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[center][h1][color=black]𝕬 𝖓 𝖙 𝖆 𝖊 𝖚 𝖘[/color][/h1]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/b1nhSeq.png[/img]
[h3][i]Barthen's Bartered Goods >> Forest[/i][/h3]
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"Ah...well, I was hoping she might be willing to help me track it, since I don't really have any skill in that area." Antaeus said, organizing his pack so that the javelins and darts would be in easy reach on one side of it, and his pickaxe went through a loop on the other side. Everything else went into the pack, although his shovel still stuck out one side of the top flap. "But...this is my Quest, and I suppose I ought to do it myself anyway."

Barthen warned him that the White Stag wasn't like other deer. This wasn't surprising--for it to be as famous as it was, a white stag had probably lived through many a hunt. It might even be magical. And it would no doubt be large and strong with well developed horns, having lived for many years. Antaeus decided his best option would be to trap the creature, and try to kill it from a distance with his javelins, only closing in if there were no other option and he were confident in his ability to strike it down quickly. If he couldn't end it fast, it wasn't just a question of making the creature suffer cruelly--there was also more opportunity for it to gore him or stomp his head in with its hooves.

"Thanks, sir! Hopefully I'll be back to let you know what happened...but um, on the chance I'm not? In...I guess a day or two? Probably inform the militia. And if I'm dead, tell my folks...you know, the usual stuff. They know I love them. And tell my dad that I'm...sorry, I guess."

Maybe it didn't really need to be said. Maybe he was blowing this out of proportion. But...the life of an adventurer was going to be full of risks, even from the start. Antaeus's father had told him, more than once, that he wouldn't amount to much. So in all honesty, he didn't have high expectations of himself. But damnation, he planned to [i]try[/i].

So Antaeus left the shop, looking up at the noon day sun and gauging how much time he might have left in the day. He set off at a light jog through the town streets, heading for the creek just outside the edge of town. He reasoned that all animals, just like people, needed water. So if he moved along the creek bank, deeper into the forest, maybe he could find tracks more easily. The ground would be softer mud, so they would stand out more, and maybe he would be able to follow them a further distance if they also left fresh mud in their wake. Of course, it wouldn't matter if he found tracks if he couldn't keep up with the animal. And they would certainly run if they knew he was coming.

He left the town by way of the narrow, packed dirt road that led to the next village over, but he didn't go far enough to hit the fork into the forest. Once he found the creek, passing over a small wooden footbridge, he peered off into the direction where the creek began to weave through the trees. He took a deep breath--the smells of the wild weren't actually that different from town, given that all of the frontier was just as new, just as untamed. But out here it was the lack of smells and sounds that gave the wilderness such distinction. No smoke from cooking fires or smelteries. No fresh baked bread and pies wafting on windowsills. No ringing of church bells, no rabble of voices, no clattering of horse hooves and carriage wheels on brick and mortar.

Only the trees, old and tall, and the running water swift and clear. Blue skies above, soft winds whispering to white clouds, bright sun beaming down. And the sun warmed the earth beneath his feet, the earth that felt deeper to him than to most others.

Antaeus was not sure, exactly, what Genasi were. All he had ever learned from school and Mrs. Maeda and others he had asked was that they had the blood of genies or elementals running through them, sometimes because of their parentage and sometimes not. But he knew from descriptions and the face he saw in the mirror every morning that he was an Earth Genasi, and thus that element was his own. He was no spell caster, but he just [i]instinctively[/i] connected with stone and soil. He never got lost in the mines after his first time down there. He could always remember exactly where he had taken a turn, or how many feet down a tunnel he had gone. And, if he wanted...he felt as if he could become stone itself.

He began to slowly, carefully creep down the creek and into the forest. He knew no animals would come this close to a road where so many humans walked on a regular basis, and also didn't want to walk literally right next to the creek. The open space between the forest floor and the creek bank would make him visible for a long distance, especially if any creature had actually stopped at the bank to drink. But once he got a little ways in--far enough that the road had disappeared from sight--he stopped for a moment and closed his eyes.

The stone beneath his feet was strong. It would not give way. The dust upon his boots was just another layer of his skin, it would not fall. He [i]was[/i] the earth. The earth would hide him, protect him. He felt power rise up from deep, deep below, and flood through him for just a moment. Then, with barely a breath, he opened his eyes.

As he continued through the forest, he left no footprint and his steps made no sound. Even his breathing seemed muted, and from a distance unless one looked closely, even while moving he simply seemed to be a large stone sitting atop the ground.

As he moved slowly, since disturbing any trees or plants would reveal his presence even if the solid rock and dirt under his feet did not, he kept his eyes moving this way and that. He especially focused on the creek banks and the immediate area around the water, searching for tracks. He figured that the White Stag's tracks probably would be hard to tell from other deer, but at the least they would likely be larger and broader. Maybe he could find a tuft of white hair or something that had caught on a briar bush.

[hider=Rolls/Action Log]
Antaeus casts Merge with Stone (Pass without Trace). +10 to Stealth
Antaeus performs Stealth Check. 1d20 + 2(DEX) + 10 (Merge w/ Stone)
[url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/rolls/11814]Result: 24[/url]

Antaeus performs Survival Check to Find Tracks. 1d20 + 0(WIS) +1(Proficiency)
[url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/rolls/11815]Result: 21[/url]

Antaeus is moving at 1/2 Speed(?)

((FUCK YEAH NAT 20 XD))
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[hider=Inventory]
1 Quest Book - 5 lb
1 Shovel - 5 lb
1 Miner's Pick - 5 lb
1 Block and Tackle Set - 5 lb
--Pulleys
--Cable
--Hook
1 Climber's Kit - 12 lb
--Pitons
--Boot tips
--Gloves
--Harness
1 Set of Clothes, Common - 3 lb
--Roughspun Tunic
--Roughspun Pants
--Ragged Boots
1 Belt Pouch - 0 GP
1 Hunting Trap - 12 lb
1 Backpack - 5 lb - Holds 30 lb
1 Waterskin - 5 lb (full) - holds 4 pints
1 Tinderbox - 1 lb
1 Hempen Rope - 10 lb - 50 ft
2 Javelins - 2 lb Each
6 Darts - .25 lb Each

Total Encumberance: 71.5/240 lb (Light)
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[hider=Quest Log]
+Bookie has agreed to write a letter to Captain Ork at the Garrison. I should kill an animal in the forest and take it to Captain Ork to prove I'm adventuring material.
--The animal can be anything from the Forest. Bookie suggested a deer or a boar.

+Barthen has requested me to hunt a White Stag in the Forest, and has given me a free hunting trap for this purpose. If I don't succeed I should probably bring the trap back.
--I should try to find the Redchaser, she might be able to help me.

+Barthen is paying 1 GP per pound of Medicinal Herbs from the forest.
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