Alex: Unwilling to try anything else, you give the crystal a look anyway. You haven't used your magic sense to look at anything except necromancy in years, so the experience is a little unfamiliar.
You sense a gatheringness, drawing waves of flow from all around and pressing them through a tube of stability to a ring that roars like the tide. The tube has a disconnectedness to it, and the break is eroding into the stability. You can feel the stability flake. With the brokenness in the tube, the flow disperses back into the surround.Urgh. Synaesthesia is a bitch. You decide to meditate upon the matter, getting rid of the mayor with excuses. You spend the rest of the day wandering around the town, getting a feel for its layout (pretty simple; streets radiating from the central marketplace where the workshops and the mayor's house is). You also learn the town's name; Bereval. Towards the end of the day, you hear a ruckus - someone is dragging your wagon into town, piled up with the corpses of your perfectly good zombies! [5] Including the mule, you see. They're in fairly similar condition to when you left them, with only minimal decay. One of the merchants, the textiles-seller, rushes over to the wagon and lets out a horrible cry before bursting into tears.
You try to keep your distance, but it isn't hard to work out what's happened. The cloth merchant's brother-in-law and his family had gone to deliver their wares when you accosted them, and it looks like the locals found their bodies stashed nearby. [5] Any fear of your discovery soon dissipates when you hear their arguments. With no clear cause of death beyond the advanced decay in the parts of the body you struck, people are confused by the killings. They don't immediately suspect the stranger, and one or two darkly whisper that the brother (the surviving merchant) might have strangled them all and planted the bodies as an alibi.
In fact, as a visiting mage the mayor approaches you and asks you if you might examine the bodies for him, see if there's any evidence you can pick up...
I'll go out hunting with the hunting goblins, and take my two apprentices with me. When hunting, try to teach them more about Restoration, and about various hunting gods and rites to 'help' with hunting.
[3+1] The hunting goes quite well, and you manage to gather another 15 Meat in total above what the huntsgoblins would normally get. [3] The training of your shamans in Restoration is extremely oblique, and the first (and hardest) step is to actually get them to acknowledge and realise their innate
sense for magic at all. As far as you are aware, all creatures have it, but training it is like trying to hear a specific wave over the sound of the sea - you block it out instinctively until you are essentially blind. You try to train them the same way your master taught you - a series of complex mental exercises designed to draw awareness to one's senses, disguised as rites, prayers and ritual. It... might be working? You get the feeling that three-dimensional mental patterns don't work so well for creatures without an innate flight sense. It will take more effort to train them yet.
[3] The mythic aspect of the exercises is also rather complicated, and while they get a basic idea of what the hunting rites are supposed to do, they don't manage to incorporate them into their general hunt yet. Well, there's always time to keep trying.
Tell the smug smart one that I will train and allow him to supervise the gathering process, if he promises to do his best. Then proceed to teach him. If enough time will be left or the goblin doesn't want to be trained, start to experiment with herbs, first trying to create colors for Tez (as promised), then making antidote for the poison of the "hurting plant".
[6] The smart slave takes to herbalism like a fish to water. Unfortunately, his prowess does not dampen his arrogance and he soon starts boasting about how he should be the alchemist, not some one-legged kobold. While showing off during the gathering process, he brushes his hand against one of the poisonous plants (you really must name these things some time...) and starts convulsing madly.
[6+1] Well, you work well under presssure. You quickly grind up and measure out a potion to serve as an antidote to the toxin, forcing it down his throat and watching with appropriate pride as the convulsions stop, replaced by a surge of energy. He is duly humbled and agrees to serve you as befits a student to a much wiser master. Unfortunately, about an hour later his heart gives out.
You work out the problem later; you have the antidote just fine, but dosage is important. The new potion, in the correct dosage, cures the poisoning suffered by contact with the plant. Overdosing on the new potion causes you to be filled with an abundance of energy for about an hour, followed by cardiac arrest. Hrm.
You brew up a good [3] six of these potions, using up as many Alchemical Herbs. Best keep them on hand in case of future incidents. Sadly, you've lost a good apprentice to misfortune. Ah well. The gatherers continue their work regardless.
Do Scout Flights of the closer and farther away area. Memorize all locations i find and try to put them down on a map
[6+1+1] You are able to get very high, fly far and gather rather a lot of information. You can spot four large settlements within three to four days' march, three towns and a castle (marked in a crude star on your map) ringed by villages and flanking a thin paved road leading away to more settled lands. You mark the location of the villages and towns in your memory. [3] By the looks of things, the three towns have similar defences; low stone walls and guard postings. [3] The castle is more sturdy; a solid stone keep surrounded by a low stone bailey. You can't really tell how many men there are there without getting in for a closer look. Upon your return you have your minion draught it all up into a crude map.
[img=http://i1189.photobucket.com/albums/z433/Iituem/goblin/goblinclan001_zpseb4fcf58.png]
Dragostov leads another training/fishing session with the troops and lightning warriors. Need to get them ready.
[2] You're too busy training to fish. You gather a bonus 5 Meat and that's all. [1] Training is an absolute disaster. Several of the troops injure each other with the spears and even after the efforts of the shamans you still end up with five wounded spearmen whose wounds are grievous enough to require several days of healing. [2] Lightning training hits a standstill as well. Apparently the gods are not favouring you today.
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Topic: Goblin Clan! [IC Thread] (Read 7668 times)