Kamda

The thermal cloak whipped behind the Karkarodon's body as he looked out to the dunes of the desert. His eyes narrowed, sniffing the air. He was feeling loose, limber. Ready for the hunt. It was time, and they wouldn't be letting that magnificent creature escape. Not this time.

"Such fine prey..." he muttered to himself, smiling slightly.

It was a good day to hunt. Raven had introduced Dex, the scrappy kid, to Tranq before they set out, making it clear to the foundling that while Tranq wasn't a Mandalorian, he was an ally and a cromade-in-arms.

"It will be a good tale, I'm sure," she chuckled, adjusting her cloak slightly as it shielded her from the heat of the desert. The Mandalorian armor didn't shine quite as brightly when it had been fresh from the forge, but it still looked impressive, especially as the sun reflected off its surfaces.

"We already know it can create a sand trap that could bring us down." He replied, looking to the pair of Mandalorians. A hand came up to his chin, considering the possibilities. "We're moving into it's natural habitat. Hubris could doom us here. We'll have to respect our prey, learn all about the Crab as much as we can."

"I've seen a much smaller animal do something similar... it creates an area of collapsible sand around it, which causes any wandering prey to fall into its trap and right into its jaws."

Granted, that was an insect and not something as big as what they had seen. Raven raised a hand to shield her eyes from the sun as she surveyed the terrain, though it was a gesture more out of habit than anything else as her visor blocked out the glare of the light.

"... There has to be animals of some kind in the area that it preys on. Something that size must eat a lot, I wager."

"Maybe large migratory lizards? Tatooine has dewbacks, even banthas. Plenty of other systems have similar creatures." Tranq pondered, and set the zoom on his scanner goggles, examining the dunes. "Clearly it's enough to take down random travelers, clones, and mercenaries, or try anyway." He laughed a bit.

"What'd it.. what'd it do anyway? When it attacked you.. like, how'd you all get away?" Dex asked poking into the conversation about the creature. Standing a bit away from the group as so she can do her part to look out and see where they might be headed. "Think they move much?"

"I dunno... it didn't seem particularly fast, so maybe it mostly hunts with lures or whatever opportunities it finds near its lair," Raven thought out loud to answer Dex's questions. "It did something with the sand when it attacked us. Like... making it into a downward slope that went down to the creature itself."

"Managed to get out of it by going against the sand's currents, so to speak. With help from people pulling us out."

"I heard about spiders on Dantooine that do a similar method. Hide with a trapo door. No eyes, so they have to sense their meals with... extra senses." He mused, pondering. "They aren't fast either, but cunning. That's what makes them dangerous. Maybe this Crab has a similar sense?"

"Attacking it at range is preferable, but it's also possible that the creature will just bury itself in the sand and escape if it feels too threatened." Animals usually didn't fight to the death.

Raven looked to her 'student'. "I'm curious what ideas you might have, and would like to hear them first."

"Hmm," she thought, tapping her chin. "Well, if it were me and you were all comin' into my home I'd throw fists too. Are your sure it was trying to eat you? Or just trying to like.. defend itself somehow? Anyway.." she thought, "you said it also makes a pit to pull something in, yea? Trick it, toss something in, like a bang-er or somethin' and just," she made the explosion motion with her hands, "kaboosh," she looked to Raven for approval.

Whether or not it was just defending itself didn't matter too much to Raven. Plenty of other great trophies were just beasts doing what beasts do.

Still, she nodded approvingly to the trainee. "That's good thinking. Find a way to turn their strategy against them." Good Mandalorian thinking. They grow up so fast.

"You don't really want to explode a trophy hunt, but..." He nodded in agreement with Raven. "Stun grenade? Maybe even some Goo? I don't know if it would bother something that large, but if we can keep it from moving beneath with such a device."

"Anything that'll remove the advantage, yea? Bring it to our home court rather than it's own," she said, riled up and excited with the confirmation.

[Just to be certain, was this all you wished from this thread?]

OOC: oops. I missed this one!
If possible, could look around to see what sort of animals are in this area that could be prey for the sand crab, that we might use as bait?

[Please feel free to roll Survival or Xenobiology at Hard.

Xenobiology will have a boost granted due to previous knowledge.]

By their powers combined, Mando and Shark spent some time checking the desert, but without much luck in finding anything. Perhaps there was a reason why deserts were called... deserts.


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D7 EM Taking Down Crabitalism. Raven's Survival 2 + Tranq's Cunning 3. +1B from Explorer's Knife: 2eP+1eA+1eB+3eD 1 failure, 1 advantage

After a while of searching Dex just seemed anxious, like she wanted to hit something already, flexing her hand a bit. However, she settled herself down, reminded herself where she was, who she was with. Instead.. she simply groaned, "Well, this part is BORING."

Raven laughed a little at the foundling. "Not all parts of hunting, or preparing for battle is thrilling. A warleader might spend days preparing an attack plan based on scouting reports. Careful planning and patience can often be the key to being able to take down a much larger opponent that holds the advantage."

Dex's shoulder was given a friendly pat. "Mandalore the Ultimate didn't just charge blindly at the Republic - he planned and viewed battleplans."

"The long game is important, Dex." He replied, assisting Raven in scouting the area. The Karkarodon didn't get much in his assistance, though.

"What we know is that this creature has the advantage in their terrain. But we certainly can't let them escape even if we attempted kiting it."