A Woodland Encounter

Krvavy makes her way through the woods with the deer slung over her left shoulder. She expected it to be heavier, as it is a full-grown deer. Granted, it has been hollowed out, but still.

That does make her question how the stats, or attributes, work though. After all, Krvavy has almost doubled her Might since she started, but she doesn’t feel twice as strong. Thea’s low stats do help to give her a bit of perspective, but she still has no idea how much a single point represents. If she had to guess, she’d say that it isn’t even linear. Diminishing returns and all that.

A sudden boom rings out from nearby, shaking the trees and tearing Krvavy from her thoughts. That is definitely not a normal thing for forests. So obviously Krvavy should go check it out. Could be something interesting.

It is rather easy for her to find the source of the explosion, as she only has to look in the general direction that the sound came in to see pillars of smoke climbing into the sky.

A thin haze of smoke gradually fills the air as she approaches a small clearing. Though calling it a clearing is a bit generous, as it is filled with charred and smoking trees, most of which have been reduced to little more than stumps. Two silhouetted figures are fighting in what looks to be roughly the center of the clearing.

Krvavy quickly crouches down, gently putting her deer on the ground as she tries to look through the smoke and see what is going on.

One of the figures is pretty easy to pick out, as it has a flaming sword in one hand and is throwing small fireballs with the other. Guess that answers why this part of the forest is burning.

The other figure is a lot harder to see, as it doesn’t have magical fire lighting it up through the smoke, but Krvavy is pretty sure that they are using a bow. Interesting choice of weapon considering how close the two figures are to each other, but it kind of seems to be working as they are almost dancing around each other.

This is clearly a very dangerous situation, so it might be best for Krvavy to just ignore it and leave. But on the other hand, she might be able to get something good out of this... This fight seems like it’ll be rather draining for the figures, so Krvavy might have a bit of an advantage against whichever worn out one wins. They do probably out level her by quite a bit though...

But this game does go pretty heavy on the damage, so she might be able to take them out quickly. Krvavy seems to hit rather hard, after all. Whichever one wins will probably be quite injured by the look of it, and they can’t have much health in the first place considering that the figures seem to be some sort of mage and archer.

Rather than turn around and leave like any sane person would, Krvavy convinces herself to take the fairly suicidal option of not just sticking around but getting closer.

Sneaking forwards, using the charred trees as cover and ignoring the burning heat as well as she can, Krvavy slowly makes her way towards the fighting figures. She doesn’t get too close though, as she stops as soon as she can make out their voices over the fighting and the crackling fires.

“Had enough, little elf?” A deep cruel voice calls out from the figure with the flaming sword. The accent is fairly similar to Thea’s, just a lot more gruff sounding. It is clearly a man, and probably on the older side.

“Ah’ll die before Ah let ya defile me!” The heavily accented voice of the bow-wielding figure defiantly returns. Krvavy honestly can’t place that accent, though it is obviously that of a woman. Part of her wants to say that it is maybe Scottish or Irish, but that doesn’t quite sound right. Maybe Welsh? Or some amalgamation of them all?

“Oh, little elf, what a waste that would be!” The cruel voice mocks. “Your body is something that should be shared! For a couple of coins, of course!”

The bow-wielding elf suddenly jumps back as thorny vines burst from the ground and thrust out towards the man with the flaming sword.

“Ahaha! Little elf, you just don’t learn!” He laughs out, swinging the flaming sword and burning the vines to ashes before they can even get near him. “Need I burn more of this forest down? I know that makes it harder for you to fight!”

“Ach, false confidence! Spout what ya wish, blight, Ah ‘ave an ah’row wit’ yer name on it!” The elf spits back, dodging a fireball that bursts against a charred tree with a rattling boom.

“There is nothing false about it! I did my research into you, Miss Woodswalker! Did you really think that you could get away with killing my best earners?” The cruel voice coldly mocks.

The elf doesn’t deign that with a response, simply jumping to the side and loosing a few arrows as she does so.

Krvavy isn’t sure which one them is going to win. Most of their attacks seem to either miss or get negated. It’ll likely be whoever runs out of Mana or arrows first, though she has no idea how long that will take.

It might be smart for her to leave now, as the longer she stays the more risk she faces. There are a lot of stray fireballs exploding around the clearing, though those explosions are fairly small. But... Krvavy opts to stay a little longer. She is staying in character, as this is what her strong barbarian would do. Probably.

The two fighting figures have gradually moved across the clearing, closer to the edge where not all of the trees are charred. Moving amongst the smoke, being as stealthy as she can, Krvavy follows after them. Her ghostly pale body with fiery red hair is almost like camouflage amongst all this ashen destruction.

The elf makes another sudden jump, but this time it is towards Krvavy which prompts the barbarian to dive down behind a toppled tree trunk. Thankfully, she doesn’t seem to have been seen. Or at least neither of the figures have commented on her presence or are willing to get distracted by her.

Peeking past the smoking log, Krvavy continues to observe. The two figures have gotten really quite close to her. So close that she can make out some more details through the thin haze of smoke.

The figure with the flaming sword doesn’t appear to be wearing armour, just a long leather coat that blows back each time he casts his magic. It would look rather cool if he wasn’t so scraggly and old looking. He reminds Krvavy of a sketchy crackhead. She might be a bit biased though, as this guy is really giving off some villain vibes from how he is acting and what he is saying.

The elf, on the other hand, does seem to be wearing armour, at least on her arms and chest. Though it is rather odd looking. Krvavy can’t quite tell through the smoke, but she thinks it might be bark or wood? Interesting, if a bit stereotypically elvish. Beneath the armour seems to be some green fabric and brown leather, though the fact that she is moving around so much makes it hard to see for sure.

The sketchy man throws yet another fireball at the elf, which she dodges by jumping to the side. But in doing so the elf gets even closer to Krvavy, causing a strange invigorating feeling to wash over the barbarian.

You have been inflicted with the Forest’s Curse. Deemed to belong, nature strengthens your being.

Krvavy hardly has time to take in that notification before the sketchy man strikes out with his flaming sword, which twists into a burning whip as it descends on the elf.

The elf tries to dodge the strike by jumping back, but she isn’t fast enough as it burns through her bow and coils around her arm.

With a tug, the sketchy man pulls the elf towards him. The sudden movement knocks the elf off her feet and onto the ashen ground in front of him. The man quickly pulls something from his coat and in one swift movement thrusts it out towards the elf’s neck.

A loud metallic click rings out through the clearing, piercing through the quiet crackling of flames.

The elf immediately uses her free hand to pull a knife from her hip and bring it down towards her own neck. But before the blade can touch her skin, the sketchy man grabs her wrist.

“Oh, no you don’t, little elf!” He calls out triumphantly, tearing the knife from her grip and tossing it aside. “You lost! Now open your eyes and accept that!”

Instead of responding, the elf’s head turns to the side and thorns burst from the ground, aiming towards her face.

The sketchy man simply laughs out as he burns away the thorns before they can touch her. “Trying to blind yourself? Anything to keep yourself from laying eyes on me and falling under my sway! How clever, but you will have no such luck!”

As he reaches a hand out towards the prone elf, Krvavy jumps to her feet. She doesn’t put much thought into it, but some instinct tells her that now is the only time that she will have to strike. So strike she does, swinging her axe straight down at the man’s unarmoured head.

Critical Hit! 749.28 Damage dealt to [Sketchy Fire Mage]

[Sketchy Fire Mage] has been slain!
+1,050 Experience

Level Up! You have reached Level 7. As a Drakling blessed by a divine power, you have 5 attribute points to allocate and have gained +2 to Might & Toughness. If not allocated by the time you fall asleep it will be done automatically.

Krvavy’s axe is lodged deeply into the sketchy man’s skull, keeping his limp body from collapsing onto the ground. His flaming sword, or whip Krvavy supposes, has completely dissipated.

“Who...?” The elf mutters out, before taking a deep breath. “Child of the wy’ahld...? Ya the one chasin' a deer earlier? Catch it in the end?”

“You seem rather calm.” Krvavy replies as she pulls her axe back, dragging the body aside. With a bit of ****, she is able to free it from the corpse.

“Aye, no good comes from panickin’.” The elf firmly replies. “Ya saved me and now Ah’m at yer mercy. Nothin’ I can do about that.”

With the sketchy man’s body out of the way, Krvavy can finally get a good look at the elf in front of her. She is covered almost completely by her strange bark crusted clothes, leaving just her head and hands bare. Her skin is a soft tanned caramel colour. A thick metal collar rests around her neck, and something about it just feels unsettling to Krvavy.

The elf has **** her eyes shut, scrunching up her face, but that doesn’t do much to hide her elegant beauty. Her ears are really quite long, much more so than Krvavy’s, and are wiggling ever so slightly through her short messy brunette hair as she lays on the ground.

“Ya care ta help me get this abominable collar off?” The tanned elf asks, a tinge of worry buried in her voice. “There should be a key fer it somewhere on ‘im.”

Krvavy makes an affirmative noise and turns back to the sketchy man’s corpse, crouching down as she roots through his many pockets. There are a lot of random things scattered across his body, from various bags of coin, pouches of suspicious powder that Krvavy doesn’t trust in the slightest, knives, lock picks, and even some utensils. She pockets the coins and lock picks, but she neither wants or needs the rest of the trinkets he has. They don’t feel clean, and she doesn’t think washing them will change that.

As she rummages through the pockets of a dead man, Krvavy considers what to do with the collared elf. She can free her, of course, but does Krvavy want to? That collar is probably magic, and from what the sketchy man was saying Krvavy has an idea as to what it might do. Presumably, the elf will be enslaved to whoever she lays her eyes on, which is why she still has them closed.

So... Does she want to **** the elf to open her eyes and look at Krvavy? She has no idea what kind of enslaving that collar will do. Will it basically be a magical shock collar? Maybe it’ll **** her body to follow Krvavy’s orders, but leave her mind intact? Or just full on brainwashing? And that is assuming that the collar is actually magic. It could have just been a focus for the sketchy man’s magic, after all.

Well, if it doesn’t work then Krvavy can just kill the elf for the exp. Even if that does seem like a massive waste... And thinking about it that way makes her feel like a psychopath... Maybe she could just feign ignorance instead...?

“Ya find it yet?” The elf questions. She has brought a hand up to her face, helping to cover up her eyes.

“No. He has a lot of pockets.” Krvavy honestly answers, before deciding to question the elf a bit. Maybe that will help her make up her mind. “What’s the deal with that collar? Can’t you get it off later?”

The elf seems hesitant to answer, though after a couple seconds she sighs out. “It is a cursed thing. A blight on the world. It has ruined many lives, and Ah’d... rather not wear it.”

That was a rather evasive answer that she just gave. Krvavy completely understands why the elf would do that though, at least if the collar acts the way she thinks it might. It just isn’t all that helpful, especially since Krvavy just found what she assumes to be the key in a pocket sewn into the inside of the corpse’s jacket.

Guess Krvavy’s time is up, she has to make her choice now.