It took HOURS for Ikchahp to collect enough sleep spores. Under such short notice, and working with dangerous levels of speed to do it, the poor bogling barely managed to gather enough to outfit each member of the hunting party (A group 47 members strong, literally half the village, and every eligable, and able bodied bogling in town--both male and female-- Those left behind were children, the infirm, the elderly, and pregnant or nursing mothers) with a single sleepspore grenade.
The chief was displeased by this; He always wanted more than was possible, but he was not unreasonable. Collecting that much sleepspore in such a short time was a remarkable achievement, it just did not feel that way-- The chief was chief for many reasons; Realistically evaluating logistics and the needs of the tribe were among those reasons.
This side of the lake was rather devoid of rocks, and it was left to each member to gather some as they were able. Through pure happenstance, once all the rocks had been collected, then dolled out evenly, each hunter received a single stone.
Again, the chief was displeased by this-- but 47 rocks of sufficient size was still quite a lot.
Thankfully, spears and arrows were in plentiful supply.
Ikchahp had hoped that once the hunting party was assembled, he would be excused from the hunt due to 'exhaustion', but the chief said no. (and that it remained to be seen if the birdgirl had genuinely been lying or just happened to lie so often that she stunk of falsehood as a cloying odor. Those tall things couldn't smell their own farts, and so, lied to each other all the time as a way of life, completely unware of how rancorous it stank.)
Consigned to the hunt, the birdgirl was left in the custody of Manduk's woman, who was early with his child, and thus forbidden to go, much to her displeasure and vocal protest. She had lost a brother to the birdgirl's spirit-fire dancing earlier that day, and wanted to gut her, not stand watch over her-- and was eager to dish out some punishment to the birdgirl's friends in retribution for her loss.
Ikchahp hoped his prize was still in one piece when he got bag. (If he would get back... Big hunts like this tended to have a nasty mortality rate.)
He sulked and muttered to himself, as he worked around the big bird-girl's massive frame collecting his weaponry. He DID give her a lecherous smile and a wink as he left though.
After that, it was hours and hours of trodding through the wet and muck. It wasn't altogether that terrible; Being tall had some advantages when it came to the deeper puddles, but that also often meant that he was the one sent to test depth of particularly suspicious crossings. He was used to it though. This past year had been taxing to everyone in the village (everyone had lost family and friends to the treemen and their enraged beasts, and that was one aspect that being tall did NOT give advantages for-- Nearly all of his small family unit had been wiped out already, being easily spotted and picked off-- and if not for the new village everyone had settled into, he would likely be trying and failing miserably to eke out survival in a hostile world, all by himself. Being the pick-out was much better than being alone, and without any support. He'd rather climb trees and pick sleep spores every day than face that.) and his unique stature had seen him doing a lot of specialist work like this, even if it wasn't the nicest, or most enjoyable work.
The moon hung heavy in the night's sky, and reflected fitfully off the surfaces of the stagnant puddles and pools dotting the marshy forest floor, as it filtered in through the tall branches overhead. The hunting party was using night-bird and animal calls to communicate, and did not bring or light any fire-- this was to be a stealthy capture, if at all possible. The tall things were dangerous creatures, to be sure-- That was part of what them so exciting to him--- and the child-one and her huge, hulking masked lackey had been especially harmful to the village this past year. The tall things far, far to the south never had reason to come up this far; Only the small one, and her masked monster. That was why the chief was convinced that the bird girl, and her friends were conspiring with her, to try and catch and torture the rest of the village, as she had done to so many boglings over the past year. Making sure that could not happen was vitally important, and worth this great risk. Between that little monster, and the maddened treemen from the East, life had been driven almost to the breaking point, and the future of their people hung on a razor's edge. Vigillance was the only sensible option; No quarter would be asked, and none would be given.
At long last, some dim lights were spotted up ahead, and their group moved to encircle the sleeping creatures. Tall does not begin to describe one of their number-- Towering in an unimaginable height, one creature had propped itself up on a pushed over tree, and was every bit as large in comparison to the tall things, as the tall things were to his fellow boglings. How such a creature could exist escaped Ikchahp, to merely stood transfixed in disbelief, falling behind to the far rearguard of the silently encroaching ambush party, before being slapped by another bogling, who wordlessly pointed at the enemy encampment, and hand-gestured to make read, and stop gawking.
Inwardly, Ikchahp felt a bit relieved to have found himself among the rear-guard. Being tall tended to get him "volunteered" for dangerous work, like scouting, all-together too often, and the happenstance of being in the back out of sight, gave him immeasurable relief.
The sound of a tree owl's hooting signaled that everyone should take positions; the scouts had been selected, and the hunt was ready to begin in earnest.
Ikchahp crouched down, and stepped on the launch-cup of the stone thrower, bending its wooden bow under the tension until the string caught on the release trigger, before placing the small, fragile, earthenware crucible into it, then taking aim. Either the scouts would signal back where and how to strike, or they would be discovered, and the contigency plan would go into effect. Either way, he had to be prepared-- so he readied his stone on the soft earth, ready to load it next.
Then, the sound he was waiting for-- The sound of a fox yipping--- The scouts were moving in.
Mere moments later, pandemonium struck. The tall things had woven spirit-fire in an insidious and clever way, and it had engulfed the scouts, making a brilliant flash of deep orange and crimson in the dark gloom of the night, amid the rapidly stifled screams of the scouts. --- He was *VERY* glad he had not been in the front. The thought passed quickly, as he implemented the contingency-- aiming his small vessel to land in the enemy camp, close to the center-- before doing the same with his stone missile...
--------
Jack was sleeping fitfully; He kept having terrible sensations of being hunted, which kept rousing him from his sleep, but with such an enormous lake monster on the loose, and so nearby, it was impossible for him to tell if THAT was the cause or something else. He kept telling himself it would be astoundingly stupid for any respectable carnivore to be hunting in THIS part of the forest, at THIS hour--- For starters, the prey up and ran off the day before-- there was nothing *TO* hunt here-- and second, Being out and about prowling, when a creature big enough to just suck you in whole with a singe lunge, was busy sloshing its way through the undergrowth quite regularly in the area-- It would be sooo easy for the hunter to be the hunted. Because of those simple fats, he felt it was just his mind telling him he should be wary-- for things that happened days ago.
The sudden, surprise jar full of choking dust impacting floor of the mushroom right next to his face set him to rights about the reality, however.
that was, until the same said cloud had his head reeling as he gasped for breath, then things went dark.
-------
Mama was sleeping contentedly. Her 2 legged companion was a nice, welcome source of softness and warmth against her chest and belly, and his shoulder made an excellent pillow. The small 2 legged thing with the wings and curled up against her rump, providing just a touch more warmth in the stagnant, but brisk night air.
Suddenly, and without warning, objects were flying in through the flap of the cloth Jack had wrapped around the treetrunk and edge of the mushroom shelf they were sleeping on. One flew over the top of her, and landed with a crash right in front of him, and another crashed into the trunk of the tree, next to Plune. Jack tried to get up with a start, but quickly fell over with a thud, taking the cloth cover down with him. Plune let out a strangled cry, followed by coughing and retching, before slumping into a torpor herself. Before she could react, still more objects came crashing in all around, though these were clearly harder, and painful. Three of them hit her square in the side before she could even figure out what was going on.
-------
[Boglings have initiative]
[Synopsis of Boglings' turn:]
The boglings' attempt at a silent coup-de-grace are foiled by Linea's bomb traps. They are 90% effective and halting the advance of the scouting team.
9 scouts were selected, and 8 of them are blown up into little bits of bloodly bogling-- the last one is severely injured, and lies on the ground in agony.
The remaining boglings forego movement, and instead perform standing order contingency plan, by carpet bombing the player's camp with sleepspore grenades and stones, hoping to render the party unconscious.
Jack and Plune are gassed right away, and fall unconscious.
Everyone gets struck by flying rocks.
Edwarg takes a mud-covered rock to the face, smearing mud all over the lenses of his heavy spetsnaz helmet. The impact and disorientation make him lose his footing, and he falls into the mud below with a sploosh. The stones themselves however, do almost no actual harm to him, just a minor bruise or two.
Linea barely dodges the incoming jars of sleepspore pods, but takes several stones to the body.
Thankfully, the rocks are not very heavy, and do not do much damage-- they are mostly just very annoying and disorienting.
Plune, while uncnscious, takes several of the stones directly, and gets bludgeoned pretty badly, being a very fragile, gracile creature with no armor on.
Plune: 17 damage [knockout]
Jack: 4 damage [knockout]
Mama: 5 damage
Skye: 4 damage
Linea: 5 damage
Dula: 4 damage
Edwarg: 2 damage [disabled 1 turn]
Author
Topic: Mystville [Game Thread] (Read 119678 times)