[IC] Trespassers DC: Tribal Times (Forgotten Realms Hunt)

[Sutoratosu]

"I see..." The knight mutters, stroking his chin. One last glance at the weapons and the case they're held in, and he's quite certain that they're probably the same variety of highly advanced fusils and bombs they were shown and given by the lad named Vitor. Even now at least one person in their party still carried one, if he recalled correctly. The mention of this god supposedly coming out of nowhere and then not conforming to what was apparently the normal rules of divinity for this world, only further supported his current theory...

      "Typhan-Knee...you say that he brought these relics to you, yes? By.... taking pieces of itself? Pray tell, what does he look like; can you tell me about when he first appeared to your people?"

[Chevaleresse]

Lucine wandered after the main group, with no real destination in mind. She only vaguely recognized most of the people there, and she couldn't recall having much of a meaningful conversation with any of them. Plus, this village was neat and all, but she'd liked the last place a lot more. It had more cool guns, whereas this one just reminded her a bit of the outskirts of Trifas. Which wasn't a terrible thing, she supposed, since she had been missing home a bit. . . Still, one of the people around had at least been nice to her for a short amount of time, so Tim found himself being tailed by a magical girl in whatever he happened to be doing at the time.

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Freya

 

At Solara’s explanation, Freya nodded, “Right… Another magic type…” she muttered, remembering her struggles from when she was younger, specifically the ones about other magic types, before shrugging, “Well, I have nothing better to do right now. Think you can give me a few pointers on this ‘white magic’ thing?” she asked. It wasn’t like she had better things to do, mostly because doing anything with her stuff would probably turn the entire place from “welcome” to “die you freak of nature die” in a heartbeat.
 

[DragonRage]

Shamus, after thinking for a bit, shows Law some sketches he has of swords with wavy blades.  The elf thinks that a sword like this wouldn’t be as likely to get stuck after a cut, and would jar an opponent’s weapon whenever you parried, making it easier to disarm them.  However, the smith doesn’t have any idea how one would go about making such a weapon without botching the forging.  He’s only ever made straight swords before.

--------------------

The Paladin at the gate explains to Eva that the Detect Evil spell doesn’t actually detect whether someone is evil or not. What it does do is detect whether they’ve used evil magic.  Human sacrifice, consorting with evil gods or demons, and killing people to create undead minions are the most common things that will make someone register as evil to the spell, but more mundane evils can slip past.  It’s not foolproof, but it’ll detect a devout worshipper of an evil god without fail as long as any counter-spells are removed first.

-----------------------

The tanner explains to Lilly that the hide has an entire side covered in really tough scales, and he couldn’t get the treatment fluid in contact with both sides of it.  She’d be better off using it as rawhide unless she could get a wizard to treat it.

-----------------------------

“Typhan-Knee appears as a gigantic, metal flower, taller than the biggest house, maybe even taller than the castles the people to the south build.  Colored a mottled pink, it is, with shining silver plates and lances sticking out on top like a flower’s stamen,” The priest informs Stellio,  “Tis’ hard to tell whether it be a god or goddess with looks and a voice like that, so we’ve been trying not to commit one way or the other.  Nobody knows where the Flower God came from; a few of our scouts stumbled across it in the woods one day.  But the plants and ground beneath it were scorched with fire.  It might have come from the Elemental Plane of Flames, or maybe it was carried by a fire-breathing dragon?  However it got there, it had been there a while before we found it.  When the brave lads approached, the Flower God spoke to them and they called me, as I was a learned man and a priest of Selene.  The Flower God spoke to me, I told it of our troubles, and it decided to gift us with the relics that saved our village.  We have been very careful with them.  They are gifts from the gods, and also dangerous if misused.”

------------------------------------

“Okay, white magic.  You’ve mostly used black magic before, I assume, so this might be difficult for you at first,” Solara hedges, “To my understanding, they can be safely used together, though.  As I was taught, there are five colors of magic.  Black is the color of ambition and sacrifice; you can do nearly anything with it if you are motivated enough and have the proper payment.  Morality is frequently not a concern to those who wield it, so mental assaults, and the use of unwilling undead harvested from peasant villages are common applications.  But at their best, those of black alignment can turn their ambition and willpower toward becoming great forces for good.  White magic is very different.  It is the color of order, and community.  It can reward teamwork, dispel enchantments, and smite the unjust.  It is also sometimes misused to excise ‘undesirable elements’ from reality,” Solara seems very disappointed in people who would resort to that if there were other choices, “In order to draw upon white magic, you should focus on a time when you felt connected to others as you channel the power.  Reciting mathematical equations in your head, a high form of order, may help, though it never worked for me.  Reciting a short poem you feel strongly about may also help, if it is one in an orderly form.  Try to gather it in a focus, or around a symbol, and…  Oh!  You have done it already!  I am impressed.   …You’re a lot better at this than I was.  It took me months to create any usable white mana, and I was made of it.”

 

From the eye sockets of Freya’s skull badge, a pair of bright lights shine forth.  They don’t seem to do anything to the people they hit, until they are turned on Solara.  The moment they hit the ghostly angel, she shrieks and dives for cover, eyes wide with panic.  However, the moment the beams leave her she bursts out laughing, hard enough that she’d surely be crying tears of joy if she still had a body.  “You- you-  I can’t- believe it-.  Turn Undead!  You discovered how to Turn Undead!  With the sigil of a necromancer as your focus!  Ahahahahahahahahaha!  The irony has been doubled!”

[Endlessblaze]

Lilly ask if the leatherworker knows of any candidates who might know how to treat it with magic, and if so, where they might be found, They suggest she might take it to the halfling armorsmith Lacsure, who is a skilled enchanter and might have worked dragon hide before.

Thanking them, she heads off to see lacsure.
Prepared to explain to them what the leatherworker said, and see if they had any ideas.

[Hal Henderics]

With their Permission, Law Reforges as many of their existing straight swords as they wish in the new designs.

 

While it is printing and reforging, Law designs an Iron Kiss Autohammer.  It will be made of metal, and pedal powered.  Maybe the elf could scam some village teens into pedaling it if he builds it.

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Freya

 

For the most part, Freya nodded at Solara’s explanation. White magic, magic for order and teamwork, whatnot. Dispelling enchantments seemed pretty useful though. She’d have to work towards learning that. However, at the present, she closed her eyes and began to focus. A higher form of order probably wouldn’t help for her to focus on… She didn’t really put much faith in them anyway. Neither was she much of a poem person. That just left a mathematical equation, or-

 

Spoiler

 

“Master Siegfried?”

 

“Hm?”

 

“Why did we come here? There’s… Well, kind of nothing”

 

“There’s much more here than ‘nothing’. Many times more at that”

 

“... Wait, but zero times anything is-”

 

“Freya”

 

“Sorry”

 

“Just focus on your surroundings. Feel the spiritual magic residing here”

 

“Well alright”

 

“...”

 

“...”

 

“...”

 

“Wait… I feel… Necromancy?”

 

“Yes. And?”

 

“Um… Some Frost… Flame… But quite a lot of absence as well. Like there’s nothing in certain places”

 

“A side effect of the Purifiers being in this area, long ago. This was the first battleground of the Great Purge, where the First Templar took his forces of Purifiers and several other mages to battle against the gathering of Necromancers”

 

“I already know most about the war. I mean, I didn’t actually think THIS place was the first place they fought but… What’s the point of coming here?”

 

“To show you the consequences of what happens when a Necromancer gets ambitious. This land is lifeless, a corpse. It will take many generations more for it to begin to regrow and revive, because of the abundance of Anti-Life Necromancy in the land, combined with Purifier interference”

 

“Wait, Anti-Life Necromancy?”

 

“Yes. Originally, there was only one school… But after the Great Purge, I sought out ways to make Necromancy less… Tainted and corruptible. That is why I am teaching you Anti-Death Necromancy, one made to help others, rather than kill them”

 

“... Huh. Never knew there was a difference. I thought Father let you train me because I need to know some magic”

 

“If I was still an Anti-Life Necromancer, your Father would not want me to be anywhere near you. You’re much too bright of a student when it comes to this type of magic. Hell, if you were alive during the Great Purge, you might have been able to revive Boikeg yourself”

 

“Oh come on, no I wouldn’t”

 

“As of now, no. But with maturity, you could”

 

“That is really ambitious and I don’t want to deal with a bunch of Purifiers wanting my head. And like, a gazillion other people”

 

“Unfortunately, you may have to either way…”

 

“Huh?”

 

“Nothing. It is getting late Freya, and I could use a bit of your father’s cooking right now”

 

“Oh come on, Father isn’t a good cook and you know it”

 

“To you, probably not”

 

“To everyone, yeah. Mother is an infinitely better cook than he is”

 

And like that, Freya managed to get a grip on something. Specifically, something imbued in her skull badge, causing it to shine brightly with two individual lights… Probably from the eyes, if she had to guess. Excitedly, she began to look around with them… Only to realize that no matter where she pointed, nothing really happened aside from things lighting up, “... Well that’s disappointing. Just some lights? I mean, it’s something, but kind of-” she began, a bit disappointed as she turned back to Solara… Only to cut herself off when Solara shrieked in terror and dived for cover, “Oh Agnas-” she groaned, quickly bringing up her hand to cover up the eyes of the skull… Before realizing she could just will it to shut off. Which she did, bringing her hand back down and revealing a deactivated skull badge.

 

Once Solara came back out laughing, explaining that she had learned ‘Turn Undead’, Freya stood there a bit confused, mostly because she had no idea what she meant by that for a second. Then again, judging by the fact that Solara fled in terror at it, probably meant that it made undead flee in terror. So that was something.

 

In response to Solara’s exclamation of irony, Freya brought a hand to the side of her head, now showing a bit of a sheepish grin, “Well, I don’t tend to get a good grip of certain stuff” she stated, “Hm… But at least if we take on another Necromancer, I have the advantage thanks to this. Even if it… Affects mine as well” she added, before shrugging.
 

[Sutoratosu]

"I see," this was, quite literally, all the confirmation his suspicions needed. Seemed to be some massive variety of golem- an order of magnitude unseen in his world, from the sounds of it. He stroked his chin for a few moments, thinking this through...

     "I believe my companions and I may be able to help you with this Cultist issue. And possibly help Typhan-knee as well- though I am much less certain of the latter. regardless though, in either case I feel we would need to speak with the god directly before we are able to settle on a concrete course of action. He may well provide a missing prospective here, and there are yet questions I have that likely only he can answer. Would you be willing to arrange such an audience with him in exchange for our aid? With yourself and any guards you feel needed in attendance, of course."

[StormLord]

After looking around and quickly realizing that no one here used any sort of currency, he figured that salt was probably a good alternative to money, considering that everyone needed it and it lasted long enough most people were willing to buy a large amount.
He found the appropriate vendor and arguing for several minutes over the fact that he was in fact trying to sell real wheat, not illusionary wheat.  He collected the salt after an irritated Sorcerer confirmed the Wheat was real and left him with a label that read "Bag of holding". 
It was around that time he noticed the small child following him around, taking a step back the vendor he turned to address her.

"Hello, umm just curious how long you've been following me? and what was your name again? I'm afraid I've forgotten it."

[Chevaleresse]

The girl shrugged. "Kinda since we got here. It's Lucine Nadine Einzbern Yggdmillenia." She had her hands in her pockets, presumably to ward off the chill of the area, but didn't seem particularly bothered by the climate otherwise. "I still don't know anyone here that well."

"So you just followed an almost-stranger around town without saying anything."

"Yes." Her expression took on a far more irritable cast as soon as Opal spoke up. 

"You don't see what's wrong with that?"

"If you had a better idea, why didn't you speak up?" 

"I'm a talking box and these are smelly peasants."

"So why are you talking now!?"

[DragonRage]

As it turns out, Lacsure hasn't worked with dragon hide either, but he has done work with sea serpent hide before.  He thinks he could stitch a set of hide armor out of the wyvern hide, and lay a basic protection enchantment on it...  If Lilly can pay.  If she can't, he'd be happy to take the hide off her hands in exchange for an unenchanted mail shirt.

------------------------------------

Shamus finds the idea of a pedal-powered hammer intriguing, but admits he doesn't have enough metal to build it and meet his obligations this month.  He needs a lot of what he has to make the swords and spearheads he's already been paid to create for the guard, and the plow a local farmer ordered from him.  He isn't wealthy enough to keep a lot of spare metal on hand, and he'd rather not ask his old master for help now that he's set out on his own.

------------------------------------

"It is funnier than you think," Solara explains to Freya, "Turning is one of the first things taught to an aspiring paladin or cleric.  Holy warriors and adventuring priests are frequently called upon to deal with undead, and this spell is ideal in that it is easy to learn and highly effective at fending off weak deadwalkers.  With practice, you should be able to tune it to only affect hostile undead, and add sun-based damage to the effect.  Or possibly something else.  I've heard there are more exotic ways to modify the spell.  Regardless, this is a very promising first step.  The next is to try to create light without the turning effect, I think.  Unless you and your companions can all see in the dark, that's always a useful spell."

-------------------------------------

The priest eagerly agrees to take Stellio and anyone he trusts to meet the Flower God, and insists that a guard shouldn't be necessary.  It occurs to Stellio that when the priest threw those knucklebones earlier, he might have been using a divination spell to see if the knight and his allies could and would help.

-------------------------------------

"Witch!  She's a witch!"  Somebody screams at Lucine when Opal speaks up.  Somebody else smacks the first speaker over the back of the head.

 

"We know she's a witch, you dolt!  Doesn't mean it's polite to scream at her like that!"

[Hal Henderics]

Law replaces most of the metal in the design with wood, stone, cement, and rope, and shows it off again.

 

Two metal plates are all that's needed in this design, for the "Hammer" and "Anvil".

 

"It's not quite native to these lands, but in my lands, a tool like this is simply required, as it separates the work of labor from the skill of the smith, allowing larger and more complex works to be made, and more quickly."

 

"I-it may seem odd, but much of my kind's metalwork relies on improving and i-innovating our tools, even as we improve our skills."

 

"My own Metal Printer uses special techniques to smelt metal and cast it freely in thin lines, like a pen writing molten steel on paper."

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Freya

 

… Okay, Freya had to admit that was pretty ironic when it came down to it. She never thought she’d ever learn a spell that’s considered “holy”. Funny enough that by the end of Solara’s explanation, Freya had let out her own little giggle, “Yeah. This is better than the first time I tried out fire magic” she replied, “Well, I don’t have better things to do at the moment. Being a walking lamp would be pretty cool though” she added, tapping her skull badge, “Especially if I don’t make my other stuff run away from me all the time.”

[Strider]

Ena nodded along mechanically to the explanation. That made a bit more sense. It would be able to detect people who'd used ceertain forms of magic, rather than someone who might be evil simply in abusing employees or something else mundane.

 

"Whom should I ask if I'd like to witness some of your magic? I'd like to perform a few tests."

[StormLord]

"Ah yes.  My name is 'Tim', and I do agree with the box's last point.  Not that we can say much better having been out in a desert badlands."

When the other person spoke up and shouted about Lucine being a Witch Tim shot them a silent, disgusted, sneer before looking back down to continue his conversation with Lucine.

"I was about to go see if I could trade this salt, and perhaps several other instances of it, to one of the 'Wizards' here selling scrolls if you'd like to come along.  If you see something you want say something and I'll try to haggle it for you, it's not exactly like it costs me much."

With that Tim started slowly making his way back to one of the scroll merchants.

[Chevaleresse]

The shouting spooked Lucine more than a little bit, though fortunately not enough to prompt her to actually transform Opal into active mode (which might've also been restraint on the imitation Kaleidostick's part, anyway.) She calmed down fairly quickly, though, once it was clear nothing was going to come of it. "I'm not a witch, actually. I don't even know any curses. . ." she said, though likely not loud enough for whatever villager that had shouted the initial accusation (description?) to actually hear her. "Um, looking at scrolls sounds fun. I could try and learn the enchantment."

[DragonRage]

Law continues showering generosity on the elf smith, who is pretty obviously feeling uncomfortable about all the gifts he has no way to pay back but too polite to out-and-out say that to the ottsel.  He accepts the design for the mechanical hammer, but seems utterly lost when hearing the rest of what Law says.

------------------------------------

Freya continues her studies with Solara, and learns the spell Dancing Lights.  Nothing especially noteworthy otherwise happens to them this time.

------------------------------------

Ena is pointed towards the huge number of wizards, sorcerers, Druids, and clerics doing business in the still-busy market, and gently hinted at that perhaps she should leave the guards to do their job.

------------------------------------

Tim picks up a scroll of mending at the market, and is reasonably sure he didn't get cheated this time.

[Strider]

Ena left the guard post, slightly disgruntled, as much as it was possible for her to be. She might be talking with the guards, but unless the specifically needed to watch the horizon at all atimes, she could probably be an asset if something had come up regarding protecting the gate.

 

In any case, she headed up to one of the people in the market, preferentially seeking out someone who's magic was quite obviously magic. Specifically anyone who might be levitating things, or working with magic fire or the like. Something that would catch Ena's attention as quite obviously ignoring or circumventing the laws of physics.

[Hal Henderics]

Law goes to the river, attempting to trade Repairs and Enhancements for Metal.

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Freya

 

Needless to say, the second small balls of pure white light started to appear, Freya was bounding with more excitement… Only to freeze when they suddenly changed red. After a few seconds, Freya tested them, willing them to change blue.. Which they did. Then green. Then yellow. Then pink. Then every color she could think of in the span of five seconds, causing the light to practically flicker between colors until she shut them all off,

 

“Alright, that’s cool” Freya stated, tapping the skull badge, “Kinda wish it came from here but hey, can’t have everything” she stated with a shrug, before looking at that large flower temple that she noticed Stellio go into earlier, “Hm… Let’s continue this later, I have something I want to check out” Freya said, blinking again as the world around her returned to normal (from her point of view), before beginning to walk towards the temple.

 

However, just before she entered, Freya stopped, looking at the doorway to the temple. Last time she tried to enter one of these types of places she got a spiritual boot to her butt and kicked out of the temple. Nearly killed her too. Was she really wanting to have that happen again?

 

… Yeah, she was willing to risk it.

 

So, with that, Freya clutched her staff tightly, taking an extremely careful step into the temple… And then another. Then three more. By the sixth step, Freya had let out a sigh of relief, beginning to walk a lot more casually into the temple. Soon enough though, Freya clearly saw both Stellio and some priest, along with some guards. With a bit more courage now, Freya kept walking through the temple, until she was not too far away from the Dark Knight and Flower Priest, “Hey, uh, what’s happening here?” she asked, having heard the mere end of the conversation… And not much else aside from that.
 

[Sutoratosu]

"We've been discussing the current situation in regards to the Cultist attacks," Stellio responds, not even a little surprised when the girl speaks. Had he known she was there this whole time? Perhaps, it was hard to tell though "The Flower God who has aided this settlement is named Typhan-Knee, and he hails from an unknown place. He has given these people pieces of himself to serve as weapons against the cult, but it seems to have weakened him. I suspect that whatever he is, he may be like us, and we might be able to assist both him and the townsfolk. To that end, I've managed to secure an audience." 

 

He turns and looks directly at Freya. When he does, the girl can tell plain as day there is something about all this that has the knight on guard "We'll need to gather up everyone and meet here before we do. I trust you'll be able to assist me with that?"

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Freya

 

Stellio's guarded look wasn't lost on Freya, though she quickly nodded at his question, "Yep, that's no problem for me" she replied, "How fast do we need people to come here? Like, ASAP, or there's not much of a rush right now?"

[Sutoratosu]

"I do not know how regularly the attacks have been. But for all we know, they may be preparing to march on the town even as we speak. The sooner we have gathered and see Typhan-knee, the better." The Knight Commander turns back to the Flower Priest, "Speaking of which my good man- that is a crucial peice of intelligence. You mentioned the large battle that occured some months ago, but how many attacks have they launched thus far in total, and how frequently have they been since Typhan-Knee appeared and turned the tide?"

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Freya

 

"ASAP it is then, got it" she stated, turning away for a second to talk to Solara, who was probably still hanging around, "Hey Solara, can you try and get the others over here for me? I'll probably be out in a bit to help" she asked. Solara was probably faster at moving around the place than she was. That and Freya had next to no idea where everyone was at the moment.

[Endlessblaze]

Lilly continues to talk to the Armorsmith, and is disappointed to find he can't really make use of the crystal.

But she does find that glass is apparently quite valuable around here, and can get some really good stuff with her suitcase full of the stuff.

 

So she places her order for the armor, handing over both pieces of hide to get a set. one piece for the top, and the second for a pair of armored pants, if possible. Along with the glass needed for payment.