Stories of Lore 15

 

Battle reports are more about numbers and stats so its more of my thing than your advisors. Here we go.

 

 

Island Defense

Nezatl: 12 kills 8 deaths
Nenetl: Dead | Battled Dalyn

Hariwana: 16 kills 6 deaths
Rohaka: 4 kills, 1 boss kill, minor injuries | Battled druid boss
T-Rex bone guardian: 18 kills, severe injuries | Battled Dalyn and ate a bunch of birds

Huanacan: 4 kills, 2 deaths
Iiniwa: Dead | Battled druid boss, died from venom

Dozen: 34 kills, 1 death

Xiaoshen: 8 kills, 4 deaths
Laisun: 4 kills, severe injury (broken arm) | Defended Xiaoshen and Nezatl sector, battled Dalyn
Zhuan: 2 kills, severe injury (venom) | Defended Xiaoshen sector, battled Dalyn
Caowei: 3 kills, uninjured | Ran around defending Xioashen sector from arakkkoa

Beastkin: 18 kills, 7 deaths
Hakenu’e: Severe injuries | Battled Dalyn
Koamalu: 3 kills no injuries  |  Reinforced Hariwana sector
Usukan: 4 kills, Defeated druid boss. Minor injuries.

Orc Clan: 7 kills, 0 deaths  | Defended their sector from light arakkoa attacks. Put out fires.

Pride Clan: 0 kills 0 deaths  | Did next to nothing, except convince Esin to help
Esin: Killed Dalyn, no injuries.

Akoa Defense

Kaya: 6 kills, uninjured   | Showed up cuz she felt like it. Ran around erratically and did a lot of damage.
Maxhui: 2 kills, light injuries | Part of initial ‘wtf is happening’ scramble
Citlanal: Acted as strategic relay, uninjured, did no fighting.
The Leper: 8 kills, light injuries. defeated northern druid | Defended choke point against boss
The Other: 6 kills, defeated northern druid injured    | Defended choke point against boss
Lokala’i: 8 kills, light injuries | Sallied and attacked the enemy
Tehenau: 3 kills, no injuries | Defended treatment area for injured

Xiomac Ambush

Wehilani: Defeated the 2nd demon druid and damaged armored serpent. Light injuries
Kennae: Got a lot of damage in. No injuries.
Alihana: Killed 4th and 7th demon druids. Comatose.
Sawiri: Carried Alihana away and annoyed people by shouting obscenities he made up.
Taike: Defeated Arakkoa lieutenant, did very high damage to three other enemies. Severely injured, but unaffected.
Silas: Killed Rekial (champion you didn’t meet), Lost to Arakkoa Champion and Tahi’o (village you never met) champion teaming up on him. Crippled Tahi’o. Severe injuries.
Sakazai: Racked up backstab damage. Minor Injuries.
Avonaco & Perxtli: Defeated 3rd demon druid, killed by Rekial
Alekona: Defeated armored serpent boss (with help). No injuries.
Necatztlal: Defeated Arakkoa Champion, defeated by 2nd druid. Severe injuries
Maloth: Damaged armored serpent boss, defeated 5th druid, defeated by 7th druid
Kuari: Defeated by 7th druid, did damage to Rekial
Alauna’i: Defeated 6th druid and Arakkoa Champion, damaged armored serpent
Mikaere: Defeated 8th and 9th demon druids. Killed by Xiomac.
Xacalli: Killed Xiomac. No injuries.

Hakenu’e is still recovering from his injuries, so I will conduct the tribal council today. It would appear Xiomac had been planning to cripple us with a surprise attack after learning the southern village had been attacked. While he knew the Akoa were involved, he suspected we had a hand to play in it though did not realize how large. It also seemed he expected Esin to help him instead of turn on Dalyn. He clearly did not pay attention to Esin’s… qualms.

We caught Xiomac as he was preparing to attack the Akoa, which was apparently the main focus of his attention and why all of the guardians were with him for one massive assault. They would have met up with the attack force comprised of several human villages and overwhelmed the Akoa together. We disrupted this plan and his elite forces remained split from his numerous ones.

The Akoa were able to defend their home with only one champion showing up to that attack. Three or four smaller clans were wiped out attempting that attack expecting reinforcement from Xiomac and his guardians which would have definitely turned the tide.

We were able to defend Auwana though there has been some damage. The fires didn’t spread too far though, while several huts were burned down it is less than a tenth of them. Those who are currently without homes can seek refuge at the empty village in the center of the island or the temple of Auwana while repairs are being made.

The assault of Xiomac was costly, as it turned out all of his best warriors except Dalyn were with him to prepare for the assault on the Akoa. Though in the end, we are victorious.

In the aftermath, we need to focus on rebuilding a little and so do the Akoa. The winds are growing stronger now though, and we find ourselves moving northward. If you have any unfinished business in the jungles, I advise taking care of them soon.

We had a chance to meet the archdruid, who stopped by to give us a very large seed for a tree that supposedly should help clean up the lake. Even if it is about to freeze over, its still nice to have. Other tidbits we managed to have answered is we learned that Esin is a byproduct of the Archdruid’s…creature making. Which explains her size for a demon.

. . . my name is Tlexictli. I’m your cousin.

Also in regards to this tournament thing you seem interested in, we could combine it with the festival plans we still have that we didn’t do this year due to the island still being new overall. Though it will be awhile before the year has passed, so we could do it sooner as a separate thing. The problem is certain people would not be allowed to compete as their entire fighting style is…unrecoverable.

Also Culures sounds somehow offensive and I’m not sure why.

As for “quests” I’m not really sure of any in particular. Kaya is currently busy standing ready with the team that is going to go after Xiomac. So that is probably a quest. Unless you wanted to start a new one and just go chasing after some obscure goal you invent based on the information we already have about the jungle and its denizens.

As for silk weaving, we’ve technically done something similar before just not on the scale the Xiaoshen like to do it. They seriously have people who spend all day everyday just weaving unnecessarily intricate things. I’ll have some of the girls try it out and see how it goes, if it catches on we’re definitely going to need a lot of people working on it I suppose.

This…government thing you speak of is getting confusing. I’ll leave that to you, I just need to update you on the major news after all.  Actually that’s Alihana’s job but she is sleeping…and she will be sleeping for awhile.

 

We’ve opted to name the original village as suggested, though people notably call it just “Pu’uwai” for short. The names might take some getting used to.

After the battle we have amassed a large collection of dead birds, we have been taking their feathers, blood, and bones one at a time. Though it is hard work processing so many, not to mention our own dead. Though Sawiri says we could make a bunch more of those tokens Mor uses to jump off the island at least. We’re working them on storing them in their new designated areas instead of just letting them pile up behind Sawiri and Alihana’s home.

Also Xiomacs remains were recovered by Taike extra fresh alongside his companions. Sawiri says he could make one of a number of options, only one though as he was mostly just a skull.

We could reanimate it as we did the rex skeleton and add to our list of bone guardians but it’d just be a floating skull with a big mouth.
Sawiri says there is a way to use it to enhance the lightning circle to possibly make it go back up which would give us a consistent way to go up and down from the island without flight.
Another option is a special weapon that can raise a barrier that deflects any magic that should impact it.
Also we could mount it on the bone guardian and make it shoot lasers.
Finally there is a method by which it could be used to store a single cast of any spell. For example, charging it with Alihana’s fire would let anyone use the spell at least once without needing to know how to do it. Which could add some utility to our options provided we know the spell to charge it with.

The idea of making a massive tent network near the temple is…one that no one has any idea what you’re trying to talk about. They could theoretically do it though they have no idea if that’ll actually keep anyone warm.

 

In taking stock of the winter ready among our tribe. The oozes notably stand out as doing the worst in the cold. We may need to fix the water issue before then as they won’t be filtering the water when the air and the water are literally ice cold.

The Snake folk also stand to fare badly.

Gnolls will do a bit better than usual and the owlbears will be fine. The Arakkoa are better suited to the winter than the harpies but the harpies are not enormously worse off compared to the usual folk. If anything they’re in a slightly better position just not good enough to ignore the environmental challenges.

Seriously though someone better save the oozes.

As for Pride Village, they might be worse off than the lakeside village because they cannot seek respite at the temple so easily. Not to mention getting firewood up to their cliff can be a bit more difficult than normal.

To which end if we don’t want to cut down all the trees on Auwana for firewood, we may consider harvesting that as well.

Also no I can’t enhance the lingering nature of any spirit by knowing them when they were alive.

I can’t imagine why this mechanic wouldn’t be allowed to exist. Hrmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

 

I suppose you could argue any given way in regards to the beastkin being the ruling clan. Hakenu’e is undisputed as the leader of the tribe, I mean if he tells you to do something you’re going to do it. Whether or not his successor will carry the same authority is another matter. We’ve never really discussed the position of power Hakenu’e holds since he doesn’t use it very much. He just sort of…advises. Though when it comes down to it, I imagine his command would carry enough weight to force things to go his way unless he said something impressively stupid enough to make us lose faith in him.

The Travelers appear to have broken off from their loop to assist Lokala’i and the Akoa after provoking Xiomac successfully. They do tend to…do whatever they want half the time.

Lokala’i has agreed to come along with us as a member of the Dozen, his reasoning being that the jungle was not going to need him anymore now that the archdruid was back. Also he is sick of all the spiders, ticks, mosquitos, and other such giant insects that bite him all the time. He is pushing to try and get a weapon like Alihana’s though, whiiich Sawiri isn’t sure can be made as hers is made from an especially large and weirdly shaped bone.

Xacalli has also agreed to join but notes that she is not a full time warrior. She is mostly running the healing hut in the village as our tribes only capable medicine woman. After years of fighting Xiomac I think she is just a little burnt out and wants to take it easy and resume her studying. She’ll be available if her talents are required but is liable to refuse scouting missions or anything else of the ilk that has no specific need of her. I will point out she is the strongest combatant we have though. Strongest not most skilled, she has an enormous amount of durability and strength so she can overpower most people easily, and even if the opponent is skilled enough to fight her they might not be powerful enough to do any significant damage.

Also that girl Sakazai brought back from the Ranoni is Xacalli’s apprentice in medicine now so we’re getting some progress made on people who can prevent us from dying all the time.

You see I was packing my things to head to the northern jungles edges…then we got attacked and I got poisoned. So…I’ll just be sitting here for a little bit.

Laisun managed to make her trip into the jungle to bring back some prey, though is currently incapacitated from further fighting for a little while since the attack happened after her return. Notably her hunting adventures got her almost killed again while attacking some very large creature, the Dozen seem to bring out a certain side of her.

We are helping the other clans…families…whatever with the great stitchings to see if the heat can be dispersed over more locations to brace ourselves for the winter. I have confirmed that Alihana can in fact create a fire anywhere at any time, though she’s currently unconscious after her battle with Xiomac and I am informed she will not be awake for some time…and even then she will not be fully functional. Apparently she has the ability to become enormously powerful for a brief period of time but it takes a toll on her equivalent to having lost the fight anyways. An ability they made use of during the battles.

A lot of our plans for moving in have been disrupted a little by the sudden attack on Auwana. We’ve worked to prioritize the housing situation, which was fine until a tenth of the homes in the village were set aflame in the attack. Though the Hariwana were most affected as they appeared to be the target of it all. Conveniently, the village seems to have a knack for building more homes as they were already planning to build more in case yet another clan climbed aboard with us.

A thought occurs though. With the new system they’ve put in place regarding the families and clans, you hold a central chief position as our clan was not a broken mess when it came to the tribe like the orcs or newly grown as with the Pride clan. I wonder if a family’s power at the table will be affected by who can bring in the most clans under their family in the coming while.

The weavers continue their work to make this leather and silk clothing. Though really its more composed of hide than anything else with the silk being used to bind it together securely and make it less scratchy on the skin.

As to the enchantment of silk, the Hariwana still haven’t quite found a way to do it to anything other than bones. Had they befriended Xiomac that might have changed, but I’m only alive because they befriended Xacalli so I’m not going to complain about that.

Since the rice is in no position to be planted just yet, the farmers suggestion is harvesting the trees of the jungle for fruit that could hopefully be stored for awhile. The hunting parties to the north along the river have been able to find enough to work with, they being open plains like we are used to.

Related to that mission I was supposed to be on, Notably there are a lot of goblins up north. Caowei says this is because gnolls dominate the areas further south where it is warmer and the goblins dominate the north out of necessity since they can’t compete with the gnolls. Hunting should be okay up there though, as it is similar to the grasslands.

 

The beasts of the White Lands are not so different from those anywhere else, at least in terms of how easy they are to hunt. I would say the jungle we lurk above now has greater dangers from the stories of the others. That being said, its not the power of the beasts but the population of them. There are far fewer opportunities to find large prey, this is not only due to how much more scarce food is but how the natives are prolific hunters. It has produced a notable absence of beasts across the land, and within their culture exists the title of “manslayer” for all beasts who have proven their ability to remain a beast instead of a meal by defeating their hunters. Though not all hunters are created equal, so the title is not always a great indicator. Laisun can deal with most creatures I have encountered there, except for the Great Wolf. Though aforementioned Great Wolf is more man than beast and can be reasoned with, he leads a clan of similarly afflicted. They are called “werewolves”. The Great Wolf is probably on par with this Xiomac, so it might be best to avoid his ire. He spends most of his life wandering the open plains hunting though, so while this contributes to the lack of things for us to hunt it does bode well that we can avoid his attention as he isn’t very interested in other people.