>>4102425
>>Wait here for your men, setting up some sort of defense from whatever lies in the darkness beyond

Rolled 92 (1d100)

>>4102425
>Go back into the storm, and gather the soldiers before entering the canyons again

>>4102848
We actually need to go out and get them. All of these guys are green, so they won't make it without us.

>>4102848
Remember to roll 1d100
>>4102864
>>4102866
Need a consensus

Rolled 69 (1d100)

>>4102937

Rolled 40 (1d100)

>>4102425
>Go back into the storm, and gather the soldiers before entering the canyons again
We already had this shit happen in the city. Let's try to avoid getting swamped by a surprise attack when we're low on manpower again.

Rolled 81 - 15 (1d100 - 15)

>>4102848
>>4102864
>>4102866
>>4103196
>>4103542
40 -30 (Severe morale and organisation troubles in the storm [+10], tired soldiers from marching through the desert [+5], Iron armour, Deaths-Head, flamethrowers, guns are way better than bows [-10], superior ranged weapons, superior melee weapons, outnumber your enemy, and inhuman accuracy) = 10

Enemy gets -15 (element of surprise, used to fighting in the storms, and fear factor)

>>4103753
10 vs 66 = Absolute victory

You, along with your men, drove out into the storm, gathering up the wandering men you could find. You had almost found half your army when you saw an enemy force of cannibals, though these once were not riding wolves. You had your men engage the enemy forces before they could pick off more of your men, and soon you broke the mutant's warband, chasing them down with your truck. Once you regained your full force, you returned to the canyons, leading them in formation through the thin valley. As you were funneling in the soldiers, you found two forces of enemy troops attack you, with one attacking from the desert (where you were), and one attacking from the inside of the valley, catching your men in a hammer and anvil tactic. Suffice as to say their morale did not hold out, and soon your soldiers overran the ones within the valley, and you drove over the ones in the storm. Some of the wasters fled after the battle, with you stopping your men from chasing the ones that went further into the valley, leaving the desperate cannibals as canaries in the cave:
>Wait here in camp for the storm to pass and your men to recover their energy
>Push forward, before more wasters and monsters attacked you

>>4103858
>Wait here in camp for the storm to pass and your men to recover their energy
They won't attack without the cover of a storm or an escape route, so we have time to rest.

File: The Black Canyons.png (653 KB, 500x750)

653 KB PNG

>>4103889
You had the soldiers set up camp in the narrow canyons, and decided to wait out the storm. The hours passed as the storm began to clear, with you administering your losses and re-organizing your ranks accordingly. When you heard a scream from within the valley, you took a horse and rode, finding men crowded around what seemed to be several dead bodies. As you got closer, you saw that they were all hanging from wires, suspended in the air upside down. The bodies were completely flayed, stripped of their skin like animals hunted. You asked one of your men who they were, and he had no answer, with you sending Hildimar off to do another headcount. "What sort of man does this to his enemies?" One of your soldiers said as he approached one of the bodies, with another saying: "this was no act of man. Something lives in this place that guards its secrets, the keeper of the underworld: Orkos." The men were all silent, and many begun to become anxious, unready to face a torturous death for promised gold. You snapped them out of it by ordering some chosen men to cut down the bodies and bury them, and getting the rest to move back out of the valley to make a proper camp in the desert. Once you had the men pray to Mashuk, you ordered your soldiers to march with you, leaving Deaths-Head with your most loyal troops to guard the valley's entrance and the camp supplies (the truck could not fit further than the mouth of the canyon).

After Hildimar finished the headcount, you found that the dead bodies you buried were not your mens, with you guessing that they belonged to the cannibals that ran further into the canyons. Orkos, as your men were calling it, was now aware of you and your men, and the bodies were a warning to not go any further:
>Take with you a maneuverable vanguard, so not all of your men would die from the exploration if it should fail
>Send in Hildimar with a vanguard, staying with your men to secure the campsite
>Send in a vanguard under a lesser general, so as to minimize losses
>Go in with the full force, relying on safety in numbers
>Take the advice of Orkos, and leave this site
>Or write in

>>4104197
>Take with you a maneuverable vanguard, so not all of your men would die from the exploration if it should fail

>>4104206
You and Hildimar gathered the best of the militia, along with the gladiators, and formed a vanguard. With your hundred men, you set off into the valley, leaving the camp at midday. The path ahead weaved and twisted, with only you managing to keep your sense of direction in the valley of turns and dead-ends. The gladiators were eager to move deeper into the cursed land, while the militia stayed at the back, not wishing to be the first to be hunted. You lead the way, and soon came to where the canyon diverged into two paths, with the valley to the left looking the exact same as the one to the right. You sat down, and thought of a way of solving this new problem:
>Go with all your men down a path (left or right?)
>Split your force, with Hildimar and some men going down the opposite one to you (do you go left or right)
>Or write in

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>4104265
>Go with all your men down a path (left or right?)
Let the dice decide.
1 is left, 2 is right.

>>4104265
>>Go with all your men down a path (left or right?)
right.

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>4104423 (1)
>>4104444 (2)
Now I'm going to roll to decide which way you go

1 is left, 2 is right

>>4105266
Left it is.

You turned to the left valley, and began walking down the chosen path, with your men following behind you. You walked through the valley for more than a few miles, until you began seeing bones scattered along the ground, with the frequency of the remains increasing as you pushed further into the black valley. The ground turned from dirt and rock into bone, and your men were starting to give out, with many calling for you to turn back, with some even running back to the camp, disobeying your direct orders. You pressed on, and soon you came to where the path ended, and a great pile of bones and rusted armor sat. As you turned around, you saw above you the skinned bodies of the men who ran from the group, with your men all backing themselves into the corner after seeing this. You had walked into the den of the Orkos, and now your most loyal and orderly soldiers were the gladiators, with Alcazar telling them to listen to you rather than him:
>Write in what you do (do you hunker down and try to take out the Orkos, or maybe you leg it back to the split in the valley)

Roll 1d100

Rolled 39 (1d100)

>>4105301
>hunker down and try to take out the Orkos

Rolled 46 - 60 (1d100 - 60)

>>4105867
39 -15 (Severe morale damage from losses and ancient enemy [+10], Iron armour, outnumber your enemy, fortified position, inhuman accuracy, and the blessing of Mashuk) = 24

Enemy gets -60 (kevlar and steel shell [-20], superior ranged weapons, superior melee weapons, inhuman speed, inhuman strength, inhuman accuracy, cloaking device, traps, and fear factor)

>>4106859
24 vs -14 = defeat

You ordered the soldiers to fortify the position, so as to have an advantage over your enemy. You had the men bring out the bones from the center of the lair, and had them dig a hole in the ground, so they could rest their guns and couch their spears on the edges of the 'trench.' You waited with your men till the sun set, with only makeshift torches and candles illuminating your position. You waited through the whole night, until morning broke, with your men all sighing with relief. As you counted your soldiers again, you found that not all were accounted for, with six soldiers disappearing in the night right next to you. When another night passed in the lair, half a dozen men went missing, and more of your soldiers started to question your orders. During the third night, you sat in the middle of the circle of men, and watched them all diligently, waiting for something to happen. As you looked over your soldiers, you saw a slight glimmer above one of them, immediately jumping up to cut what you guessed to be some sort of wire before it snatched another one of you troops. You were too late though, and before you could even utter a single word, a militiaman was lifted up into the black sky, hung by his neck. You shot hopelessly at where you guessed the wire came from, only making your men jump as a result. Now all your soldiers were looking up constantly, fearfull of the dark jagged rocks that hid the Orkos, who was constantly watching and waiting for an opening.

On the fourth night, you came up with a plan, throwing burning rags onto the upper valley levels, so you could see the enemy when they struck. You saw again a shine appear above one of your soldiers heads, and again they were lifted up into the darkness, though this time your torches could dimly illuminate where the soldier went to, with the dead body of your militia being lifted upside down by an unseen creature, and before it could leave, you shot directly at where you thought it would be, with your bullet hitting what sounded like metal. Your men all looked up, and the ones that had ranged weapons were unloading on the Orkos, to no avail: the monster escaped, but you hoped that one of the shots went through its armor.

On the fifth night, having lost around twenty-five men to this threat, you promised your remaining force that tomorrow they would leave the lair, and soon this nightmare would be over. Your men were all looking at the upper levels tonight, all ready to shoot at whatever moved above them, but no wire went down that night, and no man died, with many of your more eager soldiers celebrating the death or victory over their enemy. When you began to relax after a long night of fearing for your own life, you heard a strange noise coming from beside you. You turned to your right and saw what looked to be some sort of advanced bomb or mine coming out of the sand, with all your soldiers screaming and scrambling to get out. Before you could react, Alcazar pushed you to the side, and jumped on the small bomb, giving his own life to save yours and your mens.

You just managed to jump out of the trench when the warrior below exploded in a pile of gore and fast-moving bone shards, wounding many of your men, but luckily killing none. Just as you caught your breath from what just happened, you heard the sound of many more mines activating underneath the pile of bones, making you leg it to the exit, along with the men who weren't paralyzed with fear. You didn't even make it ten steps before the bombs blew up underneath you, with the bones atop them shielding you from the shrapnel and explosion, though you were thrown into the air with incredible speed, along with the other soldiers. By the time you had gotten out of the lair, many of your men were dead, ripped apart from the dozen or so mines. If the Orkos had that amount of weaponry underneath you the whole time, what stopped it from doing that in the first place? As you pondered this, you gathered up your remaining soldiers, and left the compromised position. No attacks from the Orkos occurred as you traveled back to where the paths split, and you guessed that as soon as you went further into the valley, the creature would resume killing:
>Go down the right path (roll 1d100)
>Go back to the camp

>>4106957
>>4106958
I didn't think the quest would end like this: like a wet fart in the late winter winds, a mere blip in the ever archiving tombs of /qst/, a quick breaking upon the rocks, then nothing. No more Mashuk, no more Urizen, no more Longshot. Nothing.
Anger, pain, sadness, all rush over a QM as the days pass by without a player replying, without even a faint glimpse of anons and activity. A ghost town; a ghost thread.

Oh, what power presides over me, what power laughs as I suffer day by day watching my writings fade into the saged annals of time, what beckons you so? What possible higher authority could allow this evil fate to ensue? Could a god exist in the same world as a quest abandoned by its players? I have lost all faith waiting for a reply, and I am now tired, and I have accepted this quests fate: go now, die as many have before, anticlimactically and without proper resolution: I care no longer.
I have given my soliloquy, and so my last post as AnotherNewRaiderQM is done, with nobody but myself reading my melancholy words


P.S If someone is still here, respond to >>4106958 This post is just being overdramatic

Rolled 84 (1d100)

>>4106958
>Go down the right path (roll 1d100)
If it decided it had to activate the explosives, it might be worried that we can actually kill it.
Or it just took off the kid's gloves and we're about to get everyone including ourselves killed. One of the two.

>>4112098
If this actually does end up fizzling out, be aware that you are actually one of the better QMs on this site and I thoroughly enjoyed both this quest and the first raider quest. Very consistent quality posts and zero issue with keeping a quest running for more than two threads.

Rolled 74 - 55 (1d100 - 55)

>>4113282
Thanks for the nice words anon. I'll probably post another thread, and if it ends up being as slow as this one, I will put a break/hiatus on Longshots story.

84 -40 (Severe morale damage from losses and ancient enemy [+10], your men trust you, head start on the Orkos, iron armor, master swordsman, outnumber your enemy, inhuman accuracy, and the intervention of Mashuk [-20]) = 44

Enemy gets -55 (kevlar and steel shell [-20], superior ranged weapons, superior melee weapons, inhuman speed, inhuman strength, inhuman accuracy, cloaking device, and fear factor)
Let's hope for a nat 100

>>4113812
44 vs 19 = Not good

new thread has next post: >>4114000