[PQ] digging up roots or laying them down

Dream big, work hard, and never give up.

Zavien is the first to arrive at the site and he takes an opportunity to scope out the area. When talking with Colt, Suvahasi had been the clear choice for setting up camp. It's lush and shaded environment would be ideal compared to the arid scorches of brutal desert. It would provide shelter and possible sources of food and water, and the green landscape seemed inviting enough to be the obvious answer to all the problems in Hak Etme.

But as he walks through the thick brush, Zavien gets the sense that not everything is as it seems. There are stories of the dangers in these parts, of hallucinogens and deadly plants, and despite the vibrant colors that scream 'friendly,' something feels... off. Maybe it's the quiet rustle of leaves or the stifling heat that still permeates the afternoon air, but it's not long before his sword is drawn, his eyes narrowing as if he can spot exactly what's bothering him about the space. He slows to a stop in a small clearing of sand, deciding it might be best if he waits for the others before striking out to explore.

---

This is a PQ to clear out the vegetation for the first main settlement in Hak Etme! Please post your character arriving as well as any equipment they bring!

1. Zavien
2. Colt
3. Liam

Zavien

Liam

Why do you stay until you see blood?
Why does the weight fall upon us?

Suvahasi stood in stark contrast to the desert beyond. While most of Hak Etme was a veritable wasteland, this dense, lush forest had the potential to solve every problem presented by the harsh environment. Shade and fresh water meant plants and animals, though from what Liam had heard, very little was friendly. Most of Suvahasi was allegedly toxic - which had given Liam pause enough that he was not the first to arrive to the agreed upon site.

He came into a small clearing of sand to find Zavien, sword drawn, staring into the brush. Immediately, Liam drew his own blade and moved to cover his friend‘s flank. But when no immediate threat seemed to be forthcoming, the ex-soldier glanced in Zavien’s direction. ”Everything alright?” he asked quietly, in case there was danger he could not see.

—-

Liam arrives with everything on his profile except his companions. He moves to shadow Zavien and asks if everything is okay.

We're on the same side in the same war
Why stay 'til you see blood?

Raining on me so damn long, but that's relief to a man who calls a desert home

In speaking with the locals around here, Colt has successfully traded help and goods for items in return. Clothing better suited for keeping the heat at bay and protecting skin—loose but long, flowy and sheer, allowing heat out but trapping sweat for wind to better cool it, and shielding from direct sun. Her prize trade is some wraps for all of them, charcoal layered between the fabric that’s sewn together, the only way the locals dare enter this area.

”Here,” Colt offers to everyone who comes, wrapping her own blue one around her head and face, keeping it secure beneath her hat. ”This will help combat the risks you can breathe in here. I plan to ask Frey to help us clear that, once we’ve done enough work to make bothering her worth it, but until now…” She’s no problem asking a god for help, but it’s good to help yourself first.

Once she finishes passing them out she slings her pack back over her shoulder, quiver and bow over it, and stands tall with a machete in hand, surveying the jungle. ”Avoid bumping the pretty flowers,” she warns. ”They release the hallucinogens and toxic spores.”

---

Colt arrives with everything in her profile as well as a machete, a pack with some basic first aid supplies and some food and water, and cloth wraps for their heads and faces layered with charcoal to help combat some of the toxins.

Colt

Still gripping the shovel that got me here, fear if I let go I might disappear

Who is the lamb and who is the knife?

Following on Colt's heels like a puppy, eager and willing and ready for whatever this next chapter wrote, the young accepted was quick to act on instructions. She pulled the linen around her face and neck, tying it quickly but thinking in the back of her mind she may need adjust it later. Then, she tightened her gloves by pulling them down her wrists. Finally, she looked up and noticed who all was there for the first time.

Wren lingered at the edge of motion, caught in that quiet, aching place between what had been and what might be. Liam’s presence still unsettled something deep in her chest—not painful exactly, but unsteady, like ground that hadn’t decided if it would hold. There were too many missing pieces, too many moments she couldn’t reach for, and every step toward him felt like walking half-blind.

She didn’t know how to move forward with him. Didn’t know what it meant to try. But the work ahead of them was different, tangible. Things she could touch, cut, burn away. And she wouldn’t be alone in it.

Colt and Zavien would be there too—steady presences, familiar in a way that didn’t demand more than she could give. With them, the weight of uncertainty felt lighter, more manageable. She could focus on the rhythm of the task, on the swing of her arms and the heat of exertion, instead of the fragile, uncertain thread between her and Liam.

So she took a deep breath and prepared herself.

---

Wren has glovies :D

wren

Dream big, work hard, and never give up.

His eyes turn to land on Liam, then slip back to the suspicious surroundings. "Yeah. I just thought I saw something..." But maybe he's just nervous, letting the rumors get to his head. He's learned to trust his instincts, but sometimes high emotions can imitate instincts, and he tries to calm the shiver crawling up the back of his spine. 

"Good to see you." Zavien offers a friendly smile, although his sword stays at the ready while he turns to watch the other arrive, still peering around at the quiet rustle of plants, a cloyingly sweet smell wafting through the sweltering heat. He accepts the green wrap from Colt, dipping his head in appreciation as he ties it tight around his face. It smells of damp charcoal, the hot air filtering through to his lungs, coughing once to get used to the discomfort before he's breathing easier. 

Zavien adjusts his shoulders, looking out to the work they had to tackle today: overgrown plants and an ominous sense of unease. Addressing the others as he watches for signs of danger, he lifts his sword to indicate where they'd start first. "Okay. No one should be alone in case danger pops up. We'll spread out a little but stay close. Use whatever means you can to clear out some of the brush so we can set a perimeter. Then we can see what we're working with for a settlement."

---

Spread out to clear the brush however you can! Make sure to protect yourself with the wraps Colt provides.

Zavien

Liam

Why do you stay until you see blood?
Why does the weight fall upon us?

Liam didn't drop his sword until Colt arrived, and even then, he didn't sheathe it completely, not even as he accepted a mask from Colt. "Thanks," he said as he wrapped the charcoal-laden mask around his face. The scent reminded him of campfires and charred meat, but he ignored it, instead focusing his other senses on their surroundings.

Zavien's instructions were simple enough: start to clear the brush. Liam lifted his blade, striking at the brush in an effort to begin clearing it out, careful to avoid the pretty flowers as he worked. Hopefully that would be enough to keep clear of the hallucinogenic spores that were apparently everywhere. He was careful to stay far enough away from the others that he wouldn't hit them, but close enough that he'd be able to assist if anyone found something dangerous.

---

Liam starts hacking at the brush with his sword.

Oakblade | When sheathed, this longsword feels as light as a feather, but upon being unsheathed, it instantly adjusts its weight to the wearer’s intent, allowing for devastatingly heavy strikes.
Type: Grey | Style: Offensive | Level: Basic | Cost: Action

We're on the same side in the same war
Why stay 'til you see blood?

Raining on me so damn long, but that's relief to a man who calls a desert home

Maybe it’s because Colt has been here before, but this place always has an undercurrent of unease. She doesn’t ignore it, but part of her feels in a constant state of alert the moment she steps foot anywhere in Hak Etme. The land isn’t exactly telling them to get out, but equally it isn’t telling them to put their feet up. Just the other day she’d dumped five scorpions out of her boot in the morning.

Nodding as everyone secures their wraps on, Colt’s smile coasts freely to each of them before she covers it up behind fabric and charcoal. Colt is happy to see so many willing and capable people answering the call. Whether her’s, or their own and she’s just helping them hear it better, she doesn’t mind.

”Good idea,” she says swiftly of Zavien’s plan, listening as Zavien continues to explain. "Jesse, why don't you stay here with the supplies, and just in case we need someone who will be toxin free if things really go sideways," she advises, holding the woman's gaze for a moment. It's not that she doesn't think Jesse can do the work, but that there is strategy to not everyone diving into the toxic jungle at once.

”Shout if you need anything!” she says to both Liam and Zavien. ”Or find something good for the town!” Glancing at each, she nods curtly to show she's ready, and steps forward in-between the two, mindful that they're spaced out enough before she swings her machete up. While she has routinely cleared brush as part of ranch maintenance, it’s usually low and dried. This living, wet, thick jungle proves more resistant, and it isn’t long before Colt is having to alter her slashes, grunting with effort. She might have underestimated this task. "So, Liam," she pants, using the need to talk as a way to take a break here and there. "Have you had a chance to review the ship port plans yet?" That'd be next on her to-do list.

---

Colt chops with her machete and says damn this is hard work

Colt

Still gripping the shovel that got me here, fear if I let go I might disappear

Dream big, work hard, and never give up.

Letting the others spread around him, Zavien keeps one eye on them and one on the foliage. He still gets the sense that something's watching or lying in wait, but without anything visual to indicate what, he has to push aside the discomfort, swinging his sword into the plants. 

The blade cuts with sizzles and the scent of charred grass, but it works effectively. He falls into a rhythm not unlike training, the swing of his sword moving like a dance he's memorized the steps to. Years of sparring have given him enough stamina that it doesn't tax on his muscles, but the heat is something else, sweat dripping slowly down his forehead and back to fall into the sand. 

He shifts his stance to slash another stalk of greenery when he spots movement behind them. Pausing, he turns to look, noticing tracks in the sand that were very much not there a second ago. Zavien holds his sword at the ready, eyes narrowing as he searches for the source, but when all he sees are plants and flowers, he calls to the others, "I might be crazy, but those tracks weren't there before, were they? Do you see anything?"

---

Zavien has spotted something suspicious! Decide on how to proceed!

Zavien

Liam

Why do you stay until you see blood?
Why does the weight fall upon us?

Liam continued to work, cutting through the foliage with a brutal efficiency. Every swipe of his blade, magically enhanced to be stronger and faster, took out various forms of greenery. Colt's question had him pausing, wiping a hand across his brow before resuming the work as he chatted. "Yeah," he grunted as he sliced through a particularly thick vine. "They look promising. I made some notes I can give you later - just some suggestions to strengthen some of the supports." Nothing major, but enough to ensure that the port would be strong enough to withstand the test of time.

Zavien's voice cut through just then, calling their attention to a set of tracks that Liam certainly had no memory of. He was immediately on the alert, blade held at the ready as he slowly looked around them, searching for any sign of movement. "I don't see anything this way," he called, but there was a wariness to his tone that suggested he didn't quite trust his eyes, not in brush this thick.

---

Liam hacks at some more vegetation, then pauses to look around for danger!

Oakblade | When sheathed, this longsword feels as light as a feather, but upon being unsheathed, it instantly adjusts its weight to the wearer’s intent, allowing for devastatingly heavy strikes.
Type: Grey | Style: Offensive | Level: Basic | Cost: Action

We're on the same side in the same war
Why stay 'til you see blood?

Raining on me so damn long, but that's relief to a man who calls a desert home

Tugging on a particularly combative vine to give it enough tension to hack through cleanly, Colt grunts and groans, less strong than her company, or at least strong in ways that don't use all these same muscle groups, Colt's sweating quickly. It beads along her temple and darkens the places where her skin comes together at joints or between her shoulders. "Good," she remarks with a pant she tries to swallow down, not wanting to appear unable to hold her own out here. It's no help that her blade is just a normally forged sort, unblessed by godly hands. Might be worth swapping to her arrows, as absurd as that seems. "I'll take a look at your notes, cross-reference with our engineer to be sure all is still cohesive, but I appreciate your eye passing over it." His building skills would fill in the gaps of her own knowledge, and help improve the schematics that her other builders had already worked on, making the entire thing a better beast by the end. At a certain point, too much input would be worse, but it's why she'd collect everyone's say and go from there, not let one lead the other in circles.

As Zavien's call rises from the brush further down, Colt pauses, having just ducked under one of the merrily bright toxic flowers. Her shoulder rests against a nearby thick stalk of vegetation, a foot kicking away dead logs further to the side. "What kind of tracks?" she asks, glancing towards him with a wary knit to her brow. She glances behind her, at the path they've begun to clear and the line of sand beyond, where Jesse waits guard, and wonders if it might slip behind them and go for the woman standing alone.

Licking her lips, Colt swings her machete down again, tearing through some brush, the noise intentional now. "There's a lot of old growth here, I think this jungle struggles this far out from the water source and the sand border that it dies too fast to decompose in time, so it builds up, traps itself with its own death." If anything, clearing this shit out would help the forest, like a haircut removing dead ends. It'd keep it from funneling resources into useless growth. "All that to say, I can't imagine it's anything big, too much to get tangled in. Are you sure it's not the drag path of vines or falling plants?" Wind perhaps knocking leaves against the soil, sticks scratching out strange patterns on what bits of ground remain amid the leaf litter.

---

Colt says clearing the jungle is healthy for it because it's overgrown, so stands to reason whatever tracks he saw could be plant-related from rapid growth and decline, or if it's an animal it should be small as it's too dense for larger predators.

Colt

Still gripping the shovel that got me here, fear if I let go I might disappear

Dream big, work hard, and never give up.

Liam denies seeing anything, and as he scans the foliage, he'll see exactly what he claims: nothing. But Zavien notices the wariness, feeling it in his own body as he studies the space they've already cleared. Not even Colt's insistence that it's just 'dying plants' reassures him, but without any evidence to support his suspicions, he's left with discomfort and a furrowed brow. "I guess that's possible..."

He turns back to the vines and brush ahead of him, cutting through with his sword. The faster they clear this out, the faster they can get out of here, but the work feels endless, three more stalks appearing every time he cuts one down. He wonders if the others are feeling the same as he glances their way, swiping a hand across his damp forehead.

Confirming that they're doing fine, Zavien turns back to his section just in time to see a storm of roots and teeth running for his legs. A shocked "What the - !" echoes as he dodges to the side, narrowly escaping the nasty creatures as they run past, their roots and bobbing petals making them look like disturbing imitations of children.

---

Great job! Everyone has ignored the warning signs and a pair of Preying Orchids have attacked Zavien! Luckily both missed! XD

Preying Orchid 1: 38 HP
Preying Orchid 2: 38 HP

Zavien: 380 HP
Liam: 80 HP
Colt: 144 HP

---

Preying Orchid
Areas Found: Torchline, Hak Etme, The Feverlands, Oerwoud — Uncommon

If looked at from far away, it simply looks like a flower. However, upon closer inspection, instead of a pistil, it has a mouth with sharp teeth, and its stamens are replaced with eyes on tall stalks. By the time most notice, the Preying Orchid has already attacked them and run away on its roots. When its roots are in the ground, the flower is less than 1 ft. tall. However, when standing on its roots, it becomes around 3 to 4 ft. tall.

Zavien

Liam

Why do you stay until you see blood?
Why does the weight fall upon us?

With nothing visible, Liam hesitantly settled back into the rhythmic work of swinging his blade through the dense vegetation. The hair on the back of his neck prickled uneasily, though, and he remained hyperaware of every sigh of the wind in the trees and each hacking thud of the weaponry surrounding him.

It was Zavien's shocked cry that alerted him to something moving in the brush, and he whirled from where he was slicing at a particularly nasty vine just in time to see two small creatures - preying orchids, apparently - darting past Zavien and into the cleared space behind them. Wasting no time, Liam stepped towards the closest one, swinging his blade in a low, sweeping motion in an attempt to cut the preying orchid off at the roots.

---

Liam attacks whichever preying orchid is closest to him!

Oakblade | When sheathed, this longsword feels as light as a feather, but upon being unsheathed, it instantly adjusts its weight to the wearer’s intent, allowing for devastatingly heavy strikes.
Type: Grey | Style: Offensive | Level: Basic | Cost: Action

We're on the same side in the same war
Why stay 'til you see blood?

Raining on me so damn long, but that's relief to a man who calls a desert home

Colt's just turning her gaze away from glancing over at Zavien being very sus of the jungle, which is a valid take given that all the noises it boasts are coming from things, when his outcry and sudden motion narrow her gaze on the flurry of petals and vines near him. She almost misses them at first, and even when she does see them, she almost isn't sure what the fuck she's witnessing. It just looks like more of the jungle, and while she's seen a fair share of deadly plants before, even ones that seem to turn and follow her or open too quickly in invitation for her to clamber inside and be slowly digested, this plant is literally running.

She gasps audibly, dropping her machete to reach back for her bow and pulling a sharpened arrow free. "Oh fuck, this must be what the locals meant by watch out for the moving plants," she mutters, quietly cursing herself for not listening better to their advice. They had motioned low, towards their legs, but she'd waved it off with a 'yeah yeah' motion, never having had to fear foliage much beforre aside from the kindling it makes for fire.

Liam's already in action, swingiing, so Colt aims for the other figure trying to scurry through the brush. She pulls back and fires her arrow, mindful not to get Zavien or Liam in her crosshairs. "I didn't think they meant they actually walk around!"

---

Colt attacks the opposite one from Liam

The Pencil Sharpener | An earthen quiver that sharpens any arrow placed inside.
Type: Dark | Style: Offensive | Level: Mastered | Cost: Action

The Wildwatch: Hunter’s Presence: Rolls with advantage against regular creatures (anything marked with a difficulty of Normal or below).

Colt

Still gripping the shovel that got me here, fear if I let go I might disappear

Dream big, work hard, and never give up.

In a split-second decision, Zavien swings his sword at the second plant running past, the blade slicing cleanly through with a burning sizzle and a high-pitched squeal just as Colt's arrow flies through its vines. The sound catches the attention of its friend, causing the two-legged flower to spin to a stop and leaving Liam's Oakblade barely missing its petals.

The purple and pink flower freezes in place, leaning its head back to let out an ear-shattering screech before lunging after Zavien again. He manages to side-step the whipping vines and snapping teeth, but he's quickly distracted by the unsettling rustle of plants around them.

He quickly realizes what the sound is when echoing cries pierce his ears. "Watch out! There's more!" It's not much of a warning before three more toddle-sized flower creatures burst from the bushes to dive into the fray. "Do they always run in packs?!" But he doesn't wait to hear an answer, he sword already moving to swing again.

---

Zavien swings at Preying Orchid 2 as it passes him!

Starblade | A sword that glows with inner starlight and burns on contact.
Type: Light | Style: Offensive | Level: Upgraded | Cost: Action

Celestial Coating | A celestial coating on Starblade that adds mastered damage on the initial hit. Makes the blade glow with celestial light.
Type: Light | Style: Offensive | Level: Mastered | Cost: Other

- Zavien hits Orchid 2!
- Liam misses Orchid 1!
- Colt shoots at Orchid 2!
- Orchid 1 misses Zavien!

Preying Orchid 1: 38 HP
Preying Orchid 2: 38 HP - 90 HP (Killed by Zavien)

Zavien: 380 HP
Liam: 80 HP
Colt: 144 HP

---

Hearing their friend's cry, three more Preying Orchids have suddenly appeared!!

Preying Orchid 3: 38 HP
Preying Orchid 4: 38 HP
Preying Orchid 5: 38 HP

Zavien