[ORP] Shadow Stalkers HotM: Runes-driven CYOA

[Muffinsbaby]

[imgright]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... muffin.gif[/imgright] Perpetual motion was late, as always. Ever the curious acha, he always stopped to peer at something or other that caught his interest. Trotting up to the group he looked around, steps slowing and hiding a small grimace at what greeted him. "Seems I've had a better time at catching up than you've head of staying ahead. Glad I caught up, though, the discovery is the best part!" An excited grin lit his features at the thought.

His ear twitched at their leader's questions and he lit up anew. "Spiders are definitely one option, but moths are mostly nocturnal. Perhaps something that appears with the moon is messing with their nesting. Or simply a bird has found their place of peace, that would explain hair grabbing...OH BATS," He mused, "Oh? A weapon? My lovely mongoose is the only weapon i need. You should see her vault through the air. It's a think of beauty."

[Scaramouche Fandango]

“I agree. Bats is a pretty likely explanation,” Fish mused. “A population boom of predators could be disrupting the moth population. Moths are easy enough to nab on the wing for a flying predator, I think, and it’s not like they can really fight back.” Not like the spiders. Those could defend themselves pretty well, whether the attack came from bats or from kin.

Taking a stick, she wrapped her gathered cobwebs around one end of it, until it was sufficiently sticky for her liking. “It works well enough for spiders,” she said, giving the stick an experimental swing. “If anything’s flying above, catching it this way might let us be able to have a closer look at it. We could get valuable information that way.”

Her other weapons perched on her back and padded alongside her. Chum, Crash-Rapids, and Wavebreaker’s beaks and talons were delightfully deadly, and Chubs... well, the longfurby was absolutely lethal when it wanted to be. Which, judging from the thin string of saliva dripping from its mouth and that glint in its eyes, was now-ish.

[Baneful]

[imgleft]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... uncert.png[/imgleft][imgright]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... uncert.png[/imgright][imgright]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... uncert.png[/imgright]

Deceiver had a completely miserable time of it with the spiders and if asked about what happened during the excursion would completely deny that it ever happened. He disliked caimans but now he could quite comfortably add spiders onto the ever growing list of things he could live without fighting again.

He'd quietly found someone to let do most of the fighting and then when everything was over with, had managed to pilfer himself a few venom sacs which he'd tucked away in the makeshift backpack he'd brought along for swag carrying and those would come in handy for......unspecified things.

He was filthy and that made him completely miserable, used to fur that gleamed brilliantly white in the sunlight, almost ethereal in its pristine shine. Right now he was disgusting, caked in mud and spider silk, and he wasn't sure how long it was going to take to get back to a state where he could look himself in the eye again.

He refused to lick himself at all right now, so while they ate he simply sat, hunched and mierable, chewing on his rations and looking like a drowned rat. He needed to find someone to back him up honestly, this simply wouldn't do at all.

After he ate, he sidled over to the female he'd been hiding behind in the mess and gave her a tragic sort of look. "I don't think I have a weapon." he said pitifully.

@Toshiful

[Toshiful]

[imgleft]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... uncert.png[/imgleft][imgleft]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... uncert.png[/imgleft] Caimans did have wonderful voices. They chirped, rumbled, shook, and sang to each other. The children called for their guardians. They were attentive and talkative parents. Soul saw them as intelligent and social members of the swamp. A creature with a strong voice always was. Anyone that speaks can listen. And absolutely none of these traits applied to spiders.

What spiders did have in their favor was that they were creatures of the night. They could listen, even if it was for the sake of drinking their fill. If they had a song, it was a percussion. A struggling body, a life that needed stilled.

Soul looked at Lawrence with all four eyes.

"A sad tune," she teased, "can sway a strong heart. It's an idea that moves the stick."

As for the moths, she thought bats also sounded likely. Harmony landed nearby, beautiful and strange. "Night would be the time to find out," Soul said.

[Baneful]

[imgright]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... uncert.png[/imgright]

Deceiver was convinced he was completely surrounded by lunatics, the kind of lunatics who charged around in the mud chasing ghosts and picking fights with spiders. If he was feeling kinder, he might have deemed them adventurers but he wasn't feeling very kind right now towards anyone. Mostly he hoped he'd be able to steal something worthwhile from someone and feel better about the decision he'd made to tag along.

For the time being, he definitely classed Soul in the category of lunatic as she mentioned songs being a weapon of any sort at all. Deceiver himself could carry a tune very well, but he was under no delusions about its value in saving his hide from anything.

As far as what was happening to the moths, he didn't have much to say, bats sounded as likely a reason as any. After all, what concern of his was it who destroyed a few moths? He was here for very singularly focused reasons, and none of those reasons involved goodwill towards moths.

Narrowing his eyes a little irritably at Soul as if it was her fault he was dealing with hassle, he stated. "Oh yes, I'm sure we will be able to see PLENTY in the dark."

[fluo]

1. No Escape
2. Perpetual Motion
3. Real Big Fish
4. Deceiver
5. Soul Choir

Rolling for first two unique numbers

[blockquote]Rolled 2d5 : 4, 1, total 5[/blockquote]

[fluo]

Another acha to joined the ranks, and another notch on her piece of bark. Albatross had to be careful about not mistaking it for a piece of duck jerky. The low hum of voices chattering created a pleasant backdrop for the mechanical nature in which she assessed her wares. A skirmish was ahead and the general consensus was a flying creature. As she wondered if it had wings of leather or feathers, egrets passed overhead their group and let loose on two unfortunate kin. While she was sure they were magnificent normally, Deceiver and No Escape definitely had better days.

Albatross coughed politely, stuffing down her mirth.

"Ah, it's fortunate hrm, that I hear a babbling brook nearby. Right?" and punted her three furbies forward to find some water posthaste.

@phoe @Baneful

[Lirilei]

He'd brushed against the furby with the glowing green stuff, and had a smear down his face and along the top of his head and down his neck. That would do well enough he wagered.

The spiders, were every where and more than few times he found himself tangled up in the sticky webbing, even now some clung stubbornly to one of his hooves, and no amount of shaking, or wiping it on the ground and surrounding things was dislodging it to his annoyance.

What was eating the moths, and could be a 'hair grabber' he mused. Bats were a good suggest. "Maybe bats since nocturnal. Could just as easily be something else with claws or talons. I've heard about eagles. But I don't know their hunting habits." far from, and it was likely not the culprit but still it was maybe a possibility.

[anemosagkelos]

To another kin, it might have been troubling to go from one place to another with little recollection of having done so. To Magnolia, it only meant the spirits had been excited to talk. Even having had children, there was a wonder if she was truly a live creative. What other reason could there be for some doe with obnoxiously long hair not getting snagged or tripping in a labyrinthine tangle of mangroves hidden in murky waters?

Magnolia's eyes cleared, no longer staring at visions that the others could not see, and managed to catch a very brief mention of weapons and moths.

"Has anything attacked me?" she wondered aloud. It's not like they would know but neither did she at the moment. "Am I scary? I might be a weapon." She turned to the nearest kin, Real Big Fish ( @Scaramouche Fandango ), in wait of an answer and then promptly did not wait at all. "Crabs have pincers, could it be crabs?" She had no idea if they liked hair. She had hair though. What got in her own hair? She raised a brow and tried to look at her own long locks, "Does fur rot affect hair?"

[fluo]

Shadow Stalkers was a judge free zone, but that didn't stop Albatross from nudging Magnolia a little more to the left with stick, "Ugly."  If push came to shove, she could feign fastidiousness like Deceiver and No Escape.

"Ah, are you itching anywhere else? Like your lower half? Do you have crotch rot?"

@anemosagkelos

[Baneful]

[imgright]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... uncert.png[/imgright]

Just when he was telling himself there was no way that today could get any worse, Deceiver found himself even more filthy than he had been before. He made a strangled little sound somewhere deep in his throat as he just froze, his hackle fluff bristling all the way along his back and the rest just puffing up in abject disgust right to the tip of his tail.

Why did bad things always happen to good people?

He knew he should have done a reading that morning, maybe it would have told him in no uncertain terms not to bother leaving his comfortable bower in the first place.

He was almost afraid to look, and instead just stood there like a very strange statue, fluffed up and breathing shallowly.

[fluo]

The "Ugly" stick was becoming her most used item thus far. Albatross also used it to prod Deceiver a bit. Shock was a nasty thing to undergo, but if the acha stayed there all night, no one was going to get any rest with that powerful stench.

Placing the stick down, Albatross poked once more. "Do you need ah, some help?"

@Baneful

[Baneful]

Typically one with a smooth, charming retort for any question, Deceiver was having a day quite unlike any other he'd had in a long time, with muscles aching, fur filthy and now this additional humiliation to what he considered his /perfect/ self. It was a blasphemy, a desecration!

And it had ground his entire mind to a halt without a way to deal with it. He knew he should have brought Gifted, he could have easily barked an order or two to the other lazy Acha to help him.

As it was, he only faintly registered Albatross before blinking, once and then again as some light of recognition flitted back into his previously blankly staring eyes.

"I er.." he said, and his body shivered with sheer disgust all over again as he had to suppress the desire to retch. "I think I rather could do with some help, yes."

@fluo

[Toshiful]

[imgleft]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... uncert.png[/imgleft][imgleft]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... uncert.png[/imgleft]
"I suppose you're going to wait for the day moths," Soul said. There was a cry overhead, and the sky seemed to open up.

Not in a good way.

She tucked her long and fluffy tail a bit closer.

"Ooh," she said softly, excited, "I know a lot of good songs for washing."

[phoe]

No Escape had been silently bringing up the rear, as was her wont -- until the shadows of two large cranes passed overhead.

She'd been just about to mention something, a trace of spider egg sac still anchored to a branch above their heads .... when the cranes surrendered to nature's imperative and let loose.

From behind the group there came a strangled noise, something like a ghhhkk!, and then the disgusted cry of "--it got in my mouth!"

No Escape stood with feet planted firmly in the knee-deep water, suppressing the urge to retch, and then spat out saliva and bird scat. "--I am going," she said, breath heaving, "to have crane for dinner."