Duty Session 8: Goblin Scouts in the Field

    Giganpor, having heard something about goblins out on the road from some passing Landers, had set out to see what the problem was after sending word out in the city on what he was doing. Most seemed focused on Gnolls or something about Rats, but well... Goblins sounded a bit lesser in level usually if a bit more crafty and cunning. The Were Fang was fairly certain those were more his style than trying against some berserker Gnoll and friends.

    Plus, it didn't seem like a good idea to toss everyone at one threat. Even if his party was pretty small, he was hopeful that they could succeed at it. That's what lead the red haired man to scouting the fields as he looked for the rest of his party and the goblins themselves.

    Along the way, the sounds of explosions could be heard from nearby. Nothing terribly fancy, mind, standard low-grade magic that sounded as if a mage was fighting something. The culprit? A rather short and unimposing-looking untransformed were fang. Currently in his human form, he had a white kigurumi-esque cloak around himself styled after a bun bun and could be seen standing near the smoking remains of a defeated boar. At least until it vanished as defeated monsters tended to in this world, leaving the cloaked, short figure to pause and stare up at the sky as if it was somehow going to answer a question for him. Completely oblivious to most things going on around him, too, like others that may also be there.

    Goblins? Probably didn't know anything about it, or he might not just be out here playing with the local boars. "Well, should probably find another one..." He thought he'd be having fun, but for some reason the fun had already started to wear off. He wanted to log out and have something to drink before going to bed in his own bed, but here he was in this fantasy world, looking for the next victim of his restlessness.

    Giganpor looks over at the sounds of explosions. "Hello! Are you here to join in handling the goblin scout problem?" The tall red haired man asks. His cloak is oddly giving off a red-gold light, as if ready for battle. He's not about to pass up the chance at help, and well... getting help is probably best when going after Goblins. The were fang mark on his neck definitely signifies that he is indeed a were fang, and he does move as if an actual Adventurer rather than a Lander. Not to mention he might have been noticed at Alne considering he did look like a lion were fang.

    The sound of someone speaking caused Karaoke to pause, the shorter of the two turning to look towards the speaker. With the hood drawn and it being a bit baggy in that it half obscured their face, the ears upright and the horn standing out starkly. "Goblin scout problem?" Their voice was soft-spoken, a bit androgynous, though magnified a little strangely as if they were speaking into a microphone. A bit singsongy somehow. The hooded Karaoke trotted closer with a shield on one arm and a bow held in his free hand - a curious combination certainly, since what bow user really intended to get up and close? "Not really, I was just out here to pass time and level up a little hopefully. But the boars aren't really doing it for me, so I could probably help out if nothing else? Probably not a good thing that goblins are around this area anyways..."

    Giganpor nods, "It is. The problem is rather vexxing as this is the way to the port as well. Is your health and mana full? If so, I was told the location is over there a short ways." He points off to the northeast. He's noticeably already armored.

    "Besides, maybe we can get some gear to help ourselves and others out with this. Level one is not exactly a good level for gear, armor, or anything." The giant of a were fang says.

    He gives a small bow, "My name is Giganpor, by the way. Thank you for helping out on this."

    "Ah, I'm fine, I'm fine, I stay back away from any enemies as it is so I just get mana back over time. I don't like getting hit, even in these virtual games like this, if possible. It's like being in a virtual car and getting in a car crash, even if you survive, still freaky stuff!" he pointed at a boar in the distance who loved to charge in straight lines. Totally didn't want to get hit by that thing, even if it was a level one boar. "KARAOKE is my name, and as you might have guessed by the outfit, I'm from Piffle. But I don't know any more about all this than anyone else, before you ask." There was a tone in the shorter ones voice as if he was slightly tired, albeit understanding, of answering those same questions. 'WHAT'S GOING ON?!' he didn't know any more than others, despite working with Piffle - a CC Corp branch company that was doing promotional stuff for them in ETO currently.

    "More gear though does sound nice, I enjoy collecting things, maybe get 99 of everything! Better to need and have enough than need and not, y'know? Lead the way!"

    Giganpor blinks, "Piffle? Oh, one of the promotional companies. But yeah, let's go see if we can handle this? Shoot, might be a good spot to get resources as well." He says towards Karaoke.

    The were fang moves over the ridge, making sure to send KARAOKE a party request as well just in case. "Well, that's good. I'm mostly frontline, but I also use my summons to help out. So more ranged support's always welcome. It'll be good to use the quick calls rather than the lengthy ones for some of them, even if they got down levelled, too."

    Being a scout?

    Paying attention?

    Well, for the most part. Karaoke was by no means an evasion specialist, but upon hearing the sound of something being triggered, he quickly stumbled backwards and began to bring up his shield to try and block any incoming attacks. Goblins?! Boars?! No, as it turns out, just traps in the grass as they got close to the goblin area. While the smaller Were Fang didn't get out completely untouched, it only managed to startle him when he barely avoided the trap leading out of the area, causing him to have it nip at his backside as it sprung up and he leapt aside while rubbing at his rear. "So much for not being in danger..."

    Giganpor, meanwhile, finds a trap... and well... he ends up not so lucky as he gets hit repeatedly by traps. The good news, there's a way for the party now! What the hell? By the time they get out of the traps, there's a welcoming party for them. A small squad of goblins armed with rusty looking weapons and old bones. They're not wearing armor, but there's still enough to give a fight and they know they are there!

Giganpor, doing the natural thing, steps forward as he draws his sword. And then says to Karaoke, "Well... that was unpleasant." He says as the red lines fade a bit. His health still took a bit of a hit, but he turns and starts stabbing goblins and parrying on them as he dives into the fray.

    "Aah, careful, careful! Don't want you dying to traps before we even see... nevermind, I spoke too soon. Is this what you kids call a flag?" He heard his kid make that reference a few years back and had to have it explained to him. Of course, someone his stature and level of cute making a 'you kids' comment might come off as a little strange. With the Goblins appearing, however, Karaoke pulls out his bow and aims it, beginning to fire off single magic shots in a rather calm fashion. His shots seemed to hit fairly accurately, and while he wasn't a sniper by any means, the calm shots seemed to strike true enough to bring down one or two and cause a bit of panic in the ranks.
    Plus with his shield still on his right arm, he felt confident enough that he can block should anything come flying his way.

    The resulting slaughter of goblins goes pretty well. Pinpoint shots from Karaoke and the expert stabs from Giganpor along with his tanking make it through the battle despite their being under levelled.

Giganpor looks a little winded afterwards, then shakes his head, "Well, that's--" He's interrupted by rustling grasses the opposite of where they came from.

Ittray goblins get kicked out of the nest pretty regularly, but this one's obviously bigger. Tougher. And wearing armor. It being alive would be a problem because it's a menace to Landers and Adventurers alike.

    Giganpor looks at Karaoke, "... guess this isn't over yet." He raises a hand as his blade moves to his side. He keeps to where he can intercept the goblin at least in case it goes after Karaoke.
A dark green circle appears before him, "Come to me, Basalt! Spore Explosion!" What comes out looks like some sort of four legged dog made of vines. The vine dog gives a bark before spitting it looks like some sort of plant seeds at the goblin, that explodes into a choking cloud around it.

    "Geeze, now a big one's coming out? Should we even be trying this with just the two of us?" The hooded were fang watched the larger goblin show up and frowned. Was it a boss goblin, or just a slightly bigger chump goblin? Well, it was all armored up so he wasn't confident at his bow shots causing any real damage to the thing, thus the bow was dropped back into his inventory and instead he pulled out a pair of long daggers, running around the side to try and get close enough to attack while Giganpor distracted it. Unfortunately, right as he leapt forward, Giganpors attack exploded into the cloud, causing Karaoke's attack to just barely miss the mark, and instead of landing both blades into the armored goblins neck, they landed askew and instead pierced into his shoulders.
    "Come kill it while it's distracted, I'll... jump away when you get close or something!" For whatever reason he didn't think letting a big, injured monster run amok without some guidance was the best of ideas - who knew which monsters had rage modes.

    Giganpor nods, moving in, "Thank you, Basalt!" He runs in, trying to kill it only to end up getting smacked aside a few times before actually managing to stab it. Even then, it limps a bit before falling over and dieing.

    The realization hits him, and Giganpor groans as he leans on his sword. "... there's a cave nearby, I bet. These things love their caves. And... yeah. We need to figure out where it is. Like before the nightfall, I think... got any ideas, or we just searching on our own?" He starts looking for tracks at the moment as he talks. He grumbles, "And here I don't have my higher level tracking skills..."

    Having jumped away once attacks started going in properly, Karaoke looked at the collapsing goblin and sighed, trudging over to pick up his daggers which fell to the ground once the goblin vanished from this world. "Cave, right... if there's more of that it might be best to not even enter the damn thing should we find it. But, we can always try and follow back in the direction that goblin came from compared to where we were standing? I mean, it's not perfect, but I'm not a tracker by any means." He did a bit of simple linework in his head and used his hand to draw and point in a direction. "Unless you've got a better direction, let's try over there? Maybe spread out a little but stay close enough to help each other out along the way?

    Giganpor shrugs, looking a bit lost before he nods, "Sure. Best we got so far. I'm not well versed in tracking."

Fortunately for them, Karaoke seems to be the smarter one of the two on this! They find the cave. Only for an arrow to almost hit Karaoke. Another comes flying at Giganpor. Fortunately both miss, but the fact that there is a Goblin Archer standing on a rock with backup goblins around it is probably not a good thing at all.

    Giganpor growls, then shifts forms to his larger, more lion-like form before giving a roar and charging. He goes after the entire bunch of goblins. Instead of going for spells or skills, he goes for flat out swinging his sword around to try to take out the lesser goblins and get to the obviously skilled one. He calls back, "Shoot the archer! I'll handle the small fry!"

    Clang!

    The arrow thuds off Karaoke's shield which was pulled up in time thankfully, looking at the goblin archer... ranger... whatever, goblin with a bow and his pack of other goblins. "Ah come on, why's there so many goblins anyways?!" But before he could suggest running, Giganpor was already transforming and running in. "You're in the way, how am I going to shoot into that mess in a cave?!" But, being the hoarder he is of a bunch of different things, having bought all the shitty starter weapons available to him(at least, one of most kinds he thought he could use), the daggers from earlier are tossed into his inventory again and out comes a polearm.

    At least in his mind, having something long to poke with and keep others away with in a cave, plus his shield on his arm, was a decent combination! Unfortunately, he failed to understand a basic concept - you can't use a shield with everything, and when he went to gouge the goblin with said polearm, he wound up having to block with his shield, and the trajectory changed, impaling a different goblin in the process, leaving him to fall back and rely on his shield to try and protect himself. Sure, he might have been able to take a few hits and come out fine, but he already made it clear earlier he didn't like the idea of taking damage where avoidable.

    The goblins are almost too much for Giganpor as he fends them off, and gets a few shots in here and there. The massive were fang lion falls back eventually, then pushes forward again as he swings the sword. It's not enough, and the party is forced back unfortunately. But at least one good thing happens! They definitely made a hell of a dent in the goblin nest. Despite being bloodied and nearly exhausted, the eventual result is the party getting forced to run with the nastiness of not being sure the whole resurrection thing is going on at all.

    Giganpor at least is good enough to keep the rear guard going, and the eventual run has them at a tall stand of trees, with tall grass, and a good hiding spot as well as place for them to rest. Falling down next to a tree, Giganpor looks over at Karaoke. Then gives a laugh, "You know, I haven't had this much challenge in a long time. You? At least we know where to point people for goblins... and we got a bunch of coins on it, right?"

    The were fang lion shifts back to human form, grinning as he looks upwards. "I love this world sometimes."

    Karaoke for his part was not a blazing hero. The moment he saw the opportunity to beat it, his feet were already tapping on the ground in quick succession to get out. If Giganpor wanted to guard the rear, by all means let him. He'd already been beaten up enough by the goblins for a lifetime, not at all pleased with his health bar, or for that matter, the situation. He'd just come along to see what this was all about and all this chaos began to fill itself out in short order. "I guess. Not sure what's to love about that, though. Guess you're a masochist if you enjoy getting beaten on like that, leave me out in the future. I'll stick to harassing the local wildlife until I feel like I'm not completely newborn again."

    Giganpor looks considerate, then shrugs, "We're back to where we started." He says towards his partner for this. "Thank you for coming along at least. I was afraid I would have to try to brave that myself or go after it another day, if it didn't get worse anyways. But... well... I wanted to test myself and what we could do at this level. We being all of us that are stuck now."

    Giganpor leans back against the tree. His health bar's also low, but at least they'll heal over time. "KARAOKE, right? Why do you do the whole promotional thing for this game? The money or something else? You didn't have to be logged in at midnight, I bet."

    "Why? It's all in my name, I like music."

    A laughably simple answer. He stood up and started to walk away, "I help out with Music by the Week for the self satisfaction of helping bring music into others lives, among other personal reasons. Regardless, good luck." And with that, he waved in parting, going back roughly towards where he was before to lick his wounds and kick around some boars with very simple AI. Maybe try and take a virtual bath and see how that works out.