Plagued Beast - RPLOG
Participants
Date
17/5/477
Log
Beach day! The single day which marks the start of summer for beings in Firmament, sponsored by most of the noble families and a glorious excuse for one to enjoy sun, sand and surf. Sure, it's not as if the beach is closed to anyone anytime, but it's always better when it's Official (TM).
Vendors ply the sand, selling cool drinks out of iced buckets and season-appropriate seafood. Even noon mass is delivered by a priest on the beach, everyone appropriately dressed in swimsuits. The sky is clear, hot rays beating down...on a large, misshapen, tentacled blob that's washed up on the sands, a small ring of curious onlookers already having gathered about it in a ring.
"It's a cephalopotamus," one of them, a small-clanned sparrow, declares, pecking at an iced treat. "It also happened earlier this year - one of them things beached itself and died. They're not supposed to come up to the surface like this."
Hartford stumps across the beach, his usual tabard discarded in favor of a pair of black and white striped bathing shorts. It's not often he gets a day off as a guard for the Blackbacks, but he plans to enjoy beach day to the fullest! Joining the crowd, he stares at the strange, blobby thing on the beach. "Should we push it back in or something?" he asks in his deep, slow voice.
A mumble, a flick of her three tails, and Flora makes her way onto the beach. She's clad in another outfit than usual, still meant for work, but not fully made out of leather. Instead, it seems to be a simple, cloth outfit, made to breathe and with segmented leather pads on the front, back and arms, allowing airflow but protecting the vital parts of her body.
"Flora is quite sure that has no use. It's dead, mister... Hartford, Flora believes? We could put it back into the water, but it would just wash up again, due to the way the water flows... Flora thinks we have two options, yes... Three. Let it lay here, get it far enough into the sea to figure out, or cut it open to see what, if anything, went wrong for it, yes yes."
Elroar arrives near the ring of people around the giant globular tentacled thing. The Komodo's left most of his armor behind, clad in only a red set of swim shorts and his plated belt with greatsword. "Aye, well if its dead, we should at least get rid of it before it starts reeking. As for cutting it open, well, I could, but I doubt the barracks want anyone smelling of rotten cephleo-thing vicera." He shakes his head, such a waste, hey at least he got to go to the beach.
Rainer has only one outfit, for the record, and he's wearing it! Yes: big, poofy pants. But he's rolled the legs up to his knees,so there's that. The growing commotion surrounding the landed carcass rouses him from his impromptu nap, and with a yawn and a stretch he sits up, squinting bleary-eyed against the glare of the afternoon sun, and within a minute he's upright and shaking the sand out of his fur. "What's all the hub-bub?" inquired of no one imparticular as he canters over, wiggling his way to the front row. "Ohhh neat! It's some ... thing! Does it have a name? 'Cuz if it doesn't we're totally calling them Gloobers from now on. No, no, wait, that's dumb. How about... Sand Shuckles! Eh? You like that name, li'l fella? You wanna be a Sand Shuckle?" And down into a crouch he goes, twirling index finger over his head and then extending it towards the beastie to give it a poke...!
Rainer's finger sinks into the jelly-like beastie, as if he'd touched a rather soft gelatin dessert. Nothing at first...then faintly, he can't feel his finger any more.
The sparrow, still looking on, pecks once more at his dessert of crushed ice and fruit syrup. "Ach, it'll wear off after a few hours. Mostly harmless, 'less you touch the tentacles. Physicians give it to numb pain, although the thing is quite hard to find. Folks, stand back. This could get messy. Was, the last time I saw some Freeswords do this. This should be a good show."
As if on cue, the ring of beings widens a little, giving everyone enough room. Some of them take a good seat on the warm sand - it's not everyday that one gets free entertainment, after all.
A mumble, a flick of the tails as Flora pulls out one of her scorchers and moves her fingers along a circular rune on the side, sounding a few clicks from within the device... Cuious. Even so, she's standing a distance away from the thing, almost as far as the circle of people. Soon enough, she aims the gun at the cephalopotamus and tries to create a clean, if somewhat unsteady cut with a downwards motion.
Nothing happens for a moment, perhaps due to the blob-like creature's translucent form - although one gets a very pretty light display as the beam from Flora's scorcher cuts through its hide. Thankfully, it hasn't had any time to properly - ah, ferment under the sun - and all that happens is that a small gush of liquids emerges from its side with a wet, sickly sound, pooling onto the sand before being washed away by the tide. Considering that this is beach day and that there are plenty of beings swimming, perhaps releasing a contact poison into the water might not have been the best of ideas...or maybe it'll be diluted enough to not matter.
Hartford isn't totally sure what just happened, but he has suddenly found himself standing inside the ring of onlookers with a group of Freeswords. The deer starts a little when he is approached by Flora. "Hello Highlady Flora," he says, thumping a fist to his chest and bowing as if he was still in uniform, then stepping quickly out of the way as she levels her scorchers at the blob on the sand. He watches as the thing deflates a bit and its juices wash into the water. "Is that gonna be a problem, do you think?" the bulky deer asks.
Elroar hrms. The Komodo standing in front of the big blob and the shaky cut down the side. "Well, that'll make the people in the water rather numb... Let's hope it doesn't." He honestly hopes miss laser-happy is done. "Right lets see what makes it tick, or made it stop ticking." Well it didn't smell so he took that as a good sign. At least he'll just be numb for a little while. The burly Komodo takes one side of the split, trying to tug it open wider.
"Oh yeah, it's a Sand Shuckle alright." Rainer keeps poking and nudging it, until he realizes that everyone's suddenly given the thing a wide berth. "Er, did I miss something? What?" Looking up and around he spies Flora brandishing contraption and after making such a face as suggests he briefly though she might plan to use that thing on -him-, he scoots to safety, crossing arms in front of his chest as he observes the proceedings. "Why do I feel like everyone here knows something I don't." No sooner as he aired that remark, then he lifts his hand, previously used for Shucklepoking, stares at it a moment, then gives it a little shaking out, eyes moving back to the disection in progress.
"Mister Komodo? If you would wait a moment... This was to... Release pressure, yes... Flora can just cut a bigger hole," she mumbles, brandishing her scorcher and moving closer, after making sure Elroar moves back a feet or two. Soon enough, she's cut a larger, circular hole on the side, around the point where she made the first incission, now that she's sure there won't be any venom or other nasty things sprayed in her face. "Mister sparrow said the tentacles were... More venomous? Mind if Flora cuts a few off to research?" she mumbles, pulling out a pair of leather gloves from one of her pockets.
