Duty Session 629: Hungry Like a Wolfgarm

"By the request of the mayor, all adventurers are asked to slay the wolfgarms in the nearby forest," Uta begins to read from the sign.

It's the edge of Rovia, on the fourth floor of the Aincrad Tower, and someone (the Mayor, if the sign is to be believed), has posted some sort of official announcement. "If you die while slaying said wolfgarms, we in Rovia are in no way responsible and ask that you do not come to us seeking recompense for your death. We are also not responsible for any maiming, broken bones, or discomfort you may experience. By attempting to slay any wolfgarm your agreement to this disclaimer is acknowledged. The people of Rovia thank you for your valiant effort."

Uta frowns.

"Oh, wait, there's more!", she beams.

"P.S. Do not feed the whale!"

Uta slumps on the ground and sighs, one hand propping up her chin while the other holds up Heartsong, her magical staff. "Dangit. We are getting Adventurer EULAs now. See, it's days like these when I wonder if I should stick with the Olympus Alliance, what with introducing Earth concepts to Alba..." She turns her head up to look at the sign, "But then I tell myself, no, this not Olympus re-introducing Earth concepts to Alba. It's Scale re-introducing Earth concepts to Aincrad." She stands up, and beams. "So all is good again."

    Fuka peers thoughtfully at the EULA signpost. "So, we should probably go into the forest and NOT slay any wolfgarms." she says, taking things to their logical conclusion. "That way we haven't agreed to their disclaimer and can complain all we want when we get maimed or discomforted or die!" she beams happily.

    Then she pauses, looks about. "Actually no, that's a terrible idea. I hate getting maimed. And I take responsibility for myself for not dying. The disclaimer is irrelevant and they should feel bad for setting it out." she says firmly, nodding. "Blame Scale always. They always ruin the fun. Unless they're creating fun I guess. Seriously they need to lighten up more!" Fuka declares.

Did you think you could escape the Gwen? No there is no escape Today she's clad as Ashes Nei again and seem pretty perky about thing but she's also looking over the sign and the job she thinks for a moment and will set a hand on Uta's shoulder.

"Yes to hell with that Whale I never want to see that thing /ever/ again. If I can help it."

She will attempt to pick up Uta and put her on her shoulders for a moment.

"Yeah there are somethings that make life better but there are things we really should leave behind."

She'll also try to pick up Fuka and put her up on the other shoulder if she can. This could fail but it would be amusing to her to do this.

"Gwen! What!", exclaims Uta, but it's too late.

Gwen Pendragon has equipped a shoulder-mounted healer.

Uta, at this point, has learned that not much can be done, and accepts her fate.

The forest is dense and rather large; the den of the wolfgarms could be anywhere. The adventurers will have to figure out where they are going or else they could be wandering the forest for hours. Fortunately, the wolfgarms don't take time to clean up their droppings or their footprints.

"...What was with that whale again?"

    "I can think of two things in particular that always make life better." Fuka claims roguishly as she's equipped. Shoulder mounted rogue? Does that even work? She doesn't know who Ashes Nei is, but she does like a well-designed costume. One that brings all appropriate things together in the right way. Mixing and matching just isn't her thing, not when it comes to fashion. Every piece a part of the whole. And of course she's pretty chill when it comes to friends.

    It does have to come to an end however, since they do have to search for wolfgarms. "I'm getting a great view from up here." she observes cheerfully. "And there are people living around here! I bet they'd even tell us, if we let them know we're here to fight wolfgarms and not complain about it when we get mauled or die!" she adds, also cheerfully.

Gwen flahes back to dealing with the whale in a combat bikini shaking her head a bit. "A add that hit us and come on Uta don't you like the view up here we can move faster this way right?"

She also grins at Fuka as she heads off until they reacha a point where her friends need to be set back down.

She'll get down on her knees and start looking for signs of the monsters.

"That sounds extremely reasonable," Uta confirms to Fukaziroh. "And... well, y-yes, the view is far better, and one -does- move faster..."

Uta uses her newfound freedom to go around asking Landers for the whereabouts of the Wolfgarms. If Fukaziroh's going to follow through on her statement, she'll likely do the same.

The information is reported back to Gwen, who can now use it to narrow down the area to search.

And it is so, that thanks to Gwen's racially-enhanced Searching skills, a pair of wolfgarms happen to be in the area. They may be scouts looking for food. Either way, they haven't noticed the group just yet. At first, they sniff around and nip at each other for attention. When a branch falls nearby, it startles them and they move more warily. It appears the scouts are a bit skittish.

    Fuka's meanwhile wondering 'what whale?' but dismisses the question as irrelevant. They're not likely to fight a whale in the freaking forest after all! Still, she doesn't mind being carried about by a big strong girl. Very big, very strong. Very girl. It does interfere with her inherent abilities as a searching Sylph, but fortunately being shoulder-mounted adds to her intimidation - er, her *negotiation* - skills. Others are quick to answer her and get this trio of wierdos out of there. It all works out rather well.

    "Oh hey, puppies!" cries Fuka as she sees the horrible wolfgarm scouts. Given her animal-loving nature and her monster-mauling predilictions, it's anyone's guess what she'd do in such a case as this, but it's going to be excessive either way. She begins chanting, calling out runewords of earth and fire, containment and range and devastation. Anyone who knows her well enough will know the answer now, for sure, but in any event it's not long before she sets off fiery literal earth-shattering explosions to 'chase' the scouts off with.

Gwen thinks after a moment she'll pick up Uta and Fuka again bafck to her shoulders as they have lead. "So I think this will work out well." Shoulder mounted party she will move on, if it fails she'll move on but Fuka and Uta will get into far less trouble as she channels an air spell to wonderful effect here and she smirks.

"We are on to them!"

The scouts are faced with a towering amazon carrying two smaller adventurers, one of them crying 'puppies' and shooting explosions, the others singing a storm into existence, while the massive one holding them both is... well, carrying a duo of adventurers, one of which cries 'puppies' and lets slip the havoc of war, and the other sings storms into existence, respectively.

It's a sort of reverse Town Musicians of Bremen scenario.

The poor scouts are understandably terrified; what they lack in courage they more than make up for in speed: it will be a test of endurance and speed to keep up with them through the underbrush of the forest.

"We... hadn't thought about this," Uta stutters from atop Gwen's shoulder. She points in the direction of the fugitives. "Quick, Gwen! Follow those Wolfgarms!"

    "After them, loyal steed!" cries Fukaziroh, getting caught up in the moment. "I have a riding whip in here somewhere for peko racing." she adds thoughtfully as she rummages in her inventory interface. Of course anyone who knows her or has seen her racing knows she never uses whips on a peko. So she probably doesn't actually have one. Not for racing at least. So... hey, who knows? In any event she keeps up a hail of explosive-charged rocks aimed in the general direction of the wolfgarms' hindquarters. Accuracy doesn't matter, just the concussive sound of detonations to keep them well-motivated.

Gwen has her friends on her shoulder they are now like turret and the monster don't have much a of chance she will take off in a sprint, she's a lot faster than she used to be and one might not expect someone of her size to be so swift.

"Fuka! Do not whip the Gwen! I don't think she'd appreciate it- wait, no, I really -hope- she won't appreciate it, and if she does, I DO NOT WANT TO KNOW, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!", exclaims Uta, flapping her wings. Is it nervousness? Is it additional propulsion? Either way, Gwen is able to keep up with the breakneck pace of the wolfgarms.

The trio soon reaches the den, whereby the two scouts disappear inside. It appears to be nothing more than a hole in the ground. No wonder no one else has managed to find it, it's practically invisible!

As the group enters the den, they find that it is much deeper than it initially appears. Adventurers are able to stand up and even move around a bit in case combat occurs. There is one obvious problem though: the moment the group moves away from the entrance, they find themselves in darkness. There's not even glow moss. The wolfgarm must have some ability to see even in the dark to be able to navigate down here. The adventurers will have to figure out how to light their way and navigate through the tunnels before danger finds them.

    "I don't judge my friends for what they do and do not enjoy." Fuka states primly. "Except when it comes to licorice and ice cream." she adds after a moment's thought. Thought punctuated by the occasional explosion. It's almost a disappointment as the chase comes to an end and they find the lair's opening. Just a little hole. Too little to ride into. Probably. Gwen will have to princess-carry instead!

    Once inside however, Fuka peers about in the dim darkness. Seems it's spacious enough, and she's happily small! Perhaps not as light as she looks, due to dense mighty fairy muscle and more metal on her body than she tends to cover with fashionable clothing. But still fairly light. And speaking of light, she chants a few easy runewords of the sun, conjuring up some light-based illusion things that might be fireflies if you squint. Or don't squint and are wearing some nice shades or something.

Gwen is not reacint too much to the mention of whipping. She pauses for a moment. "I AM NOT MY MOTHER! WHAT MY PARENTS DO IS THEIR OWN BUSINESS!" The only reason she does not flail is she's got two people riding on her shoulders. Her wings however do flail as they head deeper into the den and she has a response to the darknes and that response is a massiver healing spell known for how much light it generates "Sanctuary"

"I AGREE WITH GWEN THERE!", Uta cuts short, and, grasping her staff with both hands, intones a holy hymn to make the focus gem light up, and illuminate the way.

The cavern opens up in a spacious room. Inside, the adventurers find a single wolfgarm. This wolfgarm is bigger than others, more savage looking, and has a scar across one of his eyes. This monster has seen a lot of battles and has earned the title of 'Alpha'. In fact, it earned this title so well that the name of the creature is literally 'Alpha Wolfgarm'. The way the Alpha keeps backing up makes it seem that it doesn't feel too confident winning the fight. It could run if the fight goes south.

    Fuka smothers a pleased grin; nowhere near as bothered at racy discussion as her friends are, and happy for the fact. Still she spares herself from any further reply on the subject. She hardly needs to, and it's not like she wants Gwen thinking Fuka's got Gwen's parents unnecessarily on the mind.

    Instead, Fuka focuses on the boss fight. "THERE IT IS! For glory!" she cries out, waving her sword around fiercely. She's not good at capturing monsters, so her basic best idea is killing the thing before it gets the idea to flee. Alas, no such luck. It turns and flees. "After it!" Fuka demands, only for them all to get caught up in the rush of furry menaces giving their lives so their Alpha can get away.

    This won't do! Fuka has options, of course. Try to keep the place from collapsing while her friends fight? That's well within her skills. But she's also got a great spell for just such an occasion, for making it difficult for a crowd of enemies to attack her. "Keep close! But not TOO close!" Fuka warns. "Don't break the shell!"

    The chant is quick, dark and ominous. A defensive and well-practiced measure. A shell of earth magic swirls up and surrounds the little sylph, the shell seemingly riddled with cracks. A trap, of course, as anything breaking that delicate shell will find explosive air driving brittle shards of earth straight back at whatever breached it!

Gwen is in total agreement with Uta shje does not want to go there the good news is they cut through the darkness with light but well theyt got a problem the Alpha Gwen is fairly strong. Okay she's beyond anything posible on earth and she's going to make use of it here the wolfgarms. Shes so waning to get a distraction from the thoguhts Fuka got into her head oh she needs those out of her head....

Uta may try chasing with her kung-fu techniques, and Gwen may be using her massive strength, but the Wolfgarm is too good at zigzaging and escaping when one least expects it.

Fuka's clever tactics are... possibly too clever for her own good -- the Wolfgarm does indeed attempt to attack, but even if with docked HP, the explosion projects the creature far, far into the distance, faster than it would have traveled on its own legs.

The moment the Alpha Wolfgarm hits half life, he begins to make an extra effort to get away. With a dash here and a juke there, down the tunnel he goes, followed by a few yips and a howl. Moments later, from that same tunnel, wolfgarms begin to flood out to ensure the Alpha can't be pursued.

All the tunnels seem to have wolfgarms coming out of them. Before the group knows it, they are surrounded, trapped in a cavern with few ways out. As the snarls and growls get ever closer, it is obvious that at any moment the circle of wolfgarm will descend upon the adventurers. The group is going to have to fight their way out of here without bringing the roof down on their heads.

    With her candy-coated shield of painful delights active, Fuka starts making her way through the furry underworld. "We'll never catch that Alpha now." she complains. "How about we just get out for now, maybe try again later when the whole place isn't on low alert? I know getting smothered to death by canines is on my bucket list but I have a lot of other things to get to first!"

There is some very good news Gwen ios just that strong she will leap at the Wolfgarms putting her sword to use, hacking and slahsing with raw power over skill as she aims to bring the things down. She'll slice she'll dice and somehow will not let her friends wall off and the Alpha will get away, but it's minions will pay the price with their lives at Gwen's hands.

"AND THATS HOW ITS DONE!"

The swarm of canines assaults the Adventrurers from all directions. There is biting, scratching, slobbering on, and giving of sad puppy eyes, from both sides of the battle.

"Agreed!", Uta shouts back to Fukaziroh, "minus the part where I get smothered to death by canines!"

Thankfully, the tank of this operation -- no, of this /outfit/, since it's Gwen, jumps in to absorb the bulk of damage, and deal some in similar amounts.

Eventually, the area is cleared and our heroes are able to leave alive. So many wolfgarms were vanquished.

And you should have seen the one that got away...