Current
Masses are always breeding grounds of psychic epidemics.
5 yrs ago
The highest, most decisive experience is to be alone with one's own self. You must be alone to find out what supports you, when you find that you can not support yourself.
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5 yrs ago
One cannot live from anything except what one is.
5 yrs ago
The slave to virtue finds the way as little as the slave to vices.
6 yrs ago
The core of an individual is the mystery of life, which dies when it is 'grasped'. That is also why symbols want to keep their secrets.
Bio
The Harbinger of Ferocity
Agent of the Wild, Aspect of the Ferine Nature, red in tooth and claw.
"There is, indeed, no single quality of the cat that man could not emulate to his advantage." - Carl Van Vechten
I am, at my core, a personification and manifestation of those things whose blood and hearts run red with the ferocity of the animal world. It is this which convicts and controls my works, my writing, my being; the force and guidance in which I gain wisdom from. It is what inspires me as a creator and weaver of words, the very thing I admire as an author.
My leanings, savage as they are, are of the feline sort as there exists no greater lineage of beasts whom can be drawn from. No others captivate and motivate my talent and skill as the greatest of cats do.
The recoil shocked Gorosk's arms as his staff clapped the earth beneath them all, the sizable, wounded beast that angrily shrilled having dodged after taking the onslaught leveled at it. Of the axe, the sword, and the staff that sought to beat it into a furred pulp, only the sword fell upon it directly in the chaos. Hounded and besieged from all sides, it sprung back only for de Brey to heft his axe in both hands and swing a reverse blow with all the force in him. Whereas the beard of Vah'lux's weapon missed in this sense, de Brey's did not, and it sunk itself deep into the grey rat's throat - the creature's cry immediately went silent as the soldier pulled back, shoving the beast off with the face of his shield, smearing its blood across the livery in doing so.
One of the creatures felled, the elf jabbed her dagger at one of the smaller vermin at the flank but the rats were elusive. The focused assault had proven rewarding whee it landed but now with the point of the prisoners' thrust over, the rats swarmed back. The surviving grey monstrosity lunged at the paladin and almost threatened to bust his weakened leg beneath him and drag him to the ground, spared by the presence of the hunched giantess who loomed over and threatened to intervene, sending the counterattack recoiling. Another rat dove in from the side, teeth grazing the man's armor menacingly, and the last trading swipes of its sickly limbs and pointed claws at the elf who sidestepped them with wild grace.
The chaos was growing, as was the noise from the men's shouts on, first spurred forth by Beaumont then de Brey. Only now was the tide holding, one of the worst of the dire rats slipping away into a sickly red death where it laid on the ground. It was, to the absent minded prayer of Gorosk, just as the orc-monk had hoped; that things could have been far worse yet dared not there. At least not yet, for as they scurried back, shrill and sporting, the next attack was soon.
Quentin de Brey scores a critical threat on the injured grey dire rat but does not confirm. He deals 8 points of slashing damage with his axe and slays it despite this. Tracan attempts to stab one of the small rats on the side with her dagger but misses. One small rat and the remaining large rat attack Beaumont but both fail, as does the one fighting Tracan fail to hit her. It is now to @Lord Wyron in initiative order.
During a recent presentation wherein I attended a campus and spoke, I discovered their geology and paleontology department had a few felid skulls in their catalog and requested to gain access to them. Not at all to my surprise, they permitted me and I gave an impromptu dialogue and class on it after having spoken earlier, only to discover when handling their collection that some of their specimens showed signs of stressors in life. In particular, their Smilodon fatalis californicus skull demonstrated that early in life, likely as a cub, it had suffered trauma to the right mandible and also had suffered a nasal fracture that caused a deviated septum that it carried throughout life. I was again offered a position as a result should I ever wish to negotiate one but I declined for the time being although it is something to consider once my current obligations are done.
The daring of the five that made up their number did not go unrewarded, for it was not long in the shallow light of the lantern the man bore that their decline into the depths of this muddy, nasty pit found what seemed to be a treasure. A chest in the cellar, its worn black exterior and faintly rusted fringes glowered at them, locked and sealed tight. Aside from the building which had burned above it and in part charred its exterior, and now laying along the rat's way, it looked no worse for wear. The owners, whoever and wherever they were, were nowhere to be found - not even their remains. So as the light cast out further, the underground opened up far larger.
The rats had been busy, quite busy, expanding beyond just the cellar and the chest surrounded by the cooled cinders of the destroyed farmstead, with various tunnels sprawling out from this main den. Here bits and piles of grasses and plants torn from the outside had been dragged under to create nests, many of which were empty, some of which had bits of gnawed bones of what had been food for the scavenging beasts. Nearly all had whatever the rats collected into their lair, some had weapons or tools even, the odd sword or sickle, likely what they had found above and dragged back with them for whatever reason. Yet all this revealed, namely to the goliath who stooped herself over, was that a tunnel headed presumably toward the barn, another toward the fields, and another still deeper down if its shallow angle was any indication.
Although this was welcome news that it would be difficult to become lost in this miserable place with its warm, almost humid putrid air, it also meant that there were many of these rats and soon there were. Immediately their intrusion did not go unanswered for long as several rats, two larger than those before, poured in from the deeper portion of the tunnel. Noses wriggling in the direction of the invaders, yellow teeth clattering, immediately the fight was on but as it would go, this time it would be the band taking advantage of the ill prepared dire rats. Larger as two of them were with lighter fur on their backs, they had made the mistake of not trying to ambush the five before them.
Four dire rats appear in the open area of the cellar and the underground. Two of the dire rats are larger than the other two and are at the front when they appear from the tunnel to the front-left of the group. The area they are all in together, rats and party, is some 30ft wide and 15ft long, with half of the width being the stone cellar with the chest, and the rest being the dug out nest with random items hidden among the litter. @Lord Wyron is first in initiative order with Renault.
It was almost as though de Brey had been awaiting this moment, the man unslinging his own pack and letting it fall to the scarred floor. He to produced the item they so needed, a small rolled set of flint and steel with a few bits of tinder. It took a time to get the flames growing but the small, smoldering pile was delivered to Beaumont for the lantern, sparing Gorosk the loss of his few garments. Seeing the flames cascade brighter the moment the lantern's oil was taken in, it seemed almost silly to be lighting such a thing with daylight just outside and visible through portions of the walls which had gave way.
But the pit before them and its gaping, moist mouth of earth that spewed unto the dried, cracked surface of what once was some poor family's home, that said something else entirely. The hole was death, or so much as it smelled like it, and surely worse awaited them there if that was where all the monstrous rats had been. The two armored men finished their business, leaving the paladin with his glowing prize to attach to his belt; it would be much needed were it truly the dreaded dark. All manner of beast were said to be far more wild, more sinister, more cunning in the dark, illusions of a fearful mind or not.
"Renault should lead, he has the light. I'll keep next to him." The pack was saddled across the fighter's back again as de Brey replied, taking up his weapon from the ground alongside his tarnished shield. Thanking both orc and giantess, he politely declined their offerings for now - the only threat being should the lantern be spilled or destroyed.
Looming over the edge, the elf-woman standing behind him, the soldier pressed on and urged them all forward, "Into the dark, I guess..."
The tunnel will open up to a 10ft wide open area once entered a short ways down. How will the party position themselves knowing it will be larger from here on out?
I find difficulty in going alone without another to keep watch for me for all those things I cannot see. It creates latent anxiety at the sense of vulnerability to be "in the open". The presence of the invisible threat is always still there, looming.
Nudging a few of the destroyed planks that surrounded them and stepping around the whole, cautious enough to not trip and tumble down it, de Brey began his way toward the back of the ruined house. Its blackened walls of the stones low to it and its cellar below was melancholic, all too familiar of villages razed that he had seen before, but his scouting kept his mind off it. He fumbled around with some of the destroyed furnishings, the ash and soot covering his gauntlets as his armaments and shield spoke against his armor with each movement making it clear where he was even when they could not see him. The search was disappointing and when he returned, he shook his head in his effort's failure.
"Nothing we could use as a torch that I saw." He looked to both Beaumont and Vah'lux after, "Any luck from either of you?"
He ignored the elf for the moment, it being unlikely she had anything to add that would be helpful as far as he was concerned and she likely was not holding out on a torch should she have any. She might not have been friendly to them but he reasonably doubted she would endanger herself, or that an elf would even have a torch in the first place. All too often they were stalking under starry skies or moonlit nights like those that watched over the camps of many a soldier in the interlude between battle, where the anxiety of the next attack in the day to come gripped them.
Quentin de Brey attempts a Search (Int) check to find any unburned wood they could use but finds none.
There is something about the erosion of standards and a reduction of professionalism which rubs the fur the wrong way, that it makes me all but utterly disregard those responsible. I suspect it is because I find the lack of decorum and discipline in people sickening and while I do set expectations high, only exceptionalism is worth the time as mediocrity or worse can be found in abundance everywhere.
Silently nodding, Tracan conceded that likely was the next place they were to venture. Not that she had any more desire than the rest of them too, of course, but it took de Brey standing at the lip of the tunnel, the goliath behind him flexing her prowess with the axe that had been returned to her, to urge them on. He was fearless in this sense, so far as he had again a purpose. The justice's flaunting of his challenge to honor roiled up furiously inside the lieutenant, burning him with a need to free himself from his problems one way or another, be them with his victory in reclaiming the Marches for their people or his life being given to those ends. All else was irrelevant, just recapturing the glory and nobility he had been denied at the river, even if in an honorable death at the hands of the enemy rather than languish a life branded a "coward".
He turned the steely warhammer over in his palm, one head traded positions with the other and he steadied his nerves from the anger that pushed him so recklessly, "Down."
The soldier replied to his compatriot beside him, providing a nod although his attention not once shifted away from the pit. It did, however, pose a real problem in that it would be dark. Assuming this was truly a rat's nest, and by the odor and its filthy invaders it certainly was, there would be no light there. Some of them would be fine owing to their innate sight within darkness, others not so much. Almost preparing to descend into the metaphorical mouth of the dire rats, de Brey was stopped by the elf who had made this realization, his foot shifting anxiously upon the splintered, gnawed away wood where it met the soil.
"Have any you a torch? A spell for light? Something at all?"
[center][h3][color=f7941d]The Harbinger of Ferocity[/color][/h3]
[img]http://orig13.deviantart.net/79bb/f/2016/137/d/8/final__small__by_argentfatalis-da2um2l.jpg[/img]
[color=f7941d][i]Agent of the Wild, Aspect of the Ferine[/i][/color]
[i]Nature, red in tooth and claw.[/i]
[b]"There is, indeed, no single quality of the cat that man could not emulate to his advantage."[/b]
[i]- Carl Van Vechten[/i]
[i]I am, at my core, a personification and manifestation of those things whose blood and hearts run red with the ferocity of the animal world. It is this which convicts and controls my works, my writing, my being; the force and guidance in which I gain wisdom from. It is what inspires me as a creator and weaver of words, the very thing I admire as an author.[/i]
[i]My leanings, savage as they are, are of the feline sort as there exists no greater lineage of beasts whom can be drawn from. No others captivate and motivate my talent and skill as the greatest of cats do.[/i][/center]
<div style="white-space:pre-wrap;"><div class="bb-center"><div class="bb-h3"><font color="#f7941d">The Harbinger of Ferocity</font></div><br><img src="http://orig13.deviantart.net/79bb/f/2016/137/d/8/final__small__by_argentfatalis-da2um2l.jpg" /><br><font color="#f7941d"><span class="bb-i">Agent of the Wild, Aspect of the Ferine</span></font><br><span class="bb-i">Nature, red in tooth and claw.</span><br><br><span class="bb-b">"There is, indeed, no single quality of the cat that man could not emulate to his advantage."</span><br><span class="bb-i">- Carl Van Vechten</span><br><br><span class="bb-i">I am, at my core, a personification and manifestation of those things whose blood and hearts run red with the ferocity of the animal world. It is this which convicts and controls my works, my writing, my being; the force and guidance in which I gain wisdom from. It is what inspires me as a creator and weaver of words, the very thing I admire as an author.</span><br><br><span class="bb-i">My leanings, savage as they are, are of the feline sort as there exists no greater lineage of beasts whom can be drawn from. No others captivate and motivate my talent and skill as the greatest of cats do.</span></div></div>