They say this world is one of balance. For all you gain, you have to give something in return...
Shadows of the Past
- Thread starter Azel
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Prelude
- Location
- Germany
They say this world is one of balance. For all you gain, you have to give something in return. It may look as if one could bypass this simple rule, but in the end, fate will always get its due. If you believe in this, they say, then the fall is no surprise. With every road built, it would move a bit closer. With every garden grown, it's hardships would be felt all the more. With every piece of knowledge written into tomes, the fires that to come would burn all the brighter.
The great empire of Cualli had done all of these things. Nobody knew when or how it had begun, for it stood for so long that even its own history had passed into myth. For hundreds of generations, it had spread ever farther and risen ever higher. From the Burning Isles to the south, to the vast expanses of the Broken Sands to the north. From the endless ocean to the west, to the White Peaks in the east. The wild lands where tamed and dense jungles turned to farms and gardens to feed the great cities. No man or woman living in it knew need, for the arcane might of its scholars and the wonders they wrought meant that the meanest servant could live like a lord.
It must have seemed as if this realm would stand forever, but it was not meant to be. For all it had gained, it would have to pay a terrible price and pay it did. Nobody knows how it happened. To few survived the darkness that followed and so Cualli passed back into the realm of myths. Some say that its ways and lack of respect had offended the gods and they've send terrible plagues to punish man. Others claim the spirits of the land rose up to become what they where meant to be once more instead of the forms that man had tried to press them into. Sometimes it is said the scholars called terrible demons into their service and that they broke free to hunt and consume all that they laid eyes upon. Nobody knows the truth and after so many generations have passed, perhaps nobody ever will.
A broken world is all that is left. The jungle took back what was once claimed from him and great trees stand in between the shattered ruins of the past. Strange and terrible creatures stalk their shadows, preying on the unwary who venture too far into the wilds. Not just jaguars and coyotes, but far stranger things. Of walking trees they speak, of great beasts of flesh and bone that seem to be born from nightmares and even the dead may not rest forever in the deepest underbrush. In some places, the very air itself is said to still bear the taint of past sins and chokes the life out of any who breath it while in others the waters are so tainted that they make the flesh rot from your bones, should just a single drop fall on your skin.
So do the stories say. Carried from mouth to mouth by those who brave the paths between the trees to carry them among the few that live between what's left of their ancestors glory.
But it is not great empires and calamities that govern your life, for you are born into a simple tribe. Other matters are much closer at hand.
Pick Tribe:
[] [Tribe] Farmers
While the great farms of the past are gone, they still left behind rich soils and some places are still safe enough to make use of them. Your tribe is among those who found such a spot and ever since tends to these lends to eek out a living. Not every harvest is plentiful, but starvation is rarely a concern and the passing traders gladly bring rare goods from other settlements for any surplus you sell them. Yet it is also risky to stay in one place forever, for the predators of the jungles may find you all too easily, be they beast or man. Yet it is mostly a peaceful life and the endless patience of corn and cassava mean that many of your tribe have time for others matters then farming too.
[] [Tribe] Hunters
It may be risky to constantly move through the underbrush, but yet it can also be rewarding. As long as you do not deviate from the safe passages passed down by your fathers, the creatures of the wild rarely bother you, but sloth and peccary make for a filling meal and many others who you meet in your travels will gladly trade for their pelts and meat. It is still a life of many dangers and hardships and every member of the tribe is expected to pull his own weight. There can be no weak hunters, lest they become prey.
Yet one cannot ignore the past, for wisdom may be gleamed from it. The fall has cost these lands much and your tribe has learned its lesson from it to avoid such dire events in the future.
Pick a tribal value:
[] [Value] Oral History
Among your people it is believed that the Cualli forgot to much about themselves in their complacency. Whatever they have lost, it might have prevented the fall. So your people value stories about the past above all else and seek wisdom from the tales of success and failure of their fathers.
[] [Value] Strength Above All
What use is there to moan about a past that will never come again? Your tribe lives in the here and now, not in the stories of before. By strength of arm and wit they survive from day to day. It was sloth and weakness that brought down Cualli and your people strive to never show either.
[] [Value] Knowing The Spirits
Strange things walk among the trees, just beyond mans ability to see. Cualli was blinded by its own power and forgot to see that around itself. It is not the lore of magic or history that your tribe guards, but about the land and its inhabitants.
Among these people you are born. Just another child among many to be brought into this world. And yet, maybe you will stand apart from all the others. So much has been lost, waiting to be reclaimed. So much has changed, waiting to be discovered. So much was destroyed, waiting to be rebuild.
The world has changed so much, why should it not change again?
But this lies in your future, because right now, you are just another babe in the arms of a mother. Whatever grand ambitions you will have some day, it will have to begin with growing up.
You are a:
[] [Gender] Boy
[] [Gender] Girl
Authors Note:
The setting of Cualli is, as you've might have noticed, based on pre-columbian Mesoamerica. I've always wanted to run something a bit different from the usual medieval fantasy, yet recognizable enough for those enjoying the genre.
What held me back the most was how to run the character generation. This quest is going to have a somewhat complex homebrew mechanics part and I always dreaded to ask in the first post to basically write a tax form worth of arcane numbers, which require a lengthy document to understand.
Therefore, I decided to start with the yet unnamed hero of this story in his infancy. Character generation will be done over the course of a few chapters of growing up, with the environment and choices impacting who he or she will be. So no asking for Strength score on a scale from 1 to 10, but rather who this person you want play is as a person.
Obviously, you will get the lengthy document about how everything works in due time.
The great empire of Cualli had done all of these things. Nobody knew when or how it had begun, for it stood for so long that even its own history had passed into myth. For hundreds of generations, it had spread ever farther and risen ever higher. From the Burning Isles to the south, to the vast expanses of the Broken Sands to the north. From the endless ocean to the west, to the White Peaks in the east. The wild lands where tamed and dense jungles turned to farms and gardens to feed the great cities. No man or woman living in it knew need, for the arcane might of its scholars and the wonders they wrought meant that the meanest servant could live like a lord.
It must have seemed as if this realm would stand forever, but it was not meant to be. For all it had gained, it would have to pay a terrible price and pay it did. Nobody knows how it happened. To few survived the darkness that followed and so Cualli passed back into the realm of myths. Some say that its ways and lack of respect had offended the gods and they've send terrible plagues to punish man. Others claim the spirits of the land rose up to become what they where meant to be once more instead of the forms that man had tried to press them into. Sometimes it is said the scholars called terrible demons into their service and that they broke free to hunt and consume all that they laid eyes upon. Nobody knows the truth and after so many generations have passed, perhaps nobody ever will.
A broken world is all that is left. The jungle took back what was once claimed from him and great trees stand in between the shattered ruins of the past. Strange and terrible creatures stalk their shadows, preying on the unwary who venture too far into the wilds. Not just jaguars and coyotes, but far stranger things. Of walking trees they speak, of great beasts of flesh and bone that seem to be born from nightmares and even the dead may not rest forever in the deepest underbrush. In some places, the very air itself is said to still bear the taint of past sins and chokes the life out of any who breath it while in others the waters are so tainted that they make the flesh rot from your bones, should just a single drop fall on your skin.
So do the stories say. Carried from mouth to mouth by those who brave the paths between the trees to carry them among the few that live between what's left of their ancestors glory.
But it is not great empires and calamities that govern your life, for you are born into a simple tribe. Other matters are much closer at hand.
Pick Tribe:
[] [Tribe] Farmers
While the great farms of the past are gone, they still left behind rich soils and some places are still safe enough to make use of them. Your tribe is among those who found such a spot and ever since tends to these lends to eek out a living. Not every harvest is plentiful, but starvation is rarely a concern and the passing traders gladly bring rare goods from other settlements for any surplus you sell them. Yet it is also risky to stay in one place forever, for the predators of the jungles may find you all too easily, be they beast or man. Yet it is mostly a peaceful life and the endless patience of corn and cassava mean that many of your tribe have time for others matters then farming too.
[] [Tribe] Hunters
It may be risky to constantly move through the underbrush, but yet it can also be rewarding. As long as you do not deviate from the safe passages passed down by your fathers, the creatures of the wild rarely bother you, but sloth and peccary make for a filling meal and many others who you meet in your travels will gladly trade for their pelts and meat. It is still a life of many dangers and hardships and every member of the tribe is expected to pull his own weight. There can be no weak hunters, lest they become prey.
Yet one cannot ignore the past, for wisdom may be gleamed from it. The fall has cost these lands much and your tribe has learned its lesson from it to avoid such dire events in the future.
Pick a tribal value:
[] [Value] Oral History
Among your people it is believed that the Cualli forgot to much about themselves in their complacency. Whatever they have lost, it might have prevented the fall. So your people value stories about the past above all else and seek wisdom from the tales of success and failure of their fathers.
[] [Value] Strength Above All
What use is there to moan about a past that will never come again? Your tribe lives in the here and now, not in the stories of before. By strength of arm and wit they survive from day to day. It was sloth and weakness that brought down Cualli and your people strive to never show either.
[] [Value] Knowing The Spirits
Strange things walk among the trees, just beyond mans ability to see. Cualli was blinded by its own power and forgot to see that around itself. It is not the lore of magic or history that your tribe guards, but about the land and its inhabitants.
Among these people you are born. Just another child among many to be brought into this world. And yet, maybe you will stand apart from all the others. So much has been lost, waiting to be reclaimed. So much has changed, waiting to be discovered. So much was destroyed, waiting to be rebuild.
The world has changed so much, why should it not change again?
But this lies in your future, because right now, you are just another babe in the arms of a mother. Whatever grand ambitions you will have some day, it will have to begin with growing up.
You are a:
[] [Gender] Boy
[] [Gender] Girl
Authors Note:
The setting of Cualli is, as you've might have noticed, based on pre-columbian Mesoamerica. I've always wanted to run something a bit different from the usual medieval fantasy, yet recognizable enough for those enjoying the genre.
What held me back the most was how to run the character generation. This quest is going to have a somewhat complex homebrew mechanics part and I always dreaded to ask in the first post to basically write a tax form worth of arcane numbers, which require a lengthy document to understand.
Therefore, I decided to start with the yet unnamed hero of this story in his infancy. Character generation will be done over the course of a few chapters of growing up, with the environment and choices impacting who he or she will be. So no asking for Strength score on a scale from 1 to 10, but rather who this person you want play is as a person.
Obviously, you will get the lengthy document about how everything works in due time.
Prologue 1: Boredom
- Location
- Germany
You idly throw another rock into the water. For almost ten days now, you are already done with your chores before the sun has reached it's zenith. Not that you appreciate the drudgery. A girl of merely eight years is not supposed to do any of the important work in the encampment. It is just an endless stream of get this, take that, bring this over there and don't pester the people working and so on. The life of a hunter tribe braving the deep jungle on unbeaten paths is supposed to be exciting or at least that's what the children of the farmers you always meet near the end of the year tell you, but so far, you can't really agree.
When the tribe marches, you are right in the middle of the trek. Among whining babes, expecting mothers and those to old or crippled to go very fast. Usually bearing a pack that weighs as much as yourself. You just walk all day, except when a runner comes back from the scouts and tells you to make camp for the night. Then you sleep a few hours, before marching a few hours more, stopping for a small meal, marching some more and repeating that until your reach the next clearing in your yearly path.
And when you are not on the move, you sit among the tents all day doing this and that for everyone who can't be bothered to walk ten steps on his own. Even if your mother Tlalli is around you all day, she rarely has time for you. If she is not cooking, she is taking care of the small children and if those are quiet for a moment, she is tending to your stocks. That apparently must be done for what feels like half a day on each and every day, even if all she does is turning fruit and meat around, but apparently that is vital work and she can't just stop for a while to do something with you.
It's much better when your father Iuitl comes back from a hunt with his group. While he is never there for more then a few days before going back out, he always has a bit of time for you. On the other hand, the hunting parties returning means other work. Not the dull, but the gross kind. Gutting a pig is obviously nothing you are allowed to do, because you can apparently spoil meat by being to dumb to cut it, which seems like kind of a achievement to you. Your part is always to gather the guts and other offal left over from the butchering and stuff it into the offering pots. Large clay pots filled to the brim with the half-rotten mush left of the last hunt. Calling the stench stomach turning is greatly underplaying just how disgusting the smell can become after a while and even with the lid closed, it still wafts out until you seal the pot with fresh clay again.
Apparently the spirits like these things. Why, you can't even guess, but the elders always say that it's of great importance to properly pack away the leftovers of butchery, lest they come on their own and think your tribe denies them their due.
You are Yaxkin, the sun in the life of your parents, and you are, in a word, bored.
Another rock flows into the small stream. Where just a few weeks ago a few toads and salamanders would have been startled by it, nothing stirs. Pickings have been lean for a while now and when another hunting party came back with empty hands, the woman had started to hunt and cook those things living here to stretch the rations a bit.
You sigh once, not out of any real emotion, but more as a statement to end your visit to the stream bordering the camp. The tribe will probably move on in a bit to the next clearing, where the game is more plenty again. Not that much longer until you reach that farmer village again. Maybe you complain quite loudly about their pestering you for stories, but you do quite like the farmer children, for they seem to always have time to keep you company at least.
As you wander between the tents and back to the central fireplace though, you spot someone who makes you quickly run the rest of the way. Your father has returned and is speaking to the chief. You can't just barge into him for a hug as it is your first impulse, especially with how grim the chief looks at the three sloths that seem to be your fathers parties whole catch, but at least you can stay and listen in.
"So nothing more over at the ruins either?" "Should we have plucked the young from their mothers teats? The game is gone already. I think the spirits scared off what little was left so that we move on. Ill omens if we stay any longer if you ask me." The chief just shook his head at that and gestured to your father to pass the small catch to the woman waiting with a knife in hand. "Let the shaman decide what the spirits want. He wishes to stay a few days longer, so that he can gather some herbs among the ruins. If there's nothing left there to hunt anyway, he will move out tomorrow. Besides, there are two more parties out and they need to come back before we break camp." "I take it I shall gather them?" "Indeed." Then the chief swept his gaze over the gathered people and nodded once to confirm what he already said. "Be ready to break camp in four days. We will move once everyone has returned and the offerings to the spirits where made."
And just like that, your mood had soured again. Breaking camp means days of hauling things from one place to another, followed by marches, followed by hauling things from one place to another in the new camp. Apparently this was your punishment for complaining too loudly about having nothing to do, even if it was just in your head. And your father will move out again before spending any time with you. In fact, he is already talking to the others of his party and will probably be gone by sunrise.
It is not much longer until you are deemed old enough to learn a trade or join the hunters and gatherers. But right now? That is too far off. You are not one of the little kids anymore and while you can't match the skills and strength of the hunters, you are certainly capable of doing something that isn't just walking around lugging things.
With fire in your heart, you walk up to your father. A mere four days is rather quick to break camp and able hands will be in short supply. As distracted as he is, you might just wheedle out his approval for you to do something interesting.
You are going to ask him to...
[] Join him on his way to the hunter camps.
The hunter parties always make smaller camps to store their supplies and sleep at night. While it's not entirely safe to go there since they are rather far out, it's not truly dangerous either. Surely he wouldn't mind you coming along this time.
[] Join the shaman to gather herbs.
While it's a bit of thankless task to help the old man in his errands, he loves to talk with anyone when he has the time. On the journey to the ruins, you can certainly get some interesting stories out of him with no other work distracting him. Learning a bit about his trade and the spirits would be great.
[] Join the party giving the offerings to the spirits.
You've always wanted to see a real spirit of the jungle. The elders always tell about the strange and terrifying things around you, but you never saw one yourself. You can't recall a single group venturing out for an offering running into trouble, so why shouldn't you be allowed to sate your curiosity?
[] Stay at camp.
On a second thought, maybe waiting a while longer isn't so bad. The jungle is dangerous after all.
AN: Your name, Yaxkin, is not yet set in stone. You will be able to change it at the ende of the prologue.
When the tribe marches, you are right in the middle of the trek. Among whining babes, expecting mothers and those to old or crippled to go very fast. Usually bearing a pack that weighs as much as yourself. You just walk all day, except when a runner comes back from the scouts and tells you to make camp for the night. Then you sleep a few hours, before marching a few hours more, stopping for a small meal, marching some more and repeating that until your reach the next clearing in your yearly path.
And when you are not on the move, you sit among the tents all day doing this and that for everyone who can't be bothered to walk ten steps on his own. Even if your mother Tlalli is around you all day, she rarely has time for you. If she is not cooking, she is taking care of the small children and if those are quiet for a moment, she is tending to your stocks. That apparently must be done for what feels like half a day on each and every day, even if all she does is turning fruit and meat around, but apparently that is vital work and she can't just stop for a while to do something with you.
It's much better when your father Iuitl comes back from a hunt with his group. While he is never there for more then a few days before going back out, he always has a bit of time for you. On the other hand, the hunting parties returning means other work. Not the dull, but the gross kind. Gutting a pig is obviously nothing you are allowed to do, because you can apparently spoil meat by being to dumb to cut it, which seems like kind of a achievement to you. Your part is always to gather the guts and other offal left over from the butchering and stuff it into the offering pots. Large clay pots filled to the brim with the half-rotten mush left of the last hunt. Calling the stench stomach turning is greatly underplaying just how disgusting the smell can become after a while and even with the lid closed, it still wafts out until you seal the pot with fresh clay again.
Apparently the spirits like these things. Why, you can't even guess, but the elders always say that it's of great importance to properly pack away the leftovers of butchery, lest they come on their own and think your tribe denies them their due.
You are Yaxkin, the sun in the life of your parents, and you are, in a word, bored.
Another rock flows into the small stream. Where just a few weeks ago a few toads and salamanders would have been startled by it, nothing stirs. Pickings have been lean for a while now and when another hunting party came back with empty hands, the woman had started to hunt and cook those things living here to stretch the rations a bit.
You sigh once, not out of any real emotion, but more as a statement to end your visit to the stream bordering the camp. The tribe will probably move on in a bit to the next clearing, where the game is more plenty again. Not that much longer until you reach that farmer village again. Maybe you complain quite loudly about their pestering you for stories, but you do quite like the farmer children, for they seem to always have time to keep you company at least.
As you wander between the tents and back to the central fireplace though, you spot someone who makes you quickly run the rest of the way. Your father has returned and is speaking to the chief. You can't just barge into him for a hug as it is your first impulse, especially with how grim the chief looks at the three sloths that seem to be your fathers parties whole catch, but at least you can stay and listen in.
"So nothing more over at the ruins either?" "Should we have plucked the young from their mothers teats? The game is gone already. I think the spirits scared off what little was left so that we move on. Ill omens if we stay any longer if you ask me." The chief just shook his head at that and gestured to your father to pass the small catch to the woman waiting with a knife in hand. "Let the shaman decide what the spirits want. He wishes to stay a few days longer, so that he can gather some herbs among the ruins. If there's nothing left there to hunt anyway, he will move out tomorrow. Besides, there are two more parties out and they need to come back before we break camp." "I take it I shall gather them?" "Indeed." Then the chief swept his gaze over the gathered people and nodded once to confirm what he already said. "Be ready to break camp in four days. We will move once everyone has returned and the offerings to the spirits where made."
And just like that, your mood had soured again. Breaking camp means days of hauling things from one place to another, followed by marches, followed by hauling things from one place to another in the new camp. Apparently this was your punishment for complaining too loudly about having nothing to do, even if it was just in your head. And your father will move out again before spending any time with you. In fact, he is already talking to the others of his party and will probably be gone by sunrise.
It is not much longer until you are deemed old enough to learn a trade or join the hunters and gatherers. But right now? That is too far off. You are not one of the little kids anymore and while you can't match the skills and strength of the hunters, you are certainly capable of doing something that isn't just walking around lugging things.
With fire in your heart, you walk up to your father. A mere four days is rather quick to break camp and able hands will be in short supply. As distracted as he is, you might just wheedle out his approval for you to do something interesting.
You are going to ask him to...
[] Join him on his way to the hunter camps.
The hunter parties always make smaller camps to store their supplies and sleep at night. While it's not entirely safe to go there since they are rather far out, it's not truly dangerous either. Surely he wouldn't mind you coming along this time.
[] Join the shaman to gather herbs.
While it's a bit of thankless task to help the old man in his errands, he loves to talk with anyone when he has the time. On the journey to the ruins, you can certainly get some interesting stories out of him with no other work distracting him. Learning a bit about his trade and the spirits would be great.
[] Join the party giving the offerings to the spirits.
You've always wanted to see a real spirit of the jungle. The elders always tell about the strange and terrifying things around you, but you never saw one yourself. You can't recall a single group venturing out for an offering running into trouble, so why shouldn't you be allowed to sate your curiosity?
[] Stay at camp.
On a second thought, maybe waiting a while longer isn't so bad. The jungle is dangerous after all.
AN: Your name, Yaxkin, is not yet set in stone. You will be able to change it at the ende of the prologue.
Prologue 2: The First Adventure
- Location
- Germany
While he always seemed calm and easy-going, you are quickly discovering a quite different side of Mahuizoh the shaman on your way. As you had guessed, there's a distinct shortage of people helping him today. Aside from you, only Atl, a boy two years your senior, is there to help him and only a lone huntress is guiding your way and standing guard. The poor woman seems rather put off by the loudness of your little trek, but Mahuizoh insists on cramming as much knowledge as possible into you two before you reach the ruins.
He prattles down an endless list of plants and how they look before switching to descriptions of frogs and which ones you shouldn't touch. Just as you have already forgotten about most of the plants again, he switches back and needles you with questions. It's rather embarrassing to see his pitying look whenever you get a question wrong, but at least he never appears angry at your inability to tell the bark of different Sapote trees apart when you have never seen one before. At least not at you. He isn't shy about his displeasure at having to go out with such a tiny group just because the chieftain wants to leave in a hurry. It seems Mahuizoh had recommended to move on a while ago already, but was rebuffed multiple times.
In the end though, it's all worth it. You have seen your fair share of ruins on the marches between camp sites, but the clearing you reach after three hours of walking is far beyond what you imagined.
At first it's just a few overgrown foundations and a stone path that has become more uneven then the jungle floor with all the tree roots breaching through its cracks, but as if you've crossed an invisible boundary, the trees just stop growing at some point. A little while longer you walk among shattered houses and even Mahuizoh keeps quite while you wonder at the whole city you have wandered into. Their roofs caved in long ago and the remaining walls covered in moss and lichen. A few times you try to take a peek into the empty interiors, but can spot nothing but ferns and rubble within them before you are called by the huntress to keep up and not to dawdle.
At last you reach a large pile of rubble, which apparently was a once a very tall and impressive building judging by the broken wall two men in height that it leans against. Mahuizoh waves the huntress to stop for a moment before taking a few steps up the pile and waving to Atl and you. "Come on, children. I want you to have a good look at this." You don't wait a second at that request and rush up the broken stones, Atl following right behind you, and from the top of it you look over the field of ruins before you.
Broken houses as far as the eye can see. You can only faintly spot the other end of the field where the jungle begins again, and in between there is so much. It's hard to comprehend just how many people must have lived here once. If everyone in your tribe had a score of houses for himself, you still wouldn't even use a fraction of this place. And in between, there are so many even bigger houses, even if they are half collapsed. Mansions they were called, you dimly recall, and even of those there are enough for every single member of the tribe to have one all for himself. Lastly, your eyes linger on the greatest of them all—a great building with many tiers and stories rises in the center of the ruins. Before it stands a great, quadratic pillar of stone with a faintly shimmering and gleaming tip.
You wonder what this place must have looked liked in the past, when Mahuizoh finally reaches the top of the rubble pile behind you and lays a hand on Atl and your shoulders each. "It is quite different to see it for yourself, isn't it? Not all tall tales by old men. Look as long as you like, but don't wander off. We will take a break before starting to gather the plants."
You nod absentmindedly as he points to a broken wall there huntress is already sitting on while rummaging in her pack. Stories are what you came for on this trip, but as you drink in the view from your vantage point, you silently decide that this alone was worth it.
Nonetheless, after a while longer, you creep back down the broken stones, leaving Atl up there alone for a while. Mahuizoh had sat down in some distance to the huntress and was eating a few dried fruit from his pack as you sat down next to him.
"Something you wanted to ask me Yaxkin?" He grins broadly as you look at him in surprise. "Oh, don't be like that. I know quite well that a young girl isn't asking to pluck herbs for me without a reason. Not the ruins that you wanted to see, then?"
"That too, but... You are always so busy. I thought, you would maybe tell me a bit about the spirits and the world?"
"If that isn't a pleasant surprise." He offers you some fruit which you eagerly take while nodding towards the place where the huntress is sitting. Apparently Atl joined her and tries to ask her questions too, but is utterly ignored by her. "It's rare these days for young folk to ask me about such things. They always want to hear the boasting of the hunters about how big a sow they got and how many men high that jaguar was they escaped so narrowly. Well then. What question drove you to me?"
"What are the spirits? Where do they come from and why do they want offerings from us?"
"Not the easy questions then. What they are, I think no man can truly say. I can only tell you what they are made from and that, my girl, is magic. The power that once made our forefathers great is not something foreign to them, but their very flesh and blood. Strange powers do they wield without any effort. Some can become one with the shadows around them as easily as if they stepped through a tent flap. Others crawl though the earth and stone like fishes in the water. It's only right and just that we make offerings to them. Much ill they could bring down on us if they feel slighted by our presence in their lands, so they always get their fair share of what we take. It would be folly to fight the spirits, for they ask for little and there is no victory against them. I've seen the young and brash strike them with knifes and arrows, but they all shattered like a clay urn upon striking their skin. Peace with them has served us well for as long as I can remember and it will still serve us well when you have grown into a old crone like me."
You mull over this for a bit as you chew on the fruits and some smoked meat from your own pack. If your forefathers could do the same? Swimming through the earth sure sounded strange, but maybe it was just as fun as in the water? It was probably a lot harder to see something though. "My mother sometimes told me of the dead walking. Is that something that spirits do? And why would they?" At this Mahuizoh sighs and looks into the distance for a bit. "What can I say? My life I dedicated to understand the spirits, but their ways are still strange to me to this day. I think they punish us for our bad deeds by doing these things."
He shakes his head with a sigh. "A long time ago, I've met a traveler. He had walked all the way from the sea through Cualli and seen many things. He told me of the greatest city. Far greater then this here. It was once the biggest and most important city in these lands. But now only the dead walk there. Twisted bones that walk of their own accord. All sharp teeth and claws, cobbled together from a dozen men. Of a great beast he spoke, like a centipede, but so large that it could look above the trees themselves and it too was made of nothing but broken bones fused together into this shape. They all wander the empty city to this day and nobody knows why or for what purpose. Like beasts they fall upon all who dare to approach the city, to add their bones to their endless number."
You grow quite at his words. Some part of you is afraid at the mere mention of these things, yet another stumbles about how outlandish it sounds. Then again, had some described the place you sit now to you, it would have sounded no less outlandish. What truly startles you though are his next words. "Maybe a young mind can find an answer where a old man set in his ways can not. What do you think is their reason for doing these things?"
Truth be told, you never really thought about this. Why do spirits do what they do?
[] [Reasoning] Write-In
After you give your answer, Mahuizoh just smiles and nods before rising. "Maybe I will show you something once we are done with our work. There are more things here to see then old stones and men." He gives no indication that your answer was either right or wrong like on the way here when he asked about the plants, and you honestly don't know what he thinks about it. Maybe it's just important to have an answer for yourself.
What will you do while working for Mahuizoh?
[] [Work] Gather plants as you are supposed to.
[] [Work] Sneak off when nobody notices to explore the ruins.
-[] [Work] Explore one of the mansions.
-[] [Work] Go into the large palace at the center of the city.
-[] [Work] Write-In
AN: And this marks your first trip away from the safety of your home. Mahuizoh was rather distracting while you walked through the jungle, so you didn't really have the attention to spare to your surroundings.
If you got any more questions or more specific ones for him, feel free to ask and I will answer them in the thread.
He prattles down an endless list of plants and how they look before switching to descriptions of frogs and which ones you shouldn't touch. Just as you have already forgotten about most of the plants again, he switches back and needles you with questions. It's rather embarrassing to see his pitying look whenever you get a question wrong, but at least he never appears angry at your inability to tell the bark of different Sapote trees apart when you have never seen one before. At least not at you. He isn't shy about his displeasure at having to go out with such a tiny group just because the chieftain wants to leave in a hurry. It seems Mahuizoh had recommended to move on a while ago already, but was rebuffed multiple times.
In the end though, it's all worth it. You have seen your fair share of ruins on the marches between camp sites, but the clearing you reach after three hours of walking is far beyond what you imagined.
At first it's just a few overgrown foundations and a stone path that has become more uneven then the jungle floor with all the tree roots breaching through its cracks, but as if you've crossed an invisible boundary, the trees just stop growing at some point. A little while longer you walk among shattered houses and even Mahuizoh keeps quite while you wonder at the whole city you have wandered into. Their roofs caved in long ago and the remaining walls covered in moss and lichen. A few times you try to take a peek into the empty interiors, but can spot nothing but ferns and rubble within them before you are called by the huntress to keep up and not to dawdle.
At last you reach a large pile of rubble, which apparently was a once a very tall and impressive building judging by the broken wall two men in height that it leans against. Mahuizoh waves the huntress to stop for a moment before taking a few steps up the pile and waving to Atl and you. "Come on, children. I want you to have a good look at this." You don't wait a second at that request and rush up the broken stones, Atl following right behind you, and from the top of it you look over the field of ruins before you.
Broken houses as far as the eye can see. You can only faintly spot the other end of the field where the jungle begins again, and in between there is so much. It's hard to comprehend just how many people must have lived here once. If everyone in your tribe had a score of houses for himself, you still wouldn't even use a fraction of this place. And in between, there are so many even bigger houses, even if they are half collapsed. Mansions they were called, you dimly recall, and even of those there are enough for every single member of the tribe to have one all for himself. Lastly, your eyes linger on the greatest of them all—a great building with many tiers and stories rises in the center of the ruins. Before it stands a great, quadratic pillar of stone with a faintly shimmering and gleaming tip.
You wonder what this place must have looked liked in the past, when Mahuizoh finally reaches the top of the rubble pile behind you and lays a hand on Atl and your shoulders each. "It is quite different to see it for yourself, isn't it? Not all tall tales by old men. Look as long as you like, but don't wander off. We will take a break before starting to gather the plants."
You nod absentmindedly as he points to a broken wall there huntress is already sitting on while rummaging in her pack. Stories are what you came for on this trip, but as you drink in the view from your vantage point, you silently decide that this alone was worth it.
Nonetheless, after a while longer, you creep back down the broken stones, leaving Atl up there alone for a while. Mahuizoh had sat down in some distance to the huntress and was eating a few dried fruit from his pack as you sat down next to him.
"Something you wanted to ask me Yaxkin?" He grins broadly as you look at him in surprise. "Oh, don't be like that. I know quite well that a young girl isn't asking to pluck herbs for me without a reason. Not the ruins that you wanted to see, then?"
"That too, but... You are always so busy. I thought, you would maybe tell me a bit about the spirits and the world?"
"If that isn't a pleasant surprise." He offers you some fruit which you eagerly take while nodding towards the place where the huntress is sitting. Apparently Atl joined her and tries to ask her questions too, but is utterly ignored by her. "It's rare these days for young folk to ask me about such things. They always want to hear the boasting of the hunters about how big a sow they got and how many men high that jaguar was they escaped so narrowly. Well then. What question drove you to me?"
"What are the spirits? Where do they come from and why do they want offerings from us?"
"Not the easy questions then. What they are, I think no man can truly say. I can only tell you what they are made from and that, my girl, is magic. The power that once made our forefathers great is not something foreign to them, but their very flesh and blood. Strange powers do they wield without any effort. Some can become one with the shadows around them as easily as if they stepped through a tent flap. Others crawl though the earth and stone like fishes in the water. It's only right and just that we make offerings to them. Much ill they could bring down on us if they feel slighted by our presence in their lands, so they always get their fair share of what we take. It would be folly to fight the spirits, for they ask for little and there is no victory against them. I've seen the young and brash strike them with knifes and arrows, but they all shattered like a clay urn upon striking their skin. Peace with them has served us well for as long as I can remember and it will still serve us well when you have grown into a old crone like me."
You mull over this for a bit as you chew on the fruits and some smoked meat from your own pack. If your forefathers could do the same? Swimming through the earth sure sounded strange, but maybe it was just as fun as in the water? It was probably a lot harder to see something though. "My mother sometimes told me of the dead walking. Is that something that spirits do? And why would they?" At this Mahuizoh sighs and looks into the distance for a bit. "What can I say? My life I dedicated to understand the spirits, but their ways are still strange to me to this day. I think they punish us for our bad deeds by doing these things."
He shakes his head with a sigh. "A long time ago, I've met a traveler. He had walked all the way from the sea through Cualli and seen many things. He told me of the greatest city. Far greater then this here. It was once the biggest and most important city in these lands. But now only the dead walk there. Twisted bones that walk of their own accord. All sharp teeth and claws, cobbled together from a dozen men. Of a great beast he spoke, like a centipede, but so large that it could look above the trees themselves and it too was made of nothing but broken bones fused together into this shape. They all wander the empty city to this day and nobody knows why or for what purpose. Like beasts they fall upon all who dare to approach the city, to add their bones to their endless number."
You grow quite at his words. Some part of you is afraid at the mere mention of these things, yet another stumbles about how outlandish it sounds. Then again, had some described the place you sit now to you, it would have sounded no less outlandish. What truly startles you though are his next words. "Maybe a young mind can find an answer where a old man set in his ways can not. What do you think is their reason for doing these things?"
Truth be told, you never really thought about this. Why do spirits do what they do?
[] [Reasoning] Write-In
After you give your answer, Mahuizoh just smiles and nods before rising. "Maybe I will show you something once we are done with our work. There are more things here to see then old stones and men." He gives no indication that your answer was either right or wrong like on the way here when he asked about the plants, and you honestly don't know what he thinks about it. Maybe it's just important to have an answer for yourself.
What will you do while working for Mahuizoh?
[] [Work] Gather plants as you are supposed to.
[] [Work] Sneak off when nobody notices to explore the ruins.
-[] [Work] Explore one of the mansions.
-[] [Work] Go into the large palace at the center of the city.
-[] [Work] Write-In
AN: And this marks your first trip away from the safety of your home. Mahuizoh was rather distracting while you walked through the jungle, so you didn't really have the attention to spare to your surroundings.
If you got any more questions or more specific ones for him, feel free to ask and I will answer them in the thread.
Prologue 3: Students
- Location
- Germany
After the break, Mahuizoh leads you and Atl further into the twisting ruins while the huntress goes off on her own. You are hardly moving very fast, for he regularly makes you stop among the shrubbery on the wayside and even leads you into some broken houses now and then to finish the impromptu lesson he had started on the march. He points to this plant and that, always quizzing one of you to name it and know which parts of it to harvest before showing you how to do it first hand. While you expected him to just cut and pluck the herbs he needs, the old man shows much caution and steady hands as he carefully pries flowers from their stalks and gently pulls roots out between the cracks. It's quite a lot of effort needed to not ruin the plants, or worse, cause them to release sap or pollen that is apparently quite dangerous for the poor sod who does it.
After a while, you reach a small clearing in between the ruins, which looks rather out of place in between the sea of buildings. While it does remind you of a field, it seems rather small to feed more than a few people. While most of it is covered in grass growing up to your chest, a veritable wall of trees rises in the last stretch of it. While the rather sudden end of the jungle didn't seem strange to you on the way into the ruins, seeing the same invisible border between the thick brush and the grassy field is rather odd. Maybe this too was the work of spirits? But why would they want a neat line between the trees and the old city? And why draw it in the middle of the buildings instead of farther out?
The clatter of clay jars tears you back out of your thoughts, and you know the less interesting part of the day is about to begin. Mahuizoh has set down his pack again and is laying out jars and pots of various sizes into three neat rows. "Well then, it is time for us to get to work. I'm afraid that I won't be able to help you two as much as I would like. We have to do the work of five men today, so I will have you both go off on your own into the ruins. Don't venture farther than ten houses out from this field, lest you get lost. I will accompany you for a bit and then gather among the trees, but I'm sure you wont need much help with how well you listened to my prattling all day."
You nod curtly at that statement. Not quite as confidently as you'd like, but at least you are fairly sure you won't embarrass yourself. As you steal a glance at Atl, though, he looks a bit pale around the ears all of the sudden, which isn't lost on Mahuizoh. "Yaxkin? You can start over there. There are usually some blue poinsettia flowering in these two houses around this time of the year. Keep an eye out for the thorns. I will be with Atl first."
As the two depart in the opposite direction, you let your gaze wander a bit while walking to the houses the shaman had pointed out. While it's a bit harder to see from the ground than from a pile of rubble, it's also hard to miss the four-men-high mansion jutting into the sky at the edge of the forest. Compared to the other mansions you've seen, this one looks nearly pristine. A large tree hangs precariously out of one of the windows in the upper parts, but apart from that it looks like the owner had just left.
For a long moment you stand in between the two houses you are supposed to go into and stare at the magnificent building. If the view from the pile was already great, what must this city look like from up there? And what might you be able to find in its walls? But in the end, you tear you gaze away. You promised your father to be on your best behavior should he talk with the old shaman to take you along for this. Running off all on your own instead of doing the work you came for would hardly be something he would approve of. So you step into the first house and into a field of vibrant blue leaves. Stretching from wall to wall, the poinsettia covers every bit of the room, and it's easy to spot the wicked barbs on their stems.
At first you are worried quite a bit about looking as if a Jaguar chewed on you when you leave this place again. After a bit of careful prodding, though, you quickly notice that the thorns don't really hurt at all if you are just careful and move slowly. It probably looks a bit silly how you wade through the tender bushes as if they were knee deep mud, but there's nobody here to see you and it becomes quite easy to spot the tiny blossoms amidst the blue leaves if you can get that close to them. After what feels like no time at all, you walk back out with nary a nick and large pot full of the blossoms.
And then you nearly drop it as you notice the smiling old man waiting in the doorway for you. "My, my. And here I was expecting that I would need a poultice for you and do the second house myself." He carefully takes the full vessel from you and puts on the lid before binding it in place. "That should be quite enough to last us a while. No need to do the other one. Let's see what else we can find, shall we?"
Working directly with Mahuizoh is rather nice actually. Given his lectures during the march, you expected him to hover behind you and watch your steps like a hawk. Instead he just points you to the interesting plants and offers the occasional bit of advice while letting you work mostly on your own. In between he chatters on about what he will use this and that for, which was mostly glossed over by him so far. It would be quite nice to go on like this for a while, but from one moment to the next, the huntress suddenly re-appears. A few short whispers between her and the shaman later and they both dash off in the direction of the field again, leaving you with a curt order to finish up and head back too with the jars.
What you find when coming back is at once both worse then hoped and much better then feared. Atl is sitting with his back leaned against a wall and cries furiously. His eyes are completely swollen shut, while his mouth hangs open bonelessly. The shaman is sitting next to him with a lot of open pots and furiously grinding something in a small mortar he apparently brought on the trip. Furiously is probably too mild a word, for as you come closer, you notice that his face is positively thunderous. The huntress meanwhile stands above Atl with a damp strip of bark and drips some liquid into his throat now and then.
You carefully approach her instead of Mahuizoh, since it seems rather unwise to interrupt him. "What happened? Is he...?"
"Not dying if that's what you think. His jaw is just numb from the oil I'm giving him. Keeps the swelling from getting worse."
"But what did he do?"
"Ate some yellow plant. No idea what exactly. Ask the old coot once he is done with the antidote."
You blink as you think about what might have possessed Atl to stuff some random plant into his month as slowly, ever so slowy, you realize what it probably was.
"But why..."
"I'm pretty sure Mahuizoh will ask him the same once he can speak again. Probably just a wee bit louder then you just did." For the first time, you saw the woman grin as she looked at the still working man. "Might involve his shaman stick and the boys head for good measure."
In the end, the trip had to end right there. You where a bit sad that you wouldn't get to see whatever the old shaman wanted to show you after the work was done, but Atls health had priority. While the swelling had gone down after the he got the antidote, he was barely capable of staying awake anymore and was still running a slight fever. Once the packs where filled again, the huntress had grabbed him and was now hauling him like a bag of grain over her shoulder on the way back. Which was probably a bit unkind of her to handle him like that, but him drooling down her back wasn't any better. This was probably one of those things you never spoke of ever again you sometimes heard you parents talk about.
Mahuizoh was walking with you a few steps behind them. His mood had taken a good while to get better again and you had nearly passed half the march in silence before he looked calmer again and spoke to you again.
"The boy is my apprentice, did you know? The chief was quite insistent that I take him on, since I have no successor yet."
"Successor?"
"The next shaman. Someone to follow in my footsteps once I die. My hair is nearly all gray by now and my face mostly wrinkles upon wrinkles. These old bones still have a few years in them, but I won't live forever."
You didn't look at him after that for a while. People dying in the tribe was not that uncommon. The life of a hunter was dangerous and even if you stuck to the safe parts of the jungle, there was always a risk that something might lurk there that was missed by the scouts. To say nothing about mishaps like the one that befell Atl. Still. It was kind of off-putting to think about Mahuizoh dying.
"I'm sure he will make a fine shaman." Your heart really wasn't in that statement, but it felt kind of the right thing to say. Better then the silence at least.
The response came a lot quicker, but you didn't quite expect it to be an amused snort. "You should be a honest girl Yaxkin. Lying isn't one of your strengths." He just shook his head when he looked at Atl again. "The boy has been with me for two moons now. And what does he do when I turn my back? Stuff something into his mouth because it smells like sweet fruits. I have you with me for but one day and you are doing a finer job than some of the dullards the chief saddles me with whenever I need a hand for something."
"Can't you... un-apprentice him again? I mean, he probably could do something else. Maybe this is just not his work."
"Sadly not. This is still a while off for you, but apprentices are nothing you can undo. For good or ill, I will teach him as long as I can."
Another lapse into silence follows. You haven't had much time at all to talk to Atl and never spoke to him in the camp either, but he didn't strike you as a bad sort. He was just... not terribly a terribly shaman-y person. Mahuizoh might be able to fix that with some time and patience.
"However..." You hadn't even noticed as the old man came to walk a bit closer to you. He was leaning down to you and whispering as if sharing a great secret. "There are no rules that forbid me from taking two apprentices. Maybe a bit of competition would help him even."
You nearly stumble over a tree root at that. While you don't know much about trades and apprenticeships, one thing you know for sure. They are entered when a child is counting ten years. While there have been cases of some doing so early, it's still rare and likely to garner you much attention, especially if you are the apprentice of the shaman of all people.
Do you accept Mahuizohs offer to become his apprentice beside Atl?
[] Yes, become his apprentice right now.
[] Not now, but you want to become his apprentice in two years if the offer still stands.
[] No, you wish to follow a different path.
-[] Become an apprentice among the scouts and hunters.
-[] Learn among the woodcarvers and tanners.
-[] Write-In
AN: The first official dice rolls of this quest are already temperamental. I wanted to do one more scene in the ruins that had to be axed due to becoming illogical with Atls mishap and wanted then to time-skip two years so that you can pick a profession to learn. The main benefit of working diligently for the shaman was supposed to be that you could apprentice under him, which would otherwise have been closed off.
Since you made a rather impressive showing here, Mahuizoh is offering to take you early and thus I folded that part into this chapter.
After a while, you reach a small clearing in between the ruins, which looks rather out of place in between the sea of buildings. While it does remind you of a field, it seems rather small to feed more than a few people. While most of it is covered in grass growing up to your chest, a veritable wall of trees rises in the last stretch of it. While the rather sudden end of the jungle didn't seem strange to you on the way into the ruins, seeing the same invisible border between the thick brush and the grassy field is rather odd. Maybe this too was the work of spirits? But why would they want a neat line between the trees and the old city? And why draw it in the middle of the buildings instead of farther out?
The clatter of clay jars tears you back out of your thoughts, and you know the less interesting part of the day is about to begin. Mahuizoh has set down his pack again and is laying out jars and pots of various sizes into three neat rows. "Well then, it is time for us to get to work. I'm afraid that I won't be able to help you two as much as I would like. We have to do the work of five men today, so I will have you both go off on your own into the ruins. Don't venture farther than ten houses out from this field, lest you get lost. I will accompany you for a bit and then gather among the trees, but I'm sure you wont need much help with how well you listened to my prattling all day."
Yaxkin: 1d100 = 51 -> Success
Learned enough to get by.
Atl: 1d100 = 14 -> 4 Degrees of Failure
Flowers are pretty.
Learned enough to get by.
Atl: 1d100 = 14 -> 4 Degrees of Failure
Flowers are pretty.
You nod curtly at that statement. Not quite as confidently as you'd like, but at least you are fairly sure you won't embarrass yourself. As you steal a glance at Atl, though, he looks a bit pale around the ears all of the sudden, which isn't lost on Mahuizoh. "Yaxkin? You can start over there. There are usually some blue poinsettia flowering in these two houses around this time of the year. Keep an eye out for the thorns. I will be with Atl first."
As the two depart in the opposite direction, you let your gaze wander a bit while walking to the houses the shaman had pointed out. While it's a bit harder to see from the ground than from a pile of rubble, it's also hard to miss the four-men-high mansion jutting into the sky at the edge of the forest. Compared to the other mansions you've seen, this one looks nearly pristine. A large tree hangs precariously out of one of the windows in the upper parts, but apart from that it looks like the owner had just left.
For a long moment you stand in between the two houses you are supposed to go into and stare at the magnificent building. If the view from the pile was already great, what must this city look like from up there? And what might you be able to find in its walls? But in the end, you tear you gaze away. You promised your father to be on your best behavior should he talk with the old shaman to take you along for this. Running off all on your own instead of doing the work you came for would hardly be something he would approve of. So you step into the first house and into a field of vibrant blue leaves. Stretching from wall to wall, the poinsettia covers every bit of the room, and it's easy to spot the wicked barbs on their stems.
Yaxkin: 1d100 = 89 -> 4 Degrees of Success
This isn't so hard after all.
Atl: 52 (1d100) - 40 (Knows Nothing) + 50 (Help from Mahuizoh) = 62 -> 2 Degrees of Success
Learning by doing.
This isn't so hard after all.
Atl: 52 (1d100) - 40 (Knows Nothing) + 50 (Help from Mahuizoh) = 62 -> 2 Degrees of Success
Learning by doing.
At first you are worried quite a bit about looking as if a Jaguar chewed on you when you leave this place again. After a bit of careful prodding, though, you quickly notice that the thorns don't really hurt at all if you are just careful and move slowly. It probably looks a bit silly how you wade through the tender bushes as if they were knee deep mud, but there's nobody here to see you and it becomes quite easy to spot the tiny blossoms amidst the blue leaves if you can get that close to them. After what feels like no time at all, you walk back out with nary a nick and large pot full of the blossoms.
And then you nearly drop it as you notice the smiling old man waiting in the doorway for you. "My, my. And here I was expecting that I would need a poultice for you and do the second house myself." He carefully takes the full vessel from you and puts on the lid before binding it in place. "That should be quite enough to last us a while. No need to do the other one. Let's see what else we can find, shall we?"
Yaxkin: 67 (1d100) + 20 (Got the hang of it.) + 20 (Advice from Mahuizoh) = 107 -> 5 Degrees of Success
Many a filled pot.
Atl: 5 (1d100) - 20 (Knows A Bit) = -15 -> 7 Degrees of Failure
"That smells tasty!"
Many a filled pot.
Atl: 5 (1d100) - 20 (Knows A Bit) = -15 -> 7 Degrees of Failure
"That smells tasty!"
Working directly with Mahuizoh is rather nice actually. Given his lectures during the march, you expected him to hover behind you and watch your steps like a hawk. Instead he just points you to the interesting plants and offers the occasional bit of advice while letting you work mostly on your own. In between he chatters on about what he will use this and that for, which was mostly glossed over by him so far. It would be quite nice to go on like this for a while, but from one moment to the next, the huntress suddenly re-appears. A few short whispers between her and the shaman later and they both dash off in the direction of the field again, leaving you with a curt order to finish up and head back too with the jars.
What you find when coming back is at once both worse then hoped and much better then feared. Atl is sitting with his back leaned against a wall and cries furiously. His eyes are completely swollen shut, while his mouth hangs open bonelessly. The shaman is sitting next to him with a lot of open pots and furiously grinding something in a small mortar he apparently brought on the trip. Furiously is probably too mild a word, for as you come closer, you notice that his face is positively thunderous. The huntress meanwhile stands above Atl with a damp strip of bark and drips some liquid into his throat now and then.
You carefully approach her instead of Mahuizoh, since it seems rather unwise to interrupt him. "What happened? Is he...?"
"Not dying if that's what you think. His jaw is just numb from the oil I'm giving him. Keeps the swelling from getting worse."
"But what did he do?"
"Ate some yellow plant. No idea what exactly. Ask the old coot once he is done with the antidote."
You blink as you think about what might have possessed Atl to stuff some random plant into his month as slowly, ever so slowy, you realize what it probably was.
"But why..."
"I'm pretty sure Mahuizoh will ask him the same once he can speak again. Probably just a wee bit louder then you just did." For the first time, you saw the woman grin as she looked at the still working man. "Might involve his shaman stick and the boys head for good measure."
In the end, the trip had to end right there. You where a bit sad that you wouldn't get to see whatever the old shaman wanted to show you after the work was done, but Atls health had priority. While the swelling had gone down after the he got the antidote, he was barely capable of staying awake anymore and was still running a slight fever. Once the packs where filled again, the huntress had grabbed him and was now hauling him like a bag of grain over her shoulder on the way back. Which was probably a bit unkind of her to handle him like that, but him drooling down her back wasn't any better. This was probably one of those things you never spoke of ever again you sometimes heard you parents talk about.
Mahuizoh was walking with you a few steps behind them. His mood had taken a good while to get better again and you had nearly passed half the march in silence before he looked calmer again and spoke to you again.
"The boy is my apprentice, did you know? The chief was quite insistent that I take him on, since I have no successor yet."
"Successor?"
"The next shaman. Someone to follow in my footsteps once I die. My hair is nearly all gray by now and my face mostly wrinkles upon wrinkles. These old bones still have a few years in them, but I won't live forever."
You didn't look at him after that for a while. People dying in the tribe was not that uncommon. The life of a hunter was dangerous and even if you stuck to the safe parts of the jungle, there was always a risk that something might lurk there that was missed by the scouts. To say nothing about mishaps like the one that befell Atl. Still. It was kind of off-putting to think about Mahuizoh dying.
"I'm sure he will make a fine shaman." Your heart really wasn't in that statement, but it felt kind of the right thing to say. Better then the silence at least.
The response came a lot quicker, but you didn't quite expect it to be an amused snort. "You should be a honest girl Yaxkin. Lying isn't one of your strengths." He just shook his head when he looked at Atl again. "The boy has been with me for two moons now. And what does he do when I turn my back? Stuff something into his mouth because it smells like sweet fruits. I have you with me for but one day and you are doing a finer job than some of the dullards the chief saddles me with whenever I need a hand for something."
"Can't you... un-apprentice him again? I mean, he probably could do something else. Maybe this is just not his work."
"Sadly not. This is still a while off for you, but apprentices are nothing you can undo. For good or ill, I will teach him as long as I can."
Another lapse into silence follows. You haven't had much time at all to talk to Atl and never spoke to him in the camp either, but he didn't strike you as a bad sort. He was just... not terribly a terribly shaman-y person. Mahuizoh might be able to fix that with some time and patience.
"However..." You hadn't even noticed as the old man came to walk a bit closer to you. He was leaning down to you and whispering as if sharing a great secret. "There are no rules that forbid me from taking two apprentices. Maybe a bit of competition would help him even."
You nearly stumble over a tree root at that. While you don't know much about trades and apprenticeships, one thing you know for sure. They are entered when a child is counting ten years. While there have been cases of some doing so early, it's still rare and likely to garner you much attention, especially if you are the apprentice of the shaman of all people.
Do you accept Mahuizohs offer to become his apprentice beside Atl?
[] Yes, become his apprentice right now.
[] Not now, but you want to become his apprentice in two years if the offer still stands.
[] No, you wish to follow a different path.
-[] Become an apprentice among the scouts and hunters.
-[] Learn among the woodcarvers and tanners.
-[] Write-In
AN: The first official dice rolls of this quest are already temperamental. I wanted to do one more scene in the ruins that had to be axed due to becoming illogical with Atls mishap and wanted then to time-skip two years so that you can pick a profession to learn. The main benefit of working diligently for the shaman was supposed to be that you could apprentice under him, which would otherwise have been closed off.
Since you made a rather impressive showing here, Mahuizoh is offering to take you early and thus I folded that part into this chapter.
Prologue 4: The Path to Wisdom
- Location
- Germany
It is with surprisingly little fanfare that you are officially made Mahuizohs apprentice two days later. Your parents consent is easily given, and your father is needling your mother quite a bit about how worried she was about you. She wasn't quite happy with the news that you would be traipsing around the jungle or might embarrass yourself in front of the tribe's shaman. The chieftain seems less happy with this arrangement, claiming that Atls accident is proof that Mahuizoh should better focus on a single apprentice and instruct him well instead of spreading his time on two. However, he seems to have complained quite a while about the lack of candidates to replace the old shaman and his arguments that teaching a spare one in case of other accidents would be wise quickly won the other elders over.
Now you wear a necklace made of leather string and three wooden beads. It looks the same as the one Atl wore when you've got to know him, but the significance of the carefully polished spheres of pleasant smelling wood was lost on you back then. You are now a shaman's apprentice for all to see, and as your knowledge about the world and the spirits grows, so too will new baubles be added to your necklace.
You would have nearly started to run around and brag to the other children with the sign of your success, but Mahuizoh was quite adamant that you shouldn't act like a hunter managing the grand dead of picking up his first sloth from the ground. Dignity and wisdom is what people will expect of you. Not to chatter on and on, but to be quiet and composed so that people will know the importance of what you have to say when you deign to do so now and then. You are somewhat dubious of that, given that your master isn't exactly known for his quietness, but you vow to at least try to adhere to these values. Sometimes. You will definitely brag to the villager children who always thought you boring for not having any adventures to tell them about.
The tribe breaks camp the next day and for the first time in your life, your are slightly sad to leave. Next year, you will come to this exact same spot again as you do every year, but you still can't help to look in the direction of the ruins. The thick jungle makes it impossible to see them from here, not even the tallest mansions, but in your mind's eye, you can still see them clearly. And all the wondrous things that they might hide. It worked out quite well for you to not give into your impulse to run off and explore, but that doesn't mean that you have abandoned the notion. In a year, you will make up for the lost time.
For now though, you march. Not hauling spare pig skins and and tents, but instead... clay jars and parts of a tent. You guess a marching tribe pays little mind to who you are, as long as you are loaded down with something. At least you have something to look forward to in the breaks, since Mahuizoh thinks that unless you are sleeping, you are better doing something useful with your time and complaining about sore feet isn't useful. It's far less rushed than on your first trip together, but the way is much longer too and you doubt that the lessons will get any less intense when you settle down again.
What does Mahuizoh teach you over the next two years?
Pick 2 main topics:
[] [Main] Healing and Plant Lore
[] [Main] Spirit Lore
[] [Main] Social Skills
While he is a harsh task master, you still have some time for other things. You can help other members of the tribe for a while in exchange for them teaching you some of their skills or you could devote some time to "frivolous" activities as Mahuizoh calls them.
Pick 3 secondary activities:
[] [Secondary] Learn to fight with a knife.
[] [Secondary] Learn archery.
[] [Secondary] Learn how to evade an attack.
[] [Secondary] Learn how to survive in the jungle.
[] [Secondary] Learn how to track animals.
[] [Secondary] Learn how to move silently.
[] [Secondary] Learn something else: Write-In
[] [Secondary] Explore the ruins when you tribe is in the area again.
[] [Secondary] Explore the jungle.
[] [Secondary] Attend the offerings to the spirits.
[] [Secondary] Do something different: Write-In
AN: Your apprenticeship is divided into 2 year chunks for which you can choose what to focus on. Since you started early, you get 4 turns instead of only 3.
Main actions teach multiple skills, while all the secondaries train only a single one, but they are locked into what Mahuizoh can teach you. He would greatly prefer if you take every branch of study he offers at least twice over the course of your apprenticeship, but he won't push the issue.
Next up is a small time-skip and then the yearly visit of your tribe to the nearby farmer villager, which will be your opportunity to see how other people live or try to learn a bit more about the world around you from the traders.
Statsheet and a short introduction into the mechanics coming in a bit.
Now you wear a necklace made of leather string and three wooden beads. It looks the same as the one Atl wore when you've got to know him, but the significance of the carefully polished spheres of pleasant smelling wood was lost on you back then. You are now a shaman's apprentice for all to see, and as your knowledge about the world and the spirits grows, so too will new baubles be added to your necklace.
You would have nearly started to run around and brag to the other children with the sign of your success, but Mahuizoh was quite adamant that you shouldn't act like a hunter managing the grand dead of picking up his first sloth from the ground. Dignity and wisdom is what people will expect of you. Not to chatter on and on, but to be quiet and composed so that people will know the importance of what you have to say when you deign to do so now and then. You are somewhat dubious of that, given that your master isn't exactly known for his quietness, but you vow to at least try to adhere to these values. Sometimes. You will definitely brag to the villager children who always thought you boring for not having any adventures to tell them about.
The tribe breaks camp the next day and for the first time in your life, your are slightly sad to leave. Next year, you will come to this exact same spot again as you do every year, but you still can't help to look in the direction of the ruins. The thick jungle makes it impossible to see them from here, not even the tallest mansions, but in your mind's eye, you can still see them clearly. And all the wondrous things that they might hide. It worked out quite well for you to not give into your impulse to run off and explore, but that doesn't mean that you have abandoned the notion. In a year, you will make up for the lost time.
For now though, you march. Not hauling spare pig skins and and tents, but instead... clay jars and parts of a tent. You guess a marching tribe pays little mind to who you are, as long as you are loaded down with something. At least you have something to look forward to in the breaks, since Mahuizoh thinks that unless you are sleeping, you are better doing something useful with your time and complaining about sore feet isn't useful. It's far less rushed than on your first trip together, but the way is much longer too and you doubt that the lessons will get any less intense when you settle down again.
What does Mahuizoh teach you over the next two years?
Pick 2 main topics:
[] [Main] Healing and Plant Lore
[] [Main] Spirit Lore
[] [Main] Social Skills
While he is a harsh task master, you still have some time for other things. You can help other members of the tribe for a while in exchange for them teaching you some of their skills or you could devote some time to "frivolous" activities as Mahuizoh calls them.
Pick 3 secondary activities:
[] [Secondary] Learn to fight with a knife.
[] [Secondary] Learn archery.
[] [Secondary] Learn how to evade an attack.
[] [Secondary] Learn how to survive in the jungle.
[] [Secondary] Learn how to track animals.
[] [Secondary] Learn how to move silently.
[] [Secondary] Learn something else: Write-In
[] [Secondary] Explore the ruins when you tribe is in the area again.
[] [Secondary] Explore the jungle.
[] [Secondary] Attend the offerings to the spirits.
[] [Secondary] Do something different: Write-In
AN: Your apprenticeship is divided into 2 year chunks for which you can choose what to focus on. Since you started early, you get 4 turns instead of only 3.
Main actions teach multiple skills, while all the secondaries train only a single one, but they are locked into what Mahuizoh can teach you. He would greatly prefer if you take every branch of study he offers at least twice over the course of your apprenticeship, but he won't push the issue.
Next up is a small time-skip and then the yearly visit of your tribe to the nearby farmer villager, which will be your opportunity to see how other people live or try to learn a bit more about the world around you from the traders.
Statsheet and a short introduction into the mechanics coming in a bit.
Prologue 5: Learning
- Location
- Germany
Life quickly settled into a new routine for you. On most days, Atl and you just followed Mahuizoh on his various errands and helped him do his work. Most of it looked quite absurd at first, like how to make a foul-smelling brew by adding various herbs to it in a very specific order, but apparently the resulting fever medication wouldn't work all that well if you just tossed everything into the pot as was your first impulse. Other things shed some light on the puzzling things the other adults did all day, like giving a rare grass a good shake four times a day before putting it back on its rack so that it dries instead of molds.
In the evenings, you would usually sit around a small fire as he taught you about the various spirits in the lands. Little embers that float harmlessly in the air, just to erupt into a furious blaze if you get too close to them. Of young woman who completely wrap themselves in strips of cloth and grow furious at anyone glimpsing what lies below. It certainly puts your desire for exploration into perspective to hear about these things. All too easily you could see yourself chasing such a strange ember and getting burned for it. Though what's supposed to be so terrifying about a woman in tattered cloth still eludes you.
And today is finally the day you will meet a spirit in the flesh! Mahuizoh had promised this to you for the better part of a year now, claiming that it you would go once your work reached a good standard, but you suspect he just wanted to get you to work harder while waiting for the tribe to come into this area again. It's supposed to be a quiet and solemn walk to a specific clearing, were it not for your ever-present fourth companion.
The sharp whack of a wooden spear against your shoulder shakes you out of your thoughts. "Eyes on the bushes, Yaxkin. The beasts won't wait until you are done admiring Atls backside." Despite your attempts to not let her get under your skin that easily again, you stand straight as tree and very pointedly look above Atl, who is walking right in front of you. Where else are you supposed to look? Well... probably at the bushes.
A soft poke with the butt of the spear prods you forward. "You can always make this stop. Just say that you give up." You don't even deign that comment with an answer anymore. The huntress who accompanied you so long seems never to go out with the others and is instead always nearby and ready to accompany Mahuizoh on his various trips out of the camp. You see her more often than your own mother these days, and yet the woman isn't even telling you her name!
"Two on the left. Ten steps in." As no response comes, you are slightly relieved. The rules of your game where simple. Whenever Mahuizoh had nothing to say to you, you would call out all red flowers on your way and a rough distance from your path. Miss something? Whack with the spear. Call out a wrong count? Two whacks for not looking closely enough. The wrong distance carried no punishment, except when it did. That was supposed to keep you alert. This was supposed to train your awareness of your surroundings and how to evade unexpected attacks, since you were theoretically allowed to dodge the blows. Except that the woman was silent as a cat and fast to boot. There was not a single strike you had dodged thus far and her sardonic comments made you suspect she just liked to torment you.
"One on the right. Twe- Fifteen steps." You get a whack on each shoulder for that and look back over again before whirling around. "What was that for? It's right over there! A huge red flower and not a second one in sight."
She grins far too broadly for your taste as she leans down to you. "That, my little shaman, isn't a flower, but a mushroom. Even I know that."
"What!? But it's shaped like a flower!"
"Oh wise old man. Please enlighten your apprentice where the words of a simple huntress are not sufficient."
As you look over your shoulder, you see Atl and Mahuizoh have stopped again to look at the exchange. "I'm afraid that she is right, Yaxkin. That is the corpus of a fungus. A rather foul-smelling specimen, which has a few interesting properties when added to a bruise balm. I will explain the details later."
You look back to the huntress who still grins at you and slowly mouths 'three words' at you. "I thought you would be training me..."
"I've actually only agreed to your master's request to 'do something with her' and I think this counts as 'something'."
"Shouldn't my master protect me from abuse?" You looked back over your shoulder, but Mahuizoh just shook his head and looked amused by the whole thing.
"Not if my apprentice is asking for it. My, I seem to recall that you nearly begged her to train you in some of her skills. Truth be told, it is quite funny to watch you two and I'm very curious by now which of you stubborn womans folk will give in first."
"But..."
"Look little shaman, as long as you try to pretend to be a hunter, I will pretend to train you as one. If you had wanted to become one, you shouldn't have apprenticed under Mahuizoh. You can't have both. And now eyes back on Atl and go on, for your actual master has a lesson for you. And I've heard something about bruise balm and smelly mushrooms, so look happy. Your sore shoulders will come in handy for another one when we are back!"
You slowly turned around and started marching again. You would have both. If she liked it or not, you would do what was needed to...
"Oh, and that where roughly twenty steps, not fifteen. Surprise attack!"
... beat her over the head with her own spear.
"Leave the packs here and just take the fruit we brought."
You could have hugged Mahuizoh for that statement, since getting the heavy pack off your poor shoulders is the best thing happening to you since sunrise. Getting the mushy and slightly rancid papayas out of their jars is decidedly less pleasant, but it seems that spirits like their food a bit spoiled. Or it's just that they don't mind and thus there is little point in giving them the fresh ones.
"You remember the rules I've told you?"
Both Atl and you nod and rattle them down one last time in near perfect unison. "Don't move unless told to do so. Don't try to take the fruit back. If they come for it on their own, throw it halfway to them. Don't throw it at them. Don't try to hide it. If they make eye contact, keep it until they break it."
A quick nod is your only acknowledgement as you slowly walk to the clearing. No grass grows here for one reason or another, despite the sun shining brightly down on fertile soil. Even the indistinct sounds of the jungle are oddly muted here. The huntress had stayed back with the packs and so it is just the three of you who walk to the middle of the clearing and silently wait for the spirits to come. You don't know for how long you waited, since standing around with mushy fruit in your hands while waiting to see something that you can't see was quickly proving to be quite trying on your patience. Especially since you needed to be very quiet or they wouldn't come at all.
It startles you a bit to hear one of the papayas hit the ground behind you, and as you slowly turn, careful to not make any noise or drop something, you see Mahuizoh pointing to a spot between the trees and motioning to crouch down. It strains your eyes to squint into the shadows while facing the sun and you nearly miss it, but then the papaya rustles a bit as if something was prodding it. 'Hard to see, even when you know they are there' had your master told you, and as you see the rank fruit wobble around, you are inclined to agree. It is not until there is piece of the fruit missing all of the sudden that you spot the spirit. A tiny face, not unlike that of a man, which is stained with the slightly orange juices of its meal.
It's as if you are trying to look at the tip of you nose. It's there and you can clearly see it, but doing so is requiring all of your attention. You blink once and instead of a tiny, black monkey with three tails you had managed to make out, you only see a slightly darker patch of shadows resting next to the fruit. With great effort you can see behind... whatever it is that is hiding the spirit again after a while, and curious yellow eyes with two slits stare back at you for a few heartbeats before it digs back in.
The day passes all too soon for your liking. At Mahuizos direction, you throw the fruit into the shadows at the edge of the clearing one by one and silently watch the peaceful spirits feast on them. So this is what it meant to be a shaman and to commune with them. In the end, not all of them were the great and terrible monsters others saw them as.
It is quite nice to return to the farmers village this year. No longer are you just another child or the snot-nosed brat hanging around Mahuizo. Your necklace has grown by quite a few beads and a few feathers over the two years you've been his apprentice already. It's a shame that the tooth you pulled out of the jaw of that hunter last moon broke during the procedure. The tribe still makes jokes about the mighty beast you've felled on that day, though you feel a bit sorry at the hulking man who cried quite pitifully as you pried it out of his jaw.
Not much has changed in the village since your last visit. You make camp on one of the fallow fields around the palisade protecting the accumulation of huts within as always. Soon the hunters will swarm out and intentionally over-hunt the area so that there are fewer animals around to damage the crops. That arrangement was always greatly profitable for both parties, and trading furs for grain and medicine for a few odds and ends is another nice benefit.
To you, the village has lost a bit of its luster. Being different than dreary camp life and the chance to meet interesting people had once appealed greatly to you, but tilling fields is not quite as interesting as some of the more arcane things Mahuizo is teaching you these days. He cryptically hints lately that you might be not that far off from being ready for a rather difficult branch of his arts and you are rather intrigued by that, even if the old man is staying mum on what exactly it is. However, the traders are another matter.
They are walking back and forth between Tlamacatzintlihuacan and Zacatltlalmonton. The first is a settlement in some ruins and apparently a place of learning. Mahuizo once told you, should you wish to learn to read and write the old tongue of Cualli, this would be the place to go and that it's supposed to have many texts from the ancient times preserved there. The other is a larger village like the one you stand before, built on a grassy hill near a large river.
You can usually spot in which direction the traders go by the load of their carts. When they come from Tlamacatzintlihuacan, they bear tools made out of metal, good bows, and an assortment of herbs, while on the way back they carry barrels of salted fish and corn. The skins your hunter bring seem to be quite in demand on both sides of the route, so there is nearly always someone willing to haggle with you tribe, even though the more exotic goods are far too pricy for anyone of yours to afford.
None the less, you've worked a bit extra the last months after Mahuizo allowed you to barter some of your medicines away.
Do you wish to buy something from the traders?
[] [Trade] Write-In
[] [Trade] Nothing for now.
What do you wish to focus your studies on for the next two years?
Pick 2 main topics:
[] [Main] Healing and Plant Lore
[] [Main] Spirit Lore
[] [Main] Social Skills
Pick 3 secondary activities:
[] [Secondary] Learn to fight with a knife.
[] [Secondary] Learn archery.
[] [Secondary] Learn how to evade an attack.
[] [Secondary] Learn how to survive in the jungle.
[] [Secondary] Learn how to track animals.
[] [Secondary] Learn how to move silently.
[] [Secondary] Learn something else: Write-In
[] [Secondary] Explore the ruins when you tribe is in the area again.
[] [Secondary] Explore the jungle.
[] [Secondary] Attend the offerings to the spirits.
[] [Secondary] Do something different: Write-In
AN: Nothing new in the turn options. Next turn, you will be able to learn Spear Fighting and Wrestling too, but it's still unavailable due to your youth and thus small frame.
You are currently in possession of a knife made from sharpened bone and can get a simple bow from the tribe if you intend to pick up archery. If you want better equipment, you will have to haggle with the traders, but don't expect metal goods.
In the evenings, you would usually sit around a small fire as he taught you about the various spirits in the lands. Little embers that float harmlessly in the air, just to erupt into a furious blaze if you get too close to them. Of young woman who completely wrap themselves in strips of cloth and grow furious at anyone glimpsing what lies below. It certainly puts your desire for exploration into perspective to hear about these things. All too easily you could see yourself chasing such a strange ember and getting burned for it. Though what's supposed to be so terrifying about a woman in tattered cloth still eludes you.
And today is finally the day you will meet a spirit in the flesh! Mahuizoh had promised this to you for the better part of a year now, claiming that it you would go once your work reached a good standard, but you suspect he just wanted to get you to work harder while waiting for the tribe to come into this area again. It's supposed to be a quiet and solemn walk to a specific clearing, were it not for your ever-present fourth companion.
The sharp whack of a wooden spear against your shoulder shakes you out of your thoughts. "Eyes on the bushes, Yaxkin. The beasts won't wait until you are done admiring Atls backside." Despite your attempts to not let her get under your skin that easily again, you stand straight as tree and very pointedly look above Atl, who is walking right in front of you. Where else are you supposed to look? Well... probably at the bushes.
A soft poke with the butt of the spear prods you forward. "You can always make this stop. Just say that you give up." You don't even deign that comment with an answer anymore. The huntress who accompanied you so long seems never to go out with the others and is instead always nearby and ready to accompany Mahuizoh on his various trips out of the camp. You see her more often than your own mother these days, and yet the woman isn't even telling you her name!
"Two on the left. Ten steps in." As no response comes, you are slightly relieved. The rules of your game where simple. Whenever Mahuizoh had nothing to say to you, you would call out all red flowers on your way and a rough distance from your path. Miss something? Whack with the spear. Call out a wrong count? Two whacks for not looking closely enough. The wrong distance carried no punishment, except when it did. That was supposed to keep you alert. This was supposed to train your awareness of your surroundings and how to evade unexpected attacks, since you were theoretically allowed to dodge the blows. Except that the woman was silent as a cat and fast to boot. There was not a single strike you had dodged thus far and her sardonic comments made you suspect she just liked to torment you.
"One on the right. Twe- Fifteen steps." You get a whack on each shoulder for that and look back over again before whirling around. "What was that for? It's right over there! A huge red flower and not a second one in sight."
She grins far too broadly for your taste as she leans down to you. "That, my little shaman, isn't a flower, but a mushroom. Even I know that."
"What!? But it's shaped like a flower!"
"Oh wise old man. Please enlighten your apprentice where the words of a simple huntress are not sufficient."
As you look over your shoulder, you see Atl and Mahuizoh have stopped again to look at the exchange. "I'm afraid that she is right, Yaxkin. That is the corpus of a fungus. A rather foul-smelling specimen, which has a few interesting properties when added to a bruise balm. I will explain the details later."
You look back to the huntress who still grins at you and slowly mouths 'three words' at you. "I thought you would be training me..."
"I've actually only agreed to your master's request to 'do something with her' and I think this counts as 'something'."
"Shouldn't my master protect me from abuse?" You looked back over your shoulder, but Mahuizoh just shook his head and looked amused by the whole thing.
"Not if my apprentice is asking for it. My, I seem to recall that you nearly begged her to train you in some of her skills. Truth be told, it is quite funny to watch you two and I'm very curious by now which of you stubborn womans folk will give in first."
"But..."
"Look little shaman, as long as you try to pretend to be a hunter, I will pretend to train you as one. If you had wanted to become one, you shouldn't have apprenticed under Mahuizoh. You can't have both. And now eyes back on Atl and go on, for your actual master has a lesson for you. And I've heard something about bruise balm and smelly mushrooms, so look happy. Your sore shoulders will come in handy for another one when we are back!"
You slowly turned around and started marching again. You would have both. If she liked it or not, you would do what was needed to...
"Oh, and that where roughly twenty steps, not fifteen. Surprise attack!"
... beat her over the head with her own spear.
"Leave the packs here and just take the fruit we brought."
You could have hugged Mahuizoh for that statement, since getting the heavy pack off your poor shoulders is the best thing happening to you since sunrise. Getting the mushy and slightly rancid papayas out of their jars is decidedly less pleasant, but it seems that spirits like their food a bit spoiled. Or it's just that they don't mind and thus there is little point in giving them the fresh ones.
"You remember the rules I've told you?"
Both Atl and you nod and rattle them down one last time in near perfect unison. "Don't move unless told to do so. Don't try to take the fruit back. If they come for it on their own, throw it halfway to them. Don't throw it at them. Don't try to hide it. If they make eye contact, keep it until they break it."
A quick nod is your only acknowledgement as you slowly walk to the clearing. No grass grows here for one reason or another, despite the sun shining brightly down on fertile soil. Even the indistinct sounds of the jungle are oddly muted here. The huntress had stayed back with the packs and so it is just the three of you who walk to the middle of the clearing and silently wait for the spirits to come. You don't know for how long you waited, since standing around with mushy fruit in your hands while waiting to see something that you can't see was quickly proving to be quite trying on your patience. Especially since you needed to be very quiet or they wouldn't come at all.
It startles you a bit to hear one of the papayas hit the ground behind you, and as you slowly turn, careful to not make any noise or drop something, you see Mahuizoh pointing to a spot between the trees and motioning to crouch down. It strains your eyes to squint into the shadows while facing the sun and you nearly miss it, but then the papaya rustles a bit as if something was prodding it. 'Hard to see, even when you know they are there' had your master told you, and as you see the rank fruit wobble around, you are inclined to agree. It is not until there is piece of the fruit missing all of the sudden that you spot the spirit. A tiny face, not unlike that of a man, which is stained with the slightly orange juices of its meal.
It's as if you are trying to look at the tip of you nose. It's there and you can clearly see it, but doing so is requiring all of your attention. You blink once and instead of a tiny, black monkey with three tails you had managed to make out, you only see a slightly darker patch of shadows resting next to the fruit. With great effort you can see behind... whatever it is that is hiding the spirit again after a while, and curious yellow eyes with two slits stare back at you for a few heartbeats before it digs back in.
The day passes all too soon for your liking. At Mahuizos direction, you throw the fruit into the shadows at the edge of the clearing one by one and silently watch the peaceful spirits feast on them. So this is what it meant to be a shaman and to commune with them. In the end, not all of them were the great and terrible monsters others saw them as.
It is quite nice to return to the farmers village this year. No longer are you just another child or the snot-nosed brat hanging around Mahuizo. Your necklace has grown by quite a few beads and a few feathers over the two years you've been his apprentice already. It's a shame that the tooth you pulled out of the jaw of that hunter last moon broke during the procedure. The tribe still makes jokes about the mighty beast you've felled on that day, though you feel a bit sorry at the hulking man who cried quite pitifully as you pried it out of his jaw.
Herbalism
Main Action + Passive Gain (Survival Training) -> 14d100 = 825
Herbalism 1 (0/300) -> Herbalism 2 (525/600)
Trait: 81 -> Yes. See bottom.
Medicine
Main Action -> 12d100 = 559
Medicine 0 (0/100) -> Medicine 2 (159/600)
Trait: 28 -> No
Spirit Lore
Main Action -> 12d100 = 497
Spirit Lore 0 (0/100) -> Spirit Lore 2 (97/600)
Trait: 33 -> No
Spirit Talking
Main Action -> 12d100 = 543
Spirit Talking 0 (0/100) -> Spirit Talking 2 (143/600)
Trait: 46 -> No
Astronomy
2x Secondary Gain (Medicine, Spirit Lore) -> 12d100 = 562
Astronomy 0 (0/100) -> Astronomy 2 (162/600)
Surgery
Passive Gain (Medicine) -> 2d100 = 191
Surgery 0 (0/100) -> Surgery 1 (91/300)
???
2x Marginal Gain (Medicine, Spirit Lore) -> 2d100 = 97
??? 0 (0/100) -> ??? 0 (97/100)
Bladed Weapons
Secondary Action -> 6d100 = 348
Bladed Weapons 1 (0/300) -> Bladed Weapons 2 (48/600)
Trait: 98 -> Yes
Second trait? 12 -> No
Evasion
Passive Gain (Hunter Tribe) -> 2d100 = 116
Evasion 1 (0/300) -> Evasion 1 (116/300)
Survival
Secondary Action + Passive Gain (Hunter Tribe) -> 8d100 = 467
Survival 2 (0/600) -> Survival 2 (467/600)
Trait: 81 -> Yes
Tracking
Passive Gain (Hunter Tribe) -> 2d100 = 156
Tracking 1 (0/300) -> Tracking 1 (156/300)
Endurance
4x Passive Gain (Hunter Tribe, Survival, Bladed Weapons, Sneaking) -> 8d100 = 349
Endurance 2 (0/600) -> Endurance 2 (349/600)
Perception
3x Passive Gain (Hunter Tribe, Survival, Sneaking) -> 6d100 = 411
Perception 2 (0/600) -> Perception 2 (411/600)
Sneaking
Secondary Action -> 6d100 = 351
Sneaking 0 (0/100) -> Sneaking 1 (251/300)
Trait: 5 -> No
New Traits
Bladed Weapons -> Knife Fighter
You are trained in the use of knives for combat. Add +20 to your Bladed Weapons skill when using a knife, dagger or similar weapon. Add +10 if you are using a short sword.
Survival + Herbalism -> Living Off The Land
When using your Herbalism skill, add +5 per rank in Survival and when using Survival, add +5 per rank in Herbalism.
Attributes
Main Actions (Medicine, Spirit Lore) -> +1 Intelligence, +1 Concentration
Attribute gain from secondary actions? 87 -> Yes, +1 Dexterity
Main Action + Passive Gain (Survival Training) -> 14d100 = 825
Herbalism 1 (0/300) -> Herbalism 2 (525/600)
Trait: 81 -> Yes. See bottom.
Medicine
Main Action -> 12d100 = 559
Medicine 0 (0/100) -> Medicine 2 (159/600)
Trait: 28 -> No
Spirit Lore
Main Action -> 12d100 = 497
Spirit Lore 0 (0/100) -> Spirit Lore 2 (97/600)
Trait: 33 -> No
Spirit Talking
Main Action -> 12d100 = 543
Spirit Talking 0 (0/100) -> Spirit Talking 2 (143/600)
Trait: 46 -> No
Astronomy
2x Secondary Gain (Medicine, Spirit Lore) -> 12d100 = 562
Astronomy 0 (0/100) -> Astronomy 2 (162/600)
Surgery
Passive Gain (Medicine) -> 2d100 = 191
Surgery 0 (0/100) -> Surgery 1 (91/300)
???
2x Marginal Gain (Medicine, Spirit Lore) -> 2d100 = 97
??? 0 (0/100) -> ??? 0 (97/100)
Bladed Weapons
Secondary Action -> 6d100 = 348
Bladed Weapons 1 (0/300) -> Bladed Weapons 2 (48/600)
Trait: 98 -> Yes
Second trait? 12 -> No
Evasion
Passive Gain (Hunter Tribe) -> 2d100 = 116
Evasion 1 (0/300) -> Evasion 1 (116/300)
Survival
Secondary Action + Passive Gain (Hunter Tribe) -> 8d100 = 467
Survival 2 (0/600) -> Survival 2 (467/600)
Trait: 81 -> Yes
Tracking
Passive Gain (Hunter Tribe) -> 2d100 = 156
Tracking 1 (0/300) -> Tracking 1 (156/300)
Endurance
4x Passive Gain (Hunter Tribe, Survival, Bladed Weapons, Sneaking) -> 8d100 = 349
Endurance 2 (0/600) -> Endurance 2 (349/600)
Perception
3x Passive Gain (Hunter Tribe, Survival, Sneaking) -> 6d100 = 411
Perception 2 (0/600) -> Perception 2 (411/600)
Sneaking
Secondary Action -> 6d100 = 351
Sneaking 0 (0/100) -> Sneaking 1 (251/300)
Trait: 5 -> No
New Traits
Bladed Weapons -> Knife Fighter
You are trained in the use of knives for combat. Add +20 to your Bladed Weapons skill when using a knife, dagger or similar weapon. Add +10 if you are using a short sword.
Survival + Herbalism -> Living Off The Land
When using your Herbalism skill, add +5 per rank in Survival and when using Survival, add +5 per rank in Herbalism.
Attributes
Main Actions (Medicine, Spirit Lore) -> +1 Intelligence, +1 Concentration
Attribute gain from secondary actions? 87 -> Yes, +1 Dexterity
Not much has changed in the village since your last visit. You make camp on one of the fallow fields around the palisade protecting the accumulation of huts within as always. Soon the hunters will swarm out and intentionally over-hunt the area so that there are fewer animals around to damage the crops. That arrangement was always greatly profitable for both parties, and trading furs for grain and medicine for a few odds and ends is another nice benefit.
To you, the village has lost a bit of its luster. Being different than dreary camp life and the chance to meet interesting people had once appealed greatly to you, but tilling fields is not quite as interesting as some of the more arcane things Mahuizo is teaching you these days. He cryptically hints lately that you might be not that far off from being ready for a rather difficult branch of his arts and you are rather intrigued by that, even if the old man is staying mum on what exactly it is. However, the traders are another matter.
They are walking back and forth between Tlamacatzintlihuacan and Zacatltlalmonton. The first is a settlement in some ruins and apparently a place of learning. Mahuizo once told you, should you wish to learn to read and write the old tongue of Cualli, this would be the place to go and that it's supposed to have many texts from the ancient times preserved there. The other is a larger village like the one you stand before, built on a grassy hill near a large river.
You can usually spot in which direction the traders go by the load of their carts. When they come from Tlamacatzintlihuacan, they bear tools made out of metal, good bows, and an assortment of herbs, while on the way back they carry barrels of salted fish and corn. The skins your hunter bring seem to be quite in demand on both sides of the route, so there is nearly always someone willing to haggle with you tribe, even though the more exotic goods are far too pricy for anyone of yours to afford.
None the less, you've worked a bit extra the last months after Mahuizo allowed you to barter some of your medicines away.
Do you wish to buy something from the traders?
[] [Trade] Write-In
[] [Trade] Nothing for now.
What do you wish to focus your studies on for the next two years?
Pick 2 main topics:
[] [Main] Healing and Plant Lore
[] [Main] Spirit Lore
[] [Main] Social Skills
Pick 3 secondary activities:
[] [Secondary] Learn to fight with a knife.
[] [Secondary] Learn archery.
[] [Secondary] Learn how to evade an attack.
[] [Secondary] Learn how to survive in the jungle.
[] [Secondary] Learn how to track animals.
[] [Secondary] Learn how to move silently.
[] [Secondary] Learn something else: Write-In
[] [Secondary] Explore the ruins when you tribe is in the area again.
[] [Secondary] Explore the jungle.
[] [Secondary] Attend the offerings to the spirits.
[] [Secondary] Do something different: Write-In
AN: Nothing new in the turn options. Next turn, you will be able to learn Spear Fighting and Wrestling too, but it's still unavailable due to your youth and thus small frame.
You are currently in possession of a knife made from sharpened bone and can get a simple bow from the tribe if you intend to pick up archery. If you want better equipment, you will have to haggle with the traders, but don't expect metal goods.
Prologue 6: Secret Art
- Location
- Germany
It's with quiet dread that you approach the traders. While they apparently live from nothing but haggling about the value of things, you've never done something like that in your whole life. Five pots full of plants you bring to them, carefully harvested over the course of the last month for this exact purpose. Your master didn't forbid you from making your own trades as you have learned some hunters do, but he was quite adamant that you may only trade things gathered on your own once your days work was done.
Luckily, you stumbled over a whole field of Itztuahyatl plants and managed to process them all in time. You honestly don't know how much the pots of it are usually worth when Mahuizo trades them, but you will just have to take your chances. As you approach the young man standing next to the pen with his pack llamas, he seems almost ready to send you away before he notices your necklace. Even now he chews one of those leaves the traders and their guards are rather fond of. A good sign for what you intend to offer him.
"Your master want something from me, girl?" The two guards protecting the pen throw you a short look when they hear him speak and instantly dismiss you again.
"No, I'm here on my own." You put down the pots in front of him and untie the lid of one. "This is Itztuahyatl powder. Good against fever, coughs and keeps you awake and alert. Should fetch a good price if you sell it off, or you can use it yourself."
He takes a pinch of the red powder and rubs it between his fingers before giving you a curious look. "I guess I don't need to bother to fetch your master to tell me that this is good?" You can't quite keep the annoyance off your face at the implication that you'd try to sell him lackluster goods or worse, try to cheat him. He just grins in response, apparently sufficiently reassured. "And what do you want from me for this?"
Truth be told, you would love to get one of the bronze daggers you know him to carry, yet you are painfully aware of how many pelts some hunters offered for the same and where still rebuffed. Something more modest will have to suffice for now. "You have obsidian blades, right? A long dagger would be fine."
"Should I be worried about a young girl like you playing with something that dangerous? Or maybe you wish to gift it to some dashing young man?" Two years ago, you would probably have reacted to the teasing, but this man couldn't hold a candle to the huntress.
He just shrugs and turns to the packs laying in the pen. "Not my concern. Bring the pots over and pick one. I'll even throw in a good sheath."
You quickly do as you are told and what feels like a few heartbeats later, you hold your prize in hand. A blade as long as you palm from gleaming, midnight black stone. The blade is slightly wavy, from the process of how it was made you are told, and it feels wonderful to run your fingers over the smooth surface to feel the pattern. The handle is made from animal bone like your old knife, but this one was carefully polished and a pattern carved into it that resembles the old art you've seen in the ruins. This was worth every second of work.
Gained Obsidian Dagger.
It's the middle of the night and you are honestly not sure why you couldn't have done this in the camp, but Mahuizoh was quite insistent that this needed some privacy. For once, neither Atl nor the huntress accompany you on this trip. This is supposedly nothing for those not inducted into the secrets of a shamans trade or those not yet skilled enough to handle the matter, and Atl apparently needs a bit more seasoning before learning this.
"Could you maybe tell me why we went all the way out here with that many herbs?" Many is probably an overstatement. It's just a few pots worth of different things and not all that much in volume, but lugging it all the way to this clearing in the darkness for no apparent reason has you a bit on the edge. It's not that safe to go out at this hour in such low numbers, something you are painfully aware after all the knowledge you've gained.
"Patience Yaxkin. Patience. You've shown so much of it so far and today I intend to reward it. It's been a long while since I've taught this to someone and never at quite such an tender age as you." He is currently busy cleaning off a flat stone in the middle of the clearing. Occasionally, he throws some ash on it from a large bag of it you've brought, and then immediately brushes it off again. The cleaning seems to be about more then just getting off some dirt and moss. "Look at the sky. What do you see?"
Knowing when plants grew and when to harvest them needed you to be able to track years and months. The cycle of the moon was not really as reliable to measure time as you've always thought, since it shifted in relation to a greater order that was given by the sun and stars. On the other hand, spirits were greatly influenced by the dance of stars across the nights sky. Take the two matters together and you got a good reason to learn all about what you could see up there, so it was not that hard to answer his question.
"The moon is full. The serpent sinking in the west and the archer stands in its zenith. The red wanderer is rather bright tonight." That was the facts that you could observe and yet you know that you are missing something. "What should I see?"
Mahuizo just chuckls and motions you to sit on the opposite side of the stone. "A good question. I will tell you. That the time is right."
That... didn't actually answer any of your questions. Now he had started to dump little piles of ash on the carefully cleaned stone, which raised even more. "Any man can learn to gather herbs and grind them to pastes and powders. This is not what it means to be a shaman, even if it's what most people see in our work. To be a shaman means to see beyond the concerns of daily life and ponder the mysteries that surround us." You are watching in rapt attention as he spreads the ash around. No. He is drawing with it. Circles and ellipses. A triangle in the center connected three of the circles. All the while he speaks and you carefully listen to every word, since you just know that it is important what he has to say to you today.
"Sometimes we fail in those duties. The world is not parting with its secrets willingly. And sometimes we succeed and can find something grand. You remember the clotting-salve you've asked me to teach to you?" You nod once. Half a year ago, a hunter was carried to the village with a chunk of his thigh just missing. Something had mauled him and the wound was bleeding terribly despite the attempt of the other hunters to bandage it. Mahuizo had taken one look at the wound and brought a small, specially-marked jar and smeared the salve directly into the wound. The bleeding just stopped then and there. Obviously you wanted to know how something so potent could be made, but so far, he just told you to wait. "This is how I make it."
With these words he takes three small clay vessels full of herbs and places them into the outer circles, before placing an empty one in the center of the triangle. "Place your hands in the ellipses. We will do this together and maybe you can do it on your own later." There are a thousand questions on the tip of your tongue, but Mahuizohs calm smile tells you that there will be time for them later. So you place your hands where they are supposed to go and wait for all of this to make sense again.
Then it suddenly happens. It's like a small tug on your arms, but nothing is there. The old shaman still smiles at you, so you squash the small mote of fear that begins to form as the tug turns into a steady pull. Your skin is prickling all over and somehow the stone that was cold just a few moments ago is becoming steadily warmer. Everything seems to start happening at once now. The carefully made paths of ash are suddenly illuminated by ghostly flames, yet give off no heat. The jars with the herbs seem to glow with the same otherworldly light and you can see how their contents just liquefy before your eyes, green branches collapsing like wet clay and turning into lightly glowing liquid.
You nearly tear you hands away, but the face of your master makes you keep them where they are. Under your still stunned gaze, the liquid in the outer pots ignites into more fire and seems to burn away, while at the same time the central vessel fills up with more liquid that seems to come from nowhere. The pull you've felt at first is still all over you and easily ignored in between all the other strangeness. Was this why Atl wasn't learning this? Because he still sometimes shied away from things, even when Mahuizoh told them they are safe? You have little doubt that interrupting whatever this is wouldn't go well for either of you.
At last whatever strange work you just did comes to a close. A sudden and most certainly not natural gust of wind scatters the ash and extinguishes the flames, marking the end of whatever ritual you just aided with. The outer jars are empty now and the central one filled with a milky cream you have been wondering about for some months now. This was certainly not what you expected to be the secret behind it.
"What... what have we done?"
"We made something from these herbs, but not with our hands. We didn't just cook, dry or mix them, but something greater. This art was once called Alchemy and it can make something not out of things that are there, but out of what they could be." He just grins broader at your puzzled expresion. "Ask away Yaxkin. This is certainly a lot to take in and you have many questions. The night is still young though, and we shouldn't waste these fruitious constellations. I will show you how to make a few more things. You will find them most useful."
What did you make that night?
Pick up to 5 products. Can pick the same one multiple times.
[] Numbing Brew
When drunken, this brew purges the pain and troubles of injuries from you. You can ignore the penalties from being wounded for some time after drinking it.
[] Clotting Salve
A thick, white paste. When spread into a bleeding wound, it immediately makes the wound scab over and stops the loss of the blood.
[] Mosquito's Bane
A light oil that repels insects from any who rub it on their body. The odor is quite strong and makes it easier for animals to track you by scent, but it can keep away even the nastiest insects without fail.
[] Graves Kiss
This dark red liquid can either be used as a medication or a poison. When carefully given to a patient in small doses, they fall into a death like trance and will feel no pain or distress when a shaman treats the most grievous wounds, but a full dose is lethal.
[] Purging Sludge
When a person eats this green sludge, they will start vomiting within moments. This expels any poisons they have in their body, even if the poison was injected instead of ingested.
[] Jungles Scent
A heavy cream that covers up the natural scent of a person and makes it blend into the surrounding scents.
AN: Truth be told, I was fully expecting you to fail here and was planning to give you a flint stone knife (still an improvement over the bone thing), but the dice insisted that you get what you came for. Enjoy your little murder knife. It's actually pretty damn lethal all things considered.
In other news, I'm hoping you like your secret shiny. You will be able to make more of these things coming next turn, but whatever you pick now will be available for your ruin diving. Plan format for this vote please.
DC 200 to find enough to be worth the blade.
93 + 40 (Herbalism 2) + 40 (Intelligence 4) + 60 (Dexterity 6) + 10 (Living of the Land) = 243 -> 5 sucesses
93 + 40 (Herbalism 2) + 40 (Intelligence 4) + 60 (Dexterity 6) + 10 (Living of the Land) = 243 -> 5 sucesses
Luckily, you stumbled over a whole field of Itztuahyatl plants and managed to process them all in time. You honestly don't know how much the pots of it are usually worth when Mahuizo trades them, but you will just have to take your chances. As you approach the young man standing next to the pen with his pack llamas, he seems almost ready to send you away before he notices your necklace. Even now he chews one of those leaves the traders and their guards are rather fond of. A good sign for what you intend to offer him.
"Your master want something from me, girl?" The two guards protecting the pen throw you a short look when they hear him speak and instantly dismiss you again.
"No, I'm here on my own." You put down the pots in front of him and untie the lid of one. "This is Itztuahyatl powder. Good against fever, coughs and keeps you awake and alert. Should fetch a good price if you sell it off, or you can use it yourself."
He takes a pinch of the red powder and rubs it between his fingers before giving you a curious look. "I guess I don't need to bother to fetch your master to tell me that this is good?" You can't quite keep the annoyance off your face at the implication that you'd try to sell him lackluster goods or worse, try to cheat him. He just grins in response, apparently sufficiently reassured. "And what do you want from me for this?"
Truth be told, you would love to get one of the bronze daggers you know him to carry, yet you are painfully aware of how many pelts some hunters offered for the same and where still rebuffed. Something more modest will have to suffice for now. "You have obsidian blades, right? A long dagger would be fine."
"Should I be worried about a young girl like you playing with something that dangerous? Or maybe you wish to gift it to some dashing young man?" Two years ago, you would probably have reacted to the teasing, but this man couldn't hold a candle to the huntress.
99 + 30 (Charisma) + 50 (Concentration) + 100 (5 Successes from Herbalism -> Good Deal) = 279 vs 274 -> Success
He just shrugs and turns to the packs laying in the pen. "Not my concern. Bring the pots over and pick one. I'll even throw in a good sheath."
You quickly do as you are told and what feels like a few heartbeats later, you hold your prize in hand. A blade as long as you palm from gleaming, midnight black stone. The blade is slightly wavy, from the process of how it was made you are told, and it feels wonderful to run your fingers over the smooth surface to feel the pattern. The handle is made from animal bone like your old knife, but this one was carefully polished and a pattern carved into it that resembles the old art you've seen in the ruins. This was worth every second of work.
Gained Obsidian Dagger.
It's the middle of the night and you are honestly not sure why you couldn't have done this in the camp, but Mahuizoh was quite insistent that this needed some privacy. For once, neither Atl nor the huntress accompany you on this trip. This is supposedly nothing for those not inducted into the secrets of a shamans trade or those not yet skilled enough to handle the matter, and Atl apparently needs a bit more seasoning before learning this.
"Could you maybe tell me why we went all the way out here with that many herbs?" Many is probably an overstatement. It's just a few pots worth of different things and not all that much in volume, but lugging it all the way to this clearing in the darkness for no apparent reason has you a bit on the edge. It's not that safe to go out at this hour in such low numbers, something you are painfully aware after all the knowledge you've gained.
"Patience Yaxkin. Patience. You've shown so much of it so far and today I intend to reward it. It's been a long while since I've taught this to someone and never at quite such an tender age as you." He is currently busy cleaning off a flat stone in the middle of the clearing. Occasionally, he throws some ash on it from a large bag of it you've brought, and then immediately brushes it off again. The cleaning seems to be about more then just getting off some dirt and moss. "Look at the sky. What do you see?"
Knowing when plants grew and when to harvest them needed you to be able to track years and months. The cycle of the moon was not really as reliable to measure time as you've always thought, since it shifted in relation to a greater order that was given by the sun and stars. On the other hand, spirits were greatly influenced by the dance of stars across the nights sky. Take the two matters together and you got a good reason to learn all about what you could see up there, so it was not that hard to answer his question.
"The moon is full. The serpent sinking in the west and the archer stands in its zenith. The red wanderer is rather bright tonight." That was the facts that you could observe and yet you know that you are missing something. "What should I see?"
Mahuizo just chuckls and motions you to sit on the opposite side of the stone. "A good question. I will tell you. That the time is right."
That... didn't actually answer any of your questions. Now he had started to dump little piles of ash on the carefully cleaned stone, which raised even more. "Any man can learn to gather herbs and grind them to pastes and powders. This is not what it means to be a shaman, even if it's what most people see in our work. To be a shaman means to see beyond the concerns of daily life and ponder the mysteries that surround us." You are watching in rapt attention as he spreads the ash around. No. He is drawing with it. Circles and ellipses. A triangle in the center connected three of the circles. All the while he speaks and you carefully listen to every word, since you just know that it is important what he has to say to you today.
"Sometimes we fail in those duties. The world is not parting with its secrets willingly. And sometimes we succeed and can find something grand. You remember the clotting-salve you've asked me to teach to you?" You nod once. Half a year ago, a hunter was carried to the village with a chunk of his thigh just missing. Something had mauled him and the wound was bleeding terribly despite the attempt of the other hunters to bandage it. Mahuizo had taken one look at the wound and brought a small, specially-marked jar and smeared the salve directly into the wound. The bleeding just stopped then and there. Obviously you wanted to know how something so potent could be made, but so far, he just told you to wait. "This is how I make it."
With these words he takes three small clay vessels full of herbs and places them into the outer circles, before placing an empty one in the center of the triangle. "Place your hands in the ellipses. We will do this together and maybe you can do it on your own later." There are a thousand questions on the tip of your tongue, but Mahuizohs calm smile tells you that there will be time for them later. So you place your hands where they are supposed to go and wait for all of this to make sense again.
Then it suddenly happens. It's like a small tug on your arms, but nothing is there. The old shaman still smiles at you, so you squash the small mote of fear that begins to form as the tug turns into a steady pull. Your skin is prickling all over and somehow the stone that was cold just a few moments ago is becoming steadily warmer. Everything seems to start happening at once now. The carefully made paths of ash are suddenly illuminated by ghostly flames, yet give off no heat. The jars with the herbs seem to glow with the same otherworldly light and you can see how their contents just liquefy before your eyes, green branches collapsing like wet clay and turning into lightly glowing liquid.
You nearly tear you hands away, but the face of your master makes you keep them where they are. Under your still stunned gaze, the liquid in the outer pots ignites into more fire and seems to burn away, while at the same time the central vessel fills up with more liquid that seems to come from nowhere. The pull you've felt at first is still all over you and easily ignored in between all the other strangeness. Was this why Atl wasn't learning this? Because he still sometimes shied away from things, even when Mahuizoh told them they are safe? You have little doubt that interrupting whatever this is wouldn't go well for either of you.
At last whatever strange work you just did comes to a close. A sudden and most certainly not natural gust of wind scatters the ash and extinguishes the flames, marking the end of whatever ritual you just aided with. The outer jars are empty now and the central one filled with a milky cream you have been wondering about for some months now. This was certainly not what you expected to be the secret behind it.
"What... what have we done?"
???
2x Marginal Gain (Medicine, Spirit Lore) -> 2d100 = 145
??? 0 (97/100) -> Alchemy 1 (142/300)
2x Marginal Gain (Medicine, Spirit Lore) -> 2d100 = 145
??? 0 (97/100) -> Alchemy 1 (142/300)
"We made something from these herbs, but not with our hands. We didn't just cook, dry or mix them, but something greater. This art was once called Alchemy and it can make something not out of things that are there, but out of what they could be." He just grins broader at your puzzled expresion. "Ask away Yaxkin. This is certainly a lot to take in and you have many questions. The night is still young though, and we shouldn't waste these fruitious constellations. I will show you how to make a few more things. You will find them most useful."
What did you make that night?
Pick up to 5 products. Can pick the same one multiple times.
[] Numbing Brew
When drunken, this brew purges the pain and troubles of injuries from you. You can ignore the penalties from being wounded for some time after drinking it.
[] Clotting Salve
A thick, white paste. When spread into a bleeding wound, it immediately makes the wound scab over and stops the loss of the blood.
[] Mosquito's Bane
A light oil that repels insects from any who rub it on their body. The odor is quite strong and makes it easier for animals to track you by scent, but it can keep away even the nastiest insects without fail.
[] Graves Kiss
This dark red liquid can either be used as a medication or a poison. When carefully given to a patient in small doses, they fall into a death like trance and will feel no pain or distress when a shaman treats the most grievous wounds, but a full dose is lethal.
[] Purging Sludge
When a person eats this green sludge, they will start vomiting within moments. This expels any poisons they have in their body, even if the poison was injected instead of ingested.
[] Jungles Scent
A heavy cream that covers up the natural scent of a person and makes it blend into the surrounding scents.
AN: Truth be told, I was fully expecting you to fail here and was planning to give you a flint stone knife (still an improvement over the bone thing), but the dice insisted that you get what you came for. Enjoy your little murder knife. It's actually pretty damn lethal all things considered.
In other news, I'm hoping you like your secret shiny. You will be able to make more of these things coming next turn, but whatever you pick now will be available for your ruin diving. Plan format for this vote please.
Prologue 6: Challenge
- Location
- Germany
You try to move out of the way of the incoming blow, but are yet again a bit to slow. Instead of your shoulder, the shaft of the blunted spear scrapes along your left arm, leaving behind an ugly bruise and a trails of splinters. Carefully you readjust the grip on your dagger as you circle around the huntress. The rules of your game have changed over the past months. She could no longer get you entirely by surprise when you played spot the thing in the jungle, and while you were still not fast enough to get entirely away, you take quite a bit of satisfaction out of the fact that she often doesn't hit you where she intends to anymore. The downside is that you have to grudgingly have to admit that she was quite good at hitting you without actually causing you any real harm, and your stubborn attempts to dodge her blows often made them far more painful.
She still hasn't told you her name and any inquiries you've made around the tribe were fruitless. Either she had talked to everyone to keep you in the dark, or everyone else was finding you two just as hilarious as Atl and Mahuizo who where sitting on a log and watching you have a go at each other while they ate and commented on it.
At least you got her to drop asking you to quit trying. While you where afraid back then that she no longer bothered because she had finally made some headway with talking the old man into forbidding your 'lessons', nothing of the sort had happened. The shaman was quite happy to let you two sort it out between each other, as long as your studies weren't negatively impacted, and those did go quite well.
"It does you credit that you respond to danger by going for a weapon, but what use is it if you are unwilling to actually use it? Put your pretty toy away again." Sadly, the mocking hadn't stopped. The huntress lazily twirled her spear in her hand as you watched her with the dagger gripped in your hand. Should you maybe put it away? Mahuizo would certainly not appreciate you trying to attack her with a weapon that was, without a question, lethal. The worst she ever did to you were bashes with her spear. Then you notice her smile turning more smug by the heartbeat.
"Who says I'm not willing to use it?" Apparently Atl and your master do listen in on your spats, for you hear someone rise to his feet and being dragged down again. Atl, you guess. There's a moment of perfect silence as she puts down her spear. The smug smile is gone and that should count as a victory, but the blank expression that replaces it sends a shiver down your spine.
"I say so." The spear still spins in her hand, but it looks far less idle and much more akin to a jaguar ready to pounce, and seeing the stoic calm in her face makes you question the wisdom of challenging her, even with the knowledge that she wouldn't kill you in front of your master. Probably.
"Then you speak lies." Your mouth is faster then your mind and speaks the words before you even truly thought them. The blades handle lies comforting in your hand and you idly press a finger on the flat of the blade to feel the cool, smooth surface. You have trained hard to get some skill in fights. Even if you were not in a great hurry to get into them, you have no doubts that you will not flinch when it is time.
The grin returns, just as smug as before, but tinged with something else. "You wish to besmirch my honor as a huntress?"
"You besmirched mine first."
"I wasn't aware that wielding a blade was a matter of honor for a shamans apprentice. It seems a simple woman like me has yet much to learn about the world." She just shook her head and thumped the butt of her spear on the ground once. "Fine, little shaman, I will play along. A challenge of honor. I wager that you will not lay a single finger on me in a true fight."
You grit your teeth. A challenge of honor was a serious thing between hunters. "And the stakes?"
"When I win, you will stop pestering me for lessons and focus on something more productive."
And like that, your teeth grind even harder. Finding a new teacher among the hunters would be hard. Especially if word spreads of your defeat. Even if you didn't know her name, you did know that the huntress seemed to have quite a bit of clout with the others. Still... "But what if I win?"
And there was the mocking chuckle again. "We will surely find something satisfactory afterwards, but you should better think about what to do when the sky falls down, since that is far more likely to happen."
Do you accept the challenge?
[] Yes
-[] Write-In Battle Plan
[] You want different terms.
-[] Write-In
(This requires social checks to work. If you fail to convince her, you will decline.)
[] No, you won't play her games.
-[] Write-In anything you wish to say to her in response.
AN: The dice are... temperamental. Not that great rolls for training, except for double Trait gain on Evasion and the chance at two bonus attribute points.
And then you trump the huntress in a ego contest.
She isn't obeying the usual rules here (no reward set for your win, which is a grievous insult among hunters and challenging you is iffy in the first place), so you can just decline the challenge instead of having to admit defeat, but there might still be consequences to this.
And no. She isn't going to kill you, no matter what. That was just the Intimidation attempt on Yaxkin speaking.
Front page is already updated.
She still hasn't told you her name and any inquiries you've made around the tribe were fruitless. Either she had talked to everyone to keep you in the dark, or everyone else was finding you two just as hilarious as Atl and Mahuizo who where sitting on a log and watching you have a go at each other while they ate and commented on it.
At least you got her to drop asking you to quit trying. While you where afraid back then that she no longer bothered because she had finally made some headway with talking the old man into forbidding your 'lessons', nothing of the sort had happened. The shaman was quite happy to let you two sort it out between each other, as long as your studies weren't negatively impacted, and those did go quite well.
Herbalism
Main Action -> 12d100 = 585
Herbalism 2 (525/600) -> Herbalism 3 (510/1000)
Trait: 50 -> No
Medicine
Main Action -> 12d100 = 723
Medicine 2 (159/600) -> Medicine 3 (282/1000)
Trait: 17 -> No
Spirit Lore
Main Action -> 12d100 = 831
Spirit Lore 2 (97/600) -> Spirit Lore 3 (328/1000)
Trait: 55 -> No
Spirit Talking
Main Action -> 12d100 = 474
Spirit Talking 2 (143/600) -> Spirit Talking 3 (17/1000)
Trait: 46 -> No
Astronomy
2x Secondary Gain (Medicine, Spirit Lore) -> 12d100 = 564
Astronomy 2 (162/600) -> Astronomy 3 (126/1000)
Surgery
Passive Gain (Medicine) -> 2d100 = 113
Surgery 1 (91/300) -> Surgery 0 (204/300)
Evasion
Secondary Action + Passive Gain (Hunter Tribe) -> 8d100 = 428
Evasion 1 (116/300) -> Evasion 2 (244/600)
Trait: 97 -> Yes
Second trait? 91 -> Yes
Survival
Passive Gain (Hunter Tribe) -> 2d100 = 93
Survival 2 (467/600) -> Survival 2 (560/600)
Tracking
Passive Gain (Hunter Tribe) -> 2d100 = 153
Tracking 1 (156/300) -> Tracking 2 (9/600)
Endurance
3x Passive Gain (Hunter Tribe, Evasion, Sneaking) -> 6d100 = 336
Endurance 2 (349/600) -> Endurance 3 (85/1000)
Perception
3x Passive Gain (Hunter Tribe, Evasion, Sneaking) -> 6d100 = 251
Perception 2 (411/600) -> Perception 3 (251/1000)
Sneaking
Secondary Action -> 6d100 = 381
Sneaking 1 (251/300) -> Sneaking 2 (332/600)
Trait: 28 -> No
New Traits
Combat Awareness
You have learned to watch your surroundings closely and even subconsciously, giving you an edge in combat. When you defend yourself in combat, add +5 per point of your Concentration attribute to your result.
Positioning
You have learned that just evading attacks isn't enough to win a fight. At the beginning of a combat turn, you can announce an enemy to position yourself against and determine a number that is detracted from every Evasion check made in this turn. You can only use Evasion to defend against attacks in this turn. In the next round of combat, you gain the same value as a bonus on all attack rolls against the picked enemy.
Attributes
Main Actions (Medicine, Spirit Lore) -> +1 Intelligence, +1 Concentration
Attribute gain from secondary actions?
98 -> Yes, +1 Dexterity
Another one?
49 -> No
Main Action -> 12d100 = 585
Herbalism 2 (525/600) -> Herbalism 3 (510/1000)
Trait: 50 -> No
Medicine
Main Action -> 12d100 = 723
Medicine 2 (159/600) -> Medicine 3 (282/1000)
Trait: 17 -> No
Spirit Lore
Main Action -> 12d100 = 831
Spirit Lore 2 (97/600) -> Spirit Lore 3 (328/1000)
Trait: 55 -> No
Spirit Talking
Main Action -> 12d100 = 474
Spirit Talking 2 (143/600) -> Spirit Talking 3 (17/1000)
Trait: 46 -> No
Astronomy
2x Secondary Gain (Medicine, Spirit Lore) -> 12d100 = 564
Astronomy 2 (162/600) -> Astronomy 3 (126/1000)
Surgery
Passive Gain (Medicine) -> 2d100 = 113
Surgery 1 (91/300) -> Surgery 0 (204/300)
Evasion
Secondary Action + Passive Gain (Hunter Tribe) -> 8d100 = 428
Evasion 1 (116/300) -> Evasion 2 (244/600)
Trait: 97 -> Yes
Second trait? 91 -> Yes
Survival
Passive Gain (Hunter Tribe) -> 2d100 = 93
Survival 2 (467/600) -> Survival 2 (560/600)
Tracking
Passive Gain (Hunter Tribe) -> 2d100 = 153
Tracking 1 (156/300) -> Tracking 2 (9/600)
Endurance
3x Passive Gain (Hunter Tribe, Evasion, Sneaking) -> 6d100 = 336
Endurance 2 (349/600) -> Endurance 3 (85/1000)
Perception
3x Passive Gain (Hunter Tribe, Evasion, Sneaking) -> 6d100 = 251
Perception 2 (411/600) -> Perception 3 (251/1000)
Sneaking
Secondary Action -> 6d100 = 381
Sneaking 1 (251/300) -> Sneaking 2 (332/600)
Trait: 28 -> No
New Traits
Combat Awareness
You have learned to watch your surroundings closely and even subconsciously, giving you an edge in combat. When you defend yourself in combat, add +5 per point of your Concentration attribute to your result.
Positioning
You have learned that just evading attacks isn't enough to win a fight. At the beginning of a combat turn, you can announce an enemy to position yourself against and determine a number that is detracted from every Evasion check made in this turn. You can only use Evasion to defend against attacks in this turn. In the next round of combat, you gain the same value as a bonus on all attack rolls against the picked enemy.
Attributes
Main Actions (Medicine, Spirit Lore) -> +1 Intelligence, +1 Concentration
Attribute gain from secondary actions?
98 -> Yes, +1 Dexterity
Another one?
49 -> No
"It does you credit that you respond to danger by going for a weapon, but what use is it if you are unwilling to actually use it? Put your pretty toy away again." Sadly, the mocking hadn't stopped. The huntress lazily twirled her spear in her hand as you watched her with the dagger gripped in your hand. Should you maybe put it away? Mahuizo would certainly not appreciate you trying to attack her with a weapon that was, without a question, lethal. The worst she ever did to you were bashes with her spear. Then you notice her smile turning more smug by the heartbeat.
"Who says I'm not willing to use it?" Apparently Atl and your master do listen in on your spats, for you hear someone rise to his feet and being dragged down again. Atl, you guess. There's a moment of perfect silence as she puts down her spear. The smug smile is gone and that should count as a victory, but the blank expression that replaces it sends a shiver down your spine.
"I say so." The spear still spins in her hand, but it looks far less idle and much more akin to a jaguar ready to pounce, and seeing the stoic calm in her face makes you question the wisdom of challenging her, even with the knowledge that she wouldn't kill you in front of your master. Probably.
Huntress: 17 + 90 (Dexterity) + 60 (Charisma) + 60 (???) = 227
vs.
Yaxkin: 97 + 70 (Dexterity) + 60 (Concentration) + 50 (???) = 277
AN: Intimidation checks work by the attacker picking a physical and a mental attribute to browbeat you into submission. You do the same to defend against it. Usually, these will be your highest, but circumstances might restrict you to certain attributes. (Example: A large group of guards trying to make you give up would make Strength unavailable, since you know that you can't beat them all by brute force, but outrunning them (Constitution) or loosing them somehow (Dexterity) are valid.)
vs.
Yaxkin: 97 + 70 (Dexterity) + 60 (Concentration) + 50 (???) = 277
AN: Intimidation checks work by the attacker picking a physical and a mental attribute to browbeat you into submission. You do the same to defend against it. Usually, these will be your highest, but circumstances might restrict you to certain attributes. (Example: A large group of guards trying to make you give up would make Strength unavailable, since you know that you can't beat them all by brute force, but outrunning them (Constitution) or loosing them somehow (Dexterity) are valid.)
"Then you speak lies." Your mouth is faster then your mind and speaks the words before you even truly thought them. The blades handle lies comforting in your hand and you idly press a finger on the flat of the blade to feel the cool, smooth surface. You have trained hard to get some skill in fights. Even if you were not in a great hurry to get into them, you have no doubts that you will not flinch when it is time.
The grin returns, just as smug as before, but tinged with something else. "You wish to besmirch my honor as a huntress?"
"You besmirched mine first."
"I wasn't aware that wielding a blade was a matter of honor for a shamans apprentice. It seems a simple woman like me has yet much to learn about the world." She just shook her head and thumped the butt of her spear on the ground once. "Fine, little shaman, I will play along. A challenge of honor. I wager that you will not lay a single finger on me in a true fight."
You grit your teeth. A challenge of honor was a serious thing between hunters. "And the stakes?"
"When I win, you will stop pestering me for lessons and focus on something more productive."
And like that, your teeth grind even harder. Finding a new teacher among the hunters would be hard. Especially if word spreads of your defeat. Even if you didn't know her name, you did know that the huntress seemed to have quite a bit of clout with the others. Still... "But what if I win?"
And there was the mocking chuckle again. "We will surely find something satisfactory afterwards, but you should better think about what to do when the sky falls down, since that is far more likely to happen."
Do you accept the challenge?
[] Yes
-[] Write-In Battle Plan
[] You want different terms.
-[] Write-In
(This requires social checks to work. If you fail to convince her, you will decline.)
[] No, you won't play her games.
-[] Write-In anything you wish to say to her in response.
AN: The dice are... temperamental. Not that great rolls for training, except for double Trait gain on Evasion and the chance at two bonus attribute points.
And then you trump the huntress in a ego contest.
She isn't obeying the usual rules here (no reward set for your win, which is a grievous insult among hunters and challenging you is iffy in the first place), so you can just decline the challenge instead of having to admit defeat, but there might still be consequences to this.
And no. She isn't going to kill you, no matter what. That was just the Intimidation attempt on Yaxkin speaking.
Front page is already updated.
Prologue 7: A Matter Of Honor
- Location
- Germany
It takes you only a moment to decide. You won't let that insult stand. "I accept."
"Now, I think this has gone far enough." You see Mahuizo rise from the corner of your eye, but the huntress just points her spear at him.
"It's bit a late for that now, old man. I've told you to end this years ago, but you wouldn't listen. She would stop on her own, once she got something more interesting to strike her fancy, you've told me."
"So I should just stand by as your beat up my apprentice?" He looks anything but happy at the thought, but makes no motion to come closer anymore.
"You didn't seem to have a problem with that so far. Now we will settle this the hunter way." With that she lowers her spear and walks to the center of the small clearing you are using for your break.
As you slowly walk over to her, you check your surroundings. Nothing but damp ground and the next trees are too far away to be of any use. You could try to bolt there, but it's unlikely that she would follow you. If you even make it that far. Still, the prospect of an actual fight with her got your blood pumping and you can't quite stop yourself from provoking her further. Even if you loose, you are going to make this memorable. "So... if we settle this the hunter way, does that mean I'm a hunter now?"
"Careful brat. I've yet to decide how much of a lesson I'm going to teach you." With the butt of her spear, she draws a line in the moist earth and takes three careful steps from it. "Get in position. You can come at me whenever you think you are ready."
Before going in position, you untie your belt and place it a few steps away. No reason to risk its contents in this, and you are painfully aware that this will be over very quickly. In a straight fight, she would crush you, but with the conditions she has set, you might just pull this off. Your grip on the dagger hardens as you step in front of her, and then it's time.
You've seen her fight on occasion. Not the almost loving blows you usually get, but a real fight. Traipsing around in the jungle with Mahuizo did have his dangers and you've had your fair share of attacks by wolves, bears and even jaguars now and then. She always fought them with a grace and precision that was outright admirable. Nothing got any closer to her then she would let it and a quick trust with her weapon and it was all over. However, when she struck you, it seemed far more awkward. She obviously wasn't used to hit things with the side of her spear instead of running them through with it, and you could exploit that. It would hurt, tremendously so, but if you got close enough...
You break into a sprint and dive for her right side. If you play this safe, you might be able to draw it out for a while, but there is no chance to hit her when she keeps you at range. She raises her spear and for a moment you doubt that she wouldn't impale you on it, but keep charging anyway. In the last moment, she twists away and you see the spear whirling in her hands as she makes half a step away from your path. And then it hits you. The blow to the back of your head makes you drop to the ground immediately and you have trouble seeing anything. Everything hurts and you are not even sure if you are breathing right now. The huntress says something, but you can't make out the words among the dull throbbing between you ears.
She still stands close. Close enough to reach her leg. You might be kneeling before of her, but it's not over yet. You nearly retch as you thrust out your arm. Your vision goes blurry from the exertion and you can no longer see what's going on. Just a scratch and you have won, no matter if you can walk away from this or not. The dagger feels like a log in your grip and you can barely your grip as the darkness claims you entire view.
There is another painful strike to your temple and then you know no more.
When you come back to your senses, the darkness seems suddenly preferable. You lay on a bed of leaves as Mahuizo usually prepares for those so sick that they need to stay in his tent. Normally, you thought they where quite comfortable, yet now it feels like a thousand thorns are scratching over your skin. Some light comes in between flap of the tent and it seems to be made out of nothing but pain. Weakly you try to shift around so that you face away from it, but a fresh wave of pain and nausea disabuses you of that notion.
"You're awake again?" It's Atl's voice that punches through the haze you are in. Grating like everything else around you, but as you sluggishly decipher what he said, the rest of it seems to be easier ignored, so you resolve to keep talking. Nothing more then a few garbled moans come out of your sore throat, though. "I think that was a yes. Here. Drink this. He said that will take care of the worst of it so that you can eat a bit before sleeping some more."
He raises a small wooden cup to your lips and gently pours its contents into your mouth. Not as if you could do anything to stop him, so you just swallow it and are immediately grateful for the foul-smelling brew. It's not enough to fully banish the pain, but it goes down to a dull throbbing after a short while and the world slowly resolves back into discernible shapes. "How..." Your voice breaks and you weakly cough once. "How long...?"
"Only a day. She left you in a bad shape and we had to carry you back to the camp. That was..." He smiles at you for a moment, but thinks better of speaking on and just shakes his head. "Anyway. I'm going to get you something to eat. Mahuizo said you are not supposed to leave the cot for at least another day."
With this he leaves the tent and you are rather relieved that he gave you some medication, for the tent flap opening is merely unpleasant instead of making you wish for blessed unconsciousness again. You just lower your head again to wait for his return as the last person you want to see right now walks in. She isn't bearing her usual teasing smile and instead just stares at you. Your stomach clenches upon seeing her, for now you will probably get the last lecture from her and a strong reminder to no longer play huntress. You try to hold her boring gaze none the less, but you are still rather weak and drop your eyes after a while.
As you look down, you notice a small bandage on her right calf.
"I'm here to concede defeat. You managed to land a blow on me, so by the rules set, you are the victor." You have the small suspicion that the loser is not meant to stand tall in front of the victor, who is busy trying not to puke her guts out, but you will take what you can get. "Since I've set no price for you in my hubris, you can name yours now."
You open your mouth to say something and are cut off by her. "Now doesn't need to mean right now. Wait until the old man is sure that you are thinking straight again before coming to me." She turns to leave before glancing back at you. The smile is there again, but it doesn't feel quite so cold as all the times before. "Manauia the huntress owes you one, little shaman, and I don't intend to bail on our bet." Then she steps out again and leaves you to your thoughts.
What will you ask of Manauia for your victory?
[] Write-In
AN: That went a lot better then expected. You still got a concussion out of the deal, but actually managed to wound her.
You should keep in mind that going overboard with your requests will probably not be well received in the tribe. Hunters are supposed to be gracious in defeat and humble in victory.
"Now, I think this has gone far enough." You see Mahuizo rise from the corner of your eye, but the huntress just points her spear at him.
"It's bit a late for that now, old man. I've told you to end this years ago, but you wouldn't listen. She would stop on her own, once she got something more interesting to strike her fancy, you've told me."
"So I should just stand by as your beat up my apprentice?" He looks anything but happy at the thought, but makes no motion to come closer anymore.
"You didn't seem to have a problem with that so far. Now we will settle this the hunter way." With that she lowers her spear and walks to the center of the small clearing you are using for your break.
As you slowly walk over to her, you check your surroundings. Nothing but damp ground and the next trees are too far away to be of any use. You could try to bolt there, but it's unlikely that she would follow you. If you even make it that far. Still, the prospect of an actual fight with her got your blood pumping and you can't quite stop yourself from provoking her further. Even if you loose, you are going to make this memorable. "So... if we settle this the hunter way, does that mean I'm a hunter now?"
"Careful brat. I've yet to decide how much of a lesson I'm going to teach you." With the butt of her spear, she draws a line in the moist earth and takes three careful steps from it. "Get in position. You can come at me whenever you think you are ready."
Before going in position, you untie your belt and place it a few steps away. No reason to risk its contents in this, and you are painfully aware that this will be over very quickly. In a straight fight, she would crush you, but with the conditions she has set, you might just pull this off. Your grip on the dagger hardens as you step in front of her, and then it's time.
You've seen her fight on occasion. Not the almost loving blows you usually get, but a real fight. Traipsing around in the jungle with Mahuizo did have his dangers and you've had your fair share of attacks by wolves, bears and even jaguars now and then. She always fought them with a grace and precision that was outright admirable. Nothing got any closer to her then she would let it and a quick trust with her weapon and it was all over. However, when she struck you, it seemed far more awkward. She obviously wasn't used to hit things with the side of her spear instead of running them through with it, and you could exploit that. It would hurt, tremendously so, but if you got close enough...
Yaxkin:
Positioning - 150
Attack: 76 + 50 (STR) + 70 (DEX) + 40 (Bladed Weapons) + 20 (Knife Fighter) = 265
vs.
Defense: 66 + 180 (2x DEX) + 120 (Evasion) = 366
No hit.
Huntress:
Attack: 50 + 60 (STR) + 90 (DEX) + 60 (Bludgeoning Weapon) = 260
vs.
Defense: 79 + 140 (2x DEX) + 30 (Combat Awareness) - 150 (Positioning) = 99
17 Sucesses
2 (1d6) + 17 = 19 Wounds
-3 on all Attributes and Skills for Yaxkin
Positioning - 150
Attack: 76 + 50 (STR) + 70 (DEX) + 40 (Bladed Weapons) + 20 (Knife Fighter) = 265
vs.
Defense: 66 + 180 (2x DEX) + 120 (Evasion) = 366
No hit.
Huntress:
Attack: 50 + 60 (STR) + 90 (DEX) + 60 (Bludgeoning Weapon) = 260
vs.
Defense: 79 + 140 (2x DEX) + 30 (Combat Awareness) - 150 (Positioning) = 99
17 Sucesses
2 (1d6) + 17 = 19 Wounds
-3 on all Attributes and Skills for Yaxkin
You break into a sprint and dive for her right side. If you play this safe, you might be able to draw it out for a while, but there is no chance to hit her when she keeps you at range. She raises her spear and for a moment you doubt that she wouldn't impale you on it, but keep charging anyway. In the last moment, she twists away and you see the spear whirling in her hands as she makes half a step away from your path. And then it hits you. The blow to the back of your head makes you drop to the ground immediately and you have trouble seeing anything. Everything hurts and you are not even sure if you are breathing right now. The huntress says something, but you can't make out the words among the dull throbbing between you ears.
She still stands close. Close enough to reach her leg. You might be kneeling before of her, but it's not over yet. You nearly retch as you thrust out your arm. Your vision goes blurry from the exertion and you can no longer see what's going on. Just a scratch and you have won, no matter if you can walk away from this or not. The dagger feels like a log in your grip and you can barely your grip as the darkness claims you entire view.
Huntress:
Attack: 53 + 60 (STR) + 90 (DEX) + 60 (Bludgeoning Weapon) = 263
vs.
Defense: 44 + 80 (DEX) + 15 (Combat Awareness) = 139
13 Sucesses
4 (1d6) + 13 = 17 Wounds
Yaxkin knocked out at the end of the round.
Attack: 53 + 60 (STR) + 90 (DEX) + 60 (Bludgeoning Weapon) = 263
vs.
Defense: 44 + 80 (DEX) + 15 (Combat Awareness) = 139
13 Sucesses
4 (1d6) + 13 = 17 Wounds
Yaxkin knocked out at the end of the round.
There is another painful strike to your temple and then you know no more.
When you come back to your senses, the darkness seems suddenly preferable. You lay on a bed of leaves as Mahuizo usually prepares for those so sick that they need to stay in his tent. Normally, you thought they where quite comfortable, yet now it feels like a thousand thorns are scratching over your skin. Some light comes in between flap of the tent and it seems to be made out of nothing but pain. Weakly you try to shift around so that you face away from it, but a fresh wave of pain and nausea disabuses you of that notion.
"You're awake again?" It's Atl's voice that punches through the haze you are in. Grating like everything else around you, but as you sluggishly decipher what he said, the rest of it seems to be easier ignored, so you resolve to keep talking. Nothing more then a few garbled moans come out of your sore throat, though. "I think that was a yes. Here. Drink this. He said that will take care of the worst of it so that you can eat a bit before sleeping some more."
He raises a small wooden cup to your lips and gently pours its contents into your mouth. Not as if you could do anything to stop him, so you just swallow it and are immediately grateful for the foul-smelling brew. It's not enough to fully banish the pain, but it goes down to a dull throbbing after a short while and the world slowly resolves back into discernible shapes. "How..." Your voice breaks and you weakly cough once. "How long...?"
"Only a day. She left you in a bad shape and we had to carry you back to the camp. That was..." He smiles at you for a moment, but thinks better of speaking on and just shakes his head. "Anyway. I'm going to get you something to eat. Mahuizo said you are not supposed to leave the cot for at least another day."
With this he leaves the tent and you are rather relieved that he gave you some medication, for the tent flap opening is merely unpleasant instead of making you wish for blessed unconsciousness again. You just lower your head again to wait for his return as the last person you want to see right now walks in. She isn't bearing her usual teasing smile and instead just stares at you. Your stomach clenches upon seeing her, for now you will probably get the last lecture from her and a strong reminder to no longer play huntress. You try to hold her boring gaze none the less, but you are still rather weak and drop your eyes after a while.
As you look down, you notice a small bandage on her right calf.
Yaxkin:
Attack: 80 + 20 (STR) + 40 (DEX) + 150 (Positioning) + 20 (Knife Fighter) = 310
vs.
Defense: 7 + 90 (DEX) + 90 (DEX) + 120 (Evasion) = 307
1 Success
4 (1d8) + 1 = 5 Wounds
Attack: 80 + 20 (STR) + 40 (DEX) + 150 (Positioning) + 20 (Knife Fighter) = 310
vs.
Defense: 7 + 90 (DEX) + 90 (DEX) + 120 (Evasion) = 307
1 Success
4 (1d8) + 1 = 5 Wounds
"I'm here to concede defeat. You managed to land a blow on me, so by the rules set, you are the victor." You have the small suspicion that the loser is not meant to stand tall in front of the victor, who is busy trying not to puke her guts out, but you will take what you can get. "Since I've set no price for you in my hubris, you can name yours now."
You open your mouth to say something and are cut off by her. "Now doesn't need to mean right now. Wait until the old man is sure that you are thinking straight again before coming to me." She turns to leave before glancing back at you. The smile is there again, but it doesn't feel quite so cold as all the times before. "Manauia the huntress owes you one, little shaman, and I don't intend to bail on our bet." Then she steps out again and leaves you to your thoughts.
What will you ask of Manauia for your victory?
[] Write-In
AN: That went a lot better then expected. You still got a concussion out of the deal, but actually managed to wound her.
You should keep in mind that going overboard with your requests will probably not be well received in the tribe. Hunters are supposed to be gracious in defeat and humble in victory.
Prologue 8: Much To See
- Location
- Germany
It is with great fondness that you return to the ruins on this day. It took a bit of convincing before Mahuizo agreed to your request, especially after the fight with Manauia. Once you had been able to walk under your own power again, he had made you do the less pleasant tasks for a good month, while Atl got his regular lessons. You suspect he also got his introduction into alchemy in that time by how excited he was one morning despite looking as if he hadn't caught a whiff of sleep. Good for him. Despite the rather unflattering first impressions, you couldn't claim that he was incompetent. He took a bit longer for his lessons than you, but he was always trying his best and it showed these days.
It was his appeal that finally got you your masters permission to go into the ruins. "If you forbid it, she will probably do it anyway and we won't know when to pick her up to haul her home." That was not really a flattering way to put it, but it did get you his approval in the end. Manauia—it was still strange to think about her with that name instead of just the generic label of huntress—hadn't said anything on the matter. That kind of amounted to a hearty agreement, since she probably would have objected rather loudly if she thought you were getting in over your head.
Admittedly, your work today was a bit sloppy. You were running the descriptions of the places and directions to them through your head over and over again, imagining all kinds of interesting things to find there. While the shaman had been coming to these ruins for longer than you lived, he always steered away from certain areas. Either because there was nothing in the way of herbs that was interesting for him or because he had seen signs of spirit activity in those places. As you sat on a stone bench next to the other members of your little family and wolfed down half a papaya you had picked on the way and some meat, you carefully thought about all that you had heard.
Where do you wish to go?
[] [Location] The Palace
While immediately visible with the great stone obelisk and the palace proper rising above all the other ruins, neither Mahuizo nor Manauia have ventured there. The spirits of the ancestors are said to haunt these halls in the old legends and neither of them saw any reason to test how true they are.
[] [Location] The Catacombs
All over the city, you can find pits and crevices leading down into collapsed cellars and chambers. Some of them seem to be connected and there is no telling how large the subterranean maze might be. Your master warns about the spirits haunting these forgotten halls.
[] [Location] The Warrior's Compound
No one knows what this building was before the Fall, but the walls are adorned with pictures of men and woman garbed in metal armor fighting each other, so it's usually assumed to be a warriors building. Manauia has often found tracks leading to this estate, but rarely any that have led back again.
[] [Location] The Serpent's Home
A small building by the measure of the other mansions on your list and also probably the most eerie. The building is still largely intact and decorations depicting a great snake encircling it gave it its name. At night, there is always light in one of the upper windows, but of the wrong color to be from a torch. Legends say that the spirits of the ancestors can be heard near this place if one listens closely.
[] [Location] The Temple
A building of steeped design like the main palace, but much smaller. It's thought to have been a temple to the gods in times past. Soot still clings to its warped stone from whatever calamity was its undoing, and while the upper layers have collapsed entirely, the small pile of rubble left behind makes you suspect large catacombs beneath it.
[] [Location] The Granaries
Of the once-great domes that mark this complex, only a single one has not collapsed by now. A decent-sized compound surrounds these large structures and the farmers apparently identified it as a granary when told about the place. Certainly not as interesting as some of the other places, but neither Mahuizoh nor Manauia have any stories to share about it being dangerous.
Do you want to do any last minute preparations?
[] [Preparations] Poison your dagger with Curare (Herbalism Check, DC 150)
[] [Preparations] Write-In
AN: A bit of a filler chapter, but it would have been silly to let you roll on the random table for a location when you've known this place for years.
It was his appeal that finally got you your masters permission to go into the ruins. "If you forbid it, she will probably do it anyway and we won't know when to pick her up to haul her home." That was not really a flattering way to put it, but it did get you his approval in the end. Manauia—it was still strange to think about her with that name instead of just the generic label of huntress—hadn't said anything on the matter. That kind of amounted to a hearty agreement, since she probably would have objected rather loudly if she thought you were getting in over your head.
Admittedly, your work today was a bit sloppy. You were running the descriptions of the places and directions to them through your head over and over again, imagining all kinds of interesting things to find there. While the shaman had been coming to these ruins for longer than you lived, he always steered away from certain areas. Either because there was nothing in the way of herbs that was interesting for him or because he had seen signs of spirit activity in those places. As you sat on a stone bench next to the other members of your little family and wolfed down half a papaya you had picked on the way and some meat, you carefully thought about all that you had heard.
Where do you wish to go?
[] [Location] The Palace
While immediately visible with the great stone obelisk and the palace proper rising above all the other ruins, neither Mahuizo nor Manauia have ventured there. The spirits of the ancestors are said to haunt these halls in the old legends and neither of them saw any reason to test how true they are.
[] [Location] The Catacombs
All over the city, you can find pits and crevices leading down into collapsed cellars and chambers. Some of them seem to be connected and there is no telling how large the subterranean maze might be. Your master warns about the spirits haunting these forgotten halls.
[] [Location] The Warrior's Compound
No one knows what this building was before the Fall, but the walls are adorned with pictures of men and woman garbed in metal armor fighting each other, so it's usually assumed to be a warriors building. Manauia has often found tracks leading to this estate, but rarely any that have led back again.
[] [Location] The Serpent's Home
A small building by the measure of the other mansions on your list and also probably the most eerie. The building is still largely intact and decorations depicting a great snake encircling it gave it its name. At night, there is always light in one of the upper windows, but of the wrong color to be from a torch. Legends say that the spirits of the ancestors can be heard near this place if one listens closely.
[] [Location] The Temple
A building of steeped design like the main palace, but much smaller. It's thought to have been a temple to the gods in times past. Soot still clings to its warped stone from whatever calamity was its undoing, and while the upper layers have collapsed entirely, the small pile of rubble left behind makes you suspect large catacombs beneath it.
[] [Location] The Granaries
Of the once-great domes that mark this complex, only a single one has not collapsed by now. A decent-sized compound surrounds these large structures and the farmers apparently identified it as a granary when told about the place. Certainly not as interesting as some of the other places, but neither Mahuizoh nor Manauia have any stories to share about it being dangerous.
Do you want to do any last minute preparations?
[] [Preparations] Poison your dagger with Curare (Herbalism Check, DC 150)
[] [Preparations] Write-In
AN: A bit of a filler chapter, but it would have been silly to let you roll on the random table for a location when you've known this place for years.