Duty Session 98: Still Water Bandits

    Hifumi does what he often does, arranges for lunches to be offered to people willing to take up a duty that helps out the Landers. This time it's taking out pirates and bandits to make trade easier and safer. Something near and dear to his heart. He arranges for folks to meet him at the Isekai Ryoken because why not advertise while also helping people?

No advertisement necessary in the case of Dare, who has been a regular customer whenever he's in the area. He didn't help build the place so he could NOT eat there, after all. "Hey Hifumi!" He greets cheerfully on walking in, taking a moment to unequip his boots at the doorway. His claws click in a satisfying way on the floor as he walks over to take an unclaimed stool as a temporary waiting spot. "You know I'm always good for some pirate punching in exchange for free food."

Hisame's a fan of the ocean. Normally, though to be fair normally it isn't trying to eat her. She misses swimming with the waves and of course the view. Still, she waves to the group she's joining, dressed garish for the adventure. "Time for a party, yeah?" then there's a pause, "Wait free food? I missed that part of the mention." Slow hesitation, "Real food or the chalk stuff we've been stuck with?"

Lunches?

Well, in truth, Jazz supposes that she could use a change of pace. She's fine with helping out the Landers. She usually is that, but food supplies for her trip to Westeland coming up can't hurt. That's why she's arrived here at the Isekai Ryoken, a tip of her hat being all the greeting she gives for the moment.

    Hands out bento with cold soba, a bitter greens salad, and rice with a pickled plumb. "Here you go, lunches as promised. You can also pick up more bento if you'd like to stock up for long travel. I know I'm going to be leaving for the tourney soon. Going to be selling food at the arena." he says "Once you've got your food and you're ready to go let me know." he says sending party invites along with the bentos. "We're gona see about thinning out the bandits so that merchants don't have it too hard when so many of us are off playing fighting games."

"Oh, it's real food," the hyena hunter confirms enthusiastically, as he accepts his bento with a grin and puts it away in his inventory to enjoy later. "And a welcome break from the charred gunk I get when I try camp cooking in the field." He lifts one claw and taps at the space in front of him, accepting the party invitation. "Ready when you are!"

Hisame cracks her knuckles, works her fingers while balancing that box under her arm, then between her hands before finally sliding it into an ubiquitous pack that every good adventurer would have. "I really, really should learn to cook. A decade of instant noodles probably hasn't done my health any favors. Nevermind the uh, problem here." Dismissive gesture aside, she gestures, "Just point me in the right direction."

"Yeah, sure, I'll help," says Jazz, giving a nod. She looks tired but seems up for it.

"You know... whenever." She waves a hand airily. The food she has been given is eyed thoughtfully before she takes a taste. There's a thoughtful expression, then a nod, and then she's eating.

    Hifumi leads the way to the bandit camp by the skull and crossbones it's obviously pirates. He looks around "Bigger than I thought, lets see if we can find a place to sneak in." he says and nods to some nearby ruins. "Guild rumor is that there's a secret door some where in there." he says pointing at the ruins and leading the way there. He summons up Tigerlilly, the small cat sized flower monster in the shape of a tiger. Onc ethey locate the tunnel and locked gate. "UHm... I hope one of you brought a bobby pin?" he asks with a wry smile.

Dare has an easy enough time following traces and tracks through the ruins to the tunnel entrance itself, but his chin juts forward in a pout of consternation when it comes to actually accessing the thing. "Should've taken some thief skills," he sighs to himself, and not for the first time. Solving puzzles of this sort is something his player actually enjoys, but that'll only get him so far.

"Okay, let's think this through," he mutters, picking through the rune stones and examining each in turn, comparing to the indents. "I think... this one goes here, and... then that one..." but once he lines up all of the runes in what he thinks are the correct positions... nothing happens. "Um. Maybe we have to do it in a specific order?"

Jazz, on the other hand, gets hopelessly turned around a few times and has to be prodded about keeping up with the others. The route there has so many curiousities and distractions to her that she's constanl looking under this rock, or at that building.

In short, she's here, but she's not actively helpful yet.

Yet.

Let's hope that changes. Maybe.

Hisame does have a good eye for detail what with her job outside of the game. This means she's currently fiddling with the rune stones, placing them in and getting a few to light up proper-like. She's still trying to pick through them, made a bit harder by everyone else trying to help too. Probably where that missing piece is!

    Hifumi watches he isn't really good at this kind of puzzle, if something needed cutting, or color matching, or flavor testing he's the man. A puzzle lock... who even makes puzzle locks. "These are always rediculous who really leaves all the parts of a key and a puzzle lock outside a base?" he says. Tigerlilly squeezes between the bars and makes a 'mew' motion with it's head and mouth but no sound comes out.

    The chef leans heavily against the gate, a wave of dirt and building blocks cascades off the ruined wall above burrying Hifumi in a flash of red light that takes a chunk of his health. Out of the pile a piece skips forward in a few bounces landing at Hisame's feet. Hey! It's the missing peice of the puzzle lock, good job Hifumi. His foot twitches from under the pile of bricks.

    Once the party gets Hifumi out of the pile and they follow the tunnel, they come out in a small area occupied by Lander kids looking hungry and dirty. "Do you have any food or coin?" one of the littlest says tugging on Jazuhanzu's hem. One of the older kids looks ready to bolt and alert the pirates.

"Oof, are you okay?" Dare yelps in concern, jumping forward to start tossing bricks aside and help unbury the man. He can see from his health bar that he's not DEAD, of course, but that looked like it must have hurt.

And then, eventually, onward!

And... oh no, not kids again. Dare's brow furrows in distress as one of the little ones comes begging for help. It's a trap, he tells himself. But he can't ignore starving kids. He hums a few bars of an old tune under his breath as if bracing himself, then crouches down to make himself less big and scary. "Hey," he tries to break the ice. "I'd like to help if I can. What's your name? I think I've got some spare food in my pack..."

But although one of the children starts to step toward him, head tilted with curiosity at the tune emerging from the were-beast's throat, another yanks her back roughly. "Stay back, Aya, he's a monster!"

There's some time spent by the whole party, imp-tank included to unbury the resident cook. "You know there are easier ways to knock stones loose right?" Still, going through the doors, she spots all of the kids. She isn't much of a cook, but she certainly collects enough neat herbs, spices and goodies to make a decent go at candies. As an aside to the rest of the party, she murmurs, "I can try my hand at some simple candies or help out with whateever. Candy works usually though, right?" Who doesn't like stranges with candy after all?

lANDER CHILDREN. OH NO.

They are, of course, drawn to Jazz. One of them even tugs on her hem. She looks ... pained. A little bit. Unfortunately, a pained look for her is still kind of adorabel!

And thus, she's rooting a round in her pack for some dried, breaded balls of meat and fish that she got somewhere. Maybe she made them herself. Whatver. Either way, she's spending some time distributing the nacks to the hungry Lander Kids with wide, horrified eyes. Lander. Children. ALl over her. Nooooo!

"Sure," Dare mutters sardonically, rocking back on his heels with a sigh as the kids retreat from him. "All I need is a panel van." He pushes himself to his feet and backs away so as not to scare off any more of the hungry urchins while his party-mates distribute the treats.

    Hungry kids. It's Chef man to the rescue. Hifumi takes his pack off. "Come on kids." he says pulling out yakisoba pan he's been making tons of to get the taste JUST right for the tourney. There's no baseball here, but hey at least there's an arena. Sure it'll be full of fighting, but people will still want snacks.

    Once the kids are all sitting and eating (be it candy or yaikipan or riceballs) he nods towards the rest of the camp. "Come on, lets go... last thing we need is them getting all rowdy or something." he says and leads the way. He looks at the gnoll, then back to Dare. "Obaasan?" he asks with a quirked eyebrow. Then looks at the scattered herbs.

Dare sticks out his tongue at Hifumi. "You see the spots? I'm a hyena, not a gnoll," he hisses, but with good humor. The teasing seems to have pulled him out of his disappointed funk after the reaction he got from the kids though.

"No hurt," he agrees with the old(?) gnoll lady, watching curiously as she prepares her divination ritual. When she asks THEM to do the divining though, he shakes his head, utterly baffled. "I... think I smell sage?" And is that a hint of oregano? As far as what he sees though, "Um, sorry. All I see is herbs on a plate. Should there be a pattern or--" he suddenly has to turn his head away to sneeze as a bit of the stuff goes up his nose the wrong way.

Hey, at least it wasn't a Heavy Failure on his skill check. He could've covered the whole plate in were-snot.

Hisame rolls her shoulders and looks between the gnoll and the hyena as they move on. "Maybe you'll lose your spots as you get older." She offers wholly unhelpfully. At the presentation of the herbs, she leans forward to get a good look at them, poking at them with a finger a few times before fishing around in her pouches and bags for a few small sachets. "Did you need more?"

That's her best guess. Unless she's asking for actual identification, in which case she'd totally ID them. She's got them in hand after all!

"Mmn." Jazz approaches the gnoll. She's surprised that they're talking to them. "Wonder what this is all about," she muses. Then she meets the gnoll's eyes and murmurs, lowly, all a-rasp, "I see nothing in your future but ashes."

The gnoll looks alarmed!

...and the the herbs burn to ash on the platqe as a resuylt of a little magic on Jazz's part.

"What do you know," she says, "There you go."

The gnoll glares at her and the witch shrugs and moves on.

    Hifumi looks at Jazzy's flame trick and shakes his head "Personally, I see a Tigerlilly." he says as his flower familiar rubs itself around the old gnoll's ankles. "Be well obaasan." he says and notes the seer smiling crypticaly as they walk away.

    And it's a bard they encounter next? Weren't they after bandits, this place is just full of life but hey given how big the camp is at least it hasn't been a combat slog which it could have easily been. "Anyone bring beer bottles... I'm pretty sure we're suppose to throw beer bottles." he says joking his way through this as he seems to do when things get serious but not dangerous.

"No beer bottles, but I can try drowning him out," Dare offers, reaching down to the small hand drum at his belt. He taps a few times to pick up the beat of the little bird-bard's earworm, then counters with the first counter-earworm that comes to mind.

"Winter Wrap-Up, Winter Wrap-Up~"

"...oh no," says Jazz as she hears the singing. She plants her hands over her ears and, if anything, manages to look even more miserable.

She proceeds to sort her menu, point at the bard, and douses him in water. It fills his lungs until he starts coughing and then vomiting it out. It's enough of an interruption that someone else can finish the deal. Sea-Witch, you know. They're unpleasent. At least the brine smell is perhaps refreshing at the moment.

Hisame pulls a strange colored liquid from her pouch, a second vial is popped open and she combines the two. Then with a rather rapid shake, she chucks it straight at the bard, shattering it at his feet and releasing a foul, black choking smoke. Something definitely on the unhealthy side to be breathing in. "Shut up." is the simple callout there. She emphasizes this with a pointed scythe.

    Hifumi sees the bard, and hears the counter earworm and plugs his hears with his fingers... but not until after he gets his fingers to sketch out the needed runes and he calls out. "Snapdragon!" the flower dragon appearing on his shoulder "Shut him up!" he says the dragon giving a silent roar before flying over to pounce the bird's instrument and start chewing the strings.

    After the poor bird passes out and the strings on it's lute go *TWANG* under little thorn teeth of the flower dragon, the party passes on to the Lizard man pirate. "OOoh good, well at least we can take out a boss, that should help keep the merchants safe." Hifumi says as the battle music starts in his head.

Dare's own irreverent singing comes to an abrupt halt when he sees what happened to the other bard. "Geeze, remind me never to piss you off," he remarks, one hand going briefly to his mouth as if imagining his own silly singing meeting a similar objection.

His following silence feels a bit awkward on as the party moves onward, but quickly enough they encounter an actual pirate, and it's almost a welcome distraction! "Oh thank god," he blurts out at the threatening lizardman with the flaming sword. "I needed an actual fight to break the tension!"

Taking a half step back to plant himself, he smoothly swings the short bow off his back and sends an arrow winging at the scaly buccaneer--

Only to have it neatly deflected by the flaming scimitar.

Dare just kind of freezes for a second, mouth agape. "How--"

Hisame has an excuse to actually do the tanking thing. Finally! And she starts things off by running forward, scythe tucked back and down, which she promptly slides to a stop and with the momentum, swings that scythe blade in a sharp upward swing. As quick as she swings, she leans into the blade and tears away through the rest of the swing in what would probably have been something of a mess elsewhere.

Still, she swings the blade back around, now on the defense, waiting for a counter attack and keeping the boss's attention like she should be. "Just how long have you wanted to say that anyway?" she calls out to the leader, "It's kinda cheesy."

"...a bit of trouble, yadda, yadda, yadda," says Jazz, annoyed. Very annoyed.

She lets out qa sigh, then reaches up, as if yanking invisible threads and tying them into a bow. Sea weed sprouts magically from the walls, the stairs, the cracks in the ground. It snatches at his arms, his hands, his legs, razor sharp kelp biting into flesh.

"...oh no. I guess it's your journey that's ending." she remarks, dryly.

Yeah, she's about done with this.

    Hifumi flicks his fingers through a few runes and points "Go get him Snapdragon." the flower dragon flying over and swooping in, it's mouth opening wide. However instead of breathing fire as is so often the case, that spell seems to have been a power up for the summon. It belches out a streaming cloud of purplish pollen into the buccaner's face poisoning him seriously, leaving Hisame and Dare to take him down. Not terribly hard with him poisoned and lashed in place with those thorned vines that increase damage.

    Once the boss finaly falls into pixels he says "That was far weirder than I expected. Lets get out of here, I'll treat you all to a beer and dinner." he says as he scoops up his share of the loot tossing it into his inventory.

Dare stoops by the little pile of metal shards the boss left behind -- after the poison clears, that is -- and examines one of them curiously. "Huh. I wonder if that fire effect was worked into the metal as an enchantment. Doesn't seem to have been coated with anything." And whether he might be able to figure out how to duplicate the process to make those flaming arrowheads he's been wanting. He pockets the shard for now, and bounces back to his feet when Hifumi holds out the offer of not only another free meal, but beer as well. "Hell yeah, I won't turn that down. Hey, if the room is friendly maybe I'll play a couple tunes, too. Err, real ones, that is, not earworms."

"...great. at least now *that*'s done," mutters Jazz. She observes Dare collect the scraps and then shakes hjer head.

"Yeah, food sounds good, I guess. Let's get out of here."

Hisame looks around at the scraps, scooping them up. "Odd thing to leave behind. They're not cursed right?" followed almost immediately after, "Wonder if I can do anything neat with them alchemically."

    Hifumi shrugs as Snapdragon lands on his shoulder. "Let's get going then." he says heading back to get everyone dinner. "You can play with my bard, she loves having someone to play with." he offers.