A sight at Shadowdale Woods

Wu Ling, who often travels the river, would happen upon the blood eventually.  Knowing people are often harassed by the various denizens of the area, he would follow the blood trail cautiously and stealthy.  When he found the giant plant and man, he would be in Awe of such a large plant, despite the morbid picture presented to him.

He would think a time, wondering if he should let nature takes it course, or perhaps get the man to the next of kin.  Figuring it was perhaps a resident of Shadowdale and the body should be recovered, he would mark trees from the spot and back to the Ranger Camp.  Though he could attempt it himself, he wasn't sure how dangerous the plant was and didn't want to share the mans fate.

There he would attempt to find an adventurer or perhaps the rangers themselves to help.  If they wouldn't help, he would make his way to the Crossroads and eventually back to Shadowdale, looking for people to help.

Furtively, the dark-skinned woman slipped from shadow to shadow as she made her way through the woods near Shadowdale. The day had been uneventful, the night quiet, at least where she had tucked herself, and she was making her way to the rangers' camp. Sometimes people sold interesting items there.

It was not in her plan to find the strange, thorny plant, with its purple lilies and hazardous ways. But she paused upon the sight, blinking in a big of shock, and tilting her head. She didn't know the plants of the area that well, but this had not been there the last she had crossed the woods. Carefully, she looks at it, following the vines back to the sinister form of the skeletal body within its grasp.

The dark humor that Jewel holds causes a chuckle, One man's bad fortune was her own luck. The person was dead, obviously, and sad for him. Bt what treasures might he hold in his pockets? Stepping lightly, and keeping her shadows wrapped around her as she slipped to the body, chortling quietly as she begins to rifle through his pockets, avoiding the thorns of the plant.

She paused, allowing the catnip flowers to fall to the wayside. These were of no interest or importance to her. The stone, however, caught her attention, and made look at the skeletal form once again. The clothing didn't matter, anyone could wear similar outfits. But features... her nose wrinkled as she stared at the face above her. That jawline might be correct to be a man she knew, if it were fleshed out, rather than sucked dry.

Regardless, the stone itself, she knew. It was pretty, shiny, and held a magic within it. She could feel that power, though she didn't reach to see if she could trigger it. She looked at the dangling man once again. If it was not one she knew, it was still of a family that, while crazy, was still an ally. She could not leave him here. Jewel tucked the stone into one of her many pouches, and reached up, grabbing his foot indelicately and tugging to see if he could be dislodged from the plant.(str:12. Mod:1)

a crackle, a crunch, something not the least bit made for quiet travels follows her nose to the scene with a dull grunted sniffing.

Though she keeps her distance she can see the little hin tugging at the sizable form hanging in the plants.

There's a deep grunt and a familiar grumble emenates from her as the lumbering form of uragu looms a little closer to shimmer with a soft chuffing before eyeing the the carrion before her.

During the night a smaller elven figure wearing a white mithril armor and face mask wander through. Glancing around little paranoid and grumbling to herself. She then notice the dried blood trail and raise a eyebrow subtle under the mask.

"Tch what now...hmm"

May'katcha briefly debate what to do before just giving a small irritated mutter and ward herself fully before following the blood trail, few times backtracking to be sure she stay with the trail. When she finally spot the plant she pauses then slowly walking around it while keeping a small distance.

"What in Cania?..."

She pauses at the sight of Jewel tugging the body then look at the body with only make her stare stupid. Then glances between Jewel and uragu "Difficult to see who the unforunate one is, Few dress like ...that yet do you know for certain who it is ?"

She started a little at the crackling and heavy movement, but the familiar grunt that came from Uragu brings a small smile. "Ah, good. 'Lo." Jewel grinned at the lumbering creature. "Might have a job fer you, Missie."

She tugged lightly on the skeletal foot and then wrinkled her nose as May'katcha's voice came. Her hand remained upon the body as she looked over her shoulder at the woman, nose wrinkling again. "No. I know 'nuff though. Wot d'you care, anyhow?" Rude, her voice comes out a little liuder than intended, and she looks around nervously, hopin to not have drawn unnecessary attention with her voice.

standing there she gives a huff and a grunt at shimmer waiting for what she wants her to do.

her eyes never leave the dangling corpse as she waits, a dull grumble comming from her before she gives a short sharp snort.

Her suspicious gaze turns away from May, over to Uragu, giving another futile tug upon the foot she holds. Then she grins."Help me here, Uragu. I need this fella dragged outta this-" Movement in the periphery of her vision makes her cut off, and her hand pulls back swiftly from the foot, a curse being muttered.

"Ought t' have known it wouldn't be so simple." She keeps an eye upon the plants vines now, ready to move away from any who slip too close to her. A glance goes to May, and she smirks. "Hey ice-princess, y'wanna freeze somethin'?"

May'katcha give a grumble "Perhaps i care perhaps i dont, yet if it is who i assume it is ...judging by clothing. Then I cant truly just ignore this situation....tch"

She then watches the scenes as if taking note of the plants movement, almost expecting Shimmer to notice and move away. A glance is tossed toward Uragu briefly before Shimmer's question is heard and she look back toward Shimmer with a small smirk under the mask. "You wishing me to freeze the plant while you get the body free, correct?. I suppose it can it be done"

May adjust the gloves one by one and eyes the plant, almost if figuring out how to avoid harming the body within it while waiting on Shimmer's confirmation and not just ruining any other plans between the two.

The small woman nods, grinning a bit. "Cold ought t'slow a plant down, or keep it still long 'nuff t get away. Fella there is dead, so y'dont hafta worry 'bout hurtin him, so long as y'don' freeze him solid." She steps slightly to one side, ensuring she isn't too close to whichever vines may decide to creep towards her ankles.

May'katcha glances at Shimmer steping to the side before nodding. "Plant usual dislike cold yet this hardly any normal plant that i am aware about ...hmm as for freezing the body solid is also a concern regardless"

She then glances at Uragu "You strength might be required soon..."

May then take a tiny step forward toward the plant and start to tap into her sorcery and Fellfrost powers. Her hands begin to glow blue by cold, her hair subtle moves as she start to murmur the arcane words and wave the hands in the gestures, unless the plant aggressive try to attack her she would then bring both hands close together ahead of herself as a cone of cold powered by fellfrost washes over the plant. Watching closely if it have any desireable effort on the plant or if the body is endagered and if the body looked endangered to solid freezing she would stop and back off with a grumble

Lily comes upon the train of dries blood while she's looking for May, she was mostly just following the sounds of voices when she came upon it, one of them she knew to be May's. When coming close enough to see what it's all about she just stops and look over the sight for a long time before saying anything.
What in the... She trails off glancing around and then down at the ground. That plant been rather busy.. Normally the blood trail is long gone when the body reach that state.

Uragu is not so subtle with her machinations, lumbering forward she simply grasps the corpse, her thick sludgy covered skin shrugs off the angry insects and all but the largest thorns (barb Dr, 5/- acid resist, 27 fortsave).

putting her formidable strength into the task she wrentches the corpse from its perch (25str +7ability score).

uragu would have leo's body grasped so as not to simply pull it in half allowing if necessary ice to be used on the plant itself, her own body covering leo's as she rips it free (uragu has 5/- cold resist from genasi race).

she is rather heavyhanded in the process as she doesnt really restrict her strength.

star23_16 wrote:

May then take a tiny step forward toward the plant and start to tap into her sorcery and Fellfrost powers. Her hands begin to glow blue by cold, her hair subtle moves as she start to murmur the arcane words and wave the hands in the gestures, unless the plant aggressive try to attack her she would then bring both hands close together ahead of herself as a cone of cold powered by fellfrost washes over the plant. Watching closely if it have any desirable effort on the plant or if the body is endangered and if the body looked endangered to solid freezing she would stop and back off with a grumble.

The plant opens its flowers wide and swarms of toxin bugs fly out towards May to attack her. But as they enter the cold aura of hers, the insect wings slow down as they start to freeze in mid air, until finally gravity overpowers them. The icy little insects start to fall down slowly like a beautiful crystal dust, allowing May'katcha to freeze her desirable areas. However once the icy glassy bugs start hitting the ground, they shatter and green gas raises from their point of impact. Its stench capable of rivaling even Uragu's.

Badgerthej wrote:

Uragu is not so subtle with her machinations, lumbering forward she simply grasps the corpse, her thick sludgy covered skin shrugs off the angry insects and all but the largest thorns (barb Dr, 5/- acid resist, 27 fort save). Putting her formidable strength into the task she wrenches the corpse from its perch (25str +7ability score). Uragu would have Leo's body grasped so as not to simply pull it in half allowing if necessary ice to be used on the plant itself, her own body covering Leo's as she rips it free (Uragu has 5/- cold resist from genasi race). She is rather heavy handed in the process as she doesn't really restrict her strength.

Uragu perfectly fits for the job, she could feel like at home. She takes that body like a doll and rips it off with the plant with all the frozen and non frozen parts of the plants falling all over the place. May'katcha could wonder why did she bother to do the freezing anyway. With no restriction to her strenght and with some of the plants still being strongly tied to the body's neck, the skeleton neck cracks and its skull falls back hitting its own spine, and then vines stretch not letting it go, nor having time to let go. Uragu pulling the body rips the entire big plant together out of its roots along with the chunk of earth around the roots and they all collapse together to the ground. To little Jewel and Snowflake this fall could probably feel like a mini earthquake of some sort.

The chunk of earth still hanging in the air now drops as its roots actually separate from the body of the plant, and the earth starts to crawl. The more movement it makes the more earth falls off the roots, until finally the roots were revealed. It looked like some sort of dog sized scorpion with vile mutation to it as it had six tentacles that have snake heads each probably capable of spitting poison, and the long tail that was connected to the plant. It quickly starts crawling away to escape the gathered group.

Wrestling herself free of the mess she caused with huffy grunts she would stare at the thing now trying to make good its escape, eyeing the strange beast and sizing it up. Her reactions are slow at first as she pulls herself from the tangle, but after the plantcreature robbed her of one prize she isnt so slow to let this new one get away.

For Uragu anything can be a good meal.

Jewel all but yelped at the sudden opening of flowers, swarms of bugs flyin forth. Though they were headed for May, not her, she dodged into Uragu's shadow. The shadow seemed to swallow her up, cloaking her from sight. Her nose wrinkled as the scent of the bugs, shattering in icy crystals, spread.

In the shadows, she followed closely to Uragu, watching as the creature just gripped the body and ripped it from the plant, shatterig and tearing some of the thorny vines apart. She steadied herself against Uragu's leg as the earth shuddered with the force of the roots beig disturbed, and then her nose wrinkled at the sight of the scorpion-snake-creature thing.

Stepping from the shadows, she pokes at the tall gensai. "Wot're you waitin fer? Go get it!"

Perhaps she just wanted to keep the forest a bit safer... or maybe she just wanted Uragu to focus upon something besides the dead body. Nobody would care if the scorpion evil thing died, right?

at the simple words Uragu practically launches herself at the thing, her attempts to catch her meal are clumsy but she persues it anyway leaving shimmer, lily and may to deal with what's left of poor leo.

she has no care for her own safety it seems as hunger drives her harder than any taskmaster, she goes in with sharp teeth simply hoping to overwhelm the thing with sheer brute force and heavy trauma.

May'katcha raise a eyebrow under the mask as Uragu bring herself into the area of effort but continue with little care that her cold would ignore any resistence and immunity of Uragu. She briefly narrows her eyes as the plant opens it flowers and the swarm of bug fly toward her, only focusing more to let them fly through the frozen magic and finally watching them collapsing to the cold as she keep on the plant. However as the green gas start to appear she jumps back in pure disgust.

She then stand back and watch Uragu moving about and seemly got thing under control around the scorpion creature then give a grumble as she step toward the body  "Bloody pray the body is not torn apart fully ...."

Seeing the abomination Lily pull her bow off her shoulder and moves to the side to get a clear shot, then let's six arrows fly in pairs at the creature, trying not to hit Uragu. The arrows hit with a piecing cold that ignores any resistance to the cold (just like May's cold does), they would hit hard and drive deep into the creature, freezing the tissue around them.

((DEX 30 STR 16, bow has +3 Mighty, 1d6 positive and 5 cold damage per arrow.))

((If Uragu get  hit the muscles around the wounds would stiffen and the hits wouldn't hurt as much as a normal arrow due to the numbness that the cold causes. But as an OOC note any cold resistance doesn't help at all to protect from a frost mage and an elemental archer, the cold is piercing and just ignores the resistance.))