You all discuss what you all want to do, and decide that it's best to meet back in the chieftain's hut later.
Zerol approaches Yern's mother with some fingers. The size of the meal looks like it can be shared with two or three people. You decide to buy two, since your party consists of only five (for now). You give her four fingers, and soon her daughter comes back with two plates of roasted falterfish and planteel (a kind of vegetarian mystery meat).
"Here you go," she says, smiling sadly. I can wrap that up for you if you'd like,"
Kira also approaches the mother and asks why no one cares that they lugged around a nearly naked corpse.
"Well, it's just that these things are common. You know? Everyday you see the lifeless body of the guy you just talked to the other day. And don't worry 'bout people cutting you up and selling you! Ha ha," she says, giving a weak laugh. "We're very honorbound here. If they did that, they'd be committing both murder and theft! And I was kidding 'bout Yern's funeral; we don't bury people here. We cut 'em up and buy things for us to survive. Now, I know that may sound strange, but that's what most of us want. To help those still living. We ain't got nothing to lose once we're dead, right?"
"As for Yern, I'll give the parts to you. I don't need it, and it just saddens me to keep his body. I'll prepare him for you. He would've wanted to help repay the heroes who rescued him and Quar, right?"She then returns to the kitchens to cut Yern's corpse and say her last goodbyes.
Erin asks Kira to help her find out how much she can lift. At first, Kira seems scared, but Erin tricks her to looking the other way and carries her upwards. Kira screams at first, but calms down and enjoys the pleasant night breeze. You find no problem carrying her, but you'll need both your arms to balance her so that she doesn't awkwardly lean to one side. Eventually you land, greeted by laughing children shouting "Me, me next!"
Clair decides to go back and loot Vorl's body. It's not far, so you arrive there quickly. There are some stone steps going down, but they are old, crumbly and mossy. When you finally make it down, you find Vorl and some of his men down in the street. The streets are covered with fleshy tendrils and tentacles. It smells putrid, like decaying flesh. It also smells strangely lovely and alluring. You step closer to go nearby, but hide back near the stairs as Vorl stands up, groggy and wounded, but alive!
You don't know how Vorl could've survived, but he is! It might have been his Gamma physique, or his stubborn, egotistical will to survive. He looks around and screams, sending a few birds flying away. His men, too, rise. But not like Vorl; more like Quar when he woke up. Their bodies quiver and shake as they stand, and burst into a gush of blood and purplish ichor. New limbs sprout out, some like scythes, others like a long pole with a hole in the center, which leaks some sort of green fluid.
Vorl turns to see his men, now disgusting, multi-limbed monsters who claw at him. The ones with the pole-like arms fire some sort of liquid from the hole, hitting Vorl with a splashing sound. Vorl's skin hisses, or that just might be him hissing. Smoke comes out, and Vorl tries to protect himself by blocking their scythes. Their scythes cut into him like knives, his skin bleeding. One by one, part by part, Vorl dies. But they aren't done, yet. They pick up his body parts, and attach it to their bodies. One grabs his head and puts it next to his own, with tendrils sprouting out and connecting it to their bodies. Vorl's face comes back to life, drooling and murmuring incoherent mumbles.
You try to flee, as there is no point staying around. You run fast, and soon, you come back to the village. Meanwhile, Kira goes to the armory to see what's for sale. The owner there turns to see you. He looks like an old man, in his late 30's. He smells like burnt wood and speaks to you.
"Well, hello there, little lady! What can I do fer ya, today?", he asks.
You tell him you need weapons and armor. You ask him if he could make some custom weapons. You also ask him about who his father was, where he get's his materials and how much would the things cost.
"Let's see here, I've got some suits of fur armor for 10 fingers a suit. I've also got some crossbows, slings and swords. They cost around 10 ta 15 finger's dependin' on what they's made of. I've found this Shooter a while back from some dead Technobarian; it's kinda rare, so it'll cost ya 30 fingers, but it shoots like no other, plus the bullets blow up. I guess I could make some new designs fer ya. What do you want me to make?" He says, bending over to look for more wares.
"Ya interested 'bout ol' Grimnar's da, eh? He, he. Well, he made this shop years ago with his own six hands. Now for the hides and metals, I get my son, Grimlor, to go huntin' fer buffacrows. They's like dis large, hair, four legged bird, 'bout the height of two men, and as wide as three! They's docile, so you don'ts gotta worry bout'em," he tells you.
Meanwhile, the rest of the party go to the marketplace to look for some travelling supplies. When you enter, you notice a young boy, about the age of nine or ten, take a cibus from one of the stalls. The shopkeeper notices, and she grabs the boys hand.
"Ya gonna pay fer that? You little thief!"
"I'm sorry! I-I'm just so hungry... and I ain't got's no money on me, m'am," the boy whimpers.
"What're ya talkin' 'bout? You've got money all over ya!" she laughs, and pulls out a knife and chops two of his fingers off. Now the poor boy only has five fingers on his right hand. Then she pushes him away, and he continues to eat the cibus.
That was unexpected. No matter. You carry on, looking for food and supplies. Meanwhile, Nectarius and Erin discuss with each other, while reading the Carta Toxicum. They look for potions and reagents. You notice one painkiller, called Sinne Mordor. It apparantly turns off nerves cells for a while, leaving the person painless. It also numbs other senses, like sight and hearing. You also find another stimulant, called Paccator's Bliss. It enhances all the bodies sense, making everything look cleaner and more surreal, everything sounds like beautiful music, and even the air tastes like sugar. It also makes the mind sharper and quicker to react. Both require a pestle and mortar, some firehart (a locally grown flower.) and skewer glucose (from dead skewerbears). Sinne Mordor needs some cibus extract, while the Bliss needs Blusol Mushrooms.
You check around for food, looking for the best prices. At the end of the day, you find one stall that sells the cheapest. They sell 10 cibus balls (balls of flesh wrapped in mottled grey flesh.) for 5 fingers. They're large, and fill the space of both of your palms. They fill your stomach, too. They also sell cans of planteel, for 2 fingers each. There seems to be no clothes or shoes for sale, since everyone makes their own, but you find bags that cost 2 hands and rope for 1 hand. No one wants to seem to buy your crude axes and daggers, since everyone owns at least one. You find cloth and suturing tools in a kit for 1 hand. Some tents that cost 1 heart, along with complimentary waterskins.
You also find some reagents to make potions. The ones required to make the potions described above cost one hand, along with the pestle and mortar.
Zerol suggests to freeze it to keep it from rotting, but you should wait until after you buy what you need, since they probably won't take frozen money.
((Sorry if it gets sloppy near the end, since I'm tired and I've wrote a lot. I'll add the spoilers for your money and recipes and notes tomorrow. I'll change your character sheets tomorrow too.))
Author
Topic: Evolved: Up the Ladder (Read 13017 times)