Welcome to Gaia! ::

Choice 2

Team Primary Colors
Torero - HP: 19/20 G
Zeffer - HP: 19/20 G
Aprife - HP: 19/20 S


"Are you guys here for any reasons...other than to have fun?"

For some reason, Aprife had been thinking about that question since earlier. Really, the only reason he'd been out here at all was because he had followed Zeffer from Four Fronds. If that hadn't happened, well… he wondered where he would have ended up. Probably no where this exciting. He liked to think that, anyway.

So, even after their less than pleasant run in with that stingerbeast, he actually looked better than he had earlier in the night. It had been scary as hell and he had gotten a little cut up, but the adrenaline, partnered with the fact that he didn't have to skirt off with his tail between his legs by himself, had put him in a surprisingly good mood.

As the night stretched on, Aprife found that the adrenaline had pretty well worn away, and though he was still feeling pretty good, he was starting to get cold. Really cold. The kind of cold that even though he had a thick sweater and had, at some point, wrapped his arms so tight around himself that it looked like a straightjacket, he was still shivering.

"Isn't it?" he muttered when he heard Zeffer comment from his side, only to have his eyes widen as the arm slipped around his shoulder. He blinked and turned his head, but the surprise faded quickly. Just as the blueblood thought, Aprife didn't suspect a thing. At least not until Torero was roped into the sudden line of practical side-hugs and Zeffer so vaguely explained himself with a joke. Man, that was terrible, but the yellowblood couldn't help laughing anyway as he wrapped an arm around him to return the favor.

It wasn't the best solution, but he felt warmer than he had. If anyone outside the group took notice of the way they were walking, it didn't appear to faze him. Aprife was practiced at ignoring that kind of thing.

When they reached the fallen sign, he felt a short twinge of interest. Chittentown. It wasn't exactly New Hemisect, but it certainly had more to do than the middle of the desert, he was sure. And yet, feeding his think pan with gossip wasn't the point of this expedition, he remembered, glancing at his companions. They would probably have better luck going away from the prospect of a city if they wanted to find this reclusive jadeblood.

If your troll picked 1, you realize just how deep in the desert you were as you walk for several hours before seeing signs of civilization. Eventually, you find yourself at the entrance to the canyon that shelters Chittentown, with no road to follow back out. You give in to temptation and stop to have a refreshing meal, then end up wasting another hour or so trying to find your way back out into the desert. By the time you've left the city behind you, you've wasted a ridiculous amount of time, are pretty certain that the meal you ate had some spoiled food in it, and aren't feeling to pleased with yourself. Your stomach agrees. Loose 1 hp.

If your troll picked 2, you head in the opposite direction the sign pointed, ignoring the trolls heading in towards the city. You walk along for a hour or so, and your hunch pays off when you eventually reach a much newer sign that has been hammered into the ground. It reads as follows.

Pit filled with ravenous beasts up ahead. Certain death.
Absolutely no trolls beyond this point. Turn back.
Trespassers will be mauled on sight.

You continue past the sign, carefully watching for any death-pits, but all you come across is a deep hole in the ground filled with sun-bleached bones. Skirting it, you press on, feeling quite pleased with yourself.

If your troll picked 3, you spend several hours wandering around, expecting to stumble across the hidden home of the elusive greenblood at any moment. Eventually, you see something sticking out of the land ahead of you. Hurrying up, your heart sinks as you recognize a familiar sign. Lying on it's side, pointing towards Chittentown. It looks like you just spent the better part of an hour walking in a large circle. Maybe relying on pure awesomeness to lead you through the desert was a little overconfident.
Scouts, if you pick 3, you are careful not to walk in a large circle, and instead end up cutting a path that meets up with trolls who picked option 2.


Your legs are wobbly and sore from walking, your back and shoulders are killing you from heaving around your huge knapsack, and your stomach is kicking in protest at the lack of food you've been giving it. But despite everything, you've kept up a pretty good pace all night. Now however, the sky is starting to light up, and there looks like there is no way around it. When the sun rises, you'll be stuck in the desert, and you'll have to find some way to get through the day alive. How are you going to prepare yourself for the oncoming dawn?

1)Team up! You can set up one portable respiblock and share it with another troll. It'll be a squeeze, but each of you can spend half the day sleeping securely while the other keeps an ear out for noises outside, ensuring that if any trouble comes past you'll be alerted quickly and hopefully be able to defend yourself.

2)Time to open up the backpack and haul out the portable Slimepax (tm) and respiblock. You're not sure what you'd do without the technology available to make portable, safe, and secure places to rest. Probably be eaten alive. While other trolls are teaming up, you'd rather sleep alone. Sure, if a giant ravenous beast wanders by while you're sleeping, you're fair game, but you're pretty sure you can doze with one eye open, or maybe just take little naps, remaining alert enough to react to danger.

3)Maybe it's the lightheaddedness from a lack of real food, but you're pretty sure that you can keep going for a little more. Who knows, maybe the greenblood is right over the next dune? If not, you'll push on until it gets too bright, then quickly set up your respiblock and duck in. They can't be that hard to get up. Either way, you'll be ahead of those trolls who wussed out at the first signs of dawn.

Option 1
Team Girl Squad
Athene - HP: 19/20
Odette - HP: 19/20
Vremea - HP: 19/20

Vremea bit her lip. Wouldn't that be a waste of time? They'd lose time—and time was valuable, mind you. Vremea looked towards the sky and then understood what she meant.

"You're right. The sun is rising, we should try and sleep before we continue." She blinked at the second proposition Athene proposed and nodded. "We'll take shifts sharing a respipod. I will go first, you two try to squeeze into one— or, perhaps, would one of you like to?" Vremea removed her heels— and exchanged them for soft, comfortable flats. "I can stand being in the sun for a certain period of time. There will come a time where we'll all be asleep, I'm sure. The sun will be too bright."

Option 1 OPTION 2! I MEANT OPTION 2!

Edtrex Janzek... is imagining a dark lit place.. your place or his place
Bonuses: (S) (G)
HP: 19/20

Well this is a bit awkward. Perhaps more than awkward. Uncomfortably so. The way he's been staring at you probably only adds more to it. And his insistence on taking the first watch seemed far too eager. Yeah. No. This wasn't going to work for you at all. Quickly getting up, you stride back out into the desert, walking for several more yards, maybe even a half mile before finally setting up your own tent. You could brave whatever dangers the daywalkers may present on your own. Or so you hope.

If your troll picked 1, the day passes nearly uneventfully. On your watch, you think you hear something moving around outside during one part, but after something scratches half-heartedly at the side of the block causing you to freeze, it shuffles around for a bit then goes silent. As nothing results from this, you consider yourself pretty lucky. Not to mention the nice sleep you got, which has left you refreshed and energetic. If your troll has lost any hp before now gain 1 hp.

If your troll picked 2, you're a bit of a mess by the time the sun sets. Turns out your nerves weren't as good as you thought they were, and the smallest noise had you bolt upright and wide awake, certain that a million ferocious beasts were just outside your walls. Maybe they were, you're not sure. It's kind of hard to think clearly through the bleary haze of exhaustion and adrenaline. The sooner this is over, the better. Loose 1 hp.
Guards, if you picked 2, you fall into the routine you picked up while standing at post. Taking small naps, you snap alert whenever you hear a sound, then relax and go to sleep again after it's clear that everything is ok.

If your troll picked 3, you shield your eyes and keep marching on, stolidly. However, it's barely twenty minutes later when you find that sunrise is faster than you thought. The temperature has climbed rapidly, and your eyes are stinging just from looking at the ground. Sweating profusely, you start to fumble around with your portable respiblock, but in the rising light it's impossible to see where small pegs insert. As you search for 'slot A' to insert 'flap B', a shadow passes swiftly overhead, accompanied by a piercing cry. Instincts kicking in before you can even think, you hit the ground a moment before you hear talons tearing through the spot where you stood moments before. After that, you find it of hard to remember the rest of the day. There was a lot of running, you remember that, but when night arrives again it finds you hiding under some rocks, half-blinded, badly sunburned, and bleeding from a number of nasty cuts. That was not your finest of hours. Loose 3 hp and gain an important life lesson.

Eventually you start to move again, driven on by the hope of finding the greenblood, a way out of the desert, or something to drink. As you walk, you take stock of your food supplies and realize that either you were worse at rationing than you thought, or some other creature (or troll) has gotten into your supplies. Food that was supposed to last three more days has been reduced to two meals worth, and your water container is much lighter than you last remember it. What are you going to do, realizing this?

1)Stop walking and start to scavenge around. There has to be some food out here, at the very least the little tufts of plantlife that dot the ground could be edible-ish. And maybe if you dig down a little there might be some water? After all, lots of creatures live out in this place, and they have to drink too.

2)You'll keep moving, you haven't forgotten why you're out here, but if you spot something that looks like a promising food source or water hole you won't pass it by. Rather than scanning the distance for buildings, you start to look around on either side of you for shrubs, and search the desert with your eyes for the glimmer of water.

3)Tighten your belt and speed up. If you lost any food, or ate too much, it was your own fault. There's no use hoping things will turn around, or that a meal will magically appear in this wasteland, and the only way you're getting out of this is by finding the greenblood's house as quick as possible. Besides, if you have less to eat, you have less to carry, and you can move faster.

Option Two
Team Girl Squad
Athene - HP: 20/20 S
Odette - HP: 20/20 G
Vremea - HP: 20/20

What had happened? The team's food rations were low? This was a concept that Odette was familiar with, but Athene obviously was not. She seemed stiff and frantic, like there was more to her words than Odette could understand. Odette wasn't that worried about the food though, she'd offer her rations to the others if they were hungry. She was more concerned about the water. The three of them would die from dehydration much earlier than they would die from starvation, especially in the desert. She'd make sure that she kept her eyes out for any sign of moisture, and focus more of her attention on that than looking for brush.

Option 2

Edtrex Janzek... has someone in his head but it's not him
Bonuses: (S) (G)
HP: 19/20

Well, that was pleasant. Aside from the random shenanigans that resulted in your disappearing rations. You try not to think too much on it, there's still a lot more ground to cover. Packing up, you stride out into the desert again, this time paying more attention to the ground than before, looking for traces of animal tracks and possibly dens. Funny how when you aren't looking for them, the beasts are practically gnawing on your leg.

As dunes become molehills in the background of your trek, you start to wonder about the possibility of you hallucinating. That's how it usually started in those animated adventures and some of the comedic adventure stories, right? The protagonist, low on food and water, see's a giant warehouse full of ice cubes or some such nonsense. Well, hopefully your imagination won't be so outlandish. That's a sign of insanity or so they say.

Odd conclusion there. Insanity was already being proven in this act of wandering the desert. You try to convince yourself otherwise but then circular logic just adds more to the insanity clause. You really should stop thinking about that topic in general. It's just not healthy. So is a lack of water. That's definitely not healthy at all. And neither is mindless rambling which is being done by some other entity that you're not really sure about, but it keeps going on and on, dictating your actions like a narrator of sorts. It's really getting annoying. You try to tell the 'narrator' to stop then realise you're just shouting out at nothing.

Well. So much for that 'not being insane' thing.

If your troll picked 1, you make a small mark in the ground to show where you were and what direction you were moving in, then start to potter around in little circles, digging at the dirt with whatever sharp instrument you have, pulling up withered plants and inspecting them, and searching for the burrows of things that are small and squeaky, and possibly delicious. However, all you get is a nasty stomach ache and weird rash from one of the plants. To make things worse, when you decide to continue, you are unable to find your mark, and end up having to set off in a random direction, hoping it's the one, and scratching the swollen dimples on your hands and arms. Loose 1 hp.
Guards, if you picked 1, while foraging your eyes are sharp enough to spot movement on the dunes ahead. Creeping forward, you manage to get close enough to successfully bring down a desert lop-eared hopbeast. It is adorable, and so, so delicious. If your troll has lost any hp before now gain 1 hp.

If your troll picked 2, despite yourself, you slow down as you look around yourself. a few times you break off your walk to investigate something that looks promising, but in the end you continue on empty handed. Eventually, you give up searching, as it doesn't seem you're going to get lucky any time soon. Reflecting on this, you idly wonder what troll meat tastes like.

If your troll picked 3, you find that indeed, you seem to be marching along faster than ever. Soon, the plants on either side of you start looking healthier, and the dry, gritty earth seems to be covered in more and more fronds. Eventually, you start to head down a dip in the land and you immediately see the round, flat dome of a long grey building, half buried in overgrown plants and ringed on all sides by sheltering hills. Breaking out into a jog, you close the distance between yourself and the building while trying not to laugh out loud with relief. You've found the greenblood's house, congratulations!


Attracted by flares sent up by the first trolls to arrive, figures began to appear over the dunes surrounding the recently hidden hive. Spotting the building was no problem once you crested the shallow hills, it sat in the center of the deep dip surrounded on all sides by thick frond growth. While the hive sat low and squat, hiding itself in the shelter of the higher land around, the upper levels were made of nothing but countless windows, creating a moonlight-filled shelter that even more plants poured out of. While the thick white vines that strangled the house from every angle blocked most good views to what was going on inside the upper levels of the house, there was no doubt that something was moving up there. Something large.

Congrats to all trolls who successfully completed the cyoa! If you wrote a reply to every prompt, this thread counts as 1 rp point. Further updates will begin tomorrow and continue till the 26th. This thread is now open rp until then.