Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Liquefied Spleens]

WARNING: This quest has a bad end, despite the massive runtime. Enjoy the story for what it is, but know that the ending is tragically unsatisfying.

Web Of Life
A Drider's Story

Light was the first thing you ever saw. A bright beam of painful photons, headed directly for your poor eyeballs. All eight of them. At the time it was a jarring change, the comfort of your egg being replaced by a cold, painful, unforgiving world. Soon enough, however, the light stopped blinding you, and you could see. A wasteland, with the sun's horrid rays burning you alive. Just behind you, however, is a cave. Your instincts tell you that you must go there to prevent yourself from burning alive. You scurry as fast as your small, pale legs can carry you, stumbling along the way as you learn how to move. You are a quick learner ,manage to reach the cave in time.

Now that you are not getting scorched, getting some impressions from the surrounding lands is a bit easier. You are not, in fact, in some horrid wasteland where dreams go to die. Massive walls on the left and right, with tufts of grass visible at the tops, show that you are in a canyon. A rocky canyon, at that. Your cave may be the largest bit of shade around, but there’s plenty of boulders around to also serve that purpose. You also see strange rocks that do not fit in with the rest of the landscape, they are tiny, white and moving. You decide that they are not worth your time as you lay down.
It will be a little while before your chitin grows in and becomes resistant to the sun. In the meantime, you suppose can keep yourself busy with baby’s first philosophy.
Who are you?


Choose your name, gender and general appearance. You can also add details, such as birthmarks, type of voice and eyes, along with whatever else you can think of.
You will rapidly grow up to be the equivalent of a human teenager soon (by way of timeskip), so keep that in mind. If you are small or large now, you will be so later in life.
Note that what type of spider you are will be decided the next update, this mostly deal with your human half’s appearance
There is also some biological and cultural information on the drider below, to help give an idea of what you look like.


Bestiary of the fantastical (this will update whenever a new creature is found)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Standing at an average of 230 cm, of which 150 cm consists of the spider half,  the drider cuts a distinct profile. They are often compared tocentaurs, with the horse part being replaced by that of a massive spider of varying species. The humanoid half also different. Contrary to the centaur, which always looks like a young, bulky man, the drider can be as varied as any other human race.  Newborn driders start out very small, however, around 20 to 40 cm. Their chitin has not grown in at that stage, forcing them to find shade. (There is a blotted out bit here)

Driders are some of the most potentially dangerous magical creatures around. Their strength is nothing to scoff at, considering the hydraulic musculature of the spider half, but their most fearsome weapon is their intellect. They are as clever as all sentient races, and would even be part of the Sentient Alliance if they were cultured. Sadly, many driders live alone, feeding on the surrounding area. They often harass local farmers and other civilians for food and worship, as their solitary living and high place in the food-chain often gives them a god complex. Some driders succeed in creating a cult, which can lead to the creation of Dridoids.(see page 975: Ex-humans) As they can reach staggering ages, the oldest drider in history being 1843 years old at the time of death, their magic power can be some of the most devastating  in the world.
Many subtypes of drider exist, which will be handled in a following chapter.

Editor’s note: It must be mentioned that this only speaks of “wild” driders. There are driders living among the Sentient Allience, and they share the same rights as any other Sentient.

[Supernerd]

Is this a suggestion game or do we get our own characters?

[Demonic Spoon]

Is this a suggestion game or do we get our own characters?

Seems to be suggestion game?

[Supernerd]

It does look like that, yes. But I'm not giving up on it completely until I hear the answer from the GM.

[S34N1C]

PTW

[Roboson]

(hopes its multiplayer)

[RoseHeart]

It's a suggestion game.

Lets make it sexy. Female. Light blue bottom and eyes with blonde long flowing hair. Lets make Ariel from hell.

[Xvareon]

It's a suggestion game.

Lets make it sexy. Female. Light blue bottom and eyes with blonde long flowing hair. Lets make Ariel from hell.

+1

I vote to have a small mole over her left eye. Both because I've seen so many "perfect" faces that it's become kinda boring, and I liked the look of Lieutenant Maria Ross from Fullmetal Alchemist who had a mole just like that.

Let me also add that I so, so want her to sound like D'vorah from Mortal Kombat X.

[Liquefied Spleens]

It's a suggestion game, yes. I shouldn't have written that post so late at night.
I won't be writing up the next part just yet, due to time constraints. That will be for a little later today.

Of course, if you really want to, you can create some additional characters. They will not be controlled by you, but they will appear in the story as minor or major characters, depending on how appropriate I deem them. I'd suggest you wait until later though, considering that the story is sadly going to remain on rails for a little while(until all character creation is complete and a start point for a story has been established.
I'm somewhat loath to do this, but I wanted to showcase how a drider was born and give the character creation in parts. Consider these early bits the inn in which every adventure party meets. a set thing to launch the freedom.

Feel free to ask more questions, I'll do my best to answer them.

[Liquefied Spleens]

Who hunts the hunter?

Looking yourself over to the best of your ability, it looks like you've been blessed in the looks department. Although, as a baby, you don't really know anything about standards of beauty, but let's go over it anyways. Your hair is exceptionally pale, which means that when it darkens to its permanent colour, it will likely remain quite bright. You feel your face with your lithe hands. You have a thin nose, and smooth skin. You rub yourself over a little more, because of the sheer contrast to the rest of this course, hot world. You stop when you poke the largest pair of eyes you possess. The lowest pair of eyes are the most human in their appearance, appearing large and blue, with little spots of grey mixed it. Your ears are hard to find in the tangles of your already long hair, but through some trying you manage to find them. They are rather long, and pointed. Not quite to the point of elves, but certainly a little more than the average human. You also find a small mole under your left eye, which you scratch at for a little while.
The rest of your body is... average, for what can be told. You are not exceptionally large or small, being around 30 cm tall. Your human half is... nondescript. As a new-born, there is little to see that would differentiate you from the others. Other than your distinct facial features, and a lack of baby fat, there is little that really shows anything special, for now.


As your ruminate about your appearance, and do some other test runs of what your body can do, such as skittering around or even jumping, something skitters forward from the shadows. You are in the middle of checking how far your human half reaches (you can reach the ground!) when the creature suddenly screeches, and lunges forward! It leaps on your abdomen and bites down on your back. You screech in pain, and begin writhing and struggling as it clamps down further. In your struggles, you stumble against a rock, loosening your attacker from your back. A horrid, burning pain remains where it set down its teeth. As you turn around in a frenzy of fear and anger, you see you have been attacked by a rat! Its red eyes and bared teeth show no fear of you, and it slowly tries to cirkle around you. Your instincts kick in and you...

Shoot out web, and stomp down on it with your spider legs
(This will give you the ability to shoot out a web, and gives you an entirely average spider body. Black, not too big or small. Common fantasy spider
Rush it down with your weight, and stab it with your pedipalps( they serve as two extra, sharp legs) Tarantula
This would give you a thick, hairy body, and will make you larger in general. The hairs will be irritating to the enemies' skin. You also have more effective pedipalps. You also get a choice in what colour this fuzz is.
You wait for it to come close, and then stab it with your stinger. You watch from a distance as it slowly succumbs to your poison. Black Widow
This gives you a fast, thin body, with a distinct marking on top. You also gain the ability to poison your enemies. This poison will gain effects according to how you level up.
You skitter to the ceiling of the cave, and drop down to impale the rat with your legs. Giant House Spider
You gain very thin, and extra long legs. This gives you unrivaled speed and makes all of your legs deadly spears. But, you will be much more fragile.
You jump on top of the rat, swooping more than a meter in distance and landing directly on the rat. You then choke it to death with your human half as you keep it in place with your spider half. Jumping spider
This will give you the ability to make startlingly huge jumps. your body will also be a little fuzzy and thick, but it mostly makes you absolutely adorable.
You screech at the rat as you close in. The rat seems disoriented, allowing you to grab it by the head and chowing down with your mouth. The splash of blood and the crack of the skull invigorates you. Berserker
This will give you the average body, but instead of webbing, your human half is a little more monstrous. You can open your mouth to a massive degree, and have shark-like rows of teeth. You also heal from eating prey.
You throw a scoop of sand in its eyes, and rush it down with your hands and pedipalps. It rapidly dies from your onslaught Wolf spider
You are able to dig holes, and live for the element of surprise. You are a little fuzzy, and have small ridges attached to your legs to allow for more effective digging. They also serve as potential holders for whatever you fancy.

And here's the next bit. I will try to answer any question you may have
Also, I'll try to keep everything at least somewhat related to the spiders that exist in our world, meaning I need to do research on these suckers.
I am also massively arachnophobic, so that'll be fun in the future...

Also of note, D'vorah sounds friggin' awesome, but I really wanted to have give your character a human voice. As it stands, I will base myself off of other work from the same voice actor. This means you will have a somewhat low, but still distinctly female voice.

Edit: if no concensus is reached, I will roll a dice to decide which type you shall be.

[Demonic Spoon]

>Rush it down with your weight, and stab it with your pedipalps( they serve as two extra, sharp legs Tarantula

[Xvareon]

I favor Wolf Spider, personally. Spiders are ambush predators by nature. I also like the idea of being able to dig effectively, have a nice layer of fuzz, and possibly holding items more easily.

[vishdafish]

I vote for black widow. Poison opens up a whole host of interesting tactical options.

[RoseHeart]

Daddy Longleg(jk)

Spoiler: Actually... (click to show/hide)

*height advantage for our fireballs*

[Liquefied Spleens]

A Family Man

I have rolled for what type you will be, and came out with 3. As I worked in order of the posted comments, this means that your character is based off the Black Widow!

The rat twitches and foams as your poison does its work. While your poison may be able to kill a rat, it is likely that this is only possible through the sheer amount you injected into it, in comparison to its small size. You feel a little drained, but satisfied. You wander over to the rat, to play with it. Similar to your own body, you touch it over in curiosity. While its fur is matted and filthy, it's still soft. After rubbing it over, your instincts tell you that it's a good idea to chow down on it. You slowly slice it open with your pedipalps, which is not a fast process. These things are really just for eating dead prey. Still, once you pierce through the tough skin and reach the bountiful meat inside, you feast. You are far from careful, and end up covered in blood and viscera as you devour it. You end up eating a very large hole in the rat, eating most of the organs inside. By the time you finished, the sun has begun to come down, painting the canyon orange. You stare in awe as you attempt to clean up some of the viscera attached to you. The blood won't be coming off for a while, but it doesn't matter to you.
You just discovered the world is beautiful.

Standing there, enraptured by the sunset, you also notice that the tiny white rocks throughout the canyon have stopped moving. A little strange, but you can check it out when your chitin grows in. It's already changing colour from white and see-through to a heavenly blue, with a strange orange mark on top of your abdomen. It still feels uncomfortable to be directly into the sun's rays, but at least you feel like you'd survive. In a few hours, you'll explore the canyon. You sit down, next to the body of the rat, in order to nibble at the rest of the meat. You relax there for a while, until you hear heavy footsteps. The ground seem to quake as it becomes louder. You rush the far end of the cave, a mere two meters further. This turns out to be a good plan, when a massive creature suddenly slide it's way in, gasping in exertion. You remain quiet, terrified beyond relief. Your instincts tell you to run from such a massive foe, but there's no way out! You freeze up as the creature mutters to itself. You can't understand it, but it sounds panicked

In the distance, you hear more strange noises coming from the same direction this monster came from. It sounds similar to the muttering of the creature, but much more composed.
"I saw him go here! Come on!" a raspy voice says. The owner doesn't sound winded in the least, contrary to the monster in your cave.
"I getcha. " a smoother, melancholy voice is heard. He sounds uninterested.
Come on! I'm not leaving without this bounty. We need food on the table!
The footsteps are not as heavy as the one belonging to the monster. They must be quite a bit slower. The monster seems to hold it's breath as the two strange creatures come closer. They walk beyond the cave, and you get a good look at them from the back of your cave. One of them is brightly coloured, wearing some green robes and jewelry, while the other is dressed in a blue tunic and brown pants. The robed person is wielding a hooked shovel, while the other has a hook attached to some rope.

The footprints stopped around here. He must be hiding.
You got the net?
Don't I always? Remember, we get more money if he's alive.
The man with the tunic sighs
Not like I've got mouths to feed...

The robed man stops his searching for a moment, and looks at his companion, looking sad.
Come on, brother. I brought you along so you could try and forget about it. Try not to think about it for now, alright?
I'm sorry, Liam. Let's keep on searching.
The monster in your cave keeps itself as still as he can. He releases the breath he was holding the whole time.
Just a bit too loudly.

I heard something, there, by that cave!
The monster scrambles out of his hiding place, and begins to run again. The man with the tunic throws his hook, and manages to stick it into his shoulder.  With a mighty heave, the monster falls down, screaming in pain. The robed man, or "Liam" as the sad man called him, throws a glowing net over the target. The net's glow intensifies, and the weights at the bottom twist around each-other. the monster is soon completely stuck inside the net. IT was amazing to see that monster taken down so easily. Its scales proving useless against the simple iron hook.
Haha! nice! Excellent throw, Alibert! Excellent. This lizardman's run his last thieving run
Save it, let's just- what the hell?
The man with the tunic has stepped on one of the white rocks. It gives way, covering his boot with strange white liquid.

Great divines! A drider egg!? Those are really rare! We could get more money from those than for our dirtbag here.
Said dirtbag yells in defiance. Or maybe because they neglected to remove the hook from his shoulder.
Look, where there's one, there usually around five. Those things are filled to the brim with magic, come on, help me look!
Driders are sapient. We can't just take their eggs!
The sun's supposed to make these eggs hatch. If they haven't cracked open by now, they never will. Oh! here's another!

The two men look around for a while, finding all the eggs. By the end, they have gathered four.
And that's four, right. That'll give us a LOT of money. Probably enough for that inn you always wanted.
I can't keep it open by myself. You know that.
An awkward silence falls over the duo. After a pause of ten eternal seconds, Liam speaks up again:
C-could you check the cave, in case he stashed some valuables there? Then we can go home and... forget it. You need some alcohol.
That I do. I'll check.

The man in the blue tunic comes closer to you. As he gets down on his knees to check, you get a good look at his face. He has hair growing above his lip, which is bound together with small bits of rope. His chin is also graced by some hair, and all of that fuzz is brown. He wears a large, straw hat, which only barely doesn't cover his warm ,blue eyes. His friendly looks are offset by his intimidating build, but ultimately, he doesn't look bad at all. Regardless, it's a creature that's more than six times your height, so you keep still and hope he doesn't see you.
To no great effect. He looks at you with surprise, which quickly turns into a curious look. He tilts his head quizzically as he also sees your meal.
Are you all alone here, little one?
What?
Shush! I found someone.
Liam comes closer and takes a look at you, along with the friendly-looking man. Liam is a lot rougher-looking. He sports a white beard and plenty of scars. He's a lot more scary than the other one. He looks at his friend questioningly, but he does not seem to notice. You squeak in fear as the friendly man climbs into the cave, and you attempt to make yourself even smaller. There's nowhere to hide.

Hey,hey, little one. It's all right. Did he hurt you?
You can't understand what he's saying, but his soft tone and non-threatening manner make you at ease. You uncurl yourself a little as he slowly comes closer. Eventually, he reaches out a hand. he moves his fingers in a way that tells you to come closer. After some deliberation, you climb on his hand.
...You aren't going to do what I think you're going to do, right?
The man smiles warmly
I think I'll be buying that inn.


That's how you got adopted, in short. The next fourteen years were as normal as can be for a child raised in a human village. Alibert, the man in the tunic, proves to be an excellent father. Liam becomes your honorary uncle, and you learn most of your combat abilities from him. Your social life was as normal as can be, considering your spider body, but generally you were:
Aloof
You were the cool cat, the mysterious spider girl. You remained alone a lot, partially because you liked being alone, partially because you love the air of mystery around you.
Social Butterfly
You loved playing with others, and it really shows. You're extremely social at all times, knowing all the latest gossip and being friendly with nearly all children around your age.
Shy
You were studious and somewhat shy. You were so different from the other children you never quite came out of your shell.
Curious
You had to know everything there is in the world. You are so full of energy other people had trouble keeping up with you, but you were deemed harmless enough
Eccentric
You were... strange. You loved to poke and prod at people's limits, and did whatever you liked. You never hurt anybody intentionally, though.
Other
Your choice.

This will decide how you act whenever things happen that aren't important enough to warrant people choosing what to do. The limits are that you should have grown up relatively normal. No conquering surrounding lands or anything.

Your uncle based his training where he saw your talent, which was...

Sword and Board.
You are trained to use your entire body in combat. Through training, you have a sturdy upper body, and you can strike your poison as fast as any sword swing.
Bow and Arrow
Your eight eyes give you a keen sight, and through some training you can fire a bow as well as any marksman. Your body is built for dexterity
Spear or halberd
As a drider, you're cavalry all on your own. You can wear heavy armor from the start, and are powerfully built. You aren't quite as sturdy, however, meaning you must rely entirely on your armor.
Slice and Stab
You wield a sword with one hand, and a dagger in the other. You are entirely offensive, meaning that you must kill your opponent before they hit you. You are built for speed and dexterity in equal measure.
Alternative
You chose your own weapon, and got the appropriate training.

Magic will be possible regardless of what training you had.


This was a long update, god damn.
I actually combined two choices here, originally the choice in personality and what martial training you got was two updates, but I wanted to get you off the rails faster.

Because the choice of spider body was chosen by a roll of the dice, if enough votes are given to a different body, that can still happen. This is a one-time chance.