OOC: OOPS thought I replied!

I take choice 3. Let's soften it up so Duke can sink his teeth into it better!

Alyn cracks the armor of the crab on the left in multiple places.

The Duke tears into the crab on the right. His power and savagery is disturbing to behold-- especially because one gets the feeling he isn't even really good and angry yet.

(Choice: Duke, you can kill the crab in one shot but take 1 damage, or leave it on its last legs, ready for a coup de grace (from you or someone else), but take no damage yourself)

The Duke beats the massive creature within an inch of its life and bellows at it to lie down and behave or he will be forced to finish it. He wants to keep it as a pet but it really needs to listen then!! For good measure he takes hold of the broken shell and gives it a little thug to get the message acros.

(13:05, Today: Vult rolled 7 using 2d6-1 with rolls of 4,4.

13:05, Today: Kalsk rolled 7 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 5,1.)


The crabs don't seem to be smart enough to understand that they're supposed to give up and stop fighting now. Weakly, they move to attack...

Kalsk runs up and does a mighty leap, tearing into a crab, claws out.

Inspired, Vult, still in his rocky form, does the same, pummeling with a stony fist.

Vult's clearly less good of a fighter than is Kalsk, but he displays a certain fearlessness that helps him make up for what he lacks in actual skill.

Together, the two friends manage to finish off the threat of the crab monsters... which are now deceased.

(Kalsk and Vult each take 1 damage. But they were awfully brave!)

Ajakstu immediately gets out of the walker and sets about the most important task of getting a fire going.

"While I am no gourmand, I am thinking cooked would be better. Steamed perhaps?" he muses, staring off into space, and perhaps speaking to no one at all.

"I would say raw, perhaps rolled with rice, but they are no doubt crawling with parasites."

Then inspiration strikes.

"Say, Duke, do you suppose that those shells could be useful as armor for our walkers?"

Alyn was relieved that the threat had ended. He sent up a quick thought to the mind moths.

The Crabs are taken care of, which means the herb of...um...bison deer whatever the heck those things are should be calming down soon. Go ahead and take this opportunity to have a meal of your own. The calmed down relief from their previous fear frenzy from the crabs should prove fairly filling.

He turned to the others.

"Well that is then then. So Dukie? I am sure you wanted them as pets or something but they weren't the cuddly types. But they will make for a lot of food. I promised you food and so Alyn has delivered!" he said.

He turned to Jak.

"And Jak...I was definitely thinking we could boil them and harvest the meat. The shells are all nice and soft now from us taking them down. I think our lasers and such will be enough to get a fire going, but if we need more heat I can try and mentalize us some. And interestingly enough...their shells are so big we can probably turn their claws into makeshift cauldrons or something and boil meat in batches in them. But I'm open to ideas." he said.

"Otherwise, I was going to try and use pyrokinesis to slowly cook them from the inside-out, and hope I can regulate the heat enough so it doesn't turn into a charred crisp. Hence why I'm more hoping we boil them, or perhaps take chunks of meat out and roast them on spits over bonfires. We can cook them, make sure parasites are killed, eat our fill, and put the rest into Duke's food storage."

The Duke pouts at first as his friends kill his pet but when Ajak starts a fire and Alyn proclaims it was to make due on his promise so he seems content as he expertly starts to gut the crabs to remove the bits they do not like. At Ajaks suggestion he nods.

"Yeah its tough so we might be able to use it as armor. But first we need the shells to pail the crabs in i dont think we can cook em otherwiase without a massive fire."

Alyn considers.

"Duke? You're the food expert. How do you think we should prepare them?" Alyn asked.

"I can get us a massive fire. Probably maybe. But I'm open to other ideas if you have them..."

"Otherwise...why don't you use some of that monstrous strength of yours and help gets some fire wood and such together, and I'll get a fire going. Then we can crack the shells and cook em. Or if you'd prefer, I can try to cook them from the inside out...sort of like an infra red heat cooker or something. We won't need a bonfire, but you'll have to help me crack their armor when they are done so you can harvest and inspect the meat."

The Duke eyes the beasts and after a short moment speaks up.

"Cook em in their shell. They are to big to boil after all. Not enough water around for that. But we gonna need a lot of wood for that."

He shrugs and saunters off to go look for the firewood still a little sad none of the beasts wanted to be his pet. Now he was again the only person without a friend to cuddle in the group.

"I would help, but I am grievously wounded," Ajakstu declares, and slinks off to sulk.

17:27, Today: Ajakstu Gul rolled 4 using 2d6-1 with rolls of 4,1.  Come on dice, don't screw me.

Alyn agreed with the Duke, and did whatever he could to help them properly preparee, cook, and package the food. He sent the moths out to go hunt for food for themselves as well.

Alyn prepared to rest, he decided to try something with his psychic powers. He knew he could he could share some of his energy with others and that the process was straightforward enough. Seeing as he saw how worn down Jak was he went over to the man as he lay there sulking, and held his hands out at the man. His eyes glowed with power ad energy began to suddenly manifest and flow toward a presumably surprised Jak, reinvigorating him somewhat!

OOC: No roll needed for this - Alyn can transfer his energy to others freely. I don't know how he will do will do so only transferring 1 stress level to him to be safe. AKAJSTU HEALS 1 STRESS LEVEL!

Alyn then lay down and rested/meditated himself, and luckily was able to marshall his inner power and refresh himself more than he was expecting! The man would awake at full strength!

18:47, Today: Alyn Reed rolled 11 using 2d6 with rolls of 6,5.  forceful.

Basically, Alyn is down 1 stress to start, loses another to heal Jak a bit, then rolls really well and regains 2 so is at full life again!

Ajakstu sighs mightily, then cracks a smile. "Thank you! I fear that my mistreatment at the paws of the evil cat people," he rambles, making no effort to be quiet. "Well that, of course, had created a residual pall upon my brain that you have lifted. With time, and a total avoidance of combat, harmful situations, complex negotiations, close quarters haggling, and mundane victuals, I am certain I can be restored to my righteous self."

The Duke looks at poor Ajakstu as he is face deep in cooked crab.

"Want me to kiss and make it better? I hear females in the Ziggurat tell wee ones to do that and it magically heals all that ails the blaring wee ones."

Alyn nods kindly at Ajakstu.

"Try to be careful today and you'll be fine. Don't push yourself too hard, and you'll be just fine. We won't let you fall over." he replied.

He then grinned at the Duke, and said.

"You know Dukie? I think Ajakstu really could use some kisses from you to make his boo boos feel all nice and better. Or it is worth trying on him and seeing if it works, anyway."

"Silence!" Ajakstu scowled between bites, chewing, and swallowing. "I am formulating a plan to armor our walkers with the crab shells and even masquerade as these not quite so apex predators!"

He offered a few scraps to Rake while drawing indecipherable nonsense in the dirt with a stick.

The Duke grins and gets up too grab poor Ajakstu in his massive hands one hand on an upper arm and lifts him to give the poor sod a sloppy wet kiss on the mouth. And in such a process one can smell the Dukes last 3 meal at least. But it has to help of coarse as he is covered in all them healthy sea creature omega fats from the juicy crabs.

Realizing resistance is futile, Ajakstu goes to his happy place, all the while making sure that no harm comes to his ever so impressive hat.

Rake, an omnivore, happily munches on the scraps.

A glowing (orange) energy creature in vaguely humanoid form floats up. What the heck?

When it speaks, you realize it's Vult. Apparently enough hours have passed that he's changed form again, this time to some sort of superhot plasma. "Hey guys. We about ready to get back on the road again?" His voice is the same sort of teenaged male voice he previously had, but now it's like it reverberates with eerie otherworldly echoes. His personality seems about the same, though.

The Duke eyes vult and tosse shim a bit of crab meat he is unable to stuff into his massive cooler.

"Really could used that shape yesterday. Saved us hauling all the wood."

He then shrugs checks on his new best friend Ajakstu staightening his hat and works himself into the vehicle to be driven around agian.

Alyn walks up, and nods at the plasma-Vult non-chalantly. He was getting too used to the weird-as-normal life he lived in now.

"Oh Vult? You changed again! Cool I didn't know you could turn into plasma!" he said "I wonder if I can weaponize you with pyrokinesis? Hmmm....yeah, I better not. If I slipped in my focus it would be messy. So I'll look but not touch. and yes we're about ready to head back out again to find that military base." he said with a grin.

He turned to Duke.

"There you go! Jak looks a lot better already. Is all the meat we were able to cook last night packed up? As much as we can handle anyway?" he asked.

"I told you if you stuck with me you'd get lots of food. Hmm...speaking about appetites, I better call back my new pet murder-moths and let them know we're heading out."

His eyes flickered with energy for a brief moment before subsiding, and he turned back to them with a nod.

Yo psi-moth murder-pets! Did ya eat your fill last night? We're about to head back out onto our um...adventure or whatever. Just send me a ping if you lose direct track of me.

He indeed nodded.

"Ok they've been apprised."

Ajakstu gives his hat one more going over, then looks at Vult and shrugs.

"Where's Kalsk? And where are we going again....?" his voice trails off as if the journey and destination are really not all that exciting.

"Armor? Crab shells?" he asks no one in particular.

Alyn nods.

"Ok to recap like a bad Saturday morning cartoon, which is basically what we are...we're looking for that Military base we learned about from the Doomwalker. We're probably getting close to it now. I realize the place most likely is dilapidated as a great deal of time has passed it seems from the recording till now but...not necessarily useless though. I was checking if there was food but I think we are full to the gills now with food." he said.

"But there's another reason I want us to make a pit stop and that's to see if we can scavenge for any useful technology, information, etc beyond any potential food. And I wanna see if I can take over the Doomwalker to make sure his Seeker-ness can't. Plus...that would be an epic ride. Heh!" he continued followed by a chuckle.

"Oh I am indifferent to the crab shell. The Ziggurat granted me this cool force armor before we left and it's already helped me at least once or twice now. Unless crab shell can be used to upgrade my force armor or something?"

The Duke looks at the big hatted man and then to the massive piece of armor scorched black by the fire and then breaks out in a loud hearthily laugh.

"You really want to ruin your beutiful hat by putting that on your head? It will squash you buddy. No this armor is to big for you."

"Yeah, I know, I know. I can't control it-- it just happens every several hours." The orange energy-being shrugs.




We hunger, say the mind-moths. The deer-things were not mindful enough to be a strong meal. We are eager to relocate. We will follow.

Eventually, after resting, everyone gathers their stuff together, and moves on...

(I was looking at the rules just now, and noticed that players were encouraged to help shape the lands away from the Ziggurat... So I'll ask you...

WHAT IS DIFFERENT ABOUT THIS NEW AREA AT WHICH THE PCs HAVE ARRIVED?
--There's a building (or other structure)
--There's a new life form or robot or other being
--There's a group of new lifeforms or robots or other beings
--There's a lots of new lifeforms or robots or other beings
--There's a machine
--There's what looks like an unusual object d'art
--The PCs feel weird in some way
--There's something here that seems like it's impossible for it to be here (will it turn out to be illusory? a rifts in time and/or space?)
--There's something on the ground over there (a weapon? a gadget? clothing? an arrow pointing the way elsewhere?)
--There's some water (a natural spring? a geyser? a stream? a small lake? a medium-sized lake?)
--There's one or more plants (how?))