Duty Session 61: Convoy Escort Quest I

Escort quests, the bane of any experienced gamer. Assisting people who are unable to defend themselves as they trudge slowly through dangerous environments on a preset path. When implemented well, they're a chore - when implemented poorly, they're a nightmare.

The merchant guilds and the People of the Land will pay handsomely to see this convoy deliver its goods - and its people - to the destination, and your group is needing to head that way anyway for your own reasons, so it's time to hitch up and hit the road. It can't be all that bad of a quest, right? Two days of travel will fly right on by.

(Note: This Duty takes several IC days to complete.)

Difficulty:    Moderate
Rec. Party:    3+
Rewards:       1
World Rewards: None

Mizuki
Dun Loireag - The Highland City


    The trip to the Ninetails Dominion is surprisingly uneventful. Not EVERY boat is menaced by fishmen, it seems. Dun Loireag itself is... not notably different since before the Apocalypse, save one thing: It's a lot more busy, partly because of the refugees, partly because adventurers in the area are now logged in 24/7, and largely because merchants are meeting nigh-constantly to arrange deals for the increased food shipments around the country. It seems that bit of intel was true.

    At least some of the local shops and inns are notably higher-class than on Aincrad Island, to serve the noble Lander population. Higher-class means higher cost, of course, but yes, you can find hot springs and beds that, while not up to 21st century standards, are substantially more comfortable.

    When dragged on a SHOPPING TRIP!, Mizuki takes the opportunity to get a proper ninja outfit, complete with long flowing scarf, though she opts for soft leather boots instead of sandals. She'll take the others' advice on colors as long as they don't say pink or something.

    The other reason Mizuki has come is to speak with a questgiver she met before the apocalypse, Jun Miruno. It turns out that the Bun-Bun Cait Sith who leads the Carnival of Dreams is still able to make time for Adventurers, but not much. The party doesn't get to grill her on backstory or whether she's a person, but when asked if she has any jobs for them says that there have been reports of more monsters on the road recently and their help guarding a convoy would be appreciated.

    It looks like the trip to the Dominion is going to be extended several days...
Wisteria
Dun Loireag - The Highland City

    Wisteria bounces along "I cannot wait to get there, gotta get to the shops, need to see if I can make this Enchantment thing work." she says grinning, with all those razor fangs of hers.
Jazuhanzu
Dun Loireag - The Highland City

Jazz has been her usual, unsmiling self. It's just her way.

She's fascinated to be in the Nine-Tails Dominion, though, paying special and curious attention to the people of the land as she is wont to do. She finds them interesting, perhaps.

But she has followed along, casually, thus far. When she finds out that the trip is going to be extended, well...

She just rolls with it. "Okay."
Mizuki
Dun Loireag - The Highland City


    Wisteria gets her chance to visit the shops, but the outcome of that will be told another time... Today, the party gathers just outside of town. The plains outside of Dun Loireag are covered in farmland and, notably, fields dominated by colorful wildflowers, huge fields of pink, yellow, or other colors presented to the eye.

    When the misunderstanding becomes clear, Mizuki sighs. "The quest pulled the same thing on us last time... I wonder, if we report this to Jun Miruno afterwards, if it'll actually change anything."

    The landers seem concerned about that, but it doesn't make them suddenly turn into leaders and the job still needs to be done. So Mizuki does her best to try and help figure out the maps.
Wisteria
Dun Loireag - The Highland City

    Wisteria travels along with the convoy, but she's an explorer it's one of her primary duties in the Scale. She's got this... she ranges and scouts ahead, rumbling and small earthquakes following in her footsteps. Her ears swivling about as she uses a combination of her tremble step and her talent with navigation to plot a safe path.
Jazuhanzu
Dun Loireag - The Highland City

Maps? No problem. Jazz lives and breathes maps. In fact, she was already drawing a map with her quill and ink and parchment when she's called on to help figure things out. With her spyglass out, she's already scanning the horizoins and comparing to the maps and, hey, how did she miss those monsters when they were out there with that spyglass of her's? Weird.

At any rate, she helps find the way.
Mizuki
Dun Loireag - The Highland City


(+scene/edit broke, add this paragraph as second in the previous GM pose in post:)
    Soon after the party's arrival, the convoy is ready to depart! Except, it doesn't. Noone gives the order, and it soon becomes clear that everyone else is looking at the party expectantly. A few quick questions quickly expose that there's been a mixup somewhere: Though the leader of the Carnival of Dreams was asked to send guards, what this particular convoy actually needed convoy leaders. The party is expected not only to do most of the fighting, but to handle navigation as well!

--
    Mizuki does not know how to navigate this world without the map screen, but fortunately, Jazz and Wisteria do! A course is plotted, a way is scouted, and the journey begins!

    ...But only a half-mile down the road, while scouting, Wisteria rounds a flower-and-tree-covered hill and comes into sight of a kobold scout, who shouts something in kobold tongue before she can dispatch it!

    There is a LOT of yapping, that would almost comically bring to mind the image of a pen full of tiny purse dogs, were it not instead accompanied by a small horde of kobolds charging over the hill, warriors with shields and spiked clubs rushing towards the convoy while archers draw a bead from the top of the hill and let arrows fly!

    Mizuki, for her part, stares in shock, then runs in to engage the warriors, trying to get their attention and then frantically dodging and leaping around them, her scarf dancing through the crowd as she tries to keep them distracted long enough for her party mates and the newbies to take them out!
Wisteria
Dun Loireag - The Highland City

    There are monsters, and they have the high ground? They probably feel they're pretty safe from a swords bunny. They are in for a surpise as Wisteria takes her stance. A shuffle step and then she draws, a slash through the air and a dark power arcs out. Then she's charging behind the blade of darkness, bouncing from flaring air rune to air rune and sending arcs of magic out in slashes of her sword. Trash mobs are trash regardless of the high ground when you bring a Shadow with you.
Jazuhanzu
Dun Loireag - The Highland City

"...where'd those come from?" says Jazz wqith some delayed alarm at the sight of the kobolds. Feels like she should've caught on with her spyglass, but well, she didn't.

Still, she raises her hands up and binds them up in seaweed that seems to sprout from the earth around them. A smaller version of the binding magics she's used before, to be sure, but she's more than capable of it. Seaweed growing onb land is weird, but then, she's a sea witch, isn't she?
Mizuki
Dun Loireag - The Highland City


    Mizuki AGI-tanks the front line like a pro! The others' efforts give her a spare moment to cast stoneskin; the increased defense offers her the time to stab as well as dodge. Wisteria busts out AoE magic damage the monsters never see coming from a swordswoman! Jazz binds enemies in place, making them easier to hit and stopping many of the archers from firing! Together, the three of them deplete the bulk of the kobolds' HP, and for that matter the bulk of the kobolds!

    Among the lowbie adventurers, the tanks protect the Landers from arrows with their shields while the DPS and controllers attack the kobolds held in place by Jazz's magic, and mop up some lower-HP foes.

    The well-executed counterattack slaughters the kobolds with no casualties on the heroes' side!

    The kobolds drop... their hair, which can be turned in in town for 'kill X kobolds' quests, as well as some crafting materials for metalworking and healing potions. One or two even drop their shields, which the lowbie tanks equip after Mizuki appraises them as better than what they're using.

    The rest of the day goes by uneventfully. There are scenic views of farmland and colorful flowers. Mizuki opines that nature is pretty nice sometimes when there are no mosquitos or allergies. Camp is set up as the sun sets, and dinner passes uneventfully, the landers cooking up a stew that tastes, sadly, like soggy crackers.

    Unfortunately, as final checks are made before bedding down for the night, it turns out that this poorly-planned expedition did not bring enough workers; the wagons and tents need maintenance and neither the Landers nor lowbie Adventurers have the skills needed...
Wisteria
Dun Loireag - The Highland City

    Wisteria sighs when it comes to getting things fixed and setup, then the bunny girl sits down, out comes her tanto and she starts working on cleaning up and carving spokes to fix broken wagon wheels. It's tedious and boring.. but hey she's at least useful.
Jazuhanzu
Dun Loireag - The Highland City

"...ah..."

Jazz can menup up some items from the tailoring submenu. She hasn't really levelled 'maid' much, however, and thus she's falls short of properly sewing up damaqged flaps or wagong coverings or even a blanket. It takes longer than is necessary.

She should probably work on that.
Mizuki
Dun Loireag - The Highland City


    It turns out the highbie Adventurers don't have the skills needed either. Though Wisteria is able to manage the task of repairing wagon wheels, Mizuki's attempts ruin some spare parts and she gives up and goes to help Jazz with the tents. Neither is able to get the tears in the fabric to stay sealed, and Mizuki's claws only make it worse.

    It snows that night. Some of the landers get sick from the increased chill in their tents, and adventurers that don't have fur or proper winter camping gear sleep poorly and are left irritable and cranky the next day.

    At least sick landers can still drive wagons even with the sniffles. What they CAN'T do is fight a Dire Peco Peco as large as a house... and the monster forces the issue for making a beeline for the convoy even when the wagons change course to avoid it!

    Mizuki leaps out in front of the convoy, scarf flapping in the wind. As the giant Peco Peco charges, she takes a deep breath, and then

                                     ROARS                                      

    the terrifying sound rolling over the plains and making the Peco Pecos drawing the wagons squawk in fear, though the Landers are able to control them.

    The giant bird stops in its tracks for a moment...
Wisteria
Dun Loireag - The Highland City

    Wisteria blinks when she confronted with House sized riding bird. "Yup... I knew these things were trouble." she says and grabs a rope, the bunbun girl leaping into the air, then air stepping off a rune and onto the back of the bird. A loop of rope and she's riding the sandworm... pecopeco pulling it's head to one side with the loop of rope around it's beak trying to steer it back into the wilderness.
Jazuhanzu
Dun Loireag - The Highland City

"Are you... are you kidding me," says Jazz.

The dire peco just has her staring. Quickly, she reaches into her coat and produces a jar that she hurls at it. It shatters on the ground. It's fall of some... horribly stinky concoction she was kind of toying with earlier and it just ... doesn't do anything. Birds have beakjs. They don't exactly smell things.

"...welp, that didn't work," she utters.
Mizuki
Dun Loireag - The Highland City


    The giant bird's hesitation gives Wisteria the chance she needs to lasso its neck and ride that bronco! And hey Jazz, some birds have nostrils, they smell things! It's hard to tell if the smell contributes to driving it off, but the dire peco doesn't seem interested in returning, running into the distance with a trail of trampled flowers in its wake.

    That was pretty late in the day, and it's soon time for camp. The landers and adventurers are more practiced in setting up the tents now, but the pecos are still unsettled -- whether from the dire peco or because there's a caerbannog and a tiger travelling with them, who can say?

    It's bad enough that at this rate they won't be in a state to pull the wagons the next day, but on top of that the noise (pecos make a very obnoxious and distinctive HONKing sound when stressed) is keeping everyone up!
Wisteria
Dun Loireag - The Highland City

    Wisteria finaly looses her patience and shifts into Caerbannog form, her many many ragged teeth on display. "Shut UP you stupid birds." she roars at the birds, who catching sight of horrible predator all freak out even more running around like chickens in a pen.
Mizuki
Dun Loireag - The Highland City


    Mizuki tries to calm the birds. "Shhhhhh-shhh-shh-shh-shh. There there..."

    Being petted by someone that smells like a tiger fails to reassure them. Mizuki may have to help pull one of the wagons...
Jazuhanzu
Dun Loireag - The Highland City

Jazz, for her part, simply uses more seaweed.

She can make it grow anywhere and vines of kelp are soon guiding them up together, all that running around tiring them out so that, when they are finally restrained by the Undine's 'magic', they are at least able to finally settle down. At least they don't die of fright like a bunny.
Mizuki
Dun Loireag - The Highland City


    Well, that works out. The peco pecos get to sleep, at least. The Landers advise taking it a little slower on the last day, but they'll still make good enough time. They should reach the town in time for a late dinner.

    With the sun low over the horizon, the convoy comes almost in sight of their destination, but where they expected a bridge, they find only bitter disappointment.

    "Come on, we're so close!" Mizuki, for her part, has an idea: "You know that skill where you conjure up a flow of water to reposition yourself? Maybe if I stick close to the peco or wagon, I could catch them up in the flow, and get across the river more quickly..."
Wisteria
Dun Loireag - The Highland City

    Wisteria sighs at the crossing. "Maybe we can ford it?" she asks and then she starts drawing runes to try and summon up a rocky pathway, but instead just manages to create a small landslide that makes it that much harder to cross over.
Jazuhanzu
Dun Loireag - The Highland City

Now, Jazz turns towards Wisteria, "Heeey, you remember that time I rolled you across the bottom of a watery cave?" Innocently.
Wisteria
Dun Loireag - The Highland City

    Wisteria looks a bit green around the gills. "No... not that.. not like this..."
Jazuhanzu
Dun Loireag - The Highland City

"Well, I won't have to ROLL you. But I can provide air bubbles and we can sloooowly cross that way," She adds, "That way, we can ford it with no danger. It'll be fiiiiiiine."

She seems to enjoy the discomfort that the bun has.
Mizuki
Dun Loireag - The Highland City


    Mizuki looks at the others in concern and a bit of confusion. Isn't Jazz the one who hates being under water? But maybe it doesn't count if it's in a bubble.

    Repeating the process for every wagon is tedious, but by using large bubbles and magically altering the current, everyone gets across! The convoy rolls into town at dusk, and the party gets their rewards: Lots of money!
Jazuhanzu
Dun Loireag - The Highland City

Jazz, does not, in fact, like being under water. It shows.

But the safest way is *still* the safest way, and it doesn't hurt if she gets to troll Wisteria and Mizuki a little with it.

No wonder she and her best friend got along.
Wisteria
Dun Loireag - The Highland City

    Wisteria looks super uncomforetable everytime she has to be bubbled, but she's gotta help out so she does it... she just keeps imaging she's going to sink to the bottom and have to be rolled away again.
Mizuki
Dun Loireag - The Highland City


    Mizuki finds the experience fascinating. There's nothing quite like it back in the real world, after all!