The creature managed to tear itself free eventually, immediately lunging after Atsumori, chittering in a manner that only could be described as a middle-aged white CEO stuck in LA traffic in his Prius SUV on a Friday afternoon.

____________
Initiative:
White Death 28
Chiyoko 15 - Dazed
Atsumori 2 - Channeling inner Steve Irwin

White Death is next to Atsumori, who is 15' from Chiyoko.

Chiyoko might be high...

---

Raw stamina TN 10. Please: 2d10o10 3

Atsumori was really starting to worry about Chiyoko now. Maybe she needed first aid... maybe she had some previously unknown allergy to the creature's toxins?

Then the beast ripped through the webbing and charged him again. "Oh, well done, you beauty!" The drone camera caught his manic grin as he backed off, angling roughly toward Chiyoko this time, and snapped off another shot.

--

Stance: Attack (ATN 25)

Armor: Light Armor
TN bonus: +5
Reduction: 3

Free action: move 10' from animal, aiming to also be ~10' from Chiyoko (in case she needs, like, smelling salts or something?)
Complex action: Pew! Splat!
D7 LE--round 3, web shot goes squish. Firearms. Unknown TN.: 5d10o10k3 22

As before, TN20 complex Str check to escape if caught.

Web gun charges: 2/5

The beast tore itself free once more, filaments of the sticky polymers clinging to its long limbs, the claws sinking deep into the ground as it scuttled towards Atsumori, its ichor staining the dark ground.

____________
Initiative:
White Death 28
Chiyoko 15 - Dazed
Atsumori 2 - Channeling inner Steve Irwin

White Death is next to Atsumori, who is 10' from Chiyoko.

Finally snapping from her torpor, she seemed to realize that Atsumori was in a spot of issue. She whipped the rifle around, pulling the trigger and hitting the thing dead on. Was it enough?

----

Late evening resist daze. TN 5: 2d10o10 11

Late evening shoot the thing. 1 raise for damage. Emphasis: 8d10ro1o10k4 82

Late evening shoot the thing. Damage roll: 9d10o10k5+6 39
Ignores 10 reduction

HAR cannot be fired next round.
Attack
TN 30

The shot blasted straight through the cranial case of the alien creature, two of its eyes bursting from its head and landing at Atsumori's feet, whatever the creature had last eaten spraying on the Phoenix samurai. The white death was dead before it hit the ground, its limp form still. The dark forest was quiet around the two samurai.

____

OOC: Combat over.

"That was... a thing," she shook her head. "Well done. Would have been much harder without you here
"

"Incredible shooting, Matsu-san!" Atsumori's brows swooped upward. "Wow. You all right, then? You looked a little under the weather for a minute there." He holstered his web gun, then extracted a bandana from one of his many practical pockets and began blottint the worst of the cephalopod goo off of his face and neck.

"Poor animal. It just wanted a spot of dinner." Atsumori shook his head, still exhilarated and looking unsure whether to keep grinning or sigh over the squishy dead thing. He crouched down for a closer look at the late White Death. "Law of the jungle, mate," he scolded it in a vaguely regretful tone. "Humans are the most dangerous creatures out here."

"Yeah, I'm fine." She coughed, and some more spores escaped. "Whatever that stuff was, it is gone now. As is that thing."

She looked at it a moment, then shrugged. "No use fretting about it now. Let's find what we came for."

Atsumori had gestured his drone closer to the the lumpy carcass, where it now hovered, slowly drifting back and forth with its holorecorder running. "Fretting? It's a White Death! I dreamed about seeing one of these beauties up close." He flashed a grin up at Chiyoko. "A terrestrial cephalopod. Totally unique. Look at the vestigial suckers on this baby!" He used a stick to reveal the underside of one spindly clawed limb.

"It's just too bad he got the drop on us. If we knew he was out here, we could've found a nice safe blind to watch him from and not bothered him at all, poor blighter."

"Right," she nodded noncommitally. "Let's just not get so excited about it that we forget why we are here, eh?" She smirked a bit, looking to the holo. "We find a few more of 'em and your fans might not like what ends up happening."

Atsumori sighed. "Right. I hope Holly here got a good shot of that gas trick our friend played, though." He gave a friendly wave of his hand to the drone as it zipped by to take up its position a little in front of him. "I didn't even know they could do that! Amazing really. I wonder if there's somethin' in their diet, or a symbiotic fungus..." He shoved to his feet and adjusted his grip on his flashlight.

"Anyway, I thought I saw a promisin' spot for those Ghostcap Mushrooms right over there, before, uh, the incident. Back where I dropped the basket." He brushed a little at the remaining sticky cephalopod goo on his clothing--mostly ineffectually--then gave his now-filthy bandanna a slightly puzzled look, shrugged, and stuffed it back into a slime-saturated pocket. "Sorry in advance about the smell."

---

OOC: He knows where the glowy shrooms are!

D7 LE--Search for the night-blooming shrooms, Hunting TN 25. Void.: 6d10o10k4 35

She shrugged. "Smells don't bother me too much." Still, she seemed glad that the mushroom was found readily enough. At least she wasn't repulsed by the goo. "Is this what a day in the life of Shiba Atsumori is? Almost bein' murdered by local wildlife, then recording it?" Her lip upturned. Perhaps she wasn't offended by the idea?

"Hey now, murder makes it sound so... premeditated." Bioluminescent ichor from the cut mushroom stalks stained Atsumori's hands; when he rubbed thoughtfully at his jaw, a glowing smudge transferred to his chin. "Murder's a human thing. Animals just get hungry. Or scared."

On his knees in the mushroom patch, he grinned wryly up at Chiyoko. "That's one reason I want to show people more about them. If humans understand animals better, maybe we'd get along better, you know? I don't usually come that close to bein' dinner, though."

D7 LE--roll to find the TN 10 Fire-tongue Moss before day change! Can RP this at leisure. Hunting/Per: 5d10o10k3 21

"Makes sense, I suppose," she conceded. "You must really like them, then. To be willing to put your neck out to show what they're all about. Most wouldn't come half this far."