Behold, for once again it is I the Cosmic force of all things here for the same reason as before. Lots of characters, doesn’t make sense to introduce them all. The fabulous five comes back with a sequel, the spectacular six. Cuz the orcs are here. Anyways this is from Mor’s tribal vanguard team forming, and I have taken the opportunity to make a full cast for the stories of lore to work with. That’s what makes them spectacular. Even if their competence rating might not be card worthy yet….see SoL.

The beastkin’s “contribution” is Alauna’i. Known as Alaunai for short, saves a whole syllable. This one is a lot to unwrap. Many years ago Hakenu’e, Ka’oana, Koamalu, and a few others went on a quest to slay a legendary hydra that terrorized the eastern side of the plains. Upon its death, it seemed to somehow curse Hakenu’e and became the totem spirit of his daughter, who would later go on to take her own life from the madness afflicted on her by the many voices of the hydra. Though rather then being sated with its revenge on Hakenu’e, it kept sticking around and found itself into one of his grandchildren, and the girl who watched her mother kill herself by bashing her own head onto a rock without warning.

Hakenu’e both blames himself for these events and has a mixed impression of his granddaughter. He cares for her as his grandchild, but hates her as the embodiment of the hydra that killed his daughter. This is because its not clear which one is in control, Alaunai can recite details of her life or expresses emotional attachments that make it apparent that she is there but upon acquiring the hydra her personality flipped dramatically and she knows everything the hydra once knew. She also keeps referring to herself as ‘we’ and occasionally taunts Hakenu’e. As you might guess, she can be prone to wild mood shifts but it is at least predictable. As if each head of the hydra has a different situation it specializes in and the others give it priority during those situations. Its a mess basically. Though her mother never showed these kinds of behaviors, and it is thought that because she was such a small and frightened child when it happened that she wound up giving the hydra enough control that it no longer became a struggle. She is a cursed shaman by the nature of what spirit she has, and she lacks the dominating will that Wehilani had when she overcame the chimera. At least she lacked it at the time, now she has the stubbornness of seven arguing siblings at all times.

The overall problem remains, no one knows who she is or whats going on in her head anymore. The beastkin have a few major viewpoints on her. Some see her as cursed or possessed and in need of help. Others see her as the potential future of shamanism since her totem spirit is practically fused to her own spirit. Alihana is curious either way.

For the most part the clan has kept her only to be sent when they absolutely need her abilities and otherwise coddled to try and ease what Hakenu’e perceives as being potential suffering. She managed to sneak into the vanguard. While the clan would probably have preferred she remain locked away in her hut, they couldn’t exactly refuse her new position if she won the auditions Mor’s left hand held. It was an opportunity for her to get some control over her life that she took.

Tupai is the Hariwana representative, and a master of necromancy. He can raise more corpses than anyone else and can even remain fully mobile if he limits himself to just two. While he isn’t good at bone magic like Sawiri, corpse magic is just as good sometimes. He is a former apprentice of Sawiri before finding his own niche as an expert in dead things. He has one special ability no one else can figure out, the ability to project his own consciousness into his animations. Specifically this allows him to be fully aware of what his animations can perceive, great for peeking around corners. This also allows him to, when he is limited to two, function as three slightly bad fighters at once and press the advantage of numbers while still retaining the ability to run and swing weapons. Alternatively he can just raise ten corpses and swarm someone. Though similar to Alauna’i he is slightly cursed.

His ability to move his consciousness through his animations was once used to save his own life when his original body was destroyed, and ever since then he has lived as a walking corpse. Though this has proven very useful, as now he knows that as long as at least one animation is around he can swap and prevent his own death. This has also made him somewhat reckless, and he always keeps a zombie shambling around near him just in case he should fall off a cliff or something. The downsides of being a corpse include slower general movement, having a charisma of -18, and smelling funny. Though on the upside he can withstand lethal injury and then some. He is generally kind of cranky.

Necatztlai, also known as Necatz, is the Nezatl’s enlist. She’s by default the face of the party since the other most charismatic member is from the Huanacan. She was a former slave to the Chanai, who managed to rise in prominence among them until she was made a raider. Though she disappeared from the clan when they went on a raid against a clan who would be forgotten soon afterwards. She took the opportunity to flee, turns out you can’t really trust slaves even if you promote them. She would later wind up with the Nezatl. While she isn’t quite the warrior Nenetl is, she is at least competent enough to point the sharp end towards the enemy. She has no magical abilities or anything, but is a pretty decent archer. She doesn’t quite get the family’s religion but she keeps quiet about that and just nods along so she doesn’t get kicked out. She is at the very least quite dedicated to the Nezatl and was one of Nenetl’s more trusted warriors during raids.

While she’s never stood out compared to the likes of Nenetl, The Dozen, or Iiniwa, she’s never been a terrible fighter and is a veteran of many battles. If you count a Nezatl skirmish to rescue slaves a battle. She was still good enough to do well at the try-outs and get onto the team to represent the Nezatl in a new way. Secretly, or so she thinks, she desires to prove herself as a warrior of any worth compared to the other heroes. She has the tactical knowledge and grit of a veteran, just lacks the raw fighting talent.

Kuari, obviously of the Huanacan, is a peculiar monster. He’s been hanging out with the Huanacan for years now and has a tendency to talk people’s ears off. He is a very curious and intellectual creature, and has a surprising knowledge of alchemy. Just not the healing kind. He was born to a species that doesn’t really keep its young for long, and while a small childlike thing he met Jarthromoth. Since then he’s proven to be unlike most of his own kind and prefers the social nature of a clan. Once he asked too many questions, later in life he answered too many…that no one asked.

He’s not half bad in a fight, though is more notable for his abilities as an intellectual. Generally people like him though, once you get past his monstrous appearance he can be quite friendly. While he isn’t the best of healers, he is quite talented at making utility items. Smoke traps, bug repellent, and poisons in particular. Though it is known that the witch doctors are probably even better at poisons than he is, its still useful to know the basics.

The member of the Dozen that got voluntold to lead this vanguard initiative and thus acting leader of the team. Alekona is one of the more mysterious members of the Dozen. They found him just wandering around the southern grasslands one day many years ago and asked if he wanted to hang out. He said sure why not and now here we are. He never talks about his past life, and no one in the Dozen has really asked about it. It’s unknown if he was an exile, a clan slayer, or just some guy who likes wandering around and just kept walking into the distance. He has no magic, alchemical skills, or really anything other than a spear and a knife. He’s good at survival in the wild though and can always seem to find food.

Despite his lack of dramatic tales of exile or dark powers, he might be one of the Dozen’s better fighters. Alekona just seems to always know what to do in order to exploit any weakness or cover any defense. He can fight hand to hand, he can fight with a spear, he can fight with a twig if you give him one. He has no major deeds of note other than some big kills he made with his clan mates and seems to always be just shy of being significant. Other members comment on him being perhaps the scariest member even though he has no major trophies like the rest of them based entirely on the fact that he has no scars. Sure he doesn’t lunge headfirst into danger to get them while taking down a great beast, but at the end of the day he’s the one who is still alive.

Also Maloth, who you already met, will be joining the team. They’re sort of a flex team for anyone to figure out what they need to get done. Probably need to get some xp though.

There was an SoL halfway done for this but Wednesday creeped up on me. Blame Tess who distracted me with other projects.

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As an update, our diplomats we set to the south along with a few members of the Dozen managed to finally…get there. They encountered the Wenhai clan who are apparently a small group that descends from a much larger tribe from the further south.

We did manage to get a few orcs painted blue, though stained might be a more appropriate choice of term as that stuff doesn’t come off easily. They are not amused, though I am very amused.

Alihana is off to the northern jungle, on foot muahahhaha. Maybe we should have them look for a landing spot up there, until then I hope you enjoy whatever curse she concocts for you by the time she gets back for sending her to do that. Also Rohaka…beware the shadows.

IN OTHER EVENTS, I have invented meat wrapped in leaves. It tastes awful. Helps you poop though.

Also made some of the bone armor for the Dozen, at least those who are available. A good chunk of them are somewhere down in the jungle and aren’t available for a fitting.

We have lured in a couple of cats with the promise of food, as for the bush creatures we can probably just pick them up. They don’t seem to be very mobile creatures on their own though, nor very communicative. I am also wary of what might happen to them if the oozes come across them.

As for the flying mounts, so far Usukan is hanging around with Hakenu’e though he doesn’t leave the island very much. Avonaco seems to be getting along well enough with Perxtli at least. The other two are just hanging around, we keep Majid in his cage still. No one’s touching that one. Vaksha just lurks around the camp though isn’t about to let anyone ride him.

A couple others are skulking about the jungle to keep an eye on things though for now they’re not wandering too far from Kapiya or Akoa territory.

Speaking of driders, the one we sent to find the spider woman near the waterfall has disappeared. Perhaps we should consider sending a few extras. She was able to capture The Leper by herself and were not for Kennae would have been a major problem. Her only rival for her territory is a crow-folk on top of that, who has also not managed to kill her. Though there is a chance the drider just got eaten by some other jungle creature, they are not used to an environment like this even if they are good at climbing. Either way, I recommend against one man teams. Also the chief warned about that when we first got here.

Also Kennae’s work with plant experiments is still growing since the last batch he brought up. So far nothing of particular interest, a few are dead already just from the cold though some hardier ones are keeping in there.

According to Sawiri he has no idea what kind of bones would be needed, or what enchantment to even weave, in order to create anything that would allow us to return to previously visited places.

Sakazai and Silas are moving southward to find the Ranoni, though its a big jungle. Rohaka tagged along since she didn’t have any other standing orders. They’ll keep an eye out for potential campsites we could land the gryphons more easily while they’re at it. Meanwhile the travelers are heading north. It does seem prodding at the whole Xiomac thing has yielded some results though, as a couple of elves have set out with the travelers to help them find their way and to take whatever peculiar interest they have in the subject matter.

This led to the overall discussion of their feud with Xiomac coming from the fact that Xiomac is trying to find and presumably harm the jungle’s arch-druid. Though not even they know where the arch-druid actually is. Xiomac is known to collect all kinds of magic, he already knows the basic of druidic magic from absconding with elves, as well as his own magic of enchanting that he acquired from the now-dead clan that once ruled over the Kapiya from that other story. He also recently demonstrated the ability to manipulate blood in strange ways, which lead them to believe he has at least encountered your blood mage for better or worse. Alongside this he also has some rudimentary grasp of shamanism, Xiomac’s original ability was to replicate the magic of others with frightening speed. He has since amassed a large arsenal of magical knowledge. They also mentioned his war with the crow-folk is because they know he’s after the King of Crows, and that he is very interested in harnessing whatever magic the king has. Basically he’s Alihana, but with a unique ability to steal magical knowledge from others in some way, and the bravery or perhaps stupidity to go after the King of Crows himself. I am however curious if he knows about the story of the Oldest Man, who demonstrated very similar abilities to the King in that he could bestow power unto others.

Also yes their tattoos are purely aesthetic. I just saved you an hour long spiel about the tradition and cultural history of them. They’re basically coming-of-age markings mixed in with a little bit of trophy based story telling, and a splash of occupational signaling.

Given the dangers of hunting those snakes, and the sheer amount of casualties sustained just trying to deal with its corpse, we’ll have to get Jarthromoth to approve any plan to send his driders in to deal with these things.

The three members of the Dozen have set off alongside a Kapiya guide to see what they can dig up on Mikaere. So far what we’ve learned is that he is likely operating far from Kapiya territory though we’re not really sure why given his grudge with them, and the fact that he can likely overpower many of them if he were to make good on that grudge. The hunt leads them westward for now.

They managed to meet with Nihaul, and establish his interest in driving out the demonic druid. By his own statement his brother’s death is not the real reason behind that, its that he doesn’t like his clan being unwitting servants of Xiomac. Who he has now met and doesn’t trust at all. Though this seems to be a recurring theme with the crows in this area. Which definitely confirms the reason he hasn’t resorted to extreme violence is out of a desire not to hurt his clan members. Specifically, his sister who is one of the direct bodyguards of the demon. He also reaffirmed what we learned from the Akoa elves, that Xiomac is after the King of Crows himself. The crows in the jungle are just obstacles to him on his path to finding the king. Though he notably said nothing about the arch-druid. However, he did know more about things from the crow’s side of things. Specifically he knows that the Raven Witch and Mikaere are both projects of Xiomacs he did not succeed in killing after enabling them to exist and they have come down with a bad case of vengeance. Nihaul’s side of things doesn’t fully explain why Xiomac is still in the jungle, but as we know from the Akoa he has an interest in the arch-druid that may or may not exist.

So far the blue stones just seem to be difficult to break though they don’t seem to do anything in regards to magic. The other ideas are also not experiencing that much progress.

Also in these campaigns sitting around the base trying to tech up has an 80% failure rate otherwise that is all the party will do. Trust me this has happened several times. Most “teach a character another character’s thing” and “get existing character to level up their thing dramatically for no effort” in particular have a 99% failure rate.  For example if Alihana never leaves the base, she might never invent a new spell or improve her existing ones. If Iiniwa doesn’t go do something, his force weapons aren’t getting any better. Exception to when the base has a lot of bullshit going on like in New World.

Meta thoughts: The best way to find new magic is to kill your entire roster off and force-spawn new ones with new abilities. Definitely lose the old one for that though.

Kaya beat everyone to the Akoa village…somehow. She also doesn’t seem all that rattled by who knows how many things tried to eat her. We did manage to get a lot of information out of it at least.

First off, the arrakoa are located along the northern side of the jungle. There are a lot of big birds out there too so be wary of those. They don’t know anything about the blood mage we were seeking. Interestingly though, Kaya managed to find some of the elven refugees, who at least know who Xacalli is though they didn’t know she was in the jungle. They also know who Kaya is because apparently she had a habit of sneaking around their old village a long time ago. I have a feeling this is going to be a recurring trend with her.

However, they do know of someone three people that miiight be her. Based entirely on the knowledge that she is a trained healer and female. There is a healer that lives with a clan called the Ranoni in the south who notably does not fit the rest of the clan’s general look. There is a mysterious one that lives to the north near the arrakoa territory that seems a good bet, though the mysterious one is called that because no one knows exaaactly where they live. They are very elusive and only ever seem to pop up in stories from those who have been healed though can never find her again. The last one is towards the “eastern waters” as they call it and is known to come and go and seeming random as they are more connected to the clans who travel the waters.

Also while she was there she managed to touch down on a topic the Dozen keep bringing up. There is a Crow in the jungle who was formerly a member of the Akoa, most interestingly they were a druid before the ritual…supposedly afterwards they became very hard to deal with. Their name is Anakoni. They aren’t thaaat fierce of rivals though, as Anakoni didn’t sacrifice other members of Akoa or anything and is off hunting Xiomac, who is a mutual enemy for the Akoa as well. So there isn’t much reward in defeating Anakoni for them, given that they might be one of the strongest that is definitely a note to maybe pass on to the Dozen.

Finally, she managed to diplomacy with them so that we can land our gryphons at their big fancy tree. So we can use the Akoa as a staging ground, apparently they definitely want to avoid a conflict with the giant flying island people. They just said to be wary of bringing Avonaco around.

Speaking of, its worth noting, that all the Akoa elves look more like Avonaco then the others we’re familiar with. They’re all pretty buff and wearing a ton of tattoos. They seem to utilize a more savage culture, less words more stabbing. He would probably like their whole ‘law of the jungle’ philosophy that involves a lot of brute force. Which also indicates to us they’re much more powerful than the clan from the plains, they have actual warriors instead of the run and hide shifter strategy. This may be why they’re one of the dominant clans in the jungle.

When it comes to keeping the forest warm…we could use Sawiri’s big eternal bonfire though fire might be a questionable solution for keeping trees warm.

Sawiri made a bone that “holds things together” though its not very helpful in building things because it causes the thing to behave very…strange structurally. Though maybe with some experimentation we can find a way to use it. Though its definitely not a good replacement for just tying things together. Can fetch things if you drop them in a small crack though.

As for blinding people with shadows, that’s a job for Rohaka and she’s away dealing with that whole Masani thing. Though I don’t suspect she has anything quite like that, its hard to place shadows directly onto people with such finesse. I’ll have her look into the concept though.

Also the mount thing has issues, mostly my peripheral vision and the fact that its wings flap up and down the whole time. Did learn to steer the beast though so thats something.

As for teleporting to other places, Sawiri says its theoretically plausible maybe. Would have to find some sort of bones with an affinity for that, the lightning circle just goes straight down like lightning. Not sure how to reach to anywhere specific like that especially from a moving position.

Rohaka is still with Saizawhatever keeping tabs on the Milanawhatevers.

Also due to voting I suppose, Hakenu’e obliged to tame Usukan before Mor could. It was disappointingly uneventful. Usukan actually seemed to recognize Hakenu’e as the alpha just upon seeing the old bull. Might be some shaman fuckery going on there, I wouldn’t know though, BECAUSE THEY WON’T TELL ME HOW SHAMANISM WORKS.

The bottom of the island does indeed have a few cave entrances though they’re not exactly cave networks. More like little holes that something could crawl into, we did find a few bird nests this way. A particularly large one can be found in a crevice that goes a good ways in and has some more of the various rocks we’ve seen though lacks for much else of interest. Some bats though.

Kennae brought a few plants back to stick in the ground and we’ll have to see what comes of it.

We’ve dispatched the drider to try and find this spider woman. We’ll hear back from that eventually…hopefully. Its a long trip and we still haven’t quite secured a landing area near that place. Interestingly it turns out driders are really effective in jungles. We may consider extending their duties while we’re here.

As for intelligent creatures on the jungle floor, the intelligence level varies heavily but there are quite a few interesting ones. There seems to be a sort of large cat that is quite intelligent but does not know any language. However, it is incredibly empathic and seems to know whether or not things are a threat to it just innately. There’s also a bush that tried to eat Kennae, apparently the bush is alive and quite sentient. Though not that bright, still interesting though. Still on the hunt otherwise. It is slow going when half of the things try to eat you if you come anywhere near them.

Funeral was held, nothing going terribly awry there thankfully.

Avonaco has made relatively good progress working with Perxtli. He’s managed to start entering the cage and handling feeding. Though there might be some concern about his long rambles with the creature about strength and survival of the fittest.

Training of the the tribal vanguard is continually underway. In the theme of the squad we have had them running around to get training from all members of the tribe. I asked each clan to have one of their most prominent warriors go over something they felt was important but not overtly obvious with each of them. To help them collect a little bit of wisdom from each clan. That somewhat goes with the mention of how to deal with crows. Though that is something we’ll have to see if can be tested soon. As you suspected, there is a high chance all six of the crows in the jungle are more dangerous than usual.

We managed to abduct a few members of the Misani after negotiations broke down. We learned a bit about their clan, and specifically the demon they keep among them. Apparently they believe them to be something of a prophet, they even predicted the arrival of Auwana albeit in rather cryptic terms. What is more interesting is to learn is that it is a demonic druid, and a powerful one. The reason the tree they live on is so hard to attack with its convenient layout is because the demon druid helped to make it so. That makes them the first non-elven druid we have heard of, which I thought stood out as interesting. Though they are -thought- to be fragile and so they dedicate themselves to protecting this sacred figure. They also don’t seem to realize their abilities either are druidic or share a lot in common with it at the least. The Misani are much less traveled than others.

On to the topic you actually wanted to know about, the one named Nihaul was their greatest warrior and was notably was in opposition of their clan’s dependence and unquestioning worship of the demon. His brother in particular spread the ideas to him, and later his brother died in an assassination attempt against the demon. He traveled to other clans around the jungle and learned much, “claiming” that the demon wasn’t really any sort of prophet but just a druid who had somehow stolen the secrets from the elves through a deal made with Xiomac. This also tells us that Xiomac knows druidic magic as well. Nihaul would learn about the ritual of the crows through the Raven Witch, which adds up with what we know from the southern grasslands about Xiomac and his associates being hunters of the crow folk. So Nihaul, who was in direct opposition with a potential minion of Xiomac’s, took the crow route to try and avenge his brother as well as retake the clan back from the demon. Though he has yet to succeed but is the reason for their overt hostility now due to the threat he has continually posed to them and their sacred prophet. Nihaul is considered dangerous enough that he could very likely destroy the entire clan, but it is notable that none of their stories end with ‘and then nihaul killed them’. We suspect his motives don’t call for him to kill his own clan mates, he’s only after the demon. Their fervent protection of the demon prevents him from reaching them without clawing through his own people, so he waits for better opportunity. His talent as a warrior is hard to discern as the Misani’s talents as fighters in general have not yet been seen. Though it is known he has battled with people associated with Xiomac and is allied with the Raven Witch in a hunt for Xiomac himself. Though we also don’t know how much any of these people are worth in a fight either. Its a bit of a complicated mess.

In regards to the crow situation with the Kapiya, its less so that they want any crow dead. It’s that they want a specific one, you may start to notice a recurring theme here. There is a crow who was a former member of the Kapiya. Their name is Mikaere, and they are a member of the Kapiya who lived during a time when the Kapiya were ruled over by another clan that was trying to become more of a tribe like the Chanai. They demanded ritual sacrifices from all the clans they controlled, and at one point that sacrifice was Mikaere’s mother. These sacrifices utilized the ritual to keep their ruling cheiftain in power. He became hellbent on revenge and blamed the Kapiya for not doing what it took to fight back. In the end he started doing the same thing and started sacrificing members of the Kapiya to build his strength enough to target the other clan. Apparently there was a long drawn out conflict between him and their crow chieftain in a struggle for dominance. It all came to an end with the interference of Xiomac who gave Mikaere enchanted weapons to gain an advantage. Evidently Xiomac’s plan was to trade one crow ruler for a smaller warrior that he could more easily manage. Though he failed to kill Mikaere, and has since demanded his whereabouts. He refuses to deal with or trade with the Kapiya until Mikaere is dealt with. So the Kapiya want Mikaere dead if nothing else just for economic reasons, and perhaps just a little bit of revenge.

As for payment they offer something very specific, no doubt brought on by the Nezatl and their perhaps forthcoming negotiations. They know of a very specific couple of fish that live within the somewhat landlocked pools of water that form on the jungle floor. They’ve offered to harvest and hand over a large harvest of the eggs of these creatures as well as a full guide on caring for them. They are apparently very sturdy creatures and effective at keeping water a little bit cleaner. As well as anything else they might be able to catch that is transportable to the island by gryphon and sturdy enough to survive the air up there. Though this payment has a secondary problem, we need somewhere to land the gryphons and pick them up quickly to hasten the process of delivery. Alternatively we could just take the food and a bunch of wood.

The problem you mention about the crows level of intelligence is in line with what we have been discovering about the ones here. As we now know, the crow folk are not a unified lineage or group. This is further evidence that crows are simply created by pursuing the ritual in some way. The ashen plains were host to a clan that built themselves around a culture of pursuing this ritual, though it seems in other places it is various individuals who acquire this desire. We also notice that most who become marked by the crow are those with very violent tendencies and solutions to their problems. It stands to reason the clan in the plains exists by cultural upbringing to be that way, but elsewhere individuals find their own motives and reasons to pursue the path of the crow’s mark. This might make them more dangerous, as only those who are already qualified to pursue it have succeeded as opposed to being handed their first kill for free by an elder clan member. Which does bear some credence to your theory that the six in the jungle might all be vastly more dangerous than the average crow folk we have come to know. I suspect there is a catch to the ritual, otherwise everyone with murder on their mind might have found it and used it. I would need more details on how the ritual is actually conducted to come to anything useful though. Avonaco learned a little about their culture, but not precisely how the ritual works…or more importantly how so many people across such distances all found out how to do it with no cultural upbringing to pass the knowledge onto them.

Also we already taught the Nezatl about making bows when we first came aboard Auwana.

Moving on, four people are dead from attempting to recover resources from the jungle and Maloth as well as one of our own was injured in the fighting with a large four legged mouth full of teeth and a small swarm of spikes on legs. Also a rather peculiar creature ate two of those people before anyone even noticed they were gone, something big and sneaky. That one was the reason they retreated back to the trees, though harvesting wood along the trees in any significant size is difficult without cutting anything. Atop of that, they still got attacked by other smaller things with claws instead of spikes or teeth. The gh…gi…scorpion person and Maloth are definitely the reason there are any survivors at all though. The Kapiya inform us that the big and sneaky thing is actually a local legend of a sort. Known as the ‘great stalker’, very creative I know. Supposedly there are many more of its species which appear as large black felines with spikes at the end of their tail and elongated snouts more similar to a wolf. Though their mouths open freakishly far back from where you think their jaw should pivot. The great stalker is unique among these creatures in that it is significantly larger than they should be able to get. These monsters are known as jungle stalkers and we are cautioned that they are a threat even among the upper branches as they can climb very well. They are also excellent at sneaking up on people.

The quest for other useful resources continues. We’ve found a lot of interesting things that will have to be experimented on by bringing them up here and seeing if any of them last at all, though that will require the gryphons and we have still yet to secure the landing area for them. While we can get away with some smaller drop offs, loading them up with valuable and potentially fragile things definitely requires more than a tree branch.

Among all this, they did manage to kill one of those giant snakes though. That is also where one of the deaths and three of the injuries come from. No one has figured out how to get it up the tree though and more beasts appeared while butchering the corpse. Still managed to acquire quite a lot of meat at least. Though it is worth noting that the clans gatherers are actively scouring the jungle for easier finds and fruit from the trees. As indicated by a current surplus of food.

The travelers are en route to finding the Akoa, though as we learned from Xoco recently, Kaya beat them there already. The girl does have a knack for finding her way into places at least.

Temple construction is still underway with various material experimentation. The jungle wood seems to hold up well so far. Though it does bend a little easily it doesn’t actually break. We’re experimenting with things like drying and burning it to see what else it might do.

Also what is this writing you speak of?

Wehilani went scouting as requested, she spent the last two weeks just flying around. Turns out there are some mountains around hidden in the trees and to the far west appears to be a lot of water. So much water that all the land is drowning in it and what little manages to keep afloat is quite…moist. It is a rather gradual transition she says, she couldn’t even tell where the flooding really began underneath the canopies but by the time she noticed it there was water everywhere and the trees just grew out of it with little dirt in sight. Southward are some woodlands reminiscent of the Huanacan’s forest we originally came from. Smaller trees with less climbing and more walking around. In regards to jungle predators she actually found rather few as she stayed above the canopy most of the time for ease of flight and ability to hopefully see the borders so there is little information there. However, she did notice that deeper into the jungle where the trees seem taller but a bit more spread out that there are a lot of birds. Big birds, with big talons, who patrol beneath the canopy. She said they seemed particularly dangerous and the ‘walk along the branches’ method might start to break down once we go deeper in. This was later confirmed by The Travelers, and The Leper has several injuries to show for it.

It is true we do lack for charismatic members. Though I don’t think the kind of people who spend their lives focused on combat and the applications of combat are that predisposed to the fine art of conversation. Perhaps humorously, our most talented wordsmith thus far is Silas but his physical appearance doesn’t help. This is why we sent the Nezatl to do diplomatics though. Also we already checked with the harpies and other flyers of the rock. Perhaps we’d have better luck recruiting a charismatic member if only we had a charismatic member to recruit them with. Given the stories, perhaps Xacalli would do well. She seemed of a more moderate disposition.

Interestingly, the most difficult part of that prank idea of yours was actually getting anyone to do it. Most of our members are not very ‘fun’ people. Nor charismatic enough to pull it off. Something about our girls being muscular and scarred from battle makes them stand out as perhaps not normal women.

Are you having fun riding the rex skeleton? It doesn’t really move much if not ordered to by the necromancers but I suppose there is still some appeal to it.

So far attempts to replicate any work on the blue rocks have been questionable. Leaving them in the ponds Ragash had made did have some progress in that we could break them by slamming two against each other by tying one of them to a club but that doesn’t leave much room for finer crafting. The people in the south don’t know much about where they got the sacred water anymore either. I suppose that is what makes it sacred. They do say it tastes absolutely awful though. None were all that willing to go with the people associated with the creepy demon to a flying island in the sky.

We put some test snails in the lake, now its just a matter of observation. The problem being that they’re snails and the lake is very big. We have assigned one of the Nezatl to the job of just watching them all the time. They are not happy about this assignment.

Stories of Lore 8

So as it turns out, there is a chance that the jungle plants might be pretty useful here on Auwana. They seem to like water and we have a lot of that from the clouds. I brought up a bunch of bees too to see how they settle in, more on that as it develops.

The diplomats going south with the dozen have embarked on their voyage, it will be a lengthy one.

Nenetl and Citlanal have opted to stick together just to avoid being eaten. The Kapiya have told them all they know, or let on that they know, about the various topics. Though they were able to point out that snails are very common in the jungle and true to their statement we found quite a few lurk down along the jungle floor. Also both of the girls nearly got eaten by some giant monster thirty minutes after they went down there and they now refuse to approach the jungle floor. Now they’re in search of a rumor as to where another clan might be.

Kaya on the other hand just took off into the jungle all on her own before anyone could stop her. Haven’t heard from her since, she said she was off to find the Akoa. Since they are the most likely to be able to point her in the direction of the arakkoa which will hopefully point her to Xiomac. Which as you may recall is deep in the heart of the jungle. So she’s definitely dead now.

So far the closest idea anyone has for long range communication is sending messengers on the gryphons or utilizing the harpies.

Foraging in the jungles proves fruitful, pun intended, but we stick to the fruit in the canopies due to the dangers of the jungle floor. On a related note, we have not dug any holes to keep food in. I’m not sure its thaaat cold…well at least not at this time of year.

In regards to this permanent shadow over a food preserve, may I introduce you to the idea of a tent. Though if you were really interested in keeping things cold, Sawiri might be able to do something with that if we found the bones of creatures of the north perhaps. As for a permanent shadow in direct sunlight, either we find some sort of shadow aligned creature with bones or just see what happens when we throw Sawiri wildly at the problem. I still like the idea of a tent.

We built some extra houses around the ritual circle as you requested. Though the circle is very large and we cannot put support poles within it. Fortunately, our village already has houses built around large circles. The beastkin, the orcs, and our own divisions are built in this way. So we just put a bunch of smaller houses around it so it just looks like thats a thing we like to do all over the place. As an additional benefit, it makes for a good staging area for any larger operations should we make ready for war ever again. I let one of the Huanacan’s arakkoa who live on pride rock take over the village so it has at least one inhabitant. He seems comfy with having his own hut in the middle of the island, makes sure someone keeps an eye on the circle for us in case anything strange should happen too.

As for the umbramancy request, can do that. Actually that’s the most popular magic around here anyways. I could probably make that team tomorrow if you really wanted. Quality not guaranteed. Hamona could probably work with them in particular since he’s already one of the sneakiest among the shadows. Obviously Rohaka is the best for this kind of stuff, but she’s just the best umbramancer in general and can have multiple uses.

The temple is coming along, with a few snags here and there we’re working out. So far the bones don’t seem that useful in all honesty, they’re not as large as a support pole should be and the supports made of wood aren’t really collapsing. Its a matter of shaping, we’re still working on it.

The skull idea was shot down by the beastkin, also I had a weird dream of someone saying ‘not touching that tree shit again’.

The Misani seem to have an attack on sight frame of mind, though notably they do not pursue anyone and prefer to use things such as slings. It strikes me that they are territorial, but not necessarily aggressive. They seem to have a ‘leave us alone’ mentality. Initial attacks are made with fire affixed to rocks through some manner of thick substance that coats them. The fire doesn’t really do much, but it does seem like it would do well to ward people away. However, Sakazai was able to infiltrate close enough to their village to find out a little more detail. They live among a single large tree that has cut off most of the branches that could act as bridgeways, then fenced themselves in with thorny overgrowth. The odd part is they seem to be very interested in one person of their own village, who is not human like the rest of them and appears to be some sort of demon. They treat this person as one would a chieftain as far as Sakazai can tell from a distance, and this person never ventures far from the highest areas of the tree. It seems like they are very protective of this person, though we do not know why. As an additional note, they have huts among the tree built out of dirt of some kind that covers openings in the tree or constructs new things entirely along its walkways. The dirt seems quite a bit stronger than…well dirt.

The combined research project of shamanism and necromancy was refused outright by the beastkin. They’re still not keen on letting the Hariwana mess with the spirits of those passed on.

The Chanai women don’t seem to have any idea how the power is bestowed. It was Hasan and the queen who knew this ritual, and the ritual is passed down the generations through the direct heirs. Though we do know that the ritual involves the river north of the village. They were able to tell us the ability is seemingly hereditary. Everyone who has it shares not-too-distant ancestry with the ruling family. However, Sakazai has mentioned before she suspects this isn’t true as her family traces its heritage to a conquered clan. They said she must have the ancestry, but no ones ever really confirmed it.

In regards to enchantment of items other than bones, we actually know by rumor that Xiomac can do this. Though the research team hasn’t had much luck, attempts to replicate Sawiri’s work on other materials has proved fruitless.

Avonaco is currently working on the whole Perxtli project. Its rough going, for the most part he just sits near the cage and rambles at it.

The idea of these squads might take some root, I have managed to find a few volunteers for the idea. Most notably the beastkin are a bit quick to join up, likely due to pressure from the elder chief who just loved the idea.  Instead of the general training Iiniwa provides, I have appointed a team of the feather guard to take them in for a more team based form of training. They’re always at home anyways, so it will give them something to do. They insisted on having…tryouts. I have seen to promising any who successfully complete this training will receive weapons of our collection, made anew by the expert hands of the Nezatl.

Stories of Lore 7

We have arrived at the eastern border of the jungles. The shamans predict we will continue to drift to the west for some time. Among other interests down in the jungle, it may be worth it to see if anyone can figure out what lurks further west. Our primary goals while we’re here is to see what wonders we might learn of and adopt to our own tribe before we continue on. This is an opportunity to expand the tribe beyond what any tribe before has accomplished, at least that we know of. The island can support many more inhabitants, we should see who clans might be interested in joining us.

To recap, the Kapiya are currently our friendliest contact. Their interest seems to be in simply learning what we know about the world and its wonders. We have several warriors staying with them at their village and have been allowed to operate out of their village for the time being. I have arranged to send them some gifts to show our gratitude.

The crow folk in the jungle are a major problem despite their lack of organized clan as we saw across the plains. I suspect their independent nature has made every one of them as strong as they need to be to survive on their own. The Raven Witch is apparently the strongest, and judging by the Kapiya’s description of the myth either the tale has grown in the telling or it is the strongest crow we will have encountered thus far. Many of these people were former members of various clans before acquiring the crow’s mark, and all of them are in exile for various crimes. So there is good repute to be gained if we might be able to get to deal with them for the local clans. Be cautious if you should encounter any of them, especially without sufficient reinforcements.

Of similar problem is this entity known as Xiomac. Though one of the Kapiya have given us more information on this enigma. He is to the jungle what Sawiri was to the plains, capable of enchantment and procurement of wondrous items. While he is referred to as a lone entity he is not without allies. We learned from the southern grasslands that Xiomac associates in some ways with the arakkoa. While the Kapiya know of these people, they do not know where or how to find them.

We also know the Akoa live nearby, and thanks to Chants by Moonlight we know precisely where they are. The absolute center of the jungle living among a massive tree of their own making over the last few generations of druids. We have some relations with them through Tehanau and they do seem more interested in cooperation than anything else. Though they are harboring refugees of the elven clan from the plains who might hold a grudge against the recently recovered Avonaco. These druids are likely to know the most about the jungle.

While our new gryphons can assist us in traversing the skies quickly, there are only so many places where they can break through the thick canopy. They can fly between the trees once they get through the canopy though may have some difficulty and be forced through certain pathways. The jungle is a place filled with danger at every turn, even the bugs and plants seem to want to kill us. Groups deployed into the jungle should have some plan to deal with navigating such dangers. For example, while Coszacatl is able to traverse vertically and ignore most common threats, Iiniwa may be less suited to handling the dangers that can lurk in every bush. So be sure to use a measure of teamwork centered around those who are well suited to this place.

It is also worth keeping an eye out for any wild life we might find useful to bring onto Auwana. The ashen plains provided little opportunity and it was a struggle just to find a handful of snails. The jungle is much the opposite.

Wehilani will be able to assist any plans to capture territory that might help our new gryphons enter the jungle. She is the only member of the tribe who can navigate the jungle on every level due to the summonable nature of her spirit wings combined with her somewhat catlike nature. This gives her the unique talent of getting in and out of the canopy at will as well as navigating the maze of trees below, in case anyone should need someone with such abilities for anything specific. With the new scrying pool Chants by Moonlight has constructed we do not need her to serve as messenger so often. Also with the gryphons being available for such messaging.

Yeah not sure what to do with the old guy thing. I’ve spent years looking for any further evidence of him. Though I suppose as we reach the jungles we can ask around if they’ve heard of him.

Also my diplomacy skills are fiiine, its not my fault that everyone thinks they’re captured when the tribe that defeated their own takes a bunch of them aboard. Though I suppose Nenetl is a bit better at communicating the finer points. Though I’m still the only one that gets in and out of hostile camps easily.

As for the new girls, some of them are foragers. A few know how to manage pets, running food around and cleaning enclosures and such. Makes sense given that’s what their clan pretty much did.

You still did not really specify what you wanted Nenetl and Cit to actually do. I sent them to the Kapiya in the meantime as that’s at least doing diplomacy work. They have managed to help us figure some more stuff out about the jungle at least, as the elder chief covered.

I wonder if the jungle has any particularly interesting bees for honey production?

Ha ha jokes on you, it was a mass ritual, you literally had to be there for it! Also, boom big bone beast. Now we just need to add some spikes so the children stop trying to climb it. It is a little devoid of personality, just stands around when we don’t tell it to do anything. Though I added an extra necklace so that it can still roar. No sense having such a big creature to run at the enemy if it can’t roar at them.

I’ve started mass enchanting some of the good bones for structure building, mostly femurs. So that will help hold things up here and there. Though without bones as big as the tallest person in the tribe, which is Uyitzan, not sure if we can really build all that high up. Though he has fur, he can just wait outside.

The project overall has been successful, the ritual circle at the center of the island can be used to get down to the ground in a properly hasty fashion. Haven’t figured out how to make it go back up though. Oh well.

Alihana is back from retrieving Avonaco. Apparently Eerihild managed to escape and several crow folk were killed but they took a lot with them and whoever did survive did so by running off.

As for limbing the de-limbed, we have a surprising lack of test subjects. So if you’ll just let me see your arm real quick…

As time goes on the four warbeasts we discussed before have gotten a bit more difficult to handle now that Tehanau left to return home. Usukan in particular. Majid is just violent so you have to be careful when feeding him and stay a good distance away from the cave. Usukan keeps getting sneaky about it though and there is now a whole ritual required just to approach his cage to make sure he hasn’t set up some way to grab you. One of the lamia who were bringing him food was severely injured when we learned he had found out how to unlock the first of the two layers of cages yet kept the door shut so someone would come inside.

Vaksha remains well behaved at least, often hanging out with our owlbear or lurking near the lake by the rest of the village proper. Perxtli is still in a cage but hasn’t been too troublesome by comparison to the other two.

The driders have managed to help with building Sawiri’s device under the island. Some of them are now scared of heights, though a couple have taken the opposite approach and now climb around the bottom side of Auwana for fun.

The girtib…ghibli…giru…the scorpion people’s venom was tested on some woodland critters. In hindsight, a man sized scorpion’s venom might have been a little too strong for rabbits to give much meaningful information. They started thrashing wildly for about two seconds, then lay there panting, and then they just died.

We have an issue in finding test subjects as it is quite clear we shouldn’t subject a tribe member to this. With the ashen plains having been either burned or hunted into its barren state its hard to find any larger grazing animals to test this on. We may wish to keep an interest in any medium sized creatures in the jungle for further experimentation.

The Kapiya said that they, as well as a few other clans including the wealthier Akoa, would be willing to pay well if we could kill the crows. This came with some backstory. The crow folk in this region seem to be former members of a few of the smaller clans. One even being from the Akoa. It seems they are less of an organized force like those on the southern plains and just rogue wanderers with seemingly no connection to the clan we know of. There are six in total that were told to us.

The travelers have seen to their duties. We’re quite well equipped to forage in the jungles now. With regards to the wood of the larger jungle trees, they can support incredible weight. Which might be obvious just by the size of the trees in the first place. Potentially good for bows, not sure who could really manage to draw such a thing though. Worth experimenting. The wood is however not particularly hard, so I don’t have much faith in it for things such as spear shafts as they can be gouged in combat fairly easily.

As for how others traverse the jungle, notably the Kapiya stick entirely to crossing branches and other elements of the canopy. They never venture to the jungle floor but they do know of some clans who live down there. So techniques may vary. The most impressive trick the Kapiya seem to know is their confidence in the earlier mentioned wood. The branches in the canopy will bend under their weight but don’t break easily

Of interest there is a waterfall northwest of the Kapiya that pours into a rather large pool. If we were to uproot some of the bushes that have overgrown its shore it could serve as a good landing area since the canopy can be flown into with ease by entering from the top of the waterfall and into the clearing above its waters before the branches reach out far enough to hide it from the sky. Not the most obvious spot from the skies. But once you know the angle to approach, it is not too bad of an option. The downside is that the pool at it’s base certainly attracts a lot of wildlife looking for a drink and the area is filled with all sorts of things with teeth.

A few days west of Kapiya village is another village run by a clan called the Misani. They have built at the very peaks of the tallest trees. The platforms they build their houses on along the trees would make for easy landing area but the Misani are described as hostile savages. We would need to exterminate them to make the area safe for landing, though they are a minor clan so it would not be too difficult for the tribe if we made an effort of it.

We asked Tehanau where the Akoa actually are before she took off having fulfilled her agreement with Koamalu. They are in the heart of the jungle, almost right in the center of it. Apparently they live around a specific tree they are rather fond of. Though the location is known, notably the Kapiya have no idea where it is they only know the stories. Apparently, the clans of the jungle interact less with one another on a large scale given the dangers of long travels. Though we could assume the druids who fly around so often would have somewhere we could land.

Also we have a whole lot of people at the Kapiya village about now since that’s where everyone keeps winding up. Maloth went with the team as requested too. At this point the Kapiya probably worry about us invading them.

In regards to the ‘big four’ they can understand basic commands at least when it comes to language. Its not too hard to teach them the important words, and Vaksha in particular has a strong level of empathy to just pick up on what people are going for. I don’t think any of them are quite qualified to be a full operating member though, I suppose it would be interesting to try.

Avonaco is back though barely, the crow folk broke both his arms while taking him in. He has learned a little bit about them though. Namely in that their ritual sacrifices require a fair amount of set up. Despite the cannibal clan worshiping the King of Crows, they don’t actually know much about him. He simply appears every so often and showed them how to conduct the ritual that allows him to grant them power. Though he himself does not need to personally be there for it. Avonaco was not with them long enough to actually see the ritual in action though.

It seems this tribe indeed knows the mystery behind the blue rocks and use them as weapons. They use them as spear tips, apparently they shape them by throwing them by taking them up to the mountains in the winter and leaving them in a sacred water they have a storage of but no recollection of where it came from. They aren’t as sharp as obsidian, but they don’t break as easily.

I know the wood here is supposedly good for bows, but there sure is a distinct lack of trees with all this grass. At least we got some to take home for now. No sign of obsidian though.

It’s quite evident that this village was destroyed long ago. Though I do see signs of fire. A lot of jars and other storage are still around the village, the place wasn’t raided in a traditional sense. The animals came for the food but it appears the place was just left for the wilds to reclaim, bodies and all.

Also no it is not a quetzalcoatl.  ((Its really just random ass art I found while trying to find things to diversify the flying mounts))

Stories of Lore 6

I return from the burial of Kinich, as well as the demon chieftain.

By the council’s will we have taken the beasts that can fly from the Chanai territory. Fortunately most were intact thanks to the storm preventing them from joining the battle. Among their collection is a large number of gryphons from the eastern mountain, it appears they were breeding these in particular. There are a few other more unique ones though they can all be described as “large four legged creatures with wings.” While Tehanau has helped with bringing them here and making them more convenient to work with they are still a little on the wild side. Under the Chanai their absolute obedience was likely what propelled the clan and their warbeast to such power over the plains. For us it will take a little more effort. They are already comfortable with being ridden and move in patterns beneficial for the rider to not fall off. However, they don’t like being hurt. So be careful about riding them into battle.

There are four notable exceptions, I’ll leave the Huanacan to go over that though.

Those at the old grounds of the Huanacan have been lifted back to us as well, along with the supplies and those who lived there for a little while. With Coszacatl recovered this means that all are accounted for. Kennae has been brought back as well for the ceremony, along with his snails and other oddities he collected from below.

This means the entirety of Auwana have returned, even our dead. The island is moving westward, and soon we will pass into the jungles. We have already established a relationship with the Akoa elves and the Kapiya. Though we know there are more clans still to be discovered, and two entities with the influence above all clans other than the Akoa.

With the new beasts we have obtained our food supply dwindles once more, and we will need to forage the jungles. Mor tells me we should expect many dangers. Auwana will not be passing through unnoticed for obvious reasons, and we do not know how many denizens of the jungle can fly. However, we have learned that it hosts arakkoa somewhere within it that we may need to be particularly wary of. We must also consider that the flying beasts will only have so many ways to enter the jungle given its thick canopies, limiting our range of clearings from which to enter.

While we have some time before we reach the jungles, we must prepare our plan for once we arrive. It is unlikely that its denizens will ignore us for too long. It appears the ashen plains were home to some of the most ‘unique’ clans by comparison so far. I will have the Dozen and the Nezatl figure how to deal with the native clans, as they are the least alarming, not counting Silas. Our war with the Chanai has depleted our numbers, my objective is to see if any clans might wish to join our tribe. We must also be on the lookout for improving our food supply, though in the meantime hunting in the jungles should be fruitful at least temporarily. The Dozen report the beasts to be large and ferocious, full of meat but full of fight as well. So be careful of who you send before we have established what to expect of these jungles.

Also since there didn’t seem to be terribly strong feelings on what the orcs do, not to mention a tie between you two, I have given them some offers to see what they preferred. They are already uncomfortable being a part of the Launi’Kauhale, though that sentiment is changing with those coming in from the war and now the entire clan being reunited. They still don’t have the numbers or merit to join the council of chiefs, but we could leave them as their own clan in the sense that each clan is a family of its own. That is the normal interpretation after all, we just happen to be made up of the most eccentric clans in the plains. Between the Huanacan, Dozen, and Nezatl it seems the majority of our tribe are made up of clans who are bonded by trials rather than blood. Leaving the orcs to their own offshoot clan renders them outside of any of our five’s direct authority, which might offer them some comfort. Though this still leaves them under the Nezatl’s judgement as far as tribal affairs go, so they can’t quite do whatever they want. I find this arrangement to be favorable to our goals of expanding our tribe even further. Any wayward soul who is not prepared to join our clans could still find a home here this way. So we will see how they settle in over time, and how any further lone additions might find a place to fit in. The Hariwana graciously already prepared homes for them, so the matter of where within the village they shall live has already been settled. I have told them to make sure they view the Launi’Kauhale as if it were a single clan in regards to their interactions with others.

I asked their clan to send one forth to represent them as a champion of the tribe. This is Maloth, the second most accomplished of their number during the battle with the Chanai. The first most accomplished died fighting a werewolf. Maloth is a shaman of another kind from myself. While Jula represents their most knowledgeable, Maloth is their most practical. She does just a few rituals but can do them quickly. She has the power to see the dead and summon a spiritual guardian in the shape of a lion. Though she cannot bind with it as my kin do. She is a fantastic warrior, though her skills as a hunter may need some improvement. The art of tracking is not her strongest suit if there is no spirit to guide her.

She is being trained in the shaman ways by the new orc chieftain Jula as well as being taught a few of my clan’s tricks by Koamalu. Particularly the ability to communicate with the dead. She’s a bit grouchy sometimes but I am told that is a recent thing, so perhaps the loss of her clan is taking some time for her to recover from. I figure she will be useful in assisting our scouts in their adventures as she is the best of their shaman’s that can survive out there on her own. Since the orcs are their own clan she falls under none of us who specifically, so if you have anything you want her to do be sure to summon her yourselves.

As per the vote, from those who voted, we have decided not to be slave takers as a tribe. That is all for now, prepare yourselves and your people for our journey to the jungle. Those of you who haven’t already done so at least. Also look to Mor for assistance in laying any such plans, he has already sent several teams into that place ahead of time.

We have extracted a small harvest of honey for you to try. We’re still being careful with that until we see how harsh the winters can be up here on Auwana. So don’t get too used to it just yet.

Also the elder chief seems to want us to represent the tribe in the upcoming jungles as a first impression. I’m just as surprised as you are, so we might want to figure out what you want me and Nenetl to do.

Also our crafters have been looking a bit into weapons given the apparent need for them we recently went through. Using the designs Mor gave us with the bows and drider silk we’ve managed to produce quite a few useful ones. So we have a bunch of really nice bows laying around now.

As for our own magic, well you have me you know… I’m the most powerful in the clan.

Just because some mythical old man gave you magic powers doesn’t make you the clan’s strongest. Just the weirdest, you still can’t take me in a fight.

Yeah good luck catching me. Though but seriously Xoco, I am the most powerful with magic we have IN CASE YOU FORGOT. Though as for regular magic, we’ve never had any signature tricks as a clan. Most of the girls were slaves so they just know how to work and…well lets not talk about their other talent. No one has ever really pursued any finger waving madness around here other than myself and maybe that one weirdo who swears her ability to sing is a gift from the goddess. Doesn’t help that no one knows how my abilities work, even Alihana can’t figure it out and I have tried very hard to show her how it works. Hrm? Oh right-

Citlanal is a priestess to the trickster god. She claims she can produce any sound through a gift she was given for her faith. Admittedly she can make any sound I have tried asking for. She generally does most of the services since she can project her voice across a great distance. We take her hunting sometimes and have her do mating calls to lure things in. Apparently her ability to manipulate her voice for some reason includes her feet and those of others since she can make the whole hunting party completely silent. Combined with my ability we just disappear.

It’s noise you dummy. She manipulates sounds in general. You manipulate sight, she manipulates hearing.

Right that.

Do you feel threatened now that you aren’t the only magic girl in the clan ever since she became capable of doing that?

No, I’m still the strongest. For all your talk of being the best warrior I would think you could appreciate that Citlanal is screwed if she actually tried to fight me. Jokes aside, I am a warrior and I have defeated literally dozens of others to help rescue half the people we have in the clan these days.

Speaking of which, it might be worth noting that the battle with the Chanai crippled them obviously. Sooo we swept up some of their defenseless women into the Nezatl to help out around town. Keep an eye on them though as they don’t all seem totally aware that they came here voluntarily. Some of them seem to think they are captives of war, even though I asked if they wanted to come or not nicely.

Sawiri is definitely going to be busy for a little while, that is a lot of bones to go through. With the giant rex beast’s bones we could go one of two ways. The first being to simply break them down for a lot of weapons that would help our tribe’s warriors that wield them. Azeri and my own weapon’s are unique as Sawiri can rarely find bones large enough to make things like them. From a beast that large several of these long bone knifes could be made. ((Bonuses to all hero units to hit and damage stats))

Alternatively we could do a much larger project with the entire skeleton. Namely, we could reanimate it permanently. The beast was powerful enough to hold such an enchantment if we convert the spell into a ritual for it. I’m not entirely sure how we would ever get it off the island or back up in particular but it would be a powerful guardian. It took Jarthromoth and several others to bring it down in the first place, imagine if it had no organs or sense of pain. It would still be on the slower side, zombies and all, but it was already kind of slow. We could also put a lot of things on its back.

Finally there is a design Sawiri had to imbue it with our spell that projects force, we could fire gigantic spears from it, and they would move very very fast. Sawiri predicts if we produced special spears for it, that it would be capable of shattering a tree in a single (albeit well placed) shot. Though this would be a massive weapon, not particularly easy to take with us on trips anywhere. Could leave it on the edges of Auwana though, might be able to hit the ground.

On to some other bones, he’s created something interesting from the bones but it remains unfinished. In theory its a way to depart the island without the new beasts, which was the plan. The problem is to build it he needs to build a…contraption on the underside of the island at its central point. The other half of it will be in the center on the top side of the island at least. While we have enough bones from the battle to create his design, he’s not sure how to get the bones…there. Even those who can fly definitely can’t build what amounts to a hut anchored to the underside of rocks. Well they could deliver things, but they can’t quite do the finer arts of craftsmanship while flying past it every few seconds. So the specific issue, is we need to get the Nezatl to the underside of the island with enough stability for them to work on it.

So we sent messengers to the clans to see if any of them might join our tribe. In a lapse of judgement we sent messengers to the clans. Though a few did seem to heed our warning about the crows at least. Helping us pick the population back up a little, though no one of particular significance other than Silas really. Then again, I don’t think the Halik or Witch Doctors even had a champion at all. It appears the two of them intend to remain in Chanai territory and establish relationships with those further in the north that had once contacted the Chanai. We did clean up the battlefield near their new home as you asked at least.

Now with all that being taken care of, I’m headed off to help the Dozen chase down that weird bulked up elf. Good luck with your shelter.

We’ve set about tending to the flying beasts brought in by our deal with Tehanau. We’ve had a couple of demons come to settle in with us after the battle, apparently they felt comfortable being close to Zeltzin and us as we are also somewhat isolated as they like to be. While Silas is a direct clan-mate of theirs, they don’t exactly want to join the dozen and that is a bit of a stricter affair. So they’re with us now, some are teaching Zeltzin a little more about her heritage.

Currently of all the clans to attend the battle, we’re doing the best when it comes to recovering from our losses. Also we’re going to need to build some more huts.

So among the new recruits includes some gnolls who once followed Kinich. We already had a few of those but they definitely make up the bulk. They are the survivors of the battle so we can sufficiently call them veteran warriors now. There was also the earlier mentioned demons who it is worth remembering are physically superior to all other races of their size. Though they heal and reproduce slowly, so once injured they will be out for much longer and their lives are much harder to replace if we were to take a more cynic point of view. Also their bones are very valuable to Sawiri so maybe keep them at a distance from him.

There were also a couple of what are apparently called ‘tabaxi’ among those seeking refuge with us. They’re like gnolls, but cats instead.

A special note for two Girtablilee…girtabulu…girtablilu! I’m still getting used to their name, I had never heard of such a thing before. They are similar to the driders, but scorpions instead of spiders. While there are only two, its worth noting they are quite large and clearly powerful warriors just by the nature of their body. Also they can produce an incredibly potent venom. Much stronger than that of the lamia we already had, and in much greater quantities provided they are well fed. Without weapon’s of Sawiri’s make it can be extremely difficult to wound them due to their armored bodies.

Something that calls itself a behir. Its a snake with legs that can spit lightning, he is also prone to growling at people who get near him a lot. I get the impression Kinich was the first person he ever trusted.

A couple more lamia too, they seem to be all over this territory. I suspect the basilisk in the eastern mountain has something to do with that.

Also obviously the gryphons. I feel kind of bad knowing the Chanai could dominate such creatures, these are not instinctive beasts. A gryphon can be very intelligent, enough to even join our clan. They’re even smarter than our resident owlbear everyone loves. There was also some sort of horse with wings among the bunch, some rather large birds, and a scaled thing that is clearly not a wyvern but isn’t that far off. Bit on the skinny side.

As Hakenu’e mentioned, there are four notable exceptions. They are the true warbeasts we acquired, they are not quite so skittish and much more willing to fight. It should be noted that this is because without the Chanai domination they are already trying to fight everything. I would classify them as being extremely aggressive and far more intelligent than average

Any who wish to use them as flying mounts now that they are no longer under Chanai control is going to need to put in a lot of work to even be able to pet them. While the other beasts might be easier to just let be used as is needed, whoever these four work for are not changing that so easily.

I gave them names too. Majid is a manticore like Hobnil. Majid is a bloodthirsty lunatic who might be traumatized by his time with the Chanai. He already tried to tear my head off as soon as the druid turned around. I am familiar with manticores though thanks to Hobnil, we also know they can understand language if you work with them enough. Any who wish to ride the manticore will have to find a way to deal with his asinine levels of unguided aggression.

Perxtli is…something I’ve never actually seen before. I have no idea where they found her. Perxtli is a little less aggressive than Majid but Kennae informs me she is strictly carnivorous. He actually says its likely her species feeds especially on humans. This one might be a bit of work. If you don’t touch her she doesn’t bite though, but she seems constantly agitated. I think the trick with Perxtli is going to be finding a way to earn her trust.

Usukan is what you might consider an alpha of the gryphons we acquired. Though perhaps patriarch would be more accurate. He is basically the biggest, meanest, and most aggressive of them all, and the other gryphons notably consider him in charge. Unlike the rest of the gryphons, Usukan has no fear of battle. Actually the problem is probably getting him to ever retreat from a fight. Usukan and Majid have already gotten into several fights with each other, which is honestly the only way I can keep both under any form of control by keeping them tired out on each other. Majid is a maniac, but Usukan is proud. He seems to fight on the basis of asserting authority rather than reckless aggression. He also clearly understands tactics and tools. He will not fight like any beast you have met before. Seriously don’t go near that cage, he learned how the door works. I’m convinced the only reason he’s still in there right now is we keep feeding him, I think he thinks its a tribute. Any who wish to ride him will have to prove themselves his superior, and he’s a bit of a stubborn thing.

Vaksha is, thankfully, the most calm of the entire group now that he seems to have gathered what the situation is. He is also the most intelligent, as in I am really worried that the Chanai dominate ability worked on him. He can understand complex directions and spoken language, he just doesn’t really speak himself. He comprehends enough that I could get him to pick what he wanted for dinner by name and having him nod when I picked one he liked. I also managed to describe the Chanai queen to him and get his confirmation that it was her who dominated him. Keep in mind that woman rides a wyvern, and escaped the battle. I’m not convinced she can’t use that spell on humans at this point. Getting him to allow anyone to ride him is less a matter of overcoming his instinct and more a matter of convincing him its worth the time. Might even consider just making him a member of our tribe. On the upside, he doesn’t even need a cage. He’s just sitting over there by the campfire. That being said, Vaksha is still very powerful so approach with some caution. I mean its a five foot tall lion while on all fours, and it can fly.

I have sent the men to chase after Avonaco. We do have some idea of his destination. The survivors recall that the crow folk seemed to want to recruit him, which means they’ll be taking him to their home in the southern side of the plains. Without Ragash, tracking them traditionally be would slow so they have decided to try to either intercept them or chase them all the way back to the village. However, in surveying the scene some of our men learned something interesting from the Halik. Avonaco was not the only one they took, at least not the only one of note. They also took Eerihild while she was still unconscious from fighting Hakenu’e. We’re not sure if they intend to recruit or sacrifice her, though this could be…an interesting development. She and Avonaco are both exceptional warriors, without the one they called Azeri it might be hard for them to transport the two as prisoners. Which might give us time to catch them. Obviously if they make it all the way to their village we would need to launch another war to get in there. I will update you as I learn more, currently the chase goes on across the plains.

Unfortunately, Sawiri cannot create a tracking charm to find items he has not even seen in some while. Though I suspect this is less a matter of limitation and more a matter of him not being able to remember more than half the things he’s made or how they worked. His mind is strong but unsteady. Interestingly though, while he can’t find his own items the orcs can. The bones he enchants seem to be detectable to their ability to see beyond the living. There is a limit of distance on that, but it is at least something similar to what you were looking for.

The Travelers, and Sakazai, remain alongside the Kapiya. The bridges are fairly simple, perhaps better made than most things we have seen for how few materials they utilize. Apparently part of the secret to their strongest bridges is wounding the trees where they will be anchored and letting the trees heal around the anchors. Which reveals something interesting to us, the larger trees in that jungle can heal themselves. Surprisingly quickly. I suspect their wood might have some…interesting properties. Notably they make the bridges out of this wood too. They have never actually built one so long that it didn’t work, so the maximum length is a question they cannot answer.

As for the jungle’s resources, they gave us a fairly comprehensive list of things that are edible. Meat is available if you can kill anything before it kills you, and perhaps inadvertently they revealed the jungle trees might have some interesting properties they have never really compared against normal wood. They also know of some plants that have medicinal value, and fruit is their primary sustenance so there was quite a long list of those things.

With proper preparation, Sakazai was able to locate one of the ‘lairs’ of the giant snakes. Notably, it seems to just curl itself up intertwined between roots of the giant jungle trees to lurk among the foliage. Though it is probably not worth hunting for the kill until the island is closer so we can transport any spoils of the kill back to Auwana. Though I will say that idea you’re thinking of was probably sarcasm. Sawiri was indicating that his magic bones didn’t have much application in making a rope that long. Well perhaps not sarcasm, more so grand plotting. I still doubt even those large snakes would cover a fraction of the distance between Auwana and the ground. Though their bones may yet have other uses.

Have fun on your trip with Silas. I do hope Xacalli is worth all this trouble though.