REFUGEVILLE

Thank you, both of you. I'm better now and mom's been discharged from the hospital, recovering. Now, on with the story!

Speaking of hookmen, it might be a good idea later on for some of the able-bodied to learn how to wield hooks themselves. It's more of a long-term goal than anything, but better to keep note of it before we have other ideas.

The others feel more comfortable wielding spears, but a few of them will be practicing with the hooks just in case something unfortunate happens to the guards.

Hell yeah we'll help out! We're all about wrecking the Signet.

Equip our other guard with the robe and have him treck down into the swamp. Help out the village, and come back, maybe we could even establish a trade route.

I think it's also a good time to start considering building and/or expanding the underground living quarters in order to give our ever growing population some elbow room. Perhaps some of the remaining able-bodied folk should help dig and we should probably consider putting wooden floors so that their feet don't get cold.

While we Send a Someone Off to help, We Should have the Remaining Villagers Work on making the Underground Layers more Comfortable. Make A Defensible Door In, Floor The Place, Some Chairs And Tables, Some Torches For Light. Set to making some more Shovels and have Someone to work digging out more Rooms for future Villagers, Or For Workspaces, for when the need arises. Should also probably have someone Read The Books we bought.

Your villagers first decide to send out two people, one wearing the Mycah Wizard Robe for added protection. They’re armed with the hooks and carry 20 branches each. Valen runs in circles, apparently ecstatic at finding people willing to help.

Valen: Thank you! You are so much better than the village in the west!

Eldest: There is another village to the west?

Valen: Yes! They call it Aniro Village. It only has three people but the village is very big, which is something I don’t really understand but yes they were very unhelpful. Saw me and started yelling while throwing rotten fruits at me. They were shouting utter nonsense, things like “WE WILL EAT THE MOON!” or “TORNADOES FOR DINNER MY TINY MAN”. Absolute terror, confusing terror!

Aniro Village. Your people should investigate sometime, though it sounds like the people there have been driven mad. It might have been an old settlement chosen for experimentation.

As the two escorts walk south with Aniro, you listen in on your villagers. They are discussing what to do while they wait, and they unanimously agree to improve their living quarters. Confident that your people would be able to fend for themselves for a while, you follow Valen and your two guards.

Along the way, you see some very strange things, which Valen gladly tells your people about.

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Big Skull:
This enormous skull with three eye sockets seems to move when nobody’s looking. Something it’s half-buried in the sand. Sometimes it’s floating just a few inches above it. Sometimes it’s upside down. Sometimes, it sings.

Tower?:
A very tall metal object, perfectly cylindrical in shape. It has no entrance. There is no crater, no sign of any construction work, as if it just appeared here. At night, it glows and the light blinks.

The Twins:
A silent, gigantic killer. It has no eyes, but making noise near it is dangerous. If it wakes up, it will smell for flesh. Its body looks as if it’s made of snot. Fortunately, it never moves far from its nest.

Hole:
A large hole that smells of flowers. It’s so deep that if you dropped a torch into it, you would stop seeing the light before any sound is heard.

Loud Graveyard:
An unpleasant noise perpetually emanates from the graves here. It sounds like a chorus of angry children. The gravestones themselves all bear valuable gems, but touching a gem results in the noise becoming so loud your head would burst.

====

After a three-hour journey, your people arrive at Valen’s home. Preeray Village hides behind innumerable trees and blinding mist, hastily-built in the middle of a swamp infested with leeches and ghouls. Valen’s eyes has been darting everywhere throughout the entire journey. You’re both impressed and disturbed by the woman’s extreme cautiousness.

The Chief of Preeray emerges from a hut covered in alligator skulls. He wears a pointed hat, a holdover from his old slave days. That’s the kind of hat the ‘troublemaking’ slaves wore, made of rusty iron and filled with nails pointed inwards.



Chief of Preeray: HO! Valen, you found help?

Valen’s eyes absolutely refuse to stop even for her Chief. She salutes with both arms raised. Your two escorts respectfully bow.

Valen: Yes, Chief Mezor! These two are from Refugeville, north from us. They have this useful robe covered in spells that repel ghouls!

Mezor: A Mycah robe! Excellent. We have a chance! What are your names?

The two people introduce themselves as Totango and Gerasa.

Mezor: Do you have experience fighting ghouls?

Both warriors nod.

Mezor: Hababo! Hababo! Come, follow me. My other villagers are set up near the Meat Box, we have no time to waste. The big awful thing will kill us all if it keeps going.

Your people, Valen and Mezor head further south. They meet up with the rest of the people of Preeray, 20 souls preparing to fight a walking box with ghouls falling out of it. 10 Preeray warriors are armed with bows and fire-arrows. The rest are carrying stone clubs, grappling hooks, jars full of oil, and simple iron shields. They all wear thick leather, enough to deter teeth. Several ghoul-corpses litter the ground, but the stone-covered Meat Box keeps spitting out more ghouls onto the desert sand.



The Meat Box’s limbs distressingly look human, but that also means they’re not armored. The plan is to climb into the Meat Box using the hooks, then start a fire inside with the oil jars. The archers will aim for the opening at the top if there are no ghouls on the ground.

Totango, who is wearing the Mycah Wizard Robes, is perfectly suited to be in the thick of the fight. Where should he strike?

- Attack the ankles with the hook! If that thing falls, reaching the box should be easier!

- Take on a support role and focus on taking out any ghouls that might harm the archers.

- Climb up and into Meat Box. Even with all the ghouls waiting in there, Totango will be able to cause the most damage.

- Set the legs on fire!

- Wait for the Meat Box to swing its arms down, then attack its hands!

- Something else.

>_


Population: 12 out of 18 shelter spaces

Wealth: 1 crumbit

Animals:
1 Dog (Relief)
2 Cows (Bilin, Daina)
1 Horse (Comet)

Plants:
12 tapioca (sapling, 20 days left)
10 mangould (sapling, 16 days left)

Weapons:
Iron Knife x 1 (4 crumbits)
Stone Axe x 2 (2 crumbits)
Stone Shovel x 1 (2 crumbits)
Steel Hooked Chains x 2 (Equipped by Guards, 8 crumbits each)

Vehicles:
Crude Wooden Raft (Kori won’t buy it)

Guards:
Two Chain-Hook Users

Merchants:
Kori (Miscellaneous Goods)
Ogot (Building Materials)

Stockpile:
323 branches (1 crumbit for 4 branches)
6 beef jerky (5 crumbits each)
9 rabbit meat (2 crumbits each)
13 fish meat (2 crumbits each)
2 jar of milk (4 crumbits each)
4 loincloths (1 crumbit each)
30 pieces of clay (2 crumbits each)
191 stones

Buildings:
1 stone house (with basement)
1 shrine
1 palisade

Items:
Leather Bag
4 Treated Bandages
Construction Manual
Yaranga Phrasebook

Fishblood Lantern - A lantern that uses fish blood as fuel. Provides light and warmth. One adult fish from the river should be enough for one night. Easy to carry, even for a dog or a wolf.

Copy of Hildevert’s Journal: Hate Box - The Signet have been hunting a man named Hildevert for the past month, and he continues to elude capture. This book is about what he saw in a place called the Hate Box, a place where powerful prisoners are tortured for amusement.

Mycah Wizard Robe - Doesn’t grant magical powers, but Mycah spells are woven into it that protect the wearer from undeath. The spells repel teeth and rotten meat, so it’s perfect for fighting ghouls.

Acid Jar - A jar full of liquid that will melt anything metal. Extremely useful against armored opponents and locks.

Divine Artifacts:

Shrunken Head of Asimuth - Screams when an agent of the Signet sees Refugeville.

Blessings:

Devoted Wolfpack: Rimewulf’s followers can transform into wolves at night, granting faster movement, enhanced senses and combat strength.

Arara’s Shade: Your people can endure heat that would normally cause heatstrokes. A common blessing for desert-dwellers and those who wish to endure drought.

Call of the Wild: Once per day, you may summon one animal to appear in the village. The animal will always obey your people and never harm them.

Curses:

Marked By The Signet: The Signet will never stop sending scouts.