• Solo • Stringing Her Along...

Qit'ria finds a use for Dogbane

From Tried's Mouth to the mysterious Tower, the waters around Scalvoris and the island itself hold a vast array of secrets, just ripe for discovery. Here are landmarks, jungles, mountains, forests and islands of note.

Moderators: Pegasus Pug!!!, Avalon

User avatar
Qit'ria
Approved Character
Posts: 812
Joined: Mon Sep 18, 2017 1:58 am
Race: Undead (Ghost)
Profession: Huntsman
Renown: 344
Character Sheet
Plot Notes
Personal Journal
Templates
Point Bank Thread
Wealth Tier: Tier 5

Contribution

Milestones

RP Medals

Miscellaneous

Stringing Her Along...

.
.
Image
Vhalar 62nd, 717
"Common Speech"
"Xanthean Speech"


Immediately following this thread...

Hunger sated, Qit sat there against her wagon wheel, simply listening to the relaxing peace of the forest. Her forest. She sat there thinking about the rest of her project. She'd need two more things. A handle, and a means to attach the axe head to the handle. She had her rope, several long coils of it, but that was far too thick to bother with. And that was good, solid rope, no need to use it unless she absolutely needed to do so. But perhaps she could make her own rope. Thinner rope, better suited for a smaller tool like the hatchet she was building.

Pulling herself up, Qit began wondering what fibrous plants she could find in this forest. Her mother knew so many, from using the fur of a type of hare, to the fresh fibrous bark in a certain tree. But Qit was looking for some woody plants that would be more readily abundant. She could use those other ones later if need be, but she didn't have the tools or time to dedicate to them.

Qit slipped into the tree line once more, always purposefully avoiding the clearing that would become her decoy camp. The Sev'ryn woman moved slowly through wood, eyes scanning the low-lying brush for the types of plants that gave what she sought. A full break of slow, arduous searching southward from her camp, she came upon another small clearing. This one wasn't a true clearing, for it was caused by being surrounded by especially tall trees. Their branches shielded it from direct sun, but still plenty came through. And there in the center were several grey and brown woody plants, devoid of leaves and flowers.

Qit'ria crept closer, looking around as she stepped into the exposed clearing. She took it all in, and found this area to be a bit odd. The ground was all stirred up, broken into chunks and small mounds, like something had been digging or rooting around in here. But not recently. A while ago. The soil chunks were covered in small growth, moss and the like. And standing in the center of this disturbed soil was a plant she recognized now that she was up close. Her mother had pointed it out to her back as a child. It was called Dogbane, because supposedly it was extremely poisonous to dogs.

Qit reached out and broke off the top of one of the seemingly dead plants and saw some of the stringy fibers hanging out. Perfect. She popped the stick in her mouth to chew on as she set to work. Kneeling down, she broke the thin plants right above their roots with a simple snap of the fingers. She noticed that the grey plants, ones that were dead longer than the brown ones, had brittle fibers that seemed to just fall apart. So she avoided those, and stuck to the browns.

One she had a large bundle of the woody plant, she carried them over with her, and sat with her back against a tree, and set to work. Setting the pile to her right, she picked up the first plant, and pulled off the fluff filled seed pods setting them to her left. She'd save those, they made excellent fire starting tinder. She removed any remaining dead leaves, and tossed away out in front of her. She broke the branches off, keeping them as they also contained the fibers she sought.

Leaning forward, straddling one of the large roots from the tree she sat upon, she pressed the stem of the plant against the wood. Using her thumbs, she flattened it against the wood, causing it to split and crack in half. She did this along the entire length of the stick until she had two long halves. Then starting at one end, she snapped the woody half, and deposited the woody core. She worked her way up the stem an inch at a time, snapping and breaking and separating the fiber from the cores.

It was slow work, taking well over a break to work through the entire bundle of the plants, but soon she had three sizable piles about her. To her left, her tinder pile, made of the seed pods and woody cores, her right, long strands of the stringy fiber. In front of her was the discarded leaves and debris from the plants. Now she needed to tenderize the fibers, and then she could finally make her cords. She sat back, taking a small break, and once more, disappearing into her listening to the sounds of her forest.

Word Count: (767/767)
Created by Yolande
.
.
word count: 792
User avatar
Qit'ria
Approved Character
Posts: 812
Joined: Mon Sep 18, 2017 1:58 am
Race: Undead (Ghost)
Profession: Huntsman
Renown: 344
Character Sheet
Plot Notes
Personal Journal
Templates
Point Bank Thread
Wealth Tier: Tier 5

Contribution

Milestones

RP Medals

Miscellaneous

Stringing Her Along...

Qit'ria spit out some of the splinters she'd accrued from mindlessly chewing on the twig. She picked up the the pile of dogbane fibers and heaped them into her lap. PIcking up one of the ribbons, she held it before her eyes. She could see that one side, the side that had stuck to the inner core, was still covered in small amounts of the bark, whereas the central side was pristine. She'd have to remove that bit, but thankfully it was an easy enough task.

She pinched the ribbon between her thumbs and forefingers and began to grind and twist the strands. This was even slower work than the previous stage, but each inch of tenderized fibers gave her satisfaction. It turned the flat ribbons of fibers into rolled, cylindrical cordage. The bits of bark were ground down and out, and the individual strands separated a bit. And so, she chewed a bit more on the stick, and she set to work with her fingers, for she had a lot to get through.

Another break and a half and she set the cord down, her hands throbbing, her fingers stiff. She flexed and stretched them, trying to shake out the pain, and spat out the stick. That was when she noticed a pain in the inside of her cheek. Prodding at it with her tongue, she groaned a bit. There was a blister there, a painful one. Tongue searching her cheeks and such, she found a few others. Sighing, she spat out the rest of the stick debris, immediately assuming it to be caused by that. Qit gathered up her tinderpile into a small bag, and picked up her unwoven cords, and began the hike back to her camp, annoyed.

Qit stopped by her hidden cart once more, depositing her sack of tinder before skirting around the clearing, and heading northward to the river. She draped the cords over a low branch before sliding down the embankment and kneeling in the cool, refreshing water. The instant chill sent shivers through her, but she enjoyed it. Cupping her hands in the water, she scooped up the crystal clear water and slurped it up. She swished it around inside her mouth, trying to remove whatever was left of the dogbane that was poisoning her. She spat it out down stream and scooped up some more. She repeated the process several times until she was satisfied. She drank down the last bit, and sighed. She hoped the blisters were the worst of it, and she climbed back out of the shallow river.

Shaking her hands dry first, Qit grabbed her cords and leaned against the tree, overlooking the river. She didn't know the name of it, but it was peaceful, clean, calming. Taking one length of the strands, she bent it in half, gave it a half twist, and pinched the loop between two fingers. Taking the two ends now between the fingers of her right hand she held them firmly. The loop in her left hand was brought to her mouth, where she held it firmly between her teeth, though not enough to bite through it.

Her left hand then took one strand, and her right kept the other. Then she began to roll both strands, the left counter clockwise, forcing it to twist, the right clockwise. She kept them tight, and as they formed two tight twists, she switched hands with them, effectively wrapping them around each other. She had to now swap which direction she was twisting with each set of fingers. It was slow work, and several times she found herself unrolling instead of rolling, but it was an easy enough of a fix. She focused on the motions, made sure to not twist so tight as to cause kinks in the line.

As she neared the end of the strands, she began to splice in new strands, adding them in a strand at a time, to lengthen the cord, without compromising it's strength. Her fingers and forearms burned from this constant, dexterous activity, but she ignored that. Longer and longer it grew, and with the opposite twisting braids, it held itself tight. She no longer needed to hold the end in her mouth, and it laid there down her front, growing and growing until she finally ran out of dogbane strands.

Qit held up her handiwork with a weary smile. It was longer than she was tall, which meant she had plenty of extra after she finished her axe. Pleased with the results, she made her way back to the cart and deposited the cord next to her axe head. All that was left was the handle and putting it all together. Nearly done.
word count: 792
User avatar
Pash Raj'oriq
Approved Character
Posts: 1200
Joined: Fri May 05, 2017 5:31 pm
Race: Biqaj
Profession: Tankbard
Renown: 315
Character Sheet
Plot Notes
Partner
Templates
Wealth Tier: Tier 1

Featured

Contribution

Milestones

RP Medals

Miscellaneous

Events

Stringing Her Along...

Thread Rewards
You are very serious into the survival craft-ness, and I feel like Scavloris is kind of the place for it. While, yes, this was a tedious task, it wasn't a terrible read. Go Qit, go. Make the things ... one piece at a time.

Qit'ria

Points

XP:
10 | These points cannot be used for magic.

Fame:
N/A

Loot

6ft of Dogbane Cord

Injuries + Overstepping

Minor mouth blisters (should heal in a trial or two)

Knowledge

Skill Knowledge:
Resistance: Dogbane Causes Mouth Blisters
Field Craft: Dogbane seems to prefer disturbed soil
Field craft: Grey Dogbane is too old to use
Field Craft: Flatten Dogbane cores to separate out the wood
Field Craft: Rolling Dogbane fibers between finger and thumb makes more workable
Field Craft: Braiding Dogbane fibers into usable cord

Other Knowledge:
N/A
Now that your review is complete,
don’t forget go back to your review post here and drop this image in!


Image

Code: Select all

[center][img]/gallery/image.php?album_id=39&image_id=10124[/img][/center]
word count: 174
Rakahi | Rakahi Pidgin | Common | Xanthean

Because of his Competency in Empathy magic, Pash exudes an aura of calm emotion that is always "on." While it's not strong enough to overcome extreme emotions and it also loses strength the more people he's around, it's still up to you how that affects your character in whatever situation we're in. PM with questions!
[/googlefont]
Post Reply Request an XP Review Claim Wealth Thread

Return to “Surrounding Waters & Landmarks”