The Pathfinder Chronicles and stuff

[Micah Talith]

[member="Vexen"]


Welp, that was one way to get the creatures attention.

Pulling himself to his feet, Micah wasn't one to look a gift bantha in the mouth. The Talith sent a flurry of pebbles and dirt scattering as he came upright, hand shooting out towards his lightsaber on the ground. The Force surged through the young man, prompting a telekinetic tug that brought the saber hilt flying to him.

"Oh no you don't big guy," Micah shouted out, a cut dripping blood along his temple. As soon as he caught his saber, fingers curled around it. The snap-hiss came next, and the Talith went surging forward.

The orange blade danced within the Talith's hand, and he went aiming straight for the creature's soft underbelly. Well, if thinner plates and skin could be considered 'soft.'

He gave a massive grunt as he went sliding under the beast, trying his best to avoid the dozens of tiny pointed legs that slithered above him.

The blade, came down, striking at a few of the legs, swinging back up to slice by the belly.

Yeah, this was going to get messy.

 

[Vexen]

[member="Micah Talith"]

Vexen darted and weaved through the webs the creature had lobbed in her direction. A patch of her fur around her elbow caught some and was ripped off to a yelp. That was going to hurt tomorrow. Though not as much as having a limb crushed.

It slithered its whole body to try and get Micah out from under it, before slamming its belly down to try and crush him flat. Vexen rolled as a spiny leg scythed through the air above her. Then she decided to leap, calling the Force to aid her as her muscles coiled and exploded. She came down lightly on the Taozin's back, claws searching for the joint in the plates for purchase.

Well now what.

One stun baton somewhere under its bulk, the other stuck fast in webbing. She could go for the other eye, but that wasn't really likely to really inhibit its effectiveness. It was probably more than capable of seeking them out without vision. Her eyes turned up, up to the stalactites above. Did Micah have a spare saber she wondered?

 

[Micah Talith]

[member="Vexen"]

Micah did, in fact, have a spare saber. It was his byrlewood one that he crafted while he was on Kashyyyk as a youngling. His first to be exact.

The only the problem was, he was down on the ground, and Vexen was on top! However, should Vex decided to nab it with a telekinetic pull, she'd be good.

"Oh feth!" Okay, so maybe this wasn't the brightest of his ideas, but maybe he'd be able to --

Another leg scythed through the air, crashing down beside him as Micah avoided it the best he could. He sprawled onto the ground, saber deactivating before the massive creature thrust his belly down hard again.

Rolling off to the side, Micah barely missed the huge crunch as it fell down.

Just then, he caught sight of movement. Vex.

Wait was she on top of it??

 

[Vexen]

[member="Micah Talith"]

Vexen had never taken to lightsabers. She preferred the compact pair of stun batons she wielded. They could block a saber and gave off far less light and an enemy could be quickly debilitated. Taking off a limb with a lightsaber was hardly silent and survival was never certain. Yet her usual enemies were humanoid not giant underground worms. With one claw wedged between its scales as if she was climbing, her other paw shot out towards Micah.

His wooden saber shot up towards her outstretched arm. It landed for barely a second, just long enough for her to flick to switch. Up it flew, spinning as it went. A great shower of glowing rocky fragments rained down as it scythed through one of the hanging rock formations. Like a silent dagger it broke away from the cavern and fell. It struck the Taozin further up its body with a mighty crack. Vexen couldn't see if it cut through the plating, but the beast was dropped to the ground, writhing from side to side its movements uncoordinated. Vexen called the blade back to her hand. The beast seemed temporarily immobilised, but she was reticent to abandon her position.

 

[Micah Talith]

[member="Vexen"]

Micah wasn't taking any chances then. He brought out his Moph stun blaster. Dialed it up a few to max. Taking aim at the twitching creature, he sent a volley of bolts straight at it. It was his intention to knock it out cold. At this rate, there was no use in having the creature suffer.

Better to get stunned to the point of perma nap than having to suffer through anything more than that. That was the deal with Micah when he went hunting with Vexen. When they came out on hunts like this, they did it the right way. As clean as possible and use as much as they could out of it.

The Taozin gave one last twitch as the stun bolts managed to end any suffering, and the large body began to sink down.

"Vex!" he called out, concerned for her. "You okay!?"

 

[Vexen]

[member="Micah Talith"]

"Pfft," Vexen noisily blew away some of the dust that lingered in the air before her. One paw came up and wafted some of it away. The billowing cloud was almost immediately replaced. She just had to accept it was going to take a good while to get all the dust from the rocks shattering around her from out of her fur.

When she was satisfied the creature was quite still she removed her claws from the edge of the chitinous plate and slid down towards the side of the beast. Despite everything she was still light on her feet and came to land a few metres from Micah with barely a sound.

"Ya didn't get squashed then?"

 

[Micah Talith]

[member="Vexen"]

“Ehhh….” The Talith began, still on his back and covered from head to boot in dirt and … guano. Great.

“I’ll live.” He finally confirmed, choosing to lay there on the ground for a bit while he caught his breath. That had been, well a bit unexpected.

“Didn’t quite turn out as planned.” he began, although knowing full well he’d get a glare. They didn’t really HAVE a plan to begin with. Something that Micah really needed to work on.

But he was young! Adventurous!

Where is the fun in plans?!

 

[Vexen]

[member="Micah Talith"]

Vexen dropped down to all fours next to him. She could have offered a paw to help him up but the difference in weight them - especially when gear was factored in - didn't really make it worthwhile. Instead she started patting him down and looking for any serious injuries. Micah wasn't always entirely honest when he'd hurt himself.

He would sense a faint tremor in the Force as she used her rudimentary understanding of the subject to try and sense if he had any hidden injuries.

"You smell dreadful."

 

[Micah Talith]

[member="Vexen"]

"Dreadful..." he coughed out, a bloody grin directed at the Defel.

"Or dreadfully a-maz-ing!" he chirped out, only to give a groan as Vex probed along his right flank. Yeah. There were some bruised and likely a few broken ribs. Odds were that under his armor, he was going to have some massive purple blooms.

That wasn't even including the cuts and scrapes he had by not wearing his helmet. He had managed to accidently get a cut on his lip, which explained the blood.

"Owww... hey hey.. be gentle with the goods there!" he said, trying to gently bat her paw away. She was right, he didn't like bringing attention to when he was hurt. Call it a bit of pride.

"Looks like we got him though." he'd add, nodding to the Taozin. Maybe she'd stop poking him then. The not so clean part of gathering what they needed would be next.

And Micah did not like having anything go to waste.

 

[Vexen]

[member="Micah Talith"]

"Ah, you ain't dyin'," Vexen decided after a moment more, ignoring his attempts to shoo her away. She stood tall again, knees threatening to misbehave on the way back up. Some of that adrenaline was still sat in her veins with nowhere to go. The fight had, in real terms, been brief. Rather than exhausted her nerves were just firing like mad.

She turned back to the Taozin. Approaching its flank she tapped her claws against its hide. "Tough," she reflected. "Real tough."

Funny how the horrors of the last few minutes didn't seem as bad as they once had. This was the life she knew now, perhaps as removed from regular life as her old one had been.

 

[Micah Talith]

[member="Vexen"]

Micah let himself stay on the ground for a little bit longer. He craned his head up to watch the Defel knock on the Taozin's hide.

"Yeah. It is a sort of shell armor," He told her, giving a grimace as he worked his way up to a sitting position.

"It is almost completely resistant to blasters and lightsabers." he then pointed over to the silken webbing, "That is strong webbing, can be used in the same manner as glist the web. I wonder if I alchemized it if it would do anything with it?" he mused... now that was a thought!

"You won't be able to feel it in the Force... they seem to be invisible.. " a pause then a shrug of a shoulder, "Well for those who are not used to Taozin.... then it will seem a bit blurry." he told her.

"The nodules could be used to maintain the same force disguise. that's how amulets are made out of it."

 

[Vexen]

[member="Micah Talith"]

"Hmm. Reminds me. Gooped up by stun baton over there somewhere. Best go find it in a sec," she said. With an open paw she pressed at the creature's hide. It had a small amount of give, but it's surface couldn't be marred by her claws.

There was a three syllable word for things that bent that you used as fabrics. Began with an 'f'. Vexen canted her head back and forth but failed to recall it.

"Has some give to it," she said instead, before trundling off to find her stun batons. Even if they were broken, she'd learned enough of the Force and alchemy to know that it wasn't the best idea to leave personal possessions behind.

 

[Micah Talith]

[member="Vexen"]

“It does,” Micah groaned out, slowly getting to his feat. Another grimance. “Ahh man.” yup, definitely bruised ribs. Maybe one was broken too.

“Think auntie Amore could patch us up and not tell mom?” odds were yes, but Micah was trying to make the situation lighthearted. It is what he did when he was hurt or things got a bit too serious. Up on his feet, he slowly sauntered over to the Taozin.

“We’ll need to make camp.” he said, dirty head turning to glance around their environment.

“We could make one here… keep whatever other critters away.” not to mention, he was rather curious what sort of crystals were on the walls there. Not the sort he’d seen before.

 

[Vexen]

[member="Micah Talith"]

"Erm..." Vexen considered this. She had no particular issue with staying in the tunnels. It was simply that her mind had turned to the notion of a nice sonic, brushing through her fur for a good hour and maybe looking after the wounded Micah whilst secretly just looking for a good scratch.

Practically she knew that if they left something this size down here the carcass would probably attract attention in short order.

"Yeah alrigh'," she conceded. She had some motion sensors in a bag she'd dropped somewhere. Had been planning to set them for the Taozin. Hopefully most of the local fauna knee to keep out of this beast's lair.

 

[Micah Talith]

[member="Vexen"]

Another grimace followed the plucking of the silk of the Taozin's webbing from Micah's hair.

"Feth, this just gets everywhere doesn't it?" He complained loudly, expecting the Defel to glare over at his direction. She likely wasn't none too happy about having to spend the night here -- but they really should in order to make sure that they managed to do this the right way.

He felt her slight disappointment, but he knew that she would be alright.

"I'll take a gander around here." He told her, pausing mild grimace at the ache over his ribs.

"Make sure there isn't anything else near by." Vexen would be good with seeing up a small camp. He'd take care of getting a fire going in a bit.

 

[Vexen]

[member="Micah Talith"]

"Hmm it does. If I have to cut out some lumps of fur... "

She would not be happy if that ended up the case, that was certain. The notion of wearing a suit of armour had grown on her rapidly in the last few hours.

"I brought some bits down, but not got any bed rolls or nothin'. Want me to go get some bits from the ship?"

 

[Micah Talith]

[member="Vexen"]

Micah's laughter broke through that. Likely the Defel did not appreciate the Talith's sense of humor.

"That is why I made that brush for you, you know that," Micah would remind her. One of the first items he had created through alchemy in fact. He had made a brush that would help increase the sheen and quickly work through the mats, tangles, and knots.

"Yeah," he agreed with her on going back to the ship to get what they could.

"Go ahead," he nodded over to her. "I'll stay behind and get a fire going at least. Investigate the place." He hooked his lightsaber at the magnetic clip by his waist.

"Be careful," he reminded her nodding over to her.

"Comm me if you need anything."

 

[Vexen]

[member="Micah Talith"]

Vexen snorted derisively. As grateful as she was for the brush it had its limits. Hacking chunks of fur out couldn't be covered easily. And what if her bare skin was exposed? How...humiliating.

She could never stay angry at Micah long. She'd barely left the chamber before it dissipated. That brush had been her most treasured possession since he'd given it to her. On the first day, back on the Herdship, she'd broken her brush.

Those days it wasn't easy to come by a whole brush, one with at least half its bristles and a good handle. It had been the start to a bad day. One that had turned worse when her Rodian Master had punished her for being late and then a young boy had chased her all the way back to her private sanctum.



Vexen returned a little while later with a whole bag full of gear. She also had a new shine to her fur because she'd indulged herself in the sonic for two minutes to get the dust out. Getting some dust through the fur wasn't the worst, but when it was fine and dry.

"I'll lay out the rolls," she said as the walked over to him, watching the carcass of the taozin suspiciously.

 

[Micah Talith]

[member="Vexen"]

By the time the Defel came back, she'd see that Micah managed to get a small little fire going. They had to be safe because they were in a cavern, so nothing too big, but enough to use what they needed to keep anything away. Which so far, Micah found none.

However, Micah wasn't by the fire. No, he was too busy trying to figure out what sort of crystals were the ones stuck on the wall. They were small, but he wondered if there would be any larger deeper in the cavern?

Catching sight of Vex, he noticed the extra gleam on her fur. A chuckle was his only reply to that, knowing well that the Defel had indulged.

"Alright... let's see what we have here." he said, slowly making his way over to her.

"Didn't see anything so far, but we never know. Set those sensors and then we can the rest of the camp going." he would take half of them to make it go faster.