your spiders will carry the bodies away, you can handle a single thrall. Just as he steps close enough, you'll go forward without a sound and gut him.
You add your deed to your thought, and charge forward. You reach him before he even turns around and pierce him through the back, lifting him up before removing your blade. he lands on his feet, but the injury was lethal enough. You slash his back open for good measure, tearing apart the hefty robes he was wearing. But he's still standing. Then he speaks. His voice is low, and he sounds so very satisfied with himself.
As I expected. Hello, necromancer.With a dramatic turn, he remove the robes around his head. His red eyes pierce your very soul as he looks at you.
Oh no.ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK!Let's just talk about this.This is really awkward.OtherBasic Stats
Level: 9
HP: 12/25 (still healing up
Mana: 35/50
Stress: 50/75
Thirst: Sated
Items and equipment
Equipment:
Carapaced leather armor
Sword
Gardener's Shield
Bolas(x4)
Handmade Bola
Items:
Spare Clothing (x4)
Blood Vials (x9)
Poisonbox
Journal
Spellbook
Cookbook
Stashed away:
Spare clothing (x10)
Fancy clothing
Minions
An essentially infinite number of spiders. You'll have a number when you leave the caves.
Skills and spells
Magic:
Resurrect vermin: Allows you to resurrect very small creatures such as rats(invests 2 of your max mana) (no mana cost)
Resurrect average beast: Allows you to resurrect creatures such as dogs, cats and other similar-sized creatures.(invests 7 mana) (no mana cost)
Resurrect Humanoid: Allows you to resurrect humanoid creatures. (Invests 10 mana) (Costs 15 mana)
Reshape minion plus!: Allows you to majorly change the appearance of your resurrected minions.
Minion Vision: Allows you to see what a minion sees. The minion must have eyes.
Animate Piece: Allows you to animate just a piece of dead tissue. It requires your constant attention, and cannot act independently. (Drains 1 mana per three seconds)
Graft: Allows you to use dead tissue as a replacement limb. Requires a lot of mana. (2 per second) (average limb takes around 20 seconds to properly graft)
Gather Soul: Allows you to make a soul visible. You could try putting it in a flame of some sort to keep it around. (10 mana)
Soul battery: Allows you to use a soul-infused flame as a small mana-boost. This snuffs it out, however
Undead flashbang: Allows you to blow up a minion for a flash-bang effect. (10 mana)
Stitch: allows you to close a wound and stop bleeding as fast as you can stitch. Costs very little mana, but requires something to stitch with.
Siphoning Cloud: Breathe out a cloud that drains the life from victims and gives it to you. Adds a LOT to intimidation (5 mana)
Smoke Cloud: Breathe out harmless but thick smoke. (2 mana)
Deathbolt: A bolt that hurts the body's connection with it's soul. Causes minor wounds to appear over the body as it attempts to compensate (2 mana)
Doombolt: A more powerful version of the above (5 Mana)
Familiar
Tiny Skeletal Dragon
Skills:
Poison Stinger (Stings a bit)
Oral Fixation: Can cast spells spells from the mouth.
Draining Limbs: Can drain blood using pedipalps.
Major experience in blocking and swords.
Climber
Crafty: Bolas
Cooking skill: Excellent
Corpse Cutting: Quite Decent.
Animal handling: inexperienced.
Necromantic knowledge
Soul Sniffer
Hide-out map