Crusader Lord — Roleplayer Guild

Link

Despite the...odd situation with the strangely smiling old man, the Hero of the Wild felt himself going into a brief train of thought as he listened to the others make their opinions on the current situation. A following wave of light dread and serious deja-vu crept up the Hylian's spine as he thought and listened on, however, sword and shield still clutched tightly in his hands. Something the prior owner unleashed, something terrible, the lands being vile (according to that old man), and very "wrongness" that seemed to permeate the air of this place? This was all kinds of familiar, but not the kind of familiar the Hylian had wanted to have experience with. However, the idea to simply waltz in without a second thought was-

"...We should maybe not just rush into this place without preparation. At least, that's my two rupees. Even just preparing a few potions and taking a moment, and perhaps getting a meal in, could be a big help for the likely monster slaying ahead."

The voice of the Hylian champion spoke out seemingly last and potentially most bluntly, his serious and experienced tone ringing out within the wrong air of this..."Hamlet". He'd been forced to rush headlong into many a danger, to face many a foe, too take down many an enemy camp, and yet even he'd slowed down and gotten himself ready when it came to Hyrule Castle whilst Calamity Ganon was still around. He could not speak for the others at all, that much was true, but charging in unprepared and cocky was seemingly as bad a move as a non-Goron trying to dive into lava in the middle of Death Mountain. He'd learned the hard way with that one example...

Maybe these people would understand where he was coming from? Link truly had no idea if they would, but he hoped so regardless. Unless they could destroy the entire root of this issue from long-distance, but that was a silly notion unless one of these ladies pulled out a Calamity Ganon-sized beam of destruction from their pants....mmm, perhaps that wasn't the best analogy, though.

The Crowe

Day 2, Week 5, Cycle 1

The animals could feel it, sense it even....and so could they. The days of great thunder were coming, when the skies would darken the sun for so many suns it might seem eternal. The waters would pour down like great tears to wash the land, the great light of the heavens would strike down, and the roar of the skies would echo through the trees and rocks with a mighty fury. It was a time that boded both great celebration, and great though...but also great worry and preparation. The animals would hide in their homes, the plants would be drowned out in the noise, and the winds would crash on with a mighty howling and wailing and gnashing of teeth. 

The matriarch had been most worried, and the young huntress (her close mate) had noticed more than a little bit. Orders had been barked out to the other huntresses to secure more prey, and to the males to secure more of those earthy things that grew near the roots of trees and other edible things. Many larger rocks would be brought back as well, in the days to come, to make stronger their home...and to build more. They could not fit so much in their home, and so they had eventually all come to the same idea of making another place of rocks to keep their things and those who would keep it safe. 

More sticks were to be grabbed while it was dry as well, as they had learned the hard way that the wet made it harder for sticks to become fire. These too would be kept in places made of great and heavy rocks. The huntresses would all bring the supplies in, and the males would assemble them as they had helped do so before. More skulls would be fashioned with mud by the fire too. 

However....this had led to a general sense of tension among the group. Among all of them. It had begun to emerge like wind through the cracks in the rocks, before mud had been added. And soon it would come to strike, much like the great light of the skies...

"GADA!!!" one of the other huntress roared, lashing up at the young huntress with a twisted black and red claw, nearly hitting the young huntress' left eye as she stumbled backwards and was cut by three of the claws. 

The young huntress, and one of her hunting companions, had gotten into an argument. Little prey still wandered the woods freely, and they had been forced to break into smaller groups so they could walk out longer and farther to find more in the new places as well. Eventually, the young huntress and the three others with her only managed to get several small rabbits...a most disappointing hunt thus far. One had then begun to argue against her, and she had argued in return, until it came to this. Anger unrestrained, and they all knew what that meant for them. Combat with their own, a twisted visage...a monster. The other two only stood back and watched as the battle had begun, mostly out of sheer surprise than anything else. 

"RAAAA!" the young huntress roared back, striking down with her spear towards the other huntress, who rolled to the side and struck up again at her as she rose from the ground. This time the claws of this twisted older huntress grazed the young huntress' right side, if only just as the young huntress dove to the side. 

It was a war of bodies, with the older huntress being larger and more experienced...but right now was herself twisted with rage. The young huntress, however, was smaller, and more agile whilst she right now stood on her feet. The young huntress had too at least somewhat begun to grow larger over the many days, but had far from yet to fully mature. Yet as the two females bitterly roared and fought, trees creaking and fallen branches cracking, in the end the outcome was much like the storms...mighty, terrible, and unpredictable. At least, until it came to its final, sudden, and climactic conclusion.

The young huntress eventually, with some effort, drove her spear into the neck of the warped older huntress, having harmed her there many, many times with this sharp stick to try to create a wound. Many, many chippings had been made at that toughened hide, and many blows had been traded. Yet in this final strike, the young huntress had finally pierced through. In a moment, the older huntress' faceless visage seemed to pause, before the body collapsed to the ground as the young huntress drove the spear forward with a push. The twisted visage of the older huntress seemed to dissipate, now revealing the blood-gushing and spear-pierced throat of the now normal-again older huntress. 

The older female's eyes went wide, looking up with pure horror and shock into those of the determined young huntress. For a moment there was struggling by the older female's hands to try to remove the stick and fight back, but much like the pierced bear the older huntress' eyes went from a state of horror and shock....and eventually became glazed over as her body went lifelessly limp. It was not hard to tell among the remaining three huntresses of the group what had happened. The older huntress was...dead. Dead like the prey they slew, when the life left its vivid eyes. 

It took the young huntress some moments to collect herself...chest heaving with labored breath...but eventually she hefted her bloodied spear above her head and roared aloud in triumph once more as a crack of distant thunder echoed solemnly from a good ways away. Yet this time, the call of triumph came with a sorrowful tone to it. Two distinct cuts were on her body, three that stretched above and below her still-ok left eye, and three on her side. She had survived where her elder had failed to slay her, and yet the thrill of victory seemed to feel mixed with a sort of sadness. To see a group member come to this, to seek to slay her out of anger, to see their group's numbers harmed as they had sought to make ready to survive...it did not feel right. Even the onlookers, as they faced twisted with a grim acceptance, felt the same about the matter. 

"...G-a-h." the young huntress eventually said, mouthing out a different sound like many the group had begun toying with as of late, and then gesturing silently to the two onlookers to grab the body of their dead sister to bring back to camp. 

The two other huntresses paused for a moment...and then moved to do as they had been told. With one less huntress, the coming hunts would be harder to manage. The young huntress then looked to the sharpened stick that had once been the older huntress', butt of it stuck into the ground with a leaf speared on top of it. As her sorrows floated about within, however...so to did a new idea come about. If they could but get prey to come to the stick, then they could better catch food with less huntresses. In fact, that was perhaps an idea. She and the others has seen over the years what foods the prey would eat. 

-------

Once the body had been laid back at camp, the story of what happened was conveyed by using animal blood on the cave wall to draw it out, and the matriarch had eventually calmed down from worry upon seeing the young huntress with injuries, it was time for them all to get back to work. That was all they could do, really...the mourning would come later, when the next storm came. They would place the deceased sister's body at the top of the tallest tree, and allow the great light of the heavens to strike it and the tree into nothingness...and allow the rains to wash away and cleanse the body of its anger and suffering. Much as the storm had roared with them in triumph, it too would roar with them in sorrow. 

But for the young huntress, her new idea would soon be put to the test as well to finish off this day. 

Bones would be used to make large and deep holes in the ground within the lush temperate rainforest land, placed where many animal tracks were...and where they had seen food the animals liked that had tracks near or around it. The digging was done similar to how the male had once dug up the earthy tasting thing by a tree out of curiosity one day, but now for a new purpose. Many strong but smaller sharpened sticks would be placed within the bottom of these holes, far below the open top of the hole, and the bottom lined with smaller rocks tightly fitted together. The open tops of them were then covered in branches and leaves and some food for the prey in the middle of them. The young huntress led them in this, making it up as she had gone along...and other huntresses providing their own insight as they had looked for locations and ideas to make this work. 

They would then come back, to help bring more rocks, to dig up spots to make it easier to start stacking the rocks, to find more earthy things with the males if they had time, and to use mud and skulls to make more vessels with which to hold water and such things. The young huntress and the matriarch would direct them in these things. The male that had most often mated with the old and now dead huntress as of later would, however, be found lying on his side in the cave...still, and dripping water from his eyes...

...he was then left alone for the day, at the matriarch's behest. 

In other coming days before the storms came, these places and more beyond would be scouted out by the remaining huntresses. Both to see if their rudimentary traps would provide more food, and to see what else might lie beyond before the storms came. 

***NOTE: The Crowe are trying to do a lot in the 7 day time period allotted. Operative word: "trying". So if it sounds like a lot, well, doesn't it always sound and feel like a lot when rushing to prepared for a bad weather event? We can only get done what we can, how we can, and to the best of our ability. 

Likewise, I am merely trying to note where their actions are directed, what effects or developmental impacts could be had by this potentially whilst generally moving forward in the RP, and/or what other developments could/might potentially arise in the hider as well.***

Crowe Race Event(s) and Ongoing Action(s):

*The Crowe have a more solidified hierarchy that is developing, with the young huntress having proven herself in defense, the hunt, and now even in assisting afterwards in organizing things with the matriarch. The matriarch too shows favor to her most precious mate, including worry at her injuries. Likewise, the matriarch remains a top of the group's hierarchy of sorts by this point in time. 

*The Crowe, due to inspiration after the old huntress' death, eventually worked out some trapping pits over the course of the rest of the day. They are rudimentary, dug out with bone tools and lines at the bottom with small, tightly-fit rocks and smaller but strong sharpened sticks. They are topped with branches and leaves and some bait food each, and were completed with the input of all the remaining huntresses being put into it to make it fully possible. 

*The Crowe have become more respecting of the might of storms, and will use lightning during the next one to "bury" their deceased sister who got too angry and went wild and transformed. They are preparing to mourn her death, and the story of what happened between her and the young huntress is now painted on the rock overhang's inner cave wall with animal blood, whilst also preparing to make celebrations and food preparations for the coming monsoons in the days and potentially weeks to follow. Talk about a mixed but developing bag. 

*The young huntress is seen symbolically as being "approved" by the sky, this even more so since her survival against a transformed (super dangerous and very hard to kill even by more advanced standards) and another crack of thunder echoed after her sorrowful triumph cry. Religiously she is the closest the group has to a leader in that regard, her impressing strength and leadership skills have helped this as well, and her closeness with the matriarch solidifies this more. This also is pushing the Crowe more so towards really beginning worshiping the sky and storms when the monsoon season finally comes. In what manner this would or could take place, that is left up to when the monsoons finally arrive.

*The Crowe are more recently experimenting with sounds to signify different things, including themselves. Rudimentary words might be sounded out in all of this, but it is somewhat of a step towards an actual verbal language proper. Kind of. 

*The idea of storing up extra food itself is an idea the Crowe have had, in their haste and worry about the coming weather hurting their food, taken from what they saw wild animals do in the wild before. This doesn't mean they won't be celebrating the time period, but even then they aren't at least "that" stupid as to ignore bad memories/instincts from last year with food and storms and such. 

*Taking inspiration from prey, the Crowe are gathering up anything seemingly edible at this point to store up for food in the coming days. This will eventually include honey, which will probably store the best, among other local fauna and such that they have seen animals actually eat otherwise. Of course they aren't aiming to "overstock", but even so they are desperate to ensure their survival goes better this (their first sapient) year. 

Population: 11 (-1 due to a death from in-fighting)

Future Event(s):

(same map cause it kinda works to illustrate some of the below XD)

*Crowe Huntresses are going to be checking traps and looking a little bit beyond the furthest areas they have been in so far as well. Mostly they will be looking to the North and the West, and using this as a chance to maybe set up more traps for more prey if they feel there is time. If these work, the huntresses and matriarch will probably try to think how to make it better to secure a solid food supply for the future. 

*Any notable influx of captured prey will probably result in more experimentation with animal pelts, mainly in uses to cover up and protect huntresses and males in the future against the rain and weather and any cold. This would be driven by a practical need to protect themselves when not celebrating...or when things get too bad and they have to move about still to get things. 

*Inspired by the former project that made the rocky outcropping a buildings of sorts with tightly-fitted rock walls and a tiny bit of mud for the rare crack in them, the matriarch has demanded more tightly-fitted rock walls be made. It is an idea, rushy but perhaps more solid and reliable than the matriarch thinks at this time, done out of haste based on "what has worked so far" for them. 

This time, the construction is to form multiple other "buildings" of some sort for storage and (unintentionally) living space for others to guard the stores. 

They will also during the next while get to digging into the ground a little bit to put down these rocks and make the bottom of the walls easier to form (a stone-age level tech irl), likely lining the floor with stones as well once they go about it since they know mud makes things sink into it (and don't want their food to do so). 

Time Passed: 2 Days into the latest week, 5 weeks since sapience

Time Until Next Turn: 4 Weeks, 5 days

World Events:

Everyone - Monsoon Season (Early) - As the winter melts on the mountains and the rivers run full, the weather changes every year and brings with it a plentiful amount of rain to shower the lands. But when the weather changes unusually quickly from cold to warm, unusually large storms may begin to form that can last for several days or even weeks given the unique geography of the Continent. Such is the case right now, as a storm cell approaches from the South, bringing with it powerful winds and the promise of great rainstorms. While some may find this very refreshing given the temperate weather of the island in general, it will pose a great threat as traversing the terrain will become difficult. Already rain is beginning to fall, and it will surely only intensify during the coming week as the storm approaches closer.

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