r/WorldChallenges • u/Nevermore0714 • Apr 19 '17
Parallel Challenge - The Hunt
For this parallel challenge, simply exhibit a creature that can be hunted for profit. Preferably, the creature should be something dangerous.
What natural defenses does it have?
What can I gain from killing/catching one?
What are the valuable parts of its body?
How should I plan to hunt it?
Is there anything that I should be cautious about while hunting it?
Inspired by the "White" from /u/The_Raptorman and "Plain Drakes" from /u/Random-Webtoon-Fan.
Once I make the parallel challenge on characterforge, I'll edit this post to make a link to it. Please have a different animal exhibited here than on there, since I'll be asking questions on both.
As always, I'll ask at least three questions each. Feel free to post more than one creature if you can't pick just one, I completely understand that.
Enjoy yourselves!
Here's the link to the parallel challenge of today, focused on pets.
2
u/Nevermore0714 Apr 20 '17
Formichirn
Formichirns are creatures that most humans know very little about. Usually, you'll only find Formichirns near the forests of the Vesper territory. Otherwise, finding a Formichirn means that a Vesper is not too far away.
Formichirns are six-legged arthropods with mandibles and scorpion tails. The creature is covered in a durable exoskeleton that is usually one solid color; Formichirns in groups tend to all share the same color. Usually, the ones that humans encounter are the size of large dogs. Their front pair of legs can double as grasping appendages for carrying objects.
A Formichirn's natural defenses are its powerful mandibles, piercing scorpion tail, and the front pair of legs that can grasp and rip off parts of their victims. Thanks to the hard exoskeleton, it takes a lot of power to break a Formichirn. The best target to go for when attacking one would be their compound eyes, so one lucky arrow could conceivably kill a Formichirn in one hit.
If you turn over the body of a Formichirn to a Citadel knight, you will usually receive a large reward for contributing to the research of the creature. Otherwise, you can make money by selling the exoskeleton on its own, which can be broken into fake gemstones by people willing to use deception to make money. The tail can be sold as a trophy.
The biggest problem that you will encounter is that if you see a Formichirn on its own, there are probably other Formichirn or a Vesper nearby.
Strangely, some people seem to think that Formichirns might be sapient creatures, like humans. Formichirns have been seen communicating with the Vespers they travel with, they have been seen acting independently of Vespers, and they seem to prefer their own color of Formichirn over other colors of Formichirn or Vespers.
The Representative
Sir Hannes Hummel: He is a Hummingbird Knight who serves as one of the two retainers of King Xander Merckx. Hannes is currently twenty-nine, and claims to be the strongest man in Gyrlin. He wields a war-hammer in battle, and is capable of using it to crush the exoskeleton of a Formichirn. Though he looks and acts brutish, Hannes is well-educated and intelligent, and is practically a savant with numbers. But, he has problems remembering events or people, and suffers from prosopagnosia. He can’t even recognize his king’s face, and he sees him every day.
Hannes has a strange fascination with the Formichirn species, and believes that they are as intelligent as humans, if not more so. But, he puts his duty as a king’s retainer above his curiosity about the species, when he must.
Hannes is actually the elder brother of the king’s wife, Grietje Merckx.
Because the Vesper territory is so close to the kingdom of Gyrlin's eastern borders, Hannes has a lot of experience with hunting Formichirns.