Zeroth

2100 ☢️ BADLAND REPUBLIC (Interest Gathering) (High Casual) (FULL)

@Shu I'm in!

Blackguards!

Hey, you guys are doing alright so far! Auguz only wants to kill one of you! XD

@Red Wizard If you have to boot someone due to lack of participation, maybe it'd be a good idea to use them as an example of what the Warden does to those who defy the Suicide Squad pact? Since right now we don't have a lot of direct motivation to not try running off into the sunset, lol.

Blackguards!

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Auguz the Manslayer

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The orc raised a white eyebrow as the dwarven crone began weaving her rhymes. It took him a moment to parse her meaning, though perhaps not as long as one might expect of his race. The name she mentioned matched what the Warden had said---Malasta. It was not a city he was familiar with---but how different could one be from another, especially where humans were concerned? There would be buildings, and roads, and fools packed tighter than in any orcish fortress. They needed to find an inn called the Golden Chalice. He couldn't imagine such a place not standing out like a sore thumb. He rolled his brawny shoulders and neck, relishing the crack and crinkle of joints now that he was free once more. Had his beard and hair grown longer while he had been imprisoned? He stroked it curiously...but, without a mirror, he could not be sure.

The blue woman's voice drew his narrowed gaze. He didn't much care for all her clinky, gaudy jewels... nor for the spark of magic that ran along her slender arm. She was tall for a female of most any race, but far skinnier than a proper orc lass would be. He couldn't believe she was human, or at least not in whole, but he couldn't recall seeing many races of that skin hue in his travels. He growled as she released a bird from a cloud of smoke, and made a protective sigil with his index and middle fingers on his right hand---a folk belief of his clan, originally used for meditation to guard the mind.

A pity such a thing could never have worked on that thrice-damned Warden.

When the woman cast the bird off, she turned to him and smiled. How did these creatures tear their meat, with no tusks in their pitiful mouths? He grunted at her attempt to reassure him. Did these people think him simple? The swordsmaster crossed his burly arms and wrinkled his nose. Then the old human---not the one who was too old---called him a "dear little beast."

"If you---or any of you---" he announced loudly as he looked around the circle of criminals, "Think of me as a mere beast, then at least have the good sense to treat me as one." A growl built in his throat as he pushed three inches of gleaming steel out of the scabbard with his thumb. "Fools who try to pet wolves will not keep their hands for long."

The stupid human had proclaimed he knew which way was east and which west, but the sun could be red at morning as well as it could be at evening. With no way of knowing how long they had been trapped in the Maw, until he either saw stars coming out or light growing brighter, Auguz wouldn't make any assumptions. The younger human male spoke up next, voicing his own opinion that they should wait on the blue woman's bird. Auguz, however, did not trust it solely for the fact that it was magic, just like their mutual enemy. For all they knew it wasn't even a real bird, just lies and trickery wearing feathers. The old dwarf responded to him again in rhyme---this time, Auguz made a "hmph" sound through his nose that could have been amusement.

"If you were as quick with a sword as you are with your strings of words, elder, our duel would be magnificent." he said, before taking a few slow steps around the edge of the group. He was examining their surroundings---and also watching the other members of their party who had already begun walking off, especially those who drew the furthest distance away. "But your final line is all that concerns me. 'Death, if we elope.' If the Witch of the Maw indeed placed some binding on us, how can we be sure? What stops us from exclaiming, to hell with her plots, and going our own way?" He looked up at the sky, to observe if the stars had indeed begun to appear yet. "And better yet, what means might there be to break such a thing?"

A New Day; Cozy Fantasy Village Life

--- Springwood Forest ---

Akitsugu

Late Morning
@Xaltwind@Dragonydas@Remram

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Myrr seemed to know her stuff when it came to the various flora on the forest floor---and also seemed to be much more excitable when she was actually in her element. It reminded Akitsugu of himself in some ways, though his own subjects of expertise were quite different.

"I'm quite fond of tea, actually---and if it's edible, all the better." he called, as she gushed over the many uses of the dandelion. "I'll keep a lookout for it myself."

While she and Brom examined the living trees, Akitsugu focused on the dead ones, or at least the boughs that had long been shed in previous seasons. He meandered some distance from the other two, keeping them within the limits of sight but soon losing the sound of their conversation. With the tarnished yet sharp copper axe in hand, he searched until he found dry wood that hadn't rotted too badly from exposure to the elements. He soon found an armful of smaller branches and limbs, easily broken over his knee or against the trunk of another tree. A dead log with a big patch of moss on it was rolled into position by bracing himself against the ground and pushing with his feet, then Akitsugu began stripping it of the rotted sections of bark and cutting off the forked, jagged branches from the main body.

"_{Are you sure it's wise to trust all these people?}" whispered Miyusahime.

"_{Shh. If you don't trust them, don't reveal yourself.}" The loud crack and snap of a branch echoed through the forest, before Akitsugu tossed it into his pile.

"_{I'm not, dummy! If they can hear us from here, they'd have to have ears like rabbits!}"

"_{Well, several of them are elves...}" The sword gave a "hmph!" and clicked in her sheath.

The blacksmith took a step back from the now branchless log to eyeball its length, and then scored its now stripped surface with the tip of the axe. He glanced over at the pile of bark he'd torn away from the wood, and thought it would probably make good kindling if it were crumbled up some more, or if the fibrous layers could be stripped off the undersides. Then he began to cut a V-shaped wedge along each of the lines he'd marked, so that the log's length would be broken into more manageable pieces. This was where the real effort and manpower came in. After a few strokes, he removed his mantle and hung it on the branch of another tree nearby, then used a piece of string from a pocket to tie back the long sleeves of his robe-like shirt. Doing so revealed surprisingly built biceps and triceps, which brought the axe up and down in vigorous strokes. However, he didn't cut any of the wedges all the way through the log.

Once he felt a section had been carved deeply enough, he found another log and once again levered the one he'd been working on around until he managed to stand it upright. Taking aim, he positioned it at an angle to the one on the ground, and then let gravity do the work. The sound of the two dead trees hitting each other was like that of a great drum. Bark flew from the unstripped log, while the one Akitsugu had been cutting broke over its companion, right in the weakened area. Rolling that newly made chunk of firewood out of the way, the red head proceeded to grunt and heave with effort until he had the log upright again, and repeated the process.

It only worked twice more, however, before the wedged log was too short to generate enough force in its fall. Still, Akitsugu was now able to flip it over with his foot, and went back to chopping with his hatchet.

He would definitely need better tools soon, and more people if he planned for this to be a long term activity. And, it would have to be, if he had finally found the source of his calling...if he was going to stay in this village. Firewood was needed, of course, for heat and for cooking and for building. But it was also needed to make charcoal, which would be needed to get a furnace up to temperatures that could actually work with metal. Akitsugu had only made it himself a few times, in some of the villages he'd passed through while looking for work, but he'd also read about it and remembered enough that he felt confident repeating the process. He would need quite a lot of wood, and kindling as well. Once these were piled up, packed tightly together with the smallest sticks on the inside and the largest towards the outside, with the kindling over top of that, then he would need to mix some water and mud to get clay (which was why he hoped Niara would soon be able to fix the well). After starting a small fire on top of the wood pile, he would need to cover it in the mud while leaving a few airholes---once the entire pile was alight, those would be plugged in turn. The pile had to be left to cook, and then to cool, for quite some time, but if he did it right the result would be shiny black chunks of carbonized matter, perfect for use in a forge.

Of course, his thoughts were getting ahead of his actions. First he had to cut enough wood to get himself and his companions through this first night. Then he needed to build or borrow some form of transportation for it---just lashing it with vines might work for today, but he needed a basket or cart to carry much, much more. And he would probably need a better axe before he could really thin out this forest.

That, he realized, was also a bit of an issue. This forest seemed to be large, for sure, but so far he had seen...at least ten, maybe a dozen people, in the village? If he needed a constant supply of wood for his charcoal---which Brom might also need for his cooking stoves---and everyone else also needed wood for cooking and for repairing the houses, then how long would this forest support them? And what if the population continued to grow? The blacksmith made a mental note to ask Myrr about collecting saplings and seeds, so that they could be sure to replant enough trees to remain sustainable.

"_{Then again... I suppose that's thinking too far ahead, isn't it? Might not even live to see it...}"

"_{What? What are you talking about, Aki-tan?}"

"Nothing. Just thinking out loud." he told his sword.

While he had been thinking to himself, another set of Vs were carved in on the opposite side of his log. Then the log was flipped again. Chop, flip, and chop again---the last three sections soon came apart.

The blacksmith wiped at his sweaty brow, then turned to look for his companions. Hopefully they hadn't wandered too far away...

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HARVESTED: WOODEN STICKS
HARVESTED: WOODEN LOGS
HARVESTED: KINDLING

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2100 ☢️ BADLAND REPUBLIC (Interest Gathering) (High Casual) (FULL)

Along with conventional “slug throwers” there will be laser-based weaponry as well resources such as drones, power armor, explosives of varied effects, varieties of melee weapons, useful applicable serums, cybernetics… etcetera.

Unlike a lot of media that have “categorized” such the approach I am taking with this RP is that the mutations, be they radiation induced or lab engineered, are “endless” - for lack of a better word - in variety. Mind you I am not going to take, nor allow, a completely ridiculous avenue when it comes to this. Each mutant be it human (oid) or animalistic in nature is unique. In some cases such as a gigantic mutated ant queen there are very likely be others such as it but this is not a guarantee. At least not locally. A human meanwhile that was subject zero for a specially designed mutagen agent that was deemed as a failure - and said human was “discarded” but survived the apocalypse - is likely the “only one”.

@Shu

Okay, so mutations can be pretty free-form within reason, and "powersets" should be themed around sci-fi, not fantasy. With that said, what's your general idea of "power scale?" Would something less physically distinguished, like telekinesis, be possible as the result of a mutation, or does it stick to things like retractable claws, extra muscle mass, etc? Are the cybernetics and serums on the level that they could allow superhuman abilities? And how common are such things to come by in the wastes---are you likely to meet a fellow mutant in any village-sized settlement? Do chromed out mercenaries hang around in all the seedy dive bars? Or do only the rich and powerful have access to these kinds of things?

2100 ☢️ BADLAND REPUBLIC (Interest Gathering) (High Casual) (FULL)

Potentially interested! I really like the worldbuilding you've done thus far, and have a few questions related to it!

Just to confirm, this is an alternate world---when you say the DUA is "resemblant" of the USA, you just mean that they're similar, and this is NOT a fictional future-Earth at all but a separate, distinct Earth-like planet?

The "enigmatic Arcanii" made me think of the word "arcane," so will this RP feature any sort of magic or non-scientific, supernatural force? Or will it stick more to the realm of science-based, technological "powers" and firearm based weaponry?

What are the nature of the mentioned mutations? Bestial mutants are mentioned, so I'm sure those are environmental fauna/flora threats, "monsters" in JRPG terms, but do mutations also affect playable races/people? If so, how does it change their appearance, combat abilities, etc?

Blackguards!

Quick OOC check in, does anyone find the rhyming for Fuhgoad in character too grating? Like, "I can't even look at it" and "please stop?" Just checking to see if I'm accidentally pissing anyone off.

@wanderingwolf

The only thing I'd recommend is that maybe sometimes she sticks to a couplet, rather than a full verse or limerick every time, but that's only because I think it'd be hard, creatively, to make a full blown poem out of every line of dialogue she has. Other than that I like it!

Creative Writing Forums?

Have you tried places like Royal Road, Honeyfeed, Wattpad, and other places like that? I don't know if they have dedicated forums since I've never checked, but I see a lot of discussions in comment threads under the stories posted there. And it seems to be a well known practice of writers helping/promoting other writers, with cross discussion on each other's stories and encouragement and whatnot.

A lot of writers who have channels on Youtube also probably have their own Discords where they invite fans and fellow writers to talk about things, but I find channels like that to be of VERY inconsistent quality most of the time so you might not find "good" communities there.

A New Day; Cozy Fantasy Village Life

I'm personally fine with either way.

@BunniesOfDoom

Me too.

Blood of the Crown (Medieval Fantasy, Royalty, Magic)

Unfortunately I think I'm going to have to bow out, but I wish you luck!