Lost in the Jungle

[Shadow]

Re: Lost in the Jungle

Unsubtle bump.

----​

Option 3 - Postpone Crossing + Set up Camp

'No, this isn't good enough,' thinks Eve. 'It's much better to just wait until tomorrow before trying to cross.'

With a course of action firmly decided upon, Eve sets to work constructing her shelter for the night. There's plenty of material to work with, at least - young saplings that can be cut up, rocks that can shifted around, sand to be molded... it's all there.
Unsheathing her sword, Eve cuts the first thin, woody tree - barely taller than her - into manageable chunks, then moves onto the next. This process repeats itself, and Eve throws in some more ingredients; the rocks provide support for the wood, the sand is ideal to hold the poles up, thick leaves from the trees keep the worst of the drizzle off.

Before long, Eve has constructed a small, but serviceable, river-side structure. Sure, there's a few holes in the walls, but it keeps her dry (just about) and with a simmering campfire in the middle, it feels satisfying.
Stomach growling, Eve steps up to the river's edge in search of fish - gosh, there really is a peculiar odor around, she reflects - but fails to spot even the smallest minow. Disappointed, she trudges back to her shelter, and settles down for a good night's sleep.

Dawn. Orange sky, turquoise river. Eve yawns, stretches - then rolls out the shelter and leaps to her feet. A man - 6 foot tall, humanoid, naked except for a cloth, red hair - is charging at her camp! He has a sword of his own, and Eve barely has time to take up a fighting stance before he's upon her. His sword flashes down, and there's the clash of steel striking steel. Eve deflects the strike, then parries, striking as fast a snake. The man blocks it with ease, and Eve barely jumps out of the way of his next swing as she catches sight of his head. His hair isn't orange, and his face has no features - it's just a perfectly round, flesh coloured sphere... but a veil of burning, crackling fire surrounds it. The sight is faintly horrifying, and Eve feels the sensation of horror growing, even as their duel takes them closer to the river's edge. Another swing, aimed at her head - Eve ducks under it and rolls behind the aggressor, before turning to stab at his kidneys - but he spins and deflects the strike just in time. The two seem fairly evenly matched - but Eve misses a killer blow by a hair's breadth yet again, as she catches sight of the river. It's perfectly smooth and there's no longer any bubbles coming out of it!

Option 1) Defeat this soldier/spirit/warrior, whatever it is. Our lives are at stake!
Option 1 A) Stick mainly to sword play. We might be fairly evenly matched, but with our spirit-aided reflexes, we should be able to defeat him eventually.
Option 1 B) Switch to magic. We'll never beat him with just a sword, so it's time to get crafty.

Option 2) This fighting is creating quite the din; something's bound to come to investigate before long. Whatever it is, if we evade it, it might deal with this guy.

Option 3) Take to the river. It's no longer bubbling, that funny smell's gone - it's got to be safe to cross. Well, safer than fighting this guy, at any rate.

Status:

Spoiler

HP: 50/50
MP: 95/100
Corruption: 19/?

 

[tora]

Re: Lost in the Jungle

3 - break for the river! Just wait for an opening first!

We need to cross, and I'm guessing this dude can't pursue - water trumps fire!

 

[xgkf]

Re: Lost in the Jungle

1A

Yes, water beats fire, but only his head is on fire, and if the water isn't deep enough to reach his head or make him swim it might not effect him at all. Magic might not work either since he's probably a magical being himself (his heads on fire, for crying out loud!). As it stands we're evenly matched in swordplay, so I say stick with that until forced to switch.

 

[GargantuaBlarg]

Re: Lost in the Jungle

If he's related to the bubbling, he can probably follow us into the river.

Smite he with Bad Luck, and blast him with ice and shit while we sword him!

 

[Courage Wolf]

Re: Lost in the Jungle

I Second Blarg's opinion

 

[the_taken]

Re: Lost in the Jungle

I'm with these two.

 

[Shadow]

Re: Lost in the Jungle

Just to clarify, the river is between 15-20m wide, and flowing along at a reasonable pace. It's far too deep in the middle to attempt to cross without swimming, though (a cross-section of the river would perhaps look like a very tall U).

Maybe that affects your decision, maybe it doesn't. I'll post a story update in around 12 hours, if all goes well.

 

[DeMatt]

Re: Lost in the Jungle

I'm gonna bet that Mr. Fire-head was the cause of the bubbles, due to his everburning hair causing the river to boil. Assuming that, then climbing into the river is not likely to have a good result - he WAS living under there, after all.

So I'll jump on GargantuaBlarg's bandwagon and vote 1A, casting Bad Luck on him to weaken him and then using swordplay to finish the fight.

 

[Shadow]

Re: Lost in the Jungle

/snip/

Can I just say I'm a massive fan of your CYOA, and it heavily inspired me to try one of my own for the first time?

/snip/

Yeah, yours are OK too, I guess.

Anyway, Option 1A) Fight, but stick mainly to Sword-play.

----​

Eve's diagonal slash, shoulder to hip, is met with the flat of her opponent's blade. He parries, knocking her sword away and striking in return, a powerful thrust straight at her chest. Eve slides elegantly to the side, missing the strike, and lunges, only for her attack to be blocked again. The two are very evenly matched... time to play dirty, the spirits decide.

"Vandr-fodhr!" With a cry, Eve raises her hand - a thin, black string emerges from her palm, coils for a second in the air, then flies at the burning man. It shrieks (how can it shriek, it has no mouth) but doesn't avoid the strand of darkness, which catches it on the arm and is instantly absorbed.

Boy, is it furious now. Enraged, it shrieks again, a horrible, piercing scream that brings to mind the agony of burning. The flame enveloping the featureless head burns brighter, deeper, and a wave of heat rushes over Eve. It raises its own hand in response, and without bothering with the incantation, fires an orb of fire, roughly the size of its outstretched hand, at Eve. It misses her head by the narrowest of margins, although the heat is still enough to singe her right ear.

Eve steps forward, sword raised.

Another ball of fire. It clips her left hand, and her pinkie and fourth finger turn black, crisped by the enchanted flame.

Another step forward, just within striking range.

A third and final bolt - the monster doesn't even have its sword raised, so intent is it upon its magic. The ball starts to form in its palm -

- then the shlick of steel sliding through flesh. Bemused, the head lowers, as if to look at the foot of steel protruding from its chest, exactly where its heart would be. A brief pause, in which the two combatants look blankly at each other - then boom.

The body explodes in a ball of fire. The force picks Eve off her feet and throws her backwards, tumbling through the air, crashing into layers of plants. The heat burns, hair singes - then it's over.
Lying in a crumpled heap, Eve takes a deep breath, then picks herself up and reclaims her charred but otherwise usable sword. In the distance... is that a group of fiery red orbs flying low over the ground, away into the forest?

"Ahhh. Spirtual possession. Can't beat it."

Suggest a course of action.

Status:

Spoiler

HP: 30/50
MP: 85/100
Corruption 17/?

Yeah, options are just so mainstream.

 

[the_taken]

Re: Lost in the Jungle

Being an adventurer sure is tough work! Let's grab the loot and trek back to town...

Wait... no loot? FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU-

Find a different place to rest up, then check out the cave.

 

[xgkf]

Re: Lost in the Jungle

Recover our health, mana, and any gear we might have lost in the fighting, and then set off for the caves.

 

[GargantuaBlarg]

Re: Lost in the Jungle

We have third degree burns or something on one hand, that's probably bad.

Fix ye hand, then follow ye will o' the wisp into the horrible fate it's probably leading us to.

 

[Shadow]

Re: Lost in the Jungle

Although none of the options I gave you when we first met the Djin would've been fatal in the first following turn (which is more than can be said for some options I've given you, believe it or not) the fighting one was perhaps the riskiest. Still, we're still alive!

Encycolopedia Update!​

Giant Beetle: What it says on the tin; brown, huge beetles, with razor sharp mandibles and a rock-hard exoskeleton. Poor climbers, they thrive amongst the leaf-litter.

Goblin: Green-scaled tricksters that live in tribes within the Jungle. Although their structures are mainly below ground, they come up to forage and explore the Jungle. None too bright, they have an obsession with sex.

Amphibious Lizard: Smooth skinned water dwellers, they occasionally make their way onto land to feed, mate, or escape predators in the water. However, they cannot survive for long out of the water. Muddy-brown skin and a streamlined shape can make them hard to spot in poor-visibility conditions.

(Yeah, I was basically thinking of a Hynerpeton with brown skin. Can't beat prehistoric beasties for 'inspiration').

Djinn: The result of Fire Spirits (hey, we're spirits too!) summoned from the depths of a Volcano (wait, there's a volcano near here?) combining with a sorcerer. Generally, the spirits quickly subjugate their victim, and go on the rampage. One of the very few creatures in the Jungle with no interest in sex, they have two main desires; destruction, and absorbing the spirits from other possessed bodies. For this reason they are exceedlingly rare, although the energy of all those absorbed spirits means they can become incredibly powerful.

Sorry guys, those Fire Spirits have flown behind a tree and vanished, and there's no means of tracking them. My bad, I was just throwing in an explanatory background line to explain what the Djinn was.

 

[DeMatt]

Re: Lost in the Jungle

Spend time healing up, then make our way across and/or downstream, looking for those "deep-dark caves" the shaman mentioned.

 

[Courage Wolf]

Re: Lost in the Jungle

Same Heal up and Head Out

 

[tora]

Re: Lost in the Jungle

Can I just say I'm a massive fan of your CYOA, and it heavily inspired me to try one of my own for the first time?

Thanks ! Eager to see where this goes from here!

Anyhow, agreed that we heal (x2). To heal the rest, spend some time taking the trees the djinni wrecked and make a raft! Safer to cross the river now, and much safer later if we're fleeing for our lives. Don't forget the paddle!

Once were across, find them caves.

 

[Shadow]

Re: Lost in the Jungle

Well, the votes are fairly unanimous; recuperate and head out.

----​

"Waíse heill!" Eve cries, channeling her reserves of magical energy. The mental switch flicks on, and the energy is released; in just seconds, the worst of the burns vanish from her head, chest, and arms, and her two fried fingers turn a slightly less alarming shade of black.

Not satisfied, Eve recites the spell again: "Waíse heill!" This time, her skin completely clears, and to her pleasant surprise she finds her two outermost fingers are capable of moving again, although they do have a slightly darker tone than the others.

But what's the plan now? The adrenaline from the Djinn attack has driven most other thoughts from her mind; something about a bubbling river (that's no longer bubbling) and caves... caves...
As luck would have it, there are what appear to be caves on the other side of the river!

----

"Oh, yeah, let's go wandering about in dark caves." murmurs one spirit. "What could possibly go wrong?"

----

After a couple of hours, Eve's fashioned a simple, but hopefully river-worthy raft from the remains of the trees destroyed by the Djinn. (Good with her hands, is our Eve). OK, it's mainly held together with bits of reed tied into knots, but the wood floats. Just about. And there's even a simple paddle, for speed and direction.

Without further ado, Eve sets off across the river. Paddling against the current is tough work, but thankfully the caves are a little downstream of her anyway. With the sun back out, and beating pleasantly on her head, Eve starts to feel more at peace with the world. The most peace she's felt since her rude alarm call that morning, anyway.
In fact, she's so relaxed, she breaks into a whistle...

Ah. Alerted by the sound, a swarm of... birds? Bugs? have come flying out of the trees further downriver. They're heading this way at quite some speed.
Oh! Neither birds nor insects, but flying, sky-blue scaled reptilian pterosaurs. Each has a wing-span about the size of her forearm, but they're certainly carnivorous. Many a nomad tells tales of these air piranhas - monsters capable of stripping the flesh from livestock (or people) in minutes.

Fortunately, they seem content to circle above Eve for the moment... waiting for the ideal time to attack? Something's not right...

Bubbles! God, the river is bubbling again! Large bubbles, roughly the size of Eve's head, emerge from the surface of the river. Almost invisible - ugh, that smell's back, it really stinks now - Eve suspects she might not even notice them if weren't for the dual factors of spirit-boosted eye-sight and actively being on the look-out for the things.
The pattern of them emerging from the river is random - some are appearing on all sides of the raft, but they're fairly spaced out, and they pop far below the height of the circling pterosaurs.

Something is not right here. What should be done?

Option A) Paddle to the other side of the river, then flee quickly from pterosaurs. Nasty things.
A1) Paddle to the other side, then attack the pterosaurs with magic. Don't want them following us.

Option B) Wait it out. Those pterosaurs are clearly worried about something, maybe they'll go away eventually if we wait it out.

Option C) Attack the pterosaurs with magic from the raft. They don't want to come any closer, it seems... it might drive them away.

Option D) Other.



Status:

Spoiler

HP: 40/50
MP: 65/100
Corruption: 17/100

 

[xgkf]

Re: Lost in the Jungle

How wooded is the area on the opposite side of the river?

 

[the_taken]

Re: Lost in the Jungle

C Attack the flying dinos with magic to drive them away. The toxic gasses are keeping them at bay, but not if we pass the bubbles or go to shore. They'll still be there unless we drive the off. We don't need to worry about the gas. It appears to be lighter than air, so staying below the popping bubbles should save us from the worst of it.

 

[GargantuaBlarg]

Re: Lost in the Jungle

THE BUBBLES WILL RAPE US OH FUCK GET TO SHORE

Paddle to the cave and flee into it. Bring the paddle with and set it on fire for light. Beware running out of magic. Get sword out in case of pterodactyl attacks.