World of Monsters CYOA (Part I)

Rainday wrote:Also, I have to hand it to you on the monstergirls, especially the mimic.  The golden skin and decoration with jewelry is something I haven't seen, and there method of spreading sounds very cool too.

That in particular caught my interest- the true source of "cursed equipment?"

Thanks, glad you like. I'm a super big fan of shiny golden skin and thought it would be fun to have the girl part of the mimic become similar to actual treasure. As for the spreading method, I figured if the victim was fused with the chest then that wouldn't actually cause any more mimics to be created and decided I needed to come up with something they could do to make more mimics.

Let's go with A, we can chat her up and maybe hit up the bartender before turning in

Agreed A then the bar tender then sleep with an early(ish) start

With Asia and Lina already recruited, only one more woman remained that Celtica had an interest in. Luckily she was still around and when Celtica went to speak with her, she spoke first.

"The redhead is pretty loud, so I couldn't help but overhear some of your conversation. You're looking to take on the big monsters ruling over them all, right? I want in." she said with a no nonsense tone.

Celtica hadn't expected her to say yes to joining before she could even ask. "I'm certainly glad to have another set of hands traveling with us but I need to know something first. Why so eager?" Everyone had their own reasons for hating monsters, she imagined this woman had one as well but wanted to know what that might be.

"I'm a mercenary in the Heroes Guild. Part of a team, or at least I was. I'm all that's left of it and I want some payback."

Celtica nodded. She understood what this woman wanted, it wasn't entirely different from her own desires. Seeing so many fall to the monsters and betray their former friends was easily enough to drive someone to stand up and fight. "My name is Celtica Arven. If you wish to fight by my side then I shall be glad to have you." she said with a hand out to shake the other tan woman's. "Name's Bullet, I'll pull my weight in the group." the woman responded as she accepted the shake.

Gaining three allies was definitely going to be an asset. Bullet looked like a tough warrior, and Lina and Asia's magic skills would certainly come in handy. Still, before she went to sleep she wanted to talk to the bartender. It was getting quite late and things were closing but Celtica figured she would have time for one drink.

"Just something small." Celtica said, sending a pair of coins the bartender's way as she sat down. "About time you finally ordered. I was starting to wonder if you only came here for my customers." the blonde woman said and got her a drink.

"If you're going to be traveling you really should be careful. I've been seeing harpies soaring through the skies more frequently lately. It would be trouble if they decided you would be their next prey." the bartender said.

"I think the team I've gotten together can handle some big birds. I am interested in what more dangerous news you've been hearing is though." Celtica questioned.

"Well you heard a big one from Bullet there. Group of Oni started tearing up the area a little ways to the north. What used to be a bunch of bandits is now a gang of drunk monsters, and they've been messing with anyone they come across. Combine that with the ongoing battle between the Knights of Sacrima and the Slime Queen's forces to the east and you've got some pretty dangerous times." the bartender explained.

The Slime Queen wasn't the first Monster Queen to try and stage a full on assault on the country, but they were a very hard to kill one. Slimes are notorious for their survival capabilities. Of course, a queen occupied by the knights might be a good first queen to target...

While Celtica was thinking, the bartender went on. "Then there's all the disappearances. A rumored cavern filled with treasure that none has managed to enter and leave is one thing, it's probably a lie spread by a monster to lure victims in. I'm more worried about the other disappearances, supposedly kidnappings have been happening in the area even when no monsters are seen around."

"You think it's some extra tricky monster, or humans doing it?" Celtica asked. "Honestly I'm not sure. I'm always surprised by the crazy skills I hear monsters possess." the bartender said with a shrug.

Celtica finished up her drink and got up. "Thanks for the info. With any luck it'll help us out." she said before leaving. As she was walking out the door, the bartender said one last thing. "Your mission sounds pretty crazy, but I wish you luck all the same."

After moving down a couple roads and up some stairs Celtica was in her room getting ready for bed. Tomorrow morning she would meet up with the others and at long last her fight against the monsters would truly begin. Laying down, Celtica wondered just what path should she take.

A. Go north, through Central Sacrima and towards the Forest of Beasts.
B. Go east, towards the battle between the Knights of Sacrima and the Slime Queen.
C. Go south, towards the Southern Desert.
D. Go west, towards the ports.

Which way would the cavern be?

B. Let's go for the obvious first boss.

Great thread so far.

Rainday wrote:Which way would the cavern be?

I think it would be be C

I'm gonna vote C, though D is a tempting as a mystery box

I really like Sirens and mermaids so lets go west(D) to be ra...
greeted by a kraken encounter

I like slimes, so I'm gonna say B. Also, we've probably got the best chance there.

Going to finally join in on this, since I'm not getting swamped by assignments for classes (only have one left due next week).

Picking B for this one. Depending on what Zero has in mind, this could be the easiest of the options, or one of the most difficult. It'll still be entertaining to see.

Rainday wrote:Which way would the cavern be?

You don't know. Since you talked to all three of the recruitable girls, you had less time to get information from the bartender. Of course, getting party members was probably far more important than losing out on a bit of info so I think you guys made the right choice there.

As Celtica drifted into sleep she thought of the battle going on to the east. A chance like this wasn't one that could be taken at any time, while there was no rush to go to any of the other areas in particular. It made sense to join up with the knights to try and deal a decisive blow against the Slime Queen.

When the sun rose, so did Celtica. She stretched her body, got dressed, packed her things and went out to meet up with everyone. Naturally she was the first there, with Bullet appearing soon after and then Asia and Lina. "Alright everyone, here is the current plan. We start heading east to meet up with the Knights of Sacrima. They are currently facing off with a slime army over there."

Bullet nodded. "So we charge in and take down their leader. Sounds good to me."

Asia was a little more worried however. "Won't there be lots of monsters guarding her though? How will we get to the queen?" After asking her questions they all heard some chuckling coming from their resident mage.

"Oh, you won't need to worry about that. I'll have you know that large areas with nothing but enemies happens to be where I shine the most." Lina said with confidence. That nothing but enemies part did make Celtica wonder exactly how Lina had ended up so broke when she met her though if she was as skilled as she says.

"Even if Lina can't help, we can speak with the knights." Celtica told Asia. "For now, let's move out. We've got a lot of ground to cover and there's only so many hours before the sun sets once again." she added.

With that, the party left Aidola and began their trek to the east. This part of Sacrima was fairly vibrant with nature, plenty of trees around for shade making the walking that much easier. Once they got far enough from the village though Celtica knew to keep her hand close to her weapon. Despite Sacrima being a safe haven for humans, that was only really true for the central region. The outskirts like these were hunted in constantly by monsters.

The path they walked on seemed to continue for hours uneventful, the various girls of the party chatting with each other and starting to get to know each other better. Eventually, a trio of cries filled the skies as Celtica looked up to see a group of harpies swooping down. "Everyone, move!" she said as she backstepped away from where the group swooped down onto.

Getting a closer look at them, two of the three looked rather similar to each other. Blonde hair in wild ponytails, some blue facial markings around their blank blue eyes. Tattered clothes barely covered their breasts, and even less so for their pussy. Bird-like legs stretched down to the ground while clawed blue wings were at their sides where a human's arms would be. The third one was similar, but she had black hair and wings, less destroyed clothing, red eyes and black markings covering more of her face. She certainly had to be the leader of the trio.

"Hey, haven't you people heard it's dangerous out here? Worms have been getting scooped up and eaten constantly." the black harpy said with a smirk, the other two chuckling behind her.

"Some simple birdbrains shouldn't be too much trouble." Bullet said, moving into a battle stance as she cracked her knuckles.

This would be an excellent time to see what the party was made of, Celtica thought. She also believed she could handle any of these birds, leader or otherwise. She did wonder if the rest of the girls were strong enough to face the black harpy though.

A. Fight the Black Harpy yourself (If so, use any skills?)
B. Have Lina fight the Black Harpy
C. Have Asia fight the Black Harpy
D. Have Bullet fight the Black Harpy

Bullet seems enthusiastic, we should let her fight the Black Harpy.

I'll concur; D (Bullet).

Let's use Bullet as a tank while we take on the small fries!
C has to be the bad end choice!

"Bullet, you take the leader. We'll deal with her flunkies." Celtica said and Bullet was happy to comply, quickly running in low and delivering a kick the black harpy's way. Her black winged opponent was fast but the surprise start allowed her to land a solid hit before the monster took to the skies.

Asia remained in the back as Lina and Celtica approached the others, Durandal drawn and ready for use. "Y'all don't have any wings, there's no way you could get us!" one of the harpies said with glee as they began to fly, the other launching high speed feathers out at the two from their wings as projectiles. They weren't exactly strong and Celtica parried them with her blade, while Lina moved to dodge. "Hey, watch the cape!" she said as she saw a few of them making some holes in it. "I'll get you back for that, how about we have some fried chicken! Fireball!" she shouted, an orb of flames appearing within her hand and shooting out towards the two. One harpy dodges to the side, the other wasn't so lucky as they were hit and fell to the ground.

"Not a bad idea." Celtica said, if those harpies were just gonna stay up there and attack from afar then they would just need to force them down. "Crusader Wave!" the swordswoman shouted and with a swing of her glowing sword an energy slash shot out and went at the airborne harpy hard and fast. Moments later she had dropped to the ground too, although still able to get up unlike the burnt one.

Meanwhile, Bullet was trading blows with the leader of the group. When the harpy swooped down to attack a quick roll and a grab let Bullet get some good hits on her before slamming her to the ground. The monster was back up with speed and vigor though as she spun and slashed one of Bullet's arms with her sharp feathers. It wasn't a deep cut, but Bullet could already feel her right arm going numb. "Something wrong? Our feathers paralyze the body. Soon enough you'll be nice and still." the harpy said while still on the offensive, Bullet blocking the next strike with the gauntlet on her left arm and kicking her in the chest to knock her back.

"Don't worry Bullet, I'll heal you!" Asia said, using Twilight Healing to start healing Bullet's wound and remove the numbness. It would take some time for that though, so she was basically fighting one armed for the moment. "Heh, I wouldn't even need either arm to beat you. Afterburner!" she shouted, her other hand going up as an aura of heat surrounded her.

Celtica saw what was happening over there and wondered what to do.

A. Deal with the two harpies, Bullet can handle herself.
B. Let Lina handle the harpies, go over and give Bullet a hand.

-

Hehe, yeah C was the obvious bad end choice. They usually won't be quite as obvious as "Send the healer to attack the leader".

Well this one might be trickier.
Help the already weakend Girl or the Mage.
I think helping the one that is injured would be the wise choise
so I will go with B.
So I wouldn't mind any bad ends since I love them more than anything else. ^^

Awesome as Lina is, even she could get paralyzed by the other two if left alone... and then the minion harpies would team up with the boss. Let's burninate the small fry first.

A.

I'd say we should cover Lina, especially given that Bullet just buffed herself.

Going with A.

Aggra wrote:Well this one might be trickier.
Help the already weakend Girl or the Mage.
I think helping the one that is injured would be the wise choise
so I will go with B.
So I wouldn't mind any bad ends since I love them more than anything else. ^^

Every once in a while I was thinking of putting up a poll people could vote on to see what would have happened if the wrong choices had been picked on a previous encounter.

A then if she gets turned the others can "run away" in a Monty python stylee

Celtica still believed that Bullet would be able to handle things over there, she wasn't out of the fight quite yet. Even if she did have trouble, once Lina helped clean up these two harpies they would both be able to go in and help her out.

With an aura of heat surrounding Bullet she was moving significantly faster, now clearly out-speeding her opponent as she peppered in blow after blow at the harpy. Even with only one hand she was landing plenty of strikes and landing them hard. It was pretty clear that despite the black harpy's impressive speed once she met someone she couldn't dodge she couldn't take their hits either. "Damn it, you little worm!" the harpy said, jumping quickly into the air to rain down feathers on the brawler. Bullet merely dashed forward out of their range followed by jumping up and grabbing the monster. "Not a chance!" she shouted as she pulled her down and with an explosion of energy dunked her into the group, the monster's body fading into energy.

"Boss!" the less injured of the two harpies said in shock, still able to launch feathers and fight to an extent despite taking a holy attack. The burnt bird was less lucky. "I don't think I'll be needing any more spells for this." Lina said, pulling out a fairly standard sword and moving in to strike the weakened harpy. It seemed like the stronger of the two was trying to flee, but it's current state allowed Celtica to block it's path and with a quick swing slice through the monster.

As all three harpies faded away, Bullet wiped some sweat from her face. "That was almost dangerous. Thanks for the help Asia." she said as she let the healing continue it's work, her wound sealing up and her arm becoming movable once more. "It's no problem at all, this is my specialty after all!" Asia responded cheerfully.

Celtica was pleased with how this went as well. Everyone seemed to be just as useful as she had hoped, and wielding this holy sword has been no issue for her. A well balanced party like this of weapons, magic, healing and strength would do well against most foes. "And I bet you thought I wouldn't be worth the money." Lina teased, causing Celtica to grin. "I'm still on the fence there." she said in response as they began to walk again. It wasn't good to stay in the same place for any long period of time.

While moving through, the forest area cleared out a bit more into some open plains. More so than that, a little ways northeast she saw things descending into a cavern. Could that be the area that bartender had been talking about? As she pondered that, a woman cried out from somewhere back in the forest they had just past. Was someone under attack? It sounded like it was coming from somewhere deeper than the path they took though, they might not even be able to get there before it's too late. And while her heroic nature made her want to go back, her pessimistic side did put the idea in her head that it was a monster girl crying to lure people into an ambush.

A. Continue down the path.
B. Go towards the cavern.
C. Go back and look for the woman.

Wow, we really did destroy those harpies. Anyway, I say we look for the screaming woman. I'm sure nothing bad will come of it.