Food?!?

[Khamat]

A slight sound came through the large tent that housed the chieftain of the Flametongues, shortly followed by Tocgar entering, his scaled face looking as worried as a Skaldi's face could as he approached Khamat who was sorting repair patches for the tents and putting them into a sack ready for usage next time a tent needed patching.

"There's an issue within the camp" -Tocgar

"What?" -Khamat

The larger Skaldi turned to look at his younger tribesman, he hadn't seen any such issue currently and he'd done a patrol of the camp this morning, it couldn't be anything that bad or surely he would have noticed. A frown took to his face as he went through the worst case scenario of them being found by humans once again, which meant another fight that they couldn't actually afford to have. 

"The salamander herds moved on, we're going to run out of food" -Tocgar.

Khamat gave a momentary sigh of relief, it wasn't anything as drastic as an attack again then, the food issue could be dealt with in a much easier way, they simply would have to hunt further and more, it could potentially mean another move but that would only be if they couldn't find enough food in this area. 

"We'll hunt then." -Khamat

"Now?" -Tocgar

"Now." -Khamat

The chieftain got up slowly, his large frame barely fitting inside the tent even though it had been specially made to accomodate his size, pulling aside the tent flap and walking out closely followed by Tocgar. The two of them strode through the camp, they should be plenty if they were just going to hunt a few rabbits or maybe a deer or two, they should be plenty. 

---

Stamina: 19/20

[Khamat]

It was only as they walked out of the camp that Khamat realised the enormity of the task he was trying to undertake, there were rather a large amount of Skaldi in his command and each required quite a lot of food at each meal, if they were lucky they might catch enough in this session to provide one meal to a hatchling, if they managed that even.

"I have some experience with hunting. If you don't mind me making a plan so we can catch as much as we can" -Tocgar

In this ground at least he knew he had not much experience, as the chief he hadn't had that much time to hunt, and when he had before things hadn't actually gone particularly well, most of the times he'd ended up almost dead or severely beaten, you probably couldn't call any of his hunts wins by this point. But he didn't care about them (well he might have a bit, he just hid it well, a leader can't show weakness).

It took quite a while for Tocgar to explain his plan to Khamat, partially because it wasn't something the larger Skaldi had thought of, and partially because Khamat was fighting back with his own plan to simply kill as much food as they could for everyone and just run after it haphazardly hoping to catch it.

Tocgar hid himself in a bush, well several bushes that Khamat had ripped out of the ground and placed on him, but how did the matter, while Khamat ran a fair distance from his subordinate Skaldi. He drew in a large lungful of air before letting out a primal roar, waiting for any prey to leave the trees and bushes, if or when some did he would then proceed to chase it and herd it towards Tocgar who lay in wait for it and would then snare it for them. It was what they both thought of as quite an efficient hunting method when neither of them had any sort of weapons they could use otherwise.

---

Stamina: 18/20

Hunting roll with Tocgar having Hunting I and Khamat helping him.

DPzNKNwR

[Azuloth]

Roll Results:

Failure.

[Khamat]

"Nothing came" The large Skaldi chieftain said as he walked back and stood next to Tocgar who's head was protruding out from the bush as he spoke. "Of course nothing came, hunting is about trying and patience, it wont always happen in the first time that you do it." Tocgar replied, slightly annoyed that Khamat had come back and probably scared off a lot of potential prey on his way back, but at the same time unwilling to say it should Khamat view it as a challenge accidentally.

"Let's try again, if that's ok with you" Tocgar said, settling down into his bush hiding spot and giving Khamat no other easy choice by settling himself into position, hoping that the Saurian would see him in his own spot and realise he should go to his. The desired effect wasn't had quickly, but eventually he twigged and walked back again, this time waiting a few minutes. 

This time he took his time, peering around at the trees and undergrowth, trying to look for any signs of animals so that as soon as they darted from their hiding spaces he would already have an idea where they could be and so could react to them slightly quicker. Maybe they would find something this time, he hoped so, it was either that or the Flametongues turned to emergency foods.

Once again Khamat gave his loudest and most fearsome roar, the kind that would unearth a deep primal fear in animals and even to some extent humans, not that he expected there to be any humans around.

---

Stamina 17/20

Tocgar has Hunting I Khamat is helping (roll to hunt)

rlVurlWS·

[Azuloth]

Results:
Failure

[Khamat]

Khamt stomped back to Tocgar once again, this time with a thoroughly displeased look on his face, he yanked his subordiante out of the bushes he was using as cover and pulled him up until he had to stand almost on his claws and stretch to stay on the ground. "We are trying my way, yours doesn't work." Khamat almost snarled at Tocgar. 

It wasn't that he was particularly annoyed at Tocgar, well he was really as his plan had failed, but it was more the fact that Skaldi were supposed to be able to hunt, it was how they lived. If their chief couldn't hunt then what kind of example was he setting, not a good one, an integral part of being a Skaldi was the ability to hunt, they hunted salamanders for food and clothing, if they couldn't even hunt a few rabbits or forest dwellers how were they supposed to hunt down something as big as a salamander. Being the chieftain of the Flametongues and unable to hunt was something that irked Khamat greatly, how were the Skaldi supposed to rise if they had a weak leader, he knew that he was the best man for the job but even if it did greatly bother him he did know he had some areas he had to work on. This was one of them.

Khamat let go of Tocgar, the Skaldi dropping almost half a foot from the ground and standing still, Tocgar wouldn't tell anyone that Khamat couldn't hunt anyway, he had no idea why the younger Skaldi was so obsessed with him but he'd figured out long ago that for some reason or other Tocgar insisted on following Khamat.

Crouching low Khamat then began his own way of how he thought hunting should work, he couldn't be that wrong right, he'd seen people hunt before and they generally got low to the ground and moved as quietly as they could to hunt, although they did usually have weapons to finish the animals off with, but he'd deal with that part once he got there. Tocgar crouched and moved ahead of Khamat, once again taking the lead, probably trying to prove himself useful once again. The only though that was going through Khamat's head was that they needed to catch something at least to bring back to camp.

---

Hunting I from Tocgar with Khamat's assistance.

pI3NiKXI

[Azuloth]

Results
-Failure

[Khamat]

"We're bad at this" Tocgar said, giving voice to something that they both already knew yet Khamat had not wanted to say due to it being a way of admitting his weakness. Weakness was not allowed, if the two of them couldn't even hunt forest animals how were they supposed to travel south and track down their ally Skaldi tribe. If they couldn't even hunt down a small wolf or deer or anything at this point how were they supposed to hunt down humans, sure the humans were abundant but supposedly so were the animals in this forest.

It truly was something he detested, even the idea that they couldn't do something so simply, yet they couldn't return empty handed, people knew they'd gone out hunting and if they came back without any prey then it'd be known they failed. That and that people needed the food, even the little that they should have been able to bring back would have been good, they were running out of food fairly quickly having to support a fairly large amount of Skaldi without much in the way of hunters or gatherers to themselves.

He turned to Tocgar, wondering if it would even be worth carrying on, they'd failed several times now so unless some sort of miracle struck they weren't going to get anything, and nature didn't often bring miracles. Nature was hard, you played by it's rules or you died, you survived on what it gave you or you didn't survive. IT was quite as simple as that, but Khamat needed to succeed, he needed the Skaldi to survive so that they could become strong. And to be come strong, they needed food, they needed weapons, they needed supplies and lots of them. But most pressing amongst them right now was probably food. Food was good.

"We try again." Was simply all he said, Tocgar looking at him as if he were about to say something before holding himself back and getting into position once again as Khamat strode off purposefully.

---

15/20
Hunting I from Tocgar with Khamat's assistance.
1V5ty4R2

[Cheph]

Success!

---

The two salamanders were enjoying life, sitting in a bush enclosed clearing and munching on what remained of the four legged fleshbeast they killed earlier that day. The sun was shining keeping them warm, and their hadn't been any intruders in a while. All in all life was good for the lizards. Then some asshole had to start roaring.

It put the two on edge, bodies going ridged with anticipated danger. The pair knew that kind of roar, it came from one of those walking-lizard things and it sounded big. Bigger than them, and they were already bigger than normal wolves. The 'manders stayed in their den protecting the kill, peering about for a while to see if anything barged in. After a few minutes they relaxed and started eating again when another roar blasted out. This time it wasn't so sudden and the two just kept on eating. Might as well enjoy the food with nothing happening.

Then some asshole had to go walking towards them.

The salamanders immediately went into defensive mode as the walking-lizard came by, holding in air to puff up and posturing to look like a threat. It seemed to them that the thing was coming straight at them. Each let out a combination hiss-snarl-growl at the intruder to see if it would go away.

---

Salamanders (x2)
-Level 1
HP: XX/XX
Stm: XX/XX
MP: XX/XX

[Khamat]

The two Skaldi were losing morale rather quickly at this point, both knew that the results they were getting were most definitely not what they needed, what they needed being some form of food, but so far they'd found no beast they could hunt to provide at least a small amount to the rest of the tribe. Khamat had resolved that he would return with something, however meagre, how was he to turn the Flametongues into a good fighting force if they weren't even fed well enough, without a good supply of food they'd be no use in any sort of fight and that circle would continue till they would be too weak to hunt themselves.

It was at that point he had the fortune to stumble across something they could hunt at least, it was by no means anything close to his preference but in this case he had to put the tribes needs ahead of preferences. The prey in front of him was in fact two salamanders, while in most cases Skaldi would feel uncomfortable eating salamander, due to the similarity between their races, in this case the food was required and with the lack of success they'd had so far they needed to jump on any chance they had no matter how small. The salamander of course didn't seem to like the idea of being prey, or even of Khamat being near to them and seemed to be trying to ward him off, he was by far the bigger lizard in this matter though and was happy to show it. 

Raising his head Khamat's snarl ripped through the air around him, calling Tocgar to him, he felt no lack of pride in wanting the other Skaldi with him for this, they were poorly equipped for much hunting and having someone watch your back was always useful. Upon arrival Tocgar's was looking uncomfortable, he'd seen the two salamanders and wasn't himself much of a fighter, that and the idea of killing salamanders to him felt like that of killing a brother Skaldi, but a quick look from Khamat silenced all protests.

Ignoring the salamanders warnings Khamat lowered himself into a crouch, advancing to within reach of the nearest salamander and attempting to plunge his claws straight into it's head, if he could end it quickly the salamander would feel no pain, and hopefully neither would he, were he to miss he'd simply go again, a salamander surely couldn't put up too much of a fight. Tocgar after seeing Khamat's attempted assault was tempted to stay back, but knew that to do so would more likely mean his chieftain would be injured and that he couldn't bear, so as to take some of the stress off of his leader Tocgar would go for the second Salamander, mimicking Khamat's attack as he seemed to know what he was doing.

---

Khamat
HP: 300
MP:110
SM:25/45 -15

Stats: Str: 15
 Vit: 15
Agi: 12
 Ch: 10 ST: X
T: 10
D: 10
EN: 10 P: 10 K: 10
Action 1: Attack Salamander's face
Action 2: Attack Salamander's face
Action 3: Attack Salamander's face

Weapon: Racial, claws 25 dmg (str+10)

Tocgar
HP: 240
MP: 110
SM: 5/24 -15

Stats: Str: 10
Vit: 12
 Agi: 10
 Ch: 10
 ST: 10
 T: 10
 D: X10 EN: 10 P: 10
K: 15


Action 1:Attack to Salamander's face
Action 2:Attack to Salamander's face
Action 3:Attack to Salamander's face

Weapon: Racial, claws 20 dmg 

[Azuloth]

Battle Data

SPOILER: Click to show

Initiative
Khamat
Tocgar
Salamanders

Khamat: Hit Threshold: 55
Attack: 1D100 => 28 Hit!! (Targeted Face, 10+150 Dmg =160 Dmg)
Attack: Negated, no target
Attack: Negated, no target

Tocgar: Hit Threshold: 51
Attack: 1D100 => 10 Hit!! (Targeted Face, 5+150 Dmg =155 Dmg)
Attack: 1D100 => 28 Hit!! (Targeted Face, 5+150 Dmg =155 Dmg)
Attack: Negated, no target

Battle Results
-All Salamanders dead.
-Drops: 3 bones, 3 Salamander Teeth, 2 Lizard Scale, 3 Salamander Flesh
-Khamat receives 1 stat point (1 success in duelist as well)

---

The Salamanders were caught unprepared! Both of them didn't react the way they should have, as the onslaught the Skaldi unleashed upon them was brutal and terrifying. Both of the Salamanders were cut to ribbons. Khamat was stronger, his first claw swipe to his chosen target was enough to tear the creature's face off, killing it. Tocgar had a little more trouble, a one-two combo was enough to put down the Salamander he rushed to keep his leader from being out-flanked. When it was over, a good portion of both animals remained usable.

[Khamat]

The two salamanders went down quickly, both Skaldi making short work of them with their deadly claws, ripping into weaker spots to cause fatal damage before the lesser lizards could even react to the onslaught. All in all it was a very clean and quick fight, and because of it a successful hunt. It meant that they now had some meat to bring back to the rest of the Flametongues, yes it was salamander meat but at this point they couldn't afford to be choosy about it, they needed food and if this was what they could hunt then this was what they were going to have to eat.

Between the two of them it was no hard task to remove everything usable from the corpses, they left nothing to waste out of respect for the animal that had died to provide for them, even going so far as to take the teeth and bones, both of which could be useful to them in certain ways. By the time they were done the only real indication there'd been anything there at all were a few scraps of meat, dried blood and the bones they couldn't use, although those would soon be taken by scavengers anyway and so the salamanders death would contribute more to life.

With the results of their hunt in hand the two headed back to camp, Tocgar already considering how to put the various bones to good use while Khamat was weighed down with knowing this wouldn't last an hour and they'd soon need more.

---

Stm: 24/45 -1