Desiraye watches in horror as S'Krllk begins to fall from the cliff above her.  It doesn't get any better for her when she also watches Fr'ssky pulled from the spire now as both vrusk begin to fall quickly.  The only thing she can do is hold onto dear life to whatever is around her and hope that she can either hold on and the rope holds and not fall off or the rope breaks clean and she is not pulled off (selfish somewhat but...).

She tenses her body for the jolt that is coming and has the breath taken out from her as the line goes tight, and holds!  Desi can feel her hands and arms begin to strain from the weight of two Vrusk and feels relieved rather quickly as she notices the weight is quickly let off when they both get hold of the spire again.

Once she has caught her breath and collected her thoughts (and said a quick 'thank you' prayer) she continues the climb up without further incident.  Climbing over the top and taking the rope off of her once everyone is safely up, Desiraye unslings her laser rifle and takes the safety off and setting the weapons SEU output to 8/SEU per shot.  Once she sees the eagle-like creature Desi quickly takes aim and readies a shot if it looks like it's going to attack.  "SPREAD OUT!" she yells to all around her.

Frisky spreads out and fires at the creature.

Once at the top, Lerku fires his needler rifle at the bird.

S'Krllk will spread out, but first will remove the rope tieing him to the others. After deciding the creature would be unable to sleep whilst being pinged with impact and radiant energy, he decides not to throw a doze grenade at it, and instead begins to throw rocks while verbalizing, "Watch out, you oversized wren, this grasshopper has teeth!"
Perhaps the shouting is intended, not to distract the fowl, but to keep his sheer terror from overwhelming him.

Sergi reaches for his giro pistol, hesitates as he remembers the explosive gases below, then draws his stun stick.

There is a flurry of activity, and guns explode.  Four of the shots hit the eagle-like creature as it pounces toward you, injuring it badly.

It flies up and reaches out talons for...Kri'lik...but misses as it sweeps by.

The giant bird is now swooping in the sky above you, circling with its injuries and peering down with "eagle eyes" to see where to attack next.  It obviously feels invaded in its nest.  It screeches a high-pitched bird scream and begins to descend, talons extended!  You don't know who it's going after yet as it drops straight toward you.


OOC: 2 points:  (1) With all these PC's playing, the monsters seem easier to defeat, for better or worse, and (2) I'm choosing whom it attacks by rolling randomly.

Frisky dives to the ground and fires again.

Lerku fires the needler rifle at the bird again.

 Having barely reached the top of the rock spire and exausted to boot, Kri'lik hardly has time to duck for cover as the giant birds talons reach out to grab him. Luckly for him his feet slipped out from under him on some lose nesting materials. His insectoid face slams hard into the ground causing the Vrusk to grunt in pain. "Watch out!" He yells as he rolls over on his side raising his laser rifle upward to give the bird a blast of energy in the backside.

Beam weapons 35% +aim 5 SEUs

Desiraye will move after seeing her shot hit the flying creature and then move to another spot to hopefully get another good shot off at it.  She kneels and sights up the flying bird again.

DEX/RS: 60/60

IM: 6

CURRENT STA: 60/60

SKILLS:
Beam Weapons: 4

SEU/Shot: 8

Plus Aim?

Sergi keeps his head down and looks round the nest area for anything that might resemble the idol, while maintaining a firm grip on his stun stick.

"Guys, is it safe to be firing those things here?"

S'Krllk decides he could best serve by looking for the idol while throwing rocks at the roc... uh... you know. He'll attempt to move closer to the center of the plateau to find the statue.

"Not sure that it's a good idea *not* to shoot," Becka calls out as she tries to take aim.  "This big flying menace sorta trumps anything else in immediate range."

Amid the gunfire, the eagle swoops in, talons extended, to attack Desiraye.

It is moving so swiftly, and the sun is partially blocking your aim, that it is harder to hit while in the air.  Only two shots hit the giant bird.  It swoops in, squawks...and its talons miss Desiraye.

It immediately flies out and up, ready to descend again upon one of you.  It is badly wounded but apparently is intent on defending its nest to the end.

(This picture is to show you an estimated size and appearance of the bird.)
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:47, Thu 19 June 2008.

Lerku continues to shoot at the bird, hoping this rifle doesn't run out of needles...
This message was last edited by the player at 02:06, Thu 19 June 2008.

As is Becka, rolling under cover if she can.

Desiraye somehow avoids the attack bird-creatures talons and manages to get out of the way however she can.  Finding a different spot to get set and fire from, Desi prepares another shot hoping to knock it down for good.

DEX/RS: 60/60

IM: 6

CURRENT STA: 60/60

SKILLS:
Beam Weapons: 4

SEU/Shot: 8

Plus Aim?

With a muttered "Sod this for a game of soldiers" Sergi draws his giro pistol and opens fire. "Come on Polly, whose a pretty bird then?!!"

OOC  Changing my text from Dark Blue to Blue.  Hope that won't cause any confusion.

Amidst the firing weapons, the bird stands little chance.  It dips at the impact, falters, and then plummets about 150 meters to crash amid the mushrooms, sinking in one of those sinkholes.

The creature's nest is beneath a rocky ledge. In the nest are two large eggs and
a strange statue carved from crystal. You can assume that this statue is the Sacred Idol of the Kurabanda.

Looking out from this altitude and vantage point, you see that there are dark and light patches among the mushrooms.  You assume that the light patches are places where there are no sinkholes and dark patches are where there are the sinkholes.  You should be able to plot a course back to the kurabanda and avoid all the sinkholes on your way out.

Desiraye drops to her knees as she watches the giant bird drop into the muck they just crossed.  She sighs loudly and then safes her laser rifle as she looks around to se if her other companions are hurt.  After a minute or so she gets up and surveys the area as the idol is found in the nest with two unhatched eggs.

Slinging her rifle acrtoss her back, Desi reaches for her macrobinoculars and looks for a safe way to get through the mud fields they just crossed.  "Everyone's OK?  Let's get the idol stowed away and then we need to get outta here!"

Frisky also seems suddenly nervous.  "If there's eggs, then doesn't that mean there's two birds?  I mean...a father and mother?  Yeah, let's get the idol, leave the eggs, and haul metasoma out of here!"

"I don't think we want to find out!"

The party quickly descends and makes its way through the safe trail seen through the craters.  You meet up with the guide at the far end, and he takes you back to the Kurabanda.  This allows you to rest up a bit, but you are consciously aware that the clock is ticking and the Sathar are on the way.

The Kurabanda are extremely grateful to get their idol back.

Chief Auramada thanks you and pledges his support in the fight against the demons from the sky.



Handing out XP.  Please use as you want:


You will now need to choose whether to go to the Mechanons or the Edestekai next.

"You know those eggs could have made quite a nice omelet." Kri'lik remarks as the group descends the spire with the idol.

"Ewwww," Becka mutters with a wink towards Kri'lik.

((OOC: As discussed in OOC thread, Becka is cool with seeing the Edestekai next if all are in agreement.)