Duty Session 586: Clearing the Way to Shibuya

The Hunter's Guild has outfittted the party for overland travel and assembled the crew just outside Fort Ouph. They gather in a small clearing just south of the city. The planned mission is a trek to Shibuya, or as close to it as supplies and mettle allow for. The objective is to help clear out monsters along the way and find probably locations for monster nests. If these can be found, later efforts can clear them out.

There is no task to small to be boring! No challenge to great not to be tackled. When the Hunter's Guild calls, Soujiro answers, as the best training is practical training! "Keeping our caravans safe is important," he agrees with a merchant who is explaining to him how vital it is to get those supplies there. "You are important too. Without smart people like yourself, there wouldn't be any markets to speak of." Sparkle sparkle.

Yeowang is one of the ones who did some initial legwork for the project that this mission supports, so she knows a bit about it, but then again, not everything, as circumstances changed in the course of setting things up. "The road to Shibuya is important," she agrees. "Keeping merchants selling is good." As a merchant, she agrees with that wholeheartedly. "The overland route has never been what you might call safe. Higher level players could brave it, but lowbies and Landers would have to get there by sea, and that both isolates Shibuya and limits its trade. But if we can clear out the monster nests, that will make overland travel to Shibuya safer for Lander merchants."

Nyanta has also come along for the purpose of being of help as nods in agreement with the words of his old friend, Soujiro, and one of his new friends, Yeowang, "A small purroblem to one may be a very big purroblem to someone else, nya. If we can help someone else with their big purroblem, we have succeeded at the end of the day, nya."

Soujiro gives a sparkly smile to Yeowang. "We are here to keep you safe. You have nothing to fear, for we are here," he says like a super hero in a way that only Souji can manage without sounding like a derp. A smiling nod to Nyanta, "Thats right, Nyan-san, if we can help protect those in need, we should. The worth of eased hearts and minds is priceless to me."

The morning dawns bright and clear as the party sets out from Fort
Ouph. They follow a trail blazed by previous surveyors and scouts.
Well past the outskirts of Fort Ouph, though, the land becomes less
tame. Farms are smaller and less frequent. Out this far, only the
hardy or desperate try to make a living from the land.

This far from the city, Guards and Soldiers are a rare sight. Because
of this, goblin bandits are common, seeking to take advantage of
traders that move through the area. Spotting the party, one such
raiding group moves into an ambush position and launches an attack,
hoping to make a quick profit. They should be disabused of this
tendency. While fighting is certainly a straight-forward option, a
skillful bit of stealth could turn the tables on the attackers, as
well.

Soujiro would not be a good samurai if he wasn't willing to leap in and protect his people! He steps directly in front of the goblin skirmish with a drawn katana, launching in with slashes too keep the battle away from the caravan and the non combatants.

Yeowang is not entirely clear of Seta is telling her he's here to keep her safe, or if he's telling the Lander. She radiates self-confidence, and certainly doesn't look like she's feeling particularly vulnerable. The way she piles into the goblins head-on hints that she feels quite capable of taking on challenges, and the goblins, at least, aren't so much a threat as a speedbump.

She seems like the sort that does not slow down for speed bumps.

Fists pounding, boots lashing out in a terrible fury, goblins are dispatched post haste, with a minimum of effort and exactly zero mercy. It is a beatdown, and no contest.

And Nyanta would not be a gentleman if he were not willing to stand and fight when there were those in need! Still, the Dandy Cat usually chooses to go about the finesse option as opposed to the straightforward approach. While Soujiro is distracting with a frontal assault, Nyanta comes in from behind to perform a pincer maneuver, twin rapiers making short work of the back rows of the bandits.

For some time, the party travels untroubled by danger. The sun has traveled across the sky a considerable distance. For a while there has been no sign of bandits, farmers, or others. However, there are clear signs of wolves in the area. Animal remains, scats, and other clues are obvious along the path. These point at the presence of a sizable pack. Though not in the immediate path, it's important to find and clear the pack, or the wolves will plague travelers.

Not the samurai's forte! He is looking around and it looks sparkly but not resulty.

Yeowang walks with the others, looking around warily as we go, and is likely the first one to spot the signs of a wolf pack. Well, she's a scouting class, she's got legitimate outdoor skills, such as they are. She doesn't generally play to them, and she's not particularly good at it, but she has a passing knowledge, and a pack this big, even she can track. "Wolves," she explains, "they went this way. We should deal with them, or they'll trouble Landers coming after us."

Nyanta nods, "I agree. We should deal with them. Lead the way, Yeowang!" Nyanta uses his confidence to hide the fact that he can't rightly tell which way the tracks are going. You don't have to be good at everything, but you do have to have enough contacts where you, plus your contacts, know everything.

The party has, through skill or utter dumb luck, tracked the dire wolf pack successfully. Now it is time to put an end to them. The pack is of a concerning size, with ten powerful wolves, found surrounding a recent kill. They've got to be eliminated to make the area safe!

It was defo dumb luck.

Soujiro looks at the ten powerful wolves as he slowly draws out his Kogarasumaru. White light floods the area around him as he holds it straight and steady, daring the wolves to attack. Those that dare advance find themselves pushed back with intense force from the holy strikes.

Yeowang will not argue that there were not fortunate circumstances that helped her track the wolves. The size of the pack was the biggest aid. But upon finding the pack, the question then becomes what to do about them! But, well, the answer to that is also self evident, and as the pack leaps to defend their kill, Yeowang displays a cool head and deadly martial arts skill, kicking, striking, and eliminating the wolves until the pack is thinned considerably with Yeowang fighting on with poise, unruffled.

Nyanta uses quick, targeted strikes to keep the wolves in place as Soujiro works his swords to the detriment of their foes. He even manages to take one down, but this Cat is not trying to take the spotlight today. He lets his companions get the last hits in: and the last hit is the most important one.

As the party proceeds across the rough terrain, spotted by forest and broken ground, cut by gullies, and crossed by streams, the sky darkens. But more than storm clouds fill the sky. Great birds the size of panthers play in the thunder. Sharp-eyed, they spot the party and dive with a terrible screech that makes the ears bleed. They keep to the air and must be dealt with there, or else denied a target for their attention. But remain wary, where there are stormcrows, nightmares often lurk.

If the mountain memorial has taught him anything it is that birbs can be friends. Soujiro quickly changes his tune when they are /monster/ birbs. Thats a birb of a different feather. The samurai does continual iai slashes that release a blast of concentrated air every time they swoop down, aiming to send them off their path and away from the group itself. Tank life!

That these are not friendly birds is apparent before they get too close, and they seem unlikely to want a cracker. However, the way they swoop and dive makes traditional, 2D fighting techniques ineffective. Just waiting for one to dive at her only wastes her time, and then some come at her back, and so she must adopt a fighting technique that will be more effective.

It's part of the game she doesn't understand very well, but when she attacks in a certain way, a thrust of air pressure is launched from the end of her blow, letting her punch targets up to several feet in the air above her. /This/ enables her to strike back effectively at the huge, tefrrible birds, who indeed seem quite angry.

Nyanta notes the birds with a grin, "So many opportunities for game birds nowadays, nya." The Coolest Cat in ETO draws both his rapiers and slashes upwards at the birds with fierce strength and speed, sending shockwaves up into the air in order to knock them out of the skies. With hope, at least one will drop bird meat...

This is beyond the furthest reaches of civilization, but there are occasional signs of ruins. Old stone structures, crumbled fortress walls, and flooded underground stoneworks centuries old say that this was, at one time, a fortress. Now, nothing stands more than waist-high, and there's no sign of habitation. The occasional thunder of hooves can be heard as night falls. It's late in the day by now, and there's not much to do beyond eating supper and preparing for the morrow. When the party turns in, the echoes of hooves grow louder, until the party falls into a fitful slumber. There is a loud whinny suddenly, and whoever is standing guard, is the first to spot a herd of sleek black horses with flaming manes and fetlocks. The nightmares spot the party as well, and with a chilling whinny they charge thunderously toward the party. With a bit of hasty work, perhaps a barrier could break the charge. Considering the strong dark element of the nightmares, light magic is a good option, as well. The fire that serves as a powerful aspect of the nightmare may also be extinguished with powerful water attacks.

Kau, is that you? Soujiro smiles before not smiling. You are not Kau. You are a nightmare by another name! Soujiro uses a paladin-like aura of light around him as he offers a relic-like boon of protection against the mares. Pokemon Typing confirms: Its Super Effective.

Nyanta rarely has nightmares, but when he does, they are never horseshaped. While light magic is particulary effective against shadow creatures, there is something that Nyanta has discovered works quite well in many situations: grouping up and hitting it 'til it dies. The Dandy Cat does just that, moving to his allies' side so that all the horses move to one point, and he slashes at the spot where the horses WILL be seconds later, peppering them with rapid, painful strikes.

Yeowang is no cook, and doesn't know much about how to set up a camp. She does have a full set of high-end camping supplies, available at her new store in Dun Loireag, and that at least makes it less unpleasant to sleep outdoors. But monsters, monsters should not be slept through, and indeed Yeowang emerges from her tent to face off with the foes. The whinny and charge spurs her to action, so to speak, and she engages in a fierce, highly technical melee. Technical in the sense that right of way is respected and each attack is avoided before striking back, her punches and kicks deadly, and coming from unexpected angles sometimes. She doesn't even need to strike from a conventional position, just one inch is all that's needed for a full power punch, much to the (monentary) surprise of some of the nightmares, and as they are struck down from unexpected angles they experience surprise before despawning.

Monsters have been cleared from the path to Shibuya, and a herd of dangerous nightmares have been defeated. Though some of the nightmares escaped and work remains to be done to pacify the area enough for safe construction, the group can be proud to have made things just a little bit safer. The party is able to contribute their findings to the intel being gathered. Every victory brings the position of the monster nests just a bit closer.

One less threat in the world. One more group of people safe from the threat of monsters. "This should protect people, even when we are not here!" Souji says, which is the extent of his big brain ness: If things aren't there to attack, we protecc people. Still he has a pretty smile and bless his heart for it. Sparkle.

Yeowang is breathing hard as the remaining few nightmares flee, and she agrees, "The strength of the monsters we fought has been diminished. Hopefully enough others will see fit to take the Guild mission and help with clearing the monsters out of the path that a road will one day take. We have our own builders," she looks to Nyanta, inplying 'we' refers to NWA, "but they require Landers to assist, and we cannot hire Landers while the ways are still wild."

Nyanta puts a hand on Soujiro's armored shoulder with a smile, fang glint and all, "And if they ever need us again, we will, of course, return, Nya."

He looks to Yeowang and gives a nod, "Indeed, nya. I am sure we will be successful in keeping the way clear long enough for such to occur, nya."