(Hunter: The Vigil) You've Got Mail!

[ThirdEmperor]

It's been a weird weekend, to say the least. It started with the mail, specifically a small package that was delivered to Alex on Friday. Four free weekend tickets to a hunting lodge out in the woods, far away from the city. An odd occurrence, as Alex never signed up for any contest or raffle, but a welcome one. Figuring he might as well not look the gift horse in the mouth, he invited three of his friends along, friends that to his knowledge had never met before.

It was only during the car ride there that you realized that every single one of you knew all the others, but only individually, never as a group. That was quite bizarre, but you laughed it off. By the time you reached the lodge and were informed that they never sent out any free tickets, but that someone had rented four rooms in your names, no one was laughing. The hunting was fun at least, if not very successful, the only catch being a rabbit Henry killed by sheer luck.

When you returned to the lodge, you all felt that the weirdness that had plagued the rest of the trip was finally over. Which was why the news that one of the other hunters hadn't returned was quite unwelcome. The next day the missing man, Sam Jadson, still hadn't returned, and so you volunteered to help look for him. Along with three other search parties, you set out into the forest looking for clues. It's been an hour since you last saw the other search parties, and you've finally found something.

You stand in a small clearing in the forest, the last light from the descending sun trickling through the leaves above to illuminate the gory scene before you. Three deer, one full grown, the others mere fawns, lie on the forest floor, blood pooling around their bodies. Their legs have been torn off, gnawed, and dropped again a few inches away, their stomachs slit and the insides devoured, and their eyes gouged out. A swarm of flies feast upon the blood and spilled guts, greedily devouring the cornucopia of gore. Your stomachs feel queasy at the very sight of it, and you can't help but worry for the fate of the missing man, if something capable of doing this is on the prowl.

[Sahadeva]

Kate stops in her tracks, noticing the corpses. She starts to cough a little, trying her best not to vomit, and takes a cloth out of her pocket, holding it over her mouth and nose.
"Hey...guys... You might want to see this."

After showing the others the corpses, she turns to them for answers.
"What could have done this? Bears? Wolves? We don't have either where I'm from, so I don't know what they can do. Strange for an animal to kill so much and eat so little, though..."
She trails off, obviously out of her element, and moves a couple of metres away from the corpses, trying to breathe through her mouth to avoid the foul smell.

[Matar]

"I know alot of ****, man, but I don't have any idea what kinda animal coulda done -this-."

Henry looks at the deer and then glances about the woods, a bit on edge. The smell was horrible. -Really- horrible. His right hand was in his pocket while his left hand was holding onto a crowbar. Inside his pocket was a hyperdermic needle filled with a large amount of LSD. The crowbar was just in case they found someone trapped under something. The LSD was for... well, just in case. Honestly, bringing it seemed pretty damn silly in retrospect. He didn't even bring any blotter tabs, just a small glass (and opaque) bottle filled with LSD. You couldn't get an accurate dose with it like that, but honestly that was part of the god damn fun.

Guys, do you see any prints around here or something? Anything to help figure out how big this ****er might be?"

[Benson]

Det. Doyle

I look at my surroundings, try to study the scene. I fish around my pocket for my flask of vodka in my inner coat pocket. It's not there, I forget that I'm *trying to quit, keyword, trying, not really succeeding very well. Unfortunately I left it at the lodge. Drats.

I squint my good eye as I crouch down in a squatting position. I come across some tracks. They look like animal tracks. As the priest girl Kate mentioned in her worries, bears, wolves, who knows what sort of predatory creature this was.

Pawprints and some nasty looking claw toe, reminds me of those velociraptors, almost, but that was just silly to think there were dinosaurs. I gesture to the others the paw prints with the nasty claw impressions.


(Yes, I'm doing 1st person narrative in homage to classic noir films, inner monologues up the wazoo! xD)

[Doktor Per]

At least that's only deer. Ed thought to himself as he fished the iPad out of his backpack. Light was dying, so the camera would become useless soon. A few taps and he began recording, making sure to cover the entire scene, while Doyle hovered over something on the ground. Kate and Henry spoke, but he couldn't really focus, it took all he could not to hurl as he finished making a record of the scene.

It occurred to him, that he didn't have his hunting rifle with him. Why would he have had to bring it? This is why! Ed's fist turned white around something in his hand, he eased his grip and looked in his palm. Pepper spray. Hopefully whatever is out there has a sensitive nose.

"Everybody brought some weapons out here, right? Doyle, you got your scumstopper?" He stepped over to Doyle, and finally saw the prints she'd been hunched over. The iPad's camera started rolling again. "Are there more of these?"

[Sahadeva]

Kate hefts her shotgun. "I brought mine. I thought we might need to get some attention if we find something."

"We're not going to follow the prints, are we? I'm not sure I want to tangle with whatever did that."

She sighs and shakes her head. "But I suppose somebody's going to tell me it's the only clue we have so far of our missing hunter. Well, let's be off, then. The sooner we find the poor soul, the sooner we can get him to the hospital or into a nice warm bed."

She doesn't mention the other possibility.

[Doktor Per]

Ed crouched down with the iPad, half for a better look at the prints, half to hide his fear boner. The light from the screen brought out the details of the imprint. How the grass had been pressed down and earth formed. "I learnt a bit of tracking when I was reporting in Afghanistan," he swallowed. The iPad shaking in his hand. "I'm glad you did bring the shotgun, this isn't some bear or anything. Weight distribution is wrong. This thing is walking on two feet."

[Benson]

Det. Doyle

I pat my side where I keep my pistol in its concealed holster under my armpit at my side. Bi-pedal? Damn, the dinosaur theory may be right after all. Hopefully not. Those dang buggers.




(Gonna be offline for half the day for personal stuff/errands)

[GFawkes]

"Whatever killed these deer was cruel beyond belief. It probably ripped the legs off the doe, then slit the throats of the babies. Finally, it killed the doe." Alex says, muttering a short prayer over the deer. Sure, they weren't human, but they deserved peace.

[Doktor Per]

"Jesus that's morbid, Alex." Ed wiped perspiration from his brow, taking a glance over at the deer again. No, that's not going to help the situation, gotta stay clear headed. This is work now. The cogs in Ed's head started to turn.

"You said that their throats had been slit, not ripped out." He brought the iPad closer to the ground, staring into the footstep for any traces of blood in them or near them. "Whatever the funk this thing is, that means it's smart enough to kill for ships and tickles. Maybe it's a guy in some sick alien suit, gone crazy. Would explain the weird footprints. It's just some sort of weird boot bottoms."

[Matar]

"Obviously these things were killed by ****ing raptors. I mean, comeon guys."

Saying this Henry licks his dry lips and looks around the woods, saying the first thing that sprang to mind when he thought about what might have caused this. Of course the very idea was absurd, but **** it. It was better then listening to those damn flies buzzing around.

"Listen, guys. I doubt anyone here knows what the **** it was that killed this deer. I say we take some pictures for posterities sake and keep looking for those hunters. Should we, uh, follow the tracks? Whatever animal this is might be hunting the lost hunters. I mean, ****, we got nothing else to go on and a shotgun to protect us."

[GFawkes]

"Even if it didn't take Sam, I saw we follow the tracks. This thing has some serious problems." Alex says, nocking an arrow.


Tracking the thing
Investigation + Wits
[roll0]

[Sahadeva]

Kate raises an eyebrow.

"Dinosaurs? I think you're being a little silly, don't you? But it could be a person, playing a bit of a sick prank, so we'd better be careful. And I agree we should follow the tracks. It could have taken Sam, and we may get there in time to stop him getting seriously hurt."

[Matar]

"Kate, uh. I was, y'know, being facetious. Anyways, I guess Kate should lead. I mean, she's the one with the gun. Be safest with her up front I guess, I dunno."

[Benson]

Det. Doyle

"I dunno....does anyone want to have me behind them?" I give the group a rare playful smile and wink (with my good eye) as I point to my eye patch. I place my hand inside my coat keeping my hand on on my gun.

[Sahadeva]

"I know, but you weren't the first to bring up the dinosaur idea. Anyway, let's let the big tough girl lead, why not? I see the American reputation for bravery and chivalry is well deserved."

She smiles to show that she's not serious, then turns to take the lead, shotgun pointed at the ground but ready in case of trouble. She's listening carefully for any sounds outside the group, while she follows the prints.

[Doktor Per]

Ed kept a close eye on Henry. You know he makes it, what's to say that he didn't drop anything? Well he seems pretty lucid. Couldn't that just be experience? "You're clean, at this moment, yeah?" He whispered, trying not to draw attention from the others in the group.

"You have the wrong America, Katie." Ed muttered, following after Katie and Alex. The iPad had been delegated to recording duty from his backpack, the microphone sticking out from the back. "This is the land of killers and other amoral opportunists. Are we even sure that whatever that thing out there is, isn't just Sam, hopped up on methamphetamine, blow or some other ship in a monster suit? I'm not a zoologist but last I checked, the only other bipeds out there are birds and they are not this heavy."

[Matar]

Speaking in a low whisper Henry responds to Ed. "I might test positive for some ****, but I'm not on anything right now." Henry pauses for a moment. "Ah, ****, that came out wrong. Well, whatever, ya know what I mean. And before ya ask, no. All I brought was the acid and despite all the rumors I've never seen anyone freak out and play monster while on it."


Henry follows after the rest of the group, the crowbar leaning on his shoulder and his free hand lightly touching the needle filled with acid. It might have looked weird walking around like that, but hell, it made him feel comfortable. A syringe always did for some reason.

[ThirdEmperor]

The tracks are easy to follow, as whatever left them was obviously not concerned with stealth in the least. The pawprints lead through a thicket of thorns, bushes and vines for several feet, before wimpy disappearing, massive scratch marks marking all the surrounding trees. The quicker thinking of the group might realize a second before it's entirely to late, and look up, only to be mere seconds too late.

Without warning, without even the smallest amount of noise to herald it's arrival, a blur of fur, blood and claws leaps towards you from the bows of the nearest tree. Landing on the forest floor, it turns to fix it's hungry gaze upon first Alex, then Doyle. It is a creature unlike any you've ever seen,*half-wolf, half-man, it's limbs impossibly long, it's face twisted into a rictus of rage, pain and hunger. Blood drips from three horizontal slashes across it's flesh and a fourth across it's face, the ichor staining it's matted pelt a deep red.

The... The thing is obviously malnourished, and it's eyes show little more than hunger, for any sort of food, human or otherwise. As long as it's plentiful. Moving far faster than it should it dashes forward, slashing at Doyle's stomach and leaving a deep gouge with it's gleaming claws before dancing back, ready for the counter-attack.

Doyle takes four Lethal damage.

[Matar]

"Ooooh **** me!"

One would think that the first thing that Henry would do was slam his crowbar into the monsters head. They would be wrong. No, Henry found it far more... natural to pull out his Syringe and thrust it into one of the monsters gaping wounds. Whatever this ****ing thing was it would be tripping -hard-.

[GFawkes]

Reacting fast, Alex draws his bow and takes aim at the beast. Releasing his grip, he watches the arrow fly towards the creature.

[Benson]

Det. Doyle

Aw...bitches that hurt a lot as that beast raked into my side. I stumbled a little clutching my wound with my left hand. Instinctively I whipped out my pistol with my right hand and shot at the beast.

[Sahadeva]

Kate lets out a cry of horror, but fear doesn't stop her from instinctually bringing her shotgun to bear and firing off a shot at the thing. She's done enough hunting to know when she should be firing, even before she can think about what she's doing.

[Doktor Per]

Ed hides behind Doyle, reaching out with his pepperpsray, firing it wildly in the direction of the beast.

[ThirdEmperor]

The beast turns to glare at Henry as the chemist makes the mistake of speaking and appears to take his suggestion to heart. It's mouth twists into a bloody, feral grin as it rushes towards the chemist, moving fast enough that it's little more than a blur as it grabs the unfortunate hunter by the throat and forces him to the ground. It crushes down on his windpipe, choking Henry and sinking it's razor sharp claws into his throat as it draws back it's other arm for the killing blow, ignoring the needle Henry jams into it's arm.

That would probably be the end of the Henry if he didn't have friends. Luckily for him, Alex's arrow strikes the werewolf directly in the shoulder, piercing bone and flesh alike and forcing it to release Henry, just as the other two fire. Doyle's shot strikes it in the chest to little effect, but Kate's shotgun blast hits it in the face, tearing flesh from bone and sinking hundreds of tiny pellets into it's skull. With a gurgle that might have been an attempt at one last defiant howl, it topples over onto Henry.

Henry takes five lethal damage, and combat is over.

[Sahadeva]

Kate stands for a moment in shock, panting. Then suddenly she remembers the injured Henry trapped under the beast. She gingerly pushes the creature off her friend.

"Somebody see to Doyle, she's hurt too! And make sure that animal is dead!"

She kneels down beside Henry, and starts desperately tearing cloth to prevent further bleeding.

[Doktor Per]

"I don't... I'm not..." Ed stutters as he looks into his backpack. Nothing that would be of any use, except for the iPad. Did it get all the sound? In a panicked state, he closes the sound recording app and tries googling "How to stop bleeding" but reception makes it impossible. Relax Ed, I'm sure Alex knows some basic, he's an athlete, those guys learn all sorts of things about treating the body. Focus on what you can do. Check things out better, turning the iPad back to a videocamcorder. He catches Kate start ripping clothes, but Ed's attention and lens don't dwell, but silently hover over the beast.

[Benson]

Det. Doyle

God...what was that? However it hurts too much to think right now. I stumble backwards against a tree, leaning on it for support. I pace my breathing and clutch my abdomen where I was wounded, feeling the sticky hot mess of blood. I glassily look at the others with my good eye.

Just what did I get myself into?

[Matar]

Editing this out. Server overloaded and I didn't notice that the post went through. Ignore thiiiis!

[Matar]

Henry let's out a gurgling cough the moment the monster is pushed off his body. In that strange moment where panic and pain filled his body Henry still managed to withdraw is syringe he stuck in beast. It was a... not a lucky charm, but he still felt comfortable with it. He was gripping it tightly enough that his knuckles were white.

When Kate started treated his wounds Henry managed to choke out a simple question. "How bads it look?". He wanted to add 'Cuz it hurts really ****ing bad' or something suave like 'If I'm gonna die at least I'll die next to a pretty gal.' But it hurt way too much to talk and now really wasn't the time for such things.

He did however manage to gesture out one something to Ed. Pointing to him, then to the monster, and then pointing his thumb in the direction of cabins (and there cars). Hopefully Ed understood what that simple gesture meant.

[GFawkes]

Taking a look at Henry, Alex comes up with a diagnosis. "You should live, but it'll hurt like hell for a few weeks at minimum."

[Doktor Per]

Ed flipped the iPad, putting it close to the monster's nose. Can't see straight, just stick your hand in there. Oh god it's wet, is this blood or... I don't want to know.

"Alex, can you... check on Doyle." He looked over at his drinking partner. He'd seen the front of her shirt get wet before, but not like this. That was something that happened over laughs and drinks. "I... I'm sorry."

Can't lose focus... c'mon check for breathing.

[GFawkes]

Looking over Doyle, Alex finds similar wounds to Henry, though with slight variation. "He should be OK, but I'm an athlete, not a doctor."

[Matar]

Holding the clothing against the wounds on his neck Henry slowly sit up. the fact that nothing critical was cut was... astounding. But god damn did it hurt.

"Guys, look. Someone should pick up this... things body and take it with it. I need to get back to my place clean up or like, a hospital or something. I don't want this **** to get infected, ya know? Doyle here could also use some help. Who knows what this ****ing thing was carrying."

[ThirdEmperor]

As Ed scans the beast with his iPhone, he immediately spots that something is wrong. The picture, although perfectly clear everything else, is an incomprehensible blur wherever the creature is on the screen, as though there's a digital mosaic around it. A shame, because chances are Ed would kill to have video footage of what happens next.

The creature begins to fold into itself, fur pulling back into it's skin hair by hair as it's snout and ears shrink back into it's face, it's claws retract, and it's limbs shorten. The sound is disgusting, the sound of bones crunching and bloody flesh being torn and rended. When it ends, the beast is no longer the wolfish creature it once was, but an obviously athletic, middle aged man, his black hair flecked with gray. He isn't wearing clothes, which reveals that his entire body is covered with scars, from normal hunting scars to bullet wounds. A quick check of his pulse confirms that the man is, indeed, alive, but doing so is hardly necessary as his wounds are visibly healing themselves.

[Doktor Per]

Guys... Did you hear that. Ed says, looking straight behind the others. His voice quivering, his eyes suddenly moving their focus a few feet. "Guys?"

[Sahadeva]

Kate helps Henry to sit up, and gives him a reassuring smile. "Looks like you're going to be fine, but it's going to hurt for a while."

Then hearing the sound from the creature, Kate turns to look at it, revulsion and horror on her face. Unsure of what is happening, but knowing that they're still in danger, Kate picks up her shotgun, and replaces the expended shell. "Anyone have a rope? Or something we else we can restrain this...person with?", she asks timorously. She seems tempted to unload another shell into the man's head, but holds off for now.

[Matar]

"What the ****..." Holding the blood covered rag against his neck Henry watches the creature transform back into a... human. That... that wasn't right.

"Listen, guys. I pumped him full of a few milligrams of acid. That **** just doesn't go away. When he comes to... if he comes to in the next few hours he'll be tripping like crazy. We, uh. We need ta tie him... -it- up or something. Like now. What about using someones jacket?"

[Doktor Per]

Ed steps forward away from the body, his lower lip trembling and eyes fixed on something in the darkness. He makes a motion with his fingers, a beckoning motion, the subtle universal language for "give me that gun before we're all dead." They are already distracted and scared, it goes over easy. His hand wraps around the shotgun, pulling it away. Two steps back and a twirl. You can do this, they're not looking now. Gotta be quick. He shoves the barrel at the back of the head of the naked man, cold sweat pouring out. Can't look, he closes his eyes and pulls the trigger.

[ThirdEmperor]

In the otherwise silent forest, the gunshot is almost deafening. The shotgun blast tears the man's flesh from his skull, leaving his face as nothing more than bloody shreds of meat riddled with buckshot. Even more obviously lethal it outright caves in the back of his skull, pulped gray matter mixed with hood pouring out of the hole onto the forest floor.

And yet, terrifyingly, he's still alive. The man is still breathing, and his flesh is still regrowing it's way across his skull, despite everything. Despite being shot in the head twice, despite having an arrow sticking out of it's chest, despite the pistol round that is even now being forced out of the wound by the man's regeneration.

[Sahadeva]

Kate turns to Ed, eyes narrowed dangerously as she takes the shotgun from his hands. "We have a lot to discuss, my friend."

She starts to kneel down besides the man, closing her eyes as she does. Evidently, she's about to offer a prayer for what she believes to be a dead man. Just before she closes her eyes completely, however, she notices the man already recovering from the shotgun blast.

She recoils from the sight, falling on to her back, then pushes herself up and back with her hands and feet. "That's...that's...what is wrong with that man?"

[Doktor Per]

Ed stared down as the hole he'd just punched in the guy's head closed. The blast should have killed anything. Nothing survives these sorts of shot"We can talk all we want later, Kate. But right now that thing is going to come back sooner or later and it'll be pissed. We have to finish this right here and right now!"

He looks over to Doyle and Henry, pleading. "You guys are on the same page, right? We don't have any choice but to kill it. This, this, thing isn't human and you know what it did to those baby deer just to set a funking trap for us. Knowing someone would come out here! For all we know, this could be that Sam guy we're looking for!"

[Benson]

Doyle

"Ed...I'm on the verge of bleeding to death.....yea...I say it needs to....die," I struggle to say keeping my hand over my bleeding wound. I hope I don't catch some sort of infection that is if I live. I start to say a prayer in my head for myself.

[ThirdEmperor]

Said thing is still regenerating, and worse yet, the hunters may well be out of time to kill it. In the distance, all five of them can hear approaching boxes and footsteps, presumably one of the other hunting parties.

[Doktor Per]

Ed flips the body around, to get a good look at the face. The iPad out, he tries to get as good a look at him as he possibly can.

"We can't now. Not like this. It'll end all of us." He stomps on the man's face a few times after he puts the iPad away. "We patch up, gather our wits. Find out who this is and then ram him with everything we got, spring a trap and..." Another stomp on the man's face. "KILL HIM."

[Matar]

"Holy ****, guys."Henry looks around at his group before speaking up, his head light and vision swimming from blood-loss. "We don't even know if this guy was in control of his actions! I mean, fesus ****. And, like, what would we do if we killed him? We'd be leaving behind a bunch of evidence and... no one would believe a damn story like this! Look, look. Tie him up with something. Gag him. And let's... let's I dunno, get out of here. Back to my place. I have stuff that can help take care of this one way or another, alright?"

[Sahadeva]

Kate looks shocked at Ed's vehemence, and a little nervous about being around him.

"Henry is right. Look at this poor fellow, he obviously has something seriously wrong with him. He needs treatment, not to be shot in the head and stomped on. Now get some bloody rope or something and tie him up."

[Benson]

"You're both acting too soft...It could just be the other way around with it having full control of its actions. Also, do you really think rope is gonna keep it down?" I ask bitterly, my words clouded with the anger from this bleeding wound of mine.

[Doktor Per]

Ed stares at the man's face, as it crackles back into shape. His own boots, covered in blood. "Don't forget what just happened. He lead us into a trap. Only way we can get away clean from this is get him help and then tracking him down."

Ed steps away from the body and lowers his voice. "Kate and Henry, I understand why you're not comfortable with this. But mark my words, if you try and stop me and Doyle from finishing this, there will be blood on your hands. Every person that this creature kills from now on, will be because of your interference with our work."

[ThirdEmperor]

The conversation over the things fate is suddenly cut short, as five men burst into the clearing, two of them gasping for air, having obviously been running only seconds before. "Holy ****! Why the hell is he naked? And where on earth did you find him?" The leader of the other group, a heavy-set man named Brandon Herzog says, dropping to one knee and checking the unconscious man's pulse. "We, we heard gunshots." One of the other searchers volunteers.

[Benson]

"Before...these questions start getting thrown nilly willy and we end up having a parlor room scene," I pause still clutching my stomach as I walk toward them. My bloody wound for them to see. "I'd like to see a medic first...UGh.."