"EQ game HT-GWENDDOLIN AND GRAYSONS HUNT" By klimino (https://pastebin.com/u/klimino) URL: https://pastebin.com/W0hQtGjK Created on: Thursday 22nd of June 2017 03:52:04 PM CDT Retrieved on: Sunday 25 of October 2020 03:45:29 AM UTC GWENDDOLIN AND GRAYSONS HUNT; As you approach the northern tennants, you see a finely crafted stand near the makeshift gate in the wall the residents have built around their tent huts(so that ponies dont have to watch them chop up animals and treat leather an stuff), with a large sign above it reading "HUNTING TOURNEY SIGNUPS HERE!" in fancy letters, two Griffons helping people fill out paper work happily. Grayson arrives, wearing his bag and harness with his hatchet, baton, badge, Walkie talkie and his starter kit in his bag. "Ready for this Gwen?" Gwen clears her throat, nodding to Gray while she inspects her own gear, her scouting harness, axe, knife, and talons, freshly filed to a point~ The griffon exhales, and moves up to the counter glancing at the two catbirbs before chirping, "Heya, we're here to sign on for the tourney!" “Wonderful!” the female griffon says, looking over the two. “OH, another group, always fun! Please, fill these out real quick!” she says, handing each of them a document asking for standard info such as Name, address, age, race, coloring, if your in a team and with who, please sign here to aknowledge the Hunting Guild isnt responsible for any injuries, maiming, or death. “Once your finished with those, we also offer each contestant a Hunting spear and two javelins, if your interested!” Grayson nods and fills out the form carefully, making sure everything is filled in properly. "Sure! Worth it, I think!" He smiles up to the attendants. Oooh javelins. Gwen had been working on her marksmanship, so maybe these would be a good addition to her arsenal. "It would be silly to turn down another pointy bit when hunting something big, thanks!" Grayson hands the form back and heads past the desk, feeling a little nervous. "Where do we collect them?" “No problem!” The Griffon said, quickly taking the paper work , before turning to Gray, “ill have them out for you in one moment!”and after a moment of fishing around behind her, hands them each a simple but effective looking spear, and two small, barbed javelins. “Now please do remember there are three simple rules! First, you cannot interrupt another hunters Hunt. Second, only one Game may be turned in per team. Third, have fun and be careful!” She says with a smile, quickly moving on to help the next participant. [from here, you can either choose a direction an wander aimlessly, or try and hunt a specific animal. Note for rolls I give each player 3 re-roll tokens in a quest, so keep that in mind!] The easy part was over, the time to hunt was now! Hopefully that prize was as good as theirs! "Well, you ready to find something big and dangerous to bring down?" She says to Gray, in her mind thinking that this might be like those Monster Hunter games back home. Grayson accepts the weapons happily, nodding respectfully. "Yup! It's just like hunting criminals! But they're more feral!" He smiles to her and nods. "Wanna lead the way, scout?" Gwen nods and holsters her pointy sticks of death over her back, extending her wings and taking to a low hover, "Gonna be dangerous, no matter what we face!" "Mhm!" Grayson attaches the weapons to his bag and heads out with her. "We're two birds of prey though!" [where you guys headed map wise? Just helps to know the general direction your traveling] [Northwest!] As the two Griffons travel along and into the jungle, they hear many a sound, though little seems to stick out, besides a few gators as their crossing the rivers into the jungles. [roll d20 for perception! +1 for each due to skills! No specific point of passing] Gwen, 16 Gray, 19 As they get to the other side though, Both of them notice a pair of eyes from a tree for just a moment, before they turn and flee! To the left they hear something shuffling around deeper into the jungle too. Gray smells something faint, barely there, but....sweet? Its seems to be coming from deep to the right of them more or less. Grayson sniffs about, narrowing his eyes. "Hey, Gwen. I smell something, I think..." He whispers and points to the right. Gwen is still a little spooped by the evil tree eyes and her birb senses fail her, however the Gray one definately has his edge. "Ooh? Like what? Wanna check it out?" "Smells... Sweet. Your call." He states, smiling back as he does start to try track it. Gwen lowers the volume of her voice, "We check it out, but don't get too close, there's really no telling exactly what's out here." Grayson takes his hatchet and places it in his beak as he slowly moves forward, trying to track the smell. Following behind, Gwen prepares a javelin for covering fire if Gray needs to retreat. It takes a bit more dragging through the jungle then first expected, however the smell does slowly get stronger and more pronounced, before it gets so sweet you can basically taste it. Suddenly, they see movement up ahead, and poking out a bush, they see a clearing covered in....pink honey? Like a pond of the stuff just....sitting there. [roll for perception once again, d20+1] Gray,15 Gwen, 7 While the smell and sight overwhelms Gwen a bit, Gray catches sight of something quite unpleasant. Despite the thickness of the liquid, far, far down she spots a pony skull, and sees....something? he cant quite tell, seemed like something solidly pink passed over the skull, but now its gone...or cant be seen due to its color... Grayson wiggles griff butt looks curiously at the pond. "Never seen one of those pools... And that doesn't look good..." He says, referring to the skull. Gwen is having trouble focusing. Blegh, sweet stuff... it was very dense. She never quite liked sweets in excess, and this seemed different, but she very much couldn't see whatever Gray was talking about, "Yeah, cool. I'll take your word for... whatever that was. Do you see anything here, any beast or something?" I think I saw something go over the skull... could be worth looking for." He looks around, shivering. "It was pink... Keep an eye out..." He looks up and around. Gwen gives a shocked squawk, "Wait, skull? Hold on maybe we should think about this. If there's something in that pool we need to be really careful... It's obviously not playing around..." "No... But we could also try stop it getting to anyone else... And at that... Hm. Stay away from the pool. Don't want to fall in..." He places the hatchet back in his harness. "Your call." Gwen gives a little eye twitch, "Mm, stop saying my call, you're the one in the front. If I knew what it was we were up against I'd be more certain... but... right now I'm not too sure." Gwen is obviously uncomfortable just standing around, "Move in or run? I'd say investigate..." "We investigate. You know as much as me so far... Should one of us go up in air?" He asks, standing up see around the pool some more, trying to see if that creature is there. [Another d20+1 for perception, extra +1 for Gray only due to knowing,somewhat, what to look for!] [ 10+ pass, 14+ success] Gray,19-success Gwen,19-success As both Griffons take a peak into the sweet smelling liquid, they spot something, TWO somethin- oh shit, THREE somethings, down in the liquid. While the exact shape is hard to make out, it seems to be some sorta long, slender pink creature, some cross perhaps of a lizard and fish in features? It was then though, that luck was on their side, a branch falling into the liquid. Instantly one of the creatures darts for the surface, and in an amazing display of control and agility, it twists, right before surfacing, hitting the branch with its long, slender and finned tail, whipping the branch out of the liquid, where it gets stuck to a nearby tree due to the sweet sappy pink stuff on it. Seems the things liked keeping their pool clean! They note from the very little they could glimpse the scales and fins on the creatures were as near the same color as the liquid, even perhaps slightly transparent to help hide them within it. Gwen blinks at the display cocking her head slightly at the appearance of the creatures. "I'm guessing re-inventing them using grenades isn't an option." *She huffs and looks over at Gray, "How do we fight there of those things when they're submerged like that?" Grey looks over to Gwen, shaking his head. "Three of them... Outnumbered. They'ed make a sweet hunt, if we could perhaps split one off and kill it. If we could lure one out, perhaps? It's dangerous though." "Well, they seem pretty keen on keeping their pond pristine. Maybe we could distract them... by getting it dirty?" She looks up, hoping for trees directly above the pond. Maybe that, or lots of debris blown in with the wings? "Could work, but also might just be a good way to piss them all off." "We've got the advantage of wings and flight for now... If we could perhaps... Dump *lots of stuff in? Like, fill a bag with shit and dump it into the pond." Gwen gives Gray a 'really?' look, "Huh, 'fill a bag with shit'? Well... I don't know about you, but I'm just gonna grab some fallen branches, leaves and other stuff. Hopefully this works. Maybe spearing one and getting it out of the pond will help." It was then they heard rustling on the other side of the sap pond. A moment later, a small little boar pops its head out, sniffing the ponds sap. As it goes and starts licking up the liquid, they see the shapes below react, one suddenly shooting towards the surface towards the pig. "I don't mean actual shit... You know, random items. Stones, branches, the works. Too much stuff for them to clear quickly." He sighs and looks forward. "It's dangerous, but I really want us to win this. If we can lure it out long enough to strike..." "Let's go for it." As they ignore the pig, they hear it squeal as in a single moment it is plucked from the surface and dragged deep, deep into the sap. In a matter of moments they see the three shapes tear it apart and devour it, even the bones! The skull gets knocked around too, but it seems its too thick for them to eat, so for some reason they just leave it and wander off. Gwen notices a few branches are starting to grow over the pond, but also notices something just as interesting...it looks like something has chewed down the branches that DO grow over the pond, as if it doesn't want them to! "Still want to do it, Gwen? I'm happy to if you are." He puffs his chest out and puts his brave face on. "We need to be careful not to get that stuff on us... If it gets on our wings we could lose the ability to fly, you know? That's our best escape route..." Gwen once again cocks her head and points up at the falling branches. "One, these things outnumber us, they're faster, and we're dead if they do catch us. And two, I'm gonna check out what's raining on the Doomfish parade." She goes to fly up and observe the trees from up high! [Roll a d20+1 for perception] Gwen,18 Gwendolin notices something quite odd as she looks from above. Some of the branches and trees have some of the sap on it, a lot of it dried out, even possibly in layers? Its as if something covered in the stuff had been climbing the trees, up to where the branches had been chewed. She blinks, the only thing she knew for sure is that the only thing she'd seen survive in there was the evil fishlizards... looking back down at Gray, her eyes widen, "They can leave the pond alright... to keep their room cleaned. Very interesting." *She swoops in a little closer and calls down to Gray, "Hey! Up here!" Grayson spreads his wings and quietly takes off to hover near her, nodding. "What is it?" He asks as he flies up. Pointing to the artificer clearing in the trees, she smirks, "They keep the forest outta their pond. I've got a woodcutting hatchet, and there's already some growing over the pond, how about we muck up their sappy pond?" "Sounds good to me! Want me to do the chopping, you do the aiming?" He asks, looking at the branches with a smirk. Gwen shrugs, "I've been practicing my aim with my knife lately, I think that's a good idea." She hands the little axe over and starts moving toward the clearing in the trees, eyes open for further signs of danger.* "It's like the really old method of fishing, except you're fishing for something that makes sharks pale." Taking aim toward the pool with her javelin, she narrows her eyes and quiets her breathing. Over the thumping heart, she tried to focus solely on her aim. Grayson takes the axe and starts to chop away at a branch hanging over the pool. "I like sharks~" He replies, making progress. "I don't like these guys." He makes sure to keep glancing down at the pool, keeping aware so he doesn't get attacked off guard. As Gray quickly hacks at a branch, Gwen notices the creatures below acting...a bit different, as a few leaves start to fall, and the creatures start shooting up towards the surface! However Gray finally finishes cutting the branch, and as it falls with a 'plop' into the sap, all three turn and dive to dodge it, before two go up and take turns knocking it from one to the other with their shoulders, before getting to the surface and actually jumping a good few feet up and out of the sap, spinning in the air to toss the thing up at Gray! [Gwen, d20 for aiming. 8+ pass, 14+ success] [Gray, d20 for dodging. +1 for flight! 7+ pass, 13+ success, 2- crit fail] Gray,13-success Gwen,8-pass Gray expertly dodges the incoming branch, able to swiftly use his aerial advantage to dive around it. Meanwhile, Gwen tosses one of the javelins, and while not a great shot, she hears a loud, scratching chirp come from one of them as they dive back into the sap, a small trail of red leading down into it a few feet. Gwen see is dismay though as he javelin sinks into the far side of the sap, the creatures apparently smart enough to understand they are under threat and changing priorities from cleaning. While not the best way to get an image of them, they appear to be covered in nearly transparent, rose colored scales, which look to be extremely fine and smooth. They are incredibly long, clearly so as to move through their home quickly, and seem to be a drake(wingless dragonoid) of some kind, with rosey, transparent fins on their back, elbows, and a leaf shaped one on their tail. They appear to be quite well built, and bigger then even large dogs. As they both look down, they see the three creatures circling below, slowly, slowly getting faster and faster as they near the surface again... Woah, she hit it... oh shit. "Uh... Gray, I think they're gonna jump or something! We should back up!" Not waiting a second longer to see what they were planning, she dives past Gray, and over instead of up, seeking to put diagonal distance between them and the drakes, and maybe a leafy, branch filled barrier too. Grayson quickly follows Gwen, placing the axe in his harness straps as he puts distance between themselves and the pool. He does however keep within sight of it, just a good distant sight. "Alright, let's get a plan going... We need to try isolate one..." As they back off a good distance, the creatures slow down a good bit and start going back down, though how they were moving made it clear they were still in a prepared state. Gwen taps her chin. "We could bait em? Or maybe... no... if they are swimming in sap, it's nowhere near dry enough to catch fire..." "Baiting them is our best bet. We need to try get one of them though... Got any ideas?" He asks his scout friend, looking up. "If we could work out what might make them leave... Perhaps if we make a branch almost snap? Hanging down to almost fall in, then we leave, you hide and attack the one that goes to take down the branch?" That might work, but these things were smart. Would they catch the bluff? "We could try it. I mean, other than that... only other thing that comes to mind is pissing them off by emptying a cloud into their pond." "That's not a bad idea either, but they might just go under the goop the whole time... I really want to just kill one of those beasts." "We could play the waiting game in regards to the branch trick... Just don't risk yourself." Gwen is frustrated clearly, trying to come up with an indirect route was difficult... "Okay, we try the branch thing and hope that draws them out, otherwise... Well it's gonna be a long wait." Patience was a virtue right? She'd never been the most avid hunter, but sometimes you had to lie in wait for your prey... "Alright. I'll go down and try loosen a branch... Call out if I'm in danger." Grayson slowly flies down to hover near another branch. He begins to chop at it, aiming to keep going until it's threatening to fall in on its own without Gray. Gwen didn't exactly do much to end that thing last time, but now? She had to really focus as easy as it was to let herself get distracted with the situation, she WOULD hit this one. If Gray was right, they had killed and eaten a pony... and so the only responsible thing to do was kill it back right? Gray gets the branch to start swaying, hearing it creak under its own weight, before it bends downward! Thankfully it doesn't fully break, but already Gwendolin sees the creatures reacting! They seems agitated, not sure of what to do, clearly still thinking there is danger above, but wanting to clean and protect their nest. Grayson, as soon as the branch is swaying, flies away to observe from a safe distance. He also raises one of his javelins, looking for a target to strike if he can. "And now we play the waiting game... neat freaks gotta come out sometime, just... keep the guard up." She keeps her javelin eyes trained on the trees, looking for signs of movement. Time passes....and more....and more. A good thirty minutes or so has passed, the hot sun now high above, shining down through the cleared trees. It is nearly an hour before, finally, they see one of them, slowly heading for the surface, towards the edge where the branch is dipping in and out of the pond as it sways in the wind. [both, d20 for aiming, 7+ pass, 13+ success] Gwen, re-roll,worse, 6-fail Gray, re-roll, 18-success While Gwen misses, watching her last javelin sink into the goop, Gray proves to be an excellent skirmisher, hitting the thing square on! With a loud chirp, then thing flops backwards, the javelin sticking out of its chest as it slowly sinks into the sap! Worse though, they see the other two react, shooting upwards towards your position like missiles! Grayson is in the air, so he quickly tries to dart away from them, keeping an eye on the slowly sinking animal. "Fly Gwen!" He calls out as he tries to evade. As Gwen misses, she fumes slightly, that target practice still hasn't sunk in! She quickly grabs her spear and holds it outward like a pikeman, using big flaps of her wings to drag her further from the pond! But not turning her back on the leaping beasts. The creatures are fast, both jumping out a good few feet upwards, curving towards Gwen whos still low enough for them to reach! Gray noticed that they're both going after Gwen! He quickly takes out his spear and flies down to flank the creatures, trying to stab one as he gets close! Gwen knows she probably won't flee in time to avoid the rapidly approaching sap salamanders, but she wouldn't let both of them get a hold of her if nothing else. With an almost winged shoulder charge, she gives herself a sort of last ditch push into a direction where the two beasts would have to slam against each other to both reach her, hoping they couldn't correct themselves as well as she could. She cocks back her spear, preparing to jab into anything that dared get close! [Gwen, d20 to defend self! 9+ pass, 16+ success, 2- crit fail] [Gray, d20 to flank! 8+ pass, 14+ success, 1- crit fail] Gwen, 13- pass Gray, 19-success While Gwen fails to force them to hit each other, she manages to avoid their teeth and claws as they swipe quickly. It was then Gray came swooping in, his spear finding its mark as he hits one in the back, going through it quite easily as he pins ti to a tree, the thing chirping in pain as it struggles not dead just yet. The last of them slinks back into the sap, quickly pulling its other dead sibling down deep into the sap, where it can be seen curled up around it as it sits at the bottom. Grayson smirks proudly at his work, looking at the lil' bastard as it writhes against the tree. "I feel like dumping stuff in the pool just to annoy it... We could try push our luck and take the last one out, remove the threat..." Gwen sighs in relief, looking over at Gray and smiling brightly, "H-Hey thanks... almost thought I was fishfood for a minute there..." *She looks down at the pool and nods, gulping down any leftover fear, "Yeah... they obviously are dangerous..." Grayson smiles and bows slightly. "Happy to help!~" He responds happily, hovering over to the pool of goop. "Wanna go for it?" He asks, looking down at the pool. Gwen looks down into the pool and huffs, damn things nearly took her lion toes off, and she was just getting used to them. While she looks into the pool from afar, she cocks her head. "Think the spears could reach?" She closes in on the pinned one which hasnt yet expired, and gets a good look at it before driving her spear into it, with the intent to make it as quick and painless as possible. "I dunno... My worry is the splash of goop and possibility of it pulling the spear in..." He gathers up a few stones and twigs nearby, tossing them into the pool. The stunning but deadly creature was far from thrashing randomly, trying its best to claw and bite at Gray, before Gwens spear suddenly went into it, the thing going limp instantly. It was the second biggest one of the bunch, with the smallest one being the ones still alive. Interestingly enough, they note the sap seems to slide off the things skin like it was hydrophobic, despite the sap clearly being at least as thick as honey from how they had seen it on anything else. This close to the creature and sap, it has a pleasant, sweet aroma, with a hint of roses, both it and the sap. The pool is clearly much too deep to reach with spears, and as Gray tosses in the pebbles, he sees the last one look up slowly, then simply blink and go back to cuddling its dead friend, wrapping around it tighter. Grayson frowns and goes to collect more stones, tossing them out in the hopes that they'll land above the creature and sink down onto it. "Come on you pony killing sap-dog, come up..." Gwen sighs, suddenly feeling really tired. If these things hadn't have been carnivorous, they would frankly have been maybe even cute. She eyes the thing up and down, slowly drawing free her spear and tossing it to the ground. It was like books and shit always said it was... Killing was easy in theory but... "Gray." Her voice cracks a little, "Come on." She turns back to him and looks down into the pool once again. "We have one, that's all we could probably carry back anyway. Leave the thing alone..." As Gray throws more rocks, the last one either ignores them, or simply scoots away if they are falling too close, though they take quite awhile to sink. Gray looks down at the thing, sighing as he nods. "Ugh... Fine. I'll get some signs made at the embassy and come back out here with them." He states, huffing as he goes to take his spear out of his kill, then hoisting the thing up onto his back. "Let's head back, huh?" Gwen nods, appreciating that Gray hasn't argued. Maybe a team would come out to finish off the last one, maybe there would just be signs, but she had gotten her fill for today. "Let's go." And so, Gray and Gwen make their way back to where they started, bringing their kill to the small camp-like area where the sign on was!