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Chapter 7 by ShadeWriter ShadeWriter

Where do we go?

A short hunting trip

"Mirror."

If she was going out, she wanted to make sure she didn't freak any one out. She wasn't sure if her 'kind' was well known or not but she didn't want people seeing the tail, eyes or other things that would be a tell tell sign that she was some kind of monster. Last thing she wanted to do was be someone's 'quest' to slay. Thus she was playing around with her shapeshifter ability to hide her looks.

It took a bit of practice, but she found she could withdrawal the tail inside her body. She could also change the color of her hair and how long it was; so she shortened it to a brown pixie cut. Even her skin was shift-able, so she swapped to a more sun tanned body tone, the kind that said she spent a lot of time outside. Her eyes were a bit of a problem though. Maybe it was how delicate the eyes were or something about her race but she found she couldn't change them too far from the golden she had. So she changed them to a softer duller amber color than the brilliant 'cut through darkness' gold.

Her looks set, her abilities and mana refreshed, and her confidence rather high; Zeya slipped on the leather backpack the pool had made for her(the blueprints taken from one of the two adventurers she had used). She carefully left her building as quietly as she could to avoid drawing attention of local monsters, and made her way to her target; the woods.

Hopefully she would find something there that caught her interest. But more than anything she needed info and a local mental map of the area.


Well the forest was a bit more active than her own ruined building.

It was a hilly, rocky forest which clued her into the fact she probably was somewhat above sea level. Great wide trees with expansive root systems, some as thick as her torso, and broad branches were the main draw along with a couple clearing that were just too dusty or rocky for anything short of shrubs to grow. Those were the same kinds of low vegetation that was growing in the ruins. A few rivers crisscrossed the land, supplying water from the mountains she found herself near the foot of.

It was at one of these rivers she was scouting that she met her first monster; large fat humanoid that still had way more muscle than one would expect, wearing tattled shorts... trousers..., something more than a loincloth and less than pants. It was using a large stone knife to strip meat off another creature while flicking out bits of blood and meat into the river it sat beside. Said kill it was cleaning was some sort snake like creature that seemed to have bat like wings.

Something pinged in the back of her head about this. That was an Ogre; some sort of Hill/Rock kind, she wasn't sure about the proper 'term' for this species. They were tough but certain poisons could make fighting them easier. Excellent....

"Noooooooooooope...." Zaya thought to herself as she ducked back behind a rock.

Two more of those "Winged snakes" had arrived and started to fight the Ogre, who met them with a long sharped slag of metal. Reminded her of a cross between a butcher's knife and a machete. No way was she getting involved in that. Whoever won was probably going to be weakened but... very very pissed and jumpy. Not to mention whatever came in to see what the noise was about.

The next discovery was a trope of sprites. They wore simple clothes made of foilage, and floated from branch to branch; their long butterfly wings keeping them out of Zaya's reach. Not that she could do anything to them; Sprites were notorious in how resistant they were to poisons and alterations given they were a mix of Fey and Spirit bloodlines. This made them terrors to anyone that dealt with ****, able to get buzzed like a normal person but able to process it far FAR faster. A drunk Sprite would return to normal in minutes, looking to get boozed up again.

This made trying to poison them a bit overkill. Could she? Sure but using so much to do so would be a waste and ruin any experimenting of how effective it was. They were also too small to try and make a Repour out of, Larvas needed something big and stable enough to latch onto. Maybe if their size could be increased or they themselves changed could something happen. So any thoughts of using them for her own evil ends were limited; besides, they seemed like okay beings anyway. She was evil yes but Zaya didn't want to go on the 'butcher everything that looks at her funny' path.

These Sprites(this species known as Sikis; Sprites with a few bug like attributes like a few strange legs, antenna, and wings; each one looking different) seemed to be more cordial than the large ogre. They were a bit airy headed and whimsical, prone to teasing her or just fluttering away mid convo. But she was able to bribe them with a few 'cups' of Aphrodisiac for some info. They had wanted something to use as a prank but seeing as a few of them had stolen a few sips, she had to see a few of the creatures starting to get busy with each other. Even if it was based on proportions, the Sikis seemed to be rather... small.

Most the girls(And yes she was way more interested in the curves of the ladies than the guys) seemed to be pretty flat, maybe going to about A cups. They didn't even have much of a curve to their hips either. Good legs though, but that might be from all the 'wind dancing' they seemed to do.

"I guess I was someone that liked big curves." Zeya thought as she left the area before they got too busy, making a note to mark where their hangout was on her mental map.

MAYBE she could use them for something later or get them on her side with some more bribes. She wasn't sure how useful they could be given their size but hey it was better than nothing. After all these were the first beings she'd been able to hold a conversation with.

"Hmm... wonder if there's a way to make them bigger or even me smaller?"

Memories of growth potions and enlarging spells came back to her mind but she wasn't sure if that was from her fetish indulging mind or knowledge from the two she absorbed. Something to keep in mind..., as a larger Sikis could maybe be more useful. Wait didn't she have status effects; could she do something about that? Yet something else to mark down, she figured it would be better to let them have their fun and keep them in mind.

It wasn't all bad as she got some info for hunting. First there was some type of large wolf like creature called a _Bakuk _in the area. A wolf about the size of one of those small micro cars with two whip like tails with stingers. Sounded kinda nasty and she didn't want to risk a fight like that so she settled in on the other creature she'd been told about; a Spiralhorn.


A large goat like creature was grazing, moving between some of the roots and rocks to find anything to chew on. There wasn't much left in this area, it would have to move on soon. A sound, something close; it perked it's ears up and looked around. Nothing. Then, another sound, something fast and then pain. It had to move, to run, escape! It bounded off on it's strong legs, hopping from rock to root and back to confuse whatever had attacked it.

Sadly for it, the pursuer had no need to chase after it as it's fate was already sealed.

"Well that worked out better than I thought."

Zaya stood over a dead Spiralhorn, her dagger dripped with it's blood. It had fallen over from the poison she applied, something called Sufaxal, and had been suffering before she caught up and finished it. Before it went running she had gotten close enough to nail it with a throwing dagger. The coated poison did it's job; her mental readout said something about the potion doing 'physical damage' or something as it's own body started to break down..., technically that sounded more like acid or toxin than poison... but semantics.

Still seeing the poison spread through the beast's body was... unappetizing. She wasn't sure if she could get sick this way but... she really didn't want to try eating poisoned meat. Part of her mind was human enough to recoil about eating anything foul.

Instead she simply took the main draw of a Spiralhorn that being well, it's horns. These goats, about the size of a small desk, had long horns that curled around itself, forming a spiral like battering ram on the front of it's head it used to defend itself or crack open some of the tougher trees to get food. These horns were extremely strong and durable for being well, horns from a goat, and had some uses in alchemical purposes; both potions and poisons.

If the meat was out, the horns would do. Heck maybe she could sell them off at one of the towns for some coin. There wasn't much she had earned from killing monsters back in the ruins beyond a couple coins of varying metals, so she needed some income to blend into human society. Maybe even take some of the skin of the creature to try and make some leather... but she lacked the tools to do so and wasn't sure if the Pool could process skin to leather outright. Instead she hacked away at it's rather thick fur to get as much of pelt as she could.

It felt kinda wrong to leave most the beast intact but she figured that the forest would 'reclaim it' or something. After all there had to be some sort of scavenger around.

"Well that's one down...," she spoke to herself as she got ready to move.

Encounter Table(d20)

  • 1-4: Hunting
  • 5-8: Explore
  • 9-12: Interact with Locals
  • 13-16: Visit Settlement
  • 17-20: Ambushed!

What happens now?

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