Paths of Heroes

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I kinda figured what we breached was a magic radiation dump. Sucks that we seem to have lost the windmoss but who knows? Maybe we'll get rad stuff from the new Burning Valley.
 
Week 5 - Waking Up
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    • [X] Kidneys

    Unconsciousness quickly took Cal, and while he expected pain, it quickly subsided as he drifted off into a weird liminal state. Neither fully asleep nor fully awake, and not fully dreaming, he instead experienced a fever haze of ill-formed thoughts that never truly crystallized into anything. He just sort of… was.

    Eventually though the pain he had expected began to seep back in as a dull, full body ache. Direction and orientation took over and soon enough his eyes were fluttering open as consciousness was regained. He found himself propped up in the waters of the Goldspring, wrapped in bandages. The Springmother slept as peacefully as she ever did nearby, and while her attendants did not stop their rounds another Ritualist was quickly brought forth by Cal's stirrings.

    "Hello Delver Halsy, how are you?" The Ritualist asked kindly. She was an older woman who looked used to telling wounded Hunters what to do, and Cal immediately decided that he was not interested in testing her patience.

    "Sore. Confused. Not in as much pain as I thought I would be," Cal admitted while he tried flexing fingers and toes and found them stiff and awkward but still there and responsive.

    "Unsurprising. We don't exactly know what happened to you, but the damage was - is - extensive. When your comrades brought you back we weren't certain you were going to make it. You basically lost all of your skin and had to regrow it in the Spring," the medical Ritualist explained as she went to check him over.

    Cal just blinked and asked, "All my skin?"

    "Apparently your delving gear was what was holding you together by the time you arrived. Also, we used essentially all of the windmoss your comrades gathered in treating you," the woman explained.

    Cal frowned and asked, "While grateful, was I truly worth that amount of effort? There are always points at which-"

    The medical Ritualist held up a hand and said, "Springmother's orders, and not just for your helpful little crab, but because apparently something about what happened to you stirred memories. Apparently you sort of stumbled upon something useful and she wants you to work at it, even if it maims or even kills you."

    "Ah," Cal noted. The Springmother could be a bit single minded and callous towards humans at times, but it was one thing to hear in stories and another to experience personally.

    "Yes. Apparently exposure to extreme amounts of energy can have it get stuck, for lack of a better term. With you the majority of it seems to have become stuck in your kidneys when your body was trying to flush it out. The bad news is that your kidneys are only sort of working at the moment and without frequent dips in the Springs you will die within a week. The good news is that your blood is now hostile to infection, which is one of the reasons you are alive. You had a nasty case of blood poisoning while your organs were still regrowing, but you were more toxic than the poison!" The elder explained with a bit too much cheer.

    Cal gains Kidney Damage (moderate)! Cal must remain within a day's travel from Goldsprings or suffer stacking penalties to abilities as his body shuts down.
    Cal gains Irradiated Blood! Cal is immune to most mundane and minor supernatural diseases, and has resistance to a variety of mundane toxins.

    Cal absorbed this, and then asked, "Is there any good news?"

    The Ritualist tending to him waggled her hand and said, "Define good. There was a minor riot over what happened to you and the Hunters only catching a few Husker workers and not the leader, leading to the council bowing to pressure and withdrawing for the time being. This turned out to be the correct move as the massive thermal updraft drew in an Alpha Dake and his pride, which in turn disrupted the Husker Hive and drove a number of them into our prepared defences."

    Cal absorbed this and then said, "So net win?"

    The older woman shrugged and said, "Well, we weren't going to be using the Burning Rift anytime soon, so that's something. We're going to need to gather extra Hunters if we want to dislodge the pride there now, which will be tricky."

    "Anything else?" Cal asked.

    The woman considered and then a smile came to her face when she said, "Oh! Right, your Doomteller was incredibly valuable for us. He kept tearing the pain from your dreams, but instead of discarding it, he wove it for us so that we could know where you were in pain while asleep. Incredibly useful that, and we might ask for your help the next time we have an unconscious patient."

    Cal took this information in and vowed to find something extra nice for Leelbok's shell, once he had figured out what to do next.

    Current Stance: Defensive
    Passive Scout Results: Active Drake Pride + Hidden Husker Hive (In Conflict, likely to damage each other in subsequent turns)
    Scavenge Locations: 1 Generic
    Current Community Actions Available: 2 -1 from Panic = 1
    Current Hero Actions Demandable: 0

    [] Push Beasts Back - Units with the Hunt action push beasts back, changing from Defensive to Open Stance. High Success can generate temporary Resources.
    [] Patrol - Units with Patrol action scout enemy numbers and movement. Critical Success can generate temporary Resources. Requires Open Stance.
    [] Hunt - Units with the Hunt action actively seek out dangerous prey, generating temporary Resources. High Success can lower beast numbers. Requires Open Stance.
    -[] Hunt Intelligent Husker: Attempt to find and eliminate hostile nest.
    -[] Hunt Drake Pride (requires min. 2 Hunter units, more recommended): Attempt to drive out or slay the Drakes nesting at Burning Rift
    [] Explore - Units with the Explore action can seek out new locations and new challenges. Requires Open Stance.
    [] Scavenge - Units with the Scavenge action can exploit locations for temporary Resources. Requires Open Stance.
    -[] Scavenge Burning Rift. Drake Pride must be dislodged
    [] Send Runners - Communicate with other communities, potentially trading resources and knowledge. Requires Open Stance.
    -[] Seek Aid: Rally other villages to obtain assistance against hostile beasts
    [] Fortify - Changes to Defensive Stance, gives temporary Defence boost. Requires Open Stance.
    [] Experiment - Try out new things. Critical success can generate insights. Temporarily lowers Resources.

    [] Assemble Delvers Unit - Permanently lowers Resources and Food.
    [] Assemble Hunters Unit - Permanently lowers Resources and Food.
     
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    • Oooooof.

    Also guess that didn't turn out too bad. Seems like if we don't hurt Cal too bad or strain him too much we might be able to have him heal his kidney damage? The way its phrased doesn't seem permanent.

    @Academia Nut is it permanent damage? The way the ritualist's assessment was phrased is a bit unclear.

    Also nice to see Leebok is at Terrible Time crafting, upgrading it from Abyssmal. E: Also Dream crafting up to Poor and he's gained Medicine at Terrible! Good Creb is gud. *pat pat*

    As for stuff to do.

    [] Experiment - Try out new things. Critical success can generate insights. Temporarily lowers Resources.

    Our resources are temporarily at Poor instead of Terrible, so we could do this pretty safely as set up for the hunters next turn. We don't have any units with the Experiment action or something similar, so its probably just generally possible but isn't assisted by anything.

    Could raise up some more Hunters and that seems like the obvious thing, especially if the critters decide to come knocking. That'd possibly let us regain access to the Burning Pit where they're living right now and or deal with the Husker Hive.

    [] Assemble Hunters Unit - Permanently lowers Resources and Food.
     
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    Sivantic said:
    I imagine that Pushing the Beasts back means we can use the other actions? Basically the opposite of what Bungie asked.
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    Once you push them back you will be able to use the other actions the turn after.

    Basically the Hunters didn't bag the Husker leader and the problems at the Windmoss/Burning Rift caused panic and discontent to rise and the community to auto-select "Fortify" as their one action. The Hunters did however bag enough beasts to give you a temp Resources boost.
     
    Actually, I just saw that the Huskers and other critters are tearing into each other. Let them do that for a while, while we experiment.

    [X] Experiment - Try out new things. Critical success can generate insights. Temporarily lowers Resources.

    We have the resources to throw at this.
     
    [X] Experiment - Try out new things. Critical success can generate insights. Temporarily lowers Resources.
     
    [X] Experiment - Try out new things. Critical success can generate insights. Temporarily lowers Resources.

    Radioactive blood? I almost feel sorry for whatever parasites try and latch on to Cal. Hmm, does that makes him immune to Husker parasitism too?
     
    [X] Experiment - Try out new things. Critical success can generate insights. Temporarily lowers Resources.
     
    If we kill that Alpha Husker we are grafting it's kidney onto us as a replacement.

    The Alpha Drake is another question entirely.

    Do we drive the pride of drakes and huskers towards each other?
     
    THE SPRINGMOTHER'S CURRENT MISSION FOR CAL IS TO CONTINUE EXPERIMENTING WITH THIS NEW EFFECT.

    The Springmother's most likely reward for Cal's (and our) experimentation is the Xenografting Enhancement Technology.

    Way to go Cal, you managed to stumble into a Very Important Quest. I love free tech upgrades!
     
    [X] Experiment - Try out new things. Critical success can generate insights. Temporarily lowers Resources.
     
    Academia Nut said:
    The woman considered and then a smile came to her face when she said, "Oh! Right, your Doomteller was incredibly valuable for us. He kept tearing the pain from your dreams, but instead of discarding it, he wove it for us so that we could know where you were in pain while asleep. Incredibly useful that, and we might ask for your help the next time we have an unconscious patient."
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Leelbok continues to be Best Crustacean.

    You get a thumbs up from me, little buddy. Place it whereever you want on your shell.

    EDIT: Oh right, voting
    [X] Experiment - Try out new things. Critical success can generate insights. Temporarily lowers Resources.
     
    [X] Experiment - Try out new things. Critical success can generate insights. Temporarily lowers Resources.
     
    [X] Experiment - Try out new things. Critical success can generate insights. Temporarily lowers Resources.
     
    DocMatoi said:
    Well. That's... Not conducive.
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    Yeah...
    Academia Nut said:
    Patron Spirit In some places powerful spirits still dwell and commune with humans. These survivors are often tightly bound to a singular place, more than a little mad, or both. While not universally useful, they are sources of power and wisdom… if you can pay their prices.
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    Academia Nut said:
    The medical Ritualist held up a hand and said, "Springmother's orders, and not just for your helpful little crab, but because apparently something about what happened to you stirred memories. Apparently you sort of stumbled upon something useful and she wants you to work at it, even if it maims or even kills you."

    "Ah," Cal noted. The Springmother could be a bit single minded and callous towards humans at times, but it was one thing to hear in stories and another to experience personally.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    She is a bit apathetic.
     
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