Topic: Web of Life: A Drider's Adventure (Ended) (Read 185838 times)

RAM · « **Reply #1680 on:** March 15, 2018, 05:14:25 am »

Finding Snip seems sound, it would be difficult to plot an assassination during a mission unless it is a trap mission, and it is awfully quick for the Ronin to have turned on the team that helped them.

omada · « **Reply #1681 on:** March 15, 2018, 03:02:31 pm »

Quote from: Liquefied Spleens on March 14, 2018, 04:44:23 pm

Rare among sentient driders. That slave traded is starting to push through in the second level.

When we finish the queen or whatever we do, let's visit level 2 and SMASH those slavers? We can get a bit of info about who is cloning us, and we can free our clones, or if they are too dumb make them follow us and do the right stuff

Liquefied Spleens · « **Reply #1682 on:** March 15, 2018, 03:08:01 pm »

Well, he agreed to meet me here. Where the hell is he?
Maybe they got him already?
Unlikely. That guy was paranoid as all hell, he wouldn't get caught by a back-up plan they probably didn't even send out yet.
Your group of companions looks around the abandoned alleyway, trying to find any clue of Snip's whereabouts. Sucy was able to contact him, giving him a warning about the drider assassins. He wanted to meet up with your group to "make sure". And, possibly, to join up for safety in numbers. While his performance in the Saints job was a little lacking, it wasn't for his lack of skill. You'll take him on, sure, if only to keep him safe. It doesn't affect you.
Suddenly, the closest dumpster starts making loud crackling sounds, before it descends into the less grating sound of radio static. Then, Snip's voice comes out of the box, amplified by the bin.
I'm surprised you all came. I was hoping I would only have to deal with ONE traitor. the noise echoes through the alleyway
What?
Quiet! One more word, and your little head turns into a fine pink mist. How long have you been with them!?
What the hell are you talking about!?
Stay out of this, human! I have enough ammo for all of you! This is just between me and Sydney, if that IS your real name!
Calm down! We came here to WARN you of the driders, why the hell would I be part of them!?
To lower my guard. Tell me, if you got kidnapped by this organisation, where'd that fancy new arm come from, eh? You didn't go to any of my buyers, yet here you are. Paid you in advance?
Oh dear god, no! I just... I... If I told you how I got this arm you wouldn't actually believe me. I just woke up with this after a rave.
More gangs, Sydney? Of course. You expected me not to trust you, eh? Made a back-up plan!?
That doesn't even make sense!
Yeah? Well! I didn't make it my age by being a fucking IDIOT! But fine! Maybe you got that arm from elsewhere. Then here's this question, if they collect every single drider, why the fuck did they only contact you after you did a job with me!?
We messed with their operations! It put a spotlight on me, and they decided they could turn me assassinating you into an initiation. I wasn't very interested in murdering two people that didn't do me wrong to play nice with a collection of literal psychopaths that would sooner toss me aside than to really help!
Why not go to the cops, then? Point out where the cave is? They could do a raid, stop the driders at the source. No need for dangerous meetings. You're trying to fucking TRICK me! WELL IT WON'T WORK! There's a bomb in this very fucking dumpster. I'm not even CLOSE to your location. I'm giving you TEN seconds to get out of here. If you really mean not to assassinate me, you will NOT look for me. If I see you even TRYING to find me, I will kill you before you know it.
Boy, he really IS paranoid, huh?
TEN!
You all start running, naturally. The alleyway is quite long, though, and you need to run across the wall to let everybody through. Meanwhile, Snip keeps counting down.
NINE!
EIGHT!
SEVEN!
SIX!
FIVE!
FOUR!
THREE!
Then the alleyway exploded.

You're all sprawled on the ground, just outside the alleyway. The blast was enough to throw all of you off your feet, but nobody is seriously hurt. A few bruises from the fall, but the worst is probably the ears. You're all suffering from a really bad case of tinnitus, the noise of the blast having nowhere to go in the narrow alleyway. The most dangerous part was probably the pieces of dumpster flying through the air, one of which embedded itself into a car.
It wasn't even sharp, and it's in by five inches. You're glad nobody got hit.
...Right. So Snip can take care of himself, that much is obvious. If he can't, well, I'm not inclined to forgive him for what he just did.
You don't SEEM angry.
On the outside, no, but I have around seven planned ways to murder him, which is around two more than the average.
Does that include us?
I have seventeen for you. You should be flattered, though! She looks at you with something approaching a genuine smile. You don't think she knows what a "kind" smile is, but she seems to have read a pamphlet about it once, based on what her face is trying to cobble together at the moment.
It's immensely unnerving.
Have a plan to kill everyone you meet, eh? I always found that to me more of a guideline than a rule. The polite and efficient parts, though, I keep those up.
No you don't. I heard you smacktalk the bunnies we hunted on our way here.
Hehehe, yeah...
Can we just GO now?

Turns out you can't help Snip. And maybe you also soured future relations with him by trying to help. You honestly forgot he was THAT paranoid

Try to find Kai
Well, back to the original plan, then.

Forget this, I'm going home.
If people are going to be like that, I'm just heading home and relaxing.

Go home and clean yourself out.
Kai can wait a day if you're going to him. Getting yourself cleaned up seems important. You don't want to get addiction troubles...

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There will be no update tomorrow. I won't have access to a computer for 20 hours.
Apologies

RAM · « **Reply #1683 on:** March 16, 2018, 06:13:20 am »

...
There must be a way to contact The Ronin with a... Telling a gang about a bounty might be a bad move, even if they are the token "honour before reason" group... But we could pass on a message that we have a message, and some sort of meeting point or something... And we can send Tom out with a more specific message, we might be looking for a reason to be in a different body, might even give us a new insight into familiar control or ~~astral~~ soul projection or something, maybe the black goop will help with the addiction removal...

Go home and take the pills, but try to send word to Kai without sending anyone valuable off into gangland with no escort. Can we hire a courier? They just have to wait outside the sewer with the pack of unstable people with swords then talk to the unhappy and heavily-armed person who emerges... ~~We could give a street-urchin 5 dollars for the gig...~~

The real question is, when do we switch to Alexia? She is the one who thought drugs and tattoos were a good idea afterall. We may have been neglecting her, but seriously, tattoos! See how her high-and-mightiness likes turbo-laxatives... Better see if we can muster an out-of-body experience first though. Not just to make some good come out of this, but to maintain at least a bit of "we are in this together" about the whole ordeal. The last thing that we need is outright hostility with ourselves. A general preference to "just not" opposed by the occasional Slaaneshi rave is all in good fun, but swearing oaths to "never release the evil" countered by learning how to sleepwalk with a bag of candy, a copy of "The life in a drider cult that you never knew you wanted" and an "impressionable youth" detector is not a good way to live...

Liquefied Spleens · « **Reply #1684 on:** March 17, 2018, 06:43:10 pm »

You managed to find a courier service for that part of the city. It was delightfully cheap, considering the job. It ended up costing you twenty bucks. Considering what it saves you, it's lovely. The courier was a handsome man, too, quite fit from all the running. Solid cheekbones, blue eyes, wavy black hair...
You wonder if he's a courier for the attention?
After that, there's the matter of the pills.

I REALLY want to do it, though.
Admittedly, how often does somebody GET the opportunity to give their inner demons the shits?
Yes, sure, whatever, but if you don't take these pills regularly throughout the night, you aren't going to get that stuff out of you. Not to mention, I'm already kind of taking a risk by giving you the bathroom to sweat it out in.
I won't wreck anything.
Alexia will.
In my experience, giving your inner demons names only makes them more persistent. It's worth it, though.
...How literal is that analogy? Hal asks, head cocked to the side.
None of your business, bolt.
Oh. That's terrifying. He deadpans. You feel like there is some real dread in there, but he seems to have decided to ignore it.
Is there like a tail-end where she needs to deal with it?
If you want her to feel the part where it feels GOOD, sure. So no. Go to the bathroom and live in misery for eight hours.
You do so. The door is closed, the window is shut and reinforced with shutters, you have a big ol' matress, a toilet and eight hours.
The first pill was uncomfortably large.

So, living in misery for eight hours could probably fill a short novella on its own. There's no secret about that, of course, people LOVE writing about misery and pretending that people care enough to read about it. Unfortunately, the people that decide what art is good and what art isn't are made up of old farts that haven't felt anything in years, other than the occasional illegal handjob they paid for(YOU figure out exactly HOW illegal). So they love anything that seems like it'd elicit strong emotions, and they don't have enough of a sense of humour or actual love of the arts to like anything that ends well. No, in this post-modern world we must all know how miserable it is to live inside this world. We need to know how many people feel ennui. "boohoo, I'm a best-selling author but I FEEL all ALONE. But I'm getting tons and tons of sex too, don't you worry, see? I'm writing in my books how many different genitalia I gyrated over. Aren't I a special boy?"
To some old fart, mentioning vagina's is just another way to suddenly feel that heart pump again, sending a couple neurons back from the brink of drying out completely and then they decide "THAS RIGHT N' PROPPA: A+ FOR MENTIONING A DICK GOING INSIDE SOMEWHERE."
People should be able to write and read what they wish, and it shouldn't be a necessity that everything is so damned miserable or uncomfortable. Things that are uncomfortable should have a payoff. You want to make people uncomfortable, then you write a horror story where something happens. Give people a reason to be disturbed that isn't "I'm reading this book". If something uncomfortable happens it should be uncomfortable for the character suffering through it. The storyline then deals with how they deal with that, how it changes them, how this part of the journey does or doesn't change them as people. If they are the instigators, have something, ANYTHING show that whatever act of depravity you're showing has meaning. The narrator is one of those things you can use, and if it's not at all useful to your story you just skip it. Perhaps, maybe even with the narrator giving an abstract rant about what is considered "proper".

TL;DR: Meaningless filth is frustrating to read and will probably win awards.
Also: This is why I gloss over the excrement-related activities of Sydney dealing with her cleansing.

The treatment were not worse than you feared. In fact, it seems you were pretty much on the money on what to expect, except for one thing: How did it turns to damned swelteringly HOT!? You've been sweating at a steady rate for the last four hours, to the point that your clothing was completely and utterly SOAKED. You finally decide to just remove the offending clothing and suffer on your mattress in minor silence. A minor groan escapes you every once in the while. The type they'd represent in a squiggled sort of away in a comic medium, where the word comes out of your mouth and just kinda twists and turns through the room as it just keeps on.

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After about three hours of misery, you were convinced that the sweat was the worst part of this whole thing, but after retching over the toilet bowl for about a full hour you found that the vomit is way worse. It's also still REALLY scary to see blood in there, even though it's still from the rave and whatever bender Alexia went on. You wonder why she eats that much. You don't feel hunger that often, it's just not plot-relevant most of the time.
After a while, though, all you're chucking up is the tap water you need to keep drinking so you don't die from dehydration. It's less than pleasant, to say the least.
And the stomach acid!
Maddening!

However, after eight grueling, noisy hours, you finally start feeling notacibly better. When Sucy said that you feel good at the end, she was lying through her teeth, though. It only feels good IN COMPARISON. You just return to relative normality. In retrospect, you wonder why you didn't switch to Alexia, despite the stress this undoubtably caused. Eventually, you decide on the explanation that this wasn't so much stress as it was extreme discomfort. Wrong kind of stress.
You'd switch if this was deliberate torture, if you had to guess. Right now, though, you just cry a little.
There's a knock on the door.
You're not audibly suffering anymore! I'm coming in in about an hour, and I'm bringing in your spawn. They've been very annoying!
Everything alright?
They love me, but I don't like that!
Awwww...Oh gods. You quickly jump back to the toilet to give your final oral expelling of bodily fluid a rest. Once that is finished, however, it's just riding out the last hour in boredom rather than misery.
"In boredom rather than misery" sounds like a good name for a bluegrass group.

You leave the bathroom, feeling...
Well, honestly, you have a splitting headache and feel like you've expelled your entire body weight in fluids and refilled it at about an equal rate. And that the narrator went off the fucking rails
Seriously, what the fuck even WAS this update?

Go to Kai now.
Nothing stopping you.

Go back to the driders.
"Infiltrate".

Go to the cops
"Infiltrate" with legal friends!

Go to the slaaneshi cultists and get angry.
Seriously, EIGHT HOURS OF MISERY. You're kinda pissed.

Just chill
This has been exhausting.

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Egan_BW · « **Reply #1685 on:** March 17, 2018, 07:23:44 pm »

Tell off the narrator for getting off-track.

RAM · « **Reply #1686 on:** March 17, 2018, 08:32:23 pm »

*sighs* now I want to do my rant on cultural misappropriation...

Go to Kai, death is kind of permanent, so better nip that in the bud. He probably knows much about the sort of assassins that they will hire to come after us, which will be useful information soon... Also remember to mention Snip's Snit. Clearly because driders are after him all driders are after him. This is especially important given that a species famous for its self-importance is going to come in person rather than hiring someone to do the leg-work and mingle with the filth for them... Honestly, why can't his paranoia extend to handling obscenely dangerous explosives, because obviously a civil conversation is far more dangerous than packing enough gunpowder to blow a hole through a city-wall into a suitcase... And of course you are totally going to make a real assassin give up on finding you by telling them you are on the far side of the city when you just finished describing exactly where you were going to shoot them...

Also, just in case it hasn't been made clear yet, Meandra's father should know that the driders were backing the group and may try again or something. Maybe with a classier group that causes fewer problems, but still, we removed the symptoms but only maybe removed the problem. Also, if they are sending assassins after the runners, then they might do the same for the people who hired them, who might be easy enough to track down given the gang's relatively small scope and the fact they were already hit for their biggest offences before we came onto the scene.
...
Maybe we could find some big-spenders who have a beef with the drider queen and get them to pool their resources to fund a hit on her that might actually succeed. Sort of like the underworld equivalent of organising a class-action suit against someone who doesn't have any single complainant with the resources to prosecute them... I mean, it is nice to think that we could go about our business without murdering a powerful independent drider who don't take no guff from nobody, but really, the odds are against it...

Devastator · « **Reply #1687 on:** March 17, 2018, 09:02:27 pm »

(Could always use a good rant in favor of cultural misappropriation. Segregation of ideas is a terrible thing.)

Go to Kai. Trying to round up some more spenders against the queen would be nice. Although, perhaps, we shouldn't be the ones doing so.. maybe the drider we freed?

omada · « **Reply #1688 on:** March 18, 2018, 11:07:36 am »

Quote from: Liquefied Spleens on March 17, 2018, 06:43:10 pm

Seriously, what the fuck even WAS this update?

The only thing I can say about it, is to joke that it was surely a shitty one

Liquefied Spleens · « **Reply #1689 on:** March 18, 2018, 03:13:09 pm »

Are you sure that you're up to running after Kai?
It wasn't restful, by any means, but I spent most of my time in that room sleeping... sort of. Things got really hazy. Thing is, I don't feel like I'm going to collapse any time soon.
Might be some of that drider physiology.
Nah, we get tired at about the same rate as you guys... apart from running, I suppose.
And the courier you sent?
Oh, it'll be fine. He knows that he needs to watch out if everything went right, and if not, it's a good thing we're going anyways, right?
This has been a busy few days here in the city...
Get used to it, things never calm down as long as there's a narrator.
Oh ha ha. I control the story here. Don't get sassy with me. Be glad I thought of giving you fresh clothes, eh? A vest and a shirt that just a tad too tight, probably (you got it a few years ago at the tower. The fabric is too nice to drop). You also put on a short skirt. Well, it would be short if you had human legs. As it stands you could go with just the shirt and it wouldn't be weird.

The journey to the cave that the Ronin are trying to clean out was surprisingly uneventful. It's a bit after rush hour, after all, nobody who works is out and about at this time. A few thugs, sure, but you have enough people with you to not be worth the effort. Once you enter Ronin-controlled territory, however, things grow a little more tense. Some of them recognize you, but there are plenty of people that seem exceedingly suspicious. you're still a fairly armed entourage, after all. Still, none of them make a move.
The tunnel is rather obvious, albeit kind of boring at first glance. It looks like a hole in the rock wall, little more. Although there are grooves along the walls inside, like a worm has been digging it. The sheer size of the tunnel is rather impressive, too. It's about ten meters up from down here to the ceiling! on the front, there's a large group of Ronin with their swords out. They look like they guarding the place, but not that actively. They mostly just talk to eachother with their blades over their shoulder. A guard notices you soon enough, and he hops down from the tire her was sitting on to talk to you;
Oy, halt! This tunnel's Ronin territo... He looks at Yunikki, covered in chains and looking like she steals away children in the night. The rest has been good for her, sure, but she's starting to look pale from being in dark places so often, these days.
Hm... Excuse my rudeness. Thank you for taking care of her, miss. At any rate, i don't think I can let you in without permission. This place is rather dangerous.
We're trying to find an associate you hired to help clean out the tunnels. He has a robot arm, black skin, called Kai. His life is in danger.
...Yeah, it certainly is. We sent him in to clean out the tunnels, but things are going wrong. They should have been back a day ago, and the monsters... They're not normal. We expected cave critters, not these things.
What kind of things are we talking about?
Pigmen. But not actual, normal beastrace people, I'm talking like, uh... Like.
A guy close by, still lounging on a piece of machinery, shouts: Like they got their meat rearranged into a pig face!
Hm, Midoru's right, that's about the short of it.
You feel a very recognizable, but no less horrible, feeling of dread at hearing that. Yunikki groans in something resembeling fear. You turn to your companions, your face having gone white.
Those are goons of the Gestating God... This is really, really bad news.
Not necessarily. I always wanted some samples of those things.
I... should probably veto that.
I mean, you can TRY.
Look, disregarding that, we need to check this place out to see if we can't stop this. If we're lucky, maybe Kai will already be working on just that.
...What do you think happened to the courier?

Suddenly, you hear an awful screeching noise, like a pig getting slaughtered. As a fat, bloated corpse with a pig's face stomps out of the shadows wielding a cleaver so ungodly massive and rusty it's a miracle he can lift it at all. The handle is made up of a bone. The Ronin are quick to react, and surround the rampaging animal with their swords. They're too nervous to attack all at once, which the pig takes advantage of! He swings his cleaver to the side in a massive, unstoppable arc! The Ronin all try to block the hunk of flesh and metal, but their thin katana's shatter instantly! Some are thrown back, two are cut in half instantly, the weight of the blade enough to keep it going. The pig's swing goes wide, however, and the blade clanks against the floor as it struggles to raise it again.
You aren't quite so nervous as to wait. You rush forward as fast as your legs can carry you, and pierce the pig's spine with the butterfly knife you stole from that thief. It squeals loudly, and drops the cleaver. Realizing you didn't bring a sword, you pull out your revolver and put it against the creature's skull as it keeps screaming.
A single shot was all it took, and the creature's skull explodes into a gooey mess.
Your breathing starts to calm. That all took less than five seconds. After a little while, you realize this bloated creature is wearing the courier's outfit. You see pieces of black hair among the skull fragments spread around...
Seems you found the courier, too.
H-Holy crap. I... I can't believe that happened! Thank you, stranger. We are indebted to you. He says, as he bows slightly, eyes closed. He then quickly moves to the injured men. Some have suffered wounds from the exploding swords, shards of metal embedded in their flesh. Hal was quick to lend a couple of bandages so they can get to a doctor before bleeding out. He also stops the Ronin from pulling out the bits of metal.
Now, of course, you have a dilemma.

Go in. NOW.
You are NOT getting this eldritch bullshittery to reach its goal. You are going in and murdering things.

Go in, after preparing a little more.
You need a sword, and preferably some type of board as well.

Just nab a damned sword and GO
These people have better things to worry about than a stolen sword.

Get some people involved
The ronin should help, if they realize the problem. Maybe you can get the police, instead?

Get the police, get the gangs, get everyone
It's probably the time to get really friendly

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birdy51 · « **Reply #1690 on:** March 18, 2018, 03:39:46 pm »

Get them to get you a sword. You won't be able to trust it too much in a fight, but you need something sharp. As for a shield... How about a quick resurrection of that pig guy? You can't be sure what might happen, but at least you'll have another arm and if that cleaver did that much damage... Well. It might be handy to have someone who can still carry it.

RAM · « **Reply #1691 on:** March 18, 2018, 05:16:19 pm »

The courier did, apparently, fail to deliver your message. Recover your fee.

Egan_BW · « **Reply #1692 on:** March 18, 2018, 07:49:16 pm »

Reload that one bullet.
Ahem. Never know when you'll get assaulted by exactly six pigmen.

Anyway, who the hell needs a sword? Alexia killed a pretty amazing number of people without one. Just take off the glove~

Devastator · « **Reply #1693 on:** March 18, 2018, 09:01:15 pm »

Just nab a sword and go. We have a gun for the other hand, after all.

omada · « **Reply #1694 on:** March 19, 2018, 12:45:57 pm »

Just yell to someone "Give me a sword exactly NOW, talk with your boss and reinforce this exit unless you want eldritch beings to overrun this fucking city, maybe you should get friends (and don't tell any drider we are here), and if someone wants to play the hero you can come with us, I am unfortunately a bit used to this bullshit"

Be prepared, kai is probably dead and there will be a pig with a fucking cannon on his arms

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Author Topic: Web of Life: A Drider's Adventure (Ended) (Read 185838 times)

RAM

Re: Web of Life: A Drider's Adventure

omada

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Liquefied Spleens

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RAM

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Liquefied Spleens

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Egan_BW

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RAM

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Devastator

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omada

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Liquefied Spleens

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birdy51

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RAM

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Egan_BW

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Devastator

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omada

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