The Hunting Grounds IV: Drops Contain 0% RNG

[Reinholdt]

[Crashed Ship - Rein]

"Seems fair to me. I might have done the same." If the roles were reversed at any rate.

But now there are some options! Phew. Just being able to see outside is a big relief. "Ohh. The pod! Let's take the pod! I've never taken an escape pod before." Reinholdt becomes a lot more vibrant suddenly. It's a new experience! Those are rare and valuable and worth appreciating.

Presuming she opens up the pod and nothing inside jumps out and latches onto his face, Rein will step inside and buckle in for what he presumes to be a bumpy ride. "I'm Reinholdt, by the way. What's your name?" He asks. It's probably rude just thinking of her as 'that drider'.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Crashed Ship - Kendra

Kendra seems to be perfectly fine with this. After all, once the pair are out of danger, she's free to use her more powerful abilities. Wind swirls around her for a moment as she lifts off the deck, and stretches out a hand. Flames spew forth in a whirling cone that she sweeps over the swarm, keeping them at bay while Angel Slayer and the woman ascend. This isn't one of her more powerful abilities, but at least it might deter the swarm for a bit longer.....

[Halae]

[Heart of the Jungle]

The presence above continues trying to manipulate the winds, but absent anything else, shifts to scanning in the meantime, seeking a more specific target. The heat from the Glavenus tail might just be a dead giveaway.

Heart of the Jungle

Several of the roots puncture Glavvy's hide, deep enough to cause pain and bleeding, but they'll find that his body is too hot to stay in as they'll burn. Any other entity would probably be interested in what was inside the tree, but he moves on and continues charging. He swings his tail around, trying to cut another tree or two down as he starts his path of destruction towards the center of the Heart.

[Heart of the Jungle]

Glavvy's animal cunning may let him realize that the creature takes a few potshots at him as he goes towards the jungle's heart - whether it's because the creature is concerned about Glavvy going there or it can't move very far is unclear, but it clearly doesn't want the massive beast going in that direction.

The same pulse in the jungle triggers once, and then the trees around Glavvy have eyes again, and a wall of wood starts to form, starting in the direction he'd been going. Meanwhile, blades jut out from the trees, sharp and deadly, and attempt to skewer the large Glavenus prodding at him more strongly, but much less precise than the wooden needles had been. one of those blades is formed out of an entire tree!

[UncleWolf]

Heart of the Jungle

Glavvy's hide is shredded in some places by the thorns sprouting all over, far too many for him to avoid, and the last extra-large one digs deep into his flank before it gets stopped by his dense musculature and ribcage. He roars and twists, biting down on the thorn to snap it or yank it out of him before he takes stock of the situation. He knew he had to go further, but he wasn't going to get there at this rate. Every instinct kept yelling at him to run away, that he'd already taken enough damage and that it would take a long time for him to recover the blood he was already losing.

Instead, he just growls and raises his tail, gripping the blade in his fangs. His muscles tighten all along his body, audibly if a person was close enough, and he takes a moment to apply as much tension to his body as possible. The beast for the jungle is going to have a moment to react before he releases his tail in full force. His fangs scrape the edge, cleaning it and reigniting it as he spins forward a step and a half. His tail sweeps out, unleashing a short wave of flame ahead of the tip as the edge swings out to try and cleave all the vegetation around him. He leaves blood drops with every step he takes however, and he could feel his time becoming more limited.


Crashed Ship - Two


Orthos seems to stare at Two for a bit before literally facepalming and letting out a psychic sigh. "Why does everyone assume I want to kill them?" He asks before looking at the slime mold. "Is it the suit? It's the suit, isn't it? Should I switch to navy? White? Pinstripe? I don't know, but every time I just say hello, it seems like everyone assumes I want to kill them. I don't even carry a gun." He says, sounding both weary of it and more than a little annoyed.

"I'm not here to kill you or stop you from doing...anything, really. I came here to take stock of the situation and advise if need be. My own organization is fairly small, even if it is well funded, so it lacks the manpower to institute a full quarantine of this ship. What I'm saying is don't enter the parts of the ship that you can't get data on. Some things simply don't care whether or not you're a pseudo-deity or part of one. If you insist however, I can call in a team to provide assistance. Your group arrived first, so I'll let you make your choice. We'll just be here to pick up the pieces of necessary."

After that though, he uses his cane to tap a ceiling light. "I will also add that if you were paying attention, the power core has been removed from the ship. There seems to be a secondary and tertiary power source, but I wouldn't say they'd likely be truly volatile." True to his word, a bit of searching will tell her that the primary core has been removed but there were two smaller power cores in the blueprints. One seemed to be at 80% stability and holding steady but the other was at 60% and slowly entering a phase where it would be forced to automatically shut down. It'd take a few days for it to drain at this rate, but without the primary core online many of the ship's functions were shut down to lessen the drain.

Crashed Ship - Rein

The drider opens the pod and all that wriggles within is the crash webbing that's spread around to help prevent equipment from being thrown around. "M'name is Leap." She mutters, frowning as she fiddles with the keypad. A moment later there is a beep before a loud clunk rings through the hull. "Restraints are now disengaged. We can pull the lever as soon as you're ready." She says as she skitters on board and begins webbing herself and her payload to the floor of the escape pod.

Whenever he is ready, all Rein has to do is strap himself in and pull the Big Red Lever that looks like it shouldn't be pulled. When he does so, it is more than likely that he'll black out from G-forces but he'll at least get a few moments of intense pressure and one heck of a view out of the viewing port. The ship seems to go miles away in just a few heartbeats and far below...

If he had any worries about Leap attacking him while he was out though, he doesn't need to worry since she's out cold in the crash webbing as the escape pod flies.

Crashed Ship - Kendra

The flames help ward off the swarm when combined with the wind, but there's so much that they still keep trying to encroach, using the bodies of the dead to protect the rest. To make matters worse, several begin to spray acid into the wind. It is powerful enough to eat away at metal, which is quite evident as other parts of the swarm give chase to Angel Slayer and the scientist by chewing through the front of the ship. If she's not careful, it'll be just a couple seconds longer before the swarm completely surrounds her in a dome.

[Darkcomet]

[Crashed Ship - Two]

"I was hoping for a more volatile secondary system. Unfortunate." A pause. "Also, I figured you were going to try to kill me because you're obviously a member of a clandestine intelligence agency of some variety and I'm poking things you don't want poked. In retrospect, basing this on my available data may be flawed. But, back to the matter at hand."

Two holsters her pistols again. "Long-term solutions to this situation are difficult. The quarantine will help in the short term, but I'm afraid a long term Chimera Syndicate presence will draw attention. Not that we can't enforce the quarantine, but interference is likely, whether internal or external. A way to destroy it would be ideal, but is unavailable outside of weaponry that would draw far more attention. Unless I take one of several overwhelmingly stupid options that you would and should in no way support like getting an enemy of mine to do it or finding and stealing an appropriate bomb." She idly checks if she can find any smaller structural weakpoints that might cause a chain reaction with less over the top munitions.

[Heart of the Jungle]

Nothing seems to happen, though by this point it's likely that the presence above has an eye on things.

[Zefir]

Luckily, the centipede has lots of creases and protrusions. Karl's halberd catches around one of the monster's legs and Keeps himself steady.

And Anchor, following Karl's advice, drives the spear into the gap between two of the monster's segments, and tears it open.

Finally, all at once, the strength goes out of the vast centipede. Most of its legs go out from under it, though a few still twitch and work, and it collapses to the ground.

[Forest]

When the centipede has calm down Karl walks over to it's head while his armore slowly turns away due to his weak state. At the head he will use his hellebard and make sure this thing is dead. If that is done he doesn't seem to calm down and jumps down using the dead body as cover.

"Where are the sniper guys?" he asks Anchor

[Recaiden]

Karl makes sure the centipede is most certainly dead.

For helping bring down such a beast he deserves a reward.
He should find that he knows a new summon!

Spoiler: Mukade, the Dragon-Eater Centipede

Show

The one Karl summons will probably not be as gigantic. Maybe only as long as a bus?
Its carapace is impenetrable except at the joint between two segments.
Its bite is poison and its eyes are sharp as an eagle.
It can dig very quickly with its jaws and scythe-like front legs, burrowing beneath the earth.

If Karl combines with it, I imagine he would get a lot of extra arms.

Anchor shakes her head. "They ran when this thing emerged. So still out there somewhere. Should we try to track them down?" They both seem pretty worn out and/or injured. But the sniper was bleeding. There's probably a trail.

She sets the end of her spear in the ground and leans on it to rest a little.

The fire in the trees seems to be dying out; things are too wet for it to spread far. But clouds of smoke still drift over the site of the battle.

[Halae]

Heart of the Jungle

Glavvy's hide is shredded in some places by the thorns sprouting all over, far too many for him to avoid, and the last extra-large one digs deep into his flank before it gets stopped by his dense musculature and ribcage. He roars and twists, biting down on the thorn to snap it or yank it out of him before he takes stock of the situation. He knew he had to go further, but he wasn't going to get there at this rate. Every instinct kept yelling at him to run away, that he'd already taken enough damage and that it would take a long time for him to recover the blood he was already losing.

Instead, he just growls and raises his tail, gripping the blade in his fangs. His muscles tighten all along his body, audibly if a person was close enough, and he takes a moment to apply as much tension to his body as possible. The beast for the jungle is going to have a moment to react before he releases his tail in full force. His fangs scrape the edge, cleaning it and reigniting it as he spins forward a step and a half. His tail sweeps out, unleashing a short wave of flame ahead of the tip as the edge swings out to try and cleave all the vegetation around him. He leaves blood drops with every step he takes however, and he could feel his time becoming more limited.

[Heart of the Jungle]

The jungle creature clearly wasn't expecting that turn of events as Glavvy's burning tail goes straight through the trees. Like the spike before it, writhing, fleshy tendrils flail from the stumps, bleeding a green-blue liquid as they die, filling the air with the scents of sap and woodsmoke. But, if he's observant, he'll hear something his finely tuned predatory senses are deeply familiar with.

A cry of pain.

He's close.

[Zefir]

[Forest]

"If you can," he says between some deep breaths "You should do. I'm not injured, but I need a break."
Sounds promissing the new summon, but Karl appears exhausted. The adrenalin that kept things up for him vanishes soon when Anchor tells him that the sniper are no danger right now. A flash of light covers him and instead of the taller person in blue armor stands the normal Karl again. His summon is nowhere to be seen.

[Recaiden]

Anchor looks off into the smoldering woods for a moment and shakes her head.

"I'm not entirely sure we should split up. But alright. Better than risking them coming back after us. I'll meet you back in town?"

She gives a last look back towards Karl, seeking for confirmation, before lifting her spear and heading off into the brush.

[Reinholdt]

[Escape Pod - Rein]

Rein straps in and waits just long enough to ensure Leap and Leap's cargo are also secure (there's a person in there!) before pulling the big red lever! What wondrous joy! It lasts all of about a second or two before passing out. There's a substantial difference between being a sturdy adventurer and training to handle the intensity of G-forces. Yikes. It's been awhile since an adventure knocked him out cold.

Fortunately being a sturdy adventurer does mean he'll wake up relatively soon after they hit a stop. Not without a groan of pain. Ugh. If he's going to suffer a hangover, he wishes he at least got to drink. Rein fumbles with his straps for a while before finally getting them loose and stumbling to his feet. There are several more moments of waiting for the pounding to die down he uses to check on his pilfered loot and Leap. Yeah. Still all there.

Oh. She's not awake yet. There's the possibility of leaving her there. Yuck. Not Rein's style at all, especially with the amount of predators in this Civvy forsaken land. So he'll tap on her shoulder, and nudge her a bit, calling out to her. "Leap. Hey Leap. Wakeup."

[Zefir]

Anchor looks off into the smoldering woods for a moment and shakes her head.

"I'm not entirely sure we should split up. But alright. Better than risking them coming back after us. I'll meet you back in town?"

She gives a last look back towards Karl, seeking for confirmation, before lifting her spear and heading off into the brush.

[Forest]

Karl just nods to her. after she is gone he stays on the ground. he is to exhausted to do much right now so anything could kill him. He looks into his bag taking out some of the ration they bought earlier. As he is done he watches his bare hand. Somethings off. The circle he uses to summon changed. This normaly only happens when he extended his personal summons. Normally he needs to study for that. What a strange world he got into.

He will need at least an hour befor moving on, but instead of going home he will inspect the centipede for any rare materials. At least the obviouse oce since he isn't so skilled in this as he needs.

[Recaiden]

Karl could try to get the centipede's venom glands from behind the pincers. Careful not to poison yourself.
Centipedes are known to be highly nutritious. He could butcher it for some monster meat.
He could take part of its armored exoskeleton.
There's probably someone who could make a tool/weapon/art piece from its digging claws.

Many minutes later, he can hear a commotion from the general direction Anchor went on in. The echo of distant gunfire and magical blasts.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Crashed Ship - Kendra

Yep, time to get out of here. Kendra makes an odd move with one leg, a sort of push, like the start of a jump, but infinitely more powerful. A massive shockwave of wind slams into the deck and races outwards, as she rockets up the shaft, aiming to grab Angel Slayer and the doc and get the hell out of here. She can fry the swarm with lightning after she gets them safely off the ship, if need be, but for now, her focus is on getting her charges out of here.

[Zefir]

[Forest]

Karl will try to gather some meat and armor parts, because the shell might work fine as a carriage and he got at least a knife for the meat. The venom glands are to risky for him. He got to butcher animals before but he never dealt with removing a poisonouse part. The digging claws will work two, but he will pick only one or two due to his exhaustion.

With that he will return to the city. It's not like he could help anchor right now.

[UncleWolf]

Heart of the Jungle

Given a moment of reprieve, Glavvy almost wants to just abandon this. He was hurt, he was feeling hungry, and he knew that even if he beat this thing ahead of him the one above would just finish him off. He casts a glance upwards, narrowing his eyes and growling at the presence he could sense above the thick canopy. Still, he chooses to move forward. As he walks he takes large bites out of fallen trunks, small rocks, and even dirt to provide more fuel in his throat. It was full to bursting, almost painfully so, but once he's topped off he begins to go with his burning tail scraping the ground behind him.

Crashed Ship - Two

"You're forgetting the simplest solution to it all." Orthos points out, moving aside to let the Slime Mold walk on out unless stopped by Two. "Just let this zone claim the ship. It's the Grounds. There'll be something bigger and badder coming along even if the jungle doesn't claim the ship. Let the world take care of itself for once. Sure, some of the monsters might struggle against the hazards here, but if we arrange things right and cut off life support in full, then they'll be weakened enough to be destroyed. And even if they aren't, fewer hazards are easier to contain or kill than more. There's just a few things I would like to recover first and an inventory to make. Beyond that, do what you will."

Crashed Ship - Kendra

The moment Kendra leaps upwards, the swarm forms a large pillar of acid, chitin, and teeth to follow her. It lets out a hideous shriek as it does so, and even more smaller pillars rip out of the ship to meet up with the main swarm. It looks like it is likely to try and follow her even if she flees the ship.

Angel Slayer is visible, but he's already vanishing into the forest with the doctor. When the Ork spots Kendra, he tosses his large two-handed mace-staff to her. If she catches it, she'll find that there's a little switch on it to activate a power field around the head.

Escape Pod

"Mrrrrr....screw off, Navi, I dun wanna listen..." Leap mutters in her sleep before groaning when she starts to wake up. "Bluuuuugh. Where are we?" She asks, trying to sit up but her head rolling a bit when she nearly loses consciousness again. The port windows show that outside is a more temperate forest full of oaks and pines. It looks like a pretty normal forest all in all, but with as much noise as this pod made it might not be long before a monster comes along.

[Halae]

Heart of the Jungle

One can feel the beating of the Jungle's heart here. For a creature like Glavvy, a creature of these jungles, the sensation is palpable, resonating deep within his bones. This is a place where the goddess touched the land, the root of the entire jungle, a jungle so large as to consume a significant portion of land that stretches across sensible planes. This is a place of power, and part of the lifeblood of the Hunting Grounds itself. Moreso than any other part of the Grounds, this place feels the same way The Voice does to Glavvy; she's here, in more senses than simply physical.

But what lies underneath is something... worse. He can smell it, the scent so thick it lingers in the back of his throat like a sickness. It's a corruption, of the woods, of the plant life. Of the goddess's purpose, perhaps. But at the same time, it's born of her. Some kind of cancer, perhaps?

He won't have long to contemplate this; the canopy shades this place to the point where it seems like it'd be night time, if not for Glavvy knowing that it's still daylight. Vines hang from the trees like nooses, grand thirty-foot wide treesforming around a mound. A mount that pulses with the beat of the jungle, perfectly round and twenty feet tall. He sees it. Grand, pure red eyes open all along the edge of the mound, the moss parting so that the creature beneath can see Glavvy.

It's horrific. Worms. Thousands upon thousands of worms, writhing, reaching into the plant life and corrupting it, controlling it with cancerous stolen divine power. Thick tendrils of worms, twisted around themselves to create ropes five feet wide suddenly shoot from the twisting mass of eyes and worms into the nearby trees, and they begin to move, the wood and bark shuddering as they bend to the creature's whims. Wood immediately starts collecting around the mound as it starts attempting to armor itself! But even as it does so, it's readying armaments to fight Glavvy with, Blades, claws, and animal shapes forming out of the truly ancient trees in order to fight the interloper to its sanctuary.

[UncleWolf]

Heart of the Jungle

Glavvy snorts upon seeing and feeling and smelling it all. The place was pure rot, not even fit for scavengers. And perhaps The Goddess expected him to stand in awe of the sight, perhaps most people and creatures of higher intelligence would have. Not Glavvy though. As soon as he sees the mass writhing within the mound, he lopes forward to close the distance with his powerful legs before regurgitating every last drop of the burning molten slag stored within his gullet. Rock, metal, dirt, wood...even a large amount of fatty cheese and blubber from his prey was used to make the concoction. He'll ignore any attack sent his way, even if it causes deep wounds or rips straight through him in order to spew the molten mass.

Even if the worms scurry away from the molten blob as the shell cools...they'll soon find the slag exploding in a large fireball once the pressure builds up enough beneath the hardening shell.

If the Beast has any fight left in it after that, Glavvy's undoubtedly in trouble. If it does work...well, he was still in a ton of trouble.

[Halae]

[Heart of the Jungle]

well, one thing's for certain. The creature hadn't been expecting Glavvy to be so on-the-ball, wounded as he is.

Glavvy's body will be punctured. Skewered. Slashed. The pain will be immense. He'll feel his organs being churned up in the massive number of blades, claws, teeth, spears, and more that puncture his flesh. Most burns, but not before it does it damage.

Of course, the cancerous mass's gambit isn't the only one that pays off; the slag hits it before the bark and wood armor can fully close over the wormy mass, and a raw howl of absolute pain can be heard throughout the entirety of the jungle, so far flung as to rattle even in the far-off space of Huntside. To those near the Jungle's Heart, it's enough to permanently deafen a human, nevermind those creatures with much more sensitive hearing.

With his dying sight, Glavvy will get to see as the fire and molten slag eats into the corrupted worms, spreading at a speed that he'll no doubt realize means that the wet, glistening creature is in fact covered in some kind of flammable oil. And it'll keep spreading, digging down deeper and deeper into the mass, even spreading along the tendrils leading up to the trees. Which are also now on fire. There is in fact an excellent chance that Glavvy just lit a blaze that'll consume a significant portion of this primordial jungle.

As the creature continues to shriek, the sound of it gets quieter and quieter, as the mass loses its divine power. And then, all of a sudden... there's a pulse.

[Throughout the Hunting Grounds]

No matter where you are in the Hunting Grounds, every being will feel the pulse of the jungle wither and die. It spreads like a wave over every living thing, oppressive for just a moment before receding.

[Darkcomet]

[Crashed Ship - Two]

"And when the entity in charge allows the surviving creatures to take on traits from the things here? I am aware of multiple cases of victors gaining items and even physical traits based on those they defeat. Notable examples include gaining skeletal enhancements similar to technological augmentations, organic gravitic weaponry, and so on, even outside of the more notable objects and powers." Wait.

How does Two know about those specifically?

"That said, I'm in favor of cutting the power early. Send a signal when you're ready, I'll be planting charges to kill it and the life support with it, and set them off when you're done. Is this acceptable?"

[Heart of the Jungle]

A blaze that big is hard to hide.

When the presence above descends to the site, it's invisibly, aided by all the smoke, burning jungle, and Glavvy's own lacking eyesight at the moment. Seeing her probably wouldn't work so well right now even if she wasn't under the effects of a cloaking device. Might've transported down, too, but the telltale sight and sound of that are similarly not going to be clear at the moment.

"Oh. And here I was, concerned about a fight." The sound of a heavy sigh comes from...somewhere. It's clear enough that the source of all this sound is moving, but any sound of movement is likely drowned out by the fire. "Always stuck in these kinds of traps...you'd think that'd be over by now, but I guess not. Good on you pulling that off, but I can't have something empowered like you're about to be coming gunning for me next. Nothing personal, not that you're going to understand a thing I just said."

No attack comes, yet, but the hostile intent is there, and open, if unenthusiastic.

[UncleWolf]

Crashed Ship - Two


"Only when the entities are of comparable power or incredibly mismatched and the lesser wins out. But I see your point." Orthos admits before reaching down into his pocket to pull out a plain white business card with a phone number on it. "My personal number. If you need extra charges or just something with a little more oomph, just let me know. My signal will be pretty obvious when I'm done when I've cataloged all that's escaped. Tee-Tee-Eff-En!" He says with a cheerful little wave before adjusting his hat and turning on his heel to just walk away.

Heart of the Jungle

Despite "winning", Glavvy was in a terrible state. Great chunks of his armored hide were ripped away, and even more of his tough skin was to reveal great gouges and bites taken out of his flanks and back. His tail was chipped, his right arm missing, and a great deal of blood was gushing from all of his wounds. Even worse, a wheezing sound was quite audible from the gaping wounds in his chest as he struggle to breathe. No matter how N'alae arrives down, he could sense the power from her and he curls his tail around his front defensively as she talks.

Despite the light fading from his good eye, he narrows it at her words. He may not understand everything she said, but he could understand enough of it. She was here to kill him and take his rightfully won prize. It had been his Hunt! Not HER'S. It was obvious that he didn't have the strength to fight, despite wanting to, but at the very least he could spite her. It only takes a heartbeat for him to raise his tail and drag the jagged edge across his own neck, cutting through the jugular, carotid, and his esophagus. Inside the esophagus, right where he stores his slag is the Fire Orb his kind are born with to make their molten balls of fire.

The tail blade cracks it...and it explodes violently.

[Darkcomet]

[Crashed Ship - Two]

"Understood." Two eyes the card before she heads off for the power cores, reactivating her cloak. And then pausing.

Where she thinks no one's watching, she has a genuine, not-actually-maniacal laugh at whatever it is she thought of, before she moves on.

[Heart of the Jungle]

The green flare of an energy shield springs to life against the explosion, with a surprised presumably-profane exclamation in some alien tongue from behind it, though the blast is unlikely to do much more than drain the shield at the most. When it clears, all she can do is gawk at what just happened, slowly processing the trick.

"Outsmarted by a gigantic fiery mutant dinosaur. The surprises never end...I'll have to congratulate it if we ever meet again. Hopefully not."

She really didn't want to be here anyway.

[Halae]

[Heart of the Jungle]

The great pyre of the Jungle's heart continues to build in intensity, and soon the heat will begin to cook the forest floor. N'alae, for all her power, may want to leave before things get worse; at the moment.

[???]

Glavvy will awaken whole and healthy

This is noteworthy, of course, given how he died, and how he was wounded. Usually when brought back to life at the end of a hunt, a monster bears some old scars, some old aches, from how they died. Not this time. He's been restored to full working order. Even more, he'll feel more vital and alive than he has in years, small aches he wasn't aware of gone from his body, and oh so obvious that they were there now that they've gone away.

He'll find himself laying in a heather nest, the springy material comfortable, and perhaps even reminding of when he was little more than a hatchling, as it's similar to when he was but a baby, fresh from the nest and under the watchful eye of his mother. He's certainly at his adult size, however, and the nest was clearly constructed just for him. It feels... like waking up from a long, long sleep, and finally feeling truly rested for the first time in years. The nest is inside a shallow cave, protected on every side from the wind, and just the right temperature for him to be comfortable. Someone went to a lot of trouble to make this place perfect for him.

It may take him a moment to realize he's not alone here, blissful as the moment is. At the entrance is another glavenus. From the shape of her, clearly female, lying with her bladed tail curled around her body as she lounges in the morning sun. Rather than the normal coloration of a Glavenus, her armored hide is green and gold, and a pair of moose antlers jut from her head. Her eyes are piercing emeralds gazing out at the world with a confidence that would border on mania and arrogance were it not for the grace and dignity she holds herself with.

When she sees Glavvy stirring, he'll feel her raw presence for a moment as it washes over him, and he'll recognize who it is. It's the voice who spoke to him. The power in the jungle, corrupted by that cancerous worm. She is the truth he's known since he was a hatchling crawling between his mother's legs.

She is the Goddess of the Hunting Grounds. And he'll know on a primal level that she is at once very frustrated and incredibly amused with the glavenus in front of her.

[Reinholdt]

[Escape Pod]

"But the princess needs you." Reinholdt insists with a slight jingle in his voice.

"Away from the ship. But come on. We gotta get back to town before something goes wrong. There's food waiting for you." Leap seem easily motivated by the munchies as far as Rein could tell. Regardless, he goes to open the door and stumble out of the pod. Oof. Maybe he's not as steady as he thought. That's ok. He should be able to walk in... Uh... Rein floats up into the trees to get a good look at where the sun was before coming back down to suggest the proper direction.

[Recaiden]

[Mountains]

Hunter had been up here with her little dragon, who she had judged ready for a serious hunt, when they feel it.
A feeling went away that they hadn't even been aware of. The lack of the jungle's presence weighs down on them for a moment, something you can only know by the shape of its absence.

Something important has happened.
There.

Hunter calls the dragon back to her shoulder, whistles for her leather-winged mount circling above, and sets off towards the [Heart of the Jungle] to investigate.

Obviously it takes her longer to arrive than some others.

[Huntside]

[Forest]
Karl will try to gather some meat and armor parts, because the shell might work fine as a carriage and he got at least a knife for the meat. The venom glands are to risky for him. He got to butcher animals before but he never dealt with removing a poisonouse part. The digging claws will work two, but he will pick only one or two due to his exhaustion.

With that he will return to the city. It's not like he could help anchor right now.

It's very late when Anchor makes it back to Huntside, empty-handed, and goes to track down Karl.
"They got away." she admits.
"Still, it was a pretty good hunt, wasn't it?"

[Zefir]

[Huntside]

"I don't think so." Karl says. He is resting on a brench outside next to him the goods he could carry which isn't much.
"We couldn't hunt the prey we got for. Thought I wouldn't mind going somewhere else for now to avoid those guys. I'm not even sure why they hunted us."

[Nova_Eclipse]

Crashed Ship - Kendra

Kendra catches the weapon, but doesn't activate it, instead accelerating upwards, staying just out of reach of the swarm-maw as the air around her and in her wake becomes more humid, almost greasy....perhaps it's the need to protect others, or perhaps it's the Grounds themselves, but whatever the reason, she feels the need to hunt and slay the swarm rising within her. A few flecks of acid hit her cloak and her boots, but she's so far managed to avoid being hit by any of the larger globs as she flies. She focuses for a moment, before a bolt of what seems to be heat lightning strokes downwards at the swarm-maw that's followed her out of the ship. The skies above her darken quickly; much faster than would happen naturally. She doesn't expect one bolt to deter the swarm, but here in the open, she's able to bring the full fury of her Xar essence to bear, especially since the swarm is following her, and not Angel Slayer or the doc. She just needs conditions to improve a bit more before she can truly go on the offensive....

[Recaiden]

Anchor shrugs, frowning a little.
"Well, it wasn't a success, really, but I think it was good. We survived after all. You can't rely on plans going off just how you want, right?"

[Zefir]

[Huntside]

"You are right" he says. he looks at his palm hand noticing the odd change.He appeares confused and suprised.
"I guess I got what I wanted after all. Thought I don't know how that happened.
What will you do next?"

[Recaiden]

Anchor smiles.
"It's this place, the Hunting Grounds. If you do well, you might find what you want, or at least what you need. And you'll get another chance."
Then sighs.
"I should probably head back to GLoG before too long. Have you come to any decision on what you're going to do now that you remember?"