Topic: Web of Life: A Drider's Adventure (Ended) (Read 189604 times)

Liquefied Spleens · « **Reply #3150 on:** August 15, 2019, 06:24:21 pm »

Oh you don't need me. Any runestone will do, we add our own. If you'd prefer me to stay behind, I can make sure everything is ready to go as soon as you return.
Right, then you're in reserve. Yunikki, Francine? You're with me. We're taking Miriam with us as well.
Your call.
Your spiders naturally begin to follow you, eager to get out there and get some grub. Of course, with a group like this it's not very likely you'll avoid combat. You've just got too many people with you (well, people and spiders). It's quite a distance to the smith's house, besides, so you will have to hope you don't come across Jack as you travel. Considering what happened last time, you REALLY don't want to even try to fight her. She's plain invincible to common weaponry. Let's hope you avoid her, and any large hordes.
Miriam also comes along. Looks like you'll get to see her in action, if nothing else. Even unfocused, lightning makes for a powerful companion. And if it's possible that she can fly, you've got a real bonus on your hands.
Preparations for the excursion are short, and really only consist of handing Miriam some bags and some extra clothing. It was hard to tell, but her previous outfit was a tad tattered from her transformation. Only the arms (now wings) were overly affected, and her pants falling off didn't really give a major effect, considering the birdlegs. Nudity gets weird when it's birds.

Anyhow, you get moving shortly after that. You take the lead for now, as you are just heading in the general direction the smith explained. You'll be going along the main road, basically in a straight line. Or you would, if the main road wasn't a deathtrap of lizards and birds, mixed with the occasional scholar. You see two of the lanky brainmatter-y bastards, surrounded by a pile of gore most of the time. Mostly, you've been using the alleyways to get around, and ducking inside a house when a patrol of lizards comes along. You've been seeing less and less birds as the lizards begin to stock up on weaponry instead of their natural weapons. A disturbing development, all things considered. Less threats, sure, but the infighting was a huge advantage. Still, it's all limited for the moment due to the local scholars. Then the alleyways end. The wall of the city is right here, with no staircase to follow. You could walk along the walls, sure, but it's meant to keep threats OUT. Attacks from inside the city would see you flanked and without cover. So you take the other option that seems only marginally safer. The main road. You're past any of the scholars, but there are a few enemies around. After a few tense minutes of waiting, you elect to risk it. It's actually a fairly large stretch that you need to reach...
Miriam has been keeping up well, her bird legs being surprisingly nimble, but she has refused to used her wings up until now. You're not even halfway past the stretch of no man's land before you hear a screech from above!
Harpy! Yunikki screams, before tucking and rolling away from claws going at insane speeds. The harpy whiffs her attack, and takes a shallow stab from Francine's spear. You're glad you armed her, though you wish she could have hit it a little harder. The harpy flies away, just out of reach of your scimitar, laughing as it does so.
Then you hear a thunderclap from right beside you, and the harpy flashes for a moment before dropping to the ground, smoking. It twitches a few more times before Yunikki runs up to it and stomps it on the head. You hear a rather wet noise as her boot becomes a lot more black than before.
You turn to Miriam, who looks as surprised as you that her lightning bolt did that much damage.
Whoah.
Good shot.
T-thanks! She seems exceptionally giddy about it. Your praise more than her achievement, you notice. Her eyes lit up when you complimented her, and she's practically shaking with excitement. You notice her eyes glow blue a tiny bit, a sign of good magic flow with elementalists. You're not an expert, but you've been around enough mages. Then, of course, the birds roll in. A horde of about two dozen Beaks comes sprawling out of the houses, apparently outraged at the death of their leader.

How will you handle these!?

Protect Miriam!
She's the weak link here, and she's your main ranged option. Best keep her in the middle wile you hold a defensive position.

Charge them down!
You're large and in charge. Best to attract as much birds as possible. Your children will decimate them if you run succesfull distraction duty.

Throw spiders
Throw spiders.
Just toss 'em

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Naturegirl1999 · « **Reply #3151 on:** August 15, 2019, 06:37:16 pm »

Protect Miriam!

Egan_BW · « **Reply #3152 on:** August 15, 2019, 06:39:16 pm »

Exercise standard tactics by protecting the squishy DPS mage. Mix in spider tossing if it seems expedient.

While we may be large, we no longer have a commanding GIANT DEMON ARM. Nor a right arm at all, currently. Though painful for berserker types like me, I think we'll need to stop acting like we're a lightning bruiser.

Oh, and continue to praise Miriam for good work, please.

omada · « **Reply #3153 on:** August 16, 2019, 01:03:43 pm »

Try to find something to make them group together so we have to face fewer, maybe an alley where we can even use our wall walking on our advantage

if we need time we can toss some few spiderites and or some of our random magic bones that we got from the kid (that weren't listed on the equipment)

ask mirian how much of these bolts she thinks she can do

Liquefied Spleens · « **Reply #3154 on:** August 17, 2019, 05:29:35 pm »

How many bolts like that can you throw?
I don't know! I'll know when I run out!
Shit. Well, you'll figure it out. EVERYBODY CLOSE YOUR EYES A SEC, THROWING BOMB!
You toss a handful of bones at the approaching horde, but you flub the throw entirely! In an attempt to throw it overhand, you mistime it and instead throw it at the ground. A few pops and crackles later, all you've done is waste time. Your next approach has you be more careful, considering who you're throwing. The spiderites may be expendable, but you still have a mild attachment to them. They willingly crawl on your arm and use the momentum from your swing to jump off themselves. four spiderites hit the horde, and begin to distract at least a few of them. In the meantime, Miriam has throw two more lightning bolts at the birds, but fails to kill on strike. The two Beaks that were hit are clearly stunned, though, but they're not dead yet. But then you're out of time.
Protect Miriam! you manage to order, just as the horde clashes upon you! You strike down the first two that attempt to take you down with two expertly performed slashes of the scimitar. The cuts did not strike anything too important, however, and Miriam had to finish them both off with a fatal strike of lightning as she flew away from you and towards Miriam.
You wish you had an alleyway of sorts, but there was nothing you could have reached. Francine, however, is quickly able to distract a group of them by using her powerful legs to jump away! Damn you wish you were a jumping spider. The second you think that, Brainpower overwhelms one of the nearby birds entirely, pushing it down and snapping its pedipalps down on the bird's neck. It's quick to attack the next enemy once it's dead. Your other spiders aren't so efficient, overwhelming and tearing into the corpse, creating more spiderites, if nothing else. Yunikki is helping you as the birds begin to overwhelm you. You're the biggest target, so they want to get at you the most. Their claws hit hard, but fail to pierce the armor, still. You can hardly defend yourself, however! You need a shield again, and preferably a damn arm to attach it to! All you can do attack faster than they can. The birds are unfocused, however, unsteady. They just charge straight at you, occasionally taking a bad hit from Yunikki when they make the mistake of attacking her first. One-on-one, Yunikki kills them quickly, her spear's reach and power more than enough.
Then your legs give out. You were trying to keep them off you from the front that they managed to get around you on your armless side! You recover and twist around, your weight knocking them around like ragdolls!

Your roar in a fury as you begin to hack without any regard to your own well-being! You've well and truly had it! Miriam continues zapping anything that gets close, but she's clearly about to get overwhelmed! You stomp over, your children following you after your yell, but it proves unneeded. Maybe it was instinct, maybe it was panic, but before you know it, Miriam is in the air! She just flapped her wings as little as three times as she stumbled over herself to get away from the bird menacing her!
There are no words from her, just laughter. From surprised to downright cheerful. It'd be cute if you didn't get a bird on your back at the same time. You know you're in trouble, the bird's peck in the back just about knocks you out, if it thinks to aim hig-
NNGHHAAAAAAAA
You feel every part of you lock up and burn all at the same time! It was short, but damn painful, and you feel yourself smoking as you attempt to regain muscle control. You drop your sword as you continue spasming and electricity still arcs between your legs.
OH GOD! SORRY!
Then the bird on your back falls off, smoking. Right, okay, electricity spreading is a new concept to her. You're also learning things about electricity, along with everybody else. The upside is that the birds don't dare touch you after you apparently exploded upon being mounted. They quickly get reminded that your children are still around, and fairly hungry besides. With the startling distraction, and the myriad of stunned or dead birds, the cleanup happens soon after. They weren't a huge horde, but enough to be a problem.
Miriam touches own on the ground soon after, clumsily flapping her wings as she tries to land. She lands on her feet, but her momentum carries over and causes her to fall flat on her face. She quickly begins to jump over to you, however.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'm so, so sorry! She's sobbing inbetween her words, and you can tell she's completely panicked. You take a deep breath (that hurts a little) and breathe out (that hurts a little more). You have burns under your armor and your heart feels like it's going to explode.

Cuss her out
She needs to know that this was bloody careless!

Find it within yourself to remain calm, and tell her to just be careful. (uses one restraint point)
Accidents happen. Let's be glad this wasn't at the start of the battle, where it would have literally killed you.

Say nothing. Keep moving.
You'll talk to her about this later.

Apart from how you deal with this, however, you should decide what you'll tackle first once you're back in the alleyways.

The wagon with the runestones

Blacksmith's house

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Naturegirl1999 · « **Reply #3155 on:** August 17, 2019, 06:07:56 pm »

Find it within yourself to remain calm, and tell her to just be careful. (uses one restraint point)
The wagon with the runestones

Devastator · « **Reply #3156 on:** August 17, 2019, 06:13:00 pm »

Lets use that restraint point, and do runestones first, they're in an open area.

Naturegirl1999 · « **Reply #3157 on:** August 17, 2019, 06:14:53 pm »

Quote from: Devastator on August 17, 2019, 06:13:00 pm

Lets use that restraint point, and do runestones first, they're in an open area.

+1

Liquefied Spleens · « **Reply #3158 on:** August 19, 2019, 03:46:58 pm »

You're about ready to cuss Miriam out something fierce for just about stopping your heart, but after a few more (painful) breathing exercises you wipe away the spittle, close all your eyes, and find your center. Zen, that's you. You even find the energy to keep your speech pattern normal, rather than forced. You even add a little joke!
I'm guessing we all learned something about electricity today.
I'm so, SO sorry! I didn't... I just wanted to help you because that thing was on you and... I... I'm so sorry! Miriam is crying, still, but you put your hand on her thin little shoulder, causing her to flinch, and just sigh.
Just don't do it again, and we'll be perfectly fine. At least you now know you can fly, right?
You're not mad?
You're furious, actually, but you'll manage.
No, it's fine. I've been through worse. Anyhow, which way to the caravan?
Oh, it's just about two blocks east. I, uh, think we need to take the alleyways to Beggar's Point. You can find the beggars and black markets there.
Why would you put it there?
The average beggar or thief wouldn't have countermeasures against illusions, while the main road will have shrewder people. People with magic. After all, if you can swindle somebody of the trader family, they can't do anything about it. If they make it an issue, they admit that they were too stupid to defend their property.
That makes no god damn sense.
Tell me about it... Oh! I-i'm sorry, I shouldn't... Wait, I... I should, shouldn't I? Yeah. The system is busted! She shakes a little from the excitement of saying it, her feathers dancing after her movements.
Did you know the longest trade war in the East was started over a misunderstanding with a bar tab? GOD, they still pretend it was a just war!
You know, I always thought it was racism when people said the people here are degenerate warmongers, but the ruling caste seems to be just that, isn't it?
Hardly. The ruling caste just remains in their literal ivory castle. It's the merchant caste that's in control of it all. Everybody wants all the riches, and nobody wants to play fair.
How does that system even work?
It doesn't. Obviously.

While the discussion about economics and culture is interesting, you all quiet down upon reaching the alleyways once more. The horde you killed means the first city block is fairly empty, but the second block has many lizard patrols. Not ideal, but they aren't in huge numbers yet. If any of them were to start making noise, however, you'll be overrun in no time. So you take to the rooftops, instead. No birds here, after all...
In no time at all, you find Beggar's Point. It was a shithole before the plague, and now that it is just about the same. It doesn't even look damaged, just a lot more red than it probably was before. Of course, the main issue is that it's a veritable hub of the lizard people. On the rooftop, you remain unseen, but there are hordes here.
And there's one particular lizard that's preaching (!!!) as it tands on a podium. It's wearing clothing, has tattoos, and is far bigger than the average lizard. He's speaking a language you don't understand, but you recognize it as an eastern dialect.
My God... He's giving plans, orders on how to take down the quarantine... They got to the powder supply. Why does this city have a powder supply?
Plenty of reasons for it. Alchemy, cannons, Mutually assured destruction... And, of course, what they're about to do with it. Let me guess, bombing open a wall and pouring through?
He's talking about digging. He's... a bit hard to understand. Too raspy. The wagon is over in that corner.
You follow to where she points, and it's a dark corner of this open square. Using the alleyways, you can likely reach it without being spotted. Looting it, though...
Of course, if these things are organizing, you might need to stop it. But maybe it's a better idea to just warn the people keeping the quarantine going. You can't take down this many lizards, it'd be suicide!

What will you do?

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Egan_BW · « **Reply #3159 on:** August 19, 2019, 05:46:41 pm »

Might be able to pounce the leader and sting it, and hope that breedlings can snowball through the rest of the horde. Probably not a great idea, though.

Too bad we didn't bring the "killing it with fire" expert, all we have is a lightning mage who just now learned what electricity does. Maybe we could try sniping the leader and then escaping. No reason we need to take care of the runestones before the blueprints, maybe they'll stop gathering here if we kill the leader and come back later.

Have Miriam smite the leader from here with a strong lightning bolt, then get the heck out.

Liquefied Spleens · « **Reply #3160 on:** August 19, 2019, 05:54:38 pm »

Quote from: Egan_BW on August 19, 2019, 05:46:41 pm

Have Miriam smite the leader from here with a strong lightning bolt, then get the heck out.

Miriam is too inexperienced to throw a stronger bolt! Unless you have something to teach her about mana use... Maybe you have something comparable?

KitRougard · « **Reply #3161 on:** August 19, 2019, 07:06:35 pm »

So basically what you're saying is Spam Doombolt into the leader's skull, then skedoodle.
Editnote: if we can acquire that thing's corpse, great! I have a thing for stinging anything powerful-looking we can get our claws on (Read: WHY DID YOU STING YOUR ARM|Who cares, she's ADORABLE!|WHAT THE FUCK, SYDNEY.)

Egan_BW · « **Reply #3162 on:** August 19, 2019, 07:41:26 pm »

Alexia was probably going to come out of that cocoon, and let's face it Brainpower is going to be a lot more helpful than Alexia ever was going to be.

So we killed our mr. Hyde and replaced her with an adorable daughter. :3

Well, we know how to use both Deathbolts and Doombolts, and presumably the basic premise of "do that but bigger" carries over between schools, so let's try to walk Miriam through how to cast Really Big Lightning Bolt.

This probably isn't a great idea but eh, I've got to meet my bad idea quota.

Devastator · « **Reply #3163 on:** August 19, 2019, 09:04:05 pm »

I'd rather eat the leader. It'd help with cult-building..

Also, wouldn't it be a better idea to just blow the stockpile of explosive instead?

omada · « **Reply #3164 on:** August 19, 2019, 11:28:30 pm »

Quote from: Devastator on August 19, 2019, 09:04:05 pm

Also, wouldn't it be a better idea to just blow the stockpile of explosive instead?

her electricity might be enough to explode but... where is the powder?

I still think we should approach this cautiously, it's better to warn the quarantine or to prepare a better attack

if we end up attacking him anyway remember to position ourselves in somewhere better and that we have life drain AND mana drain, we might want to drain both to recharge our spells and not die, this time gravity might help us with the bone throwing

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Author Topic: Web of Life: A Drider's Adventure (Ended) (Read 189604 times)

Liquefied Spleens

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Naturegirl1999

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Egan_BW

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omada

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Liquefied Spleens

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Naturegirl1999

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Devastator

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Naturegirl1999

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Liquefied Spleens

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Egan_BW

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Liquefied Spleens

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KitRougard

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Egan_BW

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Devastator

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omada

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