Rolled 2, 2 = 4 (2d4)

>>3339984

>>3339999

"You have pleased my god, your god, son of the sun. And you have kept the vow he has asked of you and now what shall you ask of us?" Says Ameshiki-Naya-Ur-Kai, She-Whose-Light-Is-Like-Pleasure.

[You gain +4 Favor with the spirit of the sun]

Choose TWO:

>Power
>Wisdom
>Favor

>>3339984
Also forgot to include the previous threads:

Thread 1: https://archived.moe/qst/thread/3168132/#q3168132

Subsequent threads: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=Tribal%20Ranger%20Quest

>>3340037
>>Power
>>Wisdom

>>3340037
>Power
>Wisdom

>>3340053
>>3340059

Choose one:

>Photophage - You are sustained by the sun itself, feeding on light, no longer requiring material food as mortals do.
>Fireproof - Heat and flame are as water and wind to your body. You cannot burn.
>Pyroscrying - [requires: Night Vision] Gaze into the flame and burn a token of the one you would watch, and witness him in the fire
>Ignition - [requires: Fireproof]
>Photoheal [requires: Photophage]

>What question will you ask the spirits?

>>3340119
>Photophage

>>3340119
Pyroscrying is good for tracking people or rescuing wife if she ever gets kidnapped. Also fire proof is nice but we could get it later.

But I think I'll go with no need for food or water. Will help us survive out here easier. Will ensure our wife never starves since there will be extra food when its sunny out.

>Photophage - You are sustained by the sun itself, feeding on light, no longer requiring material food as mortals do.

How many people did we sacrifice? 4?
I feel like we should have gotten more boons if we kill a bunch of humans and sacrificed them.

Do sacrifices scale Logarithmically instead of linearly?

>>3340119
Ask where can we find the shrine to fix us.
If that doesn't work ask why our heart was ripped out.

>>3340151
Originally it was linear, but then I realize that would result in horrendous mechanical overhead (because many of the advanced powers have dependencies). So I changed it to the # of sacrifices = +# Favor. You only gain one power per sacrificial ritual.

>>3340119

>Fireproof - Heat and flame are as water and wind to your body. You cannot burn.

>>3340159
Darn.

What about sacrificing powerful individuals?

Also does fireproofing make us more vulnerable to cold and water?

>>3340170
And ask about where we an find the oracle, guidance

>>3340119
photophage and for them to show the way to the oracle

Guys, next time we have surplus sacrifices we should let waife sacrifice some, if she gets photophage too we will be very self sufficient

>>3340171
>What about sacrificing powerful individuals?

Sure, in those cases we can make an exception. And there are other exceptions as well.

>Also does fireproofing make us more vulnerable to cold and water?

Not Fireproofing, but some of the later powers will have vulnerabilities.

>>3340192
Unfortunately, this isn't allowed. In terms of lore, it's because it's taboo for a woman to sacrifice and may anger the spirits. In fact, most sacrifices aren't even answered, the fact that yours are (and by a direct messenger of the sun) only indicates how different you are from the rest of the tribals (getting your heart torn out and burned to ash will do that). In terms of mechanics, I don't want to have to maintain two (identical) power trees, I'd rather have some variety and less bookkeeping. Rest assured the wife will eventually get her own set of powers (hint: visit the Oracle).

>>3340202
Ok, is it going to be a session or just a post or two during the week?

Really liking the quest so far.

>>3340243
I'll try to hold some sessions when I can (and they will be announced in the twitter...which I also forgot to mention in the OP: https://twitter.com/guard_qm?lang=en), but otherwise I'm aiming for a post/day (likewise, I'll tweet updates as well)

>>3340119
>Photophage - You are sustained by the sun itself, feeding on light, no longer requiring material food as mortals do.

File: retrovenus-c-ifritfirora.jpg (1.29 MB, 900x1640)

1.29 MB JPG

>>3341674
>>3340188
>>3340172
>>3340153
>>3340151
>>3340145

"Let it be so, son of my father. Now thrust your hand into this fire and paint your lips with its ashes and thereafter shall light sustain you, as milk sustains the newborn calf."

So you do, and as your hand reaches for the base of the flames, they part like grasses before a strong wind. You take the ashes in your fingers and there is no heat upon them, white, mixed with the crumbled bones of your enemies, and you touch your lips with them and taste sweet honey. Then your lips become white-gold, the color of the sun when it is highest.

"As for your question, there is already one among you who knows its answer. Ask the long-eared one, who, because he knows the sight of his own death, therefore fears nothing."

You turn to Mikah-el and he sits placid, with his eyes covered against the sight of the sun's daughter, one of his shining rays.

"You have proven yourself, Sho-Kai-without-a-heart, and therefore I would ask something of you: in the mine to which this long-ear will take you, there is a spirit in the deep: my husband, my defiler, who I wish to possess again for he ran from my sight and still I love him."

"Tell me his name."

"His name is Azuusus and his name is Arezzesh and his name is Samsaba-Dagoni-Zeru. He will fight you when you find him, with fire, with web, with furious strength, for such is his nature. You will slay him and draw his spirit into the ring you bear. Then you shall you anoint your wife with his oils and go in unto her and I shall grant you a great power. This you shall down before the passing of thirty suns. Will you make this oath with me, my brother?"

You look to your beloved and she has heard the great spirit's words and because of what you have done to her already, she shakes and trembles.

"But my curse...and if I hurt her?" You say.

The fire blooms as though it had touched the explosive sap of the burkur tree. "I CARE NOT. NOW SPEAK, WILL YOU MAKE THE OATH OR NO?"

>Oath: Kill the spirit residing deep within the mine, seal it with your ring, bathe your wife in its oils and then lay with her. Do it within 30 days.

>Take the oath (grants a free power once fulfilled)
>Refuse the oath (-2 Favor)

>>3342833
Can we ask our wife first?

How can we do this, if we end up being a defiler of our lover like your husband was? Would my wife not one day do unto me as you o unto him?

>>3342833
>>Take the oath (grants a free power once fulfilled)
she is already broken, im not interested in putting her back together

>>3342838
Meant this as a bit of a write in for us to say to the spirt.

>>3342852
No shes not, shes just hurt from what we did, broken would be her trying to kill us or leave us. So far shes been more than helpful, and more useful than the guy who's death is already foretold.

>>3342838
Agreed

The thing that took us may come out again, ask her.

>>3342833
>>3342833
>Refuse the oath (-2 Favor)

Yeah, I'll have to pass on that, if we had picked fireproof I would go for it but I'm not keen on getting burned with no way to treat it.
The spirit gave us what we want, it can find another to do this.

>>3342838
>>3342933
I take this to mean taking on the oath, if your wife agrees?

>>3342961
Yes, the risk on her is big

>>3342833
this >>3342838

>>3342838
This

And yes>>3342961

>>3342961
Basically. Worried about what harm would incur, so all we need to do is kill her ex, then sacrifice him, and then bongie dongie our wife right?

Sigh, I'm against doing the vow at all.

But if you guys want to get 3rd degree burns and if waifu is willing to risk us loosing control we should do something else first.

Let's find those Red Caps, that way we can endure the pain after the fight and we can weaken ourselves so we won't be able to hurt waifu even if we try.

>>3343137
Well if we can't do this middle ground, then I'd opt to refuse.

If the spirit god thing really wants this, she'd at least hear us out and let us talk to our wife. I'm somewhat surprised at her seemly hypocritical behavior.

>>3343151
eh, I'm not that surprised, she is as spirit, she can do whatever apparently

>>3343158
I was expecting someone to say something like "shes a woman, ofc shes gonna be a emotional hypocrite."

>>3342833
>Take the oath (grants a free power once fulfilled)

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>>3342852
>>3342838
>>3342933
>>3343597

You exchange a look with your wife. It has been but three days in her company, yet you can read each other's expressions as though you had lived together for 30 thousand suns. Subtly she closes her eyes and nods her head. Though still her little heart quivers inside her, the moment she cut into your arm and drew the blood, her heart was yours forever.

"I will do this thing for you, Light-Like-Pleasure."

Instantly the fire shrinks and becomes soft. Her voice becomes gentle. "Then let it be a covenant between you and I. Do not fail me, my brother." She leans forward and kisses your brow, filling your nostrils with the scent of dandelions and sunflowers in summer.

Then like lightning, she is gone.

---

In the morning, you set off again into the forest, with Mikah-el at point. He speaks nothing of what the spirit told you. Nothing about the oracle, nothing of the fact that he has seen his own death, a curse more terrible than even your own. Neither of you slept last night. You, because you no longer seem to require it, your divine vision never grows heavy. He, because, you know not why. He spent the night picking through the belongings of the sacrifices, taking whatever pleased him. Perhaps the vision of his death prevents him from sleep. Perhaps it is in sleep that he will die.

Your wife, however, dozed sweetly upon your lap and you spent the night removing the silver pines and clods of earth from her hair and caring for her wound using the powders and potions and poultices she recovered from the Yintan medicine-man. But the impulse to take her again grows steadily hour by hour. And the prayers are on your lips always, to restrain yourself when it conquers you again.

You watch the horizon for sight of the Asakoni that attacked you. But you do not see them. All is quiet and the deeper you go into the Sylvan, the quieter it becomes, until even the sounds of animals, birds, bees, buzzing insects and whistling foliage surrenders to a perfect silence.

"When I bring you to the Oracle, I consider myself free." Mikah-el says. "And don't expect me to fight this Azuusus either. Agreed, chap?"

>Agreed. You don't expect him to fight and should he take you to the Oracle, his task his finished.
>Refuse. You are his captor and he is free only when you die and not before

1/2

File: Yintah Scout Equipment.jpg (815 KB, 1920x1400)

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>>3344137

>Inventory update

= Equipped =

You
>Bow w/ Quiver (9/15 arrows)
>Hatchet
>Cloth Wraps
>Cloth Cloak

Your wife
>Flat-bladed weapon

= Loot =
>Cloth Bag
>x1 Cloth Wraps
>Block of Dried Healing Paste (3/3)
>x2 Rations (lasts 2 days)
>Engraved Ring
>Bag of Yintan Coins (1/2 full)

Loot from Medicine-Man
>Surgery Kit
>Vial of Cleansing Spirits (2/2)
>Needled Syringe
>Painkilling Poultice (2/2)
>Block of (refined) Dried Healing Paste (2/2)

Loot from Yintan Scouts
>Long flat-bladed weapon (x2)
>Strange Yintan Bow [empty socket (x3)]
>Metal Quiver (5/10 Metal Bolts)
>Yintan Scout Garb (x4)
>Yintan Metal Armor [ruby gem] [empty socket (x3)]
>Rations (x4)
>Bag of Yintan Currency (x2)

How will you split the loot?

Remember that you can only carry one primary weapon and one secondary.

Armor allows you to re-roll once per combat (with metal armor granting an additional re-roll at the expense of a -1 to all combat rolls) and has additional narrative effects depending on if it's socketed/what gems it has. Note that your former Vow of nudity has been fulfilled.

Your party currently consumes 2 rations/day and your Photophage ability ensures you only need to eat 1 ration/X days, where X is your current Favor (here, +5).

For smaller items, we'll just use "common sense" to determine if you can carry it all or not. Generally we'll assume you can.

>>3344137
>Agreed. You don't expect him to fight and should he take you to the Oracle, his task his finished.

And the mines.

Take the Cloth bad and the wraps
1/3 of the healing paste
half the rations.
Take the ring.
Take 2 Yintan coins

>Surgery Kit
>Vial of Cleansing Spirits (1/2)
>Needled Syringe
>Painkilling Poultice (1/2)
>Block of (refined) Dried Healing Paste (1/2)

>Long flat-bladed weapon (x1)
>Strange Yintan Bow [empty socket (x3)]
>Metal Quiver (5/10 Metal Bolts)
>Yintan Scout Garb (x2)
>Yintan Metal Armor [ruby gem] [empty socket (x3)]
>Rations (x2)
>Bag of Yintan Currency (x1)

He can have the rest.

Ask him tho if he wants any of the other weapons. We get roughly %60 or more of the stuff, but since there are two of us and only him, I think that's rather fair. I we could give him the Metal armor, but he seems rather weak.


>Note that your former Vow of nudity has been fulfilled.

So we can wear chest armor then?

Also socket items are like Diablo 2 which is awesome.

>>3344141
>agreed

Leave the healer items with wife

Give bow and arrow to wife

Is the long flat bladed weapon better than our hatchet? If it is upgrade ours

Take the currency and rations

Put a metal armor on us and a scout garb on our wife

I don't think we can carry the rest of the armors so the elf can have one and a weapon if he wants

>>3344137

>Agreed. You don't expect him to fight and should he take you to the Oracle, his task his finished.

You
>Bow w/ Quiver (9/15 arrows)
>Hatchet
>Cloth Wraps
>Cloth Cloak
>Yintan Metal Armor [ruby gem]


Your wife
>Flat-bladed weapon
>Strange Yintan Bow [empty socket (x1]
>Metal Quiver (5/10 Metal Bolts)
>Yintan Scout Garb (x1)
>x1 Cloth Wraps


And on the bag

= Loot =
>Cloth Bag
>Block of Dried Healing Paste (3/3)
>x2 Rations (lasts 2 days)
>Engraved Ring
>Bag of Yintan Coins (1/2 full)
>Surgery Kit
>Vial of Cleansing Spirits (2/2)
>Needled Syringe
>Painkilling Poultice (2/2)
>Block of (refined) Dried Healing Paste (2/2)
>Rations (x4)
>Bag of Yintan Currency (x2)
>Long flat-bladed weapon (x1)

Basicly, we take all the medicine rations and curremcy, we killed them all after all.
We of course provide food for Mika-el for the travel since he is under our care
And we wear a metal armor while giving a lighter scout garb for wife, have her take the Yintah bow too and grab one of the long flat blades, we can train with it later to see if we can use it batter than our current weapon.

As for the rest of the armor and weapons Mika-el can take whatever he thinks he will need

>>3344732
Works for me

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>>3344188
>>3344235
>>3344732
>>3345028

Before you learned of his knowledge of the Oracle, you had no intention of keeping him around after he took you to the mine. If he dealt honorably with you, you would have freed him. And that courtesy extends until the Oracle.

"Agreed. You need not fight with me, but do not expect me to defend you. You are a man, even if you are a Yintan." You spit at the earth.

"Forgive me if I don't subscribe to the same ideals of murder and rape that define your toxic masculinity."

"Why is it that the longer I am with you, the more I think I will be the one that eventually kills you?"

"Well, actually..."

"Do not tell me, accursed! Do not tell me, to know such a thing is obscene."

He laughs--the first time you have heard him. And his laughter is like his daring, which has no border, no restraint. There is a sense of completion which is as alien as his courage.

You break for water and rest when you reach the white-blue streams of the Sylvanshine on the third day. Your wife, humming of some pleasant dream, stoops there to bathe, as you and the Yintan prepare a fire.

"Was it the Oracle who told you?" You say. You watch him tear open a package of cured meats and dried berries.

"It was."

"Then you have met her. What is she like?"

"Like any other old woman, I suppose. Like one of your haruspex, with the eyes--you know." He presses down on his eyelids.

You scoff. "They are not the same. The haruspex is like the Kanu that is led by its master. She sees only his feet, his shadow, but she trusts the hand that guides."

"And I suppose the Oracle is the master in that analogy?"

"No. The Oracle is the sun, the stars, the moon, the moss upon the trees, she is the one who guides the master. Her power is far greater."

He grows thoughtful as he chews his food and says nothing. And then there is the sound of a high scream, which at first you take to be your wife's and your blood falls, but soon realize that it cannot be her, for it comes from opposite the river, but close.

Then you hear voices and the accented language of your own people, not Asakoni, but something else, and the shuffle of footfalls through the brush so quick and so deep in this place, that it could mean only the Rangers. Those brave few that hunt for glory and honor alone.

1/2

>>3346773
You rise and follow them and the Yintan follows after, until you come upon a grove and a clearing where a great white wolf lies mangled by the barbed spear and a lulim, his wife, the two-horned doe, the lesser spirit of the swift things of Sylvan, clutches him to her breast. Around them the painted hunters, three, older, marked with the shock of strength from their years and with blood.

The lulim holds up her hand like a child who has seen something terrible and would keep it away. Her golden eyes meet your own and her speech is like music, though the others do not understand it. But you understand it. "O heartless one! Have mercy, save my husband, as you would save your wife. Plead my defense to your kind, and I shall give you my own heart."

The hunters follow her gaze to find you among the trees and then they lean upon their spears, saying nothing.

>Refuse the plea of the lulim, this is not your business
>Perhaps the Rangers might agree to a trade for their freedom?
>Name yourself and stand as defender to this creature

>>3346776
>>Refuse the plea of the lulim, this is not your business

>>3346776
>Name yourself and stand as defender to this creature
>Perhaps the Rangers might agree to a trade for their freedom?

That last line sounds like the Lulim gave away our position already and abandoning her and the wolf. On top of that how rules-lawyery do spirits get in this setting because a wolf skin cloak sounds nice.

>>3346776
>Perhaps the Rangers might agree to a trade for their freedom?
>Name yourself and stand as defender to this creature

>>3346776
>Perhaps the Rangers might agree to a trade for their freedom?
>Name yourself and stand as defender to this creature

>>3346776

>Name yourself and stand as defender to this creature

If she gives us her heart maybe we will be able to control ourselves

>>3346776
>>Refuse the plea of the lulim, this is not your business

>>3346776
>Perhaps the Rangers might agree to a trade for their freedom?
>Name yourself and stand as defender to this creature

Negociate first, fight if needed

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>>3346818
>>3346819
>>3346833
>>3347334

A moment passes, then two. The leader of the hunters bares his teeth in a gesture halfway of mirth and half of menace. "And who are you, blessed-by-the-spirits? Speak your name." And his voice is more quiet than you would believe of a man like him, as though a tiger squeaked.

"Sho-Kai." It is good you wear the armor of the Yintan, that your vow is lifted, for then they might have seen the scar and not called you blessed.

"Now that is a name." He says. "And I am Ashmar." He looks to his brothers-in-arms but does not say their names. One of them has blood leaking from two holes on his calve, but wears no expression of pain, only boredom. None of them regard the Yintan beyond a feature of the scenery.

"Let's kill the mark and be done with it Shmarya." He says, using the twisted form of name one uses with a close friend, whose flesh one has eaten. "It is enough at least for another wife."

"Zolara would rather keep all three legs than satisfy the one." Laughs the third, tallest and of broadest shoulders among them, but with eyes not so keen, mouth not so aged and wise as Ashmar. "But I think likewise. Leave us to our work, Sho-Kai-blessed, if you know our kind."

The two-horned doe screams in anguish, screams for mercy again.

"I do." You say. "And I cannot." The third one scowls.

"What did she say to you, blessed-one?" Says Ashmar.

"She begs me to plead her defense. The defense of her husband."

"Will you challenge us?" Says the third, slamming his spear into the earth.

"Quiet, Amunin." It is not even a whisper, yet the third flinches as though he was struck and falls back and bows his head in shame. "Forgive us, blessed-by-the-sun, for we have run for many days, with little food and little rest, and we are hungry, we are weary." Though his weariness seems to extend beyond these days, as though he wore time itself on his brow. "Though that is no excuse for discourtesy."

Amunin bows his head still further in his chest.

"I cannot abandon a spirit that pleads my mercy, Ashmar the Ranger. But also I do not wish to challenge you. And also, I would not leave you empty-handed. If we could part as friends..."

"What then?" Says Zolara, picking at the blood on his leg.

1/2

>>3349652
"Trade. Medicine and food...and other things."

"Yintan medicine?" Asks Ashmar and he nods without hearing your reply. "But I think, for the young one's sake," He jerks his head toward Amunin, the third, "we will need something more." Then he falls pensive and strokes the long feathers in his hair. The others know not to interuppt him. Even the doe, who had been weeping, holds her breath. "If you will also come to us, before dawn of the 7th sun and tell us a story that pleases the virgins so that we each might earn another bride, and the young one his first, then the wolf is yours and even better we are friends." He bares his teeth again in the same fashion as before. "But should your tale not please and not capture the virgins, then...we will take from you what we would have taken from the wolf: skin and flesh."

"Don't try to run either." Adds Zolara. "Blessed or no, we have our ways and there's no mercy in a dealbreaker's murder."

>Accept the trade (-1 block of refined Healing Paste, -1 Vial of Cleansing Spirits, -3 rations) and promise to go to their village with a story
>Refuse, let them take the wolf, though you break your word with the spirit (-2 Favor)
>Refuse, challenge them to combat instead. There is no other way.

>>3349652
What about the Doe?
Will she be spared too?

>>3349694
Yes, that's part of the deal.

>>3349656
>Accept the trade (-1 block of refined Healing Paste, -1 Vial of Cleansing Spirits, -3 rations) and promise to go to their village with a story

>>3349696
Are the hunters a offshoot of our tribe?

>>3349656
>>Refuse, challenge them to combat instead. There is no other way.
aint got time for the other

>>3349656
>Refuse, challenge them to combat instead. There is no other way.

BUT make a coubter offer first.

"Time I don't have to trade, I cannot spare some to visit your village, will you take the deal without the tale?"

Offer him the deal without the visit as a counter offer, if he doesn't want it it tine to omniously get back into the woods and come bavk shooting.

>>3350069
+1

Counter offer

>>3349656
>Accept the trade (-1 block of refined Healing Paste, -1 Vial of Cleansing Spirits, -3 rations) and promise to go to their village with a story
I think we could definitely do this and still have time to get to the gems.
>>3350069
>>3349931
would you guys be down to ask for a time extension maybe from the rangers?

>>3349728
They are not directly from your tribe, no. But you share a language in common (with differences in accent), which is why they respect your name, but haven't heard of your curse. If you're asking whether they would take you back to the tribe you were exiled from, the answer is no.

>>3350069
While the counter-offer is fine, doing something like lying and then attacking/ambushing them will have repercussions beyond the immediate and material. Subterfuge and dishonesty is antithetical to the Light.

>>3350880
Well, there's no lying involved, we do a counter offer and if they don't agree we tell them we are challenging them to battle. That's what I'm going with.

>>3351028
>>3350757
Aside from being a delay in our way to the oracle, I don't want to set foot in another village, news of us could have arrived there from our people or from the other village where we murdered those hunters and if our secret gets exposed there( for exrmple, we lose control and rape someone) we will bot get out of there alive

>>3351028
I'm willing to entertain this. What will we be offering?

>>3351847
What we have, minus the visit so we don't put ourselves into a village that may come to want to kill us.

He made his offer, we are countering with less.

Another thing, we have +5 favor at the moment right? Could we "transfer" 1 of that favor to him? Carve a token for him to carry with the favor of the spirits?

>>3351876
Does your IP keep changing?

Well, what we offered at first seemed barely enough, so now offering less doesn't seem like a good idea, expect that favor transfer. That could be interesting if it is allowed.

>>3351898
Yeah, it keeps changing, I'm phone posting.

We can offer one of the Yintah blades too, if the favor is not possible.

>>3351922
I'll support it if we can give them a favor. I want to see how that would work or play out.

>>3351876
>>3351898
Yes, you can do this via a Fetish (in the original sense of the term). It would be fashioned, in part, from a piece of your body (hair, or perhaps teeth). They may also be open to extending the time limit.

>>3351931
Cool lets try this out.

Changing my vote here to support
>>3349716

>>3351931
I'd be down to offering them some hair as a fetish cointaing favor.

>>3351931
Let's counter offer with it the favor

>>3351928
>>3351938
>>3351943
Supporting

"The mine is still another three days away." Says Mikah-el, reading your thoughts.

You nod. "The trade is gracious, but impossible. I have a quest of my own and a detour to your village, though welcome, would delay me too long."

"Shmarya." But Ashmar holds up his hand to silence him, sensing a counter-offer.

"If you would have something to take back...then take a portion of the Favor bestowed upon me, by the Sun."

And then there is a flash of something unkind and unknown to Ashmar's eyes. Greed and terrible hunger. "You would do this?"

"A Fetish from my hair--"

"I would have teeth." He says and when he bares his teeth a third time, there is no more mirth in it, but only that which is close to madness.

"Then you will have it."

"But Ashmar, what about the wives?" Says Amunin. Ashmar turns to face him and though you cannot read his expression, you can see Amunin pale.

"There'll be other hunts." Says Zolara, resting his eyes on the doe and spitting at the earth.

Then Ashmar offers his arm in the clasp of your people and you hold each other's elbows a moment to consecrate the exchange. They follow Mikah-el back to your fires to take their medicine and food and leave you with the doe and the wolf.

"Most gracious of the son of the sun." She says, bowing her golden head at your feet.

"Will your husband live?"

"With time he will heal." On cue, the great wolf rouses and swivels his eye at you, then to his wife and in that instant seems to understand everything and begins to weep. His wife strokes his mane and his jaw.

"Remember your promise." You say.

"I will come to you when they are gone. Remain there tonight as you planned."

"Your heart."

She nods and the wolf whines in an agony greater than his wound. The doe speaks words in his ear that are like sweet whispers of rain on the thatched roofs, when there is no lightning to break its patter. And so you leave them and return to your fire and to the Rangers huddled beside it.

Ashmar pulls the tooth himself, a back one, with the strength of his bare fingers. You carve your name in it and whisper the name and blessing of Light-Like-Pleasure and as if in answer, the white bone turns gold, as pure as dawn. Ashmar laughs and snatches the tooth from your hand and ties it to one of the many cords around his neck. It shines there like a drop of honey. "May you grow in Favor, blessed-one, so that I too may be Favored." He says and when he bows, it is not so deep as it should be.

1/2

>>3352816
They take rest and food by the fire. They tell you of their home which downriver of Sylvanshine, at the border of a great lake. They invite you to come when your quest is over and promise you virgins and feasts and great honor.

Your wife returns soon after and encountering the tribesman with her body exposed, flushes and moves quickly to hide herself. The Rangers look away, as is proper upon a woman who is not their wife, but, the third, Amunin, does not look away. And even when your wife returns with her face and body covered, Amunin watches her like a spider in its season. For that look you would kill him, if not for Ashmar and the other. But Ashmar does not seem to notice, and while Zolara does, he merely looks at you with apologies and does not voice them.

Such a thing must be answered. And like a black boil had burst within you, you begin to rage and fume.

>Speak of this insult to Ashmar
>Be silent and control yourself (+1 Curse Counter)

>>3352818
>Speak of this insult to Ashmar
"Your honorless cur of a tribesman insults me! Dicipline him or I will challenge him myself to a duel he will not walk away from!"

>>3352818
>>Speak of this insult to Ashmar

>>3352818

>Speak of this insult to Ashmar

We should try to excuse our self with our wife.

Could have sex with her away from the camp to show our dominance and dominion over her Ashmar.

Also, is it possible to have the doe spirit meet us at the oracle? Maybe her heart would not suffice in the end and we would have taken it only for it to be wasted.

>>3353952
Na, sex with wife could end up in us crippling her, we have to avoid doing it at all costs while we are cursed

maybe with the doe's heart we will be able to control ourselves since we have no heart, so using hers we could finish that ritual we have to do for the sun-daughter that needs us to lay with her.

and as for these guys, the offense was made by the younger one, probably beating the shit out of him or executing him in fair duel should suffice and be more appropriate to make him pay for his insult to us and waife

>>3353978
Executing him after giving him a favor seems like a waste of all the effort we made.

Beating seems fine and appropriate, then explaining to him that he will understand when he has a wife.

>>3352820
>>3352856
>>3352859

You stand suddenly and the others look up at you. Zolara, knows already what is coming and touches his eyes.

"Ashmar, I cannot keep silent in the face of such an insult."

"Forgive me, blessed-one, but what insult?"

You turn your divine sight to the third and he falters, does not meet Ashmar's eyes. Ashmar looks to your wife and understands in a flash what has happened. No one speaks for a long time.

"Will you leave this in my hands?" Asks Ashmar, softly. "You will have justice."

You consider it. "As you will."

Then Ashmar seizes Amunin by the throat and with one arm pushes his whole body against the trunk of the great tree behind him. Amunin tries to struggle, kick, push Ashmar off, but the old one's strength is ancient and perhaps made more powerful by the Favor you have granted him. Ashmar calls Amunin a poor fool.

Then he plucks out Amunin's left eye with his bare fingers, as Amunin screams and weeps. This mass of gore he presents to you in an open palm.

"Throw it in the fire. Be it a penance between you and I--or is this not enough?"

"It is enough." You say, taking the eye, a fitting punishment. An when it is put into the flames, they glow a bright blue and the gold tooth around Ashmar's throat begins to shine.

"We should go now." Says Zolara, taking Ashmar's arm. But Ashmar waves him off, staring into the flame. He sees something you do not see. Something which seems to terrify him--and then he flees, runs screaming and the others run after.

>+1 Favor

Choose one:
>Power
>Wisdom
>Favor

>>3354081
>Power

I'm torn between the heal and the fireproof

I wonder what kind of golden or black abomination our skin will turn if we become fireproof, we will soon not resemble anything human

>>3354081
>>3354081
>>Wisdom
what did he see?

>>3354081
i was originally going to vote power but >>3354180
is a strong question, I'll support
>Wisdom
What did he see?
Also QM your writing is particularly good in this scene and i wanted to say thumbs up, keep going strong

>>3354184
Thanks. I was afraid the "voice/style" might be putting people off. Which part did you like in particular?

>>3354081
>Power

>>3354081
>Wisdom
We need answers. Tell me Ashmar, what does the fire numbers mean!

>>3354184
if I was a betting man, and I am, I would say that he was just majorly cursed, by seeing his own death like our friend Mikah-el, and that death involved us ripping that fetish fron his cold dead hands, that or he saw our heartlessness and just realized he struck a spirit deal with the cursed one

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>>3354180
>>3354184
>>3354474

Ameshiki-Naya-Ur-Kai does not appear now, there is only the blue flame and as you peer into it, to try and see what Ashmar saw your vision recedes as into a dream. There is the Sun, overwhelming light that scorches without flame. And then darkness encroaches its rim. Shadow eats it, bit by bit like the straw lid drawn over a round urn. Until there is only darkness.

And then a face. And then a name. Sumug. Whose-Mother-Is-The-Moon. His eyes are without whites, the black in them overflows like smoke and blood together. Three blue stripes on his forehead. The shape of his mouth like the tribal you killed, his son, his brother. His brother. And then...and then a village wasted by black snow and black ice. Sumug lifts a severed head caked in frost and yanks something from a chain on his throat. A gold tooth. He places this in his own teethless maw, straight at the front, almost comical in the way that it is squat and cubic against the empty gums.

Then the fire dies and you see the world again. It is night, hours have passed. You gasp as a man who has just broken the surface of deep pool.

The Yintan is at your side even before your wife. "What did you see?"

"Death."

"Your own?"

You shake your head. But you do not know for certain. Your wife looks into the points of your skull-sockets and seems to know more than she can say. Behind her, the moon rises between the trees.

1/3

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>>3355126
There is a sound: weeping and the long whine of the wolf. They appear together, in the shape of man and woman this time. The man naked, white-haired and enormous and the woman slight against him, like cloth, like clothing.

"As I have promised." Says the doe. The reaches up for the branch of a nearby tree and snaps the limb in two, creating a weapon with its jagged edge. And with the same careless indifference as though she put on paint, she thrusts the point into her chest and drags down, falling to her knees as she does so and her husband watches in quiet silence, though tears roll in his eyes, and in your wife's too.

She takes your hand and presses it between her breasts, the fingers into the wound. You reach inside and find the slow beating heart and gently pull it out. Then she places the tool in your hand, wet with her blood, smiles briefly and dies. The man is become a wolf again. He takes his wife in his teeth, gently somehow, without spoiling her flesh and drags her away and in a second they are gone so completely that you would wonder if they had ever been, if not for the heart--still beating--your hand.

The tool is sharp as any Yintan blade and slices so easily through your own bones and flesh, as a finger breaking water, and you feel no pain nor do you bleed. In the hollow space where your heart once was, you place this living thing and the tendrils of fat and sinew reach and cling to it like kudzu vines on the burkar tree. You can feel life course within it and within you and pain return, but also joy, and gentleness, and the curse recede into a dark point. You sense also that this will not last, that the heart is not strong enough. But it will do for now.

Your wife rushes to seal your reopened wound with a handful of healing paste. And you let her, feeling for the first time such a love that you almost shout. She works patiently, wiping her eyes of the tears that still run. So delicate and tender, Ma-Sho-Kai, your bride among the many, to weep for those she does not even know. And you wonder why such a one would follow an accursed like you. you carry her to the tent, not caring about the Yintan (who you know will remain awake), not caring about anything but to love and heal this creature in your arms. And the night passes in endless delights, sweeter for their softness. She is scared at first, but the fear passes and then she is even bold.

In the morning the rains begin and dark clouds roll over the trees. And you begin the endless march anew.

---

2/3

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>>3355131
For three days the rains fall and you march without rest, spurred on by the strange vision in the fire. Then on the eve of the third day you reach the mouth of the mine. Your wife stops the both of you before you would emerge onto the stones. "There is something." She says.

"What?"

You wait, a moment, then ten. You make a motion to go again but again your wife stops you, holding a finger to her lips. The sound of deep-voiced chatter. From the opposite side, from the path leading down from this slight hill, a group of rebu, four-armed and blind, grope across the bushes and then into the cave. You look the Yintan. Who merely shrugs. "Wasn't there before." He says.

The rebu are a corruption of the nymphs, the fair lesser spirits of the Sylvan, like the doe and the wolf. They exist as servants of darkness, given sight only beneath the moon, or where there is no light. Though slim and weak in appearance, they grow stronger in the shadows and weaker in light--or so the stories tell.

>Wait and try to capture one alive
>Leave your wife and the Yintan to make camp and search for an alternate path into the mine
>Take the main path, weapons ready.
>Write-in

>>3355136
>Wait and try to capture one alive
Perhaps we can sacrifice it and ask for wisdom as to what we can expect in the cave.

>>3355136
>Wait and try to capture one alive

this shit is beautifully writen my dude, props

>>3355136
>Take the main path, weapons ready.

>>3355131
Shame about the doe, and the heart.

They probably got the better part of the deal.

>>3355136
>Wait and try to capture one alive

>>3355136
>>Wait and try to capture one alive
You really embody the character well in the writing, and why I really enjoy this. It's definitely a unique perspective, not one that we usually get, and it's masterfully done.

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>>3355163
>>3355211
>>3355296
>>3355735

You sit beneath the cover of leaves, in the shadow of the hill. The rain falls in soft sheets and mists around you. Your wife shivers against your body and you cover her in your arms. The light is faint. The Yintan lights a pipe and the passing glow of its fire is like the lightbug's mating dance.

"Tell me about home, chap." Says the Yintan.

"No." You say. Your new heart is pained to think of what could've been. A life with Ma-Sho-Kai, little children round your knees, to bring home the kill and see the pride of your bride's eyes, to say to the wives of others without speaking, "This is my husband, Sho-Kai and I chose him."

"I'll tell you about mine. Imagine a palace like a mountain, made of equal stones. That was my father's father's father's house. Four generations of El."

"You knew your father?" Your own was killed in some tribal feud, or so your mother would say, though the others in the village never spoke of it.

"In a sense. As much as the youngest of 7 brothers can know his father. And yes, they were all from one woman, my mother, and the mother of the rest. Polygamy is abhorrent in civilized society, as it should be."

"How is it you came to know our language, though you despise our culture?"

"I lived with one of your tribes for four years." He strips his sleeve and shows the mark of a scar that denotes him as friend, a circle in a cross. "They were ready to give me one of theirs to wed. To make me one of their own. That was when I left."

"Then you spurred a great honor, and you are foolish. You should have taken a bride."

"And leave a widow, chap?" You are silent. "I knew of my death even then. And actually, it was the reason I went to them in the first place. I found no cure there, but I lost my rage...and my fear."

"Why did you seek to know this thing?"

"My own death? I didn't. I wanted to know...you'll laugh, chap, I wanted to know if I had a chance with a woman I loved. The odds were bleak." He shrugs, his eyes are playful, lost in some nameless mirth. "The Orcale does not always tell you want you want to know. I warn you of that."

Your wife shivers again and you hold her still tighter to your chest. "You risked the abominations for that? For so little?"

"Little?" He puffs quietly at the pipe and only looks at your eyes. And then at your wife.

"And what of that woman?"

1/2

>>3360610
"My sister. She was wed last spring to a well-to-do noble. A merchant of the ships that occasionally scrape the far eastern coast."

"And you call us barbarians? Your sister!" You spit at the earth.

"Half-sister. As brothers we were all of one mother, but my father had a mistress and the mistress had daughters. I loved her because she loved me. But you surmise correctly my primitive friend, such a thing is taboo to us as well. But still we..." He shakes his head. "And they caught us of course." He laughs. "Ah, the beating I received then. The brothers took turns, my father last. I thought I would not be able to walk again. Eventually I ran."

"And now?"

He is silent a moment and he blows smoke toward the trees. "I love her everyday, like religion."

You shake your head and your wife stirs and points to the mouth of the cave. A rebu wanders out, his sightless eyes glowing like the moon in the clouded dark.

>Roll 1d20+4

Rolled 5 + 4 (1d20 + 4)

>>3360620

Rolled 7 + 4 (1d20 + 4)

>>3360620

Rolled 5 + 4 (1d20 + 4)

>>3360620
Man, the Yantah is punished, give him an eyepatch

>>3360648
>>3360692
>>3360719
with rolls like theses he'll need two.

>>3360726
Oh so he is helping after all?

>>3360740
kek.

>>3360648
>>3360692
>>3360719
Should have been +5 not +4

>10, 12, 10 vs. 10: Critical Success

The plan has already been discussed and needs no clarification now. Your wife takes position, balancing the Yintan mechanical bow on a flat stone and loading a bolt into its chambers. You grab your hatchet and run off following the rebu's flank while Mikah-el runs in the opposite direction.

Mikah-el whistles once, then twice, and the rebu stops and bends his head toward the sound. Mikah-el whistles again. "Over here you ugly waste of flesh." The rebu is wiser than he appears and does not charge him, instead opting to return to the cave, perhaps for cover, perhaps for reinforcement. That you cannot allow.

Your wife cuts off his retreat with a shot that grazes his leg. The rebu panics and attempts to run for cover into the woods--straight where you are waiting with your hatchet and your makeshift rope. You brain him with the blunt side of the axe and the glow in his eyes fades like a dead lightbug. His pulse is still racing, not dead, which is good.

You bind his arms and feet and sling his many limbed body over your shoulder. There is not much time before his brethren will come looking for him.

>Sacrifice him in the pyre, quick and easy
>Wake him up and try to extract information about their numbers, though it will take time
>Use him as bait to lure out as many of them as you can

>>3362954
>Use him as bait to lure out as many of them as you can

One may not be enough to grant us favor

>>3362954
>>Use him as bait to lure out as many of them as you can

>>3362954
>>Use him as bait to lure out as many of them as you can

>>3363045
cut his tongue, so he can make noises but not actually warn them

>>3363005
>>3363021
>>3363045

Roll 1d20+6 (+5 Favor, +1 for >>3363051)

Rolled 7 + 6 (1d20 + 6)

>>3363064

Rolled 16 + 6 (1d20 + 6)

>>3363064

Rolled 20 + 6 (1d20 + 6)

>>3363064

>>3363198
Damn

Sho-Kai be a scary motherfucker

Unfortunately no update today (and maybe tomorrow also). Hopefully I can get another update in before the thread dies, if not I'll start a new thread.

Remember to follow on twitter (https://twitter.com/guard_qm?lang=en), I've been diligently tweeting all the updates there

Are we getting one today?

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His blind white eyes beneath a river of smooth skin like two opals, like two moons in water, they never move, they never blink. With a stroke you rip his forked tongue free and throw it behind you. Blood falls down the edges of his mouth, against his small pointed teeth. He does not scream.

"So much for diplomacy." Says the Yintan.

"His speech is an abomination. No parley with such creatures." Says your wife, fidgeting as she must with her fingers.

"He will bring others." You say. "Now he cannot warn them."

So it is done. The creature is lashed by his arms to the branches of a dead tree and left to hang. You and your bride take positions, her with the Yintan mechanism, you with your hatchet and your bow.

The rebu is silent, wise, though a creature of shadow and moon. But it is useless. The tree to which he is bound bears the nest of the pipalaworm whose poison is like burning water in the lungs. He screams, wordless and deep-throated moans unique to that category of pain which is wholly carnivorous; the song of flesh eaten from inside.

The call is heard.

Six rebu, and among them, one that stands three heads taller than even a man, stride into the clearing and chatter in their hideous language. They are searching for the traps, for the dangers, but all is well-hidden. They are lumbering forward. Before the light of your eyes there is no darkness and their features are clear as sunshine on the stones. Three of them work at the ropes and the leader and the rest stand guard--until a shot rings out from the trees.

Your wife has fired through the throat of the tallest one, taking a chunk of neat gore and blood that bolts free in spurts, but he does not fall. Two of them rush in the direction of the shot and are pierced through the hindbrain before they can take three whole steps. The tall one seeks cover, screaming but gurgling as black stuff fills his mouth. A bolt shatters the base of his spine and he drops simply down, heavily, as if overcome by a sudden and enormous burden. The others seek shelter, back to their cave where there are walls and stalagtites for cover.

But then you are there between them on the road, with your hatchet, with your golden lips and eyes like the avatar of your name, Sho-Kai, son of the Sun. To make a salad of their limbs.

>+7 Favor
>You have +12 Favor

Choose one:
>Power
>Wisdom
>Favor
>(Optional): Trade in 5 Favor for an additional boon

>>3370956
>Power
Fireproof
We need to sleep with our wife while she's covered in oil, Im kind of hoping this might chain to another power that would protect her in case everything becomes fire.

>>3370956
>Power
Fireproof

Trade in 5 for sun heal too

>>3371012
+1

>>3371012
I like this.

>>3371012
+1

Now that we will be fireproof, will our skin be golden too? Or just a small part like with the other favors?

Last post lol

HAH, Got'em

>>3375449
Nop