Come out! I know you're here! Some of the surrounding people jump when you shout.
Gods... Don't just yell all of a sudden! I nearly had a heart-attack...You apologize, and scan the surroundings again. Whatever that smell is, the owner does not want to come out quite yet. You explain that you smell somebody being nearby to the rest of the party, who shoot you some confused looks. Perhaps they're wondering how you smell anything through the existing sewer-stench, or perhaps they just wonder how you smell a person that well. Either way, you don't give an answer to it. You close your eyes, and attempt to spot souls using your unique sight. While your companions shine like beacons, you don't spot anything at ground level, and looking up doesn't help one bit. You're directly under a rather busy city, so if there IS a soul to spot, it's lost in the mass of topside souls. You open your other eyes again, and look up without the soul sight. Other than some peculiar mushrooms, nothing special seems to be on the ceiling. Eventually, you just have to call off the search. You can't waste too much time. Now comes the matter of the chest under the mushroom house.
I'll just grab that, shall I? Yunikki stomps towards it, grabs the small chest by a handle and pulls it out from under the mushroom. Nothing out of the ordinary seems to be happening, you everybody comes closer to take a look what's inside. It looks to be an almost random collection of clutter, but most of it has value! The ratlings must like shiny things...
There's a lot of assorted coins around, some new, some old. You even see some bronze and silver coins, from when wallets weren't able to somehow hold a literal ton of single gold coins. it was a simpler time. Sadly, they're mostly worthless now. Other than that, you've got some pocket watches, some of which even work, A small set of metal rings with a spike at the front, a monocle with a golden edge, a music box with a figurine of a dancer on it, sowing needles, and random hunks of metal. The smith must dump some of his stuff in the sewers. For shame! This stuff isn't overly valuable, but it's certainly worth something. The punch-rings seem like an exceptionally good find, as they look to be in pristine condition! Somebody must have been quite sad to drop this down the sewers. You're about to propose to everybody to split the loot at the end of the dungeon, but just as you open your mouth you hear a high-pitched squeaky voice from above.
You will drop shinies of Ra'at!On top of the mushroom is a strange little creature, similar to a kobolt but... uglier. The limbs are spindlier, and look a bit more scaly. Furthermore, the claws look long and gnarled, similar to the front teeth. The creature looks to be digitigrade, and it is holding a spear with green gunk on the end. Everybody just stares at the strange appearance for a little bit as it stomps its feet.
Disrespect! Dis-res-pect! First you come for Ra'at's family, now you come for her shinies! This is a crime! Crime! Bad! Bad-bad-bad!It's yelling a lot, and it's hard to get a word in. Eventually, through shouting, you manage to yell something back.
I didn't take your family! That's somebody who looks like me! I'm here to deal with her!YOU LIE TO RA'AT! LIES LIES LIES! RA'AT NOT FORGIVE!She twirls her spear above her head, and then stabs the mushroom she's standing on with all her might! Almost instantly, you hear a release of air and see purple pollen expel from the mushroom! Your party member quickly move to get away, some with more success than others. Eveline and Danica get away in an instant, while your uncle and father are caught right in the cloud. Anatoli covers his face with his arm and backs away, avoiding most of the spores. Yunikki tries to get away, but the pollen overtakes her before she could leave. Your uncle and father start yelling in alarm. They seem to be trying to get something off themselves. They are basically rolling on the floor in a panic, screaming about bugs or fire. Yunikki looks a bit less affected, but she IS swinging her sword at absolutely nothing. You were luck enough to be the furthest from the mushroom and avoiding the spores was no problem. You can move REALLY fast when you need to, after all.
The spores soon clear, moving up to the ceiling, and the small ratling jumps down and charges Anatoli! Just before arriving, she makes a small hop to move into an outright leap upon Anatoli. She flies through the air, spear poised to pierce Anatoli's vitals! Fortunately, Anatoli isn't slow enough to be affected by that, and slams Ra'at down with a swat of his massive hand. She flies through the air, screeching in pain. She lands with the grace of a butter elemental, and slides across the floor with her face. She drops her spear along the way, and lands just before you. You raise an eyebrow, and place one of your legs over her throat. While three of your companions appear to be fighting off pink elephants, the actual threat seems to be down.
...Ra'at would like a do-over.Ra'at isn't getting one. How do we fix our companions?Ra'at not tell YOU! You press down a little harder with your leg. The ratling tries to push the leg away, but is no match for your strength. You have a smug expression on your face as it struggles a little longer. Then it goes limp, and sighs.
Ra'at concedes. Give them wall-grass. Clears head.I'm on it!After a little while, your companions come to their senses. Yunikki had to be held down, as she was way too dangerous with her sword, but in her affected state of mind it was very easy for Danica to sneak up on her and to lock her arms. The moss works nigh-instantaneously, but apparently it's mostly from the taste. It's sour enough to to make the eyes water! That still leaves you with a prisoner under your feet. It simply looks up at you with a strangely intense glare.
Please make Ra'at one promise... Take good care of clan. They good workers, they deserved better shaman.The ratling closes her eyes, apparently waiting for the end. She's holding her breath, as well.
Talk to her a little moreNow that the tensions aren't so high, You can have a proper talk to this little thing.Kill it.There's no need to deal with this thing. Kill it now, and move on.Lock it up.It doesn't need to die... You can bind it somewhere, for now, so it doesn't get in the way.Let it fleeWhatever this thing wants is not of your concern. Let it scurry.Other.Level: 6
HP: 20/25
Mana: 30/30
Stress: 20/100
Current Party
Father: Alibert Aestinus
Uncle: Liam Moore
Ex-bandit: Yunikki Madotsu
Alchemist: Eveline Flynn
Bruiser: Anatoli Barino
Rogue: Danica Karstuno
Equipment:
Drider shirt
Steel sword
Gardener's iron shield
Rough leather armor
Items:
Handkerchief
Magic Cookbook
Pick-axe
4 sleeping bags
Seven potato sacks
Pot, pan, kitchen knife collection, scraping tool.
Magic:
Resurrect vermin: Allows you to resurrect very small creatures such as rats(1) (invests 1 of your max mana)
Reshape minion: Allows you to slightly change the appearance of your resurrected minions. (//////...)
Minion Vision(weak): Allows you to see what a minion sees. The minion must have eyes.
Animate Piece: Allows you to animate just a piece of dead tissue. It requires your constant attention, and cannot act independently. (invests one mana) (1)
Graft: Allows you to use dead tissue as a replacement limb. Requires a lot of mana. (2 per second)
Gather Soul: Allows you to make a soul visible. You can't do anything with it, quite yet. (10 mana)
Undead flashbang: Allows you to blow up a minion for a flash-bang effect. (15 mana)
Stitch: allows you to close a wound and stop bleeding as fast as you can stitch. Costs very little mana, but requires something to stitch with.
Skills:
Poison Stinger (Potentially lethal)
Major experience in blocking and swords.
Climber
Crafty: Bolas
Cooking skill: excellent
Corpse Cutting: Awful.
Animal handling: inexperienced.
Necromantic knowledge
Soul Sniffer
The loot is not yet collected, but will automatically be added in the next update.
Bestiary of the fantastical
RatlingRatlings are small (up a meter and twenty centimeters), digitigrade rat-like creatures. They don't have much fur on their small limbs, which are often described as appearing "scaly". They tend to live where-ever an extremely large rat colony would start. Most commonly, they reside in sewers or trash dumps where they life off the scraps and garbage of a larger city. On a whole, most ratlings are far too timid to attack almost any sentient, but they will aggressively defend their territory using simple spears made up of scrap and oftentimes poisoned using anything on hand, ranging from mushrooms to magical waste.
The most unique part of the Ratling is their tribe leaders, called the Shamans. The average ratling is not considered sentient, but the Shamans are the exception to this rule,
having a high capacity for language and leading a clan to build and expand in an intelligent fashion. The common philosophy is that the basic tribesmen are the hands of the Shaman. Despite this massive difference in intelligence, Shaman's consider themselves below their clan. A Shaman has deep respect for all ratlings, and infighting is entirely unheard of. Some theories exist of a hive-mind, but in reality they seem to work using a combination of simple language learned from the city they gather their scraps from and markings. The Shaman is also responsible for all births and while the childhood of the ratling barely spans two years, they are looked after with ferocity.
Due to only Shamans being sentient, the Ratling is still considered more of an animal than a person. Mistreating a Shaman is generally considered the same as mistreating any other sentient, but ratling drones are even eaten in many cultures.
Author
Topic: Web of Life: A Drider's Adventure (Ended) (Read 190088 times)