The next day Kage called a meeting in the new conference room. He explained to everyone that his business plan involved investors that would be there in the next 3 to 5 days. He expressed that he hoped they would have some attractions to show off by then and tasked everyone to go find those attractions.
After running through the options and what they had already planned Butch tossed around the idea of creating an urban legend about a dragon but it was shot down somewhat quickly.
While the other deliberated, Ray headed off to consult the 'neighbors' and found out that to the West there were many large predators and to the North there were a few large predators. The group had decided that it would be good for the safari to have a way to watch large predators and so they set off to the North to investigate.
Not long into their travel, they encountered a small group of people. Florida Man tried to sneak up on them but they were on alert and were observing what they assumed was a large predator approaching from the same direction.
They attempted to warn and stop Florida Man, but he was loud and they were afraid he would attract the attention of the large creature, which in reality was Ray pretending to be a spinosaurus.
Having stopped, they had a chance to observe a group of large quadruped foot prints heading north as well. After a few minutes of investigation they continued in that direction and eventually happened upon the same group of four people.
The travelers appeared to be trying not to get noticed and were in dense foliage. Florida Man again hoping to surprise them sneaked up near them and listened to their conversation. Once he heard them talking about getting paid for delivering something he radioed back that he was going to try and accost them. Butch just turned off his radio and Socket radioed back which alerted the group of people, who then took cover.
Going full raider, Florida Man hopped from his hiding place and attempted to intimidate the group by firing his plasma caster at them while yelling something to the effect of, "Reach for the sky". This resulted in a large portion of tree tops catching fire as he bungled handling the large weapon. Not knowing what was going on and fearing for their lives, the group responded by opening up with a hail of Ion pulse fire catching Florida Man square in the chest but he was either too excited or too belligerent to be hurt by it.
Hearing the volley, Socket waddled forward and shredded one of the people through a tree with his ice blast shotgun while the mechanical whine of Butch's mini-gun sang the death song of the other three. Moments later while the smoke cleared, Florida man hopped into the clearing to investigate their 'stuffs'.
First on the scene, FM discovered a glass jar with a small quantity of some kind of liquid in it in the shredded remains of one of the travelers packs, among the debris of numerous other shattered jars. Narrowly avoiding cutting his hands, he found the hand holding the jar went completely numb. Ray examined the effect and concluded the jars must have contained a very powerful topical anesthetic.
Cautiously, Socket stowed the undamaged jar in his pack and they took a good look around to see if they could figure out where the group was heading. Socket, the one in the group who is the least capable of dealing with people, was the only one who attempted to correct Ray's misinterpretation of the current situation but alas the young dragon walked away from the carnage thinking that it was OK to butcher people if you liked their stuff, wanted it or otherwise were just very curious about it. Form the direction they were heading, they decided the group must have been heading to the city of Char and realized that whoever was buying from them, probably was better left alone.
While Butch attempted to figure out a way to hide or dispose of the bodies and Florida Man continued to rifle them, Socket and Ray picked up the tracks of the quadrupeds again and headed a bit north and west to a small stream. A short distance off, they saw a large herd of Stegosaurus and even closer they spotted an Allosaurus stalking the herd of large herbivores.
As they observed, the Allosaurus pounced and ate one of the creatures. The other stampeded down the stream toward the group but everyone had a good amount of time to get clear. Butch and FM showed back up and they all went to investigate the dead animal. Butch recovered a tooth and FM went around hacking off bits and pieces to stow in a cache to retrieve later.
After Socket took copious notes on the data pad about the dinos they encountered, they got back on the trail north and continued walking. After a short distance, they encountered a ruin that was strangely devoid of trees and had odd equipment in the middle of it near a moss covered ruin of a building.
Socket inspected it from a great distance with his tehcno magical goggles and discovered a large amount of odd spectral children playing in and around the ruin. Not wanting anything to do with this, they all decided it was better to take some extra time and avoid the whole area. So sticking to the wood line, they continued north toward the base of the mountains.
Eventually they arrived in an area that was close to the mountains and everyone put on their survivalist caps. Collectively they followed some golden age clues and managed to discover a some what oddly intact building that had not been plundered through the years. Being as it was getting dark, they settled in and Ray took watch.
Not long into the night Ray heard a noise off to the east. Florida Man was also awake and inspecting his equipment when Ray told him he was going to investigate. Morphing human, Ray headed down to the forest and encountered a large group of spectral men with rifles on spectral horse back. Hurriedly he ran back to the building and hid with FM. The group of riders came to the building as well and then settled down as if they were camping for the night. Some obviously tending imaginary fires and others milling about. Wondering if the spectral riders were malevolent, Ray called out a tentative hello and was acknowledged with a hail of spectral gunfire.
Next week we see how the group manages to get out of this pickle.
ReplyDeleteThe neighbours in question were of course, the remnants of the Tiger Claw pack that had been butchered by Butch on their first day, whom Ray had more or less adopted. He'd been hunting for the three surviving adults (whom he'd labelled Copper, Sprinter and Shadow) and the hatchlings and in the process earned himself a place of sorts in the pack, with whom he was beginning to learn to communicate. Sort of.
Ray was not pretending to be a Spinosaurus. Ray was being a Spinosaurus, using his wings to mimic a sail and matching the Spinosaur's distinctive stance and strut. That ill-informed plebs failed to appreciate his art was their failing, not his.
To his credit, Sprocket made a very credible effort to explain that it was not, in fact alright to shoot people in the face and take their things that was primarily undermined by Florida Man and Butch standing a few feet behind him looting the people they'd just butchered of their valuables. Ray, apparently is a propnent of 'show, don't tell'.