Monster Wrangler

Riki and Fiadh were normally very early to wake, and this morning had been no different. After spending a short while foraging for food though they had returned back to their circle on the beach. Riki had started a fire, and was now curled up beside the tent while the girl had some odd mixture of bugs and small animals on a pan over the very crude fire of sticks and rocks. Watching it intently as she did so.

Mara went to walk Blitz on the beach as admittedly they were kind of broke at the moment and there wasn't much else to do. The Staguar trotted along at her side, content to play in the sand and look for interesting objects. Maybe a quick swim would be good before going to watch the first round today and oh, hello....

"Erm... morning." Mara called out to her in a curious, soft, tone and Blitz eyed the big dragon with curiosity.

Hearing the approach and sound the girl was up on her feet, bow drawn and arrow nocked.

"My circle" she said with a small growl, which had roused the dozing Dragon also.

Mara shrugged, and stopped where she was, then sat down. 'Your circle.' She nodded slightly. Territorial monster, territorial girl.... makes sense.

Blitz, went a few paces towards the beach and began casting about, as if looking for something. The staguar batted a few small rocks, then picked up a strand of seaweed before spitting it out in disgust, tongue hanging out comically.

With no threat to her circle, the bow and arrow was slowly loosened with narrowed eyes as if watching for any movement. The dragon next to her turned away and curled back up, although he seemed to be on fire now. Eventually Fiadh moved back to her pot and began cooking whatever was in it, still keeping an eye on the woman that was very close by.

"So, uh, making food? What do you like to eat?"

Blitz growled to herself, checking all kinds of random objects scattered about the beach. She stumbled upon a bit of rotting fish and though it smelled interesting, she moved on. Then she spotted it, the thing, the best thing, a big shiny purple shell! So shiny!

Beast-speak translation: 'Nope, no, no, yuck, hrm? Not that. Oooh! This!'

Mara remained blissfully unaware that Blitz's mutterings and chirps actually meant much.

The girl turned a few things over in the pot with her fingers, not seeming to be concerned about the heat or burning herself.

"I eat what I find" the girl shrugged "what we find in dessert. Here things are different. It is wet water, more wet things."

She picked up one of the tiny beetles from the pan and held it up.

"Not know if good" there was another shrug as she dropped it back in the pan.

Mara winced as she saw the beetle. Different people do eat different things but... ugh. 'If you don't know if it's good to eat, umm, if you want I can cook you food. You don't want to be sick during a fight.'

Think like a monster, prey is prey. I don't want her upset by saying its not good prey.

"It is really wet here. I am from the South." She looked at the sky, and pointed vaguely south, "half a day that way. Its dry, not desert dry, but lots of tall grass." She stooped at gestured on herself to her knee, then again to mid-thigh. "About that tall, dry grass everywhere with monsters and animals hidden in it."

It suddenly hit her the girl reached into fire. "Dry, tall, grass catches fire easy. Burns everywhere. Fast."

Fiadh wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 07, 2023 4:39 am

She picked up one of the tiny beetles from the pan and held it up.

"Not know if good" there was another shrug as she dropped it back in the pan.

The beetle squirms in the fire, then looks up at Fiadh with a wide grin... a wide grin with far too many sharp, fanged teeth than should have been possible in something so small. As the fire cracks its shell, its innards begin to spill out into the pan, where they take the form of Fiadh's and Riki's corpses, half decayed as small bugs swarm over them.

"You're gonna die," the little beetle whispers, its voice eerie and menacing.


[Characters that notice the supernatural event become Frightened 2, and each round they remain in the area of the supernatural event, they become Frightened 2 at the end of their turn.]

(Do Blitz and I notice this?)

Mara Froste wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 07, 2023 1:03 pm

(Do Blitz and I notice this?)

Your call!

(Going halfway, and not seeing all the details but feeling suddenly really frightened)

The beetle splattered open in a grotesque way, and Mara thought she might have even heard something whispering. A deep, unsettling wrongness about whatever was in that pot. Did that beetle just grin?!

She wanted out of here. Falling back, she scuttled backwards before turning to run. Nope, no, augh....

Fiadh didn't get a chance to replay as the strange beetle became a grinning picture of corpses! Fiadh jumped up, kicking over the pan.

"I no die you die!" she started stamping on the pan and the fire. The dragon had also reacted, hissing loudly and moving away from the pan. It would just sound like hisses and growling from the girl, who was shaking.

Mara picked up Blitz and retreated. The girl and dragon's hissing, stamping outburst and whatever that was earlier.... Nope. This is too weird for me.

Riki finally turned to run as well, running towards the other side of the beach. The shaking girl then realised she was on her own and with a small howl ran in the direction Riki was in.