Topic: Web of Life: A Drider's Adventure (Ended) (Read 185940 times)

Puppyguard · « **Reply #1350 on:** January 01, 2018, 02:49:24 pm »

Queen.

RAM · « **Reply #1351 on:** January 01, 2018, 03:41:01 pm »

Eating the alchemist is nice, but they are all the way over there, next to Vampy, who likely won't let us just randomly walk over there. As for Alexia escaping? By herself? Not likely unless Vampy gives us a big head-start. With Yunikki in tow? Pretty much impossible in the absence of a really good plan/trick. As for attacking Vampy? All of these people seem likely to, at the least, follow the rule of "at least look as though you have joined the winning side" and Vampy looks to be firmly in the winner's camp right now. Not to mention that with personalised outfits I doubt that we can hope for inverse ninja to save us... And Vampy explicitly wanted to see how we killed the werewolf, and we told them about a battle trance, and they could pick out a possessed undead sparrow from the far side of the room. They are both looking for and capable of seeing exactly what Alexia is, on a physical level, and has been told that there is a mental component, at least as far as memory goes.

Alexia is great, I want to see more of her, but in this situation she should bide her time and be our surprise weapon when we are in a position to achieve something.

Devastator · « **Reply #1352 on:** January 01, 2018, 04:06:13 pm »

If we want to plan for a later escape, we need to take actions towards that later escape. Sit back and do little isn't enough on it's own, and if we're attacking the pyromancer, might as well bring the Queen out. We've got lots of tricks left, not just that one, we just don't often use them. The life-draining smoke, for instance.

RAM · « **Reply #1353 on:** January 01, 2018, 05:25:41 pm »

But as a secret weapon Alexia is awesome. It represents a universal adjustment and increase in abilities and a significant shift in combat style. As for preparing to escape? A failed effort now does nothing for that other than let us briefly glimpse a bit of terrain while we are running too fast to study it. The single most important thing to do in order to prepare for an escape is to keep something hidden. What is known can be prepared for, and imprisoning someone is entirely about interdicting their ability to act.

Liquefied Spleens · « **Reply #1354 on:** January 01, 2018, 05:50:07 pm »

...Before I continue, I would like to remind you all that you REALLY brought it upon yourselves.
You can't help but grin as you let go, and disappear into your own subconscious. You feel your carapace crack a little as it thickens, but you're completely gone before that.
Alexia is out to play, and BOY is she anxious to get to killing.
Oh boy here we go. Yunikki says before taking a little distance. The rest of the people in the room don't know the implications of this, of course, although they do get an idea when she charges over the table and grabs the Hell-born by the throat. Before the gibbering madman can even speak he is thrown over his chair. Alexia grabs him by the head, and smashes his skull against the ground. A splattering of blood comes out, and with an exhilarating crack, Alexia's palm breaks his nose. She raises her arm again to smash him down, but she feels a sudden sting of pain against her sides. Her armor gone, left with nothing but a dress, nothing seems to stop the little balls from the alchemist from piercing through her skin. Some are blocked by the carapace on her sides, but she still takes the brunt of it. Fortunately, the poison is either slow-acting or ineffective, and Alexia smashes the Hell-born down again, knocking him out before a final smash cracks his skull.
He's never getting up again.
DAMN IT! DO SOMETHING! The alchemist screams, fumbling to find more things to throw. She tries to make distance as best as she can, but she can't find a proper exit in her panic. She's clearly unprepared for combat.

Unfortunately, the vampire IS. Alexia don't know what took him so long to make a move. Perhaps he expected someone else to do something. But as the alchemist started running, his thief coming closely at a glacial pace (looking more like she's trying to get away) and the helmeted man not even getting out of his seat (but all his lights are blinking, which is probably relevant), he probably realized he has to do this himself. He jumps off his chair, and dashes towards the rampaging drider, who was running towards the alchemist (who screams like a little girl). He tackles her, but she shows far more strength than ever before! Has she been holding back this entire time!? Her grip is bone-crushing, and she screeches in a most disturbing manner. Then, something entirely unexpected: She stops resisting the push from the vampire, sending the vampire flying forward and into the waiting jaw of the Queen. Her new fangs tear at the vampire's cheek, and she rips off a piece! The vampire yells in pain, jumping back and clutching his wound. His teeth are visible through the new hole, and Alexia happily chews and eats the torn chunk. She twitches a little at the taste, and the corruption that came with it. She laughs again, and points to the vampire
Come on! You wanted woo me, didn't you? DIDN'T YOU?! Her eyes are unfocused, her pupils tiny and her smile almost inhumanly wide as she charges again, pedipalps raised and swinging.
Dance with me, pretty boy! DANCE! A wild haymaker, followed by an underhand jab. Using his inhuman speed, the vampire blocks both and does a counter-punch to the insane drider's face. She spits out a little blood, only giggling at the pain before jamming her pedipalp inside the vampire's stomach. He pulls himself off soon enough, but she nearly collapses as the blood's effect takes hold!
That much blood at once could have KILLED her! What is she doing!?

Deciding that he can't take her down in close quarters, the vampire jumps again, much farther this time. As he flies, he pulls out several throwing knives and throws them at the drider! Most are blocked or a miss, but two of them stick in her arms! Before she can move on, however, the alchemist throws a powder towards her, which explodes with a white flash. Even the vampire needs to blink a few times before the spot goes away, but Alexia is completely blinded!
You putrid cunt! Come here... COME HERE!
The alchemist can't help but squeak in fear, and the drider makes a shoulder charge towards the noise. Another dagger from the vampire flashes forward, striking one of her legs, but the charge continues. Stumbling over her legs and the alchemist, the Queen performs some blind punches hitting nothing but concrete as the weak grip allows the alchemist to get away.
Her stinger has more success.
The alchemist screams in agony as she is filled with the poisonous sacks, leaving her belly bloated. Suddenly, the thief pounces on Alexia, and bashes her over the head with the pommel of a dagger. Before the queen can respond, she already leaps away with a classy back-flip.
Ever the showman, isn't she.

Another dagger, fortunately deflected by her carapace.
But it was high time to END this. Alexia leaves the squirming alchemist and runs to the Hellborn. She grabs his axe as more daggers fly around her. She's starting to feel woozy, the injuries Sydney sustained starting to catch up to her. She can hardly feel her hands...
Still, she throws the axe at the helmeted man. Sadly, the axe was not balanced, and the queen doesn't know how to throw axes. The blunt side hits the man dead-on, and he is knocked over on his back. The real prize of the hellborn wasn't exactly his axe, regardless.
Tearing off the animal skin containing the fuel, she takes yet more daggers to her back. They're blunted, however.
He still doesn't want to kill Sydney. What a fool that makes him.
With a wild charge, the vampire is unable to dodge or jump away, getting caught by his leg and slammed down. Then, the animal skin is smashed over him, the Drider's claws opening them up and releasing it's payload.
Now it's his turn to panic. He knows what this means. Just as she jumps off him to grab a candle, the vampire throws all caution out the window in his panic to get the queen pacified. He jumps on her, puts her in a chokehold, and uses his momentum to swing her body downward. With extreme pressure, he closes off bloodflow to her head, and eventually knocks her unconscious.

Before she loses all consciousness, however, she hears a familiar bird-like screech...

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You awaken in a cell. You see another cell opposite to yours, containing Yunikki.
You feel absolutely awful. You can hardly even stand! You're covered in blood, and your clothing's in tatters.
Looks like you didn't come out on top.
Above the injuries, though, you feel... Wrong. Your fangs feel a bit longer, and your body a little heavier. and your pedipalps...
They're a lot thinner than they were before, almost back to how they were before they turned hollow.
The cell is sparse, to say the least. There's a torch next to the bars, giving light to both your cell and Yunikki's. There's a small cot here, a bed for people that aren't driders. You could probably reach the torch, but then what?

Rest.
You're exhausted. You need to build up some strength.

Find a way to escape, regardless.
The lock doesn't look too strong. It's rusty. Not to mention, there has to be a jailor at some point.

Try to wake up Yunikki.
See if she can do anything. She might need the rest too, though...

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It was probably a bad idea to trust on pure strength on 15 hp.

Devastator · « **Reply #1355 on:** January 01, 2018, 07:01:12 pm »

Lets make contact with our little dragon, and since we're in a cell with bars instead of a room with a sealed door, we should be able to raise vermin that it hunts. We can then map out an escape route. That's also not physical action, so we should be able to heal up.

omada · « **Reply #1356 on:** January 01, 2018, 07:18:41 pm »

Hmm, yes it was, but it was a hell of an party, even if we lose, everyone involved will regret and remenber this day till it's last breath

As devastator said, but scan the area with soul vision

Devastator · « **Reply #1357 on:** January 01, 2018, 07:22:43 pm »

Plus that's another servant of the vampire down.

omada · « **Reply #1358 on:** January 01, 2018, 07:31:00 pm »

But right now we have to play extremely defensively again theundead bugs can make nice infections on the torn skin of his mercenaries, what about an alchemist waking up with a beetle tearing stuff inside her?

And well, the corruption... come on Alexia weren't you hearing all that "Don't drink his blood" stuff? that's why we decided to eat alchemist flesh

RAM · « **Reply #1359 on:** January 01, 2018, 08:41:05 pm »

Okay, massive panic-stations are here. We were on one corruption a day, possibly less if we were cautions, but our progress to total corruption just doubled. And Vampy likely knows exactly how corruption enhances someone, and will thus have a fair idea what to expect from a corrupted Alexia now. Not to mention that we have lost the convenient stash of incendiary materials that used to loiter around Vampy, we won't be seeing that precious cloak again. Also Yunikki now has to cope with seeing us get so messed up over what happened to her. And the alchemist is going to be a lot more caution around us...

The good news is... well the hellborn won't be hunting our allies outside anymore... The alchemist might be dead, almost certainly out of commission for a couple of days and refraining from field-trips with their reduced arsenal, so their supplies might be a bit lacking. Thief-girl attacked us during our rampage, might score them some points, but they will probably look to assassinate us soon if our corruption shows. The prison cell might be easier to escape, but the dungeons are probably less so, and it is easier to mess with us here, not to mention the lack of windows.

We can either play dead, being unresponsive might buy us some time, but that will likely get Yunikki retasked into research and combat instead of being used to motivate us...

We could try to break out before anyone finds out we are awake. Gettign some insects into the locks might work. There can only be so many ways that they can move, and something actually inside ought to help, but they likely lack the strength to unlock it... Alexia might be able to brute-force the lock into loosening the bolt. We could try something silly with bedsheets/spidersilk and leverage to pull the lock form its socket or the door-hinges off of their moorings. Or we could pray to Cathung? If we pledge ourselves to a year of extolling proper door-hinge maintenance then we might get a miracle if these hinges aren't being properly maintained.

Maybe we could set a trap? We can spin a silk line and attach it to a piece of cot to throw it into Yunikki's cell, then throw a second to stick to the first and pull it back. Once we havea loop we have something that we can pull on, so if someone gets caught on it then we can pull them into reach...

Also we have to be prepared for bloodlust. We gained a lot of corruption... Yunikki is probably too toxic to be tasty, but being toxic doesn't always mean it won't look delicious...

Spin up some thread and try to fold it into a message. "Bad day. Half vamp. In jail." And give it to our lizard to hang outside and under our former windowsill.

omada · « **Reply #1360 on:** January 01, 2018, 09:33:25 pm »

Running right now won't be the greatest of the ideas, 7 hp might restrain us somehow, and they have thralls and traps on the way

DolosusDoleus · « **Reply #1361 on:** January 01, 2018, 09:50:13 pm »

Guess I’ll just be the first one to suggest to consult the time of eternal darkness that we still have for some reason.

Liquefied Spleens · « **Reply #1362 on:** January 02, 2018, 05:53:58 pm »

It was kind of a bad day for your little lizard. Not only did he finally have enough bugs to present in a pile, which took quite a bit of work to begin with, he had to drag them all to your room first. But then, when he gets there, he suddenly gets the nagging feeling that you've gone coocoo again. And then, after a little while longer, he finds that you need the bugs at a different location.
Past the guards.
On the complete opposite side of the castle.
It took a lot of carrying, and your familiar has enough sense to be sassy. At the very least, he's not very open about it, partially because it has very little to be expressive with and prefers to just hang around in the background like a lizard. Ultimately, multiple hours were spent carrying a small amount of bugs to you, and you just seemed content with reading a stupid book!
Honestly.
The headpat made it all worth it though. Familiars are suckers for that.

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Resting up for a while proved to be a decent choice. You won't be healing up from all your injuries just yet, but it did get rid of that pounding headache you had. You also got a confirmation that there IS a jailer with a ring of keys around his belt. He looks like a thrall, a weedy little guy for all intents and purposes. Most likely, he doesn't get out much. You'll try to take him down at a later point, through, when you don't feel like a stiff breeze will tear you in two. Yunikki remained fast asleep for the hours you took it easy (and looked at the ever-growing pile of dead bugs.). you looked through the book a little, to pass the time. You found some interesting information on something called a "horror".
There are only personal notes on the creature, and a summoning ritual. A small note has been added saying to only attempt in a safe environment.
As for the explanation, it seemed a bit colorful.

Oh, the horror. The horror. (the writing is shakey and presses deep in the pages, as if written in rage.)
A behemoth of hatred incarnate! What manner of creature is that? A ton of flesh and sinew wielding muscles thick as ropes strung unto claws that could crush stone and sever metal as though it were threshed wheat. Crushing, cutting. The walls shook with each step it took.
Oh, the HORROR!! An abomination... Its physiology remarkably abstract, no real organs or anything! It shouldn't work, but it did!! And the mouths. Those gnashing scythes of teeth. I tell you, it existed ONLY to EAT!! To consume! To gnaw! To bite! To DEVOUR!!

Haha! Eyes? Rot their eyes. Their staring sees through you soul like looking through a window. And the lids: festooned with tiny, hook-like teeth that gape and gnash.
It doesn't make sense... No anatomy would form like that, but. it has!!
Was it natural? How could it be?
Oh unholy beast. Thou must be killed, lest you corrupt my world!!
Have at thee. HAVE AT THEE!

The writing is becoming harder to read, shaky. You notice small spatters of old blood on the page, blackened and ancient. As you look through the notes around it, you also notice some peculiar claims. Flintlocks being a common thing for a human, for one. Dismissing dwarves and elves as frivolities, flights of fancy from a primitive culture that "tried to explain the unexplainables".
You also find a few remains of detailed pictures. You can hardly tell the shape of the creature anymore, the drawing has faded with time, even as the writing remained ever so well-kept. After leafing through some more insane ramblings from the same person that made most of these, you find a signature alongside a date:
Maximillian Riovas: 1760 AD
...That date is impossible. The current calender places you at 1086. And what the hell does AD refer to?
You feel as though this writing is even more ancient than you thought. Whether that's a natural hunch, or the book trying to tell you something isn't exactly clear.
You find the final writing of Maximillian after a few pages describing how to kill the creatures (using spells that are impossible, and the use of flintlocks the equivalent of eyes. Hardly useful.)

They have no eyes...
But the CAN see, I tell you!!
No eyes...no! No eyes at all... but you can feel it LOOKING at you!!
It stares through you like looking through empty air, and you can feel it
raking your innnards with their "touch"
The shiver of their senses combing your bowels through empty space...!
Oh horribleness!
The writing seems to trail off entirely after that. But you see a faint picture of something else. Something crablike. You suspect you'll find it in another copy of this book.
You see splotches in the pages, still wet to the touch.

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Devastator · « **Reply #1363 on:** January 02, 2018, 06:07:37 pm »

Distribute our insects, and pat our familiar some, to find a proper escape route and any supplies we can manage. We also want to see if we can alter something to be able to pick locks. The familiar has done good today, and we can work on flying our way out of here.

RAM · « **Reply #1364 on:** January 02, 2018, 10:50:08 pm »

Try to channel Deathbolt through Oral Fixation.
Try to replicate our familiar's ability to produce something that looks like flame using what appears to be nothing but necromantic energy.
Try to make a zombie ant/weevil/aphid/whatever and use it to look inside the lock. Maybe we can learn enough to make a beetle grow a (probably fragile) key as a tail...
Ask the book if it knows anything about mental recovery from trauma.
Consider taking the keys and just leaving them out without using them. It seems like even Vampy wouldn't be quite this inept.A thrall of all things? With an obvious keyring? That has got to be deliberate. Right?

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Author Topic: Web of Life: A Drider's Adventure (Ended) (Read 185940 times)

Puppyguard

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RAM

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Devastator

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RAM

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Liquefied Spleens

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Devastator

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omada

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Devastator

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omada

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RAM

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omada

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DolosusDoleus

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Liquefied Spleens

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