222 Chapter Two Hundred and Twenty-Two – Zone Montage#4 - Monkeyshines (1/2)
”Good morning, elder,” I greeted him, looking him right in the eyes as he inhaled and found absolutely no trace of fear on me, which to a big thing facing a small thing would be very strange, indeed. ”Me and my friends are simply traversing your territory, moving from one area to the next. We have no intentions of claiming your land, disturbing your people, eating your food, killing your prey, or taking what is yours. If we may but pass in peace, we shall leave and disturb you no further.”
He stared at me, grunting, but couldn't find anything suspicious about me. He pointed and huffed and grunted.
”We killed a lot of the drac-bloods.” I pointed up, and his eyes turned to where the dragon and griffon riders were circling overhead. ”They are our friends, and waiting for us to move along. They have no intention of swooping down and preying on your people.” I leaned forwards. ”They've been getting stuffed on drac-blood meat and are getting kind of picky...”
The behemoth of an ape hurfed under his breath, baring his teeth.
”Yeah, Mire Drac-bloods taste horrible, there's no accounting for taste,” I agreed. ”So, how about it? Can we just sidle through, no need to fight? We'll be out of your fur in no time.”
He waved a tree trunk of an arm, paws definitely big enough to wrap around me twice, gesturing up on the sky. I looked up to the Wake punching through the brooding clouds, pausing above us.
”Oh, that's the world outside. We're going to break the grip of the Hags on this place. We already knocked over one of their Obelisks... we're going to collapse them all and kill them.”
His amazed huff blew me back five feet in the air, like wind in a sail. ”Well, if it was easy, I wouldn't need to bring friends along now, would I? You want us to show you some of our skulls? It's been a long trip, and we've still got a ways to go.”
He sufficed for sniffing me all over, then bounding up and sniffing over Briggs and AA, moving down the line to inspect members of all the different races... who didn't have Vajra to clean themselves up like we did. He could smell the blood of a whole lot of things on us.
They all watched me handling this multi-ton ape with amusement. I really wasn't afraid of the big fellow. If things got violent, well, we'd be trying monkey...
He was getting a bit excited, calling out and stirring up the apes all around as he identified who we fought.
I watched him bound away, and several older apes who were actually wearing necklaces of crude beads and bearing carved staves came out to meet him. They immediately got into a hooting and jabbering raucous discussion with great animation.
I fell back down to ground level as Briggs and AA stepped up, and everyone waited patiently. The Whiskers of the Wild on my face were glowing slightly, and I had no trouble understanding any of them.
”I think the big guy wants to help,” I murmured to them, lifting their eyebrows. ”It sounds like he's seen the Obelisks, and they know there's bad magic involved with them.”
”We should tell them what's going to happen if we succeed. That elder of theirs can probably save them without much thought.”
”Yeah, that's what I thought.” I screwed up my face. ”If so, we're going to have to figure out a way to bring him with us, or he'll slow us down.”
”What, Kong's cousins aren't built for marathons? Who would have thunk it?” Briggs was pretty amused, despite himself. ”And okay, I give, you were right.”
I sniffed at him. ”You and him are gonna be buds. What pattern you want?”
”Hrm.” He looked around. ”I was thinking mandrill.”
I lifted an eyebrow. ”Interesting...”
”There's mountain apes back home in the tribe. We get along pretty well with them. Not quite as bright as these fellows, though...”
”Yeah, if they stick with us, they'll be completely ruined,” I admitted cheerfully. ”Haul could hold him, but we'd need to build him something to stand on, he's too big.”
”Which would probably bend under his weight.”
”Sixteen tons capacity. He probably masses ten or so?”
”So there's some room. He's gonna have to eat, though...”
”Like we haven't been passing by boundless light snacks for him...”
”True, I don't want to have to feed him a ton of bananas a day or whatever.”
”Tusks. Canine teeth. Him ape, ape omnivore.”
”Think he'd like a pair of battlefists?”
”If he can tolerate some armor, he'd be a great line breaker. And shouldn't a big monkey have a stick?”
”I think we have plans for the little fellow...”
”I'll boost his Int with a Mark. That should get him to around human average, at least.”
”Just make sure they know to stick to their elder when things start going wrong...”
”This whole zone is probably 'close to their elder'. I don't think it will be a problem.”
”Good enough for me.”
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Author's Notes:
The toughest basic gorilla in D&D. And then you template him... Yes, he can straight up butcher a T-Rex in not much time at all...
King Kong from the 2005 Peter Jackson movie is about the size of a primordal gorilla. The most abusable thing is, of course, that he has 21 Hit Dice, which means he can reach post-Twenty in Skill Ranks... and take Legendary Feats...
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Taking a day off and having a feast of fruits and nuts with the intelligent apes wasn't a waste of time, especially when you have a few dozen helpers assisting you with making a pair of battlefists for a twenty-foot gorilla.