Out on the Deck/By the CES (Open Action Thread)

[bargemods]

Who: Anyone involved in trying to get the CES to open. 
Where: On the main deck/around the entrance to the CES.
When: Toward the end of endgame -- anybody who's been up here already and not seen this, that's okay. It just wasn't there yet. 
What: Doing battle with standard big greasy monster. Warnings for violence. You guys can make this as easy or as

Comments

[feels_no_love]

Dracula darted into the air as the creature made a running leap at him. The dodge was followed up by a desperate backpedal in midair as the creature landed lightly on the wall and sprang off of it again. He tried to keep to the task at hand, to get to the door with the stone that leaped like a live thing in his fist, but at every turn the thing would cut him off.

He twisted and dove, ran along the wall, and finally in desperation put on a burst of his newly won back vampiric speed in an all-out lunge toward the door.

And suddenly the creature's shadow fell over him, and he realized that it had leapt almost as quickly as he had moved, and he tried to roll aside but found himself tangled up in its legs.

With a roar, he lashed out with his free talon and severed one of its palps. A satisfying screech; but then the thing was pinning him down.

Another surge of desperation. The stone! If he died Luke had to be the one to use it. He flailed his arm free of the mess and drew it back to lob the stone away. "Luke! The stone! Use the stone on the door!"

And the beast moved too fast for its bulk again, and its acid-drooling maw closed on his forearm up to the elbow.

Dracula howled in agony.

[notiaraincluded]

Unfortunately, Luke hadn't been able to hear Dracula's cries about using the stone on the door but he did hear that howl. Managing to wipe enough of the gunk from his eyes to see, his clothes were a tattered mess of rags now he turned to find Dracula pinned.

Worried for the Inmate's safety as well as angered by being incapacitated, even for a moment, Luke rushed over and gripped the thing from behind.

The muscles in his arms and back flexing with the strain, Luke let out a roar of effort as he literally threw the monster back over his shoulder and over the edge of the Barge.

[feels_no_love]

"No! The stone!" Dracula groped forward in desperation with one talon and one bone-capped stump. "The stone--"

He collapsed backward, feeling a weight more massive than the spider settle over his heart. "It was our only way through the CES door..."

And the spider knew somehow. It knew...and defeated me even in death.

Crouched on the deck, he stared numbly at his arm stump even as the bone stub at its center lengthened visibly.

[notiaraincluded]

"What're you talking about? What stone? Aw hell, we need to find someone who can look after that hand. Here, lemme get your shirt, we can try and stop the bleeding."

He has no idea how quickly Dracula will heal, but better safe than sorry.

[feels_no_love]

"Lua...gave me one of those stones. It works as a Warden item, but opens everything..."

Too late now. Too late.

But...he sighed.

"The beast's guts were full of acid. I suppose we could not have dug for the stone anyway..."

He looked down at the stump. "It will scab over and regrow on its own...if I have enough blood. But it is gruesome." He shouldered out of the rags of his coat and vest, and tore the shirt off, using his teeth and good arm to rip the silk into shreds.