Nation Building Kingdom Death: King of Monsters (Process)

[Pat]

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Read Beckoncall 's results for your turn's actions here.

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[Beckoncall]

Pat :

The suspension seemed endless. Floating forests of lighter-than-air bio luminescent rotten fruit floated on their fermented gasses, disguising among them floating predators with similar lights. However they were passive grazers of vermin so the tribe brushed the creatures aside with the plants, searching for a pit suitable to be an arena...

...and they found one. in an unexpected depression in the suspension, the ground was suddenly dry and cracked, free of the Blackpampas, the Whipweed, and the rolling tumble-mote plants. It was as if a great pressure fell on this spot -- pressing all the water and minerals out of the ground and making it barren, leaving...

...leaving a pit. Perfect.

the almost circular central cell of the hole had three ramps leading down into it, and it wasn't long before somebody standing at the edge looked down and saw that the "pit" was actually a very deep and impossibly large footprint of a leviathan, likely a flyer that planted one foot on the ground, to snatch up who-knows-what prey in the other, but it left so similar marks. with no other appropriate sites to choose from, this would become the arena, the Ciun settling and setting up their work-area in the largest of the claw impressions and making a solid circular arena of deadwood found a rough distance from the hole.

In the heel of the footprint was a horrific scene happened long ago -- it was the flaking and pitted armor of an entire regiment of heavily armored soldiers, stomped into the ground as one. their bones turned to sand in their ruined outflits, now rusted Slag. only in the center of the unburied mass grave was a single crushed suit of mithril, pressed flat so that the occupant must have been juiced from within their armor. (1 unit of mithril found)

The Ciun quickly finished their task and went about having a meal in what had the potential not just to be an arena, but a new home - and then some.

The arena complete, they merely had to wait for competitors.

At first the Ciun saw they were being spied upon, before a group of envoys from another clan, native to the suspension, came to investigate what the Ciun Tribe was doing.

"We are the Sanguine Clutch" -- they wore red cloth all over some kind of light wooden and bone armor, 25 strong, with deadwood chakrams and sandstone knives. "This area is cursed in our culture -- we came here to warn you, and to see if you were invaders. I am Clax Klum, Herald of the Sanguine. We have a proposal. We refuse your prizes but join your contest. If our Rhunk wins the tournament, you will leave this place and settle elsewhere, we do not want neighbors who are cursed. If you win, then we can do nothing about it, for we'd rather not war with people when the land is so hostile."

(potential parley, (4 rounds) with the Sanguine)

(The sanguine join the tournament with a giant six-legged Cow-creature that crawls on tentacles, called "The Rhunk")

1/3rd of stored food is expended for Ciun tribe setting up and working apace.

 

[Beckoncall]

Kloudy Pat

Shortly after, the Sages of Kahoul arrive at the pit and take their places in the left-most and right-most "Toes" of the great footprint, with the Ciun taking the largest space in the middle depression. Upon their arrival, the "Sanguine Clutch" Clan of envoys -- neighbors and natives to the suspension, quickly beat a rapid retreat... they did not expect such numbers of foreigners -- least of all cooperating.

(Potential Parley with Sanguine Clutch, parley of 3 rounds)

The sages made themselves comfortable and had a hearty meal, watching the perimeter and helping with the fence and wood gathering for the arena. Against the edges of the pit, lean-to after lean-to was erected as rapid places for rest and shelter. The Sages, helping with the wood, find a trampled glade of darkwood, broken and dry. (gain 3 units deadwood) and bring it back to the pit.

1/3rd of stored food consumed.

 

[Beckoncall]

Crocodile Kent Heyitsjiwon

The Sephirah, the Sikander, and the Argead all marched together, beating a trail of crushed environment and plants under the cautious and many fearful lot of them. They together sought a suitable place to settle -- and found 3 sites that had potential...

1) "The Triple Ekes" an eke was a large sinkhole, usually funnel shaped or triangular down into the ground in the terrain of stone faces... a place where the plants receeded and the topography flattened, and all there was to see in the dim of the lamplight were the ancient stone faces carved into the rough cobbled ground. Each Tribe, if they settled here, would have their own pit/eke for protection and privacy, and the rims of which were defensible and the sudden drop into the eke made for concealment and privacy. Each Eke was filled with 3 feet of wastewater at the bottom, rain and debris that was carried with it into the traps for whatever slid in a deluge into them. The bones of creatures and people alike lined the rim of the pool, promising perhaps at greater treasures unseen below the surface. in the center of the triangulated ekes was a central cistern that linked all the ekes via a small natural void made by a smaller collapse between them all. This hourglass cistern was Deep, and has darkness that even defied the lanterns, as odd shadows danced within it. the heaviest and oldest treasure would have slid into the bottom here, the chieftains surmised... but they also wondered at the passive or living dangers of exploring this area might reveal. All that was known now was that gnarled roots stabbed into the cistern catching falling water and rising vapor, and the dropping of a stone revealed fast-running water below...

2) Nearby, there was a bowl-shaped area filled with fine sand, as if the faces in the stone had been ground up in the jaws of some rough beast. the gravelly pit had a central hole in the middle, where laid a great flower the color of bruises and rotting flesh, surrounded by a crazyquilt of tendrils that constantly swept the pit of vermin that slipped into the gravel from the wild tree-and wall-grass jungle that surrounded it, growing from the grease in the ground. For the tribes to settle here, the blightbloom would need to be somehow neutralized, likely destroyed, but the environment, half stone faces, and half jungle, invited for a good settlement if the place could be pacified. Chunks of Quartz, unground by the blightbloom, peppered the gravel inside and outside the pit (Two Units of Quartz found to distribute?) with more looking like it lay under the surface of the blightblooms zone-of-control... The Sikander settled with their friends on the outside of the pit and feasted on Purple Bagfruit that came from the jungle, sending their puppets to retrieve the goodies where near-naked people would be ravaged by insects.

The Sikander went to work tirelessly under the order of their leader to improve the puppets, giving the drygrass stuffing new frames of monster-bone radically increasing their agility and strength. The Sikander for the most part rested and watched after this work was done, further labor being left to the Puppets, being tireless and innured to the fears and pains so common of the dark. After a while, it was hard to tell where the Sikander stopped and the puppets began... and this was surely by design.

3) The Stiles -- Farther away from these two sites were three seemingly out-of-place weathered rock pillars extremely close together in otherwise flatland. Once a great mesa, water and weather had carved this rock formation up into three jagged-layered pillars. Hammocks could be hung from the various overhangs and there was enough room on the top of each stile for a commanding view though a cramped settlement -- and an ambitious eye could see that platforms could be built connecting the three pillars, making floors for safe living above the Windy and alien wilds below. Near the top of the stiles, some of the layers of weathered rock shined, suggesting materials might be high up to be gathered.

COOP SCENE: the tribes must decide on one of the places to settle, and if necessary, search and/or pacify it.

The Sikander troup puppets increase from T2 to T7. Gaining structural integrity and speed.

No food is consumed this turn as the environment provides ample fruit and incidental animal sustenance.

 

[Beckoncall]

Heyitsjiwon :

Wherever the trio of tribes, (Sikander Troupe, Shamans, and the people of the Argead) marched -- it was the people of the Argead that saw the most with their Lantern of the third eye. Twice they turned the collective away from massive creatures -- an ambush predator and a "people-grazer" they saw before anyone else did. They found new locations to settle, but also other points of interest they might keep to themselves, or share with others.

1) Grease-eater Tribe -- close enough to be local to the sites of settlement but far enough not to be crowded to them, the grease-eaterns were a pitiful tribe that drank the fetid water of the suspensions and sustained themselves, in perpetual agony, on the grease of the suspensions that wreaked havoc on their digestion. Their rags were splattered with waste and their ragged shirts scattered with vomit -- they had embraced a life of pain and sickness to avoid as much as possible the dangers of the wild. One wondered if these poor souls had anything to offer, but it was doubtful they were hostile. The tribe could consider a parley with this tribe as a 4 round parley.

2) The Trapp-ed Trapezoid -- this was a structure that could have easily been missed even by the Argead's followers and the invisible light of their lantern... but it was a Trapazoid-like struture that looked quite intact and clean despite it's ancient age, surrounded by Corpses that seemed at first crucified in a great circle around the structure, until it was seen that a Festrog wandered too close and was impaled by some high-arcing trap that fired spiked poles from the top of the trapezoid, pinning the dead where they stood. Items and lanterns and tools of all kind littered the "kill zone" around the building... suggesting to even loot outside of it could be profitable, though dangerous -- and if such was the case, what could the structure itself be guarding?

3) Low-Hanging Fruit -- along a broken trail a corpse was found at the bottom of a crack in the earth... over it's shoulder lie a torn bag, 1 unit of rubies scattered all around the now mouldering skeleton. This appeared to be a thief that was not careful in their flight... unburied with it's ill gotten gains, the woman's hair now the only thing clinging to her skull and tattered leathers on her body... her face forever locked in the scream of her realization that her fall would be her last...

(You can only investigate ONE of the above)

2. The preparation for union -- The Argead folk after dealing with choosing of settlement and any additional investigation, find the Tribe of Ciun (and the Sages of Kahoul) and begin the festivities of the union of Lysander -- the rough preparations and strictly business atmosphere of settlement slowly converting into a celebration and party atmosphere, though a humble one. The folk of the Argead sung and danced and lifted they hymns in unity. Raising the morale of all the tribes in the Arena Pit, or who come to the tournament.

(NOTE: The union is being celebrated and people are preparing, but the union itself has not yet taken place -- this will have to be a cooperative action between Pat The Ciun and Heyitsjiwon the Argead, together. The folk around Lysander wondered who the hope of the Argead would be married to, as well, and if other tribes would share (and give!) in collusion with the union. UNION TAKES PLACE AS A COOP ACTION ON TURN 2, WITH ANYONE ABLE TO ATTEND, BARRING THE ARGEADS PREVENTION.)

 

[Beckoncall]

Kent

STRAINED ACTIONS (or) "How to give yourself a hard time"
While the rest of the triumverate of Heyitsjiwon and Crocodile (The Sikander Troupe and the Followers of the Argead) rested after seeking new settlement and parlaying with the natives, the Shamans of the Sephirah Clan piled into the "Three Ekes", Hollaring "First!" as they took the largest Eke at the top of the triangle for themselves and immediately began building up their camp. The travel was already a strain on the tribes, but leaders of the shamans would have none of it. The settlement would be made -- and the Shamans worked until physically taxed to the limit building the beginning of a settlement in thier new home and moving their dormant monster into the safest part of their Eke.
But the Shaman's hubris did not stop there. The lesser shamans scratched their heads in disbelief when the Chieftain of the Sephirah Demanded THREE SEPARATE WARDS be constructed immediately.
Some of the shamans thought to speak up, and say with the amount of enchantments they'd been performing this was ridiculous at it's face, but the High Shaman would not be deterred. The Sanctuary Ward was established with great pain on the part of the tribe, but there was simply no mana to make a barrier or a stealth ward on top of it. The shamans, before their second orders even began, laid in semi-conscious HEAPS when the new work orders came in...

(Sanctuary Glyph is built, subsequent glyphs are failed)

"BUILD MY SACARIUM!" Lord Gloom Bellowed.

(Entitled, Psychopathic, Erratic, and Coldx2)

It was clear that High Shaman Gloom was Raving mad. With the last of his own enchantments, he made runes of flaying and wards of booming to throw his people back onto their feet. But build the Sacarium they did. Under cold ambition and unblinking leadership -- Shaman Gloom wrung his people for everything they were worth. They hauled the bound Atropal monster that belonged to the tribe in the most secure region and with their best materials built the Sacarium out of it beneath the great Egg of their horror. It functioned as intended, though, and was a beautiful and powerful structure... SACARIUM CONSTRUCTED! (deduct materials)

...even if the youngest shamans in the tribe now hated him. Talk of rebellion spread among those strong enough to stand. Shaman gloom would never be more vulnerable than now, himself without any psionic power after all his enchantment, warding and construction. Three youths approached Shaman gloom as he relaxed, finally, in his own pavillion in the Eke... thier sharp rocks held at their waists as they pushed the curtains aside...

Action Summary:
Search for Habitation
Settle
Craft 3 Wards (equals one action)
Build Sacarium
= FOUR actions total. when TWO were allowed. Chieftain also has the quirks to actually justify such ludicrous orders so they were processed rather than addressed to revise.
SCENE: Defeat your assassins.

CONSEQUENCE: Your entire tribe is *DISRUPTED* for turn 2. You only get one action next turn!