Topic: Web of Life: A Drider's Adventure (Ended) (Read 188448 times)

Egan_BW · « **Reply #2505 on:** October 05, 2018, 06:03:42 pm »

"Hold still so I can cure you."
Split his head open.

((He is going to die anyway, may as well deliver it now, swiftly, along with a pleasant lie.))

Devastator · « **Reply #2506 on:** October 05, 2018, 07:01:27 pm »

Capture and interrogate, but kill him when he turns and suffers a personality change. Take samples now and as he changes, along with samples from the others.

Capture with silk. We can't hold a prisoner forever, particluarly since we don't know what he's changing into. Could be a giant velociraptor tomorrow, for instance. Capture, interrogate, and kill once he turns.

I'm also okay with one of spiderlings or eating, whichever seems less insane.

birdy51 · « **Reply #2507 on:** October 05, 2018, 09:19:36 pm »

I mean, we could eat him. Eating him is always an option.

omada · « **Reply #2508 on:** October 05, 2018, 09:37:08 pm »

Quote from: Devastator on October 05, 2018, 07:01:27 pm

Capture and interrogate, but kill him when he turns and suffers a personality change. Take samples now and as he changes, along with samples from the others.

Capture with silk. We can't hold a prisoner forever, particluarly since we don't know what he's changing into. Could be a giant velociraptor tomorrow, for instance. Capture, interrogate, and kill once he turns.

+1 and make babies with a corpse, I mean, our spiderlings, not that thing you were thinking, but keep an eye because they might turn hostile

Don't forget to not let him nor our new babies near humans because this shit can pass

Liquefied Spleens · « **Reply #2509 on:** October 08, 2018, 01:09:23 pm »

You're coming with us. You say, as you start producing silk to tie him up. He doesn't really fight back as you start tying his hands together, and you move on to attaching his arms to his torso to be sure. His legs follow, and while he keeps rambling (often about a dragon of some sorts?) he still doesn't really fight back. Once he's stuck to your satisfaction, you tell Fran to get the sample now, as he's changing. You barely finished your sentence before the syringe is in the transforming man's thigh, draining a large amount of blood. It looks... off.
Black blood? Hm, must be some sort of necrosis. Not enough oxygen... Or the new forms just take in less. Well, just more things to discover, later.
Get some samples from the dead ones outside. I'll start getting this guy ready for transport.
Nnnghh, why you tie up? Ransom. Not ransom i bandit I...
The creature barfs on himself, a disgusting green goo that smells distinctly of rotten eggs. You roll your eyes at the thought of carrying that thing on your back, but if you plan on getting some shit done that's the way it goes. You'll just carry him on some tent flap or something. No need to be gentle.

You cut into the tent you're currently in, getting a flap of tough leather while your prisoner writhes a little in his own filth. The smell is honestly unbearable, especially in this heat. You're glad that the armor you're wearing seems to be great for beating the heat, but that doesn't stop the sun from beating down on you like a physical force. You make some holes using a dagger you procured from the bandits to put some more silk in. Soon, you have a sort of "sled" available, leaving you with a more hygienic way of transporting the vomit-encrusted patient. Francine was done a while ago, and helped you make it with some personal adjustments. Apparently, she did some engineering in the past, though it bored her pretty fast. Still, she claims your sand-sled will be a little bit more sturdy. After loading your babbling prisoner on it, you return to city.
Along the way, you are suddenly overtaken by a morbid kind of curiosity. Really, by all means, you shouldn't ever indulge the crazed bitch next to you, but...
How would you... How would you have us procreate? You regret saying it about less than a second after it left your mouth. Especially when you hear her excited squeak.
Oh, I'm so glad you asked! Well, I have multiple ways of going about it, but the main one I was thinking of was basic artificial insemination. With just a bit of your DNA I could make a similar substitute for genetic material. But, that's tried, tested, and BORING. So, I thought, use the increased magic in the air! With the right ritual, one of us could just switch genders! Or, only partially, if we do it wrong. It's, uh, not an exact science. Further alternatives is overwriting a human's DNA with my own, to put it VERY simply. Essentially, it would take the similarities and keep them, and overwrite any genetic material that doesn't fit with either me or you. Basically, surrogate parent, but the child would still be ours. Other ideas I have are-
Stop talking. You say, voice cracking from a combination of revulsion, general confused feelings and a slight undercurrent of interest, in that "I can't look away from the horror" kind of way.

When you arrive at the town, you see that your party is erecting a tent not too far from the entrance, with the help of the people from the blighted beak. Looks like they got to use one of their tents, though now you've got an issue. How are you going to get the prisoner somewhere safe?

Kill him now.
It's not even a shame that you dragged him all this way or anything. A (mostly) intact corpse is still valuable.

Keep him at a distance.
Like, waaaay back. You'll just leave this up to Francine, when it comes to the prisoner.

Donate to blighted beak.

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Devastator · « **Reply #2510 on:** October 08, 2018, 03:09:09 pm »

Well, first up, he barfed all over us. If we weren't already assuming we were infectuous, we are now. So we need to stay away and set up a secure room. And wash up. Lots of washing.

Also good to know the dragon seems to be linked to the plague.

omada · « **Reply #2511 on:** October 08, 2018, 07:51:21 pm »

register and say to the blighted peak that the plagued one can talk but barely, he seems to be following the bidding of the dragon, we need materials to clean ourselves, and then we keep him way back or whatever the order likes to him to stay

ask for books about magical plagues and about curses, or our friend's curse

Liquefied Spleens · « **Reply #2512 on:** October 10, 2018, 02:12:08 pm »

We've got something of note.
...I can see that. A captured specimen... We never had somebody volunteer to bring that in. Too much of a risk for humans, and the driders... the slaves, i mean, were too dumb to understand it. The main beak-head says. She seems in awe at it, and is (very carefully) coming closer.
G-Get away! Bad bird. BAD BIRD. Bad taste for Goddess. Bad-bad-bad...
My god. You got one mid-mutation! This is amazing... I'll get my allies, this HAS to become a joint effort.
Now now, don't we get a say?
Usually, yes. But this is too important. I'm sorry.
Whatever. If it gets us somewhere, it's fine. Do you have some soap? He barfed over himself.
Ah, that's fine. You can use our shower to clean yourself. And don't worry about infection, our cloaks have proven to protect us. Your companions, however... We lent them a tent, but we're going to ask them to keep their distance. We cannot lend them our suits, they're too valuable.
Can't you lend one? Manbavaran is very capable. I never heard an equal on toxicology.
No. I'm sorry. We can't spare any of them. You'll be better of conserving money until you can buy one at the market.... or find an alternative ways of procuring it. The man is awful.

The order is quick to move in after a call. It's kind of impressive how fast they got their undead minions to set up the building. The specimen just babbles more about the dragon. One of the Beaks is writing down what he's saying, and another one brings you to the shower. It's kind of warm, mostly because its sun-heated. In the meantime, a drider is washing your armor, as well. There wasn't that much vomit on you, fortunately, but a few drops are a few drops, and whatever this plague is probably doesn't need anything else as a vector of infection. After a short while, you leave. Cleaner than ever, really, no more sand in all your bits. When you head back outside, you see that your party is standing by the gate, looking at the testing from a distance. You can't see Francine with them, but you quickly spot her unique body from a distance. Hal is holding his crossbow at the ready.
I can hit her from here if she tries to run. I'm not coming close to that plague vector.
Hmm. It's a shame. I wonder how it feels...
What?
The transformation. It might not be too unpleasant past the panic. The adrenaline rush must be amazing.
It's very painful, guessing from what I saw. Most go nuts from just the pain, I bet.
Not quite. There's a brain rewrite. I heard the report of the dragon talks. But isn't it strange that he just happens to speak common instead of the typical eastern languages?
It's common for a reason. Hal comments, even-tempered.
Hm. Not so much around here.
...Right. I'll be heading inside to go get a book. Maybe find something about plagues or curses.
Curses? That's an interesting direction, actually... Might not be a disease.
I thought that was already the assumed consensus.
Well... There's a lot of theories. I hadn't decided yet if I wanted to consider that. The rewrite is new to me, so...
Maybe it's both?
Possible.

You let them continue talking, and slink off without notice. Clutching the golden ticket, you knock on the door of the library. After a quick question, you get two books, one on plagues and one of curses...
Your tome begins to rumble. It suddenly drops down next to you, and opens up with spiked sides.

It looks hungry. Feed the library books to the tome?

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Egan_BW · « **Reply #2513 on:** October 10, 2018, 02:24:11 pm »

Not crazy about literally feeding public knowledge to the book that only shows itself to powerful people so that they can perform mad science. Just read the book for now, and later we'll ask the library if we can purchase copies or have copies made.

crazyabe · « **Reply #2514 on:** October 10, 2018, 04:02:32 pm »

Yes, Feed the Tome with these books. If anyone asks- a slave drider screwed up and burned them.

birdy51 · « **Reply #2515 on:** October 10, 2018, 07:10:37 pm »

Feed the need to read!

Devastator · « **Reply #2516 on:** October 10, 2018, 08:14:20 pm »

Flip through them first to see if there's anything immediately relevant to the curses we face. Don't feed it.. yet. See if we can get copies made, not necessarily of the books, but so we can write from the tome after feeding it.

I'd like to feed the tome, but I really don't want to destroy public copies of valuable information on curses and plagues. If we can feed it without destroying the only copies, that's fine. I also would like to have a scribe handy so we could copy any information the book gives us on plagues or curses at twice the speed, one us writing, one copying dictation from the other reader we have present.

That said, it's the end of the world. If the copy isn't here, but someone knows specifically where another copy is to be found, feed the tome that book.

omada · « **Reply #2517 on:** October 10, 2018, 09:30:49 pm »

I would like to bargain "will you be more active in explaining me the stuff before I do again something I might regret or don't be sassy enough to make my life difficult?"

we can read the book and rewrite it directly with our minds on the book, look at one page and rewrite it instantly on the other book

he probably don't NEED to make it be devoured

Devastator · « **Reply #2518 on:** October 10, 2018, 09:34:43 pm »

It's possible that the book may be able to provide us with information that was never present in the book we're feeding it, or stuff nobody knows. Some of the information it presented us is like that.

Liquefied Spleens · « **Reply #2519 on:** October 13, 2018, 02:39:52 pm »

...yeah, I'm not revoking my library card to get my book more compact.
The book, as if in a huff, closes again and disappears behind your back. Not in your pack or anything, it just went out of sight behind you while shrinking rapidly. It's kind of freaky like that. Well, that means you can't even bargain with it directly. Although it would mean that it looks like you're just talking to nothing, and you're not entirely sure if the book can even hear you. it's not like it ever talked to you outside of writing.
Well, not to YOU.
Oh, that's grand. Wonderful, really. Well, with that out of the way you'd better make your way back to your team and start reading up on the books. It's been a while since you read a big book of stuff, but you should be fairly alright. Although you're more interested in the testing of the plague victim you brought in. Shrugging, you move on. You'll be back later to ask if they have any copies, because to be entirely honest you REALLY didn't want to miss anything important. You can come back when the research has slowed down to the point of being able to leave it for at lest a time.

When you get back to the research camp, you see nothing much has changed, though there is a bit less crowding around the prisoner, who is held in place with chains and a single drider guard armed with a crossbow. You find Francine talking to the main member of the Order, the one who let you into the city. With your immunity, you assume you get to ignore the quarantine. Apart from the guard barking an obviously trained reponse, nobody really stops you. In fact, somebody even stops the drider's talking. It's so strange to see a living thing acting like more of a...
A thing that only does what you tell it to? A golem, you suppose. That's the closest representation.
Doesn't matter. Francine turns to you (despite being mid-conversation with the leader. She seems kind of insulted, though the mask makes it hard to guess).
Ahh! Dearest! You will be so happy to hear about what we're discovering! As it turns out, it's a combination of a curse AND a disease! Essentially, we've confirmed that it's a virus, meaning it attaches itself to cells and injects its own RNA. Now, you should know there is a differentiation between "normal" RNA and this. I dubbed it Magical Ribonucleic Acid! MRNA, in short. I'll be sure to find a better name in the future, but that's beside the point. Anyway, the RNA they apply has its own connection to some outside force, and that connection causes the magic around it to attach itself to the body and affect the body itself. It's like a an amplifier of a signal spread all around the world. The signal itself isn't powerful enough to affect anything, but with this virus there is a clear connection. We also suspect this source is also adding its own information to the victims, ordering them to do things. As for the virus itself, it mostly causes a fever, followed by a full-body rash . This, along with short-term memory loss, all happens a few hours before the transformation sets in. Its intent is most likely to weaken the resistances of the victim, so they cannot resist it. A mage, for instance, would be able to fight it off if they weren't affected by this. With that in mind, it would likely be possible to create a cure, if applied in the first few moments of infection... Theoretically. It's unlikely we're the first to discover this, and there has been no news of a successful counter. So, that will take a while longer. Now, what I can add... OH! We also found a semi-random element. It seems like a small-scale spread will generally create the same type of transformed state, but beyond around a few dozen of people, we suspect that, statistically, randomization will take over.
Did you get all that?
What the fuck?
...I think this is a little beyond her.
No, I'm sure its fine. I just gave her a lot of information at once. You understand it, right?
I think I already forgot about half of what you just said.
Eh, you get it enough. So, what else would you like to know?

Anything else you'd like to try and discover about the transforming specimen? You could try sticking by it as it completes the transformation, if you wish...

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Author Topic: Web of Life: A Drider's Adventure (Ended) (Read 188448 times)

Egan_BW

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Devastator

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birdy51

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omada

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Liquefied Spleens

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Devastator

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omada

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Liquefied Spleens

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Egan_BW

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crazyabe

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birdy51

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Devastator

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omada

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Devastator

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Liquefied Spleens

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