>>24377723
Right, so lets go after our old foe and see if our delusions work on it this time. Not sure if last time it was just incapable of understanding or hearing us, or if we didn't have the power level to succeed.

"The Blood Golem is killing enemy troops that have infiltrated your base."

Repeating my self from yesterday, I suggest attempting to delusion it with "It's about to rain and you'll die if you don't return underground". Not sure if this thing is even a daemon or something mindless, but if it has a mind, I think this should work. Unless it's a bright and clear sky above, that is.

What do people think about delusioning the ooze into wreaking all of the siege engines and punching a few holes into the wall?

Rolled 27

>>24377723
Your enemies fighting each other sounds good. What are the chances the ooze can dispel the shadow on the other's eyes?

If I recall water hurt the ooze. Is there a significant amount if it nearby? Springs, wells, rivers, moats, lakes?
Has the power of our dementations increased enough to affect other daemons? If so you might want to ensure golem and ooze begin a fight when they meet (no need to hold the delusion for long).

Are our own troops nearby? Does this Golem consume his kills like the last one did?

>>24377807
If we don't want it killing the blood golem, delusion it with "The blood golem is made of water", which should make it think twice about rolling it over. Plus, if it can do stuff that doesn't involve just swamping over things, we might get to see it in action.

>>24377818
Other delusion I considered: "If you catch me, you will become the most powerful being in the world", then kite it around since we were faster than it last time. If the blood golem keeps growing, we could even lead it to whereever we want without breaking line of sight (and thus breaking our blind), such as the walls.

>>24377824
Our troops are a day and a wall away, and our delusions work on other daemons who aren't more powerful than ourselves thanks to our Extraordinarily Insane talent. And this should be a port town, so yea, there's water in the ocean for sure.

>>24377820
If we can do that, sure, but not the walls. Get it to eat through lode-bearing walls in the catacombs to try to seal them off or collapse them completely. Try to cut off their leadership before the fight even begins.

Also see if we can find somewhere with a water source it can "accidentally" eat through.

>>24377914
Catapults are a good target if we can use the blob. They're stationary and a great threat to our army. The tunnels could have entrances we don't know of, so the leadership may still escape.

This all depends on actually being able to use delusion on it, and I stand by my previous suggestion ( >>24377855 ) for that.

>>24378033
We're already delusioning the sentry daemon with going to go kill off the leadership, so hopefully that is holding up well enough.

I support the delusion to make the blob follow us and kill catapults, we dont have to leave shadow form either since it was chasing us in shadow form last time.

>>24378033
uhh, I goofed, actually I meant >>24377858

>>24378033
Fair dues; I had to play catch-up yesterday so I've got the gist of things but some of the details will elude me, like >>24378059. Catapults it is.

>>24378093
Well our delusion MAY not have taken hold, but we are using energy to maintain it at the moment so we've assumed it worked. Either way hoping so.

So, we agree on trying to make it follow us, then leading it to the catapults? Though if the golem is growing at a reasonable pace, I'd prefer to just run it around the immediate area at first to avoid breaking our blind. Also, don't really remember how draining it is to maintain two delusions, but we may have to release the first.

Minor technical difficulties, back now. Cool to see there was some interesting discussion while I was gone.

The golem does indeed grow bigger with each person it consumes. Considering that, between the refugees and the Golgothan garrison on top of this being the biggest city in Dorrik to begin with, this place has over four thousand people in and near it at the moment, the blood golem is going to end up kaiju size if someone doesn't stop it.

>>24378323
...could it get so big we couldn't possibly cover its eyes anymore? Because that'd be cool but very bad for us.

>>24378359

It's possible, especially since the day is dawning and shadows are becoming more scarce. But that'll take a long while. This thing has to kill like eight people to grow an inch. No amount of size will make it any more capable of damaging your incorporeal form, but if it does grow to ~50 feet tall, it'll definitely still be around and still be gigantic once your army shows up.

Although if it eats the entire garrison, you won't need the army anyway.

Let's see rolls for what to do next. As usual, I'll count up the votes and take the highest d100 roll if they're tied.

Rolled 9

>>24378513
The plan of delusioning the blob and leading it around to destroy the walls/catapults while keeping in line of sight with the golem to blind it such as >>24377858

Rolled 85

>>24377858

Rolled 50

>>24378513
delusion the ooze. something like "The only way to destroy the shadow demon is to destroy all of the seige engines and undermine the wall"

>>24378646
>>24378631

These are basically the same, so we'll go with that.

You shout your delusion as the pus races away from you, the cobbled roads of the town turned to smooth stone with dirt peeking through as it burns through their top layer. Your increased power avails you, and the delusion takes!

Unfortunately, the daemon is apparently not immediately preoccupied with ultimate power or getting rid of you, as it instead oozes over the blood golem, dissolving it. The Golgothans are now fleeing in a panic from it, instead.

Afterwards, however, it turns back towards you, and now begins barreling down on you.

>wat do?

Oh, also, you are now maintaining two delusions at once. The strain is barely significant, but it is noticeable and it will take its toll on you eventually.

>>24378859
RIP blood golem. You won't be missed even slightly. How long have we maintained the first delusion? A few minutes tops?

We could keep it up for like, 5 minutes maybe- If the daemon hasn't done anything useful by then, it's probably not going to.

Also, catapult time.

>>24378942
I think we should try holding it a little longer than 5 minutes. If he can systematically kill off the enemy leadership we have every reason to hold it.

And yeah catapult time. Lets teach these bastards a lesson in friendly fire.

>the daemon is apparently not immediately preoccupied with ultimate power or getting rid of you,

Anyone have any ideas what this thing actually MIGHT desire? Our delusion took, but apparently not very well, may need a better one.

>>24379074
At this point we don't need to maintain the delusion on the ooze so maybe we can drop that one while it chases us around. Get near some key spots, like structures that might collapse the walls or those catapults, then try a new delusion like "I'm going to hide under/behind that thing" soon as we get close.

>>24379106
If it can see us (or whatever sense it's relying on), that would at best confuse it slightly, I think. Actually hiding under it might do the trick though, last encounter it wasn't particularly concerned by what got between it and us. We just need to be fast and get out of the way.

>>24379162
Yes, but we'd only need get out of sight briefly then yell the delusion. It should stick well enough to make it think we went from where it last saw us to where we told it we're hiding.

>>24379259
If it relies on sight. It doesn't have eyes, so it could be using whatever kind of sensing. But for the catapults, simply moving underneath one, then getting the fuck away before it can touch us should be trivial, seeing as we have no height and wouldn't be hindered at all. And that's if simply standing on the other side of a catapult isn't enough to get it to wreck the catapult.

>>24379316
Well I might be overcomplicating things. It's possible the ooze is only barely sentient and doesn't have the mental capacity to even understand a delusion in the first place.

Looks like we might be at vote/roll again, mostly for lifting the delusion on the eye creature or not.

>>24379369
But it knew to prioritize the golem that was killing everyone, so unless it was ordered to it must have SOME sense of reasoning. Though our first encounter didn't really hint at it having a lot of that, I'm generally of the impression that it thinks.

Rolled 80

>>24379432
lets not

Rolled 100

>>24379432
I don't remember exactly, but I think maintaining two delusions for more than a few minutes was very draining on us? I don't want to blow all of our juice on that thing. Keep it up for a few minutes more minutes at most.

>>24379502
Then drop the delusion on the ooze, not the eye thing. We have the Ooze's attention anyway.

Rolled 14

>>24379440
I don't think the eye creature quite understood who was messing up his business, and thus didn't prepare against us properly. If we lift the delusion he might understand what were capable of and have time to make countermeasues. We can't take that risk.

Don't lift the delusion.

Rolled 71

>>24379592
Guess I should roll.

>>24379592
Huh. Yeah okay, I could go for that, actually, if it loses interest right away, we'll know the delusion is affecting its behavior and can put it right the fuck back on it.

Everyone seems to have their own plan, so we'll go with >>24379502 because he rolled 100.

You begin fleeing from the pus monster, leading it towards the town walls and the catapults that sit atop them. As you near the walls, the defenses grow numerous, but the men all leap out of the way of the advancing monstrosity rather than attempting to confront it. A few arrows are fired towards it, but its body just consumes them.

By the time you reach the top of the wall it's been several minutes and you're beginning to wear out a bit from maintaining the delusions. Plus the sprinting. You lift the delusion on the eye creature and dart beneath the catapult. The pus monster halts and begins "pacing" back and forth around the catapult, but doesn't attempt to follow you under it.

>wat do?
>Captcha: scene macefic

Macefic? Is that some weird new ind of slash?

Rolled 67

>>24379844
Okay, we know this thing can see somehow then. Let's reassert our delusion with "Your master doesn't care about collateral damage as long as the shadow dies."

>>24379844
Yea okay, our delusion isn't doing much at all, but no reason to despair. Perhaps survival is more to its liking. "If you don't catch me soon, your masters will punish you by throwing you into the ocean" might get it moving, and if not, I don't know what possibly could.

>>24380102
This is actually more likely to work, switching from this >>24380087

>>24380102

You feel the delusion taking hold again. Nothing much happens, but a few seconds later the monster dissolves through the wall beneath it, tunneling down.

>wat do?

>>24380235
Look over the hole, see if we can work out where it went. Also note how much damage it to the wall; it may have just made a weak spot we can take advantage of later.

>>24380235
If this is what I think, this is going to be like the third time it attacks us from below. Unless it's actually running away. Take a quick peek down the tunnel it left, if it's not leading the fuck away from here, we need to get out of the way.

>>24380301

You move over to glance into the hole. It only goes down a few feet before curving and that's when it erupts from the ground beneath your previous position, chewing through the wall but doing fairly little damage to the catapult. It oozes back down into the tunnel its made and you move away from the other end in time to avoid being hit when it emerges again. Now that you're out of the catapult it begins chasing you once more.

>wat do?

>>24380440
How large is the catapult compared to our friend? If it's not eating the catapult, it could just eat the entire wall beneath it I guess. That should still leave the catapult useless.

>>24380440
Okay. It's pretty intelligent, and also not in the mood for a game of hide & seek. I'm guessing that this thing doesn't have any daemonic talents beyond "being made of acid", so we're unlikely to glean any more tactical information. Gotta find a way to kill it; any water towers or structures that might be one in sight? Also we'll do a legger down the wall and put some distance between us and it; make for the next catapult.

>>24380555

These catapults are pretty gigantic, about twenty feet from one end to another and ten feet across. You've seen bigger, but these things definitely aren't small. This blob, on the other hand, is probably about six or seven feet of across, though its exact dimensions are constantly shifting.

>>24380573

There's no large water sources immediately in sight, but you know of a few wells here and there from your earlier scouting of the city. You could try and head towards one of those.

>>24380698
If it's still going to try burrowing underneath us, getting it to hit a support/wheel or two should mess a catapult up pretty bad.

>>24380782

It's chasing you on the surface right now.

What do you plan to do?

>>24381114
Well that's good too, isn't it? If we stick to the catapult, it can't do anything to us without harming the catapult, right?

>>24381247
Yeah we'll just play chicken with it on the catapult.

>>24381347
>>24381247

It darts around the edges of the catapult for a while, occasionally trying to lurch in to nab you between the massive beams of the catapult's base when you get close to the edge, but won't risk oozing inside for fear of damaging the somewhat complicated latticework of lumber that keeps the thing upright. Finally, it oozes off the edge of the wall, dropping to the ground below and eliciting shouts of alarm from nearby soldiers and shrieks from civilians roused by the sounds of battle who've begun watching from nearby houses.

>wat do?

>>24381624
Have we managed to bore it? Might as well watch where it's going, it's not like we have a blood golem to play with anymore thanks to that jerk.

>>24381624
How much damage did it do to the wall? Being all acidic and such I imagine it messed up quite a bit of the area around the catapult.

Either way yes follow the damn thing.

>>24381845

Sorry I've been gone, had an errand to run. And also ended up switching locations back to where I was before momentarily, which means I'm off Skype, but that hardly matters while the quest is running.

Anyways, the wall has lost maybe half a centimeter from its top and now it's kind of uneven since it's melted differently in different places. Plus there's the u-shaped hole going from just outside the catapult to right underneath it, and the catapult's base has taken a bit of minor damage near that area too. None of this has been super severe, though.

Regardless, some of the soldiers' shouts of alarm are growing into agonized shrieks down below as the creature spits some of its pus onto them. Once on them it comes to life, crawling into their orifices despite their efforts to stop it, at which point they begin to bulge and mutate. The horribly misshapen abominations then begin lurching towards the stairs of the wall. They're a bit slower now than they were before, but it looks like they're headed your way, and the pus blob is doing the same.

>wat do?

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112 KB JPG

>>24382681
Well it looks like the blob has some modicum of strategy, so lets lead it and its entourage to the catapult again, and this time delusion it with "Destroying the catapult is the only way to kill the shadow" while avoiding its entourage.

>>24382921
If THAT delusion doesn't work, I'd really be inclined to give up on this jerk and run away. It clearly has a mind, but everything we've tried so far has had little to no noticeable effect on it, so however its mind works, we don't seem to be hitting any of its buttons so far.

>>24383016
Yeah that's my thoughts exactly, third time's the charm right? And if it isn't this thing just isn't worth the trouble.

I suggest we run off to the command post and see if the fruits of our previous delusion were born after all in case this doesn't work.

>>24383078
Command post sounds fun, those (probably) narrow corridors are going to be hell with this thing behind us.

>>24382921

The pus blob circles around the catapult for a bit longer, and then withdraws, leaving its deformed creations to watch over you. When you step out of the catapult's base, several of them grasp and scrabble at the wall's floor, trying to pick you up or claw you and some of them have the sense to try and bash you with their weapons, though the cancerous growths all across their bodies make finesse impossible.

The pus blob seems to have given up on you, and the sun is fully risen now. Army will be here in maybe 22 hours? You haven't lost a lot of time. Also these deformed guys probably aren't leaving you alone.

>now what?

>>24383323
What? No, WE gave up on IT first! Goddamnit!

If I remember correctly, the last of these things just attacked anything, but it seems to have managed to give these ones orders. Even with those orders however, perhaps we could convince the nearest officer that "those abominations will go berserk and attack the citizens if you don't kill them". Or perhaps simply by leading them towards the soldiers we could start a battle.

>>24383619
Yeah I was leaning towards this as well.

>>24383619
>>24383728

Fortunately you're still right next to the wall. There's a captain in charge of the defense of the gate, and the soldiers are instantly wary of the advancing horrors as soon as they spot them. You delude the captain of the gate, and while his soldiers aren't thrilled that he's taking the advice of a talking shadow, they really don't see any reason to believe you aren't telling the truth. Archers line up on the wall and shoot a volley of arrows down below, and the abominations are pincushioned. They fall to the ground, oozing out acidic pus from their wounds.

>now what?

>>24383834

I don't recall turning my name off. But this is me.

>>24383834
Back to the command post if possible, to check if Eye actually did anything or just ran off to wherever back then.

Well, lets see. We can trick the remaining blood guards into summoning another golem I suppose, or try to lure that insufferable ooze under a bunch of water or something.

>>24383895
meh, this works. On that note, do our power sphere's have the ability to create minions like Olbrek, this ooze punk or that blood guy who has been mentioned?

>>24384011
Not yet, that would require either Alchemy or Thaumaturgy for the golems we keep seeing, and not sure what Olberek uses to make his wolves. I think its Animalism though, which is a Nature talent.

>>24384011

Tenebriety has a power that lets you turn your shadow into a single, powerful minion (though unless you have shadow steel its power is mainly limited to espionage). Also you can pick up Animalism and Witchcraft later on, both of which can give you minions of the "horde of mooks" variety (Animalism is how Olberek gets his dire wolves, in fact).

>>24383895

You sneak back in to the command center. It appears untouched. The general and one of his commanders remain asleep, but the other has roused himself to begin taking reports. He's not having a good day and is happy to take it out on the local guards, though he doesn't raise his voice above an irritable whisper, presumably out of respect for the sleeping general.

The place appears not to have suffered any attacks from rampaging eye men. Maybe he was just going for a more cautious approach, and the delusion was lifted before he had his attack lined up, and then he realized he was being a paranoid idiot? This place does have like forty men in it. Any daemon or equivalent without solid combat powers would be suicidal to just attack it head-on.

>now what?

>>24384249
Let's head back to the temple where we originally got the blood golem going and see if we can slip inside, that's where the eye daemon came from after all.

I'm probably too late to add this, but if the general is asleep, we could see if he's become any easier to sneakystab.

>>24384524

The square is still on high alert, soldiers rushing to and fro, patrols of a dozen marching down the streets and lowering spears at every passing shadow.

The inside of the temple is ornate by Dorriki standards. An arched stone hall, you've never seen Dorriki make proper use of arches before. The altar at the end is placed before a bronze statue of an indistinct woman with hair made of copper.

Which is entirely inaccurate. The Red Queen doesn't have red hair. She's blonde. She just wears a lot of red and is from the Court of Blood.

But yes, altar to the Red Queen. Incense has been lit at the base but the area is otherwise deserted.

>now what?

>>24384970
Nobody inside?

>>24385001
I just reread the update, this time including the last sentence. So! Assuming that this isn't a trap and we're about to get all kinds of hell thrown at us, head out and see if there are any blood guards outside, Otherwise, they probably decided to hide those away so we can't get to them again.

Oh, and if the statue isn't too big, we should push it over. I don't think bronze will take any serious damage from that, but it'll probably feel good anyway.

>>24384970
Sneak around and see if we can find our eye-daemon quarry and figure out what he's up to.

>>24385163

It's only about four feet tall, shorter than the actual Red Queen. This place isn't super lavish. As for the blood guards, they seem to have deserted the place, either because their gods vacated the building or because they're needed to terrify the troops or something.

>>24385166

You don't have nearly enough time to search the entire city door by door (and tunnel by tunnel). Where do you intend to start? The gate, the market square, the war room?

>>24385351
Aww, a small thing like that isn't nearly as dramatic. Still, it should definitely feel the full extent of our wrath.

>>24385351
Let's start searching in the general direction we saw him run off after our delusion, see if there's any important landmarks in that direction and zero in on them.

>>24385458

Sure. You shove the statue over, and it clatters to the stone floor, some of the more thin parts bending out of shape.

>>24385470

The road leads towards a densely packed residential area full of 3 or 4 story apartments, and also has another entrance down to the catacombs, less heavily guarded than the others.

>investigate the catacombs or the residential area?

>>24385722
Investigate the catacombs; everybody knows the broody mad scientist types have secret laboratories underneath the city. That is, if our daemon fits the bill. Be VERY cautious though, place could be warded to hell.

>>24385722
I'd imagine Eyeguy would prefer to hide in the catacombs than a dense residential district

>early morning, still barely awake, kids are being noisy again, too tired to yell at them.
>hear a knocking on the door, wonder who it could be this early
>find some black dude with a giant eye instead of a face
>waltzes right into your home, sits down at the table and just stares at you
>kids are scared, start crying
>fuck daemons

>>24385752
>>24385807

You begin searching through the catacombs. Something is lurking about nearby, you can hear footsteps. Emboldened by incorporeality, you investigate. Around the corner lurks a fair-sized swarm of the same hulking abominations that the pus monster spawned upstairs.

Stealth has never eluded you, so you're able to slip through the pack undetected. They're intermittent throughout the catacombs, which are extensive. There must be at least a few hundred of these things down here.

Down there is also your friend the eye creature. He's moving through the catacombs at a good pace, but only seems to be moving in circles, occasionally reaching one of the doorways leading back up to the surface. It never opens them, but it lingers there for a moment before turning around and continuing its loop.

>wat do?

>>24386195
Wait, what if we had this wrong and this thing is literally a sentry golem of sorts? This sort of behavior seems programmed much like the iron warriors we've seen.

Let's keep following it and see if there's any doorways that lead deeper into the catacombs that it lingers around.

>>24386264
I thought more or less the same, after all the guy just stared at us for a while and a few moments later we had the pus monster attacking us from below. That same monster was not able to sense that he we had moved from our position when we played by the catapult, so it seems likely that thing was acting as its eyes. Well, eye.

I agree that we should see what's deeper down, if anything.

>>24386264
>>24386324

Looking around, you're able to find some locked grates in multiple corridors that all lead into a single, massive chamber, not unlike the war room, packed to the bursting with at least a few hundred of the deformed abominations, who mull and lurch about, a few of them devouring some gristly carrion meat that's been left lying about.

One of the corridors does not lead back out into the labyrinthine catacombs, though. Instead, it is a long, and occasionally curved or sloped tunnel. It forks, and at both ends it opens up onto the fields approaching the city, past the walls. The entrances are fairly well-hidden, you'd be unlikely to notice they were there unless you knew where to look.

>wat do?

>>24386520
Well this is both useful and disturbing intel. I'm not sure if there's anything we might've missed, but perhaps all these things are just security for the glaring flaw in their defenses. Or a surprise zombie army to unleash in the middle of an invading force via those tunnels.

Let's head back up to where the sentry is patrolling and see if there's any doors leading to the surface that look important.

>>24386520
Jesus fuck, Westercoast is starting to feel more like a DOOM wad and less like a city. This is some diabolical shit. Goddamn.

>>24386655
We should have time for more scouting, so yea, let's check out the place for more horrors.

>>24386753
>>24386655

You return to find the eye creature still patrolling about the catacombs (you have only gone like twenty minutes, so no big surprise there). The catacombs don't appear to contain anything beyond the massive swarm of mutated abominations, which are mostly concentrated in this one area. Several roam about the catacombs freely, but can't get past the various locks and grates that guard the entrance and the war room. There's over a thousand of them down here. Even given they're less agile than normal mortals, this isn't going to help with your being outnumbered. At least you know they're here and they can't jump you while you're attacking the walls.

The doors leading up to the surface the eye creature is watching seem pretty normal, though. They open up to the streets of Westercoast above.

>now what?

>>24386909
Two things cross my mind.

First, I have to wonder how well controlled these things are, and if it would be possible to get them to fight each other. I don't remember delusions working, but blinding a few could cause them to lash out at the nearby ones, hopefully starting a huge brawl.

Second, if that doesn't work, I'd suspect that they are being controlled at least partially, quite possibly by the eye thing. Perhaps we could try a delusion on it once again, maybe even convince it to set these things lose on the city above.

>>24387118
I like this plan, I couldn't really come up with anything better.

>>24387118
Unleashing a vast horde of abominations upon an enemy fortress? Can't say I like but I've got nothing better. Might I presume we fall under Neutral, following D&D alignment?

>>24387118

You try a few delusions, but they don't react at all. They don't even stop lurching about for a half-second. Blinding makes them stop in confusion, fumble about, but they don't begin attacking one another.

As for the eye creature, what delusions do you plan on trying on it?

>>24387564
"The civilians in the city above have turned on your master"

Somewhat believable, and causing civilian casualties with these horrors might shake things up. If someone would rather change the target to soldiers though, speak up.

>>24387860

The delusion doesn't have any immediate effect. As usual, it takes a bit for the thought to turn into any action. Or maybe it's just not reacting at all. Either way, though, it does unlock one of the grates and head back up to the surface.

Once up top, though, it just heads back to the temple, where it picks up a spare blood guard sword and simply stands in the center, motionless.

On the way, however, you do notice the streets are nearly empty. Considering this city is supposed to be so thoroughly packed that 500 refugees had to set up a tent city outside, it seems odd that street traffic is basically nil even two or three hours after sunrise, and no one's sleeping in the streets except for a relatively small number camped in the main square.

Weird.

>now what?

>>24388425
That is...odd. Let's slip into civilian residences until we find some proper, well, civilians.

Totally calling that most of the civilians have been turned into zombies. Totally.

Okay, I need to leave now. Plus looks like we're down to one person, so about time to wrap up anyway. See you guys at 12:00 tomorrow.