thebastion | Core Event: Day 259 [open]

When they do go in, there is no monster within the room.

There are, however, eggs. At least twenty of them, gathered together in a nest made out of broken furniture and other assorted things.

Ghaleon takes one look at the eggs, spins on his heel, and calmly exits the room. Possibly contend with a mother defending her children with only three people? No thank you.

Ghaleon wins the intelligent party member award.

Duke remembers that the rattle tail nest had shards in it, and sort of wants to make sure there's nothing stuffed in the corners of the room.

On one hand, that is a large amount of eggs, and the claw marks are pretty big. On the other hand, the claw marks are old. Unless the thing had gotten better about now clawing anything up, it probably hadn't been here a while.

... Duke stays long enough to look for anything glowing before following Ghaleon. If there is any glow, Duke wants to go back in.

"I believe the correct phrase for this situation is, roughly..."

Megaera quickly moved out of the room. "Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope..."

There are shards in the mess of rubble that is a nest, but not that many. Maybe 20 or so.

But look! The sound of talking and the door opening has disturbed the eggs! And now a couple of them are starting to crack open.

Wait around, and your characters might be mommies and daddies to monsters! Or they might get their faces gnawed off, that could happen too.

Eggs hatching or no, Ghaleon is leaving the building. Even if they aren't carnivores by some chance, herbivores can be just as dangerous if they're in a mood. Or worse, they might be the sort of omnivore that will eat pretty much everything in its path.

Hang around? No. Nuh uh. Not a chance.

No, he's just going to tell everyone that yeah, there maaaaay be a bit of a snag in the plan.

Duke takes hatching eggs as a sign of "mom monster is around somewhere", and being around the babies when Mom comes back is a no.

"... Anyone think they can identify what sort of monster they are by the noises they make after hatching?" That could tell them what Mom is, wherever it is, and that could help. ".. maybe from a window or something, rather than the doorway."

"Their mother can handle it, let's just go back the way we came, now, quickly," Megaera said, as she kept right on moving the way they came in.

"I meant in the way of 'So we know what the mother is' Or what we're potentially going to have to deal with if they react to the core." Or so they can tell the rest that there's a nest of what sort of monster in here. It seems like important information.

Of course, running into the mother would solve that just as quickly, so yeah, exiting. But Duke is going to circle the building for windows.

There are indeed windows! And from one of them, the sounds of newborn monsters can be heard, squalling and wailing for food. The exact type of monster is unidentifiable, since it is one nobody present has encountered yet. But there is no sign of Mom yet, so that is good at least?

"With luck, we may even be able to get back to the others to report our findings without being pursued."

Though phrased as a jest, the way Ghaleon's ears twitch slightly at noises as he follows Duke is a bit of a clue that he was half being serious. Call him paranoid, but he knows a potential snafu when he sees one.

"Catching up would be the wisest choice. I'm the one who can escape with the stone in tow once we find it, after all..."

"... I have no idea what they sound like." Well, that plan meant very little. On the other hand, they can now say 'a nest of unidentified monsters', which is still sort of helpful.

".. so we have a nest of baby monsters, no sign of mom, and a core to find. Great." ... If there is no sign of mom, can they keep the babies? ... if the babies don't go crazy when they pick up the core.

Okay, since she's pointing that out, Duke gives her a half bow. "Do you want me to lead?"

Maybe. If the babies truly don't go berserk when the core is retrieved. Then maybe, just maybe the others won't veto taking them back as pets.

Also, that is a useful bit of information to know. "If that is the case, shall I take the rear guard then?"

In any other case, that might not be a terrible idea. Monsters had been adopted by people in the Bastion before, and it certainly could be done again.

But these babies are hungry. Ravenously hungry. So hungry that they are screaming out and scuttling down the hallway in the building, following the scent of the humans who had just been nearby. Humans they intend on eating.

At the same time, another monster is coming. This one is much larger than the eggs had been, but seeing as how it is headed towards the nest with a large, dead animal in its jaws, it is probably the mom.

This monster is easily bigger than a van, and it looks like it could bite a human in half like it was nothing. It is lizard-like in appearance, with the same coloration as most monsters on the Skyway: primarily black, with some blue and orange mixed in.

Also, the mama lizardthing happens to have a glowing spot in its underbelly, definitely large enough to be a core.

Actually, Megaera, go on ahead. Please, get far far away from this rather large creature, and maybe go duck into one of those other buildings to get other people.

Because that monster's belly is glowing. Stomach acid can't be good for a Core.

On the other hand, the creature is distracted.

"Looks like a core. I'd rather start attacking sooner than when she's not distracted. Spell in mind has a bit of a pull."

Yes. Please run and get the others, Megaera. This thing is probably going to take more than a few hits if previous experience with giant monsters is any indication.

Previous experience would also indicate that reptiles don't mix well with ice. (Killing it with fire is still on the table though.)

"I have my own spell in mind that may just slow our scaly friend down."

As the creatures started to approach, Megaera spun around with very little hesitation. "Like this? This'll only buy us a bit, but..."

Raising her hands, she began to incant a spell, words in a strange magic forming from her mouth as she quickly went through a series of precise motions with her hands...

"Slow!"

Unfortunately, the spell wouldn't hit the entire group - not with so many small ones - but it would slow down the mother and buy them a few seconds.

"And now, MOVE!"

Which Megaera was promptly doing.

The mother is slowed, which will definitely help the group, as she is the biggest threat. The newborns are still trying to learn how to use their legs, so their stumbling won't get them anywhere any faster than the mother can travel right now.

The mother drops the animal in her mouth, and the babies immediately go towards it to devour it. Eating is one thing they can manage to do very well.

But those that can't get on the deer carcass, as well as the mother, will be turning to go after the group. Fight or escape, but a choice must be made, because they will be within chomping range before too long.

"Not just yet." When you lack ice, kill everything with fire. That, and the bright light should alert everyone else that there's fighting to do. Okay, Duke is immobile while casting, so the knight does run a few yards before turning and casting. Red lights, red letters, red seal-

"Crimson Flare!" It's a big sphere of red lines that forms and.. more or less dumps a large pillar of fire on mom and deer and babies. For some reason - or perhaps the same reason that this pillar of flame doesn't expand all over the ground - the pillar also tries pulling things into its center.

Well, Ghaleon's not sure what the calling out attack names thing is about, but sure, whatever works for them. It's not like it's necessary for him to participate or anything. He retreats a bit while the knight begins her own spell, the telltale glow of a charging spell surrounding him as well.

The moment Duke's fire dies down, the former hero raises his arms to the sky, glowing brightly for a moment before a light mist coalesces and a hail of large ice shards bombards the area, save for where the party happens to be.

[The light did manage to get the attention of at least one person and within seconds, Ippo had skidded to a stop next to the trio of mages, his hands raised as he peered over the scene. He may have had to dodge a few falling ice shards, but he'd managed it.

For now, he'd hold his ground and gauge the threat level...he saw shadows amid the dust kicked up, but right now there wasn't a clear way to tell just how many of them would start moving again.]

Is everyone okay? Do you think that did it?

"Careful," Megaera declared as she saw Ippo move in. "I'm pretty sure it's not downed yet."

Zuko isn't too far behind Ippo, joining the others and trying to take in the scene as she brought a hand to the sword hilts at her shoulder.

"Probably not," she says, catching Megaera's warning. "Whatever we're dealing with, it's strong enough to tear open iron. It was feeding on the prisoners."

The pillar of fire was actually a very good idea, as it roasts all but a few of the babies. Some of them were still in the process of hatching, so they had not gotten out of the building yet, and thus were safe. The rest, however, are dead.

But the mama lizard monster, it is roaring in pain and anger and it swirls around in the tornado of fire. It can't escape, and the fire is damaging it, but it isn't dead. In fact, the fire doesn't seem to be doing much damage to it. The same goes for the ice shards, too: some damage is done, but all it does is injure, not kill. This is beefy lizard monster that will take cooperation from several parties to beat.

Edited 2014-12-21 08:47 (UTC)

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