"Trezlan what is wrong with you? Like seriously?" I was back home, although at this point is any place home? I have no idea other than the world is my general home. I had gone back to Val's bar because I thought he'd appreciate me taking out some more of the god hierarchys in the world, he did not. I had left Xanthi to the rigors of bureaucracy as a new citizen of the lands of the guard, a task I was sure she'd be up to (other than of course the language barrier, she couldn't write at all, and she was never technically a citizen of anywhere).
"Val you know I should never tell you anything you always question either the veracity of the story or why I was involved in the first place, I think you try and make me feel bad on purpose." He got a scowl on his face.
"I do! I keep hoping you'll stop coming to me to tell me about all the horrible things you do."
"Killing gods is good! Increases the power of the rest of you right? Is that how it works I don't know how this works." He got red in the face and went in the back room I heard pots and pans crashing around, I assumed because he was short and ran in to something. It was nice to be back in Valrym's bar pissing him off, it was like the universe had reset itself back to normal for a bit. And I didn't have any left over god power or anything, so that was good too.
Sure you're probably wondering how the worst boat maker ever and my tribal friend made it home (cargo ship who wasn't aware there was a war arrived in the country and we hitched a ride). You're also probably wondering what happened now that there was a power vaccum/entire land devoid of people and filled with monsters, but I wasn't so I'll just leave that little problem to be someone elses problem (nothing bad can come from any of that right?) What was important was I was home and I had a new ally in the fight against boredom. And that was all good for me, mostly. I mean sure things were bound to get crazy, but they always do! I've come to expect that!
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Monday, March 30, 2015
All Of You Shut Up
Having been mad several times in my life I've grown accustomed to voices in my head (sad but true), but the voices of upset god's who just murdered their followers and are being confronted by their god children? BRIDGE TOO FAR! The god children were weak, they basically had to run up to me after I'd spent some time murdering the last of the followers of Murzo (I think it was Murzo all that genocide ran together yes I know this sounds awful, but it wasn't fully me...)
"YOU!" I can at least say I brought the kids back together! I'm a uniter folks!
"Look it wasn't really me." I was back in control for the most part, the parents after killing all those followers had basically destroyed any and all power they had, so they were at best passengers to me as I dealt with their petulant children.
"You killed my followers!"
"He killed my followers!"
"Your followers?" You'll note I didn't identify who was speaking because they both basically said it at the same time, at this point hilariously they got into a fight with each other. I could go into how they were dressed and the amount of destruction around me, but why bother? I don't mean to be a bad journal taker, but these people were idiots. Their civilization was destroyed by petty differences and by betraying their parents to move up in power. Ultimately while they were fighting I found a pistol lying on the ground and shot them both dead, and with the last of their offspring dead, the gods in my head went away as well.
So yes Trezlan the Godslayer lives again. I swear I'm the garbage man and I'm slowly eliminating all the crappy gods from this world one bullet at a time. Which would seem like an awesome job until you're standing in the middle of a battlefield surrounded by people you killed with their dumb gods dead at your feet. And then you realize man this job sucks! And the benefits are poor.As in there aren't any benefits, at all!
"YOU!" I can at least say I brought the kids back together! I'm a uniter folks!
"Look it wasn't really me." I was back in control for the most part, the parents after killing all those followers had basically destroyed any and all power they had, so they were at best passengers to me as I dealt with their petulant children.
"You killed my followers!"
"He killed my followers!"
"Your followers?" You'll note I didn't identify who was speaking because they both basically said it at the same time, at this point hilariously they got into a fight with each other. I could go into how they were dressed and the amount of destruction around me, but why bother? I don't mean to be a bad journal taker, but these people were idiots. Their civilization was destroyed by petty differences and by betraying their parents to move up in power. Ultimately while they were fighting I found a pistol lying on the ground and shot them both dead, and with the last of their offspring dead, the gods in my head went away as well.
So yes Trezlan the Godslayer lives again. I swear I'm the garbage man and I'm slowly eliminating all the crappy gods from this world one bullet at a time. Which would seem like an awesome job until you're standing in the middle of a battlefield surrounded by people you killed with their dumb gods dead at your feet. And then you realize man this job sucks! And the benefits are poor.As in there aren't any benefits, at all!
Friday, March 27, 2015
Mom and Dad are Pissed
Being the vessel of two very angry god spirits is not my idea of a fun time. Sure you have a lot of power you normally wouldn't have, and the ability to wipe out large groups of people with a wave of your hand. But at the same time you've got a bickering pair of gods in your damned head complaining about literally everything and the one thing you want them to do (shut up shut up SHUT UP!) is the one thing they do not do. It was funny despite having had the two of them in my brain arguing with each other, I have no idea what these particular gods were called. They didn't use names just insults. It was the bickering married couple I never wanted.
We emerged from underneath the earth in a burst of molten fire and rock. We apparently were in the Murzon zone according to Xanthi's journal (I say we because I was with them in body, but not anything else I was at best a passenger to the destruction). They used my fire to rain destruction down on everyone. They were indiscriminate in murder. Frankly I was shocked Xanthi survived, but apparently since she was never a follower of either of the religions she didn't even show up to them (again I was a passenger not a driver I had no idea what they were doing). I did get a sense with each person they killed their power was diminishing (which made sense, they were killing followers of their children and by extension themselves). Eventually this lead to them being pretty powerless and their children coming after me/them though the kids due to all their own followers being dead were pretty powerless.
Which was great because they wanted to kill me/their parents! Even though it was really the parents fault and not mine, but trying to convince a bunch of soon to be gone from this world assholes they were really mad at themselves was extremely difficult! Honestly it should be no surprise I just killed them, woops spoilers... but you had to know thats what I'd do! That's totally a me solution!
We emerged from underneath the earth in a burst of molten fire and rock. We apparently were in the Murzon zone according to Xanthi's journal (I say we because I was with them in body, but not anything else I was at best a passenger to the destruction). They used my fire to rain destruction down on everyone. They were indiscriminate in murder. Frankly I was shocked Xanthi survived, but apparently since she was never a follower of either of the religions she didn't even show up to them (again I was a passenger not a driver I had no idea what they were doing). I did get a sense with each person they killed their power was diminishing (which made sense, they were killing followers of their children and by extension themselves). Eventually this lead to them being pretty powerless and their children coming after me/them though the kids due to all their own followers being dead were pretty powerless.
Which was great because they wanted to kill me/their parents! Even though it was really the parents fault and not mine, but trying to convince a bunch of soon to be gone from this world assholes they were really mad at themselves was extremely difficult! Honestly it should be no surprise I just killed them, woops spoilers... but you had to know thats what I'd do! That's totally a me solution!
Thursday, March 26, 2015
Somethings Buried Should Not Be Unearthed
I escaped through the sewers because screw getting sacrificed to some jerk god of males (Oh hi Trezlan back I figured Xanthi's last entry was a good reason to resume my own narrative). The sewers of the university were not guarded at all which just went to show how poorly both sides were fighting their little religious war. The sewers were disgusting, a combination of no maintenance and over use from the people up above caused me to vomit several times. It was actually the smell that caused me to get lost (sure the smell and not knowing where I was going at all sure we'll go with that). Getting lost in a sewer is my normal though, but thanks to this particular system not being properly maintained/damaged in the conflict I got into a really bad place very fast.
It started like all things do for me, with simply slipping in some shit (literal here I'm pretty sure) and falling down a pipe into the down below. As this kind of thing has happened to me in the recent past and lead to many bad things I was immediately worried when I fell out of the sewer system and into a cave system (everything under the earth is awful, no good comes from there). There was an ethereal light down there part of some naturally growing fungus (all the more reason to worry). I couldn't see a way back up from where I came from so as I usually did I had to go forward.
The fungus caves lead to a temple of sorts, I'd seen some of the markings from the Followers of Nurzo above, but this was older than the works they'd shown me and told a different story of how the twins came to power. They had overthrown their parents and locked them under the earth (reading this and seeing where I was well I knew what I had discovered). How they had overthrown their parents wasn't exactly stated, but I could assume it was by promising their followers they would grant them power they ended up not granting (because the people up above did not look all that powerful, if anything they were the opposite). By the time I'd finished the story I was in the middle of the temple, my intellectual curiosity had gotten the better of me.
"DISCIPLE!" The voice filled my brain and then filled my body. I felt lifted up and a power surged through me. I knew at this point that curiosity like all the times in the past had gotten me in trouble yet again. And I wasn't wrong. So for a little bit I got share my body with some angry parent gods. Which was super fun times let me tell you!
It started like all things do for me, with simply slipping in some shit (literal here I'm pretty sure) and falling down a pipe into the down below. As this kind of thing has happened to me in the recent past and lead to many bad things I was immediately worried when I fell out of the sewer system and into a cave system (everything under the earth is awful, no good comes from there). There was an ethereal light down there part of some naturally growing fungus (all the more reason to worry). I couldn't see a way back up from where I came from so as I usually did I had to go forward.
The fungus caves lead to a temple of sorts, I'd seen some of the markings from the Followers of Nurzo above, but this was older than the works they'd shown me and told a different story of how the twins came to power. They had overthrown their parents and locked them under the earth (reading this and seeing where I was well I knew what I had discovered). How they had overthrown their parents wasn't exactly stated, but I could assume it was by promising their followers they would grant them power they ended up not granting (because the people up above did not look all that powerful, if anything they were the opposite). By the time I'd finished the story I was in the middle of the temple, my intellectual curiosity had gotten the better of me.
"DISCIPLE!" The voice filled my brain and then filled my body. I felt lifted up and a power surged through me. I knew at this point that curiosity like all the times in the past had gotten me in trouble yet again. And I wasn't wrong. So for a little bit I got share my body with some angry parent gods. Which was super fun times let me tell you!
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
Xanthi's War Journal #3
When I was captured for the second time I played up my language disability. I'm not proud of it, it was insulting to play into their expectations that I'm dumb, but I needed an edge against my adversaries and having them believe I was incompetent was a useful one. My captors were all male, and unlike the Nurzons they had me locked up and thrown into a work camp with other women. The work camp was to make bullets, conditions were poor and the women were treated badly. I never saw Trezlan at the Nurzon camp, but I had assumed that they didn't treat their prisoners this poorly.
I'm not overstating it by saying conditions were bad. We were technically refilling bullets not producing new ones. So a lot of the time they had experienced wear and tear, on top of that the actual instructions were incredibly vague, and the workers were not in the best mindset to make them, so a lot of the bullets were over stuffed or under stuffed, I couldn't imagine they would fire as our captors wanted them to or if they ever intended on them being fired to begin with.
Making the bullets was bad, what was worse was when the men would come in from whatever they ordinarily did and chose women for the evening. Now I was never chosen based I believe on playing dumb and the fact I'm not what most men consider traditionally attractive. But from the way the women would show up at the camp the next day I figured I was getting the better end of the deal.
I was actually in the middle of trying to figure out how to get out of the work camp when the damn thing exploded. I figured it was due to improperly stored ammunition, when in fact it was due to Trezlan. I'll let him write how he came to find me and the rest, needless to say he wasn't of the right mind, or any mind for that matter. Which as I've come to know him is about usual for him.
I'm not overstating it by saying conditions were bad. We were technically refilling bullets not producing new ones. So a lot of the time they had experienced wear and tear, on top of that the actual instructions were incredibly vague, and the workers were not in the best mindset to make them, so a lot of the bullets were over stuffed or under stuffed, I couldn't imagine they would fire as our captors wanted them to or if they ever intended on them being fired to begin with.
Making the bullets was bad, what was worse was when the men would come in from whatever they ordinarily did and chose women for the evening. Now I was never chosen based I believe on playing dumb and the fact I'm not what most men consider traditionally attractive. But from the way the women would show up at the camp the next day I figured I was getting the better end of the deal.
I was actually in the middle of trying to figure out how to get out of the work camp when the damn thing exploded. I figured it was due to improperly stored ammunition, when in fact it was due to Trezlan. I'll let him write how he came to find me and the rest, needless to say he wasn't of the right mind, or any mind for that matter. Which as I've come to know him is about usual for him.
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Xanthi's War Journal #2
My first day at the weapon forges was insulting. I had made all kinds of weapons on the island using all sorts of parts. And these clowns just wanted me to make pistols and rifles something I'd never made in my entire life and I had no idea what I was even doing. It's a bit like expecting someone who has never baked a cake expecting them to not only bake a cake but do it perfectly. With each failure the person assigned to me would use more harsh words and language and I was extremely close to just killing her, finding Trezlan, and attempting to leave this horrible place. I didn't because I don't like leaving a problem unsolved, I wanted to figure out fire arms and how they worked, and so I kept at it, long after the person who was to train me had given up on me.
My first experiments in ranged weaponry were utter failures. Barrels that didn't line up with chambers, hammer's that couldn't connect with bullets. Just dangerous applications of technology, I suggested leaving these on the battlefield as traps for Nurzo's enemies, but my limited grasp of the language did not exactly sell this as an idea. Eventually I figured out the correct way to make rifles, pistols with their smaller parts and feed mechanisms alluded me. I was fairly proud of the rifles I produced even if the people in charge were upset it had taken me a bit to make them, I believe it was only three days but they acted like I did it on purpose. This soured me on the followers of Nurzo, on top of all the belief that I was mentally slow because I didn't speak their language.
I was very frustrated by these women and their slavish devotion to Nurzo. So I left, I couldn't find Trezlan, I figured he was probably safer with the crazy women than with me. I didn't have much, just one of my makeshift rifles and a large knife I'd managed to make on the side, but I figured I'd be safe enough and hopefully I could find some wilderness and make due until the conflict blew over. It's funny when I told Trezlan this is why he didn't see me he wasn't even angry, in fact he said that was his plan once he figured the extent of the Nurzo slaves madness. Funny how two completely different people can arrive at the same conclusion separate from each other.I guess that's one reason I put up with Trezlan, he at least is an understandable if odd person.
My plan failed of course, I didn't make it out of the city because I can't navigate urban environments and the followers of the other religion captured me. This too made Trezlan laugh when I told him because he said leaving one group to get captured by another is what would ordinarily happen to him. I have mentioned Trezlan is odd right?
My first experiments in ranged weaponry were utter failures. Barrels that didn't line up with chambers, hammer's that couldn't connect with bullets. Just dangerous applications of technology, I suggested leaving these on the battlefield as traps for Nurzo's enemies, but my limited grasp of the language did not exactly sell this as an idea. Eventually I figured out the correct way to make rifles, pistols with their smaller parts and feed mechanisms alluded me. I was fairly proud of the rifles I produced even if the people in charge were upset it had taken me a bit to make them, I believe it was only three days but they acted like I did it on purpose. This soured me on the followers of Nurzo, on top of all the belief that I was mentally slow because I didn't speak their language.
I was very frustrated by these women and their slavish devotion to Nurzo. So I left, I couldn't find Trezlan, I figured he was probably safer with the crazy women than with me. I didn't have much, just one of my makeshift rifles and a large knife I'd managed to make on the side, but I figured I'd be safe enough and hopefully I could find some wilderness and make due until the conflict blew over. It's funny when I told Trezlan this is why he didn't see me he wasn't even angry, in fact he said that was his plan once he figured the extent of the Nurzo slaves madness. Funny how two completely different people can arrive at the same conclusion separate from each other.I guess that's one reason I put up with Trezlan, he at least is an understandable if odd person.
My plan failed of course, I didn't make it out of the city because I can't navigate urban environments and the followers of the other religion captured me. This too made Trezlan laugh when I told him because he said leaving one group to get captured by another is what would ordinarily happen to him. I have mentioned Trezlan is odd right?
Monday, March 23, 2015
Xanthi's War Journal #1
Trezlan Lorentino is an odd man; I say that fifteen years after he rescued me from my home. He's taught me much in the time between including how to write and speak at least a couple languages. I'm still coming to grips with who he is or even what he is, but the foremost thing I know about him is that he's odd. As an example I have no idea what he does for a living. Trezlan claims to be a merchant but I never see him sell things, he claims to be an archivist, but I have never seen any history he's written, and he claims to have lived a long time but he always looks so young. The only thing I truly know about him is that he's a survivor. Which draws me back to what he asked me to write about and thats my time with the minions of Nurzo. Minions because they were not followers, but slaves. I knew little of slavery at the time it wasn't practiced in my village, but having learned more about this world and its awful practices I definitely can say that Nurzo was a cruel master to those who worshiped him.
After I was separated from Trezlan they quizzed me on all sorts of things. And it was confusing because as Trezlan probably wrote down already I didn't speak the language very well. I still struggle to this day to write or explain myself, but back then it was a lot worse. There were three ladies who kept asking me what sounded like the same questions, but I couldn't make out much of what they were saying. Eventually the three gave way to one who assumed I was mentally deficient. She talked slow and loud and started drawing things, I eventually sort of clued in to what she wanted, but I was still lost.
What they wanted to know was how Trezlan and I got there and which side of the conflict we supported. Why that mattered was beyond me, which is what lead to my initial confusion. It didn't make much sense for them to care where I was from and by virtue of them not knowing me clearly I didn't have a side in the conflict. I wish I could have told them this, or that I didn't believe in their god, but I didn't have the words and they didn't have the patience.
Eventually I was able to communicate Trezlan's name and they apparently talked with him to become their great archivist. Me I was assigned to help construct weaponry after they say my modified sword and appreciated the craftyness. Unfortunately for me they wanted me to work on ballistic weaponry and I'd never used or made one before, and with my language handicap this was a losing proposition in so many ways. I'll get into that more in my next entry typing on this machine hurts my hands, and while Trezlan is paying me for this journal, I'm not being paid well enough to write a lot, so I'm sorry whoever he intends to read this.
After I was separated from Trezlan they quizzed me on all sorts of things. And it was confusing because as Trezlan probably wrote down already I didn't speak the language very well. I still struggle to this day to write or explain myself, but back then it was a lot worse. There were three ladies who kept asking me what sounded like the same questions, but I couldn't make out much of what they were saying. Eventually the three gave way to one who assumed I was mentally deficient. She talked slow and loud and started drawing things, I eventually sort of clued in to what she wanted, but I was still lost.
What they wanted to know was how Trezlan and I got there and which side of the conflict we supported. Why that mattered was beyond me, which is what lead to my initial confusion. It didn't make much sense for them to care where I was from and by virtue of them not knowing me clearly I didn't have a side in the conflict. I wish I could have told them this, or that I didn't believe in their god, but I didn't have the words and they didn't have the patience.
Eventually I was able to communicate Trezlan's name and they apparently talked with him to become their great archivist. Me I was assigned to help construct weaponry after they say my modified sword and appreciated the craftyness. Unfortunately for me they wanted me to work on ballistic weaponry and I'd never used or made one before, and with my language handicap this was a losing proposition in so many ways. I'll get into that more in my next entry typing on this machine hurts my hands, and while Trezlan is paying me for this journal, I'm not being paid well enough to write a lot, so I'm sorry whoever he intends to read this.
Friday, March 20, 2015
Nurznotes
What follows is my transcribed notes on the Nurzo religion, this has not been cleaned up so don't expect much of a narrative (how is this different from a normal entry? HEY HEY THAT HURTS PERSON IN MY HEAD!) I do think it helps inform you of the Nurzo religion if only a little bit. Not that you care they are all dead and this is just a historical record of crazy people but still I did my part! Anyway on to my notes!
Nurzo is apparently a god of worshiping men.
Worship though apparently means protecting them from everyone including themselves.
Which sounds awesome until you realize this basically mans keeping men in prison, which explained my initial quarters.
Under Nurzo women are the ones really in charge, as their nurturing aspects are better to Shepard the dumb men who can not help themselves from causing war or making bad sexual decisions (I assume Murzo is different, have to ask someone about that).
Sex is only for reproduction and only for men who are deemed good enough to spread.
The ones who are not are killed as a sacrifice for Nurzo (good gods I hope I'm not considered a follower, not with this bum shoulder).
The war started by the Murzo people because they felt Nurzo had too much influence and the teaching of Murzo were being ignored.
Murzo is totally getting slaughtered in this conflict, her soldiers are not anywhere near the women's cruelty and inventiveness (they have described to me traps they have laid for Murzo's followers using wounded men, they are horrible I will not write them here).
Murzo and Nurzo apparently have a parent or parents that have been lost or abandoned them, they are not mentioned in any of the texts directly.
I fear that as soon as I finish my chronicle they plan on killing me, I have found reference to other male writers of history that were similarly sacrificed.
I'm planning on leaving soon, don't know if I'll take Xanthi with me, have not seen her since I was put in this records room to write the chronicle of the coming battle.
I hope these notes won't be my last writing.
And that's it for my notes. See they totally weren't my last writing!
Nurzo is apparently a god of worshiping men.
Worship though apparently means protecting them from everyone including themselves.
Which sounds awesome until you realize this basically mans keeping men in prison, which explained my initial quarters.
Under Nurzo women are the ones really in charge, as their nurturing aspects are better to Shepard the dumb men who can not help themselves from causing war or making bad sexual decisions (I assume Murzo is different, have to ask someone about that).
Sex is only for reproduction and only for men who are deemed good enough to spread.
The ones who are not are killed as a sacrifice for Nurzo (good gods I hope I'm not considered a follower, not with this bum shoulder).
The war started by the Murzo people because they felt Nurzo had too much influence and the teaching of Murzo were being ignored.
Murzo is totally getting slaughtered in this conflict, her soldiers are not anywhere near the women's cruelty and inventiveness (they have described to me traps they have laid for Murzo's followers using wounded men, they are horrible I will not write them here).
Murzo and Nurzo apparently have a parent or parents that have been lost or abandoned them, they are not mentioned in any of the texts directly.
I fear that as soon as I finish my chronicle they plan on killing me, I have found reference to other male writers of history that were similarly sacrificed.
I'm planning on leaving soon, don't know if I'll take Xanthi with me, have not seen her since I was put in this records room to write the chronicle of the coming battle.
I hope these notes won't be my last writing.
And that's it for my notes. See they totally weren't my last writing!
Thursday, March 19, 2015
Liars of History
Writing history is hard. Writing history for crazy religious nutjobs who go on to be wiped out is kind of easy (well once they are dead obviously, when they are alive you have to put in a token effort). I mean sure there were "real" things that Nurzo stood for, and there were "real" things that Murzo stood for, but ultimately neither sides real things mattered when everyone who believed died. In fact I could make up what they really believed and you would just have to trust me on it. Its the one power being a survivor grants you, you get to write history! I believe I have remarked on this with regards to people I don't like and getting to explain how they are terrible people who assaulted children when they were the opposite (not that I would ever ever do that...) So in effort to be full of good faith I decided to write out my notes for when I was a chronicler of Nurzo. I also got Xanthi to write up her time spent with the Nurzons (that's what I'm calling them!) That will be the next couple entries after my initial notes on the history of the Nurzons. If this seems like I'm padding my journal so as to give myself a break for a few days... that is an ugly ugly thing to say!
Anyway notes in the next entry and then Xanthi's version of events of her time with the Nurzons and then finally how they all got killed in the dumbest way possible. I'm kind of making a joke out of that, but kind of not.
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
The Truth Of Nurzo
I felt like I was getting the short end of the stick after our "capture". I say that in quotes because to the people who did it they claimed they were rescuing us (well rescuing me, they had a silent nod at Xanthi like she was already on board with things). I was put in with a bunch of other males, they didn't exactly look in ill health, but none of them looked very strong and I had to think I was being put with the weak people on purpose. Also still no doctor and my shoulder was in pretty bad shape, one of the other men attempted to help me out, but he wasn't a doctor and was just trying to make do with the supplies they had.
We were locked into what looked like a gym, part of some overall school (I was told it at one point was the biggest university in the country which made me sad in so many ways I won't get into it). There were guards at the front for our "protection" but they felt like prison guards. I didn't see Xanthi at all, I assumed they had somehow killed her. I did notice just about everyone in charge was a woman (this wasn't an accident). It took about a day before someone even bothered to interrogate me, not out of any kind of plan, I just assumed they didn't care up until that point.
"Thank you for being patient Mr. Lorentino." They knew my name, which meant Xanthi had talked. Which kind of surprised me because I haven't really harped on it here because I didn't want to be a dick and play into bias against tribals, but Xanthi could barely speak the language everyone else did (I as a master of languages both alive and dead, totally! Mostly due to a lot of dead people over the years, but still!)
"Well its not like I had any choice considering your people picked up me and my companion with armed guards and then locked me in a room with other men." Civility was well past me at this point, I hated being imprisoned even if it was nebulously for my own good. More so for the "my own good" argument. On top of that because of the limits of my powers any imprisonment I suffer through anymore is more self enforced than any ability of my captors, so I'm also kind of mad at myself for following along.
"For your protection, the followers of Murzo would not be so kind to you."
"And you are the followers of?" She smiled, we were seated in an office, it looked like an administrators office of some kind. I could see pictures of people smiling in school attire, this woman was far too young to be an administrator.
"The followers of Nurzo."
"Murzo and Nurzo?" I tried to not show my amusement at the names, but they were very silly names.
"Yes the Twins of our religion, we follow the male Nurzo, those godless bastards who caused this war follow the female Murzo." I wasn't aware the twins were of separate sexes I was learning so much about a religion I don't care to really remember.
"And what do you want from me?"
"I hear you're a bit of a writer, what I need is someone to chronicle our great victory and the truth of our god."
"Oh." I admit while stuck on the isle of spiders I had managed to find a journal and scribble down notes of our journey. Xanthi must have remembered this and told our new captors and so I became the chronicler of the final day of the followers of Nurzo (oops spoilers yeah these people all got murdered). So fun times ahead dear reader!
We were locked into what looked like a gym, part of some overall school (I was told it at one point was the biggest university in the country which made me sad in so many ways I won't get into it). There were guards at the front for our "protection" but they felt like prison guards. I didn't see Xanthi at all, I assumed they had somehow killed her. I did notice just about everyone in charge was a woman (this wasn't an accident). It took about a day before someone even bothered to interrogate me, not out of any kind of plan, I just assumed they didn't care up until that point.
"Thank you for being patient Mr. Lorentino." They knew my name, which meant Xanthi had talked. Which kind of surprised me because I haven't really harped on it here because I didn't want to be a dick and play into bias against tribals, but Xanthi could barely speak the language everyone else did (I as a master of languages both alive and dead, totally! Mostly due to a lot of dead people over the years, but still!)
"Well its not like I had any choice considering your people picked up me and my companion with armed guards and then locked me in a room with other men." Civility was well past me at this point, I hated being imprisoned even if it was nebulously for my own good. More so for the "my own good" argument. On top of that because of the limits of my powers any imprisonment I suffer through anymore is more self enforced than any ability of my captors, so I'm also kind of mad at myself for following along.
"For your protection, the followers of Murzo would not be so kind to you."
"And you are the followers of?" She smiled, we were seated in an office, it looked like an administrators office of some kind. I could see pictures of people smiling in school attire, this woman was far too young to be an administrator.
"The followers of Nurzo."
"Murzo and Nurzo?" I tried to not show my amusement at the names, but they were very silly names.
"Yes the Twins of our religion, we follow the male Nurzo, those godless bastards who caused this war follow the female Murzo." I wasn't aware the twins were of separate sexes I was learning so much about a religion I don't care to really remember.
"And what do you want from me?"
"I hear you're a bit of a writer, what I need is someone to chronicle our great victory and the truth of our god."
"Oh." I admit while stuck on the isle of spiders I had managed to find a journal and scribble down notes of our journey. Xanthi must have remembered this and told our new captors and so I became the chronicler of the final day of the followers of Nurzo (oops spoilers yeah these people all got murdered). So fun times ahead dear reader!
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Out of the Frying Pan Into the Stupid War
We had left the refugees because I didn't like the way they were looking at me (I'm a pretty man, so I worry). The war was at a stand still, I mean sure we had to fight a couple smaller creatures that seemed to roam the streets hunting whatever they could find. But it wasn't anything Xanthi couldn't handle (I helped with fire and encouragement mostly fire, my shoulder was not getting better it was getting worse, with each passing day the pain was becoming almost unbearable). We had arrived during the lead up to a large offensive from both sides unknowingly (I mean its not like I had intended to arrive in a place where a war was going on in the freaking first place!) Walking the streets was probably the worst idea for us, but I didn't exactly know anyone or anywhere to go and we had to get out of town at the very least. This of course lead to what you would imagine happen when two armed people not of one side of a conflict walked down the street in open opposition to both sides...
Yes we got captured. No it wasn't my fault, Well other than my poor sense of guidance got us to this country in the first place and therefore this was all my fault. But that would be totally unfair to me to blame everything on me simply because I got lost/didn't know where to go in the first place. Then again I've been blamed for less! I mean sure most of the time I'm probably at fault, but this one totally not on me! Blame the gods its what I do!
Yes we got captured. No it wasn't my fault, Well other than my poor sense of guidance got us to this country in the first place and therefore this was all my fault. But that would be totally unfair to me to blame everything on me simply because I got lost/didn't know where to go in the first place. Then again I've been blamed for less! I mean sure most of the time I'm probably at fault, but this one totally not on me! Blame the gods its what I do!
Monday, March 16, 2015
In The Manner of Dumb Fights This Was the Dumbest
We found ourselves holed up in a shelter of sorts. It was a bombed out building that at one point had been a library (sadly the books had been used for kindling). Xanthi was using a makeshift very large sword (it was part of a building girder and had pieces of some creature we'd found dead wrapped on to it with barbed wire, I'm telling you this woman was a genius of weapon construction!). The people there were all pretty beaten down, they weren't soldiers, they were survivors curled up and waiting for death. I didn't feel safe there if only because when people live to survive only they are more dangerous than any soldier. But we needed food and better information than two sides were at war so I decided to stop. I also hoped there might be a doctor there, but no luck so my shoulder remained hurt (yes I could have killed someone to feel better, but that would totally be a bad idea in an area gods were at war in, if only because the use of death magic might bring one of them down on my damned head).
"You two look out of sorts, even for here." Old guy scraggly beard serving what I assumed was stew out of a cast iron pan that had seen better days. There were small children eating first, most of the men looked like food was a distant memory, I didn't dare ask for any.
"We just came in on a ship. Trezlan Lorentino, and Xanthi Ramos." Xanthi gave me a funny look but I explained to her that in civilized areas everyone has two names, so this would be the second time I'd whole sale created a last name for someone.
"Ship? I hadn't heard a steam horn." Xanthi wanted to explain our spider corpse transport, but I shushed her, better not to let them know too much about us.
"Small sailing vessel, it sank shortly after getting here." The old guy sighed when I told him it sank, most of these survivors just wanted to find a way out, I couldn't blame them, things were getting pretty bad.
"Well you're in a world of shit my friend."
"What is this whole thing about? I get religious conflict, but what is the problem, different interpretations?" This is what I hate about religions, sure there are gods and someone should worship them (though again if no one does they die so maybe people shouldn't worship them).
"You're not from around here, so you don't know anything about the twins, so I'll be brief, this area worships twin gods, recently there was a split on which one should be worshipped, that lead to the gods and the religions going to war with each other."
"What are they gods of?"
"Everything." I snorted, no one was a god of everything, I had to assume they were the gods of delusion.
"So why did they break up?"
"Because one of them had to be the head god." I could feel my mind rebelling against the stupidity of this already.
"So two religions sprung up because each one chose the wrong god to put in charge?"
"Yes."
"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard." He sighed and Xanthi shrugged at me, but seriously tell me I'm not wrong how is that not the dumbest thing you've heard today? HOW IS THAT NOT THE DUMBEST THING TO FIGHT OVER? WHO IS IN CHARGE!? SERIOUSLY!? I did have to almost laugh that in their effort to prove who was in charge they had basically wiped out a large amount of their followers proving definitively. NEITHER ONE WAS IN CHARGE OF SHIT!!! You'll have to excuse me, remembering this brings back my outrage.
"You two look out of sorts, even for here." Old guy scraggly beard serving what I assumed was stew out of a cast iron pan that had seen better days. There were small children eating first, most of the men looked like food was a distant memory, I didn't dare ask for any.
"We just came in on a ship. Trezlan Lorentino, and Xanthi Ramos." Xanthi gave me a funny look but I explained to her that in civilized areas everyone has two names, so this would be the second time I'd whole sale created a last name for someone.
"Ship? I hadn't heard a steam horn." Xanthi wanted to explain our spider corpse transport, but I shushed her, better not to let them know too much about us.
"Small sailing vessel, it sank shortly after getting here." The old guy sighed when I told him it sank, most of these survivors just wanted to find a way out, I couldn't blame them, things were getting pretty bad.
"Well you're in a world of shit my friend."
"What is this whole thing about? I get religious conflict, but what is the problem, different interpretations?" This is what I hate about religions, sure there are gods and someone should worship them (though again if no one does they die so maybe people shouldn't worship them).
"You're not from around here, so you don't know anything about the twins, so I'll be brief, this area worships twin gods, recently there was a split on which one should be worshipped, that lead to the gods and the religions going to war with each other."
"What are they gods of?"
"Everything." I snorted, no one was a god of everything, I had to assume they were the gods of delusion.
"So why did they break up?"
"Because one of them had to be the head god." I could feel my mind rebelling against the stupidity of this already.
"So two religions sprung up because each one chose the wrong god to put in charge?"
"Yes."
"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard." He sighed and Xanthi shrugged at me, but seriously tell me I'm not wrong how is that not the dumbest thing you've heard today? HOW IS THAT NOT THE DUMBEST THING TO FIGHT OVER? WHO IS IN CHARGE!? SERIOUSLY!? I did have to almost laugh that in their effort to prove who was in charge they had basically wiped out a large amount of their followers proving definitively. NEITHER ONE WAS IN CHARGE OF SHIT!!! You'll have to excuse me, remembering this brings back my outrage.
Friday, March 13, 2015
Seriously Guys I Can't Be This Important
I realize I think I'm important. I mean clearly I write a journal detailing my amazingness, so I'm on the "Trezlan is super important" bandwagon, I'm its principal member. But I swear to gods when I'm not around the world just falls apart without me! We didn't manage to get back to my continent of choice personally, I believe we landed in the land of the west, I couldn't exactly tell from all the burning and carnage though! What Xanthi and I were able to piece together from the scattered dead, news papers, and the occasional person hiding in a burned out building was pretty bad. Apparently there were two major religions in the area that were vying for control of the country, some inciting incident caused them to go to war with each other, but unlike every other conflict ever, this time the gods themselves intervened on their respective sides.
Now I've heard of leaders of nations being referred to as gods, and to an extent they kind of are. But when real gods go to war things go pretty nasty pretty fast. Like they conjure creatures to war against factions, they use magic that can rip people and land apart, and generally they make everything horrible. I wasn't also surprised to see a lot of Morley's fire arms on the battlefield. I just freaking knew he was behind this somehow (either by turning the ear of religious zealots or crazily enough the gods themselves). Some way shape or form this was all Morley's fault, this I just knew.
What this meant for Xanthi and myself is that we had to try and fit in during a huge conflict between sides we didn't know going to war over shit we had no idea was even a thing. Also known as my favorite kind of conflict ever! Just kidding it was terrible.
Now I've heard of leaders of nations being referred to as gods, and to an extent they kind of are. But when real gods go to war things go pretty nasty pretty fast. Like they conjure creatures to war against factions, they use magic that can rip people and land apart, and generally they make everything horrible. I wasn't also surprised to see a lot of Morley's fire arms on the battlefield. I just freaking knew he was behind this somehow (either by turning the ear of religious zealots or crazily enough the gods themselves). Some way shape or form this was all Morley's fault, this I just knew.
What this meant for Xanthi and myself is that we had to try and fit in during a huge conflict between sides we didn't know going to war over shit we had no idea was even a thing. Also known as my favorite kind of conflict ever! Just kidding it was terrible.
Thursday, March 12, 2015
The Good Ship Spider Queen
There was a change in the air at first. One minute I was bitching about how I hated pulling nails out of boards I'd already nailed, and then the next I felt a palpable sense of dread. I noticed Xanthi had set up some weapons near her make shift barricades and was more on edge than normal (even when she was relaxed she was at the ready, it seemed constant vigilance was the price she had paid for survival). I took up my sword though again my arm was still hurt (time was not healing the wound I needed actual medical or necromantic care). I figured the spiders would have clued in to us being down on the docks (my previous worry about the super evolved spiders coming for us was not exactly right, but not exactly wrong).
They hung back at first, just outside the range of Xanthi, who fired a couple arrows loaded with a flammable explosive to dry and scare them out. It worked and the large bastards attacked from all angles. At least we had the water behind us so they couldn't come from there (not at first anyway...) Xanthi used the bow to kill as many as she could and then she switched over to a large blade hacking away. I used my fire as best I could burning the ugly things as they got close to my make shift ship yard. I lost track of the Xanthi as she moved through the crowd of attacking spiders. I was kind of concerned that I could see multiple types because that meant they had put aside their differences to attack us, or the queen had survived. Yeah the Queen had survived. She emerged from the water (who knew spiders can swim? I did not someone should have told me this!)
"BETRAYER!" The words vibrated in my mind as the monster emerged from the water. She was burned, and a couple of her legs had been gnawed off, but she was still very much alive.
"Yeah that's me, I'm a betrayer, I'm a murderer, I've killed everything that walked on this world, and some things that never have, and today I'm making sure its your last day!" Is what I would have said if a flaming Xanthi (seriously she somehow got a sword on fire I can't even explain what I don't can even explain) hadn't leapt at the queen and buried that huge blade right between its ugly huge eyes. The queen didn't even get off a burst of anger or anything, Xanthi just buried the sword into its head and the blade went all the way back into its brain and then it toppled into the water and floated there. And kept floating... Which gave me an idea...
So yes I managed to make a boat out of the corpse of a huge spider queen. It wasn't so much a boat as a floating rotting corpse that managed to get us back to civilization, but it worked gods damn it! Unfortunately when we got to society shit had gone from bad (ok it wasn't bad it was just boring so you know bad for me) to horrible as apparently in my absence gods had gone to war. Well at least the gods of the place we found ourselves landed at... Yeah next entry usual.
They hung back at first, just outside the range of Xanthi, who fired a couple arrows loaded with a flammable explosive to dry and scare them out. It worked and the large bastards attacked from all angles. At least we had the water behind us so they couldn't come from there (not at first anyway...) Xanthi used the bow to kill as many as she could and then she switched over to a large blade hacking away. I used my fire as best I could burning the ugly things as they got close to my make shift ship yard. I lost track of the Xanthi as she moved through the crowd of attacking spiders. I was kind of concerned that I could see multiple types because that meant they had put aside their differences to attack us, or the queen had survived. Yeah the Queen had survived. She emerged from the water (who knew spiders can swim? I did not someone should have told me this!)
"BETRAYER!" The words vibrated in my mind as the monster emerged from the water. She was burned, and a couple of her legs had been gnawed off, but she was still very much alive.
"Yeah that's me, I'm a betrayer, I'm a murderer, I've killed everything that walked on this world, and some things that never have, and today I'm making sure its your last day!" Is what I would have said if a flaming Xanthi (seriously she somehow got a sword on fire I can't even explain what I don't can even explain) hadn't leapt at the queen and buried that huge blade right between its ugly huge eyes. The queen didn't even get off a burst of anger or anything, Xanthi just buried the sword into its head and the blade went all the way back into its brain and then it toppled into the water and floated there. And kept floating... Which gave me an idea...
So yes I managed to make a boat out of the corpse of a huge spider queen. It wasn't so much a boat as a floating rotting corpse that managed to get us back to civilization, but it worked gods damn it! Unfortunately when we got to society shit had gone from bad (ok it wasn't bad it was just boring so you know bad for me) to horrible as apparently in my absence gods had gone to war. Well at least the gods of the place we found ourselves landed at... Yeah next entry usual.
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Might Not Be The Best Boat Maker
"How many is that now 3 or 4?" I had failed spectacularly at constructing a raft (I'd downgraded from boat to just raft at this point, something with wood and floating was apparently beyond me). Xanthi was surprisingly understanding at my failure to make a boat float, a lot more than I would be were I in her position (I can admit this because it makes me a bigger person...)
"I swear to gods idiots can create boats, I'm not an idiot." It had been several days of being on the docks, the spiders had not attacked, to the extent I almost forgot this was an island full of giant spiders.
"Well give it a rest, I'll swim down and get the wood and you can try again." Xanthi was very much a trooper, my shoulder was healing, but not enough to be able to reliably retrieve my failures. In a way I think because it became a routine she just got used to it. I'd have felt bad about it, but that would require me to be more self aware than I ever am. I believed all these failures were helping me build boats, but I swear that each one seemed to last less time and I wasn't learning anything other than I would probably die on the island. I did know that I probably needed something to secure the wood and bind it, but we didn't seem to have any of whatever I needed there. And something for a sail, but you know getting the raft to float would be a big damned step up. Xanthi had just finished retrieving my latest failure when I just had to ask her a question.
"So you can make a variety of weapons from basically nothing, but you don't know how to build a boat?" It seemed funny, she could create tools of destruction but nothing that could save her from dying on the island.
"My father was the smith of the village, if you think I'm good you should have seen him, I was just coming of age when the rich men created these creatures and loosed them on us, he never did get around teaching me how to build things that don't kill." I was sorry I asked, but at the same time I swore if I got her off the island I'd have to put her to work making weapons for people, because man that is a skill you can make a lot of money off of! What? I'm a merchant at heart, somewhere deep within myself that in a part that I forget I have.
"All the same I wish he was a boatsmaker and you killed things with well crafted canoes." She laughed and it was nice to hear in this horrible place worried about getting eaten by frenzied spiders. Thankfully we would get free of the island, shit tastically it would come only after we were attacked one final time. Because that is my life and that is how things go.
"I swear to gods idiots can create boats, I'm not an idiot." It had been several days of being on the docks, the spiders had not attacked, to the extent I almost forgot this was an island full of giant spiders.
"Well give it a rest, I'll swim down and get the wood and you can try again." Xanthi was very much a trooper, my shoulder was healing, but not enough to be able to reliably retrieve my failures. In a way I think because it became a routine she just got used to it. I'd have felt bad about it, but that would require me to be more self aware than I ever am. I believed all these failures were helping me build boats, but I swear that each one seemed to last less time and I wasn't learning anything other than I would probably die on the island. I did know that I probably needed something to secure the wood and bind it, but we didn't seem to have any of whatever I needed there. And something for a sail, but you know getting the raft to float would be a big damned step up. Xanthi had just finished retrieving my latest failure when I just had to ask her a question.
"So you can make a variety of weapons from basically nothing, but you don't know how to build a boat?" It seemed funny, she could create tools of destruction but nothing that could save her from dying on the island.
"My father was the smith of the village, if you think I'm good you should have seen him, I was just coming of age when the rich men created these creatures and loosed them on us, he never did get around teaching me how to build things that don't kill." I was sorry I asked, but at the same time I swore if I got her off the island I'd have to put her to work making weapons for people, because man that is a skill you can make a lot of money off of! What? I'm a merchant at heart, somewhere deep within myself that in a part that I forget I have.
"All the same I wish he was a boatsmaker and you killed things with well crafted canoes." She laughed and it was nice to hear in this horrible place worried about getting eaten by frenzied spiders. Thankfully we would get free of the island, shit tastically it would come only after we were attacked one final time. Because that is my life and that is how things go.
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Good News, Bad News, The only Kind I ever Get
The noise had died down, probably with the death of a lot of spiders. I feared of course this just left the ultimate spiders who could survive anything around, but Xanthi assured me this just meant the remaining ones were either dead or dying and my idea of an ultimate survivor spider was born of insanity (shows what she knows... in that she was correct). Still we packed most of her weapons with us, even with my hurt shoulder I managed to do my part and bring the lighter but deadlier looking weapons. We made our way to the docks because I hoped the boat was still there, or at the very least some kind of ship was there.
The boat unfortunately was and wasn't there. It was at the docks, it had also been mostly burned/sunk. I could tell from just looking at it most likely what had happened was the spiders had attacked, the crew in a panic attempted to kill them with fire/leave port, and managed to burn the ship and then crash and sink it before they perished. I did see enough left of the docks to probably make an adequate raft out of and thankfully the damned spiders were no where to be found at least when we got there, the problem of course would be managing the cruel seas with little to no knowledge of which way to even sail to hope to get to the mainland, any mainland. There was also that minor oh so minor issue of me not exactly knowing how to build a boat. I mean sure rummaging around in my head there was some kind of knowledge of crafting ship, but like most skills I've had that was long forgotten I wasn't sure I could actually build a boat (its why I hoped the ship would still be there).
"You can build a boat Mr. Lorentino?" I can't recall when I told Xanthi my name, but for some reason she always referred to me as Mr. It was sweet but maddening since it implied some kind of authority figure and I hate to consider myself an authority on anything.
"I can." I was going to say try but then I remembered all the weapons Xanthi had, and the fact that not all the spiders would be dead and so getting off the island should be a priority of mine. And so I got to making a boat out of parts from the dock and the crashed ship. And it was a fantastic ship that didn't sink shortly after I attempted to launch it... That's called foreshadowing folks!
The boat unfortunately was and wasn't there. It was at the docks, it had also been mostly burned/sunk. I could tell from just looking at it most likely what had happened was the spiders had attacked, the crew in a panic attempted to kill them with fire/leave port, and managed to burn the ship and then crash and sink it before they perished. I did see enough left of the docks to probably make an adequate raft out of and thankfully the damned spiders were no where to be found at least when we got there, the problem of course would be managing the cruel seas with little to no knowledge of which way to even sail to hope to get to the mainland, any mainland. There was also that minor oh so minor issue of me not exactly knowing how to build a boat. I mean sure rummaging around in my head there was some kind of knowledge of crafting ship, but like most skills I've had that was long forgotten I wasn't sure I could actually build a boat (its why I hoped the ship would still be there).
"You can build a boat Mr. Lorentino?" I can't recall when I told Xanthi my name, but for some reason she always referred to me as Mr. It was sweet but maddening since it implied some kind of authority figure and I hate to consider myself an authority on anything.
"I can." I was going to say try but then I remembered all the weapons Xanthi had, and the fact that not all the spiders would be dead and so getting off the island should be a priority of mine. And so I got to making a boat out of parts from the dock and the crashed ship. And it was a fantastic ship that didn't sink shortly after I attempted to launch it... That's called foreshadowing folks!
Monday, March 9, 2015
A Bone To Pick With Spiders
Xanthi had some kind of bone weapon it was covered in spider guts and some extra fangs had been makeshift attached with webbing. I will say this for Xanthi she was a miracle worker of making weapons to kill things, like I'm sure if I left her with a box and stuffed animal she could turn that into something really special for murder. I was surprised she had come down to the cave where I was, I figured maybe she was making sure the queen was dead, but maybe she had a personal connection to me and just couldn't leave if she knew I was in trouble (in reality she got lost, so uhh hooray for a poor sense of direction). My shoulder was sore, and I used up most of my magical ability, but I did have my sword (the spiders had trapped it against my body and hadn't worried about me using it when I was their prisoner even free from webs) but with the injury to my shoulder swinging it with any kind of force would have hurt so much, so I was effectively useless (I'm a big man I can admit when someone else does the majority of the work for me).
We were helped by the spiders going to war with each other. Apparently the queen's mind powers let the different types of spider work with each other, but once she died they reverted to their previous animalistic tendencies. It was actually how Xanthi was able to get away. Two spiders came to eat her, they started going after each other and then a larger spider attacked the both of them. This was going on all over the island, whatever that queen was I don't think she was a normal spider, even of the freakish giant variety. Though that didn't make it easy, by the time we got out of the caves (three wrong turns, two almost disastrously so one into a spawning nest that had turned into a cannablistic orgy of spiders eating spiders), Xanthi's bone hammer was almost entirely broken off and there were still gods damned spiders to kill.
We survived, we did not thrive, we eventually limped back to Xanthi's cave, which we took time to fully look over and clear and fortify behind the camoflage she had used before. I also stood watch with what little power I had remaining while Xanthi slept. I thought it silly me the wounded useless person on watch, but it was the least I could offer considering she saved my life after I sort of saved her life. The night was scary, not because I had to fight off spiders, but because I had to hear the damn things fighting. The screeches and other noises continued on well into the morning and by the time the sun came up and Xanthi tapped me on the shoulder I was almost exhausted from being afraid of noise.
I did get a nice nap before we set off for the boat and found out what happened there (hint more gods damned treachery), but you know at least I had some rest and more magical ability without worry of corruption. So that was nice.
We were helped by the spiders going to war with each other. Apparently the queen's mind powers let the different types of spider work with each other, but once she died they reverted to their previous animalistic tendencies. It was actually how Xanthi was able to get away. Two spiders came to eat her, they started going after each other and then a larger spider attacked the both of them. This was going on all over the island, whatever that queen was I don't think she was a normal spider, even of the freakish giant variety. Though that didn't make it easy, by the time we got out of the caves (three wrong turns, two almost disastrously so one into a spawning nest that had turned into a cannablistic orgy of spiders eating spiders), Xanthi's bone hammer was almost entirely broken off and there were still gods damned spiders to kill.
We survived, we did not thrive, we eventually limped back to Xanthi's cave, which we took time to fully look over and clear and fortify behind the camoflage she had used before. I also stood watch with what little power I had remaining while Xanthi slept. I thought it silly me the wounded useless person on watch, but it was the least I could offer considering she saved my life after I sort of saved her life. The night was scary, not because I had to fight off spiders, but because I had to hear the damn things fighting. The screeches and other noises continued on well into the morning and by the time the sun came up and Xanthi tapped me on the shoulder I was almost exhausted from being afraid of noise.
I did get a nice nap before we set off for the boat and found out what happened there (hint more gods damned treachery), but you know at least I had some rest and more magical ability without worry of corruption. So that was nice.
Friday, March 6, 2015
The Chill of Victory
Betrayer, it was a word that was blasted into my mind over and over during the short but achingly long decent to the bottom of the cavern. It was the queens last thought pounding my head like a jack hammer. Thankfully I didn't have to worry about her mind powers after we smashed into the water, the immediate effect of it A. Being super hard to hit from the distance we fell (almost like hitting the ground) and B. Cold as all get out. Chased away the spiders dying thoughts as I was struggling to swim and find a way to dry land. Also avoiding the death throes of the queen and her entourage, you know a normal day for me.
The water was amazingly cold though, like after the initial shock of slamming into it, I was freezing. And of course my swimming leaves a lot to be desired on a good day, but I kind of came down hard on my left shoulder so it felt out of socket. So I had swim to shore using my right arm alone, which sucked. I did make it to shore and thankfully there was another cave that lead away from the bottom (because if it was just a pit with water well I'd have been really screwed). I one arm clawed my way to shore and took a minute to catch my breath and survey the damage. None of the spiders looked to have survived the fall/water/burning queen. I didn't see Dumer either, but I couldn't recall if he was with me on the web or not. I could hear up ahead a commotion which I figured was spiders coming to eat me (I mean I did just kill their queen, they had a right sort of, look that queen was a jerk with her mind talking and sass, I did what any necromantic pyromancing bad ass would do!). I almost wondered if necromancy could work on spiders when a figure emerged from the mouth of the cave and much to my relief it was Xanthi.
"How?" That was what I was thinking but she apparently was equally as surprised to see me.
"Later, lets get out of here." And so a wounded necromancer and a spider hunter made their way out of a spider lair. One water logged, the other draped in the entrails of her enemies. Tomorrow I'll get more into that, I have an appointment this morning with a guy to see about a tooth ache I have, apparently I need to brush my teeth or something? I dunno I'm new to modern medical practices!
The water was amazingly cold though, like after the initial shock of slamming into it, I was freezing. And of course my swimming leaves a lot to be desired on a good day, but I kind of came down hard on my left shoulder so it felt out of socket. So I had swim to shore using my right arm alone, which sucked. I did make it to shore and thankfully there was another cave that lead away from the bottom (because if it was just a pit with water well I'd have been really screwed). I one arm clawed my way to shore and took a minute to catch my breath and survey the damage. None of the spiders looked to have survived the fall/water/burning queen. I didn't see Dumer either, but I couldn't recall if he was with me on the web or not. I could hear up ahead a commotion which I figured was spiders coming to eat me (I mean I did just kill their queen, they had a right sort of, look that queen was a jerk with her mind talking and sass, I did what any necromantic pyromancing bad ass would do!). I almost wondered if necromancy could work on spiders when a figure emerged from the mouth of the cave and much to my relief it was Xanthi.
"How?" That was what I was thinking but she apparently was equally as surprised to see me.
"Later, lets get out of here." And so a wounded necromancer and a spider hunter made their way out of a spider lair. One water logged, the other draped in the entrails of her enemies. Tomorrow I'll get more into that, I have an appointment this morning with a guy to see about a tooth ache I have, apparently I need to brush my teeth or something? I dunno I'm new to modern medical practices!
Thursday, March 5, 2015
So What's It Like To Betray Your Species?
"Aren't you guys free on this island?" I could almost hear the sigh in the spiders response, it could have been an actual sigh by the spider who was gigantic.
"This island is limited, eventually we'll run out of food, we need somewhere else with a bigger supply." It made sense though I didn't like the way the queen said "food" there was an implication for people. I mean sure they could and probably did eat animals, but once you've developed a taste for man I'm sure it's hard to give up that delicious human (not that I've ever eaten a person, that I'm aware of!)
"And you think I can set you free?" They had the boat, I don't know what they expected me to do, I mean I couldn't exactly burn the water away, well maybe I haven't tried to boil the ocean away, the logistics of that are surely mind boggling.
"The one who serves said you could arrange it." The one who serves, the one who burns, the one who cuts, good lord spiders need to figure out people have names! I was about to wonder who was the "one who serves" when he came strolling on up with a big grin on his face. It was Dumer, I should have known that weasely servant who I briefly met serving a fat man would have turned on humanity (not that I haven't turned on humanity, but you know not to giant freaking spiders Dumer! COME ON!)
"Hello Trezlan I see you have met our new allies." He spoke it, which was nice because all this mind talking was hurting my head. The queen withdrew up higher as if to let us speak in her huge cavern.
"Dumer why? Why in the gods name would you turn on us to the freaking spiders?"
"Why wouldn't I Trezlan? I'd rather serve them than asshole rich people!"
"The spiders freaking eat people Dumer."
"So do the rich, they just do a lot less chewing and you live longer." I wanted to kill Dumer, but there were spiders nearby and I figured if I killed him they'd kill me. I was completely mystified how he expected me to get the spiders off the island, or anything really. I looked around the cavern and walked out to the middle, up above was the queen her army of spiders still clinging to her body. I shivered at the thought of her eating me or any of them eating me.
"Dumer you're right I did find a way out for the spiders." I looked down below me and hoped it was actually water down there.
"Oh?"
"Yeah, but its a long way down." I gathered up my fire and launched it up above at the queen, I heard her scream in my brain as she burned and came crashing down below on the web which of course broke and sent us all crashing into the dark down below. I was laughing because holy shit my life sucks that plunging towards what I hoped was deep water with a burning giant spider and her retinue of little spiders just is so much how awful my life is.
"This island is limited, eventually we'll run out of food, we need somewhere else with a bigger supply." It made sense though I didn't like the way the queen said "food" there was an implication for people. I mean sure they could and probably did eat animals, but once you've developed a taste for man I'm sure it's hard to give up that delicious human (not that I've ever eaten a person, that I'm aware of!)
"And you think I can set you free?" They had the boat, I don't know what they expected me to do, I mean I couldn't exactly burn the water away, well maybe I haven't tried to boil the ocean away, the logistics of that are surely mind boggling.
"The one who serves said you could arrange it." The one who serves, the one who burns, the one who cuts, good lord spiders need to figure out people have names! I was about to wonder who was the "one who serves" when he came strolling on up with a big grin on his face. It was Dumer, I should have known that weasely servant who I briefly met serving a fat man would have turned on humanity (not that I haven't turned on humanity, but you know not to giant freaking spiders Dumer! COME ON!)
"Hello Trezlan I see you have met our new allies." He spoke it, which was nice because all this mind talking was hurting my head. The queen withdrew up higher as if to let us speak in her huge cavern.
"Dumer why? Why in the gods name would you turn on us to the freaking spiders?"
"Why wouldn't I Trezlan? I'd rather serve them than asshole rich people!"
"The spiders freaking eat people Dumer."
"So do the rich, they just do a lot less chewing and you live longer." I wanted to kill Dumer, but there were spiders nearby and I figured if I killed him they'd kill me. I was completely mystified how he expected me to get the spiders off the island, or anything really. I looked around the cavern and walked out to the middle, up above was the queen her army of spiders still clinging to her body. I shivered at the thought of her eating me or any of them eating me.
"Dumer you're right I did find a way out for the spiders." I looked down below me and hoped it was actually water down there.
"Oh?"
"Yeah, but its a long way down." I gathered up my fire and launched it up above at the queen, I heard her scream in my brain as she burned and came crashing down below on the web which of course broke and sent us all crashing into the dark down below. I was laughing because holy shit my life sucks that plunging towards what I hoped was deep water with a burning giant spider and her retinue of little spiders just is so much how awful my life is.
Wednesday, March 4, 2015
Spiders Have Leaders? Spiders Have Leaders
Now I'll be the first person to admit I know little of spiders or spider society, but I was pretty sure they don't ordinarily coordinate. Nor do they live with each other and share food. Generally spiders keep to themselves in my opinion of the beasts, so that the giant spiders seemed to coordinate and feed collectively was pretty awful. I mean I should have clued into that earlier, but it took being inside their nest for me to figure out that something was horrifically wrong with these spider creatures. I'm totally on the ball with things!
The nest had several spiders doing all kinds of jobs, there were cleaner spiders, there were spiders who put up more webs on the victims, there was even a spider I swear to gods that served other spiders! Actual servant spiders if I had not seen it I would not have believed it. All said the hive was extremely active, which made trying to free myself from the incredibly resilient webbing a trying idea (putting it mildly it was like gods damned steel, trying to get free seemingly made it crush me more). I could have burned the crap out of the spiders, but having seen the ecology of the hive I'd go corrupt long before they ran out of spiders to burn. I figured we were screwed, and when a spider came by to what I assume was eat me I got ready to go full crazy (as opposed to the crazy that brought me to an island filled with giant spiders, look relatively full crazy) when it talked to me! It didn't actually open a mouth and speak, but it did speak to my mind.
"I am not here to eat you one who burns, I'm here to bring you to our leader." I looked over at Xanthi who did not hear the thoughts or did not register them. I tried my best to talk back to it by my mind.
"What of my companion?"
"The one who cuts? She will be safe for now, but others want her dead it will not be easy to convince them she should not be, not as she wears part of them as a trophy." The spider used some kind of fluid on my webs and I was released. Xanthi looked on in fear as I followed the spider instead of trying to kill it.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" I heard her cry as I was lead deep underground into a lair that will be in my nightmares forever. It was a large web held over a very deep hole with what I believed was water underneath, but couldn't be sure. Sitting at the center of the web was a massive spider, she was almost as big as the room with several lesser spiders crawling all over her to and fro.
"The one who burns." Her voice echoed in my mind, it almost seemed like the spider queen wanted to be heard loud to account for her status.
"I'm still not comfortable with spiders who can talk." Have I mentioned talking with your mind is extremely difficult? Because it totally is. Its also weird to think and talk, but I could be here for days.
"I'm not comfortable with men who can burn with no tools." A fair assessment of me if a little basic.
"What do you want?"
"Freedom." And here is where I may or may not have made a deal with giant spiders... Ok I totally didn't make a deal... Maybe.
The nest had several spiders doing all kinds of jobs, there were cleaner spiders, there were spiders who put up more webs on the victims, there was even a spider I swear to gods that served other spiders! Actual servant spiders if I had not seen it I would not have believed it. All said the hive was extremely active, which made trying to free myself from the incredibly resilient webbing a trying idea (putting it mildly it was like gods damned steel, trying to get free seemingly made it crush me more). I could have burned the crap out of the spiders, but having seen the ecology of the hive I'd go corrupt long before they ran out of spiders to burn. I figured we were screwed, and when a spider came by to what I assume was eat me I got ready to go full crazy (as opposed to the crazy that brought me to an island filled with giant spiders, look relatively full crazy) when it talked to me! It didn't actually open a mouth and speak, but it did speak to my mind.
"I am not here to eat you one who burns, I'm here to bring you to our leader." I looked over at Xanthi who did not hear the thoughts or did not register them. I tried my best to talk back to it by my mind.
"What of my companion?"
"The one who cuts? She will be safe for now, but others want her dead it will not be easy to convince them she should not be, not as she wears part of them as a trophy." The spider used some kind of fluid on my webs and I was released. Xanthi looked on in fear as I followed the spider instead of trying to kill it.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" I heard her cry as I was lead deep underground into a lair that will be in my nightmares forever. It was a large web held over a very deep hole with what I believed was water underneath, but couldn't be sure. Sitting at the center of the web was a massive spider, she was almost as big as the room with several lesser spiders crawling all over her to and fro.
"The one who burns." Her voice echoed in my mind, it almost seemed like the spider queen wanted to be heard loud to account for her status.
"I'm still not comfortable with spiders who can talk." Have I mentioned talking with your mind is extremely difficult? Because it totally is. Its also weird to think and talk, but I could be here for days.
"I'm not comfortable with men who can burn with no tools." A fair assessment of me if a little basic.
"What do you want?"
"Freedom." And here is where I may or may not have made a deal with giant spiders... Ok I totally didn't make a deal... Maybe.
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
Oh Good I thought We Were Screwed
I looked over Xanthi's weapon racks, she had a large assortment of ranged and melee weaponry mostly cobbled together from bone and local resources. She replaced her halberd and took out a bow with some poison tipped arrows. I had to wonder what her end game was here, like was she planning on wiping out the spiders, attempting to flee, or just hunting until she died? She seemed to just want to hunt until she died, which would make sense given survivors guilt and all that kind of stuff. Still I didn't want to hunt until I died, this was supposed to be a vacation not a suicide pact with some weird tribal lady!
"I have a boat, I've been building it in secret." She said this while she was looking over her stuff gathering a supply of some kind of green fluid.
"So you don't plan on dying here?"
"Not if I can help it, you can't beat the spiders, they'll win out in the end, so its best to get off this damned island, the problem as far as I can ever remember is that there is no other island close by and I'll be honest I never left the island in my entire life, I know nothing of your society."
"Well I can help you with society! And a boat, I've been on several!" I left off that I've been crashed on several boats and built very few of them, but you know when you need off an island you leave off the less important details. Xanthi might have asked those questions if one of the spiders hadn't burst into the cave. Well it wasn't the full spider, it was some kind of lined webbing that was a tranquilizer and webbing at once. Before I could even attack I was being drug out of the cave partially out of my mind on the venom. Xanthi was in the same state, though I could see she had her bow trapped against her body before I passed out. When I woke up I was in a new cave strung up against a wall with other desiccated corpses near by. Across from me was Xanthi, she was still alive and coming out of the venom herself which was encouraging a little bit.
"We're still alive that's a good sign." I was talking if only to make myself feel better.
"They want us alive so that they can drain of us life over several weeks, by the time we're dead we'll wish we were dead days earlier."
"Oh well that's pleasant." It was not in fact pleasant.I tell you I hate caves almost as much as I hate giant blood sucking spiders!
"I have a boat, I've been building it in secret." She said this while she was looking over her stuff gathering a supply of some kind of green fluid.
"So you don't plan on dying here?"
"Not if I can help it, you can't beat the spiders, they'll win out in the end, so its best to get off this damned island, the problem as far as I can ever remember is that there is no other island close by and I'll be honest I never left the island in my entire life, I know nothing of your society."
"Well I can help you with society! And a boat, I've been on several!" I left off that I've been crashed on several boats and built very few of them, but you know when you need off an island you leave off the less important details. Xanthi might have asked those questions if one of the spiders hadn't burst into the cave. Well it wasn't the full spider, it was some kind of lined webbing that was a tranquilizer and webbing at once. Before I could even attack I was being drug out of the cave partially out of my mind on the venom. Xanthi was in the same state, though I could see she had her bow trapped against her body before I passed out. When I woke up I was in a new cave strung up against a wall with other desiccated corpses near by. Across from me was Xanthi, she was still alive and coming out of the venom herself which was encouraging a little bit.
"We're still alive that's a good sign." I was talking if only to make myself feel better.
"They want us alive so that they can drain of us life over several weeks, by the time we're dead we'll wish we were dead days earlier."
"Oh well that's pleasant." It was not in fact pleasant.I tell you I hate caves almost as much as I hate giant blood sucking spiders!
Monday, March 2, 2015
Monsterous Instruction
"Well so that's that we get to the boat and get out of here." My hunting companion was sharpening her blade and seemingly taking a trophy from one of the spiders (its stinger, she would later attach it to the weapon as a way of turning its poison against her enemies smart that one). She laughed at my suggestion of just leaving.
"Right like the ship is still there/crewed, you do realize the spiders would have hit it immediately after arrival right? You guys stepped off they would have gone after it." This did put a damper on my mood, I swear people never let me have my moments!
"Well I can't keep up the fire thing, so I hope you have a place to crash." She did thankfully we moved there from the resort to a cave covered up by various strategic fauna. The cave was well stocked with various forms of weaponry but light on creature comforts, it looked like she'd been living there a while, making me wonder exactly how long the spiders had been in charge.
"You can sleep here, though if you continue to be an idiot I will kill you."
"Noted." The "bed" was at best some fir on the floor, but I hadn't rested in a while so it looked like a luxurious four post bed to me! I did let the "be stupid again and I'll kill you" slide if only because I totally saved us from the spiders. I didn't sleep well, but I did sleep well enough to at least get a bit of rest in. When I awoke I noticed my companion had also gone to sleep, she almost looked peaceful. I did hear a screech and gun fire that told me not all the hunters had gotten killed yet. When I turned from the sound of the noise outside the cave, my companion herself had also woken up.
"Should we do something?"
"Like get eaten? No." It seemed callous, but also the right decision, the spiders owned the island and whoever they had come across deserved to die for creating the bastards in the first place.
"Who are you anyway?"
"Xanthi, I used to live here before these idiots took over, Very quickly I learned it was either kill or be killed and so I have killed." Seemed simple enough.
"Were there other tribals living here."
"There were, there aren't anymore." I nodded, the well off don't normally care about who they hurt when they want something, and this group of hunters cared less than most. There were more gunshots in the jungle and this time I felt less sympathy.
"We're going to die here aren't we."
"Probably." I could tell Xanthi was an optimist already.
"Right like the ship is still there/crewed, you do realize the spiders would have hit it immediately after arrival right? You guys stepped off they would have gone after it." This did put a damper on my mood, I swear people never let me have my moments!
"Well I can't keep up the fire thing, so I hope you have a place to crash." She did thankfully we moved there from the resort to a cave covered up by various strategic fauna. The cave was well stocked with various forms of weaponry but light on creature comforts, it looked like she'd been living there a while, making me wonder exactly how long the spiders had been in charge.
"You can sleep here, though if you continue to be an idiot I will kill you."
"Noted." The "bed" was at best some fir on the floor, but I hadn't rested in a while so it looked like a luxurious four post bed to me! I did let the "be stupid again and I'll kill you" slide if only because I totally saved us from the spiders. I didn't sleep well, but I did sleep well enough to at least get a bit of rest in. When I awoke I noticed my companion had also gone to sleep, she almost looked peaceful. I did hear a screech and gun fire that told me not all the hunters had gotten killed yet. When I turned from the sound of the noise outside the cave, my companion herself had also woken up.
"Should we do something?"
"Like get eaten? No." It seemed callous, but also the right decision, the spiders owned the island and whoever they had come across deserved to die for creating the bastards in the first place.
"Who are you anyway?"
"Xanthi, I used to live here before these idiots took over, Very quickly I learned it was either kill or be killed and so I have killed." Seemed simple enough.
"Were there other tribals living here."
"There were, there aren't anymore." I nodded, the well off don't normally care about who they hurt when they want something, and this group of hunters cared less than most. There were more gunshots in the jungle and this time I felt less sympathy.
"We're going to die here aren't we."
"Probably." I could tell Xanthi was an optimist already.
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