Notail Simulator Beta (4/4)

You plot a course you think would work out. Your friends pack up all the extra saved up rations and hand them to you. Your bag is a little heavy now, but you should be able to make this trip just fine.

Fortuna rolls a 20 sided die. A 11 is rolled.

You start off by heading north east. The trip is fairly quiet and you run into no issues. After traveling around for a few days you find a large clearing and a forest center. The forest center, called Goose Call, has an adult S, V, T, and N-class living in it. It's a fairly calm place and is meant to be a rest stop for kids early on.

You check out the T-class store and find a wall lined with faces. The dragon faced T-class at the counter was extremely tall and his arms were replaced with those of a reptile. He leans in over the counter to get a better look at you.

"Crane kid. Don't even need to scan you, you're just too obvious. Crow kids push down the door like they're bout to get into a fight. Albatross kids slip in without making a sound. Dove kids come in pairs. Eagle kids are sadistic religious freaks who can't stop making jokes even after being stabbed. Last week I had one come into my store, lean on my counter while bleeding out, and you know what they said to me while laughing their head off? "Mister, I might need and band aid, maybe even one with the smiley faces on them for extra strength. >u<." before passing out right then and there.

Gull kids walk in here like they own the place. Stork kids are a...mixed bag to say the least. Heron kids know what they want the moment they walk in, seem to only know 5 words tops, and those freaks like to keep their hands behind their backs like they're hiding a knife. Never seen one panic either. Then there's Hawk kids....Haaa, hawk kids......But of them all, Crane kids are the most boring. You guys just.....walk in, all casual like. Sometimes I forget that I'm in the middle of the damn woods when Crane kids flood the area. They like pretending nothing is wrong.

To be honest. It's actually a nice bit of fresh air. A little boring never hurt anyone. Little tired of the hustle and bustle you know.

So Crane kid, what are you looking for today? PwP"

"I just wanted to know what trades were here. =3"

"Right, so I'm buying faces, looking for nice animal faces. Don't worry kid, I won't ask where you got the faces from. That's your issue to deal with. I'm also looking for live gweches. When food shortages roll in gweches are perfect for trading to kids. I'll take a look at nearly anything you got though.

As for what I'm offering I got a few knives, fire starting kits, capture cages, 1st aid kits, beast bait, emergency rations, bows, arrows, tents, a tool box, and quite a few books on some skills you might need.

Oh! PwP"

The T-class lifts his head in the air as he does a little laugh before banging his fist on the table and leaning back down to look you in the eye.

"And I got faces. You know, just in case some kid happens to steal yours for some strange reason. Hehehehehehe. I might even have face that looks exactly like the one that was stolen. Just randomly you know. PwP"

You thank the T-class and keep a mental list of what he wanted. Next up you head north west.

Fortuna rolls a 20 sided die. A 14 is rolled.

After days of walking you see the woods turn into plains, and then you see a large tower rising into the sky. You come from a village of two stories high buildings at max. As such you have to stop to stare at the giant column of rock that is taller than anything you have ever seen before.

As you approach the tower you see a group of H-classes who have set up a semi settlement around the tower. You stay by the tower for the night, and by the morning you see many classes and groups pass by the tower, trading for food with the H-classes.

After asking around you learn that there are 4 towers in total and people usually use them as nice trading points and landmarks. It's very hard for people to set up permanent camps at the towers though as there is either someone else already settled around them, or someone who wants the spot. The teen marks where the other towers are on your map.

Before you leave you ask about the towers. The teen says that no one they've talked to knows about them. They have stairs that go up them but the tower is so tall no one really wants to climb up them. It's unlikely that there's anything up there anyway.

You thank them and leave, off to the next location.

Fortuna rolls a 20 sided die. A 13 is rolled.

Heading north east you hit extremely dense forest. You can barely tell when it's day as the trees overhead utterly block out most of the sun. Movement during nighttime is impossible without a light source. Finally you see a light at the end of the tunnel and rush towards it, excited to escape the darkness after days. It's sunset and before you is a clearing. The whole area sinks downwards quickly. Not quite a cliff, but not quite a hill either. Down in this crater is a fair group of tents and shelters. The oddest thing to you is the strange alter in the middle of this shanty town.

You go to seek the nearest ladder downwards but someone comes up behind you and pushes you down. It's a rough and long tumble down. Once you finally come to a rest at the bottom of the crater you can hear laughter. Kids just seemly appear from nowhere and laugh at your fall. An S-class casually walks up to you and attempts to pick you up, but you shoo away her hand and get up yourself.

Despite the fall you were a rather hardy kid and were uninjured, just a bit scrambled. You do a quick scan of a few of the kids.

Eagle Cliff kids. They were all N, Q, I, T and V-classes with the exception of the single L-class. The few S-classes lurking in the corners seemed to be from other villages and were only here cause the Eagle Cliff kids kept getting themselves hurt.

Most of them were covered in scars and bandages, some of them already had a limb replaced with that of an animal because they've already lost theirs.

"Wow! A Crane kid who don't cry after being pushed! <=3"
"I'll fix that! BP"

The V-class says this and launches himself forward with a knife in hand. It seemed he was going for a non deadly blow but you weren't on the market for getting stabbed. You grab and twist his arm, causing him the yelp in pain drop his knife. In one fluid movement you fling him away from you.

He slowly pulls himself up with his arms, shaking.
"That..........Was awesome!!!!! BP"
"I want to me tossed! Toss me next! That looks like fun! <=3"
"That Crane kid is strong! I want to tussle with the Crane kid! :U"

You cannot believe what was happening. Even as you pick up the knife and aim it at them they seem utterly unphased by it. This alone was enough to cause you to turn around and escape up a ladder. You would have been caught by one of the quick-footed V-classes had the L-class not yelled for everyone to stop. Everyone heeled right in place, many were disappointed.

As you reached the top of the crater and looked down you watched the kids go back to work or play fight with each other.

At least you got an extra knife out of this.

Fortuna rolls a 20 sided die. A 12 is rolled.

You head to the south. It's all just a grass plain with not much in site. You see a few small groups here and there in your days of trekking through but nothing major. You don't approach the groups. After your encounter with Eagle Cliff kids you would rather not make contact if possible without backup. One strange group that you see are kids with strange metal beings with them. They moved and seemingly did work while these kids were relaxing and soaking up the sun.

Fortuna rolls a 20 sided die. A 9 is rolled.

You head south west. As soon as you enter the area you feel a sinking feeling. You pick up your pace but as you do, whatever is following you picks up the pace as well. Suddenly a large unicorn jumps out in front of you, and on it is an R-class. You've heard all about the horrors of the R-classes in the woods. They're hyper aggressive and territorial and if any class is going to kill another it's going to be an R-class.

You pull out your knife, ready to swing it to protect yourself.

The R-class pulls out a pen and paper.

"Put away your weapon, sir. uuu"

Another R-class trots in on a unicorn. This is impossible. R-classes don't tend to tolerate other people in their space, much less another R-classes.

"Ma'am what do you think you're doing running around this area with a concealed deadly weapon? vvv"

"What? =3"

The first R-class points to you and then writes a note.

"I'm going to call them explorer, do you approve of this change, ranger? uuu"
"Affirmative. vvv"

You put away your knife and quickly scan both of them. The first one is from Albatross town and the second from Heron Lake.

"Explorer, scanning of others while they watch is extremely rude. uuu"
"Agreed. vvv"
The R-class scribbles more onto his notes.

"What business do you have here? uuu"
"Exploring. =3"
"Likely. vvv"
"Agreed Ranger, very likely story. Where is your group? uuu"
"I don't have an exploration group, I'm scouting for my team. =3"
"Explorer scouting for their group alone? Unlikely story. uuu"
"Unlikely. vvv"
"Ranger you patrol the area and see if there's any other E-classes around and scare them off. I'm going to lead the Explorer around the town before dropping them off to make sure they're not attempting any fishy business. uuu"
"Affirmative. vvv"

The other R-class leaves while the first one hops off his unicorn and ties your hands together. He drags you over to his steed and helps you on it. Both of you ride off. You're not really ok with this but you don't feel like you're in danger. You don't want to make an R-class angry either.

You ride past an area with high walls and fairly nice looking shacks inside for being in the middle of the woods.

"Is that a forest center? =3"
"That is the Albatross town 2. Maintained by Albatrosses and some Herons. No other villages can stay, but they can visit and trade if they agree by our rules. This town has been here for generations of kids. Being passed down from L-class to L-class. uuu"
"That seems a little excessive no offense. =3"
"You're a Crane so you wouldn't understand what Albatrosses and Herons know. uuu"
"Are there monsters in these woods big enough to be that bad.... =3"
"No, not in the woods. uuu"

The R-class points in a random direction and swings his arm in a line.
"Beyond the walls of the woods, there are things out there. If the walls of the woods fail us, we must have a backup plan. We can't depend on something we have no control of. uuu"
"What's out there? =3"
"I would never tell anyone who doesn't already know. Most of us wouldn't. uuu"

Once you get a fair bit away from the town the R-class unties your hands and lets you go. He hands you a copy of the ticket he wrote. The thing just tells you that you're "rude" and "Ask too many questions" and "Carries an excessive amount of knives for an 11 year old." Once you can no longer see the R-class in the distance you ball up your ticket and litter it on the floor.

Fortuna rolls a 20 sided die. A 15 is rolled.

You finally head south, back to your starting point. You made amazing time and are back earlier than you thought. You show your group the map you made and tell them stories about what you saw.

"Hmmm....sadly I can only see those plains or maybe the tower being a good place to go. None of the settlements seem hospitable or willing to let us in. We might have to keep traveling and looking for a place. XwX"
"I like the Eagle Cliff settlement! Those guys seem fun. *u*"
Says one of the V-classes, the other V-class agrees.

"I think the rest of us aren't hoping to get stabbed. Hmmm lets see, as a group I think we could move about 5 spaces on the map in a year as long as we don't hit anything too big.....but if you went alone I think you could cover 10 squares easily while taking care of yourself and your capture creatures. If you leave your creature with us you can likely go up to 12 squares.

We could attempt to settle in one of the other places while you spend a year traveling, then coming back to us. If things aren't going well for us you will have likely found a much better spot. One year of turmoil wouldn't be so bad considering we have 7 more years here. XwX"

You really don't want to be left alone for a whole year exploring on your own, but you know the other Z-classes wouldn't be able to do it, and the V-classes aren't here to help. Only you could go scouting.

You were the E-class after all. It was your job.

You fiddle with your fingers while looking down. You didn't want to say you didn't want to do it but you also wanted to make sure you did what's best for the team.

Z-3894 seems to sense this.
"You don't have to go traveling if you don't want to. We can either all try to just settle down in one area or travel into the unknown together. It shouldn't go too badly. XwX"

Quickly thinking it over, you make your choice.

SpoilerShow

The main group can only move 5 spaces within a year.
You and your capture creatures can move 10 spaces.
Just you can move 12 spaces.

Draw on the map. If you want you and the group to stay together just draw one line moving 5 spaces to where you want to go.

If you want the group and you to split draw two lines, one going 5 spaces representing the group and one going either 10 or 12 spaces. If you do this route you want to make sure both you and your group land on the same end space.

I mean you can decide to perma ditch them by just not attempting to meet up with them, that is your choice.

Two last notes, both you and your group can go less than your allowed movement squares, yet again this is a good idea if you want to make sure you have buffer to protect yourself from slowdowns due to really bad rolls. The second note is that while it is very likely that your group will get to the location you decide without you, there is a slim chance they will get lost as they lack a map. (A one or two roll)

Also the reason why we could move 6 spaces in a month but can only move 12 in a year is because it was more fitting for the narrative you have to find your own food and water while you explore this time instead of carrying food from your friends.