9th of Vhalar, 717.
Surprising to hear, upon return to Almund, how useful - not to mention valuable - the hides, meats, horns and other parts of the Oh-Deer carcasses he brought tied on the back of Traveller were. Originally, he'd just been interested in that strange armoured hide they showed while alive... after all, making a nice thick cloak out of that could prove especially useful in a wide range of situations. Making even a partial set of armour would be worth the cost. The hide might be thicker than normal, but at the end of the day it was still hide, not steel - it'd keep warmth better than plate, and it'd offer plenty of flexibility and, if made well, a surprising amount of comfort without sacrificing protection. That cemented in his head, he knew he needed more. Should he find someone able to make use of the hides, the last thing he wanted was for them to turn around and say they needed more.
This time, he knew what he was hunting down. He hung his short-bow in its leather case along the small of his back and a near-full quiver of arrows at his hip, not that he expected to be firing them any time soon. Traveller had already proven himself the most effective against creatures with the reinforced, armoured hide of the Oh-Deer in their last encounter, after all. Though arrows seemed to bounce off unless an extreme amount of force was thrown behind them, nothing could be done about extreme bludgeoning force. Come to think of it, he really needed to see whether their hides worked while under surprise attack, too; considering the fact that their hides showed none of their previous strength after shed from the rest of their bodies, it very well could be that the animals could control the density of their own skin at will. If that was so, perhaps it'd make it even easier to make sure that it remained 'on' all the time when he inevitably brought it to an alchemist, or a leather-worker.
Unfortunately, there was one massive problem staring him in the face. Oh-Deer lived in the dense foliage of the Sweetvine Woods, as he'd already learned. Traveller had only managed to come to his aid the last time because he'd managed to find an area where the canopy thinned enough to allow him to dive in with... moderately little discomfort. That left two options. The former, and the least appealing by far, was that he once again travelled into the woods with Greyhide, only this time with the express purpose of following the trails for Oh-Deer, antagonising them, and then running back to Traveller so that he can pounce on them unsuspectingly from above and smash them into a fine paste like last time. The latter was finding something to lure them out into the open with... what, he couldn't possibly tell, since normal deer would eat fruits and plants, but normal deer didn't go for your throat the moment they saw you either. What diet these things had was, at best, a complete guess.
So of course the easiest solution was to get a little bit of everything.
Before he left for the woods, he hung around in Scalvoris Town. Fruits and berries, he could find on the way to hunting down the Oh-Deer. Finding suitable meats would take too long to hunt down himself - and besides, now that he knew what sort of creatures could be found in those woods, he didn't entirely trust himself to pull off two successful hunts in one afternoon. Better to cheap out this one time and buy something cheap and easy than put himself at risk of being ambushed in the middle of a hunt. Though it got some grating sounds from Archailist, squirrel-meat seemed to be the cheapest going, so he quickly bought the three pre-skinned ones hanging from above the stall for 6 gold nels and hung them from the opposite hip to his quiver. Not a lot of meat, it was true, but he didn't even know if the Oh-Deer would be interested, so he wasn't going to spend his money on expensive meats, only to waste them.
Surprising to hear, upon return to Almund, how useful - not to mention valuable - the hides, meats, horns and other parts of the Oh-Deer carcasses he brought tied on the back of Traveller were. Originally, he'd just been interested in that strange armoured hide they showed while alive... after all, making a nice thick cloak out of that could prove especially useful in a wide range of situations. Making even a partial set of armour would be worth the cost. The hide might be thicker than normal, but at the end of the day it was still hide, not steel - it'd keep warmth better than plate, and it'd offer plenty of flexibility and, if made well, a surprising amount of comfort without sacrificing protection. That cemented in his head, he knew he needed more. Should he find someone able to make use of the hides, the last thing he wanted was for them to turn around and say they needed more.
This time, he knew what he was hunting down. He hung his short-bow in its leather case along the small of his back and a near-full quiver of arrows at his hip, not that he expected to be firing them any time soon. Traveller had already proven himself the most effective against creatures with the reinforced, armoured hide of the Oh-Deer in their last encounter, after all. Though arrows seemed to bounce off unless an extreme amount of force was thrown behind them, nothing could be done about extreme bludgeoning force. Come to think of it, he really needed to see whether their hides worked while under surprise attack, too; considering the fact that their hides showed none of their previous strength after shed from the rest of their bodies, it very well could be that the animals could control the density of their own skin at will. If that was so, perhaps it'd make it even easier to make sure that it remained 'on' all the time when he inevitably brought it to an alchemist, or a leather-worker.
Unfortunately, there was one massive problem staring him in the face. Oh-Deer lived in the dense foliage of the Sweetvine Woods, as he'd already learned. Traveller had only managed to come to his aid the last time because he'd managed to find an area where the canopy thinned enough to allow him to dive in with... moderately little discomfort. That left two options. The former, and the least appealing by far, was that he once again travelled into the woods with Greyhide, only this time with the express purpose of following the trails for Oh-Deer, antagonising them, and then running back to Traveller so that he can pounce on them unsuspectingly from above and smash them into a fine paste like last time. The latter was finding something to lure them out into the open with... what, he couldn't possibly tell, since normal deer would eat fruits and plants, but normal deer didn't go for your throat the moment they saw you either. What diet these things had was, at best, a complete guess.
So of course the easiest solution was to get a little bit of everything.
Before he left for the woods, he hung around in Scalvoris Town. Fruits and berries, he could find on the way to hunting down the Oh-Deer. Finding suitable meats would take too long to hunt down himself - and besides, now that he knew what sort of creatures could be found in those woods, he didn't entirely trust himself to pull off two successful hunts in one afternoon. Better to cheap out this one time and buy something cheap and easy than put himself at risk of being ambushed in the middle of a hunt. Though it got some grating sounds from Archailist, squirrel-meat seemed to be the cheapest going, so he quickly bought the three pre-skinned ones hanging from above the stall for 6 gold nels and hung them from the opposite hip to his quiver. Not a lot of meat, it was true, but he didn't even know if the Oh-Deer would be interested, so he wasn't going to spend his money on expensive meats, only to waste them.
