Turn 7: Ball Of Infinitely Gnashing ProblemsVonNost (pw)
11/11 HP
[Hulking Jackal Terror: Pretty much what you'd expect. Slavering jaws provide you with an effective means of attack.]
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+5 Transmogrification (1/5)
+3 Flesh Magic (1/3)
+3 Vitamancy (1/3)
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White Lab Coat: Lots of good things come from men in lab coats.
"Necessity": An ominous looking syringe, seemingly forged from heavily tarnished iron in an unsettlingly organic design. Eternally filled with potent anesthetic.
Bloody Heart: This pulsing red gemstone is carved into a stylized heart. It's warm to the touch, but the surface feels like liquid blood despite leaving no residue.
Jackal-Nost laughs through heavy jaws ragged teeth, voice coming out horribly modulated. "Weak and mindless creatures. But useful resources."
Go to the Jackal corpses. Eat half of them and use [5] transmogrification and 1 passion to incorporate their flesh into me, generally just becoming an even bigger and more horrifying hellhound.
Then use my 3 vitamancy and a passion to forcibly regenerate as many of the remaining corpses as possible, targeting those that are in the best condition first. Bring them back as intelligent but utterly obedient servitors.
We're going to go to that vault. After all, the undead are just flesh. And all flesh will bow before me.
[2] To no one's great surprise, your attempts to shapeshift jackal meat onto yourself results in a cancerous vaguely jackal-shaped blob.
[3] You bring back a series of half-healed jackalbots that do nothing but gnaw upon your excessive flesh. All in all today's going nothing like you hoped but more or less like you expected.
1 Transmogrification Passion spent: Transmogrification increases from +5 to +6!
1 Vitamancy Passion spent: No increase"NO LAZIN ABOUT!"
Reanimate my flayed skin and order it to get a pickaxe from wherever there is a pickaxe to get and start digging. Infuse it with EXTRA STRENGTH and MORE GRASPING STUFF to facillitate this.
Then use stone magic to start carving the staircase to my goddamn underground empire. THE WORLD BELOW IS MINE FOR THE PLUNDER.
Mordre cancels gainful employment: On Break"I think the Wellspring Cave would be good! Think of all the bladders, sacs, and other assorted organs we could gather! Think of the secretions! And the plants! I could make potions for everyone! And maybe we could grow the plants up here somewhere!" Ventaro shots excitedly to cast his vote
See if I can find some jackal bits to feed to my new whip/pet. Use my seduction to help so maybe it will be less hostile to me. Even if the venom doesn't matter, it's still too kinky for such an early stage in the relationship. I'm also willing to use all my Brawling on this if keeping the cobra from escaping is necessary.
See if I can find a large amount (1 Herbalism) of some sort of herb around the battlefield (1 Herbalism) that is safe to handle (1 Herbalism), easy to refine (1 Alchemy), and has potent (2 Alchemy) regenerative (1 Alchemy) and durability/defense-enhancing (1 Alchemy) properties. Hopefully I can find something to refine into my flask before we go on a mission and I actually need it.
[4] You feed some jackal meat to your snake. You don't think snakes are supposed to eat strips of meat like that, but this one does. Then goes back to savaging you to no effect. Well, no visible effect, anyway, other than it stings.
[3] You find some sweet-smelling goo on the trees. That's about as medicinal as you'd expect to find out here on short notice.
Use ninjaturgy to disguise myself as VonNost so I can go on missions!
[1] You sort of get the sounds right and the half-jackals immediately begin feasting on you. Without the layers of flesh-that-should-not-be from the real VonNost, this is a rather serious problem.
-7 HP
Now Eaten By Jackals
+1 NinjaturgyI approve of an expedition to the Wellsprng Cave. Just give me a moment...
Check if my skeleton is able to walk with or without a limp, and if that carries over to when I try to walk.
Do some crystalgun practice with leaves on trees, to make sure that my skeleton and I are clear on how to use it. (I'm expecting a trickshot bonus due to the fact that I'm shooting individual leaves off the trees.)
Your skeleton is as maimed as you are with regards to your limp. You wonder if that makes him less dangerous in rallying troops for the skeleton war.
[1] You shoot one of your toes off with extreme precision.
Now Nine-Toed
+1 CrystalgunsAsk VonNost if I can join The New Flesh and help him do, like, newfleshy things?
You take his pained slavering howls as a yes and try to stand next to him but not within thrashing half-alive jackal range.
Why is it not dead yet? Pray to the Idol of Dagon for strenght to consume and feast on the crow.
Hrodpreht cancels dig self deeper: On BreakOh yeah? Two us can play the energy absorbing game. Rub my little squeeze ball against the ragged shadow, hopefully absorbing its energy instead.
If that doesn't work at all, hit him with a "Angry Squirrel Demolishes Peanut Shell". Focus CHi magic into my hands and use them to grab and rip apart the tentacle.
Li Kao cancels dramatic fight scene: Show on hiatusAfter analyzing the proffered options, contemplated them for a few seconds. "The Vault, the Tomb or... Wellwater. While I am quite interested in the undead and riches to add to our hoard, we need food to feed both ourselves and our valiant retainers. And exotic victuals are better than common ones." he said while gesturing at the peasants before walking to the edge of the hole Anna had fallen into.
"And our friend is still down there, not looking quite like herself anymore, if better than a moment before." he added while peering down.
1 Necromancy: Keep trying to dilute and tame the taint.
+1 Necromancy: Then create a blast attack based on the power.
+Enchantment: Improve the blast attack with extra range and AoE.
Leadership: Pick a peasant and check how they react to basic peasantry drills.
((Yay, enough time and drive to post.))
[3] Your attempts to dilute and tame the taint, let alone dilute and focus it into a breath weapon, seem at odds with one another. Keeping it spread out is probably better for overt symptom management, but doing anything with it probably benefits from higher concentrations. Unless you want to do something to parts of yourself in an effort to also affect diluted elements in ways you don't think you could with more concentrated ones.
[2] The peasants all think they're ninjas now, which means they do no work and stylishly attack enemies who won't hit them back. You suspect someone is responsible for this, but you can't fathom who. Maybe the sound of that ninja screaming as he's eaten by jackals makes it hard to focus.
House ArcanaAfter hauling Anna out of her pit, you strike out for Wellwater Cave, which is further away but quite likely part of the same complex you just fished her out of. After descending down a ragged hole in the ground, you find yourself in a cavern much like Anna's Pit, mostly of the native sandstone but run through with strange pipes and sporting slowly flowing water in suspicious amounts.
You follow this until you hit a junction, where two problems present themselves. One, there are three passageways leading off this one. The leftmost seems to slope up, drying out somewhat but still covered in a trickling stream. The second sports more pipes than normal, and arranged in stranger patterns. The third seems to go down or deepen, sporting water too deep to see the bottom of. As you're unfamiliar with these caverns/ruins, you're not sure what the ramifications, if any, of each of these three changes would be.
The other problem, of course, is that a shrieking mushroom-thing lunges up from the pool in the junction as you trudge into it to get a better look at the tunnels.
Baseborn ScumVonNost and From head to the Vault, following the villagers' instructions. Like Wellwater Cave, this one is located a distance away from the village, but otherwise reached simply via going down. An unusually large tree- gnarled, leafless, and leaking sap like the others- perches at the crevice, its roots providing one of the easier ways down.
Once in the pit, you notice the pipes being joined by what appear to be plates and other adornments, though these additions don't make any more sense to you than the previous ones. There's an obvious concentration down some paths more than others, which you're guessing represents "deeper" into the Vault; presumably heading straight in will take you where you want to go, but a more circuitous route might let you bypass certain problems. Or lead you into them, you're new here.
Oh, and VonNost has trouble squeezing into the tunnels. There's that.
Ventaro Aureus (Beirus)
7/11 HP
[Tsundere Glowing Cobra: Best girl is winning!]
[Snakeblood: You've infused your own flesh with glowing snake venom. Now you don't have to worry about dying from glowing snake venom, and probably don't have to worry about side effects from this!]
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+5 Alchemy (1/5)
+3 Herbalism (1/3)
+3 Brawling (0/3)
+1 Seduction (1/1)
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Normal Clothes: Green tunic, brown trousers, black leather boots. Downright mundane!
Everfull Flask: Put liquid in, slowly replenishes that liquid! Empty fully to replace with new liquid.
Glowing Mote: This spherical object glows with a brilliant yellow light. You feel like there's more to it, but aren't sure how you'd check. You've managed to pull a glowing toothpick out with your tongue, though, so that's something.
Dusty Wraith Essence: Refined from Wraiths! Not Nightmares! Nobody said nightmares, it was always wraiths! Perfectly safe, cleans right up.
Devorae the Devoted (Caellath)
11/11 HP
[Diffuse Taint: A terrible corruption lurks within you, too spread out to be immediately noticeable. What you can't see still occurs, however.]
[Peasant Mistrust: The peasantry sullenly thinks you don't value them as people. You're not sure how to persuade them to not take so much offense at the truth.]
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+5 Necromancy (4/5)
+3 Leadership (0/3)
+3 Enchantment (1/3)
[1 Mace Passion]
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Noble Crimson and Gold Military Attire: Includes fancy hat so you know who to take orders from.
Fancy Scepter: Hardened to a proper weapon by an enchantment.
Mad Dosh: This fancy-looking chest is filled to the brim with gold coins bearing Devorae's benevolent face.
Prismatic Gem: This smooth crystal shifts through all the colors of the rainbow in beautiful cascades. You could swear the pattern's reacted to you a few times, but you're unable to repeat the event.
Jeffery Kentwood (Coolrune)
8/11 HP
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+6 Summoning (0/6)
+3 Metal Magic (0/3)
+3 Spears (1/3)
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Douchebag Jacket: He's presumably wearing pants or something too, but GODS what an asshole.
Amulet of Farsight: Like a telescope but WIZARDS!
Icy Shard: This bright blue crystal shard is ice cold to the touch. You get strange feelings of enthusiasm when holding it for too long.
Spear of Noodles: Still a little bendy, but useable as a stabbing weapon.
Speedy (Wiry Ball)
Low HP
Low Attack
High Speed
Erin Quill (Glass)
11/11 HP
[Maimed: Fallen Hero's Limp: You walk with a limp from that one time a horrifying flesh amalgamation went apeshit on your dramatically billowing in the wind ass. Mobility and inspiration suffer.]
[Protein-Calcium Consulate: You and your skeleton serveas dual consuls in joint rulership of your body.]
[Nine-Toed: You don't wanna talk about it.]
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+5 Artifice (0/5)
+3 Metal Magic (0/3)
+3 Air Magic (1/3)
+1 Crystalguns (1/1)
[1 Diplomacy Passion]
[1 Statecraft Passion]
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Trickshot 1: You have a knack for hitting small objects at improbable angles. Not to deal damage or anything, just for knocking cards out of people's hands or lighting their cigar from a distance.
Dramatic Breeze 1: A gentle breeze seems to billow your hair and clothing dramatically. You are more inspiring to allies and more of a target to enemies.
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Labcoat: Also pants.
Cloudstopper: This overly crystal-y gun-thing shoots shards of crystalline magic at targets.
Leaf Stone: This brown stone has what looks like an imprinted fern on one side. You're quite certain it's magical somehow, but it seems almost suspiciously unreactive to anything you've been able to expose it to.
Anna Greenbell (Sheyra)
11/11 HP
[Core Husk: Your body is just a husk. Your real essence lies in your heart. You can expand your life force out to restore your body to life, but any damage to your body while doing so will greatly damage your life force.]
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+7 Vitamancy (1/7)
+3 Destruction (1/3)
+3 Protection (1/3)
[1 Exploration Passion]
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Smoldering Core 2: Your life force is concentrated in your heart, rendering you somewhat gaunt but resilient to injuries anywhere but your weak point.
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Kimono-Thing: Somewhere between a shrine priestess and a vagrant you'll find this alluring number for all your vagrant shrine priestess needs.
Gravity Hammer: A giant rocket-propelled hammer. Shockingly, it's wielded by a mage.
Weight of the First Sin: This red crystal smolders with inner heat. Holding it makes you feel tired, hot, and nervous.
VonNost (pw)
11/11 HP
[Gnawed Cancerous Jackal Ball: You're a ponderous lump of hideously warped jackalflesh. Jackal-things cling to you like leeches, gnawing mindlessly upon flesh.]
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+6 Transmogrification (0/6)
+3 Flesh Magic (1/3)
+3 Vitamancy (0/3)
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White Lab Coat: Lots of good things come from men in lab coats.
"Necessity": An ominous looking syringe, seemingly forged from heavily tarnished iron in an unsettlingly organic design. Eternally filled with potent anesthetic.
Bloody Heart: This pulsing red gemstone is carved into a stylized heart. It's warm to the touch, but the surface feels like liquid blood despite leaving no residue.
Erntrinsticia "From" Frombollywhotsit, Lady-witch of magnificence! (Egan)
5/11 HP
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+5 Corvid Magic (1/5)
+3 Death Magic (1/3)
+3 Fashion (0/3)
[1 Haggling Passion]
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Fashionable Witch Outfit: All black, all hat.
Lady Irstivfell the Raven: Very wise! Hence the obsession with shiny objects and tasty food.
Sparkling Bottle: This tiny glass flask contains a glittering emerald liquid. It's strangely mesmerizing to watch, but you get the strange feeling it's watching back.
5 Whiskey Biscuits: You think they're made of cactus fruit?
Erik the Ninja (Maximum Spin)
4/11 HP
[Eaten By Jackals: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH]
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+6 Ninjaturgy (3/6)
+3 Lightning Magic (0/3)
+3 Shurikens (0/3)
[1 Leadership Passion]
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Ninja Outfit: Kind of drab, so probably the mook kind.
Shurikens: A bag of pointy metal throwing stars. You'd like to keep them in something a little more dignified and ninjalike than a cloth sack, but belt pouches are too small to hold them all.
Ninja Artifact: A ninja sword fused to its scabbard. The nonfunctionality makes it extra spiritual!
Sandstone Charm: This palm-sized beige stone slate is dense with indecipherable heiroglyphics. You're certain it's an item of power, but your efforts to unleash it have so far proven futile.