Duty Session 634: Clearing the Way to Shibuya

Fort Ouph - July, Yamato Year 403. It's a hot summer's day, and the road to Shibuya is no less dangerous than it has been for the past two years. Fortunately, it's not all that dangerous at all for decently-levelled Adventurers, like this group. Merchants and traders, however, the lifesblood of any city, find it rather less convenient a path.

    And so the Fort Ouph Adventurer's Guild office has been calling on any Adventurers who will take the Quest to help keep the road clear. Miyako was heading back to Shibuya -anyway-, after a circuit of busking her way around the local towns, and a quick research side-trip to, well, that's not important right now. But to her, it's a good way to earn a little cash for a trip she was going to take anyway.

        "... down summer roads, all full of turns and bends
        Summer roads, that lead to all my friends
        Summer roads, by summer streams,
        Where I live all my winter dreams
        And the good times always start down summer roads."

    Settled on the back of a cart laden with supplies, the mount hitched to it waiting patiently, she too awaits her comrades' arrival and the time of their departure.

She's here, she's there...

She's everywhere!

Kotono, the nimble Spriggan, arrives in her usual acrobatic style, landing in a crouch before moving over to join Miyako.

Twirling her blades a few times before holstering them, Kotono smiles a little as she boards the cart as well. "Always good to have a little extra pocket money, no?" She asks Miyako with a smirk.

Yeowang is a resident of Shibuya, at least part-time, and while she's hunter enough to survive the overland route to Shibuya, the task of getting supplies in has been by sea since the overland route is not clear for merchants and the like. But a land route would discount the cost of supplies for the town and will make it much more accessible for Landers. Yeowang has honchoed organizing the Guild to set adventurers on this path, and so she's here putting her money where her mouth is, arriving in her adventuring gear, dark clothes, cloak, bow, and pack. "And the monsters are just taking up space. We'll be much better off with the XP," she quips, following up Kotono's comment as she arrives.

    Miyako nods, smiling, and gives Kotono a quick and unfortunately chaste embrace before sliding her guitar back into her inventory. "Indeed, indeed," she agrees. "Better money and XP for us than monsters for the Landers." She twists around, hopping to the front of the cart to take the reins. "Off we start, then."

    Hours pass and the sun rises as the trio and their small supply shipment trundle on down what passes for a road. About halfway to noon, there are clear signs they are not alone on the road - fresh tracks, startled birds, tree branches swaying against the wind. Have some particularly foolish bandits attempted to lay an ambush for the adventurers?

    Yes. Yes, they have.

Yeowang nods to Miyako, agreeing, "Indeed, better XP and gold for us than monsters for Landers." She will follow along with the group as we enjoy a nice summer walk through the woods, making conversation and looking out alertly as this -is- a monster hunt. It's not for hours that we notice the first signs that we may not be alone.

"Something may be up," she says quietly. "Let me slip off and do a bit of scouting," Yeowang offers, and she will slip off the trail and into the brush by the side of the road, unaware that she has already been noted and her progress is not unobserved.

Now you see her...

Now you don't...

Being a ninja-style Spriggan gives Kotono the ability to slip through undetected. "I wonder if that guy who called himself part-snake had it this easy?" She wonders to herself.

    With one comrade attracting attention and the other avoiding it, Miyako takes the middle road, watching for the ambushers as she makes her way down the road in the cart. Pretending to be a Perfectly Ordinary Merchant. After all, she's just there to drive the cart while the adventurers do the fighting, right? Right?

    No, no she's not, much to the bandits' dismay.

    Dealing with the bandits doesn't take long, and soon the group is on its way again. Eventually, there are more signs of problems on the trail. Animal, this time, clear indications of a sizeable wolf pack. What will our adventurous trio do about this?

Yeowang has snuck around to scout the bandits' flank, to scout them out, but finds herself facing a more substantial force than she planned on, but by then, the fight is joined, and so she will scoot back to the main party and fight on the flank. She is intense in melee, with fists and kicks like hammers, striking heavy blows repeatedly, and the bandits are not ready for this amount of fight.

She's down a few HP when the fight is over and the bandits dealt with, moving along with the party when we spot the signs of a wolf pack in the area. "Let's see if we can do this a bit better," she mutters, and she does the Hunter thing, stalking the wolves. Hunting the hunters.

Kotono had a bit more luck sneaking past the bandits. But now it's time to see if she can find out where the wolves are. She's not good with tracking animals, but...

"Maybe I can find a clue or something?" Kotono says as she drops into a crouch and checks the ground carefully. She notices certain patterns that others might not immediately notice and she looks up. "This area is dangerous! Stay away!" She moves over and gestures to the spot she's in. "This one too!"

Miyako makes her own scan of the area as the cart travels along, and eventually stops, pulling the cart to a halt by the side of the trail. The reason why is obvious - a group of wolves surrounding the corpse of a peco. The tumbled saddlebags nearby are probably what clued her in, lost as the beast was attacked by the pack. There's probably a would-be merchant up a tree somewhere not too far off. Best to find them... after dealing with the wolves, that is.

Yeowang has been tracking the wolves, herself, and the tracks growing fresher as we get closer. She signals as we get very close, and slips forward, synching with the party. The wolves are mainly paying attention to their kill, but Yeowang is suddenly in their midst, kicking and striking with deadly blows.

She has a kick that mules would be jealous of, and she's clearly expert in the martial arts she practices. Here, her blows smash into the wolves, their HP dropping preceptitiously until they vanish in a puff of XP. Merchants and saddlebags can be dealt with after the danger has passed, but for now, she's a whirlwind of mayhem in the tight scrum.

If all else fails, the simpler tactics work best.

Drawing her twin blades, Kotono slices and dices... but doesn't make French fries! She does, however, keep the wolves away! "Nobody messes with us!"

    With their peco and cart parked, Miyako joins the others in advancing on the wolves. She may be having an off day, perhaps? She did so well against the bandits... but she had the advantage of surprise, and human-sized opponents. Her war-fans don't seem to be nearly as effective against the wolves.

    Soon enough, though, the pack is eliminated, and a short search turns up the terrified merchant - up a tree, as predicted.

    "Oh, thank the gods," he says as he spots the trio of adventurers. "You're heading for Shibuya, right? Please tell me you are."

    "That we are," Miyako answers quickly. There's no point in lying about it, after all, unless she wanted to make a joke - in very poor taste - at his expense. Which she doesn't!

    The group gets back on the road, after loading the merchant's goods onto their cart, and it's onward they go.

    There are subtle signs along the way that yet another ambush lies in store for the adventurers and their temporary companion... will they spot it in time?

Seems Kotono hasn't been skimping on her magical studies.

She conjures up a spell rune...

And then the earth comes to life as various rocks come into play.

"Rock rock rock rock and roll!" Kotono calls out.

Yeowang is glad to have found the merchant, but surprised to hear he's taking the hard way to Shibuya. "You're a brave man," she says sincerely. "The way is not yet cleared, despite our efforts. You know this now, of course." She considers. "But it will be safer with us than alone, so please join us."

The party proceeds on, but the party, alert for signs of change an expectation in the wild, by now know the silence brought on by enemies lying in wait. She is an expert in using the land to her advantage, though, and she will do so here, stepping to one side of a copse providing cover, the dodging around to the other side, behind her puzzled opponent, and takes him by surprise as he tries to draw his bow. The brush is the perfect cover for the ambush tactics she uses on these orcs, and they come out second best in the exchange.

    Kotono and Yeowang have little difficulty dealing with a few orcs, but it's Miyako who points out the signs that there's more than a handful in the area. "There aren't enough of them to have been that confident," she muses, and pauses again to consider. "I think...."

    Therefore, she finds monsters.

    It turns out there's an orc encampment about a mile from the 'main' road, set up in the ruins of an old guard-post. "What would have been off this way?" the Spriggan muses, glad that they left the merchant and wagon well-concealed closer to the road.

    As the orcs and adventurers spot each other, the monsters have little to say - but then, there isn't much worth saying, when orcs are involved.

Care for a breath of fresh air?

Kotono thinks that might be helpful with these orcs.

She conjures her runes up and prepares a nice air spell. And then she brings forth a blast of wind that will definitely blow these orcs away!

Yeowang eyes the orcs, and that so called champion. Well, she's got a few belts at home, too, let's see who walks home with this one! Kotono's blast blows away all the adds, so it's just her and the champion in a one-on-one. This is exactly her style of fight, and it doesn't matter that the champion comes at her in a rage, she leaps up, and delivers a savage kick in the face, snapping its head back painfully, and draining it's HP hard. With the party at her back, it is short work to finish it off once he's been softened up, and she maintains the brutal beating until the orc gives up its XP to the party. She turns to smile to Kotono and Miyako, looking a bit flushed, but not too worn out, giving them a thumbs up. "We'd better get back to the merchant before he worries too much."

    Having learned her lesson with the wolves, Miyako stays in the background, supporting Yeowang and Kotono from a distance. She's got some interesting new techniques learned from Daiyu, using wind to catch up sand and dirt and pebbles and turning them into a massive saw-blade. The three adventurers make short work of the orcs.

    Examining the encampment, Miyako hmms. "This was a pretty small band overall... mgiht just be a scouting party for a larger clan. What do you think?"

    The discussion goes on as the party returns to the road and retrieves their rescued merchant, who is quite grateful to not be left alone any longer. A couple of hours later, they arrive in Shibuya, and it's time to make their report to the local Guild office.

"Could be a scouting party, definitely. We'd best not take these numbers for granted." Kotono puts her blades back in her sheaths and stretches her arms over her head before looking to Miyako. "We did well this time, but I'm sure there'll be more trouble around here soon."

Yeowang nods at what Kotono says. "We haven't taken anything like a dungeon heart anywhere on this clearing mission, and no one else has reported doing so. So that means it's almost certainly not clear and monsters will respawn." She's getting more game-wise, and she should, it's only been, what, three years? "This lot won't be bothering anyone else, but they've got their own friends and relations, I imagine, who will still menace merchants."

    Miyako nods. With the load of supplies the the merchant's goods delivered, the cart is empty and turned in to the guild as well. "We'll have to head back that way and swing a bit wider, see if we can find any trail sign to lead back to their main camp." Or find another group of patsies to con into it, as she doesn't plan on heading back to Ouph any time in the immediate future.