Not So Fun In The Sandpit

Not So Fun In The Sandpit
Date of Scene:	04 December 2012
Location:	Bare Desert
Synopsis:	Amidst the sands of Fluorgis, an Antlion who gorged on Heartless is rampaging towards the desert city! Can it be stopped? Will our heroes survive? Will anyone be eaten, and can they avoid massive amounts of spit? Read on to find out!
Cast of Characters:	Tifa Lockhart, Faruja Senra, Aerith Gainsborough, Rinoa Heartilly, Deelel, Oriane Guado

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Faruja Senra has posed:
And so our intrepid heroes gather in their most dangerous of quests! Curing local wildlife of stomach aches. To those that hear the tale, it may seem ridiculous. That is, if you're not in Fluorgis. 'Gigantic Antlion', 'Rampage', and 'Swallowed a Bunch of Heartless' aren't terms one wants to put together in one insectoid package of rage, and yet, that is exactly what is making its way to the desert city. Trade by road has nearly evaporated, and even Airship traffic has slackened. The economy could crash should it not be taken care of, nevermind the cost in lives and damage.

The trek out along the road has been long and arduous, the sun rising high in the sky and peering down upon those who take up the journey. Dressed in robes, and leather armor this time, one Temple Knight and Shard Seeker Faruja Senra gives his companions a final briefing.

"As I said before, our primary objective is to halt the Antlion's advance. It simply cannot reach Fluorgis under any circumstances. Rumors state that its current condition is due to ingesting several Heartless, and that the creature is generally docile and even friendly. However, misplaced mercy in this endeavor may cost the good citizens of Fluorgis in blood. Keep that in mind. Do as you must." Pause. Keeping a hard marching pace, the ratling does a parade-ground perfect turn, setting off into he sand. Claws make tiny imprints in the sand as he walks.

"The beast's last known location was roughly..."

Faruja doesn't get to finish his sentence. A small dune up ahead rumbles, sand falling inwards,seemingly sucked in by some force in a spiral pattern.

"I do believe that is our quarry. Shall we, brave Dames?" Spear drawn, he points to the dune.

"Forward! For Faram and Fluorgis!"

Aerith has posed:
Well isn't this cute? We have one very sick antlion, something that could eat an entire city, and they're here to either cure it or kill it. Aerith preferred the first one, but Faruja had a point. They could very well get killed themselves if they didn't do the right thing, and if that meant killing it, that was what had to happen.

Still, after hearing it was usually harmless, Aerith had her doubts that just taking the thing out would be the best method.

Thus she was reluctant about approaching the dune, but did so anyway. "This is not a good plan..."

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart phews as she sponges her forehead a bit with a cloth wrist she bought for that reason. She knew they'd come to a desert, answering the call for mercenaries as she does so often. She brought plenty to drink too. No, her lumps are not filled of water like camels, that doesn't work.

She's sure someone tried it too.

Anyhow, she's been following around. She tooks off her leather top, keeping only the white tanktop, trying to be a bit more comfortable in the sun. She nods to Faruja "That's what we're here for, lead the way."

Rinoa Heartilly has posed:
Phew, it certainly is hot out here! Why'd she come out here again? Oh right..In the rare chance that she might find some of her missing friends, Rinoa reluctantly agreed to come along..That and the ever growing threat of heartless had her a bit worried.

Aside from that, just the chance to explore the world more was enciting..

Rinoa lags behind the others, happily clothed in thin, cool clothing but still feeling rather hot, hoping for night.

Despite herself, she shivers as the ground rumbles beneath her feet. "I guess we have no choice..Let's hope we can take that thing down!" She readies her cross bow as she advances, Angelo barking at her side.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel had fallen in with Faruja on this, the basic concept was strange to her. Still she managed to equate it with some system or another needing to be debugged to work normally. That much she could get and given how he saw the heartless ya. Keeping mething like that undercontrol.

"So this thing attempted to consume heartless?"

Oriane Guado has posed:
Oriane's recent heartless hunting forays have started to give her a new reputation within the Church. Maesters have even begun to request her to handle more dangerous matters in light of her recent successes. And all the Guado had wanted was to be able to conduct her own research without interruption. Instead, she was out in the middle of desert in search of some disgusting creature.

The Priestess walks lesiurely behind the others with her two guards in two. One holds a parasol for her while the other holds her priestly robes. The green-haired woman is still burdened by her long dress, but she looks quite unwilling to disrobe any further despite the heat. Her heavy necklace swinging as she paces forward, the peturbed looking woman is quite relieved when their foe is finally spotted. Not that she does not enjoy the -lovely- company she has been travelling with, but the sooner the foe is slain; the sooner that Oriane can return to civilization. She will allow Faruja and the others to take the first charge and perhaps the first attack from the creature. With any luck, the creature will eat a few of the assembled party here and then Oriane can strike at the bloated beast when it is too busy digesting the others. Clearly, this is the perfect plan.

Aerith has posed:
When she'd first run into Oriane, Aerith wondered at her attitude, why it was there, and who allowed her to be so prudish, rude, and condescending.

Now she realized that it didn't matter. Because she found that changing the way the 'priestess' saw the world would make her no better. Not to mention that her magic did terrible collateral damage to anything within a five foot radius of her. Having someone like that trail behind you was a bad idea, and Aerith could feel a shiver run down her back. Someone like that who had no care about what her spells did to anything that wasn't a threat, didn't care for those fighting alongside her either, and would not hesitate to use her friends as bait.

So she kept her senses wide open... just in case.

Faruja Senra has posed:
"Have you a suggestion, M'Lady Gainsborough?" Faruja responds, lacking any note of irritation (at least at her, the heat's another story), briefly turning to her mid-valiant-stride forward.

"We must draw the beast out. Why belabor the point? No other creature could create such an effort upon yonder dune. Let it crash upon our bulwark! But by all means, I am open to alternate paths to victory. Speak up, all of you."

Bark. Rinoa's, Tifa's, and Angelo's affirmatives put a confident smile to the ratling's muzzle. "Quite! Lord bless us all. Be careful, all of you." He cautions, crossing his chest and resisting the urge to pet Angelo. The Templar had always loved dogs. Second most loyal creature in the worlds, just behind domesticated wyverns.

An ear perks. Stride stride stride. Sand shifts, both from their collective footprints and the waves of sand falling from the dune. The group, minus the Yevon Priestess and her guards, are roughly half way between shrinking sand-dune and the road. Almost as soon as it began, the sand's shrinking ends, the dune half its original size.

Suddenly, a spiney, bristley head emerges from the sands. Two large claws, red jaws and buggy sand-yellow eyes with massive spiked jaws emerge. The creature stands a good two heads taller than the tallest person present, brown, and red, and sandy yellow. As it emerges, its jaws open, a swirling vortex of sand forming about the creature.

The catch of all of this? The eruption of sand and beast isn't at the dune. It's right in front of the group. At the head of it, Faruja nearly trips. Just behind, at the very edge, so too does Deelel find herself threatened with being pulled in! The Templar gasps, fearful for his fellow Shard Seeker, and roughly kicks her away from the vortex. The rat trips, stumbles, and a wide maw engulfs the Burmecian. Gulp. With its new meal, it turns to the rest, and gives a shrieking roar.

(BGM: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ3MKtNSOLQ)

(Your Opponent: http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110311035542/finalfantasy/images/c/c2/Antlion.gif)

Aerith has posed:
Aerith's eyes widened, a sudden ringing in the back of her mind making her stop in her tracks. Then she leapt backward as the explosion of sand came from nowhere, and as she landed, watched in horror as Faruja got /eaten/! "Faruja!!" Her eyes narrow dangerously, glowing, pale green streams of energy rising up unbidden. "You're gonna regret that." Okay, saving no longer an option. Time to get real.

She drew in all that energy, channeled it toward her materia, and with a cry of righteous fury, lets loose a burst of ice magic, aiming to force this thing to give the nezumi back!

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart shakes her head "Well sure doesn't take long to find it." She takes her gloves out, which she wasn't wearing due to the already scorching heat, and slides them on, starting to work up a run toward it "Hey, no munching on the mouse person!" She shouts out to the antlion. Doesn't care if it understands or not, it's gonna get punched.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel says "I understand we'll get this issue debugged shortly right?" She ponders about this her creator? Some of them belives they had users of their own as it were. It was a humbling thing for her to think about but tushc thoughts pass out of her mind. She's distracted for one critical moment. A terror emerged a horror of the user world. This creature is nothing like the basic has ever seen, she's fast but she's not fast enough to react in time. She's losing her footagin she's going to be pulled in, then the Remplar acts without thinking and forcabley kicks her away from harm. She can only stare in horror.

"FARUJA!"

A user may have just got derezzed for her sake. Something wakens inside the yonung child of the grid. She's not about to take this l laying down.

Her disk is off her back in seconds and she's launching at the beast. She's sized up possible weak points. Even if it doesn't harm on the first strike it will bounce back and she'll throw it again, doing the process she contiunes to attack even as she moves.

Rinoa Heartilly has posed:
Rinoa nods to Faru as they move towards the sand ripples. "I'll keep on my toes, you be careful too!" No sooner are the words out of her mouth, then the heartless suddenly erupts from the ground, attempting to drag two of the party members into its dark vortext..Or the monster's mouth!

"Faruja!" She calls out in shock and surprise as he is suddenly gulped by the massive creature. Not wasting anymore time she looses her saw blade upon the monster, Angelo following with a vicious lunge and lashing of her teeth and claws.

Faruja Senra has posed:
Ice lashes out, falling towards the great beast. It's mid-roar, jaw open, and one of those shards lands down its gullet! The most horrible wretching sound can be heard, worst than any even the barmaiden might have heard during the most ridiculous of drinking contests. Hack, blargh, horrrk! It spits up blood, ice, and a little trio of shadowy soldier-like inky things. Soldier Heartless!

And punch the barmaiden does! Her brutal fists of fury land right between its beady yellow eyes, causing the wretching creature to be shifted backwards, half of its bulbous lower body revealed as it is nearly toppled over by the force. At the sight of the impact, its chitin cracks and falls away, revealing darker flesh beneath now bruised horribly.

Not a moment later, the light disk of Deelel is thrown, smacking right where Tifa's blow had just revealed a squishy inner core. Whap! Finally, the beast topples half-way over, it's long claws flailing at its attackers and the vortex of sand stilling for a moment.

The blade of Rinoa's strange slingshot-like weapon, unfortunately, goes a milimeter wide from hitting the creature, instead simply shearing off one of it's headferns as though it's had a bad haircut. Angelo is more successful, teeth clamping down and ripping off the tip of one of its claws.

The little shadow Heartless aren't exactly resting, either. Teeny swords menace, sharp and dangerous despite their size, thrusting and stabbing towards the front-line fighters with reckless abandon. Antlion spittle flicks off their blades as they do so, no doubt getting our poor heroes all sorts of dirty. Hopefully someone brought a towel.

Aerith has posed:
Aerith wasted no time in giving Tifa much-needed assistance, and in the space of a half-second, defensive wards and healing energies surround the barmaid. She wasn't just going to sit there and let these things do that to the brunette, now was she? Besides, helping Tifa hurt this creep that ate her nezumi friend!

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart jumps back after she punches the antlion down! But its like it was waiting for that moment too, with the fierce counter attack the barmaid gets. She tries to jump away, forearms crossed in front of herself in protection, but that doesn't do much against slicing blades and clawing limbs. She gets scratched pretty hard, but Aerith's protection comes just at the right time, the shimmering shields surrounding her as soon as she lands down in the sand "Thanks. It's pretty tough it seems."

Backed up by her friends, she rushes in for another attack. She's a close ranged fighter, she can't do much more after all.

Rinoa Heartilly has posed:
Rinoa blinks as her attacks do little more than annoy the monster. "what?" She blinks, scratching her head as she calls thedog to her side. "I guess maybe it's shell is too tough..Let's see how it fares against magic!"

She lifts her hands to the sky, summoning a powerful windstorm, accompanied by a flurry of razor sharp feathers that rain down upon the target. A moment later bolts of lightning follow!

Deelel has posed:
Deelel has got the beasts attention from the looks of it and she's none to happy abotu just what's happened. She's fast, she's very fast but the sand is something she's not used to she slips and the result is terrible fiorh er. The things are upon her and she's getting hur ptertty badly by it she's able to get free aand thinks she needs to try a new tatic she runs a few functions as it were to prepare for her next move.

Faruja Senra has posed:
Whap! Another punch, and the antlion is send backwards another few feet from the force of the blow, though not quite yanked out of the ground again as it burrows its lower half back into the sand. It roars out its rage to the little humans assaulting it.

Wind picks up, a storm brewing and causing the sky to grow darker over the desert, cooling down the area after a moment. A flurry of razor-sharp feathers descend, slicing and stabbing into hard chitin. Whack! The great beast screams as one burrows into an eye, a great stream of blood pouring from its wounded ocular. Ka-crack! Thunder crashes, and the antlion knows pain. Anyone sensitive to emotions would feel a great upheaval, the already darkness-tainted beast's agony redoubled, soul and body torn.

Thrashing about from the pain of its wounds, the antlion digs its sharp mandibles into the sand. Sucking in, its great bulk increases, before it yanks it mouth from the ground. Claws slash and stab at those closest too it, before it breathes out! Sand floods from its stomach, Heartless of all kinds following, blades and claws of their own lashing about at the party as sand threatens to bury them all alive. When its sand is spent, the creature hunkers down, claws drawing close to its body defensively as the growing number of Heartless from its cavernous stomach advance upon the party!

Aerith has posed:
Being sensitive to emotions and other imbalances, Aerith had somewhat of an edge as to when an attack was coming. So even before it breathed in sand, she got herself ready for what was coming. Moments later, it arrived, and she leapt skyward, making her best attempt to avoid being suffocated. Her savvy made it easy to stay above the impromptu sandstorm, and she immediately attacked from her skyward position, wasting no time launching her own offensive.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart gets tossed to the air! The onslaught of attacks on the close-ranged fighter manages to kick her off her feet, and then bounces up using the wide body of the antlion! Airborne is not a good place for the barmaid though, she can't put as much weight into her attacks.

But its not like she's defensless either. Flipping on herself, she grabs one of the nearby ejected bladed-heartless, and uses it to piledrive down into the antlion's head. That might hurt!

And yet it doesn't stop there. As she lands on top of the Antlion, she charges her fist up, legs widening to lower her stance, and driving straight down into it with her exploding fist, hoping to send the shockwave through the fracture made with the heartless she used as a wedge.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel is moving faster having well optmized herself for the fight at hand, at least for a moment she's got her disk in hand as she speeds away from the beast as it comes after her along with everyone else. The sand and heartless are unable to touch the game gladiator. She lands on her feet and hurrels her disk at teh beast prehaps even catching a few heartless along the lay.

"YOU WILL RETURN THE USER GLITCH!"

Rinoa Heartilly has posed:
Rinoa flinches, stumbling back from the heartless' vicious assault. Phew, that was too close! Fortunately it has yet to draw blood aside from a few bruises upon Rinoa and Angelo. Still, she moves on the defensive, Angelo rushing to her side and howling as she summons a spell, combinging their energies to create a protective shield around herself.

Faruja Senra has posed:
More falling blasts of ice, courtesy of the local flower girl, slam into the antlion! It finds its claws pinned down, one jagged piece landing in its already wounded eye. For a moment, it goes still, the beast blacking out from pain and agony, its cry feeble for such a massive being.

Tifa tosses a Heartless, its small blade embedding just below the jaw into the throat. But her assault doesn't end there, a punch to the tiny creature driving it through chitin and flesh and straight into its very body, a bloody gash opened up in the beast as the Heartless used as a nail dissipates.

With anger in her heart, Deelel launches her light disk, the weapon carving a swift arc through the air. Heartless leap, clamor, and menace with blade towards her companions, but a swathe of them are cut asunder. The glowing weapon slices and buries itself into a trapped arm of the creature, cleaving it clean off, falling to the ground with a heavy thud. One mage-like Heartless meets its death as its crushed underneath.

But the antlion is hardy. Heavily wounded, desperate, it tears itself from its icey bindings, sending sharp shards flying at the group! Burrowing in the ground with speed that its wounded form simply shouldn't be able to muster, all is silent aside from the remaining Heartless' giggles and chitters. Suddenly, from behind, the creature bursts up and into the air! A shadow looms, threatening to crush Heartless and heroes alike as it bellyflops like some gargantuan poolgoer!

Rinoa Heartilly has posed:
Rinoa rolls to the side, swiftly evading the heartless monster's next potentially vicious attack. "Phew.." She pauses a moment to catch her breath, and whistles to Angelo who rushes to her side.

"Come on Angelo, let's finish this fiend!" Rinoa holds out her arm and Angelo obediently jumps on it, launching at the heartless. A moment later, an explosion of fiery energy follows before the blaster edge arcs through the air, spinning back at the monster, attempting to slice at it again.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart didn't have time to pull back entirely before the next assault. She's getting hurt, but she's hurting it back at least! She skides backward through the sand, before launching herself into another assault. She's made it crack, she can open it up!

Like a Kinder surprise, except that its all blood and heartless.

Actually, why does she want to open it again?

Punch.

Aerith has posed:
And then the flowergirl was subsequently knocked out of the sky, crashing back down to the sand quite hard with the beastie on top of her. Pain fired on all cylinders, and for a moment, her world went dizzy. Then Aerith cleared her head and glared at the antlion from beneath it. "Fine, you want it?" she grunted. "You got it!" She pressed her right hand against the creature and let loose a torrent of electricity in an attempt to overload its senses!

Deelel has posed:
Things are just going terribly for Deelel to day. Again the terrain turns against her and she lose she footin she ogoes down hard as the wounded beast is well? Just counter attacking the shaow looms above her and well? WHAM! It's prtty bad she's crushed into the sand and it takes a moment to recover otherwise. sHE Struggles back to her feet and engaged a restore command hopefully yhat will heat the beast however gets an strike from her disk attina sa she chrarges it and leaps right over it catching the disk back mid jump.

Faruja Senra has posed:
The combination of a fiery shot from the blaster shot, and the brave leap of one rather hardcore shepherd mutt sends the flopped over beast right back into the air! It almost seems to float there for a long moment, just long enough to allow Aerith to get her footing. Lucky she wasn't crushed!

The beast, a good eight feet up in the air, is slammed by a torrent of falling lightning bolts, Aerith's spell combining with the lingering effects of the windstorm summoned by Rinoa. It twitches and cries out, cavorting in the air as every muscle and tendon spasms. Amidst the cry of the beast, a much quieter scream can be heard as well. Oddly enough, it may come across as slightly squeaking in nature.

Tifa's great assault does indeed open the present that is the Antlion. A fist falls, and her joyous gift is ichor, some light rectangular object landing atop her head, and a hoark as more spittle flies out, drenching the warrior-barmaid. She'll probably need a shower after all of this. Several showers, given the rancid smell. The upside? That rectangular object turns out to be a card. On the front, is an Antlion, with several numbers on it. A Triple Triad card.

Heat from Deelel's program, and that powerful light disk slams into the beast as she leaps over it, the creature slamming into the ground! With a feeble, chittering sound, it rises up on its legs, fully exposed from the sand. It shivers, head tilting, and with a wretching sound disgorges the contents of its stomach. Bones of various desert creatures, Heartless weapons or two, merchant goods, clothing. It pauses, a great cough leaving it. Hork. Choke! It sucks in a breath. Ker-spit! A gasp, and the antlion collapses on the final Heartless left, crushing it as the beast expires.

Landing at Deelel's feet, a bundle smack messily into the ground. With a gasp of air, a figure looks up in surprise. Fur soaked with stomach acids and saliva, robes dripping wet and looking far skinnier than he really should, yet still smelling of electrified, wet rat, Faruja looks up into the eyes of first Deelel, and then the rest of those he led here today.

"...Lord bless every last one of you! I feel as though a thousand baths will not cleanse me of this /filth/! Damnit, I need a drink." A glance back, and he sees the dead corpse of the antlion. A sigh, and he lets his head flop down, rolling over. The sand on his fur may just be an improvement.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart eeks a bit as she's covered in all that icky stuff. SHe's going to soak in a bath for hours after this, likely. She couldn't serve her customers looking or smelling like this after all.

At least its dead... but what's this? She picks up the card and looks at it "... What was a card doing inside of it, and why does it look like new? And why isn't it covered in... gross stuff..." She's poking at plotholes, ladies and gentleman, this could not end well.

Rinoa Heartilly has posed:
"Eww!" Rinoa yelps, staggering back as icky slimy stuff bursts on her from the heartless monster's body. She tries desperately to wipe it off but..Looks like she's seriously gonna need a shower after this too! But then Faruja gets spewed out and she kneels at his side. "Hey, are you alright?" Angelo barks and tosses a potion at him.

Aerith has posed:
Aerith stands... and moves out of the way as the spittle and gunk falls! She's either super lucky or super fast, because she doesn't get anything on her save for the sand that's already there. Moments later, Faruja is spit up, and Aerith rushes to begin casting healing magic on him.

Faruja Senra has posed:
"M'Lady, and I do believe most of us can concur, that I shan't feel as a civilized person until a fortnight passes in bathwater." Sympathetic looks are given Rinoa and Tifa. Sigh.

The healing spell does much to relieve him of acid, antlion jaw, and electrical based wounds. A smile to Aerith, and he slowly gets to his feet. "Much obliged, M'Lady. I do believe I shall live now. Thanks to you fine warriors." Each of the people gathered gets a bow, the rat shaking his head as he peers back at the beast. A clawed hand crosses himself. "...Lord forgive the innocent."

Glancing to Tifa, the rat shrugs. "Some mysteries are known only to Faram, dear Monk." He too piles on his mostly unused magic reserves, Curagas washing over the rather wounded party.



"I do believe this can be named as a success. Dear Dames, let us return to Flourgis with the good news! Oh, Faram, blessed by thy name, thank you for granting us victory this day!"

A pause. "Inn rooms and drinks are on my tab. You all deserve it."