Are you Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer? Different color, small, excluded from all the reindeer games. Plus temporary insanity, which is a bonus.

If you aren't, that's your name now. At least I'll think of it as your name.

Anyways, enter your mom's wagon.

You've just experienced a terrible emotional shock. It's understandable why you might be hearing voices in your head to comfort and guide you.

Loot everything!

Oh wow. Go into your mom's wagon. Don't worry about breaking into the wagons of the others, they're all dead, I'm sure they won't mind. Remember anything extra valuable or cool that members of your caravan may have had in life? If so, you should take it while you still can.

How'd you manage to kill all of them on your own?

You're knocked back down at first, but get up again and try to take in what some of the voices are saying.

>>480530
What a strange name. Can you even say it aloud? Rudhalif...Not quite. Your not red-nosed, no, but your father's feet were green, like all the people from the north's are, but your mother's and your caravan's were gold. Yours are both, which is half of what got you into this mess.

And what's a reindeer?

>>480540
Really? You were figuring these were void voices, given how dark the sky is right now. They're said to be frightful, though, and you don't think these are very frightening at all.

>>480542
The memories aren't especially clear, but you think it was mostly that they weren't expecting someone like you to even try and defend yourself, at first. How you managed to kill the rest once they were alerted to the danger is totally blacked out, though.

You decide to go your mom's wagon first. After walking back, you climb in through the back door, still open from when you left earlier, and find everything more-or-less how you left it. There's your and your mom's beds, with your respective trunks underneath, there's the stove, with some other knives, spoons, forks, and things, with the icebox on the opposite side of the wagon, next to the spice cabinet. You grab some knick-knacks from your trunk out of habit, tie your blanket into a sack and put the toys, some salted meats, some bread, and a waterskin.

You try and open up your mom's chest, though you had to break the lock off. Inside there's some of her clothes, a timepiece, a compass, a couple of maps, and a sketch of your father, mother, and you as a baby, all together. You take timepiece, compass, the one map of the two that you can read.

As for what the other's had, you're not very sure. You know some of them had metal sabers, which you assume would be better for killing things than this knife you have. You know most of the ones who had sabers had some leather plates and mail-shirts, which you're sure would be better at keeping you alive than the pot lid you have right now. This one old man, who visited your mom pretty often for medicine, always had these weird trinkets around that did weird things, like make big sounds or shoot flares, but you're not sure how well you'd be able to use those without hurting yourself.

You decide to go take a saber and armor off a nearby corpse, but you get the saber out of its hands, you realize that none of the armor would fit you. You do still pry off a mail-shirt and just let hang like some kind of metal robe.

You're indecisive now. Should you just get on to one of the animals now and try to get out here, or should try and search through the old man's wagon first?

After a moment of silence from the voices, you decide it would be better to leave now. You recall, in one of the talks the old man had with your mother preceding her death, that your caravan was stopping for a few days so that another that was nearby could catch up and offer up some trade. It's been several days since your overhearing that. You pick a wagon at random, unhitch its halule, put your sack of things into the saddlebag, and climb onto the saddle.

You're about grab the reigns and kick the beast into motion when you have the sudden feeling that you've forgotten something. Remembering why you were lying out under the sky in first place, you quiet your mind and wait to see if the voices can remind you of something important you still need to do.

Food. Water.

Also, get your ass off that ride and get back to looting. You just slaughtered an entire village, there should be some valuables you can take that will make your journey a lot easier either on their own or after you sell them.

Curiously, only one voice is audible.

You get off and check your saddle bag, and find your meat, bread, and waterskin inside, right where you put them just moments ago.

You wonder then, if the voices still want you to scavenge about the remains of your caravan, they allowed you to ignore the old man's wagon? Do they feel its dangers are too great for whatever its rewards are, as is your inkling, or was it for another reason?

Either way, not feeling the strength to break into the wagons yourself, you walk the halule around and have it kick all of the doors in. Inside, you find much the same things as in your home, though the contents of the adults' trunks varies depending on what they mainly did in the caravan. Hunters had plenty of pelts, bones, meat, animal things, plus some salt to preserve what they were going to eat, and of course a gun to go hunting with. Tanners had tanning rigs hanging of the sides of their wagons, plus plenty of leather wares on the inside. Bookkeepers obviously had books, about anything from what animals are safe to eat to what the astrological significance of an early circle in the year was. Metalworkers had keys to the mines, metal wares, unsmelted ores, plus little forges that are drawn by another halule aside from the one that draws the wagon. Moneyholders, well, money, but you're unsure how much you'll need, or even be able to spend, since money was usually used when trading with mountain or flying people, and you don't think you'll be meeting many of those. Guards had armor, sabers, guns, and some basic medicine.

Then there's the old man's wagon. You hesitate again, not sure what to do. You quiet yourself again, and try to ask the voices a question.

Should I try and take something from the old man's wagon, or should I just grab some things from the others that I've opened and get out of here?

>>480789
Look inside and throw a pebble in. See if anything bad happens.

If it does, close the door again and/or run as appropriate.

If not, loot it.

Once again the voices are mostly quiet, and you only make out one.

The smallest rocks you can find are the sand, but the next smallest after that is fairly large, though you can still manage to lift and carry it to the old man's wagon. You toss it in through the wagon's back door, and leap out of the way. You hear a couple of ticks, and no more than a second later, a gunshot's fired through the doorway. A tick, and then a second shot follows it. After that you can't hear anything and take a look inside, noticing that the rock is lying on top of a conspicuous bulge underneath the rug, which you assume was the trigger for the gun. Entering, you see contraptions line the walls, made of every material imaginable and some you've never conceived, though in large part you can divide the strange wares into four visual groups.

Nearest to the door are the items made mostly of silver metal, including the shotgun that just fired. Judging by eye, most of these items have many moving parts, and include things like timers, guns, calculators, and even some of those machines that you still don't know how they work. Offhand, you can spot the one that shoots flares in this group.

Next nearest are the things made mostly mostly from dark metal. At a glance, it seems there are mostly sharp implements among these. One particular item, a pair of mechanical claws, calls out to you, though you can't quite imagine their purpose.

Most of the rest if the wares are made of white metal, and are mostly things like spoons, cups, pots, plates, though a few ampules of varying contents are also in this section.

Finally, on a single stand that is practically next the driver's seat at the front of the wagon, are a few small machines made of animal and plant remains, including the machine that create large noises, as well as one that you recall makes wind.

After reviewing what seems to be available, you quiet your mind once again, and ask the voices a question.

I can probably find many things here, but what things do you think I need? Even if I can't find exactly what you call for, I should be able to find something close.

Also, what do you the claws? They seem strangely attractive to me, but their lack of discernible purpose leads me to suspicion.

Take the claw for sure, even if you can't work it someone else might be able to, or tell you how at least. Look for money, and take anything that you might be able to trade or sell, like jewelry, art, silverware, etc. Also, take a gun you can manage, it'll come in handy if you have the means to work it. Try together any supplies you need to fire the gun, such as powder or bullets, or something to clean the barrel with, then get moving I guess

The voices were quiet for an especially long moment, before one came and went. You wonder why the voices seem to pause so long before speaking, but leave the idea alone for now.

>>498103
You take the claws, noticing how they seem as though they could fit your hands, despite yours being fairly small. You're a little creeped out by that, so you just drop them in your pack and try to ignore the feeling.

The gun is pretty heavy, and too long to fit in your pack comfortably, so instead you pull out a shirt, tie the arms around the gun, and sling it over your shoulder. There's also a box of bullets and powder-horn in the white-metal section, which you hitch up to the halule and fit into your shirt-sling, respectively.

You put plenty of other things from the white-metal section into your pack, including a few of ampules of unknown material, which you make sure to wrapped with lots of cloth, since you don't know what'll happen if the glass breaks. Eventually your pack starts getting heavy, so you give up on the old man's wagon and head back to the halule to saddle up and get out of here. You clear mind once more, in case the voices have anything else to say, but you don't have any questions to ask them right now.

Where will you be headed Kuch? On a side not, I am called Santova, so if you would like to refer to me as something other than "the voice", that is my preferred title. You may not know, but we, while many, are all different, some even with names and reputations, like myself. I would hope to encourage some of my fellows to speak you, as it is beneficial to have multiple perspectives and ideas

The animals are all alive, right? Is there any reason you couldn't just take an entire section of the caravan with you, in particular one with trade goods?

By this, I mean load the chests and anything valuable into a wagon, then just have your halule pull the thing. If you have a wagon, you can have more food, and with more supplies you can use more halule if necessary to bring the wagon.

I would advise bringing the Old Man's wagon.

>>498313
Well, you suppose that settles what part of you still thought these might be void voices, since void voices definitely don't have names.

Sahntohffa...You think you might be getting closer to pronouncing these names, though the fact that sahngdohfa is already a word you're familiar with doesn't help. You're happy, though, that this Santova seems to be trying to work towards your benefit.


>>498322
Hm...You should have thought of this. You struggle back onto the halule, suddenly and fully realizing the weight your carrying, and ride over to each of the wagons, picking up what you left behind for the sake of lightness, like more medicine from your mother's wagon, some books that you think you can read, more food and water, a rifle and more bullets and powder, and some mountain-people money. You consider trying to take the tanning-rig or forge, but that would require either disassembling a wagon or driving two halule at once, neither of which are tasks you think you're up to doing by yourself.



With everything loaded up into the old man's wagon, there's hardly any room left to walk behind the driver's seat, but you think you can manage. Fhiilhojihaluhkohgoih you say with strange mixture of emotions, bidding final farewell to your mother, and your old life, no matter how tortuous it was.

After riding for a bit, and having drifted into thought, you realize that, since these aren't void voices, and since the names they've spoken to you have been pretty bizarre, you realize these voices might not be especially familiar with life on the Gold, or maybe even life on the desert at all. Your mother didn't have the time to teach a lot, but you know some things, so you clear your mind and ask Is there anything that you'd like to know, Santova or their fellows?

>>498422
What are you?

What did the Old Man do?
What was the caravan's purpose?
What happened to your father?
Definition of sahngdohfa?
Are there any cities, or something, that you can make your destination nearby?
What are your goals?
Other than feet color, is there any difference between Greens and Golds?

If you can tell us your goals, we may be able to help you achieve them. However, like noted before, we know next to nothing about you or your people. What, aside from your feet, differs the Greens and the Golds? Are they at war, or ill disposed towards each other?
Secondly, where was your caravan going, or what was your caravan doing?
And finally, what does my name mean? Does "Darl" have a translation as well? Does "One"?

>>498447
A person? A two-color? I'm a little confused about this question.

>>498456
I think the old man mostly sold his wares to other caravans that needed them.

The caravan as whole didn't really have a purpose, as far as I remember, just keeping ourselves alive and okay, for the most part.

He left, or at least he hasn't been around. Nobody wanted him around except for maybe my mom, and even if they didn't actually run him out, he couldn't just stay.

It's a kind of herb, grows on mountain-seeds that don't find water, I think. It has a couple of medicinal uses.

There's an academy/museum thing a couple of days away, and a mountain not far from it, but I'm not sure how willing they'd be to host a lone Walker kid like me.

Stay alive, obviously, but I guess that's not what you meant. From what I remember, some other caravans have two-colors to, and treat them pretty badly, so I guess I sort of want to try and make my own caravan, with only two-colors.

There's some dialectal difference, from what I remember of how the couple of greens that I've met spoken, as well as some cultural difference, though the specifics of their culture aren't familiar to me.

>>498490
Not at war, no, at least not as far as I've heard. It's just that along time ago, when the Walker tribes split up, the reason why the Greens chose to split up was because they wanted to keep the tradition of using violence to solve disputes rather than changing like the Reds and Golds, so now everybody's suspicious of Greens since you never know when they might say that you've tarnished their name and challenge you to a duel or something. At least, that's what my mom told me of it. I guess that's why they didn't like me, to.

We were waiting for another caravan to catch up with us, and before that we were at they were heading from one of the mining camps, which turned out to be a bust since it had caved since the last time we were there. I guess if I what happened hadn't, the other caravan would have gotten there, traded, left, and then we'd probably have stopped one or both of the places I mentioned being near here, and from there we would have headed southwest to the nearest watering hole. After that I don't know what we might have done.

Darl comes out as Dhariluu when I try to say it, which is pretty close to dharihluuh, which means something like 'write with stain' or 'write with paint'. One comes out Huwuuhn, which doesn't mean anything, though does sound fairly close to the name of someone who was part of your caravan. The word for the number is hahladthoh, if that's what you meant.


Hopefully I've cleared up some things. Are there any more questions?

I'm satisfied. I vote we hit the road and get moving before anyone finds you in the midst of your dead caravan mates

>>498581
With that, you set your focus to driving west.

Time passes, and the world gets darker and darker as the On-High slowly make their way away from the caravan's camp, following their inscrutable pattern as always. Eventually it becomes too dark to drive by, so you stop, set up a small camp, feed the halule, and begin cooking some food for yourself. Moments blur together in the light of the campfire, until a woeful sight disturbs your stupor. There's smoke from another campfire due east, back at the camp. Your mind jumps into action, realizing that if the other caravan has arrived already, they must have sent a party to follow any tracks to try and find you, and they'll surely be able to see your fire, if you can see theirs. You're on your feet immediately, trying to wake the halule, but it's fallen into a damnably deep sleep. You leap into the cart next, looking for something to help you out of this situation, but nothing shows itself to you in the clutter of items strewn about. Finally, you hurriedly clear your mind and ask the voices, desperately seeking guidance, What should I do?

Make it look like you aren't from the caravan. If you hide, they take your loot, and putting out the fire won't help if they've already seen it. No, you have to con them into believing this is your stuff, and you weren't from the destroyed caravan. Or you could say that you came across the bodies and took what you could manage, since you were low on supplies and it's better than feeding it to the crows

>>498809
You pay heed, and quickly try to give some semblance of order to the items in the cart, and to yourself, but they seem to arrive only moments later. They ride up to the cart on white beasts, their own pearly skin glinting in the firelight. You try to speak to them, but either they cannot hear you, or no sound comes from your mouth, since they begin to slash at the cart, and the halule, and at you. You're nicked, once, and the weird white blade leaves burning, purple wound on your arm. You're knocked off the cart and onto your back, paralyzed for an instant. You regain your mobility just in time to turn a slash to your neck into a nick on the ear, which renders you deaf on that side for a moment. You roll underneath the cart, trying to find cover, all the while your hand seems drawn towards the claws in your pack. You slip them on in what feels like no time and with no effort, emerge from beneath the cart, leap forth with the claw outreached towards, and then...

...darkness.

Your arm and ear are burning. Literally. Your eyes shoot open as you roll over so that your arm and ear under the sand and extinguished. You sit up and try to get a grasp of what's going on. There is no fire off in the east, there are no gashes in the cart or the halule, and as you look to the sky you notice that even though the sky is much brighter than before, the Star and Near have only just barely changed their position. It's only been about a day since you left your old caravan, and when you try to remember the exacts, the other caravan must have been least two-and-a-half days away. You bring hands up to face and breath a sigh of relief, but nearly leap back into the fire with surprise when you notice that the claw is still on your hand. You take it off as quickly as you can without hurting yourself and drop into your pack once more. Though you are relieved that the other caravan hasn't caught up to you yet, but that dream that you must have had has still shaken you.

You pick up what's left of what you cooked earlier, warm it up over the fire, and split between the halule and yourself, since neither of you are very hungry. You put out the fire, hitch up the halule, and begin driving west again. Several uneventful hours pass, you occasionally stopping to eat or rest, before eventually big, rocky outcropping that the museum-place is built inside of comes over the horizon. You don't really have preference for either, since they're both mountain-people places, you clear mind and ask Where do you think I should go? in the hopes that the voices might somehow have a preference, as well as Do you have any ideas for what I should do, wherever I go? in case they happen to already be thinking of something better than the 'wander around, occasionally stopping for supplies, looking for and recruiting two-colors' plan you've just sort of defaulted to internally.

I say we go on a quest to find your dad. If the mountain people have anyone who would like to join your caravan, it might be a good idea to talk to them. If not, you could trade for any supplies you are running low on, like food or other essentials

>>499043
Looking for your dad? You never thought of that. You suppose it could helpful to find him. You're still not entirely sure about where Santova, who seems to have become the only voice speaking to you, wants you to go, but you figure the mountain proper is probably going to have larger surplus than the other place, so you decide to head towards it.

The rest of the day is uneventful, making your way towards the mountain. It begins to darken after several hours, but you arrive soon enough that you don't bother trying to set up camp. You arrive at large gate, constructed out of what appears to be laminated wood? You've certainly never seen something that large constructed out of something like that, but after a moment of consider how the mountain itself is what the mountain-people must make their buildings from, it makes sense for the mountain-people's buildings to be made of the same wood as the mountain.

One of the gate's guards hails you with, "Feelii go rurtomuu?", which you think means something like 'Who's coming?', though the mountain-language is too fast for you to catch sometimes. You don't know if they'll take you in if they know you're a Walker, but it would be trivial for them to find out, given the mountain-person gold skin is pretty different from the copper of you and of all Walkers. Given the pause you'd need to ask Santova and presumably any other listening voices would suspiciously wrong, you come out and say that you're a lost Walker, but you don't mean any harm, are only looking for shelter for a few days, and might have some useful wares to trade if you're allowed in. The guards seem to nod at each other, before opening the gate up for you. You drive the cart in, and are dazzled by what you see.

While you thought the inside of the mountain would dark except for maybe a few lights, it's actually a blaze with multi-colored lights everywhere. Shops, inns, houses, clubs, banks, everything you've ever been told a mountain has, there are dozen of glowing signs pointing in every direction saying the best one is right this way. Far away, but amazingly bright, there is what you assume is the Practice temple, the place where the most faithful of the mountain-people perform their strange ceremonies and rituals every few days, or so you've heard.

You think you're first priority should be to find a place where they'll let you stay for what money you've brought, but realizing that both you and the voices are now unknown territory, you clear your mind and ask Is there anything else you think I should ask around for, or about?

Well, know what's taboo and what's allowed is always good. If there's facilities for washing clothes or yourself, try and find them. After you find a place to rest, try and ascertain where the safe parts of the mountain are, and where you should stay away from. Also be sure to find a place you can trade or sell your wares. Other than that, maybe see who's the head honcho around here and then get some rest

>>499495
You wander about the mountains lowest level for a while, eventually finding your way to a hostel in slightly lesser lit area. There's what seems to be a space to hitch your cart and halule, even with some feed for it in slough, which you're surprised and please by. Inside, you find one middle-aged mountain-person, no more than 90 years, you think, behind a tall desk, and about a dozen other mountain-people, all much younger, though still older than you, just standing or sitting around the room. They're all staring at you, which you have to admit is horribly intimidating.

"G-ghudum." you squeak, greeting them formally. All but the old one burst in laughter, welcome you in both Walker and thankfully slow mountain-person tongues. They call this place Palapani's Home for Travelers, and they are all frequenters, adventurers they like to call themselves. "Misheata." the elder spits out in response, something like root-people, you think, which you presume means she doesn't really consider them adventurers, though you aren't sure what it means besides that. You wait for the laughter to die down before asking any questions, but before you manage, one, a younger boy among them, asks you what you're doing what that nasty-looking claw on your hand.

You look down and instantly fall over, startled. How had that gotten back onto your hand? You practically tear it off, getting a couple nicks on your hand in the process but nothing that hurts, and shove into your bag. Giggles ripple through the youths, but they manage to pay heed when you ask them the do's and do-nots of the mountain, and if there's some sort of washing-place nearby. They list o, in monotone; don't insult the Practice, don't make a deal with a Heretic, don't take something you aren't supposed to without paying for it, don't do something you aren't supposed to without paying for it, if you do something somebody's annoyed about you should apologize, the basics, they say. Don't run around calling people mountain-people, either, Carver is what they usually prefer to be called around here, and only then if you have to bring race up. Otherwise there's not a whole lot that'll be expected of a Walker like you, but expected to get some real bad deals.

You hope that whatever voices are listening got more out of that than you. They also mention that there's a combination bath-house/laundromat only a few minutes away; out the front door, left, straight, straight, right, left, straight until you see the sign that says something like Nggli's Water-Castle, and that's the place. Don't take your armor or your weapons over, though, they say. They won't take kindly to that. You thank them, drop the stuff they mentioned into your cart, grab a wad of mountain--err, Carver money, and follow the directions to the place. Their hesitant to let you in, but when you say you can pay they at least let you in. At every point along the way, from getting a locker to put your stuff, to getting shoved in what you think might have been the most crowded pool, to getting your stuff from the locker after staying 'too long', they asked for another payment. You managed to get by only giving them a single mark each time, but when you got back to Palapani's, the youths informed you that, for how long you were gone, that whole trip really should have only costed about 200 kyuduo, and when each one the marks you gave them was 216. You felt a little insulted, maybe even a little at them for not telling you how much it should have costed, but once again they laughed it off and said you shouldn't worry, especially since it seems like you've got plenty enough to keep yourself afloat for now.

One the youths quickly brings up that you must be really attached to those claws to be wearing them all the time. You quickly looked to your hand, prepared to take it off again, but only find your normal hand, and the youths raucous laughs. You're hurt, but get over it fast enough, and the old lady, who you've figured is Palapani, or at least part of that family, calls you over says that just 216 kyuduo will cover a day's stay for you and the halule, which she assures you is a great deal, considering the magnitude of her services compared to the Water-Castle's and their prices. You realize that you're really rather tired, so you hand over another mark to her, lurch tiredly in the direction she says the bunks are in, and just climb into the first one you notice.

Before you go to sleep, you clear your mind, and speak to the voices. I think so far I've had perfect memory of what you've said to me, so just leave me anything you want or have wanted to mention, if there is anything, and I'll pick it when I wake up. Some more instructions for then would be nice, but if you don't have any, that's fine.

Well, currently it's sleep time, but honestly, I think we might just wanna wash your clothes, if you didn't do that when you bathed, and then go around the city, picking up any wanderers like yourself. One of the Elders mentioned the "Misheata". Adventurous types are good to have around on journeys

>>499727
You awake to the memory of a single voice, the now familiar Santova. As for clothes, you think that you decided against it, since you were worried that they would charge you the rest of what money you had if you tried to get them to clean your clothes, or just steal them, for that matter. Instead, you find the old lady, who you learned is named Vyuutaarer, and ask her if you can use some soap and water to wash them yourself, which she allows you to do as a bit of a gift for a traveler as young as yourself. You get about to washing your clothes in small closet between the main room and the bunks, drying them off with a towel that was fortunately present, and redressing yourself, hoping the dampness of the clothes would go away by itself soon enough. Most of the youths seem to have woken by the time you finish, so you ask if any of them want to come with you. One asks plainly what it is that you're doing that you're wanting them to come along. You say that you're looking for one specific person, leaving out that it's your father since you don't that would, and eventually that you're looking to get a whole caravan together. Most seem disinterested by the time you mention the first goal, and all but one gives up when you mention the second. That being the same one that asked you why you had your claw before, which you recall now he might have asked out of genuine curiosity. Either way, you invite him into the cart, which fortunately still remains just outside the hostel and remains apparently untouched, where you get out some ink, a pen, and banner-sized cut of parchment, and ask him to write, big, 'We want Adventurers.' After a bit of scribbling, he presents it to you, not realizing that the reason you asked is because you're illiterate. You decide to show him some trust, though, so you go and prop up the banner on the top of your cart anyway. You tell him that you're going to be driving the cart around the mountain, picking up anyone interested in joining you. He says he might as well come along, to show that you're alone, which you agree might help.

Time passes, you and your companion, who goes by Toliingir, occasionally stopping to buy food, or rest, or do various other mundane things, slowly accruing a small group of people willing to go along with you venture. In total, there's you, Toliingir, a couple of young sisters, about your age, named Besheed and Abisheed, an older girl, a bit older than Toliingir, named Djaudthig, and an elder man, between the lady at the hostel and the old man from the caravan, who was named Vyunuuataarer. With the cart getting crowded, you settle for these folks, and move on out of the mountain. By most of the timepieces in the cart, it's been a few days since you came to the mountain, so if the other caravan ever tracked you to this mountain, they'll be far off by now.

On the matter of where to look for your father, it's possible that he's still wandering northern sands, but you imagine the only reason why he would be in the Gold to begin with would be because he was banished, so that might not be likely. He could also be to the south, in the Red, but they have an even stronger dislike of Greens than the Golds, so that seems unlikely to. In the end, you decide to wander the southerner part of the Gold, for now, since it seems like the most likely band that he'd be in.

Your company, though, is something else. They all seem to have more than enough quirks to go around, so you need to get to know them all at least a bit in order to get this party to work. Lacking a preference for anyone of them, you clear your mind and ask the voices Which one of these people should I try to spend my time with for a while first?

Try spending time with the first friend you made, or perhaps the eldest girl, whoever you feel most comfortable with

>>499969
You decide to spend the first few days of searching with Toliingir mostly, since you've come to realize something about Djaudthig that makes you a little uncomfortable. You've noticed the shade of her skin is actually fairly coppery compared to the other Carvers, albeit not yours, and you think that she might a mountain-stone, the child of a Walker and a mount--Carver. It just sort makes a weird tumbling feeling your chest, along with some ordinary fear, and you're not going to talk about it anymore.

You and Toliingir do the hunting for the most part, which is when you talk about things for the most part. You learn that Toliingir is headless, or more plainly, an idiot. He doesn't seem to forget easily, and he has the strongest arms you've seen, but he's very clumsy, and he doesn't seem to really get things unless you point them out to him. Unless they're about metal. He seems perfectly obsessed with all kinds of metal, what they're used to make, how those things work, and just about anything else much related to metal. When you're at the cart, he's practically inseparable from the collection of metal trinkets which were there originally. He gives you a few useful facts, too, about how metal-things work, like how silver-things are made of that metal because it doesn't change a lot under pressure, or hot and cold, or acids and bases, so that way all the moving parts stay together and keep the good-working ratios. He seems pretty jovial most of the time, except when he really can't wrap his mind around something, even with help, and you have to say you feel an inkling of pity for him. After a few days, your conversations grow thinner and thinner until you hardly talk while hunting, so you decide to try and spend some of your time in the cart with one of your fellows, though once again leave the exact choice to the voices, most probably Santova. You add in that they're welcome to suggest specific questions that you should ask, before await a response.

I think you ought to approach Djaudthig, and maybe try and start a conversation about wanderers, like yourself. If she shuts you out, try and shrug it off, change topics, just be friendly and stuff

It may be wise to seek conversation with your elder as well. experience often accounts for much. truly, you ought to learn something of all your fellows, but this is something that will take time.

Where are my manners, my name is Calimary, though if it is difficult you may refer to me as Cali, though that has negative connotations in some languages.

If you might engage my curiosity somewhat, could you describe a halule for me?

>>500318
Halule can vary a lot in appearance, depending on what the breed was meant to do. They all have fairly long faces, snouts I guess, four legs that end in wide, two-toed feet, and have black or salt-&-pepper fur. The one drawing the cart is taller than me, and just a bit taller than Vyunuuataarer, and is pretty burly. I'm not really sure how else to describe it.

>>500241
You remain conflicted about Djaudthig. Your predisposition towards her, and their case for why you should, makes you want to follow the unfamiliar Calimary's advice, but your familiarity with Santova lends its own credence to their advice. Eventually, though, you resolve yourself to speak to Vyunuuataarer, trusting that Santova will understand.

Vyunuuataarer does two things as far as you observe. Most of the time he seems to be thinking, or possibly just sleeping, though he seems too aware for that to be the case some times. When he's not contemplating, he's cleaning, cooking, and preparing the food from the hunt, which is when you talk with him. You learn that Bugyuemezhlami Vyunuuataarer, as he says his whole name is, is an ex-Practicer, once the local practice-leader of a 'bloom town' as he calls it, villages that spring up around the flowers when the mountain blooms. He speaks a little of how, before him, his mentor had the local artisan chased out for not practicing, which had distressed him. Eventually his mentor moved on to higher places in the Practice, inside the mountain, leaving him the leader. In turn, though, a real heretic came into town and start buying up everything, bulldozing it, and setting up fronts for franchises from inside the mountain, all while somehow winning the hearts of the townsfolk. Eventually he himself was chased away, inside the mountain, when he encountered the cart and its banner, and figuring he would find no solace with the Practice on the terms he left with his mentor, he decide he would come along. You notice that his skin, while it's the normal Carver gold, is sort of dull and a little rough, which you suppose makes sense for where he says he comes from.

You also learn that he's been secretly blessing the food he cooks with little Practice rituals, which he figures he might as well teach you. Just some simple things, like warding against allergies, making it taste less gamey, hopefully making it less likely to get us sick, that sort of thing. Even one for finding water, which you're not sure why he'd know. He also tells you a secret one, one he doesn't think even the Practice knows he knows, too make weapons strike true. While he's teaching you that one, you're reminded of your claws, which you thankfully find to not be on your hand at the time. You show them to him after he finished with the demonstration, and looks at it for a moment before turning and looking through the trinkets, pulling out something like a little pan with a glass bottom. You're confused and ask what it's for, and he says that it looks an awful lot essence-revealers that he'd seen before. He said that if you waved it through thick enough essence-flow it would glow where it was passing through. You didn't really feel like that helped you understand, and when he waved it around the claws it didn't glow at all, so you're not sure what was the point to begin with. In the end he just says they're nothing fancy, just some weird mechanical claws, unlike just about every other trinket in the cart.

You try to delve a little further into the details of Vyunuuataarer life before, but he puts a stop to it, saying that he's chosen to leave that life behind, and that he'll not tolerate it following him even here. Not wanting to take chances, you leave him be. A couple of days later, you run into a watering hole. Given that you're the only Walker out of the group, even with your the age, you're the one to go out talk with the other groups there. You have some basic things to do, like get more water, since even with the ritual Vyunuuataarer taught you, you don't have the equipment to dig up underground water, as well as try to get some better idea of where your dad might be. But besides that, there are plenty of other opportunities for you, with parties for several different caravans here now, carrying lots of different kinds of things and giving lots of different services, so you clear your mind and ask the voices, What else should I try to do here, while I've got the chance?

Is there any supplies you're running low on, or tools you need for hunting? Aside from that, you may want to pick up local gossip, or see if there's any errands you can run in order to get resources or marks, as you currently have a rather small group, and could use a few more wagons. You said you have no more room, so recruiting isn't an option, but if anyone has seem anything of the caravan that was following you, that could be useful

>>500665
Water, bullets, and heater fuel are all that you can recall off the top of your head. You make a bit of a show of yourself, paying for things in mountain-marks and looking for people willing to pay you in them, but doesn't seem to get you any trouble. One especially weird thing you see while you're shopping around is a small man, a Red, selling small-stars, and seemingly doing well for himself. You ask him why he's selling them, and why everyone seems to be so eager to buy, to which he responds that he's just that great of salesman. There's supposedly going to be a massive darkening, a few days, at least, but it was mostly because of how great of a salesman he was. While a little confused about why he put it that way, you still ask him if he'll accept marks for a couple of small-stars, to which he responds, of course, what kind of Red wouldn't accept marks? You reach into the pocket where you've been keeping your marks as of late, only to find it empty except for a couple of 36 kyuduo marks, which is hardly enough to pay even one small-star. You ask him if, actually, he'll accept a favor. He chuckles, thinks for a moment, and then says that you can help him spread the word, and deliver some to the lazy ones who don't want to leave their wagons to come and get one.

You do so, taking one small-star as an advance, before walking about, stopping at each wagon, preaching the advantages of having a small-star during a darkening, like keeping demons away, being smokeless and fuel-less sources of light, that kind of thing, before collecting every intersted-person's payment, mostly a variety of small items or trinkets, a few pieces of jewelry, a few marks, running back the man, exchanging the payments for small-stars, running back to the wagons of the interested-people and handing out the small-stars, leaving the one extra and the one advance for yourself. With all this running around, you manage to overhear a couple of rumors. The first was there was this all this hoopla about how the Red-king's daughter is colorless and how that's got to mean he or the queen's got to have had her with a mountain-person, or high-forbid a flying-person. That one didn't much interest you, though you hung on to it in case the voices cared. The other seemed more relevant, and it was about how the caravan that your old one was waiting for had found in the condition you left them in, and have been scouring the northern border looking for the rogue Green war-band that they're currently assuming did it, which is pretty fortunate for you.

With that, you bring your purchases back to your cart, hang the two small-stars from the ceiling, sit down, and clear your mind, asking Where should we go now, further south in the Red, or back up north?

Well rogue war bands and people hunting for you reside in the north, so that's probably not the best of ideas. I would try traveling further south, just to distance yourself from the search. However, there may be mitigating factors as to why the north would be a better choice, such as the location, or at least the direction of your father, or anything particularly interesting we may need to go see. Is there anything one might need to know before making a decision?

>>500994
Oh, yes! There was snippet about how my former caravan had housed a Green for many days, almost a year, before supposedly running off back north to his estate on the Dish, some people believing that he was going to gather warriors, and that he was the one who wiped out your caravan. I can't believe I managed to forget that! It's not much, just a rumor, but it's the only I've gotten so far, so what do you think?

That could be your father, but I have a feeling going north will be...
Complicated. I would say go for it, but then again I won't die if I'm caught by war bands or angry caravans. My vote if North, but it's ultimately up to you if you believe it's too dangerous

>>501263
You think it makes sense go north, even if it's more risky that staying in the south, but remember, to, that you're not the only one you're travelling with anymore. You announce to the group that after you all get some rest you're going to get the cart going, and that a rumor you picked up while shopping around leads you to believe that person who you gathered them all together to find is in the north, possibly near the northern border. Going around, Toliingir is full willing to go, though you suspect that he doesn't fully comprehend the consequences of going northward; Besheed practically seems eager while Abisheed, when you get her to respond, seems resistant, and untrusting of the rumor; Djaudthig says she's willing, though you feel a sense of foreboding, as she's been guessing out loud about who you're trying to find, and what you're planning on doing with them; and finally Vyunuuataarer says that he doesn't think we're prepared to go to the north yet, considering you and the sisters are all children, might not be for a while.

You feel the tension in the cart by the time everyone's asleep, and you yourself are unable to sleep. Darkness has set outside, and even with the small-stars hung, you can feel them pressing on you. Hoping to extended your waking time, you try to clear your mind and ask the voices What should I do about the tie? I could count your votes as well, but no one else knows about you, and as Santova said, you don't appear to be in any danger one or the other, so I'm not sure how plausible that would be.

It is important to consider the safety of the caravan, especially since you have children aboard, although I do believe you can take care of yourself. As I see it, you could do two things. You might just say "I'm the caravan Leader, you all do what I say or get out." But that's generally not a good way to make friends. The other option I think, would to be to talk to those reluctant to go, and find compromise on what would make them more comfortable, which I think is the most plausible idea right now

>>501527
You ponder how talk about the matter with the sisters and Djaudthig, staring silently into the small-stars. Eventually, your vision begins to blur and your eyelids droop, and you feel as though you're about fall asleep, when suddenly a putrid scent arrives at your nose and a blinding light at your eyes. Your sight adjusts, and you see your companions pale, unmoving, and strewn about the cart; both doors are open and letting bright light in from outside; and there is a monstrous, pearly-skinned warrior pinning you down and holding a knife to your throat, roaring unintelligibly at you. You swipe your beclawed hand at its face instinctively, then you're on your feet, and then you're leaping for its throat. Soon it lies on the floor, as dead as the others, and as you almost feel yourself slip into blackness, you tear the claws off your hand and concentrate with all your strength on keeping awake. You put your palms to your temples and walk slowly towards the front door of the cart, rest your elbows again the door-frame, and try to inconspicuously peek outside.

The scene you see is mind-boggling. The sky is a blazing white field with a single circle of pitch darkness at its height. The sand all around is pure white, and judging by the feeling of the air passing over you, it is ice cold. Looking farther off, towards where the watering hole was, there is now a massive ice-sculpture, though you can't tell of what. Other pearly-skinned people walk about a gathering of carts arranged like the one at the watering hole before, each pearly-one seeming almost over-burdened with weaponry, if not for the ease with which they seem to carry them all. You quickly duck back inside before you can be seen, and sit down, trying to gain a hold over yourself. Though all your effort goes to staying aware of your surroundings, your mind feels as open as when you make it so normally, and though you cannot bring the words to bare in your mind to ask them something, you hope beyond hope that the voices might have something to share of their own accord.

Last time something like this happened, it seemed to e a dream, this may be the same situation. This certainly doesn't seem like the world you live in. If there is a direction the pearly skinned people are not, run, and get run fast, getting as far away as you can. Take the claws as your weapon, they seem to be able to protect you, and get out

If you must leave, remember to take some provisions with you, and possibly one of these signal stars. could you describe this object for us?

You hear the voices of Santova and Calamary surprising crisply. You suppose this might be a dream, but this one, and the other, which you now find very hard to remember, seem far more real compared to any other you've had. As for the small-stars, they small balls, no wider than finger-length, and lighter than the same amount of sand, easily making them small enough to put in your bag, which you do. You work your wake back up from sitting, and slowly walk to the backdoor of the cart, opening it gently before looking out. Just as with the watering hole, the back of the cart faces away from all of the others. You carefully try to lower yourself from the cart, but are paralyzed for a moment by the coldness of the sand. You climb back up and wrap your legs and feet in several layers of clothe before trying to exit the cart, this time successful. You're about to slip the claw back on, but the instant your hand touches it in your bag, you're blasted by dizziness. You push through for long enough to get the thing on and secured before falling face first in the sand, which you suddenly realize compacts and hardens weirdly as you fall on it. The bitter coldness shocks you out of the dizziness, fortunately, so get back up and start running away from the ice-sculpture, whose immensity allows you to use it as a convenient marker of where the pearly-ones are.

Unfortunately, you can't make it far before two pearly-ones staring riding towards you on their white beasts, though you can't imagine how they could have known that you were escaping. The dizziness returns as they approach, so you through some of the white sand in your face, but it does nothing as the dizziness continues to expand through your mind, until everything suddenly crystallizes into perfect clarity as the pearly-ones reach you. Your claws are in the gut of one before you can think, and through the eyes of the other an instant later. You run the claws through the sand to get the pearly-ones weirdly red blood off, before you jump onto the back of one their beasts to see if you can drive it. You're surprised by how easy it is to ride, easier than a halule, though less stable, since it feet seem smaller and harder. You ride it away for a while, noticing that the dark circle above you seems to grow and shrink over time. After even more time, it begins to grow and encompass the entire sky, and the dizziness returns in full force. You quickly become unable to stay up on the beast, and by the time you've reached the ground, there's only...

...darkness.

You're shaking, shaking hard. You open your eyes slowly to the sight of yours companions standing around you, Vyunuuataarer leaning over you, grasping your shoulders tightly. You sit up and ask why they're all up and around you, to which he responds that you were thrashing around violently in your sleep, which woke everyone else. Vyunuuataarer and Toliingir both look worried, Djaudtig simply annoyed, Abisheed as still as ever. Besheed, meanwhile, seems to be calling you over to the other side of the cart. You go over to her, before she breaks a surprising question to you, asking why you had such a strange dream while you were asleep. You're a little dumbfounded, but quickly ask her what she's talking about. She sighs, and says that there's more than might meet the eye, between her and her sister. She avoids giving many details, but says that one of the strange things about her is that she can see certain kinds of dreams, the ones with the white-sand place, but most of the time it's just whoever's having the dream wandering around in the stuff, and there's never any other people like there were in yours. You aren't really sure what to think of this, so you just say that you know less about these dreams than her.

She shrugs and lets you go. You return to your earlier thoughts, and think that, first you're going to need to find out why Abisheed seems resistant before you can try to convince her otherwise, and that, once you find some more examples of why she and her sister are special, which you're sure Besheed will be willing to share if she thinks it'll help get them north, that you can demonstrate your own capabilities, somehow, maybe with a dummy, which will hopefully convince Vyunuuataarer that your and their being children does not put them in more danger than the rest. With that, though you don't have any specific questions, you clear your mind and listen, in case any of the voices have something to say anyway.

After waiting for for a moment, only for there to be silence from the voices, you give up and decide to talk with the quiet sister.

Abisheed sits on the floor, leaned against the wall of the cart, as still as ever. You step over to her, and ask why she's resistant to heading north, to which you receive no response. After a couple more tries she just turns her to face you and asks, what are you talking about? You say that the last time you tried to get her opinion on whether or not you should go north, she only responded with some unpleasant sounds and covering her ears. She sighs frustratedly, and quickly says that you're annoying her, her that she doesn't care where you go, and to stop talking to her unless something important is actually happening. With that, she turns away from you, and the conversation ends there.

You decide that's about all you'll get out of her right now, so you turn to find Besheed again, only to notice that she is already speaking with Vyunuuataarer. You go towards them, and overhear Besheed arguing with him over how she and her sister are capable of taking care of themselves, with Vyunuuataarer only responding with any child can say that, and that she will need to show something. You can't help but think that it's strangely convenient that he expresses what he requires so plainly, and that they are so similar to what you planned for, though you suppose actually demonstrating their abilities might be more difficult than just mentioning them.

You step into their conversation and say that you side with Besheed, which Vyunuuataarer evidently finds obvious. You and Besheed both say that you'll be able to set up some way of showing their abilities, to which he sighs and gives up arguing, saying he'll deal with whatever little show you put up when you do.

Turning and stepping away from him, you ask Besheed for some examples of things she and her sister could do. She says that her power does do much that's flashy unless she can get her hands on someone who performing a real ritual or can manifest, but her sister can do this thing where she makes something be alive, sort of, which should be easy enough to show.

For now, you think that you should be able to get Vyunuuataarer to try and do a ritual, which should let Besheed demonstrate her power, but you wonder how you'll get Abisheed motivated enough to show hers. Feeling as though you've run out of ideas, you rest against the wall of the cart and open your mind, hoping once again that the voices might share something.

Apologies for my absence Kuch, but I have returned. I can't recommend anything solid, but she said she was not interested before because what you were saying was not important. This leads me to believe the key to convincing her to show her power is that it is important. If she has a sense of pride, you may be able to goad her into it, by taunting her and saying you don't think she can. If all else fails, perhaps Besheed can convince her, since she seems closer to the quiet girl than you are

Hello there. I'm a new voice known as Zaealix. I've a minor question, a thought about these 'pearly ones' and lastly, I believe the power Abisheed wields is a power we'd call 'necromancy', the ability to control the dead. So, first, I think we should ask her about this power.

Oh, as a side note... What are the Reds known for? The greens seem to be warriors and fighters, and given thir dislike, I presume the Golds to be merchants, while Reds, either are more skilled with the Practice, or with Medicine.

Most of this is me just guessing though.

>>504029

In your caravan, at least, it was the common opinion that Greens were dangerously violent, and Reds were far too willing to consort with Moun-- Carvers. Being Golds themselves, they didn't really have a sweeping opinion of them. You think those feelings about the other colors probably weren't accurate, but you don't know. You certainly haven't seen any Reds in person, and the one or two Greens you recall having seen didn't seem much different from the rest of the people in your caravan. You're curious what Zaealix's thought about the Pearly-ones was, since it seemed to have finished speaking before mentioning them.

Oh, and the Practice is very rare among Walkers, as far as you've seen. No one in your old caravan was a practicer, and only one person who you met while you were working for your small stars was. Most the people you know, excluding the Carvers you've met, who all seem to be practicers, though only Vyunuuataarer seems to be especially familiar with any rituals, either seemed to revere the On-High, which seems pointless what with how often they come and go, or the Star, which as far as you're aware is just a dim point of light in the sky.

>>503893

You remain somewhat unsure of how to go about convincing Abisheed to display her power to Vyunuuataarer, so you decide to just ask her about it, as Zaealix suggested.

She sighs audibly as you approach her again, and before you have a chance to say anything, asks why this is important. You say because it will decide where you'll all be heading, and because of that, whether or not the entire ordeal was fruitful or not. She sighs again, and asks what it is you want to talk about, to which you respond, you need to know more about her power. She asks what in the world you're talking about, to which you respond that Besheed has already told you about them, and that she can give any charades that she presumably uses with other people. She huffs, glares at Besheed, and says that it's not important enough for her to try. You think for a moment that you might try to attack her pride, but if she's already willing to say that she doesn't have any powers, then that might not work. You have another idea, though, and instead say that you'll have Besheed pester her until she agrees, to which she sighs loudly, and acquiesces. She says she doesn't know exactly how to describe her power, so she'll just go outside and demonstrate. You follow her out, weary of the darkness, though Abisheed says that it'll help her use her power, a little bit. You're both standing just beyond the back door of the cart, Abisheed now with her arms crossed silently, apparently concentrating. At first nothing seemed to be happening, but before long, the sand before her begin to rise and fall as if it were breathing, a pillar about as tall as the cart forming out of the sand. Abisheed finally leaves her former stature, seeming fairly drained, leaving a solid gold-sand pillar, which in turn slowly begins to crack, before crumbling apart and revealing a tall, golden figure, roughly man-shaped, kneeling down and facing Abisheed.

Over Abisheed's huffing and puffing you can hear quiet laughter from the cart, and turning around, you can see Vyunuuataarer standing in the doorway of the cart. He steps out and comes to you two, or three, you're not sure of the thing that Abisheed made counts, and says that was certainly quite a display, and that Abisheed, or rather the things she can bring about, can certainly defend her. Besheed and him had just finished speaking and had come to the conclusion that she would demonstrate her power with Vyunuuataarer once the darkness ended, but that still leaves you, this strange little Walker boy that's gathered them all for this strange occasion, with no proof that you're more capable of defending yourself than any other child.

You hadn't really thought of that. You suppose you had just assumed that you're ability to kill had been obvious, but as far as you're aware, no one besides you knows exactly what you did, and only Besheed has seen you fight, and that was in a dream, which might have an effect on her credibility. Hoping they might have thought of this already, you clear your mind and ask the voices How should I prove my own ability to Vyunuuataarer?

Hrmmm... This is a tricky one.
Your weapon is those strange claws that show up on your hand, correct? That's not helpful, unless you know some sort of fighting art to display your skills, but you seem kinda like the Berzerker type, raw power and savagery, which wouldn't be demonstratable without risking lives...
Show the claws, try and do any moves and whatnot that come to mind...Beyond that, I dunno.
I suspect, that it may be interesting to try and 'will' the claws on, but I'm guessing on that one.
As to the Pearly ones... I believe that those are humans like yourself, albeit native to that dream place. Their mounts, if I'm right, won't have toes, but a metal covering where their toes would be.

Well, the old man challenges your ability to protect yourself, so perhaps you could spar with him, a mock fight if you will. If he agrees, then as long as you demonstrate your abilities without actually killing him, you should be okay to go. If not, you may re-count your dealings with the pearly ones, and have Besheed vouch for you, or find some sort of large, challenging creature to kill as a test to prove your worth. That however, I might want to be your last resort, as needlessly killing is not usually a good idea, and it may be dangerous. However, if the other two options don't work, you may have to try it

>>504378

You have noticed, recently, even, not long before you arrived at the watering hole, that the claws appearing on your hand seems to be something about you, since they don't seem to appear until you stop paying attention to where your hands go, and once, when you handed them over to Toliingir to examine, and you didn't know where he put them, they didn't appear until you noticed where he had stashed them in the cart. Just showing Vyunuuataarer the claws wouldn't do much either, since he's seen them on your hands several times already, and that has apparently not swayed his opinion. You also don't really know what you do when you fight, it's more of a current you get pulled into and carries you to where you need to be and your weapon to where it needs to be.

Metal, where there toes should be? You can't imagine what the point of that would be, wouldn't it just make their feet sink into the sand? You try to remember back to the dream, but the memory is hazy, and you can't remember if this is the case or not.

>>504603

You figure you can go and give your stuff to someone inside the cart to hold, which should probably keep you from killing him if you do let go of yourself, so offer to spar with him to show what you're capable of. He laughs, and declines, saying he's hardly a fighting man himself. He coughs, and asks why you don't see if Abisheed will let you fight with that thing she just pulled out of the ground. You look to her and see she seems to have finished catching her breath, but didn't seem to quite here the suggestion, so you ask her, and she sighs, apparently her first response to most of your interactions with her, before saying she doesn't know how to fight, so the Ogyut, what she calls the gold-thing, won't either, not there'd be any point, since the thing is made of solid rock. If you really want to though, she says, she can set the thing to try to kill you, not that'll be any sort of graceful, and she'll stop it if looks like it might, but you can't say she didn't warn you. With that, she goes over to the thing, sits in front of it, and just sort of stares at it, not seeming to do anything. Vyunuuataarer looks at you with the slightest hint of a smile, waiting for you to say something.

You're left unsure again, though only two obvious choices seem to remain. You can go and get Besheed and see if you and her can convince him of what you can do, which at best will probably only work once Besheed demonstrates her power, or you can fight Abisheed's thing, which would be faster, and less likely to not convince Vyunuuataarer, but even including that she hasn't seen you fight either, the thing is big, and it really does feel like solid stone. You tell Vyunuuataarer you need a moment, clear your mind, and ask the voices Which of these do you think I should choose, or have you gotten another idea?

Interesting, less horse, more camel. I say this for the benefit of the others, as few as they may be.
Hrm.
I do not like the thought of fighting the being of rock, what we might call a golem. Your weapon seems Ill-suited to the task of fighting it, including demonstrated abilities. Thatit comes to you when you know where it is, and when you do not watch your hands...Hrm. I have a theory, that it may incline you to fighting, in what perhaps may be viewed as 'dishonorably' amongst the Greens, striking when the foe's gaurd is down, cheap shots, and generally being as pragmatic as possible.
At any rate, I think you should get Basheed's attention, and then have her demonstrate her power, on you performing the ritual of finding water. Pay close attention to what happens- does it fail, or work better or worse than it should? Or, does it act outside of your desires/control?

>>504917

You agree with Zaealix. Toliingir swinging a hammer might do something to the thing, but not you, as far as you can imagine. You realize that Vyunuuataarer's suggestion migth have even been a joke that had gone over Abisheed and your head.

You say that you're going to collect some necessary parts, and Besheed, and that'll you're going to try the water-finding ritual with her yourself. He nods, and you enter the cart. You explain what you're doing to Besheed, who offers to help you look for the things you need, which you accept. You tell her that you need a bottle of distilled water and a glass dish. There is a third thing, a jar of something called dendthuituumpe shavings, but weren't precisely sure how to describe them to Besheed, so you didn't bother to try. She finds the stuff you told her pretty quickly, and a few moments later, you manage to find the black-brown dust you were looking for, and head outside with Besheed.

You ask Vyunuuataarer exactly how the ritual goes again, just to refresh your memory, and he goes through the steps of mixing a pinch of the dust into the water, pouring it into the dish, making sure not to spill, placing it on some flattened sand, and finally placing your palm into the globule that the mixture forms on the dish. Remembering the result when Vyunuuataarer showed you before, when you take your hand out, the mixture should very dark,and rolling towards the end of the dish that the nearest body of water is. With Besheed's hand on your ear throughout the ritual, though, none of that happens, the mix sits in the dish, not even clumping together like it normally does, just acting like water with dust mixed in. Besheed, meanwhile, has seemingly done dark herself, kneeling on the ground heaving, and pitch black ball, about the size of your fist in front of her, slowly rolling towards the center of the watering-hole. She coughs up a couple smaller ones before returning to her ordinary shade of gold, and you stomp them into the sand to keep them from actually getting into the water, which probably wouldn't be good. You'll need to ask her about exactly what happened, later.

Vyunuuataarer seems a little surprised, but he seems like he knows what's happened when he admits to Besheed that she must have a power. Abisheed has no discernable reaction, and is still just sitting and staring at her thing. Besheed goes into her vision of your dream, hitting the points relevant to proving your combat ability, and by the end Vyunuuataarer seems pretty well convinced. He sighs with a smile, and finally admits that all three of you are more capable than he first thought, and that he's changed his opinion.

With that, it seems to you, that it's been decided. Northward is your new destination. Vyunuuataarer, Besheed, and you all return to inside the cart, Abisheed still lounging in front of her creation. Toliingir springs the topic of what in the world you've been doing since you woke up, and you just you've been convincing Vyunuuataarer to go north, which satisfies him.

You look around the cart, seeing Toliingir return to tinkering in his pile of trinkets, Djaudthig and Vyunuuataarer talks near the driver's seat of the cart, and Besheed sitting by herself opposite you, trying to figure out how to play a Walker card-game she must have found somewhere around the cart that you hadn't noticed before. Considering you almost certainly won't be leaving at least until the darkness ends, and you don't have much of a preference for what you do in the meantime, you decide to clear your mind and allow the voices to suggest something, if anything.

Uhhh... Hey, those cards Besheed is messing with- what do they look like?
Abisheed-Alright, so the golem she made is either controlled by her, or at the least, uses her knowledge. Could you teach her anything of fighting that you know? Regardless of if you can, I'd like to pass on this piece of advice-
"That living statue you made- in combat, it's big and tough, so naturally it can smash it's opponents right? But it's also tough-maybe it could try absorbing attacks and then countering-defensive fighting, in other words."-Phrase that however you like.
As for Besheed, it would seem she 'amplifies' rituals through herself... An interesting power to pair with her dream-walking. At any rate, did you pay attention to what direction those smaller balls rolled in, or in which order? I believe those pointed the way to either further away water sources, or smaller ones-Might be something to check out.
And one last thing- Considering the rules of those claws, perhaps you could get into the habit of wearing them always, and practice handling fine objects, or maybe using a finger to poke around in narrow crevices.
That's all from me for now.

>>505393

They're just ordinary 28-- wait, you might not know what 28 Pairs is. Each card has two symbols on it, out of a circle, a line, a cross, a triangle, a square, a pentagram, and a hexagram. None of the cards are the same, even if you flip them upside down, which is where the name comes from.

I don't know fighting styles or anything, it's all just kind of happens around me, at least out of the times I remember. I guess I'll try remember the specifics the next time I'm in a fight. But for now, what you suggested is all I could say. It seems like the other voice, Santova, has been a little quieter lately, though, so I might wait a little to see if it comes up with something to say, too.

I wasn't paying much attention to which direction they were going in, no. It didn't seem like they were going in the same direction, though, but that might be me misremembering. I do remember, from the first time Vyunuuataarer explained to me how to do the ritual, something about how the amount of water I mix with the same amount of dust should be less for farther away water, but more for bigger bodies of water. I'm not sure if that's the way that what Besheed coughed up works or not, though, so I guess it is something I should ask her or Vyunuuataarer about.

I don't know. I guess it isn't really a bad feeling, but it feels like when I know I have the claws on, that I should be fighting. I could get over it if I tried, I think, but it still a strange feeling.

@Claws- Then I suppose the claws can be called
'Honor of the Green' for their leading you to battle, by always being ready for use, and granting you the feeling of combat. I'm gonna also say my thoughts on your fighting style- I believe you to be a Berzerker, a type of fighter known for their savagery and danger, not stopping from wounds, at the price of thinking about the battle. Sound right?
DEFINATELY talk to Besheed about her power, maybe even have Vyuunathar there to help smooth over difficulties.
Card thing was me attempting to find something familiar about your world-I fear the others are confounded by how different your world appears to be-I doubt that, but now I'm rambling.
Aaaand Ritual...Hrm. Less water-more range, more water- better for bigger bodies- sounds like a weird trade-off between power and range to me. Again, ritual talk with Besh and Vyuu I think will clarify this.

>>505478

You wait for a moment, but Zaealix remains the only one who you can hear. You'll have to set aside some time in the future, once you've learned a few more things, so you can set as much as you can straight with the voices. For now, though, you'll go and see if you can work some more things out with Vyunuuataarer and Besheed.

Vyunuuataarer still talking to Djaudthig, though, so you wait and listen for moment. At first they seem to only to getting to know one another, talking about what they did back at the mountain, that sort of thing. You go to talk to Besheed, and you just catch the tone shifting, getting a little more heated, a couple of words, like "Hwondiataare" and "Dendeataare". Just more things you'll have to ask about, you suppose. Right now, you ask Besheed for some more information on her power, saying you're not quite getting what happened. She looks up from the cards at you and says that wasn't really a good demonstration of her powers, and that if she had some more practice, it would have gone differently. She goes on a bit how she thinks her power works, how there's a sort of invisible stuff that rituals use to make their effects happen, and that kind of leak out of people when they have those weird dreams, and her whole power is that she can sort of suck it in, and by this point it starts going over your head.

You notice that Vyunuuataarer seems to have finished talking with Djaudthig, so you call him over to you and Besheed and ask him you explain what he thinks happened, at which he proceeds to describe more or less exactly what Besheed did, albeit with more technical terms, which only gives Besheed a victorious smile. You also ask him about some of the details of the water-finding ritual, to which he chuckles, observes that you're very curious all of a sudden, and goes on to explain the ritual works. The reason for changing the amount of water, simplified somewhat, comes down to the sensitivity of the mixture, with the sensitivity going up with the more dust-stuff.

You thank him, to which he chuckles again, and goes to the driver's seat of the cart and beginning to read from a handbook he pulled from his pocket. Djaudthig is sitting at the very back of the cart, looking fairly annoyed. You think you can hear some moving outside, so it's possible that Abisheed is doing something with the thing. Besheed's gone back to trying to figure out the rules for 28 Pairs. Toliingir seems to have narrowed his fiddling down to one specific trinket, but it looks like he keeps fumbling it. Once again, you're left with a variety of things to do, and no preference for any them, so you clear your mind and hope the voices will have a suggestion.

Again, apologies for my absence; Why not check on Toliingir, see what trinkets he's messing, maybe ask him what they do, or if they have any particular use to you right now.

[Sorry I haven't been reading up lately, lot of stuff on my mind. I'll try and keep up though, I really really like how this is going so far!]

Sensitivity adjustment, based on the proportion of water to dust...
Could using another material instead of water allow that ritual to sense other things, I wonder-not worth it. You seem to not be able to grasp this stuff-should leave the ritual work to others I think.
Invisible stuff sounds like magic to me, and I think Besheed absorbs it, and then channels it through herself like I said before.
OK~ As far as what to do now, I concur with Santova-Speaking to toliingir sounds like a thing to do, though I'm curious about those words you emphasized earlier, hwonditar and dentar mean.

>>505886

Something like 'Zealot' for the first one, and 'Secret-keeper' for the second, I think.

>>505870

At the voices suggestion, you go to Toliingir to see what he's working on. He greets you quietly as you approach, smiling simplistically, and you ask him what he has there. He laughs as he picks up the parts he had dropped and shows them to you, followed by the rest of the device he was making. It looks to be long, thin box, made of just silver-metal as far as you can tell, with one end of the box having a some buttons, looks like one for each letter, a few numbers, plus some extra that don't have anything etched near them, and the other end having a few short wires connected to something inside the box through some long slits. You look at the underside for a instant, but just the numbers of gear, springs, and high-knows what else is enough to make your head hurt. He says he can show you what it does, which you agree to. He begins by pressing a button set off from the rest, which immediately makes the box emit constant, quiet, low hum. He proceeds to press the buttons to spell out "E Kuch Gudtomuu", followed by one unlabeled button, and then another. The box clanks, whirs, and hums for a bit more before going silent. He smiles giddily as presses a final button, labeled "Mutuu" or Read, before something frankly startling happens. The ends of the wires on the other end of the box begin to slide around, the wires beginning to glow all the while, until you read E Kuch Gudtomuu right in front of you, spelled out by the wires, glowing a dim orange. You're rather speechless, which only makes Toliingir's smile wider.

You say, with it already able to do that, what does he need more parts for? He says that was only a trick, nothing useful, and that if he could only get some these smaller parts in, he could do so much more. Curiosity driving you, you say you could help with that, but he declines, saying he couldn't properly tell you where to put the parts unless he was looking at himself at the same time, and that he's sure he'll get them in eventually. You don't really know what do after that, so you just nod to him and get out of his way. You know that Toliingir just doesn't get somethings, but you sometimes you think that he might get metal better than anyone else.

You shake yourself out that stupor and look about the cart, only to realize that everyone is looking at Toliingir. Even Abisheed is standing outside the back of cart looking in. You suppose the box was louder than it sounded. Everyone goes back to what they were doing before, besides Djuadthig, who looks to be trying to talk to Toliingir, though his attention appears to have been absorbed by his work again.

Left again with opportunities you have no preference for or against, you clear your mind and wait for the voices to express themselves.

You have earned this.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Zph2nEHAkxpjdQ5BI1j2EODS0gL30HhEOm8CKtDvtCg/edit?usp=sharing

[holy wow that is awesome]
When you were with the Carvers, and you met Toliingir, you mentioned that you were illiterate. Perhaps you could get Vyunuuataarer to teach you reading and writing if you have the time. It would be a useful skill that might come in handy later on

>>506482

He actually taught me how to read and write, a little bit, when he taught me some of his rituals, since one of them needs something written down. I forget exactly what it did, but I don't think it was particularly useful. I could ask him that, if you really want to know.

Perhaps talk with the others of the caravan, or practice the rituals. Sometime soon I feel we should start heading North, so if you have yet to prove yourself, perhaps a trip out into the wilds, in search of something useful, or a a powerful beast to slay would be the next order of business

Hrm! That was interesting...Hey! Those claws of yours are mechanical, right? We should ask Tolingjir to take a closer look at them, maybe when he has some free time though.
A question though-how much do you know about hunting, and what kinds of things did the other boys in your caravan do exactly?

>>507003

You're almost certainly not going to actually start heading north for at least a day or so, when the darkness the finishes. Rootworms go out and hunt in the darkness, and you'd rather not have you and your little group end up inside of one of those. When you think about big beasts, though, you can't think of one bigger than a rootworm...

>>507147

For now, though, you decide to just share your claws with Toliingir. You notice, though, that Djaudthig seems to already be harassing him. Stepping in to hear what she seems to be shaking him down for, and even though you can't quite work out some of the words she was using, since she was speaking too fast for your familiarity with Carver-speak, you know she told him to tell her something. You have a suspicion, but you decide to ask Toliingir what she was doing with him rather than acting on. He's still a little shaken, so you reassure him that telling you won't make anything worse, which looks like it helps him, a little. He says that Djaudthig thought that she could make it big the next time that you stopped at a mountain, if she could get him to tell how to make the machine he showed you. He froze up when she came over to him, though, and he's not sure he could just say it at all, since there are a lot of parts, and a lot of steps for putting them together. He doesn't want his idea being put to use that way, anyway, though, he wants his little machines everywhere, not just where people can manage to buy them.

You're confounded by this. You certainly can't leave this conflict unsettled, since that would essentially guarantee something explosive happening the next time you visit a mountain, which will happen eventually, and that could take Djaudthig and Toliingir out of the picture easily, and possibly the rest of you, but you don't really know how to defuse it right now. You've got an inkling, but you're unsure, so you take off your claws off and hand them to Toliingir to inspect, and as has become something of a habit, clear your mind and ask the voices "What do you think I should about the tension between Toliingir and Djaudthig?"

Hrrrm... On the one hand Djuuathig wants money, but toliinjir wants the machines everywhere...
Ok, here's my thoughts- these machines need matinence-err, care and attention, kind of like a Halule needs food and water, to keep going. Sure, you can sell them, but sooner or later someone with the skills to repair them will be needed.
Here's what I think: You should have them work together, like this:
Toliinjir shows off the devices and what it can do, and then gives out a set of parts for people to try and figure out. If they can put it together and make it work ( or do something cool he's never seen before), then they get to keep the completed device.
Djuuathig, however, handles the business end of things: she'll be charging people for admission to try and figure the device out. If they fail, we keep their money and give them NOTHING! Be sure to mention this fact up front-less chance of people getting mad over losing their money.
I figure it will either make Djuuathig rich like she wants, or toliinjir will get to not only see the machines everywhere, but lots of people interested in maintaining them and possibly making more.

That sounds reasonable, I concur

>>507318
>>507356

You've never heard the voices speak in such concordance before, and though it's seems a bit convoluted to you, the plan itself seems good, so you resolve to describe it to them.

You speak to Toliingir first, telling him the plan. He has his reservations, he is uncertain of how many will grasp the construction of the thing in any amount of time you could give them, but he guess that the people who get it should be able to distribute it, and he seems pleased by the idea of other making his machine better. It doesn't appear he'll have a problem with it once he gets used to the idea.

You move on to Djaudthig, again telling the plan given to you by the voice of Zaealix. She responds quietly, a wide smile, and you must admit suspicious smile crossing her face, before she enthusiastically agrees. You're not sure what she's plotting, but you've got strong feeling she is plotting something.

Having finished speaking to both of them, Besheed comes to you, having seemingly admitted to herself that she can't figure out the games rules by herself, and ask you if you could help. You agree, since you could use something to spend your time for a bit with feeling compelled by your confusion to call on the voices so often.

You both sit down against one wall of the cart, she hands you the cards, and you shuffle through, making sure all 28 are there. They are, which is good, and you begin to explain. As you've described, each card has two symbols, any combination of a circle, line, cross, triangle, square, pentagram, and hexagram. Each player draws a hand of three cards to begin with, decide who plays first, begin playing cards next to first one played, drawing one for each one they play. In order to play a card, it has to share a symbol with the card its being played next to, though cards with two of the same symbol can also be played next to each other, even though they have different symbols. A card can only have two cards next to it, unless it has two of the same, in which case it can have four. When one of the players can't play a card on their turn, they draw a card, the other player goes. If there's no more cards to draw, the game ends, and whoever has the least cards in their hand wins. If there's a tie, whoever played the most of a single symbol, counting twice for cards with the same symbol twice, loses.

Besheed nods as you describe the game, and as you conclude, asks you if you'd try a game with her. You agree, and have idea. You clear quickly as Besheed shuffles the deck, and ask the voices "Would you like to play this game of 28 pairs?"

Hrmmm... Yes. I don't see why not.

Yes, let's! I fer we may not be very good though, as your games are still confusing to us, or at least myself. I cannot speak for Zaealix though, he may be better at it than I am

You maintain a clear mind as well as you can while paying attention to your surroundings, and deal a hand of to Besheed and yourself. You offer her the first, as is traditional, and she accepts, putting down the circle-pentagram. Coincidentally, you have the circle-line, circle-hexagram, and triangle-pentagram cards. It shouldn't be especially important on this first turn, but you leave the decision to the voices anyway.

Can you play your circle line of hers? Or do you have to put down your own pair. If you can, that's the card I suggest

Circle line-opening moves aren't really something to strategize over...

You play your circle-line card next to the circle-pentagram, and draw the cross-square card. She plays the square-pentagram and draws. You listen for the voices next move, but you're attention is momentarily broken by Toliingir telling you he's figured something out about your claws.

Play your square card of of her square card and see what stuff there is about your claws!

As Santova said, do... I wonder what Toliingir found out?

You play your card, draw the double hexagram, and ask Toliingir to continue, allowing your mind to return to its ordinary state.

As soon as he sees he has your attention, he flies into a detailed explanation of what he's found, pointing at bits of the claws, which he's managed to open in a way that you weren't aware it could be opened. Thin, white wires run in crevices you'd never noticed before, where they all connect to a faintly glowing leaf of silver metal that lies behind the palm. You don't even try to catch all of the specifics, but you understand he seems very impressed with it, that he thinks might be a couple of similarities to what he made, but he's still working out how it's storing the hand and arm movements in the silver-leaf. You nod, and he sets back to looking at the claw, noticeably more focused on the the silver-leaf.

Besheed's drawn a fourth card, apparently unable to play. While how it works is beyond you entirely, you think you're getting a better idea what it does when you're fighting with it. You decide to leave that for after the voices give you a move, and say whatever else they have to say, before describing it.

Play the Triangle Pentagram, save the double for when you get stuck.

Santova, I think I'm possibly on to something as to how the claws work. Interestingly enough, Kuch here seems more proficient with devices, although not at toliingir's level. Though that could simply be from him having several days worth of practice with the claws, I suspect it to be an unusual skill.

I second that move, let's see what Toliingir has to say

You heed the voices, and almost play the triangle-pentagram, but notice that there aren't any open pentagrams, or any triangles at all. In fact, the only card you can play right now the circle-hexagram, which makes you feel a little foolish for asking which card to play.

You play the card, draw the cross-hexagram, and then turn from the game to ask Toliingir what he thinks the claws actually do. He says he just said it, they record the hand and arm movement of the person who's wearing them. You sigh, and ask him what he thinks they do with the movements. He says he's not sure, it would be easier to tell if he knew how the records were stored, but if he had to take a guess, he would say that it lets the person who's wearing do the same movements, but he can't be sure. You're a little surprised, since that was what you were figuring, but you're still interested in what the voices have to say.

Looking back to the game, Besheed has played the triangle-hexagram. You take note of the way the cards are lined up right now, that being cross-square/square-pentagram/circle-pentagram/circle-line/circle-hexagram/triangle-hexagram, before clearing your mind and listening for the voices response.

This voice apologizes for the oversight, and recommends you play the cross-pentagram.

The claws store the skill of previous wielders. This is a double edged sword I think, as while the claws can grant Kuch a great deal of skill, I fear he may not keep the skills he gains from fighting with the claws, so it's useful now, but we may want to find an alternate weapon to master, just in case.

I cast my vote for our double which I believe is still playable, is it not? I'm sorry about the mishap, things in your world are more difficult for myself to understand as I do not see them in the same way you do

You consider what the voices suggested, and go with playing the double hexagram, since out of the two suggestions it leaves you with the most options. Besheed plays the pentagram-hexagram and draws, leaving it on your turn again, with no further distractions.

Can you refresh us on your hand? How many/ what cards do you have?

Oh, yes! You forgot to draw as well, which you do now, apologizing to Besheed for drawing out of turn. With that, you're hand is the line-hexagram, the cross-hexagram, and the triangle-pentagram.

Hrm, line Pentagram I think for this round.

You decide play the line-hexagram, specifically off of Besheed's pentagram-hexagram rather than one of the remains spaces around your double hexagram, since you notice there are more hexagram's already down or in your hand than there pentagrams. You draw the double triangle, and Besheed plays the line-triangle before drawing and looking just a bit relieved.

You focus on the voices again, though the fact that Abisheed has returned to inside the cart crosses your mind before you hear anything from them.

This voice is failing to transmit it's brain it seems.
Anyhow... Triangle Pentagram off the triangle line she just played.

Agreed- What was Abisheed doing before she went back into the cart?

You play the triangle-pentagram as suggested, drawing the cross-pentagram in turn. Besheed plays the double pentagram and draws.

>>510172

The last time you saw her, she was kneeling in front of the thing, but you don't know if anything changed since then. You could ask her, you guess, but Abisheed hasn't seemed like the most cooperative so far, and it would be another interruption to the game.

Beshi played a double, go with one of the two cards you have that isn't a double I guess.
As for Abisheed, no real need to pay her that much attention at the moment...

Can you play line-hexagram?

>>510471

You've already played that, actually. You're hand is cross-pentagram, cross-hexagram, and double triangle.

>>510451

That just the cross-pentagram, which you play. You draw the line-square, after which Besheed plays the circle-cross and draws as well. You wait to hear your next move.

Cross Hexagram... Hey, mind asking Beshieed if she notices anything weird about you? Particularly when she did the ritual hi-jack earlier, notice anything odd?

play your line square next, and yes, check out what Zaealix is saying

>>511226

You decide to play the cross-hexagram off of Besheed's most recent play, drawing the line-pentagram afterwards. You pose the suggested question as she plays the square-hexagram and draws. She says that she hasn't done it to very many people, only you, her sister, and a third person who she does not want to talk about. Out of those three, you do seem more like the third, rather than her sister, who she knows is strange. You're mostly similar with the third in the way you dream, though. She does seem to think there is something weird about you, though she has some trouble putting it to words. After a moment, she says that there was subtle sort of glowing when you took hold of ritual-stuff, almost sort of like light from the star, though she gives at that point.

You're really not sure what to think of that, so you leave it, as well what card to play next, up to the voices.

Pretty sure you can only play the double triangle right now, so do that.
The claws, how big are they in comparison to your hands?

ditto that

>>511746

You check the cards in case you forgot the state of play. You can actually play any of your cards, your line-square off of the cross-square that Besheed and you have basically ignored up to this point, your line-pentagram off of Besheed's double pentagram, and your double triangle off of any of the other doubles that down. You think you'll let the voices speak again on that subject.

About your claws, right now they fit around-- agh! How did you get them back from Toliingir without even noticing? You sigh and remove them, before continuing the thought. They fit fairly well around your hand, though they've got gears to adjust the size, which, now that you think about, probably was how Toliingir opened it up when you let him look at it. Testing it a bit, you can get them a lot bigger than your hands, maybe twice as wide, though the blades don't much longer, if at all.

How? They were out of sight, and you stopped watching your hands, that is the rule of them right?
Or maybe it's a case of out of mind, out of hand. Anyhow, this is...curious. Apologies in advance, I'm not going to be able to think up all the things those claws can do right away!
For now, I only have one question-
Can you make one of the claws big enough to hold a man's head in your hand?

this seems to be going in a scary direction

Line- Square then, save the double for later.

@Santova- Didn't mean to start sounding dark there, sorry.

>>512101

You can, almost, not that you can really use them at that point. What you were really surprised by was that you thought Toliingir still had them, though you suppose he might have put them down while you weren't paying attention. You might try and ask what someone else sees the next time you end up with your claws on.

You play the line-square on the neglected side of the game, drawing the double square in turn. Besheed plays the line-cross and draws, and you wait for your next turn.

Can you play your double square?

I'd like to say pentagram card, but I'm personally fond of saving doubles for getting out of a jam.

Yeah I'm down for that if it works

>>513670

The line-pentagram? If that's what you want me to play, there are a couple of places I could play it.

Hrm... We've got multiple doubles in our hand, so let's use this to spoil one of the on-field double slots that are availible, if we can.

any places we can put it that'll hurt her chances?

You could play it off of the double pentagram, but that wouldn't leave her any worse off, since once you play your line-pentagram, all of the pentagrams are going to be down, though you guess Besheed might have a double as well, though that feels unlikely. You could play it, or one of your other cards, on either end of the cards, but given what cards aren't down or in your hand, she'll be able to play a card no matter what.

You decide to play the line-pentagram off the double pentagram, since it opens up a third card-end, which is all you need, since as long as you play a card for the next two turns, you think you'll win. You dray the double circle as Besheed plays the cross-triangle off of the line-pentagram. She draws the penultimate card, and says you've been asking a lot questions since you woke up, and that she wants to know what you're using them for.

You have a couple of guesses as to why the voices having been asking these questions through you, the most obvious seeming to be that they just don't know a lot about the world, or at least the situation you're in, but you leave it to them to tell you what to say, since they're the only ones who really know.

Card structure
12/14/01/05/45/24/06/36/66/56/16/13/35/55(15)/25/02/26/46

Curiousity! Your world is quite interesting and curious and I'm just trying to make sense of it all? It's a world I don't know much of anything about, so I'm probably going to be perpetually asking questions like a young child might, Kuch.
Well, I suppose I wouldn't mind telling Beshieed about us, buuuut I'm none to sure how to prove our existence to her, so maybe mention this but wih a grain of salt, which if it isn't a saying in your world, means to not take it too seriously.

Yes, as said before we are in a strange new world and we want to know as much about it as we can! You live in interesting times

You take a reprieve from the game, which you just realize was becoming somewhat boring, to answer Besheed's question.

You say to her that before you gathered them, before you even came to that mountain, you were troubled. So troubled that you sought the help of void voices, despite the corruption you know that they wrought on those who heeded them. She doesn't seem to be familiar with the idea of void voices, but doesn't stop you. You continue, that by some fortune, you have been noticed by void voices but some other voices, seeming innocent and unknowing to you, who helped you through those times. They are still with you, and seek to learn, so they ask you to learn for them. One, called Zaealix, which you completely fumble pronouncing, was curious about what she felt when she did whatever she did as you were trying to perform the ritual, hence your question.

Besheed chuckles, and says that's awfully complicated excuse for your curiosity. You sigh, and suppose it wouldn't be so easy, but you notice the way that Besheed looks you in the eyes, and get the feeling she's convinced. You'll need to talk her about that later, maybe outside.

The remainder of the game plays out uninterestingly, since there is no way for either of you to prevent the other from playing cards. The games, you with two cards in your hand, Besheed with four. You pack up the cards, and she goes to the front of the cart, seemingly to talk with Vyunuuataarer, though about what you're not sure. Toliingir is tinkering as he always seems to be. Abisheed is reading a book, though it's title is unfamiliar to you. Djaudthig is slumped against a wall, eyes glazed.

You once more have no preference for what to do right now, though Djaudthig's state is perhaps more disturbing to you than it ordinarily is, and so clear your mind and await the voices.

Well, we've just spent quite some time with Besheed, so we should let her be for a while. We could talk to Toliingir but I doubt there will be anything new to say since we last spoke to him about the claws. Since Abisheed is reading she'll probably be even more desondant than usual, although I'd be curious as to where she got the book, I don't remember having one in the caravan before. Currently I'm most interested in Djaudthig, we should check to see if they're okay, make sure nothing is wrong. If they aren't responsive call Vyunuuataarer over to help you

Her eyes are glazed over? That sounds concerning, especially since you are concerned as well...
I think we should get Vyuuthar and at least tell him what's up with her.
Ah, and as for my name, you say it like this: Zae Ah Lix.

You decide to check her quickly before going to get Vyunuuataarer, in case it's not as serious as it seems. She doesn't respond as you walk up to her, or when you ask her if she's okay, but when you poke her in the side, she snorts loudly, swats your hand away, blinks a few times as some tears roll down her face, and stands up straight before asking you what you bothered you her for. You say you just wanted to see if what was wrong with her, and she scoffs at you before turning away, pulling out short pipe from her coat, lighting it, taking a long breath from it, putting it away, and returning to her slumped position.

You heard about this kind of thing during your stay at the mountain, it was similar to the sort of meditation the drivers from your old caravan did when met with sand-painters, but they always seemed to come out of the more lively than they entered, and Djaudthig hardly seems lively to you.

Your thoughts are interrupted by a the incredibly loud sound of a silverhorn enters your ears and does not cease. Your eyes are shaking in your head, and you're getting dizzy. You hold yourself together for long enough to look around the cart again, but the only one who seems to be reacting to the sound is you.

You try to block it out with your hands, but it only grows louder. In moments it feels as though it's shaking your entire body, and an instant later the cart seems to have blown apart before your very eyes, revealing the frozen landscape which you have seen three times, now. You prepare yourself to be attacked, unsurprised that your claws are at the ready. You are surprised, however, to notice that you are totally alone. You look around, seeing the glistening white landscape, empty of anything excepted for the immense ice sculpture, standing where it was before, over the watering hole. The sky is a bright white, with the dark circle small and on the horizon instead of directly over head.

"H-help me!" You call out to the voices, not realizing through your dizziness that you had actually spoken, or that you had spoken in the language they seemed to use.

! [attempt to fend off the attack]
Go to the statue if you can! Try and reach the watering hole. Zaealix can you help me?

Relax Santova, there are no more of the white ones here to disturb yough Kuch.
Now then, first thing that comes to mind is to examine that statue, but first, call out, and trust me on that one.
Then get goin and see how far you get.

You steady yourself, pondering the audibility of the voices as you reach down and throw some cold-sand in your face. The silverhorn sound is gone, in fact there's only silence, that or the sound deafened you. You're still incredibly dizzy, and your every movement seems to make the world around you shake. You plod through it, eventually reaching the base of the statue.

Taking a good look at it, it seems to be a six-armed figure, wearing armor, wielding a variety of weapons in four arms, a stylus in one, and a tablet in another. There aren't any letters on the tablet, as far as you can see. The longer you look at the statue, the more disturbed by it you are, so you turn away, and decide to start walking towards the dark circle, since the only really discernible direction other than away from the statue. The shaking is hard, but after falling on your face a couple of times, you notice that running seems to shake less than walking, so you end up going a quite a fast pace for a bit, until another unexpected happens.

You are on the floor of the cart, nose and forehead hurting pretty badly. Everyone's standing around you, looking fairly worried. You're still dazed from having apparently run into the wall of the cart, but you hold on to just enough focus to be receptive to the voices.

Hrm. Whatever this is...Well, this is why I requested that you call out, so as to warn any companions of the state that befell you. At any rate...Ask Vyuathaur and Beshieed if they noticed anything weird, as far as they may have noticed with their skills and abilities.

I think perhaps questioning can come after you rest for a moment, maybe drink something and have a small bite to eat. Steady yourself, try and sit up if you can, use the cart walls for support

>>516848

You are partial to this suggestion, though you stumble and fail to stand multiple times. You ultimately do stand yourself up with the help, of Toliingir, Vyunuuataarer having brought you a cup of steeped drink before you could ask. He asks you why you just broke into run inside of the cart, which you're unsure of how to answer. You say that you must have been hallucinating, probably because of the darkness, but you know to yourself that doesn't explain why you seemed to be in that frozen place. When you think about, though, out the times you've seen it, it has been dark, so maybe there is a connection. You leave that to ponder sometime when you aren't recovering from having slammed yourself in a wall.

You're recovering for quite a while, seeming to have hurt yourself a bit more than you felt at first, and by the time you're feeling back to yourself, the light's just beginning to return, which means you should be heading north soon. There's nothing you can particularly think of, but this will probably be the last time you here for a long while, by your judgement, but you make sure to keep your mind clear enough to hear the voices as you and your company prepare to leave.

Hrrm...Wellp, I can't think of anything much to say. Be sure you aren't leaving anything behind that you'll want, with the exception of the claws, cause they are the claws.
If I had to guess? I THINK, and this is kinda a wild theory, that you are a Mutator...Whiiich has a few holes in it, but if you have exceptional trouble with Rituals, even when performed properly, it might be accurate.
Beshieed strikes me as Cacher, which suggests that your 'trips' to that other world is somehow a function of essence or some sort of strange...Ah, ritual, I suppose? Might want to refer my ramblings to Vyuuathar to fact check them, and please don't be offended if he laughs it off.

I think we have all we might need, let us set off! To the wild north we go

With the the voices response, you decide to spend the remaining time with Vyunuuataarer, speaking to him about some of the strangeness you've encountered.

You do your best to convey Zaealix's speculations to him, first asking him simply what he believes Besheed to be. He says that he can't be certain, since he hardly has any of the tools that he had available as the small hall he had run, but given the feeling he's had around her since the beginning, and ultimately because of her display earlier, he would describe her as "'witomi", empty, you think. You ask what that means, beyond what Besheed might be, and he gives you a little of perplexed look, then explains that, in most people, people like him and you, their souls are solid in a sort of way, they can't touch stuff, but they can touch the essence of things, which is how rituals work, just like making things with your hands, but with a different kind of hand, and a different kind of thing. He goes, that if what he thinks is true, then Besheed doesn't have a soul, in the same way, but sort of have an empty space in place of one. She can't do rituals, at least any ordinary circumstances, like how it's a lot harder to make stuff if you don't have hands, but, well...the analogy kind of breaks down, but she kind of has cups for hands. She can hold the essence of things inside of her, it even wants to be inside more than outside, and she can let it out too, though she doesn't seem to know exactly how to control it. You nod your way through, hoping that the voices, or at least Zaealix, got what they wanted out of that.

You move on to the topic of yourself, but Vyunuuataarer only chuckles and says that you're just like him, except those claws of yours, at least as far as he's seen. Misjudging why you asked, he says that just because you don't come from the same place as him or the others doesn't mean you're different, not in the way Toliingir or the sisters are, anyway. You're experience can't help but lead you to think otherwise, not to the mention Zaealix, but you decide not to mention that.

Hitting on a topic you'd just thought of, you ask him if he has any thoughts on the claws. He says that you saw as well as him that nothing appeared when he waved the seeing glass around it earlier in your journey, and that for matters of its construction, there's nothing he could say about it that Toliingir couldn't. You persist, taking the claws off, unsurprised by their presence on your hand, and expand them,showing the strange network underneath, and say that even Toliingir didn't completely what it was doing on this level, and you think that it might be doing something strange. He sighs, but as you hand it to him, his expression changes, just barely, and agrees to try and use the seeing glass again, now with the claws open. You and he search for a bit, him finding it in the pile of things that Toliingir has examined, towards the bottom. Finally, Vyunuuataarer inspects the claws, but instead of the null response which he found before, he now finds thin, bright lines descending in tight arcs from the white-metal leaf within the claws, weirdly characteristic, he says, of a soul. It's certainly strange, he says, and he suggests that you let him inspect it further the next time they stop at a mountain, or any place with a Practice hall, to see exactly what is inside that's looking like a soul. He warns to not let let anyone else outside of this group know, since no matter who it is, this won't make them your friend. Out of the corner of your eye, you can see Djaudthig quietly focusing her attention on your conversation, and you have the undeniable feeling that she's interested in something besides not making friends.

The darkness is fading now, and everyone sets about for moving again. You have woken the halule and are sitting in drivers seat, and the rest were tidying the cart the last you saw, except for Abisheed, who was and probably is sitting quietly as ever. Before long, you're off again, now northwards.

Time passes idly, everyone strangely quiet, again except for Abisheed, who is quiet in the ordinary way. You and Vyunuuataarer take shifts driving the cart, and the thought strikes you that he's been spending a lot less time just thinking, compared to how he was in the beginning of the journey, and some part of you wonders what's changed in him. Soon, the cart stops, and Vyunuuataarer comes in, having finished his third shift, and suggests that everyone gets some rest, since everyone seems tired. You, and the others but for Abisheed agree, and with the smallest gesture possible, she confirms that she'll take watch over you.

Everyone cobbles together something soft to rest their head on and lays down through out the cart, Besheed giving a quick, serious glance before laying down next to you.

Falling asleep normally almost feels alien to you even as it is comforting. Either way, you're asleep fairly quickly.


Your eyes are shocked open by the cold beneath you, and see only a blinding white sky. Standing up, you see the familiar frozen landscape of this strange realm, with a couple differences. The ice statue is gone, nothing even on the horizon. Likewise, the pearly ones aren't present. The shapes of four of your fellows are around you, though, seemingly frozen. Finally, the dark circle is not in the sky. Instead of the sky, it is standing next to you, and instead of circle, it is the perfectly black silhouette of Besheed.

She speaks in the words of voices, commanding "Show me the voices, Zaealix and any others."

You're baffled, and can only follow her command. "Santova, Zaealix, please speak, if you can."

Hello Beshieed! I was wondering if we would get the chance to talk to you! So! Your thoughts as to what this...World is? I honestly can't say I have even the slightest clue!

..."It's Kuch's soul, I think. Though now that I'm really here, it feels completely different. It feels almost real. If you wouldn't mind, which of the voices are you?"

I'm Zaealix. Rather curious as to how your world works...Hrrm...Mind doing me a favor? Could you keep an eye on Djaugthig for us?
I suspect she's out to basically wait for the right time to leave the caraven with as much stuff/money as she can get her hands on, or something. She's motivated by greed, and kinda acting fishy right now sooo...Yea. I'm hoping I'm wrong though!

..."Absolutely. I've been fairly certain since I met her that she's a heretic. Never can trust them, not ever. How much have you learned, so far?"

It's somewhat jarring to hear Besheed's voice come from the silhouette, in the voices words, and to Zaealix at that. And your soul? Almost real? Heretic? You're beyond confused, and can't help but ask, "What is happening?", your confusion snapping into frustration sending out a shock wave through the cold sand.

..."Woah, Kuch! Check yourself, I don't know what you can do, but I don't know what you can't do either, like hurt me, or Zaealix here, even! You're dreaming, I'm picking up the dream from next to you, and I don't even know what Zaealix is, but presumably you're used to them."

Here-Ooook...Sounds like this Djau is an Artisan, which...means someone from the Practice who does it for money. I wouldn't care normally, but if she's looking to backstab us, then it becomes an issue.
Hrrm...Well, I kiiinda had the idea of her and Tollingir work together to spread machines-He's in charge of seeing if anyone else can figure out any fun tricks with them, while she's in charge of the business of it, charging for a chance to try to figure out the tricks, and also reclaiming the parts if the person fails. If they suceed, they keep parts.
The idea WAS to balance her greed with his vision...But if she just goes and gets too greedy for her own good then there's no point in trying to appease her.
At the same time...Heretic is a word I associate with 'fanatic', err, might have misspelled it, but the thing I'm getting at here is you seem to have a bias against her, which makes judging tricky...
Ok. so this is tricky. I have reason to believe she may try and blackmail Kuch in the future, and I know WHAT it is...But I don't necessarily know the WHY it would be bad, and I can't say I trust you not to flip because of it. It might be something only Practictioners find repulsive, could be something everyone will recoil at. I don't know and this makes it tricky. I reconize you are curious, and will want to know more. If I'm right, Djuag will tell you the rest, should she act on it. That, can be your signal to burst her bubble/make your move, so to speak, ok?

..."Okay...It's a little off-putting that you won't up say it here, but I'll let it go. What else have you got, not about her?"

You take a breath and sigh, and though you're still somewhat tense, you speak "Betrayal? If there is even a chance that Djaudthig will take anything from me, I will abandon her now. I can already hardly stand her presence."

I would like to take a moment to introduce myself, as Santova, one of the void voices or some other concept. Zaealix and myself, whatever we may be have been attempting to assist Kuch.
I cannot say one way or another on our greedy friend, as I had not noticed this before. However, if we are in Kuch's soul, perhaps you can help us understand the battles he's been constantly fighting and strange figures we keep seeing.
On a side note, we believe the claws may have a soul of sorts. Seeing as you are more in tune with this sort of nature and energy, perhaps there is a way for you to investigate them someone, and help to unravel their mysteries?

Weeeeellp.
Since Santova here said it, I'll say that the thing that Djuag overheard, and what I was trying to keep under wraps.
Sorry about the cloak/dagger-stuff, didn't know how bad or not it was to find an ensouled item...

Pudd here,How yuors abilities works exactly? We have been given some sort of explanation,but I wuold like to ear it from yuo, if yuo don't mind,of course

Hiatus until 2013/7/21.

You're somewhat surprised by the appearance of new voice. The thought crosses your mind that maybe Besheed's presence has attracted them, or maybe more specifically her presence within your soul? From what you remember of your talks with Vyunuuataarer, souls in general didn't seem like a place.

Besheed asks you for your claws, presumably to consider Santova's question, and you remove them and hand them over to her.

..."Eugh...these things definitely have something in them, but it's...limp-feeling, like it's mostly empty. Whoever did must have been pretty nasty, even just to put a soul in something like this, but take out the inside, I...I don't even know how someone could do that. As for those weird people-things that are here sometimes? I can't really help with those. Like I believe I've said to Kuch, he's the only one I've seen them in. I don't feel anyone else in here, I don't even really feel you guys, so they might just be a part of Kuch. Then again, except for the cold stuff, he's been all new to me, so maybe there's something else going on.

How my powers go...Really all I know is what I feel, and what I feel is that there's stuff, everywhere. Most people have their own stuff, their soul but also some more, and they can kind of push stuff around, sometimes even make it into something useful. I, and maybe some others, I haven't met any but I've heard of them, we don't have souls. We don't push the stuff, it comes in and goes out of us. It moves as it pleases for me, but that's a matter of practice, I think.

So, what about yourselves? Have you tried doing anything, or have just been talking to Kuch this whole time?"

errr...We've mostly just talked? To be honest, if we can do anything, we haven't tried...I'ma give it a shot!
[raise a hill from the sand]
see or feel anything?
...
Well, anyhow, by the sounds of it, these things were made from someone finding a guy with a power in his soul, ripping it out, and stuffing it into a device. From what I hear, soul-rippy stuff tends to be highly taboo more often than not, and also extremely painful for the person being taken from. I don't envy whoever's in those claws...

On indefinite hiatus.