The Hunting Grounds IV: Drops Contain 0% RNG

[bc56]

Hunting party

"Very useful." Tethrik appreciates this. It will make it so much easier for him to blend in with humanoids. "What'd you find?"

[billtodamax]

Crashed Ship - Trio

The ointment is dropped back in her bag as she turns and sees the Glavenus lunge back towards her. She springs backwards a step, just out of range of the bite, then pivots and springs away again, onto the side of a crate and then a final time back towards the Glavenus, leaping above his head. If she manages to get on she'll try to cling onto the top of the beast's head while working her way toward the damaged eye, hoping to get into position to start seriously hurting the thing.

THROW ME MY SPEAR! Violet yells to the pair, and they'll see that the beast easily managed to dislodge the spear from its gut - it's now sitting on the floor right near the beast's tail. Come on Anulhi, just throw that thing up to her. It looks safe enough!

[Reinholdt]

[Crashed Ship - Rein]

Reinholdt hesitates briefly. There was value in a pre-emptive strike. But maybe that'd just rile the creature(s). He didn't have enough information to know if it'd be effective. Plus fighting should usually be reserved until other options are exhausted. Once it's upon him, tooth and claw it is, but until then, best to try and evade.

So he does float on until reaching what appears to be the central power core, attempting to maybe close this door behind him. It's smaller and less likely to keep anything out, but every little bit helps. Plus it'll give him the peace of mind to examine this area in detail. What a place it is too! Look at all these wires. And that shiny. That shimmering jewel of power just begging to find a new home. Rein licks his lips a little.

Cautiously now. Inspect. Observe. Everything more or less appears to be working normally, minus the cables that need to be fixed, rerouted, and replaced. That's a good sign. Check the control panel. More of that alien language? Rein doesn't have time to decipher and decode an entire language. Blech. Still, there might be a power down lever somewhere. He won't be able to take the thing while it's active. Plus he needs to determine containment measures. To that end, he'll put the back of his hand right up near the yellow glass, trying to get a feel for if it's cold, hot, covered in static, or none of the above.

[Darkcomet]

[Crashed Ship - Two]

Two takes note of the composition of that armor, considering how to go about this. The understanding of this language, to say nothing of nonverbal communication, says a lot of things. "Do you know where I can find a working computer or, failing that, a map? The former would also aid communication, if you can read and type, but it will help me with my exploration either way."

[Morty]

[Hunting party]

"I found these bracers. It feels like something is going to happen once I slam my fists together." Thariza raises her hands slightly to demonstrate. "Which I also feel like I should try outside."

She steps away from the cramped spider cave and slams her fists together as she feels she should.

[billtodamax]

Hunting Party

Shadows burst from the bracers, swirling around Thariza and lifting her up as they coalesce underneath her, taking the form of a black motorbike. Thariza will find that - even if she hasn't ridden one before - she'll have an instinctive knowledge of how the bike works. She'll also feel that wearing a leather jacket would be appropriate - but it's not a particularly strong compulsion, just like it's a good idea.

Sorry Tethrik! She got the coolest magic item. Enjoy your glaive, nerd.

[bc56]

Hunting Party

"Very nice." Tethrik removes the cape as he speaks, stuffing it into the bag with the glaive. He's not disappointed with his items at all, the cape especially will be useful. "I think our work here is done."

[Zefir]

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.

"The question is how." Karl replies. "I mean Ifrit is hurt and the enemies seem to have the advantage in range. Any ide... Wait a moment! Is the earth still shaking?"

"Indeed, but that can't be the outcome of my attack. I can tell that the ground should have taken the hit. It must be something else." Ifrit explains.

"Oh s***. Best timing ever." Karl says. "Any ideas?"

Karl looks around, maybe the birds tell him where it somes from. Not that he can do much about it now.

[Morty]

[Hunting Party]

Thariza wanders around the bike, clearly impressed.

"It's not Iron Legion work, but it's not bad, either," she says. "Granted, the Iron Legion doesn't exactly build vehicles this small. This should make getting around a lot easier."

[Hattish Thing]

[Crashed Ship - Trio]

Now thoroughly convinced that this creature was far beyond their ability to handle, Anulhi reaches for a handful of silver bars before stuffing them into her magical knapsack. After this very important bit of business is done and over with, she tugs at Ravanys, simultaneously reaching for a murky gray potion held at her waist. "We can't stay here, it's too much!"

"Let's regroup, find another way in!"

--

Should Ravanys agree, Anulhi will crack the glass vial against the ground, releasing a thick smoke which provides cover and turns the pair invisible.

[Recaiden]

"The question is how." Karl replies. "I mean Ifrit is hurt and the enemies seem to have the advantage in range. Any ide... Wait a moment! Is the earth still shaking?"

"Indeed, but that can't be the outcome of my attack. I can tell that the ground should have taken the hit. It must be something else." Ifrit explains.

"Oh s***. Best timing ever." Karl says. "Any ideas?"

Karl looks around, maybe the birds tell him where it somes from. Not that he can do much about it now.

The shaking of the earth grows slowly but steadily stronger. It's coming from the opposite side of the rocks as the shooter.

"I've got a spell that should at least distract the hunter; Ifrit, you should be able to go around the rocks and get close enough. Karl, maybe figure out what that quake is coming from."

Anchor peeks out from behind the rocks and speaks a magic word, 'p̢̢̻̩͐̄ͤ ͦ̓ͩ̀͏̠s̎͐ͤ͂͏̰͎͚̰͙̜͖ ̴̶̼̣̣͉̔͞l̝̝͖̹̗͍̎͛ͨ̕͝', that cuts through the air with its sharpness. The hunter seizes up, one hand falling from their gun, evidently quite hurt. And then, while they recover, Anchor is darting from tree to tree, closer to the scorched zone.
Hopefully Ifrit is coming along too.

[bc56]

Hunting Party

"In some ways I envy you, but in others, the cloak is the most useful item I've ever received. Do you know how hard it is for someone like me to get a nice glass of blood without some upstart demon slayer trying to chop off their head?" Tethrik looks at the monstrous corpse of the spider. "I'm hungry, and I don't think it would mind. You might want to look away." He descends upon the corpse and begins tearing it apart, consuming the creature's raw flesh.

[UncleWolf]

Crashed Ship - Trio

The monster staggers forward when his back his hit by the shells and while the liquid nitrogen will rapidly bubble off of such a hot creature, the hit was painful and darkened a large swath of hide to an acceptable level. It means that he can't avoid the troublesome climber as well, but it also really angered him. He stomps hard, breathes in despite the woman clinging to his face and lets loose with a truly earth-shaking roar. Outside of confined spaces it would be enough to make people flinch and cause ears to ring. Inside the cargo hold however, the echoing roar almost has physical force to it, capable of knocking air from lungs, bursting ear drums if someone is particularly unlucky, and at the very least is deafening and dizzying.

It is also more than likely going to attract attention.

Crashed Ship - Two

The slime appears to think for a moment before shaking its head. Even as it shakes the head however, it stops, seeming to get an idea. It holds out its hand, causing a small loop of slime to form and then harden into an ear piece. It mimes putting it around her ear before tapping its head and mimicking speech with a hand.

But then a distant roar can be heard and it pauses, looking towards the rear of the ship. Whatever it was, the slime was now wary and gestures for Two to hurry.

Crashed Ship - Kendra

"Simply put, it is a swarm entity." Angel Slayer says, opening the blast door to step into a corridor on the other side. "They picked it up off an asteroid. Just a handful at first with a single Core mind. Quite like a creature from my homeworld, to be honest. They seemed to want to sell it as exotic game but it got loose when it grew too many too quickly. Feeds off of flesh and metal both. I've no clue how large it is now, but if it is loose it is only a matter of time before this entire ship is consumed. Unless it has departed already of course. In which case I pity this place." He adds with a shrug.

"Also, should you plan to stab me in the back, I will give you one chance to do so. Impress me and you will be forgiven. Your decision of when and how." He says. He sounds quite used to such.

Crashed Ship - Rein

Thankfully the smaller door does close behind him, cutting off that echolocation noise and the smell of formic acid. The panel is indeed in that alien language and while there are a couple levers with a dozen positions each those are also marked with the same language. Both are currently in the top position however. The glass is both luke-warm and has static to the touch however, much like those fancy electric glow-balls that arc purple electricity to your hand when you touch them. There was almost certainly heat and current inside the dome, but it isn't likely too much all at once.

The cables look like they can be unscrewed from the top half of the chamber at least, so if he has enough brute force or at least something like a good pipe wrench, they can be undone. The question then becomes whether it is a good idea to do it while everything is active or not.

(It should also be noted that there are two other hatches exiting the entire room. One is in the ceiling and looks like a maintenance tunnel during Zero-G, and the other is a door similar to the one he'd come through leading to the other side of the ship.)

[Reinholdt]

[Crashed Ship - Rein]

Hmm, the crystal doesn't seem to be the most dangerous power source he's encountered, but still not a good idea to reach in with his bare paws to pluck it out. Time for some good old information gathering trial and error.

Reinholdt turns his attention to the levers. Grabbing hold of the left one, he attempts to lower it about a third of the way from the top to see if there's any visible or audibl-GAH! What the hell was that roar?! Already on edge, the startled Rein probably lowers the lever much lower than he intended, going about two thirds down instead of just one.

[billtodamax]

Crashed Ship - Trio

Anulhi! Anulhi smoke bombs are not throwing Violet her spear back! That's pretty much the opposite thing!

Oh god there are more important things to worry about how is he so loud! Violet covers her ears as best she can with one arm while the other clings onto Glavvy for dear life. She blearily opens her eyes as Glavvy finishes his roar, looking around slightly confused. Why was she... oh right, dinosaur. A little bit unsteadier than perhaps she had been before, Violet tries to slowly maneouvre around the giant head, making her way to that damaged eye. Hopefully she can start kicking it or something. God this would be easier with her spear.

Hey why can't she hear anything?

[KerfuffleMach2]

[Crashed Ship - Trio]

Ravanys glances at Anulhi as she reloads her gun. And have this thing chase us out? She shakes her horned head. Nope. Not a good idea. Plus, it pissed me off now.

Stupid dino thing throwing metal bars as a weapon. That freaking hurt!

Ravanys was about to take aim again when she noticed Violet's spear lying on the ground. Hm. Might wanna get that to the maniac.

The tiefling was about to toss it to Violet when the beast let out a massive roar. Ravanys suddenly bends over, quickly covering her ears. Her eye is screwed shut and her teeth are gritted in pain.

When the roar is over, Ravanys drops her hands an opens her eye, blinking a few times. Holy crap, that sucked. She shakes her head a bit, trying to regain her composure.

Right. Spear.

Ravanys staggers towards the weapon, her steps becoming more steady as she goes. When she reaches it, she'll shout to Violet, then throw it towards the beast. She's better at shooting than throwing, so she's hoping she doesn't hit Violet.

Wait. Why didn't she hear her own shout?

[Hattish Thing]

[Crashed Ship - Trio]

As she's not wielding any sort of weapon, Anulhi has enough time to cover her ears, though she still cries out as the thing lets forth a mighty roar. She curses quietly as she realizes Ravanys has continued to fight, and begins to quickly ponder what she could possibly do to contribute without breaking invisibility.

Finally, she retrieves a little blue vial before passing it along.

"Here, drink this!"

"It'll help with accuracy, you shouldn't miss!"

--

Should she have difficult hearing, Anulhi will just tug at her side and nod towards the vial.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Crashed Ship - Kendra

Kendra raises an eyebrow, but looks relieved nonetheless as she falls into step with Angel Slayer. As she moves, he catches glimpses of her armor past the robe/cloak, a form-fitting, vaguely futuristic affair. He also might note that her ears are rounded domes, hidden mostly by the mass of her dark hair.

"I see. Well, if we run into it, we run into it. Perhaps together we can take it down." She seems unworried about it, at least. "As far as betraying you goes, you have yet to give me a reason to attack you. As long as you don't give me a reason to, I won't. Acceptable?"

[Zefir]

The shaking of the earth grows slowly but steadily stronger. It's coming from the opposite side of the rocks as the shooter.

"I've got a spell that should at least distract the hunter; Ifrit, you should be able to go around the rocks and get close enough. Karl, maybe figure out what that quake is coming from."

Anchor peeks out from behind the rocks and speaks a magic word, 'p̢̢̻̩͐̄ͤ ͦ̓ͩ̀͏̠s̎͐ͤ͂͏̰͎͚̰͙̜͖ ̴̶̼̣̣͉̔͞l̝̝͖̹̗͍̎͛ͨ̕͝', that cuts through the air with its sharpness. The hunter seizes up, one hand falling from their gun, evidently quite hurt. And then, while they recover, Anchor is darting from tree to tree, closer to the scorched zone.
Hopefully Ifrit is coming along too.

[Forest]

Karl just nods. Not that he is really up to fight anything that makes much noise. As anchor goes of Ifrit follows, to. his one arm is hurt so he swings the other one throwing fireballs at the snipers to keep them from recovering to early. Those fireballs are more nasty then deadly. Let's hope he can get close.

Karl on the other hand heads for the next high position to get a better look at the incoming sound. Maybe climb a tree or something.

[Darkcomet]

[Crashed Ship - Two]

"That sound is consistent with an extremely powerful animal roar - specific units of measurement variable depending on origin and irrelevant pending further data on your understanding and background - echoing through the ship. It appears far enough away that it is not a current danger, but those nearby may suffer hearing damage," Two rattles off, more for her odd conversational partner's benefit than anything. Rather than take its suggestion outright, though, she instead takes out a small commbead and holds it out. "This will link to my comms rather than requiring a direct interface. Given the risks of unknown biochemical and technological interactions, it may be safer." A pause.

"No offense meant."

All in that same monotone.

[Recaiden]

Karl just nods. Not that he is really up to fight anything that makes much noise. As anchor goes of Ifrit follows, to. his one arm is hurt so he swings the other one throwing fireballs at the snipers to keep them from recovering to early. Those fireballs are more nasty then deadly. Let's hope he can get close.

Karl on the other hand heads for the next high position to get a better look at the incoming sound. Maybe climb a tree or something.

Between Anchor's spell and having to dodge fireballs from Ifrit, the sniper is kept off balance and doesn't get in another shot. They manage to stow the gun away, strapped to their back where it belongs. They face the pair with open (well, heavy gauntlet-covered) hands, apparently thinking to defeat Ifrit in hand-to-hand combat.

From up in the tree, Karl can see that the incoming thing is underground, burrowing slowly but steadily closer, upsetting the surface above it like an animal running around under a blanket. It must be really big. But luckily(?) it's not moving very fast.

[Zefir]

Between Anchor's spell and having to dodge fireballs from Ifrit, the sniper is kept off balance and doesn't get in another shot. They manage to stow the gun away, strapped to their back where it belongs. They face the pair with open (well, heavy gauntlet-covered) hands, apparently thinking to defeat Ifrit in hand-to-hand combat.

From up in the tree, Karl can see that the incoming thing is underground, burrowing slowly but steadily closer, upsetting the surface above it like an animal running around under a blanket. It must be really big. But luckily(?) it's not moving very fast.

Ifrit is weakened. so as he is in meele range he swings his hand trying to rip one shooter open with his clawed hand. He is strong, but without both arms he is slowed down.

Kalr jumps down from the tree mumbeling something like "Oh, god! Oh, god! Oh, god!" and he tries to reach his companions to warn them. "Somethings coming!" he tries ti call on his way.

[Recaiden]

The shooter tries to duck out of the way, but even though Ifrit's slow, his reach is more than was expected. His claws rip away part of their armor and draw a little blood. Looks like a normal human arm under there, with some dark lines on it.

They manage to swing back at Ifrit with their own claws. Not as strong, but very sharp.

Anchor turns to listen to Karl and doesn't get anything in. "What is it?"

[UncleWolf]

Crashed Ship - Rein

Thwoooooooooooom...

The lever falls down and the energy in the air and chamber falls just as quickly. The primary lights dim, the ship's hum lessens, and it seems that the trick worked! But it also means that without the hum he'll hear scratching against the walls as if something is attempting to claws its way through all over the place. Whatever was following him seemed to be searching for other openings rather than just the sealed doorway.

Crashed Ship - Two

The suit of armor seems a bit confused by the offering but still takes it. It holds it up to the helm, as if looking at it before several thin slivers of slime push into the gift and try to hijack it. If it isn't trapped and the slime is capable of taking it over, it gives a small humming for a moment before "speaking".

Can...understand

It isn't so much as talking as forcing vibration to speak for it, like the inside of a speaker or set of headphones. And then of course, the power drains and the lights go mostly dim. The slime colony pauses then, coming to a decision. Must hurry away. Containment cells will fail with this. Prisoners loose.

Crashed Ship - Kendra

As the lights dim, Angel Slayer pauses at a door when the diminished power can't open it. with a growl he just digs his fingers in and shoves it open forcibly into the wall. "Power's shutting down. We need to move quickly now." He advises as he takes another turn. "On a big ship like this, Life Support shutting down means areas are going to fill up with fumes and others are going to become full of unbreathable air since nothing will circulate if it isn't open." He adds. Another turn later however and they find themselves at a long chamber filled with cryo chambers along the floor. "Eighth down on the right." He'll pass by other chambers, even though they're filled with people, and reaches one that holds a rather plain looking human woman. She's at the upper end of middle aged, pale, and has s long mop of red and brown hair.

She also wears a prisoner's jumpsuit.

Despite all of that, Angel Slayer will go about opening it up unless Kendra chooses to stop him.

Crashed Ship - Trio

The few lights in the cargo bay dim suddenly, accentuating the monster's glowing heat while making it more difficult for the trio to hunt and see other things. The monster could be troubled, but he's a bit distracted by the upstart crawling on his face. Obviously there was only one way to fix it. Whether she catches the spear or not, his rider might find herself in trouble as he bashes his head against the grated flooring on that side, followed by scraping it along. His fangs catch the steel grating and rips another gouge out of it, making the flooring that much more hazardous.

[Darkcomet]

[Crashed Ship - Two]

Two...does not seem immediately concerned, and remains unmoving. If this wasn't a slime colony wearing a suit of armor it might even seem off how still she seems, but it probably doesn't notice the oddity. "Prisoners have an extremely low likelihood of survival, given the failure of environmental systems. They may survive if they reach environmental gear such as the spacesuits you have. I will be safe for some time. But what type of prisoners are they and why should we be concerned?"

Though despite her nonchalance, she does re-engage her stealth systems, fading from normal sight.

[billtodamax]

Crashed Ship - Trio

Haha! Finally she's gotten around to the bum eye! Now where are those bums with her spear...

Violet turns to see the spear hurtling towards her, and in a panic lets go of the monster's face to grab onto it as it flies at her. Watch where you're throwing that! She yells, still entirely deaf, as Glavvy starts shifting beneath her. It throws off the grip she had with her legs and she can't move quickly enough as the beast slams into the ground, smashing her into the floor. She falls off immediately, left leg twisted badly and bleeding profusely all down the side. She's letting loose a torrent of unsatisfying swears as she drags herself away from Glavenus with her spear.

[Reinholdt]

[Crashed Ship - Rein]

Oh geeze oh geeze oh geeze...

Alright, quick, calmly, efficiently. Let the fear guide, not overwhelm. Deep breaths. There was only a matter of time before It found some way in. Let's be out of here when it does. It's still at the walls and not above him. There's still time.

First he'll open the rear hatch and the ceiling maintenance hatch before there's no power left to do so. Maybe some of these doors have emergency power and it's unnecessary, he doesn't know. On his way back to the control panel, he'll whip out a fancy, but probably pretty dorky, headband light and turn it on so he can see what he's doing when things get bad. Then it's time to lower that lever completely and shut that power off.

This way he can try to get one of those cables undone from the top of the glass without worry about the power being on. This is probably the trickiest part of his plan. He's not exactly known for being strong. Stubborn maybe, and sometimes that's enough to get things loose. But in terms of tools, the best he can use is a crowbar, which he does have and doesn't hesitate to use if he thinks it'll help. If that still doesn't work, there's always the try to smash the glass with a crowbar plan. Crude, but sometimes effective. Whatever it takes to find that hole in the containment unit he can reach his arm through.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Crashed Ship - Kendra

Kendra follow Angel Slayer and listens to what he's saying, shrugging when they reach the right pod.

"With the other holes in the hull, that might not be an issue anymore, at least, not for certain areas," she comments dryly, looking on as he begins to open the pod. "Anyone else we need to pull out while we're here?"

[KerfuffleMach2]

[Crashed Ship - Trio]

Ravanys winces a bit as she sees Violet fall off the creature. And not land well.

She turns back to Anulhi, about to ask for a healing potion for the crazy woman. The halfling is offering her a vial and saying something. Still can't quite make out what it is. But, the woman hasn't led Ravanys wrong yet.

She'll take the vial and down it. See about healing psycho over there if you can.

Wow.

Ravanys can see so much better now.

The tiefling brings her gun up, taking careful aim for the beast's head now. Whatever that vial was, it seems to be helping Ravanys keep a steady aim. She lets out a breath and squeezes the trigger.

[Zefir]

The shooter tries to duck out of the way, but even though Ifrit's slow, his reach is more than was expected. His claws rip away part of their armor and draw a little blood. Looks like a normal human arm under there, with some dark lines on it.

They manage to swing back at Ifrit with their own claws. Not as strong, but very sharp.

Anchor turns to listen to Karl and doesn't get anything in. "What is it?"

[Forest]

Ifrit will try to parry them with his own claws, but he is to slow to het it all and het's cut. Suddendly he moves the hurt arm and tries to grab the shooter. It's very painfull but if he suceeds he can rest soon.

"Something underground swimming through the it like a fish in the water or something under the sand." Karl replies as he runs closer.