On the shoulders of giants: a new multiple choices LP!

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Why would the wielder be so incredibly evil? Aside from being focussed on expanding our tribe trough conquest and spirituality he appears to be a quite standard fanatic, and while I agree we shouldn't make the tribe some 'Flames for the Fire Spirit' cult, I believe he isn't possessed by some sort of ancient evil.

To look back on the shadowy figures some updates back and the survivor of the first cave expedition (who spoke about about beings always plotting and scheming in the darkness), I think the wielder isn't possessed, but ran of with the thing that played a very important part in sealing said somethings. The danger probably isn't the wielder but whatever things will spawn from the volcano.

In regards to being unageing, that would indeed be troublesome. Although abilities like scrying trough fire could possibly be even more dangerous.

I say we should trust the wielder sans his ability to incinerate us.
As to whatever presence he "spoke" to. Most probably it was what was trapped away.
It might however also be the presence advocating a more active role after our tampering.
Whoever it is, he/she/it will most likely try to use us as tool, so as long as we keep happily expanding we should be fine.

Also Curufinwe, would you have anything against me posting crude illustrations to the ongoing story from time to time?
I am rather bored right now, and it is a rather good source of inspiration.

Example being our friendly neighbourhood arsonist.

Ok, apologies but I'll have to skip the update for this evening. Came home from work related crap 10 minutes ago (midnight and some) and I'm utterly tired. Tomorrow morning waking up at 6 for more work, so really can't put the hour or so in the update I would like to. Regular schedule will resume immediately, don't worry, it's a one off thing.

Zwist: not at all. I'm utterly incompetent at drawing, really impressed by the illustration above o_o. Didn't expect this to be a source of inspiration for anything, I'm flattered

Thanks.
Your lets play is rather entertaining, and it is always fun to put pictures on something that is not drawn already. Especially if you can influence it and thus are attached to it.

I do? Go ahead and quote me on 'instant disaster'. Aww, did you just make that shit up, then? And then went all "I have the right to respond"? Sure, let's move on, cupcake.

I won't rise to the bait and respond to the rest of your smug comment as I'm bored of this discussion and I'm sure everyone else is too.

Enjoy the rest of the LP. Try not to moan so much when things don't go exactly the way you predict, we all have different opinions after all.

A pretty total victory for option C. The wielder will head a delegation and convince them to join you. (1 A, 1 B, 17 C, 1 D).

On a sidenote, I'm discontinuing immediately the open vote experiment, since you didn't really care for it. Moving on.

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The delegation, made by the Wielder of Fire and a small militia escort left in the early hours of the morning. They went by foot, having the Wielder scoffed at the suggestion of going by boat: 'I do not fear the weak spirits of the water, yet I do not care to travel in their domain' he said.

Several days passed without any news, then one of our boats came back from a fishing expedition saying a small flotilla of canoes and a small crowd of people were seen heading towards our camp. In front of those, the distinctive shape of the Wielder.

The group, about sixty people strong, arrived in the afternoon. The boats were carrying all the smaller tribe's belongings along with their elder and infirm. On foot came their young and strong.
The tribe's chief, a muscular man, came in front of the council to make obeisance:
'Your shaman was very persuasive. We are still reeling from the attack that so devastated our tribe a generation ago. He promised revenge and the means to obtain it... and showed great power in the worship of the spirits of fire. Some of our shamans tried to oppose him but were easily defeated and burned. It is so obvious were the favors of the wraiths lay. We are yours to command, elders.'

The elders were taken aback by this show of submission and welcomed the newcomers to the camp. The next days were spent assigning tasks and shelters to the new arrivals, while keeping an eye on them to ensure everything went smoothly.

As for the Wielder, he spent most of his time with the water shamans from the other tribe's, speaking with them and instructing them in the basic points of fire worship. He was rapidly becoming a respected member of the council and the spiritual leader of our tribe, working his utmost for the betterment of our condition.

It was in those days that one of our water shamans made a very useful discovery: a short distance from our camp, on the shore of the lake, there was a length of shore where the bank was muddy. He observed how the mud dried and hardened during hot days, while becoming malleable again during rainy ones.
Putting his mind to the task, he started making bowls and other small tools of the material. It was a hell of a lot easier than carving them from stone.

Then, a few short, peaceful months later, something we had been afraid of for so long happened. One of our scouting parties on the far side of the river came back carrying several corpses. Most of them were of ours militia. One wasn't.
The man was naked except for a wolfskin wrapped around his body, the wolf's muzzle covering his head. He was grotesquely muscled, extremely dirty and covered in wounds.



The report was brisk and made in worried tones:

'We were ranging on the far side of the river, keeping an eye out on things. Suddenly, from a thicket, we heard a great, bestial howl. Three men came rushing out of there, charging straight at us. We ordered them to stop but were ignored. They kept coming, unbelievably fast and, before we could throw our javelins, they were between us. Three of us were dead in seconds, their throats ripped out by those beasts' teeth. At that point we rallied, still outnumbering them two to one. We started stabbing, lunging, keeping them at bay with the tips of our spears yet they still attacked, oblivious of the grievous wounds they were sustaining. Another of ours went down, his neck snapped like a dry branch, then they finally slowed. One was taken down by a stab to his throat, another had his skull smashed with a rock. The third, bleeding from his arms, legs and torso, suddenly started running away.
One of our militia finally had the chance to toss a javelin, and his shot was true. He ran him through his back, and he collapsed. Before dying, he produced another great, monstrous howl.'

The scout paused, his voice troubled: 'It was answered... from far away, it was answered...'

A. One of the water shamans panicked: 'It's them! They are still here! Thank the spirits our scouts managed to bring back this priceless warning! We should pack immediately and retreat further along the shores of the lake, lest they attack in numbers and slaugher us!'
B. The Wielder of Fire stood up, a red glow very visible in his eyes: 'Let them come. We shall move not a step back. I will teach them the terror only fire can bring, until they will grovel under our feet!'
C. The head of the militia shook his head: 'We know close to nothing about these beastmen. Although it will come at great risk, we must send armed parties to scout further into the forest, to find out at the very least where and when an attack will come from. In the meanwhile, let's craft more weapons and prepare an evacuation plan, if worse comes to worst. We will not be caught unprepared as the tribes of the lake.'

You do not want to trust the lunatic here, right? Besides, scouting and weapons are a good thing. I vote

C

I agree with Vernydar.

C it is. This battle will be just as much about cunning as it is about magic.

I would say burn the forest, but since this isn't open choice I will vote C. I hope those patrols fare better than the first party.

B

C
I advise that we give this fire spirit a name. Perhaps Moloch?

Good to see our water shamans making themselves useful. Hopefully we can steer our religion to a more moderate direction if we have water shamans that provide useful clay for the tribe. And if we end up with another miracle-man who can bring rain to our crops in the future, then all the better.

Now that I think about it, the scouting option could end up really backfiring badly. We're sending our men into unknown territory against an enemy that is as much beast as it is man. We already know that they have the strength, speed and toughness of beasts, but what if they can stalk prey quietly and catch our scent in the forest as well? Our men would be in serious trouble. If they die, we would have no choice but to listen to the Wielder of Fire from there on out to simply survive. I dunno, sending our scouts in might result in a bloodbath.

We did manage to recoup our losses (and then some) with the arrival of these new refugees, so I'm happy with that. I figure that we probably got about 20 able-bodied warriors from that group to aid us.

Yes, we could lose quite a few scouts. But not sending them might be even worse. Either we send them, or we flee.

Suppose there's ten thousands barbarians. I don't care what he thinks, the wielder of fire won't be able to take them down. In that case, we flee. Or, any other number of things could go wrong. Facing these barbarians with no information could be a suicide.

So, if we do not want to investigate, we flee. Staying here knowing nothing is foolish

C

Knowledge is power.

C Makes sense.

Glad we've discovered pottery, hard to store food without it and without stored food we're vulnerable.

C
Maybe we can find their weakness

What goes on in that distant continent Eurasia?

Gonna go with C, we need to study these guys before we can draw any conclusions. Just to be clear, though, the evacuation plan is just for in case our offensive/defensive goes pear-shaped, right? We aren't gonna retreat the moment they arrive.

B, the Fire Wielder will burn them to a crisp.

C.

Well, if we find out that there's a hundred thousand of them around i.e. way too many for us to hold off it'd make sense to either relocate or start inventing fortresses.

Speaking of which, have we invented fence technology yet?

C Just because we're preparing an evacuation plan doesn't mean we have to use it. C seems to be the best of all worlds to me, we can gather more knowledge, prepare weapons and run for it if we need to, and if we do not need to run, we can let the fire wielder do his stuff and charge into glorious battle under the banners of embers.

I personally believe this is something the fire wielder can handle on his own. It's a massive group of manboons, it'll be like mowing them down with machine guns.

What I'm much more worried about is where they came from. Clearly they are supernatural. I'm worried they might be made by something or someone worth running from.

I really want to burn down that forest, but the option is not there

Anyway, C. Craft more weapon & defensive structure & let the wielder focus on training his trainees into offensive fire wielding. Tell the wielder that he is very important to the tribe & if the beasts caught him by ambush... If possible assign a few personal guards around him

I wanted to vote for "Burn" the forest too

C - Let us avast more weapons, boats and let us train more shamans in the ways of the Wielder's fire magic!

Oh hold on, the scout says "It was answered", I guess even without a scouting party we can expect an encounter anytime soon... Now I'm wondering whether C is actually needed...