1/2 Clamp 2012/04/21(Sat)11:34 No. 402916 ID: c811c4
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"Alright, which dwarf is in charge here?"
>"That would be ol' Captain Ironcurtain. What business do ya want with 'em?"
"We ain't staying here. You dwarves can come with us get left for the undead. I'm done with th' cat, just gonna leave him in that cabinet."
>"We're no homeless shelter for the undead. I am purging this monstrosity."
>"WAIT A SECOND I'M NOT DO-"

Foomf!

Don't care much to see 'em get killed like that, but care even less to stop th' dwarf.

2/2 Clamp 2012/04/21(Sat)11:34 No. 402917 ID: c811c4
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Eh? Got real dark out of nowhere. It's spookin' both my clan and th' dwarves, and I can't blame 'em. Torches are still lit, but ain't given off much light.

>"Somethin' evil is comin." the cleric says.

>>402916
Duke noooooo :(
We should probably leave
in fact, why haven't ye?

>>402917
"Idiot. There were reasons why I didn't do that."

If anything crawls out of the darkness toss the rash Dwarven Cleric at it to buy the rest of your group time. Besides the practical benefits, this'll make sure the dwarves understand that you're in charge and that, as long as they're with you, nothing gets done unless you want it done.

Scary darkness approaches and all he can say is "Something evil approaches"? No shit!

Anyways. Torches ready, and get set to run, the lot of you. Also, you might might want to warm up a healing spell or two - it's going to get a trifle undeady in here, if you know what I mean.

Wait a second - by letting Duke get purged, will we draw the ire of Tom? I mean, he's got to have a least SOME sentimental attachment to his non-former self. Alternate previous body. Ugh. Whatever.

"right up until now the undead under the litches command were more or less doing what they could to help us while working around the commands the litch had given them. you just executed one of there friends for no real reason, now they are probably going to be out for our blood above and beyond what they were ordered too do."

Duke became Tom in the Chaos god's dreamworld, ja? And this world's timeline is supposed to match up as closely as possible to the dreamworld's timeline, with different events but the same ultimate results. We just made it impossible for Duke to become Tom...


...did we just break the world?

>>402959
It's Chaos, if anything a paradox would probably just make Tom's domain more powerful.

Tell the cleric if he can make a holy light, do it. Call out the mages to make fire or light if they can. Order everyone to grab torches, lit and unlit, what supplies they can carry, and make for the tunnel door. Everyone stick together, and keep a light source at all times. We're heading out now!

>>402959
When the gods recreated the dreamworld continent and integrated it into their world, they did not recreate the artifact that made Tom. That artifact was a plant in the old chaos god's dream by the other gods anyway, as a way to teach the old chaos god a lesson about his reckless ways by creating a being like him in the dreamworld.

We need to leave, NOW.

1/2 Clamp 2012/04/23(Mon)01:28 No. 403556 ID: c811c4
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"Cleric, there's a reason I din't go and do that. You able to make any holy light or somethin'?"
>"O' course I can do the like!"

"Everyone, grab some torches, and make back to the tunnel door! We're leavin' right now!"
>"Oy! Those're our torches." the dwarven soldier yells.
"An' I'm takin' them. You comin' with us?"
>"Like 'ell! What're our men doing up at the entrance?! If somethin' were gettin' by them, we'd be hearin' a lot o' racket!"

Gnolls an' all get runnin' back to the tunnel fer a good chokepoint, but the dwarves are hanging back. Figure I'd be last to go among my own, all things considered.

>"Whatever's a' comin' is nearly on us! I can feel the taint o' evil in the air." says cleric.
"Jus' get through the door, shorty."
>"I won't be leaving my brethren at the front door till I know there's nothing that can be done! Draw your sword, gnoll, it is here!"

2/2 Clamp 2012/04/23(Mon)01:29 No. 403557 ID: c811c4
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Ain't exactly the visage of terror that pops out, yellin' at me from down th' hall.

>"Hey! Hey, um, excuse me, but, which one of you killed my boyfriend?"

>>403557
We need a distraction, so lets make it a double.
Gesture to the cleric
"That nimrod.
Oh, and a little birdie told me Tom can help if you bring the remains to his altar and ask. There's one back that way."
Gesture back the way you came.
Anything that's dating a zombie has to be some kinda agent of chaos, and duke was prolonging this whole conflict by betraying the lich to help you survive. Those are both things that scream Tom, so she should be able to get Duke back by becoming Tom's agent. It's certainly her best chance, at least.

Minci! :D

Be polite to her, and cooperate with her. She means you no harm, and might even be able to help you a little!

She'll probably wipe the floor with that doofy dwarf, though.

1/2 Clamp 2012/04/23(Mon)03:50 No. 403570 ID: c811c4
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"This guy."
>"Aye, it was me, ya witch. I would do it again! How did ya get through the gates? What did you do?!" says cleric.
>"They let me in!" the girl says.
>"Horse dung they did!"
>"I'm sorry, but I had to. I want to resurrect Duke. He's not a bad guy, and please don't worry, no one is scrying on me, I'm not your enemy!"
>"Fools errands for great evils! Gnoll, we've had a terse understanding, but if you want to work with an obvious trickster, you can count the dwarves right o ----"

2/2 Clamp 2012/04/23(Mon)03:51 No. 403571 ID: c811c4
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>"Ya know, maybe it wouldn't be too much trouble to let a girl through."

Cleric got a change of tone real quick.

"There's a chaos god shrine down this tunnel. Try that, girl."
>"I'm not allowed to worship the chaos god! You're Clamp, right?"
"Who's askin'?"
>"My name is Flora."

"Well Flora, your boy Duke wasn't my enemy, just a liability, and even that wasn't his fault. If I'd wanted him dead I'd have done it myself a long time ago. If all you want to do is bring him back, I won't stand in the way."

"funny feeling, think chaos god would be your best bet with getting help with duke"

Well there's other gods there, too. We are a disciple of Pi, ourselves, so we should probably recommend her.

1/2 Clamp 2012/04/23(Mon)04:41 No. 403583 ID: c811c4
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"Woulda thought the chaos god woulda liked zombie dating. Didn't care much for Duke, so I ain't gonna get in yer way if you want to go revive him. There's other gods too, dunno how much they care for revivin' the undead."
>"That's the problem, gods don't do that sort of thing, especially since Lokirm is the one who has Duke's soul! It has to be Lokirm that revives him, but it's very expensive. Lokirm told me that to make it worth replanting his soul, I would have to get rid of 5 of your allies."

2/2 Clamp 2012/04/23(Mon)04:41 No. 403585 ID: c811c4
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>"Sooooooooooooooooo...."

>>403585
SWORD.

"so lokrim needs to die and i need to steal dukes soul from him"

>>403583
"Lokirm's playing ya. Duke's too useful to sit on like that, but he's using the threat as leverage to make you do what he can't. Probably trying to arrange things so you'll be his slave too.
Don't pay him to fix his own toys, buy Duke with the fixing.

Still, define 'get rid of'.

Oh, and doing things gods don't do is Tom's bit."

>>403583
"Well, alright, you've probably charmed about 5 dwarves that were sorta allies. I bet you could turn those against me easily. That counts."

>>403593
Or just send them off in a different direction.
Honestly? Dwarf Cleric kinda showed why we don't want to travel with them, but lets not mention that. She can take credit for it.

that doesn't necessarily mean kill. you could just let her charm 5 dwarves into going there own way rather than following you.

Clamp 2012/04/23(Mon)05:57 No. 403624 ID: c811c4
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Start pullin' out my sword.

"Define 'gettin rid of.'"
>"Er, nono, not like that! I wouldn't do that, I just.. need to get them to be not your allies."
"Looks like th' dwarves are a fan. They were gonna be my allies, but they can stay by you if they want."

>"Oy, I din't like you much either, gnoll." the cleric goes on.

>"Really?" Flora says. "I mean, that's great! I didn't know you really got to team up with them! Can I, uhhh, have all the dwarves? It might help if Duke dies again, and if you didn't really care about the dwarves anyways?"

"sigh, look, i may not care for them too much but i can't just hand over a fort of people."

"You can make 'em not allies, but I'll protest if you sacrifice them to Lokrim for undead experiments and the like, as Pi would likely protest a betrayal like that as they'd be old allies. Just convince them every man for themselves, I suppose? I imagine we'll still be using the fort as a defense point regardless of alliances, but we'll probably be in different sections. I mean, this is going to get pretty confusing, but whatever counts. Get your boyfriend back I don't care. Just hurry up and go poof back to Lokrim saying you did your job."

Clamp 2012/04/23(Mon)07:50 No. 403658 ID: c811c4
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"Ain't gonna hand over an entire fort. Aint' likin' the idea of Lokirm gettin' his bony mitts on short sacrifices."
>"Oh no no, Lokirm isn't like that! He doesn't just.. well.. okay, he's been more, uh, proactive of his lichdom recently, but he accepts servitude in life as well! I'll try to make sure the dwarves get good homes!"
"Keepin' them as pets?"
>"Er, no, not.. that's not what I meant!"
"Well go on then, get outta here."
>"Okay Clamp thank you very much I won't forget this!"

Looks like we're goin' back into the tunnels after all, if my clan got spooked by a dainty girl.

Begs the question of if we're gonna go back and go straight under the kobold fort like Hilt said, or try an' go straight into the dwarven heartland.

that's probably the most terrifying thing we have seen any of lokrims people do so far. she just walked in and took those dwarves. she wasn't out of breath, she wasn't distracted by the effort of overriding that many minds, she just willed it and they fell into line. even the cleric who presumably had the protection of his god. I think the only reason we have a chance is that lokrims minions like us better than they do him, if she was willing to go to the wall for lokrim rather than just do the minimum to protect her and her boyfriend she could probably have taken your entire clan on her own. if we are going to sruvive this I think our only hope is to make sure that no one who lokrim sends after us really wants to catch us.

What's in the Dwarven Heartland that we'd be interested in? We've got a possible lead on that anti-lich weapon being under the kobolds': I say we head there.

>>403702
My guess would be reinforcements.

>>403658
We are not going further into dwarven territory.

Now that Tom's not stuck to you, heading to the kobold's might not lead Lokirm's forces there. Though, you do still have that hidden undead of unknown allegiance in your group... Eh, screw it. The more time you dick around trying to find a way to ferret out that undead guy is time Lokirm has to find the kobold's fortress otherwise.

Pack up and head to the kobold's fort. As much as you'd wish you had some dwarven paladins on your side for this fight, at best it would have been a long shot.

1/3 Clamp 2012/04/24(Tue)01:04 No. 403986 ID: c811c4
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Darn unnerving. This ain't a dwarven mountainhome proper, but it ain't relaxing living in world where a succubi can waltz in and waltz out with dwarves in tow.

I get Hilt to smooth things over with th' dwarves. Ain't sure why I bother with any talkin' when I got that pup around. He comes off as weird and buddy-buddy, which is a darn sight better than me doin' the talkin'. Whatever he says, he gets the dwarves convinced that we're not at fault for that succubi deal, an' it coulda been a whole lot worse than it turned out.

2/3 Clamp 2012/04/24(Tue)01:04 No. 403987 ID: c811c4
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Th' trek back to the kobold cave entrance is no trouble, aside from squabbles between gnolls, lamias and dwarves. Th' dwarves ain't feelin' like they're gonna make it outta here alive, and some were wishin' to have gone down fightin' the undead rather than whatever evil they say is lurkin down here. Us gnolls are just sick o' walkin' the whole time an' havin' to sleep on lamia's backsides from those reapers, an' the lamia's are jus' sick of the dwarves always thinkin' we're all gonna die.

Din't think I'd be so happy to start uncoverin' the entrance to the cave of unspeakable danger.

3/3 Clamp 2012/04/24(Tue)01:05 No. 403988 ID: c811c4
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Ain't much to look at inside, aside from the size of it all. Darn lot of side pockets and angled caverns goin' all over the place.

>>403988
...and giant furry things hanging on the walls? What are those?

Make a spot check for ambushes and traps

Okay so...."Cave of Unspeakable Danger"...would Hilt care to tell us more about these dangers? What are we up against, here?

Clamp 2012/04/24(Tue)02:56 No. 404024 ID: c811c4
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>Furry things hanging on the walls
Looks like some big shrooms. Big enough to pass for trees.

>Spot check for ambushes

"HEY."

Looks like the coast is clear. Ain't seein' any traps either.

"Hilt, get over here!"
>"Yeah, boss."
"You know more about this place than us. Change that."
>"Uh, right, not much to catch up on. There's driders, uh, somewhere. And the kobolds said there were demons and broken dungeons with treasures and all sorts of monsters around. We might just need to go in and see what we find, we can split up or stick together. We've got about 70 or so people total, so we can get a lot more ground covered if we split up without making anyone go off alone."

Yeah lets split up into groups to cover more ground. Just make sure leaf and grasswind are in your team. Leaf because he might be undead and he is useful. And grasswind so we can stop her doing anything stupid like she tried to do with the lamia

>>404024
30 people with you, 40 in the other group.

Or maybe 20,25,25.

Find a reasonably defensible position and establish a base camp. Leave Matron, the supplies, the pups, and whoever is the most tired there, with a group of about twenty as guards. Everyone else sticks together.

Pick a tunnel near the base camp and follow it for a hour, return to camp, then pick another and follow it for a hour. Repeat until all the tunnels near the camp have been checked, then move the camp to another group of tunnels. Keep doing this until you run out of tunnels or find a way to continue on.

>>403987
The Dream Reaper curse hasn't run out yet, like Pi said? It surely feels like fifteen days have passed. Wouldn't be surprising if your clan got cursed again after Duke got holy'd to re-death.

leaving matron and the pups behind in a defensive position seems like a wise choice

with 70 people splitting up is probably best. Hilt seems quite pro, have him lead the second team.

take Grasswind and Leaf in your squad.

>>421126
Totally not canon interlude while this is on break.

Thread 1 - End Clamp 2012/09/08(Sat)19:55 No. 452857 ID: f09b71
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Those Dream Reapers did go away, jus' like Pi said, so there's one less worry out of a whole lot.

Ain't gotta look around much to figure out that I'm gonna have to cover a whole lotta ground. Splittin' up is soundin' like the best option, easy.

So I'll be keepin' a close eye on Grasswind while keepin' leaf around fer sake of havin' someone competent. An' I may as well keep the dwarves n' lamia seperate so they don't get at each other's throats before whatever scampers in these tunnels do.

Matron an' the pups will hang around at the entrance, and there'll be a small band as well so nothin' gets to the shrimps.

Doesn't take long to get it all setup. Everyone's already all split up in their minds, and yet willin' to work together to get out of here fast. Nothin' else to do but to start wanderin' around with me and 19 others, hopin' fer the best.