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A beach. A Jackdamn beach. Hadn't he had enough water-related happenings lately? Graaaaaa . . . Mort squinted in the strong sunlight, immediately pulling the hood on his jacket up. Heat wasn't an issue anymore, but a permanent condition - he'd rather have his head in the shade if he was going to have to suffer the sun, and there was no further complaint.

This, along with feeling like he was a distraction during the puzzling process, had the zomboil not in the best of spirits or hopes before Taryn began her rousing speech. It was hard for him not to be charmed, however, by her logic as she spoke: of court everything she said made sense! Who needed a shortcut anyway! "Zombies p-persevere. We protect horde n' not stop until unable to move," he added, nodding to Alex. "N' even then, keep going! Monsters be strong, whatever size has. Don't n-need magic bonus when have best of offense n' defense!" He fist pumped the air, excited - speeches were actually fun!

"Honey Badgers not give a-a s**t! Let's m-make best sandcastle ever, mkay?"

And all the while, he silently trembled - the cloying smell of the undead would probably soon be upon them.

Alex, who had been previously useless during the puzzling phase, was more then a little excited to see what lay ahead for them now. He hoped fervently that it would be something that he could actually help out with this time...though he honestly couldn't think of much that he could be useful for beyond eating and reading.

So it was with much chagrin that he found himself stumbling along through the hot sand of a beach, of all things, with the hot sun beating down on his rotting flesh uncomfortably. His skin was getting sticky and his shirt was clinging uncomfortably to his arms, back, and chest, new stains already appearing where his flesh began to ooze.

This sucked.

His already horrible balance was thrown off more so by the sand beneath his feet, and he found himself reaching out to clutch on the person nearest to him for support, which was, of course, Yin. He only did this anytime he stumbled, however, which was...well, quite often. Like every second step or so. When they arrived to their assigned destination, he only too gladly stopped, letting go of Yin's arm and trying very hard to listen to Taryn's words but finding that attempting to focus was much more difficult now with a real sun beating down on his head. He actually envied Mort's hooded Jacket, wishing he could at least have that small respite.

His eyes wandered to Chuppi, who was burying herself in the sand. All he could wonder is if it might be cooler underground and how it might be nice to explore that option further.

"We're going to need some water to firm up the sand," Taryn nodded. "I think we should go for support and structure. Decoration is nice and all, but I doubt that Famine is hosting an art contest, and height is just a spectacle. We should make a fortress, not a palace." Like real castles were meant to be, damn it! "Yin, do you think you could start gathering some water?" She offered the boil a bucket and then looked over Chuppi, who seemed entirely content, and Alex and Mort, who looked like maybe they wanted to die again.

"Chuppi, can you search the beach for items to fortify the castle?" She'd be hot up there, and she wouldn't hate Taryn forever for it. "Mort, check the tidal pools up by those rocks, if you would?" It'd be cooler there, higher up for a better breeze rolling off the ocean and out of the pools, which weren't deep enough to warrant terror. "Alex... go with Yin. See if you can't find something in the sea." Was he afraid of water too? Well, he'd have the green boil to switch with, if he so desired. "I'll be right back."

The ghoul, chest swelled with pride, approached a gnome who grumpily glared and offered her a starfish. She smirked, remembering a time when gold stars were the most exciting thing, the best prize for a job well done. How appropriate. She returned to their castle site to check on her team, and began digging a hole with her hands. If she could reach the wet sand, they could begin more quickly.

[[ OOC: looking for a sand dollar, a coconut, a tiny hermit crab, and two "seaweeds" - everyone can find one of the above, kind of sent you in different directions! <3 ]]

Taryn was talking again, telling them what they needed to do, and the little monster pulled herself from her sand nest and dusted off her dress. She did feel cooler from having all that moist sand on her scales and with the sun now pushing down on her Chuppi was practically in heaven. Or...whatever Halloweeners had for a version of heaven. She stretched her arms above her head before turning to look at the rest of the group, smiling faintly and nodding her head. "I shall return with the items, please leave it to me."

She started down the beach, digging her toes into the turf here and there as she enjoyed it all. Lately getting out was a good thing, she liked seeing all these people and trying stuff, and since this trial wasn't as scary as she thought it would be she didn't really have anything to fear, right? Plus she had some of her friends with her, they'd protect her if needed yes? Well she was sort of capable of dealing lots of heavy damage on her own, so...well....

In the middle of thinking about things Chuppi managed to find a coconut, something she'd never seen before. She didn't really like how it felt in her hands, all hard and hairy, and she tapped at it a few times to see if it made noise. It had a hollow sort of thump to it and she frowned. Would this be any use to her group?

She gathered the object against her chest and scampered back to her group, a smile of hope on her face. "Everyone, I have found this items! Will it be okay to be used?"

Going with Yin to the water sounded absolutely fine to the zomboil, who was feeling quite miserable at the moment and would have done pretty much anything to distract himself from the heat. Actually, the thought of water was almost comforting. This wasn't a hotspring, so the water was likely cool, and he almost eagerly scrambled after Yin, tripping and stumbling in the sand until he could grab a hold of the other boils shoulder with a damp and sticky hand and follow him along to the waters edge. "Me neither," he replied to Yin's comment, though the zomboil was hardly in any mood to talk right at the moment.

The walking got slightly easier as they reached the cooler, firmer, wet sand closest to the water. His skeletal foot still wanted to dig into the ground, however, and caused him some trouble as he couldn't seem to keep it on the surface. That was rather annoying so he tried not to put as much weight on it, forcing him to hobble along to the waters edge and let go of Yin as the other boil made his way into the water.

Though the mantodae moved away so rapidly that Alex suddenly began falling to his right, so he leaned hard on his left, which resulted in his foot digging deep into the wet sand.

Oh..well....that probably wasn't good.

The zomboil attempted to extract himself, using both of his hands to pull up on his leg just below the knee, but he seemed to be fast stuck in the ground. Becoming slightly more frantic he wrenched harder, only to have the same result, which was nothing. With a sigh, he let his arms drop to his sides, and steeling himself...suddenly jerked and twisted his left leg all at once so that the skeletal part became detached. Unfortunatly this meant that Alex only had one leg to stand on, and with his bad balance combined with dizziness from the sun and the odd textured ground beneath his foot...he hopped, flailed spun, and fell into the ocean water.

And then a wave crashed over him.

On the plus side? He was cooled off. On the flipside, he was down a leg, and he was wet.

Crawling out of the water before he could get hit with another wave, the zomboil made his way over to his leg and dug it out of the wet sand as quickly as he could, pulling it out and inspecting it to make sure all bones were still in place before reattaching it to his knee and waiting for Yin...who by now was pretty much just waiting for Alex though the zomboil didn't know it and probably looked like he was just playing in the sand to the weremantis.

Eventually, he got to his feet, his skeltal leg a bit shakey but since Alex was trying not to put weight on it anyways, it would hold. He hobble-stumbled to Yin, grabbed the weremantis's arm again, and made his way back to the group. It wasn't until he reached them that he realised he had a peice of seaweed resting on his shoulder, and he plucked it off to add to the one in Yin's bucket.

"Right . . ." Mort's eye twitched as the hermit crab saw fit to pinch the skin of his thumb, shuffling to the small pool Taryn had created and creating an extra platform nearby for the thing to go by. It took a bit of shaking to make it let go of him, though - Jack, those claws had as much strength as a zombie's grip! "Weird, n-not having underwear . . . c-crab, meaning," he explained hastily as he got back. "N' birds look normal too. Humans has strange mini pets."

Yin really was not sure why it had taken Alexander so long to play around in the sand, but he had appeared to be having difficulties walking back. He decided not to say anything, not wishing to upset him by being tactless, but mentally crossing off the beach as a place that Alexander would probably like to go with him in the future. Well, at least putting the idea on probation.

Miss Taryn seemed pleased with their findings, even though it was just a bucket of water and some strips of green. Apparently they were going to work on actually building the castle now, and after watching her for a few moments he began to join in, the claw-like tips of his fingers slicing through the sand. "I believe that a wall would be a very good idea Miss Taryn," he acknowledged, trying to shore up some of the sand.

However, most of the good wet sand was next to the ghoul, and the bucket had been emptied. "Can you assist Miss Taryn with building some defenses while I go fetch some more water?" He asked Alexander, before realizing how utterly pointless it was for him to even ask and hoping that the zomboil did not think he was being ridiculous or bossy. He all but scurried down to the ocean and back, bringing a nice full bucket of water to work with as he tried to help where he could, mostly just mimicking the others working on the sand castle.