Topic: Web of Life: A Drider's Adventure (Ended) (Read 170806 times)

Liquefied Spleens · « **Reply #2700 on:** January 17, 2019, 04:02:42 pm »

There is a sort of pregnant pause as it tries to parse you. It's a tad odd to see a lich more flabbergasted than the normal human, which likely says more about Edwin than the world. At any rate, in those eternal three seconds of uninterrupted eye contact, you decide to do two things. First off, your collecting of the amulet. You feel the dirty amulet against the palm of your hand, and then cast your magic. The lich raised his own staff, however, and began casting something. Fortunately, your magic is a lot faster.
You considered resurrecting him under your banner, but you've enough intuition to feel when a soul is absent or not. You dare not use soulsight against this thing, however. You can tell that whatever has corrupted this man is likely capable of destroying your mind with the ease one could squash a fly. The controlling magic takes hold, which is something you didn't actually expect to work! You don't push your luck, however, and just try to stiffen his legs before you start making a run for it.
Your magicks are of no match to Xel'lotath, whelp! The lich says, with the sort of calm that makes anybody's hair stand on end. Fortunately, his leg does seem to be stiff, and he stumbles a moment, utterly shattering a statue with his staff. Solid stone, destroyed with such a little swing...
Then he forces his leg to the point of shattering the bone within, sending the shrivelled flesh to bulge outward. The uncommon noise of bones shifting and bending to mend the leg follow, though you've already started running away. You planned on picking up Edwin before leaving, but he seemed to have gotten that idea by himself.
WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING!?
That, is Augustine! We can't hope to defeat that as we are, he is protected against all harm. I shot him in the head, and all it did was cast off his disguise!
You feel your control over his leg slipping, though he's likely walking with it as it is. Just as you reach the end of the hallway, however, you feel the link between the limb and you snap.
That isn't how it usually feels.

Then, it hits. All at once. You clutch your head as you scream. You scream and scream and scream as your lungs seem to rupture. You can't stop screaming, your mind is being assaulted by... by...
An outsider? An interloper. You wish to claim control over our very own puppet?Its strings are poison, sweet music from us to all of you. It will Tear you apart.
Two voices, with the same sounds. Coming from the same creature, but babbling against itself. You can't understand, what's happening?
Split
Your screaming reaches a fever pitch and then you feel the world turn green and black. You feel as though your whole body has just been torn in two, but at least it's over. The pain has stopped, but you're suffering from the after-effects. It keeps aching a while longer, but you're sure that things are fine.
Fuck this noise.
What?
Wait. Sydney? Are you there?
Oh this is entirely not how I wanted things to be.
Don't worry, honey. I'll be taking care of everything.
Who are you talking to?
Be silent, whelp. Alexia says with the usual amount of venom in her voice.
Please explain the situation to him.
Why should I? He's just a mortal from a world that is not ours.
Edwin suddenly racks his shotgun. It's a quick way to say a lot without speaking.
Possession is irreversible, I'm afraid. Last chance to prove yourself.
Please?
Nnngh. Fine. I'm Sydney's other half. She's the brains of the operation, usually, but I take over when things get bad. I reach her full physical potential. I am a pure, primal drider, and you should be in awe, weakling.
...I knew I should have taken that class on psychology. Are you still going to help me, Sydney?
Provided you remain useful. If not... Well, our children have needs.
How about you keep a lot more distance from me, alright? The lich hasn't followed us yet, we're probably beneath his notice. He's searching as hard as we are, but Mantorok is hiding it from him.
Shut up and walk, human. We'll go slot in the runes we have, and try to find a new receptacle for this amulet. Speaking of...
Alexia tosses the amulet at Edwin, who catches it handily. He's certainly a lot more wary, and you sure as shit aren't happy about the current arrangement. Still, you came out of a talk with the goddess/god/godless of madness and came out...
Sane is a bit of an overstatement.
Well, not worse off than you were, psyche-wise. OF course, now you're kind of controlling an out of control carriage. Alexia may respect you, but she respects her own ideas a lot more.

You'll have to convince Alexia to do what you need now. Not to mention, with your sanity bottomed out, all the creatures are a bit more dangerous, now... Best not look into any eyes.

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Devastator · « **Reply #2701 on:** January 17, 2019, 05:10:39 pm »

(Yeah, we don't want to do Mantorok's bidding, we know that much. Not sure what to do now, although Alexia doesn't like her any more than Sydney does.)

Lets find where the amulet goes first. It had the biggest guardian, after all, and that last guy was a real douche. See if the minion here knows something, that was the name of the god he wanted to kill, after all. Should know something about Xel -whatever.

Egan_BW · « **Reply #2702 on:** January 17, 2019, 08:36:58 pm »

You do you, queen.

I'm pretty sure that looking into the eyes of one of those creatures is going to start hurting physically though, so I don't recommend it.

Liquefied Spleens · « **Reply #2703 on:** January 19, 2019, 06:11:50 pm »

You, where should we put this thing?
Another statue, is my guess. We didn't see any of them along the way here, however, so my guess is to try the one in the central hall.
Alright. Get going, then. I'll just slot in the rune in the meantime.
Splitting up!? For what reason would you ever want to split up?
I can take care of myself.
Oh, I've no doubt that you can, Aestinus, but there's a distinct possibility that one of us will end up in trouble. We have the advantage of two bodies to throw at our problems, so why squander that?
I don't have time for your prattling. I'll get moving, you just do something useful, would you?
There is a short pause where Edwin just stands there, looking on with a look of disgust he doesn't even try to hide. After a few more seconds, he elects to run after you.
Be nice. We don't have anything else that will help us here.
Being nice is a way for inferiors to hedge their bets. It's one of your few failings, Sydney.
Another pause. You're glad you can "think" without speaking to her in this state. Usually, thinking overlaps in communication, but it seems you entered a new fresh hell in the way of fractured psyches. You take your time to think about it, carefully deliberating just what it is you can say to get your point across, and to counter her rick and morty-tier reasoning. You don't even know what that is, but you feel as though it's something really pretentious to take at face value.
Hey, hey Alexia? Listen to me.
She slows down a moment.
Bitch.

We'll be right back

I need to apologize. I see that my actions were wrong, and that we should stick together for now.
What's with the sudden change of heart?
Be honest.
... Let's just move.
Right. Let's do the statue, first, it'll take less time if we do it on the way.
Fine. Her eyeroll was hard enough you could practically hear it, but it doesn't matter. She won't be abandoning Edwin just yet, even if she is pissed beyond belief about this. Whatever, you got results.
When the amulet is placed around the statue's neck, you hear the temple rumbling. Seems Edwin's hunch was right, that DID change a couple of things. Question is, where? You elect head downstairs first, to slot in that rune (alexia is rather persistent about it.)
What god are you planning on killing again? Xello-something?
Xel'lotath. Ancient of madness.
What do you know of it?
Other than the fact that it wants to take over this world and is completely insane, even by Ancients standards? Not much.
Not much? How useless are you?
I'm sorry, your majesty. But she hasn't been very forthcoming about herself when she sent walking corpses at me to try and tear my organs out. Not the most communicative.
Oh, yes! Sarcasm! How useful!
I don't much care for this tone of yours.
I don't much care for how easy it would be to beat you to death with your own arms, but I guess nobody can be happy!
Shut up.

When you slot in the rune, there is another small rumble and a loud click. The sound of metal sliding over metal, just below your feet. Yes, that seems to be the solution. You haven't seen anything different, though, so you're going to have to continue looking around to find something new. Another passageway should be around here somewhere. When you walk back, however, you are suddenly attacked by two Mantorok-aligned zombies. Alexia is as capable as ever, and smashes them apart without a second look. That demon arm is something she's rather enamoured by. Because of course she would be. However, those zombies did allow the both of you to spot the new opening. You just walked right past it, not thinking to look at the unassuming crevice from earlier.
Stepping through, you find another room, with a blue rune at the top. Ulyaoth's rune, most likely. Of course, it's floating notably out of reach, and it's too far from the ceiling to be reached by wall-climbing. Looking around, however, you see a couple of buttons.
Bloody puzzles, again!? Were they hoping to keep out only idiots?
I think their main purpose is to waste time for the guards to get somewhere.
Have the retards not heard of locks?
No comment. It is a tad silly. Now, let's see...
Each button is marked with a different symbol, and it doesn't take an archeology degree to figure out what it might mean. One is a hand getting stabbed by a spike, and the button is covered in dried blood. The next one looks like a skull belching out gas, and the last one looks strange. A rune?
That rune refers to "project". A key component of the magickal attacks.
Of course. Looks like we need to take a few hits to continue. Go ahead.
Are you mad? Let's just look for another way to get at that, or a way to avoid getting hurt in the first place! Honestly...

You'll have to convince Alexia to put her life on the line, or you can try to find a solution to this painfully pre-telegraphed trap.

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Devastator · « **Reply #2704 on:** January 19, 2019, 06:49:38 pm »

We have a big polearm. Can we just push the button with that from afar?

Egan_BW · « **Reply #2705 on:** January 19, 2019, 07:51:08 pm »

...Do you not remember a few minutes ago when we got at something far away with a strand of web? Same principle. Make a net and pull the rune down. If it needs to be touched by flesh or some bullshit like that. Just climb onto the ceiling and drop down into it. You can handle a little fall, can't you, princess?

Liquefied Spleens · « **Reply #2706 on:** January 21, 2019, 05:47:25 pm »

I literally cannot believe it was that easy. This HAS to be a trick.
It's hard to prepare for greatness.
No, but... Did they not expect somebody with a rope or something? Sure, not everybody can climb walls, but a rope would have worked!
Sure. Just be glad, minion.
Fine, fine. Shall we move forward and go to the end of this passage? We might save some time by getting the second to last rune. If only we knew where the Mantorok rune was.
Just look for a purple rune somewhere, maybe you even overlooked it. You only have two eyes, don't you?
Means you missed it as well.
We had better things to do, if we did at all. Aren't you the archaeologist?
Stop being a bitch.
This swearing is very unbecoming of you, Sydney. Let Me handle that, would you?
Don't capitalize when referring to yourself.
When referring to Gods-
We aren't.
I am getting rather tired of this.

The next room is one that's more to the basics. Not conspicuously empty any more, instead you've got an influx of zombies and horrors. Of course, considering how careful the queen is, she fails to avoid the stares of a few zombies. The damage is negligible, and against the odds she managed to avoid getting struck by the Horror's gaze from beyond the veil. Still, at your continued requests, she has decided to take a bit of distance so zombie eyeballs don't need to look before the demon arm annihilates them entirely. It's hard to imagine these zombies being an actual threat to anybody, unless they manage to corner them or something. Of course, if you aren't armed, they're probably kind of dangerous.
Whatever.
You hear a couple of roars while Edwin does some work. It's still kind of weird that enchanting a gun makes the bullets roar upon striking an enemy, but at least it cleans up the problem.
Right, another room down, but I'm just about out of shotgun shells. I still have my pistol, but it's not the most effective, to be honest. Without enhancing it, at least. Kukri, as well, but I'm not a fan of attacking anything more than a zombie with that.
So I'll need to do everything? What a common situation.
We had to peace out because the STARES can hurt us at the moment. Don't talk smack.

The room itself doesn't seem to have anything special, other than a scroll. With a shrug and a grunt, Edwin tells you that he can summon creatures now, with whatever use that carries... He can summon a zombie, and a trapper. A creature about the size of a dog that teleports things to a sort of pocket dimension where one can replenish oneself. At the cost of a few dangerous creatures, sometimes. It really only spends time...
Still, at least you've got something small that can crawl around. Edwin doesn't bother saying what runes allow that to happen, of course. You don't blame him, considering how prickly Alexia is.

You seem to have explored just about everything. You need a purple rune and a green rune from somewhere... Maybe you should retrace your steps, you might have missed something. And hurry. If you happen to end up noticed by that liche again, you'll be in really deep trouble.

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Egan_BW · « **Reply #2707 on:** January 21, 2019, 06:28:06 pm »

Yeah, there was that place only accessible by a small crawly thing. How convenient.

Devastator · « **Reply #2708 on:** January 21, 2019, 08:42:50 pm »

Purple.. there was that glowing sign marker. Maybe someone's playing silly buggers and put the rune behind a chunk of translucent glass or something.

There's also the brain-whammy room. Might be able to get through that by just running and not checking the inscriptions.

There's also a lot of magic in that book. Maybe he can summon some small magical construct of our own that can check out behind that rubble passageway.

Lastly, it's a jungle out there, right? It shouldn't take any time at all to find something to make into children or small undead, or both.

omada · « **Reply #2709 on:** January 23, 2019, 02:54:55 am »

"Hey, Edwin, what is the possibility that you have some piece of meat inside that book? I need to rub my egg on it"

Liquefied Spleens · « **Reply #2710 on:** January 24, 2019, 06:10:13 pm »

It's that god-damn waymarker. I'm actually angry the solution is that simple. Not to mention, he can summon that trapper to get inside the little cubbyhole.
Convenient, isn't it? I despise these dungeons and their puzzles.
Same.
What are you prattling on about?
Alexia turns to Edwin and gives one of her trademark murderous glares. She manages to mix it with disgust, though that's kind of a basic expression. Alexia is a tad one-note when it comes to social interaction.
Don't put that tone with me.
I'm the man with the shotgun. Shut up and tell me what you know.
Things are getting a tad heated, aren't they? Well, at least nothing much happens as you head back to the first room. Sure enough, the purple mark just sort of... slides out, upon pressing it once.
This is the lamest shit.
Agreed. Watch my back, would you? I'm going to summon that trapper, and I believe i'll be controlling it directly. It's... likely not great for my mind, but there's no other option.

Sydney. I'm not going to ask that.
Hm?
But it's... Fine. Minion. Do you have a slab of meat? I could make a minion of my own from that.
Not much more than fruit and trail mix, I'm afraid. We ate our last fish a day ago.
Well enough. Do your thing, I'll keep your useless hide safe.
Edwin lets the insult lie, just shrugging his shoulders and shaking his head as he casts the spell.

TIER ARETAK CHATURR'GHA

A strange, crab-like creature with three legs and a scorpion like tail emerges seemingly out of nowhere, while Edwin himself gains a glossy stare and becomes completely unmoving. The little creature "looks" at you (it doesn't have eyes...) before crawling into the hole. You instantly hear roars and lightning strikes from behind the walls. Edwin has begun shaking though he's still staring ahead, unblinking.
Then, the collapsed passageway begins to shake. Shadowy tendrils fly out of there, lashing at the walls like shadows against a fire. Slowly, it turns thicker, more corporeal. It sticks to everything, spreading its foul corruption further. You don't think you can fight this, the best you can do is keep your distance. Whatever these things are, they're at least...
They're not slow, per se, considering they whip around like that, but they're spreading at a somewhat slow pace. Alexia picks up Edwin without any complaint, even cradling him. She seems oddly terrified of those tendrils. To be fair, though, so are you.
Then, they retreat. All at once, the shadowy tentacles twitch and get sucked back into the passageway. Edwin "wakes up", shaking his head.
You can let go now.
Alexia drops him like a bag of bricks. He lands roughly, but doesn't complain. You haven't even turned around by the time the blocked passageway unblocks itself.
Somewhat violently.

Brickwork goes flying across the room, though through a combination of luck and Alexia's reflexes, none of them hit your body. Well, they hit the demon arm, but that hardly counts. Alexia was ready to make an unimpressed comment until she sees that the man responsible. His tall, lanky frame stands there a moment, staring the two of you down.
That's enough. You will both die. NOW!
You hear the spells going off already, the dual whispers of his ancient granting him power as a magical attack pierces the air. Naturally, you elected to get the hell out of dodge, but there's only one way to go! You feel the bolt strike you in the back. The burning goes deep...
What the hell can you do!?

Go through the alternative passageway and try to elude him.
You can crawl on ceilings, and Edwin isn't that large. Hiding may just be prudent.

Get the keys in the slots and hope to god you're fast enough.
If that thing gets you, this adventure is OVER. Better hurry the hell up!

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birdy51 · « **Reply #2711 on:** January 24, 2019, 07:01:20 pm »

If it's something that we can do in less than six seconds, I could maybe recommend a casting of Control Undead, but I don't think that would ultimately be much help aside from a momentary distraction. Taking control of a fucking lich is fundamentally impossible for a necromancer of our level, but the attempt might be distracting nonetheless. A distraction is... better than nothing, especially if we're still looking to book it or try to stuff keys into the wall. It is, the worst idea, but I fear that hiding at this juncture would be ill advised. A lich's intelligence is NOT to be underestimated and if it has any of our own powers, we can reasonably bet it has attained some sort of Soul Sniffery/Sight. So ah. It would find us. It would kill us. It'd probably have fun doing it.

So, I'm for getting the keys into the slots. Maybe give one to Edwin, we do our thing, and try to get the key in the other slot. If by some absolutely cosmic miracle we SOMEHOW actually attain control of a lich, then we could try to Disintegrate Undead. But the main goal is the keys.

omada · « **Reply #2712 on:** January 24, 2019, 07:44:01 pm »

If it can be done fastly, Aim the control undead on whathever part seems that control his voice, that way we mess with his spells,

I don't think we can ever be close to control the lich, last time we just made his leg stiffen and we shouldn't push our luck to hard, but if we think we can, cast desintegrate undead on the controlled part

I don't know what is the best to do, hurry or try to hide, maybe hurry, tomb raidering stuff usually always proceed with a big block of stone separating us from the imminent death while getting to the next part

ok, +1 to the two posts below

Devastator · « **Reply #2713 on:** January 24, 2019, 08:21:20 pm »

Try for the elude. But we should talk a sec.

Shout this: "There any way we can use these to fuck over Mantorok?"

Egan_BW · « **Reply #2714 on:** January 24, 2019, 10:31:10 pm »

We already tried necromancy on him, it actually hurt to do so, it only slowed him down for a little bit, and now he knows that we can do that and may have come up with a specific counter to it already.
If we try necromancy, we will die.

Run for it and hide. He doesn't know that we can wall-climb, so that's our current advantage. Evade, keep track of ~~Alexander~~ Agustus using soul sight. While he's looking for us in a different section of the temple we can get to the key room quickly.

If we try to hide and he finds us, we can just sprint for it at that point. If that fails and we're forced into a confrontation, we still have one more secret weapon not native to this world. Pour all mana into paralyzing him and go for the sting. If we're very very lucky this will be enough to neutralize him or at least escape and sprint for the key room.

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Author Topic: Web of Life: A Drider's Adventure (Ended) (Read 170806 times)

Liquefied Spleens

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Devastator

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Egan_BW

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Liquefied Spleens

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Devastator

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Egan_BW

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Liquefied Spleens

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Egan_BW

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Devastator

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omada

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Liquefied Spleens

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birdy51

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omada

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Devastator

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Egan_BW

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