Flashback flying through and soaring true.

[Eridanus]

Day 81, Fall of 416 AV
Early Afternoon
Aylasa Caves

"Yeller! Hurry dammit!" Eridanus called, as he sprinted across the grassy plains, Medal panting heavily as the two of them ran in a concerted fashion. Coinsmith was way ahead of them, while Yeller lagged behind, his spear dragging unceremoniously on the ground as he struggled to keep up.

The four comrades were chasing an eagle who had apparently stolen one of Medal's golden medallion. The entire story was retarded; Medal had apparently accidentally dipped one of his enchanted amulets into a pile of animal feces during one of their nightly, stealthy poultry-stealing missions into the collection of farms in Syliras outside Stormhold Castle. He had then proceeded to wash it vigorously in the stream that ran by near the pocket of caves that they inhabited. However, in order to left it to dry he balanced it on a rocky protrusion on top of the caves in the afternoon when the sun was dry. Unfortunately, the minute he turned his back, a curious bird flitted by and immediately took fancy to the necklace, grabbing it and flying away. Amidst furious shrieks from the projectionist, an eagle was attracted to the sound, came by and saw the bird as food on wings, and proceeded to snatch it.

It then proceeded to straight to its nest, which resulted in Medal calling up his comrades which then resulted in the four of them sprinting as if their backsides were on fire, intent on not letting the eagle get away. To be honest, Eridanus could not see the eagle, for he was desperately trying to keep up with the superbly athletic Coinsmith, who was apparently the only one far ahead enough to see the silhouette of their escaping target.

"Dammit Redeemer... when I... get my hands on that... flying piece of... crap," Medal gasped as he drew in harsh breaths, his hands flapping limply by his sides for he was already too tired to move his hands in a jogging fashion. "Imma... rip it from... limb to... limb..."

"You pretty much sound like you're limb to limb yourself," Eridanus grunted as he forced himself to take deep breaths even as he ran, his lungs on fire.

Finally, to everyone's relief, Coinsmith stopped before a semi-high hill, and the rest of them caught up with him. For the next few moments no one spoke, only the sounds of gasping and panting as the team recovered their strength.

"It's nest is above," Coinsmith said, pointing to a rocky ledge at the side of the hill.

"Alright, man-to-man climbing support. Redeemer you're on point," Medal said, immediately assuming command as per his status of their team handler Middleman's second in command. Eridanus took a few steps back, then ran with all his might towards the side of the steep edge of the cliff.

Yeller squared his shoulders as he provided his knee and hands as support, and heaved the lighter vantha over as Eridanus leaped from the larger spearman, running up the steeper edge as much as he could before gravity began to claim him. When that happened he fell flat on the edge, his limbs spread out in order to hold on to any leverage there was. When he stopped sliding and grabbed a point, he then found a small platform, and from there he leaned downwards with his hands to pull up Coinsmith who was thrown up by Yeller as well.

Together with Coinsmith, the two of them scaled up the hill, supporting and pulling each other on the way as Yeller remained below to catch the rest of his breath, while Medal issued directions since he had the best view from his position. The two of them finally reached the nest of the eagle, where they grabbed the medallion poking out of the nest.

Almost instantly, that eagle swooped by, intent on punishing those who dared to disturb its nest, but Medal was already ready for it with his wry smile. With his astral arms, the eagle was grabbed from the sky and slammed all the way onto the ground. Without giving pause, Yeller leaped forward and began to jab at it several times with his spear until it stopped writhing, and Medal released his hold on the predator of the sky.

"Revenge never tasted so sweet," Medal grinned, his hands outstretched for the amulet that finally returned to its rightful owner.

[Eridanus]

Mid Afternoon

A small campfire was ablaze as three men gathered cheerfully around roasting meat of eagle. Medal in particular - the victim of the eagle's kleptomania - was enjoying the meet as he chewed into it with visible relish. Perhaps he was enjoying it too much, though Eridanus suspected he enjoyed the taste of revenge more than the actual flavor of the physical food.

He was not feeling particularly hungry, and was more interested in the corpse of the great predator of the sky. Ever since his introduction and following practice sessions with the art of Malediction, he was beginning to have morbid thoughts constantly, accessing everyone and everything on their feasibility on being potential malediction objects. The eagle's status among the food chain of animals and birds cemented its ability in the crafter's mind, and he was already busy dissecting the corpse, shedding the skin and flesh so that he could extract the bones.

The first thing he went for were the wing bones of the eagle. Chopping off a wing, he began to use his dagger to strip the unwanted fleshy bits, tearing everything off until he had just the bones. Breaking them at the ligaments and cartilages so that he would get a series of one-piece bones, he laid them out in a row while throwing the viscera to the side.

They look like a series of spoons. Or quills. Or arrows.

Arrows fly. So do eagles. Perhaps that would be a good start.

Right, on to work.

First he categorized the bones into sizes. There was the smaller and broader pieces of bones that he would fashion into a sort of arrowhead for arrows. The medium and stubby pieces would be more effective for crossbow bolts instead. The larger pieces would be unsuitable to make arrows, although it was possible to fashion them into small throwing daggers.

In any case, he decided to first start with the smaller parts. For that, he went to first scour the forest, spotting and gathering any suitable pieces of wood that he could use. Thus he had to search for branches that were not brittle, and had a thick enough cross-section that he could whittle into a suitable shape. Not to mention a long enough length to make an arrow. Feathers were not an issue, as the eagle's corpse had plenty.

Returning to his spot outside of the cave but near the merry campfire, Eridanus ignored his three associates who lazed nearby chatting to each other and worked on his own task. The eagle's corpse and viscera was dumped a short distance away, the bones were laid out before him neatly, and the pile of branches was on his left. His right was empty for finished products.

Thus, he first began by bringing his assassin's dagger onto the branches. Taking a central measurement for a decided length and width, he used a control branch to form the basis for comparison. Next, he then began to cut and shape the other branches, whittling them down systematically, chipping off layer by layer of wood so as to not fracture the structure of the wood. Having a weak stem with internal weaknesses could prove dangerous to the archer, for when notching the arrow the pressure might be too much for the unstable stem to handle and the arrow might burst in a shower of splinters in the archer's face. Totally unpleasant.

Over the next two bells or so, he measured each branch against the 'control branch', carefully and slowly carving a roughly straight and smooth rod shape, keeping the measurements of all the arrow stems he made constant as much as he could. When he was done, he found himself with exactly ten proper wooden stems with the rest being discarded due to failures in carving mid-way, which meant that he spent at least ten excruciating chimes per stem, though the time passed quickly due to his intense focus that he did not notice. In fact, he did not even notice that his three comrades had already packed up the campfire and left for somewhere else, possibly off to hassle some innocent merchant or adventurer passing by in the vicinity.

Next, he selected ten pieces of the small bone category that belonged to the wing section of the eagle. Realizing that there was not enough, he proceeded to break off and disassemble the eagle's other wing, going through the tedious task of flesh stripping, breaking of joints and rearranging and organizing the bones again. At least this time there was enough materials to work with.

Using his trusty knife, the intrepid crafter placed the best ten pieces of small wingbone closer to him. Instead of starting immediately though, he picked one of the 'discarded' pieces of bone that he deemed unsuitable and practiced on it. Remembering the shape of an arrowhead from experience, he first shaped the bone into a general shape of a circle, then from there he chipped off the sides. Over time, the circular bone began to take the vague shape of an arrowhead, and he noted some lines he could cut into to streamline it so that it could sail through the air smoother.

Point noted.

With that confidence and understanding, he began work proper on his selected ten 'small category wing bones'. Taking the first, he chipped away at the bone carefully as he hummed a song to keep himself occupied from the tediousness of the situation. Yet, he could not afford to lose focus as he had to maintain his concentration on keeping the angle and force of the carving and chipping constant and accurate, as well as to keep his estimations of the measurements relatively precise.

One bone, then the other. It took several more bells, and by the time he was done with the ten bone arrowheads it was close to evening time and nightfall. Tutting to himself, he began to fine tune each arrowhead by adding notches and etching lines into them to streamline their shape and to make them resemble the stylistics of arrowheads he had seen before. When he was done with them, he quickly relocated his pile of supplies back to the safety - and light provided by the myriad of candles throughout - of his group's area in the caves. Of course, he took several journeys to do so, and he had to bury the viscera as well.

[Eridanus]

Early Evening

With the shape of the arrowheads done and the specifics of their designed improved further, he then began to burrow a hole on the broad side of the arrowhead to allow space for the wooden stem to be inserted into. However, he made the hole such that it was only slightly smaller than the cross-section area of the wooden stem. This allowed the more flexible wood to be jammed into the hole tightly, keeping the arrowhead and stem together in a crude way.

It would not get dislocated if there was no major tension or pressure applied to the connecting point. He drilled holes with his dagger accordingly, then jammed the wooden stem into their respective arrowheads. Finally, he plucked out feathers from the eagle and strapped several of them per arrow, using the much thinner but more flexible pieces of branch, flower stem and grass to tie the feathers onto the stem. Interestingly, knot tying - or campcraft - was an important skill in wilderness survival techniques, but Eridanus was using it for a more offensive purpose in weapon crafting.

Finally, he was the proud crafter of ten home-made arrows laying before him. Bone and feathers scoured from an eagle's wing bone and body, while wood scoured from selected fallen branches and thin plant trunks scattered throughout the wildlands. Though he was unsure if they would fly accurately, mimicking the shape of actual arrows was a first step in making anything great. He had to start somewhere first anyway; no one started off perfect.

The next step was to add some... 'value' into his arrows. He began to work on one arrow first. Retrieving his quill and ink set, he began to draw a series of lines throughout the thin wooden stem, essentially drawing a deformed circle that twisted around the stem. The quill's minute tip was the perfect tool for the job, and he carefully drew several symbols around the stem by actually lightly dotting the shapes into place.

With that unorthodox method of creating ultra thin shapes on small surfaces, he essentially created two sigils - the barrier and focus sigil to form a spell scroll glyph. He left the trigger out as he felt that it was likely that his crudely created makeshift arrows would collapse upon impact, thus releasing the spell stored in the glyph anyway.

Next, he closed his eyes, bringing his enthusiastic heart to a more manageable calm. Breathing deeply as he focused on the djed within his body, he first settled into a constant breathing pattern. With every inhale, he sought his mental fingers within his body, grasping at the husk of djed that graced the astral shell around his soul.

With every exhale, he released the djed, expelling it as res drop by drop. After several moments of this sort of breathing, he painstakingly expelled enough drops of res to form at least a size of a miza coin. Gathering it all together to form a proper ball of res, he commanded it to burst into flames as he recalled the heat of fire licking at the skin. At the same time, before the res within was exhausted and while he could still control the rapidly combusting fireball, he mentally threw it into the focus sigil, the magical flames disappearing as it was engulfed by the focus glyphs, the arcane symbols entrapping it with the barrier sigils serving as, well, a barrier.

Should the glyphs be disturbed or destroyed, the spell would be released, in essence making this arrow one that would explode into flames when it made contact into a target and burst into pieces due to its shoddy workmanship by an inexperienced craftsman.

Next he took up his quill again, this time applying his attention to arrowhead made of bone. There was a special reason why he selected the wing bone, out of all the possible choices. That was because of its special link to the idea of flight, since the wings were the primary reason why eagles could defy gravity and fly high and fly fast. That was the essence of what he wanted to draw out from the bone. He had to also take into account the fact that arrows often flew in a projectile motion, and so he had to customize the energies drawn forth such that they would complement arc like motions.

Using the same lightly tapping dot-by-dot method of drawing thin ink shapes that he used on the wooden stem now on the crafted bone piece, the vantha drew a small circle that was the basic shape for all malediction circles. The shape he had in mind was simple, and first at the bottom of the circle he drew a short horizontal line. That represented the ground. Above this horizontal bar, he drew an upside-down 'U', or a curve, that started slightly above the end of the bar to the other end. That represented the projectile motion of the flight. Dipping slightly onto two points of the curve, one at the midsection and one at the end, he drew the ends of a pointing arrow to indicate the direction. The increased number of arrows when he could use just one to show the direction was to symbolize the increased magnitude of speed. Above this curved line he drew the overly simplistic shape that represented birds that all children used when they were young. That represented the flight of the eagle being integrated into the motions he indicated in his drawing. Together, this symbol should hopefully draw forth the attribute of force and ferocity in flight, directed in an accurate projectile motion with speed in its arc, and further amplified by the fact that he was using wing bones rather than any other parts of the eagle.

For the rest of the night, the diligent craftsman worked on the rest of the wooden stems, dipping his quill and following the same art style he used for the glyphs. He repeated the process creating res and combusting it into fire, then directing it into the glyph scrolls. However, he only had the energy and focus to do so for the next three arrow stems before he became too tired to summon any more res, and he postponed that part of the creation process to the next day. However, he soldiered on in tapping the quill lightly as he recreated this same malediction circle on the other nine arrowheads. It took about three bells for him to do so, and by the time he was done the rest of the group was already asleep, with Yeller taking up a sort of vigil near the entrance, setting up physical traps throughout and sleeping hidden nearby since he was the lightest sleeper of the group.

This might hurt.

Organizing and arranging the ten arrows before him, he poked his index finger with the dagger, squeezing the small wound quickly as he aimed and dropped ten drops of blood in procession into the ten arrowheads. His finger burned in pain as he kept squeezing until all the malediction circles were activated by the djed in his life essence, before applying his racial ability to progress the wound forward by a day, essentially healing the small injury on his unnaturally flawless and scar-absent skin.

Instead of keeping things away, he simply laid himself out on the floor, too tired to bother doing anything else. He intended to continue working when he woke in the morning anyway, and so it was with thoughts of what he was going to do the next day that he brought with him into his dreams as the ethaefal slipped into a slumber.

[Eridanus]

Skill Requests

• Running
• Climbing
• Hunting
• Wilderness Survival
• Butchering
• Fletching
• Organization
• Carving
• Drawing
• Mathematics
• Malediction
• Glyphing
• Reimancy

Lore Requests

• Malediction: Ferocity of Flight of the Eagle
• Crafting: Enchanted Fire Arrows of Soaring Flight
• Fletching: Bow Arrow
• Wilderness Survival: Preparing a Corpse
• Wilderness Survival: Burying Unwanted Remains

[Emblem]

Congratulations! You Get Glorious Experience! Eridanus Skill Points Earned Fletching 3 XP Drawing 3 XP Malediction 3 XP Carving 2 XP Glyphing 2 XP Running 1 XP Climbing 1 XP Wilderness Survival 1 XP Reimancy 1 XP Lore Earned Malediction: Ferocity of Flight of the Eagle Crafting: Enchanted Fire Arrows of Soaring FlightFletching: Bow Arrow Wilderness Survival: Preparing a Corpse Wilderness Survival: Burying Unwanted Remains A Silly Situation Other Shenanigans: Nothing here. Comments : Nice thread as usual Eri! Go ahead and PM me with questions and concerns.