BOOK TWO
THE SEAL OF THE SPHINX
Flora’s scent was vexingly recognizable.
The memory of it pointed nowhere. But its familiarity remained.
Who is she? he asked Pietr.
I’m afraid I don’t know, my lord. But she seems quite taken with you, said Pietr.
She did indeed.
Flora stared at Redmane, wearing a starry eyed smile. Irina smirked and looked away. Vella grinned from ear to ear.
Radovid cleared his throat. ...
2024-10-12 12:37:07 +0000 UTC View PostRedmane strode down the broad street leading from Church Town to Barograd Keep with his followers behind him.
There was the Justiciar Vella, her careworn garments and wild hair giving her the look of the beastmen she’d infiltrated. As she walked along behind Redmane she stuck her pinky in her ear and twisted it, flicked away some wax.
Next to her, flanking Redmane on the opposite side, were her Coterie mates, Radovid and Irina. The Warrior and Magister had their weapons in hand,...
2024-10-11 07:03:22 +0000 UTC View Post—
Skill Evolved
Omnivore —> Devourer
Devourer
Bloodline Skill (Monstrous)
Rank 1 - Evolution Possible
Passive
Rank 0:
-The Monster derives sustenance from anything, and its digestion produces no waste. Its teeth and jaws can chew through most substances with sustained effort.
-The Monster's consumption of flesh restores its Corpus, and consumption of magic restores its Gnosis. All ...
2024-10-11 07:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostCorpus: 4042
Half of that huge stock of vitality gone in one strike.
It was as he feared.
One more mistake and he’d be dead. Another corpse for the endless pile.
The Manticore took a few steps forward, until it loomed over him, opening its immense maw with three rows of teeth, meaning to devour him whole.
Redmane caught its jaws in his hands just as they snapped down on him with monstrous force. His muscles strained so hard it felt as though hi...
2024-10-11 06:59:28 +0000 UTC View PostRedmane stared at a huge portrait of Sencis Karalis, the First of His Name, King of the Stahlmen and the Omeni and the Tribes of Volos.
He saw a resemblance.
Their faces were identical, save a few important details. First, the King didn’t have canines like daggers. Nor were his ears pointed. Karalis’s eyes were a vivid shade of green, and his hair was as gold as new wheat. But if you were to stand Redmane next to this man, most would say they looked like twins.
Pietr w...
2024-10-11 06:57:13 +0000 UTC View PostMagister Helmold had to be very careful.
He’d go in the dead of night, when no one was down in the kitchen. The castle undercroft should be entirely empty at that time, save for a peasant or two acting as temporary castle guards. Valtr and Vengarl and Letha had busied themselves the last three days giving all of the freed hostages from Midva Forest some manner of job around the castle and its grounds.
All except Flora.
There were seven of her, as of today. Going by the co...
2024-10-11 06:54:43 +0000 UTC View PostPietr, High Priest of Kraal, stood a full head taller than either of the priests flanking him, perhaps eight feet tall counting the antlers. In the manner of all beastmen, his eyes had a wild gleam and his face had taken on a feral quality, pointed teeth and ears, wolfish features. Pietr’s long beard tapered to a point above the great holy symbol of Kraal hanging from his neck.
Vella looked up in alarm. She locked eyes with Pietr, but he wasn’t looking at her.
He was l...
2024-10-11 06:53:15 +0000 UTC View PostHe felt the pieces of himself in motion, drawing nearer as fast as their wings would bear them. Two were close already, the others had to fly over from across the river. While he waited for those, he used the two who were close to begin an aerial patrol of this end of the city, switching back and forth between their eyes to take everything in as quickly as possible.
Redmane remembered that she resembled a beastman in her style of dress and generally disheveled appearance. She actually ...
2024-10-11 06:50:27 +0000 UTC View PostWhen he came to, which felt like reluctantly waking from a long and comfortable nap, he blinked his eyes open and realized…
He was airborne.
The impact knocked him out, and bounced him up into the air like a ball.
Corpus: 6199
Redmane shook his head to clear it, realized with alarm that the Guardian stood directly beneath him, grinning up at him with yellowed teeth and giant eyes burning with the feral gleam of the beastman. The Guardian ope...
2024-10-11 06:48:56 +0000 UTC View PostDrusilla’s Font
It was a sphere of Gnosis which, once Irina cast it, floated in the air between herself, Redmane and Radovid at about navel height. The Font was roughly the size of the cannonball that struck Redmane in the gut recently, though this ball was more pleasant to look at. Colors swirled across its surface like blots of oil or paints that refused to mix, making its glow prismatic.
Redmane leaned toward it, opened his jaws…
“What are you doin...
2024-10-11 06:46:57 +0000 UTC View PostLaszlo and Stenn, Guardians of Brandis Bridge, Slain
Tasks Completed: 3/5
Level Up
Level 43 —> Level 44
Level 44 —> Level 45
Level 45 —> Level 46
Quality Points awaiting allocation: 3
Of the six marksman behind Laszlo and Stenn, two remained. One dropped his firearm and readied his sword and shield to engage Radovid, th...
2024-10-11 06:45:29 +0000 UTC View PostRedmane rolled to his feet at the last possible instant before being chopped, clobbered and skewered at the same time.
To his sides, Radovid and Irina were engaged with the others. But he couldn’t pay attention to what they were doing, he had three foes right in front of him and they were closing in.
Redmane tracked the point of that sword with his eyes, swatted it aside with a claw when it stabbed forth, and then ducked an axe swing that might have given his face the same trea...
2024-10-11 06:44:07 +0000 UTC View PostRedmane flew down the hill, ripping apart beastmen on his way and devouring their remains while they were still hot.
Corpus: 2132
The final team of them awaited him at the bottom of the slope, filling the air with the crackle of gunfire as they tried in vain to land a shot on Redmane as he rapidly descended their way. But his fleetness was too much for them. And by the time they were done with their first salvo he was too close for them to safely flee.
Some ...
2024-10-11 06:41:57 +0000 UTC View PostIt took Redmane half the fight, and most of his Corpus, to get Agneszka the Stitcher to the point where she was emotionally compromised.
With Pavel it seemed he’d done so right away.
“What did you do to my wife?!”
His voice boomed, so loud it made the team of beastman cannoneers at the far end of the barn wheel around in surprise to see what their leader was yelling at.
Pavel didn’t pause to explain anything to his henchmen. He had a blunderbuss in hand, and i...
2024-10-11 06:39:29 +0000 UTC View PostThe woman was nude, and appeared to have fully grown to adulthood within the flower. She had light brown skin and blue-green hair, the color of spring’s first triumph over cold winter. Her face was as fair as her form, soft and refined, regal. Or perhaps divine. Long, pointed ears poked out from her wavy mane, and when she blinked her eyes open Helmold saw they were precisely the same shade of verdigris as her hair.
She sat in the fetal position, arms hugging around her bent l...
2024-10-11 06:31:26 +0000 UTC View PostThe blow sucked the air from Redmane’s lungs.
Corpus: 1410
Bleeding (3)
Blood bubbled up in his mouth, flowed over his chin and down his neck.
He looked down to see Agneszka’s sword plunged all the way into his stomach, to the hilt.
There was something different about the wound. Nothing visual, simply a feeling. It wasn’t going to stop bleeding, he realized.
With surprising force, Agneszka shoved him off of her swor...
2024-10-11 06:28:34 +0000 UTC View PostA pack of six Stitchwork Stalkers flew at him. Two Spiders were not far behind. And bringing up the rear was a howling brute with great clubs of bone for hands.
Redmane sprinted at them, past them. His claws scored through stitched flesh, shredding it open. Like a knight jousting on horseback he struck, dealing damage and sailing past, not standing still for an instant, his crimson hair and ragged cloak streaming behind him.
The hounds circled. The Spiders rotated in place, unco...
2024-10-11 06:25:59 +0000 UTC View PostRedmane’s feet hit the cobblestones on the tradesmen’s district in a dead sprint.
Evidently this part of town had become a battleground between two factions. Agneszka’s stitched horrors and Pavel’s black powder wielding beastmen. The townsfolk who hadn’t fled from this place had been blown apart by musket balls or shrapnel, or dragged away to wherever Agneszka crafted her horrors.
He could take advantage of that. But first, he smelled a bonus to his armaments nearby. On ...
2024-10-11 06:24:17 +0000 UTC View PostRedmane checked the description of the Skill to refresh his memory.
—
Spawn
Bloodline Skill [Monstrous (Gruu)]
Rank 1
Active - Variable Cost
The Monster is able to spawn smaller creatures out of its own flesh, which are commonly used as assistants and spies.
Each Spawn begins its existence with whatever quantity of Corpus and Gnosis its master chooses to bestow upon it. The master must also bestow the Spawn with its modes of defens...
2024-10-11 06:20:03 +0000 UTC View PostCrossbow bolts whizzed by Redmane’s head as he sprinted for the watchtower.
The Stitchwork Spider climbed down the side of that tower to interpose itself between him and the guards posted behind and above. Unless Redmane found a way by, he’d have to contend with them all at the same time.
Which wouldn’t do.
There did seem to be one way through, but the chance of success was slim.
He’d dive under the thing’s legs and run through the watchtower door, which ...
2024-10-11 06:18:19 +0000 UTC View PostRedmane came to the outer wall of Barograd and looked up.
Dawn was close. The sky shone bright blue over the tops of the crenelations.
He’d come to this spot to scale the wall, begin with a good vantage point. Walking in the front gates would have been more direct, but he’d lose the element of surprise and wouldn’t have as fine a view. While he was thinking about it, he selected beastmen as Prey again. And then he put the axe of Morholt on his back so he could sink hi...
2024-10-11 06:16:04 +0000 UTC View PostRedmane’s body sailed free from the cone of flames. But the fire seared him deeply all the same, though he’d only been engulfed for a mere instant.
Corpus: 2586
That hurt.
It would be bad to be touched by the fire again.
Umber snapped at him and Redmane rolled underneath, came up to one knee and hacked into the Rock Warg’s lead leg with his axe. The blade struck true, but all it left was a shallow scratch in its rocky hide.
Redmane...
2024-10-11 06:12:45 +0000 UTC View PostWhile Wargs chased down the last of the brigands, Redmane, Valtr and Vengarl entered the chapel to see to the captive townspeople.
Many broke out into tears of gratitude. Some began helping release the others the moment they were free. A few simply sat, catatonic, even after their gags were removed and their bonds cut.
The little girl who had seen Redmane in the form of a weasel stared up at him with wide eyes. Evidently she recognized his coloration.
“It’s you…” she...
2024-10-11 06:04:05 +0000 UTC View PostIn an instant, the quiet of the brigand camp had broken into the din of battle. Wargs tore into shouting beastmen. Somewhere above, Valtr and Vengarl sniped away at their quarry.
Redmane’s foes were right in front of him.
Two instead of one. How gracious of the gods to serve a side dish.
Gorchist the shaman lifted his staff, his face raised to the night sky.
“Bless us with fury, great Kraal!” he said. “Bless us with rage!”
Blessing of Might 2024-10-11 05:59:43 +0000 UTC View Post
The plan for the beastmen did not resemble the plan for the Gruu, but it sounded equally effective to Redmane.
They let night fall. Firelight took over the encampment in place of sunlight. Down by the longhouse they lit a big bonfire, a handful of brigands sitting around it, drinking ale and chatting. Elsewhere they lit lanterns and braziers, and the ones on patrol carried torches as they did their rounds on the suspension bridges high up in the trees.
Those would go first. It wou...
2024-10-11 05:57:09 +0000 UTC View PostValtr and Vengarl returned briefly to their campsite to pack it in, and then they set out in a southeasterly direction with Redmane, the trio walking along casually under the noontime sun. Or what passed for it in Midva Forest. Even at its apex the light didn’t quite make it through the thick canopies of the trees, instead shining down on the grass and shrubs in scattered, concentrated rays, leaving the rest in hazy darkness.
On their way, Redmane noticed a small clearing where five ...
2024-10-11 05:54:42 +0000 UTC View PostThe chamber of Grandmother Gruu was round and high of ceiling, its walls pocked all over with the circular entrances to tunnels great and small, the whole area illuminated in red by patches of the glowing moss that had led him here. The Grandmother herself sat at the center, larger and taller than a house, her overlapping curtains of fat rolls covered in strange, bubbling abcesses. Her skin was as glossy red as that of her progeny, and the size of her maw of shiny, jagged, irregular teeth put...
2024-10-11 05:48:14 +0000 UTC View PostThe brigand camp lay some miles to the southeast, but according to Valtr and Vengarl there were so many Gruu burrows between here and there that there might as well be a host of soldiers standing in the way.
“Soldiers would be preferable,” said Vengarl. “At least they only come in one size!”
Redmane could take wing and fly over them all, but he’d be leaving his new comrades behind if he did so. And finding ‘Grandmother Gruu’ was one of his three Tasks anyhow.
...
2024-10-11 05:46:42 +0000 UTC View PostThe Great Gruu stretched out its wings and took flight, and Redmane realized in an instant of alarmed clarity what it intended to do.
It was going to pick him up and drop him into that mass of Gruu below.
He fled from it, turning and leaping to the next tree limb that would support his weight, and the next one. Not every guess was correct, some branches split or cracked the moment he landed upon them, but he was quick enough each time to find another before careening down onto th...
2024-10-11 05:45:03 +0000 UTC View PostThe narrow road beyond the drawbridge of Häerz Castle, which wound a few miles in a southron direction through Barograd, was walled in on either side by dark trees. They were tall and thick of trunk, and the way they twisted against each other made Redmane imagine they were engaged in a savage battle with each other, albeit one frozen in time.
Perhaps the Blight affected even the trees.
No sooner did he step off of the road and into the forest did the System send a message into h...
2024-10-11 05:43:37 +0000 UTC View Post