Previous hunt in Forum: The City of Cork Topic: The Kintapur Hunt
Fortunately for most sentient beings although kintapurs are plentiful they don't like to be seen, evidently being conscious of their extraordinary ugliness. Kintapurs are nocturnal scavenger animals with not much intelligence and an oversized appetite, weighing in at about a half stone when grown. Their faces bear long snouts with oversized sharp teeth, beady eyes and small ears. Kintapurs are not exactly known for their fashion sense. They never shed their fur, and only have the sparse coarse fur, really darkish brown bristles, have a long ratlike tail and nonretractable claws. Voracious eaters, they are also omnivores and opportunistic scavengers. However, as any farmer will tell you, they also have a taste for hen's eggs, young chicks, smaller fowl, young piglets who stray from their mother and any dead animal left unburied or unburned. Burrowing is not something they enjoy even though they can, as they are somewhat lazy and tend to be able to able to locate empty dens or lairs or make existing dens or lairs empty by driving out the former tenants. They are mammals, and seem to have at most two or three young in one breeding, and maybe as many as three breedings a year, but between the animosity the mature males hold for young males and for young not their own and their diseases, the several diseases they harbor all combine with their territoriality to tend to keep their numbers down. They live in loose family groups called plagues and can as a group be very fierce and nasty fighters. Where there are several farms in the area, there will be one or more plagues of kintapur.
Older farm animals or wildlife often die in a pasture or clearing, in an out of the way area. The carrion eaters are attracted but by night they can be easily driven off by a plague or two of Kintapurs. Kintapurs love ripe carrion. They will fight other scavengers, will even attack humans if they feel threatened. They can move fast, so if they turn to attack, toy with them if you wish, but they'll mean business. Don't take for granted that they are dead, because they can mimic being dead. Removing their head from their body is the first move you make, or else you could find yourself facing an angry wounded creature, and there are no wounded creatures more dangerous than a wounded kintapur.
As a group, they tend to travel rather quickly if there is a goad, as in toward a good ripe carrion or else toward their den after a good feed just before the sun comes up. While an individual when meeting danger will turn and run, a large group can become quite brave and attack.
Hunters are urged to advance with care and caution and remember, until their heads are removed from their body, the kintapur is dumb enough to think that it's still alive. Once they start feeding, they are pretty easy to kill, it's not so much sport then unless the hunter happens to be between them and the carcass. So, caution is advised, excessive noise is to be discouraged though whispering or talking really softly doesn't seem to bother them. Those with past experience hunting them report having seen them be killed and left to lie for an entire day, only to get up and walk away at the next sunset. Therefore, knowledgeable hunters cut the heads off the Kintapur, throw those heads away from the body, or slash their windpipes and throats, for surely if they couldn't breath they'd at least have to slow down a bit.
There are reports that sometime in the autumn, and maybe not annually, there is a large kintapur against kintapur battle, with the winning males taking as many of the losing males' females as he could. Some say as many as one to two hundred kintapurs will meet to fight it out, though those who’ve never seen it firsthand, never having seen more than one plague in an area tend to think that is a bit of a fantasy horror tale, something to scare little children with around the campfires.
Kintapur hunters should have fortitude and strength, at least two sharp long knives, wear some leg protection, at least one healing potion, some bandages, and have a backup plan. There are tales of healthy adults reduced to a constant state of incoherence by being bitten by kintapur, hunters and farmers losing a leg to a bite, and even deaths due to Kintapur bite complications.
Arkie puts up a notice on the board outside of Town Hall and in her Tavern:
NOTICE: Any interested Hunters or Adventurers
There will be a Kintapur Hunt beginning this Saturday, 30 October.
Anyone interested in participating should meet outside the TownHall an hour prior to sunset, to travel north from town about an hour, to arrive at the open field where Farmer Stonewall's horse has died. Each Hunter should have a strong stomach, leggings covering their feet up to the knees or good hide kneehigh boots, at least two sharp knives as long as the forearm, a couple of strong healing potions or spells, bandages, and a night to spend in fun and blood.
Last edited by AuroraKiye on Sat Oct 30, 2010 3:33 am, edited 1 time in total.
A troll eyed the poster and remembered the last Kintapur hunt so long ago. Had it not been for friends he might well have succumbed to the stupid prey.
Logo laughed. Calling a kintapur stupid wasn't an insult; it was simply an inalienable truth. Given his size, he could easily dispatch one or twenty, but that night had seen an invasion of apocalyptic proportion.
He would have sworn the animal's behavior changed in such numbers.
Though he never quite determined what it was, the thought itched and intrigued the elven part of him.
Since that night, Logo had gone through some changes of his own. He wanted a re-match and found the possibility offered by AuroraKiye's poster impossible to resist.
Mumbling, "Sad about the horse ol' Stonwally rode in on, though," the half-breed troll turned from the poster to make his preparations.
Patron of a more astucious criminal class
Life maybe a game, but izza onliest life imma know
Arkie has spent quite a bit of time studying the outlying area, trying to find the best bait for her Kintapur hunt. Farmer Stonewall, however, had sought HER out with a simple request: the kintapur population in his area was getting overabundant, and the animals were getting a bit too brave. There were young calves, apparently healthy, gone missing from one day to the next, and entire henhouses made bare in one night's time. With the oncoming of winter and longer nights, the kintapurs' appetites and hunting sprees would grow longer and more fierce. Farmer Stonewall and several of his neighbors had heard of the previous kintapur hunt and had gathered some funds to buy several of the most powerful healing potions on the market in Cork, as a gift for the hunters. The farmers had counted at various times about six or more different plagues, and were extremely fearful that there were several that had escaped their notice.
Arkie arrives at the meeting place with several sharp longknives, her leggings and even her forearms covered, and waits in front of TownHall in anticipation. She sits on the lawn and drinks a tall hot drink, and tries to think who will show up for this hunt.
Kenneth had heard tales of Kintapurs since earliest childhood. Whether or not he had actually seen such creatures remained inconclusive. There were shadows that moved in the night and frightened rural folks -- Kintapur was only one of the nocturnal nomenclatures passed from person to person. Arkie had told him just enough to whet his curiosity concerning Kintapur hunting. It was his plan to hang back and watch the experts, learn what he could while avoiding trouble. He felt this was a good plan, and everyone knew a good plan was almost a guarantee of success!
He wore leather pants over his regular trousers. Two short swords were strapped to his back. At each hip he wore a double-headed hand axe; one head a blade sharpened for chopping, the other head blunted for bashing. A knee-length cape hanging from his shoulders obscured all the weapons -- Kenneth was loathe to display his novice attempts at armament just yet. He was used to being seen as a fool, but the initial recognition by others was always embarrassing to him.
He panted lightly as he leaned against a tree and caught his breath. He had trotted all the way here, fearful he would arrive too late. Now he checked his purse once more to assure himself he had remembered bandages and healing potions.
Shion spotted the sign Arkie had posted in the market, but sighed in regret. Samhain, a time where the fringe between the physical and spirit realms was thinnest, was tonight and tomorrow. At such times of the year, Shion tended to go a little bit insane with uncontrolled absorption of soul energy. As fun as hunting kintapurs would be, she had no wish to risk her friends. She had even gone so far as to send the kits to live with Xeno for the next two days. "Next time," she said to herself with a regretful shrug as she headed back to her den in the woods.
Had anyone been looking down the southern road, they might have noticed a shadow lumbering through the moonlight toward the kintapur-hunter's meeting place. Taller than most houses and almost as wide as the street it walked; the shadow was rounded except at the top where it tapered to a sharp but crooked point. Wobbling rhythmically, the shadow grew larger as it approached town hall.
With each step, the metallic gnash of a dragged axe blade mixed with rumbling snarls grew louder,
scrrrrrrch, "Bwa-ha-ha.... mmm..." sccccrrrh, "Mwua-ha-ha ... ummm'ssmmmm ... " scccrrrrrchrrrch, "Bwa-ha-mwa-ha..."
The shadow progressed until the fearsome visage of the sorceratroll appeared. Piercing eyes of elven blue floated under an immense pointed hat. Thick hairy arms reached from beneath billowing black robes and an axe expertly separated the last vertebrae from a now unrecognizable carcass. "mmmm... slrpp... b'UUUUrp!
Buaa-Ha Hi! AuroraKiye!
I'm really ready for the huntations this time ... ehrm ...
When do we eat?"
Patron of a more astucious criminal class
Life maybe a game, but izza onliest life imma know
Alex had spotted a notice on the town hall board while visiting her brother Arthur. Hunters she wasn’t but an adventurer she was… but what in the heck is a Kintapur Hunt she wonders as she finishes reading. Writing down the things she will need, Alex continues on to her brother’s office to visit and ask for some money. Now she is not crazy so telling her brother about the Kintapur Hunt is a no brainier leaving that out of the conversation with him especially the part about a night to spend in fun and blood. He would have a cow.
Strong stomach
Leggings covering their feet up to the knees or good hide knee-high boots
Two sharp knives as long as the forearm
A couple of strong healing potions or spells
Bandage
After an hour of being a screeching 16 year old to her brother Arthur he gave in and handed her the money to get rid of her… Alex giggles then heads to buy the items she needs.
♥ Split Personality ♥ Sorceress ♥ Priestess ♥ Little Phoenix ♥ All Magick ♥ You be mixed up too ♥
Akantha glanced at the sign and wondered if the hunt had yet begun. "Kintapur...I've never heard of such a creature." As a hunter of dangerous beasts of all kinds, Akantha decided that joining this group would prove educational. After getting directions from a local farmer, she checked her weapons and set off down the path through the forest.
Her hooded cloak bore an irregular pattern of browns and grays, seeming to shimmer and blend into the autumn foliage. An elegantly curved bow hung in a leather holster at her left side, a quiver of arrows riding across the back of her hips. Several metal bangles adorned her wrists, and a pair of narrow bone blades were strapped to her back. An amulet hung from her neck with the design of an eye radiating rays of light.
She crouched down, tracing a footprint in the dirt. Several sets of human tracks, followed by...a troll. A frown crossed her face and she stood back up. Was the troll hunting with the humans, or for them? She would find out soon enough, assuming the clearing was near.
Seeing her small group of intrepid, brave or insane hunters and adventurers, Arkie suggests that they move on to the pasture now. The moon is coming up and the sky is clear, the wind rustles the leaves but in general the temperature is brisk but not overly cool.
"I'm glad to see so many of us, though I'd hoped to see more. If everyone is ready, we can leave now. I'd think that a jaunt would move us along faster than a walk and maybe we can get into good positions before the kintapur arrive. Is everyone ready? Let's go!"
Saying this, Arkie remembers one more thing. "Logo, once we get into position, we can maybe grab a bit of food. Hopefully, everyone brought something to eat and to drink. It can be boring if they don't show up early and we do! Though last time, we were there and ready for them to arrive, this is the autumn. Their patterns and timing may have changed."
