[center][h2]Coin Fairies in the Darkwoods[/h2] turn 5[/center] Cherry on Top, level 6 [adventurer], level 12 [flower fairy], crept through the dark and dingy passageway hunting a deadly menace. As she did this, she reflected on how she’d ended up here. They’d been in Sanctuary for a while now, her, her tribe, and they’d since been joined by a few others that Monpau had picked up like stray kittens before he’d started getting proactive about improving the lives of her kind where he found them. In that time they’d learned the ups and downs of living among big people. Positives: They scared off anything really big, and could be relied upon to help if a pike or something came along. They produced massive amounts of food that was, for the fairies, incredibly cheap (a single loaf of elven bread, or better yet, a cake, could feed a whole tribe for a week). You could sell to them Some of them were very nice Negatives: Their cities attracted vermin that were at worst an indirect threat to them, but could be ever so dangerous to a fairy. You had to worry about being squished by them on accident It was kinda hard to find work that’d pay any good (they couldn't exactly compete in the physical labor market much), and the merchants were already well situated so competing with them was hard, especially with how little capital the generally down on their luck Coin Fairy tribes who had been invited here had had on them. Not that they were at risk of starving or anything, Sanctuary had an acorn dole thanks to how productive its nut gardens were, but it wasn't very dignified, and a Coin fairy could not live off nut bread alone. They craved sugar. Not to mention the not quite innate but very common desire to buy and sell that also needed sating. Plus, after living on the edge for so long, the fairies wanted to buy everything they could that could improve their standard of living, both to use and to reverse engineer and miniaturize. So what they needed most, desired most, was money. Coins. After all, what, really, was a coin fairy without their namesake? Thus, Cherry, skulking around in this dank dungeon, fighting monsters in the dark. At least she was better prepared this time. Much better prepared. Her body was clad in armor made from crab carapace. In her hands, one of flesh, the other a rather beautiful arrangement of stem and cherry red flower petals Ferngaurd had personally made for her to replace her lost arm, she held a long spear with a poisoned barb at the end that she’d grown herself as part of the drudic training needed to control her replacement limb. She’d need all of it, because her foe, oh, it was an alien beast with great pointy teeth, blood red eyes, shape sense, a scaly tail and ok look this isn't going to have the same impact a second time so i’ll cut to the chase. She was hunting rats in a storeroom. The foreign pests had come in with a sack of grain someone bought at the bazaar and they needed rooting out, and the fairies could do it far better due to being able to squeeze into all the nooks and crannies the pests could. Was it glamorous? No. Was it dangerous? Well, when you were inches tall and the rat had a few more on you? Yes. Though they weren't the worst thing creeping around the walls of the city. So she was grateful when she did find one, the great big rodent snacking on a looted piece of redwood deer cheese. Its whiskers twitched as she crept up behind it, and the fearsome beast turned its head back to look right at the fairy … and then went to make a run for it. “Drat” Cherry cursed her lack of stealth skills, but rather than run after it she smacked her spear against the pot she’d squeezed past and made a chittering sound mimicking a ratty cry as she [taunt]ed it. The rat, who’s honor had been sullied by her bespoke breakdown at its lack of virtues, turned to fight, though as this was no [enrage] it came in carefully, dared into battle but not foolishness. It stalked forwards, carefully, carefully, and then looked to its left and gave a squeak of confusion. The fairy took her chance, springing forward with a [quick stab] that grazed the rat with her thorn spear. That was enough, venom sinking into its veins. It cried out in pain and lunged to retaliate, but already the toxins were dulling its movements giving the fairy the time to buzz her wings to reverse her lunge faster than any big person could, pulling her back out of reach. It came after her still, driven mad by pain, and the fairy had to lean into all the, kinda brief, training she’d gotten to avoid becoming a statistic, using her spear to ward away its bites, smacking its head aside, trusting in her armor to ward of scratches, and then finally driving her speartip right into its eye. If the first stab hadn’t done the trick, that certainly did. The rat squealed, stumbled back, and then fell to the ground, blood tinted green by her poison drooling from its wounds. Cherry gave a little sigh of relief that it was over, only for it to catch in her throat as purple light suddenly filled the ruined eye, and the rat began to rise once more. “Ooooooh goddess” she swore both as she saw this reanimation, suddenly remembering the rat squeaking to her left and glancing that way as well, just in time to spot a wall of purple goo oozing between the pots. As the fairy swiftly backed up the ooze spread out and out, beginning to fill the space, and three dark spots slipped in to examine the area, two voids like eyes and third eye that looked like a hollow nose, which joined together along with with a jagged maw below giving the impression of a grinning skull. The slime opened that maw wide, and the undead rat gladly leapt into it, joining the bones and glowing eye’d skulls of its kin to be digested. Its devourer looked content for a moment, before it turned its eyes to the horrified fairy … and started moving towards her too. The fairy did not even bother attempting to strike the gelatinous mass with her spear, she knew enough about these monsters to know there was nothing to stab. Instead just quipped “guess I don’t need to [taunt] you” with a voice that did nothing to mask the fear hiding behind that attempt at levity … and then turned and made a run for it, calling out “Slime!” in warning to the others also sweeping through the store room. The necro slime looked a bit peeved that its next meal was running instead of dutifully feeding itself to it, but, well, it had ways of making that happen. While it began devouring the flesh of the freshly dead rat, it spat out the bones of two others, which picked themselves off the floor and went racing after the fairy, bones rattling as they scampered. “Oh no no no yes!” Chery panicked as she was hounded by the animated skeletons right up until she burst out into an intersection of sorts and saw that her call had brought aid to her side, a pair of fairy [adventurers] having come to her aid. With little shrieks they launched themselves forwards, clashing with the bone constructs with thorn blades. Cherry whirled around to fight with them, but all three quickly found that their poisonous weapons were rather ineffective against the skeletal foes. “Gosh darn it heck” she cursed as she beat the skeleton over the skull with her spear to little avail, the fairies swiftness affording them little but survival, none of the three having the strength or arms to smash the bony foes aside. Then, suddenly to their left, a crackling sound which was the only warning before light flashed and a sound like a tiny, tiny thunderclap roared … and one of the skeletons recoiled as a miniature lighting bolt struck its skull, blasting it to bits. Cherry shook her version clear, and then glanced to the side to see a fourth fairy, a mighty [dragon tamer], and her reptilian charge … which she was carrying in her arms like a cat. The diminutive berry dragon, small even for its kind in everything except plumpness, made a happy little chirp as its trainer praised it for its annihilation of one of their foes. With (further) numbers on their side the fairies fell upon the remaining undead, jabbing blades into holes in its skull and then pulling, ripping it from the body and tossing it on the floor to be splintered by magical breath Yet even as they succeeded in disabling the last undead rat, its master began to ooze into the scene. The [dragon tamer] gave it a blast of lighting, but that just tickled the necro slime, and made it mad. “Ok, time to go! I’ll draw it out! Blooped bloop get [taunt]ed slimy!” Cherry yelled at the her companions and the monster, and they collectively scattered, the slower [dragon tamer] breaking away in one direction, while the nimbler [adventurers] raced forwards, luring the slime on and on and then suddenly they burst from the maze of pots, sacks, and boxes, and into the light. They breathed a moment of relief, only for the slime to follow them out into the open, the mass of slime taking on its true round blobby form on the open floor, and starting to roll at them, worryingly fast, a triumphant look on its face. Even when the fairies took off into the air, slowed somewhat by their armor, it was not discouraged, the necro slime pulling acid sharpened bones out of its internally stored collection preparing to fire them at its fleeing prey. Dark magic coalesced around the bones, drew them back, and then lost them in a volley … which smacked harmlessly into a wall of porcelain as an elf the fairies had paid to lend a hand if things got dicey popped a jar over the top of the slime. Then he slid a stiff leaf that the elves use as paper under the rim of the cup, trapping the slime within like it was a spider he was going to politely toss out of his house. “Oh nice, you got another one? What’s this one do?” the elf asked as he picked up the pot, lifted the improvised lid, and instantly regretted it when he got pinged by some rat bones for his efforts. “Hey, hey, is that new one?” Cherry asked eagerly as she hovered over “oh and thanks for the save big guy” “Ow…yes. New one” the elf informed her, rubbing his unharmed face That got a cheer from the coin fairies, one to the tune of “We’re going to get so many discovery discounts!” while they linked hands and spun around in a circle through the air That was one of the advantages of being small, you got to find new stuff the big folks overlooked, and new stuff could be handed in to the adventurer guild in return for a finder’s fee in the form of stacking discounts. Already there were pots containing all sorts of unique slimes, from forest slimes to apple slimes, crab slimes, bread slimes, and more, and each and every one was a saving to be made for the Coin Fairies. Compared to that, the reward they were getting for their pest extermination was ever so secondary. “Alright girls, that’s enough celebrating” Cherry said after she decided they’d indulge in cheering for long enough, the fairly re-equipping her spear and declaring that “There’s more money to be made!” [hr] Elsewhere The elves of a little village in the woods peaked their head out of their [druid] grown homes at the sound of titanic hoof falls. These were not unusual in the dark woods, no not at all, for all who lived there knew of the Huwu’idang, those titanic deer of growth who rivaled the trees themselves in size, who dwelt within the forests. That said, not all had actually heard those sounds first hand, let alone seen one of those majestic beasts, for they tended to keep to themselves, and only intervened if nature was disturbed or, so the rumors went, if a child were in danger. As such, it was a touch concerning to hear one coming towards the settlement, rather than just passing by in the distance. Their first instinct was to chatter, checking if anyone was missing or there were any other alarming things going on. There were not. Which got people a mix of concerned and curious. Had they upset the great guardians of the forest somehow? Was this a coincidence? Was there danger none of them had foreseen? These and more were all suggested as the elves chatted quietly while preparing for the worst, just in case. They were all wrong, something that became quite clear when the Huwu’idang rolled into town carrying on its back a small compared to its own size yet quite substantial in the general number of finely crafted and beautiful painted vases, all of them lashed carefully to it via a nest of living vines. Or, no, not vases, not all of them anyway. As the elves peered closer they saw many of them were created into shapes other than simple jars. Some, several, looked like… homes. Homes which, as the giant deer pulled up next to the village, divulged a flurry of golden skinned beings. Coin fairies. And entire bustling towns worth of them, traveling on the back of one of the titanic protectors of the small. And as they hovered out of their homes they pulled down little signs, throw open little shutters, and called out all sorts of things, like: “Hi hi elves. Wanna buy some herbs? Grown by level 15 or over [herbalists]?” “Best bread from Sanctuary, kept fresh by our [storage managers]!” “Clay pots, plates, bowls? We got, em all and more. Never eat off a leaf again!” “Our [plant shapers] are the best in the business, we got tiny hands to make the tiniest of changes! Get yourself a perfectly grown thorn knife today. You deserve it dontcha?” As the trading town unleashed an entire market squares worth of sales pitches on the village, and, well, with an entrance like that, how could you possibly not buy something? [hider=summary] We take a look at how the coin fairies are getting along. First we see Cherry and some other fairy [adventurers] hunting rats, and collecting slimes, in a store room to raise funds for their tribe, and also see that they have started taming berry dragons. Then we see a Huwu’idang with an entire (fairy sized) town built on its back pull up to a village and engage in some trade with it. [/hider] [hider=mp] Start: 0mp-2ap 1 ap: (offscreen) teach coin fairies to commune with the Huwu’idang 1 ap: (offscreen) teach coin fairies how to become [dragon tamers] End: 0mp-0ap [/hider] [hider=prestige] Adventurers’ Guild Start: 9 In long post +2 Trained up new members quickly -1 End: 10 [/hider]