Desert Wyvern Egg

OoC: I shall keep this in mind. Also, what items are we allowed to have from the get go, besides the items supplied? As in, whets, herbs, etc.? Also, I bet KKB assumed you were playing Sakujo, haha.

Checking the supply chest for goods, Andras looked through the rations for something appealing. Content with the fish, he placed it in his supply pack along with two cool drinks, and a solitary hot drink. Looking the other goods over, he collected a couple of flares as well.

"Leo, if you don't mind, I'd like one of those torches. Never know when they might come in handy." Quickly looking over the remaining supplies again, he called out a question to the others. "If any of you want these rations, it might be a good idea to get them while you can. Unless we aim on killing something and then preparing it for dinner or what have you, I'm going to take a spare as well. Better safe than sorry after all."

Taking his lance from it's holster, he examined the cylinder for foreign materials. A bit embarrassed, the hunter grinned when he noticed one out of the five shellings to still be live. Pushing the stock into the ground the lance ejected the spent casings, as well as the live one. Grabbing it before it hit the ground, Andras looked the cartridge over prior to collecting 4 more from his inventory to reload it with. Placing the now fully loaded lance back in it's holster the hunter looked the group over and nodded.

"Ready when you are, Gents."

"Sure Andras." Leo hands him a tourch and goes to the box and grabs some rations, potions, herbs, and a fish. "Allright im all set. Ready when u are Arsen."

ooc: @ Andras: Indeed I was assuming he was playing Sakujo. Still I probably should have noticed his name was different than before.

Glyph you haven't posted in a while. You still in?

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"If we are going to head out we should do it soon." Jati said, silently examining his blade by the fire. He tested the flow of poison on a spare rag and once satisfied sheathed the weapon. He picked up the small buckler by his side and secured it to his left arm. Lastly he secured all of his equipment so they would not make noise when trying to sneak up on a monster.

OOC: Yes, I'm still "in".

Aveket did hunter stuff to his hunting things, making sure that they were hunter enough in case hunting were to occur on this hunt.

ooc: Next time I'm bringing a big bag of holding. -__-

Little stuff like whetstones, herbs, bandages, pockets, even canteens I'm fine with.
I just don't want you pulling out a flash bomb when its convenient for you, or a trap.

The fish are packets of cut up fish, not entire fish. Like tuna cans, except packet.
The torches (making this up right now) have like a harness at their bottoms, so they can be hung or tied on things.

I think that's funny about Sakujo, lol. I should play him again some time.

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Arsen took Andras' advice, and took a few more of the rations, like fish, more nuts, some dried vegetables, and potato powder. "I guess we'll take these for emergencies, but try to kill and eat something along the way." He shrugged, taking one of the torches from the box and tying its cord into his tasset belt.

Everyone seemed ready to go then, so he made his way to the exit of the area. It was another tunnel, but unlike the entrance, there was no light coming down from it.
Still though, he entered and slowly felt his way up the path. After a short distance there was light, barely revealing a door with a peak hole.
He had to grope around for the handle though, or whatever it was that opened the door, because the light didn't illuminate that far down.
His hands fell upon something large and circular, about a foot in diameter, which he started turning since that was all he could imagine it was for.

He could feel the large knob moving something else in the door, like gears moving a bar, and finally after an entire revolution the door way came loose, and swung open. The bright light blinded each of the hunters temporarily, given they'd been in a dark cave for some amount of minutes.
Arsen shielded his eyes and moved forward, out into an open area.

The area had a solid stone floor, and was surrounded on all sides by a large stone wall, making it like a small arena. There was an exit to the area on the other end, just a path that presumably lead to the open desert, judging by the map.
Besides sand that had been blown in, there was nothing in this little area.
"Alright then..."

-
ooc: Little rushed, but oh well. :-P

Following Arsen to the door Leo was so exited and nervos and when Arsen opened the door..."Wow...its been awile...its kinda beautiful..."Leo wiped his eyes quickly before anyone saw him. "Alright lets get serious boys time to hunt. 8)"

Shielding his eyes from the harsh light, Andras eventually lowered his arm, and pulled his hood and face guard up. Collecting a few more rations, he followed Arsen and the others out.

Seeing his companions heading for the door at the opposite end of the tunnel, Jati took a deep breath and followed. He caught up with them and fell into stride. While they walked he tried to come up with the best possible way for four low rank hunters to take on a rathian--if it came to that. Not a lot of options. Absentmindedly his hand reached for the hilt of his sword.

The group continued on ahead through the open stone floored area, and after just a little time in the heat did the stifling temperature of the desert become evident.
Arsen unscrewed the cap his his cool drink canteen and downed a few gulps, before replacing the cap on the nozzle. The cooling effects in his body would take place minutes later.

After going through the small path leading out of the stone area, the group arrived at the sandy grounds of the open desert.
The sand stretched out a great distance, and was flat instead of with sand dunes, due to the nearby stony mountains that reduced the wind.
Vegetation was scattered about the sands, with some dried up trees, or small bushes, or cacti.
Cephalos were just as easy to spot as trees in the distance, swimming through the sands like giant fish, looking for prey. Genprey could be seen as well.

"So, uh, which way we headed?" Arsen asked the group as he took out the map again, folding it open then holing it low for everyone to see. "We must be about here." He said pointing (F,3), judging by where the base camp was, and that they'd just left a stone floored area.

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ooc:
Use the map to get a general idea of what the scenery is like, in terms of where the mountains are, etc.

Andras will probably help me mod this a little, given I've been busy lately. At the very least he'll probably do some of the fights.

"Well I think we can head here(E,4) and search the cave cause i asume thats were they are and this one is the closest. Then go here(C,3) and search that cave and look around that area. Then way later go here(B,1) and search that cave and search around there also. If all else fails go here(A,4) and search here but only if we have explored everything else, but we need food first so we can kill here(if you want) eat, bring it back to camp then looking for the egg." say Leo as he drinks half of his cool drink.

OOC: Finally, after 3 pages of waiting my ass was starting to hurt from all of this sitting. I assume that these many myriad monstrosities are making matters most maddeningly manic in our meticulous making of a master plan? That is to say, they would be between us and the objective.

"Those sand wyverns on the fringe over there," Aveket said, pointing in the direction of the cephalos, "Couldn't they possible be trouble? I'll bet that a wyvern egg is more durable than most, but I'm sure that it wouldn't stand a direct assault from a creature of their size." He contemplated whether it would be better to deal with the creatures before or after they obtained the egg. Coming to a conclusion, he asked the group huddled around the map, "Perhaps we may wish to eliminate these Cephalos before proceeding? I also hear that piscine liver can be quite an exotic taste."

OOC: I'm guessing that this is more realistic than in the games, where all the monsters respawn if you leave the area?

@Glyph: I'd say that the one's we kill would stay dead, and stay where we killed them if we came back.
However, some other Cephalos from elsewhere might happen to wander in, so being guaranteed a clear path might be hard. It's also a fair amount of distance to clear.
Clearing some out would probably help though.

-

"Well I think those are like what we just walked out of, not caves." Arsen said regarding each of the areas Leo pointed out on the map, colored a pinkish tan. "Stone floors, kind of. If we take that course though and still find nothing, we should check here (C,7), and then maybe trail down here (C-F,7.5)." He pointed to the map with his finger, sliding it down one of the paths on the map. "I'm game for clearing some Cephalos out though. That'll get us some food, could cook it there."

He started folding up the map to put it away, looking if anyone else had any input, while walking forward into the open desert.

Content to let the others make the plans Jati took a swig from his canteen of cool drink and followed Arsen. Even with the drink the sun was broiling hot; Jati had to resist the urge to take off his helmet.

"I see what u mean arsen. Im just gonna follow u." said Leo are he looks ahead and counts the cephaols. "2...4...5...5 total i think we can split to kill more if thats alright with you Arsen."

ooc:
Again I'm griping over little details, but let me be the one to say how many monsters there are (and introduce them).
They're kind of swimming abound randomly too, and hard to track which ones we'll end up fighting.

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Arsen wasn't sure what he thought of the whole leadership position thing, feeling undeserving of it, but he kept his thoughts to himself.
Once he folded the map and put it away, he started drawing out his long sword, his primary weapon. Because of its length, he had to bend forward to get it out, and use its blade to gradually slide it out of the scabbard, mindful of its sharp edge. Once the blade was finally out he caught it before it fell, then grasped it by the handle, and leaned the backside of its blade against his shoulder.

As the group continued through the desert, a random set of bones could be seen lying in the sand, disfigured some. It might have been the remains of a baby Apceros, given the shape and smaller size. Some small bushes were along the way as well, and the trails of where Cephalos had swam past before.

A far distance ahead, the group could see their first destination; a stone floored area jutting into the mountain base. Cephalos were swimming back and forth across their path, and the group got closer and closer to them, until finally a fight could start at a moment's notice.

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ooc:
I'd say we're not even a fifth of the way there, just to give a frame of reference of how far we've gotten.

Cephalos are going to be able to swim through the sand like water this time around, as unrealistic as it may be.
They can dive under and resurface, they can swim fast, and they can jump and dive into the sand fluently.

Drawing his sword and preparing his shield, Jati walked out in front of the group, looking this way and that the the tell tale signs of a sand wyvern.

Taking a cool drink from his supplies, Andras drank it down quickly so as to not be forced to taste it any more than needed. Placing the empty bottle back in his supplies, the hunter advanced ahead with Jati, eventually un-holstering his lance, it snapping into it’s full extended length. Searching about, Andras kept his guard up whilst moving at a slow, yet steady pace.

“Ioprey armor as well eh, what attracted you to make the set?”

Leo draws his swords. "Tell us when Arsen. Im ready to kill."

occ: DB ur da leader lol xp

Aveket stayed near the front of the group, but made certain not to move so far ahead as to get cut off. A fight was about to break out at any moment.

As the group was highly anticipating, the Cephalos made their move. Two that had been circling around the group began to close the radius of their path, leaving a few yards between them and the center of the hunter group. A third Cephalos soon joined in the formation, and they spaced out to even distances about the circle they were making. They moved fast, so that prey would not be able to simply escape without being attacked, and for some an element of fear was introduced.

One more Cephalos swam into the circle, cutting in between the spaces of the circle, and then leaped from the sand and flew at group at such an angle that most all of them where in its path.
Because of their anticipation and awareness though, each of the hunters was able to sidestep and dodge the attack, and the Cephalos returned to the sand behind them.
Another then cut in and flew at the group, from the side, again evaded but by a closer margin.

"This is it...!" Arsen said to no one in particular and for no particular reason, if nothing more than to get his blood going. He lowered his long sword, and held it ready to swing across at the next Cephalos to pass him, or at least run the blade along its side, as it's own flight speed would produce the power.

Now there were the three Cephalos circling the group with a radius of a few yards. The two others were swimming out and back in for second flight attacks, timed so that each of them would be doing so at a different time.

OOC: Fucking Flying Fuck Fish Fistfuck. Or the quintuple F's for short. When they use that attack, its like a fucking ICBM. Interesting side note, this is one of the first quests I ever was stuck on. (Piscine Livers)

"To answer you question Andras," Jati said while scanning the sand for another attack. "I chose Ioprey armor because it is light weight, resistant to poison, and red is my favorite color." He twirled his snakebite in his hand to warm it up and made as little movement as possible. He knew that sand wyvers could sense vibrations and he wasn't about the broadcast his position if he could help it. He could sense the other hunters around him; feeling that he was with good fighters encouraged him.
"I don't suppose anyone would have a sonic bomb handy would they?"

"Ah, I see. I won't lie, the color was appealing. But I've got a plethora of Ioprey materials in surplus so I figure I should put them to use."

Following the dorsal fin of the cephalos closest to him, Andras lowered his lance, aiming for the creatures fin, shield at the ready should it jump from the sand.

Spoiler:

ooc:
@Andras: I'm assuming you meant one of the three Cephalos circling around the group ("closest"), as opposed to one of the two swimming out and back in (presumably for another attack).
You don't need to bother putting things into spoilers, though you're welcome to.

@Everyone else: Like Andras and I sort of did, it's good to get some "if this happens I'll do this" in your post. Reactions, in a sense.
I say that because the Cephalos will probably be making most of the initiatives, given their style of fighting (hit and run).
You're welcome to take the initiative though, and attack first.

-

As Andras approached the ring the three Cephalos were making around the group, one of the Cephalos presumed that he was trying to escape. As it turned towards him, it shot up from the sand and launched itself at him like a missile, maw wide open.
Prepared for this, Andras crouched low to keep his balance from the impact, and raised his large shield to defend.
When the Cephalos collided with him, it struck his shield hard and forced him to take a step back, on top of sliding through the loose sand. The same force was exerted upon the Cephalos however, and with it pain.
The monster fell back to the sand, but didn't burrow under, rather it tried to recoup from the pain of striking Andras' solid metal shield.

One of the two Cephalos not part of the circle made its second attack, and flew out of the sand much like the one before, aiming itself towards Arsen.
Because of the angle and speed of the attack, Arsen didn't have the time to fully swing at the Cephalos. Improvising, he ducked low to the ground so that the monster would pass over his head.
He planted the handle of his long sword into the ground as he did this, and held the backside of its blade against his shoulder. Because of the blade's length, it went well above Arsens' crouched height, and was directly in the path of the Cephalos.

The Cephalos flew by, and the blade tore straight through its chin down to its thighs as it passed, severely wounding it. It fell to the sand like the other had, and began thrashing around in pain, wetting the sand with the blood flowing from its long and deep wound.

Aveket cautiously looked for the cephalos that hadn't been injured.

Spoiler:

As Andras was busy Leo timed one of the cephalos attacks and stabed the top fin on his back with the hooked part of hir hooked swords and riped a good chunk of meat off causing the cephalos to come out of the sand and flop out bleeding away on its back. "Lunch baby..." said Leo as he stabs the cephalos in its head thus killing it. "Got one!!" said Leo as he left it there and went to help the others...

OoC: It's more of an if, then thing man. The GM's will decide what happen. For example, take a swing at something and hope for the best, but leave your options open.

---

As Andras was recovering from the blowback, Leo swung his hook swords towards one of the Cephalos' dorsal fins in hopes of drawing it from the sand. "This could be lunch, baby."

Spoiler:

Heart pounding, Jati gripped his sword a little harder and advanced towards the cephalose Arsen had wounded. Seeing it still writhing on the sand, and therefore vulnerable, Jati lunged for its head, his sword flashing in the desert sun.

Spoiler:

The Cephalos that recently collided with Andras' shield jumped back up onto its feet.
Playing it safe, Aveket stayed a few feet away from the monster with each of his icepicks drawn. This was for the better, as the Cephalos spun around and lashed its tail out, to fend off any potential rear attacks, which could have been Aveket. Now it was facing directly towards him.

As Leo approached the outer ring to attack, the second Cephalos outside of the ring made its own attack.
It shot up from the sand like a rocket and flew straight into Leo, with his sword still raised high to swing.
He was tossed to the side by the hard impact, and the Cephalos returned itself to the sand and began swimming away from the circle once more.
(ooc: Nothing personal. :-P I just figured it was time for him to attack, and you seemed open.)

Jati impaled the wounded Cephalos through the neck, but it continued to thrash about on the sand, jerking the blade loose from itself. The flow of blood increased tremendously though, as Jati must have hit an artery. If the hunters didn't put the monster out, its blood loss would.

Now there were two Cephalos still circling the group.
One Cephalos was lying close to the center of the circle, bleeding out.
Another was in the circle towards its edge, facing towards Aveket.
The final Cephalos was swimming away from the circle, presumably to turn back for another attack.

Aveket kept his distance, prepared to move should the cephalos make an advance. He put away one of his picks, moving his hand to the grip of his flare pistol. It had a flare loaded instead of a flash grenade but it would have to do. He was prepared to flick off the safety at the slightest hint of an attack.

Spoiler:

ooc: Spoke to DB bout this so I'm jumping in...
Name: Vlad
Armour: Leather Vambraces, Steel Belt, Hunters Leggings. Grey travelling cloak I spose is armour too...
Weapon: Rapidcaster (Kelbi horn hbg)
Tomahawk
Sig. Items: Mega Potions, Potions, honey, herbs, Ammunition, Whetstones to give if ppl run out.... (can i have a hawk? Eye in the sky sort of thing)
Hunter Style: Offencive fighting, rather quick and painless than long drawn out painful kills. Sympathise with monsters, so will sometimes withdraw to avoid having the pain of killing. Lots of tears after battles... Prefer close fighting, despite hbg. Can do peirce / crag support roles...

Urmm. I don't wanna but in halfway through a fight scene... So like, if someone sees me through the heat haze after the fight... w/e, mods choice

Thanks lads
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