[center][img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/220818/8e0297e9cce80d3771104ea7bf0e2917.png[/img] turn IV [/center] Jeon watched from the shadows and from on high as a team of tenticular Rirakuri hauled ore out of one of the many many hidden caches he’d dotted about the labyrinth city. It had meant to be a hard won reward, but also one that he did not have to worry about being unguarded for a while because none knew how to work that metal yet. Then, from out of nowhere, the Rirakuri. They did not know how to farm or weave, to build or to bake, but they knew how to forge metal into tools, it seemed. Given that their king had been chosen by violence, he knew what they were going to make most of with their new forges, and it wasn’t going to be plowshares, that was for sure. “Well, that’s going to be a problem now isn't it” the god said to himself “so how about we contest those resources a little eh? Sorry folks, but the free samples are over, now you’re gonna have to work for it” The god snapped his fingers and pointed at an inconspicuous part of the warped landscape that suddenly… started moving. Stone crumbled away as four massive legs of living metal strode out from the disintegrating structure, showering dust and masonry across the wide empty road that made up the center of this tunnel. It paused there, for a moment, and then turned a central head around towards the stunned Rirakuri, and with a flash beam of light coming from three massive red eyes lit up the ore thieves, despite them being several stories up from the floor of the tunnel. An alien sound like a distorted foghorn roared with displeasure, echoing through the labyrinth’s tunnels. This was followed by a wet mechanical sound as, unseen to the cowering Rirakuri, something, or rather several somethings, dropped to the floor from the base of the titan’s torso. They would not remain unaware of these for long however, as beneath the gaze of their metal mother scurrying things raced up the walls of the labyrinth on skittering legs, bright central eyes glowing and barbed tails poised above, ready to strike. Upon spotting them a single Rirakuri writhed out from among its kin, a taskmaster of some kind if Jeon where to guess, given they had been the only one armed, and also the only one who had not been doing labor. Brandishing several crude copper spears, and confident they could take these things that where only a third of their side, they thrust at the closest skittering thing, only for the brittle blade to snap upon contact with its black biomechanical carapace. The taskmaster cried out in horror and surprise, before being impaled in turn by a barbed metal stinger at the end of the swarming thing’s tail. A blow that was followed a heartbeat later by numerous other stinger strikes from its fellows. As their leader fell, the Rirakuri workers turned and fled, harried by the swarming things till they were out of sight. With the ore thieves gone, the metal mother claimed its prize, tendrils at the base of it’s body reaching out and plucking the abandoned minerals which it pulled to the cavity beneath its body the swarmers had come from. Then it began spawning more soldiers, in anticipation of retaliation. Come retaliation did, the settlement the ore thieves had responded to the news of this titan by sending out all of their warriors, many hardened fighters from the early cannibal wars, and others taught the new dark arts of abyssal sorcery. They ran into more of the same swarming creatures first, spread out as sentries perhaps. Several of the Rirakuri ‘s number fell before the fighters realized that to kill these machines they had to strike the glowing red eyes at the front of the creatures, several times till a sort of crystal that was there shattered, causing the life to fade from them entirely. They seemed to freeze in place once dead, turning into stiff jagged statues of brittle metal in which, disturbingly, no soul could be found. The army pushed on despite this lack of a meal, confidence growing now that they knew these things could be killed. Folley and arrogance both. They returned to the site where the ore silo had been found and discovered a line of towering brutish figures, nearly twice as large as the Rirakuri themselves, hauling armfuls of ore out onto the causeway in their crab claw-like arms. These minerals were then dumped into a pile upon which their metal mother feasted. Outraged at this thing taking what was rightfully theirs, the Rirakuri attacked, swarming forwards to attack either with crafted weapons or with parts of their body that they hardened into jagged claws. They ran into a hail of death. While the Brutes were still moving to respond to the appearance of the attack force, smaller, more human sized monsters popped out from hiding spots dotted around the bizarre cityscapes’ improbable architecture. Each one had an arm that looked like a useless handless stub till light flared from the tip and a bolt of energy shot out. A veritable wave of these projectiles arched out from all around the Rirakuri, and where they struck they blasted off chunks of flesh. As the melee troopes panicked, mages raised their tendrils and called out the abyss to protect them and to strike down their foes. Walls of summoned tentacles rose up to form cover for the mages themselves, before they brought forth unholy lumbering beasts and swift fliers to send against their attackers. The troopers blasting them where swarmed by bizarre combinations of bats and squids, yet these creatures where too stupid to target the glowing red weakpoints on the machine’s chests, and so most where cut down using stinger like armblades before they could strike those spots by luck. Beasts charged forwards, only for the ore carrying brutes to open up with their own arm cannons, red energy exploding and blasting chunks out of the monsters, or vaporizing small groups of Rirakuri. Then, from above, dropped predators which seemed akin to a serpent whole’s head had been grafted to a body of pure muscle, yet with its tail still intact. Vicious claws tore at the spellcasters while the massive tail extending out the back of their head swatted aside those trying to protect them. The Rirakuri had numbers on their side however, and so, perhaps, if they kept their nerve, they could still win the day. Jeon did not stick around to find out, because even if the squatters did win, he could always make more of his new labyrinth sentinels. Something he was going to do regardless. He didn’t just make more machines however. That would be dull to him. So he spiced things up a bit in between sentinel seedings. In the deepest parts of the labyrinth, where the rock turned hot and magma spilled through the streets, he injected a little something into the mantle of the earth that then rose up to meet him, or any who dug too deep and too greedily. A bull of molten fury who would destroy all who attempted to plunder the depths for its mineral riches: the magnataur. That should make the task of simply digging up more ore a touch trickier for the Rirakuri if they gave up on the silos. Then, for fun really, he added that most quintessential monster to the world at large: the humble slime. Born of damp and a bit of lingering divine might, slimes were simple spheres of goo that hopped or rolled around their homes, eating just about anything and everything. Any fluid would do, and any power too, which caused all sorts of strange and fantastical slimes to come into existence, from blood slimes, to magma slimes, to ice slimes born in different climates, to coin slimes, forest slimes, kung-fu slimes and abyssal slimes born of different essences. A somewhat dangerous new addition, but one that could be a source of great power, for the slimes held the essences of their origins even after the soul had been cleaved from their bodies, and who knew what an inventive mortal might come up with if they could get their hands on that. Having made life thoroughly more interesting for the Rirakuri down in their labyrinthian home, Jeon decided to call it a day. He snuck out of one of the castle entrances, just in time to see the first trees being felled in the name of industry by a gang of industrious Rirakuri. Then a little bit later he got to see the those same Rirakuri being gored to death by several dozen redwood deer, the forest kin’s eyes glowing red instead of their usual green as nature defended itself from civilization. “Huh. I forgot I made them do that. You relearn something new every day” the god noted from the branches of another tree, as the settlement who had gone to war against the sentinels got a second helping of death added to their day as the would be lumberjacks briefly fought and then fled from the deer herd. Given the furosity shown down below however, Jeon did not expect this would be enough to keep Rirakuri kind as a whole away from the woods for long. Forges needed fuel, and there was little to none to be found in the labyrinth. He hadn’t exactly put coal down there after all. So. Best do something to prepare for that little problem [hr] “So… you’re telling me you want me to, what, form an ‘army’ of elves to protect the forest?” Fernfriend replied to Jeon’s request incredulously “I don't even know what an ‘army’ is! Also protect it from what? Are we not doing a good enough job at that already?” A deep grunt resounded from her Huwu’idang companion (the treesized life preserving deer) which was, probably, an agreement that she was doing well. Certainly the [druidic adventurer] had not been idle since she’d received her duty to the woods, which had mainly involved spreading the wisdom of Druidry and plant shaping to other tribes, so that the lure of tree cutting in the name of construction could be cut off at the pass. The same thing that the Rirakuri had just learned had certainly prevented much in the way of that so far, but offering up an alternative prevented resentment and jealousy from erupting, and also put a lid on any planning to try and get around the forest-kin inflicted lumbering embargo, was certainly helping. Add to that a bit of smacking the odd pyromancer over the head with a stick to knock some sense into them, and Fernfriends days were both busy and productive. “All true, but while you’ve been productively shimmying around the woods, I’ve been getting out and about just a bit, and let me tell you, it’s a busy and dangerous world out there” the god replied, leaving out the specifics. Like how apparently someone or something had laid waste to swaths of human kingdoms to the north. Or that they were warring among themselves. Or just, the Rirakuri’s whole deal. The god wasn’t one to hold hands, but he was one to give tools so that the hand’s he wasn’t holding could do something about their own problems. “Let me put it this way, there are people who live outside the darkwoods, and some of them will want to cut down the trees, and unlike you all, they don’t need to live here, and can mitigate the consequences. Consequences that will affect you, because, well, one, you do live here, and two, all of the forest-kin running out of the woods to fight woodcutters isn't going to be good for the ecosystem, trust me” “Huh? If this is about shadowton then I already talked with them. They’ve got their own forest after all, and there was this whole talk of, urgh, ‘limited supply being good for profit margins’ or something when I told them we could still get them some of our unique trees and plants sustainably” Fernfriend retorted “And that is one direction out of four. Like I said, world’s been changing, and new neighbors are moving in” “Huh? Who?” she asked, which caused Jeon to give a disguised Rirakuri fumbling its way through excuses as to why it knew nothing of wood elf culture a heartbeat’s worth of side eye before looking back to Fernfriend, shrugging, and saying “you’ll just have to find that out for yourselves” “Very helpful” “I know I am, which is why i’m not just going to tell you to do a thing, but I’ll give you a little leg up too, by titling you as a [Warden]” he offered “Is that a good one or?” “Not quite a [monarch], but it's up there” he insisted, but she did not seem convinced “Tell you what, I’ll give you the class, and then all you need to do is look into the whole neighbors situation and you can decided whether it’ll be a good idea to pursue my idea or not” There was a long, long pause while the two stared each other down, till at least the [Druidic adventurer] agreed “Fine” “Excellent, then by the power vested in me as the creator of these woods, I now anoint you it’s [Warden]” he declared, before pulling out a fresh circlet he’d made for her, which was made out of ferns with kite shield shaped fronds and telling her that “also your name is Ferngaurd now” “I.. fi-” she agreed with a sigh as she took the circlet and then paused, listening to level up notifications and skill acquisitions while replacing her old one with it. Once they were done she asked “So what is a [guardian] then, because I can apparently anoint those now” “You’ll just have to find out” the god replied in a sing-song voice, already backing away while giving her finger guns, before calling back “I wish you good luck with this whole thing! Toodles!” and then darting away. “Uuurgh” the elf groaned, before calling out “Hey Stagstep, you can stop hiding from Jeon now. Now come over here, there’s something I need to try out” And thus, after a bit more conjolng, the first new member of the Darkwoods Guardians joined its ranks. It would need to gain plenty more as the world only grew more dense with terrors. [hider=summary] Jeon observes some Rirakuri casually retrieving some ore from a silo in his labyrinth city. Not pleased by how easy this is, he makes giant robots that can make more, smaller robots and pits them against the Rirakuri for possession of the labyrinth’s ore. Then he also makes fun slimes and miner hating lava minotaurs for good measure. Then he heads to the surface, watches some forest-kin beat up some Rirakuri lumberjacks, and realizes that might be a problem too. So he goes and anoints Fernfriend as [Warden] of the darkwoods, forming the Darwkood Guardians. Also Fernfriend is renamed Fernguard in the process. [/hider] [hider=mp] Start: 2mp-4ap 2 ap (discounted adventure): Mother Brains: Hulking colossi of biometal that roam the streets of the labyrinth city, seeking out ore and assailing any that incur into what they see as their domains. While being tall as buildings, quite stompy, and having a nest of tentacles so their bodies do make them dangerous on their own, the main threat they pose is via their manufactured offspring: 1 mp (discounted adventure): for Labyrinth Sentinels: Biometal constructs produced by their metal mothers as defenders and laborers. Their bodies are incredibly tough, night immune to primitive weapons but a quirk of their construction means they must leave one or more glowing red power cores exposed to the elements. These crystals can be damaged somewhat easily, making them glaring weak spots in their otherwise unbeatable defense. Should one die, its soul is drawn back to its metal mother, causing its body to decay into a plain metal husk. There are 4 kinds: Troopers: vaguely humanoid troops armed with arm cannons (that fire red energy bolts) and wrist blades Bruts: Hulking soldiers twice as tall as a man armed with crushing pincers and heavier arm cannons. Swarmers: which stand just over third of a human’s height and attack with long barbed tails. Stalkers: Muscular predators with razor sharp claws and good stealth capabilities that like to ambush their prey or assassinate high value enemies [url=https://imgur.com/a/PUH5rcH]Gallary of Sentinels[/url] 1 ap (discounted adventure): [url=https://i.imgur.com/ogxqfuw.png]slimes![/url]: Born of damp and a bit of lingering divine might, slimes were simple spheres of goo that hopped or rolled around their homes, eating just about anything and everything. Any fluid wil do, and any power too, which caused all sorts of strange and fantastical slimes to come into existence, from blood slimes, to magma slimes, to ice slimes born in different climates, to shadow slimes, plant slimes, kung-fu slimes and abyssal slimes. A slime’s slime will retain its essence and properties after death, which may have uses in future. 1 ap (discounted adventure): [url=https://i.imgur.com/R1YvnHz.png]magamtaurs[/url]: bulls of living lava, that form in the deep, and generally do not like people messing with the rock and stone of their home, let alone mining it. Won;t affect close to surface mining, but go dig down in the underground and you risk their ire. 2 ap (forests): Darkwood Guardians: Consisting mostly of Rangers and Druids, they have a deep connection with the Darkwoods, allowing for greater coordination with its natural defenders, as well as enhanced skill in operating within its confines. Each member gains either the [guardian] class, a defensive class that synergizes well with existing ones, and with other [guardians]. Their leaders are [Wardens], a class capable of anointing fresh [Guardians] and one that will also gain skills to empower their subordinates. [/hider] [hider=prestige] Darkwood Guardians Start: 0 Gain 2: for long post and being a focus End: 2 [/hider]