Eternal Rains (IC) [M] - Closed

[Tapewolf]

"Mr. Mithlome," Cross said, "I think it's time I made a few things clear to you.  You seem to be under the incorrect impression that my arrogance is the result of my race.
"It is the result of having ruled for four centuries.  Across twelve kingdoms my word was law and many have tasted the pike for far less than calling me an idiot to my face.
"As I'm sure you appreciate, some drugs are hard to come down from.  Absolute power is one of them."

That will have to do for now, he thought.  Better to give it to him in small doses with an attention span like his.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Witt nodded.

"Yeah, that sounds like a plan. Let's see if one of our new 'friends' can work on it. Failing that, I'll get the mobile wall here" - and here, he grinned up at Ty - "to work his magic on it." He slipped the amulet into a pocket, straightened up, and exhaled - incidentally raising the alcohol content of the room significantly.

"In the mean time, shall we go see what they're slaughtering?"

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Penny watched the amulet disappear into Witt's pocket with a shrug. The damage had been done as soon as it had been brought onto the airship, a few more minutes without throwing it out the window shouldn't hurt. It was a theory to work by anyway. She let the hedgehog take the lead when he suggested they explore the unpleasant sounds coming from the hallway. Penny's normal policy was to go in the opposite direction from screams, meaty thuds, and shouting unless they were a planned distraction.

On the other hand, there was no sense in rushing in. "Shouldn't I try fixing that rib first?"

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Witt blinked. "What rib?"

[Paladin Sheppard]

Fal'taq blinked and glanced briefly from the windows to Paige as she made her comment. The greenish tinge to his face couldn't be seen under his fur, fortunately. He couldn't believe the wolf had calmly admired the view, as if there was nothing wrong with being so high in the air: the woman was obviously dangerously insane.

After a short time the mole finally managed to tear his gaze away from the window and looked around the room. Some people were missing — wait, hadn't he seen them rush out? "That jaguar, and the wolf... Pettersohn, I think. Did anyone see where they went?"

Paige, her face locked in a oh so sweet smile turned from the window and faced the mole. "Why Mister Fal'taq, that is your name right? What ever could be the problem? Are you a little..." Paige gave a little laugh as she walked over and traced a finger down his jaw "air sick? Oh and going by the thoughts you've been having I think in comparison I'm by far saner than you, I mean think of the mess you would have to clean up."

"As for where the others went I have no idea sorry." She said as she walked back to her spot by the control throne.

[Cogidubnus]

 The view from the ship, if anyone inside had been watching, was incredible - the ship had possibly the best view for a sunset in all of furrae. What could be seen beneath grey stormclouds, the billowing cumulus that surrounded the Islands growing ever-thinner as the airship made it's way farther and farther out, was simply amazing. The sun was a ball of fire, big as the horizon, sparkling like a bloody ruby over a seafoam and sapphire ocean - a picture out of vacation postcards everywhere, rendered in real life. For those still in the control room, it was a magnificent sight. Soon, however, the sun sunk below the horizon, and darkness descended upon the waters.
Well, almost.

The midnight black waters did still sparkle, even in the midst of night - already overhead and shining bright, the moon peered down upon the ocean and made the waves shine like molten silver, the shimmering seas yet dark for all their flare, and serene for all their brilliance. The airship flew on, a too-loud bird in this peaceful scene, even as the rind of the moon began to peek through the windows of the ship.

* * *

As the situation between the wolf and the spider gradually defused and became less of a threat of a possibly dangerously destructive fight onboard the ship, Cog simply lay where the spider had tossed him and didn't move. One might have assumed that the cocktail of drugs that the wolf had injected into himself, including a somewhat powerful muscle relaxant, might have been the culprit to his seeming paralysis, except for the small tremors that seemed to be running down the wolf's body. His eyes were closed, and almost in a sort of childish attempt to disappear, hoped that if he lay still, Keaton would forget about him. It was certainly possible, as the spider may have redirected all that anger to another source entirely.
He continued to remain still, until he heard Jakob talking to him - the wolf opened his yellow, bloodshot, terror-filled eyes, and gave the wolf the most hateful, addled look the former ruler had ever seen. Cog was obviously not thinking clearly - now that his own 'cover' had been blown, he scrabbled for a moment to sit up, giving the yellow jackal a fearful look before turning his attention back to the wolf.

"Thish...thish really look like the f'ckin time?" he said, one eye clearly dilated a great deal more the other. "I mean, I...I... - I..." the wolf tilted his head suddenly, blinking rapidly. Obviously the drugs were affecting his mind a great deal more than one would have assumed, and the wolf swung his head rapidly, looking again towards the jackal. As conversations went on around him, a long thin line of drool suddenly suspended itself from the wolf's mouth, and with grotesque slowness descended to pool upon the deck. The wolf breathed in heavily, as though nauseous.

"Keatooon..." he said suddenly, staring straight at the vermilion succubus, his voice at the same time strange and humorous and somehow off-putting. "I...I feel..." Cog suddenly grinned widely, a smile full white teeth. As Petersohn and the others looked at the clearly hallucinating wolf sitting in the hallway in front of them, they found themselves somehow distracted by something moving. It was hard to perceive at first, but eventually one's eye was drawn down to the wolf's shadow, long and dark, with the rising moon peeking through the windows of the ship framing the wolf's shoulders, writhing madly on the deck.
"Ravenous." the wolf said, and for all intents and purposes exploded. It was sickening to look upon - bones shifted, muscles regrew and reshaped themselves in a disgusting display of magic and genetics gone horribly awry - like looking at meat going through a grinder, or flesh being crushed flat. His head shifted, becoming thicker in the jaws and wider, and his spine grew and twisted to accommodate the body growing around it. The thing was taller than the wolf, thicker, and infinitely more feral - at home on four paws as well as two, and looked as though it could tear through metal just as easily as a body. It's teeth gleamed white, the thing drooling, and it's coat was the color of the moon itself. No intelligence lurked in it's mind, nothing but hate and anger and infinite hunger.

To Jakob's horror, the blood-maddened eye swiveled at him, and with an almost gleeful light focused in recognition. Long, long yellow claws that somehow gleamed twitched, the things eldtrich weapons as powerful as the Wolf's teeth that could bite through both magic and metal - they twitched, and arced for the Cubi's stomach as the Wolf launched itself off the opposite wall at the incubus, the thing emitting a long, vicious growl and smiling a gut-turning, hungry grin.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Penny rolled her eyes. The white lightning anesthetic had done it's job too well. She put a finger into the area Witt had indicated earlier. "This one."

[Tapewolf]

"Oh shit." said Cross.  That's how the assassination failed, isn't it?

Disappearing was an option, but then it would attack and possibly kill Keaton.

Another - highly tempting - option was to kill Cog.  There were numerous options - whatever he was, a .44 round between the eyes was unlikely to be survivable.  Even if it was, a neutron flux would still roast his insides, a simple death spell should probably work or failing that, his soul could come out.

But Keaton's panic in the scrapyard no doubt meant that she was treating Cog as her secret weapon, and since she needed his physical form for that, it removed even the option of keeping his soul in a jam-jar for future reference.

With a glance at the beast, he jumped aside, turned, and ran down the corridor.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Witt winced, hunched over the finger, and grunted.

"Oh. That one. Well, if you like, I gu-"

His agreement was cut off by the deep, dangerous growl, and by Cross heading past the door as if the very hounds of hell themselves were on his tail.

"Shit. Make it quick, I think we just ran the fuck out of time."

[Aisha deCabre]

Aisha had rolled her eyes when the banter ended, still more or less on a tense note when the spider-thing acquiesced and dropped Cogidubnus on the other wolf's word and stepped back with a none-too-happy look on her face, watching as Jakob gave the other something of a lecture.  I hope ALL of the 'Cubi on this voyage aren't going to be condescending.  My uncle would have probably had everyone here ripped to shreds by now anyway.

Now at least a fight was prevented, leaving for hopefully a more peaceful evening (probably not for any of the others willing to stay there and listen to the rantings of a dirt-ridden dog). The jaguaress was about to turn out of the door...but something made her freeze and turn around again.  The voice of the haggard wolf had turned a trifle menacing...even enough to send a shiver up a demon's back.

None too soon did Aisha turn around to witness a silvery-white feral wolf in the place of Cogidubnus with its teeth bared in a hungry grimace...its eyes set on the incubus and making its move.

"Mierda!" Aisha cursed.  "Another Were?"

Nobody had time to think.  She ducked out of the way when Jakob dashed out of the door and only further enticing the beast to run after it, more than likely.  The demoness had her back pressed against the wall, watching the whole thing transpire and quickly trying to decide.  Go after it or let the incubus fend for himself?

Her choice was on the latter.  But then who knew how the fight would go and whom it would go after next.

Dammit, she sighed and took her chain from its position around her waist.  So much for a peaceful evening.

[SpottedKitty]

The expression on Fal'taq's face ran through half a dozen emotions — all of them either incredulous or violent — in as many seconds, as Paige sauntered back to her vantage point. His fury at the wolf's brazen presumption drained away, though, when he realised the only way she could have known exactly what to hint at with her words.

How could I have missed that? he thought with an icy calm. 'Cubi can do more than steal dreams and eat souls, she knew what I was thinking about! A hazy veil descended around the mole's mind. He had never considered this spell necessary while he was awake, but it should work just as well as when he was asleep.

Just then, a muffled thud reverberated through the deck plates, and from the stairs at the back of the control room, a faint spine-chilling growl sounded. Fal'taq glanced down the stairs, then took a few steps towards the front of the room. Now he could hear running footsteps. "Did anyone make sure we had no unexpected passengers, I wonder...?" he asked no-one in particular.

[Stygian]

There wasn't much that the spider could do, and certainly not say. Awestruck, she slowly edged backwards toward the nearest wall, limbs quivering with both unsteadiness and tension and jaws slackening at the sight of Cogidubnus' transformation. It wasn't so much that she hadn't seen her lot of hideous creatures in her life, but rather the gruesomeness of the transformation that really caught her unprepared. One pair of her eyes caught Cross' exit, once the monster wolf had fully manifested, but she didn't move to intercept. She didn't do much at all, really, but cling to the wall and watch what was going on, wondering just how long they would get to live if things went on as they did.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Her hand already being in proximity to the injury Penny released the healing spell over Witt's cracked ribs and bruised skin. "I'm not powerful enough for this to work instantly so try not to hit the ribs for a few hours."  Even as she spoke she knew she lied. The spell was powerful enough to cause a near instant mending of the fractures. She rubbed at her right hand with her left as if she could rub the oddness away. Great, another mystery. They just kept popping up since her lost weekend.

[Sunblink]

...Keaton:

Thoroughly disoriented, the jackal laid, strewn out on the floor, after Sal had effectively swept her off her feet. Given her upturned position and her bedraggled hair, which sprawled out in dirty-blonde tendrils over her face and into her dazed, unfocused eyes, Keaton almost looked comical. Besides, since she was consumed with utter rage just seconds before, it was probably a welcomed metamorphosis. Pinpricking slightly, Keaton's pupils shifted in and out of focus as several multicolored blurs she individually identified as her party members chattered in warbled, lilting tones to each other, before one of them, Sal, departed in frustration. With the arachnid woman absent, a gray smear, now sporting a little pair of blurry wings on its head, that Keaton designated as Cross turned to address his audience.

Keaton was too delirious to be infuriated by her predicament. Slapping her hand palm-first to the floor, she attempted to climb to her feet, an act which was rather impossible in her condition. Whenever she tried to nudge her body, the world did a somersault, quickly diminishing her resolve and making her slump back to her disheveled and disorganized, lump-like state. Ultimately she compensated by remaining, partially, where she was, using one of her hands to massage her head and utilizing the opposite hand to keep her upper body propped upright.

A low groan which resembled her name pierced Keaton's confusion. With her eyes still dazed, she glanced in the direction of the source, Cogidubnus. His blurred gray body was indistinguishable in her blinding haze, save for the ephemeral gleam of saliva along his ajar mouth. At first she assumed he had overdosed on drugs, judging by his stumbling swagger and the intoxicated way he spoke. Amidst his mumbling, he suddenly seemed to speak with a certain amount of clarity.

"Keatooon..." the wolf was looking right at her. Keaton felt her throat dry up. "I feel...

"Ravenous."

In the next moment, all Keaton could do was watch the former subject of her brutality started to mutate and transmogrify in a manner with which she was, by now, very familiar. The formerly piteous, unassuming drug addict was exponentially increasing in size until he was towering at a monstrous height over the Succubus. Teeth glowed an eerie, immaculate white in enamel rows within the werewolf's jaws, muscles bulged beneath the contours of taut, fur-laden skin, limbs elongated, and eyes glowed a hideously bright saffron in the empyreal moonlight, until, at the end of his transformation, Cogidubnus was the barbaric werewolf which Keaton recognized as the one who defeated and liberated her.

Whatever nausea Keaton formerly possessed was no longer there. It simply evaporated in the blistering heat of her horror as she stared, jaw dropped, at the corrupt beast. In her shock, it could have been simple for the werewolf to devour her, but instead it turned its attention to an unlikely person. It leapt at Cross, leaving Keaton to stare after it as Cross bolted down the hallway. Forced into motion by this sudden shift, Keaton scrambled to her feet and clawed away, dashing to the furthermost wall.

The buzzing returned.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Cogidubnus]

 Like a sledgehammer, the Wolf slammed into the wall where Jakob had been standing just moment before. It's claws, not mere bits of hard flesh, punched through the metal like a sharp pen through paper. It had missed the Incubus by inches, and snarling at the deprivation of it's kill, the blood-mad creature ripped it's claws from the wall and pushed off. A roughly circular dent about the same size as the creature remained in the wall, and might take a good deal of hammering to pop back out - although under the circumstances, most could be forgiven for having larger things on their mind.

Running away is generally considered to be the worst way to get away from a dog - it triggers all the wrong sorts of instincts, and only makes them try and catch you faster. The Wolf was no exception, and it was much, much faster than Petersohn would have guessed. Getting away wasn't impossible, of course, under certain circumstances - but even when everything went right, getting away from the Wolf, a true lychanthrope out of nightmares, was very, very difficult. It was the epitome of the ravenous beast, a dark-blooded hunter, and it would not tire, and it would not, ever, give up.
Like a spring uncoiling, it lept, and as Jakob reached the corner of the two halls the Wolf fell upon him, not even touching the ground in between.

The wolf slammed into Jakob's back with a crunch, and with yet another gut-turning collision slammed the cubi face-first into the outside wall. It remembered the smell of these creatures, and it had beaten one before - almost. Something nagged at the wolf about the end of that particular fight, but the hunger quickly blotted out such thoughts. It bent it's head towards the Cubi's neck, intent on feasting upon fountaining blood...
It's bloodshot eye fell on a short figure walking along with a dark-furred one, directly across from him. He paused, jaws not-quite closed on the Cubi's neck, as a bloodshot eye regarded both of them hatefully. A low, double-toned growl emanated from the creature's throat.

[e_voyager]

Epyon lived his life by sight. for as long as he could remember his eyes were his most import feature all four of them. his lower eyes saw the world like many beings saw the world but his upper eyes. then saw this of a more spiritual nature as it were. but his eyes we his only sense.  his ears world fairly were and what he heard now scared him. it sounded like there was some big trouble going down. what could be happening? did the wolf and spider start fighting? it didn't sound like it but he was afraid to find out for sure. when he head the metal ripping he could only remember the words he'd barely herd. 'I'm ravenous"

The words scared him. They struck a Cord in what passed for his soul. Something bad was going on. Epyon was remind of the hunger of the undead. it was a curse that he himself had to deal with form time to time.  It was a hunger so powerful that it was painful even when nothing else made him feel pain him that hunger could and did.  Epyon stood watching the corridor his hand dropping to his sai worried that it would be enough to save him form what ever was happening.

[Tapewolf]

Cross found himself pinned down by the Cog-monster.  Well, that wasn't the plan, he thought.    Punching a tentacle through its brain was definitely a last resort - Keaton wouldn't like it at all.

Teleportation was out, too... or was it?  He could limit the range so the beast wasn't teleported too, but at a pinch like this it would be slipshod work.  He'd probably come away with chunks of the beast - which would likely mean that Cog would be disembowelled in his base form as well when he reverted.  Keaton wouldn't like that either.

As the beast prepared to tear his throat out, he shapeshifted and shrank, becoming a feral wolf.  If he could wriggle his way out from under the creature, he should be able to outrun it this time.  Assuming it still wants me in this form, he added mentally.

[Boog]

A hulking monstrosity tore down the hall and tackled Cross. In Ty's assessment, situations of this sort were almost never fortuitous. How on earth did this get onboard? Stowaways? Some infestation of mythos? The last option was particularly worrying; there was no love lost between the various tribes of the mythos, and he was reasonably certain his had to be fairly disliked; after all, he'd never seen another. He approached cautiously ahead of Penny and Witt, hands out ready to grab should the brute come his way and a calculating look in his eye.
"If I may advise that the both of you inform the captain?" He took another slow, deliberate step, "I believe this may be of import to her."

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Witt looked up at the thump of the giant wolf landing on Pettersohn. "How the fuck did that get on board?" As it started growling, his eyelid flickered.

He would have leapt in it's direction, not because he particularly liked Pettersohn, but because it was just, well, something he could kick it's goohuloog head in, but Ty offered advice first.

Witt blinked. "It probably is. You tell her first." And with that, he stalked out to the the corridor, stared the giant wolf in the eye, and growled right back.

[Tapewolf]

The beast glanced up at Witt, distracted for a moment.  The Cross-wolf took the opportunity to scrabble at the floor, hoping to free himself.  "It's the junkie," he gasped.

It wasn't working.  Keaton seemed to need Cog, but Cross was buggered if he was going to let it kill him and whoever else it met just to keep her happy.  We all have to make sacrifices, he thought and closed his eyes. Four tentacles burst out of his back.
Three went for the monster's belly - the fourth streaked out ready to punch through its eye.  Cross was adept at using them, and could slice through rocks or steel with relative ease.  Would the Cog-monster be tougher than that?  He hoped not.

[Stygian]

It looked as if things would end in blood. With Witt quite close to the monstrosity but not doing anything, and Ty seemingly approaching the situation in what could only be described as an overly procedural and cautious manner, no one seemed to be intervening for the Cubi at all. Cross defended himself in a desperate manner, lashing out with his tentacles, and the Wolf closed in... before they were both snagged by something.
   A metallic creak from a pipe, and the sharp twanging sound of a couple of threads snapping came, before everyone could completely identify what had just happened. A web - well, actually something more like just a few very accurately targeted strings - broad enough to cover the whole of the corridor and growing in thickness as more thread was added, had been strung up in a moment between Cross and the Wolf. More threads flew out and attached themselves to the wolf, the spider advancing from the door behind the lycanthrope, glaring. Cross was simply caught by his tentacles, sticky, elastic strands holding them in place, but the Wolf was caught somewhat more firmly, and the arachnid was adding to the bonds even as she walked, though with evidently thinner threads now that his bulk had been stopped. Witt, in his proximity, had just barely escaped a string that would have webbed his muzzle to the Wolf's, which was now holding the latter one's fangs away from the Cubi on the floor.

[Cogidubnus]

 Losing his grip upon the now-suddenly smaller creature, the Wolf simply fell atop Cross as it snarled at the small, brownish creature. Meeting it's eyes and growing back at it was probably not the wisest course of action to take, and the beast would have lunged for the hedgehog if not for two simultaneous occurrences.

Tentacles exploded out from Cross's back, and out of simple instinct the wolf reacted. Cross lying just a bit on front of him, the wolf reacted with an eerie speed, the tentacle aimed for it's eye scratching it's head and taking half of an ear - and instead of dodging the tentacles aimed for it's belley, it simply fell. Three spikes cut through it's midsection like a knife through hot butter - but this didn't seem to go quite the was Cross expected it to.

It fell forward.

Three tentacles sticking out of it's stomach like macabre noodles, before the Cubi could even twitch, three hundred pounds of nightmarish beast slammed the Cubi's fragile, canine body into the metal deck, and grabbing it's head slammed it into the floor again with the sickening, meaty sound. Teeth snarled alternatively at the hedgehog it knew was above it, and the more imminent threat of the creature below it, intent on disemboweling it - not that it was or could be terribly worried.
Before it could slam the head into the deck again, a strand of something sticky bolted the creature to the walls - another creature, from the hall it had just left, was throwing strands of something at it. Like a glue it began to slowly paralyze the lycanthrope, and truly, it was caught in a spider's web. Mouth inches from Cross's neck, the creature snarled violently, bloodshot eyes staring hatred at the spider.
The thing wasn't a wolf, though, as much as it seemed like it. Incarnation of an old, dark curse of blood and hunger, it would never give up, never rest, and was much, much stronger than it seemed.

It snarled again, in rage and frustration, muscles as hard as iron flexing as it struggled against the spider's webs. Engineered perfection tried it's hand against eldritch darkness, and the contest would have been interesting to see if, alas, there wasn't a fatal flaw in the competition. A weak link, as it were. Even as gleaming claws cut twanging strings, the hallway suddenly seemed to explode.
Paneling ripped off the wall like paper, and reacting with that same, blinding speed, the wolf bunched the smaller wolf's tentacles with one hand, and with gleaming claws slashed. The tentacles in his stomach went limp, and with eldritch fangs bared, the wolf paused for a moment.
Too many targets. Too many foes.

Go for the closest.

Awkward, strands of stickiness and masses of metal paneling struggling against him, he dove for the hedgehog with claws bared and fangs gleaming.

[Tapewolf]

Guhhh... Cross thought muzzily as the wolf-monster left him and went for Witt instead.  He was bleeding from three tentacles and it felt like one of his ribs had gone.  The pounding of his head against the floor had done him a power of no good and the blackness threatened to overtake him.

Not here... he thought feebly.  His paw twitched as he made the gestures.  It was so hard to think... moments later he was in the cabin, a bleeding wolf with four tentacles, three of which were severed at the ends.  He managed to staunch the bleeding, the rest would have to wait.

"Cog... in the corridor... wolf-monster... killing everyone..." Cross said, as clearly as he could.

"I... I can't remember which corridor..." he admitted in a slurred voice and promptly fainted, his task done.

[SpottedKitty]

Fal'taq looked warily back at the stairs as a metallic crashing noise came up from below, much too close for comfort. He'd just turned back to speak to Pandora when Pettersohn teleported into the middle of the room. The wolf was battered and bleeding, and Fal'taq nodded grimly as he saw the proof that Pettersohn was actually a 'Cubi.

"What was that?" the mole asked sharply as the mauled wolf muttered a few words. "The monster killed Cogidubnus? What about Keaton? Is it coming this way...? Oh, blast it, he's unconscious!" Fal'taq turned back towards the stairway and cast a hasty shielding spell across it. No matter how annoying he was, the newly revealed 'Cubi was a skilled fighter, and the mole didn't want to come unexpectedly face-to-teeth-and-claws with whatever had beaten him so thoroughly. If any of the others were still alive down there, maybe they could find somewhere to hide. If not... oh dear, how sad, never mind.

"Pandora," he called over his shoulder, "that noise a moment ago — has it done any serious damage? Can we continue safely?"

[Paladin Sheppard]

As the words 'wolf monster' escaped Jakob's mouth Paige swung round towards the door her claymore in her hands. "Damnit is it coming up here?" The succubus wondered aloud, not turning she addressed Fal'taq. "Do you think you can hold here? I'll intercept it if it is on its way up here and if not see if I can help the others."

She waited so Fal'taq would drop his shield so she could get through.

[e_voyager]

Epyon turns the corridor just in time to see the wolf clad in thread and pulling part of the corridor wall with him as he lunged for the hedgehog. Epyon gasp. he's expected many things but this was not one of them. his eyes flew wide open and his hand reached for his pole putting his sai back. there was no way in Furria that he wanted to get close enough to use his sai's on that thing.

[Stygian]

The sheer strength of the monster evidently took the spider by surprise. All eight eyes widening until her face almost resembled some eerie sort of kaleidoscopic image, her almost permanently closed mouth slightly agape, she stiffened, and would have yelped as she felt the creaks and snaps and banging of the plates when they tore loose, had she been able to. This was insane! If this... beast was even stronger than her, then she had really best start thinking about escape alternatives. Unfortunately, she was already feeling herself running low on web, the typical aching sensation of having expended so much in such a short time without giving herself a rest to replenish, and a soreness in her fingers and spinnerets. But in a way that was all the more motivation. Even if she did not think of it directly, she was practically trapped on this blasted airship. She would not be capable of spinning a parachute to save her, and not likely even get outside should they go down. And if they were over the sea, she was practically lost. While she was capable of swimming, moving through water for more than half an hour would almost surely drown her. With these thoughts in the back of her head and the pressure of the situation on her, the spider stressed, beginning to feel a bit panicky.
   Still, there was little at the time that anyone could do but simply try harder to restrain the thing. And possibly... It might be risky, and would be quite uncomfortable, but what other choice was there? Deciding to exert herself more, the spider tensed up and began flinging more web, trying to tie the wolf down to every solid surface she could see, hoping he wouldn't rip some critical pipe or conduit out. Making a snarling, chittering sound, she moved forward, eyes on the beast's leg. If she could just get close enough...
   It was when the Wolf finally lunged for Witt that she saw her chance, the beast's hind legs straining against the webs and stretching out. Throwing herself onto it with a hiss, the spider opened her mouth fully, grotesque fangs flashing for a second, and then bit deeply into the thing's thigh. Blood and muscle pumping and pistoning very palpably under her jaw, she bit down hard, feeling the telltale squeezing sensation, and then kicked and thrashed backwards to dislodge herself from the hideous and ill-tasting thing as fast as she could, fangs still dripping with fast-working paralyzing venom.

[SpottedKitty]

"If you think it wise," Falt'aq replied, looking doubtful, "one moment..." He reached out, unsealed one edge of the shield from the wall of the stairway and peeled it back, leaving just enough room for Paige to squeeze through. He didn't reply out loud to the wolf's first question. Whatever his chances of holding the stairway, at least it was safer up here for the moment: Paige, he suspected, was bound for the wolf-monster's stomach. Possibly in instalments.

[Aisha deCabre]

Dios mio, the thing's fast for a bum.

The demon grimaced, just trying to keep focus on the ravenous beast as it had torn through the corridor.  Aisha was pretty quick herself, being a skilled hunter, but even this feral thing seemed to have a sense of power coming from it.  Primal, natural, hard to describe.  Even she would probably be winded after this.  Her ears even caught the incubus's footfalls just ahead of it.

The panthress had the chain swinging in an arc above her head, ready to grapple it around a limb or, more hopefully, its neck if she were close enough.  After all it had to be Cogidubnus from what she'd seen, and a bit of twisted logic told her that he was still needed.  Alive.  Who'd have thought I'd be helping to save the lives of strangers.  And friggin' CUBI.

One lupine leaped for the other, eternal hunger versus intelligence, with the stronger seemingly having the upper claw, surprisingly.  It tossed Jakob against the wall like one more rag doll.  Now she knew it was probably risky to get close enough with the chain without being targeted.  Then as if out of the shadows came more to help.  Aisha only just barely got away with a loud curse, of her born tongue--and bringing back her weapon just as quickly--as strings of web hurled across the room and into the wolfen.

It barely worked...it was setting its sights on one smaller, the hedgehog Witt while taking a whole portion of the hall with it...more or less, the thought was easy to cross into one's mind that the ship could get a hole in it.  At least the maneuver provided enough distraction, as with a desperate lunge, the strange spider-thing did the next best thing to do to restrain it, biting its leg, it was observed.

As for Aisha?

"Gonna need something stronger than string, araña," she grinned and finally found the hole in which to toss her chain through...hopefully, to grapple the creature.  A limb, the neck, even to close the jaw, anything to wrap the chain around to contain it.  Probably going to be a grand struggle for a moment or two, but hell, the demoness liked the thrill.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Witt reacted to the lunge in the fashion of all small, spiny creatures when attacked by large, toothy carnivores.

He spun to his left, raising his spines and throwing his shoulder, covered with needle-sharp points, straight at the oncoming toothy maw. At the same time, he dropped a knife into each paw, and tucked himself up into a spiky ball in the blink of an eye.

And waited for the brief moments until all hell would break loose.