hmmm.. looks like we have two copper weapon users, a spearling tail user and a guy holding a sword which is probably bronze. Considering you are likely armed yourself, I think this is one of those times where shock and awe can work wonders.

Bronze sword is likely the leader. Use some enchantments to disable/disarm/dispose of him first the moment they try something. You yourself said they follow the strongest, so if you beat their strongest, they will likely back off. Just don't get cocky. You may be able to take them, but a lucky hit is all they need.

Slap their shit.

Elephant Guy 2014/01/27(Mon)12:39 No. 559734 ID: d83734
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As Char approaches the ruffians, the one with the faonite-enhanced blades indeed reveals himself to be the leader.

"Hoooy, what 'ave we 'ere? S'm kind of drannjke? 'Ell ar kellan not what you be, jes that yer in arn glafdank an' that ye rigij arn s'm treebewt!"

Char is not sure if it's just these guys who talk like that or if the Kaghant language changed over the last two hundred years, but he understands enough to conclude that these men are indeed here to rob him.

"Naa ye not be meekin' de srabwa-"

Elephant Guy 2014/01/27(Mon)12:39 No. 559735 ID: d83734
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Eager to use a spell in combat, channels energy into his fist, feeling his right arm swell with power from the shoulder down. He then slaps the leader's shit, to put it lightly. His head flies off, hitting the spearling tail youth in the face. The youth appears to be stunned.

The guy with the club yells something along the lines of "Hoy fuck ar an' arn mamoo!" and starts to flee, while the big one roars and attacks. The falchion kid rushes to get in a flanking position.

...We might be barely talk to the locals in addition to everything else?
Cripes!
Wellp, speartail is down for the moment, let's get the kid first- I'd wager you could take and beat the big guy with his own hammer if you wanted but the kid will hurt us if we ignore him.
Tossing a fireball SHOULD get the job done of scaring the kid, at which point we can then go to get the big guy.

good job. watch out shorty doesn't get you in the leg.

POW! Right in the kisser! Right, we got our next issue. Biggs and smalls. We go for small and biggs will have an opening. Attack Biggs and smalls flanks and attacks. Way I see it, we need to take them both out. Biggs is likely slow, so evade his hammer, grab him and throw him at smalls. If we hit him, then we likely took care of those two. If not, spook the guy with some fire. The fact we are strong enough to punch off heads and throw people around will be enough to intimidate anyone.

Elephant Guy 2014/02/01(Sat)15:46 No. 560466 ID: f351db
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Biggs raises his hammerscythe overhead and smashes down on Char. Rookie mistake. Char easily dodges the blow and rushes close to him. He deflects Biggs' clumsy backhand punch, grabs his arm and hurls his bulky body at the kid, breaking said arm in the process.

Elephant Guy 2014/02/01(Sat)15:47 No. 560469 ID: f351db
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The kid has little trouble evading the now screaming brute, however, and slashes at Char with the intent to perform an abrupt field sternotomy.

He barely misses.

As the tail wielder comes back to his senses to join the fray, Char contemplates tossing a fireball at shorty, but he hesitates. Should he really risk another town-wide witch hunt, or just make do with brandishing his weapons?

Just the weapons for now, no need to use magic, right?

I see no need to bring out magic. Meet martial skill with martial skill!

The guy is skilled, but I don't he's on the same level as you in terms of experience or strength. Disarm him of his blade and take him down. By the looks of it, you seem to have two weapons. Lock up his blade and disable him.

Elephant Guy 2014/02/02(Sun)04:31 No. 560555 ID: f351db
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Char draws his harvesters and starts an onslaught of blows. The child is far more skilled than one would expect a mere 30-year-old to be, but he is no match for someone who has been practicing the art of swordplay since people started to exist. It takes ten seconds for Char to disarm him, knock him prone and

Elephant Guy 2014/02/02(Sun)04:31 No. 560556 ID: f351db
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auggh there goes his right heel

you have died several times, a little pain is nothing. roll to the sword grab and throw to the spearling user.

The issue is that was a disabling attack- that leg won't be right until we heal it, powering through the pain can work a bit but not much.
I think we need to be on gaurd against spear tail guy now, and with any luck, we can take him out and then beat the kid.

A heel strike is going to make things tough if we don't end this fast. The guy is going to be using that tail for mid range combat. It might actually be wiser to roll to the blade and throw one of your harvesters at him. You'd know the weight of it to be able to throw it right, and even if it doesn't kill, being smashed by it will likely cause him great pain and knock him down again. Either way, make sure smalls doesn't get his sword back.

Elephant Guy 2014/02/05(Wed)05:32 No. 560949 ID: 4e683b
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>a little pain is nothing

That is true. The blow has immobilized his ankle, but Char still manages to get to the sword with a roll, lift it up with a scythe and launch it at the tail wielder.

The blade is well-made and cleaves through his collarbone and half of his pectoral plate. He drops to his knees and wordlessly watches the sands around him turn red. Not even magic can save him now.

Elephant Guy 2014/02/05(Wed)05:32 No. 560950 ID: 4e683b
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As Char begins to turn around and finish the kid off, he sees that the brute has gotten up. Blood leaks from the spiracles of his right arm, and yet he appears ready to attack Char unarmed- in spite of all he has seen his assailant do.

It is strange to see a such a large man cry so hard.

The kid yells "Not, bruttar! Run!"

The desperate hulk charges Char.

Aww. Sad. Uh, this makes me wonder if we should hold off on killing them.

point your scythe at the kid and say towards the big guy "you surrender, no kill"

be ready to defend yourself if that fails though.

Can you use his own momentum to trip him? Put that guy on the floor if you aren't able to communicate the non-killing message quickly enough.

Elephant Guy 2014/02/05(Wed)11:47 No. 561004 ID: 4e683b
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Biggs swings at Char, who steps to the side, causing the grunting grunt to lose his balance and faceplant into the sand. It gets into his eye, which doesn't help with the crying.

Elephant Guy 2014/02/05(Wed)11:47 No. 561005 ID: 4e683b
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"Stand down or fortfeit your lives."

"Whuh? What you be gibbin'?" asks Smalls.

Char sighs. He guesses he is doing this after all.

"You surrender. No kill."

"Suh-ran-derr?"

"Give up. Yield. Submit. Back down."

"..."

Biggs suddenly pipes up. "Whaddaya want!?"

...Part of me wants to say 'peace' and walk away. But for all the awesomeness of that move, it kind of puts us back where we started.
Anyway to ask for information/have them be a 'guide' of sorts to what's going on? What with Char's information possibly being majorly out of date.

"i am now in charge of your gang, i beat your old leader, i will be a better leader."

Guide, info, men, place to stay, that sort of thing.

If the big guy gets uppity, healing his arm could help get the message of 'help me and I'll help you.' across.

>"i am now in charge of your gang, i beat your old leader, i will be a better leader."
I think that we probably shouldn't keep these guys around, since we kind of killed their friends and would want revenge. We should just try to get information.

>>561066
Depends really. From what we initially found out, the current situation is one where people gather around strong or influential people. While they won't be our Best Friends Forever, they will respect out strength. That said, measures of good will like healing Biggs' arm would probably help.

Actually.. from the looks of it, the two big groups are 'water' and 'fighters/miners'. I'm not even sure there are many healers or any for that matter, but healing in itself would be the sort of thing that can earn us respect without stepping on either of their toes.

Elephant Guy 2014/02/06(Thu)07:21 No. 561155 ID: 66a186
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>Char's information possibly being majorly out of date

The Diamond Man briefed him on the situation of the city a week ago, so Char considers this unlikely.

"I killed your boss. I'm your new leader now."

The brute gets up. The anger in his eyes overpower the fear, and he screams at Char. "F-f-fuck you, drannjke! Ye blatcher'd Vahkaram an' naa- naa de Drekff-handas wer chisel yer plattr off elife!"

It seems their leader was involved with House Drekff. Char decides to deal with this problem as it comes, since he has about a dozen others on his list at the moment. Still, he does consider being more careful about killing people in the future.

Char holds the point of his harvester to Biggs' throat. "I also need shelter and a guide."

Though Biggs opens his mouth to shout something again, the youngling stops him. "You. Come. Harus." He mimes a roof over his head in response to Char's blank expression and starts to walk in the direction of the slums.

Will Char follow them? Should he ask (for) anything specific? And is he sure about healing that broken arm?

follow, but watch out for an ambush

Naa, kill them both. To be sure.

>>561160
No killing, just follow. Just keep an eye on the two and make sure it isn't a ambush.

>>561213
Yep.

Elephant Guy 2014/02/07(Fri)04:28 No. 561262 ID: 505e40
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Char retrieves his belongings. He is missing 13 dried bloodshrooms, but that means he still has 86 of them, so he is content to just leave with what he has. He does spot the culprit hiding behind a coppertop, however. It's the farmer from before, and as soon as Char is at a reasonable distance, he emerges and starts to relieve the dead leader of his precious faonite-enhanced weapons.

There are surprisingly no ambushes, though they do turn a few heads on the way. A spiteful growl from Biggs turns them away quickly, however.

They arrive at a poorly-maintained shack. It is dusty and the furnishings are scarce, but Char's made do with a lot less in the past. The two, who Char deduces are siblings, sit down and start mending the brute's arm.

>_

Hmmm... not bad and they even PREVENTED ambushes. That's pretty nice. You have that healing magic of yours, so work on your heal first. Once that's done, offer to heal Biggs' arm. Doing ours first is a sign of it being safe and a good way to test it.

"have healing power" and then demonstrate on your own wound. then offer to do the same to him.

Fuck! What a pighole. Clean up their shack and say nothing.

Elephant Guy 2014/02/07(Fri)08:26 No. 561289 ID: 505e40
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Char's wound is superficial, and he manages to heal it within a minute. Meanwhile, the brothers stare at him dumbfoundedly.

When he offers the big one help, his hand is smacked away, and he is asked "What de fuck ye be?"

"i am just an old zaki, what i am doing is called magic, anyone with a strong enough mind can do it, i can try to teach you how if you want."

>>561292 this

"i'm just an old zaki, what i'm doing is called magic. where the reason ends and imagination begins is the place it's coming from."

Old. Very old. You know much, fought a lot, and learned a lot. In time you can teach others.

I think that's enough for now. Other than, 'I mean no harm. I will fix your arm up good as new.'

Elephant Guy 2014/02/08(Sat)11:10 No. 561467 ID: 86a018
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"Just an old zaki who has seen much, fought much, learned much. What I'm doing is called magic, and it can be done by anyone with enough willpower and imagination. Now stay still and let me heal your arm."

And he does. It takes an hour or so, during which they all converse. Char learns enough words in the local dialect to get by, and their names as well. The kid, named Veakk'n, turns out to be the older one, despite being a mere 27* years old. The big guy, who goes by Vyintuk, is two years younger, but he looks like an adult due to some sort of rare hereditary disease that also makes him a tad... slow.

By the time the arm has fully healed, they both agree to help Char with his goal and to let him stay here. They only worked for Vahkaram to get by and never really liked him or his gang. Or so they say.

Char resists the urge to clean up their apartment, but he does mend the sizable crack on the wall with his earth-shaping abilities.

There are still six hours to sundown, so Char could proceed as he wishes from this point.

*divide the age of a zaki by 2 to determine its human equivalent.

Hrrrm...maybe try to teach them magic? Or sleep, if you need to sleep. I feel like that's a thing?
Alternatively Char could continue chatting about local news. I think those aren't bad ideas..

i am not sure biggie can handle it, but smalls might. don't mention the water one, but the healing one and the wall one would be good. spread those around and the housing and health of the people will go up.

So basically, the two are 13 and 12 years old. At least some answers have been explained. Still, this might be a good idea to make some social graces and provide simple mending, repairs and the like.

Got a few questions though.. one, what is faoite(is it the zeonite I suggest all those years ago?) and two.. do you still have that bag of seeds? I remember some of them being rather fast growing and your growth magic can speed them up. Hell, you can probably do that with some copper tops too.

Elephant Guy 2014/02/14(Fri)11:50 No. 562546 ID: 35baa4
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After managing to convince them that spellcasting won't make them look the way Char does, they begin with the lessons.

Char fails to teach them any of the spells he tries. However, three hours into magic training, he does get some results as Vinny manages to make his fingers glow white. Not with heat, as Char can, but they still glow. Interestingly, it is something Char can't do.

Veak is disheartened by this and says he didn't want to learn any stupid magic anyway. He goes out to gather some news, as Char told them earlier that he needed some local news.

Three more hours later, Vinny can shoot out wisps of light, or make tendrils of them. However, he still can't affect the world with his magic- except making mobile, hands-free braziers. That's useful. They guess.

Veak comes back with some news.

The Vizier has always been telling people of a legendary half-Skull man. Veak thinks that's a sufficiently accurate description of Char.

The zone of protection has been shrinking slightly over the last few years. As a result, some people in the outer slums have been attacked by spearlings, led by one enormous, scar-covered alpha. Char is pretty sure he was killed by a spearling like that at least twice.

House Drekff has gotten wind of the fight, so they can expect someone to be sent over to this house soon. Probably tonight.

And finally, there is a tiny crack behind the Diamond Man's left knee. According to some, this signifies the end of the world.

It is dusk. The kids are sleepy, but Char isn't.

>_

Go talk to the Vizier. With our limited success teaching magic, we can set up a mage academy for the good of all, if we can get the Vizier's cooperation.

Who is this vizier? What house and such?

perhaps stone shape can seal the fissure on the statue?