Diary of a Traveling Mimic
5007
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- Location
- Arid Zone A
I'm surprised this doesn't have more comments. I'm caught up now. : )
Shiina isn't wrong.
Shiina isn't wrong.
Original stories have far less success than fanfics on this site, it's just how it is.
Fishing 5
New
Shiina sat brooding as she looked out the inn's window. There had to be something she could have done. She saw the stupid worm. She'd hit it! But it hadn't mattered. It pissed her off.
A slight rustling noise turned her attention to the door. A paper had been slid under it. Shiina reached out and picked it up. On it was a simple message. "Al Jirtea. The Shimmering Mines."
Shiina considered looking outside to see who'd dropped it off, but chances are the person would be gone already. Whatever it was couldn't be too urgent, so she left it on the dresser and went back to the window. There were still a few hours before the dawn.
She hadn't gotten an answer to her question by the time the other women started to stir. She'd have to bug Zanya about it later. For now she waited for Delilah and Zanya to get somewhat awake and ready before grabbing the note and handing it over. "This came in."
Zanya picked it up and gave a muttered curse. "How annoying."
"Did someone open a dungeon again?" Delilah asked.
"No, otherwise we'd have target names. Seems like someone's trying though." Zanya dropped the note on Ife's face, getting a growl in return. "The reason I'm annoyed is because Al Jirtea is a shithole in the middle of the desert. Getting there will be a huge pain and totally mess up our route."
"Al Jirtea?" Ife moaned. "Fucking wonderful. It'll take a whole extra two months to get to the Webwoods."
Zanya's eyes flickered. "We can cut it down to just an extra few weeks if we go through the lamia lands. That sound good?"
"Yeah," Ife forced herself upright, grabbing the paper and setting it on fire. "We'll have to hurry if we want to get a caravan out though. Are you all up for that?"
"I don't really want to stay here much longer," Delilah said simply. "Even if the destination isn't much better...."
Shiina stayed out of the way as the others finished their morning preparations. That done they quickly headed out towards the edge of the city, looking to see if a merchant caravan was forming.
Ife was first to point at an area. "There. Seems like three merchant groups are preparing." Sure enough several people were filling wagons and hitching them up to the desert plodders that seemed to be the beast of burden around here. The giant lizards were laying flat to get the warmth of the sun in the early morning chill.
Shiina inspected each group as they got closer. The largest seemed to be a group of wealthy halflings with guards and porters of different races. They had extravagant wagons with silk canopies and drapes over them, and their plodders had shimmering gold barding over their dull brown scales.
The next group seemed fairly small. Humans and dogmen with only a couple of simple wagons and a number of camels that were being stacked high with goods. They had a number of guards with them as well.
Lastly was four wagons of dwarves that mostly seemed to be already packed up. They were currently working to get canvas covers onto the wagons to protect from the heat.
"We want to try to get money off this trip?" Zayna asked.
"Money can be exchanged for food," Shiina replied.
Delilah grimaced. "We should probably try."
"Silk isn't cheap," Ife added. "Besides the local merchants are going to fleece us for traveling supplies."
"Okay." That settled, stepped back so Ife could go meet the middle set of merchants.
A well dressed man with several gold rings noticed their approach and moved to meet them. He was wearing the fakest smile Shiina had ever seen, and she had an artificial face. "Well met. Are you paying travelers, or seeking employment?"
Ife gave a deep bow that got the man's eyes wandering. "We're seeking employment, at least until Al Jirtea."
"Ah that is unfortunate." His eyes turned hard as he shook his head. "I'm afraid we have no room for additional guards. Good luck in your search." He turned away, the conversation apparently over. Shiina forced down the urge to stick her tongue out at him.
"Well that's the good paying option gone," Zanya muttered. "Let's see about the other one."
Ife led them over to where the dwarves were working. One of the men noticed and gave them a wave, before finishing setting up the canopy on the wagon. As the rest of his fellows worked to tie off the ropes, he hopped off the wagon and walked over. "Morning ladies. Planning on traveling?"
"We're looking for work to Al Jirtea," Ife said. "We have business we need to handle there."
"Hmph, bad luck that." The dwarf tugged his sideburns. "Well we've got supplies that need to make it to Bone Mountain fast. So we'll be heading the same way for a bit."
Shiina perked up. "Wait, Bone Mountain is on this path? Can we go there?"
The others looked at her in surprise. "It's along the route. But why do you want to go there?" Zanya asked.
"It's Bone Mountain! A mountain, made of bones!" Shiina gestured with her hands. It was so obvious how cool that was. She didn't understand why the others didn't get it. She was damn sure there wasn't anything like that back home.
The dwarf laughed at her enthusiasm. "Now there's a lass with taste! Anyway, we don't have money for guards, but if you're willing to share the watch and help out along the way, we'll share our food and fire. That a fair deal to you?"
Ife turned to the group. "It's that or paying for travel. I think it's a good deal." she said.
"It should do," Zanya replied. Shiina and Delilah nodded.
"Glad to have you with us! A more interesting crew than the usual greasy merchant for sure. I'm Terasil. Can do full introductions when we hit the road." He motioned towards the last cart. "Let's get the last canopy up on that cart so we don't all fry, then we can tell the bastards up front we're ready to go."
As Shiina slid behind the group she decided it'd be a good time to ask the question that had been burning in her mind for a while. "Why does everyone seem to hate Al Jirtea so much? I haven't seen much about it in my books."
"They're slavers," Delilah said dismissively.
"Eh?" Shiina turned her attention to the first caravan. Sure enough she noticed that the people actually doing work all had metal collars on. "But isn't slavery illegal here? How can they have slaves in town?"
Terasil shook his head. "Not illegal here. Iron Eye Continent's unique, and good on them. Only a small chunk of lands have actually banned slavery. It's not common, but still legal. Course those ribless bastards in Al Jirtea are worse than anyone else I know of."
They reached the wagon and Shiina stretched her arm to grab and pull one of the poles upright. As the others started lashing it to the wagon she asked, "So what makes this place extra bad? I figure being owned by someone's pretty shitty." Delilah nodded in agreement.
"There's a wide range of rules depending on where you are," Ife said with a shrug. "I was sold as a temple slave myself when I was a child. But I do admit I'd rather be a temple slave than a mining slave."
Zanya gave an eye to Delilah. "You also have debt prisons. Which are a lot like slavery to my mind."
"The rich city merchants have those," Delilah said with heavy scorn. "Us commoners don't think much of them."
"Fair," Zanya replied, finishing off the first pole and moving to the next. Shiina helped pull it up again. "The big difference between Al Jirtea and the rest of the world is related. Almost every country has some kind of Jubilee or Day of Forgiveness. All debts cleared, all prisoners pardoned, and usually all slaves freed."
Ife nodded, tail swishing. "In my home you have to be freed within ten years, and offered a gift for your services. Which is how I made it into the clergy myself."
"Meanwhile in Al Jirtea, if you're a slave you're a slave for life. And so are your children." Terasil spat on the ground. "Hell, I hear the little bastards will enslave their own kids, if the other parent is a slave. Won't even let people buy and free the poor souls."
Shiina nodded slowly. "Okaaay. So they're jerks. Why hasn't their city been burnt to the ground yet?"
"They're jerks with five gold and gem producing dungeons," Ife replied. "So they're incredibly rich and can buy off any merchant and mercenary who cares more about gold than morals to keep them safe. So long as they don't totally ignore diplomacy that will get more cities pretty far."
Zanya's inner eyelid flickered. "They also live in the middle of the desert, so it's really hard to get an army to them. And while everyone wants their stuff, not many people want to live there."
"Oh." Shiina wondered if maybe letting someone pop open a dungeon and burn the place to the ground was a good plan.
Apparently her thoughts were apparent. Or Delilah had the same idea, because the half elf whispered to her, "It'd probably hurt the slaves more than the rich people. And then there's all the travelers like us who'd have to deal with the monster hordes."
Shiina sighed. Delilah was right. Human politics was so confusing. Still she kinda wanted to do something. Maybe she'd get to assassinate someone as a treat. She'd ask Zanya on the way. Along with a few other questions....
For my fellow mimics, a quick primer on slavery : You know how humanoids treat inanimate objects that annoy them? Well imagine a humanoid thinks they own you and expects you to do all the work for them? Yeah.
As for why the Iron Eye continent banned slavery, here's the short form on the Grim Crusade.
About six hundred years ago there was a particularly nasty city called Yurklie. They not only were huge on slavery, they added magical compulsions to their slaves that forced compliance to every whim. Yeah apparently some places are so messed up they added mind control on top of the 'don't stab you boss' restrictions. The other cities didn't pay much attention though. They just ransomed their citizens like normal, and assumed the mind control was removed with the slave status.
It turned out that Yurklie didn't do that.
So one day Yurklie's king decided they wanted to expand, and reactivated the mind control on all the slaves that had been ransomed. They forced those people to open the city gates and lead suicidal charges against resisting troops.
As you can imagine, none of the other cities were happy about this revelation.
When the surviving prince of Javergrund went full dark lord and unleashed an army of the dead, the rest of the cities didn't help. They just grabbed picnic lunches and watched as he burned Yurklie to the ground, salted the earth, and enslaved the souls of its inhabitants.
Afterwards slavery was banned continent wide, and in return the undead would stick to their city. The pact was tested once. The armies of the dead didn't even make it halfway there before the other cities removed the people responsible.
A slight rustling noise turned her attention to the door. A paper had been slid under it. Shiina reached out and picked it up. On it was a simple message. "Al Jirtea. The Shimmering Mines."
Shiina considered looking outside to see who'd dropped it off, but chances are the person would be gone already. Whatever it was couldn't be too urgent, so she left it on the dresser and went back to the window. There were still a few hours before the dawn.
She hadn't gotten an answer to her question by the time the other women started to stir. She'd have to bug Zanya about it later. For now she waited for Delilah and Zanya to get somewhat awake and ready before grabbing the note and handing it over. "This came in."
Zanya picked it up and gave a muttered curse. "How annoying."
"Did someone open a dungeon again?" Delilah asked.
"No, otherwise we'd have target names. Seems like someone's trying though." Zanya dropped the note on Ife's face, getting a growl in return. "The reason I'm annoyed is because Al Jirtea is a shithole in the middle of the desert. Getting there will be a huge pain and totally mess up our route."
"Al Jirtea?" Ife moaned. "Fucking wonderful. It'll take a whole extra two months to get to the Webwoods."
Zanya's eyes flickered. "We can cut it down to just an extra few weeks if we go through the lamia lands. That sound good?"
"Yeah," Ife forced herself upright, grabbing the paper and setting it on fire. "We'll have to hurry if we want to get a caravan out though. Are you all up for that?"
"I don't really want to stay here much longer," Delilah said simply. "Even if the destination isn't much better...."
Shiina stayed out of the way as the others finished their morning preparations. That done they quickly headed out towards the edge of the city, looking to see if a merchant caravan was forming.
Ife was first to point at an area. "There. Seems like three merchant groups are preparing." Sure enough several people were filling wagons and hitching them up to the desert plodders that seemed to be the beast of burden around here. The giant lizards were laying flat to get the warmth of the sun in the early morning chill.
Shiina inspected each group as they got closer. The largest seemed to be a group of wealthy halflings with guards and porters of different races. They had extravagant wagons with silk canopies and drapes over them, and their plodders had shimmering gold barding over their dull brown scales.
The next group seemed fairly small. Humans and dogmen with only a couple of simple wagons and a number of camels that were being stacked high with goods. They had a number of guards with them as well.
Lastly was four wagons of dwarves that mostly seemed to be already packed up. They were currently working to get canvas covers onto the wagons to protect from the heat.
"We want to try to get money off this trip?" Zayna asked.
"Money can be exchanged for food," Shiina replied.
Delilah grimaced. "We should probably try."
"Silk isn't cheap," Ife added. "Besides the local merchants are going to fleece us for traveling supplies."
"Okay." That settled, stepped back so Ife could go meet the middle set of merchants.
A well dressed man with several gold rings noticed their approach and moved to meet them. He was wearing the fakest smile Shiina had ever seen, and she had an artificial face. "Well met. Are you paying travelers, or seeking employment?"
Ife gave a deep bow that got the man's eyes wandering. "We're seeking employment, at least until Al Jirtea."
"Ah that is unfortunate." His eyes turned hard as he shook his head. "I'm afraid we have no room for additional guards. Good luck in your search." He turned away, the conversation apparently over. Shiina forced down the urge to stick her tongue out at him.
"Well that's the good paying option gone," Zanya muttered. "Let's see about the other one."
Ife led them over to where the dwarves were working. One of the men noticed and gave them a wave, before finishing setting up the canopy on the wagon. As the rest of his fellows worked to tie off the ropes, he hopped off the wagon and walked over. "Morning ladies. Planning on traveling?"
"We're looking for work to Al Jirtea," Ife said. "We have business we need to handle there."
"Hmph, bad luck that." The dwarf tugged his sideburns. "Well we've got supplies that need to make it to Bone Mountain fast. So we'll be heading the same way for a bit."
Shiina perked up. "Wait, Bone Mountain is on this path? Can we go there?"
The others looked at her in surprise. "It's along the route. But why do you want to go there?" Zanya asked.
"It's Bone Mountain! A mountain, made of bones!" Shiina gestured with her hands. It was so obvious how cool that was. She didn't understand why the others didn't get it. She was damn sure there wasn't anything like that back home.
The dwarf laughed at her enthusiasm. "Now there's a lass with taste! Anyway, we don't have money for guards, but if you're willing to share the watch and help out along the way, we'll share our food and fire. That a fair deal to you?"
Ife turned to the group. "It's that or paying for travel. I think it's a good deal." she said.
"It should do," Zanya replied. Shiina and Delilah nodded.
"Glad to have you with us! A more interesting crew than the usual greasy merchant for sure. I'm Terasil. Can do full introductions when we hit the road." He motioned towards the last cart. "Let's get the last canopy up on that cart so we don't all fry, then we can tell the bastards up front we're ready to go."
As Shiina slid behind the group she decided it'd be a good time to ask the question that had been burning in her mind for a while. "Why does everyone seem to hate Al Jirtea so much? I haven't seen much about it in my books."
"They're slavers," Delilah said dismissively.
"Eh?" Shiina turned her attention to the first caravan. Sure enough she noticed that the people actually doing work all had metal collars on. "But isn't slavery illegal here? How can they have slaves in town?"
Terasil shook his head. "Not illegal here. Iron Eye Continent's unique, and good on them. Only a small chunk of lands have actually banned slavery. It's not common, but still legal. Course those ribless bastards in Al Jirtea are worse than anyone else I know of."
They reached the wagon and Shiina stretched her arm to grab and pull one of the poles upright. As the others started lashing it to the wagon she asked, "So what makes this place extra bad? I figure being owned by someone's pretty shitty." Delilah nodded in agreement.
"There's a wide range of rules depending on where you are," Ife said with a shrug. "I was sold as a temple slave myself when I was a child. But I do admit I'd rather be a temple slave than a mining slave."
Zanya gave an eye to Delilah. "You also have debt prisons. Which are a lot like slavery to my mind."
"The rich city merchants have those," Delilah said with heavy scorn. "Us commoners don't think much of them."
"Fair," Zanya replied, finishing off the first pole and moving to the next. Shiina helped pull it up again. "The big difference between Al Jirtea and the rest of the world is related. Almost every country has some kind of Jubilee or Day of Forgiveness. All debts cleared, all prisoners pardoned, and usually all slaves freed."
Ife nodded, tail swishing. "In my home you have to be freed within ten years, and offered a gift for your services. Which is how I made it into the clergy myself."
"Meanwhile in Al Jirtea, if you're a slave you're a slave for life. And so are your children." Terasil spat on the ground. "Hell, I hear the little bastards will enslave their own kids, if the other parent is a slave. Won't even let people buy and free the poor souls."
Shiina nodded slowly. "Okaaay. So they're jerks. Why hasn't their city been burnt to the ground yet?"
"They're jerks with five gold and gem producing dungeons," Ife replied. "So they're incredibly rich and can buy off any merchant and mercenary who cares more about gold than morals to keep them safe. So long as they don't totally ignore diplomacy that will get more cities pretty far."
Zanya's inner eyelid flickered. "They also live in the middle of the desert, so it's really hard to get an army to them. And while everyone wants their stuff, not many people want to live there."
"Oh." Shiina wondered if maybe letting someone pop open a dungeon and burn the place to the ground was a good plan.
Apparently her thoughts were apparent. Or Delilah had the same idea, because the half elf whispered to her, "It'd probably hurt the slaves more than the rich people. And then there's all the travelers like us who'd have to deal with the monster hordes."
Shiina sighed. Delilah was right. Human politics was so confusing. Still she kinda wanted to do something. Maybe she'd get to assassinate someone as a treat. She'd ask Zanya on the way. Along with a few other questions....
For my fellow mimics, a quick primer on slavery : You know how humanoids treat inanimate objects that annoy them? Well imagine a humanoid thinks they own you and expects you to do all the work for them? Yeah.
As for why the Iron Eye continent banned slavery, here's the short form on the Grim Crusade.
About six hundred years ago there was a particularly nasty city called Yurklie. They not only were huge on slavery, they added magical compulsions to their slaves that forced compliance to every whim. Yeah apparently some places are so messed up they added mind control on top of the 'don't stab you boss' restrictions. The other cities didn't pay much attention though. They just ransomed their citizens like normal, and assumed the mind control was removed with the slave status.
It turned out that Yurklie didn't do that.
So one day Yurklie's king decided they wanted to expand, and reactivated the mind control on all the slaves that had been ransomed. They forced those people to open the city gates and lead suicidal charges against resisting troops.
As you can imagine, none of the other cities were happy about this revelation.
When the surviving prince of Javergrund went full dark lord and unleashed an army of the dead, the rest of the cities didn't help. They just grabbed picnic lunches and watched as he burned Yurklie to the ground, salted the earth, and enslaved the souls of its inhabitants.
Afterwards slavery was banned continent wide, and in return the undead would stick to their city. The pact was tested once. The armies of the dead didn't even make it halfway there before the other cities removed the people responsible.
Thanks to all readers, and double thanks for those who voted on times. It looks like consistency is favored so I'll be updating weekly. I'm going to see how Sundays work with reader times and my personal schedule.
I'm more irked at Royal Road letting it languish after the cover nonsense. Well next time I'll know to go full skintight coverbait instead of trying to be mildly reasonable and getting dinged for 'excessive cleavage'....
It's cool, I can inject the 'like' notifications into my veins for validation.
I'm more irked at Royal Road letting it languish after the cover nonsense. Well next time I'll know to go full skintight coverbait instead of trying to be mildly reasonable and getting dinged for 'excessive cleavage'....
From what I know, their rules are inconsistent to the extreme anyway, like, *the mods don't know them* level of inconsistent.
I hope Shiina will get to have some fun once they arrive.
Wonder how mimics interact with deserts, do they get too hot like we do or do their physiology prevent that? It would be funny if all her friends were baking under the cruel sun and she felt fresh as a daisy.
Qoheleth
Archivist
- Pronouns
- Any
Hm. Who wants to bet that our newest aspiring Dungeon Opener has... political motivations behind their attempt?
Like, it'd be nice if this was one of Al Jirtea's oligarchs getting greedy and wanting to let their cash cow expand into an even bigger/more lucrative one. But somehow I suspect that turning one of the state's dungeons wild (or even commandeering it like the tutorial necromancer tried to do) is more likely to be a desperation play to destabilize a corrupt regime... and it has the potential to lead to some interesting conversations about the Arbiters and their 'proper' role.
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Fishing 6
New
After some consideration, Shiina decided she didn't like deserts.
The heat was sorta annoying, though it was a lot worse for her humanoid companions. She could feel the heat, but it was easy to adjust. Meanwhile it had only taken half an hour before Delilah had given in and swapped her robes for an undershirt. And that was with a cooling spell she'd carved into the wagon. The dwarves seemed similarly miserable, having ditched their armors and heavy aprons. Even Ife and Zanya were fanning themselves.
But to Shiina the biggest problem was that it was big and empty. As soon as they left the green swathe of the river delta, it had just been sand and the occasional shrub. Sure the ocean had even less in the way of features and landmarks, but there she could go fishing! Here there was nothing to take away from the total lack of features. But the jostling of the cart ride was just enough to keep her from properly zoning out.
She shifted in her seat at the front of the wagon and let her arm slip down to grab a rock. At least there were plenty of those around. She carefully considered the targets available to her then decided for now it didn't matter. She needed accuracy first. So she tossed the rock at another bigger rock in the distance.
And missed. The one damn thing binocular vision was good for. Oh well. She'd figure it out eventually.
The driver looked over at her. "Didn't think mimics could get bored so easy. The ones I've met caravanning all said they could sit still for days."
Shiina turned her body to face the woman. Majuli if she remembered right. "It's easier to stay calm when there's not so much open space above and rattling about. Besides, I'm trying to practice throwing." She hesitated a moment before admitting why. "I wanted to save someone, but my knife wasn't good enough. Maybe if I had hit the monster with something heavier it would have worked. So I need to learn to aim."
"Hm, I ain't a mimic, but I hear you all have a hard time hitting something further than fifteen paces." Majuli paused to make sure the desert plodders were on the right trail before continuing. "That's about as far as you can reach isn't it? Was told if I ran into a hostile mimic to stay further away."
It was a little odd hearing that there were specific tactics for killing her, but then she supposed tactics for killing humanoids were more generic. Zanya had been teaching them how to kill people with weapons from the start.
Shiina put that aside and nodded to the dwarven woman. "We can reach about that far, but there's no real force in the hits. You need to worry about a mimic grabbing you or your gear. Not getting punched."
"Makes sense," Majuli tugged her sideburns. "Spear haft isn't as deadly as the point but if you ignore it you'll end up in a world of hurt."
"I thought dwarves preferred axes," Shiina said, motioning to the weapon at the woman's side.
"That's for surface fighting," the dwarf replied. "Tunnel fighting is spear and shield. Course most people aren't mad enough to try to fuck with us in our tunnels, so they'll never see it." She shrugged. "But back to your little problem, I don't know if a rock will do it. You'd need to hit the bastard perfectly every time. And perfect for every type of monster that you run across. That'd need a Technique, and I don't think you'll be making a ranged Technique. No offense."
"Technique?" She'd seen the word in a few books but it wasn't common. "Is that like a Skill?"
Zanya slid closer to them, her cloak's hood blocking the sun. "Technique, Skill, Maneuver, Waza. Lots of different words for it. In the end it's carving a move into reality enough that the gods let you accomplish something beyond normal limits."
Shiina perked up. None of the books she'd seen had really explained it. "So if I practice enough I could throw a rock that will knock over anything?"
"If you practice for a few decades, become a master of throwing, and want the Technique so much you can draw the attention of both a god of law and a god of chaos," Zanya said. The woman gave Shiina a long look. "If you want to shave twenty or so years off that, try working with that dagger Mali gave you or mimic abilities."
Majuli raised an eyebrow. "Sounds like you got experience. Got some Techniques of your own?"
To Shiina's surprise Zanya nodded. "Yeah, because I'm a Magic Knight. The less you're demanding from your Technique the easier it is to get one. My Death Leap sends me around twenty feet in the air with the power of wind. And Deep Cutter gives my axe swings another three inches of reach. Between my connection to wind and the fact that the effects are fairly minor I managed to pull together both those two in a year.
"However," the warrior's tone drew in Shiina's full attention, "Techniques have limits. You're stuck in your technique once it's started. If I use Death Leap I have to jump mostly up. And I can't attack while I'm going up. If I'd mastered the technique while attacking upwards I wouldn't be able to not attack, and I'd be limited to whatever weapon I mastered it with."
"So what's the benefit?" Shiina asked. "You could do both of those easily already."
"Speed," Zanya replied. "Techniques let me do what I want instantly with perfect precision. If I need to jump, I can jump immediately. If I need that extra reach I can get it mid swing. That's the power of simple Techniques. If I need to be creative I can take the time to plan it out properly."
Shiina considered that. It sounded more and more like what she wanted would be a technique. But that ran into a problem. "So if I wanna learn how to do this Technique sometime soon I need to find a way to stop someone dead in their tracks first, then train until it's second nature. Or really cool."
"Yep. That's the way it is." Zanya shrugged and moved back to the full shade of the cart.
Unfortunately that left her with a problem. "I still don't have a clue how I could have stopped that worm," she muttered.
Majuli overheard her. "Well you could also try to make something better. Just have to wait a little longer before you can use it. Mimics are good with patience, right?"
"We're good with waiting," Shiina replied. She grimaced then reached into herself and grabbed a book. "Maybe I can find something in Mali's book on poisons."
The dwarf nodded. "Something to do I suppose. We've got another hour before we'll be setting up camp."
Shiina blinked. It couldn't be more than two hours after noon. "Why stop so early?"
"We set up our path around oasis locations." Majuli pointed into the distance. "That green speck is the only water for another nine hours. We try to push past it and we'll be stuck in the sands come nightfall."
With a lot of effort Shiina could just barely see the spot on the horizon, and she nodded. "Suppose that's important. Even plodders need to drink. But don't other people use these oases?"
"Sometimes. There's rules about fighting there, and the place should be able to handle a caravan five times our size, so there shouldn't be any problems." She paused. "Well, except for monsters. We try to leave a side open so the beasts can drink without bothering us, but we'll need a good watch."
Shiina nodded. "Right. Guess I should get my reading in now." She flipped the book open and started going over poisons. Maybe there was something here that would work.
As the oasis got closer Shiina had to admit it was an amazing sight. The desert sands transformed almost instantly into reeds, brush, and palm trees. Birds called out warning as they approached and she imagined a lot of smaller creatures went into hiding.
Their group set up camp at the border of the green patch. The Al Jirtea crew took one end of the camp, letting their slaves guard the perimeter. The other merchants were in the middle, leaving the dwarves and her party to handle the other flank. Shiina decided she'd take the furthest patch out as her area. After all, she'd be guarding all night.
They all helped set up tents so the humanoids wouldn't wake up covered in sand. Shiina had just given up on her outer layer and just occasionally dropped out the sand that had stuck to her. And when that was done everyone retreated to the shade of the oasis.
Shiina set up next to a rock and started practicing attacks. She hadn't found anything in the book that'd work for poisons, so it was back to hitting the bastard hard enough to keep them from biting someone. Or stabbing them or whatever.
Her first strike was closer to a slap. She grumbled and set up her chest to get better grip on the ground. The next one would probably count as a punch, but not a very strong one. She needed some more force.
It took her about half an hour before she figured out that the same 'casting' motion she'd used for fishing could add to the strike. Her blows actually seemed like an attack now! But she knew it wasn't enough. It wouldn't stop anything that was moving fast.
"Shiina?" She looked up to see Delilah moving through the reeds to join her. "What are you doing?"
"Practicing," she replied, trying another swing. Maybe the angle would matter?
Delilah sat close by, but still giving her some space. "You know it's not your fault right? You couldn't have saved Thadius."
A flash of anger burned through Shiina. How could Delilah say that? The dungeon had taken something that was hers! But she forced the feeling down. "I... I guess I know that, but I can't accept it. How can you just let something like that go?"
Delilah frowned and leaned against a palm tree. "It's not easy, but it's something you learn. I've had a lot of practice as a healer. You can't save everyone, even if you try your best."
Shiina slowly nodded. Diseases or large numbers of wounded would easily push a healer to their limit. And then people would start dying, no matter how good you were. But it still didn't sit right with her. "But I was so close. If I could have hit it harder, killed it faster...."
"You aren't going to get anywhere thinking like that." Delilah sat up and glowered down at Shiina. "Killing things is easy. You probably killed it the second you stabbed it. You said you wanted to save Thadius? Then start thinking about how to save people, not how to kill monsters."
Shiina blinked. "But that's..." Weren't they the same thing? How could she save someone without killing the thing attacking them?
"She's right." The rustle of reeds preceded Ife's arrival. The fox woman flopped down on Delilah's shoulder, causing the half elf to blush. "Our cute healer here might not know the details, but I do. The gods will not answer a conflicted desire. If you want to save someone, that's how you need to think. If your training focuses on killing something, even for a good cause, all you'll get is a better way to kill something."
"Even if I need to kill something to save someone?" Shiina asked.
Ife's ears turned forwards as she focused on Shiina. "Especially in that case. Because if you're ever wrong, you'll wind up back where you are now. Having killed the threat, but not saved your friend. The gods rarely go the extra mile to fix your mistakes."
Shiina sighed. She still didn't really get it. "I need a break." She shifted her body around to face her friends. "So you're a priestess?" she asked Ife.
"Indeed." The fox woman said proudly. "My parents sold me to the temple at a young age, but I learned quickly. Between my looks and an aptitude for magic after my servitude ended I was inducted into the higher ranks of the clergy."
Delilah raised an eyebrow. "Because of your looks? Don't churches normally keep those bits unsaid?"
Ife preened, tail wagging. "Beauty is a sign of the gods favor. Which is how we know our party is quite blessed." Her lip curled into a wry smile. "Though admittedly the ability to blow people into little bits is a greater sign of the god's favor. That's why I was given such a high position despite my birth."
"Well I'm not sure about beauty, but the blowing people to little bits part makes sense." Shiina was very much aware beauty was in the eye of the beholder. And very malleable. Especially for her. "If you were such an important priestess though, why did they let you go adventuring?"
"I'm curious too," Delilah said.
Ife sighed. "Well in the end my purpose was to get a political marriage and serve as a court mage and spiritual advisor to some nobleman. When that started looking more like a political incident the high priest agreed it would be better for me to become a traveling priestess."
Delilah looked a little concerned but simply nodded. "I see."
Even Shiina could tell there was probably a lot more there, and that was before they got into weird human things. But she figured that was something that could wait. She stretched and pointed to the camp areas where smoke was rising. "Looks like they're getting food ready, so we should head back."
She'd have time tonight to practice.
There's lots of stories about the creation of the world, but Ife gave me the most common one. Here's how it goes :
The gods of Good and Evil were the first to create worlds, and the first to destroy them in their struggles. Their wars raged on, creating and consuming planets and each other. However other gods had seen the results and were intrigued.
The gods of Order found the intricate systems that intelligent creatures to be a great source of inspiration. The way mortals worked with limited tools to impose order on randomness impressed them, and they sought to create a world to watch mortals strive and gain new ideas. But all their created worlds were deterministic. They could be incredibly complex, but they played out perfectly with no true randomness.
The gods of Chaos found the struggles of mortals to be incredible entertainment. Their foibles, quirks, and infighting amused the gods to no end. They wanted to make a world they could watch, to see what new entertainment mortals would dream up. But their worlds fell apart too quickly. There was nothing that bound the worlds together long enough for mortals to thrive.
And so, upon learning of their fellow gods' desires and failures, Order and Chaos reached an accord. Chaos would form a world where randomness and inspiration could exist, while Order would give it the rules and structure to last.
Yet while their goals were similar, they knew each side had different views on how a world should be run. They also knew what would happen if disagreement led to war. And so the two sides made a deal. The gods would not interfere, unless a god of Chaos and a god of Order both agreed on a course of action.
Thus we have our world. Free from the battles of the Gods. Where you can seize your destiny through hard work, or being very interesting.
The heat was sorta annoying, though it was a lot worse for her humanoid companions. She could feel the heat, but it was easy to adjust. Meanwhile it had only taken half an hour before Delilah had given in and swapped her robes for an undershirt. And that was with a cooling spell she'd carved into the wagon. The dwarves seemed similarly miserable, having ditched their armors and heavy aprons. Even Ife and Zanya were fanning themselves.
But to Shiina the biggest problem was that it was big and empty. As soon as they left the green swathe of the river delta, it had just been sand and the occasional shrub. Sure the ocean had even less in the way of features and landmarks, but there she could go fishing! Here there was nothing to take away from the total lack of features. But the jostling of the cart ride was just enough to keep her from properly zoning out.
She shifted in her seat at the front of the wagon and let her arm slip down to grab a rock. At least there were plenty of those around. She carefully considered the targets available to her then decided for now it didn't matter. She needed accuracy first. So she tossed the rock at another bigger rock in the distance.
And missed. The one damn thing binocular vision was good for. Oh well. She'd figure it out eventually.
The driver looked over at her. "Didn't think mimics could get bored so easy. The ones I've met caravanning all said they could sit still for days."
Shiina turned her body to face the woman. Majuli if she remembered right. "It's easier to stay calm when there's not so much open space above and rattling about. Besides, I'm trying to practice throwing." She hesitated a moment before admitting why. "I wanted to save someone, but my knife wasn't good enough. Maybe if I had hit the monster with something heavier it would have worked. So I need to learn to aim."
"Hm, I ain't a mimic, but I hear you all have a hard time hitting something further than fifteen paces." Majuli paused to make sure the desert plodders were on the right trail before continuing. "That's about as far as you can reach isn't it? Was told if I ran into a hostile mimic to stay further away."
It was a little odd hearing that there were specific tactics for killing her, but then she supposed tactics for killing humanoids were more generic. Zanya had been teaching them how to kill people with weapons from the start.
Shiina put that aside and nodded to the dwarven woman. "We can reach about that far, but there's no real force in the hits. You need to worry about a mimic grabbing you or your gear. Not getting punched."
"Makes sense," Majuli tugged her sideburns. "Spear haft isn't as deadly as the point but if you ignore it you'll end up in a world of hurt."
"I thought dwarves preferred axes," Shiina said, motioning to the weapon at the woman's side.
"That's for surface fighting," the dwarf replied. "Tunnel fighting is spear and shield. Course most people aren't mad enough to try to fuck with us in our tunnels, so they'll never see it." She shrugged. "But back to your little problem, I don't know if a rock will do it. You'd need to hit the bastard perfectly every time. And perfect for every type of monster that you run across. That'd need a Technique, and I don't think you'll be making a ranged Technique. No offense."
"Technique?" She'd seen the word in a few books but it wasn't common. "Is that like a Skill?"
Zanya slid closer to them, her cloak's hood blocking the sun. "Technique, Skill, Maneuver, Waza. Lots of different words for it. In the end it's carving a move into reality enough that the gods let you accomplish something beyond normal limits."
Shiina perked up. None of the books she'd seen had really explained it. "So if I practice enough I could throw a rock that will knock over anything?"
"If you practice for a few decades, become a master of throwing, and want the Technique so much you can draw the attention of both a god of law and a god of chaos," Zanya said. The woman gave Shiina a long look. "If you want to shave twenty or so years off that, try working with that dagger Mali gave you or mimic abilities."
Majuli raised an eyebrow. "Sounds like you got experience. Got some Techniques of your own?"
To Shiina's surprise Zanya nodded. "Yeah, because I'm a Magic Knight. The less you're demanding from your Technique the easier it is to get one. My Death Leap sends me around twenty feet in the air with the power of wind. And Deep Cutter gives my axe swings another three inches of reach. Between my connection to wind and the fact that the effects are fairly minor I managed to pull together both those two in a year.
"However," the warrior's tone drew in Shiina's full attention, "Techniques have limits. You're stuck in your technique once it's started. If I use Death Leap I have to jump mostly up. And I can't attack while I'm going up. If I'd mastered the technique while attacking upwards I wouldn't be able to not attack, and I'd be limited to whatever weapon I mastered it with."
"So what's the benefit?" Shiina asked. "You could do both of those easily already."
"Speed," Zanya replied. "Techniques let me do what I want instantly with perfect precision. If I need to jump, I can jump immediately. If I need that extra reach I can get it mid swing. That's the power of simple Techniques. If I need to be creative I can take the time to plan it out properly."
Shiina considered that. It sounded more and more like what she wanted would be a technique. But that ran into a problem. "So if I wanna learn how to do this Technique sometime soon I need to find a way to stop someone dead in their tracks first, then train until it's second nature. Or really cool."
"Yep. That's the way it is." Zanya shrugged and moved back to the full shade of the cart.
Unfortunately that left her with a problem. "I still don't have a clue how I could have stopped that worm," she muttered.
Majuli overheard her. "Well you could also try to make something better. Just have to wait a little longer before you can use it. Mimics are good with patience, right?"
"We're good with waiting," Shiina replied. She grimaced then reached into herself and grabbed a book. "Maybe I can find something in Mali's book on poisons."
The dwarf nodded. "Something to do I suppose. We've got another hour before we'll be setting up camp."
Shiina blinked. It couldn't be more than two hours after noon. "Why stop so early?"
"We set up our path around oasis locations." Majuli pointed into the distance. "That green speck is the only water for another nine hours. We try to push past it and we'll be stuck in the sands come nightfall."
With a lot of effort Shiina could just barely see the spot on the horizon, and she nodded. "Suppose that's important. Even plodders need to drink. But don't other people use these oases?"
"Sometimes. There's rules about fighting there, and the place should be able to handle a caravan five times our size, so there shouldn't be any problems." She paused. "Well, except for monsters. We try to leave a side open so the beasts can drink without bothering us, but we'll need a good watch."
Shiina nodded. "Right. Guess I should get my reading in now." She flipped the book open and started going over poisons. Maybe there was something here that would work.
As the oasis got closer Shiina had to admit it was an amazing sight. The desert sands transformed almost instantly into reeds, brush, and palm trees. Birds called out warning as they approached and she imagined a lot of smaller creatures went into hiding.
Their group set up camp at the border of the green patch. The Al Jirtea crew took one end of the camp, letting their slaves guard the perimeter. The other merchants were in the middle, leaving the dwarves and her party to handle the other flank. Shiina decided she'd take the furthest patch out as her area. After all, she'd be guarding all night.
They all helped set up tents so the humanoids wouldn't wake up covered in sand. Shiina had just given up on her outer layer and just occasionally dropped out the sand that had stuck to her. And when that was done everyone retreated to the shade of the oasis.
Shiina set up next to a rock and started practicing attacks. She hadn't found anything in the book that'd work for poisons, so it was back to hitting the bastard hard enough to keep them from biting someone. Or stabbing them or whatever.
Her first strike was closer to a slap. She grumbled and set up her chest to get better grip on the ground. The next one would probably count as a punch, but not a very strong one. She needed some more force.
It took her about half an hour before she figured out that the same 'casting' motion she'd used for fishing could add to the strike. Her blows actually seemed like an attack now! But she knew it wasn't enough. It wouldn't stop anything that was moving fast.
"Shiina?" She looked up to see Delilah moving through the reeds to join her. "What are you doing?"
"Practicing," she replied, trying another swing. Maybe the angle would matter?
Delilah sat close by, but still giving her some space. "You know it's not your fault right? You couldn't have saved Thadius."
A flash of anger burned through Shiina. How could Delilah say that? The dungeon had taken something that was hers! But she forced the feeling down. "I... I guess I know that, but I can't accept it. How can you just let something like that go?"
Delilah frowned and leaned against a palm tree. "It's not easy, but it's something you learn. I've had a lot of practice as a healer. You can't save everyone, even if you try your best."
Shiina slowly nodded. Diseases or large numbers of wounded would easily push a healer to their limit. And then people would start dying, no matter how good you were. But it still didn't sit right with her. "But I was so close. If I could have hit it harder, killed it faster...."
"You aren't going to get anywhere thinking like that." Delilah sat up and glowered down at Shiina. "Killing things is easy. You probably killed it the second you stabbed it. You said you wanted to save Thadius? Then start thinking about how to save people, not how to kill monsters."
Shiina blinked. "But that's..." Weren't they the same thing? How could she save someone without killing the thing attacking them?
"She's right." The rustle of reeds preceded Ife's arrival. The fox woman flopped down on Delilah's shoulder, causing the half elf to blush. "Our cute healer here might not know the details, but I do. The gods will not answer a conflicted desire. If you want to save someone, that's how you need to think. If your training focuses on killing something, even for a good cause, all you'll get is a better way to kill something."
"Even if I need to kill something to save someone?" Shiina asked.
Ife's ears turned forwards as she focused on Shiina. "Especially in that case. Because if you're ever wrong, you'll wind up back where you are now. Having killed the threat, but not saved your friend. The gods rarely go the extra mile to fix your mistakes."
Shiina sighed. She still didn't really get it. "I need a break." She shifted her body around to face her friends. "So you're a priestess?" she asked Ife.
"Indeed." The fox woman said proudly. "My parents sold me to the temple at a young age, but I learned quickly. Between my looks and an aptitude for magic after my servitude ended I was inducted into the higher ranks of the clergy."
Delilah raised an eyebrow. "Because of your looks? Don't churches normally keep those bits unsaid?"
Ife preened, tail wagging. "Beauty is a sign of the gods favor. Which is how we know our party is quite blessed." Her lip curled into a wry smile. "Though admittedly the ability to blow people into little bits is a greater sign of the god's favor. That's why I was given such a high position despite my birth."
"Well I'm not sure about beauty, but the blowing people to little bits part makes sense." Shiina was very much aware beauty was in the eye of the beholder. And very malleable. Especially for her. "If you were such an important priestess though, why did they let you go adventuring?"
"I'm curious too," Delilah said.
Ife sighed. "Well in the end my purpose was to get a political marriage and serve as a court mage and spiritual advisor to some nobleman. When that started looking more like a political incident the high priest agreed it would be better for me to become a traveling priestess."
Delilah looked a little concerned but simply nodded. "I see."
Even Shiina could tell there was probably a lot more there, and that was before they got into weird human things. But she figured that was something that could wait. She stretched and pointed to the camp areas where smoke was rising. "Looks like they're getting food ready, so we should head back."
She'd have time tonight to practice.
There's lots of stories about the creation of the world, but Ife gave me the most common one. Here's how it goes :
The gods of Good and Evil were the first to create worlds, and the first to destroy them in their struggles. Their wars raged on, creating and consuming planets and each other. However other gods had seen the results and were intrigued.
The gods of Order found the intricate systems that intelligent creatures to be a great source of inspiration. The way mortals worked with limited tools to impose order on randomness impressed them, and they sought to create a world to watch mortals strive and gain new ideas. But all their created worlds were deterministic. They could be incredibly complex, but they played out perfectly with no true randomness.
The gods of Chaos found the struggles of mortals to be incredible entertainment. Their foibles, quirks, and infighting amused the gods to no end. They wanted to make a world they could watch, to see what new entertainment mortals would dream up. But their worlds fell apart too quickly. There was nothing that bound the worlds together long enough for mortals to thrive.
And so, upon learning of their fellow gods' desires and failures, Order and Chaos reached an accord. Chaos would form a world where randomness and inspiration could exist, while Order would give it the rules and structure to last.
Yet while their goals were similar, they knew each side had different views on how a world should be run. They also knew what would happen if disagreement led to war. And so the two sides made a deal. The gods would not interfere, unless a god of Chaos and a god of Order both agreed on a course of action.
Thus we have our world. Free from the battles of the Gods. Where you can seize your destiny through hard work, or being very interesting.
- Location
- London
This is a pretty cool bit of worldbuilding. It's fairly standard fantasy but with an interesting enough twist to make it fresh.
Of course it makes the standard pop-science mistake of thinking chaos==random when truely chaotic systems are actually perfectly deterministic but that's one of those things that only kinda matters in a way that's not huge relevant to the story.
Look, you take the terminology up with the Gods. I'm not gonna tempt fate
Given her problem is aiming because she doesn't have depth perception, I don't think it would help much. She will never be a good ranged fighter.
And when it comes to her technique, she has two shields, what she needs is a way to use them to protect someone in her range with them.
