Closed The Hunt for the Dark Tongue (Sama'el)

[Leto Sunsinger]

Leto nodded as Sama'el handed him the forked stick. Looking it up and down for a moment, he looked at Sama'el and then said, "I take it you trap their head in between the fork of the stick? What if they hear you coming? won't they slither away before you can trap them? I'm guessing one has to be fast to catch them a bit off guard then..." As he spoke, he thought about it, and then looked towards the stick once more, flipping it so that the forked end was down towards the ground. "And yes, I did bring the kit," he said, reaching down to his waistband where it happened to be snuggily tied down so that nothing inside of it would break. Carefully untying it, and picking it up, he said to Sama'el, "Perhaps since you've more experience than I at this, you can capture the snakes, and i'll hold the vials to collect the venom? And then we can switch places, if you want? I'll try capturing a snake or two, so that we can collect an ample amount of venom to create the poison from?" That was his idea anyways, and he felt it would be decent since Sama'el was a bit more experienced at capturing snakes than Leto happened to be, and he was unsure of himself, and didn't want to accidentally get bit by one of the snakes. Not that he was squeamish or afraid of them, he just didn't want to take an unnecessary risk when there was somebody more adept at it than him around. It made sense in his mind, but would it make sense in Sama'el's mind? Leto wouldn't know until he got a response out of Sama'el, which was expecting after the ankal of their pavilion thought it over for a bit...

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

"All right," Sama'el agreed, ceasing to search for a second stick and taking the first one from Leto. "They are quick. We'll have to be quiet." That said, he stopped talking and started to be very careful about where and how he put his feet down. The dry slither of scales through the grass might tip him off even if he didn't find one conveniently drowsing on hot rocks. Their stealthy search continued for nearly half a bell before Sama'el stopped Leto with a hand raised, and pointed to his eyes, then a large, flat rock with a black lump atop it that might very well have been a pile of horse manure but for closer inspection. Sama'el stalked forward, still as quiet as he was able, stick held before him and at the ready. He frowned, strategizing. Coiled as it was, it would be difficult to pin the head down without pinning coils beneath it, which would allow the adder to possibly whip out of his trap. That decided, he knew he would have to wake it up, fence with it, dance with it until he could manage a clean pin. He walked more heavily then, until the faint tremors through the ground roused the cold-blooded creature. It hissed a warning when he got closer, and Sama'el held the fork of the stick forward, wanting it to focus on that rather than his own flesh, but it would be a matter of pinning it before it could strike too many times, wasting its venom on dead wood. Instead of striking, though, it merely hissed its irritation as he nudged it with the stick, perhaps recognizing that a true bite wouldn't harm the bit of branch. He kept nudging until it attempted to slither away, uncoiling and giving him the opportunity to pin it by the base of the head, or very nearly. Its head was gyrating a little in its attempt to get away, so Sama'el moved in quickly, carefully taking it behind the skull to immobilize its dangerous bits, then tossed the stick aside to gather up its cool body. "Got it," he called, then crooned to the thing. "Don't worry, friend. We just need some of your venom and you can be on your way." He looked to Leto, then. "Bring me a vial, yeah?"

[Leto Sunsinger]

As Leto approached with Sama'el as quietly as possible, when Sama'el held up his hand for the elder drykas to cease movement, he indeed followed suit, and looked to see where Sama'el was then pointing. Yes! It could possibly be a snake, or... horse dung, one could never tell just by looking from this far away, but when Sama'el got closer, it looked as though he was going to wrestle with whatever it was that happened to be upon that rock. Leto simply watched, until Sama'el grasped ahold of the creature he was fighting with, utilizing the stick to pin it down, the grabbing it by the head, and an inner voice in Leto's mind said, gotcha! When Sama'el then called him over, asking for a vial, Leto nodded, got up, and then made his way over towards where Sama'el happened to be. Trying to be observant of his environment in case there was any other snakes hanging around, he'd be careful in his approach, and would retrieve a vial from the poisoncrafter's kit, and would either pass it along to Sama'el if he asked for it, or await Sama'el to open the creature's mouth, so they could collect the venom from it's two fangs. Depending on what Sama'el did, Leto would either observe him collecting the venom, and would watch to hopefully learn how Sama'el worked the snake's head to get it's mouth open, so as to collect the venom from it's fangs. If Sama'el had Leto collect the venom, then Leto would carefully hold the vial underneath of the fangs of the snake's mouth that Sama'el would hold open for him to do so. They wanted to be careful so as to not harm the snake, and Leto would also be careful as well, not wanting to injure himself or Sama'el in the milking process of gaining the necessary venom to create the poison Leto was told about by the watch man...

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

Clearly Sama'el and his siblings had been adventuresome little gits, wrestling snakes and whatnot. But when Leto approached, he knew he needed both his hands to handle the snake properly. He could have let its body flop around, but it might hurt itself, which he didn't want in and of itself, but since angering Oriana, he certainly didn't want to irritate Siku. "Hold the vial for me," he said, a gentle order. He didn't mean to be bossy, but they were dealing with an angry, poisonous snake, and someone had to take charge. When Leto held it out for him, he very carefully wedged the snake's mouth open, caught one fang on the edge, and gently massaged that side of its face until the clear venom began to collect along the side, only to dribble down when enough collected to have much weight. "Not very much," he noted when the one fang seemed to run dry. Then he did the same with the other fang. If this was called milking, it certainly had little to do with what Denen did to the nanny goat for milk and cheese. "If only we knew an Eyktolian flautist who could charm it into not wasting its venom and giving it to us easy." He laughed quietly and then, when it was done. He carefully tossed the adder into some high grass on the other side of the dry stream bed, both to break its fall and give it an easy escape. "Well, that wasn't so bad," he said, hoping the snake didn't feel violated or something. "Do we have enough for a dose or do I have to catch you another snake to prove I love you?" He grinned.

[Leto Sunsinger]

As Leto was instructed, he uncapped the vial, and held it up to the snake's jaw, so that they could get an ample sample of the adder's venom. He watched how Sama'el worked the adder's jaw, massaging it gently to allow the venom to be secreted from the fang that was placed within the vial. Once the first one was done, they moved onto the second fang, and performed the same actions, so as to get even more venom out of the adder. Pulling the vial away when it was completely depleted of venom, Leto held it up and looked at it to see how much exactly they happened to have. "Hrm..." he said thoughtfully, and capped the vial, so that they would be able to contain the venom without spilling any of it. "I think... maybe one more vial of it would be beneficial. One for testing now, and one to save for later?" he said, looking towards Sama'el, hoping he would be willing to help with another snake so that they could at least get one more vial of venom to test later. "And you don't need to do it to show that you love me..." said Leto, a grin crossing his face as he looked towards Sama'el. "I know that you love me, and am only asking for the sake of researching it..." he said, his obsidian gaze looking towards Sama'el, hoping that his responses would be enough to get him to help assist with catching at least one more black adder and milking it of it's venom, so that they could go and test the one vial to start off with, as well as save another vial for later, possibly to help recreate the poison that they were working with, the "Dark Tongue" that the watch man had spoken of...

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

"Uh huh." Sama'el grinned and flexed his arms for comic effect; they were certainly made mostly of muscle, but it was compact and wiry, strong but economical. The Sea of Grass was bountiful, but made a man work to fill his belly. "If we ever catch them in the right season, the babies are supposed to be more poisonous, but possibly harder to catch, too, and if they're small, they won't have as much venom." But he picked up his hunting stick, put his arm around Leto's shoulders in an act of trust that his friend would have become accustomed to by now. Then he left his body. Walking the Web might be more accurate for searching, but it required a great deal more of his energy than it did to open himself to Syna, that tiny door within him that led to Her. Then he was aloft and circling around them, looking down for another sitting duck--or, rather, sunning snake. This was much quicker, and soon enough he was back within his own mind, face close to Leto's as he smiled at him. He jerked his head to the left. "There's one over there. Are you ready?"

[Jackalope]

Sam

Award

Skill	XP Earned	Lore Earned
Observation	+2	An Offer of Protection
Socialilzation	+2	Walking in a Snake Den
Acrobatics	+2	Collecting Venom From An Adder
Stealth	+1
Poison	+1

Witty Remark Here

Good stuff! Hopefully Leto comes back. If he does, let me know and we can pick this up back or I can just grade his part! If you have any questions or concerns regarding your grade, please send me a PM and we can figure it out.

[Jackalope]

Leto

Award

Skill	XP Earned	Lore Earned
Webbing	+1	Love Gives You Confidence
Observation	+2	Planning to Get Poision
Poison*	+1	Reflecting Briefly on the Storms
Socialization	+2	How to Extract Black Adder Venom

*Serpente. As a a novice in poison use you can learn to work with two more types

Inventory: +1 Vial of Black Adder Poison

Witty Remark Here

And here's your part! If I can request one thing, I'd like to see more detail of what you're actually doing in the web, rather than you entering it, getting what you need, and popping out. It's a brilliant chance for description. If you have any questions or concerns regarding your grade, please send me a PM and we can figure it out.