NESCraft II Day Seven
It's good the great green earth to roam,
Where sights of awe the soul inspire;
But oh, it's best, the coming home,
The crackle of one's own hearth-fire!
You've hob-nobbed with the solemn Past;
You've seen the pageantry of kings;
Yet oh, how sweet to gain at last
The peace and rest of Little Things!
Perhaps you're counted with the Great;
You strain and strive with mighty men;
Your hand is on the helm of State;
Colossus-like you stride .
.
.
and then
There comes a pause, a shining hour,
A dog that leaps, a hand that clings:
O Titan, turn from pomp and power;
Give all your heart to Little Things.
Go couch you childwise in the grass,
Believing it's some jungle strange,
Where mighty monsters peer and pass,
Where beetles roam and spiders range.
'Mid gloom and gleam of leaf and blade,
What dragons rasp their painted wings!
O magic world of shine and shade!
O beauty land of Little Things!
I sometimes wonder, after all,
Amid this tangled web of fate,
If what is great may not be small,
And what is small may not be great.
So wondering I go my way,
Yet in my heart contentment sings .
.
.
O may I ever see, I pray,
God's grace and love in Little Things.
So give to me, I only beg,
A little roof to call my own,
A little cider in the keg,
A little meat upon the bone;
A little garden by the sea,
A little boat that dips and swings .
.
.
Take wealth, take fame, but leave to me,
O Lord of Life, just Little Things.
Robert William Service
Daftpanzer
As the sun rises, you set to building a new spear to replace the one you lost defending yourself against the hippo. Done, you are satisfied with its weight and feel. You are getting better at this. As the sun rises and its heat becomes more and more oppressive, you gather branches and form a sort of rudimentary framework with these then cover it with your blanket, tying it as tightly as you can with just leaves and sticks. The thatch looks thick and protective but relatively fragile. You light a fire, taking most of the evening to do so and as the sparks light and spread, skewer the last of your forage from yesterday so that you might roast them over the fire. Grilled, they taste much better and seem easier to digest.
The sun sets and you notice another fire to the southwest. The wind comes up and a light rain falls cooling the heat of the day and you take refuge under your lean-to.
During the night you hear howling and realize that there are wolves not too distant.
The sun rises and you feel well-fed, well-rested and ready to take on the day.
Daftpanzer
Traits: Ranger
Status: Healthy. Well-fed (+1AP). Well-rested (+1AP). Warm.
Action Points: 5
Inventory: stone spear (moderate quality, poor durability), silk thread (1)
Stashed Nearby: lean-to (moderate quality, poor durability)
Decamper
You commune with the totem you have created and once again feel the strength of the land and trees of the region flow into you. Giving thanks for the alligator meat you were able to scavenge, but hesitant to eat it raw, you spend most of the morning crafting a fire to grill it on, and happy with the results, have a delicious lunch of grilled alligator meat that fills you and leaves you feeling very satisfied. In the afternoon, you turn your attention to the tiger you saw yesterday and set out to find it. It doesn't hide its presence from you and around supper time you catch sight of it drinking from the alligator-pool. You approach it and try to share with it the magics of the trees and ground you feel within you only to realize that it is not a tree nor the ground and your mana cannot beguile it. It seems pissed off that you are bothering it and perhaps to put you in your place charges you lazily, swatting you across the head and instantly breaking your neck... except it doesn't and the image passes from you and you wake up with a series of horrible cuts down your head and cheek and a ringing headache but still alive. You realize it is quite late and it is all you can do to drag yourself back to your fire, clutching your face in pain and frustration. It is raining lightly and you throw sticks on the fire to rebuild it as it threatens to sputter and go out.
In the distance you notice another fire burning and as the sun rises you hear alligators hunting in the waters nearby. The day promises to be a warm one and you expect without adequate rest, you will certainly suffer heat exhaustion.
Decamper
Traits: Spiritual
Status: Head-wound (malus to all tasks). Well-fed (+1P).Tired (-1AP). Hot.
Action Points: 3
Inventory: Stone Pickax (poor quality, poor durability)
Stashed Nearby: Rose Quartz Willow (basic totem: 1 mana). Salt (1)
Mana: 1
Karma: 0
Everblack
You spend the morning crafting new tools, a new spear and a fishing net from strings you make from braided grass. With these you try your luck at catching fish from the shore and manage to catch two large lake trout you lure towards you with insects you dig up from under nearby rocks.
You return to your tipi and cook the fish on your fire, filling your stomach with the filling meal and feeling quite satisfied with the progress you have made today.
As the sun rises you catch sight of large green snakes in the nearby grasses, hunting for their own breakfast and remind yourself to be careful around that area.
Everblack
Traits: Ranger, Stalker
Status: Healthy. Well-nourished (+1 AP). Well-Rested (+1 AP)
Action Points: 5
Inventory: Fishing net (poor quality, poor durability), Spear (Poor quality, Poor durability), Cured Deer Hide (moderate quality, poor durability)
Stashed Nearby: Tipi (good quality, poor durability), Atlatl (poor quality, poor durability), Spear (Poor quality, Poor durability). Fish (1)
Karma: 2
OOC: Your stone tools broke. Once they reach 'very poor durability', its just a matter of time, assuming you use them, that they do.
J.K.Stockholme
You start the morning by stalking and hunting the nearby turtles but these prove more elusive than expected, sinking away into the sea where they are much faster when they notice your arrival. You throw your spear at one only to see it bounce off its hide, sending the head of the spear flying away and causing your shoulder to flare painfully. You manage to repair your spear but as noon comes, you realize you won't be eating any turtles today.
The pain in your shoulder reminds you that you need to do something about it and so you set to weaving a sling for your arm from nearby tall grasses and plants and once this is secured around your neck, your shoulder immediately feels much better without the weight of the arm upon it. You suspect it will now heal much faster.
Hungry, you return to your fire and quickly fall asleep, waking with the dawn to the eerie call of a nearby pod of orcas calling to each other. Perhaps more concerning however, is the apparent return of the giant crabs to the east end of the island.
J.K. Stockholme
Traits: Waterborn, Crafty
Status: Crushed shoulder (small malus to any action requiring two hands, bandaged & healing). Healthy. Hungry (-1 AP). Rested
Action Points: 2
Inventory: Spear (poor quality, poor durability), Stone ax (moderate quality, poor durability)
Stashed Nearby: Torches (3)
Karma: 0
Kyzarc Fotjage
Perhaps luckily, the big cat does not press its stalking, instead watching you closely for a short while then wandering away to the south-west.
You set out to secure yourself a meal, opting to hunt the beautiful red pandas you notice to the north east. The process is not easy however, your wound slowing you considerably but you are luckier than could be hoped and manage to skewer one of the beautiful innocent undeserving creatures on your first callus and cruel spear throw. Evily, you drag its body back to your fire and skin it, grilling its flesh upon your fire and feasting cruelly upon it before laying down to rest.
As the sun rises, you feel better, full and well-rested and your wound noticeably less painful than yesterday. Better yet, there are not sign of large carnivores about for the first time in a long time.
Kyzarc Fotjage
Traits: Explorer
Status: Gut wound (malus to movement, all tasks involving strength or lifting, slowly healing). Nourished. Rested.
Action Points: 3
Inventory: Bone spear (poor quality, poor durability), Stone tools (moderate quality, poor durability), Cured wooly sheep hide (poor quality, poor durability)
Stashed Nearby: Uncured red panda pelt (very poor quality, very poor durability), Red panda bones (1)
LordArgon
You want nothing to do with the the pack of lions that seem to be hunting in your territory and opt instead to hike eastwards to where you saw the two-legged figure of days past.
As you do, you pass several species of cactus and these you test to see if they are edible by watching birds and trying a few. Finally you select a one species you feel is likely safe and fill your belly with these.
Just as you are about to give up for the night, unable to see anything in the dark, you notice a bright fire suddenly burst upon the horizon and you head towards this, eventually arriving at a campfire where the female biped, painted in swirls and lines of dried blood, is gathering up a spear and eyeing you suspiciously.
You are tired but are not too hungry and do not note any major predators in the vicinity. The day is hot, but not pressingly so.
LordArgon
Traits: Crafty, Leafy
Status: Healthy. Tired (-1AP). Nourished. Warm.
Action Points: 2
Inventory: Stone axe (poor quality, poor durability), Sling (moderate quality, poor durability), Lizard skin satchel (+2 inventory, moderate quality, moderate durability), String (1), Lizard skin
Stashed Nearby: Cactus Fruit (1)
Lord Herobrine
You notice that the zebra meat has rotted (as it was not smoked or salted) and you throw it away before seeking a new meal, setting out to hunt the deer you noticed grazing to the north-west. You stalk patiently and when you throw your spear, are satisfied to see it pierce the shoulder of a mature female cleanly, bringing it down immediately. You finish the wounded creature off with your knife and dress the kill there in the field.
It takes you two trips but you manage to secure its meat and hide before any scavengers are able to claim your hunted deer.
Returning to a site you feel will make an excellent camp, you spend most of the afternoon trying to light a campfire, at first seeing little success but eventually managing to create first a spark then a healthy fire a little after the sun sets. You grill your deer meat and and curl up near the fire, eager to rest.
You awaken to the sound of a large creature approaching and grabbing your spear are puzzled to see the two-legged creature wearing the body of a lizard around its torso step into the firelight, sling in hand.
Lord_Herobrine
Traits: Ranger
Status: Well-Nourished (+1AP). Rested. Warm.
Action Points: 4
Inventory: Stone spear with prickly cactus spines (poor quality, poor durability), Stone tools (poor quality, poor durability)
Stashed Nearby: Deer meat (1), Uncured dear hide (very poor quality, very poor durability), Zebra bones
Karma: 0
Marcher Jovian
Still shaken by your encounter with the spotted cat you felt licking you during the night, you somehow convince yourself that the best course of action is to seek it out and attempt to befriend it. Its a spectacularly poor idea, especially as you don't feel particularly blessed by the karma of good creative deeds, but you don't know that at the time. The first part of your plan goes well, and you manage to find the great cat, but when you begin speaking softly to it, it just assumes you are offering yourself as a meal and this it gladly accepts. Your reflexes are honed however, and you raise you axe quickly in defense, cutting the thing under the chin and cracking its jaw loudly. It makes eye contact with you and you feel something feral and wild pass into you as it tucks its tail between its legs, bows its head slightly, and lopes off into the eastern jungles.
The rest of the day feels strange, as you feel the leopard's strength and energies swirling within you, its ferocity and connection to the jungle filling you with strange instincts.
In this daze, you forage for food and manage to find enough to fill your stomach for the day before returning to your usual spot to wait out the night.
Marcher Jovian
Traits: Leafy, Herbalist
Status: Healthy, Nourished. Rested. Warm. Infused with Strange Magical Energies
Action Points: 3
Inventory: Stone ax (poor quality, very poor durability), Stone tools (poor quality, poor durability)
Stashed Nearby: Stone hoe (moderate quality, poor durability), Timber (2), Medical herbs (2), Raw veggies (1), Raw snake skin (1), Raw snake meat (1)
Leopard's Spirit
You can either convert this to 'beast-flavored' mana without chance of failure and use it like any other mana or you can attempt to incorporate it into your essence with a chance of failure and without fully understanding what it might or might not do.
Omega
As the sun rises, you gain the unlikely chance to see see a strange red fox successfully hunt and kill a little brown rabbit nearby, passing something between them, that seems to go on and 'select it' in some strange way.
Ignoring this for now, you set out to hunt the great shaggy musk-ox that are foraging to the north-west. You stalk them calmly, sure of your strength the the edge of your spear. You stalk quietly for most of the morning, careful to keep your scent downwind. Finally, sensing the moment is right, you launch your spear and watch with satisfaction as you bring the great beast down. The throw makes your wound immediately flare in pain and you realize you have reopened you wound. None-the-less, you finish it off with your knife, noting that your spear has not survived and has shattered inside the beast.
You skin it and dress the meat, bringing them back to your cave where you carefully scrape off the fat and meat from the hide before you very carefully cure it as best you can with ash and snow before, satisfied with your work, you throw it around your shoulders, immediately feeling the great weight of it providing you with insulation against the cold temperatures.
The day is still short, and so after a meal of musk-ox meat grilled on your fire, you turn your attention to the cave itself, hacking at the stone with your pick-ax, grimacing through the intense pain, and gathering enough stone, build up the entrance to your cave with a small wall to prevent animals from entering easily. As you complete the wall, you notice some of the dust coming off the site where you were excavating sparkling in the air as they pass near the fire. Intrigued, you examine the wound you delivered to the rock more carefully and note a long black scar, some sort of darker rock within the stone around it that seems to have particular pyrotechnic properties when its dust passes near your fire (coal).
The morning comes and your gut wound is worse than it was yesterday, though you are well-rested, well-fed, and finally proudly sporting an insulating hide more suitable to this climate than your naked skin.
Something very big and very shaggy is foraging nearby. It looks very dangerous.
Omega
Traits: Warrior
Status: Aggravated gut wound (large malus to movement, all tasks involving strength or lifting). Well fed (+1). Well-rested (+1 AP).
Action Points: 5
Inventory: Stone pickax (moderate quality, poor durability), Stone tools (poor quality, very poor durability), Cured Muskox pelt (poor quality, poor durability)
Stashed Nearby: Stone tools (poor quality, poor durability), Stone wall (poor quality, good durability), Rabbit bones, Tiger claws, Tiger teeth, Fish bones. Muskox meat (1), Stone (1)
Karma: 0
Thomas.Berubeg
Badly wounded and the poison in your veins burning more painfully with every breath, you turn your attention to the medical herbs you had gathered, selecting the appropriate ones to chew upon and others to apply directly to your wound. Within less than a few short hours, you feel immense relief as the poison fades and your concentration begins to refocus somewhat.
Hiding from the giant birds nearby, you quickly scavenge some forage from the nearby boab trees before climbing their heights to avoid the dangerous birds who despite their small wings, seem unable to reach you despite repeated efforts to seemingly pull you down and tear you apart with their sharp beaks and claws.
Tired and your stomach full, you let yourself fall asleep in the tree branches, waking in the morning to find that the large predator birds have not moved on despite your sincerest hopes that they might.
Thomas.Berubug
Traits: Leafy, Builder
Status: Healthy. Nourished. Rested.
Action Points: 3
Inventory: Raw Veggies (1)
Stashed Nearby:
Mana: 1
Karma: 0
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