Hooray for Ekujae elves and half-elves! Let's all make a party together and burn the Apsis Consortium to the ground! TO THE GROUND, I SAY!
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For consideration, Siri Quinray. Made her for another Serpent's Skull campaign that didn't get very far (never leveled up from 1st), so I'm hoping for better luck in this one. Will adjust her stats to preside with your guidelines for character creation.
Glad to see you getting back on the DM horse, and I'm certainly excited by the prospect of playing Siri again. Though whether or not everyone else will want to play again after the long hiatus is still up in the air - not me, though. I'm quite eager to carve up some more cannibals.
I don't mind the hiatus - I'll stick around with Siri, don't worry too much about that. If it doesn't happen, then it doesn't happen, and it's been fun.
Despite the poor cooking, Siri looks at it as the price of camping here for the night, eating just a little of the offered food so not to offend the crow. "This crab is quite a feat - you've done well to make it appear to be a credible threat," She praises the crow. "We won't over stay our welcome - we'll be gone in the morning. Tell me though, how safe would you consider the trails we saw on the way here?" She asks him. "And is there anything of interest close by we may want to look at tomorrow?"
Siri looks at the immense crab in the distance. She doesn't know much about crabs, but it feels unusual to be seeing such a massive creature out here in the night when all the others they'd encountered had been more active around the day. This was where Pezock said that he made his camp - it was on the map where he'd marked it. She chanced calling out, hoping that perhaps this was a domesticated protector and the crowman was hiding somewhere close. "Pezock, it's Siri! We've come seeking shelter for the night, if you would help us!" She looks back at the others. "Who has that dagger? Pezock might appreciate it."
"We'll rest soon enough," The half-elf comments, looking back at them. "But we cannot stay here. Let's keep moving." She looks at the Mwangi man, before commenting, "So long as you do not do anything that requires me to take action against you, I am 'nice enough'."
The half-elf glances around the camp, thinking it over. "This is not a safe place to spend the night," She tells the others. "We should continue west. We'll navigate by moonlight and star light," She informs the group - though humans didn't have particularly good vision in low light conditions, she was sure over half of their group was able to see effectively at night without a torch.
Siri finds herself once more less wounded than she has any right to be, giving the wolf faced oracle a look before responding the sorcerer. "So long as there are no more delays. No lights unless absolutely necessary," She tells him. She leads the way forward again, moving through the jungle terrain like she was born and bred in it.
Not the first time nor the last she'd been grabbed by a wild animal - best to excise herself as quickly as possible, pulling away from its claws. She can't get enough leverage, however, finding herself stuck fast, to her annoyance.
The barbarian woman sighs, before charging forward, bringing her sword down on top of the crustacean with all of her might. They really needed a forward scout here that could lead the group around the predator dens.
Siri doesn't want to waste time fighting yet another crab when they won't be able to eat it - she slips around its territory quietly to avoid it. Getting to Pezock's camp by sunset was a priority.
Siri listens as the Mwangi speaks up, but glancing through the abandoned camp, it seems that the last ones to use this place did not leave peacefully. The trail certainly seemed more expedient for travel, but she was quite sure that they would be frequented by cannibals, or their trappings. "We should continue along the coastline - a friendly native we met a few days ago has made his camp in that direction," Siri states. "We should see if he'll allow us to camp with him during the night." She heads off towards the west, avoid the trail for now - better not to travel by those paths unless necessary. Or at least until all the cannibals were dead.
"...You should know a few things. One, this is not the Expanse," Siri points out. "This is an island with no settlements of note. It is unmapped and wild, and run by a vicious pack of cannibals who prey upon the many who've shipwrecked here before. So now you have three choices - no, make that four," she amends. "You can throw yourself on the mercy of the cannibals, of which you'll find none and will likely be consumed by them upon surrender. You can attempt to brave the island on your own if you think you can survive the giant crabs, snakes, dinosaurs, undead, and other creatures which will want to kill you. The third option would be to throw your lot in with us. We have a camp, and other survivors, and as none of us eat humanoid flesh, you would be safer with us." She shifts her sword on her shoulder, though the weight doesn't burden her at all. "The last thing you could do is kill yourself and save yourself months of suffering. I would advise against that path, though if you prefer it, I would be honorable enough to assist your suicide and make it painless."
Siri also wipes her blade clean on the grass, before attending to the matter of the newcomer who'd been chased by a singular cannibal here. She kept her weapon ready, looking at the Mwangi man with caution. "Who are you?" She asks. "How did you arrive on this island?"
Siri doesn't really pay too much attention to the witch's ramblings as she trots forward, bringing her blade down hard on the prone creature. It needed to be killed after all.
I'll trust your judgment for choosing another player here. Though if you do go for a fourth, I'm partial to Bayani Nishu. Having another frontliner will be helpful for Siri.
Siri would have just finished it off herself, but the wolf beat her to it. The barbarian woman settles down for now, before thinking. "Leave it. We'll be too weighed out carrying it for dinner," She states, heading along the prescribed route again.
Deciding that she needs to focus more on accuracy than power, Siri takes her next blow carefully.
Barbarian, Spell Dancer Magus, Ranger, Bard, and then a Kensai Magus. Vasily appears to be build for a Jade Regent game, but that's a minor issue - just that we already have our supporters. The others you've hand picked appear to be all melee builds. Not that I have a problem with that, just seems like you were looking for something in mind to replace Kenton's role in a way. If I had to pick one of them, I'd probably go with Korik. It still might be better to open up recruitment at this time, but that would be my hard pressed pick.
I'd agree with Paulinus there. A cleric would do well too, or an alchemist.
Weaving around the crab's claws, Siri cleaves with her sword again, attempting to tear right through its shell with the nimble sword.
The half-elf moves forward to engage the giant crab, swinging her blade. She misjudges the timing however, and her blow misses the creature entirely.
"Gladly." Siri swings and cuts the cannibal's head off in one clean blow, before wiping the sword clean. "We'll drag the bodies away from the camp so they don't attract predators." She comments, looking at the rest of the exploration party. "Let's be off, then."
Just for the record, Siri would never actually follow through with that kind of torment described in her threat. Torture is not pragmatic - it's simpler to just cut off her head and find someone more talkative anyways.
"...You ask needless questions." Siri states bluntly to the wolf. "Ask her where the cannibals live and how many there are. We do not need to know her personal history, only information on the island and how to survive it. If she will not talk, inform her that I would be willing to keep her alive by feeding her bits of herself, carved off piece by piece." She brandishes the curved blade to that effect. "Every day she does not talk, she will possess less and less of her body, the wounds sealed up so she does not die even as she becomes little more than a stump. And the last thing that I will cut from her are eyes, tongue, and eardrums, so she will forever live the rest of her pitiful life as a worm." After the very lengthy and gruesome threat for Aerys to translate, she adds, "But really, I'll just cut off her head if she doesn't start talking. We don't have time to waste on fulfilling threats."
"We have no hold over her. We certainly cannot let her live. So we have no leverage to gain knowledge from her." Siri states. "She is nothing more than another predator attempting to kill us. So we must act in kind." Regardless, Siri is hardly an executioner, and allows someone else to do the deed. She prepares for the march south now instead, as they were going to do.
Siri glances at the downed opponent, perhaps slightly confused as to how they both went down so easily. Were all the cannibals so weak? She moves to disarm them both - she would have cut off their heads and been done with their threat if she didn't think that would cause disapproval from the others. Besides which, they might know more about the island that they could use. "Question first, kill later?" Siri asks the others.
"Move," Siri speaks to Kenton as she practically leaps over him to get to the other cannibal, swinging her blade again in a deadly arc, cutting through her belly.
Siri knew that the possibility of discovery by the cannibals was likely the longer they were on the island, but there was a sudden irony in that happening now of all times. The barbarian woman looked at the Chelish women, carved with strange scars that seemed self inflicted. Seeing as she had her sword in hand, and they appeared to be threatening them, Siri did what came naturally to her - charging the closest one to the north and swinging her blade to cut off her head.
Rather calm about the spider's assault, Siri draws her blade and cuts through the spider's body without so much as a grunt of effort. "Why are you yelling?" She asks Jask calmly.
Siri takes her usual time when she first wakes up in the morning to wash herself away from prying eyes before returning and getting herself ready for an extended foray into the island's interior, taking three days' worth of rations with her. "We should return in two to three days. By then we should have located a more suitable campsite," She informs those that would be staying. "Keep safe." Siri's route hugs the western coast of the island this time, trying to see if they can't find good space near Pezock's campsite to use.
"First, we must check the interior. We should be away for a day or two at most, so try your best to fend for yourselves - everyone in this camp is not defenseless. There is nothing on this island so dangerous that we cannot deal with it together." Siri states to the rest. "We are not prey, but predators. So let's ensure that anything that tries to harm us makes its final mistake." Having given her version of an inspiring speech, Siri then slips off to sleep for the night, ready to get an early start tomorrow.
It's possibly RL caught up with them. Teh GM did say they recently moved into a new apartment - could be a net problem as well. Give it time, I'm sure they'll be back soon enough.
"Good. You will not need this anymore, then," Siri comments as she takes out the bottle of brandy. She thinks for a moment what to do with it, taking that time to leaf through the pages of the book that Aerys gave her. Her face goes pink as she strains at the letters, looking up at the other half-elf. "I don't...read that well. Taldane script is hard for me," She admits shamefully. "Later, perhaps you can read it to me?" Noticing Gelik once again pestering Aleris, she gets an idea about the brandy bottle, excusing herself from Aerys' side to come over to the witch's. "You should try to make peace with him. This should help," She tells her, before plopping the bottle in her lap. Siri stalks off over to the giant crab, claiming one of its claws for herself, tearing it off and sucking out the roasted meat. Once everyone sitting down to eat, she speaks up. "We may need to be away from the camp for more than a day at a time now when we explore the island," She tells the group. "We should think about moving our camp closer to the center of the island. Look," She says, unfurling the map so everyone can see. She circles the coastline to the east of where Pezock claimed his camp was. "If we make our camp around here, we'll be close to the only friendly thing we've met on the island, and in a good location to head out and explore the rest of it. We should take a day or two to scout the area out first, which will give everyone who stays with the camp time enough to make preparations for a move. If we don't return in three days, then you should worry."
"We've returned," Siri states as they drag their prize into the camp, dropping the crustacean as she goes over to see Aerys. She produces the belt pouch that is filled to bursting with the viper nettle berries. "I said I would get them for you," She comments, a rare smile tugging at her lips.
"Then sever it," Siri speaks back to the wolf man, as she winds up for another terrible blow against the crab. She's hoping that she can kill it without damaging its carapace too much, so she slashes out at its mouth and eyes.
Siri keeps close to cover, pausing as she notices the dwarf sized crab ahead of them. On the one hand, crab meat would certainly help to lift spirits around here. On the other, unnecessary fighting had the potential for risk, and Aerys was counting on her to bring the berries back. Deciding that the crab was certainly too delicious of a prize to not grab for themselves, Siri charges forward, her curve blade cutting against its shell.
"We should go back, now." Siri states, stringing the bow and carrying it in one hand for the moment - she'll need to think about making a carrying case for it when not in use - the snakeskin seemed quite good for that. She makes no comment about the life link to Paulinus, perhaps giving him a dazed look like what he'd told her had gone completely over her head. She's ready to venture back to camp immediately, to get there before dark settles.
Siri has to take a few moments to calm down after the battle ends, but looks particular confused when she checks herself over and realizes that the cuts and scratches she'd endured were all but gone. She didn't remember receiving any healing during the battle - but then again, she tended to block out everything but what she was trying to kill in the red haze of a rage. She humors the others in searching this place for anything useful - the studded leather armor looked usable, but the shortbow was the best discovery by far. The barbarian took it up, testing its draw and ensuring that the wood wasn't warped or rotten. There were a decent number of arrows with it as well - though they would have to be careful of using them all up. The rest didn't concern her much, coins not exactly valuable shipwrecked as they were. "Let's head back now," She tells the group.
Once more Siri's blade flashes as she strikes out against the nearest skeleton. It goes wide again, missing her target.
The raging barbarian continues to howl as she lashes out against the skeletons, her blade whirling around in a deadly arc that nearly takes Aleris' head off behind her, ripping through another of their assailants.
Siri roars as she swings again, trying to tear apart the skeleton that had hit her the most grievously. Her swing is wild, missing by a mile.
When the rusty blade gouged her cheek, the half-elf could contain herself no longer. She roared out, swinging her sword wildly to tear the skeletons apart, attacking with vigor.
Siri doesn't - can't, really - heed Paulinus' advice as she doesn't have a blunt weapon. What she does have is a powerful swing, stepping in and striking the closest one. She strikes heavy, but with a fluid grace that is absent in her anger.
The barbarian frowns as she takes a look around the campsite - it's not been here long, perhaps a few days at the most. She picks up the tricorn hat and the scarves, recognizing them both from the ship. "This must be where the captain and the woman washed up," She says, looking at the nearly faded footprints heading south, back along the slope. That certainly confirms what the tengu had told them. Looking in the direction that Paulinus wanted to go, she thinks for a moment, looking at the sky, before shaking her head. "It will take us five hours to return to camp from here. If we wish to return before dark, we should go now. Tomorrow we can return in the morning and look if you still desire." She tells him.
"I plan to return to my mother's tribe to rally all the Ekujae into an army for the purpose of driving foreigners out of our lands," She tells Aleris in all seriousness, pulling out some dried fruits to nibble on while they wait. "I haven't decided if we will take back Sargava as well. I suppose it depends on what they do with the Aspis." She looks at the cliff face, thinking for a few moments before deciding something. "It's too risky - we're just too high up, and we do not have enough rope with us to make it safer. Mark it on the map, and perhaps we can return later."
"We should break until the temperature lowers," Siri says, taking a rest for now, peering at the wreck. She tries to make out if there's a legible name on the side of it, while also speaking to her fellow survivors. "We could scavenge the wreck for any useful supplies. It's possible not everything inside it is rotten." She says, looking at the others. Her curiosity is slightly piqued now, and with nothing better to do on the wait, she asks a question. "Why were you all traveling on the ship?" She inquires. Terminsel has not participated in any online campaigns. |