Zese are damn strange deer. I never hunted deer...but I think dat is not right.
Kong releases a good bit more chain, and starts it to swinging...taking another slow step forward...
If ziss sing comes at me...kill it. Be ready.
Neri waited patiently. "I don't see any reason to fight them over a wolf carcass."
If it charges, manifest the weapon. He really didn't want to exhaust himself unless he had to.
As Kong swings his chain and moves forward, the deer begin skulking forward defensively, spreading out, teeth bared.
Lina lowered her voice. "Harry, this is your area of expertise, I understand. What do we do here?"
"Kong, unless you want those helldeer to tear you a large new one, back the heck off. This doesn't look like a fight we want. If you just ease back, they won't follow. "
Kong sighs, but backs up.
I get ze feeling ve vill be hungry a lot in ziss place.
"Apparently the wolves are pushovers. Let's get out here." Lina continues to speak in a low voice, backing out of the clearing.
"There has to be small game and Monty Python notwithstanding, I'm pretty sure we can get some rabbits to eat easily enough. Just need to set up a few snares and such. Anyway, I suggest we get headed towards that town or buildings. "
and he orients himself best he can and strikes off in the appropriate direction checking his compass to make sure of his bearings.
along the way he will look for easy forage no soup for us
Kong marches along sullenly, later that day, stomach rumbling.
Interesting test. Sterling shakes his head. and moves on away from the carnivorous deer. I would like a cold beer. A nice cigar. And a Hot bath.
"Yeah, well I wouldn't mind having my .300 Winchester Super Magnum, my ATV, and my tent, but wanting ain't gonna solve anything. We'll see what we find in the town. "
On no Harry, I was talking to our captors, not making a wish Sterling keeps moving. He is beginning to wonder if he can bargain some favor from his captor. They must want something from him. Maybe he can negotiate a price for his commitment.
"I understood that reference." Neri supplied, following along behind the hunter. "You're leading us towards the village, right? Any of you think it's safe to try to find at least some vegetables or herbs as we go? As an aside, were you a conspiracy theorist -before- you got the gem, or is it really the gem thing eating away at you? I'm pretty sure it's affecting some of us a lot more than others."
"I'm heading towards the buildings I saw in a clearing. If'n you folks are following thats your business. I'm a guide by trade, but I can't much claim to know about these parts, so I can't much claim to be a guide hereabouts. "
"Conspiracy theorist? you talking to me? I don't know where you'd get that idea. I just liked being where people aren't most of the time. Gem eating away at me? You do rightly concern me mister. "
Paul followed in relative silence. The group seemed nice enough, but he knew you could learn a lot just keeping your mouth shut. The theories being thrown around seemed far fetched, but then again so did interdimensional transportation, and magical embodying of gems into manifested weapons. His profession dictated that one must be able to go with the flow, and he meant to.
"Buildings are our best bet. We need to supply gather intel, and plan an appropriate course of action."
Sterling laughs softly. Appropriate course of action. He laughs again. We already took the red pill. Farther down the rabbithole we fall.
"No. Him. See right there? Obscure references and 'we're being watched' and the like."
Now if I were really paranoid, I would say something about how you are in league with them. I mean noone really saw you get gemmed. Its hard to tell whether Lumpy is joking or not.
Rabbithole? If I find ze rabbit, I will eat him.
Kong doesn't even look up.
Neri laughed lightly, "That is entirely true. Even I don't know whether I am or not. No one else screamed in pain either, and I was with Lina! Conspiracies, conspiracies."
"It's only a conspiracy if it isn't true. I think we can all agree that someone had a motive behind our being here."
"If we came here by fate,a game, or just luck we won't last long if we start blaming each other. Luna had been quiet most of the walk."Once we get to the buildings we can get some shelter and maybe some food.
As the group trudges through the woods, following Harry's lead, they see some other odd sights. A wolf digging up potatoes and eating them. This actually helps, because later the group finds some more wild potato plants to jerk up and everyone get's at least enough carbs to keep moving.
Another odd, and very disturbing scene involved watching a black bear shamble up to a hanging honeybee hive. Only at the first touch of the hive, dozens of squirrels drop from the tree onto the bear, biting and tearing bloody chunks from him. The bear roared and slapped at the squirrels, but the flashing red squirrels were much like a school of pirhana, tearing the bear to shreds.
As the group watched, over the space of 10 minutes, they reduced the bear to bones and a bloody spot on the ground.
--------
Eventually though, toward evening, the group manages to make it to the clearing they saw from above.
There are nineteen compounds scattered around the large lake, each on an area about an acre in size. The compounds themselves vary, from tall towers to squat forts to simple wooden buildings to one that looks like it's made from the bones of dinosaurs, and even a small pyramid. There's no sign of life, other than birds and insects.
After seeing the squirrels take out a bear "OK, maybe even the small game is off the menu. I think I'm starting to dislike this place. "
once in the area of the buildings he will look for one which might match the background of the picture that contained his gem.
Ok...potatoes are filling...but...I need protein. Zat means ve need to KILL zometing. I don't see no people, so we can't chust buy meat...
Kong looks around at the group that showed so little support, before...
...or are ju all vegans?
"Actually..." Neri began, putting on an air that he was going to say yes, then shook his head. "No. But this just got a lot more annoying. There are a lot of places to go here."
Luna would have looked away during the bloody bear attack."After seeing that I think I might have become vegan, but from what it looks like all our normal meet eaters seem to be easy prey." Luna made sure to carry extra potatoes if she could find them.
Does anyone remember how many reliefs there were? Lumpy decides that one of these compounds has a library and a robot. He intended to find it. He starts with a compound at random. He walks to it and enters.
Compound J
"I'm inclined to look around and see if we can find some ranged weapons. I wouldn't have been as concerned about those helldeer if we could have taken them down at range. I'm pretty sure we'll be able to get some meat eventually. We just can't rush into it. "
"Vegan?!? Me?!? Ok, that's just way out there. I've killed most everything you can on four legs in North America and ate all of em. Never could afford the African Safari so I could kill and eat some of those as well. "
Neri watched Sterling head off with a slight frown. "So, do we follow him, or do we just head for the nearest base, and work our way around?"
"I think that man has a serious shortage of cups in his cupboard. I'm not thinking I'd follow him anywhere. I'm looking for the background building from the picture with my gem. That seems like it might mean something. I suspect he is doing likewise. Suit yourself. "
Kong strolls into the nearest compound, and starts looking through it...anxious to find anything in the way of clues...about anything...or anything useful. He keeps the chain handy.
A round fort made of black stone. Black iron cages hang from the battlements, skeletal remains slumped in the cages. There is a swirled pattern on the door.
Trees and bushes surround this bone white tower made of stone. The tower is round, and about 200 ft high. The trees and brush around it are wild and overgrown.
This compound looks like an inn of some type. It's rather easy to recognize it as such as there is a broken sign hanging over the door, the paint long weathered off, and there is a large stable behind it. The porch holds dozens of chairs that are all but destroyed by age.
A square stone fortress has been built here. Skeletal remains hang from the battlements. The main doors look to be made of iron, which has somehow survived the ravages of time with only a heavy coating of rust, rather than a complete destruction.
A round grey tower juts up out of the ground, it's top easily 300 ft in the air. It looks smooth and weathered, with many windows that have long since been knocked out. The remains of flags whip in the steady wind.
This compound holds small fruit trees and bushes, while a giant oak several hundred feet tall grows in the center, it's central trunk nearly 50 ft across.
A large stone building sprawls out over half an acre, with dozens of tall stone chimneys poking up, some 30 ft across. The building almost looks like it's several buildings all interconnected.
This compound is a large roundish pond filled with salt water. Dark fins split the surface regularly. In the center of the pond is a sprawling edifice made of purplish black rock that looks vaguely like coral.
This compound seems to have a volcano rising up out of it. Two-thirds up the side of the 200 ft volcano resides an entrance to a cave that's been carved into a facade for a building entrance.
A series of simple wooden buildings has a small pond in the center, with a sandy rock garden next to it. The buildings are all disheveled, with doors that look to have once been rice paper paned blown out to expose the interior to the weather.
A simple stone building, three floors high, and a hundred feet long by sixty feet wide sits in the center of this compound.
A fortress with simple gray stones and a tower on each corner sits here. There is a moat all the way around, with a wooden drawbridge that's up.
Scattered trees surround a large wooden ramshackle shack. The remains of dried skins and animal bones are scattered around the shack. Human skulls also dot the shack's sides and porch.
A simple wooden building, two stories high, 50 ft long, and 40 ft wide, sits in the middle of this compound. The windows are shuttered, but several shutters hang loose, showing broken out windows.
This compound has a dozen wagons circled around a camp site. The wagons are missing their cloth coverings for those who had them, the solid wood roofed wagons have broken out windows.
A tall tower with flowing architecture is here, it's bricks are each a different color, no two of the same color touching. Fluting spires rise up off the tower at odd angles. It's several hundred feet high.
A simple looking home sits here, looking nothing so much as like a cottage house... except for the fact that instead of being made of wood, it's made of bone. Where wood logs would be are the bones of some giant animal. Where a wooden picket fence would be are human thighbones lined up and tied together with black ribbons. The roof is made of human skulls laid in series.
A tall gray tower shoots up out of the ground. Defying the laws of architecture, and of gravity, it has a large crown of spiky outcroppings, as if all the roo ms were built on spiky outcroppings at the top most portion of the tower.
"My vote is that we head for the building that looks like an Inn. If anywhere might have any form of food, canned at least, it'd be an inn, right? If we're really splitting up, though... there's a molten landscape that will very probably try to kill me again just up ahead as well." Neri frowns.
Sterling heads toward the volcano, as he get's closer, the heels of his shoes begin to leave black sticky bits behind as the dark rock grows hot at the base of the stairs leading up to the cave entrance.
Taking a closer look around...The people from ze reliefs lifed here...though...none of zese places look all zat livable now.
Too hot for a library. That mansion looks right though. Lumpy heads to Compound A.
Neri nodded to Kong, "Well, that doesn't look promising. I'll pass on the burning again. Did anyone have an inn in theirs, or is it a neutral territory?"
She lived...dere...
Kong points toward R...the bone house...and can't help himself.
An actual...house...made of bone. How crazy!
He walks toward it...oddly fascinated...
"I don't see anything which reminds me of my picture, so I'll go with the Inn like Neri said. "
"I'll wait outside in case any more killer deer come along, let me know when you find out if it's safe or not and I'll call out if anything happens out here.
"You're going to wait for killer deer?" Neri lofted a brow to Luna, hoping that the obvious failings of her plan would be evident. He looked back to Harry. "What did your picture look like?"
"Well, there was a few of them that seemed to be about traveling. I think I recall the musician as having an inn. I might be wrong. I think we should check out our personal buildings. You know, play along with the game." Lina looks a bit like she has bit into something sour.
Still, she goes off to take a closer look at compound E.
Neri sighed. She had a point. Food could wait. He could at least see how far he'd make it towards the volcano before it tried to kill him. He'd already been burned alive, maybe he was developing a tolerance.
God that place was magnificent... who the hell would let this place go to seed like this... where are the servitors... a house this magnficent should have servitors to do the upkeep... The thought surfaces in his head.
That inn.. I bet many people spent a warm night... surrounded by song and laughter... good food.. warm beds... safety...
The bodies have rotted away to just bones... who's afraid of bones... no way to generate fear... a few fresh bodies would scare the hell out of people... Bet the stables haven't be mucked out in centuries... worthless servants probably ate them.
Bet that volcano's hot... bet that building with all the smoke stacks used to be hot too... looks like some sort of smelting plant.. wonder what it's doing mixed in with all those Lord of The Rings buildings...
If I'm going to walk up those steps... I need something that won't burn... not these rubber soled boots... Stupid thing to make boots from.. melts too easy... who the hell thought rubber was a good idea anyway... Need something that won't react to heat... thick hide that doesn't burn... Like armor... The thought burns through his mind as he walks up to the edge of the heat.
That mansion looks like it had goodies in it to steal... probably lots of valuables... easy to hit too, no security... Of course, it's such an obvious target... the smart person keeps their valuables in something that isn't obvious... a very plain looking building with nothing special about it...
Probably full of spiders... and dust... and cobwebs... nothing wrong with cobwebs of course.. but they're messy... things should be neat when you get down to the point of bones... life is messy... death is neat... well, dying is usually messy... but death itself is usually neat and tidy... Wonder what works at cleaning a bone house...
Oh god, look at that tower... I bet it's full of bats and wild animals... probably rats nests in the beds... I bet it needs cleaning from top to bottom... chase the rats out of the libraries... a lot of books to repair I bet...
"Look, voice. I'm not going to cut up my bed that someone was kind enough to hand me. You're not getting my jacket, either."
Neri looked about for something that seemed like it might work in the pinch he was in. "Anyone have any spare leather they don't need?"
"Thank you for the reminder, Lena - quick both of mind and body."
Jacob had given the area a once over after they had decided to back down from the confrontation with the deer. Am I the only one who sees beauty in this place? The others seemed more focused on the practicality of the moment, but Jacob had written the necessities off for the moment to the powers that left them here. If they were meant to die, they would have done so already, and uneventful death was not at all glamorous.
Having lived on an island replete with colonial architecture, the businessman stood in knowledgeable respect of the fortresslike structures, yet something seemed off. Perhaps it was the Aztec-like disappearance of the area's denizens, or maybe it was the macabre bone structures and hanging skeletons, but a bleak aura pervaded the otherwise elysian environment.
Of immediate interest were the giant tree and coral island. "You wanted protein , Kong? Looks like we might have some fish in that pond. And could that fruit be safe to eat? Our own little Garden of Eden?..
But as the group seemed to disperse to their building of voice or predestination, Jacob was drawn to the colored tower. He decided as the hobbits chose their own unlikely pathso too would he.
"Thank you for the reminder, Lena - quick both of mind and body."
Jacob had given the area a once over after they had decided to back down from the confrontation with the deer. Am I the only one who sees beauty in this place? The others seemed more focused on the practicality of the moment, but Jacob had written the necessities off for the moment to the powers that left them here. If they were meant to die, they would have done so already, and uneventful death was not at all glamorous.
Having lived on an island replete with colonial architecture, the businessman stood in knowledgeable respect of the fortresslike structures, yet something seemed off. Perhaps it was the Aztec-like disappearance of the area's denizens, or maybe it was the macabre bone structures and hanging skeletons, but a bleak aura pervaded the otherwise elysian environment.
Of immediate interest were the giant tree and coral island. "You wanted protein , Kong? Looks like we might have some fish in that pond. And could that fruit be safe to eat? Our own little Garden of Eden?..
But as the group seemed to disperse to their buildings of choice or predestination, Jacob was drawn to the colored tower. He decided as the hobbits chose their own unlikely paths, so too would he.