Southern Continent: Picking Up The Pieces

For in-universe game play. Journey through both familiar and foreign settings, explore lost ruins and forgotten cities, and try to bring light to the darkness of the world... or, you know, blow stuff up. Either way.
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: Southern Continent: Picking Up The Pieces

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Tamina beamed after the group had slipped away and the man reunited with his friend. The short kobold had to crane upwards to greet him. Strangely, she found herself having to stiffen an irrational fight or flight response reserved for facing the larger predators of the southern continent.

"Hi Shorty! Glad you're ok! But how in the spirits did you de-head to morroran?"

"That's some alpha male type stuff right there." Alleece chipped in, clearly impressed. "Even our best hunters wouldn't try that alone."

The mage indicated the pass they'd followed to find the huge sailor. Her tribesman couldn't have gotten too far along the trail to the Uran village.

"Got to catch up with the rest of the Killikah." She said. "Heading to a big village to do some trading. 'S important I be there to do the meet and greet."

OOC A huge kobold village would be the next stop. There'll be a tonne of stuff to do there with, of course, many possibilities for creation and adventure. Sidenote; Tamina's short even for a female kobold (about 5"3) i just find it funny thinking about the size difference between her and Shorty./OOC
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Re: Southern Continent: Picking Up The Pieces

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[OOC: Yeah, Shorty's somewhere over 6'8", with a "wide" rather than "skinny" body type. Real gentle giant, though, and normally, not all that proficient a hand-to-hand fighter. So on to the village, and over to you ...]

Shorty grinned good-naturedly. "Well, I kinda landed on the thing when my parachute got tangled. I had my pocket knife out to cut away the tangled cords --"

"His pocket knife doubles as a folding short sword for normal human beings," Rip interjected.

"-- and when I landed on it, a little momentum went a long way."

"A LOT of momentum," Rip interjected again; he remembered his basic, non-thaumatic physics.

"Did mess up a knee, though," Shorty continued. He pulled up a tattered pants leg to reveal that he'd somehow skinned the predator and fashioned a splint/brace out of the hide. "Er, hurts like a sunufabitch. Any of you folks got some Healing magic?"

It was done, and the group set off for the ... wherever they set off for. And not a moment too soon; the head and the hide might have impressed the kobolds (not to mention Rip), but they stank...
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Re: Southern Continent: Picking Up The Pieces

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"I got the healing magics." Tamina volunteered and raised a glowing paw. "Hold still. 'M a fix you up."

"That's why she's the stand-in for the elder." Alleece added. "She studied under Leli... and, umm..."

Tamina's friend noticed the dark look crossing over her face and trailed off.

"That's why I got to go meet the boss Uran." She said quietly, finishing off the big man's injury. "C'mon, we gotta catch up."

It didn't take long for the group to catch up with the slow-moving cart and it's attendees; even though the primitive roads were in good shape a dirt track was a dirt track. Riiki waved a paw-like hand in greeting as they approached. The mage dimly noticed the surprised look from the other kobolds at the size of the human in their company.

"<Any trouble?>"

"<Clear skies.>" The male kobold declared. "<Is this Rip's friend?>"

"<Obviously. Everyone, this is Shorty.> Shorty, this is Riiki, Oolan, Dochi and T'ska." She said, noticing the hungry looks Oolan and Dochi had, and how it was directed towards the new arrival. Kobold's valued strength after all, and the gentle giant looked like the personification of it. Oolan gave Shorty a shy wave, Alleece successfully resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

"We should be at the Uran settlement around late afternoon. They'll prolly want me to meet the Chief soon as we arrive. They're usually tolerant of humans." She eyed the pair meaningfully. "There's been people bringing them steel and guns in the last few months so we're told."

"Hopefully no worse than that." Alleece muttered.

"Just... umm... keep it quiet that I can use magic, k? Braccus Uran is a bit... power hungry."

"A borderline megalomaniac is what he is." Alleece declared. "It might be an idea to keep that parrot of yours quiet while we're there. But it's a big place, you might be able to go soo-ven-ear shopping? Is that the right word? When we get there."
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Re: Southern Continent: Picking Up The Pieces

Post by Graybeard »

OOC: Go ahead and run this another exchange or two, I think. Rip and Shorty are both bright enough to know there's a time to listen, not talk. Thurston may not know that, so presumably Rip would have jammed a cigar into his beak by now ...
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Re: Southern Continent: Picking Up The Pieces

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"Alright one more time... I spy with my hunter's eye..."

Several minutes had passed since the party had departed, and the kobolds had shown courtesy of sticking to human speak for the benefit of the foreigners. Riiki's protests that he didn't speak it well had been cut short by Tamina pointing out that he'd been neglecting his lessons and now was a great opportunity to improve. The rest were slightly better, especially Oolan, who'd been stealing glances at Shorty since they got moving, but hadn't yet broached a topic of conversation.

"...something beginning with S." Alleece finished.

"Ssss-sky?" Riiki ventured.

"Nope."

"Sand?" T'ska volunteered.

"We're thirty miles from the ocean."

Tamina, for her part, had slunk to the back of the group to keep the humans company.

"I c'n see why Leli looked so stressed out some of the time." She sighed. "Being in charge feels like herding a herd of gah... umm... children."

"Squash?" That one was Dochi.

"That's not even a vegetable that grows on this continent."

"The males of the Uran tribe are pretty vicious." Tamina said, figuring it was a good idea to fill the men in on what was in their future. "Braccus studied human culture, learned to read, history books and stuff. He's really smart Leli told me. He found out about something called a... cats system?"

"Caste system?" Rip inquired.

"Yeah. That. So there's Killikah who are considered lower than others in the village. It's not quite slavery." She bared her teeth. "But it's pretty close. We need to stay on good terms with them, specially since the Ralkin came and half-destroyed my home. We don't wanna wind up like other tribes that got absorbed into the clan. The hides-" She indicated the bundle on the cart beside them. "-will get us supplies like medicines for stuff I can't fix with my magic, better steel for our hunters n' show them we're worth keeping happy relations with."

"Sea...shells?" Riiki again.

"I just said we're thirty miles from the sea!"

"I don't think they'll be trouble, but watch out for the male hunters. 'Specially near the al-ka-hol stills. They might look at humans like you as something to prove themselves with."

"Seechy tree?" Oolan made a guess.

"Correct! You win the jerky!"

Oolan beamed and claimed her prize. Then the young kobold slowly shuffled over to the gargantuan Shorty and held up a piece.

"Umm... want some?"
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Re: Southern Continent: Picking Up The Pieces

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Rip, still the anthropologist beneath a veneer of privateer/adventurer, took all this in with interest. Not for the first time, an anthropological discussion got him thinking about the unwritten rules and prejudices of his homeland. Tsuiraku claimed to be free and egalitarian, and not to have (horrors!) a caste system or anything like it. Of course, the people making that claim hadn't grown up in the northern islands. He'd known enough people who had (Khoo wasn't the first person from the islands to go to Sashi Mu, just part of the first organized class of them), and seen what they had to put up with, to know better than that; not to mention the bit of condescension that appeared whenever the subject of his father, a man from the Northern Confederacy, came up. There were also the subtle bits of discrimination by people from Tsuirakushiti, the sky city, against those from Tsuirakushita, the growing urban sprawl on ground beneath it. Yes, there were all sorts of little caste distinctions in his homeland, just as there appeared to be here.

Those, of course, were one reason why he'd never gone back there.

"This Braccus sounds like an unpleasant type," he mused to Tamina. "On the other hand, scholars can sometimes get together and talk about things. I'd be interested in learning more about what he sees as this 'caste system' that you don't like -- and neither do I."

Shorty grunted but said nothing. He was preoccupied with the jerky, but was feeding the majority of it to Thurston; the huge man had the appetite of a bird, and vice versa.
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Re: Southern Continent: Picking Up The Pieces

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Tamina smiled at Oolan's attempts to flirt with Shorty before she answered the request.

"There's basically three... no... four levels from what I remember. The Kaalshiir; they're basically like servants, keep the place clean, run errands, farm crops for the settlements, get beaten for speaking up to the highest classes." She scowled again. "Mostly they're made from smaller tribes taken over by the Uran. Next are up Siha, they're mothers, but to all the gah, they run... erm.. orphanages? That the right word?" Rip's nod confirmed it. "Raise the children of the hunters, keep houses in order, wives to the warriors in human terms, but Killikah don't get married." She shrugged, conveying her indifference about the ceremony. "Raalshin are next up. Hunters. Mostly males but quite a lot of females too. Top level are the Draalshin; they're like... umm... police? Braccus' personal, paw-picked warriors who go round, collecting tributes from the townspeople, muscle other settlements too, sometimes they just walk about throwing their weight around. Look out for this..."

The kobold stooped and quickly drew a symbol in the dirt; it resembled a circle with a rows of fanged teeth lining the top and bottom of it.

"...that means Draalshin. They paint 'em on their shoulders. Best to avoid 'em if you can."
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Re: Southern Continent: Picking Up The Pieces

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For some reason, this description struck a humorous chord in Rip. "Well, nice of the bad guys to identify themselves so clearly," he chuckled. "I just wish the other bad guys we've dealt with had been as --"

He didn't get to finish the sentence, as there was a loud RRAAAWK! from a nearby tree, and something came zinging into the clearing where the group had gathered. It took a second, but Rip recognized the feathered intruder as a parrot. Thurston's reaction confirmed the identification. "RAAWWK. That's Dorrie, my -- well, you know. Looks like she's got som'pn goin' on. 'Scuse me for a minute, boss." He didn't wait for permission, but took off into the trees where Dorrie had circled back.

Another minute or two of parrot caterwauling followed, during which, if the kobolds were saying anything important, Rip and Shorty weren't paying attention to it, concentrating instead on the avian "conversation." After another couple of minutes, Thurston returned, with a most peculiar expression on his "face."

"Okay, little buddy, what's up?" Rip asked, not entirely jovially.

"RAAK. Got an issue, boss. Dorrie says she's pretty sure she's pregnant."

Rip was genuinely mystified. "Pregnant?"

"RAAWK. You know, expecting, knocked up, whatever you call it." He thought of another way to put it. "With egg."

Rip tried to shake his head to clear it; surely he couldn't have been hearing this right. "But that's ridiculous! How could she know? It's only been six hours or less since you --"

While he fumbled for a word to describe parrot sex, Thurston interrupted. "RAAKK. You mean human females don't know they're pregnant six hours after they do it?" He shook his own head in a curiously human gesture. "How did your species ever last long enough to produce you?"
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Re: Southern Continent: Picking Up The Pieces

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Tamina's mood lightened again at the arrival of Thurston; it was nice to get happy news in light of the dark cloud they were marching towards.

"And I though Killikah moved fast!"

Kobold's usually knew pregnancy within days, then again, a forty year life span meant for a very fast metabolism. Speaking of which...

"Wanna break for lunch?" She asked Rip. "Give your Brasksha*" She nodded at Thurston. "A chance to spread the news."

"We got garlop and mango!" Called Alleece from the front of the group.



*parrot
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Re: Southern Continent: Picking Up The Pieces

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"RAAWK. Not gonna spread the news," Thurston objected. "Gonna keep it all quiet, in fact. Don't want predators to find out. Parrots aren't like humans. You already can't fly. Laying time comes in about three weeks, and for most of that, Dorrie's gonna be a sitting duck, er, parrot, for any predators that come along. Big change from what she's used to doing to avoid being eaten. 'Sides, not much around that's big enough to eat you. Lots of things around big enough to eat a pregnant parrot. I'm gonna have to stay with her, fend off the tomcats and rats and possums or whatever you've got like them here that eat parrots. That's my egg too that she's laying, you know." He looked at Rip. "Sorry, boss, but you're on your own for a while. I'll catch up with you." He flew off without another word, and the two parrots disappeared into the forest.

"Well, that's unfortunate," Rip observed. "We just lost our airborne early-warning system. He's in no danger, familiars are basically indestructible, but we, on the other hanOOOF!" He'd been interrupted, indeed almost flattened. by Shorty's cheerful slap on his back.

"Hey, look on the bright side, pal," Shorty said. "Another month or so, you're gonna be sorta-kinda a grandpa..."
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