Rumbling in the Dukedom

     The two-fold quest had been given, investigate the area around Susaki to see if adventurers could figure out the source of the earthquakes and mysteriously destroyed trees. Wild rumors had been going around, spread by panicked woodcutters that had been forced away from their camps in the forest where they did their logging and processing of the wood.

     Beyond the occasional tremor though, things had been somewhat uneventful on the way to the location where supposedly trees had been felled in a suspiciously clean way, signs of recently-moved logging camps still littering the area, disturbed rectangles in grass from prolonged placements of tents, firepits that had been left up for when they next inhabited the area, and once or twice the party had even stumbled on (quite literally) a tool that had been lost in the process of moving the logging camp, that had likely fallen off of a cart or simply gotten lost in the grass.

     A relatively cool day with heavy cloud cover, it was a bit humid in the air with a pleasant breeze in the clearing. Now it was just up to the adventurers to gather at this meeting spot in this pleasant, if unnatural clearing. Luckily there's plenty of stumps from the logging efforts for people to use as a seat.

Schneider sits down on a tree stump, looksing around with inexpert eyes to see what may be seen. No investigator or analyst, he does have one tool that may serve to help track down this mysterious event's source. Maybe. "A Rune Knight," he will explain, "is sensitive to the Law of Alba." And so he will focus that sense, in hopes he can find something amiss. Or at least a good direction to go to find what we seek.

Miho had picked up the quest, she'd needed to get out of her forge. So here she was and it didn't hurt to help the people of the land out either with something like this. She has some experiance with law in watching others but something has her on edge she's looking about there just a gut feeling she's got about this.

"I don't like this Schnedier..."

     As Schneider focuses his senses towards any violations of the Law of Alba... he... does not really actually seem to sense any violations of the law in the immediate area, even around those stumps that are cut mysteriously cleanly. Perhaps it truly /was/ an adventurer who had cut down the large tree that had been pointed out on the map as a location which the loggers couldn't recall cutting? Or just something that does not violate the law. Beyond, of course, the fact that it was technically 'illegally' cut down, but that doesn't really trip the law so much as just is a thought that tugs at the corner of his mind that this is an ancient tree that would normally have been protected by the local government.
     A tremor rumbles through the area as Schneider muses on this, the distant sound of dirt and rock shifting audible in the distance. Were the earthquakes causing rockslides in some of the more hilly sections in the area?
     Much like Schneider, Miho gets the sense that this tree should /not/ have been cut down, but otherwise the Law of Alba has not been violated, though her senses are much less refined, so there is a little bit of questioning as she muses on that. As they keened their senses, they did start... to feel... something? Was the wind growing stronger? Maybe just the weather taking a turn for the worse, though it /is/ rather sudden for it to have done so. Much too fast for what one would expect, there's another rumble, as well. As the pair train their eyes to the area, off in the distance, a tree begins to fall.

The Doctor of Tolbana is also present, albeit from behind a mug of coffee. It seems he's been imbibing a little more than usual lately. "Hmmm. Lemme take a look at that stump. I might be able to figure /something/ out," he muses, taking a few steps closer to where the great tree had been felled. He inspects the way the wood had been cut with a careful eye, as if trying to figure out /what/ may have made the slice.

...But more importantly, he moves towards one of the newly planted trees and gently touches its trunk. "Tell me what happened to the great one, to the trees that have not been felled by the people of the land."

Schneider sighs as his senses unwind, and are slowly drawn back. "It seems that whatever cut these trees down, at least it wasn't through some gamebreaking juju," he comments to Miho. That really doesn't rule out a lot, but normal monsters can be dealth with or, in the last ditch, run from, where as the gamebreaking things that violate /that/ Law, tend to be -really bad news-.

He will stand up on the tree stump for the slightly better view, and he points to where, off in the distance, a tree is falling. "There," he calls, and will rush in that direction. Carefully, but quickly.

Miho humms as she looks about at this. "Who or whatever did it did replant but this one shouldn't be gone." She says tail swishing as he gives a look over to Schneider. Then to Prophylaxis for a moment more.

She stands back to let the doctor do his thing.

"Whoever did it, did replant it means they intend to be back some day or not total jackasses." She'll kneel down and look for signs of what might have been here after all she has some skill at hunting...

     As the moonlight flower's ability is activated, the tree responds to Prophylaxis through the Relic's power. "<...Surprise. Sharp. Giant? Feet. Many feet, too many. Too few? Tap-tap-tap. Like little feet but not.>" The tree falls silent after that. Either unable to help further, or that was the only thing of interest that it sensed in the area with regards to the question.
     As Schneider starts to run in the direction of the falling tree, the wind begins to pick up harder, whistling through the treetops and possibly causing his footing to grow unsteady if he isn't paying attention when the wind picks up. The sound of ... paws... and somthing... scraping? In the distance. Another tree begins to fall. The movement in the distance grows louder, the howl of wind mixed in with a sharp, shrill screech, almost... rodent-like?
     Miho, meanwhile, doesn't even have to use too much of her hunting skill to notice something. There are scrapes that look almost like giant holes in the ground, signs of something big, two large claws digging small trenches in the ground wherever that thing went. There's no way that someone could not notice something that would make that big of a mark, right?
     As Schneider rushes, the sounds of paws and scraping grows louder, hissing that doesn't sound right for a cat audible in the distance as it grows closer. Movement now growing visible deeper in the forest. Something running in their direction. Something with glowing, yellow eyes.

Schneider slows down his run as the footing grows unsteady, and anyhow, outrunning his small party sounds like a spectacularly bad plan. Following the sound of falling trees at a more sedate pace, one that lets him keep his feet, he will approach the scene much more warily, and not to put too fine a point on it, with a big Boom ready to go. Fire spells might be terrible in the woods, but it's likely that his booms with burst once and fade, rather than burning the forest down. On the other hand ... paws and scraping? It's not giant beavers, is it? With glowing yellow eyes? ID target first, then, incinerate it. Do not vaporize based on sounds alone. First rule of hunting: identify your target as a target -first-, so he's squinting towards those glowing eyes.

Miho is kneeling down looking over the area for a long moment, there's almost a glow from her eye's liminal rings. She's seen tracks like that almost but they should never be /this big/ at least in the old world but here? Oh it's very likely she takes note.

"Looks like some kind of insect was here and ... that noise? Some sort of Dire Weasel or Mink."

She rises up now.

"What did you get and where is the lord of Metal...."

She sees hism rushing. Oh here we go!

"Lots of little feet. An insect..." Prophylaxis strokes his chin, gears turning in his head. "Maybe some kind of dire leafcutter ant...? If this is abnormal monster behavior, then... I can only hope it isn't Entoma's doing again. But I had thought she was off in Westelande."

Or maybe he should expect them to travel around more often? It's not as though they're /required/ to stay in one place. They don't belong to kingdoms, after all. So of course it makes sense that they'd be able to migrate.

He glances up at the sound of trouble and makes to follow after dumping a half-flask of water at the tree's roots in repayment for its assistance. If Schneider's found something dangerous, he might need aid...!

     Squinting towards the yellow, glowing eyes finds Schneider looking face to face with a giant monster weasel, a Kamaitachi. The Identification of the Kamaitachi gives the following information: Chiasa no Itachi: The Weasel of a Thousand Mornings. Sprouting from its forelegs is a pair of long scythes, and as it hisses and screeches, the wind in the area kicks up. The thing is... it doesn't seem to be cutting the trees in its path, instead darting around them.
     Where /is/ the lord of metal. ... Who is the lord of metal? Why would the lord of metal be here? It's hard to know! There is, however, a wind monster currently charging towards you, though it... doesn't seem to be focused on the party, and in the distance there is still the soft sound of scraping and scratching in the distance. And another tree falls. Another rumble of the ground trembling beneath their feet.
     Yeah, Napellus is off in westlande! And the antboat thing got kind of dismantled when it was floating before, and there'd been no other rumors of that happening since then, so likely it had been nipped in the bud... at least for now!
     On the other hand, there was now an angry giant weasel. And they were in its path. When it registers that there were adventurers in front of it, the monster gave a loud screech, sliding to a stop short of trampling Schneider, looking around wildly with sharp teeth bared, hisses escaping its mouth. It breathes in a moment, before exhaling, gusts of wind being blown towards the adventurers, threatening to simply blow them away!

Miho sees the Lord of Metala aka Scheinder going in first and she'll follow him up. She triggers a defence ability causing a barrier to provide her protectionm from the wind, she's got her Nagtina out in short order charting at the thing and leaping to strike at it.

Schneider holds his ground, face to face with a maddened giant weasel, and him with no way to reliably determine of it's corrupted somehow, or just the normal sort of giant monster than sometimes happens in Yamato! Luckily, this is the Exploder Wizard, and he has the right spell for any occasion. Any occasion that requires Fire, anyhow.

"Spirits of sorcery, fangs of vengance, pinions of sinew and steely resolve," he chants. "Once bitten! Great White!" The fire that engulfs the weasel is a purifying fire, to be sure. But first and foremost, it's FIRE, and when it's fire, Schneider's all business.

"Mm, a monster. That thing certainly has the scythes to cut down trees this big," Prophylaxis squints at the panicking beast. A blast of wind threatens to knock him back, but he holds fast by literally freezing himself in place. A bulwark of solid ice protects him from the incoming air.

"Though it doesn't match the description I was given. This weasel has a normal quantity of limbs, and is far too big to have 'lots of little legs,'" The doctor concludes, tapping his staff against the ground at his feet. A veritable rat's nest of vines and roots suddenly erupt from under the beast, tangling its limbs and twining around its neck to hold it in place. "I think this is probably a local. Maybe one that's been disturbed by what's been happening here? Hmm..."

"Well, we should probably clean it up before it hurts anyone, regardless."

     The defense ability allows Miho to keep her footing against the kamaitachi! And then she charges, leaping towards the Kamaitachi... her naginata striking against its fur and... finding no purchase, as wind turns it away, and Chiasa simply darts forward towards Miho, attempting to effectively body-check her away from it as it runs towards Schneider!

     Which distracts it enough that it doesn't have much of a chance to attempt to avoid that engulfing, purifying fire! Another angry screech comes from the weasel, this one more pained than before as it charges forward, the fire not stopping it as it darts past Schneider, those scythes slicing towards his side!
     Roots erupt below the kamaitachi's legs, wrapping around them and causing it to stop in place briefly, pulling at the vines and roots several times. Seemingly getting more, and more panicked as its movement is restructed further, until a sudden burst of scything winds is shot out from the kamaitachi, sharp blades of wind slicing out from it in all directions to work on freeing itself, several of the nearby trees getting gouged, and possibly the now-in-front-of-it Prophylaxis. Once it's freed itself... it continues to move forward, seemingly intent to get behind Prophylaxis, and thus the party!

Miho will call out a shie bring up another defence art to defend herself with. "The monster ... it's not aggroed to us even with the hostile actions. It looks like it's just holding ground!" Miho calls then pauses. "Something else is coming scraping along and it's getting closer we got inbound! I don't think it's pissed off about us!"

Schneider's fire does not stop the weasel, and it ignores the flame wall he throws up hastily to defend himself. He takes some damage before he can get out of there and compose himself enough to fight back, but he's been injured before. This isn't even the worse he's had. But he's not happy about it, and he means to barbecue this weasel before it gets the chance to do worse. We can play Ranger Rick later.

"Brain, Brain dead," he chants. "Obey your blood oath, come forth from the land of Avalon. Fire of Gehenna, become a fiery blast and burn everything around us!" He takes a deep breath, then shouts, "EXODUS!" A burst of fire erupts point-blank in the critter's face, and it's going to be goodbye whiskers, even if noy goodbye face from that consuming explosion.

Cutting waves of wind scythe through Prophylaxis' vine blast. They nearly tear through /him/ too, but his robes are far more durable than they look. The wind cutter breaks against its enchantments as he reinforces his clothes with a quick burst of magic. Icy energy begins to gather around his fingertips, but--

A shout from Miho. He cuts the spell short and turns towards the direction that the beast had come from. If she's right, he'll need to hold onto that spell for... whatever's coming.

And it /is/ odd that the kamaitachi never actually aggroed... hm.

     Scraaaaape... creeaaaaaaak... THUD. Subtle sounds were gradually becoming significantly /less/ subtle. Now that at least one of them was much less distracted by weasel... it would be easy to notice now. There was a massive leg coming towards them. And through the trees, flashes of red-chitined ants are suddenly visible in the light of the fires of Exodus coming from Schneider. And Chiasa? Chiasa was not having any of this.
     Even as it is engulfed in that consuming explosion, the wind weasel is simply... attempting to continue running in the vague direction of the sea. Singed, missing whiskers. Patches of fur burned down to the flesh. But if not outright stopped? Chiasa ... simply... flees. The snap of massive jaws closing above them draws eyes upwards. And the party finds themselves looking at the somehow most stealthy several story tall ant. Ah. That's what disturbed the weasel. And what it was running from. A much... much... MUCH ... larger predator. It hadn't acknowledged them yet. But Inspect immediately doesn't give good feelings about fighting this thing.

    <Napellus Xennouwa, The Titan Princess.>

An overworld spawn raid boss?!

"Mmmmmmmmm," Prophylaxis humms, staring slowly up, up, uuuuup at the colossal ant.

"Yeah, nope. Not fighting that. Not without a full party. Let's dip," The doctor... turns tail and runs after the weasel!? What a cowardly move!!

...

But then, that /is/ a very big ant.

And its name... "Napellus... Napellus, is this one of your cousins...?" He murmurs, darting as fast as his legs will carry between the uncleared trees, "What are you doing here...?"

Miho looks up to see the thing comming she srares for a moment as the other monster flees. The monster is running from what looks like a world boss.

"It's time to go we need to come back in greater numbers..."

She'll just stow her weapon and she's running as fast as her legs can carry her.

Schneider eyes Prophylaxis exercising the better part of valor, and Miho following him. Well, he's not going to solo this thing, not a chance. Not even a hair of a chance, but he does have one trick up his sleeve. "Roots of shadow, tendrils of light, smoke over water, fire in the sky, DEEP PURPLE."

The land changes subtly as the party makes its escape. No trees, if this giant thing eats trees, maybe they're just in the way. No /adventurers/ that's the big thing. He has zero skill in hiding, but he can make a chear illusion of the land without him in it, and this is what he does to cover our escape. Because he's not hanging around to see what this monster wants.

     'Yeah, nope, not fighting that'. That was a smart decision, probably. As the giant ant moves slowly, approaching one of the larger trees in the area, it starts to lower its head and giant mandibles to around its base, as the smaller red ants start to swarm around the tree. They don't seem too interested in the adventurers... at least not yet. Magic is cast, spreading over the area.

     And the ants... continue their job of gathering up the rapidly-falling tree, carrying it off back the way the Titan Princess came from, as the Titan Princess starts to turn. As the party flees, they realize something:

Before the appearance of the wind weasel... there had been basically no wildlife in the area.