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Voting closed: November 04, 2022, 09:24:51 am

[King Zultan]

After everyone else was finished talking to the deer woman Burt would sit and ask about her culture, lifestyle, and anything else she'd tell him about their way of life.

He plans to use his share of the money to buy a proper sword to replace the training sword he accidentally brought with him.

The only things Burt can think to ask the commander is where he can get a sword and what they intend to do with the tower heart.

He'd inquire what beasts are ravaging the lands and where they were last seen.

[Maloy]

After everyone else was finished talking to the deer woman Burt would sit and ask about her culture, lifestyle, and anything else she'd tell him about their way of life.

[You have unlocked Deer Person Lore]

The Tribes of the Forest of Plunges

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/itookapicture/comments/aexjib/itap_of_a_deer_in_japan/

The deer woman sits next to you at the campfire, her name still unknown to all, but her hospitality seeming quite genuine!
She looks toward you "Well, I shouldn't be surprised you do not know much of our people. Even those native to these greater lands rarely interact with us."

She looks up at the tree canopy shaking with the peaceful impact of light rain whose clouds have blocked out all evening light.
"What is there to say? I suppose that We have always been here like the way you see us now. We live in small families that form a larger tribe. Our people walk trails as old as any can recall. These trails let us find other tribes in the woods so that we can talk, trade news and mate, and anything else.
Unlike deer we don't have to keep multiple men out of groups, but often there is still only one man to a family. The stag's job is to patrol the forest and look for threats and so they often go in groups separate from most women and then break up again to rejoin us after a time."
She looks around at the party concerned about her explanation "Not to say us doe can not fight either and we often do, but our job is to protect the group. I think the human words would be...offense and defense? The stag is offense and we are defense"

She continues to look around the fire at her new friends either unaware of uncaring of how strange it is to see an entire people who go undressed. "Our ways may seem simple to others, but we would call ourselves content" She motions to Burt the adventurer's armor "You wear this because you need it. You all cut down forests because you need the wood and land and build houses because you need the warmth and security.
We do not need it though and live content. That's why most of us chose to stay like this rather than live with the elves"

After mentioning elves her expression does darken slightly "But, yes more about us. Long before the elves came we lived under a great threat which many call: The Moon Monsters" She shivers "Terrible spindly creatures with dark stretched skin and wings. They travel the woods with knives and cleavers and kill any they find, but never quickly. Our people who get captured are often left screaming for days as they die serving as bait to try and lure us to help. The beasts would hunt along out trails trying to counter our speed with ambushes. This went on for a long time even as we began meeting the elves. The Moon Monsters would kidnap their women and turn them into more of them to hunt us.

In a way we were brought together by mutual fear, but even after so many decades of working together we never stopped the moon monsters. Only kept their numbers from growing out of control, and then the great winter came with death."
She looks in the direction of the haunted woods and motions with her head "Enemies of our allies came, but not goblins or humans who could be chased out. Things that were already dead, but continued to walk and whenever they killed anything it would rise to join them.
They killed the elves. Captured the leaders and buried them alive or fed them to their undead companions, but killed them all anyway and cursed that land.

Now we are alone." she looks sad "But that is why I am glad to stay the evening with visitors. You bring new light to these lands just by being here and more so by defeating terrible monsters like Ciba!"




OOC:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I made friends with a guy from an actual tribe in another country. They have access to universities and schools and all the opportunities we do, but they still overwhelmingly choose to continue the tribal lifestyle. His experience in the modern world actually encouraged him that staying home and working with his hands would be for the best. He didn't view his people as primitive or simple, but content. That happiness he had really had an impact on me and so when I was looking at these people who are about a days walk away from civilization I was thinking "Why wouldn't they want to be civilized?" and thought back to him! Sorry if talking about real life makes anyone uncomfortable

[Maloy]

I should ask the commander about the fate of the heart: "I believe such an artifact needs to be destroyed, otherwise fanatical cultists and criminals might steal it and unleash more undead horrors upon the world...
If there's a desire to potentially use it for future warfare however, then cultists and the like must be purged, So do you have any missions involving their extermination?"

If the state of my allies and team mates is brought up, i would tell them that i am perfectly fine working alone on getting rid of weak lowlifes while we wait for the rest of the team to heal up. All i need is arrows...


Now, regarding what the baron said, We're adventurers for a reason! So of course we should ask him about the monsters giving him a bad time, and probably deal with them

After everyone else was finished talking to the deer woman Burt would sit and ask about her culture, lifestyle, and anything else she'd tell him about their way of life.

He plans to use his share of the money to buy a proper sword to replace the training sword he accidentally brought with him.

The only things Burt can think to ask the commander is where he can get a sword and what they intend to do with the tower heart.

He'd inquire what beasts are ravaging the lands and where they were last seen.

The commander looks at Burt's wooden shield and sword "Frankly, I'm shocked that thing has held up on your travels. If I didn't know for a fact that you had seen combat in the journey I would be skeptical that you had used it at all, but instead this speaks for your prowess to use it without it breaking." he strokes his bearded chin "Ah, but to what you were asking. Yes, let us get you to the smith and have something fitting forged for you. We are low on our access to metals thanks to the dwarven embargo so you will have to pay, but I know we can get you something"

How much are you willing to trade? You got a share of 200 silver coins plus the gear you already had. I can barter it all and get you the best possible weapon for that value or be humble with copper or something.

Egem chimes in afterwords "I believe such an artifact needs to be destroyed, otherwise fanatical cultists and criminals might steal it and unleash more undead horrors upon the world...
If there's a desire to potentially use it for future warfare however, then cultists and the like must be purged, So do you have any missions involving their extermination?"

The commander looks to him "You would go into another great battle only right after returning from one? Your resolve is impressive. Egem, was it? Suffice to say we don't have the means to destroy the tower heart. It's power was capable of corrupting an entire land and is merely dormant now." As he finishes saying it he pulls a nearby sheet over the heart so that it's text is now no longer viewable "We must protect it. If you are determined to defeat these threats than know of Leapbodice. Your dwarf friend may know of it and depending on his age may have been alive to see it's fall."
His voice grows quieter either out of fear or respect "demons invaded it from beneath the earth when they dug too deeply. The dwarves had formidable defense for a surface invasion, but not one from their own mines. They were slaughtered and the inhabitants crucified. We have only recently defeated the demons at the cost of most of the alliance's military and my eye" He says without motioning towards his eyepatch
"Still even being defeated cultists worship them day and night raiding anyone who travels too near to the mountains. They believe if they sacrifice enough people the demons will grant them power or return to them again. The tower heart is an artifact they would kill for without a doubt and may be their only actual chance to become powerful again. I don't need to tell you that we would be grateful for the extermination of these villains"


The baron's expression becomes jovial at the mention of Burt and Egem's interest in his problems. He wipes his sweaty brow again "You simply won't believe this, in fact, when my servants brought me news of this beast I had him whipped at first for the sheer madness of his claim! A...Cougar! The size of a house!" He laughs despite his obvious fear and sweat "What's more we think there are two of them! Two house sized-cougars on my land! One hunts to the east and the other the south"
He grabs Burt's hand with both of his and shakes it and then does the same to Egem while saying "Please, gentlemen if you kill these beasts I would be indebted to you!"



OOC:
The cultists of leapbodice would be a side quest for you all, BUT they will all have to be killed eventually to achieve AoF (Age of Fairytales) so it would progress the overarching story if you wanna do it! Down for whatever!

[Salmeuk]

Glorg wisely nods along to the story of deer woman, and is horrified by the tale of the Moon Monsters.

[TeaKing]

I'm definitely down for killing cultists
Speaking of that though
I'll buy food and arrows for combat
And buy a shield if possible
And then i think we should go fight off the cultists first before we do anything about the cougars, but i'm fine with whichever we do first

[Maloy]

The commander sees the party's resolve and gives you directions for Leapbodice to the west, before leaving he warns you "Be wary. Their armies and masters might lie dead, but we believe their may still be cold hunters amongst their numbers"
Cold hunters are intelligent undead that can turn invisible to one enemy at a time and have super strength and speed


Although the chef Hal seemed quite happy to return home from his unwilling adventure the castle itself is under the impression that he is now a professional adventurer and mercenary. Under peer pressure the kiwi chef silently flutters over to the party waving scimitar in the air!

Burt traded most of his wealth including his old wooden sword and shield for a silver long sword. He is now missing a shield, but he is now a deadly opponent. He nods to Egem indicating his willingness to slaughter cultists.

Grugni looks drawn and ragged still having barely spoken. His arm still does not work, but he approaches the party "I would be dead before I missed a chance to take vengeance on those who defile my family's home and if I die there then it be better than the fate of a crippled surface dweller!" he spits on the ground.



OOC:
I have had zero luck repairing Grugni's nerves. In one iteration I accidentally destroyed his health regen all together. He also can't wear backpacks because he needs to hold them in his hand first to put them on which means he can't access food either and will starve unless regularly fed and watered.

unless you guys care to actually attempt to convince him, as a character, to stay here where it's safe he will go forward to his almost certain death.


Also the signature move of cold hunters in my Kanil run was for them to shove their fists into their enemies skulls after breaking all their bones.
When my museum turn starts in a few days that'll probably put a hold on updates for about a week

[Maloy]

Life in the Golden Age
The Age of Deception
Memoir of Ingiz Laboredgirders the Geared Tragedies of Disembowling

The golden age by name and accomplishment should have been the greatest era of dwarf history as well as our allies.
All great enemies defeated: My own kin's alliance with the humans and elves defeated the great demons
My dear friend Kanil defeated the undead hordes and their foul goddess
and the rhino god of war wiped goblins almost off the world entirely.

So, why do neighbors turn on neighbors now? Why do sworn brothers slay one another? Perhaps demons, zombies and goblins were all that kept all of us fighting together.

It starts with the Edict:

Source: Warhammer fantasy book of grudges

The edict was a strong reaction to the invasion of our world by the monsters of the depths. The war had been devastating and only turned in our favor miraculously. In response our great Queen Obok Startbells declared that no dwarf may dig into the earth. The tunnels we already have must be enough and the underground farm lands we have must be enough as well.

This angered and put out dwarves on many levels. On the practical the war had left many dwarves homeless and hungry. Now traditional dwarven lands and dwarven farming was outlawed.
On another level this prevented us from doing what most calls to our souls: Seeking great wealths and crafts!

The queen made harsh examples exiling entire families from our lands who refused to listen. These embittered dwarves referred to themselves as Deep Delvers and chose to live in isolation in the incredibly dangerous caverns. Sympathetic dwarves would still trade with them, but the queen would exile any if they were caught.

With nowhere to go and a natural inclination to obeying those our gods put over us the rest of us went to the surface. South and east through human lands forcing us to meet our allies turned bandits and fight the undead hordes just for farmable lands.
In a way, I thank the Spry for the undead curse she left on the world. For without it I would have never met my friend Kanil or achieved glory.

Still, now that the wars are over problems unnoticed have arisen. Dwarves outnumber humans almost three to one. The elves two to one. My own estimates in the borderlands lead me to think around a third of the remaining humans are living as bandits or integrated with my own people.

The rest adds up to 250 that try to return to old lives.

There simply isn't enough food for them and us.

All the leaders of each faction talk about heading west to lands of giant beasts and monsters to settle, but even if we do what then? Crops take a long time to grow. Truth of the matter is that they're just trying to keep people busy to buy time, or so I think.

Her majesty died only two years ago in a doomed battle against the demons, or so the stories claim and I have reason to doubt. She became obsessed with her morality in her last days although mentioning this would get one exiled.


Her daughter has become queen at the unfortunate age of 14. This young lass is in all honesty in over her head. Her paranoia and bluster have already agitated alliances and she has officially declared Suton the Fatal Gall, The death god, as her patron. She enforces the edict even more harshly than her mother and any hope of returning to our ancestral ways seems a long dwarven life time away.

There's not enough food to go around. The elves don't got crops to take either so it comes down to us and our human friends. What shall happen? I can not say, but I would like to say that no matter what trickery or desperation befalls us I would not raise a hand against my friends. I would like to say this...



Source: https://midkemia.fandom.com/wiki/Dwarves

[King Zultan]

Sorry about not posting I was gone for two days and I just now got caught up with everything.

Burt traded most of his wealth including his old wooden sword and shield for a silver long sword. He is now missing a shield, but he is now a deadly opponent. He nods to Egem indicating his willingness to slaughter cultists.

This is pretty much what I was wanting to do when I read those parts so all appears to be good, only thing is that I would have liked to keep the shield but I can always get another one later.


Also would Grugni even listen to us if we tried to convince him to stay, from what I gathered he doesn't seem to be the type to give up easily.

[Maloy]

Yeah sorry I tried to keep your shield, but the dude was stubborn and getting annoyed. I figured it was acceptable temporarily since you're fully armored


Also I guess it would depend on the angle the party took. Trying to get in Grugni's frame of mind I don't think he truly wants to die, but between losing both limbs and his chance of ever returning to his old way of life I think he's in a depressive funk. Trying to approach him as a character in a story rather than my PC, you know?

[King Zultan]

Yeah sorry I tried to keep your shield, but the dude was stubborn and getting annoyed. I figured it was acceptable temporarily since you're fully armored

That's alright since I would have told you to trade it in that case, as having an actual sword is more important than a shield.

Trying to approach him as a character in a story rather than my PC, you know?

That makes perfect since.

[Maloy]

The party decides to set off to defeat the dangerous cult in the fallen city of Taguzingish, or Leapbodice in human tongue.

Your journey south and then west is mostly uneventful as you pass human and dwarven settlements. Although you see hardly any people in either the fields are all filled to the brim with crop, most of which won't be full grown for a few more months.
Any thoughts on your transition from wild jungles to idyllic farmlands?


As you draw nearer to Taguzingish small ruins become noticeable and eventually you find yourself on what remains of the great dwarven highway known as the "mahogany road" that connects Taguzingish with the other dwarven cities as well as the human capital of the confederacy Inkyrouts and the gobilin civilization when it was conquered by the dwarves. Although ruined and overgrown the road is still clear enough that it made an excellent path for invading demon armies to access everyone in the world.
All around you are the ruins of a once great civilization, how do you feel?


Source: https://www.deviantart.com/jjpeabody/art/Beautiful-Ruins-484101469

As we near Taguzingish we are forced to camp within it's shadow by a brook

It is time to decide on a game plan for the battle to come. Most of your enemies are normal, but they have cold Hunters too probably. Cold Hunters besides having super powers can turn invisible to one enemy at a time leaving that enemy entirely defenseless. Also being inside the dwarf city we will be in an enclosed space that prevents flying and is inconvenient for ranged combat. How should we do this?


Grugni appreciates good honest work even if he doesn't like dwarves living on the surface. So seeing human and dwarven fields filled with the potential fruit of hard work gives him a sense of peace and is certainly preferrable over the tangled greenery and shrubbery of that jungle!

As we reach the Mahogany Road Grugni pauses and looks at it. Taking it all in he inhales deeply before saying "I've never gotten to see this myself. What the demons did to our lands on the surface. They took what some of my ancestors spent their whole lives building and used it to ruin lives." he looks at the sky and speaks calmly "I hate them all. I'm glad they're dead and I'm more glad to free my city. My family and I have lived in exile because of these cultists keeping my people too scared to move on with our lives." his eyes have a feverish gleam now "Let's kill them."


At the camp Grugni doesn't have much to offer on strategy other than confirming the tight spaces. "Likely any war beasts they have left will be pastured away from the city itself so we won't have to worry about those"
Upon further thinking he would say "I'll just tear their throats out with my teeth, I guess"

Also he would want to take the time to admire Burt's new sword "That's a fine blade, friend. No more beating enemies to death with a stick, eh? You'll be able to keep up with my biting and kicking now!" he laughs


OOC:
If there's an interest here's an old lore post about the various undead including cold hunters
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=180460.msg8428149#msg8428149

[TeaKing]

Yea the lack of flight capability is gonna be bad for me


the farms are nice and calming, they somewhat remind me of my childhood...

The same horrors that destroyed my home were also the ones that brought ruin to this area...
I'm both glad and impressed that those elves who saved me managed to stop them in their tracks, they sure seemed quite powerful

Considering where we're going, flight and range would be a problem, so the best thing for me to do is to look fot any meelee weapon that i could find, and maybe i should take one from a corpse or an enemy...

[King Zultan]

It's always nice to be in an area where we don't have to constantly be on watch for hostile entities and be able to sleep through the night and not need a guard to watch over us as we sleep.

Burt wonders to himself what these ruins used to be and if there was anything of value still hidden within them.

Having to get up close and personal in tight spaces was what Burt was set up for so he wasn't worried about the lack of air and ranged support, but what had him worried were the cold hunters and their dark magics which made him think the group needed to stick together as they moved through the ruins to help counteract the cold hunters dark magic.

[Maloy]

The road winds alongside a babbling brook. This trail would be considered serene if not for the reality of what you were heading towards.



Upon arriving at the fortress you find it's towers, made in the style of goblins.

You creep along north before having to turn west and cross a bridge over the brook to the actual fortress. It's surface portion is just a massive square of stone to protect deep dwarves from sunlight, but offers minimal protection or housing. The place has a menacing energy. If you didn't know the history you'd wonder why, but this place is the site of countless massacres and demonic rituals. The near end of the world began here!
The entire party begins to sneak forward as you hear the sound of a male of some species yelling at others

What could that be?


Creeping forward each of your stealth abilities is notable as none of the party can see one another. You have to trust that your comrades are still there.
Does that disturb your character or do they already trust their comrades of the past few weeks?
As you turn the corner you find a dwarf, an entertainer by all appearances, sitting by the trade depot and a pile of bodies.
By all appearances he is a civilian.
What is the party's plans in regards to civilians?

You see the bodies of dead goblins which could be from any number of battles. Although the party has no way of knowing which battle the most recent one fought here was by the Rhino-deity Kivish in his crusade against goblins.
I also have good news for Burt and Egem:





As we approach the fortress Grugni will spit on the goblin towers. "We'll see many worse defilements here, but my blood is already boiling!"

Upon hearing the voice Grugni whispers "Suppose it's a guard captain or a slave driver?"
Grugni trusts the party, but he'd move forward regardless. His survival isn't pertinent to this mission in his opinion
Seeing that some might be worried about potential civilian deaths Grugni will signal the party to step back out of the fortress so they can whisper and he will say "No civilians here. Anyone not holding a weapon just isn't holding a weapon yet. Dancer dwarf in there has probably betrayed his kin 100 times over. Anyone not in shackles dies, I say."



OOC
Was just gonna do a big post with us having cleared the whole fort or died or whatever lol, but then I saw this guy and realized we really hadn't decided our policy on "civilians"

Teaking, would Egem's inner voice have a stronger outburst here where so many massacres and demonic rituals have taken place?

[Salmeuk]

Glorg thinks its best to leave non-combatants to their toilsome lives. However, should any of them make sudden moves... Glorg will do what is neccesary. Glorg is not afraid of violence! Glorg is MADE from violence!! WHERE ARE MY SPEARS??