The forest outside the cave wasn't much brighter that inside. The trees were rather large and their foliage made sure not much light made it to ground level.

Manisha advanced cautiously, her senses alert for signs of danger...

There didn't seem to be any danger around. All you seem to sense are the normal forest animals you'd expect to be living around here.

Well, that was fine.  Manisha followed the lead of the kobolds as they foraged, looking out for possible threats.  Including things like bears.  Did this place have bears?  Manisha was fairly sure that she could take down a bear.

You did see a grizzly exit a cave about a hundred meters to the right of yours.

"There's a bear that way," said Manisha.  "Do you want some fresh meat and fur?"

"If you wish, new god," Biter said.

"Well, it's for all of you... and me too, I guess," said Manisha, and she went to go find the bear.  Besides, she really ought to test out what her new body could do.

The bear was drinking from a near by stream.

Manisha slithered up to it.

"...Well, bear," she said, "what's the word here?  Are you a danger?  Are you prey?"

The bear turned around and regarded you, seemingly unsure of how to react.

She moved closer.  She wasn't quite ready to just attack a bear out of the blue, but it would probably be pretty dangerous to her kobolds...

The bear moved towards you, while sniffing.

Manisha also advanced, ready to strike.  But if there was something else going on here, well, she'd see if it was going to happen.

...but she'd know if it was some kind of magic bear, at least.  She didn't know how she knew that, but she did.

The bear tilted its head, looking at you.

"Well, bear," said Manisha, advancing.  "It's like this.  I can't have you eat my kobolds.  And you might, because they're a great size for you to eat.  If we can discuss this, speak up now.  Otherwise, I'm afraid that you're both a threat and a potential food source for me and my little ones..."

The bear gave you a confused look.

"...You are really the least aggressive grizzly bear that I have ever heard of," said Manisha, moving up to it.  "You're making this hard on me, you know."

"Kill the kobolds!" a scratchy voice shouted a distance from where you were, near the cave.

"It's your lucky day, bear," said Manisha, and she sped off in the direction of that voice.

A group of goblins were rushing towards the cave.

Manisha fell upon them like a thunderstorm, spraying them with bolts of lightning!

Using Multiattack to attack the first four: 16 Attack, Damage 10

The goblins fell, their skin charred.

"Ah! The have Snake-Human!" one of the goblins shouted. "Kill her."

The goblins attacked, but you were able to deflect their weapons.

Blades appeared in Manisha's hands, and she lashed out at the goblins, who were apparently determined to fight, and would now suffer for it.

[ooc]Multiattack for Area on 5 Goblins... and it's a crit, so I think that's five more goblins down.[/ooc]

The goblins were indeed dead. The remaining ones looked from the bodies to you and back again.

"Run away!" one of the goblins shouted and the rest did.

Manisha tossed several blades of ice after them as they fled.  Better to remind them why they were running...

...and then she hurried to look after her kobolds.  Hopefully the goblins hadn't made it far.

The kobolds had a defensive line around the mouth of the cave.

"I routed the goblins," said Manisha.  "Is everyone all right?"

"Yes, thank you, new god," one of the kobolds said.

"It's what I do now," said Manisha.  "So what do you normally do with fallen foes?  Take their weapons?  Leaving the fallen there doesn't seem like a good idea..."

"We loot the bodies and then they go in slime pit," the kobold said.

Manisha nodded.  That seemed reasonable enough.

"All right," she said.  "Well, there's some of them out there now, so enjoy the loot."

"Thank you, new god," the kobold said, bowing down respectfully .

Manisha considered, and nodded.

"You're welcome," she said.  "Were you able to gather some healing herbs?"

"Not many, the attack kind of ended the search," the kobold said.

"Understandable," said Manisha.  "Let's gather food for now, then, and we can look for herbs tomorrow."

"What do you want to do about the bear, new god?" the kobold asked.

"It's a strange bear," said Manisha.  "I will go with you.  I'll protect you, and if we come across the bear, I'll deal with it... but I wonder why it didn't do anything when I approached.  A bear like that should have done something."

"It could be an awakened bear," the kobold said.

"A smart bear?" said Manisha.  "That's... interesting.  Well, if it shows up again, I'll see if I can reason with it."

"New god! New god!" on of the kobolds a couple hundred yards away shouted. "I found something."

"Show me," said Manisha, rapidly moving in that direction.

The kobold was pointing to a fancy greatsword leaning against a tree.

Manisha approached it, checking to see if it was magic.  Or if there was some kind of magic trap around it...

It did indeed seem to be magical, with no magical traps around it.

Well, then.  She went to pick it up.

You now have (another) magical sword.

Manisha swung it experimentally to see what it was, and get a feel for it.

It felt light for how big it was.

Interesting... or was that just her strength?  She tucked the sword away as best she could and went back to the others.

"Did you see where the sword came from?" she asked.  "It's a good sword.  I wouldn't think that someone would just leave it out here."

"Dunno," the kobold said. "There's some bones here!"

Indeed there was, there was part of a humanoid skeleton scattered on the ground.

"...I wonder if this was your sword?" she said to the bones.  "If so, thank you for the sword.  I'll take care of it."

"I wonder f there's any marrow left," the kobold said, cracking open one of the bones. "Nope."

"Nah, long dead," said Manisha, trying to not think about the implications.  "Let's go looking for some food and medicine."

"Right, new god!" the kobold said and hurried off to look.

Manisha stayed close to the center of the foraging kobolds.  She'd see what else was out here...

The kobolds were gathering mostly berries, nuts and herbs with the occasional root. You haven't seen anything that could be dangerous, just small animals and birds.

That was fine.  Just for practice, she tried bringing down larger birds when she spotted them.

(OOC: Give me three attack rolls or anything else you can justify to see how you do.)

18:55, Today: Manisha Kubo rolled 22,27,27 using d20+10,d20+10,d20+10 ((12,17,17)

You manage to take down three of them.

She passed them on to the kobolds, and continued to oversee them, trying to survey the area and get a feel for it.

The trees were pretty spaced out, the area around the road was rather flat, but the forest had several large hills.

Manisha took a moment to look over the road more.  She knew it was going to be important one way or another; she might as well try to get a feel for it now, and see if she could figure out anything about the people who used it.  Or how much it was used at all...

The road was rather wide and looked well maintain, it clearly gets a lot of traffic in the day-light hours.

That could be significant, especially if her hopes of establishing some kind of peaceful trade with the local human-types were going to see fruition.  She looked around the road a little more; if nothing else came up, she headed back to her kobolds.

There were a few small animals investigating, probably seeing if the travellers dropped any food.

Well, that wasn't a big deal.  If any looked particularly fat, though, she threw a quick bolt their way.  More food for her kobolds was good.

You managed to bring down a couple fat squirrels.

She brought them along as she returned to the kobolds.

"So, what success?" she asked.

"We found all the healing herbs we could," the kobold said. "We got some good food too."

"Good," said Manisha.  "I brought food as well-- meat, to help the children to grow strong.  There should be guards set to watch the entryway, and maybe the road, so that no one comes on us by surprise."

"Beyond the cave, new god?" the kobold asked.

"At least the entryway to the cave," said Manisha.  "We'll see about the road later."

"We often have one, new god," the kobold said.

"Good," said Manisha.  "Well, let's eat.  I want to see how you cook."

It had crossed her mind that she could use her magic to improve things in this life for them, but she'd have to do it carefully.

You ended up back at the M cave.

"I'll go ahead first," said Manisha.  She cautiously advanced, her new sword in hand, feeling for magical threats.

There was no sign of the magic having come back. Just the gems you had found earlier that boost endurance.

"Come on in," Manisha called.  "Looks safe for now, at least."

"Many of the larger folks had died here," Biter said. "Something foul had turned them into the twiceliving."

"Yes, that was here," said Manisha.  "I destroyed it."

"Then you seem to want us to move in here," Biter said.

"Or at least mine here," said Manisha.  "The gold could be traded for many things you desire."

"We could, yes. I do have concerns from the human part of this," Biter said.

"The human part?" asked Manisha.  "Tell me, then, by all means."

"They are very dangerous," Biter said. "They frighten easily."

"I suppose they do," said Manisha.  "But then, they are greedy.  That leads them to take tings by force, but trade is still quite possible.  Especially given my strength."

"Very well, new god. We will try," Biter said.

"Now, don't worry about dealing with the humans at first," said Manisha.  "I'll do that.  I don't want to put you in danger if they're greedy."

Biter nodded.

"...I'll create the tools here," said Manisha, using her power to do so.  "Then you won't need to carry them here."

"Thank you, new god," Biter said.

"Let's go tell the others, then," said Manisha, heading back to the Kobold cave.