>>826534
>>A fancy shortsword that holds a faint glow, slight sparks of energy flicker back and forth on the blade.

Mind if we look at some examples of the warcrime selection, in case we reach the Godzilla Threshold?

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Well shit, I guess I forgot to add this to the OP huh.

Previous threads: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=Papers

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>>Gloves

A mark of station

>>826534
>A fancy shortsword that holds a faint glow, slight sparks of energy flicker back and forth on the blade.
Swords are the best.

>>826534
>>A fancy shortsword that holds a faint glow, slight sparks of energy flicker back and forth on the blade.

>>826637
>>826850
>>826901
Called, sword it is. Expect within an hour.

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You walk over and grab the short sword, feeling your fingers closing around the ornate handle, a slight shock of energy zaps your fingers and causing you to jump back with a yelp.

Viessa lets out a chuckle, drawing a rather pointed look from you. “The sword huh? Yeah, I think it suits you just fine, Dick ol’ buddy.”

“Now let’s see here…,” she says as she nudges you aside and checks out the rack where the sword is housed, narrowing her eyes to read the carefully handwritten print labeling the weapon, “Looks like you’ll need to turn the bloody thing off first.” Pushing a button located above the grip, the blade ceases to glow, and the sound of static eventually fades away. Gripping the blade, she struggles to lift it before managing to get it up to your chest, where you struggle to hold in another bout of laughs as you take it from her like a toy.

Trying to avoid another pout after realizing how comical that just looked, she takes a deep breath and visibly exhales before going back to reading on the sword. “So just turn the thing on when you want to use it if you’re holding onto the thing before it gets charged it won’t shock you, there’s a protection spell or something about that. And try not to let it touch other people, okay?”

Nodding, you follow your friends on the way out of the treehouse, climbing down the various ladders and stairs to reach ground level. Looking over the edge of one of the passages, you see a dizzying fall before you, prevented primarily by a mixture of worked and shaped wood forming a railing. “You ever going to tell me about this place, Vie?” you say as the three of you climb down a few more stories of the tree. “Maybe I’ll tell you once you catch up!” Viessa grins madly at you before leaping off the ladder and descending into freefall from what must be a straight mountain’s worth of height to the ground.

You and Astaroth shout at the same time, worry etched on your faces, at least until Viessa’s voice is finally heard over the breeze. Chanting some strange language, she magically slows her descent and slowly lowers to the ground.

“Goddamn broad is crazy!” you curse as you work our way down yet another ladder, bemoaning the lack of an easier and safe shortcut as much as your friend being fucking crazy.

“Agreed, she seems to thrive on danger.” Astaroth concurs as he wordlessly fumbles with his descent, his massive size making travel much more difficult considering the place was made for elves, much less demonkind.

“I might have to talk to her about that, you know…” You say with a frown.

Astaroth shakes his head at your words, clearly experienced in this kind of situation if his face is any indication, “Let her bring that subject up herself, friend. Trust me on this one.”

(1/2)

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>>827219
Looking at his face, you decide to just take his advice and drop it, conceding to his experience. Upon finally reaching the forest floor, Viessa greets the two of you with that almost infuriating grin of hers. “The look on your faces was absolutely priceless, you should hav-” You shut her up with a pointed glare before taking out the glowing blue stick and linking arms with Astaroth, who links his arm with Viessa.

“Here goes nothing I guess…” you murmur as you place the bloody thing under your arm, forcing it against your opposite hand and snapping it without much effort at all. Immediately, the world goes pitch-black, and sound both disappears and reappears over and over in both ears. Seconds later, light returns and burns your senses along with true sound, dizzying and knocking you over.

“Fucking hell, what was that?” you growl as you make your way unsteadily back to your feet, your companions sharing similar complaints and following in your footsteps. Looks like the damn thing dropped you in a cold, street in some kind of city.

“Teleportation, if I was to guess,” Viessa chirps in as she places as she rubs the back of her head from a nasty fall, “Wonder where we are?”

Looking around you recognize the city, but it doesn’t look much like it did the last time you were here delivering mail for your old job, trying to make some money to keep you and your sister alive. “Chedrostin,” you say as you put your eyes on the nearby Keep and on the buildings, ancient constructions of proud, staunch architects and builders, “But something’s wrong, real wrong.”

Checking the time, you glance at the moon figure it’s pretty damn late so it shouldn’t really come as a surprise that the place looks and sounds abandoned. But at the same time, still wasn’t the case, cities always have a kind of pulse to them, even at night the city has its fair share of hustle and bustle, of people and money and blood. The Chedrostin you’ve jumped into has none of that, the place is quieter than a tomb and you can’t see any lanterns or candles out, compounding into some strange, alien atmosphere.

Astaroth sniffs the air for a few moments, before a grim mask replaces his neutral expression, and his hands hover over his own blade. “There is treachery afoot, make no mistake of it.” He growls as a group of new sound signatures float into your sphere of hearing, the sounds of metal clanking about and feet shuffling.

Viessa looks at you with a frown, “What’s the call, boss? Fight or flight, or maybe a little of the old duck and cover?”

>Step out into the middle of the street and confront

>Hide and wait in cover

>Run out of there and find somewhere safer than the street

(2/2)

>>827228
>>Hide and wait in cover

>>827228
>Make a WHOLE BUNCH of noise and act as a distraction to fuck up whoever thinks they're a clever fuck that's thought of everything.

>>827337
>>827246
Actually, can Viessa do illusions? Maybe we can do both these things.

>>827340
Yep, the distraction thing is a thing.

>>827228
>Hide and wait in cover
More intel

Called for hide, but I will update again tomorrow, after I get done with classes.

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>>827434
“We’re taking cover this time.” You say as you find a little balcony above the street with a perfect section of wall to hide behind, and you climb your way up the brick with the help of a stray lamppost. Boosting Viessa up with you, the two of you struggle to pull Astaroth up until Viessa blasts him with some weight spell, and he is lifted up without much further effort.

Hiding behind cover, the three of you peek out and gaze at the street, and what you see shambling past draws gasps and murmuring from each one of you. Two fully animated skeletons, armed with rusting or bent weapons, alongside a few zombies, their corpses rotting and infested, all patrolling the street below you. The group stops suddenly, and everybody jumps back into cover, waiting until the sound of rattling bones and dragging feet are no longer heard nearby.

Finally lowering yourselves to the street, the three of you are silent until the coast is confirmed to be completely clear. “Can somebody please tell me what the fuck that was?” you yell in a mixture of horror and frustration, from watching the dead move to being sent here in the goddamn first place.

“Undead infestation,” Viessa replies, her face suddenly both filled with contempt and grim determination, “It’s been a long time since the last one, and we’re in deep it looks.”

“Infestation?” you ask puzzledly before turning to Astaroth and recognizing, again, that same expression of experience.

“Where you will find some Undead, you will find many, “he says slowly, taking out his blade and waving it around with practiced motions, “I suspect this is the work of a necromancer, they enjoy taking down entire cities in their lust for power”

“You’re saying this whole city could be completely gone?”

Nodding, he twirls his blade around and suddenly lights it aflame somehow, making his blade burn with the markings of hellfire. “Until we take out this necromancer out, this land will remain in the hands of the dead.”

You take out your own sword, deciding against turning it on before a fight to prevent shocking anybody and stretch out your tired limbs. “So now we just have to find this asshole and get him to stop?”

Viessa nods, “Yep, Astaroth here has the gist of it. As long as the Necromancer is actively tapping into the dead here, nothing will change. Question is, are we going to do anything about this place ourselves? Word’s going to get out eventually, and the Paladins are going to clean this place up like they usually do.”

“Are there usually any survivors?” you say quietly, taking out the glowing red stick you were told to deliver by Bart only a few hours earlier.

(1/2)

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>>829459
Viessa shakes her head sadly, “Not really. It’s one of the reasons Paladins and the like are so serious about this kind of thing, things get bad really quick.”

Scanning the city around you, your eye catches the attention of a nearby tower, higher even than the vaunted castle in the middle of the city. “Where do you figure this bastard is at the moment, anyways?”

Astaroth butts in, his voice filled with contempt and hatred, “Highest, fanciest building you can find nearby. The ego never fails to be predictable.”

Pointing at the old Wizard’s tower, now shrouded in black clouds and fog from somewhere, and what seems like your ultimate destination, considering the job you’d just taken. “That one?”

Painfully, he nods, and you groan in frustration. You’re tired, your friends are tired, everybody is fucking tired except the fucking dead, they don’t tire, with maybe the exception of that cunt necromancer.

“How do we get there? I don’t see us fighting through an entire town's worth of corpses?”

Viessa stretches out her hands and fingers, before pointing to the end of this street, and then pointing to the complete opposite end, and then flicking both hands to an adjacent direction.

“I can feel three sources of heavy magic nearby, and because this is a city during an infestation, I’m going to guess, city cemetery, the royal crypt in the castle, and the docks.” She says with a frown before taking out a strange bottle of a vial of blue liquid and downing it in one gulp before throwing it behind her and shattering it to pieces on the street.”

“I can nullify the necromancy he’s pulling out at each site, but I 'll only be able to get two down before I run out of magic for a while. Two is all we’ll need I think, minions from each section should get taken out as we go through them, and that should clear the way to the tower well enough. Up to you which ones you want to take out.


--------------------------
>Pick out the order that you wish to proceed. You can only choose two of the three.

>Cemetery

>Crypt

>Docks

(2/2)

>>829471
>Cemetery
>Crypt
Although I want to hit the docks those two look the most suspicious.

Seems like a slow day today.

Not really sure when I should call the vote to be honest. What do you think?

>>831036
Docks and crypt.

Might have to evacuate survivors.

Going to need a tiebreaker.

>>831105
Docks and Crypt.

>>831135
>>831044
Called for Docks and Crypt. Writing now!

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“We hit the Docks first, then we’ll skip around and get straight to the Crypt.”

Viessa nods, “Sounds good. I can feel the Docks not too far from here, and I think I can figure out a shortcut to the castle from there based on the magical traces.”

You activate your blade and heft the weapon an equal distance away from both you, and your comrades in the name of caution. “By the way,” you add as you stare at the gathering energy flickering all about the sword, lighting up the darkness around you with a bright, unnatural glow, “Did that label tell you what this sword actually does?”

Flashing that trademark grin of hers, she chuckles and begins to walk in the direction of the Docks with her arms outstretched against the moonlight, “Guess you’ll just have to find out Dick ole pal!”

----------

Creeping along the streets several patrols of the Undead are spotted, and promptly avoided, the explanation from Viessa that the Undead work somewhat like a hivemind thanks to the mass resurrection and necromantic control and a few other terms beyond your understanding provide sufficient cause to avoid a full-on confrontation.

And really, it isn’t that hard to sneak past a bunch of walking bones and rotting flesh, they don’t exactly rate very high in perception and smell and basically any other senses at all. Half the time the three of you just stow weapons and hide behind a wall or crawl under a food stand until the patrol goes by.

Reaching the Docks, you note the solemn sight of numerous ships, all empty and quiet in what should otherwise be a bustling port filled with all kinds of people. The way the moonlight reflects off the murky waters, the creaking piers and the cargo crates lying in place or spilled over on the wood.

It would look peaceful, almost, were it not for the horrifying abominations made of yellowed or cracked bone standing around, gaping their shark-like mouths at the moon like crazed owls.

“Psst, Vie,” you whisper as the three of you crouch behind a stack of overturned crates, “What the FUCK are those goddamn things?”

Without turning around, she fixes her eyes on them and studies them for a few seconds longer before answering. “Primordial creatures from the ocean, I believe.”

Fixing her with a raised eyebrow and maybe just a little incredulity, she replies slowly, “The fucker resurrected some old things that died a very, very long time ago from the ocean, and they are now on land. Takes rather powerful magic to do that kind of thing, especially considering the age and condition of many of these corpses.”

Looking at the brackish waters, reflecting the moon like a diamond in a puddle, you wonder just how MANY of these fucking freaks there could be. The contingent you can see on the Docks already seems to be making up thirty or more. “So how many of these damn things are we talking about? That looks like plenty to me.”

(1/2)

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>>831202

Stuck between a grin and a grimace, Viessa tilts her head your way, “Imagine how many millions of things have died in between those creatures out there dying, and now.”

Well…shit.

“So do we have ANY ideas on how to nullify this section?”

That FUCKING smile gets wider this time, and she looks you in the eyes, “Somebody could be bait, and I could nullify the whole place while they’re busy chasing.”

Narrowing your eyebrows so hard, they could probably create diamonds, she acquiesces with a nod, “Okay, we can just do the time-tested “Let me do the magic part while you protect me from getting eaten” strategy.”

Rolling your eyes, she squeaks out another answer, “I mean we could be slightly less boring and try to find the conduit unit.”

“The fuck is a conduit unit?” you ask with severe misgivings about this particular option for some reason you can’t really pin down.

She obliges you, “Each concentration of necromantic energy will generally have some kind of special creature that holds a connection to the Necromancer, in essence a kind of booster to the magical signal to maintain coherency and total control over the Undead.”

“So we’re looking for the biggest of the bunch, and when we find it, we kill it?”

“Pretty much.”

Fucking hell.

>Bait the horde out and run for your life while Viessa gets to work

>Do the good ole “Defend the VIP” mission while Viessa works

>Bait out the conduit creature, fight and finish it off before the rest of the horde arrives to help

(2/2)

Gonna take a sleep now.

Be back soon.

>>829459
.....why was DICK hired to do this? What was that guy expecting us to do without allies?

>>831206
>Bait the horde out and run for your life while Viessa gets to work
We'll kill the conduit creature in the crypt. For now, we can still pretend to be stragglers from the city until Vie does some real damage.

>>831206
Bait the horde.

>>831206
>Bait the horde out and run for your life while Viessa gets to work

You said Viessa can do illusions? Could she cast a small one on us to just kind of displace us or give us a small edge so long as we don't get surrounded or something?

Also, remember guys seawater is extra conductive due to all the salt and such in it.

Also electricity doesn't discriminate once it leaves the sword I'm pretty sure.

Anyways, just watching the Young Turks meltdown.

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“Alright, fine, I’ll play bait. How long do you need, exactly?” you say with a deepening frown that contrasts with the almost gleeful look on Viessa’s face. “Five minutes, maybe less. I’ll toss in a couple illusions to draw them in different directions, but you’ll still need to run like mad. So just walk up there and get them mad, and keep at it until they stop chasing you, got it?”

You nod and tighten your boots, then stretch out your leg muscles. “Right.” Stowing your sword, you look her in the eyes and lock your jaw, “Don’t fuck this up, Vie.” Rolling her eyes, she twirls her fingers and in an instant, four different versions of you materialize next to you with a slight sparkle, and after touching one, your hand passes through nothing but empty air. “Wouldn’t dream of it, now get out there you dunce!”

Sprinting into the middle of the Docks with your illusory friends, you walk into the faint light of the moon and glance at a nearby crate. Picking up the wooden container, you toss it into the air where it flops like a fish before crashing into the creaking pier with a thunderous clank. Immediately, horrific monstrosities of bone and sea debris begin charging at you, and behind them, hordes of other beasts climb from the brackish waters to join their comrades on the pier.

You don’t even have the time to shoot off a witty one-liner or anything.

Turning around and sprinting as if the Devil himself were after you, your illusions do the same and split off into different directions, thankfully diverting the majority of the abominations away from you. It doesn’t shake off all of them, unfortunately, and you’re left running from at least ten bony horrors close on your heels. You can hear the rattling of bone against stone and wood, and you push yourself to run even faster to avoid those hellishly sharp teeth and claws.

Street after street, alley after alley, you find yourself running out of gas compared to the tireless undead chasing you and doom closes in. Turning quickly on a corner, you enter an eerily silent marketplace, the kind that should still be busy with night crawlers and other nocturnal activities instead of the deepening quiet and overturned stalls and goods that you see before you. You quickly notice three options for you to use to run out the rest of the time they have left on you while weaving around the exits and entrances of the place.

First, ladder reaching up to a building balcony just like the last time, enabling you to defend yourself from attacking enemies as they climb up to get you with your sword. Second, an empty shop that you figure you can barricade up for the time being, and escape if overrun through one of the back entrances. And lastly, a sewer manhole that you can dive into and hopefully hide in, forcing them to either dive in with you and risk shattering themselves or being unable to climb back out.

>Get to the Balcony

>Barricade yourself in a shop

>Dive into the sewer

>>832555
>dive into the sewer

>>832675
Will wait just a bit longer before calling.

>>832555
>Barricade yourself in a shop

S'pose I need a tiebreaker for this one.

If I don't get one, no big deal, I'll just roll for it.

>>832555
>Barricade yourself in a shop

Maybe we'll land ourselves some supplies,who knows

Nice trips by the way

>>833352
>>Barricade yourself in a shop
>>833679

Sorry I meant to do this and fucked it up.

Sewer + Underwater beasties = noooooooooope.

Balcony? NEVER RUN UP AND GET TRAPPED.

Shop it is.

Called for Shop! Writing now.

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>>833789
Without any further thought, you head to the nearest abandoned shop and slam your elbow against the door, blasting it open with a thunderous slam. Immediately, you prop the door back into place and set the lock, backing off as the wood begins to buckle under the scrabbling bones of your foes. Without a moment’s pause, you barrel over some shelves and tables against both the door, and the windows. Your timing was impeccable, as you hear glass shatter behind the barricaded windows, and more bone scraping against wood echoes through the air.

Searching in the back of the store for an exit, you find yourself a locked door that leads out into the alleyway, and you bust the lock with a slice from your sword. Stepping into the dark alleyway, your ears pick up that particular scrabble of bone, and you turn to face three abominations with their jaws opened wide in the moonlight. Ducking under ferocious bite of one, you scramble backward into the shop and shut the door.

You try to lock the damn thing until you glance at the sliced-open lock staring at you on the ground. Whoops. Shoving over a few more shelves and other assorted furniture onto the door, you find yourself trapped between two waves of skeletal death. Activating your sword, you figure you might as well look around in the shop to see if it has anything special, you look under some of the counters and find something interesting.

A group of small red cylinders with small, string fuses attached to them sitting in the corner in a cupboard, with a handwritten note placed on the wooden paneling.

“Please keep any and all flames away from these. DANGEROUS.”

Searching under the main counter, you find a few matches and a smoking pipe, well-worn yet carefully taken care of and painted. This might be an interesting opportunity if you’re willing to use them properly.
>Light the cylinders on fire on both sides of the building

>Light a few cylinders on fire on just the backdoor and take the rest

>Take them but try to fight your way out the back with your sword.

>>834349
>>Light a few cylinders on fire on just the backdoor and take the rest
We don't know how strong they are, using them all might bring the building down.

>>834349
>Light a few cylinders on fire on just the backdoor and take the rest

My new goal is to get through this without having to use these so that we can give them to the King to figure out how to reproduce them if they seem useful.

Or use them to fuck up the advisor dick that sent us here.

>>834456
>>834421
Called for a few cylinders. That being said, I've got to sleep.

I'll see you bastards later!

>>834469
Let's make sure to throw the cylinders outside, or at least take cover.

Never know what you're going to get with magic.

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Grabbing a few of the cylinders, you notice the emblem of the King printed on them, before a particularly nasty blow from one of the creatures shatters your concentration and a hefty piece of wood barricading the main entrance. Placing a few of the cylinder directly in front of the backdoor, you walk over to the matches and prepare to strike the matches alight before realizing you should save some for later. Cradling several of the cylinders yourself, you toss them behind the counter before taking a single match and lighting it with the electrical charge running through your sword.

Burning low, you carefully light each fuse and make sure the length of the string is carrying a small ember of flame before you throw yourself under a counter and curl up into a ball. You haven’t ever really played with this stuff before, but you’ve heard about it from second-hand sources and books about magic and alchemy, and you’re not willing to test out some theories at the moment with everything on the line.

Several seconds later, the entire back entrance explodes with the crack of thunder, and the force of a volcano, showering dust and wood splinters through the air above your head, the counter saving you from being shredded by debris. With the smoke floating in the air, you grab the rest of the cylinders and shove as many as you can in your pockets for later and leap up to face the back door, or what’s left of it. Staring at the blasted ruins of an entire building, you note the eviscerated bone fragments on the ground and sprint through the remains of the door.

Bursting into the dark alleyway at full-speed, you turn and loop around to the Docks even as the remaining monsters realize you’ve tricked them and begin their horrible charge on your heels. Burning your boots open, you push yourself to the limit and eventually weave and turn straight back into the Docks, where you see Astaroth surrounded by monstrosities, grinning madly as he wrecks complete carnage in a circle around Viessa, chanting and interacting with some strange glowing runes on the pier.

Approaching the two, you take out your sword and prepare try and take some out with you when, as you bring down a mighty swing at one, it collapses into an inert pile of bones. As do the whole lot of them, in fact, as the entire crowd of them simply dissipate into bones and dust.

“Good timing, Vie.” You say as you pant for air and deactivate your sword, placing it back in its sheath.

>>836591
“Looks like it.” She chirps in, smiling broadly before checking out the bleeding form of Astaroth, who you now notice is covered in bite marks and cuts. “Might need to get this check out before we head out,” she says as Astaroth puts his mighty blade away and sturdily keeps her at bay with one of his massive hands.

“These aren’t wounds, friend, I can’t even really feel most of them. Demons are bred for war, remember?” he says as he stretches his limbs out again as if the past few minutes had been nothing more than a strenuous warm-up.

Viessa raises an eyebrow, before smiling and jabbing him in the ribs with her puny fist, “Tough bugger ain’t ya? Well, let me know if anything gets too much for you to handle, big guy.” Flicking her eyes to you, she gives you a once-over for any injuries before meeting your eyes with that grin, “Nothing to fix? You run pretty damn fast for a glorified clerk, you know.”

Midway through the little chuckle that follows after you give her an undignified glare, she looks at the red cylinders you’ve brought with you and her eyes light up with interest. “Those what I think they are?” she asks, clear understanding in her voice.

“Yeah, I found them while I was out there stuck in some shop. Made a pretty big boom, so I figure they’re pretty valuable magic thingies.”

Looking over the cylinder after you hand one to her, she runs her fingers around the surface of the device, sniffing and even licking a corner. “Heard of these, forget where, but they aren’t really normal magic. Come to think of it, they aren’t really supposed to be around in some random shop you know.”

Confused, you tilt your head, “What do you mean they aren’t supposed to be around?”

“These are prototypes of some new field of magic, though the way it’s done I wouldn’t really call it that. You see that emblem on it, the King’s crest? This should be sitting in some royal armory or laboratory, not some shop in the market…unless that wasn’t some regular shop you found after all.”

Frowning, you take the cylinder back as she returns it with an inquisitive look, “Sorry, but there isn’t much of the place left standing after what I had to do to get out. Don’t think we’ll find much if we go back.”

Shrugging her shoulders, she looks away and at the castle, your next destination, before returning a smile at you, “No big deal, I suspect whoever left them there probably didn’t leave any more of it laying around anyways. Bad idea to store more of that stuff in a shop without active security anyways. Question is, what are you going to do with it?”

>Just keep going, we’ll decide when to use it as we go on

>I’ll use all of it as we go, I don’t want to be caught with this kind of stuff around

>Keep it, for now. I’ll turn it in to Bart and we’ll see what happens


(/2/2)

>>836603
>>I’ll use all of it as we go, I don’t want to be caught with this kind of stuff around
>>Keep it, for now. I’ll turn it in to Bart and we’ll see what happens
Just keep one. Use the rest on the conduit creature.

>>836896
Going to extend voting by a little, slow night again it seems.

>>836603
>>Just keep going, we’ll decide when to use it as we go on
>> I’ll turn the rest in to Bart and we’ll see what happens

>>836603
>>Just keep going, we’ll decide when to use it as we go on

We'll see if there's any left for Bart, or if maybe it's best all examples are "lost".

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“I’ll just use it as we go, if there’s any left I’ll see if Bart will take care of it. That is, after I cuss him out for sending me on this stupid goddamn mission. Either way, let’s get going, the castle is up ahead.”

Your companions nod and the three of you begin the long trek across town to Castle Chedrostin. After what seems like twenty to thirty minutes of silent walking, sometimes over and around overturned furniture and most often the numerous ancient bones left by those sea-dwelling abominations in their defeat. Upon finally reaching the base of the castle, the three of you look up in awe at the towering structure facing you.

The castle had already looked massive from a distance, but up close, it seems to resemble a mountain of handcrafted stone rather than just a mere building. Scaling up for stories and stories, it seems to almost reach the clouds with its mighty height. Ancient parapets and stone dot the tops of the fortifications, stuffed to the brim with spots for defenders to return fire from, reinforcing works, and everything from pots of boiling oil set over the gatehouse, to an honest-to-God moat.

“Dick,” Viessa whispers while reeling in shock from the sheer magnitude of the place, “H-how many people used to live in this city?”

Fixing your cap on your head and setting your jaw with a frown, you look her in the eyes, “Too many, Vie. Too goddamn many. Come on, let’s get moving.” With that, you wave your friends over with you, and the three of you begin crossing the moat on the lowered drawbridge, an ominous but at least helpful sign.

Entering the first floor, the three of you look around and find a fancily ornamented waiting room, complete with seats and customized sets of plate armor on display. Looking up, you see the rows of chandeliers and other decorations, giving you the impression that this floor served as the waiting room to the royalty of old. Stepping forwards, the floor suddenly disappears underneath you, and you lurch downwards.

“Oh SHIIIII- “

At least you aren’t alone, your comrades follow in your footsteps, flinging their own curses as the three of you drop further and further. Falling fast, you eventually see a light at the bottom, but also a bloodstained floor awash with gore and corpses at the same time, causing you to cry out in terror. Hearing some last-ditch chanting and magical glows from Viessa, the three of you suddenly slow in the air and descend like deflating balloons.

Landing on a bloodied corpse, or what would be called the remains of one, you nearly puke as you try not to slip on the assorted organs and blood littering the ground. Viessa shares your sentiment, magically blowing away the contents of the room to one side before bringing both hands to her mouth and closing her eyes to take deep breaths. Astaroth, however, looks comically unaffected, in fact, he actually covers his face with a hand out of what seems like courtesy for the two of you.

(1/2)

>>837471
“Astaroth, you seen shit like this before?” you ask as you try your best to wipe off blood from your clothes and gear.

The demon smiles, “The hellscape is an interesting place, my friend. Needless to say, I haven’t ever been horrified at any atrocity in my lifetime. Disgusted? Insulted? Perhaps. But never shock, never fear.”

Stoic as ever, he pulls over and tosses some corpses out of the way to uncover a steel door against one of the walls and gets it open quickly. “After you, comrades,” he says with a smile and the two of you rush out as fast as possible before he shuts the door.

Catching your breaths, you and Viessa pant heavily against the stone walls of some strange basement while Astaroth stands silently and tries not to grin.

“Okay, what the fuck was that?” you almost yell as you try to scrub the images out of your brain to hopefully get a good night’s sleep at some point in the future.

“A trap, it seems. Designed by the builders, just in case. Seems to actually be getting some use around here.” Astaroth comments in almost comedic deadpan, funny enough to where you might laugh if it wasn’t about actual bodies and actual people.

“So why the FUCK is it ACTIVE?” you actually yell this time in frustration, to which Astaroth shrugs his shoulders and gives you a toothy grin.

“To catch survivors, I suppose. But let us not tarry any longer, which method would you like to employ on this section?” he asks with a much more serious bent, focusing your thoughts into a cohesive shape.

Viessa, finally recovered, jumps in to join him, “Yeah, we’d best be smart about this. I’m not going to be able to help you kill the Necromancer if I take this section out by nullifying it. So if we take a little longer and hunt down the Conduit, I won’t be complaining too hard.”

>“What’ll it be boss?”

------

>Nullify the magic, lose Viessa’s fighting magic.

>Hunt down the Conduit, preserve her fighting magic but will take longer and is more dangerous.

(2/2)

------------
Leave your votes here, I'm headed to sleep!

Have a good one!

>>837472
>Hunt down the Conduit, preserve her fighting magic but will take longer and is more dangerous.

>>837472
>Hunt down the Conduit, preserve her fighting magic but will take longer and is more dangerous.
I doubt we have any element of surprise at this point, what with one section nullified and a trap triggered.

>>837472
>Hunt down the Conduit, preserve her fighting magic but will take longer and is more dangerous.

>>837472
>Hunt down the Conduit, preserve her fighting magic but will take longer and is more dangerous.

By using the magic sticksplosions!

>>837472
>>Hunt down the Conduit, preserve her fighting magic but will take longer and is more dangerous.

Didn't we intend to go to the royal crypt?

>>837776
Where do you think we are going, bro?

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“Save your magic, we’ll need It against the Necromancer more than here. At least this time, the fucking thing won’t be hiding underwater or something, you know.” You say as your face turns to your sword, which you draw in your hand and activate with the other, glimmering and sparking to life in an instant. Dangerous as it is, you’re actually beginning to like the damn thing, and the crackling of energy only seems to feel more and more familiar to you. In some small, dark, corner of yourself, you anticipate using this on an enemy, and you thank whoever decided to create this blasted piece of metal.

Raising it above your head and bringing it back down to your side, Viessa looks like she wants to quip something witty, but decides against it in favor of just getting ready to move, a decision Astaroth decidedly agrees with. Walking forwards, the three of you keep wary eyes on each corner of this strange underground land, half crafted from manmade metals, and half excavated space by picks and shovels long gone. Entering a clearing, with what seems to be the castle dungeon, you can tell by the numerous torture devices and empty cells lying everywhere. Hell, you even see drains for the blood in the ground, Lord alone knows where those dark holes flow down to.

Moving past all the dark reminders of the purposes of castles, the three of you make it halfway across the chamber before a loud rattling noise catches your attention. Glancing at the sound, you see a skeletal hand flailing from some kind of ancient torture device, reminding you of some kind of crushing device. Peeking close to the hand, a half-crushed skull appears from under the machine and chomps close to your face, causing you to jump back in a panic. Swinging your blade in a mixture of fury and terror, you slam the skeleton’s skull in with a thunderous impact.

Regaining your composure, your companions seem to want to comment something humorous until the door that serves as the exit o the dungeon begins to buckle. Bringing your blade to guard, your companions follow your example, as the door busts open and a tidal wave of skeletal forms armed to the teeth with weapons ranging from knightly longswords to kitchen knives rushes your formation.

No getting out of this one, it seems.

>Roll 1d100 best of three

Rolled 89 (1d100)

>>838825

Rolled 83 (1d100)

>>838825

Rolled 81 (1d100)

>>838825

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Sweet jesus these rolls.

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>>839353
>>839604
>>840026

Drawing your arm back, you launch yourself forwards into a colossal strike, the impact completely throwing you forwards and exploding into an errant skeleton with a blade. Attempting to block the strike, your swing cleaves straight through its weapon, but this time something special happens. Instead of merely slicing through the bone, the sword explodes on impact with a thunderous charge of electrical energy, bright enough to briefly illuminate the entire room. The small sun detonating from the bones of your target skeleton manages to expand, shocking and consuming other skeletons until the other half of the room is completely engulfed in lightning and exploding bones.

Ducking underneath a stray shard of bone overhead, you duck behind a cage and cover your head with your hands and arms. Looking to the side, you see Viessa doing the same behind Astaroth, the demon merely turning around and acting as a shield while bone splinters fly everywhere alongside metal pieces and weapons. Eventually, the explosions end, and you crawl out from your cover and gaze at the wasteland of bone left in the wake of your strike.

“That was…impressive.” You say with a smile as you turn your sword off and stare at the metal, listening to the crackling noises die off.

“Didn’t see that one coming, I’ll admit,” Viessa says as she stands up and begins to pluck out long splinters of bone stuck into Astaroth’s back, “Looks like we know what that thing does now. And I suppose you know enough not to overdo it unless we’re in a pickle.”

Nodding, you wait patiently as the numerous splinters are extracted from your demon compatriot, who, while looking nonplussed as ever, is covered in pricks and pins like a cactus or a voodoo doll. Minutes later, as the last splinter drops, and a minor healing spell is used to immediately staunch the various bleeding spots, the three of you continue forwards, past the broken door and upwards into a strange staircase.

Tiptoeing over bone splinters, the staircase leads upwards into a strange-looking shaft, which you quickly understand is an old pulley system that goes up with the help of some ancient metal magic or something. Examining the engraved letters in the steel, you stare into the worn metal, trying to discern the exact instructions put down by the ancients. After a minute of burning your eyes, you close them and ask your partners to see if they can make it out completely.

After some arguing, it seems nobody can really make out the meaning of the words, only that up and down both lead to different places. Well, there’s a switch in the corner there, and you two positions besides the resting one, up and down.

Looks like you have a choice to make.

>Up?

>Down?

>>841045
>Down?

>>841045
>Up.

>>841045
>down
Its a necromancer come on he'll be in the basement

>>841045
>Down?
Probably down. The movies show that it's often down.

Yeah I'm sorry guys, I'm kinda burned out on life right now. I'll be back in a couple days a little better I think.

As always, thanks for showing up and tolerating my bullshit.

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