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Emily was always a nice girl, a good heart even though the world had gifted many hardships to her. Born to a poorly life, forced out onto the rough streets of Alban by her family, having to scrape by just to survive, and falling in with the wrong sorts of people. Until the city that spat her out to begin with, eventually chewed her back up, yet even till the end Emily was always a nice girl...

...what good that did her. You'd cry for that girl if you could, cry for what became of her, because... whatever you are, it's not Emily anymore.

Help! Maybe someone could help me... oh, but who would help me... like this?

Your mind struggles for a solution as much as it struggles to understand what happened, but it's hard to think with all that chittering and scurrying about. No... body to speak of, just a mass of clustered rats which seem to follow your will... almost as if they were your body now, spread out among them. Certainly you can feel what they do just as your skin might have felt something before.

A couple days now you've been like this, only now starting to get over the initial... shock, horror, disgust, fear, anguish, all of it. Again, you'd have wept for your situation if you could, not to mention thrown up if you could... that feeling, of your body being made up of such swarming, living things. Only hope keeps insanity at bay, hope that something, anything can be done to remedy your situation. But what can be done, for something like this? Who wouldn't just react with hostility and disgust when a swarm of rats approached?

The only thing you feel certain of, this must be the work of magic, so maybe magic could fix it?

>What do you do?

>>4078261
>>What do you do?
Explore and plot out the area
Find some plague victims and steal their disease

>>4078261
Explore and plot out the area, see if we can't expand our influence over more rats.

>>4078261
>Explore and plot out the area, see if we can't expand our influence over more rats.

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>>4078270
>>4078283
>>4078288
Having spent days around this same spot, you feel maybe it would be best to do... well, anything really. You don't really feel hungry or thirsty, you suspect something to do with rats constantly departing from the mass to be replaced by others coming, but are you just going to wait here forever for help to come?

No, you're past the point of telling yourself this is all a bad dream, and you're more used to this "body" of yours now compared to when you first woke up. Enough to become active rather than passive.

Okay... go? Move? Oh, there it is... eugh, this feels so gross!

Mustering your resolve then, you focus your thoughts and attempt to move along, to try exploring your environment. As unpleasant as it is though, you find it's hardly any more difficult than moving your normal human body before, just from an obviously different perspective for moving along the ground as a living swarm.

You spend a couple hours then investigating the area around where you awoke, as well as trying to experiment a little more with your swarm-body. As expected, the sewers stretch outwards in many directions, tunnels and rooms snaking about beneath the city. You are able to discover a central depository however, a large chamber which several other tunnels empty into, and itself emptying who knows where. From your limited experience and understanding of the sewers, this depository is one of many, each situated under a particular district of the city... observing the waste and refuse scattered about and drifting in the waters, your best guess would be a residential area.

That makes sense, that's where... it happened.

There are other things of note in the outlying tunnels, mainly access points to the streets and buildings (cellars) above, as well as the odd room adjoined to the tunnels here and there. Some empty, some not. While exploring the central depository though, eventually you notice some signs of habitation, little ramshackle structures made of driftwood and rubbish to and from which the occasional person comes and goes. Between here and the surface you guess.

As for your own ratty self, you try to see... how many rats you can influence? At your efforts, it doesn't seem like there's a limit actually; within a few feet around what you feel is the center of your being, you can influence as many rats as you can possibly cram into that space. The only limit seems to be that the survival instinct of the rats will overcome your influence. As such, as you saw there's always some coming and going when they're hungry enough and whatnot, but beyond that you don't feel limited by any number of rats.

>What do you do?

>>4078394
Some tests are in order.

If the survival instinct is important lets see to what extent, let's try to grab a cat, don't actually kill it but see if we can hold it.

Then is speaking, seek one of those habitations and try to speak with someone inside through the door so they can't see us.

And finally, manipulations, let's see how well we can perfoms some delicate tasks and if we can hold items and how well we can do it.

>>4078450
support

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>>4078450
>>4078511
Just approaching someone as you are, is bound to go poorly. So you need to figure out what you are capable of to best improve your chances of getting help.

Taking the time for it then, you try to think of different tests you could try and what you might need to be able to do, or how closely you can imitate your former capabilities. It's rather distressing, and depressing as you're trying to exercise control over yourself, a swarm of rats but you try your best not to lose control or your head for that matter.

Alright, first up... sorry about this rats!

Personal safety is perhaps the most important thing, so you scurry about looking for some danger. A cat seems the most obvious choice, and you can find one by swarming up out of the sewers to a back alley of the city, where you encounter a stray cat. The hostile animal notices and tries to attack, and rather than being able to grab the cat, you can't even maintain control over your rats. At a certain point, their survival instinct overcomes your control and when the cat gets close enough to a point, the rats flee back for the sewer... not before one rat is caught though and killed.

Aaagh! Ow!

You feel the pain of the killed rat, much like if the cat had bit into your human body, like your hand or leg. The pain quickly subsides though when you regain control of the rat swarm and move far enough away from the caught rat. With this same test in mind as well, just to be sure, you can also try to approach a burning torch by one of the sewer entrances and sure enough, at a certain point the rats nearest to the fire panic and overcome your control.

Next is speaking, which is a very short test. If you could speak then you wouldn't need to think to yourself. You can make the rats vocalize, chitter and squeak and whatnot, but only what you would normally expect of rats. So approaching someone to try to communicate seems pointless when you can't even "speak" yourself.

Lastly is manipulations, but this ends up being a pretty short test as well since... you're not much more than a swarm of rats unified under higher intelligence. Notably, you can will the rats themselves to do things like pick up and manipulate objects with their little ratty paws and mouths, pretty well in fact. But it's nothing more than rats could naturally do, apart from having a higher intelligence to guide them. That is to say, for the most part you're only limited by your creativity with a horde of rats, but the rats themselves are physically limited.

In any case it seems that if there was some way to improve your condition, probably magical, then if you couldn't return to being human yet, at the very least you could be in a better condition with yourself and your swarm of rats body.

>What do you do?

>>4078561
Practice writing using your rat swarm

Is this entire thread inspired by Rat Movie

>>4078609
Inspired by what now?

>>4078604
Well it takes a lot of concentration, but you are able to find a bit of charcoal and have one of your bigger rats very awkwardly and clumsily write some things on the wall. It looks like a toddler with the shakes wrote it, but with patience and knowing what to look for, you're able to make it out.

You suppose this is better than nothing, but you can't really imagine a situation where you'd be able to display your rat-writing to someone, without them first reacting with hostility. Let alone having the perception or patience to notice that words are being written and try to read them. Plus, assuming they know how to read. Only by chance are you even able to, and not especially well.

>>4078646
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAXioRNYy4s

>>4078646
I have an even better Idea use the rat swarm to form the words we want to convey!

>>4078671
My word, that is certainly something.

>>4078685
That is actually a pretty good idea if you have the time and concentration, while they have the patience and tolerance to watch it happen, and they can read!

Though you'd have to keep it to single words probably, as you can only control your rats within a relatively short distance of yourself.

Unfortunately you're not exactly sure who, from people you know, that you could attempt this with. Maybe some of the few friends you have? Only some of them can read though, same with those you had worked with... but they are the probable cause of why you are like this now anyway, so that seems off the table too.

>>4078702
well, we at least have an idea of how to communicate if we get the chance. let's spend time exploring and listening for people that might be able to help us.

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>>4078708
Indeed, it's better than nothing!

So then you can continue to roam the sewers, using the central depository as an orientation point which to return back to if need be. Though, just out of curiosity you try to observe the few people with some structures down here and to your many eyes it appears to be mostly reptilian folk, lizardpeople and kobolds. Not that many anyway, but they must prefer the damp and dark down here. Odd to think of a society like this having always existed below your feet... but then that's the same with rats, isn't it?

But anyway, exploring the sewers more you continue, now starting to become more familiar with the tunnels of the immediate area and your way around. You even start to consider venturing to the surface again perhaps, start scoping out buildings. Maybe figure out how to find the bastard that caused you to be the way you are now.

Wait... is that a person? Does he need help?

While exploring the waterlogged and waste filled tunnels more, you encounter a smaller chamber probably beneath a building. You were drawn here by an oddly fragrant smell above the usual stench of the sewers, but encounter a body laying in the grime shallow water. Your human instinct is to approach and investigate, try to help, but your rats hesitate and you soon notice something moving about near the body.

Is that... some sort of slime?

It looks like a small mound of jelly globbing about by the feet of the person, quite a strange sight for you. Trying to quickly think though, you seem to recall vague stories about living oozes and slimes, a rare product of magic accidents or strange experiments. Well whatever it is, your rats don't like it, but at the same time aren't as scared of it as the cat. Maybe because of its size or simply they view it as a competitor in a shared habitat, but the reaction isn't like one towards a predator.

Or hell, maybe it's just for the appeal of a potential food source nearby in the form of the person. Either way, you feel the shared instinct among them, and perhaps could will them to fight. Certainly you outnumber and outsize this thing, whatever it is. Then again, maybe you could just wait till it satisfies whatever its business is here and leaves.

"Aaah! Help! Help! Somebody, rats!"

Because of their fear and anger response to the slime, your focus had been on it and the body, that you hadn't even checked out the rest of the room when you swarmed in. But the sound of rattling chains and screaming, you "look" to see a woman chained to the wall. For whatever reason, it seems she'd been trying to remain quiet and still (hence your not noticing her at first) but the sight of a swarm of rats coming in caused her to panic. The slime even, somewhat seems aware of her now, if you could say that slimes are aware of things.

>What do you do?

>>4078734
time to find out how much rats like the taste of slime.

>>4078740
Make a roll then for the combat effort! 1d100, to see both how well you can will your "body" of rats to fight, and how well they fare against the small slime.

Rolled 25 (1d100)

>>4078748

>>4078748
you might want to hold off for more anons to post

im going to sleep by the way.

>>4078761
>>4078752
Sure thing, we can continue tomorrow around the same time, and see if anyone posts/rolls till then.

In the meantime, thanks all for playing!

Rolled 75 (1d100)

>>4078748

Rolled 9 (1d100)

>>4078748
Interesting quest. I've got to get to bed, but I'll keep an eye on this one in the future.

oh god, QM uses FORMATTING.
What a god

Rolled 23 (1d100)

>>4078748
Rattus QM, so far the introduction is very interesting and your writing easy to read but I dn't recommend leaving the Watdo with some premade options of yours

>>4078835
>leaving the Watdo with some premade options of yours

The who with the what now?

Rolled 32 (1d100)

>>4078748
Fuck the slime up!


We should scurry our rat swarm to a mage school, maybe we can steal some potions or wands that will help us

>>4078861
watdo is a meeem of /qst/.

>watdo is
>What do you do

yes, I wrote it poorly. If you ever see a decrease of votes or engageement it can be because the options are too broad so consider adding options besides what do you do such as

>go left
>go right
>don't go

Howvever, the quest has beeen great since sunday!

>>4079162
Ah right, thanks for the advice.

Though as you may well notice, I did provide options each time for the most part, I just didn't put them all in greentext.

>>4079229
oof true

Going to try and continue in a little while now.

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>>4078902
>>4078835
>>4078794
>>4078791
>>4078752
>75

You don't expect to go around looking to get into fights, ones you wouldn't even when you were still human. But as small a foe as this is, and if your rats are willing to fight an encroaching threat...

Aagh! It burns! Die slime... thing!

You quickly find out the hard way that the slime is corrosive, probably the only means of attack and defense it has. Your rats swarm the globby mound with much splashing and thrashing in the shallow water, but you feel the pain as much as they do of being burned alive, but not by fire. You feel bad for those initial rats that made the sacrifice to bite and scratch into the slime and perished to the touch.

However, as painful and frantic as the struggle is, eventually you gain the upper hand. With bit by bit of the slime severed off by the swarm, the smaller the thing gets the less dangerous overall it becomes. When it was whole, it melted and absorbed several rats with ease, but now at a tiny size it can hardly burn away fur and being swallowed it can't even overcome the stomach acid of the rats.

Eventually beneath a mound of swarming teeth and fur, the slime is no more. Just the remains of some unfortunate dead rats.

>Magic source obtained, improvement gained!

A sad business but you think it for the best, that some of the injured rats are put out of their misery. Once you remove the sources of pain though and settle down some after the fight... you feel different. You know next to nothing about slimes but feel safe in assuming they're magical in nature. Well so are you (you think), and your rats defeating and consuming the slime, ingesting the magic... maybe not powerful, but you feel invigorated. Like feeling more in control, more understanding of your nature.

"Help! Heeelp! Aaaahhh!"

Of course it's kind of hard to think with the imprisoned woman screaming her head off, plus there's the unresponsive person laying on the ground. But you feel like you could improve something about yourself, your relationship with your body of rats. Though that could come later, if you care about the immediate surroundings and what's going on.

>What do you do?

>>4079450
Search the man then spell out hello with the rats

>>4079450
Use the rats to spell out "calm down I am not going to hurt you. who locked you down here?"

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>>4079481
>>4079489
If she's chained to the wall then she's not going anywhere, so you can check out the guy first. Incapacitated on the ground in the sewers, you can only wonder what he was up to.

Oh wait, he's dead...

Pretty quickly by scurrying and checking over him with your rats, you find that he's not breathing, so he was on the ground because he's a corpse now. You can still search him though, to find various trinkets and a bag full of bottles and components. Combined with how he's strangely dressed, and a staff laying on the ground nearby, you guess at him being a sorcerer or some such. Streaks of green burns stretch across the body too, particularly the face.

Even if magic is a mystery to you though, the more you examine the body and the area the more it seems like some magical mishap occurred. With a ritual in place in this small isolated chamber of the sewers, candles around and some markings on surfaces, and the slime of course. You're not sure of the purpose or relevance of the captive woman but you suspect something bad happened, that the guy messed up and perished from his mistake.

"Help, help! Anybody! The rats, they're... dancing now? Help!"

If a slime was created or unleashed, then she might have hoped to avoid it noticing her by keeping silent and still against the wall. With only rats remaining however, her only hope is someone to hear and come rescue her! Although you attempt your effort of communication with her by moving and spelling out words with your body of rats, but either she doesn't have the patience to watch and understand what you're spelling to her... or more likely, she can't read.

Ugh, just typical...

Either way, she's visibly confused by your display but no less afraid and calling for a rescue. Of course you could try to let her go, but you probably can't expect much thanks in return if she thinks you're just a strange swarm of rats. Going for help too, it's one thing if a dog tries to lead someone to a rescue, but who's going to follow a swarm of rats into the sewer. Perhaps you'd feel bad for just leaving her since it's likely a zombie or some other hostile entity could stumble across her, but maybe if she's lucky or the gods show some favor, the Cleaners will find her?

>What do you do?

>>4079518
>Look for a key or something, maybe we can uncuff her?

>>4079572
support, also nibble on the corpse

>>4079572
>>4079588
You figure the least you could do is let her out, you suppose. Cruel to just leave her here, you're better than that, right?

Hey! Cut that out! No, stop it!

Trying to consider the matter with the captive woman, you didn't notice your rats starting to chew on the dead sorcerer. The sensation and the thought of it is... less than pleasant, as expected. You're not, or your rats aren't going to eat another human... right? Even if, as a sorcerer, his body has some magic potential...

...right?

Either way, you do happen to actually find a key on the body after enough searching. It will probably be quite a difficult task, but with focus and patience you expect you could will your rats to drag the key to to the woman and make an effort to unlock her shackles provided she doesn't move too much.

That is, assuming you do indeed want to release her?

>>4079599
>free the woman
There isn't any reason not to. And don't eat the body.

>>4079607
support, use the rats to shepherd her to the exit.

>>4079599
Yeah,
>free the woman

It's simple, really, and we don't even need the key!

>Nibble at the chained appendages untill they are free. That's how it works right?

>>4079609
No, we are still a human...well a human Consciousness controlling a rat swarm. regardless we are better than that.

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>>4079612
oww come oon...

>>4079618
Next non-human corse we come across is all yours.

>>4079622
Yay

>>4079599
>Use the key to try and unlock her cuffs.

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>>4079625
>>4079609
>>4079608
>>4079607
The thought of eating people disgusts you, and why wouldn't it? You could... never eat... something like that...

...oh but you are feeling a bit hungry! Or, your rats are you suppose, but you feel what they do. Maybe... just a nibble... couldn't hurt?

No! Just the key, let's be done with this!

Reaffirming your focus, you maintain your will over your body of rats and set about freeing the woman. No matter how much she kicks and screams, it's not like she can stop you when she's chained up. Of course she seems to believe your intentions aren't so noble.

"No! Nooo! This can't be it, Gods please!"

The key is dragged along among your swarm of rats, and after some minutes of difficulty and many failed attempts, clumsily you are able to will a couple of rats to work together to fit the key into the lock and struggle to turn it. With a metallic click, her foot is now free!

Ouch! Hey, you idiot!

In her panic, her first response is to lash out and kick at your rats. Well why wouldn't she, when they're crawling all over her... seems in your focus on the lock you sort of let the rest wander. They haven't attacked her, but in exploring about she kind of more or less got covered in a few.

In regaining your composure after being kicked though, it seems to get through to her as she realizes her leg is free. Fear, to confusion, to labored understanding... it's clearly hard for her to make sense of what's gone on, hard as it would be for anyone but eventually she seems to get it. Or at least, cautiously stops resisting against your efforts.

Aaand this should... do it!

With another click, the shackle of one of her hands is undone and as you might have expected she desperately grabs for the key to try and free herself with the remaining locks. It takes her a bit with her eyes darting between the lock and your mass of rats, but eventually she frees herself entirely and jumps up to her feet and backs to a corner to get away from you. Confusion and conflict in her as she tries to process what's taken place, but escape is always first on her mind clearly.

"I... I must be going mad but... thank you? If you all can understand me? You saved me..."

She sounds genuine, but doesn't stick around for you to know. Reaffirming that she's free now, she quickly scans about and then makes a break for the tunnels and seeking a way back to the surface. Faster than you can keep up with at least, as a scurrying swarm but you'd only wanted to see her to safety and she seems capable of that.

Well, you can breathe easier at this good deed done. Now if only someone would repay your kindness and help you out, like you helped her... either way, there's the matter of the dead sorcerer if you have any designs towards him or his belongings. You shouldn't take too long though, if that woman reaches the surface and reports what happened down here... folks are bound to come looking, and probably won't warmly welcome or tolerate a bunch of rats.

>What do you do?

>>4079644
>Drag the bag of ingredients and maybe the corpse off so we can eat them when we're not so exposed.

>>4079639
Search sorceress for magic stuff and let the rats eat, but before that, look his corpse over to try to learn how he died

If we can, try to register her smell or something so we can identify her later, we may get some favors out og her

>>4079645
Yup, agree on dragging too
>>4079651
No need I thing we can understand, I'll delete mine

I don't like rats, hamsters yes

>>4079644
>Drag the bag of tasty munchies deeper into the sewers but not the corpse.

Plus, we need to find a
>Hideout
for this large mass of rats. We could test how thing we can get before feeling weird. Maybe even one rat can store our mana/spirit/consciousness

>>4079679
This

>>4079679
support

>>4079649
no eating the corpse

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>>4079679
>>4079652
>>4079645
>>4079690
>>4079693
Well you probably won't forget the woman easily, she had a distinct scent like perfume which really stands out down here. In any case though, you look over what remains in the room and consider your options.

Sticking around seems like a bad idea so you'll want to get out of here, but taking some things with you. The bag of components is obvious, but the body... you consider it, and weigh your options. You could take it, but in the end have a slight preference for leaving it. If only to leave something at the scene of the crime.

Uffh! This is tougher than it looked!

While human you'd have carried the big bag along and it would have been pretty straightforward of grabbing and pulling. As a bunch of rats though, you strain as a collective. It's not a difficulty felt in your arms but like in your whole being as all your rats labor together to try and pull and jostle the bag along.

Just in time too, as you make your way down the tunnel back towards the central depository of the area, and hear some whistles back the way you came. Cleaners probably, responding to the escaped woman. Hurrying along then, you reach an edge of the tunnel where it empties into the repository and haul the bag over... to fall the distance down and splash into the shallow water.

I really need a better place than this... but it'll do for now.

Continuing to drag the bag then, searching around some more you can find a drain which also exits into the repository. However with no water coming out of it and an exploratory search, you can see that it's blocked from above, probably at the street level. So you can hide in this elevated drain chamber for now, which slightly overlooks the repository and is about the size of a small room. As you said, a proper home is in order, but for now this should do.

So then after much difficulty you get the back up and into the small chamber, and can even look around to see a busted crate you could "sleep" inside if need be, or hide inside. Not a bad spot you've managed for yourself all things considered, you've suffered so much and been through unimaginable things, having regained consciousness as a swarm of rats. But you can't help feeling a little pride at your successes so far, compared to someone else who might have given up or just gone crazy.

The question is, where do you go from here? Fortunately you're understanding more and more about yourself and your condition but you still doubt your chances of getting help from anyone. Maybe you could get creative though? And there's always the matter of improving yourself, after eating that slime... or just distract yourself for awhile with the components bag.

>What do you do?

>>4079716
>Investigate the contents of the bag. Any intact texts? Does anything in it smell like food? What even happened back there when you ate the slime, is your radius bigger or something?

>>4079716
Munch on anything that's sweet tasting!

>>4079716
Ug, how are we getting magic if we don't eat the magic man?

Bummer

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>>4079721
>>4079744
>>4079741
You can scurry about this living space of yours looking for any food, before investigating the bag more thoroughly. Quite a strange and disconcerting experience as your rats rummage through the bag every which way... as a human you'd have pulled things out with your hands and looked at them one by one, but this is like having many sets of hands... paws and eyes at once, using all of them and being inside the bag at the same time.

The immediate reward of course are the edible components, things that taste good to you and satisfy some hunger. There's not a lot but enough to hold you over for a bit as you focus on what else you find. The most common thing inside the bag are books and scrolls, though they're pretty much all magical so beyond your understanding.

How to... con-jure a... de-mon?!

The more you try to read some of the papers at a cursory glance, the more you feel disturbed by their contents and imagery... and the more you start to not like some of the other components and ingredients in the bag you are finding. Vials of blood and poisonous (rest in peace the couple of rats that learned the hard way) substances? You thought the guy was a sorcerer but maybe he was a warlock, or worse?

Without the body here with you to really check closely, you just remember that it had green energy scorches all over it, but to have a captive woman chained up there and to have fallen dead... it seems like the sort of ritual someone would want secret, like in the sewers.

Maybe best if the Cleaners found the room, the body...

Ironically enough, maybe demons could help you out of your situation, but it's not something you'd ever want to deal with... right? For now, becoming quite disturbed by the contents of the bag and wanting to distance yourself some, you try to shift your attention to the strange feeling you've felt since your rats killed and consumed the slime.

>Magical Improvement!

With greater control and understanding of your nature, you can advance your condition. Do you want to improve; yourself, or your rats? Depending on your choice, you'll get a range of abilities that could help you out!

>>4079765
>Yourself

>>4079765
>yourself

>>4079765
Raaaaaats!

Magic rats get

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>>4079771
>>4079781
>>4079784
You are made of rats so improving them seems good, but your own condition is naturally a personal matter. Anything that can help you to be able to better cope with all this.

So you feel you have better control and understanding of yourself, allowing you to choose one of the following;

>Self-Image: The ability to better control your rats to appear more humanoid.
>Communication: Your capability to communicate with others.
>Control: How strong your dominance over your rats is, over their survival instinct and such.
>Reach: How far around your zone of control is, and how far away you can influence rats.
>Perception: How much of your senses come from/are shared with your rats, and being able to choose them at will.

The more you improve a category (in this case, yourself) the more abilities you'll have access to, and the more you improve abilities the better they will become.

>>4079797
Hmmm
I have a sudden urge to become The Worm That Walks
Which means I vote for either
>Self-Image
or
>Communication

>>4079797
>>Communication: Your capability to communicate with others.

this is crititcal

>>4079797
>Communication: Your capability to communicate with others.

>>4079824
>>4079803
>>4079800
>Communication

Just as you can project your will through your body of rats, perhaps you can also project your voice?

"...eeeEEEmilEEEeee..."

You gasp collectively through your rats, as you attempt to speak your name. It's not perfect talking, more like all the different rats chittering and squeaking together in different ways to imitate speech through that din of sound.

But it's something, you're... very roughly able to "speak" words, now as long as someone is patient and tolerant enough to sit down and listen, they might recognize that the rats aren't just making noises but actual words!

I wonder how much... if they could fully speak?

It's not much but it's a start, and it gives you immense relief to see that you are able to improve your condition, you're not stuck imprisoned as a swarm of rats forever... how much you can improve remains unclear, but it's possible and now it gives you hope.

In fact part of you wants to scurry along and seek out the first person you can to try and start talking to them! Though that may be risky of course, like any interaction with anyone as a swarm of rats. Either way though, your suspicions were confirmed that your condition is magical, and that seeking out magic sources can help you improve.

Improve enough to a point where you could adequately interact with people to seek proper help.

>What do you do?

>>4079847
>Let's go find more magical stuff- maybe we can fully get our voice back!
This feels IC and also fits in with Plan Worm That Walks

>>4079847
>Our mission is clear we have to find more magical things to eat, as an experiment nibble on the corner of one the magic books to see if eating them will give us more magic.

>>4079861
>Worm That Walks
what are you talking about?

>>4079890
Like this but made of rats
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/legendology_dnd_article12_picMain_en.jpg

>>4079896
that isn't horrific at all, nope not at all.

>>4079900
Hey if it lets us interact with humans...

>>4079904
Yep, it will work, its terrifing but yeah it will work

>>4079847

Back. Good stuff so far.

Agreeing with searching out magical thingamabobs. We may need to procure some stuff that won't be missed...

>>4079916
Time to steal from wizards.

>>4079919
>>4079916
or eat more slimes.

>>4079922
Possible public service, but very painful for us.

>>4079919
What I was thinking, but with emphasis on 'won't be missed', since we don't want to come across as a thieving rat epidemic.

>>4079934
It's a good away to learn how to fight in this form.

>>4079934
I'm cool with it as long as we make progress towards, "Why of course I am a human, why would you think I am made of rats? Fellow human, we should go do human things like root around in garbage!"

Also, have to admit that 'Self-Image' bit is interesting. As in they become Ratlings?

Are we a nascent goddess? It feels like we're a nascent goddess.

>>4079847
>Try to sleep. Remember the past

>>4079944
Do keep in mind that we are A human Consciousness trap within a swarm of rats, not a swarm of rats given Consciousness

>>4079946
Obviously we must learn magic to take our place as the Rat Goddess

And for that we must be able to Fake Human so we can go to Wizard School or at least buy/steal Wizard Supplies

>>4079958
I don't disagree with the intention, but I do disagree with the methods.

Mind you, I don't have much better in the way of suggestions, so there you go.

File: sources of magic!.png (263 KB, 640x905)

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>>4079862
>>4079916
>>4079861
>>4079950
Magical sources! That's what you need, your road to recovery! It's just a shame you know nearly nothing about magic which could help here, but at least you don't need help to simply seek and obtain magical sources.

Something to think about while you try nibbling on the magic books with your rats, but sadly the books themselves are not magical. Although interestingly the bag itself, the more you investigate it, seems supernatural. Much larger inside, in fact, impossibly large inside! Well you don't understand much of the philosophy behind magic, but you have at least some familiarity with magic items themselves... having seen adventurers or guild members with them, or hearing stories. Could this be something like a bag of holding?

Whatever it is, it seems to be magical, but whether you want to destroy it to gain power... it could be useful!

People... probably not, but items...

Mages like the dead warlock are an obvious source for magic, but your stance on eating people, even dead bodies... eh, it's unpleasant even if it's an entire other source of power. Plus easier to find than magic items, since mages tend to dress in strange fashions. And while there's also magical creatures, like the slime, it would take a fight for sure so you'd like to avoid that if possible.

If it's items though, then you're at a bit of a loss. You can't just go buy them at a market so you're limited to ones you know of...

...the Soggy Bucket maybe?

There's the tavern you frequented while human, supposedly the old sword above the bar is magical from the owner's adventuring days. Then there's Trelo, that bastard, the crime boss who left you for dead and is responsible for how you are... when he stabbed you, it must have been with a cursed dagger! Otherwise how would you end up this way? And lastly there's... well, Jace had his ring, but you're sweet on him and you'd hate to steal like that.

Otherwise, your guess is as good as any as to where you'd locate magic objects. At least comparatively safely, you can't imagine trying to steal from the Guild of Magic or some such would be safe or easy. Likewise with hunting down magical creatures in the sewers, when you're just a swarm of rats...

...and taking a passive role, just surviving and waiting for magical things to fall into the sewers and pass by you? Well you could, but who knows how long that would take, when you want to be cured of this condition as soon as possible!

>What do you do?

>>4079968
>Was there an Alchemist's Shop or something somewhere in the city? Maybe we could drink their runoff?

>>4079950
Next time you "sleep" you can remember things.

>>4079946
>As in they become Ratlings?

No that would be if you improve your rats. This is more like, you would progress from the loose swarm that you are now, towards having the swarm take on more and more human shape. Just some rats scurrying about together on the floor currently, but it would be like the rats all climbing together and on top of one another to imitate human form.

>>4079971
support, only do it with one rat first, wouldn't want the swarm to die by and accient

>>4079971
>inb4 we grow powerful one radioactive waste at a time.

Supporting.

>>4079968
>>4079981
before we do this, let make sure all our rats a feed that way we don't lose any on the way. also do not eat the bag.

>>4079996
Yes, the bag is good loot once we have hands

>>4079974
>No that would be if you improve your rats. This is more like, you would progress from the loose swarm that you are now, towards having the swarm take on more and more human shape. Just some rats scurrying about together on the floor currently, but it would be like the rats all climbing together and on top of one another to imitate human form.

something about that idea brings be great joy and discomfort

>>4080001
Worm That Walks! Worm That Walks!

>>4079971
>>4079981
>>4079984
There's an alchemist guild in Alban, as well as various independent operations or shops. Pondering your options, alchemy does seem like a pretty good idea because if you find a good enough spot, it's something you can just passively benefit from by drinking runoff via your rats. Not a pleasant thought sure, but what sounds like an easy and relatively safe option.

The question is though, where to look and how to find? At the moment you don't exactly know where you are, just that you're probably beneath a residential neighborhood. If you knew where you were and could orient yourself in regards to the city it would be much easier, but it's not like you can just crawl up to the surface and ask for directions or buy a map!

Alternatively you suppose you could just wander around the sewers, eventually you'll cover enough ground that you're bound to notice magical runoff. But there's no guarantee for that and it would take time... also be risky because of the dangers lurking in the sewers.

>>4080020
>As much as I want to be restored to us to be restored to our human form the smart thing to do is to start building up a mental map of the sewers and what they are above, we can even us our rats claws to carve localtion markers for ourselve. the last thing we need to do is get lost slow and steady will get us their just fine.

>>4080030
>>4080020
Support this

>>4080030
Agreed. We will be the Lord of the Underground.

>>4080053
Lady of the underground thank you the MC is a chick.

>>4080062
Right, my bad.

>>4080030
>>4080047
>>4080053
Very well then, you can devote yourself to exploring this new undercity you call home now. It will take time however.

So go ahead and make a roll, 1d100, to see how you fare navigating your way through the underbelly of Alban. Each player's roll will count as a week spent exploring (so if 3 players roll then 3 weeks will be spent exploring) and the roll result will be how well you do during that week.

Rolled 70 (1d100)

>>4080068
three rolls or so should be good.

Rolled 37 (1d100)

>>4080068

Rolled 94 (1d100)

>>4080068
Raaaaaaaat City!

>>4080079
Niiiice!

maybe one more roll so we can have a nice even month time skip, also to avoid going insane I motion that our MC names all the rats in her swarm. committing to memory which rat is which so that her mind will not start to fall apart.

>>4080083
Do you name your fingernails?

>>4080083
As it is, no rat ever remains in the swarm for long, they come and go and when you travel around to different areas you're bound to lose some while picking others up.

Improving the rats themselves is possible as you know, but currently it is what it is.

Rolled 93 (1d100)

>>4080068
LEt's round it up to one month

>>4080090
Wow we got productive during the second half of the month.

>>4080090
no one else roll, we are at a month of time passed. are we agreed.

>>4080092
yes

then how about practicing our ability to talk through the rats as we explore. help keep the mind active while also allowing us to improve.

>>4080095
I like this plan better.

A month is a long time to map out the city, mind. But it should be worth it.

maybe we can also get a bit of exposision about the cercomstances that lead us to be in our new rat swarm form.

>>4080090
>>4080079
>>4080077
>>4080072
>70, 37, 94, 93

Four rolls so four weeks, a month spent exploring! That is a long time though, so I think what we can do is leave that for tomorrow, since it's getting late anyway and it will give me a chance to write out all that exploring, maybe even provide a map or some such.

In the meantime maybe another post or two to wrap things up tonight...

>>4080110
You resolve then to set out and explore the undercity of Alban... after a good night's "sleep" though. You've done a lot today, and could do with a chance to rest and unwind. Not exactly sleep, not really because of the nature of your consciousness now, but collectively your swarm can get their little ratty sleep which shared overall will amount to the same for you.

Settling down then, you can dream of something particular for which you can remember the details of;

>Distant past, like your upbringing
>Recent past, like the state of your life as it is
>Present, how you came to be in this situation

Like if you have something particular in mind that you want to recall.

>>4080168
>>Distant past, like your upbringing
happier times

>>4080168
>Distant past, like your upbringing

>>4080168
>Present
I want to know why we're like this

>>4080168
>Present, how you came to be in this situation

>>4080168
I must break the tie! Pesent.

File: streets of alban.png (1.09 MB, 1000x713)

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>>4080245
>>4080221
>>4080209
>>4080200
>>4080183
Ah yes, the present. How did poor little Emily come to end up with this ghastly fate?

Well, when you get in with the wrong people of course. Trelo is his name, local crime lord who your boss Merryn kicked up to. Your boss's lot, you included are all small time, and merely managed petty street crime. You handled errands and day to day odd jobs to scrape by a living, things like acting lookout or distraction, or holding onto goods and money and transporting. Not the life you ever wanted but it could be a lot worse, you could be begging, having to make a living on your back, or made to participate directly in crimes and be in harm's way. Really, what choice did you have after being forced out onto the streets by your family?

Even if it was a hard life involved with nasty people though, at least Merryn was a decent enough boss, but that wasn't enough when you made a stupid mistake... your kindness always got the better of you, and every now and then you'd "lose" some coins or a few goods here and there, things that wouldn't be noticed missing in order to help friends and other people out. They were criminal gains anyway, that's what you'd tell yourself, and it was the truth. Well one time time you "lost" something valuable to help your friend Kathie pay for a cure when her husband caught lycanthropy, and there was no way it'd go unnoticed.

Although your boss wouldn't have minded a whole lot, his superior wouldn't let something like that slide. Trelo had it out for you to recoup the loss, and to your despair Merryn wouldn't protect you. You tried your best to hide, live on the streets, and escape notice but eventually you were found... and when you couldn't pay up, you got a reward.

A knife in the gut. Trelo stabbed you a couple times, bad, and shoved you down into the sewers and left you to die... or so you thought. Death must have been too good, instead he must have had a cursed dagger and used it on you, because you regained consciousness as you are now! Comprised entirely of rats. Quite a way to send a message to anyone else who might think of crossing him, to not just kill but to curse with a nightmarish existence such as this...

And that's how you came to be as you are, all because you were too kind and wanted to help people. Honestly you wonder if death would have been better, than to live or die like you are now...

>>4080334
Getting fucked up is not cash money :(

Eventually Emily will pay Kathie a visit!
Good night RattusQM. Give us a cool map next time

>>4080334
let's see how much Trelo enjoys his handy work when he is being eaten alive by it!

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>>4080345
>>4080351
>>4080334
That'll be all for now then, we'll continue tomorrow with your explorations.

Until then, thanks all for playing! And, a little map preview of the city.

>>4080401
See you tomorrow, QM!

>>4080401
we have a map!

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This has to show up in the archive xd

>>4080401
Wonder where we are specifically.

>>4081248
In the sewers, anon.

Going to try to resume in a little while now.

>>4081248
Beneath Tollyton, which is the poorly district of the city.

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>>4080090
>>4080079
>>4080077
>>4080072
>70, 37, 94, 93

It takes a lot of will, a lot of courage then, but you resolve to spend the month familiarizing yourself with the undercity, which now seems to be your home like it or not. Indeed the sewers can be a dangerous place, but you're becoming more familiar with your new cursed nature every day and better understanding what you're capable of and what your limits are. Plus, most people would overlook a bunch of rats and you can always just scurry away and flee if it gets bad enough!

For the first week then, you simply get your bearing of where you currently are and the immediate area. Traveling topside now and then, you recognize it as Tollyton, the poorly district of the city where you always lived and of course where you were dumped in the sewer after being stabbed. You both familiarize yourself with all the ways around here and soon become an expert of the ways beneath as much as you'd been an expert of the ways above. Plus, since it's somewhat familiar and not too risky, you also become more and more... maybe not comfortable, but more used to your new form. You're not happy about it of course, but it's becoming less uncomfortable and distressing, when your every waking minute is spent being made of rats.

The second week you try venturing into Perryn Heights which is the entertainment district, and where the Guild of Alchemists is located. You plan is to possibly just dwell beneath it and subsist off the runoff to increase your magic power. Unfortunately, it seems you're not the only one with that idea! The closer you get to the guild from beneath, the more monsters, alchemical abominations, and experimental rejects lurk the sewers. And to combat this menace, the Cleaners are usually out in full force down there. More than once you have a close brush with death (you assume) when you run afoul of some monster, a Cleaner team, or simply an environmental hazard like alchemical toxins dumped into the sewers. And in the process of these close calls, you unfortunately lose your bag of holding you'd been dragging around with you. It's a shame because all of this is proof that you could most definitely gain power passively from living under the guild, but at this point it's just far too dangerous for you, a humble swarm of mundane rats.

File: underground - start.png (610 KB, 921x920)

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Coming off the disaster that was the second week, you spend the third more carefully and more safely, just checking out buildings topside and/or their cellars beneath. Places you are already familiar with from living in the city, or places you find to be interesting or suspicious from beneath. As such, you soon develop a knowledge of notable places you can access from below;

>Yellow are buildings of interest like Guild headquarters
>Red are risky buildings, most of them criminal enterprises (many you know already), but ones you could take action against and probably get away with
>Green are storehouses, usually goods and the like but sometimes even just food/grain storage
>Blue are the main sewer/water ways, with the circles being repositories and the dark blue being cisterns

During this month because of your exploring, you also find an unused vault of an old bank that closed down, which you could use as a proper home. Not to mention within, you find a hidden parcel that must have been missed when being cleared out, containing a magic journal you could destroy in order to improve yourself.

Finally then the last week, you take to exploring some of Foulkeswood, the commercial district of the city. The city's grand old market is here, along with a huge number of storehouses, obviously people and businesses owning space for goods to sell at market. Thieves would have a hard time getting away with much, due to the headquarters of the City Watch being nearby, but rats? As long as you're smart about it, you could have your pick of this veritable candy store. As well of course, the market itself which could be appealing to you, for how much is lost or simply discarded when so many people frequent it. Why, within the week you find a magic ring that just fell down a drain in the market, which you could destroy for an improvement. Perhaps most interesting of all though, you also find an entrance to the catacombs beneath the city, a whole other underway completely separate of the sewers.

Whew, that's that then... Alban, what a town.

That's some weeks spent then, and a decent portion of the underground of the city explored, both below and above. You got a sense of some places you can go and where some opportunities might lie, as well as finding some things of direct value like the two magic items. Though, this is all just your familiarity with the city itself, rather than the inhabitants. The people of Alban are just as important as the city itself, but perhaps wisely, you've held off on approaching people or your friends & contacts for the time being. At least while you're just a mundane swarm of rats.

Either way, one of your prime goals was seeking magic power and you've found two sources this month past. Though seeking out the alchemist Guild was a bust, but you could perhaps just rely on some smaller, independent operations? Otherwise you'll need other avenues to magic power sources.

>What do you do?

>>4081527
Oh, and on the map, the red X is where you first regained consciousness as your ratty self.

If there's anything you'd like to know more specifically about the map/city, such as the particular yellow points of interest, feel free to ask.

>>4081527
>Can we read the journal? If so, read it.
>Eat the ring
Awww, that was a nice bag.

>>4081529
How does the danger around the Alchemist Guild sewers go? Is it just super dangerous or does it fade further away? Would it be possible to pick off monsters on the edge of the danger zone?

Also, we know one of the yellow buildings is the alchemist guild and another is probably the market, but what are some examples of the other ones?

>>4081538
Seconding this.

>>4081538
Support, before we nom the ring let's try to figure out what it does.

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>>4081538
>>4081552
You can try to read the journal but it's in the old language so very hard to understand. As far as you can tell, it's mostly just a personal account of a historical war. It's magic in as far as it's imperishable to time and the elements, good for wanting a book to last.

With the ring, and if you destroy the journal though, then that's two possible upgrades, same as before that you can invest in your rats or yourself. Like you did here

>>4079765
>>4079797

---

As for the danger around the alchemist Guild, it does fade out the farther you get from it, or rather it gets more dangerous the closer you get to it. You could try to predate on minor monsters on the periphery but at that point you could just as well prowl the sewers anywhere looking for strange creatures and magical rejects.

As for the places of interest, these are only the ones you know but there's obviously more. By district;

>Tollytown - the Guild of Cleaners (south) and the Thieves Guild (north)
>Perryn Heights - the Guild of Alchemists (south) and the Plaza Royale (north)
>Old Town - the Cathedral of Unity & center square (north) and the Mages Guild (center)
>Foulkeswood - City Watch headquarters (eastern) and the Guild of Commerce (western) and the main market (massive open space)
>The West Ward - the foreigners Bazaar & Representation

As said, there's plenty of famous and notable buildings in Alban but these are just the ones you are either personally familiar with, or know about in the city. Like you've never been to the Mages Guild but you know about it.

>>4081577
>Eat both
Let's do improvements

>>4081588
Very well then, you can destroy both, providing you with two improvements to choose, either to yourself or your rats, same as before.

>>4081606
Hm
How about
>One in us, for Self-Image
and one in
>Rats
I want to be able to fight the monsters

>>4081613
Actually no wait
In Control
Gotta have good Control to fight

>>4081615
>>4081613
Right, finalized vote
>Us- Control
>Rats

>>4081617
Oof, eating the old magic history book instead of holding onto it was a mistake. We might have Been able to trade it later. Were we able to to pass as a human And talk well

>>4081617
What exactly did those two upgrades do?

>>4081627
Control we know what it does
Control lets us control our rats better, more ability to override their instincts

Rats upgrades our rats, it's one of the two upgrade categories and I don't know what's in it yet.

Basically the idea is "Grind off of the Alchemist Guild Sewers until we are mostly human"

>>4081617
>>4081625
I'll give it a little more then, for input from another player or two.

I wonder how imrpoved rats manifets. My take is that the controlled rats are stronger, as simple as taht.

>control
>rats

>>4081645
I vote that we eat the ring and keep the book and take rats as the uprade.

>>4081577
I agree with self image, and whatever allows us to pack a bigger punch with our ratness.

>>4081687
>>4081625
I agree with this assessment of the book

>rats

it really is the best option, for this improvement

>>4081645
>I vote that we eat the ring and keep the book and take rats as the uprade.

Seems like there's some contention about the book. At the very least though, seems agreement about the ring and something towards your rats. It's just a question about the book, and assumedly an improvement to yourself.

For the ring though, improving your rats, you're aware of some possibilities;

>Rats: Specifically, what kind of rats you are made of. Right now it's just whatever you can find.
>Instinct: How well your rats are at resisting their instincts, like to fear or pain.
>Reliability: Your rats become clever enough to impart orders to.
>Behavioral: Your rats will behave a certain way of your choosing, without a constant need to ensure it.
>Nature: You command your rats, but it's not a one-way exchange. Meeting somewhere in the middle, you become a little ratty yourself.

So as before you can choose one of these to improve, because you devoted the improvement to your rats.

>>4081725
>>Instinct: How well your rats are at resisting their instincts, like to fear or pain.
this will make us better at fighting.

>Nature: You command your rats, but it's not a one-way exchange. Meeting somewhere in the middle, you become a little ratty yourself.

this one is very dangerous if we plan of returning to human form. Walking down this path could end badly.

>>4081725
>Instinct

>>4081732
Agreed. Nature looks pretty spoopy

>>4081725
>>>Instinct: How well your rats are at resisting their instincts, like to fear or pain.

that nature one looks like the path to losing our humanity and embracing our new rat form.

>>4081725
yep, supressing their instincts.

>instinct

>>4081732
Note that it pertains specifically to personality/instinct, it has nothing to with physical appearance or anything like that.

>>4081739
>>4081734
>>4081732
Instinct it is then, as your rats are more capable now of resisting their base instincts. They won't yet walk into a fire without hesitation for you, but they should be more manageable.

Is that it then, you want to keep the book and leave it at that for your improvements for now?

If so, then knowing what you know now, a little more about the city, what is your goal now? The alchemist guild idea, though a good one, is maybe not so feasible unless you want to put yourself at definite risk.

>>4081766
Keep the book for the future it might come in handy once we can communicate and hide the fact that we are a swarm of rats.

As for our current action, let try and pick off some of the lesser monsters that are on the outer edge of that danger zone we found.

[I figured as much, but imagine trying to readjust to being a normal human after basically becoming one with the rat swarm in mind, body, and maybe even soul.]

>>4081766
Let's leave it at this for now.

Next upgrade I think we should consider a SINGLE point of Nature. Wouldn't hurt to get a bit of innate understanding of ratness, although obviously we'd want to keep ourselves as...well, us. I have to imagine there's some good benefits that are worth dipping our toe in. But ONLY a toe.

Anyway, I'd say our goal right now is to build a food stockpile more than anything. We can scrounge magic as we go, but having a consistent and available source of food for Da Rats that make us up will mean we'll naturally get and KEEP a bigger swarm to control, since it's only limited by area.

Remember, rats are wily buggers even without us. Once a decent number realize food is coming in to a specific area and STAYING there, they'll 'spread the word', so to speak, as real rats often do, to come our way and want to stick around naturally.

>>4081792
I am tempted to agree with the toe-dipping, but with every point put into nature is a small piece of our humanity that is permanently lost replaced with a piece of our new nature.

>>4081813
I like the idea of being corrupted by the current condition

>>4081782
>>4081792
Well pursuing magic is always nice, just as gathering food is. You can try to predate on creatures you can find in the sewers near to the alchemy Guild, and hope you come across something magical.

Or you could venture to Star Cross, the district of the city nearest to the expansive farmlands to the north, you know there to be a number of granaries around for storage and emergency. Or alternatively you could try just moving from storehouse to storehouse and getting into whatever you can find.

Which do you prefer? Obviously one is dangerous but entails magic, while the other is safer but probably little chance of any magic.

>>4081831
Well pursuing magic is always nice, just as gathering food is. You can try to predate on creatures you can find in the sewers near to the alchemy Guild, and hope you come across something magical.

WE ARE THE DANGER

>>4081813
I understand the fear, but the way I figure, a lil' ratness can't be more heinous than what people can do at their worst.

>>4081831
Let's road trip it to Star Cross. We'll take a little here, some bites there, maybe stumble on something magical. It's slow going, but I'd much rather build up a base and stockpile NOW and use the resulting consistent swarm to make everything in the FUTURE easier by an order of magnitude.

>>4081846
having more magic points will allow us to control more rats at a time.

>>4081831
Is this City Rat v/s Farm Rat?

I say we go danger route. There is a chance of moving forward there.

I only see stagnation in the farmland. Emily would grow content and slowly lose herself. Not cash money

>>4081846
Anon, we don't have a finite amount of rats. We have the sewers of an entire city at our disposal.

The danger of death is, WE ASSUME, if all the rats Emily is controlling at one given point die or get eliminated quicker than what can be replenished

>>4081850
I'm pretty sure it was said earlier that we have no limit but range. We can deal with that easier than we can fewer rats to control at all.

>>4081856
No; I have no intention of staying out there. It's just easy to build a stockpile of food to keep our numbers up and consistent out there. After a couple of weeks or so, then yeah, we bring our horde of food and set up shop in the hot to trot areas of the city.

>>4081860
That's just it- I want to make sure that buffer is as big as possible. I don't want to take risks with this particular issue.

>>4081831
>Go to the Alchemist Guild Danger Zone edges, try and find some magical creatures to hunt

>>4081856
>>4081860
>>4081868
Yeah, maybe the next few points go into Range? Quantity of rats over Quality of the enemy?

>>4081860
>The danger of death is, WE ASSUME

One way to find out!

>>4081868
>>4081856
>>4081850
>>4081846
Seems like a slight preference then towards going hunting in the sewers, for what you can come across? It should be dangerous, that you can count on, but your rats are more reliable now and can at least fight to defend themselves rather than flee for their lives.

If that's the goal then, go ahead and make a roll for what you can find while scurrying about the sewers beneath the neighborhood where the Guild of Alchemists is.

Rolled 93 (1d100)

>>4081874

>>4081878
no one else rolls this is as good as it gets anything else is a risk

Rolled 92 (1d100)

>>4081874

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>>4081878
>>4081882
Well you might as well keep rolling! It can only get better and better, of course!

Also, we can take a break for a little while here like an hour or two since we've been playing for awhile and I can get something to eat. We can continue after, to see how your hunting goes.

>>4081887
Oh and of course in the meantime you can figure out among yourselves what the working plan is since it seemed there was some division about what your priorities are, between ensuring food/supplies or improving your condition.

And of course, simply if you have any questions or would like to know anything, I can answer when we return.

Rolled 7 (1d100)

>>4081874

>>4081892
You fool! You've doomed us all!

>>4081895
I am pretty sure that the QM is using the best of three system

>>4081901
Seemed to me like they were just taking everything that came their way.

>>4081888
QM, what roll system are you using?

Rolled 16 (1d100)

>>4081905
RattusQM is chill. He took the largest outta 5 when Emily fought the slime.

Now, can we beat a 93? yes. Will I roll higher than that? doubt it

>>4081872

I think that the rat improvement options are actually the physical manifestation of Emily's will and spirit. Are the rats getting bigger, stronger and smarter or she is infecting them with magic and implanting figments of her spirit into them? Such as reliability. Are the rats smarter and can perform tasks, or just an extension of what she wants, and she is actually "ordering" herself?.

I think Emily's state as of now is a very, very thin ghost. Spread thin among all the rats.

What I think is that our goal may not be to consolidate her form into a corporeal body but congeal her spirit back into a living being.

>How?
>A fuckton of magic of course!

*cough* anyway, yes, if we are fighting now, we need something to fight with so
>stronker rats
should be a must.

>>4081868
Nibba. Our numbers won't be a problem. Food is not a problem. Our swarm hasn't dwindled in this month since rats take care of themselves. If we ever choose to overpower their instincts and force them in Emily's grasp 24/7, their hunger would be a concern but it isn't now.

>Getting more food won't increase the amount of rats we can control

>>4082006
I disagree, but it's not a hill I deem worth dying on, so we'll just see how things turn out. I just hope we don't do anything TRULY foolish in a rush to do things in the future.

>>4082006
>>4082009
If we need more food we can always break into a granary like one of the dozens marked out in green on the map.

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Food is not a concern. There will always be rats to replace those hungry or injured

Back now, we can resume for a little while longer. Get a few more posts in for the night.

>>4081905
Just whichever is best, so the more people roll the better, unless you get a 1.

Unless of course it's like the weeks passing roll as you saw before, where there's multiple efforts and each player roll is a unique effort.

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>>4081970
>>4081892
>>4081882
>>4081878
>93

You could just let your rats eat their fill, and is about as effective as you eating your own fill, but for your personal preference you'd like to seek out more magic sources. Anything which can help you... at least attempt to reach closer to human. Just because you're used to your ratty situation doesn't mean you like it at all.

Particularly not when you're fighting for your life! The alchemist Guild seems like your best bet for now but sadly you can't just swim around in the direct runoff. The magical waste though dilutes outwards from the sewer beneath the guild, and so do affected beings. In this way, you can't just go up against a mutated abomination, but you could go after something like a magically afflicted cat.

And so for the coming several days that's your focus, to prowl around the peripheral sewers picking off whatever small fry's you can. A reanimated dog made of stitched-together parts, the occasional small slime, even some lone giant rats. It's no easy fight however and even for the simplest foes you lose many rats each time and suffer much pain in the process... but all it takes is wandering around the sewers elsewhere some more, and come the next day you're back to full swarm size. There's always the risk of having your swarm wiped out entirely though, and several times you have to just up and retreat when a stray monster happens by or a team of Cleaners. So it's pretty stressful and undesirable to keep putting yourself in harm's way like this.

>Magical sources obtained, improvements gained!

Still, after about a week, you've managed to kill your own score of minor abominations and small threats, most of them not magical (or magical enough) but a couple were. Thus, you've gained the chance for another two improvements!

Also, really it seems by sheer luck, but you may have stumbled upon some criminal operation taking place not so far away from beneath the guild. Whatever it is, they have some side chamber off of one of the smaller tunnels, and they're doing something important enough inside to be worth guarding. Whenever the Cleaners happen by though, the criminals just retreat into the room and one of them appears to be a mage and puts up an illusory wall to blend in with the tunnel.

But you've observed all of this take place from afar as a bunch of overlooked rats, so you know the way in, just not what they're doing inside. You'd love to know, and potentially benefit from it, but it would mean having to tangle with some humanoids. Maybe you could, if you got creative or lucky enough, but it's a different kind of threat from a small slime or mutated cat... also you've never killed anyone before, but if it meant improving your own situation, and they are criminals after all...

>What do you do?

>>4082180
Sweet, we got 2 more points!

Question time, Anons- do we want to directly put these towards our goal of "Be Human" or do we want to try and fight our way closer to the Alchemist's Guild so we can get more magic?

>>4082180
Stealth it up, send a rat or two to see if they won't ignore us, first.

Also for improvements:

>Reliability
Because if we're going to pull something like this off, we need coordination.
and
>Nature
As stated earlier, toe in the pool. Best to do it early before improvements become harder to gain and we pigeonhole ourselves out of experimenting due to comfort factor.

>>4082192
support, for the record I want to say this is still a bad Idea

>>4082194
Juuuust tryin' to be sure of that or not, myself. Like I said, I think there MIGHT be some good sides to it- but if there aren't, I'd rather have that assured sooner than later.

>>4082180
I'll support
>Reliability
But I think Nature is a really bad idea and I'd rather put the point into
>Reach
So we can have more rats under our command at once

>>4082184
But anon, become human was never in my book!

I want to increase the strenghth of the swarm.

>Reliability. We could harass the criminals. Not letting them sleep for example. Also scout what's inside.

>Nature. Yeah... the skaven!
But jokes aside, the only way to understand what NATURE is, is to let QM do his thing!

Lastly, I want to
>Check what's cookin' inside the room

>>4082192
Note that you can't start to give orders until after you take Reliability, if that is what you want to.

>>4082202
switching to this, because of >>4082203 our MCs humanity is important!

>>4082221
Wait, what? How'd that convince you to switch?

>>4082221
>>4082203
>>4082202
>>4082192
>>4082215
Current votes
>Reliability 1 point, unanimous
>Second point divided
>>2 votes Reach
>>2 votes Nature

>>4082221
>>4082203
>>4082202
>>4082192
Looks like an even tie between Nature and Reach! Either a tie breaker or I can flip a coin... or you could destroy the journal and get both!

Reliability is consistent across them though, so you can now give simple orders to your rats. Though it's not always perfect because you have them leaving your zone of control and they become like normal rats again, apart from being compelled by the order you gave them.

>>4082230
Thanks for that bookkeeping!

If we destroy the journal I still don't want to get Nature unless our plan is to ditch being human and go full Horned Rat. I was under the impression we wanted to go back to being as human as possible, not dropping into Skaven Mode

>>4082232
>>Reach

with mister lets go full rat in the quest, I don't want to put a single point into nature, my goal for this quest is to see our MC restored to her lost human form, not be consumed by nature of the rat.

do not eat the book!

>>4082239
I'm thinking next time we pick up a point, we get a rank of Behavioral? So we can just have a standing order for our rats to Not Eat Humans unless otherwise ordered.

>>4082247
that is a good Idea

>>4082247
You're trying to get into this criminal outfit though run by humans, may have to attack or kill them.

>>4082232
Still seems like no change in choice so I'll flip a coin then I guess, 5 minute countdown!

>>4082232
>reach

>>4082259
>>4082264
>>4082239
Reach is now at 4 vs Nature's 2

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>>4082268
>>4082264
Very well then, reach it is! Your "personal space" which around you, you could control rats was two feet around, now you find that it's four. So a lot more possible rats to be controlled!

...although you did strongly consider improving the rats with Nature... or maybe the rats considered improving you with Nature?

In any case, you now have a pretty strong connection with your body of rats considering you've improved them several times, just as you have a better understanding of yourself and your new ratty condition having improved it. Although your condition is still a terrible one, you're certainly getting more and more used to it. Which, is a comforting thing to know that your situation can improve and doesn't have to be so terrible, maybe one day being able to return to being human. But on the other hand it's also a worrisome thing to accept, that you're more used to being made of rats and living in the sewers...

Let that bother you some other time though, it seems you're interested in this little criminal enterprise? What do you want to do about it then? You've already had some ideas, at least! Although, one particular about sending a rat to get inside and then try to spy on what's going on, you can't project or share your senses like that at range with your rats, yet.

>What do you do?

>>4082280
Also this will probably be my last post of the night then, but we'll continue tomorrow as expected. In the meantime you can figure out how you want to approach this criminal situation based on what you know;

>Secreted away in the tunnels near the alchemist Guild
>Five people total, four humans and an orc, one of the humans having magic skill
>Not really armed or armored much, and every day or so they bring a box to and from the chamber

Surely there's something you can do, even if you have to get your hands... your paws and teeth, dirty.

Till next time, thanks all for playing!

>>4082280
Probably should go pick up a point of Perception, then.

>Leave it for now and go find some more magical beasts so we can get a point in Perception

>>4082283
support

>>4082282
Also, goodnight QM!

>>4082283
>>4082286
Because you've been prowling about the fringes, you've hunted down all the minor threats in the area. Unless you give it some time for more to develop, you'll need to seek another source of magic, or narrow your search in the area and go up against more dangerous foes. Which, you can do, but obviously will be more risky for you.

>>4083154
Would the more dangerious enemies provide more points at a time?

>>4083172
>>4083154
I would also like to know this information

>>4083172
>>4083202
Sure they would since they would be closer to the magical "well". But the more likely you are to encounter things like actual monsters or magical abominations, rather than just like mutated small animals or minor aberrations.

Like you've encountered small slimes lurking about, but you'd be more likely to encounter a large slime, for example, which you'd simply have no chance of overcoming.

>>4083212
then the best thing to do is Probably give the zone time to make more low tier monsters for us to fight.

let's see if we can't find out what's in one of those crates. the next time someone is transporting a crate lets try and get them to drop it. hopefully, it breaks open and we can liberate some of whatever we find in it.

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>>4083225
Hmm... yeah, we could ambush the dudes the next time they transport a crate. I am a little twitchy at the mage bad guy. What if he understand what we are, even a little. The word might spread out and that's no good.

I think that, as long as our enemy thinks we are a bunch of rats we are cool.

Now, what weapons do we have? I think just replenishable numbers. Rats fangs are pic related so, unless we bite at the neck (and like, a lot of times) Emily won't floor anyone.

>>4083246
Yeah, our advantages are:
-Nobody expect to get swarmed by rats
-We have many, many rats
-Rats are very common in sewers

Our disadvantages are
-Rats are not so good at actually fighting things several times their body mass and size
-Humans will scream for backup
-Not sure we can actively call rats to heal or if we'll have to retreat

Therefore our best strategy is probably to wait until they're sleeping and kill them/investigate then, or wait for Box Guy to be isolated and mug him for his box.

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>>4083225
>>4083246
That's simple enough to do as you are, since you haven't yet revealed yourself to them. So watching and waiting, you take your chance come the next day when a box is being brought out, one of the thugs to carry it and another as a guard. Lying in wait till they make some distance from the room itself, you spring your "attack" and surge out from a drain and swarm all around and over the thugs.

It's not an actual attack, you're not trying to harm them but rather scare them, and it works. They both panic at first, the carrier dropping the wooden box to the ground. In short order however their panic turns to disgust and anger, and they start killing rats... ironically enough, these two don't display any signs that they think you are anything other than just a mundane swarm of rats.

Ow ow! Aagh, ouch! Hurry up!

Playing through the pain of being stomped on and otherwise killed, you try to focus a portion of your rats at getting into the small wooden crate, which already cracked a bit from being dropped. With some quick prying, pushing, and chewing you are able to squeeze a few rats inside... and find it surprisingly easy to see, for being inside a sealed crate.

...what are these?

Among some packing straw are... as far as you can tell, vibrantly glowing mushrooms. Without the time to properly examine them, you just have your rats grab one each in their mouth and then make your hasty retreat...

---

Eeesh... that was pretty bad.

Some distance away now in a drain, you bask in the glow of the mushrooms with your rat body, recovering from the attack. Unfortunately you lost easily half of your numbers, and though you can recover them without too much difficulty, it's never an easy sacrifice to make especially when you feel it all yourself.

Was it worth it though? You hesitantly try to have one of your rats make the risk of eating one of the mushrooms... and feel the same invigoration soon after of power.

>Magical source obtained, improvement gained!

So it seems the criminals have found some, quite literally, magic mushrooms. Whatever is in that hidden room of theirs, it appears they are growing them and then taking them elsewhere... probably for sale or who knows what? Apart from the magical effect though, they're mundane mushrooms so it's not like they could be peddled as drugs...

>What do you do? Also you've got one improvement you can make.

>>4083262
can you list our Improvement options?

>>4083265
I'm thinking we do Perception, so we can have just one or two rats sneak into their mushroom farm and steal their mushrooms

>>4083273
I am thinking that is what I will end up supporting, but I want to see all the options first.

For improvements, this is what is currently available to you, with points you've already spent next to the abilities;

Self
>Self-Image: The ability to better control your rats to appear more humanoid.
>Communication(1): Your capability to communicate with others.
>Control(1): How strong your dominance over your rats is, over their survival instinct and such.
>Reach(1): How far around your zone of control is, and how far away you can influence rats.
>Perception: How much of your senses come from/are shared with your rats, and being able to choose them at will

Rats
>Rats: Specifically, what kind of rats you are made of. Right now it's just whatever you can find.
>Instinct(1): How well your rats are at resisting their instincts, like to fear or pain.
>Reliability(1): Your rats become clever enough to impart orders to.
>Behavioral: Your rats will behave a certain way of your choosing, without a constant need to ensure it.
>Nature: You command your rats, but it's not a one-way exchange. Meeting somewhere in the middle, you become a little ratty yourself.

Every 5 improvements invested to either category will unlock a number of new abilities in each, to choose.

>>4083275
All the options we've had so far are:
Us
>Self-Image: The ability to better control your rats to appear more humanoid.
>Communication: Your capability to communicate with others.
>Control: How strong your dominance over your rats is, over their survival instinct and such.
>Reach: How far around your zone of control is, and how far away you can influence rats.
>Perception: How much of your senses come from/are shared with your rats, and being able to choose them at will.

Rats
>Rats: Specifically, what kind of rats you are made of. Right now it's just whatever you can find.
>Instinct: How well your rats are at resisting their instincts, like to fear or pain.
>Reliability: Your rats become clever enough to impart orders to.
>Behavioral: Your rats will behave a certain way of your choosing, without a constant need to ensure it.
>Nature: You command your rats, but it's not a one-way exchange. Meeting somewhere in the middle, you become a little ratty yourself.

>>4083281
>>4083279
Aaaand ninja'd by QM.

I vote
>Perception

>>4083279
>Communication.

I kinda admittedly want to become a rat goddess with humanoid ratpeople.

>>4083279
>>4083284
Actually, changing to
>Self-Image
on that thought.

>>4083281
>>Perception: How much of your senses come from/are shared with your rats, and being able to choose them at will.


>>4083284
If returning to human form proves to be impossible then maybe. as it is i want to help our MC regain what she lost

>>4083287
If returning to human is your primary concern, self-image is the closest thing available to you for that.

>>4083293
It is, but right now I want to get Perception so we can sneak into the Mushroom Farm and steal their shrooms.

>>4083293
order of priority, 'looking' human is less important than making sure we live long enough to return to being human.

>>4083307
Basically this, yes. Perception enables us to get more shrooms which enables us to get more points which will let us get more Self-Image and Communication.

>>4083287
>>4083282
>>4083286
Seems like a slight preference to Perception then, allowing you to select (or deselect) one sense to share with your rats, within the range of your control, so up to four feet around you.

Though your reason for choosing was to try to infiltrate the chamber, but to your disappointment you are able to find that this new ability of yours is shared across your body, you can't fine-tune it so much that you can specifically just target one particular rat to only share your senses with. That is to say, you can't just focus your perception through one rat on its little mission. You feel something like this may be possible, but you're not at that point yet.

But a remedy to this is either just giving rats orders anyway to get in and go for the mushrooms, or to try and find a way to infiltrate the chamber yourself and secretly observe the interior. If either of these are appealing to you? If so you can make a roll for the effort.

Otherwise if you'd prefer something else then you can, and may not need to roll depending on what it is.

>>4083332
>>4083322
WAIT BETTER IDEA
Let's stealthily follow Box Guy, see where they're taking the mushrooms

See if we can steal from the distribution area or find more farms

>>4083322
>Go search around beneath the marketplace for some more magic items.

>>4083336
You can do that without risk, sure. By following them stealthily though, you come to find that it's a pretty small operation, just the thugs you've seen already. They have a cellar beneath a home where they mash up the mushrooms, and then just sell the stuff directly to buyers, some of whom look like mage-types and probably use it as ingredients.

You possibly could try to steal from the process somehow, but honestly it seems like it would be easier to just steal the mushrooms at the source.

>>4083339
If you do venture to the market, there's always the chance of finding lost or discarded magic items. How long do you want to dwell beneath and rely on that though?

Like your exploring effort earlier, this would be a case where you can spend an amount of time, and roll per week to see how things go. You're bound to come across things of value beneath the market, but it could take time for some real gains, weeks or months even.

Rolled 44 (1d100)

>>4083366
I'll roll for a week

>>4083366
I'll make it two weeks.

Rolled 54 (1d100)

>>4083366
Rolling since >>4083400 missed and hasn't corrected.

>>4083444
Crap, sorry about that thanks for picking up the roll

>>4083444
>>4083381
Very well then, you can dwell beneath the market for the coming two weeks. We'll resume properly (like normal play rate) closer to our usual time later, and go with this.

>>4083457
what times do you plan to be most active for running?

>>4083466
Around like 6/7-10/11 pm EST usually, but sometimes earlier and sometimes later I can post intermittently.

>>4083478
Cool as a CST time zoner I will be able to atually participate.

Resuming in a bit now.

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>>4083381
>>4083444
>44, 54

Two weeks spent in Foulkeswood then, underneath the grand market. When you came exploring this way you scurried across a magic ring dropped down a drain so your hope is to repeat that success.

Unfortunately you're not so lucky this time around, and the whole time you only encounter one source of magic, when someone in the market above kills a chicken for sale but perhaps they weren't aware that it was a magical chicken. Either way your rats are able to drink enough blood to earn yourself an improvement.

It's not all bad news however, as your time spent underneath the market and exploring about, you come to find some rather useful things potentially. Chief among them is the sheer amount of food and edibles sent down the drains and into the sewer. At the end of every day, large amounts of perishable goods which didn't sell, a decent portion of it all just gets discarded and washed down below. As such, you find an interesting ecosystem of sorts where there's a reliable daily turnover of things for your rats to eat... and indeed, rats in general! The sewers beneath much of Foulkeswood are swarming with rats who also benefit off your discovery. Maybe it's not as grand and massive a singular food supply as say, a granary in town, but this as a constant unchecked supply every day.

Really the only limit is how much you, or, your rats can eat and after a couple weeks of dwelling beneath here there's no rat among you that isn't fat and happy. Nor for the most part, any of the countless rats you encounter already down here and can incorporate into yourself as you please. Perhaps best of all though is the lack of danger; without any significant magic source here like the Guild of Alchemists above, there's hardly any monsters or aberrations lurking about. Any that are, usually seem to be kept in check by the only threat around here, the Cleaners. They also seem to regularly cull the rat population here, but only seem capable of so much.

So after a couple weeks here, maybe you haven't made the kind of magical gains you were hoping for, but you feel like quite the Queen of your new domain here! You suppose you could try venturing topside and attempt to steal magical things, but that's bound to get noticed and would you want to blow something good you've got here? Alternatively you could try hitting up the many storehouses or shops in this district, Foulkeswood is full of them so you're likely to find some that specialize in magical wares... maybe less risky than just effectively mugging people, but it would take longer for you to search place by place.

And searching seems like... such a hard effort! Why bother you think, when you can just laze about down here always eating your fill and being fat and happy? Sure feels that way, and how very appealing it is to you! Strange, how you used to worry and think so much about all the troubles of life, things seem so much... simpler, now.

>What do you do?

>>4083724
>Perception
If we can get Perception higher we can do the 1 rat on a mission thing

>>4083735
>>4083724
Also, we're still capable of reading, right?

>>4083724
What are the signs of shops labelled like, topside?

>>4083739
Reading? That's so boring! Why read when you can just scurry around eating all day? Eugh, you can read, but why bother?

>>4083735
To save from potential disappointment, improving perception isn't what you'd want for a rat mission. Though you can still improve it and it would definitely help with rat missions, it would take a different ability to control that minutely.

>>4083742
Pretty much anything a person would want to buy, can be found in Foulkeswood and around the market. The only factor, probably relevant to you, is that these are all stores for common folks or average spending. Since magical items are valuable, the stores dedicated to that would probably be on the rich side of town. However, even in the shops here and around the market, there's often bound to be one or two magical items on special display. Like even if a shop usually peddles to common folks and sells groceries, every shopkeep worth his salt has something special hidden away or in a fancy case both for status and on the off chance someone of wealth comes in!

Just the obvious risk that, things like this would be immediately be noticed missing.

>>4083756
Ah. Then I'd like to change my vote to
>Self-Image

Also as for actions
>Start searching shops for magic items- do it at night, when they're all closed up

>>4083724
>recenter our mind remembers that we are a human and we WILL return to our human form.
>go hunt for small monster on the edge of the danger zone.

>>4083724
>self-image

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>>4083763
Remember that you are a human? Why?

You've been two months now as a bunch of rats, and honestly it's starting to feel so much better in some ways. When you were human, your life was sad and difficult and you knew only hardships.

These rats though, they seem to have it pretty well figured out! All day long just eating, socializing, mating, and sleeping. They're happy, and so you're happy... isn't that what life's all about?

Ahh... you could get used to this!

>>4083780
>>4083757
Well, maybe it couldn't hurt to improve your "body". As much as you might get used to living as a bunch of rats, you still always feel kind of passively disgusted by it, even the feeling is at the back of your mind and has grown smaller with time. So you try remembering what it was like to have a human body and... have a harder time of it than you'd like to admit.

Woah... would you... would you look at that?

By concentrating and remembering, you eventually start to feel something you haven't felt in what feels like forever... the feeling having a proper and physical body. Not just a swarm of rats that feels one with you, but a tangible mass, as instead of crowding side by side over your zone of control, your rats (after a lot of fighting and difficulty) start to push together and climb on top of each other. Not just a carpet of rats, but a mount, a formed shape out of writhing rat bodies working together to cluster into something bigger than them individually.

Of course it's only a step towards being human again, just a mound of furry flesh. But it definitely feels more like a body than just having your consciousness spread out across a swarm. It wasn't a feeling that you thought you'd ever feel again, feeling like yourself inside a definite body of your own, but having gone months without it you forgot how... correct it feels.

Though of course, if anyone saw this they would notice pretty quickly that it wasn't normal rat behavior. You're not foolish to make that mistake though, right? Instead you're drawn, between two options now it seems... either go hunting again or try to rob some stores around here. Which will it be?

>>4083820
>Remember that you are a human? Why?
>You've been two months now as a bunch of rats, and honestly it's starting to feel so much better in some ways. When you were human, your life was sad and difficult and you knew only hardships.
>These rats though, they seem to have it pretty well figured out! All day long just eating, socializing, mating, and sleeping. They're happy, and so you're happy... isn't that what life's all about?
>Ahh... you could get used to this!

my concern is deep and my worry is immeasurable

>Rob the stores around here