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Post by Lady Astrid Stormstone on May 15, 2024 14:49:08 GMT -5
Something goes bump in the middle of the night. While Astrid sleeps at home, she’s nearly impossible to rouse, but in the wilderness, even within the safety of Gerhart’s cottage, she sleeps more lightly. Danger is always afoot, and with the bump against the wall of the pumpkin, she sits up suddenly and looks around blearily. Surprised whispers and the shuffling of feet outside the window draws her attention, so Astrid rubs her eyes and quietly steps over to the window and glances out. In the dark forest, she sees a couple of figures rushing away, presumably after snooping on the strange, mysterious pumpkin in the middle of the forest. That’s… weird. They look like people, not like undead. And they’re whispering to each other. Astrid goes over to Gerhart and quietly shakes him awake and whispers, “There’s some folks out in the woods. I dunno what they’re doin’. Maybe we should check it out.”Meanwhile, the individuals rushing away and farther into the forest pseudo-yell at each other with hushed whispers. “How was I supposed to know a couple of people were in the weird fae-esque pumpkin??” “You could have looked before bumping into it!” “I didn’t mean to!” An annoyed huff. “You better hope they don’t come looking for us, otherwise the boss is gonna kick your ass.” Over their shoulder is a special burlap sack, infused with magic, and specially designed for capturing the small fae attracted to the strange knight in the forest. The two figures hurry to catch up with the rest of their group quietly wreaking havoc on the Fairy Glen with the perfectly smooth pool reflecting the light of the moon onto motes of light floating around the area.
Quest details: Quest Name: To Fae or not to Fae Participants: Two or more Location: Anywhere Post Requirements: 8 posts per person, 250 words per post Reward: +50 security to your home region, Choice of 1 Unique crafting material Description: For some reason there has been an increase in Fae sightings across all of Charon over the last month, which has also increased the amount of people who have turned their attention to them; especially those trying to capture the mystical Fae and sell them on the black market. While traveling through Charon it is not rare to hear about Fae captures or even come across one yourself. Opinions have been split when it comes to these unknown beings as some think they are natural and should be left alone, while others see their increase as a bad thing, and believe them to be enemies.
You have encountered one such scenario. You have just learned of a recent capture of a Fae being sold or have even stumbled upon one as it is in the process of being captured by others. What you decide to do is up to you. Do you help the poachers or fight them off, do you take the Fae for yourself and try to sell it, or do you free it back into the wild? How you encounter it and what you do is totally up to you.
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Post by Ser Gerhart Stanislav on May 17, 2024 18:12:51 GMT -5
Gerhart is at home in these woods and the cottage especially, so the warmth is hard to break free from. He is blind to the world while asleep, which is surprising for someone who makes a living hunting monsters and living off the land. One of the many oddities of the ranger it seemed.
"five more mrmmrrmsss..." Gerhart turns over in his bed before a large paw bats at his face. It takes a bit of jostling from Thoman before Gerhart groggily agrees to also be awake now.
He groans as he sits up, pushing Thoman onto the floor, "I can smell at least 3..."
"Maybe they are just wandering? Do we need to check out every hiker?"
Thoman suddenly straightens up and stares towards the window, ears back and tail up. He sniffs hard a few times which prompts Gerhart to sniff as well.
"There's another scent...Fae..."
"And blood."
He shoots a look towards Astrid before hopping up to start grabbing his gear. Without fancy lockets, it is going to take him real time to put on armor and get geared up. Plus he isn't that good at stealth, so if Astrid headed out ahead of him Gerhart would understand. Something was definitely off, probably best to figure out sooner than later.
Gerhart nods towards Thoman to head with Astrid and the dog follows. He wasn't as adept at combat as many of the companions Astrid was used to, but two is better than one. In the meantime, Gerhart was trying to rouse Halcyon from where he nested. Though the bird was harder to wake than he was some nights.
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Post by Lady Astrid Stormstone on May 17, 2024 20:26:55 GMT -5
“Blood?” Astrid echoes, deep concern in her voice. The fae are a significantly less concerning given they’re near the glen. But if there’s both, then were the figures some kind of evil fae that hunt people? Or are the fae being hunted? Either way, blood is the sign of a problem.
Given that this is only her second adventure since being ungrounded, Astrid thinks better than to run off ahead on her own. She promised Cantio she would be careful, so careful she will be. Without her armor, she can move a little more quietly, having done some practicing on quiet movement with Fish, but Gerhart won’t be able to if they need to be sneaky. She produces a potion of black and purple[1] and offers it to him if he wants it. Once he’s ready to go, Astrid hurries through the forest in the direction she saw the figures going.
When they approach the glen in the darkness, her eyes flicker like a cat’s[2] while she discerns what’s going on. A group of people, armed in various ways, are working to snatch every kind of fae drawn to the Desolate Knight as they can. The small fae are the easiest for them – able to be stuffed into sacks where they struggle haplessly against the magically enhanced material.
This can’t be good.
Astrid looks over at Gerhart wherever he is for confirmation that it’s time to jump in. Neither of them are stealthy, but they could probably make some demands of these people if they wanted to before just jumping in to knocking heads.
1. Potion of Shadows 2. Night Vision
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Post by Ser Gerhart Stanislav on May 18, 2024 8:14:24 GMT -5
Gerhart pulls on just his breastplate and padding, everything else is just extra noise. He pulls his belt tight before catching the potion and taking it. The ranger is used to hiding in one spot and waiting for game to come by, stalking others is a new skill. He keeps low to the ground as they quietly exit the cottage, Thoman beside him to follow the scent.
"Come on Jiras, let's just get this over with, stop worring about every little thing." The gruff looking supposed leader of the group chides a much more timid looking halfling. The sack of fae squirms and wiggles in his hands.
"Sorry, I've just never done anything like this." The halfling manages to squeak out.
"Pfft, this ain't even the toughest o' jobs you're gonna get if you keep this up....this is light work!"
Well, they didn't seem to have the best quiet voices which made them even easier to track. Taking them out know wouldn't be that hard between Astrid and Gerhart, but that might alert their friends. If that group bolts, then they lose out on catching them all. He motions towards Astrid to the two gentlebandits signaling to try and take them out at the same time.
The ranger's swords start to drift out of their scabbards[1] and float next to him. He heads for the halfling, the other bandit is much bigger and Gerhart was not too proud to admit that Astrid is a lot stronger than he is. When they are both in position Gerhart makes his move.
One sword hits into the back of the halfling with the flat of the blade sending him into the ground.[2] Quickly, the second one knocks him in the back of the head with the pommel to disorient him.[3] Gerhart stalks forward to put a knee onto their back to hold them down, putting a hand over their mouth so they can't scream.
1. Living Weapon 2. Grounding Strike 3. Head Strike
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Post by Lady Astrid Stormstone on Jun 1, 2024 21:05:33 GMT -5
Seeing Gerhart’s motions with his hands, Astrid follows the line of sight and locks her gaze on the two bickering bandits. Regardless of if Gerhart had headed for the smaller of the two or not, Astrid had already mentally decided that the big one is for her. It’s time for The Bonkening. Taking out the smaller of her two hammers, the one that doesn’t spark with lightning at just her touch, Astrid shuffles around until Gerhart is also in position.
Then, when the time is right, Astrid quietly hops through the air[1] and with a wide but fast motion, she brings the hammer down on the big guy’s head. A metallic thunk rings through the air, and the man sees stars only briefly before blackness takes over his vision.[2] He collapses, unconscious, to the ground in such a way that when Astrid lands beside Gerhart she nearly thinks she’s killed him. A quick breath check reveals he is, in fact, alive. Astrid breathes a sigh of relief and searches him until she finds a rope that she then works to bind him with.
With their captors no longer holding the bag, the little faeries inside burst free from the sack with shimmers of light following their movements. Tiny voices escape them. “Thank you, thank you!” they exclaim in strange, sylvan accents. “There are more! More! They take our kin!”
Astrid looks at Gerhart with eyes wide with concern. They're obviously going to do something about this, right?
1. Step of the Wind 2. Momentous Cleave [1/topic]
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Post by Ser Gerhart Stanislav on Jun 6, 2024 9:42:39 GMT -5
"Hey hey hey, it's all right we just gotta quiet ok? We don't wanna scare them off." It seems Gerhart understands their strange language, but that was a story for another day. "Here, hide in here."
Gerhart pulls out the hood he has out from underneath the armor. It's a cozy little spot if you are a small fairy. Some are wary about hiding in another place, but it's the best option they have.
"There, now they can't see you, but you can help guide us back to your friends." He smiles brightly, looking back over his shoulder at the group.
"Up ahead, heading to river, said something about boat!"
"A boat huh? Well it'll be much harder to keep up if they get on a boat, let's hustle Astrid." Without thinking he starts to jog towards the river.
Honestly between Halcyon and their speed in general, it actually wouldn't be that hard to catch them on a boat. It would just be leagues easier to catch them before then. It also lowered the risk of the still captured fairies ending up in the water. That was the worst case scenario, so let's avoid that.
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Post by Lady Astrid Stormstone on Jun 18, 2024 23:22:40 GMT -5
Astrid tilts her head when Gerhart mentions it’ll be harder to keep up on a boat. She knows darn well that between their magic and pets, catching a boat will be easy as pie. Sinking it might be fun, but only once they rescue all the critters from it first. Either way, time to move!
Following after Gerhart, Astrid rushes with him toward the nearest river, which she hopes he knows where it is because she certainly doesn’t. He seems to know where he’s going and has a really good nose, so maybe he can smell that particularly notable smell of damp air. Eventually, they reach the shore and don’t find a boat, but there are marks on the ground surrounded by footprints in the mud – evidence of a small boat having been on shore not long ago. The problem is that doesn’t tell them where the boat has gone.
“Looks like they’re tryin’ ta make their getaway already,” Astrid says, looking at Gerhart. “Any idea which way they might’ve gone?” If his nose can pick up on it then that will save them having to search, but if not, Astrid has a backup plan: they go separate ways and can use the Blink Buddies to get back to one another. Actually, those aren't a bad idea to have anyway. Astrid fishes into her bag and produces a pair of stone statuettes with their arms interlocked. She untangles them and offers one to Gerhart. "This'll let us teleport ta one another at a pretty good distance," she explains.
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Post by Ser Gerhart Stanislav on Jun 21, 2024 20:15:02 GMT -5
"Help, help!" The two freed fairies pull on opposite sides of Gerhart's cheeks to tug him forward.
"ow, ow, hey!" He gives a little laugh and gently pries them off his face, setting them down on Thoman's back. "Ride with Thoman, I promise we will get them all right?"
Gerhart gives them both a wide grin before catching the stone from Astrid with a nod. There's no need to have a discussion at the moment. He turns his attention to the air, sniffing as Thoman snuffles at the floor. Where did they go?
The current of the river would take them south....but it could also be a diversion, they were clever enough to catch fairies after all. They couldn't have swam across to trick them that way, the fairies in the bag would have drowned. If they kept close to the shore, they could have walked. Going up river also isn't impossible.
"Hold on..." A gentle breeze carries that same scent of blood. "Upriver!"
The ranger wastes no time hitting a hard sprint, using Step of the Wind to hit the ground really running. Astrid was right that they wouldn't really have trouble catching up to the boat. Easy to forget just all of the insane stuff you and your friends can do when adventurers.
"Can you get to the other side of the river? I got an idea that's kind of stupid, but it'll be fun if it works!"
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Post by Lady Astrid Stormstone on Jun 29, 2024 23:11:33 GMT -5
No need to split ways it seems as just as Astrid hoped, Gerhart’s hound-like senses pick up the scent upriver. The moment he barks the direction, Astrid is hot on his heels, following the same path by stepping on little gathered gusts of wind beneath her feet to carry her through the air over the river. It’s a lot easier than dodging trees, especially when one wants to travel especially quickly.
“Aye, I can get ta the other side!” Astrid says. “Just tell me what I need ta do ‘cause ya know I’m always ready ta clown on folks an’ have fun while doin’ it!” She gives him a grin and waits for further instruction before taking off across the river, sticking to rushing along the bank unless she needs to duck into the trees.
While they run, they pass another boat, presumably the one used by the two they already knocked out and captured. Astrid decides to give it a little kick to send it merrily floating downriver just to be extra sure no one makes a getaway while they’re not looking. Eventually, the two of them will catch up to the poachers fervently rowing against the current towards a lake upriver where they can meet their handoff group.
“Row faster!” demands the head honcho, a burly green Fellblood with two black horns curling along his bald head that shines in the moonlight. A couple of scars on his face indicate he’s seen a fight or two in his time. “We have a deadline to meet.”
“We’re rowing as fast as we can, boss,” one of the grunts with an oar in his hands whines. His palms are calloused and burning from the motion. “What about Pipsqueak and Jay?”
“If they don’t make it, I’ll kill them myself,” the Fellblood growls.
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Post by Ser Gerhart Stanislav on Jun 30, 2024 15:21:03 GMT -5
With how quickly they start to gain ground on the boat, Gerhart does wonder why he thought this would be so difficult. It doesn't help the bandits that they are paddling the wrong way. The ranger does have to hit a pretty hard sprint though. What was even worse for the bandits was that despite the running, Gerhart still had plenty of energy left to annoy them.
"Hey, you guys look lost. Need directions?" He grins as the bandit growls.
"Damnit I told you to row faster!" There is a scared yelp from the underling.
"Yeah no you see the jail is back the other way! You're going in the wrong direction."
"And you can go to hell!" The bandit leaves a heavy crossbow at Gerhart.
"Hey whoa, no need to get violent. Just having a conversation, trying to be helpful!" The entire time he is yapping, the bandit is pulling back the string and loading a bolt. "OK well you're being unreasonable."
Gerhart holds up a hand of his own firing out a wire[1] well ahead of the bandit. While the fellblood laughs about the shot missing, the hope was Astrid would catch the other end of the grappling hook. By the time she caught it and the line going taut, the bandits should crash right into it and topple themselves out of the boat. It would be a matter of getting to the fairies as quickly as possible once the bandits are taking an impromtu bath.
Thoman was ready to dive into the water the moment the bandits let go. Of course, this was predicated on this plan working in the first place.
1. WEF Traversal tool
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Post by Lady Astrid Stormstone on Jun 30, 2024 21:53:56 GMT -5
When the grappling hook on the tool fires towards her, Astrid is ready for it. She snatches it out of the air and ducks around a tree to pull it tight. In the darkness, the wire is tough to see save for the metal just catching glints of moonlight along its length.
“You dumb kid,” the Fellblood chides as he takes aim. Just as he pulls the trigger, his back smacks the line, causing him to misfire and sending the bolt away from Gerhart and unintentionally toward Thoman instead. He topples over the rest of his small crew with a hail of startled yells, smashing his crossbow against one guy’s face and his knee shoving the other out with a splash! The Fellblood bandit manages not to go in the drink purely by the grace of his tail[A1] wrapping around the line and keeping him aloft while the little boat starts to slowly drift back downstream.
“You punk!” he roars, trying to recollect himself but struggling because suddenly and without warning, a bolt of lightning travels just under the length of the line and strikes him in the side. His body jolts, and the line becomes slack when Astrid releases it, dumping him into the river below. “AGH-GLUBGLUB!” he shouts, struggling to stay above water with the zaps traveling through his limbs.
"Boss!" the guy with the freshly blackened eye shouts. He scrambles to find an oar to start paddling upriver again, but man, his head sure is throbbing.
A1. Prehensile Tail
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Post by Ser Gerhart Stanislav on Jul 2, 2024 10:35:35 GMT -5
At this point, watching the bandit that is left is kind of sad. On the one hand you kind of have to respect the commitment to finishing the job and on the other....just quit while your behind. You are clearly in well over your head.
"Hey man just like....release the fairies and we won't hurt you....anymore than we all ready have."
"Free them! Free them!" The fairies in Gerhart's hood chant in a heavily accented common.
"N-no! Muh-muh-muh-make me."
The ranger sighs heavily, "C'mon man. We kicked your boss's ass, your friends asses, that's a lot of ass already kicked. My leg is exhausted from that much kicking."
As he talked, one of his swords seemed to gently fade from sight before starting to float over.[1,2] It gently wobbled over the water while Gerhart kept a casual pace with the boat. Just keep the guy talking and play it cool. The tip of the sword carefully hooked under the rope binding the bag shut.
Once more, Astrid is tasked to catch something without warning as the bag of fairies is awkwardly tossed from the boat. It is not a graceful throw, nor very accurate, but it gets it out of the bandits hands.
The sword then appears leveled at the bandit's eyes, the man going crosseyed staring at it, "All right, give up now?"
1. Unseen companion 2. Living Weapon
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Post by Lady Astrid Stormstone on Jul 2, 2024 17:58:50 GMT -5
With her well-placed lightning bolt striking the boss and making him struggle to swim in the river, Astrid hefts her two hammers and hurries over the water, still running on air, to catch up to Gerhart and the boat for any final butt-kicking they need to do together. Just as she runs up, the bag of fairies goes flying through the air, and Astrid scrambles to catch it before it hits the water, unintentionally launching her hammer through the air to free her hand. The bag is caught and the hammer finds a nice landing spot in the form of the final bandit’s head.
BONK. THUNK.
It clatters to the bottom of the boat while sparks of electricity and frost creep across the dizzied bandit’s head. Combined with the black eye, he is not having a good day. Wobbling in his seat, the oar slips from his hand and he slides into the floor of the boat. “G…Gib Up…” he murmurs.
Astrid blinks, confused by the chaos that erupted so quickly, and looks to Gerhart before the tiny voices of the bag catch her attention. She quickly unties it and releases the critters to fly freely again with a chorus of gleeful yips. “Is that all of ‘em?” she asks, watching the bandit leader struggle to swim to the boat. His shaking hand reaches up and grasps the edge, and with a great amount of effort, he pulls himself in.
“We’re takin’ ‘em ta the authorities, aye?”
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Post by Ser Gerhart Stanislav on Jul 3, 2024 14:06:54 GMT -5
"Should be." He smiles as the fairies dart towards each other to reunite. They happily bounce and hug each other, showering the Orphan Kids with thank yous.
Gerhart grins and waves at them before looking to the two on the boat. The bandits seem to have given up all fate and just float down the river nursing their wounds. This was a sad sight, Gerhart felt almost like they were bullying them at this point.
He gives a sharp whistle, "HAL, PICK UP." The shouting is followed quickly by a screech in the air.
"OK so, Hal will pick them up. We should go back and get the guys we knocked out....This is gonna be a pain to drag them all. Don't suppose you know a spell that can conjure a sled, do ya?" The ranger laughs softly as he starts to wander back towards the other bandits.
As they walk, there is some muffled yelling in the distance as the leader still has some fight in him. Being picked up by a giant bird did not seem to be something he was comfortable with, but he shouldn't have been a criminal and this wouldn't happen. His fault really.
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Post by Lady Astrid Stormstone on Jul 3, 2024 16:53:40 GMT -5
Astrid’s giggles join the chorus of the fairies’ laughter when their tiny arms attempt to hug her. “That tickles,” she says, her shoulders hunching up as a natural reaction. Hugging them back poses to be a bit of a challenge, so instead she offers them high fives in the form of her finger meeting their palms. “We’ll get ya back ta the grove, no problem,” she promises before looking to Gerhart with a triumphant yet devious grin.
“Oh, I got somethin’ better than that. I got somethin’ that’ll take us all right back to wherever we wanna turn ‘em in.”
Their trek back is significantly less soppy than the bandits’ ride in the talons of a giant bird. Occasionally, bits of water rain down on Astrid and Gerhart, but it isn’t really that big of a deal. More annoying than anything. “Ya should go get yer pumpkin, aye?” she says to Gerhart while they collect all the bandits together and bid the fairies a goodbye near the grove with a gentle scolding to be cautious of curious or dangerous strangers.
Once they’re all ready to go with all the bandits strapped together with ropes and properly embarrassed, Astrid mixes a dark potion together with a strange catalyst that causes it all to foam and bubble into a gas that surrounds them.[1] The smoke starts to swirl around the group until they all disappear from their place in the forest and reappear at the edge of Thunderhoof Village, one of the only settlements on the map in King’s Valley that the potion could take the group to.
There, Gerhart and Astrid are able to deliver the poachers to the authorities and explain where they found them and what they were doing. This of course isn’t without a plethora of curses from the fellblood leader, but the orphan gang can easily ignore him because they’ve done a good job. Once they’re hauled away, Astrid dusts her hands off and puts them on her hips before a sudden yawn escapes her maw.
“Ah… man… I’m sleepy…” Another yawn. “We should go back ta sleep, huh…?”
1. Elsewhere Juice + Gwen’s Miasmic Catalyst
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