Duty Session 406: Sher Kar Challenge

Giant ants? Looks like you need some pesticide fast!

OK, so they don't have pesticide here.

So Kotono has put out a call for adventurers to help out in this situation. She's waiting patiently for others to show up, since she knows the ants must be dealt with, but she can't do it alone. "Even I can only do so much," Kotono says as she cleans her blades a little. Then she looks at the ants. "We're gonna stomp you good!"

Giganpor, having been seeking some places pretty open, figured an ant swarm was also some place good to get some understanding in more... hostile environments. That had lead him here, at least! And to Kotono's call for help.

That being said, he had his armor on and his overly large pole axe in hand, ready to slay some giant ants.

"Giant ants, huh? I swear if we have to go in ant hill, I'm going to just wonder at this place."

Shiruba has taken a strong stance on preserving the culture and history of the Lander societies, so finding out that the site of one of Westelande's 'coming of adulthood' rituals has been infested with monsters other than the ones that are part of said ceremony was enough to get her to show up as quickly as she could. Though the desert really isn't a suitable environment for either of her usual animal companions so she's come alone this time.

"Desert air tends to be hot and dry, so it's going to react differently to attempts at manipulating it," she offers helpfully to Giganpor. She may not be the one specifically teaching him but since weather and storm related magic is also one of her strengths, she can still provide some insight.

The blades are drawn and Kotono's ready.

Slash, slash!

The green-haired Spriggan manages to fight her way through the ants with little difficulty. "There was nothing to it," She says with a grin.

Now they're in the cave itself, and there's so many ways to go. "Gotta be careful here..."

Shiruba makes her way down the scaffolding ramps but stops when she gets far enough to catch sight of the ants clustering below. Mmm. At least one of her companions are a bit more physical focused, so they're going to need time and and opening to get down there. So she crouchs for a moment on the platform she's occupied, nocking a few normal arrows in her bow and firing them down into the pit, trying to get the ants to scatter away from the ramps so Kotono has a chance to get into fighting range. Then proceeds the rest of the way down herself.

Once on the ground below the Hunter is back in her field of specialty, examining the area the ants had been swarming to find the right clues to trace back to which tunnels the infestation came from. "They're probably trying to take over the passages for a new colony.

Giganpor, meanwhile, sticks to the back and unleashes bolts of magic and flying rocks at the ants.

He uses shield and pole axe to defend himself as he eyes the passage. "Well, dang it. So much for something in the weather." He shrugs, looking to the two.

"Making a new colony's probably not something we want here, too." He comments to the two, then looks to Kotono. "Got any plans to stop that?"

"Which is why we have to stop it!" Kotono says to Shiruba before looking to Giganpor. "That's why we're here, to try to stop that from happening!"

Kotono decides to put her searching skills to use and try to figure out the best way to go here. She thinks she's got an idea as to where to go...

Only to wind up back where she started. "Well, I can see I'm doing well again..."

Let's be fair, insects aren't very easy to track. Even giant ones like these have very small feet in comparison, so they don't leave large footprints. Plus desert sand is loose, and won't hold a shape for very long. So Shiruba falls back on analyzing the behavoir one would expect out of social swarming creatures such as ants.

After some scouring about the tunnels Shiruba hones in on one. "Here." She points at a bunch of scraps and scruff marks on the wall. "Something has been dragged down here. Likely prey, or materials for building up whatever chamber they've overtaken."

Giganpor huhs, "Just a moment..." He brings up his hammer, or rather the hammer end of his pole axe. And swings downwards. "Riddle of Steel!"

The focused strike sends out vibrations on the very ground as the were-fang crouches down to 'feel' them. Then he eyes where Shiruba is pointing, "A lot of activity that way, I think. So we are on the right track."

Giganpor shakes his head, "... that always is a bit weird."

Giganpor, meanwhile, is quite happily making his way through while patting one or two on the head. The others are growled right back at and eventually he makes it through.

Eventually, he makes his way to the other two and blinks a few times. "Uh... you two do know you just need to pat the ears and not show aggression or fear of them, right?"

... yes, Giganpor just walked through the Sher Kar. Without so much as a scratch.

Shiruba has found a path, but it would seem that Giganor's tremor-location picks up a more immeadiate obstacle as they come across the very creature(s?) the pit is known for. "Oh, crap... they won't be happy if we harm too many of Sher Kar - The Sher Kar." That is a really weird way to say the name, but it's how the locals say it so she's being respectful of that. Even if it sounds really redundant.

She tries to slip past, but in their hungry state the creatures are very keen on interfering. "Crap crapcrapcrap!" Reflexively Shiruba smacks the one approaching her with the reinforced arm of her bow, and then turns and runs the rest of the way down the tunnel because there is no way she's going to be able to fight one of these things up close and they're suppose to be hunting down the ants anyways! "Just keep moving and hope they don't follow!"

Sneaking is usually Kotono's specialty. Usually.

The girl tries to tiptoe past the giant ants, but she accidentally kicks a stone and that draws some unwanted attention.

A pause and a nervous grin.

Then she takes off running saying, "Sorry, gotta scoot!"

"Now you tell us," Shiruba retorts to Giganpor. Then quickly forgets about the matter because lo and behold they finally found the ants she was tracking farther into the tunnels. Or the ants found them. It's kind of both, considering they were still running towards the colony nest, but these ants are clearly here intentionally to stop them.

Though being in a narrow passage is not as constricting to the wolfgirl hunter as one might worry, because she's trained herself to deal with unusual environments, which includes underground. In this case she takes her approach cautiously, while switching her longbow for the five-bladed throwing glaive... and hurtles that at the first guard to charge her. The magic of the relic is enough to knock the ant-guard over backwards and then boomerang back to Shiruba's hand. While creating a gap in their defensive line for the two melee fighters to take advantage of.

This time, Kotono seems to know what she's doing as she rushes past using her blades.

She strikes the enemies with her blades as best as she can, and this time she gets past them without being caught.

"Ha, I'm not a complete failure!" She says with a smile.

Giganpor shrugs, and doesn't even try for fancy as he starts to move past. Poor ants. They're getting smacked left and right by the pole axe that the Were Fang carries.

One even ends up with the unfortunate 'ant body shield' technique as he skewers it and walks along, pushing pants away as he makes his way to the rest of the party. "Nah. None of us are. So what's next?"

Here we are. The heart of this hive... no wait, that's bees not ants. Well you get the idea.

Shiruba takes stock of the situation, then grimaces with determination as she reachs back for her quiver. "Guess it's a good time to try one of these out." She draws a particularly sleek and sharply pointed arrow and nocks it in her bow. As she pulls back on it both of the crystal foci in the arms light up with flickers of ominous sparks, which then crackle down the bowstring to charge more and more of that electrical current into the arrow of super conductive arrow, even as she's taking aim at the Queen. Until the entire shaft is starting to glow faintly, and she finally lets go to fire. "VERMILLION HARPOON!"

There is so much charge built up in the arrow that it looks like a literal lightning bolt as it's fired, leaving a thunderous boom in its wake as it hurtles towards it's target! Even blocking the arrow isn't enough to completely stop it thanks to it's piercing tip, followed by discharging that elemental power in a chain of shocking bursts!

The daggers come out and Kotono goes running...

And barely makes a dent.

"Oh no." She gulps and takes off running again. "Oops! I did it again!"

Rushing in, Giganpor blinks as Kotono goes running by. Then he remembers that ants don't like vibrations or use them or something. And well... this place doesn't look that stable!

He halts himself with a small skid, then brings up his pole axe and calls out, "HEAVEN'S ROAR!"

Even then he shifts to his Were-Fang form as he adds his own roar to it just a bit dramatically. At least the roar is focused at the ants and not hitting the other two, even as it reverberates around the place and eventually allows them to attack the queen while Giganpor is busy fending off the ant horde that he so helpfully made mad at him.