Well, that's one way to rock the vote, innit?
Also, good on you for avoiding calm mind. That was essentially a trap, because of the reasons Dev stated. As I stated, I am a cruel god.
Sydney, and Alexia, tend to lose control when stressed. Look at the bit where Yunikki was being degraded. We end up with options like...
SNIP
That was kind of a grey area. It wasn't a stressful thing, but it was utterly infuriating. The main point was that Sydney's anger was visible. Stress refers to more despair or fear, reasons to hide away in a mental shell and let something else take over.
Of course, reach a high enough level of anger, and you might just swap, but you'd need drugs or magic to reach that level of fury.
Stress is also more than just Alexia. It's a way to show Sydney's general mental state. She will act differently on high stress, and the given options will often reflect that. Alexia is just the tipping point, where she just lets something else take the wheel that "isn't her".
I'm going to give you the official Word Of God: Alexia is nothing more than an alternate personality, affected by a drider's natural state of being. Sydney is just insane, and magic doesn't mix well (or to be more accurate, mixes
too well) with insanity.
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ACTUAL UPDATE STARTS HEREWhen you awake in the morning, you feel refreshed and ready to get back on the road. Everyone else has already begun on packing everything up, except for Yunikki. She's still in kind of a daze, but she seems to be less insane than before. Or at least she switched in her homicidal rage with depression. She's constantly holding a hand over her mark, keeping the "A" out of sight. You can still see it, her hand not large enough to cover the massive mark. You catch her occasionally rubbing the scar, the burnt skin cracking just a little bit.
You stop her from doing it, obviously. She doesn't even react as you pull her hand away, but reacts far more aggressively if anybody else tries it. Looks like you're going to be her caretaker for the foreseeable future...
When everything is packed and people are ready to go, you give a final goodbye to Eveline. You made a little detour to her village, and the kobolts were kind enough to give you some extra supplies before you left. Just bits of food, mostly, which will make sure you'll be comfortable on the road. Eveline seems to have taken to her commanding roll, as much as she can, at any rate. She keeps her distance from face-to-face talks, but she does the paperwork and planning well enough for the first few days. She'll never quite be a social creature, will she?
You note that she seems to have saved a few alchemy tables from the castle. She won't be bored, at least...
The final talk was in her new office, the town hall was mercifully spared at least a little from the battles that took place.
I'll miss you, Eveline. It's been great.Yeah, I'll... Hey, could you come closer for a second?You come closer a little bit as Eveline whispers something indistinct.
Yes? What is-Suddenly, she kisses you, a quick peck and a lick (as close as a kobolt can come to a kiss) before putting her forehead against yours. You just barely restrain yourself from jumping back, startled, but you know this is important to her.
I... I think you already knew my feelings...?I did.D-did you ever...No. I... I never saw you as anything but a friend. You feel your face growing red as you feel guilty. Guilty about not loving somebody in that way? What a mean and stupid thing to feel...
...I understand. But I have a final gift. I've been hard at work with the vampire's blood, and I think THIS should be useful to you.She opens a drawer and gives you a bottle filled with a strange yellow-black mixture. It looks like striped sand, but it moves around just enough to appear liquid.
Against the odds, I found a cure against vampirism. You'll keep a few side-effects, sure, but it should refresh you. It should clean up the corruption Erika told me about. BUT, here's the thing: your corruption will go away over time, in a year or two you'll be at the same level. If you drink it THEN... I think it might just cure the Crimson Curse. Or begin the recovery, at least. My advice is waiting, but...This is incredible! How did you even discover this?The vampire's alchemist had revolutionary notes. An absolutely mindboggling scientific journal, but the cruelty involved in finding what she knew... She deserved all she got, and I pray nobody else would follow her footsteps. Let's hope that, then. Well... I'll be leaving. I never did like goodbye's. And yet, here we are. You see her eyes glitter as tears begin to well up in her dark, almost innocent eyes.
Goodbye, Sydney. Come visit us again soon.I will. And before I go...You give her a quick peck on the cheek, leaving her dazed and confused as you leave the room. You can't help but laugh in a bombastic manner.
Once you were on the road, things were mercifully quite calm. The roads are fairly sparse when it comes to vegetation, and considering the dwarves live under a desert that's unlikely to change much more as you keep moving. When you are in a particularly empty spot, the witch-hunter starts talking.
So, remember when I told you I needed to tell you something exceptional?Kind of? Well, you see, I figured that you were accepting of almost any kind of person, even those that would be considered dangerous or a liability, correct? ...You gave me a sword, am I going to have to use it?I hope not. Anyway...He grabs his head with both hands, and pulls upwards. To your shock and horror HIS HEAD POPS OFF!?? A blue flame comes out of the stump as he holds his head under his arm, looking oddly casual about decapitating himself
WHAT THE FUDGE?What the hell!?I concur.So yeah. This is me. I'm actually a Dullahan. Or in the process of becoming one, at any rate.Evil...Not quite. It's... Do you know what a Dullahan is, for starters?Yes, I do. The Headless Riders. The harbingers of death. Wherever they stop, death must follow. Nothing can stop their ghostly carriages, and they are vicious against those who see them. They strike out the eyes of those watching with a whip made of a human spine!Or they throw a bucket of blood at them, marking them for death.How did you BECOME one of those things!?Long story short? Cursed armor. There's a lot of other parts, but that's what it comes down to. You... You said you're still in the process of becoming one, right!? How long do you have.A few years. At best. You're a real liability to us. The one saving grace of Dullahans is their rarity......But it's not going to be a problem for several years, and we have a few precautions.You can look past this. But, of course, you will be VERY wary. You just need to get some gold on you to keep yourself safe. The material, not just money. Dullahans are terrified of gold. So get out of here.We're not getting cursed over this. So we'll be preventing this NOW.He dies. Now.Other.Basic Stats
Level: 11
HP: 45/45
Poison stings: 1/1
Restraint 3/3
Mana: 60/60
Stress: 00/70
Corruption: 6/10
Thirst: Sated
Children:
Firstborn Son 5/5
Firstborn Daughter 6/6
Items and equipment
Equipment:
Extra long shirt
Vest
Painted Carapace Armor
Bastard sword (sharpened)
Simple iron shield
Items:
First Tome of Eternal Darkness
Spare clothing (x12)
Fancy clothing
The Cure (cures vampirism)
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 14 mana)
Reshape minion plus!: Allows you to majorly change the appearance of your resurrected minions.
Control Undead: Allows you to attempt to control an undead that doesn't belong to you. (mana cost of 2 per second, unmastered)
Minion Vision: Allows you to see what a minion sees. The minion must have eyes.
Disintegrate undead: Delete a corpse you currently control.
Animate Piece: Allows you to animate just a piece of dead tissue. It requires your constant attention, and cannot act independently. (Drains 0 mana)
Graft: Allows you to use dead tissue as a replacement limb. Requires a lot of mana. (1 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. (9 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. (9 mana)
Stitch: allows you to close a wound and stop bleeding as fast as you can stitch. Costs zero 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 (4 mana)
Smoke Cloud: Breathe out harmless but thick smoke. (1 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 (1 mana)
Doombolt: A more powerful version of the above (4 Mana)
Companions
You'll find something nice, soon. It can't be anything above "average beast" however.
Skills:
Broodmother: Once per day, you can sting something to create spiderlings, which are large, clever spiders that adore you by default. Your instincts cause you to be VERY protective of them.
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
EDIT: fixed the error of the missing armor. Necromantic fire is "Disintegrate Undead", due to inexperience.
Author
Topic: Web of Life: A Drider's Adventure (Ended) (Read 190133 times)