Dinner and a Marine

It wasn't hard to figure out where to look for Shiruba. The first place she went upon returning from the final training montage with the old panda was Hifumi's resturant, to order the biggest dinner she could off the menu. After sending one last takeout order of bao buns and booze to Li Ho as a thank you, that is. Even if she never actually asked for the help in the first place, it doesn't mean she didn't appreciate it. But now she was just sitting down with her own table of assorted noodle dishes and rice cakes and pot stickers to enjoy having finished all that.

Kaydon had been looking for Shiruba. But he knew she was out working on training, just like Arashi had been. He wasn't MAD, per say...He had his own proverbial irons in the fire, but there was a war going on that at least required some focus. And not just individual.

That's why he'd gone and found Miho in order to figure out where the ancient forge was, so he could make better weapons. For now though, he needed to talk to Shiruba about the war.

Sight unseen for a little over a month now, and probably since the dawn of the whole war with the Palace Lands, a refreshed and renewed Arashi wanders past the door and into Isekai for some really. good. eats. Cause after all that time in the desert? It was desperately needed. The sight of some familiar faces is just a bonus.

Shiruba's friends certainly know her well enough to find her before word even gets out she's back in Dun Loireag. Then again, being Guild Leader she can't really stay out of attention for long anyways. But she was just stuffing another helping of pot sticker and noodles in her mouth, so the most she can do in greeting is raise a hand and wave. She's polite enough to not try and talk with her mouth full, at least.

Kaydon moves over to Shiruba's table and has a seat, "You know I can always see where you are on my friend's list." He says, as he leans on the table and looks across at her, "Hope the training went well, Shiruba. But we have things to talk about." He hates having to be totally serious but sometimes the situation calls for it.

Huh. Well. Kaydon sounds like he's all business right now. May as well head over and see what's going on. That's why there's a third at the table in fairly short order. Wave. "Sounds like everyone's been training."

Shiruba lets out a soft sigh. "I know, I know. I've been off doing things and the war has dragged on as well." She hasn't been entirely out of touch with things at least. Just not out on the forefront. "But it had to be done. My combat skills as they were weren't enough. I've mainly been a dungeon explorer and fighting monsters, you know. Fighting other players is an entirely different matter I was... less prepared for." She shakes her head. "But I'm sure you're not here to talk to me about my limitations I'm trying to overcome."

"I understand why you and Arashi and others have been busy." He says, as he nods hello to Arashi when she sits down, "But I also understand there's supposed to be a war council between the Alliances soon. And we need to go into it with a solid game plan. Because frankly, New World is lagging behind.." He looks to Arashi for a second, "And Silver Sword is supposed to be the combat arm of New World."

A Lzard is hungry from working the forge. she trots in tail swishing and didn't expect to see folks other than the regulars today.

"Welcome to land wars in Fantasy Asia."

Miho say as she moves to sit fdown with the small group as her tail wraps about whatever is convient for it. "Aye, The Palace Lands is doing what their earth counterpart does massed numbers. So we need to turn that into a flaw, hit their logistics and supplies."

"I've been noticed about the meeting, yes. Also that they're likely to march on Eas just for being Adventurer formed, much like they did Shibuya." Shiruba replies with a nod. "Hello Miho. You look like you've been busy too." Then turns her attention back to Kaydon. Flicks some bangs out of her face with the butt end of her chopsticks. "I know I kept giving you crap for wanting to reinvent guns and stuff Kaydon... And part of that is because I don't want to think about what would happen if they somehow managed to get their hands on that information as well. But -besides- that you're our local actual soldier. You and Xander. So if you have some good advice now would be the time for it."

"To be honest, I'm well outside the loop on off of this. I know Shibuya was taken but beyond that? I'm pretty clueless. Being out in the middle of a desert for the majority of a month kind of does that.." Arashi points out, getting up to ask for some food before coming back. "A little info would be helpful."

"I understand the concern." Kaydon says, "But I doubt we'll be able to keep that genie in the bottle forever. And once it's out, it's out for good. I just wanted to help us get ahead of it." Kaydon replies, "As far as dealing with the Palace Lands goes, well.." He looks at Arashi for a second, "They have somehow figured out how to turn the Root Town guardians hostile to us. That's the latest major development."

Shiruba mutters under her breath. "And we have no idea how they managed to do that, either." She picks at the plate of noodles with her chopsticks, but with the direction of conversation she doesn't have a moment to actually eat much than a few nibbles between comments. "We don't even know how the Guardians are generated in the first place, other than in response to a threat..." She gets some noodles wrapped around one of her chopsticks. "If you have anything you want me to bring up at the meeting, let me know."

"On an unrelated topic, I've come across some new Lore involving Gnolls I should tell you sometime. Specifically, those ones that appeared to be demon worshippers," she adds before stuffing the noodles in her mouth.

Miho tilts her head. "The american server had steam guns if I heard right so there are already Guns in this world anyhow." She tilts her head a little bit at this. "Demon worshiping Gnolls hummm sounds like some stories I heard when I was in the American midwest." She smitks a bit tail swishing. "As for that? We need to figure out how they got past the town's defences..."

"Oh... Nice. That's just -fantastic-." Grunt. Yes Arashi was being sarcastic. Turning GUARDIANS? Good thing she didn't go at Daiyu when she was taking a little break from training not too long ago. "So we're being invaded, they can take over our towns, and I heard something is rampaging in Aincrad on top of everything else. ... Fun flippin times.."

"I'd love to know more about the Gnolls, especially that one clan with Haggar." Kaydon replies, "As far as my plans go, our top priority needs to be figuring out how they over took the Guardians and either reversing it or turning it against them. I would love nothing more than to go to one of their towns and turn their Guardians against them."

Kaydon rubs his muzzle for a second, "If we know they're going to march on Eas, we should set it up with as many defenses as we can. I know that Scale is working on a magical land mine and also black powder. If I can get my hands on those, I can set up something that'll give them quite the surprise when they come in."

"Recently Robert, Ayame and myself were able to track down one of the other tribes. The ones that used dark magic and such. I was able to use my Loremaster ability on the summoning circle... Turns out they really -are- demon worshippers. More accurately, a demonic 'new' gnoll god that provokes the use of magic and fel powers rather than their typical pack tactics, like those under Haggar typically do." That gets a huff out of her. "And I saw things I know I've seen related details about in Estelle's library. But -of course- I can't cross reference that right now."

Then tilts her head. "Something rampaging around the tower?... though there's been no Waves, so at least they didn't try to go for another Boss admist this chaos."

The warhorse gives a shurg, "Just something I heard along the way, don't really know anything else besides that. Hopefully Scale will handle it, but if this fight is going as hard as it sounds, we could really use them on our side instead of being distracted over there. ... As for Eas, I had a little help from Wake while I was out in the desert so... wouldn't mind repaying that favor."

"From my understanding Scale has called off all forward progress while they deal with whatever has gotten loose on one of the lower floors. I guess it nearly wiped out one of their raid parties?" Kaydon says, "At least that's what the rumor mill says. Gotta be strong if it's able to take them down."

"But that's their problem until it escapes the tower...That being said, they can't put their full focus on the war if they're defending their stuff. So maybe we can offer some assistance on that front. Whatever it takes to get them in the game." He rubs the bridge of his nose as he thinks, "What else. Lets see. At this point we have to assume they may have found a way to re-bind themselves in Mac Anu. I mean if they can violate the Guardians programming they can probably do other things we can't."

Miho get her order in and she looks to Shiruba for a moment "That's a heck of a thing to be sure. Wake isn't a bad sort frrom what I know of her." She looks over. "I say go for traps where you can. Or try to hit the Palace Landers from the rear go after their supply train."

Shiruba whistles softly. "That's pretty dangerous... and you're right. Divided fronts, that might I know at least from my historical studies." She rests a hand thoughtfully against her cheek. "Almost -too- coincidental that something else would occur to keep their attention in the Tower..."

Shiruba sighs. There's always more questions and fewer answers than before. "Okay... well I think we can all agree that we need more actual strategy. Kaydon, you're the one with the actual experience here, I'll leave that to you... With the only caveat being at least try to avoid anything that would make us no better than the enemy, or they've just won for making us be the monsters they see us as." The wolfgirl scoots back her seat to get up, and claim the tray of the remainder of her dinner. "I am going to go to my room, finish eating, and get the first good long sleep I've had in the last couple of weeks. Approach the rest of these matters with a fresh mind. But I shouldn't be wandering off on any long sourjorns for a while, at least. You all take care."

Miho thinks for a moment "I hate to say this but Merek might be able to pull how they did all that or hell it might pull the mental warping out."