Elephant Guy 2014/01/21(Tue)10:18 No. 558839 ID: 728984
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His task? To bring unity and contentment to a wretched hive of scum and villainy. That is all the Diamond Man has told him. Along with the news that his name, after all these years, has henceforth been changed to simply 'Char'. Also, he can now do magic. Because his looks and immortality didn't cause him to be persecuted nearly enough in the past. So now he's also a sorcerer. By the way, did Char mention that the reason for all the shit he went through was because up until a few days ago, the omnipotent maker of worlds was somewhat busy with a bunch of other things at the time?

Of course, he's not ungrateful at all, no. Despite the spiteful and cynical attitude of his inner monologues, he is definitely giddy at the chance to fulfill his purpose, even if his maker did forget about him for a few eternities. Even if it did break his mind. And his body. A thousand times over. Only to be brought back, again and again. But Char guesses that's all over soon, now that he's arrived at his destination.

Elephant Guy 2014/01/21(Tue)10:19 No. 558840 ID: 728984
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The Kaghant. Ugh. Just the sight of it is enough to make him sick. It was a terrible place to be two hundred years ago, when he was last there. And according to the Diamond Man, it's only gotten worse over these last few years.

Char is thinking about scarfing down a bloodshroom now, just to take the edge off.

>_

I doubt bloodshrooms will help at this point. For the first time in forever, you're not killing time, and have something to do. Might as well get to doing it. For the stimulation of variety, if nothing else.

What do you know about this place? What's that giant white statue for?

>Only to be brought back, again and again.
So you've got the ressurective / regenerative style of immortality, then?

What lives in there? The Kaghant?

Elephant Guy 2014/01/21(Tue)12:05 No. 558847 ID: 728984
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>no bloodshrooms

Fine. Char supposes he can get high in the afterlife anytime he wants. He brought those shrooms with him to barter, anyway. He has little else he's willing to part with.

>immortality

Whenever something happens to him that would kill other people, Char blacks out and wakes up fully healed some time later. The length of his blackouts depend on the severity of the injuries on him. The resurrection takes about three months for a spearling tail through the eye and about one year for a bisection. Char's high score was a downtime of three years after he hired a bunch of people burn him until his innards became char for the winds to scatter and his carapace became scrap metal for someone to turn into tools.

Heh, char. He just realized the irony.

>What do you know about this place?

Well, Char remembers that the zaki were born there. After the first of their numbers fell from the skies, the statue rose from the sands and the beasts were repelled by it. They built a city there, where they knew they wouldn't be killed by beasts. Soon after, they found out that the zaki didn't need the beasts for killing each other. Char got sick of it a few thousand years afterwards and left the throne.

Char is pretty sure that since then, the Diamond Man's City has always been there in some shape or form.

>months to years respawn
So death takes long enough to seriously inconvenience any plans you may have going. Noted.

>left the throne
You used to rule this place? Was your immortality known at the time? What are the odds you'll be recognized, and have to deal with that?

How are you able to recover if someone decides to pulverize you and spread you on the sands? Where will you be resurrected?

>"[...] bring unity and contentment to a wretched hive of scum and villainy."

The sooner we're done the sooner we can get away from this place. Let's start by finding out what passes for the basic infrastructure/social services, and start a to-do list for fixing the most glaring problems. Maybe that sorcery you can do now will speed this up and we can get out of here in less than a month. C'mon, let's get started on sanitation, running water, cisterns, power, telecommunications and such since that stuff is usually quicker to do than fixing a legal system. That stuff's destined to stay broken until the underlying economics improve, so let's force the underlying economics to invalidate the current ruling hypocrisies.

Sooooo, what sorceries canst thou perform?

Elephant Guy 2014/01/22(Wed)15:39 No. 559087 ID: 17ac98
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>Where will you be resurrected?

Wherever Char's body is, or where he died. It's often hard to tell. Hell, most of the time, he doesn't even remember the moment he died. He could call that fact a minor favor from the Maker, he supposes.

>basic infrastructure/social services, sanitation, running water, cisterns, power, telecommunications

Char does not know what half of those things are, but he does know a bit about the general layout of the city (see map) and about the general conditions its people are in.

The Kaghant houses around 30000 zaki and has little contact with the outside world due to the fact that the outside world barely exists. They are "ruled" (Char is using the term rather loosely here.) by whoever happens to have the most followers. Said followers decide who gets to have a good life and who doesn't. This usually means that they go around taking whatever they want from those who cannot defend themselves for fear of said nobleman or "guard" (again, term used loosely) coming back with a bunch of his friends.

There is an underground river controlled by the very exclusive House Drekff. It is the only supply of freshwater the city receives, due to a lack of external trading.

The supply of stone and minerals is controlled by the brutish House Zan. Compared to House Drekff, they are less greedy but will not trade with anyone that rustles their jimmies. Thus, said supplies are limited to a low number of merchants who can afford to barter at high rates, leaving the poor with clay huts obtained from farming swirgs, a creature made of clay. These houses break down often.

the technology level is kinda like the bronze age. for more details, you can check out this quest I ran about fifty years ago here: http://tgchan.org/wiki/Genesis

At least that's how things were the last time Char was here. Speaking of which...

>left the throne

During his last visit to the city, Char was looked upon by suspicious eyes, called an aberration and assaulted by at least one junkie who appeared to be having a bad trip. He was not recognized as a ruler. The people of Kaghant seem to forget things that are hundreds of generations removed from the present, it seems.

Elephant Guy 2014/01/22(Wed)15:39 No. 559088 ID: 17ac98
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>sorceries

The Diamond Man trained Char for a mere week in the use of spells, so his proficiency in them is rather limited.

Char knows a fireball spell, which for him means a palm-long bolt of flame due to a lack of practice. He can also enhance his punches with fire, which doesn't really heat his hand up enough to melt metal like it should. And he can make walls of earth rise from the ground- only it takes him about a full minute to raise a doorway-sized portion of earth. He also has a spell to create water, one that makes plants grow faster, one that increases his physical strength and a healing spell he really, really sucks at.

Among his possessions are foci that make it easier for him to cast spells but are not necessary for him to do so.

Hrrrm...Well, first point of business-selling MAGIC to the people.
House Drekff is easy enough to get their attention-the making water spell.
House Zan is somewhat harder, but they're controlling materials, which the stone wall spell can help with immensely.
Plant spell's just awesome for farming up more plants and food in general.
Fireballs and Fire-Punching? Well, obviously mister "BEHOLD MY MIRACLES!!!" Isn't going to go over well with anyone who's gotten rich and would rather keep their hordes of treasures to themselves. If they come after you? Defend yourself for once- dissapearing for months on end will be a major problem I think...

even if they do not recognize you as king, they will at least recognize you as the strongest. you can also be a teacher. i am sure the ability to create water alone would be a dream come true.

>>559198
Actually we probably aren't the strongest yet. We definitely aren't the strongest if our enemies aren't into lining up for one-on-one fights.

The water spell has a lot of potential, but we shouldn't want anyone to find out about it yet since Drekff will most likely try to kill us as potential competition. I think our best angle to get some influence might be the plant thing, as it seems useful and as far as we know is not controlled by a murderous monopoly.
We should start with a low profile investigation of who does the farming and where.

So, if I understand this correctly:
To the residents you are nothing and nobody, and you need to increase your power to do anything at all positive here. If this is so you'd better work on increasing your power and making friends while making as few enemies as possible. You may be hard to permanently destroy but apparently you're not much of a thinker so apparently we'll have to do this the long way.
Solar stills to extract potable water out of waste, can you even get started on that or do you need knowledge and/or materials you just don't have?

(man, I remember this. I made so many things... like the rock moss and spearlings.. and tophat slimes! I missed this so.)

Right looks like you have some gear as well, but I suggest you be cautious when you approach. Who knows if we'll run into trouble makers and it has been a while.

Elephant Guy 2014/01/24(Fri)11:18 No. 559267 ID: a2cfb1
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>Solar still

Char does not know this term.

...Char is not stupid! He swears!

>selling MAGIC

Magic cannot be taught easily. Char considers himself a beginner wizard, especially compared to his nonmagical skills.

He also remembers the Diamond Man mentioning that magic can only be used by those who have excessive amounts of willpower.

>farming

Not counting the swirg farms inside the mine, the largest fields are located around the slums, close to the mostly middle-class farm owners. Char decides to head there.

Elephant Guy 2014/01/24(Fri)11:18 No. 559268 ID: a2cfb1
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After crossing some fields in a rather bad condition, Char arrives at the border between the farms and a place littered with corpses. He spots some ruffians, clearly from the slums, glaring at him from between some ill-maintained buildings. Their weapons are brandished, but they seem to be having second thoughts about waylaying what appears to be a well-armed monster.

To the other side, a woman is carrying a basket of copperfruits somewhere. Upon seeing him, the woman worriedly rushes inside her dwelling, dropping a few of the basket's contents. Judging from the looks of it, it belongs to a family who gets by gathering the fruits.

A child is just standing there, staring at him dumbfoundedly.

Okay, apparently your world or your local development level is too different for these things I'm describing to make sense to you.
Let's see if the specifics make sense:
I'm used to there being a source of radiant energy, known as the 'sun,' being above people for roughly half the day. This sun beams down heat and light, both of which warm things up. I'm also used to water having three distinct phases of existence, ice, which water freezes into and can melt into water again, water itself which is a fluid that can boil or freeze, and vapour/steam which you get when you heat water enough. If that much is true here then it should be possible for you to make a solar distillation apparatus.

A solar still ia a device that takes any source of water, which could be a lot of different things including nearly everything that was alive or came out of something alive at one point, and then takes the water out of that source material. It does this by boiling it so that you get steam or vapour out of it. Once it makes that steam it also cools it down back into water separate from whatever was the source of that water, which is useful to get water that's not poisonous out of stuff that is poisonous.
If there were lots of these things around that could do a pretty good job of breaking the despicable water monopoly, for instance.

hmm... give the kid some water. he will tell someone of the stranger that brings water. and they will investigate.

Woah now, before we go and give the kid water.. think. No one trusts us, we're weird and abhorrent to them, and even back then I am sure taking things from strangers is bad. Way I see it.. we need to be smart. First off, let's think about the situation. We are strange and weird.. so why not gather some copper fruit? Don't directly interact with the kid unless he comes to you, just gather fruit, maybe make a basket from copper top remains, then bring it back. If they think you aren't going to attack their kid or kill them for food, they will probably be more open to you. Just be cautious. Being peaceful does not mean you should let your guard down.

Water making should be kept hidden until we MUST show it off and have some trust.

Again don't show people the water spell. Breaking Drekff's monopoly would cost them practically everything, so once we try they will do everything in their power to stop us. As one of the two most powerful factions in a lawless city, that would probably mean killing you at all costs. (And no, they are unlikely to want to recruit us. They already have water, so if we joined they would gain little while still running the risk that we might later turn against them.) Until we are prepared to deal with anything Drekff can possibly attack us with, we can't let people know that you can create water.

>>559301
This seems like a decent plan of what to do.

Elephant Guy 2014/01/26(Sun)13:54 No. 559606 ID: 21fafa
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Char goes into a nearby gathering of healthy coppertops and starts to gather some fruits. A couple approaches him reluctantly, muttering something to each other. They seem to change their minds, however, and decide to keep their distance after all. From their disapproving and worried expressions, Char deduces that he is trespassing.

The two ruffians are still around. Wait, scratch that- there are five of them now.

Char could take 'em.

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?