“Where’s Ruadh Ninyette?” Hank asked. She looked at him blankly for a second, so he repeated. “Ruadh?”

She rattled off a long drawn out explanation, which was completely unintelligible to Hank. This language thing was becoming problematic. He sighed before effecting an exaggeratedly blankly look. She sighed too, she, must find it just a frustrating. She gestured for something short before miming riding a horse.

“Right.” Hank thought for a second. Good news, he knew where both Fritz and Ruadh were. Not the best plan, he reflected, the two quietest members of the group ever had. Of course, attending to the horses shouldn’t have been forgotten. “Better give them a hand.” He grumbled as he headed back into the storm.

He briefly headed back to Jamie’s tent to update the tall Wanderer.

Struggling through the storm Hank kept a mental checklist of his progress. First port of call, head off to where the horses had been tethered. Nobody. Look for hoof prints or footprints. Check. They showed up reasonably well in the mud. Work out which direction they were going. Good luck.

Hoof and foot prints were scattered everywhere, making little sense. Hank studied them as carefully as possible given the circumstances before deciding there were only two real options for the direction their small herd had taken. He looked more closely. Much of the first set of tracks had been walked over by small shoes. Shoes too small even for the wee people, and so Hank reasoned that the kids had been involved in that large movement. Not in this weather. As he turned, following the other option, he was notified his tracking skill had levelled.

Skill Upgrade

Congratulations: Your Tracking skill has reached Tier 1

Level:

10

Bonus:

Perception +1% (Tier bonus)

Unknown (level bonus)

Notes:

You really should be resolving these ‘unknown’ issues.

Tier bonuses are contingent on several factors and are not automatically awarded nor consistent in nature. Consider yourself fortunate to have received such a reward.

As this is your first skill to reach Tier 1 you have received this notification in contravention of your notification preferences. Change your preferences to receive these notifications in future.

“Stupid notifications. The middle of a storm and I get blinded by the flashy lights. I thought I turned off spontaneous notifications.” Hank paused his gripe to focus for a second as his mind caught up. The notification had pinged because the skill had passed 10 assigning a bonus. “What’s this about perception?” Another window imposed itself over the first.

Perception

Perception is not sight so it’s improvement here will not affect your eyes. Perception is your mind’s ability to process what you see in a relevant way.

Warning:

Everything is connected to everything else.

Changes to your mind may have unforeseen side affects.

“Oh fantastic. Super useful in a storm.” Waving the windows away unbalanced Hank sufficiently he was almost blown over by a particularly powerful gust. “Stop.” He growled at himself. “Focus.” His attention returned to the tracks heading towards the valley walls. Hank followed, struggling along for half an hour before he came upon the horses. They were clustered together, dancing nervously, struggling to get away, even though restrained by their halters.

Following the halters, Hank discovered Ruadh and Fritz unconscious on the ground. Ruadh flopped around, jerked around by the horse halters he was tied too. Hank went through the herd, trying to calm the horses sufficiently to reach the men on the ground. He was only partly successful. The ferocity of the storm affected the animal’s sensibilities. Still, with a concerted effort, Hank hefted Fritz up finally draped him over the closet horse.

Ruadh proved more challenging. He was much bigger than Hank, so under normal circumstances he would have presented a challenge. Amidst the storm and tangled reins, it was next to impossible. The horses hadn’t bolted, partly because they were tied to his powerful physique. Partly because they were held together in a tangled mess of reins. Eventually Hank levered Ruadh onto a horse, almost collapsing himself with he shear physical exertion.

Disentangled the horses sufficiently to move on was the next challenge but eventually he succeeded. He couldn’t take the horses back to camp, there wasn’t sufficient shelter. Thinking about it for a moment he eventually guessed where Fritz or Ruadh had been leading them. The mine wasn’t more than a cave at this time. But it had enough room for the horses. He turned the head of the lead horse and headed off into the storm.

The conditions continued to worsen as he tugged the horses onwards. Finding a slopping drop-off running north south towards the cliffs, Hank pulled the horses into the lee, hoping for a measure of shelter. It was only partly successful, but the horses picked up the pace with renewed vigour.

Just short of the cliffs, the ridge gave way to a slope leading down to a sheltered pool and stream well below the rolling grasslands he had been walking through. The pool showed none of the ferocity of the storm he struggled against. Furthermore, there seemed to be cavern running around around the edge. Without further thought he lead the horses carefully down the slope and into the cavern on the southern side of the pool. Hearing a hiss, he whipped around, seeing an enormous snake lunging towards him. Obviously he wasn’t the first creature seeking shelter here.

Hank never believed in luck, however today he believed he used it all. The natural arc of his turn brought the steel end of his staff crashing into the snake. Nothing close to fatal, however, it did give him sufficient respite to deal with the snake’s frenzied onslaught.

Heaving and panting from adrenalin more than exertion Hank gradually became aware of a large amount of noise, stomping, neighing and other horse noises behind Hank, he ignored. He focused on the snake. Eventually, able to knock it down and smash its head into the rocky floor with his staff. He was greeted with a satisfactory notification.

Log (Combat)

Actors

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Result

Level

XP Gain

Hank

Killing crevasse snake

7

20

Thunder’s herd

Killing five crevasse snakes

1 to 8

14

Horses are herd animals. All herd action experience is shared equally with all herd members within 20 metres. They consider their humans as herd members.

Wow, horses really don’t like snakes, Hank concluded. Also, letting them kill stuff was bad for his efforts to level, but hey, there was no way he could have handled 6 snakes at once. Hang on, a thought just went through his head. Did the horses just get XP for killing things? Does that mean the horses can level? All things had levels, but what bonuses came with animal levelling? Was it a conscious thing or was there some way of directing their levelling? In any case there was no time to dwell on this, he had a number of sick friends to attend to.

Once Hank flicked the remains of the snakes out of the way, the horses were quite content to huddle in the cavern away from the storm. He pulled Fritz down from his mount, laying him out along a cavern wall before inspecting him thoroughly. Bruising showed at least one horse had kicked Fritz in the head. A concerning injury as Hank knew horse kicks killed men occasionally. Pulling Ruadh down from his horse revealed a similar story. However, also had a couple of broken ribs from a kick or a stomp to his side. The horses had been well and truly spooked.

Hank contemplated his next move. He couldn’t move either patient yet. Yet he also needed his medical supplies. There was nothing for it. He left the pair with the horses and ventured back into the tempest. Hail had now taken over from the earlier sleet as the temperature continued to fall. Fortunately, light from the frequent crashes of lightning helped Hank find the camp, but it was striking closer and he feared the tent height might attract lightning strikes.

He struggled up to Jamie’s tent, fighting his way in. Sabine had awoken, though describing herself woozy had been encouraged back to sleep by Jamie. Hank inspected her, concluding her breathing was easier, making her likely to recover quickly. As quickly as he was able, he updated Jamie whilst packing what he now considered his medical pouch. It was nothing fancy, a modest bag he kept in his backpack containing limited measures of each medical item he possessed. He grabbed a couple of blankets and his medical notes, stuffing everything into a weatherproof sack before braving the storm once more.

Hank strove over to the Ore Cane tent, using frequent gestures and some common words he hoped he conveyed to Ninyette that he had found Ruadh. Since his last visit Marko had ventured into the storm, successfully finding Gruffly. On their return a tent guy rope had snapped as they passed. It’s tension caused it to whip out, slicing Marko’s calf open down to the bone. Their return interrupted Hank’s efforts at describing what else had befallen Ruadh. Ninyette took one look at Marko’s wound and grabbed the nearest cloth jamming it into the wound as she attempted to quench the blood flow.

A quick look told Hank, Marko was in danger of bleeding out. It was the worst cut Hank had ever seen. He spent an hour stitching the wound, slathering it with his precious slave and pouring one experimental remedy after another down Marko’s throat. Based on Hank’s research, they should work. Might work. Well, hopefully one would. The theory was solid, ish. Since Marko had consumed the rest of his medical stash, Hank figured it only fair Marko played guinea pig for the new more experimental stuff.

After treating Marko, Hank could finally finish explaining to Ninyette Ruadh’s situation. Well that’s what he hoped had happened. It was even money she thought he was talking about a new fishing spot. A mixed blessing as he and Gruffly spent almost fifteen minutes endeavouring to prevent Ninyette and the Ore Cane children dashing to his rescue in spite of the storm. Hank kept explaining everything would be fine if he could return and treat him. All to no avail. It was enough to drive someone to drink. His frustration resulted in more than one comment about idiots who don’t speak common. On the verge of swearing, one of the children finally understood his comments. Turning to her friends, she rattled off enough quick fire Barbary to finally calm the rest of the Ore Cane sufficiently for Hank to venture back into the storm.

So by the time Hank returned to the cavern, he was spent. But as the saying went there was no rest for the wicked. Ruadh was freshly awake, trying to move in spite of his pain. So Hank returned to his least favourite task. Trying to convey meaning across language barriers. Eventually he gave up resorting to drugging him insensible with draughts of some weird pain killer he’d made. Hank questioned many ingredients his notes prescribed, but wasn’t knowledgeable enough to second guess the recipes at this stage. His concerns revolved around the sedative side effects they had and his shear guess work at Ruadh’s size and physiology. Still once the large man was unconscious he was able to get to the next patient.

Fritz was much more worrying. As far as Hank could tell he’d been unconscious for about four hours. With little to do and reservations about his only treatment for head trauma, Hank kept him warm and waited for him to wake. A few hours later, Hank could relax as Fritz awoke. Limited in their ability to converse, Hank gathered that Fritz had no memory since before the storm’s arrival. Hank was reluctant to dose Fritz, but after complaints about a massive headache, Hank relented, dosing him with the same concoction prepared for Ruadh. Fritz settled, quickly falling asleep. Figuring that the horses would wake everyone if there was serious danger, Hank allowed his exhaustion to pull him into sleep.

When he awoke the following day, Hank discovered the storm had blown itself out. He un tethered the horses, leading them back up onto the plateau. He re-tethered them to a rocky outcrop with enough rope to allow them to feed before heading back to camp. On reaching his destination he was immediately confronted by a raging Gruffly. Hank was glad he, once again, had no idea what the unpleasant man blathered about in Compidg.

Ignoring him, he ducked into Jamie’s tent, partly to spite the odious short man and partly to find Jamie. He wasn’t there. Sabine, though sufficiently awake to translate, wasn’t moving fast, but she was up. Gruffly seemed not to care and launched into a tirade. Loud and furious, he gestured and pointed at Hank. Sabine still feeling worse for her ordeal, leveraged herself up and rather than reply to her brother, punching him hard in the gut. He folded over and dropped to the ground.

“You ungrateful little snot.” She said as he tried to pick himself up. “Not only has Hank brought us here, found a mine and fed us. He has also put that liability you call a friend, Marko, back together, what? Four times by my count. He’s also treated myself, Fritz and you more than once. And don’t even start on me about maps.” Still clueless as to Gruffly’s current issue, Hank left them to what appeared to be another uncomfortable argument.

He walked over his semi built hut. All that remained was a mangled collection of wood. Loose logs? Gone. Blown to who knows where. Hank reflected on his fortune, in short he had none. He was back to square one. Six days wouldn’t be sufficient to finish a hut. He re opened his quest.

Quest : Found a village

Part :

1 - Find a spot

Description :

Find a nice spot to start a village

It is recommended that there is a source of fresh water with good drainage. You will also need a way for your villages to support themselves, local food sources and constructions materials

Status :

Open

Reward :

Unknown

Failure :

-150 xp

Loss of reputation with aligned people groups (currently Grufly’s people, Wolf Clan, Jamie’s troupe, Elise’s friends)

“Charlatan” appended to personal status

Warnings :

Failure to complete this part invalidates entire quest

Once failed this test cannot be restarted

There was no hope and that list of penalties was killer. He refused to contemplate the other quest parts. In a moment of depression, he laid it out before Jamie who had joined him in contemplating the ruin that seemed to sum Hank’s dreams.

“You know my people have an old saying. It’s been with us since before we considered ourselves a people. Something we ingrain in our children. It makes the most sense in these times.” Jamie reflected somewhat philosophically.

“A saying huh.” Hank was sceptical.

“Yep.” There was a pause. “Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”

Jamie paused. “Don’t give up, there is still time. I am sure that you can find a way. Perhaps you just need to reexamine the possibilities. Do you have to build a house to have a village?”

“It doesn’t say so in the quest.” Hank replied morosely.

“The Ore Cane have towns, they never build buildings, they only have tents.” Jamie commented, effecting the same philosophical tone. Then without letting Hank see, he smirked to himself as he turned away.

A smile came to Hank’s face as the metaphorical light dawned. He walked over to the tent he shared with Jamie and pulled out a piece of wood he had been carving for a few weeks. He had bored two holes into it, tying a short piece of rope through each hole. A solitary pole remained vertical in the hut’s remains. With a nonchalant flick, he hung his sign from the post.

Jamie looked at it. “What is that?”

Hank just shrugged and smiled. Roughly carved into the wood were three words.

Welcome to

Hankston