3. Sometimes sacrifices have to be made. Besides there really can't be a shortage of tail in a tentacle CYOA lol.
Also, can we bum/absorb the knife or something? I mean, that sort of power in the right hands/tentacles could be really useful, especially if we're going to sneak up behind him.
*Edit: A question: if we're a purple tentacle, shouldn't there be like a better list of spells or something instead of the usual tenta abilities? Might be just me, but despite the different colour tenta this is going like all the other tenta CYOAs.
Just wondering if the system could be changed or summat? Like, you know, having a few more spells could be damn handy in a situation like this.
Nope, the knife has the be physically wielded. It's not totally indestructible, either.
I know what you mean, but thinking of a wide variety of spells and still keeping everything balanced at this fairly early stage is tricky. I'm always open to ideas.
O2 (Try and get energy for Magic Shield II, and lead the attack against the Merman!)
-----
You ponder the situation for quite some time, trying to decide on the best course of action. There's so many different angles and approaches to consider... by the end of your musings, the Mermaid is tapping her fingers against her tail impatiently.
You finally speak up.
"Mermaid," you begin, only to be interrupted. "Martha," she says. "Carry on."
You try again.
"Martha, I'm going to need a favour. I'm running a bit low on energy... if you have sex with me, I can recover some, use it to develop a magical shield and give us a better chance at taking down the Anglerman."
She squints suspiciously at you. "How do I know you haven't already developed this shield and are just looking for a quickie?"
You try your best to look sympathetic and trustworthy, which is no mean feat for a python-sized tentacle completely lacking in a face. Or any other features.
"You don't," you reply. "You'll just have to trust me. Have I betrayed you yet?"
She gives you a scrutinizing look, running you up and down with her eyes. Finally, she nods, whilst the 5 other merpeople sit looking at each other awkwardly.
"OK, I gu-" she begins, but you'd already darted forwards at the first syllable, coiling your length around her waist. You send your rear half speeding up between her breasts and straight into her mouth, drawing a surprised "HMMMPH!". She waves the Subtle Knife threateningly at you, but you've already danced your head delicately down over her abdomen. One half of your forked front slides into her immediately wet folds, slowly at first, making sure to rub against every inch of flesh. A couple of seconds of this and her anger is forgotten; her eyes close and she starts moaning, wrapping her tongue around your tail and squeezing it joyfully, whilst you simultaneously push your tendril deep into her pussy. Whilst pumping inside her mouth you gently stimulate her sex, rubbing teasingly against her clitoris and sliding gently in and out. Her moans increase in volume and you start to pound harder, faster, raging inside her with all your strength.
She cums, and you gleefully absorb the juices, adding them to your power. Mentally restraining yourself, you force yourself to exit her orifices and swim away from her.
"There, you see. Piece of cake," you tell her, whilst she rests against the wall, eyes closed and one hand hanging down by her sex.
Without wasting more time, you pour your energy into evolving Magic Shield II - and within seconds the usual shifts and writhing of an evolution pass and you are left much as before, undulating softly in the water.
"Right." You're glad to see the Merm- Martha has recovered. She looks at you a little put out - maybe you were too abrupt? "The plan is thus. You cut off the grate Martha, and I lead our friends her down against the zombies. Whilst they fight them off, I draw out the Anglerman, and whilst he's distracted with me, you swim down and run him through!"
"What could possibly go wrong," she intones dryly.
"Nothing. Let's go team!"
You pause just a second to produce a Magical Shield II around yourself. Be stupid to go into battle without it now you've gone to the bother of evolving it.
Sighing, the Mermaid slides gracefully forward and runs the Knife through the bars of the grate; once again it glides through the metal with no resistance at all. It really is most remarkable.
The grate pops out, and you and your cohorts stream free, bursting from the tunnel and descending down on the horde below.
The Anglerman looks up, mouths a curse, and goes back to his incantations. Even without Aura Sense you can feel the auras in this room bending and stretching around him.
Your group reach the swarm of zombies and lay into them. Though massively outnumbered and severely weakened, the zombie merpeople are very feeble themselves, only able to pathetically scratch and knock at their attackers. It's a fairly even fight, and you quickly divert your attention the Anglerman himself.
Deciding to kick things off as they mean to go on, you launch a Magic Sting II straight at his head. It swings off wildly to the side before hitting him - evidently he has defensive measures of his own.
He looks up again, oversized lower jaw full of fangs wobbling grotesquely, and shouts at you.
"Fuck off! What have I done to deserve this harassment! Why won't you just leave me alone?!"
He slams his scepter into the ground, and a spear of blue light leaps at you, far faster than you can react. It hits your magical shield and is absorbed with a faint cracking sound.
"That was a warning shot! Leave me be!"
An errant merzombie swims in between the two of your, limbs flailing wildly. You use the distraction (and cover) it provides to swim up and behind him, whereupon you launch another magical missile straight down on his skull. Once again, it swings harmlessly off to the side.
He squints up at you (he may be powerful, but he's got piss-poor eyesight), screams in rage, and sends another bolt of light straight in your direction. You flinch, but you're still not quick enough - and with a horrible ripping, crunching sound, like someone stepping on a hundred eggshells at once, your magical shield breaks apart into a thousand empty fragments.
Still. Got to go down fighting. You ignore this setback, and fire a third blow at his head - and whilst this one is diverted, it grazes his skull before doing so, and prompts a howl of irritation.
"JUST! FUCK! OFF!" he bellows, each word punctuated by a blast of light from his scepter. One shoots wide, the second pierces through three zombies and two Merpeople before hitting the side wall, and the third blasts the last couple of centimeters of your tail straight off, before continuing and driving straight through a Merzombie's skull.
Wheeling in pain, you turn to face him one last time... only for a huge burst of thick, yellow blood the color of puss to spurt from his chest, followed immediately by the golden prongs of a trident.
Smiling triumphantly, Martha pushes him down onto the floor with the trident - yet even as he falls, he swings the scepter up and fires off a spell. It all takes less than a second, and you watch helplessly as the spear of light skewers straight through Martha's stomach, blasting her several feet backwards and onto the seafloor in a heap. The Anglerman too falls to the ground, clutching at the holes in his chest and howling in pain.
The zombies around you stop their battle, and drift blankly around in the water. The remaining Merpeople you brought here seem too tired to move.
A sudden migraine splits your head wide open, and you can instinctively tell that it's about to finish; the Black Archcrystal's aura is coalescing with the scepter's and pulsing stronger than ever before. A portal is about to open into ... God only knows what.
-----
Consider your choice carefully.
Option A) Use your energy to heal Martha. Unfortunately, this means the Anglerman will have time to use his scepter to heal his own wounds.
Option B) Use your energy to finish off the broken Anglerman. Unfortunately, this means you won't have enough left to save Martha's life.
**** Option X) Allow the portal to finish building and see what happens.
Option Y) Use the Subtle Knife to cut the scepter in half and stop the portal forming (the Black crystal will still be salvagable and can be made into a safer portal back in the Dimensional Nexus).
Status:
Health: 20/30
Energy: 50/80
Morality: 15/100 (nicer than most Saints).
Evolutions:
- Infest I (allows you to latch onto hosts and drain energy. Try and do it when they won't immediately notice and squash you).
- Fire Bolt I (like Magic Sting I, but Fire element).
- Thunder Bolt I (^, but Thunder element).
- Water Bolt I (...ditto).
- Slime Ooze I (secrete slime that can be both sticky and slippery. Further upgrades allow you to do much more with it).
- Scale Armor I (More protective against spells and phsyical attacks than Slime Ooze, but much less multi-purpose).
- Ovipositor I (Allows you to lay eggs within the orifice of a host. At low levels, these eggs are weak and may not hatch properly. Further upgrades reduces this risk. Each egg costs 10 energy to plant, but the hatched tentacle is autonomous and commanded by you).
- Magic Shield II (20 energy cost. Erects a magical barrier around yourself. It's not impenetrable, but it's a pretty close second).
- Perception II (20 Energy. Use body language and other subtle, chemical clues to put together a general hint of what someone is feeling at any given time. Is that a molecule of sweat? They're nervous. Are their fingers tapping? Clearly impatient.)
- Aura Detect 2.55 (20 energy. Your sense of auras is refined, and you can see them from a great distance and judge their power levels more accurately. Also allows you to faintly detect Cursed auras).
- Stealth II (20 energy required. Become even sneakier).
- Swim II (20 energy required. Can you guess what this evolution does?)
- Body Shock II (20 Energy required. A powerful wave of magical energy runs over your skin. Akin to picking up a live electrical wire. Obviously limited to close-range combat, though).
- Growth III (30 energy required. Grow to a chunky, 6-foot long python, complete with split heads.)
- Magic Sting III (30 Energy required. Costs 5 energy to use, but a direct hit will send most foes flying off their feet).
Yep, you can mix and match any choice from the two sets of options. 'Other' is always an option too, I guess. Not sure what you'd do in this situation though.
Anyway A Y, Martha said the necrofish was weak without the sceptre and our objective was to steal the magical energies rather than actually kill the necrofish, stopping the portal seems to make good sense because god knows where a necrofish would want to teleport himself to - probably no where good
A Y, Martha said the necrofish was weak without the sceptre and our objective was to steal the magical energies rather than actually kill the necrofish, stopping the portal seems to make good sense because god knows where a necrofish would want to teleport himself to - probably no where good
Anyway A Y, Martha said the necrofish was weak without the sceptre and our objective was to steal the magical energies rather than actually kill the necrofish, stopping the portal seems to make good sense because god knows where a necrofish would want to teleport himself to - probably no where good
AY - Save Martha, break the scepter - wins the day.
----
For a moment you find yourself torn; the Anglerman is bleeding out on the seabed in front of you, it's the perfect time to finish him off! Yet Martha - sweet, impulsive, sexy Martha, who you've come to trust - is lying over there, also dying. If you save her, the Anglerman may have the chance to recover...
Impulse kicks in. Cursing yourself, you swim over to Martha, who's lying down, gasping in pain and clutching the hole in her abdomen. You don't know any specific healing spells... so you'll just have to do it the crude way. You press one of your heads up to Martha's would and unleash your energy on it. You will the blood to clot, the flesh to bind, the skin to heal; you pour your heart and soul into it.
Eventually, drained and shattered, you draw away and find the hole... is no longer a hole. It's a brutally ugly, shrunken, withered blemish, but at least she's not going to bleed out immediately anymore.
Fearing the worst, you turn back to look at the Anglerman; he's lying flat on the floor with the black scepter pointed at his chest. And still the auras are vibrating...
Thinking on your feet (metaphorically speaking) you dive forward and pluck the Subtle Knife from Martha's unresisting hand, coiling one of your heads around it. You swim as fast as you can back towards the Anglerman, powering through the water. He intones the words...
Things then happen very quickly.
You take a clumsy swing with the Subtle Knife.
Green light shoots from his scepter and strikes the Anglerman straight in his ruined chest.
The holes seal up and his vile, yellow blood stops leaking into the water immediately.
Your clumsy blow sends the Subtle Knife... straight through the top of his scepter, cleaving it neatly in two.
Boom. The resulting magical explosion stuns you. You fly backwards through the water, vision spinning and blurring. Auras fade and double and triple all around you, and you glimpse the Anglerman glare at you with one of the most venomous, hate-filled looks you've ever seen - before he vanishes from existence with a quick pop.
Incredibly confused, you wait, hanging motionless in the water whilst your senses come back to normal. Above you you see merzombies bumping blankly into the walls of this room, and your allies from earlier are nowhere to be seen.
Finally, the world stops spinning quite so sickeningly, though to be honest you still feel lousy; drained from the fight, drained from the healing, smacked about by the explosion. You postulate that the Anglerman had some sort of fail-safe spell. You've heard of such things before; the scepter may have been imbued with a spell that transports the user to a place of safety should it break. The damn thing was certainly powerful enough to pull off such a piece of magic...
Groaning, you paddle through the water back to the two halves of the scepter. Magical energy is still draining from them, so you coil around both ends and suck them dry. Sweet, replenishing energy spills into you and in an instant you're feeling better; invigorated, more aware and mentally sharp.
Eventually no energy is left in them at all, leaving you with two empty, black stone husks, which you swiftly discard. Hang on... black stone...
The Archcrystal! How could you have forgotten?! You swim back over to Martha, who seems to be rallying a little, and press the Subtle Knife back into her hand.
"Cut the Black Archstone free from the ground," you ask her. She blearily opens one eye and frowns at you. "Please. I did just save your life."
She glances down at the wound in her abdomen, gives a tiny little nod, and sighs. When she speaks, her voice is very faint and hardly audible. "OK..." she says.
Limping over to the stone, she brushes sand off its face and uses the Subtle Knife to effortlessly cut it free. The piece she removes is a large 6 foot block, though far, far lighter than it looks. Together, the two of you carry it all the way back to the Blue Archstone you entered the Dimension by, and transport yourselves through it.
*****
The first thing that you notice is that you're still underwater. Interesting. The Blue Archcrystal wasn't underwater when you entered it.
A quick exploration reveals you to be in a small, entirely uninteresting pool. You stick your head above the surface and spot the rest of the familiar Dimensional Nexus.
"I took the liberty of putting the Blue Archstone in a pool of water," says the omnipresent voice. "I had a feeling you'd be bring back a guest."
You look behind you, and see that this is indeed ideal for Martha; she's lugged the Black Archcrystal through as well, and now she is reclining on the shore of the circular pool, leaning back with her torso out the water and her eyes closed.
Well, maybe she deserves a break.
"And I see you brought a present back yourself... is that a powerful Black Archcrystal you have there, or are you just pleased to see me?" teases the disembodied voice. "I'll have someone deal with it later. We have a bit of a... situation on our hands at the minute."
You jump out of the pool, and see that the voice is right; the blue-skinned Succubus you rescued earlier and the armored Paladin are having a blazing argument in the middle of the amphitheater. Even as you watch, the Succubus tackles the Paladin to the ground, wraps her legs around her waist and pins her arms down. Still they shout at each other - you hear the words 'prude!' and 'slut!' fly gracefully through the air.
Hmm....
----
Option A) Try and broker peace between the two foes. There's enough common foes out there, after all.
Option B) Join the argument on the side of the Succubus. Her support is more valuable to you than the Paladin's.
Option C) Join the argument on the side of the Paladin. She's important, and the Succubus will be quicker to forgive you.
Option D) Ignore the bickering and just zoom off through another Archcrystal.
D1) Flaming Dimension.
D2) Polar Dimension.
D3) Ocean Dimension.
If you don't pick option D, please choose an Archcrystal to use after the initial decision.
Status:
Health: 20/30
Energy: 75/80
Morality: 15/100 (Nicer than most Saints).
Evolutions:
- Infest I (allows you to latch onto hosts and drain energy. Try and do it when they won't immediately notice and squash you).
- Fire Bolt I (like Magic Sting I, but Fire element).
- Thunder Bolt I (^, but Thunder element).
- Water Bolt I (...ditto).
- Slime Ooze I (secrete slime that can be both sticky and slippery. Further upgrades allow you to do much more with it).
- Scale Armor I (More protective against spells and phsyical attacks than Slime Ooze, but much less multi-purpose).
- Ovipositor I (Allows you to lay eggs within the orifice of a host. At low levels, these eggs are weak and may not hatch properly. Further upgrades reduces this risk. Each egg costs 10 energy to plant, but the hatched tentacle is autonomous and commanded by you).
- Magic Shield II (20 energy cost. Erects a magical barrier around yourself. It's not impenetrable, but it's a pretty close second).
- Perception II (20 Energy. Use body language and other subtle, chemical clues to put together a general hint of what someone is feeling at any given time. Is that a molecule of sweat? They're nervous. Are their fingers tapping? Clearly impatient.)
- Aura Detect 2.55 (20 energy. Your sense of auras is refined, and you can see them from a great distance and judge their power levels more accurately. Also allows you to faintly detect Cursed auras).
- Stealth II (20 energy required. Become even sneakier).
- Swim II (20 energy required. Can you guess what this evolution does?)
- Body Shock II (20 Energy required. A powerful wave of magical energy runs over your skin. Akin to picking up a live electrical wire. Obviously limited to close-range combat, though).
- Growth III (30 energy required. Grow to a chunky, 6-foot long python, complete with split heads.)
- Magic Sting III (30 Energy required. Costs 5 energy to use, but a direct hit will send most foes flying off their feet).
