'Trav!' Smoke cried in Alarm as she eyespied the dogs— birds— bird-dogs! running right for them. She turned and ran; the unbraveness was like cold knifes, like dog fangs and claws down her back. She could almost feel them on her, biting her and eating her. The Kang scrambled right up the side of the talkiphone box, and whipped out her arrowgun. She knewhow handle to birds and dogs and bird-dogs. From her perch, breathing hard, she outlooked bewildered as they ran on, but didn't stop to question it. They were outgoing to trackback, she knew. 'Trav! Trackback talki-box all-speed!'


OOC: Okay, −2 to all rolls.

Trav has braved the famous Dinosaur swamp on Rifts Earth, and has befriended various kinds of non-humans from all over time and space. "Relax, Smoke, no fear." Comfortably, strides back to the TARDIS. She aims her sonic back at Sweet Boy, and the force fields come to life, invisibly protecting the team. "Think of them as another gang of Kangs, but with different rules. We just came into their territory. They're more likely scared of us than we are of them."

Trav digs into her bag - she has a few wrapped up overstuffed ham sandwichs (lunch for today), some fruit and other edibles, wrapped up in some paper. Lowering the forcefield for just a moment, she also spreads out a gingham picnic cloth and unwraps the food. She steps back and reactivates the forcefield, leaving the food out as an offering. Beckoning the team to sit and join her, she sits on the ground crosslegged, and waits. Whoever the locals are should get the scent of the peace offering.

OOC: Spending 1 SP to use Resourceful Pockets

The air tastes a bit unusual and it is quite hot, but apart from that the place looks nice. Having spent some time in Africa, Stanley is no stranger to hot weather. It still takes some getting used to, especially because just stepping out of the Tardis into a completely different climate is a rather sudden transition.

Stanley is just looking at the scenery when he hears Smoke cry out and sees her run back to the Tardis. He looks at what it is she is running from, but can't identify the creatures moving through the undergrowth. It is only because Trav acts completely calm, that he doesn't follow Smoke's advice to run back to the Tardis, even though the things seem to be coming straight at them. He feels a bit safer, when Trav activates the forcefield.



He hesitantly sits down, being reminded of all the times he was warned not to feed wild animals. "I don't know if feeding them is the best thing to do...they might attack us later to get more."

Smoke stayed uptop the talkiphone box, keeping outlook for the bird-dogs for when they cameout back. An arrow in the tummy would make the rest scaredy-cats. 'They're animals, not Kangs. And they're not unbrave when they get bitey!'

And what were Traveller and Stan doing? 'What are you doing? It's not time for nickpicking!' Then: 'You're feeding them? Let them eat each other. Dog eat dog!'

"Always make friends before making enemies, Smoke. Don't worry, Sweet Boy here is keeping us safe with invisible walls." She tosses a rock at the nearby forcefield.  "You can go inside if you want. I want to see who these guys are."

"Stan, why are you automatically assuming what we're dealing with are animals? Geez Louize, it's not like we're not armed. Also, remember, we're tens of millions of years in Earth's past from your time, I don't want to teach the local fauna to be scared of hominids yet. You heard the horns, didn't you? These might not be animals - they might be the natives, or their hunters. Don't be so quick to judge. Be friendly, and see what happens. This forcefield held back the king of the Gargoyles and his army, 10,000 strong, it can deal with local hunters."
This message was last edited by the player at 02:42, Sat 25 Oct 2014.

It takes perhaps ten or fifteen of waiting, but the creatures -- or ones that skulk through the brush in a remarkably similar way -- do eventually come circling back.  The travellers continue to hear the occasional horn-noises from off to the east, growing neither louder nor softer.

The creatures move much more slowly and cautiously this time.  They poke little feathered snouts out from the greenery, and then come stalking forward with wary glances toward Trav and the others, snuffling toward the food Trav has set out and occasionally giving little staccato chirrups to each other.

They're little more than knee-high to a Kang, maybe a little bigger overall than peacocks.  Their attention seems much more on the food than the people near the TARDIS.

Smoke Alarm wasn't reassured by either invisible walls or Traveller's words, especially since she knew there were dangerous bird-dog animals, and not funny-looking alien people. Seeing them with their big and sharp claws and teeths only confirmed her wariness. She wanted to go back inside the talkiphone box, but wasn't about to leave her friends un-outlooked over.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:53, Sun 26 Oct 2014.

Trav makes a weird trill-hoot at the things. She squats, making weird noises at them. Trrrrirrrrrl-VVREE VREE KRROOT KRROOT ZEE ZEEE. She smiles, and narrows her eyes.

"I learned how to speak Velicoraptor, back when I had glasses. Let's see what these little guys have to say."

OOC: Yeah, I know I am burning SPs, but I'd like to burn another SP to use Telepathy to chat with these beasties. If the Doctor can speak Horse and Dinosaur, I think it's fair that Trav can speak Raptor.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:18, Sat 25 Oct 2014.

The velociraptors all look up, startled at being addressed with their own mode of communication.  One of them obviously gets flustered, enough that he charges forward, but after head-butting the force field falls back on his rump.

The others all chatter among themselves.  Trav, her rusty command of Raptor slowly coming back to her, starts to pick up the gist although it's all impenetrable chirping, whistling and clicking to the others.

Two-Legs speak?

Trick! Danger! Flee!

No! Food!

Food trick!  Hurt Two-Legs!

No!  Two-Legs foot-crush!  Two-Legs sharp-hurt!  Two-Legs head-burn!  Flee!

Some of the raptors start snatching up ham sandwiches in their claws.


***

OOC: Well, Trav doesn't have Telepathy, but she does have insane levels of Ingenuity and Knowledge.  She may just plain know how to speak to velociraptors in their own particular idiom.

So if that Story Point just gets used for a roll, let's see what you get.  Heck, I'll even give you Charming.

The Guardian, on behalf of The Traveller, rolled 28 using 4d6+16 with rolls of 3,1,4,4. Rappin' with the raptors: Ingenuity(8) + Knowledge(6) + Charming(2) + 4d6.

OOC: Trav has Psychic, but whatever you says goes, boss.

Trav's eyes light up. "Vrrrt choo choo cht ccht VEEEM cht cht!" "I don't want to hurt you or capture you. I'm from far away, and I'd just like to know some things about this place. I'm called The Traveller. What's your name? I love the way your plumage looks today."

Trav scowls at that. "Tell me about these other two legs who would hurt you. I'll make them stop." She shoots a look at Smoke to put the arrowgun away.

She makes sure that the mic in her Ipad can pick this up, and send a text feed to her friends in english.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:11, Sat 25 Oct 2014.

As Trav starts to try to converse with the raptors, her program does start to give some fragmentary translation to her friends, but it's very disjointed and interjected with words for things in the surroundings; e.g., SQUIRREL!

With her direct knowledge and the hints that she is picking up from their mental state, Trav is doing better.  Several of them tear into the sandwiches and the fruit and become a little more calm and coherent.  But she completely loses them with the compliment of their feathers and the idea of a name, for instance.  It becomes clear that these are animals: semi-sentient, on the level of dogs, perhaps.  (The omniscient observer would note that they don't seem to have the same level of consciousness as the Us.)


Over hill!  Bad!  Hurt!

Two-Legs all around Giant Ones!

Two-Legs on Giant Ones!

Chase from berries!

Chase from little-foods!


Trav slowly starts to put together a picture of cleared and managed farms, sapient bipeds, huge herd beasts and mounted herdsfolk.  Some of the raptors have memories of a herder just looking at them and inflicting severe pain all over.  They tend to steer clear of that area except when they get really hungry and wander into the managed area.

OOC: My bad on Psychic.  I was looking for Telepathy specifically in your list of a zillion Traits after you mentioned it.  Psychic is helping you here.

"Thank you, that's what I need to know. Take that food, it's yours. Can you tell me where these bad two legs are?" Trav hoots this reassuringly to the raptors.

"These guys are animals, it sounds like they're being pushed out of their native habitat by settlers, most likely Eocones. They don't sound Dalek influenced, thank heavens."

"Okay, okay...it's just because of the height of the undergrowth and the speed with which they move that I assumed that we were dealing with animals. For the record, I was not suggesting to scare them, but questioning the decision to feed wild animals. That's just something people warned me not to do, but maybe you are right about them being hunters or natives and in that case being friendly seems like a good starting point." He says, looking for any movement in the tall grass near the food.

"They certainly look like animals to me." Stanley mutters under his breath, when the creatures finally show themselves and start to investigate the food. It is really weird, maybe even weirder than meeting aliens, to see living, real animals straight out of Walking With Dinosaurs.



"Do you think that the Eocones are the ones making those horn sounds?"

Trav stands up, and deactivates the force field. "You can come down, Smoke. It's safe."

Answering Stanley's question, Trav opines: "Dunno. The earliest ancestors of humankind are still mammals up in trees - this is too early for the likes for any hominids. It could be Eocenes, visitors from  Mars, aliens, who knows. 55 Million years is a long time. I'm fine with people being here as long as it's part of history, but we have to walk carefully here. Time is pretty flexible, but we still have a responsibility to the future." With that, she makes her way towards the hill that the Raptors indicated.

OOC: Hey Gary, what were the Ice Warriors up to around now? Were they around yet?
This message was last edited by the player at 23:33, Sat 25 Oct 2014.

From ontop the talkiphone box, Smoke kept eyespying the nasty bird-dogs, surprised that Traveller was making all their noises right back at them. Still, she had her arrowgun aimed and ready for when they attacked, and a few times she almost fired as they rushed the unseen wall. She lowered it a little at Traveller's warning outlook, but didn't put it away, and hardly inlooked at the text that came through her talkiphone.

Then Traveller switched off the unseen wall. Was she mad?! 'Put the wall back up!' she urged. 'Into the talkiphone box! All speed!'

Trav continues to head towards that hill, as the Raptors play and fight over the food. She turns and looks up at Smoke. Smoke alarm doesn't scare easily. Maybe she had a bad experience with animals? "Smoke, sweety, I talked to them. All they care about is small-food - rodents, berries. They're like kitty-cats. All they care about is running around and not bothering anyone. Leave them alone and they'll leave you alone. Come on down, I won't let any of them hurt you." She pats a turbpistol. "You and the leg-it have taken on spider-cleaners, don't be afraid of kitty cats with feathers. They're scared of us two legs, they told me so. Walk here, by me." She points to her right, where she would be between the Raptors and her.

"They like sammiches, not Kangs, see?" She takes the last sandwich, and trill-hoots. Here's one more! Smell it, see, see! Run, get it! She tosses it far into the underbush, far away from the TARDIS and the group. Hopefully, it will draw enough of them off to make Smoke comfortable.

When Trav asks for directions to the problem area, most of the raptors look up toward the east end of the valley although they don't give her a direct answer.

Several of the raptors go off after the tossed sandwich, although many of the others simply scamper off with the ones they've already picked up.  A few of them are still hanging around the TARDIS, but even these are giving Trav a wide berth. as she starts up in the direction they were looking.

'I'm not being a scaredy-cat!' she declared defensively. 'Upgoing high is a totally legit tacktick against animals with big knifey stabby claws like that.' Still wary and eyespying Traveller and the bird-dogs dubiously — kitty-cats? — Smoke jumped down off the talkiphone box, landing in a crouch, her shoes slipping in the loose dirt and leaf litter that made her cringe. She anxiously rubbed her left calf, itchy where the dog-bite was, then stood and footed a little closer to Traveller, then stopped.

'Mayhaps we can outgo back into the talkiphone box now? Trackback to a city?' she suggested hopefully.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:14, Sun 26 Oct 2014.

"There are people towards the east, Smoke. Don't worry, you're brave, you can make for a walk through some jungle. Come on, it'll be fun!"

Trav starts tramping through the growth, towards the east.

It takes Trav, and those who accompany her, maybe twenty minutes to reach the top of a rise that looks down upon the eastern end of the valley.  They can tell, as they come near the top, that the area has been cleared of the tropical growth.

Looking cautiously over the rise from the cover of the brush, they see a wide open area centered around what looks like a multi-leveled stone fortress.  Tilled and fenced fields spread around it and up the terrace-cut slopes of the valley.  Bipedal figures wearing loose vests can be seen working in those fields.

There is also an expanse of pasture dotted with leafy shrubs where they can see huge animals grazing.  There are at least two clearly distinguishable types, both quadrupedal: large, broad-backed animals with wedge-shaped heads and thick tails, that seem to have some kind of ridged carapace covering their backs, and smaller, leaner animals with extended necks and tails.  Ranging around these Trav and the others can see a number of the latter type that are harnessed and carry riders: these riders carry long gleaming lances, and there is the occasional glint of silver and gold from their accoutrements.

Entirely against her better judgement and the wisdom of the Kangs, Smoke followed after Traveller and the others, deciding the safest place in this whole smelly not-city was right with them. Besides, they would need a Kang to rescue them when it all went wrong. She footed close behind Traveller, and kept a constant outlook for the savage sandwidges-eating bird-dogs. Now we don't have any lunch.

She found the outgoing really hard, as the floor was no floor but all dirt and leaves and sticks, and they slid and crunched beneath her shoes. The unfamiliar effort of footing over the strange new terrain made her legs hurt, and the heavy sticky hotness of the broken hair-conditioning left her sleepy and exhausted. Without walls behind or beside her, she could be chased from any direction, so she could never feel sound and safe. Those bird-dogs were following them for more sandwidges, she was sure.

More, she was lost, she was sure of it. The trees and bushes all outlooked the same and outwent for ever and ever, and there were no footpaths or signposts for her to trackback to the talkiphone box. The floor was not flat either, it sloped and curved, and what was floor became almost a wall. Her whole sense of direction and navigation, of rooms and spaces connected by carrydoors in ordinary geometry, her whole knowhow of the world around her, was lost and not found to Smoke Alarm. I want to outgo home-sweet-home! Talkiphone box! she thought in despair. A Kang could almost become a crybaby. Only one thought kept outgoing with her friends, to keep them safe. Brave and bold as a Kang could be. So she stubbornly footed on, sullen and grumbly.

She perked up a little to see some kind of big stone tower and the straight lines of the fenced fields, but the wide open spaces to get there filled her with unbraveness. 'Welp, there's nothing here. Mayhaps we outgo back now?' she asked hopefully.

"Amazing...they know how to build stone buildings." Stanley says with as he reaches the top and gets a look at the fortress. He had been expecting structures built with mud or wood, something more primitive than stone. "I wouldn't call that nothing, Smoke. They also seem to have managed to tame some dinosaurs."

He gave Stanley a quiet look.

"What's so amazing about it? Do you think your species is the only one to accomplish such a basic skill?" It was taking every ounce of tact he possessed not to be openly scornful of him at this point.

He then turned to Smoke Alarm.

"Do not fear. By all accounts, the natives are a civilised race. Possibly more so than early humanity."

Sereth had had little to do with the erroneously named Silurians - they rarely left Earth; and even when there wasn't open warfare between Draconia and Terra; relations were tense between them.

He turned quietly to Traveller.

"What's the plan? Have they ever, by this time period, met anything remotely like what you people look like?"

He was not overly concerned about himself - he fit in the best out of all of them.

OOC: Luckily, this is before they started keeping apes as pets...

OOC: Trav's general understanding would be that the Silurians developed following the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous.  From the look of what they have here, they are probably not far into an Iron Age level of development, and it's fairly unlikely they would have had any contact with extraterrestrials.