A Harry Potter Quest: He who was not
- Thread starter Tabula Rasa
- Start date
- Location
- USA
I understand the reason for training Attributes so hard before a possible level up when our current Attributes are low, but once the chance of success to raise them gets closer and closer to 50/50, it is probably better to switch to easier things so we don't possibly waste an action. And according to the Informational Post:
Which means we have a 70% chance to get Intellect 4. But only a 60% chance to get Intellect 5. Mechanically, Intellect and Creativity are very similar in that a lot of skills use both of them. So, getting +1 Creativity and +1 Intellect is similar to getting +2 Intellect, just with a better chance of success. Basically, the odds of getting +2 Intellect are worse than getting +1 Intellect and +1 Creativity. There really isn't much of a reason to risk training Intellect twice when Creativity has a better chance of success and a lot of our Skills rely on that Attribute as well.
Charms (CRT/INT) → D+
Transfiguration (CRT/INT) → P-
Defence Against the Dark Arts (CRT/INT) → D+
Flying (CON/CRT) → D-
Legilimency & Occlumency (CRT/EMP) → D--
Other Skills
Potions (CRT/INT) → D-
Alchemy (CRT/INT) → T
Understanding of Magical Creatures (CON/EMP) → D-
Herbology (INT/EMP) → D-
Astronomy (INT) → D-
Ancient Runes (INT) → T
Arithmancy & Magical Theory (CRT/INT) → T
Divination (CRT/EMP) → T
History of Magic (INT/EMP) → D-
Muggle Studies (INT/EMP) → T
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DarkKing98
Certified Village Idiot
- Location
- USA
Ok I need to say this. No. Just because you don't consider these 'cases'(which is just Jacob investigating to satisfy his curiousity) to be not life, doesn't mean that it isn't life to him.
Yeah we're not getting a level up this turn. Check the character sheet and our EXP resources. Unless something we have no control over pops up for EXP we are not going to get enough to level up.
- Location
- California
I get your analysis. And, honestly, I would change my plan to reflect +1 Creativity + 1 Intelligence save for the fact that many people already voted on my plan. I don't want to change it after people have voted on it as I think its unfair to them.
However, it is something I will keep in mind next time.
- Location
- Spain
In that case, you can always tag the voters for your plan and ask them if they agree with the proposed changes...
- Location
- California
Fair enough. I've just never been a fan of mass tagging. I'll keep the plan as it is right now, though.
- Location
- Spain
@Tabula Rasa There has been a small debate over what means to go against the ideals of the wand... Some believe that the key is the "the narrow-minded and intolerant" so as long as Jacob remains open minded and keeps finding ways of applying our curiosity we will be fine, and the other ones believe that the "one of the most independent and detached in the world" is the important part and that getting more friends and sacrificing our independence we would lose the bonus...
Would you mind to clarify this please?
Nando
they, them
For what's it worth, I'd be happy with the change
I'd assume it's a bit of both?
But from the description we don't actually get what the Phoenix feather is looking for, in a wielder. The "one of the most independent and detached in the world" part describes a Phoenix, not the wielder. Specifically called out is the "narrow-minded and intolerant" part of the beech wood.
From what's given us till now our wand could have its very own ideals, that we'd have to figure out on our own through feedback we get from it - not sure if we saw any of that in one of the chapters?
- Location
- Germany
Not really, no. You know about as much as Ollivander told Jacob when he got the wand. You'll have to interpret that yourself. Not everything gets better with a lengthy Exposition by the QM.
- Location
- England
There is the below from when we used Lapifors on the kid to help escape from dementors
Which suggests to me the wand actively likes novel uses of magic and pushing it's boundaries or maybe helping people by doing those? I don't think we have to worry too much about the Pheonix bit deciding were unworthy because we start making friends just so long as we don't say, let them decide we're not going to do something because it's weird/"just not done" or "impossible".
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- Location
- Asia
[X] Plan Coalition
- Location
- Germany
Voting over. Update may coming in the next few hours.
3.1 November, 1993
- Location
- Germany
[X] Plan Coalition
-[X] Stage II, Dreams of old (Takes 2 Actions) – Coming back into the years of unrelenting war. Basques and Valentino want to go scouting and skirmish the attacker that have been gathering for a month outside their borders. While her older brother wants to keep her far from harm, she is as much a child of their ancestors as he is. No one will be allowed to destroy what her father and her father's father build in these lands
-[X] Write a Letter (Free Action) – To your parents. Talk about the amazing things you have discovered at Hogwarts. The book which they have sent you. Tell them about your experience with the Dementor but reassure them that you are fine and made it out whole, if a bit shaken.
-[X] Random Encounter – x2 Just… Go and live your life. You don't need to plan everything in your life out.
-[X] Train, Learn, Achieve Charms
-[X] Train, Learn, Achieve DADA
-[X] Train, Learn, Achieve – Potions x2
-[X] Train, Learn, Achieve – Intelligence x2
-[X] Do your research – x2: Protego (Basic) -> Avifors
-[X] Stage II, Dreams of old (Takes 2 Actions) – Coming back into the years of unrelenting war. Basques and Valentino want to go scouting and skirmish the attacker that have been gathering for a month outside their borders. While her older brother wants to keep her far from harm, she is as much a child of their ancestors as he is. No one will be allowed to destroy what her father and her father's father build in these lands
-[X] Write a Letter (Free Action) – To your parents. Talk about the amazing things you have discovered at Hogwarts. The book which they have sent you. Tell them about your experience with the Dementor but reassure them that you are fine and made it out whole, if a bit shaken.
-[X] Random Encounter – x2 Just… Go and live your life. You don't need to plan everything in your life out.
-[X] Train, Learn, Achieve Charms
-[X] Train, Learn, Achieve DADA
-[X] Train, Learn, Achieve – Potions x2
-[X] Train, Learn, Achieve – Intelligence x2
-[X] Do your research – x2: Protego (Basic) -> Avifors
Present Date: 1st November 1993
Current Wand: Fagus wood, Phoenix feather core
You tried to sleep after that, but her words didn't let you rest in peace. Turning from one side to the other was pointless, as you were not able to drift into sleep, your mind still focused on words you had spoken against the Grey Lady, not knowing how hard it would hit her. Now that you understood ghosts better and knew how strong their emotions could be, it was difficult to ignore what an utter prat you had been days prior.
After an hour of desperately trying to empty your mind and drift into sleep, you capitulated and drew your wand, before casting a whispered Lumos.
If you couldn't fall into sleep, you could at least distract yourself with something different. And so it was, that you found yourself looking at the indistinctive book your father had sent you. A sense of familiarity overcame you as you opened it and flipped through the empty pages. You realized this time how delicate the magic was, seeping into your body through the pages, before faintly touching your mind as if asking if you wanted it to happen. A sense of agreement was the last thing you felt, before darkness hit you and your head fell backwards onto your pillow. As the light of your wand died out, the dormitory joined you in the darkness.
Present Date: Spring 5110 BC
Current Weapon: Elm wood bow, Unicorn hair core
The smell of sweat and dirt lay heavily in the air as you and yours descended from the hills. A sound of a hundred heavy steps coming from behind you, not two were marching with the same rhythm. While nearing the most eastern border of your lands, wide fertile fields slowly turned into more difficult to access forests. Right now, you were marching through the eastern hills, a region which was transitioning from dangerous and unsurpassable land to what your people were used to from your domesticated homeland. An old and unpassable Forest of trees, dark creatures and dangerous plants had once called this place their home. You remembered the stories your father told you of the time before The Cultivation began. Like when you and your brothers set out to the fringes of your homeland regularly to identify dangerous creatures and hunt them down or relocate them, your father and his father had done in a much more precarious time in this place.
How your grandfather, Primus, had come into this land, you didn't know. There were questions even your father hadn't been able to answer you. In a much more dangerous time, your father had come into this world as the tenth child of Primus. When he was born there were only four siblings left, by the time he was your age, he was the only heir. While the realms of men were dangerous and treacherous, the realms of the wild were much more unforgiving.
Your father together with his father had fought their entire lives to secure this place you called home. Today, both of them were spoken off in legends. The man who had nurtured you and your brothers, who was a kind and forgiving man, had been so strong that he turned into myth long before his death. It was easy to understand why then, that someone was trying to take this homeland of yours from you now. There were few places so secure from monsters and magic, even rarer was the existence of a land cultivated by decades of honest and hard work, by thousands of men and women who had joined your family in your homeland. After two generations of steady work and progress your borders had expanded quite significantly, now containing more than twenty thousand people. Each and every family that was capable had been given a parcel large enough to feed them well. Since the days of your grandfather there was a contract in place, that would subsist to the end of times if you had any say in it. Your family kept the land safe against all dangers of the realms, you gave the people land and gave them the possibility to feed and clothe their families; and in return they were obliged by honor to share those prosperities they worked for with you and yours.
While this place had natively been dangerous for travel and unpassable by horse, now decades later there was enough space between the trees so that the men following you and Valentino were able to walk in lines of five, with enough space between them as to be able to securely handle their weapons without hindering each other.
There was a smell of piss and shit in the air and it took you a moment to realize that it wasn't your nose catching the scent. Lobo had been moving a hundred breaths ahead of you, keeping close enough to be able to help you if you were surprised by an early attack and far enough away to scout for the group camping somewhere downhill.
Crouching down for a more secure hold on your lean mare, you closed your eyes. You let yourself go again, a process that came more natural to you with every passing moon. Holding your breath for a few moments, before breathing out again calmed your mind. In the darkness, you let go of everything you were; this body was not that of Basques anymore, the woman who had seen twenty full cycles of seasons, the daughter of Edurne, he who had conquered the winter. When you opened your eyes – you were a wolf.
Blue eyes surveyed the rows of makeshift tents. The spoils of easy hunts in these lands had let them build a small town of them, all stitched together by patches of unprocessed animal skin. There was a sense of blood and meat in the air that made you salivate. Instead of following your instincts, you crouched down and creeped through the undergrowth. Your magic extended around your body, making you harder to discern from your surroundings.
Some prey was talking to other prey, hurdled around a fire. There were four small ones and two large ones, one male, one female. The large-male prey opened his mouth, howling the way two-legged prey did, when they liked something … laughter, it was called laughter. Some sense of yourself came back to you as you pushed back animal instincts to balance Lobo's dominating thoughts and senses with yours. She made room for you, didn't try to fight you as she encouraged you to strengthen your mind. You send her a memory of an evening where both of you cuddled in front of your fireplace, thanking her. And then you were back in your human body.
When you opened your eyes, your horse was still walking next to the brown stallion of your brother. Looking up, you could see that Valentino was watching you attentively. There was a question in his eyes, you could sense his curiosity even without probing his mind.
"We are almost upon them," you said as you straightened your back and consciously took over the reigns of your horse. "There are a few dozen of them, mostly men, some women and a few children. They are armed, but not expecting us."
Your brother didn't ask you any further questions. That you hadn't advised on halting the march and turn back, was enough information for him. The attack was going to happen.
Valentino raised his hand as to signal a slower pace, before he shouted: "Keep the arms at ready." Atop his brown stallion he looked every bit the warrior that the men thought him to be. Through Lobo you had been able to feel the fear in those following you, without the need of turning around and looking at them. There was uncertainty about what was going to happen today and it fed into individual insecurities. For a moment you thought about speaking out, about trying to tell them what you were trying to fight for; but it seemed, as if your brother instinctively knew what the men needed, even without a wolf in his mind.
The very moment the last of the fifty men following you reached the foot of the hill, Valentino came to a standstill, turning his horse with the pressure of his knees to fully face the group he had called together. You turned your horse around as well, even if it was not as proficient as Valentino had. In less than three hours he had assembled an army of young men; all in some kind or form 'his friends' as Valentino would put it; you would rather call them enamored with him, but the result was a similar one. From there, it had taken Valentino only a few words to convince your oldest brother to open the armory. Your father had paid heavy in silver and grain over his lifetime to gather the weapons. But Antes knew that it had been for exactly situations like this. Spears, swords and hatchets were soon carried for the first time in decades. While the weapons were of high quality; the sword-blades foremost as they were out of bronze and almost two feet long, the men wearing those weapons didn't look quite as competent.
When your brother started talking, his voice was a powerful one. You could feel how the magic around you rippled in reaction, moved by his words. It tried to engage your mind, immediately Lobo was there, starting to work against it and guard you from its effect. This time you didn't need her help though, you soothed her and asked her to let it happen. The effect of your brother's magic soaked into your soul as you felt a sense of energy rising inside yourself, even before he spoke his first words.
"My loving people," Valentino said, making your heart skip a beat in anticipation for what was to come. It was an exhilarating feeling, even knowing that it was caused by his magic. "For a long time we've seen the signs of an enemy approaching. We hear the whispers traders bring with them of envy and avarice. Soon now, we will meet them face-to-face."
Your second oldest brother – no, the commander – drew his sword with that last sentence. Now it was in his hand, pointing at the men to his right, then slowly moving it from one side to the other.
"I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. I grew up amongst you, shared my meals with you and tolerated the same pain as you. A day may come, when the courage of us men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship. A day may follow, when we will look upon disdain and curse the heavens for the destiny they have given us. But it is not this day. This is an hour of wolves …" Valentino raised his sword into your direction. By now, some of the men were shouting in agreement and excitement, their fear long forgotten. Following the Commander's cue, the men raised their weapons for you and roared out in unison. Your brother was still over-shouting them: " … and shattered shields, when the age of our people comes crashing down! But it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good day, I bid you stand, Men of Antes! I bid you to defend our lands, sons of Edurne! Fight for your home, descendants of Primus!"
You didn't have a sword, nor did you have a spear. Instead of going for your bow, you grabbed the short dagger at your side and raised it, not able to suppress the feeling of exhilarating excitement that had build up inside you. Your yelling was drowned out in the crowd of men, but you felt as part of them now; as if the fifty of you were one single sword and Valentino was the hand guiding the blade.
"Follow me to battle!".
And with that, the men started advancing again. The atmosphere had made a complete turn. Now you could taste their need to test themselves, to fight for their liege, to kill for their commander. Even Lobo was getting infected by the strong magic, even though it was dampened by the softening effect of your mental link and her mental fortitude.
What should have taken a hundred breaths of marching, took only a fraction of that as the men behind you started running, as soon as they saw the camp in the distance. What had been a ragtag bunch of farmers moments earlier, now arrived at the unsuspecting camp as a unison of fighting men. Fifty men clashed against the rushed defenses of a camp of twice as many. Your brother was the first to break their first line of defense as his brown stallion broke through them. He fought gallantly from atop his horse after that, cutting down the men that had rushed to the defense of their camp. His magic was still pushing you and the troop into ecstasy, his blade glowing and picking up speed with every swing.
While your troops clashed against the first line of defense, you flanked the left side of the camp all by yourself. You shot a few rapid volleys of arrows with stone tips – all of them hitting their targets – before galloping out of the way of a group, trying to engage you in close combat. Lobo soon joined you, specifically looking for easy prey to attack from the shadows of the thick undergrowth.
Your mare quickly brought you around the main engagement as you approached a small group that had hurdled around a camp fire. The mand who was standing in front of the rest of the group, collapsed on the ground, before you jumped down, leaving the position of your horse for a change in tactics. The arrow in his head, pushed through a little more through the back of his head, when his face finally hit the ground.
A woman attacked you with a stick in her hands, but stopped in her movement, when your dagger came out of its place at your hip and slit her throat. Her strength gave away seconds later. Only now with the smell of burning flesh in the air, did you realize that she had grabbed a burning piece of wood out of the flames. Looking at the three people left, you saw three pairs of eyes watching you. All of them looking up at you, all four children, all mortified.
You raised your dagger and shouted at them. One of them, the oldest boy, grabbed his siblings and yelled something unintelligible at them. They all turned to run, leaving their dead parents behind. You didn't make to follow them. Only through your mental prowess did you even register the hate and despair they felt in that moment. Right now, you were numb to the pain, still feeling the exhilarating high of battle and your brothers magic.
A few short moments later, you were back on your horse. This time with a torch lashed into the mere's saddle. From there on, you didn't aim for the people, instead choosing to aim for the tents.
You took an arrow, set the wooden shaft alight, strained the string of your bow and let the flaming arrow go. In a matter of twenty arrows most of the camp was burning. The smoke was rising thick and hindering your sight, darkening the sun out, but you could still smell well enough, even clouded by the intense smell of burning flesh.
For a second, you caught a glimpse of Valentino, before you lost him again as you turned into the other direction, trying do support the right flank as more of the opposing side was regrouping there.
Soon, you had no arrows left to you. At first you kept fighting from atop your horse, taking a spear out of the dead hands of one of the men who had followed you and fought by your side for a moment. Then your horse died, you didn't quite see why it went down, forcing you to jump at the right moment, to roll around and stab another man. Someone pushed you from behind then. Losing your balance again, this time you tumbled and fell. Then there was a feeling of warm blood on your neck and your mouth.
Only when you turned around, did you see that Lobo had ripped the throat out of the woman who had attacked you. Now cowered in her blood, you looked for your spear to rejoin the fight. The taste of the blood in Lobo's mouth was pushing you deeper into trance. Through your link you felt more and more like a wolf yourself. Someone else died, either to you or to Lobo, the difference was getting blurry. This time it was a smaller attacker, you did not see the child's face.
A voice broke through the chaos. "I am resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live or die amongst you all."
The voice was like thunder among a storm. You made yourself stand straight again, grabbing the spear tighter and looked for your brother. He was among the right flank that had been at the brink of collapsing. All the whilst his men looked exhausted and thinned out, he was still dancing around his enemies, seemingly pushing them back at ease with his glowing sword. By now your brother was moving as fast as the wind.
"While we stand together no invader shall pass. Let them come with the armies of Hell; they will not pass! And when this day of battle is ended, we meet again in Heaven or on the field of victory."
There were shouts of agreement as your men regrouped behind him. His voice was a tide of nature.
"Three weeks from now, we will be harvesting our crops. Imagine where you will be, and it will be so. Hold the line! Stay with me! If you find yourself alone, riding in the green fields with the sun on your face, do not be troubled. For you are in Elysium, and you're already dead!"
Hours later, you were still treating the wounds of your men and managing the healthy ones to get supplies for the wounded. Once it looked like you would be able to safe most of them, you helped Valentino in sorting out the rest of the camp. Some supplies were salvageable even after the fire, others were not. Valentino made the men pile up the corpses and gather wood.
When the pile of dead invaders was burning, you made out a few familiar faces in the mountain of flesh. Four children were heaped atop of each other. One of them, looking at you with his dead eyes; the oldest of them, who had tried to save his siblings. He had brown eyes and brown hair, just like you and your siblings did.
"Light the fire," your brother commanded.
When Lobo ran for the pile to drag one of the corpses out and started feasting on its flesh, you did not stop him. Instead you sat down, watching the flames intently as the brown eyes looked back at you.
You felt nothing.
Present Date: Winter 5104 BC
Current Weapon: Elm wood bow, Unicorn hair core
You pushed the stone door open with a small effort of your mind and passed into the warm room. A fire was keeping your three brothers' company, as all of them sat around a small table in the living area of your oldest brothers' home. Only Isaac looked up as you entered the room, looking beaten and tired, he still made to stand up to greet you. Instead you crossed the distance and went down to one knee to pull him into a tight embrace, without him having to stand up.
"I am glad to see you well, Son of Edurne," you said after you let him go and took his hand in yours. His smile at your formality was a sad one. "Every night you walk under the moon, is a good one, dear sister."
All of your siblings were strong in nature. Your father had not raised a weak child, had seemingly never failed in anything he did. Even so, of all of them you had thought of your brother Isaac as the most empathic. You had always felt as if he was born to carry the pain that you, Valentino and Antes did not. If he was sad and worried, then it was not because of something that happened to him; it was because he worried about you.
"What happened?" you asked.
"Basques," you heard Antes say from his seat at the other site of the table. "Please sit and be quiet. We are listening to his words."
His eyes met yours. Where he had been a happy and carefree child in youth, here you saw the leader of the land you called home. Your oldest brother expression was free of any emotion. When you looked into his eyes; you smelled fear and sorrow. Dark signs all around. So, you did not argue for his impoliteness and chose to instead sit down next to Isaac.
Six full cycles of seasons had passed since the days of war began. By now Lobo was as tall as a child, towering over you, as you sat down. She was frighteningly powerful, even for a wolf, but still as kind and beautiful to your eyes, as she had been in her youth. Without a cue from you, she walked past the table to sit down near a window, choosing to look up at the moon, as you and your brothers were speaking about matters of war.
What had once started as a skirmish, had developed over the months and years into an onslaught of battles, as more than a dozen villages united their strength against one common enemy; the men of Antes. While you hadn't known much of the realms of people beyond your homeland before, over time you were able to fill in the gaps. You had learned of their lives and circumstances; that most of them were only scrapping by. No village had more than a few thousand people, most not even that and all of them were wasting many resources against the wildlife, not able to build up any kind of prosperity instead. For years had you held against their coalition, losing many men in the battles, but also gaining wisdom in the art of battle and warfare. Once it had been clear to Antes and Isaac that the war was going to be a prolonged one, you had invested significant time and resources into finding methods to supply your own weapons in higher quantities. At some point you and your brothers had been able to first discover and then teach new methods of forging to a few talented individuals.
Still, where your childhood had been blessed by peace and growth, the childhoods of your brothers' children were marked by war and blood. The Cultivation your grandfather started had come to a stop years ago, following the need to focus your attention solely on the eastern border to defend your riches. It had fallen to your oldest brother to take over a strict lead over the people in this time of war; young men were armed and trained whenever it was possible and it fell to you and Isaac to gather and train the handful among your followers that showed any magical potential.
None of them had been trained in The Gift from their early childhood, like you and your brothers had, which made it difficult to guide them into any kind of specific direction. None of them were talented in any specific form of magic, but with many a day of work and training, they had been able to produce at least small amounts of it. From there on you taught them how to build magical items. Many of the weapons your men equipped in battle had only been build thanks to their work, as their magic helped the material to keep the right properties and sharpen the blades; things that would have otherwise been difficult magic. While the weapons were not notably better than what your father had bought over the years, you were at least able to give any fighting man and woman the chance of good bronze.
"I have seen it with my own eyes," Isaac said, as he looked down at the wooden cup in his hands. "The refugees are running westwards – have been fleeing westwards for years now, from much further away than we had assumed," he said. His voice was hoarse and faint, a long scratch went from his ear down to his neck and there was a piece of skin on his throat that had been burned by something round.
"This is what the surrounding villages were reacting to. The influx of fugitives from the west, made them either fight them back or send against our borders. I don't think they knew what they were fleeing from at first, just following the general movement of others, but by now it is clear that there is something marching west and it is swallowing up everything in its wake."
Three months ago, Isaac had ridden out with his most loyal men to try and understand the reason for so many years of unprovoked attacks. Today he had arrived back in your homeland … alone.
"Swallowing everything in its wake?" your oldest brother and liege repeated, his expression neutral and in control – just like he had always been since this all started. There was many a scar on his body now, but he looked more like your father than you had ever thought possible. "What does that mean?"
A short moment of silence occurred, as Isaac hesitated. He was still looking down at his cup, before finally raising it to his lips and drinking from it. Only then did he speak again: "The people flee westwards until they do not. We have never found anyone who knew what they were fleeing from. There are no survivors, no one who comes after the main wave of escapees; those people do not know what is happening to their homelands, because no one survives to tell the story."
"Didn't you try?" Valentino asked this time. There was no accusation in his words, just a simple question.
"I wish I hadn't", Isaac answered a few moments later. He discarded the cup on the wooden table and looked up at his brother. "When we realized that there were no more fugitives, we travelled east. It took us twoo weeks until we found a village that had been annihilated. The buildings were tore down, the fields burned and the people gone."
There was not a sound in the room besides your brother's voice, after all these years of nonsensical war, it seemed as if the answer was close.
"We travelled north then, following the path of destruction and then we were intercepted by a group of giants."
"Giants?" you asked incredulously. "As in multiple giants?"
"Fifteen of them, I think it was only a small fraction of their troops. There were other creatures with them, some smaller than I was, some I suspect were human. We didn't try to fight, but we had to engage to be able to flee through an opening." He hesitated here, before continuing. "The men died to save me, every single one of them gave their life up for me to return. I wanted to die with them, stay my ground and protect them, but I had to come and tell you to prepare."
Isaac looked up at Antes, his eyes saddened by his experiences, but still just as strong as those of his lord. "Something is coming, hundreds or thousands of them. We have to prepare, because if we lose …"
… there will be no place for any of us to call home.
Present Date: Late Winter 5104 BC
Current Weapon: Elm wood bow, Unicorn hair core
A moon had come and gone. Wiser by the things he had witnessed in his journey, Isaac had advised your brothers to stop fighting and start taking in the waves of fugitives. Antes had argued against it, because even if your granaries were still adequately full for this late into the cold season, you had spent the last six winters fighting against these aggressors. Taking them in would anger your people. Only when Valentino had also taken Isaac's side, did your Lord relent.
And so, you started taking in any man, child or woman that entered your lands. At times Isaac rode out to gather those that were too afraid of marching further west, as they had learned that death and fire would await them in your lands. Soon, what had once diminished into a population of no more than fifteen thousand, counted first twenty thousand again and grew up to a respectable size of more than twenty-five thousand in the end.
Previously abandoned homes were redistributed to the fugitives, before you started to build tents near the center of your town, when there were no more empty homes.
The morale changed rapidly, while your people had come to understand the monotone danger of prolonged war, this new eminent threat was something new. Valentino spent his time equipping and training the new troops, while you and Antes thought of possibilities to fortalice your defenses.
Even knowing what was to come, did still not prepare you for the sound of the horns that awakened you at night. By the time you had left your house and reached your horse, you could already hear the men marching. They had marched through the middle of the night to surprise you, it seemed. There was no surprise to be had.
When you finally arrived at the hill you had chosen to fight, there were already rows over rows of men and women lined up behind barricades of sharpened tree trunks. Much of the light forest surrounding your village had been reduced to nothing since the war began. Many battles had been fought at the very border of this hill, thousands of men had died. As you rode down the ranks of your troops, you fell back into the rhythm of battle. The thrums you faintly made out from afar were getting louder by the second.
The enemy was marching; your side only used horns for communication.
Soon you were able to find Valentino, riding up and down the flanks of the troop. He was shouting at them, working his magic. You felt his familiar Gift touch your mind. By now it was like putting on a glove.
As you followed the first line of defense north, you finally found Antes and Isaac.
"Are the men at the northern wall ready?" Antes asked.
"They are getting into position," Isaac answered, without facing his liege.
You came to a halt next to their horses, as you turned around to follow both their gazes over the wooden wall that made out the northern defense.
It was still dark, the middle of night. Usually you would not be able to make out much from up here. The hill would take fifty breaths to run up on foot, which meant that you couldn't even make out the plain field at the foot from up here at night. This night was different though. Where you should see nothing but darkness, were fires, hundreds, maybe thousands of them. For a moment you believed this to be a diversion. You looked to the right, then to the left. But it extended deep into the horizon, covering up an unimaginably wide area that was now filled with moving lights, marching over the fields and towards you.
"What is this?" you asked, not able to grasp the dimensions of what you were seeing. "How many men do they have?"
The largest battle your people had ever fought, had been the War of ten spears. Four thousand men and women had marched against you. It had been the most brutal fight you had ever witnessed as you remembered imagining it to be the largest event ever to happen in the realms of men. More than two thousand of yours had died. Six days and seven nights had you defended against the never-ending waves of men, until they finally broke against the Hill of Isaac. That day had made your brother a legend, after he held the wall with a hundred of his men for five hours, while Valentino, Antes and you flanked the troops from three different sides. A battle to be remembered for the Ages. What you saw in front of you, made that look like the first skirmish you had ever participated in, in comparison, nothing but child's-play.
"There are at least five thousand fires," Isaac answered you, his eyes gliding over the horizon as he moved his hand before his eyes to gauge the distance. "Maybe closer to six."
Antes grabbed the ropes of his horse tighter. This time you did not probe his mind. You could not be as strong as Isaac; if even Antes resolve was wavering here, then it would be over for you.
"It is possible that they are trying to play our minds," Isaac said after a moment. "Maybe they gave every single man a fire to march. Maybe this is all of their number. This we can beat."
You remained silent, as you tried to make out the distance. To your right, Lobo looked up to you, giving you strength to use her branch of magic. Reaching out with your mind, you looked again and your immediate surroundings disappeared. What had been far, was now very close and what had been dark, now brightened as if in daylight. And then you saw the truth; your magic broke as you lost focus to the fear building up inside you. Your mind wavered and your knees felt weak.
"This is not an illusion, Isaac," you simply said. "They have five men for every Torch Porter."
When your eyes finally fell on Antes, you looked pale and much older than just a moment before, but there was still a will to fight. Of all your brothers, he had always been the best. No one thought that even Valentino the Brave could beat Antes in courage. There had never been a dispute if Antes matched in mind what people thought of Isaac the Wise. And even after a hundred and a hundred more clashes against your eldest brother, you didn't think that you could beat him on sheer will.
No, of all children of Edurne, Antes was the best and the greatest. So, it almost broke your heart, when you heard his voice waver, when he asked the question, you had been asking yourself just moments prior.
"How many giants do they bring forth?"
The beat of the drums started to shake the earth, as the enemy closed down on the westward end of the world.
"One hundred," you said.
And so, it fell to the gathered children of Edurne to share the silence as they all came to understand knowledge that couldn't pass to words for their men to overhear.
For this night you had armed every man and woman that was strong enough to carry a sword or a spear at first. When the weaponry depleted, you had made those that had none sharpen long sticks. In the end there were fifteen thousand battle ready soldiers. Half of them should be already manning the walls, or being close to that, while the other half was waiting for orders in the village deep behind the walls. Fifteen thousand men and women against twenty-five thousand battle hardened enemies that had left nothing but death behind in their long march west; and that was not counting the giants.
There was no possible way that you could win this war.
This was the last night for the Land of Primus.
You were all going to die here on this hill.
When your oldest brother spoke, you almost didn't register it: "Prepare sticks and stones."
Antes was still pale, there were dark shadows under his eyes that you had rarely seen even in the hardest of battles. When he spoke the next words, his voice didn't waver. In the end it was true, that he was the greatest of the children. He could take decisions, that the rest of you could not.
"Wake the elderly and children and arm them."
You are Basques, daughter of Edurne, son of Primus … No, there was something different. Remember. You need to Wake up.
Jacob Marvan Basques, that is your name. You are thirteen years old and it is 1993. Sorrow pervades your mind in the morning, as you wake from a long dream of a forgotten time. You sit down on a window bench near your bed and watch the sunrise, trying to segregate the new intrusive memories from your real ones. One thing stays behind in the end. Something that had inspired you in the end, which you would make yours:
[ ] My brother Valentino – You have seen the bravest of warriors never to hesitate, no matter the peril. From this, you learned to be strong in times of need. In a life and death situation, get a +5 on all attack rolls.
[ ] My brother Isaac – You have seen the wisest of men never to give up, no matter the peril. From this, you learned to be strong in times of need. In a life and death situation, get a +5 on all defense rolls.
[ ] My brother Antes – You have seen the best of them all able to make the correct decisions, no matter the peril. From this, you learned to be strong in times of need. If you have more than an hour of time to plan for a fight, get a +5 on all combat rolls.
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- Location
- California
A great deal of Lord of the Ring vibes. Also,
Are we sure our ancestor didn't have the gift of a seer? It sounds like he liked Michael Bay.
- Location
- California
I don't think there's a wrong choice so much as a defining choice.
- Location
- Brazil
Speaking purely in mechanics, i really doubt we will have many opportunities to prepare for a battle, but narratively it fits the detective angle we are going for. It also activates on non life and death, meaning it will also proc on our monthly duels. It kinda depends on how broad the prepared needs to be, like would going exploring counts? Performing a raid with low intel? How much info would we need? While def seems better, leaning towards prepare.
Also, intetesting to see the progression of the war, i wonder if she ends up running, getting captured or a miracle happens and they win.
Also, intetesting to see the progression of the war, i wonder if she ends up running, getting captured or a miracle happens and they win.
- Location
- being near locations is my passion.
The "you felt nothing" line was particularly hard hitting; especially when I got the point where we learned that the 'invaders' were refugees.
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For this quest, theme and story, meaning and message are what I think we should look at. Mechanics comes a distant second... but
" If you have more than an hour of time to plan ". This might work for things like armies[1], but exploring, emergencies, random attacks - those are much more likely to be what we are faced with, and those can only be prepared for in the general sense. So, that's basically got me saying 'nope' to that choice.
[1] Also duels that we are expecting, but those are practice. Life and death tends to be sudden.
---
So that leaves the first two. "bravest of warriors never to hesitate" or "wisest of men never to give up".
While "best of them all able to make the correct decisions" is the most appealing, by far, of the two I've not said 'no' to, 'wisdom' appeals more than 'bravery', any day - though I can see my self being moved to ignore mechanics entirely and go for the third option, if anyone makes a sufficiently compelling argument.
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For this quest, theme and story, meaning and message are what I think we should look at. Mechanics comes a distant second... but
" If you have more than an hour of time to plan ". This might work for things like armies[1], but exploring, emergencies, random attacks - those are much more likely to be what we are faced with, and those can only be prepared for in the general sense. So, that's basically got me saying 'nope' to that choice.
[1] Also duels that we are expecting, but those are practice. Life and death tends to be sudden.
---
So that leaves the first two. "bravest of warriors never to hesitate" or "wisest of men never to give up".
While "best of them all able to make the correct decisions" is the most appealing, by far, of the two I've not said 'no' to, 'wisdom' appeals more than 'bravery', any day - though I can see my self being moved to ignore mechanics entirely and go for the third option, if anyone makes a sufficiently compelling argument.
- Location
- California
I believe there has not been many opportunities for battle preparation since we're not charging into battle. I'm sure if something came up then our qm would give us a stopping point, and the hypothetically vote would be what Jacob does to prepare for the event.
Also, Attempting to build a small timeline:
This is back in October when we first get the book. It's the first time we get Lobo and the farm meeting.
The first 'raids,' as our eldest brother, the heir and Lugal, leads a counter force against this force. We also see their army is
very untrained, but this is near the beginning of recorded human history so they get a pass.
This is the beginning and return of 'our,' brother Isaac's ill fated reconnaissance mission. Massive Mystery Army of a Multitude of Species is Meet. Preparations begin.
The attack comes.
What I find curious is the use of horns for communication. This is clearly before magic lore or research exists, but the use of horns feels too abstract to come from nowhere. It also means the massive army somehow keeps itself feed for long enough to hit us in the same season. Granted, prior sections gives the impression they were already marching from the interior of Europe or Eastern Europe, so any attack is coincidental to a greater conquest.
Ok, been thinking and I realized that the names come with meaning.
Primus (Their grandfather) - The first
Edurne (Their father) - Snow? There was also something with conquering the winter. Maybe because he grew up in the dangerous times.
Antes - Means before, maybe because he's the first kid?
Valentino - The brave one
Isaac - Means something like; God made him laugh
Basques - This is the most interesting one, because it is the family name of our MC and:
"The area (north of spain) of the Basque people is neither linguistically nor culturally homogeneous, and certain areas have a majority of people who do not consider themselves Basque, such as the south of Navarre."
Which means that she is linked to a people in the north of spain that is not linked to any other of the cultures in this region. The QM is throwing a curve ball here with all these hidden things. I think he is mixing real history with the history of magic and it's pretty interesting. Anyone seen another hint that would tell us more?
Primus (Their grandfather) - The first
Edurne (Their father) - Snow? There was also something with conquering the winter. Maybe because he grew up in the dangerous times.
Antes - Means before, maybe because he's the first kid?
Valentino - The brave one
Isaac - Means something like; God made him laugh
Basques - This is the most interesting one, because it is the family name of our MC and:
"The area (north of spain) of the Basque people is neither linguistically nor culturally homogeneous, and certain areas have a majority of people who do not consider themselves Basque, such as the south of Navarre."
Which means that she is linked to a people in the north of spain that is not linked to any other of the cultures in this region. The QM is throwing a curve ball here with all these hidden things. I think he is mixing real history with the history of magic and it's pretty interesting. Anyone seen another hint that would tell us more?