Nym (Ranger9000)

[cross_grave]

Re: Nym (Ranger9000)

"You seek a piece of that thing?" The voice asked, echoing disbelief. "You humans truly are strange. Not that it's necessarily a bad thing..." The stranger trailed off at this point for some reason. Meanwhile, Eru seemed to take heed of Nym's words, dropping her stance. She had yet to let go of her weapons, but at least she didn't look like she was about to charge and attack. "Well, at least you're smart enough to not seek a battle with it." The voice returned after a pause, accompanied by a rustle of leaves as someone moved in the tree. Nym would get the impression that someone was looking at her and Eru, noting how both of them no longer seemed willing to attack. "Say, do you need any help finding it? Because if you do me a favor, I might let you know where to look for the lair."

 

[Ranger9000]

Re: Nym (Ranger9000)

Well, it looked like the situation had been diffused, so that was good. She really didn't want to fight whatever it was up in the trees. Though the feeling of being stared at by whatever it was was a bit disconcerting still. "Well given we lost its trail, yes we need help. What is this favour you need? Also what should we call you?"

 

[cross_grave]

Re: Nym (Ranger9000)

There was a brief pause, as if the other person was considering something. Finally, the silence was broken by the sound of rustling leaves and a loud buzzing, as if a massive insect was taking to the sky. In a burst of motion, the figure emerging from the treetop, revealing herself. The stranger was some kind of an ant-person, a humanoid woman with short black hair, dark eyes and bug-like antennae. Her limbs were covered in black chitin and she had a slim, ant-like abdomen sticking out behind her. Curiously enough, she also had a pair of wings that were keeping her in the air above Eru and Nym, despite being an ant.

"I am Skylla." The ant-girl introduced herself. "I'm a Queen, or at least will be once I find a place for a Hive. Me and my mate were traveling around here before getting sidetracked and ending up here. There was a bit of trouble with some kind of crazy plant and I've lost track of him. Help me find him, and I shall tell you where you can find the lair of that tentacle beast." Skylla offered. "His name is Marcus. He has black hair like me and wears a pendant shaped like a wing. He should be around here somewhere, but I can't seem to find him."

 

[Ranger9000]

Re: Nym (Ranger9000)

Well, if there was one thing Nym wasn't really expecting from there mysterious watcher. It was for her to be an ant girl. "Well nice to meet you Skylla. Is there anything you have of Marcus' that we can use to get a scent on him? Eru is best at tracking by scent. Also what crazy plant? Something we should be on the lookout for?

 

[cross_grave]

Re: Nym (Ranger9000)

"A weirdly shaped giant moving flower." Skylla explained, slowly lowering herself to the ground. "We set it on fire, then it started exploding. That's how we got separated a few hours ago." She explained. "And I have this." She landed, showing the two girls what looked like a small pouch. Eru sniffed at it a few times before announcing that it did indeed carry the scent of a man. She was ready to start searching now, if Nym wanted her to. "I shall survey the area from the sky. I wasn't able to find him this way for some reason earlier, but it might work now." The ant-girl declared before taking to the skies again.

 

[Ranger9000]

Re: Nym (Ranger9000)

Well atleast they had something to go off of, otherwise this would have been just as hard as looking for the tentacle lair except the guy could move. Hopefully he hadn't been caught by a giant spider or something.

Either way once Skylla took off into the air Nym would turn to Eru and say. "Well, that saved us one fight atleast. Now, lets go find this guy, and hopefully avoid anymore of those exploding plants. Seriously why would a plant explode..."

Once they got going, Nym would follow behind Eru with her axe at the ready. The redhead making sure that if they stumbled across any of the local wildlife that took offense to them going through there territory, they would be ready.

 

[cross_grave]

Re: Nym (Ranger9000)

"That's why I don't visit places like this. They're weird." The wolf-girl replied, shrugging. Still, she got back to tracking without complaints, working on locating the missing man. After spending some time searching, they've emerged in a small clearing that contained a rather impressive blast mark, a large patch of scorched ground and vegetation. Most likely the place where that bizzare plant was located. Poking around it for a while, the two girls would eventually stumble on an oddity: a well-concealed hole that lead underground, large enough for a man to fall into if he wasn't careful. Perhaps this was the reason why Skylla was unable to find her mate.

 

[Ranger9000]

Re: Nym (Ranger9000)

Eventually they reached a clearing, and then they found a hidden hole. "Well, it looks like someone grabbed Skylla's man. Or maybe he hid himself down there, they are ant's after all." Nym said as she looked at the hole. The hole was to narrow to go down and fight at the same time, assuming it wasn't just vertical the whole way down. It was obvious that atleast some creature used it or it wouldn't be this well concealed, so it likely lead to either a lair or a trap. "Hope whatever made this didn't like, eat him or something."

Nym would look around for a smaller rock, and dropped it into the hole, checking to see how deep it was and if it was like, water or stones at the bottom. If she couldn't find a rock then she'd try to find a stick as a replacement. Well she could have tried to set the stick on fire she was somewhat worried the hole might have methane, dry roots or something in it and dropping a lit torch down might cause it to burst into flames. Before she dropped the rock or lit the fire bundle, she decided to shout down the hole. "Hey, is anyone down there?"

If there was no reply she'd drop the rock, hoping to see if she'd like, break her legs if she just dropped down.

 

[cross_grave]

Re: Nym (Ranger9000)

"I don't think he's an ant, actually." Eru frowned, looking down into the hole. "Doesn't smell like one." She peered curiously, as if trying to see within the gloom inside. After shouting inside, Nym could hear a very faint echo of a noise come back. She couldn't recognize what it was, but it almost sounded like a reply, if impossible to understand. At the very least, someone or something was there. Eru seemed rather convinced that the trail went down at least, and the air inside of the hole smelled clear to her. So perhaps there were no gasses to worry about after all.

After looking around for a moment, Nym was able to locate a decently sized pebble. It quickly vanished in the murky depths as she dropped it, a soft, almost silent sound of impact following a mere second or so later. Well, at least there were no rocks or water down there, and the hole didn't appear to be too deep. Not deep enough to cause her much damage if she dropped down, especially since that unless he was dragged down by something, Marcus was apparently able to walk off on his own.

 

[Ranger9000]

Re: Nym (Ranger9000)

"Well, something is down there atleast. Though I have the strangest feeling Marcus didn't go down there of his own accord." Nym said as she started diving into her bag again. Pulling out the rope she'd check to see if they had enough to tie off up here and use to get down, or atleast, so that they had a way to get back out later.

Once the rope was set up, or they figured it wouldn't work, Nym would go hunting for the stick this time. If she was going to jump into a super dark cave she wanted to atleast have something she could light up at the bottom. Mixing the stick with a bit of extra rope and some dry leaves she'd fashion a hopefully longer lasting torch this time. "Well, I'm going to go down, Eru you stay up here and see if you can't flag down Skylla and watch the rope. Either way you got to keep it so that we can get back out. Now though, wish me luck."

With that, Nym would take her axe and try to either slide down the hole with the rope, or failing that, just drop in and try to roll when she got to the bottom to spread out some of the impact.

 

[cross_grave]

Re: Nym (Ranger9000)

Nym managed to find the stick she wanted and gather some leaves, but her makeshift torch was hardly impressive. A haphazard construct of dried wood and rope, it'd be inferior to a proper torch. She did have enough rope to tie it to a nearby tree and drop down, at least, allowing her to get in and out without too much trouble. When she told Eru to stay on the surface and watch the rope, the wolfgirl nodded and took a position from which she could quickly come to assist the redhead as she descended if need be. "I'll give her a shout once she's above us. You take care down there."

Descending into the hole, Nym would find it was almost completely vertical, making climbing up a difficult prospect without some kind of aid. At the very least, the drop was pretty short and her rope reached the bottom with plenty to spare. Glancing around, she'd notice that the hole opened up into some kind of corridor in the earth, like a small cave. The man she was looking for most likely ended up exploring the tunnel in hopes of finding a different exit. Nym would have little choice but to do the same, with or without torchlight depending on how she intended to manage her improvised creation.

 

[Ranger9000]

Re: Nym (Ranger9000)

Nym would light the torch before going further, deciding she'd just have to cover as much ground as she could before it burned down rather then trying to navigate blind. With the addition of light she'd look down at the ground, hoping to see maybe footprints left in the dirt that might help lead the way.

 

[cross_grave]

Re: Nym (Ranger9000)

The torch took a moment to catch on fire, starting at the dried leaves. The flames expanded from there, soon moving onto the rope she wound around the stick, burning quite brightly and allowing her to go down the tunnel. It twisted around a fair bit, though fortunately there seemed to be no forks to watch out for. Sadly, rope was not designed to be a sustainable fuel. After a few minutes, it began to break and fall apart, having burned down to cinders. Soon enough, Nym was left with just the stick, still burning weakly and providing only a dim, weak light. With this, advancing my attempting to track footsteps would slow her down greatly, as the tracks left by the man were difficult to pick out even with better light available. Sounds, however, seemed to carry quite well in the tunnel, so perhaps she could consider using that as her marker.

 

[Ranger9000]

Re: Nym (Ranger9000)

"Dammit, I really need to get some actual torches next time we're in town. These makeshift ones are garbage." Nym muttered to herself as the light burned out quickly, leaving her with just a stick that was on fire. Still, it was better then nothing. The lack of forks made lighting it early a bit of a waste though.

Either way she'd give up on trying to follow the tracks, and decided to instead listen for anything. Maybe she could catch whatever that noise was before. "Hey, anyone down here?" Nym shouted to the tunnel, before remembering something else she should have been doing from the start, though she might as well start sooner rather then later. Using her axe handle she drew an X in the dirt along the wall, hopefully it might help her know she was going the right way when she navigated back.

Now she just had to hope she didn't attract something dangerous, maybe the tunnels were made by a herbivore or something?

 

[cross_grave]

Re: Nym (Ranger9000)

Her voice echoed along the tunnel, the dim light of her stick the only aid Nym had in marking the path she traversed earlier. Still, after a while, she'd hear a response. A weak one, though somewhat louder than earlier. Clearly she was beginning to get closer to someone. It was still difficult to tell for sure who was calling out to her, but by now she was relatively sure the response was the voice of another person. Near as she could tell there were no forks in the road nearby, so she could pursue immediately if she wished. Though moving more carefully was also on the table.

 

[Ranger9000]

Re: Nym (Ranger9000)

Well, atleast she heard something. Though now she was wondering why Marcus didn't just come back to the entrance hole given this place seemed to straight. She figured there had to be something that caused that, maybe there was like a sudden drop somewhere along the line. Either way she sped up a bit, but she continued to mark out X's on the walls ever few dozen feet, and tried to avoid going so fast that she'd fail to notice something coming up on the path.

 

[cross_grave]

Re: Nym (Ranger9000)

Navigating the tunnel with only the stick to light her path was a bit difficult, as many details escaped her sight, but it was doable. As she kept marking the wall with an X every few metres, Nym would suddenly note during one attempt that she suddenly couldn't reach the wall. Attempting to look around, even with the lit stick, did not allow her to locate it. In fact, she couldn't see anything at all. Left in pitch black darkness, illuminated only by the sad remains of her pathetic torch, the girl had lost track of everything. Yet even though her eyes couldn't pierce the murk at all, suddenly she became certain that she was not alone. Something was here, closing in, something she couldn't see but could definitely feel around her. And that something was not friendly.

(Attacked by ???, Combat Engaged)

 

[Ranger9000]

Re: Nym (Ranger9000)

"Dammit, why didn't I pick up magic, that would have made seeing so much easier." Nym said as she suddenly lost track of the wall, and apparently the path she had just come from. If only she knew it was going to be so straight she wouldn't have wasted the torch so early on.

Then she felt something out in the darkness around her, and she realized things probably just got a fair bit worse for her. Clutching her axe a tighter she tried to see what was out past her torchlight. "Why can't anything ever start off with a greeting around here! Whatever is out there, we don't need to fight."

This was more or less the worst case scenario as far as she was concerned, it would only be worse really if she didn't have the light at all.

 

[cross_grave]

Re: Nym (Ranger9000)

Whatever it was, it came in a wave of scratching, chittering and moaning. It moved with the sound of whispering of the damned. Nym found herself surrounded by it entirely, no escape route visible. Still, the faint light of her stick seemed to give her a second or two of time to act, as whatever it was seemed hesitant to approach it. It wouldn't last, though, and if she tried to use it as a weapon she'd not be able to protect herself with it from attacks and vice-versa. She'd have to choose between offense and defense in this battle. Whatever the creature was, it showed no sign of interest in her words.

Status:
Nym: 6/6 FP, 0/10 AP, 2/2 CP
???: ?/? FP

 

[Ranger9000]

Re: Nym (Ranger9000)

Well, whatever it was didn't want to talk, and sounded like the coming of the damned or something. Seriously what the hell did she run into. Either way she decided to go defensively. The girl going on the defensive and trying to keep moving in the hopes that maybe she'd find a way out of wherever she had ended up before this thing beat her six ways from Sunday. If she caught sight of her attacker she'd try to strike out with her axe, but swinging blind would just be a good way to get hit in the sides or rear. Though she was also somewhat wondering just what would happen if she lost to whatever the hell this thing was seeing as she didn't really hold out much hope for her chances.