Raafi falls into the Sunless Skies
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People believed in magic for a while, shamans and priests claiming miracles and stuff that mostly wasn't actually true, then they didn't and it was the age of science and reason, and after the Neath and the sky now they mostly do again except humans mostly can't do any of it, which sucks. This guy's grandpa insists that everything has a perfectly logical scientific reason, why this one time-

The monster growls again and stands up. It seems to be gearing up for a charge. Everyone scrambles to raise their guns.

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Raafi follows suit, nudging his blindfold up for a moment once he has his gun in hand but then tugging it back down.

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The beast roars and displays the spines on its back somehow, extending them outward. Then, it leads with a barrage of spines shot out from its back, not really aimed except at the general area. It charges at high speed, feet shaking the ground. A ragged volley thunders out to meet it.

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Raafi sidesteps a spine and shoots; there's a brief aurora-like shimmer in the air around him, and he hits the creature right between the eyes.

 

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A couple of other shots hit.

It's now blind and roaring in pain and rage instead of challenge. It swipes with claws at the nearest person, and a spiky tail is also swinging wildly.

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Raafi doesn't have much in the way of good magic left for this situation, but he can at least get a mass healing spell off for the guy who got hit by its claws and anyone who's taken any spines.

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Everyone backs away quickly, leaving it unable to sink its claws into anything but the first unfortunate man. More and more gunfire rings out. Even when it turns to flee it doesn't get far before collapsing instead.

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He teleports to the creature's victim as soon as it's safe to do so, and hits him with a healing spell immediately - if he's alive it'll keep him that way, at least.

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He's still alive. It was a nasty gouge across his chest and left arm that sent him flying a short distance. Significantly less nasty after the two heals.

People are swearing and hooting in relief and calling out asking if everyone is alright. The downed man groans in pain.

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More healing? More healing.

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He seems alright now, though kind of in shock and wearing a lot of blood. "Aghhhh. Thank you, sir. The hell was that thing?"

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"No idea. Dead now, whatever it was." He offers him a hand up. "Cleaning spell?"

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He takes the hand and sits up, then grabs at his chest through the shredded shirt and coat. "Storm, that's unreal. Made whole. -Uh, sure, cleaning."

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And shortly he's not wearing anymore blood.

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"Fuck. That hurt a lot, you know. I should give up sailing." He stands the rest of the way up, retrieves his gun. "There isn't another one, is there?"

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"I didn't see another. Worth checking, though." He has a look. "It'd be reasonable to go back in, after all of that, by the way. I'll speak for you if need be, about it."

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"I don't think they'd mind."

"Hell no, Sig." Another lookout says. "You got slashed in the line of duty, that's a day off at least."

"Yeah." Sig goes inside. The others go to poke at the dead beast.

No other porcupine bears or any other threats are in evidence.

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He'll go see what they're going to do with the body, then.

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They're arguing over whether it's probably edible or not, and if any bits of it are good enough to pry off and sell to collectors or biologists. Maybe the claws, they seem to have venom glands.

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"I can prepare a spell to check if the meat's edible in the morning, I think we should keep it - I can keep it fresh and we can sell it when we get to New Winchester if nothing else, if there's a market for exotics there."

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It won't sell for a particularly high price, they think. 'Exotic' is bad as often as it is good. But waste not, want not. The cook has butchery tools and is happy enough to apply them to the thing that hurt his girlfriend.

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Raafi sticks around to have a look at the pelt and claws - they'd definitely be worth something at home, but probably not so much here? What do the others think about it.

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The claws and skull and all the spines together probably count as an exotic specimen, they could get fifty or a hundred Sovereigns for the lot. The pelt doesn't look particularly high-quality but maybe someone would want it.

The Bohemian Captain is of the opinion that the beast is hers to dispose of and offers to pay Raafi twenty Sovereigns to give up any claim.

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As much fun as it'd be to figure out how their rare-item markets work, he is a bit busy right now; he'll take the twenty Sovereigns.

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He gets paid from her pockets right then and there! She muses aloud that she's going to have one of the claws made into a knife. Poison knives are very aesthetic.

Everything seems more or less handled now. The repair is complete and the boiler fire is rebuilding. People are a lot less hesitant about him now, but keep commenting on how his powers are strange.

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