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[Devastator]

Mostly I wanted to properly loot it, instead of having to do so while under attack from giant monsters, and maybe fortify it, but there's yet another giant monster there.

I think we should use our sting for today, and then just pack up and leave.. can't take another giant monster.  Hopefully we'll level after those fights, which might keep us alive.  Can you go over the list of available corpses in here to sting?  I've lost track.

As for yon giant monster, I think the only way we could take it is if we pride leech it and it turns out to be vulnerable.  As we're in no condition to run away from it if that fails, I think we should leave it alone.

Take our constricting armour off first.

Sting whatever corpse looks best, and then pack up with everything we came for and leave.  (Parchment, various books, the book on gods or whatever the rescuees wanted.)  We aren't in any condition for more fighting today.

[Egan_BW]

Stinging the goblin corpse seems good, it might get us a brainy spiderling.

I think that the leech outside isn't... well, that it's real but that we only just started seeing it due to the demon arm gaining more share. It doesn't notice us and we couldn't see it earlier, so it's probably not something we can interact with.

[Devastator]

Well, we should confirm that we're the only one seeing it, then.  And probably come back and kill it, because no way it's good.  Maybe it's an actual god-fragment here, draining all the mana and knowledge was the whole point of getting this town.

I'd go after it, but we're really too disabled to move at this time.  And maybe the leech is draining us further.

..although, if it isn't, it might be rough enough to take Jack.  Instigating a fight between jack and that giant leech might weaken them both.

Or maybe it's one of those ancient spirits that would be purely beneficial if consumed with the heart-eater.  Could be eating something is how we're supposed to survive this arm assault.

[Liquefied Spleens]

You elect to sting the goblin corpse, eager to get your stinger working again. There is something inherently satisfying about using it, maybe just because you love the little things that come out. Your little ball makes it's way through the brain matter with ease, which isn't surprise. If you had the mind for it, you could swim in that jello cup of horrors. You, uh, don't.
It doesn't take long before your little darlings begin eating their way out! They're very eager, to say the least, as they keep eating even when they get out. In retrospect, that makes sense. Brains aren't the most nutritious things in the world, mostly consisting of fat and water. Tons of cholesterol, though. They taught you that one during biology, though you don't quite understand for what purpose. Most necromancers don't get into cannibalism that much, and you're kind of a strange case. It's not cannibalism when you do it, sort of. It's still eating sentients, but hey.
Your newest kids look a tad different. The biggest thing about them is that they're pale, though not to the point of albinism. The eyes are a piercing yellow, and you're fairly certain their abdomen is a tad larger than average. They look up at you with those bright eyes, and you don't hesitate to take them into your arms. All four of those wonderful little things! You still hope to find their older brothers and sister, at some point, but in this city it is going to be difficult. You're going to assume they're alive until you find their corpses, however, you KNOW your little beauties are clever enough to survive without you!
Your little spiders are crawling all around you, before settling on your back and shoulders. They tuck themselves into a little ball, and vibrate softly as they get comfortable. You're not sure what's different about these newborns, apart from them being a tiny bit larger.

Of course, your joy aside, you are really really tired. It's time to head back, and return to the tower at a later date. It'll serve as a decent forward base, if the other mutants refrain from getting closer. You're fairly certain that the former occupants kept them away. Of course, if you're not careful, they'll try to siege this place. This tower is highly defensible, but it lacks escape routes. Not a situation you want to be in, especially if they fly in. On that note, you ask the others if they can see a massive leech on the side of the building. Yunikki looks confused, while the old man is quickly lost in thought. After only a little while, however, he proposes it's something from the spirit world. He can't see it, and it doesn't seem to actually affect the building. What you're seeing is something that is invisible to most, unless they know things they shouldn't. He read about that sort of thing, and spent the early part of his 50's looking for ways to increase that insight. After the first headache, he elected not to do it any further. Still, if it's not real (enough), you don't have to worry about it at all. Of course, this remains a theory.
Now you just need to sneak back to base. Not only because you're unlikely to win, but because you have a rather weak old man with you. Looks like Yunikki gets to enjoy an escort mission, what joy!
Fortunately, the mutants have yet to refill the streets. You can get the hardest part over with right away, and then go through the alleyways.
It took a bit of manoeuvring, and occasionally just waiting, but you figured out a way past them all. Yunikki had to kill two of them, but the element of surprise is a volatile one.

When you get back, you let the old man run to his family. You hear a lot of delighted yelling, and when you walk over to give those schmucks their books, you are rapidly surrounded by happy people. You're... honestly too tired to care. You drop off the materials and move on to Sucy. She hardly reacts when you come in, at first. Gives you a halfhearted 'thank you' before ordering Francine to get the papers in order. She meekly does so, with one arm. She flinches when looking at you, which gives you a twinge of...
Something
Shut up.
At any rate, now that you're safe, you take off your armor, which is honestly getting a bit restricting. It comes off very quickly upon removing the straps, and then you start looking yourself over. Sure enough, your arm has spread. Large, throbbing veins across your back spread out from the reddened flesh, while your front seems mostly fine, other than the colouration. Hell, your abs are looking a bit more defined, even. If it wasn't for the disconcerning reddening, it'd even look fine. They're also not quite equal, like, the top bit of it got hit on one side. Your chest is a tad bigger, mostly your shoulder. It's... Well, you just need to loosen a few straps for your armor, you'll figure that out, but the effects on your body are worrying. You feel far weaker, that's a fact. You hope that this is temporary, but you'll honestly just have to deal with it.
God, you're tired.
You elect to do to bed, hopefully waking up refreshed...

Level up!

Forceful purification: Undoes the effects of your demon arm, giving you more long-term longevity. It will stop the corruption from spreading, preventing an almost certain death entirely
Toughen up.: makes your demon arm even tougher, giving it a wood-like quality. The really thick and tough stuff, like oaks.
Release the beast.: Allow you to enter a deep rage once per day. This has a unique effect on your entire body, morphing it into something... really dangerous. It also makes you masochistic.
Pins: Your bones grow pins, bursting out of the flesh to form a catalyst. Upgrades your mana production.
Needles: All your spells rebound on you, but are more powerful. You will take health damage from casting spells, relative to the mana cost.
Teeth: Your teeth become magically infused. Your bites do additional magic damage, though the effect is rather weak.
Shortcut: Spreads the corruption across all your eyes, maxing out what you can see. This does not mean you can actually understand it. There are things that should not be seen...
Silence the voices: You gain a large amount of melee damage, at the cost of sometimes hurting yourself. Intentionally.
Fire Fiend: You become a pyromaniac. Fire just appeals to you massively. This doesn't have an immediate benefit.

[KitRougard]

*stares at level up choices*
...how much Borderlands 2 have you been playing and what level is your Psycho.

Alright, I say we either take Forceful Purification since this arm is getting kinda... sappy and dangerous...
Or we snag Shortcut and take the darker route to surviving the Corruption... EMBRACE IT.

My vote is on Shortcut, because I'm feeling edgy, and I'm feeling tired of playing the good guy. What say you we talk to our local mad scientist, fiddle out a way to get Yunikki stuck as a beast, and instead of saving the world, we try to kill this eldritch cunt so we can TAKE IT OURSELV- *COUGH COUGH*

...everything is fine.

[Liquefied Spleens]

*stares at level up choices*
...how much Borderlands 2 have you been playing and what level is your Psycho.

Too much and 73.

[Naturegirl1999]

I was thinking Forceful Purification since the demon arm spreading has a chance of killing us

[Devastator]

Forceful is my vote, but it's probably a sucker's bet.  I bet we'll have like 15 sanity after that, and be much weaker at the same time.

Albeit that's better than dying, and we can get some of that sanity back after we cut loose a few times.

Of course, if that giant leech turns out to be a spirit creature we can eat, we'll be insanely powerful.

[Egan_BW]

Damn, everything but forceful is edgy. Actually, I take that back. Every option is edgy. I feel like a kid in a candystore.

Tempted to take Fire Fiend simply because the lack of immediate benefit will means it leads to a new upgrade tree or something. Maybe we'll become a Demon of Hatred.

Shortcut. We shall perceive ALL the kittens.

[omada]

Forceful, maybe it will let our arm to be pulled a bit more

[KitRougard]

Alright, so I have 3 votes for the coward's way out of this Forceful Purification, which will kick our sanity in the shins, peeling away a powerful source of strength, and probably make us a lot more BORING

Like, serious bad idea.

And 2 votes to the Shortcut, where we take the first step towards the dark route to survival, becoming a monster ourselves and just ADAPT TO THE CORRUPTION LET IT BE OUR BLOOD OUR MANA OUR SOUL *Cough Cough*

Fire Fiend is a definite third option, with my question's answer, it DEFINETLY opens up a level-tree.

[Devastator]

..we can always become a monster just by eating things.  Plus, we already know Alexia gets all our physical mutations, but turned up another notch.  I suspect that'll include this monstrous arm-thing, except in that form we probably won't be dead.

Secondly, we're probably going to get a boost just from having proper worshippers now.

[Liquefied Spleens]

Staring at the people that just got reunited with their patriarch, Yunikki keeps a wary eye open as she sharpens that spear she got from Sydney. It's not a very good weapon for her, honestly. She was learned to work with something that slashes, most of all, occasionally stabbing. This spear is just thrusting, and it isn't a very long one. Of course, it makes sense for driders to use this, theyre basically cavalry. Her cuffs scrape against the skin as she works, but she has to keep those on, just for a little while longer. She's almost over it, she feels. In so far one can "get over" being something you most decidedly aren't. The chains restrain that which you don't know, she learned that as a child.
She snorts, and pushes away memories of her childhood. She's come a long way, and she's done more than a few things she isn't proud of. She tries to remember how long she was a bandit. How many people did she kill? She can hardly remember. That's sort of a sin in and of itself. At least she's making up for it, now that she can follow Sydney. Strange.
After a few more minutes of sharpening the point of the spear and occasionally keeping very close watch on the people here (who are currently giving themselves treatment for whatever ills they caught), she elects to head over to Sucy. While she doesn't much care for the woman, they've been working together for long enough that there is no outright animosity. Yunikki just knows that they couldn't ever be called "friends". Still, it's something else to keep a watch on. Not to mention, Sydney is likely still sleeping.

As Yunikki walked through the hallway, she suddenly hears screaming! It's from Sydney, certainly something she's heard plenty of times by now! She breaks into a dead sprint, spear at the ready just behind her. She sees both Sucy and Francine rush by in the direction of the screaming, which is still going on. The screaming sounds strange, worse than any time she's screamed before. Yunikki has to catch herself as her momentum causes her to slide to side, turning far too fast. The dusty stone floor sends her skidding, but she's on the move in an instant, her heart already hammering. More from fear than exertion. When she arrives at Sydney's bedside, both Sucy and Francine look hesitant to even come close. Yunikki pushes both of them aside in a single motion, sending Sucy sprawled on the floor. Now that they are out of the way, she can see what's happening to Sydney. Spasming and screaming, the right side of her body seems to morph and shift, while her left side scratches and tears at it. Her face is nearly indescribable, twisted in pain and panic as a black goop leaks from her nose and mouth. Yunikki doesn't know what to do! The reddened flesh around her shoulder begins to blacken in all manner of splotches, and a horrific smell comes forth from it as it seem to collapse. Cords of muscles visibly loosen and snap!
She's rotting! Francine yells, clearly as surprised as she is fearful. Yunikki turns to her, desperate. Her voice is raspy, only barely allowing speech, but she still manages.
FIX! She forces out. Both scientists look at each-other, with an unusual amount of trepidation. Then, they both have to admit that there is nothing they can do.

Eventually, they decide that all they can do is put something in her mouth to stop her form chewing her tongue off and trying to stop her from tearing at herself, but it was hard. Eventually, the arm begins to spaz out entirely, and crawls away from her body, the final few tendons and bones snapping off as the blackened flesh is reduced to sludge entirely. Sydney has stopped screaming a little while ago, and is reduced to twitching while her eyes are rolled back. The arm, seemingly still sentient, crawls away on its fingers for a few meters before it stops moving at all.
Sydney has lost her right arm, and her shoulder begins to "heal". That is to say, the blackened sludge that was once her flesh begins to fall off entirely, and skin begins to cover it. Eventually, her torso is left mostly normal, only leaving blackened, rotten flesh at the nub of where her arm once was. The smell is unbearable, and Sydney falls unconscious at last. Both Francine and Sucy quickly get to work to make sure she'll even survive.
In the meantime, Yunikki just paces around, keeping the civilians from looking at Sydney. Let's just hope she takes it alright when she wakes...


When you awake, you feel... strangely okay. The intense pain left you in a daze at the time, blind and panicked. It's hard to even remember any of it. If it wasn't for the fact that your shoulder still throbs, you wouldn't even be sure if what just happened was a fever dream or not. You try to wipe the sweat off your brow, but find our hand not reaching your head. Shaking the cobwebs out of your head, you look at your demon arm and...
Oh that's not good.
The panic seems to be waiting. You certainly feel as though you should be a lot more panicked, but it just isn't coming. You just feel... tired. You hear Sucy talking to Yunikki. Probably worried sick, the poor dear.
...She'll live. She won't be healthy, but she'll live.
Really? Because I feel... Well, not okay. But tired is the best word for it, I suppose. Really mellow, though.
Oh, you're up. Good to hear. I have good news and bad news.
Good news first.
The arm is gone, and apart from the missing arm, you don't have any negative effects to show for it. The blackened spot on your shoulder are a cause for concern, but it feels healthy and doesn't hurt. I'm ruling it as fine for now.
What's the bad news?
We can't find it.
What?
Your arm. We can't find it.
Oh.
There is a short pause in the conversation. Eventually, you elect to make your opinion clear on the current state of affairs.
That's really stupid.


Basic Stats

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Level: 13
Health: 10/60
Poison stings: 1/1
Restraint 3/3
Mana: 60/60

Items and equipment

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Items:
410 gold coins
Magic Cookbook.
Book On Far Eastern Royalty
5 rations
Equipment:
Scimitar
D-VA armor

Skills and spells

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Magic:
Summon Tome: You can take out your piece of the Tome of Eternal Darkness from seemingly nowhere. Others cannot see the book unless you want them to, and it's still headache-inducing to do so.
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)
Pinworks: You can apply spells into a bone spike, relative to the size of the victim. You can also make traps if you use an offensive spell. Allows creation of free zombies.

Cantrip
Spark: Allows you to set something on fire, provided it is flammable to start with.

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
Adaptation: You regenerate mana faster than most
Gun usage: Novice
Oral Fixation: Can cast spells spells from the mouth.
Draining: Can drain blood using fangs.
Incredible experience in blocking and swordplay.
Climber
Crafty: Bolas
Cooking skill: Excellent 
Corpse Cutting: Quite Decent. 
Animal handling: inexperienced.
Necromantic knowledge
Soul Sniffer

Kitrougard was totally right, by the way, Fire Fiend would have been really good.
You just activated my trap card, the arm was going to kill you over the course of decades!

[omada]

now we have an arm to hunt, and alexia

[Devastator]

Yeah.. it was pretty obviously a trap, but couldn't ignore a fairly small chance of a situation that would inescapably kill us.

Also, decades is a short time to a normal drider.

I did like fire fiend, except that we have a dragon to kill.  Something not fire would be a great tree to follow.