Thread #6367853
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Totemists.
One of the first lines of defense against the malicious and monstrous, famed slayers of Behemoths which are perhaps the most dangerous examples of such, and bridge to the domains of spirits and magic unseen. The role is not an easy one of course, but it must be done and has been since time before almost all written history.
You are Capran, young man of the Four Peaks mountains, pupil of Oranya Skystrike.
There has been a lot of unrest on the mountain slopes lately, the issue growing further in scope with each day it seems, but your teacher is not here to guide you and it is time to prove you are capable enough to handle missions outside of the mountains. There will always be a way forward, to deal with the troubles, but it's up to you right now to find it.
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>>6367853
...and that currently means you're following your verdant guide, the spirit Lady Ghesha, who remains tactfully quiet as you scowl at the path before you both. She doesn't look back, doesn't make conversation, just smoothly makes her way down the cleared path. Maybe it's frustration that's built up but you want to break the silence.
You clear your throat, catching her attention and speed up a little so that you end up walking nearly beside her. "That was an enlightening," you say dryly, "not much better than what I could've already guessed from with the context you gave me though."
"Oh?" Her tone is polite but you can tell that's it. Only polite. She doesn't sound interested, but you continue anyways.
"Well, of course! Somehow this Change spirits is tampering with the lives of the mountain goers and it's freaking out everyone who lives remotely near the barrier. Your leader, charming as they are, has decided to warn me, a Totemist who lives on that very mountain, that my neighbors are deciding how they should...how did they put it? Raze the land? Yes, that was it. Raze the land. The only thing I've really learned is that spirits around the mountains seem fine with the idea of destroying my homeland." Your voice doesn't raise but you've begun to hiss a little as you resist grinding your teeth. The dragons you were sure already had eyes on burning your village to the ground but it just couldn't end there could it.
Is this what Oranya spent all those years you studied in boredom handling? No, otherwise she'd have known about Change and the rest. Either way, you hunch a little as you follow Ghesha.
"It's quite the predicament." She notes, politely as she has always been. "Though simply stopping this malignant spirit from contaminating more life around your mountains should end the entire issue outright, would it not? Forgive me for overstepping my bounds to offer you advice, Sir Totemist, but your goal is simple in concept...though not as much in method."
While contemplating, the walk continues until you reach a massive wall of ivy and thick bushy hedge. Ghesha waves an arm and an opening appears in front of the two of you and seems only big enough for one person. Ghesha wordlessly ushers you towards it and politely bows, but before you step through it you stop and give Ghesha herself a look over.
"Were we Woodwalking the entire way? You definitely aren't just some regular dryad maid, are you."
The ghost of a smile comes and Ghesha resumes her bowing. "I'm afraid you are, as they say, barking up the wrong tree, Sir Totemist. I am but a guide in service of my Lady and Lord, to watch over the Young Lady Ekasta. If you wish to meet the more fantastical of the spirits of the forest, the I'm afraid we've left them far behind in the deepest parts of the Wood."
>Cont
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>>6367870
Your eyes check her over again and your mind picks over the details of everything you've seen and heard her do and say. No low ranked forest nymph can just bend the wood to her wishes and a tree-locked
dryad even less so. To be trusted enough to guard and teach another spirit means she's important, but you don't know how much.
You keep your expression still and nod before you take a step through the opening. It's sudden and slightly shakes you but you stand facing away from an old tree just outside of a wide open field that spreads out towards a village you don't recognize. You fish out the map, glancing this way and that on the paper before your eyes spot just one village near the edges of the large green territory of the forest and breath a sigh of relief that it's your destination.
You roll the map back up and place it side of your travel bag and listen up for any signs of trouble while you monitor the distance like a Lord Hawk.
>Roll 1d100 no DC. Best of 3
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>>6367873
>>6368449
You're not too familiar with the usual condition of the village but it doesn't seem to be terribly worse for wear if you had to be honest. A few walls seemed a little banged up around the perimeter fortifications, some bits of the field torn up from what looks to be something like a beast having clawed it, but not much that would suggest the dragons themselves had been the issue or things would have been much worse. You don't smell any blood, see any smoke or even hear any commotion so the best thing you can do at the moment is to carefully approach and let yourself be known.
What you do notice is that the claw markings and damage doesn't seem to be deep into the surface from where you are. A closer look would make things apparent.
And you notice a guard sliding out from behind a raised section, facing your way if you aren't mistaken.
>68
And you see the arrow fly out into the air, silent as can be, just before you bolt right and wave frantically at him.
"HEY!" You yell as you run away from the trajectory of the arrow. You think you get maybe twenty paces away from your previous spot and hear the arrow slam into the ground. You raise a hand to indicate for them to stop and take a quick glance to find that it had landed just in front of where you stood before. Maybe not a warning shot. If you'd continued to walk forward it would have gone through your chest. "BY THE SPIRITS, I'M FRIENDLY! DON'T SHOOT!"
You curse yourself for not having a shield binding at the ready and you can only hope your boots can keep you moving fast enough if they decide you don't need another chance.
"I'M NOT HERE TO ATTACK! WHAT ARE YOU SHOOTING FOR?!"
The archer lower their bow and raises a fist up, then lowering it slowly. Standard gesture to indicate others not to fire, at least how you were taught it, and sure enough there are more archers that step out from behind barriers and don't aim their bows at you.
"Not a step closer, you hear?" Calls out a man's voice, roughly in his twenties if you had to make a guess, and signals for the others to stay ready with a quick wave of his arm.
"Ok," you call back, not willing to risk a rain of arrows after coming all this way. "I just wanted to ask a few questions, I've heard there was some trouble this way and I've been asked to check in!"
The man is silent and then waves for someone to come up to him and they talk for a minute, about what you really have no idea, before letting them rejoin the other archers.
>Etc
(Finger is numb at the tip but seems fine for now)
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>>6369228
He stared at you for some time, you bet he's measuring his distance for another shot if you decide to make yourself look like a deserving target, and calls back again. "On who's business?"
"My teacher, Oranya Skystrike, Totemist of the near mountains."
Some groups of archers get to talking when you announce yourself, but they have good discipline not to take their focus off you completely. You can tell from here that they haven't turned away from you. The first archer thankfully doesn't raise his bow and fire at you so there's a chance they know about the mountain but have a calm head about them.
"You're a bit late if you came to deal with that walking bone bonfire. Hard to believe you'd come now after it had plenty of time to destroy the whole village."
"Yes," you admit. "I heard it was approaching before it was...dealt with."
The lead archer is silent again.
"So why are you here then?" He asks.
>State your business
>Keep the matter of the dragons a secret?
>Lie
>Try to keep to the forest's edge and circle around the perimeter
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>>6369316
The archer is referring to the behemoth that was roaming around before it was killed by the dragons.
Also, feeling has fully returned to the finger and I have been job searching with some success so things should stabilize enough for a regular updating pattern soon. I apologize for the scattered timeframes so far.
Writing
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>>6369234
Tensions remain as you look out over the field and weigh your options, but ultimately there's only one real choice her to make if you don't want to learn if any of your bindings would be good to block a rain of twenty or so arrows. You raise both hands to gesture that you mean no harm and answer.
"My teacher, Oranya Skystrike, tasked me with checking in on your village. I don't know all the details, but she has gave the impression that something might have happened involving the dragons. I trust you know some of them have been flying around, on a patrol if the spirits haven't lied to me."
The archers talk a little amongst themselves again, not at any volume you can hope to hear but you can tell they're a little antsy about whatever it is they're saying. The leader however is calm and steady but his posture stiffens and his grip on the bow hasn't really relaxed. You need more information on the relationship between this village and the dragons.
"Let's say you're not lying. Let's say you're able to talk to the spirits, they've told you dragons are around, and they're on patrols no less. What does that mean for you and your teacher?"
"...I wouldn't say we and the dragons have been on the best terms. It's not common, but there's been raids before from their side of the mountains. I'd like to know what they're doing with a patrol route curling around the mountain towards our side, but my teacher works to keep the barrier strong."
There's a minute or so of tense silence and you're happy to find that the archers don't decide that a visitor is not really welcome at this time.
>Cont
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>>6370389
"So you really are from over on the western range then? If you can talk to the spirits that would make you and your teacher the Totemists of the mountains."
"Aye," you call back and lower your hands slowly. "I'm really just here to see why we haven't been able to communicate with your village and see what this business with the dragon patrol is about. I haven't really gotten the best impression about them so far, you see."
"...I do see. Fine then, come up to the gate and keep your hands away from anything magic and don't do anything silly with those boots. You can unbind whatever you've got mixed into your gear there. I'll meet you shortly."
Nevermind the fact this archer knows how Totemists wield the power of spirits, you're a bit intrigued by how this archer knew you had a binding with your boots. Maybe you can get it out of him.
________________
Soon enough, you've walked up to the gate and it creaks open his wife enough for you to slip through to find that a small squad of archers and spearmen are there to greet you. With no sudden moves, you begin to unbind your spirits after warning the guards of the resulting flashes and collect all your foci into your travel bag. One of the spearmen comes up and reaches for your bag but a familiar voice calls him back.
The lead archer is there behind the group, a small stick burning in his mouth and looking you over, especially around the area of your chest. You've got everything unbound and it's where Xandin's gemstone rests on a necklace, so it's getting easier to figure out that he must be spiritually aware. Not initiated like you are in the Totemist ways perhaps, but something about him gives you the impression he must be closer to the spiritual than normal humans.
You out your hand forward and look him in the eyes. "Capran. Totemist of the western range."
With a huff, the man strolls forward and easily through the row of his fellow guards. "Gull Treat. Lead ranger and the closest this village has to any shaman."
You both shake hands and take note of each other's grip. He meets your strength easily and nobody looks away or backs down first until the five second mark where you both release at the same time.
He knows the regular guard shake, and if he knows it then he'd know your tells for if you're looking for some kind of giveaway. But that also means you might know if any of the guards were to get angling for a position if you later had trouble.
"Well Capran. What would a western range Totemist like to check around first?"
Business first, eh?
>Do you have any unusual problems with monsters?
>Do the spirits come here often? Do they ask anything of your village?
>What's this about dragon patrols? Do they come around your village?
Please choose one
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>>6370402
>What's this about dragon patrols? Do they come around your village?
We didn't see random patches of ash on the way here, so I doubt there's an urgent issue. Still, it's important to stay consistent with our purpose.
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>>6370402
>What's this about dragon patrols? Do they come around your village?
________________
"I'll get right to it then. I'm here on business to check around and figure out the reason for the weird amount of dragon activity in the area. I know about the situation on the mountain and why it has the spiritual side of things all riled up, but I've got no real clue what else. Has anything happened to more mundane creatures? Any mutations you've noticed around the land?"
He remains quite for some time while looking you over again and it doesn't take any genius to figure out that the question has some of the guards on edge, clearly nobody here is really enjoying the presence of the flying terrors, but nobody saves for the leader cares to be part of the questioning.
Eventually the leader speaks again and it's not good news.
"We've only heard the stories, the occasional spirit that comes towards the village warning us to never cross into the mountains. It's several days away so we've been fine to leave things over there well enough alone, but at night...you start to worry. Only enough eyes to watch so many places, and to be honest, we've been having a bit of trouble with beasts and monsters of our own."
"None mutated though?" You press, and the shake of the archers head has you let out a breath you didn't know you were holding.
"Whatever kind of cage you have around your mountain, it works miracles. We're not close enough to see anything like the monsters we hear about from over there, but we're not too keen on venturing around. What with the dragons circling around it and all, we're just close enough to be cautious."
"No peculiar patterns to the monsters? I'm happy to help sort that out with you if you'd like some assistance."
You think you see a little spark of hope go around the crowd, some villagers that are wandering towards you all overhearing and quickly walking up to stand behind the guards. They look tired, hungry as well...
>Roll 1d100+10 for perception
DC55
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>>6371298
>58
You don't know how you could have possibly missed this but you recall that you hadn't seen any sort of fruits or vegetables growing in the fields you passed. You hadn't even considered the fields other than where it seemed that some beasts had clawed around and left a mess. The archer picks up on your realization but remains silent, choosing to just wait for you.
"...how long has it been since you've had trouble with the beasts?"
"It's been a while, Totemist. Some months now "
Nothing good you can figure out just from that alone and a sinking suspicion crawls up your back as you consider...
"The dragons are eating all your game, aren't they."
Gull isn't in the mood to give that a fast answer but he relents and nods. "Some months now."
You grit your teeth and fight not to growl. No wonder they all looked hungry. No doubt a single dragon could clear their livestock in mere days. The area must be nearly picked clean then, so no wonder you found a few around the forest where the spirit courts reside. They'd probably been changing their hunting grounds along the patrol route in rotations. The math is simple enough. A whole elk or two per day at least, per dragon, and then go by the months and how MANY dragons there might be.
The village has probably been exhausting itself just trying to survive on crops, but you've got a feeling that can't go on any longer.
"Gull...how long has it been since you had enough meat to keep the women and children healthy? How many dragons have you seen patrolling the routes?"
He tilts his head up and to the side just ever so slightly and seems to gaze into the distance, and his answer chills you.
"At least a dozen. It's gotten easy enough to tell them all apart I can say that for certain."
He looks at you directly now, a hollow look in his eyes that you didn't catch until now.
"Capran. You've come at the worst and best time for the Totemists of the mountain. If there is any way at all you can help us, we need it. Despera--"
Gull's words are cut off by the roar of a great, ferocious beast that you couldn't possibly mistake. You whirl, already knowing what it was and you see it off into the distance where the clouds were thick over the spirit forest.
A dragon, flanked by others. The same three that were in the forest you came upon.
"SHIT!"
>Run. Maybe they're after you and will leave the village alone.
>Stand your ground. You're a Totemist, not a fugitive.
>Hide yourself, the dragons might leave if they don't see you but are chasing you.
>Bind a spirit into something and prepare for conflict
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>>6371346
>Bind the grass shoes
Not obviously for combat because only xandin will be even slightly viable against multiple dragons on a solo binding fight, but enough to draw the dragons away from the village. Pretty dangerous for Capran's health though.
The commander mask is also an option, but rallying the villagers might just get them killed.
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>>6371346
No time to waste!
You focus on a binding to keep you mobile more than anything and so far you've come to rely on the Grasscarpet Crawler binding for just that so far, so you immediately fish the foci from your sack and press it against your boots and yell out the binding rite. The flash comes and you hear the roar from the dragons, much closer now, come. No doubt they saw it and probably felt the spiritual energy from in the sky so there's no point trying for some element of surprise now.
As for the guards, Gull has them rally further away from the gate and orders everyone into a bunker of some kind. The villagers are fleeing further away from the gate so no doubt it would thankfully be away from any conflict, but there's no telling what kind of damage the dragons could do if it came to that. From what you've learned about their kind, some could breath out storms, most fire, and a rare few could call forth metal dust to overtake the area. No real way for you to know which kind these three are, but you'd be happy if it didn't have to come to you personally finding out.
>You have equipped the Field Sprinter binding!
Honestly, your choice of binding is probably the safest.
Xandin Arre has a truly infamous reputation with the dragons after all, and maybe even with the entire dragon race as a whole! It's hard to imagine they wouldn't have some way to sniff her out if she ever happened to be nearby, and you can only hope that being in a dormant foci meant there was a better chance at keeping her concealed. You guess you'd find out one way or another.
York, Behr and Fawl would be good too but the latter hasn't had a boot binding tested and going with a known binding could be the saving factor you need.
The dragons are coming much closer now anyways and have begun to dive towards the village gate. Not enough time to bind another spirit and only enough to prepare to bolt, maybe lure them away, if need be.
You've begun to realize how much you relied on your full load out, and your teacher when you had just a single binding, and it irks you that you feel so naked and weak without that power. The fears are banished when you recall that you're a guard yourself.
You trained hard; in the rain, the snow, the hot summer too! What guardsman would you be if you trembled now?
As the first of the three dragons break their dive with a flap of their wings, you stare them dead in the eye as they land, claws digging deep into the wood of the village barrier, and keep your mind sharp when the trio all gather themselves and climb down to the ground to meet you all.
>Cont
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>>6371893
Three sets of bright reptilian eyes scan the area and converge on you and those around. They're undeniably large predators, wings folding in to allow a gripping claw to dig into the dirt like some kind of monstrous bats crawling on the earth. Fangs as sharp as you remember them being when you first saw one of their kind and scales reflecting light like polished armor. One or two marks on their hides like a long gash that's mended itself, but you couldn't guess as to what it came from. If you're lucky, you wouldn't have to find out if you would be able to cut deep enough to give them all marks that wouldn't heal up so nicely.
The apparent leader of the bunch takes a low stance and prowls closer to you, sniffing a bit and letting a deep growl ripple out from the throat. As it gets closer, the others move towards you and the others and spread out enough that you recognize it as a partial flanking formation. These things are definitely not here for some routine patrol stop. No doubt they know you aren't from around these parts too.
________________
Pretentious snake spawn, undeserving of their reputation as any rightful power should have proper claim. How dare they behave as some protector when they see fit to surround you and coerce us the moment they see fit? I should have had their miserable king's corpse slaughter as many of his misbegotten kind as possible.
________________
'Easy now,' you think to Xandin as her bloodlust stews in her connection. You have no doubt if you bound her to an actual sword it would literally sing for the dragons' blood right now. 'There's an entire village around us. Nothing would survive if these three decided to launch an attack from the air. Maybe not even use and I don't like the chances.'
Xandin seems to growl through the link between you two and settles back down enough for you to ease up your own clenched hand. You thankfully didn't draw blood but relaxing your hand is more difficult than it should be.
She is ferociously hungry to kill these dragons, who seem to be communicating to each other through growls and grunts.
You should say something, make sure they know you aren't here to cause trouble, but you could choose to draw them away in case they aren't up for talking. No way to know what the right move is.
>Announce yourself as Totemist of the Western Mountain range. Peaceful.
>Demand to know what they think they're doing, trying to intimidate you like this. Aggressive.
>Bolt, try to lure these three away. (Bring forth Xandin to make sure they follow?)
>Stand your ground and say nothing. Firm.
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>>6371898
You raise a hand, unarmed and open, up to the trio of dragons and keep your other away from your weapons. You don't know just how intelligent these three are exactly but you figure they must know enough about humans to understand what a weapon would look like. While yours would be exotic, the concept should still apply.
The guards around you are still, but wary.
"I greet you, dragons. My coming here is not to cause chaos or discord."
The trio continue to spread out around you and their tails swipe and scrape at the earth behind them. You don't figure that's their way of communication, so you continue introducing yourself.
"I have come to make sure this village remain standing and it's people safe. They may be on edge and....hungry, but their walls are high and I'm sure it will be possible for them to hunt."
The leader sniffs at you and growls, lips snarling and briefly revealing the knife-like teeth to you. The others let out lower toned growls of their own and their own tails twist about in the air like serpents, long and packed in muscle that could whip out and take out half of the guards behind you should they turn around.
"I am Capran, without a second name of my own and I am Totemist-"
The dragon leader stalls for a moment, perhaps understanding your role, but refuses to stop outright. It is perhaps a short the paces away and you meet its eyes without hostilities.
"-of the western mountains."
The dragons go low and snarl out, mixing hisses in with it and openly bare their teeth at you.
They are not eager to be friends.
"And I did not come here to have trouble with you. So there will not be trouble from me. Is that agreeable, dragons?"
>Roll 1d100+5 DC 75
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Breaking News!
The dragons thought they were the shit and could just attack the Mountain Totemist, little did they know, they were about to get their smoove off instantly
More at 8! when we will interview Capran, The Scale-Snatcher about his victory against the Dragons!
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>>6372347
>165
>A merciful success.
You think things are going well. The dragon leading the trio raises up from its crouch and looks like it regards you with a bit of measured respect, maybe it's because you don't cower from it or aggressively demand that it shows you respect, and everything seems good and calm and you should know better than to expect things to go well.
One of the others that were trying to flank you, lightest in scale coloration mostly around the hide and with sharper ridges along the crest, clearly doesn't think it should show the same mutual understanding and makes a lunge for you. It even bumps the lead dragon aside a little and opens its mouth at you, then jolts back a split second before you've thankfully jolted back a few feet to avoid the entire upper half of your body being torn off. You are extremely thankful that you had a binding on your boots or this might have gone differently...
And the lead dragon is apparently FURIOUS!
It has its teeth clamped around one of the attacking dragon's back legs and has a horribly vicious growl rumbling out of its chest. In the time it takes to let go with its jaws, it's already slammed into the lighter dragon and knocked it over, pressing one large claw down on its neck and against its belly.
Gull and the rest have cleared more space between themselves and the trio and you're backing up as well in case this turns into a wild brawl should the other dragon decide to go for you or the leader. Thankfully it just crouches and regards the leader disciplining the lighter dragon as more important. Speaking of, it's decided that the subordinate dragon is going to stay down on the ground for now, as it's currently bearings its own teeth at the lighter ones neck, which quickly submits and lays still.
Every time it makes to rise, a sharp snarl from the leader has it lay back down, until the ruckus ends and the commanding dragon returns to eyeing you.
>Cont
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>>6373323
You meet the gaze evenly and only glance to the dragon on the ground once and return to looking at the leader. Neither of you talk (maybe roar in the dragons case) until you decide to break the silence by pointing at the subordinate on their side.
"If that one tries to snap at me again, by the very pact I serve, I'll find a way to take half its teeth. I do NOT perform my role as Totemist so that anything can think it can bite me. As far as I care, this is neutral territory. It had better learn that."
You are firm, unyielding, and completely serious. Xandin is chanting curses through your link and if she could extend her powers beyond her Foci at the moment, no doubt she'd have plagued it with unending nightmares that could possibly extend beyond death.
The dragon opposite you is just as firm, not even regarding the other, and swishes its tail towards the one that's been content to simply watch.
The silent one, which you've noticed has a sleeker build and glossier hide, takes a slow and steady step forward towards you and points one claw towards you.
In a voice without a hint of growling nor hissing, the sleeker dragon says one perfectly understandable word.
"Deal."
Without giving away your surprise, your eyes flick over to the leader and back to the speaker before you nod and take your hand away from the holster containing your ritual knife.
"Now then, we're all aware of the Change spirit. I assure you that subject has been exhausted by now. I've been sent here to check in with this village and why no word had been returned to the mountains regarding its well being." You explain, making sure the most important facts are mentioned first. "Second, now that I know the villagers are facing a shortage of game, I must ask if you dragons can spread out your hunting more so that there isn't so much of a burden."
The leader turns its head to the speaker and cocks it slightly down, then gestures to all three dragons and waves it's from claw wide.
"We three will spread wider. Away from this human village."
The leader points to you again and drums one of its forelimb's claws one at a time.
"If this deal is made, we will restrict to three teams. Not five. In slower cycles. The food will have time to fill again."
You turn to Gull since it's honestly the village he lives in and deserves a say, especially since it seems he's in charge of the guards, and he slowly nods.
You turn to the lead dragon and nod.
"Deal."
>Cont
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>>6373328
The leader lowers itself again and crouches before slapping the one it had punished and then launched itself into the air with a single powerful flap of its wings. The speaker follows suit after eyeing the one that tried to attack you and both get airborne at the same time.
The next voice you hear from above clearly isn't the speaker with how loud and raspy it is, but you make out the words 'rotten meat' being called back down to you.
The sharp roar that follows is familiar enough, and you see the leader take a swing at the insubordinate dragon before returning to whatever patrol it does.
Moments pass and you can no longer see the trio through the clouds so you sigh and turn to Gull. He looks to you, points up at the clouds and slowly traces a line in the air that you recognize as him pointing out where they've all flown off to.
Right towards the dragons' side of the range far towards the East.
"I hope that's the last time I'll need to negotiate with dragons today," you say jokingly and Gull gives you a lighthearted huff.
"Count yourself lucky, that was the big boy himself as far as I can tell. Usually it's leading a group of five but I guess it didn't bring more along. I'd say every other dragon will know the plan and especially the fact that you've been here."
You look to towards the east and give yourself a moment of thought. While a good sign that this village will have a chance to go get some meats, the dragons will still be in the area and preying on the big game.
As for full though? He's sending a team of three into the deeper part of the village and setting his bow on a clever hook welded onto his shoulder armor. "Now, since we've got a window, I'd be very grateful if you might lend us a hand to actually go out hunting. I'm afraid you emerged from the wood right about as soon as we were ready to go out and find anything meaty.
You peek around the area and notice a few doors and windows opened just enough to reveal the hungry faces of villagers, not empty eyed and hopeless but just enough to drive them through one more day. There's hardly any smoke from chimneys, barely any firewood stocked up, and even the crops being sundried are lacking.
They must not have dared go further than the crop fields and even those might not be safe.
You return your attention to Gull and nod. "I'd be happy to help."
But are there any surprises on this hunt?
>Roll 2d100 best of three. No DC, but higher or lower reflects the outcome of the encounters. Higher is plentiful and safe food hiding itself away. Lower is a hostile encounter.
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>>6373642
>Thunderthread(Fawl hook rope)
a bit flashy, but helps with hunting
>Commander's Mask(Behr mask)
this is going to be the best time to get use out of it
>Gaia Drummer
We can do some infrastructure work if they let us
Boots are still fine.
Blackwing hook rope might be more effective for hunting, but I feel it'll freak them out more. Regular ballistae will work better for teamwork with these folk. Even though they're probably aware we have freakier weapons if needed.
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>>6373330
You prepare quickly, binding spirits to the foci you think you'll need, and end up with a decent load out.
>You have equipped Thunderthread (Fawl hook rope), Commander's Mask (Behr mask) and Gaia Drummer(York drumsticks)
It all starts off easily enough, the trip towards the edge of the forest is perhaps the most exciting. A fair few crop vermin such as cornmice and such scurry about to claim their prize and rush away as you , Gull and the rest move. You note to yourself that you could do with making this village a few totems to ward off the little critters if they'd like, and find a few intersections you all pass that would be great spots for putting a stake up to attach warding totems on.
Nothing seems to be prowling around the trees to spy on you all and prepare an ambush, nor is anything in the skies circling around and waiting to see if it will be able to scavenge a meal off your carcasses. Well...perhaps the mountains have made a bad influence on you to be so morbid but you like a good open space for your hunts.
As the five of you reach the edge itself, you slip on your mask and hold Fawls binding on a hook at your side. His rope binding is horribly unsubtle but it's an excellent choice in case something big decides you're a great opportunity to catch some prey. Maybe you'll get lucky and it'll be something edible for the village.
>111. A decent find, though not much of it.
And as luck would have it, Gull spots a pair of small boar cautiously poking their way around the trees about an hour into your hunt. They're both far enough out that any average hunter would have trouble making a shot, but Gull doesn't seem too worried. While it isn't some big feast, it's a good sign that the dragons didn't devastate the habitat if you can find two of them out not long after the dragons had flown off. If the predators aren't out first, there might be a chance the dragons hadn't cleared out too much of the prey animals too.
Gull lines up his shot along with another archer and let loose their arrows in near perfect synchronized timing. Gulls arrow plants itself right into his targets eye and kills it immediately, and his fellow archer lands a great shot right into the back angle of its neck, effectively giving it a split second of shock before it dies as well.
Two board down, enough to at least help fill a table for the village and you hope it'll bring them some comfort. Now to gather them and either go back now or try to press for more food.
You know you could personally get maybe one more boar or hopefully some hares, but it's Gull at the lead and his call to make. He's carefully watching the boars from where he and the other archer shot and he's motioning for you to stay still.
Are you missing something?
>1d100+5 for perception
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In the interest of progress, I'll accept this roll above me.
Also, have a map! That little brown outline to the south east of the mountain Capran lives on is the village you're currently in.
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>>6375077
It looks like mist.
Something like soft mist, a little greenish in color but pale and light, gently fades in through the trees and down from some branches unlike anything you've seen before. The mist slowly collects itself around your hunt and surrounds them in a ring before covering the boars.
"Damnit. They're gone now."
You turn to Gull with a brow up and he quickly motions for you to keep quiet and points back to the mist and you struggle to understand what you're seeing.
It's like a giant eye belonging to something you can't see slightly lowers down from the high branches and looks at the mist. No sound but the slightest rustling of tree branches. You can't see what it belongs to but it definitely resembles a human eye despite the incredible size of it. You notice that everyone other than Gull and yourself have their heads down and eyes covered. Some kind of ritual? A protection against whatever this is? You don't know and you just keep quiet and observe.
The fog swirls away from underneath the watchful gaze of the eye, revealing a growth of tall flowers that were not there before, and the eye rises back up as the mist recedes away back into the forest it emerged from.
Gull taps your shoulder and counts down on his fingers, and once he hits zero, he taps the rest of the guards and they all rise up with sighs of relief. He counts down again, reaches zero, and gives you a thumbs up.
"Forest spirit. First hunt belongs to it no matter what. It likes to work in silence."
"THAT was the forest spirit?" You ask in disbelief. It wasn't a thing like any spirit you've seen or heard of before and nothing you've read in the books match what kind of weirdness you felt from it. "Did it take that as offering then?"
"Yeah," Gull confirms as he leads the group deeper into the forest, "It's odd I guess, but we can't hunt more unless it takes the first kill as offering. Without that, we don't have permission to hunt more."
"It IS odd, but if it rules the forest it could make higher demands." You say after some speculation. "But why the preference to work in silence?"
Gull's mind goes somewhere else for a moment and he shrugs. "I'm not sure. You're closer to the spirits than any of us, maybe you should ask it when it feels up for a chat. You'll know when it does."
You almost miss the words he mutters under his breath.
'It's always watching.'
>Assist the group with hunting
>Try to get the forest spirit's attention
>Try to find traces of the dragons (may result in finding materials
Pick one please
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>>6375416
"Mind if I help a bit?" You ask, hoping to not just be along for the walk as it were and actually do something. Gull can tell you're earnest and willing and nods, calling the group together and letting you lead. "Thank you, I'll do my best to....help......"
HUNT
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>99
>Aspect potential at roughly 15%
>The First Hunt smiles
>The Hunt taps in to some of your spirits' potential to aid.
>Accessing Fear to assist the Hunt. Fear of [-------] is growing.
>Accessing a natural ambush and stalking predator spirit.
>Accessing a spirit of the earth to track that which walks upon it.
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You feel like you're dreaming at first.
Your boots glide you through the thick bush and tall trees like a game you've known your whole life, like something you were always itching to do.
Born for. Meant for.
You're silent. Shadows have competition for how little noise you make. Less a ghost, not even a thought. Only the wind could match how easily you slip around, using trees and bushes as cover, eyes darting to anything that was prey.
Birds, squirrels, anything -not those by your side, never your fellows- until you silently scrabble halfway up a thick tree and peer out from behind it and spy a juicy boar, leading a delicious group of its kind. Sows and piglets alike following it and a few other male boars through a sense thicket of bushes off a ways.
The dream slowly clears from your eyes and you're there, hands grasping the base of a branch like some kind of arboreal predator and blink as your eyes come back from hyperfocus. You turn your head a little to get your bearings and sense movement behind you.
It's Gull and his fellow guards, all down low and eagerly looking at the herd of boars you've found. You motion Gull closer and he does so cautious of the sound he might make, and helps you down from the tree.
His eyes meet yours and he's giving you a look over and nods.
"Thought you were possessed." He says not even above a whisper.
You look down at your hands and boots and blink a few times, remembering the ease you moved with and the sensation.
"I'll have to reign that back in next time. I got a little carried away."
Gull looks at you a little more and rests a hand on your shoulder with a faint smile. "Damn good job though. We'd have been hunting deeper into the woods and never found these boar near the edge if you hadn't done that. I'd say first shot belongs to you. We'll fire and catch a few good ones when you shoot."
He glanced at your ballista and you nod.
>Cont
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>>6375803
You remember the sensation of slipping into that dreamlike state, how easily everything flowed and how everything you did was so efficient and right that you felt like it was perfect for you.
Silently, the ballista is loaded with a fatally sharp bolt and you get the line of sight exactly where you need it.
>100/1
Your eyes hyperfocus and blur in rapid sequence and you stop to calm your mind, do a brief meditation and clear the weirdness that's working through your eyes to make a proper shot.
Gull's hand is on your shoulder again and you weakly turn to him now that your eyes are slowly returning to normal. He sets his other hand over your eyes and lets you use the darkness to get in control. When he removed his hand, you're able to see perfectly fine again and give him a thumbs up.
The ballista is raised again and you make the shot. "Dibs on the big boy."
>81
Your bolt snaps forward and the largest of the boars raises its head sharply from tearing into roots and mushrooms to see what just made that sound and earns itself an arrow into the throat instead of the upper neck. Before it can even begin squealing, two more male boar around it drop dead from their skulls getting arrows in them and the rest of the herd stampedes away with ear splitting squeeks and panicked oinking.
Gull and his guards cheer and rush forward to claim the prize, pulling out rope and preparing to haul the trio of boars back to the village. The mood is great, you can tell this will go a long way to feeding them and many others with how large the prey is and you join them all. Gull and another each lift up a boar each and the other two discover that the one your ballista shot killed is so damn big they can barely get to lifting it with them both working.
You offer to help but you're waved off.
"To hell with that, you're a guest! You took the best one down so relax. If you want, just keep an eye out while we get these back to the village."
You smile then, following right behind the group and reach the village fields in no time at all.
_______________
The eye watches from far up in the canopy.
>Calling here, got to finish my shift
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>>6376006
It seemed like Diarca was going for something similar to the idea I have with the void stuff but it's hard to tell without him explicitly saying so.
My intent is to have us get bonuses to rolls once we raise our percentage higher. Raising it comes from critical roll results in relevant actions. Our crits have been adding up.
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>>6375810
You can tell the guards were nervous by the time you get to the gate and they hurriedly usher you all inside and practically slam it closed, perhaps a bit twitchy with all that happened since you came, but you catch a few staring eagerly at the boars you all caught and give you a nod of appreciation. Some look like they want follow you but know to stay and guard the village, no matter if their stomachs growl desperately as you all pass. They'll get a bit of satisfaction from the meat you've brought to the village with any luck, and more so now that the dragons have agreed to adjust their patrols to ease up on the local food supply.
"Anything I can do to help?" You ask Gull as he, you and the guards drop off the boars to the butcher so that it can be carefully prepped to get the most out of the hunt. More than anyone else, the villagers that would be the ones working on food look the hungriest and starved. They must have gone hungry to feed more of the other villagers.
Gull looks contemplative as he looks you over, eyes lingering slightly on everything you've bound a spirit to, and let's out a sigh. "You Totemists work with the spirits, help make deals with magic and pacts and all that?"
"That's exactly what I do." You answer.
Gull's face scrunches and his shoulders sag, but gestures you to follow him.
"Something the matter?"
Gull nods silently and guides you deeper into the village where a simple stone archway stands in your path. Beyond it is a clearing in the center of the village with nothing but a solitary stake occupying the space. Small blades of grass carpet the clearing but hardly a few inches above the ground. It doesn't look tended to, simply that the grass itself doesn't grow any taller. Gull walks closer to the archway, and raises his hand to hold it up-
No...he places it against something that you reveal when you open your sight to the spiritual.
>Cont
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>>6378064
A translucent film slowly recedes from his hand and reveals what truly occupies the clearing; a bizarre work of hollow trees kept in shape by what seems to be a mesh of branches, silent and serene, and when you walk through the archway it seems frozen in time. No sounds, no smells, more of a dream than anything of the world you know.
"Gull, what is this place?"
Your spiritual sight itself seems to ted with something you don't recognize, as if you're looking through a slightly off color lense of sorts. When you look back through the archway, you can clearly tell the difference between inside this weird dimension and the outside world.
Gull huffs and carefully takes a step through the portal. "I was hoping you'd know actually, but maybe we can figure it out. Can't say for sure I know the full story but I was told by the late shaman that we used to have a Land Guardian living in here."
"Your village had a Land Guardian? HAD? Gull, those don't just get up and leave. What did the shaman tell you happened?"
Gull takes another careful step forward, his eyes checking the mesh trees in front of you both. He doesn't seem to be wary of danger. More like he's not sure if stepping too recklessly won't break something.
"Have you ever heard of something called Evaleii Myoho?"
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And that's where I'll call it tonight. Sorry about the short update.
I'll leave some time for Q&A for now before I take some Tylenol and call it a night
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>>6378140
Oh plenty. Anything from the sea, a whole lot of plant life that your mountainous forests can't provide, a lot of exotic metals, and not to mention all kinds of things that can't be found through mundane means anyways.
For every material you find within the mountain barrier, dozens exist outside of it. I had planned for one of your possible bindings if you all went the ocean route to be a crystallin jellyfish for instance. However I should clarify that the crystal jelly is to the sea as the headbutting lizard is to the mountain.
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>>6378072
Is there a difference between Land Guardians and the forest spirits or spider spirits we've met?
Is dragon breath special compared to regular fire?
Does this village have a smithy and other industrial facilities?
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>>6378480
Land Guardians are landlocked spirits that typically stay rooted in their area and don't move, as opposed to a forest spirits that could roam all around their forest as long as no monster/spiritual predatory things were around to eat them. Some very very old villages manage to spawn their own Land Guardians through believe or magic or such metaphysical reasons.
True Dragon's Breath burns the spiritual. It is like the viciously aggressive cousin to natural fire and most dragons (lower tier draconic creatures included) only use highly volatile flames rather than any real dragons fire.
The village has a Smith but going into the forest recently has been very dangerous for the villagers because things aren't stable. Taking wood from the forest requires a special rite that can't be done in all seasons and can't just be done at the drop of a hat. When the village shaman passed, appointing a new one took time and not every wants to step up to that role because the mundane humans think spirits will happily curse you for looking at them funny (this is sort of true but most just lie to screw with humans for shits and giggles)