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“Bullshit!” Rath yells, she sheer force of her kick sending hairline cracks splintering across the base of the obsidian hearth. The infuriated redhead paces as you stare at the inactive Forge, your fingers on your chin as you ponder what could’ve happened in the short time since you were last here.

“Did you know they could be deactivated like this?” You ask, and she turns her flushed and freckled face your way.

“Nah, man. From what Niku told me, they’re supposed to be all glowy and shit but somebody went and ripped out the shiny bits.” She replies, staring at the dull onyx stonework before giving it another jab with the balls of her right foot. “Now this thing is just a shitty stone igloo, as far as I’m concerned. It’s useless without the core.”

“Hmm…” You hear Amara muse aloud beside you, and you glance down to see she’s mimicking your contemplative pose until she makes a sudden declaration. “…I can find it!”

“What?” Rath breathes, one pale eyebrow arched at the seven-year-old beside you.

“I can find it!” She repeats, staring up at you with two-tone eyes and a wide smile. You’re about to request an explanation when she runs off, light blue dress swaying about as she exits the Forge room and emerges into the crimson light of the fleshscape’s eternal dusk. She points at the ramshackle town that stretches before you when you rejoin her side, and you see that Julia gazes out on the same depressing sight, her dark eyes wary.

“It went thataway!” Amara says, and just before she can march off, Julia’s hand is on her collar faster than your eyes are able to follow. The artist’s dark gaze meets yours, the unnaturally cold whipping around her long, straw-colored hair.

“I d-don’t like this place, Shu.” Julia says, her timid voice a barely audible whisper, an utterance nearly devoured up by the vicious bluster that’s picked up since your arrival. “Is the F-forge w-worth it?”

“Totally.” Answers Rath, joining the three of you from the dim depths of the Forge room as she cracks four sets of knuckles, her extra limbs glowing a luminescent and volatile orange. “We’ll beat the hell out of whoever took that core and maybe figure out what else it can be used for. I’m game if you are, ladies.”

Rath’s bright amber eyes stare into yours as do those of Amara and Julia, so you know you need to make a call.

>>Follow Amara’s lead in tracking down the Forge’s Core into the twisted town. If a Forge can be used for other things, you’d like to know what the thief has in mind.

>>Continue on around the town and towards the wastelands beyond it. You trust Julia’s instincts that this is a trap, and you’re not interested in pursuing it further.

>>Even if the Forge is a temporary bust, Doctor West’s workstation is also a notable location to inspect. You’ll head there, figure out what she was up to, and then decide where to go from there.

>>Write-In

YOU ARE IN CONTROL

>>3397756
>Follow Amara’s lead in tracking down the Forge’s Core into the twisted town. If a Forge can be used for other things, you’d like to know what the thief has in mind.

(Voting shall close in one and a half hours, Gentlemen.)

>>3397756
Hey BHOP, does Julia mean she doesn't like the town the Forge sits in?
Also, since Amara is in our party, our swarmling cap is temporarily boosted to 22 slots right?

>"Think of it as this Julia, A forge is like an artist's tool. Everyone uses it to make relics or works of Functional art. If you were a sculptor who took a break from working on a granite sculpture, then found out that someone stole your Hammer and Chisel while you're away, how would you feel?"

>Spawn a Camo-Scout-Swarmling (I think this will cost 10% BIO) and send it ahead of us as a forward scout hopefully as a early warning system. Spawn a Knight Class swarmling as well. Then load up a Hollowpoint and a parabellum.

>"Amara sweetie, Miss Julia is scared that the town might hold nasty monsters like the one you, Julia, Rath, and Dorian fought. Can you ask the town if there's any nasty surprises like said monsters or daughters?"

>Amara has the whistle readied with "VUL RHO" (spell effect: debuffs the enemies)

Why do I get the feeling that B'ni's the thief that stole the forge keys? Also, glad to see ya.

>>3397787
(Good to see you as well! It's good to be back. Also, you are correct regarding Julia's feelings towards the town and the Swarmling cap boost.)

>>3397756
>Follow Amara’s lead in tracking down the Forge’s Core into the twisted town. If a Forge can be used for other things, you’d like to know what the thief has in mind.

>>3397756
If they can't consume the core then they most likely took it to use as bait, whoever they are. Safe to assume this is a trap. We have to turn the tables on these hunters if we want to recover the core. Can you talk to the land and learn as much as possible about what came through here and where they went? We'll progress slow and cairful.

[Can we use a camo-stalwart on Rath and have a camo swarm lift here to keep her camo'ed against the sky as a hidden flying overwatch? ... or a secret Rath bomb I suppose.]

>>3397799
(One Knightling would be strong enough to lift an armored Rath skyward.)

>>3397802
Air-force division now daughter.

On a side note. I was thinking. Ascending the cord gives you one wish. Any one wish. We learned that this virus that consumes planets is a multitude of ultra apex-predators essentially. Why not make the wish to convert this virus into an anti-body. Make it become a consumer of worlds that tracks and consumes the other viruses. Also each one seems to be an encyclopedia of everything they consume. Furthermore it is not unreasonable to assume that if ascending the cord gives you access to the virus' power for a wish, having the anti-body consume viral-bodies would give access to their archives and power. Top the food chain. Stop the consumption. Rebuild in whatever image pleases you.

Just a thought.

>>3397802
>>3397799
I gotta say, I'm liking Knight-lings more and more.
>>3397809
Um. Anon, Shu IS the Air Force. We unlocked Knight Class Swarmlings, with enough time and preparation, we can spawn enough knight-lings that function as living Jetpacks.
Which reminds me, I'm still itching to create a set of Relics that basically function as booster rockets/jetpacks for Rath.

>>3397817
Next Objective:
Acquire flight jackets and aviators for all members of the party.

Ah damnit mondays, missed the first vote by 3 minutes. Still, glad to see this back in action! ill catch the next deadline.

(Writing now, Gentlemen.)

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>>3397756

“She's kind of an artist with a Forge, Julia.” You say, feeling your back ache, your spine throbbing as a Knightling works its way out of your hive, turning to Rath. “So I know you’re not a fan of water. How about heights?”

Despite the face she makes, within a few minutes a cloaked Knightling carries an armored Rath high above the cramped city as you, Julia, and Amara venture forth into the twisted corridors deeper within. High, crumbling walls loom on either side of you, the alleys of the town seeming to draw you further into its belly. You glance above you when you sense Rath’s empathic connection to you suddenly cut out as you’re loading rounds into the Contender, at the same moment the little girl in front of you bolts forwards.

“It’s this way!” Amara says just ahead of you, darting into a half-collapsed doorframe as Julia gives chase, and with a start you realize you can’t sense them in your empathic field despite the short distance.

“Rath?” You broadcast skyward. “Rath, can you hear m…”

It’s at that moment that the earth around you erupts in a shower of stone and meat, and it’s by a hair’s breadth that you avoid the spines of earth that spear out from the right as you roll into the open doorway. When your eyes adjust to the haze of particulates blown up by the terraforming, you’re able to focus on the hallway ahead of you as you see Julia disappear around the corner in pursuit of your youngest teammate. You attempt to transmit across the field but all you can sense is static, a steady crackle in your mind when you attempt to commune with your wayward friends. You’re on your feet in an instant, racing down the hall to regroup with you friends when you run headlong into Julia, nearly knocking her over as you round the corner where you last saw her.

“Are you alright?!” You ask, hands on her shoulders as you peer past her, revealing only the faded emptiness of the hallway beyond.

“I lost her.” She replies dejectedly, gesturing towards the dim corridors ahead. “She was too fast. I’m so sorry.”

Your breath hitches, fear gripping your heart as you become vaguely aware of the direction of the jamming signal, somewhere in the opposite direction of where you saw Amara run off to.

“It’s fine, we just need to get everyone back together.” You say, and large dark eyes stare into yours, unblinking.

“I’m not sure where she went. Do you want to take the lead?” She offers, gesturing down the hall. “I’ll support you from behind and we’ll find her in no time.”

>>Julia’s right. Amara’s the weakest among you, and you have no idea where she is. Take Julia and track her down, as quickly as you can.

>>Try to make your way back outside and flag down Rath. She's up there alone, and that just won't stand.

>>Pursue the source of the jamming signal. You’ll be able to get a hold of Rath and track down Amara once it's down.

>>Write-In

YOU ARE IN CONTROL

FUCK.
We're in a maze. A terraformed maze. A maze that cuts off any empathetic field due to the jammer it has.

(Voting to close in one and a half hours, Gentlemen.)

>>3397893
The maze will be deadliest the closer we get to the source, which is also what's jamming us, presumably.
Rath is alone, but arguably the safest/capable of taking care of herself. It may be worthwhile to bring her down and have her join us, if it can he done fast. Amara is in danger, yes, but no need to throw us into danger needlessly to follow her. She can friendship-no-jutsu enough to stall some threats, no doubt.

>>Try to make your way back outside and flag down Rath. She's up there alone, and that just won't stand.

>>3397893
>>3397919
Supporting

>>3397893
>>Julia’s right. Amara’s the weakest among you, and you have no idea where she is. Take Julia and track her down, as quickly as you can.

Rath isnt trapped and is more than capable on her own. Meanwhile Amara is literally only support.

>>3397893
>>Try to make your way back outside and flag down Rath. She's up there alone, and that just won't stand.

At first i was gonna vote the other way but then i started wondering what the hell the knightling would do without a connection to us. Safe to say i don't quite feel so smart anymore.

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>>3397893

"We need to get to Rath. I can't reach her across the channel, and my connection to my swarm is hazy at this range." You reply, starting back down the passage from whence you entered the crumbling building. "If she fell, we need to help her."

"Okay, good. Then we can get the five of us back together." Julia replies with a hasty nod, and you hesitate mid-step.

"Julia, it's just you, me, Amara, and Rath." You reply, studying her familiar face. "Are you okay? Is the interference getting to you?"

Her blonde brow furrows as she massages her temples, eyes screwed tight.

"Yeah, I'm alright. I think that's it, yeah." She says finally, giving you a weak smile. "I'm worried about Wrath, we need to go help her."

You open your mouth to respond when a flurry of sounds from the street ahead of you echoes through the town, the high, grating howl of shattered glass coupled alongside the guttural collapse of concrete on stone.

You pray that wasn't Rath making a landing.

As you take a step forwards, a distant scream sounds from somewhere deep within the building behind you, making you turn, looking over Julia's blonde head of hair and towards the source. The sounds of another clash from the street reaches your ears from outside, but no other voices echoes out from the depths of the complex you're in.

You're pulled in two different directions, torn between a scream and the sounds of a fight just past the bone lances that bar the door outside. You sense your Platelings just beyond your view, but you can't tell if they're still attached to your friend, or if their owner is moving.

You wish the thought didn't make your veins run cold as you struggle to decide, Julia edging closer to you as you find yourself in the unenviable position of prioritizing one life over another.

>>Run towards the sounds of battle from outside.

>>Run towards the source of the scream behind you.

>>You'll take one, and Julia will take the other. You're not going to choose one life of a friend iver another, and you trust Julia. (Decide who goes after whom.)

>>Write-In

YOU ARE IN CONTROL

>WAKE UP
>Hit yourself/shoot youself in the foot with a hollowpoint.
THE WHOLE THING IS A TRAP. WE'RE STUCK WITH NEUROMANCY ILLUSIONS! Look closely at the Filename and images of Julia pickman! something's up!

(Voting to close in one and a half hours, Gentlemen.)

>>3398072
>>3398061
Linking this.
Also, motherfucker.

>>3398072
Oh, my thought was a Dopplerganger, someones wearing her face, not that we git dream'd.

>>3398061
>Turn and study Julia. Something isnt right here. Either this isnt real, and/or that isnt Julia, or at least not her under her own control. Ask her something inly she could answer.

>>3398061
>>3398072
>>3398093
When comparing the last two pics, it does seem suspicious. Supporting to try these first and if it doesn't work then let's try thinking of something else.

>>3398093
>>3398096
Only issue is i cant think of a question. Maybe ask her about her artwork, or make up a lie and see if she falls for it. We sadly have not gotten alot of one on one time with Julia just yet to ask anything super deep or personal.

>>3398072
>>3398061
Changing my vote to shoot Julia with a Hollowpoint.

I wonder if her calling Rath Wrath was a typo/auto-correct issue in BHOP's end. Are they pronounced differently enough that we can justify noticing it IC?
The weaknesses of all mental attacks is dealing with those who have multiple personalities/identities. See if the two girls we've consumed have anything to say. Better yet, can we talk to our gun? [The name escapes me. Enigma?]

>>3398108
(The Contender goes by Karma.)

(And 'Wrath' was no accident.)

>>3398108
BHOP has literally deleted and reposted the update over less important things than messing up a name. It was intentional.

>>3398103
>>3398061
Re-amending my vote:
>Impulse Swallow/Executioner's Jaw at Julia for a grapple and close range attack
>Then follow up with a Parabellum shot if she escapes the grapple.
>"Nice try, but you fucked up 3 things.
>1: Julia has an inherent stutter
>2: you mentioned "5 of us"
>3: You included a W in Rath's name.

>>3398124
Oh shit, you beautiful bastard, i was just coming back to mention we didn't see her stutter.

Its a Dopplerganger guys, though whether in a dreamscape or just a mimic ability is yet to be known, though, usually we have some sorta hint it's the dreamscape which we haven't seen.

>you see Julia disappear around the corner in pursuit of your youngest teammate
>You’re on your feet in an instant, racing down the hall to regroup with you friends when you run headlong into Julia, nearly knocking her over as you round the corner where you last saw her.
THAT JULIA IS FAKE

>>3398061

A slow, dawning realization strikes as you stare into Julia’s dark eyes, studying her face for a half-second longer than you would have if you hadn’t noticed her sudden lack of stutter.

“Julia, I’m trusting you to go help Amelia.” You bait, taking a step away as you feel your stomach roil, your tongue coiling at the ready. “I’ll go check on Rath, since I don’t think her electricity would do anything to help her land.”

“Okay, awesome.” The stranger in front of you replies with a smile, not missing a beat as her unblinking stare remains fixed on you. “If you want to go on ahead, I’ll go look for Amelia and…”

Something in your face must’ve given it away, since her voice falters as her sentence tapers off into nothingness, the two of you just staring at each other from across the hall for a long, silent moment.

You both move at once.

A flick of her wrist sends a sleek calcite dagger streaking past your face, a jerk of your head sparing your eyeball and instead sending it slicing past your right ear as your stomach-jaws open wide, sending your prehensile tongue rocketing across the space between you both as she ducks low to close the gap with uncanny speed. When your sticky fifth limb hits home she jerks back, the girl’s flesh pulled away like a limp sheet as your tongue strips away her façade. The fluttering sheet of skin disappears into your ravenous maw as you bring the Contender to bear and pull the trigger, all in a single, swift motion. A high-pitched clang follows the Contender’s guttural blast, the sound of bullet meeting blade echoing through the building, and when the dust settles you aim down the barrel at your adversary, revealed. A conniving gaze meet your own from over the knife’s edge, and as she lowers it to flick your blocked round to the floor before you, a Cheshire grin splits across her face as she speaks.

“April Fools, ya’ cheeky cunt.”

(Continued)

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>>3398236

“Name’s Penny, luv.” She says with a grin, cockney accent thick on her tongue as she spins her knife around one forefinger. “Oof, yer a tall drink a’ liquor, inn’t ‘cha? Wot’s yer name?”

“Shu.” You reply coolly, taking a step back in time with her step closer. “And you’re a shitty actress, Penny.”

“Ah, tha’ stage wus never my passion, troof be told. Say, s’a pretty dress you got there, luv.” She says, grey eyes staring at you playfully from underneath dark green tinted bangs, tapping the toes of her left boot against the concrete floor as she sizes you up. “You in’ yer lot wouldn’t ‘appen to call yerselves tha’ Midnight Crew, hm?”

“I’ve never heard of them.” You say, finger caressing Karma’s trigger, ready to pull at a moment’s hesitation. You note a small amount of tension leaving Penny’s slender frame at your admission, and she smiles wider.

“Oi, fukkin’ neato. S’way you was carryin’ on with four gals an’ tha like, I thoug’ for a sec’n them rumors was true. Solo job ain’t no big to-do, then. Don’t ‘chu worry your pretty little head ov’rit, yeah?” Her eyes narrow, her hips lowering as she gets ready to pounce, glittering gaze fixed on your every move.

“Mah mates an’ I ‘ill make this quick for you n’ yours, right?”

Shu the Defiant

VS.

PENNY DREADFUL

HP: 136%
BIO: 105% (1 Knightling, 5 Platelings on Rath, 6/22 Active)
CONTENDER: Hollowpoint loaded, second barrel empty. Basic Form.
RAVENOUS MAW: Primed.
ACT: 2/2
Threat: Close, cocky, preparing to strike.

YOU ARE IN CONTROL

>>3398240
She's a Homestuck fan, we need to show her our stabs her for the good of Humanity.

Our guns the best bet we have here, keep her at a distance with swarmlings and pepper her with bullets.

>>3398274
Thing is that even though we can spend the time to fight her, We have more pressing business. Like Finding Amara, regrouping, and cutting the Gordion knot in this damn maze in getting the forge key.

Also, because I haven't even seen Homestuck, where's the reference?

>>3398240
Hah, homestuck fan.

>We need to end this quickly. Shes got friends, and one of ours isnt made to be on their own. Julia and Rath both have it within them to at least hold out, though Julia might be with Amara.

>Spawn eight swarmlings, recursive, and one Knightling.
>Send four in each direction, two wide, two close, to box her in hard.
>Aim down the middle but slightly to the left, though still on her. Try and get her to block the left shot, or dodge right, then strike.
>Shoot out our tongue the moment she counters our shot, the knightling riding under it to hide it. One or the other should get a hit on her.
>Have the swarmlings cut off her back and sides, then swoop in once we get a good hit in. No mercy, aim for the eyes, throat, Achilles tendons. Any place that isnt pleasant and brings her down hard.
>As a last ditch effort, spawn two arms hidden on our back, so if she somehow gets close we can surprise sock or block her.

(Voting to close in two hours, Gentlemen.)

>>3398283
The midnight crew is a gang of chitinous sentient chess peice based folks(loosely, they all look like pawns honestly), specifically the black side, and at one point the black queen joins them and wears a space themed black dress with green stars on it.

>>3398394
She does not. She joined the Felt instead (mobster gang of green time manipulators).

>>3398283
They also have a song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br294PLbHBA

>>3398409
Im not gonna get into a homestuck arguement as i hardly care, but she specifically is with Jacks crew for a bit, in at least one side story/iteration. Or maybe jack is just fucking there too for some damn reason, fucking story is such a goddamned mess that dragged on into a terrible ending i honestly couldn't care less anymore.

>>3398430
(Homestuck is absolute chaos with a non-ending. Fun characters and interesting ideas that deserved better, but that's neither here nor there.)

>>3398439
>When your story is so fucked you need to make retcons an in-universe mechanic.

>>3398240
>Spawn 10 basic swarmlings to harry her and generally cause mischief. If she's sufficiently distracted, run for it and regroup with Rath.
>load up a B.33 Special.
>

>>3398578
(My apologies, but I think that the site might have eaten part of your vote, Anon.)

>>3398626
I may have forgotten halfway through typing it on what I was gonna have for a follow up. I remember now. It was
>Spawn 2 pairs of HundredHands to pin her in a grapple and hold her at gunpoint if Penny pursues.

Also, stomach ulcers are pure anathema to enjoying good food that sits in your stomach after eating it.

(Gentlemen, as work has been a little hectic this Monday, I will most likely have to wait until I get home shortly to finalize the next update. It won't be too large of a pause, but I just wanted you all to be aware. Thank you so much for participating, and take care.)

Spiteful Embrace

Born of twisted feeling and caring hateful emotion these swarmlings are a sadly sung mirror of platelings. Flying to meet the object of their attentions they embrace them with armored petals mournfully serrated and dripping with acidic loss. Their cutting, burning constriction leaves the entombed vulnerable to a devastating tearful strike.

Swarmlings that grapple the foe and apply physical and acidic DoT. Five successful grapples entomb the foe blinding and restraining them.

Any Good? If so i would think spawning a host of em would be great for one on one fights like this even if the enemy kills a few. [Assuming this really is a one on one].

Remember to like BHOPS posts, we need to evolve him into a skeleton lord.

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>>3398873

>>3398880
>This quest is wish fufillment for skeletons who have no flesh suit to keep them warm.

>>3398240

Your spine twitches with creative potential at the same moment she’s surging forwards, eight swarmlings squirming free of the holes along the open back of your dress. Her right arm flings out mid-charge and you flinch, a flurry of jagged blades filling the hallway and slicing into your brood’s shells, but they continue on, relentless in their pursuit as she closes the gap as fast as you can bring the Contender to bear.

You squeeze the trigger, and all other noise is drowned out in the gun’s bellowing warcry. It kicks in your hand, the recoil carrying it out of your line of sight in time to see Penny hurtling at along the floor in a baseball slide that carries her past your ankle. A cold chill of pain slithers up your left leg as the gash she’s carved along your calf reaches your brain. You round on her despite the frigid lance of agony that spears up your leg to see her rising behind you, interposed between you and the door. She smirks at you during the brief instant where she's delighting in her successful strike and when she's realizing the massive Knightling that was hidden on your back is tearing towards her on furious wings.

A second blade emerges from her hand almost instinctually, allowing her to parry your Knightling's attack at the last second as it flies past her.

“Oi, a ‘Ive Mistress!" She calls out, keeping an eye behind her as she calls out to you. "We got wunna those, only wit’ slicey buttaflies n’ whatnot. She taught me 'a few tricks'n how to deal wiv you lot."

The sound of a grinding crackle sounds from around you, as the serrated knives imbedded in your swarm burrow into their shells, a hasty glance behind you showing the blades slowly carving them apart from the inside out as they struggle to rise from the floor. You turn back to your foe, caught between you, your rejuvenating swarm, and the Knightling that hovers between her and the door. An extra pair of limbs snake out of your shoulders, flexing-newly formed digits as you prepare for her next assault. It's funny...in her haste to put herself between you and the exit, she allowed herself to be flanked, which only serves to...

You finally see it; a scarlet strand, slowly leeching your blood from the wound on your cheek and left foot, linking you to the serrated knife held in her off-hand grip. Somehow, she smiles wider, bright white teeth glinting at you from the middle of the hall, a taunt that makes you ball each of your four fists in anger.

"Hope you wusn't countin' on yer healin', luv."

HP: 108% (REGEN redirected to Penny, 1 Stack of BLEED active)
BIO: 103% (2 Knightlings, 5 Platelings on Rath, 8 Swarmlings affected with something unknown, 15/22 Active, 2 Extra Limbs)
CONTENDER: Empty, Basic Form.
RAVENOUS MAW: Primed.
ACT: 2/2
Threat: Between you and the door, flanked by you and your Knightling.

YOU ARE IN CONTROL

(Voting to close in one and a half hours, Gentlemen.)

>>3399042
right. shes fast. and she isnt gonna let us get away either. speed has always been a weakness of ours.

>spawn two banelings to sever the cords on us.
>see if the recursive inner swarmlings cant deal with the knives, otherwise have them rip out from their underbelly silently and make their way towards us.
>switch contender to sword mode.
>go forward like you are bent on attacking, hoping to goad her into either parrying or lunging too.

If Lunge;
>Stop dead in your tracks and have the recursives shotgun forward to act as a screen, from the floor to the ceiling.
>using her momentum against her, spawn four more fists and bring them all forward at different angles to take a sock at her, she only has two arms, so she can only deal with two.
>when she goes for a stab, twist those arms to catch the blades in your bones, throwing her off balance and even potentially temporarily locking her in place.
>bring the sword forward for a stab once you get her in this position, then go for a tongue grapple while your Knightlings, Banelings, and Recursives go for a swarm maul.

If Parry;
>Keep going forward, but not for an attack.
>Have our Banelings lunge forward while our Knightling keeps her from retreating.
>Have our Recursives use the moment to go across the floor to dig into her feet and legs.
>with her focus on blocking an incoming attack, use our tongue to latch onto a point past or near her and pull ourselves towards her at lightning speed.
>Becomes the ball of arms, spawn like 8 more and come at her like a wrecking ball.
>if she can even move with our recursives and banelings knawing at her legs, all moving will do is let us go, otherwise she has to take the hits. all of them.

>>3399042
She's fast enough to dodge all Contender shots and can easily put down normal swarmlings. Make another 3 or so to help the knight occupy her while we sever that cord/help our swarm shake off her ability.

>>3399042
>>3399098
Analysis:
She's a hit&Run assassin type. And she also has experience fighting against us.
Bleedstacks are a thing. Her knives inflict bleed as well as scramble swarmlings with an unknown status effect. Probably confusion or slowness.
Her win condition is stopping Shu from regrouping. Our win condition is to escape stop her from harrying us.

She expects us to keep on relying our swarmlings. She aims to bleed us dry with a thousand cuts.

>Spawn a set of arms from the Knightling, have the knightling grapple her limbs.
>Contender to sword form and cut the lifelink
>if she tries to make another bleed stack lifelink to her, bite the arm that holds the knife or grab her legs with the executioner's Jaw.
>have our Tongue grip her leg.
Our best option is to go for a full grapple. Don't spawn any more swarmlings. Use what we have.

>>3399134
i dont think we need to avoid more swarmlings, nor using the ones we already have. we just have to do what we usually dont do, which is focus on our other abilities more with swarmlings only being there to aid them, rather than the other way around.

>>3399187
A thought occurred to me.
Penny is experienced with fighting against hive mistresses as in killing the chaff and whatnot, but what if instead of outright attempting to kill her, what if we use the numbers we have to simply grapple her into submission? swarm her such that with our many arms and swarmlings that she can't escape a grapple.
>>3399042
Amending my voting option
>Have our Knightling spawn a second pair of human arms, increase the grapple chance.
>Dogpile the girl have our basic swarmlings join in.
>Spawn 2 swarmlings from the Hollowpoint (A pair of platelings that will cuff and lock her knee joints)
>Have our Ravenous Maw and Tongue lasso and grapple her to maintain grapple superiority
>once we confirm the grapple, Put the Karma gun to her head and load up a Parabellum.

>>3399187
Or we could focus on the differences between us and who she practiced with. Slicing butterflies are easier to hit with but do less damage than burrowing bugs, I'll bet. Land one and she won't be prepared to extricate it.

>>3399232
That is a good idea. She might also be unfamiliar with Platelings. Actually, lets throw platelings at her and disable her Iron Maiden style.

>>3399232
>>3399241
the biggest issue is that butterflies are probably faster or at least much harder to hit, so she has excellent aim at our own bugs, hence me focusing on using them more as support and relying on other abilities to do the actual damage and use her own agility against her where we can.

>>3399244
They're also squishier, which is why I wanted to help our swarmlings shake off her attack. She won't expect them to recover.

>>3399281
yet she still got all our swarmlings down already, maybe not dead but clearly dying. like i put in mine, either the recursives are the key, or our swarmlings are already dead and we should use what we got inside them to other effects.

>>3399286
If they were dead they wouldn't be struggling to recover

>>3399351
>maybe not dead but clearly dying
>not dead

yes i very clearly pointed that out. they still are on the ground with knives, and i quote
>a hasty glance behind you showing the blades slowly carving them apart from the inside out as they struggle to rise from the floor.
id say, as i said, that implies they are dying.

>>3399376
I think they're suffering from Bleed damage.
We should have them reswarm Penny and attack her via grapple then use the health-pollen they gathered to repair/heal themselves to counteract the bleed knives.

>>3399392
i feel like being torn up from the inside out implies much more than bleed damage personally.

>>3399401
I feel like it happens pretty regularly above a certain level. Spartan tanked it for a while.

>>3399412
>>3399401
from all the abilities Penny's shown so far, she's got a couple of levels of Humoral Paladin, Flesh Artisan stealth/camouflage, and Calcite Armory for knives. She's basically a stealth assassin with her kit, but we still haven't figured out which of those abilities is her true core skill.

>>3399042
>>3399098

A freshly-spawned pair of Banelings fly over your shoulders to sever the scarlet thread as the Contender warps in your grip, twisting into an elongated blade that you bring to bear against the girl before you. You lunge forwards alongside your brood to bait an attack, and Penny takes a single step forwards, her eyes glinting with confident mischief.

Mid-step, you watch as the skin on her arm ripples, the only warning before she flips her knife around in her off hand and tears the roiling flesh off her arm, flinging it towards you. You leap back as it expands to fill the space before you, a translucent sheet that blocks your view of her and your Knightling, just as a pair of arms erupt from from its glossy shell.

"Ha, brilliant! You wanna' know 'ow to beat a 'Ive Mistress, luv?" She cackles from behind the screen, and you suddenly hear what sounds like the grinding of teeth from beyond your line of sight. You command your Knightling to attack as your swarmlings lazily fly towards the screen, slowed by the barbed and twisting calcite thorns tearing them apart from the inside out. They attack the screen with all they have, and you begin to realize their their sluggish movements are only being hampered by the sheet as it clings to each bladed claw that tries to tear it down. After a few long moments, the sheer weight of your brood pulls down the sheet, revealing Penny wielding a cruel-looking blade, admiring her handiwork before she turns towards you with her ever-present Cheshire grin.

A longer, wider blade, its length revving with a narrow spinal cord edged with jagged teeth, the sort that are still grinding apart your brood as they lie incapacitated under the sheet of adhesive skin. You glance behind her to see your Knightling pinned to the wall by a second sheet, its severed claws and pair of humanoid limbs scattered beneath it. The crimson strand that's slowly draining your wound resumes now that line of sight has returned, a scarlet, barely-perceptible thread that keeps your woulds from healing, despite the efforts of the Banelings that hover by your side.

"First part is flypaper. I ya' don't 'ave a swatter, a chainsaw'll do." She laughs, though behind her confident, mocking smile, you sense something else, something that wavers within her.

Your ability to grapple has her rattled as the sounds of the skirmish outside intensify.

HP: 108% (REGEN redirected to Penny, 1 Stack of BLEED active)
BIO: 97% (2 Knightlings [1 SPIKED], 5 Platelings, 2 Banelings, 8 Swarmlings [8 SPIKED], 17/22 Active)
CONTENDER: Empty, Basic Form. Hollowpoint Active behind you (BIO:10%)
RAVENOUS MAW: Primed.
ACT: 2/2
Threat: Between you and the door. Wielding a single chainsaw blade.

YOU ARE IN CONTROL

(Gentlemen, voting shall close in one and a half hours.)

>>3399439
Alright, make platelings and bog her down with them and other minions that can still move, then execute with the Contender.

>>3399439
>Load up a BB Special and a Fullbore
>spawn two limbs on our knightling and have him pull himself free.
>spawn platlings and cover our tongue, but do in inside so she doesn't see.
>with a body of arms and sword at the ready, have our banelings attach to two arms to act as weapons and run forward.
>If she tries to wrap us in the skin, the acid and drills should eat through it aswell as our sword, but still sidestep it if it comes.
>go in for overwhelming force, but as soon as she tries to chainsaw us, wrap it in the armored part of our tongue to keep it pinned even temporarily then go apeshit on her with our arms and sword.

honestly im at a loss, so all i can think of is simply rushing her with brute force. shes almost too perfectly a counter to us.

BHOP you have been forgetting your ID.

>>3399482
Seconding. She has experience with Hive Mistresses, and with her flypaper, she can bog down our minions and shred them apart with her chainsaw. In addition, her knife attacks do damage over time as well as slow our regen, so she'll just evade our attacks and use hit and run tactics to wear us down.

The best way to counter her is to get up close and hit her as hard as we goddamn can.

>>3399482
(Thank you for letting me know! I didn't even realize, I just assumed it was there.)

>>3399506
Is the chainsaw blade a two-handed weapon or a one-handed weapon?

>>3399506
no problem.

>>3399482
also adding
>Knightling should be ready to pounce forward and BEAT on her like a champ and to get some revenge.
>if we get a shot once up close, try and get a shot from either barrel into her, but dont yet waste them if we cant confirm a hit.
>if we can, kick her hard in the crotch. maybe it will at least shut up her cockiness if nothing else.

>>3399521
(Two-Handed.)

>>3399525
Well then, that clears things up. We're at a good grapple advantage.
Also, is the Karma gun still in Lionheart form or in basic Derringer?

>>3399482
>>3399522
wait, chainsaw. honey. clogs. a chain weapon is worthless if it cant spin, and we have a shot made to clog things up.

amending
>as we go forward, once we know shes not gonna skin throw at us, fire off the BB into her gun, to clog it up.
>do the rest as planned, now only waiting to fire the Fullbore if we get a good shot.

just like the tongue, it may not fully stop it, but it should at least weaken its effectiveness.

>>3399561
>*into her chainsaw
pfft, whoops. thinking too on the fly my bad.

>>3399439
>Have your Hollowpoint spawn a Honey engorged Baneling (I'll call it a Sapling) that suicide charges itself into the chainsaw and explodes with sticky honey-sap
>Send your banelings to suicide against her chainsaw. they'll act as distraction aid as well as a way to weaken her chainsaw as Shu charges in for the grapple.
>Transform Contender into LionHeart Blade, Charge and Parry
> use your spare arms to Grapple her arms.
>use your tongue to grapple her waist, then Grapple/bite down with Executioner's Jaw/Ravenous Maw.
>"Sorry to be a Buzzkill, but I've got places to be. Not time to stop for tea and Crumpets, except Julia's. Unless you've done something to Julia. That's when I'm MAD."
>>3399561
What if we had a swarmling that's basically a controllable version of the B.33 Special? instead of spending an act to load up our gun to aim and fire, why not just spawn a bug version of our ammo?

>>3399530
(Karma/Contender is still in Lionheart mode, my apologies.)

hello. also huh homestuck refrences? i love homestuck. anyway wasnt expecting this on april foolz day (wasnt watching btw was just watching 4chan untill i saw it pop up XD hey bhop though

>>3399634
(Hello, I'm glad you could join!)

>>3399634
this is me btw whoops forgot my name resets when i change wifi. im home for spring break

>>3399504
>>3399465
>>3399565
>>3399640

So Gentlemen, to compile all of our general plans as well as sort out the details,
We're going for a full grapple in anticipation of parrying and pinning Penny's chainsaw blade.
Things in agreement
>have our spare limbs and Karma (GunBlade) parrying and grappling the chainsaw blade to also grapple and pin Penny.
>Knightling grappling her from Behind with another pair of arms.
>Banelings fly in to intercept any adhesive sheet skin by acid detonation, the rest go to attack Penny
>Ravenous Maw to grapple and chomp down on Penny with the Tongue to propel her and Shu together faster than expected.
Now the one of the things in contention is the fact that we have to aim and fire gun with the B.33 special as our selected round.
What I propose instead is this:
>use the Hollowpoint Hive to spawn a Bug version of the B.33 named "Sap-ling" and have that swarmling suicide itself and jam the chainsaw teeth. Saves us the problem of aiming the gun.

Does this sound like a good composite of our plans for this round?

anyway so this guy is taking away our regen right how much regen is that anyway ? i might just go into the pastebin though right now

>>3399648
also sounds good

anyway im hanging around but im doing art in the background (maybe i should do some fanart for this while im at it :? eh whatever

>>3399658
5% per round. She would be a hard counter to B'ni.
>>3399439

Sending compiled plans to BHOP. See here >>3399648

>>3399648
Its been said in the past we cant spawn new swarmling types so a no go on that sapling.

Sticking with my own plan for now regardless.

(Writing now, Gentlemen.)

>>3399658
(Good luck on your art, Gen! A friend of mine has actually taken an interest in the story and she's also doing some fanart for it, since she has a few favorite characters so far.)

>>3399788
Are you sure about that? We invented Winglings and a few other swarmling types on the fly. We just need the required ability skills to spawn them. Saplings (honey filled swarmlings) are pure Hive Mistress type as well as a mix of Gluttonous class due to the gluttonous brood augmentation.
>>3399808
BHOP. I would like your ruling on this case. Is it possible to spawn the bug version of our ammunition (the B.33 special but as a controllable swarmling instead of a bullet)?

>>3399834
(I will pause writing momentarily and rule that you may spawn the Swarmling version of the B.33 round. I designed the system with player agency in mind, with particular credence with Calcite Armorers, Hive Mistresses, and Neuromancers having a high degree of freedom in how they evolve and manipulate their abilities.)

>>3399834
>>3399846
Ah, my bad. I know for a fact earlier a similar idea was shot down as it was ruled 'we can only edit their form, not add or make new abilites.'

>>3399857
(If something is game-breaking, then I'll usually veto or offer an alternative. However, since the B.33 round is locked-in as a viable Contender Round, then it makes sense that it could also be a Swarmling variant, though it would still cost 10% BIO to spawn, though it would lack the penetrative power of a fired round. By this logic, the Herculean Fullbore is also able to be made a Swarmling.)

>>3399864
eh, fair enough. not something im a fan of, as it feels like it takes away from the contender too much and kinda feels like it goes against past rulings, but your game so do as you please.

>>3399857
It's fine. Glad that BHOP laid down the groundwork on how far we can push the boundaries.
The mindset that I was having when I thought up of converting the B.33 bullet into the Sap-ling was the idea that constructs (like our swarmlings) were built around a theme (in Shu's case, Bees) and a core ability (hive mistress).
Our banelings came from the combination of our Gluttonous ability (stomach acid is a feature of the Gluttonous class, used to break down flesh into usable bio for daughters ) and our Core Hive mistress.
Soundlings and Gauntlings were jointly created with daughters of a different class, which they provided the necessary ability class to make the respective specialized swarmlings. (Neuromancy and Calcite armory)
Cicada-lings and Winglings were a modification of our existing base swarmling by modifying their wings to either be very loud or powerful which stays within our modifying parameters.
You get the drill.
tl;dr I basically come up with swarmling ideas that can be made with our current set of bio-classes (Hundred handed, Bee-themed Hive, Stomach Glutton jaws) and either motify or mix different aspects of each class to create something entirely new within reason and with BHOP's approval.

>>3399864
Thank you for the ruling.
Also, I can't help but imagine an Abathur Amalgam wandering the wastes somewhere in the world. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_-CbVureyU

>>3399891
I understand the sentiment. I'll try to not turn the our powerset into a swiss-army-hive of sorts with these on-the-fly creations of different swarmlings. As for taking away Karma's thunder, Personally I don't think it does. The Karma gun I feel is a compliment to our Hive skills. A more direct method of dealing damage to the enemy by firing our swarmling variants at them for different effect.

>>3399912
nah trust me, as a gun nut i get the difference between shooting something at high velocity and having it fly at bug speed, i just thought it made sense and helped both our ability and the relic feel unique to have their abilities be different.. i also just simply am more iffy on the wishy washy feeling of the ruling. im fine with things being more open, and like BHOP taking our ideas into account, but i also think boundaries and rules need to have actual defined lines, eve if they are far apart, if that makes sense. i simply feel i was told something before that defined greatly how i played the game, only for it to suddenly be changed on me.

eh, whatever. it is what it is.

>>3399439

You focus, spawning three pairs of arms for your twin Banelings and your pinned Knightling, the latter's newfound swole-ness unnoticed by your foe given your intimidating brood hovering on either side of you, as you bring your blade level to Penny's face with a taunting smirk You adjust your footing, and the moment you make a move forwards, she comes for you.

Two quick strides close the gap as she brings her chainblade in a vertical arc down across your chest. You block high with the Contender's Lion Heart form, and everything in your body rattles as the saw's teeth rev hungrily, clashing repeatedly against your blade's peerless form. Her grin falters when your Banelings erupt from behind you, wrapping their arms around her own and hauling her backwards. Penny's surprising strength is slowly overwhelmed with your powerful legs as you push, straining forwards as you begin to overwhelm her vicious offensive.

It gives your little friend a clear shot.

From underneath your arm, the black-and-yellow Sapling darts out and into the inner workings of Penny's blade. The moment she disengages from you she revs the chain, and it first stops, then breaks entirely. The chain-linked teeth lash out and carve through its wielder's shoulder opening a bloody gash that sends a crimson splatter across the floor and wall.

When she opens her mouth, her curse turns into a gasp when your tongue wraps around her bloodied arm, yanking her forwards. She's off-balance, completely taken off-guard as she watches her arm get drawn into your waiting, ravenous jaws. It all happens in an instant that feels stretched into minutes, her eyes widening as your guillotine teeth clamp down, cleanly severing her arm from the elbow down. A scream of rage and pain precedes her kicking against your shuttered second mouth, sending you stumbling backwards and her sprawling against the floor.

"Fuckin' Gluttons." Penny growls through gritted teeth, slowly rising to her feet, staring daggers at you. "Fuckin' teethy bitches, all'ov 'e...fuckin' hell!"

Your Knightling has its revenge as it wraps a pair of arms around her remaining limb, having freed itself to give you a chance to end this...though with the feral girl writhing in its grasp, you're certain she's not going quietly.

HP: 108% (REGEN redirected to Penny, 1 Stack of BLEED active)
BIO: 138% (2 Knightlings [1 Armed], 5 Platelings, 2 Armed-Banelings, 8 Swarmlings [8 Stuck], 17/22 Active)
CONTENDER: Empty, Lionheart Form.
RAVENOUS MAW: Primed.
ACT: 2/2
Threat: Between you and the door. Disarmed, restrained, furious.)

YOU ARE IN CONTROL

(Gentlemen, I feel like here is a decent place to stop for the evening. Voting shall close in nine hours, and I shall resume writing in a little less than twelve hours from now. Additionally, I shall open rapid-posting two nights from now, on my Wednesday night as usual. I shall be around for a little while longer to address questions, concerns, and criticisms, and please know that I welcome it all. Thank you all for being such a fantastic audience, and I hope you have a wonderful night.)

>>3399954
>have the Banelings grapple her legs and inject their acid.
>rush forward, using your tongue to pull yourself along quicker.
>Once close, hve half your arms grapple her, the others pummel her.
>Have Knighty boi spawn another arm and punch her in her face to keep her under control more.
>Impale her chest with your contender then fire off the Fullbore.
>Then for good measure twist and pull the blade upwards to come out her neck.

>if we succeed, waste no time. cut out swarmlings free and rush after Amara/ the fight to our back.

>>3399954
Act 1: Swarmling Action
>Banelings should Impale themselves on her legs and lock arms with each other to form a Bug-Bola. Injecting acid, locking her movement down, and preventing her from shedding her skin.
>Have the Knightling Impale its Stinger right through her back. Then force her forward by flying momentum. She'll be off balance due to the Knight-ling's wing strength.
>Dissolve the 8 Basic Swarmlings stuck on Penny's flypaper to free up swarmling slots.
I get the feeling that with the abilities she's shown so far (a skin tight disguise of all things as an aspect of her Flesh Artisan abilities), she's got at least a defensive option that lets her shed her skin to evade that. Impaling her would prevent her from doing that.
Act 2:
>Prehensile tongue wrap around her neck and end it directly into her mouth then pull yourself and her forwards and bite her head off.
>Load up the Lion Heart with the Fullbore While you're pulling her forwards, impale her heart with the Lion Heart, once you have confirmation of the sword sticking into her gut, fire it point blank. Have it cause havoc on her heart and spine.
Double/Triple Tap to confirm the kill. Once she's dead ,we can have our Knightling carry her corpse for us to consume and use as portable spare BIO.

>>3398439
I'm not THAT well-versed in this quest, but from reading 2-3 threads here's my guesses. Homestuck is trash, but Classpects are a bar of gold in a dumpster-fire.

Shu - Heir of Life
An Heir is protected unknowingly, and Life is the Aspect of growth and positivity. Shu's been protected by one thing or another for a LONG time, even before the Cord. Her social status, B'ni's devotion, her Swarmlings or her allies has had her back in some form or another, the first two without even her awareness.

B'ni - Thief of Rage
A Thief takes for oneself, and Rage is the Aspect of madness and strength. Despite her betrayal, all must admit that B'ni has been instrumental in turning Shu into the sweetheart she is today. Even the personality-scrambling head wound, the first step on our journey, was inflicted by B'ni. A pity that it seems the nicer we get, the more spiteful and driven she becomes.

Gina - Seer of Heart
A Seer seeks out knowledge, and Heart is the Aspect of identity and empathy. If Shu died, Gina would be the one to step up and hold the group together. Her ability to access information grows ever more potent, and she sees deeper into other's psyche than almost anyone else we know of.

Rath - Bard of Time
A Bard invites destruction around them, and Time is the Aspect of action and finality. Destruction rules Rath. Others, herself, it is only the positive influence of the group that allows her energy to be channeled into more constructive purposes. She's fickle, yet determined, in that whatever she wants WILL get done, but what she wants may change at any time.

Julia - Knight of Space
A Knight wields and shapes their tools, and Space is the Aspect of building-power and creation. Passive, but intensely protective of those she cares for. Julia is content to wait and watch, to maintain the hearth'n'home, and to better the world one small flesh art-piece at a time.

Dorian - Witch of Doom
A Witch subverts expectations, and Doom is the Aspect of restrictions and decay. Rulebreakers and defiants, a Witch makes the best of what they get by writing over the worst of it. How else would a lone 'Daughter' live COMFORTABLY atop a twisted Sparagmos Engine, a daughter-eating Spartan, in a bloodthirsty forest, all while coming from a family that rejected him? Dorian would probably pass The Kobayashi Maru test, yet not know how they did it.

Amara - Page of Blood
A Page knows limitless potential, and Blood is the Aspect of bonds and unity. Unlike anyone else, Amara has been surrounded by support, friendship and care from day 1. Even when she's alone, the land itself sings to her. She really is never alone, above and beyond what even Shu has accomplished. Just as bonds and unity are attracted to her, so too does she draw in and strengthen those around her, and I feel her capabilities are only just surfacing. Amara could be one of the real game-changers, given time! Wasn't Mother a Skin-talker, after all?

>>3400095
(This is fantastic. I do enjoy the classpects from Homestuck, and this write-up is well done.)

>>3400095
Classpects are something alone i can be glad homestuck existed for, and one of the only things i can. Good write up my man.

(Writing now, Gentlemen.)

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>>3399954

Your Banelings dart towards Penny’s legs, locking arms with each other and emptying their acidic payload into the back of her knees as she struggles with your Knightling. The effect is instantaneous and excruciating, with your foe letting loose an agonized scream as she collapses to the floor. She’s yanked upwards by a pair of arms and the lethal stinger that spears through her chest, courtesy of the Knightling that abandoned her arm in favor of clinging to her back.

You ready your blade, hearing your swarmlings dissolve behind you with a silent command while your stomach roils with anticipation. You see Penny’s skin ripple, struggling to enact a countermeasure, a last-ditch effort to save herself from what she knows is coming. The confidence she once swelled with is utterly gone, replaced with a fearful gaze that is fixed on your grinning abdomen, a merciless, smiling guillotine. Her attempt to shed her skin like a panicked snake is interrupted by her getting yanked forwards by the strength of your Knightling, and as she’s carried forwards your tongue lashes out, wrapping around her throat and diving into her mouth, cutting off her final, furious curse.

She hurtles towards you and your waiting maw, her head and shoulders disappearing into your abdominal cavity before your teeth snap shut with a savage snap. Her body twitches once, twice before you bury the Contender’s edge deep in your foe, severing her spine and spearing her sternum in a single, decisive blow. You scowl as her skin flutters across her body.

Your friends are in danger, and you don't have time for this bullshit.

You pull Contender’s trigger, sending your Herculean Fullbore round directly into her back, where it burrows frantically towards her heart. Tearing your blade free, you kick the headless corpse away from you in disgust, taking a moment to catch your breath as you watch her torso crumble from the Fullbore’s efforts, her body hollowed out to ensure she stays down. You’re little worse for wear after that skirmish, but the static that clouds your mind persists, leaving you in the dark as to the status of your team. The sounds of combat from outside have ceased, and the interior of the building is now utterly silent.

HP: 113%
BIO: 164% (2 Knightlings [1 Armed], 5 Platelings, 2 Armed-Banelings, 9/22 Active)
CONTENDER: Empty, Lionheart Form.
RAVENOUS MAW: Primed.
ACT: 2/2
Threat: Neutralized.

>>CONSUME (Takes 1 Turn): Fully heal and select new abilities if you wish to do so now.

OR

>>PURSUE: Go after an ally of your choice with Penny’s corpse in tow via a your Knightling.

YOU ARE IN CONTROL

>>3400965
>>PURSUE: Go after an ally of your choice with Penny’s corpse in tow via a your Knightling.
>Amara

She needs our help the most, Rath is probably the most capable on her own, and we dont have tine to be greedy with consuming, aswell as Amara and Julia need the levels the most.

(Voting to close in one and a half hours, Gentlemen.)

>>3400965
>>>PURSUE: Go after an ally of your choice with Penny’s corpse in tow via a your Knightling.
>Amara

>>3400965
>PURSUE: Go after an ally of your choice with Penny’s corpse in tow via a your Knightling.
>Amara

That anti-HM flypaper skin strat was neat, but Shu has several tools in her arsenal.

>>3400965
>>PURSUE: Go after an ally of your choice with Penny’s corpse in tow via a your Knightling.

From our status screen, Our Knightlings and Platelings that we gave to Rath are still active which means she is still alive. If she wasn't we
Amara's Swarmling slot buff is still active which also means she's still alive. Amara also has the Camo Shawl so she should be able to go about undetected, and if found, her passive aura would stall. The only unknown is that Julia's pure melee she might be against a hive mistress which bodes ill.

>>3400965
>Load up a Hollowpoint and a Parabellum.
>Spawn a Camo Scout-ling to scout the path ahead.
>If possible, Have the Knightling that's with Rath set to Escort and Guard Rath.
>Pursue Julia

(Writing now, Gentlemen.)

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1.02 MB JPG

>>3400965

You will your Knightling to carry Penny’s decapitated form, following you as you race into the facility. It’s after a minute of stalking the halls that you nearly jump out of your skin when a pair of invisible arms wrap around your leg, holding fast to your half-healed leg.

“Miss Shu, it’s me!” Amara whispers hastily, her voice a child’s stage whisper. “I found the lady that’s watching everybody, she’s got a spinny thing that’s stopping me from talking to stuff!”

You breathe a heavy sigh of relief as you pat the girl’s Shrouded head, ushering your Knightling to the shadows, hoping to obscure the headless corpse in its grasp from Amara’s view. You’re guessing that whatever’s jamming Amara’s abilities is doing the same thing to your Empathic Channel.

“Where’s the tar…the woman with the spinny thing?” You ask low, trying not to draw attention to the existence of your small ally.

“Down the hall, and around the corner.” Amara replies, and from the movement you feel through the shawl, you realize she’s pointing in the general direction, her invisible gesture utterly no help. You glance down the corridor, dim light filtering through broken windows in the adjoining rooms interspersed down the space.

Odds are high that the group attacking you has their support in the room just ahead…but if they’re worth their salt, then they’re also aware of your proximity.

HP: 118%
BIO: 174% (2 Knightlings [1 Armed], 5 Platelings, 2 Armed-Banelings, 9/22 Active)
CONTENDER: Empty, Lionheart Form.
RAVENOUS MAW: Primed.
ACT: 2/2
Threat: Medium range, aware of you. Capabilities unknown.

AMARA HP: 80%

YOU ARE IN CONTROL

>>3401201
>Make 3 cheap swarmlings and scout her out.

>>3401201
>Load up a BB and a Hollow.
>Spawn three camo-lings, two will swishy swooty the floor, the other the ceiling.
>Have BHOP tell us how many arms we have activated, but be sure its at least 4 extra.
>See what our scouts see, but otherwise have Amara stay hidden and cautiously go forward.
>Have knighty boi set down the corpse and take position on our left, the banelings our right. They should be ready to intercept any nuromancer cords meant for us.

>Amara and the camo-lings goal will be to potentially get/stop the spinny thing, but obviously to wait til the opportunity comes about if its in the girls actual grip.

(Gentlemen, voting shall close in one and a half hours from now.)

>>3401215
(You currently have two extra arms, and your Swarmlings that have extra arms are noted.)

>>3401215
Have knighty boi keep the corpse. If we have an opportunity to surprise them I want to launch the corpse at them. Stop judging me.

>>3401265
Id agree if using such tactics didn't go against shus character.

>>3401201
>Walk out front and center, bring attention to yourself.
>Have Amara do sneaky stealing/sabotage by having her steal or stop the spinny thing.
>Try and do diplomacy negotiations or bluff/stall.

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>>3401201

You silently load a pair of rounds into your pistol as your Knightling stashes the corpse in the shadows before rejoining your side, the holes on your back distorting as a trio of Camo-lings writhe out from within you. Amara is chomping at the bit to join your side, but she relents to your hushed demand for her to stay still and silent as you proceed down the hall, following the trio you’ve sent just ahead of you.

Through their eyes, you round the corner into a room laced with pulsing biomass, bright pink flesh strands looping into and through the walls of the open room, a large, empty space save for the individual in the center, a miniature dyson-sphere-esque object in her hands. Her hair is cut in an uneven bob not unlike your wayward companion’s, and she sits cross-legged in the center of the otherwise bare room. A pair of obsidian rings with a calcite circlet in the center spin around a compact sphere of grey matter, the device hovering just above her outstretched palms.

The walls flutter open, dozens of eyes staring at your cloaked Swarmlings the moment they enter, and the girl just cracks a half-smile.

“Oh my god, you killed Penny.” She says, her intonation somehow simultaneously flat and sarcastic. “You bastards, yadda-yadda. Never much cared for that one, anyway.”

She rises to her feet, a single forest-green eye staring at your brood from underneath her bangs, an orb the same color as the numerous duplicates that stare into your line of sight, unnerving even though she’s on the opposite side of a concrete wall from your body, proper.

“You’re kind of a pain in the ass, you know that? Killing one of my crew, even if you did do me a favor. My other pawns are tied up with yours, so I suppose it’s up to me to put you down personally. You and yours will make a fair consolation prize since the Doctor skipped town that that OP chick.”

Keeping the orb hovering in one hand, she flicks out the fingers of the other, five strands of bright pink skin leashing themselves to the tips as a second pair of extra arms emerge from your shoulders, hands balled into fists.

“A one-on-one sound good with you? I’ll give you a moment to catch your breath, I’m sure Penny had you on the ropes for a hot second.”

Her confidence is wholly different than that of the cock-sure girl you just fought. There’s almost something serene about her as she stands there in the center of her command station, composed with a faint smile on her lips as she grants you a moment to think, a moment to plan.

You’re certain she’s doing the same.

HP: 123%
BIO: 140% (2 Knightlings [1 Armed], 5 Platelings, 3 Camo-lings, 2 Armed-Banelings, 12/22 Active)
CONTENDER: B.33 & Hollowpoint Loaded, Lionheart Form.
RAVENOUS MAW: Primed.
HUNDRED-HANDED: 4 arms active (Shoulders/Back)
ACT: 2/2
Threat: On the other side of your wall. Aware of your Camo-lings.

AMARA HP: 80% (Cloaked, Whistle: VUL RHO)

YOU ARE IN CONTROL

oh hey I made it just in time for a fight . timings getting good

mm though still not to good with deciding how we should fight ill let yall handle it

>>3401390
Shes in a room of her own biomass, entering there is a death sentence.

>Have the camolings fly in a random pattern towards her legs, arms, and head, one each.
>Rush forward and fire the hollowpoint like were aiming at the sphere, but our main focus is to use it as a distraction, so we can land our second BB shot on it, fired under the guise of the first and using the camolings to distract from it as best we can.
>From where ever the hollowpoint embeds itself, spawn 5 swarmlings and have them test her defenses from different angles, if the wall eyes start attacking, which They probably will, have them start tearing at them to disable them.

(Voting shall close in one and a half hours, Gentlemen.)

maybe figure out a way to get her out of the room though :?

>>3401390
>"Oh. You mean Dr. West and Isabelle? Darn. looks like I missed them again."
>Pretend to stare at the eyes on her head (the one that looks like its a hair clip) you had PTSD, when in reality you're readying your aim at her hands.
>"Dear god don't tell me eye lasers are a common ability with Eyeball themed daugters, you're giving me flashbacks of Envy City"
>Have the Camolings crawl around in a meandering fashion to make her drop her guard, but do steady progress towards her feet, they'll act as our seismic-monitors when She does her Terraforming puppetry.
>Free Transform the LionHeart Blade into Karma's Derringer before firing our bullets. We don't want to give her the idea that we can still shoot her in sword form.
>Aim and Fire the Hollowpoint as a Test fire at her hands to provoke any preliminary defences aim for one of the eyes in the wall just behind her, then pretend to curse about needing to reload. When she goes and use any offensive Terraforming action, Dodge TOWARDS her and Fire again, aim at either one of her hands or the hovering item she controls.
>Spawn 2 Cicada-lings to prep for Amara's hidden assistance.
>Once we have her full attention, Amara will quietly sneak in.
Looks like she's a mix of Terraformed Neuromancy that specialize in Eyeball maneuvers. Occular attacks, strands of puppetry and flesh fiber.
That south Park reference.

>>3401390
>"Where's the Forge key?"

>>3401458
(If i may ask, at what point in your interaction would you wish to interject this?)

>>3401543
Thinking about it, I don't think there's a point to it. As much as we would like to try diplomacy for Amara's sake, I don't think it would amount to much. They clearly intended to kill and eat us.

>>3401543
Towards the end, probably. Once she knows we have an interest in the forge key, she'll have one more reason to kill us. No sense in letting our moment of rest be cut short.

>>3401552
>>3401555
Personally see no reason to talk to her at all. Id think shes gonna see right through it, no one who actually knows how to fight complains about their weaknesses and all that. If anything all that stuff does is let her know more info to guess our actual plan off of.

>>3401543
so my call is don't interject this question.

>>3401596
(Undertood. Writing now, though it may take a little time as the end of day is getting hectic.)

>>3401390

"You mean Dr. West and Isabelle? Darn, looks like I missed them again." You announce as you step around the corner, your gaze flickering between the eye in her skull and the one affixed to her hair. All the while you caress one of the Contender’s bony triggers, ready to take aim at the Relic hovering above her right hand.

"You know, you're giving me flashbacks of Envious City.” You continue, sparing a glance at the orb-studded wall. “Do all eyeball-themed Daughters have lasers, or just the one I defeated?”

Your camouflaged brood meander around, slowly making their way towards her feet, and she spares them a bemused glance before training her gaze on yours. The eyes along the walls begin to weep steadily, a constant stream of tears slithering down the walls, snaking towards the floor as she cocks her head at you before speaking.

“Why don’t you come and find out?”

Shu the Defiant

VS.

THE VISIONARY PUPPETEER

Your blade instantly shifts into pistol form before you let fly with the Hollowpoint. A snowflake pattern of crystallized liquid spears out from the streams of tears towards you, but they’re far too late to deflect or block your Hollowpoint round as it hurtles towards the sphere…and lances straight through the liquid facsimile, which promptly explodes with a splash of tears against the bio-threaded floor. The spears curve mid-stab, lancing towards you and catching you in your outstretched arms.

You curse under your breath as you pull back, acting as though you need to reload when the girl leaps forwards, launched towards you via a springboard of biomass at her feet. The remains of the dummy sphere crystallize in her hands as a glaive of yellowed crystal that she brings down at your right shoulder, intending to deprive you of your sword-arm.

(Continued)

>>3401778

Your last-second block with the Contender’s derringer form comes out painfully, your aching arms bleeding from a plethora of oozing pinpricks, combined with the sheer force of her strike that rattled your teeth in your skull. You twist the gun in your hand and pull the second trigger, firing your B.33 round into the other girl’s shoulder, the kick of the gun flinging the shaft of her glaive away from you as you back up. When your shoulders hit the wall and pain explodes across your back, you see that the head of her weapon has forked into a rake of twisted barbs that now drip with your blood.

“Oh I’m sorry, you thought you blocked it, didn’t you?” She mocks, that half-smile still on her lips even as her shoulder weeps scarlet from an open wound. “As far as my little Relic goes, do you really think I would…”

From somewhere distant, the sound of an explosion gives you both pause…and you become aware that you’re now down to a single Knightling, the one that you left with Rath now nonexistent. What’s more troubling is that your foe’s face tells you she has no idea what just happened either, and given her darting gaze as she shifts through other points of view she’s less than pleased about what she sees.

As a pair of Cicadalings emerge from your back you hope Amara’s made her move, sneaking into the room with you to enact the next phase of your plan, but with your Empathic field still jammed from somewhere within this building you realize there’s no guarantee.

There’s also no guarantee of who among you is still alive.

HP: 108%
BIO: 144% (1 Armed Knightling, 5 Platelings, 3 Camo-lings, 2 Armed-Banelings, 2 Cicadalings, 14/22 Active)
CONTENDER: Empty, Lionheart Form. (B.33 Detonation in 2 Rounds)
RAVENOUS MAW: Primed.
HUNDRED-HANDED: 4 arms active (Shoulders/Back)
ACT: 2/2
Threat: Close, armed.

AMARA HP: 80% (Cloaked, Whistle: VUL RHO)

YOU ARE IN CONTROL

(Gentlemen, voting shall close in one and a half hours.)

(Also, please note your current Swarmling capacity is 13/22 since your other Knightling disappeared. My apologies.)

>>3401784
My guess is either a third party joined in, or Rath did a last ditch effort move sacrificing our knightling in the process.

>Spawn four extra arms, use them as literal meat shields as we go in for a slash to speed up our BB.
>Spawn 4 recursives and have them spread out to take care of the eyes, thier deaths only leading to more minions to absorb hits and eat out eyes, as eyeballs are squishy and sensitive even to small things.
>Keep our mouth shit tight til we need to, use it as an emergency get away or to snag one of her limbs if she lets her guard open up.
>The knightling should try and go for her legs and keep her off balance, the banelings stick to our arms to try and use acid to dissuade too agressive of attacks.

Now I think her abilities are more clear now.
Terraforming Neuromancy, sensory enhancement with eyeball theme,
Liquid manipulation of occular fluid (tears) into crystallized weapon form.

BHOP, does it take a free action for her to shift the liquid weapon into a different form once per ACT? Because it seems that she used an act to transform the tear sphere into a glaive and terraform a springboard then another act to shift the tear-glaive into a rake.

And what happened to the Hollowpoint? Is it still active or was it destroyed?

>>3401851
>>3401784
Also, I forgot to link the question.

>>3401851
(She has leveled that ability to where she is allowed a maximum of two form shifts per turn as a free action. Also, the Hollowpoint is indeed still active.)

>>3401867
How many eyes in the room are there from her Terraforming? If those eyes are able to see through Camo, then Amara's attempt to sneak in won't work.

>>3401893
(Roughly three dozen. She's been here a while waiting for Doctor West. Also note that the Shawl's camouflage is several times more effective than your Camolings at their current level. The Shawl is very potent.)

>>3401784
supporting>>3401849
And of course, make sure her attention is entirely on us so Amara can sneak and do her thing.

>>3401784
>"Oh dear, she went Nuclear."
ACT1:
>Have Hollowpoint Spawn 5 swarmlings and have them poke out the eyes in the room have them prioritize them to attack the eyes that keep an eye on the entrance.
>Armed Banelings will hover around and intercept any of Puppeter's limb or arm swinging with a grapple-lock.
>Send the knightling to the entrance of the room just around the corner as if to guard the entrance, have it quietly signal Amara to come closer and help Shu.
>all 3 Camo-lings should siphon any stream of liquid tears and convert the bio eaten into bio-pollen if possible. That should slow or divert any bio-income that Puppeteer uses to form her liquid weapon. Have all converted bio be used to upgrade the Camo-lings. They shall feast on her tears.
I want to try this out because I'm getting the feeling that Puppeteer uses the wall of tears to fuel her crystal weapon, and Penny gave me a good idea when it came to her knife siphoning our health regen.
>Cicadalings will generally hover around Puppeteer's ears and do the equivalent of the "airhorn interrupt" if she attempts to do something that requires neuromancy terraforming concentration.
Puppeteer's a fluid manipulator so I don't want to have Baneling acid used against us.
ACT 2:
>Free action: Transform Karma into Lionheart form again.
>Go in close. Force her to turn her liquid weapon into something appropriately close ranged.
>Parry any solid crystal weapon swing with a pair of spare arms, riposte with Lion Heart and limb grapple with spare arms.

(Gentlemen, due to some unforeseen circumstances I have not been able to leave work yet, so I shall be extending voting by an additional hour and a half. Thank you for your patience, and take care.)

>>3402222
>dem digits personifying BHOPS inner REEEEEE
you do what you need to. work is hell but it comes first.

>>3402230
(You always so supportive and I really appreciate that, Anon. Thank you.)

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>>3402238
hey, its no problem. you give good content, ive been a DM myself so i know how that all works, AND I USUALLY WORK 10 HOUR SHIFTS SO TRUST ME, I KNOW HOW WORK GRINDS AT ONES NERVES AND FREE TIME.

>>3402250
Stop posting spoilers for the final boss.

No one CONSUME'S like Gamalgston.

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>>3402296
damn you my roommate heard me laughing through the walls.

>>3401784

The flesh on your exposed back twists, warping into another two sets of arms as you kick off from the wall, the Contender lengthening into full Lionheart mid-charge. The quartet of recursive swarmlings that tear free of your spine immediately spread out, slashing at the walls as you direct a lethal stab towards the girl's center of mass. Her glaive splits in two, a pair of forked blades held in each hand as she matches you step for step, pinning your blade between hers while keeping the other level with your stomach, threatening to spear your tongue if you dare send it forth. Blade locked with yours she somehow holds her footing, her one-handed shortsword braced against your two-handed Contender. She's strong, far stronger than she looks despite half a foot of height difference between the two of you.

"You assumed Neuromancers were weak? Didn't think I'd have gotten a hold of a strength reinforcement power?" She chuckles, digging in her heels. "They're dreadfully common, I'm afraid."

A second blast sounds, shaking the biomass that lines the box of death you willingly entered, rattling the broken windowpanes and sending tremors through you body. The shaking of the floor beneath your feet intensifies, and you step back in time to avoid the sheet of bio-laced concrete that erupts from the floor, completely obscuring your view before you...

A hole, pre-built into the barrier as it rises that allows the spear to pierce through cleanly and right into your stomach. You stagger back, two of your spare arms held tight against your abdomen to stem the gushing flow of blood. Your Baneling pair affixed to your real arms to stave off any offense as the wall before you crumbles, revealing your foe frantically batting away your Knightling's fervent assault, nail and talon clashing against hilt and crystal.

In the commotion, you alone see a pile of biomass in the corner pulled apart by an invisible set of hands, revealing a spinning orb nested within.

Well done, kiddo.

HP: 74%
BIO: 146% (1 Armed Knightling, 5 Platelings, 3 Camo-lings, 2 Armed-Banelings, 2 Cicadalings, 4 Recursive Swarms, 13/22 Active)
CONTENDER: Empty, Lionheart Form. (B.33 Detonation in 1 Round, Hollowpoint: 10% BIO)
RAVENOUS MAW: Primed.
HUNDRED-HANDED: 8 Arms active (Shoulders/Back)
ACT: 2/2
Threat: Close, armed.

AMARA HP: 80% (Cloaked, Whistle: VUL RHO)

YOU ARE IN CONTROL

(Voting shall close in one and a half hours, Gentlemen.)

>>3402510
right, we just gotta keep her distracted while we help Amara deal with that thing. also, its a gamble, but Rath might be trying to EXPLODE her way in here. the issue? the amount of shrapnel and force going EVERYWHERE once she finally breaks through might turn this into a death trap for everyone involved, enemy or ally.

if we could talk to her to time it right, this wouldn't be an issue. plan coming shortly,i felt this info needed to be out first.

>>3402510
>>3402521
>Send the Banelings forward aswell as the Camolings to try and overwhelm her, all of them doing hit and run tactics in a large swoop to build up speed to make themselves harder to hit and hit harder.
>the swarmlings can keep keeping the eyes busy, spawn two more Recursives to help with this. once they are no longer needed with the eyes, they may join the swarm.

>Load up a BB and a Fullbore, and spawn yourself 3 platlings, and 3 to arm your tongue.
>goad her with a fakeout shot, then rush forward, only to pull your 8 arms inward to absorb her blow as a full body shield as you lash out your tongue, using the platlings to turn it into a hard hitting flail, aswell as your forward momentum, to smash into her hard. as you do, jump up, so the force of hitting her pushes you back, then unwind your arm shield only enough to aim out and hit her in the leg with the BB, body or head with the Fullbore, if line of sight permits.

>Spawn a small speedling, something made to be fast and hard hitting to fly low to go help Amara crack the orb and end its use.

Hopefully we have a turn to crack open the orb, get communication back, then plan this all out with Rath better.

>>3402516
What's the building integrity looking like BHOP?, because I'm guessing Rath is being the living battering ram that she is to kool-aid man her way in. Will the building hold?

>>3402516
Also, is the spinning orb that Amara uncovered the Forge core?

>>3402552
(The building is in poor shape, and will not be able to survive the continued assault.)

>>3402558
(She's discovered the actual jamming Relic.)

>>3402546
As much we'd love to finish her off, we have a collapsing building caused by a nuclear redhead. We need to escape with Amara. Snatching the Relic Jammer will be a bonus.
Our B.33 Special is due to detonate this coming round, and Amara's whistle hasn't been used yet. We need to bog Puppeteer down with enough debuffs and distractions that both Amara and Shu can escape the building.

>>3402546
Backing, as well as we should pump out as mant extra swarmlings as possible. This girl is the leader, and we have a lot of bio left. Maybe some more banelings to melt her?

>>3402579
I'm sorry to tell you, we're in the middle of a collapsing building. I don't think it's wise for us to stay and fight her.

>>3402577
shes a terraformer and most likely is trying to keep an eye on the relic to some degree.

if we dont keep her busy physically, and keep her eyes taken out, we wont get the ability to escape at all. the BB will stop HER from moving, it wont stop her from stopping us from leaving.

like i said, keep her busy this round with brute forse, so when Amara and our speedling take care of the Jammer, we can communicate with Rath to not cave us in. otherwise, we try to flee with no actual preparation or with this girl still active enough to Terraform, and were trapped anyways as shes not gonna let us flee that easily, especially if she knows or thinks the place is gonna collapse.

>>3402577
>>3402587
keep in mind we have no real way through a terraforming blockade, certainly nothing fast at least, and nothing extremely viable if shes still trying to attack us.

our best bet it to tell Rath not to cave us in, and/or hope the building can last one round so we can disable her a bit.

>>3402579
whoops, missed your question. i think i hit the swarmling cap in my post, though changing a few to recursive banelings im not against.

>>3402510
>Have Amara attempt a manual disable the orb ASAP. Once the Jamming is disabled, have her blow her whistle.
>Once the Empathy Communications method (ECM), send out a Empathy shout at Rath "DEMOLITIONS GIRL, DO NOT BLOW UP THE BUILDING! Jamming is down! Building structurally unstable!"
>Cicadalings attach to Puppeteer's ears and go "full airhorn" mode to drown out the skintalker whistle lexicon. Hopefully the volume will blowout an eardrum or two and make her deaf.
>Spawn another Knightling to back up our Armed Knightling.
>Spawn a Sapling that detonates on the Jamming Relic if Amara can't hack the relic. If you make it stop spinning, then the jamming will stop.
>Any bio-pollen that the Armed Knightling gets from damaging puppeteer will go towards repairing itself.
>Armed Banelings fly at her legs and lock arms with each other while injecting acid into her knee joints, Becoming a bug bola to screw with her footing.
>Have all Recursive Swarmlings form up a defensive screen that intercepts all melee attacks
>Camo-lings will attach themselves to Shu as "hidden armor".
>Shu herself will advance and enter melee range and go for the Grapple and Ravenous Maw chomp. She's got 8 goddamn arms. WHY AREN'T WE USING THEM?

>>3402564
Hey BHOP, there's something that's bothering me. Where's the Bio-pollen gauge? We just got Gluttonous Brood one vein ago, and our swarmlings have been dealing damage, so there should be a bio-tank meter that shows the total amount of bio-pollen that our swarm has gathered.

>>3402546
actually adding Sapling properties to the speedling going to aid Amara is a good idea, adding that.

>>3402636
(I have it on the notes, but there's a ton of numbers here behind the scenes and I've been trying to maintain a careful balancing act of giving you all enough information to work off of while not making your status sheets an entire post in length. If your swarmlings have dealt damage, they've been passively building bio-nectar. Your Knightling in particular is stuffed with it, and I'll work on trying to figure out a user-friendly abbreviation for how much healing they contain. Thank for the head's up!)

>>3402637
Just make it a sapling. or are you adding the sapling property to speed up the rate in which the "sticky" effect settles in?
Also, I see a gross under-utilization of our currently active swarmlings, and Amara. We have a Debuff spell ready and waiting. We have Cicadalings ready to go "airhorn interrupt" to drown out Amara's whistle. Why aren't we using them?

Would you like me to compile our ideas together?

>>3402583
>what is making bees while getting the fuck out

>>3402651
>Your Knightling in particular is stuffed with it
oh. OH.
I think I have an idea on how you can do that.
For our swarm info, why don't you include a bracketed number at the end of each categorization to show us an average percentage of bio-nectar if they've gathered any. for example:
(1 Armed Knightling {35%} , 5 Platelings, 3 Camo-lings, 2 Armed-Banelings {12%}, 2 Cicadalings, 4 Recursive Swarms {5%}, 13/22 Active)
>>3402510
>Have our knightling consume the ALL of the bio-nectar its gathered to heal and UPGRADE ITSELF. Make it a more dangerous monster for Puppeteer to face.
I want to see our Knightling upgrade itself into a Hornet Hellknight!

>>3402672
(...that's a really damn good idea, I'll tweak it a bit and include it in the next fight. Thank you!)

>>3402654
Well, as far as i am aware Amara cant do much til the device is deactivated, but sure, if we do she can Debuff.

I highly disagree with the swarmling statement, and simply forgot about the cicadalings, which we would have to rely on them surviving getting close, but again, sure on that aswell, but im otherwise sticking with my plan.

>>3402677
(Never mind, I'm including it this fight. It's too good a shortcut to pass up.)

(1 Armed Knightling [54%], 5 Platelings, 3 Camo-lings, 2 Armed-Banelings, 2 Cicadalings, 4 Recursive Swarms, 13/22 Active)

>>3402683
(The jammer merely shuts down enemy Empathic fields and their non-offensive communication-based abilities, except for Crimson Cord, of course. Amara's Lexicon is still potent and viable.)

>>3402690
Ah, well that's my bad. Her wording earlier made me think differently.

>>3402690
>54% of Bio-nectar:
BHOP
I WANT TO SPEND ALL OF THAT BIO NECTAR. ALL OF IT to HEAL and UPGRADE our Knightling. Make him into a Swole, fast, and dangerous Hornet Hell knight. 14% will be used to heal our Knightling, the rest will go towards upgrading our Knightling into the biggest, fastest, meanest Bee there can ever be.

>>3402510
>>3402546
amending my plan here to make it easier for BHOP to locate the info.

>Send the Banelings forward aswell as the Camolings to try and overwhelm her, all of them doing hit and run tactics in a large swoop to build up speed to make themselves harder to hit and hit harder. the Banelings can unleash acid as they please to keep her in pain.
>The Knight should use his Bio to keep himself in the fight, and any accumulated Bio Pollen from the swarm should be focused on keeping themselves in the swing of things, however in rotation one at a time should split off to bring us back whatever they have.
>the recursive swarmlings can keep keeping the eyes busy, spawn two more Recursives to help with this. once they are no longer needed with the eyes, they may join the swarm.

>Load up a BB and a Fullbore, and spawn yourself 3 platlings, and 3 to arm your tongue.
>goad her with a fakeout shot, then rush forward, only to pull your 8 arms inward to absorb her blow as a full body shield as you lash out your tongue, using the platlings to turn it into a hard hitting flail, aswell as your forward momentum, to smash into her hard. as you do, jump up, so the force of hitting her pushes you back, then unwind your arm shield only enough to aim out and hit her in the leg with the BB, body or head with the Fullbore, if line of sight permits.

>Spawn a small Sapling speedling, something made to be fast and hard hitting to fly low to go help Amara crack the orb and end its use.
>the Cicadalings should go for our opponents ears, or at least time their chirping close to her in line with Amara blowing her whistle. however, her min focus is the device and disarming it.

>if the device gets disarmed, yell really loudly at Rath not to cave the place in on our heads, and for her to to use more focused force to make a small opening to enter in with to aid us.

>>3402659
>>3402683
Gentlemen, I've compiled our ideas together into a single cohesive plan:
From what I can interpret, we're trying to overwhelm the Puppeteer with overall brute force and force her to focus solely on her own survival.
Amara:
>Disable the Relic asap.
>Once the relic is disabled, blow your whistle.
ACT 1:
Swarm:
>The moment the Relic is disabled, scream at Rath in the empathy channel to stop hitting the building, Shu and Amara are inside the building.
>Knightling should heal and upgrade itself with the Bio-nectar it's gathered. Keep attacking while you're upgrading. Become a scary evolving monster. 14% bio on healing, 40% on upgrading.
>Camolings go on the attack
>Banelings do the Bug Bola, inject her knees with acid, lock arms with each other, tie up her legs.
>Cicadalings go full Airhorn in Puppeteer's ears to mask Amara's whistleblowing.
>Load up a B.33 special and a Fullbore
>spawn 2 Recursive swarmlings
>Spawn 3 platelings that coat our tongue.
>4 Recursive swarmlings go poke out the wall eyes. 2 of them become a defensive screen that intercepts any liquid attack that Puppeteer attempts on the Knightling.
>Fire a Speed-Sapling that suicides itself against the jamming relic if Amara can't disable it.
Total Bio cost: 55% Bio, Swarmling slots 20/22
ACT2:
>Charge and fire our tongue as an improvised Flail cannon while grappling her.
>Hundred Arms will parry or block any liquid weapon attack.
>Attack her with the Lionheart Blade, then fire

Is this acceptable?

>>3402727
Linking this to >>3402510
As an amendment of our plan.

(Writing now, Gentlemen.)

>>3402727
>>3402723
i mean, and i mean nothing by this, i think our plans minus two things are the same, but mine in more detail a bit?

the two differences i see(minus said detail) is;
>Banelings use
>2 Recursive Use

hrm...well
>>3402751
means its too late, though id otherwise say the recursives would not be needed as they would already be stopping said attacks by going for the eyes. the banelings i see the point and have little strong opinion on, other than that would take them out of the rotation for healing us, which we actually need a little bit of.

>>3402760
My original plan involved doing a Debuff distraction and mobbing puppeteer with swarmlings while making out like a bandit, but certain posts describing the circumstances forced me to adopt a different plan. More or less yours, but utilizing more of our current resources like our bio-nectar.

>>3402510

You watch as Amara lifts the Relic from its hiding place, and slams it back down, the cracking of the trio of rinds coupled with a sudden flash of pain that makes all of you wince, your mind and vision exploding with static.

"No!" Your enemy screams, and you seize the opening to rush forwards with your Banelings and Camolings in tandem, led in their charge by your Knightling. It's body warps mid-air, its shell cracking from its bulging form as four more scythe-like talons tearing out from its abdomen. The girl's twin swords re-shape into a pair of triple-headed flails, the walls spearing forth with crystalline blades, thinning your recursive swarm but doing nothing against the bulk of your forces. Your noisier brood scream around your enemy's head, and you see Amara uncloak behind the skirmish, cheeks puffed out just before she blows hard on the whistle, its sound lost to your swarm and the sounds of battle.

It's effects, however, aren't.

Your enemy's skin cracks, open sores erupting wildly along every exposed inch of skin as her parries and wild swings slow, her face a blistered, panicked mess. She's growing desperate to end this...good.

You level your reloaded Contender and fire once, a feint that goes wide thanks to an errant crystal flail, but she's bringing the second flail down in a hard arc, your Knightling thrown just out of range to tank the blow. Your eight arms move as one, and you feel the forearms of three of your extra limbs buckle under the assault, but no matter; your mouth opens, your plateling-clad tongue lashing out at high speed, a flail of your own that crashes into the other girl's sternum with a sickening crunch, sending her backwards and into the opposite wall.

"Amara, with me!" You yell, and the little girl's head bobs towards you, the rest of her fully cloaked. She's behind you in a flash, and you have your foe on the ropes, swinging frantically to deter your pursuing swarmlings, just as your B.33 detonates in her shoulder, weighing down one arm entirely.

You have this.

You are in control.

Your enemy's face goes pale, her eyes go wide, and you watch in bewilderment as she simply turns tail, dropping her weapons and running flat-out as your empathic field reactivates, clarity finally piercing through the static haze as you take aim with the Contender for one final shot, the one that ends this.

"...ulia and I are okay, just get the hell out of wherever you are, I'm begging you!" Rath's voice explodes in your mind, run through with pure panic. "Someone's shelling the whole goddamn tow...!"

Sound, fury, then blinding white.

You turn, taking Amara in your arms, her terrified face the last thing you see.

Then darkness.

(Continued)

Well FUCK. WHY THE FUCK DID WE STAY INSIDE A GODDAMN COLLAPSING BUILDING? WHY THE FUCK DID WE TUNNEL VISION THAT FUCKING HARD? GODDAMMIT

>>3402851

When you regain consciousness, a high-pitched screeching is all you can hear. You strain to push yourself up from the darkness, your eyes adjusting to see Amara beneath you, breathing fitfully with her entire body covered in concrete dust and shards. You look around, pain lancing down your spine and down your legs, and you collapse against the rubble. You close your eyes, listening to the harried breathing of your little friend as you open the empathic channel, locating Rath and Julia, wounded but approaching rapidly.

Crumbling concrete and the unsteady beat of your own heart fills your ears as the ringing fades, the shifting of rubble reaching your ears just as...

You bring your five remaining arms to bear, your sword arm wounded, too slow to block the crude hammer that shatters through three of your duplicate limbs.

"Dumb...dumb, stupid bitch." She girl groans, raising the misshapen mace with her one remaining arm over her head. You lash out with a kick through the pain, sending her stumbling backwards into the ruins of the blasted building. You rise...and fail, falling to your knees as pain wracks your body.

"...not going to die here." She mutters to herself, her stump glistening with a shell of crystalline tears as liquid ones stream down her face. "Can't die here, I'm getting them back. I'm getting them all back, you stupid goddamn bitch. It's not today, and you're not gonna be the one to..."

Rath and Julia are still a ways out, picking their way across the shelling zone towards you and the unconscious Amara. Your reinforced Knightling, the only one remaining of your original brood, digs its way out of the crumbling wreckage of the room that once existed only a short distance away. You glance down at the small, fragile form just next to you, Julia's dress covered in broken mortar and grey dust.

You're not going to be the one that dies here.

You can't afford to.

HP: 23%
BIO: 58% (1 Armed Knightling [54%], 7 Platelings [3 on Tongue] 8/22 Active)
CONTENDER: Empty, Lionheart Form. (Hollowpoint: Destroyed)
RAVENOUS MAW: Primed.
HUNDRED-HANDED: 3 Arms active (Shoulders/Back)
ACT: 2/2
Threat: Annihilated.

AMARA HP: 80% (Cloaked, Whistle: VUL RHO)

YOU ARE IN CONTROL

(Gentlemen, I shall be pausing here for the evening and resuming in approximately twelve hours. Voting shall remain open for the next ten hours, and I shall be around to address any questions, concerns, or criticisms you may have. Thank you all for continually keeping me on my toes and for being such an incredible group of players, and I hope you have a wonderful evening. Sleep well, everyone.)

>>3402878
>Protect Amara.
>Have Our knightling rush to knock the girl over, digging claws into her and mouth into her throat.
>if she tries to bat him away, use the moment to fling out our armored tongue to smash into her again.
>otherwise, use our remaining arms and tongue to defend Amara and ourselves from any killing blows, if our knightling isnt fast enough.
>spawn two Camo-lings and have them go low and gnaw her Achilles tendons then dig into her and work their way up too, just to be safe.

>Knightling should only use what Bio Pollen he absolutely needs, but should save the rest to get to us as soon as the girl goes down.

>>3402876
because we had no reason to think it was a shelling. that is entirely out of the blue. and honestly? being outside in a shelling is just as much if not more of a death sentence. being in a collapsing building is horrible, dont get me wrong, but we dont know how far we would've had to go to be safe, or if any other building could've been used as cover.

it was a fucked situation no matter what we did.

>>3402886
fun as always BHOP.

>>3402878
(Amara's status should read; AMARA HP: 54%)

(My apologies, Gentlemen. It's been a long day.)

>>3402903
the whistle should also be empty, right? its ok, we all have long days.

>>3402914
(Lordy, yes it should. Thank you for that.)

>>3402886
Why is Puppeteer still alive and kicking when you marked the threat as Annihilated?
Also, I understand it's been a long day for you so I'll let the error slide in understanding. Can I ask for the proper threat level?

>>3402924
One more thing, is our reinforced Knightling out of bio-nectar?

>>3402924
Shouldn't the knightling be a hellknight?>>3402937

>>3402937
(Ah, that was from the neighboring doc with Rath's skirmish that I copy-pasted and missed.)

(Threat: Close, determined.)

Rath did well, to say the least.

>>3402945
(It is.)

>>3402953
(It's still considered a Knightling. It's just buffed considerably.)

Hell Knights come later.

>>3402955
Are the platelings equipped on Rath close enough for them to fly to Shu as a Fast equip?

>>3402961
How close is Rath and How big of a distance can she cover with a slingshot maneuver? can the distance be increased if she used more arms?

>>3402961
>Armed knightling
>Buffed considerably

I am now imagining the world's swolest bug and it's glorious.

Now I'm imagining the s

>>3402963
>>3402971
(They are, but they would arrive at the middle of the turn order. Rath moving at top speed (which she already is) will arrive at the end of the turn and be available to command then. More arms do not increase her speed at her current level, though you're on the right track. )

>>3402988
>>3402971
i mean, explosions make things go faster. its just a matter of how much she can take, how good she is at gauging how much to put out, how much Bio she has left, and if Julia can get out of the way in time, and if stopping Julias advance would be worth her getting here faster and basically as an uncontrollable missile.

>>3402988
What if we had our Knightling fly out and be a flying anchor point for Rath to grapple hook onto while simultaneously slingshotting herself a greater distance? Would that work?

>>3403003
>>3402988
What if we had our knightling fly towards Rath and meet her in the middle to serve as a mobile aerial anchorpoint that slingshots her even further? It's reinforced, stronger and faster due to the bio-nectar it drank. She flies faster as a cannonball projectile instead of a running redhead.
Also, de-equipping herself of the platelings should boost her speed.
Or have her detonate napalm bombs in a controlled fashion in one direction that act as improvised Rocket boosters?

>>3403001
(Rath can no longer make explosions, since her Cystemic Burn mod now makes her cysts erupt into flares.)

>>3403003
(Devoting your Knightling to helping Rath get to your side will allow her to arrive at the middle or end of turn, depending on her roll, and with one ACT remaining.)

>>3403003
>>3403010
honestly i feel like knighty boi is the only thing that might keep us alive. sacrificing him holding this girl back for Rath sounds like a needless risk for sure.

>>3403020
huh, i thought they still had a bit of explosive power to them. i mean, the phosporus coatings gotta spread somehow. i knew they were weaker but not THAT much weaker an explosion. never exactly felt like it either.

(I shall be heading to bed, Gentlemen. I hope you all have some good rest yourselves, and I look forward to seeing what you've planned in the morning.)

>>3403026
(True, they still have a burst, but not enough to propel her, nor enough to blast apart buildings immediately or anything like that. )

>>3403037
well to be fair, i thought part of the building thing was her increased strength. literally blast punching her way into the place in a fit of rage. sound like her to me at least.

>>3403041
(That's absolutely in-character, you're right.)

>>3402878
>take the platelings on our tongue flail and attach it to our 3 extra arms as 3 buckler shields. Equip them on our spare arms.The acid claymore effect and the smoke chaff that occurs from her flail cracking the plateling shell will deter her and cover her in acid. Have our arms block any attack that gets through the swarm
>Shield Amara's body with your own.
>Spawn a squad of 12 basic swarmlings. 6 on defense intercepting any fluid weapon hits, 6 on offense biting and stinging her limbs and eyes out, have them aim for her hands, head, and legs.
>Spawn 2 cicadalings, Air-horn interrupt her if she tries to concentrate on Terraforming. Focus on one of her ears.
>Knightling should charge tackle her to the ground, and impale her while she's distracted by the sudden swarm of swarmlings when she's distracted.
>Send a command to the platelings on Rath's body to fly towards Amara, they're fast enough for a middle of the round equip.
>>3403037
So then what/who caused the shelling? The only possibility I can think of is a tank, or a cannon. And if she and her gang not involved and our group doesn't have the power to do that, then what 3rd party has the power to a flat out artillery bombing?

>>3403028
One more question, we lost Penny's corpse in the building collapse did we?

>>3403067
to be fair we have met someone with a dragon. mix that with an upgraded version of Raths original Boil ability but upgraded, and its something i could see.

granted, thats just a single possibility. give Rath a few more levels, and again, her old Boils, and she could probably hard chuck some big bombs. plenty of ways to go about it if you think about it. use a muscle power to turn arms into tyranid like bio guns, making a construct catapult or cannon, ect.

this is assuming no one found an old artillery piece, or even a group finding a group of them. the REAL question is 'why'? there wont be much to to CONSUME after firepower like this, and it seems like a waste as the town seemed mostly deserted. the Forge isnt a target that requires shelling to destroy either, and any individual target would be too hard to hit with this type of attack.

im thinking in our rush to fix the forge, we overlooked something major about the town, and ended up in the middle of something we did not need to be a part of.

>>3403020
Darn, I just had to be reminded of that. Goodbye to Terraformed Cannons since firing a cannon needs bomb-grade explosions in order to fire projectiles in a cannon-like fashion. I wonder we get to toggle between bomb types if we advance Radiant boil further up.

>>3403086
Well, Puppeteer WAS in control of the town with a relic that produced a biological version of town-wide ECM that scrambled all empathetic and neuromancy communication. A blockhead that loved brute force would've simply keyed in on the strongest signal source and blew it to smithereens with no care for collateral.

>>3403126
True, but i dont think its unfair to say someone has to have at least a bit of brains in their head to get and keep that level of firepower, though i suppose that could just be meathead fighting prowess and nothing else.

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>>3402878

The platelings within your maw detach from your tongue and cling to your three remaining arms, a dozen swarmlings tearing free of your hive with half devoted to defense, the other half to harassing the girl that’s just staggered to her feet in front of you. You fight to your feet, interposing Amara’s form with your own as your foe's single forest-green eye stares at you, her brow furrowed with rage. The sound of clicking behind you makes you whirl around to see the last of your platelings locking into place around Amara, letting you know their original wearer is not far behind.

When your foe darts forwards the tears streaming down her face lash out, stabbing wildly from her cheeks to deter your swarmlings, who in turn claw frantically at the girl, just out of reach from their bladed talons as her crystalline spines keep them at bay. She brings her flail down on your head, your arms reacting instinctively to block the attack, chitin and bone cracking as one before a cloud of smoke and acid explodes from the broken gauntlets.

You foe staggers back with an enraged scream, stomping her foot into the rubble just as she summons the debris and detritus to her defense…but her efforts are for naught, your newborn Cicadalings moving through the smoky haze to issue their piercing wail directly in her ears. Crystal blades, see-through tears mingled with their wielder’s scarlet blood cleave your brood in mid-air, your enemy’s focus on tearing through the swarm before her.

She doesn’t see your Knightling until it’s too close and far too late to stop.

Its engorged, glossy mass slams into her at full speed, its humanoid limbs hanging on by a handful of ravaged tendons. The girl’s flail is left behind mid-air as she’s sent sprawling painfully into the jagged ruination to your left, just when concrete behind you buckles from the impact of something small and fiery.

“Sorry I’m late, are you and the squirt okay?” Rath asks, out of breath. You can’t help but smile, and she returns the grin with one of her own, blood trickling down her lips and cheeks from countless cuts. Four extra glowing arms are cocked and ready along her back and shoulders, leaking bright white fluid down along their rippling muscles. Rath’s actual arms are shaved of skin in several places, revealing subcutaneous armor laced with a pattern of hairline cracks and gouges.

She glances to Amara before turning to you once more, looking you up and down. She grinds her teeth together so hard that her jaw pops audibly, her face flushed with pure fury.

“Who do I need to hurt?” She growls.

HP: 33%
BIO: 58% (1 Armed Knightling [7%], 6 Swarmlings, 2 Cicadalings, 4 Platelings, 16/22 Active)
CONTENDER: Empty, Lionheart Form. (Hollowpoint: Destroyed)
RAVENOUS MAW: Primed.
HUNDRED-HANDED: 3 Plateling-ed Arms active (Shoulders/Back)
ACT: 2/2
Threat: Close, prone.

RATH HP: 83% (6-Armed Form)
AMARA HP: 54% (Visible, Whistle: Empty)

YOU ARE IN CONTROL

(Voting shall close in one and a half hours, Gentlemen.)

>>3403737
BHOP, isnt' Amara equipped with 4 pieces of plateling armor?

>>3403733
>Point, have minions keep her pinned while Rath cooks her.

>>3403746
(She is, I had to leave it off due to character limits.)

>>3403733
>Point with a tired arm and smile to the girl.
>Recall Knightling to heal you.
>Shu and her brood focuses on defending Amara and keeping a lookout for any further surprises.
>One swarmling should go and get Rath the flail, or at least keep it from the girls grip.

>Rath should lob a few bombs at our foes, Fire is hard to block, and if she uses terraforming, its wasting her few prescious resources.
>Bull rush forward, ready to bust down any terraforming defenses and simply pummel this girl to death.

>>3403737
How much Bio does Rath have left? I would like to know if her Herculean strength buff is still active and whether or not if she's equipped with replicant phantom arms or regular arms.

>>3403751
(Rath is at 66% BIO, and her arms are the Phantom Limbs, hence the odd coloration and curiously colored blood.)

>>3403751
(So no, her strength buff is no longer active, but her Phantom Limbs are stronger than her default ones.)

morning . Question do we still have that body from the fight before the last one or did we lose it at some point in the collapse?

>>3403770
(You'll see.)

>>3403733
>make a head nod gesture at Puppeteer's direction "She's the leader of the little group that ambushed us. Also, she had the Relic that jammed my empathy channel. But I don't think she's the one that ordered the fucking artillery strike."
>Rath: Your opponent is a eye-ball themed girl that weaponizes her own tears. Her core ability is based around liquid manipulation, with some levels in Terraforming based Neuromancy and Fibromancy strength buffs. Fast and strong in close combat, uses her tears as melee weapons that can easily change forms. Missing one arm, but she can put up good melee. But now's not the time and place for a second slugfest, she's still dangerous. We're all banged up badly and I would rather want everyone alive and whole than have Amara waking up to find out one of us died and crying.
>Rath Act 1: Light her on fire. I don't want her to pull any tricks, and even if she did, she'll still be on-fire.
>Rath Act 2: Garrote wire her limbs. or alternatively pummel away.
Shu
Act 1:
Swarmling action
>spawn 6 more swarmlings. Have all 12 of them hover and harass menacingly above Puppeteer to force her to spend an action either rolling out of the way remaining prone or using making another weapon to swipe away the swarmling squad. This will distract her enough for the Knightling to do its glomp/impalement
>Have one swarmling yoink the flail made of tears.
>Knightling glomps Puppeteer and impales her limbs (main stinger impaling her torso), pinning her to the ground. If she wants to escape, then she needs to get this big boi off of her.
>Cicadalings, same tactic, airhorn interrupt any of her actions that require concentration. Target the same ear as last time, I want it loud and I want a ruptured eardrum.
Act 2:
>Load up Parabellum. End this fight.

>>3403771
Oh motherfucker, She consumed Penny and was waiting to pop the consume options so she could tactically heal herself back to full.

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>>3403733

"She's the leader of the little group that ambushed us.” You reply, nodding towards the one-armed girl that hauls herself to her feet, her crown of hardened tears stabbing wildly at your Knightling as the last of its threadbare arms is severed. “Also, she had the Relic that jammed my empathy channel. But I don't think she's the one that ordered the fucking artillery strike."

“The kid’s out cold, yeah?” Rath asks, and you nod.

“Good.”

Rath stretches out her original arms as she stalks forwards, her phantom limbs tearing free the numerous cysts that begin to glow along her forearms. Your foe’s eye goes wide before she’s caught in a flare of white when Rath hurls the entire payload at once, her body obscured by the half-dozen hissing grenades that barely drown out her screams. Rath just marches forwards until she’s standing above the writhing form, and as limp over to her you generate a single Parabellum round in the Contender.

Rath’s halfway through her savage work by the time you’re looming above your foe, the flares crushed and dying out as Rath’s phantom limbs ooze white liquid all over the ground, her real knuckles stripped down to the bloodstained armor underneath her skin. Heedless of her own wounds, her slow, steady beating of the girl continues, pounding charred flesh to blacked pulp, the gore mixing with the powdered concrete to form a slurry of carnage. She’s little more than a scorched torso by the time your friend rises up to admire her handiwork, and you bring the Contender up with a steady hand, aimed squarely at your foe who’s still somehow fighting to draw breath.

The immolated girl opens her mouth to give one final scream before you send a Parabellum round shattering through her charred and flesh-bare skull with a resounding howl from Karma’s barrel. The girl beside you breathes deep from the smoke billowing about the both of you, and smiles.

“You smell that, Shu?” Rath grins, turning back to look at you with a glint in her yellow eyes, barely obscured by the cloud of acrid smoke that wafts from the corpse between you both.

“Smells like victory.”

>>COMBAT: CEASED

>>3403807

The mysterious shelling has mercifully paused for now, allowing you and your allies some much-needed time to catch your collective breath and tend to your wounds, though for how long the quiet will last is anyone's guess. Julia runs up shortly after the dust settles, touching base with you before rushing to Amara’s side, propping the child’s head in her lap and checking her for broken bones or contusions.

“No clue what the hell that blitz was all about.” Rath replies when you ask her if she could pin down the source of the devastating barrage, with Julia contributing an exhausted shrug. You glance out at what remains of the town, a blasted ruin all that remains of the cramped and unwelcoming streets and buildings. The three of you sit around in silence for a few moments until Amara rouses from her slumber, and within a minute or two she’s up and running around, playing among the rubble despite Julia’s half-hearted protests. She tried, bless her, but Amara’s enthusiasm could not be hampered by something as minor as a brush with death.

“Miss Shu, I found treasure!” Amara calls out, waving at you from a nearby pile of rubble. You limp over to see her hopping up and down next to Penny’s headless corpse, half-trapped under a collapsed wall.

“See? Treasure!” She repeats happily before trotting off to rejoin Julia’s side after another stern warning.

…You worry about that kid, sometimes.

>>Talk with your allies as you pick over the rubble for any other items/corpses of note.

>>You’re not sure when the shelling will resume, so haul the bodies to a covered location well away from the blast zone before you talk or consume (Inactive Forge or Lab).

>>LEVEL UP: 8 Points to distribute between the two bodies (Vote on distribution).

>>Write-In

YOU ARE IN CONTROL

>>3403810
Do we still have any active swarmlings?

>>3403819
BIO: 68% (1 Disarmed Knightling [7%], 4 Swarmlings, 1 Cicadaling, 4 Platelings, 10/22 Active)

>>3403810
>>You’re not sure when the shelling will resume, so haul the bodies to a covered location well away from the blast zone before you talk or consume
>Head for the forge.
>Ask Amara if the fleshscape knows where its core is still.

>>LEVEL UP:
>JULIA 4 points
>AMARA 4 points

borh of them desperately need levels up, Julia to diversify her kit, Amara for basically every reason imaginable. Rath is clearly good with what shes got, and Shu too wont be under the rung from a single skip on levels.

(Voting shall close in one and a half hours, Gentlemen.)

(Additionally, if everyone is up for it, rapid posting will go into effect roughly five and a half hours from now and continue until the end of the evening as per usual. However, if too few players will be available to participate, I will simply have a normal posting schedule. Please let me know, and I hope your day is going well.)

>>3403810
>You’re not sure when the shelling will resume, so haul the bodies to a covered location well away from the blast zone before you talk or consume (Inactive Forge).
>Once there, ask Rath and Julia what happened to them since they were separated and inform them in turn.
>Julia: 2 points
>Amara: 6 points

Julia is at level 8, which is almost respectable minus the lack of secondary ability. With this, they should both be level 9 and 10.

>>3403832
Maybe meet in the middle? 3 Julia 5 Amara. Despite her high level i still feel 2 is too little to properly diversify/improve Julias kit.

>>3403810
>Talk with Julia while we pick through the rubble. Thoroughly apologize to her about the ambush mess, and for making her worry. Share your concerns about Amara and discuss about the idea of giving her a bio-weapon ability. Even though she's a child, there will be a point where she needs have some ability where she can fend for herself.
>"Amara, can you tell us where the Forge core went? If you stay close and don't wander off, Mr. Knight here will give you a piggyback ride." Have the Buffed Knightling FLEX AND POSE for Amara.
>Spawn a Strider-ling to serve as a pack mule for the corpses.
>Have our Knightling regrow its arms with the bio-nectar it gained. Shu will pay the 3% for the left over arm. Then have it accompany Amara. maybe, even have her ride it like a flying horse. while she explores the rubble for more "treasure". But keep her on a leash. If the Forge core treasure is too far away, then convince her that we'll try and come back for it later.
Level up point distribution:
>>3403855
>>3403832
>Amara: 5 points
>Julia: 3 points
Sounds nice for a Julia 3 Amara 5.
My reasoning is for getting Julia's core ability to lvl 10 and giving her a second ability to branch out on. Rounding her core abiltiy at lvl 10 will probably give her a milestone augmentation from Mother or something. We can then spend the last point on a Consume option and give Julia more fighting options when things come down to it.
Amara needs to level up her lexicon and get a secondary ability.

>>3403863
I personally think giving Julia 2 would be better, a bit of diversity without a doubt has proven its worth.
But i also see your point on the level 10, but all that does is make me want to fall back to a 4/4 split...

Give shu at least 1 guys cmon

>>3403880
The thing with Amara is that we really can't figure out what to do with the kit that she has currently. A lvl 3 lexicon by itself and her abilities help her with lots of utility and a couple of wordcast spells, but we don't have a big enough word library and she lacks a direct combat option.
>>3403886
And what do you propose to have that one point go towards?

>>3403887
Consume on the Neuromancer.

>>3403886
She really really does not need it at all compared to upping the other two heavily.

>>3403887
That really doesn't feel like an argument agaisnt or for either point spread, more of the general statement about Amaras current position.

>>3403810
>>LEVEL UP: 8 Points to distribute between the two bodies (Vote on distribution).

>Shu 1

>Rath 1

>Julia 3

>Amara 3

This way the new girls get the biggest bump but we need levels too.

>>3403894
Backing this. It's fine to let stragglers catch up but we dont want anyone to stagnate. Especially with Moms hunger buffs. Everyone should get at least 1.

>>3403890
And how does it help Shu with her current kit? What ability are you hunting for specifically?
Because with the allies we have and their individual skill sets, Shu's top heavy and can manage herself fine, Amara's too weak and desperately needs levels, Rath is currently fine, and Julia needs to diversify. Besides, I can't seem to find an ability that Penny and Puppeteer displays that synchronizes well with our current kit for Rath and Shu. Julia and Amara might, and their ability set lacks diversity and immediate impact.
>>3403894
What makes you think Shu and Rath needs levels besides staving off the hunger?

>>3403863
>>3403827
As much as id prefer a 4/4 split, ill change to back this guy. Id rather a spread i dont want on the right characters than wasting levels on those who do not need them right now.

>>3403900
I can see some synergy between bone blades and our swarmlings. We can make a swarmling full of bone spires, attach it to our tongue, and use it as a mace.
We can make some blades on the swarmling's hands and stab fools with it.

>>3403900
We will continue to need levels until this quest ends. We will never 'not need' levels unless we eradicate the world like a psychopath and have all of them for ourselves.

We're going up against Mother. And Doctor West. And possibly B'ni. And probably but hopefully not Mara (Marrow Dragoon) down the line. We are all absolutely going to need levels. You've seen B'ni's stat sheet, and according to Dr. West that's not enough to tackle the cord, not enough to even get to the cord. She might be trying to manipulate B'ni Into one of her power traps with that statement but she probably Isn't entirely wrong either.

In any case, I'd always like the chance to either consume something useful or at least Increase our base abilities, even a little bit. Even small developments can be vital to success or death. (Choosing acid plating and then being saved from unconsciousness In an acid river by acid resistant swarmlings. One level, one ability was what saved us there. ONE.)

>>3403907
Also, (and I am sorry for double posting) we can't forget that she had that absorbing tether. I'm sure we can work something out with that and our current regen abilities.

>>3403918
oh. you mean the Humoral Paladin life-link ability? oh fuck! We can get the Sanguine Brood Augmentation again!

>>3403916
We may never "not" need levels but especially in a party system you have to know how to balance things. Sometimes yes, a character is good where they are at and do not need resources, especially when other characters are lagging behind or on need of something desperately.

That one level we stole from them could make all the difference to them keeping up, and one level here, one level there, next thing you know we have uselessly put Shu too far ahead of everyone else and made one or even more characters worthless and unusable by having them drag too far behind.

>>3403924
How can Shu pull ahead when she's getting 1/3rd the levels of everyone else? You're being ridiculous.

>>3403924
….That's why Shu and Rath get 1, just 1.

Julia and Amara are getting 3, because they need them more.

>>3403863
>>3403810
backing this. Julia and Amara need to catchup real bad.

>>3403827
Shiming in from the side. I think we need 4 and 4 now just to up them a bit, and then next give like 1/1/3/3 and after the same amount or so.

>>3403938
Oor we could do 1/1/3/3 the next three times.