Multiple pupils in the eye is an Irish mythology thing.
From the Cattle-Raid of Cooley said:
Weaving lace was she, and in her right hand was a bordering rod of silvered bronze with its seven strips of red gold at the sides. A many-spotted green mantle around her; a bulging, strong-headed pin of gold in the mantle over her bosom; a hooded tunic, with red interweaving, about her. A ruddy, fair-faced countenance she had, narrow below and broad above. She had a blue-grey and laughing eye; each eye had three pupils.
'Whence come you, O Cua?' said he (for98 cua was the name of squinting in old Gaelic; and there were seven pupils in Cuchulainn's royal eye, and two of these pupils were squinting, and the ugliness of it is no greater than its beauty on him; and if there had been a greater blemish on Cuchulainn, it is that with which he reproached him; and he was proclaiming it); and he made a song, and Cuchulainn answered:
She can't be too friendly with Horra or our name would've stood out to her, but they might have some sort of professional connection. Or even enmity. The most famous user of Riastradh was Cu Chullain and the Morrigan was largely responsible for his death, so the fact they share an origin (if they even do, the multiple pupils might just be because he used a bunch of eyes to make these ones...we've seen arms made of lots of smaller arms before, eyes made of multiple eyes might be the same thing), may not make them friends.
Funny thing is? If it really is a fleshcrafted abomination, and we reveal that in the chase--well, that's more Evidence.
But all that aside, ideally, we don't actually use EWC or any of our Hugareida so they can't pin down precisely who pulled this shit. All they know is that someone is fucking with them.
Recall after all that our owl is still dressed up, and if we're quick enough, it might not actually make out what kind of birb did this.
[X] Take one (++Suspicion)
-[X] The Machine (Serves as evidence)
0~0~0 (Stealth: 6x2, 5x3, 4x2, 3x3, 2x1, 1x1) 13-13(Suspicion)= Neutral Outcome, 1 Success
The machine disappears into the ever-shifting folds of your feathers and the sheet falls atop you in a manner resembling a ghost's burial shroud. The light chatter that had sprung up ceases as the abomination moves forward with unrelenting force.
It whips away the covering, tripartite eyes darting each and every way as the pupils split apart to cover more ground.
You stand as still as possible as the eyes seemingly drift over your rag-covered form. Your breathing hitches as the monstrosity raises a fist of sixteen fingers attached to a double-wrist.
Okay, how are you going to get out of this one? His fist is going to come down and, if you don't move, kill you instantly. Wait, kill you instantly? Where's that coming from?
His fist starts to descend and you have no choice but to move.
But moments before you do, an axe comes whistling through the air. It spins head over tail as it hurtles through the air, blood already smears its face as it casually lops off the limb at the elbow.
It thunks into the trunk of the old oak as an unscratched Wolfwind re-enters the clearing while dragging a completely limbless Sharkmouth by the collar.
He unceremoniously dumps the angry teen on the forest floor as he sighs and rubs at his brow. "What in all the worlds did I miss?"
The spear-wielder nervously swallows before jumping right in. "I... The monster went crazy!"
The entourage had backed away the moment the abomination started moving, not a one of them knew the reason why.
Harald approaches the whimpering creature clutching at the stump of its arm, the wind whistling around him like an old friend. His wolf-eyes find the creature utterly lacking before he gives it a solid shove. It crumples to the ground as he turns his searching gaze on the empty cart.
A long heartbeat passes between you and Harald as wolf meets owl.
"It went crazy," his words are slow, purposeful as he clearly fails to miss your form, though the flaring of his nose tells you that it wasn't his eyes that found you. The tiniest nod of the head sends you scrambling into the air — none of the entourage catching your rag-clad form, "nothing more to it then that."
He covers the cart again and signals for them to head back — all the while you watch with a confused frown on your face.
(Evidence Gained: Arrow-Launching Machine!)
0~0~0
Personal (Pick 2/3, if no Exploration is picked):
[ ] (Empty Sack) ...Maybe you should try stuffing that empty sack full of straw?
[ ] (Violent) Pick a fight or spar with... (Sparring with people reveals a summery of their character sheets)
-[ ] Spar with Abjorn, your husband
-[ ] Spar with Gabriel, without armor
--[ ] (Optional) With armor
-[ ] Spar with Stigmar
-[ ] Spar with Stigr
-[ ] Spar with Aki
-[ ] Someone else (Write in)
[ ] (Personal) Spend time with... (Write in)
[ ] (Shopping) Ask Abjorn to buy something for you (Write in) (Can only be used to buy or sell things you are already aware of and cannot haggle)
[ ] (Court) Send Abjorn to make a case at the Thing (Write in)
[ ] (Crafting) Try to make something (Write in) (Hugr+Some kind of crafting skill)
-[ ] (Optional) Focus on repairing something (Write in)
[ ] (Poetry) Try to realize an Inspiration (Write in one of your Inspirations)
0~0~0
Exploration/Travel (Pick 1 or none):
[ ] (Visit) Go visit...
-[ ] The Witch! (Actually, it's probably a good idea to avoid her entirely)
-[ ] Asvir!
--[ ] (Optional) Attend the Thing
-[ ] Steinby, your Father's Farm
-[ ] Vidby, Vidar's Farm
-[ ] Kerby, Stigr's Farm
-[ ] Buriby, Osborn's Farm (Has a guaranteed chance of ending in a fight)
-[ ] Glebby, Sverre's Farm
-[ ] Runby, Aki's Farm
-[ ] Horrby, Horra's Farm (Has a very good chance of ending in a fight)
--[ ] Rather than visiting normally, you instead stealthily approach and try to scout it out.
-[ ] Halfdanby, Halfdan's Farm
[ ] (Exploration) Go on a walk through...
-[ ] The fields!
-[ ] The Hading!
--[ ] (Optional) Try to find those bandits you heard about
-[ ] The hills!
[ ] (Battle) Go and attack somewhere...
-[ ] Attack the bandit camp to the North
0~0~0
Training: You have 32d6 training dice to spend as you see fit.
[ ] (Research) Try to figure out how things work (Write in)
[ ] (Blackhand) Try to develop old/train new hugareida tricks (Write in)
[ ] (Steinarr's Training) Ask Steinarr to teach you a trick/some tricks (Write in)
[ ] (Training) Hamr (43 successes to rank up)
-[ ] (Optional) Train a hamr skill or trick (Write in)
[ ] (Training) Hugr (22 successes to rank up)
-[ ] (Optional) Train a hugr skill or trick (Write in)
[ ] (Training) Fylgja (6 successes to rank up)
-[ ] (Optional) Train a fylgja skill or trick (Write in)
0~0~0
Orthstirr Available: 325
How do you want to use your orthstirr? You can turn on passive tricks here.
[ ] (Orthstirr Usage) (Write in)
0~0~0
Fylgja Capacity: 4/6
Do you want to withdraw or deposit anything in your fylgja?
[ ] Write in (Optional)
0~0~0
Equipment Management
What do you want to have equipped? Leaving this blank means that no changes are made.
[ ] Write in (Optional)
0~0~0
(Hamingja: 6x3, 5x1, 4x2, 1x3) 7 Successes. (Relevancy: 5)
Your owl deposits a weird freaking fish on your lap, as happy as the day it was made.
You poke the fish and it divides into two, slightly smaller fish.
Recalling your Bible Study lessons, you determine that this is a Christian magic item.
(Multiplying Fish added to inventory)
0~0~0
AN: All-a-righty, then.
Interesting, it looks like Horra's followers aren't quite as loyal to him as he thinks they are.
Makes sense, if you're going to be a dick to your followers and do Max Paranoia and compel everyone with "And then your head explodes", those followers will be perfectly fine with fucking you up if they can do it deniably.
Man though, that was a really damn good roll against a really high difficulty. 13 successes with 12 dice? Oof.
And it was just barely enough to give the opening to let us get away with it deniably, presumably, it meant that nobody who mattered saw, which meant that we could be 'Conveniently Ignored'. Getting the intel that one of his top men isn't actually that loyal to him is extremely valuable, doubly so as he's keeping them with coercion given the implications that there's a kill-switch attached to them.
Yeah, that's a way higher difficulty than I was expecting with only, like, 3 Suspicion. Guess the abomination was super perceptive...which makes sense, I suppose. And this guy isn't fully on Horra's side, huh? I wonder if he's interested in Horra's daughter...are they a couple?
What do people think for actions and research this turn? I have a training plan all set up, but for actions I'm more ambivalent. I think we should probably make ourselves a new atgeir, or get Sten to reforge Sagaseeker with us, depending on the results of my question below. Beyond that it depends on what we want to do, I think.
@Imperial Fister can a weapon being reforged to keep the same spirit have new metal added, or would that invalidate the 'keeping the same spirit' thing? I'd love to keep Sagaseeker as our primary weapon, but the bonuses of Molten Iron are really good so I have to imagine Storm Iron is too and we should have enough for that.
End of the year that's just beginning, so we need to finish this up in 2 more Visits (which are once per season). I still think that's trying to break into his sanctum sometime this Summer and then bringing a lawsuit in the Winter.
@Imperial Fister can a weapon being reforged to keep the same spirit have new metal added, or would that invalidate the 'keeping the same spirit' thing? I'd love to keep Sagaseeker as our primary weapon, but the bonuses of Molten Iron are really good so I have to imagine Storm Iron is too and we should have enough for that.
Wait, they're at 13 suspicion? Where'd the other 10 come from? (EDIT: Nevermind, they rolled 13 on their Suspicion check... Still means they had a minimum of 7 somehow[)
Or is that just generic "Horra's Paranoia" in general, with 10 gained from one of the raiding parties vanishing without a trace?
Since we already discussed this with him, would getting Sten to do this for us be one action, or more, and what would the costs be? We need Forgefire for this and, well, we don't have it and need an improved main weapon sooner than we'll get it. We could certainly help him, but he needs to be involved.
Hoo boy, he rolled pretty god damn good too then, it's just that we rolled just as well. 13 successes on 12 dice is oof.
A gamble, but one that paid off in spades!
So, @DeadmanwalkingXI , I think a research action on studying the bolt-thrower with Sten maybe? If we can nail down that it's Dwarf Craft, we have an IC reason to ask the Ducklings, and if they recognize the make... We've got him by the balls.
And of course, more progress on the Hamr Death March. Can't forget that.
So, @DeadmanwalkingXI , I think a research action on studying the bolt-thrower with Sten maybe? If we can nail down that it's Dwarf Craft, we have an IC reason to ask the Ducklings, and if they recognize the make... We've got him by the balls.
And of course, more progress on the Hamr Death March. Can't forget that.
That definitely makes sense for research, yes. And I have the training plan worked out (17d6 in Hamr this turn...more in future turns once we finish off, like, 4 different things that are 1 success away). It's research and actual actions I'm unsure on.
