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[Liquefied Spleens]

You know, this is a lot easier topside. You say, arms crossed and getting quite annoyed. You've been looking all over town for some place to pawn off these stones, but it has been beyond difficult. You think you might have struck gold, however.
Well, topside savages are a bit easier to impress with big glowy rocks, let me tell you. But I am a businessman, and if I say that I'm going to THOROUGHLY check these mysterious stones of yours, I damn well will. The jeweller says. He's currently looking at the rubies using a magnifying glass attached to his head, and he's quite persistent. He's been at it for at least half an hour, now.
The cut is old, but in fine shape. Some signs of scarring by the side, possibly from rolling around on a stone floor. Yes, this seems to be legit, but I have one little question.
The jeweller turns to you with clear suspicion is his eyes. The microtraces of parchment places the origin of these diamonds back 23 years ago during the robbery of the Ze-Khul-Na bank. Many victims, you know. And 20 years just happens to be juuust long enough for any investigation to officially end.
You see him groping at something below the counter.
Wouldn't happen to know something about this robbery, would you?
I was literally a newborn 23 years ago. What the hell are you on about?
...What?
That robbery is as old as I essentially am. Unless you mean to imply that the topside girl made a quick visit as a newborn to steal three gems that were about as big as she was then?
... Proof! Give me proof that you.
You throw your identification papers in front of him. Age, history, the fact that you're a topsider, all of it.
He looks at it for a while, and after an extended period sighs.
Nnngh. I suppose that you didn't steal them. Fine. Where did you get them?
Treasury of the drider gangs. I was there when the queen died. Had a hand in it.
Aaah. I was right, in that case. This IS stolen good. But, alright. I'll pay you a fair price. 250 per stone.
Holy... Deal!
Hm. Good. Here's your money.
He places a stack of bills on the counter, apparently just having 750 bucks available on a moment's notice. Then again, he does deal with some very pricey stuff. You walk out of the store looking rather chuffed with yourself. This is a lot of money, right here!

Finding out where to buy some gun documentation was... surprisingly hard. As it turns out, they don't sell it to anybody that comes from topside. Hell, they don't sell it to anybody who has FAMILY topside. Looks like there's a bit more difficulty present than first thought. Still, you aren't about to give up that easy. You have a lot of money, and more importantly, you know a guy who knows a guy. After some trying you eventually get your gun documentation, though it really only covers the basics. How to make a bullet, for one, and the basic principle of the basic guns here. Because you're in a situation where you have no other options, this ended up costing you 400 bucks. four fat ones, right there, for some papers. The  better than flintlocks, at least. You get to work on copying what you can into the tome, thought the ink doesn't take as well as you're used to. If you had to guess, it doesn't much care for this "normal" information. But it takes, after some persistence. You... have a distinct impression that you're gonna have to hurry the hell up when you get topside if you want to take it to paper. You call the book a cock, at least, but that only seemed to energize it a little more.
Sassed by paper. What a day.

Getting that revolver back together was... harder than predicted. You were never much of a tinkerer, and while you've got a guideline, you can't quite figure out the bits and bobs. Eventually, you give up. And, to be honest, you've got places to be. It's time to say goodbye, and to get some money before you leave. There wasn't much to get together, but you packed your clothes at least. You give Meandra a hug, but the goodbyes were... sparse. She just looked tired. Adventured out, you suppose. It's hard to see her like this, considering she once managed to hold off an entire horde of flesheating vampires with plants and sheer guts, but now she's... Well.
She just got older. That's the best way to say it, really. Older. She knows where her life is going and is going to take it that direction, and you're not the best friend for that purpose. She barely knew the others, too. She never got along super-great with Sucy, and Hal is just a bit too new. Yunikki was always a tad distant from Meandra, their personalities just didn't quite click.
You suddenly realize that you kind of miss Eveline. It's strange, you hardly thought of her since she left the group, but here you are, thinking of her. Maybe it's because, with Meandra gone, you've kind of reduced your total number of normal friends to zero. What with Yunikki having gone crazy, Hal being an undead abomination in the making, Sucy being...Sucy, and the scientist lady that you can't call a friend in so far as she's a... "potentially Definitely dangerous asset".
Well, things are going to get weird, in short.

The elevators seemed a bit more important than last time. The two driders you captures are waiting there, handcuffed and having two legs bound together at a time. They look rather calm, all things considered, just shooting some banter back and forth. It stops when they see you, though. The elevator guard (VERY heavily armed and armored) asks for your ID, and after some more paperwork, allows you to leave.

After this, there is no going back. You need an insider to be allowed back inside. Do you have everything before the final guard check? They will take EVERYTHING that doesn't belong topside.

Basic Stats

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Level: 12
HP: 20/55
Stress: 15/70
Poison stings: 1/1
Restraint 3/3
Mana: 30/50
Corruption: 5/10
Thirst: Sated

Children
Adam 7/7
Alice 8/8
Cactus 10/10

Items and equipment

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Items:
515 bucks
Four stimpacks
Syringer
Magic Cookbook.
shoddily reassembled Handcannon
Equipment:
Two MP40 submachine guns (full magazines)
3 additional magazines
Bone scimitar
First Tome of Eternal Darkness
D-VA armor

Skills and spells

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

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 14 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 2 per second, unmastered)
Minion Vision: Allows you to see what a minion sees. The minion must have eyes.
Disintegrate undead: Delete a corpse you currently control.
Animate Piece: Allows you to animate just a piece of dead tissue. It requires your constant attention, and cannot act independently. (Drains 0 mana)
Graft: Allows you to use dead tissue as a replacement limb. Requires a lot of mana. (1 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. (9 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. (9 mana)
Stitch: allows you to close a wound and stop bleeding as fast as you can stitch. Costs zero 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 (4 mana)
Smoke Cloud: Breathe out harmless but thick smoke. (1 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 (1 mana)
Doombolt: A more powerful version of the above (4 Mana)
Pinworks: You can apply spells into a bone spike, relative to the size of the victim. You can also make traps if you use an offensive spell.

Companions
Tom(cat)
Shite (Pigeon)

Skills:
Claws: Your arm has been replaced with a powerful claw. This is BOUND to you, and cannot be removed.
Pride: You have a mind-controlling leech in your arm. This is so mindblowingly unethical/illegal it would put you in "kill on sight" status with a lot of organisations/people.
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
Gun usage: Novice
Oral Fixation: Can cast spells spells from the mouth.
Draining: Can drain blood using fangs.
Major experience in blocking and swordplay.
Climber
Crafty: Bolas
Cooking skill: Excellent 
Corpse Cutting: Quite Decent. 
Animal handling: inexperienced.
Necromantic knowledge
Soul Sniffer

[Egan_BW]

...I don't suppose that includes the paper money we have? Does that stuff even have value topside? Why did we sell the valuables for money just BEFORE going to a place that uses different money?

[Liquefied Spleens]

I swear to god, if you keep extending this I am going to see if I can crack a skull with my fucking OFF-HAND. You have been here for FOUR HOURS. You have been touched in ways NOBODY should be touched. Your hair is standing on end, and you feel a particular twitch in your eye
We need to be very thorough, miss. If anything from the lower levels gets out, that could crack your little funtime romp here in pieces. You went to level 3, right? Imagine what those guns could do to a society that's still at the level that it is? Though, I admit, it might be useful for them now...
What the hell do you mean by-_{Stop poking those parts, it is EXTREMELY uncomfortable}- What do you mean?
You've been down there a while, I suppose. There's a plague going about. Matter of fact, we're not letting anybody in anymore. Risk of infection is too damn high.
...What!?
Not my jurisdiction. Alright, you're clean. Go join up with the rest in that room, please, we're going to scan you.
No, really, what did you mean with-
Two burly dwarves usher you along in an empty metal room, with odd grating above you. You find the rest of your party here, along with the extra driders. They're all still wearing their restraints, apart from the scientist. You'll have to look into that later. She's smirking, too. Most likely because everybody is naked and holding their clothing in front of their unmentionables. Apart from Sucy, who is just leaning against the cold metal wall with her clothes on the floor. She looks a little angry, for some reason. She notices your look pretty much instantly, though.
Took my bombs. And it's not like we have anything nobody didn't see before.
I haven't, you're very pret- one of the ex-guards says. He is instantly smacked by his friend.
Not. Now. he says through his teeth.
But I... Sorry.
Thank you, Stu.
See that? She remembers my name!
I am going to die here. I am going to get an aneurysm and keel over dead. The only benefit to it all is that I'll be taking everything around me with me.
Good to know
Oh like you wouldn't survive.

A voice interrupts any further attempts at talking. It's coming from some kind of speaker, but you can't quite figure out where.
The scan is complete. Please leave the room in an orderly fashion after putting on your clothing and prepare to show your ID. Failure to comply will be remedied with electro-shocks.
How nice of them. You all quickly get to work to redressing yourself. You never felt more relieved at wearing clothing again. And you have been in some fucked up situations, lest we forget. A small, fat guy is standing at the ready, and starts explaining a few things. In a very dry, sort of bored voice. You instantly dislike him.
Alright, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome back to the surface. Now, that paper money of yours is getting refunded to you, but we can't give that in actual value. You get 300 gold pieces in return, and we would like to make it very clear that we are following procedure here. Complaining about the money gives us the right to take it away and leave you with nothing. Is that clear? Right. We're also giving you a selection of blood vials, due to some current generous social benefits. Also, due to your willingness to escort prisoners, we were ordered to give you a bonus sum of 200 gold coins. Now, final few notes: Due to outside situations, we were ordered to give all humans, dwarves, orcs, goblins and further members of the sentient alliance a complimentary gas mask and a further warning that complete covering is suggested. Do not touch any infected. Do not touch any fluids from the infected. Do not allow strangers to come near. Anybody who is unwilling to identify themselves when approaching this border will be shot on sight. Anybody who gives reasonable cause to raise suspicion of infection will be shot on sight. Any box must be checked, and may or may not be burned... Those are some of the warnings. but I'll be honest to you all. Don't come back until this plague is well and bloody OVER. We wish you happy trails. Good luck.

A gate is slowly opening behind you, and the wonderful sight of the night's sky opens up before you. Good god, how you missed the damned moon...
A plague? People will want security. This is an opportunity.
Shush.
There's nearly nobody out here. It's been about a month or so since you were last here, but you're pretty sure this place was positively covered in people. Now, only a collection of dwarves are around, desperately trying to get back in the city. There is one human out in the crowd, though. He walks up to your party to talk, with a confident step. He's using a large stick to walk, and despite his great age, his impressive height makes sure that he doesn't lose anything in impressiveness.
Not many people leaving this place. Didn't know about the plague?
No, not really. What do you know? Does it even have a name?
They're calling it The Plague, for short. Gives you an idea of how much of a problem it is, eh? The Plague... It's the biggest one, why bother specifying. It's the biggest plague that is and ever will be... I came here from the tower, in the hopes of getting help. They wouldn't even let me in, of course, though they sent out a politician to talk over loudspeaker. That's as close to a concession as I'm likely to get, but I'll keep trying.
I didn't ask for your story, you know. What IS this plague?
A transformative one. We don't know how it happened, but a poor girl was affected by... something. We never gathered what it was, our doctors stopped reporting in. Then came the reports of a dragon.
A... What.
Dragons are impossible. As crazy as our world gets, there are limits.
That, my friend, is no longer the case. Can't you feel it? That tingle in the air? The residual magic is getting much higher than before. Not to mention the effect of the plague. It transforms people into... well, anything. Anything that isn't human, dwarf, orc or whatever. It affects the mind, too. People affected by it don't die, but...
He stares off into the distance, clearly distraught.
The person they were is never coming back. They, as a person, are dead. But, I suppose some of you are in luck. It only affects those that were part of the sentient alliance. Driders are unaffected, as are kobolts, ratlings, and whatever else. Still, be careful. Not all of the infectees are peaceful. Some turn violent. And your companions. Wrap up tight, would you? Thick clothing helps. The ravens back at the tower are pretty safe, if you can imitate that you'd be fine.
Ravens?
Order of the blighted beak, most likely. Their attire DOES work pretty well.
Err, yes. Right. Well, I still have a job to do here. Remember, stay on the road, and keep away from the infected. You'll know them when you see them.

You all wander away from the downright absurdly helpful man. And now get left with one final question.
...We can just go, right?
Y-yeah. No need to... do anything drastic. Just let us go.

What will you do with the two drider guards, and, after that, what direction will you go?

Go north, towards your old village.
If there's a plague going around, you have to see if they're fine or not. Besides, your country was the best way to enter the desert, where you'll find both your mother and Hal's friend.

Head east
Don't waste time, get moving to the eastern lands. You have Hal's friend to find (or your mother, but you'll need more information)

Head WAY north
Magic plague? The tower could probably use any help it can get. If it's enough to spook people to this extent....

Other

Basic Stats

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Level: 12
HP: 30/55
Stress: 25/70
Poison stings: 1/1
Restraint 3/3
Mana: 50/50
Corruption: 5/10
Thirst: Sated

Children
Adam 7/7
Alice 8/8
Cactus 10/10

Items and equipment

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Items:
450 gold coins
14 outfits
1 fancy outfit
Magic Cookbook.
10 rations
Equipment:
Bone scimitar
First Tome of Eternal Darkness
D-VA armor

Skills and spells

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

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 14 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 2 per second, unmastered)
Minion Vision: Allows you to see what a minion sees. The minion must have eyes.
Disintegrate undead: Delete a corpse you currently control.
Animate Piece: Allows you to animate just a piece of dead tissue. It requires your constant attention, and cannot act independently. (Drains 0 mana)
Graft: Allows you to use dead tissue as a replacement limb. Requires a lot of mana. (1 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. (9 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. (9 mana)
Stitch: allows you to close a wound and stop bleeding as fast as you can stitch. Costs zero 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 (4 mana)
Smoke Cloud: Breathe out harmless but thick smoke. (1 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 (1 mana)
Doombolt: A more powerful version of the above (4 Mana)
Pinworks: You can apply spells into a bone spike, relative to the size of the victim. You can also make traps if you use an offensive spell.

Companions
Tom(cat)
Shite (Pigeon)

Skills:
Claws: Your arm has been replaced with a powerful claw. This is BOUND to you, and cannot be removed.
Pride: You have a mind-controlling leech in your arm. This is so mindblowingly unethical/illegal it would put you in "kill on sight" status with a lot of organisations/people.
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
Gun usage: Novice
Oral Fixation: Can cast spells spells from the mouth.
Draining: Can drain blood using fangs.
Major experience in blocking and swordplay.
Climber
Crafty: Bolas
Cooking skill: Excellent 
Corpse Cutting: Quite Decent. 
Animal handling: inexperienced.
Necromantic knowledge
Soul Sniffer

Level up next update.

[Devastator]

Wherever our alternate is, as we need to kill someone.  And I'd bet that getting to the middle of this will show some idiot with a mad god or something causing this.

[Egan_BW]

Uh, no fucking clue mate. What is the moon, anyways? Why's the ceiling so fucking high up here?

I joined around the time that we murderificated that orky guy with the energy cannon, so at this point I've got no clue where we are or what we're doing, sorry.

[omada]

Ok, got a little nervous here

I am pretty sure that what caused the plague was that weird thing they were requesting a drider, I don't know how going east is going to help Hal, I think you just slipped some info by accident. My first bet would be to return to the old tower that it would help hal

How long taking a detour in our village and/or the eveline's village will take from us?

we KNOW that shit got the best of the village thanks to the vampire talking about our father, the only reason to go there is to take some quality bolas left behind or whatever

my bet is still going to the orc tower (if we are going to stop we ONLY stop on the eveline land because we might want to give them info about our special weapons and maybe)

and when arriviving there and say that we are willing to help against the plague specially if this mission needs us east, and that if someone can help us with our "hal problem"

We can use this moment to make weapons or organize an excursion to the west with refugees

everyone dressed like ravens sure

About the driders, release them, say that if they want danger/mutations and maybe-glory they should follow us but they should not try to fuck us, the mutation they might get from the challenge won't be worth it. if they want a peaceful life they can go anywhere, let's hope we meet them again and share a cup of tea, if we see them working as raiders or something REALLY bad we will make they want to be executed in dwarven laws

if they desire to follow us( I doubt) they should tell what they're good at besides don't shutting their mouth, and we will put them on background conveniently like half of the characters on our personal entourage in that raider gang

what's another plague in our pile of problems?

[Devastator]

We can't ever retire Sydney as empress of the world or something if the world keeps changing into a more dangerous form every month or so.

[omada]

We are saving so much people on the way that a worship in our name as some godess of friendship/kindness/revenge is about to get INEVITABLE

[Devastator]

Gotta stop it first, as a world with nothing mundane is pretty boring, really.

[Liquefied Spleens]

Uh, no fucking clue mate. What is the moon, anyways? Why's the ceiling so fucking high up here?

I joined around the time that we murderificated that orky guy with the energy cannon, so at this point I've got no clue where we are or what we're doing, sorry.

Alright, I'll save you 100 pages or so of story and try to give you a short version of things.
So, first things first. Sydney here was born topside, out of an egg in a boiling hot valley in the central country of this continent. This isn't very good for her, considering driders are born albinos before their pigmentation sets in and they don't die from the sun. But this is normal for driders, who don't do any parenting for their children. Now, good news, you got adopted by a fella name Alibert, who recently lost his family and thus undertook the arduous journey of taking care of a drider. Fortunately, you took to working in an inn, and driders grow up at about the same rate as humans before slowing WAY down in the aging department.
Anyway, then you got stabbed, got better, spent a few more years being normal, and then a massive bandit raid (we're talking literal hundreds of bandits here) attacked the town. You and the guards defended it, and even got most of the people out safely through an escape tunnel. However, the dude that stabbed you years ago was pretty pissy about getting shit for it, so you ended up in a duel. This would have been the guy's big break into becoming a lieutenant, but you killed him and tore a chunk out of him to eat (because driders have a tendency for that). This impressed the bandit leader, who gave you the choice of joining up. For the interest of becoming better at things, you joined up.
This proved to be a mistake. You were instantly placed as a lieutenant and thus had some eldritch paint placed on you in a very uncomfortable scene.

You gathered up a band of merry misfits, and picked up Yunikki there. She was a normal, oriental sassy muscly lady back then. Wore a ton of armor, too. Some things happen, and you developed a second personality after participating in a raid on the town due to overwhelming stress. That's the non-glowy text talking every once in a while. When she takes full control of Sydney, she talks like this. Much, much later, she got the name Alexia, but that's beside the point. Anyhow, after taking down the town, the bandit leader (Vvulf) stopped the literal army of bandits and performed The ritual. If you've ever read Berserk, well, this was the equivalent of The Eclipse, except the demons didn't appear to eat everybody, the everybody turned into said demons. Many turned into pigmen, some tore off their flesh to become angry skeletons, and most importantly, people with the lieutenant paint on them were transformed into terrifying eldritch abominations that are probably in constant pain and kinda reflect their sins? I don't know, I kinda winged it for all but three of them. Anyhow, turns out driders are partially immune to eldritch magic, but because Sydney is controlled by people that don't always make the best choices, you didn't remove all of the paint and were left with a longstanding brand on your back (which has been fucked with for a long time and is recently gone.).
There were a few survivors of it all. There was this undercover paladin that had protection on him, and because you gave Yunikki some of your drider silk to reinforce her armor, she managed to fight her way out of there as well. That silk is like a sponge for eldritch-y shit. Anyhow, paladin suggested you head north to talk about counter-acting some of this stuff, but you completely forgot in the meantime. Also of note, you developed necromancy around that time because an exceptionally old lady did some weird shit. The necromancy was a random roll out of 20 possibilities, you guys ended up with the rarest kind of magic because dice gods. isn't that neato?

You went back to raid the bandit camp and ended up fighting a totem pole of meat. A sort of half-lieutenant, really. Consider it a tutorial boss.
Anyhow, because those fellas are dark souls bosses without the bonfires, you ended up nearly dead, but your dad finally finds you after looking for you for a really long time, along with your uncle.
You head to a nearby city, get healed by the heir from Darkest Dungeon, who then leaves to do shit in a hamlet somewhere (this is where that RTD game happened) then you  do a lot of things that don't matter that much, though you did stomp out a cult to the eldritch shit invading the world and meet up with Meandra, who was way more energetic back then. You then got kidnapped and rescued a lot of weird guys, but this is also where you met Eveline, a kobolt alchemist. She ends up your best friend. For reference, kobolts are dog-like in this game, and she looked like the mayor's assistant in animal crossing. Anyhow, you then move to the Tower, which is basically university hogwarts. after a short journey and finding ANOTHER eldritch abomination cult (though these guys were nice, if fishy), you end up in a small town that is soon overrun with zombie vampire mosquito mutants. After a somewhat bad decision, you ended up as the hive queen of this stuff. Your allies improvise a cure and you get carted off to the tower to GET LEARNED. Said cure wasn't perfect, though, and you ended up with some vampirism, but it's incredibly easy to take care of. You don't need much blood and animals are good enough. And you ate a lot of meat, anyhow.
You do an education, and the headmaster was a pillar man. What else is there to be said, really, you learned some shit whatever.

Then you leave, make a quick stop over at Eveline, and have a big ol' arc where you fight Dio, mostly socially because he's a creep and driders are attractive apparently. This is where you meet up with Hal, who was just attracted by the sound of a guerilla war against a ludicrously powerful vampire (dude fights wizards and shit for a living, alright, it's what he does.). After about 50 pages of weird shit that ended up turning Yunikki into a werewolf-crow thing and shattered her sanity and you with a case of minor alternative vampirism. Also you met up with an old school buddy that joined up with the secret service, essentially, and then you left behind your cutie-patootie kobolt friend because you made this vampire detour because this is like her hometown and she wanted to delete that vampire problem. Anyhow, then you moved Meandra to the dwarf cities (which is where she came from in the first place, she went to hogwarts to GET LEARNED on botany so she could help the company she's the heir to.

You arrive in the dwarven cities, discover that they're like WAY ahead in technology the lower you go (I'll be straight with you, if you go all the way down it's full-on cyberpunk 2077 levels of fuck you in tech). You end up in level three, get a job in removing some gangsters that were getting people in trouble, and there you fought a guy with a cannon. You're with us from there, but i'm on a roll anyhow.
You do some more unimportant stuff, fight ANOTHER big ol' case of the fuck-you's with an eldritch invasion, fight a lieutenant (whose design was done by a contest winner named TankKit), end up with the worst case of masturbation arm in the history of everything, end up in trouble with a drider mafia, make the drider mafia get in trouble with you, destroy it, and now you're outside and wondering what the fuck that round block of cheese in the sky is. (spoilers: it's the moon).

Boom, recapped. Anybody got something else important to add?

Audiobook version here. I don't know why i did it, most likely it just amused me.

[Egan_BW]

That's the short version? Okay.

Let's uh, go do whatever to help Hal? I like Hal. He's good at shooting things and is more sane than most people.

Oh yeah! These drider idiots. Honestly I'm not sure if they're capable of surviving out here on their own. Maybe we aught to drag them along so that they don't get themselves killed to dire stupidity.

[omada]

Let's add that our protagonist got PTSD from the ritual and had to deal with it most of time, but now she seems hardened enough, damn,maybe we can say that her aggression towards what is wrong and protection of her babies is her coping mechanism?

And that we got free education because we were part of the crimsom curse, that vampirism situation with giant mosquitoes

Whatever we do, I got another way to exploit the cookbook, he said some stuff about those elderitch cult back then, maybe it can just say something like "if you wanna eat this shit only eat the liver using [insert material here] to remove risk of getting the plague" and we can discover a component that affect the plague

[Liquefied Spleens]

If I forgot to give a reason as to why Hal's friend is eastern, then I did, indeed, make a mistake in amount of information. Whatever, information gathering is boring anyway, a little birdie told you.

...Alright, you two!
The guards tense up. One is already closing his eyes, prepared for the worst. The other guy has his eyes wide open, apparently ready to bolt.
Do what you want. Really. You did what we asked, and now you get to live here. It's alright. You say. You even let a soft tone enter your voice. After the initial shock, they seem way more at ease.
Oh thank god.
Shit. I guess you DID have reason to be optimistic.
Wait, when you say "what we want" does that mean we can join up wi-*Ow!* The slap was quick, precise, and with clear irritation. Quite the duo those two.
We are NOT following somebody like this. We are going to find a CALM. He slaps his companion again.  NORMAL. *slap* SPOT. *slap*
...Alright, alright. Can't be too hard, right? I mean, who wouldn't want two guards immune to whatever this plague stuff is? And driders, to boot! I bet we're older than all these mayflies.
Our organisation got taken down by a twenty-something. Don't get cocky. Let's just go, alright? Oh, uhh... Thanks for... letting us. Y'know.
He means thanks.
Right. Take care, you two. If we see you doing anything unsavory, we'll have you killed.
See? Still want to join up with that?
Maybe wait until they're out of earshot before you say that.

They wander off, possibly to never be seen again. You'll just have to discover where your travels take you. You, however, have quite the ideas on your plate. Regardless of what you're choosing, you're going north, first of all. The dwarven lands are a desert, after all. The road is still quite easy to follow, and it'll take only a few hours before you find solid ground under your feet again. (good thing too, your legs are sinking away in the sand. Tiny contact area...). While you try to decide what you're going to do, the rest of the party starts talking. Well, actually, "Francine" starts talking first, the dridery bitch.
A plague, eh? Aren't you twice as glad you took me along? I'm the best one there is when it comes to those, you know.
Considering you MADE a few? I'd suppose so. You don't look at her as you walk.
Well, that would make her an unparalleled expert. We are dealing with a continent-wide spread, if the tower and the dwarves are scared of it. We should try to find an enclave first, get some proper protection. These gas masks aren't quite enough, if I understood that wizard right.
When we get back on the main roads, we'll just go to a nearby city.... Maybe even go to my old town. With luck, they're part of a quarantine of sorts? Or we could head to the capitol.... Ah, we'll just see what we find, yes?
If we find one of the plagued, we should get a sample. Getting to work should be quick. The one good thing about that border check is that they gave me back all my materials, and then some.
Yes! Of course... Now, we don't know how extensive that is, and we can hardly keep it in a safe place. The brain would be perfect, maybe we can find a willing donor? transmutation is quite terrifying to most, I guarantee there are suicides.
Yunikki, please backhand her.
She does so. It's a satisfying thwack.
Why are you doing this? I'm right!
The glee in your voice, darling. That's what irked me.
Be that as it may, we could use samples.
Yes. If I could get some materials, I could do some real good things for you, you know.
And when are you fixing me?
We'll start when we set up camp. Sucy, would you lend me some of those syringes, then? You understand the scientific method, do you?
Eh, probably.

You travel for quite a time, but now you are at a crossroads.

You can continue north, and make a visit to your village.
It's a few days travel from here. You're bound to find some things along the way...

You can continue north, and go to the capitol.
You've never been there, but there are bound to be things going on that could help. If nothing else, you'll get some more information.

You can head WAY north, to the tower.
It'll take a long while, and you'll find a few hamlets and other communities along the way, if things haven't changed too much.

Head east.
Get going to the east, and see where that takes you. Hal said he had a feeling she was east, so why not try? You could also make a detour for your mother. You... think you remember where she is, sort of. At least, according to the reports.

Head West
Eveline must be up to something, especially in this plague business. It'll take a week or more for that detour, but maybe it's worth it?

Other?
It's a big world. Might find something odd.


Level up!
Select a perk!
Encroaching growth.: your body has grown more accepting of the arm. It grows a bit farther, allowing you to carry much bigger things in that arm without issue.
Muscle up: Just plain old exercise can't beat this! You grow larger and stronger, but not as dramatically as size up
Toothy grin: Bigger teeth and increased jaw strength, for that intimidation bonus.
Fertile: You get two egg-layings per day. Simple stuff, that
Spider up!: Your children become more powerful, and bigger. They won't be able to hide in your hair anymore, nor will they ever pass as normal-sized spiders.
Alpha breed: Some children are just a bit better. You get to choose one of your kids to become a bigger, smarter and all-round better version of their siblings.
Glowy backhands.: your demon arm has an increase in magical resonance. You can apply a little mana to punch even harder with it.
Adaptation: the increased magic in the air has not gone unnoticed. You regenerate mana much, much quicker.
Astral projection: maybe it's the increased magic,  maybe you just figured something out, but you can make a ghostly image of yourself appear over a relatively long distance (20 meters). It might be a bit tough to get used to, though.
Silence the voices: Alexia gives combat advice, and you don't take kindly to it. But, regardless, you gain a massive melee boost at the cost of something unspecific.
Fire fiend: Your arm has a particular resonance with fire. You gain the ability to blast it out of the worm-hole. Don't worry, it doesn't mind. Also, this goes together well with punching with said arm.
Blood twitch: The more blood you are currently covered in, the faster you move. Chalk it up to vampirism.

Basic Stats

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Level: 12

Corruption: 5/10
Thirst: Sated

Children
Adam 7/7
Alice 8/8
Cactus 10/10

Items and equipment

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Items:
450 gold coins
14 outfits
1 fancy outfit
Magic Cookbook.
10 rations
Equipment:
Bone scimitar
First Tome of Eternal Darkness
D-VA armor

Skills and spells

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

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 14 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 2 per second, unmastered)
Minion Vision: Allows you to see what a minion sees. The minion must have eyes.
Disintegrate undead: Delete a corpse you currently control.
Animate Piece: Allows you to animate just a piece of dead tissue. It requires your constant attention, and cannot act independently. (Drains 0 mana)
Graft: Allows you to use dead tissue as a replacement limb. Requires a lot of mana. (1 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. (9 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. (9 mana)
Stitch: allows you to close a wound and stop bleeding as fast as you can stitch. Costs zero 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 (4 mana)
Smoke Cloud: Breathe out harmless but thick smoke. (1 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 (1 mana)
Doombolt: A more powerful version of the above (4 Mana)
Pinworks: You can apply spells into a bone spike, relative to the size of the victim. You can also make traps if you use an offensive spell.

Companions
Tom(cat)
Shite (Pigeon)

Skills:
Claws: Your arm has been replaced with a powerful claw. This is BOUND to you, and cannot be removed.
Pride: You have a mind-controlling leech in your arm. This is so mindblowingly unethical/illegal it would put you in "kill on sight" status with a lot of organisations/people.
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
Gun usage: Novice
Oral Fixation: Can cast spells spells from the mouth.
Draining: Can drain blood using fangs.
Major experience in blocking and swordplay.
Climber
Crafty: Bolas
Cooking skill: Excellent 
Corpse Cutting: Quite Decent. 
Animal handling: inexperienced.
Necromantic knowledge
Soul Sniffer

You ended up at a three-way stalemate. Doing the vote again.

[Egan_BW]

East.
Visiting a big city without proper sanitation during a plague? Nah, no thanks, I'm good.

Encroaching Growth. We're gonna get a greatsword~
Come on, we're way too big now to be using a dinky little scimitar or something. Gotta capitalize on that bulk.

[crazyabe]

...The first three upgrades are fairly simple, with the first being somewhat negative...
...Then we have the three that affect our children- the last one being outright worthless if we lose the one kid that gets it...
...Next we have the magic set, the first one would be useful to an extent, but of debatable effectiveness outside of combat, the second would be VERY good with our mana problems, and the third could be interesting for searching out things, but would clearly drive us less sane...
...Finally we have the Unique ones, the first could be VERY useful, as a controlled queen berzerk could be good, having the arm suddenly become fire attuned would be interesting, and could lead to more interesting upgrades down the line, that last one would be VERY good for the state of our other half with how much blood she gets on herself, but could lead to interesting issues when we cure the vampirism...

I Vote for heading west and getting "Adaptation"