The Hunting Grounds IV: Drops Contain 0% RNG

[Zefir]

The dogs do bite Ifrit's arms. But then he stoically tosses them off. One crashes into a tree nearby and then flops down onto its feet, the other sails off into the woods.

Anchor knocks the one she'd been fighting back, twirls the weapon around, and runs it through.

Judging by the sound, there may be more of the hounds in the woods, but Ifrit has a moment where none are attacking him. However, he's also being shot at by a very high-powered rifle, a gap opening in the shield to take aim at the fire summon.

[Forest]

Ifrits temper is very low. when he got a moment of time he will cross his arms in front. The ground starts to shake and crack as a big fireball will rise up from the ground ppushing the demon up in the air avoiding the shot unintentionally. When Ifrit and the ball are both over the the forest he will slam at the fireball shooting it at the green shield he hit befor. (Like THIS)
There will be enougth time until the ball is high enougth so the shooter might attack again or another one.

Karl, who sees this just opens his eyes wide. "Too soon, too Soon, TOO SOON." he repeats as he drops to the ground and runs away at Anchors direction.
"Run, run, run, run, run.." he shouts as he passes bye.

[Recaiden]

Anchor stands triumphantly over the dead hound and-
Is it getting really hot here?
And there's Karl fleeing while telling her to run also...

She turns and runs away from Ifrit and the shooter, heading deeper into the woods, returning the trident to the shadows as she goes. It's really not great for maneuvering with.

As the summon and gathering fireball ascend into the sky, the shooter fires another round at Ifrit, hoping to disrupt whatever he's building up to. But then, when the giant fireball comes down, it blasts the shield apart, revealing their foe (probably doesn't do great things to the surrounding trees and undergrowth, either). There is a slight tremor in the ground, from the east. Though it might go unnoticed, what with the explosion.

The shooter is in a suit of sleek futuristic armor in a camoflage pattern, and holds a long boxy rifle that is linked by a pair of cables to a sort of backpack. Belts and bandoleers hold ammo, explosives, knives, more guns, etc. Their face is concealed behind a helmet. This other hunter isn't very big though, just over five feet. Downright tiny compared to Ifrit.
It seems the shield protected them pretty well, though it was destroyed in the process. They move to take cover behind a...burning husk of a tree. Well, it's better than nothing.

[bc56]

Hunting Party

Tethrik turns to face the beast, just in time to be struck and grabbed by the huge spider. His hellish resistance provides little protection from lightning, and he cries out in pain. The demon extends his arm toward it, and tendrils of darkness attempt to wrap around it and sap its strength so he can pull free more easily.

[billtodamax]

Hunting Party

The black tendrils do their job and Tethrik manages to slip loose, pedipalp withering as the strength is drained from it. The spider is almost about to strike it again before a pair of arrows catch it in the side, their enhanced sharpness letting them pierce the creature's exoskeleton - the rest either glancing off or soaring overhead. It roars in pain as it turns towards Thariza, lunging at her to try and bite down on her torso. Successful or not, another storm of lightning will erupt from it, striking the ground nearby - and quite possibly Khaz'rha, whose knives manage to bite into an exposed section of leg and draw forth twin lines of black ichor.

[Hattish Thing]

[Hunting Party]

The orc grimaces as black ichor begins to spray forth, ruining some of the furs draped across her form. What follows is far worse, however, as a burst of lightning arcs towards her, passing through one of her knives and racing up her arm. She recoils, crying out in pain as the electricity sears a wicked pattern into her flesh.

With her knives now upon the ground, Khaz'rha reaches for the bow at her back, eyes watering as she forces herself to nock the bow despite how painfully burnt her arm was.

"Agh! Iav huravuk!"

[Morty]

[Hunting Party]

Thariza lets go of the bow with her right hand, holding onto it with her left and unclasping an old, battered mace from her belt. She meets the spider head on, trying to smash it with the weapon as it lunges at her. If this doesn't deter the spider from biting her, she suddenly vanishes in a cloud of purple smoke, reappearing two metres back. This isn't enough to get her clear of the lighting, though, which zaps her from feet upwards. She snarls in pain, but seems to withstand the damage.

[UncleWolf]

Crashed Ship - Elevated Airlock

Two finds a single space suit inside the airlock once it cycles through for her, humanoid in design but fitted for taller people with broader shoulders than usual. The suits were blue and made to withstand micro-meteors and were made of fairly commonplace materials. They didn't seem all that special. Venturing further into the ship, she'll find there's not too much revealing where she was headed to except for numbered bulkheads. The emergency lights were on, the life support seemed to be working, and eventually she finds a single sign right before a large shut blast door. Officers' Quarters.


Crashed Ship - Busting In

The suits here seemed to be nearly human in height, perhaps a bit taller due to how bulky the suits were, but otherwise didn't seem too unusual except for broader shoulders. As he ventures on, Rein will find the hallway sloping down, lower into the ship and towards the belly of it. The lights here turn more erratic, flickering with working ones becoming more infrequent. The air becomes warm and moist, betraying a breach in the hull somewhere below, and if he keeps going he'll find a bizarre sight. Beyond a few more industrial looking hallways, possibly the start of the engineering holds, he'll find a gaping hole in the center of a large chamber. It is roughly four meters wide with jagged edges. Scrapes on the floor, as well as far-too-much blood, drawn towards the hole itself. The entire bay lacked any metal, and no scrap of flesh was in sight either. Every last piece had been dragged through the hole and into the very earth below the ship itself.

Crashed Ship - Front Hatch

Kendra will discover that instead of circuitry behind the panel, she'll find a conductive gel. It tingles to the touch, but a good jolt should either overload it or at least get it spazzing out. If she has a hacking device, she'll find that it can just be plugged into the gel as well.

Crashed Ship - Troublesome Trio

This close, it is easy to see that the rear doors had been cleaved open with something like a hot knife. The doors were still warm in the cuts and molten slag had pooled under each one. Slow and steady breathing, deep, as if from a massive beast, can be heard from within. Just a quick peek is all that's needed to see several large shipping container like objects, easily as large as a small house each, resting inside the large cargo bay. Each one is a hopper full of rocks and ore and all sorts of nifty deep-space materials. Other containers carry food and luxury items, but they'd have to be searched through and for.

Most of them anyway.

It seems a few holding food had been dragged together, busted open, and munched upon before a large tyrannosaurus looking creature fell asleep near by. It was the size of a school bus and a half in length, curled up around several locked crates. The crates were clear and filled with glimmering silver metal, but getting to those or deeper into the ship would require sneaking past the blade-tailed monster as he slumbered near the entrance he'd made.

[billtodamax]

Crashed Ship - Troublesome Trio

Violet looks at the great beast with an invisible grin. Hell yeah, this is what she was here for! She vaults into the bay with cat-like grace and begins stalking over to the beast. She spins her spear around once or twice as she approaches its head. If nothing stops her she's going to try and jam her spear directly into the beast's eye.

Loot can wait! Battle commences!

[KerfuffleMach2]

[Crashed Ship - Troublesome Trio]

Ravanys manages to make her way to the door just in time to see the beast's eye get stabbed by something. Presumably Violet's spear.

Oh, that stupid bitch...

Ravanys, drops her sniper rifle, and it disappears in a brief flash. She reaches behind her back again, this time summoning a modified double barrel shotgun.

Look alive, Anulhi. We're gonna have to fight this thing now.

[Darkcomet]

[Crashed Ship - Elevated Airlock]

Officers' quarters. Not a bad bet. This'll be simple.

Two elects to use her abilities to follow the door's circuitry and interlinks to the control system and take a look at that, while, of course, getting an idea of what's on the other side at the same time, rather than jumping in blindly. Once she finds the control mechanism (whether readily accessible or she has to cut open a wall panel), gaining access ought to be easy.

Technical wizardry is a lot less impressive when the world is your manual.

[bc56]

Hunting Party

"Get behind me!" Tethrik yells, grabbing at the spider and attempting to wrestle it onto its back, taking advantage of his strength-draining hex upon it.

[billtodamax]

[Hunting Party]

The mace seems to mostly bounce off of the spider's hardened carapace as it lunges for Thariza, frustrated by the disappearance of the charr. It starts crackling with electricity, the two spines on its abdomen channeling a ball of electricity between them, before Tethrik grabs it. It's forced upwards and almost tipped, before it manages to scuttle backwards and get its legs back underneath it. He does manage to expose its underbelly to Thariza and Khaz'rha, however.

Still, the ball of electricity is building up. They might want to take cover instead of risking the shots.

[Reinholdt]

[Crashed Ship - Busting In]

As the lights start to fail more and more, Rein decides to shift into humanoid form so he can pull out a shotgun with an attached flashlight. Yes, it's harder for him to see than as a cat, but he's also next to weaponless in feline form. He'll hold off on using the flashlight until it becomes absolutely necessary though. Until then, he just continues on until he reaches the room with the hole. The hole most likely where everything in this room ended up being devoured. Well that's extremely ominous.

If engineering is this way though, it would be vital to check it out. Crashed ships aren't well known for their stability and if this whole place is going to blow up unless someone puts out a fire or pushes a button, Rein would prefer to be in a position to take care of that. And if everything's peachy, well, spaceship cores tend to be highly valuable.

Reinholdt will go pink and silently float around the edges of this room to avoid making unnecessary sounds or vibrations that might attract whatever denizen(s) might live in that hole. Just trying and make it to the next hold. Or at least some section that doesn't have terrifying pits in the ground that make pits in your stomach.

[Hattish Thing]

[Hunting Party]

Noticing the creature's exposed underbelly, the orc drops her bow, instead reaching for a third knife held at her belt. The muscular hunter grimaces before rushing forward with the knife, gritting her teeth together as she leans into a roll which places her in an ideal position in which to bury her blade into the beast, down to the hilt.

She's willing to take the risk.

--

[Crashed Ship - Troublesome Trio]

Anulhi grimaces as soon as the creature reveals itself, reaching for her potion of invisibility. "Psh, we could just leave now. You know she would do the same. I guess we should help her out though... ugh. Just keep your potion on hand."

At that, she begins to mix a potion.

[Morty]

[Hunting Party]

When the creature exposes its underbelly, Thariza doesn't charge in as is her first instinct. Instead, she drops her mace again and grips her bow. The orange corona surrounding her coalesces into the shape of a Charr woman hefting two battle-axes and roaring mightily. Her weapons and those of her allies will glow with inner bloodlust as she takes aim and fires. In addition to the regular arrow, six other, spectral ones come flying from behind her out of thin air, converging with precision towards the same point as the actually material one - into the spider's gullet.

[bc56]

Hunting Party

Tethrik strikes at the spider, plunging his bladed upper arms down at it as he grapples with its front legs. "Why won't you die!!"

[billtodamax]

Hunting Party

Between the dagger buried in its abdomen, the arrows piercing its throat, and the blades driven through its mouth, the spider shudders and collapses, all the strength drained from its legs.

Hooray! You did it!

Wait it was channeling a big ball of electricity right? And Khaz'rha was right underneath it too. Oh dear. The orc will find herself in quite a pickle as the legs holding up the spider give way, the full mass of the beast collapsing onto her just as the ball of lightning - no longer constrained by whatever biological process was keeping it pent up - grounds itself via whatever is nearby and available - primarily, Khaz'rha. Tethrik will likely find himself shocked as well if he's not quick enough to back away from the spider.

H-hooray...

[Nova_Eclipse]

Crashed Ship - Front Hatch

Kendra returns her first tool to her hidden pouch and withdraws another. This one is a small circuit analyzer and diagnostic tool. She thinks for a minute, then jabs it into the gel. She hasn't exactly seen this construction before, but she's seen something similar once, and she's hoping this is largely the same. The tool sends a good jolt into the gel when she triggers it, hopefully enough to get something moving.

[UncleWolf]

Crashed Ship - Trio

Glavvy woke up as the threshold was crossed to get into his new hole. He was smart enough to pretend to be asleep still, keeping his breathing steady as not to betray his awareness as he tried to figure out what was odd. The Scary One was still far away, The Many didn't seem to be aggressive nor were they close... The Harmless was close, but sleeping soundly if the slight tremor of its snoring was still to be believed. The Hungry One wasn't near or else he'd be gone...

And The Tricky One still hadn't returned after poking his nose the one time to greet him. Odd one, she was.

Still, something was off and he'd awoken because of it. His nose told him many things. Fresh air was coming from outside, the shiny metal he was curled around still smelled like it would rest well in his gullet...

And there were Hunters.

That realization alarmed him as they tended to be relentless, but the three he could smell weren't...right. They didn't smell like they tried to mask their scents, nor did they wear the carcasses of fallen foes as he'd become accustomed to. Still, it was time to fight, and so he opens his eyes.

______

The bright ruby red eye of the Glavenus opens just as the spear is about to strike home, and when it is pierced the monster reacts. Quickly. It roars in a fury, wrenching its head back(either ripping the spear out of his eye or out of Violet's arms), and he pushes with his feet. Unless Violet is either extremely lucky or quick, she'll find herself thrown bodily away by the Glavenus' shoulder and perhaps even find herself crushed between it and a cargo container as the monster lunges in her direction and up onto its feet. The rude awakening certainly seems to have put it into a fury and a dull red glow begins to rise up from its flesh, turning the blue-black armored ridges and hide hot to the touch. As he moves, his tail scrapes along the grated floor, cleaving a trench into the metal as sparks fly and the tail ignites into flame.

Despite the invisibility, the massive dinosaur that was now on fire certainly seemed to be aware of their presence now.

Crashed Ship - Two

What should be on the other side is a series of about twenty separate officer's cabins, a separate mess, and a back-up control bridge as well as a separate escape pod or two. Standard Officer stuff on a ship this size, really. But a simple access panel "hack"(1-2-3-4-5 as a combination to open the door? It's the sort of combination an idiot would have on their luggage) later, the blast door opens and hot humid air washes over two.

The walls that should have been subtly expensive and appealing to those who aspire to be officers to separate them from the rest of the crew, was mostly covered in a thin blue-green slime mold. It seemed to be trying to eat through the walls, sucking away whatever nutrients it could, and a pair of figures in space suits staggered around trying to open doors. Oddly, Two's normal information talent doesn't work very well except to tell her that it is all a single organism. The rest is all static or white noise.

Crashed Ship - Kendra

The jolt causes the hatch to hiss and pop open with force, and unless she's careful she might be delivered a door to her jaw. Once it is open however, soft white light is within and there's a small tunnel with a ladder leading down to the bridge. Something seemed to be scraping around down there, out of sight.

Crashed Ship - Rein

Slow steady air flows through the hole as Rein floats about. It doesn't seem to be disturbed by floating about however, and the next hold is much less scary and filled with electrical cable that all appears to be heading towards another area. There is a security door blocking his way however with an access panel to the side. He'll have to get through that to get to wherever the cabling seems to be converging.

[billtodamax]

Crashed Ship - Trio

Violet doesn't give up her spear that easily, keeping a hold as the Glavenus wrenches its head free. First blood! She yells happily, before the thing staggers to its feet. Luckily enough she is quite quick - quick enough to get far enough out of the line of fire of the Glavenus' shoulder that it merely throws her across the cargo bay, instead of crushing her against a box. She staggers to her feet warily, rolling her shoulder back as she does. Son of a...

Well, only one thing for it! Get back in there Violet! She approaches the beast with cat-like grace, resting on the balls of her feet, ready to spring to the side if the beast tries to strike at her. You lily livered f- Violet you are not allowed to say that word. better be covering me back there! She calls back to Anulhi and Ravanys.

[KerfuffleMach2]

[Crashed Ship - Trio]

This is why planning is important, you idiot!

Clearly, Ravanys does not like this.

She summons up some electrified ammo, loads her gun, takes aim, and fires right for the side of the creature. It's standard sized 12 gauge ammo, with a taser-like effect added. Custom made for her. She's hoping it'll do something to the beast. Kind of a scouting shot of sorts. See how it'll react to lead and electricity.

[Reinholdt]

[Crashed Ship - Rein]

Reinholdt lets out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding. Civvy censored that was terrifying. It's been a while since he's been that nervous. Still, he can't breathe easy. There's no guarantee whatever was in that hole will stay in that hole. Stay alert, stay vigilant, keep moving.

That last part is easier said than done. Rein floats over to the security door, looking it over. Probably too thick to blast through and cutting torch would take too long. Both of those were too loud anyways. That means going through the access panel with that alien language. Well this is what screwdrivers and crowbars were for. But before he starts prying the thing open, he checks both the door and panel for any anti-tampering features that might be in place to deter him. If there aren't any, he'll start working the casing loose while repeatedly glancing over his shoulder.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Crashed Ship - Kendra

Kendra is careful to avoid the hatch as it opens, but peers down the tunnel for a moment, narrowing her eyes. She focuses, before making her way over to the tunnel. Rather than using the ladder, though, she steps into the empty space as wind flutters about her, and lights there, before slowly floating downwards to the deck below, watching the end of the tunnel below her for signs of hostile activity.

[Hattish Thing]

[Crashed Ship - Trio]

Unsure of how to proceed, Anulhi glances towards Ravanys before nodding a little, deciding that now was the time to try something daring. After mixing some strange powder into the drink, she attempts to toss the small vial held in her hands, grinning as she watches it swiftly transform into a bright blue concoction.

Should it connect with the beast, the fluid will burst in a spray of spine-chillingly cold liquid energy.

SIZE=2]"Jeez, I hope this works."[/SIZE]


Hunting Party

Khaz'rha is struck, and promptly evaporates entirely.

[Darkcomet]

[Crashed Ship - Two]

Concerning. Based on the mundane nature of the rest of this place, I'm estimating a high probability that its former occupants were more surprised than I am now. And the walls...could be aggressive thanks to all the gear and augmentations. Shifting to normal scans.

Fortunately for Two, she's not totally bereft of other recon equipment, cybernetic augmentations and helmet systems providing her (perhaps entirely too many) visual and scanning systems, which she naturally turns on the sight before her. The first thing to do is see if those suits contain anything (bodies, more slime, and so on) then turn the same on the mold to find anything that would suggest a central intelligence, like a subtle nervous system leading back somewhere. She severely doubts it, given that this thing is clearly not purely biological in nature if it's interfering with that power, but it pays to be thorough in these situations, and each possibility eliminated is a step closer to the truth.

Right now she's guessing it's somehow possessed, giving it a will it ought not be able to have.

[Morty]

[Hunting Party]

"...Rust," is all Thariza has to say when Khaz'Rha is evaporated by the lightning. She seems oddly calm about it. Too calm. "She's... going to come back, isn't she? That's how this place works."

[bc56]

Hunting Party

"I don't honestly know. Maybe?" Tethrik frowns and shrugs. "Might as well find out what treasure this critter gathered." Tethrik enters the spider's cave.

[billtodamax]

Hunting Party

Only 1/3 casualties!

Yay!

Tethrik will find a number of bodies in the cave in various states of decay, all wrapped to some extent in the same electrified spiderweb that covers the area. A number of them are... small. Aw.

Most of the clothes and gear they have are rotted and decayed, but there are a few items still strangely pristine. A glaive sits against the back wall, resistant to all sorts of decay. The blade is a brilliant white metal with a teal tassel below the blade, while the haft itself is made of beech wood with a counterweight of the same material at the base. One of the oldest bodies has rotted away entirely to a skeleton, but it's still wearing a pair of menacing looking bracers made of a dark grey metal that bristle with spikes. There's a cloak of fine, bronze silk draped over one of the smaller skeletons - it has a beautiful embroidery peacock on the back. Finally, there's a quiver made of deep green leather slung over the shoulders of a relatively fresh body - an older man, possibly the skeleton of a hunter.

Hooray loot!

[Morty]

[Hunting Party]

Thariza is naturally drawn to the quiver, taking it off the corpse and examining it. It's not as if the previous owner needs it anymore...

[bc56]

Hunting Party

Tethrik examines the gauntlets, but they probably won't fit him. He then hefts the glaive, feeling its weight and length. It's probably on the short side, but unlike the gauntlets, it should still be effective.