[Last Time, on El WHAT?!: Our heroes went shopping. Nick availed himself of the five finger discount in a jeweler's back rooms, thus funding his efforts to come. The group decided to shop for horses, or possibly a horse and buggy, and accidentally found a quest. They're to wait for whatever has been eating livestock and horses, and promptly give it a severe case of dead. Or at least revoke it of its freedom of travel.] [Harold was strangely absent during this time, but Fadi and Nick decided it was a great time to head back to town, get some essential bits of equipment, and head back to the ranch for some good old fashioned trapping.] [Harold pops in just as Nick is finishing up the second of the two traps he managed to scrounge together, just as Nick is carefully wiping some viscous blue substance onto the bolt.] [Session... START] * The sun is nearly below the horizon, burning the sticky blue stuff more purple than blue. * Nick is wearing thick leather gloves, and applying aforementioned substance to aforementioned bolt with a look of *extreme* concentration. ... Nick, what are you doing? * Fadi is just watching. "Hey Harold." * Nick starts and almost stabs himself in the cheek with the bolt. Hello, Fadi. Don't do that! * Fadi smirks. It's not like I did it on purpose! Where are we and what are we doing? * Sophie reappears RIGHT BEHIND Harold. We're here to get rid of something that's bee- Heya Sophie. Tally ho. What ARE we doing? -- agh! Right. We're here to take care of some business in exchange for a reward at a horse ranch. In particular, something has been out here killing them. We're here to get rid of it. ... I can't argue with that as a good deed, but how on earth did _we_ end up with the job? We came, found out horses were too damn expensive, and it lead to this. So... * Fadi shrugs. "We're gonna kick ass at nightfall." Oh, yes, of course. Then I guess I got back just in time. Yes, yes you did. A pity you didn't bring the others with you. * A simply MASSIVE warhorse noses up behind Sophie and rests his nose in the nape of her neck. * Fadi smirks. "Looks like you found a friend." * Sophie looks up at the horse and strokes his nose. "Hmm... How about that?" Should he be here? * The horse whuffles happily. By the way, that's Thundar. He's bait for our friend tonight. Bait? * Thundar snorts angrily in Fadi's direction. We can't use him as bait. He's too cute! * Fadi shrugs. "Okay, maybe bait's too strong of a word for it. Assistance." ... that animal is too _large_ to be cute. Girls and horses I tell ya. Is not! * Thundar snorts strongly, ruffling Sophie's hair. * The sun dips down below the horizon. * Fadi looks around. "We should get ready." How, exactly? Do you even have a plan? Basically, we'll hide. If whatever it is comes out and tries to attack Thundar, we help Thundar stomp it into the ground." The traps should make our job easier. You know where the traps are, right? I watched Nick set them up today. He should be able to help identify them too. I would hope he'd be able to identify his own traps * The traps are, in fact, not overly well hidden, and everybody can see them, for now, in the clear light of the full moon. * Harold breathes a sigh of relief. * It might, however, be a good idea to take some sort of cover, possibly in one of the buildings, as you are also all quite visible in the clear moonlight. * Fadi nods to himself. "Need to set up a lookout and to get some cover." He starts heading torwards one of the buildings. Has Nick vanished? * Harold follows Fadi, since he seems to be the one who knows what is going on. * Sophie gives the horse a comforting pat and then follows. "Right." * Nick did not vanish. He was merely putting the finishing touches on the last trap. Done! * Nick glances at the horse, shakes his head, and goes to set it up. * Fadi takes cover at one of the buildings nearby. * And, with a slight dirt covering, the trap is set up. Nick also goes to hide in the nearby building. * Sophie follows suit. * Time passes. The moon rises ever higher, and still no setting off of traps or angry scream from warhorse. * Nick draws his short sword. * Time passes. This is very boring. Around you, lights are going out as everybody goes to bed. * Fadi has had his greatsword drawn. He yawns. * Time passes. Fadi begins snoring lightly. * Nick sighs and kicks Fadi. * Out in the fields, there's a loud double-snap as two poisoned bolts launch. * Fadi gets kicked and looks around, remembering where he was. "Ah, right..." Ah-hah! * A vaguely humanlike yelp sounds. * Fadi grins. "We got company." Ready, guys? * Sophie draws her sword and nods. * Fadi nods. * Harold gets a stronger grip on his staff and nods to Nick. * A moment later, there's a feline roar and a high-pitched neighing as something large and feline goes to battle with Thundar the Barbarian Warhorse. The poison should kick in soon.. * Nick blinks at the feline roar. Fuckit, we should take it out now. I don't think Sophie wants her horse getting hurt. Agreed. * Sophie sure doesn't. She charges out the door, sword ready. * Fadi charges out the door too, bigass sword and lotsa armor on-hand. * Nick runs out as well. * Harold runs out, trying to set himself up to be able to lay into the creature next round, while remaining out of the way of Thundar's stomping hooves. * Fadi charges forward, opposite of Harold and taking a heavy downwards swing at the whatever it is, keeping in mind to dodge the thing if it decides to smack him. * The massive bengal tiger yowls in rage as the sword passes through its hindquarters, leaving no mark. * Sophie charges in alongside Fadi, and thrusts her blade into its leg. * The tiger jerks its massive leg out of the way just in time, leaving behind a tuft of hair for Sophie's trophy collection. * The tiger quite suddenly bursts into a flurry of motion, swiping all around itself with its massive claws, and finally finishes by snapping its jaws JUST short of removing Fadi's nose. * Thundar rears high over everybody's head and slams his hooves down at the tiger, which barely dodges back out of the way towards Fadi. * Nick charges the tiger and takes a spot opposite to Thundar.. and whiffs with his sword. * Harold spins his staff forward. The first end narrowly missed, but the second strikes true, jabbing viciously forward. * The tiger shrugs off the thrust of thick, sturdy wood as it turns towards Fadi. * Just in time, the tiger notices the incoming greatsword and backs up, and the tip of the greatsword embeds itself in the ground. * Fadi glares at the tiger as his sword imbeds itself. * Sophie spins a full 360 degrees as she slashes at the tiger. * The tiger ignores Sophie totally, letting the blade skim along its flank, taking off a bit of skin and a lot of fur. The wound quickly heals over into a bald spot. * The tiger takes two steps forward and rears up on its hind legs, scraping one claw across Fadi's armor while its teeth nearly tear off his ear. Luckily for Fadi, the second claw is too far out of position due to the tiger's sheer width, and the tiger goes back to all fours. * Thundar rears once more, but comes down too far from the tiger to do anything because of its lunge at Fadi. * Nick ducks low and attempts to stab the tiger in a vital place. * The sword runs the tiger straight through where its lungs should be. It stumbles away from the sword and the hole seals over, leaving only a patch of bloody fur to mark the passing of the blade. Okay, what the shit is up with this thing? I don't know, but it's dead. Doesn't look dead. * Harold backs off a few paces, dropping the sure-to-be-useless staff and fumbling to get the crossbow and bolts out of his pack. .oO(God, please let our luck hold out just a bit longer.) * Fadi smiles again. "Oh yeah?" He brings the sword straight down, 'splicing' the tiger with the blade even though no mark appears. * The tiger rears upward just as Fadi swings, and is bisected neatly by the sword. In the course of a few seconds, the massive beast undergoes a sickening transformation back to what appears to be a rather pointy-eared human, who falls to his knees, reeling. ..The poison can't have kicked in that fast.. * Fadi brings the sword down without thinking and takes the man's head off its shoulders. ..What the hell, man? ... some kind of a werebeast! * The sword slices cleanly through the man's neck and he tumbles forward, his head rolling several feet away. * Sophie stares at the severed head, then slowly looks at Fadi. You just killed him! And that poison was expensive! My God. * Fadi looks at Nick and Sophie and just smiles, sheathing the clean blade. "I don't know, I think our lives are more expensive." Well... there's nothing to be done about it now. And we've no way of knowing that poison would have any affect on some creature that can heal its own wounds. He was helpless! And the poison hadn't kicked in yet! Argh, dammit. For that matter, it might not even really be human, just something that looks human.... Exactly. * Note that the now-severed head posses large pointy Spock-ears and vaguely asian eyes. ..Dude, you kacked a Vulcan. Don't mistake me, Fadi... there's a good chance you just killed in cold blood, and that's inexcusable. We just have no way of knowing... so let's just not have this argument now. Guess he didn't live long, and definetly didn't prosper. Bah, whatever. Someone grab the head so we can be 'well rewarded'. ... * Fadi nods and grabs the head. "Probably should bury the thing too." Well, you killed it, so _you_ can bury it. ... one of us can carry the head. ... you brought a sack for that, right? Fine with me. Let's show him the head so we can get going. And... * Fadi pulls out the extra backpack that used to house the rations. "This should work." * Nick averts his eyes. "Sure." Oh, lovely. * Fadi plops the head in the backpack. "You got a better idea?" Not really, no. Is there anything left of his other half? * Harold steps forward and takes the backpack, mostly glad that Fadi dropped the head in himself. Skin, fangs, claws? Anyways, I thought the thing was still an animal when I wacked its head. It very clearly wasn't. It changed in seconds. It was a mistake, can we go? * Fadi nods. Yes, this was definitely a mistake. Let's just go and remember this for whatever else happens to us. * Fadi shrugs. "Sure." Yeah, don't decap Spock next time. * Nick sighs and starts heading for the ranchhouse. * Fadi follows, creaking his neck. Spock turning into a tiger would've made that show a bit more interesting, really.... * Fadi smirks. * Sophie follows back towards the ranchhouse, fists clenched, sword still drawn. * A light comes on in the ranch house as a lantern is lit. [Session... END]