Topic: Web of Life: A Drider's Adventure (Ended) (Read 185837 times)

RAM · « **Reply #1695 on:** March 19, 2018, 05:22:18 pm »

If they talk about sacred swords or something, then we ought consider pointing out that a bunch of sacred swords were just murdered, and we need a sword to go stop it from happening more, and to get revenge and all of that...

Also we need to get the word out. There must be someone out there who dislikes the prospect of an insane end-of-the-world cult that has a rapidly-building army of things that are as strong and tough as a rhinoceros without sacrificing much grace. We need to go wipe them out now, but we also need to know that the cavalry is coming...

Liquefied Spleens · « **Reply #1696 on:** March 19, 2018, 05:35:12 pm »

YOU! Give me a damned sword!
What? No! These are our swords, they carry great value for us!
Really now? Great. and your life, got a greater value for that? Because if I don't go in that tunnel and unscrew that situation, we're ALL going to die! And that's if we're LUCKY! Go get some help too, alright!?
Fuck you!
You give the man a withering stare, something that's a lot more effective now you have two functioning eyes again. As you remove the safety glove off your claw, you keep looking at him. You pick up the sword lying next to him, and turn to the cave, not even giving him another word of attention.
He seems unwilling to contest your theft, though he seemed deeply insulted. You hand the sword to Hal as you reload your revolver. It takes a little fiddling, some shaking to even get the casing out of the cylinder. Then you put in a fresh bullet, and shove the cylinders back in. You grab the stolen sword again and start moving. Still, none of the Ronin contest you.
You make a mental note of the amount of bullets you have left. You've got exactly 13 bullets left (you must have used this gun during the rave, you had far more than that...). You doubt you'll only have to deal with 13 monsters, though... At least you've got a sword, but you need a shield. Perhaps...
This is something you haven't been able to do in a long while.

You point to the corpse on the ground, and a small purple lightning bolt zaps from your finger to the corpse. You added a little flair, there, but what harm is there in looking good? It might be your last chance...
The headless corpse rises, and somehow squeals in a pig-like manner, despite being little more than a lower jaw. Then again, it making pig noises didn't make sense to begin with, considering they're badly put together pieces of a human face. Most likely, it's just spooky stuff rather than any kind of biological explanation. Regardless of how weird that thing is, though, you at least have a solid meat-shield ahead of you. You send it in first as your companions prepare their weapons. Hal, gets two smaller crossbows at the ready, clearly intent on getting quantity over quality. Yunikki loosens some of her chains, to hold as a weapon. She also gains a fearsome expression. Sucy isn't really preparing much, she just walks ahead with the same lack of interest as always. You pretend not to notice that she picked up a piece of pigman skull, though. She's always ready, you know that much.
You take a deep breath as you enter the threshold. To calm yourself, you take twenty dollars out of a ruined pocket of your zombie pigman.
Refunds aren't usually this grisly.
The tunnel looks like it's already been worked on. You see tracks along the middle, although they're clearly unfinished. You also see that the stone has been smoothed out along the side as well, but you can already see the telltale signs of grisly slaughter. You see a massive bloodstain now that you're far enough inside that it's getting a bit harder to see. Sucy pulls out some flashpowder and puts it in a small round flask, before adding some liquid you don't recognize. Instantly, the flask lights up tremendously with a wonderful blue light!
Hm. Luminescent mushrooms are a clear success. Does anybody have a stick and some string?
To everybody's collective shock, Hal actually DOES have that on him. And a very wilted and moldy carrot. Apparently, he had a donkey for a time and decided it'd be funny to complete the look before selling the beast. You can't really read that guy, he seems to be all serious until you look into it a little further and BAM, he's doing something absurd. You decide to just laugh for now, though. Truth be told you're kind of nervous at fighting the eldritch again. At least bullets are still quite effective.
If only you had more than 13 of those.

The makeshift torch helps a lot. You can see a few corpses in the distance. You keep your stolen sword at the ready as you all step closer. When you come close enough to identify them, though, you see that they're rather unusual. Mushrooms cover them completely, in a way that gives you unpleasant reminder of the sewer outing with Anatoli. You see some kind of spores in the air, motes of dust reflecting light quite clearly. Hal is quick to hand out rags to tie around the mouth.
These things should help out against this kind of thing. But don't linger too long, or the spores will attach themselves to the rag.
How do you...
I fought a LOT of wizards. Mushroom traps were popular among the Wicca and Baba Yaga types.
Keep moving. I want these things DEAD!
The corpses look riddled with bullets. Fresh, too... Perhaps there are survivors after all. Although it does raise the question what killed the courier so close to the entrance. That bloodstain could only have been him. Suddenly, you hear a scream from Yunikki! When you look over, she's completely covered in grey, clay-like humanoids, clawing and covering her more and more as she struggles to get out of the mass! You can't risk your sword, you might kill her! But...
You start clawing at the edges of this strange mass of clay, using both hands. Your new robotic claw makes quick work of the creature, and eventually Yuniki manages to struggle her way out of it! She pushes the creature over to her arms, and slams it down on the ground where it splashes into a thick puddle of goop. Almost instantly, it reforms itself into humanoid figures, with the hint of face. you see indentations where the eyes should be, and their cheekbones stick out far enough to give it a distincly alien look.
Cave-crawlers!? These ones look wrong, though, their usually pale complexion is marred with strange orange splotches, like burn scars, and the creature keeps reforming into figures trying to scream.
Alas, they have no mouth.

Back up. Sucy says, in her usual even-tempered tone of voice. Then, she pours a bottle of large white crystals over the creature. In a surprising display of brutality, the creature quickly begins to melt, showing it's internal organs shortly before that too seems to just evaporate entirely.
Damn! What'd you use?
Table salt. Things looked to be mostly water. Seems like they don't like salt, in that case.
What was that thing, anyway?
Cave-crawler. They're not usually aggressive, or this twisted. I guess it got corrupted or something.
Disgusting...
We should keep moving. And watch the ceilings.
The party does so. Fortunately, you don't find any more of the crawlers along the way, though the silence is honestly more unnerving than you'd like. It's the time that things are quiet that are always the worst. Nobody wants to WAIT for an ambush.
Unfortunately, it seems you don't have to wait long. You hear some kind of gibbering in the distance, like people are trying to make words but their brain doesn't seem to follow. The start of a word just devolves into screeching or groaning. You can't see where it's coming from, they're outside of the lantern's range.

Unfortunately, the reverse isn't quite true. The screaming and roaring quickly begins to escalate, and you hear more than a dozen people rapidly approaching. When they come out, you grip the stolen katana with both hands. They look like dwarves, dressed like construction workers, and a couple of Ronin are thrown in as well. They have a look of pure rage to them, and their eyes are bloodred. You see some kind of mushroom growing on the sides of their head, as well. Your pigman is quickly overwhelmed by three of them at once, getting knocked on his back and forced to just use its hands to fight. Meanwhile, the horde runs at the rest of your party!
You strike the first one down with a solid hit, cutting deeply. The katana wobbles dangerously, but holds. It's damned light... You quickly move to slice at two others. The first one falls to the side, but the second one keeps going despite the grisly wound. You grab him with both hands, the katana clattering to the ground. With some added force from your augmented hand, you tear out a chunk of flesh like one would tear it off a well-cooked rabbit. You follow up by jamming your hand right inside the creature's ribcage and pulling out. It falls back, gurgling in pain. Hal has taken down four others before they could reach him, and he's currently fighting off a final one with his bare hands. Sucy has kept her part of the horde off her entirely by creating a small wall of fire, through which they eagerly ran through to get at her. The fire rapidly causes them to panic, however, and they run past her, screeching for a few seconds before suddenly expiring. You rush to Hal, but not before hearing Yunikki scream again!
There are almost ten of these zombies on her! You yell at Sucy to help Hal as you rush to her to help! Your blade takes one down, and you just pull another one off with as much strength as you can muster, but it's hardly a dent in the amount of zombies attacking her! She shoulder tosses the one on her back right into another, but the one behind her kicks against the back of her knee. You stab the one that did that, as Yunikki collapses. The blade you are using bends a little bit, but it comes out of the zombie like butter. A sudden bolt stops one of the zombies that got back up from Yunikki's throw, Hal having pulled out his larger crossbow, and you rip out the throat of the closest one, as you take a bad hit to your side. It was a badly controlled hit, more of a slap, but it held nothing back. Your pigman finally arrives on the scene, though, and starts tearing through the zombies. Their flesh parts like plasticine with every attack it does, showing off its hideous strength as it squeals. You grab another one of the zombies, and decapitate him with a quick squeeze of your claw. Eventually, you are all surrounded by corpses, thick black blood leaking out of the bodies. Yunikki is still on the ground, panting and groaning from the pain. She was kicked quite a few times.

God damn it! What the hell were those things?
Look at the mushrooms. They were controlled.
Yunikki!? Are you going to be all right?
I... I felt it!
Wha-
The BEAST! I-it wanted to come out, t-tear these things to shreds! I... I was so scared i was going to... going to...
She's hysterical, nearly crying. You haven't seen her this vulnerable since the castle.
It's fine, it's fine. Nothing happened, alright?
I-it... I feel like it... Like it wanted to hurt JUST them. If your pig didn't kill them, I would have... I would have let go! I-it felt GOOD. W-what do I do!?

Next time, let it happen.
Trust the instincts here. We could use something big and strong right now.

Don't let that happen.
We can't let that happen, at all. Take care of yourself, damn it.

Get out of here.
You should be able to make it back alone, right?
Right?

...
Let's just... keep moving.

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Egan_BW · « **Reply #1697 on:** March 19, 2018, 06:36:11 pm »

Giving into the corruption is always* the right choice.

*never

RAM · « **Reply #1698 on:** March 19, 2018, 07:57:55 pm »

Losing control is usually a bad idea. If you need to do it, then you ought to retreat, if you lose control, then you probably won't be inclined to retreat... If she turns into a monster, then she will be wearing armour and using a formal weapon as penance...

omada · « **Reply #1699 on:** March 19, 2018, 10:53:03 pm »

Tell her to relax, say how we many times hear Alexia asking to take control, but remember that the beast maybe isn't resistant to this corruption and it might not be that smart about this, if the sensation gets unbearable and the battle seens lost or almost impossible, let it go, if she wants we can tell her when it's a good or a bad time for that happens, and we promise to keep the beast in control after it

and about feeling good, maybe we can tell her about some stuff we feel as being a drider, or promise to tell her later

Maybe the corruption on her don't like the corruption of old gesty

Devastator · « **Reply #1700 on:** March 20, 2018, 01:23:48 am »

Yes.. but with conditions. Not 'when it gets bad' or 'when something vague happens.' Say that in order for it to do anything, you have to decide when, and you have to say a certain word, or do something exact and very specific. That way we can find out if the beast is truly uncontrollable, or can work if there is a firm hand, Yuniiki's, on the lever.

RAM · « **Reply #1701 on:** March 20, 2018, 03:45:52 am »

The important thing is Yunikki. So long as she keeps herself intact, the beast doesn't matter...

birdy51 · « **Reply #1702 on:** March 20, 2018, 07:43:49 am »

Take a second to calm both her and yourself down. She's not so far from you; only, in her case she's fighting a battle she can't lose.

omada · « **Reply #1703 on:** March 20, 2018, 07:50:33 am »

Can we see through our cat's eyes? does our cat's eyes see through the dark? use him to scout for us

and...

OUR CHILDREN, give them something to cover their faces I dunno, don't want little mushrooms hurting them.

Liquefied Spleens · « **Reply #1704 on:** March 21, 2018, 04:37:46 pm »

You HAVE to keep in control, at all times. Find a centre or something, anything to stop yourself from giving in to that!
But I... I-it hurts...
Who cares!? Fight through it, you've been through worse!
I... Yes. Yes, you're right!
With a sudden flash, Yunikki is engulfed in a sudden light, despite the darkness of the tunnels. Her wounds melt away, and when she rises there's a resolve there you haven't seen in a long time.
Thank you. I am indebted again, for showing me back to the light.
She throws off some of her chains, as well. She's still fairly covered in them, yes, but a few less chains is a big step in the right direction. She keeps her "attack chains", of course. You're not sure if it really was that easy, but you suspect what happened just now was a bit of crusader magic she just performed. Or it might just be paladin magic, even, you're not sure. Regardless if its origin, it had a very good effect on her. She's not slumping as much, too.
But, of course, one good thing isn't going to change the terrible situation you're still currently in.

You fortunately think of tearing off a small strip of cloth to protect your babies from the spores. They don't like the cloth much, but if the alternative is them dying you're not about to stop doing it. Your companions seem nervous about stopping here to protect your kids, so as soon as you're done they nearly start running. After a little more walking, you find a large collection of corpses, most of them bearing bullet wounds. Small holes, best you can tell, although some are torn to shreds. Most of these look like they were yet more mushroom zombies, although you find two more pigmen in the pile, and one bloody bag of bones. These pigman bear some recognizable clothing... Vvulf's men. You're not too glad to be seeing THEM again, to say the least. You almost reflexively shudder at the sight. You keep moving, regardless. Seems like your guess was right. The ritual WAS to create footsoldiers for the gestating god. But what does it NEED footsoldiers for? You really hope you'll find out what's even going on here before things go wrong. Well, even more wrong.
The tunnels are now officially without any sort of construction efforts. No more paths or railways, just rough rocks. The ceiling is quite a bit lower, as well. Still more than enough to allow comfortable travel, of course, but still quite a bit lower compared to the borderline superstructure that it was before. You keep on moving, raising the lantern higher, until you hear gunshots in the distance. You don't recognize the make, but you also hear high-pitched laughter mixed with the gunshots.
You only need a look at your companions before they go into a run towards the noise. Your lantern soon comes into range, and you see two people fighting off a group of... cultists!?
The very same cultists from the orc village are here as well! Their skull masks hide all but their mouths, most of them curled into a grimace as they die en masse.
Doesn't seem to stop them from coming, though.

Hal is quick to fire a bolt at one of the few that managed to sneak up on the figure firing his rifle. You can't quite make out who he is, but he looks human enough, and he's fighting cultists. Good enough for you. With your companions joining in, the last half dozen cultists realize how outmatched they are. They stop charging and start running. Hal and the marksman take them down without mercy, and you finish off one that was merely mostly dead with your sword. They're using the same old rusty claws, though they look a little bit sharper than the last ones. You won't be able to take down an army by yourself, in this case, but they're still mostly cannon fodder.
Well, you're the last one I expected to see here! Thank god you're here, Sydney! says the marksman. Without the haze of combat and bad lighting, you finally recognize Kai! It's strange to see him holding a gun, considering his arm, but he looks really ragged. Scars and fresh wounds litter his body, and he is wearing nothing on his torso. You still hear laughing nearby, but you greet Kai, first.
Good to see you, Kai. I expected you to be dead.
Hah! A fair assessment. But I'm made of sterner stuff. The Ronin that were with me perished very quickly, but I kept going. Though, I admit I would be dead without my new ally here. Say, Midas! How about you introduce yourself instead of cracking jokes!
The spider! The spider! She yet lives! says the fairly small man, wielding a sickle and dagger. Holy shit.
YOU SURVIVED!?
Did I? Or didn't I!? Hahahahaaaa.... Midas survived in that hellish realm. He ran and ran and ran and killed and dodged but he SURVIVED! The portal is his salvation! This tunnel, freedom! GLORIOUS WONDERFUL FREEDOM!
Odd man, isn't he? He found me as I was getting overrun. I think he might be a topsider, but I cant quite get a straight answer out of him. He plays a mean lute, at least.
I... I know this man.
Ah? From where?
I was his... commander. But that was nearly five years ago at this point. I never thought he'd be alive, not to mention that he was inside whatever dimension it is these bastards come from!
SO GLAD TO BE OUT OF THERE! HAHAHAHAHA.
He's not subtle, but he saved my bacon loads of times. Anyway, are you here for a rescue mission?

Yes.
Escort him to the exit as you explain his new bounty problem. They've fought enough, you'll handle this yourself.

Sort of.
Explain that you wanted to warn him of a bounty on his head. Send him in the direction of the exit, so he can get out of here.

No.
You're here to kill whatever it is that's causing the disturbances. Have Kai join up with you to help in that regard.

Other.

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Egan_BW · « **Reply #1705 on:** March 21, 2018, 05:05:57 pm »

Yes.
I mean, yes, shit's going down here. But that doesn't mean we should push in farther than we can handle. Our two new allies would be helpful here, but probably need some cooling down and resupply. So we should retreat, reorganize, then go back to hit whatever bullshit this is as hard as possible.

omada · « **Reply #1706 on:** March 21, 2018, 08:09:23 pm »

sort of

When we return we should return and make our allies get a bit of drider silk

Although I am still in for cleaning it completely, maybe the tunnel has other exits and delaying the mission will only let it spread further. So if it's the case we should keep going

RAM · « **Reply #1707 on:** March 22, 2018, 12:24:07 am »

Quote from: omada on March 21, 2018, 08:09:23 pm

drider silk

Oh glorious madness yes! That thing is a thing that must be done. Let's just hope our addiction treatment didn't have any negative effects on floss production... Which really shouldn't be a thing, because if we were going into enough detail to figure out what would happen then the addiction treatment update would have been very different...

And we really ought to get the police involved. Even if just to quarantine the place.

Take a peek at Midas' soul. It's never told us anything in the past, but springing a trap on a lost lieutenant is probably worth sacrificing a few dozen cultists in order to plant a mole, and we have never seen the body-horror process in reverse, but that doesn't mean it isn't possible. So it could be a trap. On the other hand, he might be criminally insane, possibly in a highly personal and lethal way. So just because he isn't an enemy doesn't make him safe, but a rescue is a rescue and getting him back into onto Team Alive would be a pretty feather in our cap, so let's try it! Check Kai's soul too, you never know. And Yunikki's for that matter, who knows what crusader magic does, it is probably all racial purity or something... And our children, their souls gotta be cute, right? And check up on Sucy and Hal and the thing on the other side of the wall while we are at it. Sould-scans for everyone!!!

Devastator · « **Reply #1708 on:** March 22, 2018, 04:17:41 am »

No. It might be a trap, but we don't have time to dick about with it. And we're a fair bit stronger than the last time when we had to run away. This time we might be able to do something.. the AU Sydney managed to do so, after all, and I don't want to see this city destroyed. The other guys have also been fighting for a long time... the enemy would have already hit back if he was so capable.

crazyabe · « **Reply #1709 on:** March 22, 2018, 03:29:51 pm »

Not quite, we came here to tell him about a rather new bounty on his head from a group of old and violent driders, but we were not here to save him specifically. Beyond that we have a score to settle with the guys he's suppose to be killing off and wouldn't mind helping him out with a situation involving nearly literally endless hoards.

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Author Topic: Web of Life: A Drider's Adventure (Ended) (Read 185837 times)

RAM

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Liquefied Spleens

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Egan_BW

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RAM

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omada

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Devastator

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RAM

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birdy51

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omada

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Liquefied Spleens

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Egan_BW

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omada

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RAM

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Devastator

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crazyabe

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