Chapter Text
New World Research Journal Introductory Entry
Greetings dear reader, if you are of the Guild, then this research journal will be of immense importance to you. If you are not of the Guild, please turn this journal into their hands at once, as I am certain you will be compensated if this book’s monetary value is your primary reason for keeping it. As you know, information on the New World is scarce, what with the Guild putting bans on traveling there after none of the forty-ish ships sent to it ever returned, but with any luck, me and my associate will be the exception to those tragedies! In the event that I or said associate are unable to introduce ourselves in person (either due to this journal being sent by way of messenger or due to our possible untimely demise), I will be doing that here in writing below.
I am Quill, a Great Maccao and freelance researcher, which you may know if you’ve looked at some of the “boring” lists of names at the end of the Guild’s experiment logs, especially those performed around the Jurassic Frontier back in my homeland. As a researcher, my reasons for traveling to the New World should be obvious, though my specific focus is detailing the ecosystems there and any new forms of life previously unknown to the greater world back overseas. And who knows, maybe whatever information we find here will help explain why some of our monster ancestors had evolved into consciousness and took a form akin to that of the extinct Humans and Wyverians! As for my associate, she is an esteemed Guild Hunter named Rend, a Seregios if the naming convention didn’t give it away. I’m unsure of the legality of her travels with me, with the aforementioned restrictions still being enforced and her position within the Guild, but Rend was the only soul I could find that was willing to make this journey to lands unknown. Her motivations for coming overseas are simple: her sister was on one of the Guild’s old expeditions to the New World, and has not been seen since. She intends to find her (hopefully alive), and as my research will be taking us all over this mysterious continent, we are bound to find her at some point. I am sure of it!
With any luck, the next page of this journal will be chock full of data on new Monsters and biomes. I have high hopes for this expedition once we hit the shores under the veil of moonlight!
- Quill
“Aaaand that should do it for the first page!” Quill closed his research journal and put it into one of his coat pockets. When he wasn’t in the field performing joint experiments or research with the Guild, this is where the Maccao felt most at home; sitting down and writing away any thoughts or knowledge he had accumulated over expeditions and observing hunts. With the first words written away in his journal, Quill left his quarters and headed up the stairs of the ship, gripping a guide rail as the vessel shifted to and fro with the waves. He ascended to the deck, making his way up to the helm where Rend was keeping their vessel straight.
As he had written earlier, she was a Seregios, a species armed to the teeth in razor sharp scales. She wore modified Nargacuga armor that left her arms from the elbows down exposed, perfect for slinging scales or utilizing her wing-blades where her handheld weapons failed. Speaking of, she wielded Dual Blades, one made from Rathian parts, and the other made from Rathalos parts; deadly separate, and a lethal storm of venom and flame when together. All together, these things combined make Rend an effective killing machine, and it was no wonder why she was ranked so highly in the Guild. The only thing she had equip that wasn't made for battle was a necklace with half of a shield emblem, made to go together with its currently long-lost sibling.
“Are you excited?” Quill questioned the Hunter as he stood by her side, eyes glued to the New World’s slowly approaching shore. “It’s a whole new continent to explore and document!”
“‘Excited’ is not the word I’d use, but at the very least I’ll be glad to be on dry land. Shouldn't be more than an hour now, then the expedition can finally get underway…” Rend put a hand to the emblem resting on her chest, fidgeting with it between talons.
The Maccao put a hand on the slightly taller individual’s shoulder, saying “We will find her, you know; there’s not a chance we won't with how thorough our investigation’s going to be.”
“I know we will, I’m more worried about the condition we find her in.” Rend sighed, locking the wheel of the ship in place before walking over to the edge of the helm, crossing her arms over the railing. “Before Wrath left, we had an argument about her going on the expedition, and I said things I wish I hadn’t… if I don’t get the chance to at the very least apologize to her… no, she will be alive when I find her. I’ll kill her myself if she died out there!”
“That’s the spirit,” Quill said, staring at the stars as they glitter over the New World’s sky. “Say, what do you think we’ll find once we get started?”
“Vespoids,” Rend answered instantly, “there are always Vespoids, they’re like the miserable universal constant in any place with life.”
“Annoyingly true, I hope this place will be an exception.”
“What about you? Any sort of specific discoveries that you’re fixing to find?” Rend questioned, drawing her carving knife and examining it.
“Oh, well I don’t have anything I was specifically looking to discover, but I would like to find something to help save more lives. Maybe a plant with greater medical benefits than the usual herb, or a Monster whose blood would promote healing. It has unfortunately been a while since anyone’s had any breakthroughs in the medical field, maybe I’ll finally change that.”
“Well, if we uncover something like that, then we could more than recoup the cost of the entire expedition with the kind of dough that finding would bring in.”
“You know,” Quill started as Rend began to carve a picture into the railing with her knife, “you never did tell me how you acquired this ship for the voyage.”
“What’s there to tell? I’m a respected Guild Hunter, this is a Guild ship, we have some Guild-sponsored items provided for this expedition, and the Guild trusts that I’ll return the vessel after we return.”
“Ok, counterpoint: there’s a Guild ban on travel to the New World, you are a Guild member and are thus especially bound to their rulings, I didn’t have to sign a single thing before boarding, and I’m pretty sure most expeditions don’t leave under the cover of night with no witnesses. It's starting to sound less like you got authorization for the boat, and more like you actually stole it.”
As soon as Quill said that last part, Rend froze for a moment and looked almost worried, before she quickly fixed her expression to be more neutral. She left her knife jabbed into the wood and approached her companion. “Theft of such magnitude would more than likely get me booted from the Guild and/or imprisoned, and I’m not gonna risk my good standing with my employer.” Before the researcher could say anything else, the Seregios gently kept his muzzle shut. “Let’s talk about something other than the ship, like what we should do and set up once we dock.”
Once his snout freed from Rend’s grasp, Quill went to describe what needed to be deployed within arriving, but the stars briefly disappearing caught his attention instead. No, not disappearing, something was flying in the way of them, and fast. “Uhhh, Rend?”
“Stay in the helm,” Rend said while also watching the sky, jumping the railing and drawing her Dual Blades. Seconds later, something large fell from the sky and hit the deck, the entire vessel rocking from the impact. Then, a deafening roar sounded from what landed, which turned out to be a large, dark, Feral, and above all, new Monster. Despite the night’s obscuring veil, Quill could tell that it was a hulking creature with four ground limbs, a thick tail, and large wings positioned on its back. Most of the beast’s exterior was covered in sharp spines, its maw full of gleaming pointy teeth, and two huge horns protruded from its head.
With raised blades and a battlecry, Rend fearlessly rushed forth to challenge the Monster, dodging its fierce and brutish swings with ease. Every opening she got, the Hunter cleaved into the beast, dozens of cuts lining any surface of the creature that Rend was near. The Monster raised its arms high, and the Seregios jumped back before they came down violently, bashing a hole into the deck where it struck. With a flick of her arms, Rend sent forth a volley of serrated scales, which embedded themselves in the creature’s face before it could pull its forelimbs from the wood. With a grunt, the beast grabbed a barrel from the hole below and hurled it at the Hunter, which she dodged with a leap, and then a second barrel came her way. This projectile, however, was painted red, which any good adventurer would know meant that it was full of explosives. Rend’s sapphire eyes widened as she dodged the bomb, the explosive barrel barreling down its path with vigor, eventually causing a blast at the base of the helm.
Quill shrieked as the floor gave way beneath him, partially burying him in rubble as fire began to creep on the deck. As the researcher worked to get out of his bind, Rend had mounted onto the head of the beast, snapped off one of its spines, and drove it into the Monster’s left eye. The unknown creature managed to grab Rend and hurled her halfway across the vessel, causing the Hunter to slam her back against the mast. With her body rattled from the impact, Rend took a health potion from her belt and quickly drank it, her gaze never leaving the beast as it destructively flailed to and fro in half-blinded agony. The Seregios threw the now empty bottle at the Monster and followed this up by barraging it with a hail of scales as she advanced forward. The beast shielded itself with its arms, blood pouring down the scaled limbs as Rend’s wrath cut into them. Before the Hunter could strike with her blades, however, the wounded Monster took to the skies and glared down at its opponent.
By the time Quill managed to get out from under the debris, the feral beast then roared to the stars above, seemingly calling for the night’s aid. Rend’s sole attention was on the beast as she whipped more projectiles at it, but Quill caught the glint of something else in the sky; there was another creature! As it began to descend towards their ship, the Great Maccao ran to warn the Hunter, shouting “Rend! Look out, there’s another one!” The Seregios turned her head at his words, then deftly dodged the incoming shadow from above as it cannonballed through the vessel’s wood, piercing it completely and threatening to break the ship in two. Before he could even move, Quill was sent flying off of the boat by another barrel exploding below deck. He hit the back of his head on something hard floating in the water, his vision blackening as the researcher was embraced by the cold waves of the sea.
Notes:
I don't think that ship was insured...
Chapter 2: Chapter One
Notes:
This chapter was not supposed to be 4k in length, expect subsequent ones to be shorter!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Quill awoke to a mouthful of sand and seawater, spitting both out with a cough as he shook his head to clear up the grog he felt. The Great Maccao looked around to take in his new surroundings, squinting at the light from the rising morning sun. Evidently it was not night anymore, and he was clearly not on the boat. Quill was on a beach that looked to lead into a deep forest, surrounded by debris from what appeared to be a very recent shipwreck. “Oh,” he thought as he recalled memories of the attack hours ago, “our shipwreck… wait, that means that we’ve landed on the shores of the New World!” Quill couldn’t help but smile at finally making it to his destination, despite such a violent end to the journey. That smile quickly fell when he saw a small, ornate blade stuck in the wood and sand before him. “That’s Rend’s carving knife!” He thought as he crawled over and plucked it out of the ground, “She would never leave this behind, at least not willingly… where is she?” As he glanced around, Quill realized that his Hunter was nowhere to be found. “Rend?” The Maccao shouted, getting up and stumbling around the beachfront on shaky legs, “Rend, where are you?” No matter where he looked, he found no sign of his companion or evidence of any departure of hers; Quill had landed alone. “Flares,” he said suddenly to himself, “we had flares!”
The marooned researcher began tearing into the chunks of the beached vessel, digging through what crates and barrels he could find with great vigor until he eventually found his prize, thankfully sealed away and thus saved from most of the sea’s damage. Grabbing a rock and some nearby metal from the wreck, Quill began scraping the two against one another until the fuse on the flare was lit. He raised the rocket high and released it when the fuse burned to its limit, the projectile flying skywards with a crackling woosh. After seconds of ascending, the flare flashed to life with a bright orange light, the flashbug essence within mixing with smoke powder and dye to create a near unmissable, smokey, glowing streak across the airspace above. Then Quill waited, watching the sky in the hopes that Rend could see the signal and had a flare on her person to respond.
After the light and smoke faded from the sky, and around thirty minutes had passed, the Maccao was tempted to launch a second flare immediately. But as much as he didn’t like it, it would be far more practical to wait at least until nightfall before he sent another one up. Reasoning that he should at the very least find some shelter for him and Rend to hold up in after she returns, Quill went back to digging through the shattered remains of the vessel for supplies. After stuffing some ration bars, a canteen of drinkable water, and other small but useful scavengings into his coat, the Maccao took a deep breath, and walked into the massive forest before him.
Once inside the floral boundary of this new environment, Quill was left awestruck by the vibrant life that surrounded him. There were primitive plants which were reminiscent of those found in his homeland. Yet there were also new forms of flora that were completely unfamiliar to Quill, such as a pitcher plant that housed some form of purple (probably poisonous) sludge, and a nut that exploded into a scattering of fragments once they plummeted from their perch up high. The Maccao scribbled down basic observations of these unique plants as he made his way further into the greenery, vowing to come back and examine these specimens further once a base of operations was set up.
A distant buzz caught Quill’s attention after he took his latest note, the sound of one of the most troublesome insects to ever grace the face of this earth. Sure enough, when the researcher moved further into the brush, he saw several brown wasp-like bugs that were nearly half his size. “Vespoids,” the researcher grumbled under his breath, eyeing the paralyzing pests with disdain, “why is it always Vespoids… what was it that Rend said? ‘They’re like the miserable universal constant in any place with life’?” As a Maccao studying nature, Quill knew that wishing an entire species of insect extinct would be very hypocritical of him, as they played a valuable role in the food chain, but as any sane person would attest, these creatures are nothing but a nuisance out in the field. The overgrown nightmare wasps use repeated stings of their strong yet short lasting neuro-toxin to keep both prey and potential predators alike completely paralyzed, all while they take them apart chunk by bloody chunk. To someone like him, who was both alone and only armed with Rend’s carving knife, being detected by the Vespoids could only lead to a slow and agonizing demise. Cautiously, Quill began to take several steps back, preparing to give these pests a wide berth on his travels, but much to his horror and much like a victim in a stereotypical thriller novel, his foot crunched through a very loud stick. The small swarm of oversized wasps seemed to freeze in the air, turning towards the petrified and panicked Great Maccao with their soulless, empty eyes. Then with a loud buzz, the Vespoids dove at their potential prey with stingers and jaws at the ready.
Quill bolted with a yelp as an angry buzzing bug hit the space he once occupied with a dull thud, leaves scattering as all parties involved tore through the green with primal persistence. The researcher didn’t know where he was going, only that he had to find something to get these things off his trail quickly. He thought back to his time studying the native Vespoids back in the Jurassic Frontier, remembering the three things outside of poison or a Hunter that warded off these insects: bright lights, more appealing prey, and heavy rain. Currently the desperate Maccao was banking on the first two options, with the hope that Flash Flies or some slow-moving creature was somewhere in his path. Quill’s thoughts were abruptly interrupted by one of the predatory insects managing to get ahead of him and flying at him face-first. Using some quick reactions, Quill jumped with a small spin, slapped his large, flat tail against a nearby tree, and sent himself flying to the side as the bug whooshed by.
As the Maccao bobbed and weaved through the forest, he could hear the faint crashing of water under the horrendously loud buzzing. Quill dodged another bug and sprinted in the direction of the fluid’s noise, praying to the stars above that the sound was what he thought it was. The researcher’s muscles ached as he bursted from the floral cover around him, finding himself sprinting through low, shallow water, and directly towards a waterfall. “Yes!” Quill shouted shakily, pleased that the next best thing to a heavy rain was before him, though unfortunately he just had to run through a slippery area with no cover to get to it. With no time to lose, the desperate Maccao bolted for the wall of flowing water with renewed vigor, the persistent Vespoids not far behind him. Whenever his feet faltered in this new terrain, his tail would thwap against the watery stones below to correct his posture, the action doubling as a deterrent with the resulting splash up of fluid making the bugs back off very temporarily. Through the struggle of traversing wet algae and soaked stones, Quill was nearing his objective.
Estimating and praying that he was close enough, the Great Maccao poured all of his strength into his legs and tail for one massive jump, propelling himself at the waterfall like one of his flares towards the clouds. A sudden pain echoed throughout his body, and Quill released a short but loud screech as one of the Vespoid’s lengthy stingers pierced into his leg. The paralyzing venom’s effects were instant, the Maccao’s muscles seizing up as a burning sensation radiated from the wounded limb. Despite the opposition’s best efforts, however, Quill’s paralyzed form still kept its momentum and shot directly through the waterfall, right into a hidden space behind it. The researcher’s soaked body hit the cold stone with a thud, water dripping from his dampened feathers as the venom made every breath an agonizing challenge.
The Maccao was stuck in crippling, tear-jerking anguish, completely unable to scream and at most only able to twitch his fingers. He laid in that crumpled state with no way to see his adversaries or hear them over the roaring waterfall, wondering if he was truly safe from the buzzing hoard, or if they were ultimately able to pierce the watery veil despite his best efforts. After what felt like an eternity of mind-numbing suffering, though Quill knew it couldn’t have been more than a minute, the researcher began to regain mobility, the pain fading as he crawled to one of the cave’s walls to help push himself to his feet. Once he felt that he had recovered from the Vespoid’s chemical warfare, the Great Maccao took a shaky breath, and cautiously stepped from the protective water wall, noting that thankfully, most of the swarm had vacated. Only two remained now, their wings too wet to fly as they crawled away from the site of their failure, a state which left them quite vulnerable to attack.
Now, Quill wasn’t the vengeful type, especially against creatures simply following their hardwired biological instructions, but Vespoid parts could be useful later, as he still didn’t know just how many hunting or survival supplies were lost in the shipwreck. As quickly as he could, the soaked Maccao drew his knife and precisely drove it into the head of each bug, killing them instantly. Being careful not to sting himself, the researcher carried both bodies to a nearby rock, away from the water’s influence, and started carving them into useful bits. The legs were of no use to him, as were a majority of the stabbed heads, but their jaws, wings, shells, and abdomen were of particular value to him. The wings were very fragile, but had some uses in crafting lighter equipment, while the shells were surprisingly durable for their smaller size, good for makeshift armor or containers. Meanwhile, the jaws could come in handy as clamps or staples should the need for such things arise. Within the abdomen lied what Quill believed to the the most valuable parts of the Vespoids, a sack of monster fluid, which forms a powerful adhesive when mixed with the insect’s digestive fluids, and the toxin-containing pouch attached to the stinger, a useful tool when dealing with larger monsters.
With the threat of the murder-bugs no longer buzzing over his head, the researcher could actually take in his surroundings outside the waterfall cave. From where the Maccao was standing, he could see that the constant flow of fresh water allowed for great trees to sprout around the area, taller and larger than the general forest he’d seen thus far. Some of the wooden giants had fallen into the water’s path, the spray of the waterfall’s aquatic wrath dampening the logs and making them the perfect host to several surprisingly familiar fungi, such as the ever helpful blue mushrooms and the ever poisonous toadstools. Following the flow further, Quill saw that the pristine water fed into a lively river, with several forms of fish big and small swimming up and down the length of it. By the river’s sides, he spotted another familiar sight in the form of a Aptonoth herd, the meaty gray herbivores drinking from the flowing water while the largest of the bunch stood guard, spiked-tail at the ready to strike at any who dared to approach.
After walking back from his quick reconnaissance and gathering the spoils of his admittedly cathartic carving session, the researcher dragged his loot back into the waterfall cave and began to inspect the space there as well. The cavern was surprisingly spacious for such a small opening, with no entrance or exit other than the one facing the water, and with enough internal room for even a Gammoth to squeeze inside! “This could actually make for a nice base,” Quill said to himself, “easy fresh water, at the very least Vespoid proof, nearby fish for easy food, and the waterfall would hide the scent of anything behind it nicely…” The Maccao paced around the space for a bit longer, inspecting it a second time and putting together a mental blueprint of where supplies/equipment could go. Once he was sure that this cave would work as a base for him and Rend, Quill began the long and tedious process of returning to the shore, grabbing everything he could carry, dragging it back to the waterfall, and repeating until most things of use were tucked back into the cavernous space. When he was finished, the researcher was rather impressed with himself, as he wasn’t exactly the strongest individual, but here he was, everything dragged in and squared away, plus he only got lost twice throughout the process! By the time he finished, the sun was half past its peak, the entire endeavor evidently eating up more than half the light of the day.
Now that he had everything before him and had taken an inventory, the researcher could see that there were plenty of crafting supplies, several storage bins/baskets, and general items for handling samples, but conversely, there were little hunting supplies and a startlingly low amount of medical goods in the salvage of the shipwreck. Only three small potions and one antidote managed to survive the crash, it would seem; not even a single nulberry was in the sad pile either. That was a problem that needed to be solved ASAP, as who knew what unknown illnesses or fatal diseases this strange new world had in store for an outsider like him. Antidote herbs, medical herbs, blue mushrooms, and nulberries were a near constant across every continent and biome Quill had ever traveled across, and after seeing the blue fungus earlier, he hoped that the others would be here as well. The first would be used to make antidotes, the second to make healing potions, the third to boost the potency of those antidotes, and the fourth as a blanket-cure for element-based afflictions. Putting the antidote and a potion in his coat in case the worst happened, the researcher grabbed an empty basket and left the makeshift base to gather the much-needed ingredients for medicines.
Not wanting to fill his limited space with something right outside, the Maccao skipped over the nearby blue mushrooms and continued further into the forest for the desired herbs. He followed the stream so that he didn’t get lost in the winding labyrinth of wood for a third time, and made sure to give any Vespoids he saw an incredibly wide berth as to not tempt fate. Quill scoured the forest thoroughly as he walked, finding an abundance of herbs to make life-saving potions with, though not as many nulberries as he would have hoped for, and regrettably not a single antidote herb. The further he got from his base, the more nervous he got, especially since the light of day was slowly but surely fading away as time went on; he would have to return soon. With the darkness steadily creeping in, however, Quill noticed that there was something bright over a hill in the distance.
With curiosity overriding his sense of caution, the researcher went over the mound of grassy dirt to see what was causing such a glow, and saw what looked like a recent battlefield. Patches of fire scattered the area, filling the air with a low but ever present crackling, and shattered trees were tossed all over the charred, crater-spattered ground. Quill peered around the vicinity for any of the culprits responsible for this land-scarring event, and once he didn’t spot any immediate danger, he moved further into the burning space. Upon getting into the center of the sooted land, the Maccao could spot several bright red scales dusting the area, most likely from a Rathalos, he believed, and some green ones as well, found around puddles of oozing purple liquid. The researcher wasn’t quite sure what creature those were from, so he stuffed some of the unfamiliar scales into his coat for later examination, taking some of the Rathalos’ as well just in case before continuing the impromptu investigation.
A weak cough from his side nearly made the Maccao jump out of his skin, his head quickly swiveling to clock the source of the noise. What he saw was a Sapient Monster lying prone on the debris-ridden soil, a species that the researcher did not recognize in the slightest, though he could tell that she was seriously wounded. Deep cuts covered their pink, muscle-bound body as now faded flames looked to have scorched the dark fur of her shoulders, and a purple fluid similar to the puddles found earlier spilled from their maw, a telltale sign of poisoning. Grasped in her hand was a large blade’s handle, and further above lied the fractured metallic remains of what appeared to have once been a Great Sword. Finally, around the wounded warrior’s neck was a necklace strung with an amethyst and Monster teeth on either side.
“Wow, I’ve managed to find a native of the New World!” Quill thought to himself excitedly, though he quickly shook away his joy of the discovery when he grounded himself back into the gravity of the situation, specifically that said native was actively dying on the ground right in front of him. The Maccao mentally scolded himself for her well-being not being his first thought as he knelt down by the stranger’s head, pulled the cork of his only antidote, and poured the dark blue fluid down their throat. Another glance at her injuries clearly showed that this would unfortunately not be enough to stabilize the native, and soon he poured the green healing liquid of his potion down their hatch as well. With that done, the stranger’s wounds had stopped bleeding as profusely, and there was nothing more the Maccao could do for them now… well… nothing more he could do here, at least. He knew that leaving them like this would probably lead to their demise, but between the day’s current exertions and his rather scrawny frame, Quill was uncertain if he had the strength to actually drag her wounded form back to his base. Not even trying to do so though… was an idea that did not sit well with him, plus if Rend ever found out he abandoned someone in need, then she would definitely fillet him alive.
Putting the stranger on his back was the best way Quill thought to carry them, as he could then use his tail to keep her upright. First, however, he carefully put the remains of the warrior’s weapon into his basket, the shards barely fitting and poking through the sides of their newest vessel. He put the basket’s handle into his mouth, then tried to carefully load the stranger up behind him, and after almost dropping the much larger individual, the Maccao finally managed to get them balanced. With her arms draped over either shoulder of his and her feet barely high enough not to drag, Quill was ready to attempt movement. The first few strides threatened to topple the two completely, but once he got into a rhythm, each difficult step eventually became manageable. Move by exhausting move, Quill struggled and stumbled back up the water’s path, his tired muscles screaming at him to stop.
By the time the two had made it close to the researcher’s makeshift base, the sun had long since set, replaced with the gentle glow of a full moon. Now Quill stood before the clearing right in front of the waterfall, which is when he had also realized what final hurdle lay in the way of safety; slick, algae-covered rocks. With a deep breath, Quill started walking across the final stretch with utmost care, legs buckling from well over an hour’s worth of strain. “That’s it,” he grunted through a mouthful of basket handle, “almost there, almost-” It only took one misstep for the Great Maccao to suddenly slip and spin with a yelp, the basket going flying as the side of his head smashed mercilessly into one of the rocks below.
Everything was spinning for the downed Maccao, pain throbbing in his skull as he clutched it tightly and writhed in agony. Slowly, Quill rose to his feet and shambled over to the stranger he had just dropped, a twinge of guilt filling his head as the thought of possibly adding a concussion to the groaning stranger’s injury list gave him worry. “S-sorry!” he said, unsure if she could even hear him in her condition, “sorry, we’re almost there, just a bit longer!” He grabbed the warrior under her arms and pulled, dragging them the rest of the way into the cave and placing them onto a low ledge. Once she was settled in, Quill walked back outside to grab the thrown basket, only to find that the impact had caused the metal within to shred through it; all of his hard-gathered plants were now floating somewhere down the stream. With most of his day now wasted, the hurt and dismayed reptile gathered the weapon shards, moved back through the waterfall, checked on his guest one last time, and collapsed onto the floor in complete and utter exhaustion.
“Everything’s gone so wrong,” Quill mumbled to himself, “Rend’s gone, the ship’s gone, and now the resources for medicine are gone…” This was not how the researcher thought his first day in the New World would go, separated from his hunter, almost dying to Vespoids, spending the whole day dragging things into a cave. The only silver lining to the events of the day is finding a native to this land, and hopefully saving their life. Well, there were only two things left for the Maccao to do before turning in for the night, launching a flare and updating his journal. Grabbing a rocket, however, he realized it was completely damp and that he must not have properly sealed them when transporting the items through the waterfall. “That’s fantastic, just… great,” Quill dejectedly tossed the wet flare back with the others, lit a lantern, and sat down to do the one thing that would hopefully bring him joy on such an unfortunate occasion.
New World Research Journal Entry #1
So, I had another journal for the day-to-day stuff and personal ramblings, but that went down with the ship, so this will now double to put my thoughts to paper! You read that right, we got assaulted by a new creature (creatures, actually) right off of the shore, which did in our humble vessel, and now not only are we shipwrecked on this beautiful continent, I’ve been separated from Rend. I’d go to fire off flares to guide her here, but oops, I’ve accidentally ruined them all with water damage! Today’s been just fantastic!!! Sorry, you don’t need to hear about every complaint I have, you’re here for my day one observations.
Well, there’s not too much I had the pleasure of taking a gander at today, seeing as most of it was spent trying to survive, but something I noticed early was familiar flora. There were primitive plants like Cycads, horsetails, basic ferns, and some that appeared to be in the Araucariaceae family of trees, all of which were reminiscent of those found back in the Jurassic Frontier. Blue mushrooms, the standard medical herbs, and toadstools have a confirmed presence as well, though no antidote herbs as of yet. Speaking of confirmed presences, after nearly becoming a meal for them, I can safely say that Vespoids have once again been found to be plaguing yet another land! I honestly wish they would go extinct. On a more peaceful note, there was a large pack of Aptonoth wandering rather close to this base, and some Sushifish in the river as well.
But enough about the old, let’s get into the new! There was some form of large, stalked pitcher plant that housed a thick, purple liquid, which smelled quite sweet. I’m operating under the assumption that, like most other pitcher plants, this one’s scent is to attract prey, which then tumble into its trap filled with digestive fluid, though in this case there might also be poison in the mix as well. The pitcher is large enough to house a Vespoid, and the wasps were found relatively close to these plants, so I’m hoping confident that this species of flora preys on them as well. There was also some form of brown-red nut that exploded on hard impact with the terrain; I suspect that this is how the plant they stem from spread their seeds. They could make for a decent deterrent against hostile fauna, as I am practically unarmed, but I would need a sling or something to launch them far and fast enough.
Now for the most exciting discovery of the day: I’ve found a native Sapient Monster, and a new species at that! Granted, I’ve been unable to ask her any questions on account of her injuries, but simply knowing that the New World is inhabited is a huge development! Physically, she looks vaguely reminiscent of a Tigrex, but with a smoother snout and a bit of an underbite; plenty of jagged teeth in her maw as well, definitely a meat eater, but could be omnivorous as well (a question to ask her later). She has pink scales throughout most of her body, but her back and shoulders are also covered in a black or dark gray fur. Finishing up, the specimen has thick black claws on her hands and feet, and a wide tail that extends several feet out. If this wasn’t for research purposes, I’d feel like a creep doing all this peeping and describing… no, it still makes me feel like a creep regardless of the motive…
Finally, we have the creatures that stranded me and Rend in the New World. It was very dark when the beasts attacked, and I barely caught a glimpse of the second attacker, so I'm unfortunately unable to describe that one in any sufficient capacity, but what can be confirmed is that the main aggressor of our vessel had two forearms, two hind legs, a tail, and wings sprouting from its back. It was covered in spikes, had massive white horns, rows of sharp teeth, and was swole enough to make a Rajang blush. The above combined with its sheer aggression gives me more than enough reason to believe that it could very well be some form of apex predator of the area… though it didn’t look aquatic in any way, so I question what drove it to attack a ship so far from the coast. I don’t have enough evidence to confidently put the creature into any Monster classification at the moment, and the position of those wings make classification in our current system even more difficult… unless it’s actually an Elder Dragon, but confirming that would require more testing than I am currently equipped to handle.
Anyway, that concludes the first “proper” entry into my research journal! I have hopes that both the next day and the next entry will be better and more productive than the last (a low bar to clear, I'd like to add). With all that said, I’ve got a cave floor to sleep on, or a box, one of the two, both options suck…
- Quill
Notes:
Next chapter will have actual dialogue I promise.
Chapter Text
Morning light glittered through the waterfall as the sun rose, rousing Quill from his slumber on the stone floor; he had found a nice patch of moss to use as a pillow, some of it sticking to his head as he awoke. He sat up with a yawn, stretched his body thoroughly, took off his hooded coat, and walked into the wall of cold water to properly wake himself up and wash off. The Maccao winced as fluid rushed over his head, still sore from last night’s slip; he would love to have bandaged his injury, but he still didn’t have any medical supplies, save for two small potions. When he returned from washing himself clean, Quill shook off the excess water, put on his tan coat, and was now ready to start a new day in the New World. With his morning ritual out of the way, the researcher’s first order of business was to tend to his guest, who had started snoring sometime last night and still has not quieted down.
The warrior’s wounds appeared to have a ways to go before they were sufficiently mended, but they’ve at the very least stopped bleeding. Much like his own injury, all of hers really should be wrapped up as well… the lack of proper supplies was really starting to get to Quill. After his guest was taken care of, the researcher’s next task was going to be another attempt at a resupply, starting with makeshift bandages. Quill turned to his miscellaneous stash of barrels & crates, stuffing a ration into his mouth as he dug around for a pot to boil some cloth until sanitary. While he was sifting through his things, the Maccao heard a loud snort from the stranger in the space, punctuating an end to her snoring & slumber as she began to sit up with a groan & a wince.
“Wha… where am I…” she said, looking around at her unfamiliar surroundings with confusion.
“You’re awake!” Quill said, putting away what he was sifting through. He grabbed a bowl, filled it with the waterfall’s freshwater, and brought it over to the stranger. “You are currently in my makeshift cave base, but I found you injured somewhere downstream, about an hour and a half’s way following the water.”
The stranger took the water and guzzled it down like a parched plant, handing the swiftly emptied bowl back to her host. “I take it you are the reason that I’m not a Monster’s snack?” She asked Quill, to which he nodded in response. “Thank you, stranger, I didn’t know anyone had moved out here, how long have you been living behind this waterfall? Also…” She appeared to be looking her host up and down, “who and what exactly are you? I’ve never seen a species like yours before.”
“Oh, I’ve only been in this cave for a day at most, me & my Hunter shipwrecked the night before, and I’ve made this place our camp… though I’m uncertain of her whereabouts after the crash. As for me,” the researcher gestured to himself, “I am Quill, a Great Maccao who came to this continent as a researcher to document all of the new forms of life that I may find here! If I may ask,” Quill now gestured to his guest, “who and what are you? I don’t wanna keep referring to you as 'the native’ in my notes if you have a name.”
Said native rose to her feet, stretching from her rest as she said “Name’s Kacela, Anjanath and local Slayer. I kill Monsters of any kind for the right price or for a bite to eat. Speaking of which, do you have any food? I haven’t eaten since I departed for my current job.”
“Yep, wait one moment,” Quill nabbed two brown ration bars from his supply and returned to Kacela. “Here you go; these ones are Aptonoth flavored! So, is a Slayer like a Hunter? Are you organized or are you all independent?”
“If your Hunters slay Monsters for profit, parts, or glory, then yes, Slayers are akin to your Hunters. Some places like the Coral Capitol or other larger towns have organized bands Slayers, but most are solo like me,” Kacela answered. As the Maccao chowed down on his second ration of the day, Kacela took one bite of the brick of preserved food, swallowed it, and immediately looked like she wanted to throw up. “This shit is vile and does not taste like an Aptonoth. How can you even eat these… things? Did you eat these your whole voyage?”
“Y-yes… you get used to their flavor after eating them for a while. I don’t exactly have anything else for us to eat to eat at the moment though, so-“
“That’s the best part about living in a forest,” Kacela said while approaching the cave’s exit, “food is everywhere if you know where to look.”
“They aren’t that bad…” Quill ate the rest of his meal as he watched the Anjanath wander out, putting his guest’s discarded ration back with the rest of the food for later before exiting to join Kacela outside. When he walked out of the cave, however, the Maccao was met with the worry-inducing sight of her standing in front of a fallen tree and munching away at a toadstool growing off of it, a fungus most people knew to be notoriously poisonous. “DON’T EAT THAT,” Quill yelled as he bolted towards her from across the water, “THOSE ARE-” Just as the panicked Maccao got close to Kacela, he slipped on the slick stone and fell forward, practically faceplanting as his body slid almost comically towards the Anjanath.
Kacela stuffed the rest of the mushroom into her mouth and helped Quill to his feet “Damn that was quite the wipeout, you good?”
“Are you??? You just ate an entire toadstool! Those are incredibly poisonous! And you… you don’t look poisoned… is your kind immune to toadstool poison?”
“Ah, I see why you got crazy now,” the Anjanath flashed the amethyst necklace around her neck, “A gift from my father, he bought it from our village’s shaman, lets me eat all kinds of fungus, very helpful in a pinch for food, and the mushrooms provide extra benefits to boot. These purple mushrooms,” she grabbed and bit into another toadstool, “enhance one’s natural healing, which is excellent for the state I’m in.”
“That sounds like a Mushroomancer’s charm! Well, since you can eat them safely… what do they actually taste like?”
“They’ve kinda got a rubbery texture, and are very delicious as a standalone meal, yet so unique it’s difficult to put into words. Other than sour, the best way I can describe the flavor is… purple.”
“Purple?”
“Purple,” she said, finishing off the toadstool and taking a bite out of a nearby blue mushroom. “Say, you said you were a science man, right? Can you tell me how this ‘mushroomancer charm’ and other equipment give us their blessings?”
“Specifically I said that I was a researcher, and as for your question… I unfortunately have no clue,” Quill said, scratching the back of his feathered head. “Most smiths and armorers I’ve asked say either that it’s a ‘trade secret’ or ‘not to question it,’ but an alchemist told me that the souls of slain Monsters reside in pieces made from their flesh. Now, I don’t really believe in spirits, but I’m stumped on any possible rational explanation for the benefits that gear made from beasts have. It just doesn’t make sense!”
“Huh, forever a mystery then, thankfully understanding how they work was never necessary. Spirits unfortunately do exist, however; seen and fought them myself.”
“...I don’t want to call you a liar, but couldn’t the ‘spirits’ have been Monsters of some kind instead?”
“No, they’re something else entirely; the village priest called them ‘Leshens’ and claims that they’re completely foreign to our world. Eerily bipedal, made entirely of plants and scavenged bones, with a creature’s abandoned skull as a head. One of the egghead back at my old stomping grounds got a rare opportunity to dissect one, and didn’t find anything that made ‘biological sense’ in comparison to the bodies of Monsters.”
“Wow, spirit or not, they sound like an excellent subject to docu-“
“Do not go near the Leshen!” Kacela suddenly warned, “those forest demons are intelligent, cruel, and extremely dangerous. They enslave Feral Monsters to strengthen their territory, and they whisper to you inside your own head. They slaughter anyone who trespasses into their land, and you’d be lucky if your death was quick. If you ever see one prowling, Quill, just run, got it?”
“N-noted!” Quill said, taken aback by the Anjanath’s sudden shift in intensity. He reasoned that she must have had quite the run-in with them to elicit such a reaction, so the Maccao quickly changed the subject to something hopefully unrelated. “So you mentioned being on the job earlier, what were you tasked with hunting?”
“I was sent to slay one Pukei-Pukei, a frog-eyed bitch of a Monster that spends more time running away from Slayers than it does fighting them. It’s an infuriatingly mischievous herbivore that will torment weaker Monsters for no reason other than sadistic pleasure, and will third-party into fights to screw over one combatant seemingly for the hell of it. In my case, the coward poisoned me when a Red-Wrath engaged me in battle, leading to the unfortunate way you found me in hours after.”
“Eeeee, another new Monster!” Quill squealed excitedly, “you’ll have to tell me more about them so I can jot it all down! Wait wait, ‘Red-Wrath’? Did you mean Rathalos? Because there were definitely Rathalos remnants back there.”
“No, a Red-Wrath: big red wyvern, flies a lot, has venom in its claws, vomits up fire, very territorial, usually mates with a Green-Wrath.”
“So… it sounds like folks here and overseas have differing names for the same creature then, fascinating! Do all of the Monsters in this family follow the same naming convention? Like, Green-Wrath, Red-Wrath, Blue-Wrath, so on and so forth?”
“Yesh,” she said with a mouthful, munching down on the last mushroom of the log. “Well, this has been fun, Quill, and I am grateful for you saving my skin, but I do have a job to finish. Have you seen my weapon by chance? I presume it’s back where you found me if not here.”
“Yeahhhh… about that… it’s not exactly all that battle ready anymore,” Quill said, walking back into his base with Kacela in tow. The Great Maccao gestured to the crate he stashed her shattered weapon into, saying “I believe I grabbed all of it, but there was a bit of a slip up while transporting you and your equipment here, so some smaller pieces may be missing.”
“Son of a… I just bought this!” Kacela grumbled loudly, pulling the hilt and whatever jagged metal still attached to it out of the box. The Anjanath inspected the once Great Sword, turning the fractured weapon back and forth, testing its now heavily unbalanced weight. “Whatever, this should still be enough-“ the remainder of the blade, as if to spite its wielder one last time, broke free from its hilt and clattered to the stone floor, cracking and splitting in two with a metallic clang. “Damnit!” Kacela shouted, her nostrils flaring as a pale crest erupted from them with her rage, “what the hell am I supposed to do now!” After calming herself down, the Anjanath dropped the pieces of her weapon back into the box and turned to Quill with a look of dismay. “I don’t suppose you have any metalworking skills in that skull of yours, do you?”
“Sorry, but I’m definitely not skilled enough in smithing to restore your weapon, nor do I have the equipment to even attempt to do so,” Quill answered apologetically. "That being said though, I don’t think it would be impossible to make some makeshift armaments out of those shards of metal as they are now. We’d just need to scavenge more materials from the outdoors.”
“If you can make me something that can fell a Monster, then I’d be even more in debt to you,” Kacela said, “I don’t have anything material to pay you back with though, so how about we split the bounty of my current contract once I’ve slain the Pukei-Pukei?”
“I won’t deny that the offer is tempting, as I am still in need of more equipment and resources for the base, but I don’t have a way or place to reliably spend money yet, and I have a counteroffer that might benefit us both more in the long run. Let me tag along on this hunt and future ones, so that I may collect data and material on the Monsters you slay. In return for allowing me to continue my research, I will convert resources we gather into useful tools for said hunts and do my best to provide support for you in the field.”
“Hmmm… sounds like you want a partnership… normally I work solo, but at the very least it would be helpful to have someone making the supplies I need instead of spending half of my earnings on buying them. I must ask though, have you ever slain or even fought a Monster before? Do you have any weapons training at all?”
“N-not really, no; the most I’ve done is taking down Vespoids and the occasional Gargwa, a livestock bird from my homeland, and that was usually done indirectly with traps or environmental hazards. As for training… I have none, I’ve never actually touched a proper hunting weapon before.” Quill answered with a nervous laugh.
“Then I'll cautiously accept your offer with one condition: you will take up at least one proper weapon, and you will allow me to train you with it until you can slay a Large Monster on your own. I will not take someone on a job if they’re unable to defend themselves, people like that are a risk to those around them just as much as they are a threat to themselves. Do you accept my terms?” Kacela asked, extending a hand to the Maccao.
“Yes, I accept!” Quill excitedly answered, shaking the Anjanath’s hand energetically to seal the deal. “This is the start of something amazing, Kacela, you won’t regret this!”
Notes:
...Can you tell that I didn't like Pukei-Pukei all that much in the early game?
Also, charm perks exist, as will decorations.
Chapter 4: Chapter 3
Notes:
The humble Aztec macuahuitl is a club or paddle that has rows of sharp blades embedded in its sides to messily shred through whatever's been struck, effectively a saw-sword.
Chapter Text
New World Research Journal Entry #2
This entry’s going to be short, as me and Kacela (the native and a species known as an Anjanath) are performing the final preparations for a hunt, and according to her, our target appears to be another species unrecorded outside of the New World! It’s something called a Pukei-Pukei, a poisonous or venomous (yes, there’s a difference) creature and a very devious herbivore. I’m leaving details blank specifically because I’ll have much more data to jot down after seeing the beast in person, so keep your eyes peeled for the next entry, dear reader! If I survive, that is, I am honestly rather terrified at being on the front lines of a hunt for once. I hope I don’t freeze up or anything…
In terms of prep-work, Kacela and I spent half a sun’s time foraging for much needed ingredients for medicine & crafting makeshift weapons from scraps of her broken Great Sword. For her, I repurposed her old weapon’s handle and attached it to a slab of wood I’ve carved to be flat and wide. Using some adhesive made from the Vespoid guts I stored away yesterday, I’ve stuck most of the metal shards to slots that I scraped into the sides of the wood, with the end result being a massive makeshift macuahuitl. I figured she’d appreciate a larger weapon, considering her old one; Kacela is currently practicing with the behemoth from across the cave, and I’ve heard no complaints thus far, so I’d consider that piece to be a success! As for me, I’ve got myself a spear tipped with a Vespoid stinger and coated in said murder-bug’s venom, perfect for attacking from a relatively safe distance. Finally, we AT LAST have medical supplies: 20 more potions, 14 antidotes enhanced with blue mushrooms, and seven nulberries, though I unfortunately forgot to make the bandages I wanted to whip up earlier. I can safely say that-
“Hey,” Kacela shouted from the entrance of the cave, “you done scribbling? The longer we wait, the weaker the Monster’s tracks get!”
“Be right there,” Quill answered, quickly finishing his notes.
-we will be fine in the event of minor injuries. It’s time for the hunt now! It feels great to be in the presence of a Hunter again!
-Quill
The Maccao tucked his journal into his coat, medical supplies clinking within its pockets as he grabbed his spear and left the cave to follow Kacela’s lead. The Anjanath brought them back to the site of her original battle, still stained with splotches of dried purple fluid and ashened from faded flames. She approached a footprint embedded in the soft ground and crouched down within it; it was smaller than what Quill knew to be the Rathalos’ tracks, which meant that this must be the imprint of a Pukei-Pukei. The researcher sketched the footprint’s shape in his journal, its three front toes and one hind one alluding to some form of avian or wyvern heritage in the beast’s evolutionary path. “I wonder what Monster Class a Pukei would fall into…” Quill pondered to himself, which eventually led his thoughts to the question of how the natives classified Monsters in their world, and luckily there was a native to ask close by! “Hey Kacela,” Quill said as he approached the Anjanath, who had finished her inspection of the print, “how do Slayers like you categorize Monster species?”
“No clue, I just hear what others call them and do the same. When I forget those, I use something significantly simpler: if it swims, it’s an Aquatic Monster. If it flies, it’s a Flying Monster. If it only walks, then it’s a Grounded Monster. If it bends nature to its will, then you’re fucked. Those four groups of beasts work for me, none of that confusing class nonsense.”
“That’s… indeed simple. The Guild back home officially established 17 classes of Monster so far, with others still being debated, based on crossbreeding compatibility between Monsters and bodily similarities.”
“That sounds like a headache to keep track of,” Kacele said as she walked towards the treeline, “and speaking of tracks, I’ve got the bastard’s scent, let's move.”
The two trekked through the forest with little silence, thanks to Quill’s endless sea of questions and Kacela rattling off the pros and cons of every weapon she could think of. They passed several herds of Aptonoth and some stunted, two-legged, hard-headed creatures Kacela called Kestodons. Quill had apparently angered one of them while he was drawing an illustration of their group, as one of them bolted towards him head first and slammed into a tree when the Maccao dove out of the way. Kacela grabbed him and bolted, telling her companion not to get distracted on the hunt… as he continued to write down notes on the Kestodon.
Almost an hour had passed since Quill and Kacela began following the beast’s trail, and by how the Anjanath’s head and nostrils were swiveling and flaring respectively, they seemed to be getting close. “That Pukei-Pukei is nearby,” Kacela spat, clearly ready to settle the score between her and her mark, “remember, it’s clever and cowardly, and it will bolt the moment its tricks fail. I recommend we take out at least one wing so flying away is not an option, agreed?”
“Agreed. Out of curiosity,” Quill started, scanning for any signs of the beast, “how many of these Monsters have you taken down? Are they difficult?”
“Several, they aren’t the hardest beasts in the forest to slay, just some of the more annoying ones to deal with. They constantly harass our foragers & attack traders from other villages, so they’re kept in check by Slayers like me, almost every other day there’s a new quest posted asking for another Pukei-Pukei to be exterminated.”
“Noted, it’s a similar story back home with Seltas, a species of large insects that reproduce rapidly if not culled,” Quill responded. It didn’t take long for the two to find fresh evidence of their target’s antics, in the form of puddles of toxic sludge dotting the ahead surroundings. After passing through the recently poisoned terrain, Quill and Kacela found themselves on a hill overlooking a small clearing, with sounds of struggle and animalistic shrieks coming from below. Peering over their high ground, the pair could see a group of five small yellow reptiles engaged in a losing battle with a large, green scaled and feathered creature with a frog-like head, bird-like body, and a strange tubular tail. Quill took out his journal to begin sketching both species, whispering to his new companion while scribbling, saying, “that must be our target! What are those smaller creatures fighting it?”
Kacela waved a hand between the Maccao’s vision and his journal to get his attention. “Quill, focus. You can write your notes after we’re done here; a close up corpse will be easier to draw anyways. Now,” she pointed towards the small reptiles as Quill stowed the journal back into his coat, “those are Lesser Jagras, bottom-tier predators that often hunt in groups. Most of the prey they hunt goes to their pack leader, an ever gluttonous Greater Jagras, which will devour its lessers if they don’t bring back sufficient meals. That threat leads the little lizards to getting desperate and often biting off more than they can chew, such as attacking Slayers or larger predators when they barely stand a chance.”
“That's a cruel way to rule those beneath them, and unfortunately not unheard of with pack Monsters back on the mainland either, though cannibalism is usually done in desperation rather than dissatisfaction…” Quill said, resisting the urge to immediately write down the new information. He instead continued to observe the battle below, hoping to glean an understanding of how the Pukei-Pukei fights before it was time to jump it… an action that was slowly becoming more and more intimidating to Quill as the lizards below got picked off one by one. Of the five Jagras, four remained standing, the first casualty meeting its end crunched under the larger Monster’s stomping feet. A pair of the lizards dashed behind the Pukei-Pukei while the other pair aggressed the beast from the front. Before the rear assailants could take advantage of their position, however, the frog-faced fiend whipped its tail and unleashed an ark of toxic mist to ward off the attackers; one Jagras escaped the violet fog, the other collapsed to the forest floor in a twitching, gagging mess. The frontside offense wasn’t going well either, as another yellow lizard had found itself poisoned and writhing in agony, this time absolutely drenched in the Pukei’s purple fluid rather than a poisoned fog. “It looks like the sides of the Monster are the safest places to be,” Quill observed, “out of range of its vile substances if you stick close enough, at least…”
“Funny,” Kacela stated, “my old man had me sit and watch one of these things fight until I came to that conclusion as well… took a lot more Jagras for me to get it though.”
“Was he a Slayer like you?”
“Mmhm, taught me everything I know about this forest. Kinda pissed off the other Slayers that a Barroth had a better lay of the land than most native here though.”
“A Barroth? If you’re his direct spawn, then with the general cross-species breeding rules being applied, that would make Anjanaths like you Brute Wyverns, just like your father’s kind!”
“That sounds familiar, my folks certainly had the bulk to back that claim.” Loud shrieks brought the two’s full attention back to the battle below, as one of the yellow lizards had managed to tear a mouthful of plumage from its larger opponent. “Here’s the plan, when one of those remaining Jagras flee or perish,” Kacela said, readying her makeshift weapon, “we rush in while the Monster's attention is on the last standing foe. With any luck, this will be quick.”
“Agreed,” Quill added. The Pukei-Pukei had managed to stick one of the Jagras with its tongue, pulled it into its mouth, and then whipped it into a rock headfirst; with a final leaping stomp, said rock was painted a messy red under the Monster’s talons as the Pukei crushed the poor lizard like a bone-filled grape. The sight made Quill shudder as his hands gripped the shaft of his weapon tighter, his thoughts drifting to the possibility of ending up suffering a similar fate; an unceremonious end to his disaster of a journey. “You can do this,” the Maccao thought, shaking his head as he tried to steel himself, “if I’m going to survive on this continent, I have to at the very least be able to hunt this Monster… be like Rend, be fearless… I really wish Rend was here…”
“Ready, Mr. Researcher?” Kacela asked with her weapon drawn.
“Y-yeah, ready to go,” Quill responded, getting his spear into a position fit for a charge.
“Good, because it’s showtime!” The Anjanath said, rushing out from cover and bolting downhill with the Maccao following close behind. As the Pukei-Pukei began to lumber towards the remaining Jagras, its head suddenly shot up and turned towards the speedily approaching duo. The creature shot a plume of poisonous purple at them from its tail, the last Jagras taking this opportunity to flee from the scene through the brush. Kacela quickly pivoted and ran to the side, diving out of range of the gaseous attack and continuing her charge. Quill on the other hand, tripped himself up attempting to make such a sharp turn and began to tumble down the hill in a mess of limbs. In a move of either pure instinct or desperation to stop barreling, he slapped his flat tail into the ground and catapulted himself over the vile mist in the nick of time, yelling in alarm as he careened through the air like a flailing, completely panicked cannonball heading directly towards the Monster from above.
Quill landed on the scaled back of the Pukei-Pukei, relieved to have something underneath his feet… even if that something was a creature that was none too happy to have caught a spear-wielding flea. He began stabbing his weapon into the flesh of the bird-beast, eliciting a screech from it before the Monster began trying to buck him off. The Maccao instantly lost his footing and got bumped off to the side, his paws fishing for anything to grab onto to prevent his fall, gaining purchase on the top of the Pukei-Pukei’s wing membrane. Quill yelled as he was violently shaken up and down with the limb, clinging on for dear life and dropping his spear in the process. While Quill was unwilling participating in a rodeo, Kacela was using her target’s distracted state to get in close and slam her multi-bladed weapon into the creature’s exposed neck, barely missing its jugular as the Anjanath dragged the macuahuitl further down the throat. The cut wasn’t as deep as Kacela had hoped, but regardless of this, crimson fluid flowed from the resulting wound, prompting the Pukei-Pukei to roar and leap back, vomiting several globs of viscous violet liquid at the Slayer to keep her at bay.
With the Monster temporarily done bucking and writhing, Quill pulled out Rend’s carving knife and began repeatedly stabbing into the patch of flesh closest to him. Unbeknownst to the stabby researcher, however, the Pukei-Pukei had arched its tail to the side and proceeded to unleash another poisoning mist right over its wing. Quill was sent into a coughing fit as he was blasted off of the Monster, the carving knife still embedded in the beast’s membrane. Quill landed at the feet of the enemy, his lungs and eyes burning while the purple gas wreaked havoc on his body, the Pukei’s poison beginning to take hold. He rose, only to be bashed into a tree by the creature swinging its head into his side like a flail. Before the beast could inflict further harm on the winded Quill, Kacela took the Monster’s agro by throwing a sizable rock at its head from the side, followed by her dodging the Pukei-Pukei’s next running attack & slashing at its leg as it went by.
Quill limped out of the immediate danger zone, stuffing an antidote into his mouth, washing it down with a potion, and making his way over to where his spear had fallen. Feeling his physical aches and afflictions fading as the green & blue substances worked their wonders, the Maccao nabbed his weapon from the soil, took a deep breath, and charged back towards the enemy. With the Pukei-Pukei focusing on Kacela, Quill got to the side of the beast without issue and began jabbing his spear into its flank. Whenever the Monster rotated to douse him with its toxic mists, the Maccao stayed close and rotated with it, keeping him out of the spray’s angle. The Anjanath joined in this endeavor from the other side, forcing the creature to keep spinning and struggling to keep a bead on either of its foes. After the Anjanath had created quite the gash in the beast’s flesh, however, the Pukei screeched and swiftly twisted its neck around, biting down on her and easily taking the yelling Slayer’s head & upper torso into its toothless maw.
Quill yelped in surprise as an Anjanath-shaped projectile was suddenly whipped into him by the Pukei-Pukei. Both combatants scrambled to get off of each other, but got kicked across the grassy battlefield before they could separate. The Monster continued to kick the two around, giving neither a chance to recuperate as their bodies continued to collect cuts and bruises. In a painful moment of déjà vu, the Pukei-Pukei grabbed Kacela with its mouth, shook her around like a dog with its toy, and threw her against a nearby tree. It then grabbed Quill with its long tongue and did the same to him, sending him careening into his ally upside down and back first, his limp tail flopping over his face. Roaring in triumph over its assailants, the feathered creature vomited up a glob of poison over the groaning pair, coating them in toxic fluid as a final stamp of superiority before it departed in the direction that the Jagras had fled earlier, no doubt off to torment the surviving lizard.
“…That didn’t go well… everything hurts…” Quill coughed out, rolling to the side and laying on the ground, exhausted.
“… yeah… that thing kicked our asses…” Kacela responded, equally winded, crawling to her feet and shaking off the purple fluid, helping the Maccao to his feet as she clutched her abused abdomen. The both of them consumed an antidote and a plethora of potions each. “Let’s get after it… after a short break.”
“Yeah, let’s take a breather, and talk strategy before we run in again,” said the Maccao, leaning against his spear for support as the medicines worked their magic. “You’ve hunted some of these things before, do you have anything to suggest for our next approach?”
“…”
“…Kacela?”
The Anjanath, much to Quill’s surprise, turned away from him at the question. She eventually sighed and turned back to face her companion with an ashamed expression. “Quill, I… I lied.”
“Lied?” Quill repeated with rising concern. “Lied about what?”
“About… being a real Slayer…” she said, avoiding eye contact as she shifted uncomfortably.
“Like, you aren’t licensed? I mean, I’ve worked with several people with… let's say dubious legitimacy in the eyes of the law, so your lack of legal hunt-I mean Slayer status isn’t that big of an issue.”
“I don’t have a license yet, and thankfully we don’t need one to kill Monsters, but that’s partly the issue… I haven’t killed a single Large Monster before… and this is my first quest. Specifically, this Pukei-Pukei elimination is for my certification.”
“O-oh… that’s…” Quill started, surprised and initially unable to find the words to respond. “...yikes. What was your goal with lying about all of this?”
“I lied because I need to succeed in this hunt, and I evidently could not do it alone. I thought that you wouldn’t aid me if you knew how little experience I had… I was so desperate for help that I didn’t even consider the risk that put the both of us in. And look where my deception got us, we almost died! The only reason we didn’t was because the Monster got bored.”
“Was anything true about your words earlier? Your knowledge of the forest, your training, anything?” Quill asked, attempting to gauge the depth of this deception.
“Everything about me being a Slayer was false, but the knowledge passed down by my father was genuine, same for my training in weaponry.”
“...So, where do we go from here?” Quill questioned. “Should we abandon the quest?”
“I don’t expect you to continue with me after knowing that I’m a fraud, but I can’t back off from this job. If I fail to eliminate this Pukei-Pukei now, then I’ll probably have to wait another few years until the next time a spotter from the capital makes their way back to my village, just to issue yet another quest so I can try and gain my certification again…”
“You don’t have something like a board or other authority that can initiate you? That seems very limiting, especially with how long it could take a spotter to come all the way out here.”
“We do, actually, settlement leaders can certify Slayers with high potential, otherwise every settlement would have no documentation of who killed what and how many of what Monster an individual has slain; a lot of people & places will determine your value by your record, which can be the make or break between whether or not you get a job over another Slayer. My village’s priest, however, is being a hardass about my attempts specifically, so a spotter is my only hope of becoming a licensed Slayer.”
Quill took a deep breath while he thought about everything he’s been presented with and formed a concise response. “Kacela, look, I… would have liked to have known all of this sooner, but as much as I’d appreciate it if our current deal wasn’t built on half-truths at best or straight up lies at worst, it does not matter in the end. Any other help would definitely be costly, and even if I got half of the money from your quest like originally proposed this morning, I doubt it would be enough for even a few days' worth of assistance. If it’s all the same to you, I would like to continue with our current arrangement despite this snafu.”
“Wait, wa-why?” Kacela said, shocked, “why would you still want me to hunt with you? I just admitted to effectively lying to you about the whole reason you accepted our deal! You know, having someone who can actually hunt!”
“I mean, yes, but if what you said is true is, well, actually true, then you probably have much more information on everything in this place than someone I’d have to pay for. And you owning up to your deception now instead of allowing it to become an even bigger & 100% fatal problem later holds more weight to me than you might think. Plus, between the two of us, you still have significantly more practice in combat than I… and also, I cannot stress this enough, you’re not charging me zenny with our current arrangement. So yes, I would like for our deal to continue.”
“Even though I haven’t killed a Monster before?"
“You haven’t killed a Monster yet, and quite frankly if I’m to survive this continent, then I’m going to need to learn how to hunt them for myself; we might as well learn this trade together, starting with eliminating that Pukei-Pukei.”
“Well… if we’re still doing this, we’d better get moving before it gets too far. I think the Pukei-Pukei went to hunt down that final Jagras from earlier… after it got bored of us.” Kacela approached the path of trampled greenery and faint stains of dripped blood that the Monster created when it ran off. “We can come up with a plan to kill the beast on the way.”
“Right, let's go,” Quill said, joining her as the two followed the destructive trail that the Pukei-Pukei had made through the foliage.
Chapter Text
After getting their second wind, Quill and Kacela were speedily following the destructive trail of the Pukei-Pukei, talking strategy while traversing the trampled foliage.
“So, evidently the Monster has a large range advantage over us,” Quill said, “but it seemed to only use its poison whenever it was overwhelmed with either both of us attacking, or getting attacked in a hard to reach spot. If one of us hid while the other engaged the Pukei, then we could bait it into using primarily melee attacks while whichever one of us was hiding got a sneak attack off. My hope is to get it panicked enough to leave its neck vulnerable like before, leading to a fatal blow that ends the fight before it can recover and either flee or thrash us again.”
“That could work,” Kacela said nodding along, “they usually reserve their poisons for special occasions like torturing its victims or keeping multiple opponents at bay. Goading it into a trap should be relatively easy, just have to watch out for that tongue though; it’s both a battering ram and a sticky tool for snatching things or creatures up. I think you should be the one to sneak up on the bastard, as you’re quieter and can leap up to those out-of-reach spots that are sure to surprise our prey. Besides, I’m good at being loud and a Pukei-Pukei would never pass up on an opportunity to bully someone it has already harassed before, especially when they appear to be alone.”
“Ok, I can do that. Fingers crossed that my spike on a stick actually paralyzes our target this time!” After around ten minutes of speedily making their way through the forest, the pair located their prey, which was using its feet to dig away at a small hole in a mound of dirt. The shrieks of a Lesser Jagras emanated from the small space, growing louder and more panicked as the Pukei got closer to excavating the cornered lizard from the earth. Looking around, Quill saw that they had found themselves in another clearing, though this time they didn’t have the advantage of the high ground. What caught Quill’s eye about the bland surrounding area, however, was a bundle of old, fallen trees kept suspended in the vines above. He nudged Kacela and pointed up at the hazard.
The Anjanath cracked a smile at the sight, picking up what her ally was suggesting immediately. “This is going to be one hell of a sneak attack!” She said excitedly. “I’ll lure it underneath the wood once you’re in position to drop it. With how it’s focused on the Jagras, I might be able to get a clean hit on its tail or a leg before luring the beast in.”
Quill spent a good two minutes clambering up, leaping from trees and branches to get to his prize of potential energy, giving his ally a thumbs up once he reached his destination several stories off the ground. Now, it was Kacela’s turn to play her role as the bait, making her way closer to the Pukei-Pukei all quiet and crouched to attempt making a sneak attack of her own to gain the Monster’s ire. With the Pukei’s attention being entirely on the cowering Jagras, it was completely unaware of Kacela’s presence as she raised her weapon high and slammed it down upon the beast’s tail. Between the Pukei’s tail rising in surprise to the sudden pain and the downwards force of the blow, the saw-like edge of the macuahuitl tore through the limb in a spray of blood, leaving the tail dangling loosely from what remained of its nearly severed base. Kacela then bolted toward the tree-drop trap as the Large Monster screeched and writhed in agony behind her. When it arose, the Pukei-Pukei feathers bristled and seemed to change from green to a tint of red as it roared in outrage. It charged blindly at its mutilator, jumping and crushing the ground that Kacela had just dodged from. “NOW,” she shouted up at Quill, bolting from the drop spot.
“Got it,” Quill shouted back, jabbing his spear through the taut vines holding the trees back from their destiny. The natural ropes tore with ease, and all of that potential energy very quickly became kinetic as the wooden masses fell from their perch and careened towards the Monster below. The Pukei-Pukei craned its neck to look up at the clattering from above, shrieking once it clocked the trees falling. The Monster attempted to flee from the rain of heavy wood, but the act was proven futile as several trees barraged the beast, pinning it down under a sea of bark. Quill began his careful descent as Kacela rushed towards the Pukei’s head, intending to slit its throat posthaste. Before Kacela could raise her macuahuitl, however, the crafty Monster shot its tongue out and stuck it to the flat of the weapon, causing a tug of war over the utensil.
“Let go, you frog-faced freak,” the Anjanath grunted through gritted teeth, planting her feet in the ground and pulling at her weapon fiercely. Though she stopped the macuahuitl from being tugged further towards the beast, Kacela unfortunately couldn’t get the makeshift murder weapon off of the Pukei’s sticky tongue. To further add to Kacela’s frustrations, the Pukei-Pukei had begun to unearth itself from the rubble that buried it, logs rolling and clattering off several at a time. Hot fury churned in her veins as the Monster rose from its wooden tomb and began tugging harder on her weapon. The heat of Kacela’s rising anger soon created an equally heated physical response, the temperature in her maw rising while smoke bellowed from her flared nostrils. Her throat began to glow red, the brightness becoming more brilliant and crimson until finally, with an echoing, rageful roar, a torrent of baleful flame blasted out from within Kacela. Her wrathful fire immediately brought unthinkable agony to the Pukei-Pukei as its tongue bubbled and sizzled away with a disgusting hiss under the scorching heat.
The beast screeched the loudest it had ever screeched, never before feeling such a pure form of pain in its life. The Pukei tried pulling the appendage back in a desperate bid to save it from incineration, but the Monster was far too late to do so, for the wet muscle of the tongue was burned in two under the blazing assault. The part of the tongue attached to Kacela’s macuahuitl peeled off & flopped to the forest floor lifelessly while what remained of it retracted back into the screaming and writhing creature, forever shortened and horrifically scarred. While the Pukei was stumbling around and swinging its head every which way with its smoking mouth open, Kacela resumed her advance on the beast. She grinned as her weapon raked across the distressed Monster’s neck once more, a geyser of lifeblood pouring from the wound as a large vein was torn asunder by the weapon’s jagged teeth.
Heavily wounded and realizing that its adversaries were no longer meager enough to be safely toyed with, the Pukei-Pukei flapped its wings and tried to flee via ascension. Kacela attempted to grab onto its tail to stay within striking range, and though she succeeded in gripping onto the limb on takeoff, the previous grievous damage to the tail ultimately caused it to tear off and flop to the ground in a bloody puddle. Loudly yelping at the sensation of the separation, the beast momentarily lost its balance and flailed wildly in the air, desperate to steady itself before making its getaway. In its airborne struggle, the Pukei slammed into the branches of the tall trees surrounding the area, clearly panicking as it tangled itself within their vines. Quill was about halfway down his descent when the creature rocked the loose floral high ground he was clinging to, the impact nearly causing him to fall. Once he recovered from the shaking, the treebound Maccao saw that the Pukei-Pukei was stuck, and hastily scrambled to reclimb the foliage to take advantage of the situation.
Quill scaled up to his target as it began tearing into the vines that bound it, the beast screeching in lingering pain and frustration throughout the effort. He got in close, drew his Vespoid spear, and began repeatedly stabbing into the creature’s vulnerable wings & torso. Through his many jabs into its membrane, Quill had managed to put many small holes into the Pukei’s wings, which he hoped would render the creature flightless. After a particularly deep plunge of his spear into the chest of the Monster, the paralyzing venom coating the weapon finally caused a reaction in the Pukei-Pukei, in the form of the Monster becoming stiff as a statue. Whether it was due to the makeshift nature of the weapon or the Monster’s muscles suddenly tightening up, Quill’s spear snapped in two upon attempting to pull it out. The now unarmed Maccao began looking for something he could possibly use as a replacement weapon, but as he was currently standing on branches far above the ground, the pickings were pretty slim… until a familiar tool’s glint caught his eye, originating from one of the Pukei’s wings. Operating on pure adrenaline, Quill leapt onto the Pukei’s wing, tore Rend’s carving knife from its entrenchment within the limb’s membrane, and began to cut at the vines holding the twitching beast up.
Between the weight of the jittering Monster providing consistent tension upon the vines and the speed of which Quill was cutting them away, it didn’t take long for the remaining vines to begin snapping from the increased stress all on their own. The researcher had intended to jump ship to something safer than a soon to be plummeting Pukei-Pukei, but much to his horror, the high branches holding up the vines gave way far faster than he anticipated. Quill was forced to grip on tight to the paralyzed Monster as the wood supporting everything snapped, sending all parties in the treeline careening towards the ground screaming. The Pukei crashed back-first into the terrain below with a loud crack, sending Quill flying off into a bush. Despite the fact that the Vespoid venom afflicting it should have run its course by now, the Pukei-Pukei barely moved, rattled from the impact and exhausted from the earlier struggles.
Kacela swiftly advanced with her weapon readied, once again aiming to cut through the beast’s neck. When the Pukei-Pukei saw her approach, it slowly rolled to its feet and began limping away at a snail’s pace, flapping its wings desperately in an attempt to fly. Despite the creature’s best efforts at escape, however, between its wings being damaged and its other severe wounds, the Pukei simply couldn’t get away from its brute of an assailant. Kacela made several slashing strikes against the Monster’s side as she ran beside it, further advancing up to her true target. In response to making it bleed, the Pukei-Pukei turned its head and spat a glob of toxic purple at Kacela, who proceeded to push through it to take a swing at the beast’s face, cleaving right through one of its eyes and causing the Pukei to tumble to its side. The poisoned Kacela immediately descended on the downed Monster’s neck, carving it wide open with repeated chops and drags of the macuahuitl. The Pukei-Pukei’s yelps soon morphed to muted gurgling as blood flooded from the gaping wound, the Monster’s struggles fading with every drop lost. Seconds of agonizing chopping later, and the beast finally went still in a puddle of its own crimson fluid; the Pukei-Pukei was dead and the hunt was complete.
“Did we get it?” Quill asked as he approached Kacela, his feathers & coat absolutely covered in sap, thorns, and shrubbery. As he drew closer, he saw that the panting Anjanath was absolutely drenched head to toe in blood and poison. “By the stars, are you ok?!?” He exclaimed, running over and immediately grabbing a potion from his stock to hand her.
Kacela wiped what she could off of herself with her hands, tossing an antidote into her gob while waving away Quill’s concern. “I’m fine, I’m fine, most of this blood isn’t mine… fuck, we are filthy.”
“Being thrown into a patch of thorns or nearly sawing a Monster’s head off will do that,” Quill brushed some of the floral rubbish off of his body and winced as he plucked out the spikier debris entrenched in it. “Nice work with eliminating the tail, by the way, the Pukei-Pukei would have definitely blown me out of the trees if you hadn’t severed it!”
“Same for your treetop stunt, I think you broke its back with that fall there, plus disabling its flight was a huge bonus.”
“I’m surprised the macuahuitl survived all the abuse you’ve put it through at the end there. The species of tree we got the wood from must be quite durable if that slab of it endured a whole hunt!”
“Yeah, the plants of this forest tend to have some way to bite back against the Monsters that thrash against them; nuts that explode, poisonous mushrooms, trees that’ll break your axe before you break their bark, the works.” Kacela looked down at her weapon, running her hand over the deep cracks and missing teeth it now sported; it served its purpose well, but it definitely wasn’t going to hold up for another hunt. “Well, the sooner we carve up this fiend, the sooner we can get back to the waterfall and wash off. Since I’m already all covered in gore, I’ll get started on the guts if you wanna cut up the extremities.”
“Can do, I can’t wait to study this thing from the inside out!” Quill said excitedly, gliding Rend’s knife through the beast’s wings while Kacela sawed chunks of meat and scales from its chest.
New World Research Journal Entry #3
The hunt was a success! It was exhilarating and extremely stressful at the same time! I now see why people actually want to become Hunters outside of the lucrative payouts. We almost died in our first encounter with the Pukei-Pukei, and unprofessionally disassembled it in the second encounter. I dropped the Monster (and myself) from like 15 stories, and Kacela sawed it to pieces shortly after (she was covered in sooooo much blood from that endeavor). Also apparently she, and I can only assume other Anjanath as well, can breathe fire, so that’s another exciting detail to note in her page!
Speaking of Anjanaths, assuming what Kacela told me about her heritage is true, due to her father being a Barroth, a Brute Wyvern, then it would stand to reason that her kind are of the same Monster Class! That would certainly account for her muscled and towering physique, though now I must wonder how much of that comes from her maternal genes vs her paternal ones, I hope to eventually find several more Sapient Anjanath to compare Kacela to.
Oh, in case you, dear Guild reader, aren’t well versed in the world of Monster genetics, then allow me to provide a brief summary. Creatures of the same Monster Class (Excluding Elder Dragons) can intermix and produce offspring between differing species. These progeny will only be of a species or subspecies of either parent’s bloodline, and generally won’t have drastic qualities of whichever species the child is not. Let’s use a female Glavenus and a male Barroth’s offspring as an example: say their spawn was a Barroth, it won’t inherit the mother’s fire or bladed tail, but it might inherit its mother’s darker colors or have a larger tail than usual.
Also, another thing I don’t want to forget to document is that the native tongue of the New World (or at least of this forest) seems to be the same as the most common language spoken in the Old World, which is Human. It would stand to reason that the extinct Human civilization had at one point colonized the New World, only to die out and leave remnants for the native Sapients to find and base their language off of (just an educated guess, of course). Though the structure of the New World’s Human is similar to the Old World’s, there are some interesting variations in their vocabulary. For example, the native terminology for Rathalos and Rathian are Red-Wraths and Green-Wraths (the same color-wrath naming system applies to the other subspecies of the Rath family of monsters as well). I am excited to find more of these alternate titles for Monsters on my journey across this continent, as it will give me something to write about the familiar faces I may find here.
Though, with Humans being presumed to have made their voyage here in the past, I have to wonder if Lynians made it here as well. The feline race was always found wherever Humans or Wyverians traveled, after all. Maybe some survived the Great Extinction like the Lynian tribes back home?
Kacela and I will be traveling to her village in the morning to turn in her quest, sell off excess Pukei-Pukei parts, and obtain actual arms for later hunts. By tomorrow, she will be a fully licensed Slayer (their terminology for a Hunter) and I, for the first time since my adolescence, will be holding an actual hunting weapon (might pick up a LBG like I did all those years ago, but that depends on the price of the gun and available material to make munitions). Also apparently you don’t need a license to hunt here, but getting one seems to provide some benefits yet to be explained to me, so I will ask about that later as well.
Anyways, the thing you’re actually here for, my analysis of the Pukei-Pukei, can be found below! Stars above I can’t wait to fall asleep, I’m so exhausted.
-Quill
Species: Pukei-Pukei
Suspected Monster Class: Bird Wyvern
Diet: Herbivorous, mostly feeding on nuts but also poisonous mushrooms and previously mentioned poison pitcher plants. Rocks were found in the Pukei’s digestive tract, which I believe were intentionally swallowed to help grind down the tougher plants in its diet.
Physical Appearance: The Pukei-Pukei is bipedal, with a foot structure akin to that of birds; three front toes and one on the opposite side. It has a large pair of tough, fleshy wings that make up most of the creature’s width, a long, incredibly flexible tail that’s hollow, and an equally long, sticky, purple tongue. The Pukei-Pukei’s head structure is reminiscent of frogs or toads, especially with its gaping jaw, lack of teeth, cavernous gullet, and aforementioned tongue. The wyvern’s body is generally covered in green scales, with several bumps running down its length. Its wing-tips, neck, and head, however, have their scales buried under emerald-colored feathers. Interestingly, when enraged, these feathers shift and bristle to make its plumage appear red, revealing that the feathers have other colorations closer to their bases.
Unique Features/Abilities: The Pukei-Pukei’s most distinctive features are its poisonous bodily products, taking the form of a viscous purple fluid when ejected from its mouth and a cloud of violet mist when released from its tail. According to the dissection, both of these outputs come from the same poison-storing organ, though the tail has an additional gas-sack to assist in aerosolizing the substance. Its poison seems more potent when ingested or breathed in, but contact with a person’s skin or scales can still cause one to become afflicted.
Behavior: Pukei-Pukei seem to derive a certain joy from toying with smaller or weaker creatures, using them like playthings to throw around and torment before crushing them underfoot. This behavior is strange for a creature that’s strictly herbivorous, as those targeted by the bullying are harmless at best and mild nuisances at worst, thus the Monster gains very little benefit from this. In contrast to the above, unless otherwise enraged, Pukei-Pukei will attempt to flee if a target of their bullying fights back with too much bite or if a greater threat approaches.
Notes:
One Monster documented, and many, many more to go!
Guest (Guest) on Chapter 2 Fri 25 Jul 2025 09:54AM UTC
Comment Actions
Built_of_bones on Chapter 2 Fri 25 Jul 2025 04:32PM UTC
Comment Actions
Farleur (Guest) on Chapter 4 Mon 22 Sep 2025 04:02PM UTC
Comment Actions
Built_of_bones on Chapter 4 Mon 22 Sep 2025 09:29PM UTC
Comment Actions
Regal_Eagle on Chapter 5 Tue 23 Sep 2025 07:03AM UTC
Comment Actions
Built_of_bones on Chapter 5 Tue 23 Sep 2025 05:40PM UTC
Comment Actions
Regal_Eagle on Chapter 5 Wed 24 Sep 2025 07:49AM UTC
Comment Actions