I would also like to amend Tenta's and add evolving Swim II if we get caught, as we probably will gain a more fishy/aquatic apperance and might make it easier to gain their trust....or make for a hasty retreat if things go south.
You decide to refocus your energies on producing a stealth evolution; getting down there to investigate without being seen would be preferable to just wandering down there with nothing but a can-do attitude for protection.
You draw on the energy within yourself, shifting and reshaping it. It blazes through you like fire over a bed of dry leaves... until it's over.
Testing out this new evolution, you slither out through the rusty metal grate and press yourself against the stone wall; to your delight your body flattens against it a little and the colour of your skin shifts to almost match the dull grey stone.
Pleased, you slide your way down to the bottom to work out just what's going on.
It's not good.
The merpeople don't react to your approach; that's the first worrying sign. They just keep swimming, sliding in and around each other in one big constantly revolving circle. Confused, you take a closer look at one -
Oh Christ. She's dead. They're all dead, every single one; all withered yellow skin and empty, staring eye sockets. Most of them swim with their mouths hanging gently open, moldy cracked teeth gleaming dully. The hair on those that still posses any floats out limply behind them, waving and swaying in the currents produced by the movements of the group.
There's never been a worse time to be trapped deep underwater.
Yet still they ignore you. What are they doing...?
"I see you, tentacle!"
Shit.
From the seabed rises a man... fish... thing. Humanoid body with powerful fins sprouting from the limbs, but a revolting anglerfish shaped head and mouth full of gigantic pointed fangs. Oh, and complete with a sinister glowing lure protruding from the forehead and a glowing black scepter in his right hand. His skin, however, is the worst part; mottled patches of both black and white, fleshy, covered in warts and blisters - it looks more than a little dead itself.
"Leave now, and I will let you live!" he cries (well, sorta - bubbles rise from his gaping mouth, but you recieve the words mentally).
Below the Anglerman, you spot something hard, black and glinting. Almost... like a crystal.
----
Option A) Well, he's given us a chance. Let's go now before the fecal matter hits the fan.
Option B) Try and talk him out of... whatever it is he's doing. It doesn't look like it's going to end well.
Option C) Attack! What could go wrong?
Status:
HP: 24/25
Energy: 55/65
Morality: 20/100 (noble)
Evolutions:
- Infest I
- Slime Ooze I
- Scale Armor I (More protective against spells and phsyical attacks than Slime Ooze, but much less multi-purpose).
- Stealth II (20 energy required. Become even sneakier).
- Growth II (25 energy required. Stretch your arm out. From shoulder to end of longest finger, that's how big we'd get. The head would also split into 2, giving us a sort of stretched Y shape.)
- Swim II (20 energy required. Can you guess what this evolution does?)
- Magic Sting II (20 energy required. The shot is rather more powerful. More akin to a punch from your average joe than the pitiful little sting level I was).
We have fuck all for offensive and defensive abilities, and I don't think magipunching a necrozombie fishman and his zombiefish hordes will go well. Besides that, it would leave us at JUST over half energy AGAIN, at which point we become shitty and bad at things (50% is a really harsh limit, I would like to complain about, also). Stealth obviously's done fuck all for us against him, and we aren't especially capable in any other area yet either. The only thing I would imagine working is swimming into his mouth and punching his insides or something, but he looks vaguely zombielike already so that's probably a crapshoot.
TL;DR, fuck right the hell off, we can maybe do something later. Wish vehemently for something we could actually handle, also.
Yeah we're out numbered now I think. If it was just Necrofish himself, I would stick to my original vote, but for now haul ass and get the fuck out of dodge!
- You've basically stumbled upon the end-level boss for this dimension quite early.
- The only reason he hasn't shot you dead yet is because he's concentrating damn hard on controlling his zombies.
- Yes, that is a piece of the Black Archcrystal buried in the seabed.
We have fuck all for offensive and defensive abilities, and I don't think magipunching a necrozombie fishman and his zombiefish hordes will go well. Besides that, it would leave us at JUST over half energy AGAIN, at which point we become shitty and bad at things (50% is a really harsh limit, I would like to complain about, also). Stealth obviously's done fuck all for us against him, and we aren't especially capable in any other area yet either. The only thing I would imagine working is swimming into his mouth and punching his insides or something, but he looks vaguely zombielike already so that's probably a crapshoot.
TL;DR, fuck right the hell off, we can maybe do something later. Wish vehemently for something we could actually handle, also.
Guys, this raises a very good point. I'm always looking for feedback, especially if it's constructive criticism. At the minute the system is that at 50% energy you become a little weaker, at 25% you're quite lethargic, and at 0% you stop. If this is too harsh, I can change it to anything requested; maybe just at 10 energy you start to show signs of weakness, or something?
We're getting out-powered now, but that'll make it more satisfying when you're strong enough to just slide along kicking everything's ass. But I'll take that on board and try and bring in a few slightly weaker people/monsters.
Well first I'm going to cast my vote for option A. getting out of there especially if that is the end boss for this area.
Now on to how the game has been going so far. One change I would definitly like to see is that under status we get a list a little description like cost to use of the different evolutions we have already taken.
With the problem about getting weaker as we use up energy I think that it should depend on how much total energy we have. at low amounts of total energy like 30. getting weak at 50% means just using up 15 energy and we are weak. where as at 200 energy total getting weak at 50% means getting weak at 100 energy. This does not really seem like a power grow of being able to hold more energy since we get weak at higher energy levels.
As to the problem with creatures being too strong for our player character. I know that we are still fairly weak and early on in this game but how do you expect the player character to get stronger if every fight is going to turn into a run away, die, or hope for deus ex mechana. As a GM I understand that you don't want things to go too easy on the player but you need to remember to not make them too hard or the player will just rage quit.
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