I've got another idea, but it'll take a lot of doing. You say. You see a multitude of raised eyebrows, your somewhat harebrained schemes from the spider cave left a bit of a bad impression.
I think a lot of doing lost its meaning after a while, considering the narrative likes leaping to more interesting parts. Yunikki snarks. There is a general rolling of the eyeballs, and Sucy adds a nearly silent:
"Hypocrite."Anyway, I'm thinking of making a golem to make some webbing.I thought it was impossible to get silk glands working with a dead body... Meandra says, more musing to herself than actually adding to the conversation. You decide to take her up on that, though
That's why it has to be a golem. You can keep things moving in a golem, although it IS pretty hard. Wouldn't it need to eat, though? The kobolt alchemist adds, ever astute.
Yeah, I guess it would need quite a bit of protein. Needs a lot of meat, like I do, but I guess a diet of beans would work too.Unless somebody has to be in the same room.Snickers erupt from all around. You can't help but give a sideways smile at the joke, although you honestly consider flatulence jokes to be a little below you.
Laugh all you want... The alternative is angry birds.What?Resurrect a bunch of birds, make 'em explosive, and have them divebomb the poor sap of my choosing. In this case, that'd be the vampire.How would you make them explosive?I have two alchemists.The weight would be too much for most birds. Sucy says, not even looking at you. Despite grinning as she said that beans joke, she seems to be back to looking exhausted.
True. If we add too little explosive force, the vampire will be left slightly singed, at best. And too much explosives mean the birds won't even get off the ground... And, of course, the bastard is really fast. We'll look into it when we have them time. I can see the outpost.The outpost looks to be in excellent repair, all things considered. The adventurers seem to have added some reinforcements to the walls, as there are some holes in the defences. It's not hard to see where they had to add their own work. Most of the walls look like sturdy wooden poles, bound together. They seem to have added some rather grim warning signs, however. Thrall heads on pikes, recognizable only because of their caps or their bodies being nearby. Two of them were hung from the walls, but those still seem to be alive. They twitch and gnash their teeth as the rope hangs around their neck. When you enter the fort (you just climbed over the wooden walls. No need to wait for the gate) the adventurers seem to be in good spirits. They seem quite proud of the little slice they took, and they even hand you a fresh map to study, to reflect the change in ownership this outpost had. They also perform some raids on the road, stopping a delivery from the farm to the castle! They've been enjoying some bread, which was created by the taller sword-and-boarder, the one with the chin. There's still a few sacks of general farm stuff, most of it being crops of some sort. There's also a bag filled with pipe-weed, a calming drug mostly enjoyed with... well, pipes.
It kind of surprises you that the vampire enjoys the occasional batch of the devil's lettuce, but you don't care overmuch. You hate the stuff, it always just stinks up the place, and the ones that use it habitually act like their brain is leaking through their ears as a slow rate. You once had somebody laying in hall, crying about a snake. Apparently because they don't have arms.
You congratulate their efforts, and take the kobolt aside to talk about possible traps for the golem. She isn't too sure on how to proceed on that one, if it's as big as you say it is. Her favorite trick of a big pit is out of the question, at least. Too much work. Tripwires would require something mighty strong indeed, yet still tensed enough to snap when something walks over it. If she had the time and tools, she COULD make a beartrap, but even then it'd have to be really big. Not to mention, it might not even care.
All she can really think of making for something that big is an oil trap. Something that explodes in the face of the creature that can not only be set alight, but will blind the putrid beast as well! Getting the oil shouldn't be too much of a hassle, she keeps a decent amount, and if the vampire really gets that much easern visits, there has to be a lot of oil somewhere... Likely in one of the camps, considering the smell. If there's one thing the people of the east love, it's oil. They even have some kind of wrestling type where they cover themselves with oil and little else, and they...
The kobolt, contrary to her usually stoic demeanor, really gets into the oil wrestling bit. You have a faint suspicion she has a bit of a fixation on muscley men covered in oil.
You can understand the appeal.
Eventually, you all decide that you just need to figure out where the oil is begin kept, and then stealing the stuff so you can set a dude on fire with
passion!Seems like a fun plan, and you were about to get started on that if it wasn't for the fact that there was a fresh face on the road. An oddly dressed man is coming down the path. He's wearing a metal chestplate, but otherwise looks to be wearing some thick leather armor. He is wearing a fairly thick choker with a necklace around it, made of a simple metal. He is wearing a over his forehead, leaving most of his buzzcut left alone. More importantly is his weaponry. He has a very long bow on his back, only barely not scraping the floor, even though it reaches above his head. He also had a crossbow on his chest, reinforced with metal tips along the side. He seems a little wary as he looks at the bunch of you looking at him from behind the walls. He is pawing at his crossbow, but decides to talk, first
Hey! Friend or foe!? he yells from a distance. His voice is surprisingly young-sounding considering his rough-looking exterior.
You decide to risk it, and poke your head out with your shield at the ready.
Who's asking!? you shout, a bit more rough than you wanted to. You're not good at being calmly loud.
My Name's Hal Durran! I'm a witch-hunter, and there has been some bad stuff around these parts! I'm here to clean it up! Who are you?Sydney Aestinus! Overactive tourist! I'm here to help a friend by killing a vampire!Then I call you friend! Will you do the same!?You order the gates to be opened to your new guest. Up close, you notice three things. First, he's actually kind of short. The second part is that he did not know you were a drider while you were shouting from behind the gate. Third, he is carrying an obscene amount of bolts and arrows.
He seems to be staring at you for the moment, not saying much. To make that end, you decide to start the conversation.
Eyes up here, pal. I got some great legs, I know, but let's have a talk. Oh! Yes, I-I'm sorry. I just... What are you?I'm a drider. Lady with a spider for legs? Got eight eyes, well, seven, in my case. Trust me, you get used to it pretty fast. Just pay attention to the upper parts and you can even forget about the spidery bits.Right...Those are some big weapons...Don't let the size fool you, they're fairly light... Not that you'd be able to use it, miss. You need to be pretty tall to use the bow, and the crossbow's... Alright, I admit, that one may be too heavy for you to keep on target.Useful. Very useful... Things have been pretty close-ranged for most of us.I can see you've got a crossbow, though, what's going on with that?I've been improvising. I don't have the mana to just use my deathbolts. Necromancy? Rare stuff... Can't say I liked fighting any of your type. Experienced, are you?Witchhunter's a fairly wide term. I'm the guy they send when somebody's abusing their magic too much. And some mercenary work on the side. Gotta get my daily bread, don't I?He seems nice. If nothing else, he'll be very valuable.
What now?Go looking for the oil storage.Oil is still very useful and valuable, so it's likely to be close to the castle itself. Get to know the newcomerIt's always interesting to discover something new.Plan out an attack on the golemNo oilOtherMap
Basic Stats
Level: 10
HP: 30/30
Mana: 53/53
Stress: 04/61
Thirst: Sated
Items and equipment
Equipment:
Carapaced leather armor
Vampire's Blade
Gardener's Shield
Bolas(x4)
Handmade Bola
Items:
Spare Clothing (x2)
First Tome of Eternal Darkness
Blood Vials (x7)
Poisonbox
Journal
Spellbook
Cookbook
Stashed away:
Spare clothing (x13)
Fancy clothing
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 15 mana)
Reshape minion plus!: Allows you to majorly change the appearance of your resurrected minions.
Minion Vision: 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. (Drains 1 mana per three seconds)
Graft: Allows you to use dead tissue as a replacement limb. Requires a lot of mana. (2 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. (10 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. (10 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.
Siphoning Cloud: Breathe out a cloud that drains the life from victims and gives it to you. Adds a LOT to intimidation (5 mana)
Smoke Cloud: Breathe out harmless but thick smoke. (2 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 (2 mana)
Doombolt: A more powerful version of the above (5 Mana)
Familiar
Tiny Skeletal Dragon (a little toasted)
Skills:
Poison Stinger (leaves a sack inside the body, which pops. Makes it easier to "defuse")
Crossbow usage: Novice
Oral Fixation: Can cast spells spells from the mouth.
Draining Limbs: Can drain blood using pedipalps.
Major experience in blocking and swords.
Climber
Crafty: Bolas
Cooking skill: Excellent
Corpse Cutting: Quite Decent.
Animal handling: inexperienced.
Necromantic knowledge
Soul Sniffer