We don't need no stinking Triffids

It's a normal day, with normal questing going on, the party has been sent by the Hunter's Guild to fetch rare Triffid bits. Some are aware of the giant King Buns with their armor plating that also hunt Triffids and so are on the watch for that kind of ambush. Tracking the Triffids has led the party to a large clearing in the woods.

    As the party approaches the clearing, where the Triffids the Hunters Guild sent them after had been sighted, something seems off. The air is quiet, the animals and insects silent, and they aren't immediately assaulted by either giant plant monsters, or the giant armored buns that feed upon them. Instead the party is greeted by a tall muscular man with a gold band around his temples. He announces in a booming voice. "The kingdom of Thor will not allow the atrocities to come again. Kneel and be crowned willingly, or face death and be judged!"

    From out of the woods step Thor soldiers with bows, each adorned with a band of metal around their brows. The smallest of these soldiers does not carry a bow, instead the androginous figure bears a hanko, the seal on it glowing red. From either side of the clearing completing the trap are one of the giant king bun's armored in stone with a matching chop on its forehead, and a massive blend of humanoid and crab plated in sharp edged basalt wielding heavy polearm made of jagged stone with it's own matching chop. A fight seems inevitable.

    Spriggans were designed for stealth. Knives in the dark, killers in the night. Both in the game design that was ETO, and in the lore of the world it is set in. And thanks to a certain Palace-Lander Vixen, Miyako and Kotono have recently had a painful lesson in the _limitations_ of their stealth.

    Still, they weren't _expecting_ an ambush on such a simple resource-gathering quest. They knew it was possible, and they expected to have to scout for the main party, however. So they were already invisible, ghosting through the shadows of the trees. (Though if the ambushers had been tracking the party for a time, they might have witnessed the full count of the party earlier along the way, and expect them to be _somewhere_ in the area. They've tried taking steps against scent-based tracking, but who knows how effective that might have been?)

    Indeed, the shadows of the trees seem to deepen, darkening the edges of the clearing. Hidden in those shadows, Miyako gestures to her partner, suggesting they circle around the clearing to come at the soldiers from behind.

Spriggans can be ninjas. Spriggans can be assassins. Spriggans can be a lot of things that make use of stealth. Sometimes it's for good and sometimes it's for bad. It depends on every Spriggan and what their intentions are. And yes, that was quite a painful lesson both Miyako and Kotono have experienced. Which was why the green-haired Spriggan spent time working on her sneaking skills.

The trees provided perfect cover for the two Spriggans as they moved carefully and quietly, using the environment to their advantages almost like ninjas of ancient times. And for someone who's very acrobatic like Kotono, it's fairly easy for her.

As the shadows darken and things get thicker, Kotono sees Miyako gesture to her. With barely any motion, Kotono acknowledges the gesture, agreeing that it's the best course of action. She prepares to start circling around, keeping an eye on the enemy while doing so. Anything can happen at any time, so she needs to be alert.

    Setsuna had came today to finally find a triffid. People claimed that the triffids were tree like beings that moved and Setsuna was kinda curious about moving trees but every time he had came to hunt a triffid he has ran into a giant stoned bun-bun with a bad temper. So he can only hope that maybe just maybe he can see a triffid. That is until the kingdom of thor has came crashing into the fun. As the booming voice finishes Setsuna shouts back, " YEAH YOU AND WHAT ARMY?!"
     Then the army appears and Setsuna nods his head, "Oh, ok that army, not a bad army." Looking about Setsuna gives a whistle and as if playing catch up a bone knight runs up and then stumbles falling at Setsuna's feet. "Up on your feet soldier your embarrassing me. We need to get our game face on." Looking at the big booming one Setsuna adds, " Don't do this or your going to be spending time in timeout. "

Schneider is out hunting triffids, and while he's got no knowledge of nature or anything like that, which might help him tracking or finding the triffid we're after, that's not why he's been brought along. He volunteered. Seems he's got a new spell to try out, and that's got him in a scrappy mood. But our hunt, it seems, is being interrupted and now the hunters are the hunted. Still, he's got a new spell, and targets, the details are entirely flexible.

Of course you don't just drop /Megadeath/ on people right out of the blue, it requires a bit of, ahem, warm up. Warm up, in Dark Schneider's case, is some other fire spell, just to get things started. He considers his repertoire of fire spells, selecting one to use that suits his mood. "Ah, let's see," he says as the ambush is revealed, "I know. This is going to hurt sooooo bad." He seems quite pleased to tell the Palace Landers that.

Miho has been a mix of concerned afraida and fire breathing angry as of late. She thought a nice hunter job would settle her nerves and things go right to hell in short order. There are Palce Landers here.

"Kneel? Become a mind controlled slave? Go shove your weapon up your arse business end first!"

Miho is quite unhappy and she's looking ready to spit fire. Oh look there's is an army she take a deep breath. 5R
"Right, we need to deal with this."

Her tail also goes ram rod straight...Miho is 20 pounds of fury in a five pound bag.

    The tall man doesn't respond to the taunts however the smaller person with the hanko is less reserved. "You'll not bring madness and death back to the Palace Lands, your corruption will be contained before it can spread, if we have to kill you all until you submit, or if you choose the path of peace. That is on you." The voice is somewhat rough and a bit husky, perhaps a deeper woman's voice, or the child of a young teen just becoming a man.

    Those familiar with the King Bun's will notice the advanced warning of its charge, like a freight train barrelling through the clearing. The crab thing however takes a more methodical approach walking with a slow grace into battle before sweeping in with it's massive weapon.

    Setsuna watches the bun and then looks at the loud mouth as an aura of darkness wraps around him. "Honey you haven't even seen corrup..." The bun sucker punches him before he can move out of the way and he goes sliding across the field and stands up slowly rubbing his jaw. " Well it looks like I will be killing the king of bun once again. This time instead of your armor I am going to take a giant rabbit's foot home. " With a hand motion and a few sound effects that go 'swish swish' the bone knight charges forward. The skeletons sword glows with dark energy,it's awesome power is cursed and tainted and the knight strikes out with it, wrathful and angry and with all its power as if the knight intended to shatter the armor.

Schneider picks his target, the King Bun, he looks like the tougest target, and that suits Schneider, he's here specifically to test out his spells. The attack charge of the King Bun doesn't even come close to him, it's like he had advance warning of where it would be so he could be somewhere else. That's a side effect of his peko riding hat, which looks entirely strange with his otherwise ornate and fanciful coat and outfit.

On the othe hand, he's warming up, so he'll hurl a warm-up spell at the King Bun. "Slayer-Slayer Baromono Lightning of Darkness," he chants, then shouts, "Marubolt!"

A shockwave of magical energy erupts from his fingertips and slams hard into that Bun, earthing it's not inconsiderable energy and costing the monster a big stack of HP. "Juuuuust getting started," he says with a menacing smirk.

    The soldiers are ... distasteful. But the monsters are the greater threat... for the moment. Unlike Kotono, Miyako is not primarily a melee fighter, though she can if she must. But she prefers to stand back and cast, and so she does. Maintaining her stealth, she inscribes her runes in black light upon a tree-trunk, smirking as she anticipates the result.

    The storm of ice-needles that follows from it covers a wide area, mostly aimed at the crab-monster. The needles are small but sharp, and a large number find the joints in the crab's armor, plunging into the softer flesh beneath.

    The Spriggan has, however, slightly miscalculated. When she stepped out from behind the tree to unleash her blast, she neglected to take into account one thing: ricochets. The spikes of dark-reinforced ice are too tough to simply shatter when they hit the crab's armor, and instead the glance off to strike who-knows-what - enemy soldiers, or even friendlies, or even rebound back the way they came. A hastily-raised arm protects her face from the flying needles, but it isn't enough to keep her HP bar from veering towards the yellow.

    It also disrupts her invisibility spell. At least she's still in the shadows, where it's hard to see her.

Miyako may not be the best at evasion, but she does her best. She'll get there with time.

As for Kotono, the girl spins out of the way like it's a literal reflex for her. The girl barely touches the ground with her feet when she does a leaping sideways cartwheel, making sure she doesn't actually leave herself vulnerable for a second attack, even if there's not one planned.

Once the girl goes down into a crouched position, she sizes up the giant crab and makes a few mental notes before going in with a swift slash of her blades. "Anyone for crab salad afterward?" Kotono calls out.

Miho looks to the tall man for a moment.

"Peace at the point of a weapon is no peace."

She'll draw her Katana and will charge in letting out a battle cry as she does so. The tiny little smith goes charging in and will launch into a chain of strikes with her blade as she tries to keep opn the move. She does not know what the enemy is able to do so she does not want to sit still and find out!

    The King Bun barrels through smashing into Setsuna and spinning him away, but it isn't the most defensive of thinkers and so the untrampled Skeleton Knight is able to slash into the beast with it's cursed blade. The beast barrels past Schneider and is easy pickings for the lightning strike, the combined attack causing its HP bar to tick down, the red wireframe showing through in the wake of the attacks.

    The great crab man with its stone carapace has some agility and speed, but the small figures darting in and out and the rain of ice needles chips away at its health bar as well, though it's armor serves it well in reflecting damage onto Miyako.

    The voice of the smaller figure rings out "Better the shackle that brings peace, than a freedom to the tyranny of those who see the weak as nothing but pawns, expendable resources. We've lived that hell, and we'll not see its return in you."

    The massive bun slows its charge in order to make a turn and come back building up speed, but it's nothing compared to the massive leap that got it started before and it's much easier to avoid or defend against. The stone crab however shows it has more thought and skill than the Bun's simplistic but powerful attack patterns. Its weapon sweeps through complex patterns trying to take advantage of its massive strength and long reach.

Schneider flips up a magic shield to ward off the king bun's magic weapon. It's complex, but if it can't get to Schneider, the complexity is for naught. That's why shields are better than parries. Magic shield for the win, though that was such a low powered one, it hardly deserves the name.

As the King Bun goes past again, he casts, "Crimson blood, Slaying summoning of Graves, Zul-art Jodorti, Adaryl!" He gestures, then incants, "DEF LEPPARD" and flames consume the King Bun, sapping more HP with a nicely satisfying crackle.

    Setsuna looks at the bun as it turns and charges as he pulls from the ground the bones of those who have fallen to the bun. " Dust to Dust and Ashes to Ashes return now to Bone and Blade." His spell goes off as a trio of skeleton minions rise up and one instantly shatters taking the bun's hit for Setsuna. On the other hand now there are two skeleton minions and a skeleton knight attacking the Bun head on, each one literally trying to pry off the armor for a weak point. Looking over at the booming one, "So do wwe get a name for our so called would be killer."

Sometimes, even the best of the best make mistakes.

Kotono attempts to go in with a surprise attack with her blades, but something isn't right.

Her timing is off, and not only does she fail to land her attack...

...but she also gets caught by the crab enemy. She gets knocked back a little, nearly dropping her blades. "That was embarassing..."

Miho says "Better Dangerous Liberty, I will give the Americans that."

Miho is dealing with the crab man and it's quite a nasty foe.

"You are going to bring ruin to the Palace Lands doing this."

Miho attempts to restain herself. Well her words at the leas he attempt to use protect to save herself doesn't work the barrier shatters and she's nailed pretty badly.

She doesn't however give up she's looking mand she takes a deep breath and then comes the torrent of flames. How does a Salamander so small breath so much /fire/?

    Frustrated by the result of her spell, despite the injury done to her target, Miyako leaves her cover behind to charge into melee. She draws a pair of slender, curved daggers, the blades blazing with ebon fire, and with a flick of her wings she leaps into the air, landing atop the crap to plunge them into its back. The bespelled blades rip through its armor easily, cutting much deeper (if not as widely spread) than the ice needles.

    Her impulsive stunt is not without its consequences, however. The complex swaying of the crab's body as it swings its weapon does not bring the weapon anywhere near her, but it makes for quite precarious footing. A particularly abrupt movement, timed most unfortunately with the exact moment she yanks her blades free of its shell, sends her tumbling through the air to a rough landing dangerously close to the Palace Landers. She blinks and looks up at them.

    "Oh, hello there," she says, almost jokingly. "Lovely day, isn't it?" She sits up and shrugs. "But I do have to say, your argument has some rather particular holes in it. The only one treating people as expendable here is -you-." And then a trio of identical spriggans spring to their feet in her place, each racing off in a different direction, each pursued by the soldiers' own assaults.

    By the time they vanish into the shadows of the trees - a most dangerous place indeed to pursue a Spriggan - yet more crimson slashes have marked their bodies, and her HP bar has dipped deeply into the yellow.

    She's going to regret that in the morning.

    Between Setsuna's skeletons and Shneider's fire Raile finds himself at half health, and the bun looks confused as no little golden bun comes out to heal it. The beast's pattern is a bit off since the magical healing buns are part of its natural ecology and not part of the control that the Crowned seems to have over it. The great crab monster has taken significant damage as well, however it has managed to dish out some wounds in return.

    The smaller figure responds "Perhaps you're not all barbarians? I am Haechi, loyal servant to king Potimas Harrifenas and protector of this wretched world in which princess Filimøs Harrifenas finds herself living. Perhaps you will share your name, unlike those who have mocked honor and formality?"

    Looking close one might establish that the small figure is a woman and not an older boy as she bows formally, though the fight only seems to pause for the shortest of moments, just time for an introduction before the beasts charge back in to wreak havoc once more. The bun charging in while the crab man brings his weapon to bear. As one might expect Raile finding himself under half health without getting healed, drops his armor plates, his speed increasing and that crown of stone being used as a battering ram.

Kotono's slipped up once again, and even though she's tried, the crab caught her once again. The Spriggan lands unevenly and sighs as she does so, realizing her attempt at landing a diving attack failed. Then she looks up at the crab and smiles nervously.

"About that bit about having crab salad... I was just kidding, OK?" She chuckles nervously, then decides not to wait for an answer.

Even though she's in the yellow, Kotono manages to activate her runes to give her a speed boost as she dashes out of the area. "We'll catch up later, Miyako!" She calls out as she runs away.

    The spriggan - illusory or real? - that remains where Miyako had landed looks up at Haechi, and smiles slightly. "Miyako Blacklily, neighbor. I'd say 'at your service', but I'd rather not be, even if it's properly polite to say it. I must say I'm glad to find that I'm not the only one who prefers to talk before stabbing." Even if it's only a -prelude- to stabbing. Is the real Miyako sneaking up behind Haechi?

    No, she's still in the treeline, lifting her voice in song, or something resembling music at least. A crescendo of notes that coalesces into a sphere of shadow around the now-unarmored Bun's head, eliciting a shriek of pain from the monster.

    "I will, however, say it's a pleasure to meet you," the shadow-clone continues. "I wouldn't mind the chance to sit down and discuss the matter over a nice cup of tea sometime. Or juice, beer, whatever floats your taste buds." The shadow-clone mirrors Miyako's own actions as she lifts her hand to her menu, firing off a 'friend' invitation to the Palace-Lander. "I know a guy who makes a pretty good bowl of ramen."

    She pauses then, the clone lifting her hand to wave to Kotono. "I'll catch you up in Green," she calls to her partner, before turning her attention back to her conversant.

    The real Miyako is, perhaps, fortunate to have the cover of the trees and more importantly a large warrior between her and the main battlefield, given all the weapons and spells and skills flying about.

Schneider scowls at the Palace Lander for chatting in the middle of a fight. "You're in another man's country trying to kill him, unprovoked." He conjures a magical shield as the king bun counterattacks, and continues, "This is not the time for introductions. If anyone's mocking honor, it's you who's lost track of honor, ambushing adventurers because your fighting skills are not up to the task." Which is just asking for his turn of good fortune to end, but it had to be said.

Seeing Miyako low on HP and about to get nailed again, he body-checks her out of the path of the hit, grimacing as his own HP drops as predicted. "Get out of here, we'll get this," he tells her, though that's a bold prediction.

He casts, "Tai-to-ro! Blow this enemy away! ...... Anthem!" and hurls another olt of magical fire at the King Bun, every little bit helps. It'd take a great deal of luck to continue like this, but luck is his main skill. Luck and Fire. Luck and Fire are his main skills. Luck, Fire, and a fanatical devotion to no wait, that's the Spanish Inquisition.

    Setsuna really had not remembered that when the bun lost it's armor it got a serious speed boost so out of no where Setsuna is knocked down and slides across the ground with a groan of pain. Taking a deep breath he stands up and looks at his health for a moment before he bats it away. "Ok you stupid bun I..." Trailing off as he sees everyone swarming the rabbit he turns back to look at the crab, "Fine I will kill the crab then." Drawing his dagger he charges in and slashes it as it's movements slow. This would all be in preperation for something bigger coming up.

The assaults keep comming the Palace Lander does not let up. Even was she has green wind surge over her body.

"ANCHOR HOWL!"

She gets crunched her body shows a number of red wireframe all over it her hp's in the red and she grits her teeth. She'll keep her Katana ready as she channels one last attack to try and carve her way to freedom.

"FORGE'S FURY!"

Her weapon bursts into flames and she launches several large powerful strikes in short order.

    The bun charging around fast and furious takes another major ding to its HP bar. The beast turns to charge through the Adventurers again. The Basalt Crab takes its own hit and in the end it is down to Setsuna and Schneider trying to make things work out. The small woman with the hanko looks to Schneider. "We do not come unprovoked, you chose to spread your plague to our lands and while we may not have been able to keep you away, you can be civilized and brought to the reasoned path."

    She stands tall (or as tall as she can manage) "Finish this." she calls out "Hyeonmuam Ge, The Mountain Falls!" the large crab monster growing even more stone as it's weapon slams great divots in the ground with any miss. She turns her attention to the shadow clone "Perhaps, though we will need to find neutral ground, and I will tell you of the horrors and the reasoned path that ended them so that you may help us bring peace in the end."

    Setsuna sees the giant stone crab as it rears back and the claws come at him before he disappaers from sight appearing behind the Bun King with fire in his hand. "Schneider, it appears that it will be down to scale to finish this." With the words dropped he launches the fire at the bun king and then looks at Schneider, "So your call here. Do we finish it off or do we just take the exit and leave this ugly crab thing to terrorize more people."

Schneider acks as the King Bun comes at him with renewed fury. He must be feeling the desperation! Schneider whips his cape around, the glittering scales shimmering as the attack is absorbed, though Schneider is a bit winded at the effort. That was his other big defense, hopefully this will conclude soon, or he'll be here all night! And he has no idea what to do at night in the jungle, with no convenience stores to get food from. "/I/ didn't go to your stupid Palace Land, so you coming here trying to kill me counts as a crime against /me/. If you don't like Yamato people in the Palace Lands, you could've just -said- so. That's your problem, too quick to jump to conclusions, too slow to jump out of Ayy-ohh-Eeee."

To Setsuna, he says, singing well off-key "Oh when the Scale ... comes marching in ..." He snorts at bailing, "I'm not going /anywhere/."

With the aim of getting this done faster, he'll whip out the big guns, casting his new spell.

"Deep Doomsday," he chants. "To the spirits of land and air, bound by the pact, fulfill your obligation now." A deep breath, and his arm sweeps out to encompass the area as he shouts, "Megadeath!"

Unfortunately, the desperate defense left him off balance, and Area of Effect is off center. It still catches the King Bun, though, in the terrible conflagration. It's /really/ a nasty spell, if it's on target. But Schneider is still froggy, too. He hasn't given up, though it looks like he's not standing alone yet, against the remaining Palace Lander. "You want to get out of this alive, this is your last chance. I'm a hybrid caster, I've got more mana than you can shake a stick at, and spells until next week." Not /big/ spells. He's only got Exodus left, of the big spells. But he's got a crapton of low-level spells like Anthem that seem plenty effective against these guys.

    Whilst Miyako picks her silent way through the woods, the shadow-clone she left behind nods to Haechi and her smile widens a bit. "If we can agree on what constitutes neutral territory," she says, "Then I have no objections."

    She pauses briefly while explosions roll across the field and Schneider gloats.

    The clone kips to her feet and bows formally, right fist cupped in left hand. "I'll be in touch. Let's both try to avoid ending up fighting before then, hm?"

    With a puff of smoke, the clone vanishes, all that remains is a snatch of song: "And the band played Waltzing Matilda / As we stopped, to bury our slain / And we buried ours / And the Turks buried theirs / Then it started all over again...."

Miho has just taken too much of a beating she knows if she falls here she'll be one step closer to becoming a lander or worse. She will seek to withdraw before she's taken out. She cagches what they enemyu is saying and she'll get the hell out of dodge running as fast as her legs can carry her. Though her tail is not between her legs.

    Haechi bows to the departing Miyako. However, the battle is still engaged and her attention returns to the battle just as quickly as it departed. However Raile is whipped out in a blast of fire and white pixelization that drifts into the sky. Hyeonmuam Ge the crab monster turns its attention to the warriors who have destroyed it's support. However the battlefield is almost quit at this point. Few remain to challenge it's might.

    Haechi bows to the departing Miyako. However, the battle is still engaged and her attention returns to the battle just as quickly as it departed. However Raile is whipped out in a blast of fire and white pixelization that drifts into the sky. Hyeonmuam Ge the crab monster turns its attention to the warriors who have destroyed it's support. However the battlefield is almost quit at this point. Few remain to challenge it's might.

Schneider throws up another shield as the crab monster turns on him, and it's barely effective. The crab almost gets through, but that affords him time to dash clear and set himself. The crab's not in good shape, so hopefully one last effort will win this. "So," he says to Setsuna, "Let's end this in a very Scaley way?"

Chuckling, he chants darkly, "Brain, Brain dead. Obey your blood oath, come forth from the land of Avalon." Dark forces move, the sorcery inherent in the spell add a sinister feeling as the energy gathers. "Fire of Gehenna, become a fiery blast and burn everything around us!"

Finally, he points and shouts, "EXODUS!"

The explosion's not as big as his Megadeath was, but if it's small, it's super /intense/, burning white-hot, consuming, melting HP like snow on a frying pan, with the burner turned up full.

    Setsuna watches the bun turn to pixelated ash as he wipes his lip of the imaginary blood that isn't there and turns to face the crab, "Oh when the scale goes marching in." Fortunately for Setsuna the sign of scale is all around him as his magic reaches out and pulls the fire into him forming another fire ball. Then it becomes corrupted it turns black and purple. Watching Schneiders fire begin to eat away at the crab he grins, " When the scale goes marching in all that is left is ash." He spreads his arms scattering his dark flame into Schneiders as all the flames become corrupted and seem to only spread, never dying out as Setsuna just watches with a grin. "There is only one monster wrangler on this island." He states as he stands there watching the fire burn.

    As the HP burns away Haechi falls to the all to known complaint of any primary Summoner class? shared HP. Even as Hyeonmuam Ge falls, so does his mistress the pair pixelating away together, the loss of their leader and monsters she wielded leads to a retreat by the soldiers. However it is not a rout the soldiers could likely carry the field however the large man who acted as the voice at the beginning gives a bow. It seems that the ambush and the battle ? the soldiers were simply there to contain the fight and not participate in it.

    Setsuna can feel the weariness that comes with a low hp bar but grits his teeth and is ready to keep going as he looks at the soldiers and they walk away. With a stern look he just watches for a moment until they are gone, probably not even out of earshot before he moves over to a tree and collapses. " Oh damn that was close. Do you think the fact I am tasting copper is a good sign?" Digging through his inventory he frowns, " Nope not a potion even." Looking over at the bone knight, " HEy bonehead come over here and help me walk to the nearest town." With his helpful skeleton he would limp wherever he needed to go.

Schneider peers at Setsuna for a moment, but he's watching the soldiers back down. "Close," he agrees. But as to the soldiers, he guesses, "I think they're just smarter than their boss. They didn't want a free trip back to their church in the Palace Lands." Or, if they were Landers, a free discorporation into pixels of their choice, courtesy of Scale Emblem.

As to Setsuna tasting copper, he says, "It's blood, don't worry. I've had worse. Took a dude's head right into my lip, he was watching the ball and didn't see I'd moved until it was too late." He's out of heal potions, himself, he finds after checking in his inventory, but he'll offer Setsuna a shoulder so they can get back. "Looks like we'll be hitting the Triffids another day."