Zombies and Jungles

Zombies and Jungles
Date of Scene:	09 August 2013
Location:	Golmore Jungle
Synopsis:	It was a simple job really. Hired to help protect a site in the jungle for Arthur Drover. However they had problems with the undead for some time, and you can't keep a good zombie down for long. Sadly for those who are still alive.
Cast of Characters:	Tifa Lockhart, Maira, Minerva, Kim Possible, Percival, Proxy Avira, Arthur Drover

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Arthur Drover has posed:
The Golmore Jungle is a dangerous place - and was even before the worlds merged. A secretive place, its mysteries not easily plumbed by outsiders, it nonetheless exists close enough to civilization to have a few blazed paths.

Arthur Drover is a skilled hunter, and he moves through the jungle nimbly. His partner might have a slightly harder time, owing to her amenities.

The group had met outside the jungle, and were proceeding within together. "Monsters here can be quite dangerous. I've arranged for some likely local lads to serve as beaters on the north side of the woods - they will scare things crossways, and run away if the going gets tough. This should reduce overall traffic on our way to the reported sighting. Now, allow me to explain."

Today he is kitted out in wading boots, armed with his horn bow and a quiver full of arrows curved like talons. The forgemaster's armaments clank in their pouches, packed according to the order of likely use. "There is something in here that interacts with Gummis. Avira and I might be able to work out its nature - but we need to find it. This is why my comrade will be exposing the air around us to gummis in hopes of a reaction. You'll all be paid restocking out of my pocket, so don't be stingy with the items."

Arthur had indicated a stocked chocobo cartload outside the jungle, and hopefully the attendees had stuffed their bags. "If there are any questions, ask them while we move. This will be a quadrant based search. No splitting up, there are reportedly dragons in here."

He's talking in a normal speaking voice, but every now and then he deliberately rustles a nearby bush or two, supplying a background noise. "This might be quite the hike, and these paths won't take a mount."

Maira has posed:
The more Arthur explains the mission, the more Maira wonders if she should have stayed behind. It wasn't that she was afraid, or that she was lazy--but she wasn't the most physical of people, and if the hike was very difficult she was afraid she would slow everyone down. No backing out now though. She would just have to do her best. Surely she had a potion or two she could put to use, something to give her a boost of energy. At least she was dressed for adventure in harsh jungles--which likely means she'd borrowed clothing from the various other girls in VALKYRI. She wears pants with lots of pockets, a long sleeved but lightweight cotton blouse, and her hair was braided, though wispy strands continued to escape and curl around her head.

As Arthur informs then that there are reportedly dragons here, Maira stifles a giggle. Well, if Ulharisk had come along there certainly would be! She shares a little smile with her nearby member of VALKYRI.

Now, if the paths wouldn't take a mount, she hopes they'll take a gargoyle! Just in case. She at least knows Perci is used to toting her sorry butt around if she slows them down too much. She doesn't really have any questions just yet, merely offering, "I'll try not to start any forest fires." She's fairly confident she can probably manage that, unless things went /really/ wrong.

Percival has posed:
Other than his bags, and his armaments the Gargoyle had brought very little to the jungle. Mostly because it was quite the dangerous land and he didn't want to lose anything of importance. So he was wearing next to nothing other than a loin cloth. On Arthur's instructions, he had in fact filled his bag to the brim with Gummis from the cart outside of the jungle.

He knew nothing about Gummispace, or Gummiships, or anything of that nature, but it sounded like this would be a fine adventure and he wouldn't miss it. So after drinking his last thermos of coffee and leaving it by the Chocobo driven cart, he followed along stoically, "Well I certainly hope we won't encounter any dragons. The last thing we need is to rile up a territorial wyrm." He ducks under a low-hanging tree branch, folding his wings across his chest, as they continued to move forward. His tail swung from side to side at an easy rhythm. On occasion he'd draw his runed orichalcum blade, cutting through low hanging vines, or overgrown brush that'd gotten in the way.

On the mount issue.. well he was silent. But he might very well be willing to tote along people. Maybe not. It all depended on the circumstances.

Proxy Avira has posed:
VALKYRI is definitely here at the behest of Avira. She is SUPER EXCITED about this venture as she has been in frequent contact with Arthur over this whole gummi ship business. Today she knows she'll see some results, having grown even more extatic when Arthur had showed her the professionally-done blueprint renderings of the ships she had shared a few weeks ago.

"Don't worry too much, Arthur. As my fellow clanmates, they're pretty experienced. Hiking and dragons should not be any problem. But I have to agree-no splitting up! Stick together, 'cause there's some dangerous stuff in this jungle and I might be too busy to bust out the Voice."

She pauses and looks to Maira. "Unless you can talk serenade the animals with your voice again? I hear princesses have that ability~" Avira teases in a lighthearted manner.

No, it's not /supposed/ to be a reference to Percival but, well, he does seem to be slightly less self depreciating lately.

Kim Possible has posed:
Kim Possible arrives on her own, literally swinging into the area on her grappling hook and then skidding to the ground on her sneakers. She cracks her knuckles and looks around. "Wade, you sure you got things taken care of?" She says into her Kimmunicator.

"I'm sure, Kim."

"Cool, catch ya later," She says as she switches off her Kimmunicator. Then she turns to listen to Arthur about what's going on. She frowns a little as he explains what's going on, still not entirely keen on the concept of gummis. But the part about it being a big hike doesn't seem to faze her. "I don't mind the hiking, I can do that."

Minerva has posed:
Minerva often got herself into trouble on her own, since joining VALKURI, she's found so much more. She's fine witht his as she's not bored at the veyr last so here she is once more with Maira and Avira moving along. The comment on forest fires gets a booming laugh out Minerva.

"You best be careful my friend a strong look from you might start one."

Prrcival isn't far behind them either a she looks back to Perival and nods.

"Dragons existed on my world they were ... higher order predators but quite dangerous and powerful. Some darring sorts had even tamed them to work along side human soliders in combat. I'd not facy having to fight any stripe of dragon to be honest."

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart had to leave her chocobo behind for the same reasons, the jungles are hard to navigate even for sturdy chocobos. Plus the heat, the jungle is pretty hot. So Premium Heart was left behind at the village, a pat on the beak and a reassuring smile from its mistress, the Midgar barmaid. "Stay here now, I'll be back soon."

She trots up to the others, her heavy boots stomping a bit noisily on the dry ground. She packed water, a bit of food and a little towel in case it gets a bit too sweaty. Which might happen in her leather dress, which is removed the top of, leaving herself in the white tanktop underneath, a bit more comfortable and 'sport' looking like this. "Okay, I'm all set. I'm not scared of dragons either... As long as its something I can punch or kick, at least." She thinks about that, scratching her cheek a bit at the thought.

Big dragon.

Little barmaid.
Getting comped on like Reize.

This might be a problem, now that she thinks about it.

"How big of a dragon are we talking about here?"

Arthur Drover has posed:
As the older man winds his way into the jungle, he pauses now and then to tie some kind of shimmering twine between small trees and across paths at foot height. "Be aware of these. They won't do anything unless I play a note." Arthur pats a simple flute hanging amid his armaments. "But you don't want them on you if I do. Remember the way back. We're going to go another little bit, then branch off."

He stops long enough to pull out a map. It appears hand drawn. It is full of those unattractive blank spaces in which people on old-timey maps used to write "here be dragons."

These spaces contain instead the words "No seriously here be dragons".

Arthur carefully traces the simple route, making sure everyone has seen it. "I will only trap alternative routes, but I will be trapping the entire way. In general, if you see the color purple, avoid it."

He demonstrates by throwing a small pouch of powder under a tree. "In an emergency, apply flame." The satchel on his back grows lighter as they walk.

He turns to Avira, and explains: "Good. I'm grateful to you and your comrades. Professional help is of value, though of course I had good cohorts two weeks ago. Now we know it's not on the main path, someone would have seen. That'd be too easy. We're going off... here." He finally pauses in his stride. The synthesist isn't winded but he pauses to drink from his canteen. This practical precaution is mediated by the less practical but still useful one. His mithril dagger draws across the trees, blazing a simple "X" on each of two trees. "As we go, periodically blaze a tree. Nothing fancy. A light superficial mark on the bark will let us go back and help people who get separated, which hopefully no one will." A wipe of his brow in the humidity.

"Trust me that not many are fighting to branch off the path here in this jungle."

His demonstration done, Drover surveys the team. A motley group for certain.

A pause. "Were I twenty years younger and unmarried, we'd be going to the bars instead, gummis bedamned. Saving yer presence sir, this is an unlikely group of VALKYRIs indeed." This last is directed at Percival.

"The dragon in question is a legend more than a real threat, maybe it is a tourist contrivance? In my city we just sell miniatures and have a theater. Maybe out here they have dragon stories."

A rustling arises from a nearby bush, and he raises a hasty finger to his lips. But it has passed before he can investigate. "Dragons are rarer where I'm from, but you hear of them in heroic tales. A dragon claw is an amazing magical ingredient, so are the scales. But let's leave them alone and hope they do us. So let's show you what we'll be doing."

The master crafter takes a gummi block, one that is almost "mass produced", a shell gummi. He hurls it wildly into the woods, hard, overhand. It rebounds off of several trees and evokes a loud "squawk".

"The report is that someone's found gummi flew out of their hand from some distance away and vanished into the air, and it only happened to the gummi. Chances are we don't need to be that accurate. Try not to hit anyone, but have fun with it and practice your aim. We want to cover as much square footage as possible. If you throw one and see it rebound oddly, alert the group with a whistle. If you can, pick up some of the ones you throw. But never leave our line of sight. Questions?"

Pausing with one foot on the path, one on the spongy earth of the forest proper, he waits for comment. Assuming no objections, they'd begin to blaze forth, making a lot of noise as he hoped his likely local lads had done their job scaring creatures away from the search grid and then running home.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Throwing things is something that the barmaid...

Is oddly not that good at, but fortunatly she doesn't need to be too precise either, from what she understands "Well, as long as we don't try to throw gummi blocks at the dragon, if there's any nearby, to defend ourselves... I think with this density of forest and the size of the trees we'd probably be able to flee and hide in the worse case."

She picks one of the gummi cubes, weighting it in her hand, and giving it a squeeze "Its odd how you can turn these into spaceships of all things... They are so squishy." She lifts her shoulders a bit, and then reels back, throwing the cube toward the side of the road, toward the nearby trees in that direction.

Maira has posed:
Maira looks back toward Percival, shaking her head slightly. Could he have worn a little more clothing!? And where do you keep things when wearing a loincloth!? He probably held no appeal to the myriad of bugs that would be all to willing to bite her, here. Not that she objects to the view.

Maira looks back to Avira then, flushing even as she laughs. "I don't know, I can certainly try! I can't believe that worked, with those worms that time...heh...gosh that seems like ages ago," she replies, nostalgic. That had been fun. That venture had lead to the maid cafe! An event that would go down in the history of shenanigans.

The fire mage looks to Minerva and laughs lightly. "I'll try not to look too strongly at anything then," she replies quickly before they start moving. Maira falls quiet then, all her effort on keeping up and not tripping over anything. She'd very much grown up a city girl, though she was glad she got these kinds of experiences now. Maybe she was at least a little more hardy!

The girl observes all Arthurs precautions and traps with amazement. This is a man who knows what he is doing. An adventurer. An /old/ adventurer. You don't get to be an old adventurer without /really/ knowing what you're doing. On the subject of dragons, Maira smiles. "We have a dragon in our group--a Draconian, I guess he is called. He can change his form, but he's a dragon alright," she informs him.

As they come to a stop to do their thing, Maira reaches for one of the pouches and picks a vague westerly direction to begin tossing gummies experimentally, watching for anything strange as she does so. She won't stray far from the others, knowing that with her luck she'd get lost, scooped up by said dragon, and made to...clean its...hoard....or something.

Kim Possible has posed:
Taking a gummi block and looking at it, Kim raises an eyebrow. "These are the things that the spaceship I used was made out of?" She pauses then grins. "That's totally badical! I wonder what Wade would think if I told him about these?"

"You mention me, Kim?" Wade suddenly says as he pops up on the Kimmunicator.

"Wade? What're you--" Kim pauses as her moment of surprise changes. "Oh yeah, these things. They're called 'gummi' but they can be used to build totally awesome spaceships! But I'll have to tell you more later."

Kim then glances at the map, and while some might grin or chuckle at the part about dragons, Kim shakes her head before tossing the gummi herself, aiming it at a nearby rock. "These things are unusual," She says. "But then again, this whole world is totally unique. Not sure if that's badical or uncool though..." She then gathers some more gummis and puts them in her backpack. Yes, it looks small but it holds a lot. After all, it's Kim Possible we're talking about!

Percival has posed:
Percival retorts back to Avira, in a sort of amused tone, "In that case, why not a Princess /duet/? The two of you together could probably charm any creature here out of their skin." Before he leans over to whisper to Maira, "You charmed /worms/?"

He swats away at a mosquito with a taloned hand in irritation before looking towards Minerva and Arthur, "Dragons didn't even exist on my world, as far as I'm aware, but...I won't discount any rumors of dragons here. Too many different worlds and variants. And a jungle seems as likely a place for one to lair as any. Let's just hope the boys you hired as beaters don't run into one."

He follows after Arthur, helping to blaze the trail with him.

Minerva has posed:
Minerva didn't mind the jungle but paid close attention to the warnings from Arthur, he knew area better than she did after all, right? So here she was and she has no idea about the map, she' might be amused or thinking it was serious? Yet she doesn't know however as the mention of another warning comes up she takes note of it.

"Purple, is to be avoided. I see."

The flame part was easy enough to do she could generate it somewhat and well? There was Maira, any more fire and she might be a fire elemental rather than a human.

"I can not complain about the idea of enjoying food drink, but once the job is finished I think. "

"Were you not thought to be a myth upon your own world my friend?"

Proxy Avira has posed:
Avira pauses at Percival's mention of a /duet/ with Maira. "Wow, that would be pretty amazing." she remarks, "That should totally happen sometime. I know, right, Maira? That feels like /forever/ ago. So much has happened."

Noting Arthur's Golmore Map, Avira leans over to peer at it, "...hmmm. Hold up." Reaching into one of her leather pouches at her waist, she withdraws an object. It's a metallic cube with etchings all over its surface in odd patterns of what is likely some kind of advanced civilization. She taps the cube a few times with a finger, "Mimir. Wake up, you need to look at this."

"Eh?" a tinny male voice speaks before one of the patterns on a face sinks inward to reveal a circular apature that glows blue. "I-goodness, how long has it been-ooh, a map, a map let me see!!"

Calmly, Avira rotates the cube so the 'eye' is in full view of the map. She's sweating pretty profusely in the humidity of the place but she doesn't seem to notice.

"Heeeere there be draaaagons." Mimir drawls. "Well that is an insufficent representation of terrain, let me tell you. Why if I h-" The bushes rustle, "Don'tletiteatmeI'llbeinitsdigestivesystemforthousandsofyearsaieee!" His eye apature promptly slides shut.

"Dragon pieces do sell well. I've seen the prices." Avira remarks as if their little mapping friend's outburst was a completely normal thing. "No questions from me, Arthur."

Arthur Drover has posed:
"You'd be surprised."

Arthur responds to Tifa by looking at her throw. "It takes practice, but I managed to bind a spell into some. Even cure spells, which makes for added hilarity when one of my children skins their knees. That their father's response is to hurl a magical implement at them may actually be problematic, I should rethink that." He pauses as if in the throes of some deeper revelation, then shakes it off. "They detonate on sharp impact. But I didn't bring any. Can you imagine the confusion if we threw them wrong and hit a friend?"

He pauses, mouth open, at Maira's pronouncement. He's walking the whole while, leading the way like he knows what he is doing and making his little precautions more sure. "I'd love to meet such a person. Dragons have a famed appreciation for beautiful things. As long as he didn't try to take my forge-hoard."

Arthur hurls gummis - the path begins to slope downward. Disturbed earth churns as the heavier among them (probably Arthur and Percival) are forced to brace and move against the slope to keep their balance. The smell of loamy soil and decaying vegetable matter evokes a scent for which the only appropriate description is "autumn".

The group is now walking alongside a river. "I like rivers, rivers are good. If you follow a river far enough, you either reach a cave or a lake. And then your chances of finding shelter or civilization go up. Trust rivers."

He hurls a few gummis into the river on an off chance, no luck yet. Kim's aside draws his attention. "A man of artifice? If so, Avira and I would love to be put in contact. We'll share such data as we have." Even though he would complain he's no teacher, Kim's wondering inspires the older man to elaborate: "They are virtually indivisible, they join up well. And they change when they enter the space between worlds. They become bigger, infused somehow. That's their home. You know, we found they come from INSIDE the Heartless. Amazing, the things we don't know yet."

A fallen tree trunk blocks the way, so Arthur leans down by it and shucks his bag - letting Percival do the blazing for the moment in another direction. "Many worlds indeed. It makes you wonder now - we can no longer be sure which monsters were real on our native worlds, and which not. Any creature of legend may migrate from one world to the next, as we might. We now live in a world where none of us can say for certain that the monsters under the bed are not real. And we can't blame it on the joining of the worlds - they might have been real all along."

Then he falls silent, laying his shoulder to the fallen tree, trying to shift it up to the bank so they won't have to climb over the hoary moss-encrusted log and risk slipping on the other side's slime. He has real difficulty however, breathing deeply and exhaling in a hiss.

"Avira, you will have to let me examine your small friend." Huff. "I use purple as my blazon because there are hues not found in nature, to keep people safe. If you find a strange purple hued object, it's probably-"Puff"-a trap I set for some monster or another, at least in the caves near home. Someone want to help me shift this?"

Arthur nods to Percival, as he takes a nearby sturdy branch and shoves it under the tree for leverage. The hunter turns the tree a tad, then indicates he wants assistance pushing down the lever.

Maira has posed:
Maira leans over to Perci to explain quietly. "Not wiggly worms you find in the gardens...great big sand worms in the desert," she explains, as if that is somehow /less/ of a feat. "I sang them a lullaby and they kind of went to sleep. We'd woken them up, I'd guessed they were just cranky," she adds with a nonchalant shrug and a growing grin.

At the mention of a duet with Avira, Maira's eyes brighten. "That would be so cool! We could go to a karaoke place or something--ou that'd be so much fun!" She goes quiet then as Avira pulls out Mimir, looking distinctly uncomfortable at the mention of dragon /pieces/. She can't help but think of Ulharisk, and thinking of any of her friends in pieces is a very disturbing thought. When Arthur takes interesting in meeting him though, Maira relaxes some. "Hehe, I'm sure you'll get a chance to meet him. I'll make sure to bring him by--don't worry, he's not grabby."

As they come across a fallen tree, Maira stops and lets Arthur do his thing, wondering if she should offer a bit of magical assistance. But then, Percival is wickedly strong and could probably lift it out of the way in a much more precise way than Maira would have. Ah, throwing trees. Brings back good memories.

"Heh...yeah, we're only beginning to learn about the world, aren't we? Its very exciting. And scary," she adds. "The way things work...its really baffling sometimes. The gummi are just one mystery."

Percival has posed:
When Arthur hurls gummis on the path, the Gargoyle stumbles for a time before he catches himself against the slope. "Well, at least they leave a redolent atmosphere.." He chuckles sheepishly, scratching the back of his hand against his neck so as not to rake it with his talons.

He keeps the pace ahead of Arthur, continuing to blaze the trail without complaint. If mosquitos and other bugs begin to nip at him, well he doesn't mind too terribly, he had rather tough, leathery skin after all. Every so often he would take a swat with his hand, or the back of his blade. "So big science fiction sandworms..." He gives Maira a bemused look, "And they just went back to sleep when you sang to them. Now I really /would/ like to hear you and Avira sing a duet together."

Once Arthur's intent becomes obvious, mostly by him putting his back into the tree, he acts in kind. And while the fallen log doesn't budge at first... once Arthur puts a lever underneath it, he begins to press down on it with him.. hoping it would reward them with some movement.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart shakes her head, patting Maira on the shoulder as she walks past her "Maira makes lots of friends, so she'd be friends with a dragon, not that surprising." She grins a bit, and throws up the next cube "Well I don't know how to use magic, so unless you infused mine, you won't get any flashy effects. All I can do is throw them really really hard at someone's head so they see stars."

She loosk over to Minerva as well, someone else that she fought alongside of before. At least she's surrounded by people she knows about today, its more reassuring that way. And some she even fought against once, like Avira, but she's glad not to be on the receiving side most of the time. Avira is tough when it comes to it.

"Gummis just fell from the sky, so I guess its normal to think that they are very resilient to heat somehow, but its still a mystery in many ways... although they started to reproduce and massproduce them, haven't they?" She wonders how's that possible, but with a world of magic like this, what isn't a possibility.

Kim Possible has posed:
"Uh, not quite," Kim replies to Arthur. "He's kind of more of a modern person, or something like that." She looks at the river and adds, "Yeah, that's what I've found. Although whether or not they're friendly is anyone's guess." She watches as the gummis bounce, then watches as Arthur has trouble with the lever. "Lemme help with that," Kim offers as she rushes over to offer a little aid.

Proxy Avira has posed:
"We will tame all beasts with the power of song~" Avira laughs. "Karaoke? That'd be fun. Personally I'd like for something a little more spontaneous but you can't really plan for that, can you? I'm sure we'll get some opportunity one day."

Mimir seems to have gone inert. Or asleep. Or 'maybe if I don't say anything it won't eat me' mode. After waiting for a few seconds, Avira sighs and replaces the mapping device back into the pouch she withdrew it from. "Oh, certainly Arthur, I'll let you look at him later. I have to warn you, he's a little glitchy and very...talkative." Once she's put Mimir away, Arthur will find Avira alongside him, shouldering the tree aside right next to him, though the help changes into pushing down on the presented lever instead.

"There are so many mysteries to unlock! Especially with the gummi blocks. Working like this, I'm sure we'll find their full potential."

Avira is a tiny person so she actually doesn't have that much strength to add besides her entire body weight against the lever.

Minerva has posed:
Minerva gives Tifa a look for a moment and seems to accept what Arthur s saying, she could likely learn a few basic spells if she ever found a willing teacher and could focus but that's something she's mostly given up on.

"I see, sometimes they do forget what they seek belongs to another.

"You are quite experienced Ser, quite experienced."

Sp she continues to hustle with the group and she would help lead but the others are better geared for such things than she is she punched after all.

"Karaoke? Maira? Pretel? Just what is it?"

"I suspect you both could put out quite the tune together."

Kim gets a slight glance from the monk while she presses on paying attention where the group is and what they are talking about.

"Gummi Blocks have proven their worth already but who knows what else we might do with them."

She meanwhile moves in to lend a hand to Avira with the lever and Minerva is a fair bit stronger than she looks from the looks of things.

Arthur Drover has posed:
Arthur moves back, letting the larger and stronger Gargoyle take position further down on the lever. He places both hands at the end of it, but yields to Kim when she moves over.

"Thanks, miss. These old bones lack main strength." Playing up his age to get other people to do his work? Check.

"Magical synthesis is complex, but it's a lot like how you'd make something out of metal, you're just melting different things. There are some rare gummis you can't easily make." He explains to Kim. When Avira steps forward, the smith signs and puts his shoulder to the log once more. Can't let his business partner show him up. "There's no mystery in the world we cannot plumb the depths of, given time. Thank you all for coming out here like this, I'll-" Grunt. "Make sure you are compensated." Minerva's comment gets one reply after a barking laugh: "You mean I'm old. And I guess I am, by some standards. But that's only because of our high mortality rate and low expected age! You have some serious muscle, excellent. Now all together!"

It takes each of them straining at full force, the gargoyle doing a lot of the heavy lifting, but Kim and Minerva certainly contribute more than, for example, Arthur. The elastic muscles of forge hammering are not training for heavy lifting and these days he employs a stockboy to grab the steel from the shed. Nonetheless, with a splintery sound and a disgusting ooze trying to hold it down - The log gives way!

All of their strength working together leads the tree trunk to move!

Specifically it moves upward in an unsettlingly rubbery way then falls back across the path with a sound halfway between a slither, and "flollop" which is not a word but ought to be. It falls in a way tree trunks ought not to.

The dramatic thing to do would be to shout "look out" and tackle the crew to safety.

Instead, Arthur's mouth hangs open and he takes a moment to calculate uselessly. The creature does not need a moment, and its vine sends Arthur flat across the clearing as it hits his chest with a sound like punching steak. Gummis go flying from the overfull pouch.

They make disturbing curvatures in the air before rocketing past the beast, which only seems to make it madder. The significance of this would quite please the smith if he wasn't fumbling for his bow and trying to remember what words were.

It is fourteen feet tall and that tree was just one of its "limbs". Rising from the jungle exactly like a daisy except faster, covered in thorns, with murderous almost sentient intent and venomous breath.

Exactly like a daisy, the Ochu cometh.

Percival has posed:
Flollop really ought to be a word. But the Gargoyle wasn't about to make a suggestion to Oxford, partially because it didn't exist anymore, and also because a huge Ochu just dropped down upon him. Thanks for the warning Arthur! Oh wait, there /wasn't one/!

Fortunately, despite being strong, he was also rather agile, as he quickly managed to roll backwards away from the Ochu's thorned vines and venomous breath. His wings fling outward, batting away the last whiffs of the poisonous mist like a fan, as he removes his sword from scabbard.

Runes begin to faintly glow upon it's length as he looks sidelong to Maira, "There you go, /that/ is something you can set on fire. Just not the forest too, alright?" He took a glance Avira's way. Luckily she was here with ice magic if that.. happened.

Wisps of blue smoke begin to rise off the runes as he concentrates, and then he starts to assess his foe. For now this takes the form of taking pace, circling the creature, not taking to the air yet. After all, the fragile spellcasters were all pretty land bound at the moment.

Kim Possible has posed:
As soon as the strange daisy comes out of the ground, Kim Possible goes wide-eyed. "Wow, that is so TOTALLY uncool!" She says with a scowl. "But we can beat it, we can do anything!" Kim's expression changes to that of enthusiasm and encouragement, to herself and to those around her as well. She looks to Tifa and gives a nod to her as well. "Come on, we're gonna do this together, so get ready!" She cracks her knuckles eagerly.

Maira has posed:
Maira looks sidelong to Perci, snickering. "Shush or I'll sing you to sleep! I didn't tell you that story though? We were up against the Shard Seekers to find the Desert Rose. We had a bet that whoever lost, their team would have to dress in maid outfits for a whole day....but Faruja and I, we got to the rose at the very same time. We agreed to grab it together--thus, the maid cafe happened in Traverse Town. We raised a lot of money too, which went to the refugees from Manhattan," she says, glancing to Avira with a bright smile. Those refugees had a home again.

Maira looks up to Tifa as she passes, a touch embarrassed. "He's made plenty of other friends too! I just kind of happened to be there when he fell from the sky," she explains. With a laugh, Maira then nods to Avira. "Spontaneous duet, got it. Karaoke, Minerva, is like...well you go out with people and they have a bunch of songs a lot of people know, and you sing along to them in front of people. Its kind of silly, but looks like fun."

Maira feels like she is the only person not helping now, but really, it would be silly to think she'd make a different with all the strong people lifting. With all the trouble they are having though, maybe she really should have volunteered her magic...

Then the tree trunk flops back down, and suddenly, the situation changes rather drastically. Not a tree trunk at all, but just ONE limb of a gigantic plant monster. Maira screams in alarm as Arthur gets tentacle thumped backward, and rushes over to him to make sure he's alright, setting herself in front of him until he can get back on his feet and regain his bearings. "Oh <goosehonk>! Well, time for a song I guess," she comments. It is her new protection spell, now that she is without Uist, some things are different. Maira takes a measured breath then lets it out, her voice ringing pure and true, indeed the kind of voice that might lull the woodland creatures, etc. etc.

The lyrics this time, however, are this; "This nasty beastie means to ruin our day, draw your weapons and tell it to get the <GOOSEHONK> out of our way!"

Warm energy settles over her nearest companions, a protection from the terrifying strikes of the Ochu.

Maira then looks to Perci as he draws his sword, and quickly gives him a thumbs up. With but a thought, his sword bursts into bright flame.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart erks a bit at the approach of the Ochu. She might have prefered the dragon... Ochu are bad news, not as bad as Malboros, but same family in her mind. Anything that seems plant and has poisonous breath...

She dives for cover to avoid the first tentacule swipe, although it wasn't aimed at her... she wasn't taking chances with it. Rolling off the dry road, she moves back to her feet "Well, if you can set it on fire, go right ahead!" She means that mostly for Maira here, the firethrower. She sighs a bit though "Well, no backing out here, stay behind me Maira, I'll cover you and keep it away." She gets boosted by Kim's abilities as well, as she rushes in to punch the light outs on that Ochu, making sure it stays away from the magic user.

Proxy Avira has posed:
"Good times, good times." Avira confides in Maira. "I wonder what those Shard Seekers are up to lately."

"Oh, I just had a thought, Minerva. I bet they make one hell of a moon bounce!" Avira exclaims, now picturing the enclosed structure lined with gummi blocks. There could be bouncing off the walls and ceiling. Bouncing like a Tigger! It'd be AMAZING.

She grunts and pushes, trying to help the others move the log. She's half expecting Percival to just lift it up far above Avira's reach at one point though that embarassing option never comes to pass. "Alright, we've almost got it-!" she exclaims.

Then the log makes an ugly sort of squelching noise as they dislodge it. Warning bells immediately start going off in her head. While Arthur is gaping, Avira fills in for the alerting of the others: "LOOK OUT! IT'S ALIVE!" It could be a plant dragon, which Avira has heard really does live in the Golmore jungle and is extremely dangerous.

There is a moment spent watching as the gummi blocks start behaving oddly as they fly through the air. "We're close! We need to clear this creature!" She backs away, withdrawing her weapon and sidling up to Arthur to cover him.

Minerva has posed:
"I heard they been taking jobs more actively again. As for making the room bounce hum mm that could be a thought however there comes a monster, it a plant drag? She's not sure just what the heck the beast is.

"I'm on it come beast! Let me see what you can do!"

She then launches herself at it fist bursting into flames as she strikes out at it rapidly getting a feel for the creature.

Arthur Drover has posed:
The beast rears large. It must spend most of its time sleeping, because the surrounding areas is relatively undisturbed. This could be the only monster around, but it would be enough. It seems angry, perhaps it is territorial. Or maybe it buries itself when it is done eating and thinks the team are scaring away the food. The vaguely pear-shaped beast has a massive rank mouth and four lashing tendrils. They grab at the surrounding trees, but not to uproot them. It moves by throwing its own body forward across the arena. This it does with precision, switching targets to the gargoyle with the angry steel.

But really the vines are going to issue a general murderfondling to anyone not fast enough to get out of the way. It is just that the massive bulk with its hungry mouth is coming for the winged warrior with intent and a kind of high keening screech.

Tifa jabs deeply into the thing's body, and it lets out a deafening cry - like someone sticking their hands into styrofoam and twisting it so it makes that kind of squidgy noise that makes your teeth wanna hide behind your neck. That exact damn sound. It seems relatively unphased. Minerva's attack, which would have burnt the beast, is turned aside by a vine lash that might leave the monk reeling.

Arthur gets his hands on his bow. He does not rush. He famously doesn't rush. He may have been knocked across the arena, be bleeding from some thorn etches along the side of his face, and be on poor muddy footing - but you never rush. A moment is spent checking the bowstring for damage. No use firing a mangled mess. Then he selects the right arrow and says a quiet word over it. He even spends time tying something to the shaft.

Drover watches as Avira guards him and the rest of their cadre steels itself for battle. He accepts her guardianship. With her there to keep the thorns from mangling him for a moment, he has time.

Breathe in, out, fire on the exhale. He watches the beast move, apparently he had been knocked far enough away to be off its radar along with Avira for a second. In, out, tense, relax - and fire.

The arrow has a blunt tip, no good for impaling anything. Also the forgemaster aimed straight up in the air. He counts aloud: "One, two, three." The weapon has described a parabolic arc and it smashes on the ground by Kim and Percival with a "pop". The magical essences within balloon outward enough to encapsulate the two. Chocobo claw in a distillation of air essence vaporizes and attaches itself to their limbs in a hazy aura. Every movement is faster, easier, more powerful. Where they strike, things move out of the way, where they pass the air is rent and makes a "whoosh" sound associated with overcoming air resistance.

They might need it because the Ochu hurls its thorns in every conceivable direction. The air itself is a briar patch. Heartless don't have freeattacks but if they did one of these would be called "thornswoggle".

Proxy Avira has posed:
"Ochu are plant-based so Maira will be perfect against it. Unless her singing manages to tame it. It could happen! Maira's heart is strong and has moved a lot of people." she confides in Arhur. "But-well, one second, you don't mind if I borrow some more stock, do you? Well, more like take because you won't get it back-"

Taking hi-potions and potions off of Athur's person as she speaks, the scarred woman works quickly and professionally. He is married and Avira's in her own relationship so there is nothing inappropriate meant by Avira's touching.

An arm comes up to shield Avira's face as the ochu suddenly spews thorns everywhere. Several embed themselves in the leather of her fingerless gloves. When she feels the coast is clear, she lowers that arm and promptly flings a hi-potion Maira's way.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Sometimes you need to stay back. And sometimes it pays off to rush in. After getting glanced by the tentacule counter attack as she kicked at it, she stayed on the offensive, moving in straight to the Ochu instead of fading away. And apparently, being close to it was the right decision, as she thorns fly overhead, missingher entirely, as she brings a kick up into the ochu's gur... or at least what seems to be somewhat like a stomach at least. Hard to tell with plant creatures. She never wants to visit the inside either, mind you.

She grabs the stunned Ochu by one of the tentacules, hurtling it upward after a spin on herself, showing off how strong she is. While airborned, the ochu is met with a series of strong flying kick, as she jumps up to meet with it... and showing some aerial control, she flips over the Ochu, practically running along side of it to get on top, boots catching into the plant-like skin, to then drive a powerful last kick, sending it diving back down uncontrollably, into the ground where it came from. Plants are best in the ground after all, although she would have liked it to be deeper.

Percival has posed:
Maira's enchantments along with the buff arrow of NOM NOM NOM goodness strengthen him a great deal. The Gargoyle is picked up by a vine around the ankle and thrown in the air. And then there were thorns. COUNTLESS THORNS

The terror of Thornswoggle envelops the Gargoyle, and while he looks akin to a prickly briar by the time its done, he does manage to swing his sword which trails blue motes of energy behind it. There's an ephemeral sort of wave in the air as it strikes the Ochu.

The Gargoyle then, gliding in mid-air with his wings open to their full span states mostly to himself, "Alright.. this is going to sound like I'm some absurd kid from Neverland..." The Gargoyle's sword flares with blue light, "...but. Think happy thoughts Percival." He cuts the sword upwards, with an uppercut swing, and beneath the Ochu, there's an eruption of force which attempts to drive it upwards. The Gargoyle then corkscrews forward in midair, grasping the sword with both hands, before performing a wide swing which allows another wave of blue energy to coruscate out from it, driving into the creature with the burning wrath of the ancient Atlanteans.

Kim Possible has posed:
The help from Arthur is appreciated, but that giant creature is not something Kim wants to deal with. In fact, the powering up has done a good job with Kim since she seems to be able to move quickly with that giant thing coming at her, then delivers a martial-arts style combination technique, knocking the vines away while Kim gets a chance to get some space. "Ha, now that was totally badical!" Kim says with a big grin. "This isn't gonna be so uncool after all."

Kim fires her grappling hook at a nearby tree, in hopes of swinging into the Ochu and striking it with a kick, before releasing from her grappling hook and attempting a more direct flying kick.

Maira has posed:
Maira gasps as she watches the beast retaliate against the many attacks it takes from the group. They are a fierce bunch, used to combat with things bigger than them, surely--but then Perci guts THWAPPED hard by a flailing tentacle and Maira's sight goes momentarily red. Unfortunately, it doesn't get any less crimson as a vine lashes out for her and smacks her hard, smashing her into a nearby tree. She hits her head, hard, against the trunk, slumping downward for a few moments as the world spins. The pain in incredible. As soon as she can move she turns to the side and promptly looses her lunch.

She has to get it together. Reaching down inside herself, Maira grabs hold of the blazing flame of her light and brings it to the surface, her form bursting to light as she pushes herself back to her feet with a tightly controlled gust of air. Flames cover her form, though they are a brilliant white rather than golden. The air around her is scorching hot, plants around her cringing and turning to ash. With a deep breath, she reigns in the heat, focusing on the Light rather than the fire as she approaches the Ochu slowly, hands out like she was going to attempt to calm a wild horse. The hit potion is caught and quickly drunk, for which Avira is given a grateful look.

"Hey, hey, calm down. We didn't mean to hurt you. We don't want to fight you...lets just leave this alone, okay...Why don't you go back to sleep?" she tries, her voice carrying a soothing sing-song quality. Though she is very prepared for plan B. Namely, blasting it to oblivion with Holy.

Of course, this may all well fail as everyone's been attacking the thing, but she supposes it is worth a try. Come on Ochu, look into the LIIIIIGHT!

Arthur Drover has posed:
Arthur looks on, perplexed, as Avira raids his hidden stock. "Hey, be careful what you throw out there." She dislodges a single, tiny bottle from the inner echelons of Arthur's coat. It appears to be on a miniscule string, made to shatter if too dire a blow hits the forgemaster. He watches it with dismay. It is the one piece of his stock which is not easily replenished.

It tumbles and strikes a rock, then it bounces. There is enough in the phial for perhaps one swallow. it rebounds off of a tree and rolls as if it were a living thing. When it arrives by Minerva's foot, it is glowing faintly.

Meanwhile in the fight proper, moving away from the Rolling Merchandise Saga, Tifa lands a punishing hit. The Ochu is pummelled, but like all enemies it holds on resiliently until the very end. When it is struck, it manages to keep coming. It almost seems to be knitting back together, as if something about the land here were revitalizing it. Tifa lands nearby, and it seems too stunned to do much. This creates an opening for Percival. The blade digs deep, the creatue resonating with some hellish magical strength, but nonetheless disrupted. Kim's blows rip "tendons" and muscles, its rank breath washing out. The plant collapses, as if wilted. And then Maira begins to speak. The creature, bizarre and alien plantlike intelligence that it is, doesn't "know" much about people.

But it has eaten enough people to know what to do when someone is talking at you. Its massive toothy maw opens, it stares at Maira in a moment of rare communion. The princess's power to calm the savage beast is working!

It /sH-ell-ooooh.</span>

Its breath is horrifying in every conceivable way. Maira made a new friend.

And now it is going to kill us all.

Then the potion explodes, and something flies out of it, colaescing around the most wounded of them with regenerative potency unheard of in standard potion making.

Arthur looks on, disgruntled. Then he almost passes out - ye gods, that smell.

TL;DR: Blame Maira.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart will blame Maira alright. For making it talk and spew that all over the area. even the flowers are withering from it! @_@

"UGH! The smell!" It doesn't hurt her physically, not like a punch in the face, but it hurts in different ways that are not pleasant at all! She even wobbles a bit unsteadily at it "What an awful smell!" She tries to fan in front of her, but its not doing much, its too late for that!

But it did talk! She's not sure she should be punching it anymore. "It... can talk?" She looks at Maira, wondering what to do now.

Proxy Avira has posed:
Frantic to save her friend, Avira was intent on grabbing any healing potion she could. Only after she's thrown it does she realize both the gravity of Arthur's words and the size of the bottle. The inclination to go chasing after it is also quite strong but by the time she would have reached it, it would have been too late.

"I'm sorry!" she says apologetically, taking a step away from Arthur-a step forward, still keeping her shielding role going. At least until Minverva presumably goes up and swipes at him which Avira was NOT expecting at all and thus unprepared for.

Bad breath. The attack was legendary. Though Maira's efforts were making admirable headway, Avira was quite sure of what kind of horrible things a close-range bad breath attack could do to a person. Fortunately, this is something that her own inventory is much better prepared to handle. Out come remedies. Lots of them.

"Heads up, everyone!" she calls out and starts throwing them once she has the attention of her fellow VALKYRI.

Maira has posed:
Oh by the Light it's /working/. Maira can't believe it! A smile appears...then quickly dies.

Oh, the breath! It's speaking, but uuuuugh....Maira gets hit head on with the bad breathe, staggering backward as just about any buffs she put on herself are counteracted by the breath's noxious fumes. All because it said hello. Damn it this is all her fault!

Maira tries to hold her ground, thinking that if she turned to puke it might break whatever crazy spell she'd cast on the thing. "Guys...try the gummi thing again...maybe the creature is what is making them behave strangely?" she asks, keeping her eyes on the Ochu, even though her face is taken on a decidedly greenish hue.

She catches the remedy, drinks it quickly, but it barely takes the edge off.

Then, because why not up the ridiculous factor, Maira sings again. ~"Hush little Ochu don't say a word--" No, really, DON'T "--Maira's gonna buy you a tasty bird....and if that tasty bird isn't filling, Maira's gonna buy you a..." hesitate, search for rhyme, "...reprieve from the killing...."~

Oh please oh please go back to sleep!

Percival has posed:
It's breath is horrifying. Beyond terrible, so while Percival is in the air, he buffets his wings, before manuevering himself upwards. Keeping himself free of the deadly stench.

Fortunately, he breaks just enough altitude while gliding to make it out of the odiferous cloud until it disperses.

Well... that was...a little disastrous. He'd have to consider long and hard before he asked Maira to sing to a horrible monster again. Maybe a duet would be more effective? ....to the tune of Cuban Pete. He was still very fond of that tune, BLAME AVIRA!

Either way, he descends atop the Ochu, landing on it's head. There's an aura about his blade, which extends outwards from the blade, making it like it was imbued to look like a longer and wider energy blade. And then he attempts stab it into the Ochu's head repeatedly, before aiming for one of it's eyestalks with another wave of wrathful energy. Sorry, no reprieve from the killing today.

Maira has posed:
......Then Perci stabs the Ochu.

"DAMN IT PERCI!" she yells, then throws her hands up in exhasperation. "Everyone get out of the blast radius!" she calls, then lets the tightly controlled energy of Holy she'd stored explode from her in a dome of scorching, cleansing brightness that burns like the sun.

Minerva has posed:
Minerva has a lot of experience fighting, she's fought a lot humans monster but an Ochu? There?s sense of animal terror about this things, there are monsters like it in her world that can infest someone and turn them into another of their blighted kind. To say Minerva is ... scared would be an understatement but they have to deal with it or they are all /in trouble/. It's only certain ones but this one is an alien creature she has no idea if it can effect such changes o not. She's very on edge and reacts as Arthur comes up behind her without even thinking she strikes out half a second before she knows who it is. There's a mortified look on her face.

"Ser I ...."

There's no time to say more the terrible breath she lets out a croaking noise as she's caught by the horrible pain her body is just being ravaged by it, she struggles to not vomit and thanks to Avira she's able to keep it down and she focuses her mind trying to purge all this horror form her. She slams her fist into the ground sending a shock wave ripping up the ground right for the monster, a second late she racing towards the monster, and then she launches into a combo of assaults upon the beast trying to freeze then hit it with lighting charged punches.

Kim Possible has posed:
That really stinks in more ways than one. Kim is finding herself feeling a bit sickly after what just happened, but that doesn't mean she's giving up either. She drops to the ground briefly then looks at the Ochu. "All right, I think it's time I finished you once and for all! I should've brought weedkiller, but I'm not like that." So Kim attempts to leap in and deliver a flurry of punches to the Ochu.

Arthur Drover has posed:
Okay, it is shaping up to be a pretty bad night. Arthur has been ransacked like a treasure chest. His elixir, tiny bottle of so much potency - lost to errant fate. Sure it healed someone, but that someone turned around and cold clocked him. Arthur doesn't even hear the apology.

The bags clatter from his body with a clank. Something smashes, something else explodes, leaving a tiny patch of burning marks on the satchel he was wearing.

Kim's blow has torn off one of its arms, but the creature seems to take the loss in stride. It auto-parries - by which one means it parries by dropping its limbs. It seems somewhat more docile.

Minerva's punches cause it to gyrate oddly, more bad breath being shaken loose. Then Percival's sword jabs in, catches the errant strands of lightning - and though it does not harm, something like a motor cortex is pierced. The Ochu stays in place, gyrating terribly.

Arthur drops his quiver, and the arrows splay out on the ground. He falls to one knee. His eyes close.

Remembering the tree trunk, the forgemaster realizes this group has more brute strength than most. Something comes whipping out of his bag -the mythril thread from earlier. Stronger than chain. Nimble fingers lash it to the arrows, one long strand to each with a weight on the end. He whistles at the bow. Something in it wakes up, and when the arrow touches it, it alights with a purple, hellish fire.

It burns his hands, but this seems somewhat irrelevant.

Maira's coaxing has distracted the beast, now recovering from having percival's sword in its "brain". She evokes holy energy, enough to scorch the ground around it. But something about this place - perhaps its natural habitat, perhaps the nearby anomaly - has given rise to a resistance sufficient that "all" she does is scorch off one of its trunks. It stays right where it is.

A plan takes shape. Every morning before he goes hunting, on days when he goes hunting, Arthur finds two things on the counter. One is a tiny phial of potion, one is a shaped and treated arrowhead. The plait of mythril threads are tied to one arrow, rather than the others, which are looped in like a staked net. With Avira playing defense, he has just enough time.

A single flute note plays, drawing attention, a few birds scatter. One of the tripwires from earlier explodes, collapsing an embankment over the roaring river. Flames leap from the explosion as if they were a living thing, and swarm up the transfixed, much beaten Ochu.

"HEADS UP, AND PULL!"

What gets fired from the bow is not an arrow, it is a many-headed flail connected by silver threads. They land like stakes, but not in the ground. They land on the Ochu's 'chest' - so that it appears to be wearing a silver hairnet. It flails, awakening from Maira's spell. And its flailing just makes the barbed net tighter. There are a number of loose strands of the material hanging, most of them hanging on the side toward the river.

"To ropes! Pull him to!" Arthur begins signalling toward the river. He's too far away. It's out of his hands now, but the net constricts, glowing with residual magic.

Percival has posed:
So Ochu's were extremely hard-headed. Good to know. Note to self in the future, aim for something /other/ than the brain. Except he stabbed something which kind of made it go wild. Of course it's about that time that Maira yells at him for ruining her Ochu lullaby plan. Which while good in theory, did get them all SUPER BAD BREATHED. Still it causes an anime style sweatdrop and wavy blue lines to form over his Gargoyle head, while his fin like ears flattened backwards.

Given that he had no other plans other than /avoid dying/ and Arthur appeared to have a very good one that consisted of a flail in the chest, mythril cords, and traps.

Percival hopped down off the Ochu. And began to pull at the ropes that he was signalled to do so. Tugging with all of his considerable strength. He dug in his talons into the soft loam of the jungle floor, and put his back into it. In an attempt to give it the veritable heave-ho towards the river.

Proxy Avira has posed:
Seeing Arthur's tripwires and barbed net go into action is truly a sight to behold. If Avira had the luxury of time to spend marvelling a little longer at these feats of engineering, she would be doing that right now. But instead, she recognizes what is about to happen and how she can take advantage of it. Abruptly, she jabs her weapon into the jungle floor behind her and takes off, abandoning Arthur's side to attend to this task.

She has distance to cover but onlookers will quickly realize that Avira can cover that distance extremely quickly. Right away, her gloved hands snatch up one of the dangling ropes.

"Altogether! HEAVE!!!" Avira calls out, tugging fiercely.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart can offer strength of arm at least! She quickly moves over beside Avira, taking one of the ropes, and pulling with all of her might. Of course, if she can throw the monster up in the air, she should be able to tug it down into the river easily enought... especially with everyone's help in doing so "Heave!"

Minerva has posed:
Minerva Falls back from the best and doesn't seem happy with being near it for longer than she absolutely has to. So she's flipping away from the creature and lets her allies finish things off here alive? Dead? She doesn't want to be near the damn thing any loner than she can. She just watches as Arthur and the rest get to it. She's happy to see the things handled, she hears the order and goes to do what she can hopefully she can bring the thing to heel she like not dying and pulls with everything she can. She's not as strong as say Percival is? Still she's very strong for a human of her size and build and it shows as she moves with the others.

"I ... hates these beasts! The ones in my world can infest all matter of creature turning them into another of their blighted kind!"

Arthur Drover has posed:
Tifa manages to hurl the rope over her shoulder. The arrows sticking into it make the Ochu more likely to stumble.

Arthur is bandaging his hands. It was probably a dumb move to use his bow's enhanced accuracy, but the precision had been vital.

Avira moves like lightning, drawing an admiring glance. He spends time gathering what potions he can while she dashes away. The creature moves like a balloon tethered at the end of a rope. It is trying to escape but following an elliptical orbit which both knocks down a tree and sends it tumbling over the edge into the river when Percival and Maira give a yank. Minerva hurls it while imparting Disturbing Science Facts.

The many ropes plait together with the force used to pull them, and the creature is hamstrung. The Smith spends a quiet moment reflecting on what it would be like to slowly turn into a plant monster. Thanks to Minerva, he resolves to clean his ears out REALLY thoroughly upon arriving home.

The plant goes over. There is a tremendous splash as it is washed quietly away.

Gazing downward, the cadre would be able to track its slow travel, the plantlike monster floating on the water's surface.

"Alright, let's set up camp and keep looking..."

Arthur sounds resigned, but he has his map and canteen out. Only the faint dapple of blood on the ground reveals anyone was wounded. That, and the lingering smell, the rotting plant matter - and later, when they all looked, the puckered rip in space at the bottom of the Ochu's nest which "eats" any gummis thrown into it. Something about this place must have drawn it in.

"We don't have long. We need a fortified camp for when the locals get restless. I bet this place is hell at night. Remind me to always hire burly people."