Slow travel ambush through taiga to the hillock Yawnshields involved a trek towards the mountain range to remove the bogeymen factor. Before setting out, Kamuk crafted a larch bow and 50 conglomerate arrows as he would find hunting in this snowy tree-lined landscape.
This boreal forest was composed of larch, pine and bayberry. There Kamuk ambushed a pack of hoary marmots. He let loose a leaky faucet of 34 dull arrows-one drip after another-aimed at the muscular marmot in the middle of the group, with bowdwarf advancing from dabbling to just below adequate. These shots caused a few bone chips and several fractures before the muscular marmot gave in to pain. It regained consciousness on Kamuk's walking melee approach and began its escape. Kamuk switched to 2.808 sprint (at abv avg STR/abv avg AGI) and ran him down with the copper spear, severing the head. That made two skins to tan and two attempts at leather armor. The first try produced one of *superior quality*. That would be a gift for the Yawnshields' sheriff. The second produced one of standard quality that Kamuk would eventually decide to wear.
After moving through what appeared to be 2 world map tiles of snowy terrain, Kamuk came upon a herd of yak. He looked for the finest yak of the herd, but there wasn't one. He settled on a fat yak bull. There were 16 conglomerate arrows to drop its speed. Only one landed a bruise, the others missing, so Kamuk gave chase at 2.808 sprint, causing the herd split. At first Kamuk had his eye on the fat bull, but after charging past a row of pines, a muscular yak bull came into view. This was the prize of the herd.
Kamuk caught up to the muscular yak bull and grabbed a horn, then followed with a spear stab, tearing the lower body, hoping it would become a stuck-in. It did not and the muscular yak bull broke his grip and was now 1 tile away, then many more. Kamuk could not beat its speed due to poor gait. He would also frequently grow tired from the sprint. He shifted back into ambush and lay prone weaving through the trees to approach the muscular yak bull from its blind spot within the vision cone. He was able to close the distance and apply another grab. This time Kamuk speared the leg to drop it, but the spear only bruised the skin, the grip was broken, and space was recreated. This occurred two more times over a great expanse of taiga, and after the second unfruitful attempt, Kamuk began to throw his copper spear. The spear struck the right rear leg, tearing muscle, bruising bone, ripping nerve and tendon, but as it was just one leg, it was not enough to drop a quadruped. Next he threw his copper battle axe which tore at the lower body. Kamuk closed, picked up both weapons, and threw his spear twice into the body, only bruising. The fifth attempt to throw cut a tendon in the front right leg, dropping it to the ground.
There was an unfortunate series of spear stabs, one of which ruptured a major artery, followed by another unfortunate series of stabs until the muscular yak bull finally bled out. Then Kamuk took a drink of dwarven wine.
He followed his own tracks back to the larch logs, 5 pond turtle meat, 6 hoary marmot meat, 14 cave toad meat, 58 cave croc meat, and whatever discarded cave critter organs he had left behind. It was surprising the area hadn't offloaded everything after the chase. Laden with meat and leather, Kamuk's speed dropped to 0.099. A damselfly flickered past at over 10 tile distance. Kamuk had reached the mountain range. Sun was setting. The yak chase had taken the better part of the day. It was now time to sleep. Over next 2 days he would slow travel the last three world map tiles of uneventful mountain range, avoiding several herd of yak, one group of marmot, and a few groundhogs.
Kamuk came down from the mountains with
agility, focus, spatial sense, and kinesthetic sense now at high, thanks to slow traveling ambush all the way. He entered the Yawnshields' castle mound in the early evening through the odor of bug innards. A brief look at the spread rumor menu indicated a glut of night troll activity in the area. That's the sort of thing that means occasionally checking the fast travel map for static asterisks during daylight hours and avoiding moving asterisks as night falls while in slow travel mode. This run I've avoided populating the map at all which should add a bit of surprise.
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Topic: What's going on in your adventure? (Read 2138882 times)