- IC Time: Sat Oct 13 16:32:03 2018 ***
- OOC Time: Sat Oct 13 16:32:03 2018 ***
Weeks have passed now. Time is weird here, and the only thing to give an inkling of the normal passage of time is the rise and fall of the blood red sun. The pack has grown and shrunk as time has gone by. The alpha has remained, though. The one true constant. Charlie's place has found her now third on the totem pole. The hunt has proved fruitful, but older members have died due to unforseen events. Now, they find themselves at the foot of a mountain within the forests of Awakodan's realm. The mouth of a cave isn't too far off, there lies a path that leads up the mountain betwixt two large boulders, and the alpha sits just a ways off with the rest of the pack.
Tilting her head towards the cave, she lifts her nose to scent the aor before padding towards where the Alpha sits. "Do we climb, or go underground?" she chuffs, plopping down and grooming some of the feathers along her foreleg.
"We rest,' she growls, lazily. She moves a bit, circling where she stood until she found it comfortable enough to lie down. She lifts her feathered head to point her snout into the direction of the cave. "You look. Come back. If food, we hunt. If no food, we sleep."
Charlie dips her snout in acknowledgment of the Alpha, chuffing a simple assent. Rising, she shakes herself all over and trots into the cave, pausing the entrance to scent the cooler air bef9re slipping into tue suadows just inside the mouth of the cave. Ears prick forward and her tail hangs neutral, eyes trying to see i to the darkness.
-> >> Charlie to Here << <-===========================================
Rolled 1 Success
< 1 3 5 5 5 5 7 7 8 >
===========================-> >> Wits + Composure + 2 No Flags << <-
She's grown to use her changed shape well enough. When in Rome. Her nose knows little of the area, though. It leads her along as she catches the scent of something alien. Hard to say if it's food or not. Further into the cave until the light offers no form of aid. Instead it's her ears and noses that enable her to keep going. Further along she can hear movement. Several steps moving sporadically, but in concert.
The darkness is rarely her friend. She drops into a low crouch and creeps forward when her ears and nose reveal that she has company in the cave. Stopping, she listens, then creeps forward, pauses, and moves again. Creeping, stalking - trying to avoid alerting the thing to her presence.
-> >> Charlie to Here << <-===========================================
Rolled 0 Success
< 1 4 4 >
===========================-> >> Wits + Composure - 4 No Flags << <-
She eventually finds something, but it's still hard to make out in the darkness. The movement is heard across the floor. Then the cave walls. Lastly, the ceiling. It stops there. As she takes her next step she finds that something was stuck to it for a few seconds, and she has to tug at it for a few seconds to get it off. "Who comes?" a voice asks from above.
Ew. What is that sticky stuff? The voice causes her to paise and she flattens her scaley, feathered ears. "Are you prey?" It doesn't occur to her that a smart thing would never answer that question. "Come down and let me eat you! I'm hungry!" Excited yapping and growling as she tips her head up to try and see in the shadows.
"You are prey," says the creature in response. It comes down, seeimingly meeting Charlie face to face. It blinks at her. All eight, red eyes blink at her. "You are in my den, and you will feed me. I will wrap you up. Drain you dry. And feast on your innards for days." That's way too much talking.
Charlie's response is a high call for tue pack before snapping her jaws at those eyes - trying to find it's flesh, now that she has the hue of the eyes to use to find it, to gauge the distance for her strike.
-> >> Charlie to Here << <-===========================================
Rolled 0 Success
< 3 7 >
==========================-> >> Presence + Persuasion No Flags << <-
The call for help comes out more like a yelp as the spider drops down to stand before her. It looks more akin to one of the things she's seen before in a life that may as well no longer exist aside from the far reaches of a fading memory. It chitters with joy, and moves forward over the web slowly. "Your guts will fill my guts, and your juices will just be so, so good."
Starting to back away from the huge spider as it comes down. "I am.not prey!" she snarls, snapping her teeth at the air to emphasize her point. "We will feast!" Her growls loud as she challenges the massive arachnid.
GAME: Charlie rolled 1, putting herself on the initiative roster at 9.
GAME: Raymond rolled 6, putting "Temme" on the initiative roster at 11.
Game: Charlie has a pumped "Defense" of 5.
-> >> Raymond to Here << <-===========================================
Rolled 2 Successes
< 1 7 9 9 >
======================================-> >> 4 + 5 - 5 No Flags << <-
-> >> Charlie to Here << <-===========================================
Rolled 0 Success
< 2 3 4 5 6 >
==========================-> >> Resolve + Stamina - 3 No Flags << <-
Game: Charlie takes 2 Lethal damage.
Game: Charlie takes 1 Bashing damage.
The spider chitters about, circling Charlie in a similar fashion as the alpha. However, where the alpha was judging, the dire spider was looking for an opening. It eventually finds a spot on her left flank. Hairy pedipalps cuddle up close for just a second before fangs sink deep into her flesh and inject something that adds insult to injury.
-> >> Charlie to Here << <-===========================================
Rolled 1 Success
< 7 9 >
===============================-> >> Strength + 4 - 6 No Flags << <-
Charlie yelps sharply when fangs dig into flesh, whirling to grab the carapace and pierce it with the strength of her jaws and her teeth. Snarling loudly, she jerks her head, giving the spider a hearty shake and a crunch. Bleeding from the flank, her tongue licks the gooey bug juice off her muzzle.
"Okay. Okay." That hurt the spider. It hurt it a lot. "Maybe not eat you, yet, but so hungry. So so hungry." It backs up a bit, using the advantage it has over the webbing compared to Charlie. "We work deal, yes? Help me find something to eat, and I won't try to eat you. Deal?"
Watching the arachnid retreat, Charlie takes a moment to lick at the wound on her flank. "I will find you something to eat." she promises. "And you will not eat me. OR my pack." she says, adding the others to the list of 'do not eat' for the spider.
-> >> Charlie to Here << <-===========================================
Rolled 0 Success
< 4 >
======================-> >> Manipulation + Persuasion No Flags << <-
"Pack?" it asks curiously. That's followed with a low hum that only expresses delight. "Pack means many. Many means full for days. Many means I eat better. Yes. Yes. Pack." The spider bobs up and down with excitement, and then turns to skitter off where Charlie came from.
-> >> Charlie to Here << <-===========================================
Rolled a chance die for a failure
< 4 >
===========================-> >> Strength + 4 - 6 - 2 No Flags << <-
Oh hell no!
Charlie pivots and snaps her teeth at the ass end of the spider, falling short of clipping it by a few inches. "You do not eat my pack!" she snarls loudly, trying to run after the spider, but struggling with her webbed claws and paws on the uneven surface of the cave.
The spider darts off, leaving its former meal for what might be a buffett that awaits. "Pack is mine!" the spider screeches. "Mine!" It skitters off to leave Charlie alone in the darkness with nothing but herself, the strange scents in the cavern, and the sticky webbing of the spider.
-> >> Charlie to Here << <-===========================================
Rolled 2 Successes
< 2 3 8 8 >
=======================-> >> Strength + Athletics - 2 No Flags << <-
-> >> Charlie to Here << <-===========================================
Rolled 1 Success
< 9 >
======================-> >> Manipulation + Persuasion No Flags << <-
Charlie raises her muzzle and howls to, hopefully, alert the pack to the inbound trouble as she gives chase to giant spider. Webbed forepaws are quiet on the cave floor, but the reptilian claws on her hindfeet scrape and click as makes haste.
It takes her a bit to find her way back outside. The spider doesn't have much of a scent to follow, and the ofal present in its haven didn't betray as much. She eventually finds her way to daylight. She's in time to see the spider already sinking its fangs into one of the chimerical pack. So far, the spider's been successful enough to take down two of hte pack's number.
-> >> Charlie to Here << <-===========================================
Rolled 2 Successes
< 3 9 10 >
===============================-> >> Strength + 4 - 6 No Flags << <-
Once clear of the cave, she throws herself at the spider with a loud snarling growl, attacking it with jaws wide open and tearing into the softer body of the huge arachnid. Puncturing it deep, there's nasty spider-goo all over her lower jaw and running from the wound like blood.
Charlie got a good bit past the carapace of the spider, and it shrieks in pain and terror. "No!" it screams. "No!" It stays on its current target, although it tries to move about to get away from Charlie. Right now it's on her alpha, and it looks like the alpha isn't taking as kindly to the spider's poisonous chomping.
-> >> Charlie to Here << <-===========================================
Rolled 0 Success
< 2 5 >
===============================-> >> Strength + 4 - 6 No Flags << <-
It works, the thing turns and Charlie loses her grip on the spider. "Let. Them. Go." Low and dangerous, the spider's goo dripping off her jaws as she tries to get another bite in on them, teeth clacking shut on the empty air as the spider twists out of reach.
The alpha was already looking green in the gills, and she just looks worse after another bite sunk into its side. "No! No! NO!" The spider dodges just in time, this time getting the alphas other side. After this bite the alpha's blood begins to settle in with the foam around its mouth, and when she tries to bite back she can barely kiss the spider.
GAME: Charlie spends 1 Willpower
-> >> Charlie to Here << <-===========================================
Rolled 4 Successes
< 1 1 2 4 5 5 8 10 10 10 >
=======================-> >> Strength + 4 + 3 + 2 - 6 No Flags << <-
Rage boils over in Charlie and she lunges forward, leaving herself vulnerable to a counter in an attempt to stop the spider from finishing off her Alpha. Throwing her weight into the spider, she knocks it away and tears deep into the softer flesh under the carapace, her hindclaws coming into place and shredding through the soft mess of spider guts.
The spiders thorax splits open under Charlie's might and prowess. It's legs twitch and move as the light fades from those many eyes. "No, no." It continues to echo until nothing remains but the few remaining breaths as it clings to the mortal coil. The alpha, however, doesn't do much better, and immediately collapses beside the spider.
Charlie plehs, trying to spit out as much of the bug-goo as she can, then pads to the fallen Alpha and noses at her with a low whine. She might know the old ways to heal or draw out poison, but paws and jaws and alien plant make any of that knowledge pretty useless.
The alpha looks up to Charlie with half-lidded eyes. She can only give a whimper, and with that last breath slips off to meet her own death. The remaining members of the pack sidle up beside Charlie. They howl, shriek, and roar in pain, a somber chorus that echoes throughout the forest.
And, of course, it's -her- fault for trying to negotiate with the beast instead of just kill it or slink back to gather the pack. Prodding the warm body with her muzzle, she sits down and lifts her muzzle to howl with the remnants of the pack, mourning the loss she's brought about.
When the other beasts are done grieving for the losses of their pack, and especially of their alpha, they turn to Charlie. The feathered wolf nudges her at the wither, and growls. "Alpha?" The others follow with the same question. Over and over and over. They eventually fall to silence, waiting for her response.
Charlie looks to the feathered wolf, then the others as the question is echoed. Ears flick back before they prick forward and she dips her head in a nod, accepting the role.
Rising, she shakes herself off and drags the dead Alpha to the entrance of the cave, nosing and nudging until she's just inside - the scent and bones to serve as a warning in the future.
With the other laid to rest, she lifts her head in another howl, claiming the place of leadership and starting to lead them away from the cave that the spider came from.
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