Lamia Daughter Quest

Lamia Daughter Quest by EchoGarrote
Threads on /tg/ archive
Discussion

Lamia Daughter Quest is a completed quest run by EchoGarrote, in which /tg/ played as Ssen, who is the title character of "The Lamia Child", all grown up and ready to see the world after her father's funeral. She started out fighting for His Light (the generically Lawful Good religion of the region), even though she was discriminated against for being non-human; as she rose in prominence, she got entangled in ancient conspiracies revolving around semi-sentient kingdoms, witnessing grave injustices committed almost unconsciously by people caught in their influence. She and her companions made it their over-arching goal to free the people of the world so they could stand on their own and choose their own fates, rather than being forced into the same old cliched stories. In short, they succeeded by killing, banishing, or reforming several gods (and mortals who wanted to be gods) who had taken to meddling with the free will of others.

A quest from 4chan's /tg/ that came here to use our /questdis/.

Party

• Ssen Patrick, a lamia ranger who became the first lamia paladin. She's good with a bow or sword, and her snake-like lower body is strong enough to crush a man in armor. She gets a lot of flak for being a lamia, though she remains devoted to fighting the good fight. Her name is also a meta-pun on Saint Patrick, who is known for (among other things) banishing all snakes from Ireland.
• Tricia Greats, a "wasp witch", or a sort of druid who can communicate with insects. She and Ssen grew up together; while their relationship was not always friendly, they have grown a lot closer after fighting for their lives together and encountering bigotry and hatred in other towns.
• "Mage Patrick", a nameless boy with magical talent who was rescued from his family, a band of cannibals called Ghouls (see below). Ssen tried calling him other names, but none of them seemed to fit him, so she started calling him Mage, and the name has stuck. He was later adopted by Ssen as a brother, and thus now uses the last name "Patrick". His life is dominated by two things: to-do lists (containing all of the crazy magic ideas that /tg/ -- through Ssen -- wants him to look into) and beautiful, dangerous women. He's the only male member of the party (though a Citadel-inspired painting of the party depicted him as a woman).
• Persephone ("Peri"), a quarter-elf rogue rescued from another band of Ghouls. She used to be a member of the Fey Court, an elven terrorist cell. She is good with knives, explosives, assassinations and infiltrations. She currently has the soul of thirteen-year-old Mari imhabiting her body.
• Marietta ("Mari"), a thirteen-year-old prodigy scholar. Her soul was separated from her body and placed in Peri's; one of the party's long-term goals is to get her back in her own body, which is presently in cold storage at the Conclave in White Tree (though, after getting a little drunk from Peri's drinking, she admits that she likes being a "sexy quarter-elf assassin"). In the meantime, she and Peri have had to get along, which results in hilarious hijinks when Mari wants to return items that Peri steals, and some tears and vomit when she experiences her first kill. She's also discovered that she's a dead shot with a crossbow.
• Lea Ughruda, a monk who wears bandages all the time to cover up the bruising, discoloration, and scarring from when she got treated for cancer. She has some talent for music, and is a very devout follower of His Light and the holy scriptures known as "The Teachings."

Titles

Isen originally nicknamed the main party the "Beautiful Nightmares" and the "Saviors of Purple Sands" after they saved Purple Sands from an insane wasp witch.

The other members went ahead and spent some of the reward money on armor and clothing that has red and green highlights (red for Ssen's hair and green for her scales) in an approximation of a uniform.

They earned the title "Champions of First Wood" after stopping Donovan.

"Liberators of Stone Hall" came after stopping the Ghoul invasion and occupation of Stone Hall.

Ssen gained the title "Hero of Citadel" for saving Isen from Peace's arrow by diving in front of it.

Later on the group takes up the name of the "Caligo Clarus" or Clear Occuli, an old order of Paladins and other people devoted to aiding people through times of great change and difficulty. Motto: Within the Darkness is Where the Light is Needed Most, thus There In The Darkness We Must Stand. Often referred to as the Light in the Darkness. They call themselves the "Dawnchasers" as a shorthand.

The group is dubbed "the Snake Tribe" on their journey to the North.

Battle Reference

Battle actions use d20 rolls (higher being better), except for initiative which is a d10.

Everyone has 6 wounds until death.

Dawnchasers and other friendlies hit on 13, or with magic on 12.

Mooks hit on 16, alphas & leaders 15, bosses 14.

Ssen

Currently about 16-17 feet long as of thread 41.

• Clang v2: +2 AC
• Beacon +2
  • +2 To all combos & every hit on you or from you causes Beacon's Light to shine brighter, 5 points brighter you can use Beacon's Flare
  • Charging Beacon: hits to Ssen, or hits blocked by Clang that would have hit, charge by 1. Direct attacks with Beacon charge by 2. Combos with Beacon charge by 1.
  • Beacon's Flare:
    • Slam Beacon's end on the ground tip pointing up and bathe the area with the Light. Auto-critical for all ally actions in progress.
    • Point it at a Target and let Beacon shine upon them.
• Beacon +2/Constrict +2
• Beacon +2/Tail +2
• Beacon Pierce (Damage, charge Beacon by 1, reduce target AC)
• Double sweep (Need Beacon, Damage & Turn loss)
• Bow +2
• Tail +1/Bow +1
• Constrict on 12, Pull free on 16+. Can crush constricted enemies if they don't break free; kills most opponents instantly, but if not dead they get another attempt to break free.
• Tail Whip +2
• Tail Disarm
• Claws +2: extendable with one action or at start of combat. Two attacks per round (four with a successful dodge), if not using Clang.
• White poison: melts bones slowly, or kills a Lamia quickly by stopping its heart. (Ssen is immune to her own poison.)
• Black poison: paralytic. Second dose kills (paralyzes heart).
  • Sneak attacks with the paralytic give a full dose, for immediate paralysis.
  • In battle, four doses from claw hits add up to a full dose and paralysis. Initial partial doses give negative modifiers due to partial paralysis; strong enemies may shrug off those negative effects, but not the eventual full paralysis. Magical healing or targeted anti-venoms may reduce venom dosage. Fewer than four doses may suffice to paralyze non-boss enemies.
• Clear poison: acidic. Not strong enough to melt through stone or metal.
• Can use any poison on claws, arrows, and Beacon (Beacon will not get brighter while poisoned)
• Mix all three poisons: deadly yellow fumes (including to allies), costs 3 turns.
• Lamia Dodge: roll in response to an attack against Ssen. Roll higher than them and they miss when they'd otherwise hit. Roll 5+ higher than your current target (whether they miss or hit): you are now directly behind them and get an additional attack with +2 extra (Or +1/+1 if it's a combo) to your attack roll.
  • Lamia Dodge works on every attack if not using Beacon and Clang, or on only one attack per round otherwise. Dodging behind and attacking only works against current target.
  • If an opponent rolls a natural 20, on a dodge of 17+ it goes down to just a regular hit, on 20 they miss.

Mage

• Firebolt/Ice Blast/Lightning Bolt
• Stone to Mud
• Stalking Spell (Muffles footsteps). Critical success gives near-perfect camouflage. Critical failure (or intentional failure) gives a deafening CRACK.
• Charge Troll Blood Healing Potion
• Shatter (Destroys non-moving, non-living target, target number varies)
• Haste (double speed on animals, enlargement)
• Translation spell
• Cold/Freezing (both for combat and as a utility spell)
• Rupture (Freezing+Haste)

Tricia

• Sickle
• Healing Pollen
• Summon Insects (Upkeep roll is required every turn)

Peri

• Double Slash (Second blow hits on 14)
• Hide in Shadows
• Backstab (Must be hidden first)
• Swap

Mari

• Crossbow (Now can fire every turn)
• Analyze (Grants +1 to all if hits target number)
• Alchemical Shot (Hits on 14, elemental effect)
• Swap

Peri/Mari

• Shoot/Slash

Lea

• Attack
• Stunning Strike
• Armor Crack

Other Characters

Allies

The Citadel Kingdom is deeply entrenched, but the Caligo Clarus are not alone in fighting it. Most of these people violate some stereotype that Citadel attempts to enforce, which Citadel reacts to by making people mistrust and shun them.

• Isen the Audacious, a flirtatious bard who gets on our nerves, but is on Ssen's side. He is the one who made sure that the party got the credit for saving Purple Sands, and nicknamed the party the "Beautiful Nightmares" and called Ssen in particular the "Savior of the Sands". It turns out that he's actually Prince Itzak Solomon Elegante Newgate, a member of the royal family (11th in line for the throne). His ego and libido are completely out of control, but he has a good heart deep down.
• Tara, a Half-Minotaur girl and an arena fighter. She went through a very painful surgery to make her face less like a minotaur's and more like a human's ideal of beauty. She's not the brightest torch in the dungeon, and she has a short temper, but she's a good person. She's also in love with Isen.
• Lord Julian Graves, a paladin who was basically Ssen's uncle, though he was too busy fighting a war against the Fey Court to show up to her father's funeral. He also wrote a book about lamias based on watching Ssen growing up; it's a little creepy that Ssen only learned this after finding the book in a library, and it goes into quite some detail about how to kill a lamia. Still, it's a very thoughtful work that doesn't paint lamias as monsters, and Ssen also realizes that her father made her armor specifically to protect the weak points identified in the book. He's one of the few paladins the party can trust to generally do the right thing.
• Granny, an ancient Naga living in a lizardman city underneath Stone Hall. Originally named Schezerade, she is centuries old and has been in hiding from the Dramatae. She is the first and only other "civilized" snake person Ssen has ever met, and teaches Ssen a lot about herself and her order, as well as shares her wisdom on various aspects of the outside world. She is incredibly strong and powerful from age.
• Princess Mumei of the Phoenix Empire (read: totally-not-Asia). The royal families of the Phoenix Empire and Citadel Kingdom have arranged for her and Isen to marry, but after being taken out of Citadel, she's not been nearly as passive as she was during her Citadel-forced "courtship" of Isen. Through her, the party has learned what can happen when fighting Citadel-like "Land Spirits" goes wrong: the Phoenix Empire is a rigid, authoritarian state, to the point that she has asked Ssen to kill her rather than allow her to be re-captured by the Empire or Citadel (according to the Empire's religion, dying by snake-bite results in reincarnation, while suicide does not). At the moment, it's not certain if or how her marriage with Isen is going to go forward, given that his heart belongs to Tara and she was never really interested in him romantically.
  • "Phoenix Tongue" uses lots of bird metaphors, so the names she uses are based on birds -- e.g. "loon" for Isen, and "cuckoo" (a kind of bird that lays its eggs in other birds' nests) for Ssen.

Ghouls

The Ghouls are not literal undead ghouls; rather, they are human bandits who practice ritual cannibalism, consuming flesh of others to gain traits from them (i.e. eating flesh from a troll to gain regeneration, or from a wizard to gain magical power). Mage is apparently the child of someone high up in the Ghouls, and was going to be cannibalized for his magical powers, but when the ghouls ambushed Ssen and Tricia, they ended up losing and Mage was rescued.

The Fey Court

The Fey Court is a group of Elf terrorists who fight the Citadel Kingdom. Their grievance is that human culture is slowly destroying their old elven ways. Because of the nature of Citadel, they are actually right, though their attacks harm a lot of bystanders, and to be honest, some aspects of elven culture really aren't worth saving.

• Donovan was the leader, and Peri's boyfriend and lover. When Peri got pregnant, she chose not to carry the child to term, which, under elf law, meant that Peri's fate was in Donovan's hands; he chose to hunt her down (with her mother's help) and force-feed her a sterility potion. Ssen learned this when she took confession from him -- though he didn't so much "confess" to forcibly sterilizing Peri as declare that he was fully within his right to do so, and that he was being merciful for not killing her. This caused the rest of his cell of the Fey Court to abandon him to Ssen and her party, who took him to the Paladin force fighting the Court. He was imprisoned, and is likely being tortured at Citadel.

The Dramatae/The Humors

The Dramatae are (were) a group of masked men that were the party's primary antagonists throughout Book One. They wore masks which represented the four temperaments of humanity, or the four aspects of all stories. They serve the Citadel, and are in turn empowered by Citadel via their masks. Each was a powerful opponent, and capable of controlling other people through "Passion" masks. However, once their masks' power was exhausted and the masks removed, they quickly reverted to whatever their natural age would be.

The main plot of the Dramatae was to fabricate Lightbringer stories. They start by creating a villain, who then kills everyone but a single child in a particular town; that child then is directed to companions, and they all become Lightbringers, fight the villain, and then, somehow, get sacrificed to "feed" Citadel. The most recent iteration of Lightbringers didn't do so well, which is caused some strife among the Dramatae.

• Rage was the most rational of the Dramatae, and chief plan architect. The party stumbled on his workshop in Tragedy's basement and found his notes -- he had an odd way of thinking, but he was very perceptive. When the Lightbringers failed to save Stone Gate from the Ghouls (losing three of their number in the process), Rage expressed regret for having instigated the Ghoul attack, as he was born there; for this, he was killed. Jeremy Sandover would have been his replacement, but the Dawnchasers foiled that plan.
• Tragedy was the "money man" of the Dramatae. He was Lord Darius Holting, a man who transferred his and his wife's soul into his children to become immortal. Mari was next-in-line for supplying a body, but the process was interrupted, which is how she got stuck in Peri's body. Tragedy was not a clever man; he secured his room of powerful artifacts with the password "Tragedy", he kidnapped Robin and Company (after they had been made to work for Citadel) and attempted to hold them hostage in exchange for Rage's notes and his mask (both of which the Dawnchasers had stolen from his mansion), but when he realized that either way, he was going to have to explain his mistakes to Peace, he killed Robin and friends out of pettiness. The party next encountered him in First Wood, where he summoned a giant ball of corpses to fight them. Ssen spat acid at the ball of corpses and blew it up (methane is a fun gas), and then the Dawnchasers fought him personally at the portal out of First Wood. Ssen poisoned him with her bone-dissolving venom, and after letting him stew in that for a few seconds, she beheaded him.
• Comedy was the Dramatae's enforcer. She used to be Princess Thistleblossom of the Elves, daughter of the very first Queen Mab, but between teenage angst and her love for the entity who turned out to be Peace, she ran away from home and joined the Dramatae. She was a very messed-up person; she organized parties where people were on the menu, and when the Dawnchasers visited First Wood, she reanimated relatives of each of the party members. She died with Peace, when Ssen removed her mask -- even elves cannot live for seven Ages.
• Peace was the leader of the Dramatae, and generally a nasty piece of work. She often masqueraded as a messenger of the Light to "guide" the Lightbringers. Comedy loved her; Peace "reciprocated" by stimulating her, but otherwise held and showed no affection (though she did offer to help Tricia get through the pain of metamorphosis in exchange for a promise from Ssen that Comedy would not be harmed). The Dawnchasers confronted her as she was enacting a ritual to plant a Citadel-egg inside Her Illuminated Self, and then Ssen killed her with a lucky shot from an arrow. Seriously, she was building up for this boss fight where she would feed our souls to Citadel, and then Ssen put an arrow through her heart. Without her control, Citadel's instincts -- to care for the people within its borders -- ran wild, transforming the city into a sealed dome.
• The Fifth Dramatae (or just "Fifth") is otherwise unnamed. He showed Ssen visions of the meetings of the Dramatae and the progress of the Lightbringers, and seemed to be more on her side than not, but then he turned out to be the original land spirit of the continent, who was deposed by the Dragon Who Was As Shadow (which was later cast out and replaced with Citadel). He wanted to be restored by having Citadel's power transferred to him, but because he was a tremendous jerk who wanted monsters to stay monsters, Ssen refused him. Killing Peace and unleashing Citadel threw his plan for a complete loop.

Citadel

The Citadel Kingdom itself is actually a mildly sentient and tremendously powerful genius locus with the personality of a young, spoiled child. It demands stories that fit the stereotypes (e.g. monsters are always Chaotic Evil, "protagonists" are always the last survivors of destroyed hometowns, the male lead has spiky hair and an impractically huge sword), and it can exert some influence over the creatures living within its borders, and especially those within its capital, to enforce them. It does provide for the humans, ensuring that winters are never too harsh, harvests are always bountiful enough to feed everyone (everyone who toes the line, anyway), and so on, but it has kept the land in a near-stasis for seven "Ages" (inventors and freethinkers are poorly treated by all) and those creatures on the "outside" are entirely out of luck -- for example, Citadel-corrupted monsters will kill their children when confronted with adventurers, to remove any potential moral conundrums from the adventurers' minds (in fact, Ssen only survived because she was the fourth child of her family -- the other three had been killed by the time Liam killed her mother). Ssen, having grown up in a tower built of a material that happens to have strong anti-magic properties, is basically immune to Citadel's influence, and her father's paladin medallion seems to help ward it off from those near it. Most of the party is mildly resistant to Citadel, though this is partly thanks to Ssen keeping everyone level. Isen is also immune to Citadel thanks to his massive ego.

There is a running joke that Citadel actively interferes with dice; we seem to roll high when we need to roll low, and vice versa (though we do well enough in combat). Particularly disastrous rolls are usually greeted with cries of "CITADEL!"

• The (current iteration of the) Lightbringers are the "designated" heroes of the story, having been chosen by the Dramatae to run around, fight monsters and villains, and eventually get fed to Citadel. Ssen gets visions of their progress every so often. They are every inch the stereotypical RPG party, and if the discussions of the Dramatae are any indication, they are the ones who should have been following the path taken by Ssen and company and fighting the same enemies, but the main party's actions have disrupted the Dramatae's scripted events, which cause things to go awry; the "muscle man", "smart girl", and "Would-Be-Traitor" all died during the attack on Stone Gate, leaving only Adahn ("the boy") and Ava ("the girl"). The Dramatae eventually got so fed up with the Lightbringers' failure that they resorted to tying them up and bringing them along for the attack on the Old One, hoping to kill the dragon, wake up the pair, and make them think that they had done it.
  • Adahn is the designated lead hero, and he is a spiky-haired, minimally-armored jerk with a big sword, who makes the angstiest of JRPG protagonists look positively friendly (his favorite word seems to be "Whatever"). After the rest of his party either died or defected to the Dawnchasers, Adahn was reformatted into the designated villain, as a "fallen Lightbringer".
  • Ava used to be Lilly before becoming the designated love interest (though there wasn't any chemistry between the two, and it seemed that Adahn was a little physical). Lilly was plain, while Ava had impractically large breasts, impractically long hair, and impractically revealing clothing. She turned out to be a little more level-headed than her companion; Ssen gave them Lea's Caligo Clarus medallion, hoping to disrupt Citadel's influence over them, and while the boy threw it away, the girl kept it. Eventually, she broke out of the mold at the Old One's cave, though she was poisoned shortly thereafter. She could have been totally healed on the spot, but that would have meant becoming Lilly again; at first, she tried to push the decision onto Ssen, but eventually she chose to stay Ava, asking to be brought back to Bronze Peak and get healed there. She recovered, and while she is no longer as talented as she was as a Lightbringer (presumably, the Dramatae's enchantments faded), she has finally been able to realize her dream of becoming a hairdresser.