A quiet dripping sound slowly wakes you. The room you wake up in is dim, dusty and cramped. As you stumble to your feet, some of the junk that is lying around seems familiar, but nothing you can fully recognise. A broken crystal is illuminating the torn up books, broken machinery and furniture and shattered walls inscribed with gylphs. You were lying in a pool of strange, viscous liquid that spilled out of a barrel. You wipe the residue off, but your skin seems to be absorbing it. With each second you feel more alive. You drop down, frantically trying to smear some more on your skin, but the spilled liquid does not seem to have any effect anymore. You pick yourself up, dragging your left leg behind you, and look around. The room has two exits, one leading left into darkness, one leading forward and is dimly lit. You find a mirror shard and peer into it. You see a smooth clay-brown face with red, intricately carved stones for eyes. In the middle of the face there is a button nose and an axe wound that passes for a mouth. It is a stranger's face. You try to recall any memory of your reflection, but you are drawing a blank. You cannot remember anything about yourself. Terror races through you and you toss the shard into the nearest wall, causing it to shatter. You kick the the only table that survived the assault on the room with inhuman strenght, breaking it in three pieces and smashing what remained of the bookcase. Stunned by the power of your strikes, your anger subsides and you think on your next move.
>Search the room for clues or useful items
>Take a crystal shard and explore the left tunnel that is shrouded in darkness
>Explore the forward, dimly lit tunnel
>Write-in
Showing all 110 replies.
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The last roll saves the day.
You turn back to the sacrificial stone, ready to get your voice and connection to the outside world. While walking there you feel excitement, fear, joy. Emotions swirl inside you and you feel like you might burst. You step to the stone, ignoring the stony stares of the golems and wipe the blood off and start tracing the runic patterns. Blood is a good conduit for magic, that is why amateurs use it in so many rituals, but you could also use salty water and its effect would be the same. You take the ingredients out of the bag and place them on the altar. You mix the blood with the crushed bluebird beak and channel some magic into the runes you trace, once, twice, three times. Then you take the banshee ectoplasm and smear it all over the crystal bead, containing the mermaid voice and infuse it with magic again. The golems start to move toward you and you know you have to act fast before they reach you. You ram the infused bead down your throat and a burst of magic shoots through your mouth when the voice fuses with you. The golems are nearly upon you, fists up and ready to beat you down when you gain command of you new vocal cords:
HALT!
Your voice is an average sounding baritone, a bit raspy, like a elderly taskmaster who is used to yelling at their people. The golems stop in the positions they are in and they look like a deranged sculptor depicted a lively brawl. You try your voice again, breaking the scene:
Return to your posts!
They obey without pause and take their place next to the walls. You feel like singing and dancing. You open your mouth, but you do not know any songs to sing, so you close them again. Still, you feel elated! The world seems brimming with possibilities until you accidentally bump the altar with the command bracelet. This brings you back to reality. There is work to be done.
Flaw: Mute removed
>Leave the room to search any of the remaining ones (Bedroom or Lab)
>Refurbish the runic smithy using salamander eyes from below
>Use the grey clay to repair yourself
>Read the necromantic book or the book you have brought with you
>Check on Belle
>write-in
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>>6421644
Because the golems obey your commands, you decide to use the clay to undo some damage you have suffered in your recent misadventures. You step towards the clay in the atelier, grab the masons trowel and start applying the grey clay to your wounds, taking special care to fill all the cracks you can reach. You pay special attention to your fingers and carefully repair the damage you have suffered in the underground tunnels. There are no mirrors here, but you use the stagnant water pools to check your back and the back of your legs to find any additonal cracks as best as you can. After filling the cracks with clay you take a cloth rag off the ground. It is dirty and worn, but still good enough to wipe the excess material off of you. Then, you cast a series of heating, changing and connecting spells on yourself, drying the clay and integrating the filled cracks into you skin. You feel ready to take on any challenge after the ordeal and actively plan what to do next, when a tiny voice whispers in your ear:
"Oi, big guy, there are three golems just waiting to pounce if we make a wrong move. Lets get out of here!"
You recognise the voice as Belle and you turn around, trying to see where the hell she is.
"Stop trying to see me. It looks suspicious. I'm invisible."
You reply:
"Allright Belle, but there is nothing to fear. They obey me."
There is a pointed short pause, then she screams:
"You can talk!? Why didn't you say something sooner?! And the golems obey you?! Is this some sort of trick?! I will never go back into the jar, you hear me, wizard!"
She seems to fly away from you and you assume is making an attack pose.
"Calm down."
You reply, with amusement in your voice.
"I used a spell and mermaid's voice to give myself the ability of speech. I am not a wizard and you don't need to go into the jar, if you don't want to."
She hisses, still suspicious.
"Look, if were a wizard, would I ever free you from the jar?"
"No, I suppose not. Oh, this is amazing Mordre! You can speak! Tell the golems to do a headstand!"
The sudden change in her voice from hissing suspicion to shrill excitement is almost too much for your sensitive ears. You endulge her, making the golems flail around like a jester trio. Belles laughter sounds like an out of tune piccolo. It is as hilarious in its own right as the clumsy golem dance, but every dance ends and you need to think ahead and figure out, what to do next.
Mordre gained 10 health. Current health=11=max health. Belle gained 3 health from sleeping. Current health=4. Max health=8
Mordre uses 4 mana for repair. Current mana=7. Belle uses 4 mana for the invisibility spell. Mana=9
>Leave the room to search any of the remaining ones (Bedroom or Lab)
>Refurbish the runic smithy using salamander eyes from below
>Read the necromantic book or the book you have brought with you
>write-in
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>>6421686
>>6421901
"Hey Belle, I'll just read this book over here to try to find what is this place and who was the owner."
"Eww, it is so bloody. I'll just play with golems over there."
You leave Belle to mess around with the golems, which she is smearing with the differnet clays, pick up the necromantic book and start reading it. The pages are covered with blood, but most of it is still legible. The rituals and spells described inside are various life force stealing and corpse reanimation spells which are not of great interest to you, so you skim through them. All of them require a victim or a reciever of the benefits and that cannot be you. Undead servants just seem too much work and are a bit too similar to you for comfort. Just as you wanted to put down the useless book, you encounter a page, covered with scribbles. It contains a spell that is supposed to bind a thinking spirit in a corpse. The scribbles describe using a construct, one that has never lived instead. A golem. Your head spins in vertigo as you realize the implications. You tremble, but force yourself to read on. The spell is supposed to forcefully bind a spirit to animate the remains and do the casters bidding. The scribbles describe forcing the spirit into a golem, with some small modification of the spell amd using rare ingredients, such as basilisk teeth and fearie dust. The use of a construct increases the durability and the magical potential of the spirit, enabling them to be modified as their creator sees fit. Both of them together paint a picture of an insane mage, one who is creating a thinking armada of nonliving beings for their own nefarious purposes. Are the golems thinking beings here? You look at them, covered with different color clay. You cannot be certain. One thing is certain though. You need get the control bracelet off and get the hell out of here.
>Search the bedroom
>Search the lab
>Use the teleporter in the basement (where to?)
>write-in
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>>6422460
>>6422461
>>6422466
You decide to search the lab. You are certain to find some tips and answers there.
"Belle, come, lets search the lab."
"Really? Oh well, these statues were getting rather boring."
She flies over your shoulder in a neat piruette and you meet the hallway guard at the door. He does not pay attention to you at all and turns around, taking you for granite. This suits you just fine, but Belle whispers:
"Rude."
You reach the lab, walk through the door and Belle sighs:
"Oh boy Mordre, I smell dead people again. Why don't we ever go somewhere nice, where is smells like honey and flowers, where people would worship us."
"We can go somewhere nice as soon as we get out of here. And I'll settle for not getting killed over worship. Living people dissapoint their worshippers and then they get destroyed."
You reply, unsurprised there are more corpses in this forsaken place.
"Aren't we cheerful today. Tell me again how we are going to die."
Belle murmurs, clearly annoyed. You do not reply and start checking the lab. The three tables are clearly three experimantal set ups. On the other side of the table there are three cabinets. One is locked, one unlocked and one is opened and a dim blue light shines out. Of the set ups, only one is still standing. It has a water destillation flask with three openings plugged in a magical glass chiller and another flask plugged on the other end of the chiller. The destillation flask has a small fireplace under, but the fireplace has long burned out. The other two openings are closed with a cork. The rest of the glassware is partially smashed, but it was clearly high quality. When you step to the other side of the tables, you see what has likely smashed them. There are two decomposing corpses on the other side of the table, dressed in dark, drab and plain clothes of a footpad. Both are clearly women, with small bodies, suited for sneaking, climbing and gwtting through partially opened windows. Next to their bodies there is the prize they have died for. There are piles of fearie dust on the floor, mixed with glass shards and small bones that must have belonged to fearies. Belle moans when she sees them, a small, sorrowful sound. You are not able to soothe her though. The dust calls to you and it is taking all of you willpower not to drop down and start snorting the shiny luxury. The closet is full of broken jars and bright fearie dust as well.
Please give me two rolls of d100. I will take the average and check how well you resist your addiction. You need to roll 55 to pass. You can pick multiple choices here after the check is resolved.
>Take the contaminated fearie dust. You can sell it to addicts since it comes pre-cut with glass shards
>Open and search the unlocked cabinet
>Have Belle pick the lock of the locked cabinet
>Soothe Belle
>Leave the lab (where to?)
>write-in
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Rolled 44 (1d100)
>>6422571
I would hope we could do multiple actions here...
>Open and search the unlocked cabinet
>Have Belle pick the lock of the locked cabinet
>Take the contaminated fearie dust. You can sell it to addicts since it comes pre-cut with glass shards
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>>6422591
>>6422960
>>6423008
Throw failed.
The urge to snort the faerie dust is overwhelming. It calls to you, shiny and crystalline, promising power and insight. You bend down, ignoring Belles whimpering and SNIFF. You head spins in a kaleidroscope of color and you are full of energy, ready to take on anything. The effect is milder than you remember though. Might be the glass shards inside. They do not bother you, but they would impact dose.
"Belle, open the locked cabinet, I will search the unlocked one!"
She looks at you clearly worried and upset, but complies. You open the cabinet and find it full of lab equipment. You toss some of the less useful pieces out, not bothering if they shatter or hit the ground with a loud clang. They are of no use to you. After you reach the bottom of the cabinet, you find sturdy jars, similar to Belles jar. They are empty, but you could fill them with fearie dust and save most of it for later. Use it, sell it, the possibilities are endless. You take all five of them out and start filling them with the shiny energy powder when Belle squeeks:
"Mordre, I have opened the cabinet. Wow, shiny!"
When she says shiny, you immediately drop the jar and check the newly opened cabinet. Could there be more dust!? You disappointment is immeasurable when you find the top shelf of the cabinet is full of golden flasks, closed with a cork and sealed with wax. You turn around, back to the fearie dust, when a surprisingly sober thought hits you: which liquid would need a golden flask to remain stable? And the seal? This is likely highly valuable. You need to check. There are 7 flasks, so you can afford to waste one. You take one out, break the seal and open the cork. Belle immediately reacts:
"Sniff sniff. Mmm, what is this sweet smell? Give me a taste! Now!"
You wanted to block her, but even with your enhanced reflexes she is too fast for you and dunks head on into the flask. After a second she springs out, spraying a golden liquid all around, splashing you, the corpses, the ground, the dust and the cabinets. Where ever she sprayed liquid on the cabinet, wood comes back to life and springs branches, filled with leaves. Belle positively glows with health, sighing:
"That was amazing."
Belle health=max
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>>6423605
You realize what is in the flasks. It is ambrosia! It is supposed to be a myth, but the powerful concoction can make a living being immortal for as long as they keep drinking it. It can heal practically any injury and in sufficient quantities revive the dead.
You look down at the corpses. You could become a master of life and death. All is in your grasp. Besides, if you do not use the opened flask, it will spoil in a couple of days. You are already unliving, so the ambrosia has no use for you, but you could revive one dead person lying on the floor.
Addiction level stable.
>Resurrect the smaller women with a dagger in her hand
> Resurrect the bigger women with a crossbow on her back
>Resurrect a girl fearie
>Resurrect a boy fearie
>Resurrect no one and leave the room with your loot (search the bedroom or go to the teleporter)
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>>6423847
I feel like interest in the quest is waning. Kinda wanted to wait for at least one more reply before writing. Do you guys find the direction of the quest boring or did I introduce elements you dislike?
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>>6423606
> Resurrect the bigger women with a crossbow on her back
>>6424753
I wouldn't worry about it, OP. Sometimes quests just start off slow. One thing I can say as a reader is that a lot of these options feel kind of blind? Like I don't really know what the outcome will be so sometimes I feel like I'm just throwing stuff at a dartboard. Can't speak for other players but that's how I feel at least. Still enjoying it!
Also probably couldn't hurt to post a link or something in the qtg so that people might check it out.
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>>6424780
I suppose I did not write enough background information regarding some choices, Mordre just didn't know them at the time. I can expand the explanations so the choices are clearer. There is also the thing of low rolls=bad stuff and you roll even worse than my last dnd group. When they rolled higher than 10 twice in a row it was almost a cause for celebration.
>>6425131
I understand. It does feel kinda strange to start writing off just one reply though. Ok, then locked in and writing. You have chosen a human, who is prejudiced against golems and sees them as property and status symbols of wealthy and the army. You having diamond grills and a golden control bracelet makes you a servant of a rich patron in their eyes.