The Forest - Chapter One

[spiderwrangler]

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(Psst, spiderwrangler: it was Vualn that requested the guide, not Rian)

Doh... got twisted around by Amara's last post...

"I agree... enough challenge to asses one another...

[willpell]

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Wrangler, that is the cutest spider in the history of the world, thanks for the link.

A soft tread on the grass outside is audible only a moment before a head sticks into the doorway and asks chipperly, "Hey boss, you rang?" Hartigan gestures the speaker within, where she proves to be a spectacularly petite human - or perhaps a remarkably tall and gangly halfling - whose chestnut-colored face is framed by a forward-sweeping coiffe of intensely black hair cut precisely to shoulder-length, dressed in otherwise-boyish khakis with leather reinforcements positioned to accentuate her less-than-ample curves. "Punctuality for a change, Miss Vhaerrai; I am pleased to see measurable progress.

"Gentlemen, this is one of our more eclectic specialists; I believe you will find her talents to be of particular utility, as she combines two fields of study which seldom overlap." "Aw shucks, Hansel, you're makin' me blush. Hiya folks, you can call me Joyce." "What exactly have you been told about excessive formality with those far outranking you in an organization, Jocelyn?" "That if I keep talking to you as if we were equals, you'll turn me into a katydid? But if you did that, I'd chirp out a thank-you for the permanent vacation and fly away. Admit it, you like bossing me around too much to mind when I backtalk; it gives you an excuse to chew me out." "One of these days, young woman, I will demonstrate in precise detail how much less you understand of me than you believe you do. But not today."

"Right. Well, like Hansel says, I'm something you won't find another one of very often - a combination medic and trapsmith, among many lesser talents. If it's made of lots of moving parts and will shed a great deal of blood if you jiggle it wrong, I've studied how to handle it with care and keep all the bits attached to it from leaving their proper place. Outside that particular focus, I've 'naturally', heheh, gotten onboard with the Greenswarden's overall agenda of forest stewardship; within those areas, I primarily specialize in trailblazing and survival techniques. I'll admit that I'm not as much of an expert on flora and fauna as many of those you'll meet, but I've extensively studied the history and geography of the Preserve, using a variety of techniques adapted from a background in archaeology to compliment my understanding of herbivore migration patterns, social dynamics of woodlands-adjacent human communities, and that guy totally has giant fairy wings on his back holy shit." The tiny woman finishes her spiel by blushing furiously as her eyes fix on Vualn for the first time, having initially appraised all three of you with only a passing glance (most of her speech seemed to be directed at a random point in the center of the room).

[spiderwrangler]

"HA! That he does, miss!"

[Amara]

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So I had a reply here earlier, accidentally refreshed, and it's gone. Finals are KILLING me. I will try to reply but don't hold things up on my account unless it hits a super vital point; I don't wanna slow things down for everyone! So I'll try to get a reply out tonight, but if I can't, assume I'm in the Magic Pissing BushÔäó or something.

My finals are as follows;

Monday - New Testament 2:30PM
Tuesday - CSI 6:00PM
Wednesday - German 9:00AM
Wednesday - Psychology 11:00AM
So after Wednesday I am 100% free, but I may be a bit slow 'til then!

[Nioca]

Vualn turns to acknowledge the newcomer. "A pleasure to meet you, Joyce," He says with a slight bow, making sure to flit his wings slightly for effect. "I am certain we will fare better with your presence." He adds.

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Gah. I wanted to post something longer and more flamboyant, but I just smacked face-first into writer's block and couldn't decide what I wanted him to say.

[willpell]

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hehe, you're Eleventy-One now, Nioca! And oof-da to you, Ayaka; good luck on the finals and I'll make sure to speed things along for you.

"Hahah, yeah, definitely," Joyce replies; behind her, Rian and Kast can practically see the reflected light from the stars in her eyes. A distinctly unamused-looking Hansel clears his throat. "Regardless of any insectile appendages that may be possessed by any of these gentlemen, Miss Vhaerrai, I trust I can count on your professionalism. After all, I can hardly authorize you to move on to an excavation of the sixth subbasement while you're busy giggling like a schoolgirl and falling all over your feet." Blushing again, Joyce makes a show of straightening up and squaring her shoulders. "Of course, Sir. So, has Hanse...er, Elder Hartigan given you folks any specific marching orders, or am I just to take you on a little tour of the environs? A timeframe might be helpful in the latter case; there's a lot to see after all."

(I guess the two elves get to decide this one for the most part...if I don't get a timely post from Amara, I'll assume Rian agrees with whatever the other two can come up with.)

[spiderwrangler]

"A brief tour of the area may be in order... If all goes well, it seems the Elder has a fair bit of things that need tending, so knowing the area a bit may be useful. However, since he has not yet given us a specific task, if he has something of urgency, that may take precedent."

[Amara]

Rían had listened to her entire introduction with genuine interest (and perhaps a little amusement,) and now was considering her question. He nodded at Kast's words. "Familiarity with the surrounding area can only be a good thing, unless of course something requires urgent attention."

[Nioca]

"It would seem that, despite some initial misgivings, we are all of the same mind. A kind portent; it would seem we may work well together after all." Vualn remarks.

[willpell]

"A short tour of the facility would probably be a good start; in the mean time, Reeve Huntingdon can see to the procurement of a mount for Mr. McCarthaigh (and for the two elves, if they would prefer not to fly or ride an arachnid for the entire duration).""As you wish," the archer responds; he's been standing here this whole time, so quiet that you forgot he was there, but now he finally slips outside. "Well then, let's get started," Joyce announces, starting toward the dark doorway on the far side of the room. She gropes around the corner with one hand for a moment, and the next chamber fills with a soft, eerie pale-blue light.

[spiderwrangler]

Kast shrugs and moves to follow Joyce, looking into the next room and assessing his surroundings.

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Is riding the spider an option? I wasn't sure, I have trouble picturing JUST how big a Large Monstrous Spider is ... I'd not be planning to use any of the mounted combat type skills that would require a check, but in the event it comes up, what would you rule my Ride skill modifer to be? I have +6 from Dexterity and +2 from Handle Animal, but penalties that may apply would be -5 for riding bareback (unless I pick up a special spider saddle, which I would have the gold for) and -5 if you consider a spider to be a creature ill suited as a mount. However, Kast also has an Empathic Link with Kzri, which seems like it would impact his ability to ride her successfully. In terms of carrying capacity, a Strength score of 15 for a large quadruped would give the following limits: Light <198lb, Medium 199-399lb, Heavy 400-600lb. Would this be further increased for a eight legged creature? At quadruped values, Kast + equipment + saddle would be ~220-230lb, a medium encumbrance.

[Amara]

Rían might have been able to see--just--but he blinked a bit as his eyes adjusted to this newer, dimmer light that now filled the area beyond. He was content to follow; certainly he had no reason not to, and he was quite curious what lay ahead of them.

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Haha, we all have low light vision, don't we... o_o

I swear one of the books actually had stats for riding a giant spider. ...and I think the spider domain lets you summon a spider mount, or am I remembering that wrong? I can't remember WHERE said tidbits would be, if I'm not remembering falsely, unfortunately.

[Nioca]

Like the others, Vualn also follows Joyce, taking in the sights of the room beyond the doorway.

[willpell]

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Large size is sufficient to be ridden by a Medium creature; there's a feat called Knight of Lolth in DOTU which specifically discusses riding on spiders. Its prerequisites include the Drow-only feat Vermin Trainer, but I could waive that in favor of your Vermin Empathy ACF; you would only need Ride 1 and Mounted Combat. That's to gain a bonus on attacks and the ability to ride on walls and ceilings, though; to just ride normally probably just requires a few checks and maybe some training. I'll assume that any bonuses and penalties cancel each other out.

The room's light proves to be coming from an encrustation of something resembling moss which covers an entire wall; the other three walls all contain doors as well, and hooks have been driven into them here and there, more than a few of which have parchments hung on them with messages written in Common or Elvish. One such posting near the door you entered reads "Cypress E37, d104┬░, N+1/4 - verified the Hag is Swamp rather than Plague, no followup at this time, PFCM: Med." "This is observably one of our info hubs; there are quite a few scattered throughout the complex, and we encourage all our agents to distribute their documentation of local factors until everyone has gotten the word. Of course it's better if we can do it without wasting charcoal, but not everyone is an empath or the like."

[spiderwrangler]

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Ok. I really don't envision mounted combat for Kast and Kzri... His skillset weaponwise doesn't lend itself to mounted combat. The main place I see the ride checks coming up would be if we get surprised or ambushed on the road, or attempting to jump something while mounted. I'm picturing more riding for general travel, as well as making use of Kzri's 40ft speed to quickly scout ahead. That would be negated if she is mediumly encumbered through, but that would depend on if her limits at 15 Strength are ruled to be x3 (large/quadruped) or more given that she has 8 legs.

"These messages seem coded, or at least use a shorthand I don't understand. If they contain information important to avoiding failure, it would be good to be able to read them. I'm certainly not an empath... as such."

[Amara]

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One more final down, and my last two tomorrow. Tonight is a night of no sleep, and much cramming. My most important two finals are tomorrow. ;-;

Rían squinted at them himself, though he could make little more sense of the majority of what he saw. His eyes had at least adjusted by now. The...moss? provided ample light. He listened intently however. "I certainly cannot say I am either, I'm afraid."

[spiderwrangler]

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Make sure you eat something in the morning, and good luck!

[Nioca]

Vualn glances through the room, but says nothing.

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I'm... not quite honestly sure what to say or do here.

[willpell]

Joyce peers closely at the aforementioned paper. "Well for instance, this one is a report on a location in the Cypress Ward - sector E37, distance 104 paces from the reference point, observation taken at Noon plus 1/4 of the remaining daylight - that's approximate, of course, it's not like you can carry a sundial around and measure the exact minutes and hours - we've been tracking a Hag in that area for about a week, and the ranger who posted this is confirming that she wasn't a species that carries a disproportionate threat. Plume-Fishhook-Circlet-Mountains is an abbreviation," she adds, pronouncing the four words so rapidly that they seem to be monosyllables, "stands for Potential Future Conflict Magnitude, which is ranked at Medium. Means that if the worst comes to the worst, the amount of projected damage the hag can do is neither trivial nor severe; she poses a significant threat to travelers and agents, but not to the ecosystem as a whole, at least not outside of her immediate sector."

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You're welcome to do some brainstorming; I can't possibly generate all the data that would fill a nexus like this one, so if there's a particular sort of encounter you'd be interested in - or just a funny little bit you want to throw in - let me know, and I'll determine whether something of the sort might be available here. If nobody has such ideas, I'll move on.

[Amara]

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I AM DONE
I start may term next week, but it's just ONE class, and it's one that's pretty cool. I um...think I collapsed last night, after finals. I slept forever.

Also ideas, hmm. Well, baiting Rían in to doing almost anything is as simple as throwing out a 'hey people are in danger' scenario, or a potential danger scenario.
Myself, I'm not too fussed about specific scenarios, though I do love situations where things aren't quite what they seem. I'm also fond of recurring villains, haha. The more fun they are to hate, the better, I suppose. If we want a simple starting scenario suited to what we have going on, we could have had someone go missing and be in danger. Not terribly amazing but the more creative aspects of my mind are returning slowly. I'm still a bit burnt out from finals.

Rían's gaze flicked from one bit of marking to another. He read what he could, though what was IN common was still encoded. ...he supposed with time he could learn the shorthand, but presently it might as well have been in another language entirely. "And this?" he asked, gesturing to another.

[spiderwrangler]

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At some point, Rian would have to put all those culinary skills to use, right? Not that either Kast or Vualn need to eat.. Characterwise, I'd like to see Kast challenged and get to the point of learning to trust the other two (or 3, if Andrew joins). Between the uppity fey and the surly wood elf, the poor well intentioned human's caught in the middle at the moment.

[Amara]

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Haha, getting to cook would be nice for him, though he'd be rather disappointed if he couldn't persuade anyone else to take any.
Mhnm, we definitely need something there, yes. I'd imagine bits and bots here and there over their journey will push Kast in that direction anyway, but we need some sort of travel time first.
And I need to help Andrew figure something out! Ahhh

[Nioca]

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I'm pretty much in agreement with you two. But I'm not familiar enough with CRs or the D&D bestiary to make any kind of real suggestions to that end.

[willpell]

"Well if you guys really want a challenge, I suppose I could take you down to the Anquietas Crypts in the basement, since Hansel did sort of say I'd be allowed down there now as long as I didn't screw this up. He almost certainly didn't mean right now, but the guy dabbles in contract law when he has to pretend to be civilized, so hell he'd probably be flattered to see me twisting his words to technically support my own ambitions. (He wouldn't be the only one I'd impress either, if She happens to be watching,)" she adds with a slight blush. "Granted, Nanoska would pretty definitely not be amused at me barging into its territory, but I'm pretty sure that if it actually did flay the living flesh off my bones to turn into parchment, it would get a very stern talking-to. Even a five-hundred-year-old unholy abomination isn't about to risk that horrific a fate." The diminutive (and apparently highly talkative) Ms. Vhaerrai quirks a smile at the end of her rather context-deficient outburst. Waiting for you to respond, she idly plucks one of the other parchments off the wall with one hand, reading it while using the other hand to absent-mindedly toss and catch a small, ornate knife...which she almost immediately drops, her face falling faster than the weapon until she looks as if she's just read of a distant relative's demise.

[Amara]

"Miss...?" Rían, not understanding the majority of what she'd been saying, had only been half listening, but he did key in immediately at that expression. His gaze went from her, to the parchment, and back; he was certain he couldn't make heads or tails of it if he tried, if the other papers were any indication. "What is wrong?" But if there was anything they could do, certainly he wanted to know!