"Hurry it up beardlings!" you shout at the two of them, "are we testing your journeyman works or out on a nice hike through the woods?"
"Yes master!"
"Bah!" you yell back, and return to your vigil.
There were monsters about, the number growing to such a degree that now even Brokk and his rangers cannot keep the area around Kraka Drakk clear without the aid of king Otrek's throng.
It is not especially good news, but it also offers both your charges an opportunity to see if they're capable of the challenges a journeyman is meant to face, which in this case meant hunting for food while fighting off beasties.
Fjolla hefts a simple Rune Axe, thumbing her amulet of protection nervously while Dolgi trudges through the snow, hefting his crossbow in a relaxed but ready stance.
You meanwhile are a good few feet away dressed in your ranger get-up, far enough to give them a chance for themselves, but close enough to drive away anything they couldn't yet handle. Which account for much of what was here, if the trail of troll corpses you've left behind without them noticing is anything to go by.
Thankfully the cold and snow could keep them frozen and preserved, giving you time to get it later.
A good thing too, you were running low on je-
"—Rhunrikki," the familiar voice of Elder Brokk comes out from your left.
You do not startle, but you do exhale.
"Elder," you acknowledge back with a nod.
"Trouble ahead, best pull those young folk back a bit," the ranger says quietly.
"Mmm? What kind?" you ask, eyeing him warrily.
"The kind tha-" whatever the elder was going to say is cut off by a terrible series of deep guttural screams coming from up ahead.
"The kind that broke past the defensive screen, quickly!" Brokk finishes with a growl.
"BOTH OF YOU," you bellow at your apprentices as you follow behind the elder ranger, "BEHIND ME. NOW!"
Neither even bothers to say anything, the tone of your voice conveying just how much time was of the essence to them.
"The plan?" you mutter to the elder ranger, pulling out your weapons. Your two charges scrambling back behind your advancing forms.
"Stall, we can't kill them all even if we try, but my rangers will be coming. Five minutes doable for you?" Brokk says, hefting a massive Runic Crossbow out from within his billowing cloak.
You glance back at your charges before replying grimly.
"I've dealt with worse."
Nothing but the guttural screams can be heard for several seconds, then the canopy begins to shake, trees begin to tumble and fall as they are broken apart by the mad charge of what you can guess is maybe dozens of the creatures. Then the smell hits you, that pungent odour of muck and gore that can only come from a
troll.
"A small group of the beasts," Elder Brokk speaks up, "maybe 100 or so, haven't found the leader, but something tells me its coming to meet us right now."
You only grunt.
What's another few dozen?
The lead beast breaks out of the canopy, a massive Greedy Troll six meters tall, its form bulging with energy, and arms covered in scavenged armour. Behind it, several Ice, Snow and Rock trolls follow suit, stopping when it raises one of its four arms.
The creature sniffs, litres of air being sucked into its lungs before it exhales out of its now drooling mouth. Its eyes lock in on you, the pupils growing beady and brows furrowed in concentration.
"You...smell...familiar...you are what I see in my dreams. You are what kiLls the FiRsT... I know you
RUNELORD, I see you kill the notme in My dreAms. My knees BucKle, my BreAthIng gRows S-shoRT, I hate this feEling, I hAte this FEar-r-rrrr…. I hATE yOU!!! " it roars, voice growing more and more warped and incoherent as it continues.
"Come and do something about it then," you mutter, activating Wrath and Ruin, the force buckling several of the beasts, but not all.
"KILL HIM. KILL THEM ALL!" The Greedy Troll bellows, frothing at the mouth, seemingly unaffected by the monumental amount of weight bearing down on it.
"KHAZUKAN, KAZAKIT-HA!" you bellow back, readying your axe.
Then suddenly a shadow, a screech, and a thunderous boom as snow and dirt and bark are blasted away from
something landing on top of the Greedy Troll.
You clear the muck out of your eyes with a snarl and look at this new entrant, your gaze going up, and up, and up to see.
A griffon.
An absolutely massive specimen of a griffon. Its onyx black, almost purplish, plumage trailing away from an equally black beak down its chest and to its front talons, before shifting to a spotted white back and hind paws.
It does not stare at you, gaze fixed on the now-dead Greedy Troll and the torso it had ripped away the rest of the corpse.
In the blink of an eye, it tears the chest open and pulls out the beast's heart with its beak, gulping it down in one single bite.
The creature caws once, then you see its body shudder as energies flood its form prompting further change, muscles grow a tad larger, the claws grow sharper. The reflexive flex afterwards pulping the head beneath it.
Only after the finish of the change does it seem to notice the horde of stupefied trolls and four confused dwarfs staring at it.
The beast screeches and lightning crackles along its body, making its fur and feathers bristle, then it
dissapears.
The trolls die in a blur of screams and feathers, the four of you staring as the beast concludes its grisly work it stops and stares at you. Its eyes roaming over the four of you, looking for any sign of threat or danger.
You note with some trepidation that its eyes hone in on your amulet, the glint of silver seeming to captivate it for a moment before its greater intelligence pushes back against the instinct. The beast caws again, quieter now but still loud enough to echo for a good few meters, then digs through the pile of gore for a particularly shiny piece of gold that Greedy Troll had before blasting off into the air with a pump of its onyx wings.
Brokk exhales loudly through his teeth, shouldering his crossbow and taking a deep drink from his belt flask.
"We should tell the king," he says eventually.
You nod in agreement.
…
"My boys came about two minutes later, we packed up the trolls the Rhunrikki killed earlier and came to you as soon as possible," Brokk finishes his report from beside you.
King Otrek's mouth is set into a grim line at the news. Gormak, Moira, and the few other elders that arrived early for this year's session all have pensive looks on their faces.
"Any signs of chaotic taint?" King Otrek finally says after a while.
"Can't say my King," Brokk says, looking at you expectantly.
You cough before replying, "Not enough time to get a good look, but my gut says no. Ate Greedy Trolls yes, and seems to be eating them exclusively or at least the majority of its diet consists of the things as well. But Greedy Trolls are a step removed from their progenitor. I'd reckon that they're maybe as tainted as any other weird beastie we see up here; exposed to a lot of mutagenic magic, but not direct corruption like the Greedy One. Still would do to verify of course."
"Thank you Rhunrikki, Brokk, I'm giving your boys a task to pursue when they aren't too busy keeping everything else at bay. Track that beast, make sure it doesn't hurt any dwarfs and kill it if it does, Griffons aren't usually the type to attack without feeling provoked. The two that I killed all those years ago probably felt I was threatening their food supply If I can hazard a guess, but who knows what's happened to the beast after its eaten who knows how many Greedy Troll hearts," the king orders, tone serious.
"Aye, I'll have a few boys that can be spared on it immediately my King,"
Otrek nods, "We'll wait for everyone else to get here before we move on, in the meantime just drink and think my Elders."
Gormak snorts while Moira slides a mug over to everyone from her coveted position near the ale cart.
You take the mug she slides over graciously, mind abuzz while you drink.
Something tingled in the back of your head as you recalled that moment. Both the troll's odd declaration and the griffon's reaction to eating its heart. As for the latter, the energy and growth the griffon experienced when it ate the heart only made you curious as to just how strong the Greedy One's heart would be. What sort of energy did that thing contain and just much more would its progenitor produce? Perhaps..
...something to test later.
...
Only when the last few elders arrive, three seconds early of course, does King Otrek finally clear his throat and bid everyone to listen to him.
"I have received reports, very few and sparse, for the runner was assaulted and the message badly damaged in the journey. The boy is fine, thank small mercies, but the long and short of it is that Grimnir is on the warpath. When the lad left Ungor, the news was only days old, and is a good few months out of date by now, but this time Kadrin was besieged by a horde of daemons…" the king begins.
You, and most of the elders present, frown. This boded ill.
"While Grimnir was visiting," the King continues with a grim smile.
Nevermind then.
"He slew the horde in its entirety as expected, but the important news is the announcement he made when he returned to Karaz A Karak. The Ancestor called for a throng, from every hold able to volunteer its resources, from every clan with the numbers, from every
dwarf with the will and desire. He calls to clear the mountains, and drive the beasts
back," he finishes with grim resolve.
The hall is silent.
"How much can we contribute?" Gormak asks, the first one to speak after hearing the news.
"Our fair share, but only if we manage to clear either a way out of Trollbane pass or complete the Underway route. If we can't do either, then we can link up with the throng when it eventually gets up here I imagine. Not sure how long it'll take for Grimnir to finish, but at least a decade or two to prepare the logistics for mobilizing the entire Realms." Otrek says after a moment of contemplation.
"Well, at least there's a bit of time to get the throng ready, can't be embarrassing ourselves in front of the Ancestor," Moira says.
All nod in agreement, tugging their beards or plaits unnecessarily.
Well.
…
You are in your workshop, having been inspired both by the sight you saw earlier that day and the knowledge that an
ancestor is calling the dwarfs to war. The rush of energy filling the hold at the release of this news doesn't fail to catch you in its grip either.
You stare at the Greedy One's heart, then down at a barrel of Troll's blood.
Tests need to be done, you're feeling
inspired.
…
You spit onto the floor, wiping your axe clean on a nearby rag.
Well, at least you know what this damn thing can do.
You glare at the beating heart, pumping blood while the now dead Greedy Troll's corpse cools on the ground.
Test 90 concluded, results reveal that placing the heart in the corpse of a dead troll revives the beast and begins transforming it into a Greedy Troll.
Further testing cancelled.
You're sure of several things now:
- The heart has stupendous regenerative abilities. Being able to revive trolls, and thanks to previous tests, you know it only works on trolls.
- The heart confers a tremendous amount of energy, seemingly endlessly.
You're sure that whatever Rune you create with this damn thing will be incredibly energetic, more so than usual. It would make a regeneration rune you think could at the very least regrow limbs in seconds if concentrated to an individual, and heal broken limbs if spread out through something like a Banner Rune. Defensive Runes too would be incredibly powerful, if you had this heart when you had made your amulet it would have made the shield far more powerful, perhaps even reflect physical attacks as well. The limits are endless, and many of your theories ended up being proven correct. Frankly its a bit disappointing to have been right the first time, admittedly you were surprised by some things, and you're sure the damn thing will have one last trick in store for you, but you won't really know until you put it to use on a Rune.
…
- Critical Fail threshold reached, Grimnir calls for a Great Throng, one to wipe the mountains clear of daemonic taint once more.
- Epiphany! 1d2 +2 =3 progress to random research. Greedy One's Heart completed
- The mystery revealed? A griffon that consumes greedy troll parts has been found and many believe it is the source of the mysterious deaths these past few decades. ???
Gain:
-
Greedy One's Heart Trait Revealed, Pulling from the Deep: Energy eternal, drawing without end from the deepest places of the earth and the oldest magics. Whatever Rune is made from this baleful thing will not only be incredibly powerful, beyond even the scope of the original rune, but also never falter, never cease, and endure until the world's ending.
...
You have (5 - 1) = 4 actions and (3 -1) =2 apprentice actions this turn:
General:
[ ] Odd Places 3/10: Look on Master Yorri's map and try and discover one of his marked locations. The locations will certainly be odd, but whether they'll be useful will remain to be seen.
[Cost: 1 action] Roll for usefulness.
[X] Teach your apprentices.
[Cost: 1 Action] Locked in for 0 turns. Apprentices can now be released into the world
- [ ] Release them: Your bumbling charges are now of an age where they can begin the journeyman's trial. It will be perilous, but considering the state of things right now, its unlike they'll leave the immediate area or the hold for a while yet.
[Cost: 2 apprentice actions permanently] Action cost will switch to Snerra
- [ ] Hold them: They aren't ready yet, a brew that needs just a bit more time to age, a bar of metal not quite the right shade of plum. You retain their services, though technically you could hold them here for eternity, it would not look good to do so past their second century.
[Cost: Delayed Journeyman's trial]
[X] Teach your apprentice.
[Cost: 2 Apprentice Actions] Locked in for 2 turns.
Requests: Denote which simple request will receive the Apprentice Action in your plan.
[ ] [Simple] The Underway: King Otrek does not mince words, he wants the connection to the Underway ready as soon as possible. The number of monsters that are appearing have not only forced the throng into ever increasing levels of conflict, but slowed overland travel and trade to a near standstill. The north is effectively being cut off from the rest of the Karaz Ankor inch by inch. He is calling any aid a dwarf can provide in excavating the connection south.
[Cost: variable normal and apprentice actions] Productivity Like No Other will proc. 2 Progress per action, 1 progress per apprentice action. 17 out of (25+ 15[Delayed South]) =40 Progress. 5 progress a turn regardless of input.
[ ] [Simple] Apprentice work: your not
that young, but still young, charges are now of an age you feel it acceptable for them to do a bit of exploration. Send your apprentices out into the hold and pick up a few tasks from whoever offers it to them. Give them a bit of experience for their upcoming task as journeymen and let them build a reputation in the hold. You'll of course critique their work and use it as a learning experience as any good master ought to.
[Cost: variable apprentice actions.] Roll for usefulness. 1 Roll per apprentice action.
[ ] [Difficult] A Higher Standard Pt. 1: You've gazed upon the face of the Ancestors a lot in the past few years, especially when you were making your alchemical flame spitters, and it's inspired you. A banner to rally behind, something that dwarfs will look to and fight all the harder with it at their back. A banner worthy of the hold of Kraka Drakk to be held aloft with pride by an equally worthy standard bearer.
[Cost: 1 action] If a rune you want requires special ingredients that you don't have access to I will alert you.
- [ ] Choose: choose three runes you want on the weapon.
- [ ] Theme: write in a theme for the weapon. (I will roll to see if you find a new combo)
- [ ] GM: Leave it to the GM. (I will roll to see if you find a new combo)
[ ] [Difficult] Write In Pt. 1:You've had an idea! This is the template for write in item request! Please put down the name, description and type of equipment/item you want made. Pt 2 of the item will cost differently depending on the number of items and potentially the size of it as well. A base guideline for Pt.2 costs will be at the bottom of the post.
[Cost: 1 action] If a rune you want requires special ingredients that you don't have access to I will alert you.
- [ ] Choose: choose three runes you want on the weapon.
- [ ] Theme: write in a theme for the weapon. (I will roll to see if you find a new combo)
- [ ] GM: Leave it to the GM. (I will roll to see if you find a new combo)
Research: Your career and your honour demand you hone your craft, and it's usually done through poking at runes and seeing what works.
[ ] Silverwood: An entire forest odd silvery Wutroth is now under your ownership. While a large profit driver as you are well aware, there's an odd feeling in your belly when you look at the stuff. Beautiful like nothing else, and stronger than regular Wutroth as well. You know a few runes that require Wutroth to make, but maybe this has something special to it as well?
[Cost: 4 actions] Student of the Odd will proc.
[ ] Fire Stones: This deep orange gem glows with never-ending heat, never enough to boil water, but enough to sleep comfortably at night and keep a bowl of stew warm long after it's left the stove. You have a few theories about how useful the material will be, but you can't ever be sure. At least it's likely to be a profitable resource when you can get some actual production going though.
[Cost: 4 actions] Student of the Odd will proc.
[ ] The Secrets of Light?: That moment with the shield and sunray, the light of your torch glinting off the crystal, both sparked something in your mind. An ember that refused to be burned out. You've done permutations to the standard Rune of Light and a few on Master Yorri's Rune of Reflection, but maybe there could be more?
[Cost: (8 -2) =6 Actions] Student of the Odd will proc.
[ ] The Movement of things: The Rune of Waking or Animation as some would call it is a rare rune. How Master Yorri knows both the regular and Master Rune could be explained by either a harrowing adventure full of terror, beasties and treasure or by something as mundane as asking a friend, you could never be sure with the man. Still, this was a rune that, to your frustration, you haven't had much chance to tinker with. Maybe just a peak?
[Cost: 8 actions] Student of the Odd will proc.
[ ] The Rune Metal Pt. 4: You've made Adamant, a form of Gromril harder and stronger than any you've ever seen. The metal abhors magic, even that of Runes to some extent
[Cost: 8 actions] Student of the Odd and Mind of Metal will proc.
[ ] Understand a Master Rune: The same idea as studying any rune in theory, in practice it takes a lot longer and there's often a large chance of explosions.
[Cost: 16 actions] Depending on the choice, Student of the Odd and/or Mind of Metal may proc.
Order: You can order 1 new item a turn, but can have as many orders ongoing as you want. Don't hoard mats. +2 turns on orders[The North, Alone]
[ ]Write-in:
- [ ] Kingly Authority: You may petition King Otrek to flex his political muscle to expedite the process.
[Cost: 5,10,15, Favour from King Otrek, depending on tier] -1 turn taken on order.
[ ] Kingly Authority: You may petition King Otrek to flex his political muscle to order something for your use.
[Cost: 5,10,15, Favour from King Otrek, depending on tier] +1 Order.
Write in Equipment Action Costs:
1 Action - 1 standard piece of equipment.
2 Actions - Multiple pieces of equipment or Large individual items
3 Actions - Very Large individual items or a full/near full set of items.
Remember to vote by plan. There will be a two-hour moratorium for discussion.
AN: So the Griffon thing was several series of rolls that came from one of my counters interacting with my rolls for what happened when the Greedy One died. This is one of the few things Ive got in place to make sure the timeline isn't too static or predictable and make the world feel more alive and reactive to your actions. Anywho, thanks for reading and don't forget to C&C :^)
EDIT: For those of you who want to know, the Griffon is colored like a Crow/Raven and a Snow leopard. Its beak is also just a bit more raven-y than it is eagle-y
