ooc:  Open Mammoth Hunt! We need at least 10 to participate. Make sure to read the event details as posted by staff. Once the hunt starts there is a 3 ooc day time limit for each player to post. Please make sure you can commit to this or the hunt will fail. Thanks!

Come down, come down sweet reverence

Jynn wandered without much direction. She was hoping for a warm spring but the cold continued to cling to the land. They were about half way through the season and still there was little sign of the mild weather one usually saw. Perhaps summer would bring the warmer weather. She wandered farther northward and she continued her exploration of the east only to arrive at a plain dotted with strange rocks. She squinted.  Wait…. the largest of the rocks were moving! Jynn's jaw dropped open as she gazed out at the giant animals that were lumbering leisurely through the plain.

Her stomach growled a moment later. Ok, trying to hunt one of these things was stupid. Trying to hunt one solo was even crazier but more than anything she was curious to see how these beasts moved. She trotted farther south then called out for anyone who might hear her to join in a hunt.

Aurorion hadn't been up to much of late. The giant had wandered a good portion of the lands with no direction. Winter had proven to be in every nook and cranny that he came across and he couldn't help but be confused. He didn't mind the cold honestly, but even this was a bit much for him. Boredom had set in and so he found himself traveling east to see what mischief he could cause. Entertainment came in the form of a howl. Colored ears pricked forward with interest and he trotted towards where the noise came from. Some company was just what he needed. He came across the weirdest wolf he'd ever seen. All legs and quite skinny compared to a normal wolf. He grinned at her as he approached fully intent on laying the flirting on thick, when movement caught his attention. "Holy shit, what the hell is that?!" He exclaimed. as he came closer. They were certainly the biggest creatures he'd ever laid eyes on and he was a pretty big guy. All thoughts of flirting with this chick went out the window. Walk, "Talk" Think

Mæva lingered in the east. Despite the cooler spring she enjoyed many of the lands in the east as well as the overall climate. She also intended to join Abaven in the future if they had room for her but if not she figured she'd make the east her home for awhile. Being a loner made hunting and feeding herself a bit more difficult but she had managed to track some rabbits into the rock garden.

A howl caught her attention and she bounded to the caller. She arrived just as a colorful man spoke. She trotted over to the pair. "I second that motion and follow up with is it edible?" If there were enough of them she was down to give hunting them a try.

Bellamy had been coming back through the lands, on her way back to Gavroche, when she spotted them.

"What in the name of the hellgates are those!?" Her fur bristled as she came to a stop. They were... they were massive beasts whom looked as though they were covered in some of the thickest fur she had ever seen.

Skirting around them for the moment Bellamy pressed on. She knew better than to take on something that size with just her companions and herself. She gave them a wide arc not wanting to draw any necessary attention to the trio as they moved among the rocks. At least here they had a chance of dodging the massive beasts so long as they weaved throughout the tangled mess of rocks.

That was when they heard the call.

Bells furrowed her brow and glanced towards her companions. "Shall we?"

"May as well." Ears rolled his eyes. "Could prove to be interesting."

The three broke into a lope and made their way to where the caller and two others had already gathered. She slowed seeing them, gaze sliding towards the beasts that she had seen before. They were calm for now but... her gaze shifted towards the others.

"Do you mean to try and take one of them down...?" She asked.

"If so, count us in." Ears spoke for the trio. "I'd like to see what one of those tastes like."

Bells chuckled and gave a firm nod. If her companion wanted to give it a go, if they had the right amount of wolves to give it a try, then she had no problem obliging.

Apollinaris Galanis Molon Labe Ever since the man spied the giant wooly beasts, his previous goals were wiped away from his mind and only one thing existed: must hunt those mammoths. Apollinaris was brash, but at least he wasn't that stupid to attempt to take one down by himself. Their size alone pretty much made that impossible, so he was forced to find help. He swallowed that bitter draught as he picked a path among the scattered rocks, moving to where someone had called for a hunt. When he arrived, he took time to glance over each one gathered, wondering what this motley group of strangers could offer in terms of hunting prowess. "Who's taking point?" he asked bluntly, wanting to get a plan in place so that he could get to the action as quick as possible. Ice colored eyes looked at each one gathered once more, waiting for one of them to offer due to previous hunting experience. They were from here, after all - wouldn't they know how to hunt a mammoth already?

Halcyone had been trailing along with Apollinaris since she’d found him further north, figuring that interesting things seemed to happen when they were together. If he was going to get into anything, she wouldn’t be missing out on it, if only because she didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of bragging rights. When she heard the call for a hunt, she was certain the other Spartan would be quick to answer as well, so she moved in to join the gathering group of wolves. Her gaze fixed on the massive creature in the distance, brows lifting in surprise. She’d never seen anything like it, but she was eager to see the massive creature up close. She then looked to the others, staying silent as she waited to see how things would play out and how would be the first to propose a plan. Like her counterpart, she assumed those from these lands must have known what the things were, and would have an idea of how to hunt them most effectively.

"Speech."

Artur had been traveling outside Boreas for some time now, and while he'd never... officially left Valhalla he was fairly certain that Aurielle had taken the hint and knew him to have parted ways with the pack permanently. He'd given some thought to starting a pack while he was away, but in the end he'd been drawn to return to Boreas, even if just for a time to check in on his sisters. He'd not yet made it to Valhalla's borders, hadn't yet even decided if he would bother making the trip there or if he'd seek them outside of the pack, when a strange call caught his attention. It was no wolf, that was for sure, and curiosity prompted him to follow to see what it was. The resulting sight confirmed that, while certainly wolflike, the caller was not a wolf, and he was cautiously intrigued by it. Though no less was he intrigued by a strange musky scent of some odd prey animal carried by the bitterly cold air from further north of them, and his gaze sharpened in interest. He nodded absently to the other wolves who'd gathered - actual wolves, and when the sight of his niece caught the corner of his eye he gave her a surprisingly warm smile, pride evident - and turned his sharp blue gaze on the not-wolf female. "You plan to hunt that creature?" he asked her, curiosity rather than skepticism in his voice. He was intrigued. "I presume you have a plan?" While an indifferent hunter himself, Artur was not going to pass up the chance to kill such an immense beast - he could feel in his chest the sounds it made even from this distance. To kill one would be a glorious achievement.

Since she'd turned one - frankly, since sometime before that, whenever she could give the slip to the adult eyes in the pack - she'd been eagerly exploring the lands alone. Well, alone except for the leopard and the swift that accompanied her everywhere, but they were her friends so it didn't matter. They made a great team. She'd seen a lot that she'd never seen before, though for the most part her actual surroundings had been fairly monotonous with the snow and the murderous cold. But this - this she had never ever ever seen. From her crouched perch on a boulder, Anja crouched beside her with her own watchful gaze nearly as wide as Aoife's unashamedly slackjawed awed expression, she watched the immense beast weave through the stones, the heavy trunk and its shaggy body like nothing she'd ever seen or heard of before. Tay had just come back from scouting closer to the beast and was twittering a report in her singsong voice when another voice rose up a ways away in a call for a hunt. "Oooooh," she said excitedly, interrupting the swift. She wasn't a hunter by nature though she was capable of feeding herself, but how exciting would that be, to hunt something like this? She assumed it was for the big monster-beast anyway since its presence had basically scared anything else worth hunting into hiding. Imagine the song it would make! She could almost hear the heavy thrumming sound of a drumbeat marking the sound of its immense heart already, the eerie wail of a bullroarer the calls of the wolves gathering to doom it...

Shaking off the dreamy trance of thought, she slipped down from the boulder and trotted up to the group that was gathering. She was by far the smallest wolf there and was in fact not a whole lot taller at the shoulder than the badger she edged past to get into the group, but she held herself confidently, almost cockily, and definitely gave the impression that she wasn't going to brook any objections to her being there.

She'd been travelling since she returned to Boreas. Though the mission of finding her family was over. Her mother had passed. Her siblings moved on, and she was thinking about returning to the pack where her younger siblings were to see how they were faring. Beyond that, she aimed to gather her brethren together and then go from there. Her students. Her spartan family. Her best friend. She told them where they could find her, and she was hopeful they'd join her sooner rather than later. As she thought about them, a howl that wasn't entirely wolf-like interrupted her thoughts, but she recognized that sort of call. It was a call to hunt. And no doubt it was for one of those giant wooly mammoths that were milling about. With a grin, the elder spartan made her way around the scattered rocks to find a rather large group of wolves already, and to her surprise - some of her brethren.

Her grin grew wider when she spotted them, and immediately she headed over to join Halcyone and Apollinaris. "Ah! I am glad to see you two! My brethren, we have much to talk about after this." She said quickly before turning to the others and nodding a greeting to them. She stood, ready and waiting for a proposed plan.

"Speech!"

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He'd been seeing the massive beasts around. The creatures easily 100 times his size, but the dwarf had no way of hunting one on his own. Lucky for him, he was nearby when he heard the call. "Ye hear tha' Knut? It's a hunter's call! This migh' be our chance te hunt one 'o them gigantic beasts!" Eager and excited to take one of those creatures on, he scrambled around the rocks and practically bolted through the nooks until he came upon a large group of wolves. Though he found the spiky furred girl quite peculiar and interestingly enough, she was smaller than him! He couldn't help but get a little giddy about that fact simply for the fact that his whole life, he was the smallest wolf he knew of. Until today! He weaved his way among the throng of wolves until he stood near her (though not close enough to invade her personal space) and the smallish heathen nodded to her, a smile splitting his lips. "Oi! I want in on this grand huntin' party ye got goin'! Name's Gimli!" He stood at the ready, waiting to see what the plan was for taking one of these things down. "Speak"

Come down, come down sweet reverence

Jynn smiled as a colorful young man arrived and swore at the sight of the beasts. The man was followed by two women and then more and more wolves until they had a total of ten! Jynn's tail wagged with excitement and she nodded. "Thank you everyone for coming. My name is Jynn. I don't know what those things are but those uh… Tall Hairys seem to be plant eaters. I think with enough wolves it might be fun to try and hunt one. I'm just not sure how. The throat is usually a good target, but they're so big I think we need to trip them up some how, or knock them down." They could try to get them to run and hope one would over heat like a musk ox and keel over but she wasn't super confident in that method. "The Polar Sound is just west of here if we wished to drive them towards that. What other ideas are there?"

Mæva was almost giddy as more and more wolves arrived. She'd never hunted with such a large group before! This was going to be exciting. Hunting an unknown prey animal with a group the size of a small pack. She settled down to listen as the skinny woman that had called them spoke. Hmmm… what to do? "I think that sounds like a possibility. However, I'm wondering if they'll run from us. Do you think they're afraid of fire? I know how to make a fire. We could put pine pitch on the end of sticks and light it. Though I don't know if it will last long enough. Maybe spears would be better." The idea of a pack of wolves running through the wintery landscape with torches sounded badass but she had no idea how long the pitch would last. She'd never used it in that way before.

Apollinaris Galanis Molon Labe His traveling partner was right behind him, and he flashed the woman a crooked grin. He would not admit he had nearly sped here to make sure he beat her to the gathering, but he was very pleased he had been the first. The motley crew got even.. motley-er as more and more joined the gathering. A welcome participant's voice, however, perked his ears, and he turned to see his mentor coming to join them. "Odyssia," he murmured in greeting, offering a nod at her request. They did indeed have a lot to talk about, hopefully lounging about with full bellies. Pale eyes returned to the group as the chatter started to turn toward how to hunt one of those beasts, and Apollinaris' expression fell flat when it became obvious no one here even knew what they were, let alone how to hunt one properly. His jaw nearly fell open as he glanced between the two that offered plans, absolutely not understanding why no one knew how to hunt these. Were these magically new creatures? Was everyone here as new as the Spartans? He glanced at his comrades before clearing his throat to speak up. "Judging by how the beasts move and react to our presence - and call for their demise - I doubt they are smart enough to think ahead far. I'm sure fire would have a great effect on them." He glanced between the two that had spoken, then again at the gathering. "Wherever we decide to run them off into... we better be sure we can retrieve the carcass. No deep waters - sharp rocks preferred. And having our own poking sticks wouldn't be a mad idea either." Being so new to the lands, he would let these natives decide the best spot. Eyes then returned to the one that mentioned fire, the corners of his maw turning up in a grin. "Sticks and pitch? I like it."

A variety of wolves arrived and Aurorion watched the group with keen interest. He wasn't sure how many of them there needed to be, but judging by the amount that had arrived, he assumed that this might just be enough. It was hard to say seeing as he didn't often participate in organized group hunts. Especially considering their prey was far more massive than anything he'd laid eyes on. The woman who called them together seemed to think that this happened to be enough wolves as well and his attention went to the maned wolf as she began to speak. Others spoke up and he listened absentmindedly as he tried to come up with a helpful idea. Again, him and groups weren't exactly his thing so it was a challenge to try and think along the terms of 'teamwork'. "We could probably aim for any vital leg muscles." He suggested helpfully. "Take away its ability to walk or run properly and we might have a better time dodging those tusks." Seeing as he could see them from here, he could only imagine that getting gored by one of those wouldn't be a pleasant experience. "Going off the stick and fire idea, think it'd be possible to set up a trap for it?" Walk, "Talk" Think

Others arrived one by one, but the Spartan only paid each of them a passing glance. It wasn’t until she spotted Odyssia that a small grin pulled at the corners of her mouth. She was glad to see the older woman, and hoped to see more of their kin soon, but for now having both her and Apollinaris would be enough to keep this hunt even more worthwhile. The realization that those gathered had never hunted the creatures before made this much more risky than she had initially planned for, but with her fellow Spartans she was sure they’d be successful. Or at least, she was sure they’d live.

"As much as I’d love the bragging rights of being able to say we took down the biggest one we found, we’d be smart to separate a smaller target from the group before we stir up too much panic among the herd. Last thing I want is to be caught in the middle of a stampede of those things, especially if they get backed into a trap. I don’t wanna be the only thing between all of them and their freedom." The woman wasn’t afraid of a challenge, but she didn’t have a deathwish either, and dealing with keeping an eye on a whole herd of giants while trying to take one down didn’t seem like a great idea. Gods only knew how they might react to one of their own being threatened, of what kind of group structure they had going on. Would they try to protect their own, or would they abandon one another at the first sign of danger?

"Speech."

Immediately after he had arrived a Valhalla wolf had popped up as well, and for a moment Artur bristled at her, eyeing her grimly. But she took no more notice of him than the others, and he had never seen the tiny, spikey-maned creature before himself, so it seemed she was not there following him. Just an unhappy coincidence - the more so since her weird features made it fairly obvious what the youth's parentage was. After a last cold glare he resolved to thoroughly ignore the tiny creature. He turned his attention to the discussion at hand, frowning as he caught part of it. "Spears are only really useful if you can guarantee staying out of reach. If the creature has longer reach - which these do," he added, nodding sharply towards the trunk-and-tusk laden animals, "we would be no better off than using our teeth. Less so, since you would be juggling a stick in your mouth."

Apife practically wriggled with excitement as the discussion got under way. She was unaware of the male glowering at her, though Anja did take note, and kept a watchful green-eyed stare in him as everyone else talked about what tact to take in hunting. She did shoot a quick, excited smile at the almost-as small adult male who joined the group after her, baring her long fangs ina broad grin.

Aoife had little to add, since she wasn't particularly a hunter. She liked the idea of spears, but she couldn't hold one in her "hands" and run at the same time so her natural ability to grip with her paws would be no better than anyone else in this. She did have one thing none of the others had that she could see, though, and that was a friend with wings. "If we have a target for her, Tay can dive at their eyes and help drive them," she offered. If she got in a lucky hit, the swift could even blind one, but since that seemed unlikely Aoife didn't bring that up. She didn't want them to deoend on it and then be disappointed. Too bad she hadn't had time to work out something to use to launch something else yet. If she had something set up she could launch a spear right into the creature! It would take a lot of setup and probably not very mobile, but it would way increase her very-short range She couldn't throw, herself, with a wolf's body shape and all, but working with strings for her instruments had given her the idea. Next time maybe.

She grinned at her two clan mates before turning her attention to the maned wolf that had called the gathering together. She listened quietly to everyone's suggestions and ideas on what they could do to kill one of the giant furry...elephant creatures. Were they some kind of new elephant species that had been adapting to Boreas' environments lately? No...creatures didn't evolve that fast. She looked pensive as she sat back and listened, gears turning in her head when the mention of traps and spears came up. Then she got an idea. "The polar sound may be a good idea, and I believe I have an idea that we can use for that particular area. I know the North inside and out, and if we planned this right, I'm sure we can catch one of these beasts." She looked around for a moment at the group before continuing.

"The gentleman is right about the spears," She said referring to what Artur had said. "And the fire is a good idea, however, running with torches may prove difficult unless perhaps only half of us are holding them. And the idea with the bird isn't a bad idea, either. They could prove useful in fact." She cleared her throat for a moment as she gathered her thoughts about the plan she was about to propose. "It's going to be a bit of work, but there's enough of us that it shouldn't take too long. I propose making log stakes and placing them somewhere in the Sound, either within the center, or a narrow part of the Sound. We bury part of them in the ground and prop them up at an angle. If we separate one or two from the main herd before reaching the Sound, and drive our target straight in, then it should be too preoccupied with us on its heels that it won't realize the stakes are there until it's too late." She figured she could elaborate more if they liked the idea enough. She had seen barriers set up like that around a couple of packs outside of Boreas, and the fatal effects they had on unfortunate prey - or wolves.

"Speech!"

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The dwarven warrior listened attentively to everyone. Their suggestions. Their ideas. He wasn't sure what he could contribute that hadn't already been mentioned, but he was certainly on board with the idea of traps and fire. "Ah yes! I second the idea fer traps! Be it stakes or what have you, I kin help craft anythin'! I specialize in traps and other crafts! And just te throw in my suggestion, perhaps a net to go jus' behind the stakes or even b'fore. If behind, it slows the creature further should it break through the barrier, and if we put in front, then it slows the beast down so it doesn't break through! My companion and any bird companions I'm sure can secure a net te the canyon, though if not big enough then perhaps a few of us kin perch ourselves a bit high up to throw the net over the beasts head hm?" "Speak"

Come down, come down sweet reverence

Jynn listened as everyone shared their ideas, trying to formulate a plan despite being well out of her depth. Her kind were solo hunters, not pack hunters and having been a loner most of her life she'd had very little practice.

"Ok, I think adding some stakes at the base on the beach of the sound couldn't hurt. Hopefully, the fall will be enough to break bones so I don't think we need to worry much about doing damage to the muscles and tendons while chasing." The beasts were so massive it would take time to work through fur and hide and muscle down to where they could do real damage. She'd prefer the cliffs of the sounds fjords do the major work.

"I don't think we need to bother with a net. These creatures are so massive it would take a lot of time to craft something they couldn't just bat aside. We'll need something to help incentivize the mammoths to run. I think the fire is a good idea. Just the sight of it should incite nervousness and once we have them running the pitch can be abandoned." There was enough snow she wasn't too worried about a brush fire starting. Jynn nodded. "I agree, those who have aerial companions should utilize them. I think it will take a number of approaches to get things going."

"Alright, let's head to the sound and get the stakes set up. Can you two (Gimli & Aurorion) stay at the base of the sound? You can get a head start on slaying the beast and give the rest of us time to get down there." That was the bad thing about driving prey off a cliff. There was the climb down and the kill and sounds of distress was likely to attract scavengers. "The rest of us will work to drive the Tall Hairys toward the cliff and separate out one of the smaller ones if we can. Mæva, Apollinaris and myself can handle the torches. Sound good?"