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While the others address Meepo, Akshara pads over on all fours to Bellicus. The feral tiefling folds her ears back against the top of her head, sniffing at his injuries with marked interest. As she looks up, there's a curious expression in her eyes, an indiscernible emotion conveyed with an animal's eyes and a flick of her reptilian tail.
Pouncing atop one of the fallen kobolds, Akshara pins the creature's inert form down with both hands, then looks up wide-eyed and ears folded back at Meepo. For the barest of moments it looks like the feral tiefling is simply going to continue her rampage on their new "ally," but instead her pupils slowly widen from their thin slits and her ears perk up and forward. "Whrr?" Akshara queries, looking over to Valeria with her head cocked to the side, then over to the others, brows furrowed and tail lashing from side to side swiftly.
Barely able to feel the flow of blood down her side from the injury the kobold inflicted, Akshara moves like a hunting cat across the stone floor; sinew and muscle shifting in one fluid motion. Ears folding back, the lunges at the kobold pincered between she and Bellicus, jaws opening and eyes shutting as her mouth closes around its shoulder. Sharp teeth sink into flesh and the feral tiefling's neck muscles bulge as she lifts the kobold off the ground and begins shaking it back and forth in her mouth like a hunting dog with a fox. ______________
Akshara, relieved that the dragon has fallen, crouches down and tilts her head to the side in curiosity. The political maneuvering that Bellicus plans is lost on her, and instead she sees fit to pad over to the young dragon's motionless form and give it a cursory sniff, accompanied by a flick of one of her ears. "Eat?" Akshara asks without looking away from the dragon, though as she catches the horrified look Meepo throws her at that question, her nose wrinkles and shoulders curl forward in a shrug. "Find... rat maybe. Fat rats here." To her credit, Akshara seems either unaware of unconcerned about the outburst of supernatural terror she was able to unleash on the dragon. Though, her upbringing considered, she may not even realize what it is she did. ______
Watching everyone struggle with subduing the dragon, Akshara — who has been occupying herself with keeping it corralled — finally loses her patience for this game. Not one for nonlethal takedowns, especially when she gets in the heat of the moment, the feral tiefling throws her arms out to the side, folds her ears back, and lets out a thunderous roar that sounds like it would come from a beast twice her size. As she makes this ferocious gesture, her fur stands on end, pupils turn to slits, and her vicious teeth are bared full. ____________
Scrambling into the room on all fours once the doors have opened, Akshara lets out a furious hiss in the direction of the dragon. Her wild, tangled hair hangs down in her face, fingers curl against her palms and the fur on the back of her neck bristles upward. Looking back through the doorway as the puts herself in a corner, Akshara seems to be hoping for guidance or instruction. __________
In this instance I'm approaching loot from a wholly IC standpoint. Akshara doesn't have need of most things (weapons, armor, etc) but instead will eventully have a very specialized list of things she needs (outlined in the wishlist below) but will have to be taught the adventuring basics, since she's relatively naive. She doesn't think to carry potions because she's never had access to them before, she doesnt' wear armor because she's not familiar with it, etc. Heck, she only reason she has the feather token is because she straight-up took it because it was pretty. Within the next couple of sessions I figure it will become clear that Akshara is more than just a throat-ripping animal, but what comes of that (and how mechanically "optimized" she becomes) is largely up to the party. Right now she could, in theory, use the chain shirt but the difference between it and her armor is pretty minimal (and her DR versus arrows and knives from her armor is pretty great at low levels) so it's not really all that important. That said, she'll carry/utilize what people recommend to her. As for what she'll need in the future, here's Akshara's wishlist: Wishlist: Amulet of mighty fists, Str/Dex/Cha items
Having been pacing the room like a penned-in animal, Akshara is only satisfied once she has inspected every corpse before she finally relents from her frustrated pacing. Snarling briefly, she looks in the direction the others fled, then lets out a few deep snorts and seems to be calming down. Ultimately, her ears lift from where they were folded atop her head, and her pupils gradually widen from their slitted shape to rounder, more gentler appearance. For a moment, it was hard to tell if Akshara would snap out of it. Sniffing the air, Akshara makes a soft sound in the back of her throat and looks to Anton. Head tilting to the side, she squats down on the floor and lets her lizard-like tail swish back and forth through the blood of one of the fallen goblins, waiting for word of what to do next.
Hi All! Just to give you guys a heads-up, I'm super busy because of the holidays and haven't been on the Internet outside of my phone in a few days. I'll be delayed in updating things till this weekend, most likely, though if I manage to steal a little time here and there I will! I hope you all had an excellent week! :D
Snarling, Akshara springs between two of the goblins, leaving a trail of blood in her wake. She lands, eyes widening and pupils turning to black slits. The hair on the back of her neck stands up and the ferocious tiefling lets out a low, rumbling growl as her ears flatten to the top of her head. That growl turns into a rasping hiss, and Akshara flies into a feral rage, lunging at the goblin between she and Valeria, snatching it up off of its feet by the throat and shaking it around like a wild animal. ____________
When I started running Reign of Winter I knew that the encounter frequency could be an issue, however my players definitely enjoy the combat aspects, so what I did (with my party of 8) was condense encounters down. Remove uninteresting encounters designed to deplete resources and keep the interesting and necessary ones. In their place I added haunts, more traps, and (eventually) a chase or two. These combat alternatives are great for spicing things up. Additionally, to make up for any XP diminishing, I'd add an extra "boss" encounter. One APL +3 creature can add a lot of tension, just make sure the party had the resources necessary to fell it.
Letting out a hiss and a snarl when the goblins begin firing arrows, Akshara moves in just after Bellicus and charges the same goblin, utilizing Bellicus the way she would one of her wolf-kin in taking down an animal by dividing its attention. This pack mentality proves invaluable as it allows the feral woman to pounce on the preoccupied goblin, landing on all fours as she grabs it by the throat and violently shakes her head from side to side. Bellicus can see her up close, yellow eyes glossed over with an instinctual bloodlust, staring right at him -- through him -- as she savages the goblin in her jaws. ____
Hey guys, just a heads up: December is shaping up to be a real bear at my office as law firms get in their billing in advance the end of the fiscal year, so I've been pulling overtime and generally working harder than usual. As such I've been pretty burned out when I get home so I may miss a day or two of posting here and there up through New Years. Please bear with me and any slowness to respond to stuff.
"Oops," the tiefling mutters, trying to inch away slowly with the skull in hand, only to clatter and crunch over a few more on her way back, crouching down and trying to make herself smaller with each awkward step. "Sorry!"
While examining the kobold's lair, poking around ancient stone and crumbling woodwork, Akshara finds herself crouched down by an etched stone wall displaying artwork once important to the residents of this structure long before its collapse. A bas relief of landscapes and a dragon-like creature with wings spread, head back and jaws open. The art bores her, though, the tiny branch and leafy green vegetation sprouting up through a crack is more interesting. Pawing at one of the leaves, Akshara absent-mindedly twists off a sprig and twirls it around in her fingers before discarding it to the floor. It's the scrabbling sound of a tiny rodent that gets her full attention, one ear pivoting this way and then that. Her head cranes to the side, and Akshara lays down on the floor, staring into the crack in the wall as a tiny pair of beady mouse eyes watch her from within. Wrinkling her nose, Akshara picks up the twig she'd broken off earlier and wiggles it around in front of the opening. Both furry ears perk forward, eyes widen, and she watches the mouse's movement in the dark of the crevasse with catlike entrancement. The tiefling's lizard-like tail swishes left and right behind her as she watches, eventually slowing as the mouse refuses to be drawn out by the twig. "Boring," Akshara muses to the hole in the wall as she sits up, and with a jerk of her head she looks back to the mouse hole, ears twitching. She could've sworn she'd heard the mouse say something back to her... Furrowing her brows, Akshara stares for a moment, then grunts in disinterest and lopes away on all fours, certain that she'd heard nothing at all. Mice don't talk.
Squinting at Valeria, Akshara slides her tongue over the front of her teeth as the concept of how magic works at its most basic level is explained to her. One of her ears twitch, a single brow lowers incredulously and she scratches at a fleck of dried blood still on her chin. Then, finally accepting that there's no other choice but to rest for the night if everyone else is, Akshara sniffs the air and begins circling the group restlessly. She'll likely be up all night chasing mice.
Contentedly seated beside Valeria, Akshara crosses her legs and rests her hands in her lap, tail swishing behind her from side to side, ears flicking and twitching in the direction of noises. Every so often she shoots Anton a look of curious interest, but finds herself drawn to watching Bellicus argue with something half his size. "Not tired," Akshara admits, looking up to Bellicus from her spot on the floor. "Why sleep?" Rubbing at the tangled hair at the back of her head, the bestial tiefling tries to straighten her dark locks and only winds up tangling them worse.
Eyes a little wide and visibly puzzled by the goblin's change in attitude, Akshara seems content to try and discern exactly why it is shrieking so, right up until Valeria speaks in an alltogether alien tongue. One of Akshara's ears flicks in the direction of Valeria and the tiefling's head swivels towards that unusual sound a moment after, one brow raised. No longer interested in the goblin or cleaning her hands, she rises up into a stooped posture and slinks over to the Varisian's side before crouching down on the floor next to her. "Whrr?" Akshara nonverbally queries with her head quirked to the side.
"Two-leggers bark more than dogs," Akshara idly notes as she runs her fingers through her tangled locks of dark hair, one brow raised and a helpless look on her face. Much of the finer points of the interaction are lost on her, but Anton can see that despite her simple nature the tiefling girl has been intently observing the broad strokes of the interaction, learning piecemeal the ways in which the strong impose their will on the weak. One of Akshara's furry ears flicks to the side and she glances at a corner of the room intently. Then, sure that nothing is stirring, she turns her attention back to Bellicus and the goblin, sitting down on the floor. After a few more moments, she starts to lick clean the blood that has crusted on her hands.
Ears twitching as the goblin's shrill little voice spits out words in the common tongue, Akshara becomes bored with her limp entertainment. Padding away from the corpses of his kin, the bestial tiefling locks eyes with the goblin, her scaled tail lashing back and forth as she prowls around him on all fours. Her shoulders slink up and down as she moves in slow, purposeful motions in a full circle around him. It isn't Akshara's intention, but her predatory circling lends a hand to Bellicus' interrogation. ___________
With the goblins dead and the others discussing something a bit outside of Akshara's experience, the tiefling proceeds to prowl among the remains of the goblins, quietly wiping her face off as she pauses to inspect their bodies one at a time. There is contempt visible for the first time in the feral young woman's features. Whatever she had experienced at the hands of others of their kind before, it left an indelible impression on her. ___
Akshara lunges at one of the goblins with a loud snap of her jaws, but the craven beast scrambles away, affording Akshara's powerful jaws purchase of only air. Snarling, she hunches down on all fours and lets out a yowling growl of frustration, then hisses as her ears fold bac in threatening posture.
Ears folded back and eyes slitted, Akshara lets out a hiss as she's cut by one of the goblins. She's quick to lunge back at the one that struck her, grabbing it by the shoulders as she leans in and opens her jaws, sinking her sharp teeth into the side of its neck before shaking it side-to-side like a hound with a fox. ______________
Bursting into the room the moment the door is open, Akshara's eyes go wide and she leaps with an expected ferocity through the air, pouncing on one of the unprepared goblins. Akshara needn't be taught to attack these things, her time in the Barrowwood has given her enough prejudice against these malicious dog-hating creatures attacking her pack. The feral tiefling grasps at the goblin's rotund head and opens her jaws, eyes folding back and pupils narrowing to slits as she lunges in for a bite, but the goblin scrambles away just before her jaws snap down.
Stalking towards the door with the others, Akshara looks back as Elion moves to depart and wrinkles her nose, brows furrowed and lips pursed in thought. "Not tired," Akshara mutters, looking up to Bellicus with one ear flicked out to the side, as if unsure why Elion is so eager to bed down. "Only morning still," she presumes, they've been underground a while. The tiefling flicks her stare back towards the direction Elion left in and huffs out a sigh. "We go?" Those yellow eyes flick back up to Bellicus, as if Akshara was simply expecting to leave Elion behind.
Akshara, being Akshara, stalks up to the altar of items offered by the sovereign of the kobolds and sniffs at them each independently, seeming most fascinated by the teeth. Without realizing the imperitive of choice, Akshara reaches out as if to take the teeth after having been told the group could have three items. But then, in her sniffing and snorting, she sends the brightly colored feather skidding across the alter from one exhalation. Wide-eyed and ears perked forward, Akshara snatches the feather out of the air and stares at it with a smile that could be nothing other than child-like. ___
Figured I'd throw this out there since you're all a fun lot! I've got a recruitment up for a new PbP I'll be running. Information to be found here.
Snorting noisily, Akshara stalks back away from the kobolds and offers a confused look to Anton, then sits down cross-legged on the floor beside the young-looking druid. Here, while the others negotiate and use words, Akshara quietly begins picking at dirt under her claws with one ear perked in the direction of the conversation. After a moment or two, she asks the question that had been bugging her for a while. "What's dragon?" Yellow eyes uplift towards Anton, though she likely would accept anyone's answer given her inquisitive demeanor.
Ears folded back, Akshara looks a little bewildered by the response. She quirks her head to the side, glances back at Elion and makes a disconcerted, "Whrrr?" at him. Looking back to the Kobolds, the hair on the back of Akshara's arms bristles beneath her sleeves and her brows furrow some. The threatening posture rubs her the wrong way.
Oblivious to both decorum of course and kobold, Akshara starts to slink past Elion in a stooped posture, ears perked forward with curiosity and eyes wide. She sniffs at the air as she moves, lizard-like tail swishing back and forth behind her as she moves. Judging from the look on her face -- one she's had several times before -- Akshara appears to be curious what the Kobold King smells like, and is likely going to try and get her nose in far too close than would be comfortable for anyone. _____
Akshara offers a look to Bellicus, one ear twitching as she does and her head crooking to the side ever so slightly. Sitting up a bit more straight, the tiefling draws her teeth over her bottom lip in thought, then tilts her chin up subtly. "Kobowls," she misheard a little, "not have us on leash." Despite the mispronunciation, Akshara is fully aware of which "evil" has her on a short leash, and which "evil" are scarred little rat-dragons. Her simple perspective allows for a certain, child-like level of clarity towards the situation. That said, she looks ready to go.
Grumbling, Akshara squints at the barrel and then exhales a sigh that blows an errant lock of hair from her face. Standing up slowly, she ambles over to Meepo and looks down at him with one ear perked up and th eother out to the side, head crooked in an inquisitive stare. Then, looking back to the others there's an expectant expression on the tiefling's face. It looks like she's ready to go, she just isn't sure where to.
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