Fantasy The abandoned Tavern

[Silanon]

You are always welcome to combine one of my answers with additional ideas you can come up with - as long as your suggestions don't exclude each other, I'll gladly include them. Tells me what you want to focus on apart from the choices alone as well, so that I can adapt accordingly. If you want to take a closer look at the floor, I'll just skip over the giant dragon hanging from the ceiling and instead describe you the wood grains in great detail - this way, we're all happy.


As to the story - the proposal of @Stickdom got two votes, so that's what we're going with. Thanks for both voting and the suggestion!


Being aware of the possible pitfalls of a building like this one, make sure to first poke with your staff wherever you're about to set a foot down. Additionally, you decide to stay rather close to the walls, since the floor probably will be less resilient in the middle. From the sound of your wooden support, you figure that there is indeed some kind of cellar underneath, at least it sounds hollow. You avoid a spot where the planks creak louder than usual, and manage to reach the door without any accident. What you did notice though were a number of marks on the floor that seem as if something with sharp claws would have been in here regularly. In the rather restricted light, you can't figure out what it was, though.


Not that it matters - it's probably long gone, right? You grab your staff firmly, and enter the next room. Before you can even get an idea of what it is, though, you notice a quick movement in the darkness out of the corners of your eyes. Reflexively turning around, you let the logs fall to the floor, swinging your staff at whatever leaps at you.


What height are you aiming for?


[1] Roughly at face value


[2] Hip height


[3] knee-height

 

[Silanon]

Alright - if noone objects, let me just randomize the decision to move forward.


[dice]22329[/dice]


Without having enough time to aim properly, you swing your staff in a wide bend to the right, trying to hit whatever moved there. Both your reflexes and your speed have declined during the recent years, though. Thus, your staff misses the roughly dog-sized creature, only touching the ends of its short, almost white fur. You have a millisecond to admire the view of its gleaming appearance before it bumps right into you, sending you to the ground between the logs you dropped. For a short moment, you lose orientation, you blindly strike a second time - and hit. A yelp is hearable, and you feel the body of the animal jumping off of you, allowing you to take a breath. Trying your best to get back on your feet, you notice the creature standing right in the middle of the room. The fur glimming although there's not all that much light in the room. Big, dark eyes that survey you, with a splash of burning red in them that seems unnatural, to say the least. A raw tongue that licks blood from a wound at its nose, probably where you hit it.


Whatever the foxlike creature waited for, it seems to have made a decision. Slowly, more carefully than before, it moves forward, right at you. What do you do?


[A] Prepare to strike as soon as the creature gets close enough. Once upon a time, you never missed a hit, and you don't see a reason why that should have changed.


[b.] You call your Goddess for help. After years of faithful service, she'll help you out against whatever is in front of you.


[C] You call the elements for your help - while you never really mastered the art of magic, they've helped you out before.


[D] Lay down your weapon.


[E] Write-in


For B, you may want to name two or three keywords that describe the Goddess (helpful, revengeful, just, etc), otherwise I'll make a choice. For C, you may name a favored element instead.

 

[Stickdom]

{C.} The youngsters of our village don't call us the Winter Witch for nothing. Raise our staff and shout a thundering plea to the spirits of the wind and air to blow a frigid barrier between us and this creature. Due to its shimmering appearance, we assume the creature is magical, perhaps it will respect our intimidating presence and make its intentions known. Otherwise, if it wishes to devour us, it will have to reach us first.

 

[Vengeance Spirit]

B. You are the last living follower of the goddess of death. You are her humble follower and move toward the goal of protecting traditions held regarding death. Because of this, you do not fear death at all. You know she will protect you. If you are meant to die here, you will. If not, her hand will protect you.

 

[Silanon]

Seeing the creature approach, you don't feel any fear for your life - you've overcome that one a long time ago. Death is a part of your existence, and it will inevitably hit you at some point. If today's the day, you'd be foolish to rebel against it. That said, you don't intend to quit your service for Detarra just yet.


Where people die, old knowledge gets passed on, and your duties have revealed you more than just nebulous dying wishes. In a sense, Detarra taught you to look out for yourself this way. Thus, when the supposedly magical creature tenses his muscles to leap at you, all you do is to lift your staff, calling the wind that has guided you many times in the past. You can feel its cold when whisps of fog appear at its top, right where the small miniature of your Goddess is attached - a black kraken. For a short moment, the creature pauses, irritated by the sight when the wisps form a see-through barrier right between both of you. Its gleaming eyes seem both surprised and amused in the same moment - then it releases a hiss, almost unhearabe for your old ears. The barrier shatters into sheds as if you'd be a novice, not one of your Goddesses truest followers.


At least, the fox holds back for the moment, surveying you as if you were an interesting curiosity. A fox shouldn't look like that, right? And it shouldn't smile either...


What do you do?


[A] Call the frost to attack the fox.


[b.] Summon another barrier.


[C] Answer his staring in the very same way, waiting for its own move.


[D] Write-in.

 

[Stickdom]

[C] Answer his staring with a glare of your own. It's probably an intelligent magical creature, so it might know that we're an even match for it. But it's waiting to attack, it might have something to say/do that will communicate its intentions.

 

[Silanon]

A few moments pass while both of you stare at each other, neither the creature nor you making a move. Then, finally, the fox steps forward, slowly and cautiously. The ends of its fur seem to shimmer even brighter the closer it gets, its shape seems to grow hazy. But it's not only the fox, but the whole, barely lit room seems to become blurred. In the vagueness, you can recognize nebulous shadows dancing around, not fitting at all with your surrounding. They seem, however, to form certain pictures, though you can't figure out what exactly.


Even if you wouldn't be familiar with the phenomena of magic, you would have known instantly that this is not natural. Question is, how do you react?


[A] Attempt a magical attack in direction where the fox is - if it thinks magic is its way to victory, it'll better be able to defend itself.


[b.] Try to dispel the magic - if it were Detarra's action, you'd know it.


[C] Try to understand what the shadows are showing - might leave you vulnerable to the creature.


[D] Write-in.