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Post by Duello on Jun 29, 2007 12:26:02 GMT -5
Duello could feel the tension in his spine. They continued on into the forest. He would occationaly let go of his bow with one hand to wipe the moisture from his palms, then take up his ready position again, eyes darting around the forest. Attanis snorted and Duello's eyes snapped forward to see what was wrong.
there, to the side of the trail stood a monstrosity of a tree, ghost white and twisted it towered over head, unnaturaly thick and misformed. it took Duello a moment to realize that this was their third landmark, five birch trees fused at their base and grown together into a large compilation of all five.
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Post by Eldarion Kildare on Jul 7, 2007 11:03:40 GMT -5
"Nearly there then," Eldarion let out in a barely audible sigh of breath. No turning back now. Again he adjusted his grip on his claymore. Yago flipped his head a bit irritably and the elf atop him narrowed his brow, patting the feathered mane again. Yago was growing impatient. Perhaps they all were at this point. Not that he was begging for attack--and his eyes scanning the trees said there was still a bit of caution in the paladin--but the tension of waiting had already grown too thick for his liking. He was what one might call a man of action--patience, while not lacking, was not Eldarion's greatest virtue, and obviously not Yago's either.
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Post by Duello on Jul 8, 2007 18:18:45 GMT -5
(posting before packing the laptop for the week)
Duello moved forward at a crawl, his eyes scanning everywhere, finally he saw it ahead, the trees encassed in webbing. his skin crawled as he looked at them, and looked around to make sure they hadnt been seen yet. he turned back toward Eldarion, and went pail at the sight. he could see the beast coming through the trees behind them, moving from branch to branch, swiftly bearing down on them in silence. his eyes wide he spun his shoulders arround and fired at the beast over the head of his companion. "RUN!" he screamed and Attanis moved benieth him, his knees turning the horse to the side so that it road away to the right instead of following the path. the arrow sank into the Crimsha, a giant of the species. Duello got another arrow ready and fired while ridding, then cursed as he saw the shaft go high over the monster. he reigned in Attanis and prepaired to fire a third shot.
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Post by Eldarion Kildare on Jul 14, 2007 11:54:08 GMT -5
Eldarion didn't need a second warning. Yago spun about, took one look at the beast, and took off to the right. Eldarion held his blade at ready, intent to slice into the beast from behind...if Duello could keep him distracted long enough for the paladin to circle around--avoiding the webbing and praying it didn't compass out--he could see the wires of it overhead from the end of the path to where the Crimsha descended.
The beast was huge. He'd heard of Crimsha three apertaine wide, but never something like this--they'd be doing a service to all Zhoan-kind to rid the Lunar Wood of it--if they managed to survive the encounter.
...and he prayed the beast had no little ones about to make the task any more difficult.
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Post by Duello on Jul 20, 2007 12:58:00 GMT -5
(ooc: sorry about the extended delay. i returned home to some rather depressing problems that I'm trying to deal with, and didn't have time to get on till now.)
Duello fired as the crimsha circled toward him. it lumbered forward through the branches, not descending but maintaining its advantage of being above it's prey. Duello sneered at it and reloaded as his arrow skipped off its thick hide. he shot again, this one bitting into his foe, the impact seeming to neither phase nor slow the beasts progress by any significant amount. Duello paled and reloaded. this beast was almost ignoring the weight of his shots. he needed a clear hit on the unprotected hinge between body sections, but with it moving, it would be a hard shot to make. he aimed and fired again, burying another shaft into the body.
the forest floor around the beast was blessedly clear of webbing, and the crimsha in it's fury circled toward the nest, seeming to be herding the elves away from the cords. Duello's noted the creatures behavior and wondered why it would act that way, repelling the prey from the webs instead of luring them toward it and trapping them against it. he fired another shaft as he pondered the opponents behavior.
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Post by Eldarion Kildare on Jul 27, 2007 11:10:42 GMT -5
(No worries Duello, things get crazy here too. I won't hold it against you.)
This was rather inconvenient for Eldarion. A claymore may be larger than the average sword and he may be on horseback, but even so, trying to slice at a target ABOVE oneself was no simple task. The slash would lack strength and it was harder to strike true. Another mental note to learn some spells that could be used to attack over long ranges. Definitely.
Regardless, unlike his companion, Eldarion's attention was predominantly on the target at hand. He was hesitant to get under the beast but it seemed the only way he might get a clean shot. No, either way such an act was suicide. He circled the massive crimsha as best he could swinging his blade any time he thought he might hit something vital--unfortunately it mostly bounced off the tough exoskeleton and an irritable 'che' sound would periodically emit from the paladin's throat. Still, if they continued to attack they were bound to hit SOMETHING eventually, right?
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Post by Duello on Jul 28, 2007 18:43:31 GMT -5
the crimcha turned a little, trying to get a look at Eldarion, however, due to its limited body manuverability and considerable size it proved dificult for it to manuver such to get a clear look at eldarion, and therefor could not identify its target, let alone strike at him. meanwhile Duello paused in his fireing, waiting for the beast to turn to a proper angle. he waited, his bow drawn taunt and tracking the beast to get his aim. the beast swung it's girth around, trying to turn on the paladin, and Duello released the string. his arrow sailed through the air and slid into the momentarily exposed juncture between body sections. the creature colapsed on that side, away from the mounted paladin, producing sounds unlike any duello had heard before, high pitched and warbled, intersperced with clicking from the mandables on the front of the monstrosities mouth. it tried struggleing to it's feet and colapsed to its side again, then struggled to rise again. "all yours Eldarion" Duello muttered to himself, readying another arrow and wondering if he could safely get another shot off without risking hitting his companion. he held his shot, waiting for a good shot.
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Post by Eldarion Kildare on Aug 5, 2007 13:50:46 GMT -5
Eldarion didn't wait to strike. Seemingly of one mind at times as most Zhoan and Apertaine could be, Yago lurched forward the two steps it too to close the distance and moved sidwise and Eldarion swung his claymore down heavily towards the beast's middle hinge to (hopefully) bite deep into the flesh, using as much of his arm and shoulder's muscle to force the blade deep as one feasibly could while still being prepared to run like hell if it became necessary.
He'd be glad when this job was over and Moonhaven was a bit safer for it...and by default he himself was a LOT safer for it. Rushing into battle was a thing any Thrae'Goden was good for, but that didn't mean the paladin didn't value his life all the same.
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Post by Duello on Aug 5, 2007 20:04:18 GMT -5
The beast lurched in agony, ripping the sword from Eldarion's hand, it's body and legs flailing on the ground in it's final throws of death. The back portion, behind the sword, was noticably limp, but the front portion flailed for several seconds before the legs curled intowards its chest and it's motions came to a twitchy end.
Duello slowly rode forward, observing the dead behimoth of a spider. "Well struck, friend." he said, and circled around toward his companions position. "Well struck indeed. Perhaps, we should give it a few minutes, just to be sure it's dead, before we retrieve our equipment, hmm? After all, I'd hate to have it suddenly lash out for one final blow before it's fully dead."
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Post by Eldarion Kildare on Aug 12, 2007 11:43:55 GMT -5
Eldarion let out a faint curse as the claymore was torn from his hand and Yago reared back away from the flailing crimsha. He always felt a bit defenseless without his blade, but, flexing his hand, gave a short nod at Duello's caution, though he'd been just about to move forward to claim the weapon back. "I suppose that would be best." His eyes scanned the surrounding area just in case. One could never be too sure that the battle was over until they were safe at home again, after all, and even then it was sometimes questionable.
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Post by Duello on Aug 13, 2007 7:08:57 GMT -5
Duello turned his mount in a circle, watching the forest, and observing the nest. With the Crimsha dead everything had gone still. He slowly walked Attanis forward and cautiously laid his fingers on one of the shafts sticking out of the side of the beast. Giving a pull he cringed as it came out with a sickinging sound somewhere between a crunch and a squish. He looked up at the hulking form of the monster. "I think that settles the matter." he said, and began collecting his arrows again. when he had gathered all that he could find and reach from the ground or horseback, he turned toward the nest. "Do you suppose we should take a look around before we destroy this thing? Who knows what sort of things this beasts previous meals were carrying when they were brought in.Mmight be some valuables inside that we can salvage." He suggested and gestured toward the cavelike entrance to the maze of webbing.
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Post by Eldarion Kildare on Aug 21, 2007 8:31:45 GMT -5
"I can't say I get much pleasure from looting the dead," Eldarion said, "but you have a point. Material possessions don't mean much to those not of this world. At the very least we may find something to identify the casualties. It's not much, knowing a loved one was killed by a Crimsha," he said, yanking his blade out of the monster with a sickening squish of noise. "But it's better than not knowing at all."
He gave an affirmative nod. "There may be others around yet anyway, best stay on our guard in case this one was nesting."
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Post by Duello on Aug 21, 2007 11:56:53 GMT -5
Duello nodded "the things of this world belong to this world, let the dead concern themselves with the things of the next." He put away his bow and arrows and drew his dagger. The blade was ordinary, sturdy and functional. he needed no fancy decorations to the item, so long as it kept a sharp edge and could be used for a variety of tasks. He slipped toward the cave-like entrance to the webbing. The Crimsha had been guarding it during the fight, but why?
Stepping inside he blinked at the sudden darkness. the webbing around them was so thick it blocked out much of the sun. He turned toward his companion. "Why is it these creatures always build dark nests? You never hear of a creature with a bright home causing trouble." he said, stepping deeper into the gloom of the soft cavern
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Post by Eldarion Kildare on Aug 23, 2007 14:55:57 GMT -5
Eldarion was not one to hesitate, but then again a Crimsha's Net was not a place you wanted to get stuck. After a brief pause, wiping his sword of in a cursory fashion on some tall brush, he lightly patted Yago's mane as the horse made a noise of protest like 'are you insane?' "You may be right," he said. "You're welcome to stay out here and wait to rescue me," he teased. Yago snorted and followed along, continually looking over his shoulder and making irritated noises--such a disagreeable fellow, this Apertaine, not much at all like his elven companion, but they made an oddly appropriate team.
"I wonder how far back it goes," Eldarion said, and then as an afterthought added, "I imagine at the end we'll either find a crimsha nest or the creature's next intended meal. Pray not both."
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Post by Duello on Aug 23, 2007 18:48:29 GMT -5
Duello nodded. "i don't think crimsha live long after nesting, so i doubt we'll find any live babies ahead, but I've been wrong before, best to keep your eyes open." he replied then crept forward, his dagger ready. as the went he studded the wall of nets around them, until he came to a point where he noticed a strange spot in the wall. cutting away some of the webbing he revealed a throwing dagger caught in the webbing. he pulled it out and showed it to Eldarion. "our first find." he said, noting the balance of the blade, and the simplicity of it.
He looked back at his companion, they'd worked well together. he smiled, who could tell? maybe they'd work together again.
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