Isharan Thief Quest (on hold indefinitely)

[Revx_Z]

Story Index
Chapter 1: The Transgression
Chapter 2: Exit Stage South
Chapter 3: Hill Village
Chapter 4: Beach Trip
Chapter 5: Taste of Seafood
Chapter 6: Fleeing, Again
Chapter 7: Belly Snuggles
Chapter 8: Spelunking a Spider

About Quests:

Some of you may be familiar with Humbug's Pred Quest or other quests already.
For those new to it, the basic way a quest thread works is this - I write a chapter, posters vote by commenting on what the protagonist should do next, I write the result of that, rinse and repeat. This means it doesn't branch the way most interactive stories do, but to make up for it you (usually) get a longer linear story as a result.
There's all sorts of optional detail, like dice rolls for chance of success and spending experience points on character advancement, but I figure that if you wanted to read about quests you'd probably be on another forum. You're here for the smut, aren't you?

About the Setting:

Ishara was created by Duamutef, who has since vanished from these parts. The creatures in it resemble humanoid females and monstergirls, but the underlying biology is very different. Creatures release spores, clusters of spores combine into a seed/egg that rapidly grows into a new creature, which then hatches as an adult with knowledge of language and a basic skill package. Duamutef wrote page after page about it, but the relevant bit is this: the kind of creatures that get born in a region is largely dependent on the nature and density of spores being emitted by creatures already present.
When girls first take root in a region, disproportionately many of them will be born as stabby fighters and shooty mages (and those who aren't tend to get eaten first), often with minor bestial traits. Once they've pacified the area, the high density of humanoid genes will trigger genetic mechanisms for the next generation to hatch with more support classes: crafters, healers, scouts. If they continue to flourish rather than being wiped out by a monster horde, a few weeks later you can expect to see practically civilian girls popping up, more time and skills for leisure activities, clans and cultures arising, and other fruits of civilization, like yourself.

Vote Example: (originally at the end of Chapter 1)
Where to go? Choose one.
[] Don't go far. Just to another nearby girl village.
[] Head west. That way lie the dry plains, mostly bereft of dangerous wildlife.
[] Head south. That way lies the coast. You could live off fishing for a while, or catch a ship to somewhere else.
[] Head north. You've heard there's an older, more organized clan of girls there.
[] Head east. Into the thick forests and monster-infested jungles. (This option is very dangerous.)

Bessie is a natural at various thief-like skills. But which one is she particularly excellent at? Choose one.
[] Stealth. They'll never hear her coming. Grab, gulp, gone.
[] Brute force. Knock them over the head, take their stuff.
[] Seduction. Magic fingers and a silver tongue can work wonders in getting you into private areas.

You may vote in any or all of the decisions if there's more than one in a post. Mark the option(s) you're choosing. A vote should look something like this:

[X] Head south
[X] Stealth

Or like this:

[X] Seduction.
I don't care where we go, I just want a sexy protagonist.

You're free to discuss, explain your reasoning, and try to persuade other people to agree with you, but it's the clearly marked "[X] Option" stuff I'll be looking for first when counting votes to see what wins.
One vote per person, you can change your mind and edit your post later.

[Revx_Z]

Chapter 1: The Transgression

You are Bessie Bubble, and let's be blunt: You are a thief. Oh, there's all sorts of euphemisms for it, like "rogue", "spy", "scavenger" or "liberator of unattended items". But you're a thief. Your position in the village militia has been listed as "scout" for the past month. With your sharp eyes and quiet feet, you've been able to give warning when a pack of nagas or karis or centaurs is approaching. But there's no one who's been able to warn about you - you who prey upon your fellow girl. When they're not looking, you occasionally help yourself to their food, their clothes, their money, and in one case yesterday, their body.

You can still recall the pleasant stretching of your belly as you think back on the incident. You'd just pilfered a pie and while licking the grease off your fingers, had wandered into Fiara's house on idle whim. Pure curiosity, really - it wasn't as though she had anything you wanted. You were just having a look. You were peering through her clothes cupboard, and after checking the pockets of one of the dresses, turned to notice her standing in the doorway. Somehow she had snuck up on you, and you were caught red-handed that evening.

"What the Fane are you doing?" she'd demanded, pointing an accusing finger at you. Perhaps she expected you to try fighting, or running, or talking your way out of it. But something in your head told you that those options were off the table: she'd seen far too much and you'd only get in worse trouble if you also attacked her while trespassing. So you had to not only dispose of her, but hide the evidence, and there was only one way to do that quickly enough. Something monsters usually did to girls, or girls to monsters, not girls to each other - eat her.

You grabbed the dainty hand she was pointing at you, opened your mouth, and pushed her arm down your throat to the elbow. "What? Bessie?" Fiara said, confused. "Let go - I mean, spit out!" But instead you swallowed, bringing your lips up to her shoulder. Your gastris chakra flared to life expectantly, stretching your body as you opened even wider to fit her head into your mouth. For a moment she was too shocked to say anything, so you started on her shoulders. By the time she began screaming, her head was in your throat and your flesh muffled her cries. With one hand already in your belly and the other pinned to her side, she didn't have much leverage. She slapped you, pinched, scratched. She tried to kick you, but only lost her balance, and pulled you on top of her. You remember how her clothes tore and your muscles strained as you stretched over her tits. Honey leaked from her nipples, the taste flooding your mouth and adding to the overwhelming rush of thoughts flooding your mind.

With a mighty heave, you sat up and leaned backwards, lifting Fiara's body into the air. She kicked her legs wildly, sending a shoe flying, flailing helplessly. Her head entered your stomach as you gulped down hers, and with the hardest part done, her lower half went down much faster than her upper half had. As you finally gobbled down her feet, you realized that you were drooling uncontrollably. You spat and belched as Fiara sobbed inside you, with barely a sound making it out of your taut belly. "Bessie! It hurts! You're squeezing me! I'm all soaked! Stop it!" You could hardly make out what she was saying, and even if you did listen, there was no way you were letting her out now. Selene would probably eat you on the spot once she heard about it.

"Sorry Fiara, it's you or me now." you muttered apologetically to your stomach. You didn't even know if you could spit her out. And then the immensity of what you'd done struck you. Reactions flitted through your head.
I ate someone.
I ate someone and I liked it.
I killed her.
I'm a traitor.
I didn't have a choice.
How does she even fit?
Am I going to do this again?
I mustn't let anyone find out.
I should have stripped her so I could check her pockets.
I should have stripped her so I could taste her skin.
And then, as panic gave way to damage control and more sensible habits, you'd locked the door, drawn the curtains, and curled up in Fiara's bed to digest its previous occupant, rocked to sleep by the churning of your guts and the weakening struggles of your victim.

Now, in the cold light of morning, you get a drink of water and head to the toilet to dispose of your... prey. There's something so awfully final about that word. She's been softly slithering through your intestines all night, and leaves your bowels as a long smooth turd. "Bye, Fiara!" you wave at the brown remains, then turn to wave back to yourself on her behalf. "Bye, Bessie!"

You take stock of your situation. You feel immensely stronger with the energy you've absorbed from Fiara, and also terribly uncomfortable about having done so. You should probably leave the village, and you're in much better condition to do so than you were yesterday. You think back to vague memories of the region's geography.

Where to go? Choose one. (Vote Closed)
[X] Head south. That way lies the coast. You could live off fishing for a while, or catch a ship to somewhere else.

Bessie is a natural at various thief-like skills. But which one is she particularly excellent at? (Vote Closed)
[X] Brute force. Knock them over the head, take their stuff.

Next Chapter

[empatheticapathy]

[X] Head south
Because beach adventures yay. North and west seem like asking for trouble.
[X] Brute Force
Of the three listed, this has the largest variety of applications.

[ScarKnight]

[X] Head North
[X] Brute Force

[Revx_Z]

Any lurkers want to be the tiebreaker between going north and going south? If not, I'll just flip a coin tomorrow.

[doinstuff]

[x] Head south
Beaches generally mean less clothing.

[Revx_Z]

(Previous chapter)

Chapter 2: Exit Stage South

You carefully make your way out of the village. No one notices you. You've been on enough patrol routes to know where the other girls are watching, and besides, they're watching for monster attacks. Not girls sneaking out.

The first hour or so of walking is spent adjusting to your new curves. Quite a lot of Fiara went to your tits and ass, and it's thrown your balance off. You trip once or twice, and flail your arms several more times to barely avoid tripping. Under other circumstances, you might have quite a few jealous admirers.

You trip again an hour later, and curse. Just when you thought you were getting used to it - but as you try to raise yourself back up, you instead get tugged sideways and realize that that wet feeling on your foot wasn't stepping in mud. A slimevine has grabbed you by the ankle, and several more vines are reaching out to wrap around your legs so they can drag you into the plant's core and cocoon you and slowly digest you. These carnivorous plants are normally not much of a threat. They're stationary, for one, and a group of girls with axes can chop one up pretty fast. But you don't have a group of girls supporting you, and even if you did have an axe, it would be useless by yourself. It's hard to muster the will to strike against your own body, and you don't have proper space to get a good swing, and oh goddesses that vine has your arm! You can feel the pressure on your feet growing as the vines coil tighter and wrap their way up your legs.

The slimevines whip around and strike you all over, soiling your clothes and stinging your bare skin. You briefly imagine a green vine-belly full of you, growing into a giant plant monster. Then the moment of panic and confusion passes, and you get a grip. You're not some helpless wallflower. You are the indomitable Bessie Bubble, and even if you don't have an axe, you have a couple of sharp knives that are just as good for slicing plants. You overpower the vine that grabbed one of your arms, and cut it loose. If the slimevines had a brain, your life might have ended here. But the plant only has randomly flailing vines, while you have the wits to keep your arms free first and cut everything else second, even while your feet burn in pain from being dragged into the vines' central bulb for digestion. Eventually, you deliver a good deep stab to that bulb. It lets out a squeaking hiss as it deflates, acid spills out of it, and the vines fall limp. Your sandals are ruined when you pull them out, but at least you survived, and you've gotten a sharp reminder to keep your eyes open as you travel.

-

Your next encounter is with a demi in the afternoon. Something between human and animal, possibly with wolf or coyote genes. She (it?) sees you, wants dinner, and starts running. You draw your weapons and brace for combat.
When she's only a few yards away, she suddenly opens her muzzle wide and leaps at you. You get a brief glimpse of pearly white teeth before everything is red, then dark, and hot and wet and slimy as she shoves your head into her mouth.
Simultaneously, you drive a knife deep into her belly with one hand and swing the other around to stab her in the back. The demi whimpers in pain as you pull her off you. Then you stab, kick and punch her repeatedly. She manages a few swipes with her claws before dying messily and falling apart.

-

"Well, shit." You look down after the fight to see that your shirt is mostly torn by the werewolf's claws. Your sandals dissolved a while back. Your feet are sore, your pants and bra soaked with plant slime. You didn't think to pack extra clothes when you skipped town. This trek is definitely not going well. When you decided to head towards the coast, you thought it would be only a few hours' walk to a nice beach, not... this! But then, you suppose, that's why most girls stay in the villages where it's mostly safe and they don't get eaten.

In the evening, you find yourself drawing close to what is probably one of those safe villages, unless some monster has learned to imitate a set of chimneys and send up several small trails of smoke. Approaching confirms that it has city walls, too, around a large central hill, and you spot some pit traps near the walls that probably aren't groundmaws. Of course, if they were groundmaws, it would be very hard to tell without close inspection, which would be a very bad idea. Close inspection of a groundmaw is the kind of thing that tends to leave you simultaneously digesting and buried alive in a pool of - bad time to be thinking about that. You need your wits about you right now.

Vote Closed
[X] Approach the locals for supplies, nicely. You have some coin. You could try to buy new clothes, a bed for the night, and proper maps or even a guide!
[] Approach the locals for supplies, nastily. You could also try to get several of those things by eating someone and taking their stuff. Much cheaper and more satisfying.
[] Skip past the village. Half-naked, blood-stained, foreign girls might get only the warm welcome of a hungry belly here. You can clean up with a bath instead once you get to the beach.

---
Author's Notes:

Spoiler: show

If you had picked "stealth", you would have gotten the drop on the demi and there would have been a choice to safely kill her outright, or take a risk and try to capture and eat her alive.
If you had picked "seduction", she would instead have approached you peacefully with terribly cheesy pickup lines about a walk on the wild side. Still planning to eat you, but only after enjoying your body the other way.

Next Chapter

[ScarKnight]

[X] Skip past the village

[empatheticapathy]

[X] Approach the locals for supplies, nicely.
The word about us murdering that other girl should not have reached this town yet, and since we intend to be laying low in the wilderness for awhile after this, we should spend the coin we have while we can.

Also let me just say that werewolf kill was awesome.

[Revx_Z]

The word about us murdering that other girl should not have reached this town yet, and since we intend to be laying low in the wilderness for awhile after this, we should spend the coin we have while we can.

If you're lucky, word about it might not reach anyone at all. Bessie tried to make things look like two people just disappeared on the same day for no obvious reason. Which is still a little suspicious, but not as much as treacherous devourment.

Also let me just say that werewolf kill was awesome.

That's what happens when someone makes a mistake and thinks they've found a helpless civilian lost in the woods, who will surely be easy prey. Then everything is knives and hurt.

[Aleph-Null]

[X] Approach the locals for supplies, nicely.

Nice and neutral, can always change tactics when opportunities present themselves. Plus, the beach isn't going to repair your clothing or offer supplies.

[Revx_Z]

(Previous chapter)

Chapter 3: Hill Village

The inhabitants of the fortified village are suspicious and secretive as you approach the walls and wander around looking for the gate. "No funny business", you're told as you enter. Two soldiers are assigned to accompany you and keep you out of trouble. Bridget is tall, thin, muscular and carries herself like a veteran of combat. Maya is medium height, plump, stacked, and curious about you.
Not sure whether to worry more about Bridget eating me because hungry or Maya because she might be in the habit, you think to yourself.
You're already wallowing in guilt, you tell yourself, no reason to add paranoia.
It only takes one mistake, you mentally reply.
The sight of a vast cave jolts you out of your brooding. No, not a cave, it's too large and regular. And there are stairs going both up and down in there. It must be an entire underground complex. Maya describes how the central hill has underground housing and aboveground farming, and casually mentions a giant spider farm on one of the lower levels, causing you to shudder.

Bridget leads the way to a tailor who quickly takes your measurements and offers up a set of clothing.
"Is this silk?" you ask as you touch it.
"Ayup." says the tailor.
"Told you about the spider farms." says Maya.
"How much? I'm not sure I can afford silk."
"Forty lunes or equivalent in silver, iron trades at three to one, gold at one to eight." the tailor reels off with long practice.
"I'll cover some of that if you'll tell me stories tonight." offers Bridget.
You happily accept her offer to supplement your purchases, and rapidly get changed, eager for the gawking at your half-naked body to die down.

Then it's on to a few other stores. New, acid-resistant shoes of barklike leather. A cheaper set of emergency backup clothes. A map. Dried fruit for the road. Fresh fruit for right now. A refreshing appointment with a large bucket of water. You empty your purse, figuring there's not much else you're going to be spending it on for a while. By the time you're done, the sun has set and the stars are burning bright.

"Storyyyy!" Bridget demands, pulls you off to her house, and shoves you onto a large bed. She and Maya take off their armor and pile in next to you. You discover that Bridget is quite grabby up close. Maya may have been asking the most questions, but Bridget wants to know what your body is like.

"So I was on jungle clearing duty with Lily," you start, "checking the outer grounds around where I used to live to make sure no slimevines or carniflowers or anything were springing up. Usually fairly safe duty, you just bring a long axe and hedge trimmers. Then we hear the tatatatatap sound of something coming. You know what sounds like that?"

Kari.gif (25.69 KiB) Viewed 5579 times

"Yep. Kari. One of the worst predators around, not much more than big monster stomach on legs, with a pretty face on top. Coming right at us out of nowhere. She knocks Lily over, and she shoves her tits in my face." You demonstrate by pressing Bridget's head against your breast. "And what's your first reflex with a tit in your face?"
Bridget is happy to show you just what her reflex is. You grin. It's the same as yours was.

"And the problem with that is that Kari honey is paralytic. So I go all limp, and the kari begins stuffing me right into its big bellymouth. And let me tell you, it stiiinks. Karis have a huge stomach that can hold several girls without stretching, as I learned that day, but the flipside is that they don't have much in the way of intestine. Almost everything they're digesting piles up in its stomach all at once and stays there, so I'm not just being eaten, I'm being eaten by a monster with a pool of half-digested sludge in its belly."
There's a joint "ewwwwww" from your audience.

"The bellymouth doesn't have a throat or tongue either, so it can't swallow, the kari has to push me in with her arms. Which is difficult when Lily gets up and starts trying to pull me out. I mean, I'm all in favor of being pulled out of monsters, but just then it meant that I was going in-out-in-out as they both pulled at me." You put two fingers into Bridget's flower and demonstrate the movement. She squirms a little and continues paying her respects to your tit. "The kari was bigger and stronger than Lily, so with every thrust I'm going a little deeper. And then Lily has a bright idea: she shoves me in and jumps in after me! Now, the kari isn't going to complain about two meals instead of one, so it just shrugs and lets her get on with it. But what it doesn't consider is that Lily wasn't paralyzed. As we're both lying there in big dark kari stomach, acid and stuff sloshing all over us, Lily says to me 'Don't worry, I have a plan'. I can't even nod, I just hope for the best. She grabs me and pushes and shoves me backwards. It's one of the weirdest experiences of my life, just lying there as I'm pushed around, clothes melting off, my naked skin burning with warm flesh rubbing against me on every side."

You pause and arch your eyebrows meaningfully. "With warm flesh on every side." you repeat, pulling Maya and Bridget closer. They get the hint and start rubbing against you. You grab their butts to hint at what comes next, and begin fingering their backdoors.

"And as Lily is squirming and struggling to shove me around, I realize just what her plan is: pushing us both out and through the kari. She pushes me deeper into its guts, and it's hard work, since there's almost nothing in a kari stomach that can be used for leverage. So she's repositioning her legs every few seconds, kicking off against muscles trying to crush her, while I'm heading face-first into a shit-chute that stinks even worse than the stomach did. But there's nothing pulling us back and once I'm halfway in the intestine starts pulling me forwards, so I make it eventually and she joins in after me. It's much tighter than the belly was and I'm curled up and bent double, but at least I'm not melting in acid any more, and soon I can see light ahead of me. First a pinprick, then an increasingly gaping circle, and eventually my head pops out and I can hear the kari moaning from the front. Lily and I slowly drop out in what is surely the biggest bowel movement the kari has ever had, and then it turns around and looks at us, and we can tell that it's more pissed off than a hungry demonette. But it just glares and stomps and snorts and eventually it runs off. Even if it was still hungry, apparently it didn't want to eat a meal covered in its own shit. So we lived to wash off and fight another day!"

Bridget mutters something about sharing one of her war stories, but no one really feels like either talking or listening any more. The rest of the evening is spent in a pleasant, if messy, threesome.

Early the next morning, you wake up first. Time to get packed and move on soon. You reach out a hand to wake Maya.
You pause on touching her warm skin.
You recall its taste from kissing and licking her yesterday. They tasted delicious, both of them, and you want more.
Intellectually, you know you have spare rations. Instinctively, you hunger.
Maya and Bridget are warm and naked. They'd make much better food than Fiara did when you had to gobble her down with all her clothes on.
And it's not like they're your clan this time. You have no obligations to them. They might even have eaten you if you'd stepped out of line yesterday.
Your belly calls to you as you consider.

Vote closed
[] Yes, eat them. Let them experience firsthand what it's like to be two girls squirming in a stomach. Maybe they'll even make it out your butt alive and have a funny story to tell.
[] Maybe just one. You're hungry, but not that hungry. One girl is a filling meal. Two would leave you struggling with the weight of your own belly.
[X] No, they're friends. You may have known them for less than a day, but you've come to like them already.

---
Author's Notes

Spoiler: show

This proverb comes to mind: "A thief thinks every man steals."

Don't worry, there will be smut and vore regardless of what you vote for, so you don't need vote for the vore option to see more vore content. "No, they're friends" will result in Bessie looking for more acceptable targets for her hunger instead.

Next Chapter

[Aleph-Null]

[X] No, they're friends.
To many risks, plus, friends in the guard could come in handy.

Seeing as you just fucked their brains out, they could serve as an alibi for when some other girl goes missing from their home. Speaking of which, it's early in the morning, and surly there are girls sleeping in.

[empatheticapathy]

[X] No, they're friends.
For the same reasons as Aleph.

[Revx_Z]

No, they're friends.
To many risks, plus, friends in the guard could come in handy.

Seeing as you just fucked their brains out, they could serve as an alibi for when some other girl goes missing from their home. Speaking of which, it's early in the morning, and surly there are girls sleeping in.

(removed the X in my quote so I don't accidentally double-count the vote when looking through later)

First let me say that I greatly appreciate your initiative here. It's strategizing commenters that make a quest interesting, and this sort of response is what will encourage me to put up explicit []Write-in vote options later, hopefully when I have more players. Doing it right now seems like an invitation to 1-1-1 ties between different write-ins.

With that said, let me outline why I think Bessie shouldn't do this specific thing.
If you gobble some other girl here and then leave, Maya and Bridget will put two and two together and get vore, and might get a personal grudge about how you were using them.
If you gobble some other girl here and quickly head back to bed, M&B will notice your belly when they wake up and start asking questions. Lies like "I ran out of the village and had a monster" will seem very suspicious when the other soldiers on duty wouldn't have seen that. Telling the truth and asking them to cover for you anyway because sexy might have worked if you took Seduction spec, but Brute Force won that first vote. So Bessie is "only" good enough to walk into a fortified village and get fuckbuddies, not good enough to enthrall them into siding with a foreigner who ate one of their own people.
Does that make sense?

If you wish you'd taken Seduction now, don't worry, there will be opportunities to "level up" later if Bessie keeps surviving and eating.

[empatheticapathy]

Alright, my vote remains the same. Let's just not eat anybody.

[anthony050]

[] No, they're friends.

I feel like it would be unwise to piss them of or to try something in the village at the moment

[Revx_Z]

anthony050: Please mark [X] your vote, for the future.

(Previous chapter)

Chapter 4: Beach Trip

You lick your lips, looking down on Maya's naked body, before putting the thought away. So you settle for licking her, which is still pleasant. She's startled awake and feebly complains about waking up so early. You silence her complaints with a kiss. Then Bridget wakes up from hearing the two of you going at it...

It's not so early in the morning any more when you finally leave. Maya and Bridget tell today's guard shift you've been well-behaved. You sigh wistfully and consider staying here. But it probably wouldn't work out in the long run. Sure, these two girls are friendly. On the other hand, you'd still be an outsider in a small town where everyone else knows each other. And you don't have it in you to try seducing every last inhabitant... and someone might still figure out how you disappeared Fiara... all in all, better to move on.

Local map in hand, you can set off with a much better idea of your course. It's not a well-traveled route, so the going is rough. Fortunately, nothing very dangerous comes after you today.
The biggest thing you spot is an arachne, and it's just lurking quietly, waiting for prey to walk into its web. You give that one a wiiiide berth before returning to your original heading, not knowing how far the near-invisible strands of web might reach.

Having successfully evaded that danger, you spot a plump, juicy-looking critter that would make a much better meal than these rations you bought. You begin stalking it, but it notices you before you can get close enough to pounce, and begins scurrying off. You give chase, gaining on it. There's a flash of wings in front of you, a squeal, a rapid series of clucking and gulping sounds, and you watch as your intended catch vanishes down the throat of some bird - no, those are lips stretching around the critter, it's a harpy. A harpy about half your size, now stretched out with a belly a bit over half of its size.
"You just made a big mistake." you say, pointing at it. The winged pest finishes bolting down its meal and looks at you. "That was going to be my lunch. Guess what I'm having instead, now?"
"Awk?" This harpy might not understand speech, but it definitely understands your tone, and tries to flee. But weighed down by its meal, it can't fly properly, only hop and flutter along the ground.
You easily catch up to it. The harpy manages to scratch you a little, barely drawing blood, before you get a firm grip on its legs with one hand and around its neck with the other. It bats you in the face with a wing. You open your mouth and start cramming it down. The feathers are bleh. The smooth skin is better. You can briefly feel the smaller critter squirming inside the harpy's stomach and pressing against your tongue before you finish swallowing. The talons going down feel like someone is giving your throat a noogie.

The harpy squawks unhappily from its new position as it's drenched in acid. "Shouldn't have stolen my food." you tut-tut, tapping your tum to underscore the point. It squawks a little more. You lift up your shirt to see the little dimples and bulges play across your skin as your prey kicks and stretches in your innards. If you listen carefully, you think you can hear it gurgling, too. You move on, rubbing your taut belly in satisfaction. Pleasantly stretchy, without weighing you down too much. An unfortunate belch reminds you about the feathers. Oh well, you can't have everything.

Before noon you reach the beach. Well, the coast, at least. There's not really enough sand to be a proper beach. Still, there's some sand, plenty of open ground, and a bright blue bay stretching out in front of you. You quickly pull off your clothes and dash into the water, finding it delightfully warm. Something to do with a shallow bay, from what you heard yesterday. You could definitely get to like this place. Warm water, soft ground, full stomach... actually, that last one will require some maintenance eventually. Looking around for possible maintenance components, you see a large lizard sunbathing on a dark rock. As you get out of the water, though, it hears your splashing and scurries off.

There will be others, though. Of that you are quite confident. You collect your clothes, take over the sun-heated rock you have conquered, and lie down to consider your next move.

Vote Closed
[X] Dig in. This place is quite safe. Sharks won't chase you onto land, karis won't chase you into water. Build a shelter, set up a few traps and snares, carve a fishing rod, and you could live the good life for a while! At least until it gets boring.
[] West to Port Rotwood. Supposedly a pirate cove and a hive of scum and villainy, but that's probably an exaggeration. It definitely has lots of ships stopping by and no questions asked, so you could fit right in.
[] East towards Highflame. It's further away, but it's a larger city, with more threats and more opportunities. The route there goes past some dangerous regions, though.

Next Chapter
---
Author's Notes

Spoiler: show

A bit more geography for those who are curious about it, now that your character has a decent map:
The coast here runs roughly north to south, with the sea to the west and the land to the east. The bay described above lies between two peninsulas sticking out towards the west. You are on the south coast of the north peninsula. Rotwood is near the tip of the peninsula, where ships can easily dock. Highflame is far into the bay, still coastal, but with a lot more risky shallows
Choosing to go to Rotwood will lead the quest more in the direction of "see the world" and random encounters, while Highflame will have more socializing and recurring NPCs.

Non-voting comments also welcome!

[anthony050]

Revx_Z, oh sorry I misread that as I understood that it was the opposite that confused you, I'm sorry for that.

[empatheticapathy]

[x] Dig In
We can do the other stuff after grinding for levels against mermaids or whatever else shows up here. Plus we'll look sweet with a tan.