[h2]The First Parade - 3[/h2] [h3]Featuring: Susa, Lakshmi and Chroma[/h3] [hider=Summary] The group goes trough a Jungle. Salssar sees Chroma fighting and gets spooked. They arrive at the village of Susa. (Not Susa's homeland. The village which housed her when she had broken her leg.) Leather making is such a good business that they just chill out and hunt for fun Susa gets annoyed at that and creates a system that incentivizes exploration and all that This actually helps Salassar and the Parade, as they wanted the village to be more proactive[/hider] [hider=Khookie Watch] Chroma: 30 khookies -28 to level up to level 6 +5 from the this post 7 khookies Susa: 35 khookies -11 to level up to level 4 -10 to estabilish the Wanderers in the village of Susa +5 from the this post 19 khookies Lakshmi: idk, ask poog [/hider] [url=http://i.imgur.com/5VCdYqy.png]current status of the journey[/url] From Barbahar onward the previously tame journey became a full-time adventure across muddy jungles and dark caves. They could return to the coast and fare trough tamer roads, but the idea of a quicker journey trough the center of Mesathalassa felt more interesting. They thought that a simple geological barrier wouldn't be able to hold a group of god chosen people, they were quite wrong, as they often found themselves lost in the brume covered forests or fighting against elementals, predators, and wild human-hating hain. This, of course, provided the group with plenty of training and strengthened their bond. Or so it would have been, had it not been for the last battle they got trough. Salassar had been sending dreams forward to warn other villagers that they were arriving, even after the Hain attacks he did not stop. One of the warned chieftains, however, was quite familiar with the huntress Susa. He was a powerful Shaman who once had got into a fight with her, and he never forgot the humiliation of that day. In his elder age, he already knew how to communicate with the lesser elementals quite well. No mortal could hope to deal with the higher ones, but the smaller ones could be convinced into deals, sometimes the mere promise of a good fight with a mortal warrior was enough. The wind elemental made the jungle brume thicker, to the point visibility became a serious issue. This separated the group between Salassar with Chroma and Lakshmi with Susa. The Quara got to see the how Chroma fought, and even for him, who had stared at the maddening depths of the Raka, it was something else. Her body was in a constant process of transmogrification to adapt to battle. When she needed speed her flesh was fibrous, but in times of defense, a quick ossification would take place. It was all very bizarre, truly Jvanic in nature, but the girl didn't seem aware, she yelled "shield" and a plate of leather and bone formed around her elbow and it was clear she couldn't tell a normal shield from that fleshy construct apart. Worse was her lack of mercy in battle, the Hain were fighting Susa and Lakshmi. Salassar thanked the gods for that, he couldn't even imagine how more gruesome the fight would have been had Chroma not been destroying simple wind elementals. Once it was all over, he truly wanted to express his worry about the situation, perhaps even to Chroma itself. But for once, words failed him, surely this was all within lady Ilunabar's plan, but why had it to be like that... [hr] The next destination was a surprise to Susa, it was... Susa. The little village she was forced to stay at after the incident of the Phantasmagoric Night had little history outside of being "that village where that huntress once lived", therefore, it was natural that they would take her namesake. At first, the huntress found the name choice odd, but once in there, what truly struck her as odd was how much older everyone was. She didn't feel aged at all, but time had surely flowed by, perhaps Lifprasil's touch had stopped it. However, even that oddness was soon washed away by the next batch of bizarre. The village rejoiced once they saw The Huntress returning, they were always nice to her, and surely she was a protector but never had she imagined that they would idolize her, especially after she left. [color=ffa04f]"See, finally some well-deserved respect"[/color] she boasted, it was not her typical way to deal with this and she wouldn't have cared if not for the endless moments of embarrassment she had to go trough until now. [color=ffbfee]"Whoa, you are like a celebrity to these people. That is so rad"[/color] Chroma and Susa had been on better terms since Barbahar. Salassar looked at the two giggling together and couldn't help but to feel a bit of discomfort, yet also curiosity, what had led Susa to open up after so much suspicion? Was that something he could learn too? The people of the village had taken it far more seriously than mere admiration, though. A full organization of Hunters was formed, something close to what would one day be called a Guild. Impressively enough, Susa didn't, particularly like the Group's ideas. Sharing the craft and systematically teaching the young were beneficial, but the group also had a collective mindset that was something oddly militarized. It couldn't be just about killing wild animals and tanning their skin. That was not why Susa had started to wander in the first place, sure, the sight of rare or new game and slaying dangerous beasts could be satisfying, but it was above all for the journey itself. However, no idea about how to deal with that came to her mind. It kept bothering her across the night and despite being back to her missed home she didn't feel any comfort now that she realized how much she had influenced the people. However, she had learned a bit across this journey, she knew brooding over this wouldn't help, she had friends and she needed their help. [color=ffa04f]"Sally, do you have a moment?"[/color] Salassar was her best bet at some insight into the situation, as a servant of the goddess of culture and also as someone who could perceive the many sides of an issue. [hr] On the next morning, Susa proudly showed to Lakshmi and Chroma her new leather cloak. [color=6A5ACD]"H-Happy to be u-using your ty-typical clothing-ing ag-again?"[/color] [color=ffa04f]"You have no idea. I was more than tired of using all those odd outfits."[/color] [color=ffbfee]"And look, it's full of drawings"[/color] [color=ffa04f]"Do you like it? Sally and I spent the night coming up with this. It actually records a bunch of feats I had as a Wanderer."[/color] This was the first step of their plan to change the local culture. Valuing feats beyond the mere slaying of beasts would surely change some minds. Salassar was actually impressed with how handy Susa's issue was, as always, he had gone into the village with a couple of god-given missions. While most of those meant merely carving rocks and trees, in this village, in particular, he was also meant to inspire the creation of Mapmaking. Maps were a habit in Lifprasilia, some distant northern villages and of course, between the Grand Parade. In the Mesathalassa however, despite the constant journeys between villages, the habit of recording such paths was rare since there were always clear natural paths. Of course eventually such practice would be born, but it would be in the already established power players like Fibeslay or the Vascogne and that would just increase their monopoly. The Parade expected the village of Susa to take in Mapmaking easily and use it to further their trade opportunities and influence. However, when Salassar introduced the idea to the local hunters, all they could think about was to record the nearest places with good hunting potential. Their craft was so unique and useful that there was no need to travel around selling their goods, others would come to them. But now Susa had taken direction action to change that. Salassar felt silly, he did not know if Susa agreed with the village's mindset or not, therefore he never asked her. He could have spared himself a sleepless night had the two got together to solve this sooner. This brought back another issue to his mind, he approached the huntress, who was already packaging most of her belongings, as they would be back on the journey very soon. "Susa, are you busy at the moment?" [color=ffa04f]"I promised Laky and Chroma that I would show them a very beautiful pond nearby before we leave this village. But once I'm back we can talk."[/color] "I see... It's fine, it was nothing important."