B 1. Could we rig up some simple sound trap that doesn't use up many componets? Something to let us know when that, whatever, gets to that point. Might also attract something else to that, whatever. If not, adhesive trap.
You decide the cold is doing your tired body no favors and warmth was most likely to lead you toward some way up, it should also lead directly to your original destination. You want to make sure that whatever is behind you can't keep chasing you, and you consider your options for making some sort of trap out of what you have, hopefully some kind of shock would keep the creature away. The entire floor was covered in mud and there was no surface to place anything, but you manage to figure out some way to hopefully deter the creature from coming in the same direction you had chosen.
Your tired muscles strained as you hurried toward the northern tunnel, the mud was knee deep at the slightly lowered walkways crossing the drainage sections of the tunnels and you couldn't really see where you were going, relying only on knowing the general architecture of the facilities. Out of breath, you finally reach relatively solid ground, you take a closer look at the tunnel you're about to enter. Before you can really determine anything you notice the sliding, thumping sound stop and turn into what sounds like someone running through shallow water. The loud splashing sounds are coming toward you very rapidly, and you quickly start to prepare the trap you had planned earlier.
Crouching down and digging through your bag for the right tools you take out the adhesive liquid and a crossbow bolt, you drip some of the clear liquid onto the bolt and set it into the mud in front of you, followed by spreading the adhesive on the surface of the mud. You carefully light the metal tip of the bolt, creating a small fire, should anything disturb the mud in front of you the rest of the adhesive should catch fire, quickly burning whatever tried to move through or at least barring the path for a while.
Just as you finish the trap the splashing noise is becoming almost painfully loud, glancing at the tunnel you came from, you see a massive silhouette rushing towards you at an incredible speed. In mere moments, it enters the chamber between you, and before you can so much as run away, it dives into the depths of the mud filled drainage pit in the middle. You could only briefly see its massive, grotesque husk, swarming and writhing with countless appendages, the creature barely fit the tunnel it was crawling through and its dive into the depths gave you a glimpse of its long fish-shaped body. It's appearance reminded you eerily of a fresh potato covered in roots.
You stare at the mud for a while, watching for movement. The thick mud had barely shifted as it dove inside and fortunately your trap seemed to be active still. It seemed as though the creature had simply left through the pit below, your trap should ward the entrance to this tunnel as long as the bolt is still burning, the highly flammable nature of the adhesive should produce a harmful effect even for such a massive creature.
As you move toward the entrance of the northern tunnel you suddenly hear a loud plopping noise and you fall to the ground as something entangles your legs. You look back, frantically trying to shake it off as it slowly starts to drag you toward the depths of the pit but the slick appendage has a firm grip on your left leg. The appendage starts thrashing wildly in an attempt to drag you along and you feel a sharp pain erupt in your leg as you get roughly knocked into the slightly mud covered stonework.
Your vision is fading, the wind knocked out of you and fatigued and drained from the journey here, you hang on to the dents in the stone floor with all your strength. Immediately after the appendage starts squirming again, the room around you lights up with a flash, a surge of warmth flooding over you. The wild motions of whatever is holding you had triggered the trap and the surface of the long tentacle was now ablaze, with one last jerking motion the tentacle gripping your leg released you and pulled back to where it came from, leaving you sprayed across the floor with the now roaring fire blocking the entrance to your location.
You cough as you try to fill your lungs with oxygen again, the creature had rather roughly smashed you into the ground and while the mud had somewhat softened the blow you were still hurting all over. You once more put strength into your fatigued muscles as you struggled back to your feet, only to stagger into the wall beside you as your left leg failed to support your weight. Your hip is hurting like hell in the joints of your left leg, a quick but painful inspection reveals that while it isn't broken, the creatures rough treatment probably damaged the area beyond use.
Seeing no other option in your current predicament, you take out your healing potion and drink it down, immediately grabbing a days worth of food from your back to combat the inevitable side-effects. Wincing in pain as the potion takes effect and causes increased activity in the affected area, you quickly start to feel energy returning to your fatigued muscles. You eat your meal as fast as you can while the potion works its way through your body. After you finish eating you try to once more stand up straight, the activity is still somewhat uncomfortable, but you feel completely refreshed after the effects of the potion.
Picking up your pack, you finally notice you lost the cloth around your legs during the struggle, lying near the fire and covered in thick mud you see little point in retrieving it, but that leaves you with nothing but your shirt, gloves and boots to cover yourself. Fortunately, this part of the sewers seems much warmer than the rest. You walk up to the edge of the eerily glowing mass covering most of the walls here, the drainage ditch in the middle of the tunnel seems to be completely filled with it as well, which means nothing should be able to surprise you from there. Carefully inspecting the orange glowing mass, the stuff seems to be radiating a comfortable warmth, the entire area here seems to be pulsing with life and the mass itself shows a strong resemblance to skinless flesh.
Cautiously examining the fleshy substance you discover it seems to be alive, but shows no real reaction to any kind of external stimuli. You carefully step into the rest of the tunnel, placing your feet meticulously on the unstable surface. As you inspect your surroundings, you see some parts of the wall have a discolored green hue to them, you instinctively affirm you should absolutely avoid touching the discolored matter, and take caution to avoid it whenever you should encounter it.
As you continue on, the growth seems to become more dense, narrowing the normally wide tunnel somewhat. You keep finding oddities throughout, and after a while you manage to piece together that you're in something resembling a bug hive. If what your old master Fizban once told you was correct, insect hives were usually well defended from the outside, but invaders inside the hive were usually safe, this might mean the creature outside defended this place, and you should be under no direct threat here. Assuming all that is true, and it's hardly safe to make such assumptions in your current situation.
You come across another large antechamber at the end of the tunnel. The dim light being a little more clear in this area you can clearly see the cocoon like pods lining the walls, you noticed a few scattered pods like this earlier, but the placement of pods here make this look like a sort of breeding chamber. A while ago, you noticed a soft humming, almost buzzing noise coming from the denser part of the walls, and this room was resounding that same noise quite loudly. You want to avoid disturbing anything inside here as much as possible, and look for a way through the room without having to touch any of the pods directly.
As you are looking for a path through the room you failed to notice a medium sized insect-like creature skittering towards you. Suddenly being pushed down from behind, you let out a surprised yelp and try to kick at your assailant. You are quickly and firmly held and the human-sized spider-like creature seems to be inspecting you. After a few brief moments, it unhands you and skitters off toward the direction you came in from, leaving you dazed and confused at what just happened.
You get little time to assess the situation, as one of the pods nearby seems to start squirming and muffled sounds come from inside of it. Looking closely at the pod, you can vaguely determine humanoid features on the inside, the muffled shouts are utterly unintelligible, but you can only assume its calling for help.
A: Free whoever is inside. Trapped without information, resources and devoid of any form assistance, another human being might increase your chances significantly, whoever it is might know more about this place and could still be bait in the worst case scenario. B: Move along as you were. Whoever is in there probably has no supplies and might be as confused as you are, spare yourself the burden and move along, though the activity they're performing might attract unwanted attention. Worst case scenario they might attack you, though you should have no trouble fighting them off. C: Put them out of their misery. Whoever is in there might be damaged both physically and mentally, their activity might bring unwanted attention and you should make sure it stops before moving on. Putting a bolt into the pod might bring an unwanted reaction though.
Some additional info into your choices.
A: The person inside here should know the means by which they were captured, considering they're still alive they shouldn't have been in there long and would have some information about the surrounding area and the people around there, which is very useful information, you could just interrogate them and run.
B: Disturbing the fleshy substance hasn't been a problem so far, but the main problem is the risk of being attacked in desperation or disturbing some central hatchery setting off some kind of defense.
C: Are you doing this person a kindness? Is it safer to risk their constant movement attracting attention or is it safer to put a quick end to it...
Character:*updated*
Status:*updated* Slippery footing: The mud on your boots has dried but the surface here is slick, soft and uneven, making your footing unstable and rendering you unable to run properly. Anxiety(minor): Something just attacked you out of nowhere, it left you unharmed but slightly shaken.
Proficiencies: Educated: Can read and write. Alchemy(Basic): Can understand basic alchemy and perform minor alchemy. Animal affinity(Basic): You can calm most animals, and know a bit about interacting with them. Free-running: You can quickly make your way through uneven/cluttered terrain and climb almost any surface within human capacity. Panic prone: Unsettling events are more likely to invoke panic than anger/horror. Finesse combatant: Capable of knocking over all but the most stable foe, despite not being very strong, and can use your surroundings effectively, also increases your chances to identify and hit an opponents vitals. Swimming(Clumsy): Your finesse allows you to clumsily swim through normal water. Weapon proficiency; Crossbow(Basic): Capable of operating a crossbow, proficient in its regular use. Stealth(Advanced): Capable of hiding yourself from other humans in all but the most extreme circumstances, capable of hiding from animals and unidentified entities under normal circumstances. Tinkering(Clumsy): Can make extremely basic contraptions such as minor traps, also allows you to repair minor damage to simple constructions. Examination results (Transitus ooze): You know the ins and outs of your foe and can easily recognize it and abuse its weaknesses.
Items:*updated* Artisan's gloves: Near indestructible, these sturdy gloves are very difficult to cut and can withstand very high temperatures and minor acidic substances, resistant to strong acid. Simple clothes: A simple cloth tunic, you could use some pants. Leather satchel: A sturdy satchel tied securely around your waist, there's actually a trick to opening it. Tool belt: Strapped around your shoulder this belt contains many pockets and straps for holding tools and equipment. Quality leather boots: Strong and sturdy boots, you "liberated" these when you were still a child, they're no longer too big and fit comfortably on your feet. Military crossbow(Ammo:23): A high quality crossbow, it can be loaded with bolts or special alchemical vials, very durable. Concoctions: A small set of alchemical creations including;
+Minor healing potion x2 (cures minor cuts, bruises and aches, makes you slightly hungry)
+Adhesive solvent x1 (a small canteen of solvent, negates the effects of most adhesive substances)
+Unstable mutagen x1 (a failed creation, this substance can serve as a poison to other humans or cause unknown effects to other creatures) Rations: You carry enough rations for 10 more days. Imbued rope: Light, thin and alchemically imbued rope, this was a rare treasure even before the disaster. Transitus ooze in a jar: A Transitus ooze that you stuck inside a jar.
Considering your options briefly, none of them seem without risk so you might as well try and get the highest reward, an ally could be a valuable asset after all.
That's all well and good, but how on earth are you supposed to open this thing? You try to concentrate and think things through for a bit, but the constant noise is proving to be quite a distraction.
"Quiet down in there, you're not helping!" You shout in frustration as you try to gather your thoughts. Amazingly, whoever is trapped in there seems to get the message and quiets down. You inspect the pod more closely and its shape seems to resemble a flower, the "petals" hang somewhat loosely around the enclosed person with what looks like a thick, stringy paste holding it together. The pod doesn't look particularly firm, appearing more like a protective casing than a prison.
It seems easy enough to open, and you grab a small cutting knife from your tools. With a few quick motions you easily cut open one of the petals and it falls limply to the ground, revealing the ghastly visage inside. Trapped inside is a beautiful woman wrapped up in a number of thick tentacles, her head is bent backwards with a thick tentacle deep down her throat, which along with a second tentacle buried inside her pussy is periodically making slow, pumping motions. Her eyes are partially closed but seem to be looking toward you weakly as you try to concentrate on figuring out how to get her loose.
Cutting her loose would be a terrible idea, aggravating the tentacle in her throat might cause fatal damage, and you'd need a quick, clean cut of the entire appendage to safely remove it.
How do you proceed? (This choice has potentially fatal consequences for your patient, think this one through carefully)
A: Too risky, leave her and carry on. C: Tinker with your equipment to make a tool suitable for severing the tentacle (Be specific, how do you use the tools you have available to you to cleanly sever a tentacle about as thick a woman's arm, and be careful, failure can have consequences). D: Puzzles in a CYOA? No way! Skip this and just save the woman!
To keep things from becoming too complicated, these are the tools you can work with, you can disassemble anything you have, but you might not be able to put it back together again:
Military crossbow (The spring loaded crossbow can deliver the force needed to sever the tentacle) Small knife (A small knife for cutting plants and soft material, it's slightly curved and about the size of a thumb) Glass (some vials and jars, you might use this somehow) Tool Belt (Good quality leather tool belt with a dozen pouches and handles for tools and equipment, a thin metal wireframe reinforces the structure)
You can use anything else you have, but this is enough for at least a couple of solutions.
Hint:
To give you an idea of how you're supposed to be thinking, here's a small example: You want to wear a boot, but your foot is a few sizes too small and there are no laces, you need to make the space inside the boot smaller somehow. You have a leaf of paper and a pack of light-bulbs, what do you do?
You crush light-bulbs with the boot, wrap the remains in the paper, take the sole out the boot and put the paper in its place, put the sole back in and wear the boot.
(I'm doing a bit of an experiment here so do let me know what you think, optional, you can pick both:
1: Include solution to puzzle next part.
2: Don't include bad consequences.)
Character:
Status: Slippery footing: The mud on your boots has dried but the surface here is slick, soft and uneven, making your footing unstable and rendering you unable to run properly. Anxiety(minor): Something just attacked you out of nowhere, it left you unharmed but slightly shaken.
Proficiencies: Educated: Can read and write. Alchemy(Basic): Can understand basic alchemy and perform minor alchemy. Animal affinity(Basic): You can calm most animals, and know a bit about interacting with them. Free-running: You can quickly make your way through uneven/cluttered terrain and climb almost any surface within human capacity. Panic prone: Unsettling events are more likely to invoke panic than anger/horror. Finesse combatant: Capable of knocking over all but the most stable foe, despite not being very strong, and can use your surroundings effectively, also increases your chances to identify and hit an opponents vitals. Swimming(Clumsy): Your finesse allows you to clumsily swim through normal water. Weapon proficiency; Crossbow(Basic): Capable of operating a crossbow, proficient in its regular use. Stealth(Advanced): Capable of hiding yourself from other humans in all but the most extreme circumstances, capable of hiding from animals and unidentified entities under normal circumstances. Tinkering(Clumsy): Can make extremely basic contraptions such as minor traps, also allows you to repair minor damage to simple constructions. Examination results (Transitus ooze): You know the ins and outs of your foe and can easily recognize it and abuse its weaknesses.
Items: Artisan's gloves: Near indestructible, these sturdy gloves are very difficult to cut and can withstand very high temperatures and minor acidic substances, resistant to strong acid. Simple clothes: A simple cloth tunic, you could use some pants. Leather satchel: A sturdy satchel tied securely around your waist, there's actually a trick to opening it. Tool belt: Strapped around your shoulder this belt contains many pockets and straps for holding tools and equipment. Quality leather boots: Strong and sturdy boots, you "liberated" these when you were still a child, they're no longer too big and fit comfortably on your feet. Military crossbow(Ammo:23): A high quality crossbow, it can be loaded with bolts or special alchemical vials, very durable. Concoctions: A small set of alchemical creations including;
+Minor healing potion x2 (cures minor cuts, bruises and aches, makes you slightly hungry)
+Adhesive solvent x1 (a small canteen of solvent, negates the effects of most adhesive substances)
+Unstable mutagen x1 (a failed creation, this substance can serve as a poison to other humans or cause unknown effects to other creatures) Rations: You carry enough rations for 10 more days. Imbued rope: Light, thin and alchemically imbued rope, this was a rare treasure even before the disaster. Transitus ooze in a jar: A Transitus ooze that you stuck inside a jar.
