[IC] Trespassers DC: Tribal Times (Forgotten Realms Hunt)

[DragonRage]

(Strength Check 8 v 9)  Law and the angry squirrel seem dead even in strength.  He's unable to push it off him, but it's also unable to force its way past his makeshift shield.

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Facemelter of Facesssss iiiiisssssn't sssscary?"  Now the voice sounds like it's pouting, "Iiii thought haviiiing your face melted sssounded pretty ssscary.  You're ssssure you're not afraiiid?  Even a liiittle?"

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Freya's bone bats enter the treetops and discover Law grappling for his life against an ordinary grey squirrel!  (Intelligence check natural 1 v 10)  Law does not notice the undead bats, his attention being very focused on the other rodent.

[Hal Henderics]

"AAAAAAAGHHHHHHHHHHH" his screams drown out Freya's offers of help as he desperately struggles against the rodent.

[Chevaleresse]

"I mean, having your face melted is scary, but. . ." Lucine put her hand up to her chin thoughtfully. "How do I explain? It's like, too on the nose? It just sounds really funny when you're like 'oooh, I am the face melting guy, fear my melting of faces!'" She exaggerated her voice for effect, a mock baritone accompanying waving her arms about as if she was some Saturday-morning cartoon villain. She supposed she was a little scared, but mostly because she had no idea where she was. "Plus, I dunno, it doesn't sound like you can actually melt my face."

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Freya

 

Needless to say, Law's screams caused Freya the get even more worried, using her connection to her 'bats' to see what was going on... Only to find out he was in a duel to the death with a regular squirrel.

 

... Yeah, that seemed accurate so far.

 

With a quick straightening of her hat, Freya commanded her bone bats forward to harass the squirrel off of Law, and maybe get it to flee with the fact that it was getting assaulted with bats made of human bones and flesh.

[DragonRage]

(Morale check 8v4)  The squirrel, harrassed by the bats, has had enough.  Pausing only to hurl an uncannily accurate acorn that bounces off Freya's forehead, the fluffy rodent scampers off and leaps to a nearby tree, where it chitters angrily down at the necromancer and her bats.  Law has survived Mortal Kombat!  Yay!

-------------------------------

"Iii can melt faces!"  It seems that Facemelter's hissing was put on to sound scarier; his voice cracking was not.  Without the hiss he sounds around ten years younger.  Regardless, a pitch-black reptilian snout protrudes from the trees and opens, displaying rows of needle-sharp teeth.  Facemelter takes a deep breath in, and spits a stream of vibrant green liquid that hisses and spits where it lands in the grass, creating a large patch of dead and partially dissolved grass.  "My acid breath can melt...  Well, Iii've never used it on a human before, but it striiiped a crocodile's face down to the bone once!  Pretty cool, riight?  Scary!  Riiight?"

[Chevaleresse]

Lucine peered at the patch. "Ooh, that actually is pretty cool." So he could actually melt faces, if he was speaking correctly. And the creature did seem to be a dragon-like thing of some variety, which meant she was talking to an actual real life dragon! "It's really cool to meet you, too! Where I'm from there's no dragons left." She tilted her head slightly as she looked up towards where the snout poked out of the foliage. "Why do you want to scare people, though? I mean, the stories are all about big huge dragons that did it, but they all sounded like big dumb animals or the occasional cursed evil guy."

[Hal Henderics]

Law flops on his back, dropping out of the tree and just heaving deep breaths, staring up at Freya.

 

"We gotta get out of here, Freya, I think Lucine might still be after me."

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Freya

 

"Ow!" Freya yelled as soon as the acorn landed straight on her forehead, causing her hand to fly up to the landing zone as the squirrel ran off. And shortly followed by Law dropping out of the tree, out of breath and lying on his back.

 

Soon enough, Freya ignored the slightly dull pain on her forehead to kneel next to Law, leaning her head to the side as he warned her about Lucine, "I don't think so. You two actually ran off in different directions" she replied, scooping Law from the ground with one of her arms, practically cradling him in her arm as she turned around to walk back towards the group again, her multitude of bone bats now fluttering in the trees above them.

[DragonRage]

"Iiiii....  Iiii....  I don't know, really,"  The dragon admits uneasily.  "Miiiy parents just saiiid I had to or the humans would come to slay me.  Iiii asked once, but...  They saiiid they'd tell me when Iiii was older.  Iiii don't thiiink they knew eiiither.  Humans come and slay dragons in theiiiir metal shells wiiiith metal claws, unless we scare them away or slay them fiiirst.  That's what they saiiid."  The young dragon drops out of the tree next to Lucine with a quiet 'thump', revealing a serpentine reptile whose shoulder would be level with her waist if both were standing.  He's covered in small, black scales with iridescent edges, and a crest of nubby horns sprouts from the back of his head.  More nubby spikes run down his spine, and his slit, yellow eyes seem to have two sets of eyelids when he blinks, one of which is clear.  "But you don't have a shell, and you diiiidn't run or fiiight.  ...Nobody said that was an option."

[Hal Henderics]

Law, meanwhile, eventually manages to wrangle his heart rate down to something sensible as Freya essentially holds him like a children's toy.

 

He finds it isn't nearly as uncomfortable as it quite frankly should be.

 

Squirming in her grip, he climbs up and onto Freya's shoulder, relieving her arm of it's burden.

[Chevaleresse]

"Oh." That was. . . sad. "I kinda get what you mean." She had good reason to be nervous around mages, and she wasn't sure "normal" people would be more understanding on the whole either. Though she couldn't remember any time her "father" had told her to melt the faces off of anyone. "I guess people could assume you were bad and try to slay you. Sometimes humans kinda stop caring if they're talking about nonhumans." A sad note crept into her voice before she pulled herself back. "But I don't want to slay you, and I bet the other people I'm with don't, either." Lucine tilted her head slightly. He wasn't a full-grown dragon, right? He sounded like a kid, and dragons were supposed to be like a hundred feet long or something like that. "Where are your parents, anyway?"

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Freya

 

Honestly, Freya didn't mind Law squirming out of her original hold and onto her shoulder. It at least freed her other hand, the other busy holding her staff as she continued walking back, "So, uh, Law. I never got to talk to you before, but what was your home like?"

[Hal Henderics]

"...Quiet.  Very quiet and peaceful." He says.

 

"Whether it was... reading holographic logs, or... herding Yakows."

 

"It was always very quiet."

 

She probably doesn't know enough to think that him mixing up herding and superscience is odder than anything else about him, he ventures in his mind.

 

"Aside from the odd Lurker, uh, these big, frog-guys, who are quite violent.  Aside from them, not much really went on, back home."

 

"I certainly didn't want things to get too, er, interesting, but even back then, I had to admit that it was a bit boring, just learning about Eco, and doing Chores."

 

 

[DragonRage]

"They liiive far away.   Iiii don't know where," 'Facemelter of Faces' shares sadly, "Too many dragons in the same place causes problems.  Food gets scarce.  Humans notiiice things.  Iii'm big enough to leave the nest and surviiive.  That's what they said before they left me here.  Um, my name isn't actually 'Facemelter of Faces'.  It's..."  He trails off, eyeing Lucine's very human-looking teeth and lips.  "Moss.  Well, not really.  But Iii don't think you have the right jaws to speak Draconiiic, and Moss is close.  Kiiinda."

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Freya

 

"... You don't strike me as someone to have lived a boring life" Freya commented when Law finished his explination, turning her head to look at him, "I mean, I don't know anything about Yakows, but you're the last person I would see as a farmer of any kind. I don't get half the things you make or talk about, but it's obvious that you're pretty smart and creative, and I don't feel like you could get what you know from herding."

[Hal Henderics]

Law's hair stands on end as she calls him out on his bullshit, and his back stiffens, and if it wasn't for a thick layer of fuzz protecting his innocent face, a bright red flush might be spotted beneath. "We-well, I... uhh."

 

"School!" He shouts, idea in his head.

 

"I- that is to say, School isn't everything, you know!  I, uhh, herded when I wasn't busy learning the secrets of science and the universe, of course!"

 

He chuckles seconds longer than it takes him to realize that the chuckles do not sound at all nonchalant.

[Chevaleresse]

Lucine pouted slightly at the statement. "I totally could! People speak all kinds of different languages. Though, um, I don't actually speak Draconic. Is it anything like Romanian?" She realized, slightly belatedly, that Romania probably didn't exist in this world, as well as all of the other languages she spoke not exactly having corresponding geographic locations. Maybe they still had the same languages by some weird coincidence?

 

"Oh, and I'm Lucine Nadine Einzbern Yggdmillenia." It occurred to her that she probably shouldn't be sharing her second middle name, but with Germany also presumably not existing here, so the Einzberns themselves didn't as well, alongside their fame as a house of homunculi. "I'm um, I'm sorry to hear that your parents just kicked you out like that."

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Freya

 

If it was anyone else, Law probably would've been called out on his continued bullshit and pressed further. But, instead of that, Freya merely shrugged, "Fair enough" she stated, not wanting to force anything out of Law that he didn't want to share, "I myself was home schooled. Tended to be more of a shut in when I was younger, but I've always wondered what life would be like on a farm."

[Hal Henderics]

Law droops slightly at that.

 

"It's really nice."

 

"There's not any crazy cultists, or... giant AI spacecraft.  The kind of place where most of the fighting you do is with the weather and the varmints! Hah hah..."

 

He pauses.  "You don't really get to keep a life like that when you've got obligations like I've got."

 

"And..."

 

He doesn't droop further, but he does stay right as he is.

 

"You don't really get to go back to it when you know what I know."

 

After a quick shake of his head, he puffs himself back up with some hidden grit.

 

"But hey!  Secrets of the universe in my noggin, and all I had to give up was hard labor? Easy trade, I'd say!"

 

"...How about you?"

 

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Freya

 

"I... See. Well, my own life back home was..." Freya pauses for a split second, trying to find the words, "Eventful? I'd honestly prefer a quiet life compared to what I got dealt with, but I've just learned to deal with it. Not really any sort of obligations like you, except for what we're doing now, but apart from having a goal, nothing's changed for me. I'm still just fighting to survive, but at least I have more people around that aren't trying to have my head as a trophy."

[Hal Henderics]

"Eventful, huh?"

 

"Well, what we're doing now kind of IS my obligation.  The Precursors slated me as...  Not critical."

 

"So this is their token effort to get everyone off their backs about it."  He gestures to himself as the "this"

 

Law then points to the pile of orange metal spheres and canisters of glowing fluid in the encampment, which had arrived in a flash of light at some point earlier on.

 

"They've been sending me supplies, but-" ...He shrugs.

 

"I'm supposed to help, but I'm mostly trying not to panic whenever there's not some thick armor between me and..." "Everything else" goes unspoken, but heard regardless.

 

"Of course, I guess in my situation, I'm glad nobody's after my pelt, rather than my head."

 

...

 

"If you need anything that can be built, don't hesitate to ask.  I'd rather nobody have your head, for either trophy OR non-trophy reasons..."

 

Law's second unspoken statement is actually an unspoken question this time, as his tone lifts in a questioning lilt.

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Freya

 

"Well, I personally think they sent a great representative to do this, panic aside. But don't worry about anyone trying to take my head off, it's just part of a long feud I've had with some assholes" Freya replied casually, before pausing when she realized what she said, "That is to say, you don't have to go out of your way to help me. I've been able to handle myself for as long as I can remember. The problems I did have are just behind me now... I think. Hopefully."

[Hal Henderics]

"Sorry, but that's not in the cards!" Law says, smirking slightly.

 

"I'm still here to help, that's my way."

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Freya

 

"Again, fair enough. I'll think of something that you could help me with, whenever I come across it" Freya replied, "That said, I think we might be coming back to the lookout site. Hopefully everyone else didn't leave without us."

[DragonRage]

"Iii've never heard of Romania," Moss admits, "Iiit must be very far away.  My parents...  They never triiiied to eat me, even when they made me leave.  They let me keep a few thiiings from the hoard.  Most dragons aren't so lucky."