Cycle 1063 (Winter): Day 2

[atpollard]

Samuel Linkletter & Josephine Baxter-Smith (in Peapod)
Cycle 1063 (Winter): Day 2: Shift 2: Hour 1:22 [Hamlet of Gwynedd: 45N,25W]
The Peapod was halfway to the Ferry Landing in Old Town. There was a third roar from a shotgun, and this time you could clearly see the flash coming from behind a house (#49) in Old Town. Rowing hard you would reach the Ferry Landing in another two minutes, and the house (#49) a minute after that.

[atpollard]

Mercutio Routledge, Jacques Bonnet & Remy Hernandez (in field [near #49])
Cycle 1063 (Winter): Day 2: Shift 2: Hour 1:22 [Hamlet of Gwynedd: 45N,25W]
"Onward mes amis!" shouted Jacques.

Remy was the first to break through the cover of forest into the shrub covered overgrown farmland. Scanning around with his gun drawn, his attention was captured by a feral roar and a lantern flying through the air less than a hundred yards away. Remy barely had a chance to take a step when there was a flash and roar of a shotgun from the same general area.

Jacques heard the third roar of a shotgun and emerged from the woods, with Dr Routledge close behind, near Remy. The three of you advanced to see a man with a shotgun standing over an enormous creature all of 20 feet long.

[atpollard]

Philip Ancalagon (in field [near #49])
Cycle 1063 (Winter): Day 2: Shift 2: Hour 1:22 [Hamlet of Gwynedd: 45N,25W]
The creature focused its rapid strikes at the barrel of Philip’s Vierling, advancing steadily and forcing Phillip to retreat before he could take aim.

The short man with the lantern took advantage of the opportunity to draw a machete from a leather sheath and began hacking rapidly at the tail of the creature. Most chops glanced off the hide with little effect, but one cut deep and drew blood.

The creature reacted to the pain with a wild thrash of its heavy tail that flung the man through the air like a rag doll. The man lay where he landed and moaned.

Taking advantage of the distraction to finally acquire a target, Philip fired a cone of buckshot into the face of the creature, which immediately fell like a stone and lay motionless.

Game Mechanics:
I rolled 2D6 each for the Monster (3,3) and the Man (4,3) and Philip (6,1) and decided to use the first die to determine initiative with Low going first.
Then I added the two dice to get the attack roll. This way someone that shoots first has less time to carefully aim and someone that shoots last had more time to aim, but either could still hit or miss. I just wanted to try it out. [shrug]

The Monster “almost” hit the shotgun. Philip and the man both made “easy” hits.

[sirravd]

Philip rushes to the prostrate man, looking to see how badly he is hurt and where. He offers to help the man to a doctor.

[Urson]

Jo
hearing the third shot, Jo mutters something VERY un-ladylike and rows harder.

[AsenRG]

Remy moved towards the area, drawing his sword in his right hand and moving the gun to the left. It seemed this was some kind of animal, after all.
Animals don't shoot you, so he was now running straight for the noise.

[atpollard]

Samuel Linkletter & Josephine Baxter-Smith (on beach [near #2])
Cycle 1063 (Winter): Day 2: Shift 2: Hour 1:23 [Hamlet of Gwynedd: 45N,25W]
The Peapod was approaching the Ferry landing in Old Town. You could see curious people lining the main street. The most cautions peered through widows or doorways, while the most curious strained to see something from the walkways. None appeared to be heading towards the trouble.

**********

Philip Ancalagon, Mercutio Routledge, Jacques Bonnet & Remy Hernandez (in field [near #49])
Cycle 1063 (Winter): Day 2: Shift 2: Hour 1:23 [Hamlet of Gwynedd: 45N,25W]

Philip knelt over the man. He was conscious and moaning. He did not seem to be bleeding from anywhere. You offered to take him to a doctor and attempted to help him sit up, but the shout of pain convinced you to just lay him back down. That was when you caught sight of a man wielding a sword charging towards your general area.

Remy charged towards the sound of the gunfire and saw the man with the shotgun rush towards a nearby spot in the brush. Your first thought was of the attackers at the Grogg and tankard running to their secret bolt-hole. Suddenly the man stopped in the grass and knelt. You heard a loud cry of pain from location where the man stopped. The creature lay motionless where it fell.

Jacques and Doc Routledge arrived moments after Remy to see a large creature laying motionless in the field and a shout of pain from a shadowy form of a man kneeling in the grass about 6 yards from the tail of the creature.

[Monsieur Rose]

Jacques

"Mon Dieu! Remy! What is that thing? It reminds me of the creatures we hunted on the Spine." Jacques calls out. "You there! Put the shotgun down! We mean no harm."

Jacques pulls his revolver and keeps an eye on the man and the beast.

[Zhym]

Doc Routledge rapidly surveys the scene...and has no idea what just happened here. So he defaults to his training.

"Does someone here need a doctor?" he asks.

[AsenRG]

Remy stopped to put his sword back in the scabbard before approaching.
"Did the thing maul anyone?", he asks the man kneeling near whoever was emitting the wail. "If then, I guess we're lucky...", he added, gesturing at the doctor.
He looked back at Jacques and shrugged.
"A big ugly, monsieur Jacques. Anyone caught nearby can expect bad stuff to happen. Now if you'd excuse me, I'm gonna put a bullet through its eye. Just to be sure it wouldn't get any ideas."

[atpollard]

Samuel Linkletter & Josephine Baxter-Smith (Old Town [#49])
Cycle 1063 (Winter): Day 2: Shift 2: Hour 1:24 [Hamlet of Gwynedd: 45N,25W]
The Peapod had barely reached the Ferry landing in Old Town when Josephine and Dr. Linkletter leaped out and sprinted through the crowd towards the source of the commotion. Standing on the balcony at House #49, there was a flight of stairs that led down to an overgrown field. A short distance away you saw a lantern lying in the grass and the early glow of a small fire spreading from it in the surrounding grass. The glow cast a strange light on the motionless form of a great reptile that lay bleeding nearby.
A short distance beyond and lurking in the shadows was what appeared to be the final moments of a standoff involving a cluster of armed men. One man had sheathed a sword and was heading towards the creature.

**********

Philip Ancalagon, Mercutio Routledge, Jacques Bonnet & Remy Hernandez (in field [near #49])
Cycle 1063 (Winter): Day 2: Shift 2: Hour 1:24 [Hamlet of Gwynedd: 45N,25W]

Philip turned at the shout of several approaching men. Conflicting thoughts flashed through his head as he wondered if help had arrived, or … seeing their brandished weapons … if those attacking townspeople had arrived. He held his gun ready with his last barrel still loaded, but avoided pointing it directly at anyone. Better cautious than dead, but there was no need to go looking for trouble.
At the revelation of a Doctor among them, Philip lowered the gun and quickly called him over to help the injured man. A Frenchman named Jacques and an English Doctor with a peculiar mechanical device covering his arm approached as the third man sheathed a sword and headed towards the creature.
It was almost impossible to make a proper diagnosis without a proper examination, and laying covered in mud in a field of large shrubs with nothing but starlight to illuminate the patient makes a “proper examination” impossible. A cursory examination of the victim revealed pain, consciousness, no obvious external wounds and difficulty breathing.
Remy approached body of the 20 foot reptile and discovered that his time tested plan to place a bullet through the eye socket and into the brain met with two small difficulties. The first was that the creature appeared to have no eyes. While curious, this was not an insurmountable problem since it did have an identifiable mouth and head … well, sort of a head. The second difficulty proved more serious. As Remy circled past the ring of horns to place a shot at the base of the spine, the creature thrashed violently and clubbed Remy with the swing of its meaty tail.

The Shot ricocheted off the creature’s bony plates as the gun discharged. Meanwhile, Remy was thrown 10’ into the air in an arc than landed with a thud 30 feet away. Remy was winded and bruised, but requires no medical treatment … good reflexes allowed him to roll with the landing and avoid the worst of the impact.
The creature fled almost due east leaving a trail of crushed grass in its wake.

Remy takes 6 points of damage and will recover with no outside aid.
Remy = 9-18-23 for “injured-unconscious-dead”

[AsenRG]

Remy jumped up, pulling his sword out. He didn't, however, speed up after the animal.

"And now you know why I make sure", he observed, shaking his head to clear up his thoughts.
"Heavier weapons might be good in order to deal with this beast...but a wounded animal can attack anyone. Who lives in that direction?"

[Zhym]

Doc Routledge fires up his carbide lamp to shed more light on his patient. It's no operating theater, but it should be better than starlight.

"Can you talk? Are you able to move?" he asks.

[ffilz]

Doc Linkletter will come over to assist Doc Routledge

[atpollard]

Philip Ancalagon, Mercutio Routledge, Jacques Bonnet, Remy Hernandez, Samuel Linkletter & Josephine Baxter-Smith (in field [near #49])
Cycle 1063 (Winter): Day 2: Shift 2: Hour 1:25 [Hamlet of Gwynedd: 45N,25W]

"Who lives in that direction?" said Remy.

The members of the group just shrugged and the injured man shook his head side to side. "n’bdy" he whispered through clenched teeth, followed by "hndrd yrds bch".

"Are you able to move?" said Doc Routledge to the patient just as Doc Linkletter joined them. Both doctors silently cursed the darkness that inhibited their work.

The man concentrated on the doctors and nodded slowly. "Thnk so" he hissed through obvious pain. Inhaling deeply and grimacing "Hurts like a b*tch" he added, holding onto his side.

[Urson]

Jo
Jospehine joins the group around the wounded, unsure what she can do to help. She makes sure to stay well out of the Doctors' way.

She concentrates on the brief view she had of the creature: Is it something she might have heard of or seen before? Can she make _any_ educated guess on what it may do now?

[Monsieur Rose]

Jacques

Jacques helps Remy to his feet. Really he just kinda stands nearby as Remy gets up. "That bastard was playing dead! You think you could track it? I want to make sure it's gone." Noticing both Doc and Jo have arrived, he makes his way over. "Hello again. I guess you heard the commotion. What do you think? I'd like to follow that thing, care to go hunting with us?"

He approaches Philip. "What on earth happened here? No, nevermind. No time. Let's go follow that beast. Bring your gun. I'm Jacques, by the way."

[atpollard]

(I only advanced the time 10 seconds to add data that I missed and address characters not mentioned in the last post. I will respond to Jacques when people announce they are following so I know who is chasing the creature)

Philip Ancalagon, Mercutio Routledge, Jacques Bonnet, Remy Hernandez, Samuel Linkletter & Josephine Baxter-Smith (in field [near #49])
Cycle 1063 (Winter): Day 2: Shift 2: Hour 1:25:10 [Hamlet of Gwynedd: 45N,25W]

Josephine is very familiar with this family of reptilian predators, and moderately familiar with this particular species. They are all predatory and territorial hunters with non-overlapping scales embedded within a tough waterproof hide. The Hide can be peeled off and treated to make excellent waterproof tarps, boots and raingear. The family ranges in size from as small as your forearm to as large as a small ship, but most prefer to dwell close to the shore either on intermittently flooded beaches or in shallow water. They can remain submerged and hidden for long periods of time, often bursting from hiding to ambush a prey. They are violent, but not particularly intelligent; operating mostly by instinct to hunt and kill. This particular species is blind and deaf, tracking prey by heat sensors. It can only detect creatures in a cone in front of it, but changes direction frequently to sweep the environment. Once the jaws lock on something, they cannot let go or be pried open without crushing the creature’s bones for as long as it lives. The saliva contains large quantities of bacteria that are almost certain to cause an infection if they enter the blood stream … requiring care when harvesting the skin.

It is unusual for the creature to be so close to a settlement, but it will likely return to a nest to rest and heal.

******

With Routledge holding the carbide lamp and both doctors helping the man to his feet for a more thorough examination, it was Linkletter who finally announced that the man had some internal bruising and likely a cracked rib, but nothing was broken and he had no sign of any internal bleeding. You needed to get him somewhere to clean him off and bind up his side while he rested and it healed. Observation for 24 hours to be certain, an antibiotic as a precaution, and lots of rest was the unanimous medical opinion.

[AsenRG]

"In the dark, Monsieur Jacques? I'd rather not do that without light. Even if we could see the tracks...being ambushed by a big ugly can be lethal. You saw it's got good instincts, playing dead like that."
He sighed wistfully.
"Though we'd have to do it, if anyone is at risk...but it's better to go tomorrow if the area isn't frequented."

[Urson]

Josephine

I am no hunter, but I know that beast will run to its den, hide, and heal. If we want it dead, someone should follow it and finish it off.

It sounds a lot like a Komodo Dragon- plus the ring of horns.