The Demigodess and the Bard

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Ottriman

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This RP is a one on one reserved for me and CreepyShutIn, however others are welcome to read it if they like. If enough people want to comment on this role play then I might make a thread for that. For now this thread shall stand on its own.

A few decades ago the cosmos was threatened by a warped god of chaos, the god was defeated and sealed but it caused many harmful ripple effects. The ripples awoke many sleeping and buried thing in the solar system and made extra-dimensional travel unacceptably risky.

The most dangerous thing awakened without a doubt were the Selenites, ancient hive minded undead cyborgs with a grand desire to make existence an ordered and safe place..... Under their absolute rule of course.

A traveling musician and magician travels to Antarctica to investigate an unusually dimensionally stable spot in it. Meanwhile in another plane of existence a curious demigoddess is tasked with finding out what happened to the material plane when things went haywire.

Its the beginning of a wonderful adventure.

Next Post: Curia Hearthbell the Demigodess
 
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Curia Hearthbell (WIP)

Picture Reference (Base Form)

Lady of War

Picture Reference (Divine Form)

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net...s-lance.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20100813123816

GENERAL CHARACTER STATISTICS

Character Name: Curia Hearthbell
Name Meaning:
Alias:
Gender: Female
Species/Race: Human Demigod of War
Age: 22
B-Day:
Zodiac Sign:
Bloodtype: O+
Place of Birth: Herons Divine Arena
Current Residence:
Occupation: Demigoddess of War and scout of the material plane
School/Grade:
Family: Heron the God of War ("Mother"), Kirilus the Shield ("Father"),
Gemstone: Quartz
More:


PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS


Height: 180 cm (Base Form), 220 cm (Divine Form)
Weight: 80 kg (Base Form), 200 kg (Divine Form)
Hair:
Eyes:
Distinguishing Marks:
General Appearance:
Strengths: Inhumanly strong, in base form can lift a ton overhead and wrestle rhinos to the ground but becomes ten times stronger in her Divine form. Tough enough to laugh off small arms, can take tanks on head on pretty easily in divine form. Reasonably accomplished at sewing and poetry.
Weaknesses: Shes coming into the material plane with limited knowledge of what things are like. Prone to swearing and extraordinary bluntness that grates on peoples nerves.
More:

MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS

Allies: Many among the divine realms, hard to really get their help though
Enemies: Currently none on the material plane, but there are some outsider that are not fond of her.
Current Goal/Purpose: Scout out what has happened to the sol system since the planer mess happened a few decades ago.
Aspirations: See existence, Prove herself worthy of her parents, Finally master that spine bending technique she once saw.
Hobbies: Sewing, Poetry, learning Languages
Likes: Good food, Grand Vistas, Honesty, Linguistics, Sparring
Dislikes: Aberrations, Axiomats, Bureaucracy, Lies
Talents: Extraordinary talent for all things combat and war related due to heritage (more in specialty characteristics).
Inabilities: Cooking, Deception (stealth is ok though)
Fears: Rejection and/or dismissal by Heron, Forgetting vital things or losing herself.
General Personality: Curious, Determined, Honest to a fault, Stubborn
Inner Personality: Actually somewhat afraid of the dark and tight spaces
Fondest Memory:
Biggest Regret:
Secret:
More:


SPECIALTY CHARACTERISTICS


Special Items: A Locator necklace that can tell her where stable dimensional spots are as well as strongly aligned energies, Her Clothing is actually made of ultra-strong fabrics a dozen times stronger then kevlar, that stiffens when impacted.


Weapons: A Titansteel Rapier that becomes a huge lance and shield when she transforms

Magics:

She can detect hostile intent from others nearby.
She possesses great resistance to magic and psionics in general.
In her Divine Form she gains spell-like abilities keyed to Herons domains.
In her Divine Form she is protected by a constantly regenerating field of magical force and can also project it to cause destructive beams or blasts capable of destroying tanks.


More:

Due to Herons legacy she is automatically proficient in all weapons and war vehicles ever made or that ever will be made. In her divine form this is expanded up to breath taking mastery of all such things.

As mentioned earlier she can unseal her suppressed godly powers and transform into her much stronger Divine Form. She almost never does so unless there is no other choice or she is pressed into doing it. While in her Divine Form her appearance and powers changes as mentioned above in other parts of the profile. However when in her Divine Form her portfolio as a Demigoddess of War puts her into a battle trance, she becomes mentally and physically tunnel visioned at destroying foes and obstacles. She becomes much more ruthless and destructive and after she stops trancing she often has a hard time remembering what she did under its influence.

HISTORIC BACKGROUND


General History: Curia was conceived when the grand warrior Kirilus the shield managed to earn the undying respect of the war god Heron for his great prowess at defending the planes and slaying aberrations. When Heron asked him what he desired for a reward Kirilus mentioned that he had always wanted to raise a child.


Heron genderbent his avatar and got pregnant with Kiriluses child, only shifting back to the preferred masculine form once Curia had stopped breastfeeding. Kirilus was left to do the basics of raising the child as he desired, teaching her about life, watching over her and what not.

Heron was busy hunting down Aberrations that had infested the Astral sea and divine realms, as well as working on regaining his strength. Every now and then he would come back to train Curia, his training was very harsh, he expected nothing but the very best from Curia.

Curia was extremely hard pressed to meet Herons very high standards, she felt the disappointment practically radiating from Heron. For a time she started pushing herself beyond what was safe in order to prove herself, this culminated in the disastrous hunt for the Tarrasque (see Special Historic Notes).

Present Life: After defeating the Tarrasque she had gained much more respect from Heron and he started entrusting things to her, like the management of cleanup forces, cleaning up the Divine Arena of Aberrations.


As the divine realms were finally cleared of the Aberration menace the gods tuned their focus to re-establishing full contact with the other planes. Phase 1 of this would involve various champions plane shifting to stable regions of other planes, finding out the situtation and then reporting back.

Curia volunteered to be one of these, one of the first ones to check the state of other planes in several decades, and help re-establish full contact. Thus now she arrives on earth arctic circle, for the purpose of reuniting the gods with the people of earth.

Special Historic Notes: The Hunt for the Tarrasque was a task Curia undertook at 18 years of age, seeking to hunt one of the most dangerous beasts there were. She loaded herself up with items, arms and armor and headed off to seek the beast all by herself.


When she finally encountered it and fought it, she very quickly discovered that she couldn't seriously hurt it. Its extremely sturdy hide and regenerative abilities were too much, and she quickly started tiring from dodging its earthshaking blows. Curia tried to retreat, but the mad beasts earthbinding aura prevented her from flying away. It quickly snatched her up into its mouth, tasting her and battering her before swallowing her whole.

As she slid down the monsters throat, she cried for the entry to its gastric hell was upon her and all was lost, she was going to die. As the acids burned her flesh and impeded her breath something deep within her broke, the hidden power Heron had sensed in her but which hadn't showed itself fully burst forth to the surface.

Kirilus the Shield had gone after her when he heard what she had done, and arrived to a scene of the Tarrasque spasming wildly with its liquified organs pouring out of holes in its body. Out of one of its holes burst a perfectly clean and only mildly injured Curia, glowing with divine power.

Kirilus was shocked and made to meet her but a hand on his shoulder stopped him, Heron had sensed the power emerging and had crossed hundreds of horizons at great speed to witness this.

Curia was in a trance, and used the item to ensure it stayed down without noticing her parents looking at her with a mixture of pride and worry. When she turned around and noticed them she snapped out of her trance and fainted. She woke up in her bed with no memory of what happened after she landed in the monsters stomach. Heron explained everything to her, and was finally proud of her, she was now a real demigoddess of war.
 
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GENERAL CHARACTER STATISTICS

Character Name: Lucien "Lucky" Charmont
Name Meaning:
Alias: Depends on who you ask. A dozen names for a dozen stories.
Gender: Male
Species/Race: Human
Age: 37
B-Day: June 29th
Zodiac Sign:
Bloodtype:
Place of Birth: Small, relatively peaceful farming village called Clareux.
Current Residence: The road
Occupation: Traveling scholar and storyteller
School/Grade:
Family: Parents and older sister, back home; additional extended family.
Gemstone: Emerald
More:


PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS


Height: 5'11"
Hair: Brown, fading to bright orange at the tips
Eyes: Bright orange
Distinguishing Marks: Left ear looks like half of it was bitten off by a beast; scar running from under the right eye down off the jaw
General Appearance: Permanently a bit rough, with worn, brown and green travel clothing. Wiry build, impish features and a variety of odd knick-knacks worn on his person.
Strengths: Nimble, fit, accustomed to rough living., agile, stealthy
Weaknesses: While not specifically weak relative to average people, Lucky doesn't match up physically to many of the threats he's likely to face.
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MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS

Allies: A variety of friends and contacts across nearly every place he's been to.
Enemies: Besides the general enemies of human life altogether, his adventures have earned him various personal foes.
Current Goal/Purpose: To explore, see and learn everything he can.
Aspirations:
Hobbies: Woodcarving, drawing, collecting and telling stories.
Likes: Most people; excitement; the potential for discovery; storms; solving situations without violence; social interaction in general; helping people; apple fritters.
Dislikes: Cruelty; tyranny; boredom; senseless violence; people who refuse to be reasoned with; axiomats; aberrations; math.
Talents: Remarkable intellect; excellent memory, particularly for stories and trivia; vast breadth of experience; variety of skills; uncannily perceptive.
Inabilities: Has serious trouble with mathematics and similarly rigid systems; often gets overexcited and forgets to think ahead.
Fears: Feeling trapped or stuck in one place; commitment; bees.
General Personality: Cheerful, friendly, jocular, wise, constantly optimistic.
Inner Personality: More scarred than he lets on, reluctant to commit, stricken by indecision.
Fondest Memory: Adventuring beside his close friends for several years.
Biggest Regret: Being tricked into aiding a madman's rise to power.
Secret:
More:


SPECIALTY CHARACTERISTICS


Special Items: A jacket with armor enchantments that protects him from passive, environmental dangers, such as the arctic cold or sunstroke in the desert. A necklace of Mind Blank.
Weapons: One staff of lightning bolts (visually unimpressive); one broken sword that serves as a dagger in both utility and combat, enchanted to be nearly unbreakable with an edge that never dulls.
Magics: Talented magician with skills in illusion, storm evocation, weather spells and healing. Generally prefers utility magic.
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HISTORIC BACKGROUND


General History: Lucky's early life was relatively uneventful. Unlike what seems to happen to a lot of heroes, his home village was never destroyed and his parents both still live, and his time there was rather boring. In fact, it was far too much so. Growing up in an inn, he would hear all kinds of stories from all kinds of travelers passing through, and soon developed a keen wanderlust. By the time he was fourteen years old it could no longer be denied, and he packed a simple bag and set off down a long road, seeking excitement.


He probably would've died inside the year if he hadn't been found by an older, more experienced traveler who effectively adopted him, showing him the ropes and teaching him how to survive in the wider world. Though she settled down a few years later he would carry her lessons with him for the rest of his life, which they would often save.

Though his travels began as simple tourism - adventurous for him, but not overly dangerous - he eventually found himself tangled up in much more exciting matters, outwitting cultists, fleeing from monsters and even slaying an ancient dragon with a rockslide. Many years later he has grown far more experienced, and developed into a brave and kind soul.

Present Life: Though he has changed in many ways since setting out on his first adventure, in his heart Lucien remains the same person he always was: An explorer who loves to see, do and experience all he can of life. As such he continues to wander, enjoying the world he lives in, and occasionally doing something brave and heroic on the way. He also records much of what he learns, hoping it can eventually be of use.

Special Historic Notes: Through the years Lucien has accomplished much more than he ever expected to, but he rarely stays in the same place for very long. The nature of stories constantly retold has resulted in several of his exploits being credited to some title of his, with the description wildly varying from his actual appearance. Very few people even realize that the Knight of Storms, Tel-Mallar, Wintersbane and the Baron of the Drowned Forest are one and the same.
 
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Lucien Charmont sighed, wiping his goggles for the umpteenth time in the last hour as he trudged across snow so hard-packed it was almost ice. "I swear, one of these days someone will invent a spell that makes people immune to bright, blinding lights, and I'll learn it, and then I'll never need these again." His coat protected him quite well against all manner of environmental hazard - sunstroke, frostbite, general exposure - so well that he really only needed basic traveler's gear for the most part, but it did nothing against the glare from the Antarctic snow on a sunny day. For that the local frost dwarves had invented snowblind goggles. Pity his own misted breath fogged them up at every turn.

Still, he kept going. He knew the stable zone was nearby; he could all but feel it. Not that he'd ever been in one or knew what it felt like, but even so. At least the trip was nice. Granted that Antarctica could be a bit barren, but long stretches of nothing just meant he had time to think or write in his latest journal as he walked. And when he did see something - snowdrift plains, ice formations, local wildlife - it was often beautiful and always striking.
 
Curia Hearthbell shifted into the antarctic stable zone, she had been informed of that even if one is shifting into a stable zone most form of planar travel are still not 100% accurate. So appearing in a small and tight hole in a frigid ice formation with only her upper body sicking out shouldn't be too unexpected, still utterly embarrassing. "Curse it, why!? I know its unlikely but if someone sees me like this I swear I will, gah!"

With a grunt she managed to pull her left arm free, breaking off a fist sized chunk of ice in the process. Placing her hand hand against the ice she pushed herself out, breaking slightly more ice and causing cracks around her. As she popped out she did a back flip with just half a meter of clearance from the ground and landed on her feet.

Looking around the day was sunny, the glare would no doubt bother some people but shed faced much worse then a bit of light in the eyes. What was distressing however was that there was little in the form of landmarks to tel her where to go, once night came she could attempt to navigate by the stars as she had been taught, but for now she decided t seek a vantage point.

There was a mountain in the distance but for now the closest vantage point would be the top of the ice formation shed just popped out of. So she went ice climbing, given her strength she clung to the uneven features of the ice and climbed up with little trouble, even without climbing gear. On the top of the 20 meter or so formation she looked around, spotting a polar bear in the distance and more importantly, a humanoid traveler headed her way.

She briefly blushed at the thought of being spotted stuck in ice, but then she brushed that memory aside, no reason to worry about it given she hadn't been spotted. Now that traveler looked interesting, he (or she) could help her find her way to civilization, which would mean that she wouldn't have to try and navigate by the stars.

That sounded mighty fine to Curia so she jumped off the ice formation, landing on her feet 20 meters below, unhurt by the fall. She then skipped towards the traveler, covering ground rapidly with a series of short jumps. before coming to a skidding stop about 5 meters away from him.

"Good Day sir, do you know where the nearest town is?" She hoped her speech didn't sound too strange, language does change a bit in several decades, not immensely mind you, but some.

Curia smiled, unaffected by the cold or the glare, this looked promising!
 
"Well, there's something you don't see every day." Lucky had just crested the latest snowdrift when a distant, sparky sort of flash had caught his eye. Looking closer, he saw a figure - too far to make out clearly - half-buried in the ice. Is that an outsider? He'd wondered, just a second before the figure pulled an arm out of the hard ice with no apparent effort, then proceeded to clamber out as if it was sand. And after that they went on to clamber up a nearby ice mound, leap off said ice mound to land harmlessly on their feet, then jump over to him. Yeah, almost definitely an outsider, he thought. Almost.

Out loud he responded "Uh, yeah, there's not really a town for a while around here. Last place I saw was a frost dwarf hold about three days' walk back thataway." He gestured behind him at the way he'd come, indicating the trail of footprints he'd left leading off about as far as the eye could see. It was a very clear day, and the wind hadn't covered them yet. Up close, he noted, the most-likely-an-outsider was a girl, probably in her early twenties visually, though what that meant for her actual age was impossible to tell. Somehow that made her casual invulnerability hilarious in hindsight.

"If you like, I could show you the way," he offered. "I only really came here to see the planar stabilization zone, and it looks to me like I've seen it at its finest. My name's Lucien Charmont, by the way, but friends just call me Lucky."
 
"I'm very happy to meet a traveler such as yourself, I will take you up on your offer. Though by three days of walking I'm assuming a leisurely pace? Or is it really the 350 or so kilometers distance I am thinking of?"

The traveler then introduced himself as Lucien Charmont.

"Good to know, I am Curia Hearthbell, unlike you I don't really have a nickname in general use. Only one that calls me anything special is old Olaf who insists on calling me Monster Hunter."

Just then Curia heard it, the patter of paws and a rumble through the ice, she looked around and saw the polar bear from before only more alarmed looking, trying to pinpoint the rumble like her. Curia drew her rapier, a glitter of hostile intent approached the bear through the ice until it burst up and struck the bear lightning quick, a flash of toothed mandibles and the bear was already mortally wounded.

It was a huge white worm with mandibles on its face, and it was devouring the bear with incredible speed. "Just my luck that yet another ravenous monster appears! They seem attracted to me like bees to honey!" Huge hungry monsters being close to her had been a problem ever since she hunted the tarrasque, she didn't know why but they popped up close to her alarmingly often.

"So, Lucky want me to pick you up and run away or can you fight?" Curia glanced at Lucky, she wouldn't want to endanger someone by fighting a monster. The Frost Worm meanwhile was almost done devouring the bear, and was digging so savagely into the bear that one could swear the worm had been famished its whole life up til this point.
 
"Not sure the numbers, but it took me about three days to get here. I do tend to take my time, though." He gave a lopsided grin at the title. "Monster Hunter, huh? Bet there's a story behind-" And that was as far as he got before he spotted the bear. Instantly he was on the alert; when animals are spooked, he'd learned, there's usually a good reason. The rumbling grew louder, and he knelt down to put his hand to the ice. His eyes widened and he gripped his staff just as a giant, white worm erupted from the ice, snatching the polar bear in its maw.

Thinking quickly, Lucky cast a flight spell on himself even as he evaluated the beast before him. "Dragzul," he swore. "Just when I was admiring the ice fields." At Curia's question he hovered into the air, electricity arcing around the tip of his staff. "No need to worry about me. Compared to Sendrazhvalor this thing's practically an earthworm." He'd probably have to explain that one later. For now, the worm looked just about done, and knowing how scarce prey was around here, it was doubtless still hungry.

Trusting that Curia hadn't earned a title like 'Monster Hunter' on a farm, he flew up higher and aimed his staff at the beast, discharging a great arc of electricity from a height where he was probably out of its reach. Unless it jumped out like a fish from water or something, but they couldn't usually do that.
 
The Frost Worm roared at the pain and at its meal being interrupted, the lightning scorched its flanks but did not incapacitate the worm. The worm surged forwards before unloading a great blast of supercooled air towards Lucien.

Curia seized the chance to dash forwards, closed the distance incredibly fast and thrust for the monsters seeming single eye with a flying lunge. She succeeded, ramming her rapier downwards into its eye and burying the rapier up to the hilt in the monster! The monster shrieked in pain and thrashed madly, Curia couldn't hold onto the rapier and fell off. The monster snapped its toothed scissor mandibles at her as she landed, she barely caught and stopped them!

The fabric of her gloves stiffened but tore against the incredible forces, her hands were pierced by teeth and bleeding. "Damn you worm, you just don't have the good sense to die when a blade sticks into your head!" She cursed the worm and gathered her strength, with a great cry and grunts of effort she dug her heels into the ice and checked its movement. The worm was not only furious but also sounded just a mite confused, it started making bizarre noise that washed over Curia and threatened to make her drowsy.

Curia briefly contemplate transforming, but immediately dismissed that, the thought of that made a shiver more profound then that of the worms cold body run down her spine. She was not gonna hold out much longer if this kept up though.

"Ugh.The.Head.Lightning.Now!"
 
As the vast wave of utter, blood-in-your-veins-freezing cold blasted up toward him, there was only one thing Lucky could think to say. "Ah... Crapbaskets." But he wasn't idle: He curled his body up as tight as he could, angling his staff behind him, and brought the bracer on his left arm forward. The etchings on the bracer lit up with a soft, blue light, and a luminescent barrier roughly the size and shape of a tower shield sprang into being in front of him less than a second before the freezing wave hit.

His body was shielded from the worst of it - the direct blast itself didn't touch him, but its mere presence chilled the air around so deeply, beyond its already arctic condition, that his coat was no longer enough and he could feel the chill in his bones. He pursed his lips to break the frost that had formed on them and turned to the beast just in time to watch it try to crush Curia in its mandibles. Remarkably, even for a girl that treated a twenty-meter drop as a light skip, it was failing, but it looked like that might not last forever.

Pushing through the strange, keening noise that seemed to bypass his ears and wash over his mind, Lucky pointed his staff at the rapier embedded in the worm's eye, charging a bolt of lightning. Hopefully the jolt wouldn't cause a sudden muscle convulsion in the jaw and overpower Curia's arms... "Get clear!" He called, just in case. He'd seen a guy bite off his own tongue once when he got hit. This would probably be worse if it went wrong. Praying she was fast enough, he released the bolt of lightning, which was immediately drawn into the impromptu lightning rod.
 
Curia clenched and with a great heave of effort hit the deck, the teeth embedded in her hands breaking off with her, then the lightning struck and the worm spasmed violently, including snapping its mandibles so hard together its teeth cracked. The worm twitched some but was obviously dead, the smell of burnt worm wafted over the area as Curia removed the tooth fragments from her hands. The wound was moderately deep, she'd be fine in a day or two. The gloves would be harder to replace though, she spit at the worms corpse as she retrieved her sword from its skull.

"Bah, now that our bout of bad luck at meeting such a creature is done, we can at least say that, how you holding up Lucky?"
 
Descending slowly back to the ground, Lucky reached up and snapped off an icicle that, in a very recent past life, had been a lock of his hair. "Eh, been worse," he said, shrugging and tossing it over his shoulder. "Told you it wasn't a big deal. Speaking of, we should probably get moving before something that is a big deal shows up. Now it's not fighting back, this thing is a feast for some white dragon or something." As an afterthought he turned off his shield, leaving a thin, roughly shield-shaped accumulation of ice to fall unsupported and shatter on the ground.

"Normally I like to walk where I'm going," he continued. "See the sights, y'know? But right now I'm thinking we should make better time. Can you fly or was that a really good jump before?" He paused. "Oh, and I can heal your hands too, while we're at it. This cold is not good for an open wound."
 
Curia looked up at Lucien, "I don't have the ability to fly natively. At least not like this." She muttered a bit under her breath and cleared her throat. "Ah well when you can jump good the need for flight is diminished!"

Curia glanced back at her hands and frowned, she'd heal it back to full in a day or two natively, but the reduced grip strength and dexterity in the meantime would be annoying.

As Curia got ready to go he mentioned healing, she looked up at him with a smile and stretched her hands out towards him. "Yes please, if it's not trouble for you that is. But since you are offering it freely I presume it isn't! Also, don't worry too much about the cold, I mean It's not really bothering me as you've seen and I'm not exactly dressed in the heaviest clothing."

It was true, suffering from frostbite was something she was sure happened to other people that weren't demigods. She briefly paused and reflected on how fragile non demigod people tended to be, she rarely saw those except for ones that were freak exceptions in strength. Actually she tensed up, she really didn't have that much of a reference frame for average mortals, she decided this only meant she'd have to be extra careful around them not to hurt them, and hoped that would be enough.
 
'Not like this?' Well, that was unusual. It didn't seem like she wanted to be pressed on it, so Lucky decided to leave that for another day. As for right now, he placed his hand over hers and began reciting a low, lyrical chant - it sounded like a lullaby or a nursery rhyme, soothing in a sense, and the effects were quickly apparent as wounds began to close and torn flesh knitted itself back together. When he was done her hands were as good as new, though he could do nothing for the gloves.

With the healing finished Lucky hovered up into the air again. "C'mon, the hold is this way. If you can jump as fast as I can fly, we should be able to make it in a few hours. Good thing sunset isn't for weeks." With that he flew off back the way he came, going slower at first so she could follow and then speeding up to match her. "So," he continued once they were on the way, "where'd you learn to wrestle monsters like that anyway?"
 
Curia cooed slightly as her musings were interrupted by the music and her hands mending. "That felt great, thanks!"

Then they got going, since he described ti as a few hours with good speed she decided to go as fast as she could reasonably manage, she'd no doubt be tired when she got there but no matter. Glancing around to make sure they were matching speeds and that she wouldn't bump into anything unexpected she set off. Curia set the pace at around the speed of a galloping racehorse, she might push herself a tad faster then that but doing so would be too draining.

Curia didn't normally make much mention of it but she enjoyed the feeling of wind blowing in her face when she moved fast, and the feeling of rest after a hard exercise. Then he asked her about her monster wrestling tendencies.

"Well lets just say my mother has very high standards for her children's prowess. Though some of the larger monster wrestling was more me trying to proactively impress her."
 
"Sounds like a heck of a childhood," Lucky remarked, skimming across a snowdrift absently. "Why all the focus on monster fighting? Is she some kinda great warrior or something? Are there a lot of monsters to deal with and she needs all hands on deck?" He had noted the slight callouses on her knuckles when he healed her hands. Considering her ludicrous toughness, those could only come from gripping something - like a weapon - extremely frequently. Aside from that, though, she had a dancer's physique more than anything.

Still, he reflected, she wouldn't be the first fighter not to look the part. Hell, some of them weaponize that. Didn't Asha used to keep a live, venomous snake up her sleeve? The look on that Order cultist's face had been priceless, too. At least before it turned to a rictus of agony and they had to slit her throat out of mercy. Asha could be one mean bitch.
 
Even through the obvious signs of exertion on her face, Curia was beaming with pride.

"My mother is the greatest warrior there is! It was only natural she would have high standards of me, especially since monsters started appearing a few decades ago. Mother and Father would often disagree on a lot of things and mother was often busy fighting monsters or training so Father was more often around. He was more worried about me making friends, getting educated and such things, mother always disliked his emphasis on these."

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After but 3 hours of travel the hold was in sight, it was a reinforced and sturdily constructed settlement with thick walls, heating and underground greenhouses. Besides for its durability the holds walls were also patrolled by heavily armed guards and contained automatic alarms in case of attack. It was quite obvious they took the threat of potential Ice Worm or White Dragon attack very seriously.

Hardstrike Outpost was its name and the lifeblood of the economy here was the rich metal veins not too far away, during the summer snow and ice melts would be enough to make travel to shore to ship the metal elsewhere viable. The place itself only had around 500 souls and the people there were mostly the types willing to take the risks of the arctic for the prospect of wealth.

(( Here is where your character should prolly take the lead for a bit since he probably knows a few folks there ))
 
"Here we are," Lucky announced dramatically, coming down to land before the hold. "Hardstrike Outpost. Furthest of the Antarctic frost dwarf holds, and the only one to use boats for anything. This is the only place the snow melts enough for that to happen. Amazingly, this is pretty much the driest continent there is." He walked forward on foot, earning a once-over and a disinterested grunt from one of the guards on duty. Non-bestial intruders in these parts were practically nonexistent and never subtle, so they were really only here to keep their ears to the ice in case of monsters.

The gates of the hold were large and impressive, as was the way for all dwarves everywhere - if it couldn't admit a full-grown dragon, then it failed as a main gate. Not that they ever would admit dragons, of course. A glance at the hinges showed they also had a simple, effective mechanism to close them rapidly: Giant boulders would be rolled onto counterweights which, by a series of sturdy and well-maintained gears, would pull them shut nearly instantly in the event of an attack. Dragons could be very fast, so this was entirely necessary.

"So, this is civilization," Lucky said jovially to Curia as they passed through the gates. "Though if you're here to see how we've handled the last few decades, Antarctica isn't the best place to start. Even the frost dwarves only have scattered holds across the continent, so most of the trouble is in barren places where nobody lives or even goes. End result, you probably wanna see someplace a little closer to the equator. I can get us a ride on the next ship, the melts have been pretty generous lately." He gestured broadly down a large corridor - it was too well worked to really call it a mere tunnel - with dwarven runes declaring it the way to the docks, if she could read those.
 
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"Yes this place is much smaller then what I have been told about cities, so I do need to get elsewhere." Curia said as she followed Lucien down to the tunnels marked "Dock Passage". This place was at least a bit interesting so she wouldn't mind staying for just a bit. But then again he did just offer her a ship ride.

Curia mused, this Lucien fellow seemed quite willing to help her, even if he would be paying and she wouldn't. She was reminded of the gems she had, she would have to remember to sell those for cash when they next got to a jeweler. She went into the tunnel and continue along it to its end.

"So, Lucky where do you plan on going? You said a few hours ago that you'd seen what you came for in the planar stability zone, does that mean you knew I would come?"
 
"You specifically? Nah." Lucky shook his head. "But I figured something would be happening. See, I got a friend in Skorros who studies the planar boundaries. After that mess those years ago it's a very popular field, but he's one of the good ones. He mentioned to me while we were talking - something unrelated, actually, long story - that small, stable pockets were starting to form. Only one on this planet, but a few more out there. I asked him if the gods would've known how stuff's been going here and he said, and I quote, 'Yyyeeennnuuummmaybe?' Turns out everyone's been wondering that, up to and including the churches. So I figured they'd probably want to send someone to find out once it was stable enough."

He scratched his chin thoughtfully. "I honestly thought I'd have to camp out for days, even weeks. Was all ready to hunt bears and stuff. But I guess I lucked out when you showed up pretty much the same time I did. Right place, right time, right?" He grinned, leading the way down to the docks. Once they arrived he immediately flagged down a dwarven woman and began speaking to her in their language, fluently and with a natural ease. He even seemed to have the accent down - if his voice were deeper and rougher he would've sounded like a frost dwarf himself.

Finally he returned to Curia, still smiling brightly. "Lucked out again. There's a melt boat leaving in about an hour, down to the shore. Once it's there they just have to move some cargo onto the actual ship and then that's setting sail too. I managed to get us a free trip so long as we pull our weight, help with the hauling and so on. Figured you wouldn't mind, a box of metal probably isn't that big a deal to you."
 
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