ic Sting in the Tail

[Supercape]

GM

 

This blast of wind and sand was even more effective than the first. The swarm of poisonous creatures had already been decimated, and now they were finished. Whilst dangerous as a group, the creatures were small or tiny - unfit to resist the devil's storm. Setho had an unleashed his giant beasts, and they had been defeated. And now, his tiny pawns had been crushed too. 

 

Mr. Sting was still slapping off insects and goo from his skin. It looked like he might be bitten a few places, by various resilient insects, but overall he seemed in fair shape. 

 

"We gotta get to Big Mama!" he pleaded. 

 

"I'm gonna get you..." mumbled Adbul, still holding his bleeding stomach. 

[Exaccus]

Venomax huffed tiredly as he helped shoulder sting as he grabbed abduls collar and hauled them down the tunnel.

 

Officially he was done with the both of these people but he tried his best to hold it in.

 

That fell apart when abdul opened his mouth.

 

"The only thing you're getting is a cell in blackstone, try anything and ill throw a medically induced coma in for free." He snarled "i am offically done with the both of you all i need is an excuse."

[RocketLord]

Cassidy almost fell down against the cavern wall, a bit of distance away from Sting and Abdul. He resumed his human form for the first time in a while as he struggled to catch his breath. He still wasn't sure how he felt about the snake escaping, but at least they were safe for now.

 

"Shut up, Abdul." He added to Venomax's threat. He needed to catch his breath and rest for a moment. Just a moment, then he'd be back in action, he hoped. He looked at Sting. At least he seemed to be out of the snake's influence for the moment, focused on Big Mama, whoever that was. He looked at Venomax, who seemed mostly uninjured, at least. "Just give me a moment to catch my breath, alright?" It was only a matter of time before Setho would catch them or send some other pest or monster at them.

 

They couldn't fight that thing if they didn't know anything about it. Alright. He might be able to fix that, at least. Somewhere, in some part of his mind or soul, or whatever he had these days, Cassidy knew things. The knowledge of his predecessors. Of the Dust Devils and protectors of the past. All he had to do was try to find it. So, he tried. Maybe someone had encountered Setho or hurt of something like him. Anything that could help them.

[Supercape]

GM
 

Abdul, for his part, was too busy bleeding slowly to protest further. At least the poison had not killed him, thanks to Venomax's intervention. 

 

Mr. Sting was mildly irritated about the incomplete nature of his vengeance. The subsequent events had somewhat taken precendence in his mind. 

 

"Did you see that?" he asked quite redundantly. "I never saw such a feast of poison!" he said, shaking with excitement. "No wonder the scorpions grow so big. Did you see those snakes?" he asked, again, quite redundantly. 

 

He paused to wipe his brow with tremulous hand. "But I didn't fancy being stung to death. That would be my way to go, if I had to choose. But I'd rather not quite die yet". 

 

He surveyed the dark tunnel they were in. 

 

"Lets get to big Mama" he suggested, pointing down the tunnel to what was, hopefully, his shack...

[Exaccus]

"Lets get out of this place then,  before those swarms gather back together then." He huffed as he doubled his efforts to drag abdul down the tunnel.

[RocketLord]

It took a moment, but he found something about Lemuria, at least. It was real, after all. Snake people, sorcerers. Some were even shapeshifters. Bad news, in other words. With a groan of effort, Cassidy pushed himself to his feet, standing up straight. He shook his head at Sting's comment about the poison. "Yeah, we saw it." Still, he agreed. They had to get out of there first, then figure out what to do. 

 

He moved over by Venomax and motioned at Abdul. "Let me take that." He might be exhausted, but carrying Abdul shouldn't be too much trouble. Cassidy lifted him up without too much effort, or care, and started carrying him out. "So, that's your god? Seems like he didn't really care what Sting over there did to you."

[Supercape]

GM

 

"A means...to an end" grunted Abdul as was carried. At least he did not seem to be bleeding to badly now. Venomax might be master of venom, but he had done a pretty good job patching Abdul up. 

 

"You keep on insisting that the Leaf is a poison, a danger. What if it is a gift from the Mesa?" he asked the Dust Devil. 

 

Daylight started streaming more brightly from the end of the tunnel. 

 

And greenery. 

 

Wait...greenery? this was a desert. 

 

And there was no shack, either. 

 

"Where are we? Where's big Mama? Wheres my scorpion?" said Mr. Sting, quite confused and slightly angry. 

 

They had walked out into a stinking hot, humid, jungle....

 

It looked suspiciously like the jungle that Abdul had taken the Dust Devil to. 

 

A million years ago!

[RocketLord]

"It ain't." Cassidy's response to Abdul was short and to the point. His tone didn't invite more discussion on the topic. The whole reason that he'd been saved and empowered by the Mesa was too keep it safe and keep people from interfering with it. So why would the Mesa want to spread the leaves? It didn't make any sense. He was more in doubt that he let on, but he wouldn't give Abdul the satisfaction of knowing that. He would have to try and sort it out with the Mesa once this was all over, if he could find some way of doing that.

 

And then, they stepped into the jungle. They had taken a wrong turn somewhere, or the Mesa had decided to simply bring them to this location. Whatever the cause, here they were. In the middle of prehistoric times. To tell the truth, he was more annoyed than anything at the development, at least for now. He hadn't planned on having to deal with dinosaurs again today. "We're in the Mesa, Sting. It'll take us where it wants. There's bigger things than your scorpion and Big Mama here, so keep your head down." He looked at Abdul. "You brought me here before. Is this when the Snake started his leaf business?" Maybe they could stop it before it even began.

[Supercape]

GM

 

"I do not profess to know much of the Snake" replied Abdul, cautiously. He looked pale and clammy. 

 

"But the Leaf has shown me much of the past, and the future" he added, proudly. "This is the kingdom of old Lemuria, and I have seen the Snake here, tending...his gardens. He is master of snakes, but also an alchemist, a sorcerer, a...gardener. Even his own people called him mad"

 

"I prefer to think of him as a visionary. It was through the power of the Magic Mesa that he cultivated the leaf. As...you are surely aware, time does not operate within the narrow confines of human perception here...it is difficult to know what has been, will be, or..." he frowned, confused a moment. "What will have been, or has come to be...."

 

"If we have come to this place, it is by his hand, not mine. I can only imagine he has had uncounted centuries to study the ways of the Mesa, and as you have surely seen, he is no fool...."

 

And to punctuate his statement, they heard the sound of stomping feet and the roar of dinosaurs....

[Exaccus]

"My turn." venomax stated simply as he shouldered mr sting onto dust devils shoulders and relinquished abduls scruff as he peeled off to face down what what coming, aiming his gauntlets at the tunnel opening and firing a capsule that landed with a thud in the opening before rapidly dispersing its contents with a aerosolized hiss, creating a cloud of green gas that would hopefully make the approaching dinosaurs too confused to act cohesively "should keep em uncoordinated for a while." he explained as he wiped his mouth with his hand.

 

"Fight or flight?"

[RocketLord]

Abdul rambled on. More about what a great visionary the Snake was, how he was from old Lemuria, and this was where his gardens were. Well, that confirmed it to Cassidy. Find the gardens, and ruin them beyond recovery. Salt the Earth, if necessary. Still, it was worrying to know that the Snake actually knew his way around the Mesa. If he had guided them here, then that was where he wanted them to be. And the roars and stomping feet only confirmed it.

 

Cassidy accepted Sting and Abdul. Could they fight dinosaurs and still keep an eye on those two? It all depended on just what they faced? At least Venomax was buying them some time.

 

So, fight or flight? "Depends. I don't know how much you know about this place, but if that Snake is using the Mesa to spread and cultivate his leaves, then there's no telling what they might actually do. I need to find him and stop him. If you want to turn around and get these two out of here, I won't blame you." Somewhat carefully, but not overly so, Cassidy placed Abdul and Sting on the ground. "Personally, I've always kind of wanted to punch a dinosaur." He felt a second wind coming on. Through the dinosaurs, if necessary. "You two, behave while I keep you from being eaten." Cassidy added. Wait for the dinosaurs to get into the tunnel, through Venomax's gas. They'd have less space to move in there, at least.

[Supercape]

GM

 

And from the jungle, from the vines and trees and bushes and wonderfully green landscape...

 

Burst three dinosaurs! Only an expert paleantologist could guess at their species. They were about the size of a horse, jumping around on two legs, with claws and teeth and scales. Ferocious indeed! But even more remarkably, ontop of them rode three riders!

 

Like humanoid snakes they were, just as Setho had been under his cowl. Black eyes, scaled skin, holding wickedly barbed spears as if they were knights on horseback with mighty lances. 

 

And into the cloud of venom they rushed. 

 

One had enough speed to rush straight through without inhaling the fumes. The other two, behind, were not so lucky, and started stumbling around quite perplexed. The two riders ontop of unfortunate beasts started screaming and clicking their strange vocal cords. 

 

The faster leader, whose sanity appeared intact, shrieked something ununderstandable in his (or possibly her) native tongue. Slimy, oily, and incomprehensible was his words. Although one could be made out on several occassions. 

 

Setho....Setho...Setho....

[Exaccus]

Venomax smirked as he watched his concoction work its ways on several of the unsuspecting lemurians and dinosaurs, not in the perverse enjoyment of suffering but more the satisfaction of watching something one made work, like clockwork.

 

He almost didn't hear the snakes utterance of setho, lost in poised preparedness for combat as he was, he'd almost dismissed it as mumblings from a hallucination brought about by his toxin but the lemurian seemed lucid, its eyes were not dilated and it moved with serpentine grace so he paused for now and even ventured to lower his gauntlets to see how things played out.

[Supercape]

GM

 

As the dinosaurs and their riders stumbled about, Mr. Sting and Abdul both seemed to lose their nerve. 

 

"This ain't Kansas" explained Mr. Sting, agitated. "Snakes and Scorpions are great, but Dinosaurs and lizard-men aren't so much. No poison here, as far as I can see. Plenty of teeth, though. I say we go back the way we came before we get eaten!" he blustered. 

 

Abdul was still holding his blood soaked shirt. "As great as the past is, they don't...have hospitals...." he muttered weakly. "I am a poet not a pragmatist. But even poets have to be pragmatic sometimes...." he explained. 

 

"Setho!" demanded the last Lemurian rider. It was hard to read the expression of a lizard-man, but he seemed angry, scared, and confused all at the same time....

[RocketLord]

More snakemen, shouting things that nobody alive could understand. Cassidy only caught the single word that they repeated. Setho. Of course. Likely, they were on the Snake's side. His guards, or something like that. While two of the riders were caught in Venomax's cloud, their leader had emerged unaffected. Cassidy knew that he should probably just go forward. Know the dinosaur out as quick as he could, then deal with the rider, but there was something about his tone that just seemed ever so slight off. Anger and confusion, that much was given. But the fear? What did he fear here? The four humans, something that shouldn't even exist yet? Or Setho?

 

It was a gamle, but maybe there was a way to get out of this without fighting. Reaching into his pocket, Cassidy pulled out one of the leaves, holding it up so that the snakeman atop the dinosaur could see it. What he did next would depend on the reaction.

[Supercape]

GM

 

The three Lemurians seemed to recognise the leaf, that was for certain. They hauled up their mounts and pointed their spear-lances at the leaf. 

 

Their clicking vocal cords sounded agitated and demaning, their slithering language insistent and oiled. 

 

"Setho!" it came again. They seemed to associate the Leaf with Setho, for good or ill, one could not tell. 

 

Abdul piped up with a grim mutter. "Setho is considered a mad sorcerer by his kind. What that means, I could not say for I do not understand their culture. But he is quite unlike them. Maybe they revere him, maybe they despise him. But they certainly consider him mad...he has admitted as much!"

[RocketLord]

Right. Setho the mad sorcerer. And Abdul had willingly followed him? That probably told Cassidy the last few pieces he had liked to find out about Abdul. Not knowing their exact stance on Setho was troublesome. They could hate the bastard, or they could be his freaking cheerleaders. At least they recognized the leaf and knew exactly who Setho was, from the sound of it. The only thing they could understand. 

 

He glanced over at Venomax. "Get ready. This will probably either make them our best friends ever, or make them want to kill us." He turned his attention back on the snakemen atop the dinosaurs. A phrase he had never thought he would come to consider. Cassidy shifted the leaf, from holding it between two fingers to the palm of his hand, clearly showing it to the snakemen. This was it, then. Friends or enemies.

 

He closed his fist, utterly crushing the dried leaf in it.

[Supercape]

GM

 

And as it happened, the spears went up. Not in salute, but it seemed quite clear that by destroying the leaf they had done some service. Something worthy of approval.

 

Not that that maked them friends. 

 

They started bickering and discussing the destruction of the leaf for a moment, pondering what to do. Pointing spears at the sky, at Dust Devil, and into the jungle to the four corners of the compass. And, most emphatically, at the tunnel that lead back to the magic mesa. 

 

"Setho?" it was more a question now, less a demand - although it had a touch of iron to the words. The spear pointed everywhere now, its question implicit. 

 

Where is he?

[Exaccus]

"Well...looks like i got even more folks to try not to poison now....hmm.." he pondered a little as he rubbed his chin, turning things over in his head as he tried to piece it together.

 

"What to do about mr sting and abdul....you think we can get em outta here and find setho's cave in short order?"

[RocketLord]

"I don't know." Cassidy tried to emphasize a shrug, exaggerate it just a bit to get the meaning across. They understood a single word. That wasn't a lot of common ground for communicating with each other, but it would have to do. Stretching an arm out, he pointed out into the jungle, moving in a wide arc to try to point out that Setho could be somewhere in the jungle, but they didn't know where. "Out there, somewhere. Maybe." He made the exaggerated shrug again. Hopefully they would understand his meaning.

 

Giving the snakemen a moment to think, he turned to Venomax. "Better than have them try to poke you with those spears, yeah?" Allies were better than enemies. Especially if they didn't want Setho around anymore than he did. His question was good, though. Mr. Sting and Abdul would probably be a nuisance at best, if they brought them along, but he didn't trust Sting alone with Abdul. And he didn't trust Abdul further as far as he could throw him, far as that may be. "If we get them outta here, then there's no telling what they'll be up to, or if we can find our way back. If we keep 'em here, they'll just be trouble." He hadn't exactly been in a situation like this before. "I got no idea what we'll do with 'em."

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Hey, I'm right here, you know...!" said an indignant Mr. Sting. 

 

Abdul was slower to respond, thanks to blood loss and poisoning. "You can leave our knifey friend here" he said, indicating Mr. Sting "for all I care. Perhaps a few spears will teach him a lesson!"

 

"But as wonderful as the past is to see, I for one do not think we will last long in a jungle. This is ancient times. The Human Race has not even evolved yet!" he explained. 

 

"Can we please go back to the Mesa?" he asked, and he was both contrite and pleading in his tone. 

 

As for the Lemurian riders, they continued their alien banter, wondering which way to turn. Dust Devil had been suitably vague in his answers, and they were suitably uncertain about what to do, other than click "Setho!" again, jabbing the spears everywhere, apparently insisting on greater accuracy. Whatever else, they were apparently very keen to find the mad sorcerer, and it seemed very keen to stick their spears in him...

[Exaccus]

"Back to the mesa then, i'd say, looks like we're getting out through setho." He summerized, "besides, we have some buisness to attend too id say."

 

No need to go into detail of course but there was a matter to clear up with dust devil and abdul both.

 

"How does this mesa work? Do we will ourselves to our desination or clap our hands or what?"

 

 

[RocketLord]

Right. Bringing those two along would be a pain, but he couldn't just leave them be. Cassidy frowned, as he looked over them. They had to get them back, and he had to make sure they ended up back in the right place. Would the Mesa do as he asked?

 

"It is complicated. Sure, you can try and influence the Mesa, have it take you where you want, but it also got a will of its own. I can do it, sometimes. If the Mesa wants to play nice, at least. But there's no telling if we could find our way back here again." He paused for a moment. There was something he hadn't considered. "Abdul here was able to find his way before. Do you think you can do that again?" He looked over at Sting. "And if he helps you out of here and back home, can you then keep from stabbing him anymore, maybe get him some help?" He looked over at the snakemen. They seemed eager to get to stabbing. "You think you two can do that? Actually try not to kill each other? Because if not, then I will find you, and leave you both in the deepest, darkest pits of the Mesa."

[Supercape]

GM

 

"But he cheated me!" complained Mr. Sting, clearly not happy with being cheated. 

 

"Did you never bend a deal your own way?" retorted Abdul. "Come on. You stabbed me. We are in a Jungle a million years ago. Lets get out of here, then we can discuss who did what to who" he said, sternly. 

 

Mr. Sting gave him a long hard glare, frustrated at circumstance. 

 

"Guess the dice fall that way today, huh...." he conceded. "I'll not shank you today, then..."

 

Abdul, still holding his belly and red stained t shirt looked back at the Dust Devil. "I can...I think...get us through the Mesa. I wish you hadn't crushed the leaf though. It...allows me to see the way much more clearly" he said, rather worried. "I can't be sure I can get us back to the right place, or the right time...."

[Exaccus]

"Right ya are then." Venomax concurred, once agaim returning to his curt but hopefuly not dismisive way of talking as he examined the snake men and the men who were snakes.

 

"Lets get this trainwreck rolling shall we?"