Gursch in the flats

The boys laughed, "this one is weak!" one said. "No, hes died!" another said. The other two said nothing, but the four boys carried you outside, where a large carved stone pillar with intricate carvings now lay, partially in the fire. The boys tied you to the top of it, four stone pegs sticking out of it. The pillar was about 30 feet tall, and the fire was a bout 8 feet tall. Dozens of pokemon were also sitting around the fire, including Rhyhorn, a few more Poochyena, Mareep and other plains denizens. Your hands were now bound to the pillar, and your feet were tied tightly aswell. You were laying on it, than, four Rhyhorn approached, the boys had put a rope around the backside of the pillar after some hard work, which had a groove in it. Than, four Rhyhorn grabbed ahold of the ropes and pulled, you felt yourself rise in the sky as the Pillar slowly rose. When it was over, you were high above the plains, and could see everything. The hot fire made your feet warm, but was too far away to burn them. You could do nothing but watch.

The chieftan raised his hands in the air, and all the noise hushed, no drums could be heard. "Today, we sacrifice this man to the moon goddess! She will choose if he is right or wrong! May his spirit determine his destiny!" With that, the whole tried cheered. "Yeah!" they said, punching into the air. The festivities resumed, pokemon and children dancing below you, even the Poochyena earlier was dancing. Than, ten minutes later, the music stopped..

A bright white purple-tinted shimmer in the sky appeared, coming from the moon, it shot across the sky, stopping above the village. It glowed like the moon. "The moon goddess is here!" they shouted, and all the pokemon and children bowed to it's presense. "What has this person done, little ones?" the shimmer called down from the sky in it's telepathic voice.

Opening his eyes briefly, Gursch could see what he could only assume was the deity these kids worshipped. . . or a wild hallucination, he was drugged after all. He smirked and spoke weakly, "heh, looks like I'm boned after all... if their god has as much sense as they do..."

The shimmer shot down from the sky, illuminating the village in bright white light. The pokemon and children below gasped in amazement, the goddess had never come down from the sky before. Floating infront of you, an odd yellow and purple pokemon, it spoke into your head softly. "I, am Cressalia, do you embrace shadow, or light?" the pokemon said. The tribe below was completely silent, not wanting to upset the goddess.

Gursch thought about that, "you know, I've never given it much thought. I don't try to 'embrace' anything in particular, but I can't imagine many people would openly admit to being evil in front of a god. . . for a dying man, I'm way too chatty... I just do what I think is best at the time, I've killed a lot of pokemon, some I may or may not have had to, so I guess that makes me lean a bit more towards shadow then, I mean, why else would these kids want me dead?"

He couldn't believe that not only was he talking to a hallucination, talking A LOT to a hallucination, but that he answered a question that seemed to say "are you good or evil" with what basically would be assumed to mean "please kill me..." but hey, at least he was honest about it.

Cressalia shimmered for a moment, and your thoughts had resumed their normal train of thought, it had used an ability on you to cure you of your sickness, tiredness and the drug you had been induced with. "Your honesty is noteworthy, the world is a harsh world and murder is survival. For this, you are forgiven." You feel a deep, probing sensation that feels like brain-freeze. "And your previous trials have proven you a worthy advocate, you have earned my blessing." Cressalia had read your thoughts. Than, whiteness, all you could see is whiteness. You felt a sharp pain in your forehead, and when the light cleared Cressalia was gone, and the fire had been put out.

Several gasps of amazement and astonishment came from below, "Chosen one!" the chieftan yelled, kneeling and looking to the ground as the other children and pokemon repeated their chieftan's actions and knelt. "The moon goddess has given us a champion!"

Gursch was a little surprised, and glad to not be at the brink of death. Needless to say, his mood was improved somewhat despite the fact that their sacrifice actually did the opposite of kill him, can't keep all of his promises after all(like that he'd be upset if they didn't do a good job killing him, they've done about the worst possible job at killing him since he's actually healthier now than when they started).

Thirty feet up, there wasn't much that Gursch could say until the tribe would get him down.

The Rhyhorns slowly lowered the pillar down to the ground. As the pillar lowered, you saw something above your brow.. A green feather. It was attached to your forehead, and felt just like your hair. Dozens of little boys were standing over you, poking the feather in amazement, a gift from the goddess. The pillar was now on the ground, and you were untied. The boys than kneeled before you, waiting for a speech or command of sorts.

Gursch sat up and touched the feather on his head, what is this thing? It's... attached to my head? Oh well, if it gets in the way, I'll try and get it off later.

"First, can someone tell me what this is?" he asked, pointing to the feather, "Second, could I have my things back?" If they expected something glorious from him after seeing their deity face to face, he imagined they'd be a bit disappointed. The turn of events left him more or less speechless as he had gone, in a matter of seconds, from being a dead man to being some kind of demigod to these people.

The chieftan stood, still bowing "You have been gifted the lunar wing of the chosen one by the moon goddess. You will never have a nightmare again." The boys and pokemon around you were still bowing when three small boys approached you, one carrying your scyther blade, one carrying your absol horn. Seeing this, the chieftan rose and proudly declared "Gifts! We shall bring the chosen one gifts to show our kindness!" He than knelt back down. The feather was roughly 10 inches long, and was growing out of your forehead. It felt awkward in the wind, atleast now you could easily tell which direction the wind was blowing. It also became obvious that it prevented you from having nightmares.

(Immunity dream eater + nightmare attacks, aswell as a weapon against Darkrai)

All the children rose and ran in random directions towards huts, they brought you small odds and ends like bone, fur, cotton, rope, a poor quality spear made with a flaked obsidian tip and lastly a boy brought you a pocketwatch made of iron, which had broken long before than and it's glass was shattered.

(4 exp from slain poochyena earlier)

+1 Lunar Head Feather
+3 Bone necklaces
+2 Cotton balls
+2 yards of rope
+1 Obsidian tipped spear
+1 Iron Pocketwatch

Now that almost every boy in the village had given you gifts, the boys stood up, and as if they had no duty to begin with or indeed had done this a dozen times or more, began to run around in all directions, including the chieftan, who was playing tag. Seemingly the whole village ignoring you, you noticed that the sun was rising and it was now morning. One little boy touched you on the arm "Tag!" he yelled, running off into the tent where you had been held just last night.

Gursch facepalmed, the feather attached to his head still felt awkward. After he placed all of his newly obtained loot in his inventory, he looked around briefly to see if he had an opportunity to leave. He walked towards the outside of their village and tagged one of the smaller children along the way so as not to throw off their little game, making them less likely to bother him as he left. "Tag. You're it."

The little child than ran away towards the fire to go tag one of his friends, for indeed there was a ten second 'No tag-backs' rule, allowing you the opportunity to flee if you chose.

Gursch was more than ready to leave this tribe of children as he left them to their game of tag. It would have been nice if he could remember what he had seen from the pillar before Cresselia appeared, because he had no idea where he was as he walked out into the tall grasses.

As you walked through the grass a gust of cold wind came down from the north, making your feather blow in the wind. Insurpassable mountains to the north often had cold gusts of wind come down from them, growing in power and speed, then they blow across the forests and vast plains to the south. You realised that from the position of the sun, combined with the wind, that north was to your right. You were somewhere within the plains.

You hear rustling in the grass behind you, and the Poochyena from earlier appears. "I-I'm sorry.." it says. "I'd like to come with you on your travels."

Gursch turned to look at the poochyena, "You're sure you want to come with me? Your brother is dead because of me after all, you don't really owe me anything. I'll take your help if you want to come along, just be sure it's what you want. . . do you have a name?"

The Poochyena didn't know exactly why it had forgiven you for killing it's brother. "My name is Natias, my brother's was Smug, he was the worst of my brothers, and he had convinced me to fight travelers, to ambush them." Natias stared at the sky, "I didn't like him, and i'm actually glad you killed him, and I owe you for sparing me, you had every right to kill me."

Natas the Poochyena would like to join you as a follower.

(Alright, give me the code for his sheet in one way or another and I'll take him)

"Alright Natias, as long as it's fine with you I'll gladly accept your help. I think I may want to head towards Firgram province, I'd guess it's fairly close since I can see the edge of the forest from here." Gursch began walking in the direction of the forest, expecting Natias to follow and keeping an eye out for other people or pokemon in the area.

With your feather bobbing in the wind you set off to the north towards the forest, which came into view in less than a few minutes of travel. Natias was following you closely.

From this point, Gursch could see that there was a path leading into the forest fairly close to where he stood with Natias. "Alright, we'll follow this road into the forest and get to Firgram from there." That said, Gursch got onto the road and went forward to enter the forest, provided happens along the way.


*This thread is now closed*