Post by Swith on Jan 31, 2017 18:40:11 GMT -4
NOMINATION 2: Raiders of the Lost Book
Nominated by: Cerillium
Notes by Cerillium: "Hapless adventurers are roped into a quest to kill some lizards to earn enough to buy the shit they need to start their actual adventure. They've found a way to cobble their abilities together to face the deadly beasties."
ENTRY BEST ACTION -OR- FIGHT-OR-FLIGHT SCENE - PLEASE NOTE THAT EACH POST IN THE SCENE IS DIVIDED BY A RED LINE. {Note: Story title removed from individual posts}
RAIDERS the LOST BOOK
OPERATION: BIBLIOPHILE
DIMENSION: Gallimaufry then 257P
LOCATION: Above the Max Thunder Fury Road Beyond Ascalon Dome
TEAMS: MU
The five flying lizards descended upon the convoy as carrion birds to a dying beast. They circled with a measured pace as Sandy and company climbed high into the sky, two pausing mid-flight before rolling down and diving directly at the semi to pick away at it. Meanwhile, the Pegasus and his passengers caught the attention of two more of the lizards. They began to rise in pursuit.
The final lizard, strangely-enough, turned away from the main convoy. Behind it, the scouts had turned to approach and provide what meager fire-support they could. The dragon dove for one of them.
Sandy, Baron P, and Nick now had a choice - three groups to engage, and only enough time for one.
_____
Introspection tended to be done in one's private thoughts. Sandy and Prim were privy to Nick's, but it was more of a blur of mental images and feelings than anything. Concepts he intended to communicate to them were clearer, but still not often articulated in words. There wasn't time for many words.
<Three! Must help! (Nick on a lizard's back) - (alarm clock with flashing light gray numbers). How? (A mouse) (Kale's leg) (a beam hitting a scale and bouncing off) or (a dragon with motion lines indicating falling) (a pile of entrails) ... (Two glowing spots) (a fanciful map) (the Belas' jeep) (a Carnival tent - danger) (a safe, white room, calm) ...yes! (A cartoony dragon surrounded by swirls, swirls for eyes) ->
<(wolf eyes)Eyes! (wolf ears) Ears! (wolf nose) of the Wolf! (Sparkles pouring out of Pegasus' hooves) (uncertainty - questioning) (A dragon with giant wolf ears and a huge black nose) (A cartoony dragon surrounded by swirls, swirls for eyes) (Pegasus flying)>
<(Primordial surrounded by sky) Prime (questioning-uncertainty) (Primordial surrounded by sky) (a pair of wings) (an arrow pointing at the scout vehicle) Or... (Yuggothian Lightning Gun) range? Might be able to do (two glowing spots) Sandy'sfovealspots long enough (crosshairs)...if still. Or - (Echoes on stone. Moving human legs, cooperatively.) (Uncertainty - nervousness) shoot for you (a puppet) (a gun) while you (seatbelt) (Primordial swatting a dragon with a gigantic misty hand) Willyouletmetry?>
No more than three seconds had passed; still, there was a sense of urgency. The lizards were fast.
_____
Again, Nick's thoughts were largely images and concepts, but the others would understand. For those not in his mind, the gist was that he was listing possible assets:
<...Sandy, you can sense basically everything around - with all our ears we know exactly where sounds are coming from - weapons - cannon on ground -> A disgruntled face.
<We could hit the dragons in the face. Maybe in the eyes! But just the cannon is in range - we aren't close enough to some - we have radios! If -> One very rushed conversation later, the cat activated both his collar and his radio.
"Nick here, urgent! Shoot guns -" He gave an angle which would likely hit the lizard diving for the scout in the eye, and might possibly clip one near the convoy. "We can help you target them -" another position rattled off, this lizard off to their side and diving - "Within, oh, an inch." The third direction would hopefully pick off the second diver.
"The plan is that you'll stun them," upwards this time, at a circler or two. Nick hoped that the roar of gunfire wouldn't temporarily deafen them. "After that, aim -" the position given was the estimated one for the most threatening of the three convoy attackers a few seconds later, although if the group's hearing wasn't interrupted the intel would be tweaked. "We'll take them out of the fight."
_____
Sandy half-heard to Nick through his telepathic subvocalizations, visualizing the desired result: tracers arcing up to catch two diving lizards in the face. In his peripheral vision, he could see the bright blurs of their first attempts to hit. Hit, dodge, or burn; the convoy's choices were savage. A flicker of doubt, and worry: their fire direction was the convoy's best chance at self defense, and Sandy dreaded a repeat of the aftermath of the killer grass and firestorm.
At least their situation wasn't as dire: they still had altitude over the lizards heading for them. They could provide more direct assistance to the convoy. Sandy rolled into a tight turn, wings outstretched for the fastest turn -- and incidently, silence for their combined hearing -- heading for the diving lizards, driving his riders into his back with the G-forces.
As the distance between the diving lizards and the group shrank, Sandy and Nick felt the Baron's hands tense on his lightning gun, and more distantly, felt his bloodlust rise. Sandy rolled level as he felt/half-saw Primordial take aim, and the air sizzled twice as the unnatural electric discharges tore though it.
Sandy Listened for a moment, turning his ears to where the group's fused hearing told him the closest lizards should be. Good, they were still slighly below him. But were they preparing to spit? Would he Hear the rising notes of building fire magic? He resumed his climb, hoping to cross above them as they closed. The climb was jarring, two powerful wingbeats, pause, two more, and pause: intervals for Nick to help the gunners on the ground.
_____
Discordant voices rang out from within the convoy as the diving lizards made their approach. Baron Primordial's Lightning Gun did the trick and then some - the two lizards dove suddenly as their muscles cramped. Falling short of the convoy, they blasted sand into the sky as they skidded into the dunes below. Whoops and cheers echoed from the semi and its two escorts as they picked up speed, the black smoke belching from the three trucks at greater levels as they made a break for the canyon pass ahead to shield them from the dragons.
The rising lizards had not lost sight of their quarries, however, and they rolled to keep up with Sandy. Their greater size and girth meant they flew wide and lost ground on him, but they remained in relentless pursuit. Within their throats, tar-textured ichor came alight as they sought to make their own approach on the Pegasus and his passengers. Their advantage lie in now being far above Sandy, and their wings swept back as they prepared to dive and make up for lost time.
Ahead, the lone lizard made its mark known on one of the scouts. Swooping into a gentler dive than usual, it forwent great blasts of fire for instead grabbing one of the cars and lifting it into the air. Screams echoed over the radio; the driver bailed out far too late, her body smashing itself against the sand with a sickening crunch!
Her radioman found himself pulled higher and higher into the air, the tin can that had once been his pride-and-joy now converted into a death trap.
"Help me! Oh Demens! Oh Demens, he's gonna drop me on you!" panicked cries rang out.
_____
Three groups? Sandy's gaze followed the lizards closest to him while the others swooped in his wide vision and Hearing. He grew worried. This doesn't look like the way hungry animals would hunt prey. This looks like a coordinated attack!
There was a babble of urges in his head: confusion, nervousness, bloodlust; his own thoughts mixed with Nick's and the Baron's. A voice took shape: the Baron's. There are two threats. The nearer I trust you can overcome, Sandy. The other, leave to me. The image of the stalking tiger returned: Primordial meant a vicious end for the lizard that had grabbed the scout car.
Metal screeched as the Luxan drew power from his cane to fuel the Fist of Yog-Sothoth. The spiked metal bar the roaders called a bumper tore free from the front of the scout car, taking jagged bits of fender with it.
Sandy glimpsed the Baron's intent: if he couldn't study the creature's death, he could at least drag its suffering out. Warn the radioman at least!
Overcoming his disinterest in human lives, the Baron spoke into his hot mic. "Strap yourself down and prepare for a drop." He wasted no more time with frivolous distractions. The "bumper" flipped end over end, and jammed itself into the lizard's gaping mouth. The Baron gave it a savage twist as he shoved it as far down the beast's throat as he could. The spikes and sawtooth metal fragments would catch something -- brainpan, spine, windpipe, arteries -- and something would have to give.
Sandy didn't -- couldn't! -- watch the Baron's grim entertainment, and forced it out his mind by studying the two diving lizards as he rolled into a tighter turn. With their wings swept, they couldn't out-turn him, and even if their wings snapped open, they'd need time to slow down: they'd overshoot him in a turning fight. And that was just what he intended to give them... right down the primrose path.
His visualized where he'd lead them: a block of the sky below all of them, but too close to them for them to get a clean shot. Nick, have the convoy gunners aim here, where I'm thinking. Let them register their guns, then cease firing while we pass through. With luck, we'll put the lizards' heads right were a lot of flak will be.
Eyes on his opponents, Sandy relaxed his turn just enough for them to follow him into a trap.
_____
Nick, meanwhile, abandoned a plan to water-cannon the lizard in question, smoothly picking up where the Luxan left off. "You in the scout car, pad vital areas in any way possible. We're rooting for you! The lizard is likely going to drop you, but on the ground will be better than on the convoy. Cars are made to protect inhabitants -"
He processed Sandy's request. "Convoy gunners, concentrate fire on -" he gave the coordinates. "Register guns, only fire to aim then STOP while we pass through or you could hit us-"
"As for you, sir..." All he really could offer was a bit of comfort, a reassuring voice on the other end; sometimes, he'd found, that was exactly what people needed. "Shame I'm not on board," he quipped. "We cats tend to land on our feet. You might land upside down - I repeat, strap in. Good luck! Also, if you have a first-aid kit, secure it within easy reach." Assuming, of course, that that was still possible. "I'll butt out now - in case any friends want to talk to you..." It would hurt, Nick knew, if he couldn't bid a friend goodbye because some stranger was yammering.
And - barring further intervention from the Luxan, but the motives had been clear - the odds were rather strongly against survival.
But if the Luxan did interfere...
Nick shivered. <I understand your motives. I find them about as pleasant as rotted sewage, which is weird because you normally seem very nice, but right now I can't not understand. I understand that you've helped all you want to. Okay. Just pleease, don't make things worse for him. You don't have that much in your cane anyway.>
_____
The remaining scout car revved as it turned away from the battle and toward the canyon; the team seemed like they could handle themselves, now the question was whether the convoy was about to make it to safety or into another war zone. This was the territory of the fearsome, scantily-leather-clad Lord Monu Mentus, and no doubt the fighting would pique his and his gang's interest.
But that was a problem for the future. For now, three dragons remained.
Baron Primordial's intervention - though leaving an indelible, horrible impression on the radioman sprayed with blood and gore as the lizard dropped his metal cage from eighty feet in the air - saved the semi from meeting an untimely end beneath a car. The scout car rolled harmlessly into a dune, blasted by sand as the corpse of the once-mighty lizard of the wastes landed next to it. Frozen for a moment, the radio man unbuckled himself with shaky fingers and staggered outside, collapsing on the sand in sweat and tears as he retched onto the dust.
The convoy gunners got Nick's message quickly enough and grinned at Sandy's antics. Zeroing in their firing systems on the airspace the sorcerer had indicated, they let loose a furious burst of lead and water to fill the dusty skies. Just as the Pegasus veered toward the zone, the flak guns and water cannon went silent, and the shooters aboard the semi truck took their fingers off the triggers. And not a moment too soon.
As Sandy, Nick, and Baron Primordial emerged from the screen of smoke and water droplets, the firing resumed with a frantic intensity. The trailing lizards were caught squarely in the blast. Unfortunately for the team, the dragons avoided the worst of the damage, though they were dissuaded by the water pressure and the scraping of metal against their bellies. Breaking off from the convoy, they screeched in high-pitched tones and indicated to their grounded brethren that they should find better hunting.
"Good work, team. That's some pretty nifty flying you did there, Mr. Bela," Reigger chuckled over the radio, "Scout Two, what've you got in the canyon?"
"Don't see nothin', but I smell Monu Mentus. It's too damn quiet, no critters scurryin' about. Need a way to ward him off," the radioman responded.
"We lost the other car, too... Hm... A dragon strapped to our truck would give him the right idea, I think," Reigger motioned for his driver to pull on the breaks and the semi slid to a stop, the escort trucks following suit, "The rest of the dragons are breaking off; let's take this opportunity and regroup. Make sure Matheo's alright, recover Dorothy's body and the car, and strap down that dragon. Sandy, get your team down here to help secure this lizard. Bastard's huge."
Nominated by: Cerillium
Notes by Cerillium: "Hapless adventurers are roped into a quest to kill some lizards to earn enough to buy the shit they need to start their actual adventure. They've found a way to cobble their abilities together to face the deadly beasties."
ENTRY BEST ACTION -OR- FIGHT-OR-FLIGHT SCENE - PLEASE NOTE THAT EACH POST IN THE SCENE IS DIVIDED BY A RED LINE. {Note: Story title removed from individual posts}
RAIDERS the LOST BOOK
OPERATION: BIBLIOPHILE
DIMENSION: Gallimaufry then 257P
LOCATION: Above the Max Thunder Fury Road Beyond Ascalon Dome
TEAMS: MU
The five flying lizards descended upon the convoy as carrion birds to a dying beast. They circled with a measured pace as Sandy and company climbed high into the sky, two pausing mid-flight before rolling down and diving directly at the semi to pick away at it. Meanwhile, the Pegasus and his passengers caught the attention of two more of the lizards. They began to rise in pursuit.
The final lizard, strangely-enough, turned away from the main convoy. Behind it, the scouts had turned to approach and provide what meager fire-support they could. The dragon dove for one of them.
Sandy, Baron P, and Nick now had a choice - three groups to engage, and only enough time for one.
_____
Introspection tended to be done in one's private thoughts. Sandy and Prim were privy to Nick's, but it was more of a blur of mental images and feelings than anything. Concepts he intended to communicate to them were clearer, but still not often articulated in words. There wasn't time for many words.
<Three! Must help! (Nick on a lizard's back) - (alarm clock with flashing light gray numbers). How? (A mouse) (Kale's leg) (a beam hitting a scale and bouncing off) or (a dragon with motion lines indicating falling) (a pile of entrails) ... (Two glowing spots) (a fanciful map) (the Belas' jeep) (a Carnival tent - danger) (a safe, white room, calm) ...yes! (A cartoony dragon surrounded by swirls, swirls for eyes) ->
<(wolf eyes)Eyes! (wolf ears) Ears! (wolf nose) of the Wolf! (Sparkles pouring out of Pegasus' hooves) (uncertainty - questioning) (A dragon with giant wolf ears and a huge black nose) (A cartoony dragon surrounded by swirls, swirls for eyes) (Pegasus flying)>
<(Primordial surrounded by sky) Prime (questioning-uncertainty) (Primordial surrounded by sky) (a pair of wings) (an arrow pointing at the scout vehicle) Or... (Yuggothian Lightning Gun) range? Might be able to do (two glowing spots) Sandy'sfovealspots long enough (crosshairs)...if still. Or - (Echoes on stone. Moving human legs, cooperatively.) (Uncertainty - nervousness) shoot for you (a puppet) (a gun) while you (seatbelt) (Primordial swatting a dragon with a gigantic misty hand) Willyouletmetry?>
No more than three seconds had passed; still, there was a sense of urgency. The lizards were fast.
_____
Again, Nick's thoughts were largely images and concepts, but the others would understand. For those not in his mind, the gist was that he was listing possible assets:
<...Sandy, you can sense basically everything around - with all our ears we know exactly where sounds are coming from - weapons - cannon on ground -> A disgruntled face.
<We could hit the dragons in the face. Maybe in the eyes! But just the cannon is in range - we aren't close enough to some - we have radios! If -> One very rushed conversation later, the cat activated both his collar and his radio.
"Nick here, urgent! Shoot guns -" He gave an angle which would likely hit the lizard diving for the scout in the eye, and might possibly clip one near the convoy. "We can help you target them -" another position rattled off, this lizard off to their side and diving - "Within, oh, an inch." The third direction would hopefully pick off the second diver.
"The plan is that you'll stun them," upwards this time, at a circler or two. Nick hoped that the roar of gunfire wouldn't temporarily deafen them. "After that, aim -" the position given was the estimated one for the most threatening of the three convoy attackers a few seconds later, although if the group's hearing wasn't interrupted the intel would be tweaked. "We'll take them out of the fight."
_____
Sandy half-heard to Nick through his telepathic subvocalizations, visualizing the desired result: tracers arcing up to catch two diving lizards in the face. In his peripheral vision, he could see the bright blurs of their first attempts to hit. Hit, dodge, or burn; the convoy's choices were savage. A flicker of doubt, and worry: their fire direction was the convoy's best chance at self defense, and Sandy dreaded a repeat of the aftermath of the killer grass and firestorm.
At least their situation wasn't as dire: they still had altitude over the lizards heading for them. They could provide more direct assistance to the convoy. Sandy rolled into a tight turn, wings outstretched for the fastest turn -- and incidently, silence for their combined hearing -- heading for the diving lizards, driving his riders into his back with the G-forces.
As the distance between the diving lizards and the group shrank, Sandy and Nick felt the Baron's hands tense on his lightning gun, and more distantly, felt his bloodlust rise. Sandy rolled level as he felt/half-saw Primordial take aim, and the air sizzled twice as the unnatural electric discharges tore though it.
Sandy Listened for a moment, turning his ears to where the group's fused hearing told him the closest lizards should be. Good, they were still slighly below him. But were they preparing to spit? Would he Hear the rising notes of building fire magic? He resumed his climb, hoping to cross above them as they closed. The climb was jarring, two powerful wingbeats, pause, two more, and pause: intervals for Nick to help the gunners on the ground.
_____
Discordant voices rang out from within the convoy as the diving lizards made their approach. Baron Primordial's Lightning Gun did the trick and then some - the two lizards dove suddenly as their muscles cramped. Falling short of the convoy, they blasted sand into the sky as they skidded into the dunes below. Whoops and cheers echoed from the semi and its two escorts as they picked up speed, the black smoke belching from the three trucks at greater levels as they made a break for the canyon pass ahead to shield them from the dragons.
The rising lizards had not lost sight of their quarries, however, and they rolled to keep up with Sandy. Their greater size and girth meant they flew wide and lost ground on him, but they remained in relentless pursuit. Within their throats, tar-textured ichor came alight as they sought to make their own approach on the Pegasus and his passengers. Their advantage lie in now being far above Sandy, and their wings swept back as they prepared to dive and make up for lost time.
Ahead, the lone lizard made its mark known on one of the scouts. Swooping into a gentler dive than usual, it forwent great blasts of fire for instead grabbing one of the cars and lifting it into the air. Screams echoed over the radio; the driver bailed out far too late, her body smashing itself against the sand with a sickening crunch!
Her radioman found himself pulled higher and higher into the air, the tin can that had once been his pride-and-joy now converted into a death trap.
"Help me! Oh Demens! Oh Demens, he's gonna drop me on you!" panicked cries rang out.
_____
Three groups? Sandy's gaze followed the lizards closest to him while the others swooped in his wide vision and Hearing. He grew worried. This doesn't look like the way hungry animals would hunt prey. This looks like a coordinated attack!
There was a babble of urges in his head: confusion, nervousness, bloodlust; his own thoughts mixed with Nick's and the Baron's. A voice took shape: the Baron's. There are two threats. The nearer I trust you can overcome, Sandy. The other, leave to me. The image of the stalking tiger returned: Primordial meant a vicious end for the lizard that had grabbed the scout car.
Metal screeched as the Luxan drew power from his cane to fuel the Fist of Yog-Sothoth. The spiked metal bar the roaders called a bumper tore free from the front of the scout car, taking jagged bits of fender with it.
Sandy glimpsed the Baron's intent: if he couldn't study the creature's death, he could at least drag its suffering out. Warn the radioman at least!
Overcoming his disinterest in human lives, the Baron spoke into his hot mic. "Strap yourself down and prepare for a drop." He wasted no more time with frivolous distractions. The "bumper" flipped end over end, and jammed itself into the lizard's gaping mouth. The Baron gave it a savage twist as he shoved it as far down the beast's throat as he could. The spikes and sawtooth metal fragments would catch something -- brainpan, spine, windpipe, arteries -- and something would have to give.
Sandy didn't -- couldn't! -- watch the Baron's grim entertainment, and forced it out his mind by studying the two diving lizards as he rolled into a tighter turn. With their wings swept, they couldn't out-turn him, and even if their wings snapped open, they'd need time to slow down: they'd overshoot him in a turning fight. And that was just what he intended to give them... right down the primrose path.
His visualized where he'd lead them: a block of the sky below all of them, but too close to them for them to get a clean shot. Nick, have the convoy gunners aim here, where I'm thinking. Let them register their guns, then cease firing while we pass through. With luck, we'll put the lizards' heads right were a lot of flak will be.
Eyes on his opponents, Sandy relaxed his turn just enough for them to follow him into a trap.
_____
Nick, meanwhile, abandoned a plan to water-cannon the lizard in question, smoothly picking up where the Luxan left off. "You in the scout car, pad vital areas in any way possible. We're rooting for you! The lizard is likely going to drop you, but on the ground will be better than on the convoy. Cars are made to protect inhabitants -"
He processed Sandy's request. "Convoy gunners, concentrate fire on -" he gave the coordinates. "Register guns, only fire to aim then STOP while we pass through or you could hit us-"
"As for you, sir..." All he really could offer was a bit of comfort, a reassuring voice on the other end; sometimes, he'd found, that was exactly what people needed. "Shame I'm not on board," he quipped. "We cats tend to land on our feet. You might land upside down - I repeat, strap in. Good luck! Also, if you have a first-aid kit, secure it within easy reach." Assuming, of course, that that was still possible. "I'll butt out now - in case any friends want to talk to you..." It would hurt, Nick knew, if he couldn't bid a friend goodbye because some stranger was yammering.
And - barring further intervention from the Luxan, but the motives had been clear - the odds were rather strongly against survival.
But if the Luxan did interfere...
Nick shivered. <I understand your motives. I find them about as pleasant as rotted sewage, which is weird because you normally seem very nice, but right now I can't not understand. I understand that you've helped all you want to. Okay. Just pleease, don't make things worse for him. You don't have that much in your cane anyway.>
_____
The remaining scout car revved as it turned away from the battle and toward the canyon; the team seemed like they could handle themselves, now the question was whether the convoy was about to make it to safety or into another war zone. This was the territory of the fearsome, scantily-leather-clad Lord Monu Mentus, and no doubt the fighting would pique his and his gang's interest.
But that was a problem for the future. For now, three dragons remained.
Baron Primordial's intervention - though leaving an indelible, horrible impression on the radioman sprayed with blood and gore as the lizard dropped his metal cage from eighty feet in the air - saved the semi from meeting an untimely end beneath a car. The scout car rolled harmlessly into a dune, blasted by sand as the corpse of the once-mighty lizard of the wastes landed next to it. Frozen for a moment, the radio man unbuckled himself with shaky fingers and staggered outside, collapsing on the sand in sweat and tears as he retched onto the dust.
The convoy gunners got Nick's message quickly enough and grinned at Sandy's antics. Zeroing in their firing systems on the airspace the sorcerer had indicated, they let loose a furious burst of lead and water to fill the dusty skies. Just as the Pegasus veered toward the zone, the flak guns and water cannon went silent, and the shooters aboard the semi truck took their fingers off the triggers. And not a moment too soon.
As Sandy, Nick, and Baron Primordial emerged from the screen of smoke and water droplets, the firing resumed with a frantic intensity. The trailing lizards were caught squarely in the blast. Unfortunately for the team, the dragons avoided the worst of the damage, though they were dissuaded by the water pressure and the scraping of metal against their bellies. Breaking off from the convoy, they screeched in high-pitched tones and indicated to their grounded brethren that they should find better hunting.
"Good work, team. That's some pretty nifty flying you did there, Mr. Bela," Reigger chuckled over the radio, "Scout Two, what've you got in the canyon?"
"Don't see nothin', but I smell Monu Mentus. It's too damn quiet, no critters scurryin' about. Need a way to ward him off," the radioman responded.
"We lost the other car, too... Hm... A dragon strapped to our truck would give him the right idea, I think," Reigger motioned for his driver to pull on the breaks and the semi slid to a stop, the escort trucks following suit, "The rest of the dragons are breaking off; let's take this opportunity and regroup. Make sure Matheo's alright, recover Dorothy's body and the car, and strap down that dragon. Sandy, get your team down here to help secure this lizard. Bastard's huge."
