>>23484400
Since everyone was dead-set on threatening Jens after the 100 roll, I'll repost this one of the other anons suggested that I agree with:

We make the quick trip to Jens then catch up with Rin and get moving. Say to Jens:

"Luck and fate are both powerful tools, and that girl has been touched by both. For now I am entrusting her to you. Keep her safe and clear of danger as needed, but don't stifle her. She needs to see her potential to grow, and the faces of her friends and enemies."

It's not quite a threat, but I think it's enough to make the point.

>>23484400
If the hunter without the pretty name is ready, let's find him so we can go already.

>>23484456
i'd prefer something shorter like "the girl doesn't belong to you. keep that in mind."

>>23484456

You do that. He does not respond except to glare with a vaguely menacing look, but as near as you can tell that's just the way his face is all the time. You're not sure if he's perpetually angry about something or if he's just one of those people that looks angry all the time while being totally chill.

>>23484467

Rin will be ready to leave any minute now.

>Anything else you want to do while still in the village (including possibly a follow-up with Jens if you aren't satisfied by his stony silence)?
>If not, what do you plan to do during the journey to the falls?

>>23484456
I like it

>>23484591
Let's join Rin and be on our way. There's not much left to be dwelt on here, and the sooner we are under way the better. While we are traveling lets just take it easy and be observant. We still need to recharge, and if we can do that while on the move it'd be preferable.

>>23484658
I still want to know har far it is!

>>23484658

How long do you plan to quietly observe? We've got days of travel to work with, here, do you plan to maintain silence until you get there/something interesting happens?

>>23484812
pretty much?

>>23484812
"Are we there yet?"

>>23484812
I suppose we could ask some innocent question about what has become of this land over the years. We still don't know terribly much about what has happened during our absence besides the obvious.

>>23484874
Okay, seriously now, "how far is it?"

>>23484874
This sounds hilarious.

>>23484812

You travel in silence with Rin for three days, deeper and deeper into the woods. While you can't be sure if he's still around, the deeper in you travel the more obvious that he, or some Nature daemon, has been awake and active here within the past century or two. The trees grow thick and choke out all light from above, and you note that Rin's hairs seem perpetually on end.

Rin takes the occasional shot at a passing deer or even rabbit when he sees one, but does not pursue them far off the path (not that there is literally any path through this tangled undergrowth), and when he catches more than he can eat in a night, the rest is left to local predators.

It's on the fourth day when an enormous set of pawprints is found in the ground. Rin spots it and hurries his travels, traveling through streams and swimming across ponds to try and confuse his trail. Despite his efforts, on the fourth night, despite not leaving any campfire, you can hear deep howling. Rin hears it too, and immediately packs up the campsite to flee. Within half an hour, you can see the enormous wolves pursuing not far behind, nearly as large as a horse.

This would be Animalism. Fleshshaping is always more distorted than this, but Animalism creates creatures which, while bizarre, are still in most ways natural. Animalism is a Talent unique to the Court of Nature (though they share it with their allies; you're pretty sure you used to know a bit of it). So, bright side, these are probably Olberek's doing. Downside, they're not sentient and will totally eat Rin, leaving you stranded out here.

>>23485047
Would delusion work on these things?

>>23485169

No. Delusions relate to specific beliefs, not vague emotions, which means that wolves, lacking a language sophisticated enough to communicate more than about ten separate ideas, just can't be communicated with on a sophisticated enough level for Delusion to do anything.

>>23485047
Does Delusion work on animals?

>>23485307
Oh, right.

Well, uh... I guess put ourselves between the wolf and Rin in shadow form and howl? Might distract them and let him take some shots. We don't really have any combat capability and would get destroyed by these wolves, so that's really all we can do.

>>23485352
I'm completely lost for ideas, so this is about all I can back up. Just tell Rin to take some fucking good shots, while we try and distract them.

>>23485352
Do this, it's our only real option.

Shout for Rin to take some shots when they are distracted. Aim for the eyes.

>>23485047
in shadow form, would olberek be able to tell it's us?

>>23485352
Even if we lack superhuman strength, we do have shitloads of experience. Get a knife or something from Rin, fight defensively.

>>23485616
i doubt that would do shit to wolves the size of horses. if we want to fight our best bet would be to scare them away, since none of our current powers really work on them.

>>23485352

You howl from the ground, and Rin fires a shot from his bow towards one of the wolves. The shot goes a bit wide, catching the beast in the shoulder instead of through the eyes, but it staggers slightly. The others are already running about the sides, and Rin leaps for the lower-hanging branches of a tree. One of the wolves leaps up and drags him down by the leg before he can get high within it, however. Pulling out a dagger, Rin struggles with the beast, putting out its eye and struggling backwards away from it as it howls with pain and fury. Two others pounce on him immediately, but he has enough time to pull the scimitar from his back, splitting the head of one of the massive beasts and lifting his arm up to take the bite of the other. He screams in pain, the bones of his forearm snapping like twigs beneath inches-long fangs, and stabs at the creature, so apparently he's not used to fighting with a scimitar.

The other wolves are circling the fight warily, the one biting Rin scratching and clawing at him, refusing to release his arm until Rin splits its belly open with his sword, at which point it staggers back and away, dragging itself a few feet before falling to the ground, breathing heavily and minutes from death. Rin howls in fury and swipes at the air, lunging from his knees towards one of the wolves. The others, deciding this little creature isn't the easy prey they had thought, growl and snarl, but slowly back off into the shadows of the forest, leaving Rin to cradle his wounds.

>>23485668
Pop up from the ground. Do we know enough autonomy to make a makeshift cast? We could also use delusion to lessen his pain while we work.

>>23485651
Well it COULD have helped by keeping some of them busy. We are not useless just because we're not a huge monster.

>>23485807
But the chances of us getting murdered or something are kind of high, and that would lead to us being out for the count for a few months. This is obviously kind of a bad thing.

Eh, guy has a broken arm, I'm sure he'll be fine.

Rin's left arm is a mangled ruin, everything past the elbow being little more than gristle attached to the rest of him by a few strings of flesh. He's bleeding severely and you know enough about medicine (though it's hardly your field of expertise) to know that he's going to need to lose what's left of that and get the wound patched up before he dies of blood loss. He's also got several long, but fortunately shallow, cuts on his torso and thighs from the wolf's claws, plus the bite on his leg, which doesn't appear to have broken anything but which has ripped up the flesh a lot.

>>23485873
So were the chances of our quest here coming to a complete halt. Bah, I need to get back home soon so I can type properly, you guys are being SO passive. It's boring!

>>23486066
Well, it's hard not to be passive when our powers are useless and our combat ability is about the same as one trained adult, and we are unarmed, and there are multiple gigantic wolves attacking.

I guess we should tell Rin to bandage his stump before he dies of blood loss.

>>23485991
let's tell him that, and if he can't amputate it himself, we'll have to do it for him. Because we need him alive to guide us.

>>23486134
We could have just taken a weapon, we haven't lived god knows how long without learning to fight, even in our small form.

Ask Rin "Can you tend to your wound?"

>>23485991
Do what we can to help him

>>23486253
This.

If he says he is not very experienced then we are probably experienced enough to do it. We ask him to tie a blindfold around his eyes then tend to his wounds.

>>23486253

"What?" Rin asks, looking around for the source of the voice, and then draws in a deep breath when he sees your shadowy form on the ground. "I-I don't think so," he says, his voice shaking as he struggles to keep from crying out in pain from his various wounds. "I've never had anything th-this bad before."

"Close your eyes and hold still," you say. Rin does so, and you assume corporeal form, picking up his scimitar off the ground where he dropped it after the wolves left. Carefully placing his arm against a rock, you slice off what's left of it at the elbow, and he grits his teeth, moaning and struggling to keep from screaming entirely as the arm falls off.

Fortunately, his supplies include some alcohol-soaked cloth which serves as bandages for his wounds. You've used up practically all of it by the time you've finished covering up all the smaller cuts, but the last thing you need is this guy dying of infection en route.

Rin's walking with a limp and only has one arm left. At least it's his good arm. Still, if the wolves are still following, they'll pick up that he's in no condition for round two, and his travel speed must be dramatically reduced. "How much farther to the falls?" you ask as you bandage him up.

"Another day's travel," Rin says between ragged breaths, and then adds "in good condition."

>I don't suppose you have any ideas from stopping the wolves from returning for seconds?

>>23486738
I was thinking about your description of delusion not working on wolves. And i realized that wolves do communicate in some manner.
Growling specifically is a way to seem threatening. So if we growl toward the alpha wolf and put delusion behind it, it would believe that the growl IS indeed threatening despite us being a little girl.

Could this work?

>>23486738
fire seems like a good idea. if we can make enough torches maybe we can keep them away.

>>23486902
He did flee from his campsite, which likely included a fire.

"I don't suppose these beasts fear fire as their regular kin would?"

>>23486988

"No," Rin says, "they'll tear a torch right out of your hand...Take your hand with it, sometimes. And lately they're drawn to it...They've learned fire means prey."

>>23486847
AND it works toward a specific belief as we are trying to change whether the wolf BELIEVE we are threatening or not.

>>23486847

No, because what you're attempting to communicate is the emotion: Fear. Wolves don't have a word for "I am scary." They just have a word (or growl, rather) for "fuck off" and then the wolf decides how scary you are on its own.

>>23487037
"Then sleep in the trees, without a fire."

>>23487037
Sighing: "Of course they do, otherwise this would just be too easy. That Golgothan army was much more fun..."

"Wild beasts are not my specialty, mortal. Tell me what you know of them. How long would they pursue, does anything scare them aside from a blade to the gut? Anything may help me ensure your survival"

we could just leave him to flee/hide by himself if he's able to direct us to the falls

>>23487395
A day's travel is easier to avoid getting lost in than several, but still there is no real path to follow and we could be heavily delayed. And he WILL die if left by himself. If his life is to end, we will at least give that end a purpose.

>>23487311

"The dire wolves fear nothing but death," Rin says, "and they will never stop pursuing their prey until their hunger is sated. Once they start hunting you, your only hope is to kill them or hope they find some easier prey."

>>23487514
"Then what do you suggest?"

>>23487210
From wikipedia: Growling or growl is a low, guttural vocalization produced by predatory animals as a warning to others, as a sign of aggression, or to express anger.

Now if you assume that the growl is a warning to others then it is not a simple emotion you are trying to communicate. You are trying to communicate that you are a threat. This is something the wolf will then chose to believe or not believe.

But i will give up this train of thought. If you say that it will not work i will not argue further.

>>23487514
What about if we go around a little in shadowform, find a deer or somehing, glide onto its back in shadowform, materialize there and twist its neck. That would be easy prey the wolves could take instead.

>>23487563
I was thinking just that. If only we were master trackers as well...

"Then perhaps easier prey may be provided. They surely do not feast solely on you, so what else lives here for them to hunt?"

>>23487563
That could work. Just leave a dead deer in our path and hopefully the dire wolves will leave us alone.

Supporting this.

>>23487563

This.

>>23487658
>If only we were master trackers as well...
we might be. are we?

>>23487732

Not masters, but you know a thing or two.

------

>>23487658

"Deer, usually," Rin says, "rabbits if they're out of bigger game. Each other, if they're desperate. They won't give up on me to eat those, though," he says, jerking his head towards the two dead wolves.

Ever since mortals got interesting, you've been spending less and less time in the woods. But for the first 80,000 years or so of your life, the only mortals around were incredibly primitive hunter-gatherer societies. Early on, they spoke only the most primitive language and were hardly even properly evolved. Man, you don't have any idea how you got by for literally tens of thousands of years without dynasties to fuck with. Literally, in that you can't really remember many details from back then.

Regardless, while your skills in tracking are rusty, you've definitely done this before. You track down a few deer, kill them, and then drag the corpses to the battle site, hoping that'll slake the wolves' hunger long enough for you to get to the falls without suffering another attack.

Rin limps along, now, sleeping in trees and traveling at a torturously slow pace. It takes another two days to make it to the falls, and by then Rin is nearing death. "In there," he says, pointing to a cave entrance, voice faint and the pallor drained from his face, "the falls are...In there." He leans against a nearby tree stump and says "I'll...Wait here."

>wat do?

>>23488226
Walk in in our normal form

>>23488226
"Mortal, for whatever worth it may be, you have my gratitude. And you will have my mercy as well, should you wish it."

>>23488226
"Thank you, mortal. Find solace in that you have been of great value. They may even tell tales of you."

Enter the falls.

>>23488226
enter. duh.

If Rin is grateful for your words, he's too exhausted to show it. You enter the falls in corporeal form, but soon decide to revert back to your shadowy visage when you hear wolves snarling in the dark. Best not to give them anything to chew on.

You follow the sound of distant waterfalls through a winding path into a deep cavern lit by glowing fungi, the falls spilling all about the chamber, feeding a deep pool of water around an island in the middle, which is covered in writing. A pair of stepping stones leads to the island, and immediately across from them are written the words "write down all you see with your third eye, that all men may know of it." Presumably instructions from Olberek to his followers. Sounds like he taught that shaman a bit of Clarity.

And now that you can see the large, intricate symbol write across most of the island's surface, lying a solid twenty feet across, you can see why. It's an oubliette. Olberek must have left instructions for his shaman to write out whatever he saw so that any daemons who passed through would be able to see it. Does that mean this is the oubliette where he is imprisoned? Certainly you've seen no sign of him, but then, you haven't really looked.

Releasing this oubliette requires either that you wait it out (they only last two or three thousand years, typically, but you don't really have that kind of time) or else that you sacrifice a virgin human here.

>>23488739
Well, that should be easy enough. Can we find our way to Deepwell and back now?

Unless Rin happens to fulfill the criteria, but I doubt it.

>>23488739
Keep looking.

>>23488739
"I knew things had been going my way for too long..."

Check out the rest of the place!

>>23488739
how would be go about looking for olberek exactly?

>>23488739

Did we find any wolves in the cavern? If not, we should get Rin. Then read carefully, not that we releade an enemy.

>>23488812

Yes, you can get to Deepwell and back on your own, now.

------

>>23488855
>>23488895

A thorough investigation of the caverns in your conveniently invulnerable form reveals that there are several dire wolf dens out here, each of which has its own entrance to the surface. You see some dire wolves of different packs growling at each other in between the dens at one point. It doesn't actually come to a fight, but it seems like it could've. There's a lot of empty caverns, but you can't tell if they used to be used for something and were then abandoned, or if it's just that the cave, being natural, has some not-particularly-helpful chambers in it that no one's bothered with.

There's also a lot of bats in here, which is to be expected. Probably Olberek can command them to act as messengers and what-not, but they don't look like they were his creations or anything. Bats just like to hang out in caves.

>wat do?

>>23489108

Call out to Olberek, see if he can hear?

>>23489108
Go corporeal, lure one wolf pack towards another, then quickly return to shadow form. Or, having found no other amusing life forms in here, see if Rin is still alive.

>>23489132
If this doesn't work ask Rin if he is a virgin before he dies (or goes unconscious, which will most likely lead to death soon enough)

>>23489132

There is no response.

>>23489155

Lure them how?

if we release it and turns out it's not someone we like we should be able to squash it fairly easily because of the disorientation and such. could we reactivate the trap, though?

go check on rin and explain the situation to him. he might even volunteer, assuming he's suitable and/or probably going to die anyway.

>>23489618
Showing the corporeal form.
Duh.

>>23489618
By looking tasty and running fast, I was thinking. But forget it, everybody will probably hate that idea even though it's fun. It's Rin time!

>>23489668
>>23489669

Sounds fun; we go corporeal, stand around looking tasty, then go shadowy when they pounce so they never actually catch us.

Also god DAMN we're in a shitty state for a daemon if we can't even deal with some dire wolves. We need to bulk up, pronto.

You play wolf-and-mouse for a while. It's kind of like playing with a cat and a laser pointer, except if you time it wrong a wolf tears your throat out.

By the time you get back outside to check up on Rin, he's already gone. Oh, well, you can't imagine a young man with a talent for warfare could possibly have remained a virgin for this long, not in this society.

>>23489930

Gone as in dead, or got up and left? I'd assume the former but still want to be sure what you mean.

>>23489962
He's dead, Jim.

>>23489962

>>23489991 is correct. His corpse is still there if you wanted that for some reason.

>>23489991
Just making sure.

Not sure what to do now though; we don't really have any humans around to sacrifice and the village elder probably won't lend us another one if we tell him we lost the first. Short of just firing off daemon powers at the seal and seeing what sticks, I'm out of ideas.

>>23489930
Fun AND good practice! Just what we need to lighten up after this trip turned out somewhat fruitless. I suppose if we want this particular daemon back, we need to find a way to transport a virgin all the way out here. And catch one.

Alternatively, this area still seems to have Nature activity, right? So someone must be here, though we can't really know how much they'll like us...

We should return to Deepwell and tell the shaman that Olberek requires a sacrifice to be freed from a prison.

>>23490120
He'll probably suggest one of the Greatoak villagers, which might piss Mari off a bit.

But hey, needs of the many. She doesn't need to know about it.

OP, how are oubliettes made? Does their nature vary depending on who made it? I remember ours apparently required "great mortal suffering" to break.

>>23490275

Making an oubliette is a generic daemon trick; anyone sufficiently powerful can make one. The details of the oubliette are determined automagically based on the daemon who makes it, and is generally something that would make them really happy. So whoever actually did the gruntwork of putting you in an oubliette is presumably someone who likes it when mortals suffer, and the daemon who made this one is probably someone who is pleased when significant sacrifices are made. That, or it was made by some sort of serial murderer daemon who likes to kill virgins. Either way, it might be the same daemon who stuck you in your oubliette, who just happened to be in a different mood when he made this one.

>>23490410
are we sufficiently powerful?

>>23490410
So there's no way to glean who might've made the oubliette? Or anything else? If there's nothing else we can learn here then we're just wasting our time and might as well get back to grooming Mari to be our instrument of fate.

>>23490410
So a complete dick. Gotcha.

So unless we can find some sort of clue towards the presence of some other Nature daemon, who may or may not exist and may or may not even have the capacity or willingness to be of use, there's really nothing more to do here. Just trees and oversized dogs.

>>23490057
hey. he's got that fancy scimitar. we should loot it.

>>23490618
Not sure what our little girl body would even do with it but sure, loot is good.

>>23490675
Stab shit.

Seriously, we CAN actually do that, I don't know why people keep insisting we can't.

Too bad we need to stay corporeal to carry it.

>>23490738
We're too vulnerable while corporeal, and our combat ability is nothing to write home about. We're more suited to subterfuge and assassination.

So do we have a plan or are we just going to poke at things with a stick for a bit then go back to Mari?

>>23490808
Yea, I don't care for the sword either unless it has some magical property (pretty sure it doesn't).

>>23490888
We don't seem to have a virgin radar or a daemon radar, so I can't think of anything more to be done here.

>>23490437

You used to be able to, but you can't anymore.

>>23490888

It certainly seems like that's the current plan, more or less. Though some people are advocating less "go back to Mari" and more "go back to Deepwell (where Mari happens to be) to pick up a sacrifice so we can open up this oubliette."

>>23490955
Well a sacrifice is fine too, but we should be subtle about it.

>>23490955
The transportation of a virgin is going to be so troublesome. Deepwell is going to be at war, they have a ridiculously small population so we're unlikely to get help there. Unless someone has a bright solution, it seems this fag is going to inaccessible for a while.

>>23490955
Well, freeing Olberek would put him in our debt, and another daemon ally would certainly be useful. Especially since the original plan involved creating a guerilla army to kickstart the rebellion, and having a daemon that can control the forest would be a great asset in that cause.

I'm in support of going back to the village and picking up a sacrifice. We can go say hi to Mari, tell her to keep practising fleshsculpting, and that we have found a new, powerful ally to help overthrow Golgoth. If she finds out about the sacrifice, we'll just persuade her that it's in her best interest with sugared words.

>>23491030
This, precisely. We need allies if we want to stand a chance against the hordes of daemons Dominion likely has on its side. If this is Olberek, freeing him would likely out him in our debt. If not, a weakeneddaemon we can easily dispatch and drain for power.

>>23491030
>>23491095

But guys, guys, how do we get one to here? Deepwell isn't likely to spare any more men when they're fucking going to war.

we'll probably come across some suitable human eventually. the real challenge seems to be getting him/her here in one piece. we probably can't hold a whole pack away by ourselves so we should see to putting together a band of warriors we can boss around. since we don't like to show people our real form we could make them think mari is the boss.

then again, deepwellians might just do all this for us since it's their deity. either way, just go back to deepwell for now.

>>23491138

Going back to Deepwell is guaranteed to be 100% uneventful since you are immune to wolves in your shadow form, so I'm waiting for you to decide on an actual plan of what to do when you reach Deepwell so that I can write up a response that's more than just "you go to Deepwell."

Unrelated: I'll be going in about an hour and a half.

>>23491138
Well if we focus on getting out Unnoticed power juiced up somehow (which I admittedly have no idea how) so we can use it on others, we can persuade someone to here without them being spotted by the wolves. Leave the Scimitar behind, store it in a location we can find again so when we do bring someone here we know we'll have a weapon to go for the kill with.

>>23491171
Show up in the Shamen's hows. Pull a good news bad news routine.

>>23491175
We gain more powers based on quest progress, as judged by our most Graceful OP.

>>23491171
Seek out the shaman, explain the situation.

>>23491236
This

Oh btw, you said we can make it back to Deepwell on our own. Can we find the falls again on our own as well?

>>23491236
"I return, mortal shaman. And I bring news, that I deign you worthy of hearing. The good news, Olberek lives. The bad news, he is sealed away and requires tribute to be freed once more.

One virgin human, to be taken before his shrine and sacrificed. I do not care of the state or origin of this human, but Olberek must be free from his prison if Golgoth is to fall.

Once again, I entrust you with knowledge, in the understanding that you may tell nobody except the elder."

If he suggest Mari: "Not that one. That one is special."

>>23491261

Yes.

----

>>23491249

You return to the village uneventfully, although it is a four day journey so you've been gone for over a week by the time you get back. Jens has not yet returned from his own quest, but he can't be too far off unless that Estercoast place is way further from here than Elmwood or Greatoak are/were.

You have to wait a while before the shaman shows up in his shrine to attend his shamanic duties, and then announce your return, Rin's demise at the hand of the wolves, and that a sacrifice is required to summon him back. As you expected, the shaman's first enquiry is whether one of their new bondsmen would suffice. He seems a little uneasy with the concept of human sacrifice at all and doesn't commit to anything, though.

>>23491476
>>23491476
"The sacrifice need not be consensual. Any human will suffice, as long as they remain untainted.

Do you wish to have your guardian returned to you, shaman? It will be many moonturns before he is able to return without this smallest of concessions, and your lifespans are so very short."

>>23491608
The concession is admittedly not that small, as this sacrifice would also require an escort willing to risk their lives to take the life of one who is not their enemy.

The shaman will of course tell us that he must consult the elder.

>>23491608

"I must speak with the elder," the shaman says again, "I cannot make such a decision on my own." You know enough of their culture by now to know this is not entirely true, and he probably could have a bondsman killed without having to clear it with anyone first. But it'd probably be rather impolitic to make a decision that affects the whole village without consulting some of the bigwigs first.

>>23491744
>>23491777

Called it.

Go check if Mari has got herself or anyone else killed while we've been gone.

>>23491777
mari's likely going to find out about this eventually and might not be entirely okay with it.

>>23491806
I'd rather listen to the elder.

>>23491841
Yea okay, Mari's probably not doing anything important anyway.

>>23491829
She'll get over it.

>>23491777
Didn't think they'd buy the human sacrifice thing; we're a strange, apparently-shadow spirit who just took one of their hunters off to die. The shaman is oddly accepting of us.

Still, suppose we should listen in on the elder. If need be stress it's a one-time thing and the work of another spirit.

If we want to be assholes, insist it has to be Mari's little brother and blame it on Golgoth. I don't fancy dragging the little shit around and babysitting him while we turn Mari into a vengeance machine.

>>23491891
And then ascend.

>>23491841
Yep.

But we do have to check in on Mari, if only to tell her to keep practising with her fleshsculpting magic.

>>23491917
They know not to fuck with daemons.

>>23491853

Plus, you can talk to Mari after eavesdropping on the shaman/elder, but not vice-versa.

-----

"A human sacrifice?" the elder asks.

"We have bondsmen to spare," the shaman says, "though it does not sit right with me to show mercy only to revoke a scant few days after, on no fault of theirs."

"And we have no idea whether or not this spirit is telling the truth," the elder says, "all we know is that Rin left with her and did not return."

"The story she brings of Rin's demise is not implausible," the shaman says, "the wolves often had to be scared off even when traveling in large numbers. We knew it was dangerous to send someone alone."

"Even if the spirit tells the truth about Rin, that's no guarantee that she's telling the truth about Olberek," the elder says, "and she is asking quite a price from us now."

"But if she is right and Olberek must be summoned back, it is a price that must be paid," the shaman responds.

"And soon," the elder agrees quietly, stroking his short, white beard, "the battle with Golgoth is desperate and now it is imminent as well. We shall need the forest on our side." He contemplates quietly a moment, and then says "if Jens has failed, our village is doomed in any case. If he has succeeded, Golgoth will be too busy fighting the armies of the east, such as they are, to attack our village for a few more days at least. We can spare the men. I would advise you grant this spirit this request, but no more. If the next time she contacts us she does not have proof of Olberek's friendship, then we shall know her for a trickster and no friend of Deepwell."

The shaman considers a moment. "As always, your solution seems best," he says at last. "I shall tell the spirit we will help her again."

You spend the next five minutes glad that he can't see your eyes drooping in shadow form as he repeats back the conclusion of the conversation you just barely overheard, though he does not mention their suspicions of you.

>>23492052
That seems fair of him.

How many direwolves were in the shrine? Is there any chance of taking the sacrifice in and performing the breaking without drawing their attention?

It would be ideal if we did not have to kill Olberek's minions.

>>23492052
They are SO going to pick Mari as the sacrifice. There is just no way OP is not going to pull that on us.

>>23492196

Whenever something comes down to just being luck, I will roll an actual d100 to see what happens. That said, the shaman will want to offer up the oldest sacrifice he can find so that he can at least avoid killing children, and in a tribalistic, iron age society like this one most people lose their virginity by the time they're 14 or 15 which means Mari is sitting at pretty much the upper bounds of how old you can be and reasonably expect to not have had sex. So it's not unlikely she gets picked just on pure statistics.

>>23492130

Dozens. At least half a hundred. There are a shitton of dire wolves in that place.

>>23492196
After we threatened that guy?

>>23492279
Not present, probably not his decision in the first place. All of which is kind of troublesome. We COULD veto her, but that's drawing attention to her, and most likely not the good kind. No matter how well we coat our words, they are not nearly as fond of us anymore as one might hope.

>>23492316
I'm sure they'll be perfectly happy when Olberek is free.

Besides, I think their respect and fear of daemons in general serves as a foil to however much they dislike us personally. If they do pick Mari, we can just tell them that we have other plans for that one.

Rolled 34

>>23492316
If they chose her, we HAVE to veto her. She is ours, and too valueable to expend like that.

>>23492316
So we didn't get him to stop the pretending to be a bondsman plan? Shit. We should have had more blatant threats.

>>23492375
We don't actually know how he responded except that he had an angry look on his face, which was also true prior to our talk...

So... for now we do NOT mention Mari, but if they do pick her, we intervene?

>>23492375

The most you ever asked of Jens was that he keep Mari in one piece and also that he not try to make her *actually* his bondsmaid. Both threats don't really kick in until after Jens gets back, and besides, if Jens didn't claim her and then left, he wouldn't be around to protect her which means there's nothing stopping some other respected villager from claiming her (except for the fact that Mari can pre-emptively murder them, but that would only make things worse). Mari is opposed to the plan because she is a short-sighted thirteen year old who doesn't like being uncomfortable now in exchange for longterm benefit.

Regardless, the shaman sounds out a request to have all the bondsmen rounded up in the commons at sunset. Most of the villagers say they'll nab whoever they're personally responsible for and get them there. The shaman does a pretty good job of impressing upon everyone that this is an important matter of the spirit world and that there hasn't been any crimes committed or anything. He just needs to check something with the new arrivals.

>Anything you want to do between now and sunset?

>>23492539
Go talk to Mari, tell her and Leson to stay hidden in Jens' house for the rest of the day.

Also ask how her fleshsculpting power is coming along, and make sure she is practising.

>>23492576
As good a plan as any. Do it.

>>23492576
Thirded.

>>23492576
or just ask the shaman to not pick them or dement him to picking another one

>>23492737
That's also an option, though doing it at the gathering unnoticed would be.. not very possible. We'd have to do it now if we're doing it.

>>23492737
the shaman doesn't know about them

>>23492576

Mari's fleshshaping is coming slowly. She's an enthusiastic study but must be careful not to pass out from exhaustion. Unfortunately, she still doesn't have a whole lot of fine-tuned control over anything. She can make a certain kind of part appear (i.e. teeth, eyes) and can dictate the general location (i.e. the throat, the head), but it's always imprecise, extra parts popping up all over the place, and most importantly the rabbit always dies. Which saves her the trouble of killing it without her dagger, which is nice, but not what she was going for. On the bright side, she's building up stamina.

She agrees to try and keep herself and Leson out of sight at sunset, and doesn't even ask for an explanation. When the sun begins to sink, she quietly plucks Leson from where he's been playing with the other boys (from his village and this one; when you're seven it doesn't really matter) and holes up in Jens' house. Someone pokes their head in looking for them, but they don't look very long and she'd gotten very good at hiding Leson and herself while waiting for Jens to return.

Some other unfortunate soul from Greatoak is selected to leave for the falls at dawn. The shaman promises to make it up to her owner in the event she does not return.

And with that, I must be going. Tomorrow: We unseal the oubliette. Hope it's actually Olberek in there.

>>23492576
>>23492626
>>23492675
>>23492737
>>23492776
>>23492777
Tell her if she is dragged out not to fight, but when asked say something about not being a virgin. Should disqualify her.

>>23492823
>OP is actually going to roll on that too
>the dice will hate us
>everybody dies

Good night, OP!

>>23492823
Night OP, hopefully we gain a powerful ally. Anyone archiving this?

>>23492950
On it.

>>23492962
Well, someone beat me to it, but it is archived all the same.