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Player Limit: N/A.
Description: A place of mystery and danger, the Primal Wood is known for its deadly and exotic flora and fauna, as well as the ruins of lost civilizations that might lurk in its deep green center. So vast is the forest that standing upon a mountain would not allow you to see its end. Yet, while it is dangerous by day and night, it is the night that one must fear in the forest, for it is not just a place where nature reigns supreme, but also a place where the wiles of magic fall from the sky as rain would, drenching the forest in mana and twisting the behavior, minds, and sometimes bodies, of its inhabitants. Unlike many fields of battle, the Primal Wood is one controlled by nature and so while one fights an opponent one might find themselves attacked by a wild beast...if they're not careful.

Unique Traits: During the day, animals are more docile and flighty, staying away from strangers, but at night the forest is drenched in tainted mana, turning the wild animals savage and cruel. This place at night is rife with mana, giving some spellcasters an advantage, or perhaps enhances the physical attributes of warriors drenched in the magical rain. Additionally, the forest battlefield has no known limits, allowing combatants to roam at their leisure. Additionally, the season can change the battlefield, making the ground a flooded lake--at low altitudes--or a drier place to walk upon.

Now why had they sent him here?

That was the question that ran through his brilliant mind as he struggled to extricate one metallic foot from a bog. This place was as infuriating as it was interesting, but it was hardly the place for him to discover what he sought so it begged the question why had the Dreamers sent him here? He had been to such places before of course. Back when he was a real boy, so to speak. But as a metal man of significant weight traversing through a sticky bog towards the forest edge as the sun dipped below the horizon was not on his list of things to do. Not anymore. He was George Elmore the inventor. No, he was the Clockwork Man, the guardian and the traveller. What he wasn’t was a bloody adventurer.

“Oh for the love of-“ That grating voice emanated from the thin slit in his smooth metallic face, as his one glowing eye briefly dimmed and the telescopic eye extended, as if searching for something. The left hand shot out, beneath his splendid (if somehow oddly distended) Victorian jacket and shirt something popped and suddenly a hook shot forth from over his wrist, hurtling forward and slamming into a sturdy tree trunk about half-way up. It was out of the bog at least. With a tug, he retracted the hook still attached, pulling himself from the water and almost leaving one of his boots behind in the process as he flew through the air, making an odd sight indeed.

Now he perched precariously in a tree high above the semi-saturated floor, wondering what nightmares night had in store for him. At the very least, he wouldn’t be getting bitten by bugs. And if any animals showed up he could always shoot them with his pistol or blow them to pieces or something equally fatal. It was nice to have options when one visits such natural places of danger and beauty.

---

Skittering limbs, a snaking form, all weaving their way through the trees in synchronous swift motions. Animals quieted down, knowing of its presence, before the sounds of its movement--even the rustling of leaves that one would normally hear, died down. There was only the wind and the occasional animal sound, or the creaking of the trees and the sloshing of water in the muddy, moist bog.

A daedri was a prowl, not that the intruder would know, after all despite the being's position in the trees, the daedri was much higher up...and plenty quiet. Using not its eyes to detect the strange metallic man, Ananze made sure to continue moving, keeping tree trunks and layers of leaves between itself and its query. While the being was not in its web, they were in its territory and that was enough. Such was why the daedri could move so silently in the forest's canopy terrain, as web was laid out here and there, with branches, leaves, and trees memorized to know where to move and where not to. Its instincts and its own practice over many years had allowed the feat of silent, stealthy traversal.

Peering warily through the trees, trying to get close enough to catch a glimpse of the figure without allowing it to do the same, Ananze wondered what it was. After all, it smelled of metal and machinery, something the daedri had smelled not too often in the Primal Wood. However, aside from that it could tell very little as though there were other less pungent smells about the being's person the daedri could not quite identify them without closer observation. Though, it was lucky enough to find an angle at which it could see the being and it was at this point in time that it realized just how mechanical it was. It looked like a human, but not like any the daedri had ever seen as it was composed of metal--though clothed as well.

It did not look appetizing, the daedri surmised. Nonetheless, it was intruding in his territory, and was unwelcome, and would need to be repelled--or taught a lesson. At that thought, the daedri retreated entirely into the trees, no chance of being sighted once more, and exuded thread from one of its palms, using two others to knead it into a hollow sphere of dense make. It swiftly infused mana into the construct, enhancing its tensile strength and resistance, before it bit into the sphere, injecting its acidic venom into its core, before mending it and compressing it further.

The daedri repeated this process four more times, taking only several seconds each, mostly due to its many limbs. When it was finished it positioned itself eight meters above and to the being's right side, weaving small bits of thread between branches and leaves as it did so. Nothing would appear off in the shrubbery to most beings, especially at a cursory glance. However, the reason for the daedri's action would become clear as soon as it pulled its arm back and threw one of the spheres through the opening it had made, or rather through the web-wrapped canopy. It moved silently, no single leaf moving enough against its fellow leaves to make any notable noise.

The sphere flew quite swiftly and it was aimed at the intruder's legs.

After Ananze had released the sphere, he immediately changed positions, and he would have relocated several meters to the being's left--now behind him by 7 meters before settling down to see the result of its first strike. It remained concealed by the surrounding flora.

He knew. It was a small thing really, not even a mistake unless one happens to recognise the power of the Clockwork Man’s glowing blue eye. But a tell none-the-less that something was out there. Something which the pessimistic mind of George Elmore perceived as a threat. The creature that lurked in the canopy above him infused its web with mana, and he could make out that energy as plain as day. In all other senses its natural stealth made it a formidable enemy for the Clockwork Man, but it betrayed itself with its one reliance on magic.

For just a moment the strange automaton’s head shot up and his eye locked on the energy source above him. Then, almost as quickly, he returned to a more relaxed state. He had given only that small indicator that he might be aware he was being stalked. Slowly, ever so slowly, his right hand drifted to the hand-gun at his hip and his left hand sought purchase on the trunk. It made sense to use the structure of the tree as cover of sorts, if that magic he saw above him drew close and unleashed whatever surprise it had in store for him he could quickly spin around the trunk and put it between him and it.

And approach it did. He watched five separate energy signatures draw closer to him in the canopy, until it was frightfully close. Though he was relying on his peripheral vision alone he was still surprised to see no sign of whatever was causing that disturbance. So much so that he began to wonder if it could in fact be an invisible creature, or a spirit of some kind. That would probably make his gun a little useless. Still, the essence of true scientific endeavour was trial and error. He had better get started.

Almost quicker than the eye could make out the Clockwork Man drew his pistol from its holster, unstrapping it and all. It jumped into one metallic hand and just as quickly discharged three times, firing into the canopy above him at the magical blobs. At the same time, his left arm pulled at the trunk and he wrapped around it anti-clockwise, putting it between him and the projectile that suddenly made its way towards him. Just in time too, as the branch he had stood upon took the brunt of whatever it was fired at him, which in the short period of time he had to analyse it looked awfully like webbing.

Whatever the thing was above him, it held a high ground advantage and could hide in the canopy all too well. So, as he span around the trunk the Clockwork Man released his grip and dropped from that great height at significant speed, his weight dragging him down to the soft earth below with a hollow splash. His hook antics had drawn him most of the way out of the bog earlier, but the forest ground was still unreliable even here and one foot threatened to sink even as the other found purchase on harder ground and propelled him up and forward. He began to run, reloading his weapon as he went, seeking harder ground. If the creature wished to pursue him, it could either lurk high and harmless above him in the canopy, or it could come down where he could see it. And even as he ran and the perpetual whir of his mechanical body complimented his footfalls, another steady whir began to emanate from the weapon in his hand.

---

Movement, his thermal senses told him, then loud sounds his ears picked up. Ananze moved, but still he could not entirely dodge, nonetheless each limb had shifted position and in doing so the bullets only just grazed his chitenous hide. Flinching at the contact, the daedri's many eyes narrowed briefly before the arachnoid sprung into a blur of movement. Swiftly it threw its other four projectiles, making another two as it got rid of them and moved, this time making one more dense than the other--the first denser one possessing no mana. Ananze wanted to test something.

Meanwhile, each of the other four projectiles Ananze threw were aimed differently, three having been thrown into the strange being's path so as to alter it. Two of those would land several feet in front of the man, while one would land to his right. The last was aimed diagonally to his left so it would hit him if he retreated backwards or moved to the left.

However, there was a trick to it, as there was thread on that last sphere of webbing, a tinsy tiny thread of extreme thinness--though it was strong due to its density and the general tensile strength of daedri silk. It was a trap of sorts.

If the being could see it, which Ananze had experienced from other intruders in years past, then the being would be fooled again for where the thread lead was not where the daedri was, for the thread was hooked around two trees before leading back to the predatory being. Yet no tactic could be perfect and Ananze was yet to ascertain whether the being could detect mana in some manner--as it had theorized from its sudden head movement earlier as well as its ability to locate him and dodge the sphere of web.

After all, superior sight or hearing would not have allowed one to detect the projectile, let alone the daedri's location. With that thought the daedri took its mana infused sphere and, linked thread to it, strung it between trees and then cut it before moving on. This way he had no traceable external mana, only false webs.

The daedri lightly clacked its mandibles together, a sound undetectable from the being's range--unless it's hearing was heightened as well. Ananze would soon know.

Mr Clockwork had found himself carried to the ground quickly by his deceptively weighty form, quick enough that the creature above was playing catch-up in order to fire its web balls down at him. He could see them plain as day, glowing above him in the canopy, but more importantly he could hear them this time as well. That was because on their merry way down to him they cleared out a decent section of the forest, branches cracking and splinters flying through the air as the heavy balls of webbing had to fight even to reach him. This forest they found themselves in was overgrown to the point of absurdity, finding a clear shot was going to be nigh on impossible over such distance. Especially with the Clockwork Man moving.

And damn did he move, even with that odd gait that seemed to suggest he moved in phases rather than one continuous motion he still made it up to nearly thirty miles per hour as he darted between the trees. He had taken note of the creature’s position up to his right and quickly put a tree between them again, an easy task in a forest. Abundance of cover made a fight from range more difficult for the one with a less precise weapon, and the Clockwork Man held the advantage there with his whirring pistol. Web splattered into the trunk as he moved behind it, presumably an attempt to cut off his advance scuppered by the branches overhead and the fact that he had cover to move behind. The rest seemed to hit the ground around him at the same time, and when he quickly looked around the trunk before sprinting in a haphazard fashion further ahead, he saw no sign of the mana signature. Just a single ball hovering in the air over the canopy, presumably one of those web projectiles.

Nevermind, high overhead the canopy would provide a poor platform for launching any assault, as it had proven ineffective in stopping him once he reached the ground. It was just too far to launch something through the forest, and once it came down the leaf cover would be insufficient. It was a waiting game of sorts, but one the Clockwork Man would only play for so long. His left hand sought his satchel as he serpentine’d through the forest, his hand reaching out to grasp a specific spherical object. If the creature failed to realise it could not fight the battle entirely from overhead, he’d teach it.

---

Chittering quietly, Ananze noted that the man seemed unable to note his position once he had loosed the mana-infused spheres. Troublesome, that likely meant that he could only use any densely coated silk sparingly. He would have to adapt it seemed.

Luckily, Ananze was clever and did that quite well. First, Ananze lowered his altitude so he was only two layers of branches into the canopy. He made sure to use as many leaves and branches to obscure his location as well as to impede any ranged assaults. With that done the daedri continued moving, following the being and laying web down as it moved, four of its eight limbs dedicated to the task while the other four provided it locomotion. Two of the four web weaving limbs shot and weaved web in front of its path, silencing its movement by sticking leaves and the like together, while the other two shot and weaved web at its sides and sometimes at a range. Then, as it began overtaking the being, the daedri ceased using four arms to weave and instead used only two, zigzagging its path to cover more area in web. Its two free arms created thin spheres of web, injected with acid, and threw them at several spots. This time the spheres erupted on contact, acid spraying onto the branches they touched before the supports of areas of web were loosed. These areas of web had been below the daedri on the first level of cover and so when the four areas of branches were weakened they fell, all dropping webs into possible trajectories of the daedri's prey. With the speed it moved it would surely run into one.

The four connected dropping webs were positioned several meters ahead of the being in an arc so that changing directions to the left or right--specifically at diagonals--would still land the figure in the trap. The four webs, while connected by nearly invisible threads, were spaced about 4 meters away from one another. Between them the connected threads would not trap, but they would get caught on the being, allowing for what amounted to improved tracking capability. That was unless the being could slow down rapidly and back track.

Meanwhile, Ananze remained poised 4 meters ahead of the middle of his trap, having moved after springing it.

The Clockwork Man was following no determined path through the forest, in fact he was going out of his way to do the exact opposite. So, laying a trap ahead of him was, without the power of foresight, completely impossible. He was moving around and between trees, first heading away from the bog and then doubling back, in other words, he was just covering ground. Regardless of how quick the creature overhead could keep pace with him while moving completely silently and causing no disturbance to its surroundings, it couldn’t launch anything at him fast enough from its position almost fifty meters above before he moved behind another tree. The distance from the canopy to the forest floor was too significant, and the density of the foliage was no help either. It could remain invisible up above, but it couldn’t harm him with its projectiles, no more than he could harm it as long as it refrained from using mana and maintained completely outside of his observation.

Of course, the Clockwork Man was simply buying time. As the creature burned away branches and smashed up the environment above him he was waiting on his pistol, whirring away at his side. Ten seconds passed with a clanking sound emanating from the clockwork weapon, an announcement that he had one super-charged round prepared. He still couldn’t be sure that whatever was up there could be harmed through mundane means, but for now he was going to assume it could be and prepare one hell of a wallop for it while it lurked up above. This stalemate of sorts they’d found themselves in suited him just fine for the time being, and when he was bored of it the object in his left hand would provide some clarity to the situation. The Clockwork Man excelled at just this sort of combat, the creature could fight him at his own game if it wished, but he’d yet to lose a round.

---

Releasing a quiet, annoyed hiss, Ananze descended somewhat, slinking down a tree with swiftness and disappearing into the brush. With equal swiftness, Ananze began moving across the ground, avoiding bogs by using trees and its long limbs and claws to never touch them as it approached the man. He kept trees intersecting his adversary's line of sight, using his other senses to track the being instead of its rather unreliable eyes. While it was making some noise, it was considerably less than before and due to its movement and continued presence, the forest was gradually returning to normal, with insects buzzing and birds singing from higher in the trees.

Ananze made use of its web to silence its movement, staying low to the ground so it could use as many limbs as required to move out of the way of any projectiles if need be. Noting the random path of its prey, Ananze made sure to vary its own path somewhat, leaving web behind on trees, underbrush, and on the ground in minute amounts. If the being doubled back it would be more likely to be tagged by the web, allowing Ananze to better track it--not that such was terribly likely, nonetheless it required minimal effort, so Ananze continued the practice as it closed the distance to the humanoid.

Once it had reached a mere five meters again, now at the same elevation, but using trees, brush, and any low hanging branches to obscure its body, it climbed up and spit acid through the air and down towards the being, showering a small area with the caustic fluid before darting behind a tree trunk in the next moment. Wasting no time, it darted up the tree, already out of sight, and into low hanging branches, before moving location swiftly so it would no longer be behind the being and to its left, but instead above and to its right. It left behind web all the while, none of it containing mana sufficient to detect behind the background bio-energy of the forest. Ananze intended to use this entirely to his advantage.

Unfortunately for Ananze, he was huge. Or at least, much longer than the Clockwork Man. Trees serve excellently in obscuring humans and humanoids as they stand on two feet, keeping their profile thin, while their height is irrelevant in comparison to the height of the tree. Ananze on the other hand kept low to the ground but did so at the sacrifice of becoming far longer. The grass was not tall enough to conceal him, in fact, due to the all-encompassing nature of the canopy he had relied upon earlier there was basically no plant life on the ground due to the lack of sunlight. In other words, despite his efforts, he was shit out of luck below the canopy. Eventually the Clockwork Man’s telescopic eye would track his movement, spotting his unusual form amongst the trees he flittered between. And spot him he did, in the end.

However, the Clockwork Man’s own gambit required him to hide his discovery of the creature and feign disinterest in its presence. That same gambit nearly cost him, as he turned a corner, his left hand slapping into a nearby tree as he sped past it with the sound of splitting wood. Not a moment later acid was spewed from behind him, the caustic concoction slamming into the back of his jacket and sizzling there. He fell forward, and simultaneously an explosion rang out through the forest, throwing him further forward onto the ground where he caught himself with two hands, his metallic face rubbing into the dirt. Wood shot out in deadly splinters around him as the tree he had just passed, coincidently (or perhaps not) the tree Ananze found himself next to upon launching his acidic projectile, ruptured from the force of an explosion. Fire and force followed that blast, and Ananze would find himself caught within it.

The Clockwork Man’s jacket had melted away, or seemingly been cut, and beneath it the Clockwork Spider came to life. Its metallic shell had been eaten away by the caustic substance on top, but it seemed otherwise undamaged as its cogs and gears continued to wind, allowing it to leap up off the automaton’s back as he rose and into a nearby tree. The Clockwork Man, for his part, gathered himself, drawing his pistol as it clanked a second warning. He was donned in just his shirt now, revealing the satchel at his side and more of his unnaturally lithe figure, and he had learned something of the creature which pursued him. Next he would find out how it withstood explosives close to its location, and after that, he would learn how it experienced other painful things.

---

The attack hit, and immediately after, it retreated to cover, moving around and up the tree. However, before it had fully rounded the great behemoth's trunk, a blast erupted and wooden shrapnel, and force, slammed into Ananze. He hissed as he was thrown off the tree and towards another, but he reacted, web shooting out from his arms and catching firmly on tree branches, supporting his weight before he spun and pulled, wrenching himself swiftly into the lower branches of the trees. The daedri took stock of itself, noting no notable lacerations or punctures in its chitinous hide. It clacked its mandibles together, eyes narrowing, before it hissed menacingly, then vanished silently into the trees, skittering faster than before towards the creature's location, shooting and weaving web as it did so.

Now he was mad. An explosion of some sort, surely, but wooden shrapnel could hardly pierce his hide.

Meanwhile, as the automaton climbed into the trees it would find web meeting its form, tagging it. Immediately, Ananze knew there was something moving, and using his senses he could tell it was not the being--though it was perhaps of similar make. The daedri changed course, veering away from the thing, while continuing to follow its quarry, keeping mental tabs on the location of the being's agent, as it decided to call the unknown variable. Stupid crafty little creature. Dumb, annoying being, it cursed internally, annoyed at the previous explosion even if it had only been a minor inconvenience.

Breaking a stick and then lunging to the side to avoid any projectiles, Ananze used his acid to burn it into a spear, dissolving useless material and then wiping it off as it neared its target. Taking the improvized spear into one of its long spindly arms, it created a ball of thick web with pores on its surface, though none deeper in, before filling it with acid, which became sealed within. This time, rather than merely throw it, Ananze skittered down a tree, then moved from trunk to trunk, keeping another few trees between itself and its prey, before weaving closer, finding an opening and throwing the sphere of acid. Before it got too far, Ananze threw its spear and silently shot web at the sphere.

The spear pierced the sphere and the web, in half a second, altered its spin, causing the hole to spin horizontally, spraying a surprising amount of acid both at the being and in front, to its left, and behind it. The acid had been compressed within the web, making it more like a projectile from Ananze's mouth than a normal burst of liquid.

The daedri did not wait to see if it had succeeded, instead cutting its web connection not even a moment after it had been made, and skittering back into the trees, its senses sharp.

On one hand it wanted to deal with the agent, but on the other...it did not want to lose sight of the being, knowing from experience that giving an enemy time, could be giving them victory. As a result it kept following its prey, keeping at the periphery of its awareness, knowing that despite its silence, it was being tracked to a degree. The being could hardly be unaware of it afterall.

His metallic hand delved within his pouch, practiced fingers retrieving the two objects he sought with ease. They were both orbs, one like the explosive that he had so carefully detonated earlier to seemingly little effect. Whatever the creature was, it was immune to the concussive force of a grenade, or it was quick enough to outrun a shockwave, neither boded well. The other was of a similar make but of a different colouration, and he intended to use it very soon for an experiment of sorts. First though, he wanted height again, because the creature was rushing back down a tree.

Casually, he threw his explosive to his spider ally which it deftly caught in its mandibles. Then, he took a glance behind him and spotted a likely target for his grappling hook, which burst forth from his left arm, plunging into the trunk of a tree some twenty feet behind him and thirty meters up. He was yanked quite forcefully off the ground even as the creature prepared to unleash its little project, having worked on acid or the like, though it would find its plans initially scuppered by his hasty retreat. It could follow of course, but completely motionless and with even its clockwork innards briefly silent, the spider lurked in its path and out of its web, having found some hollow to hide within. The irony of that was not lost on the Clockwork Man, who might very well have smiled if he was not trained on the area before him and the creature that attacked him as he flew through the air with pistol in one hand and deadly device in the other.

He arrived with characteristic grace, detaching his hook and standing on a sturdy limb not far below the canopy, sighting a likely target for his second plan in moments. The tree adjacent to him, closer to Ananze. He launched the object in his hand toward it, activating the blades in time for it to cut deep into the wood and settle there, another piece of the scenery. Then, he waited a moment, tracing Ananze’s skittering path through the forest as best he could from his vantage point.