Thar Shaddin

Availability: PM Katona or Kitan (or ask in this thread) if you're interested in joining.

Posting Speed: Every 1-3 days with a 5 day maximum waiting time.

Characters Involved: Drifel, Sorin

Thread starting date: 122PW, TBD

Location: Shim & Virdara Woods http://www.tharshaddin.com/rp/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=3846

Summary: Recent concerns about a horror from the woods have been putting Shimfolk on edge. An armed group consisting of a mix of Marn guards and local militia has taken it upon themselves to investigate the matter in order to protect the town.

Other Notes: This is a casual thread with no long term plans as of yet.

Overall concept:

(17:40:47) Katona: Maybe that forest hunting monster thread idea.
(17:41:08) Kitan: Well, Drifel remains a solid choice for any hunt
(17:41:23) Katona: Yes, that definitely sounds awesome.
(17:41:35) Kitan: What kind of character did you have in mind for this kind of thing?
(17:41:52) Katona: Maybe just something like, either someone offers some money to investigate something, or it's one of Drifel's or another character's close friends who they're looking for.
(17:42:06) Katona: Or just plain hunting a monster to get rid of it.
(17:42:12) Katona: Hmm...
(17:42:58) Katona: Could be someone who's a guard but this is a personal matter to them. Lets them have thread options later on.
(17:45:21) Kitan: That sounds fine to me. Drifel has a few friends in the guard, though most of the players of those characters have left
(17:45:35) Kitan: One of them could have recommended Drifel as a tracker for the monster
(17:45:56) Katona: What kind of fighting does he do? Melee or ranged?
(17:46:07) Kitan: Drifel uses a crossbow
(17:46:35) Kitan: Pretty much exclusively, no real other talents
(17:46:46) Kitan: Martially speaking, I mean
(17:46:47) Katona: That works.
(17:48:06) Katona: We can have like, Drifel, my guard, maybe two other guards. Then let's say, 2-3 local militia guys who are lending a hand.
(17:48:22) Kitan: Yeah! That'd be fun

Monster ideas:

(17:48:49) Katona: Any suggestions for a cool monster?
(17:48:55) Kitan: Hmmmm
(17:49:14) Kitan: My mind is immediately jumping to Dragon's Dogma Chimera
(17:49:30) Kitan: But we could probably go more creative than that
(17:49:55) Kitan: Maybe it is some kind of beautiful white stag-like creature that's goring people with its antlers and eating them
(17:50:43) Katona: Some kind of slavic-based thing would be nice, since we're in that part of the world.
(17:52:20) Kitan: Sure! We can definitely go with this
(17:52:54) Kitan: I'm just looking em up to get a refresher on what kinda things are slavic
(17:53:52) Kitan: They have a bunch of things with the head and chest of a woman
(17:54:29) Kitan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bu​kavac
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ps​oglav
(17:54:33) Katona: Oh yeah, they like the nymph sorta thing.
(17:54:54) Katona: I was looking at that one, seems interesting.
(17:55:18) Katona: This too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr​ekavac
(17:56:44) Kitan: That one gives us a lot of reign to do whatever we'd like with
(17:57:13) Kitan: Hah. And we'd need to come up with a local superstition for it that doesn't relate to baptizing
(17:57:48) Katona: True.
(17:57:53) Katona: Maybe a mage child.
(17:57:58) Kitan: Maybe something like, if a mother uses magic they give birth to a Drekavac
(17:58:46) Katona: We could always invent some kind of cleansing ritual done by puradynes that seeks to prevent their magic abilities from forming or something.
(17:58:59) Katona: But maybe that's not their kind of style.
(17:59:07) Katona: I like the mother using magic thing.
(17:59:37) Kitan: Hahah, maybe your character thinks he's related to the monster
(17:59:55) Kitan: It is his nephew or something
(18:00:13) Kitan: Hunt the drekavac to clear his family name
(18:00:33) Katona: Ooh, that could be interesting.
(18:00:57) Katona: One of the militia men could be his cousin or brother who's the father.
(18:01:00) Kitan: Maybe the town militia are suspicious of you. We could splot the party between the guards and militia, with Drifel trying to play peacekeeper
(18:01:04) Kitan: Or that!
(18:01:13) Kitan: That's a good idea too
(18:01:26) Katona: You could have both dynamics going on.
(18:01:43) Katona: Especially if we were to give the creature and ability to psychically affect people...
(18:01:58) Kitan: Oh yeah! Yeah definitely.
(18:02:16) Kitan: Hah, though I do have it written that Drifel is good at seeing through magical illusions/delusions
(18:02:32) Katona: That could work well.
(18:02:42) Kitan: Dwarven resistance to magic woot woot
(18:02:51) Katona: I wouldn't expect it to be a strong power, more like paranoia-inducing magic that uses peoples' prejudices.
(18:03:06) Kitan: Yeah, that makes sense
(18:03:16) Katona: Because I could see one of these typically haunting a person's home and stalking the area and causing tension.
(18:03:22) Katona: Or so a legend might claim.
(18:03:29) Kitan: I can think of some interesting reponses by Drifel to such a thing
(18:03:34) Katona: "He killed her because of the dreka!"
(18:03:41) Kitan: Okay, I'm really starting to like this idea!

In the next post or two they'll head through the town and meet up with some of Sorin's family at the Peyton farm, unless you want to do anything else first. We can have a dialogue to flesh out the family characters and their experiences with the monster, with a few hints at things being more than they appear.

They can meet with the Peyton household members first and then we can have the militia volunteers arrive a bit later or maybe even the next day depending how we want things to unfold. We could have them experience some weird stuff around the farm first, and then a bit later, head into the woods. As background, I'm going to say they probably expect the problem to be solved pretty quickly, over one or two days, but they have authority from Guard HQ to stay a few days more if needed.

Also, I'll note that the Degosi farm is where Sorin grew up and it belongs to his dad, while the Peyton farm is on Sorin's mother's side of the family, Sal being her brother. In the post I'm implying that Sal had some kind of accident (feel free to make up any details about it) that made it difficult for him to walk. He's probably in his 50s or so.

I'm not really set on what kind of farming either family does. Maybe the Peytons produce mostly vegetables and pigs (and a few chickens), while Degosis farm sheep, chickens, grain, and some fruit.