IC
Kahliss sighs as the sun glitters off the white sand.  This was the life. He turned to see the lapping waters of the crystal blue ocean.  A gentle hand touches shoulder, causing him to turn and admire the very female form before.  He runs his hand over the sleek carapace of his partner, "Has anyone ever told you what wonderful chitin you have?..."

*Has anyone seen Kahliss?*
*Yeah, the bug's sleeping in the back...*
*How the heck can that bug sleep now?*

      Raleigh, seeing Zhirrzh and Telgar returning from the well, breathes
out a sigh of relief.  The tension had been pretty thick there for
awhile.  Easing back in the drivers chair he looks ober to Brennon,
  "Well, what now?"
Brenon greets Telgar and Zhirrzh upon arrival. He notices Telgar's haggard face; noticing that the mission took a little more outta Telgar than he thought. Telgar's wounds still needed time for mending. "Nicely done men. Telgar, you've been through a hell of a lot today. Go get some rest, that's an order."
 
Some time passes, Lyrium tests the water:
 
Brenon nods at Lyriums mention of arsenic. "Well, that's ok for now, at least we know we've got a possible backup water supply case ours runs low. Hopefully it won't come to that though. As for collecting samples, I don't feel the time or place is suitable for this. I know Streel wants this data; that's why they hired you. But they hired the rest of us to make sure you and others stay alive. I intend to do just that. If we found plant life here, there's bound to be plant life in other areas."
 
Brenon turns to Raliegh. "Raliegh, lets get out of here. Take us to the nearest outcropping of rock, something we can use as cover and get some rest. We'll make camp there. And possibly Lyrium can do some testing for Streel."

  Raleigh sighs in frustration, this mission was
looking pretty grim.  Reaching down he depresses
the ignition switch and jumps the explorer to life
once
again.  Turning about, he sets off to the nearest
rock outcropping...preferably the one farthest from
the
crash site.
    Zhirrzh walks up to Brenon. "I'm assuming you want me back on top?"
    Brenon nods. "Right. Take a pair of magnigoggles with you this time
as well."
    "A scope and a muzzle extender might be wise considering the open
spaces."
    "Good idea and be careful up there."
    Zhirrzh nods. "Thanks."
    Zhirrzh pulls his boots back off and puts them in the Explorer.
Putting the flashlight and the rope he took with him to the well back
into storage, he grabs a pair of magnigoggles, a scope, and a muzzle
extender. Zhirrzh climbs back onto the top of the Explorer and finds
himself a good spot to sit for a moment as the team below gets ready to
move again.
    Zhirrzh unbuckles his needler rifle from his bandoleer and sets it
between his knees. Taking the scope and muzzle extender out of his
pocket, he attaches each to the rifle. Zhirrzh brings the rifle up and
uses the scope to focus on a distant target, carefully adjusting the
sights. With the rifle adjusted to his satisfaction, he reattaches it to
his bandoleer, pulls the magnigoggles over his eyes, and grabs his hand
and foot holds for the next ride.
 

    Zhirrzh bounces smoothly among the equipment stored on top of the
Explorer. His fingers and toes finding various holds as he changes
direction every few seconds. He's startled as a sudden bounce forces
him make a quick grab for the side of the Explorer with his right
foot. Looking back, he sees a rock that had been hidden under the
sand. Idly, he thinks about how uncomfortable and precarious it would
be up here for a human with their flat, undeveloped feet. Flexing his
toes, he smiles at the mental image of a human bouncing around up
here.
    Other than a few unexpected bumps, the ride was uneventful.
Raleigh had helped pass the time by suggesting using the parawing as
some sort of kite, tied to the Explorer, as a way of getting a
broader view of the area. Zhirrzh mentioned that, even if that were
possible with a parawing, it might not be wise to use their only one
for recon. Brenon broke in and said it was a good idea, but would be
too much trouble and smelled of injured people. Zhirrzh agreed. If
only they had a parachute, they might be able to adapt Raleigh's idea
using that instead of the parawing, he mused.
    As Raleigh brought the Explorer to a halt a few feet away from a
rock outcropping, Zhirrzh heard him mumble slightly about putting
someone on top of the rocks at sunup. Zhirrzh didn't think he meant
to say it out loud, but Zhirrzh couldn't help but hear it over his
headset. Zhirrzh looked up at the rock in front of him. It had a fair
height. Zhirrzh didn't think they would see anything but desert, but
it was certainly worth a shot. However, he mused as a sudden idea
surfaced, they might be able to use the cold desert night to their
advantage as well.
    Zhirrzh jumped down from the Explorer and removed his
magnigoggles, exchanging them for a pair of IR goggles. He would
certainly be able to see more during daylight hours, but if he could
use the IR goggles to get any sort of large heat readings in the
distance, then it might give them some sort of direction to aim for.
Come daylight, the heat of the air and desert would mask any other
heat signatures.
    Zhirrzh hung the IR goggles over his neck and walked up to the
rock. Finding some good hand holds, Zhirrzh puts a foot on a short
ledge and pushes himself up. He continues like this, using his legs
to propel him upward and his hands to remain steady against the
surface of the rock. As he reaches the top, he pulls himself over and
remains low to the surface. No sense standing up and outlining
himself in the moonlight. Zhirrzh pulls the IR goggles up over his
eyes. Slowly he begins to turn, looking for anything in the distance...

    Desert, desert, and more desert. Not one anomalous heat
signatures as far as the eye could see. Zhirrzh pulls the goggles
down off his eyes and sighs. "Not good."
    Sliding back to the edge of the rock, he gets a solid foothold
and begins to lower himself to the ground. It looks like we’re right
in the middle of it, he complains to himself. With nothing to go on,
any direction seemed to be as good as another. The logical course
would probably be to change their latitude and find another climate,
but that didn’t necessarily mean that was the quickest route out of
the desert. Besides that, how were they going to find the original
landing party? An entire planet to search, and no idea which
direction to go.
    Zhirrzh sets foot on solid ground and gazes a moment more out
into the desert. Playing in a sandbox is fun for only so long. It
would be an understatement to say that this was not his favorite
climate. Zhirrzh finds himself suddenly longing for tall trees and
mountain streams. He can feel the tree limbs holding solid beneath
his feet, the cool water running over his fingers, the light breeze
carrying the scent of prey. Violently, he shakes the longing out of
his thoughts and concentrates on their current situation. Focus, he
chides himself.
    He looks over at Brenon, efficiently directing operations. Time
to give him the news, Zhirrzh decides. Walking up to Brenon, he gives
him a description of what he saw. Or, he muses, what I didn’t see.

    Brenon rubs his eyes and lets out a small sigh. He was beginning to feel the tiredness throughout his body. He yearned to do something about it but knew there was more to be done before his needs could be met.
    "Here's the plan people, we're going to be here about 4 and a half hours. We'll rotate watch in increments of 1 hour. Watchmen's duties are as follows, Stay Awake and Alert.......anyone caught asleep on watch will suffer my wrath along with everyone else's. We'll also need whomever is on watch to use the magnigoogles ever so often and keep an eye out on the well. Look for any passerby. If ANYTHING at all seems odd or out of place, come wake me and I'll check it out. If you see any signs of life, wake everyone....quietly. I'll volunteer for the first watch, followed by Kah'liss, then Raliegh, Zhirrzh and Lyrium will take the final watch together. During that time, Lyrium will do some testing and determine what the best direction is for us... because I don't think any one of us has a clue as to the direction we should take...and while we're here we might as well earn Streel's pay. Just before we departWith that said, everyone should turn in now and get some rest. Tomorrow we'll travel until 'don't think any one of us has a clue as to the direction we should take...and while we're here we might as well earn Streel's pay. Just before we departWith that said, everyone should turn in now and get some rest. Tomorrow we'll travel until noon an break again, we'll get plenty of rest then.<knock on wood :-)> Raliegh, if you would, just as a precaution; could you rig something up under the explorer to securely store a small cache of weapons. Just a few pistols and a knife will work, never know when something like that might come in handy. Do you think that's something that can be done within the next half hour?"

  Raleigh listened intently to Brennons instructions,
particularly agreeing with the orders for first
watch...finally he could sleep.  Between the
firefight, the crash, and now the dashed hopes of the
well, he was pretty much spent.

While the others went about their business, Raleigh
grabbed a flashlight and crawled under the Explorer
for a quick inspection.  Looking for a suitable place
to hold a cache of weapons, he spends five or ten
minutes at this before coming back out and setting to
work on his tent.  Once done, he checks with Brennon
and gives him the results of his inspection(Jeff,
you'll have to let me know on that one) before turning
in.  In moments he is out cold, enjoying his first
good sleep in days.

    The nearby crunching of sand, slowly growing louder as it seems to come closer, disturbs Zhirrzh’s light sleep. Dimly, he acknowledges it through a haze of fading dreams. For a moment, he remembers a vision of falling from a great height, but it is quickly forgotten as he comes to full awareness. The crunching draws closer and Zhirrzh recognizes it as footsteps. Opening his eyes, he sees Raleigh approaching. Zhirrzh sits up and gives the Techie a grin, acknowledging his turn to take watch and denying Raleigh the privilege of waking him.
    Zhirrzh refolds the all-weather blanket he was sleeping on and carries it back to the Explorer. He exchanges it for a pair of magnigoggles. After shutting the back door on the Explorer, he notices Lyrium already up and about. Zhirrzh gives her a slight nod and walks over to the rock outcropping. Finding a foothold, he boosts himself up and slowly makes the climb to the top. He moves to a spot giving a clear view on all sides and sits down.
    Let’s see how things are in the desert tonight, Zhirrzh thinks to himself as he scans the distance.

    Lyrium rises groggily, shaking the sleep from her eye. With the 6 tents set up against the backdrop of the rocks, and the Explorer parked nearby, the temporary bivouac looked pretty official. She crawled sluggishly from the tent when her watch was up. She had been asleep a few hours, she knew, but it felt like a mere 10 minute nap. All the same, her excitement for her studies began to swelter from within, and she eagerly grapped her Envirokit and stepped into the cool breeze of the Volturnian desert evening. She sees Raleigh wearily crawl into a tent  after Zhirrzh exits, taking his turn at the watch. They exhange a brief, friendly greeting of "good morning" to each other, before she heads off to begin some readings. A patch of the lily plants lie nearby some of the rocks, and she figures that would be the best place to begin.
    Rolgar awakens. Damn. I was sleeping so well. But nature called and he had to relieve himself. Grumpily, he crawls from underneath his allweather blanket, unzips the outer wall of the tent, and steps into the fresh air. He glances up into the vast sky above him. Such a clear night, he muses. He glances around, noticing Zhirrzh as he scans the horizon, then he sees Lyrium, perhaps 30 meters away, performing whatever tests those Scitechs did.
 
    Damn, Lyrium mumbles. She realizes she left her Geoscanner inside the tent. She had taken a few items out earlier to make sure everything was working properly, but she failed to pack it back up. She stands and turns back to the tents, but then sees Rolgar standing outside, who happens to be looking her way.
    "Hey Rolgar, could you grab my Geoscanner? It's in the tent," she barks in a loud whisper.
    Rolgar nods and answers, loudly, but  in the same veiled whisper. "Sure, hold on." He pokes his head into her tent and gropes around until he finds what could only be the Geoscanner she mentioned. He grabs the device and heads toward Lyrium.
    Lyrium removes the clips of her Bioscanner from the leaves of the plant at her feet. Well, her quick analysis told her that they  wouldn't be able to enhance their diet with these things. Not that  they were poisonous or anything, but they certainly wouldn't provide  any nutritional additions. She glances up and sees Rolgar approaching,  his feet sinking slightly in the Volturnus sand. At one particular   step, Rolgar stumbles as the sand sinks six inches in a 3 foot diameter around him. He looks down, surprised, and Lyrium does the same. She rises. Rolgar steps out of the small sinkhole and turns back to
investigate it further.
    That was weird.
    Lyrium, just a few feet from Rolgar, frowns as she watches on. Her brain reels through her knowledge of desert life; of course she knew nothing of Volturnus, but similar habitats tend to raise similar life. A horse on Omycron III looks a lot like a Yhrih on Fromeltar. It could be nothing, but she's learned to always expect the worse. Judging on the side of caution, her mind terrifies her as images of burrowing wasps, or mole spiders, or even the small 'ant lion' race through her mind. "Get back!" she yells, right as the small sinkhole at Rolgar's feet sinks further, and further, and further. She watches in horror as Rolgar disappears down the funnel of sand and she turns to avoid the ever growing pit.
 
     [DieRoll Lyrium]
     Reaction Speed Check
     Die Roll = 42
        {{{ Referee Imposed Penalty +20 = FAIL}}}
 
 
         Lyrium turns and runs at full speed, but only takes a few steps before the sand beneath her feet gives way. She slips down  the funnel with a shriek. Turning so see the bottom of this pit, her stomach sinks and she wishes she never had. A hideous head, with two large, bulbous eyes atop it waits at the bottom of the hole, a large gaping mouth lined with razor sharp teeth. Rolgar yells in pain as it bites down on him. Lyrium reaches for anything, grabbing fruitless handfulls of sand as she slides closer into the waiting maw of the creature. Panic overcomes her as she slides down, only feet away from the teeth. Rolgar, face pinched in pain, sees Lyrium and holds his arms up to her, to save her from a similar situation. She crashes into the mass of life at the bottom of the pit, kicking frantically at the creature. Despite Rolgar's attempts, she too enters the gaping mouth, which she twistedly and ironically notices is full of sand; her mind cannot help but analize this new life, even in this terrible situation. It must have inhaled the sand when it detected Rolgar's movements, causing the large funnel; this is how it captures it's prey. The thought zips through her in a fraction of a second, until she again realizes that SHE is in fact the prey.
She lets out a piercing scream of agony as the teeth close down around her waist...
 
     [DieRoll Funnel Worm]
     Automatic Hit, (Reaction Speed roll failed)
        Damage Roll = 12
 
                {{{ Referee Imposed Bonus -5 = 7 }}}
 
                40 Damage to Rolgar
                Rolgar's Current Stamina = -5
 
     [DieRoll Funnel Worm]
     Automatic Hit, (Reaction Speed roll failed)
        Damage Roll = 68
 
                {{{ Referee Imposed Bonus -60 = 8 }}}
 
                40 Damage to Lyrium
                Lyrium's Current Stamina = 10
 

===========================================
Referee's Note

The Funnel Worm is NOT outside of the sand funnel, like the picture depicts. It is just like the 'ant lions' of Earth. It is sitting at the bottom of the funnel, mouth open and devouring everything that slips into its maw. For that reason, it is under soft cover, and will be a bit harder to hit. Of course, you do have friends in the mouth too.. Check the picture below, from the SF rule book. This is more like what it looks like..

Zhirrzh will be able to react immediately. Everyone else is inside their tents and
will take a few turns to get out. Whatever action you will take, let me know in
detail.. give me what ifs, etc... that way I can get the turn out soon.

Zhirrzh, the only thing you heard was the yell of warning. As you turned, you see the funnel of sand grow, and you see Lyrium caught in it. She slides down, out of your view, and you hear the scream shortly after..

Jeff
===========================================