Fine. Fine! I'll join these morons. That wizard might have something of note, anyhowYou won't regret it. Really. Now, I... need to take a nap.True to her word, she goes to her bedroll and essentially slams facefirst into the pillow. Out like a light, that one.
You join up with the adventurers, but out of principle you walk with the dwarf and wizard. You don't need to be with those two cowards leading the expedition. You just make sure they keep going in the right direction, as they take the wrong one a few times. God damn it, these idiots can't do anything on their own. The wizard, meanwhile, didn't have nearly as much interesting things to say as he claimed. Although that's mostly because you already know everything he noted. He suspects there was a ritual of great power that caused the insanity of the house, and that, by association, there must have been a very powerful catalyst for that ritual. He looked through the old brickwork with the crossbowdwarf. (who only knows the very basics of common. She mostly speaks dwarf, which is a rough language at best. It's kind of what you'd expect language to sound like if they shortened everything they could get their hands on, based on a language several rocks made because they were bored. So it's a combination of complicated and mindnumbingly boring at the same time, somehow).
He figures that burning down the house led to the destruction of that catalyst, if the ritual did not cause it to be taken. You don't tell him about the book you found. No need for that drama, and he'd likely do something... drastic, to get that kind of information. You spend most of the journey discussing magical theory, but the orc is actually shockingly unqualified to have a proper discussion. Look like he wasn't schooled, like you were. When he starts talking about how magical theory is made up to keep true wizardry down, you know enough. He's kind of an idiot too. Still, you do blow his mind on two separate occasions. For one, he didn't know how the energies when something is resurrected, and he also didn't know that you don't actually need a damned spell book to cast spells. (on that note, you taught him how to make his waterballs look different. Now they look like tiny stampeding horses). He's a water mage, apparently. Mostly slinging water around at high speeds to do all sorts of things. If he were to make the effort, he could probably heal people. Unfortunately, he never went to school, and you don't know the first thing about healing things. Even your stitching's kind of bad, you have to admit. Sure, it stops the bleeding, but it's not exactly pretty. Long-term, it may even leave scars that could have been avoided. Still. Cure what kills first.
You also take a small amount of time to tell them about your... battle frenzies. You don't elaborate much, just that they should be careful if you were to suddenly ditch your weapons and change a little bit. The wizard takes it to heart, while the two at the front hardly seem to care.
When you get to the small clearing where you fought the feral, you discover that you're just BARELY on time. Two thralls are dragging the corpse away by his feet, and you already can't see the feral woman. Good thing they went in at two separate times.
The crossbowdwarf is the quickest on the draw, and launches a bolt. It goes wide, and it warns the thralls of the approaching party of pain. Still, they remain poor fighters at best, and the addition of the wizard attacking them with the water (high speed, low contact area. Quite deadly, actually) makes short work of them after you and the shield-guy charge them down. Now, you just need to deal with the corpse, you suppose.
You'd think that, of course.
Suddenly, an earpiercing screech can be heard, and before you can even react a figure lands on the other shieldguy, smashing him to the ground with an earthshaking thud. A horrible creature, looking like an awful mix of man and wolf, begins to tear into the shieldbearer, his shield barely enough to block one of the massive claws. You stab it in the back, causing it to rear up and roar. It twists away, and you only barely keep grip on your sword as it jumps off its victim. Without the blurring speed of the creature attacking the shieldbearer, you see many gruesome wounds, as if the skin could not keep up with it's insides. Tears in the skin reveal twisted flesh and bone, and the arms look horrifically stretched to give it the gait of a great ape. The legs are bent back, and it's face looks as if the mouth was just moved forward by an open tumor, startlingly human teeth at the front.
HHHUAAAAAHH The creature screams with an all-to-familiar voice.
Seems none of them like STAYING dead.
In an all to familiar move, it pounces towards you again. Fortunately, with familiarity comes preparation, and instead of merely blocking the creature, you raise your sword to catch it. The leathery hide nearly breaks you sword, but you thankfully pierce. The force of the pounce is not negated, and once more you take a hard hit. Without your other hand to steady the shield,however, your protection is turned against you, slamming against your head. Fortunately, the wound you inflicted upon the beast keeps it at bay, as the kobolt jumps on its back and tries to jam her daggers through the splits in its horrible hide. The creature screams again, before a crossbow bolt hits it right in the chest. Left side, where the heart should be. A bloody good shot!
With a strangely quiet growl, the creature grabs the kobolt and slams her against the floor. She bounces, and you can see her arm was dislocated from the sheer force. Before the abomination can follow through, however, you and the shieldbearer simultaneously attack the back. You hit each-others shoulders, but you succeed in keeping the creature from popping the kobolt like a grape. The wizard also throws in a waterbolt, and another bolt hits the creature in the arm. Suddenly, it plants its arms on the ground and kicks the both of you with its short, but massively powerful legs. Then, it leaps almost 15 meters from a standing position to crash atop the wizard. With no armor but his robes, the wizard is disemboweled in short order! He screams and does some final futile movements before dying as the creature begins to eat from his exposed guts.
You deem this enough of a reason to make a swap.
Fuck you! The queen shouts as she puts her weapon away and charges at an impossible speed! Shoulder-first, the creature is rammed off the corpse. The creature feels like a slab of meat, but the small legs are a weak point. Before it can recover, the queen follows up with two more strikes to its head. Some parts feel far softer than others, especially the unfinished mouth, and it has good effects. One quick grapple to the mouth and a charge with all the power her legs can muster force it on its back. Then, the queen stings. It feels strange, to inject a tough sack of something, but it has good effects. While the poison is negligable, the soft tissue is blocked and hampered by the little sack. With the stinger tearing into the stomach, the creature vomits a little.
That's about the end of the good fortune, though.
All at once, it rakes and flails it's dagger-like claws, and it is only through Sydney's shield that the Queen isn't completely torn to shreds. But the attack is relentless, and even a bolt from the crossbowdwarf does not even slow it down. Eventually, the other shieldbearer reaches you, and uses both hands to slam his word down on the attacker. That finally fazes it long enough for the queen to breathe a horrible, toxic cloud that seems to seep into the wounds of the abomination, quickly worsening them. All at once, it is wracked with intense pain, and it flails away, trying to tear at the rapidly darkening flesh as rot begins to set in. The fresh wounds only aggravate the condition, but the flailing makes it a ball of death! Neither the queen nor the shieldbearer can even get close.
Eventually, with a final scream, the creature jumps away into the thicket. It's injuries were too much for it to handle, and it is sadly not wild enough to fight to the end.
COWARD! WRETCHED ABOMINATION! HALF-BREED SCUM, COME HERE AND FACE YOUR DEATH!Enough! We need to get the wounded back, and my ally. You can carry the corpse, I'll take care of Rogue!DO NOT THINK YOU CAN COMMAND ME, COWARD! The queen says, teeth bared. Her eyes shine with rage.
Say, you got the adventurers in kind of mess. And Sydney may not subconsciously care for their well-being.
Should you maybe make a push towards something?Map
Basic Stats
Level: 10
HP: 22/50
Mana: 35/53
Stress: XXX
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 (x6)
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 (Percussive)
Skills:
Poison Stinger (leaves a sack inside the body, which pops.)
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
Author
Topic: Web of Life: A Drider's Adventure (Ended) (Read 185982 times)