De-fense!

Clap clap

De-fense!

How do you know it's trying to bite you?

Buff strength.

Buff defense. It will help you survive whatever nasty surprise it's got in store.

I'd say Buff Strength. The sooner you can end this fight, the better, right?

First two are no-go.
First may get the squishy spellslinger damaged.
Second will probably go bad if you have to dodge.

So, last two.
Would appear the bugger's got speed. Question is what else does it have?
Probably best to play safe 'til you're sure, so go defense.
Still, have her ready to blast it if it disengages. Will probably go after her if it does.

Would say go speed if we had that but alas, we do not have speed spells.

Alex 2022/10/30(Sun)15:39 No. 1047896 ID: ca2950
File 166716954703.png - (211.64KB , 747x760 , 32.png )

I shout to Keimi to protect me while I rush the thing even harder.

Any hits from the creature feel muted and I can focus on slicing right through the thing as hard as I can, splitting its head wide open and it goes down without issue.

Alex 2022/10/30(Sun)15:40 No. 1047897 ID: ca2950
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Keimi cheers and pumps her fist.
"Yay! Winners!" she hoots. "We're having fun now!"

She seems happy to be fighting weird monsters in an ancient ruin.
A little weird, since she's never wanted to take many risks before now, but it's definitely not boring, so I guess I can't blame her.

The hallway is clear of monsters, unless you count the weird meat-roots growing on the walls.

Continue down the hall. When you reach the corner, peek over there

The monsters are waking up now, but they're slow. Focus on making your way forward quickly, before they wake up entirely.

>>1047897
Alright get moving further down. We already know the roots regenerate so trying to cut them down is pointless. However, they were protecting something, so whatever it is is something we're quite interested in.

Join Keimi in the RPG victory dance. 'tis obligatory.

Poke at the dead body you sliced open. Any interesting observations to be made of its innards?

And since you cleared the enemy, proceed down the hall - but with caution. Check if the veins have telltale bulges that might disgorge enemies behind you.

Collect the phat lootz

You know what, yeah, join in on the awkward dancing

Alex 2022/11/13(Sun)07:37 No. 1049146 ID: ca2950
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Attempting to victory dance immediately causes her to become self-conscious and stop.
"What's the matter, Kei? Having fun in this life-threatening situation?"

She straightens up and tries to brush it off.
"N-No. It's just exciting to see all this scientifically relevant... stuff." she says.­ "That's all."

She seems to mull things over for a moment and continues.
"After the first time, I kind of started worrying that nothing exciting would ever happen again. I'd just go back to my life and it would just be a funny thing that happened once. Then I started thinking, what if I could do something where I could explore and always have something new to discover, but I didn't know how to do that properly, so I snuck out here with you and here we are. I think I'm just being selfish, probably," she says, looking kind of sheepish.

"Sounds like you're having your run-of-the-mill existential crisis. ­It's normal."
"Yeah, well... Whatever. We just need to figure out what we want to do now."
"Like, in life or right now in this situation?"
"Yeah..."

>After the first time
Reassure her that just because she lost her virginity it doesn't mean the 2nd and 3rd time are gonna be bland.
Also, that you're sure that you're about to uncover some intergalactic conspiracy which will lead to more exciting adventures and meeting many new friends with benef-, I mean, interesting friends.

Would Keimi have gone out and started exploring by herself if you hadn't come along?

If so, she's not being selfish by letting you come along. She's telling you that she's going to do something stupid, and offering you the chance to stop terrible things from happening when she does.

Alex 2022/11/22(Tue)04:55 No. 1049861 ID: ca2950
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"So the first time was so good, you're worried nothing will ever be as good again?" I ask, heaving her up to eye level. She's not very heavy. Almost entirely fluff in a big coat.
"You know what I mean, dummy."
"Yeah, yeah. Anyway, you're not selfish if you were going to come out here on your own and I choose to follow you."
She smiles faintly.
"No way. I'd get eaten by a wendigo instantly that way. I need a meat shield."
"Okay. You are kind of selfish."
Keimi props herself up on my shoulders.
"I just admitted that already, but you're going to let me get away with it, right?"
"For now, I guess. Should we keep going into the unknown?"

She kicks her feet in the air, starting to get fidgety from being held up.
"Yeah. It's been like a minute since we got attacked by meat monsters. We need to keep up the pace."
"If you wanted to get attacked by a meat monster, we could have stayed home and you could just ask."

Keimi starts drumming furiously on my chest with her fists. The amount of force is not very impressive.
"Ah! Stop being a perv!"
"I refuse. Besides, you're not completely innocent yourself."
"Yes, I am. Always." she says defiantly, puffing out her cheeks.
"What about the time th-"
"I said always!"

Alex 2022/11/22(Tue)04:56 No. 1049862 ID: ca2950
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I set her down and we continue down the hall for a bit, a few closed doors block the way, but the meat-roots lead down to a room that's just swarming with the different kinds of monsters, including a big one I've never seen before.
The floaty eyebot makes some movements in the air that seem to indicate it wants to go in there, but it's a big mess in there.

"You wanted meat monsters, you got them. There's a ton in there."
"Is it a problem?"
"I don't know. There's a kind of beefy looking one I've never seen before."
Keimi seems lost in thought.
"We'll probably live, right?"
"I would hope so, so I'm going to be an optimist and say yes."
"I'll leave it up to you, so whatever happens, it's your fault," she says, nodding to herself.

>>1049862
Okay Adds First, big guy last. Have keimi smoke the hoppers while you deal with the medium size back ranks. Hoppers are slow, no clue how fast the other monsters are but perhaps it'd be wise to put your pet gremlin/girlfriend at the far end of the hallway and kite the enemies down it, so she has has much firing time on them as possible.

Oh wow. Yeah, this is a lot. And a biggun. Backup plan is to leggit, right? Right.

Can the floaty drone be told to distract the meatbeasts in a pinch? You don't want this thing damaged, though. Probably need it to have any understanding of what to do to get this place functional again.

>>1049862
This sounds like a somewhat workable plan, but we might be able to use the element of surprise better. Assuming we even have it against these hivemind-seeming things.

Could do a hit-and-run + ambush? Keimi leans through the doorway, zaps all the jumpers and pretends to flee down the hallway, only to turn to focus on strengthening Alex.

Stronk-Alex waits around the corner and doublehand overhead slices the first unfortunate thing to come scampering around - probably a chomper - then the next. Then it's oh god time. As long as Alex is fighting more than one foe, defensive buff should go up, though Keimi should prioritize targeting any additional jumpers, since they can KO with a sting. Or if something slips past Alex and aims for her she should prioritize that (and/or running in circles with it on her tail).

Might also be additional meatbeast reinforcements in there - the room is larger than we can see - so the faster we can dispatch the ones that come the better.

They might also not take the bait or try to corner-ambush you as well, so Keimi should zap 'em good when she reveals herself and hang on to doing so until it looks like they've well and truly taken the bait.

Alternatively... we've got some paths we haven't explored yet, haven't we? Could backtrack there, see if there's anything that could potentially give us an advantage here.

There is too many of them and there is probably more where you can't see them. You'll need a way to lure them somewhere else without acting as bait, or a more efficient way to take them down. Maybe lure the wendigo to them? Anyway, attacking them doesn't look like a good idea.

>>1049867
Yeah, if Keimi stands near the end of the hallway, then Alex aggros them and draws them into the shooting gallery while keeping his distance and staying out of the line of fire, we should be able to thin their numbers before either of our heroes get injured.

Might need to split them up somehow, or use a diversion to try and sneak through.

Whatever the case, it seems a tiny bit dangerous so I'd go and explore the other unexplored path first tho.

This... seems like a bit much for us, at least for now. Especially if we're putting flesh roots behind us, though that shouldn't be necessary even if we do engage.

There's still a room to explore back near the entrance, right?

Alex 2022/11/27(Sun)19:29 No. 1050384 ID: ca2950
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Trying to be sneaky, we're able to get some shots in from around the corner, then lure a couple in to finish them off.

The others are almost certainly going to rush in after all the commotion. We should probably get ready to deal with that.

Light the chokepoint up! Get a wall of fire going that they have to deal with to get to you guys!

>>1050384
Brace! Get a defensive buff up, block their path, be the tank.
I don't suppose she can make spikes on the ground or something?

>>1050389
ooh clever, lets go with that.

Plant some mines.

Attack buff as long as Alex is only facing one enemy, Def buff if more.

Try to use the corridor length to string out the enemies - let the fastest ones get to you first and give Keimi space to nail them with more ranged attacks before they can reach you.

Alex 2022/12/15(Thu)08:28 No. 1051864 ID: ca2950
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The big one rushes up pretty quickly once the commotion starts and I nearly get smashed in the head.

"Kei! Shield!"

She obviously makes it in time, since the impact feels muted and I can block it without being thrown down the hall.

"Quick! Cast mines at its feet!"
"I can't do that!"
"Create a wall of fire to block them in!"
"I can't do that either!"
"What can you do?"
"I can run, because that thing's huge and it's gonna kill us!"

This thing is going to bulldoze me pretty easily if I just try to match it in a shoving contest.

"Alright, we either run or you slip past and see if it's guarding anything important, and maybe keep those little ones off me while I try to deal with this!"
"Are you nuts!?"
"Obviously, since I'm here in the first place! Pick something quick!"

My legs feel like they're gonna buckle. C'mon Kei, decide how we're doing this. It's your dumb alien ruin monster maze adventure.

We run, we cant hold this monster off for much longer, keimi slipping past would take too long

Oooh, of course the big one is the fastest one. Big enemies are only lumbering and slow in video games. Uh. Fuck it, try to juke it, then ruuuun!

To the narrow passage! This brute will be too big to get through and if it tries to squeeze in you can stab it lots!

Alex 2022/12/17(Sat)16:03 No. 1052080 ID: ca2950
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We make a sudden, strategic withdrawal and wind back through the passages until it doesn't seem like anything is following us. What the hell was that? Don't these weird underground monsters know they're supposed to gradually increase in power in line with our strength so it's moderately challenging the entire time. They can't just throw a giant kill-beast at us. It's not fair.

"Ah... So, what do we do now?" Keimi says.

"I dunno. Maybe we should get out of here and come up with some kind of plan, if we want to keep stirring up the ancient alien hive."

"Yeah. I guess it's not a good idea to keep poking at it if we can't handle it. We can head back.
I don't think there's much more we can do right now, right?"

>>1052080
There was a room right by where you entered that you haven't investigated yet.

Aren't there other unexplored rooms?

Yeah, lets explore the unexplored areas first before we decide to leave, like that room near where we entered

Turn to the flying vibrator for the plan.

of course, if you try and leave, the Wendigo will be waiting. Are they smart enough to set traps?

Perhaps its time to start killing the lumpy bits of the wall meat.

Bait the big strong fast monster into fighting the Wendigo! It'll be a ways to run, though. Can Keimi keep up?

Alex 2023/01/15(Sun)12:04 No. 1053832 ID: ca2950
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The room we didn't check when we got distracted by floaty ball is full of EVA suits.

"So whoever made this place was person-sized and shaped," Keimi says, checking the suits.

"I just kind of figured."

"You're not supposed to just figure! You're supposed to form a hypothesis based on collected evidence."

"That sounds like a hassle, so I'm just going to assume things."

She's starting to look irritated with me.

"You're a terrible scientist."

I shrug.

"Never claimed not to be."


I don't think this suit would be much help fighting these things. I don't think it's made for fighting or for using in gravity at all.

I mention to Keimi that we could try to lure the wendigo in here to fight the monsters and get rid of both threats at once.

"Yeah, I thought of that, but then I had to consider two things. The wendigo is avoiding this place, so it means that either it's afraid of these things or they're not digestible and it doesn't consider them food.
Considering how savage wendigos are when hunting, I'm thinking it's probably the latter. If we get it to come in here, it might focus on us, since we're actual prey items, then we'd have double the monster problem."

"Okay then, what should we do?"

Keimi thinks for a moment.

"I dunno."

Just go home. Keimi was talking about going back earlier.

Communicate with the floating beepy Alexa drone and see if there's anything we can do to gain the upper hand against Punchy Big Boi. Going home brings us back up against the Wendigo, no need to risk that again without trying to find another way out.

>Suit not made for gravity
So... this is some kinda ancient spaceship that got buried in the mountain? Wow.

>Don't think the suit would be of much use
Hold on, if it's supertechy, what if it has a battery pack or something that still has some juice? Maybe that could be connected to that console the little drone wanted us to activate.

Also, if those things are detecting people by way of body heat or whatnot, maybe the suit could trick them into thinking you're inorganic? Or be a way for you to hide through hopping into it and sealing it up. Though if it's clumsy to move about in, I wouldn't take a chance on the former. These guys do have stuff that can (weirdly) melt clothes while seeping into the skin to KO you.

>Just leaving
If all else fails, we could, but maybe we should just take a shot (hah) at that torso thing? For how important it seems it wasn't as well defended as that other room.

>>1053832
EVA suits make for decent armor... Alex could wear one to fight the big monster. Or maybe the Wendigo would be afraid of you if you wore it? Or consider you to not be food at least?

>>1053843

EVA suits are typically custom-fitted to specific individuals, and also are incredibly unwieldy to move around in. You could spend a lot of time and use one as a base materials to *make armor with*, but they aren't really good for fighting.

Well, not this design at least. You'd need an armored mechanical counter-pressure suit or something, or something with powered mobility assist to counteract the 'you're a person-sized inflated balloon and can thus barely bend' issue, and those two things are even MORE custom made.

Alex 2023/01/23(Mon)04:38 No. 1054492 ID: ca2950
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"Alright, Alex. I've thought of a few options that don't introduce more slavering monsters to the situation.
We can try to force that door open like this floaty eyeball seems to be trying to indicate we should, or I could distract that big monster and lure it past you, so you can sneak in behind it and see what it's got back there, maybe take out the small monsters while you're at it," Keimi says nonchalantly.

"That sounds a bit dangerous."
"As opposed to what? Besides, I'll sure to be fine, because my speed is superior!" she retorts.
"Kei, it's a big, powerful monster and you're a nerd with stubby legs."
Keimi huffs indignantly.
"Okay, whatever. I'll use my small to hide as soon as you sneak past it and I can always scream if something goes wrong and you can come save me," she says, wagging her finger. "Or we can just do something else, if you're that worried."

>>1054492
Let's force the door open. Boost Alex's strength a lot and just manhandle it. ...no crowbars around huh?

Seconding forcing open the door. Be the Tom to her Ruby!

>>1054493
>>1054503
It's a spaceship, even if it's old the bulkheads should be quite difficult to get up.

Maybe you could be clever about it, though - there might be some sort of manual release to these things built into the wall. That might be more forceable than the door itself.