STAR WARS: An Ill Wind
Session 10

[Day-Lin's player was again absent.]

EXT. ALGUS - JUNGLE PATH - NIGHT

As the search party continues following the trail of the 'Ghost', they soon find that the grassy ground here is rough and grooved, as if tilled long ago and left to the native vegetation. Avirida stumbles along in the darkness, and even Harukuk trips once or twice.

The earth is still damp enough to hold the clawed tracks, however, and now there is another sign; the knee-high grass has been bent down, apparently by the passage of the night hunter and its grisly trophy.

<OOC> Pira says, "Is this before or after we reach the clearing?"
<OOC> Kelly says, "This is as you're going along the clearing."
<OOC> Kelly says, "Time to talk about if you're going to stop."

Pira peers down at the flattened grass, but if she can actually discern anything from it she doesn't share it with her comrades.

Avirida catches herself just barely before she'd be laid face-first full-length on the ground. "How long," she pants, "are we going to keep on like this?"

Avirida inspects a tree carefully for native life before letting herself lean against it. "I mean, I can't keep up with you two like this too much longer."

Pira says "But if we stop..."

Pira peers into the darkness that the tracks vanish into.

Pira says "It will get ahead of us."

Avirida glances across to Harukuk. "What do you think, Captain?"

Harukuk shrugs again and says something in Wookiee.

Avirida listens, then translates, "If it's traveling, we won't catch it without a speeder. If it's going to its home, though..." She glances between the two of them, still leaning against her tree.

Pira looks thoughtful. "That's true. I hadn't thought about that."

Pira slides her pack off her shoulders.

Pira says "It wouldn't be the most comfortable camp."

Avirida leans her head back. "As long as we're not eaten alive, I shan't complain."

Pira says "If you really can't go on..."

Avirida says "I could for a little while, but I wouldn't be much good after." She hesitates, then reveals her utter ignorance of planetbound jungles: "You two could keep on without me, though."

<OOC> Kelly says, "All of you are tired... some of you are just better at working through it, due to the Force or Wookiee stamina. :)"

Pira casts a look around at the blackness and says "Then we are camping."

Pira undoes the seal of her pack, digging down to find lightweight Jedi survival gear.

<OOC> Sabriel wonders if that's anything like Acme survival gear.
<OOC> Pira smirks.

Avirida works a few steps away from the tree and slides her own pack off, digging much likewise, save for it being Navy gear rather than Jedi.

<OOC> Pira says, "I'm assuming that Jedi go to wild planets equipped with tough but gossamer light waterproof fabrics and slim telescoping carbon fiber rods to turn them into tents :)"
<OOC> Kelly says, "Yup. :)"

Pira says "I'll take first watch."

Pira looks at her chrono and tries to calculate how many hours until local dawn.

<OOC> Kelly says, "You'd guess about 5 or 6."

Pira says "Is four hours sleep enough for you?"

Avirida says "It'll do nicely."

Pira looks to the Wookiee. "Would you take second shift, Captain?"

Harukuk nods and rumbles some sort of approval.

<OOC> Avirida is such a wimp. ;)
<OOC> Pira says, "Yeah, wait to you see Pira trying to fix a spaceship :)"

Pira frowns at the edge of her tent-fabric. "We normally link these together in the field."

Pira says "Are your tents from the same standard?"

Avirida says "It doesn't seem unlikely. May I have a look?"

Pira passes it over.

<OOC> Avirida imagines the Jedi and the Navy work together often enough... :)
<OOC> Kelly says, "Yes, but standardized equipment, nope."
<OOC> Pira says, "But a clever engineer might be able to hack something :)"

Avirida takes her look, and shakes her head. "Not quite close enough. I could try to put something together, but for a few hours I'm not sure it'd be worth it."

Pira says "There will only be two of us asleep at once -- do you both have tents?"

<OOC> Avirida checks with the props manager. :)
<OOC> Kelly says, "I suspect it's part of the standard pack, though Harukuk's 2-man tent is a one-Wookiee tent."
<OOC> Harukuk bets. :)

Avirida unlaces her own. "Yes, m'lady."

Pira looks startled. "Only Knight, Engineer Avirida."

Pira folds her tent back up. "We can link those two, then."

Avirida goes about doing so, assuming it's remotely possible under current not-at-one's-best conditions.

Harukuk sets up a tent for himself.

After a bit of fumbling with the rods, both officers manage to get their tents set up and then sealed together. So what if Avirida's sags a bit on one side? It'll keep the rain off, if any more comes.

Meanwhile, Pira finds a convenient rock to set upon while she keeps watch.

<OOC> Pira says, ". o O ( M'lady? M'lady? Okay, my mother is one, but... )"

Pira draws her cloak around her, nearly melting into the rock in her stillness.

<OOC> Pira says, "If there's one thing Jedi know, it's how to be still :)"

Avirida crawls into her corner and assumes a suitably quasicomfortable sleeping position - that is, wrapped up like a small egg of engineer.

Harukuk rolls up in his tent, and becomes a large ball of fur that is very dangerous to disturb.

The hours pass quickly as Pira slips into meditation, opening herself to the Force. Nothing ventures near during the night except for a few hundred bugs, lizards, and other tiny bits of life.

Pira gently nudges the more voracious of those away with small flickers of the Force, until the two hours are up and she rises to wake Harukuk.

Pira unseals the tent, saying "Captain?" quietly without touching him.

Harukuk rumbles irritably, but rises. Well, eventually.

Pira takes his place in the tent, lying on her back, arms straight at her sides.

Avirida remains a small curled-up egg, the back of her neck and uniform shamefully bereft of their proper covering of hair.

<OOC> Kelly says, "Pira sleeps like a vampire. ;)"

The tent is filled with the smell of Wookiee. Damp Wookiee. However, Avirida is too tired to care, and Pira is able to ignore it.

<OOC> Pira says, "Mmmm. Damp wookie."
<OOC> Avirida says, "Sicko :)"

The second watch passes similarly uneventfully, although Harukuk has to fight off the sense that something is watching from the treeline. If so, it doesn't emerge or offer challenge.

Harukuk squints that way warily, even when going to wake up Avirida.

Avirida uncurls with a little cringe, then rubs sheepishly at the back of her neck as she blinks awake. She picks her way carefully around Pira's arrow-straight body to take up her rock.

The heat of day has fled into the now-cloudless night skies, and Avirida finds she needs the foil-covered thermal blanket to really be comfortable. That's yet another flaw of the Outdoors - it's not air-conditioned.

<OOC> Avirida says, "We can tell which of us is the least Force-sensitive. ;)"

The stars, however, are almost as clear and brilliant as when seen from space, and that is some measure of comfort to the forlorn engineer.

Avirida keeps herself from curling quite as much as she'd like to into the blanket partly by watching those stars... and partly by keeping one hand, even under the thermal blanket, on her blaster.

Finally the sky begins to lighten in the west. Algus' yellow-white sun gradually appears over the treetops to begin another day.

With morning comes more noise from the nearby jungle, as birds and other unseen denizens greet the dawn.

Avirida wakes the tent's inhabitants cautiously, and from a distance.

Pira rolls to her knees and squeezes out of the tent, unfolding to begin a much-practiced routine of morning exercises.

<OOC> Kelly says, "Doesn't she just make you sick? :)"
<OOC> Avirida says, "Supernatural entities. Gotta despise 'em. :)"
<OOC> Pira smirks.

Harukuk rises gradually and reluctantly.

Dew beads on every blade of grass within sight, and as the sun climbs higher, it begins to rise into a thin mist. The air along the "road" remains mostly clear, however.

Pira says over her shoulder, as she balances on one foot and slowly lifts the other to her chest, "I have some Jedi rations in my pack."

<OOC> Avirida has this horrible vision of protein bars stamped with Mace Windu's silhouette.
<OOC> Kelly says, "Nothing that evil, fortunately."
<OOC> Kelly says, "On the other hand, 'There is no flavor; there is nutrition.'"
<OOC> Pira snorks.
<OOC> Kelly says, "Navy rations are at least designed to be eaten by mostly normal people."
<OOC> Pira says, "I don't think they can be *that* bad, Qui-Gon did give some to Shmi and they didn't make faces at dinner."
<OOC> Kelly says, "True. (Good eye.)"
<OOC> Avirida stares at Pira. :)
<OOC> Pira reveals herself as a geek once again :)
<OOC> Avirida is just in awe :)

After some stretching, packing of gear, and a breakfast of tasteless water and mostly-edible survival rations, the group is ready to proceed.

Pira finds the trail of claw marks again, more visible now in the sunlight, especially with the low sun casting shadows across them.

As Pira and the others make their way along the trail, the same sunlight glints on something in their path.

Pira pauses to examine it, crouching down.

Harukuk looks around warily, and comments in a growl.

A small piece of metal, round and regular, protrudes slightly from the moist earth.

Avirida translates, "At least those cats are probably nocturnal... what's that?"

Pira moves away, allowing her a better look.

<OOC> Kelly says, "It's more than half-buried, gonna fish it out?"
<OOC> Pira defers to the engineer in matters of metal :)

Harukuk churrs in puzzlement, and crouches down to look at it, before he or Avirida try to dig it out.

It looks like a section of a ring, darkened from some great heat but still shiny.

Avirida frowns down at it. "That's either durable," she says, "or new." Cautiously, she begins to work at the dirt around it.

Pira turns her attention to the surrounds as Avirida digs, alert for danger.

The artifact is fully exposed after a minute or two of work, and turns out to be surprisingly mundane: a connector for a hydrogen feed-line, a common starship engine part. It looks like it's seen better days.

Harukuk scratches his head.

<OOC> Harukuk says, "How corroded does it look?"
<OOC> Kelly says, "Fairly. And, as I mentioned, it looks like it's been in a fire."
<OOC> Kelly says, "Harukuk, give me another KNO roll."
Harukuk rolls 2 dice: <5> 3
<OOC> Harukuk says, "8. Not bad, considering how low it is. :)"
<OOC> Kelly thinks a bit. How much to reveal...
<OOC> Kelly says, "That tickle at the back of your head is back. Something about a fire."
You paged Harukuk with 'The last time you felt this, not long ago IC, was looking at the strange long 'clearing'.'.
Harukuk pages: I see.

Harukuk frowns. He thinks. He posits something, in Wookiee. ["The long clearing. Perhaps it could have been a crash site? And this debris?"]

Avirida also frowns, though much less impressively.

Avirida's eyes widen a little, then. "A crash site?" she repeats, startled, now looking around the clearing.

Indeed, it does seem awfully long and straight.

Pira turns around, startled and interested.

Harukuk nods. He goes on with his supposition. ["And so the "ghost" would be something that was in the ship, which would be why they've never had this problem before."]

Avirida asks, "But if the 'ghost' were something from the ship, how would there be this little sign of it?"

<OOC> Kelly says, "Well, the 'Ghost' is an old legend. But only recently have they been having problems. Maybe the legend suddenly acquired an occupant."

Avirida is, it seems, unfamiliar with jungle growth rates.

Pira says "What did he say?"

Avirida says, "He suggested that the 'ghost' might be something that was in the ship, which would be why they've never had this problem before."

The Wookiee continues gabbing and arfing, making it hard for the engineer to keep up with his theorizing. ["There are all sorts of alien beasts. Some have unusual abilities."]

Pira says "But how old is the clearing?"

The trees that have sprouted here and there look at at least five years old, probably more.

Avirida says "He's implying that some creatures might've ... hidden the ship? Or made things grow faster? I'm not sure."

Harukuk shakes his head. ["Just mean the things that have been scaring the locals. Maybe it was dormant until now. Or maybe it was immature when it crashed."]

Avirida says, "He thinks maybe it was dormant till now, or immature when it crashed."

Pira frowns. "Do you know of any species that behaves so?"

Harukuk considers.

Avirida glances to the Wookiee.

<OOC> Kelly says, "Sounds like a 'alien species' roll." Harukuk rolls 2 dice: <2> 3
<OOC> Harukuk says, "Not terribly likely. I'm sure there are others with better stats in that area. ;)"

Harukuk considers, then says something else. ["There are many predators with strange habits. Of course, being two-legged, maybe it's sentient, but not all that sane."]

Avirida says, "He doesn't know of any off-hand. Though he thinks it might be sentient, but not all that sane."

Harukuk hmphs, but doesn't disagree.

Pira says "Then let us find it."

Pira starts along the trail again.

Avirida falls into line after.

Harukuk rumbles a final afterthought, and follows. ["Of course, if it's sentient, maybe it's just acting on motives we don't know about."]

Avirida mutters, "Or maybe it's just acting on motives we don't know about."

The trail continues to follow what is now revealed as a crash scar, possibly with a fire involved; of course, the jungle is too moist to burn for long. The tracks stay close to the treeline, as if the maker was ready to duck into it should something catch it in the open.

Pira says, obviously completing a train of thought aloud, "The remains of the ship would be at the other end. Ahead."

The party tops a slight rise, which falls away into a natural depression... and there, in the remains of a clearing which has begun to fill in, is a large mound. Weathered paint and ragged metal edges still show beneath a thick layer of creepers, vines and and ferns that have colonized the fallen star. Facing you are the round mouths of the sublight engines, long since gone dark and cold.

Though its outlines are blurred by the encroaching greenery and the berm of earth thrown up around its bow, where it came to final rest, the ship seems about the size of a light freighter or perhaps a corvette.

Pira drops down, wiggling on her stomach for a less conspicious view of the crater.

Avirida spends more than moment just staring.

A flock of birds, startled by the Jedi and her fellows, bursts into the air overhead. Their shadows flit briefly over a vessel that nevermore will sail the stars.

<OOC> Pira says, "So much for the element of surprise :)"

As the birds fly off, an almost expectant stillness descends upon the clearing again.

Pira closes her eyes.

Pira pages: Yes it's the force sense thingee :)
You paged Pira with 'There's life. All around you. You want more specific? Roll. ;)'.
Pira pages: Just sense or sense + ?
You paged Pira with 'Sense + Per.'.
Pira rolls 6+1 dice: <4> 5 6 5 2 5
Pira pages: Whoops, that should be +2 I think. Argh where's my notes about what I brought.
<OOC> Kelly says, "Nothing large nearby except for you and the others."
<OOC> Kelly says, "The coast, as they say, is clear for the moment."

Pira murmurs "I don't think anything is about. But -- a good place for a lair, eh?"

Avirida murmurs, "Very good."

Harukuk nods at that.

Pira cautiously moves down the slope towards the dead ship.

Avirida follows Pira, warily, with blaster.

Harukuk flanks Avirida. He mutters something quietly. ["Hopefully its nocturnal too."]

The tracks lead down into the hollow, around the side of the wreck to an airlock. Or rather the remains of one - the outer door is nowhere to be seen. The ship's frame is sprung, and many hull plates have buckled.

The inner door is a black rectangle, leading to the unknown.

Pira pauses at the airlock. "I dislike the idea of being caught inside by a creature that knows the ship far better. But if we leave someone on watching... if it is intelligent, then it may have another entrance and we've separated ourselves.

Harukuk nods, looking unhappy with the prospects as well.

Avirida says, "At least together we can watch each other's backs."

Pira says "It's probably best. There are too few of us to split up."

<OOC> Pira . o O ( There is no fear, there is the Force. There are no beasties in the dark...)
<OOC> Kelly says, "Oh, ship type people, make me an... um, space transports roll. @_@;"
<OOC> Kelly says, "Make that 'repair'."
Harukuk rolls 4 dice: <5> 1 4 6
Harukuk pages: 16
Avirida rolls 5D+1 dice: <3> 5 3 6 4
<OOC> Kelly says, "Noted. I'll give you the results shortly, when appropriate."
<OOC> Avirida says, "I.e., when Just Too Late ;)"
<OOC> Kelly says, "No, it's purely informational. Honest. :)"
<OOC> Kelly says, "I called for the roll too soon, is all."
<OOC> Kelly says, "So. Going in?"
<OOC> Kelly says, "Glow rods on, I assume."
<OOC> Harukuk says, "Yep, to both."

Pira enters the black depths of the ship, hooking her glowlight to her belt to leave her hands free.

The freighter (for so it appears to be) rests at an angle, tilted slightly to fore and starboard. The explorers find they tend to slip on the deck panels, bracing themselves against walls and doorways.

The interior of the ship is in utter darkness, like an ancient ruler's tomb. There are more signs of its violent end here: cracked light panels with wires hanging from the ceiling, loose trash fetched up in the forward end of passageways, doors jammed half-open.

Pira says "Where would the bridge be?"

<OOC> Kelly says, "Normal volume, or quiet?"
<OOC> Pira says, "Oh, quiet."
<OOC> Kelly says, "Good. :)"
<OOC> Pira . o O ( uh oh )

Avirida struggles to keep a hand free froom balancing herself for her blaster, at first, but gives in after a little and just concentrates on staying reasonably upright.

The various warning labels and other signage in the airlock and main corridor all seem to be in Aurabesh. So at least it was probably a Republic vessel.

<OOC> Pira says, "Are there any signs of blood from the prey being dragged?"

Here and there, thin streams of dirty water run down the middle of the angled corridors. Of more immediate interest are the occasional smears of blood, rust brown in the light of the glow rods.

<OOC> Kelly says, "Following them?"
<OOC> Kelly says, "Or looking for the bridge?"
<OOC> Pira mms. I guess the blood unless the others object.
<OOC> Harukuk agrees.
<OOC> Kelly cues up the appropriate music. Who here's played FF7?
<OOC> Avirida eyes Kelly. Sephiroth Chorus?
<OOC> Kelly says, "Nope. Following the bloody trail left by Jenova through the corridors of Shinra HQ. ;)"
<OOC> Pira giggles.

Pira follows the blood trail, shining her glow light down corridors when a choice presents itself until she sees the telltale dark smears.

The grisly trail leads down a side corridor to a door that looks like it was pried open... by claws. Peering inside, one is immediately struck by a charnel odor and other, less aggressive smells of rotting trash.

<OOC> Kelly says, "Nice marks on the metal. About waist-height."

Pira pauses again.

Avirida makes a face, wincing.

Pira rolls 6+2 dice: <2> 1 2 2 5 5
<OOC> Pira says, "Yuck."
You paged Pira with 'Nothing's in the room. This room.'.
From afar, Pira smirks. So helpful :)

Pira signals silently to Avirida and Harukuk, and begins a slow cautious entry, lightsaber unlit in her hand.

The room appears to have once been a crew lounge, though the upholstery of the couches has rotted away in the humid jungle air. Piled in the lowest corner of the room is a tangle of assorted garbage. The midden heap includes many white bones. One set still gleams red.

Harukuk frowns.

<OOC> Kelly says, "There are a LOT of bones there."
<OOC> Pira says, "As in, maybe more than one creature eating them?"
<OOC> Kelly says, "Draw your own conclusions, dear."
<OOC> Pira says, "Or do some of them look much older?"
<OOC> Kelly says, "Gonna poke at the pile? :)"
<OOC> Harukuk says, "Well, the crash is years old, yes?"
<OOC> Kelly says, "Yeah, that's what your s-t-r roll was for earlier. And now that you've had a chance to look around the wreck some, you're sure... it's at least ten years old. Maybe more. Hard to tell, in this climate."
<OOC> Harukuk nods.

Pira moves towards the heap of bones, wary.

Around the edges of the pile of refuse can be seen some bones that are brown and cracked, older than those on top.

Avirida glances back toward the passage, checking this way and that.

<OOC> Kelly says, "PER roll, Avirida." Avirida rolls 2D+1 dice: <1> 1
<OOC> Avirida says, "Wow. :)"
<OOC> Pira says, "Is this one of the ones where we pray real hard she rolls high? :)"
<OOC> Avirida says, "Do I hit my head on something? :)"

A shape detaches itself from the shadows, leaping at Avirida!

<OOC> Kelly says, "Avirida, declare your action(s)."

Avirida flings up both arms to fend it off, rather than firing in quarters quite this close.

Pira, farther away, calls out "Alive, if you can!"

Seconds pass with no attack. Avirida cautiously looks up from her defensive stance... and realizes she was quite literally afraid of her own shadow, which shifts and wavers as the glow rods in the room move.

Harukuk looks around with confusion. "Arooo?"

<OOC> Harukuk says, "Fairly quiet, yah. :)"
<OOC> Avirida beats Kelly, and has visions of the cat hopping out instead of the Dalek. :)
<OOC> Kelly cackles.
<OOC> Pira smirks.
<OOC> Kelly says, "Which means, of course, next time it'll be the Dalek."

Pira returns to Avirida and Harukuk. "I do not want to kill it if it can be managed. It has killed no person, and it may be intelligent if it is a survivor of this wreck."

Avirida settles with a sigh and a fairly embarrassed look. She shakes her head to the Wookiee.

<OOC> Pira says, "Soft, again, if it matters."
<OOC> Kelly says, "Just wanted to know if you were suddenly speaking up at normal volume and scaring the bejeezus out of your friends. ;)"
<OOC> Pira grins.

Harukuk shrugs.

<OOC> Kelly says, "Well, what now? Going to search the room for treasure, traps or secret doors?"
<OOC> Harukuk says, "Nah, we can't do that, we haven't fufilled condition 1: make sure the monster is dead."
<OOC> Pira says, "Yep!"
<OOC> Pira says, "Exactly the same thought I had about finding the bridge :)"
<OOC> Pira says, "Do blasters have any sort of stun setting? I know the lightsabers can be dialed down to burn instead of slice."
<OOC> Pira says, "Do we have anything netlike in our possession, o prop master?"
<OOC> Avirida says, "Tents. ;)"
<OOC> Kelly says, "All blasters can be set to sun."
<OOC> Kelly says, "STUN. Agh."
<OOC> Sabriel laughs.
<OOC> Kelly threatens to give the observer a bad sunburn.

Pira says "Let's go back to the entrance and see what sort of trap we can lay. Unless you think it would be better done here?" She addresses this to Harukuk, probably the only one of them with any knowledge of trapping animals.

<OOC> Harukuk says, "You can subtract damage from the lightsaber, instead of adding it."
<OOC> Kelly says, "Okay. Pira, are you leaving first?"
<OOC> Pira says, "I don't know. I'm not closest, but i'd be first if the others didn't move."
<OOC> Kelly says, "Marching order, marching order. ;)"
<OOC> Harukuk can be first, he will tend to go first.
<OOC> Pira smirks.
<OOC> Avirida would like not to be first. ;)
<OOC> Pira giggles. Avirida in the middle then and I'm last.
<OOC> Harukuk says, "Makes sense"
<OOC> Kelly says, "Okay. Harukuk, give me a PER roll as you emerge, then."
<OOC> Sabriel mmm, the joys of not wanting to be first or last in the marching order. "Ah, nostalgic memories surface of my dungeoncrawling days."
Harukuk rolls 2 dice: <1> 2
<OOC> Harukuk says, "Erk!"
<OOC> Kelly says, "Heh. Ohhkay..."
<OOC> Avirida consoles Harukuk. She rolled <1> 1 earler. ;)

As Harukuk emerges from the airlock, not really paying attention, a blaster bolt whines across the clearing... and narrowly misses his head, burning a new hole in the aged hullmetal.

<OOC> Harukuk is clearly not the only one who rolled poorly. ;)
<OOC> Kelly says, "Came DAMN close."
<OOC> Kelly says, "But had a mix of sixes and 1s, including the WD."
<OOC> Harukuk says, "Even so, an unsuspecting target... :) Okay."

Harukuk blinks and ducks his head, scrambling to the side.

From the direction of the shot comes an angry shout: "BLAST!"

Avirida starts, then mutters sourly as Harukuk gets safely out of the way. "Someone tell me that's not the mighty hunter."

<OOC> Pira says, "Does it, perhaps, sound like Crocodile Dundee?"
<OOC> Kelly says, "So it does."
<OOC> Avirida synch ;)

Deak Bogan stands on the lip of the depression, lifting the muzzle of his blaster rifle to the sky again. His protocol droid/porter stands at his side, covered with dried mud from about the waist down.

Bogan shouts to Harukuk, "What in BLOODY 'ell do ye think ye're doin' in there?! I coulda blown yer bleedin' 'EAD off!"

Harukuk growls back, more than a little miffed at getting shot at. But he's a civilized Wookiee. There was no second shot. Dismemberment isn't required.

<OOC> Kelly says, "Harukuk: You'd *rather* he hit you? ;)"
<OOC> Kelly says, "Then stop arguing."
<OOC> Harukuk says, "That's another reason why dismemberment isn't necessary."

Pira stands up cautiously, moving to slide past Harukuk into the open.

Avirida calls, "I'd be more careful about where I pointed that, myself, if I were you," easing past after Pira. Just long enough to look around and display the lack of mud, before she goes back to watching their backs inside the ship.

<OOC> Pira smirks. Good move.
<OOC> Avirida says, "Which, taunting him, or making sure someone's watching for anything woken up by that shot? ;)"
<OOC> Pira says, "Well, the taunt, but the other is good too :)"

Pira heads upslope towards Bogan. "Set your rifle on stun."

Bogan holds his arm curled, his rifle pointed more or less straight up. Noting Avirida's emergence, he blinks. "Wall, stroik me. Yer all still alive. Guess beginner's luck does count for somethin'." Then, to Pira, "Now why would I do a damnfool thing like thet?"

Harukuk sniffs, and carefully watches the entrance of the ship.

Pira says "Because it has killed no one, and it may be a sentient survivor of this crash."

Bogan squints. "Did you hit yer 'ead on somethin' in there?"

<OOC> Pira watches the Great White Hunter mentality clash with the Jedi Reverence for Life :)
<OOC> Pira says, "Do I roll for Persuasion?"
<OOC> Kelly says, "Okay, go ahead." Pira rolls 5 dice: <3> 2 4 4 6
<OOC> Kelly says, "'Life creates it. Makes it grow." vs. "Now that'll look roight nice on the wall of me din." ;)"
<OOC> Kelly torments Sabriel with Bogan's accent.
<OOC> Sabriel eyes Kelly.
<OOC> Sabriel beats on him with a prawn.
<OOC> Avirida laughs helplessly.

Pira says, almost wryly "It may even be a citizen of the Republic. This is a Republic ship."

Pira says "Please. Set it on stun."

<OOC> Pira says, "She used the word! Bogan doesn't know how rare this is!"

Bogan cocks his head skeptically, but shrugs and pulls the slide of his hunting rifle back to 'stun' with a loud click. "All right. But only because you're such a pretty young thing." One supposes his grin is an attempt at being charming.

Pira's smile flickers briefly before she turns to look back downslope. "We had intended to set up an ambush by the entrance."

Bogan nods diffidently. "What did ye find inside?" The hunter begins to walk carefully down the slope toward the wreck.

Pira says "A lair. Bones. It's been here a long time, some of them are very old. I wonder if it has run out of prey near here, that it has to go so far to steal them from the pens."

Bogan nods. "Sounds 'bout roight." He suddenly looks up, then to one side. "Ye hear thet?" he murmurs.

Pira says "What?" She goes silent, listening.

Bogan stops walking and lowers his rifle again to a ready position, starting to slowly turn as he eyes the surrounding jungle. "Nothing. Nothing at all."

And indeed, the clearing is totally silent, except for the droid's servos whirring softly as it makes its way down into the slope after its master.

<OOC> Pira says, "Is the grass high enough to provide cover if you drop down into it?"
<OOC> Kelly says, "Not really. It's maybe knee-height."

Pira takes in the stillness, and her eyes close briefly.

<OOC> Kelly says, "You can all roll PER now, if you like."
Harukuk rolls 2 dice: <2> 2
Avirida rolls 2D+1 dice: <6> 2
Avirida rolls 1 die: <2>
Pira rolls 4 dice: <3> 6 2 4

Motion draws Avirida's eyes upward; one of the trees sways gently, as if something had just leapt from its branches to a neighboring tree.

Bogan notices it too, and looks up warily.

Avirida shudders, and takes a momentary glance back into the ship before starting to scan the greenery. The nearer side first.

Through her contact with the Force, Pira senses an unfamiliar presence close by. It approaches with purpose, anger... and yes, intelligence. But when she opens her eyes again, there's nothing there.

Then, suddenly, -nothing- leaps from the trees with a terrible howl, aiming for the startled hunter...