>>3005762
How old are we?

>try to find your father's trail
>look around for anything of note

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>>3005810
You look around for any sign of your father. A footprint, a broken tree branch, crushed leaves. You think you find some kind of trail and, tying the ax to your belt, you start following it. You start to tear up and slap yourself. You're almost 15 now, almost a man, and you knew this was coming. You even overheard your parents talking about this the night before. Your mother was crying and managed to convince your father not to do it, but he must've done it anyway.

The trail comes to an end at a frost-laden river. You plunge your hands into the slow flow and drink greedily. The water cools you from the inside and a spasm of shivers crawls down your skin. The river isn't too wide, but trying to swim across will be suicide in this cold. You're not sure how your father got across in that case--maybe he didn't even come this way and the "trail" you were following wasn't real.

Your stomach growls again. The water refreshed you and your wounds don't hurt as much anymore, but you're starving.

>What do you do?
>Status: Starving, Freezing, Lightly Wounded

>>3005827
Make a fire and seek shelter

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>>3005830
You start following the river. Villages are often set-up near rivers so maybe if you travel far enough you'll find one. Not much time passes before you realize that you need to get warm. Your toes and fingers are completely numb. No matter how hard you press down on your thumbs you can't feel them.

You start to panic, but then you see the bracelet and suddenly feel a sense of calm come over you. You need to get out of the snow first, then you can try and build a fire. It won't be easy, most of the wood here wet, but you can try. You thought you saw a small cave a little ways back, so you try to retrace your steps. Sure enough there's a little dugout on the side of a hill. It's within sight of the river and deeper than you first expected. There are some dry leaves and twigs inside and an abandoned nest which you can use for tinder. It's much warmer here than outside at least.

Now you just need to gather some dry wood for fuel and start the fire.

>Roll 1d20 to start the fire
>Status: Starving, Cold, Lightly Wounded

Rolled 8 (1d20)

>>3005845

Rolled 20 (1d20)

>>3005845
look for edible plants/berries while we look for firewood

>>3005861

You use "Lauren" to chop down some of the smaller trees, the ones that haven't been touched by snow. It takes a few hours to gather enough wood and even then most of it is still to wet to use. Still, you manage to make a small fire. You huddle near it until the feeling returns in your toes. The sky has already turned orange and the sun is beginning to set.

There's still two hours before nightfall and your stomach is starting to hurt with how hungry you are.

>What do you do?
>Status: Hunger Pains, Lightly Wounded

>>3005866
>>3005875

>>3005879
+

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>>3005879
>>3005866

You don't want to leave the warmth of the cave (it's almost cozy now) but if you don't find something to eat you're not going to be able to sleep tonight. There are few animals around this time of year, but it's still early winter and its possible you might find something.

A better bet is to look for nuts, winter berries and seeds. It doesn't take long before you find a Louberry bush, the only berry hardy enough to grow in snow. The speckled red and white berries are too tantalizing to wait on. You slip off as many as you can start shoving handfuls of them into your mouth. They're ripe and juicy, a little tang but offset by the fruity sweetness. You save the rest in your pockets. They won't last more a day but you also gather two handfuls of huge bell-nuts. You can't eat them raw--they're too hard--but roasting them over the fire should do just fine.

You turn and follow your footsteps to the fire, when about half way back you see some footprints. Large, with long slender toes, almost like fingers. You remember the tales the loggers and hunters used to tell about elves that lived in the forest. You loved those stories but you never actually put any stock into them. Could these be the footprints of an elf?

>What do you do?
>Status: Lightly Wounded
>Inventory: x2 Louberries, x2 Bell-nuts

>You've gained an EXP point!
>You've unlocked the Survival skill
Choose one:
>Increase your Survival skill (+1 to survival checks)
>Save the point for later

>>3005908
Spend the exp, don't follow the foot prints so late at night

Rolled 15 (1d20)

>>3005908
>Increase your Survival skill
>try to craft a sling og bag to carry stuff in, braid it from vines or something

>>3005932
Return to cave / eat / rest

>>3005932
>>3005934
>>3005936

>Your Survival is now +1

It's tempting to follow the tracks, but it's already getting dark and you pretty soon you won't able to see the footprints you're trying to follow. Instead, you head back the rest of the way to your cave. The fire is still burning, but you put a few more logs in to keep it going through the night. You roast a few of the chestnuts for tomorrow and they brown beautifully in the heat.

You fall asleep the moment you close your eyes and when you awake it's early morning. At first you think you're back home, but slowly the memories of the day before come flooding back. This time you let yourself cry and bawl for a while and afterwards feel a lot better. Your wound is still a little sore when you touch it, but pretty much all healed. You snack on some of the bell-nuts you roasted last night and a few more of the berries. There's enough leftover for lunch, but you should still look for more food.

There were plenty of nuts and berries that you couldn't bring back, simply because your pockets weren't big enough. Using some dead reeds by the river you weave a simple bag--well more like a basket--but you should be able to carry three times as much as before. By the time you're finished it's high noon. You break for a quick lunch and consider what to do with the rest of the day.

>What do you do?
>Status: Healthy
>Inventory: x1 Louberries, x1 Bell-nuts, Reed Bag [0/24]

>>3005966
Correction:
>Inventory: x1 Louberries, Reed Bag [0/12]

hey I read hatchet too

>>3005966
See if the footprints are there, follow them if they are

>>3005966
Craft spear, hunt for food

Rolled 10 (1d20)

>>3005977

>>3005973
>>3005977

You can only survive on nuts and berries for so long and certainly not through the winter which is usually short, no more than a month and a half, but often brutal near the end, with blizzards so tight in their whiteness that you can't see past your nose even in the middle of the day.

The first order business then, is to make something you can hunt with. A spear--not for nabbing animals, which are unlikely to show up in this cold, but for the fish that swim in the bottom of the river. You strike down a few branches with Lauren and use the side of the blade to carve their ends into points. It goes hard in the beginning and you actually end up cutting your fingers. Twice. But pretty soon you get the hang of it and make a half-dozen short, light spears to catch the fish with. They'll also double as skewers for cooking the fish over the fire.

As you make your way to the river, you see those mysterious footprints again, this time less than a hundred paces from your cave. You decide to follow them for a bit. They lead along the river for a while, then curve away, deeper into the woods. You start marking some of the trees in case you get lost and keep following them until you hear something--voices, laughter--above you. You look up, and a pale young woman is hanging upside down from a tree branch--no, not a woman, an elf!

Her feet are like two hands, easily gripping the thick branch of the tree. Her eyes are very large, and brown and beautiful and her hair hangs down from her nearly nude body in tresses of pale, white gold. She keeps staring at you and you stare back, neither of you saying anything.

>What do you do?
>Status: Healthy
>Inventory: x1 Louberries, Reed Bag [0/12], x6 Fishing spears

Rolled 16 (1d20)

>>3006002
>What do you do?
spear those fishes

Rolled 1 (1d20)

>>3005977
>Get some berries out eat them, put them on a clean rock and move away from it. Do it slowly

Eating them will show it's not posion. Moving away will show we mean no harm, and I'm guessing she doesn't understand our language

>>3006006
Kind of have to deal with the elf first

>>3006006
>Kind of have to deal with the elf first
i dont agree

Rolled 19 (1d20)

>>3006011
This

>>3006031
nice phonepost fag

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>>3006037
??

>>3006006
>>3006011
>>3006031

Coming face to face with a myth is probably the most exciting and most terrifying thing you've ever experience in your short life. For some reason you start to imagine this beautiful creature ripping open your body and eating your insides and you involuntarily take a step back. The elf uncoils her feet and falls head first onto a another tree branch ten feet below her, which she expertly catches with one arm and uses it to pivot her body up and then swing down several more branches until she's on the ground.

Her body is covered in thick brown fur--no, wait she's wearing fur. She keeps staring at you, not making a move. You just want to get out of here. That vision of her eating you--it was so vivid that you can't think about anything else now. You get an idea.

Slowly, you reach inside your pockets and take out the rest of your Louberries. You place them in front of you on a flat rock. Then pop a few into your mouth, showing her that they're not poisonous. She watches all of this with an unreadable expression. You gesture for her to take them and you slowly back away, hoping that she won't follow.

Suddenly something drops from above--another elf, a little taller than the first one but of similar appearance. She snatches a berry from the stone and sniffs it, then bites into it. She grins and seems to enjoy it, putting more of them in her mouth until the first one finally rushes over to join her. You take the opportunity to get out of there and all the way back to the river, following upstream until you reach your cave again. By then it's nearly sunset. With last remaining hour of sunlight and with no more food, you attempt to spear some fish for dinner.

>Roll 1d20 to hunt for fish
>Status: Cold
>Inventory: Reed Bag [0/12], x6 Fishing spears

Rolled 14 (1d20)

>>3006047
Go fishing

Rolled 20 (1d20)

>>3006047
ignore these forest thots, spear fishies

Rolled 4 (1d20)

>>3006047
>>Roll 1d20 to hunt for fish

>>3006050
>>3006054

It's comes to you much easier than you thought. Almost too easy. The fish move sluggishly in the cold water and the real challenge is accounting for the way the light bends making things appear at a different place than they actually are. This is soon corrected and by the end of you have a basket full of red-bellied cutterfish about half the length of your arm.

You spend most of the night cooking them over the fire, skewering them through the mouth and tail and turning and turning the spit until they give off delicious smoky smells that make your mouth water and drool roll down the corners of your lips. You can't even wait for them to cool down before you start biting into their their flesh, stinging your tongue and singing your fingers--but you don't care.

It's a shame. You could've shared this food with your father, with your little sister Jeanne. You understand why they had to do it, you would've gone away yourself if they had just asked you. You love Jeanne and your mother and your father too, even if he's a little hard on you. Your mother had another baby on the way and there just wasn't enough food for all of you. He didn't have to bring you out here to die. You don't cry this time, but you do feel sad. Maybe you'll never see them again.

Sleep doesn't come so easily this time. You keep thinking about those elves and their beautiful eyes and flawless skin and the terrible vision of them ripping into you, tearing chunks of your away in their mouths. A little before sunrise you're woken by a strange sound, voices and laughter and again and footsteps. You grab your ax and call out. "Who's there!" But there's no answer. You go outside, but it's too dark to see anything and you don't hear the sounds again. You huddle by the fire holding your ax until the sun rises.

In front of your cave is some kind of fur coat. It's very similar to the furs the elves were wearing, but covers the whole torso instead of just the chest and hips, as theirs did. You look around for a sign of elves, but other than some footprints in the snow there's nothing. They're long gone. You put on the coat, it's extremely soft and comfortable and warm. Maybe the elves are friendly after all.

You return inside and eat some more of the fish for breakfast. Afterward you take a stone and make a series of scratches on the wall, one for each day. Then you sit down again and muse on what you should do today.

>What do you do?
>Status: Healthy
>Inventory: Reed Bag [0/12], x6 Fishing spears, x10 Red-bellied Cutterfish

Rolled 13 (1d20)

>>3006090
>Harvest some berries nuts
>Gather up firewood

Rolled 8 (1d20)

>>3006090
>Smoke, dry fish?

Gotta sleep for now. Will continue later.

Rolled 17 (1d20)

>>3006090
Try to dig out a bigger shelter, gather food for the day.

Fae = cunts, dont jump their dick just yet.

perhaps we can make some snare traps using vines?

>>3006090
Before we go to bed tonight we should leave out some fish, berries, and roasted nuts for the elves.

>>3006108
>>3006111
>>3006130
>>3006496
>>3006516

Now that you have the fur coat the cold isn't as much of a factor and you can travel further out--so long as you leave marks to find your way back. You decide that food should be your first priority. So far the snowfall has been light, little more than a white dust that covers the forest floor. Once the blizzards start you won't be able to go out, so you'll need to start storing food and fuel to weather them.

You spend the better part of the morning chopping down more trees near the cave and hauling the dry lumber to the fire. You break for lunch, eating more fish and taking the opportunity to smoke and dry the rest so that they last longer. After lunch you venture out to gather more nuts and berries, not returning to the river until you've filled your basket with them. You spend the rest of the afternoon fishing and making a few snares for the snowrabbits and foxes that might still be out and about. You catch a dozen more cutterfish by the time the sky has turned orange. Your snares remain empty and there are only a few fish left in that part of the river now. You'll have to go further downstream if you want to catch more. For now, you have enough food to last you a few days with careful rationing.

As you sit by the fire munching on bell-nuts and smoked fish, you get the sudden impulse to leave some food outside for the elves. You take two of the smoked fish and a handful of the berries and leave them as a small offering near the base of a tree. Hopefully it's the elves that find it and not something bigger, like a bear. Although you're pretty sure there are no bears in this part of the woods. Almost certain.

Sleep doesn't come easily that night. You keep thinking about home and about your little sister. And also about Mary, the plump, pretty butcher's daughter. Somehow your childish games had become intense, violent matters where you set out to prove yourself best among the other boys, for a glance or a smile from her pretty lips. Then you think about the elves, who were, if anything, even more beautiful in life than in your imagination. More beautiful than even Mary.

These thoughts make you restless and you decide to use the energy. You take begin carving out the back of the cave. The walls are made of some kind of soft earth that gives away easily. Soon, you've created a sort of tunnel in the back wall which is much warmer than the mouth of the cave.

Boredom compels you to keep digging. Eventually Lauren hits something hard. You carefully brush away the loam expecting a stone or something similar. What you find instead takes your breath away. It's a wall. A solid brick wall running through the middle of the cave whose plaster glows a faint blue. When you touch it you find that your hand simply goes through it!

>What do you do?
>Status: Healthy
>Inventory: Reed Bag [0/12], x6 Fishing spears, x19 Red-bellied Cutterfish, x5 Louberries, x6 Bell-nuts

>>3008128
>Wait until morning to go exploring. We might need to get torches if we go through it

>>3008147
This.

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>>3008147

You reel your arm back, staring at it and then the wall with wonder. What could it be? Some kind of magic no doubt. You remember a group of questors that had visited your village some months ago. They were looking for the crypt of some legendary king. The leader was a square-faced man with a scratchy beard marked in scars, the kind of man that only spoke when absolutely necessary and carried conversation completely with his eyes, which more often than not only said "Leave me alone, if you know what's good for you." And because he was an Aries, one of the spiral-horned peoples of the western icelands, most everyone did leave him alone.

They only stayed for a few days, buying up everything in old Mr. Kipper's general store. Paying with real gold and silver coins from the capital. You never heard from them again. You wonder if this was the crypt they were looking for and if so, whether they found that legendary king. Suddenly you feel scared and you run back to the fire and huddle there clutching your bracelet and muttering old half-remembered prayers. Sleep comes swiftly then and you awake to something wet touching your face.

You open your eyes and come face to face with a monster.

You yelp and roll backward, reaching for your axe and brandishing it in front of you. The "monster" licks its paws and lets out a soft mewling, purring sound. A fox-fern, and a cub by the looks of it. You laugh and lower the ax. Its paws and mouth are covered in the red juices of the Louberries. You look at your stash of food and find it pilfered. Three of the fish have been devoured and there's not a single scrap of berry left.

>What do you do?
>Status: Healthy
>Inventory: Reed Bag [0/12], x6 Fishing spears, x16 Red-bellied Cutterfish, x6 Bell-nuts

>>3008195
Do we know anything else about fox-fern cubs?

>>3009014

You try and remember the various nursery rhymes your mother used to sing to you when you were a boy. Many of them were instructive and detailed the various flora and fauna that were safe and those that were to be avoided. The fox-fern was one of the safe one's, if you remember right. The vegetation that grows on their back can be harvested and are usually edible and often medicinal. You even remember an old myth about a little boy who found a wounded fox-fern cub and tended to it until it was healed. And when that boy got older and became sick with the Red Plague, that same fox returned and the herbs growing on its back cured him.

You've also heard about apothecaries using them to grow certain plants that couldn't otherwise grow in this climate, but these are only rumors from travelers and not worth much in the way of truth. The cubs are supposed be quite tame and playful and you suppose that keeping one as a pet is not impossible, though they often grow to be the size of wolves and have even been known to take down mountain lions by themselves.

>What do you do?
>Status: Healthy

>>3009187
Play with the cub

>>3009204
You approach the cub cautiously. Although about the same size as a housecat, it still has teeth and claws. It watches you curiously, as if waiting to see what you're going to do. You take one of the cooked bell-nuts and crack it open, revealing the soft white flesh inside and taking pieces of the fluff in your hand you offer it to the fox.

It circles your hand, waving its tail which looks much like the collected roots of a tree but moves like tendrils of something soft and pilant. It sniffs your hand and then tastes your fingers. Then finding the food agreeable it laps up the rest and sits back as if waiting for more. You crack open another nut and toss the remains at its feet and it greedily tears the shell apart with its mouth and paws. You take the opportunity to draw even closer and then to run your hand along its back, as gently as possible. It's wet and cold with snow and it feels like moving your hand through a field of grass after its rained. The smell is mossy and rich. It nuzzles against your hand, licking your palm. It likes you. Or maybe it just likes the residual taste of the bell-nuts.

You take out one of the remaining fish and have some breakfast of your own, occasionally throwing a piece to the fox, who leaps up and snatches it from the air. You can't help but look behind you toward the tunnel. It's deep enough that you can't see the faint light of the plaster but you know that it's still there.

You head outside to see if the elves took your offering, but you soon find that the mischievous fox ate everything (the prints on the snow make that clear enough). The fox follows behind you as you do your morning rounds, chopping down more trees and gathering wood for the night.

>What do you do?
>Status: Healthy
>Inventory: Reed Bag [0/12], x6 Fishing spears, x15 Red-bellied Cutterfish, x4 Bell-nuts

>>3009241
After we've gathered supplies and found a new fishing spot, we need to not up and explore what's behind the magic wall.

>>3009264

You spend the day doing the things you've already been doing. You gather some more bell-nuts and berries--though its getting harder and harder to find some now. You also look for a new fishing spot and find one about half a mile downstream from the cave. All the while, the little cub follows close behind your heels, sniffing around and sitting on the bank of the river watching you spear from the edge.

You don't catch as many fish as before, only half as much, simply because there aren't as many to catch. You think you'll have to go even further out to find more fish but that will require an entire day's worth of effort, you might even have to camp outside for the night. Still you have enough food to last you several days now, even with the burden of feeding the cub.

The real thing on your mind is the mysterious wall and what lies on the other side. Later that night, after dinner, you decide to bolster your courage and examine the wall again. You grab one of the longer logs from the fire to use as a torch--it won't last very long but it gives decent light. The wall is where you left it, the blue plaster between the bricks still glowing a pale blue. You slowly reach inside with your torch and both your arm and the torch pass through the wall as if it were made of air. There's only a slight tingle. like goosebumps on your skin, to signify the illusion. The light of the torch doesn't reach through the wall either and you're back in blue-colored darkness.

The fox-fern nuzzles between your legs and mews, then casually disappears behind the wall.

>What do you do?
>Status: Healthy

>>3009187
Pet it!

>>3009327
Fk
>>3009309
Follow it

>>3009309
Follow it

>>3009333
>>3009339

You take a deep breath and then slip through the wall. There's no resistance. Only a slight tingle as before. The fox-fern is on the other side, waiting for you, sniffing the ground in circles. You're in some kind of hallway, a stone corridor that extends forward and backwards into the darkness. You notice that the plaster doesn't glow on this side, so that the only illumination is your makeshift torch. For a moment you panic, thinking that you're stuck on this side, but a quick check on the wall reveals that you can still move through it and return to your cave.

You test the other wall and the bricks a little ahead of the spot you entered from, but these are fully solid. Only that one spot, which leads into your cave, allows passage--a secret exit perhaps? You mark the walls with your ax, denoting the border of the secret door, then look to your fox.

The fox is sniffing some kind of gray webby material that adorns the walls and floor. Their almost identical to cobwebs except with much thicker strands that are lined with a viscous sticky green fluid. The fox's tail gets entangled in one of these strange webs and it cries for help. The strands are surprisingly hard to cut through, you have to put your whole shoulder into it to cut them away. The fox has at least learned its lesson and now hangs beside your left boot, where it's safe.

You note that there's a little breeze flowing through the corridor. At first you think it's coming from your cave, but a little investigation reveals that its in fact coming from behind. In front of you the webs appear to get thicker and more numerous, spanning across the ceiling and floor and hindering movement.

>What do you do?
>Status: Healthy

>>3009380
> thicker strands that are lined with a viscous sticky green fluid
Time to head back to the cave and cover up the hole. At least until we have better gear

>>3009380
Check to see how the web reacts to fire.
Then follow the route where the breeze is coming from.

>>3009391
We should atleast scout around a bit to check for any danger. We might have to ditch this cave if it's not safe.

>>3009391
You don't want to meet whatever it is that made those webs. You scoop up the fox in your arms and run back to your cave, where it's safe. You gather some stones and logs from outside. You plan to stack them up in front of the wall, covering it completely. Hopefully that will keep whatever's inside from coming out.

But...at the same time, you're curious. What if you went the other way? Toward the breeze? There wasn't as much webbing there, maybe it's safe. Maybe you'll find something--like treasure, or magic! What if you found the tomb of that legendary king? It's bound to be filled with gold and silver and glittering jewels. If you found it, you could buy whatever you wanted from Mr. Kipper. You could buy all the food you and Jeanne and your mother and father would ever need, straight from the city. And you could impress Mary with stories of your bravery and cunning. You're not sure why that last one is important, but you feel that it is.

"If there's any danger, I'll just run back here. No big deal." You say aloud. Then you slip through the wall again. The corridor continues for a few minutes and you start to get nervous. The fox isn't with you, it decided it had enough adventure for one day and curled itself around the fire. It's just you and Lauren.

The corridor opens into a large dark chamber filled with sound of running water. The floor is moist and made out of smoothed marble. The sound of the water is coming from opposite sides of the wall, from above. It almost sounds like someone pouring water into a basin, except that it never ends. You also hear a strange chattering sound, which you take to be the squeaking of mice. However, as you draw closer to the center of the room you find that the chamber is split into two halves that are connected by an arched bridge. Water runs below it, an underground river that's fed by water falling from grates above the wall.

The chittering sound gets closer--and then all at once you see its source. Three pairs of glowing yellow eyes stare back at you from the other side. They are definitely too big and too high up to be mice.

>What do you do?
>Status: Healthy

>>3009472
Reveal your spear and demand to know who they are. Be ready to bolt the fuck out at the slightest danger

>>3009498
You reach back for one of your fishing spears, holding it above you ready to throw. "Who are you?" You say. Your voice is trembling. You clear your throat. "Who are you?" This time it's with a little more confidence.

There's a rapid exchange of squeaks and clicks, the eyes swivel toward each other then one of them slowly splits from the group and starts to approach. You unconsciously take a step back and flex your muscles, ready to throw and then run at the first sign of danger. You find that you're holding your breath and slowly let it out.

The creature comes into the light. It's a stonemite, an uncivilized dwarf. It's eyes are enormous and glowing yellow and it's mouth is wide like a frog's. It barely stands to your chin in height and its body is covered in thick black fur. It's completely naked except for a woven loincloth around its waist, made from the same webbing as you found in the corridor. It wields a long metal spear, a weapon actually designed for fighting but much too big for it. It does not hold it threateningly.

"Human." It says, pointing at you, as if asking you. You nod, surprised that it can speak your language. "How did human get past Makrush?"

>What do you do?
>Status: Healthy

>>3009562
Ask them what makrush is. Lead them to the wall illusion.

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>>3009573
"What's Makrush?" You say.
The stonemite's eyes widen, almost filling his own face. He looks behind him, at the others than back to you. "Makrush is the queen, the mother. Makrush and her daughters make the webs. Human came from that way." He points behind you. "From Makrush's lair. Yet human is not eaten. How is this?"

You lower your spear. "I didn't see what you're talking about. I came in through the wall." The stonemite stares at you. "I mean that there's a secret passage, it leads to my cave outside and I came through it. I saw the webs you're talking about but not what made them."

"Show us human. Can human show us?"

You hesitate to lead them to your cave, but they seem friendly enough. You nod and tell them to follow you. You take them back through the corridor. All three of them follow, nervously shuffling their feet, peering into the darkness and jumping whenever they see or touch one of the webs. At one point, the flame of your torch touches a web on the wall and the sticky fluid bursts into flame, destroying the strands completely.

When you finally reach the part of the wall that you marked, there's something monstrous waiting for you. It hangs off the ceiling, gray and blind with four long spindly legs. The stonemite that you spoke to before, grabs your arm and draws a finger to his thin, wide lips. The creature drops to the ground and begins to crawl around, sniffing the air and listening for movement. Occasionally it opens its mouth, tasting the air and waving its deadly sharp mandibles.

>What do you do?
>Status: Healthy

>>3009617
Don't make any sound

>>3009645
You attempt to stay as quiet and still as possible. The creature moves in a zig-zig motion, climbing effortlessly from one wall to the other. It approaches the secret exit. It touches the illusion with one of its legs, which slips through. Then it peeks its head in.

Then it passes through.

>What do you do?
>Status: Healthy

>>3009657
Felix is in danger!!! Follow the spider quitely.

>>3009657
Collect webs, stick them to the end of the spear. Craft makeshift fuse using cloth. Connect fuse to the end of spear. Light fuse. Spider go boom-boom

>>3009687
>>3009696
I'm gonna need some rolls now, but that's all for tonight.

Rolled 20 (1d20)

>>3009703

>>3009696
This

Rolled 14 (1d20)

>>3009719
Dang rip spidey

Rolled 14 (1d20)

>>3009719
F
Spider

>>3009719
>>3009746
>>3009816
>>3009687
>>3009696

The fox-fern is in trouble. You brandish your ax and attempt to follow the spider but the dwarf holds you back. He shakes his head and puts his finger to his lips again--but you don't care. You're not going to let some giant bug eat your pet. You throw off the stonemite's arm and jump through the portal.

The creature is already more than halfway to your fox. You crouch low and sneak up behind the monster, keeping the ax ready in your right hand. It doesn't notice you. It's about the size of a baby calf, though not nearly as heavy. It's long tail swishes back and forth. At its tip there is an accumulation of the weblike material. If it traps you in one its webs, you're dead.

You slink along the ground until you're just three paces away. Then you let out a roar and charge, taking two huge steps and then a flying leap, ax above your head. It crashes down on the bug's torso. Sparks fly where the ax-head contacts the carapace, but it does no damage at all. The creature turns around and swings its tail at your legs, you jump up just in time and it swooshes past your feet. It rears the tail back and attempts to shoot a strand of the sticky web. You roll out of the way and then slam the ax down at the tip of the tail, the only part of it other than its legs, that's not covered by the chitinous shell. The tip is instantly severed. The monster jumps back and flares its mouth-parts in rage.

It then attempts to flee. You step in front of the tunnel and cut off the exit. It runs the other way, toward the mouth of the cave. You run after it and swipe at it's hindlegs, making contact at the first joint. The legs snap like day-old breadsticks. The creature's abdomen slams to the ground and it tries to crawl away on its forelegs. It makes a hissing, sputtering sound and bleeds green and white fluids from its tail and leg stumps. You take out one of your fishing spears and jam it into the creature's maw, killing it from the inside. It rolls over on its back and goes limp.

Your fox, who you woke with your scream, scampers over to the dead monster, sniffs it, circles it, then begins ripping apart its shell and eating its insides. The dwarves filter in through the portal and stare in amazement at the dead creature and its slayer.

>>3010761
Whoops forgot the prompt:

>What do you do?
>Status: Healthy

>>3010772
Ask the Dwarves about their civilization. See if it's the tomb that adventurer say it was. Ask if any of them were able to get out or they were stuck in there with those creatures?

Rolled 4 (1d20)

>>3010772
Make armor/shield of its remains, do allthe butchering outside. by the river if its close enough, we can dump the rest of the carcass in the water when we are done
get help from the dwarves if possible, maybe we have impressed them, and maybe they have armorer skills
also smalltalk

someone else pls roll
halp

Rolled 12 (1d20)

>>3010839
What the fuck. We can't just go make armor of it just yet.

We have to deal with the Dwarves talk with them. Decide when we're going to close that magic gate depending on what the Dwarves say

>>3010837
Rolling for my shit

>>3010837
>>3010839
>>3010841
>>3010846

You plop down by the fire, too exhausted by the fight to do anything but catch your breath. The dwarves approach--now with a little more caution. The one with the spear pokes the corpse of the monster and makes sure that it's fully dead before coming closer.

"Human killed the daughter." He says. You hadn't noticed it before but the dwarves have a strong lisp when they speak. It doesn't make them any harder to understand though it does make it a little difficult to take them seriously.

"Well I wasn't going to let them kill my fox." You say. On cue, the fox-fern, paws and mouth soaked in the green gore of the monster climbs up your knees to sleep contentedly on your stomach. You scratch between its ears and it begins to purr. "So this is the daughter of the Makrush? Are there more of them?"

The dwarf nods. "Many more. In the egg chamber where the Mother sleeps. They hunt and bring food to her."

"What kind of food?"

"Dwarves. Sometimes humans."

"So there's more of you then? You live in there? What is that place anyway? How long have you lived there? Wait there were other humans? Were they questors? Was there an Aries?"

"Slow down human. Dwarf and human still strangers. This dwarf is called Ziri." The dwarf points to itself. "That dwarf is called Thuda and that one is Dinain. What is this human called?"

>What do you say?
>Status: Healthy

>You've gained 6 EXP points!
>You've unlocked the Crafting skill
>You've unlocked the Animal Handling skill
>You've unlocked the Speech skill
>You've unlocked the Melee skill
>You've unlocked the Throwing skill

>You can spend your EXP to improve your skills or save them for later. Each skill costs (1+current skill level) EXP points to upgrade.
Skills:
>Survival: +1
>Crafting: 0
>Animal Handling: 0
>Speech: 0
>Melee: 0
>Throwing: 0

>>3010945
>It doesn't make them any harder to understand though it does make it a little difficult to take them seriously
>my sides

>>3010945
Melee+2
Speech+2

>>3010958
Nah I want to cover our bases with 1 first


>>3010945
All to level 1
>Melee
>Speech
>Crafting
>Animal Handing
>Throwing
Bank the extra 1

>>3010945
+2 Melee
+2 Crafting
+1 Animal Handling
+1 Speech

>>3010945
Name
>Raphael

>>3010964
That will cost 8 points Anon.
To level 1 = 1 point
To level 2 from level 1 = 2 points
Level 0 to level 2 = 3 points

>>3010964
This one is not possible. +2 from 0 requires 3 EXP (1, for the first upgrade, then 2 for the second).

If I don't get a consensus I'm just going to roll between these two: >>3010958
>>3010962

>>3010962
jack of all trades, master of none...
better to pay for some skils imho

>>3010970
>>3010971
Ah, sorry. Didn't read it correctly then. This will do then >>3010962

>>3010973
I want us to know at least a basic understanding of everything than specialist into something. And most of the time we're not going to be talking or melee monster. We going to need to set through the winter

>>3010974
>>3010962

Skills:
>Survival: +1
>Crafting: +1
>Animal Handling: +1
>Speech: +1
>Melee: +1
>Throwing: +1

"I'm Raphael. Most people call me Ralph. But don't call me Ralphie."

"Ralph. It is a strange name."

"Yeah, well. Ziri isn't exactly common where I'm from either."

"That is fair. You live here human? I thought humans lived outside, not in the burrows like dwarves."

"They do. I did." You remember your father and your mother and your village and feel sad again. "I'm just living here temporarily. Anyway, you haven't answered my questions. We're not strangers now right?" You're feeling suddenly thirsty, but it's still dark out and you don't want to venture outside. Instead you eat some of the Louberries you collected this morning.

"Yes. The dwarf sits down in front of you, cross-legged. My sisters and I live with Chief Urul Sanzir. We are among his many wives, though not very favored."

You almost choke on a berry. "You're...females?"

"Of course!" The dwarf sounds wounded.

"Right. I knew that." It's hard to tell behind all the fur but you do detect a slight curve near the chest that might be breasts. You remember overhearing a story a traveler once told about the mountain-halls of the civilized dwarves far to the north. "Only uncivilized dwarves don't shave their bodies." He had said. "Otherwise you wouldn't be able to tell male from female." And everybody had laughed. Yet here you are.

"The Chief has lived in the burrow for some suns. We do not know how long. We have only arrived recently."

"What about the humans?"

The dwarf hesitates to answer. "We don't know what happened to them. They came some moons ago and went to fight the Mother. They were looking for treasures in her egg chamber. They didn't come back."

"Was one of them an Aries? Did he have curved horns on his head?" You make the shape with your hands above your own head.

"Yes! There was one like this." She shakes her head. "But he too never returned. We stay in the upper levels and avoid the daughters and always avoid the Mother. There is plenty of stone to eat in the upper levels and room for the dwarflings. The humans found us and asked the Chief about the Mother. The chief told the humans everything, but they never returned."

"Wait. How did the questors get into the burrow in the first place? They didn't come through this cave right?"

"No, there is another entrance on the lower level."

Interesting. Maybe if you search the other side of the hill or the areas nearby, you could find that entrance. The dwarf looks at the corpse of the monster. The other two are crowded around it, poking and whispering secretively.

"Ralph. Will you give us this daughter? If we bring it to the Chief he will favor us among his wives."

You were planning on butchering the monster for parts. Especially that carapace.

>What do you do?
>Status: Healthy

>>3011036
>Take some carapace and have them take the rest. The carapace should proof useful as armour.

>>3011036
WHY DIDNT THE SPIDER GO BOOM-BOOM

File: 1540757035047.jpg (37 KB, 400x400)

37 KB JPG

>>3011058
My pee pee goes boom boom when I rub it hard


>>3011052
This, we need some strong lightweight armor, and this will be just what we need.

>>3011064
IT WAS MY 20 THAT MADE US KILL THAT THING SO I SHOULD'VE DID THE WAY I WANTED IT TO DIE. THINK HOW FUCKING OP EXPOSIVES ARE. THINK OF THE POSSIBILITYS.
...
Hey, I didn't mean to yell. I-I just want the best for all of us ya know? But I can't do have that if Im ignored! How about this: we craft armour and grab all spider webs we can, this way everybody can happy! How about it?

>>3011096
Yup we should gather up some boom boom webs. If we need to scare off a animals we light that thing up. Or stab them with it and hit them with a torch to make them BOOM BOOM.

So it'll be useful thing to have we could just use our fishing Spears to gather the stuff and pile it in our cave. Before we close the entry for safety reasons

>>3011052
I'm gonna need a Crafting roll for this.

>>3011058
>>3011096
Note that the webs didn't explode when you touched them with fire. They quickly burnt away, like string. Also the web itself isn't flammable.

Rolled 20 (1d20)

>>3011175
So the liquid. But at least the web can serve as rope.

File: 1540774182632.jpg (30 KB, 434x347)

30 KB JPG

>>3011193
>>3011175
That was the crafting roll. I imagine we get a +1 to this correct?
Give me that Nat 20 on crafting.

>>3011193
This thread is getting a lot of 20s (jinx jinx jinx jinx)

>>3011193

The dwarves would actually be doing you a favor by getting rid of the body. You can't exactly leave it outside--it could attract worse things than your little fox. However, you don't want the valuable material to go to waste.

"I want to butcher it first. You can take whatever's left after." You keep a ready hand on your ax, in case the dwarves decide they want to pursue alternative means of diplomacy.

They don't.

"We just want the head. As proof that we...killed the daughter." The dwarf bites her long lip, waiting for your reply. You're more than willing to give them the credit if it means you can keep the carapace.

"Deal. I just want the carapace really. You can have the rest."

There's an excited wave of clicks and squeaks. The dwarves are so delighted that they decide to help you dissect the monster. First you flip the creature on it's back. Both sides are armored but the bottom is less thick than the top and your ax can actually cut through it. You slice the belly open from its throat down to the abdomen. It's inner organs spill out, steaming, and covered in pale green fluid. You remove the fishing spear you used to kill it. Ziri points to one organ in particular, attached to the body cavity near the base of the tail. It's shaped like a cluster of grapes that are attached to a narrow, grooved bone.

"Stick-sacs." Says Ziri. "We sometimes use them on the harder rock." She looks like she wants to keep them, but then shakes her head and puts it down. Once the creature's insides are cleaned out you work to separate its muscles from the carapace shell. First you remove the legs--they come off easily. They don't have any bones, but are actually filled with the green fluid. The rings at each joint act as valves to change the pressure and allow for movement. A quick slash of the tendons and vessels holding the leg to the main body allows them to be popped off like loose nails.

You dig your ax between the carapace and the interior muscle tissue. It's a bit of work as your ax has dulled with so much use. You strike with a stone at the back of the head for extra leverage, then carefully slice across the back. In the middle of the beast, where the spine should be, there's another fluid-filled tube that extends through the tail. You're unable to cut through this as the carapace is fused to the tube, so you end up cutting in from both sides of the body, removing the fascia connecting the spine tube to the internal cavity and then simply peeling the entire carapace off as one might peel an onion.

1/2

>>3011292
The last thing you look at is the tail. Ziri explains that the webbing mechanism is not fully developed in the daughters, the silk is brittle and not as thick. The tip of the tail contains the organ that produces the silk. There's a valve, similar to the one in the leg, which pressurizes the fluid silk-sac and forces the webbing to condense and fire. You managed to sever the tail in such a way that the valve was preserved and you can actually get it to shoot webs if you squeeze down like you were milking a cow. There's a finite amount of web-fluid in the sac but it should be useful nonetheless.

Once all this is finished, the dwarves start dragging the remains back through the portal. Ziri thanks you and asks what you're going to do about the Mother. This might also be a good time to ask any other questions you have about the burrow, the dwarves or anything else.

>What do you say?
>Status: Tired
>Inventory: x7 Stick-sacs, x1 Makrush Daughter Carapace, x1 Makrush Daughter Tail

>>3011200
That's correct. The DC for a successful dissection was actually pretty high (it was a layered DC, with loot depending on how well you rolled). You guys got everything--including the working web-spinner, which was supposed to be a hidden item unless you specifically spoke up about it.

>>3011298
Tell them their welcome to come back. Let them know we're going to block off this hidden wall, and maybe down the line will meet them by the proper entrance that the other humans went through once you find it.
Better yet maybe they can show you where it is before they go.

We're going to have to find a way to sharpen our ax. It's getting dull.

>>3011359
Leather for refining a edge. If it has Nicks on it we're going to need a Sharping stone.

You let the dwarves know they're welcome back anytime, but that you'll be sealing the secret door for now. You don't want the crawlers to come in while you're sleeping. Ziri gives you general directions for the alternate entrance, which are not much help as she describes everything in terms of rock formations and dirt composition.

It might be worth investigating later, but for now, you just want to rest. Once they leave, you pile up the stones you had gathered and close off the wall. Then you fall into a deep, dreamless sleep, awakening well into the afternoon of the next day.

You take a moment to run through the events thus far and take stock of your supplies.

>Inventory:

Equipped
"Lauren" the Ax (dull)
x6 Fishing Spears
Reed Basket
Fur Coat

Food
x19 Red-bellied Cutterfish (smoked)
x11 Louberries
x16 Bell-nuts

Materials
x1 Crawler Carapace
x1 Crawler Spinnertaill
x7 Crawler Stick-sac

You think you have enough food now to survive until the last stage of the winter. You just need a little more, but you've cleaned out the immediate surroundings. As you think about where you'll have to go to get more food, you spot your fox by the mouth of the cave feasting on a dead snowrabbit. It has the snare you made from the river-reeds around its neck. You'd forgotten about the snares, it's possible that more were caught. You'll have to check your traps.

Your eyes fall to the carapace next and other crawler parts. You're not sure what you're going to do with the carapace--it would make for good armor but you're not sure how you can shape it into something you can wear. Right now it's just a curved sheet of chitin. The best you could do is wear it as some kind of rigid cape.

But at least the situation isn't as hopeless as it was a few days ago. You have fire. Food. Fuel. You have companionship--even if it doesn't talk much. You can survive. But you still miss your family and the village. You want more than anything to see them again, for your mother to squeeze your cheek as you eat. You even miss your father scolding you for slacking off to go and play with Mary and your friends.

You sigh and put on the fur coat (which you had been using as a blanket and bedding). There's work to do. Maybe once the winter is through you'll try and get out of this forest and see them again and tell them about your adventures and all that you've seen and learned. No. Not maybe. You will. You will.

It's a new day.

>What will you do?
>Status: Healthy

>>3011521
Check on our traps

>>3011529

The first thing you do, after having a late breakfast, is check on the remaining traps you set. Unfortunately, it seems the rabbit your fox dragged back is the only one that actually fell into the snare. The rest are missing their bait, but weren't tripped. The snowrabbits are craftier than you gave them credit for.

You place some more bait around the traps (just a handful of berries and nuts) When you get to the last one you spot a trail of blood in the snow, going toward the river. The tracks aren't animal tracks. It's definitely the imprint of a boot and by the size of it you'd guess it was a man, a big man.

>What will you do?
>Status: Healthy

>>3011564
Check out what made the prints

File: bd7998a607b41c6d4741fc0fe(...).jpg (45 KB, 450x950)

45 KB JPG

>>3011572

It's another person! Maybe they know the way back to the village. Maybe they can take you. Or maybe...they're dead. You waste no more time and start following the drops of blood. At one point you find a bloody arrowhead in the snow, and you look around, expecting a sudden ambush.

But of course there's nothing. The trail leads you all the way to the river and it is there that you find its source. A man, lying unconscious at the bank, his blood mingling freely with the cold waters from a wound at his side.

You recognize him. He's one of the questors that was with the Aries. A magician that none of the villagers liked because he kept whispering to their wives and daughters things that made them giggle and blush. He has two arrows sticking out of his back, one between the shoulder blades and another near his ribs. He's still breathing and the wounds don't look fatal, though he's clearly lost a lot of blood.

>What do you do?
>Status: Healthy

>>3011619
>Let's play doctor and try to keep him alive

>>3011619
>Stop his bleeding somehow.

>>3011631
>>3011650
I'm gonna need a roll for this. And this is the last post for the day.

Rolled 4 (1d20)

>>3011654

Rolled 1 (1d20)

>>3011654

Rolled 19 (1d20)

>>3011654

Rolled 12 (1d20)

>>3011654

Rolled 4 (1d20)

>>3011619
>What do you do?
Kill him, take all his stuff.

>>3011655
>>3011658
>>3011713
>>3011631
>>3011650

You snap off the shafts of the arrows and gently roll him on his back. The arrowhead digs deeper between his shoulders and he winces, his flicker, he grabs your arm. "Blood." He says. You jump.

"Yes." You prop him up. "Yes, you've lost a lot of blood. We need to stop the bleeding."

He grits his teeth and his hand travels up your arm, to your neck. "No. Your blood...let me drink...hurry."

"What?" He's babbling. Then it dawns on you. "You're a blood mage." You drop him again and the arrowhead digs in still further, making him gasp. "Damn, sorry! Sorry."

"Hurry. Blood."

You've heard of blood magic of course. It's curative magic, dealing mainly with healing wounds and recovering from illnesses. The old crone Breda once cured you of black fever using blood magic--or so your mother used to tell you, you were a baby then. But other than that you don't know much about them. You do know that blood is the source of their power, and it's possible that if you let him drink your blood he could heal himself. It's worth a try.

You take your ax and make it a slit across your palm. The blade is so dull that the cut takes a considerable amount of effort and pain to make. You cup your hand as the blood flows out and bring it to the man's lips. He sips at it for a good two minutes, staining his chin and lips a dark red. His breathing becomes regular and he sits up and casually plucks away the arrowheads. You note that, although his clothes are wet with blood, the wounds aren't bleeding anymore. He stands up, unsteadily and almost falls back down. You offer him your shoulder.

"Thanks kid." He says. "I owe ya one. Lemme see your hand."

You show him the bloodied palm, still trickling blood. He touches it, as if to give you a handshake and the pain shuts off like a tap. When he retrieves his hand, the blood on your hand retreats back into the wound as though you were watching it in reverse. The blood forms a scab and then heals in front of your very eyes until it disappears, leaving no trace, not even a scar. The mage hobbles over to the river and washes his face.

"You got any food?"

You offer him some dried fish and a bell-nut. He takes the nut and starts chewing on it, not even bothering to remove the shell. He sits down on a stone by the bank of the river, examining his soiled clothes, occasionally cursing under his breath.

>What do you do?
>Status: Healthy

>>3013327
You're that mage that came to the village. What happened with the other questors and the Aries?

>>3013338

"You're that questor that was with the Aries." You say. "What happened to the others?"

The mage looks up, still chewing on the nut. His expression is hard to read because you can't see his eyes. They're covered by long black bangs.

"Dead. Probably." He says. He doesn't seem particularly bothered by it. "The fucking pezipede...I told Rook to leave it, head back with the headpiece--at least two dozen shekels for it, but he wanted the armor. Idiot. Hornhead. Now he's dead." He takes another bite of the bell-nut. "Sarra's dead. Probably. Lost a perfectly good piece of tail there." He pauses and leans in. "Do I know you kid?"

You shake your head. "I saw you when you passed by our village."

"Right." You notice that he has a way of speaking, an accent--he rolls his r's and pronounces his t's as d's. "What are you doing here then?"

>What do you do?

>>3013396
>I had to leave my village, too many mouths to feed. I'm doing pretty good on my own.

>>3013396
>I had to leave my village, too many mouths to feed. I'm doing pretty good on my own.

>>3013430

"I...had to leave my village." You don't tell him you were abandoned. Somehow it feels shameful to admit that. "Too many mouths to feed."

The mage stares at you and swallows the last of the bell-nut. "That's rough. I'm sorry to hear that." He actually does sound sorry.

"I'm doing pretty good on my own." You say, puffing your chest out. "You want another bell-nut?"

"No. I'm alright." He stands up. The wind has picked up and the snow has started to fall harder. The beginnings of a storm. "You have a place to stay? A fire?"

>What do you do?

>>3013448
Yup, got my own little man cave. Big enough for both of us. It's got a fire and everything

>>3013459

"Yup." You smile proudly. "My own little cave. It's big enough for both us. Come on."

You retrace your steps, moving quickly before the snow buries your tracks. "Did you get those wounds inside the burrow?"

The mage stops. "Burrow? You mean the crypt--wait how'd you know about that?"

"It's kind of a long story. My cave is connected to the crypt--a secret passageway. I've sealed it up though."

"Secret passageway...where? On the northern side?"

"I'm not sure."

"Did you see the stonemites?"

You nod. "I fought one of the crawlers too. The ones the dwarves call "daughters"."

"And the pezipede?"

"You mean the "mother"? I didn't see her."

"Probably for best." He trails away into deep thought. "And no." He suddenly says. "The arrows were from...some place else. Rook was the pointman. I got out of the crypt but without him I couldn't find my way back--you know which way the road is by the way? Not that I'd wanna to look for it now."

The snows are falling so hard now that it's become difficult to see in front of you. The wind is whipping up around your ears, but it's not long before you see the faint welcoming light of your fire.

"We're almost there!" You say. "Look."

"Say, kid. Where'd you get that coat?" There's something in his voice that makes you afraid and reach for your ax. "Ah nevermind. I'm freezing, let's hurry." He rushes ahead of you, rubbing his arms and slips inside the cave. You follow.

You wait out the storm by the fire, snacking on fish and berries and nuts. Your fox, who'd been sleeping the whole day, wakes at your approach and circles your legs. She seems to avoid the mage--most creatures don't like the smell of magic.

"So you really did kill one." He says, seeing the carapace and the severed tail of the crawler. He looks around the cave, admiring the fire, the store of food. He nods. "Damn good work. You could be questor yourself one day."

"You think so?"

"Oh sure. Doesn't take much. Is this the way to the crypt?" He goes about half-way into the tunnel. "You have better sense than that hornhead at least." He says.

"Thanks. Are you sure you don't want anything to eat?"

"Nah. Hemomancers don't each much. We're efficient."

You're not sure what means exactly, but you decide not to ask. The storm will be a couple of hours and might even last the night. The mage sits cross-legged in front of the fire, just watching the flames.

>What do you do?

>>3013528
Ask the mage what he'll do after the storm passes

>>3013679

"I don't know the way back." You say.

"What? Oh. That's a shame." He says. He keeps staring at your coat, which you are now using as a blanket.

"What are you going to do? After the storm passes I mean."

He glances toward the tunnel, then toward the mouth of the cave. "I don't know. Don't suppose you'd let me stay here for a while? At least till the snows clear. Don't think I'd survive long out there." He says this seriously, yet there's a slight smirk on his face. As if he was only saying it as a matter of course. You suddenly wonder he would do if you said no? Your glad your ax is within reach.

"It wouldn't be for free." He says. "I'm not a freeloader." He throws little twigs into the fire, watching them pop and burn. He brings his knees to his chin and looks up at you--though you can't see his eyes. "How about I teach you little blood magic? Could be useful if you're serious about becoming a questor. Tried to teach Rook once...but his stupid Arian superstitions--anyway, you have it. The shine. I felt it when I healed you."

"Really?" Your voice comes out cracked. You clear it. "Really?"

"Well, to be fair near everyone has the shine. Most people just don't use it. It takes training, knowledge, dedication. Or so my master used to say. Really it just takes...desire." He smiles and his tongue draws over his lips, perhaps tasting your blood again. "You have to want it."

>What do you do?

>>3013708
Well let's get learnt

Rolled 19 (1d20)

>>3013708
do it

Rolled 18 (1d20)

>>3013708
Learn blood magic

Does virgin blood taste better or something?

Rolled 7 (1d20)

>>3013708
Some magic sounds nice

>>3013797
>>3013945
>>3013971
>>3014174

Nice rolls. Writing a huge lore dump, please be patient.

>>3014773
Answer my meme question pls

>>3013797
>>3013945
>>3013971
>>3014174
>>3014174

"I want it!" You blurt out. Never in your wildest dreams did you imagine you would get to learn magic. At most, you might have apprenticed with Mr. Kipper and become one of his shuttlers and get to see the bigger cities, maybe the capital, on trade runs. More likely you would've just taken over your father's fields. But to learn magic! To be a questor! To see the world and its long forgotten secrets and to reach for the ruined hordes of treasure. How can you refuse?

The mage chuckles and whips out a small, curved knife from a sheathe on his waist. "Good. First lesson. The source of a hemomancer's power is blood. In his own blood. In the blood of others. The blood of the powerful and the magical makes him stronger, ordinary blood keeps him strong." As he speaks he stands up and sits directly across from you. He takes out his palm and drags the blade of the knife down a vein on his wrist. Blood pools in the opening of the cut, but doesn't come out, forming a thin, oval bubble. "Drink." He says, bring the wound to your lips. You flinch at first, the stench of iron is overwhelming, then you press your mouth over the wound. He releases his hold on the blood, and guides it into your mouth.

The sweet tang makes you gag, but he tells you not to spill it. You swallow it, feeling sick to your stomach. A line of blood trickles down the side of your chin. Then he grabs your hand and using the tip of the knife, pricks your thumb. A small red droplet forms on the skin.

"Now. Pull the blood back in."

"How?"

"Close your eyes. Feel your heart--that is the source of all blood magic. Do you feel it?"

"Yes."

"Now, bring your attention to your thumb. Follow the flow of blood, the beating, the pulse."

"OK."

"Can you feel your blood pouring at that one spot? Can you feel the connection between the blood in your body and the blood outside of it?"

It takes a minute and it comes in flashes, but you can feel a faint connection. The pulse extending outside of your body to the droplet of blood. You can feel the droplet moving with your breathing, back and forth.

"Good. You're doing well. Now, can you see how the pulse separates into two halves? Push and pull. Focus on the second half. Pull the pulse in, slowly, gently. Pull on the blood."

This is much harder. Whenever you focus on pulling, you lose the connection and you have to start all over again. But you don't give up. You'll do it as many times as it takes. The mage continues to encourage you, but soon his voice fades away, until the only thing you can hear or feel or sense is the flow of blood in your body. And then suddenly, you can feel the blood outside, recede into your skin, pulling it back into your body and holding it so it doesn't come back out.

1/4

>>3014823
"Good job!" Says the mage. "Open your eyes, but keep your mind on the pull." You look down at your hand. It's the same effect he just showed you on his wrist, but on a smaller scale. The blood is perfectly even with your skin, not a drop comes out of the wound.

He stands up and pats your back. "Now just keep it like that till morning." Then he reclines against the cave wall and promptly goes to sleep. You stare at your thumb in wonder. Any time there's even the slightest lapse in the pull, the blood starts to flow out again and then you have to reach for the connection, focus on the pulse and pull it back in. It takes a whole hour before you can do this consistently and you begin to play with the blood. Letting drip out, then pulling it back in--watching it this time, not with your eyes closed. It's very hard to maintain the pull. You lose focus, you start thinking about other things. You get sleepy.

The blizzard goes well into the night. You don't break to eat or rest until the sun comes up again and the storm has passed. By then, a strange thing starts to happen--you can maintain the pull without concentrating on it. It still takes conscious effort to move the blood back inside but once it's inside you can stop it from bleeding without any attention.

You're so excited by this development that you wake the mage and show him your thumb. "Ah! It's too early, kid."

"Look! Look I did it!"

"What? Shit. You really did." He examines your thumb in his hands, stretching the wound open further, trying to get the blood out, but you only need to exert a slight amount of will to keep it inside. "Not bad kid. You're a natural shiner. Or it's just beginners luck." He yawns.

"So what's next? Are you going to teach me how to heal wounds? Or cure diseases?"

"Breakfast first."

As before, the mage eats very little. A small piece of fish and another bell-nut and he says he's full. You can't eat. You're too excited. You tell him about how you had trouble staying focused on pulling, but that eventually you didn't have to concentrate anymore.

He nods. "That's normal. Usually it takes people a lot longer. Good. I guess we talk about some specifics now. He takes a twig and begins scratching some diagrams on the dirt. "There are three types of magic." He makes a triangle. "First there's neuromancy, or Nerve Magic." He draws a circle at the top of the triangle. "This is supposedly the hardest and rarest type of magic, with only a few practitioners in the world. They're called Zombies and they're a little..." He touches his temple and twists his forefinger. "Neuromancers need to eat brains and nervous tissue to maintain their powers--so they're not exactly popular. But they are powerful. I've heard they can read people's minds just by touch and can shoot lightning from their hands. There are even some that can make golems that are as intelligent as men."

2/3

>>3014826
He draws a straight line on the bottom left corner of the triangle. "Then there's osteomancy. Bone magic. Very popular among questors. Superb offense and defense. Most of them also know the basics of blood magic, so they don't bleed to death after they shoot bones out of their body."

You've never even heard of these other two types.

He makes a teardrop shape on the last vertex. "Finally there's blood magic, or hemomancy. Blood magic deals with the manipulation of humours and fluids in the body. Most people use it for healing, curing diseases--stuff you seem to know about already. But there's more to it than that." He draws three lines coming out of the tear-drop. "Roughly, you can divide blood magic into three specializations: healing, fluids and body." He draws a plus sign, a wavy line and a little stick figure.

"Healing magic you've already seen. Blood has natural healing properties. Acceleration of these properties is the most basic form of hemomancy. But they can also be augmented. Healing specialists are often alchemists as well. Why is that? Because they can incorporate what they make into their own blood. There's an old joke about how a poisonous snake once bit a hemomancer." He pauses and smiles. "The snake died."

That explains a lot of things. The old crone was also an alchemist and usually took payment in the form of herbs instead of food or services like everyone else. "Wait, but how does that work?"

"They inject themselves with their own poisons and potions."

"But...if they did that wouldn't they die? I don't get it."

"They would if they drank all the poison at once. They do it in small doses, increasing it little by little as their blood becomes accustomed to it. Some of the richer ones hire master alchemists to brew them powerful healing potions, which they assimilate into their blood making them able to regenerate entire limbs and recover from wounds others would consider mortal. Gorgon, the greatest hemomancer in the world, aptly called the Blood God, is said have to incorporated the blood of a sacred cow. His blood is so potent that, it's said that as long there's even a piece of his heart left, he can recover back to full health. He doesn't age either." The mage sounds envious of this last power, pausing to dwell on it a moment before moving on.

3/4

>>3014830
"Anyway. Healing is pretty simple. I can teach you the basics but I recommend picking up alchemy if you're going that route. Next is fluids. Blood is a fluid, first and foremost. The heart is a machine that pumps this fluid your entire life, but as you just experienced, the pull and push of blood can be controlled. And it's limited to just inside your body. Whatever is connected to your blood can be pushed and pulled also. The more powerful fluid-specialists don't even need a physical connection. My own master could control all the water in a pond by dropping a single drop of his blood into the water. There are those that can even manipulate the blood inside other people's body--puppeters we call them--to move them without their will." He smiles. "Obviously such practices are illegal." He adds.

"So when I was holding the blood back, that was the fluid-type blood magic?"

"Exactly. Finally there's the body type of blood magic. Blood carries energy and nutrients throughout the body. Your muscles need blood to function. The alchemy stuff I mentioned before falls under this too--that is, incorporation. A hemomancer is metabolically efficient. He eats less and can control the absorption of nutrients across his body. He's stronger, faster and has far more stamina than the average man. This is actually the easiest magic to learn, but the hardest to master. And before you ask, I'm a body-type." He takes a minute to pause and let you process all that he's said. It's a lot to take in at once. Magic is much deeper than you initially thought.

"I'm telling you all this because I obviously won't be able to teach you everything I know in--what, the month or so we have? I can teach you the basics of one of the types. But you'll have to choose which one you want to learn."

>What do you do?

>Unlocked Blood Magic

>>3014835
>Body type+
Ask to learn the less food need thingy, would be useful right now

>>3014835
>Body Type
I want to learn some healing but eating less would be great

Ok, I think i know how to make things go boom-boom now. We're gonna need some saltpeter, this is found in most plants such as cabbage, tabacco, and sunflowers. We're also gonna need charcoal heres a video showing how to get it . https://youtu.be/GzLvqCTvOQY
The sulfer we have to get is going to be a challenge to get, we're either gonna 1: buy it from a merchant or 2: go to a hot springs and hope we find a deposit there. After we get all these ingredients we put em together and we get black powder. We take the powder and pack it into a container of some sort. We make a small hole in the container we put the spider string inside the hole (this will act as a fuse) And tadaaa, we just made A FUCKING BOMB TIME TO MAKE EVERY THING GO BOOM-BOOM.

If we make this We're gonna bust someone's head open like a melon
https://youtu.be/RzDMCVdPwnE

>>3016241
Why would a peasant kid know how to make gunpowder? OP never shown that this tech exist in the world

>>3014856
>>3014877
I'm gonna need a roll.

Rolled 7 (1d20)

>>3016474
>Body Type

Rolled 3 (1d20)

>>3016474

>>3016530
>>3016625
someone else pls throw a die

Rolled 16 (1d20)

>>3016474

>>3016530
>>3016625
>>3016631

With the blizzards already starting, it'd be good to conserve food as much possible. If you ate as little as the mage did, there would be enough food to last you the rest of the winter. And maybe when you return to the village, your parents won't have to worry so much about feeding you.

"Teach me how I can eat less using blood magic."

"The body then. Good." He kicks the dirt over his diagrams. "Starting now, you are not to drink or eat anything." He says. "We have to first get you into a starvation and dehydration state. Whenever you feel hungry or thirsty, I want you to focus on the fluid in your bladder and kidneys, the chyme in your intestines, the acids in your stomach. I want you to visualize separating the nutrients and water from them and reabsorbing them back into your blood."

He paces by the mouth of the cave, hands held behind his back. "The specifics don't really matter. You can imagine the nutrients being siphoned out like rainwater through a ditch or separated like fat from a bucket of fresh milk. Then focus on the flow of the blood all over your body, your muscles, your extremities. Imagine all your tissues and organs being washed in the blood and taking in the recycled nutrients and water. Do you understand?"

"I think so. Don't eat or drink anything. Focus and visualize when I'm hungry. Concentrate on the flow of blood and imagine using the nutrients and water again."

"Close enough. You'll know its working when the hunger and thirst comes and goes. You'll know you've mastered it when you don't feel hungry or thirsty at all." He steps outside into the knee-deep snow.

"And what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to take a look around. See if I can't figure out a way back to the roads. I'll be back soon." And he goes. He didn't say you couldn't work while you were doing this. The carapace has dried and the rest of the crawler parts remain to be experimented with.

>What do you do?
>Status: Healthy
>Inventory:

Equipped
"Lauren" the Ax (dull)
x6 Fishing Spears
Reed Basket
Fur Coat

Food
x17 Red-bellied Cutterfish (smoked)
x11 Louberries
x13 Bell-nuts

Materials
x1 Crawler Carapace
x1 Crawler Spinnertaill
x7 Crawler Stick-sac

Rolled 16 (1d20)

>>3016694
Practice food magic, and sharpen axe on sotething if it doesnt fuck our concentration

Rolled 10 (1d20)

>>3016733
+1

>>3016733

Although you feel neither hungry nor thirsty you decide to begin practicing the visualizations anyway. You can do other tasks while you do this anyway. First, you want to sharpen your ax. The blade has dulled so much, with small nicks that it can barely cut a twig in half let alone a tree.

You look for a flat rock by the river you can use as a whetstone. It takes a while to find one because of the snow. It's hard to even reach the river, wading through three-feet thick snow. Still, you find a few good candidates and spend a few hours scraping the ax against the makeshift whetstone, until it's sharp enough to cut your thumb from a slight touch.

It's past noon now, but the mage still hasn't returned. The weather is still fair and you suspect there won't be another storm until tonight at the earliest. You're starting to feel hungry now, but as the mage instructed you don't touch the food. Your fox doesn't have qualms about eating in front of you however.

>What will you do?

Rolled 1 (1d20)

>>3016755
>keep practicing
>try to gather firewood and set new traps for small game

Rolled 2 (1d20)

>>3016813
+1

Rolled 16 (1d20)

>>3016813
these rolls

Rolled 4 (1d20)

>>3016813

>>3016813
>>3016822
>>3016832

Concentrating on your body doesn't quite help with the parched tongue and throat. If anything it seems to make it worse. Nevertheless you keep at it. You spend the remainder of the afternoon checking on your traps, most of which have been buried by the snow, rendering them useless. It's unlikely there are any animals out and about now anyway.

Your fox decides to come with you, riding inside the front of your fur coat and occasionally peeking his snout out from below your chin. As you check your final trap, he seems to sniff something interesting in the air. He jumps out of your coat and runs off to follow the scent.

>What do you do?

>>3016848
follow the little shit, can't stop him now.

Rolled 7 (1d20)

>>3016848
We must have been doing the blood magic wrong. Feel the blood flowing through us as we follow the fox.

Rolled 15 (1d20)

>>3016848
Follow the fox

Rolled 19 (1d20)

>>3016856
forgot roll

>>3016856

You give chase to the fox but fall behind quickly. The snow doesn't hinder her movement at all because she runs on top of it. Dehydration is also beginning to take its toll. The skies are cloudless and though the combination of the sun in your eyes and the heat of the fur coat make you sweat.

You soon lose sight of the fox and begin to follow its tracks instead. After about an hour you find her mewling over the corpse of a half-eaten, frost-ridden, fully grown, fox-fern. Judging by the way she licks the fox's mouth and tries to wake her up, he was her father.

The dead fox is a little bigger than a mountain lion with a mass of vegetation growing on its back. It's flanks have been ripped away, revealing the white ribs. Both its hind legs are missing. There's arrowheads stuck in its back. The face is frozen with bits of snow. The cold has at least kept the maggots and flies away. Your fox keeps trying to wake it up. Batting his face her paws and shoving her head into its neck. But of course, it's no use.

Then you hear a sound above you and before you can blink an elf drops down from the trees. You're not sure if it's the same one you saw before, but this one has a bow, drawn and notched and aimed straight at your head. She doesn't look pleased.

>What do you do?
>Status: Hungry, Dehydrated

Rolled 2 (1d20)

>>3016882
"I didn't mean to intrude, I'm not here to steal your kill."
just back away with our hands in clear view. Whistle to our fox to get her back near us.

Rolled 8 (1d20)

>>3016913
+1

Rolled 12 (1d20)

>>3016913

Rolled 14 (1d20)

>>3016913
+1

Rolled 19 (1d20)

>>3016913

>>3016325
???
So what if the tech doesn't exist in this world, we are going to make the tech.

>>3017004
??
Meta knowledge

>>3017007
?
Elaborate.

>>3016913
>>3016941
>>3016942
>>3016980

You raise your hands, slowly, above your head. "I didn't mean to intrude. I'm not here to steal your kill." You say. You take a step back from the corpse. You whistle at your fox but she doesn't hear you.

The elf gives you a sideways glance, as if measuring your proportions. She lowers the bow and puts the arrow back in the quiver at her waist. You decide it's safe to lower your arms, but don't want to show her your back. She walks closer to you, holding out her arm in a gesture that says "wait". She gets close enough to touch your forehead with one of her slender fingers.

The instant she does you feel a jolt through your brain, like electricity had just passed through it. You no longer see the elf, your surroundings have suddenly changed and you have no control over your body. An illusion? No, somehow you know that it's a memory. It's of an elf, but is it of this elf? You're not sure.

You're by the river. This must've been a few days ago because the snow is only in patches on the forest floor. You're drinking from the stream when something comes out from the trees behind you. A human.

"Oh, it must be my lucky day." He says. The you in the memory, that is the elf, doesn't recognize him. But you do. It's the mage. The elf stands up, looking at him with curiosity. He walks up to her. She backs away. He grabs her hand. She struggles. He slams her against a tree and hits her. "Just stay still you stupid bitch." You can feel her sudden panic, her pain, her futile attempts to escape. All of which seems to increase the mage's zeal. He rips her furs off and begins to undress. "You're not Sarra, but you'll have to do." He says.

An arrow strikes him from behind, from above. He screams and reaches between his shoulder. Another one hits him near the kidneys. He stumbles back, pulls up his clothes and breaks into a run. The elf watches him go, shaking with sobs.

And then you're back. The elf is standing in front of you, holding your fox to her chest and petting her. She doesn't say anything. She touches your forehead again and flinch expecting another horrible memory. Instead, she seems to transfer her thoughts. She compares him to you, deciding that you're different. A feeling of rage passes to you at his expense. She wants to know where he is.

"You're a zombie. A neuromancer." You say.

She cocks her head to the side again, still touching your head, perhaps reading your thoughts. She nods. She raises her eyebrows waiting for you to answer her question.

>What do you do?

>>3017444
I think sell him out, but in exchange acquire some neuromancer knowledge. Because we still needed to learn what to do at the late stages of hunger for the body type blood control.

Rolled 11 (1d20)

>>3017485
if she refuses then we refuse since learning that part of blood magic will help us immensely in surviving.
Maybe say that after we learn we will give her the information on him but just now it will only hinder our survival

>>3017444
>What do you do?
Say we did not know he was an inhunman monster
Lead bloodomancer into an elven ambush, lure him with elven poon-tang
Try to articulate this to the elf

Rolled 17 (1d20)

>>3017444
>>3017491

>>3017444
We were staying at the cave but I've not seen him in a while. There's a secret exit there.

Rolled 12 (1d20)

>>3017485
>>3017491
>All these Anons wanting to white Knight

>>3017444
Let's just go back to the cave with our fox, after telling her she killed the foxes father

>>3017444
Say we have a rough idea where he is but it will take time to figure out where his location is exactly. Basically buy time to learn all we can from him before selling him out to the elves.

All we need is time and it will be a win win.

>>3017485
>>3017489
>>3017491
>>3017495
>>3017529

You feel sick. You had no idea the mage was that kind of...

"I didn't know." You say, not sure who you're pleading with. You should have just left him to die. But on the other hand he taught you about magic. He was generous with you. But he's a monster. But he's also your teacher. "I'll help you." You finally say. "But I want something in exchange. He was teaching me blood magic, with this, my lessons are cut short. So I want you to teach me neuromancy."

She looks off to the side, still not releasing your forehead. Your fox jumps out of her hold and you scoop her arm in your arms. She turns back and nods. You remember the blood mage's words, neuromancy is the rarest form of magic, with this you'll have been exposed to both kinds. You can't wait to go back to the village and show Mary all you've learned. She'll be so impressed.

The elf lightly taps your head, waiting for an answer. "Right. He's staying at the cave with me, but he went out. I don't know where is right now or when he'll be back." It's not really a lie. You feel another flash of electricity through your brain, she's probing you. She narrows her eyes and sends you another thought, a vision. The mage, represented by the shadow of a person, a black shape, appears near the entrance of the cave. You beckon him inside. The elves are waiting in the wings, mounted on the trees with their bows ready. The moment he enters the cave, they all fire and he is put down.

Then they swarm him, cut off his head, crack open his skull and eat his brains. You try to look away, but you can't. The rage and hatred fills you up until you can feel blood fill your mouth, until it makes you want to tear into something. Then suddenly its gone. She's released you. You open your eyes and see her powerful limbs carry her up a tree with ease, she swings from one to another and is gone.

>What do you do?

Rolled 2 (1d20)

>>3017556
keep working on the bloodmagic
go back to the cave
gather firewood on the way
wait for the mage
tell the elf that we want a taste of the mages brain

Rolled 16 (1d20)

>>3017556
>>3017569

>>3017569
>>3017575

You start heading back to the cave. You distract yourself by focusing on your body, trying to do the visualizations the mage described. Before you return to the cave you also decide to chop some more firewood. Lauren feels sharper than ever and the work is easy.

As you swing your ax, you start to notice that the hunger and thirst start to come in flashes, like trying to remember dream. It's exactly as the mage had said. Excited with this progress you press your focus inward even further, now focusing on distributing the energy back into your body. After about two hours of this and gathering the wood, the hunger and even the thirst disappear entirely. You actually feel energized and alert.

When you finally go back to the cave, the mage is waiting for you. You find him practicing some kind of martial art, moving his open hands in slow, graceful movements around him. His eyes are closed. "You're back. So? Any progress?"

It's hard to believe this is the same man that tried to hurt that elf. You're not sure how to act around him anymore. You try to keep calm. "Yes." You say. "I don't feel hungry or thirst anymore."

"Already? You really are a natural." He sounds excited. "Time for the next stage. Body strengthening." He grins, throwing you a hunk of dried fish. "Eat up." He says. "All of it." He points to your stash

You stop chewing. "What? That's a months worth of food."

"Yeah but you won't need it.." He pats his stomach. "The body stores excess energy as fat, as a hemomancer you can tap into this energy at any time. Body-type blood magic allows you to use this energy for anabolism. In other words." He takes off his robes. His body is soft and lined with a layer of fat. He releases a slow drawn out breath and the fat starts to shrink. His muscles thicken and compress until he has a rippling physique. Well-defined muscles, veinated and pulsing, cover every part of his body. It all happens within the space of a few seconds.

He picks up small stone and crushes it to powder with his fingers. You suddenly have doubts about the elf's plan. "It's simple metabolic acceleration." He says, flexing his bicep. "The fat is catabolized, its energies absorbed into the blood, the blood distributes the energy to the muscles and speeds up their growth. Of course, this state isn't particularly efficient, energy-wise, so hemomancers tend to prefer the soft, cuddly look." His muscles melt back into fat and he puts on his robes again. "But it's there when you need it."

You're mouth is hanging open. "How?"

He laughs. "First you eat. The transfer visualization--blood to body? Same thing, but now with what you eat. You're going to convert it directly into fat. Take your time, the energy won't go anywhere now that you've mastered recycling it."

>Roll 1d20

>Unlocked Blood Magic passive ability: Metabolic Recycling - By recycling food and water in your body, you need only a fraction of the food and drink an average person needs

Rolled 9 (1d20)

>>3017655

>>3017687

You sit down and start the fire again. The blood mage goes back to doing his strange martial art. His moves are faster now, with more snap to them. You gather the store of food by your feet. Almost two dozen fish, several handfuls of berries and nuts. There's no way you can eat all of this. But, the blood mage hasn't been wrong so far. You start stuffing your mouth, focusing on the way the food slides down your throat into your stomach, visualizing the balls of mashed food melting in the stomach juices, the water coming away into your blood, the chyme mixing with bile and passing through to the intestines where it's broken down and digested. The nutrients again being siphoned away by your blood, until there's only water left, and then the water being carried away too.

That hard part is forcing the blood to release the excess energy and turn it into fat. You find yourself going through old motions and simply redistributing the energy to your muscles and tissues, making you hyperactive. You start to flush, your heart rate increases to a dangerous level and you feel like you could run a hundred miles without taking a breath. Your body starts to tremble and shake. You almost throw up a few times and the blood mage tells you to take it easy.

You pause eating for a bit and focus harder on depositing the fat. Slowly, over a period of hours, you feel the energy fade away and your stomach swell a tiny bit. The feeling of accomplishment is cut however, by the fact that you've only eaten a tenth of the food.

"You're picking this up a lot faster than I did." Says the blood mage, he seems like he's not sure if he likes this or not.

"I never asked your name." You say. "Mine's Ralph. But don't call me Ralphie."

"You shouldn't give out your true name so easily kid. There's power in a name. I'm not gonna tell you mine, but you can call me Rollo."

You want to ask him about the elf. About how he got those wounds--he hasn't spoken of them at all since you've met him. You also haven't asked him about the trip he made this morning. Did he find a way back?

You glance outside. It's nearly dark now. You wonder if the elves are out there, waiting for him to go out.

>What do you do?

>>3017687
>>3017575
Anons it's possible that the elf is lying to us. Using her magic to make fake visions, to help them kill the mage and gain his powers

Rolled 18 (1d20)

>>3017709
Ask him how he got peppered with arrows. Let's hear his side of the story before blindly following what the Elf showed us. Also practice blood magic

>>3017714
>>3017727

It occurs to you that its possible the visions the elf showed you were manipulated. Maybe they just want to kill the mage for their own purposes. Yet the rage she transferred to you felt real. And you can sense something dangerous about the mage, not toward you, but a brooding, dark aura. You at least want to hear his side of it before you betray him.

Betray. You mouth the word. Is it really a betrayal? You barely know him. Still you did save his life and he's technically your teacher. The bond between apprentice and master is supposed to be a sacred one. Your best friend Cormac used to say that. He was a few years older than you and had started an apprenticeship with the village blacksmith. He didn't have time to hang out with you or your other friends after that. Betrayal. That was a betrayal. And maybe this is too.

"When I found you...you were wounded. I never asked how you got those wounds."

He doesn't say anything at first. He squats closer to the fire and the lights create shadows beneath his hidden eyes. "I got into a scuffle." He says.

"With elves?"

His head snaps up. "Maybe. I've been meaning to ask you something too."

"What is it?"

"Where'd you get that coat? Was it from the elves?"

You jaw muscles tense up. You don't like the way he said "elves". You're starting to believe the vision the elf showed you more and more.

"Well?" He says.

>What do you do?

>>3017753
"Yes."
I don't want to kill this chill dude. He taught us the magic.

Rolled 10 (1d20)

>>3017753
yes, or i think so. i left some food out for them, and then i found this cloak in the same place the day after

Rolled 14 (1d20)

>>3017761

Rolled 7 (1d20)

>>3017753
"Yeah, I ran into some in my first few days being here. Left some berries for them since I didn't know if they were friendly or not. Apparently they were since I then found this coat outside my cave."

>>3017761

You look him straight in the eyes--or in the hair, since you can't really see his eyes. "Yes." You say. "I ran into them and gave them some food. They left the coat for me one day. I don't know if it's actually them, but I don't know who else it could be."

You expect him to do something. You wrap your fingers around the handle of your ax. The smooth grain of the wood and the weight of the iron head remind you of the battle with the crawler. He stands up and your whole body tenses, waiting for him to make a move. He just goes back to the cave wall and reclines.

"I thought as much." He says. "Wish I had one. There's ways for a blood mage to keep himself warm, blood carries heat too." He rubs his arms. "But that falls under fluids and I was never too good at that." He chuckles. "My master, though, he could melt iron in his bare hands."

You relax your guard a little and glance outside again. "Did you find the road today?"

"Nope. I have no clue where we are. I figure, once the storms pass, we follow the river. It's bound to lead to a town, or at least out of this damn forest."

You nod. You were thinking along the same lines. You start eating again, more slowly now. That makes it a little easier to do the excess energy transfer, so easy that you find yourself getting hungry again. You keep up the energy deficit, letting the hunger drive you to eat more and more. The hours pass in silence. The mage is either sleeping or meditating, you can't tell. You can feel your arms start to swell fat, the underside of your chin and the sides of your waist expand.

"Did you really leave your village?" Asks the mage, eyes still closed. "If you left why don't you know the way home?" He opens his eyes. "You were abandoned weren't you?" He says, softly.


>What do you do?

Rolled 11 (1d20)

>>3017803
"I'm not angry about it or anything. It makes sense, lack of food means some people need to go. I was one of those people, not that I knew of course. I just hope everyone in the village are getting by."

Rolled 10 (1d20)

>>3017817
+1

>>3017817
>>3017818

You chew the last piece of fish. You've just eaten a months worth of food in a few hours and put on an amount of fat that would've taken at least three months to accumulate. Despite all these wonders, whenever you think of your parents, of home, of waking up in the middle of the forest with a bruise on the back of your head, you feel ashamed. Like the time Manfred, the biggest boy in the village, picked a fight with you, and being the fool that you are, accepted and promptly embarrassed yourself. All in front of Mary.

"I'm not angry about it." You say. "There was a famine and not enough food to go around. People had to go. I had to go. It's true they didn't tell me--but I just hope everyone in the village is OK."

The blood mage comes up beside you and pats your shoulder. "It's alright kid. People like you and me, we're survivors. We come up when everyone else would stay down."

Despite what you know about him, what he did, you feel sudden kinship toward him. "Did something like this happen to you?"

He sighs. "Exactly like this." He says, sitting down. "Well maybe not exactly. I'm guessing your parents had a hard time doing what they did. I didn't have parents. I had an uncle." He throws a fragment of wood into the fire. "He used to hurt me...do things to me." He laughs, bitterly. "He would always say he loved me. That I was all he had and that I didn't have anyone else to protect me but him." His voice gets louder and louder, as he gets more and more animated, then suddenly drops back to monotone. "Anyway, I didn't stay there long. I set out on my own. Made it to one of the big cities. Zet. You ever heard of it?" You shake your head.

"It's in the east. In the kingdom of Mercia. It's never cold there. Always mild in Mercia. And the women, well you're not old enough yet, but there are few places in the world as well supplied with that precious resource." He sniffs and wipes the edge of his nose. "Stick me with kid." He ruffles your hair. "Become my apprentice. I'll take you to places you've never even dreamed of. The waterfalls of Kirkenen's Edge; the red deserts of Asir. I'll teach you what I know and we can look for the ancient blood magics of the old masters together. Immortality! Invulnerability! Maybe even challenge the blood god himself." He sweeps back his hair and smiles. His eyes are kind and beautiful, a soft leather brown crinkled near the edges. A woman might fall in love with those eyes. And you yourself would follow them if they favored you.

And then you hear a soft sound outside. A barely perceptible whistle. Your fox perks up and runs outside. It has to be them.

>What do you do?

>>3017863
I don't want to go through with the plan. Since we're going to stay here out in the wood away for civilization.
But with Rollo we could travel the world, see new places and learn the magic together. He already got peppered with arrows as punishment, he should learn from his mistakes not get killed with his body and brain eaten by elves. We could do good together

Rolled 5 (1d20)

>>3017863
We are humans, not elf.
"Fuck. Listen to me, I'll explain later but right now there are elves outside waiting to ambush and kill you. I'm not sure what you did to them but I want to help you, not them."
Maybe hide in the secret spider cave if he doesn't know what to do.
Hopefully this guy doesn't kill us after.

>>3017884
>>3017885

This is going to require one hell of a speech check. Roll me 3 1d20+1's

>>3017886
Note that I want three separate 1d20s not 3d20.

Rolled 3 + 1 (1d20 + 1)

>>3017886

Rolled 13 + 1 (1d20 + 1)

>>3017886

I hope 14 is enough or another Anon comes to roll

>>3017915
I feel like worst case, we end up running out the cave with our fox and just leave,
that or helping the elves kill him and hope none of them look into our minds. But yeah we need an anon to save my garbage roll

Rolled 4 + 1 (1d20 + 1)

>>3017889

>>3017885
You fucking idiot. You absolute dullard.

>>3017885
Yes, The mind readers wont know you fucking tricked them.

>>3017892
>>3017900
>>3017943
>>3017885

"Where's that kitten going?" He says. He stands up and brushes the dust from his robes. Some of it flies into your eyes, temporarily blinding you. You cough. He begins walking toward the mouth of the cave, calling after the fox. "I can she doesn't like me." He says, laughing.

"Wait." You run after him catch him by the side of his robe.

"What's up?"

"I'll explain later, but right now there are elves outside. They're going to ambush you.."

"What?"

"Just listen. I'm not sure what you did to them, but I want help you. Not them. Don't go out."

"What the fuck are you saying to me kid? You sold me out?" He shoves you away.

"No! I didn't. That's why I'm telling you this--" He grabs your collar and punches you in the gut. You bowl over. He grabs your hair and delivers a right hook to the side of your cheek, bringing you to the ground. You see stars and taste blood. He's already begun his transformation. The fat is rapidly being converted into muscle, becoming even more pronounced then before so that his robes strain against his massive physique.

"Please, they showed me--"

He kicks you in the face knocking you flat on your back. Your nose is bleeding freely. "I know what they showed you." He says.

"Then it's true?"

"And? They're fucking elves. Good tail. Nothing else." He takes off his ripped robes, revealing a body made almost grotesque by its strength. "Fuck. I liked you kid. I thought we were the same, that we could've been..." He shakes his head. "Once I'm through with them. You're next." He says. Then he walks out.

The elves shoot the moment he approaches the entrance. At least four of them, judging by the number of arrows. He catches two of them with his bare hands, the other two hit him on the chest, barely piercing through his armor of muscle. He plucks them off like they were splinters and runs toward the trees.

You spit blood and slowly raise yourself to a sitting position. Your fox returns and starts licking your hands. In the distance you can hear shouting, the sound of arrows being loosed, the cracking of wood, bones being broken, voices cut off mid-scream. He's tearing them apart. You're next.

>What do you do?

>>3018069
Ready the webspinner, spears, and axe. Prepare to stand your ground.

>>3018077
Nah

>>3018069
Gather our supplies and fuck off to the secret entry. With our web slinger to protect ourselves as we make our way to the dwarves

>>3018087
Seems to be our best option, fuck why did we sell him out

Rolled 2 (1d20)

>>3018087
He knows about the secret passageway ,can move faster than we can,and isn't dumb enough to run into "mother" while we don't even know where she is.
>>3018069
Blood magic to heal up. Scream loudly into the secret entrance to lure those things after removing our little obstructions. Try to find the right time to get him with the web slinger since he clearly forgot that we're a quick study on the blood magic.
>>3018095
Because he was an evil rapist?

>>3018104
Oh dear.

Rolled 20 (1d20)

>>3018104

>>3018118
cruel joke these dice

>>3018077
>>3018087
>>3018095
>>3018104

There's no time. There's no escape. You can't leave out the cave, he'll chase you down. You can't fight him either. You'll be annihilated. You look behind you, toward the tunnel.

You gather what you can into your basket. The carapace is too large to take with you, but the crawler tail and the stick-sacs are small and you've already eaten all the food. There's nothing else other than the firewood, which you won't need inside. You put your fox inside your shirt and head for the secret entry.

The screams have stopped behind you. You scrabble frantically at the stones and logs cursing the meticulous way you boarded everything up. You can hear his footsteps on the snow, getting closer and closer. You pull away the stones at the bottom, creating a small narrow opening you can slide through.

You glance behind you one last time. He's by the fire, carrying the body of an elf in one hand. Her head's been ripped off and he's slurping her blood like a bottle of fruit juice. His head and chest are dripping red. He sees you, but doesn't give chase.

You slip through the wall and shout in the direction of the webs, hoping the sound will attract more of the crawlers. You hear the skittering feet in the darkness and you run off toward the bridge room. You keep expecting Rollo to be right behind you, but he's either decided to stay put or is dealing with the crawlers--possibly both.

You arrive at the underground river. It's so dark that you can barely see in front of you. "Hello!" You call out. "Ziri! Is anyone there?"

No response.

>What do you do?

Last post for the day.

>>3018124
Cry. We lost two potential allies, the elves and Rollo. I suppose we don't want to do much after this fuck-up.

Rolled 15 (1d20)

>>3018124
Calm down and look for some sort of tracks or evidence of a worn path.
>>3018299
Rollo would have gotten us killed eventually. He's quick to rape and murder plus It wouldn't surprise me if that's the reason his adventuring group left our town. I notice that his old group is dead while he didn't even get any serious injuries until he pissed off the elves like a dumbass in the middle of winter while having no food, shelter from incoming storms, or any goddamned clue were the fuck he was to head back to civilization.
Warning him was dumb as shit and I can't believe anon actually thought we could deceive a mind reader in order to save the guy in the first place.

>>3018299
this
We tried to play both, and came out with nothing for it.

>>3018378
Well, no, he's got an auto-heal. If he was injured along with his group, he wouldn't have any scars to show it.

>>3018299
>>3018382
Yeah, for sure. Can't believe anons were this fucking stupid.

>>3018124
Follow the river bank and try to find the other exit that the dwarfs were talking about.

>>3017884
>>3017885
good job you fukkin idiots

Been gone for a day, and we went 0 to 60 real fucking quick

>>3018382
We're getting out of this with our Dwarf GF. Best GF is a Dwarf GF

>>3018439
Nah those anons were waifuing... they saw an elf and assumed they could waifu her and sell out mage-kun and get some pussy.

They thought it would be ez pussy.

Despite mage-kun being able to heal from just a drop of blood.

In other words the waifu fags went full retard

>>3019017
No, no. No. Absolutely not. We had a good relationship going with the elves, before ever meeting Rollo. And then we learned that the Mage was a shitty rapist. That's why we were going to sell him out. Because he was a bad person that did bad things to people, and we had a pre-existing beneficial relationship with the elves.

The anons I'm talking about as being fucking retarded are the ones that tried to double back on the plan and warn bloodguy about the ambush. They cocked everything up, for no good reason. It has nothing to do with waifus.

>>3019184
this

>trusting the far
>In their own woods

I don't get it.

If they're elves and in their own territory, they shouldn't even need us to do all this cooperation with them, because they could surround the cave and swarm. You guys want to trust something that probably has an entirely different moral code than even bloodbro, and did you forget that they showed us an illusion? Illusions that even revealed they were gonna eat his brain?

What are we even good to them for after they're done, when that's the only use the have for us now? I don't want us to be lunch, and bloodbro was gonna show us this world! You think an elf wants to leave the forest? This isn't Tolkien for sure, so let's not pretend the romantics.

You guys do what you want but don't fall into an elf honeytrap

>>3019415
I wanted to be bloodbros with Rollo too ;_;

>>3019415
>>3019473
sad gullible samefag

I'll be starting a new thread soon, since this one seems to be in autosage. I'm going to take the opportunity to formalize some of the mechanics (in particular the magic/EXP/skill systems as well as how dice and voting work) and make a character sheet.

Since this quest is fairly freeform would you guys also like a lore reference containing stuff that's been mentioned in the quest (updated as you go along)? Also twitter, discord or QTG for notifications?

Thanks for playing (and posting and reading and lurking). I hope you're all enjoying the quest!

>>3019415
>>3019017
>1 post by this ID

>>3019486
But I'm not

>>3019415
Bloodbro was and is a shitty person. We shouldn't follow them. The elves did nothing wrong you buffoon.

>>3019486
>>3019543

>Insinuating our opinions are evidence of samefagging

REE harder

New thread: >>3020031