Food for Astorea [BT, Aeiou]

Inside castle Dormont, the now base of operations of the Yulan Dragons Guild, the bladeswoman watched people run through the corridors of the battered up castle. Some worked on fixing the walls and destruction that occurred outside, while many mages and engineers worked together to sort out the mess that became of the castle floors. She crossed her arms in response to the increasing levels of boredom within her mind. Annoyed at the fact that none of her masteries were of much help in the scene, she decided to breathe some fresh air outside of castle Dormont.

The situation outside wasn’t pretty either, but at least the foul smell coming from the defeated vampire wurms wasn’t present anymore. Stella unsheathed her new blade that she acquired as reward from participating in the siege and from becoming an ally with the Yiladian elves along with her guildmates. The decoration was subtle but present and any decent swordsman could tell that it held above average quality. Her lips curled up in a light smile while she sheathed her blade, though she did not pay attention to her steps – the blonde ended up bumping into another adventurer. After apologizing, she could noticed the adventurer woman was eyeing a bounty notice on a quest board.

Stella’s eyes scanned the text that gave brief info on the target and the creature’s danger level. Apparently, the new founded kingdom would need help from people capable of beating some boar-like creatures and get back with some tasty boar meat to nourish Astorea. Her lips curled up in excitement now that her fighting skills had found some use. On the bottom of the bounty paper, Stella could notice a familiar name (@Aeiou) that filled one of the party spots. It seemed the new found kingdom also wanted to avoid casualties, and sent adventurers in pairs for the quest.

Since she already had a partner for the quest, Stella set out to the rendezvous as she did not want to make her partner wait for too long. The location for hunting was Pormont, known for it’s golden and grassy plains and home of grass Knolls. The air was slightly cold, though quickly warmed up as the morning progressed. Upon arriving at the meeting location, Stella could see Aeiou, and suddenly, thoughts began to cross her mind remembering her of their time back when they went through a quest together, along with Megan. Previous experiences shouldn’t be a problem however, as she now had a new appearance and name; the old and grumpy Ju Huan-Xiang was no more.

“Hello!” the bladeswoman waved at Aeiou, letting her presence be known “I saw the bounty back in the board with a name filled in already. Need a hand?” Stella offered a handshake. “To make things easier for us, I’m good at doing things at close range, so I usually slash and bash things until I'm done with them.” She awaited for a response from her partner before proceeding. Little did she remember however, that her simple introduction was awkwardly similar to the first time they met.

“Then, let’s start, shall we? The sooner we're done with these guys, the faster a lot of people get to eat!” She eyed the grassy area they were at present. A few boars were to the far back while the targets were scattered in a disorganized way as to protect their kin. “I’m counting on you!” Stella unsheathed her blade and advanced towards one of the tuskarrs, drawing attention to herself. In response, the animal rushed towards her, to which the blonde responded with blocking its rush attack. The bladeswoman was pushed back briefly, but eventually managed to stop the animal in a way that the tuskarr’s side was wide open for attacks.

《 FRACTURED FATE 》

Thrown dice:

91

88

88 + 15 (One-Handed Slash)

103/180​

 

The scaling of a wall, a torrent of water, a teetering test with explosives, and a vampiric wurm all wrapped in one adventure was more than Aeiou had ever expected out of Terrasphere. He swore, his bones still ached from stress, even after days of rest. It was enough of an incentive for him to stay in one place for a good amount of time. As Yulan continued to build up Castle Dormont and make their presence known, Aeiou has stuck to the sidelines, skirting along the borders of the Castle and helping where he could. For the most part, that meant loitering in the medic tents that slowly sprouted out in the courtyard after the siege. It turned out that there were many other people, Players and AI alike, that had chosen to stay in the shadow of the burned out castle. Splinting limbs and sewing up wounds of all those that had suffered made Aeiou look at this world in a new light. The consequences of their actions — the repercussions — they were much more … real than Aeiou had ever expected them to be. It formed a pebble in his chest, sinking into his sternum. He supposed that this was what guilt felt like. It was a good motivator, for sure. Aeiou had spent more days in Terrasphere than he had ever expected to. Whether that was good or bad was something he hadn’t discovered yet. For now, though, he continued to help.

It was after the second day aiding the rebuilding that Aeiou started to notice that it wasn’t as easy to come by food. The plates handed out by cooks and scullions were getting lighter with each meal. Lines soon formed by the kitchen during off-hours with people whose stomachs still rumbled after dinner. It didn’t take much longer for a notice board to be put up, asking for adventurers to go out and harvest more food. The largest notice to be tacked to the board was calling for meat. Aeiou had scrawled his name on the sign-up sheet and bided his time at the designated meeting area. Soon enough, he had a partner approach.

"Hello!"

The greeting came in as a text box, and Aeiou turned to see a young swordswoman waving at him. He returned it with a wave of his own. No one he recognized, but as the second text box appeared, Aeiou tilted his head. The phrasing seemed familiar. Before he had time to ask, another text box appeared. His eyes glazed over as he read through them all before giving a curt nod and following closely behind Stella. It didn’t take long for him to realize that he was in good hands, as she rushed towards the first pack of tuskarrs in the hunting area. Aeiou had just enough time to stagger into a run and jab his halberd into the side that his partner had left wide open. He sputtered a small buff to let his flimsy weapon pierce through the boar's rough hide.

Thrown die:

59

59 + 10 (Illumancy, Trained) = 69
172/180
​

 

Stella was barely successful on her attempt at keeping the beast on its track. The party’s target squealed and snorted in rage trying its best to push the bladeswoman off her feet. At some point, the creature was successful, and started to push Stella again and then @Aeiou ‘s attack landed on the tuskarr’s thick hide. The results were mixed – luckily, the white-haired Faerin managed to pierce the boar-like monster in a critical and exposed point, but on the other hand, managed to set it on enraged mode. The tuskarr let out a vicious snort and by puffing out it’s body and energy, knocked Stella off her feet and hit the blonde with great force from one last attack. Before it completed the motion, the blonde still managed to slash its throat. Even so, the attack she received was powerful enough to send her rolling back to Aeiou.

Regret started to sink in when she realized the realistic option for the pain system did not help her current state. “Ouch, ouch, agh...” She slowly got back up to her feet, trying not to lose focus from the boar monster they were facing. “Don’t let them get to you… Son of a pig knows how to hurt! Agh...” Stella got back up to her feet and rested a free left hand on her right rib cage. Her right gripped her sword tight. If checked thoroughly one could see a bleeding debuff pop out under her health bar.

Regardless of her state, Stella’s brows furrowed and her eyes locked on the creature’s next movement – in it’s dying moments, the tuskarr let out a loud and gurgling squeal that another of its kin was capable of perceiving, and in response rushed to its aid. The bladeswoman gritted her teeth while assuming a stance, her bastard sword ready to cut again, her only regret being the fact that she had no proper shield to use against these enemies. “Don’t mind me, I’m still kicking!” Stella tried to reassure her partner. If she was of no use in the frontlines, where else would she ever do anything? But then, her following words didn't quite match her previous attempt at reassuring her partner. “… Is what I’d like to say in a heroic fashion, haha” Stella laughed at her own pitiful state “Though this does hurt quite a bit...” the previous Tuskarr plopped to the ground as a lifeless corpse as another one approached. The bladeswoman drifted for a moment in her thoughts.

"One Tuskarr down, one more to go. We can do this..."

《 FRACTURED FATE 》

Thrown dice:

72

62

62 + 15 (One-Handed Slash)

249/180
​

(OOC: Feel free to control monster behavior as well!)

 

These pigs were a lot bigger than he was expecting. Piercing into its hide was one thing, but when you watched practically enlarge with rage, well … Aeiou yanked his halberd out from the boar’s side and staggered backward, watching as Stella was knocked onto her back and the tuskarr stomped on her chest, dealing damage. Aeiou trembled for a moment, preparing for the worst before blood gushed from the tuskarr’s neck. With a final squeal, it slumped onto the ground. The blood quickly pooled out, seeping into the ground and fording through the grass at their feet. Aeiou instinctively took a step back. He bumped into @Stella as she got herself up off the ground and clutched at her side.

He placed a hand tentatively at her side, pulled back quickly as his fingers touched blood. That was real. That was too real. He switched into his Investigation Mode to take a better look. Aeiou’s teeth worried at his bottom lip as the debuff appeared under Stella’s status bar, health slowly depleting one agonizing second after another. He twitched his fingers into a spell, his nerves getting the better of him. A small sputtering of illumancy sizzled out from the tips of his fingertips, and he pressed them ever so lightly on the wound. The edges of the gash in her side were the first to pucker, slowly zipping themselves back as blood tried to creep back into their veins.

The ground began to rumble, small pebbles jumping off from the ground, and Aeiou saw a blinking triangle appear in the corner of his vision. It was quickly followed by the charging of another tuskarr, already enraged at the sight of his fallen brethren. Aeiou gasped, and before he had a chance to think found himself clutching onto the tuskarr’s enormous snout. The wind left his stomach with a forceful exhale, and Aeiou could feel his stinging shins as the tuskarr’s jutting jaw dug into his legs that dangled right in front, like a treat. He scrambled up the beast’s snout and dug his halberd into one eye. The boar reeled back, shaking the small faerin off and tossing him to the ground, yards away.

With dirt in his teeth and boar hair and blood under his nails, he slowly rose to his feet and he quickly looked around to see the tuskarr bucking and rearing from the pain. A few yards off, piglets were quickly scurrying into the underbrush to get away from the apparent danger.

“LEETLE PIGGIES!” He said as he scrambled to his feet to take off after the offspring. It was one thing to get the big boys down, but Aeiou doubted that he and Stella could haul those back to the camp. Time to do some corralling.

Thrown die:

94

94 + 10 (Illumancy, Trained) = 104

353/180​

 

Stella’s eyes widened in surprise when the Tuskarr was intelligent enough to target her healing partner instead of herself. Despite the time she had spent in this world, the bladeswoman realized that she still had a ways to go and improve on her own fighting prowess. Stella advanced in hopes of attacking the animal with a piercing move, but its tusks hit her sword and sent her back to the ground while it trashed with Aeiou. When her faerin partner hit the creature’s eye with his weapon Stella quickly stood up to her feet and advanced once more, waving her sword against the animal in hopes of keeping it from advancing.

“Hey! Are you okay!?” Stella shouted her question to @Aeiou trying to check if he was fine. While not properly answered, the faerin’s response came in form of his exclamation about the Tuskarr’s offspring. With her lips forming a wide smile she kept her attention focused on the thrashing enemy before her. Stella held her elvish sword with both hands, assuming a long tail guard stance; at the exact moment she found an opening in which she could approach without suffering retaliation from the monster’s tusks, the bladeswoman closed in while her whole body glowed red.

“Cross Slash!” She assaulted, the first slash cutting in an ascending, diagonal, and counter-clockwise motion. The second slash followed through with exactly opposite motions, causing large damage to the animal’s large snout. As blood started to spray around it and the creature lost even further control from itself, Stella left it behind to try and corral the pigglets along with Aeiou.

Thanks to her rogue skills, she could manage to run a little fast, though the effects were only now noticed by the bladeswoman. The woman sprinted up in a circular motion to make it easier to try and redirect the piglets route to the Astorean camp that was not far from their vision at this point. Just a little bit and they’d be done with the bounty!

(OOC: Sorry for taking so long to reply! Muse was being moody and bitchy! We should be good to go with your next post!)

《 FRACTURED FATE 》

Thrown dice:

45

76

76 + 15 (One handed-slash) = 91

444/180​

 

One thing Aeiou had never expected to learn in Terrasphere: piglets were fast. As Stella had taken down the other Tuskarr, Aeiou had gone running into the brush to try and pick some of the squealers up. But despite their hanging bellies, they were more slippery than they let on. The calls from Stella were ignored as he used all of his concentration to steer them back in the direction of camp. When his partner joined in, Aeiou gave a rushed chortle and joined her in her sprint to steer the pigs back in the direction of the campgrounds. A miniature stampede cut through the forest and right into the hands of the trappers that had slowly gathered along the cusp of the tree line. Apparently battling two tuskarrs was loud enough to draw attention. As Aeiou burst through the underbrush and staggered to a halt to a round of applause from the trappers, he gave a large, genuine smile. Perhaps one of his first since arriving in Terrasphere.

He shot it back to Stella and gave a hearty laugh. It whirred through his entire body as his shoulders shook and he found him clasping his side. When he remembered Stella’s wound. With giggles still jumping out of his mouth, he placed his childlike hands back on Stella’s side and murmured a few short healing words, hoping to bring her status back to full once he pulled his hand away.

The trappers had already begun their trek back to the campgrounds, and Aeiou joined in at a slower place, still catching his breath from the fight and joy that it had brought. After all the things to happen in Astorea, the territory had been the last place Aeiou had expected to find any joy. But as he headed back into the camp to see the Players and NPC’s alike rejoicing over the freshly killed pigs, he was pleasantly surprised. Despite the hardship, there was still joy hiding in the nooks and crannies of the cobblestones and tree limbs. Aeiou was sure that the cooked pork that was bound to be had at dinner would taste delicious.

Thrown die:

13

13 + 10 (Illumancy, Trained) = 23
467/180

[OOC: POSTS COMPLETE]​