Duty Session 102: Still Water Bandits

A threat to trade is a threat to every adventurer, regardless of their needs or affiliations. A critical shortage of medicinal herbs can mean a subsequent skyrocketing of the price of basic healing potions, and nobody even wants to think about what a missing food shipment would do to the already precarious possibility of mealtime. emblazoned with a skull and crossbones and a promise of great wealth, a notice has been posted at a number of local hunters' guildhalls declaring it to be open season on bandits and pirates of all stripes. In exchange for a harvest of lives, a bounty of gold...!

And the promise that recent fluctuations in the price of sundry necessities will stabilize with the elimination of the bandits responsible for the disruption.

Prophylaxis, a somewhat infamous physician and alchemist in his own right, pokes around at a ruin... In relatively close proximity to the bandit's camp? Surely this place is probably home to its own history and lore, maybe its own subquests-- but no, instead of exploring the ancient ruins, they're just... here to use it to try and get closer to the bandit camp off in the distance.

"Anyone find anything yet?" Prophylaxis calls out at the others, even as he fiddles with a set of key-shaped rocks. "Nope," he says, chucking one over his shoulder. He squints at the other and tries to force it into the key-shaped recess on the side of the Obviously Important Door.

It doesn't fit, because there's no way it'd be that easy.

    Naotsugu had his gear looking a little fresher than when he'd joined this place the first time... "Man... this is getting ridiculous. I forgot how difficult it was to acquire gear..."

    At the question of if anyone had found anything, Naotsugu only had to say "Nah. I'm not really good at this sorta thing... bashing and making sure noone bashes anyone." He sighed. "I really just wanna go right in the front and tell 'em to bring it on!"

Kauchemar moves to look over the Good Country Doctor's shoulder, only to have to duck to the side when he tosses one of the rocks that aren't correct. Then shifts back to where she was previously standing. Squints at the rocks. "You've got me. I came for the 'reaquisition of plunder and sunderies from the ill intended' not to play prehistoric scrabble." Then jabs a thumb at Naotsugu. "Like that guy. That guy gets it."

    Merek was on another mission, this time to assist in dealing with the Stillwater folk. The man wears a dark attire from the beltcape to that alchemist belt of which he keeps on, the hood pulled up along his features. The Magic Knight takes a moment to look at what seems to be a few of the place's landmarks. "I think we should all travel that way," he notes to the party while he nods a bit also.

    Miyako shrugs, casually, as she listens to Naotsugu's remark. "When the time comes," she assures him, "We'll be sure to let you tank it up, then." She reaches up and pats his shoulder (with a clank of armor). "Maybe when we get back we'll let you buy us all burgers."

    Hifumi is poking about with the stones. "Ooh right, last time the key stone was up there." he says pointing up at a loose bit of stone and dirt and sends his flower dragon up to try and find it... and just like last time the dirt and stone gives way, and despite standing in adifferent position... Hifumi ends up burried in dirt and stone bricks. One foot sticking out with Snapdragon looking down with a rune stone in it's mouth a confused expression on it's petal face.

It turns out that sometimes you can spend full minutes trying to shove different key-shaped rocks into a key-shaped hole and not actually find the right one for the job. Prophylaxis shakes his head at the stubbornly locked gate, takes one look at the rest of the party-- and shrugs. "Fine! We'll do it his way."

Prophylaxis stands back and points at the stone gate, "Come on tank guy. Smash the door down with your shield! Where there is no key to be found, BRUTE FORCE will be our answer!!"

(This takes the party considerably longer than they might have liked. Also the key was hidden under a pot nobody bothered to check. OH WELL!)

    Naotsugu saw the little tykes show up and ask for food and coin... he sighed. At least that was something he could help with. He went into his bag and pulled out some bread he had in there. Sweet bread... but it wasn't anything sweet at all... still tasted like dog crap, but the Landers all seemed to enjoy it in any case... "Here ya go, little dudes." He smiled as he gave them the bread.

    Hifumi eventually digs his way out of his pile of junk, dirty and missing a slice of HP bar.

    He leads the way down the tunnel and to the camp. When they come out among the kids he smiles "Anyone have snacks... these kids really need it." he says with a warm smile at the younger kids "I've some stuff to eat." he promises "We'll see what we can get you okay?"

Hisame tries to follow up with the same idea as last time, little homemade candies made through the science of just growing sugar crystals. That have gotten wet since the last time she'd checked the pouch. it's a sticky mess and she's muttering to herself as she tries to wipe her hand off on something convenient and discreet

    Merek looks to the ones asking for assistance, "Well, the best I am able to offer would be assisting you with finding places back in the city," he notes, while he nods a little bit. The man seems to think about it, he does not really have anything to offer himself notably like a lot of people. He didn't think to prepare in that way.

    Miyako peered at the rune-marks, but shook her head, not recognizing the combination, and just followed along with the others. She hums a soft tune under her breath as she pads along, and eventually pauses as she sees the group of children approaching. "Well now," she murmurs. "What have we here?"

    "Hey, kiddos," she greets them, squatting down to match their height. "Let aunty Miya see what she has for you." She picks through her inventory to pull out a few apples and some oat/fruit bars, passing them out to the youngsters. "And yeah, we can help you get settled back in the city, if you want. We'd be glad to."

There are children! The others have a plethora of tasty treats to offer, but Prophylaxis...

...Does not actually have access to the kinds of lolli-pops that he'd normally be handing out to children this old. And yet...

These kids are probably not /super/ interested in the candy in their pockets. There's a hardness to their gaze, a certain keen intelligence...

Prophylaxis does not produce any candy, fruits or sweets. Instead he jingles around a small coinpurse, "I've got gold if any of you want to tell us where your boss is holed up."

Bribing kids /always/ works!!

Kauchemar pfffs. "If you wanted to just smash the door open I could of summoned something for that." Well what matters is that they get inside the camp. We just won't speak of how it was a jumbled, frustrating mess in doing so, and move on. To more interesting things!

Like childred. Dirty, begger childen. Likely used to get into towns and sucker naive people that would freak out at seeing proper adult pirates. "What, did we walk onto the set of an Oliver Twist reproduction?" She eyes the kids for a moment. Looks at the others. "Okay, they're getting you some food and coin, you just run along and stay out of trouble. And don't tell anyone."

She's honestly trying to be reasonable... but well. She's a Nightmare. She LOOKS kind of scary for a horse, even when she's not trying to be. The kids are more likely to take the gifts from the others and run from her than actually specifically listen to her.

    Hifumi smiles as people start talking to kids and handing out a few things. He reaches into his inventory and pulls out bentos "Come on kiddos, everyone make sure you take one." he says as he makes sure each kid gets a bento. A full meal is something everyone needs from time to time but these kids REALLY need. "Alright, keep quiet hmm? We're just here for the boss, and if you guys make it back to the city then we'll see if we can't find you some real work for food and shelter hmm?" he ruffles one kid's hair and heads along through the camp.

    Upon coming against the soothsayer again he smiles "Hello Obaa." he says to the old gnoll woman as he looks to see what herbs and patterns are there this time.

    Hifumi looks at the plate of herbs, his flower dragon on his shoulder "What do you think buddy?" he asks, the dragon looks at it and then looks like it's talking to Hifumi but no sound comes out. "Ahh yes.. well danger ahead isn't exactly prophetic bud, but I'll take it." he waves "See yah obaa." he says to the soothsayer.

    Naotsugu moved on with the group. He then saw the large creature ahead of them and grinned! "Aw yeah! Now THIS is what I'm all about! BRING IT ON, UGLY! I got something special for you!" He brought his sword into the air, a green glow surrounding him! "ANCHOR HOWWWWWWL!"

Kauchemar is starting to get annoyed that they haven't come across anything that needs a proper terrifying and beating yet! But she keeps it to herself, because the approach of a gnoll that looks more like they've been sniffing their aromatics more than they should does get her attention. The Nightmare cants her head to the side in curiousity. A gnoll soothsayer. That's an.. interesting thing to come across. Are the pirates using her to try and predict when best to raid and how profitable or not they will be? Seems most likely.

She watchs the old hag go about her routine. Even hunches down next to her to get a closer look, while reaching under her cloak with the hand on the opposite side to put a hand on her divination relic. Ghostly flames not unlike a pair of spectacle frames ignite around her eyes, making them even more haunting and otherworldly looking than usual.

"I see many things, and no things. While many Destinies may lie before us, there is no one way to reach it. Fate is made by the Journey taken to it."

And with that said she just gets back up and turns to walk on.

    Merek does not look like he knows what that means, still he doesn't know all that there is to know. Hifumi, Miyako, Prophylaxis, along with Kauchemar are able to learn that it means that the challenge awaits on the next place in the journey. She cackles while moving into the trees with a smile for Hifumi, "You already know the answer, in a way!"
    Then, when they come upon the beastman and words from him, he begins lifting up a weapon, which he swings along to try and fight all of that party!

Where do these children actually end up, Prophylaxis wonders. How many of them actually make it to the city they're being sent to? Do they just... despawn, after making it a certain distance out of camp? Or is their existence a little more permanent than that?

Maybe he'll have to check in on it later. A curious thing, that.

...Onwards!

It isn't long before they encounter the next... 'challenge?' A gnoll with white fur-- who seems to be some kind of soothsayer...

"You know this lady?" Prophylaxis asks of the party's chef. But before he can get an answer, he's getting a faceful of leaves...!

"Um," The good doctor squints at the herbs on the plate. Those look like... they can't be...!

"Are... are you offering to make us tea?" He asks, producing a jug of water and a handful of fire magic. "I can supply the hot water if you need. I didn't think anyone had any halfway decent Earl Grey blends around here...!"

Dealing with the plate of herbs, she's clearly a bit distracted this time and misses the obvious. She looks to the others, then facepalms and mutters, Sorry about that. Kind of out of it I guess" as she follows along.

    Miyako hmms softly as she looks over the plate of herbs. "Interesting," she says, noncommittal. "It seems our future will be interesting... in the Chinese sense."

    She shrugs and moves on with the rest, pausing as footsteps rumble the ground and a huge beastman approaches. "Well well well. We shall not pass?" She chuckles lightly. "This is not Verdun, son. And this isn't Khazad-dum, either... and you're sure as hell no Gandalf."

    Hifumi sees that incoming hammer and dodges one way, his flower drake going another. "Keep him busy buddy." he says to Snapdragon, the little summon flaps around the monstrous body guard's head. Sprays of fire around and towards it's eyes keeping it distracted enough to let Hifumi easily keep dodging and stepping out of the way of those slow hammer swings.

Oh, finally, a fight.

"It is about time time." Kauchemar unfurls her whip and gives it an audible crack. "Now get out of our way!" She slings the long reaching weapon at the guard.

Who just lets it wrap around his arm, and then lifts it up. And up. And up. You know, long sloth arms. It's enough that he actually lifts the tall equine Were Fang off the ground a bit.

"... Uh." Kauchemar ahehehes. "My, what long arms you ha--AAAAH!" The sloth doesn't even let her finish before he slings her away.

She ends up skidding to a stop on her back by all the people that just dodged around the brute. Holds up an arm. "I entirely inteded to do that." As if. "Distraction!"

MOVING ON.

    The beast taken down, there was suddenly an influx of... water elementals!? Luckily, they were close enough that his Anchor Howl had affected them as well so he was able to pull their aggro. But they were starting to feel rather harmful! His gear was still not the best yet! "Hey, magical guys! Hurry up and kick these things down!"

Hisame doesn't seem too concerned about the guard at least. That stuff's easy, just grab their attention and do fun things! Once the guard shows up. She cracks her knuckles, rolls her shoulder and is far less flashy as far as tanks go, instead conjuring up a splash of water as she darts forward, scythe behind her. She straight past the guard, hooking her scythe to drag him to thee ground. She's really not that concerned about being fast or elegant at this point.

"Come on then, stay with me!" She shouts at it, bringing her weapon back for an overhead swing.

    Merek sweeps along into the beastman with what looks like a well sized blade which he would use upon him. That swivels then he nods a bit while he assists the party. He then follows along to the boss of the place also.

Do they get to have tea? No? Yes? It's a question lost to the mists of time. Prophylaxis wishes that he'd paid a little bit more attention to the future fortold in the leaves, though. Maybe if he did, he wouldn't have eaten a KNUCKLE SANDWICH right to the face...!

It's better, admittedly, than getting smashed by a hammer. Still, the good doctor staggers back, reeling from the force of the blow that nearly sends him sprawling...!

It's a good thing that he has a FRIENDLY TANK here to soak up the damage! In short order (and with the application of a few vengeful attack spells), the gnoll is slain and the path forward op--

Oh wait no Naotsugu's taunt aura was apparently wide enough that he aggroed the mobs from the next rooms over. "Water elementals now? What kind of security is this bandit chief packing...!?" Electricity arcs across the doctor's fingertips, twisting into coruscating arcs that lash out and surge through the amorphous attack blobs. The water elementals broil and bubble as their insides are spontaneously evaporated, split into explosive gasses that soon cook off...!

And fill the air with the delightful scent of recently combusted hydrogen. "Right, let's move on then, shall we?"

    Hifumi smiles when he sees the elemental. "Ooh well, why don't I introduce you to one of my friends?" he asks "Nori show this guy what we can do with water hmM?" his fingers flick through the summoning spell and from the ground springs a little man the size of a toddler made of kelp. The homnunculi runs like a toddler with a full diaper, however whenever it runs into one of the spouts it just sort of sucks it up and sprays it off in a different direction making a path for the fighters and spells to get to the elemental.

    Merek looks to the boss while he nods a bit, then he takes the weapon with him while he swings along up into it, taking the time to assist in the fight. He does not know what to make of the killing with NPCs, although it looks like they often come back, he tries not to think about it a lot while he nods a bit, then would pick up that award also.

    Naotsugu was absolutely drenched! "Bah...! Of course...!" He took some time to shake the water out of his gear, pulling off a boot and dumping the water out of it before replacing it on his foot. "Well... that eliminates the need for a shower at least...! But... where're all the bandits? I thought this was supposed to be a bandit camp..."

    Miyako shakes her head. "Oh. How terrifying. The Master sends Minions to annoy us." She sighs, softly, and lifts her hand. "Boed i'r gwynt fy arwain adref," she chants as she inscribes a series of runes upon the air, and the wind swirls around her in a chaotic pattern, twisting about to knock away any water-creature that might approach her.

    "Don't be shy," she chides them. "Just be somewhere else."

"Well, I'm not going to complain," Prophylaxis says from within a BLAZING SHIELD OF FLAME. His robes are utterly untouched, and most importantly: not soaked to the bone. Wet labcoats are not fun for *anybody,* least of all squishy casters with basically no upper body strength to speak of. This is what Prophylaxis gets for speccing so hard into intelligence...!

He banishes his flame shield with a gesture, and then goes to pick a little blue crystal out of the remains of the water elemental. "One way or another, the bandits are going to come home to a mess they won't be able to readily recover from. Especially if we loot the rest of the place on our way out."

Kauchemar catchs up with the rest of the group after her last not so graceful little effort. But seeing the area overwhelmed with surging waters and a raging tempest of an elemental actually makes her smile that sinister snake-fang smirk of hers. "Now THIS is really more like it!" Her eyes start to flare and glow again even as she pulls out her lute and begins playing something appropriately ominous sounding to go with the moment.

"o/~ Take me to your mountain... Tear down the waterfall! It's coming near.... Listen and you can hear the call...
So put a coin inside your mouth, and wade out to your knees... You crumble down, and give yourself back to the seas! o/~"

The combination of music and dark magic leaps from the end of her instrument as Kauchemar uses her own summoner powers to overwhelm the control over the other water spouts, pushing them aside and blasting her dark symphonics directly into the elemental's whatever passes for a mind.

"o/~ You want to swim with us? You've got to get to water!
You want to swim with us? You've got to get to water!
You want to swim with us? You've got to get to water!
You want to swim with us? You've got to get to water! o/~"

Hisame looks at the water elemental, then back at the group of adventurers. She gestures towards the water critter and tears her hand away, yanking a jet of water from the creature. Why worry about finesse when you can just brute force it for simplicity?

She does begin conjuring up more control, hoping to keep it's attention away from the 'squishies' as she usually mentally dubs them. "We're going to leave a mess? What kind of loot job is this?" She calls out, laughing.

    Nori comes back to Hifumi holding a jewel which he takes. Then Nori melts into water and Snapdragon opens it's mouth in a little cry that makes no sound. Hifumi lifts his hand up to rub and stroke at it's eyeridges.

    Miyako chuckles as Kauchemar gets the lute out, and claps along with the music. Her wind-swirl seems to bounce in time with it as well, adding some more proper percussion. "Ahhh, good times," she muses wistfully.

Kauchemar smirks a little at Miyako's accompaniment, watching the elemental finally fade and sink away into as many cracks and crevices as water can find to slip through. Then pulls out a parchment. "That's another mark for someting to try and summon later." But she pauses in making a note to watch the little plant-critter scurry past with something shiny in its mouth. "Well now, what did you find?" She holds up a hand and makes a vage swirling motion with it.

Some of the remaining water sloshes and ripples around, rises into a tiny spout and then spits a similar gemstone into the nightmare's hand before fading like the rest of fiend.

"Now THIS is my kind of treasure~" A water element charged jewel is perfect for honing elemental magics.