Muttonhawk

Mid/High Casual - Divinus: The Deity Roleplay Mk.II

@Lauder

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Rhazii looked around at the faces of those listening. His anger was softened somewhat by their hints of sympathy, small as they were. He had been raised a lycan, but was very aware the tragedies involved with infection.

However, Rhazii was not mollified. Particularly at Do'rhajul's rhetorical question.

"I heard about all the things you've done," Rhazii continued. "What you did to the Orcrest and Senchal clans. That wasn't righteous, that was horrible. Did you just not see it for yourself? How did Sabine change your mind after you did all of that?"

Rhazii's scepticism was allowed my Fendros and Ahnasha for now, but he held a suitably adolescent tone of disgust towards Do'rhajul.

Mid/High Casual - Divinus: The Deity Roleplay Mk.II

@Muttonhawk Entertainment. They're ex-Horde.

@Antarctic Termite

Hmm, I was thinking of working the guy into Yorum, but might be a bit difficult unless entertainment to an ex-hordeboi can be achieved with music.

Unless this mercenary would like to join in with Ch'eater down in the south. That'll be much more brutal. But that means they won't be featured for a while.

Ehhh, I'll leave it open for someone else to take. For now.

This reminds me about a Grotling joke I wanted to make, actually. What does the 'nact' part of 'Tauganactsa' mean, exactly? Tauga's... Angels? Bitches? Lawyers?

This will never be explained.

@Antarctic Termite

My headcanon is that they all follow Tauga's YouTube channel, forming a toxic adolescent fanbase known as the Taugang. Tauganactsa is just the Grotling language equivalent of the Taugang portmanteau.

Mid/High Casual - Divinus: The Deity Roleplay Mk.II

...actually, would anyone like a sentient White Giant mercenary on their side?

@Antarctic Termite

Y'know, maybe, but I would have no idea what to pay them with.

Mid/High Casual - Divinus: The Deity Roleplay Mk.II

just @me next time why don't you

@Antarctic Termite

I was tempted to, but you were not the only one. I thought I'd let my passive aggression be shared around the player base like a fine cup of curdled milk!

That said, I don't think I mind there being more posts whether they're rushed or written over months and years.

Mid/High Casual - Divinus: The Deity Roleplay Mk.II

Hey guys, you remember hainposting?

I did one. It was a long time coming.

I also paid off a mechanic I set up in white giants way back in their creation sheet!

Mid/High Casual - Divinus: The Deity Roleplay Mk.II

This Giant's Different

Circa 3 years PR

The camp had something extra today.

The ogres shouted, they struck each other, they stank, they abused the slaves, they ate, they stank, they placed bets on wrestling matches, they reinforced their command structure through brutality, and they stank.

This was all the usual. Yiga the slave hain was used to it all. To anyone else, that something extra would be drowned in filth and barbarism.

They had put up more sentries. They had been shouting up at their leaders more. And Yiga and her companions in servitude were digging another ditch to encircle the camp in front of the perfectly good ditch that they had already dug. The ogres had some reason to be afraid.

Yiga paused her digging into the hard soil to peek up at their overseer. Big Fromp was asleep again. He was afforded that privilege by being one of the only ogres in the camp that did not snore like a falling tree. In turn, his charges were afforded the freedom to whisper and gossip under his sleepy ears.

"Johtn," Yiga hissed. "Johtn! Tsst! Why are they so jumpy today?"

Johtn did not stop digging. "Rumour's about," he whispered.

"About what?"

"Monster came out the Weald recently."

Yiga tilted her head in confusion. "Ogres aren't afraid of Weald monsters."

"Different one. Something strange." Johtn's staccato only became more so. "Kills ogres. Killed a whole camp of 'em."

"Wouldn't they hunt it?"

Johtn finally hazarded a glance at Yiga as if he didn't know the answer for sure. "Probably not 'cos they can't find it. Or, if they find it, all the hunters die. It'smart. It's weird 'cos it's a white giant, but..."

Yiga let out a disappointed sigh. "Ogres can kill white giants. I've seen it. They'll catch it."

"Not this one. Don't know if it's a white giant for sure. Just looks like one."

"So...a smart white giant?"

"More'n that. Leaves these marks everywhere. Fights smart, too. Like it plans. No'ne knows what the marks mean, though."

A loud waking snort tensed both slaves up. Everyone doubled their efforts in digging.

Behind them, grinding soil and detritus heralded a wave of nauseating body odour approaching. A large shadow swallowed Yiga and Johtn. Neither dared look up at its source.

"SHAGGANK! BO FIK-BAB!"

Shut up. No talking. Probably the most common thing they heard from Big Fromp.

The hain to Yiga's right was kicked into the wall of the incomplete ditch with a thud. The already filthy slave wheezed and crawled back to work. Her eyes grimaced in pain.

Yiga gave the kicked hain a glance. You're lucky today, Sem, Yiga thought. He didn't break any shell plates on his randomly assigned punishee today.

---

"Yiga! Yiga! Wake up, right now! Quickly!"

Yiga shuddered awake in the pit the slaves were forced to sleep in. The sun was up. They should have started work hours ago. Yiga panicked at Sem waking her up.

"Sem!? What are you doing!?!" She breathed. "Don't speak so loud or Fromp will crunch us both! If we're lucky, we can sneak to the ditch and pretend..."

She trailed off as she sat up. It was quiet. The camp was never quiet.

Nothing smelled different. There was still just filth. She wondered for a moment whether the ogres had moved on without them all.

"Something's happened," Sem said, clearly enough to be kicked by any ogre in earshot. "Come, have a look."

A number of hain were awake and standing, looking through the wooden pen the ogres had built for them. Sem helped Yiga up to her feet and lead her through the mud to the pen walls.

Yiga gently shouldered through the gathered hain. No one was saying anything over a whisper.

She saw why.

The structures around the camp were all toppled, burnt, or fallen in the breeze. The smell of filth, garbage, and blood was overwhelmingly biased to the latter.

And ogres lay still in the wet dirt in red puddles. They had wounds, blunt force, normally not what bothered an ogre. They also had sickening divots where their fatty necks were meant to be. They were all crushed in like a great pair of fingers had squeezed their throats like lemons.

Yiga tried to see as far as she could. More dead ogres. More destroyed camp. She somehow slept through it all, probably because of the camp ruckus and hard work training her to be a heavy sleeper.

She took her aching, overworked limbs and clambered up the side of the pen.

"Yiga! Wait! You don't know if whatever did this is still out there!" Johtn shouted from below.

"I gotta know," Yiga said. Her voice was stronger than ever.

She reached the top and straddled the pen fence. It shuddered as she tried to keep her balance.

The camp had something extra today.

The mud, the fences, everywhere that blood could be smeared or dirt could be furrowed, there was this symbol written over and over. Stretching around the corpses of ogres, penned onto their pale, dead bellies with blood, arrayed with bits of bones on the floor, there was the same symbol.

Yiga had not seen it before. She did not think she knew what it meant until she saw its many incarnations around the pen. It came together as a pattern. A rune with an intrinsic meaning.

It was a question. A scared question. Missing some context, true, but understandable by one word in Yiga's language.

"Mother?" Yiga read out loud.

GUESS WHO!

I promised to do this ever since that post a year ago. Hohohoho, it feels GOOD. (Nevermind that this is continuing the trend of short, smashed-out posts from players recently).

This post starts with some hain slaves working for some ogres on a frontier camp. They note, even under their horrid living conditions, that the ogres seem a little on-edge today.

One has heard a rumour that might be the cause. A white giant has wandered out of the Venomweald, and this one is different. It's been hunting and killing ogres with an uncharacteristic cunning. It leaves this weird symbol wherever it goes that no one can understand.

Before further discussion, the hain overseer wakes up and tells them to shut up.

Skip to the next morning. The hain wake up perplexed in their slave pen. The camp has fallen silent.

When they check out the camp through the holes in the fence, they saw the camp had been razed in the night and all the ogres are dead with crushed necks.

One of the hain slaves climbs the fence, risking punishment from the ogres. She not only confirms that there were no survivors except those in the pen, but also that a strange symbol has been written in blood and dirt just about everywhere in the camp.

It's the Tounic character describing the word 'mother' posed as a question. Whether it is a request for one's mother or asking if someone before them is their mother is unclear.

That said, this is just a one-off, so I'll reveal the mystery here:

SPOILERZ

@Lauder, this is quite relevant to you, my dude.

The murderous white giant in question has been inhabited by the young soul of Keriss' dead child.

As mentioned in the white giant creation sheet, white giants are powered by synthetic pseudo-souls that perform the bare minimum required to carry out their purposes.

Nearby to catastrophic events of emotional pain and death, these pseudo-souls can be shunted out of their tenuous hold upon their white giant bodies by the flurry of real souls that escape the nearby disaster. The white giant body snares one of these souls and becomes a host for it, holding the memories of the soul's original owner and carrying out old habits.

The trauma of being killed by its own mother combined with the power of divine-descent and, you know, a whole tribe being turned into a crater, allowed the baby's soul to hold on to a nearby patrolling white giant. It's inherited a few habits of Keriss and Kri'Tral.

Remember kids, contraceptives are everyone's responsibility!

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"Fendros, my friend," Janius said quietly over the din to Fendros sitting next to him. "Are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

Fendros nodded back to the Dunmer leader trying to catch his eye before leaning over to respond to Janius. "I'm seeing about as much trouble as I would have expected. Maybe less, though trouble all the same."

Janius appeared slightly worried. "Look at the way the Daggerfall leader is...smiling. I think he may still hold a grudge."

"Just keep your wits about you and make sure any factions remember who the common enemy is," Fendros droned.

The murmurs and plots in the immediate area weakened upon the next event. Sabine pulled Do'rhajul gently by the wrist back to the main table. In her other hand was a spare seat that she placed next to her own. She insistently ushered Do'rhajul to sit down before resuming her own seat as well.

Gone were the smiles and small talk from before the speech. Sabine looked at her plate with a nervous frown while food and drink were served. She did not have much of an appetite either. However, she was determined to make it clear her righteousness. To shy away was to acknowledge the shame many would no doubt send her way.

Janius made an attempt to break the silence. "Do'rhajul," he began. "Thank you for deciding to help us. I know not everyone agrees with Sabine's decision, but...I agree with her. And, also, thank you for assisting Sabine. She is a sister to us. It brought me no small amount of relief to see her safe and home."

"You almost killed members of my family," Rhazii butted in, staring and fiddling with his mug.

"Rhazii..." Fendros warned.

Rhazii raised his voice. "It's what everyone is thinking! It's stupid to pretend like he's suddenly our friend. Look at everyone, they're all wondering what in Oblivion just happened!"

"That's enough!" Fendros scowled at Rhazii, Rhazii looked back in silence, defiant but made quiet. Fendros gestured his head in Do'rhajul's direction and lowered his voice. "Son, if you want to know of Sabine or Do'rhajul's motives, ask them before assuming. In fact, if you are so passionate, ask them now." Fendros permitted with a flick of his hand. "Go on. Ask."

Rhazii frowned at his empty plate. His ears pulled back in embarrassment. When his eyes went up, he looked at Do'rhajul with equal levels of fear and barely-contained anger. "Why?" He asked. "Why did you do it all?"

Sabine nudged Do'rhajul and gave him a small nod. "Answer him, please, Rhajul."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Fendros and Janius each remained quiet, glancing occasionally at the members of Ri'kalesh's pack to gauge their reactions. Even Rhazii kept his eyes down, even though he had been talking across to Ciinriel just moments before like nothing was wrong.

In particular, Sabine looked sideways at Ri'vashi nearby on the main table. They never did get to meet face to face to talk the issue through, much to Sabine's regret. Perhaps that was why Sabine remained standing in front of Do'rhajul. She felt too anxious to sit down. She felt she had not said the right things, or not said them the right way.

The awkwardness kept the feast from immediately erupting into loud chatter. Sabine took the chance to turn and speak to Do'rhajul. "Is there anything you wish to say, Rhajul?" She tried and failed to breath in evenly. "If not, we should find a place to eat."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

The butterflies fluttering in Sabine's stomach turned into a churning swarm of crawling roaches as the time approached for her speech. The feelings were not helped by the great joy and celebration Meesei put into recounting her adversities. Memories she still loathed and feared were passed off as some epic of endurance, like she had some kind of choice. She could have given up, true, but it never felt like a choice. It never felt like a challenge she chose to accept. By the time Meesei motioned for Sabine to stand and speak, she rose like a ghost, despondent and pale.

Still, the crowd waited. She turned her eyes up to them and let her mouth hang open for a quiet moment. She squeezed the staff in her hands. Somehow, the vast reserves of magical power offered her less comfort in front of the waiting faces than it did against a dragon or a violent gang of Clavicus Vile's cultists.

She started with what she worried everyone was paying attention to.

"I know..." The echo of the enchantments amplifying her voice briefly put her off. She spoke slowly, gaining confidence as she went. "...I know many here, perhaps everyone here, has lost someone close to them in this war. I know many here would rather have seen Rhajul and the dragon in switched places; the dragon being under us and Do'rhajul's head on a metal plate. I lost people as well. He killed friends. He maimed others, someone I loved. He almost killed Meesei personally. I hated him for it."

She glanced at Meesei for reassurance before continuing.

"And when I was chained to a tree...When..." She took a breath. "When I was...hurt...by Do'rhajul's team. Rhajul and his one friend were the only ones who did not take part. But I still hated him. The reason I kept him alive was not only because he gave up on life after learning the lies he had been told about us. It was not only because he felt so guilty I had to talk him out of him wanting me to kill him to give him peace..."

Sabine trailed off. She carefully raised her staff over her head to show the crowd. "This is the Staff of Magnus. It held such power when I took it from enemy hands that I could have encased them all in a tomb of solid ice and watch them suffocate. I could have frozen all their blood and made their veins explode into their lungs, their eyes, their bones...I could have peeled them apart, layer by layer, in such fine pieces that their pain would have been their only conscious thought before their slow deaths. I almost did it." Sabine's jaw opened and shut as she tried to stay composed. "But right before I did, I saw that they were just as...afraid as I was just before. Tied to the tree. At their mercy. I was so wrathful that I could feel my beast spirit cowering from me! I...was a monster. The same monster that has made us ostracised as lycans in the first place. Consumed by hate. Consumed by hurt. There was no hunt to it. No sport or strength. Just hate. But I said no."

She let one end of the end of the staff clack on the ground defiantly. "I decided I would not cause any more pain in this war. I would not create more monsters. I would not kill them. I did not kill them." She looked with determination at Do'rhajul. "I cannot fix Rhajul's guilt. I cannot fix the pain and revenge everyone wants. But I know Rhajul can be useful, and I refuse to let him die wastefully."

Sabine walked out from in front of her seat and stood in front of Do'rhajul. "He is pledged to me. We have formed a new pack and I am his alpha. All who wish him harm must surmount me first. I do not wish to kill anymore, but I am prepared if I must." Sabine clenched her jaw as her heart raced. She could not even look the crowd in the eyes anymore. "If you do not believe me," she said in her nervous, shivering voice. "You can see the proof of my capabilities for yourselves." She pointed to the dragon head without looking at it.

Finally, Sabine lowered her voice. "I want to stop Vile. I want us to be at peace for once in our lives. That is all I wanted to say."

She uneasily peered her eyes up to keep an eye out for any objections. She half-expected Ri'kalesh and anyone from a decimated or destroyed clan to get up and charge her at once. She was prepared to defend herself. The shame of putting Meesei's more hopeful mood into the dirt was not even in her mind in that moment.