<span style="font-style: italic">Okay, Sherani. Don't panic. There's a trick for handling these guys... what was it Dad said? "Sully the emperor with ash and soot?" Okay...</span>The shifter turns slowly to face the ashes of the dead campfire, wincing as her pivot snaps a twig underfoot with a seemingly ear-splitting crack. It'd be a lot easier to maneuver if her left foot wasn't hovering in mid-step, but she doesn't dare plant her foot for fear of spooking the little emperor. If she can just reach far enough to grab a handful of campfire ash, and bring it to Ureck, the smell and grit should be enough to drive the scorpion away. Slowly, she leans forward, hobbling on one foot as she scrabbles for her prize...<br/><br/><blockquote><div><cite>Lilium wrote:</cite>No need to be afraid, this is actually a monarch scorpion.</div></blockquote><br/>With Lilium's admission of her bug's harmlessness, Sherani slumps back in relief, finally free of the awkward mid-step balancing act she'd locked herself in when Lil first announced the danger. As the kitsune departs, she flashes a disapproving glance at her turned back, but nothing more; with tensions the way they are, a stern word would probably do more harm than good. Besides, picking out a fake emperor was pretty impressive for a city-minded type like Lilium... and it<span style="font-style: italic">was</span>a little bit funny.<br/><br/>"Ehehe... Sorry about the false alarm," she says, kneeling to brush the soot off her boot from where she'd toed the campfire. "Those whip-bugs are all over the place, but they couldn't hurtcha if they wanted to. They're completely... harmless..." Sherani's voice trails off as she spies the lone pawprint by her knee. A print that wasn't there last night, and doesn't look anything like her canine companions'. Which means...<br/><br/>"Oh,<span style="font-style: italic">piss</span>." Ignoring any further comments from her companions, Sherani drops to her chest to get a better look (and smell) at the offending print. "Ureck... did anybody besides us come through here while you were on watch?"<br/><br/><div style="padding: 3px; background-color: #FFFFFF; border: 1px solid #d8d8d8; font-size: 1em;"><div style="text-transform: uppercase; border-bottom: 1px solid #CCCCCC; margin-bottom: 3px; font-size: 0.8em; font-weight: bold; display: block;"><span onclick="if (this.parentNode.parentNode.getElementsByTagName('div')[1].getElementsByTagName('div')[0].style.display != '') {  this.parentNode.parentNode.getElementsByTagName('div')[1].getElementsByTagName('div')[0].style.display = ''; this.innerHTML = '&lt;b&gt;Spoiler: &lt;/b&gt;&lt;a href=\'#\' onClick=\'return false;\'&gt;hide&lt;/a&gt;'; } else { this.parentNode.parentNode.getElementsByTagName('div')[1].getElementsByTagName('div')[0].style.display = 'none'; this.innerHTML = '&lt;b&gt;Spoiler: &lt;/b&gt;&lt;a href=\'#\' onClick=\'return false;\'&gt;show&lt;/a&gt;'; }"><b>Spoiler: </b><a href="#" onclick="return false;">show</a></span></div><div class="quotecontent"><div style="display: none;">Check to identify and follow print... unsure whether this is Survival or Knowledge (nature), so I've applied both modifiers to the same roll below.<br/><br/>Survival: 1d20 (12) + 14 = 26 OR<br/>Knowledge (nature): 1d20 (12) + 11 = 23</div></div></div>