>>26983624
<Nope. The farmer offered me some work. Go clear out a few Wyverns or something. If you're interested, we can split the rewards again.>

>>26983624
Question: How do Galdians feel about Nystarans?

<Hmm, do you think we should follow her?>

>>26983624
<she a kid,>
>>26983740
yea this

>>26983624
<I might go check on her, make sure she's safe.>

<She's just a kid.> You say.
<I was better than that when I was a kid.> He says, and shoots you a grin. <Then again, I guess she was never trained like I was.>
<Do you think we should follow her?> You ask.
Mal just shrugged. He seems rather tired.
<She does it every few days, I think. I saw her doing something like this before. Last time she didn't have the dragon, though. She should be fine.>

You consider something- how would Mal feel about meeting a mutant? You consider how Galdians normally view mutants; with something approaching derision- saying that mutation is their comeuppance for using such strange technology.
Then again, he does have slitted eyes, which is considered a mutation to the world at large... So you shrug and offer it anyway.
<The farmer offered me some work.> You say. <Go clear out a few wyverns or something. If you're interested, we can split the rewards again.>
<Uuuugh, wyvern hunting.> Mal says, rolling his eyes. Then he covered his head with a cloth again. <No thanks. I've had enough rocks thrown at me in my life. You can go it alone, I'm sure.>

>>26983980
<No talons to worry about though?>

>>26983980
<Uhh, if you're sure. See you later, then.>

<No talons to worry about, though?>
<Uh... A few.> He says. <Be careful.>
<... If you're sure.> You say, and give him a wave. <See you later, then.>
<Later, bro.>

Steve following you, you make your way down to where Leroy told you his farm is. You finally get there, and see that he's not growing wheat, or fruit- but mushrooms. Large sheds sat in the field, giving plenty of shade to long troughs full of mud. Caps slowly poke out of the mud, and you can smell something strange. The air here is rather humid, and you can see the machine that's causing it- it's something electronic, you suppose, misting water over the bins. The machine is beaten up and dented, but it looks like it's been fixed repeatedly.

Then you hear something chitter, reminding you of a monkey. You look- and see it in the field, wings spread angrily.
The wyvern. It's small, and at first glance, reminds you of a bird. If a bird had two sets of talons and ears that poked out of its head, of course. It chitters angrily at you, as if warning you away. When you don't move, it picks up a small rock in its forepaw and pelts it at you, coming a few feet short.
The chittering grows, and two more wyverns arrive, landing between you and the sheds. One scoops up plenty of the mud, and gets ready to throw, chittering angrily at you.
Apparently they think it's their territory.

>>26984406
Murder time?

>>26984406
Start stabbing at them with our spear.
Keep our gauntlet hand free to grab them as well, if they try to get closer.

You quickly grab your spear and jab at the nearest one. It rears back, barely out of the way, and chitters more angrily this time.
A rock hits you this time, from above. You look up and see almost a dozen more circling above you, all of them carefully aiming and dropping their own stones. You cover your head with your empty arm, and give another jab.
This time, your spear collides with it, slamming it back. The wyverns don't have enough mass for you to hurt them very badly with the spear, but the wyvern crumples to the ground, lying there.
It's playing dead, you realize.
Another rock slams into your head. You don't pay it much attention- the wyverns can't carry much, so the rocks aren't a bother.
Above you, the swarm suddenly stops, and starts flying away, as if retreating. The other two in the field grab the 'dead' wyvern, and starts dragging it away, leaping through the grass and away from the shed.
You note that it's going the exact opposite direction from the swarm.

Something's strange, here. Everyone says that wyverns are incredibly intelligent animals, but could some of them be trying to lead you into a trap?

Rolled 4

>>26984715
Let's just shoot one of the ones dragging the 'dead' one.

>>26984715

it is entirely possible, the 'dead' one is probably a lure.

what happens when we head after the swarm?

>>26984715
probably a trap. How about we set up a trap for them when they get back?

Rolled 48

>>26984795
Is it best of three for shooting, by the way?

>>26984967
>The Wanderer has a very broad skillset, but that comes at a cost- he's not extremely skilled in anything, so it's usually average of best two.

You quickly wind your steamsling, and load it with a bolt. When you hold it up, though, one of the three wyverns crawling across the grass chatters loudly- and all three bolt into the air, wings flapping quickly.
They fly away, all in different directions, but you notice- they all eventually turn toward where the swarm had gone.
You consider leaving a trap here for them- but you're not sure what kind of trap you could make...

>>26985067

okay so they recognize weapons, we need to find their nests since they'll just learn to deal with the traps we set.

Rolled 77

>>26985067
Ah, thank you.

I don't think there's much point in setting up a trap. We'd only catch a few and there'd be a lot more left. Let's see if we can follow the general direction the group took, and find their nests.

Finally, you sigh, and rub at a small bruise forming on your intact arm. The rocks they'd pelted you with didn't hurt individually, but it's still a bother.
You flick on a safety on your steamsling, and head the same direction the swarm- or flock- had, toward the mountains. The trees eventually get thicker, so you make sure to do it stealthily, hiding in the brush and under canopies, protecting yourself from the creatures in the air. It reminds you of the time you had to sneak your way out of the Thousand Towers in Nystara, but at least this time you don't need to wear a breath mask because of the Shroud- and this time you don't need to drag along a terrified teenage girl.

Eventually, you descend into a small ravine, filled with trees and bushes, and you hear it- chittering, not far from here. You creep out of the bushes, and can see a strange structure woven from branches. It almost looks like a beehive, but it's built similarly to a bird's nest. The chittering is loud, and you think there could be dozens of them all chirping at eachother.
You've found it. Now you just need to destroy it or somehow kill the wyverns inside- but for that, you need to get closer without being detected.

>Roll stealth! Difficult!

Rolled 14

>>26985356

Rolled 49

>>26985356
Ah shit

Rolled 27

>>26985356
whoops, wrong dice

>>26985382
>>26985393
>>26985407

aww crap.

more wounds.

Rolled 97

>>26985356
hold on guys I'll just fuck it up some more.

>DC: 65. Success!

Carefully, you creep closer, making as little noise as you can. You step on a branch once or twice before you realize- the chittering is so loud that they likely can't hear you anyway. Feeling moderately safer, you're only twenty yards away from it when a wyvern pops its head out, looking this way and that. You dive behind a tree just in time, going the long way around the nest, away from the sentinel.

Finally, you get close to the nest, and peek into one of the holes in it- And what you see, you can only think of as a 'meeting' or a 'council'. Plenty of wyverns are sitting in the corners, in small cubby holes, chittering and arguing, but six of the wyverns are standing in the center, chattering at one another angrily. Two of them get into a fight, feathers rustling as they snarl and scratch eachother with their talons, but that only serves to make the spectators more rambunctious.

Now... How to destroy them... It would be rather easy to use your runes, or you could try burning it- but if too many get out, they'll just make another nest somewhere else.

>If you're *not* using a rune, you'll need to roll.

Rolled 47

>>26985668
I remember asking about multirunes a few threads ago. Can we do Earth+Earth+Blast?

Rolled 73

>>26985668

>>26985707
>You only have one earth rune, so you cannot at this point in time.
>However, you do have two fire runes...
>As always, you can find the runes, their current uses, and basic character information in the pastebin.

>>26985668
Let's use a fire combo of runes and advance into the cave while burning everything that comes near.
We'll block off the exit this way while protecting ourselves.

Rolled 69

>>26985668

we could try fire + fire + blast.

>rolling for third dice in case we don't use rune.

Rolled 84

>>26985740
I'm down for a rune combo to be honest. Let's find out what it does.

Carefully, you back away, and open up the notebook your employers gave you, and cromwell keeps adding to- in it was the proper usage of the blast rune. Apparently, you need to hold out your empty palm of your dominant hand. Apparently the Blast fires out of your palm, and keeps going until it collides with something solid, where it explodes.
You hold out your right palm, and stick it into the hole pointing to the center of the 'council'.
Fire. Fire. Blast. Something in your bag cracks, and you absently realize that one of your fire runes have been destroyed.

A sphere of white energy lanced from your palm, and your stomach suddenly sinks in a strange way- one that reminds you of the Shroud. It dawns on you, quite suddenly, that you have no idea how large a Burst explodes.

So you bolt.
And just in time, too, as white flame bursts out of the nest, the chittering coming to a complete stop as the light becomes a roar, white flame bursting out of the wooden nest. A wave of heat and concussive force blows you back, and you shield your face from the debris.

While you lie there, flame roaring where the nest once was, your body has a strange feeling in your gut- the same feeling that you had when your mask was cracked, in the Shroud. Mutation force? Could two fire runes create mutation force somehow?

Is that what created the shroud thousands of years ago? Magic?
Regardless of the reason, you get back up, your arm and back burning with pain, and you make your way away from the nest. the fire itself probably wouldn't last long with this humidity, so you don't have to worry about starting a forest fire.
Mission complete. You wander back to Leroy's farm, where absolutely no wyverns come to bother you.
Leroy's house is a simple thing, made of that strange not-metal that nystarans loved to use, and it doesn't even have windows of any sort. That makes sense; he implied he can't handle much light, this morning. Should you wait until later tonight to get your pay?

>>26985955
just wait for him

>>26985955

wait for a bit, catch our breath, observe the watering device and the surroundings.

>that blast, holy crap.

>>26985955
Let's poke around his farm a bit, then visit later.

>>26985955
Lets try to get a basic understanding for how the machine works.

You sit down and start taking deep breaths, brushing all of the char off of you. Your clothes are still intact, luckily, but they're covered in splinters. you're glad you thought to protect your face, at least. After spending a few minutes relaxing and picking splinters out of your clothing, you get to your feet and examine that machine from before. Apparently it has a water resevoir for misting, but you can't see any sort of steam gears or anything... There is a spot for burning wood, but you're not sure what it does. It's not burning right now, anyway...

You look around the machine from all angles, and finally see something that'd tell you how it works- a small compartment with a battery inside of it. You don't know much about batteries, but they seem similar to magic to you. They store energy, and after doing something to magnets, it can let go of that energy later- which it's probably doing now.
At a completely untrained guess, maybe by putting coal or wood into the furnace, you could charge the machine with energy, and it somehow uses that energy to mist the water.
Finally, you shrug, and head away from his farm. It's not like he'll wake up until past sunset, so there's hardly anything to do here.

As you walk, you suddenly see Ann creep out of the forest to your side, carefully. she's trying to sneak, but doesn't seem to have the trick of it down. You turn- and her eyes widen when she sees you. She pales, and takes a step back. Bruno is clinging to her shoulder, giving you a happy squeak in greeting.

>>26986242
bid her to come over so you can teach her the finer things about sneaking

>>26986242
"Child and Bruno, hello."

>>26986242

"Your sneaking needs work, what brings you here?"

>I really, REALLY hope she's not here for the wyverns.

"Child and Bruno. Hello."
"Stranger with scars. Hello." She responds.
"Your sneaking really needs work. What brings you here?"
She puffs her cheeks out in frustration.
"If I'm sneaking, that means I'm trying to not let people know that something brings me here." She crosses her arms. "It's a secret."

Rolled 20

>>26986438
"I can keep secrets"

>>26986438
"Well, okay then, but now I know something's bringing you here."

>>26986438
"Well, I would like to know what do you do to Bruno at least. I really like him."

>>26986438

"surely you are not here to steal mushrooms are you?"

>>26986438
Just a heads up the wyvern are dead.

"Surely you're not here to steal mushrooms, are you?"
"Of course not! Leroy says that half of them are poisonous anyway. I think he's the only one that can eat them."
"And just a heads up, the wyvern are dead."
"I wasn't going to meet wyverns." She says. "I wasn't going to meet anyone."

"Well, I would like to know what you do to Bruno, at least. I really like him."
"I don't know any Bruno." She says. "But as for *Gareth*, he just wanted to watch."
She pats the dragon on the head, before affixing you with a glare. "You keep taking him into dangerous places like the city, don't you? You're more dangerous to him than I am."

>>26986438
"Can I hold Mini-Mal?"

>>26986621
"He knows how to stay out of trouble."

>>26986621

"and out of all the times he followed me, who was the one getting hurt?" jokingly

"I'm more dangerous to myself than to anyone else."

>>26986621
"Watch? You are training some kind of artistic performance in there?"

"Watch? You're training some kind of artistic performance in there?"
"No." She says, hiding her face behind the dragon.
"Out of all the times he followed me, who was the one getting hurt?" You ask, giving her a joking grin. "I'm more dangerous to myself than anyone else."
"And if you die on one of those trips, he won't be able to follow you back here. He'll get lost." She said, hugging the dragon. He squeaks, happy to get attention as always.
"Anyway, he knows how to stay out of trouble."
"No he doesn't. If he did, he'd stay away from you." She says, finally. "Everyone says that you and that foreigner are trouble."

>>26986783
they say that because they're a bunch of paranoid jerks who like to assume things about people they don't know.

>>26986783
"probably not far from the truth"

>>26986783

"Can't blame them I guess, does your father know you make these trips?"

"Probably not far from the truth. Can't blame them." You shrug.
"See, then they're right." She says. Then she turns toward the village, starting to walk.
"Does your father know you make these trips?" You ask- and she froze.
"Y-yeah, he does. He says it's okay." She blusters. Rather unconvincingly, in fact.
You give her a Look.
"What are you staring at me for?"
You raise an eyebrow.
"Fine! I'll show you! She said, hugging Bruno more tightly. The dragon squeaked, trying to wiggle out of Ann's white-knuckled grip, as she marched into the woods.

Eventually, you reach a simple, yet strange, clearing. The wind is blowing, the grass is green... And there are multiple charred spots, craters, and what looks like a pillar of stone raised into the air.
"Hold him." She says, shoving the dragon into your hands.
Then, out of her bag, runes appear.
"Isaac gave me these." She says. She holds up one labeled Earth, and says the name.

Alone. Without a shaping rune.

Sprawling out of the ground, a pillar shoots into the sky, the earth groaning beneath her feet.
"That's what I'm doing. Does that answer your question?" She asks, almost angrily.

"Think you could teach me?"

>>26987149
How long have you been using that rune for?

>>26987149
"Yes, but now I have another question. Think you could teach me to do that?"

>>26987149
"Oh. That's cool."

>>26987149

"Impressive, really."
"how many times have you used that rune?"

>>26987149

>who is Isaac?

"Yes, but now I have another question." You say. "Think you could teach me to do that?"
"I- I'm not very good at it myself, yet. I can only make the pillars. So no."
"And who's Isaac?"
She squints at you. "I watched you go behind his house to play with his golem yesterday."
You blink. Apparently Cromwell has a first name. Interesting.
"How many times have you used that rune?"
"Now you're just interrogating me." She says, and crosses her arms. "Twice. But I think I can use it two more times."

>>26987432
I'd still like to know how you do it. Who know, maybe I can help you improve.

>>26987432
"Try it with this rune."

Let her test it with our surround shape rune.

>>26987452
>>26987472
why not both?

"Try it with this rune." You say, and pull out the surround rune, holding it out.
"That's a shape." She says. "You can't make it last forever with one of those, and the shape makes it a lot harder to change things."
Then she sighed, and held out her hand. "It's not like this is one of Isaac's runes, so it won't be wasting it."
You hand the rune to her, and she focused.

And focused.

And focused.

And then she said three words. Earth and Surround you knew, but the third, you don't. Pillars of earth spawned around her, bursting into the air. You stumble to the side as one came up underneath your foot, and you stumbled to the side.
Eventually, it was almost a forest of stone pillars, reaching as high as the trees.
"... It worked." She said, quietly. She looked a lot more tired than she did before. A moment later, the pillars crumbled back into the earth, leaving only the two that were created without the Surround rune.

"I'd still like to know how you do it." You say. "Who knows, maybe I can help you improve."
"This." She says, and holds up a paper. On it, in Cromwell's hand, is words scrawled in kystaran, as well as a sketch of a cylinder. "I have to say the word for the shape I want, and focus really hard on it. Isaac thinks you can do it without saying the word, but I haven't been able to do that yet."

>>26987718
(she did write down the third word, right?)(

practice what she gave you

>>26987718
"I'm very impressed, Ann, that's no small feat."
"I'll keep your secret for you."

"You look tired, how about we go back to Miriam's inn, and get something to eat? I'll pay."

After a moment reading the paper, you sigh, and stand up straight. You can't even make out most of the writing, even with the primer Cromwell gave you earlier today. You can't even find the third word anywhere on the paper.
"I can't read any of this." You note.
"Well, *I* can." She says, proudly, and then starts talking in a strange, foriegn language- like a crystal clear version of what the remnants kept gibbering. "Kystaran is easy for me."
"Which is the third word you said?" You ask.

"This one." She says, and prods a certain word. You make a note of it, and then she folds the paper up again. "Is that all you wanted to know?"
"I'm very impressed, Ann. That's no small feat." You say. "I'll keep your secret for you."
"I- I guess it is." She says, and takes Bruno out of your arms. Then she hmph's and walks off, cheeks red. "I'm going home."

It's only an hour before sunset begins by the time you get back to the village. You're still rather shaken by that explosion earlier, but your arm and back aren't hurting, fortunately. Mal, sleeping on a large flat rock, gives you a wave when you walk by.

Now you have nothing to do. You could probably visit someone's house, or rest until Leroy awakens... Or maybe even practice trying with that word Ann just taught you.

>>26987718
Let's give it a go ourselves.

"Do you have Kystaran ancestry?"

>>26988135
practice time!

>>26988135
Practice the word, but mostly rest. We're hugely injured.

>>26988135
Let's just go take a rest.

No strain or exertion. Let our arm and back heal properly.

Time to practice, you decide, and walk right past the village into the trees. You find another lone clearing, and draw out your earth rune.
You close your eyes, focusing on the strange buzz in your spine, the alien words from Ann earlier, and finally focus on the space in front of you.
Earth. Cylinder.
You concentrate, visualizing a shape of stone raising from the ground, and say the words.

>Roll Affinity! Skilled, Hard to Impossible difficulty.

Rolled 38

>>26988287
>>26988287

Rolled 62

>>26988287
We got this, clearly.

Rolled 58

>>26988287
Oh man, we're totally going to succeed.

Rolled 98

>>26988287

Rolled 52

>>26988287

>DC: 80! Failure!

You focus... And the ground quivers, slightly. The Earth rune in your hand trembles, degrading slightly, but no pillar rises from the ground, no shapes erupting in front of you.

You sigh, and wipe your brow. That mental exertion is surprisingly exhausting. You could probably try it again, but if you do, that might waste another use of the rune... But it might be worth it.

Rolled 98

>>26988380
lets try again we got time

Rolled 69

>>26988380
do it again!

>>26988391
>>26988392
average 83.5 not bad or do the rolls not count

Rolled 27

here we go!

Rolled 56

>>26988483
you serious

>>26988432
>In this case, due to the wanderer's Special Skill, he's technically 'skilled' at affinity-based things like this. So I'm taking the highest of three.

>DC: 90! Success!

You won't let a ten year old girl beat you, that's for sure. You focus more, ignoring your mind's sudden sluggishness, and say the words once more,
Earth! Cylinder!
Erupting out of the ground, a sudden wide pillar shoots out of the ground, and a sudden dizziness overtakes you. You lean on it, panting until you can get enough oxygen. After you wipe your brow, you look up at the pillar.
It's not fading. Or vanishing. And you actually did it. Then again, maybe you did something like that with the handholds back at the mansion...
Then you shrug. That might come in handy.

>Character upgrade acquired!
>Runeword: You can now, provided you know the word, add a 'shape' to an element rune, or an 'element' to a shape rune. However, this is difficult, and will require a difficult Affinity roll to succeed. Directly after using this, you will be tired and get increased DCs for the near future.

>>26988524
Alright, let's see if Leroy's back

>>26988524
nice
lets see if Leroy i awake

Rolled 26

>>26988524
Nice.
Rest until nightfall, then go find Leroy.

>>26988524
Nigga go to bed

"Alright." You say, and put the Earth rune in your pocket. You lean on the pillar for a while, relaxing, as the sun slowly starts to set. Surprisingly, unlike every other time you've used an earth rune, the changes brought forth through magic don't vanish. It never slid back into the ground, like using Earth Surround does. You rest there, watching the sun set, before your eyes close.

Next thing you know, you're asleep.

===

This isn't the normal dream. This is from your past.
The girl squeaked as you hefted her up on your shoulder, dragging her along. The Shroud was everpresent, blanketing over the sky, giving you that strange feeling in your gut. Your mask was intact, filtering the Mutation Force in the air.
"Hey, what are you doing?!" She asked.
"Hunters." You responded, and nod toward the sky. Buzzing, their strange circular wings spinning above them, the wild machines roared, electronically-powered lights shining down toward you. They roamed the Thousand Towers, the enormous pillars of steel belching constant smoke, searching for something to kill. Even if they noticed a rodent or a mutant, they flashed with gunfire and killed the creature without hesitation.
You waited, carefully, as the Hunters passed you by. You lean up against the Tower, the girl on your shoulder, and carefully circle it. At least the smoke these things belch protects you from line of sight.

===

>Continued in next post!

>>26988782
You open your eyes again, your mouth dry. It's just past sunset, and you're remembering an old, old tale- one where you saved some 'pure' nystaran from her family's arranged marriage, taking her all the way to the capital in Lellwind... A pity you never took her offer before she got married, but all's well that ends well.

You stretch, and push yourself off of the pillar, making your way to Leroy's house.

When you finally get there, Leroy is there, taking a look at his crop and machine. When you walk near, he twitches, and then turns to you and grins.
With his lower teeth... It is not a pretty grin. His lower teeth are enormous, sharp things, almost reminding you of some kind of beast. His lower jaw is split into two independant parts, almost like mandibles, and they wiggle independantly of one another.
"Nothing's missing!" He cheers, an arm in the air. "Thank you!"

>>26988796
"Yep, there's a rather large charred patch off in the forest. I may have overdone it with the runes."

Did the wyvern have the key to the temple? Should we go back to find it?

>>26988796
let's get the reward then go back to investigate on the temple

>>26988843
Oh fuck we incinerated the key.

>>26988796
"Glad I could help."

"Yep. There's a rather large charred patch off in the forest." You say. "I may have overdone it with the runes."
"I guess that means you blew up most of what they've stolen." Leroy says, and sighed. "Guess that means we won't get the temple key back. Is there any chance it survived?"
You consider that explosion... But with that heat, you're not sure anything could have survived- the key is likely melted, by now.
You apply your palm to your face. Leroy looked at your expression, and chuckled. His overly large, pure black eyes met yours.
"Anyway, it's time for your reward. I have a lot of junk in here. Come on in."
He led you inside his house, which is, unsurprisingly, full of junk. Large panels of that notmetal, tools and objects strewn about wildly, and half a dozen faded manuals sitting about. Eventually, he led you down a set of stairs, into the basement. It's entirely, utterly dark, and you can't even see your hand in front of your face.
"Oh, sorry." He says, and flicks at something. There's a hum, and then growling, and finally, red light casts over the entire basement. There's even more junk strewn about than upstairs, and you can smell grease, somewhere. Leroy pushed a mass of junk away, clearing space.
"I have a few things in here. Battery powered lantern." He says, setting a small black wand down on the clear spot. "You can recharge the batteries at the generator outside, if you take it. Then I have a bit of coin, and this ... well, thing."
He set down the 'thing'.
You look down at it.
"What is it?" You ask.
"It's called a taser." He says. "It's powered by batteries, like the lantern, but when you push this part into a creature and press this button, it strikes them with electricity. Not enough to kill them, but enough to incapacitate."

You look at the three...

>[] Battery powered lantern
>[] Coins
>[] Battery powered taser

>>26989128
"I'm not such a fan of electricity. But the lantern seems invaluable."
[x] Battery powered lantern

>>26989128
>>[] Battery powered lantern
>>[] Coins
>>[] Battery powered taser
can I have all of them?

>>26989128
>[x] Battery powered taser
We XCOM now.

>>26989128
>[] Battery powered lantern
Gotta get dat flashlight.

>>26989128
[x] Coins

Can always come back and buy the lantern off him some time.

>[x] Taser

We could use it to start fires in order to get light. Best of both worlds.

>>26989128
might as well go with the Lantern

>>26989224
>You actually have a pretty simple gearwork lighter. Squeeze it tightly, it shoots a few sparks out for you. It's how you light your oil lantern.

"I'm not such a fan of electricity, but the lantern seems invaluable."
"It also works underwater." He says. "Since it doesn't use fire."
"Uh, cover your eyes." You say, and fiddle with the flashlight. He does so, and you flip the switch. With a sudden click, a bright beam of light shoots straight out, illuminating the wall brightly. It's much brighter and more useful than your oil lantern- and based on the weight, it's a lot sturdier, too. Then you flick it off again. "Yeah, I'll take this." You say. He uncovers his eyes. "Though I might come back and buy other things off you sometime."
"Feel free." He says. "And come by if it breaks, too. I'm not very good with the electric stuff, but I knew a guy who was pureborn back home. He taught me plenty."

>>26989324
let's go back to the temple and see if we can salvage anything.

>>26989324
"Cool. Any idea what would have been in the Wyvern caves by the way?"

>>26989324
Let's see if we can find the remains of the key anyway. Perhaps we can use the earth runes to remake it. Or there might be runes that can that we find in the future.

>>26989324
"have fun with your mushrooms and stuff."

"Cool." you say. "Any idea what would've been in the wyvern nest, by the way?"
"Whatever shiny things they found useful, food, and that key, I suppose." He says. "Though it's entirely possible they hid their treasure stash somewhere that wasn't in their nest. Wyverns are crafty buggers."
"Well, I'll go check to see if I can find the remains of the key anyway. You have fun with your mushrooms and stuff."
"I will." He said. "Then again, I'll see if I can find any of them that'll take care of the pain of any of your injuries. Just in case you need some. Miriam says you get hurt a lot."
"Thanks." You say, and wave.

You make your way down into the ridge again, where the fire has stopped. The crater where the nest is is just that- a crater, still smouldering. You can see small embers around the rim of the crater, and the plants nearby have wilted away. Looking at the scale of the thing, you really can't believe that the key could've made it out intact. In fact, other than a few half-burned wyvern skulls, you can't find anything useful. A few shards of something that once could have been a key, but you can't find anything. You grumble, stepping into the crater, and start picking through the ashes for anything useful.

>Roll Searching! Mediocre, N/A difficulty.

Rolled 72

>>26989587

Rolled 54

>>26989587
They might have buried something.

Rolled 15

>>26989587

Rolled 15

>>26989587
cheeki breeki stalker

>Result: 63 - Average

As you pace through the crater, you eventually consider something- they might have buried their treasure, somewhere away from their nest. You circle the crater, looking about- and not far behind it, there's a small mound of piled dirt, talon marks in it. You scrape them aside- and lying there, perfectly safe, is the key... And a few half-eaten mushrooms. You dig through them, pull the key out, and examine it. It's worn, on a small chain, and has an engraving in kystaran on it. You've found it!
You pick it back up, and turn around-

And you hear the definite sound of someone retreating.
Someone was watching you?
You follow them, darting through the trees, but you only catch a few glimpses of them- a figure with a long, embroidered robe, extravagantly trimmed. But, somehow, they're faster than you, skipping through the trees both more quietly and more quickly than you are.
Finally, you stumble out of the trees, and fall to your hands and knees on the road to the village. You wheeze, looking up at the trees on the other side of the road... And see the figure standing there, their face covered in shadow.
Brilliant red eyes stare out at you.
The voice, almost laughingly, teasingly, starts gibbering in kystaran, almost identically to the remnants...
But she's laughing at you. Teasing you. Taunting you.
Before... the remnants didn't seem to have emotions, or even minds.

But there's more...
You *remember* that voice.
You raise your steamsling to demand answers- in lelan- but it vanished, entirely, into smoke.

<You okay, bro?> Mal asks, looking down at you. <You're staring like you saw a ghost.>
<... I might have.> You say.

That woman from your recurring dreams...
She should be dead.

>End of session!
>My twitter is at @futureexabyte
>The IRC is #Exabyte on Rizon.
>And I'll stick around for a bit to answer questions!

>>26989828
Thanks for running!

>>26989828
My only question is: Whaaaaat?