The hunting grounds

This is something I was planning to use, then I realized I might as well share it. It provides an illusion of safety, tough to get anywhere else in Felarya; you might enjoy the sound of it shattering. If anyone wants to do some level grinding, here's where. Level grinding in the illusion of safety... is this giving you any ideas?


The Hunting Grounds

Danger: Low

The barrier that the Nekomura eye creates is actually spread thinner than the one created by the Isolon Eye, for reasons not yet fully understood (and since studying the crystal would mean turning it off to take it apart, inhabitants of Nekomura prefer it to stay that way). Outside of the limits of Nekomura proper, there's a wide swath of land that's also protected by the Eye. Safe from all the great predators, lesser predators thrive in this wide swath of forest, reaching up to 15 miles away from the eye (and since Nekomura barely occupies the first five, this still leaves a pretty large area).

These woods are full of predatorial creatures that, despite their relatively small size and voracity, are nothing to ignore. Aside from a relative abundance of mundane creatures such as panthers, bears, and predatory lizards, this place hosts some hybrids such as gryphons. The only great predators that can be reliably found here are dryads which the eye doesn't keep out (You show a tree a "no trespassing" sign and we'll see how far you get), but they'll usually hide from any fair-sized hunting party. Probably due to the influence of the Eye, all creatures there have developed some degree of magic resistance to boot.

Hunters are quite common here; these creatures are still in the size range where man-sized weaponry can slay them, and the sport is good, serving as a testing or proving ground to many groups. But there IS a catch. As one progresses farther from the Eye, the relative differences between any two predators begin to matter. One could very well be safe from a specific, horribly voracious fairy, yet a particularly magic resistant naga of man-eating size might just stroll in unadaunted, eat the hunter, and leave its merry way. Besides, the intensity of the protection at any given point varies over time, so it's possible that the aforementioned fairy might suddenly be able to swoop in for a kill! Finally, there's no real way to know your distance from the Eye, so you could stroll out of the protected area and only suspect it when you suddenly wonder what happened to all the small game. That's a common cause of death here: someone put signs marking where the safe zone ends, but for mysterious reasons most of them quickly went missing.

All in all, the area is quite lacking in great predators, and abundant in the creatures whose numbers they keep in check. This doesn't make it less dangerous, but for those crossing quickly, the danger might pass unnoticed.

That's a surprisingly good idea. It makes sense for the Nekos of Nekomura to have a common hunting ground. All in all, it's well thought, except the whole Dryad and all, I think it makes no sense, and I approve of this idea.

that's a funny idea indeed, it reminds me of the low level zones you can find around starting locations in MMORPG games

It's both logical and quite amusing.

Sean Okotami wrote:

That's a surprisingly good idea. It makes sense for the Nekos of Nekomura to have a common hunting ground. All in all, it's well thought, except the whole Dryad and all, I think it makes no sense, and I approve of this idea.

You mean the eye keeps out dryads? I thought it couldn't repel things that were nailed down.

Well, if it's too big and alive, I think it would be affected and if the nekos knew that Dryads are there, I'm positive they'd have sicced a fire mage at it a while ago.