Viridian Dreams Forum

There are three kinds of magic in this world: the Word, the Wild, and the Will.
Wizards use the Will, forcing their innate magic to obey them. The Will is the weakest, but also the easiest to use and the least prone to disobedience or error.
The Wild is the magic of the druids. It obeys not your mind but your heart, and has a will of its own.
The Word is the magic of the Pilgrims. It is the strongest, but also the most difficult to use.
That is what the wizards say. But then, wizards are fools.
You are a Pilgrim. You know the truth.
Some of it, at least.

You are young yet, not long graduated from the Pilgrims’ temple-school. You know the basics of binding the World by the Word, but you know few Words as yet. More importantly, however, you know the paths to the shrines that bind the Fell back.
The Fell. The demons the Ancient Ones, in their arrogance, created as weapons to use against one another. Weapons that were all too effective... weapons that nearly destroyed all the world. Only the seals in the shrines keep the Fell quiescent. Only the Pilgrims know how to maintain the seals. The druids watch, but even though the Wild is part of the World, the druids know not the Word.
But you do. You, like all Pilgrims, keep the seals intact.
You are on the road now, headed to examine the Mirayuki Shrine. Last you heard, everything was fine there, but you have a bad feeling about today for some reason...
You hold your walking staff close to your body and are grateful that all Pilgrims are trained in basic unarmed and staff combat.

The Word Tell me about yourself. What kind of man are you? Big, small? Wiry, muscular? Bespectacled, hawk-eyed? What do you look like?

I think we should be a tall thin man. We use our staff to give our already impressive range an even greater boost. Our skin is light brown and our hair black.

Tall, but not towering. A thin frame, occasionally called sickly, supports tattered yet dependable clothing. A gaunt face peeks out from a travellers hat, olive skin tone with prominent cheekbones high on the face and a scraggly beard hiding a wealth of pox scars from our youth. Thick wire glasses are precariously perched on a squat nose, beady green eyes peering through them. Greasy black hair pulled back in a ponytail falls out the hat and down to our shoulder blades.

Those evil exes won't know what hit them. Pilgrim is going to grow up and win her love!

Those evil exes won't know what hit them. Pilgrim is going to grow up and win her love!

Tall and thin, still caught in the wiry, gangly stage of a teenager that grew up before he started to grow out. Thin muscles from staff and hand to hand practice cover his frame. He has a square, angular face with the beginnings of what might one day be a strong jaw, but a thin layer of fat softens his features. Short, blond hair covers his head, tending to spike up slightly in good natured defiance of gravity. A smile often plays across his lips. Wire frame glasses with perfectly circular lenses perch on his slender, almost feminine nose. He has a rather approachable and benevolent air.

Tall, but not towering. A thin frame, occasionally called sickly, supports tattered yet dependable clothing. A gaunt face peeks out from a travellers hat, olive skin tone with prominent cheekbones high on the face and a scraggly beard hiding a wealth of pox scars from our youth. Thick wire glasses are precariously perched on a squat nose, beady green eyes peering through them. Greasy black hair pulled back in a ponytail falls out the hat and down to our shoulder blades.

I like this.

Those evil exes won't know what hit them. Pilgrim is going to grow up and win her love!

OUR NAME MUST BE SCOTT!

I don't mind in terms of appearance, whatever's popular.

Fair notice: In this Quest, I will not necessarily go completely with any one answer, nor entirely with the will of the majority. If everyone wants to do one thing, and you want to do something else, speak up! Your answer may get factored into the final post.
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You are a tall, thin man, still not quite grown out of the gawkiness of your adolescence. Round, wire-framed spectacles cover your green eyes, and you wear your greasy black hair in a short ponytail to keep it out of your way. Your skin is on the darker side, for a northerner like yourself, but nowhere near the dark browns the people of the more southern regions get to. A small amount of muscle and fat softens the angular lines of your frame, but not terribly much of either. Those your own age tend to tease you for your feminine looks, but those younger than you seem to find your appearance comforting and approachable. Nonhumans also tend to like you, something that has stood you in good stead on the few occasions you have dealt with druids.

You come to a fork in the road. One branch leads to your left, another to your right. You need to take the right fork, but there seems to be a big black dog sitting in the middle of the road in that direction. The dog is watching you.
What do you do?

Inventory: The Word:

I vote we talk to the dog.

If that doesn't do anything we should try and walk past the dog, though being careful when we do in case the dog tries to attack us.

I vote we talk to the dog.

What would you like to say?

"Why are you blocking the path?"

Smile graciously at the dog. "Well met, roadwarden. Any bandits today?" In a lightly teasing voice.

Both TK's thing and Book's thing along with
"Hi how are you?"

You decide to try talking to the dog. Wizards have been known to ‘uplift’ animals, granting them sapience should they not already possess it, and exposure to druids has been known to have a similar effect. It is entirely possible that this dog understands human speech.
“Well met, roadwarden,” you greet the dog. “How are you? Any bandits today?”
The dog tilts its head briefly, as though considering, before moving it from side to side as if to say no. It then gets up and trots a little closer to sniff at you.
“Why are you blocking the path?” you ask next.
The dog looks up at you and barks. Something sounds slightly odd about that bark, but you cannot quite figure out what.

What would you like to try next? Any other questions you wish to ask? Something else you want to say? Will you try simply walking on down the path? Or is there something else you want to do?

Inventory: The Word:

I think we should use Comprehend.

Hmm...I guess I'll back Tempy up on using comprehend.

"Sorry, could you repeat that?"

Agreed

You speak the Words of Comprehension, the few Words necessary ringing in the air and in your mind. You feel a shiver of power as the World shifts to match your Word, and the slight warning twinge of pain in your head that always accompanies the use of the Word. The World does not like to be ordered about, not even when the orders are for its own good.
But this is your first use of the Word in quite some time, and the slight pain quickly fades to be replaced with a sense of greater clarity of mind. Outwardly, nothing seems to have changed, but you can tell that the World has done as you asked.
“Sorry,” you say to the dog, “could you repeat that?”
The dog barks again. The bark sounds exactly the same, yet now you also gain a sense of meaning from it.
“Was asked.”
“Who asked you?” you inquire next.
The next bark seems to mean, “Nice man.”
You think a little. This dog is clearly more intelligent than the average dog – a normal dog would not be able to understand you nearly this well – yet the ‘uplifting’ wizards practice also allows the animal to speak in a manner comprehensible by normal humans. So either the wizard who uplifted this dog was sloppy about it, or they were unskilled, or the dog’s increased intelligence comes from exposure to a druid and not from a wizard’s magic at all.

What would you like to do next?

Inventory: The Word:

"Well, can we pass?" If not, ask why.

MrRigger

I agree with this suggestion

I third the motion.

If not give him a scratch on the rump where dogs' "OH MY GOD KEEP DOING THAT!" spot is and ask "Now?"

nventory: The Word: ((Sorry, Serbii, I wrote this before seeing your reply and was not sure how to work your idea in. Feel free to simply repeat the idea if you still want to do that.))