Fantasy RPG Forum - Standing Trials

Qit'ria wrapped her cloak tight around her, stalking through the light snows, watching her breath crystallize before her. Qit was cursing her ill prepared nature for this winter, she'd not expected it to come as cold nor as quickly as it had. She was wearing all the layers of clothes she owned, which really wasn't much, and a pair of boots that she'd always had but only this season had decided to wear. At the very least, the rucksack at the bottom of her pack had been replaced by one of the warming logs she'd found after dealing with that ghost pirate situation in that graveyard in Almund.

Scowling, Qit's hand touched to her chest, feeling the sensitive, painful wounds underneath. Her errant spear throw had flown true, even with knowing it wouldn't harm the captain. This had enraged the specter, and his cursed touch still pained her. Even Faith couldn't heal this, and she'd tried, truly. But there was, perhaps, another way. This was what had brought the huntress to Gunvorton. The western part of the ritual to appease the ghost captain, to get these five oozing holes in her chest removed. And then she'd be able to get a full night's sleep.

"You still snorrre though, even though you barely sleep darrrling."

Qit looked down at the transparent panther, her scowl intensifying, You wouldn't notice if you slept too, Kashehino.

The panther moved to rub against her hip, and while the action was visibly accurate, and seemed to bring pleasure to ghostly panther, Qit'ria had felt nothing. It seemed her new friend, another surprise from that graveyard, could talk to her, could see the world around her, but couldn't physically interact with it. But it was nice to have someone to talk to, especially in her native tongue. It seemed that if Qit spoke either of the languages she knew, Kashehino understood fully.

Qit stopped, crouched down behind a tree, her nose twitching as she sniffed at the air. There was a pungent scent in the air. Qit'ria kept sniffing, trying to determine the direction it came from, but to no avail. Even with the lack of wind in the moment, her nose simply wasn't trained enough. Kashehino lazily walked out in front of her, invisible to everyone but Qit'ria. But she wasn't scouting for the woman, but rather roaming about listlessly, not giving a care in the world. Qit'ria continued westward, and it seemed the scent was growing stronger. Even in her boots, even in the snow, Qit'ria was careful in her steps, staying near to trees where the snow was less dense. It made for a roundabout route, but it did lessen the deep crunching of trudging through the snow.

Then she saw movement ahead, and Qit'ria froze momentarily. She then with slow, careful motions dipped behind a tree, and watched. It was a dark haired woman in the distance. She seemed to be holding a pipe to her mouth as she walked, and puffs of smoke were given off. Qit only know one woman who smoked in such a fashion, and from here, it seemed as if this might be her. And while she hadn't particularly cared for this woman, they had at least endured the graveyard, and Immortal's Tongue, together, so there was something. Plus she'd helped Qit determine that the graveyard was in Almund, so maybe she wasn't all bad. Still... a politician.

Moving out of her hiding spot, she shouted at the dark haired woman, "Curry!" Qit'ria raised an arm to wave at her, wincing in pain as the skin across her chest stretched her wounds. Qit trudged toward Kura, her companion lazily circling around the woman, eyeing her up, before laying down at Kura's feet. Once Qit came closer, "Well meet, Curry. Much slurp rise find you here."

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Qit'ria shrugged her shoulders at Curry's question, "Yard of grave give question. No answer. Got name... 'Curse Eater'" Turning to Veggie, "Well meet Veggie." And assuming the question was on of curiosity, Qit'ria opened her cloak, and yanked her shirts down, revealing the five oozing sores, leaking with puss, red and inflamed. "Hurt lot. Faith say no heal. How Earlo? No see after pilot ghost in yard of grave."

Qit'ria thought Curry had asked Veggie a stupid question, and was staring at the politician with a blank look on her face. It was foolish to ever be in the woods unprepared. There were always hungry animals, thieving bandits, and Vega in the wilds. Qit'ria never went anywhere unarmed. But now Qit'ria was looking down at the paper Curry held. She hadn't the slightest idea what all the squiggles and characters and symbols meant. What she did know is she had one of those as well, from that same night.

"Yes. I join. Split fifty fifty fifty," that was a phrase she was fairly certain she'd heard people use before, "I have squiggle paper too! No can read. I help you do squiggle paper, you help me." With that, she followed Curry south, listened to her talk about someone named Derby. She didn't know what that meant, so she just ignored it. Turning around to find Vega, she asked in Xanthean, "What does 'serpent' mean?"

But the mention of pigs made her look up. That wasn't good. She'd had more than one run in with the strangely named twathogs around here. She drew a javelin for comfort, and began branching off from the group. Not enough to be out of sight, but enough to be searching her own area for something. Then she saw the first troubling sign. At the base of a tree, recently disturbed soil. She walked over to it, and knelt down next to it. She ran her fingers through it. It wasn't frozen yet. Meant that the hog was by here recently, earlier this morning she imagined.

Stepping around the tree, her eyes grew wide. There were disturbed piles of earth at the base of every tree, extending far out before them. She knew that they liked to eat roots and buried nuts and seeds. But this worried her. She could only guess that there were a bunch of these hogs that lived in the area. A large family. And those beasts were aggressive, and a lot faster than one might think possibly for a beast so bulky.

She immediately slipped into being quieter. She fell back to the group quickly, and in a hushed whisper, "Many big twat hog here," pointing in the direction she'd seen the furrows caused from feeding, "Much careful. Much quiet."

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Qit'ria looked up in awe as the statue in the middle of nowhere appeared. It was huge and old, with some chips in it, a few minor cracks, and a bit of moss around the base. It was a massive shield, with a snake wrapped around the base, made greenish-white by the lichen there. She walked up to it, pressing a hand against the bottom of the shield. The statue was cold, rough hewn with age and erosion. She slowly walked around it, dragging her fingers along it, as she studied it.

She crouched down at the back of the shield. There, between the coils, was a serpent's head, separate from the head attached to the wrapped snake. Its eyes were holes were carved deep into it. Qit'ria fingered the holes, feeling that the insides were smoothed, though a bit damp and slippery from the exposure to the elements. She harrumphed as she looked at the holes. They were set in the center of circles to finish the eyes of the serpent. She traced the line of the circle, peeling away the lichen.

Grabbing a knife from her belt, she poked into the crease. She slid the knife along inside it, scraping it out. It seemed... separate from the rest of the statue. Like it could move. Qit'ria didn't understand it. Dammit Kura, she's a huntress, not a statue engineer! She wanted to stab the "puzzle" with her javelin. Stab right into those taunting ey-...into the holes? Qit'ria drew a javelin. She flipped it about, and jammed the butt of it into one of the eye-holes. She twisted and pushed it all the way in until it stopped moving.

Nothing happened.

Qit'ria growled, shoving the javelin in frustration. It shifted slightly, and Qit'ria let out an 'oo' of discovery. She pushed on it some more to the side, and it rotated just a hair around the circle, as if the snake were rolling a single eye. But the further it went, the more resistance it put up. She placed a foot on the statue, to give some more leverage as she heaved herself against it, but it pushed back, rebounding her, and resetting back to its original placement. And as it did so, Qit'ria saw the other eye wobble a bit. Staring at it suspiciously, she drew another javelin, and jammed it in that hole as well, and test pushed it finding it rotated the opposite direction from the other.

She bet that they both needed to be rotated together.

"Come help. Need more strong," she demanded. She stood by the right hand javelin, waiting for one of the others to come help her.