Topic: Web of Life: A Drider's Adventure (Ended) (Read 185020 times)

omada · « **Reply #2985 on:** June 03, 2019, 11:18:02 am »

Steathy first, we don't want to risk losing our friend again, if we think that we can somehow manage to take the building we do it

beware, we got hints before saying that the goblin turned into something... BIG

although we might just stab him with our eggsack

Devastator · « **Reply #2986 on:** June 03, 2019, 11:32:52 am »

I say we go for the takeover. With draining smoke we should be able to heal any small cuts, and we have our eggsack if anything big or special comes along.

If it seems like there are no survivors and it's just monsters, switch over to just getting our thing and leaving.

Liquefied Spleens · « **Reply #2987 on:** June 05, 2019, 01:16:06 pm »

Right, let’s take this slow. No need to take risks in this place, and I heard something bad was in here.
Yunikki grunts, and takes on a smaller posture by leaning a bit. She’s going to have more trouble moving stealthy than you, at least in the noise department. It’s probably evened out by you being about 8 feet tall and having a massive spider for legs. You take point, as you can take a hit of anything goes wrong. The first room of the tower seems eerily quiet, strangely so, even. There’s little more than a desk here, along with a small rack of returned books. You briefly look them over, but they don’t seem to be anything too interesting. They’re mostly history books on the city, and a single erotic novel about centaurs. Something about that seems freaky, but you elect to disregard it. You’ve got bigger fish to fry.

Moving on to the next room, you see your first mutant. It is a great soft jelly… thing. Smoothly rounded, without a mouth. There are pulsing white holes, filled with fog, where it’s eye aught to be. The most upward part of the misshapen creature’s body. Rubbery appendages rounding down into legless humps of a soft and slippery matter. It stumbles around, seemingly blind, leaving a moist trail wherever it moves. Blotches of diseased, evil grey come, as if light is shining from somewhere in that mass of inhuman flesh. It couldn’t have been human, even before it’s infection, but how else would it possibly be here? Something must have affected the plague on this poor sod. It still wanders about, as if in a haze, only sometimes undulating away from the strange grey splotches that appear. It’s clearly in pain, but the shape of this thing wouldn’t possibly allow it to harm itself. It can’t even harm others. The books, haphazardly strewn about, suffer nothing in the way of damage when it passes over, apart from a vague slime trail. You let your undead drider test it out first, but it seems to confirm that this creature is utterly harmless.
You wonder who it once was, and pray that it doesn’t remember.

You leave the creature be, for now. You don’t want to see what happens if you were to try killing it, or even touch it. For all you know, this thing can explode. It’s not exactly hard to avoid, either. You look through the books for just a moment, but it doesn’t seem to be anything that you could use right now. More history books, it seems, some of them talking about your own home country, others just about the east. You did find one book on the deadlands, but they have nothing on the dwarves and the orcs. There is one book that interested you enough, mostly because of the name on the cover.
“A quick history of Far East Royalty, by Atsuko Kagari.”
You didn’t even expect Akko could read, let alone write a book on the far east. You wonder if the plague reached there, but most likely not. These creatures don’t seem smart enough to sail all the way there. You pocket the book, more out of curiosity than anything else.
With that, there’s nothing left for you on this floor. The creature is unlikely to wander far from where you found it, and it seems harmless. You should move on to the next floor.
Your minion goes first, the short spear being more ideal than your massive sword (and arm) on the staircase. Fortunately, the only thing that you find is some filth, though you don’t quite know what kind of filth it is. It looks… fleshy. Not bloody, though, it just looks like some kind of purple hunk of something, almost bruised. You elect not to touch it, just in case. When you reach the top of the stairs, however, you find that the whole place is seemingly covered in tumorous masses of that same flesh-like residue. As if something is growing out of the walls, and is beginning to connect to itself. Contrary to most weird fleshy protrusions, these ones at least have the decency not to be squirming or anything creepy like that. Though their stillness is unsettling in its own way. It doesn’t take long before you find something, fortunately, it has its back turned to you.
It’s a strange, stretched figure, wearing a robe. Almost as if somebody took a human being and stretched it upwards, clothing included. The limbs are spindly and thin, far too thin to even support itself. The creature is standing there, listlessly moving only one arm in a mechanical motion, shoveling that strange bruised flesh from the floor into its face. It’s completely bald, and the head is stretched out even further. You can see the globs of meat go down from here, the neck bulges with every obscenely huge chunk. You can’t see it from the front, but the fingers are more akin to claws than fingers at this point.

This thing’s dangerous, you know that much. But with its back turned to you, you might be able to finish it off in a single swing. You carefully approach, making sure not to make much more noise than needed. Then, once you’re close, you let Alexia take the lead with the ram dao sword. The massive blade connects into the back of the creature, and cleaves through flesh and bone until… it stops. With a suddenness that nearly blasts your arm out of its socket, all momentum is just stopped as the creature twists its head around 180 degrees. It’s face… It’s just holes. No eyes, no ears and a massive gaping mouth with four huge gnarled teeth. The flesh of the creature is reddened and you can see the musculature clear as day, the skin appearing as little more than membrane.
Fortunately, you are quick enough to back away before it sends one of its limbs flying. Good thing, too, it causes the stone pillar nearby to crumble at the touch, despite the fact that the limb moved rather slowly. What is this thing’s power!?
Your sword remains stuck as well, the creature regenerated the cleaved flesh, leaving your ram dao stuck in there. Fortunately, it seems to weigh the creature down.
You look back at Yunikki, who looks as disgusted as you. The creature begins to lumber over to you, as if sleepwalking. It’s not fast, but if it can cleave stone apart with a slow slash like that…
How can you kill this thing? Just hitting it doesn’t seem to work!

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Egan_BW · « **Reply #2988 on:** June 05, 2019, 01:32:27 pm »

Bait out another slow punch, then shove it to test if we can move it effectively. If so, lure it to a window and just toss the thing out like the garbage it is.
If it's immovable, barf a siphoning cloud on it and just move on. As it regenerates, that'll be free health for us so long as the cloud lingers.

This is reaching the point where we're getting bullied by tons of unseen eldritch bullshit. We should find a way to increase our Insight.

Devastator · « **Reply #2989 on:** June 05, 2019, 08:02:32 pm »

Some deathbolts/doombolts? Leech it?

Sting it? Perhaps. But it's thin, continually eats, and regenerates quickly. Maybe just slow it down by sticking more stuff in it and preventing it from consuming things. It might die of starvation.

Naturegirl1999 · « **Reply #2990 on:** June 05, 2019, 08:50:39 pm »

Quote from: Egan_BW on June 05, 2019, 01:32:27 pm

Bait out another slow punch, then shove it to test if we can move it effectively. If so, lure it to a window and just toss the thing out like the garbage it is.
If it's immovable, barf a siphoning cloud on it and just move on. As it regenerates, that'll be free health for us so long as the cloud lingers.

This is reaching the point where we're getting bullied by tons of unseen eldritch bullshit. We should find a way to increase our Insight.

+1

omada · « **Reply #2991 on:** June 05, 2019, 11:44:28 pm »

see if it has a soul for us to properly remove first, if we know how to remove a soul from a (living?) creature

no eating, but doombolt should do the trick

we might consider making it slower or pin him down somewhere

we don't need siphoning cloud, we are at full health

if all these plans don't work, maybe acid or something might help

Yes, I am talking into pushing the weird green goo and making both meet, and then striking the creature with something and see it going BOOOM

Liquefied Spleens · « **Reply #2992 on:** June 09, 2019, 01:04:18 pm »

First things first, you elect to see if this thing even has a soul. You switch to soulsight for a moment, and what you see is less than encouraging. There is a soul in there, all right. There's at least five, twisting around and mixing randomly throughout the thin corpse. No wonder you couldn't move it, this thing must have a lot of magic in its system. On the other hand, it would mean your bolts would work. Most likely, they would work very well. But it isn't eldritch horror if somebody isn't trying to experiment on it. You want to see if it's even possible to move that creature, and you attempt to bait out a punch by moving just a tad close. You try to duck away in time as the swipe comes, but you underestimated it! You take the swing against your hips, just where the carapace switches over. It cracks almost instantly, and you feel like something got squished quite fast. You back up again, groaning in pain. Well, that wasn't clever. On the other hand...
You elect to breathe out a siphoning cloud, to fix up the damage at least somewhat. The cloud envelops the slow, plodding creature just about instantly, and the bleeding quickly stops. You even feel things mending at least a little while the creature groans, but far faster than you could have ever predicted, it just flops over dead.
Seems like magic is the way to go on this thing. You use soulsight to check, and you can confirm, this thing's dead as a doornail. No more souls. Which also means that you're hardly healed. You're not bleeding, at the very least. As you shift yourself slightly, getting ready to move, some pieces fall off of you. The sudden draft on your musculature below is not pleasant, to say the least. It's sort of like picking off a scab far too early, except it feel like it went down to the bone. You shudder, shake your head, and keep moving, after pulling your ram dao out of the corpse. It's a lot easier, without the magic of the creature. Yunikki is smart enough not to walk into the cloud, and the undead minion doesn't care in the slightest. Draining cloud doesn't work on undead creatures, after all.
Wait, did you know that already? Well, whatever. You know it now.

Heading upstairs again, there is yet more meat covering all manner of walls, and most of it seems to be gathering at the base of pillars. This is all kinds of gross, honestly, but at least it doesn't actually do anything. If you had to make a guess, however, it's likely very infectious. You're not in a situation where that's a problem, at least. The silver lining to Yunikki's condition is really shining through here. Besides eldritch meat-moss, there are a ton of books here. This must be where the main library starts. True to form, there is a gaggle of creatures here, as well. Former librarians, guessing from the robes. Their clothing is just about the only thing that's normal-looking, however. Their top halves have bloomed upwards like some kind of meat flower, with arms sticking out of a seemingly random point in the bulbous mass of meat. Vague little points of the flesh stick out, and the occasional arc of magic seems to spring between them. These things must be mages of some sort. Of course, their claws are nothing to snuff at either, which is worrying. Still, the sheer volume of meat gives them poor peripheral vision, so you're not noticed right away. They're muttering to themselves...
The city stands under our control. One says, his voice deep and guttural. There is a strange reverb on it, as if two voices are speaking at the same time.
What of the one who was promised? She was here. Lord Mantorok was unable to stop her. A female voice. It whispers. You swear far more voices are speaking.
We know. She will come to us. We nearly had her with the Bal'kor. Her allies have proven to be difficult. This one... This one sounds like you. You look to Yunikki, and the both of you move behind a bookcase, out of sight. These look like medical texts. Once these abominations are gone, you can take that with you.
The betrayer is amongst them.
She will not mesh with the promised. They will clash. One will die.
And if not?
We may not disappoint lord Mantorok. If she will not, we will make it so.
We are not alone, brothers.
We know.
They turn in unison. Their all too human face look at you dispassionately. Their mouths are all covered in yet more fleshy tumours, but the one that sounds like you has visible mouths spread throughout the grey, dead flesh. All grinning, with massive sharp teeth.
Hello Sydney.
You hear strange crackling, and light flashes beyond the bookcase. It's the only thing standing between you and the abominations.

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birdy51 · « **Reply #2993 on:** June 09, 2019, 04:05:40 pm »

Welp. That ain't good. Stupid idea first; let's toss the whole damn bookcase at them if Alexia is up for it. Squat low, grab hold, and pretend yer in the Scottish games by yeeting it at the enemies. Don't know if we can beat these guys particularly well in combat, if they are sending even stronger monsters to kill us though so ah, now might be a good time to think about taking what we can and checking out.

Naturegirl1999 · « **Reply #2994 on:** June 09, 2019, 10:18:19 pm »

ask them why they they think they need to kill us

Egan_BW · « **Reply #2995 on:** June 10, 2019, 02:16:46 am »

These probably have extra souls as well. Check it, then huck a doombolt at the orange one.

Devastator · « **Reply #2996 on:** June 11, 2019, 09:46:02 pm »

Conventional smoke cloud and the siphoning smoke cloud. Use soul-vision to dodge the minions.

Liquefied Spleens · « **Reply #2997 on:** June 12, 2019, 06:13:20 pm »

Don't suppose we could talk instead of me murdering you? I'm mighty tired of cleaning demon gunk off me. You say, remaining behind the bookcase. Despite that, you raise your hand (Alexia was unwilling) in mock surrender. These things probably see through walls anyway, they seem like that kind of annoying monster. To your surprise, they actually do talk, although they still keep up that annoying monotone, and that stilted way of speaking.
There is nothing to say.
You were promised to Lord Mantorok
Your magical roots stopped the lord's reach. But it is nothing they will not overcome in time.
Brought before our lord, you will fall.
And become a being most powerful.
Yes.
Yeah, not really feeling a lot of reasons to join up.
It is your destiny.
Inescapable
Unavoidable.
Avoid this!

With your demonic hand on the underside of the bookcase, you toss the massive oaken slab towards your enemies. Even with the sheer power in that arm, it took just about everything you had. You swear you heard a crick in your back as you tossed it, but your attempt was effective. They didn't expect it, and all three of these demonic mages were struck. Knocked back and pinned by the bookcase, you charge forward with the intent on finishing them off. Then there's an fiery explosion, and you only barely manage to cover your face before the flames reach it. Your demon arm is unaffected, while your normal arm is burnt. Not badly, but it'll sting...
The three figures float up, they don't stand, they float upwards while still holding a plank position. Then they fold their hands, and magic begins to arc between the fleshy points of these creatures. A ball of purple energy forms in their midst, and you quickly deduce that this is unlikely to be pleasant for you. You duck behind another bookcase before the ball is cast.
This hurts you.
The ball slowly makes its way forward, but the sheer power can be felt even from a distance. Of course, you're not here by yourself!
Your skeletal minion screeches in a way a skeleton is known to do, and charges forward with its spear. The ball of magic impacts one of the bookcases, and the bookcase itself is enveloped in a purple light, before instantly losing all cohesion and being reduced to purple goop.
Preserve the sacrifice's body, if possible. one of the mages says, even as its ally is stabbed in the chest by a full-speed spear from your drider.
The drider continues charging, leaving the spear behind in the flesh of the mage. The abomination falls to the ground, gurgling once before going still. The spear was in too deep to retrieve safely for the drider, but this should still be a win. The remaining mages stretch out a hand, and a massive arcing shot of mana shoots through their fallen companion. Instantly, the spear is expelled as the mage revives.
Ok, so this isn't a win.

We need to take them down at the same time!
This. is what you face.
Another collection of energy, and then a massive beam of pure magic shoots forward. You only barely manage to duck, fortunately it seems to take too much out of them to do more than a single horizontal slice. Yunikki was fast enough as well, and is currently rushing forward from her prone position. The closest mage, the one that was stabbed earlier, isn't so easily taken down this time, and grapples Yunikki by the throat! You leave cover to help, but Yunikki is smart enough to just... stab the mage. A sword gives enough range to still stab somebody, it's not that hard. As she drops, she also gives an upward slice to another mage. It tears the meat asunder like a fleshy balloon, killing the mage surprisingly quickly for all that flesh. The only one left standing is the one with the teeth. Just as you're about to slice it in half, a massive wave of orange energy flashes from the mage! The corpses of its compatriots instantly discolour to a strange grey, but the shockwave itself sends your party flying backwards! You land well, but too distant to strike. The toothy demon glances at Yunikki.
Madotsu. You have become an annoyance.
Floating in the air, you see all manner of flames come out of the deceased allies of the abomination, flowing into it. The souls... It's trapping them.
We are The Unending. This means nothing.
Another orange flash later, and the abomination is gone. And yet, you suspect that thing is going to annoy you again in the future.
A lot of hot gas, on that one. But... I'm going to have trouble with that thing in the future, I can tell.
That's it for this room. What's next?

Advance carefully, there might be more trouble on this floor.
Not time to look at books, you need to carefully look through for traps or potential ambushes.

Move.
You need to keep going up. If you can catch that "Unending" thing early, you can prevent a lot of trouble.

Peruse the books
Might be something good here... It's unlikely more than one trouble like that would appear.

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Naturegirl1999 · « **Reply #2998 on:** June 12, 2019, 07:01:45 pm »

Peruse the books. Look for something that might explain more about what attacked us

Devastator · « **Reply #2999 on:** June 12, 2019, 08:32:42 pm »

Look through the books. Long enough to regain some magic.. the last multi-souled thing died easily to it, we should be ready for the next one. Besides, we were looking for a couple books, right?

Also, jot that name used for us down.

(Dammit, no tome to eat these books for us.)

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Author Topic: Web of Life: A Drider's Adventure (Ended) (Read 185020 times)

omada

Re: Web of Life: A Drider's Adventure

Devastator

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Liquefied Spleens

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Egan_BW

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Devastator

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Naturegirl1999

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omada

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Liquefied Spleens

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birdy51

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Naturegirl1999

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Egan_BW

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Devastator

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Liquefied Spleens

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Naturegirl1999

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Devastator

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