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Message: <blockquote data-quote="talien" data-source="post: 5008905" data-attributes="member: 3285">Landscrapes: ConclusionSuddenly, a great cracking noise shattered the silence, followed by a terrifying vision: separating itself from the surrounding evergreens, a tentacle beast bore down on them, tendrils waving, pus-dripping mouths champing.  The hideous offspring of Shub-Niggurath screeched and howled. It was the creature that had escaped from Dawn Biozyme, that had killed off the Black Flag team.  And now it was coming for Hammer.Hammer ran.  He plunged straight through the open doorway and, leaping over the wreckage, hit the ground running. Behind him, the thing smashed through the cabin, heedless of the obstacle in its path.  Jim-Bean never made it out.Hammer kept running.  He could out run it, he was sure, if it weren't for the damn trees.  He just had to find some flat ground.  But there was none.  The trees were everywhere.  Hammer looked over his shoulder.  The thing was right on his heels, tentacles waving towards him, probing, tearing trees out of its path or just smashing right through them with its cloven hooves.Stars exploded as Hammer ran headlong into a trunk.  He fell backwards, bouncing off of the solid oak, stunned.Tentacles snaked towards him, hungry mouths sucking in anticipation.Hammer caught sight of the box of dynamite. He'd dropped it as he ran, and now it was partially underneath the tentacle-thing's feet.  He took aim and fired.There was a massive explosion as dynamite blew chunks of tree, some whistling past Hammer's ear. The champing noises turned to squeals of rage.  Even at point-blank range, a full case of dynamite exploding had no effect.  In fact, the thing's bulk had protected Hammer from the brunt of the blast. Then a bright green beam sparkled from a figure atop the wreckage of Waban's home."Shoot it!" Jim-Bean held aloft the metal Elder Sign in one hand.  "I can't keep this up forever!"It had taken what little psychic reserves Jim-Bean had left to heal his wounds.  He was left a bloody, broken mess when the cabin collapsed.  Jim-Bean had to pick and choose what parts of his body to heal, and that meant two legs and one arm. Inch-long splinters still stuck out of his left arm.  Several ribs were broken.  It would have to do.The monstrosity roared as the green ray penetrated it bumpy mass, encompassing the thing in a glittering radiance.  Hammer rose to his feet and squeezed off a shot.The bullet punched through and out the other side of the thing, spurting brown ichor.  Mouths screamed.  Tentacles waved in frustration, torn between ripping Hammer apart and pursuing Jim-Bean's offending beam.Making its decision, it roared a charge towards Jim-Bean."Oh crap!"  Jim-Bean dove off the wreckage, backpedalling as best as he could through the forest. Instinctively, he knew that the only way they could hurt the thing was when it was within view of the Elder Sign's blazing gaze.As he focused on the Elder Sign, the metal eye at the center opened a bit more, the beam a little wider.  But it was still not enough.Hammer pumped more bullets into it.  Some of them just thunked into the billowing mass to no effect.If Jim-Bean was going to stop this thing, the Elder Sign's eye would have to bring its full gaze to bear on the thing.  But that meant siphoning all of his psychic energy.  If the thing caught him, Jim-Bean would never recover from his wounds.But he was going to die either way.  Jim-Bean stopped running and, using even his broken arm, brought both hands together to focus on the Elder Sign.The monstrosity was so close that the ground rumbled.  The stench of earth and wood was overpowering.  Energy flowed out of Jim-Bean.  It felt as if a straw was sucking his veins through his skin.  He pumped everything he had into the Elder Sign until his vision swam with green spots.The tentacle thing came up short.  It was sparkling brightly now, fully enveloped by the green beam that hummed from the Elder Sign's eye. Hammer released two bursts from his Glocks, peppering the beast's legs.  One blew out at the knee, and it lost its balance. It was enough to slow it down.Hammer reloaded. Tentacles whipped at Hammer as the beast flailed blindly away at him.  He rolled and came up firing again, this time blowing a tentacle clean off.More screams.  The tentacle-thing struggled to its feet.Hammer reloaded again, dancing back as a tentacle snapped near his face.  But it was smarter than Hammer had given it credit for.Another tentacle snaked through the ground, blasting upwards out of the dirt, just as it had surprised the BLACK FLAG team.  It snapped around Hammer's ankle and lifted him up in the air.A nearby tentacle would probed forward, preparing to rip him in twain, but Hammer fired another burst and blew it in half. The thing dangled him over its mouths.  Sucking maws welcomed him, devoid of teeth but terrible in their infant-like need to slurp him whole.He reloaded as the horrible orifice rushed at his head…Jim-Bean watched the scene play out in horror.  It was difficult to see what was happening with the green radiance.  He was starting to lose consciousness.  When it was done with Hammer it would feast on him.  For all he knew, it didn’t really need to eat, slurping on him for an eternity.With a shuddering roar, the thing exploded in a spray of brown ichor as Hammer's two pistols tore through its defenses, shooting through one mouth and out another.  The gunfire ripped it and two.  The damage done, the thing's tentacles curled in on itself like a dying insect, pathetic in its mewling agony.  Ichor puddled out of mouths and tentacles twitched their last.  Hammer rolled over and over, thrown, covered in the brown substance that was the tree-thing's blood.Then the screaming stopped too.The eye on the Elder Sign rasped shut.  Jim-Bean fell to his knees.  The metal Sign fell from his numb hands."Did we get it?" asked Jim-Bean weakly.Hammer limped over to him.  He put one ichor-covered hand on Jim-Bean's shoulder.  "Yeah," he said, gasping.  "We got it."</blockquote>

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