Boxes All The Way Down (Day 4, Late Afternoon)

[Mindshred]

In the late afternoon, a small cardboard box with the words "Ezekial Bean Co." printed on the side was slowly crawling its way across the beach. Every so often, there was a faint, anxious grunting sound that came from within.

[Carl Heinrich Mauser]

A boy and his war wolf were walking along the beach when the wolf noticed the moving box. Killbot Rex barked for attention, then loped up to poke its metal snout at the box.

"HEY! Rex!" Carl Heinrich shouted. "Execute Heuristic.Caution()!"

[Mindshred]

The box begins to slowly crawl towards the water, now leaving a layer of foul-smelling slime on the sand behind it.

[Carl Heinrich Mauser]

Curious, the blond boy approached closer. "It's probably not a Chasma," Carl Heinrich informed Killbot Rex upon observing the slime trail that the box was leaving behind.

Rex merely cocked his head inquisitively. Squirrel?

Picking up a piece of driftwood, Carl Heinrich gently prodded the box with the stick, trying to slowly tip the box upwards just enough to see what was underneath.

[Mindshred]

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Beneath the box was a tiny, fish-frog-like... thing. As it is exposed, it makes a wheezing sound and continues its slow flight toward the ocean, more and more slime oozing from its body with each labored step.

[Carl Heinrich Mauser]

Carl Heinrich took a moment to study the specimen carefully - especially the wheezing and slime leaking from its body. Was this normal behavior for it, or was the creature in some sort of distress? The boy wrangler wondered if helping it get to the water would make it better.

-
D4 LA What is it? Is it hurt? Difficulty ? Monster Lore (Mind): 6d10o10h7 2

[Mindshred]

Whatever it was, it was new to Carl.

It continued to wheeze as it looked back at him and Rex in mortal terror.

[Carl Heinrich Mauser]

Carl Heinrich contemplated the fish-frog-thing a moment longer, then nodded decisively. "Right. Time to try SCIENCE."

Picking up the empty cardboard box, the blond boy moved to the ocean and scooped up a liter (within +/- 5% tolerance for measurement error) of sea water within it, then carried it back to where the wheezing creature was struggling. Gently, Carl Heinrich poured a small stream of the sea water over its head, and studied its reaction. He estimated that 150ml (+/- 5%) of liquid was wasted due to leakage, but there was still plenty of sea water to test his hypothesis that the new creature was aquatic, or perhaps amphibious, and needed sea water to recover.

[Mindshred]

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The creature shudders in fear as the water douses it, and it opens its mouth and releases a faint, anxiety-ridden wail of despair at the cruel inhumanity of the universe.

[Carl Heinrich Mauser]

"Ahhh!" Carl Heinrich said, startled at the sadness of the creature's wail. Scientific theories fled his mind as the boy realized that his actions had actually hurt the creature. "Sorrysorrysorry!"

Setting the box down, Carl Heinrich knelt down on the sand next to the animal, trying to avoid looming over it. He tried to make reassuring sounds. "You'll be okay," the boy told it - or perhaps he was trying to reassure himself? "Hush now, it'll be okay. Sh-sh-sh-sh."

[Mindshred]

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The creature slapped its tiny fins against the wet sand and squeezed its eyes shut as it writhed uncomfortably in a growing pool of foul-smelling slime. It seemed to be quite upset.

[Carl Heinrich Mauser]

Carl Heinrich looked unhappy as the creature continued to be distressed. "Okay, let's try something else," he decided.

Carefully he tried to scoop up the animal and put it gently back into the cardboard box. Perhaps being in its box would make it feel better.

He hoped the slime wasn't caustic. But dangerous chemicals generally don't care about your hopes.

[Mindshred]

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The creature settles down a bit once it's back in the box, but it's still wheezing and trembling a lot.

The slime was warm to the touch, and tingly as well... and also very poisonous.

[Carl becomes Poisoned 1.]

[Carl Heinrich Mauser]

"Great, so that helped," Carl Heinrich choked out as his hands stung from the pain. "Let's try to get you where you were going." Picking up the box so as not to touch the slime any further, he carried it toward the ocean that the animal had been trying to move towards.

It didn't seem to like being submerged, so releasing it into the ocean didn't seem right? Where would this animal live? Carl Heinrich looked around for what it could've been trying to get to.

It liked being in a box, so maybe there would be a tiny cave that it hides in, he speculated. Or perhaps a big seashell or something? He knew some animals lived in those.

-
We aren't in combat rounds, so not sure how to handle the poison; should I be making recovery rolls and taking damage?

[Mindshred]

(Go ahead and make a Recovery Roll each post; Success it clears up, failure it deals Damage and remains.)

There was a trail in the sand leading aways back on the beach, almost to where the docks were in the distance.

The wheezing sounds continued to emanate from the creature as it tried to come to terms with being taken to a dungeon and butchered and eaten, which was surely this giant's intention. It released more slime in response to its horrible future.

[Carl Heinrich Mauser]

Washing his hands in the seawater got the worst of the stinging slime off of Carl Heinrich's hands. Picking up the box and the trapped creature, the boy followed its trail for awhile without finding an obvious home for it. Killbot Rex tagged along behind, wagging its tail.

"You seem too small to survive on your own without some kind of shelter," Carl Heinrich mused. "Maybe I'd better consult an expert in marine biology."

-
D4 LA Recovery roll #1, Vitality vs Poison Difficulty 1: 2d10o10h7 1 succeeds, Poison removed.
At this point is it possible for me to just carry the creature off and put it in a fishbowl or something?

[Mindshred]

The trail led to some discarded garbage under a pier, and a little distance away, in a dark little hutch, was a burrow in the rock that seemed to be covered in the same sort of slime as the creature. It continued to wheeze anxiously while pawing desperately at the box with its flippers.

[Carl Heinrich Mauser]

"AHA!" Carl Heinrich said, upon finding the burrow. "THIS must be where you live."

The boy wrangler set the box down on its side, so that the creature could keep hiding in the box - or it could crawl out to the burrow if it were so inclined.

[Mindshred]

The creature very quickly (for itself) slumped out of the cardboard box and pulled itself across the rocks and to its burrow, which it disappeared into with a few more panicked wheezes.

[Carl Heinrich Mauser]

Carl Heinrich nodded in satisfaction as the creature fled into its burrow, as if he had solved some sort of puzzle. Pulling out a notepad, the young engineer jotted down a few quick observations.

After making a rough sketch of mysterious slimy frog-fish, Carl Heinrich put his notepad away and examined the hutch surrounding the creature's burrow. The construction of the hutch seemed to suggest that someone was looking after the beast. Was there any clue as to where that person might be found?

"SELECT * FROM Sensors.Olfactory.Contacts," Carl queried the war wolf. Perhaps Killbot Rex's sensors would have picked up some trace of a Monster Wrangler who had built the hutch for the runaway creature.