A World Of Endless Horrors (Reboot)

[X] To go away

Getting the gnomes to talk, turning a battle into a parley - it's a challenge in and of itself. But after enough yelling and several near-misses with more thrown projectiles, you finally arrange a negotiation - a few of yours and a few of theirs standing together. The gnomes don't seem to take it too seriously. They take turns scratching themselves or eating insects from their own beards. One of them defecates without even changing his expression. Are these horrible little men deliberately choosing to try and disgust you? Or was their choice made a long time ago? None among you know the answer.

You give them an ultimatum: they can take what little you can spare and leave, or else you will fight them and you will slay them all, no matter what it costs you. Such a threat would mean nothing to most monsters, even ones who speak and think. The False Men, the Briar Dwellers, the Chainsmiths - all of them are at least as intelligent as humans, yet none of them care about earthly comforts or their own lives. But some creatures are different. It seems that alongside human fear they drink in human greed and vanity and become something that can coexist with society - however peripherally. The mountain god that protected your village was one such. He kept the covenant and drove off all lesser horrors in exchange for an annual sacrifice. Your people could coexist with him for centuries, even though he was a lumbering, man-eating giant monster. It is known that gnomes are cast from the same mold. They fear their own deaths. They like to decorate themselves, and to stuff their maws with cooked food. They're killers who delight in misery, but on some level their minds are comprehensible to you in a way most monsters' minds aren't.

In the end the gnomes agree to your terms. Truth be told, full scale battles against large groups aren't their strength. They prefer to snatch people and pull them into the dark, or to wreak chaos while staying just out of reach. You pile together what little cloth you have to spare, a few shiny baubles, loaves of freshly baked bread, fried fish, and top it with the two pearls that have emerged from your treasure so far. Secretly you hope that in the days to come the gnomes will fight over them. In any case, the gnomes collect the tribute and leave. When they don't return by daybreak you decide you've seen the last of them. Gnomes are fickle creatures. Which means there was a possibility that they would renege on your deal...but also that now that they've actually left they likely won't find the motivation to return.

The next day more dark figures approach your encampment, again calling in familiar voices. As usual, the guards jeer them. But this time the figures step into the light and answer the questions they're asked. Though it's hard to believe, they're not shapeshifters or illusions - they're your fellow survivors.

They're led by a mage. Not the old man, but a girl who served as one of his apprentices. According to her, the master perished while trying to set up some sort of a defense against the rampaging souls of former sacrifices. She managed to get away. Lost and alone, bereft of books or materials, she nevertheless managed to improvise a ritual to locate other survivors, and to gather those of them who still live.

You spend the day in celebration and the evening in contemplation. Even your newly boosted numbers are a small fraction of the people who once inhabited your village. A settlement this small can't last indefinitely. To survive you need to be able to replenish your supplies. To get metal for tools and weapons, herbs for healing and incense, meat and grain to supplement your diet, and a thousand other things. Thus you need to be able to visit the sites where such resources are located, or to trade with others, and either one requires a large party to do in relative safety. At your current strength you can spare one, maybe two such parties without stripping bare your defenses. And if one of them does prove unlucky and is destroyed, that's the end of you.

Moreover, a civilization needs specialized skills, many of which your new village currently lacks. Only one of you knows how to work metal, and only crudely at that. The scholars who knew how to make educated guesses about the weather, safely build tall buildings, or improve fruit trees have all perished. Many other skills are either lost or diminished.

One thing is obvious: if you want there to be a village here ten or twenty years from now, what you have now needs to grow, and grow faster than childbirth allows. To survive you will have to entice others to leave their communities and join yours. A daunting task as things stand right now.

In seeking the way forward, your people find themselves split into three camps. There are those who say that the best way forward is to focus all effort on growing and defending your village. No man would leave an established community for what you have right now. But you can change that. Build houses on the water so you don't have to come out and battle every horrible creature that approaches the shore. Visit established markets with carts full of timber, fish, and pottery and bags full of precious pearls, and bring back essential supplies. Build up a place that's small and prosperous, and people will come seeking opportunity they're denied in older, more stable communities.

Others say that this way is too slow and too risky in its own way. The utter ruin of your village has made you one of the poorest communities out there, and scrabbling your way to riches is an uncertain proposition. You advantage is your desperation, because it makes you willing to take risks others would balk at. To seek out secrets and treasures heedless of peril or guardians, and to bring assistance to those who need it...and ruin to those who deserve it. It will be a long time before anyone joins you out of envy, but there's a chance they'll join you out gratitude or awe...or perhaps fear. Who knows, under the right circumstances your courage may simply win you leadership rolls within one of the established communities.

Finally, there are those who believe that to recover from this disaster you need a miracle. Or better yet, a chain of miracles, one after another. Look at how your people have survived this long. By eating grain grown by a magical ritual. By finding each other in the woods thanks to a spell. And before that, by living under the direct protection of a god. You must take care of wordly concerns like food or defense, of course. But the rest of your efforts should be turned toward magic and rituals. Because this world is so dark and dangerous and you are so very small and only magic will give you the power you need to survive.

Naturally, none of these are mutually exclusive. In this world even the meekest farmer must occasionally take up arms, heroes and mages alike need to eat, and none can escape from magic's web. Yet one of these principles shall serve as your guiding star. Which shall it be?


[ ] The Path of Prosperity

[ ] The Path of Valor

[ ] The Path of Miracles

[X] The Path of Valor

There is a story. Not a story from your town but one from a place far away, given to your people almost a century ago by the Wandering Lizard tribe. It's the story of a young girl who found herself orphaned and unwanted. She fell into the care of a cruel man who had no use for another mouth to feed. So he took her deep into the woods and broke her legs, so as to make sure he wouldn't see her again. The story you received claims that he himself met a terrible fate on his way home, but this may well be apocryphal. It is, in any case, irrelevant to the poor girl's fate. Injured and alone, with night fast approaching, she would certainly be taken by the ghosts of ash and rot. (In your own region it would more likely be the shadow men or the insect-like people).

Or so you'd think. But faced with the certainty of her own death, the girl found herself bereft of fear. With nothing left to lose she found it easy to fight for the slimmest chance. She crawled, pulling her hobbled body over every hard root, heading for the places no one else dared to go, seeking the only place the ghosts wouldn't find her. Exhausted and bleeding and armed with a sharp stick, she finally found what she sought - the lair of a great wyrm, already settled in for the night. She crawled through its teeth and into its mouth. The story gets vague there, but one thing is certain - she found a vulnerability somewhere inside the wyrm and inflicted damage enough to slay it. The wyrm's scalding blood washed over her, burning off her skin. She screamed in terrible pain and eventually passed out. Hidden inside a nightmare's body, she was paradoxically safe.

The girl spent weeks living inside the wyrm's unrotting corpse, venturing out only to drink from a nearby stream and pick what berries and mushrooms she could. And over time her legs healed and the scabs that covered the entirety of her body slowly changed texture and appearance, becoming a covering of shiny scales. In this state she finally made her way home. Tougher than any armor, her new hide rendered her an invaluable warrior and the location of the wyrm's corpse made her a well-off woman. In time she was able to capitalize on her legend and her supernatural toughness to gain the post of warchief.

On this day of reunion your people tell this story and paint their faces in scale pattern to honor the memory of the girl who was desperate enough to fight when all was lost. So too must you be. For you are lost and crippled and it's not good enough to merely survive. You must fight for a chance to reap an awesome reward, lest you fade away.

Trait Gained!
The Spirit of Adventure: you may undertake 1 additional Adventure Action each turn.

In a fit of fervor accompanying your realization, the strongest of what few real fighters you have, a man named Skylar, is named warchief. The girl, Sen, is officially named the village mage. A senior laborer, Aron, is named an Elder. Together they form the beginnings of The Ring. Right now your tribe is small enough that most decisions get made by consensus, but The Ring can help direct discussion and put its weight behind a particular course of action.

Ironically, your newly inspired warriors find themselves with nothing to fight. Even though it sometimes seems that way, not every inch of land is covered with monsters. And it seems that you have emptied the area around your village of the ones that feel confident attacking a village...at least for now. More horrors will wander your way eventually, and there are always lesser ones lurking around, waiting to ambush an unwary traveler or snatch a baby. But your people have a few days to regroup.



[ ][Adventure] Run Drills

The difference between true warriors and those who merely hold weapons is grueling, unrelenting practice. Begin the process of forging your fighters into a true warband.

[ ][Adventure] Patrol nearby woods

Get the lay of the land and make sure you spot any encroaching threats in advance.

[ ][Adventure] Scout the trading routes

Walk down the roads to the Grand Trunk, the Raised Valley, and the city of the Tunnel Lords and evaluate their fitness for travel.

[ ][Adventure] Scout the resource sites

This lake was a place important to your town's survival. There are others, like your clay pit, your hunting lodges, and the herb gatherers' camp. Check on them, and try to retrieve anything useful you find.

[ ][Adventure] Garrison

Double up on watch duty and make sure your warriors are prepared to respond to danger at a moment's notice.

[ ][Adventure] Sneak into your old town

Your former home is a treasure trove of wealth and supplies, though one that's haunted by a vengeful monster. Enter it, grab what you can, then get out.



[ ][Industry] Increase fortifications

[ ][Industry] Make rafts

[ ][Industry] Make spare weapons

[ ][Industry] Make tradable goods


Your new mage has taken one of the shacks for herself. Though she's half-trained and without books or ingredients or established holy sites to make her power stretch further, her knowledge far exceeds the meager scraps you've been able to piece together until now. She knows how to perform lesser rituals, ones that don't stir up the fabric of the world as badly as the grand ones. She can cast spells of divination or limited protection and knows how to make herbal remedies. As she gathers the necessary materials, she will be able to do more for your people.

[ ][Mysticism]Perform a divination
-[ ] Target?

Learn specific information about something nearby, or else receive a flood of vague visions that usually contains one or two pieces of important knowledge.

[ ][Mysticism] Begin consecrating the lake

This lake has a strong connection to your people. For hundreds of years your ancestors fished here and killed monsters to make the fishing safer. Begin the arduous process of transforming it into a lesser sacred site.

[ ][Mysticism]Pour sunlight into firewood

Imbue the wood used for your fires with the light of the sun, to make the flames that much more potent at searing the horrors.

[ ][Mysticism]Abjure insects and other small, unclean things

Purify your camp through aromatic smoke imbued with charms of cleansing and protection.

[ ][Mysticism]Make Wilder Brew

Brew potent grain alcohol that makes those who drink it nearly feral, able to fight without fear and heedless of injury.