We sent some honey to the Milani though not sure how well that makes up for the wall. They were kind of attached to that wall, lately they’ve been trying to rebuild what they can of it but with their druid being so seriously wounded its taking them some time.

Kaya is flying out deep west to see what might be in that general direction. That will probably take her a little while.

Auwana is still passing through the jungle at its meandering pace. I would take a guess we won’t really be leaving for a few months at the earliest. Also it is sort of drifting around now and then not really consistently moving in one direction which isn’t making it get anywhere any faster.

– Suggest to the Akoa Underwater Basket Weaving.
– Undertake Silk weaving.
– How are the Druid-learners doing?

Strictly bone as far as I’ve been able to tell.

MOVING ON. I suppose we could try trading with the Akoa and Kapiya, though what do we want from them? Ever since moving to Auwana some of the resources we used to collect so we didn’t have to go do anything are a bit easier to get.

Sending the skeleton into the water was able to scrape out large amounts of gunk, also embed some of it into the dirt a bit more from all the stirring around. So some progress made at least.

So the Vanguard went after eight limbs of fun and encountered a problem. They can’t find her. There are several signs of her being in the area, such as how Kuari and their bone buddy went missing and have not been seen since their last screams of sheer terror, but it turns out its really hard to catch someone who can move through the trees like that. Also the area seems to have escalated into a bit of  a warzone, Nihaul is still injured from his encounter with Xiomac and she seems to have noticed it. As it so happens, she has convinced many very large pairs of fangs to try and hunt the crow out of the territory. Then we arrived, and while she’s keen to keep a distance she does seem to linger within her territory and have a lot of patience for ambush hunting. Which gets hard to focus on while all the other monsters in the area keep attacking too.

On similar notes, the hunt for the great stalker goes on and while the team is getting closer to something meaningful it is still a weirdly difficult thing to find. Alihana mentioned that there is a chance the so called “great” stalker might not be one of the stalkers at all, but some sort of druid that has a preferred form of a stalker. Which might be why its so hard to find. Other suggestions included it being someone’s totem animal that comes in as a summon, it being actually a shadow creature, and basically every possible explanation for ‘its not a beast’. You may also refer to Kennae who is banging his head against a tree trying to find this thing.

The oozes can climb trees quite well, though not necessarily by slithering. More of a gripping action apparently, and spreading themselves out so they have more surface contact with the tree. Coszacatl and the elder oozes notably just form spikes to crawl up with as they have the ability to make a harder version of the slime. I’m not entirely sure about the mechanics of it, though its the trick to Coszacatl’s weapon of choice. As for eating a bit of the canopy, theoretically yes that would let the gryphons break through. The second problem is what awaits them on the ground, while that problem can be slightly ignored it is worth noting how many people are already dead or maimed due to the monsters that dwell along the jungle floor.

As for the web idea, that is a strong ‘maybe’. Not sure how much the branches will spring back to their normal state when we try to make an opening that large. Though it would be a good way to keep things from jumping out of the canopy onto passing gryphons when they go to land or take off.

The team of scouts has been deployed to the far northern jungle to see what they might find. Though that’ll be awhile before we hear anything of it.

If it wasn’t made by shamanism, and even if it was, odds are I cannot tell how it works or what made any such beasts. I have never heard of a magic that could create a creature before, aside from summoning though you will notice those are never exact counterparts.

I have no strong feelings one way or another about the old bull name that people have come to know me by. I suppose it works, though I wonder how old people think I actually am.

Jarth is fairly old, I have known him awhile.

A totem spirit is not innate to who you are or when you learn the ability. It is more of a random chance if two personalities can agree with one another. The spirits linger and look for something to ground them to the world a little longer. Shamans simply are the best thing to ground themselves to. My spirit being a bull is just random chance.

The Akoa tend to utilize their druid magic heavily in how they make all the things. Woven branches and vines make up the most of their stuff. The tree they live on has conveniently grown with thick branches to act as pathways and their idea of a personal hut is to weave smaller branches and let them dry out over time while they trap a living branch that still grows leaves to complete the shelter. Stuff like that. Basically basket weaving to the extreme.

The Milani are currently…well they could be doing better. Their protector is gravely injured thanks to Nihaul and we kind of set their wall on fire so that will take awhile to replace. Xiomac left them with the giant snake thing though to keep a lookout until they stabilize. Also they’re not terribly fond of us.

I made a bunch of logs people can sit on. That’s a pew right?

Also yes otters are a pain to stitch together and a sacred animal. Also we’re still refining the art of weaving with silk. We can do a lot with it though not quite to the same level as the Wenhai to the south. Though thats more an issue of practice and creativity over technique. Also dyes. They have a lot more dyes I’ve noticed. Though we do use silk in the outfits of those who travel abroad a lot to help hold their stuff together better simply due to strength. Though full clothes made of it is kind of an undertaking.

The orcs have fallen into the traps a few times and been painted blue, though they have not exhibited much in the way of teleportation abilities.

In regards to vines, yes we can. They died from the cold. It was pretty neat. It is worth remembering the edges of the island are colder thanks to the whole pointy needle leaf trees. Also the lack of forever fire faggots.

Rohaka is still with the driders, they’re walking over to the bone squads so give that a little bit.

The vanguard have been deployed. They have to land near the border edges and pursue towards the falls a bit first. Given the spider girl’s overt hostility now, attempting to land in via giant bird might give her a bit more of an advantage then is desirable.

According to the Nezatl diplomats, some of them are quite good with animals…in fact Tehanau is. Who would have guessed? That also tells us the level of assistance that can be provided with Majid.

Problem with hiring a druid, what do you pay them with? They grow food better than we do, and they don’t carry much for weapons given the whole shapeshifting thing. Not to mention Xiomac makes better stuff than I do. Which is also the problem with the weapons trade idea. Unless we kill Xiomac for Xacalli first, then we can swoop right in on that.

Also be wary of touching any of the bone trinkets I left hanging kind of high up on people’s huts. Unless you want to sneeze a lot.

At least the oozes are unlikely to eat much in the ponds at all given how much grows above water for them, and their general dislike of water. Though it should be noted water production is down a bit here at the village since we still rely on the oozes to filter it. Which has kept a lot of strain on them. Actually three left the clan over it and just wandered off into the jungle on their own.

Though Coszacatl did find quite a few bodies of water that we’ve marked down. Kennae however is busy chasing a giant stealth creature so he hasn’t been able to look in on their potential for egg content. To which note, he has managed to find out the general territory of the creature but not so much actually finding it. It tends to move around a lot and its tracks are only found sparsely due to how it moves. Though Kennae has narrowed down the territory enough to know where to look.

((You left the island, the advisor can no longer update you until you return. Also since there is no southern landing zone its a bit of a trip))

 Stories of Lore 10

Problem, diplomats and scouts aren’t particularly good at learning advanced clothes crafting. Also the Wenhai didn’t want to give up the techniques anyways, something something signature trade.

Also I’ve sent some of those who were interested to the Akoa to see if they can pick up any of the art of druid magic. So we’ll see how that goes. At least so far the elves are being helpful.

I suppose you could consider the temple done…though it could probably use improvements. I’m sure the Nezatl will make use of it to preach their religion anyways though. It’d work a bit better if we could cover it with otter fur though.

I suppose after the orc incident, and given our recruitment policy, additional huts just laying around wouldn’t be a bad thing. Also makes our village look bigger if anyone manages to fly up and scout us. Oh though don’t forget, the ritual circle has a bunch of empty houses already just there to make it look less like a big important thing very far away from the village. That arakkoa of ours still lives over there by himself.

Oh so if Xiomac is coming here, I wonder if he can learn all the bones know just by looking at those things I made. Do beholders have noses? What if he learns to sneeze through your sneeze ring. Hold on I’m going to go make some very strange ornaments to hang around the village.

I’ve sent some of the apprentices down to the Akoa leaf ears, as thats our only current landing zone. They’ve been wandering around looking for anything interesting. Also two of them are dead already. I have their bones too now.

I have drawn a leaf meat container onto a bone. So far no one knows what it is. Though I see your efforts are coming along if only slightly. Maybe some day the whole plains will know of your leafy meat containers that help you poop.

Also the spectacular six are back at the Akoa village now. Rohaka is out…doing something or other. Alihana is-

*Walks in, slaps you, and leaves*

-Passing through on her way down to the Kapiya village to help Kennae out. Was faster walk to the Akoa in order to fly back, take the circle down, and then walk to Kapiya. Otherwise she’d have just been walking through the jungle to the area Kennae is working in by herself for ages. Wait what do you mean I’m going too?

We have deployed additional driders to recover our missing one.

Also with the whole ‘but first’ command, we still don’t know where Xiomac is. Alihana is trying to lure him to the island, but we have no idea how long it will take him to be successfully lured. So I just had Kennae go hunt in the meantime, its not too far of a trip to get back.

As for making friends with Vaksha, it is plausible at least. He’s pretty smart, and is just hanging around camp all the time anyways.

Given the climate of the jungle and the prevalence of giant snakes, we’ve sent some of the snake people to go exploring for anything interesting. The driders are also still out there along with Kennae and the gnolls. Coszacatl and her eldest daughters are also down there visiting the Milani. So that is the state of our scouting affairs.

Wehilani went to Xacalli to see what could be arranged. Xacalli would only agree to meet with any of us if Hakenu’e himself went. Notably though she demanded to stay within Ranoni’s territory. Which we should hope don’t realize Sakazai is anywhere nearby or that we have any association with her. She didn’t exactly keep our people hostage but Silas is in no state to be moved, let alone halfway across the jungle back to the Akoa where we can pick him up. We may have to look more into southern options for the gryphons.

Xiomac is liable to appear to us at an unknown time in the future as it suits him for further discussion. Xacalli has agreed to meet at the very least so that can be predicted. Notably the two forces in this conflict have different variations of the story but they don’t necessarily contradict each other when it comes to the broader strokes of the picture. However, several iterations of this tale involve a figure supposedly no one has ever seen. It actually seems suspicious to me that despite the conflict in front of our faces, there is a lot of ties to another possibly much greater force that plays no direct part in what is going on.

Avonaco managed to play the role of messenger, with some walking, but the three groups are a great distance away from where we have now confirmed Mikaere to be. So they will be traveling for awhile.

Alihana said your blinders look and feel silly.

Stories of Lore 9

So as it turns out the Wenhai clan, and several others from that area, do not believe a thing we’re saying about the giant floating island. It does not help that half of our girls tend to say and do very eccentric things a lot. We offered to show them but the distance needed to be traveled just to see if the weird girls really had a flying island was apparently not too enticing.

Nenetl and Citlanal are making their way to the Milani clan to see if they’re more responsive to us then the Dozen and ms spooks a lot.

So far the orcs are no longer interested in being painted blue. We have been constructing an elaborate pitfall trap in response.

As it turns out, druids can’t turn into insects so bees aren’t working. Though they did give some tips on it we’re working to implement. Also I brought you some more samples from the test hives. As for half-elves…I mean we can try seducing some of them but Kaya is the only one at the Akoa village right now and she’s not quite the right person for the job. I’m afraid she might try to trick them into sticking their dick into a bear…or a beehive to keep up with the theme. She’s…weird like that. Also asking for druid magic didn’t actually seem that hard, though they stuck to really basic explanations of what druidism is not necessarily how to do it. Lot of meditating though.

So we sent the vanguard team with Alihana and that resulted in a rather large ‘scouting’ team. It may have unsettled the arakkoa slightly to see so many just wandering on in like that. Though the attempts to take a bit of a detour to establish a birdy landing spot didn’t work out because Alihana doesn’t like delaying the time it will take for her to complete her mission and come slap you I’m sure. I have an earring that keeps your cheeks from turning red afterward if you’d like. I call it the anti slap toe ring. The toe is so she doesn’t know where I’m keeping it hehehe.

Also I see no reason I cannot help with this leaf meat container you speak of. Mine turned out fine.

Our more diplomatic tribe members apparently don’t listen to you when you’re just talking to me. Should have some sort of pow-wow with them in a place where you can have discordant discourse.

As for the bone enchantment, need something attuned to force to be that specific. The most of my stockpile is a few lightning lizards, and some stompy lizards and a lot of humanoid ones from our battle with the Chanai.

I doubt even if we got the whole clan to do that ritual that we could even convince Auwana to budge. I WILL TRY THOUGH!

. . .2 days later

DIDN’T WORK.

Also finding leaves wasn’t too hard, though hauling them up took awhile though its not like we’re lacking for food right now. That and the green feathers are a lot easier to find than fruit where monsters won’t try to eat you. Now we have a treeasaurus rex guardian.

Have fun with the bitey manticore thing. I’ll be back here.

So far the adventures of Chants and Majid can be summarized as a lot of biting. Though that was to be expected.

As for breeding locations, the larger issue is actually the number of different species we have. For example, I am the only Illithid here, also my mate is a demon. The clan is mostly made of oozes purely because Coszacatl can reproduce on her own just by overeating. The next problem is those we have multiples of tend to be siblings, see Uyitzan for example. We do have a litter of kobolds going though those things always reproduce like crazy no matter what you do. We did set up some nice cave spots for the snake people though, they are a bit more finnicky about when and where to lay eggs and we have a good few of them.

So scrying for the drider has good news and bad news. Good news, she’s not dead. Bad news, she’s currently barely avoiding being eaten. There are a lot of things that snack on spiders, and she seems to have never quite reached her destination where the spider is queen. Though that might have unintended consequences if they were to find each other in the current state of things.

We’ve rallied up some boys to go with the team to meet the demon druid. Most notably, not all demons. Coszacatl is going because she feels like it, along with a couple others from her brood.

So the hunt for the great stalker is going to need someone better at hunting sneaky things. I can go, though this is really Kennae’s domain of expertise. Alternatively, gnolls are pretty good at it too.

So when sent down through the teleport ritual circle, people land on the canopy. Its a good thing we tested this with feather tokens prepared. Its not too rough though, as the canopy is thick enough that they can usually grab onto something.

Also Alihana is still around in the jungle so can’t experiment with blinders just yet.

So the diplomats and their escorts have turned into a whole…thing on a way to contact this demon druid of the angry pebble throwing clan. We’ll see how that goes. They’re currently walking.

Our teams in the south are still just wandering around for the most part. A few clans here and there seem at least interested in the strange guests and the Nezatl have worked out some good relations. Though we’re kind of far away to actually do any trade and their grasslands seems oddly devoid of things we can work as sellswords for in the short term.

As for Avonaco, he got over that last week with a bit of help from Sawiri. Though they’re still a bit fragile and he’s not helping his recovery by doing so many pushups.

The guards at the Kapiya are moving on with the Nezatl now towards the Milani…as well as the wave of other people we have going there. I have a feeling by the end of this we’re either going to have a hear to heart discussion with that druid or kill a clan.

Because bones contain the essence of those they once inhabited. Also I have no idea why, that’s just what it works on. I’m not a magician.