Whatever was moving through the canopy was large, but they were all heading in the same direction. Experience said that a mass migration like this would usually lead to a water source, which was next on the list of things that Starling needed to track down. Trying to ignore the fact that the ledge they had been resting on had become significantly more comfortable in the half hour or so they had been resting. The rock smoothing out and the lip above them somehow managing to stop the sunlight getting into their eyes. Starling began to climb back down, making sure to use their Skills to make the descent as safe and quick as possible.
Once they reached the ground, it didn’t take very long to cross the path of one of the creatures that had been moving through the valley. It was pretty hard to miss, the ferns that made up most of the undergrowth here were pulped and torn aside. The air hung thickly with the smell of their sap which had an almost antiseptic smell to it. The large trees hadn’t fared much better, bark scraped and torn, smaller trees knocked aside and uprooted. As before swarms of small flying insects gathered around the thick red sap that leaked from these rents in the trees. Whatever moved through here was large and expected everything else to get out of its way. At least it made following them pretty easy.
The light was beginning to fade as the more ‘natural’ of the two suns was setting, leaving the world bathed in the strange purple light of the second sun. What filtered through to the forest floor left it seeming eerie and oddly luminescent. Some of the ferns and other plants also started to emit a light into the darkness, lighting Starling’s way in a soft glow.
Worried that they might need their Stamina later, Starling avoided using any of their skills while they cautiously followed the trail. As they passed any new plants they stopped to inspect them, seeing a common theme. Most were tinged with purple in some way, either in their fruit, leaves or body, and they were all tantalizingly close to recognisable. There was also a small subset of plants with a more dark red colouration to them, similar to some of the trees Starling had seen from the outlook earlier.
Trying to determine what was edible and what wasn’t was going to be very very dangerous. Maybe there is a skill to help with that?
The path continued through the trees until it revealed a sight that had Starling stop in their tracks. Trampled and broken, right in the path of the creatures was clearly the remains of an A frame. Seeing it sent another stroke of adrenaline through Starling’s body.
There are definitely other people in this forest.
People who really didn’t have a great idea on where to build a shelter either. Starling looked around. This was a natural depression in the forest, the ground was a little looser and they had built some sort of basic shelter at the lowest point. Then this creature had bashed its way through the area. Shattered branches showed what they had created a covering from, and it looked like some sort of vine had been used as cordage. The idea wasn’t bad, but the location and way it had been built.. This person was building like they had guessed what to do from tv, and everything they had done was wrong. Looking at the clearing, if they were forced to set up camp here Starling would have sighted their shelter over there, and they wouldn’t have used these branches. In fact pretty much everything about this was wrong, no wonder it had fallen apart.
In the back of Starling's mind, Walt picked apart the campsites deficiencies in much harsher language. He never had suffered incompetence.
[New Skill Discovered: Environmental Awareness]
[Alert: Previously Inhabited Location Detected]
[Analysis: Improper Site Selection, Insufficient Builder Skill, Improper Tool Use]
[Foundation Aspect Resonance: Structure Remnants]
[Area Status: Compromised/Unsafe]
Well at least this Foundation class thing agrees with me, this was a stupid place to set up camp.
Part of Starling felt pity for them, they must be pretty terrified out here, not knowing what to do and not having the same kind of training to fall back on. But another part looked at the ruined campsite and saw another reflected in its destruction, one with multiple ripped and battered tents and just as empty…
There was a yearning deep inside them to inspect the A-frame further, run their hands over it and see where it was flawed, to rebuild it better and stronger. This wasn’t a good place to build though, and whilst they were curious about this building ability, they needed the right location first.
Starling shook their head, breaking out of the reverie,
Doing that too often at the moment
They couldn’t see any tracks of the person who had made this, even with the skill focus. Starling guessed they had probably fled in the face of the migrating creatures and wouldn’t be anywhere near this area any more having learned their lesson. There were no signs of belongings or anything being left behind.
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Once Starling passed the campsite the trail began to head down and this seemed to confirm their suspicions that these creatures were heading for water. After a short period the trees started to open up a bit, letting them see further between them. This area had more ferns and they had grown a lot larger. Stepping off the path made by the creature they were following meant having to push through shoulder high ferns. The idea put Starling on edge, anything could be hiding in that foliage, they stuck to the center of the path, ready to run to a tree and use [Natural Climbing] to get up to safety should something attack them.
As they went they would stop occasionally and use [Environmental Awareness] to check for anything around them. The forest remained still and quiet, apart from ahead where there was definitely some kind of disturbance. Eventually, after several hours of hiking, and Starling’s thirst growing, the trees broke out to a large clearing. The purple sun had risen through the sky as Starling had hiked, and it now hung ominously above the clearing, illuminating it in a strange flat purple light.
A large river ran through the space, and clustered around the water, having trampled most of the ferns around it were the creatures that had caused the devastation so far.
Starling looked on in awe, it took several seconds of study, and activating [Environmental Awareness] for what they were seeing to make sense. Huge six legged monstrosities that towered over the area, some almost 2 stories tall. They slurped and trumpeted noisily over the water, each with several prehensile trunks that they used to suck up water and squirt into their mouths or grab big trunkfulls of ferns to feed on. Some of the larger ones had sharp looking barbed tusks that grew out from their mouths, shining in the purple half-light of the remaining sun.
Their skin, surprisingly, seemed to be a flexible bark or chitin-like material and there even seemed to be moss and lichen growing on top of them like hair. Clustered around their feet were smaller versions of the same creatures, obviously their young, running in and out of the legs of the larger ones and splashing through the water.
Starling gasped in wonder, they were like humongous multi-trunked tree elephants. Watching the little ones tromp about in the water was one of the best things they had ever seen in person. The smaller creatures used the adults to hide from each other, springing out in ambush spraying water and hooting happily. The adults seemed unconcerned by all this boisterousness, looking on at their young as they played. Occasionally a big creature would spray a huge amount of water on one of the smaller ones celebrating a successful water ambush. Starling couldn't help but smile.
Sadly all this activity meant that the water here probably wasn’t suitable to drink, but if they followed it upstream they should find a source or pool that they could use as a safe drinking source.
Whilst they thought about this something else struck them. If these creatures were gathered here in such numbers then they probably gather for protection, protection from what?
Starling's question was answered almost immediately as one of the mid-sized beasts wandered over to one of the few trees growing on its own in this large clearing. The creature looked up and unfurled its trunks, clearly going to reach for some of the leaves above when there was a loud cry and a shadow flung itself down from the higher branches and smashed into the ‘head’ of the tree-phalant. Starling cried out as the tree-phalant trumpeted in terror and the dark creature, some sort of gigantic crustacean attacked voraciously at the neck of its prey. It was hard to make out, it’s carapace the same colour as the light from the sun but Starling couldn’t miss the viscous looking claw with it’s sharp point that gouged at the tree-phalant’s neck. As the trumpeting continued, more of the dark violet crabs, equally hard to make out in the similar light of the one sun, detached from the tree and launched themselves through the air to land on the back of the injured creature.
The other tree-phalants trumpeted in dismay, herding their children between their legs and clustering together, the largest ones looking outward, vicious prongs catching the light. The tree-phalant under attack tossed its ‘head’ and somehow managed to get its own tusk under the tree-crab, using the leverage to launch it off of its neck, spinning on the spot to dislodge others. It loudly trumpeted in anger and pain and started to stomp on the crabs that had fallen into the ferns.
Starling watched in awe as this creature managed to fight off the pack of crabs, though the wounds it was taking looked severe, big rents in its bark-skin leaked that same thick looking red sap as the trees and whilst it was fighting off the crabs it was starting to slow. The rest of the tree-phalants stood and watched, only meters away. Starling wanted to urge them to help their friend, but realised with a stroke of fear they had their own problem to deal with. The largest tree-crab, flung through the air by the tree-phalant had hit the ground nearby, momentum causing it to roll on its edge through ferns.
Right towards them.
The creature came to a rest very close. Its limbs tucked in tight to the shell that protected its body. It quickly stood on its many horrible chitin-covered legs, thick bristly hairs sprouting around its joints. They moved with a horrible natural pneumatic action. The uncanniness of it turned Starling's stomach, but that was nothing to the strange palp-like eyes that gleamed in the low light as it turned and regarded Starling. With a rattle of mouthparts against its carapace it scuttled towards them at high speed and raised a wicked looking claw, like a huge hammer. The other it kept tucked in, but Starling could see it was much smaller but featured a sharp looking point that it had previously been using to try and cut through the tree-phalants bark.
Instinctively activating [Environmental Awareness] Starling cast around desperately for something to protect themselves with. Standing out in the brush nearby was a stout looking stick. The skill actually made it glow through the ferns so it was easy to see and Starling grabbed it without any hesitation. A notification appeared in their peripheral:
[New Skill Discovered: Environmental Awareness]
[Material Acquired]
[Stick: Large]
[Quality: Good - Foundation Aspect Boosting Material Quality]
Let’s go!