The First Horror Factory - RPLOG
Participants
Date
Saturday August 4, 2018=Log=
The group gathers at the edge of the Fairhaven bubble, the usual summer weather getting cold and calm. Standing professionally is a human-sized storm dragon wearing a blue jumpsuit. "Just here as a representative of the Prometheans to answer some questions and give you the mission. There has been sightings of multiple ferals stalking around the edge of the bubble, all of them in drasically mixed forms. From witness statements we can tell there are no two alike and that they all flee when discovered. Your job was to track down where they are and hopefully make peaceful contact, but just yesterday there was a report that one of them acutally kidnapped a half-husky male from the wastelands so now we need you to rescue him. Any questions before you go?"
T'was a fine day to go hunting, well... if you like mist it would be. For one dragon with a knack for stealth and a thirst for danger, ANY day was a fine day to go hunting. Strange request, though... just a pack of ferals, a handful of sand grains on the vast expansive beach that was the feral populace... why? What made them so significant? Magnus had little to nothing in terms of details, but the job promised to pay well and he had a house to build, damn it! Curiosity also played its part, and while it may have killed the cat, well... we shall see how the dragon fares, no?
With a skip in his step, a smile on his face, a knife at his side, and a song in his heart, Magnus advances towards the rendezvous point. T'was a little hard to see with the dense fog shrouding the land in such a way, but he did his best not to bump into anything nonetheless. As the bubble's effects start to fade, so does Magnus feel a sense of unease. Truth be told, he'd never been outside... not like his reckless family members who seemed to rob and loot the fertile depths of the unchewed by the nanites lands ahead.
Casting his sense of dread aside as naught but the nanites screaming for him to give them their precious server signal, the male soldiers on, until he spots the crowd. Nodding his head in greeting, he barely has enough time to make sense of the faces he was seeing, before his attention is drawn away by a storm dragon nearby. Listening closely to his words, Magnus nods in understanding. "Approach the ferals, put them on ice if they're aggressive, rescue the captured. What are we expecting to face? I need to know their weaknesses. Scaled, furs, amorphous blobs, smoothskins?"
Arris is the second to raise hir hand after Magnus. "Also, how many of them can we expect, what forms should we be looking out for, and do we know about the area where we should be looking for the kidnapee?" The gator adjusted the strap of hir bolt-action rifle over hir shoulder, glancing between hirself and the group surrounding hir with an air of nervousness - sie never liked having to leave the comfort and partial safetiness of the bubble. Sie pats hirself down to make sure sie had brought everything sie needed: triage kit and shield drone were the most important, though it had been so long since sie stepped out the bubble that sie forgot if the drone worked outside it or not. Nonetheless, the small drone was deployed out, rotary fans buzzing as it whirred to life and floated in place. "If you can, it would be nice to provide as much intel as you guys have on hand."
Fenris comes jogging along through the wastes, his sword and spear jingling merrily on his back. He is dressed as a cowboy today. Well, from the waist up, at least. The burly tanuki is wearing an open, plaid shirt tucked into a heavy gun belt, though it seems to have only a number of pouches on it and one small firearm. He also has on a very nice, white stetson and a permanently pleasant look on his round face.
He listens amiably to the explanation, then shakes his head. "Nope," he says, "Ready to go make friends!" It must be nice to be so pleasantly clueless.
Sondra scratches at the ruff of fur along the back of her neck, while the other readjusts the rucksack slung over her back. Aside from the standard load-out - the sidearm, vest, plated fatigues - the pack is on the lighter side this time around, but stocked with 'a little bit of everything' as a just in case measure. Dried foods, boiled water that has since been cooled; the kind of things that would make a difference if something goes real wrong real fast, and forces the lot of them to remain outside the wire for a prolonged period of time.
Helpful that most of it can get stowed in a hurry if need be, so it's no longer weighing her down. One way or another, however, were it not for the rucksack, there's a sense she'd be standing at parade rest, given the ramrod straight posture that runs only partly contrary to a build meant for all fours. Her expression is impassive, and she gives little more than an incline of her head towards Magnus and Arris, respectively, when their own questions are raised.
Atmospheric day out today it seems. Though it was drawing ever closer to fall, the human couldn't help but scratch his head as he walks along to the meetup point. Riot armor strapped on tightly, the pale human huffs as he hefts his quiver of blue arrows before his walking brings him up towards the growing group of people. Can't say he recognizes too many people on this group, but... Oh! Smiling, the human pads up towards Arris to plant a short kiss to her cheek. "Heya sweetheart!" The silver eyed human smiles to the gator before he turns his attention forward towards the jumpsuit wearing dragon.
Tilting his head at the information given, the human scratches at the back of his head a moment before he shrugs. No questions from him, though he does listen quietly to the others as he looks the others over curiously. Honestly should see about getting that kemonomimi optional item. Being able to sprout bunny ears in human form would be pretty nice sometimes. Still, the human takes a moment to adjust the strap of his polearm. Given the mission description, can't say he can rule out the possibility of violence, so better safe than sorry. Hope he ain't the odd man out in this situation.
Approaching from inside the bubble, she spots a gathering group. Curiosity gets the better of her, so she changes course to to meet them. Once near the gathering she looks at the bunch and waves. "Oh, hello there." She pants lightly. Despite the roundness of her bottom half, she doesn't seem much at all bothered by the running. "What's going on here?"
Answering the group, the dragon replies: "Witnesses are hazy on the details, but we can assume that there can be as many as twenty of them or as few as three. And when I say 'drasically mixed forms' I mean it. At least one report has the sighted feral being a cross between a red dragon, a flowering hedge, and hornet. I can't make this stuff up. As for where the captured man is, we don't know. We're hoping you can find him once you locate the ferals responsible." As he gets ready to leave, he adds: "I hope you do find him. Some of these reports make the ferals sound really bad. Like, EVIL bad. Be careful."
"Alright then. A bit of everything." the dragon nods, uttering a silent slew of profanity in his own head. He wasn't ready for this... Still, he swallows the worry and glances around the group, his eyes drawn to the final newcomer. She was... well, quite shapely. Her plumage was something to behold as well. At first glance one might assume she was not well prepared for this venture, but looks were deceitful. For all Magnus knew, she had more ability than all of them put together. There was one way to find out, so he casts her a smile and explains. "There was a call sent out, some rogue ferals have kidnapped a half-husky. You got the gist already, but... we're off on a search and rescue." he casts her a charming wink, "Coming?"
Once all was said, he looks around the rest of the group and addresses them all at once. "Right, we have a mission and we have all the information we can get. Tracking isn't really my forte though, so if someone else more skilled in the art can point the way?" he suggests, his hand reaching out towards the vast expanse before them. Gods knew where those ferals were... one can only hope their captive still has all his wits about him.
Arris is surprised lightly by the kiss from Anbessa, but goes back to smiling once sie recognises his voice. "Hey, hun!" Sie chuckles a little, leaning in and returning the kiss to his cheek before stepping back. The appearance of Anbessa does lift hir spirits, at least until...
The gator frowns at the mention of 'EVIL bad', lowering hir gaze to think for a moment. Either one by itself would be enough. "Hm, I'm not sure what to think of this. I wouldn't describe ferals as being 'evil', normally. Something's up, so we should all stay on our toes." After a second or two, sie glances back up at the rest of the group, first at Magnus while he gestures vaguely to the horizon. "...anyone else got any bright ideas on where we should go?"
Fenris whips off a lazy salute. "As careful as I can be!" he says happily, then saunters off beyond the bubble. If he is bothered by the sudden lack of nanites, it does not show. Nor does he seem all that concerned at the direction he is going.
The big tanuki glances around as he walks off into the wastes and starts to whistle a jaunty little tune.
Sondra's lip curls slightly at the description, just enough to show teeth, a subtle rumble audible in her throat. She's already got her head lifted and her nose put to work by the time the word 'evil' is floated out there, a couple steps taking her away from the group in general, gaze set out on the territory in front of them, looking for-- well, god only knows what. Divine intervention, maybe.
One way or another, she turns to look to Magnus, inclining her head in the direction that Fenris walks, wordlessly indicating that the tanuki's already got a bead on it. "I can track partly by scent from here on out," she says simply, her voice-- startlingly human, to those that haven't heard her speak, the cusp of growling at the edges forcibly curbed. "'Evil' may not have a smell," she says mildly, "but 'utterly broken' tends to."
It's with that that she begins to head in that general direction, resettling the pack on her shoulders, apparently bound and determined to make the bulk of this height on two feet.
Smiling to Arris, Anbessa chuckles softly as he pats her back lightly in return. Though the human does perk up curiously as he hears the dragon, tilting his head. "Evil? Gonna be honest, that's the first time I've heard someone describe a feral that way..." He points out, takinga moment to adjust the straps on his polearm and bow n' arrow to get them comfy before he returns his attention forward. If anything, gives him good enough reason as any to have brought his weaponry. Though as Sondra speaks up, the pale human watches curiously as the wolfess heads off in a direction. Glancing at the others for a moment or two, Anbessa shrugs before he follows after the wolfess. Hopefully it won't be too big of a hike. Slipping a hand into his pocket to take a swig of builder nanites from a vial before he leaves the bubble. Hopefully that will last him for the mission.
Parsnip looks to the others and listens for an explanation. When she gets one, she nods and looks around. "So someone went missing?" She thinks for a moment. "I'm not sure how I can find them, but I'll try." She makes an attempt at finding something of note, but with all the tracks in and around the group, she doesn't make out anything in perticular. "Well... I hunt on my own... but I wouldn't know where to start looking." She shrugs, "I'll follow and help where I can, though. I can at least carry people without trouble, if we find them."
Tracking down the ferals' trail is child's play for the Tanuki, Fenris leading the group. It does take hours though, all of the afternoon taken up walking to what looks like an abandoned town. Over a decade of neglect has caused this small town to become just as empty as the wasteland, the chilly air hanging still and foreboding. Even the slightest sound carries through the empty buildings like a lost echo, as if anything greater than a whisper would draw in terrible danger.
The trek was filled with idle chatter for the most part, a few words exchanged, a soft humm to make the trip less tedious, but for what it's worth, Magnus was glad they had a good tracker in the group. Once they arrive at their destination, the dragon's nose starts to twitch. "This is definitely a very bad place to be." his voice sounds. Hushed, careful as though unwilling to alert anything that might be in the area, and for good reason too. As they walk, so does he point out the details others may have missed.
Blood stains here and there, crimson residue of dried up sanguinara. Claw marks lining the walls from place to place, but worst of all... "Keep your weapons ready, we're being watched." he warns, certain that they were not alone. Something draws his keen eye, and in a few moments... "Ah... shite." his gaze is all that alerts the group to the presence of a severed limb nearby. "Great..."
Arris follows after the rest of the group, straggling a little bit behind the rest of them, bolt-action at the ready. Hir shield drone, however, stays near the front, as well as its hovering propellor blades can follow after the lead person.
Soon, the gator would approach the border of the abandoned town, still hanging at the back of the group. Taking a cautionary glance around, sie takes note of the general state of the buildings surrounding hir... and then towards the severed human limb in the middle of the street. Sie takes a few steps forward, glancing between the members of hir group, then would do a 'finger walking' motion before pointing towards the severed arm. If the group got hir cue to start walking towards it, sie would follow after them, rifle held at the ready and aiming in any direction sie could guess a feral would charge from.
Fenris spends much of the long trek providing an endless playlist of trail songs. "A Cowboy Needs a Horse," "Home on the Range," "Happy Trails," and "Highway to the Danger Zone," just to name a few.
As the group comes into sight of the ruined town, his singing falls silent, though the pleasant little smile stays firmly in place. "Well," he says, "Shall we see who is at home?" He unhooks his spear from his back and gives it a twirl before sauntering confidently ahead.
Sondra seems to weather the walk as best she can, panting every once in a while to burn off any heat to take the pressure off what few sweat glands she has left. Keeps it to a minimum, of course, and attempts to keep it contained to when she's not being paid any mind, but all the same. Might not be that hot out, but with a pelt like this-- yeah, it's hot.
Fenris, it should be noted, is shot a 'really?' look more than once, and even earns a growl by the time Danger Zone goes into full swing, but the she-wolf keeps largely to herself, otherwise. Upon entering the town, her gaze sweeps over the structures, angled towards any possible vantage points that might be seeing use in surveillance-- and any bottlenecks, besides.
Her attention is drawn towards the arm the moment it's noted, hackles bristling subtly. Her ears prick and tilt forward, the limb inspected with a couple cursory sniffs, at first, before the she-wolf hunkers down to start doing a more thorough inspection, and gives a snort once she's satisfied. "Been here since yesterday," she says, looking over towards the others. "They say how long their guy's been missing?"
After the hours of hiking, Anbessa couldn't help but sigh as he pats the belly of his armor. Hopefully the vial he drank will last him for this mission. Wouldn't do to get hungry when th- eep! The human nearly bumps into Arris' back as they pause, blinking in surprise. Is something u- Oh... Oh goodness. The human grimaces as he spots the signs of rather violent and grisly look of the area. Even if he ain't a rabbit, the scent of blood on the wind is always distressing as the human pauses as Magnus speaks up. Blinking and peeking ahead... And then letting his mouth fall open in shock. Is that a human arm...?
Drawing his bow out from off of his back and withdrawing an arrow from his quiver, he holds it at the ready as he follows after Arris as she tries to lead them towards it. Thankfully his nose ain't too sensitive from being human, but the scent of blood probably in the air wasn't going to be pleasant. "They weren't kidding when they said evil, huh?" Anbessa mutters to no one in particular, peering around at the buildings warily as he goes along. Listening to Sondra, the human perks up as he listens to the wolfess' explaination. "Well, lets hope this isn't a leftover from the half-husky we're supposed to be looking for..." Anbessa trails off, looking down at the arm with a shiver as he looks over his own arm, then shakes his head n' sighs. One hell of a place to lose an arm...
Parsnip slowly makes her way into the village, the sight of blood and violence around her makes her queasy. "Oh dear..." She'd keep close to the others in the group, but at her size, she'll just have to be comfortable being near. "Looks like... whatever is here isn't a friendly critter." She sighs "I hope at least some of us can fight."
From out of the sun's rays drops a heavilly mutated feral: the head and arm-wings of a hawk, the body and legs of a raptor, and the tail of a scorpion with the tip replaced with a barbed spike the size of a longswrd. It barely lands it's spike down the side of Arris's arm, missing from spearing hir through the sholder.
Despite it's sudden and silent attack, nearly everyone but Sondra notices the feral getting the drop on Arris, so it quickly tries to flee running in the opposite direction.
Though he had been distracted from the arm, he perked up as he head as he notices a shadow descend from the sunlight. The hell is th- yelping, the human stares in startled horror as Arris gets her arm nearly lopped off like the owner of the arm on the floor before them, eyes opening wide in bewildered shock before his teeth is bared and he draws his arrow back. Drawing back far, the human's blow colored arrowhead takes aim at the running feral before it is let fly. Even as the rest of the group get ready to move, the blue streak that shoots by flies like a bullet towards the feral's calf. The blood that escapes the feral soon after makes the human bristle with a tad bit of pride... Though he seems a bit stunned himself as he sees the arrow is still in the feral, but also with the arrowhead dug into the ground rather deeply at the opposite end. Smirking, Anbessa lets out a pleased chuckle. "Havin' trouble runnin', big guy?"
The dragon sighs deeply as he looks about his surroundings. "Ain't looking too rosy for our lost husky. I'm gonna prowl around, see what I can see." the dragon whispers to the rest of the team. "Keep a sharp lookout, ain't gonna be long before something lunges at us if we stick around." Looking towards Sondra, he shakes his head, "Not that I remember, no."
With that, the male paces soft-footed off towards one of the alleyways. With a touch of grit and a little bit of monkeying around, he shimmies his way amist the rubble, on the prowl for predators. If anything, he had a good vantage point of the others, and his own cover to rely on. A feral mind used scents to guice thise destructive impulses, well... among other things. For now, the drsgon kept low, quiet, on the prowl for a stalker, or several as the case might well be. Alas... nothing. It was silent, a void amidst the rubble, no presences to speak of save the few instances that ran chills up Magnus' spine. He kept close to his team, unwilling to stray should the proverbial shit strike the fan. This... ultimately, proved to be a good idea, as within a moment's notice, they were attacked. Ofcourse! The sky! They were being observed from above! Right? It mattered not. With the attack proving ineffective, Magnus almost breaks his cover as lunges their first opponent, only to find his prey six feet under, skewered through the leg and cripplied. It wasn't going anywhere, so he slinks back into the refuge of the ruins, seeking a different target. They had a husky to find.
Fenris is not interested in following the fleeing mutant. If it is clever enough to stage a sneak attack, it is probably clever enough to stage an ambush. Instead he checks to see that Arris is unharmed, the walks slowly to an open area, keeping his eyes and ears open while the others deal with the attacking mutant. He draws his sword, now holding a weapon in each hand.
Arris approaches the hand following after the rest of the group... and then suddenly gets the overwhelming premonition that something was about to attack hir. Glancing up to the sky, sie spots the diving stinger just before sie lurches to the side to avoid it piercing the ground. Hir rifle raises up to the mutant's neck... but then sie remembers hir surroundings - any gunfire would attract a barn's worth of ferals surrounding hir. As it retreats, sie hastily screws on a silencer and re-aims... only to see that hir target had already been taken care of where sie was aiming. Silently cursing hirself, sie takes a cautionary look around hir surroundings for any possible incoming ferals before approaching the pinned feral, keeping hir aim steady on its other leg. "Alright, bud, we got you. What's the big deal?"
Sondra looses a snarl the moment she hears the ruckus, but it's by the time she's got the pack off her shoulders that the problem appears to have been dealt with. --Mostly, anyway. Her muscles relax, a glance cast around their immediate area for reasons not dissimilar to Fenris' own line of thinking, though her attention is ultimately claimed by the tail that nearly speared Arris in the first place.
"Give that thing a wide berth," she says. "Last thing anyone needs is either of you getting a shot of poison in your system." Probably not necessary to *say* but-- better safe than sorry, really.
Parsnip digs her talons into the dirt and pushes herself off to chase down the creature. She barely gets a few steps out before her target is suddenly shot through the leg. Her legs try to dig into the earth to try and slow her back down from her lunge, almost toppling over the process. Pulling out her claymore, she sighs. "Oh." After watching the critter for a moment, she returns to the bulk of the group and keeps an eye out for any other creatures. "Why was there a feral all the way out here? What would draw it here?"
The half of the group pushing forward comes across the delapidated town hall, which from the evidence seems to be the home of the creepy ferals. The front door is ripped open on the ground, and the lion statue ouside looks like it was deformed from heavy damage.
The feral struggles against the arrow in it's leg, making pained but monsterous noises that sound like shrieking and clicking. It lashes out with it's tail to drive away any of the group looking to grab it, yelling out with an echoing call. The feral's voice carries throughout the town, and an even greater ROAR answers back...
It was probably not a good idea to split up, but with the group handling the feral accompanied by a deadeye, it was likely they would be fine. Magnus joins the others towards what appeared to be... "Town Hall. I hate politics." he grumbles and crosses his arms as they approach. Once close enough though, he grabs the nearest person, likely Fenris given how the snapily dressed tanuki liked to charge forward confidently, and gestures for everyone to stop. His head nods towards the statue, a soft scowl forming at his face as a soft *click* of a grenade pin being pulled is heard. The moment Magnus throws it however, the once inanimate looking object springs to life, and dashes into the building before them. It was fast, almost faster than the eye could see in fact. The loud thump of the cryostatic chemical cocktail his grenade had unleashed yields no results, merely casting the spot where the "statue" stood in ice, the very air in the area bitingly cold. "Alright..." Magnus mutters softly and puts his grenades away. "Things just got a little more interesting. Think the husky, or what's left of him is in here?"
Arris keeps hir sights trained up on the feral, up until that second ROAR echoes back. "Welp, that's our cue to book it." And, book it sie does, racing down the streets, gaze bouncing in every direction, looking out for oncoming ferals - especially from the sky. Spotting the last members of the group outside the town hall, sie skids to a stop before raising hir rifle, keeping hir gaze up for any potential threats.
Fenris is still smiling, but the fur on the back of his neck is fluffed up and his ears are swiveling wildly atop his head after that last roaring exchange.
The burly coon-dog stops at Magnus's touch, and is glad that he did. "Wow!" he says, his face splitting in a wide grin, "That was a good trick! Glad you spotted him! Or her. Whatever." He looks pensively at the door, then sheathes his sword, keeping only his spear in his hands.
"Hello in there!" he calls, "we would rather not fight! I've brought tea and cookies, if you'd like to share." That said, the tanuki looks at the others, nods, and advances into the town hall with his spear held before him.
Sondra's teeth grit as the feral emits that wail, the one that answers getting her more immediate attention as she does her best to get a sense of where it's coming from. She curses under her breath, a growl added into the mix as Arris books it towards the sound, another glance cast towards the writhing feral on the ground.
"Little late to hope this thing's whining will lure anything out," she says. "It's got as much bait as it wants headed right for it." She looks to Anbessa, and says, "Put it down," before drawing her own sidearm, custom fit to accommodate larger hands and the deadly claws they sport. "If they run into trouble they can't handle in there, we should do what we can to give them a clear route out."
Though the human was still feeling proud of his shot on the fleeing feral, he pauses as he hears it roar... Followed by a second, distant but noticably more angry sounding roar. Blinking a few times, the human just lets out a 'Huh...' before gulping. Though as he is about to speak, he pauses as he spots Arris running off! "H-hey, Arris!" The human shouts after the gator before he grumbles. Though he does get ready to follow her, he pauses as Sondra speaks to him. Blinking, he glances between Sondra and the feral. He wanted the thing to be alive for the Prommies to capture, but... "... I think there ain't much point of putting it down now. We can leave it here for the Prommies to capture it later. Ain't like that leg wound it has will heal anytime soon, so lets try to get ready for what's comin'."
Being split up is not good, especially if that one storm dragon's report is accurate. As low as 3, or as high as 20 ferals... If they are like the one he pinned, then this is going to be one hell of a fight. Can't deny it is getting the blood flowing though. Still, best to prepare.
Breathe in... Breathe out. Focus. With how used to going in and out of Flow like Water form he is, he cannot help but smile and feel happy that the Weapon Master training really is paying off as he draws another arrow from his quiver either way. He does move up to Sondra to move with her after the group.
Parsnip shivers at the roar in response, causing her feathers to fluff up and stand on end. Looking to the rest, she gives them a worried look. Her train of thought is interupted as Magnus scares the critter off into the building. "Wha- whaaaa?! I thought that was a statue?!" Looking back to Magnus, she blinks at him. "Good eye... I'd hate to know what would have happened if it ambushed us..." Keeping her claymore handy, she gives a look to Arris as she rejoins the group, but returns her attention to what's around her. The keagle blinks at Fenris and tilts her head. "Tea? Cookies? May I have some?"
With Sondra being left alone with the feral, it quickly uses it's other leg to snap off the arrowshaft and fress itself, using it's tail to spear Sondra in her dominant arm. It then tries to run off and drag her with it, but just manages to throw Sondra off balance instead.
"Best keep moving." Magnus notes, despite the distinct feeling in his gut that he'd be needed elseahere. Eyes on the prize and all that, after all. He enters the hall shortly after the others and takes a look around. "Thank you, but... no reason to celebrate just yet. That thing was... amorpheous, in a way." He casts Fenris a concerned look. "These things won't listen to reason... and if they are all ooze, well..." the dragon reaches towards his back and draws his almost alien looking Sonic Boom Gun "...at least I am ready for that. Question still is though, where's our target?"
Keeping hir gaze outside for anything potentially about to attack them, Arris steps backwards into the hall, before turning around to spot the gooey concrete-like creature. Hir rifle raises up to point at it, though the gator does glance hir eyes left and right to stay wary of other possible ambushes. "...what the hell is this thing, anyway?" Hir finger rests on the trigger, ready to fire at any moment.
"If you mean our kidnapped mutant," Fenris says, "I'm not sure we will find him. But one of our new friends is already here, waiting for us."
The burly tanuki twirls his spear and sets it back in its holster, keeping an eye on the oozing, concrete beast he has spotted toward the back of the room. Then he begins to beat a steady tempo on his wide belly.
Instead of the normal sound one might expect, it produces the deep, resounding BOOM of a bass drum and seems to reverberate in more than just the ears.
Sondra's not walking yet; she is instead giving Anbessa a rather pointed look, chin lifting and lip curling to show her teeth. It's as she turns back around that the tail whips out, catching the arm raising to do what the human opted not to. She lets out a sharp snarl in response, wrenching her arm back before the tug on it turns anything worse than it already is, though the blood coursing down her arm is bad enough. A reminder of what might be *in* her, at this point.
"*Fuck*!" is barked out through clenched teeth, her good hand taking hold of her wrist to assist in taking immediate aim.
As he approaches Sondra, Anbessa pauses as he hears the snap and draws his arrow too late to stop Sondra getting jabbed! "Shitshitshitshit-" Anbessa says out loud as he tries to take aim at it as it tries to run away with Sondra. How is it running when he pierced it literally though the leg and probably through the bone?! Either way, the human tries to focus his aim and take another shot, this time for it's head. He wanted a live capture, and he nearly got someone kidnapped because of it... Whatever, if Prometheans yell at him later over killing a feral like they did in the past, he can at least tell em' to shove it now. Drawing back, then letting loose!
Parsnip glances back at Magnus and says, "Amorpheous?" She asks in a slightly worried tone. "Does that mean they change shape at will?" After she asks her question, she keeps a cautious eye on her surroundings. She looks back to Fenris, "I hope their still alive..." She pauses a moment to thing aloud, "If they are so mindless... Why are they taking captives? Why not just eat or kill? Is this a trap?"
Anbessa's shot downs the feral with a shot through the back and poking out of their chest; without the nanites it seems like the feral is choking up blood. It falls and drags Sondra to the ground with it, the barbs of the spike keeping her locked. And with the numbness in Sondra's arm, it seems her fears of toxins in the spike are true.
The ooze-like feral in the town hall stays still in the corner of the dark entrance hall, doing nothing but presumably watching. And with the silence in the building being so heavy and foreboding, it becomes even scarier when a man's voice yells out "HEL-!" down the stairway from the second level before being silenced.
"That's our guy." Magnus nods to the others, then glances around them. "I'll see if I can find a way around to flank and ambush. At least we know he is alive... one more thing though. Do you guys feel that?" he reaches out to tap his forehead. "Something is very icky in here. Feels like my body is ready to fold in two, I got chills running up and down my spine, as though every cell that forms me is crying out to just... stop. I've never felt anything similar, but... probably the lack of vubble kicking in. Anyway!" Magnus slinks off amidst the shadows, keeping low and quiet as he maintains a visual on anythig and everything that posed a threat. The ooze in the corner, the shadow depths left unexplored and jntouched, and further down another beastie waiting for them... guarding... something. Feeling sick to his stomach, Magnus decides against engaging the monster on his own. Instead, he sends a localized warning to the others about the feral waiting for them, then takes up a spot nearest the origins of that sickening signal... Things were just getting better, eh?
Arris is ready to fire at any moment - instead, hir attention is drawn by the silenced scream of help. "Aw, jeez - come on, guys, let's go find that person!" Sie taps hir shield drone, setting it to follow after hir at the back of the group, keeping an alerted eye behind the rest of them. The feeling of that odd nanite connection does tip hir off, but sie ignores it, at least for now. "Yeah, definitely feel that. Keep on your toes, everyone, we don't know what's coming up next."
His ritual complete, Fenris retrieves his spear from its harness on his back. He prepares to engage the monster hiding in the room, but then comes the cry for help.
"Keep an eye on this one!" he calls out and charges for the stairs, vaulting up with a speed and grace that defies his bulk!
As the feral goes down, Sondra's arms seem to waver, a shudder passing up her spine and amplifying through her shoulders. Her muscles go slack not long after, and it takes effort to carefully lower the magnum, the she-wolf apparently not trusting her grip on it any longer. "What the hell did I say?" she snaps, voice a touch weaker than it likely ought to be. "God *dammit*--" is uttered a moment later, her fingers flexing and extending carefully once the sidearm is holstered.
Wincing as he is yelled at after the feral goes down, Anbessa seems to shrink a bit with a guilty look on his face. "S-sorry... I wanted to capture it alive..." The human pads up towards Sondra to inspect her with a worried look on his face as he looks her over. He does reach into his pocket for something, then blinks and grumbles as he remembers something. "We should catch up with the group. Want my shoulder?" Anbessa asks Sondra with a frown crossing his face as he looks at the feral. Hopefully he can catch up with the group. Whatever the wolfess got injected with, it wouldn't be good to be seperated from the group for much longer.
Parsnip nods to Magnus and watches the feral closely. "It's weird... Don't take any undue risks, okay? I can't move as fast in here." Speaking to Arris, the keagle warns, "Lets not be hastey... I want to save them too, but I don't want us to get hurt either." As Fenris charges ahead, she sighs and moves up near Arris and gets herself ready to sprint if she has to after the tanuki. "Well.. it's not like they weren't already alerted..."
With Arris, Parsnip and Fenris inside and heading upstairs they run into a feral that Magnus snuck past: some kind of red dragon-hornet bush creature. It immediately charges on seeing them, trying to grab Fenris for being the closest target.
Elsewhere, the ambushing feral is taken care of, allowing Anbessa to aid Sondra as they make their way to the town hall where everyone else is. This proves to be a problem though, as everyone else left the ooze feral in the front hall alone. This time it doesn't try to hide and immediately bounds across the hall to try and envelop Anbessa!
These were times for decision making, and Magnus decides not to go gung ho into a strangely irradiated with alien nanite signals room alone. Turning back, he scales the wall as best he can, staying out of sight and out of mind as he grips the fang of Jormungand in one clwed hand, until the moment was perfect to strike. In a flash of white and a sudden squelching of flesh being sliced and pierced, the dragon sinks his caustic blade deep into their aggressor's flesh, injecting a slew of toxins potent enough to fel a small platoon. Recoiling from his lunge, he yanks the blade free and readies for a counterattack... that never comes. The beast just... shivers and collapses, just sort of inanimate, producing muffled gurgles as though barely kept alive by something, barely so... Moving cautiously over to the paralyzed one, he gives it a light kick, then shakes his head. "So much for this thing. Our lad's up ahead. You lot go on, I'll watch our flank."
"Ah-ha!" Fenris crows, rolling under the grasping claws of the monstrous amalgam that was laying in wait, "An am-BUSH!"
The tanuki whirls his spear, ready to rush into battle, only to find it already over. "Well," he says, kicking the felled monster, "That was anticlimactic." The tanuki shrugs, then rushes on ahead to see what lies ahead and hopefully help that poor, kidnapped mutant!
Arris raises hir rifle at the sight of the approaching amalgamate of differing mutations... but then lowers it as it's taken care of. "Man, I feel like this might be a recurring problem with me, here, not being able to get to a fight before it ends." Sie pauses, glancing around. "...where are Anbessa and Sondra? I thought they've been following me this entire time."
"I said to open a safe passage for the others," Sondra says sharply, even as she allows one of her arms to, presumably, be pulled over Anbessa's shoulders. "That meant killing the one-thing *alarm system* pinned to the ground. We haven't had the opportunity to scout this place, we have *no idea* the kind of bottlenecks we might--"
She pauses-- grits her teeth, the shudder that passes through her felt plainly, the hitch in her breath clearly heard. More of her weight leans on the man, with or without her say so, her legs not *quite* as willing to behave as they ought to. But even if her legs aren't behaving, her senses haven't failed her entirely, head jerking up the second there's movement in her peripheral vision to snap out, "Incoming!"
Whether it's before or after Anbessa's gotten a bead on the thing? Chances are, it's just slightly after.
Wincing as he is still given an earful by the wolfess, Anbessa speaks as they go along towards the Town Hall. "I know, I know, I'm sorry. Thought we could capture it. Didn't expect everyone else to scamper away instead of helping secure the feral..." He admits, sighing after a moment or two as they enter the front door of the Town hall. Though Anbessa does have enough attention forward to yelp and move to the side as the ooze misses it's mark, making the pale human blink in surprise before he glances down to Sondra, then back up towards the creature.
The hell is THAT? Did the others miss it? Though as he stands back up straight, the human coughs a few times as he swishes something in his mouth preparing his Shadow Breath... Though Sondra sees the human's eyes shoot open widely as Anbessa begins to cough much louder. Shadowy looking gunk escapes the human's mouth as if he just coughed up gunk from his lungs. "Grphhh! Thr fhck...?!" The human's voice is muffled as he more or less is coughing out this gooey looking substance from his stomach with a horrified look on his face.
Parsnip notices a strange hybrid creature make a bee-line for Fenris. Reacting as fast as she can, she raises her claymore and... it was over. Magnus had put an end to the creature. Standing awkawardly with her claymore raised, she slowly lowers it again. "Good job." She says, giving the creature a lookover. In response to Arris's comment she says, "Hey, at least this thing didn't get a chance to hurt us. I'd rather have that than fun... Especially all the way out here." Gleaming nothing from the unusual mutant, she shrugs and carries on, making her way towards the doorway between her and the distressed voice. The feelings emenating from the mysterious signal makes her queasy, but she tries to focus on the task at hand. Once there, she waits for theo thers to catch up.
The concrete-looking slime continues it's assult to try and envelop it's prey, paying no attention to Anbessa's failed attempt to use shadow breath. And even with it making no noise besides the sloshing of it's form, Magnus and Parsnip upstairs can hear the combat. In fact, their perception is honed enough that they can hear the slithering of slime and tentacles from beyond the door next to them.
Arris' worries soon get the better of hir. "Guys, I'm going to look for Anbessa and Sondra. Don't do anything risky while I'm gone, alright?" Bringing hir shield drone along with hir, sie hastily retreats reaching as far as the stairs for now.
Fenris does not slow as he approaches the door. He takes a deep breath and with a bit of concentration a pair of enormous testicles suddenly swell from his crotch, swinging like twin wrecking balls into the door ahead! "Tanuki power, Activate!"
Still literally coughing out all of the Shadow Breath from his lungs as if he drank a few gallons of oil, the human looks up at the last moment from his disgusted coughing just in time to see concrete inches from his face. Splat, and his vision grows dark as Sondra gets a front row view of the human terrifiedly trying to grasp and pull it off of himself as the human goes stumbling back a step or two from the impact, having let Sondra go on reaction. Oh god, oh god, oh god what is this stuff?! But it is stuck fast to his head as he tries to struggle and push away at this disgusting creature trying to consume him! He doesn't need to breathe, but holy hell this is like that one time with the latex creatures! He already hates them enough, but now slime monsters too?! As he tries to claw it off, most he can do is try to keep it from sticking too much. Someone, help...!
The gout of-- *whatever* that is spewing out of Anbessa's mouth earns an undignified and entirely canine yelp from the she-wolf he assists, and she's already on her way to stumbling away from him when the pile of slime hits. He may well hear, "*Shit*," spat out with the use of more human vocal chords, then-- well.
He'll probably feel the shudder of movement through the creature as claws slam into it, but that's about as far as it goes. Sondra's swing isn't the most graceful thing on earth, but it should've done *something*. Instead, she just finds herself in a similar but not quite as panic-inducing situation, tugging impotently on a hand that's been adhered into-- whatever the hell this thing is. And, thusly, there is another bark of, "*Shit!*"
Parsnip worried about the noises downstairs, she makes an effort to summon her bear. It emerges from her slowly and takes form. Whispering to it, she tells to to go and assist her friends downstairs, a command it obeys and runs off to the source of the struggle. Nodding to Arris, she says, "Alright, just follow my bear. I'll try to save the husky." As Fenris smashes the door open, she sighs again and charges in through the door when she gets a chance, claymore ready to cut anything closeby. As she charges inside, she ducks under the door and squeezes herself through the doorway. Though she's much larger than the door, the squishyness of the fat padding around her lower section allows her to press on through.
The dragon seems... in a state of great unease by the sounds he was hearing... Tempted to leave his station, he sighs softly and tries to block out... was... was that the sound of someone yelling about Tanuki power, followed by the telltale smash of a gigantic fleshy... had Fenris just... Oh, well... such things never failed to entertain. Oddly enough, save for the envenomed feral at his legs, the group was encountering no other resistance. So much for being diplomatic, though... For now, the dragon lingers. He had faith in his team, and with nobody covering their backs now, that job fell to him. ...they'd be fine, right? What even was happening in there? It sounded like something straight out of those strange pornos his mother had an overabundance of on her laptop... don't ask.
The slime from the attempts to drag Anbessa and Sondra with it to the stairs, only for it to meet the totemic bear and Arris on it's way up. Even then this is not was much trouble as Fenris and Parsnip are in, blindly entering a room filled with wall-to-wall flesh. Like a scene from a body-horror movie, every surface in the room is covered in a yellow-grey, pulsating sinew. A cancerous mass in the middle of the large room spews out a thick cloud of noxious fumes and nanites, disgorging a body from some membrane opening located in the front. It's hard to tell from the slime, but it looks like the body is missing an arm.
Enough's enough. Call it a hunch or being exposed to too much hentai not to have a clue as to what was probably befalling his team, Magnus abandons his post and runs up into the face of that... that thing. With a flick of the wrist and a distinct 'snikt' sound, the dragon draws two pairs of double claws from his armored wrists. He would slash at the vines constricting his team, the effects enough to at the very least stop its advance and weaken it. Alas... "Gods... fucking damn, this thing!" Magnus snarls as his blades adhere to that... that congealed pasty mass of horrors. His claws seem to not be going anywhere now... and he wasn't about to sacrifice them either. "Cut this damn thing apart! It's jello on the inside! Slicing hurts it the most!"
Arris is met by the blob of concrete slime on the stairs shortly before Magnus approaches it and promptly gets his sword stuck in the mass of goo. Magnus' words fall on hir deaf ears as sie starts pulling Anbessa out first, being the first to succeed in doing so - the bunny gets put down on the floor behind hir before sie stars pulling Sondra out too, the goo coating over hir arms before sie pulls them out and retreats once more, pulling Anbessa and Sondra along by the arms. Once sie gets a few meters away, sie hastily attempts to wipe the goo off hir right arm before reaching into hir pack, pulling out an Acid Gun, and spraying down the larger blob.
Fenris draws his sword, Tanuki Trouble and sets to swinging, cutting indiscriminantly at the foul thing in the room. He tries to reach the poor, ravaged creature spewed out of the hideous thing. He coughs at the disgusting fumes that fill the room, but he doesn't slow.
The concrete-blob feral in the entrance hall is motionless and probably dead. It's sticky slime is covering at least 4 people now, but at least they aren't stuck together. As for the flesh room, Fenris cuts into it's massive form countless times, the creature letting out a bellowing roar that feels like it can shake the entire building! It's flesh undulates, throwing with great force, but Fenris's agility keeps him fit and limber in such an event.
As Parsnip charges in with Fenris, she caughs at the sudden, putrid, smell. She manages to power through it, but when she takes in the sight, her beak gapes wide. "Raccoon person, I dislike you." Before she's able to fully digest the scene before her, Fenris immediately lunges in for the... kill? "Wait! Be careful! The man is alive!" As Fenris slices and dices on the flesh, Parsnip takes the chance to dart in and steal the body from the fleshwall, sheathing her claymore first. Pulling the husky free, she sets him on her saddle and backing away quickly.
Parsnip's bear meanwhile pulls back as Arris launches a stream of acid at the goop, appearently killing it. It stands there for a moment to make sure everything is fine before walking it's way back to Parsnip.
%With his head finally being popped out of the concrete slime and falling to the floor, the human begins to gag and cough out loud as the last remnants of the Shadow Breath begin to finally be freed. Gods above the taste was so horrible...! The poor human looks like a big mess with his eyes open wide in shock as he looks between the slime and Arris. "Holy... Holy fuck." Anbessa stammers in bewilderment as he tries to rise to his feet. "S-so... Don't use your non-physical skills... My Shadow Breath literally clogged my throat." He pants aloud as he looks towards Sondra, then back up to Arris. "Where... What were you all doing up here?" He seems rather frazzled and confused, though he does still hear the noises from upstairs going on as he slowly tries to rise up to his feet once more. Gotta calm down... Alive, for now... Gotta breathe...
"Eeeeeyuck..." Magnus growls and yanks himself free, or as free as he can of that super adhesive blob. Seems it was dead enough now... good riddance to terrible atrocities."
Arris kneels down by the two sie pulled out of the goo blob. "Are you two hurt or anything? Do you need medical attention?" All this while sie hastily wipes the goo from hir left arm into an empty infection vial until that rancid smell hits hir nose and that ear-piercing roar hits hir ears while sie corks it. "What the hell was that?!" Getting back up and darting towards the doors, sie slows down a little due to the smell. Seeing the abomination of flesh in the room beyond, sie unslings hir rifle, aims it right at the core, and once sie gets a clean shot, fires.
Fenris continues to hack and slash, backing out of the room. "Get the guy and let's move! This thing isn't goong to stay down! Go go go!" As soon as Parsnip and her patient are clear, the tanuki turns tail and runs!
"Out! Out! Out!"
"Toxins," Sondra says, once she's gotten herself sorted, which really is just figuring out how to sit properly once her hand has been wrested free. She seems-- oddly impassive, given the whole ordeal, but that might have something to do with that key word, there. "Got-- stabbed," she says, her tongue seeming all the more sluggish to form the words, "by that *thing* outside. Don't know what kind of dose I got, o-- or--"
Ultimately, it's Fenris' shouts that jerk her attention up towards the tanuki, at which point she switches gears: "I'm gonna need some h--" a slight shake of her head to reorient, "some help getting out of here."
With the man pulled from the building, it's clear he's been mutated a lot. Besides his missing arm, quills are growing from his back and his legs are that of a rabbit, all trace of human gone. With the fleshy room constantly regenerating and the amount of abuse the group has been through, it seems like a better idea to retreat with their rescued survivor. It's a long, gruling trek back to Fairhaven on foot with dead weight and injuries, but everyone is alive. Who knows what repercussions will reult from this?
