Blue dots indicate travelling in relative safety while red indicates major incidents, yellow dots are moments of blind terror, blue square is where I started, and yellow is where I finished. White and gray squares are special markers.
In order:
1. Nish Koltulan finds himself in the hamlet of Toolwards in The Wealthy Confederacies, a human civilization in the Granite Plains, which is roughly two-thirds of the world away from his homeland in the great mountain range The Bronze Towers.
2. He recruits two humans from a nearby fortress as bodyguards and heads south. It becomes dark so they venture into a lair named Certainsculpted the Apogee of Harvesting that is inhabited by the giant, Stasoz. The three of them manage to kill the giant by bleeding it to death with a copper bolt. Kor Cheesecandle gets credit for the kill.
3. The three reach the Scholarly Fingers and begin to cross rather than taking a longer route around. Cheesecandle wanders off in pursuit of the local wildlife while the other, On Enjoycrested, is foully slain by Rightscale, female yak cow. Cheesecandle is apparently still out there.
4. Now bereft of companionship, Koltulan crosses the range by himself and turns southwards in the hope of finding replacements. He happens across a region called Glovemined which oddly enough has two helmet snakes lounging around on the surface. Knowing that they cannot survive outside of their nature subterranean habitat, Nish throws rocks at them until they die.
5. After a mad dash to avoid being stranded out alone after dark, Nish takes refuge near a handy cave entrance and manages to make a nearby city the next night without incident.* The city Whimtakes is the largest settlement in the Lined Realm. He recruits two replacement humans and ventures out to survey the area.
6. There are a lot of rivers here so Nish decides he needs backup. He sneaks into a lair named Renowned Feral the Hale Spark and discovers a cyclops. He wisely lets the humans take the lead and Dosheb Cudgelprairies takes the credit for the kill. Nish and colleagues return to the city and he recruits more bodyguards as the slaying of the cyclops improves his standing with the people. Nish learns about the region in more detail; reputedly a dwarf-eating carp lurks either at or very near the cave he stayed at recently. It ate some poor fellow by the name of Orky apparently. The local lord Tor Minecrowd assigns Nish to slay a giant cave spider and he sets off in that direction with his entourage.
7. A lot of the rivers prove to be nigh impassible despite Nish's competency as a swimmer. Since entering them instantly grants a status of drowning and the water isn't potable due to its stagnant nature, it is decided to head southwest towards the Bronze Towers instead. There is a narrow ithmus that way which leads between the two local seas. Despite attempts to keep them together, one of the swordsmen runs off immediately after something. During the crossing, several of the party are drowned including both Dosheb Cudgelprairies**, the heroic pikeman and his namealike spearman.
8. Those remaining are set upon by dingos three times, one of which manages to inflict numerous scars on each of Nish's hands. Nish manages to use the situation to become a novice Butcher. After the third encounter, Nisam Uncleweak is wounded and falls behind. He is still alive apparently somewhere out there in either The Cavernous Swamp or The Prairie of Queens.
9. Nish and his surviving colleage get lost for a while before deciding to follow the largest river in the region in the hopes of finding a city. This one is Whimkin as the humans of this continent apparently have a naming tendency that favors the whimsical. His past adventures have no influence on the locals and he only manages to recruit a single replacement for the five fallen comrades. While there, Nish visits the local cathedral and admires some of the local artwork.
10. The trio sets off due west towards the Bronze Towers and have to cross a particularly marsh region that costs him both his escorts. In a blind panic, Nish flees directly westward in an attempt to reach the mountains before sunset. He's too far away but walks right into a human hamlet by the name of Depthbronze. After a talk with a General Ino Gladnessgorged about the surrounding area***, Nish manages to find a female archer that agrees to go along. Depthbronze is separated form its elder twin Dendwellings by a river too wide for the limited bridge making attempts of the humans; he attempts to swim across but immediately has to return to shore as the stagnant, yet moving water makes him flounder. That seems annoyingly common on this continent for some reason. His companion Rogon Cavetrails also manages to clamber back to shore.
11. It is discovered that the strange river freezes over completely at night a bit to the south of of Depthbronze and the duo crosses over. They meet the law-giver of the Romantic Empire****, Thel Sloppykindness and talk to every single person they can find with nobody willing to take Nish up on his travel offer. In the middle of the following night, they cross back over and find a swordsman to accompany them, Mukca Purpleprison.*****
12. The trio sets out, cautiously avoiding the evil forest in the region and crossing the blessed swamp. Finally reaching The Bronze Tower, they turn south to follow the mountain range and eventually run across a lair called Dwellerechoed. Since it's getting dark (and there is a mountain range nearby that Nish can run for if necessary, not that the humans needed to know that), it's decided to look inside and see what inhabits it. Nothing more than a jaguar, which is slain by Mukca.
13. The trio sleeps and sets out south, which leads to them finding out that the way forward is blocked by The Bronze Tower. While they were travelling south as they thought, it was actually within a large valley and not the outside edge of the range as previously believed.****** Rather than backtrack, it is decided to simply cross the vast range on foot.******* The name The Bronze Tower apparently comes from the fact that the range mainly consists of conglomerate and other rocks of a vaguely bronze coloration.
14. After a long while, Mukca wanders off in pursuit of whatever it was that she was after. While a bit of the fool, it is hoped that she managed to return to The Romantic Empire as she was a lot more faithful comrade then some like a certain swordsman from Whimtakes whose name I can't be bothered to recall. Nish has taken to using a crutch that he acquired in the lair of Ator the Cyclops as a walking stick.
15. Nish and his remaining comrade trudge on alone. At one point, Nish spies a particularly majestic peak in the distance and makes a detour towards it. Nish Koltulon and Rogon Cavetrails are the first to ever reach the summit of the Plain Thorn, one of the highest peaks in the Bronze Towers. Days later, they reach a small swampy valley and cross it. Tragedy strikes when Rogon drowns during a standard river crossing. In an uncharacteristic moment, Nish chooses to honor his fallen comrade by carrying her corpse and items along with him.********
16. After several days of travelling alone, Nish arrives at Silverysects while muttering about how he is "gonna fly now" and is somewhat annoyed to find nothing there.********* Using campfires, he creates a funeral pyre for his honored comrade Rogon Cavetrails and decides to retire in the area just to see who else shows up.
*It turns out a coyote devil settled somewhere in this cave, which makes that decision not to actually delve into the cavern a good one. I just looked around to see if there was any wildlife before sleeping.
** I thought that bug was fixed a long time ago, but whatever.
*** Turns out that the generalship was a collaborative effort by the citizens while law-giver was created by forceful arguments.
**** I just want to say that I like the idea of two cities forever parted by circumstances being The Romantic Empire.
***** Seriously, there is nobody in Dendwelling that will go. I didn't bother with Empathy though which might explain that.
****** I genuinely was surprised when I found out that I was in The Valley of the Dwarves as I thought I was southwest of there.
******* I don't recommend this unless you have a lot of time on your hands; it takes forever to walk from the Valley to the southernment tip of The Bronze Towers.
******** I don't get too attached to companions since they have an annoying tendency to walk off randomly, but this one had been a faithful follower for about a third of the trip. Hence it being marked.
********* It's the dwarven equivalent of Oakland!
Stuck with the slow connection tonight so I'll upload the save tomorrow.
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Topic: NEW CHALLENGE: starting at the dawn of time! (Read 541160 times)