Isharan Thief Quest (on hold indefinitely)

[Revx_Z]

anthony050, don't worry about it, thread's still small enough that I can easily track every poster. But for when it gets larger, I'm trying to build the pattern so I can look through and count the [X] vote options.

empatheticapathy, I LOLed at "grinding for levels". I mean, well, yes, you can get more powerful by eating a lot. But this is not the most effective place for it, where the encounters are mostly random animals and the occasional demi-human beast. Proper grinding would involve finding a way to stuff Bessie full of girls - of course, avoiding this is why girls are so often found in defensive groups, aka 'towns'. Or better yet, eat a bunch of dragons and archdemons and other powerful creatures. For example, head into the deep wilderness, find a gullible giantess and say something like "I'm secretly the goddess of angels on a recruiting mission, looking for goodhearted people. If you show that you are goodhearted by letting me eat you willingly, I'll make you reborn as an angel."

[Aleph-Null]

First things first,
[X] West to Port Rotwood.
Bessie is a punch em in the face kind of thief, which is really just a land pirate. She should fit right in.

Plus, what kind of quest is "hang out and fish"? I propose a life of adventure.

In regards to the below,

No, they're friends.
To many risks, plus, friends in the guard could come in handy.

Seeing as you just fucked their brains out, they could serve as an alibi for when some other girl goes missing from their home. Speaking of which, it's early in the morning, and surly there are girls sleeping in.

(removed the X in my quote so I don't accidentally double-count the vote when looking through later)

First let me say that I greatly appreciate your initiative here. It's strategizing commenters that make a quest interesting, and this sort of response is what will encourage me to put up explicit []Write-in vote options later, hopefully when I have more players. Doing it right now seems like an invitation to 1-1-1 ties between different write-ins.

With that said, let me outline why I think Bessie shouldn't do this specific thing.
If you gobble some other girl here and then leave, Maya and Bridget will put two and two together and get vore, and might get a personal grudge about how you were using them.
If you gobble some other girl here and quickly head back to bed, M&B will notice your belly when they wake up and start asking questions. Lies like "I ran out of the village and had a monster" will seem very suspicious when the other soldiers on duty wouldn't have seen that. Telling the truth and asking them to cover for you anyway because sexy might have worked if you took Seduction spec, but Brute Force won that first vote. So Bessie is "only" good enough to walk into a fortified village and get fuckbuddies, not good enough to enthrall them into siding with a foreigner who ate one of their own people.
Does that make sense?

If you wish you'd taken Seduction now, don't worry, there will be opportunities to "level up" later if Bessie keeps surviving and eating.

I didn't really mean the suggestion as a hard choice like the votes, but rather a soft direction. The thing with quest type games is that we don't have a clear view of risks. As such, Bessie is going to have to use her common sense on those types of suggestions, as the person suggesting doesn't exactly have eyes and ears in world.

As for the skill vote at the beginning, I didn't vote. I usually don't manage to get on the portal every day, so I missed day one of voting. That being said, I would have voted for sneaky thief

[Revx_Z]

Hm. We have a tie. Do any of our viewers have an opinion on whether to set up camp or head to port?

[Aleph-Null]

I'm going to guess you will see some pretty low post rates the next couple of days. Lots of people will be traveling or hosting family for Christmas, and probably won't be visiting the portal. You may want to give it a couple more days for the tiebreaker.

[empatheticapathy]

empatheticapathy, I LOLed at "grinding for levels". I mean, well, yes, you can get more powerful by eating a lot. But this is not the most effective place for it, where the encounters are mostly random animals and the occasional demi-human beast. Proper grinding would involve finding a way to stuff Bessie full of girls - of course, avoiding this is why girls are so often found in defensive groups, aka 'towns'. Or better yet, eat a bunch of dragons and archdemons and other powerful creatures. For example, head into the deep wilderness, find a gullible giantess and say something like "I'm secretly the goddess of angels on a recruiting mission, looking for goodhearted people. If you show that you are goodhearted by letting me eat you willingly, I'll make you reborn as an angel."

Any enemy drops at least 1exp. If anything, it makes sense to do your grinding against enemies who pose no real threat.

[Revx_Z]

I'm going to guess you will see some pretty low post rates the next couple of days. Lots of people will be traveling or hosting family for Christmas, and probably won't be visiting the portal. You may want to give it a couple more days for the tiebreaker.

Evidently not. If I give it any more time now the thread is just going to be dead. So I'll flip a coin and get back to posting content. Coin says "Dig in".

(Previous chapter)

Chapter 5: Taste of Seafood

Being at the beach is great, but the novelty starts to wear off when trying to put together a shelter. You find yourself with a new respect for carpentry as you try to lash together trees and poles into a lean-to. One of those macro spells that creates walls would be nice too. Lacking either, you settle for a lower sheet to keep the dirt off and an upper sheet to keep the rain off, suspended from several cords. Then you take your knife and carve "BESSIE'S PLACE" into the largest tree, adding the personal touch to make it more than just a bunch of tarp and rope. When you lie down to test it, you find yourself slipping sideways, so then you have to roll back the lower tarp so you can try to flatten the ground a bit. When the ground proves resistant to simple flattening, you wipe the dirt off your hands and decide to move the bedroll instead, and by the time it's more or less done, the sun is setting.

Phew. Enough work. Time for a swim, wash all that sweat off!

The water is still delightfully warm. Small fish flit by beneath the waves. Just for fun, you try grabbing one, but it easily avoids your hand. No worries, that's what bait and nets are for. So you luxuriate in the shallow bay, enjoying the water lapping over your skin, the harpy churning its way through the last stages of your guts, dreams of a rich and glorious future, getting a foot massage... foot massage? Shit. You kick at whatever's got your feet. It keeps hold, your kicks made sluggish by the water. But at least you can kick and thrash about, preventing it from starting to swallow.

You head for shore again, paddling mostly with your arms. It gets quickly tiring pulling on all this weight. Looking over your shoulder, you see it's a mermaid that's grabbed you. She keeps tugging at your feet, but isn't built for swimming backwards. All she can do - all she has to do - is wait for you to get exhausted.

You aren't having any of it. Rather than try to drag her onto land, you put in just enough effort to make it to where the water is chin-deep and you can stand once you get your legs free.

Then you twist around, turning to where the mermaid is now floating on the surface rather than pulling on you from below, and hit her. It's a good punch, delivered right to the head, hard enough that you can feel the pain in your hand. It's a good pain, marking a solid it. The mermaid looks uncertain about whether to cover her face or keep hold of her catch, and while she's thinking about that, you hit her again. This time she lets go, putting up one hand to block and trying to punch back with the other.

Feet free, you can stand instead of treading water. This gives you better leverage, and you grab one of her half-assed punches. Clearly, mermaids don't get much exercise punching underwater. She turns to flee, tail splashing everywhere, but you yank on her arm and punch her in the head some more. The mermaid whimpers, then eventually falls silent, and you inspect your prize. She's rounder, fatter than you had expected. Her breasts are small. Her scales start right below the breasts, rather than at the waist. Are all mermaids like this, or did this one get an extra helping of fish genes?

A twinge reminds you that you should probably get rid of your previous prey before starting on a new one. So you drag the mermaid ashore, and find a small crevice to squat over. "Bye, lunch!" you say cheerfully as the brown waste that used to be a harpy starts to splurt messily out of your anus. It's still half-liquid, and stinks. "Eewwwww." Feathery on the way down, downright disgusting on the way out. Harpies really are horrible creatures, even when they're the ones being shit out rather than shitting down on people from a great height. (Not that that ever happened to you, of course, but you'd heard the rumors.) When you're rich and powerful, you decide, you will hire a squad of dedicated hunters to purge all harpies from... wherever it is you settle down. Which probably won't be here. The beach is nice, but it isn't really the sort of place you want to settle down in the long term. And for now, you will shovel some dirt over the digested harpy, then get far away from the smell.

The mermaid is bulky enough that it needs both hands to lift, which means you don't have a spare hand to brush dirt off its body. You roll it back into the water instead. Wet food is preferable to sandy food. Grabbing her arm, you reflect on the situation. In some ways, it's similar to the one you were in two days ago: about to eat a woman who'd come upon you unawares. Well, woman-ish. You weren't all that hungry then, and you had a large lunch today. But then as now, it seems like the best choice. You didn't want to let your prey just get away, and killing them would be messy. And you'll be going to sleep with a stuffed belly in a new bed.

Of course, in other ways, it's different. You'd bolted down Fiara in a half-panicked state. You have all the time in the world now to start swallowing the mermaid's arms and savor the delicious taste of her flesh. Fiara had squirmed, fought, stretched you out in new and surprising ways. This unconscious mermaid is just going to be a big fat bulge, and you're confident your stomach is more prepared now to accept something so large.

Gulp. Her hands pass your lips and enter your throat. Her arms start to follow. Water runs off her skin and drips from your chin. You open wider as you reach her head. Her hair is long and stringy, a little like seaweed. It tickles your face at it's drawn in.

Gulp. Gulp. Her shoulders are starting to stretch out the sides of your mouth. Her weight is becoming noticeable. Lift her up more, or put my face into the water? Decisions, decisions. Her taste is mostly fleshy, a little oily in the hair, a little sweet on her nipples leaking honey as they're squished across her tongue.

Gulp. Gulp. Gulp. You hit scales. Only halfway down and this meal is already tasting like a four-course dinner. The mermaid's corpulent belly squishes and slips in your grasp. You shove, suck, swallow, forcing its well-rounded middle down into hungry gullet.

Gulp. Gulp. Gulp. Gulp. The bulk is done, the mermaid is getting thinner now, only her lower tail left to deal with. Her arms are starting to curl around her head for lack of space, as she squeezes against the cramped stomach walls. A long, drawn-out swallow helps her do the big slide down the gullet, and the last of her to disappear is a crumpled fin squishing into your throat.

Even standing in the water, your belly is heavy. You wince at the thought of lugging it up to your camp. Surely there can't be any more mermaids here, or they would have helped this one. you reason to yourself. Unless maybe they were enemies of this one. But then they'd like me for eating her, right. Yes, that sounds like a good enough excuse to wait here at least a little longer and catch your breath and think about things. At least I don't have to run away this time. No one's going to be angry at me for eating a mermaid, right?

Eventually you drag your way up to the campsite, laboriously dry yourself off, and settle in for the night, occasionally rubbing your belly.

-

You're still full the next morning, but at least the bulge is smaller now. Over the next day and a half, as the fat mermaid slowly digests and dissolves and drifts through your guts, you pretty up your shelter, scout out the area, take several poop breaks, congratulate the mermaid on being much better food than the harpy, improvise a fishing rod, line, and hook, and spectacularly fail to catch any fish. You tell yourself it's just practice, you don't actually need the fish yet, right?

Besides, that evening you manage to catch the lizard who keeps stealing your warm rock to lie in the sun whenever you're away. Or maybe it's a different lizard, it's not like you're a lizard expert. But it's definitely some lizard, small enough to lift with one hand, big enough to be a good meal, and it squirms pleasantly on the way down.

Am I becoming... monstrous? you wonder for a little while. That would have been a full day's meal before. Now I just ate it while my guts are still half full of mermaid. Am I hungrier? Or do I just like the feeling of being stuffed? Hmm, maybe answering this sort of question is what philosophers are supposed to do. I should find a philosopher next time I'm in town. Maybe she'll say "Bessie, you're turning into a professional monster hunter." Or maybe "Bessie, you're getting fat and you need to go on a diet before you turn into a giant blob."

-

On your fourth day at the beach, you run your hands over your body, feeling the changes. You're definitely a little more padded. Something to think about. Will it stabilize? Should you exercise more?

Late that evening, as you're lying awake, still sore from trying to do pushups (pushups are evil. Evil!) you spot a ship approaching shore nearby. It's not heading to a port, nor to you, which is a little suspicious. So naturally you sneak over to find what they are heading to do.

A small rowboat takes people ashore from the ship, and once they get close enough, you can eavesdrop. Apparently they're smugglers or pirates of some sort, and they have a cache here. And the tone of voice when one of them keeps calling for Cynthia, and then asking "Where has that dumb mermaid gone?", suggests that oh, someone is in fact angry with you for eating that mermaid. Or might be. Better not let them know. From your carefully concealed position, you watch them carrying loot ashore, hiding it in a cavelet, and taking other stuff back to the ship. There's some more shouting for Cynthia. You count about eight or ten smugglers ashore in the darkness, and their ship is big enough that it probably holds another ten. You watch them split up: one group to stay here and two groups to go either way - probably looking for the mermaid. Hmm. An interesting opportunity.

Vote Closed
[] Leave now. This place isn't safe any more, not with a score of smugglers crawling around nearby.
[] Grab some loot. Stay out of sight, wait for the smugglers to leave, then pilfer their cache and run.
[X] Grab a girl. If you play your cards right you could probably demonstrate to one of the smugglers where the mermaid went.
[] Ask to join. As long as you don't tell them who you ate, you might be able to get some new friends. Friends are good to have.

(Next chapter)

[voryure]

[x] Grab some loot. Stay out of sight, wait for the smugglers to leave, then pilfer their cache and run.

[empatheticapathy]

[x] Ask to join. Our combat prowess should impress them well enough, and a ship is a great way to get away from that starting town where we ate somebody.

[anthony050]

[x] Grab a girl. I just want to see how this would end up

[Revx_Z]

I'm here and I will write the next bit soon, I'm just laughing a little at the three-way tie. Anyone got a three-sided coin for me to flip? Or a tiebreaker is fine too.

[IvesBentonEaton]

Roll 1d6, divide by 2, round up. Done and done.

[Revx_Z]

(Previous chapter)

Chapter 6: Fleeing, Again

You watch the pirates as they split up, rubbing your hands gleefully in anticipation. First it's some on the ship and some going ashore. Then the ones ashore split up further, some checking on the supply cache, others going to look for Cynthia. The search team splits again, three going west and three going east, and then each of those three start fanning out a little, but still staying within shouting distance of another. And they're certainly shouting a lot, hoping to get Cynthia's attention, and also covering any noise you might make as you sneak up on them.

A stone thrown over the searchers lands in the water and splashes, causing their heads to turn towards the sound. You quickly seize the opportunity to sneak up on one of them with a nice, stout club and give her a nice, hard whack over the head. She cries out in pain, but remains standing, and turns towards you. Dammit, looks like that was a well-padded cap she was wearing. Fortunately her cry was inarticulate enough that the other two pirates think she might have been pointing out something, and they keep staring into the water, looking for the mermaid who's long since been added to your curves. Time to make with the swallowing. You open your mouth wide, begin engulfing the pirate's head, and grab her arms. She tries to grab you at the same time. Both of you are quite strong. There's some awkward wrestling as you try to gulp the pirate down and she tries to wriggle out.

Then the other two turn around. You feel sure you could have gobbled up one alert pirate eventually. But there's no shame in admitting defeat to three. So you let go and spit out your victim, using your free hand to give her a cut with your dagger. She staggers backwards, bleeding, and her friends hesitate for a moment. Salty sailor curses ring in your ears as you flee, but nothing more than that. They've chosen to tend to the other girl's injury rather than chase you. Hopefully they won't bother to chase you in the dark.

And they don't chase. But more pirates do come off the ship to cautiously hunt for you in larger groups and carrying torches. It seems they took the attack personally. You briefly consider sneaking onto the ship and hijacking that while they're ashore, but 1) there are probably still some pirates aboard, 2) you have no idea how to sail a ship. So much for that idea then. At least large groups of torch-wielding pirates are very obvious and easy to avoid while they're searching for you.

They tear down your shelter and shout that you must be nearby. You conclude that it's definitely time to not be nearby any more. All your worldly possessions apart from the shelter are already contained in one backpack, so it's the work of a moment to set off into the shelter of the nearby treeline and start putting the darkened campsite behind you-
-only to blunder right into a web. Shit.

Okay. Don't panic. The arachne that made it might be sleeping. Deep breaths. Try not to let the web get in your mouth. Sit down. Grab at the ground for webbing-free leverage. Twist sideways and try to pull an arm free. Okay, twisting just got more webbing on you. But it's tearing elsewhere. Wipe your arm on the ground. Gods and angels, how does this stuff stay so sticky even after rubbing dirt on it?
splat
A strand of loose webbing falls on your free arm and across your chest. This situation just keeps getting stickier.
ssssplat
You look up. That's not loose webbing falling on you, that's fresh webbing, being squirted out of the abdomen of the arachne above you.
ssssplat
You manage to catch one strand on your arm. The next falls at an angle and hits your torso. The next on your legs. Soon you only have the one arm free. The arachne descends with a chittering laugh and shoves you further into its web, tying up even that free arm, then rolls you up in even more strands, before it carries you away to its nest where it tears your pack loose and starts to devour you on the spot. Wrapped up as you are, you can't squirm or feel anything much, only the pressure of silk and throat enveloping you on all sides, getting tighter as your predator works its way up your body. The thread doesn't stick to the arache's saliva-slick gullet, only to your skin, being smeared across your flesh until the webbing is less a set of threads and more a thin paste cocooning you.

The stars disappear from view and your vision goes dark as the arachne finally swallows your head with a loud GULP. You hear it making satisfied noises as you finish sliding into its stomach. The oesophagal sphincter squishes over your head and then closes tight behind you with a wet noise. All you can do is roll over and splash around in the arachne's belly. Perhaps the worst part is that your end won't even be quick. With their prey wrapped up tight, arachnes can afford a slow, leisurely digestion, their stomach acid barely more than hot water. Where it meets your exposed flesh, it only tingles rather than burning.

As you lie trapped here, your likely end in sight, there's nothing to do other than think. How do you wish things had been different? What kind of end to your life did you want instead? What pleasant fantasy will you dwell on to distract yourself from digestion?

Vote - Choose several, Bessie's ambitions
[] Wealth. Recline on a pile of loot like a dragon. With the softest silk sheets on top, naturally. Gems are hard and sharp and not good to rest directly on.
[] Power. It is a glorious thing to rule, to be looked up to, to hear people obey. To see your will made manifest upon the world.
[] Fame. What is best in life? To sear one's name into the annals of history with mighty deeds!
[] Hunger. Some say you shouldn't let your base urges rule you. Clearly they've never experienced the joy of vore.
[] None. Bessie is content to just drift through life, seeing the sights, letting events go by.
[] Write-in?


Notes:

Spoiler: show

1d6 turned up 5 for the option at the start. Half rounded up is 3, grab a girl.
Then Bessie's 1d20 for overall success also turned up 3, which is why the smuggler encounter almost ended in a game over. And then things got worse. Luckily she managed to roll well enough to escape both times - yes, Bessie will escape from here. Arachne got greedy and gobbled its prey without poisoning it first. So Bessie's not paralyzed or melting.
On today's vote you can choose as many options you want, and I'll add up the results to use as a general guide to which things Bessie will prioritize. If the quest remains popular, there will be opportunity to reconsider it later.

(Next Chapter)

[empatheticapathy]

[x] Wealth
[x] Hunger
What is best in life? Hedonism, that's what.

[x] Write-in: Love
Everybody gets lonely. Even this arachne, no doubt.

[voryure]

[x] Power. It is a glorious thing to rule, to be looked up to, to hear people obey. To see your will made manifest upon the world.
[x] Fame. What is best in life? To sear one's name into the annals of history with mighty deeds!
[x] Hunger. Some say you shouldn't let your base urges rule you. Clearly they've never experienced the joy of vore.
[x] Wealth. Recline on a pile of loot like a dragon. With the softest silk sheets on top, naturally. Gems are hard and sharp and not good to rest directly on.

[x] Write-in: Love

We want it all!

[anthony050]

[x] Hunger. Some say you shouldn't let your base urges rule you. Clearly they've never experienced the joy of vore: just for the irony ^^'

[empatheticapathy]

So... dead game?

[Revx_Z]

So... dead game?

I got an eviction notice, spent a while scrambling to find a new apartment. But you're not here for my personal sob stories, so I won't go into that. New chapter should be up today or tomorrow now that my priorities are settled a bit.

Hunger wins the current vote, I see - but as I said previously, there was going to be some kind of vore regardless of what won, it's kinda required on Eka's.
Voting for it as a priority above and beyond that requirement means Bessie is going to get increasingly accustomed to naturally indulging her hunger. Starting with voreception in the coming chapter. Wealth and love second suggests it's time to head to a city where friends and loot can be found.

[Revx_Z]

(Previous chapter)

Chapter 7: Belly Snuggles

The silken web you're wrapped in stops you from getting arms or legs loose, but it doesn't prevent you bending at the waist or knees. You twist around and wriggle in the arachne's big belly, splashing up weak acid. Your efforts don't get you anywhere, but just lying here, accepting your fate, seems entirely unacceptable. You aren't food, damn it! You shouldn't be here! This is wrong!

But all your squirming and screaming only makes the spider-bitch's stomach wobble a little - is it laughing at you?

And with your outburst ended and your energy spent, you can do nothing but lie still in the darkness and drift slowly towards unconsciousness, thinking of what was and what could have been. Fiara, your first live meal, who walked in on you, and then slid down into your belly out of desperate necessity. The nasty harpy. The fat mermaid that added so to your curves. The lizard you had as a chaser. The pirate you nearly had, before you ran and wound up here.

Warm liquid sloshes around you, tingling gently where it slips past web and touches skin. Exhausted, you drift off to unconsciousness...

...

...bump

...you're awakened by something large and sticky pressing against you and squirming. You realize that the arachne must have eaten someone else! Someone? Something? You can't see what it is, and fumbling in the darkness, you can only feel fresh web. That's when you realize that the webs on you have largely been dissolved, and while your skin is flaking off, you're still alive and free! Well, as free as you can be when you're still stuck in a stomach and half glued to whatever slid down next to you. You wrestle the creature into submission, force it down into the pooling acid below you, and lie on top of it. The sticky strands enveloping it tear at your sore flesh, but at least this position gives you a respite from being digested.

The arachne must have been hungry, because moments later, a second webbed catch slides down its throat and lands with a splash. This one is smaller, and not moving. Wrapped tighter, maybe? Paralyzed? It's impossible to say. An idea occurs to you: whatever it is, if it was a meal for one creature, surely it can be a meal for another. Your stomach immediately lets out a loud grumble at the thought, your body crying out for nourishment after the recent abuse you've been through. You open wide and start devouring the gooey bundle. It's a warm, sticky mess that glues itself to your face and doesn't go down easily. It takes both hands and pressing it up against the stomach wall to make any progress, while stumbling around for footing on top of another webbed bundle.

Making things worse, your predator starts moving while you have your prey halfway down. The stomach you're in tosses and turns sharply, and you nearly gag from sea-sickness and the taste of webbing filling your mouth. But your needs will not be denied. You gobble, slurp, swallow, and shove the prey down your gullet, bulging first at the neck and then at the belly as the creature comes to its final rest. You cough and spit up bits of webbing, feeling nauseous but full.

Now to figure out a plan to get out of here. You don't have magic, so teleporting is right out. You could try asking the arachne nicely. "Will you please spit me out!?" you holler at the top of your lungs, but only get a faint rumbling in response. Either the arachne can't hear you, or it refuses. That leaves fighting your way back up its gullet, or trying to pass through its guts and come out the other end. The first seems likely to only get you swallowed right back down again, and the second sounds incredibly unappetizing to even think about. Maybe if you sit here for a bit longer, something else will occur to you?

Then again, sitting here is quite unpleasant too. Thanks to the arachne's hunger, you've gotten someone to sit on, keeping you out of the pool of acid in the bottom of its spacious belly. Which still leaves you in damp darkness, slathered in half-dissolved webbing, and getting jostled about by warm stomach muscles and other movement, even if you're not actively being digested right now. And it's not as though you could stay. Or is it? After all, you're alive and practically getting food served to you, even if it is wrapped up in foul-tasting web.

And still alive, your latest meal reminds you with a sudden squirm. Your own juices must be working on it far faster than the arachne's to have it coming loose already. You don't have the luxury of letting your tummy work on immobilized meals for days, but you do get to enjoy the pleasant sensation of futile struggling within you. Whatever your prey was, it's still mostly wrapped up and fatigued, and its feeble flailing only serves as an internal massage. Mmmm. Soon it dies down again, and you belch, hoping the taste might give you a clue to whatever it was - hmm, still mostly the bland and oily taste of webbing, vaguely furry and meaty flavor. Probably not a girl, then. But it could be any sort of forest critter. You aren't exactly an experienced gourmet. Something to be resolved, perhaps, if you ever take up the life of a professional huntress and ranger.

But for now, it's time to make a decision. Drawing strength from the meal now starting to liquefy in your guts, you look around and take stock of your situation. Okay, so you can't actually see anything looking around, but you know what you mean. You're in a stomach, but not in immediate danger of digestion. One other occupant, wrapped up and subdued. One possible escape route. No tools at hand. What to do?

Vote - Choose one
[X] Escape immediately. Crawl through the arachne's guts, head out the back door and hope it's too disgusted to just grab you again when you emerge covered in shit.
[ ] Stay a while. Continue eating the arachne's meals, like some particularly large and intelligent parasite. It's sort of like being a thief, when you think about it.

(Next chapter)

[rotta287]

[X] Escape immediately. Crawl through the arachne's guts, head out the back door and hope it's too disgusted to just grab you again when you emerge covered in shit.

[empatheticapathy]

[X] Stay a while.
At some point, she'll eat something with a sword, and we can cut our way out.