Maroftis, who had quickly stopped bleeding from the several bites that he had received, finished the creature off by landing a strike where the plating and fur met on its left side. The pitiful sound that it made as it died almost made him feel bad for the thing, but he looked at the bite marks on his arms and reconsidered.
Vultressant spoke with Galuk, who remained in the tree despite assurances that the area looked clear. Taloc and Vanya scouted the surrounding area looking for more tracks, and after a minute or so of nothing, Galuk finally made his way down the tree. He did keep a hand on it and looked ready to scramble up it at a moment’s notice.
“So, climbing or swimming are how the Anurans get away from those things,” Vultressant announced to no one in particular.
“Why we not conquer them why?” Maroftis asked.
“Any loot?” Isla asked, shaking her head at Maroftis.
“What? Oh, so I’m the asshole here. All of you were thinking it,” Maroftis said in Koraken. He was waving an accusatory claw at the group. They understood the implication, if not the words he was using.
“Lighten up, dude,” Vultressant replied in Common.
“We should cut off the tails and grab some meat,” Ewtain said.
“Why the tails?” Isla inquired.
Ewtain shrugged. “Those things were slapping you guys around pretty well with their tails, and they might make good weapons if we can figure out how to fashion one.” He considered them for a moment. “Maybe not the entire tails, but some portion of them, I guess.”
“Weren’t you also hit by a tail?” Isla asked.
“What?” Ewtain asked. “That can’t be right. You must be confused. I just needed a breather, and having a rest is all.”
“Sure,” Isla said, rolling her eyes.
Taloc accessed the corpse of one of the two reddish ballowsans, and the menu provided three options: butchering, extract essence, and skinning. He accessed butchering, and a new window popped up:
Butchering:
Harvest 2 to 10 pounds of usable meat.
Select a party member to butcher the meat.
Taloc: 14 Dexterity, wilderness lore level 1
Maroftis: 12 Dexterity, wilderness lore level 1
Ewtain: 30 Dexterity, anatomy level 1
Isla: 22 Dexterity
Vanya: 15 Dexterity, anatomy level 1, survival level 1
Vultressant: 13 Dexterity
It seemed clear that Dexterity was the primary stat being used to determine success in butchering, and the skills would also help that success. The problem was which skill was more useful, and did Vanya’s survival skill outweigh Ewtain’s having twice her Dex? Galuk did not appear on the list, but that wasn’t surprising, since he didn’t show up in the party window either. Taloc went on to the next window.
Extract Essence:
Extract the essence of the creature.
Select a party member to extract the essence.
Vanya: 14 Psyche, body magic level 2, divine magic level 2
Vultressant: 16 Psyche, fire magic level 2
There was obviously a prerequisite for this, and Taloc determined that it must be magic ability since his Psyche was the same as Vanya’s. He called the others over to him and projected the windows so that the rest of the party could read them. He opened the last window and projected that one as well.
Skinning:
Remove 0 to 20 scales.
Select a party member to remove the scales.
Taloc: 14 Dexterity, wilderness lore level 1
Maroftis: 12 Dexterity, wilderness lore level 1
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Ewtain: 30 Dexterity
Isla: 22 Dexterity
Vanya: 15 Dexterity, survival level 1
Vultressant: 13 Dexterity
They all read the projected information, and Isla was the first to speak. “Maybe we have to have a Psyche of 14 or better to extract the essence. Mine is only 13. Hey, I gained another level!” she exclaimed. “I could drop a point into Psyche to see if that’s it.”
“Not necessarily,” Taloc said. “I have a 14, and I’m not listed.” Taloc checked his notifications, and he found that he too had gained a level. He immediately put his five stat points into Vitality, as his main goal was to stay alive. With that plus the added 50 HP from the Vitality boost, he felt better about his chances. He also went through his other notifications to find that his skills had increased as well; bow was up to level three, as was long blades. Light armor and rapid shot were both now at level two. No one was seriously hurt, so overall it had been a good encounter.
“It looks like it’s the magic ability then, or magic affinity,” Vanya said. “Who should try extracting the essences?”
“Why don’t we each take one of the two larger ones, since they seemed easier to kill,” Vultressant said. “Also, I think that we should do that first, since it’s the only one of the three tasks that could be time sensitive. The butchering could be too, I suppose, but we don’t need the meat.”
“Meat good,” Maroftis said.
“I don’t know that I want to eat the meat of an apex predator,” Vultressant said.
“Let’s not rush to judgment on that,” Taloc said. “Those scales that they have on their bodies look like they’re defensive, so they are probably food for something else.”
The Wizard nodded, conceding the point. “Fine, I’ll try some.”
Taloc assigned Vanya to extract the essence of the ballowsan that he currently had the windows open for, and then he accessed the second large one and assigned Vultressant to extract from that one. He turned back to see Vanya holding her hand towards the creature’s corpse with a pained expression on her face. She seemed to be straining herself, but then she relaxed and gripped something in her outstretched hand. Vultressant began making the same motion as Vanya had, but his expression seemed much less pained, and he quickly finished the process and carried what was presumably the essence back to the group.
Each essence was in a clear cylindrical tube that resembled a test tube without the opening. The containers were completely sealed, and there did not appear to be any way to open them short of breaking them. The essences themselves were in liquid form and red in color. Vanya handed the vial to Maroftis for safekeeping and said, “I had apparently also gone up a level in the fight, and I now have extract essence as a skill.”
“Same here,” Vultressant said. “Which one of us should do the big guy?”
Taloc accessed the loot for the large black ballowsan and went to the extract essence option and projected it for the others:
Extract Essence:
Extract the essence of the creature.
Select a party member to extract the essence.
Vanya: 14 Psyche, extract essence level 1
Vultressant: 16 Psyche, extract essence level 1
“Well, it looks like Vult,” Ewtain said. “He has the better stats, and it looked like he had an easier time of it than Van did.” He looked over at Vanya to gauge her reaction.
Vanya either ignored the comment or chose not to reply. Instead, she said, “The other skills that were listed aren’t there anymore.”
“It probably lists the attributes and skills that help you until you get the actual skill,” Vultressant replied.
“Can butchering next? Getting hungry.” Maroftis asked, patting his stomach for emphasis.
Taloc looked over at Maroftis. “I think that we need to do the skinning first, in case the butchering ruins the scales or something.”
Maroftis half-turned his face towards Taloc and gave him what could best be described as a dirty look, but his stomach made the only other protest as it could be heard growling loudly.
“Who should do the skinning?” Ewtain asked.
Taloc, glad for the opportunity to look away from that glaring eye of his reptilian friend, voiced his earlier thoughts about this. “Earlier, I was trying to decide if the stat or the skills were more important. After seeing that the skills needed were replaced with just the extract essence and the stat remains, it seems that the stat is pretty important. I think that you should certainly do one of them, Ewt, but the other I don’t know. Isla has the next highest Dex, and if we don’t have her do the other one, is survival or wilderness lore better? But those questions aside, Vult, go and get the essence from the black one before anything else.”
Vultressant nodded and went over to the inky black form and stretched out his arm with his palm towards the ballowsan. This effort took considerably longer than his first attempt, and after about two minutes, Vultressant began to sweat and looked to be straining. He closed his eyes, and a moment later he closed his hand around another vial. He slumped and put his free hand on his knee to steady himself. He walked over to Maroftis and handed him the vial.
Maroftis took it and said in Koraken, “There’s a lot of sweat on your head, dude. You should really mop that up, your head is starting to glisten.” Vultressant looked up at Maroftis; he was clearly annoyed, but he made no retort.
“That one is darker than the other two,” Isla said. The first two had been more reddish-pink in color, but this one was a dark red.
Vultressant looked away from Maroftis, who appeared to be grinning evilly back at him; those reptile teeth were unsettling. “That’s probably because that one is an essence, and the other one was a lesser essence. Assuming that it’s more potent and thus a darker red, the black ballowsan might just be a different kind of those things. Or it could be something else, I guess,” he added lamely. Then he smiled and said, “On the plus side, I’m now at level two in the extract essence skill.”
Taloc looked at the essence vial and said, “It’s probably some sort of tier system; the black one was tougher, so it probably warrants a better essence.” He looked at the group. “I think that Ewt should skin one of the red ones, and I would like to do the other one if there are no objections.”
“What about big one?” Maroftis asked.
“I say we do the same thing as before: whichever one does better on the first one does the black one,” Taloc replied. Receiving no objections, he looked to the casters. “Can you guys give us an idea as to what to expect?”
“I got a prompt asking me if I would attempt to extract the essence of the ballowsan,” Vanya said. “Once I mentally clicked ‘accept’, I could see the essence, and I sort of willed it out of the thing. I had an instinct as to what I was supposed to do, and I just focused my will on it.”
“The second one was tougher to do, because it was a higher level or because the essence was stronger,” Vultressant said. “I had knowledge of what to do, so that made it easier. I doubt that I could have succeeded on the black one if I had done it before learning the skill.”
“Okay, thanks” Taloc replied.