Crusader Lord

My Isekai Costumed Adventurers - Fantasy-anime roleplay

Another Xalt RP? Consider me interested! :O

The Long Afternoon of the Mojave (A Fallout Roleplay)

@Crusader Lord That works with me. Keep in mind though that both Searchlight and the airport are fairly radioactive so any humans would have to be settled elsewhere to avoid radiation poisoning. There is a nearby community at Cottonwood Cove that they could live in.

The Rough Riders are based at Wolfhorn Ranch which is somewhat nearby.

Trade with Boomers is an option but I’m gonna go with the route that any vehicle that has been sitting for 200+ years is beyond being salvaged into something flight worthy.

@tundrafrog1124

Noted! And thank you for the information! I had forgotten that the airport was radioactive to some extent as well, but at least it's another potential option for where the faction could set up. Going to decide tonight where the mutant faction sets up so I can get the rest of The factions history hammered out as soon as I can.

On break at work as I send this though, so it'll be some hours yet before I get home to do a little more work on things today at least.

---

@tundrafrog1124

EDIT/UPDATE: Due to certain things that have come to light IRL for me after I posted this orignial message and tonight after work, I will be unable to formally apply to this RP anymore at this point in time. My apolgies for this sudden development, though I do wish to thank you for being kind and answering my (even if a bit too rapid-fire and hectic perhaps) questions and such!

I will still wish this RP the best, however! It is still always good to see a Fallout RP around these parts! :)

The Long Afternoon of the Mojave (A Fallout Roleplay)

@tundrafrog1124 I just had the sudden idea of them taking like a year to stealthily relocate from Jacobstown to highyl fortifying and building up on Searchlight Airport (and renaming the faction to "Newhaven" once Jacobstown is lost) while secondarily taking over the place and the former Camp Searchlight (to just be called "Searchlight now) and securing the road between these locations for setting up farms and bighorner herds and trying to start up trade again with locals. Especially since the land down there is useable and such, and there was no note in the timeline (as far as I could see at least, i mean) that said those spots were being used!

Hence it gets the faction that by now has been trying to look into fighting The Green as far from it as it can be so its people can be safe, but maintaining an information network and spheres of influence and outposts going up into the north of the Mojave. This also helps trade, and potentially the Boomers might be interested in the intact jets still down in Newhaven (by then formerly Searchlight Airport) to boot! Could make for something fun, perhaps, but I want to check this general gist by you for feasability.

If it isn't feasible, then I can move my location back to Camp Searchlight or the REPCONN Test Site as you suggested before. (Sorry for the fifty questions, btw, I just want to make sure on things. Really sure. @_@)

Why Were We Reincarnated as Orcs?!

Also, holy shit, is that a Flak Beetle! Someone that isn't me should totally throw fire at that thing.

@King Cosmos

Lazash, dripping with sarcasm: "Before or after we get eaten by mushrooms?"

XD

Why Were We Reincarnated as Orcs?!

<Snipped quote by Crusader Lord>

They are indeed not under the affect of hallucinogens right now!

@Zeroth

"In Soviet Russia, shrooms eat YOU!"

...This is definitely concerning though. Good that Lazash just ranked up her analysis skill at least. And we have fire. O_O

Why Were We Reincarnated as Orcs?!

@Zeroth OOC-wise, are Lazash and Vola tripping on cave shrooms atm? Because that'd be hilarious, unless this is a real monster somehow. XD

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

Lillianna

To say that this particular store was 'high-end' would be an understatement in the mage's mind. A vast one. Drinks, helpful assistants, trying on a fair number of clothes, everything just by flashing a 'bit of gold' at the door. It felt like she'd been sucked into a high-end world, speaking of, that was so richly decorated and fashionable that it sincerely boggled her mind a little bit. Dresses with full arm-length gloves, satin curtains that felt smoother than silk, mirrors that shone with enchanted glass without so much as a speck of dust or scratching on them, and that was just in the area for trying on clothes for pity's sake! Ice cold champagne in glasses that never seemed to get uncomfortable to hold yet whose contained drink never got anywhere away from the perfect level of chill and cold no matter how long they sat out. Likely had ordurves sitting nearby for anyone that got mildly invvonceniced by peckishness in here even...

Heck, ornate likely gold-leaf design on engraved borders were seemingly etched onto the borders of the walls for decorative and artistic purposes. Corners had partial-columns embedded into them as well, with gold flare and the faintest noticeable hint of silver trim, which seemed as grand as perhaps those of the ancient Parthenon were in the original building's heyday! There was even a small indoor fountain near the front, carved from smoothed marble with gold and silver trim, atop the center part of which was a statue was pretending to strump a harp and singing songs while the rest of the also gem-embedded (into different shapes no less in this regard) fountain looked like a totally paradisic island with carved features that almost seemed to come to life in front of her eyes. For pity's sake! She'd never been in a place such as this in terms of sheer decadence and royal grandeur save once or twice in her dreams back home. The most 'fancy' she'd seen had been a still rather nice little clothing store otherwise back home, which for a time she'd visited with her uncle's girlfriend and said girlfriend's two daughters, though compared to this place it might as well have been a shack made of dirt in the middle of the woods in the comparative sense.

...But despite all of this nearly flooring her more than any other place thus far in whatever new world this was, she had done her best to accomodate the desire of her compatriots to enter the establishment and try on clothes. Because if nothing else, she felt it deserved an honest try for the sake of those about her despite her own internal reactions to it all. That and...well...umm...maybe she was a bit excited as well to shop here as well, if she were to be honest about everything.

Another attendant had even seemingly gravitated toward her as she'd tried to look at some clothing, mostly as she'd nerbously tried to thumb through varied styles in some attempt to narrow something down to try. An eccentric short man, it seemed, who had a gem-like glint in his eyes but seemed to be a little bit shorter than a dwarf. He'd introduced himself as one 'Addelsby Laurentius Higginsbottom the Third', a fancy enough sounding name as it was, and while somewhat white-haired and older in the visible sense he'd softened when talking to her and tried to make her less nervous and more comfortable along the way. He'd then politely complimented her looks, thankfully as well in a non-creepy sort of way, and had invited her to try some designs on for him in the process as she thought about something to try.

At first had come a few lesser dresses and tunics and so forth, mostly involving golds and silvers and whites and lighter colors, before transferring to darker colors and even a sterotype 'little black dress' of sorts as the gnome had asked her questions and brought items to her to try after observing her reactions and getting some general verbal feedback. All the while he'd made complimants, talked to one or two others working there at certain intervals, and occasionally grabbed some spectacles and jotted down some notes on paper before returning to her once more. Yet something seemed to be eating away at the man's mind more and more as they did so, and thus after the small gnome had taken a second to think he had asked her to try something 'well outside the usual range, a unique piece even, for his sake', and she'd tentatively agreed.

...To say what he brought out had floored her on sight was an understatement. She had to sit down before he convinced her to simply allow herself to touch it! Then another female attendant had come by to help her put it on at that, invited along by the small gnomish man.

It was a splendid snow white dress with ornate silver trim and hints of stand-out gold around the torso that seemed fit for a noble gala or royal vista. Certainly grand and very magestic to be sure, and it even had a small train to boot! It had arm-length gloves that went up to nearly her shoulders, and smooth snow white leggings with silver trim to match alongside a pair of gold-imbued dress shoes to adorn her feet. To boot, it came with a pair of silver sapphire-embedded earrings shaped like diamonds, and a small tiara embedded with a small array of sapphires and ornate metalwork that was beyond anything she could think human hands were capable of on their own back home.

Simply looking in the mirror in this full attire she'd felt, perhaps for the first time in greater earnest, utterly overwhelmed and like a...well....a real, hoenst-to-goodness princess. Like she had arrived in a fairytale carriage, a royal escort, and all the bells and whilstles that some girls had perhaps dreamed of more so than herself. Yet even then, simply seeing herself looking so well made her feel a heat in her face and especially around her eyes. Like she was nearly going to cry, really, before the small gnome walked over to her as she sat afterward and put a gentle if not grandfatherly hand on her left shoulder.

"It's ok. Just let it out. I've been looking to have someone try this piece for quite a while, and I must say you compliment it the best I've seen yet in my line of work! Like you were made for it....my oh my, thinking about it is making my face feel so very flush with heat! It is as if you made made for it, my dear!

But, of course, I know an adventurer only has so much of a budget....so of course I will not pressure you. Still, you've made an old gnome proud of this work enough to cry tears of pure joy. I feel I'm entitled to that much at least, once in a while, for an old designer like myself."

The gnome chuckled a bit as he wiped away a tear or two, and she couldn't help but join in a little soft chucking herself before the two took a few deep breaths to calm down again. As it turned out, and the gnome had told her after she would get some help changing out of the attire, he was a designer and had been at the store for many a year. Apprenticed in a small village in the Empire under a local tailor, and from there had managed to make his way through a personal 'traveling tailor' streak before landing in Valheim nearly burnt out. From there he'd worked on many a design and idea, before the prior owner (mother of the current one to boot) of this particular store had seen him out one day sketching while sitting on a bench. From there? From there he'd gone up to levels he could never have imagined, helping train clerks and others wor work with cloth and so forth. Works that had seen the grandest of balls, all the way down to the humblest of city marriages, had been through his hands since then, though the latter had admittedly been more of a personal hobby and work on the side still.

After delving into his story, however, it was at this point that Addelsby let her return to her compatriots and to take the already-present female attendant who had assited her with the much fancier dress. It was also at this point that the slightly less-nervous mage would clam back up as she went about to look at certain things. Not all of them things she was used to shopping for this fancy either, really, as things such as more 'daring' bits came up here and there as she experimented and tried them on to try to get an idea. It would involve much blushing along the way, admittedly, though in the end she would actually settle on a few humble things to buy.

Yet once the attendants perked up at her being a magic user, mostly as she was asked some general questions, the attendant directed her to some other magic-user-befitting clothes that could help her use magic while in them. These, as she'd seen were certianly something with their own flair for 'the high class mage' as it were. Not that she....well maybe such a thing could be nicer too, right? In that vein she would see a few things to try them, and then be turned back into the hands of the other attendant helping MacKensie and Fenna as well as the one assisting her got pulled away to help some other customers.

Ultimately, it would lead to the mage feeling a bit special in a sense. Even if it was in a store way out of her league in many ways. Though as she stood in front of the mirror once more, Lillianna would be donning perhaps the last of the outfits she'd been envouraged to try by this attendant in particular. A nice knee-length black skirt with a small gold and silver trim, and a white blouse with short sleeves and some gold trim that felt comfortable and came with a small black jacket with longer sleeves of similar color to the skirt (just in case in got cold) that had a few gold hints about it to match the skirt and compliment the blouse it seemed.

"Lillianna, you look fabulous!"

MacKensie had already bought an outfit and had it bagged but she was now trying on a beautiful olive tunic that showed off her neck and shoulders. The satin olive garb was embroidered with an elegant gold pattern across the top and hung down to her hips, tightened by a black sash-belt at her waist. The outfit was finished off with black pants and knee-high boots.

"I will wear this out of the shop, thank you," she told the assistant, who graciously bagged up her Ranger gear for her. "Fenna, have you decided on anything yet?" MacKensie asked, a flute of champagne in her hand. She gave herself one last look in the mirror, then went to sit down.

"Y-You mean it?"

...Well, it wasn't on the more expensive end of things, and so the mage would take pause a bit before caving and asking to get it as well alongside her other purchases from the store.

It would be a second casual outfit with some magic-conducing functionality, one of two in total she would have purchased on their shopping spree thus far. That would mean in total she had purchased two not overly fancy, and importantly cheap enough despite her finances, casual outfits. This one with the black skirt and white blouse with an optional jacket, and another that had a mostly backless (but not too low cut mind) darker blue blouse with silvery-light-gray shorts, a pair of pants to go with the second casual outfit she'd bought prior. There was also a long-sleeved shirt, four sets of additional underwear (most made to be able to adventure in, including whatever she'd arrived in at least), several pairs of thigh-length socks for both protecting her legs and keeping comfortable during travel or causal affairs alike, one pair of good boots for traveling and casual winter occasions, one pair of shoes she was going to put on alongside a pair of the socks she'd bought already that seemed to go well with the blouse and skirt, and a silky soft and comfortable nightgown for sleeping in when not out adventuring.

"Almost," Fenna said to MacKensie as she compared two skirts of a fabric resembling cotton. She smiled when she glanced towards her female companion and how comfortable she was in the shop. Then she turned to find Lilliana to see how she was doing.

Going with the theme of her earlier purchases, she settled for a dark green long-sleeved vest made of a velvet-like material with gold buttons, and a matching ankle-long skirt with some golden embroidery along the edges. The shop assistant assured her the material was crease-friendly, so it would be suitable to be transported in a bag like most adventurers carried.

She examined herself in the mirror and nodded to herself, this outfit would do. "I think I will carry this out of the shop as well," she decided. "Is it possible to have my armour sent to the inn I stay?"

The shop assistant told her that was possible as she could fetch an errand boy or girl to do that and went ahead to ask MacKensie and Lillina if they too wished for their current clothes to be brought to the inn.

Without the weight of her leather armour, that was a constant reminder of the situation they were in, she started to relax more. She accepted the bubbly drink when it was offered and sipped from it. Not quite the same as real French champagne, but it was close enough.

Once Lilliana was ready they would set out again, but for now Fenna enjoyed the moment of soft cushions to sit in while sipping her drink.

After getting it organized to have her things safely sent back to her room at the Mending Drum Inn, though she did admittedly worry about that a bit, the mage felt comfortable about how much she'd spent on the matter of clothing. However, she would admittedly keep on her current casual outfit and have her mage attire sent back to the inn as well. Better to break things in while she had the chance, after all, and while they had a moment to rest. It had been a decent bit to spend on clothes, but given her situation she'd worked to budget the whole affair with regards to herself....which had included a lot of quick mental maths and calculations to optimize her efficiency in it all really. Of course she didn't mind using the showers at the inn, which were functional and kept clean enough, and didn't really get anything else as she wanted to save plenty of money for food, mundane supplies, and most importantly anything she needed to spend for magically-related items or supplies and such otherwise in the future.

In short, the mage had spent a fair bit without trying to hyper penny-pinch, but had saved a greater bit of remaining cash to sort out other things.

In contrast to the other two, however, the mage would not really take up any of the offered drinks in this particular high-end shop. Whether it was habit or a lack of desire for something at the time or whatever was mostly left to her quiet discretions, though the mage would sit next to Fenna before letting out a small and soft yet self-admittedly mentally-tired sigh. Because, as it were, shopping was quite exhausting to her like this. Where MacKensie got the super-fashionista-energy from was beyond even her mind to be able to fathom, and perhaps was well beyond the reckoning of any divinity here unless there was a 'god or goddess of shopping' somewhere out there.

The Long Afternoon of the Mojave (A Fallout Roleplay)

Out of these options I believe that the mutant faction would fit best within the RP. While I'm not opposed to factions based out of DLC content since all the DLCs take place outside of the Mojave it would be hard to justify their presence and their relationship to the Green.

With the mutants however, Jacobstown and Black Mountain have both been abandoned by the mutants. While I never explicitly stated to what happened to them, the location of Jacobstown has been taken over by the Green. If you're searching for another place to have them based then I'd suggest: Searchlight or the REPCONN Test-Site

@tundrafrog1124

Noted! I'll do some thinking on the mutants then. See what I can whip up or such. Though I do have a couple questions in that regard before I get started on it:

1 ) Looking at the map, isn't the REPCONN Test Site also green'd a bit as well? Or is it still ok? Am thinking that would be the best place for them, fortified and in an advantageous position. Searchlight feels less so, but if REPCONN was any issue then I'd want to find them a nice secure or advantageous position to set up in as I feel that'd be a logical choice for them given the presence of Dr. Henry at least and/or any potential non-mutants incorporated too by current times in 2288.

2 ) Since Dr. Henry is involved with Jacobstown and the mutants, would it make enough sense if some of the Remnants or all of them banded back together in the process a bit or such for the sake of survival? Doing this as the tough situation of The Green forces them together or such to survive and they can help train any humans around, etc.

Of course if including the Remnants type of thing isn't acceptable, or that'd make sense or get ok'd, then all good! Worst case its just Dr. Henry with them still, I figure, which would still make sense as well.

3 ) Just to run my first concept for the mutant faction by you (as breifly as I can late after work when I am writing this right now) for some initial judgement or at least a 'hey this could generally work or not' type thing:

Dr. Henry gets a cure made with some imported and hired human merc help who stick around, help with the NCR merc situation, and Jacobstown begins to grow and siphon some from Black Mountain. Causes some Tabitha issues. Green gets ignored for a few years due to mutant influx and such going on there. HUman and ghoul assistants for Henry are imported as well to help.

Eventually problem gets worrying or bad enough by early 2286 that Marcus and Niel and Henry are all worried and were looking into it. Bighorners are getting sick and people are too, some have died either there in trying to make it there, and its not the best. Scouted out some potential relocation areas to move to, are forced to evacuate suddenly when the Green explodes around Jacobstown. Niel and Marcus were in contact and basically Tabitha is by now dead or got Rhonda back or whatever to get her out of the way as Black Mountain got worse over time too, so Niel took over the Black Mountain area in the end and freed Raul and so forth before salvaging and taking as much equipment and such as he could with him and those who followed him still. Meet up with Marcus and Jacobstown migrants, who are trying to be secretivve and sneaky due to worries about causing conflict with locals, and with the Green chaos going on elsewhere in the north it helps them hide and move along.

Get to new location, REPCONN Test Site or otherwise, and have to handle those already there but do so and get set up. Build new homes, continue raising what Bighorner livestock that were saved from Jacobstown or were picked up along the way, and they with any humans or ghouls who came along settle down and foritfy up and use the radio equipment after setting up to try to bring further mutants to this safer location to get the cure and assistance. By now have gotten some more Gen 1's and Gen 2's and esepcially Nightkin, in terms of mutants at least, brought in who set up with them as well.

Started getting a few tentative Caravans they were familiar coming back to trade with them, though they are less than before due to the Green situation and chaos caused by that, and either are neutral with Novac or have struck some uneasy or tentative deal with them if not at least some trade or something by now. Just got their footing again, settled down, and are led by a new leader (the OC) who is likely an intelligent (or uniquely mutated even) Super Mutant or Nightkin who eventually took overall control and has been around long enough to have trust from the faction and its population to have taken charge by now.

Not many in the Mojave know where they are still, but word initially is starting to get out again inevitably due to them seeking trade and having set up in the faction's current location for about a couple good years by now on top of the radio messaging. Most rumors and ideas say they are still at Jacobstown or that Black Mountain people fled there due to likely not all the Nightkin there having followed Niel to migrate elsewhere or such.

The Long Afternoon of the Mojave (A Fallout Roleplay)

<Snipped quote by Crusader Lord>

Unfortunately the Enclave as a faction is not in this RP. I wanted to limit the access of Power Armor to only one faction: Brotherhood of Steel. If you want to RP as an Enclave remnant or descendent that is an option but any unified force of Enclave members aside from the Remnants as seen in Fallout New Vegas isn't an option.

You're welcome to come in as another faction, even a technologically advanced one. We are always looking for new members.

@tundrafrog1124

Gotcha! And no problem! I don't want to mess anything up here, so I'd rather ask questions about potential factions than let it go unanswered or assume anything I figure. XD

So in that vein, ah, here's a few conceptual thoughts/idea I want to pass by you to see if any of them (if any) are potentially workable or acceptable:

1 ) What about a built-up Jacobstown, which annexed Black Mountain as well after Tabitha was delt with in some capacity, where the cure was found still and mutants have flocked there alongside some mutant-friendly humans working with Dr. Henry or such in this case?

2 ) Or perhaps a Big Empty/Think Tank faction which has some members after someone else got zapped to Mig MT and survived the lobotomizing situation and got things sorted out there? Think Tank still being trapped in the area, with a best ending type of situation there perhaps.

3 ) Perhaps there could be a Sierra Madre-based faction, perhaps, that developed around Christine or Elijah and some former Brotherhood members or even (in another case) maybe centers around the Ghost People and some incorporeated outsiders and a different leader who is either a Ghost Person or otherwise.

4 ) Or if the above do not work, perhaps a Divide faction that became more organized after someone made their way there and resettled the area in some capacity (or refugees fled the green growing and took up in the divide or such)? Since the Marked Men can't leave the radiation there or else they die I think.

Why Were We Reincarnated as Orcs?!

Lazash

MP Increased! Mental Points are expended when you manipulate and release Mana, when the ratio of cognitive load to stress hormone production rises above the basal rate, or when emotional and/or sensory information input surpasses processing ability. When Mental Points are spent, you will suffer from the Mental Breakdown condition.

SYSTEM: Lazash

Hmm. Mental Breakdown condition? That did not sound good, but it made sense that using magic put some kind of strain on the individual when using it. In this case the strain was mental, though this also meant that using magic could also not be so good if one was left in a highly stressed out or mentally-ill type of status at the time to boot. Concerning, but it was something to take note of moving forward on her part as she examined the phenomenon of 'magic' and how it worked and the like in this world. It made her almost wish she had been living in some city where a university or the like was located, to see if she could glean some knowledge about things, but then again she hadn't chosen what to become in this new world either.

“I’ll go with you! I can whistle really loudly, which should travel nicely in the cave, and maybe we can use some of the Rotleaves and their seedpods to also mess with their sense of smell to disorient them further?”

Other Female Orc Runt

Hmm? The female orc runt looked over at the one who spoke to her.

A volunteer from among the two other Orc Runts who had wanted to join them on their hunt? That worked just fine in Lazash's youthful-looking eyes, as they needed to get the job done before it got too late in the day. On top of that, secure enough foodstuffs or kills to bring back for the quest of the Head Warrior at that. Likewise two of them would be as large of a group as she wanted to bring inside of the cave if they wanted to be able to scramble out without making a mess and getting killed or eaten or worse for all she knew....because these caves were basically and unknown to them, and as the Head Warrior had hinted could be dangerous during the day for a 'good reason' as it were.

Acknowledging Vola's offer to help with a quiet nod, Lazash simpply took out her sharp poking stick in her right hand in preparation.

"Sounds good, but let's be careful heading inside and get an eye on things before we start making noises or the like. I'll motion with my hands to communicate."

Never knew what could be living in there in general outside of the aforementioned creatures they were trying to hunt here. Especially if anything was a bear or bear-like in this world to boot, as such a thing would seem to fit this sort of terrain and location suitably well in her opinion. Then again, she had her identification skill to use as well to help them to boot.

---

Once the group of Runts had decided who would go into the cave and search for...whatever they could find, it didn't take long for the rest of their preparations. Then, with the daylight still full and strong, the first team took their first, tentative steps into the darkness...

A short climb would allow one to see over the lip of the ground and down into a slanted, slippery passage...but this open chamber of the cave was still somewhat cramped, and a much narrower passageway further into the depths sat at its back. At the entrance to that passageway, it seemed a clump of mushrooms had taken root in the dank darkness.

It was a certainly large cave by their general size standards currently, at least among Orc Runts, though with the slanted slippery passage of the cave she made sure to take distinct time and care to traverse it all as safely and quietly as she could. Space was cramped as it was as well in the general sense, which was to be expected, though their shorter stature was a boon in this sense as well, but it also made any sort of mad scramble for the exit that much more dangerous and difficult to imagine as well in the worst of cases. At least the open part of the cave felt as if it offered them some kind of movement room, but the far more narrow passage at the back was perhaps their one way deeper into all of this mess.

Oh?

As they got near the entrance to the smaller passageway, the presence of some strange fungal growths seemed to lurk around the entrance to the passage. Purple by nature, and likely were toxic or hallucinogenic unless she could prove or learn otherwise about them. Potentially useful for poisons, perhaps, or something else entirely. Either way the young female Orc Runt would try to grab about four to six of them to store away in her things while trying to be careful to not damage them or such in the process. Something like these could be potentially useful in some capacity, or perhaps might spore and grow in the dank and dark back places if she could find a spot back in the caves back 'home' as it were. Hmm.

From there, whenever Vola would be ready to do so, they would head deeper into the cave through the narrowed passage.

As they delved further and further, Lazash kept a quiet eye and ear out for anything that might be out of place. Animal noises, scratching, something knocking smaller loose rocks over, anything that might-

As the runts explored further, however, a sudden scuttling alerted them to movement on the roof of the cave above their heads! As they watched, something hidden in the dark moved towards the narrow open chamber, then creepy-crawled down just above the mushroom. It looked like a gigantic beetle of some sort. It didn't make any aggressive gestures...

The moment was a lot like an experience most of the reincarnates could probably relate to: Right after you turn on the light, you see the cockroach scurry up the wall or along the floor. You both freeze as if aware of each other's presence. The cockroach's antennae twitch. In that same fashion, the beetle and the runts froze.

The beetle's back end twitched. There was a blip of light in its thorax, like that of a lightning bug. Aside from this indicator, it looked like any regular, solid black pine beetle...save for the fact that it was also longer than a human man's arm and easily as big around as a watermelon.

In her frozen stance, Lazash would look back at the beetle and try to silently to use her [Creature Analysis] skill on it. In that vein she could hopefully identify the beetle and see if it was one of the creatures they had heard lived in these caves, or if it was something else altogether that also happened to live back in here.

She then very slowly moved her left arm, nothing sudden or fast or the like that would panic the animal she hoped, and held up a hand to where Vola could see. This to signal to her to 'hold' or at least not do anything. Lazash then just as very slowly, if she got the chance, would move her arm up to point it at the beetle.

It would be at this point that, unless interrupted, Lazash would take an action depending on what she learned. If it was one of the so-called "Camazots", she would try to observe it for a second and then attempt to fire off a [Fire Bolt] spell at it to hopefully catch it off guard without moving her body further. But if it was just something else altogether and NOT a Camazot, she would NOT try to cast a spell and would instead very slowly lower her left arm back down again to her side. Whatever the case would end up being, the female Orc Runt was trying to be somewhat tact about it all. If it was their prey, a swift strike of sudden light and fire might help against it. If it wasn't their prey, then it was either optional as a kill or potentialy a prey item of something else down here for all she currently knew.

@Unkown58@Zeroth