Macronomicon
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Chapter 38: The Immediate Plan
🕑 Added 2024-08-27 18:25:25 +0000 UTCBring him in. It seems as though it has begun again in our lifetimes. May the gods help us.
Case file 8934: Ashwood
They discussed Will’s Build, where he was going with it, and what the possibilities might be.
In the end, Will admitted that, while less exciting now, Sourdough could be upgraded to provide really interesting interactions with Relics, which was a cornerstone of his Build that he wanted to lean on.
Once Will added Sourdough to his Build, he needed to go out and buy consumables.
Before now, Will could barely afford the equipment he wore, and consumables were expensive and single-use, so the idea of buying some never crossed his mind.
But, now that he was kitted, starting to make a lot more money at the Climbing game, he could stop a moment and buy solutions to specific problems.
He sold the gloves of ferocity for fifteen ivory and went shopping. The other Relics he put back in his Phantom Hand for safekeeping, since they’d already been earmarked to sell to rich kids who could give Will their actual value rather than haggle him down to what he knew was a fraction of their real value.
Will stepped into a dinky little Consumable shop in Coalton, not particularly surprised to find a Jibleya manning the bar. It was a cute little rotund girl with skin shining like a berry.
“Welcome!” She said as Will entered, gesturing to the shelves lined with bottles of every color along with odd-looking Relics of every shape and size. Will saw a totem made with raven’s skull and bones, another that was a heavy-looking cube with unsettling writing on the surface, and what sounded like faint screams resonating through his eyeballs rather than his ears. There was a piece of clay depicting a snake eating its tail that gave Will an odd feeling in his gut, along with a minitature set of dolls depicting two medics carrying a cot.
There were tiny trees, a piece of chalk, a strangely durable soap bubble just sitting on the shelf, a barrel full of some kind of meat-pellets with a scoop and waxed bags next to it, a bag of elemental blasts a giant monster staring at him-
As he scanned the wares, his gaze landed on an honest-to-gods troll, a humanoid creature at least eight feet tall with a reach that covered half the shop.
Gotta have some kind of security in a place filled with this much expensive gear, Will thought to himself, but he wondered how the troll enforced security when it looked like any movement on it’s part might shatter thousands of gold worth of consumables.
He barely fit in the shop.
Will met the Troll’s gaze, and the creature started drooling.
You know what? I’m not interested in finding out.
Instead, Will found the Health Potion section, having decided to grab one of them before anything else, because the ability to recover after a deadly mistake had proven it’s worth.
Minor Potion of Healing : 1 gold
Stops bleeding, both internal and external. Arrests degradation due to major wounds. Seek immediate medical attention after use.
High drain on body’s resources.
Potion of Healing: 100 gold.
Stops bleeding and heals some wounds, starting with the ones closest to the application site.
Medium drain on body’s resources.
Potion of Greater Healing: 10 Ivory
Heals the majority of damage on the consumer’s body. Does not heal scars or missing limbs.
Light drain on body’s resources.
There were more expensive ones, but Will didn’t bother to look at them, since he couldn’t afford them yet, and it would be cruel to wave something that could restore his hand in his face.
If it even could restore my hand.
If Andover couldn’t do it, what were the chances a potion could?
Will went up to the cheery Jibleya and put all his cash on the counter.
“One greater healing potion,” he said.
“Sure! Anything else?” She asked.
“Gonna look around,” Will said, turning back to the display cases.
He started with the performance enhancing potions, picking out a Combat Enhancement potion
Potion of Fury: 20 Gold.
+10 Strength
+10 resistance
+ 10 Kinesthetics
Lasts ½ hour.
Heavy drain on the body’s resources after expiration.
There were more, many more, but Will was already running low on cash, and decided to check out the consumeable non-potions closer to the troll.
The Jibleya must’ve noticed that he was nervous standing within arm-length of the drooling creature, and spoke up:
“Willard, move to the other side of the shop, you’re making our customer nervous.”
Will gave a grateful nod as the troll lumbered past him. He could feel the very floor bow under his outrageous weight as ‘Willard’ stepped past him.
Will leaned forward and inspected what looked like an icicle of opaque blue. Even as he looked at it, waves of chilled vapor rolled off of it and off the side of the shelf.
Shard of Primordial Ice: 15 gold
Upon striking anything after it has been thrown, explodes and freezes everything in a 20 ft radius explosion.
“Wow,” Will mused, moving on, inspecting items rapid-fire.
The tiny trees grew into bigger trees. There was a bottle of lightning, smoke bombs, seering stones, soft-body gum, a sonic attack bell that made a cone of sonic damage upon striking it.
On the next shelf was a tiny paper tent that created a larger one, useful on other Floors. Next to it were tokens seemingly made carved out of ivory coins that cleaned and maintained your gear for you.
There was a soul crystal that summoned a copy of whatever you could kill and put inside it.
Will was tempted to get that one for a moment, but upon thinking about it for a while, he realized he’d have to fill it, then get one summon of a creature he was weak enough to kill, and then he’d have to spend a month or so feeding the remains of the crystal with Relic dust.
Then risk his life to fill it again.
Sure, he could probably pay someone else to kill a powerful creature to fill the crystal, but wasn’t the point to spend less money, and be less reliant on others?
It would probably be less time consuming to just buy a pre-set summoning consumable each time.
There were edge case uses, but Will didn’t think they would be a major issue.
He moved on, landing on the shelf that he’d originally spotted with the creepy metal cube.
Will averted his eyes when the whispering in his eyes got too real.
No, thank you.
Whatever the cube did, it was mind-based, and Will didn’t want any part of it. The bird-skull totem beside it summoned a murder of crows to assault your enemies and peck out their eyes.
The two dolls bearing a cot were medic golems that would carry the bearer to safety to the best of their abilities, should the bearer be severely wounded.
Will’s gaze landed on the clay figurine of the snake biting its own tail.
Clay Idol: 50 gold
Break to summon an Immortal Serpent For 10 minutes. Obeys the user’s commands.
Will went back to the counter.
“Did you make the clay circle-snake thingy?” Will asked, pointing over his shoulder with his thumb.
“It’s called an ouroboros.” The shopkeeper said. “And no, I didn’t make it, my grandpappy did.”
“Did he use Immortal Serpent Sacrifices to do it?” Will asked.
“Maybe. We don’t keep any Sacrifices in the store.” She clarified before Will could ask.
“Ah. I was just wondering where I could get one. It’s the first time I’ve caught sight of any information about where to get them.
She chewed her lip in thought.
“I’ll grab my grandpappy. One moment.”
Will tapped his feet and tried not to look scared that he was being left alone in the shop with the troll, who seemed really eager for Will to make a suspicious move and justify eating him.
Will stopped tapping his feet, standing stock still.
The troll gave a disappointed groan and rocked back on his heels.
A minute later a wrinkled, no longer taut-skinned Jibleya clattered down from above. The man’s shiny skin was covered in faded scars, and he was missing an eye and part of his ear.
He smelled like a tidal wave of old.
“Whaddya want?”
“I wanted to ask about Immortal serpent.”
“I’m sure you do. What makes you think I wanted to answer stupid questions?” The old man demanded.
Will put the three remaining Ivory on the countertop and slid it over to the old man.
“Whaddya wanna know, youngin?” The jibleya asked, his bruised skin stretching over a wide, gap-toothed smile as he pocketed the cash.
“What are Immortal serpents, do you have any Sacrifices left I can buy, and if not, where can I find one?”
“Immortal Serpents…” The old man mused, his gaze flickering to the clay circle on the shelf. “They’re powerful demons with a stunning amount of life-force. They look like snakes, but they’re huge, sapient, pissy, have magical Abilities, and they’re damned near impossible to kill. I’ve heard some of the more powerful ones on the highest Floors can even shapeshift and pretend to be human.”
Will’s brows rose.
“Can they regenerate limbs?”
“Well, they don’t have limbs, per se, the ones who shapeshift are only faking it. But yes, they do regenerate just about any damage you deal to them in a matter of minutes. They do have some cousins that can regenerate like the hydra and axolotl.”
“Cousins?”
“They’re rumored to descend from the same stock. One landed in the water, one in the jungle, one the desert, when the blood of Ouroboros battling Granesh seeded the lands with scaled creatures.”
“And do you have any Sacrifices?” Will asked.
“No sir. Used the last one on that trinket over there.”
“Where can I find them?”
“You can find Immortal Serpents as Boss monsters on the seventh floor, and they presumably become more common above that Floor, but of course I’ve never been.”
“How far did you get?” Will asked.
The old Jibleya tapped the socket next to his missing eye.
“Seventh floor.”
“That’s respectable,” Will said.
“I’m surprised you’re still Climbing with that missing hand.”
“Looking for a way to grow it back,” Will said.
“Respect. But wouldn’t it be easier to just pay a Healer to do it for you? I’ll have enough saved up for my eye by the end of the year.”
“No.” Will said, thinking back to the high priest of Andover telling him that Andover couldn’t give him his hand back because it belonged to the Tower now. If restoring his old hand was out of the question, then Will needed to grow a new one.
And that meant get Aspect of the Immortal Serpent, then side-step to one of its cousins, like a Hydra or whatever the Abyss an axe-o-lot-er was.
Just like Loth was trying to build on top of his Bullet Wasp Ability by adding a Ripley sacrifice, Will was going to build up his Aspect until he could grow back his hand.
Or kill a lot of Hydras trying.
“Alright, you’re young, plenty of time to make stupid decisions,” The old Jibleya said, holding up his hands with a shrug. “Anything else you needed?”
Will scanned the surrounding eye-candy, none of which he could afford now that he’d paid for information.
“More money.” he muttered.
The old Jibleya broke into a chortle, tossing Will back two of his three ivory coins.
“For the laugh.”
“Much obliged.” Will said before slapping the two coins back down on the counter.
“I want the Clay Idol, the smoke bombs, one tiny tree, a bottle of lightning, a pound of the monster-attracting stink-pellets, three fireball beads, the Crawling Tar, Troll Glue, a rasp and a non-magical keg.”
The Jibleya hopped to it.
On his way back from the shop, Will spotted Travis, still at the same table he’d been sitting at the last time they’d seen him, just staring into the distance, a full mug of flat beer beside him.
Surely he went to the bathroom or something, Will thought…though it didn’t seem like it.
Deciding to take a chance, Will went to sit down in front of Travis.
The Master Decoy’s gaze looked straight past Will for a few seconds before they seemed to focus on Will.
“Whaddya want?” He asked.
“I want you in my Party,” Will said.
“Pass,” Travis’s gaze unfocused, looking past Will again.
“Loth and I want to kill the Wyrd Lord on the seventh Floor.”
Travis’s eyes brightened and he re-engaged. “Why?”
“Because he deserves to die?” Will said with a shrug. “What we’ve seen strongly suggests he’s behind the deaths of tens of thousands, horrific human experimentation and the destabilization of the entire economy.”
Travis waited.
“Plus if we kill him, we’ll get lots of loot.” Will admitted.
“There it is. How do you think two noobs like you are going to kill a Lord from the Upper Floors? Rumor has it the man’s been to the twelfth Floor and back.”
“How? By forming a very powerful Party and making it to the top of The Tower. Should be able to snuff out Wyrd like a candle on the way back down.”
Travis barked with laughter then sobered up a moment later. “Oh, you’re serious.”
“Sure am.” Will said.
“So your plan is…get strong enough to kill him?”
“What’s yours, wait until he dies of old age?” Will asked.
“What’s your immediate plan?” Travis asked.
“Carrie and I are going to do some Grinding until Loth is fully recovered, then my Party is going back to the bottom to say goodbye to our families before we tackle the Fourth Floor.”
Travis’s expression came alive as he began idly twirling a fork between his fingers, frowning contemplatively.
“That might work. I need to contact family outside The Tower. Back me up when I go to meet them, and I’ll join your Party, for as long as your goal remains the accumulation of strength. If you decide to rest on your laurels before we are capable of killing Wyrd, I will quit.”
“Fair enough,” Will said, offering his hand.
“Deal.” Travis said, shaking it.
Travis Oilton has joined the party.
Travis Oilton
Master Decoy Level 12
18 Strength
36 Kinesthetics
36 Resistance
12 Focus
18 Acuity
Charges: 9/17
Free Points: 0
Primary Abilities: Center of Attention, Taunt,
Secondary Abilities: Mirage
Comments
Arkeus
I'm a bit surprised the old guy can't just go get healing at a local church given how cheap it is. Maybe a curse.
JACOB HEBERT
It's either Will himself, or Hype Man Jasper. It's gotta be some kinda organization on the watch for specific momentous events, that somehow saw signs of one such event and it's relation to William Oh. Maybe it's just a reaction to the rise of another crazy Oh? His parents are rumored to be crazy strong.
FossilWreckers
Why doesn't Travis have item bonuses in his stats? We know he has at least two items with stat bonuses.
Logrus
The sick feeling in his gut when he saw the ouroboros made me think the same thing... he may also be his own grandfather, Philip J Fry style. That... seem like the kind of thing Macro would do <_<
StrollingEye
Anyone got any ideas what the heading quote is all about? Bring who in? Will? A lord? Someone else?
John L Briere
last name is "O" - yep
Yshua
@David Burchfield Yeah that would solve it. Good point!
Ano Ano
Pretty much has to be true. Furthermore, it seems possible that some kind of mental fuckery is keeping him from realizing it. When mind face is interrogating him with some mind whammy skill, there is the line, "This was information he wasn’t supposed to be sharing. That wasn’t information he was supposed to KNOW!" It's possible it's just an awkward changing of who "he" is signifying, but given how quick Will tends to put things together, it could be more insidious.
David Burchfield
I think there are other possibilities but this is definitely at the very least on the right track overall.
David Burchfield
There was mention of floors gating monster power. I could see it having a cap on its power based of the floor it is summoned on.
Ano Ano
The theme of rich failsons is interesting. First the guy who betrayed Will and got shanked on flood 1, and now the Wyrd lordling. Then you have the theme of the vague line between humans and monsters. The Tangles ane Loth kind of bring that out. It's cool how these elements are recurring, and it's clear that Will embodies both. His parents are way above anyone we've seen so far. Way above Lord Wyrd too, probably. And he's at least partially an immortal serpent.
Ano Ano
On the other hand, summoning items being ridiculously undercoated is very in keeping with the genre. Doesn't DnD have a 2000 GP candle that lets you cast gate?
Josh Cothran
#1 on rising stars and #2 on bed ongoing xD
chris
If I've got this right, Oroboros was a god or god like being who fought Graneesh, a god. It'd be funny if Will were to combine the Immortal Serpent, Hydra, and Axolotl relics, and accidentally ascend to godhood. All to regrow his hand.
Yshua
Yeah the price is just too low. What has greater utility, a healing potion (100G) or 10 minutes service from a floor 7 boss (50G)? Unless floor 4 rising climbers are expected to easily solo such a boss… Perhaps limited to a single action, no longer than 10 minutes? In the other hand I have only a foggy idea of the real balance here. You actually know. I’m happy to read and find out.
Macronomicon
@Phsteven No, it would be a temporary summon with a fascimile body, but it would be great practice for taking down a real one.
Yshua
I was thinking the same thing :)
Phsteven
Would he be able to request a scale from the summoned immortal serpent to use as a sacrifice for his skill while the relic is active?
Macronomicon
probably go back to the old one. I'll make sure to tag it so i can find it again later.
Dee
The definition of “service” could be fun to play around with. Maybe the snek is only willing to act as a courier or WiFi/5g hotspot unless convinced to do otherwise? :)
Efram Manechiwz
Also look at the snippets before the chapters. Lots of references to his cyclical nature. Like an infinite snake eating it own tail
bbwhistler@outlook.com
Will you be going back to that post for more ideas in the future or would you just make a new post asking for fresh suggestions?
bbwhistler@outlook.com
Damn, this lines up too well. I almost regret reading it because that reveal is gonna be sick (unless there's another layer of strangeness there).
Kenny
Its dumb but I was surprisingly happy to see a couple of my suggestions and some other great ones from others show up in the shop. You work quickly too!
Exrotes
Wonder if it'd be worth it for Will to find whatever auction/shop sells Sacrifices and put out an open order for a Serpent or a Relic worm while he's stuck in the area waiting for Loth to heal.
CommodoreCaptain
Glad you put that together because I sure as fuck didn't haha.
RedeyeA
At this point, it seems clear that Will is unknowingly part immortal serpent. The immortal serpents were confirmed to be able to shapeshift into a human form, and to be sapient. The other two upgrade paths for aspect of the goat were from his other two sacrifices. The reptile affinity skill said it enhances what is already there, and the uru drake's effects didn't mention any affinity for reptiles, so it must be from Will's hand being the sacrifice or be something he was born with. The skill mentions something about progenitors, so Will associated it with his uru drake primogenitor sacrifice, but the story the merchant told makes immortal serpents seem like the progenitors of other snake like monsters. No-Face outright said that Will using his hand as a sacrifice shouldn't be possible. I don't think that perception would be out of some propaganda to make sure that people don't get a four point sacrifice "for free". It would have definitely gotten out eventually because more people than just Will have been that desperate in the sacrifice room. Also, Will was offered Molt and Venom Strike. The uru drake and the gravity goat don't have the right archetypes for those sorts of skills, but a magical snake fits well for them. The sourdough ability is also ouroboros like in its ability to let you endlessly consume something.
EDMANGO
As long as it's not like a max power immortal serpent that's massive it should be a fair trade. Also it's a one time use consumable (that will is going to cheat with sourdough, right) The trade off is that it's good for that little then a waste of an investment if your not william
Mondred
No don't it will quickly be obsolete and it's only for 10 min at a time
Jeff Wells
It requires the death of an almost impossible to kill floor 7 monster to get a 10 minute summon. That's the balance. It seems priced pretty low, though.
Macronomicon
Hmm. Okay, should I restrict the use even further? Raise the price? It's supposed to be a single use item.
Yshua
The clay idol feels OP unless there’s something I don’t get about it. 10 minutes of service from a floor 7 boss monster, here on floor 4? Sounds potent all the way to floor 8.
Mondred
I saw one of mine soul crystal got a large mention thx!
Yshua
You worked fast!
Andrew
Thank you!
In-Game_Name
Yeah lol, consumables are way easier to design than permanent items. Real problem is your players sitting on them and not using them, cause they forget or don't want to waste them.
Macronomicon
I was literally overwhelmed by the number of cool single-use items.
