Northrop National Park Hunting Thrills

[Malik Cartwright]

Cinder,Collector, 7 (net) pass Exceptional Success

Good Fallen Wolf Pelt

It just felt right to him. Like Ogun’s pull and some other being was forcing him to move. Forcing him to hunt. Like a pilgrimage to clear the mind. Invent. Refocus. Reforge. And some other R word he couldn’t remember. Ah, Remember, he thought to himself. Long gone were the days of traveling to the woods with family, hunting and hiking. On this cold, unnaturally cold evening, Mac found himself alone with his thoughts.

We got deer, we’re eating good tonight

Alone as one could be with a barking dog strolling behind him. The winds were picking up. Something unnatural was happening and the quiet in his mind didn’t last long.

“ Pick up the pace pup we’re almos-” Mac stopped as he stopped by something somewhat buried in the snow. He got a little closer only to see a dog frozen and still. As if by instinct he picked up the body and placed it on the wagon. Now heading back to the cabin. The snow blows freely as they’re back inside.

“ Fucking hell, ” he chuckled as he loaded their spoils inside “,remind me to ignore the call of the wild.” He dragged the two deer and wolf onto the table. Rust in a hurry dragged a red tool box, before running back to grab his bowl. Without prompting, Mac loaded it up with the dog jerky packed for the trip.

“ Give me a few hours Rusty while I go through all this, ” he motioned towards their haul. With only the sounds of a roaring wind, Mac went to work. Only to stop at a knock on the door.

[Billy Broder]

Billy pulled the coat tighter around his shoulders while he ducked his head down a bit. His top layer was more frost than not and he was losing feeling in his toes. He'd been out in the woods for a ritual, trying to find the spot his friend- they were still friends in his mind even after that fight- with Max. Billy hadn't been able to find the same spot but he found a good enough spot to practice his runes and some rituals.

All in all it went well enough and he friend another small battery. He'd even managed to practice using ambient heat as an energy source- which was admittedly trickery than He'd expected. He was just reworking his numbers for some unexpected variables when the winter storm hit. And boy did it hit hard.

Then, between being unfamiliar with the woods, the sudden change in terrain with the snow, and night fast approaching... look Billy was lost okay.

“Y-you d-dont think-k t-this is m-my f-f-fault do y-you?” Billy asked aloud, his teeth chattering so hard he could barely get the words out.

From inside his jacket and between his arms a feathered head spun around and two large eyes opened up. Unlikely, even at your most disastrous you likely do not have the power to do all this. his familiar informed him. The hint of scorn was apparent to Billy.

His familiar didn't much like being held in a coat like this as it was on the larger side- but it would have been dangerous to let Rowling suffer this weather.... probably.

He wasn't a real owl but Billy didn't know the exact limits that such a fact would matter. Rowling seemed to agree enough to suffer the indignity of a wizard's heavy coat.

As the two trekked in the snow they spotted a light in the distance. Moving as fast as his frozen limbs would let him Billy shambles up to the door and hit his hand against it several times. Should he have been worried he couldn't feel the blows? That was probably something to worry about.

[Malik Cartwright]

Mac Collector: Cinder Exceptional Success
Item: Good Deer Antlers

Mac wasn’t expecting anyone. At least not at the moment. And he hadn’t heard a car drive up. Only a select few folks knew about the place. He made the knocker wait until he was finished taking the antlers off the deer from earlier. There was no point in rushing when gathering the parts he needed. Some juices splattered on him, but he didn’t have time to clean it off.

Without any hesitation, he grabbed the pistol off the living room table. He crept up to the door as the individual continued to knock. Each one, weaker than the other. He could hear someone chattering. Talking to themselves. He slowly peaked behind the door, gun at the ready.

The red tinted lenses of his goggles around his face fogged. A black face mask covered his lower half. He made himself look taller and more menacing than usual. The light of the fireplace casted shadows around him.

“ Can I help you?” He asked somewhat muffled by the mask. A low growl from Rust echoed his sentiment. The two of them looked at the young man standing at the door. Slowly turning into a popsicle. There was something familiar about him, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. He looked around to see if there was anyone with him. He scanned the doorway and let out a sigh.

Smells harmless, also Bird Rust barked.

“ Right, ” he continued “, are you lost?”

[Billy Broder]

Billy stood shaking in the snow as he knocked. He knew there was a light on and heat but wasn't getting an answer. He'd have to break in if things kept going like this buy he didn't want to scare some hunter since he doubted he could defend himself very well right now. Instead he focused on the lessons his father gave him on concentration and focus. His body was a vehicle his mind the driver. He began to separate the ideas even as his body shook in an effort to generate more heat. This trick was more to help ignore cuts or unpleasant tasks ... his father had first taught it to him when skinning a rabbit for a ritual. Billy hadn't wanted to hurt the thing but it was part of the lesson.

So his dad taught him to drift into a kind of autopilot while focusing on more mental tasks. It... really didn't work as well against the cold. William Rowling sent. It wasn't his name per se, it was a conscious stream calling for attention from a series of small indicators the owl had picked up. Mostly sound, something owls were biologically designed to pick up even in these awful conditions. Billy was a touch surprised the caught the more nuanced bits of the signal, since normally his mind filtered out everything and watered it down into words he could grasp.

He made a note of the small change before glancing up at a man with his face covered.

The man didn't seem particularly friendly but he hadn't slammed the door in Billy's face either so he'd call that a win for the moment. He asked if Billy was lost and the wizard wanted to chuckle- but was shivering too much to really pull it off. “F-f-forty p-percent lost-t-t. S-sixt-ty p-percent freezing.” Billy managed to say.

[Malik Cartwright]

TW: Animal Butchery
Mac, Cinder Collector: Exceptional Success
Item: Good Deer Pelt

Got jokes it seems

Mac nodded.

“ Okay, three rules:” he began “ No funny business. No touching things. And no wandering off. ” He stepped aside to let the young man in. He looked like he was freezing his ass off. And he seemed harmless, enough. Enough that the two of them could handle. He closed the door behind the other two.

“ Emergency phone is on the table, Blankets behind the couch…” he said shortly. As if he was on autopilot he fetched a mug filled with Black Tea and sat it by couch. He then went right back to his work of skinning the deer on the table. He had already made quick work of the wolf pelt and wanted to focus on getting everything he could from his spoils. Rust continued to watch the young man, ever so often chewing through a piece of jerky before looking back at the new guest.

“ You’re lucky I just got back , ” He said moving the deer hide out of the way “,any longer and you would have been a frozen popsicle…I wasn’t planning on being back so soon. ” Mac could feel himself falling back into the old ways. The ways his grandma was when she carved things up and hunted for what she wanted. Mac didn’t know what it was all about then. He didn’t have an appreciation for it. Now he did.

Rust dragged a bag of chips out of the cabinet and dropped them beside Billy.

“ Although if you froze to death outside my cabin, I wouldn’t have a name to give anyone…”

[Billy Broder]

Billy nodded, not bothering with more quips as he dragged himself inside the cabin. Rowling shuffled a bit in his coat but didn't try to get out. Billy thought it would be warmer for a while inside the coat and the familiar likely agreed.

Billy was glad to hear about the blankets and shuffled over to the couch to nab one. “T-t-t-thanks.” he barely managed. Fuck the second he got inside he started to shiver worse than ever.

He wrapped the blanket around his shoulders and stood stamping his feet a bit deciding it was better to stay moving for the moment to help his body warm up.

Billy did smirk at the last comment. “W-would-d hav-v-have been f-fine. I have ID on m-m-me.”

[Malik Cartwright]

TW: Animal Butchery
Mac, Cinder Collector: Exceptional Success
Item: Good Wolf Skull

“ You can quip, so you're not worse for wear”

Mac laughed at the response.

“ At least you had the insight to have an id on you” he began “ , but not the insight to travel in the middle nowhere in a blizzard. ” He wrapped up the rest of the buck and dragged it into the kitchen. Without missing a beat he made quick work of the wolf pelt and skull. He didn’t want to dawdle with an extra person to feet. And there was only so long before Rust moaned and groaned over not eating.

“ Lightning round,” he continued “, do you have a name and a reason for why you were just out and about?” Mac worked on cleaning up the skull and other visceral left on the table. He could hear the large pot on the stove boiling and rushed the bones over to it. He grabbed the pelts and stretched them on racks to clean and dry off. Next he grabbed another pot draining fluids from the deer and harvesting its meat.

Dinner,

“ Not yet …” Mac called from the other side of the kitchen. He emerged from the kitchen wearing a burgundy stained chef’s apron around his waist.

“ Hope you don’t mind Fried Venison …”

[Billy Broder]

Billy smirked and wanted to follow up with another quip- likely about the fact that even near dead the last thing to go would be his sense of humor, but a sudden shaking overtook him before he managed so instead he tensed up to wait it out. Rowling did much the same and reminded him mentally that the shaking was good. His body was warming itself up. When the guy mentioned the blizzard Billy shook his head. “C-c-checked the app-p bef-f-ore. No blizz-zard.” he said. Leaving out his ritual and playing with thermodynamics, especially since Rowling had assured him this couldn't have been his fault. Why did it feel like his fault then? Probably because he was self-absorbed and prone to taking blame for things.

“I'm B-Billy. W-was Hiking.” He said.

He was finally starting to get feeling back in his hands, which was nice save for the fact they still felt very very cold. When the guy dragged the deer off to the kitchen Billy watched it go as he started to connect a few small dots in his head, but the shaking of his body kept the dots from forming one big picture. The guy said not yet but Billy never heard any statement made, causing Rowling's head to swivel in the jacket to peer out at the room. When the man came back and mentioned fried venison Billy just nodded.

“T-thanks.” He said, barely stuttering over the word this time.