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Author Topic: Web of Life: A Drider's Adventure (Ended)  (Read 185022 times)

RAM

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Re: Web of Life: A Drider's Adventure
« Reply #525 on: March 26, 2017, 06:07:30 pm »

Much as staying would be fun, it seems deleterious to our fellows cohesion. Let us make hast to sight open sky and request some manners of yon pig-upon-man in passing.

Review the heavens for any imminent weather descending upon the wizard tower. If the sky isn't falling yet then we probably have time before they ruin literally everything. Our prey seems to have a fondness for exploding prisoners so getting there first would be nice, and we can hope that between our contacts, our mandate from tower, and our past experience with the chap in question(unless these folk have a concept of keeping potentially lethal associates separate.) ought to be enough to get us an interview to discuss their experience of trailing a cloak...

Oh, and ask Eveline to remind you to pick over her mind for all things drider-common-sense. Also enquire as to how she knows about driders. She seems convinced that it is normal for a drider to jump on someone and swallow their shoulder, but spiders always seemed to be more inclined to store their meat for a relaxed meal around the table at teatime. Is her experience really from monstrous spiders? or does she actually have some source of information on driders specifically...
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Liquefied Spleens

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Re: Web of Life: A Drider's Adventure
« Reply #526 on: March 27, 2017, 04:27:15 pm »

Alright, I think we've waited long enough.
...For what?
We left wizards alone after telling us to stay away and not discover something. I'm expecting it to rain brains or something.
I'm sure it's not that bad, come on. They seemed responsible.
You scoff, and look up when you leave the bar. Alexander doesn't even wave goodbye, apparently having decided that the greeting was enough social interaction for today. You don't really care, either way. Your companions follow you back to the tower. Or, they try to, considering you need to run across the walls again to get out of these cramped corridors. When you finally reach the end, you happily land on your "feet", splashing up a little mud and grime. Most of the paths in the poor district are sandy or muddy, and only the main road has some cobblestones. After a proper stretch, you start skittering at an above average speed. Not quite a run, but your companions need to undertake some effort to keep up. Eveline has a lot of trouble keeping up, due to her short legs, so you eventually decide to place her on your back. She grabs your waist, a bit too happily in your opinion. Gods, she could crush rocks on a good day.

So... What are you planning?
We're going to the prison as long as the tower isn't blowing up. If it DOES, then we go there and fix it.
What's up with the distrust to wizards all of a sudden?
I don't like it when people make a complete flip in their  mannerisms and outright state that I'm not supposed to look into something. If they can fire lightning from their fingers, I've got another reason to think like that.
She's not wrong, of course. Still, you're keeping quite the pace.
The previous guy that was working for our robed friend had his head explode. I'd rather get there before that happens.
You know, I don't think it's normal that we got used to exploding heads so fast.
After the initial shock, weirdness becomes pretty homogeneous. It's when you hit "normal" again that you get the whiplash.

You reach the prison in a short amount of time. Uncle Liam is breathing fairly heavily, as he lacks the same cardio of everybody else. He wipes some sweat off his brow, and groans a little. The guard in front of the entrance is sitting a stool, eating an onion.
Got business 'ere. He takes another bite from the onion. He isn't affected by the taste, it seems.
I need to talk to a prisoner here. He has information that I desperately need.
The guard chews a bit further, looking at you with extreme dis-interest. After mulling it over for a while, he eventually says: Got a permit?
I'm on an investigation for the wizard's tower. The paperwork's there.
Sure... But it 'ain't HERE, innit?
You squint your eyes and stare at him. The guard continues chewing on his onion. You could hear a mouse fart at this time. Eventually, Yunikki groans.
Oh my fucking GOD! Can we not play chicken when we're on a time limit!? YOU! Open up the door or you've got cleaning duty on all the armors, GOT IT?

The guard rapidly jumps to attention and fumbles for his keys. He soon finds them, and opens the door in a panicked haste. You all walk through, although the guard sits back down and continues eating his onion. What a freak...
The prison is sparse, to say the least. It's essentially a corridor with a bunch of cells. It doesn't take long before you find the cell of your target. He seems to be laying back on his cot, looking bored out of his skull.
Yo, paladin-boy!
Fucking what!? I'm not making noise, can't a guy... Oh no.
His eyes widen when he sees you standing there with your arms crossed.
What do you ask of him?

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RAM

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Re: Web of Life: A Drider's Adventure
« Reply #527 on: March 28, 2017, 01:23:11 am »

Well, for starters, Pull out your lizard, plop it on your shoulder, and ask it to tell you if it sees any lies then promptly makes its eyes flare up. These people will probably believe almost anything about magical beasts, even if thething in question isn't a magical beast...

We could threaten to sick Eveline on them if they don't cooperate. She might be small enough to get into the cell, and seh could probably look quite scary with the right prompting. perhaps imagining that a wild spider is attacking her pups? This is probably something that takes preparation, maybe best to wait till next time?

We could tell them that we will leave town after the local branch of the cult of Old Gesty is broken. Technically true, probably, and represents a common interest.

And of course they might want the chance to get revenge for John and probably want revenge-by-association if the adversary is probably somewhat human and makes heads explode...

Is Eveline a magical beast? These people seem to flop around whether they are human-dominionists or anti-monster. Eveline seems pretty much plausible most of the time. No improbably supply of magic-resistant silk, no clearly ridiculous ability to stick to walls with tiny claws that seem to have even less friction than human feet did that one time... No subconscious impulse to eat humans that don't even seem to taste that good, no weird obsession with being worshipped... Is that even a thing, does the worship thing actually do anything for anyone or is it just some weird compulsion... You really need to find a drider encyclopaedia...

Oh oh oh oh oh! Best torture instrument yet! THE COOKBOOK!!! Just work through the recipes, start with some sort of real food it offers from whatever scraps are nearby, Then go on to whatever they are sharing their cells with, probably rats, then move ontothe main course, in detail, then you could try something kobolt-flavoured, or even they have a recipe that includes a carnivorous medley? Sigh, complain, and show it around to your friends when you sadly discover that driders are, apparently, inedible... Demonstrate that you are an equal opportunity carnivore so they are in the same boat with all the other minor freaks, like Eveline, while simultaneously completely objectifying them. They are an ingredient in a recipe, just like all the beasts and beets, and you have the book to prove it. I mean, obviously I couldn't use it to torture people, well, not mentally, but Sydney is better at this than me...

But we want to know what happened when they followed Robilocks and what they know about what John was up to and who they were working with. And we do not want to tell them how we know about this stuff. And really, you mostly just want to catch John's murderer, if they can voluntarily help with that...
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Liquefied Spleens

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Re: Web of Life: A Drider's Adventure
« Reply #528 on: March 28, 2017, 03:04:56 pm »

I need to know about the man you've been sent to tail. Strange man in a robe.
...Hm. I'm not telling you anything.
I'm authorized to come in there and see how far I can shove your head up your arse, if that's more your speed.
Ahhh, come on. A guard? That's cheap... Fine, whatever, I'm outta here in a day anyways.
I'm listening.
So yeah, boss tells me I need to tail the most recent shadowy clown in a corner, right? So i do so, as I usually do. I can really quiet when I wanna. He snorts. Clearly though, I wasn't quiet enough. At one point he stepped out of this little house, behind the sewer entrance. Seems like he was staying there or something. Some people came and went, but nobody i recognized. I wasn't doing anything suspicious, but the way he kinda stared from under that cloak... Guh, gives me the shivers just thinking about it. I tried to leave, but the next thing I know there's a hand on me... At least I think it was a hand. He musta been pretty god-damned lanky, felt more like a stick. I don't... remember what happened after that, but I went back to the gang. Then i figured ought go back to kicking out vermin from the city, so i put on my best paladin schtick, gathered some friends and attacked you. Hm. That sure went nicely.
So you were... mind-controlled?
Nah. I FORGOT. I woulda had the idea either way, ya know? Any day I got to enact my duty's a good day. I'm not used to you monsters showing your real nature, usually you try to fit in so hard it doesn't get physical. But hey...
What could you expect from a drider.

All of your eight eyes are trained on the little worm. A shake of the head throws your hair out of the way and you grind your teeth. Your patience is running thin.
Yeah, yeah, go ahead n' act tough. I got bars between you and me, so there's nothing you can do.
You give a frustrated sigh and hiss Fine
Alright. Is that everything you feel like saying?
That'll be it, yeah.
Yunikki sniffs, and takes some keys off the wall. A quick rattling, and the door opens. The silence can be FELT, as Yunikki enters the room. She cracks her knuckles.
I got a little personal rule, you know. Don't let anybody shittalk you OR your boss, or people get the wrong idea.
Yunikki grabs him by the collar and drags him off the bed. She positions herself on top of the man, using the weight of her armor to keep him down. She rears back, and punches the crook in the head. You can hear a crunch as his nose is broken. He head bounces against the floor, and then yunikki goes with softer punches to the side of the man's bald little head. The sound of flesh and bone against metal fills the halls, and after five hits she gets up as the prisoner groans. Yunikki gives a final sharp kick to his ribs, and leaves. The party stares at her as the man inside groans in pain, curling up in fetal position.

...What? I didn't kill him.
That was messed up, man!
Yeah, that was really unnecessary.... Satisfying as it was.
Pft, whatever. He's smart enough not to tell anybody. Snitches get stitches.
And here I was thinking you were improving as a person.
Bite me, old man!
Let's focus, here. Does anybody know where the sewer entrance is?
Yep. North-east corner of the theater district. Should go there now?

Go there.
You should probably be prepared, who knows what lies in wait.

Wizard's tower.
Do I still need to add anything?

Have dinner first.
It's been noon for a while now. Why not take a bit to catch up before throwing yourself into potential danger?

Other
Yes, regardless of what option you pick, Sydney will finally ask how Eveline knows things about driders, not to worry.

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RAM

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Re: Web of Life: A Drider's Adventure
« Reply #529 on: March 28, 2017, 05:04:43 pm »

Wizard's tower sounds good. We can grab something to eat on the way and then discuss mind magic over food.
...
...
Let's actually use the cookbook as a cookbook. There must be something simple to make from ingredients at the market that we can eat while asking whoever we can tie down about exploding heads.
Or not, there is always the risk that it goes out of its way to incorporate everything it can find. Why offer a mere sandwich when you can show them the perfect stuffed rat recipe... Mmmm, perfectly crisped skin, the way the aromatic fillings burst out when you pierce it, the convenience of being able to grab one end and eat it like a sausage... How is a cookbook supposed to comprehend a weird aversion to rodents?
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Liquefied Spleens

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Re: Web of Life: A Drider's Adventure
« Reply #530 on: March 29, 2017, 03:58:08 pm »

Not quite yet. Who's hungry?
The whole group raises their hands, except for Eveline, who simply nods excessively. You briefly consider making food for the gang, but you'd have to actually cook. You don't actually have any way to cook something, considering you can't exactly make a campfire or anything. You still look through the cookbook for rat recipes. It has fairly large warnings about diseases, however, so all the recipes basically sear the meat. Apparently burnt rat tastes better than toxic rat. There's no real "good parts" to cut out, so rat is basically worthless as a food source as long as you can avoid it. The book seems a bit mean when naming the recipes, too. "Peasant's stew", "communist's feast"(whatever a communist is, you feel like it's insulted)... There's a few other racial slurs in there as well, but it's quite likely that it's just the slang people use to describe these. Or the book is kind of racist. Both seem equally fine. You decide against reading the "crime against humanity" section in public. Seeing how you are all planning on going to the tower while you eat, a sandwich stand seemed like the most practical solution. This business seems to get most of it's clientele from people who missed the usual lunchtimes. There are quite a few people in front of you, allowing you to ask something of Eveline that's been bugging you.

So... Question. How do you know so much about driders?
What?
All that stuff about instincts and magical properties and some-such. You know more about me than me! How is that?
Oh, well... It's a bit of common knowledge where I'm from, and the connection with spiders.
I most certainly don't act like a spider.
Well, GIANT spiders. They act different, you know? Normal spiders don't have queens, nor do they stay in groups.
I know that, of course, but I don't exactly act like those spiders either. Some weird worshiping obsession seems unlikely.
You'd be surprised. Spider queens and driders have a lot in common, if you don't count the breeding. Queens are very aggressive, want as big a brood as possible, even by taking over closeby hives, or taking on solitary giant spiders. They're fairly hands-on until they start breeding.
Sound like they're nasty pieces of work.
Trust me when I say they deserve it when we string them up. Still, there's worse things out there, all things considered.
What about the parts that don't fit with the spider queen stuff? The magic stuff.
Well, I found a village that was still dealing with the aftermath of some drider cult, so they spread around a lot of knowledge. Most of it's propaganda, but there's nuggets of truth in there. I stuck around for a while there, helped out cleaning the caves, gathered some samples... The works. They let me stay when i showed them how to make a cleaning product that gets webs out of your fur. Or hair, I guess. It was fun there, they gave me a bed.

It's finally your turn, and everybody gets their own favored sandwich. Regardless of what you pick, though, they smother it in sauce, making it kind of a messy business to eat. Still, it IS pretty tasty. As you walk to the tower, you bring up the subject of mind magic.
So, it's pretty clear the guy was affected in some way, right? Does anybody know anything about mind magic.
Yunikki bluntly states: Dabbling in it will get you tortured for forty-two days and then hung, in my country. It was pretty grisly, to say the least. Death of a thousand cuts, they called it.
That's messed up. But, I have to admit, mind magic is so mind-mindbogglingly illegal that you don't even get arrested. Usually added about five-hundred coins to a bounty, too.
Which isn't worth it, of course. You can get better money taking two jobs that DON'T deal with mind-magic.
Ok, ok. It's evil. But how does it work? Is it touch-based?
No. The good types work on proximity. They make you think it was YOUR idea to do what they want. Eventually, that kind of indoctrination melts brains, leaving them husks of their former selves. The more direct types are really clear, and can be shaken off. Trust me on this, I had to do it twice. My suggestion is to focus on something you really love. They need to touch you, too, so that's a small mercy.
There's a story there, isn't there?
Eveline looks at her with a troubled expression. You DO NOT want to know. I don't. First time I killed somebody, and I don't like talking about it.
You had a lot more adventures than I thought.
They're less adventures and more "running away from things". It's just that I've become quite good at it. I'm worthless on my own, though, I had help most of the time.

You reach the tower. Things seem fairly normal, so you quickly enter. You can ask about mind-magic and even get some back-up for the sewer-house. The tower seems strangely empty as you go up the floors. Your companions seem uneasy, and some are already grabbing towards their weapons. You don't feel too comfortable yourself, like there's some kind of presence here...
When you reach the water-room, you find people. The Order of the Blighted Beak, to be precise. They seem to be moving around a lot, making lots of noise as they pay a lot of attention to a tank of water in the middle.
Here! Here! She's here!
The whole crowd simulaniously turns to look at you in perfect unison. Something does seem right, there are far more beak-heads than normal. Some aren't wearing their masks, besides. Still, you can see their leader standing next to the tank of water they're paying extra attention to. Even while looking at you, they're still throwing things in there.
O-oh my gods... Look at the water!
You stop looking at the many, many people staring at you and look at the water-tank in the middle of the room. There's a creature floating inside, with blue carapace, eight legs and large abdomen. Sticking out of the front of this spider-like body is a scarred female body, seemingly burnt in a deliberate pattern. The face is the only thing that remains untouched. While it doesn't move much, the face is moving, and its eyes stare at you intensely. It shows an expression of pure rage, and the body slowly twitches to life.
It looks almost exactly like you.
The people in the robes are slowly moving towards you, arms outstretched in a grabbing motion. The ones that do not wear masks have a completely black expression on their face.
Come to her. they say in unison, their voices in terrifying harmony.

RUN!
You can't deal with this! Retreat and come up with a plan!

ATTACK!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

OTHER?!

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Neat stuff I do:
A suggestion game about a drider that does a lot of stuff. I think it's kinda neat.

RAM

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Re: Web of Life: A Drider's Adventure
« Reply #531 on: March 29, 2017, 04:38:04 pm »

This would be a good time to tell Eveline that her adventuring career sounds rather proper.

RUN!!!

They seem to be after you specifically, so consider trying to leave through a window. Hopefully they are too zombied to think of taking hostages and will just angrily stick their heads out of the window and shoot death-beams...

You probably don't have time enough to think about the implications of your bits being used to grow a copy of yourself that may or may not have been fed to something that may or may not have some sort of agent of something that presumably has some sort of association with someone you would rather not think about.

You probably also don't have time enough to think about how much lacing you can sneak onto the silk hoods that you are going to need to make for everyone before going after a mind mage...

Finally, you still have sandwiches. THE FIVE SECOND RULE IS A LIE!
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TheBiggerFish

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Re: Web of Life: A Drider's Adventure
« Reply #532 on: March 29, 2017, 06:15:51 pm »

RUN!!!!!!!!  PROBABLY!!!!!!!
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Puppyguard

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Re: Web of Life: A Drider's Adventure
« Reply #533 on: March 29, 2017, 07:41:06 pm »

RUN!!!
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RAM

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Re: Web of Life: A Drider's Adventure
« Reply #534 on: March 29, 2017, 10:08:52 pm »

Coordinating a retreat is notoriously difficult. But if, perhaps, you could compel your companions(or at least those companions who are not attached to you) to withdraw down to the tower's entrance and you could meet them outside. It should be a relatively simple matter to abseil from a higher window and if this leads to your companions possessing freedom enough for shenanigans, such as erecting barricades or alerting civilians, then so much the better!
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I shall be eternally happy. I shall be able to construct elf hunting giant mecha. Which can pour magma.
Urist has been forced to use a friend as fertilizer lately.
Read the First Post!

Liquefied Spleens

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Re: Web of Life: A Drider's Adventure
« Reply #535 on: March 30, 2017, 04:08:27 pm »

NOPE NOPE NOPE, RETREAT!
You turn around and push your companions backwards. You put Eveline on your back immediately, and you companions run down as fast as they can manage. You take a turn at the next floor, so you can climb out a window or something, but you see too late that that isn't going to work. The windows here are meant to air out the building, they aren't massive enough to fit your frame! Eveline screams They're here already! and she clamps her legs around you as she begins to rummage through her alchemy kit. There are five of them in front of you, and you can't hurt these people too bad. They're being controlled, after all! Still, you've got your shield, covered in grass. You put both your hands behind it, and charge forward. Eveline clings to your back with one hand as she keeps her kit steady. You bash the man in front of you, carry him for a small distance with your shield before dropping him like a sack of potatoes. Your large, stable body prevents them from keeping a hold of you, although one manages to grab your leg. You shake him off without much issue, using your prodigious strength. The rush down the stairs was a lot less easy, however. While there were only five people in the room, there were far more on the stairs, most likely to chase your friends. Still, this is in past tense because you can do two important things. One, you are carrying a dog on your back that's throwing out debilitating powders and potions. She's got some decent aim, especially considering that you're currently running down the stairs at a breakneck pace, smashing people who are in the way with a grass-covered shield. It never seems to keep them down long, and they just keep repeating "Come to her".

Finally, you reach the bottom floor. The door is still open, and you see your uncle Liam clubbing someone over the head with his small club. The victim falls over without a word, but then two others grab your uncle by his arms! You tackle the first one, giving Liam free reign to punch the other in the face. They're not very capable combatants, from the look of things. All they do is grab at you. You rush outside, and your companions are all jumping in anticipation of more enemies. When your uncle moves out as well, Yunikki quickly slams the door shut before any of the possessed move through. The door opens inwards, however, so she's forced to just pull the handle to keep it closed. She keeps her ground, barely, as the door begins to rattle. They're pulling on the other side.
What are you waiting for! She gives a yell of effort as you digs her heels into the ground and pulls.
Get the fucking guards!

You can't afford to just leave her here! Your father and uncle seem to follow the same idea, but Eveline has already leaped off your back, leaving behind the alchemy kit. For safety, you place it down and close it. Eveline shouts she's going to get the guard and that you should try to hold on. Just as you turn to listen, the door is finally swung open, and Yunikki flies inside! You hear her scream and grunt as she tries to resist, but soon there are too many possessed in the way to save her! Your father gets his hook ready, planning on hitting them with the blunt part of it. Your uncle has his club, but his sword is also out. He's expecting this to get too bad to handle.
You can't exactly disagree. Soon enough, you're doing all your can to keep these possessed down, but they don't seem to care overmuch about pain. At best you can just keep them down. Nobody has started using their weapons quite yet, but there are more and more possessed walking in, and you're getting overwhelmed.
Then, it gets worse.

Yunikki steps back outside, her armor shining in the sun. She charges straight at your father, and tackles him to the ground. Then she rears back to hit him, exactly like how she was punching John. With her armored gloves, she could damn will kill your father! You charge forward, disregarding the few possessed you were fighting to remove Yunikki from your dad. Your full weight slams into her, and she's knocked sideways, her armor blocking most of the blow. You bruise yourself on her elbow, and your father is still groaning from the pain. You hear your uncle scream as five of them hold him down. He's doing all he can, even swinging his sword around in earnest. He badly cuts the man holding his arm, but they disarm him and begin to bring him inside! You're about to try and save him when Yunikki flings herself around your neck, nearly throwing you on the ground with her weight. She sits down on your abdomen, hurting you with her weight as she begins to choke you out. Your father is still coughing and forcing himself up, and he is also getting grabbed by some possessed. Just before he is overwhelmed, he throws his hook and nabs Yunikki, piercing the armor with his hook. He forces himself backwards as the cultists dog-pile on him. Yunikki falls on her back, and you hear she is winded from the blow. In this confusion, your uncle has also been dragged inside. You're about ready to start killing people, until you hear a shout.

CHAAARGE!!!
In the blink of an eye, the guards finally arrive, led by the captain of the guard. In short order, they subdue the people in short order, using cuffs and the occasional paralyze spell. You breathe a sigh of relief as the guards make quick work of the whole thing. Now you're wondering why the HELL you stayed around. Still, all's well that ends we-
*BRAZERP*

You look around you. You've been transported into the water room, surrounded by around five people. The creature in the tank is staring at you with utter disdain. To the left of you, there's the dead body of a wizard. There's still blood leaking out of his nose. He must have had a stroke from the effort of the spell! Teleportation is a strenuous to begin with, and forcing somebody to do it like that...
Hands take you from all sides, restraining your movement. You struggle all you can, but there's too damned many! They bring you closer to the doppelganger in the water tank. It twitches its spider parts around, and then, ever-so-slowly it sticks them out of the tank. It climbs out, strenuously. You already hear fighting happening downstairs.
Once the head goes above-water, it takes its first, shuddering breath and coughs out water. The water still drips from her hair as she speaks.
Hhhello sssISsterr..
It sounds like you, but... strained, and hissed. The accent and cadence is just WRONG, like she learnt her talking from her book.
Almmmosst commmpleete.... Fffeed.
She struggles her way towards you, with a twitching, wounded gait. The fighting is still going on downstairs, and they won't get to you just yet.
You need to stall, somehow! You're grabbed by your arms, and some are holding on to your legs. You need a plan beyond "struggle"!

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Neat stuff I do:
A suggestion game about a drider that does a lot of stuff. I think it's kinda neat.

RAM

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Re: Web of Life: A Drider's Adventure
« Reply #536 on: March 30, 2017, 05:01:28 pm »

Resources:
Necromantic vomit: Would probably help but I have no idea how to make it work.
Lizard: Probably still with us. "sister" might be unnaturally strong and the wizards are typically less physical and likely drained by the teleportation. It could likely make things difficult for them.
And who knows what sort of augments are available. We could take another shot at the necromantic flamethrower...
Necromancy: These people took stuff out of you earlier, and now there is a copy of you. It is very animated for a dead thing but it might be worth a shot.
Dead wizard? We've never raised anything that big before, and it is one against many, and there is not much time...
Physiology: We have a pretty solid stinging impulse. Bending our body like that could probably knock something loose. Especially combined with a distraction...
Headbutting is an old staple...
Reverse psychology often works in this sort of situation. Just pull our arms and legs in with all our strength then throw them out suddenly and hope to knock everyone backwards.
Silver tongue: Recent events aside, we used to hold our own against the customers in the inn. These people seem very insistent however, and currently seem to be getting what they want, and it seems likely that you are not inclined to compromise given the subject of their interest...
Friends in high places: Is now a good time to try to force a conversation with death? It would be great to have someone experienced lend their insight onto the current matter...

Other?: I'm not quite perfect yet...

Plan:
Pull our legs and arms in as forcefully as we are able.
Order lizard to attack the closest robed figure.
Push legs and arms out in a simultaneous, powerful thrust.
Sting the ground and use the momentum to jump backwards.
Dump half our mana into augmenting our lizard. Try to effect a generic temporary combat enhancement rather than the familiar directed mutation effect, but if it doubles in side and is covered in unwieldy spines then that is not terrible...
Call back lizard.
Flee up the tower.
Gather our remaining mana in as dense a clump as possible concentrated within our mouth and save it for our doppelganger's face. Well, centre of mass, really, but face is more expressive...
« Last Edit: March 30, 2017, 09:58:17 pm by RAM »
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Liquefied Spleens

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Re: Web of Life: A Drider's Adventure
« Reply #537 on: March 31, 2017, 05:26:54 pm »

You try to pull in your arms, but they have them locked in too tightly! Struggle as you may, you can't throw off five grown men with no leverage! Fortunately, you remember something important. You have a lizard in your pocket, ready for face-chewing! It doesn't take much more than a thought, and there it is, proudly crawling on your shoulder, doing it's best to look menacing. You doppelganger stops her slow, limping advance for a moment, warily looking at the new addition. Using the distraction, you use the little time you have to pump mana inside the little skeleton. You've never done anything like this, other than the visual changes, but something seems to be happening. Your small companion flickers, in orange, and catches fire completely. You hear a strange screech emanating from it, and then it jumps forward! It covers an amazing distance before exploding in a blinding fireball, spreading its pieces around the room with its sacrifice. Your doppelganger and the possessed groan and cover their eyes from the bright flash. You're unaffected, despite the brightness of the explosion. Using this distraction, you throw off the weaker hold on your person and rush out of their grasp. A horrible screech reverbs through the room, and the possessed fall to the floor. Some begin vomiting, based off the sound. You're on your way to the stairs With the threats seemingly gone, you turn around for just a split second.
A split second is all she needed.

With a speed you never would have expected, your clone jumps forward and bites down on your shoulder. You scream in pain and try to tear her off, causing her teeth to only tear deeper. You feel her tongue lapping up the blood in a frenzy, and her teeth feel sharp and far too numerous. You try to unsheathe your sword, but then she PULLS. A whole chunk of your flesh tears off, leaving you bleeding and screaming. Your vision swims as you feel the stream of blood come from your wound. The bitch chews and swallows in short order, licking her fingers before trying to grab you again. With your sword arm hurt from the bite, you need to improvise. Using the idea from your poor dead companion, you ball up mana in your head and give a crunching headbutt. Another flash happens, and once more the creature screams in a voice almost identical to you. As she clutches her head in pain, you rush upwards, stumbling from your own pain and shock. You feel something crunch your most back legs, and you realize she's trying to eat a piece of you! Fortunately, it stops at an attempt, as she fails to pierce the carapace. You open the door to Kasimor's office, and block it with your body. You're too injured to fight properly for right now. You block the door by throwing over a small cabinet, and then use your good shoulder to move Kasimor's desk in the way. You're panting heavily, and only adrenaline is keeping you upright. You're still bleeding like a pig from that bite...

Eventually, you manage to find a massive handkerchief in one of Kasimor's drawers. While it isn't perfect, you bind it over your shoulder using your good arm and your mouth. The dopperganger has stopped bashing against the door, and you hear voices outside. You stumble forward, wincing from the pain and listen to what's happening.
-mitating me. She took my gear and barricaded herself inside.
If there's two of them, how do we know YOU'RE not the one doing it, then?
Look for yourself! She blocked the door, most likely thinking she could escape through a window or something. Help me break it down before she gets away!
Out of the way! This is gonna get loud!
You hear some clinking of bottles, and then the sound of something boiling. You quickly make some distance from the door before an explosion smashes it to splinters. People rush inside, following your doppelganger.
There! She's still here, take her down!
The guards and Eveline look wary, looking at the two of you. You're both identical, and she sounds normal now. You feel like your heart is going to beat out of your chest and your vision is swimming.

Talk it out?
You can convince these people that you're the original product, no problem.

Escape
Kasimor does have a large enough window to escape through.

Show different proof

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Neat stuff I do:
A suggestion game about a drider that does a lot of stuff. I think it's kinda neat.

RAM

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Re: Web of Life: A Drider's Adventure
« Reply #538 on: March 31, 2017, 06:23:58 pm »

Firster thing firster: pick up a chair and hold it like a shield. Not much but might buy you a couple of seconds.

Be wary that people may be under mind control. We never actually saw the process in detail...

First thing first, warnings, one of us is a monster cooked in a vat by vulgar gods, the other is a scared drider who just fought mind-controlled allies and has a bite out of her shoulder, not to mention a disturbing tendency to wake up with people in her stomach and is probably going to be a proper monster someday the way things have been going. Neither of these is safe to be around. Your friends need to protect themselves from the scary spider monsters.

I'm pretty sure that she can't do the vomit thing that Eveline saw and shouldn't give details about. Magic too, for that matter, is probably an identity thing rather than a genetics thing. We can try to do party tricks after everyone is nicely free of mind control and restrained under something that will stop a fleshwarping abomination. It may only look like all it did was copy our appearance, but we have seen enough people turn inside-out that we are not going to trust some bound hands and legs to keep them restrained.

Can it make poison? It hasn't gotten a good taste of our spider-parts yet... We could probably inject acid into something soft. Oh, there was that wizard who is probably dead in the ritual room. Or,, alternatively, it seems likely that collaborating with a ritual to summon someone who wants to kill you and feed them bits of your flesh constitutes and indebted situation. Find some relatively common-looking book of Kasimor's and inject acid into that. Should have lots of nice organic matter to melt into tasty goop. Or hey, you have been leaking all over the place. Maybe Eveline can test it for bloodiness and the guards can get a sample from alien-horror-show over there. If she is scared of losing a little blood then she definitely hasn't been through the past week. Oh hey, does Eveline still have that crossbow bolt? It should have plenty of original drider blood left on it for comparison.

Also, drider isn't edible, the cookbook said so, so she is definitely not a drider on account of trying to eat us. And we are all for nobody trying to eat anyone forever because it is a horrible habit to get into. Meanwhile someone has left bite-marks in us and that is exactly what a crazy doppelganger that only has a partial soul would do. Also, we would swear she has too many teeth, try checking her mouth.

And, of course, we are willing to stand in a corner and sit quietly so long as she stays on the opposite corner.

Also, they TELEPORTED US! They wanted to get us at all costs, even burnt out one of their wizards. There is no sane theory of these events in which they would try to hide behind a barricade. The monsters want the drider, the drider keeps running away. The drider is definitely the one who was hiding behind a barricade while a crazyclone was trying to eat her and absorb her identity or something. The monster is definitely the one who was trying to hunt someone down even though they were locked in a room. Now, granted, chasing down a monster alone is disturbingly like something that we would do, we certainly don't need yet another person out there who explicitly wants to kill us-specifically in our sleep, but we would have realised that the barricade takes longer to get through then a window and would have gone outside to block their escape rather than try to break down a door like an ignorant stupid monster that just hatched.

Finally. There is only one person here with misfortune enough to faint from blood-loss this many times in a week and that thing is going to try to eat us as soon as it gets a chance...

And could someone please try to collect lizard's bones from the ritual chamber. We would really like to at least try to reanimate it.

And hey, Let's use this chance to talk to Death, we must be almost at its front door right now...

Ooooh, try to look at its soul! And don't give up on negotiating with it. If it isn't too closely bonded to its god then we can probably find some way of satisfying it without being eaten. It probably just needs a properly-shaped soul and apparently those things are pretty much worthless. Just have ot wait till someone dies nearby(not likely to be long) and shove the thing in that then buff out the edges until it fits. right... Win a bit of luck the universe will confuse the two of us and our double will be promptly squished under a random anvil.
« Last Edit: March 31, 2017, 09:19:40 pm by RAM »
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Vote (1) for the Urist scale!
I shall be eternally happy. I shall be able to construct elf hunting giant mecha. Which can pour magma.
Urist has been forced to use a friend as fertilizer lately.
Read the First Post!

TheBiggerFish

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Re: Web of Life: A Drider's Adventure
« Reply #539 on: March 31, 2017, 10:11:18 pm »

What he said.
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