>>6283490

'Do WHAT?', you balk, the confusion and nervousness you feel undisguised and clear for your teacher to see. 'Disobeying not only an adult but the Chief no less was unheard of for any pupil...even if you were the Totemist's and soon to be a second ward against the magical things the spirits and some monsters could do'.

As if sensing your feelings your teacher stops cramming all manner of ropes, chalks and cloth into their pack to turn and look into your eyes. Coming down to one knee, she places a hand on your shoulder and one of your hands into her hand. "Promise me child, promise me you will not open that door until the lights of the workshop candles come to life. Promise me!"

At her urging you nod your head dumbly, still trying to make sense of the order and trying to give her some kind of answer. Wholely unaware it was the last time you'd see her that day. That week. That entire month.

The candles had ignited late into the first night and scared you more than the silence had. It was honestly so quiet it made your skin crawl. No sounds of nightbirds, no cries of the bugs during the night, not even the sound of the wind. It was as if the world around you had died.

When she came back, after what felt like an eternity, it was a horrible sight. Whatever it was she'd been called by the Greater Spirits for, whatever dangerous task they'd given her, whatever monster she'd been made to kill, it had left her half of what she used to be. When she finally came back, it was as a withered and limping old woman who seemed as if the smallest touch could send her falling down and kill her. You remember that sight as early as you remember seeing her still holding that pack in one of her bloody hands. It was practically a rag sack. A whole strap looked like it had been cut right apart, the closing flap was more or less just gone and you'd never seen it in such bad shape. She practically took care of it as well as she took care of you and to see it so wrecked.....a hint of fear crawls around in your guts at the way she barely gets through the door before collapsing to her knees.

>>6283491

The Chief is at the door behind her and clutching the letter you'd handed him before running back to the workshop and locking yourself inside. His face is tight and his eyes staring into your teachers back before you excuse yourself and her to close the door to your modest home. You didn't like the look on his face one bit. You didn't like the silence from him and the village heads either.

It was late now. Well past supper before you'd managed to get your teacher to her bed and set her pack beside it. A few times she'd thanked you while you bandaged up her head and bloodied hands but her words were mumbled and her voice weak and it was all you could do not to choke up. She'd practically been your mother all these years since taking you in and seeing her like this felt like too much, but she needed you now, as you needed her. Any thoughts of losing her were banished as you busied yourself doing anything you could to make it feel like you could DO something to help. Even if you only knew how to soak wounds with healing oils and smear slaves to wrap bandages on.

By the time the next morning comes your hands are dyed on the color of the green ointments and blistered from the work and still you haven't rested. How could you rest? You couldn't until your teacher wakes up. You couldn't rest until...

"Child, take a nap. I'll be quite alright now that I've gotten myself home."

....until your teacher, voice croaking with strain and yet the most comforting thing you've heard of in your short life, calls out from across the room while you grind herbs into a fine paste to hopefully help just that little bit more. You look to her and see her on the bed still but her head turned to meet your eyes and you realize then that you're both exhausted to the very bones. Its all you can do not to cry. Perhaps it's because you're still not even at your drinking age but you cry anyways. It feels good, almost as good as it feels to know your teacher is alive and breathing.

"I know it's far later than most pupils earn their own name but you've done a good fine job of taking care of the place and following my instructions while I've been gone. Dry those tears and tell me what my pupil's new name will be, and please, don't go calling yourself whatever muck those brats over at the lodge have been trying to get you to decide on with their brainless advice."

You have nothing to say to that. They did want you to call yourself Slugmunch on a dare. It's clear they were remembering the time you told them you could eat anything your teacher makes. Anything.


Well, young Totemist, your teacher has told you herself she thinks it's time you made a new name for yourself. Such a thing meant you were considered reliable enough to carry a legacy of your own in the village, but what will it be?

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(I hope this quest has caught at least one anons attention and I'll try to do good old Diarca justice. Please suggest a name to fit our new......well we don't even know what gender we are yet do we? Time to fix that too! A name and gender if will. I will also open up voting on where our home village is settled in the world, so please begin voting for one of three choices between the Mountains, Coastline, and Forest. I will call votes once an hour or so is up if we get a lot of votes or simply wait til one gets two or three votes. In honor of respecting the original quest by Diarca I cannot accept the name Osyki.)

>>6283492
Capran Herdson
>>6283493
Mountains male

>>6283502
Glad to see you here anon and thank you for the vote. I'll wait just an hour more and if no other votes or suggestions come up, I'll decide it then

>>6283502
>>6283493
+1 support.

>>6283502
Support

>>6283493
Vaelo Mora
Beach bum Totemist fishing, diving, and boating has a lot of potential for cool spirits/monsters and some cool tools to imbue totems into.

>>6283502
>>6283526
>>6283529
Calling it now, Male and Mountains. As a second name is only earned when you have mastered your job and are ready to take on a pupil of your own, we must hold off on Herdson. Your teacher would poke fun at you for sure if you'd told her you wanted that as your second name. 'Son of the sheep, hmm? How quaint' she'd say.

>>6283542
As it was in the original Totemist Quest, the sea itself is one of the top most dangerous places to ever be settled near and by the spirits the starting of this quest would be set to a much harder difficulty.

The mountains are not to be trespassed, the woods are not to be trusted and the sea is never to be traveled. Immense, ancient and mysterious things make their home and kingdom in the waters.

All shall beware the Great Blackwater Queen, lest her many eyes settle upon you.

As it stands I think the mountains are a good mid point in difficulty. There's a good number of monsters to find skulking around and plenty of gem and ore veins but you'll be experiencing plenty of challenges with the terrain and seasons that will roll in. Consider it a healthy balance! Also, once we get our first spirit bound by pact or by battle I will do my best to keep track of our progress with notes.

I will begin writing now, and I hope everyone has fun with the quest. Happy to have you here!

>>6283492
And so, with a nervous voice you answer her with all the confidence of a child scarcely able to stand from their own exhaustion. You lick your lips and clear your throat. Or try to, it's dry as the rocks during summer. "I want Capran. I want to be named Capran, teacher."

She looks into your eyes a bit longer before looking up at the ceiling of the workshop, staring at none of the tools or cloths hanging from it but somewhere far beyond them. She stays like that for a time, making you even more nervous. Had you said a name she didn't like? Was she perhaps thinking you were actually going to choose a name like Skypiss or whatever other name the lodge boys had dared you to say.....or.....no. She surely hasn't died on the bed did sh----

"A fine name. Capran. Sounds like a good earthy name too and it's easy to say." She finally says and gives a small chuckle which you're glad didn't send her into a cough. "The chief will be glad to hear it too, I think. I'm sure he's been wondering when I'd let you name yourself. Speaking of..."

You're a bit surprised when she gets herself to sit up with only so much as a light grunt and you almost dart over to make sure she won't fall over before you calm yourself. This is a grown woman and in her prime. Babying her would only have her wave you off and she's much too proud to have you do it now that's she's able to be up.

"Be sure to go up the mountain to the Chief's Hall and let them know I'm awake again. I imagine they've all been pacing around with their minds in horrible places wondering who's going to defend the village from the worst of the monsters and highest of spirits. Blood and Souls they've probably settled on the idea of it being my pupil who wouldn't even have been allowed to choose their own name if I wasn't here to give you the honor. Well no matter, go and tell them the good news."

You stand there a moment before nodding and grab a hood while you head towards the door. It looks like there'll be rain today, judging by the cylindrical glass totem your teacher had placed on the doorframe to show the forecast. A light drizzle but you'd best have a good on for it all the same.

>>6283565
On your way you spot several villagers peering out at you from their windows. They've been dropping off small foodstuffs at the door for you while your teacher had been absent off doing what work the spirits called her for. Many likely didn't understand the scope of what a Totemist's daily life was like but they knew full well what your teacher had fought off and how spectacular it had been. Cliff Gliders had swarmed around during the last harvest season and there had been far too many for the guards to go against but thanks to her and that incredible lightning she'd thrown about freely it had all been a crisis easily beaten. Or that Bone Warden. Spirits above you could still see that things many, many ribs twitching as it stretched it's long body along the village wall and how it scraped its claws around as if looking for a way to crack the ward shielding everyone inside. Aughh the way it stared at you like how the birds stare at the mice.

A few of the villagers wave at you and let out a sigh of relief and you return the wave as you make your way up the stone road to the Chief's Hall despite your tired legs. Which doesn't take long thankfully. Your teacher had built her home close enough to the place that you believed it was so she didn't have to go up too far to deliver news or be in meetings with them all. 'Best to see people face to face if you can and it's a short trip', or so you've heard her say. Definitely not because she'd rather not have to hike up halfway or more the length of the village to get to it. Certainly not.

Cont/

>>6283575
As you reach the doors to the Chief's Hall you realize you still hasn't even rested since yesterday, which droops your shoulders a bit, but this is important business and your teacher gave you a task. You stand up straight and put some pride in your back and reach out to open the door. You wish you hadn't soon after.

There, all sitting around the meeting chair, all loudly going on about how vulnerable the village is and how the defense against spirits and magical monsters is now left up to you, are the heads of the village. Harell of the farmers is of course one of the calmest of them and you'd never once seen him raise his voice in any anger, but he's right beside Khorth who leads the miners who has his mouth firmly shut. The two men are looking dead at Pawtur and Brusk, the leaders of the day and night patrol guard respectively, who are there with their hands flat on the table and faces red. You can tell they're the most worried. Everyone knows that the guards have no real way of combatting swarms of monsters nor a single bone warden without unacceptable losses on their side. That swarm of Cliff Gliders didn't just total a few dozen. It was practically an entire cliff worth of nests all at once and those things have the worst kind d hooks to grab on and rip into you. They're serrated in such a way as to make removing the claws a gruesome thing to see and two per man is more than enough to be a catastrophe for even the guards. The nasty things like to gang up on people and get them tired from running away.

Then there's the dye shop leader Fauntine with her voice at a loud growl. You like her, she helped you plenty of time with getting good materials for the Totemist lessons on making good marking paints, and here she is voicing her opinion that, if things are so bleak, it's time the village was able to negotiate with the Greater Spirits of allowing the guard access to weapons able to better fight off the magical monsters with. She'd asked for it to be brought up to the Greater Spirits before when her husband of the Day Guards came back to her with a good few Glider claws stuck in his arms after the swarm. Your teacher had taken a good hour or so talking to her and explaining that she had already mentioned that both cycles of guards needed that power but she couldn't give it to them until she had explicit permission to. You never did her it was given at any time in the four years since then.

Cont/

>>6283578
Several more heads are there all voicing their feelings on the matter but they soon become silent as they notice you standing there. Bloodshot eyes, tired beyond anything you've ever felt and looking at them without so much as a word spoken, until...

"Shes awake now. Tired, bandaged as best as I could do, but she's awake. I think she'd tell them to go away and leave her be if you sent anyone to check on her, but please have someone come. I'm not a good doctor. I don't even think I got the healing slaves on how I'm supposed to."

It's Brusk who speaks first after a quick cough now that everyone had realized a child had seen them all worried sick. Some of the leaders look as tired as you are beginning to feel but it's Brusk who's got the room to speak and you can tell he's not going to waste time. "Thank you, boy, you did well to take care of her. Go on back and I'll be asking for your teacher to be given priority by the guard doctors themselves."

That was good. The guard doctors see the nastiest injuries and know how to make sure someone is in excellent shape before they let their patient so much as stand. You look to him and straighten up your back just a bit more.

"I've been given the honor of my first name by my teacher. I'm Capran now. First of the name. Thank you Guard Captain Brusk, I'll be heading back to her now and let her know she'll be seen by the guard doctors."

With you both exchanging a nod, and a bow to the village chief himself, you turn and head to the woman who raised and taught you all these years. A small fear returns to your gut that when you enter the workshop it'll be to the sight of her laying there dead and eyes empty of life but as you finally reach it....you hear a whisper that seems oddly loud coming from further in where you left your teacher. Slowly and as quietly as you can, with all the grace that only a naive child could be gifted with, you tiptoe closer and closer until you peek through a doorway and see your teacher sitting up just like she was when you left.

And in front of her stands a Lady of the Peaks.

She looks to you now, having apparently finished whatever message or conversation she held with your teacher and gives a tiny smile that makes her seem like she's got a secret she just can't wait to tell someone. With a voice as clear as the bells and as gentle as the breeze she asks you a simple question. "Ah, hello there young Totemist, I hear you've been allowed to choose your own name! Would you be a dear and introduce yourself? It's not every day I meet a new Totemist who's earned themselves the honor while their teacher still walks the land."

>How will you introduce yourself to this Lady of the Peaks, who's come down from the highest mountain tops to meet with you both no less?

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>>6283593
(Btw let me know if updates are a bit too wordy, I can slim it down a bit but I'm under the assumption anons like a bit of meat to updates)

Its pretty late in the states right now so I'll be back tomorrow probably around morning. In the future I'm thinking of keeping votes set to an hour or would you anons prefer it being shorter? My time is pretty free on Fridays and Saturdays 10am est but I can very likely get some time set aside Tuesdays and Thursdays at about 7pm est.

If any anons happen to know about the original Totemist Quest I would appreciate it if anyone could grab the old crafting table files and also someone who knows how to archive quests. I admit this is my first quest and I'm awful about things like that

>>6283593
I am named Capran. It's not every day I get to to meet a lady of the mountain, new name or not.

>>6283638
Archived threads (most of them)
https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=Diarca
Binder's Log
https://pastebin.com/XvvRSk4W

>>6283757
>>6283758
Since no other anons have voted and I want to get to the juicy parts of the quest, bindings and huntings and such, I'm going to call the vote here. Also thank you very much anon for both the archive and the binders log

Writing now

>>6283593

You know for sure that the spirits, much more a Lady of the Peak herself, do love their good manners. This is important and not just because of her high status on the local spirit hierarchy. It just wouldn't be right to embarrass your teacher because you sputtered out an introduction like some little baby. You're a man now and you've got to put that first and foremost in your mind.

"I am named Capran," comes your own voice with a surprising level of certainty you didn't quite feel at the moment, your bow going low for a second before you remember a big lesson your teacher gave you about Totemists once they are of age. Never bow low, you might work to keep both the world of humans and of spirits safe but you are never their inferior. Bow with modesty not servitude. "It's not every day I get to to meet a lady of the mountain, new name or not"

A moment passes and just as you think you might have blown the introduction you hear the Lady of the Peak let out a giggle that sounds more like the sound of crystals tapping each other. She looks at you with her bright yellow eyes and tilts forward in a small little bow of her own. Good. You didn't screw it up.

"I think he's gonna make it far, don't you Earest?" You teacher says with a small little chuckle as well, "Now I think he'd like to hear what you've told me earlier, just try not to make him faint"

Cont/

>>6283784

"Oh sure, just get down to business then, not like I've left my own peak to come here to see your ragged ass laying on a bed. The other Ladies are fussing around by the way, hardly anything new but now they've gone and worried up a heavy wind that's hitting my peak as if I shouldn't send one of my own right back at th--"

"Earest. The news, please and thank you"

The Lady, Earest, scoffs a little and waves her arm in a circle before producing a scroll of what looks to be hawk feathers flattened into the fashion of paper and begins to read from it. "Yes yes, sure. Spoil all my fun and I can't even vent a bit of air on here to keep the mood light. You big tit."

You just stand there, staring at the scroll and the Lady like a clueless lamb. Herdson indeed. You already feel like it'll be a name that suits you when you're a full fledged man.

"As recompense for your excellent work in honor of pact between man and spirit, owing the safety of the four far and high Peaks to you, we Great Spirits of Rain, Wind, Snow and Cloud do hereby, with grace and sovereignty.....by the winds of the north itself this reads like some pretentious shit Oranya, I never would have written half of--"

"Then get to the good parts you breezy tart," interrupts your teacher with a huff.

"Oh goodie I'll just skip to the end, love you too by the way". You can't quite make any sense of this. You were told the Greater Spirits were all about manners but here you are watching dumbly while she and your teacher go at each other like...like old friends. Well that makes the puzzle fit together a little better you suppose. The Lady Earest continues. "You have been given the gift of all winds far and wide of the Peaks and in acknowledgement of your role as a teacher of the future Totemists among other things, not the least of which was fighting off a pair of Avatars before striking a Behemoth down on orders from the other Ladies. Fine work as well too, other spirit courts are sending huge thanks for stopping it and we've gotten a bit of power from that. Good that they all know that horrible thing would have flattened their mountains if not for you. Anyways, consider this a free pass for any four requests no matter what as long as it isn't outside of our power and interests. And your protege here gets his own request too, as an extra thank you to butter him up for when he'll eventually have to deal with those crones from the other sides of the mountains."

Well now. This was a much bigger deal than you really knew about. A Behemoth? Somewhere close to the Peaks? It would have annihilated your entire village and anything surrounding it with all the ease of you taking a step down the stone roads.

Cont

>>6283798
Alright anons it's time to get your first look at the real fun parts of Totemist life. GETTING FOCI. Foci are essential tools for your work, they will be what you bond spirits to, whether those be of feral monsters or pacts you negotiate. So choose one and don't be afraid of losing out on anything immense. The spirits know you just barely have your own name now so they didn't send some kind of murderous avatar tightly sealed into an heirloom like only some kind of madman would.


>The obsidian black talon of a Rending Drake youngling. While nowhere near the size of an adults talon, it is still as long as your hand and would be a fantastic weapon Foci.

>A sturdy cylinder of spun skymetal. It is cool to the touch and looks more like a tube of spiderwebs than anything else. It fits quite well in your hand too!

>A cloak of Morning Windmoth wings. This usually takes a whole season to harvest enough to make a cloak out of and carefully putting it together takes another to boot. Once it's made, it's just as durable as any master craftsman could make regardless of the skill fo the maker. Quite magical!

For the sake of fun and creativity I want you anons to consider this as your starting weapon that could likely be with you during most of the quest. Your first foci is your most familiar after all and it's a sure safety any Totemist should bring along

>>6283801
>A cloak of Morning Windmoth wings. This usually takes a whole season to harvest enough to make a cloak out of and carefully putting it together takes another to boot. Once it's made, it's just as durable as any master craftsman could make regardless of the skill fo the maker. Quite magical!
I love this one, I also liked the Talon but for what little we know of Carpran's personality, I think it fits him more

>>6283801
>The obsidian black talon of a Rending Drake youngling. While nowhere near the size of an adults talon, it is still as long as your hand and would be a fantastic weapon Foci.

>>6283801
>A cloak of Morning Windmoth wings. This usually takes a whole season to harvest enough to make a cloak out of and carefully putting it together takes another to boot. Once it's made, it's just as durable as any master craftsman could make regardless of the skill of the maker. Quite magical

Windmoth cloak wins.

Writin

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You muster up what sense you've got and stop gawking like some toddler staring at the wind chimes in a stupor. You were taught better than that and with a flush of embarrassment you clear your throat and speak your request.

"Lady Earest, a cloak of you can grant me one. My teacher has told me the Ladies are served by the fluttering people of the valleys and I would really like something to wear that's majestic and cool and...." You cough again, getting your excitement under control. Today has been a swing of emotions and it's hard to reign it all in for this enormous gift. "And I think it would be an excellent thing to wear to mark my coming of age."

With the raising of her eyebrow, Lady Earest tilts her head a little and stares at you a bit, then steps to walk around you, giving you a look over with all the curiosity of someone perusing a shop for something they like. She circles once, twice, then steps away and looks at you again.

"A fine silver tongue this one's got, huh, Oranya? Barely halfway into his second decade and he's got the kind of words that probably sweep even the glittering fairies off their feet of they'd land on something solid. Nice. Keep him away from the Aerites would you? I don't want him getting dragged off to their parties."

"Lot of good that'll do, he's probably gonna be their pact made consort the damn minute he speaks."

"Ooh and wouldn't that be an adventure, all gilded and golden and hauled off to their bedr--"

"Alright, alright, enough of that, he's not even sixteen yet and I bet he'll be a world of trouble for the courts once he's done with his training at twenty."

"Mmm, yes. Indeed. Anyways, a cloak? A taste for fashion. Good." Earest seems a bit pleased with herself for some reason you don't fully understand but she circles her arm again and....wow.

She produces one of the finest cloaks you've seen. Its shimmering to the eyes and entirely made of the most beautifully white feathers probably any man has laid his eyes on. She holds it out to you expectantly and you reach out to receive it....

And no sooner has your hand so much as brushed the fabric when it flashes a horribly bright light that half blinds you and causes you to let out a small yelp. Damn it you forgot all about how Foci made from the spirits will conform to humans.

In the end when you finally blink the spots out of your vision, your feathered cloak has shifted into something large and, thinking up a word on the spot, kingly? Courtley? It looks fancy you'll give it that.

"Whoa."

Earest and your teacher look at each other with a grin. Maybe some kind of joke was there but you don't know for sure and you can't quite be up to guess at the moment.

Cont

>>6283875
You hold it in your hands now with a bit of struggle. Its huge! Clearly bigger than you are and it seems this foci knows you're not quite ready to wield it yet. Magical items made by the spirits sure do have a lot going for them. You wanted to wear it now though, you think. Oh well. Its still an awesome cool gift!

"Many many thanks, Lady Earest of the Peaks, I will treasure it forever!"

"Aww look at this, he's all giddy for his first Foci," your teacher says with the kind of smug grin you only see from her when there's some kind of bet she's won, "and here I was thinking he'd go right for the drake talon and wave it around like some kind of sword of legend. Nearly lost our little wager but I told you, Earest, I told you he'd want to look good. Glad I asked you to prepare the three gifts for him to choose. Looks like he'll have to grow into it though."

"Of course, he's still got to take in the primal Spark now doesn't he?" Earest sends a knowing look and a smirk at your teacher. So there WAS a bet then. Also....you'd forgotten about the Spark. Seems your days ahead are going to be very busy. "Well then I think it's time I flew back up to my mountain top. Cant let the girls be left alone even I they can handle it for a few days. Goodbye for now!"

"Yeah head on back up and I'll just lay here like some errands girl after a hard day's work. You tell those other Ladies to fork over the other half of the pact. I'm not going anywhere and I know they aren't either."

Laughing a bit and walking to the door, the Lady Earest lifts off the ground a little and gently flies out of the workshop and zips off towards the tip of the south mountain she rules. A little part of you wonders if the cloak Foci could let you fly like that too! You hold the cloak a little tighter, as if doing it will grant you that power just from wishing for it. "I can't wait...!"

You see your teacher give you a long look with the smile she still has and lays back down on her bed without so much as a grunt. Just in time for the doctors to arrive with a knock on the door and you have them come inside to meet with her. They give her a quick look over, paying special attention to her hands, and then carefully undoing all the bandages you'd wrapped her in with the care only a doctor can. "Capran I think it's time you give me and these good doctors some space. Head to your room and get some well deserved sleep. You'll need it for tomorrow."

Nodding as you head out, you steal a glance back at her and see them undo the bandages of her left hand. It's.... nowhere near as bad as it had been when you first applied them but you can still see the awful red scars forming. You're out the door and into your bedroom where you collapse onto your sheets and pillow, dead asleep before you can even think to kick your shoes off.

Cont/

>>6283891

It was now some years since that day your teacher had dragged her body up to the workshop and set your mind at ease. Some years since you got your new name and some years since your teacher held the ritual to imbue you with a Spark of a Behemoth. The memory chills you a bit. You knew it would be a serious thing but you didn't really know how it would feel as the incredible force a Behemoth Spark entered your body to give you a way into the true Totemists pact and take your place as a member of the guards of the Worlds Between. It still chills you but it also gives you that blooming sensation of pride and excitement. Years later and you still smile as you look over to the cloak you were gifted by none other than the Lady Earest of the Peaks herself! It fit now too! Better late than never you suppose. With that feeling of cold and warmth mixing in your mind you get to waking up for the morning and hear your teacher in the workshop with all manner of curses flowing out of her mouth as she must be working on new Foci. You wonder, what idea has she got now? Maybe it's another net caster design, the last one had snapped and covered the entire ceiling of the workshop in a sticky web you both hand to use broom handles to clean off. You really hope it's not another web net caster. Or maybe it's something to ward off the drakes further away from the village. Last year they damn things had slammed right into the magical shielding around the village and when one hits something the rest just have to go see what dared to block one of their own. Teacher had thrown a great spear of ice at the flock and nailed two or three to the cliff face closest to the village. They'd learned better to get close to the village by now or they'd all be pinned to the rocks with more ice.

You step into the workshop after dressing yourself and stare at your teacher reading from some scroll you recognize as being one of the same Lady Earest had all that time ago. Oh boy.

"Impatient, haughty lot of spirits they are Capran," she says with a drip of venom in her voice and tosses the scroll aside and it vanishes. "Looks like they think I'm taking too long to get you up to a proper state in your arts. Pah! And impatience is suppose to be a human trait or so they say."

Wisely, you remind her that you've had your spark a good four years now and the cloak had started to fit at long last. She'd tell you off for being full of yourself. Good old teacher. You're glad she never seemed to change.

"And I've heard they want you to begin hunting, like you're some errands boy of theirs to give orders to, not even bothering to send a scroll to you as well. Nope! Just the one. To me, telling me I'm taking too long. Breezy little uppity-"

A chuckle, which earns you a stare from your teacher, and you try to put her at ease.

"Not like I haven't been living here for years and we both know I wouldn't miss a day of lessons."

Roll 1d10 to help your teacher settle down. 8 is the goal

Rolled 7 (1d10)

>>6283911

Rolled 6 (1d10)

>>6283911
Bo3?

>>6283916
I'll take best of 3, sure, and thank you. Still learning the ropes

Rolled 2 (1d10)

>>6283911

>>6283913
>>6283916
>>6283933

You can see it in her eyes, clear as the day sky itself. She's not having it.

"Load of shit." She curses as easily as you breathe sometimes, a skill you're not sure you should really learn from her. "You think I didn't catch wind of you sneaking off to see Harell's daughter over by the mill? You're a smooth talker but you should make sure I don't hear about you almost shirking off lessons. You're lucky you made it here on time after he caught you both holding hands like lovestruck goofs."

On second thought maybe learning to curse would be great. Busted.

"...y'know what, I suppose they should do themselves a favor and mind their own business. You're the teacher."

She lets out a huff of amusement and eyes her old pack. Repaired after what took over a month of searching for material to use, it's seen better days but it's been mended with great care. She barely spoke of whatever kind of Behemoth she'd faced that day of the battle and you hadn't gotten an answer out of her when asked so you'd left it alone. Couldn't have been pretty, whatever it was. "Smooth, Capran, very smooth. Excellent recovery if I do say so myself. Maybe it IS time to move on to a real hunt. Not the Rocky Goat hunts you join the day guard for or the Cliff Bats with the night guard, but a real feral spirit hunt....to get you your first binding set. I'll be coming with you. Can't let you have all the fun after all. Neither can I let you go alone and end up blundering your way into the jaws of whatever nasty little beast thinks a Totemists pupil is a morsel to enjoy."

Hmm. Well you would be stupid to say no at this point. She'll probably splatter any real challenge along the rocks and have you start off easy. Probably land yourself a Slate Crawler if you're lucky enough.

Nah. You'll end up with something easy. Most likely nothing that could be a serious danger to you, which you do crave these days, but just as much of a balanced fight as she can find for you. You wish she'd let you push yourself a bit more.

"I think I'd taste terrible. I'm practically dusting myself with thistle powder every other day and I know that smells as bad to the wildlife as it does me."

Your teacher strides over to her pack and slips it on with ease. No twitching of her hands or fumbling fingers these days. She'd made a full recovery over the previous two winters and she almost seemed to dive into her work as if making up for lost time. Totems and foci and all sorts of little inventions had begin to clutter the workshop and you both take time every other day to sort through the mess.

She starts packing with her back to you, not once slowing down as she gathers her ivory wood cane and essentials, "I think these spirits might be on to something. You're starting your second decade after all, and as much as the other boys have grown into men of their fields, I know you're itching to prove yourself. so where are we off to, young man?

>>6283947
To start our new day off under the tutelage of your watchful teacher's eye, you'll be given the choice of somewhere along the nearby mountain range close to the village. Surprises are available anywhere you go and each area has its own spirits, monsters, and treasures to find. Even low rolls for this will land you some curatives at least and little things to grab on your way. High rolls and low rolls don't mean just the quantity and quality either. Both hold dangers to you and I'm sure your teacher would love to see you have a good "middle ground" exploration today.

I will take the majority vote on location and the highest or lowest score for it.

Try to disappoint her a bit so you can get some excitement!

>Cliff face. You know boulder mimics like to settle around the bottom and you hope you can snag one for your first binding.

>Valley streams. Sometimes a hotspot for monsters and spirits alike to travel as a route. Now and then you see thunderhorn elk grazing near it.

>Near the old mines. These had been emptied of ores and sealed tight but that just means some beasts try all the harder to open them up to make a nest. Like those nasty steelweb spiders. Augh.

>Higher ranges of the mountain. C'mon you wanna head further up the mountain and see what new things you can find! Your teacher is with you so you'll be fine.

I'll give anons an hour from now

>>6283957
>Valley streams. Sometimes a hotspot for monsters and spirits alike to travel as a route. Now and then you see thunderhorn elk grazing near it.

>>6283957
>>6283961
One day I'll remember to mention specifics.

Please roll a 1d100 everyone.

Rolled 26 (1d100)

>>6283963

>>6283961
>>6283964
Location vote and also a 1d100 together please, my apologies for not being more clear about this

Rolled 59 (1d100)

>>6283963

Rolled 17 (1d100)

>>6283961

Rolled 42 (1d100)

>>6283957
>Valley streams. Sometimes a hotspot for monsters and spirits alike to travel as a route. Now and then you see thunderhorn elk grazing near it.
I want some royal Thunderhorn Elk mount for Capran, come on baby! Give me the success crit!

>>6283961
>>6283964
>>6283971
>>6283977
>>6283980

Mmm. Wonderfully safe, as all things should be.

Writing.

Don't be discouraged anons, you've successfully avoided giving your teacher the heart attack of seeing something crazy happen.

Writing soon, a few errands come first, but I'll be giving an update soon enough

You can't shake the feeling that things are going too well.

Not for you, there hadn't been so much as a hint of danger anywhere and even the thunderhorn elk had only young males leading them today. Scarcely even a foot of antler on any of them despite this being the rutting season where they'd usually be blasting at each other to secure their place as the new leader or maintaining their power. The constant presence of Lord Hawks were also missing, just some cloud spirits lazing about on the horizon were the best things to find. No real excuse to let all this energy out now that you'd finally gotten the chance to go for your first feral binding...and it chaffed at you a bit. Maybe the stream roaming spirits themselves had some hint at where the big game had gone off to but they just dozed around and shrugged when you asked.

'No, not so much as a peep from those lightning pests and no screeching from the birds. It's been a lovely, peaceful day,' one had replied.

Your teacher thought it was odd too. Odd, but safe and she made sure to tell you it was good that way. Anything but another behemoth roaming around the rim of the mountain pass again.

Not much argument there of course. No idiot wishes for a behemoth. You wanted to find something promising though but you guess today just isn't it. A good share of water polished circular rocks as gifts from the stream spirits for checking around the valley for trouble and some well wishes. At least the rocks did look nice and very useful for seeing-stone totems.

"It can't always be chaos and flashy crafting," notes your teacher with a smirk unhidden on her face as she scans the valley for signs of anything that her practiced eye might pick up on, "but at least we got ourselves a good two dozen stream stones. We can use them to buffer up the wards a bit, drive off a few pests and whatnot that keep wandering around the village."

With a nod and a shrug you just make your way alongside her.

Cont

>>6284036
Maybe it's just a small consolation prize from the world but you did end up nabbing a round Blue Chipeep. It wouldn't do any good for your Foci but at least the eggs it lays constantly will keep you fed. The thing was a foot tall so it was bound to be good for that from what you were told by your teacher. With stones and bird you make your way back to the village, careful not to grumble about your back luck or make it too clear from your body language, and set the caged bird within the workshop and the stones on the crafting table where you both began to fiddle around with totems. Maybe this would end up fun?

Alright anons, it's time for some good old totem crafting! Well do best of three, highest roll wins. Feel free to ask questions about the properties of the stones, wards, their uses and anything else. I'll give it an hour and then begin writing

>>6284043
What materials do we have aside from the stones and the bird? And what does the bird itself do?

>>6284047
The birds somehow survived long enough to start nesting every year and are basically the equivalent of cute but constantly chirping round chickens. They are, for all intents and purposes, your alarm clock, free pillow stuffing, source of eggs for breakfast, and all around prey animal for too many monsters and wildlife you could care to name.

Your teacher keeps a healthy few boxes of other stones as well. None quite as perfectly circular and polished as a stream stone usually is but she's collected a nice hoard of gems around the mountains and old mines. Plenty of threads and rope, herbs galore, and her dyes and paints are fully stocked. It's a well maintained and well kept workshop storage that you can freely use. With supervision.

You can't make high powered totems with what you've got on you right now as the real good stuff requires a better hand at crafting than what you do. For now.

>>6284052
>Blue Chipeep Alarm System Totem: With a "Magical cord" you can surround an area, and once a creature (mundane or magical" steps on it, the stone vibrates or "chirps" to signal someone entered the area.

The idea is to put this central Totem and the "magical cords" comes out of it. The cords are made of energy and once this is disturbed they signal the silent alarm of the magical stone.

It could serve for hunting or just for house security

Don't forget to roll with your suggestions anons.

Rolled 34 (1d100)

>>6284061
Oops

Because theres only one vote and roll so far I'll leave it open for another hour then call it. I'm hoping that'll give enough time for more anons to vote so more voiced can be heard

>>6284084
If this is your first quest, don't be sad anon! These things happen with new quests, people usually don't participate in new quest unless they are from certain aesthetic or genres, and because most quest could go perfectly good for the first thread and die without the QM appearing again.

If you're serious about your quest just keep on being diligent and people will notice it and then participate (and these things happen with the quest that had been running for years)

>>6284086
Yeah I figured I'd try my hand at a pokemon quest first to get attention and learn through osmosis but I felt the craving to make Totemist quest. Thank you for the kind words and I might just end up cutting the time short and going with whatever we have in......17 minutes

Rolled 18 (1d100)

>>6284089
In that case, because I think it would be good to fool around with it

>Blue Chirpeep Presence Totem: When placed and activated, slowly the place starts to shift and transform as if real Blue Chirpeep were present on the area of effect (It starts with the sound of Blue Chirpeeps, then ground take shape as if there's been Blue Chirpeep walking around, them the smell of Blue Chirpeep until it's could be a realistic replica of Blue Chirpeep presence on the area)

>>6284061
>>6284066
>>6284090
Gotcha, I've been called for some quick work which should only take an hour so I'll be writing once I've finished

Steady work sees you together at the table, sorting the stones by size and thickness. You won't be doing anything to smoothen them out further but a quick drill with a small thin tube your teacher had the smiths make gets a clean narrow hole through the center where you thread some string into and tie off to make a charm to hang off hooks places evenly around the village wall. Easy, simple, stable work that isn't too powerful but an idea strikes you as you poke your fifth string through the hole.

'what if you just...added a little something personal?' whispered your own voice in that bored mind of yours. 'what if you had a little fun?'

A little grin comes to your face as you look at the Chipeep. Already gorging it's horrible appetite on seeds and grains from failed crops your teacher had paid for with totem charms to ward off a new invasive insect that just couldn't help but think the farmland was a free meal for life. Maybe just a few feathers. It may have been wandering out alone like easy pickings for larger predators but hey, work is work and no house is free.

You look at your teacher with a twinkle in your eye and she catches it in an instant. "Got a little idea, have you? Go on then, and don't go wasting any of the stones for something ridiculous like self launching discs. I'll not have some farm workers taken shots at by stones that toss themselves."

You hadn't had such a devious idea but you let a little bit of childishness off the leash and store that as a plan for an actual totem weapon. Some kind of slingshot? Disc shot? Oooooh, that sounded really painful. It'll make an excellent weapon! "No," you promise quickly, "that won't be happening to any villagers if I can help it."

"Good. You ever make something like that, you aim it right at a monster and nothing else...or I'll make sure to tell Harell and his daughter you made it yourself without my guidance."

You turn to her with an incredulous look she can't help but laugh at. She'll be using the knowledge of you and Harell's daughter as her ace in the hole for who knows how long. You certainly are learning from the best. "If it helps, I'll be sure to try getting some thunderhorn foci mixed into it. They'll call me thunder slinger Capran mark my words. It'll take a good show like you made with the swarm last time but I'll have a title and everything."

"Try not to zap yourself first off. Can't have you blowing yourself up before you even get a taste of serious Totemist work." Teacher seemed to be in a very good mood today, if her joking was anything to go off, and she motioned for you to stand closer. "Now that's all said and over with, why don't you tell me your little plan."

You go about drawing up plans and a little something that had popped into your mind and she hums while you explain. She didn't offer many pointers, letting you go into detail about a little alarm totem that wouldn't scare the villagers to death. Harmless and helpful.

>>6284120
Its....not your best work. Its a bit rough, warbles through the chirping sounds a Chipeep usually makes as if it had hit the mead a bit hard recently but for a first go at it...you'd say it could still use work but teacher Oranya shrugs and sets it aside to help you go over your notes and plans. She says it's a nice idea to make something that isn't a siren that spooks the whole village and it'll be most useful for the nannies to ensure none of the children try sneaking out of the raising house late at night to chase lantern flies.

>You have made a pair of Chipeep alarms! (Low quality)

She takes charge of making the stone wards for the village wall and ends up with an even two dozen excellent wards. You wonder if she's showing off a little. Surely not.

>Oranya has successfully made two dozen streamstone mirror ward totems! (Master quality)

Okay....maybe a little.

"Oh don't mind it, Capran," she says and heads out the door to place them all where the hooks would hold them until it was time to replace those as well. "Can't tell you I've ever heard of any apprentice Totemist making a perfect totem out of a new plan, so no loss."

Shes gone for a half hour before an itchy thought makes you doubt what she said. No Totemist apprentice ever made a perfect totem out of a new plan....? What other Totemists did she know anyways? As far as you'd ever gotten from her, no other totemists even existed near the mountains, maybe even in the entire land as far as you could see from the peak. There's a lonely feeling now you can't shake. No other totemists. You wonder how many behemoths must be roaming around in the far lands. What manner of horrible things must be out there, crawling through the earth, slithering in rotten pits, claiming immense amounts of land as their nests. Good thing your teacher can ward them off, but you remember how her hands had looked more like sliced up meaty bits than a full hand. Yes, ward them off. At a price.

>>6284123
You begin cleaning up after your little crafting session and hear a familiar chirping from one of the draft models you'd made. Something to maybe act as bait for the things that hunt Chipeep regularly, Lord Hawks and the like, and realize you had set it aside for later work. It was just a tiny wooden doll made to resemble a real Blue Chipeep, but it would start making tracks and sounds around it as bait for predators. Well. It works as intended. Needs more work, it's terribly quiet and just leaves small scratches around it, but it works.

>You have made a single Chipeep presence totem! (Poor quality)

Maybe the kids of the raising house would like it as a present.

You must have been lost in thought longer than you realized but your teacher returns with a small sack of fruits and herbs no doubt given to her by the villagers. Ooh! There's the smell of moonberry coming from the sack so looks like you'll be enjoying a good jam soon enough! You wash up, set the table, help with the cooking and get a small swat from your teacher as you steal a small nibble of the stew before it's even in a bowl on the table.

"You little cretin, just wait a bit and you'll have a whole bowl!"

Dinner is a short and sweet meal and once you go over your notes together with teacher yet again, you both tuck in for the night and rest up before dawn.

------------------

Dawn doesn't greet you when you wake up. It's the sound of gale winds slamming into the village shielding wards and sending a low rumble through the night. Everyone is up out of their homes and staring at the hundreds of flying beasts and spirits desperately fleeing the upper ranges of the mountains. Everyone sees hawk, drake, night flyers, wind fairies and all hooting and squawking and shrieking as they go full speed away from the clouds beginning to form angrily at all four peaks. You look away from it yourself and see teacher standing there, silent as stone, eyes locked on the sky. You feel it then. A spreading chill that somehow gets through the wards and seems to make you feel less like the mountains are your home and more that your home has all the qualities of collateral damage.

Finally Oranya speaks and it clears your head a bit. "Capran. Get my sack and cane. Now"

You don't waste a moment. You've gotten it all together and ran right back out of the workshop door to see her there, arm back and ready to launch a spear of bright electrical death at something she sees in the air and the wind just

stops

and your teachers arm snaps forward to send that crackling spear right into the body of a beast that you were told you'd never see at the peaks in your whole life.

There it was. It was dropping out of the sky with all the grace of a doll falling to the ground. A spirits damned dragon. A Dragon![/I]

The villagers freaked, and you did too a bit. Everyone knew what it meant for dragons to be up here on the mountains when the pact still held between Totemist and spirits in this land.

Cont

>>6284145
It lands hard on the ground outside the village and twitches it's massive body once. An undignified death for a creature that could wipe your village out of it didn't have a Totemist master as its first and last line of defense against these sorts of things.

Teacher Oranya swings her arm back to summon another lightning spear and scans around the skies like a hunter looking for their mark but seems to come up with no target in need of new holes.

No more dragons. Just the slowly returning sound of the mountain wind, at long last. It must mean the spirits had dealt with whatever else had been around the mountain range.

You and your teacher just keep yourselves in that combat focus until the light of the sun fully rises above the mountains and none too soon. Your shoulders slump and you breathe deep of the morning air while teacher Oranya gets to work calling upon all of the totems she can to get answers. You don't hear much but what bits you can pick up it seems as if the western Lady of the Peak had been swatting down a large dragon which felt her peak specifically should be it's new home and damn whoever or whatever had been there first. Just as a dragon would do. Other peaks were reporting a dragon youngling or two flying too close and earning themselves a blast from their ruling Lady and being thrown off the mountainside for their troubles. No deaths, no motives known yet, and no sign of more to come.

Still. Teacher Oranya had that serious look you recall on her face before she went to go chase the Behemoth off. This wasn't over quite yet. Once she ended the final call through her totems she took a deep and steadying breath to find her center...and turned to you.

"Damned spirits and their advice," she curses and spits. "They were right. I'm taking too long to train you up and if these greedy lizards are breaking pacts honored by their nest leader himself just to get their own territory then there's no telling when this shit will happen again. Get back to bed and rest well because we go hunting at noon. Back to the valley. You'll have your first feral binding by tomorrow night one way or another. Go. Now!"

No words come from your mouth. Teacher was serious and you knew better than to go against her now of all times.

You get a few hours more of sleep, tired to the point of just flopping into your bed again like all you had five years ago, when your new little Blue Chipeep wakes you up almost as soon as your teacher comes into your room.

"Gear up quickly. If there's any luck today it'll be best to get out there and hunt whatever might be picking at the dragon youngling corpses down at the bottom of the mountainside."

You grab your gifted cloak from years past, from Lady Earest no less, and throw it on and bring the barest gear needed. You'd travel light to move fast.

(Inventory: 2 ropes, chalk set, paint and brush, hammer, knife and large empty sack for collecting materials and Foci.)

>>6284145
>>6284163

Anons, it's time to return to the hunt and you'll be getting some nice bonuses to it this time around.

Teacher Oranyas knowledge and experience of both mountain ange and hunting down feral spirits will add a +20 bonus to your rolls.

I need a best of three rolls.
1d100
The higher the better this time.

>Also is it just me or is captcha slow to load now?

Rolled 10 (1d100)

>>6284164
LET'S GO BABY THIS IS THE TIME, CRIT SUCCESS ON THIS MF

File: 7545a08f-b4e0-4ef0-ad75-c(...).png (124 KB, 920x920)

124 KB PNG

May Chipeep bless your ro---

In the interest of getting high rolls I will allow each anon two chances. We have time for that. I'll call it at... 10:20pm est, so half an hour from now

Rolled 96 (1d100)

>>6284165
THIS IS IT, THIS IS THE 100 SUCCESS BABY, ITS TIME

File: dfksnpc-2368a362-93a5-441(...).gif (1.08 MB, 360x268)

1.08 MB GIF

Rolled 95 (1d100)

>>6284183
Hoooolyyy shiiiiiiiit

I'll roll again in case other anons are still lurking or aren't here, just so you don't stay with only 2 rolls qm

>>6284183
>>6284184

>This pleases the bird. Chipeep shall remember this for the days to come.
>Welcome to the critical hunt score range. Stand by while I grab references and make a short list of encounters for the critical zone

You think back to the early days of your training under teacher Oranya, between lessons on etiquette for spiritual court attendance, material and spiritual synergies to prepare for Foci crafting, aether harmonies and discord between the elements and a library of other things, and a little phrase poos into your head that makes a whole lot of sense now.

When the storms rip through the forests, the winners are the little animals that can finally reach the fruits of the highest tree.

You're sure this must be similar to what the little squirrels and mice must feel like. Maybe you were just naive and thought the valley would be deserted but you clearly forgot all about how territory works for spirit and animal alike.

If you leave, your space is free game.

Absolute FLOODS of everything that made the mountains their home that had fled from the dragons had come back, fighting hard and bloody for the spots they'd laid claim to before the storm. Hawks divebomb spirits, stream nymphs shoot rays of water at charging beasts and you and teacher Oranya are surely getting the best seats for the show.

"Its an absolute clusterfuck," you hear her remark as the curled horns of a stone bulk slam into the body of a tall mammal you recognize as a dawn grazer - more specifically an alpha of the local Cliff Goat species - that bleats hard and angry as it's sent tumbling down the mountain.

It might be chaos and brutality all around but it's also a prime opportunity for you to snag yourself a juicy first binding. Spirits of Luck, you can even see not just a thunderhorn elk but one that shines with the unmistakable light of one that's eaten at least a full season worth of thunderdew grass. It's there, alone, shooting down hawks all around it that seem to think it could take the skies from them if it made a serious attempt.

Ferociously large Lord Hawks swoop around on wings of white and black as they fight off the soldier brood of a steelplate Hive that had settled down to mark their territory this summer. Seems as if you have plenty of choice available and something tells you that your teacher is also eyeing a few of these beasts for totem material. The ecosystem wouldn't be out of balance if she were to slay a few and keep her spoils. There's no ecosystem to found right now!

"...say, Capran."

"Yes teacher?"

"Think you can handle yourself for a few minutes while I help myself to nature's bounty? There's a pair of Oreline vipers that have my name on them all proper and nice."

Cont

>>6284197

Ah. Yeah she'd want those for sure.

One of the rancid things had a go at her at some point or another back in your first year as her pupil and tried to mangle her favorite leather sack. Got both fangs in it before the broke it's skull with her cane and dragged it back to the village to get skinned for the transgression. You'd barely ever seen her looking so foul and angry at anything until bigger and worse things started making their homes on the far side of the mountain.

"If I can dodge a swipe of your cane when I grab a handful of sour candies I can dodge a charging bull."

"Good boy. Now get yourself something nice and I'll be back after I've taught these worms their place on this mountain." She cackles with a bit of the hunting lust deeping into her voice. You sort of wonder if there'd even be a snake skin left of them. She really cares for that leather sack and decide it'll depend on if this pair ends up damaging her sack too. You'd probably turn anything that ripped your cloak into a smear now that you think about it. Yeah you're gonna make an example out of the first thing to so much as tear a single thread of it.

Now then. You can go after any of the previously spies beasts - Stone Bulls, Lord Hawks, alpha Grand Goat, Thunderhorn Elk elder - or maybe try your luck on finding an even better target for your first binding.

>Well Capran, Totemist and pupil of Oranya of the White Cane, do you see anything you like or will you go and find a bigger beast to slay?

>Roll 1d100. Highest score wins. You get +20 for the sheer amount of things currently fighting around you and clearly distracted. For the two glorious crits you're gonna earn an extra +10. +5 for each critical made

Rolled 84 (1d100)

>>6284200
THUNDERHORN ELK CROWN ON THE MENU LET'S GOOOOO

>>6284208
>Mmm. Delicious.
>Thunderbuster Osyki would be proud. So would Diarca

>>6284208
Maybe going to hunt an aged and empowered Thunderhorn Elk elder was a bit reckless. Your teacher would probably chastise you for being so daft as to approach it among all the other things to make a focus from but you'll have to have that scolding later. You really, really want yourself a good lightning spear like your teacher does and it's gonna be the coolest thing ever. You're gonna be the talk of the village and Harell might even let you just openly walk around with his daughter in the coming festivals. You'll earn her hand one day, now would be too soon, and he'd bury you in the fields if you pushed your lick, but right now you gotta just take your prize after ritual combat as the Totemist Pact demanded. You must win this in a manner befitting the electrical beast.

But how?

You can't fight it with lightning of your own. You may be a Totemist but you're still fresh into this stage of your role. The simplest and most effective way is to kill it with hammer and knife. Bash it to death with a hammer as it would slam its antlers into competition to make its place as the alpha known, and your knife is symbolic as the weapon and tool of a human hunter. You learned to use it well from the guards and can land a clean throw with it thanks to constant training and practice on targets. Okay he's, this is a moving, very angry, very powerful target but it bleeds just like you do when a knife ends up stabbing through the skin.

>Roll 1d100. Your skill with your weapons adds a +1 to all rolls and the chaos around you further adds a +1 as well, for a bonus of +2 total.

>>6284220
Roll bonuses are +20

It seems as though I can't type today

Rolled 6 (1d100)

>>6284220
LET'S DO IT

>>6284223
We're fucked... Our teacher will be PISSED

>>6284223
>>6284224
Don't stress too badly, combat is multi turn and we have the benefit of not being the only one that wants the elk dead. Just gotta get that killing blow and you're golden

>>6284227
Well that's actually cool then lol. We waiting for other anons? Do I roll again? Or first you're going to update?

>>6284238
I like to try getting as many anons to roll in an hour as I can but if it's gotten too close to an hour I'm fine with allowing anons two rolls each.

Usually best of three per hour but I like to be flexible

Rolled 58 + 2 (1d100 + 2)

>>6284220
let's go boys

Rolled 68 + 2 (1d100 + 2)

>>6284220
And again. Time to clutch.

Rolled 4 (1d100)

>>6284223
Doing my second roll

Clutch indeed.

Writing

>>6284223
>>6284247
Lol

Lmao, even

>88

Your target in sight, weapons in hand, and will steeled, you sprint around it wait for the best time to initiate. It doesn't take long, not when it's surrounded on all sides by enemies, and when a swift Lord Hawk takes its talons across the elk's face you see your chance and take it. Your feet launch you at its unguarded flank and you feel your knife drive deep into its hide with a satisfying ease. Seems that stabbed into something important too if the river of blood flowing around the knife's edge is any hint. You pull it out with a grunt and dive backwards in time to avoid a bull slam into the side you'd been at a moment before. Care is still needed here and now. Obviously there's a lot more beasts around and none of them care about the honor of a one on one fight, but neither do you really, and that suits you just fine. If they want to soften it up a bit then why not? Let them take a few blasts from the wounded beast if they want it.

As the prized elk hits the ground flailing about, you race back to it with your knife in both hands and go to drive it into the vulnerable neck.

But not before some feline creature you hadn't seen among the crowd tries to drag it off by the leg and earns a crackling bolt of electricity to the face. Wounded and stunned, whatever the thing is can't be bothered to try scoring a meal that fights back when there's all the other creatures and spirits have a wild brawl at every angle. So it bounds away and probably toward some other wounded victim it can pilfer from the sidelines. Fine. One less to steal what you want.

The elk struggles to right itself on its legs, bleeding in gushes from its side and lame on one foot. Shivering, stumbling around as you flank it again and go for a other strike.

>Please roll again. 1d100 +20 for a crippling wounds and your skills with the knife and hammer

Rolled 52 (1d100)

>>6284251

I'll have to call it a night after this vote but I'll be back tomorrow sometime around 1pm EST.

Thank you for all your participation anons. I'm very happy to have you here

Rolled 76 + 20 (1d100 + 20)

>>6284251

>>6284254
Good night anon! Enjoying the quest and the idea of all!

Rolled 15 + 20 (1d100 + 20)

>>6284251
Wow you have been busy QM

>>6284253
>>6284255
>>6284270

It's becoming apparent to you that more and more of the horde of beasts around the elk and yourself are giving you a bit of space. Good and not so good. You were hoping the crowd would continue to distract your prey a bit longer but your teacher must be wrapping things up and so should you. You'd probably hear her nag you about taking too long to finish it off for a week or so and it's a lesson you don't think you really need that badly. By adjusting your posture just a bit you settle into a leaning crouch with one hand open and towards the Thunderhorn Elk and your knife hand a little closer. As the elk thrashes bird and bull alike with blasts of pale energy you take a second to ready yourself

And CHARGE!

>96

Maybe you took to your combat and hunting lessons better than you expected. Maybe those months working and training with the guards were paying off a bit extra. Maybe the knife is good luck. Maybe you just really want that lightning spear power your teacher has bad enough you can do things you didn't expect. You like to imagine it's a mix of it all.

Whatever it is, you pull off some kind of fancy move you don't think you could come up with outside the heat of the moment.

You run low, head down to keep the lightning from making your face a black scorch mark, make a damn fine running jump, flash your hand forward in just the right way to grab one of the elk's antlers and swing your body up to its head hard enough to nearly pull its forelegs off the ground. Your knife goes deep into its neck, bloody already with your last strike into its flank, and lock your legs around the elk as best you can before letting go of the antler to pull your hammer off the tool belt loop. Both arms swing back and you feel the knife something cut that must have been very important as you pull it out. You take a deep breath before you say the words you've hungered to for ages now. No messing this up now.

"In the name of Capran, link between this world and the world without, I hereby claim this beast's spirit as my own!" Your hands whip back down at the elks vulnerable flesh and it tries to buck you off, twist this way and that, shake its antlers at you and even send sharp cracks of lightning but you must have just been lucky enough to avoid those and it's too weak to drive you off of its body. "In the name of the Totemist's Pact! I hereby assert my dominance over this soul, and claim it as my own!"

You'd been told this would be strange and you trusted your teachers words, but...it was as if everything else but you, the elk and the ritual was being drowned out by something. It...it felt sacred almost. It felt right.

"I have bested this soul in mortal combat. Its strength is mine to command," you continue with more of the verses you were taught, "By blood and bone, in spirit and soul, let this ritual of combat between us show: I am Totemist, Link Between Worlds!"

Cont

>>6284442
A brilliant idea comes to you without warning as the knife catches on the spine of the elk, holding it steady, and you throw your body to the side as best you can. The effect is gruesome as it is effective.

"NOW! SUBMIT!"

The force of your body swinging slices your knife through sinew and muscle and all very, very critical bits and pieces that keep the elk alive. You land hard on the ground in as the elk falls with you, paralysed with your cut through its spine, barely able to twitch and jerk. Now the most important part.

It seems even time holds its breath for you as the ritual reaches its climax. You stand back up with confidence and excitement and plant your boot right against the base of the antler.

This was your moment. This was the time to decide what part of the great old beast you'd claim as your Focus.

>Anons what will you choose?
>What is yours, by right of ritual combat and the pact of the Totemist?
>What have you earned after all these years?

>>6284448
Both antlers? Or if there's some structure at the base of the antlers that produces electricity take that. I like the idea of having both, one of them being a sort of cathode and the other an anode.

>>6284453
The beast is magical, no electrical organ for this one, but it likely had a diet of berries that you know juice up electrical totems and foci (magical tools)

>>6284448
>"By my victory, I hereby claim your mighty antlers, that which signal your royalty, might and power, the same which control the Lightning at your will, the same that will let me control it by mine now"

I wanna know if after this we can make the Foci whatever we want (if we pass the roll, of course) or we need to lock in right now what the Foci will be without any crafting roll. If we're deciding right now what the Foci will be, I could be persuaded in maybe asking for other thing of the Elk

>>6284458
The main places where power is seen from a beast is usually where the strongest offensive or defensive foci are. In this case, the antlers. These are so charged up, even as the elk is dying, that they're still glowing. I may have gotten my notes from the original Totemist Quest a little off but this is the item you'll take from the corpse that houses it's spirit. That spirit will then be able to merge with other objects to create a true Focus.

Also for anyone wondering, you didn't need to carve any runes of binding because your teacher, wise as she is, sets up those runes all along the mountain on posts arranged in circles around very large areas.

>>6284459
Oh cool then, yeah I keep my vote

>>6284448
Definitely the antlers

>>6284448

There's no need to question. You know exactly what it is you want as your first prize, and it's really the most suitable choice. You WANT that lightning. The thought of you wielding it sends a shiver of glee and purpose through yourself. It's time, Capran. Time to prove you were a real Totemists now. Let the world watch. This is your first step of many.

Time had stopped for you and the elk there on the ground. This was something you'd dreamed of and it was like the world around you gave you this small pause just for the perfect scene. Even so, it would only let you take one thing.

The antler you crack off the elks skull with your hammer is the same one you grabbed hold of to swing yourself on top of it. The section it breaks from flashes a bright piercing light and you're left standing there with it in your hand, shrinking down to what you'd normally mistake as a small curved bit of wood...if wood glowed. It feels good to hold, fitting nicely in your hand like it had shrunk to a size perfect for your grip.

Its [i]perfect[/i]!

Sadly the moment is ruined when a Lord Hawk chooses right then to dive down and make a good try at taking your ear off and you hiss a bit as you duck down and get your knife up to warn off any other attacks.

Damn birds.

"Capran wake up already and get out of there!" Teacher Oranya calls out from outside of the crowd of beasts all having a free for all. She has two of the Oreline Vipers strung up on her back and miraculously not in small pieces. Or maybe they are and you just can't see it too well from here.

"The elk!"

"Just leave the body for scavengers, we have enough meat in the pantries and you're going to be feeling tired soon enough!"

Tired? But you weren't tired at....

Oh. Oh yeah, now it was setting in. You'd forgotten all about the fatigue teacher Oranya had told you came fast to new Totemists on their first binding. The drop of energy hits you harder than you expected now that you had a moment out of combat. Yeah time to get out before that feline thing you saw considers you good and weak enough to drag off.

It doesn't take but a short run before you're out of the ongoing chaos and into the safety of your teachers presence. Nothing dared get too close to her out of instinct. The dead vipers strapped tight together and tied into a neatly wound up package would be a good enough sign not to mess with her. She hefted them like they weighed less than her favorite pack and maybe to her they did, and you absently wondered if it was thanks to some totem she carried on her or if she didn't even need that.

Cont

>>6284479
She looks you over with a brow raised and a grin, quite pleased with herself, and placed a hand on your shoulder. "Got yourself a fine trophy off that Thunderhorn did you? I'd say the thing was a fair bit stronger than any other one of its kind maybe even on this entire mountain range! Excellent."

"I can't wait to get to the workshop and see what this thing can do!" You say with no small bit of anticipation. You'd barely won your prize minutes before and you were eager as a child to get to work finding all the things it was capable of.

"Aye and you'll be getting the chance soon enough but let's be out of this valley quickly. Everything here is in a frenzy to grab what bits of land they can return to. It'll be a bloody time for a few days but if they're good about it, all the beasts will be back to their original territories by the end of the week."

And with that said, the two of you get out of the valley and back within the wards of the village. Many people stop to ogle at your teacher carrying the two large glossy copper snakes without so much as a grunt, and a few of the guards holler their cheers for your good hunting. You hold the antler tight in your hand. Soon you'll be bringing back big scores like that too.

The two of you settle into the workshop, your teacher putting the snakes on strong iron hooks and nodding to herself, and get to work going over what you'd need to know for your first true foci. The cloak was a special thing that you'd wanted to merge a feral spirits power with for years and it was just one of the things you could try out!

The antler is yours by rite and you have plenty of options, but you only have the energy for two bindings. If you did more than that you'd probably drop to the floor and get an earful from your teacher when you finally wake up.

>Roll 1d100 for first bindings
>+10 bonus for your teachers guidance
>Choose two items you can think of to infuse the power of the Thunderhorn Elk into

Ill peek back in thirty minutes or less, and call the vote in an hour from now.

Happy crafting anons!

>>6284498
Cloak and paintbrush

Rolled 44 + 10 (1d100 + 10)

>>6284498
> A bow and a knife

Rolled 55 + 10 (1d100 + 10)

>>6284507
forgot my roll

We have to craft, Capran.

The results of this fusion will be solid and I hope you look forward to more combinations as the quest progresses. With more training we can increase our maximum fusion count and load outs too. For now, our limit on Foci items is set at two.

I will take the highest individual roll until the time is up, so if any more anons show up and roll, don't worry about best of three

Rolled 76 (1d100)

>>6284498
Cloak and Knife

>>6284527
Hold on, I wanna change the Knife for a Bow instead!

There's an urge to jump right in and lose yourself in the crafting but decide on two items to merge with the antler. Your cloak and your knife. Two reasonable choices and two powerful boons.

"In the name of Capran, Link to the World Without, I unite the spiritual and the mundane. Grant this conduit your blessing, spirit, and work through it to influence the material world."

Ancient ritual verse spoken, you press the glowing antler of the Thunderhorn Elk against your cloak. The change is.....

Oh yeah. This is gonna be more fun than you thought.

Your previously gold lined pale cloak shifts rapidly into a dark hue, nearly as dark as the night and with a new hood to cover yourself in rainfall. There's a new trim of gold along the cape and the inner side streaks with lines of power as it moves. Your teacher has you step out into the back field to stand and face an assortment of targets large and small, near and far. Time to see what this thing can do.

You thrust your hands forward and it does nothing. You run around a bit and still nothing. Hmm. You come to a stop and wonder what it's able to do and flourish the cape lightly at one of the targets more with a little show of grandeur. You didn't really know what you expected to happen, maybe it would cost yourself in a layer of electricity but no. Not quiet.

It nearly scares you witless when three bolts of raw crackling light lance out in jagged paths to blast clean through the wooden target like it was an afterthought. A low whistle comes behind you, your teacher appreciative of the focus and it's newfound strength, and takes a seat by the back entrance to the workshop. "Take a lap around the field and try it again."

And you do so, then you flourish the cloak once more, to find that the longer run had charged up the amount of shots you could send and get a whopping ten that blasts the remaining bits of the wooden target to bits.

>Binding unlocked. Stormknights Proof.

Cont

>>6284527
>>6284534
>Just in time before I begin writing the second half haha

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>>6284546

If your cloak is this good, you wonder just what kind of damage a knife or a bow or even your hammer would be able to deal, and settle on the bow for the next test. You'd taken some lessons from the day guard as they kept the walls defended from a few stalking predators and a smaller number of lessons from some of the hunters on the form and way to shoot with a bow. You might need arrows for this but you'll try it without them first and add one if needed.

The antler is undone from the cloak with a little bit of regret - you were already beginning to have favorites and you'd only just started! - and bring it together with the bow with your breath held and your eyes shut. The result is spectacular to the point you think having to choose between cloak and bow might be a bit unfair.

In your hand now rests a sleek and strong length of white bone, evenly jutting out somewhat like the antlers themselves were and the bowstring tingles to the touch. It pulls easy and you dont dare let go in case it fires off by mistake. Teacher Oranya would tan your hide if you screwed up and misfired something like a lightning bolt. Carefully, you take aim at a new target. Inhale. And let go of the bowstring.

From the front of the bow flies a thin sliver of white light that zips to its destination and lodges into it with a sharp thwack. It doesn't explode, flash or crumble after a few seconds so you wonder if the arrow of light just stays there til you put away the bow and fire another one at a different target.

Today is a day of FUN

It's like something works between the two arrows and a line of sparkling energy connects them instantly as soon as the second arrow lands. It stays there for a minute and you have a hunch, throwing a stick at the line and then it promptly blows up into tiny little shards.

>Binding unlocked. Sprite Snare

You just can't help the smile that comes to your face as a breeze carries some of the wooden dust away with it.

Teacher Oranya gets up and walks over to stand at your side, eyeing the small mess of wooden shards and the fading line of light the arrows created together. "Those'll both be nasty surprises for anything stupid enough to poke around near the village, for sure."

Cont

>>6284589
Nodding with the smile still there on your face and energy drained, taking care to undo the bindings on the bow, you both head back into the workshop and set the antler on an empty shelving space teacher Oranya had you build to store all your future materials and gear. You wanted to experiment with foci a bit more but you know you're just about at your limit. Pushing yourself too much might backfire at this point.

She gets you to have a seat at the kitchen table and sits down right across from you after placing a pair of plates with fruits and meat to enjoy. You each tuck in to the meal, filling and cleaning up shortly after when your teacher instructed for you to wait for her in the back field again. Perhaps she has a lesson for your binding choices?

She comes out into the field a short while later and cracks a tube of thin white wood raised above her head, recites a few words of the language spirits share, then waits there a little longer before cursing only just loud enough to hear.

"Is something wrong?"

She curses again and huffs, eyes shut tight like a headache was forming. "I've thought about it over the meal and I don't think the spirits are going to think we're doing enough to build you up faster. Your first hunt went smoothly, maybe a bit too smooth to show you would consider it a challenge, and the spirits of most of the mountain don't consider the human side of things when coming to decisions. Be ready for tomorrow. We go to hunt again."

"Why would-"

Another huff and another curse. "Why would they not be satisfied if you didn't struggle? The Ladies of the Peaks, for the most part, might not see your hunt as legitimate thanks to all the other beasts and spirits distracting your prey. They don't what hunting means for humans. It's dangerous. It's risky every time and all it takes is one wrong step, one loose stone under your foot, to send you tumbling and open you up for attack."

"..." You remain silent at that. It sounded like they wanted you to go about your work as if you're in some fancy sport, only allowing you to claim anything on their mountains if you satisfy them with a show. That gives you an itchy feeling. Not good at all. Lady Earest was just one of the four who ruled over the mountains and if the other three had the majority in some kind of vote then this could be bad for you.

A scroll of cloud white parchment unfurls in front of your teacher right then, and she strings together a spitting curse the likes of which may actually be poisonous.

Cont

>>6284609

"Absolute glittery fools!" She yells as she tears through the parchment in fit of rage. "All full of piss and power to be telling me! ME! That MY pupil needs greater challenges! Oh, yes, sure, how about I send him off to fight behemoths and rogue spirits with just some well wishes too! No thought of reward til after he'd come back dripping blood all over the mountain til he finally gets home just like-"

She cuts herself off with a quick breath and kicks at the shreds of paper there on the dirt. She holds that breath then let's it out with a hiss.

"Never so much as entertain a single one of the Ladies - maybe not even Earest - of the idea of making deals before a reward is discussed and the entirety of the deal laid bare. Its biting my ass and you should spare yourself their constant tasks."

Hesitantly you speak. "How bad were the specifics?"

"In their own words, I 'do not use my pupil to the best of his capacity and abilities. He must grow strong, quickly as he is able to do so, and be a force to drive back all threats from the mountains, in accordance with divine pact between the sovereign spirits of the mountain peaks and Totemist residing within its lands' and other such flowery declarations of servitude."

You pull a face. That....was a clear overreach in power by the Ladies. Totemists are never shackled to some specific courts whims, and to quote the pact in any capacity like it was a master and servant relationship didn't look good for either party. Especially for the spirit.

"So we go tomorrow at dawn for another hunt, Capran. You'll select your binding and we push you a bit to see what you can handle." Teacher Oranya casts a scowl at the closest peak as she says this. "And say nothing if one of the breezy bitches decided to send a messenger or come themselves. I'm your teacher and they come to me first no matter what."

You nod as it's all you can really do, head back inside after she cracks another tube of wood. Must be some kind of way to send messages to spirits from afar.

>Get rest now, Totemist. Your day is going to be busy for sure.

>With this, I'm going to take an hour to get some business done and answer any questions you might have, then come back with an update shortly after if anons want to go right into the next day

>>6284635
Question! Had Oranya told Capran about her own teacher when she was an apprentice? Or about other Totemists like them?

>>6284656
Vey little about other totemists but what details you know, they're all spread out across the lands. While you know a "shrewd weasel" Totemist made their way far far away from the mountains, Oranya never mentioned him since and waved you off the two times you've asked about them.

Apparently Oryana learned her trade through two teachers. One of mankind and one of spirit. The pair had died to fight off a calamity sized Behemoth and she made a small shrine to them in her room.

Works picked up a bit in the hour before closing so I'll finish up and get home before I update

Back and writing. Seems people do not understand that closing time means closing time

Change of plans anons, I need a roll.

Best of three. I'll start when I get three

Rolled 19 (1d100)

>>6284770

Rolled 56 (1d100)

>>6284770

Rolled 73 (1d100)

>>6284770

Thank you all, and writing

>>6284635

Morning is short and hurried. Breakfast is just about inhaled by you and teacher Oranya, gear is checked over at a dizzying speed and you're just about tripping over yourself at the end of it all, but all is ready by the time the rising sun comes above the mountain range to cast the village in a pale light. Only the farmers and few others are up as early as you are, and everyone begins heading out to the fields or wherever their work takes them and you exchange waves while teacher has you following her outside of the wards and towards the farthest peak, closer and closer to a sort of noman's land. The southern peak overlooked what was described as a the final resting place of a world shaking monster. No one dared go that far except....your teacher.

Oh. Oh she's dead serious."The GRAVE?" you ask quickly, heartbeat getting faster and faster as you realize you'd been heading towards the direction your teacher went to combat a true Behemoth, the idea of anything in that direction chilling your bones a bit. "Teacher, do they want you to send me off to die or or something?"

"I fully agree with what you're feeling now, Capran, truly I do, but I know the Ladies will raise their side of the pact at me like a collar and loom it over us whenever it suits them." There's a growl in her voice you've never heard in your whole life as her pupil, not even when she's in a mood to chain curses together after a drink, and you don't know what's more shocking to you. The growling or the fact she believes the Ladies of the Peaks would actually wield the pact of the Totemists itself as if a weapon to threaten her with. It's.....unthinkable. "There's no sense in lying about it, I would have rather sent you up the mountain to make a deal with a spirit or hunt around the cliffs, maybe pick yourself a nice Boulder Mimic to have a a second focus but that letter yesterday made it quite obvious they'll not accept anything but a particularly sharp weapon to feel comfortable enough to hide behind us."

"Hide? They're the Ladies, what on earth would they hide from?" You ask the golden question and your teachers brows scrunch up.

"Capran, that's not the first behemoth to come a bit too close to the mountains for the Ladies. It was the fourth. Four too many behemoths wandering around the highest mountain range as far as you can see."

"W...what?"

"Aye, and I expect there'll be more. The world is moving and the Greater Spirits are always watching and cautious, fearful even, of what that means and it tends to get them jumpy."

Silence rules the walk after that. You don't know what to think or ask about four, FOUR, Behemoths close enough to the mountains to spook spirits of that caliber into using the pact in their favor like this. How close had the village been to getting wiped out and what would remain of the mountain itself if any of the four Behemoths gotten past-

Cont

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>>6284781

And there it makes sense. What if your teacher didn't return that day, mangled as her hands were the rest of her was spared looking like sliced meat. What if she didn't come back.

The ghost of the chance sinks your heart. There wouldn't be a thing but the spirits and beasts of the mountain to drive off the Behemoth and that's a tall order. The four ladies could probably do it but their combined might would eclipse the entire power of everything else brought together, just with them alone. If the Ladies were the only ones who could, if your teacher never came back, it would still mean the destruction of your village and everything else. Victory would taste like ash if there's nothing left.

>73

You bury all of the worry that had been building up as your teacher holds out her hand to stop you and points down at a marching line of Greyshell drones headed somewhat in the same direction as you both. Seems there might be just a bit of luck going for you today as well, and teacher Oranya is eyeing them too, slowly tracing her eyes along the slopes of the mountain further ahead. Greyshell hives were somewhat of a rarity these days and a drone line this long meant there was something worth sending out critical workers to find and either kill or collect. Judging from the rigid and synchronized marching it was going to be an attack on something.

"Should we...?"

Your teacher continues to walk again, posture relaxed. "No. Leave the bugs alone. We don't know what they're up to and whatever's got the hive out isn't the important matter at hand. We keep going."

Shame about it, but you do as your told but catch sight of your teacher drop a stone as she walks, and as you pass it you recognize the markings of a beacon totem.

She must be curious too then.


>Cont

>I'll pick this back up tomorrow, hopefully have a few hours free before I do some errands

Why did we unbind the bow?

>>6284790
I think we were just experimenting, not making a final weapon

>>6284790
>>6284879
Just experimenting for that foci crafting session. As you get used to binding and unbinding you train your energy up to be able to bind more so consider it a bit of meta progress

Next session tomorrow sadly, it seems my day is going to be full

>>6284786

>QM gets a small break from errands edition
__________________


You'd forgotten how long the trek to any of the peaks was and you'd be heading to the farthest. 'Exercise' nothing. You did your daily squats and runs like all the other guards and you hated long walks the most. You needed something to talk about and break the silence other than the sound of your feet trudging a long the path.

"Teacher, how far away is the grave exactly? Nobody's ever gone close enough to actually BE there, just near enough to see it in the distance."

"Oh, no whining now, and it's not that far," she replies simply, "barely over a days walk!"

"A full day?"

"That's right, and I had us leave the village early just so we could arrive tomorrow morning."

You sigh quietly, not trying to sound like a child, but you can't say you like the idea of camping overnight on the mountain paths. Sure your teacher had wards she bring with her at all times but it snows in some spots around the range and you hadn't been told to pack anything warm. Just your usual set of spare clothes, knife, hammer, rope, rations, cloak and now your Thunderhorn focus.

"Now, is there anything important you actually want to ask while we make our way there or will it be just complaints the whole way?"

>Well it's as good a time as any to ask a few questions.

>Please write in information about your destination, Totemist history, etc. that you have

>>6285017
>Please write in QUESTIONS*
>Idothiseverytime.png

>>6285017
Maybe we could ask her for suggestions on useful types of bindings for us at this stage of our Totemist career?

>>6285017
Unexpected bindings with clothes that are actually amazing?

>>6285017
The only question that immediately comes to mind is something our character would know and should have no reason to ask: is the energy that goes into binding foci different than physical stamina?

Was thinking we might want to experiment again when we stop for the night so we know what we wanna use come the next morning.

Suppose we could ask for another lesson/story though. Maybe about master's own training period.

>>6285046


You could try seeing what your teacher recommends for you now, what with your first foci in the bag as it were, and check her opinion on your choices on binding. She hadn't much to say on the matter so far but she did always drive the lesson that if you want to know something you'd best ask and not wait for the answers to come by themselves.

"So...I suppose my cloak and bow weren't too bad of foci bindings tos tart off with were they?" You ask with some small amount of hope it passes the time faster. "The bow was surprising, I'd never known lightning would tie itself to both arrows. Reminds me of a hunters trip wire."

"Mmm", she returns while thinking. "Can't say I have either. Mind this, as I've taught you before, no two foci are truly the same. That old Thunderhorn clearly had a feast of Thunderdew grasses enough to give it the same glow the Sparkler Flies get after spring, for instance. Much stronger than any regular of its kind and it wouldn't be much like what those would make for Foci."

"So it wouldn't have the same results for any foci I'd try to make the same on purpose?"

"You could say that. One of the mysteries of Foci is that while you could get twin beasts and bind them for a foci, those twin foci would still be just that tiny hair different. Could be any reason why. Some say it's that the souls are never the same. I think it's possible they're right."

"Would you ever want two of the exact same Foci?" You ask.

Oryana gives a 'hrrrm' and then gives you one of her answer-and-a-lesson replies. "Never a good idea to stick all your spirits in only one kind of weapon or wrapping. You're not nearly as flexible. Flexibility saves lives."

"So.....the cloak and bow?" You prompt, hoping for some advice.

"Oh you had good sense to bind it to that cloak you've always loved. Sometimes it feels like spirits bound to foci you've got an especially strong connection to just have a bit more to them. Like it just FEELS better."

You think on that a little bit as Oryana continues. "The bow is always a strong pick for Totemists. In ancient times they would bond their strongest spirits to bows and fight Behemoths of primordial power with spear and bow and all manner of primitive tools. To wield a bow was to prove to behemoths that you didn't need to be close to be deadly as a human. Some scars on the face of this land even came from the power held within the bows of Totemists long, long past."

"Glad I happened to try that myself."

>Cont

>>6285139

Teacher Oryana slips a laugh and nods and you both continue on, meeting the early day sun above you, still on the main path toward your destination. "You might try a cane as well someday, my curious Capran! In my own teachers days he built a pact together with the Northern Lady to send sheets of razor sharp ice flying at whatever stupid thing made enough of a mess to deserve it, and let me tell you he had an aim for that which I still can't get right. Sliced a drakeling clean in half with a thin panel of ice as tall as be was and maybe even colder."

"Cut it with ice of all things? I didn't realize it would be good for cutting anything, but he got it in half?"

Oryana laughs again and stares off at some distant thing that must have been a good memory. "Had me wonder if the man took lessons from the Northern Lady herself if I'll be honest but he never, not once, ever confirmed it. Crotchety old man, he kept more secrets than the stones I bet."

"Would I be able to get something that can send out sheets of ice like that? Or spears like you throw?"

"Most certainly but you'll have to work a bit harder to build up your energy. Two foci back to back is the standard, and nevermind binding something that can make spears of lightning or ice, you need to be able to bind at least a good halfdozen foci back to back to really be something decent in the role of a Totemist. You need to build up the limit of your energy. It's not just your body getting tired, it's not quite your soul either, so work it like a muscle but if you hit your limit too hard you'll drop." Teacher Oryana lets that sit for a bit and keeps talking, never slowing or keeping her eyes from searching further along the path you both take, always on the lookout for serious threats. "You'll also need to make your first real deal with a spirit. You remember the art of the pact I trust? You haggle well enough with the farmers and clothwork shops, yes, but a spirit lives and breathes negotiations."

"Don't go signing my life away to the first pixie that flaunts her chest as a reward, even if they're bi-"

"Alright I see you've learned some sass as well. That'll be all."

You walk in silence, until-

"I am serious about the cane, Capran, there's something about a cane that's always unusual. Out there in the world, it's a sign of weakness but other parts have grand and mystical old wizards swinging them around and throwing incredible explosions about like it's all they know how to do. Funny things can happen with staves and canes that still amaze me."

>Give me a 1d10 roll please

Rolled 8 (1d10)

>>6285140

Rolled 32 (1d100)

>>6285140
Now I'm curious what the fuck does a cane Foci could do

Rolled 8 (1d10)

>>6285140

Calling the rolls

Writing

>>6285144
>>6285145
>>6285156
We're doomed

>>6285162
8 is a pretty sick roll for a 1d10

Rolled 9 (1d10)

>>6285171
OH FUCK YOU'RE RIGHT IT WAS 1D10, WHY NOBODY SAID ANYTHING WHEN I ROLLED A D100? LMAOOO I'm >>6285145 btw idk why my tag changed

Rolling just in case

>>6285140

>8

"So, about that electric stone thrower," you begin, hoping to glean a little insight from your teacher." I might be able to do something like that with the antler?"

"Oh gods above and below, he's actually going to do it."

"I'm only curious!" You say defensively, putting up a wall of innocence your teacher can see through immediately. "I haven't even begun making notes on how it would work yet anyways!"

"Oh 'yet', hmm? As if I don't know you've been tinkering away with the Smith's pupil on some spear launching contraption."

"That's for the guards! It's nearly done!"

"It is, yes. You did something clever with that, it's going very well considering you've never seen a ballistae before. Out there in far kingdoms, farther than the grave, they have these giant mounted crossbows set up along high fortress walls to shoot down flying beasts and at other enemy kingdoms' armies."

That gets you to stop and stare at your teacher with uncertainty. Shooting giant mounted crossbows....at people? "They what?"

Teach Oryana sighs and turns around to give you an even look. Her eyes are a bit cold. Like stones.

"Capran, the world far away from the mountains is full of man and spirits the likes of which run all manners of ideals and rules. Most of them find the rules of their fellow man and spirits don't quite suit them and, as I've just gave a hint at, don't quite it when those rules don't match. Or they get greedy for things that aren't theirs. Or even just do it because they believe themselves anointed by a higher spirit that can barely even be seen but by the conveniently ruling class. If you see anyone who spreads their belief that their great and wonderful and merciful spirit, or 'god' as they call them, has given them some task or revelation...you don't take your eyes off them. The most horrible things are done by the poor men who think a spirit so divine has the time and care to give them some authority over another. And if there is such a spirit, it's destined to be ripped apart by its own schemes."

You're silent. You didn't know there was so much out there so very different from the mountain. Already 20 but you feel as if you know less and less about the world with every lesson you get about it.

>Cont

>>6285177

>8

"Back on topic. Your ballistae is a clever and genius idea I didn't really expect you to figure out without me telling you about the things." Oryana praises you now but her words earlier still hang over your head. "However did you come up with that, Capran?"

Maybe your tongue turned to clay but it's hard to speak for a moment. Your head fills with images of this 'ballistae' pointed at another man. Another villager. Harell's daughter. "I umm...I got tired of carrying a crossbow one day and thought about how it'd be easier to just set on a post and fire it. Then I thought more posts would hold a bigger crossbow."

Your feelings must be obvious and your teacher has a good eye for reading the mood. "Yes, it's a good bit of cleverness I'm hoping you keep up on. Don't mind me and what I said about the far lands. That's out there and we're here. No kings and great unseen gods to throw their weight around in these parts. They wouldn't dare provoke a Totemist anyways, not even a Totemist pupil. We just have this work to do now because a spirit in an actual agreed upon pact spoke on their half of it. Hate the whole thing as I do at times, it's their nature to want their side honored and their courts protected."

A second question slips off your tongue and gets loose before you have the mind to stop it. "Have the spirits been at war before?"

Something else haunts your teachers eyes now. She breathes deep and scrunches her brow up and exhales with a hiss. You already regret asking.

"Aye. Aye, Capran. Spirits are as fickle and petty as anything else can be and the courts of the world have done their best to tear rival courts apart like a Boulder Mimic feasting on fresh goat. Some annihilated the other, some courts both end destroyed, and some were spirits of entirely vicious kinds that saw their fellow spirit and man as fodder to prove their power against. Your job as a Totemist is to find those courts and monstrous spirits, and either bridge the world without and the world of man in as peaceful way as you can, as some silver tongued or ridiculously powered Totemists do, or end them."

With that, she turns back around and starts to walk.

You join her. The walk is silent after that. You don't ask anything until you finish setting up camp and warding totems in a ring around the area.

'A spirit WAR...'

>Cont

Anons, I'll take some suggestions on what to do next, please include a 1d100 in the same box as your suggestion

I'll do the first three

Rolled 85 (1d100)

>>6285182
Could we commune with our thunder elk spirit?

Rolled 72 (1d100)

>>6285182
Is there a way to make a Foci without killing the spirit/animal?

At what point any animal like a Thunderhorn Elk is just an animal that ate magical herbs and then it turns into an spirit?

Meta question, actually: are there ordinary rabbits and chickens like in the real world? Or this is a case where every animal we can think of is magical? Even if people around the world see them as normal animals

>>6285184

>85
It would be an excellent idea now that you're somewhere safe and you even have your teacher to assist in making a connection effortless.

>>6285185
>72
Foci can be made with anything that has a connection to the magical. Not all foci require a death to make and as you progress in your lessons you'll eventually get an opportunity to make your first pact binding with a living spirit. Feral spirits just don't have the mind to make a deal, as it requires the usage of the spiritual language to do so. No matter how clever some birds can be, both parties must understand the language for it to be a valid deal. Also there are rabbits all around but they live in a world where birds that use the wind itself to help them divebomb so don't expect to find a lot of them to just be running around out of the shrugs and tall grass.

It takes several generations, the touch of strange magical energies, a spirits power or a mix of these to end up producing feral spirits. Some say that there are monsters out there that came from these beasts being further influenced by magic which twists their minds and bodies even more. Mostly you'll associate feral spirits with beasts that have some manner of elemental affinity that's clearly magical. Like stones or gemstone skin or lightning blasts.

>>6285182
So if items are better when they're significant to the Totemist, I bet painstakingly crafting items ourselves would probably get a good boost as well. Let's look around for some wood to make a nice staff, whittle it down and find something for a nice natural stain and finish. We can carve meaningful inscriptions into it throughout our Totemist career. Make the item as high quality and significant to us as possible for increased binding strength.

>>6285193
Ah, I see Oryana's rubbing off on you. Soon you'll be Capran the Lord of Staves

Rolled 80 (1d100)

>>6285194
Let's try to make a deal with a nearby sentient tree spirit to get a staff's worth of the highest quality spiritual wood possible.

>>6285199
I'll add that one to your part of the update, and if no other anons want to make a suggestion, I'll call it in...14 minutes

>>6285199
I'll +1 but because I remembered that mean of the guy hanging on a tree branch and the fucking Groot face appeared on the screen

>>6285200
My suggestion would be to ask if there's only the Lady of the Peaks as the "powerful" spirit staying here, or if there's another that's close to them in terms of importance or power

>>6285184
>85 commune with Thunderhorn Elk
>72 ask about nature of feral spirits/hierarchy of spirits of the peaks
>80 ask about suitable tree spirits for potent staff focus

Writing

>>6285209
Having three rolls this good at once is pretty insane actually

>>6285209

You and teacher Oranya are both in a leather tent and comfortably warmed by a heating stone totem your teacher had brought along in her pack by the time nightfall comes. You knew the pack to be considerably bigger on the inside than it seemed. She'd once said it had room big enough to store everything inside the workshop but it's just as heavy as whatever you fill it with. She must have quite a few strength totems to be able to pull that off considering she brought the whole tent, stones, and much more as far as you can guess. You'll have to tease a lesson on totems like that out of her when you're back in the village.

The meal you share is a simple stew she'd kept warm in a large metal container with a lid, the same kind you helped her make for the cooks and villagers back in your early months as her pupil as a sort of ease into the crafting arts. Oryana had made herself something of a hero for that. No more burning logs to heat stews back up when you could pour it all in the metal box and not have to worry about it cooling or spoil, so that kept everyone happy and freed up wood for other things.

Behind a ward and safe with your teacher, you ask her about making a connection with your feral spirit and she gives you a nod. "Good idea to do it sooner rather than later." She says and grabs her cane to point the end at you. "Go and have a chat with your elk, but I doubt it'll be much for conversation yet. Not a lot of grass grazing beasts have the smarts to talk with Totemists even as a bound spirit."

>85

You shrug and close your eyes, focusing deep within yourself and try to link the Elk's spiritual energies with your own. It's not quite as easy as you were hoping but theres a bit of the sensation of falling and you open your eyes to a small valley encircled by roiling dark thunderclouds. You spot your first bound spirit. It's....not like the thing you hunted and bound by pact. It seems....almost sinister.

Angry.

>Cont

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>>6285222

It's there in a patch of charred old trees and staring you down with the kind of intensity you associate with a predator seeking blood. The glow from the antlers it had while alive is back twofold strong, more lightning held in place stop its head than anything else and the eyes that meet yours are just as bright. Small little glowing patches flicker around its hide to give off the sense of it being a barely contained storm. You feel that maybe you got more than you realized out of that hunt. No amount of magical berries can give a Thunderhorn this kind of power, that much you know. You'll have to learn as much as you can about this for sure.

"I greet you, great elk of the valle-"

It cuts you off with a raging blast and your eyes snap open to see teacher Oryana frowning from across the tent, sipping from something smelling of herbs.

"Kicked you out, did it? Awfully rude but more than it should be able to as well."

You take a second to steady yourself and speak of what you'd seen and felt. Oryana arches a brow and sips from her cup and gives a 'hmm'. "More than it should be able to indeed. That's not just some higher elk for starters. Suppose I haven't really gone deep into spiritual communication with your Foci, but that's the result of a particularly strong will to force a Totemist out of its own realm or a power to match it. You might even have gotten something that has both. No damage to the mind or body so consider it a warning and build yourself up a bit before heading back in there. Lucky it didn't do worse. Some can."

>Cont

>>6285229
We're gonna have to win this one over. I guess if being a totemist was easy everybody would do it.

>>6285229

>72

"Some?" For the first time, you worry about the kinds of things that could do harm to the Totemist their foci is bound to. You weren't ever told it was even possible.

"Be at ease," teacher Oranya returns gently, "Your place as a Totemist protects you from physical and spiritual harm done by anything you've bound by your own hand, but some right nasty things try to find ways past that wall. Some know secrets to things that not even the Totemist may know and use it against their mind, words of venom and honey that torture or tempt the easily manipulated. You remember our first days together, when you drank that potion I had in the glass? I had to hold your nose so you wouldn't gag and spit it out."

The memory comes with the scent of burning pond scum and something that went sour. "I try not to but thanks for bringing that back."

"Ooh, whoever taught you sass must have given you a few lessons on sarcasm too." Oryana's grin betrays her sharp tone and she speaks some more. "There'd once been a Behemoth that lured it's miserable prey in with voices stolen from everything it ate. My own teacher slew it after the Great Spirits of the Peaks called on him to rid its vile existence from the world. He took all manner of weapon and armor with him, more than I ever knew he had, and went out."

She pauses, mutters something you can't quite hear and looks down at the ground between you. When she looks up again, there's the cold eyes she had when she spoke of the armies before. You already can't stand them and you've only seen them twice.

>Cont

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>>6285239

"He came back after some time, maybe two weeks, fingers twitching and a horrible scowl on his face when he heard my voice call out to him as the village greeted him on his return. He locked himself into his study that same day, and no matter how much I begged him to open the door he stayed inside. The last chief tried as well and still no answer. Tried to listen through the door to maybe hear something and the best we could tell was that he was writing on something fast and hard. It took days, Capran. Days. Then he finally opens the door and he's withered down, clearly starving and his eyes are bloodshot and wide. He just...drops to his knees and I get the doctors to come help him as quick as they can."

"...what happened?" You ask. "What did it do to him?"

Oranya takes in a shaky breath and let's it out quietly. "It started to get clever. Sometimes it didn't have a voice lure you in so it must have been thinking 'how do I get that juicy treat to come to me? It doesn't trust this voice or that voice or that one' and it must have reached into the evil of its heart. 'if one voice doesn't work then I should mix them'. Nasty, disgusting, horrible thing kept it up the entire time my master was hunting it, so he said, and it finally happened upon a voice that matched mine. Apparently it pleaded for him not to kill it."

You feel sick. Even hearing about it second hand makes your skin crawl and your stomach twist in ways that feel like it's being dragged out. "Merciful Spirits of All, a Behemoth can do that? Surely the Ladies of the Peaks wouldn't send him to fight such a thing without protection against that kind of wicked trickery?"

>Cont

>>6285240

"They probably would have, but you see Capran, the Ladies have only been in their position as the leader of each court across the peaks for say...twenty five year. The old leaders, the ones who brokered peace between our land and the dragon nest right beside us, went off to battle with my old master. The pact they had was stricter on cooperative force when something like a behemoth was involved. The voices of the behemoth did things just as bad to their minds as it did his. When those old leaders returned, they lashed out around them. Horribly. You'll notice that there are several especially strong spirits other than the Ladies, and those would be a few of the previous leaders' highest guard or monsters a few steps below their level. Remnants of that time. Some content to remain as guards, some with greater ambition. There's a balance keeping them all in check and I work as one of those things to keep the scales even."

"Makes me think your suggestion for a staff was a hint towards a suitable tool for that."

Something gets Oranya to smile from what you'd said. Much better to see that than her mood so dark, you think.

"Yes, you could say that. My old teacher and wisest master, he used a staff to deal the final blow to the behemoth before shackling its rotten spirit to a black, jagged stone. He drained it to a husk, barely more than a hint of anything left after he was done, and then called up on spirits just as ancient as the behemoth progenitors. Wherever that spirit took the blasted rock, it's must be in a place nothing escapes from."

"His staff sounds more incredible by the second." You say lightly and get a chuckle back from your teacher.

"It was, and it went with him to the pyre. Foci of that scale usually withstand such flames easily but it must have wanted to leave the world alongside my teacher. If you're wanting such a grand thing, you'll have to make a particularly deep pact with the greatest tree spirit you can find. Shame there's not much for that here in the mountains. A forest would do you better." Oranya let's that sit and then turns her eyes to the candle that illuminated the tent. "We need to be rested for the morning but I could answer maybe two more questions if you're feeling so curious. You'll eat up your sleeping time, mind you."

>Any other questions before you sleep or do you want to get a good long night worth of rest?

>>6285253

>This update won't eat into the time you have for rest

"By the way, what was that potion for?" You ask, realizing Oranya had never elaborated on its effects.

"Look at me, getting lost in storytime," she says and rolls her eyes. "It's something my own teacher came up with as he nearly went mad in his study. Rids your dreams of trauma, saps the energy away of any spirit that tries to invade your dreams and drive your mind to shatter. It's mandatory, and as far as I know the recipe was sent to every other Totemists my teacher knew. Hopefully not needed as much as I fear it is."

>>6285253
Time to sleep.

>>6285253
>Could I make a foci with materials from different spirits, like for example stone from a mountain spirit or rock spirit and iron from a metal spirit?

>>6285266
>>6285253

Sleep comes to you sooner than you expected it would.

Maybe the thoughts of wars would hold it off and haunt you, maybe the reminder of the Thunderhorn Elk's greatest strength would cause your mind to reply that blast it gave you, or maybe the story of the voice stealing Behemoth would make rest impossible, but you close your eyes and drift off to a dreamless night. No men slaying brothers, no lightning, no monsters from the darkest pits.

>You feel what you've learned expand your mind. Your spirit reflects this growth and a part of you connects paths and opens previously blocked energies.

>+1 binding potential. Instead of just one binding available, you can now wield the power of more than one Focus at a time. You can bind and unbind more as well.

>Limits raised open up new paths.

>Roll 1d00. Taking first three. I will continue this quest tomorrow morning

Rolled 23 (1d100)

>>6285285

Rolled 69 (1d100)

>>6285285

Rolled 97 (1d100)

>>6285285

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>>6285288

You sleep.

A world opens up to you in your dreams. Vast and strange and familiar.

Through the land within you runs a strong wide river, cutting between rows and rows of leaning geometric mountains tall enough to reach the clouds above.

You feel right at home.

>23

You can't stay here too long. The bridge to this inner world is unstable.

>69

You can see three close mountains. The heart, the mind, the soul. Places of power and purpose and potential.

You can only choose one.

>97

You feel as if any you'd go to would be of great benefit. Things to do, things to see, things to learn.

But where, Totemist?

>Roll 1d10, highest roll wins. Choose between the Mountains. Mind, body, spirit.

Rolled 7 (1d10)

>>6285435
Body

>>6285452
Calling it, the hour has ended

Writing

>>6285435

You need a solid foundation. The mountain of body is your choice.

You run. You run, feeling heavy and sluggish at first but it eases up the further you go, settling in to a steady pace until you speed up. You feel weightless and free when you arrive at the mountain, scaling it in leaps and bounds. The work has lit a fire in you.

>You feel just a bit stronger.

At the top of the mountain floats a silver saucer of clear shimmering water. It hovers at shoulder level, humming a light note that grows quiet as you approach.

The water is still and pristine. [blue]Pure[/blue].

>7

You drink from it, feeling a spreading cool invigorate you. It quenches and refreshes.

>You are a step closer to a greater potential.
>Your flesh and blood respond a little faster.
>Reinforcement totems are more effective.

>You must wake
>You may return later

>Roll 1d10. First three rolls taken. +1 for heightened focus after drinking from the water of life

Rolled 4 (1d10)

>>6285468

Rolled 5 + 1 (1d10 + 1)

>>6285468

Rolled 3 + 1 (1d10 + 1)

>>6285468

>>6285471
>5
>>6285473
>6
>>6285481
>4

In the moments before you fade away from this dream you hear a ghost of a voice. You nearly miss it, soft as it is, barely more than a whisper in the air.

>Stay strong.....return. The earth....name.

____________________

The morning greets you with the smell of herbs and eggs. Teacher Oranya had a pan of yolks simmering over a small heating rock and a sprinkle of slices on top. Your stomach growls loudly and you sit up and wipe the sleep from your eyes. Sleepily, you stretch and find that your body is in great condition compared to yesterday. Your body gives small pops as you twist it this way and that to start your day off and a content sigh slips out. Mmmm, you wish you had a jar full of that water. It works better than any salve you know of!

"Someone's had a little trip to their inner world," your teacher notes while stirring the eggs around and scrambling them. Shes got all her gear together already and must have eaten already. Dawn is just barely here so you haven't overslept. "Hope you found something nice and weren't just running around some barren field. If you tell me you were wandering about some empty place after all these years of my teachings as a Totemist, I'll have to consider you a truly unfortunate case."

You dive into details around the dream, explaining everything you saw and felt. She seems a bit relieved when you finish, rubbing her chin as you end it with telling her of the voice you heard. "I don't know what to make of it, teacher. Is there a spirit that speaks to Totemists through dreams?"

"...not quite like this, but it isn't impossible for such things. You'll remember I told you that potion prevents the worst to happen within your mind, but it won't stop all spirits from communicating, especially if they're benign and mean only to help. Seems like you've got yourself a friend already."

>Cont

>>6285504

"I hadn't realized I was already so important," you say, puzzled over what kind of spirit managed to enter your inner world and reach out.

"Oh, but you are, Capran. You're a Totemist's pupil and begining to step into the world. You'll be meeting plenty of spirits, all kinds of things you can scarcely believe now but they'll seek you out for one reason or another. To be a Totemist is to be a bridge and an anchor."

You commit that to memory.

"That said, eat you egg and bind your focus, then let's be off to the grave. We've got a quarter of the way left and you need to walk into that place with at least one binding ready at all times. Strange things lurk around constantly enough that you won't have time otherwise to set up your gear."

>Choose your binding from the cloak, bow, or something new.

>Inventory: cloak, bow, hammer, knife, rope, sack, boots, shirt, pants, belt and gloves.

>>6285507
Let's try out the cloak. We'll be able to build some charge before the fight as we walk.

Work seems very slow today but plenty of deliveries in shop so I'll be back about 15 after. Taking the majority vote of whatever you all suggest

>>6285507
The cloak

>>6285507
>Bind cloak and Boots

If we can bind two things without getting tired I want to bind those two. If we get tired then I also support the cloak

>>6285508
>>6285512
>>6285511

You go with something familiar, not much time to get used to something new on the hike to the Grave and your teacher wouldn't be happy if you took hours to figure out what a fresh foci bindings does. You skip your cloak on and press the antler of the Thunderhorn Elk to the cloth and recite the ritual of binding, feeling just a hint of begrudging cooperation (the elk must be pretty mad at you), and it shifts to the form of the Stormknights Proof. You don't too badly drained from it, much less than you were before, but progress is progressing and you're happy to make some. Hopefully you could snag yourself a feral binding at the grave that would fit nicely with something you've brought along. One foci means you lack flexibility and teacher Oranya would give you a other lesson about balance if you didn't correct that.

Exactly what IS at the grave anyways? You hadn't asked.

>Get some info about your destination. What bindings could you get?

>Ask about flying beasts
>Ask about beasts of the land
>Ask about possibly swimming beasts
>Ask about spirits that reside at the Grave

>>6285520
>Ask about flying beasts

>>6285520
>Ask about spirits that reside at the Grave

>>6285520
>>Ask about spirits that reside at the Grave

>>6285520
>>6285535

>Ask about flying beasts and spirits

While getting the tent collapsed and all things stuffed into your teachers pack, you pass the time by asking her about the grave, specifically what kind of things around the area that call the skies their home.

"This may be a dumb question but there aren't any dragons flying around the Grave, are there? I know the Nest is the side of the land they stay on but surely the dragons don't just keep to themselves there alone, right?"

Oranya grunt and shakes her head beside you. She's shoving a few bedrolls into the pack that seems to swallow the last of the luggage she'd brought along. "No, the dragons aren't kept there with some lock and cage, the world is full of them. We just have them kindly stay to one side of the land around us and not so much as a step into ours. Recent events beside, no dragon dares wander through the bounds upon pain of death or worse. You'll pay them a visit at the boundary one day but it won't be for some time. No, you'll hopefully not see much of the flying kinds of beasts or otherwise while we do our business at the Grave."

You sigh with relief. You can handle a drakeling now that you've got yourself a binding but a true dragon or even a wyrm would paint the land with your blood if it didn't eat you whole.

"Keep your wits about you though, Capran", advises your teacher with a low voice, "the grave attracts all manner of things ever since my teacher's teacher's teacher ended a behemoth greater than any I've seen and ripped its primordial spark out to leave the rest of its body as a warning. Some warnings just don't last forever, of course. Be especially wary of what makes the titans ribs as their nest. If I tell you to get your head down you do so the moment I say, understand me?"

"Perfectly, teacher!" You promptly reply. Honestly whatever has your teacher worked up like that gets you a bit nervous. She hasn't so much as described anything clearly but whatever flies around the grave must be awful.

"And if any spirit comes up to you, I don't care what it begs for or whatever mistakes it has in any pact it brings up, don't follow it and don't make any promises. You'll probably be swarmed by shadelings the moment any real threat is far enough away. Little buggers."

If you recall correctly, shadelings were sort of small elvish spirit born of shadows and quick to scatter at the first sign of danger. You think on that as you both set off again towards the grave and aren't bothered by anything the whole trip. Seems all the beasts returning to the mountains flocked towards the valley for a chance to grab new and old territory.

_______________

Some hours later, noon if you trusted the sun above, you both take your first steps off the mountain and onto the oddly colored short grass that leads into the rocky land of the ancient behemoths final resting place. It's very quiet as far as you can tell, and your teacher ushers you to follow her and not dawdle.

>Roll 1d10

Rolled 6 (1d10)

>>6285546

Rolled 2 (1d10)

>>6285546

Calling in 17

Rolled 4 (1d10)

>>6285546

>>6285548
>>6285550
>>6285552

The noises begin shortly after you pass the first small stack of flat slate rocks and your teacher has the cane out and scanning your path for signs of life. In the language of spirits you hear mutterings of 'Totemist' and 'deal-pact' from time to time, which must be the shadelings or similar spirits. You keep up with teacher Oranya and don't fall behind.

"I didn't think they were shy from what you told me."

"They're not," she grumbles and sharply turns to look at a far stack of rocks and turns back to the trail. "They know better than to bother me now ever since the last one tried taking some of my supplies. Said it was toll for using its road."

Uh oh.

"Teacher, I can guess what, but exactly how did you deal with the uh.....grabby shadeling?"

Teacher Oranya cackles darkly and points down the path with her cane. "Told the stupid thing I'm a Totemist and made it a deal. If it could learn to fly before it landed I'd pay for the show."

Okay then. Not much worse than you had in mind. She'd sent you floating above head level and spinning when you tried to sneak one of her candies away as a boy of ten years old, and you were her pupil. Small mercies would have the shadeling dead on landing.

"I see we make the best friends for locals." You note, much to your teacher's amusement.

"Oh, just the thieving kind. The rest will stay away as long as I'm near you, but some might have forgotten the fear."

The voices call out around you, words coming from behind more stacks of rock and sparse bushes. 'No take from you! No take! Totemist peace!'

>Cont

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>>6285554
>6

The shadelings leave you be after passing a grey stack of rocks that rose a fair bit higher than the ones before and your teacher walks a bit quicker through the path. You must not be in friendly company now and you keep a bit closer to Oranya without the need to be prompted. She doesn't look anywhere that isn't forward and either side, so she's aware of you putting less distance between you both.

"Mind your sides." Teacher Oranya looks up at one of the far off towering ribs, the tips of them covered in some kind of grey color that you can't quite make out in detail. "No telling of some other things around these parts are quite so keen on leaving us be."

You nod, eyes still on the unusual patches of the massive ribs.

>2

And see something drop off from one of them, a rib closest to you, and the grey dot......stops. "Teacher Idon't suppose that shadeling you threw learned to fly? We've got something grey in the air up front."

Her response is immediate and two crackling spears of lightning manifest beside her. "I knew we'd have to deal with this, damn it all. Capran! Head down and don't make eye contact!"

>4

You duck down and feel the ground shake as something lands in front of you two with a crunchy thud. You narrowly resist looking up too high but what you see of the thing which dropped down from the rib is..... unsettling.

>>6285558

It certainly is foul. The...bird? Corpse? What do you even begin to call this thing.

It spreads its wings wide and postures peers at you with an eyeless skull, some holes along its head flaring a bit in time with a heartbeat. What beak it has is some glossy black chitin covering its upper and lower halves and black quills line the back of this....creature.

"Ah wonderful," teacher Oryana growls out, not once taking a step back. "A welcome from the flock. How about you flap off back to your bone and don't come back down? Go on, tell your Queen I'm on Totemist business and don't have the luxury of time for now. She can send a proper messenger and not some scavenger pest."

The tone and authority your teacher uses doesn't seem to mean much to the avian spirit. It just....stands there with its wings out and you still don't look up.

>Roll 1d10, taking highest of first three rolls

Rolled 10 (1d10)

>>6285565

>>6285568
Let's go

Rolled 71 (1d100)

>>6285565

Rolled 2 (1d10)

>>6285576
AGAIN

Rolled 8 (1d10)

>>6285565

>>6285568
>Critical success on a reaction roll

>2fast4u turkey leg

Writing soon, works over and heading home

Your teacher's hand is already on the horrible neck of this creature, her thumb digging into one of the holes along the length of it, and jerks her arm to pull it hard as its beaked mouth snaps at your face. Your head is up, eyes on this thing despite your Oranya's warning not to make eye contact but you don't think that matter anymore when an attempt to attack you comes into play. You flick your eyes to her and you see her face twisted in a snarl. Looks like she agrees.

"You DARE attack a Totemist's pupil? You think you can just make a meal of MY protege?!" Oranya roars at the creature in her grip, bringing her spears of lightning to aim at the thrashing head and body. "Take your stupidity with you to the Dark!"

With a resonating boom, two wide holes are made clean through the head and side of whatever this 'pest' is and you step back when she lets go of it with a flick of her hand, wiping her fingers off on her pants leg. You cast your gaze down at the stump of its neck and the scent of charred skin prickles at your nose. Some black sludge spurts out once, twice, then a third time before it ends, the color going from a weirdly oily tinge to a flat sheen.

"Great Spirits above, what IS that thing" you ask, covering your nose and staring at the holes your teacher made. "Smells as bad as it looks!"

She nods and looks up at the rib towering where this ugly thing came from. You look there as well and see the grey mass on the tip begin to spread out along the ivory white, none of it dropping down to pay you a visit thankfully. One was enough for you to want nothing to do with more.

"One of the Dark Kin, so they call themselves, but I've bound another of this flock and found them to be named 'ichor wings'. They've a Queen I was sure knew better than to let one of this bit of nastiness so loose off the leash." Oryana grumbles and points her cane at the rib, clearly to warn the rest of them that she isn't afraid to add to the body count, and yells to the 'ichor wings' high above. "I better be seeing her for a chat before nightfall, you hear me?!"

The grey mass just keeps crawling around on the ribs with no answer for her.

>Cont

>>6285613

"We'll be seeing more of them soon now that I've killed one of them but nothing to worry about." Teacher Oryana huffs, kicks the corpse and then makes her way along the trail again. You won't be getting any binding out of this now that shes killed it and decided to let it stay there like discarded trash. You don't blame her. You're not sure you'd want any crafting material you could salvage from it. The smells would seep into anything nearby, and you don't want to find out what it would take to remove it from the workshop. "Come now Capran, keep with me. Let's find you a good binding and then be out of this place."

>Ask about what she'd recommend
>Ask about the flock
>Ask about the Queen
>Ask something else?

Calling it in an hour

>>6285616
>Ask about what she'd recommend

>>6285616
>Ask about what she'd recommend
>Ask if there's other "Queens" like the one of the Ichor Wings
>Ask if there really exist spirits from the Dark and why, if they're Ichor Wings they're so eager to claim to be from the Dark

>>6285616
>Ask about the Queen

>>6285616
>>6285618
>>6285631

"I'd like to at least know what I'm in for," you say, a bit of urgency to have some clue what would be jumping out at you seeming more than fair. You balk at the idea of that 'ichor wing' not being the top of the food chain, and suppress a shiver as images of bigger and nastier things eating their fill of that disgusting body. Another good reason nobody comes near the Grave just keeps adding to the pile you started counting. Distance, natives and dangers. "That's the first time I've even heard of any queen around here or her flock of corpse birds."

"Not much to find around here that isn't some thrall of the Dark Kin Queen. I suppose we might find some spirits around that are spared their hunger but the best we can really hope for is that little outburst from the ichor wing earned us an apology."

"That being...?"

>10

You get your answer soon enough as the sky above you darkens. Maybe you shouldn't ask so many things, you might have to learn in ways you really don't like.

Circling you in a storm of flapping leathery wings led by a truly giant specimen of some kind resembling possibly the alpha of the fliers is what can only be more ichor wings. They swiftly dive in a downward spiral and surround you on all sides, silently tilting their heads this way and that with their wings spread like the one your teacher had killed. Maybe it's some kind of defensive display like normal birds do but you shouldn't rely on what you know of regular animals to figure these things out.

>Cont

>>6285664
Your teacher stays still. You follow her example. Nothing moved to attack and until you are told otherwise, you return the favor. You don't know if teacher could slaughter the whole army of these things but they outnumber you both far too much for any reasonable retaliation on your part. Teacher Oryana would definitely be giving the Ladies of the Peaks a piece of her mind. Maybe even blast one of the mountaintops with her spears until they came down to meet with her.

"Aaaalright then," you say as even more of the flock come to join the first wave, their kind joined by an ever growing number that makes everything seem worse by the second. "I don't suppose you killed something important to these things, did you teacher?"

"Not even close. They haven't got a care for anything but their queen and I'm sure she's going to be showing up right about now. Remember, do not make eye contact. Even if she grabs you, do not look into her eyes," and with that she glances into the sky and shifts to a more combative stance.

The closest of the flock on all sides turn their heads up and let out a high pitched note that sounds like some kind of whistle, getting your attention to focus upwards too, and you see it.

The queen has come.

>Roll 1d5, first three

Rolled 3 (1d5)

>>6285678
Oh fuck

Rolled 3 (1d5)

>>6285678

Rolled 5 (1d5)

>>6285678

File: b9c9e47a-ad39-41ac-8aa1-1(...).png (221 KB, 674x769)

221 KB PNG

>>6285691
>>6285698
>>6285719
>3
>3
>5

You keep. Your. Eyes. Down

This isn't a Lady of the Peak. Her presence is too sharp, too heavy, too.....something. You've seen Lady Earest before, chatting away with your teacher back and forth like friends, and this isn't anything like Lady Earest and you bet nothing like the other Ladies either. The queen lands in silence, perfectly so. There wasn't even so much as a tap on the ground.

A predator, realize. You thought it would be something like the queen bee of a hive but this is clearly some kind of spirit that either ripped its way to the top or was born there. You didn't know anything but a behemoth could scare you like this.

"You've come again, Totemist, and brought a youngling this time."

Even the queens voice alone is something like the whisper of death. With a tone almost demure it begins to walk on bony, knuckled wing joints, still silent, still making your hair stand on end.

>3
>You are beginning to Fear

" How...splendid."

"I'll thank you not to eye him like a prize, and remember this well, I didn't take kindly to one of your rotten flock trying to snack on him," came your teacher's curt response, "and I know you're here to put the scales back in order. You'd better not have sent it down to pull some kind of stunt with him, much less me. We're here on orders from the Ladies and not to have you shower is with gifts as some pretext for whatever it is you want."

"Oryana. You know I'm craftier than that. I can do so much better. Gain so much more than just leveling the scales." The queen circles behind you, pausing at your back, and you can feel breath on your hair.

She's too close. Too close to run too close to get away too--

>3
>Your Fear grows

Teacher Oryana moves to put herself between you and this walking nightmare, her hand against your back, steady and solid as her iron will how can she look at this thing your eyes are on the dirt beneath you how can you run how can you flee

>You feel a Whisper
>You feel the Dark
>You--

"Get away from him. Now."

The Queen -run run run run run run- laughs a laugh of midnight and things that live in the darkest dark. Things that have lived for so long in those black corners hidden away until the sun was just another light that no longer had the power to contain it to the shadows.

>Cont

>>6285757
>5
Your cape, your first binding that marks you as a true Totemist, flaps on its own and sends a jagged line across the ground just behind your teacher's boots with the angry snap of electricity. You nearly jump out of your skin and flee like some cowardly babe fresh off his mother's milk. You whirl around and meet your teachers back, blocking sight of you from the Queen and her cane pressing I to the chest of this living shadow. It comforts you, sets your mind at ease just that little bit to realize that two lines have been drawn. Your teacher, slayer of dragons, and your cape, your fear-breaker. Then, you remember how its power works. You'd been wearing it your entire walk since this morning.

>Your Stormknights Proof is at maximum charge.

"Mmm? What's this now? Your youngling has quite the cloth on him. Let me...take a look."

"You WON'T be doing such a thing!"

Teacher's staff jabs into the body of the queen and pushes it back far enough for her to swing it back as a final warning. The message is clear. No chances left.

You stammer out what words can come to you and take a breath for what feels like hours, filling your lungs with sweet air, and get some spine back in you now that you aren't swallowed by an ancient terror that preys upon your instincts.

>Fear subsided.
>Your Soul is no longer being watched.
>You grow, even now.

There is pure silence now save for the thrumming energy of your cloak and your teachers hands clenching her cane Foci like a vice.

"You've had more than enough chance to stop making as ass of yourself, Yvorro. You want something, I know you do, you always want something, so get to it already and stop trying to poke my pupil with curses. He's had his potion years ago."

....you were cursed? When? How? Was it the Fear? Was that the grip you felt on your heart?

"Teacher Oryana, I... I'm okay." Your mouth is still dry but you're quickly recovering. You never learned much about curses yet but they feel awful.

"Hush, just keep your eyes from her own and you'll be even better. And as for you! You've gotten quite bold to pull this trickery of yours. Didn't my master rid this place of two behemoths for you? Is THIS how you think pacts are kept between Totemist and spirits?!"

There's a noncommittal hum from the Queen as she resumes pacing around you both, matched by your teacher that circles you to keep herself up as a wall. "The Dark Kin do not forget but we are so very fond of secrets. You didn't tell us you had chosen a pupil, much less that pupil has already claimed a spirit more a force of nature than most of the mountain court. Tell me, how did you slay it? What tool did you use to trap and kill one of the Old Guards of the Great Winds court?"

>Tell the Queen
>Keep silent
>Other?

>Writing in 1 hour

>>6285781
>"I don't give secrets for free, and even less to spirits that wanted to curse me"
>Keep looking down

>>6285795
This

>>6285795

>>6285781
"I asked you a question, Ichor Wing Yvorro. You will answer me and to hell with you and your hunger for secrets!" Your teacher has an edge to her voice that promises swift pain for the Queen and gets in her face as much as she can. you can't think of any time you've seen her so angry at a spirit and it feels good for her to defend you like this. But you want your own words against this spirit and you want it to know you've got your guts back "Tell me! What could you do now to set the balance back? You think you have something to make good on your deal with me after this?!"

"I have all kinds of hidden things even the sun can't see, you know that well," comes the cryptic and smooth reply you're beginning to think is more for her own amusement than something she'd say to calm Oryana down, "and you are right, I'll admit, it may put me in some debt now to ask but you know me. Secrets are my trade. My calling. My essence. I could settle the debt for the right but of information. A treasure trove of untapped gems in a cave only I know of, a long dead Behemoth's old lair -probably filled to the bring with all kinds of trophies- just waiting to be found by you both. Ohhhh or maybe he'd like to know what that girl thinks of him. Human men do love to know the heart of the girl to catch their eye! Plenty of things to make us even. I'll even make your side of the pact a bit looser, Oryana, as a token of apology for stirring up this but of trouble~"

>Write in

"I don't give secrets for free, and even less to spirits that wanted to curse me."

Teacher Oryana gives you a long look of concern and you keep your eyes down, still following her orders, but you refuse to not be a part of this back and forth your teacher and the queen have going.

"And I can ask what she feels just fine. "You continue with your voice raising just a bit with every breath, overcoming that lingering fear still trying to worm it's way into your heart. "I'm a man of twenty years, a Totemist on top of that, so you don't need to think you can just try to curse me and I'll stay quiet while you go on about deals and secrets and debts!"

>Roll 1d100 + 10

Rolled 5 (1d10)

>>6285826

Rolled 40 + 10 (1d100 + 10)

>>6285826
>>6285828
Wrong dice bud

Rolled 99 (1d100)

>>6285832
For fucks sakes, idk why I'm getting so confused

>>6285834
Ha
Hahahaha
>Nearly max possible super crit on a negotiation/stand off with a Great Spirit

Silver tongued Osyki lives again

Rolled 57 + 10 (1d100 + 10)

>>6285826
throwing the last roll just for fun
>>6285834
sick roll man

>>6285838
>>6285845
It's not me, it was Carpran wanting to get his dick out

>>6285826

You must have balls of iron to stand your ground against something that just recently turned your instincts against you, something far older than maybe even the Ladies of the Peaks themselves but damn if you're going to just stay quiet like some child while the adults are talking business.

You are a Totemist. Time to prove it.

The most stupid little plan forms in your mind as you raise you head up unbeknownst to teacher Oranya and your eyes find the mask this queen wears over its head as your resolve grows. Why bother looking down if its face is hidden away behind some metal cover?

You lean towards the mask itself and inhale. You catch the attention of spirit and teacher, the former the taken back at your brazen and solid stare, the latter and more important of the two about to move and be your cover.

>109

And you speak your damn mind.

"Do you have any kind of idea how little you have to offer my teacher, nevermind how worthless some secret treasure in some far off land is, and then actually try to bullshit your way into trading secrets about this and that with me? Do you think you and your nasty birds have something I want?" Instead of waiting for an answer you keep going and press your advantage while you've shut this queen up. "You don't even know how easy it is to summon a spirit of knowledge, and one that uses that knowledge to trade like coins isn't much harder. I could have a ritual up to do it in half the time it took just to walk here from the border of the Grave! You curse me, in front of my own teacher!? Are you the Spirit of Poor Decisions?"

The queen is still. She doesn't speak and neither does your teacher. Oryana may have your hide later but you deserve this right now.

Raising your voice to almost a roar has this queen of the Grave apparently taking you less as a child and more someone your role as a Totemist demands. "You think you have something so precious you'd pick a fight with me and go on about an even trade when you want to know how I got my first binding? TAKE! A! LOOK!"

With that and you spitting out the last words, great arcs of violent energy claw at the ground around you to make a circle, forming blacked sand at the feet of the Ichor Wings that surround the three of you and end with a particularly strong bolt stretching out from within your cape to hold a few tiny inches away from the mask this secret dealing dark skin wore.

"I hunted it down well enough for it to give me my true entrance to the world of Totemists. You are going to respect that and I don't care if I have to show you the way I earned this spirit personally. Do. You. Get it?"

>Cont

>>6285859

Seems like you made a damn good point if the way the queen leans back and further from you both is any kind of sign. You don't break line of sight with the mask even once and your teacher glanced back and forth twice between you and this spirit. She's even lowered her cane.

You should have had less patience for this earlier. Speaking of patience, you're on the clock.

"Now, if you're done here, and I hope you are, we have something urgent we need to be doing. Move aside. Single bound spirit or not you have nothing I want unless you can pull the essence of a behemoth out of thin air."

All is quiet.

And then the queen laughs. And laughs. And laughs some more, shoulders shaking and doubling forward and she clutches her sides with two human-like arms that split off from her wing arms, the sound like a bat cry mixed with the highest note of a flute. "Oh, OH, young Totemist how you take after dear Oranya here! So patient when it counts and yet, thank all the world and the night itself, you have a spine and use it like any good student of hers should be! Oranya you are a treasure to bring him here and not some pit of snakes to stop those worrying fledgelings! Hahaha, oh yessss you are going to do great things on your life!"

You don't share half of the amusement she's found, but she laughs some more and speaks between gulps of air.

"Ah, how refreshing to know you take so well after your teacher, it brings tears to my eyes, covered as they are by this suppressing sheet of metal. Nevermind some cave of wonders, you deserve something no amount of gems can compare to!"

>Cont

>>6285906

"I said you didn't have anything I want," is all you reply, firm and unyielding to this giggly witch of a spirit.

"Oh, but I do! After seeing your grit I can't just be satisfied with you going off to find a binding in just ANY lair of beasts more forsaken than I!". With that said the queen slinks closer and produces a scroll of flat shadow, handing it over to Oryana who darts her eyes among you, the scroll and the queen. She makes sure to have you in her sight and quickly opens the parchment to speedily read it with a gasp. That must be some kind of deal she made with this queen but you can't guess what had been written on it. "I'm sorry to say but you've made a good show of having the sense to stand your ground in the face of even a spirit as old and learned as I am. Call it good will but I'll offer sincere advice. Don't pull the same trick again until you have the power to stand alone against half of my horde around you. Try rounding up a good half dozen or so bindings and be able to wield them all at once."

"Yes, yes, free advice how generous of you, but I'm still in need of a binding and my time is being wasted."

"We can't have that now, can we?" The Queen lowers herself a bit to stand her human body, or some kind of false body maybe, face to face and almost nose to mask, no closer but no farther. "I heard plenty about the little task your highest Ladies of the Peaks gave you, even having the nerve to say your teacher should hurry up and train you harder, faster, to turn you into a wall they can put on the Nest border or to block the threat of Behemoths. Know this, Oranya's pupil, Capran if I've heard the dark speak true, the majority of them will not fight alongside you and your teacher as the precious Lord of the Winds did with her own master. They cannot imagine themselves in harms way, no matter what comes from their messengers or their own mouths. Consider it....an open secret among us spirits who border the mountains on your side and the dragon nest on the other. When it is time for you to be called to defend your home, remember that it won't be enough if you can't match what they throw you at. Maybe it won't be a Behemoth the first two times but those come around now and for reasons even I don't know. You can't be sure those Ladies will all care about the timing as Earest might."

The three of you just stand there and look at one another, but you won't let this spirit have the last word.

"Awfully willing to chat with me on some sense of equal footing now that I've had enough of your curses and crap. If I have to visit this place again I expect you to have this conversation memorized. Now, for your information, you can ask teacher Oranya how exactly I bound the Elk, a pretty significant Guard of the late Kord of Wind if your word can be trusted, but I won't speak a word of it until I return and even then I'm not sure I'll be in the mood to tell it."

>Cont

>>6285910
>>6285910

The queen finally says nothing to that, but instead turns her gaze to your teacher and brings forth a nail dripping with ink blacker than the shadow scroll itself. She takes the scroll for a moment, flickering her nail quill at blistering speeds and returning it with a chuckle. It is read, reread and read a third time but your teacher doesn't seem to believe what she sees.

"You're squaring all debts and calling everything even? You lose so much by doing this, not to mention you opened up the bargain to give me extra room to negotiate! It's nothing like you at all."

Again the queen laughs, gentler this time, at a joke only she and perhaps your teacher knows. "Not as much as you may think. By the by, I do apologize for that silly clause in the deal about your name cursed to be mistaken between the truth and that faux pas you made when your master told you to introduce yourself to me. It seems as though effects spread a bit too far and I've heard your pupil slip it up as well. I suppose the cats out of the bag now, he should be fine now but I feel it may stick with him."

"What?" You blurt out and feel the flame in your chest coming back hotter than before.

Teacher Oranya..... Oryana? How long had you been messing her name name up like that? Even the queen made the mistake and it was all from a curse written in a pact? You decide then that you've had far too much exposure to curses for your whole life and make a not to yourself to build at least three totems to resist them the minute you return to the workshop.

Teacher Oranya just shrugs and pulls a face. "I've honestly gotten so used to it that I barely notice. Its been years."

You're going to make five, just to be safe.

>Continued tomorrow
>(I totally didn't just notice I've been misspelling my own character's name this entire time and coming up with a valid reason for it like a dumbfuck. Just in time for net to start lagging and captcha getting angry at my lack of sleep)

>>6285931

Today has been.... something alright. You've demanded your respect from some kind of spirit that peddles secrets as their trade, earned yourself some gift or such from it for doing so, and come to find out that curses have been played on your teacher through a deal made long ago between it and your teacher. You are going to be busy making totems to ward off things like this and triple check any bargains you make with spirits. Apparently names can be cursed!

Teacher...Oranya. not Oryana.

You have to refamiliarize her name now thanks to finding out everyone messes up her name because of said cursed deal. How embarrassing.

Now, as I said before. I do owe you a gift after all this, especially when your pupil gives me a good laugh like that. Nevermind hearing how he bested an Old Guard and bound it, I'll have you tell me the story with a fair trade. Do call me through the foci any time to get that sorted." The Queen circles you both again, something she just seems to do while she talks and you stare at her with a frown. "And as for you, Totemist Capran, I did say you had earned a little something and I'd be a liar if I didn't make good on that."

>Demand two prizes
>Refuse
>Ask your teacher what she thinks
>Other?

Be back in an hour

>>6286121
>Ask your teacher what she thinks

>>6286121
>Ask your teacher what she thinks

>>6286121

Just like always, when you aren't sure of what to do, you should get the advice of someone more experienced. You tap on your teachers arm while she reads the black scroll one more time with your knuckle. "What would you do if she offered you some gifts, free of charge?"

You both turn your eyes to the Queen and hear the wisest words ever spoken come from teacher Oranya.

"Well, if she's so generous, ask for the best gift first then work your way down."

"There's never been a better teacher!" You say with a smile, knowing exactly what she means. "Art of the Deal: chapter four?"

"Oh no," comes Oranya, "chapter six. We want a jackpot and she's racking up debt slowly as we spend time here and not getting a binding. Even if she leveled the scales, I'd say time is precious."

You think to chapter six and your smile grows.

"Well she did say I deserve something no amount of gems could compare to."

"I do actually know what you're quoting, by the way, I helped her write half that text myself." With a huff of amusement, the Queen crosses her arms and stops to stand where she first landed. "I did say that, yes, and I will give you something beyond that value. We can discuss further deals after this, should you be in need of juicy gossip or ancient secrets, but I'll trade evenly as I did with your teacher. No funny naming curses included, of course. It was something of a joke between us anyways."

You and teacher Oranya meet eyes and she nods. "I'd personally milk this chance as much as I could since she's a slippery one when she wants to be. More annoying to deal with than a Spirit of Knowledge but she knows more than most of them and will faithfully complete her side of the bargain as long as what you offer is fair. Might as well see what her menu looks like. I'd say ask her for a really juicy Binding from her horde or Foci material."

"It's quite a list, I assure you. Take any of my flock, make a deal in your favor, ask for any secret of man and spirit -and that list is long as well- that I can share, and I can even tell you some things that haven't even come to pass yet. The Dark hears whispers of many things and many are ignorant of how close a shadow truly is."

>What will you take? It may seem like she only repeated her offer but the queen gave you hints as to what she's capable of and what she's willing to give away.

>Foci material
>A significantly powerful binding from her flock
>A Dark secret
>A secret of man
>A secret of spirit
>Treasure location
>Write in?

>>6286144
>Foci material

>>6286144
>Foci material
I wonder what sorts of bindings we could make with jewelry. Like an earring or something.

>>6286144
>Foci material

I need a 1d100 +10

>>6286144
Actually if possible I would like to change my vote >>6286153 to
Foci material and in exchange for a binding I'll tell you how I got my thunderhorn elk, how I got free info from a spirit, (the queen herself telling us that the elk is an old guard), and something new I recently learned about my teacher and not just that she was cursed, (simply that her name is something else than what we though it was)

Rolled 40 + 10 (1d100 + 10)

>>6286166
Guess my write in came just a bit too late, oh well. Would have been cool if it worked and didn't piss her off

>>6286168
>>6286169

No worries there anon, you can always sweeten the deal once you know what foci you'll earn with the rolls

Since this is a pretty significant roll I'll hold off until we get 2 more

Rolled 91 (1d100)

>>6286211
Good thing I decided to check in on this quest real quick

Rolled 96 + 10 (1d100 + 10)

>>6286211

>>6286173
Oh shit, didn't saw your name so I didn't rolled, glad other anons got it

>>6286169
>>6286212
>>6286224

We are going to make Oranya SO proud

>>6286169
>>6286212
>>6286224

>50
>101
>106

You came here for a binding and while a free one sounds good and all...you don't really like the idea of a corpse bird that reeks of sour milk being one of them. It definitely doesn't fit your idea of a great Totemist to have one of them bound to your knife, boots and especially not your cloak.

"I don't suppose you have anything for Foci crafting do you"? You ask with some small hope you could maybe get something not as... disgusting. "You know about me and I've introduced you to my cloak, so you must know it was an excellent Foci gift from a Lady of the Peak."

>50

[b]"Why of course. How could I forget one of the Old Guard who drove me off the mountain for trading secrets to spirits not quite welcome in his land."[/b] The icy tone she has now most certainly leaves no room for humor anymore. [b]"Yes, I do remember them chasing me down the slopes not far from here. I really wish I could thank Oranya's master for killing the Behemoth which left me such an excellent spot to call home. You too, Totemist. I'm...quite grateful you bound one of them."[/b]

>101

"You know, you can always thank me with some really special gifts. If you mean what you say, and I hope you do, I'd just love a good essence or catalyst." A step closer get you an interested tilt of the queens head. Seems she's curious where you're going with this. "In fact, if this 'Old Guard' had to be sent just to drive you off the mountain I'm sure you must have an amazing pile of treats just tucked away collecting dust. It would be a shame to just leave them alone when you did promise me a hell of a gift. Might as well put that on the table, right?"

"Aim for the sky indeed," Oranya mutters with a chuckle.

"It would also be great if you to point me towards some beast or spirit I could make a binding with. Maybe something that bothers you I could get rid of or maybe-"

>106

[b]"I'll do even better."[/b]

"-you...have..."

[b]Yes, I have many things just building up and nowhere to go, and I'm aware you're searching for a good hefty bit of power to keep those simpleton sisters on the mountain from worrying their breezy little brains into a fit. Why don't I give you a juicy little something to help you on your way towards killing off as many Behemoths as you can? It may be a bit much for you now but I'm sure you'll grow into it before long."[/b] With that, the Queen leans back, 'face' to the sky and makes an echoing cry more like the sound of a choir than the high pitched whistle her flock made before her arrival.

>Something....stirs.

>Cont

Fucking syntax errors why can't the text box just have a god damn setting

>Writing

>>6286283
I believe it's because your ID changed; QM formatting rights are tied to the ID you make the thread with unfortunately

>>6286281

>Something has come.
>Something stares.

"Capran, eyes down. Now." Oranya orders swiftly and has her cane back up. The Queen chuckles. [i]so does the Other[/i].

>Something Other than You is interested in this Deal

"We agreed no spirits but us would be part of our deals, Yvorro!"

>Something Other than You Something Other than Oranya clearly answers the Lingering Question

[red]You are not part of that Deal, young Totemist[/red]

[b]Just as it says! He's not involved in the fine print of your deal and I know you've had a look at the revisions I made. Signed it yourself too just minutes ago.[/b]

Your teacher is having none of it, her spears blinking into reality with their usual ferocity. "He's not ready for a Deal with that thing!"

"Teacher whats going on here?"

[red]No Deal. A Gift is freely Given by one Party[/red]

You feel it somewhere deep down inside yourself.

This thing, this voice, this feeling...

It's ancient beyond age.

>Cont

>>6286286
Seriously? Damn. It makes sense but also doesn't