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NorseQuest: Collective Edition (Group-Based Xianxia Settlement-Builder)

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Rikard's Expedition Report (Alectai)
  • Sidestory
    • Rikard's Expedition Report
    Participants: Rikard Villeson, Ragnarr Fair-Spoken, Sigmund Sigurdsson, Agmundr Idskapadr, Amlóði Tooth-taker
    ​
    Brothers! Sisters! Kinsmen one and all! We have returned! Having surpassed the borders of the swamp lands and set foot upon the very precipice of the mountains!

    Our expedition began in good order, encountering the sauna employed by the Onigar woman before we chose to veer off in a different direction. It was there that we encountered a herd of Crestheads, warily acquiring their daily drink. We spent some time observing them, and brother Sigmund's description says much about what we learned. No cows--at least as far as we can tell--but we managed to bring one back mostly intact. They may serve as excellent beasts of burden--or barring that, at least a reliable source of meat and hides if we can resolve the issues with the whole latent poison thing. Who knows? Maybe they can even be ridden, certainly they'd be better suited than a Horse in this humid and unpredictable terrain.

    Ah, but I digress! The swamp has proven to be something of a conundrum to us. Barring the way to the mountains proper, there appeared no easy way around it, but we came up upon a trick to navigate the region, involving the use of a long stick to probe ahead of us and fording through the shallowest portions. It was there that we learned of the great danger that lurks in the swamp, for we felt ourselves unusually at ease for travelling in such a perilous environment where dangers could lurk everywhere! Cottoning on to the threat from our observations of the Crestheads, I sought to bait it into an attack by throwing a stone--but we did not expect the method of it's effort! The tail of the Cresthead--from where it was carried--had dipped into the water, and we found it solidifying, seeking to drag the Cresthead deep within. We attempted to pull it out, but if anything, the effort only made the grip of the waters tighter! So we severed the tail and saw it disappear into the muck. Dangerous, but so long as one adheres to the shallows and grows extremely wary when they feel most at ease, one can navigate the swamps and pass through to the other side.

    There... Well, we got a taste of the things we need. For we encountered nothing less than a quarry of excellent granite being quarried by a band of a dozen Onigar warriors! They didn't seem happy to be there, but we knew little about them and had the Cresthead still to deliver, so were unwilling to engage a force with twice our numbers. Two scented the blood of the Cresthead we had captured though, and one sought to give chase! We led them a ways out before halting to confront the Onigar Warrior. He bid us surrender the Cresthead or die, we refused, and blades were drawn!

    And friends, what a battle it was! The Onigar warrior stood twice the height of a man! His weapon--(At this he gestures, and the spiked club is brought out, eliciting an "ooooh" from the crowd)--shattered the firmament and broke the earth! The speed of his blows was breathtaking! But our company had his measure! I stepped forward to lure him into making the first move, and evaded his opening blow! My Frami guiding my legs and spiriting me through the air! Brother Sigmund struck out! Dealing a wound, but found himself countered with a ferocious backhand! Though he caught it with his shield, he was blown back some distance and hurt in spite of it, showing the tremendous strength of the Onigar folk! With Brother Ragnarr playing upon the Onigar warrior's confidence and apparent strength with his Kunna, he allowed himself to take his eyes off of me--and I Struck!, Dislocating its shoulder and exposing its arm for Brother Agmundr to Cleave it off! Iron and muscle and bone sailed away, and the warrior's heart grew to understand he had not reckoned on the strength of the Gutes! (Agmundr reveals the severed arm, a trophy of his own at this, cheers erupting).

    The battle was nigh won, as Brother Ragnarr shifted his tone from confidence to deepest despair--I plunged my sword into the Onigar's exposed wound, and struck him dead on the spot! BEHOLD! (With a flourish, Rikard draws the eye of the others to an area slightly off to the side, where a smug badger sat grooming itself below the body of the Onigar Warrior, his brass armor fractured and lacking the arm that was previously shown.)

    With his heart pierced, death took the warrior! We granted him what rites and respects we could for such a mighty foe, we met each other by the eyes and understood that though we were born from different parents, our kinship was no less true! So it was that in the eyes of the gods, we swore Blood-Brotherhood to one another! Let all know that we will avenge one another against any who would strike us down!

    It was a good expedition, we learned much, and gained much. We have also shown that the strength of Gotland's children is every bit a match for the strength of those who live here! Let our tale inspire all, to understand that it is through our unity and our strength as a people that we will tame this dark land and make it our new home!

    GAINS:

    Live Cresthead, significant biological data, (Sans one tail, crest broken but retrieved)
    1x Onigar Corpse (Intact, heart pierced, arm severed but recovered)
    1x Onigar Club (100 pounds of iron)
    1x Onigar Armor (Brass Lamellar)
    Tactics to traverse the Swamp and avoiding one of the greater dangers there
    Knowledge of the location of a significant granite stone quarry (Currently controlled by Onigar)
     
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  • Sidestory
    • Here's how Agmundr will tell things, roughly, later on, when people who couldn't be there for Rikard's presentation ask him for his version of the tale:

    We encountered the sauna heading north out of Rikard's land.
    - We turned left, heading west towards unexplored areas

    Then we encountered the storm toad marsh and log-swamp. At the log-swamp, there were faint sounds of a stone being struck, but we couldn't tell from which direction.
    - We decided to start heading southwest first, then planned wheel to the West and then Northwest areas, at which point we'd decide on whether to continue into the mountains or head back into the village with our haul.

    Southwest of the log-swamp, we encountered a large pack (~18) of unicorn-kangaroo-platypi. They're big, and they're congregating around a small lake fed by a stream coming out of the mountains.
    - They seem like potentially good work-animals. Ragnarr tried to use his Emotion Kunna to calm them, but that just made them more anxious, so he stopped. We decided to tail them for a bit, to see what sort of other animals hunt them, and whether there's anything else special about them that might them better or worse as livestock.

    The crestheads' crests give them a powerful vibration-sense, and they appear to have some kind of sound-based or telekinetic attack that they used to pop flatsquitoes from a safe distance. A pack of hedgehogs did not seem bothered by their presence, nor were they disturbed by the hedgehogs. They have a lot of meat, but also eat a lot, and don't seem to produce milk.
    - Ragnarr tries some other emotional manipulation, and it seems like they work fine. The crestheads are just so anxious at a baseline that being calm was strange enough to startle them. We move from observing to attempting to capture. Agmundr cripples the crest, which does prevent them from using their explosive attack, while Ragnarr lassoes them with blood-chains.

    We successfully capture one. The rest manage to run off, nigh-instantly vanishing into the thick jungle.
    - We continue north, as per our initial travel plan.

    North of the small lake, and west of the log-swamp, we encountered another, logless swamp.
    - We try and cross. We're probing the water with a long, sturdy stick to find the shallowest path.

    The tail of the cresthead we're carrying gets caught by water that's solidifying.
    - We try and pull it out.

    Doesn't work.
    -We cut part of the tail off that's stuck, bandage it up, and prepare for an attack.

    No more attacks.
    -Continue through the swamp.

    We're on the other side of the swamp, in the foothills of the northern mountains. The sound of striking stones from earlier is heard again, louder.
    - We go to investigate the sound, *carefully*.

    We find an onigar quarry with approximately a fozen workers, all with iron weapons and bronze brass (thank you Rikard) armor.We discuss what to do, but eventually a couple of the onigar smell us (or, possibly, our bleeding cresthead, since we can hear them mention smelling blood).
    - We decide to pack it up and head back home, since we don't want to have to risk losing our cresthead in the fighting.

    We're followed by one onigar, called Karta apparently.
    - He's gaining on us, so we decide to parley.

    Karta says that we have to give him our cresthead or he'll kill us for the trouble.
    - We say fuck you, walk away and we won't beat your ass.

    Battle is joined.
    - Rikard opens with a witty rejoinder, before all four of us begin to harry the onigar, Rikard and Sigmund in melee while Agmundr and Ragnarr trouble the onigar with ranged attacks, Agmundr aiming to disable the onigar's arm by cutting the thews and Ragnarr amplifying the onigar's confidence into outright arrogance, ensuring that we're underestimated.

    The onigar unleashes what at first seems like a lazy overhead club-swing, but which half-way through accelerates to supersonic speeds, aimed at Rikard and which he only just barely escapes by burning an Aspect to leap out of the way. The club leaves a sizable crater in the ground as it impacts. The onigar seemed surprised initially, but his confidence was unswayed, perhaps convinced by Ragnarr's kunna that it was simply luck. Sigmund makes a move on the onigar next, cutting into his bronze armor, prompting the onigar to backhand Sigmund, a blow so mighty that it breaks Sigmund's arm THROUGH his shield. This was still enough of a distraction to let Rikard jump back into the fight, grabbing onto the onigar's arm as he lifts to smash Sigmund before he could recover from the backhand, using his impressive ferocity and skills in wrestling to force the shoulder of onigar's armor wide enough for Agmundr's sword-wind to slice through the opening and severe the club-wielding arm entirely, causing it to crash to the ground.

    The onigar is no longer confident. Now he is afraid, and Ragnarr used his kunna to heighten that fear in to proper terror, the only appropriate response to a group glory-hungry norsemen who have scented your weakness. Rikard burns another Aspect to begin grappling and climbing up the onigar, aiming to choke him, while Sigmund burns two, one to restore his shattered arm and one to empower himself further as he continues to hack away at the onigar, whose armor is now falling off thanks to Agmundr slashing its straps, and Ragnarr rushes in as well, stabbing an overlong jarnblood spear into the newly exposed onigar flesh.

    Under the emotional and physical onslaught, the onigar seems paralyzed. Finally, as he's climbs the onigar, Rikard stabs his sword into the onigar's armless stump to create a handhold. Unwittingly, he stabs it directly (if not incredibly deeply) into the onigar's heart, which we later learn caused it to basically explode, killing the onigar instantly.

    A little anticlimactic, but a win is a win, and certainly it was hard-fought!

    All the while, ever the logistician, Amlodi Toothtaker made sure that our cresthead did not escape while fought.

    There, at the sight of our victory, the five of us sworn on on our name, on the gods and on our blood that if one us were wronged, all of us would seek vengeance as blood-brothers.

    Then we headed back, making good time and encountering no further trouble now that we knew how to safely navigate the swamp.
     
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    Important information about shapecraftings that I forgot!

    If you die when you have them, they don't return with you when you respawn!
     
    EclipsedStar said:
    Eh-- everyone else is doing one, might as well write my own as well; Amerion's perspective of Gunnar's hunt for the Gravity Lizard/Evil Joe
    Amerion Wardson-- Hunting the Gravity Lizard
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    I.F. Ister said:
    +6 Ordstirr for those who survived, +3 for the ones who died.
    +3 Ordstirr, nice work
    +2 Ordstirr, I reckon
    I'll give you +2 Ordstirr
    +2 Ordstirr
    Nice! +3 Ordstirr
    +2 Ordstirr
    We'll arbitrate this once Winter ends.
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    Was my omake missed or do you only get Ordstirr from omakes if you tell people about the event/incident in the omake?
     
    @I.F. Ister what does the sea around the landing look like? Is there a reef, are there any significant features, did we see any strange aquatic creatures on the way in?
     
    Also, I guess bringing back the club will mean I'll get a cut of the tools and nails we make out of it when we can melt it down?

    Like, 100 pounds of iron, even if the quality isn't great, is enough to make a lot of stuff. That's 1,600 ounces!
     
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