Lucius Cypher

Frozen Darkness

The beast lumbered towards Donny as he tried to fend it off. He dared not risk sticking his gun out too far less the creature snatch it away or even literally disarm him. He fended it off with his axe as best as he could but the creature continued to rapidly approach. Fortunately, Cat’s shotgun blasts were effective at crippling it. The first stop stopped the brute in its tracks. The second blew off its leg. The creature screeched as Donny used this opportunity to shoot it twice in the face, this time his bullets striking where he wanted them.

Even so the beast was hardy. It staggered back, recoiling in pain. Donny tried to shoot it some more but then his gun clicked. ”Fuck, I’m empty!” instead of wasting time to reload Donny holstered his gun and grasped his axe with both hands. As the crab was flailing around he took the hooked end of his axe and buried it between the pincers of the crab brute’s claw, drawing its blood. He torqued its arm to the side, forcing it down onto its bad leg, and opening it to an attack. ”Shoot it in its face!”

Frozen Darkness

The duo would enter the lower level. This was a underground walk way towards one of the subway metros, perhaps one of the safer places to be in. Relatively speaking: At least down here you won't freeze to death in a few seconds. But mutants, bandits, and starvation was still threats down here. As Donny and Cat walked through here they could sense the danger ahead. Though the headcrabs were few, they didn't attack either, which was the oddest thing. Mutants weren't like most animals that tend to only want to preserve their own life, with many of them suicidal attacking anyone or anything on the off chance of gaining sustenance. So the fact what few headcrabs the two saw didn't attack was something to worry about.

Eventually one would try to get the drop on Donny. It landed right on his head and started biting him, but fortunately his metal helmet prevented him from instantly getting his brains eaten. Instead he scraped the thing off with his axe, and once pinned to the ground shot it in the mouth and killed it instantly. But that was his first mistake. Despite being far away enough from the headcrab nest for the gunshot to go relatively unnoticed, there was a different threat down here that revealed itself nearly a foot away from Donny. A Crab Brute. Bigger and tougher than the usual headcrab, and in facts eats them if possible. That would explain why there's so few down here and why they've been relatively peaceful, because the alternative was awakening this beast. Which Donny did.

"Shit fuck!" The creature snapped a claw at him which Donny barely avoided. He fired two shots into it's it's face but all the mutant had to do was lower it's body a little, and the bullets instead sunk into it's hard armored carapace. Granted thanks to using AP rounds the bullets did at least go through, but not instantly like Donny had hoped. The creature turned towards him while Donny tried to back away, still on his bad foot, but it seemed like the creature was at least distracted going after Donny instead of Cat. This could give her an opening to attack it while it's attention wasn't on her.

Keratia: Story of the Surf, Tales of the Deep

Oh yeah they were with the sea tentacle. Chances are, the sea goblin who would've just got back onto the ship to free the tentacle would've gotten ambushed by the elves and killed.

If Talogan did go down there, the tentacle would've tempted him into try to destroy it by mentally assaulting his mind. Ideally, he'd use a smite to do so, which would be the means in which it would influence Talogan. It would disguise itself as Talogan's god and even grant him some powers, aka make Talogan the monster's champion. And the more Talogan used it's power and became stronger, the stronger it would become and eventually would try to possess him.

But he managed to avoid that fate. So Kudos!

Keratia: Story of the Surf, Tales of the Deep

The severed limb of an eldrtich monstrosity that had possessed a Kraken. The sea goblins are its worshippers and intended to free it. And now it has returned to the sea, still sealed by elven magic but lost to all.

Frozen Darkness

Donny clambered over the edge of the broken bridge, seeing the blood stains of the headcrab. "Jeez. Where there's one there's more." He sighs as he takes out his pistol and his axe. Unlike the pseudogiant, he was certain he could take on headcrabs. He'd have to use his AP rounds though, since unless he can shoot their soft underbellies their armored carapace can take a few bullets. Exiting the bridge the two would enter the decrepit parking lot. Unsurprisingly, a majority of the vehicles already show signs that they've been broken into and partially looted. Many tires stolen, doors and trunks ripped off their hinges, and even radios ripped out. A sure sign that this area had been traversed before it nothing else.

Cat's keen senses would alert her that there were headcrabs more or less all over this area, most of them up top. Why they were concentrated up there she wouldn't immediately know and maybe it's best if she didn't. There were a few below though, largely thanks to the broken elevator. The door and the emergency hatch was open, allowing any of the mutants to simply fall into the hole and move around the bottom floor. So they both would need to be on their guard. Aside from that there was a stair case leading down which was dusty and smelled rank, but safe to walk. Donny had his gun pointed forward and his axe resting on his shoulder, ready to shoot anything in front of him and slash at anything that tried to get a drop on him. The sound of headcrabs here were small. There were maybe five or six: nothing an aware hunter couldn't handle alone, and trivial for two people.

Frozen Darkness

Grabbing the other end of the rope Donny started to secure it to his chest. "I'll try jumping. I know I won't make it either way, so this way saves us rope." He took a few steps back, and then went to get a running jump. He made sure to jump with his good foot but unsurprisingly he wouldn't make it across. He got about half way before he grabbed the rope, saving him a fall. Cat could hear the railing behind her groan from Donny's weight, but with her help it didn't falter. Donny swung in the air for a bit as he climbed the rope up. Unfortunately for the both of them it was never that simple.

From behind Cat would here the sound of skittering. The noise from the ice breaking had attracted some of the local mutants. Cat would see one appear and it would immediately come running at her: A Head Crab. These mutated crustaceans were surprisingly durable and resistant to cold weather, and worse of all had a tendency to eat people's faces. It jumped high into the air, screeching loudly to alert others, revealing it's disgusting mouth belly to Cat in an attempt to eat her face. "Fuuuuuuck what was that?" Donny said as he quickened his pace climbing the rope.

Dungeon Builder Monster Extraordinaire

So yeah, what should I ought to do for Darc's downtime? I'm hoping to do maybe Skulking, as in showing the Feast of Birds that Darc can totally attack the villagers and get out of sight before any of them can tell who's responsible, forcing people to come and dedicate resources investigating these mysterious attacks.

Frozen Darkness

It was slow going for Donny. Cat was easily able to over take him as she suggested just giving her the rope. He looked at her, uncertain, but figured that if she really wanted to steal his stuff she wouldn't have saved him from falling. "Aight. Give me a moment." Donny hands her his rope. It was a little bit shorter since he had to cut some off previously, but it would still be very long. "Just be careful. Snow's already broken in here so the floors are compromised. They could break even under your weight." Once secured by the rope you'd find that Donny was right. About midway through the bridge, where the snow was heaviest, must of the floor had broken away from the snow freezing into ice and wrecking the inner workings to the point that you could break it with just a few gunshots. The railing itself wasn't doing any good either, as you could feel it threatening to get ripped out of the wall if too much weight is pulled against it.

You had an option though. With a running start, you could easily vault over the snow-covered part of the floor, and latch onto a more secured railing. You could get through this area easily. Donny, however, wouldn't. you could already tell he's not nearly as light on his feet as you are and that's before considering his bruised foot too. You also know his gear would make his weight more than enough to break the ice and and break the railing if he tries to hold onto it. However if you manage to get to the other side, secure the rope to the sturdy railing, and gave Donny the other end of the rope, he could possibly make it across.

Frozen Darkness

"Name's Donny." He said simply as he continued to scavenge the dead. Unfortunately not much else of worth aside from bits of scrap metal, which Donny did take since he couldn't afford to be picky if he has to make new gear for himself later. He took small things, such as the pocket knives, springs, and even coins. Large bits of metal were easy enough to find but the tinier machine made stuff was rare and hard to get. When you asked about where these people came from Donny was finished looting and he stood next to you with a shrug. "Dunno. I imagine they're here for the same reason I am, to get to that haven. Or maybe they thought they could find something in this hospital and found that mutant. Can't say for sure. We should keep moving." As there was nothing else left to find, the two of you would continue on wards towards the skyway that would lead to the parking lot.

The skyway was not in the best of shape. The windows have long sense shattered and many parts of the bridge had broken off. It's structure stability was suspect at best, but it was either going this way or risk going back to the ground floor and walking through the blizzard. And that wasn't even accounting any mutants who might've already shown up here. At least the Skyway provided some measure of cover against the roaring wins. Donny activated his generator to provide himself some warmth as the noise from the winds would block out the noise from his generator. He took out his axe, using it as a sort of climbing tool to latch himself to the railing. He walked carefully, slowly, and when he came across a spot he thought was weak he would poke it with the tip of his foot to test it's stability. One could never be too careful when walking around the ruins.