>>2765516
Killing a human being. This has never crossed your mind before as you were too weak to feasibly do that. But now, you've killed ten people in less than a minute and you are not sure how you should feel about it. From one hand you could have probably restrained them. Yes that would expose them to your powers but they saw them anyway. Maybe more self control? Somehow freeing chief without telekinesis? You can't really see how you could do that as you were too far away.

And how can you even justify the deaths of everyone else? In the name of the law? You didn't know this was punishable by death and even then who are you to be a judge, jury and executioner? A goddess above these mortals? No, the people deserve to live no more and no less than you.

Maybe self- defense? These people threatened to enslave the whole village if we don't give them most of our possessions. They also threatened the welcoming team with violence. That sounds better, but you could probably knock them out with much less death and carnage. And what is with not letting them leave? Is keeping your power secret worth the lives of ten people?

You think about that for a while, coming up with various explanations and what ifs but then you decide that this is all meaningless. If you are to decide on policy of action right now you'd choose the one which sounds most righteous. Something like no killing in any way, shape or form or only in extreme emergencies. However, it is not like you'd be able to hold on to that view in every circumstance. Like for example what happened today. Could you have prevented this? In perfect world, yes, but you are not perfect. You had no training and no time to plan out a takedown which would minimize deaths and keep your powers secret. So all you can do is to try to keep the unnecessary death and suffering to a minimum in the future.

Let's get back to the problems at hand, shall we?

>Check up on chief. We have to know the local tax policy and if we for real just killed a local tax collector team
>Attempt to interrogate the sole survivor of the bandits. Maybe he could tell you more about who they are
>Let villagers handle all that. You have some construction left to do
>Write-in

>>2765531
>>Attempt to interrogate the sole survivor of the bandits. Maybe he could tell you more about who they are

>>2765531
>Attempt to interrogate the sole survivor of the bandits. Maybe he could tell you more about who they are

>>2765531
Atempt to interrogate

>>2765537
>>2765555
>>2765557
Got it, writing

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>>2765619
You decide to interrogate the captive bandit. Villagers tied him up in the new granary's cellar as it is the most secure location in the village. Concrete walls, floors and ceiling. He's not going anywhere even if he gets out. Time to pay him a visit.

When you get to the cell you note that the prisoner is still knocked out. This is a young man probably in his 25-s. He has a hobo beard and poorly taken care of bowl cut black hair. In the team he had a bow and he is wearing shoddy partial leather armor that seems to not fit him well. It appears that the armor was too small and it was augmented with mismatching thick cloth to make it fit better.

You are pretty sure application of some cold water or mild pain should wake him up, but you need to decide on approach.

>Get some food and try to act nice. No one says no to a meal and a chat with a cute village girl, right?
>Act firm and prepare to pressure him with your attitude and determination.
>Prepare for harsh measures. A bucket of cold water and a torch uncomfortably glowing in his face along with some empty threats. He will talk.
>Prepare for torture. If he won't talk he will be beaten and starved. You are pretty sure you'd be trialed in Hague if that place still existed for this but this has to work.
>Other ideas

>>2765672
>>Get some food and try to act nice. No one says no to a meal and a chat with a cute village girl, right?
>>Act firm and prepare to pressure him with your attitude and dete

a mix of both.

give him some food and talk to him but keep the bullshit to a minimum, be honest with him and his situation and ask what was their deal

>>2765690
Lemmingsin this

>>2765690
>>2765736
Writing

>>2765781
The best option seems to be to attempt a friendly dialogue but keeping bullshit to a minimum. You take some leftovers from the supper and put them on a wooden plate before getting back into the cellar. You wake up the prisoner. He winces a bit before opening his eyes and panicking as he notices the ropes and asks what is going on.

He hasn't seen your power yet so you tell him mainly generalized picture with a bit of a lie. When it became apparent he and his friends are going to rob the village the ambush was sprung and his friends were killed in the struggle. He himself was knocked out and is now a captive to this village.

The man is not happy. He screams at you about how his friends will burn the village to the ground and slaughter everyone for this. You listen to the rant for a bit and you want to share food even less as you order him to shut the hell up and listen. He is a prisoner and he will speak when you allow and on the subject.

He expresses his disgust of being interrogated by a commoner woman but you manage to put him in his place with some harsh wording and after some tedious interrogation you manage to pull out the following:

His name is Marcos(seems to be derived from local pantheon's trickster deity) and he is indeed a bandit. He was insulted by your question about taxes as it was so obviously bullshit. They were here to provide some "protection" in exchange for almost all the food and valuables they would find. If villagers resisted they would kill the leader and some randos to serve as an example and take several more able villagers into slavery.

Their bandit camp consists of another 70 people and if this group doesn't return the entire gang would attack and burn the village to the ground. He claims that village should have had less than fifty civilians with most being incapable of bearing arms, but his friends should be sufficient to kill everyone. He recommends you to open the gate wide and surrender because maybe a girl as pretty as you would be enslaved instead.

Regarding of the gang he refused to tell anything about equipment or any mages in the crew, however he proudly claims that his gang held the entire south-eastern part of Mirangi(closest settlement) as their territory for almost a year now and they even repelled government retaliatory force once. He also says that his gang has ways to easily destroy the palisade if they want to.

Well, that explains a lot. This village is directly to the south from that settlement and the messenger was probably ambushed on the way. You should probably solve this in near future. However, what should you do with this guy?

>Let villagers decide. Peasants might be a bit harsh but this is the democratic approach
>Kill him. His usefulness has expired.
>Enslave him. He will work for the village
>Keep him imprisoned. You will hand him over to authorities once the connection with the town is reestablished.
>Other

>>2765896
>Let villagers decide. Peasants might be a bit harsh but this is the democratic approach

>>2765896
>Keep him imprisoned. You will hand him over to authorities once the connection with the town is reestablished.

>>2765978
>>2765957
Oh well. Writing

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>>2766096
You are done with this guy's shit and you leave him there pulling up the ladder as you get out. It is not like he'll be able to scale a smooth concrete wall and open a shut trapdoor even if he unties himself. Now you need to decide what to do with this guy. You think that the best way to deal with him is to give him up to authorities. There is no feasible way for you to keep him restrained as a slave and you don't want to personally execute him while giving him to the town police would probably grant the village some bounty. Unfortunately this won't happen until connection to Mirangi is reestablished.

On the other hand who are you to decide? Villagers have all the right to vote on this subject. You call for a meeting and every adult attends it. You explain your point of view and put this to a vote. Village is split in their opinions. A minority wants to execute him while some people want to force him to work the fields. In the end, however, over half of them agree with you. Bounties on criminals are a thing and if you take down the entire camp it should have a huge payoff.

The issue now is the protection of the village. Marcos could be bluffing, but you won't be surprised if they bring a mage capable of fireballing a hole right through the palisade. Village has a few people who are fit enough to bear arms. However, no one is trained in their use and you can't make a boot camp within such a short timeframe. How should you do this...


>Keep villagers cooped up inside the perimeter until crisis is resolved. You are the only person capable of taking on the entire bandit camp

>Equip some villagers with the loot and rapidly forged copper weapons to organize a militia. Even if they don't help much it is better than nothing

>Rapidly beef up defenses. Roll up the dirt behind the walls, quadruple the depth of the moat and so on. This will be incredibly noticeable but dirt walls are cannon proof and it would force the bandits into a choke at the main gate

>Rapidly assemble a prison. You want to capture as many of those tasty bounties as you can. Live they are worth more than dead

>Prepare a retaliatory strike against the bandits. They won't attack if there is no one to attack with

>Ambush the first wave. This won't deal with the entirety of the threat but you would probably buy a lot of time to prepare for a better assault on the camp

>Write-in

>>2766222
>>Equip some villagers with the loot and rapidly forged copper weapons to organize a militia. Even if they don't help much it is better than nothing
>Ambush the first wave. This won't deal with the entirety of the threat but you would probably buy a lot of time to prepare for a better assault on the camp

>>2766222
>>Write-in
Stack up dirt and rocks behind the walls so it looks inconscipious outwards, make spears for every peasant and distribute the loot.

Getting some thick hide covers to protect from arrows and fire near the gate incase of a breach.

>>2766236
>>2766233
Ok, writing

>>2766222
>Prepare a retaliatory strike against the bandits. They won't attack if there is no one to attack with
We're a telekinetic who can move through rough terrain faster and more easily than any human plus don't really need sleep.
I say we start harassing the shit out of the bandit camp. Start doing hit and run on their defences and sentries, lure retaliatory forces into the forest and decimate them. Just generally keep up the pressure don't let them sleep or rest they need it more than you.

In the meantime have the villagers start assembling a militia while they send a party out to contact the town. Let the authorities there know that the bandits plaugeing the area will soon be distracted and weakend and ripe for attack.

>>2766339
Sorry man, 30 minute vote. I will keep your vote in mind for the future though

i know i'm late to the vote, but we can always collect gravel, pebbles and small rocks and launch them at the enemy. We might be one, but have you ever been hit by a rock? it hurts as hell and can outright kill you.

>>2766419
Basic premise of a sling which is/was a legitimately lethal weapon in skilled hands.

>>2766445
i was going more to use the gravel and stuff as artillery. We grab a whole lot of the stuff and then with our powers we launch it at the general direction of the enemy. we could also grab the same enemies and use them as ammo.

>>2766222
>>Rapidly beef up defenses. Roll up the dirt behind the walls, quadruple the depth of the moat and so on. This will be incredibly noticeable but dirt walls are cannon proof and it would force the bandits into a choke at the main gate

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>>2766350
You decide that this crisis warrants an intensive approach. You plan to meet the first wave by the village walls, but you need to make sure that the wall can hold whatever they come up with. In addition you would like to introduce villagers to self defense so that they are not absolutely defenseless when you're away.

Thus let the montage begin, you joke to yourself as you manufacture twenty five copper spearheads for every adult villager who is physically strong enough to hold weapons. Everyone else is either a child or too old to fight. You clear an area for some training and assemble a bunch of hay filled dummies. After that you spend several hours explaining and demonstrating the correct technique of using spears and short swords that bandits had. To your surprise Oisin knows how to correctly swing a sword already and has one with him so you direct him to train villagers while you direct your attention to the more pressing manners.

The next issue is the wall. You are not sure if that was a bluff and you don't want to check, so you decide to just reinforce it as much as you can. However you don't want it to look conspicuous so you decide to limit yourself to a thick dirt slope behind the palisade similar to what iron age gauls used. Dirt is excellent at dampening kinetic energy so even if the enemies arrive with Napoleonic cannons they would not be able to break through the wall easily. The secondary gates are sealed shut with the rolls of dirt making main entrance the only feasible way in to force a chokepoint.
Now time for secondary defenses. You assemble several wooden barriers that you can telekinetically lift into positions to protect your militia from arrow fire. You also collect several bags full of pebbles. If it comes to this you should be able to dump buckets worth of stones flying into enemy ranks at lethal speeds. You have never used telekinesis for that purpose though so you expect some problems.

Now you are ready for the fight.. sort of. The trap you've set is basically you. No one expects anyone of your power being in such a small village. However, there is no immediate retaliation and you need to decide a few things:

>Fight with telekinesis. This would present issues with captives and fleeing hostiles as they would all be an information breach about your powers. You would either have to kill them all or just let this information spread with all the consequences it implies
>Grab some weapons and fight the enemy with a bow and in melee. This has a potential problem with you being exposed for being invulnerable to most of the stuff they have but it is quick to do
>Forge yourself some armor and weapons. This would look less weird to bounce an arrow with a helmet and not with your face. You also just remembered that gambeson is a thing you could use to pad it
>Attempt pre-emptive strike on the bandits. You don't know when they attack but you still need to decide on power use
>Write-in

>>2766486
>>Forge yourself some armor and weapons. This would look less weird to bounce an arrow with a helmet and not with your face. You also just remembered that gambeson is a thing you could use to pad it

>>2766486
>Forge yourself some armor and weapons. This would look less weird to bounce an arrow with a helmet and not with your face. You also just remembered that gambeson is a thing you could use to pad it

>>2766486
>>Forge yourself some armor and weapons. This would look less weird to bounce an arrow with a helmet and not with your face. You also just remembered that gambeson is a thing you could use to pad it
>>2766486

>>2766486
>Attempt pre-emptive strike on the bandits. You don't know when they attack but you still need to decide on power use
I still think this is the best way to keep the bandits too busy to attack in the first place.
Yes we'll need to expose our powers but surely people's lives > than our convenience.

>>2766580
You don't have to expose powers. You can attack them head on and only use raw strength and skill or you could sneak around and kill them one by one. You just need to decide how you want to approach it

>>2766500
>>2766533
>>2766538
>>2766580
Writing.

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>>2766637
You remember how the bandits attempted to run when an arrow hit you in the face and broke in half. Having some actual armor would be nice. That way when you are inevitably hit you'd have a reason to be invulnerable. But what should you make? There are so many different armors you can make from this material...

First of all there is gambeson. It is a type of armor usually used in middle ages below full plate. However it was also used on its own and it is arguably better than leather. It is made out of multiple layers of fabric sewn together. Lien was the main material but the village doesn't grow it so you will use locally produced sackcloth and just wear your blue jumpsuit below it so it does not cause discomfort. This type of armor is highly resistant against cuts, stabs and blunt trauma and you can and will use it below any metal armor plating.

First choice is to make thin plates of metal and sew them inside of the gambeson layers. This will allow to hide the bronze armor below the fabric as aluminum bronze is quite shiny but this has a limit on plate thickness and thus protection.

Second option is lamellar armor. It consists of small metal plates sewn together to form armor which looks like it is made out of metal scales. Pretty impressive and great at reflecting cuts away from the user.

Third option is laminar armor. It consists out of multiple horizontal interlocking rows of solid metal plates. An example of this armor is roman segmented cuirass used by roman empire military. It would be heavier than lamellar but it allows for thicker metal plating.

Fourth option is to have a thick monolithic chestplate with thick metal greaves and gauntlets similar to ancient Greek hoplite equipment. It would be heavier than laminar armor in both protection and weight massing up to 35 kilograms.

Fifth option is to attempt to forge a full plate out of bronze. It would be a major undertaking but it would look really impressive and give a lot of protection. It would obviously be too heavy for a normal person though.

Option six is to go full Mycenaean heavy armor. It would look a bit silly but it is the heaviest bronze armor worn by humans in history.

You need to also decide of you want to go for normal human or heavy option as you can afford it with your strength
>Decide on the armor type
>Normal or heavy version

>>2766789
Third normal.

>>2766814
Supporting.

>>2766814
This.

>>2766814
Yup

>>2766916
>>2766835
>>2766831
>>2766814
Looks like everyone wants it. Let's go

>>2766920
You decide that laminar armor would be the best choice. It has the best balance between weight and protection. Monolithic chest plates are hard to move in while lamellar armor is limited in thickness.

After a little bit of thought you decide to try to replicate late bronze age Mycenean laminar armor. It was initially designed to be made out of leather and bronze, but you alter the design to work with much more "modern" gambeson padding. The armor thickness remains within human limits. You don't want to walk out of the gates looking like Emperor of Mankind in armor so thick it can stop tank shells. Maybe later, but not now.

With clear idea of what you want you set off to work. As you have no idea when the attack will happen you use something which is called "agile project management" approach to forging. It means you create a viable product at each step of the process. If the attack happens in the middle of forging you can wear what you have prepared until that point and run into battle. Luckily it doesn't happen and you manage to finish with your armor.

The armor looks a bit too shiny. Like if all metal parts are made out of plates of solid gold. Bronze has some golden color but aluminum bronze is just ridiculous. In any case you have protection for every part of your body and you can turn your attention to weapons. You need a main weapon, a secondary weapon and a shield. Maybe a bow too but you can borrow one from the bandits.

For weapons the choice is quite obvious, you need a weapon with huge reach. Something like two handed axe or a spear. Then it hits you: why not both? So you create a halberd. It doesn't seem that there are many armored enemies so secondary weapon is obviously a short bronze sword. Now regarding the shield...

>Go for wooden shield with boar hide. Lightest and least protective
>Go for wood with bronze plating similar to Hoplon. Heavier and more protective
>Go with full monolithic bronze shield. Too heavy for a human to operate

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>>2767022
And of course I forgot to attach the image

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>>2767022
I wish we had the resource to replicate Ajax shield, but I'll go with
>Go for wood with bronze plating similar to Hoplon. Heavier and more protective

>>2767022
>Go for wood with bronze plating similar to Hoplon. Heavier and more protective

>>2767059
That would be like 4 CU in wood and bronze and 3 times that in full bronze. We can make Ajax instead of hoplon if people want.
>Ajax design
>Hoplon design

>>2767081
>Hoplon design

>>2767081
Hoplon

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>>2767081
Nothing beats classics. You decide that replicating a Hoplon is the best option. Hoplites were one of the most heavily armored infantry of their time and that's mostly thanks to their amazing shields. Hoplons were designed to be held on the shoulder during marches and they were off center specifically to encourage soldiers to stay in formation. Hoplons were made out of shaped wood with a layer of bronze on the outside making them light enough to be carried by baseline humans but much more durable than normal wooden shields.

The process is relatively simple and you are greeted with golden almost mirror- like surface of the shield. This is amazing. Maybe you'd even manage to blind some attackers. Now you are fully set to fight and not a minute too soon. A villager runs up and reports that they saw a bandit scout climbing a tree and then quickly retreating.

You place mobile shields some distance away from the entrance and position your forces in preparation to combat. Let's roll.

>Roll 1d20

Rolled 1 (1d20)

>>2767199

Rolled 18 (1d20)

>>2767199

>>2767223
Hello darkness my old friend

Rolled 19 (1d20)

>>2767199
>>2767199
Just watch my 20

Rolled 11 (1d20)

>>2767199

Rolled 5 (1d20)

>>2767199
Looking for appropriate battle music.

>>2767223
>>2767233
>>2767261
>>2767313
>>2767317
Writing

>>2767337
As you wait for the attack you hear someone screaming something unintelligible followed by a loud fizzing sound which rapidly approached the gates as you screamed to the villagers to take cover. The entire right tower and the whole gate instantly turn into deadly shrapnel flying into your face. You manage to cover yourself with a shield as a chunk of log pulverizes itself from impacting your shield and forcing you almost a meter back as you leave deep tracks in the ground from your boots.

One of the planks impacts the mobile shield with such a force it pierces through the entire bulk of log barrier scaring the shit out of villager milita. Luckily no one was wounded but villagers break and book it dropping their spears as it rains wooden debris and sawdust from the sky. By sheer luck no villager gets anything more serious than superficial wounds but they will no longer participate in the fight.

"Motherfukers! I have to do this myself!" you say under the breath as you run into the breach. Even before the dust cleared bandit infantry started pouring into the perimeter. They were not expecting to see a heavily armored and really pissed off superhuman though. With the first strike you separate a bandit from his helmet along with his head and a shield bash sends several of them flying back into their friends.

Unfortunately there are too many of them. Fortunately they consider you the higher priority than trying to book it for the village and they attempt to surround you while their allies from behind the lines try to spam you with arrows. Your armor proves itself as you don't feel any of the arrow impacts and focus in attacking in every direction. Before the second minute of fight passes you have already killed or knocked out over 20 people and at that point the bandit attack chokes.

Enemies who were engaged with you in melee attempt to flee but the incoming reinforcements pushes them back into the grinder. Fifth minute into the fight, thirty four bodies and counting. Almost half of the invading forces is eliminated. And then you hear it again. Enemy wizard is chanting the same spell!

>>2767447
Your knee jerk reaction is to place your shield between you and the mage as bandits panic and attempt to get out of the line of fire. Unfortunately for them the mage no longer cares about friendly fire, he just wants you thoroughly dead. A bright flash illuminates the battlefield as you are flung a good couple dozen meters backwards and the impact blows the air out of your lungs.

Your shield has scattered from the blast but you are mostly alright. You manage to get back up and book it back into the breach. It seems that the attack has choked anyway. Mostly because the enemy has just nuked their own second wave and the entrance is covered in smoldering remains of bandits. All of the people you knocked out are also now dead.

You focus through the smoke and only five of hostiles remaining. Their mage seems to have caught a stroke as half of his face is limp and he is convulsing on the ground. The rest are archers and a guy with really scarred face and expensive looking iron armor. He's probably the leader and they are all panic as you walk through the smoke towards them.

>Leave none alive!
>Offer surrender
>Forcefully apprehend the bandits
>Allow them to run
>Write-in

>>2767453
>Offer surrender
First person that tries to draw on us gets a telekinetic rock through the face.

>>2767453
>Write-in
Mind-magic the mage out of his suffering and then tell the rest of them to get on the ground.


If any of them try to fight or run, use mind-magic to cut their appropriate tendons.

>>2767483
Our telekinesis is not fine enough yet. We would completely break every bone in their feet if we try to focus on tendons. We also didn't display any telekinesis yet.

>>2767502
We can use it to cut not crush I believe which is why I wanted to attack the tendons specifically.


Anyhow I think they'll surrender. Given they have no mage, we killed most of their men and we're clearly ready to continue.

>>2767453
>Write-in
Move to the nearest pile of spiky ruins, demand surrender if any try to flee use telekenisis to boost a thrown piece of wood.

>>2767565
>>2767545
>>2767502
>>2767483
>>2767468
Consensus reached. Writing

>>2767598
After a small suspense you shout a simple demand towards the bandits: "Surrender or die!". One of the archers attempts to shoot you while another attempts to flee into the forest. You kick a chunk of concrete and telekinetically guide it directly into runner's head while you close the distance with the archer. Before he manages to shoot the second time you lodge your short sword right between his eyes.

"I am not going to repeat myself" you tell the remaining bandits and they hesitantly drop their weapons and raise their hands. While you were doing this you quietly applied a pulse of force inside the mage's skull killing him instantly. Hopefully he didn't suffer much. You guess blowing up a gate you built is pretty nasty but from what you've heard it is horrifying to die from a stroke.

You proceed to tie up the bandits and lead them into the cellar where they'll hang out until they are passed to the authorities. Villagers look ashamed as you walk past them. You tell them that you don't blame them. They are not trained military and they are not expected to stand firm in the face of death.

Finally the threat of bandits is eliminated. You've killed roughly seventy and you haven't seen any of them escape. Now you need to think of the less glamorous part of the fight: cleanup.

>Focus repairs of the gate and removal of bodies. You can't really bother to identify them so you'll do a mass grave. You are worried that village would be unprotected without the intact wall
>Rebuild your shield. It served you well
>Talk to the villagers. They might have a few ideas.
>Prepare for a trip to Mirangi. You are concerned with prisoners getting out without specialized holding facility so you want them off your hands.
>Write-in

>>2767659
>Talk to the villagers. They might have a few ideas.

>>2767659
>>Talk to the villagers. They might have a few ideas.
Nothing better than good old mob justice.

>>2767659
>Prepare for a trip to Mirangi. You are concerned with prisoners getting out without specialized holding facility so you want them off your hands.

>>2767707
>>2767698
>>2767676
Writing

>>2767789
You decide to discuss the situation with the villagers. They share your concern with keeping so many prisoners and they suggest to immediately set off to Mirangi. You are pretty sure none of them saw you using telekinesis and the authorities should be easily convinced that your unimaginable feats of strength are exaggerations of the bandits. You will claim that villagers ambushed the invaders and ran away when bandits decided to blow themselves up due to confusion.

Unfortunately you will have to leave the village gate undefended, but villagers tell you that they somehow survived without you for over a year so they should handle it. Especially with the spears. The villagers are concerned about the tax however. Unlike what you've expected the tax is a more reasonable 30% of the harvest and other products.

Assuming full 150 person village and bad harvest villagers would have to pay 1400 kg of grain to counter both this and last year tax. This would leave village with roughly a ton of grain which would be enough to supply the village through the winter with some hunting. Unfortunately there is no grain at all. It was planted just a week ago. You will have to negotiate some other form of payment.

But before you set off...
>Wear civilian clothes. You should look like a local
>Wear your armor. You are a travelling warrior who helped the village
>Other. Maybe wear less fancy armor off some bandit?

>>2767844
>>Wear your armor. You are a travelling warrior who helped the village
if they ask, we are a mercenary that happened to pass trough the village.

>>2767844
>Try to present yourself as a monster Hunter.
>You helped this village because their sacrifices kept your prey from running away.

>>2767844
I'll agree with >>2767853

>>2767844
>>Wear your armor. You are a travelling warrior who helped the village

>>2767844
>Wear your armor. You are a travelling warrior who helped the village

There's always the risk of getting into another fight.

>>2767852
>>2767853
>>2767855
>>2767856
>>2767869
Absolutely unanimous decision. I see no point in continuing the vote. Writing

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>>2767888
There is no need to get out of your shiny armor. You can claim to be a mercenary monster slayer who was passing through the village and decided to help them out. You quickly clean off the blood off your weapons and load your prisoners into the cart after which you set off towards the town. The road takes you through the night and in the morning you finally reach the outskirts of the town.

It is much bigger than your village and it is surrounded by a tall wooden wall. No one seems to live outside the walls as only farmlands and farm buildings are outside of the perimeter. On approach to the gates you are intercepted by a local guard on a horse who was highly interested in why a golden clad woman was single handedly towing a cart filled with tied up people.

Guard buys your story and heads off to inform his captain about the news. He directs you to stop at the gate and wait for further instructions. After some wait the captain shows up. He is a man in his fifties and he sports a tidy moustache and a full set of iron chainmail armor. He inspects the captives and is astonished to see the feared bandit leader tied up and scared.

You claim that you pulled this off by organizing villagers to ambush the bandits and during the battle bandit mage flung some kind of explosive spell and hit mostly his own troops. Captain doesn't believe you and decides to interrogate the prisoners. About an hour later he walks out and says that your story is much more believable than you standing alone against the entire bandit camp and slaughtering every single one of them.

Apparently the village was considered abandoned or destroyed after the loss of contact. The sacrifice rate was unsustainable for the Blight and village should have been destroyed when they could no longer force themselves to do this. You explain that you managed to defeat the creature and Farsalos is safe again.

Captain states that he will dispatch someone to check on the village to see the battlefield for themselves and ask the villagers before he can pay out the bounty but the sum is supposed to be pretty substantial, almost 75% of the entire double tax. Unfortunately due to the war collecting required sum will take some time so he could only provide a quarter of the amount at the moment.

>Offer to use the entire amount to negate most of the village tax
>Offer to negate the last year's tax. This will cut the reward massively but village would get up to the end of summer to pay up the rest
>Take the amount on your own. You'll figure out how to pay up
>Write-in

>>2768016
>Offer to negate the last year's tax. This will cut the reward massively but village would get up to the end of summer to pay up the rest

>>2768016
>Offer to negate the last year's tax. This will cut the reward massively but village would get up to the end of summer to pay up the rest

I got plenty out of killing the three monsters there. Might go exploring, see if there are any more about.

>>2768047
>>2768035
Ok then, writing

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>>2768118
Captain of the guard is surprised by your charity towards the villagers but he agrees that it should be possible to do. You will receive a quarter of your pay and the rest will go to compensate for the tax. He also provides you with a recommendation letter which would allow you to request audience with the mayor's advisor who also keeps the books to arrange the possible alternatives to grain tax. He thinks that it should be possible to pay the rest with lumber and copper instead.

You will be allowed to enter the town, however you will have to leave your halberd at the guard station as unlike short sword it is considered publically dangerous. You will retrieve it on your way out. This town is much more lively than the village. Hundreds of people are on the streets and strongly Greco-Roman architecture. Neat paved streets, white brick and mortar buildings in the center of the city, marble columns and statues in the temple and so on. You think that pod people probably shared particular designs as you have no idea how else such construction style could survive.

There is a large open area in the middle of the town currently used as a marketplace. It has a wide variety of various stalls and it is already packed with customers. Right by this area there is a temple which is the largest building in the town by far. Close to this area is the main administrative building which combines the functions of the town hall and mayor's residence.

>Visit the market. You don't have a lot of money but you could at least see what is sold around the place
>Visit the temple. You are curious about how people worship these supposed gods
>Go straight for the town hall. Time to wrap up with the taxes
>Write in. You can look for something specific

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>>2768192
Here is the town map by the way. I had problems with the picture size but it should work now

>>2768192
>Go straight for the town hall. Time to wrap up with the taxes

>>2768192
>Visit the market. You don't have a lot of money but you could at least see what is sold around the place

>>2768192
>Visit the temple. You are curious about how people worship these supposed gods

>>2768222
>>2768209
>>2768201
We'll need a tie breaker

>>2768192
>Go straight for the town hall. Time to wrap up with the taxes

>>2768273
Writing

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>>2768290
Time to finally figure out the taxes which means visiting the town hall. Considering the attitude of the secretary you only managed to arrange the meeting because you had the recommendation letter. Fortunately this is too early for any pre arranged meetings and you are allowed to squeeze in your visit right now.

The advisor is a man in his early forties who wears glasses and looks like the very definition of accountant. Neat, tidy, organized and demands the same from everyone else. He gets straight to business after reading the letter. Signing a village back into existence is a matter of a couple papers and changes to the taxation are a cost comparison table away.

It seems that it would take you about two days to prepare enough lumber or copper ingots to pay the tax and it is due to the end of August in a month and a half. After that he boots you out while saying something about youth taking up his time. Wow, that was surprisingly quick and easy. Thanks man.

Now you just need to wait until the messenger checks the village and returns. They said they will use special horse used to deliver express mail so he should be back by tomorrow morning so you have a whole day in the town to do whatever you want. Chief was nice enough to give you a small amount of pay which should be enough for a day's stay, some food and a little extra. How should you occupy yourself?

>Check out the market. Better keep your eyes peeled though. No need to get pick pocketed.
>Check out the temple. You have some appreciation for art and you are also curious.
>Find a public bath. You are sick of washing with cold well water. Romans had actually good baths, right?
>Go to guard station and ask if they have any monster problems. You are bored and you could hunt some problematic critters for extra cash
>Find an inn and just sleep 'till morning

>>2768342
>Find a public bath. You are sick of washing with cold well water. Romans had actually good baths, right?

>>2768342
>Go to guard station and ask if they have any monster problems. You are bored and you could hunt some problematic critters for extra cash

>>2768356
>>2768351
Writing

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>>2768403
An idea comes to your mind: Greeks and Romans had public baths! You are sick of washing in the village well and you'd like to finally take a normal bath. After a quick search you discover that this town has a public bathhouse. It is a large two story brick and mortar triangular building in the south west of the town.

It seems to consist of three different public baths. A cold dark one, a light tempered one and an artificially heated one. Fortunately or not they have gender segregation by time. Women visit the bath in the evening to evade the men who prefer to visit this place during morning or daytime. Looks like you'll have to wait before you can visit the bathhouse.

You decide to do something productive in the meantime so you head to the captain of guard's office and ask if they have any trouble with monsters. He explains that there is always trouble with monsters in the frontier. There is a wall filled with various requests to eliminate particular creatures that bug the nearby area. Your reading skills are not that great but you manage to discern three potential options:

>Start with something small. There is a request to clear out a nearby stone quarry from small and mostly annoying monsters
>Try something harder. There is a group mission to hunt and kill some large beast to the south west from the town
>Yolo. There is a high danger option to clear out a nearby monster hive. Apparently recommended group is around 80 professional warriors and something about "expect massive casualties"

>>2768463
I apologize for how long it took me to write the post. PC decided to reboot without warning

>>2768463
>Try something harder. There is a group mission to hunt and kill some large beast to the south west from the town

>>2768467
Ok writing. We are down to one player and thus it is a good time to pause. My next post would be it for today and we will continue once i wake up

>>2768507
>>2768463
Try something harder

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>>2768507
You ask a little about the second mission. Apparently there is a large snake- like monster that lives somewhere in the forest and keeps raiding fields to kill and feed on large farm animals. It is told to be large enough to swallow a cow whole and it also seems to be capable of spraying venom in a short distance which blinds and later paralyzes and kills people. It has dark green skin and a large collar similar to a cobra.

This description makes you think. This venom seems to be some kind of neurotoxin and it sounds like an amazing way to get some poisoned arrows. Lucky for you the body augment should keep you absolutely safe. This creature seems to be weaker than the Blight as it was possible to damage it and drive it away through the scales with arrows. To prove the kill you need to bring some vital part of it like an eye or a large piece of skin with scales. This should be a relatively simple hunt...

>>2768512
And on this note I black out. See you in a bit

>>2768512
sleep tight

are there any other adventurers on this job?

>>2768655
Ok i'm awake and preparing the post. This will be available as an option.

>>2768932
Time to prepare for the job. Giant snakes don't kill themselves. From what you were told it lives somewhere to the south- west of the town and it frequently raids the farms outside city walls during the night. You already have several ideas on how to approach this task.

You could ambush it during its raid and prevent it from escaping. By cutting it off from the forest you can act as an anvil for the town militia's hammer. They would drive it directly at you allowing for a decisive blow.

You could also attempt to find the lair and kill it while it sleeps. Snakes have long digestive process meaning it should be resting somewhere for a relatively long time. Pragmatic but it works. Perseus didn't have to fight Medusa either after all as he decided to just kill her while she sleeps.

The third option would be to just run into it head on. It seems that the creature is not scared of individual humans and would attack you on sight if you are alone. It would be incredibly dangerous for anyone else but you as you are basically using yourself as bait.

Captain of the guard gets worried about how determined you are and asks you if you have any allies. You explain that you operate alone and lie something about traps and ambushes. He compliments your bravery but highly recommends to take some people along with you. Preferably a couple dozen but you won't realistically manage that.

Captain directs you to a local monster huntsman guild of sorts and assures you that in case of your demise he will direct the money to the village so you can rest easily. If he only knew how much he underestimates you... In any case some allies might be useful. They could draw attention of the creature, the hunt would not be as boring and they would witness your almost definite success. On the other hand if push comes to shove they would see you use your full power and they could potentially be killed during the hunt. In addition the reward would be split among the hunters.

Strategy:
>Ambush the beast during the raid
>Take the beast head on
>Find the lair and kill it at the weakest
>Other ideas?

Allies:
>Attempt to get some allies
>You can handle this alone

>>2768969
>Ambush the beast during the raid

Find someone who is good at tracking and can be stealthy in the woods and is young enough to become part of our adventuring party in making?

>>2768978
I will wait for at least one more vote so that more people have a chance to join after the pause.

>>2768969
>>2768978
Backing

>>2769015
>>2768978
Ok then. Writing

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>>2769036
After a little bit of thought you decide that the ambush should be sufficient to quickly dispatch of the monster. When it attacks the field you will circle the area and attack it once the guard responds to the threat and starts driving it away. The creature attacks about once every two- three days and last time it attacked the day before yesterday so you predict that it should strike during this evening.

Along with this plan you decide that you should get some help. Not like you really need it but it would be less tedious to wait for the monster attack among all the other benefits. You would also want a little bit of publicity as it can go a long way in ancient societies.

The best way to get some allies seems to be monster hunter guild building. It is not really a guild but you have no idea how to describe it differently. It is a place organized by the town for monster hunters to rest and store equipment during their search for bounty. There is no actual organization, just bands of hunters of various levels of professionalism. Some only hunt monsters while others are just mercs or even bandits, although they don't let obvious outlaws into the town.

The building itself is two story tall with stone frame filled in with timber. It is rivaling the size of a large inn. Judging by the foundation there is probably a cellar under the building and you assume that it is where most of the specialized equipment is stored. You take a small breath and open the door.

The first floor has a large area with four round tables and numerous chairs. There is a small bar table in the far corner manned by a mildly large woman in her forties. This seems like it is way more similar to an inn than you have thought at first. Only one of the tables is occupied by a group of four people who are discussing something while a crudely hand drawn map of town's nearby area is lying on the table.

The party consists of a blonde Nordic looking woman clad in leather and chainmail armor and armed with only a sword and a round wooden shield. She has three green stripes of paint on her face.

Another person is an intense looking man with log red hair, thin beard and two swords on his belt. He seems to be the most hotheaded guy in the group and he is arguing the most with the Nordic girl.

There is also a man in a brown cloak equipped with a bow and a sword. His hair looks like he could use some shampoo but he has a kind and calm facial expression. He doesn't wear any armor and probably does not intend to get into any sort of danger.

The last of them is a guy in a green cloak with a bow. You are not sure if that is a guy or a girl but it seems that this person is trying to act all mysterious and antisocial by rarely interfering in discussion.
Your armor is a bit too noticeable and you are going to become the center of their attention no matter what you do. How should you approach this...

>>2769125
>Walk up and ask them what are they hunting and if they want any help
>Walk up and ask them if they would like to join you in the hunt on the giant snake creature for an equal share of the reward
>Sit separately and pull out your own map pretending to plan. Maybe they'd be interested.
>Approach the innkeeper, ask her about what's new with the monster hunting making sure to buy a drink and tip her. It appears that people get drunk here and drunk people talk a lot.
>Other

>>2769125
>Walk up and ask them if they would like to join you in the hunt on the giant snake creature for an equal share of the reward


The nordic girl seems pretty...I mean...for a girl...

>>2769126
>Approach the innkeeper, ask her about what's new with the monster hunting making sure to buy a drink and tip her. It appears that people get drunk here and drunk people talk a lot.

It occurs to me that with our physical enhancements, we will struggle to get drunk. Challenging others to drinking games for money or their assistance would be a good plan.

>>2769126
>Approach the innkeeper, ask her about what's new with the monster hunting making sure to buy a drink and tip her. It appears that people get drunk here and drunk people talk a lot.

>>2769155
>>2769161
>>2769208
Writing

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>>2769227
At first you want to just approach the group and ask if they are up for some snake hunting. They seem to be discussing something which should happen in that general area too and the Nordic girl looks pretty... for a girl...

However you come up with a better idea. You take off the helmet and attach it to your belt before taking a seat by the bar. Innkeeper expected something fishy from you at first but she calmed down after a short chat, a mug of some local ale and a tip. Damn, this ale sucks in comparison to even trashy beer of your time. Too watery, doesn't form any foam and tastes widely different.

On the other side you manage to chat up the woman and find out a little bit about the local situation. About two years ago there used to be a large group of strong hunters with some mages in their ranks. They set off to clear out what she claims to be a giant den. It is some kind of small settlement of aggressive huge humanoids several days to the south-west of the town. They have never returned and probably died wholesale when their attack on the den failed.

They did manage to scout it and apparently there are several dozen of these creatures living in a primitive village which sends small groups of giants to destroy smaller villagers or attack town suburbs for loot and meat. Town militia is enough to drive them away but they remain a constant threat. This town is on the very edge of their operation range. It seems that this is that hard task that recommended several hundred people. From her descriptions these giants can be from five to seven stories tall.

After this team was gone most of the hunters either settled down or left the town for larger settlements with better organized teams. That small group around the table is one of the few which remain and the only one currently in town. They have a lot of experience dealing with minor threats which are no more dangerous than wild animals but they seem to want to attempt something bigger. However what they want to take on usually requires a dozen people so they are brainstorming a way to deal with it on their own.

The woman seems to be interested in your armor as she has never seen such polished golden bronze. She would also like to hear about your exploits. There were some news about you organizing villagers to beat off a bandit attack and capturing their leader.

>Boast. This is all true and more!
>Just state the facts. Your armor is a different kind of alloy of copper and a rare metal, you indeed helped the village to slay a couple local monsters. Don't get into details
>Downplay it. The Blight was killed with a trap. Other monsters were not too powerful and the bandits mainly blew themselves up in confusion
>Other

>>2769302
>tell her the core of the truth is there, but people tend to exaggerate some.

>>2769302
>>Just state the facts. Your armor is a different kind of alloy of copper and a rare metal, you indeed helped the village to slay a couple local monsters. Don't get into details
>>2769302

>>2769302
>tell her the core of the truth is there, but people tend to exaggerate some.
>Just state the facts. Your armor is a different kind of alloy of copper and a rare metal, you indeed helped the village to slay a couple local monsters. Don't get into details

>>2769360
This

>>2769327
>>2769331
>>2769360
>>2769373
Ok, writing

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>>2769389
"The core of the truth is there but people tend to exaggerate things" you tell her and explain that your armor is a type of bronze which is not much better than normal. It is just slower to rust and made with rare metal that you have found during your travels.

You tell her than you have indeed killed the Blight by ambushing it during the sacrifice with some heavy and blunt weapon to get through all that natural armor. A whack to the head disoriented it enough for you to keep nailing it until it died.

You also tell how you have found and killed a weird parasite monster in the forest during a hunt while skipping the epic battle and creepy psychic side effects. Then you tell about spiders the size of large dogs in the copper mine and how you have collapsed the tunnel to evade the fight. She doesn't have to know that it was the entire cavern which collapsed on top of them.

The bandit story turned out pretty simple. You equipped the villagers, trained them for a bit and proceeded to ambush the invaders. During the mess bandit mage thought that there are too many villagers and decided to throw a fireball in the middle of his own forces in confusion which killed most of them and the rest were mopped up. That way you still sound mildly badass but you don't look like a demigod on steroids wiping out an entire bandit camp with ease.

While you were telling the story the Nordic woman stands up while ignoring protests of the redheaded guy and takes a seat nearby asking if you would like to assist their group with a large monster. They only used to handle the smaller beasts as of yet and as you managed to defeat two large creatures you have a head start in experience in this particular situation. And thus the bait is successful.

You join the group in discussion and share your opinion on the plan. They initially planned to just attack the creature close to the walls so that they could retreat quickly. You explain the holes you can see. Snakes are capable of quick bursts of speed and fighting a creature of that size in melee is a terrible idea. You note how it is preferable to shoot at it from the distance and how weapons with long polearms like spears would be a better option. You also share your opinion on how the snake might attack. Getting slapped with a tail of that size is probably lethal and keeping far away from its direct line of sight is synonymous to not dying due to venomous spray.

The discussion finally touches the subject of money. Redhead guy wants most of the money to be arranged by "merit" to the useful members of the group while Nordic girl suggests a fixed pay to you which is about 50% bigger than what you'll get if you spread the reward equally.

>Suggest to go with fixed payment. You are a specialist whom they hire
>Suggest to equally spread the reward
>Go with merit based reward. You know exactly who will be the most useful
>Write-in

>>2769475
Go with the girls suggestion. If we go by merit they might end up with nothing

>>2769475
>Suggest to go with fixed payment. You are a specialist whom they hire
I cant really say no to her...I mean...to that fair offer

>>2769475
>>Go with merit based reward. You know exactly who will be the most useful

>>2769496
>>2769475

>>2769475
>Suggest to go with fixed payment. You are a specialist whom they hire

>>2769475
>Suggest to go with fixed payment. You are a specialist whom they hire

>>2769492
besides, if we go by merit is less likely people will work together since everyone will be trying to get the killing blow

>>2769536
>>2769529
>>2769527
>>2769511
>>2769505
>>2769496
>>2769492
Writing

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>>2769571
You accept to act as a hired specialist. If you go for merit this would cause a competition for the last hit. Plus as you are here these hunters would get nothing. It is hard to one up someone like you. In addition it is not like you can say no to her... you mean it is a fair proposal.

After you shake hands you learn more about these people. The girl's name is Sigrid. Weirdly familiar name. She sees your confusion and states that her ancestors crash landed in Cenophila several generations ago after attempting to flee some kind of catastrophe which was happening in her homeland. She doesn't know much more unfortunately as it was a taboo subject for her parents.

The red headed warrior is Brandir. He is killing monsters for glory and wealth and he sees this creature as a stepping stone to his eventual greatness. He doesn't talk about his past preferring to tell you a story on how he single handedly killed three wolves and showing off the scars from that.

The person in the cloak calls themselves Haven and refuses to talk much more beyond saying that they are great with the bow and sword and that is all we need to know. You are still not sure if it is a guy or not and as you have no idea how to find that out politely you make a note to use ambiguous terms and move on.

The last member of the group is Hardwin. He has lost his wife to a monster attack three years ago so he hunts them for revenge and to provide for his daughter. You catch yourself thinking about how fitting the name is to his life.

The introductions are done so you suggest to...
>Practice before the fight. It is always nice to stretch for a bit before a good exercise
>Split up and meet up later before the hunt. You could continue with exploring the city for a few hours before you need to prepare for the battle
>Drink. This is a meeting worth celebrating
>Other

>>2769621
>Split up and meet up later before the hunt. You could continue with exploring the city for a few hours before you need to prepare for the battle

>>2769621
>>Drink. This is a meeting worth celebrating
get to know her more, why she became a monster hunter...I mean...get to know your comrades, your life will be on the line together

>>2769621
>Practice before the fight. It is always nice to stretch for a bit before a good exercise

Let's put on a good show.

>>2769642
This, we haven't relaxed since we got here. On our old life we were not very social, we can start anew here, or at least try

>>2769659
>>2769651
>>2769642
>>2769628
Booze it is. Writing

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>>2769716
You decide that this is an excellent opportunity to get to know Sigri... these people better and you suggest to celebrate this excellent deal. The person who suggests pays but it is not like you can't afford it. You have a big score on the horizon anyway.

Everyone but Haven agrees who instead retorts with how stupid it is to get drunk before the battle. You reply that you would not get even a buzz after one portion of ale and that it is not like they have to order booze. Haven sighs and requests some tea.

You use this opportunity to make these people talk more. Sigrid decided to become an adventurer following the footsteps of her older sister. Her parents live in a community on the western coast of Cenophila and they mainly fish and help with western Cenophilan fleet construction.

Cenophila seems to have a much larger navy to any of its neighbors however the ships themselves are smaller and inferior to Ha'riy Noaa' navy vessels which is a much smaller but more developed kingdom further to the north. The nation's name is roughly translated as "Holy Nation" and it is said that their pantheon consists out of two or three actual deities and the rest is made of numerous "angels". The two nations are currently at the state of cold war as Cenophila has no manpower to spare due to the war with its other neighbor to the north- east called Valistrat Empire.

Haven refuses to talk about herself in principle and Brandir tells another story of a daring escape from some monster the size of a bull. You are not sure how much of it is bull but it is probably impressive for him so you pretend to enjoy it.

Now it is your turn to talk about yourself...

>Make up a believable story for your adventures. You used to worldbuild once so you might be able to bullshit your way through it
>Make up a generalized story of how you grew up in a village which was destroyed by a monster attack a decade ago causing you to wander the land and do random jobs. No names, no geography
>Tell a story of how you were frozen in an ancient tomb for a hundred years. Not quite truth but not full BS
>Write-in

>>2769796
Tell the tomb story. I see no harm in it. And I don't see a readon to lie, monsters and magic seem to be common place since even the bandits had one

>>2769796
>>Tell a story of how you were frozen in an ancient tomb for a hundred years. Not quite truth but not full BS
this might pick her interes....I mean...we should be somewhat honest

>>2769796
>Tell a story of how you were frozen in an ancient tomb for a hundred years. Not quite truth but not full BS

>>2769819
>>2769832
>>2769858
Writing

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>>2769904
These people live in the world with magic, monsters and unknowns. It won't be too hard to believe you. However you decide to hide certain parts of your history. They don't need to know that you are basically the same kind of creature as the people in her pantheon. So you compromise.

You tell a story of how you were an adventurer in a small village and how you found a strange white sarcophagus. To evade some threat you had to get inside and then suddenly you woke up hundreds of years into the future and your village no longer existed. You then survived for a while in the middle of nowhere before encountering the sacrifice to the Blight and ambushing it.

Sigrid is fascinated and she asks you how was the life back then. You make up a story of how the skies were covered in ash, plants almost died out and horrifying deformed creatures roamed the land. It is not like you can tell her the absolute truth and locals seem to have a prevalent myth of surviving through a cataclysm of great proportions.

Brandir immediately makes a joke about your age which is not even that insulting so you expand on the joke making him laugh. Looks like the bonding is going great.

>>2769941
And on this note I have to wrap up for today. Unfortunately I need to stop the thread sooner to be alive for the HR exam on Tuesday. Next session is on next Saturday at roughly the same time as usual.

Feel free to discuss SGQ. I will appear during the week to answer any questions you might have.

Good night and thank you for your time.

>>2769952
Thanks for running m8, see you next time

>>2769941
Thanks QM, I'm glad you went along with my....confusion...it was fun. Let's see how our awkward reclusive girl deals with those fellings, hehehe

>>2769952
Inventory was updated
https://pastebin.com/gyZLMiNG

>>2778695
heyo

how was the exam?

>>2778710
Failed it miserably, but it was not that important. It was one of extra subjects I took during exchange program. Honestly not sure what I expeced after missing two months of material.

No worries though, I plan to run on schedule this week.

>>2778733
That's rough

Now, I have a question.

Is it safe to assume that everyone who has powers or is a mage is someone from a pod like ours or at least can trace their heritage to pod people?

Where were we when we entered the pod? The place where we are used to be what country/city?

Does ruins from the past still exist? Like military complexes or sturdier cities? can we take Sigrid there?

The monsters are experiments like us or mutations caused by the war? If the later, are there human mutations too? I imagine Blight was probably one of those mutations.

>>2779280
>>2779280
I can't answer all of these questions for the reason of spoilers but I will answer some:

1) Psi users are not always from nanostasis pods. Bio-sculpting is a thing after all. They can be pod people, descendants of pod people, people created or altered by pod people(Cup Bearers/Angels are an example of that) or descendants of those altered by pod people and so on. Radiation here doesn't make you a superhero or a mutant, it just kills you in horrific ways.

There are legends of Ancient Bloodlines which are direct descendants of(presumably) the first wave of pods over a millennia ago(locals think they came in the hour of need like the King in the Mountain). They were not immortal and had much less potent augmentations but they were passed through generations. They are sort of ancient kings and heroes who could perform impossible deeds and ruled for hundreds of years. Their bloodlines split and mixed over generations becoming weaker. Current nobility has some of that blood left making magic users among them more common but their power potential is not comparable of the ancient bloodlines.

Please note that it is not only psi. Other augments existed and were passed on such as extra sharp senses or impressive agility and so on. Human subspecies also exist but Agatha is yet to meet a member of these people.


2) We entered the pod in the city of Columbus, state Ohio in Midwest United States. Agatha's mother was a Russian immigrant who came to US just before Russian Uprisings of 2025-s and asked for political refuge. Her father is US born businessman. We entered the pod in 2041 and woke up 2068 years later in mid July of 4109.

For historical background, this was a period of a civil war following protests in Moscow and St. Petersburg as a result of increasing authoritarian elements in Russian government. It was suppressed in force followed shortly by closed borders. Since then Russia became a theocratic authoritarian hermit state somewhat similar to IRL North Korea, but much bigger, richer and more industrialized even though lagging decades in scientific progress. Their Death Arm autonomous retaliation system mistook the cataclysm in Europe for an incoming nuclear attack.

>>2779902
3) There are no well known ruins on the surface. Some beach areas sometimes have plastic pebbles washed up on shores like embers and sometimes carcasses of ancient machinery can be dug out and used in alloys with similar rarity and cultural effect to meteoric iron. In other words it is incredibly rare.

Local people have prevalent myth of ancient cataclysm. However, in their interpretation it ended about three- four hundred years ago and lasted for several hundred years during which horrible and endless hordes of monsters slaughtered anyone foolish enough to be found by them. These creatures seemingly targeted infrastructure just as gladly as human beings and only recently died out in sufficient numbers to allow humans to rebuild. What is interesting, it should have happened somewhere between the appearance of Ancient Bloodline founders and current times.

Thus myth structure is somewhat like this: humans were created in horrible, barren and difficult land. Bloodline Founders appeared in the hour of need and guided people to prosperity. Then humans became too arrogant and filled with hubris once Founders left, challenging the deities who in turn ignited wars between human kingdoms and simultaneously created horrors of all shapes and sizes to make humans extinct. Then gods felt pity for remaining humans who lived in fear in caves for hundreds of years and considered that the lesson was taught and slain most of the creatures leaving only a few to remind them of their place. Most current monsters are considered remnants of that time and greatest hero teams with great sacrifice could only hope to slay the medium strength creatures with incredibly rare strongest beasts being untouchable cataclysms destroying entire nations in weeks leaving none alive.

>>2779907
New thread is up and this thread is archived
>>2782236