Does it matter where I crush this vampire?Chattur'gha cannot help you, morsel. I trapped him, and I dominate his antithesis. Ulyaoth is too weak and cowardly to deny me. I'm not hearing a no.Of course, that DOES mean dragging this eldritch being through town. An eldritch being in a time of paranoia... Not to mention, this thing is pretty dangerous, still, and you're not sure how this "rift" works. It's a very risky thing, all-round, but...
Why would this eldritch, formerly nameless (it's odd that it gained a name, isn't it?) try to talk you OUT of making a mistake? You suspect that it's worth the risk, even if you have to leave town in a damned hurry after escaping.
I mean, you're going to escape, right? If you're going to be honest, you're kind of nervous about the whole thing. Especially if you're going "alone". You don't trust Chattur'gha as far as you can throw him, and considering he looked to be larger than you can imagine (
literally, you can't fathom it. He kept coming closer and he seemed about the size of a country by the time you left. He's a big crab, alright? You could gather all the butter in the world and it wouldn't bother the big lug.)
You elect to finish up a little business before leaving though.
When I get back with your family, you will worship me, little man. It means I will own you from then on.Now you're getting it!I... The boost. Of course. I-if I must. Please, just save my family.Good. Close your eyes, I'm about to do something that is NOT for your eyes.The man closes his eyes and places his palms over his eyes like a child. Goodness, he looked a lot more impressive he talked to the bird. He's used to having a position of power, isn't he? You feel your fingers crack as the leech pops out of your arm and enters of the creature's myriad mouths. You keep that mass of teeth from closing with two fingers, so the leech can enter without issue. If it's like last time, this won't last long. Maybe long enough to get out of the tower without too much issue. You force the creature to go limp, and you run out of the door with the lanky abomination in tow.
Considering you have no cart, and no allies, and a ton of witnesses, you elect to go for the best known way to deal with having to do illegal/dangerous things. Just do it fast, and pretend like you're supposed to be here.
Strangely, this worked on the people in the tower, who didn't do much more than stare at you as you went past at a speed that seems more "this thing is on fire and I wish to remove it" instead of "I am doing something illegal". So, enough for people to stare, and later realize what's up, but not the kind that makes people chase after you. It's a fairly specific sort of thing that you really only get through experience. If this was your first rodeo with the eldritch, you'd definitely not appear so calm while also being kind of really miffed about the whole process. Of course, when you're outside it's not the same story, not by a long shot. For one, it turns out guards care a lot about a drider carrying a limp (though slowly getting more volatile) creature from beyond the veil. It doesn't take long before you're sprinting in a "law enforcement" sort of speed over "fire" speed. Fortunately, you're a fast girl. Even the other driders can't really match you, as you've got them beat in age. You've just got longer legs, even if you weren't some seven foot tall monstrosity tempered by rage and weird molts.
Still, it's probably not a good sign when the only reason you made it somewhere is because you can run on walls.
Things got pretty bad, it could have been an entire update on its own, but really? Do you care about that when you can just turn this into a visit to the friggin' shadow realm? The point is, you make it to the basement. And because you thought of trying to block it off at least a little, you manage to get to the mysterious basement that houses Chattur'gha before the guards can follow. Your companions weren't there yet, apparently deciding to take their bloody time getting here. Speed-zoom fourth wall break over, let's get back to narrative tension.
Out of breath, you dump the vampire in the basement. Now you just need to kill the manged creature... You broke two of its arms in the run here, and you've got quite the bite mark on your armor. Sure enough, seems like D-VA wasn't lying when she said it was good armor. Of course, you don't quite know how to get to Chattur'gha intentionally, but....
Well, you've got meat from a hated enemy, and hooks that are connected to big crabbo. With a final throw, you dump the vampire creature (why are they called that? They don't look like vampires...) on the hooks. The meathooks instantly come to life, piercing the creature's flesh as it begins to scream in pain. It didn't react when you broke its arms, so those hooks must have something real special to them. Eventually, the hooks begin to "grow" additional smaller hooks out of the seemingly morphic metal. Smaller hooks begin to work their way up the creature, like a really nasty sowing machine, while the hooks twist in on themselves and turn into loops. In as little as 10 seconds, the creature is completely covered in a strange, writing metal, oozing a black goo for just a moment.
Then the hooks retract all at once.
You know, up until now you weren't sure if this shriveled up creature even HAD blood. Now, you can confirm that it didn't have blood, per se. At least, not fresh blood. The smell of rotting flesh is overpowering, but soon enough that smell disappears and is, instead, replaced with the smell of a fresh kill. Blood and guts, essentially. You've hunted enough to recognize it. The vampire might have been reduced to nothing but the finest giblets, but a strange, purple electric energy begins to gather in front of you. You let your children get off of you, and tell them to get back to your allies. They... Weren't pleased. They've gotten a tad lazy, hanging around in your hair like that, and quite a bit bigger. Cactus especially, despite being the youngest. You give them a loving squeeze, and tell them to be safe as you hear the secret door being opened.
Out of time. You touch the crackling energy.
The next time you blink, you find yourself elsewhere. It's... surprisingly mundane. Sort of. Simple overgrown stonework, with a strange statue right ahead. It looks like the representation of woman, with four arms and a kind smile. Looking around you, there are three passageways. Two of them head deeper into this building, while the other leads to the outside. you can see foilage similar to the Orc jungle, though... different, somehow. The strangest thing about this place vy far is just how little mana there is in the air. In fact, there might as well be nothing at all! This isn't quite the world you expected when heading a prison dimension, to say the least. There are four pillars in this room, as well, but they look to be for nothing but support and to mark an indentation in the floor.
Just as you're about to head somewhere, you hear a gasp from the side of you. Looking over, you see a human, of all things, holding a strange rifle. he is wearing strange clothing, in a style that you would place as dwarven, considering the manufacturing. He is bearded, well-built (if still a tad thin) and is dressed in beige. Shorts and a tough-looking vest, finishing off the ensemble with a collection of pouches and a strange hat. Sort of a tan bowler hat, but tougher and with more flared out edges.
Don't shoot. You say, before the man gets over his shock of seeing you. He seems like a capable man, remaining steady.
What? You can talk?Yes. I'm not like the other driders you probably know.Drider? Bah, no matter. Tell me what you are, and what you plan on doing here. Did Augustine send you? Who is Augustine?Answer the question! He levels his shotgun at you. You don't want to mess with that thing, especially in these close quarters.
I'm a drider! And I'm here to rescue prisoners from Mantorok.Mantorok? The fertility god?...Not quite. It looks to conquer and destroy the damn world. Hm. Religious reasons aside, what do you plan on doing?Head deeper, find prisoners, get them out of here. To where? It took me weeks of travel from civilisation to this temple. I only found it thanks to Augustine, who then tried to shoot me in the back! How did you get here? I... teleported? I killed a creature and teleported here from its remaining energies. Where the hell are we?You truly are clueless, are you not? This is Cambodia. He lowers his gun, seemingly more at ease.
I don't trust you yet, miss...Aestinus. Syndey AustinusMiss Aestinus. But you are not at all like the other monsters I had to fight off since Augustine turned back into the evil it truly is. Will we help eachother as we head forward? Wouldn't it be a better idea for you to get out of here? You're just a single human. Armed with a shotgun, to be sure, but still just a human in this... place.Nobody crosses Edwin Lindsey! I'll have my pound of flesh from that evil.What do you do?
As you are in a dungeon, there will be less suggestions, if any. It's your ship, captain, sail it.Basic Stats
Level: 13
Health: 65/65
Sanity: 00/55
Poison stings: 1/1
Restraint 3/3
Mana: 50/50 Stunted! It will not regenerate!
Children (none are here)
Adam 11/11
Alice 12/12
Cactus 13/13
Items and equipment
Items:
410 gold coins
Normal Cookbook.
5 rations
Equipment:
Ram Dao
Scimitar
Bone scimitar
D-VA armor
Skills and spells
Magic:
Resurrect vermin: Allows you to resurrect very small creatures such as rats(invests 2 of your max mana) (no mana cost)
Resurrect average beast: Allows you to resurrect creatures such as dogs, cats and other similar-sized creatures.(invests 7 mana) (no mana cost)
Resurrect Humanoid: Allows you to resurrect humanoid creatures. (Invests 10 mana) (Costs 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. Allows creation of free zombies.
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
Adaptation: You regenerate mana faster than most
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
Author
Topic: Web of Life: A Drider's Adventure (Ended) (Read 189829 times)