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Post by FC4 on Jul 28, 2008 12:10:03 GMT
Near Aldarlion The sand continued to shift, as if something was burrowing under it towards the Altmer. Or toward the cliff to the south. Or to the north, or towards the water. There really seemed to be little direction to any of them.
Suddenly a thing burst from the sand at Aldarlion's feet, rising in the air towards his face. It was a small mudcrab with clicking claws.
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Post by webster52402 on Jul 29, 2008 16:25:07 GMT
Perur was slightly confused at the wild man's broken way of speech, but he at least gathered the gist of it. The floating tree must be the ship, Harvey or whatever was the Kraken, and that staying here would eventually get him killed. Great. Nothing like knowing that you had arrived on an island that featured creatures that were out to kill you, forced to follow the directions of a animalistic, but still somewhat intelligent he admitted, wild man, and without any sort of clue just where you actually had ended up.
He rolled, his hand reaching out to grip the piece of wood that he had been using as a cane earlier. With a grunt of effort, Perur pushed himself up again, regaining his feet however unsteadily. He paused for a moment, wiping the back of his hand along his forehead, which was covered in a sheen of sweat already. Just moving was proving to be a pain for him. But, it was move or die...
Slowly, Perur limped after Semira and the wild man, using the impromptu wooden crutch to ease his movement. This was going to be a hell of a time, he knew that...
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Post by Vrek on Jul 29, 2008 17:15:12 GMT
Jacin's heart sunk as soon as the larger crab hopped up. His fears were echoed by the clicking of the single crab. He slowly rose up, backing away so slowly. More of the crabs started clicking, each a claim to the thief. Inwardly, Jacin cursed.
One of the crabs started running, every single other crab started running after, racing towards him. Jacin cursed again, this time alloud. He turned tale and dashed away form the mudcrab army. He stuck close to the cliffside, running ontop stone at every chance, the solid ground allowing him more speed then the soft mallable sand.
He kept pumping his legs, quietly praying for protection from the beasts, praying to Y'ffre for protection of the beasts. Anything. Ahead of him the jungle loomed, behind him the storm of clicking continued. Jacin closed his eyes, barreling ahead.
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Post by Tom Bombadil on Jul 30, 2008 1:30:33 GMT
Startled, Aldarilon jerked backwards with a short exclamation of "Ghi-!"
He blinked, looking down at the crustacean blankly. "Oh, mudcrab," he said tonelessly. Laughing quietly that he had been startled by this, he casually picked up a nearby piece of waterlogged meat that had been washed up with the rest of the wreckage. Holding it out to where the mudcrab could see it, he lobbed the meat over it in the direction of the shore before turning around and continuing towards the wood line. No sense in killing it, he thought, what could a single mudcrab be, other than a nuisance?
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Post by FC4 on Jul 30, 2008 2:14:35 GMT
Near Aldarilon. The mudcrab watched the piece of meat fly through the air and land on the sand near the water but then turned those red-eyed stalks back to Aldarilon's back. When the altmer wasn't looking, a large crab snapped out of the sand and consumed the meat.
The mudcrab began clicking its mandibles at Aldarilon, as if trying to mimic the growl of a cat. Several other clicks followed, and then everything fell silent.
A moment later and crabs burst from the sand from three different sides, jumping into the air and seeking to land on his body to claw at him.
Near Jacin The mudcrabs senselessly scrambled after the Bosmer, claws batting each other aside and legs clicking against the stone as they tried to find purchase. Many of them failed and fell atop their comrades, but some crawled over their comrades to get higher.
A claw snapped mere inches from Jacin's foot, before the clicking became even more frantic than before. The Bosmer had been climbing upon the stones on the side of the cliff to survive, but he was still far from the forest. Just a little more.
But if Jacin were to look back, he would see the reason for the sudden increase in Mudcrab noise. They were no longer screaming 'mine' and instead just screeching. The sand around the mudcrab armada had inexplicably began to swirl like a whirlpool, grains rushing around as the beach began to sink.
The sinkhole in the center of the whirlpool grew slowly, as mudcrab after mudcrab was pulled deeper into the sand. Some of the sand had been kicked up, likely by the frantic thrashing of the 'drowning' crabs, and was swirling around and around the edge of the whirlpool. But the kicked up sand moved through the air in a decidedly unnatural manner.
Wildman The man led them through the forest slowly, though he himself moved about quickly amongst the tree trunks. He often stopped and looked back to see if his new friends followed, and waited for them. They passed over a small ravine by walking over a log, the man scrambling on all fours over easily, though Semira found herself wobbling badly. The ravine was shallow, thankfully, so it wouldn't kill her to fall. But it would hurt. And the small stream that ran under it would likely be freezing cold.
She almost did fall when she got near the end, her limping leg slipping on moss. The man's hand shot out quickly and gripped her arm powerfully, before he helped her manage to pull up on the other side. He may have been rather lean... but there was muscle in the man.
He waved for Perur to cross, sitting on his hunches and waiting.
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Post by webster52402 on Jul 30, 2008 3:03:42 GMT
Perur paused on the other side of the ravine, looking at the mossy log with a wary eye. He looked back up to the wild man, that had scampered across like only a feral wild man could, then switched to Semira, who was less injured but had nearly fallen off the log herself. Not only that, but she was also bleeding, which means that wherever her injured leg had landed, there would be some manner of slickness, as blood wasn't exactly good to try and keep your footing on.
All this ran through Perur's mind as he gauged his likelihood to make it across the log, when he had to use a piece of wood as a crutch to even make anything resembling good time. So, after a long moment, Perur simply raised his gaze to him, quirking an eyebrow. "... You've got to be kidding me." He said simply, not even bothering to move onto the log. "You sure you couldn't have built a bridge or something?"
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Post by FC4 on Jul 30, 2008 3:12:24 GMT
"Bridge not made. Tree-log fell in storm-stuck-me-here." The man explained, pointing at the log. "Natural." He then looked at Perur, at the ravine, and back. That intelligent light had returned to his blue eyes, as it looked like he was thinking. Scampering across the log, he then stood on two legs and held out one hand to Perur, still crouching on his legs.
"Help?" He asked, holding his spear with his right hand without any sign of intent to use it.
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Post by webster52402 on Aug 14, 2008 3:50:44 GMT
Perur sighed in frustration as he scampered across, explaining that the bridge wasn't made. "That was kind of the point. Though perhaps I should have explained myself better..." He muttered underneath his breath, eying the river that ran beneath the long skeptically. "If I fall, I swear, I am going to do my best to come back as a Wraith just to haunt you..." He said to the man as he offered his help, wincing as he let the makeshift crutch that he had move to one side, removing his weight off of it so that he could try and move across.
Wobbling slightly, Perur reached out to take the wild man's hand, clasping it tightly. Though Perur could hardly walk, his grip was still tight, especially when he was crossing over one of his least favorite elements: Water. Not only that, but it was a river too, what a nice blast from the past.
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Post by Vrek on Aug 14, 2008 6:47:52 GMT
Jacin hurdled over a dull lump, still dashing away from the armada of crabs. A bit of confusion hit the Bosmer, though, when the clicking and screeching changed from one basic instinct to another. It was too unintelligible to understand, but it was different.
Out of curiosity, he stopped when he reached a particularly large rock, then turned back, quickly kicking away a mudcrab at his feet. A... whirlpool? Still backing away he thought about it. "A... uh giant antlion? Great Y'ffre...." His mouth curled into a smile. Protection of the beasts. "Praise be."
Kicking at another mudcrab, he dashed back off towards the treeline.
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Post by FC4 on Aug 19, 2008 12:52:06 GMT
Wild man His grip on Perur was tight and sure as he led the Imperial across the fallen log slowly. It was as if he could feel the man's fear, and so acted slowly because of it. But also, his water-blue eyes were looking wildly around, as if something were about to pounce out at him. He looked down, and then dashed forward, dragging Perur with him before throwing the Imperial forward onto the embankment on the other side.
Just as the man landed on the ground near the Imperial as well, the log they had been crossing on cracked and exploded upwards into two halves. From it's center stood a pillar of water, rushing upwards like a reverse water fall and stopping when it peaked at ten feet in the air. Two tendrils that looked eerily like arms sprouted from the pillar, and it's top began to take the shape of an endowed woman, with long and flowing hair.
All the color of transparent water. Those clear eyes looked towards the wild man, and then towards Perur, and if it was happy, one could not tell. The man adjusted his grip on the spear and pointed it at the water demon, ready for a fight.
Jacin The source of the whirlpool was not a giant antlion. No, as the kickup on the edge of the whirlpool increased, a different form took shape amongst the flowing patterns of sand. A humanoid form ran around the whirlpool, surrounding it, looking down upon it. The whirlpool of sand grew larger and larger, and the mudcrabs seemed to be sunk into the sand by it's pull.
And then the whirlpool abruptly stopped, the sand returning to it's old posture, and only a few stranglers remained above the surface. And they were scurrying madly for the water.
But the humanoid figure remained in the sand. He stood about as tall as a bosmer, and his features were impossible to make out. Mainly because he was all sand. But he turned, and looked towards Jacin heading for the forest, and moved after the Bosmer.
As he moved, it looked like his knees were only half a foot out of the sand, as if the rest of his leg was buried beneath it.
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Post by Vicorva on Sept 1, 2008 10:52:32 GMT
OOC: Hello! THanks muchly for looking after Semira! Out of curiosity, do you have any actual characters FC? Or all they all NPCs? IC: Semira had never felt so tired a she did as she followed along behind the apparently crazed hermit. SHe felt as if all the energy was leaking out of her- and so it was. Nonetheless, she had always been able to draw upon her strength at need, injured or not, and she refused to allow this to be her moment of weakness. Perur hadn't acknowledged her presence- she assumed because he was still feeling betrayed. Tired as she was, unable to keep herself busy, she couldn't fend off her reaction to this: amusement. Cold Amusement. She was making herself ill. When the water demon rose from the depths, she could only raise an eyebrow. "It's like some adolescent boy's dream..." she thought, remembering her brother in his youth. How the only beasts he wanted to meet on his 'adventures' seemed to be similary shaped. She tried to draw the weapon she had saved, but the effort almost undid her. I suppose I fight like a beast today... she thought. Tooth, claw, horn... a lady's choice weapons...
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Post by Tom Bombadil on Sept 1, 2008 16:06:41 GMT
The sound of the crab's clicking made Aldarilon quicken his pace slightly, but he payed little attention to it. Mudcrabs were always territorial; it wasn't a surprise that-
Another sound, this one more spread out, made the Altmer raise an eyebrow and turn his head to look back.
"We- YHEEEAGH!" He hardly had time to react as dozens of crabs flung themselves on his body. Several clung to his legs and torso, while others managed to clamp onto a finger or an ear. One was struggling to get a hold on his right cheek. In a panic, Aldarilon started grabbing wildly at the mudcrabs, yanking them off and flinging them as far as he could, as quickly as possible. They just kept coming back to him, though.
"Ghi- blasted-! Get-OW! Son of a-" Stumbling, he began fighting his way up toward the woodline in an effort to get away from the crabs. Several more were slung from him, and several more emerged from the sand to replace them. Finally nearing a tree, he raised his mudcrab-bearing finger and slung it against the bark. It gave a squeak and fell to the ground, immobile.
The sword wouldn't do any good here. He tried any means possible to kill the things. He managed to shake one from his leg and stomp it into the ground. Giving a final violent shake of his body, he made an effort to get away from the crabs altogether and deal with the ones still on his body later- he made a sprint into the woods, running as fast as his legs could carry him without tripping over foliage.
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Post by webster52402 on Sept 2, 2008 6:35:48 GMT
Agony.
That was all that Perur felt as he landed heavily on the other side of the embankment, gritting his teeth as he rolled, clenching his hands against the wound that was proving to incapacitate him so much. God damn, he just wanted to get some healing, and instead he was getting thrown around like a rag doll, as though there were something making sure that everything happened to that wound before he finally managed to get it healed!
Through tear-swimming vision, brought on by the sudden jolt of pain, Perur saw the tower of water slowly rising, before forming itself into a rather well-endowed woman, looking down at them... Which immediately brought more tears, though for an entirely different reason. His most hated element was ALIVE. It was a demon of some kind, ready to reach out and drag him into the depths of the water, drown him!
He began to gibber as he looked wide-eyed up at the demon, spidering backward along the ground as he had done on the beach. This time, though, he was a bit more successful as he was on solid ground. Slowly, he was making progress towards the deeper parts of the forest, ignoring the pain that came from thrashing about with his wound. All that he knew, was that that thing was going to drown him, was going to take him and bring him back to the crushing depths, to die as he struggled against the currents, laughing as his lungs filled with water, burning...
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Post by Vrek on Sept 2, 2008 15:39:14 GMT
Jacin gave a triumphant laugh at the mudcrabs caught in the whirlpool of sand. The laugh died in his throat as the spray of sand surrounding the slowed, appearing more humanlike. Jacin's jog towards the treeline died entirely as the sand creature and the Bosmer locked stares, an unsettling moment, as the sand creature didn't have any eyes.
It took the theif a moment to realize how much that thing actually scared him. After all, it just buried nearly fifty mudcrabs in a few seconds. As the demon stepped closer, Jacin found himself paralyzed for a few precious moments before he sprinted towards the treeline. Only a little more to reach it...
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Post by FC4 on Sept 2, 2008 20:14:09 GMT
OOC: Pretty much NPC in design, though the Wild Man could be considered my character, I suppose. Oh, and I will be updating the map a little more soon, with swampy sections.
IC: Aldarilon The crabs screeched and cried as they were flung, smashed, and crunched about the flailing Altmer, bits of crustacean meat flying in the air along with hard shells and appendages. The shaking sent many of them to the ground around him before the Altmer ran, his path wild through the forest.
Those crabs not currently clinging to him stopped giving chase the moment they reached the treeline, clicking manically at the fleeing figure. Their prey had escaped, but they were not about to give chase. The trees rustled and several of the crabs near the forest jumped in fright, scurrying back into the sands.
OOC: Tom, you can handle the rest of the crabs as you see fit.
Jacin The steps were sure and strong, determined to reach their destination. When the Bosmer turned and fled, the pace quickened, and one arm whipped forward as it broke into a run.
Following the path of that arm a gust of sand blew up from around the sandman, a dirt devil of wind and sand that rushed towards the Bosmer. The figure did not stop but continued to fast-walk after his target, following behind the twister as it spun towards the same forest the Bosmer sought for refuge.
Wild Man The man did not even look towards Perur as his injured companion began to wander off, despite the fact he knew there were likely more dangers awaiting them deeper in the jungles.
Instead those sapphire eyes remained locked on the rushing water that formed the demoness, his grip on the spear tight. "He feel fear. I no fear you!" The water-woman's attention had been on Perur's retreating form, and she seemed ready to pounce towards him, but it shifted as the man spoke. That indistinct face took on an aggravated visage before a cry that sounded like the crashing of waves upon a battered ship rose around them.
The man held his ground. "Run. Look in trees. Find find home made of floating-tree. There safe, nowhere else!" The man ordered Semira over his shoulder, before he took a step forward and hurled his spear at the towering pillar of water.
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