The Hunting Grounds IV: Drops Contain 0% RNG

[UncleWolf]

Crashed Ship - Trio In Trouble

Glavvy hated tricky fighters. There was being cunning, then there was being tricksy, and turning un-see-able was definitely the latter. It really made him angry. And that anger is quite apparent as his body and tail brighten even more. He backs up a couple large steps towards his resting place, putting as much distance between him and the trio for a moment as he tries to figure out what to do. The shotgun roars, taking a chunk of armor off of his shoulder and leaving a growl-worthy mess of painful electricity there to cause his tiny arm to spasm and hurt. The potion flies through the air, and despite being half blinded, the Glavenus is aware enough to raise his tail in front of his face to intercept it.

When it breaks open and coats the super-heated tail with ice, the patch instantly hisses as the burning tries to cook it off, but the sudden drop in temperature causes an audible crack to resound through the air. A small crack becomes visible near the split-tip, but despite it being relatively small for his size, it was obviously painful as his foot clenches and tears through a bit of the grate flooring.

Still, it gave Glavvy a chance to see his opponents and form at least a semblance of a plan. He bites his tail, tightens all of his muscles as he readies himself like a spring, and with just a brief moment to wind up, he lets loose into a spin. His tail swings out, flames erupting from the tip for several meters but still well short of his attackers...

Until his tail slams into the crate of silver he'd been snuggled up around.

The crate erupts as small, but heavy, bars of silver get shotgunned across the chamber at all three. A bar or two could easily knock a person off of his or her feet, possibly break bones, and if someone is really unlucky, even shatter a skull.

((Not enough time to finish the rest for now so I'll finish it up tomorrow. Apologies!))

[billtodamax]

Hunting Party

The glaive is quite light and easy to wield, although it is terribly cold to the touch. Tethrik will some sort of power rippling through it, just below the surface, begging to be used. The quiver is currently empty of arrows, and seems fairly mundane - except for the fact that it's still in pristine condition. Something's probably up with it but it's a bit hard to tell as is.

Crashed Ship

Violet spots the Glavenus's plan just before it executes it, and she sprints to the side, diving behind another crate as the bars of silver fly through the air. She's sure the other two will figure it out. She edges around the other side of the crate and starts running at the Glavenus, trying to get inside its tail swipes and jam her spear into its underbelly.

[KerfuffleMach2]

Crashed Ship

Ravanys smirks a bit when she sees her weapon do damage to the creature. Good. She wouldn't need to bring out the big guns for this.

Wait...what was it doing now?

Ravanys wasn't used to straight fights like this. She always tried to catch her target unaware. Made things easier. She also wasn't used to fighting things this big.

So, while she was watching the fire on the tail, ready to intercept it, she missed the crate of silver.

Ravanys has time to twist a bit, widen her eye in surprise, and swear loudly. Then she's taken off her feet by a flying bar. Knocks the wind out of her pretty good.

She lets out a groan. And another swear.

[UncleWolf]

Crashed Ship - Two

It's rather intriguing, truly, as it seems the suits are empty apart from small colonies of Slime Mold, barely visible within the suit's helmet. There's no other bodies inside the suits and the bulky construction itself seems to be what is making it difficult for them to move around. There's dozens of primitive nervous systems all through the walls, but it seems the slime is mainly psionic in intelligence and structure. Even as it is analyzed, the two colonies in the space suits take heed of the open blast door and try to move past her to get out. The slime on the walls even begins to try and creep out now as well.

If she isn't too distracted by that however, a primitive set of decorative plate armor, made of dark blue-grey metal and etched with wave designs, steps out of another room further down, walking much more confidently and sure of itself than the other suits. Neon yellow slime can be seen holding it together and it raises a crested helm to its "head" to put on. An arming sword rests on its hip, and after it is situated...it looks directly at Two and begins approaching.

Crashed Ship - Kendra

There isn't any initial sign of hostility, but when she gets low enough to see into the Bridge, she'll find a two-meter tall heavily armored figure grumbling over control panels and grumbling about trying to find Navigation. His armor was mostly bone-white from what she can tell, with deep green robes mixed in with a massive breastplate and pauldrons. A crested helm rests upon his head, and a giant armored fist slams down on a console as he curses, crushing it in a single blow before pausing. "Ah. There it is." He says, suddenly calm as he steps over a couple paces to activate a separate console. He doesn't look Kendra's way, but he seems to be aware of her presence when he next speaks. "You were able to access the hatch from the outside?" He asks, bending over the console with his armored back exposed to the woman.

Crashed Ship - Rein

There doesn't seem to be anything in the way of anti-tampering devices barring his way deeper into Engineering, but it'll take a few moments to open the access panel where he'll find conductive gel instead of true wiring. The moment he opens it, his ears may pick up a high-pitched whine, as if a chorus of bats were all using echolocation, coming from the chamber he'd just come through. The warm air seems to shift as well, rising as something begins to make its way slowly up from the depths.

Heart of the Jungle

The Goddess had bid him to Hunt, and so Glavvy did. If he could recognize that he was feeling trepidation however, he would. A Divine Beast such as the one she had pointed him towards for a trial was no small monster, and while Glavvy considered himself an Apex predator, these things were on another level entirely. One did not simply walk into their territory and survive, particularly if one antagonized them like he was being asked to. Not just that, but there would likely be other Hunters present the moment the fight started. A test, a trial, a hunt.

One that was more than likely to end with his own demise.

Still, The Voice in his head belonging to Her had bid him to seek it out, to prove himself, and so he would. But not without a bit of preparation. The beast gorged himself as he traveled to the jungle, feeding off of all the small prey he could find, drinking as much water as his belly could hold, and swallow as much small rock as possible to fill his gullet with fuel for his fire. Still, he felt unsettled and nervous as he finally breaches the Divine Beast's territory.

Now all that was left was to announce is presence.

He chooses a large boulder to scrape his tail-blade upon, sharpening it and producing a loud screech similar to that of metal on rock before he lets loose with a single loud roar of challenge. It was time to fight.

[Darkcomet]

[Crashed Ship - Two]

Two is careful not to stand directly in the way, concerned as she is about these things deciding she's food. They don't seem particularly enthusiastically animate, so she supposes she could just flee. But she's quite interested in figuring out what this information could mean.

Rudimentary nervous systems, but nothing that would suggest any level of intelligence or an ability to block me. Resembles Three's designs, only organic. But more importantly.

"...a cloaking device does nothing to a creature without eyes," she observes in a monotonous tone of voice, matter-of-fact and without emotion, dropping into her facade immediately on being spotted. She decloaks immediately after, revealing a decidedly unusual looking figure. Two being a nominal agent of Infinite Descent, the most militant corp in the Syndicate, her cybernetics make no pretense at looking normal at all, exposed hands matte-black and visibly capable of reconfiguring themselves, and feet resembling armored boots looking much the same, shimmering slightly as the cloaking field drops. The armor, light and bearing the same shimmer, seals before those extremities, and its helmet bears an odd visage with no visible means for the wearer to see. Instead, it appears cold, dark, and featureless, concealing systems to feed optical data back inside and an emergency backup to open up a visor in the event of a technical failure.

Which isn't going into the two pistols she has holstered, or the gun that looks suspiciously like a UDN PAT-4 anti-materiel rifle.

"Do you understand this?" She asks, ready to back off if it gets too close. Of course, she's also using those powers of hers to find the structural weaknesses in the spacesuits and the armor, in case she has to make a break for it.

[Reinholdt]

[Crashed Ship - Reinholdt]

What the wha-?! Where the hell are the wires?! What's with this gel nonsense? Did something leak into the internal workings of the ship and eat it from the inside? Is that what caused it to crash? There's been no evidence of that in the surrounding ar-
Oh ****.
There's a steady string of panicky curse words that Reinholdt thinks wholly to himself. Whatever he avoided was coming now. He had to get through this door and fast. But how? What the hell does one ever do with gel?

Alright just... Just... Uh, fry the whole thing! There's a 50:50 chance doing so will open the door. The other possibility being that it stays closed forever, but that's just a gamble he'll have to take. Then again, that comes with another gamble too. He's going to have to get the electricity from one of these cables somehow. He'll float about quickly, looking for a nearby damaged cable that he can yank free and jam into the gel in an attempt to overload the keypad. Rein makes sure to yank it free from the far end if possible so he has the length to loop it back to the door. If any exist. If not, time for a plan B.

[Zefir]

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.

Well that was kinda the big move from Ifrit. He grumbels as he lands back on the ground one of his arms haning down since the shots did harm him after all. With that he is more or less on a bad term. his summoner is going away, some trees might burn and the shooter appear to be unharmed. So Ifrit heads for Karl and Anchor catching up fast, at least to Karl who has slowed down a bit.

Karl in that time looks out for anythign to hide. Seeing a few rocks he points at them. "Let's take cover there for now."
He will then head to that place. He didn't notice the tremor since he likly counts that to the meteor attack from Ifrit.
"It looks like they are hunter with some fancy magic Items I never saw before." he says. He can share his view with the summoning, thought it's hard for him to walk and watch so he just got some images from those things.

[Morty]

[Hunting Party]

"A quiver isn't much, but something tells me there's more to it than meets the eye," Thariza says. "I'll have to experiment or have it looked at."

[bc56]

Hunting Party
Tethrik swings the glaive at one of the bodies experimentally. "Same with this, I assume. Certainly something up with it."

[billtodamax]

Hunting Party

As Tethrik swings the glaive that cold feeling will intensify in the handly as the tassel below the blade glows brightly. A cold wind, filled with shards of ice and snow surround the head of the glaive as he swings it - both obscuring its motion as well as embedding several chunks of ice in the poor corpse he bisects. Hooray, a cool glaive! The quiver continues to sit there boringly. Didn't you see the cool glaive? Do something interesting!

[Morty]

[Hunting Party]

Thariza takes one of the arrows from her own quiver and places it in the one she found, to see what happens.

[bc56]

Hunting Party

That was impressive," Tethrik comments. "I'm keeping this." He pulls open a pouch on his belt and slides the glaive into it, blade first. Surprisingly, despite it being longer than the bag is deep, the glaive slides in easily and has soon vanished entirely into the pouch.

[Recaiden]

Well that was kinda the big move from Ifrit. He grumbels as he lands back on the ground one of his arms haning down since the shots did harm him after all. With that he is more or less on a bad term. his summoner is going away, some trees might burn and the shooter appear to be unharmed. So Ifrit heads for Karl and Anchor catching up fast, at least to Karl who has slowed down a bit.

Karl in that time looks out for anythign to hide. Seeing a few rocks he points at them. "Let's take cover there for now."
He will then head to that place. He didn't notice the tremor since he likly counts that to the meteor attack from Ifrit.
"It looks like they are hunter with some fancy magic Items I never saw before." he says. He can share his view with the summoning, thought it's hard for him to walk and watch so he just got some images from those things.

Anchor follows Karl's direction and slides into place behind the rock outcropping, a little ahead of the summon and summoner.

Even though the meteor attack from Ifrit is done, the ground continues shaking. Very slight.

The hunter dashes away from the burning treeline, drops to a knee and takes a moment to reload their gun, sliding open the chamber and putting in another clip of odd bubble capsules that don't really look much like bullets.

"I think we need to get in closer. I won't be able to shoot while we're stuck back here, and my fire can't compare to Ifrit's." Anchor asks her shadow for (and receives) a dagger. Plain normal steel.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Crashed Ship - Kendra

Kendra chuckles to herself, amused.

"Yep. I'm good at getting into places." As well she should be, she's been doing it for years and years. "Now what, pray tell, are you looking for, good sir?"

[billtodamax]

Hunting Party

The glaive will happily descend into such storage.

When the arrow is lowered into the quiver a green spark rises from the bottom, encircling the arrow once or twice, before dissipating. The arrow is left with a faint green glow, just visible in the darkness of the spider's den.

There still remains the bronze cloak with the embroidery peacock and the dark metal bracers covered in spikes.

[Morty]

[Hunting Party]

Thariza will loose the arrow at a distant cavern wall or some other terrain feature. Probably best not to shoot it too close if she doesn't know what it'll do. She will then turn her attention to the bracers.

[bc56]

Hunting Party

Tethrik picks up the cloak. He doubts he'll ever need something like this, but tries it on anyway. Of course, it's likely to not fit, he's way larger than a normal human and has an extra set of arms.

[billtodamax]

Hunting Party

The arrow lodges in the dirt wall of the spider den, and from the impact pours a huge number of vines that tighten against the wall itself, as if trying to crush it together. Thariza will find (through any subsequent testing) that the quiver can enchant up to 5 arrows a day before its magic is spent, and that against a target with limbs or anything to grasp the vines will swiftly wind their way around them and attempt to pull them back towards the impact site - the upshot being that it will bind whatever she fires it at.

As to the bracers, they exude an air of alluring menace as she approaches them. If she puts them on she'll feel an untapped power coursing through them, just waiting to be released - and she'll feel certain in the knowledge that the power could be hers if she merely slams her fists together.

The cloak is quite comfortable, even if it does look a little silly on Tethrik. It doesn't seem to do... anything? Tethrik may well feel a bit let down. If Thariza looks at him, however, she'll see that the towering demon has been replaced by a dashing looking drow - deep blue skin complimented wonderfully by the bronze cloak he wears, along with a white poet shirt partially concealed by an ostentatious red vest. The pants are deep black and skin tight, while the look is completed by a wonderful cavalier hat adorned with three peacock feathers.

[bc56]

Hunting Party

"Wow, I'm surprised that fits. How does it look?" Tethrik turns to Thariza, unaware of the illusion on him.

[Morty]

[Hunting Party]

Before Thariza has a chance to try how the bracers work, Tethrik asks his question. At least she assumes it has to be him, by process of elimination.

"It makes you look like a... what do they call those skinny human-looking people with pointed ears? Elves, I think. You look like one now, with blue skin and really showy clothing."

[UncleWolf]

Crashed Ship - Kendra

"The Eyes of Gork and Mork see you. Call me Angel Slayer." The man says before holding up a small dataslate. "Navigation data. This is an interdimensional ore trawler and...well, it seems to have dealt in other less savory goods. The crew trafficked people. I need to find out where I am now and where we came through. By chance, would you happen to have any medical skills? My own are less than adequate." Angel Slayer himself didn't look wounded at least.

Crashed Ship - Two

The armored slime holds up an open palm, showing that it has no weapon wielded. Then...it gives her a thumbs up. It seems to understand her at least. As far as structural weaknesses go, the space suits aren't all that tough. They're made for basic exterior work in hostile environments and in a hard vacuum, but they aren't exactly armored or impervious. The faceplates could be shattered with enough force, joints sliced through, and so on. It all mostly depends on the weapons used.

The plate however...it is interesting. It seems to be mostly decorative and would be far too heavy for most people, but the slime wears it with ease. The metal is a super-condensed mixture of metals, all naturally found in meteors. Likely it was a display piece or status symbol, but it'd turn aside blade and bullet and laser with ease. The joints were guarded well but had chain link made of the same material. The joints would be weaker, but it was still a work of art overall.

Crashed Ship - Rein

There isn't a busted cable anywhere, but there are a couple smaller electrical cables with some good give to them that are easy enough to rip out of their sockets if he pulls hard enough. Once he does, the coinflip of fate seems to be in his favor and the door opens. Of course, Fate is fickle and the doors seem like they're staying open too. An acrid scent comes on the warm breeze that flows from behind him once the door is open, smelling like formic acid. A lot of formic acid. Nothing comes up out of the hole just yet though. Either it was deeper than it looked or it was taking its sweet time about it.

On the other side, Rein will find a well lit hallway smelling of oil and covered in a faint sheen of it to preserve the cabling and pipes that run the entire length. The other end of the hallway is open with a small door entering a new chamber. Inside that, he might just find what he's looking for. Ducts and cables larger than he is and smaller than a loaf of bread and everything in-between snake along the walls up to the ceiling and down over the floor. In the very center of the room is a small fridge-sized chamber made of dull yellow glass. A small sliver of dark crystal, perhaps a hand in height, hangs suspended between several nodes that seem to be crackling and sucking energy from it. Some of the cables and piping seem crushed, bent, or otherwise in such a state of disrepair that they are unusable, likely leading to power outages in different areas of the ship.

The chamber is anchored to the floor by welds and massive rivets, and a small control panel rests against it.

Crashed Ship - Troublesome Trio

The spear-wielder will find it far harder to get a good bead on Glavvy than the monster's great side would lend one to believe. He doesn't stop moving after his tail swipe and takes to hard steps forward only to leap into the air and twist around. His heavy tail, the bladed end larger than a person is tall, swings down in a single mighty chop to try and kill Ravanys. Once it hits the flooring, there's an eruption of flame at the impact as well, so even rolling out of the way is likely to set clothes on fire and cause severe burns. Should Violet be able to avoid trampling feet and withstand the heat radiating from the Glavenus' body enough to stab the spear into his underside, she'll find that it is relatively easy to get through but there's a lot of flesh and hide to get through so such a wound is merely an inconvenience on its own despite being deep.

[billtodamax]

Crashed Ship - Trio

Violet manages to duck and dodge around the feet as Glavvy moves, keeping up with the beast long enough to jam her spear upwards. She'll be thrown away from the beast when it jumps, swearing as the flames lick at her arms. If the spear does stab into the beast it'll lodge there as it jumps away, torn from her hands as she copes with the burns.

Son of a... She says to herself, pulling herself behind a crate and grabbing some ointment out of her bag, slathering it on her arms and swearing repeatedly. Hopefully the other two dropkicks in here can take care of themselves while she heals up.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Crashed Ship - Kendra

"I can do field first aid, and have some supernatural healing capacity, though a lot will depend on the severity of the injury," Kendra says, her expression growing more practical. "As far as where we are, this is the Nexus, a sort of interdimensional crossroads of sorts." She glances around. "If you have someone who's injured, we should probably get to them quickly."

[bc56]

Hunting Party

Tethrik looks puzzled. "I couldn't tell. What happens if I do this?" He pulls a skull off one of the corpses and holds it above his head, a good 12 feet off the floor, wondering if it appears to float in midair or if it appears to be in the Drow's hand.

[billtodamax]

Hunting Party

The drow detaches a skull easily from a nearby skeleton and hold it above its head. It sits firmly in the drow's hand.

Very rude of you Tethrik! No respect for the dead.

[KerfuffleMach2]

[Crashed Ship - Trio]

Through the halfling waking her up and her own rolling, Ravanys manages to dodge the tail. No bisected tiefling's today.

As for the fire...

As soon as the flames get close enough to do damage, the tattoos on Ravanys' arms and legs flare to life with light. Ravanys snaps her hands out in front of her, and the flames stop inches from them, not seeming to have any effect on her. Instead, they move past, going around her as if an invisible shield were there. his should also protect Anulhi from the heat.

Once the wave of flames disperse, the tattoos die out, fading back to their original color. The tiefling gives Anulhi a nod. Thanks. Then she takes the offered potion and downs it, tossing the empty flask aside.

She stands up, feeling the damage from the flying metal fade quickly. Alright, you bastard. She summons more ammo for her gun. It looks different this time, though.

She quickly aims and fires at its side again. This time, she's firing slugs filled with liquid nitrogen.

Might do a bit more damage than the electricity.

[Morty]

[Hunting Party]

"You just look like you're holding it above your head," Thariza says, walking around Tethrik. "This is a pretty strong illusion."

[UncleWolf]

Crashed Ship - Troublesome Trio

The Glavenus' tail is stuck for just a moment, but when he sees that his target is reloading a shotgun, he moves. This was his second time facing a dreaded Boomstick and this one almost certainly hurt more than his first encounter. He hates Boomsticks. But then again, he seems to hate quite a few things.

His tail gets ripped out of the ground and he keeps his remaining eye on the shotgun before juking heavily to the side at the last possible second to avoid the shot. His momentum carries him directly towards Violet and he moves low to the ground to try and keep out of the firing line as well as scrape the spear out from his belly. He moves fast and hard, but instead of ramming his shoulder into Violet, he twists at the last possible second to lunge his jaws towards her by slamming a clawed foot into the flooring and making himself spin.

The twisting causes his entire body to spin, sending his tail into a horizontal swipe at the other two. They'll have to contend with the flames more than the physical tail itself though as the swipe above the halfling's height and easy to dodge under. If the three aren't careful overall though, the grated flooring is getting quite messed up by the monster's movements and his clawed feet have been tearing holes and making it hard to move on.

At least this means that his back is to the Halfling and Tiefling afterwards.

Crashed Ship - Kendra

"If you can treat severe cold enough to get someone else out of here, that will suffice. She was put into cryo-sleep before the Devourer woke. We must hurry however. It will not be long before we are hunted." He explains before reaching up to take off is helm to sniff the air. Angel Slayer appears to be an Orc of some type with a square jaw, two small tusks, and with one green eye and one yellow. "...the air outside. This is a place of violence and battle. A place of Hunting and change." He states before pulling the helm back on. "I would hope that you can fight once we are cornered." He says, shoving aside a chair as he makes his way towards the door leading deeper into the ship. The chair had been bolted to the floor, but a casual push was all it had taken for him to rip it out.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Crashed Ship - Kendra

Kendra chuckles to herself for a moment, before nodding as she falls into step with Angel Slayer. The size difference between them doesn't seem to affect her at all, suggesting she's used to working with people of varying sizes and races, since she shows no reaction to his revealing his race. Her expression grows more serious when he mentions the Devourer.

"I am more than capable of holding my own in a fight. But what's this Devourer you mentioned earlier?"

[KerfuffleMach2]

[Crashed Ship - Trio]

Ravanys swears when the beast dodges her shot. Thing was smart. And quick.

Ravanys loads up the gun again. She's about to line up another shot when the tail enters her peripheral vision.

She drops into a crouch, her tattoos lighting up again as she moves to block the flames from harming her. Once the tail's past, she brings the gun up, aims at its back, and fires the liquid nitrogen shells again.