[Nexus] The Hunting Grounds

[Wolfbane]

Wilderness

The armor comes off easily once the back plate is finished, and the woman gives Michicora a nod as she sets the rest aside. The elf will notice that it's much lighter than normal steel, but even so, she'd have to be rather strong to move so quickly in it. Underneath, the woman is wearing a simple tunic and trousers, just enough to keep her from being pinched by the armor or having it rub the wrong way.

The back of her injured knee is covered in black ooze from the wound Michicora inflicted, and she sighs at the sight of it before pulling out a bandage and rolling up the leg in order to bind the wound until it heals. "What are you doing out here? Hunting too?"

[Rebonack]

[Elsewhere]

He died.

She's sure of it. Sure that the giant must have finished him off after she lost consciousness. And this time he has no Orb of Glass to bring her back to life. That means one of two things.

Either he was pious enough to be accepted into the service of the Emperor's Refinery.

Or she was apostate and has been devoured by Discord.

And... it doesn't feel nearly hot enough to be the Emperor's Refinery. Which leaves Freddie rather nervous.

She takes a deep breath before opening one eyes. And then the other.

For a few moments he just... stares. At the goddess. At her surroundings. Just it total shock and disbelief. No... this... this can't be right. Can it?

The Huldra closes his eyes again.

Shakes her head.

And then opens them once more.

Welp.

Goddess of hunting and battle is still standing there.

That deep breath is finally let out as the demon fox begins to approaching the goddess rather sheepishly. Once he gets close he'll sit down on her haunches and peer up at the divine warrior.

"Not... not to be disrespectful, Huntress. But... I wasn't expecting to end up in your Hall of Feasting when I died. Not... that I'm complaining. I'm just... confused."

A beat.

"You are Azazel, aren't you?"

[ThePhantom]

Riverbanks Interaction Wanted!

After wandering around for some time, Gordon makes his way to the banks of a river. He still hasn't met up with the great beasts that live here yet.

[Mr. Moon]

Hoodoo Canyon

The sword fits quite well in Jakob's hands - as if its maker intended to force him to stay in this size whilst wielding it. When he picks it up, the sword glides cleanly out of the ground. It's large and heavy enough that it takes both of his hands to hold it. But as soon as he does, he can feel its magical properties. The sword has two modes. While he is at rest, or ready to act without having actually acted, it will boost the defences of his followers. While he is in action, either attacking or involved in something else that takes his attention, his followers will have their offensive abilities boosted.

Elsewhere

The Goddess smiles down at the demon fox, chuckling at her awkwardness. "I am not, Warrior, although I know Her well." She lifts a hand, motioning for Freddy to rise. "You fought courageously, Warrior, and with much intelligence and cleverness. That is the kind of prowess I wish to see." Picking up the bowl of flames, she holds it down where Freddy can see. The dancing flames are fuelled by cherry-red coals. "Take a coal," says the Goddess. "It's heat will fuel your fire and propel you into your next battle."

[Rebonack]

[Desert]

The dragon lets go of the electrical lady!

Mostly by hurling her really hard at that heap of ice spikes he had just slathered some rocks with. And then breathing more freezing fluid after her in a bid to freeze her between ice and more ice.

Then someone stabs him in the belly!

Ouch.

Diinuldrum responds to that by kicking his legs out from under himself and attempting to simply squash the shape shifter.

[Elsewhere]

Suddenly Freddie looks quite sheepish. "Oh! You must be the Lady who rules over the hunting grounds. I... eerr..." his'r ears fold back in embarrassment. "I probably should have realized that..."

The Huldra reaches out with one paw halfway between vulpine and human and takes a coal without a second thought. S'he isn't worried in the least about burning him'r self given how resistant to heat s'he is.

"I suppose this means I get another chance? Thank you, M'lady. I'm glad my performance pleased you."

With that s'he will bow in a respectful fashion.

[Mr. Moon]

Elsewhere

The Goddess smiles. "May your further fights have better results."

As Freddy takes the coal, it will sink down into zeir paw/hand hybrid as if it where water and ze were a sponge. The feeling is actually quite pleasant, not unlike drinking a steaming mug of hot-chocolate on an icy-cold day. Ze can feel it coat zeir insides, revitalizing zeir and filling zeir with energy. It grows warmer and warmer, hotter and hotter, until Freddy can feel it burning at zeir mind. Flames lick at zeir intelligence, burning off a part of it. Soon the heat is enough to consume zeir.

Plains

Freddy awakens, laying face-up on the ground. Ze is surrounded by tall, golden blades of grass. They dip and dance in the light, gentle wind, but they also do an excellent job of keeping Freddy from seeing anything around zeir.

A certain Morbit might catch zeir scent, though...

[Lazorath]

(Deep Dark Woods - Edge of Woods)
Silver manages to stand on her feet when she wakes up again after several hours. She grabs Erin who's still unconcious and goes off to the edge of the woods, leaving the hunting grounds. They were safe now but Jit was gone...and so was Binarion.

[Shadowcaller]

[Wilderness]

See? Not awkward at all.

The elf places the buckles with the rest of the armor and get's back to her seat. She gives the wound a glance though, it was a miracle she could even walk with that. It only seemed like a minor discomfort at this point. But then again, nothing about this woman seemed normal.

"More like scouting. Many of these beasts are a bit above my ability. It's foolish to hunt alone anyway, hunters should go in teams of two unless you're trying to prove something." She replies.

[happyturtle]

The Rainforest Canopy



In the trees, a huntress moves through the canopy, subconsciously feeling The Call to the hunt. She isn't silent, but there's no need to be. The creatures here aren't silent either.

Her mate isn't with her, but that is of no concern. He'll easily track her down when his own hunt is finished. The young woman wears leather armour and has a glaive strapped to her back that doesn't seem to impede her in the slightest. Both armour and weapon show signs of heavy use. Her hair is red, and her eyes green. She has a single earring in one ear.

Acacia follows the line of the river upstream, looking for suitable quarry.



((Acacia is basically a badass normal, so nothing too OP please. ))

[The Mad Hatter]

Spoiler

Originally Posted by Moon_Called

Hills


"I am casting a spell to clean up your mess so kindly shut up. It's very hard to concentrate with you rambling next to me." Mercutio doesn't look at Thenadier as he speaks, his attention focused on the rising swathes of steam before them. "Are you drunk?" He adds, after a few moments of silence. "I think you might be drunk." Bloody mortals. Can't go a minute without poisoning their minds and bodies with liquor. Not that Mercutio hadn't taken an interest in some of alcohol's effects.
Quoting a post that's really long like this one without putting it in a spoiler is super obnoxious.
After several minutes, the rain dies down. Slowly, the steam fades away. Where there was once lush, thick grass and large healthy trees dotting the hillside, there is nothing left but gently steaming ashes and skeletal frames of trees ready to crumble at the lightest touch.

Looking over his handiwork, Mercutio nods to himself. He lets his spell-book and pen hang on its chain, resting against his thigh. The four freshly-summoned cloud-rams gently glide through the air, coming to a lazy stop above their new master.

"Now then, to answer your ill-perceiving question, I control these." He points up in the air at the cloud-rams. "The ones before I had no control over. I don't know if you noticed in your self-obsessed little revere, but they attacked me as well. I captured the life essence of one of them when I killed it. You saw me. Now I have the ability to summon them myself. I'm not going to touch on your hypocrisy over the whole demon-devil/gnome-human thing, but you seem to be rather confused over a few things. Firstly, say a gnome stole one of my belongings. Broke into my home at night, took something of value, and then left. This gnome has no relation to you what-so-ever. You share a race, but that is all. He is not your brother, not your uncle, not your cousin-in-law-twelve-times-removed. Should I then blame you, specifically, for my loss in property? Hm?" Mercutio raises an eyebrow.

Secondly, you say you were imprisoned. That's all very tragic, but I'm rather confused over the events that made this so. You say you killed an innocent man, this 'Reinholdt' fellow, and then were framed for doing so? I'm afraid you cannot have it both ways, little mortal. Either you killed someone and were justly punished, or were framed for a crime you did not commit, in which case that is all very tragic but I'm not terribly sure what you want me to do about it. You also say that you are now immortal as a result of your punishment." The devil's tail sways behind him as he regards Thenadier. "That... really doesn't sound so bad. I'm not sure what you're complaining about. You should see what happens to some of the mortals I've imprisoned."

Drunk? No....I don't drink alcohol. Dirty mind-numbing drink. I need my mind, without it I'd not be smart. Well...um....yeah....he's not exactly 100% there after the whole 7 year imprisonment thing. He went a little over the edge. I'm not a gnome! I'm human ! It would not be my fault, however it is different with you hellish creatures. All of you are evil....all of you. I haven't met one who didn't want to deceive me. Not one, you included. I was controlled y a demon when I slayed him, I killed him, but was under someone elses control. Doesn't sound too bad? I was stuck in a hellish desert for years, living off of cactus juice and small animals. Immortality is not good, I will have to watch those I know die....

[KerfuffleMach2]

[Desert]

Finally freed from the dragon's clutches, Enola is able to whip around as she sails through the air so she can land gracefully on her feet in time to block the incoming ice attack.

Well...that was her plan, at least. In reality, her shoulder is dislocated from the squeezing. Which doesn't help her in any way. Sure, she lands mostly how she wanted. Crouched down on the ice covered rocks, facing the dragon again. Her landing even leaves cracks in the ice from the force of it.

But when she goes to bring her arms up to block the attack, she feels a pain in her left shoulder and has trouble moving that arm. Now, normally, she could just pop that shoulder back into place and be done with it. But that takes a little bit of time, which is something she currently didn't have.

So, she acts on instinct and dives to her left, bringing her right arm up to block what she can. She's able to get past most of it, but her feet and calves get caught in the ice and frozen. Now she has to spend precious time breaking those free.

Granted, she just has to slam her legs on the ground hard enough to break the ice, but that's still time wasted. As she swings her legs, the dark aura returns for a brief moment, followed by Enola swearing again. Well, if it's so easy, why don't you get your flaming butt up here and do it yourself!

Odds are good that wasn't directed at anybody present.

[Rebonack]

[Plains]

Well.

There are certainly less pleasant things to wake up to than fields of tall grass and purple flowers.

Freddie groans and rolls over, only to yelp in pain as something jabs him'r in the side. The Huldra rises to his'r feet and discovers!

The Claw of Chatturgath.

"Of course," Freddie sighs with a roll of his'r eyes as s'he picks up the the weapon that apparently feels disinclined to stop following him'r. Stupid spooky artifacts. The weapon is pocketed as a pair of wisps dart down to Freddie's feet and bathe the limbs in foxfire.

S'he then LEAPS into the air and lands on nothing roughly twelve feet off the ground. A small trail of blue flames spreads away from where Freddie crouches as if there were an invisible platform in the air.

Great place to see from!

Though a great place to be seen, too.

[Riverbank]

Navigating the rocky banks of the swiftly flowing river is challenging! Though also kind of fun. The area is quite the sight to behold. Just like most of the hunting grounds, honestly. This would be a perfect place to sit down and have a nice lunch in the wilderness if not for the massive tentacle that suddenly erupts from the water and attempts to seize Gordon and drag him in.

[Earl of Purple]

Pond

Mateo's stabbed! He has no natural armour, though the coral isn't actually capable of permanently injuring him, unless it's enchanted, silver-lined or blessed. He grunts; it still hurts, it'll just heal quickly when he gets to drinking blood, unless it fills one of the above criteria (if it's blessed, he'll screech in pain and recoil, smoke pouring from the wound and the rest of this post doesn't happen). Mateo will quickly lower his head and try to bite her neck before she slips free; should she fight, she'll find it quite easy- his grip isn't as strong as it should be. On some level he's unconsciously trying not to hurt her, despite the fact she just stabbed him.

Plains

From his/her vantage point, Freddy will spot an odd creature sitting on its rear legs not to far away, staring as her/him with its icy blue eyes. If she meets its gaze, she'll find herself feeling drowsy from its hypnotic gaze.

The creature is very odd, just over a metre long and covered in green photosynthesising feathers. Its head is reminiscent of a rat, as is its general body shape. This is obscured, however, by its peculiar anatomy. Its head has the teeth of a pig distorting its jaw, complete with tusks, ice-blue eyes, wolf like ears and antennae, whilst it has gills in its neck. The rest of its body is equally peculiar; it has six limbs- four legs ending in squirrel-like feet, and a pair of pseudo-wings. Bringing up the rear of this creature is a feline, yet feathered, tail ending in a wasp's stinger. It doesn't attack yet, though the chimeric thing is clearly assessing Freddy.

[ThePhantom]

Riverbank

Shoot. Gordon is grabbed by the tentacle and dragged into the water, but not before getting a breath of air before hitting the water, and losing his hat.

[Morty]

Originally Posted by Moon_Called

Hills
Swamp


Nothing happens. No new phantom memories appear in the swamp to challenge Wenomir. As he makes his way forward, the demon hunter will notice that he is covered in a light sheen of sweat. And yet, despite it, he doesn't feel warm at all. In fact, he feels quite cold.
That's quite odd.

After a few minutes of walking, the mist surrounding him seems to fade away. Slowly, though. So slowly that the progress is imperceptible, but every so often Wenomir will notice that he can see slightly further around him.

Wenomir keeps moving. Staying in one place is likely to be dangerous... especially since it's getting colder.

Originally Posted by happyturtle

The Rainforest Canopy

In the trees, a huntress moves through the canopy, subconsciously feeling The Call to the hunt. She isn't silent, but there's no need to be. The creatures here aren't silent either.

Her mate isn't with her, but that is of no concern. He'll easily track her down when his own hunt is finished. The young woman wears leather armour and has a glaive strapped to her back that doesn't seem to impede her in the slightest. Both armour and weapon show signs of heavy use. Her hair is red, and her eyes green. She has a single earring in one ear.

Acacia follows the line of the river upstream, looking for suitable quarry.

Acacia will find the tracks of something rather big - definetly larger than a human. It appears to have cloven hooves, but only two. She might notice that the creature appears to have helped itself walk using two other appendages, but it's hard to tell what they were. The tracks lead away from the river.

[Rebonack]

[Riverbank]

Welp.

Gordon lost his hat.

All chances of winning this fight just went down in flames.

Once he's under the water Gordon may note that he's being pulled toward a massive hooked beak surrounded by a whole slew of really unfriendly looking teeth. Whatever this thing is it would appear as though it is planning on eating him alive.

It would probably be wise to not allow it to complete this action.

[Plains]

Freddie would probably feel sleepy right now if Huldra actually slept. But they don't so he doesn't. What happens next is based on the answer to the following question.

Is the weird chimeric critter sapient?

Or is it of animal intelligence, a thing of instincts?

[Earl of Purple]

Plains

It's a thing of instincts at the moment. It has the capability for sentient thought, and has the capacity to plan and create goals. However, if Freddy is sensing its soul, it may have one. Morbit's got an abundance of life energy as a result of its unique nature as an accident created by a clumsy Life God dropping that universe's concept of 'soul' into a dimensional rift without an associated body. It found a body, and has been copying part of the life energy of anything it eats since.

[Rebonack]

[Plains]

No, actually. Animals have souls in Freddie's universe. Any organism with the capacity for complex memory and some degree of personality does. However, things considered 'animals' can be attacked by the Huldra out of hand.

Humans and the like, though?

A Huldra can only attack them in defense of his'r self.

A spirit on the other hand is consciousness. Which sounds like what the life-god dropped. Most settings here in the Nexus don't have dualism between soul and spirit, but rather one unified supernatural thingy that represent who and what a being is.

Anywho!

Freddie hops down from his'r perch, landing silently in the grass as s'he begins creeping closer to the odd chimeric creature, tails twitching expectantly.

[Earl of Purple]

Plains

I usually use a triad of parts to define life in the stories I start. Mind, Body and Soul. The Mind goes to an afterlife; the Soul is reused; the Body rots. To be properly alive, one needs all three- undead are either Mind and Body or Mind and Soul, depending on their corporeality, and plants have a Body and a Soul. Sometimes Body and Soul, but that's unusual and results in unintelligent zombie-like things; true zombies and skeletons are constructs rather than undead. The Life God dropped a Mind/Soul combo that needed a Body to live.

Morbit senses the Huldra approaching; senses are one of the first things it upgrades when it has a chance, and it has a fish's lateral line to detect pressure changes in the air/water to its side and antennae that detect air movement and scent. So it turns to face its fiery fox-like foe, and starts to glow with white light before a ball of white light shoots forward towards Freddy as Morbit turns and tries to hide in the grass. The ball of light is a harmless illusion; Morbit is using it to distract Freddy and make the Huldra dodge.

[Rebonack]

[Plains]

It sounds like Mind would be the equivalent to Spirit in Freddie's world. Maybe just different names for the same thing?

Anywho!

Freddie isn't terribly worried about the ball of light. His'r body is pretty darn resistant to most forms of thermal damage and s'he doesn't even try to dodge the thing. Instead s'he sends four wisps dancing off toward the strange looking creature.

Said wisps will attempt to glom onto it before transforming into a strong set of chains and manacles. The interlocking bounds are of course meant to immobilize the beast and make it easier to slay.

Things that are locked in place often tend to be pretty simple to kill.

Freddie continues to stalk his'r prey, using his'r soul-sense to pinpoint its location amidst the tall grass.

Wisps Charged: 4
Wisps Uncharged: 0
Wisps Stored: 12

[Earl of Purple]

Plains

Maybe, but all animals have all three as they're really alive; sounds as though Freddy's world animals lack a Spirit which goes off to an afterlife if Freddy can attack them but not people.

Morbit jumps to avoid the flames- whilst pretty fire resistant, Morbit knows enough that magic flames aren't always fire. Morbit's light enough to glide, and does so towards Freddy, using its illusion abilities to make a growling sound come from behind the Huldra, though there's nothing there. Again, Morbit glows white with the use of its magic.

[Rebonack]

[Plains]

Animals in fact have a spirit as well. That consciousness is just recycled into new animals when one perishes. Some of them are taken to Azazel's Hunting Grounds for obvious purposes. The only real substantive different between animals and humans in Freddie's world is that humans can commune with divinity while animals can't.

The manacles flop to the ground, as inert as one would expect manacles to be. After a few moments they revert back into foxfire wisps and begin flitting around aimlessly.

Freddie's ear twitches toward the phantom sound, though it is payed little heed since the Huldra is focused on the gliding... whatever that thing is. The four wisps that were released earlier dance back into the Huldra as s'he grasps the Claw of Chatturgath, the weapon taking on a glaive-like shape. When the gliding creature draws near s'he'll aim to side-step and clobber it with a downward slash of immense power.

Wisps Charged: 0
Wisps Uncharged: 2
Wisps Stored: 14

[Wolfbane]

Wilderness

Once the bandage is taken off, the woman peels off her shirt. Without it though, she's still covered with a chest binding to keep her armor fitting well. Michicora might notice that her arms and back are heavily scarred, as if from lashes and other cutting tools, but they're quite old, likely decades. As Trisha appears human, it's probably they happened to her as a child.

"Then maybe we should team up?" She suggests as she pulls on another tunic from her pack, this one lighter than the other. "If you're scouting around, I could help if we run into something larger. It'd improve our chances at least."

The woman prods the rabbits over the fire and turns them before sitting on her bedroll with a bit of a sigh, waiting.

[Earl of Purple]

Plains

Sort of like the soul, then, as that in my system is reincarnated.

Morbit closes its proto-wings and begins to fall, though still going forward as much as down. This means it's not where it's supposed to be when Freddy swings his/her Claw. Morbit darts around rather fast and tries to nip at Freddy's flesh.

If this is successful, Morbit will analyse Freddy's life-essence and absorb one hereditary ability of Freddy's. It doesn't have to be hereditary in the usual sense- supernatural methods of reproduction (such as a vampire's) are taken into account.

[Rebonack]

[Plains]

WHIFF goes the pole-arm attack!

As the weird critter lunges at Freddie s'he leaps into the air a good five feet or so and deftly lands on... nothing. Foxfire spreads from the Huldra's feet, licking across what appears to be an invisible platform below his'r feet.

S'he shoulders the haft of the artifact behind his'r neck and peers down at the weird creature below.

"You're fast and clever," Freddie says. "But if I went all out I'm not sure if you would last very long. I've got the feeling you're more than just an animal. And if I kill you..."

What's this?

It sounds like Freddie is worried that the weird chimera thing would get perma-dead if s'he slew it.

[Shadowcaller]

[Wilderness]

Michicora looks into the fire as Trisha takes off her shirt, still feeling a bit awkward about such things. The warrior might know that it isn't usually something you want to do if you want to keep a good night vision while keeping watch.

"Maybe, I doubt our methods are the same though." She replies. "Your armor for instance." The elf gestures towards the pile near Trisha. "It makes sounds, not good when you sneak up on a prey with good hearing."

[Earl of Purple]

Plains

Morbit jumps up and tries to bite at Freddy, but Morbit can't quite jump that high. So it's left snapping its pig-like teeth at the air beneath Freddy, occasionally alternating with a jab with the wasp-stinger on the end of its tail.

I'm not sure Morbit could survive Freddy going full out, either, largely because I'm not sure that Morbit could gain anything from Freddy, meaning that it would rely on its existing abilities, few of which are effective offensively.

[Rebonack]

[Plains]

Well, Huldra reproduce in a fashion akin to vampires. After draining someone of their soul they insert some number of their own corrupted souls into the body, causing the victim to transform into a Huldra themselves. Though without their old soul and thus without any memory of who they once were.

Most of the Huldra's abilities are based on their foxfire. And that is based on the souls that they've devoured. It also burns them from the inside out.

More likely Morbit would gain the Huldra's ability to consume other creature's memories.

Regardless, Freddie decides to try something else. A tried and true method of befriending animals! S'he pulls out a chunk of raw meat from a creature s'he had killed not too long ago and tosses it down to the chimeric beasty.

It had been some large rhino-like creature with a extremely tough, rocky hide. Cracking it open to get at the meat inside had been a real bugger.

[Wolfbane]

Wilderness

"I know, but I was meant for a more Leaderly role on the battlefield in times of war. I wasn't trained to sneak around and take things out from afar, for that isn't my purpose." She explains as she pulls out some sharpening stones and gets to work on her glowing blade. "Over time though, the need of me at my home grew less and I had to travel to survive, learning as I go. As much as the armor may inconvenience me, it and my blade are the only two things I brought with me." Trisha says before drawing the stone across the edge. "As for the creatures here, they'd likely sense us long before we even get into hearing distance."

[Earl of Purple]

Plains

Morbit leaps upon the raw meat and starts devouring it hungrily. It doesn't need to eat- it's green from chlorophyll. But it will analyse the meat's trace life energy to copy an ability from it. Since it's long dead and incomplete, it's likely that there's not much information there.

What might Morbit gain from the meat?