So…who do you want to send to go see about the Halik?

Also in regards to next years celebration, our clan is particularly the more talented with crafts so maybe we should weave some over the top display, AND THEN SET IT ON FIRE! Or y’know, something more subtle. Though I think the gods would prefer sacrifices that are big and glowy rather than a small jar of something sweet…maybe a big thing filled with jars of sweet things at the same time.

As for the bees, so far they don’t seem to like the hollowed out log idea. We’ve been picking at their hives to try and see what they like. I think we need to shape the log a bit more carefully than just hollowing it out. Just hollowing out one end also hasn’t yielded much success. We’re still working on the idea basically.

I’ve had some of the younger members start looking on working just with bees to hopefully allow for this whole specialization idea you mention to take root overall.

 

 

It will still be a few weeks before we meet the orcs up here, as they are down at the outpost and more or less at the mercy of the dozen until we can pick them up. Hopefully that doesn’t scare them off as the smaller camp is filled with only our rougher sort for doing work down in the plains. Though we could be a bit sneaky and try to befriend them before the beastkin to get them to teach us some of that shaman stuff before they hear about some weird trend of keeping us out of it *cough*.

Yeah we’ve still got nothing on the rock, though the largest one we originally were intending to extract is being preserved at my place in case there is some value to it. We may need to find some sort of rock based expert.

Also I got banned form storytelling around the fire. Not sure why.

As for-

As for the bone concepts. I’m simply making them much harder and more durable, as long as you can be creative with the pre-existing shape of the bones they’re quite useful. I use them to hold up my shelves. Also by splitting them, the sharp point that remains can sometimes be used to scratch at wood.

We also use them to crack chunks of rock. Pickaxes and all.

 

 

 

Ragash and Avonaco have escorted the orcs to the camp and left them under the care of the others we have guarding the camp, they’ve now set off to find the other group. Updates on that as it progresses, they have a bit of a walk ahead of them.

 

Attempting to mess with the rocks has yielded similar results, they do always move upwards. Thankfully due to our experience with the Hariwana basket’s tendency to shoot off into the sky, we had taken some preparations for such a situation. Turns out our strongest guy doesn’t weigh enough to really wrestle down these rocks, it almost tore him in half when the rope caught him.

Tracking the “murderous monster” has proven a bit more difficult than expected, but some interesting details have been gleaned. It clearly isn’t alone, its tracks lead into campsites with groups of other varied tracks that most notably includes some monstrous creatures. This is part of what makes it a little difficult to track, it can disappear among these camp sites and be a little tricky to find which set that leaves the camp might belong to it. It also seems to disappear completely sometimes within these groups. Possibly even catching rides to new places. There have been several scenes of massacre discovered on this mission, though most recently the trackers found it eventually traveled to the demon clan’s village. What was most interesting is that the demon clan seems to be fine, as if they weren’t a target of any sort. The trail seems to get lost in there due to the active use of the camp removing a lot of the traces we could utilize. Also we aren’t entirely sure if this creature was there before or after some of the other marks of its passing we discovered. The demons might have more information, but its up to you if and who you might want to send to question about such a thing.

Further details reveal these other presences around it are also somewhat aloof, it shows signs of guerilla tactics. While the primary figure of interest seems to just walk into things to destroy them, the rest of its companions have shown more hit and run style attacks onto certain other camps.

We’ve bolstered the guard down at the camp as specified, and as it is we have three teams moving around the plains tracking down various things of interest.

As for our last tracking project, the search for Coszacatl might be an overlapping interest. At the old Huanacan camp there are tracks to indicate that an ooze has visited the area. Likely Coszacatl returning home. What looks like a large trail in the dirt, indicating a slime, reaches a specific spot and then starts walking on two feet. Feet missing an arch and with toes that seem almost fused together. We have reason to believe the wandering monster we’re looking for is in fact Coszacatl.

Iiniwa revealed to us she has the ability to take on humanoid shapes provided she has a humanoid’s skeleton to anchor herself to. There were a lot of those after the raid. He has also confirmed that she is physically capable of the kind of carnage we’ve been uncovering. Just that it is out of her personality to do so, though that being said I suspect coming home to find all of her clan missing and the camp burned down could have sent on her on a blood fueled quest for vengeance. Which would explain why all these bodies are uneaten, unpillaged, and left to rot.

On the one hand this is fortuitous for us, tactically at least albeit a tad less exciting. She is unlikely to cause much harm to us and it is simply a matter of finding her before she gets herself killed by pissing off everyone in the territory with indiscriminate murder. As long as whoever finds her can prove that they know where her people are. To benefit this, Jarth has sent some people down to help find her alongside our trackers so they can hopefully reason with her.

We could put some wood around the basket I suppose.

As for the flying invaders, they’re starting to clear out now. Mostly because we’ve murdered a good few of them. Our experiment in throwing one overboard with the bone charm has proven a resounding success. It actually survived the fall, albeit with some injury. It broke a few bones on impact with the ground but I had the idea of using two charms this time and threw another one off. That time there was no major injuries.

In regards to the black stone the Hariwana are investigating, it is similar to obsidian in appearance but only appearance. Attempts to chip it do not work to produce obsidian blades as it much more difficult to fracture and does not break in the same patterns as obsidian. Also we have obsidian weapons already so we had something to compare it to in order to verify that it is indeed a different kind of rock.

 

 

With the latest information from the Dozen’s trackers looking for Coszacatl, it seems indeed wise that we sent some of ours with them to help look for her. Though their suspicions of her actions do raise some concern. Coszacatl is a very lethargic creature, at least for most of the time we’ve known her. Seeing that she might be on some blood fueled rampage across the plains is worrisome though at least understandable. To her it might seem as if we were wiped out by the Chanai, along with her children. This could however affect the wars going on down below, with the crow folk and the Chanai in active war, a rising resistance group the orcs mentioned, and now Coszacatl running amuck the whole territory might end up in somehow even worse shape. I suppose its a good thing we came to this island after all.

I am concerned she might draw attention to herself before we can find her though. While she is the most dangerous member of our clan besides yourself, the Chanai’s new chief is not one to be trifled with, especially alone. Also the crow folk’s average warrior is a threat to any hero, their best are rivals to the dozen due to the strange powers the king of crows granted them. I mention this because left unchecked, Coszacatl is going to get the attention of other major warriors rather than the ones she is preying on.

As for aquatic creatures, we may have to venture a little further to find anything with bones of note. The plains lack for large aquatic life, or really anything more significant than some fish in the old ponds.

The rock has been secured for now at least. Most of our visitors have either joined our cause, even if tentatively, or been abducted and experimented on between the Dozen and Sawiri from the Hariwana. We still see birds and maybe some stragglers, but with the one we have recruited a simple station of maybe an extra couple of people to watch over the rock should be enough to keep it under control. Though who knows however many might be instead lurking in the forests, at least those tend to be less dangerous.