Thread: Avalon (Hat + Anna)

RE Avalon Thankfully, they weren't all that fast. Their stumpy legs made them stout, but not speedy, and she would be able to maneuver around them with only a modicum of difficulty. They cried at her in a strange language, sometimes using the same word - Ulaka - as claws passed her and picks struck the stony earth. So many of them! Speaking-With-Strangers sighed as the doors slammed open. He was taller than his many cousins, and definitely smarter. He'd always had trouble explaining more difficult concept to his fellow kobold, and when the humans came and basically put them to the sword or the mine - their choice - he wisely chose for them. But less and less food came from the other side of the wall, less and less was done about troublemakers, and Strangers was at his wit's end. What more could he do to keep his people from getting violent and simply deconstructing the walls around the human settlement? Tell them it was all going to be okay, again? So of course Anansi told them that their champion was to be a human. Not only a human, a human from outside Avalon. And of course he had to be her guide, taking her on a wonderful pilgrimage to the other beast race temples. Anansi told him it'd be fine , really, but Strangers had dealt with his wonderful trickery. God of Labor, more like God Of Making Other People Do Your Hard Work. This definitely wasn't the first time he had to deal with his cockamamie plans. And so he turned around, gesturing with his staff as soon as she was safely inside. Invisible strands of power grasped the door, and with another wave, they shut tight. He was about six feet tall, with scales colored in red and gold. They weren't entirely like pangolins, now that she saw a bigger one. Their mouths were snouted like hounds, their hands ended in knuckley fingers with wide digging claws. Strangers wore an apron, fastened to his arms and legs, that covered his front with an icon of his god. His scepter was long - longer than he was tall, tipped with a sphere of solid iron that had a spider etched in it. And then there was the temple. No pews except at the very back, instead there were many round depressions in lines. Presumably the creatures simply curled up there and listened to the sermons. Smooth stone rose up, up, with etchings in the walls. If she'd ever been in a church, she might even notice the etchings were like those numbered works of art, depicting a sequence of events. A crowned being holding a glowing sword raising it, a sphere before him, the same figure with arms wide and five lesser beings arrayed before him. One of them, a spider, the others a raven, a jester, a man, and a jackal. From then on the etchings focused on the spider creating the pangolin-esque creatures. Welcome to my temple. the creature stated. His english was a bit accented with something that sounded like Russian. I am Speaks-With-Strangers, Blessed and Priest of Anansi, also known as Spider. God of Work, Guile, and Magical Artifice. Please, come forth. I shall fetch you something to sit in. I'm sure we haven't smashed the latest human delegate's chair yet. he said, seeming deeply put upon. Not by her, but by essentially everyone else.