You walk around the village a little, while you keep your wits about you, you are a little more relaxed than before. Things don’t seem to be that bad, all things considered. You do wonder why all the cultists were humans, while everybody other than the priest looks to be an orc, but most likely those three were his choir boys or… something. You don’t entirely know WHICH god he prays to, but as long as it isn’t the elder gods from beyond understanding or decency it’s probably fine. You also make it a point to swish around the hair of some people, practicing your necromany while you’re at it. It’s been a while since you even spent half a day without using any form of necromancy. Come to think of it, perhaps it would have been a good idea to ask if you could keep one of those monkeys from the exam. Well, it’ll come up when it comes up. Considering you aren’t about to risk resurrecting cultists, it may be a while before you can resurrect something big. Most of the jungle creatures that are worth resurrecting are too hard to kill. Once you’re back in your homeland, you should maybe look into killing an elk of some sort.
The hair-checking doesn’t show anything of note, although most of the orcs are completely bald. You could only check the women, for the most part, and the occasional beard, but considering that absolutely none of them seem to be anything out of usual, it’s all good. You come up with an idea for checking the general magic, but you’re honestly not sure how to start. You’re fairly set in your necromantic sight, and it never came up at all in your four years of magic study to look for general magic. You suspect there’s no spell to do it with, or if there is, that you don’t know it. Perhaps Meandra could help? Although it wouldn’t help in case of a ritual, though. There’s very little magic involved in creating those, until the THING happens. Some of them require some sort of magic power source, sure, but most of the time it’s just obscure symbols and ingredients put together in such a way that it couldn’t be an accident. So you go about it the way you should, and put some real elbow grease in looking around. The locals seem to be a bit wary of the strange spider-woman that goes around checking every nook and cranny in search of crayon markings of weird bones. None of them seem to mind overmuch, though, being too busy wandering around looking concerned about something. It took a while for you to notice, but you haven’t been paying attention to them to begin with. It’s getting clear that things aren’t quite as they should be. Too many people seem to be lost all of a sudden, like they were going somewhere with just the intention of not being where they just were. Another thing you noticed is that there isn’t a church of any kind. You wonder where that priest is doing his services…
The rest of your companions are a lot more laid-back, although Yunikki is kind of looking down at the general populace here, and not just because of the differing religion.
“They’re all so backwards… Civilisation is a day’s walk from here, and here they are in furs and mudhuts. I’m expecting to find out they cannibalize their dead at any moment.
I’ll take my homeland’s savagery over this, at least that still had a beauty of its own!” She says to you, having joined you in your aimless wandering through the village. The place is fairly small, so it only takes about ten minutes to walk through the whole place. You estimate only about a hundred orcs live here, and none of them have spoken a word of common, as the priest said. You haven’t really been trying, though. You find more of your friends in different places around the village. Eveline is talking to the village shaman, mostly around the local flora and fauna, and what type of poisons and tonics they make from those. The Shaman’s common is rusty, at best, but it’s serviceable. Eveline seems to be enjoying herself, and the old man is happy to share his knowledge. He’s strikes an odd figure, to say the least. His legs look too short for his torso, while his arms seem too long. His carries a staff with a skull on it, which has been adorned with all manner of paint, dolls and other. The shaman himself is wearing a skull mask, and has a large satchel filled with all manner of things. You see a few skulls in there, as well. Most of them look to be monkey skulls, though. Nothing too bad. You watch for a time as the old man’s baritone carries the conversation between him and the kobolt.
Suddenly, you feel something icy cold on your neck, and you nearly jump out of your skin! You take a blind swing at the offending sensation, but catch nothing but air. Then you notice Sucy standing below you, looking annoyed at your reaction.
“Do you do this to everybody who needs your attention?”
“Just people that sneak up on me like that… Seriously, how are you so quiet!?”“Practice. Anyhow, things aren’t going too well around here.”Yunikki cuts in to the conversation, feeling a little left out, apparently.
“Yes, I can tell, they haven’t gone beyond mud huts yet in the same timespan the rest of the world figured out bricks and literature. Not to mention indoor plumbing!”
“These guys choose not to follow the rest of the world. But that’s beside the point, they don’t like the priest very much. They do what he says, sure, but they don’t like him. I figure there’s couple of cultural renovators ready to claim this land. It’s not uncommon, from what I heard.”
That does sound awful, but…
“Is this really OUR problem? We don’t have time to make a political movement to save the tribe here, at best we help out their immediate problems.”
“Another thing…. How did the priest know the way back if he was kidnapped?”
“Just what are you implying, here?”
“I’m saying that he-“ Suddenly, the high elderly voice of the priest cuts into the conversation. He seems to be a lot more jolly than before.
“Aaah, my rescuers!” He says, placing his hands on the shoulders of both you and Sucy. Sucy tells him not to touch him, but he hardly seems to hear.
“I’m happy to tell you that the meal will be served soon. It’s just the four o’ clock meal, but I believe you will be glad to have a quick snack before you go on the road again? Of course, you are welcome to stay for the evening meal!”
The turnaround is uncanny, but you have to admit your uncle could be much the same way whenever he arrived at your father’s inn. The man just loves being home, or whatever equivalent this is. Yunikki is quick to say that she’d prefer to leave soon, but this could go either way, really. You’ll have to ask Meandra first, considering it’s her expedition, and then democracy will decide whether people will stay for the evening meal or not. Regardless, the four o’ clock sounds good. You look to Eveline, and see the shaman staring at the priest with contempt. They clearly don’t get along, the way they look at each other is evidence enough of that. Still, the shaman tells Eveline to join up with you again, which she does after a few more thank you’s and leaving a few supplies of her own. Her short legs carry her to you in short order. You just need to find Meandra, and the party’s complete. The priest assures you that he has already spoken to her, and that she will continue studying the totem pole at the center of town. Considering how studious she is, it makes sense that she’d stay there, although you wonder where the meal is going to be if not the center of town. Your question is answered as you enter a larger than most home. It doesn’t have a floor, but it is strangely cosy with it’s simple furniture. The entrance leads to a large room, but there are a few other rooms, much smaller. There is an awful smell here, which the priest explains comes from the paint vat in one of the siderooms. The paintsmell is easy to get used to, but something about seems familiar…
He offers a large basket of fruits to all of you, and two rabbits are turning on a spit above a small fire in the center of the room. Eveline is happy to eat a few of the fruits, and Yunikki does the same, but not before scoffing about the lack of chairs. Sucy takes one, but doesn’t take a bite of it yet. Before you grab one, however, the priest invites you to follow him. According to him he has something for you specifically, but it’s on a very high shelf. He can’t reach it, you can. Considering he is still just a single old man, and you’re armed, you decide to humor him. He takes you in the back of the building, in the direction of the awful paint smell. When the curtain is taken aside, the smell hits you like a sledgehammer. You hold your nose closed with your hand as you wander deeper inside. The smell is awful to you, but the priest hardly seems to mind.
Then it hits you why this is so familiar.
Your mark itches as you look at the pot of paint, you look to the priest, and see he is blocking the curtain. You hear a pot clattering to the floor in the main room.
NOPE STABBIES NOW. He’s not keeping you in here! Demand answers!
Let’s not be too hasty. It may just be normal paint, but this is the most suspicious thing you ever saw..
Keep Calm
It’s just paint. Grab whatever it was that he wanted you to grab and move on.OtherBasic Stats
Level: 9
HP: 25/25
Mana: 48/50
Stress: 16/75
Thirst: Sated
Items and equipment
Equipment:
Carapaced leather armor
Sword
Gardener's Shield
Bolas(x5)
Items:
Spare clothing (x14)
Fancy clothing
Blood Vials (x10)
Poisonbox
Journal
Spellbook
Cookbook
500 coins
Skills and spells
Magic:
Resurrect vermin: Allows you to resurrect very small creatures such as rats(invests 2 of your max mana) (no mana cost)
Resurrect average beast: Allows you to resurrect creatures such as dogs, cats and other similar-sized creatures.(invests 7 mana) (no mana cost)
Resurrect Humanoid: Allows you to resurrect humanoid creatures. (Invests 10 mana) (Costs 15 mana)
Reshape minion plus!: Allows you to majorly change the appearance of your resurrected minions.
Minion Vision: Allows you to see what a minion sees. The minion must have eyes.
Animate Piece: Allows you to animate just a piece of dead tissue. It requires your constant attention, and cannot act independently. (Drains 1 mana per three seconds)
Graft: Allows you to use dead tissue as a replacement limb. Requires a lot of mana. (2 per second) (average limb takes around 20 seconds to properly graft)
Gather Soul: Allows you to make a soul visible. You could try putting it in a flame of some sort to keep it around. (10 mana)
Soul battery: Allows you to use a soul-infused flame as a small mana-boost. This snuffs it out, however
Undead flashbang: Allows you to blow up a minion for a flash-bang effect. (10 mana)
Stitch: allows you to close a wound and stop bleeding as fast as you can stitch. Costs very little mana, but requires something to stitch with.
Siphoning Cloud: Breathe out a cloud that drains the life from victims and gives it to you. Adds a LOT to intimidation (5 mana)
Smoke Cloud: Breathe out harmless but thick smoke. (2 mana)
Deathbolt: A bolt that hurts the body's connection with it's soul. Causes minor wounds to appear over the body as it attempts to compensate (2 mana)
Doombolt: A more powerful version of the above (5 Mana)
Familiar (has no upkeep)
Tiny Skeletal Dragon
Skills:
Poison Stinger (Stings a bit)
Oral Fixation: Can cast spells spells from the mouth.
Draining Limbs: Can drain blood using pedipalps.
Major experience in blocking and swords.
Climber
Crafty: Bolas
Cooking skill: Excellent
Corpse Cutting: Quite Decent.
Animal handling: inexperienced.
Necromantic knowledge
Soul Sniffer
Author
Topic: Web of Life: A Drider's Adventure (Ended) (Read 189859 times)