[SD:DD] More Regional Chatter - Chapter 1

(SoulDive’s official Forum, Regional Chat)

BertVurn, Billium, DesDose, Filegreen, FeltFelt, InkyCat, JuneSupport, KillTheKrill, May/Hem, MoxieBoxie, No2Ways, Vibez420, WizardsName, Zap2to2Zap, ZZZJohn

DesDose: So, let me get this straight. You were only supposed to be on the road for a few weeks at the most.

May/Hem: yep

DesDose: But it ended up taking you multiple months?

May/Hem: nods head

DesDose: I’ve just got to ask, HOW?!

May/Hem: Laughs

JuneSupport: The rest of us blame them.

WizardsName: Yep, they saw some sort of tower and convinced us to take a look. Not sure what it was?

May/Hem: We ended up exploring the wilds a bit!

WizardsName: by which they mean we were lost.

InkyCat: Oh, you likely got fae trapped. They like to do stuff like that.

KillTheKrill: It might have been a wizard’s tower! Some of them can move around and they tend to be protected by things like illusion barriers.

JuneSupport: or we just got lost. That’s my bet.

May/Hem: Anyway! We didn’t find the tower, which sucks, but whatever. It did result in us finding a bunch of neat things! Felt like the system was making up for us getting almost to level ten without any real loot.

JuneSupport: Which isn’t the least likely possibility. Not a lot of fighting, but we do find valuables? Not exactly an everyday sort of thing.

InkyCat: Le Sigh, likely wasn’t the fae then. They tend to lead you into combat, not treasure. Err, well, I guess technically it can lead to treasure? Just the sort with a guardian.

KillTheKrill: Though the peaceful bit doesn’t point to or away from a wizard’s tower. They might not all be pillars of uniqueness. Only so many ways you can build one. The details can vary wildly.

InkyCat: Oh yeah, since you didn’t find the tower, what did you find?

WizardsName: Kept stumbling into herb patches. Went with the usual take two, leave one pattern. Make sure others can find something later on and gives them a chance to grow back.

May/Hem: We found a plant that is apparently worth three digits of gold! Sold it at a strange town we came across. InkyCat, that may have been fae related! The town, that is. Everyone kept asking for our names and we got offered free food. Which, yeah, we turned it all down, traded some stuff, and got out.

JuneSupport: Either fae, demons, or something underworld related. We didn’t stick around or look deep enough to find out.

InkyCat: Meh, a little too straightforward. The fae stories we’ve heard from the game so far tend more towards being a lot sneakier than that. Could have been a normal town in the middle of nowhere.

JuneSupport: There was something wrong with the place.

KillTheKrill: Maybe more of a cannibal commune? Was it an actual town or an extended family?

May/Hem: There were no eyes in those hills as far as we could see. Like any small isolated town they were a bit related, but nothing mutant-y. Our biggest problem was that there wasn’t a road and we got lost again once we were out of sight.

WizardsName: My bet is on some sort of illusion.

InkyCat: Just really weird.

InkyCat: Wait, you got gold pieces from them? Do you still have them? Fae or otherwise, a ton of those sort of things like to give trick coins of one sort or another.

JuneSupport: they’re genuine pieces. Or more specifically, we only took attuned for the herbs because that’s harder to counterfeit.

InkyCat: Really? Why haven’t I heard of that?

DesDose: Eh, I guess it is technically true? Or more like, you can start to draw on attuned pieces. I’ve used it to check on the specific attunement of a piece before using it. Though since you can draw on the power? While I’m sure a powerful enough entity can mimic the draw, it would be a good way to test them?

JuneSupport: Basically that

May/Hem: We got a few wood, a rock, and a crop attuned for everything. Could have gotten some regular pieces, but June went for the crop ap over another rock instead. Guess they’re, well, not worth more, but useful?

JuneSupport: They’re worth the same amount, technically. You try to use them for a generic something or other and they go just as far. Can’t even spend them as cash for more. However, properly attuned pieces are worth more if used to craft something that makes better use of what the piece is attuned to. So you need less fire ap to craft a scroll of fireball than you would of any other ap. Though thankfully this doesn’t go in reverse, so a water ap won’t be worth less for the crafting. Just a little quirk to make people seek out the proper ingredients.

DesDose: That and there are certain applications with strict requirements on the attunement of what you’re using. Try and make a bag of holding with anything that isn’t attuned with space in some manner and it just won’t work.

May/Hem: Huh, I would figure wood and crop ap would be about the same tier? Why the difference?

DesDose: Everyone needs to eat. An enchanted rake will avoid crops. An enchanted box will preserve them. Hell, just throwing that power into the fertilizer and the power boosts the fertilizer’s effectiveness. Wood is nice and all, but people like to eat.

May/Hem: Fair. Besides that, though, we stumbled on a lot of random nonsense. Seems all those interesting things used in old stories for crafting stuff have value?

WizardsName: Really sucked that the thunderstruck tree was guarded by something out of our league.

InkyCat: Any old tree that is struck by lightning isn’t going to be worth any more than a regular tree.

WizardsName: I don’t think a normal tree that was struck by lightning would still have a branch that sparks.

InkyCat: No kidding? Yeah, you are unlucky! That branch would be worth mp! Was it an oak?

WizardsName: Yes? Not that it matters since we have less than a clue on where to find it.

InkyCat: I’d bet that was actually an ironwood tree. While normal trees can end up with that happening, they don’t tend to survive the event. To survive and still spark? You need the tree to also be something special. Though I have to wonder what else you got, if that was the high end?

May/Hem: Well, there was actual fae?

InkyCat: and you’re only mentioning this now?

WizardsName: There was A fae. Singular. And we killed it.

InkyCat: shakes head, if there was A fae, there was Multiple fae. Forests are binary like that. Once one shows up, others come along for the ride. Like, I guess if it was a summon? But it seems like you got something from it. Not that it’s actually dead. They tend to reincarnate if you don’t take precautions.

May/Hem: Hah! It wishes it could reincarnate, the stupid redcap. Try and pull that nonsense with me around? I strangle your soul! No reincarnation for you. You want back? Do it like everyone else.

DesDose: side eyes MayHem, since when could they strangle a soul?

DesDose: derp, missed the slash. May/Hem

May/Hem: you’re fine. Oh, and wouldn’t you like to know?

DesDose: Yes

InkyCat: Yes

WizardsName: Yes

KillTheKrill: yes

Billium: Yes

Zap2to2Zap: Duh

FileGreen: please?

ZZZJohn: yes

JuneSupport: combo breaker! Oh, and I might have an idea.

May/Hem: Really? How do I do it?

Billium: Wait, you don’t know?

May/Hem: shrug Why would I know? Just because I saw that short murder hobo escape their body and decided to double tap doesn’t mean I know how I did it.

Billium: Ugh, guess it was too much to ask. Damn ghosts are annoying to deal with.

JuneSupport: As I was saying, I have a theory and sadly for you, it won’t help get you a cheaper option to replace ghost touch.

Billium: Nothing ever does

JuneSupport: anyway, fae don’t technically die. They’re close to beings like angels and demons. You know, the whole not being able to die outside their home plane of existence? Except the fae, as ever, pull it off by tricks. Their souls escape and run off to the feywild which exists between here and dream. But yeah, they spin themselves a new body out of dream stuff. Depending on the type of fae changes up what kind of dream stuff they use.

May/Hem: that’s cool. How do I still manage to kill them?

JuneSupport: fae are an aspect of chaos, same as the dreamlands. Given what you are? I wouldn’t be surprised if you could see a bit into that side of things and touch it.

May/Hem: So me seeing them as ghostly isn’t because they were a ghost?

JuneSupport: That would be because you are only slightly seeing into that layer. Though we should probably take this out of chat. It isn’t technically personal. I’m sure there are more than enough people dabbling in it, but it’s more personal for you.

May/Hem: Okay. So yeah, if you kill a redcap, their cap is worth bank if you soak it in their blood. Which sounds disgusting, but their cap is magic and absorbs the blood line it was nothing.

May/Hem: stupid autocorrect. like not line

InkyCat: Do you not know how they get their name?

May/Hem: Their cap is red?

InkyCat: Their cap is red from soaking it in the blood of those they’ve killed. The reason it becomes a magical component you can use in enchanting by soaking it in their blood is because of the thematic elements. Not only does magic enjoy irony like that to begin with, but the fae double down on it.

JuneSupport: Yep, though this also involves a bit of vengeance for the dead.

May/Hem: Huh, learn something new every day.

InkyCat: Not going to do you much good. The fae aren’t fans of the desert. They’re more of a forest folk.

JuneSupport: Eh, the fae are everywhere.

InkyCat: Oh, sure, there are fae everywhere. But their courts are the four seasons as experienced in a forest. Summer is not the deathly heat of a desert. Their winters are not the warm of an equatorial region. Summer is the Seelie court of a growing forest, while winter is the Unseelie court of empty limbs and snow in a sleeping forest.

May/Hem: but we’re going to the illusion desert. That may be fae!

InkyCat: rolls eyes, they have their own illusions and while it’s not likely simple mirages, it also isn’t the fae. You’re more likely to run into the jinn.

May/Hem: Blarg, fae or jinn, what’s the difference?

InkyCat: Well, besides the cultural and historical significance? The jinn come from this realm and not the feywilds. That and they’re closer to elementals than they are the fae. Who, as mentioned, are closer to beings like angels and demons.

JuneSupport: There are a bunch of beings that on the surface seem the same as a bunch of others. The fae, jinn, mephits, yokai, and so on. SoulDive has tried to implement such beings in ways that are truthful to the source material. They are not recolors of each other.

InkyCat: Exactly!

May/Hem: Eh, as long as we can sell the cap in the desert city we’re coming up on? I don’t care if it came from a fae, jinn, or a dust bunny.

DesDose: Don’t tempt fate! The desert is dusty enough and bunnies have a history of being that joke enemy which absolutely eviscerates you with just a glance.

May/Hem: That would be interesting.

JuneSupport: Though not likely. If a place was to have dust bunnies, it would be some sort of large dormitory situation. I’d bet that a “living” dust bunny would require a higher quantity of “organic” dust instead of just a ton of sand.

May/Hem: fair enough

DesDose: Yeah, I can see that.

WizardsName: and besides, we already know the basic sort of enemies we’ll be facing. A bunch of desert critters and if we’re unlucky, an undead or two.

May/Hem: I wonder what roasted giant scorpion tastes like! We didn’t exactly get any lobsters despite being on the ocean for so long.

JuneSupport: Well, yeah? We were out to sea and those tend to be on the ocean floor. Something we did not have a ghost of a chance of reaching. The deep ocean is just that, Deep. Though even if you had a long enough fishing line, you don’t catch lobsters with a hook.

Desert Disaster Preface

Other Travellers Did It This Time - Chapter 2