Tuunbaq Attack - Open Log

[thetuunbaq]

The tuunbaq paws at an ice-cap. The wind whips up the snow, lightning flashes above illuminating the quick work it makes of the ice. Two swipes from its massive claws and the tunnel is open.

The tuunbaq crawls through. It can smell the fresh meat waiting for it on the other side of the ice.


((This is an all-purpose thread for the tuunbaq attack! Inside you'll find various jumping-off points for characters at different stages of the attack. Please jump in and respond to your heart's content, and add any additional threads and character interactions.

Happy Tuunbaq Day!))

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[goingtobeunwell]

"Weather always goes when it attacks," Crozier yells, retrieving his telescope from his pocket. "Goddammit. Can't see a bleeding thing...

"Una! I need a hand on the other carronade!"

[una_persson]

"RIght away, sir!" she calls back. She hops off the rail and hurries over to it.

[goingtobeunwell]

Crozier thinks he spies something moving in the ice, and readies to light the carronade if it moves again. He needs to bide some time for Una to prepare the other cannon.

[una_persson]

"Ready!" Una shouts back, waiting for Crozier's signal.

[thetuunbaq]

The tuunbaq watches them ready their loud mechanisms, but does not yet attack. Instead, it moves slowly from the ice, into the wind, appearing only to disappear again. It reveals itself on the railing, one massive paw moving to swipe down on the Captain.

[goingtobeunwell]

Strange's spell slows the wind, but it's not enough to tame the fury of the snow completely. Crozier doesn't see the creature until it's right upon him, and he brings an arm up and tries to fall back.

"Fire! Fi-"

The claw slices clean through his forearm and Crozier drops onto the deck.

[una_persson]

"Shit!"

Una was ready with the carronade, but she also had her handgun—her trusty .45 S&W—out, and she made a split second decision to fire that instead. She knew it wouldn't stop the creature, but it would draw its attention and buy Crozier time.

[thetuunbaq]

Its attention swayed from the Captain to the one with the gun and stepped onto the Captain's chest, lowering its muzzle before charging Una.

[una_persson]

Shit, shit, shit, shit.

Firing a carronade by oneself is not Una's idea of a good time, and she reckons she'll be lucky if it so much as clips her target and doesn't wipe out Crozier in the process. She fires; the recoil knocks it backwards and and sends her falling to the deck. "Trixie!" she shouts, momentarily blinded by the smoke. "Get a shot if you can!"

[wishiwasatree]

Trixie's been trying to take a shot since she saw the giant creature climb aboard. The smoke's in her way but she cocks the rifle and fires a round towards the deck.

The bullet hits a paw, she thinks. She can't tell.

"Be another fucking minute before I can fire again!"

[thetuunbaq]

There's a satisfying crunch as its back paw crushes the Captain's bones, but its celebration is cut short by a searing pain in its side, followed by one in its leg. It howls in fury and rears up on its great legs, loping to the railing and jumping over.

[fishandclips]

Another shot chases it over the edge. Mahir has made his way to the deck, and is just in time to fire off a shot at the creature as it goes. He shoulders his gun and rushes across the deck to the others, his attention torn between looking to see where the creature is going, and on the captain. He's afraid of what they'll find.

[kingsroads]

Strange is still standing where he is, focusing on calming the storm. But as the scent of smoke and gunpowder hits his nostrils, he realizes that they've got another problem.

With a wave of his hand, a quick gust of wind shoots through the area, clearing the boat's deck of the smoke and pushing it out past the ship, towards the rest of the Arctic.

[goingtobeunwell]

Crozier can't speak, can't move. His body is broken, chest caved in from the tuunbaq's final undignified stomp. He coughs a spray of blood into the air and over his own face and chest.

He's dying on the deck of the Terror. It's annoyingly poetic, in a way, not that he's ever had a taste for poetry. He can think of a few times he's been near-death on his own ship, and goes back to those memories while the cold settles into his remaining limbs.

Before the blood on his chin can freeze Crozier is dead.

[una_persson]

Una staggers across the deck, barely sparing a glance for Crozier at first. She can just about make out the shape of the fleeing monster and turns to wheel the other carronade about to fire after it.

That's when she sees the mess that was Francis Crozier and she stops in her tracks.

"Oh no. Oh no no no no no."

She falls to her knees beside him. "Someone get a shot after it! Now!" she shouts. She takes Crozier's hand in hers, feels for a pulse at the wrist. Nothing.

Una Persson starts to cry.

[wishiwasatree]

Trixie can't feel her fucking fingertips anyway, so after fumbling to reload the rifle she rips her mitts off and lets them drop onto the deck. Her skin gets stuck to the shot as she shoves it into the barrel, but everything goes a lot quicker.

She fires at the creature as it runs off. She thinks it hit. She hears it growl anyway, and that's good enough for now.

[fishandclips]

Mahir is frozen in place at first, having realized the Captain was dead just a moment before Una did. The sound of Trixie's rifle surprises him into action, tearing his attention from the Captain's body and Una's crying. He rushes forward toward the cannon, even though he doesn't exactly know what he's doing. He fumbles his way through it, and aims, narrowing his eyes into the whiteness until he thinks he spots it, and fires the cannon. It knocks him back and he crashes to the deck. He can only hope it hit. He coughs from the smoke, and crawls the short distance to Una and the Captain's body.

He doesn't know what to do, and there's certainly nothing to say, so he just puts a hand softly on Una's shoulder.

[kingsroads]

For the first time, Strange looks around at the rest of the crew...and notices Crozier's body lying on the ground. A white-hot fury starts to boil in him as he unceremoniously drops the spell to control the weather and rushes to the edge of the boat.

"Don't let it get away!" he yells, partly to everybody on the boat, partly to the elements themselves. There's the tell-tale sound of ice creaking close to the boat before the ice itself starts to grow, shooting upwards in impromptu spikes to form a half-assed (yet hopefully effective) barricade. It's hard to see the white fur against the snow and ice so Strange pours all his magic into the elements themselves, hoping that the ice can find and fence in the tuunbaq even if he can't.

This is obviously putting some major strain on him as Strange looks and feels like he'll pop a blood vessel at almost any moment. He can tell he's reaching the limits of his magic but goddammit, he wants revenge. That beast can't escape.

[thetuunbaq]

Tuunbaq reels as the ice suddenly rises up. It falls and slides, racing towards an open path only for another wall of ice to block its way. Again and again its runs towards an escape, and each time sharp seracs grow up from the frozen sea.

It roars, enraged and injured, and circles back to the ship.

[una_persson]

Pull yourself together, woman, Una tells herself.

She lets Crozier's hand go and wipes her face. "Help me with this cannon," she says to Mahir. "We may not be able to kill it, but I want to make damned sure it thinks twice about coming back."

[fishandclips]

"Gladly," he says grimly, following her lead. He doesn't know the first thing about cannons, but she does, and he will do whatever she needs to take another shot at that monster.

[una_persson]

Powder, shot—she tamps it all down as fast as she can. "Hold her steady," she says as she aims it, hoping desperately that she remembers her gunnery right. "Ready—now."

She lights the fuse, and with her and Mahir both on the cannon, they're able to tame the recoil enough that the shot flies true, or as near as it can be.

[thetuunbaq]

The shot catches the tuunbaq as it turns to escape yet another wall of ice. Its fur ignites from the blast and it howls, leaving blood on the ground as it tries once more to run.

It's stumbling, limping, clearly hurt now and bellowing in anger. It wants to run.

[una_persson]

"Strange!" Una shouts. "Let it go!"

[kingsroads]

Strange's eyes light up with excitement as he watches the shot catch the tuunbaq. As he hears Una's order, Strange bites back the urge to argue. Now's not the time. Instead, he moves with precision, thrusting his hands back down towards the ground, still focusing on manipulating the ice. A few of the seracs remain but the majority start to crumble, making an open path for the tuunbaq to flee.