Log:Explorer's Guild: Wroth of Both

Explorer's Guild: Wroth of Both

OOC Date: October 11, 2017
Location: Bothawui
Participants: Explorer's Guild: Corr Waldin, Netep Muri, Sar Yavok, Eilam; Free agents: Adhar Gann, Kirka Bluestar, Sugg

Bothawui is famous throughout the galaxy for its spy network, but for such an advanced culture, much of the planet remains undeveloped. This may be deliberate, but it also may be due to the varied large predators and cyclical ice ages. It's hard to say.

Sweeping vistas of green and blue greet the eye as the surface draws closer, soaring mountains capped with ice jutting high into the skyline. Shortly after departing the city, the forests begin to thicken, closing in around the fearless party of explorers and cutting off the view of the sky beyond.

"So, there's s'posed t' be some Jedi and Sith that died out here fightin' each other. Course, we all know that wasn't any time lately, and in this case, eh, maybe four thousand years ago?" Corr is saying, pushing a branch up and stepping over a root at the same time. The birds and insects compete to make the loudest sounds around them, chittering, chirping, and buzzing as they eat and are eaten, respectively. "Now, no one's ever found it, so it may be a dead end," he allows, swatting at something that landed on his cheek. "But I'm thinkin' there's just as good a chance that the location was close, but off by a little. Most of the big battles, we know were they were and they already been picked clean. This was just a couple, rival scouting parties, most likely." It's been several hours since they were forced to abandon any vehicles and travel on foot. "If I'm right, it ought to be about a click ahead, past that clearing up ahead." The man turns to look back over his shoulder from his position in the front, thumbs stuck through the straps of a backpack and a rifle slung over one shoulder by a sling. It's hot, he's sweaty, and they've been walking through rough terrain for a while now. "You all doin' alright back there?"

Sar Yavok walks along behind Corr, hand holding the strap of the A280 that's strung across his back. "Remember what I said, Waldin. Dibs on the first lightsaber we find," he says with a smirk.

Kirka seems to be doing alright, except when her med pack strap catches on a branch. After a time of tug of war she wins freeing said strap. A puff blows a lock of hair from her eyes, listening to the running commentary of Corr. When asked if they are doing alright "Just great," she replies after a wipe of her sleeve to free her eyes from the sweat that runs into them.

"Feels a bit like home," Muri chirps from somewhere near the rear. Being on the smaller size of the norm has its perks and its downsides. Perk - you don't have to duck for that. Downside - you DO have to reeeeally hike your leg to step over this. She's making do. The colorful scholar Corr encountered just last night is dressed to blend. Even her hair seems to match their surroundings, were it not for all the accessories done up in there. She's got a canteen clutched in hand, trying to take a drink without stopping.

And as far as the Ghostling of the group went, who really had no business being out on an expedition with weapons and shit like this, he seemed... relatively unconcerned for the time being. That may or may not change. Wearing light clothes as well as a light airy cloak to keep himself mostly protected from the environment what he could, Eilam traveled along with a simple enough bag over his shoulder, more of a satchel than anything. "I will be okay, I believe." even though with how he was looking around, everything seemed rather amazing to him. Even simple things like trees out here, or the ground.

Wasn't hard to tell this might be his first 'outing' to somewhere like this.

Sugg. The Rodian of legend has tagged along on this excursion put on by the Explorer's Guild, hoping to make a few extra bucks in light of the demise of his last boss. In any case, the Rodian is present in all of his fine attire, trekking along through the woods after their fearless leader, Corr. He misses a branch someone ahead of him pushes back, the limb whipping through the air and slapping him on the head and resulting in a pained squeak and garbled Rodian curse words.

Behind the rest of them, Adhar walks, a silent, helmeted spectre draped and plated in blue; he's said nothing at all since arriving, nor does he seem to be much likely to say much now - instead, he walks anonymous and heavily armed, sword shifting under his cape as though it were alive. Everyone's seen the same into upon taking the job, after all. No need to speak up until something changes.

"Try t'stick together," Corr advises, turning back towards the front and tromping ahead, his boots making the underbrush snap and bend underfoot. "There's a reason they ain't built cities all the way out here like on Nar yet and it ain't arboreal conversation." As they step into the next clearing up ahead, the forest sounds seem to quiet and fade away. It's not quite like someone turned down the volume knob on a speaker, but more like they just picked it up and walked away. Corr's pace slows with the fading of the noises, glancing around cautiously. "Sar, float back towards the book learners, would ya? Just kinda take up the middle."

"Waldin," Sar says, quietly, having spotted something unnerving. "We got a /big/ ol' cat sneaking up on us." Sar looks over his shoulder at the rest of the group, hand reaching down to unclip the S-5 and slide it out of its holster. "Fan out, if you know what's good for you," the Old Man says, as quiet and calm as he possibly can.

Kirka stumbles out of the jungle into the clearing, still fighting to keep the med bag strap clear of every branch that reaches out and tangles it's self with in it. Each time it has happened the frustration level of the woman has grown and the last time seems to have pushed her over the edge. "Dammit," she gets out between clinched teeth and with a mighty jerk frees it but in turn causes her to spin a bit, nearly falling, struggling to keep her feet. As she settles she is turned to spot the big cat heading towards the group "Uh, I don't think this is a good thing," she says as one hand points in the direction of the cat and the other goes to free her blaster from the holster. Taking the advice from Sar she does fan out, a little.

Netep catches up to Mr white-pants-Sugg when nature's smack to the face slows him down a step. She scarcely tips her head aside to march under that branch and reaches out to pat him sympathetically on the arm. Her grin tells a slightly different story, though. Then it's up to Eilam she stomp-slips through the trees and leans to whisper to the ghostling "I'm impressed you've not managed to snag that yet," a mostly clean finger flip-flaps at the edge of his cloak, then she shoulders the canteen. This 'book learner' seems a bit too distracted by the shiny garment to note the sudden silence of the forest chatter until old man Yavok utters that one word. Cat. She, too, gets quiet. Quiet and nervous and fishes for that little holdout model in her vest. Just in case. Her other hand starts reapplying some mud to her neck, her already clothed pits...hold in that stank. It's worth a shot.

Upon noticing something that didn't seem right, Eilams first real instinct? Step back and let someone else take care of it. Not /too/ far back, safety in numbers, but enough that he wasn't really in front of others. Though something that he heard the other day, in the hangar made him wonder. Which meant he turned towards Adhar and said, "There may be a second." he didn't know that for sure, but it was an assumption based at least off something he'd heard said. "If that... is actually what they were talking about. I have seen thieves do that too, create a distraction that way..." he pointed towards the rustling bush, "Then have someone else do something behind when distracted." And with that, Eilam turned slightly to start looking around opposite of where the rustling and supposedly large cat was.

Sugg looks aside toward Netep when she pats him on the arm, the generally volatile and unpredictable Rodian seeming a bit dazed as his little mouth seems to hang with a little slack. He is just coming out of his stupor when Sar throws caution to the wind regarding some sort of predator approaching the group. "Oh great," he mutters to himself, reaching down to pull his blaster pistol free of the holster on his thigh. He whispers, but loudly, "I have grenadeth. Jutht tell ole Thugg where to throw them and I'll blow thit to thmithereenth."

Adhar does just as asked, stepping cautiously out of the way of the incoming beast and toward the nearest group of trees for cover; underneath his cape, one mailed hand slides the pistol from its place at his hip. Crouching low, eyes watchful. Waiting.

"Everyone stay quiet and don't make any sudden moves," Corr murmurs, holding out his free hand towards the others and slowly waving it towards the ground, in a sort of 'get down' motion, his knees bending underneath him as he starts to gradually back away from the cat over in the bushes.

The feline is enormous, outsizing any domesticated dog, covered in stripes and with a pug nose and fangs that stick out beneath its upper lip. Baleful yellow eyes stare at the party, and it's fairly obvious by now that it's noticed them as it prowls through the bushes alongside the short column.

Sar Yavok readies the heavy blaster and activates the liquid cable launcher located beneath the barrel. "Alright," he whispers to himself, lifting the pistol out towards the animal. A squeeze of the trigger and he fires a small dart into the beast's flesh. It lashes out angrily, but its flailing only serves to get it all tangled up in the cable.

Kirka was squatting down as directed by Corr just as Sar shot is heard. She grins as she sees the cat get all tangled up in the line but still she gets down. "Nice shot," she says softly, maybe heard or maybe not. Her own pistol has found it's way into her hand and she switches to stun and holds it fairly steady in the direction of the cat but not firing. Not yet anyway.

Eilam's got the right idea, Netep feels. She doesn't know anything really, bout /these/ species of feline, but can make some generalized assumptions. It's a big beast, yes. Too big for comfort, but not to big to go up a tree. While she's crouched on her haunches scanning the underbrush for any more yellow eyes - with yellowish eyes of her own - something tickles past her ear. She flicks an accusing look toward her shoulder. It's a leaf. A leaf from on high. Funny, she hadn't /heard/ anymore birds. The scholar does the smart thing and looks up.

It looks back. A suddenly COLD bead of sweat sprouts on Muri's brow and she holds her breath. G'dammit, it's beautiful. "Vitteez...." it comes out almost as a whine, strangled by her own nerves into a painful pitch. "Waldin! Waldin! Guys!" she hoarsely whisper-screams. "Look UP!" except the last bit of her warning might be drowned out by the sudden chaos of Sar's shot. her eye contact with the arboreal feline is broken, when it blinks - maybe startled as she - at the ruckuss.

Not seeing anything wasn't really a comfort or discomfort for Eilam. Mostly because the Ghostling didn't really know what to expect. It was a guess to begin with, so a lack of affirmation proves it in no way. So instead of doing anything crazy like running to hide, he just... trusts the others present to keep him safe, because he wouldn't be doing much himself, and just continued to look around for anything that might be of concern.

Sugg doesn't really do the woods, or animals... or nature really. So when the big cat starts prowling their way, Sugg does indeed follow the warning of their leader and drop into a defensive crouch and start backing away from the beast. He is focused, zen-like, almost as if he hopes that if he does not look at the beast, it won't see him. He is backing... backing... backing... and then Netep calls out the warning and Sugg loses it. He jerks his head up and starts to back away quickly yelling, "EVERY MAN FOR HIMTHEEEELLFF!" And then he trips, snagging his foot on a root and falling to his back. "Oh thit, oh thit, oh thit," he says as he squeezes the trigger on his blaster, firing upward in panic.

"I see it." The voice that comes from Adhar's death-mask helmet is cold and metallic, but he manages to track the creature in its moment of surprise; his monstrous pistol spits glittering blue bolts of electrical force with a snap-snap sound, filling the air with the smell of ozone as he tries to bring it down. One shot, at the very least, finds purchase, burning flesh and disrupting nerves alike.

Sar's stun-bolt with the attached cable is designed for just this sort of task, really, and does an effective job stunning the first feline into submission. The cat yowls and hisses, but eventually the shocks being transmitted through the cables are just too much, and it goes down in a stripey heap. Its partner in the tree, unfortunately, does not face such specialized weaponry. Sugg's first shot hits it hard, basically in the face, and then a sizzling stun bolt from Adhar's blaster follows behind it. The big cat tumbles like a sack of loose bones to the forest floor and lands with a thud, a shower of spores rising up around it. The movement of its hide and ribs suggest it survived, however.

"Shit, I knew we were gonna run into those eventually," Corr mutters, straightening up and looking around at the crew, including Sugg. "You keep your ass in the column with the rest of us. There's more of them out there and you'll be easy pickin's on your lonesome. Everyone alright? Let's keep movin'." Gesturing ahead, he turns to pass through the clearing.

"Well, that was somethin'," Sar says, adjusting his grip on the blaster pistol. "I'll go protect the nerds," he adds, making his way towards the middle of the group. His skin-tight, kinetic-plate armor has seen better days, but it still looks up to the task at hand.

Looking up as Muri directs. Just in time to see the cat fall. The Medic in her causes her to put the pistol away and hurry to the Cat's side. "Oh no, poor thing," she says mostly to her self. She digs around in her med bag and out comes a small tube of Bacta and a quick bandage. The Bacta goes on the wound and the bandage self adheres to the wound. Dusting her hands off against each other before she uses a finger to tuck some of her hair behidn her ear, leaving a faint trail of blood across her forehead. She looks at the others "What? I couldn't let it bleed to death," she explains as she makes her way back to the group.

Muri keeps her 'just-in-case- gun in hand and wipes the sweat from her eyes. Holy hell. That was close. She can almost touch that limp tail, from here. Must...resist....and they're MOVING! Onward and out. With or without distracted Kirka as she attempts to...okay, she's back. "Better it than us," she mutters. When Sar comes tromping up to her position, she flashes him a nervous grin and adjusts the pack on her back. "How unappetizing you reckon it finds us now?"

"...yes." So that was taken care of. Perhaps that 'hunting in two' thing he heard that Togruta say might not actually apply to this species particularly. And with that, Eilam looks towards the others and starts to walk along again, taking a moment to reach out and pat Adhar on the arm in thanks as he was the closest shooter at the time. Though as they were walking, Eilams attention focused on something and he reached into his satchel to pull out a set of three metal rods. What did he doo with them? Well, he nudged them together and they snapped into placed, a magnetized pole of some kind that he held loosely in one hand.

"I see something. Wait a moment, please?" And with that, he walked towards where the tree was before stopping to reach out and trace the movement with the pole, "It looks like something cut this tree, perhaps. Is this what we are looking for?" And with that, he stopped and started to look around on the ground nearby to see if he could find anything to give clue other than the tree.

The tree, it seemed, had a deep horizontal cut in it.

Sugg sits up from where he had fallen on his back, blaster coming to point at the fallen cat as if expecting the beast to leap up and make him dinner. His eyes turn toward Corr as the man gestures for him to fall in line, and he is quick to do so, regardless of his reflexive yell to the contrary in his moment of fear. He has a big brown and green stain on his butt, marring up his white pants. He is grumbling, no doubt wondering if this EXPLORING mess is for him or not when Eilam halts the team and Sugg turns to look at what has drawn the other fellow's interest. His overlarge eyes scan the tree in question for a moment before he glances around. "Hey, what about that over there?" he says. "Ithn't that thome kind of thymbal or thomething on thith rock?" Sugg points out the letter, not quite sure because he likely cannot read.

Having already fallen back into line, Adhar nods to Eilam as he is patted - and then pauses to frown at the unusual wound cut into the tree. "That is likely a lightsaber wound," the flat machine-voice says as it emits from his helmet. "Long since healed, but it looks the case. We must be close, if not already at the site. Perhaps we should be careful of wrathful ghosts." Hard to tell from the voice if he's mocking or dead-on serious.

Glory be! They found something! There on a boulder thrust up from the belly of the earth, Sugg has spotted through the lichen and ivy hanging and growing on it, some sort of faint engraved emblem. It looks old, old as the rock itself, although of course that can't quite be the case. And the scarred tree lead them to it.

Corr moves in at a trot, excited by the discovery, his hands fumbling at the straps of his backpack to sling it down onto the forest floor and start rooting inside. "Gotta record it," he mutters, glancing up at the others. "Keep lookin' around, we gotta be close! Netep, see if you can make any sense of it?"

"Well, I doubt those particular ones are gonna be interested in us anytime soon, but their friends are prolly still hungry. Just remember the golden rule of getting chased by animals. You don't have to outrun the nexu. You just have to outrun your friend," Sar answers to Netep. "Corr's pretty slow, y'know?"

As Kirka watches the other's at the tree she begins to look around. A raised group of vines and growth just doesn't seem right. "Huh," she says as she moves in that direction, a toe of her boot moves the vines and what not out of the way, showing an organized pile of rocks "Hey, got something here that I doubt is natural." More probing with her toe of the boot to gently dislodge the rocks, watching them tumble off to the side. At last she falls to her knees, pulling the growth away while dislodging more of the rocks. She hears Sar and snickers, looking at him over her shoulder before turning back to the rock pile thingy.

"I wouldn--" the 'nerd's attention gets jerked away from Sar and to where they've raised a fuss. GASP. Now THIS is what she came to see. Netep jogs over, stuffing the blaster back into its holster and drops to her knees to scoot in around Kirka. She comes to halt in front of the glorious boulder while the other gal tucks at stubborn rocks. Her hands lay over the fuzzied stone, grazing and picking away flecks of lichen as she traces the lines of the symbol. Whatisitwhatisitwhatisit...she can't shake the feeling a familiarity. Vague familiarity. Like maybe a dream or something she skimmed over once, in a ....a text. A REAL text. Parchment and leather - the good stuff, an item in her old boss's personal collection.

"Death," she whispers softly, hands moving aside to keep plcuking at vegetation. "Memory? Death and memory. A memorial." Her forehead's wrinkled, tone not sounding overly confident. But it's hopeful. Death certainly does seem to be a thing that'd be heralded by saber scars on ancient trees, doesn't it? Her fingers start to scrabble, clawing away at vines. "Help us clear it!" *Tug*Tug* "I want to see...."

Eilam, for his part, seemed happy they found something but wasn't too lost in the moment. Instead of focusing on one thing and losing himself, he just seemed to be looking around as he was before, tracing here and there with the pole, observing, listening. Seeing if he... spotted something... did that vine really just remind him of seeing someones hand in one of the Hutt clubs trying to sneak a feel on someone? Surely it wasn't alive? But somehow, the scenario reminded him of a 'story'(see: Science fiction) thing he saw in one of the holos about living, attacking plants and perhaps it was some danger sense, or the sound of something(s) approaching nearby in the air, but this didn't seem right.

Everything was aloud and live, until that feline predator came. Then everything went quiet. ...but now there's things coming out again, why? Was it because the predator was taken down? "Everyone, back up and step away from stuff!" he called out loudly enough to get the attention of others, using the pole he had with him rather skillfully to press into the ground and close the distance between himself and Netep(in what might look like a glorified dance move around a pole to get something of a start) to try and jab the stave between Netep and the stuff they were clawing at to get their attention first. "Something is coming, and it might be because it was scared of that predator before, but isn't now. I may be wrong, but it makes sense to me... so we should try and be big and scary! If you can make something explode in the sky above us, towards that flapping sound, it might scare off whatever it is."

Sugg watches the smart folks go to work, and he knows that he is not gifted in those particular areas. Therefore, he stands guard over the group, keeping his eyes on a swivel as he taps the barrel of his blaster to his hip, his other hand drumming a beat on a grenade held to his belt with his fingertips. He turns his head left to right, and then seems to slow as Netep starts digging in the lichen. Soon he runs forward reaching out to grab at Netep's shoulders and attempt to haul her back away from the boulder and lichen, "Ey, mami! That lichen is moving!" he yells in her ear.

"Cairn here," calls Adhar over the rest - and seeing what's in it, his voice grows urgent through the metallic synth voice. "Waldin! We've got a lightsaber. Old and corroded beyond repair, looks like, but I recognize it." Then he turns his face first toward Netep, and then to Sugg as he tries to pull her back.

Before he even realizes it, the gun is in his hand once more.

As Netep is examining the carving, the vines hanging down from above do indeed begin to twitch and writhe, just as Sugg and Eilam observed. All of a sudden, they lift from the rock face and reach forward with grasping arms, like woody fingers, trying to wrap around arms and heads. The woman and her Rodian rescuer are caught in its clutches, but only Eilam's pole is taken away, leaving the Ghostling himself free.

Corr, about to start taking pictures, realizes this is a problem as he looks up from the viewfinder, having been muttering up a storm of curses as he tries to get the thing working. "...Yavok! The tree's got 'em!" The vine, whatever.

To make matters worse, the Ghostling was right. Something else /is/ coming. Spiraling down over the top of the boulder comes first one, then three, then half a dozen flying reptiles, large, saurian wings flapping on the air, stinging tails hanging down behind them.

Corr just stares for a moment, then grabs his gun. "Gann, we'll deal with that in a second, we got.... /things/ in-bound!"

LIGHTSABER? Sar's attention jerks to the relic that Adhar pointed out and the Old Man moves to examine it. Kneeling down to pick the thing up, he rolls it over in his hand, saying, "This Guild gig is payin' off already, ain't it, Kid?"

A FRACAS!? Sar looks over his shoulder at the vine monsters. "Ah, kriff." He stands up and raises his antique blaster, sending a duo of shots at the gross vine thing hoisting up Netep.

As the winged things come flying in, Kirka scrambles around the rock pile to put something between her and them. All the while drawing her pistol out and quickly snapping off two shots. One eye closed, the other squinched almost closed, she flinches each time the pistol goes off. One of the creatures falls heavily to the ground in a sickening thud while her second shot goes way way wide. She quickly looks to make sure she didn't shoot any of the party "Sorry," she says as she gets ready to shoot again.

"RRRGH!" Netep growls, jerking her hand back as Eilam almost smashes her knuckles with that damn pole. "Get out of the way," she swats at it, "Wait, what?" and then Sugg's on her back. "OI! WERMO!" He's pulled her hair. Adhar's calling about something cool and she wants to go see, but there's a Rodian with soiled pants clinging to her vest and she's rolled off balance onto one hip, where a boot kicks out to try and drive him away. It's in vain, though, because that's not the Rodian wrapping up under her arm, back there.

"Kriff," she complains, right before she's turned more or less on her head by the rolling, writhing vines, and dragged painstakingly slowly away from her prize. At least now it's clear. At least now, she can see - and appreciate in a whole new way - that this is a tombstone. Thanks, vines!

Her one free hand is about to lose its freedom as a tendril blindly slithers over her face and towards that wrist, making dislodging the blaster from its holster a /mite/ difficult. So she tries to chew it. And, like magic, the vine snaps! She's done it! Landing heavily on shoulder, Netep wriggles free enough to look behind at the smoldering stump shrinking up on her hip. Oh.

"Hey, that... that's mine, stupid plant! I paid a good ten thousand credits to have that modified, you cannot have it!" Wait, he paid 10k for a /metal pole/? Well, to each their own. Makes one wonder what he had done to it. Eilam used the pole and his positioning to push off and land nimbly on his feet, glancing over his shoulder towards the flappy soundy things while digging a hand into his satchel and pulling out a pair of long-sleeved forearm gloves. Sliding them on hastily, he held his hand out towards the metal stave, then the second and despite being several feet away from the pole, managed to yank it towards him enough to grab onto it. But instead of trying to pull it away fully and attack with it, he took a different approach, using the leverage provided by grasping vines and his own body weight to swing himself against a nearby stump to try and pry the vines either off of Netep, or break them entirely depending on how thick they were.

Thankfully, that, or possibly primarily Netep's efforts, managed to break her free enough that he felt comfortable trying instead to just get away and keep the pole as an insurance case to whack at the vines if any tried to grab him or anyone else.

Sugg is busy tugging away at Netep, so busy in fact that he completely misses the vine that snakes around him and soon jerks him from his feet. It has him wrapped around the waist like some sort of nature belt, and he is soon up in the air right as the birds start to swoop down. "Oh thit," he says lamely as he aims his blaster at one of the bird things flapping by. He shoots and hits one, misses with the second shot. His free hand reaches for his vibroblade and he makes a swipe with his off hand, trying to cut the vine behind him.

Well, he knew something like this was going to happen. Crouching low, Adhar's gun comes up in his hand, almost guided by itself; tracking the venomous lizard-bats, he looses a blast that drops one instantly in a shower of sparks and roasting entrails, while his next shot is /just/ off the next beast. Clear-minded and mute, he checks those struggling with the vines, but with one free and the other with knife in hand, he sticks to the more immediate threat at hand.

"Shit shit shit," Corr mutters to himself, pulling his rifle upright and taking careful aim. The first outing, and people are being hoisted up by vines and attacked by venomous flying reptiles. The buttstock shoves into his shoulder, and he draws a bead on that arm of vine that's got itself wrapped around Sugg's waist like a bad fashion accessory, and fires, withering the green branch away.

The aforementioned flying reptiles continue to swarm, swooping down low and attacking the armored men first, in what might be a defensive assault rather than predatory. They don't seem to be going after the less-aggressive types, yet.

YET. Because just now, the biggest, baddest, mother of all the Ral, which is what they happen to be called, comes flapping over the boulder with a ear-shattering shriek, her wings fully as large as two or three of the smaller ones put together.

Sar Yavok clips the ancient lazur sword onto his belt (releasing a tiny cloud of rust and reducing its value by another couple thousand) and lifts his blaster towards the big bird that'll look real nice mounted in the Guild's command center. Unfortunately, both of his shots go wide. He sucks his teeth and holsters his S-5. "Guess I'm gonna have to break out the big'un," he says, working at loosening the strap on his A280, so he can ready it for action.

Kirka, from her hiding spot, takes aim at the remaining lesser flying Ral, two bolts in rapid fire go out, each striking. A single cry is heard before it plunges to the ground in a sicking thud. "Wow," she says with a grin as she looks at her pistol before scooting around the pile of rocks to keep them between her and the big bad Ral.

Netep knows what this is, she's sure of it. These forest spirits are just jealous that some poor outfit of mortals has found their sacred prize and seeks to take it from this hallowed ground....damn straight, they will! Cats, bats, vines...Netep feels poorly equipped to handle any one thing on her own, but in a GROUP with GUNS? She feels there's a forty percent chance at least that she'll make it back to the ship with /something/ to show for it, other than her own entrails in hand. With an assist from Eilam and her own thrashing, she casts off the dying length of vine and shakily draws the Czerka with her left hand - the steadier of the two, while reclining back to become one with the ferns and moss as her right hand tries to resume what Kirka was doing, in tugging loose all these smaller rocks. Adhar's pile had a surprise in it. Maybe this one does, too? She's a shit shot, and she knows it, but takes a crack at one of the flying beasties overhead, anyway. Or was about to. THen there's this shadow....and one hell of a breeze.

For a second time on this excursion, Muri's eyes uplift to behold the mighty terror of the bitch mother nature, then roll over to bug-eye at Kirka there, next to her. Maybe the Sith and Jedi didn't kill each other. Maybe she ate them. "Don't....move," she breathes. Her gun hand just sorta freezes and she hopes like hell the thing's as farsighted as she is and can't see this morsel under its nose. Muzzle? Snout? Snout. Her other hand? It's in the hole, wishing the rest of her were small enough to follow.

"If whatever made that cut in the tree was a weapon, it might be with whoever was buried here. With that thing attacking, we might need whatever that is!" Eilam had never heard of a lightsaber, at least, not in that capacity. Sure, stories had told of Jedi and Sith and mentioned them but he had no idea what they looked like or were beyond such. "But with these vines... I wonder if they're growing there because of the body beneath it? If that is a grave like Adhar suggested is here. Try to find out where the base of those vines are and destroy them so we can try to get at it, it might help against the..."

"...big..."

"...one..."

Eilam just /stared/ at the giant Ral only to feel afraid for the first time in quite a while. Instead of trying to fight it, he just began to try and use the stave to dig and pry away stuff from the grave, hoping some magical weapon that could slice gouges in trees was there.

Sugg is dangling from the air, being waved around by the giant vine, and then he is free falling once Corr shoots his vine. "Ohhh, thiiiit!" he yells as he falls to face plant on the ground. He has just about had it with this damn nature hike, and it is showing on his face as he struggles up to his feet, sliding his knife back into his belt and pulling the first grenade he comes to free. He lifts the adhesive grenade to his mouth, pulls the pin free with his lips and spits it aside. "THUCK ON THITH!" he yells at the biggest bird thing, raring back and hurling the grenade straight up into the air as the big mama flaps overhead.

Whilst Sugg's grenade goes off in a pinwheel of adhesive goop, Adhar rolls out of the way of the stuff and into cover with Kirka and Muri. Taking a knee, he fires another roaring pair of blasts from his massive pistol, but with his movement off from avoiding the goop both shots go wide.

Goop. So much goop. Adhesive sprays everywhere in a foam that expands at half the speed of sound, enveloping the Ral queen as it froths angrily into a sticky mass of stickiness and giving her considerable difficulty. There's so much of it stuck to her she has a hard time even staying in the air, and she crashes into a branch, which sticks her to a tree. Just like that, the massive stinging creature is out of the fight. Only two smaller ones remain, and the fall of the big momma has them looking skittish, starting to circle higher as though they might fly away.

Corr lowers his rifle, blinking at the screeching reptile-bird hung up in the tree like a kite. "Well. I saw that goin' a little different. You know, in my head." He moves to lift a hand and wave the others out into the open, but his hand is glued to the gun. "Uh. I think you can come out now, let's photograph this, get the relic, and hightail it back to town before more of those cats come to eat the dead," he advises. The two strays still circle above.

"Well done," Sar offers in regards to Sugg's dispatching of the big murderbird. "Well. Sorta," he adds as Sugg gets stuck in a sticky situation. Pulling back the charging lever on his A280, he lifts the heavy rifle and sights in one of the smaller birds. When he pulls the trigger, anyone in his immediate vicinity is likely to feel the air pressure change as a large bolt howls out of the barrel and hits a murderbird centermass. "Kickass," he says, lowering the rifle and looking over to Waldin. "Relic's secured."

Kirka nods as she gets up from behidn the rocks and, while keeping her pistol handy begins to back up the way they came. All the while keeping an eye out to cover the others. "I think it is time to get on outta here," she comments.

Oh, THAT looks sticky, omg, ew. Netep lets out a little shriek for the first time, when that foam explodes directly overhead and curls into the smallest ball she can, with her free, gun-wielding arm flying up over her masterpiece hair. When all the splats stop splatting and the air quits shivering n the wake of Sar's shot, she shakily unfolds and cranes her head around to whisper at whichever tombstone buddy might answer. "...am I gonna have to shave my head?" She can't /feel/ anything in here, but there's a lot of locks to feel through. Is she? Eilam? Adhar? Kirka? Sugg? Sugg? Suuuuuuuugg....? Oh no.

"Wait, time to leave? Eilam seemed confused, but looked only in time to see the bird stuck, goo all around him as well that could have just as easily been on him. "Right... leave." Even if he seemed confused, and a strange mix of accepting and disappointed, the Ghostling did as suggested and walked back to the rest of the group quietly, disassembling the stave to put it back into the satchel as well as the gloves he had put on. "Is this what we would always be doing? Just... coming until someone finds one thing, then leaving again? Should we... I thought there would be more."

Sugg had seen that rapidly expanding mass of adhesive foam as the grenade exploded, and he had even launched himself into a backflip to try and escape the blast radius. Sadly, leaves do not make for good landing material and as his feet touched back to the ground, he slipped and fell to his belly. Adhesive foam fell to his lower back and butt, gluing the Rodian to the forest floor. Having covered his head, Sugg looks around, likely looking for predators before he calls out, "Hey! Thomebody help me! I'm THTUCK!" He even jerks his body around on the ground, trying to squirm/slide his way out from beneath the sticky trap.

"I didn't," Adhar says in his machine voice. "Disturb the graves of sorcerors, and you must be prepared for the very earth to rise up against you." His gun goes back into its place, and now he draws a bone-hilted vibrosword, its black blade like half an elongated hexagon, and keying up its softly trilling blade, proceeds to begin trimming away the adhesive partially pinning Sugg's body.

"Stay still," he tells the glopped Rodian. "I will keep my blade a safe distance from you." His way of saying HEY PARANOID MAN, I'M NOT AN ASSASSIN.

"Not every time, no," Corr tells Eilam reassuringly, giving the Ghostling man a delicate pat on the shoulder. Don't wanna break him. "But sometimes, yes. The Bothans can send their own team to do a full dig. We were only here to find proof, and what's left of that relic," which isn't much, "does that. We'll pass over the relic and the location to the Bothans and leave the rest to them."

And so, the band of adventures, free from gloop and wary of further big cat attacks, heads back towards the city to make sure their find ends up in a museum, where it belongs.

Yup. Time to go. While Adhar is busy freeing Sugg from his self-made prison, Netep is busy picking what bits of the lichen she can from a small-enough rock, then tucks it into her backpack. Souvenier. She'd love to take the big one, but like Corr, a pic will have to suffice. Also...maybe a slice of vine. Just a small piece. For science. For Mom. And then she's trotting off to rejoin those moving out.