[IC] Earthbound – Mother Earth

[Alamantus]

Closed Pineconer ß smashed into the floor of the ex-dojo, causing the floor to crumble a bit. Karol could feel the ground shift slightly beneath his feet.

Closed Pineconer ß stopped moving!

Victory!

Karol earns 9 experience points.
In the remains of the exploded Open Pineconer, there was an Energy Drink! Karol took it. (Please update your Pockets on your character post)


Spruce clapped for Karol. "Very nice, Karol! I can't think of any better way to have handled the situation. Now let's get out of here—the floor is going to collapse!" Spruce reached out to Karol like a baby asking to be picked up. An old, incredibly muscular and deadly baby with a crushed leg, but you get the idea.

And just as Spruce suggested, the floor started crumbling and falling away, spreading outward from the protruding spruce tree!

[Red_massa]

Karol was ready to have a little bit of rest but there was no rest for the wicked. He would have to agree with Spruce that getting out of the now demolished dojo was a good idea. He walked briskly over to the final pine cone and noticed that it had what looked like an energy drink inside of it
How weird a place for that to be. Oh well he scooped it up and placed it in his knapsack and walked over to Spruce. That was when the floor shook and started to crumble apart from the tree outward.
He noticed that there wouldn't be enough time if he had to help drag/hop Spruce to the door so Karol took a deep breathe and lifted Spruce up over his shoulder and ran towards the door.

Karol could feel the floor giving away right behind his toes as he jogged with Spruce on his shoulder. Karol had to give a jump for both of them to make it through that ordeal. Karol placed Spruce on the ground to take a second to catch his breathe. He took a look back at the dojo that had no floor after it giving out and a giant tree that was in the middle of the room and smashed out through the roof. As he stared one tear managed to creep down his right cheek. Karol took a few seconds and bowed at the dojo before turning towards Spruce.

I hope that I haven't been paying insurance for nothing and this gets covered. We better get going, probably to the hospital for you eh. I think there is one in this town. He looked at Spruce with a little smile on his face.

[Alamantus]

Spruce mustered a smile in reply but was unable to speak because of the pain of his leg. He gritted his teeth and looked around.

The Megamall looked like a dark jungle. It would have been impossible to see if the trees hadn't ripped the roof off the mall and if the moon hadn't been shining so bright. Fortunately, the pale, bluish moonlight illuminated everything as though it was a strange, washed-out daylight. In addition to the strong evergreen trees that they had seen growing before, foresty shrubs had sprouted up on the first floor, and ivy and mossy vines had strung themselves across nearly every vertical surface of the mall.

To the left, the Megamall continued its miles-long stretch to the other side.
To the right was an exit just a couple doors away. Another tree had grown up on the other side of the second-floor walkway from where they stood, and thick vines had spread across the exit doors.
In front of them, a walkway led to the South Food Court and a (now-broken) escalator, overgrown with various plants. The branches of a huge oak tree hung over the top of the walkway in front of them, and Karol could see a couple of moving Acorns swinging slightly from some of the other branches.

Spruce, through gritted teeth, asked, "Got any way to cut through those vines?", gesturing with his head to the right.

[Red_massa]

Looking around the giant mall it looked like it was something out of a museum or a movie. The amount of trees that were on the inside of the mall is crazy. He also looked around and seen that there was more of those pine cones and other animated objects, which was making Karol a little more nervous about getting out of the mall safely since there is no easily accessible ways to get out.

Umm we could check other exits to see if they are blocked by trees also or there is a hardware store that might have some equipment that might help.

This was just Karols assumption being that there had never been a need for him to explore into the store. Hopefully even if there was some in that store they might have been lost after getting raided by trees. He had no idea how we was going to beat that many of the monsters if they all charged him given that he had such bit of a time beating three of them.

[Alamantus]

"Now that I think about it, I did see a sign that mentioned a gardening store when I came in that entrance... I didn't get a really good look at it, but I'm sure it said 'gardening' in the store's name. I don't see it over here, but maybe it's downstairs?" Spruce grunted, "This would be a lot faster if I could just use my damn legs..."

The only way downstairs from where Karol stood was across the bridge and down the broken escalator's stairs. The Acorns swaying in the tree had not noticed Karol or Spruce and apparently hadn't heard their tussle with the Pinecones. In fact, Karol noticed that they seemed to be asleep! Other than these living plant monsters, there didn't seem to be any other danger in the way of his path to the escalator!

(Please roll for successful crossing. Anything greater than 2 is a success.)

[Red_massa]

If Karol could get out of this mall without any more encounters would be perfectly fine by him. Those things were a nuiance to try and fight since they were tough little guys that dealt small physical damage. His favourite training judogi now had a cut in it because of those pine cone, also their arrival had caused another human beings leg to get crushed.

Yeah anything that could make getting us out of here and getting you fixed up could be a great help. Lets go down and check out that store.

[Rolled a 5]

Karol noticed that the pine cones had been in a very zen state so he wanted to be extra quite going down the stairs to hopefully avoid their presence. The longer that they were stuck here the more pain that Spruce was encountering. Karol had helped Spruce down the stairs keeping their steps in sync to reduce noise. When they got to the bottom of the escalator Karol looked around to see if he could spot the store and do a little bit of surveillance. He looked around and he spotted the store but couldn't look inside of it directly since there was a giant tree that was partially blocking the doorway of the store.

Guess were are just going to have to go into the store and hope for the best eh.

[Alamantus]

"I suppose so... Hopefully there's not too much debris so we can find what we need," Spruce hoped.

[Rolled 1]

Unfortunately, as they rounded the tree, they found that the store had been directly below Karol's dojo. The practice mats were strewn about and large bits of the floor and ceiling were strewn all about, covering everything in the center of the store, not to mention the large spruce tree growing straight through the middle of the store as well! But fortunately, fate was not altogether against them, because the walls were mostly untouched and there were plenty of wares hanging there and free for the taking.

On the wall to the left of the entrance were all sorts of rakes, hoes, and those garden claw things that break up the dirt for more nutrients to get in.

On the wall to the right was the checkout counter and next to it was stacks of bags of fertilizer and plant food, some of which were ripped open by the fallen debris and currently being eaten by a small crowd of Pinecones, Onions, Ferns, and Potatoes.

And on the back wall, past the feeding group, was the kind of stuff Karol was looking for: shears, clippers, machetes, weed killer—you name it!

[Red_massa]

It was just as Karol was starting to remember his dojo for the beautiful memories that he had there spreading his love for kickboxing with the towns youth but when they entered the gardening store the beautiful memories were slowly crushed. For some reason Karol thought the dojo was one store to the right of there current location but seeing all of his mats on the ground of the gardening store was a little heartbreaking.

It was lucky that the bandage was still fresh and didn't cause much pain at the moment. He looked around and to his delight he spotted more of the pine cones from earlier. He let out a slightly audible sigh and put his down for a second. When he raised his head back up he happened to look behind the collection of little rodents munching away on fertilizer, just what he wanted to see. They had been annoying enough without getting that little added boost which made him a little nervous since there wasn't really any way to get around them to get to the back of the store where was the materials that could get them out of the mall.

He wished that they could make it to the back of the store first and than make fight with the monsters since it would give a slight advantage to use a weapon against them even if Karols most efficient striking method was his kickboxing.

Hey Spruce do you think that you formulate a distraction to get to the back of the store to get some equipment before having to fight these guys since it is pretty much inevitable for a fight to break out.

If Spruce was witty enough to find Karol in this small down he must be able to formulate a good distraction.

[Alamantus]

"I'll see what I can do, but given my crippling situation, I'm not sure there is much that I will be able to help with. But my arms are strong and I've been trained to fight through pain. Maybe I can get around myself after all."

Spruce hoisted himself up by his arms, dragging his useless legs behind him. He picked up a piece of debris that had strayed close to him and, holding himself up on his left arm, threw the chunk of cement as hard as he could at the ceiling above the little crowd of feasting vegetables.

[Rolled 5]

CRAASH! The ceiling that was left crumbled down on top of the vegetables! The less-protected vegetables were crushed under the weight, but one Closed Pinecone remained, struggling underneath a large piece of debris, its stubby arms and legs flailing about but going nowhere.

"Ha! Well that takes care of that! Grab some shears or whatever you think will work best and let's get out of here!"

[Red_massa]

Karol was trying to devise a plan that they could use to avoid a unnecessary fight but before Karol figured out what Spruce was planning on doing it was already to late to prevent him from doing, he had grabbed a piece of cement and brought down the rest of Karols remaining dojo on top of the enemies that were munching on plant growth.

JESUS! Spruce you could have hurt yourself doing that, especially since I asked you to formulate since you were intelligent. Not put yourself at risk of more injury. He let out an audible sigh and Karol helped place Spruce on a bench that looked like it was used to reach stuff on the higher shelves. As he started to walk to the back of the store he stopped and spoke to Spruce Thank you for coming up with such a good plan.

He made it to the back of the store with ease thanks to Spruces plan, it worked better than anything that he could have thought at the moment. When he got there he thought that with his strength he could use the machete for the entrance and possibly in battle. He also grabbed the weed killer to weaken up the strength of the weed itself. When he made it back to Spruce he placed the machete and weed killer in one hand while helping Spruce with the other.

What do you say we head up to the entrance and get out of here. The sooner we can get you fixed up the better, would be a waste to see someone of your talent have anything happen since we didn't make haste. Don' t forget that you still owe me a rematch. He said the last part with a giant smile on his face.

[Alamantus]

Spruce nodded and flashed Karol a smirk. "Don't get cocky." he winked and then grimmaced, "But yes, the sooner the better. Let's get back to the exit!"

The mall was strangely quiet as they headed back up the broken escalator. No more clops of the wooden feet of sentient seeds could be heard, and the trees had stopped rustling. An odd tension hung in the air as the deafening silence resounded. They reached the vine-covered exit door a few doors away from the destroyed dojo. The vines were massive, maybe the diameter of a basketball, and ivy leaves spiraled all around them. The vines seemed to almost pulse slightly, and the ivy leaves and vines kind of looked like veins if you thought about it that way...

[Red_massa]

Karol wanted to get out of this place as much as Spruce, everything that he loved about this place had disappeared, the atmosphere now dark and gloomy as opposed to vibrant and bustling. For the first time since he ever set foot inside of this mall it was absolutely quite, you could hear a pin drop, given the turn of events it was also eerie that this would take place also. He took a quick second to look around and he didn't spot a single pine cone or any other sign of messed up life form. He decided to think on the positive side and hope that this ordeal was now over, not the same as it was before since given the damage that had occurred but not getting any worse.

When Karol and Spruce made it to the exit that they would soon make their escape from. Given the size of the vines it was unlikely that they were going to clear the whole entrance but just enough that he and Spruce would be able to squeeze through them. When he was looking from afar the vines didn't look that large but they were actually the size of a regulation basketball.

Karol was now glad the he had grabbed both the weed killer and the machete since it was probably going to take both of them. Karol took the bottle of weed killer and sprinkled half of it on the vine and waited a minute for it to sink into the roots. After waiting he took the machete and raised it above his head and gave the vine its first chop.

[Alamantus]

Pale green liquid squirted out of the cut where the machete landed, and then...

"Karol! Look out!" Spruce shouted as a giant bulb uncoiled from the mess of vines and raised up, the tip pointing at its assailant.

The huge vines loosened and fell from the walls with a thud, only to be coiled up into a large, tidy pile with the bulb head peering down from the top. The bulb thrashed a couple of times and exploded into a vibrant chrysanthemum bloom with a large, unblinking, green eye in the center looking down at Karol. The Vine Snake's bulk blocked the entrance

[Rolled 3]

It pauses for a moment, and then roars, piercing through the silence like a knife!

[Red_massa]

The roar that had erupted from the Vine was crippling, so much so that it had knocked Karol off of his feet. This was almost as bad as it could seem, the giant plant that was blocking their exit had now been monster-fied. This looked quite a bit tougher than the last one.

Karol regained his composure and knew that if he was going to save Spruce that he was going to have to defeat this giant flower. He took of the top out his outfit and prepared to take on this flower. He bowed his head out of habit and took stance. He readjusted his gloves as he waited to see what kind of tactics that this new adversary would use.