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>>1027034

“Ikaros, I’ve been wondering.”

“That’s a good sign.”

“Why don’t you have an animal buddy too?”

“One does not simply get an animal buddy, Constance.”

“You’re an elf.”

“Stereotyping.”

“You’re also blonde, tall, pale, and use a bow. And haven’t you been mistaken for a woman before?”

“Some stereotypes are more accurate than others,” Ikaros sighs. “And that man was drunk.”

“Tipsy.”

“Mostly drunk.”

“Half drunk at best.”

“No more,” Isava groans. “We still have a ways to go and I’m tired enough as it is.”

Your group reaches the campsite after sunset with insects chirping in the distance. It’s not much more than some tents set up around a wooden hunter’s tower, though you do hear friendly chatter and see figures sitting by campfires when you approach.

Ikaros goes to talk to someone sitting next to the hunter’s tower with a bunch of locked wooden boxes under a propped up cloth cover. Constance and Isava, the former placing his backpack on the ground and stretching while the latter removes a tent from hers.

You sit on the grass and look nowhere, accompanied by aimless thoughts.


>

[ ] Wander off to the swamp (any particular goal?)
[ ] Meander around the campsite.

(other ideas welcome)

>>1027034
>Somewhere far, far to the north east you can see mountains lined against the horizon, and you wonder what it would be like to be up there.

Baphy's goat instincts kicking in!

>>1027043
>Climb the tower! It's no mountain, but it'll do for now.
>Maybe we can see something interesting from the top?

>>1027061
this seems good

>>1027061
Yeah, why not. Let's climb!

>>1027043
This is good >>1027061, followed by
>[ ] Meander around the campsite.
if we don't see anything interesting.

File: der.jpg (135 KB, 550x671)

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(Kay let's go with that.)

Oh boy goats!

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>>1027091
Fear them, for one day they shall rule us all.

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The man next to the wooden tower is big. So is his moustache.

“Here for the witch?” He says to Ikaros. “Another group found one of them totem sticks just yesterday.”

The lanky man shakes his head. “Maybe if we get lucky. Anything on the Bakunawa whelp?”

“The snake? Signs pretty close ta here. Last sightin' was a few days ago.”

Lulette vanishes with her plant. You look at the tower next to the two men. It’s kinda tall. You want to climb it.

You walk over. The way up is a thin wooden ladder. You’re holding a shovel and a bucket.

Disaster.

You walk back and leave your shovel and bucket with Ashtia, who can’t come up the tower because she’s a wolf. Then you walk back again and climb it.

The swamp really is close. Just a short distance from the campsite and the ground turns softer and muddier, and trees twist up into a sparse canopy. You can see the sun dipping below the horizon as well, warm orange turning to darker half-lights.

You haven’t been somewhere high in a while, though maybe the boring ruins counts? The staircase was pretty long. You like heights, because you’re a goat.

>>1027150

Looking over the campsite you can see two sets of tents and campfires. There’s a few people sitting on logs and chatting loud enough for their merry tone to reach you. There’s another larger group of people, more than five you think, their countenance more huddled and reserved.

You can’t hear much, and watching them isn’t very interesting.

Something stirs nearby and you notice that there’s a man slumped against a corner of the tower. He’s older, his brown hair only just starting to gray, and there’s an open metal flask in one of his hands.

You crouch down in front of him. He mumbles something, rubs his eyes and opens them, then violently starts.

“Hi,” you say. “I’m Baphy.”

He kind of stares for a bit. “I’m Harold.”

“Hi Harold.”

“... Hello.”

Satisfied, you stand up and climb back down the ladder of the hunter’s tower.


>

[ ] Anything you want to do (go bother someone, wander into the swamp, write-in)?
[ ] Leave it at that for tonight. Waking up early.

>>1027153
>Go follow Isara around
She's our friend

>>1027153
>[ ] Leave it at that for tonight. Waking up early.

>>1027153
[X] Leave it at that for tonight. Waking up early.

YAY GOATS ARE BACK

>>1027160
Supporting

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(Well... I guess that's fine. Writin)

>>1027226
Ooh! I have an idea! Go to sleep on Isara's lap

Cuteness overload

“Baphy.” Ikaros grabs your attention when your feet touch the grassy dirt.

He gestures behind him towards the locked wooden boxes behind him. “We’re borrowing one of those chests until we leave, so if there’s anything you don’t immediately need you can store it there,” the lanky man explains. “Pester Aldric and he’ll unlock the right one for you.” The man sitting next to the boxes gives you a toothy grin.

You aren’t going to the swamp tonight though. Maybe you can think about it in the morning.

Ashtia gets up and prods you when you come back before heading off to find her dinner. You grab your shovel and bucket, feeling a little more comfortable with your hands full, then decide to bother the horned girl.

You find her and Constance walking across the site towards three people around a fire, who you think are adventurers from seeing the weapons and armour haphazardly thrown together on one side of their camp.

One of them, a short, stocky man who looks more beard than body, waves.

“Constance! Hells, it’s been months!”

“Gadrin,” the young man smiles. “Could hear you from across the camp. Any louder and you’ll wake the swamp.”

“Bah, we can take ‘em,” Gadrin waves a hand dismissively, half laughing. “Guess Ikaros somewhere around as well, then? And Isava!” He leans to the side, glancing at you before looking back up. “Who’s that, a lover? Tryin’ ta make this idiot jealous?”

“Long time no keep talking and there will be blood, Gadrin,” Isava replies with a grin that doesn’t reach her eyes. Constance has taken up a position with the three other adventurers between him and the horned girl.

You remember the campsite owner saying that a group found one of the Witch Of Crows’ totems, and it turns out he was talking about these three. One of them, a bulky lizardman wearing a headdress of mostly feathers, is holding onto it: an oddly smooth branch that splits into two at the top, decorated with faded dull red ink.

>>1027372

Isava walks back before her companion does and you follow, Lulette and her Bushjack reappearing on your shoulders giggling for reasons unknown.

There’s two tents set up for your group. Ikaros sits in front of one and hands you a red fruit and some kind of salted meat, bidding the two of you good night while you chew through your meal. You and Isava share the other tent.

Ashtia returns later and joins you as well, making the tent a little cramped. The horned girl makes a hiccupping noise, and a tiny voice somewhere in your head tells you about a concept called personal space.

But you, your big wolf friend, the fairy lying on you, and the teethy plant nibbling on one of your horns aren’t moving, so that’s how you all fall asleep.


>

[ ] Leave some of your stuff at the camp before heading off (what?)
[ ] Take everything with you. Leave no junk behind.

>>1027375
>[ ] Leave some of your stuff at the camp before heading off (what?)
box and shiny rock?
do you still have that pastebin of stuff baphy has?

>>1027375

Items

Enchanted Clothing (Set Bonus: Cute +1) (Auto-Repairing: Minor damage is repaired over four days)
Long Sleeved Jumper Thing (Worn) (Fluffy)
Height-Mismatched Socks (Worn) (Damaged)

Leather Low Boots (Worn) (Old)
Vine of 2 Ripe Phirin Fruits (Worn)

Small Cloth Coin Purse (2 silver, 6 copper)
Iron Shovel (Rusty)
Iron Bucket (Rusty)
Oakbark Wild Infusion (Awake) (In Lulette's Pot): 1/scene. Baphy can use it to toughen her body or weapon for a very short duration.

Purifying Watering Can (In Bucket) (Filled)
Glass Vial Of Melfam’s Solvent (2 Uses) (In Bucket)
Palm-Sized Metal Box (in Bucket)

>>1027378

(Isava has the rock now.)

>>1027386
ah, missed that.

>>1027375
>[ ] Take everything with you. Leave no junk behind.

I don't see the need to store anything. We have a perfectly good bucket! It isn't that shiny though. We should get a shinier one after this.

>[ ] Take everything with you. Leave no junk behind.

File: swampy.jpg (394 KB, 1600x742)

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Theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XigNa2faw70

Your shoes sink into the mud, and your socks are wet. They squelch when you drag them out for each step, your vine of phirin fruits softly bumping against your chest. It’s dark, though the canopy is not very thick. The sun is only just rising, and mist hangs in the damp air.

The swamp thrums with life in the early hour. Harsh cries of birds, buzzing insects, the odd rustling or quiet snapping. Ikaros leads the group with his bow strapped to his back. The three adventurers left their backpacks behind and, except for Isava, carry only their weapons.

Your hands are full with your shovel and bucket. Because you like your shovel and bucket.

Lulette floats up and you see her Bushjack snap at something. Ashtia is somewhere off to the right, partially obscured by gloom and thin tree trunks.

Ikaros told you that there sightings of the Bakunawa whelp were close to a decent-sized lake further west, deeper into the swamp. He’s confident that the lake is its home, and this early in the morning the serpent isn’t likely to be far from it.

Minutes trudge by. Undergrowth and foliage have been flattened into the earth. Bones, the scent of decay. Branches, then tree trunks broken and fallen.

“That’s not normal,” Isava says. “This kind of damage doesn’t happen if it’s just hunting around here. These look more like signs of violence.”

You’re distracted from thinking about her words.

There’s a strange feeling. Something about this place - the swamp as a whole - isn’t right. Something broken, something warped.

A cold sensation runs above your brow, temple to temple.

Ikaros stops, and a loud cracking and thud brings you back to your senses.

>>1027380
>[] Take everything with you. Leave no junk behind.
Never know when a bucket or a shovel could be useful. Mabey there is a ancient door who's key is that specific bucket, and if you left it you'd have to backtrack.

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>>1027577

The view is clear with most of the trees in the area having their trunks snapped, sitting diagonally or sinking into the muddy ground, and a fair distance across the clearing from your group is the serpent.

Blue-green scales on almost a dozen metres of flesh and muscle, framed by fins almost wing-like along its side and spine. Its head is reptilian, draconic, baring a long forked tongue and deadly sharp fangs.

There’s scratches, wounds almost randomly placed across its serpentine body, mostly minor but some splash and leak trails of blue-ish blood. But nothing sufficiently major to explain its violent behaviour, the way it thrashes and flings its tail, smashing into anything in the way.

There’s that feeling again. A dull ache, or a near silent, painful buzzing.


>

[ ] Head towards it with shovel and bucket.
[ ] Head towards it empty-handed.
[ ] Let the others act first.
[ ] Say something (what?)

> Regardless of choice, Wild Empathy: Roll 1d100 + 10

Rolled 12 + 10 (1d100 + 10)

>>1027584
[ ] Head towards it with shovel and bucket.

Rolled 1 + 10 (1d100 + 10)

>>1027584
>[ ] Head towards it empty-handed.

People have been mean to it! Haven't they just tried talking?

>>1027603
I know shame.

>>1027603
Goodbye baphy, you are to pure for this world.

>>1027584
>[ ] Head towards it with shovel
Let's not risk the bucket.

>>1027607
Fug.

Rolled 58 + 10 (1d100 + 10)

>>1027584
>Say something (what?)

"I feel like something is really wrong with the swamp. Really really wrong."

Rolled 88 + 10 (1d100 + 10)

>>1027607
>>1027610
I swear, I'm actually not this much of a newfag, I just rarely use the dice.

Rolled 48 + 10 (1d100 + 10)

>>1027584
>[ ] Head towards it with shovel and bucket.

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(Whelp.

I should probably not forget to note that I take best of 3, with crit overrides.
So yeah.)

>>1027625
Fucking hell.

Well, it was a nice quest while it lasted. I'm salty as hell though.

>>1027632
I'm pretty sure that's a joke.

>>1027625
Right?
Right...?

>>1027625
Wait, we chose to head towards it, so a crit fail would mean we somehow got far away from it right?

>>1027643
It makes sense, definitely.

>>1027643

(This logic is 10/10

'Cept the roll was for Wild Empathy not walking.)

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Theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z_-TaZQHqI

“Baphy- What are you doing?”

You walk forward. You’ve dropped your bucket somewhere, pressing your left hand to your forehead. Your shovel drags the mud behind you in one hand.

“I want to talk to him,” you say, voice more ragged than intended. Your feet take you forward, ignoring protests from nearby.

Painful.

You can’t think from the throbbing in your skull. With each step you get closer to the serpent, and as you get closer you feel like someone slowly places burning knives in your chest.

Excruciating. From your core, outwards. Searing tendrils, reaching. Your legs fail you.

A corruption. A fragment of hunger devouring from within. Unnatural, wrong.

The tune around you is discordant.

“Baphy!”

A hand yanks you back out of the way of the Bakunawa’s thrashing tail and you land in the dirt. Isava and Constance have both run forward, and you hear Ikaros pulling the string of his bow taut.

Lulette has disappeared and you can’t see Ashtia, though you know the latter is circling the Bakunawa unseen.

The serpent’s fury now has a direction. It pulls its body back and rears up its head, screeching desperately.

Pain still thunders in your head and burns through your chest. You know it’s a fraction of the serpent’s.


> Further rolls suffer a -10 penalty.

[ ] Stop! Shovel Time!
[ ] You need to calm it down. Somehow. Some way.

>>1027704
>You need to calm it down. Somehow. Some way.

Rolled 33 (1d100)

>>1027704
>[ ] You need to calm it down. Somehow. Some way.
>Try to sing to it.
Does the - 10 penalty just negate the +10 we had? or is it still a 1d100 roll -10? I guess just subtract 10 from my roll if that's the case.

>>1027704
>You need to calm it down. Somehow. Some way.

>>1027717

(It'd negate Wild Empathy. There could be other bonuses depending on the action, though.

I'd like to wait for the choice before calling for a roll, so I can figure out the DC and bonuses properly. Though often I just consider it as degrees of success, with 'good' being roughly 70.)

Rolled 84 (1d100)

>>1027704
I forgot that we don't wait for rolls to be called for in this quest.

>>1027732
Ah, gotcha.

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>>1027738
>

Well since I haven't been clear I'll take the 84. Though if anyone else wants to try higher (or land another 1), feel free.

Spirit-Singing 1
> Calm it down / DC70: Roll 1d100 + 5

Rolled 85 + 5 (1d100 + 5)

>>1027749

>>1027738
>>1027751
Well, that's a little impressive.

Rolled 76 + 5 (1d100 + 5)

>>1027749

Rolled 43 + 10 (1d100 + 10)

>>1027584
Sing

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>>1027749
>(or land another 1)
I think I'm good after the first one. Have a goat though.

You try to pull yourself up, lifting your shovel first and sinking it into the ground.

It’s really hard to think right now. Really hard. But you don’t like that the Bakunawa whelp is hurting.

“Stop,” you try to shout, and barely manage to push your voice above a croak. “Please.”

Isava turns and says something muffled, about danger or being an idiot or something. It’s hard to hear.

You walk, but just like before the stabbing pain gets stronger. Isava catches you when you fall, Constance backing away and brandishing his sword at the great serpent snapping forward. You use the horned girl’s arm to steady yourself, and resist when she tries to pull you back.

You’re focusing on the tune. The weird dissonance that the marsh around you still whispers.

You start humming. Reaching out, coaxing the voice of the land. It’s broken, but you can help it sing, if only for a little while.

The frail threads join yours and form a melody, slow and gentle. The serpent stops striking out against Constance and he stands back, wary. The Bakunawa whelp still twitches, its tail still shakes in the air unnaturally.

The painful feeling softens. You hope it’s enough.


>

[ ] Fix what’s wrong.
[ ] Put it to sleep.
[ ] End its pain.

>>1027841
>Fix what’s wrong.
I guess we found a new friend

>>1027841
>[ ] Put it to sleep.
Once it's not a threat to us we can try to find what's wrong with this part of the swamp and fix it.

>>1027841
[ ] Fix what’s wrong.

>>1027841
>Fix what's wrong

>>1027841
[ ] Fix what’s wrong.

> Fix what's wrong.

Headache penalty -10
Wild Empathy +10
??? 4

> Return To Earth / DC85: Roll 1d100 + 20

Rolled 83 + 20 (1d100 + 20)

>>1027890

Rolled 9 + 20 (1d100 + 20)

>>1027890

Rolled 80 + 20 (1d100 + 20)

>>1027890

Rolled 62 + 20 (1d100 + 20)

>>1027890
We beg you, be at peace.

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>>1027896
Wooh!

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>>1027896
>>1027900
>>1027905

(Haha, things are looking up.)

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Isava pulls on you when you try to move. “Do you- Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

You kinda don’t answer. Partially because you’re still humming, partially because you don’t.

Feeling less weak you place your shovel on your shoulder and take steps forward, keeping steady on the awkward footing.

You don’t know what you’re doing, but you know you can do something. Get rid of what’s hurting it. You don’t remember, but you know you’ve done it before.

The whelp rears back, afraid, and when you get close it snaps out with its jaws. You duck and switch direction, darting around to the space behind the Bakunawa’s head, trying hard to not slip and fall.

Then you take your shovel in both hands and engulf it in a wavering, spectral green flame, then lunge it forward into the serpent’s exposed flesh and the beast struggles, flails, shrieks. You tear your tool out from the whelp’s body, dragging with it an indescribable wrongness - a mass of twisting horror that you fling to the mud where it writhes, seeming to drink colour and life from its touch.

You hit it with your shovel.

The hideous thing pops, splattering against the ground with an earsplitting wail that dies as the darkness evaporates into the air.

Then the Bakunawa whelp sways, and falls with a trembling thump.

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>>1028051

...

“Uh, what?” Constance chances, walking forward cautiously. “Is it dead?”

You shake your head in response. The others are approaching as well, and Ashtia reappears by your side. The wolf sniffs the unconscious serpent nonchalantly.

You look around. Part of you wants to celebrate, but you can’t help but think.

Your ears ring with the swamp’s tune, all broken without your humming to guide it. There’s more than just the... fragment that you got rid of from the Bakunawa whelp. More, from the heart of this place.

You need to go.


>

[ ] Go.
[ ] Go.
[ ] Go.

>>1028051
Whoa, we can set our shovel on magical fire now, sweet.

>>1028054
>[ ] Go.
>[ ] Go.
>[ ] Go.

>>1028054
>Gogogo

Rolled 54 (1d100)

>>1028054
> roll to resist
Maybe tell our party we have a lead on the witch

>>1028054
>Go.
>Leave.
>Skedaddle
>GTFO
>Bring the unconscious serpent with us?

>>1028054
>Stay
No train tracks here OP

>>1028070
Assuming the wrongness we're feeling is coming from the witch we could try returning to the camp and linking up with the other adventurer parties there. Then the entire force could go after her.

>>1028054
>GO.

>BUT ACTUALLY TELL THEM ABOUT THE HORRIBLE WRONGNESS.

>

Oh, I realised that choice is kinda misleading

It's basically

[ ] Chase the feeling into the swamp.

Or one of the write-ins.

>>1028085
>[ ] Chase the feeling into the swamp.

>>1028077
We're not going to kill the witch.
We're going to exorcize her.
The other adventurers (and these ones too) seem to prefer to kill first, ask questions later.

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(Writing is happening.)

>>1028111
No, she is going to put one of those things in us then send us back to our friends. How do you think she remains hidden? Everyone who finds her helps her keep hidden by killing or getting killed.

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A direction, where the aching, the buzzing is thicker.

Someone yells after you, but the sound is lost. Balancing your shovel on your shoulder you find your direction and run, trudging through the boggy earth as quickly as you can.

Are there other things that live here, feeling the same pain as the Bakunawa was? If the serpent stays here, will the same thing happen again?

You don’t worry, usually. You don’t like it.

There’s a portion that’s clearer, dryer, where you can actually hear your footsteps against the wet dirt. You notice Ashtia is with you keeping pace, and Lulette flies overhead.

The canopy here is thicker, the murk and mist darker. Trees reach up into the air and cross spiked branches like gangly limbs. The sound somewhere in the distance is a familiar, high-pitched wailing that ruins the land’s song.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

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>>1028192

Theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1Jr1r9zmDc

Suddenly, everything dampens. The hurting in your skull, the ringing in your ears, the taste of decay.

And a thick, curved talon of some blackened material like ebony erupts out of the earth in front of you, forcing you to a stop.

“No further, Veil-marked. This place is mine.”

The air is still. You turn around, towards the voice.

A young woman. A girl, rather, at least a few less than twenty to her years. Garbed in a black robe, holding a thick, old tome in one hand. Wavy hair spills out from her hood, framing her face in a fiery orange-red stark against the gloom of the marsh. She’s slender, almost fragile, but carries herself tall and proud.

The drawing. Entirely different in age, but the same rigid cheeks; the same scowling expression, the sternness in her brows and deep-set eyes.

She addresses you. Her voice is smooth, dark.

“I am called the Witch Of Crows. I will ask you questions, and how you answer determines whether you leave alive.”

>>1028153
ew that's gross.
Surely no old lady would do something like that on purpose. If anything, she has one of those things inside her.
When we get it out and dig it to death, she will be a nice grandma and bake us all cookies.

being autistic and naive has worked so far, might as well stay in character.

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That's all for this session. Thanks for participating!

Do tell me what you thought, what you want to see more of. This thread was a bit different so I'm interested to hear your opinions.

The next time I run will probably be after a few days. As always I'll announce on https://twitter.com/boxofmithril, and this stuff is archived at http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=GFQ

(Also, are there guidelines about making new threads? I'm used to the idea of splitting things up thread by thread, but I have three for this quest hanging out in the catalog and have no idea if that's normal.)

>>1028222
More cute, more casual, more goat.

>>1028222
Pretty sure you are only able to make the threads per IP on qst. And since it is such a slow board you might be forced to reuse this thread for a while. I could be wrong though. Threads don't auto sage till they are three days old so I think you should keep using a thread for about that long.

>>1028222
You generally keep threads until they hit bump limit, though I'm not sure if that's a hard rule.

>>1028234
Five threads per IP, it says it in the sticky.

>>1028222
there is a max of 5 threads in catalog per IP
threads autosage after 72 hours but due to qst's slow speed will usually last another 3 days after that. generally best to just keep using the same thread till you're on page 8 or so

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>>1028236
>>1028240
>>1028242

Right, thanks. So the next time I run should probably be in this thread.

Have a goat.

>>1028222
The plot thickens. We are now a "Veil-marked" and need to figure out what that means.
I am glad that we are still able to solve the problems so far with a song and a shovel instead of having to become a murder hobbo.

I hope Baphy and the poor lonely witch can become good friends.

>>1028287
I also like that a crit fail gave us Green-Mile tier empathy which is pretty cool.

>>1028222
Great session as always, hopefully this witch is susceptible to the powers of goat and cute.

>>1028222
I want to protect that smile