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Aphonion: Journals of a Licensed Diabolist (Sat. and Wed. updates, last 9/3, 9/10)
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<blockquote data-quote="Cerebral Paladin" data-source="post: 4214207" data-attributes="member: 3448"><p>We approached the Pachak first. The Elder clambered up the trees with surprising dexterity, and we began following. Buzz simply walked up the side of the tree, using one of her psionic abilities. As she climbed, a group of monkey-like people, wearing leather armor and with hands on the ends of their tails, clambered down. They seemed fascinated by her climbing and stared at her feet in curiosity. I threw a rope up to Buzz and climbed up after she had tied it off.</p><p></p><p>An elderly female of the monkey people, who we inferred were the Pachak, spoke, but not in any language we recognized. We responded by greeting her in a rapid profusion of languages-- Common, Abyssal, Infernal, Draconic, Kobold-- I even tried the Paranswarmian Church language. She did not appear to understand any of the languages fluently, but finally said in accented and unclear Common, “Hello.”</p><p></p><p>Buzz bowed slightly. “Hello. I am Buzz, and these are my friends, Twang and Konrad.”</p><p></p><p>“Choktarcrichet,” responded the elder. She waived all three of her hands at all of the others of her kind and said, “Pachak.”</p><p></p><p>Twang asked, “Pachak from here?”</p><p></p><p>Choktarcrichet shook her head and pointed at the blue light in the village.</p><p></p><p>Twang continued, “Want place to live?”</p><p></p><p>The elder thought and then nodded, “Village.”</p><p></p><p>“Yes, village home,” said Buzz.</p><p></p><p>I added, “Better village.” We were all being careful to try to keep our words and concepts simple.</p><p></p><p>Twang moved on to the next point. “Need work?”</p><p></p><p>“Warriors?”</p><p></p><p>“Yes, warriors.”</p><p></p><p>“Varedoiny,” said the Elder, pointing at Buzz.</p><p></p><p>That lost us completely. Buzzed turned to the Hastur for help. “Can you determine, with her permission, what she means by that?”</p><p></p><p>“I should be able to,” said the Hastur. They stared at each other for a while. “Ah. Servantum.”</p><p></p><p>The elder and all of the other creatures nodded vigorously at that. She came over and stroked Buzz’s foot and kissed her toes.</p><p></p><p>The Hastur explained. “Apparently, their world has two types of mind-walkers: the Servantum and the Varedoiny. The Servantum cure the sick and protect people. The Varedoiny use their power to take whatever they want. I explained that you were Servantum.”</p><p></p><p>The elder looked at us again. “Village for warriors? Good land? Trees?”</p><p></p><p>That presented a slight difficulty. Lord Bastion has some small areas protected from the Dhoyles, but most of his land has had the life sucked from it to become dust. The only way we know of to restore the land is to use fertilizer, and then to grow binding plants that bring the dust back into usable soil. Over time, the land becomes fertile again. However, it could easily be a ten-year process before the land would support trees.</p><p></p><p>Twang took it upon himself to explain this. In his broken Common, he explained that there is some land, but that all the good land is claimed. The Pachak could have land, but it will take work and will need to be reclaimed. The Choktar, for we figured out that that was a title, not a name, asked clarifying questions while Twang tried to explain. With neither of them truly fluent in Common, the process was nigh interminable, but three hours later, Twang had finally gotten the message across.</p><p></p><p>While Twang and the Choktar talked, Buzz and I started some sparring matches. If we were going to use these Pachak as warriors, we would need to know how able they were. I summoned a lemure. Almost immediately, the Pachak all drew weapons and targeted them at the lemure. “For spar,” I said, gesturing to try to communicate the idea. Finally, one of them screwed a vial on a stick and sprinkled water on the lemure and Buzz. Based on their behavior, they probably thought that the water was holy, but it did not burn the lemure as I would expect. I am not certain why not. [It is holy water, but the Pachak’s god is from a plane too far from Aphonion to grant divine magic. While the weakest clerical spells still function, based on faith alone, higher level magic and the consecration of holy water is impossible. The PCs have not yet learned this.]</p><p></p><p>The Pachak distributed wooden swords and formed a line. The first one bent its knees outward and bobbed its head and then held its sword up in a salute. The Choktar rang a bell, at which point the lead Pachak whirlwinded forward. Buzz and the Pachak whacked each other simultaneously with the wooden swords, while a second wooden blade whizzed by Buzz’s head. The next Pachak stepped up, and Buzz and the Pachak each struck resounding blows with the wooden weapons. The Choktar rang its bell and sent them aside. I gestured the lemure forward, and it engaged its foe. They each hit struck once, with the lemure whacking its opponent hard. The Pachak attempted to step back, but the lemure pursued. I was forced to dismiss it to prevent an incident. </p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, Twang and the Choktar were drawing pictographs in the dirt by this point, desperately trying to get their messages through. Finally, the Choktar nodded and accepted the offer on behalf of the entire group.</p><p></p><p>Based on the sparring, we estimated that the Pachak were elite to ultra-elite troops [about 4th-5th level], and incredibly disciplined. The military orders of Paranswarm are the only forces that I have seen that are as well-disciplined. Our estimate was that they were an army unit. They included roughly 400 warriors, all male, with perhaps 40 camp followers and about 60 illegitimate children.</p><p></p><p>Buzz mentioned that those numbers might be too small to set up a permanent community-- they would become badly inbred over time. I suggested that we might give them some of the Trueborn. They might not be able to breed together, but it would be worth the attempt.</p><p></p><p>Buzz asked, “Rapa?” and shrugged. If they were enemies, we would not want to trigger a conflict.</p><p></p><p>They pinched their noses. One poured water off the platform. Not a positive response, to be sure, but not an indication of hatred either. We decided to seek the Rapas’ aid as well.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Cerebral Paladin, post: 4214207, member: 3448"] We approached the Pachak first. The Elder clambered up the trees with surprising dexterity, and we began following. Buzz simply walked up the side of the tree, using one of her psionic abilities. As she climbed, a group of monkey-like people, wearing leather armor and with hands on the ends of their tails, clambered down. They seemed fascinated by her climbing and stared at her feet in curiosity. I threw a rope up to Buzz and climbed up after she had tied it off. An elderly female of the monkey people, who we inferred were the Pachak, spoke, but not in any language we recognized. We responded by greeting her in a rapid profusion of languages-- Common, Abyssal, Infernal, Draconic, Kobold-- I even tried the Paranswarmian Church language. She did not appear to understand any of the languages fluently, but finally said in accented and unclear Common, “Hello.” Buzz bowed slightly. “Hello. I am Buzz, and these are my friends, Twang and Konrad.” “Choktarcrichet,” responded the elder. She waived all three of her hands at all of the others of her kind and said, “Pachak.” Twang asked, “Pachak from here?” Choktarcrichet shook her head and pointed at the blue light in the village. Twang continued, “Want place to live?” The elder thought and then nodded, “Village.” “Yes, village home,” said Buzz. I added, “Better village.” We were all being careful to try to keep our words and concepts simple. Twang moved on to the next point. “Need work?” “Warriors?” “Yes, warriors.” “Varedoiny,” said the Elder, pointing at Buzz. That lost us completely. Buzzed turned to the Hastur for help. “Can you determine, with her permission, what she means by that?” “I should be able to,” said the Hastur. They stared at each other for a while. “Ah. Servantum.” The elder and all of the other creatures nodded vigorously at that. She came over and stroked Buzz’s foot and kissed her toes. The Hastur explained. “Apparently, their world has two types of mind-walkers: the Servantum and the Varedoiny. The Servantum cure the sick and protect people. The Varedoiny use their power to take whatever they want. I explained that you were Servantum.” The elder looked at us again. “Village for warriors? Good land? Trees?” That presented a slight difficulty. Lord Bastion has some small areas protected from the Dhoyles, but most of his land has had the life sucked from it to become dust. The only way we know of to restore the land is to use fertilizer, and then to grow binding plants that bring the dust back into usable soil. Over time, the land becomes fertile again. However, it could easily be a ten-year process before the land would support trees. Twang took it upon himself to explain this. In his broken Common, he explained that there is some land, but that all the good land is claimed. The Pachak could have land, but it will take work and will need to be reclaimed. The Choktar, for we figured out that that was a title, not a name, asked clarifying questions while Twang tried to explain. With neither of them truly fluent in Common, the process was nigh interminable, but three hours later, Twang had finally gotten the message across. While Twang and the Choktar talked, Buzz and I started some sparring matches. If we were going to use these Pachak as warriors, we would need to know how able they were. I summoned a lemure. Almost immediately, the Pachak all drew weapons and targeted them at the lemure. “For spar,” I said, gesturing to try to communicate the idea. Finally, one of them screwed a vial on a stick and sprinkled water on the lemure and Buzz. Based on their behavior, they probably thought that the water was holy, but it did not burn the lemure as I would expect. I am not certain why not. [It is holy water, but the Pachak’s god is from a plane too far from Aphonion to grant divine magic. While the weakest clerical spells still function, based on faith alone, higher level magic and the consecration of holy water is impossible. The PCs have not yet learned this.] The Pachak distributed wooden swords and formed a line. The first one bent its knees outward and bobbed its head and then held its sword up in a salute. The Choktar rang a bell, at which point the lead Pachak whirlwinded forward. Buzz and the Pachak whacked each other simultaneously with the wooden swords, while a second wooden blade whizzed by Buzz’s head. The next Pachak stepped up, and Buzz and the Pachak each struck resounding blows with the wooden weapons. The Choktar rang its bell and sent them aside. I gestured the lemure forward, and it engaged its foe. They each hit struck once, with the lemure whacking its opponent hard. The Pachak attempted to step back, but the lemure pursued. I was forced to dismiss it to prevent an incident. Meanwhile, Twang and the Choktar were drawing pictographs in the dirt by this point, desperately trying to get their messages through. Finally, the Choktar nodded and accepted the offer on behalf of the entire group. Based on the sparring, we estimated that the Pachak were elite to ultra-elite troops [about 4th-5th level], and incredibly disciplined. The military orders of Paranswarm are the only forces that I have seen that are as well-disciplined. Our estimate was that they were an army unit. They included roughly 400 warriors, all male, with perhaps 40 camp followers and about 60 illegitimate children. Buzz mentioned that those numbers might be too small to set up a permanent community-- they would become badly inbred over time. I suggested that we might give them some of the Trueborn. They might not be able to breed together, but it would be worth the attempt. Buzz asked, “Rapa?” and shrugged. If they were enemies, we would not want to trigger a conflict. They pinched their noses. One poured water off the platform. Not a positive response, to be sure, but not an indication of hatred either. We decided to seek the Rapas’ aid as well. [/QUOTE]
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