North Caves
@ERode
"Hah! Poked a Flak Beetle too 'ard, didn't ya!?" Koughat slapped his chest and guffawed. When Esfir asked what a camazot was, he shook his head and glanced again at the upper mountains.
"Imagine da biggest wolf ya ever seen, and da biggest bat." He snorted through his nose, then spat a thick wad of mucus into the bushes. "Then imagine they went an' fugged. And da baby grew up twoice as mean and twoice as ugly! Dat's a camazot." A shadow passed overhead, and the Brute put a hand to his axe...but it was only a hawk or falcon of some sort, flying low. He growled under his breath as he looked back at Esfir. "An' they live in big colonies. That one what roared earlier, dat was da lookout. Yo're lucky da bastards only hunt at night---unless sumfin' attacks da nest. But if they been woke up too early, den it's gonna be roight pissed."
The Brute started down the slope again, at a southern angle. He waved a farewell to Esfir over his shoulder.
"If'n yo're smart, ya hunt a rat or a slime for ya first go'roun'---maybe a fat elwet if ya can find one! Don't get yerself
grukh'd, Runt!"
Well then. Though none of them had ever managed to encounter the target of this group-hunt, it sounded like that was
definitely a good thing. Such a beast would require much more preparation and strength than the Runts currently had available to them, if even a Brute was wary about fighting the camazot.
The noon-day sun was moving on, and it had taken roughly an hour to get up here in the first place. The Head Warrior hadn't given them a time limit, but if Esfir wanted to press on into other locales it seemed wise to consider the amount of time it would take to return as well---because from the sound of it, the camazots would come out to play after dark.
She could go
east back into the forest,
west further up the streambed on the opposite of the Brute's path, or veer to either the
north or
south and continue along the mountains. The
camp was back to the south.
The Forest > South Cave
@Kazemitsu
"What's an NPC--oh shit, are you not one of the special ones? Uh, if you don't know, don't worry about it!" said the strange Runt in words that spilled out faster towards the end. "Anyway! No, no baiting here, friend! See, that's the thing, we got
no idea what's in the cave!" He flipped one hand through his dark hair and shrugged. "But given that they were full grown Orcs, my guess is something that plans for ambushes! And, because they were three full grown Orcs, if it ate them it's probably still full! So we just gotta keep our eyes peeled and not look appetizing--easy enough, right?"
In the end, Grunthor agreed, though possibly not because of anything the other Runt said. After barely missing being a meal himself, there was no question that traveling in numbers would be safer the further into the forest they went. When he explained his current Status Effects to the other Runt, the orange-eyed orcling chuckled.
"What'd you do, eat something bones and all? Or...wait, were you with that group this morning that hunted a whole Elwet flock? Ha! That's what being greedy gets you--I bet your Skill slots are already full, aren't they?"
As the two made their way south, the newcomer leading the way apparently based on instructions the other Orcs had given him, they didn't see any scurrying critters this close to the mountain's base. Despite telling Grunthor to keep his eyes peeled, the dark-colored brood-mate didn't seem too concerned about getting jumped on their way to the cave, and jovially talked to his new "party member."
"Yeah, I, uh, "hunted" an Elwet too! Ingested the [Skewer] Skill, since I already have another one for range. That's all I got for now--but I figure, it'll probably be easier to level up by doing Quests, and get more of the tribe to pay attention to me, you know? And once I have a little more independence,
then I can worry about stocking skills!" He looked at Grunthor with a tilt of his head, but despite the jokester's grin those ember-like eyes of his seemed...calculating. "What about you? What's your Skill set looking like, huh Mr. Greedyguts?"
As they walked and talked, the treeline of the forest remained much the same but the mountains to the west became more detailed. The northern peaks had been much rockier and taller, their walls often sheer, but it seemed like the southern edge of the range started to fall in elevation instead. The ground was covered in gravel, save where a few scrubby bushes popped up here and there, and the rocky slopes were more shallow. They weren't exactly smooth, but didn't have the sharp edges and crags like the cliffsides in the northern valley near the other cave. A Runt could probably climb them by hand without slipping and falling off, since there were ridges flat enough to rest on. But, every so often, a cave or dip in the trails could be seen--no doubt there were still creatures lurking about up there.
Eventually a couple of scraggly trees and a patch of stubbly grass appeared in sight, and the dark Runt pointed.
"There, they told me to look between two trees! I bet that's it!"
They'd walked for at least an hour from the camp, so the noon-day sun had moved yet again. Night time was still far off, but if Grunthor planned to continue hunting even after this, he might want to take into account the travel time it would take to get back to safety.
The entrance of the cave here was much wider and taller than the one he'd seen up north, a washout or sinkhole that had filled with silt and stabilized over who knew how long. It went down into the earth like caves should, a distance that would be like taking two or three steps at once. Due to its breadth, however, the entrance let in lots of sunlight, so the two Runts could see what was probably a little over twenty feet into the tunnel.
There was no sign of a camp...but, something near the cave's entrance drew the greasy-haired Runt's attention. He walked over to what seemed like a normal pile of dirt, and poked it with his Wooden Stick. As he broke the surface, a day-or-two old smell assaulted Grunthor's nostrils.
"That, good sir, is what the Orcs call
grukh. Meaning, one of 'em popped a squat out here--either while he was on watch, or just had to get up and go in the night." He pointed to where the pile lay, inside a shallow hole that looked to have been dug by hand rather than by an animal's claws. Then, with a grukh-eating grin, the Runt held his now befouled stick out as if expecting Grunthor to inspect it. "I think this is the one we're lookin' for, don't you?"
The Forest
@King Cosmos
Akeno's down-spike Fireball followed by charged-front-kick combo was hit-confirmed by a flash of crackling magic and the Tatzelwurm's agonized hissing and yowling. It seemed to go into shock and convulse even before the Runt's foot lifted it, still-burning, from the ground and sent it rolling into the tree trunk. It slid down the wood as the magical flames seemed to fade of their own accord, rather than its drop-and-roll efforts, and Akeno was left staring at still, blackened prey wreathed in a fresh, smoky aroma.
Victory!
Loot:
Burned Tatzelwurm x1
Though some of the monster's hide was peeling off thanks to the burns, it was still bodily intact and Akeno was none the worse for wear. If she took this back to the camp, which wasn't much further to the south, then she would probably get enough credit to finish the Quest. It was past noon now, although they hadn't been given a time limit, so how many of the other Runts had already brought in their kills? Now that their little party had split up, she didn't have anyone to drag her down...or to watch her back.
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