Two minutes passed, then three. The signs of passage have gotten steadily more obvious, Phoebe should be close enough to see it if the small industrial yard they have moved to wasn't full of storage buildings, repurposed trailers, and four or five semi-trucks breaking up the sight lines. Then off towards the main building she spotted the small bobbing circle of light. Probably a rent-a-cop, he's far enough away that she could likely avoid being seen.

Of course, the profession generally wasn't taken up by people prepared to deal with a monster snake if things went poorly.

(Roll a d20, odd the guard goes past with no issue, even things get interesting. May explicitly roll and then decide if you want to used the saved result from earlier)

Phoebe considered the setting, then her options. If this was a normal dangerous animal, she could probably sneak in, put a bullet in its head, and slip right out again. Of course the rent-a-cop would hear the shot, but she'd like to see him keep up with her retreat. The problem was that, whatever this thing was, it wasn't normal. And when in doubt about prey capabilities, you didn't just waltz into headshot range and hope for the best. That meant a more cautious hunt was in order - one in which an ordinary bystander could step in a trap, or try to intervene in a fight and get bitten. Phoebe had picked up some incredible talents, but healing venom wasn't one of them.

So she decided on a different approach. She swung wide around where she believed the snake to be - she didn't want to get bitten herself, either - so as to get within distance of calling out to the man. "Excuse me, sir! I need to talk to you, there's a dangerous animal here. You should move out of the way until I've tracked it down and dealt with it."

"Get out of here! This is private property!" the man yelled. Cripes, he still had some marks from a late adolescence acne attack. Maybe nineteen, maybe, and not filled with a surplus of calm. The circle of light swung around wildly for twenty seconds as he moved back.

He really wasn't terribly good at his job but between his flashlight, the small light sources that pervaded all modern developments, and the ambient light Phoebe at least managed to spot the brown scales. The snake hadn't quite managed to remove all the older scales so the faded areas made it easier to spot.

So, good news first. Snakes pretty much never chased humans. Rattlesnakes also can't generally climb. This oversized monster is part of a roughly equilateral triangle with the guard and Phoebe at the other points, all roughly 30-35 meters from each other.

Bad news, the guard has frozen up rather than withdrawing for the moment. Eastern Diamondbacks were responsible for nearly all the snake bite incidents in a wide region. Oh, and this one is female which is bad only because they tended to be much smaller than males so hopefully she doesn't have any brothers.

Phoebe is clearly the fastest part of this triangle, followed by the snake and the guard possibly not acting at all unless something snaps him out of it.

"I recognize that sir," Phoebe said calmly as she slowly turned her head to look at the snake proper. My, but that was a beauty. If it hadn't hurt anyone yet, maybe she should call animal control. Maybe the thing actually belonged in a zoo. Every truly great hunter was also a conservationist, after all. Just look at the greatest (real) one of all time, Teddy Roosevelt. At least the greatest before Phoebe overtook him, but that was a long way off.

"You can see the snake over there," she continued, slowly raising a hand to point. "It's some kind of viper, but it's huge. Big enough to consider us prey. So what say you back away, slowly and calmly, and leave this to the professional? You can even call the police about a trespasser if you're worried about your next performance review. Just tell them it's Phoebe Jeong, please." She didn't particularly consider the young guard a threat right now, other than to himself. What was he gonna do, shoot her? Good luck, Officer Steadyhands. And she'd broken up enough crimes at this point that she figured the local police wouldn't mind a little disturbing the peace.

The guard stayed pinned in place for a long breath.

Apparently the scaled darling didn't like a flashlight beam in her face. She started slithering towards him. Fortunately they started roughly a hundred feet apart and the movement finally gets him to withdraw. Or whatever Phoebe called dropping his flashlight and making a beeline for the edge of the building.

Now there are two and Phoebe knows a rattlesnake's effective range is roughly two thirds of their total length so she'll be perfectly safe so long as she stays at least fifteen feet away from the thing. Light splashed at random intervals as the dropped flashlight rolled across the gravel.

"Good lad," Phoebe said approvingly as the young man finally withdrew, despite the fact they were probably pretty close in age. She then executed a human-impossible leap onto a nearby storage trailer to observe the snake from a safer vertical distance. So long as the viper didn't start hunting someone else or spitting venom, she figured she had some time to figure out the best course of action. Probably it would end in violence, but a superhumanly huge viper was just bizarre and no mistake. Hell, maybe it was an ascended person that had a spell go wrong. "Hey, if you can understand me, you mind turning in a circle or something?" she called out to it as she pulled her phone from her pocket.

Assuming the snake didn't actually carry that out, she dialed 911 and waited for an operator to pick up. "Hey, is animal control interested in the world's largest viper? Because I'm looking at it in this industrial park, and it's too dangerous to just leave out here - it's big enough to eat people."

There was a momentary pause, but bless them it was a small moment.

"How big and which industrial park? Are you inside a car or building observing it?" the woman on the line asked.

The snake kept its eyes on Phoebe as it curled up slightly. It wasn't exactly cold but snakes weren't very active at night. They also don't have eyelids so there's no way to be sure rather one is asleep or just still aside from provoking it.

Phoebe gave her address, then said "It's about twenty feet long I'd say. And I recognize that doesn't sound like a viper, but I'm something of an expert!" It still felt like such a silly thing to say, one or two steps removed from outright declaring herself the once and future greatest hunter ever, that it was hard to say it with a straight face. It helped that her hunter side thought it was an understatement if anything. "I'm on top of a trailer right now, I think it's watching me. I have a clear shot at it if it's not worth the risk for your folks."

"Miss, you are aware that it is illegal to discharge a firearm within city limits, especially on private property that isn't yours," the woman answered sharply, "You are, in fact, probably violating a law by being armed on their property."

She heard a deep breath being taken.

"Stay on the line and don't provoke it. Animal control is being routed there. I won't say to risk your life to avoid a felony but please don't escalate."

"Hm, I thought there was an exception for acting at the direction of law enforcement," Phoebe said mildly. She was getting slightly rankled, being taken to task trying to be heroic, but for the moment she opted not to take it out on the woman. "All right, I'll keep an eye on things here. Just make sure your guys know what they're getting into, this is a monster." Maybe literally.

"God no. The Law hates self-help and there'd be potential civil and criminal liabilities. You'd probably be acquitted but believe me when I say even a trial that you win is a headache," the woman replied, voice calmer, "They have been advised. ETA is fifteen minutes."

At least that's fast, either it's a slow night or someone was taking her report seriously.

"When you say viper I assume we're talking a diamondback? Given the last few months I half expect one of those feathered flying serpents or something."

Phoebe wasn't totally sure that was right, but she wasn't a lawyer and wasn't feeling quite so invested in this situation as before, so she saw no reason to argue the point. "Seems to be a diamondback, of course not a normal one at this size. And yeah, things sure have been crazy lately, haven't they? Where'd this winged serpent pop up?" Heck, maybe it was still on the loose. One more head she could mount on her wall! Not really though, that was more of a fantasy from the Van Pelt side.

"Odds are they will kill rather than capture then. A shame but, size aside, diamondbacks are too common to take much risk," the woman said, "Oh? The coatls? I'm butchering the name. Apparently there's a swarm or whatever the plural for flying snake is of them wandering around Mexico. Seem to be avoiding cities but a crop duster crashed because of them."

The animal control van appeared several minutes later as the object of all this scrutiny gave every sign of true sleep. No sirens or flashing lights to disturb it and they parked along the road rather than entering the lot. Phoebe could see three men in uniform step out of the side panel, two looked about air like they expected a prank. The third seemed to be sorting through a metal toolbox.

"Ah, that is a shame, really. But understandable. I'll keep a lookout at least - this thing isn't natural." And neither am I, Phoebe added to herself with a faint smile. "It's not growing feathers and flying away, but you never know with these things. Thanks for the info, speaking of that."

She watched as the three men arrived, then waved to them, since she might be hard to make out from her current position. Then she pointed down at where the snake currently was.

One of the two spotted her wave and tracked where she was pointing. The industrial estate had so much scattered equipment, materials, and vehicles that they'd have to be a lot closer for eyes on the snake. They started making their way closer, as quiet as three adult males with bulky gear were ever likely to be.

To Phoebe their approach would have been obvious without direct line of sight. If judged by the snake's head tilting to the right it was equally aware.

It was too bad that this snake would likely end up dead, but Phoebe owed her protection to humans over animals. That was what her "other self" stood for in a way, the triumph of civilization over nature.

It sure didn't seem like these guys were making a smart approach, though. She kept a careful eye on the situation, figuring she could intervene if need be.

In fairness they were in protective equipment. A normal snake's fangs stood no chance of getting through. They weren't being terribly loud but again, normal procedure was not going to cut it here. At least they were not in a hurry, stopping every dozen yards or so to glance at Phoebe to make sure they are headed in the right direction.

As they are about to turn a corner on the last container between them and the reptile a rattling sound emerges. They pause and Phoebe sees two of them draw sidearms.

Phoebe continued keeping an eye on things, and keeping an open line of fire as well as sight on the snake. She was hoping she wouldn't have to intervene, but she had her instructions, and she tended not to go against them once she got the authorities involved. Though if they were just going to shoot this creature instead of her, it hardly seemed that she needed to bother. Ah well, she was still getting used to this "local hero" business.

Phoebe spotted a second complication, the animal control team seemed to have a stalker. At least he knew how to move quietly and shadow tense men without giving the game away.

Samuel sees a small woman on the roof of a shipping container gesturing to the men.

Well, that was odd. Who would just follow an animal control team around? It seemed like the man must be up to no good. Maybe he'd summoned or altered the snake somehow, and now had arrived to intervene on its behalf? Assuming he wasn't some random hippie or something, anyways.

Phoebe had practically been communicating in semaphore, so she was sure she'd been spotted in return, but at least she had the advantage that she hadn't done any showing off yet. Maybe he would assume that she was just some stranded civilian. She could still take action on behalf of the team if it became necessary, even if she had two potential opponents now.

Samuel stays backs and watches. He glaces up to the girl on the roof.  She must have called in the animal control.  Whatever it is it much have chased her up there.

They both hear the signature dry almost hiss that gave rattle-snakes their name, only with the decibels raised closer to something like a semi's engine idle rumble. So do the animal control guys who pause, nervously adjusting their weapons before moving forward.

The group turned a corner putting them momentarily out of Samuel's sight. Phoebe however sees the thing uncoil and dart towards the public servants with a motion and speed that no normal snake could match.

Two firearms are rising to track the thing but they're startled. No way are they stopping that much mass.

Great, this was going about as well as Phoebe had expected. Fortunately she had quick reflexes plus, you know, divine powers or whatever they were. Certainly Van Pelt was here with her now, guiding her hand. "Blast," she muttered under her breath, indicating his voice was there as well, but even as the word left her mouth she was conjuring a large-caliber rifle to her hands from out of nowhere. "Don't fight, just run for it!" she called out after that.

She performed an inhumanly long, quick leap down directly in front of the oncoming snake, then took a snap shot at it even as she braced for the counterattack. And possibly being shot in the back, but that was just how these things went.

Rifle attack 18, 3 damage if it hits.
Sorry, my fault - I was away from my book and just copied the straight d8 roll in here. That's a total of 7, which is 2 damage :)
This message was last edited by the player at 04:01, Sun 31 Oct 2021.

Sam's left eyebrow raises in an odd imitation of Mr. Spock as he see woman pull a long rifle out of nowhere and jumping down.  The action was like watching some action hero in a movie.

Whatever they were trying to catch it sounded like an impossibly big rattle snake.  Curiosity peeked, Sam wanders closer so he can see the action.

Phoebe's round nails the left side of the snake's face, causing a meaty thud but not dropping it. Vibration alone should have dropped it for a few seconds but instead it lashes out at her with it's fangs. Fortunately she's more than fast enough to avoid it. The animal control team runs pell-mell past Samuel.

Samuel is entirely correct, the thing is a diamondback rattle snake too large for the square cube law to let exist.