Monster Troubles
"Alright...what do we have here?" Fluttershy looked on with great confusion at the scene before her, as dozens of villagers were all panicking in the streets. The village was in chaos right now, with homes having been, from the looks of things, completely smashed. What caused this, Fluttershy didn't know, but she knew they were in trouble, and so began to walk into the place. Naturally, as a Goddess, it took little time at all for the locals to recognise that it was her gracing them with her presence. But in spite of all the bows and people falling to their knees in reverence, the Lady of Nature kept her gaze forward, looking around for anyone who might be in charge here. Most of the mortals she laid eyes on were just screaming at the top of their lungs, but after a while she did spot someone who was talking with other older villagers. Walking close to them, she cleared her throat, and as they looked to her, she smiled to them. "I believe some of you were praying for help?"
As expected, they too got to their knees, their hands clasped together in a gesture of the very prayers she'd spoken of. But it was again the eldest she kept her eyes on, who now mustered up the courage to actually talk to her. "Oh! My Lady Fluttershy! Thank goodness you've come! Our people are in desperate need of your aid!"
Fluttershy got to one knee, reaching out and placing her hand gently upon the man's shoulder. "Tell me what troubles you, friend."
The elder gestured to the ruins of several nearby homes. "A beast! A beast of great and terrible size came to our village and destroyed many of what we've built here! I'd never seen the like of it! Like no creature on this good Earth! After it had wrought its terrible destruction, it left!"
The Goddess glanced around, seeing what were undoubtedly tracks in the ground, leading off far away from the place. "Do you know where it was going?"
The elder nodded frantically. "We think it went to the great forest. To the West! I fear it may return to finish us!"
To that, Fluttershy smiled, which the elder took for the reassuring gesture that it was. "Fear not. I will go to this place and look upon this beast with my own eyes. Fret not, my good fellow. Your village will not be threatened by this creature again. You have the word of the Goddess Fluttershy." Her promise was met with kowtows and grovelling from all of the assembled villagers, as was expected, and as she stood tall once more, brushing herself off from her prior kneeling, she began her stroll in the direction of the creature. None followed her, their faith in her abilities as strong as could be. Fluttershy herself was also confident, and her eyes never left that direction. "A great beast then? I would very much like to see it." On and on she walked, for what seemed like hours, until she finally arrived at where the elder had spoken of. A vast forested land, stretching from horizon to horizon, giving her a moment of pause. "Hmmm, a 'great' forest indeed," she giggled.
As a Goddess of nature, she had no difficulty entering the place. Trees bent out of her way, predators of every stripe bowed like her own followers, and all around the plants and creatures of the world gave her deference and passage as she desired. She smiled to each and every one of them, bringing herself more and more into the heart of the forest. Eventually, she sensed a clearing, and a mass of life within it. With her expression becoming more serious, she finally entered into that open space, with her gaze drifting upwards when she saw the one who dwelt here. "Oh my...you certainly are a big one, aren't you?"
The creature was indeed massive in size, at least the size of her largest temple. Were one to look upon it for the first time, they might be mistaken for thinking that it was simply an enormous lion. But look past the face and head and it became clear that there was a multitude of different animals mixed in with this life. The shell of a tortoise, the long tail of a scorpion, the legs of a bear, it was as if someone had come along and taken whatever parts of well-known dangerous animals they could think of and just mashed them together. He was definitely a sight, that much was certain, yet Fluttershy felt no fear towards it, stepping forward slowly. After a few steps however, a single eye snapped open, and a low growl was heard. But even in the face of this clear and present danger, Fluttershy smiled. "Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you."
The beast stirred, getting up from its slumber to loom large over the Goddess before him. And it was at this point when her nature became known to him, as it simply took one sniff of the air to realise that it was not dealing with an ordinary human. Finally recognising that a Goddess stood before him, the beast began to whimper, bringing its head to the ground, almost like a dog when it was whining. Stretching out her hand, Fluttershy stroked its nose. "There, there, it's alright. We're all friends here." She paused, then spoke a touch more seriously than before. "Now, what's all this about you attacking that village across the way? Did they do anything to you?" The beast started to look guilty, and growled again. But of course, it couldn't actually speak to her, so instead, it took only actions. It lifted its front-left paw, prompting Fluttershy to look at it, and as she watched it turn it palm-upwards, she sighed. "Oh...I see."
In the classic fashion, there was a thorn there. Oh, it might have appeared tiny to the casual observer, but it was clearly causing the creature a great deal of anguish, as shown by the pained look it bore. Fluttershy placed her hand upon that paw, smiling again to him. "Don't worry. I'm not angry with you. You were just lashing out in pain, weren't you?" After seeing it give a single nod, she continued. "Well, nobody got hurt. They were just frightened. Trust me, we can get this whole mess sorted out. But first..." She looked again to the thorn, reaching out and putting her hand upon it. "Now...this is going to hurt, but we have no other choice." The beast winced ahead of time, and Fluttershy, with an almighty pull, wrenched the thorn from the paw. As expected, there was a loud bellow as the beast unleashed its pain from the experience all across the area. So great was that roar that the very forest seemed to shudder with it. Fluttershy watched as the giant immediately licked its now thorn-free paw, clasping her hands together as she did so. "How do you feel?"
Her new friend continued to lick the spot where the thorn had been, but afterwards it slowly lifted its gaze to meet hers. There was a tense moment, but in the end, it smiled, its massive razor-sharp fangs glistening as a result. Leaning forward, it began to affectionately lick her, causing the Goddess to giggle. "Okay, okay, I love you too. Now..." She raised a finger to him, looking and sounding a bit more stern. "We need to go on back to the village, and you need to apologise for having smashed their houses, okay?" As the beast hung its head, Fluttershy smiled again. "Don't worry, everything will be fine. I'll explain everything to the villagers, and then we can all get together for a nice spot of tea afterwards." The animal perked up immensely after that, wagging its scorpion tail in the same manner that a happy dog might do. Fluttershy, letting loose another giggle, gave a nod to him. "Alright then, friend. Let's go."
And go they did, walking the exact same path Fluttershy had taken to get here in the first place. But of course, with such a massive companion, it was as if an earthquake was accompanying her, as every step made the earth shake. But she was unconcerned, for she knew the matter was resolved now. Eventually, she and the beast looked upon the village once more, and could even see several of the villagers starting to put their houses back in order. Fluttershy's smile widened, and she upped her pace, eventually reaching the borders of the settlement. Soon, eyes turned towards her, and while they were naturally glad to see their Goddess return, they were slightly less enthusiastic about the guest she'd brought with her, whom they now looked at with stunned silence. Fluttershy, clearing her throat, began to speak in the usual calm and authoritative tone of the Goddesses of this world. "May I have your attention please? It will please you to learn that I have resolved the problem that was giving this wonderful animal such a difficult time. Believe me when I say that he will no longer bother you, and..."
"SHE'S SUBDUED THE BEAST!!! KILL IT!!!" one villager cried out.
"Wait, what?!" Fluttershy remarked. But before she could do anything, she watched as dozens, if not hundreds of arrows flew overhead, going right behind her and, as she probably knew, into her new friend. There was a pause, and before long there was an earth-shaking thud right behind her, then silence. She stood utterly still, knowing full well what had just happened, and her expression was utterly blank, as if trying to comprehend her own thoughts over this unexpected turn.
As she did this, the village elder began to walk to her, bow in hand, with a satisfied smile on his face. "Thank you so much, my Lady! Without you we'd have never been able to do that!"
Fluttershy closed her eyes, then took in a deep breath, after which was an equally-deep exhale. Then, as she finally opened her eyes again, she looked the village elder with a firm stare. "Sir?"
"Um...yes, my Lady?"
"I suggest you and your villagers vacate the immediate area...rather swiftly."
"...Why?"
"Because in less than a minute, this entire place is going to become a smoking crater as a result of the immense rage that is about to be unleashed by me over the unnecessary death of a creature that I considered a friend."
"...I'll give the evacuation order."
With her face still expressionless, Fluttershy gave a single nod. "Good man."
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I'm guessing this is the terrasque, and fluttershy acting as saint Martha? Really cool to see someone using the original creature!
They all fucked up....
That may be the smartest decision you've ever made.
YEOW! I don't blame Fluttershy one bit for that reaction. She went to all that trouble to resolve the matter peacefully and the jerks in the village went and snafued the whole thing by being a bunch of violent, ignorant, trigger happy pieces of manure. So, yeah, killing that terrasque unnecessarily - yikes. They should be grateful that Flutters was nice enough to give ANY warning AT ALL. That's certainly better than them.
Anyway, despite my mixed feelings on the chapter itself, I have to say you did, once again, do a really good job on the exchanges and characterizations.
Those bastards! Those evil bastards! How could they do this? That ending was really dark.
The original tarrasque? Well, if mortal Fluttershy wrangled a manticore with a little kindness, this certainly works as a divine step up.
Oh dear. I know how this one usually goes.
Yeah, best case scenario, the forest will consume this town and never let it go. Worst case, Fluttershy's fury will birth something that makes the tarrasque look like a grumpy kitten in comparison.
Yeah, I knew how this was going to turn out. Had hoped that it wouldn't, but oh well...
You know you dun goofed when Fluttershy decides to smite your village.
If this was a tarrasque, there's no way any number of ordinary arrows should have been able to kill it. The thing has an AC in the mid 30's, over 800 HP with Damage Reduction 15 that can only be bypassed by Epic weapons, and Fast Healing 40/round,
A regular longbow does 1D8 damage, which wouldn't even get past DR, and it's unlikely anyone in that villiage has an attack bouns high enough to match it's AC in the first place. A composite longbow, assuming these guys even had them, can add maybe 3 or 4 to the damage. law of averages say 1 in 20 shots will hit regardless, because natural 20, and x3 critical for 1D8 means 40% of the time they can actually do enough damage to get some past it's ludicrous DR. So one in 50 arrows would do a maximum of 9 points of damage, or an average of 4.5. Which would be soaked by it's insane regeneration. 9 critical hits doing enough damege hitting simultaneously every round would be needed to even scratch it (a cumulative total of 40.5 damage/ round).
So 450 skilled bowmen shooting continuously would do a average of 0.5 HP a round. To kill it would therefore require 1600 rounds or 2 hours and 40 minutes (800 if they're at least level 6 and get a second shot) and 720000 arrows.
10107997
Holy crap. And I thought I knew my D&D stats.
10107235
Who’s to say the villagers will try and pin the blame on her for being “an ungrateful bitchy whorish slut” due to being too nice to every creature, only for Flutters to show them her darker side by forcefully turning them all into monsters? Other than that, who’s to say that the Tarasque is really playing dead?
Meanwhile far far away from the village a man by the name of Ponyboy Bob Bo Jenetery cast his line back into the waters and smiled "Wonda if dose dere idgeeits managed to talk the goddess into killin that dere beast" he mused aloud to himself then after a pause shook his head "Nah now that ah think bout it deres no way they would. Ah bet she brings if back ta talk and they kills it en makes her madder then a bull on meat day!" he laughed at his own imagined wit then added "Good thing ah left the villager yesterday, Ah did try en warn em, but nooo, no one ever listens to the crazy red neck"
(Lol I have no idea how I thought this up)
.....IDIOTS.
Okay, probably going to get flamed and downvoted into oblivion for this, but just hear me out first. I know it's easy to say 'oh, those dumb villagers,' but taking a serious look at the whole situation, it's more fair to say everyone has blame in this.
First, thetarrasque. I know we're going for the old 'thorn in the lion's paw' cliché and maybe a throwback to the manticore, but there's an important detail missed. In both those cases, the creature was acting more aggressive against creatures within their territory. Travelers on the road, hunters, etc. They didn't leave their territory actively seeking out fights with others. This would have made more sense if they were suffering from an infected wound, a fever, or some other malady interfering with better judgements. Heck, making it an arrow from a panicked hunter instead of thorn would have made more sense for it to traced back to the village for the 'stupid villagers' theme.
There is, of course, the villagers. Civilization or not, people tend to be pretty panicky animals at their core when you take away comforts and put them in a bad spot. That doesn't cover for the fact that they acted first in the presence of a goddess. Not a saint or a hero, goddess. In any pantheon, mortals always stop what they're doing, good or bad, when a god is on deck. Regardless of whether it's some sort of programming or just the idea 'no idea what they want. Best to wait until they say something.' Anything else is suicide.
Lastly, Fluttershy. In a way, she might be the most to blame here. "How can you say that, Stargazer?!!" you might ask. "this pantheon has been the opposite of the Greeks and she is even the nicer of the lot." Easy. Divine disconnect. Like all the others, she keeps forgetting little things about her followers. Like death. And their constant fear of the threat of it and their reactions to it. Even then, her experience with animals should have cued her in onto what would happen. She knows all about how animals react after things like being injured, sick, or losing their home. She should have been the first to think "Oh, yeah. They're probably still in 'we all gonna die' mode. They might react badly if I just waltz up with the creature that put them in that state to begin with. Wait here in the tree line while I talk them down." Like she basically did with the tarrasque earlier.
Sorry if it seems naggy
. I love this story, but little details that don't seem mesh tend to bug me
.
10109550
Yeah, I kind of felt a little similar. The monster wrecked the village. Of COURSE they'd still be on edge.
One reason id never like pantheon gods, the mortals had every right to be afraid of it. There was no reason they shouldn't have killed it. Now, they didn't know it was in pain and didn't do it on purpose but it still destroyed homes of people. Now fluttershy is just gonna ruin more lives by forcing them to leave.
10109550
nah that was a based take