File: 1.jpg (47 KB, 500x692)

47 KB JPG

>>4153917
>Gekky, a shy and artistic pink lamia with remarkable telepathic powers. Straddles a moral dilemma regarding the use of her psychic ability.
I thought you had succumbed to the curse

>>4153917
> Gekky, a shy and artistic pink lamia with remarkable telepathic powers. Straddles a moral dilemma regarding the use of her psychic ability.

>>4153927
>>4153961
In the mysterious sidereal universe beyond mortal perception, it is Gekky who takes up the torch. You assume leadership. You wrap your tail around the stone statue that is Terry and slither for your life.

Nembra: Allow me, your majesty!

Nembra's eyes glow again and your muscles begin to stiffen, until something long and blue leaps from nowhere and bites her on the nipple. You activate the shades on your helmet, rendering your immune from their gaze. Then you leap out of the castle, the tree, and shout to your friends to get the hell out of there.

Maddox: Oi, what's going on, ah? Hey-

Gekky: They turned him to stone!

Sara: What the hell?

You keep dashing back to where the portal was and the blue thing, that if you were an earthman would call a 'snake', interrupts you. And you can sense on a primal level that it wants you to follow it. It saved your life, so what harm could it do?

It leads you to another tree-village. There are no statues here but instead plenty more of its noodly kind wrapped around every branch. They're so small. Maddox and Sara are looking a tad uneasy.You begin to think to yourself - if anything, you should be the one who ought to be creeped out by them. Just imagine if there were tons of disembodied legs walking along the sidewalk! That's how all this would look like to your bipedal friends. But for some reason you cannot bring yourself to loathe them.

You enter a great conical hall, where a Lamia queen reclines on a pile of cushions lying on a fluffy round mat. She is draped in so many glittering jewels (and not much more!) you wonder how she stands up like that. She greets you and introduces herself as Queen Alsophis, who is fanned by her servants.

Alsophis: Greetings, foreigners. I applaud you for your valour in facing the gorgons - the likes of which your two-legged friend learned of too late. What brings you here?

Gekky: We're looking to find a portal so we can go fight Theo, you majesty.

Alsophis: Oh? So you seek to depose he who mandated me queen? Such ambition, friend - and for you to bring company along... Tell me, winged one, what is your name?

Of all people, she had to talk to Maddox. You brace for cover. Sweat pours down his forehead. His jaw is convulsing. Alsophis is holding back her urge to laugh as she lowers herself to his level, stretching out from her coil-pile on the pillows. With what little mental fortitude he has left, he answers.

Maddox: The name's Maddox Morgan, Majesty! We came from, well... don't know what to call it. The normal world, but I reckon you call this place the same thing.

Alsophis: Nevermind the contriviances of nomenclature. We know all about it, and have come to terms that this realm is but a daub of paint on the palette that painted the picture that is your world - and it ails me to wonder where the inspiration for you came from.

She tilts her head towards Ckaro. She turns back to you.

(Continued in next post)

>>4154230
Alsophis: So! You want to kill Theo, do you? Beat him into submission so you can rule over this dimension with an iron fist?

Gekky: N-no... he wants to reset everything because he admits he made it poorly... don't know much about that but hey, it's a prophecy.

She ignores you and gets really close to Maddox, then places her hands on his broad shoulders.

Alsophis: We haven't seen the likes of you in ages! Now that you're in our territory i'd like you to take the time to consider we've been giving birth to clones for decades because we've had none of that good masculine company all that time...

Maddox: With all due respect, majesty, what the heck are you talking about?

The whole room gasps.

Maddox: I've dreamed of that happening to me for years, majesty. But i've got to unstone my friend first, no matter what it takes.

Alsophis: You've got some nerve. I like that - maybe we should find a way to unfreeze your lanky friend there. How old are you?

Maddox: Fifteen.

Alsophis: Excellent! After this... or right now, if you prefer, I have some instructors at hand...

Maddox: I don't intend on staying. Neither do I want to pay child support.

Sienna's eyes burn with disgust.

Sienna: Your majesty, we have the fate of the universe at stake.

Alsophis: I am aware of that.

Sienna: Now is not the time to flirt with minors!

Alsophis tail-whips her out of the way. Sienna collides with the wall, and Ckaro and Sara come to help her up.

You have just about had enough.

> Hypnotize Alsophis

> Blast Alsophis with random stimuli. You call this psychic discipline "Neural Overload"

> Flee

> Write-In

>>4154250
>Blast Alsophis with random stimuli. You call this psychic discipline "Neural Overload"
Calm your... pussy ? Cloaca ?... lady

>>4154280
You draw upon your telepathic powers, and electricity pulses through your brain, amplifying to an unnatural extent. Then you focus it directly into Alsophis's sensory cortex, zapping it indiscriminately. Sara gasps as Alsophis somehow deflects it, projecting most of your power to Maddox. He reels back and spazzes out. For some reason Maddox turns to stone.

Gekky: Oh no! What's happened to him?

Sara is surprised. Before you can charge another neural overload, she rushes over to you, her ears flattened in fright.

Sara: No, stop it! Let me explain what's going on.

Gara: The heck are you talking about?

Sara: Do you know what species he is, Gekky?

Gekky: He's a human, you doggone moron.

Sara: You should have stopped assuming that since you saw him with wings. See that? He's a gargoyle. And a late bloomer. What you did should have knocked Alsophis out cold. But somehow when she deflected it, Maddox went through... I don't know, gargoyle puberty or something.

Gekky: You mean he turns to stone every time he sleeps?

Sara: They're heavy sleepers, all right.

You notice that Queen Alsophis hasn't attacked you since you started talking. How considerate of her to allow Sara to drop some exposition mid-fight. It must be an educational experience for her majesty.

Alsophis: Oh, how wonderful!

Gekky: The hell is wrong with you?

Alsophis: I had suspected your gargoyle friend was unable to autotransmute. That was just my own way of helping him find out he could.

Gekky: How'd you know about this?

Alsophis: Oh, I remember another one, who looked a lot like him. What was his name? Mur-mur-

You had met Maddox's dad at the boxing club. His name surfaces in your memory.

Gekky: Mr. Morgan - Murdoch Morgan!

Alsophis: Yes, that was it! He has four daughters here, somewhat older than your friend. The same thing happens to them.

Half-siblings, huh? You look at Maddox's petrified face, uncertain of what to think.

Alsophis: We've tried to trick the gorgons by having Petra stick themselves with little syringes full of Somnia's venom. Pity they found out and now she's stoned for good.

Gekky: And why should we help you after all you've done to us?

Alsophis: By now you should have realized that all this was part of my plan!

Gekky: Couldn't you have, just, you know - asked?

For the third doggone time, she ignores you. Getting mad will always ruin your judgement and get you in situations that only Maddox can cope with. You hold back your frustration at this condescending bitch who thinks she can play you like a violin.

Alsophis: My snakes told me the gorgons have a dimensional portal! We'll help you go there free of charge.

Your frustration evaporates so quickly for a moment there you suspect that she is quietly using subliminal messaging on you.

...On another note, is that what those little tails-with-heads are called? The mental image of a human with a hundred legs poking out from his scalp manifests in your imagination.

(Cont. in next post)

>>4154418
Alsophis: The gorgons are getting overly confident as of late. Some of them even have debilitating pollen weapons, now more of our warriors are getting stoned than ever before.

VIREEEEEN!!!

"Seriously, just give it up!" You think to yourself. "There's some big agenda going on, is there?"

Gekky: Oh, I just had an impression-

Sara: That this is the fault of an old, and annoyingly persistent adversary of ours.

Gekky: M-hm! What she said, your majesty!

Alsophis: I've put you through enough trouble as it is, so Dekayi will lead you to your rooms.

She gestures at a brown-scaled lamia with many black dots. Dekayi wears a tunic and a headband, and her arms are full of bracelets.

You can't say no to that. Camping out in the jungle is something you'll never intend to do.

Your tent is massive and comfortable, even for a lamia like you. There's a brazier, a pile of cushions and a round wicker bed, like the one you have at home with a more rustic feel to it. There's also a mezzanine with a bookshelf. Also there are shedding ointments, fang filers and everything else a lamia would need. Not to mention there are enough cushions for the others to sleep on. You see cracks forming on Maddox's face. Terry is as stone cold as ever.

> Ask Sara about gargoyles

> Tell Maddox about his half-siblings (bluntly or politely?)

> Ask Sienna and Ckaro about this plane

> Read books

> Write-In

The first thread wasn't saved? :(

>>4154426
>Ask Sienna and Ckaro about this plane
At first I thought that Gekky was some kind of lizard girl

>>4154542
(It wasn't very interesting. It was mostly just exposition and perhaps the most boring fight scene i've ever written. You're not missing out on much.)

>>4154570
(Gekky's a Lamia.)

> Ask Sienna and Ckaro about this plane

You slither over to the balcony, where Sienna reclines on a pile of cushions reading a novel. Ckaro is playing a video game.

Gekky: You've been here before, have you?

He pauses his game and lowers his console.

Ckaro: Yeah, We call it Greenbite. This place is a real moggy shithole. There's only one good reason why I like this place.

Gekky: Well, not all of it. For some reason I have an affinity with this place... I ought to be creeped out by all everything i'm seeing but for some reason I feel at home.

Sienna: It's instinctual, Gekky. Your ancestors probably came from here because you're arboreal. I'm not so good with heights, though. So i'm from somewhere else.

Gekky: Back home I tried to build a treehouse, But all of them broke down within a week. If I could just, like, transport my room here, it'd be paradise. You're right, Sienna. It all just feels so... right. We really do live in a weird mashup of every place we've traveled through so far.

Ckaro: And i've got a great idea! Know how those gorgons use a petrification beam, right?

Gekky: Yep.

You glance at Terry's statue.

Ckaro: There's only one thing that can reflect that beam. The scales of the rainbow coatl!

Sara paces over, wagging her black tail with enthusiasm.

Sara: Hey! Look at that!

Maddox is a stone statue again. Now he's T-posing.

Gekky: Seriously?

You pull your vivid and pop off the cap. You slither over to Maddox menacingly. You place your hand on him and he feels warm. That's funny. Right before you can draw a penis on his face, his rock covering explodes instantly as he waves his hands before you.

Maddox: Whoa whoa whoa!

Gekky: You can turn into stone at will, and you can still see and hear things! Once we get back home, i'm putting a hammer and chisel in the girls' bathroom at school, do you hear me?

Maddox: Roger that.

Gekky: Though that could come in handy.

> Hunt the coatl for its scales

> Use Maddox's spontaneous autolithotransmutation and Sara's shadowbinding to hide the team in Maddox's shadow while he's in his stone form so you can infiltrate the gorgons.

> Tell Maddox about his half-siblings (bluntly or politely?)

> Write-In

>>4155094
>Tell Maddox about his half-siblings (bluntly)

>>4155094
Holy shit I never thought I'd see this again. What the Fuck quest wishes it could be this bizarre.

> Hunt the coatl for its scales

Just the scales though don't hurt the thing.

>>4155117
> Tell Maddox about his half-siblings (bluntly)

Gekky: Yo, Maddox. While you were petrified the queen told me something.

Maddox: Did it have anything to do with my girth?

Gekky: Not far off. Your dad somehow got here before you were born and he made you a den of lamia half-sisters. Turns out they weren't late bloomers like you and they could self-petrify since they hit puberty.

You take a moment to let Maddox process what you just told him. Somehow his face is even more frozen than when he was petrified. But through his stiff and sweating expression you can see a whole rollercoaster of emotions - confusion, betrayal, amusement - the whole package. As gleefully idiotic as he is, you can't help but feel sorry for him. When you're sure he's ready for the next revelation you tell him

Gekky: Your half-sister tried to take them on not long ago and now she's part of their statue garden.

This is the first time you've seen him tremble.

Maddox: I've never seen her until now - I can't just let all this happen, man...

Gekky: I know this must be a lot to take in, but just bear with me, okay? We're all in this together. We-we- can go face your dad once this is done.

Maddox: The fate of the world... You know, only a world as contrived as ours could make us embark on a heroic quest for that reason when that is what i'm facing.

Gekky: Then I guess that's the real reason fate decided we should go this far anyway.

Maddox reaches into a cabinet and unfastens a wineskin. Despite being vastly underage he takes a single sip and sticks it into his bag.

Maddox: And if fate demands we bring her back, then it's no consequence that we crash into some bat-shit crazy coincidence that unpetrifies her

Gekky: It's as though this whole quest tossed us about at the behest of a machine...

Sara walks over.

Sara: Like a god. A god from the machine.

Gekky: We've come so far. Everything we could have done would have led us here.

Sara: Could it be that Theo himself predetermined every course of action we would have taken to lead to his defeat?

The two adults, Ckaro the Stickman and Sienna the Lamia, watch morosely. They do not join the conversation because they must have answered your question long ago.

Next morning you

>>4155473
> Hunt the coatl for its scales

But none of you have any experience hunting anything massive. Even Sienna hasn't volunteered in the Conservation Commandos. So Queen Alsophis presents you with a choice between two guides:

> Pituophi, who has a green-and-yellow checkerboard pattern and long curly blonde hair. She wears a large pink bow and enunciates every word she says with jovial confidence, although in no way naive. She seems all too happy to help you.

> Ciata, who has a red-and-brown pattern and a sneering expression framed by straight brown hair. Her eyes constantly dart left and right and she breathes unusually quickly. She fiddles a lot, especially with her earrings. You suspect that she has gotten them lately.

Pick one.

>>4155705
>Pituophi, who has a green-and-yellow checkerboard pattern and long curly blonde hair. She wears a large pink bow and enunciates every word she says with jovial confidence, although in no way naive. She seems all too happy to help you.

>>4155741
Pituophi: Hello-o-o-o!

She bounces up to you and shakes your hand vigorously. You are caught aback by her gregariousness. Ciata hangs her head in shame. She slaps her face.

Gekky: Uh, hi? Pitoo-oh-fee, is it? I'm Gekky, and we're going to hunt a coatl.

Pituophi: A coatl?! *gasp* Now that's something I haven't heard in a long time. Means we've got to go reaaaaally far south, see, and go to the last place we found a nest - the Hoary Canopy.

Gekky: Ah, thanks. Anything we should know about this place?

Pituophi: Oh, it's high. Reaaaally high. I once got altitude sickness up there so bad my venom glands froze up. So are you reaaaally sure you wanna go hunt that coatl?

Gekky: You know, universe at stake and all? We'd appreciate your help there.

Maddox and Sara nod. For a second there you picture Terry nodding too.

Pituophi: Don't know, stranger, because I'd be a bit careful when dealing with-

She leans close and whispers, her forked tongue flicking out

Pituophi: Poachers...

You shudder and clench your fists. Your tail curls up in surprise and dread. Now your only course of action is to bluff.

Gekky: P-poachers?

Pituophi: Those are veeeeery sacred animals. Some say they're even our great-great-great grandmothers. Are you sure you wanna hunt 'em?

She makes them puppy eyes.

Gekky: No, no, we don't intend to kill it! All we need are the scales. What we're gonna do is... uh... uh...

You don't sweat much because of your reptilian biology but boy are the waterworks on right now. And lo and behold, Sara intervenes.

Sara: We've got a very safe and harmless method of extracting scales. We do!

Gekky: Y-yeah! What she said! Know how much of a hassle it is to shed sometimes?

Her cute lilting accent is immutable. When she talks she moves around a lot. Is she made of rubber or something?

Pituophi: Yeah, you know right? When it goes bad I have to rub up against bark for aaages!

Gekky: We're gonna do that to the coatl. We have machines and stuff that can do that. She'll probably, uh, enjoy it.

Pituophi: Please tell me how it's done! If you come back here after your big world-saving adventure, that is.

Gekky: I hope we do.

After this bout of banter, you stop at a crucial decision.

> Leave Terry with the Lamias. You can trust them with him. He's petrified, so they won't get any ideas. You hope.

> Take Terry with you. Decide who's carrying him (Maddox, Sara, Sienna, Ckaro). Pituophi looks way too dainty and petite to carry him.

>>4155921
> Leave Terry with the Lamias. You can trust them with him. He's petrified, so they won't get any ideas. You hope.

RIP Terry. Symbiote powers will be missed.

>>4155921
>Leave Terry with the Lamias. You can trust them with him. He's petrified, so they won't get any ideas. You hope.
Funny thing is, when I started reading in the other threads I thought the MC was a girl

>>4156135
Yeah, someone else said that too. I wonder why.
>>4156056
> Leave Terry with the Lamias. You can trust them with him. He's petrified, so they won't get any ideas. You hope.

Sara: What about Ckaro?

You can't help but laugh.

Gekky: Can you imagine how thin it must be? They don't even want to talk to him! But anyhow, Pit, lead us to that tree!

Pituophi: I'm so excited!

She flaps her tail around. She works herself into a delirious frenzy. Ckaro moves out of the way. On the journey she can't stop babbling.

Pituophi: So, yeah, Her Majesty Al Sophie just wouldn't let me go here again because of the um, kobold patrols everywhere, so I said to her - Wow, would you look at that!

It's huge. It's astounding. It's unfathomable. There are massive hollows and whatnot.

Pituophi: Come on now, it's time to climb!

You wish you had Terry to help you up there. Maybe he could grow tentacles and claws using his symbiote to carry everyone, but for now, you're taking the helm in his stead.

The climb is arduous. Ckaro is planting his sword into the side and standing on it as he searches for a handhold. Sienna is terrified, so you are helping her up. Pit is helping Maddox with a bit too much enthusiasm. Aside from the groans and wheezes of the climb, her chirpy chatter fills the air. She is straight-up dazzled by virtually anything Maddox talks about.

You realize that your shortness of breath isn't caused by fatigue but rather high a altitude. But that doesn't discourage you. At last you find a vast hollow in the trunk. It's so cavernous you hear echoes coming from it. From here the climb gets much, much harder. By now it's midday. Sara is panting like, well, a dog.

Pituophi: I'm so scared... I wanna go back...

> Let Pituophi return home. She's done her job. Plus you can't trust her with Maddox.

> Insist that she stay overnight in the hollow. She needs to help you back down, too.

> Bypass the hollow. You need to get this done as quick as possible!

> Write-In

>>4157418
>Can you imagine how thin it must be? They don't even want to talk to him!
is that a dick joke ? did I miss his snu snu time with the lamias ?
>Insist that she stay overnight in the hollow. She needs to help you back down, too.

>>4157418
> Insist that she stay overnight in the hollow. She needs to help you back down, too.

Wasn't she just super excited as we were coming up? She's not even going to be facing the beast.

File: free.jpg (158 KB, 1280x720)

158 KB JPG

>>4157550

Yes. I forgot to mention that he's a stickman from another dimension. Light interacts with him as though it were shining on a piece of paper yet he remains 3d. And he's not wearing any clothes, so it's a matter of the imagination...

>>4157562
>Insist that she stay overnight in the hollow. She needs to help you back down, too.

Pit's a fickle one. She changed her mind in seconds. What did Alsophis intend, having gave you a choice between a potential schizophreniac and a moron in arrested development? You look at her with cold disappointment, as befitting one who so brazenly eschews her responsibilities.

Gekky: You ain't fighting the coatl. As hard as getting up there is, getting down is gonna be twice as hard so do your job.

Pituophi: But now that i'm up here it's so cooold!

Gekky: Do you want your queen to find out you left us hanging here? We've got a coatl to skin. And you don't even have to face it.

Pituophi: Good point, Gekky! I'll stay...

You set up camp in the hollow. It's damp and mouldy and there are many species of fungi. Inevitably you search for the driest parts. Sara puts her necrotic and cryomantic rays she learned from the priesthood at work to kill the mold and sweep it away. Now it's relatively comfortable. A thirsty Maddox uncorks his wineskin, only for it to be spoiled by a falling lump of steaming hot bat guano.

Maddox: Motherfucker!

Thrown into a rage, he swings his wineskin around like a flail, howling obscenities and lamenting the loss of his prized liquor. He returns to his default friendly state within ten minutes. The bats are still a problem. They make sleeping hard and Pituophi zealously defends her bow against them. It begins to rain outside, and the dampness wafts back in. Despite all this you manage to fall asleep.

Half an hour later you are rudely awakened by Sara's muffled screaming. Pituophi is wrapped around her. In one hand is her bow, and the other is around Sara's mouth. There is a long vine protruding where Pituophi's bow was, terminating into a flower that covers Sara's nose and mouth. Is there no-one you can trust here? You cry out for help, but you hear nothing in return, for no words come from mouths of stone. If only you had flayed the coatl at night!

You wake up to the smell of wine and bat shit and the sound of Maddox moping around.

Maddox: I'm useless! I only saved myself! What's wrong with me? Wai-

You are in a wicker cage. Shards of rock are scattered around. Maddox is holding his soiled wineskin.

Maddox: Did that just-

He splashes it again on Sienna this time. Her rock covering crumbles and she emerges, taking a deep breath.

Maddox: Now that's what I call-

Gekky: Bat-shit crazy!

You shush him. His aim is far enough to douse everyone else in your team.

Gekky: We must be with the gorgons!

Maddox: I petrified myself before they could. The moment I freed myself I thought I was some selfish bastard!

(Cont. in next post)

>>4157737
Gekky: We all know who the real selfish bastard is here...

Pituophi is slithering back to the statue garden, looking rather pleased with herself. Vireen's vines and flowers are everywhere. You realize you are standing with several other stone statues. Sara is walking by her side, draped in nothing but vines and flowers. There is a particularly large building perched between two boughs in the distance.

Sienna: It might not be her fault. She must have ingested some of Vireen's pollen. That's why she's got her flower on her head.

Gekky: We've got to do something!

> Smear rock dust all over yourself to disguise as a caged statue.

> Get Maddox to free everyone from the cages. Bolt for the building. Fight Sara if you must.

> Get Maddox to break the cages quietly and sneak to the building covertly.

>>4157737
>Pituophi is wrapped around her. In one hand is her bow, and the other is around Sara's mouth. There is a long vine protruding where Pituophi's bow was, terminating into a flower that covers Sara's nose and mouth. Is there no-one you can trust here?
Spy sapping our mission
>>4157743
>Get Maddox to free everyone from the cages. Bolt for the building. Fight Sara if you must.

File: statue.jpg (146 KB, 720x900)

146 KB JPG

>>4157754
It's time to cut the crap.

Gekky: Pry 'em good n' wide!

In a display of herculean strength Maddox opens his cage, and does the same to the rest in seconds. The statue garden is so cluttered you can barely navigate it, and it's so smeared full of vines and moss you doubt Pituophi and Sara can see you. It's time for the element of surprise. Signalling to the rest, you lead them down what constitutes a path on this massive branch and start to slither like your life depended on it.

> Fight Pituophi and free Sara. You need her to infiltrate the building with her priestly powers.

> Leave her behind. You can do this with the people you have with you right now. (Maddox, Sienna, Ckaro)

> Write-In

>>4158648
> Fight Pituophi and free Sara. You need her to infiltrate the building with her priestly powers.

We can't abandon a party member to Vireen's lackies.

>>4158648
>Fight Pituophi and free Sara. You need her to infiltrate the building with her priestly powers.

>>4158655
>>4158741
You ain't leaving the oracle behind. With a jerk of your head so hard your beret almost falls off you signal the rest to run ahead. You dash along the cut wooden path, flanked by shelf fungi and ivy, with such vigor that Pituophi notices too late when Maddox leaps on your tail and you propel him like a catapult. His foot slams into her face and she falls unconscious.

You have the element of surprise on your side. Maddox pauses for a bit. He hesitates, not only because how she's naked and covered in vines, but because he doesn't trust his own strength. His eyes dart left and right, searching for a place he can hit her without seriously injuring her.

Sara responds by rotting the branch above you. You hear the hum of her necrotic rays and the crackle of decaying wood, the hissing noises of this plane's fungi at a terrible speed. An acrid stench billows down on you as splinters and sawdust rains from above.

With nothing else to do, Maddox sweeps her legs with a well-placed kick, but he's too late. The branch crashes down, kicking up dust everywhere, as the statue garden tips over. Sara runs away. You're clinging to the branch. You look up. Maddox helps you and the adults back on. You look back down. You don't know just how far those statues have fallen, but by the looks of it they're dust and rubble.

Maddox: Let's get her!

Gekky: Wait! There might be more gorgons patrolling the place!

Maddox: Oh shit, what do we do about that? We don't have the coatl scale!

Gekky: That mixture you have in that wineskin - how did you make it?

Maddox: Make it?!? Some goddamn bat ruined my booze!

Gekky: Well that goddamn bat just made us another solution. We could smear that on ourselves and charge in.

Sienna winces at your idea.

Maddox: But-but-but I only have enough for two more people. Dang that traitor, it would have been way more fun to skin that coatl!

> Charge the castle after you've covered everyone with Maddox's depetrification solution. You'll be able to make some later.

> You need it to depetrify Terry. What are the chances of you making the same thing again? Get Maddox to seek out Sara himself. He can fly.

> Hypnotize Pituophi and see if you can get rid of Vireen's influence. Then command her to find Sara for you.

> Cover yourself with stone dust and pretend to be statues until someone comes along to check the wreckage.

>>4159082
>Hypnotize Pituophi and see if you can get rid of Vireen's influence. Then command her to find Sara for you.

>>4159082
> Charge the castle after you've covered everyone with Maddox's depetrification solution. You'll be able to make some later.

I mean it's bat shit and booze. Plenty of bats in the hollow and plenty of booze everywhere.

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>4159118
>>4159203
Rolling...

>>4159301
> Charge the castle after you've covered everyone with Maddox's depetrification solution

Gekky: As dramatic as I can see this getting, the best course of action is to lather up, everybody!

Sienna: But Sara-

Gekky: We can help her after we beat Vireen! Tally-ho!

You remove your clothes and have Maddox drizzle it over everybody. The smell is unbearable but that's nothing in comparison to beating that vindictive bitch who probably spent half of her daddy's allowance dragging you into this quest. You dance and flail, undulating under the stink of booze and bat shit. You're positively soaked.

By the time the castle is near a group of gorgons keep their distance and use their petrification beams all at once. You hear the noise of ceramics smashing over and over again. Shards of rock are flying out of your bare skin. You remove your top and shake the assorted clanking scree from it. Maddox is prompted to do the same until he's running around with his drawers stuffed full of rock. Enough is enough and by the time you're past the guards you're completely naked.

You envy Ckaro.

The doors are massive. And they're slightly open. So before anyone can protest, Maddox shuts them. Then he kicks both as hard as he can and they go in flying, wrecking pretty much everything inside the hall. You wish Sara and Terry were here to see this. The solution is drying up on your bare skin.

The place lacks a roof. In any other context this would be anticlimactic - you would have expected a dark and monstrous fortress laden with spikes and skulls. You tie your soaked shirt over your face. Gorgons, dozens of gorgons, stand at attention, garbed in the same manner as Sara, who looks down, glassy-eyed, from a mezzanine. They've huffed way too much of Vireen's stuff.

Every centimeter of wall and floor is mired with lustrous vines, blooming bright with a hundred colours of flowers. All leading to a central nectar-filled central flower.

Its huge petals are closed. The gorgons stand still. At the foot of the flower lies a petrified lamia.

> Grab the petrified lamia

> Attack Vireen. Show no mercy.

> Get someone else to fight Vireen while you try to recover Sara.

> Write-In

>>4159338
>Get someone else to fight Vireen while you try to recover Sara.

>>4159338
> Get someone else to fight Vireen while you try to recover Sara.

Fight her brainwashing with our brainwashing!

File: overgrown.jpg (76 KB, 333x500)

76 KB JPG

>>4159349
>>4159482
>Get someone else to fight Vireen while you try to recover Sara.

If there's one thing Vireen Vainglory proved you can outsource, it's petty vengeance. The gorgons are no threat - they're simply spectators. The great central flower stands bulbous, yet it exudes an aura of unparalleled power. Maddox trembles as her nubile silhouette writhes behind the petals, backlit by twin braziers. The scene is so graceful, so sensuous, that you almost let your guard down. But your sense of justice keeps your shit-stained shirt over your mouth and nose. A single whiff of that tantalizing scent could end the world.

The flower opens.

Vireen reclines in a pool of her own nectar. She eyes you contemptuously. Maddox wipes the drool from his chin. All of you are struck speechless.

Vireen: Where's your boyfriend Terry?

You don't answer. She keeps taunting you.

Vireen: I know where Sara is.

She looks at Ckaro.

Vireen: You brought an interdimensional traveller with you - no, two members of that pesky agency. Who from the looks of it gave fuck-all helping you. Letting the kids play their own game of 'chosen one'.

Gekky: How do you know this, fruit salad? How convenient, you being in league with this whole dimensional reset prophecy.

She scoffs.

Vireen: Sara must have forgotten to tell you that the prophecy tells us our dimension splitting in two. We stand at a nexus of fate! One, where you defeat Theo and save the universe. And another, where he resets the world - and crowns me as his successor.

Gekky: I guess we're all puppets in the loom of fate after all.

Vireen: And that is why I do not fear defeat nor mortality, for I know that I will rule supreme in another timeline!

Gekky: So why not just give up?

Vireen: It's always worth giving it a try, you know.

Vireen shrugs. You slither towards her.

Vireen: Oh? So you're approaching me?

Gekky: I can't beat the shit out of you without coming closer.

You signal to Sienna. Thirty vines rush at you, but just in time you curl your tail into a spring. Then you bounce, the air rushing against your pointed ears, onto the mezzanine as Sienna fights Vireen hand-to-hand as Ckaro hacks and hews every vine that comes her way. Maddox's cardboard sword Pussy Slayer does surprisingly well against plant matter.

Sara is wearing the Giantess Rammer, a jetpack with boxing gloves duct taped to it. Instantly she turns it loose and collides with you in midair, but a sudden twist lessens the blow. You overpower her and tear the vines from her body. They're sticking to her fur and the residue will take ages to wash off. She pants louder and louder until she starts wheezing. Saliva mixed with pollen is pouring down her chin.

Gekky: Sara... if you're still in there-

You give her the ol' Ocular Inducement. Sara gurgles and spits out a chunk of congealed nectar. The smell is delightful.

Sara: I have a plan.

You look down from the mezzanine. Then you stand in a very, very erect posture.

(Cont. in next post)

>>4160161
Maddox gets the idea. He keeps fighting. At this point Sienna is getting vine-dunked into a massive flower like Vireen's and it shuts over her. She claws uselessly at the petals from inside as it fills up with fluid.

Vireen: Nembra! Stone that pint-sized palooka!

Nembra's eyes flash in the crowd but Maddox self-petrifies before she can do it to him. Vireen cheers and they gloat over her victory by singing the corniest songs imaginable. You can barely contain your laughter. A chuckle interrupts Sara's incantation.

Nembra: Goody! We did it!

Vireen: Yes... yes! The world is mine!

Nembra: Are you gonna make me the Consul-Despotrix of Wesflow now?

Vireen: Sure can do! We're gonna have so much fun remaking every city to my image!

You finish the incantation and feel once more the shimmery and tingly feeling of being stuck inside someone else's shadow. Nembra is feeling Maddox up.

Nembra: Why's he still warm?

Sara casts a quick frost ray at him.

Nembra: Nah, just my imagination. Back to celebrating. Yippee! We did it! Woohoo!

Sara withdraws her spell and both of you jump at the same time. With a single frosty blast Vireen's nectar pool is frozen solid and her nipples are harder than yours are when you laugh too hard. Vireen's pupils each shrink to the size of a grain of vaginal sand milliseconds before your fists collide with her face. You bring down hell on her and ten minutes later she lies facefirst on the woefully undersized fragrant skating rink that is her pool. There are a number of weapons suspended in it. Nembra squeals and darts away.

Sara kills the flower Sienna is drowning in with a necrotic ray. Then she fishes her out. Maddox unpetrifies himself, and now he's shivering, his hands over his crotch.

Maddox: Sara... did you really have to cast that on me so low?

Sara: Sorry about that, we couldn't aim higher.

There's a single leaf in Vireen's flower-pool with a tag reading "Dimensional Portal".

What?

After helping up Ckaro, you return to the lamias. You hold up the purple leaf between your thumb and forefinger.

> "The heck do I do with this?"

> "What's this for?"

> "Do we have to eat this?"

>>4160205
>"What's this for?"

>>4160205
> "The heck do I do with this?"

Portal right to Theo?
Also finally Vireen is off our backs!

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>4160241
>>4160352
Rolling...

File: hookah.jpg_large.jpg (166 KB, 618x773)

166 KB JPG

I forgot to write the scene shortly after Vireen's defeat. Please retcon this before Gekky finds the leaf.

Maddox squats down and looks at the lamia statue at her feet. She looks like a regular lamia except that she has tiny horns and dinky little vestigial bat wings that probably wouldn't work. His eyes are filled with base astonishment, unable to comprehend what he is seeing, yet he feels a sense of duty, as though the universe intended him to coincidentally run into her.

Maddox: I've got to give Theo props for this. Now i'm more convinced than ever he's set up all these coincidences for us.

He lugs his half-sister overhead. You lead the way out of the fortress. There's only one last place you need to go to before you reunite the whole gang. On the way there you wash yourselves in a stream. It doesn't wash all the stink off but it's better than nothing. Later, Maddox flies up to the hollow and fills his wine-skin half with bat guano.

You look at the statue and imagine what it would be like to live not knowing you had a long lost relative for fifteen years.

>>4160399
> "What's this for?"

Alsophis: Well, where's Pituophi?

You explain the situation.

Alsophis: That's unfortunate. And what's this about a depetrification solution?

She is frankly giddy with delight once you explain the fortunate coincidence that led to Maddox's wine being spoiled and you being freed. Alsophis has Terry brought to you. She has a servant pour a draught of wine into your guanoskin and you splash Terry with it. A crack runs along his stony covering and then it explodes. He gasps.

Terry: Wha-what went on?

Gekky: You've missed out on a lot, Terry.

Terry: That I can tell.

You explain everything that happened since he got petrified. He's very impressed with you.

Terry: Thanks for covering for me. I was getting tired of carrying everyone in the team.

You and Terry chuckle for a moment.

Maddox pours another on his half-sister.

Maddox: Hey, uh, i'm your brother.

She handles it particularly well, and introduces herself as Madeline Morgan. The audacity of Mr. Morgan to give his illegitimate daughter a name like that, especially here!

Madeline: How... how many years have I...

Alsophis: Two weeks.

Madeline: I don't know where my dad's from but I sure as hell am leaving this place. Anything beats being some footsoldier in a war that doesn't concern me!

Alsophis: Now that your emotional reunion is concluded, follow me. I was expecting a lot more tears.

She leads to to a tall room full of huge brocade cushions. In the centre there stands a massive hookah, with a little lever at the bottom that a servant pulls and the water in it is boiling. Alsophis gestures to you and you give her the purple leaf. She snaps the tag off. She extends herself until she's standing on a single tiny loop of golden tail, and casually drops it into the boiling water.

Alsophis: I bid you well on your quest.

Each of you puts a hookah pipe in your mouth.

(Cont. in next post)

File: astralplane.jpg (98 KB, 564x816)

98 KB JPG

>>4160487
Six drift through eternity. Gekky, Terry, Sara, Ckaro, Sienna and Madeline. In the mists of the void they see the strings of fate and look back at the grand convergence - the path of Vireen's victory hangs to the side, which is the path of Vireen's defeat.

They can see every possible fate for your dimension like tree branches, and this time they have diverged into two main splays. Looming above it all is an inconceivable presence whose divine agency decides it all.

???: You know, the other demiurges would outsource this kinda timeline stuff to another deity. But no, they just wouldn't let me create lesser gods! They wouldn't! I'm just trying to get along, take a little inspiration from everyone else and all of a sudden they're all up in arms against each other. And - oh. It's you guys. Looks like i'm on -that- path.

Terry: Is that you?

Theo: Who else would ya find floating above the loom of fate, moron? It's me, Big T! Funny how Jayk forced my ass to split the timeline like this. For what - some kind of phenomena that would affect everybody else? Bullshit!

Terry is staggered upon watching a god behave like this.

Theo: You already had your big fat boss fight with that pissy little green bitch. Now go pat yourselves on the ass and go back home and tell yourselves you're big damn heroes. Maybe even suck each other off, you need it.

Ckaro unsheathes his sword. He walks a few paces and thwacks Theo on the head with the pommel so hard he manifests a humanoid form. He yells at the sky, but it's hard to tell where up and down is here in Theo's celestial abode.

Theo: Ach! Was beating me into submission not enough, Jayk? Did you really have to send someone from your dimension to do this to me?

The void ripples with crimson scars. Nebulae manifest and disappear as reality distorts. In the distance roars a sound like thunder.

Theo: Dammit! You guys are insufferable!

Lord Jayk: None of this would have happened if you had actually listened during your lessons, instead of cheated in your tests!

Theo: Shut up! It's my own style!

The squabbling continues for hours. Maddox is explaining everything to Madeline, who after twenty minutes fails to understand what's going on before her. Terry is sitting down in midair and is playing a handheld video game with Sara. Sienna is leaning back reading a horror novel. Theo eventually cracks.

Theo: Ugh, fine! Listen up, you have one chance to change the nature of this dimension as you know it, which would you rather have your world plunged into?

> Hollow-Earth style bubble world made from the gases of a decaying god floating upwards in a massive cosmic ocean. One day the bubble will reach the surface and be a flat world. The Cosmic Congelation awaits.

> Infinitely flat world divided into hexagons larger than the world you've known. Between every hex is a massive chasm. Sliding night-shields determine day or night.

> A zillion gumballs bouncing inside a coconut but they never collide.

>>4160547
>A zillion gumballs bouncing inside a coconut but they never collide.

File: gumball.gif (51 KB, 408x562)

51 KB GIF

>>4160603
(The top-right is how said dimension looks, by the way. I'll leave this open until tomorrow.)

>>4160547
> A zillion gumballs bouncing inside a coconut but they never collide.

anything to avoid a flat world

>>4160603
>>4161110
> A zillion gumballs bouncing inside a coconut but they never collide

After quietly discussing among each other, you conclude upon the last worldshape.

Terry: We'd like the bubble one, Big T.

Theo: Big T, huh? I bet that's what they call you back home.

Sara: The round one? Won't we fall off?

Theo: You won't, pal. Have faith in me, like you did with my prophecy.

Terry: Thank you, Your Everythingness.

Theo: No problem. Congratulations on your journey to my domain, which is more than I can say for the alternate timeline versions of you. By now I take it you're a bit homesick. And a bit bewildered. But know that you've saved your dimension from my wrath.

Gekky: All this because of a pair of shoes. Might still have them somewhere.

Theo: Oh, and Maddox.

Maddox: Yeah, huh?

Theo: After you're done pleading guilty on behalf of Mrs. Attercop, I hope the ensuing conversation with your dad will be easier than it sounds.

Maddox turns to his half-sister.

Maddox: And I'll have more than one.

Madeline: Guess I'll find out what you're talking about - in your world, changed before I could even visit it.

Theo slaps his palms together. Material form returns to existence, and you feel solid ground at your feet once more.

(POV returns to Terry)

Since you stepped in Sienna's portal, you have aged five days. And on those five days you have endured trials and tribulations the likes of which none of your peers could even dream of. But on the overworld you have not missed a single second of school time.

Upon realizing this, You, Maddox, Sara and Gekky erupt into groans of disappointment.

You are on the street now, not far from the museum. Yet the river in Greenbite was not nearly enough to cleanse yourselves. You casually walk to a laundry. It is run by a greasy, squat human who if he lived on earth would be described as East Asian. One eye is slightly more open than the other. Maddox considers him a passing acquaintance and has grown familiar with his two facial expressions - a vacant stare, and an intent stare. You receive a mix between the two. He eyes you with contempt, but he knows better than to waste time bantering with suspicious customers.

You walk back out wearing a fresh change of clothes. Everybody is gathered outside the museum and you quietly join your class. And you see your homeroom teacher, Mrs. Reynard the Kitsune, at the forefront.

Mrs Reynard: I'm so glad you managed to get out of that chaos unscathed! Come, I think that's the last of us. We almost had to call the police. Come, let's go back to the motel. The tubeways arrive tomorrow.

You're in the main hall, chilling with your friends.

Maddox: Wait a minute... about that Attercop dean person...

Terry: She got framed for giving us her undies!

Gekky: I can't believe I accepted doing that plan!

Maddox: Hey! Wasn't her court hearing today? Oh crud, it's all my fault for bragging about it!

(Cont. in next post)

>>4161927
> Maddox bragged about it. If it weren't for his stupidity Mrs. Attercop would not be in such trouble. It's his responsibility to interrupt the court hearing himself.

> Admit your guilt together with Maddox. All of you had a part to play in that whole fiasco. Storm the court together.

> Leave that shit for later, this is no way to celebrate saving the world!

>>4161931

> Admit your guilt together with Maddox. All of you had a part to play in that whole fiasco. Storm the court together.

We saved the world! Surely we can save one dean. Can't let Maddox face this alone even if it is 100% his fault.

>>4161931
>Admit your guilt together with Maddox. All of you had a part to play in that whole fiasco. Storm the court together.

>>4161944
>>4161973
> Admit your guilt together with Maddox. All of you had a part to play in that whole fiasco. Storm the court together.

Terry: It may be your fault... but we can't let you face this alone.

Maddox: Thanks, man. Let's do this!

You storm into the court building. Maddox headbutts the doors open and it slams so hard against the wall you fear the hinges might get torn loose. Mrs. Attercop is looking down, so sadly it looks as though her face is gonna fall off at any moment. There is no evidence, save for Maddox's boasting online.

So out of a sense of moral duty he provides more solid evidence. But he can't say anything while Mrs. Attercop is receiving a right tongue-lashing from the informant. That is, until a phenomena the likes of which the world will see from this day onward strikes fear into every soul from Centropolis to the Western Desert!

A massive blue-green orb becomes larger and larger in the court atrium. So large that it engulfs all of Centropolis in its round shadow. People scream and run around the room, hiding under desks and out of the court room as sheets of paper flap in the air.

Just as it is about to crash, the ball bounces away twelve hundred meters short of flattening the city! It is thrown into chaos - but with chaos comes order, this time as the stern and commanding voice of Maddox Morgan! Standing resolute in the doorway, he bellows

Maddox: It is I, Maddox Morgan!

Every head turns his way. Attercop is crying. Her eight legs are trembling.

Maddox: In this case I am the sole provider of evidence here, for I am the one who was the subject of Mrs. Attercop's abuse of power as a dean of Wesflow High!

Since when did Maddox talk like that, did Gekky brainwash him or something?

Maddox: And for that I would implore you, your honor, to pardon her for her crimes. She did not voluntarily gift them to me, for I purloined her swimming undergarments-

Terry: On behalf-

Sara: Of all-

Gekky: -of us.

Ollie-Anne is in the court. She looks at you with eyes filled with hope and wonder.

> Explain the whole prophecy to them. This will take ages and confuse them, but also place some blame on Vireen. People will start to think you guys are whack-jobs, but Ollie-Anne will think very highly of you.

> Admit the four of you as panty thieves. None of you know what will await you after this but it probably won't be nice. Your reputation will vary depending on your social circles.

> Write In

>>4162316

> Explain the whole prophecy to them. This will take ages and confuse them, but also place some blame on Vireen. People will start to think you guys are whack-jobs, but Ollie-Anne will think very highly of you.

fuck Vireen, this was all her fault. We wouldn't have needed to do it otherwise!

>>4162316
>Explain the whole prophecy to them. This will take ages and confuse them, but also place some blame on Vireen. People will start to think you guys are whack-jobs, but Ollie-Anne will think very highly of you.
You see, your honor, it’s an Hegelian dialects, a god as the thesis and a group of teens as the antithesis and the synthesis is saving our world

>>4162333
>>4162361
> Explain the whole prophecy to them. This will take ages and confuse them, but also place some blame on Vireen. People will start to think you guys are whack-jobs, but Ollie-Anne will think very highly of you.

Terry: So you see we found out that Theo was gonna reset the world, but luckily we have this stickman friend who works for his big brother and we convinced him to splice us somewhere else, which is why there are gumballs in the sky.

Gekky: Vireen Vainglory, as in the millionaire's daughter, was kinda pissy that we got her into detention so she sent assassin after assassin after us, causing untold property damage that i'm sure you've heard of. She made our quest harder than it had to be until we found out she was in league with Theo because she wanted to rule the next world he would make to replace ours.

Sara: It's complicated. But ask the priesthood! I'm a priestess and I know what's going on. All we want to do is incriminate Vireen and - well, we're five days older than we ought to be so we should be back in school by tomorrow. Please look into this, we're just too young to deal with these legal troubles ourselves.

Gekky: What about the prophecy?

Sara: Oh yes, that! Turns out that Theo was personally trying to get his ass whooped and there's a whole other timeline where Vireen is Empress of the world and her cronies are ruling over it and all of us are dead or something and that has to exist because of some kind of code that gods have to abide by and Theo was kinda cross about following it-

Judge: Order! Order in the court!

Sara: You see, your honor, it’s an Hegelian dialect, a god as the thesis and a group of teens as the antithesis and the synthesis is saving our world. Very, very important stuff. Again, go ask the priesthood. We stole her togs because we wanted to track her down outside of work and brainwash her.

Gekky: Our intentions were pure indeed! All we wanted her to do was change our field trip location so we could commandeer a dimensional portal in the museum we went to.

Maddox: Fuck Vireen, this was all her fault. We wouldn't have needed to do it otherwise!

Judge: For cryin' out loud! Yes, there has been an abundance of pollen at the crime scenes. Luckily an unknown benefactor has cut off the bribes that went to the previous judge here.

Terry: An unknown benefactor?

Judge: Don't know who she was but the guy before me was sacked for ignoring everything Vireen Vainglory did. The corruption ran deep. We'll investigate Vainglory Inc.

Terry: Something tells me she did a whole lot more work than us behind the scenes.

Judge: I guarantee, whatever the hell she did was probably more of an adventure than yours was!

Terry: I don't envy her.

Judge: But rest assured! We'll handle it from here. You kids just get the hell back to school.

Terry: Verily so, your honour.

Judge: ...As you were three and a half threads ago. Monstergirl "Highschool", my ass.

Terry: Threads?

- SESSION END -

>>4162839
That judge makes a good point

>>4163054
(A very good one indeed! From now on the following threads will actually live up to their name. My posts will be shorter, more sandboxy, and leave more room for decisions. It will be choice-based rather than narrative-based. I'm happy to say this arc has ended, because I guarantee the further entries in this quest will be more episodic in nature, like Archie Comics.)

>>4163774
The slice of life era begins now

Was the first quest not archived?

>>4164866
(It wasn't. It was my first time running a quest, but you're not missing much because nothing relevant to the plot happens there. It is also very boring. I accidentally archived this as "Monstergirl Highschool #7", so I suppose there's no choice but to name the next one "Monstergirl Highschool #8")

>>4165850
Call it seven and archive it as 7.5 or something

rashonec gorsk 15