>>3065211
IT BEGINS

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>>3065211
This day was quite eventful. You've met new people, seen new places and even managed to beat a Goddess of Victory and Sport in volleyball, which is only slightly ironic. You don't think she was going at full power. After all she had decades to get her act together while you had only a couple of months. You bet that she could probably win if she really wanted to. After all she has already displayed things you didn't know were possible like teleportation. What else can she do? Maybe if you ask nicely she could teach you? She mentioned that she thinks your powers are similar to her own after all.

That new focus orb is quite interesting too. After a short investigation it turns out that it can only focus the psychic aspect of psi powers. So unfortunately you can't focus your own telekinesis and Elpis can't amplify her Medusa gaze but she can use it to beam her thoughts through a bit more mental resistance and while she can't take over a human she could potentially suggest directly into the mind making the person think that they themselves came up with that idea. You think this could be useful but it is limited and there are moral questions neither of you three like so Elpis decides to never use it except in the emergencies. According to Nike' it is nowhere as strong as Valentina's powers who is said to be able to puppet hundreds of mortal people directly with almost no concern to how much willpower they have.

In any case, you have finished preparations to get your new friend home. Elpis now has a few new souvenirs and she looks happy but a bit anxious. You think that you can understand that. She ran away from her home and she has probably made her family worried. You think that it might be worth it to visit her village first. However there is also that thing about dwarves. An underground civilization of essentially stocky bearded physically strong and resilient humans with a proud military and industrial tradition. You might want to visit them too but you don't really know their language. They might know Cenophilan and Nike might know Dwarven but Elpis has that convenient ability to instantly understand languages and share them with others while she is close enough. You could visit these places one after another but you still need to decide where to go first.

>Lamia village. Let's get Elpis home
>Dorf fortress. You are really curious about them
>Other?

>>3065219
>Lamia village. Let's get Elpis home
Its good to see you back

>>3065228
This.

>>3065231
>>3065228
Likewise. It is good to be here again. Lamia village it is then. Writing

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>>3065254
You decide that visiting the village first would be beneficial. The sooner you return Elpis home the less stress her family would have to experience. Also while you can risk your life and Nike' is highly resilient herself, Elpis is still mortal and thus you have to act carefully while you accompany her. Since you didn't arrange a meeting the dwarves can wait.

It doesn't take long to get to the place where you've met Elpis for the first time. After some more walking through increasingly narrow tunnels you've managed to get into a large cave. You suppose that it was somehow reinforced through artificial or natural means as you have never heard of a cave so large before. It looked somewhat like that moment from the Journey to the Center of the Earth. The upper part of the cave glows with a soft warm color but the light source is completely covered with a layer of clouds. This place has its own weather!

The air in this giant cave has a lot of moisture and along with the warm temperatures and lush vegetation you compare it to the tropic rainforests. The biome here is pretty bizarre. Some of it consists of trees you could find in tropics but it also includes mushroom caps rivaling the tallest trees and the size of ferns reminds you of those discovery channel shows about dinosaurs.

Speaking of them, it looks like there are no mammals in this forest. Most creatures are either strangely warm blooded reptiles or insects. And oh boy are these insects large. You've just seen a dragonfly rivaling an eagle in its size and there is a spider web between two large trees with something comparable to a large dog cocooned in the center. If you had a phobia you would be out of this place this instant but you just feel really vulnerable and even slightly scared.

Lamia village appears to be somewhere at the further edge of the cave and luckily there is a clearing similar to a plain with short grassy moss and way WAY less goddamn insects. You can also hear low pitched sounds coming from deeper in the forest and the plains but the view of the sources is currently obstructed.

>NNNNNOPE
>Head towards the clearing
>Head through the forest for the shortest path to the clearing
>Ask Elpis to stay while you scout the area for dangers
>Other?

>>3065316
>Head towards the clearing

>>3065328
Clearing it is, writing. And sorry that it took me so long with the last post. My pc crashed and I had to reboot.

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>>3065343
You decide that you don't want to get anywhere near to the rainforest. Who knows what might happen there. You'd sleep better without being bitten by a myriad of big and small insects. Thus you decide that the best option is to circle around the forest until you get to the clearing just to be safe. It doesn't take you long and it seems that it is the way Elpis took in the first place, judging by stone statues of some pretty heinous- looking critters. A huge wasp nest with half a meter wide entrance clogged with giant wasp statues is one of those.

When you finally get to the field you are somewhat taken aback by what you see. Large reptile creatures somewhat similar to early featherless depictions of dinosaurs. The creatures you saw were a kind of herd herbivore about twice as big as a cow with comically tiny heads supported by their massive bodies and thick necks. Like massively scaled down sauropods with necks similar to giraffe neck in length. Their heads are crowned by a kind of bone ridge that they probably use for self defense. After all, giraffes also look dorky until you consider their striking range. Lions mainly left them alone.

There are other warm blooded reptiles around the place too which are seemingly created to fit roles mirroring those on the surface. There are two legged raptor- like herbivorous creatures that might fit the role of horses, you can see packs of wolf- sized lizards and there are numerous flying reptiles replacing the birds. Largest flyer seems to be a reptilian, however most smaller flyers are insects.

The village is just a couple hours of walking away and you can already see several smoke plumes from there. Elpis says that local trees have a lot of oils in them and they burn with a thick smoke, so there is nothing wrong with that. You also notice where the dwarves live. And to be fair, you are pretty sure their creator is going to get a lawsuit.

They have a large gate leading almost half way towards the ceiling with two statues representing what you assume to be bearded dwarves in armor. The building is almost entirely made up of stone, most of which doesn't seem to come from the local basaltic rock of the cave walls and they appear to like rectangular designs with rich decorations that you can't quite make out from here.

This stuff can wait for now as you continue making your way towards the village. It looks like these people extensively used carcasses of local creatures in their construction. Their buildings incorporate huge bones as structural elements while also employing leather, stone, wood, thatch and clay for further construction. It also appears like some parts of their village were constructed by dwarves as these places are straight, rectangular and decorated heavily with runes and carvings. Road paving inside of the village also appears to be outsourced to dwarves.

>>3065364
Before you commit yourself any further you need to decide how to approach the first contact.

>Let Elpis go on her own. You don't know how they would react to your enormous psychic defense
>Just follow Elpis and let her talk
>Lower psychic defenses enough not to cause trouble
>Other?

>>3065365
>Just follow Elpis and let her talk

>>3065366
Writing

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>>3065378
Elpis can probably handle the talking. She knows these people well and they would probably not want to pick a fight if she is with you. Thus the three of you just head straight to the front gates. Guards are quite surprised to see you and one of them turns towards the village and focuses for a moment. You assume it was a psychic message or something similar as minutes later a lamia girl busts through the door and rushes towards the entrance. She pushes past the guards and flings herself at Elpis pulling her into a tight hug. Young lamia looks like she is barely getting enough breath as the air is squeezed out of her.

This new snake girl appears to be at least several years older and she has similar facial features to Elpis. Her hair are of a brown oak color and she seems to prefer a similar but slightly longer hairstyle than Elpis. You decide that she is most probably an older sister. Both snake girls appear to be happy to see each other. The way they communicate with basically no words is a bit eerie, but you feel happy that your friend is finally home.

Now the main issue. It appears that most of the village is starting to come out and see what's going on and people are getting concerned that they can't get into your head. You can feel weak psychic attempts to contact your mind but you will have to actively lower the defenses to let anyone in. You would've considered it a major privacy violation, but these people are born and live with this power. Their sense of privacy is probably vastly different from you. How should you approach this...

>Lower defenses. This might be risky but these people would trust you more
>Don't enter the village. You will bid farewells and leave afterwards
>Attempt to communicate through Elpis. She could explain what's going on, right?
>Inform Elpis that it would be nice to get somewhere where you won't disturb so many people.
>Other?

>>3065389
>Attempt to communicate through Elpis. She could explain what's going on, right?
>Inform Elpis that it would be nice to get somewhere where you won't disturb so many people.

>>3065402
30 minutes after first post are up. Writing

>>3065389
>>3065389
>Attempt to communicate through Elpis. She could explain what's going on, right?

Yay you are back, I missed this

>>3065421
Allso, let the snek friends in our head, there is nothing to fear anons

>>3065389
>Attempt to communicate through Elpis. She could explain what's going on, right?

>>3065428
You decide that it would be better if Elpis explains the situation and then it would be nice to move the hell out of the view of the crowd. Maybe to her house, after all you don't expect to stay there for long. You tell this to Elpis and her sister lets her go so that she can explain what's going on. You are not sure if it is a good or bad thing since the reaction of her people appeared to somehow be a mix of shock and relief. They appear to be somewhat scared but content with your presence now, which reminds you the time when you saved Rheia.

In any case, the two snakes lead you into their home and it looks like the older lamia wants to somehow reward you for what you've done. She prepares what you assume to be berry tea and she looks around the house for what could interest you. It seems that these people are relatively well off. They have numerous items of obviously dwarven design as well as some things created from local creatures. You could try to take something, but it is not like you were hired to save her and you feel like it is half fear and half gratitude. Either Elpis told them that you and Nike' are goddesses or they are just scared of people with high psychic resistance.

As it turns out, the girl's name is Lucina and she is indeed the sister of Elpis. People noticed that she was gone only a couple of days ago since she doesn't really leave her home often for obvious reasons but they were really scared when they couldn't find her. She was fearing that her sister could have died in the forest or lost in the Labyrinth. She is also really angry at her sister for getting into trouble but she is glad that it all ended well.

You try your best to make her feel less nervous and the four of you have a nice small tea party. However, as sad as it is, it is time for you to leave. You don't want to disturb the locals too much. You need to decide if you want to accept the reward and what you want to do with the psi focus.

Psi focus:
>Leave it with Elpis. You can't use it anyway and if you need it you could just return here
>Take it with you. Maybe you could study it eventually

Gifts:
>Politely refuse. You don't want these people to give away valuables especially when it is fueled by fear
>Politely accept something. You might gain an item of local value which might have some practical uses
>Ask for information instead. Most of their produce is based on local exotic creatures so if you want something you could just go and collect it
>Ask about Medusa shrines nearby. If old gods placed guardians there might be valuables inside
>Other?

>>3065435
>Leave it with Elpis. You can't use it anyway and if you need it you could just return here

>Politely accept something. You might gain an item of local value which might have some practical uses

>>3065438
seconding

>>3065435
>Leave it with Elpis. You can't use it anyway and if you need it you could just return here

>Politely accept something. You might gain an item of local value which might have some practical uses
>Ask for information instead. Most of their produce is based on local exotic creatures so if you want something you could just go and collect it

>>3065438
>>3065440
>>3065442
Writing

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>>3065463
You decide that the orb should stay with Elpis. You can't use it and you don't know any simple method to research it for your gain. As awesome as telekinesis focus can be, if you take this item it would just sit somewhere in your lab and collect dust until you either forget it or get some actual qualified support which would make it pretty useless. Lamias might get more value out of it.

Now regarding the gift, you decided to take something. From one hand, you don't want to rob these people, but this area has a few unique items. Nike' raises her eyebrow and watches what you are about to do. You clarify that you'd mostly like the information on where these items come from and a sample maybe. In particular here are several things that caught your attention:

A hunting knife made out of an unknown alloy that looks like brass but is said to be incredibly resilient and comparable to steel. The handle is covered in strange runes and it holds the sharpness incredibly well. It was purchased from dwarfs, obviously.

A bow made out of what appears to be two large ribs connected together. It is too large to be operated by a normal human and it is apparently loaded with lamia's tail. It is a local hunting weapon used to kill larger beasts. It fires spear sized bone tipped arrows usually coated with something potent.

A large jar filled with thick green solution. It is apparently made out of several local ferns and wild honey collected in the forest. It has general restorative properties when ingested. It can be used for wounds including internal damage and burns. Works within hours, which is almost unrealistic. Relatively common in her stock.

A pot filled with some kind of powder. It is created out of several mushrooms and secretions of several types of insects. It is told to have positive effects on stamina and alertness. Mix with hot water in specific proportion and ingest for effect. Mildly addictive. She has only three pots of this stuff.

A container filled with some kind of blue cream with strong anti toxin effect. Used for treating bites from numerous types of lethally poisonous creatures in the area and works with no exception. Created from a specific type of local mushroom in combination with wild honey. Relatively common in her stock.

A sealed glazed pot filled with yellowish gel collected from local exotic toad that can expel strong paralytic mist once startled. Paralytic poison has no lethal dosage for people but it is capable of immobilizing anything from the mass of a rabbit to the mass of an elephant for several minutes if applied to arrows. It is used when a creature needs to be captured alive instead of just shot with an arrow. Apparently annoying to collect but common.

>>3065514
The other items appear to be mostly normal household appliances, don't hold any practical value except if you want to sell them or they are irreplaceable and you feel like they would harm the family if you take them like items with ritualistic value. You have a feeling that Nike' is observing your further actions. You don't think that she is judging you. At least not yet.

>Dorf hunting knife
>Bow, you are intrigued how these bones are incorporated into the structure
>Healing concoction, always useful
>Dash juice powder, yeah it reminds you of Monster Hunter somewhat
>Universal antitoxin
>Paralytic poison optimized for arrows
>Random item of high value to sell
>Other?

>>3065515
>Bow, you are intrigued how these bones are incorporated into the structure

>>3065515
>Healing concoction, always useful

We can try to replicate it to our village

>>3065515
>Paralytic poison optimized for arrows
When encountering some good bounties

>>3065554
>>3065536
>>3065522
Ok, let's try to decide:
First of all, bow. It is the only main weapon in the house. She might be able to replace it but it might be hard and take some time to relearn. Are you sure you want to take it in comparison to the bow you have?

>Take the bow
>Take the bow and leave yours as a replacement
>Take a sample of various random things. Note that a sample has too little dosage to be actually used, they are research only
>Take only one concoction but you'll be able to actually use it as an item

>>3065571
>Take a sample of various random things. Note that a sample has too little dosage to be actually used, they are research only
This seems like an acceptable compromise.

>>3065580
Very well, samples it is. This should allow you to research the production method for these items but you might need to get resources locally if you want any reasonable amount of stuff. Writing

>>3065621
At first you were interested in the bow. The bone material is unlike anything you've ever seen before. the bone is springy but still tough. The overall performance of the bow would be better than your current bow. Unfortunately, bows are a tricky thing. You can't make two perfectly balanced bows with pre- industrial methods and thus most bow users have to learn to utilize a particular bow. They get worse if they are forced to use arrows made by a different master. Thus taking this bow would not only cost with the replacement, it would also endanger the hunter using this bow. Thus you decide against it.

The alternative is taking one of the various concoctions available, but you just can't decide what to take. Para-toad poison sounds nice but so does the healing solution. In the end you decide to take a little of everything. You were prepared this time and you had enough tiny glazed fired clay containers on you just so that you could sample weird stuff that you can't just dump in your bag. The large jars were made with lamia dosage in mind who mass twice as much as a human if not more. Unfortunately your samples would not be enough for even a single human dose. Along with the information you've gathered they would suffice to study preparation methods and exact material proportions, however. You should be able to produce these things once you have the raw materials and assuming they actually work.

After all is done you decide to leave the village. Elpis got herself grounded for her trouble and villagers seem to be somewhat scared of you so you don't want to cause any more trouble. You promise to come and visit sometime later when you end up in this area. Once you get far enough away from the village Nike' smiles a little and says "So, where to next? Heading home or a short visit to the dwarves?".

>Dorfs
>Let's head to the surface
>Other?

>>3065706
>Dorfs

>>3065706
>Dorfs

>>3065755
>>3065751
Dorf time. Writing

>>3065801
You decide to pay a visit to some dwarves. You don't know much about them but you would really like to take a look at what they have in stock. You assume it would be mainly metals and metalwork and to be fair you are not sure what you can trade with them, but still no one would blame you for some browsing. You are also interested in their people. Their culture, religion, architecture and technologies. They are one of the two largest non- human nations you know of and the only fully independent one.

Thus you make your way towards the entrance as you hear a commotion. It looks like the entrance has been completely sealed as some local wildlife has decided to attack the fort. The creature in question is some kind of a T-Rex thing. A large reptile beast with tiny front arms, massive jaws and legs. It has an intense green color similar to the trees in the area. It also has an incredibly thick hide and scales that appear to bounce ballista bolts and arrows lobbed at it from the battlements. It looks like the dwarf army has underestimated the creature as you can see a lot of wounded and dead bodies around it. Oh well, no adventure can be complete without a good fight, right? Nike' asks if you'd like her to be involved.

>Roll me a 1d20

Nike's help:
>Team tag it with Nike'
>Ask her to keep out for now, you'd like to try to beat it up yourself

General strategy:
>Shoot it with arrows and explosives to drag attention and hopefully wound it
>All power to telekinesis. Fling stuff and telecrush is your best friend
>Tele- powered melee fighting. Tear up its legs enough and it would be absolutely helpless
>Je suis monté
>Something smarter?

Rolled 16 (1d20)

>>3065853
>Ask her to keep out for now, you'd like to try to beat it up yourself

>Tele- powered melee fighting. Tear up its legs enough and it would be absolutely helpless

Rolled 5 (1d20)

>>3065853
>Ask her to keep out for now, you'd like to try to beat it up yourself
>Tele- powered melee fighting. Tear up its legs enough and it would be absolutely helpless

Rolled 3 (1d20)

>>3065853
>Team tag it with Nike'
Buddy up with the chocolate goddess
>Tele- powered melee fighting. Tear up its legs enough and it would be absolutely helpless

>>3065916
>>3065914
>>3065863
Writing

>>3065921
You decide to try to take this one on your own. It is not like it can kill you as you now know of the armored "core" layer of your new body. Plus Nike' can hop in at any time and help you out in case the situation somehow indeed goes belly up. Until then she might as well enjoy the show.

You drop off your huge bag packed with various things you don't want to break like your samples or explosive arrows. Then you grab your trusty aluminum bronze halberd and start sprinting towards the creature. It seems to be enraged at the still surviving dwarf warriors nearby. You decided that you needed to get the beast's attention fast if you were to save these people.

The most obvious way to get the creature's attention would be to wound it as hard as you can and that huge muscled leg felt like an excellent choice. You sprinted towards it accelerating yourself further with your telekinesis until you hit it with the tip of your weapon directly into the back of the creature's left knee. The entire halberd's head entered its body creating a huge hole and damaging the bone itself causing the creature to limp.

Unfortunately you celebrated just slightly too soon. The other end of the pole was sticking out of the wound and when you tried to pull it out it snapped leaving the weapon's blade still inside of the wound. Fantastic, now you have to just use the sword and shield. You start hacking at the legs but apparently the creature is tough. Really tough. Most of your attacks either glance off the scales or cause minor cuts.

At this point you have officially lost all your momentum and it is the monster's turn to do its thing. You barely manage to dodge out from its bite, you think. Until it lunges faster than you've expected and catches your boot in its massive jaw. Then it proceeds to shake its head from side to side violently and repeatedly smack you face first into the floor. Ugh, that takes you back. You get slammed into the pavement and nearby trees quite a lot it seems.

>Roll 1d20, tactics welcome

Rolled 1 (1d20)

>>3066024
Tele-kick it in da teef.
Git real good choppa action on tail if possible.

Rolled 20 (1d20)

>>3066024
Wail on its legs

>>3066055
>>3066045
Well would you look at that, we will apparently kil it from inside its mouth

>>3066055
Witnessed

>>3066055
>>3066045
Looks like the dice really loves epic comebacks. Next post would be the last for today. It is almost 1 here so sorry for not waiting. Writing

Rolled 4 (1d20)

>>3066024
Kick it in the eye and jaw muscles to get it to let you go, then smack it more.

>>3066073
Thanks for running, I'm really glad you are back, I've discorded a couple guys that used to play too. When are you going to keep running?

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>>3066108
The fight doesn't seem to be going well. The creature continues beating you against the ground until you lose your weapons. Your neck and back feel stiff from all the pounding and you can't seem to focus enough to get free. Eventually the creature flips you into the air and bites you into the center of mass. It then proceeds to try to bite you as hard as it can piercing through armor and skin but you don't snap. Unfortunately the creature seems to like the resistance your body makes along with your sounds of discomfort and it starts basically chewing you like a squeaky toy. The bastard even flips you into the air a couple of times before repeating the execution.

After several minutes of this bullshit you finally manage to get enough of a grip to prop yourself against the jaw and start prepping it open. Eventually you manage to get its jaw open completely as your whole body is not enough to rip its mouth apart. Unfortunately for the creature you don't care and you start using your power like a hydraulic jack pushing its jaws away relative to your body. It takes what seems like an eternity but eventually something snaps and the beast dies and falls to the ground as you flop out of its mouth covered in saliva and heavily wounded.

You flip on your back and sigh as you see Nike' approaching you and smirking. "So, how does it feel? I haven't been a chew toy for a giant dino-cucumber before". You groan and smile before you accept her hand to get back up on your feet. You could say that this fight was quite a pickle, after which you are surprised you weren't immediately hit with lightning as that pun was terrible.
_________________________________________________________
And on this note we finish this week's thread. Sorry that my writing is somewhat sloppy. I got a bit rusty after the exams and I should get better as I run more. It looks like we will run on Saturdays like today. Maybe I'll add a couple hour pause when the traffic is essentially zero but this seems to work fine. I hope you liked today's story and as usual you can ask questions until the thread is archived sometime next week.

>>3066128
Thanks again for running.

Lets talk with some dorfs next week. Hopefully they are aware of the concept of cup bearers so to not suspect us after our display against the dino

>>3066128
Topkek, thanks for the run man.

>>3066128
Missed the entire thing, drats

Thanks for running

>>3066128
New thread is up: >>3079965

>>3079978
This thread is archived. The inventory has been updated. Featuring: damage