Once outside, you run. As fast as your poor legs can carry, which isn't nearly at your usual speeds. You know that, as a drider, you are unreasonably fast. It makes sense when you look at how fast a spider is if you were to catch one out in the open. The second they want to move, they move FAST. So, even when you're note exactly at your best, you still move quite fast. The average human sprinter (without magical enhancements of any kind) would be outpaced by you after a while. Of course, you still don't feel too hot. Your legs soon begin to throb in pain, a hollow, "hungry" sort of feeling. You need to replenish your fluids properly, over the course of a few days or even weeks. The transfusion potion helped to get you moving.
Speaking of potions. Your anesthetics are running out. Soon enough, your hook-wounds begin to sting ever so slowly. You hardly know where you're going, and your children cannot help you in this regard. You have a faint idea of where the forest is, they don't. You repeat a mantra to yourself, winded and injured.
Get to the forest. Get to my friends. Get to the forest, get to my friends.Your children hold on tight, their little legs giving you a small beacon of comfort in the all-consuming pain that soon spreads through your body. You're pushing yourself too hard, but it's this or death. You can't let up for even a second or you're DEAD.
Worse. Your children would be dead too.
(
Restraint points are not spent on this. When it comes to pushing yourself physically, it's not needed, but it WOULD be needed if you needed to restrain your instincts or do something that would deliberately harm your body, like pulling out a knife out of your shoulder to use as a weapon.)
You hope you're not leaving too much of a trail. You just can't both run fast and cover your tracks, and you're not too good at it regardless. You pass by the castle again, from a distance. While it's risky, it's the only way to get closer to the forest again. You see that there is a siege underway! The gate must be on fire, and even the stone walls are affected by the flames, either covered in oil or perhaps the reinforcements and trash on the walls has caught fire. Flames lick into the night's sky, casting an orange glow around the castle. You can't slow down.
The exhaustion is getting worse. Your vision is blurry, and the edges seem to darken. But you keep going for just a little longer, the forest is in sight. Just a few more minutes, and you and your children will be safe.
Suddenly, you hear a roar coming from the castle. Even from this distance? you twist to it, and see a massive shape jump from the tallest tower. It's eyes glow red, smoke and shadows seem to spill from the bat-like figure.
Is that the vampire?!
Through the smoke and fire, he comes crashing down on the attackers, and disappears back into the flames. A creature of pure rage and evil, that's what it is!
You chide yourself for stopping, and keep on going, the exhaustion catching up to you even more now that you stoodstill for a moment. You feel every part of you screaming in protest, and when you finally cross the threshold into the forest you allow yourself to stop running. Tears drip from your eyes, your teeth are clenched, but you've made it. Whatever's going on at the castle, it provided enough of a distraction. You stumble through the forest, leaning on the trees, desperately clawing to get air in your lungs again. You have never been this tired in your life!
You can hardly see anymore... Just a dark tunnel, trees blending into eachother, until you suddenly hear a deep barking voice!
HALT! Who are you? Step into the light or you will be shot!I-I'm...*hhh* S-sydney. Aesti *Grk* You have to stop just to breathe a little more. You've gone completely blind in your exhaustion and panic!
Step into the light!C-Can't see... You cough. You feel a burning sensation inside you, and you cough up some mucus that seems to flay you on the inside.
Stop, you bumbling idiot, that's Sydney! The one we told you about!You suddenly feel small, warm hands around yours. You've never been happier to hear Eveline's voice before. You even allow yourself to crack a smile before collapsing outright.
When you wake up again, you're at a bonfire. The camp looks nothing like how your left it. It looks like an honest to god army camp now, filled with tents and cut down trees. Even practicing ranges and a medical tent. When you look behind you, you see Eveline hard at work, alongside a nun dressed in a white habit with a red cross on the hood. They're hard at work with medicinal herbs and the like.
Good god, look at what they did to her... they just strung her up by some hooks or something...Spot on... You say, weakly. You feel your children under your hair. Good, they stayed hidden.
Oh, good, you're up. Look, most of the camp is gone for now, but most of our friends are still here... Including the other Sydney, by the way. She told me you sacrificed yourself so she could escape with Yunikki. Considering Yunikki's state, I can see why you'd want her out of there.How is she doing?...We've been keeping her into a medical coma, for now. The stress on her body looked like it was going to kill her if she didn't rest.If I may, miss? The nun says, you assume she's Arania.
I have some... bad news. The crusaders did not look kindly upon her... condition. If it wasn't for her earlier history and unwilling change, they would have killed her outright. Instead...What? Y-you didn't let me enter her tent. I thought you said it was safer. What did they do?!Arania looks around her, seemingly fearful of somebody listening in.
Now that they're gone, I can tell you. They marked her. The mark of the abomination... I've been trying to stop the injury from getting infected, but I don't think.Eveline jumps up and runs to the tent marked with a cross in a panicked frenzy. You were about to do the same, but you feel a sharp stabbing pain as you try to move your legs.
You hear some murmuring in the tent, clouded by the distance and the tentflap, however, you can't hear anything. Eventually, you see Eveline leave again, tears in her eyes and looking absolutely FURIOUS. You've rarely ever seen a truly angry kobolt, and there is something primal in their anger. Teeth bared, a constant low growl, and their fingers flexed ever so slighty, perfect for clawing. Sucy follows right after her, surprisingly. Was she already in there?
I can't believe you! You KNEW about this and didn't warn me!?If I did, you would have flipped out at the crusaders. No need to get our allies in a tizzy. How does it look!?It's... IT'S AWFUL! They burned an "A" on her face! She... She'll never be able to recover from this! She was already nearly insane, this will... She's going to... Slowly, her anger seems to disappear. She begins to slack, and eventually just starts crying.
Sucy, clearly uncomfortable by the show of emotions, walks to wards you, leaving Eveline behind.
I'm... Sucy beings to speak. She looks like she's trying to force up a hairball with how hard it is.
I'm sorry I didn't stop them. Yunikki seemed... She seemed... principled? And nice. I think. She looks uncomfortable to the point that she looks ready to start running, but she eventually sits down next to you and pulls out her own alchemical kit.
Eveline? Please. There's nothing to be done about it for now, please help me take care of your friend. She's in deep pain, I can feel it.Eveline closes her eyes, takes a deep breath and walks towards you. She begins working on your back legs. With three healers (or one healer and two general purpose alchemists) you rapidly start feeling a lot better.
Miss? What drove you to push yourself so hard? Your body was close to outright giving out when you came here! If you want to walk within two days, you'll probably need a stimulant... Goodness, look at this! Tissue damage. And ALL your wounds have opened again. Eveline? Could you give her a transfusion potion? You can use one of mine, over here. After about an hour of medical care, you feel a lot better. Arania wasn't lying, however, you don't feel like you're able to get back up right now. They keep the stimulant they talked about close to you, though. Just in case.
As you lay there, other people came from their patrols. Meandra was the first to come by, and she practically screamed when she saw you, uncontained relief and giddiness that you're safe and sound (kind of). She hugged you straight away, and only Sucy had the heart to tell her about Yunikki. She quickly went to go see, but seemed unperturbed. In her words:
Nothing a little make-up and some hair won't cover. I can take care of her, no troubles!She is just painfully optimistic, sometimes.
The one person you really didn't expect was the witch-hunter. He was surprisingly amicable, considering he didn't really know you too well. He didn't spend a lot of time on smalltalk, however. He begins sharpening swords by the fire. There's a fairly large collection of them nearby, and a larger collection of cleaned and sharpened ones lay to the right of the witch-hunter. Seems he's also a decent weaponsmith, at least when it comes to taking care of weapons.
Finally, you see the thief again, Sette. You did hear she escaped...
She doesn't stick around long, though, only saying that she's glad you escaped. She's on guard duty, apparently. But before she leaves, you hear something similar to the flapping of wings. It sounds large, the wings of a hurricane. Out of the shadows comes a massive, smoking, bat-like creature. It twists and cracsk back into a humanoid shape before spotting you with glowing red eyes.
SYYYDNEEEYYYY!!! bellowed the vampire.
The whole camp stands up, at the ready, and you look at the screaming figure. He looks... burnt. Burns cover his whole body, blackened tendrils of destroyed flesh and deep, bleeding gouges elsewhere. Any human would have died from those injuries, but here he stands, breathing heavily at the edge of camp.
He begins to charge.
Protect me!Forcing yourself now is likely to kill you! Command your friends to effectively take him down! You have 20 mana remaining (looks like he took care of your zombies, as well)Stimulant. Let's go, tough guy!You'll finish this yourself. Your allies will help, of course, and you will join them.Stimulant. Run!You need to get out of here. As long as he's focused on you, your friends can likely attack as you stay away.µ
Basic Stats
Level: 10
HP: 15/40 (crippled!
Poison stings: 0/1
Restraint 3/3
Mana: 20/60 (20 invested)
Stress: 15/70
Corruption: 6/10
Thirst: Sated
Children:
Firstborn Son 3/5 (crippled)
Firstborn Daughter 6/6
Items and equipment
Equipment:
Patient's gown.
Items:
First Tome of Eternal Darkness
Stashed away:
Spare clothing (x13)
Fancy clothing
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.
Control Undead: Allows you to attempt to control an undead that doesn't belong to you. (mana cost of 3 per second, unmastered)
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
None. Rest in peace, dragonbro.
Skills:
Broodmother: Once per day, you can sting something to create spiderlings, which are large, clever spiders that adore you by default. Your instincts cause you to be VERY protective of them.
Crossbow usage: Novice
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