Hunter's Guild Bounties (May 25th - June 30th)

[Hunters Guild]

Hunter's Guild Bounties
(May 25th - June 30th)

GOLD MARK	SILVER MARK	BRONZE MARK
WANTED: Siren Mimic Do not let their visage fool you. The siren that this parasitic jellyfish has attached itself too is only a husk kept on the brink of death for its captives own survival. These creatures are dangerously poisonous, travel in a swarm, and latch onto their would be target while young. If treated within the first year those infected with a Siren Mimic will fully recover, no doubt is why their chosen hosts are those unable to venture onto land and be provided suitable treatment. Currently multiple swarms have been spotted out in the waters with some nearing Seaside Beach. It is asked that all would be hunters kill them on sight so that they are unable to lay their eggs in the shallows.	WANTED: Cleansing the toxic Withering Small withering zones have been found within The Great Wilds. These toxic zones are created by the rare budding of what local hunters call "Withered Bulbs". Prolonged exposure to a withering zone and the bulbs may result in death and it is advised that Hunters wear masks, use anti-poison potions, and leave a zone for period of time before re-entry should you begin to feel ill. Destroying a Withering Bulb will caused the air around it to lose this miasmic haze. Clear any withering spot you may discover and be rewarded for your aid.	COLLECT: Blood of the Desert. This valuable ore is found deep inside the caverns beneath the sands of the Great Dessert. The Hunter's Guild is in need of brave adventurers to seek out and gather as much this ore as they are able to.. Please keep clear of the giant sand scorpions that have made these caverns their home.
LOCATION: Seaside Beach	LOCATION: The Wilds	LOCATION: The Great Desert
Proof of Hunt: Siren Mimic heads or vials filled with their poisonous secretions	Proof of Hunt: Written proofs provided by the local Forest Hunters or burnt withering bulb remains	Proof of Hunt: Blood of the Desert Ore, as much as possible

WARNING: The guild is not responsible for any loss of limbs, sanity, life, etc. Proof of Hunts must be turned in to the Hunter's Guild Headquarters in Old Market.

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(( OOC: This is a writing prompt that will last from May 25th to June 30th! Feel free to respond on the boards, play out the hunt in the public rooms, or even having your character talk about completing a hunt. As long as you visibly write something related to your character completing 1 - or all - of the hunts and providing a proof in the form of a chat log or story post (or link to a post) to this thread.

These hunts can be used, along with past and future completed hunts, to apply for the Small Game Hunter achievement: https://rhydin.org/info/list_achievements.php?id=236 and will also be rewarding icons to your profile depending on the rank(s) of completion (Gold / Silver / Bronze. You can collect all three! Let your imagination run wild and enjoy! ))

[Andromeda Deseronto]

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[Death Knell]

Ettyn learned about the new Hunter's Guild bounties from an old ranger on the overgrown paths miles to the east of Battlefield Park, once game trails on manor grounds. Wildlings traded in gossip more readily than coin, and soon she knew what bounties had been posted and why (and Brisk-Strider had a head full of Whitedown office gossip and scandals to ruminate over until their next meeting). The wizened lizardman doffed his wide-brimmed felt hat gratefully, the peryton feather tucked into the band waving with the flourish, and grasped his shillelagh in his clawed hands and trotted off west for the distant fair grounds of Battlefield Park and their famous corn dogs.

The reaper proceeded further east, following the winding trail as the thickening canopy blocked out the afternoon sky, turning the air as black as night. There was nearly as much distance between Beltane and Midsummer now, and few fairy lights brightened the ground in this part of the Wilds. She kept her face uncovered for now, but her pace was slow, nostrils flaring often as she tried to take in any signs of acrid rot, and listening not just for wildlife but its absence.

Lumps on the soft earth, the armor-clad bodies of soldiers tucked between gnarled tree trunks like they had been trying to claw away on their bellies, made her pause. Just beyond the rise was a flicker in the air, a dark mirror of the sprites that lit the way at different times of year. It was an empty kind of rot, without worms or flies or even fungus seeping its tendrils into dead flesh. Under the heavy canopy, few colors could be picked out, only shades of gray, but her eyes took in differences in the shields and tabards of the deceased. She raised her head to the rustling of branches in the breeze, checking wind direction, and crept backwards to cover as she moved to prepare.

A cloth mask, dampened with mud she dug out from a small clay urn tucked into her belt, tied carefully around her face and molded to it. Next was the mempo, a carved half-mask to further filter the air, shaped to look like a vengeance demon. She took slow, steadying breaths from her perch crouched behind a tree, noting the hot, close feeling of the air and the absence of smell, and proceeded into the miasma. Past the soldiers, which had converged on the Withered clearing in successive waves, all failing.

Ettyn crept forward into the clearing. There was no one she sensed, but she was down one of her senses right now, and if her eyes kept stinging, she'd soon be down another, too. And if there had been three groups of soldiers so far, skirmishing with each and trying different methods to get close to the potent source of poison and rot at the center? Eventually there would be a fourth, with better masks or draughts against the Withering and a plan of attack.

Feet were placed gingerly, but she tried not to linger anywhere, avoiding roots and ferns and withered clumps of grass that would burst into dust and spores at the lightest touch. She cast a slow look around, blinking back tears from her black eyes -- the miasma rippled more powerfully, more violently in one direction, and she loosened the black-wrapped scepter from her belt and moved towards the disturbance.

A small party of soldiers approached, clad in mail and leathers, their spears and swords and crossbows at the ready. They came from a northern path that wound around the clearing, one of their number slinking ahead to inspect the dead and recover what valuable equipment he could. These seemed better prepared, their masks thick and layered, bound tightly and tucked into hoods and high, tight collars, and vials of some herbal antidote sloshed at their hips. They also had small shovels and long knives and hempen sacks, intent on harvesting one or more of these dangerous bulbs intact for use in their lord's conflict.

The reaper blinked back tears again, her vision fuzzy this close to the source, but she could hear the soldiers nearby. There wasn't much cover to get behind, and the attack would give her away. She slunk forward, curling her little finger around the pommel of her scepter, and it lengthened into a flaming dwarven sword, what she needed to burn out the Withering here. In a smooth motion she struck through the glassy flesh just beneath its brightly colored petals, sinking the steel down to the base, and the moisture burning out of it shrieked as it shuddered and the surrounding miasma started to dissipate...

((Edited to remove other play. One Silver Mark, please!))

[Andromeda Deseronto]

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[Andromeda Deseronto]

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[Hunters Guild]

"The landwalkers once more prey upon our children! First they blight our spawning grounds and now they indiscriminately kill our people as we lay the next generation!"



The great matriarch of the Ssizagen cries out at the news of the landwalkers killing her children as they attempt to use the shallows of Seaside Beach as their new spawning grounds. The destruction of their former grounds due to a disaster caused by the conquest of their land dwelling neighbors forced this desperate action!

The spawns that near the beach have now become more frenzied in their wish to procure their spawning ground and have begun exhibiting more violent tendencies to any who near them.

Some land dwellers who are knowledge in their plight have even begun petitioning those who near the beaches to stay away.. and even offer rewards to those willing to stop would-be adventurers from their hunt; be it through diplomatic means or violent measures. There is an oddity to these land dwellers, as they appear to sweat far more than a normal human would and the hue of their skin is of a pale blue — both signs of being hosts to a Siren Mimic.

(( Those who aid the Great Matriarch will be given a special icon to represent the treasures of the deep being offered as reward. ))

[Andromeda Deseronto]

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[Skurj]

"WOW! Great Azog's ginmorous balls! What a slaughter!" The goblin perched on a rock, one hand shielding his eyes from the bright sunlight as he boggled at the viscera painted across the beach. As far as the eye could see, from one end of the beach to the other, bits and pieces of jellyfish-like flesh and fin lay scattered about. "Talk about a party!!!"

Skurj hopped down from his vantage point and danced among the remnants of life cooking in the morning sun. Crabs and other scavengers were already at work feasting upon the remains, but the beach was noticeably barren of humans. "Typical," the goblin grunted, "no stomach for a good battle-orgy."

A bugbear lumbered along behind the goblin, pausing every now and again to grab a crab to munch on. "Big mess."

"Ya got that right! Heck, I think Fistmelda's Orktoberfest rave is the only thing that tops this."

Skurj and Kronk wandered down the beach, taking a circuitous path around the larger masses of ruined flesh. Skurj did not want to ruin his new gator-skin boots.

The goblin, spotting a crab that Kronk had not eaten yet, grabbed it, which immediately grabbed him back. "Ow, dammit!" Skurj wrestled the crab's claw free from his finger and dropped it into a sack. "Snacks for later!"

The bugbear eyed the sack.

"You s'pose all the venom sacs been grabbed?" Skurj eyed one of the pulverized siren-mimics. "Hey! I got an idea!" The goblin bounded forward and examined the head. "I think these are worth rewards too!"

The bugbear looked around. "Big mess."

"Yeah! 'zactly! There's gotta be a LOTTA heads still around." Greed, ever at the forefront of the goblin's ambitions, took hold. "I bet we can scavenge a bunch of 'em for reward!"

"Here, you carry 'em!" Skurj handed his sack to the bugbear. "But don't eat my lunch!" And with that, the goblin and bugbear pair began scouring the beach for salvageable heads to recover and turn in to the Hunter's Guild.

[Death Knell]

Ettyn remained unaware of the situation on shore still, feeling the odd surge in the currents pushing and pulling on her. The infected sirens were likely becoming aware of her. But the wind blew and that dark cloud passed over the surf, and she used the shadows that formed behind the drifting seaweed, the roots of which she could feel as the tide pulled on them, to vanish and reappear behind the young, recently afflicted siren.

Between him and deeper water.

She couldn't think of any way to isolate him but one. She let out a long wildcat scream, something that took on the element of a shark's watery bellow here beneath the surface, and while the siren husks were too far gone to feel the fear? The young one still could. He darted away towards the shore as quickly as he could, thrashing in and out of the waves as he went, finally clearly visible and apart from the others.

Which were now turning their collective attention on the reaper who had come between them and their prey.

The water churned as a small shape broke away from the main mass to cut towards shore. It wasn't Ettyn. It was too small and too fast to be a long gone husk of a siren. Anya opened her right hand and a gate opened in its path. Her left hand directed a second to bloom on the shore at her side. Both young siren and plenty of ocean water poured on to the beach before she clenched her hands into fists to close the channel. "There's one," she told Selena.

Some of the sirens were further out, easier to distinguish from Ettyn and perhaps target without aiming directly her way; but four managed to close in close, their distorted harmonizing rippling the water as they lashed out at her. She moved nimbly away from a few attempts to poison her, but by luck (and good choices and fitting), the rest lashed against the most protected parts of her armor -- scales on the chest and sides, reinforced pads on her arms. She slipped the other spear from her back and lashed out with both, twisting and jabbing in the current, a whirlwind of motion, blighted blood and glowing gel filling the water.

Anya counted. "...eight ...nine ...ten."

On ten, she repeated the gesture. Another portal opened underwater with a twin on the beach. This time, the opening in the ocean was positioned at the center of the disturbance, where Ettyn would be.

As the sirens tried to tear her apart for disrupting their hunt, one of the tentacles managed to lash across her neck, tearing skin and burning with poison, but the surge of her black veins against it seemed to push it back out, preventing it from taking hold. She saw the portal form right next to her, and when two wounded sirens darted between her and it? She surged forward, driving her spears through their torsos and landing in the beach on a heap, the two husks thrashing as they died in the sand. Brightly colored poison sizzled and grew dim as it pushed back out of the wound on her neck.

The few remaining husks were left out in the open.

((Edited to remove other play. Gold marks for Ettyn and Anya, please! Full log here.))

[Hunters Guild]

(( Gold
Death Knell
Andromeda Deseronto
Skurj
Anya de la Rose

Silver
Death Knell
Andromeda Deseronto

Icons have been sent out. Thanks for participating! ))