Graded [Frontier] Journey Through the Eastern Outskirts.

[The Last Curse]

Mentions: Elvario ​

Cayde watched in horror as the gnoll effortlessly cleaved through his vial, dismantling his plan in an instant. Backing away slowly, Cayde tried to search his mind for what to do next, but panic quickly clouded his judgment. In his distress, he stumbled backward and landed on the ground, now scooting away from the gnoll. But, even with its injured leg, the gnoll quickly caught up to him, and Cayde watched as it readied its cleaver once more. Finally, the beast leaped at him, and as his final moments came, he stared slack-jawed as his life flashed before his eyes.

But then, an unfamiliar voice boomed through the grove. Still expecting his incoming death, Cayde didn't move immediately, but once he saw the gnoll facing the sound, he gathered himself just enough to roll out of the way. He managed to move a few feet away, but just as he turned to see if the gnoll was still pursuing him, something sent the beast flying into a tree. He shifted his eyes and saw the gnoll's assailant: the beastkin woman Ceylan was treating.

Before he could utter a single word, Cayde watched as she approached the downed gnoll and started to hack at it savagely. With every slash, Cayde recoiled back, a concerned grimace beginning to form on his face. Though amusement was the last thing he felt seeing the gnoll get butchered, he couldn't help but feel a slight tinge of schadenfreude; after all the suffering the gnoll had caused, it was finally receiving its share. Eventually, the woman landed the final blow, separating the gnoll's head from its body. Cayde scrambled onto his feet, still trying to process what had just happened. At that moment, he heard another voice, and Cayde quickly turned to see Ceylan standing away from him.

Sighing with relief, he rushed up to Ceylan, "Ceylan! I-I'm okay! A bit confused, but okay!" He wiped a few beads of sweat off his brow; it appeared he was still trying to regain his composure, "Thank God you got her up in time! That thing was this close to killing me."

Although Cayde was more than eager to leave this place, there was still some work to be done. After being introduced to Janja, he was asked to help with cleansing the grove, and after gathering his gear, he happily agreed. Cayde helped gather the materials for the pyres while Ceylan handled the ceremonies and blessed the clearing. When all was said and done, Cayde could finally leave the forest behind. Although that trek would surely scar itself into his memory, it'd become a fine story to tell someday.

After getting some well-deserved rest at Janja's hut, it was finally time to cross the tundra. Fortunately, with Janja's help and the coat he bought way before, the journey was relatively easy, giving him plenty of time to think about yesterday. However, he was in mid-thought before Ceylan asked him a question. "Well, if I had to guess, maybe it had to do with... isolation?" He stated with a hint of uncertainty, "I mean, It got kicked out of its pack and thrown into these woods by itself. I don't know long it was there, but it must've felt like an outcast, and all that time alone only made those feelings worse." Cayde then remembered all the facets of the gnoll's ritual, from the slaughtered animals to the strange altar, and finally, the mummified baby gnoll corpse. "Y'know, it never told me why it was doing all this. Do you think this was all some sort of plan to get back at its packmates? With all that bottled-up anger, maybe it just wanted revenge?"

 

[Elvario]

Ceylan
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Interactions: Cayde Whitinger The Last Curse

Ceylan attentively listened to Cayde's reply. As he was letting the words sink in, a theory started to form. “The gnoll was definitely trying to offer all these animals up to some sort of demon and that mummified baby gnoll was at its centre... so perhaps it was trying to use it as a way to take revenge...” Ceylan shook his head. He couldn't think of something. Until he did. He quickly took out his book on barbaric belief systems, which he'd faithfully dragged along throughout. After skipping through some pages, he found what he was looking for. “That's it!” He said, upon confirming his suspicion. “There's a ritual called demonic possession, where you allow the presence of a demon to take hold in someone's corpse. I think he might've been trying to do that to the baby gnoll. If he would've succeeded, it would've grown into a very dangerous and evil being, as the demonic presence would've thoroughly warped its mind. If the shaman would've brought such a thing back to the group that'd cast him out...” Ceylan shivered. “It'd kill them.” Ceylan didn't wish to imagine the horrible ways in which it would likely do so.

That was probably the most they'd be able to learn of what'd happened, but it was more than enough for Ceylan to wish to think about other topics. One such was proved by their latest travelling companion. She returned from having scouted ahead a bit.

Janja

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“The road's all clear! We'll be there in the evening.” She'd somehow led them through seemingly treacherous parts of the tundra without issue, saving them almost a day's worth of travelling the paths themselves. Whilst they'd been forced to jump across rocks on small creeks a few times and had to climb across some rocks up a hill, none of it had been too difficult. The sheep-girl clearly knew the area well. “Herbert and Nellie are going to be so happy for you to arrive. They've been waiting for a priest to marry them for the longest time. You should've seen how they kept looking at each-other. A few more days and I'm sure their vows of abstinence would've been broken three times over!”

Ceylan smiled. Whilst his normal work was healing people, he was allowed to conduct marriages, among other rituals. The marriages were often the more fun events in his line of work.

They arrived to a very welcoming village in the early evening, as the villagers were happy to see them for a multitude of reasons. They heard about what happened from Janja, who told them of how they'd rescued her and how she battled the gnoll afterwards. She might've exaggerated some parts, as Cayde most definitely hadn't battled the gnoll one on one for almost an entire day and she herself had more or less caught it off guard rather than duelled it head-on, but Ceylan decided to leave her to it. The marriage was another big highlight. The people here were poor, but they still wished to offer what they could in order to grant their fellow villagers a nice wedding. They'd have to do without freshly roasted lamb, as Janja couldn't miss another sheep after what the gnoll had done, but the mayor himself decided to butcher his fattest pig for the occasion, so they had plenty of meat to share around.

To that extend, each of the about a dozen families brought their own to contribute to the wedding, be it ale, bread, vegetables or wine. Ceylan himself gifted them with his blessings, asking next to nothing for his work as a priest. They ended up staying another full day, after having been allowed to stay overnight as guests at the mayor's house. Ceylan still had people to heal, advice to give and rituals to conduct. Even Cayde, who's mask first scared some people off, eventually was approached by the villager with some questions the moment they learned he was fairly knowledgable. How to mix certain medicine, how to forage in the nearby forest and what mushrooms to avoid when trying to make a stew. After staying one more night, they left again at the break of dawn the next day, with Janja taking them back to the forests edge, where she stayed behind with her sheep.

The return-trip through the forest was a bit troublesome, as Ceylan couldn't help himself from being rather nervous. Even so, the heavy feeling of something being wrong was already starting to fade. Now that it was day, they found a few more animal corpses nailed to trees, which they took down like before. The forest would heal, of that Ceylan was sure. In the last part of the journey, he could already start to appreciate the forest for its beauty again, rather than its dangers.

Ceylan avoided the barn they'd stayed at, choosing to set up camp across the road instead. He had no intention of getting shroomed again. From there on out, it was a straight and easy road back towards the inn where they'd first met. Their journey through the eastern outskirts had finally reached

The End.​

 

[Novama]

Isekai Hell RP Grade
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Rp had some nice little bits of flavor. Foods and drinks. An evil ritual and faith. Illicit drug ingredients. Something for the whole family to enjoy. Village of beastfolk to the south east. Interesting place of them to be, but perhaps the hill country that way works with it. I think the bigger take away was the establishing of tension. 2 non combat characters in a life or death situation where each decision potentially came with bad ramifications. Good times. Probably for the best Tannia bailed.

Aftermath
The gnoll incident got around to the Ryke Adventurer Guild. Guild investigators would be sent to investigate the Gnoll pack situation as well as the general area of the actual occurrence to see if any more unusual events were taking place.

Rewards
Ceylan - 85 points (bonus for narrating applied) - optional title acquired [Missionary] - character is familiar with taking their faith on the road. They have an easier time finding places or people to shelter with while traveling. As if by divine providence. More easily found to be insufferable by those of other faiths.

Cayde - 57 points - Item reward: a few untarnished Blue Dream Caps - optional title acquired [The Cook] - character knows just enough about certain 'stuff' and 'things' that they can produce illegal drugs. There knowledge loosely connects them with the underbelly of society: a potentially lucrative and very dangerous connection.