Under The Sands

The women waste little time entering the stairs and mercifully it is quite a bit cooler the moment they begin to descend much to Goma's and indeed Cherchiel's relief as Cherchiel was in fact starting to feel the effects as well, her resilience simply making it affect her slower than Goma.

As they descend, the way becomes much darker and Yulia's suit lights up illuminating the path and a danger they almost walked directly into. The stairs here have been damaged and a stair is missing. Stepping on it in the dark could have easily sent one or more of them tumbling down the steep steps. Yulia exhales with relief as she carefully moves past the broken stair, warning the others to be careful on it as she does so. They all pass it easily.

"Splashing water on people if they overheat isn't a bad idea, our infinite water situation is certainly useful. It might not help a lot, but it should at least help keep them at a stable level," Yulia suggests, "as for icicle and blizzard, these aren't bad ideas per se, blizzard might work, though I think while it's cast God's Light won't replenish mana so it's not a permanent solution, cooling an object and then hugging it isn't a terrible idea either, though direct freezing metal against skin, isn't the best plan at least for long periods, it could definitely work, unfortunately there's no way to summon an icicle without launching it and they always seem to melt or shatter on impact," she explains.

"While unfortunately Cherchiel has lost her angelic powers for the most part and doesn't have any protection from heat, her resilience instead seeming to simply be from her magically enhanced physiology, it is true that as an angel of the One True God, I am immune to heat... I suppose it might indeed be a good idea to give my suit to Goma," Lemiel suggests.

"We'll think about that when we make it down the stairs... Speaking of, these stairs are long, how deep are we?" Maple asks.

"We are currently at 50 meters below the stable desert sand level, rounded down. Judging by the angle of descent and the distance left to travel down these stairs, our destination is about 80 meters below the stable desert sand level," Sally answers.

"Ah... Thank you, Sally," Maple responds.

"Goma feeling better..." she mutters, being carried by Isalia.

"Glad to hear it," Isalia says patting her forehead gently. She's cooling down, but slowly.

As they finally reach the bottom of the stairs they see an archway at the bottom leading into a large room, ahead in the center of the room there's a large statue, Yulia begins to head into the room, but Lri grabs her arm stopping her.

"Stop... There's someone here, I can hear them breathing, just past the arch. Let me handle this," she says and then Veils and walks past the arch.

There's nothing for a few moments and then a sudden feminine yelp and Lri calls out, "you can come now,"

The rest of the group enters and see that Lri has pinned a large Lamia woman against the wall, her sword placed against the woman's neck. The woman is staring nervously at the sword, "I checked and there doesn't seem to be anyone else in this room, she's alone, at least for the moment," Lri confirms.

The room itself is a large entrance hall of sorts. A large statue depicts a nude four armed Lamia woman with truly massive breasts, her arms outstretched each hand performing some kind of complicated gesture. There are doors leading to the left and right and a quick check reveals there is a set of double doors behind the statue as well.

The captive Lamia woman has back length, curly black hair, only one set of arms, a thick purple scaled tail, average breasts covered in a red silk bra and tanned skin. She swallows, "I'm... I'm not alone, there are plenty of others, if you kill me they'll want ****," she says quickly, clearly terrified.

"We won't hurt you unless you make us," Yulia tells her.

"Why were you planning to ambush us?" Lri asks.

"Intruders... In the temple. I couldn't know if you were friendly or not. I still don't, plenty of outsiders come to steal from our temple," she says bitterly.

"We're not here to steal, I'm the chosen. We're just exploring and we came here to escape from the heat," Yulia explains.

The lamia starts to instinctively nod at the mention of escaping the heat, clearly a problem she knows well, the feel of the blade still against her neck, halts her nodding quite quickly though.

"There's a bath, just through there... nice cool water," she says cautiously pointing to the left door, "should be safe to drink as well," she adds, "not the bath water unless you like drinking water others bathed in, but there's a fountain as well," she clarifies.

"That's very helpful," Yulia responds and looks at Lri.

"If we let you go will you attack us?" she asks.

"No! Of course not!" the Lamia says quickly.

Lri looks unconvinced, but pulls her sword away as she backs off from the Lamia who visibly relaxes, slouching down, her tail which had been stiff slumping against the sandstone floor.

"Alright, bath through there and a new 'friend' we can probably learn stuff from," Yulia says and then glances at the Lamia, "What's your name, by the way?"

"Hess..." she says carefully, "Hess'hrim Valutti... To be exact," she adds.

"That's an... interesting name," Lemiel mutters as she looks to the bathhouse, "if I'm going to change so Goma can have the suit, I'd rather do it in the bath then here," she admits, clearly a bit self-conscious about undressing in front of Hess.

(Health: 100%

Mana: 100%

Inventory:18 EMP grenades, 17 Aphrodisiac Grenades, 17 incendiary Grenades, 18 fragmentation grenades, 18 flash grenades, 17 smoke grenades, 3 healing kits, 1 sewing kit, 8 days worth of rations, 3 two liter water jug, 3 two liter jugs of Lemiel's Milk, 3 health potion, 5 mana potions, 7 vials of Semen, Quiver, 1 sack of cooking ingredients (Apples), Ash's Quiver, Smithing Ingredients (3 steel ingots), 1 sack of cooking ingredients (Vegetables), Grenade Launcher, Grenade Bandolier with 1 grenade, Smithing Ingredients (1 silver ingot), twenty feet of Spidersilk rope, 1 sack of Cooking Ingredients (Fish), an Onahole, a shard of Illustone, Gloves of Harvest (-3, heal for all damage dealt), modest two piece swimsuit, Binding Bandages, golden bangles, silk gloves, Siren Queen's black heavy armor, black bikini bottoms, Smithing Ingredients (98 metal plates), 2 cure potions, Shutdown Gun.

Yulia's Equipment: Simple black one piece swimsuit(currently removed). Ceramic Beaked Mask (currently Removed), Reinforced Monastic Scapular (currently removed), standard bra (currently removed), Standard Panties (currently removed), Ornate Rapier (-3), Silver Staff (-2 added to the effect of all spells), A tarnished Silver Ring of clear mind (warded against demons and angels, can bind a Demon or Angel), Cloak of Turbulent Waves (immunity to ranged attacks and offensive magic), Demon Horn Hairband (-2 to all ice magic, currently removed), tech armor, tech bodysuit (Core upgrade: speed, Special Upgrade: Light Module, Arcane Flux), plasma rifle (-10, 5 remaining charges.).

Spells known: Great Heal (Lvl 2, Mastered, Cost: 25%, Cost currently halved rounded down: 12%)

Great Cure (Lvl 2, Mastered, Cost: 15%, Cost currently halved rounded down: 7%)

Energize (Lvl 1, Mastered, Cost: 25%, Cost currently halved rounded down: 12%)

Icicle (Lvl 1, Mastered, cost: 15%, Cost currently halved rounded down: 7%)

Masterful Unlock (Lvl 2, Mastered, Cost: 10%, Cost currently halved rounded down: 5%)

Repair (Lvl 1, Mastered, Cost: 5%-20% depending on factors, Cost currently halved rounded down: 2%-10%)

Undermine (Lvl 1, Mastered, cost: 25%, Cost currently halved rounded down: 12%)

Life Drain (lvl 1, Mastered, cost: 2% per 1% Health healed, Cost currently halved rounded down: 1% per 1% Health healed)

Blizzard (Mastered, cost: 5%, Cost currently halved rounded down: 2%)

Lightning Strike (Lvl 1, mastered, Cost: 15%, Cost currently halved rounded down: 7%)

Identify (Lvl 1, mastered, Cost: 10%, Cost currently halved rounded down: 5%)

Fireball (Lvl 1, mastered, Cost: 15%, Cost currently halved rounded down: 7%)

**** Lance (Lvl 1, mastered, Cost: 15%, Cost currently halved rounded down: 7%)

Cloak (Lvl 1, mastered, cost: 10%, Cost currently halved rounded down: 5%)

God's Light: (Mastered, cost: none. Passive ability. Fully heals mana and health outside of combat)

Fetish: Bondage Rank: 3, Masochism Rank: 3, Lesbian rank: 4, Submission Rank: 3, Incubating Rank: 1, Large Insertions Rank: 2, Degradation Rank: 2, Exhibition Rank: 1, Anal Rank: 2.

Status Effect: Permanent increase to physical attribute. Combat level raised to medium

Atrophied: Permanent Decrease to Physical Attribute. Combat Level lowered to weak. (Countered previous Permanent Increase)

Faithless: Yulia gains no effect from support spells cast on her, but offensive spells cast by her double in effectiveness. Lasts until faith is restored or replaced.

Psychosexual Break: In order to deal with her trauma, Yulia has begun to subconsciously fetishize her experiences.

Deflowered: Virginity Lost, sexual experience changed to: Inexperienced, non-virgin.

Not Thirsty

Cool

Companion: Cherchiel, Goma, Martin, Isalia, Lri, Lemiel, Maple, Sally.

Cherchiel Health: 100%

Cherchiel Mana: 100%

Cherchiel Equipment: Ultra Durable Spear( -5, -10 with Boar Mask), Ultra Durable Shield (-5, -10 with Boar Mask), Staff (-1), God's Favour (Halo. Prevent **** one time), Bikini(currently removed), plasma Sword (-10, five charges), Tech Armor.

Cherchiel Status Effect: Divine Grace. Combat Level raised to High

Not Thirsty

Slightly Hot

Goma Health: 100%

Goma Mana: 100%

Goma Equipment: Ritual Knife of Escaping Threads (-1, -3 with boar mask, automatic -5 when being used against tentacles, webs or other binding methods), Hunting Horn (-2 for each ally affected), Reinforced and Nethicite Augmented Thick Hide Outfit (Negate most physical damage, Currently removed.) Tech Armor (currently removed), Swim Trunks (Currently Worn), tentacle dagger (-3), Scepter of Still Waters, Plasma Rifle (-10, five charges).

Goma spells known: Heal (Mastered, 15%), Puppet (Mastered, 10% per active command)

Goma Status Effect: Atrophied: Permanent Decrease to Physical Attribute. Combat Level lowered to weak.

Thirsty

Hot

Isalia Health: 100%

Isalia Mana: 100%

Isalia Equipment: Isalia's Sword (-3), Masterwork Trident (-3)(Unequipped), Isalia's Shield (-3), One Piece Swimsuit (Currently removed), plasma rifle (-10, five charges), Tech Armor, Tech Suit (Core Upgrade: Speed).

Isalia spells known: Life Drain (lvl 1, Unmastered, cost: 5% per 1% Health healed)

Isalia Fetish: Submission Rank: 1, Domination Rank: 1.

Isalia Status Effect:

Not Thirsty

Cool

Lri Health: 100%

Lri Mana: 100%

Lri Equipment: Twin Daggers (-3), black swimsuit (currently removed), Blood drinker, tech armor (Sans helmet), tech suit (Core upgrade: speed), plasma rifle (-10, five charges), 3 EMP grenades, Veil of Hidden Depths, fishbowl of Illusions.

Lri Status Effect:

Not Thirsty

Cool

Lemiel Health: 200%

Lemiel Mana: 200%

Lemiel Equipment: Angelic Visor, twin magic blades (Summoned, -10, take 5% mana to summon), Tech Armor, Tech Suit (Core Upgrade: Strength, Special Upgrade: Arcane Flux), plasma rifle (-10, five charges).

Lemiel Spells Known: Angelic Rays (Lvl 1, Mastered, cost: 20%), Heavenly Soothing (Lvl 1, Mastered, cost: 25%), Retribution (Lvl 1, Unmastered, cost: 100%, unusable, triggers automatically at 0% hp if Lemiel has enough Mana to trigger it), The One True God's Judgment (Lvl 1, Mastered, Cost: 100%), God's Light (Mastered, cost: none. Passive ability. Fully heals mana and health outside of combat)

Lemiel Status Effect: Divine Grace. Combat level raised to high.

Not Thirsty

Cool

Maple Health: 100%

Maple Mana: 100%

Maple Equipment: Tech armor (Helmet removed), tech suit (Core upgrade: Speed, special upgrade: Conversion), plasma rifle (-10, five charges), targeting helmet, rail gun bow (-10 when used ignores evasion abilities or resistances), 9 cross bow bolts.

Maple Status Effect:

Not Thirsty

Slightly Hot

Sally Health: 100%

Sally Mana: 100%

Sally Charge: 100%

Sally Equipment: Ultra Durable tech metal shield (-4), Ultra Durable Tech Metal Club (-4)

Sally Status Effect:

Not affected by heat or cold.

Does not require hydration or Nutrition.

https://forum.chyoa.com/threads/the-tower-of-voices-voting-thread.3460/ )