Horsing Around

    It has been a long hunt, even those working with Giganpor would say it's been a long one. False leads, false starts. Even a few run ins with locals who didn't know what they were talking about or making up interesting tales.

    But finally, finally... FINALLY they had pinned down the tales to Fort Ouph and the Eastal Free League. That had resulted in a gathering of a party for this insanity. A somewhat small one as it wasn't meant to be a full scale raid or the like. It was just to capture one horse!

    After venturing out from Fort Ouph, the party had made way around dangerous areas to the southwest into the forest. Eventually, they found the Marsh that was the source of the tales. As they approached, the sounds of wailing like cries had started to be heard.


    The big thing was that it was supposed to be ONE HORSE. Just one.

Instead, what they found was a Monster Nest. With a whole HERD of the horses in it.

    The good news is that they stopped before entering the Nest territory. The bad news is that has even their fearless leader of the expedition Giganpor looking a bit perplexed by the situation. Especially as it's obvious he doesn't want to come out of this empty handed. Not with the Wave coming soon. The Were Fang was currently dressed in some armor and carrying both his buckler and a large axe.

    Looking at the group, he rubs the back of his head as he says, "Well, this is entirely unexpected... anyone good at pulling? Because I do not want to tank a whole herd."

    Hifumi shrugs "I'm good at handling them once they're captured, training is my forte." he says and shrugs a bit "I suppose that Snapdragon or Tigerlilly could try to attract one?" he offers and tips his head "I'm mostly here for helping with calming a captured monster more so than capturing one." he grins at Gigankun.

    Merek looks between everyone while he nods a bit to Giganpor, "Well, I will assist in whatever way I can for you all as well," he notes, then would adjust the Shadow Eclipse, taking the two twin blades which he keeps upon the hips, black blades with a shifting nice edge, nodding along to the people of the party and all.

Baroness Wake considers the target. One nightmare is a most unpleasant creature. Excellent at subduing targets, even better at binding and swallowing them. Pulling sounds terribly risky, a test of one's will and stealth. The kind of thing that she has always been known for.
    It's hardly a surprise when Wake says, "Once upon a time they said that I could pull a giant through the eye of a needle. While that was admittedly some time ago, I am still quite adept at this task. Please be aware, I'll be putting my full effort in, and I will be counting on all of you to deal with it as it pursues me."

This has been quite the learning experience. Yes, Kauchemar is a Nightmare Were Fang herself. But this wild version seems to be built on a different variation of the archtype. Or it was changed with the 'expansion' to be a more ferocious monster than she recalled. Not that she's complaining. As it seems to have made people a little more intimidated by -her- by relation, so can't really complain.

That they find an entire nest of the creatures instead of the lone one they were hunting down to stop, well, that's a bit of a complication.

As people discuss training, and luring one of the dread equines out, she only has one thing to say.

"I am not -that- kind of Bard, thank you very much."

Of course there's more than one. Who ever heard of a horse without a herd? No mustang can wander forever alone on the open plains, and so too is it with Nightmares. No, that there is more than just one Nightmare was not entirely unexpected. The number of creatures in the herd, though, is something just a little bit worrisome.

"I mean, I could drop a fireball on them," Prophylaxis suggests with a helpless little shrug. "Honestly, I'm CC. Fighting them all at once is ideal for my DPS, but I can understand your reluctance. Does anyone have any Taunt skills...?"

    Giganpor rubs the back of his head some more. Looking at the party, he sighs, then looks at Wake. "Well, if you think you can do it, give it a try?"

Meanwhile, the party is treated to a sight as one of the Nightmares appears to find something to eat. Looks like something about the size of a dog, or a cat. Maybe something native to the surrounding forest of the marsh. From this distance it's hard to say what is specifically, but soon the horse (which does have the red mane, even if it's not on fire) is spitting out some sort of fleshy web and eating whatever it found. Whole. Literally whole. Giving another of the cries in delight, it starts to move towards the rest of the Herd.

    Giganpor looks over at the sight, then to the others, "There's our target. If we can get it's attention before it rejoins the herd..."

    He looks back, then over at the rest, "Well, I am a Dreadnought. Taunting's kinda part of the whole Heavy Blade thing. Granted, I'll probably be doing so with a lot of damage instead of typical."

    In response, Baroness Wake takes a few steps and whispers, "The secret is consistency." And then she is simply gone. In fact, even knowing where she would go only might detect the slightest rippling in the shadows, which bind around her, not only swallowing light but sound, scent, everything. Drawing close, she scratches at the ground, then draws back once she knows that the nightmare is aware of her. Further away, more frantic scratching, like some small animal moving swiftly. Like a trail of breadcrumbs she reveals first this sound, then a bit of her scent, and all the while the creature is being drawn towards the group's hiding place and out of sight of its herd.

Kauchemar watches the display with literally morbid interest. Then looks down at her own snout. "Huh." She opens her mouth, and indeed gets that extra-wide 'unhinging' effect... but maybe it's more so she could bite with those snake-like fangs than swallow things whole with webbing. At least, that she can get on a whim. Maybe she needs to... experiment... later. People are already weirded enough right now.

"Well, monsters do often have varients." She reachs a hand up to rub the small horn on her forehead. "Starting to think I'm based on a different subspecies."

Followed by a soft, haunting wicker of a chuckle as she pulls her whip from her hip. "If we can get one away from the herd, I came prepared to hold onto it." A little flick unfurls the length from her hand, glowing with a faint flickering from the dark magic rippling through it.

Nope. Nope, Prophylaxis wants approximately nothing to do with what that evil horse just did to that small furry woodland creature. Mysterious, incendiary runes are already beginning to orbit around the Magus' staff, a sure sign that he's preparing to do the thing that drops a miniature sun on the terrifying equines.

They're technically here to capture one, sure, but would anyone *really* miss it if they just... obliterated the herd...?

    Merek would begin to adjust his gloves, while he takes a potion from his pack to drink from it. There's a sigh, while he nods a bit, his defense shifting a little bit, while he begins to give people the potions, "Alright, this will keep the defense up," he notes, while he looks to everyone, it's a green potion and it would taste, well not that great but there's green apple in it, to try to make it taste better.

    Hifumi makes several gestures and speaks a few mystical phrases before saying "Snapdragon". The little flower drake appearing on his shoulder. The chloromancer has his spells and summon at the ready, just incase battle becomes a thing. But he really is here to bring lunch and help tame the monster.

    The Nightmare begins to follow the sounds made by Baroness Wake. Apparently whatever it ate, it didn't fill it up. And the scent has it following like it's a carrot. The good news is the group has a nice spot outside of sight of the herd as it moves on whatever path it's going. Not a one of them seems to have noticed the missing stray horse monster.

    The potions definitely will help with the defense for the group. Once it's over the hill and out of sight, Giganpor makes his move. "Come forth, Auris! Empower my blade with light!"

    A summoning circle appears under him, his shield glowing as the axe blade goes along it, getting the Nightmare's attention even as a small bird-like Light elemental appears, circling Giganpor as he shifts into his slightly larger Were Fang form.

    The Nightmare gives another cry, the banshee like wail coming forward on the party. Almost like a force in itself.

    Then Giganpor charges forward with the axe in hand, and smacks it upside the head rather hard. It leaves an angry red mark for a moment before the Nightmare starts to pound the ground with it's hooves, aiming both at the party Tank and at making one hell of an earthquake at the same time.

OOC: Everyone please make appropriate rolls versus difficulty 6 to keep your footing.

    Pleased as she is with the effectiveness of her pulling, still Baroness Wake doesn't let down her guard. It proves fortunate, for the sudden quaking of the very earth is not something she had anticipated. She doesn't so much weather the rolling of the ground, as dodge it, little bursts of wind guiding her feet first this way and then that and keeping her on her feet.
    It is no perfect evasion, and Wake does nearly tumble. Her expression does not change, and she regards this foe calmly, mindful of how she might best help the others bring it under control.

    Hifumi stumbles around a bit at the earthquaking. His stumbling steps don't send him to the ground however as Snapdragon has it's thorn/claws sunk into his shirt and it's flapping wings help him stabalize. The little drake sending a gout of fire breath at the horse causing it's summoner to whip it around like that.

The pull was a success! Such as it is. Prophylaxis wonders to himself how long it might take for the rest of the herd to take notice that they're accosting one of its members, though. Herd animals are... notoriously communally-minded. But if they can damage the creature enough, then maybe it'll convince the herd to sacrifice it for the good of the rest of the community...?

Well. That's something they can worry about later. The land begins to rumble and shake at the Nightmare's sudden distress. Quick thinking and judicious use of a nearby sapling as emergency support sees Prophylaxis stay upright. "That's one," he murmurs as the runes circling his staff suddenly change, turning from bright orange to brassy, burnt-gold. He taps the thing against the ground and wills the land itself to rise to their aid...!

...By erecting a wall of stone pillars temporarily isolating the beast from its herd. Best not to take too many chances...!

That neighing wail is suppose to be terrifying.. And to be honest it is... but being someone who indulges in such things Kauchemar looks more like she's going to swoon, hands clasped together (around her whip) at the side of her head as she makes a girly almost gushing expression. "So majestic~"

The mood quickly changes when the Nightmare charges down upon the party, hoofbeats literally shaking the ground as it's cry continues to haunt the air. But knowing what elements she's good with does help in this occasion as she counters by slamming one of her own hooven feet into the ground. "I'll make the Earth. Move. Under your feet~". Dark rock and crystalline forms, almost like some manner of obsidian, burst from the ground beneath her feet to partially envelope the Were Fang. They're already starting to crack and crumble from the vibrations, but they do brace her in place as the dread equine stampedes past.

Then Kauchemar hops out of her little blockade, whip flaring to life once more. "Let's make this a real rodeo, shall we?" The dark whip makes an audible crack in the air as she snaps it out... less to lash and more trying to snare the whip around the beast's neck.

They did come to capture it, after all.

    Merek steps to the side and does a back maneuver away from the quaking upon his feet, then he swivels around to draw the thorns along the creature. "Thorn Bind Hostage!" They begin whirling around in patterns upon the creature to seal it from moving away.

    The Nightmare ends up getting attacked from all sides. The good news, though, is that the earthquake is stopped by a combination of efforts. While Kauchemar's lasso attempt misses, the rock pillars of Prophylaxis hide the group and cuts off the Nightmare from the Herd and the Monster Nest that might've been aggroed if it was in view.

    Giganpor, meanwhile, has dropped to a crouch and brought up his shield to weather the hooves. Auris disappears as he calls out, "Come forth, Rane! Frost Armor, Bubble!"

    What comes out of the summoning circle on the shield quickly loops around leaving an icy layer on Giganpor that causes the hooves to slow as the Nightmare hits it.

    This is followed by a lot of efforts to capture the monster hitting at once. Thorns rise up on Merek's command to hold it fast, followed by a bubble encasing it's head to try to subdue it further.

    About that time comes a startling realization. That they almost have done it. Just one big problem. It's life bar is still far, far too high and it's slowly starting to struggle against the thorns and give a warbled cry against the bubble as it struggles in an effort to get free. The life bar itself shows it to be at least at 3/4 of it's health.

The Nightmare still has too much in the way of health. This would be a problem, if Prophylaxis hadn't already converted the area behind it into a makeshift kiln wall. But such things typically require a surfeit of flame to be at all effective, do they not? What a fascinating question! It's true! A kiln without fire is simply an empty bowl of ash, but...!

Prophylaxis has fire.

Prophylaxis has an abundance of fire.

"Finally!" The Good Doctor declares with a bit too much enthusiasm as the runes rounding his staff flicker back to that ominous flame-orange hue. "The stage is set! Hear me, spirits of the underworld! I bid thee to surrender your sins, and may your incendiary words set all that stands before me ablaze!" The chant is unnecessary. The chant is, in fact, entirely made up and Prophylaxis seems to change it every other time. But that's not important.

What's important is the name of the spell, and the sphere of roiling flame hurtling toward the trapped demon horse.

"FIREBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLL!"

Fireball ensues. It's very bright, very pretty, and very, very hot.

Kauchemar reels back in the whip when it fails to find purchase. "I tried to go easy on you... But fine, be that way." She catchs the end of the whip with her left hand, and twirls the handle in her right a few times before grabbing it again, upside down. So the weighted end now looks like the head of a microphone with the way she's holding it. The coy, mishcevious smirk returns though as she sing-songs. "Anything you can do, I can do better~"

Kauchemar strikes her pose, 'mic' held in place. Her eyes flash with their ethereal glow.

And the other reason she can open her mouth that wide becomes apparent -- volume -- as she gives the Nightmare a taste of her version of that demonic wail.

An ear-aching, mind-numding Death Metal scream-rant.

    Merek looks to the creature while he nods to the Nightmare, then he takes a moment to sheath his weapons, before he walks up to the creature. "Alright," the man takes a moment to lift his fist, then it begins to shimmer with flames, while he comes around to give a swing of the fist. There's a wave of flames that begin to dance along. The flame dances along like a spiral in the night with a swinging shift of light and incandescence that shimmers like a star in the night. "Ragnarok's Wisdom!"

    There's a rush of cool air, than a remarkable radiance of heat that comes before the Baroness strikes. Thankfully she waited. She idly wonders if her eyebrow hair remains.
    In any case, Wake knows just enough about the capturing of a beast to know that it helps if the thing is nearly dead. Seeing the enemy isn't free yet, she relies upon a most overt slamming strike, quite powerful, to be sure, and against a foe in this situation, quite ideal as she brings her blades down upon the Nightmare's hide.

    Hifumi tries to run around to the side, keeping away from its head because he doesn't like being eaten...he's pretty sure. "Go, Snapdragon Flame Pillar!"

    The pillar of fire errupts where the little dragon's breath lands, but it misses the Nightmare spooking it. The monster kicking one of the pillars of stone sending a cascade of earth and rock to bury Hifumi.

    The Nightmare is suddenly well... not so pristinely having a good coat as a fireball lands on it. The nature of the Thorn Bind Hostage makes it worse! Then comes Kauchemar's shouting match with it! The party should probably be glad the Herd moved on by now.

The Nightmare gives a last surge, and almost seems like it will break free before getting a combination of Fiery Punch followed by getting stabbed a few times. Despite the missed attack of Hifumi, it's enough to lower the Nightmare in terms of HP down to a quarter.

    Which is when Giganpor whips out some extra magic first. His buckler shield glows before a rope comes out of it. And a flash of the rope as it wraps up the Nightmare in the head to form a bridle with the reigns in Giganpor's hands. "Need a little assistance! Should be a saddle option on the menus! I only did this once before!"

    The Nightmare is definitely trying to pull away from Giganpor, too, so apparently it's not quite caught yet!

OOC: To assist, Capture Monster or Handle Monster vs 7. Capture is applying a saddle spell option, Handle is helping Giganpor to not be dragged around. Alternatives are player options.

Having proven her superiority when it comes to vocal intimidation, Kauchemar snaps her whip back into coiling up and returns it to her side. Watches the group vying back and forth with the weak but still quite fiesty monster. "You've got this, you've got this..." Looks like the group is having trouble. "... Or maybe you still need a little professional help."

Kauchemar sidles up next to Giganpor, and grabs the reigns he's formed around the Nightmare's head with one of her hands as it flickers with an eerie glow as she channels the same magic she uses in manipulating her own creatures that go bump in the night into the reigns. "o/~ Exit - Light. Enter - Night. Take my hands... We're off to never-never land. o/~"

    Hifumi tries to explain where in the menu the option is... only to have more rocks and dirt cascade down on him. He probably should have gotten out from under the pile of junk before doing anything else. Snapdragon digs at the pile trying to free its summoner.

    While capturing monsters is, on its face, possible for Baroness Wake, it's not exactly in her normal repertoire. Yet necessity is the mother of invention, and the saddle option is brought to bear in the only way that strikes Wake as wise in the moment.
    Drawing upon her magical powers, Wake takes the control of the shadows directly, with darkness pouring from her blades and moving against the Nightmare. Like an inky blob, they start to flow over the monster.

    Merek does try to assist with capturing the monster by handling it, though it looks like his mana is low, and even while he would use the ability, it doesn't seem to make any progress.

What, did you think the artillery mage is going to suddenly also be amazing at capturing monsters? Hilarious! But no. Prophylaxis is not in the business of capturing monsters. Prophylaxis is in the business of setting monsters on fire from the relative safety of the makeshift stone fortresses he erects on any given battlefield.

Not that he doesn't /try/ to help. "Augh," Prophylaxis grunts as he bids THORNY VINES to lash up out of the ground to restrain the runaway mustang... To little effect! Because it is far too angry and far too quick for him to wrap more than a couple of vines around the thing at once. "Damnit! Stand still so that I can make you stand still!"

(That's not going to happen)

    The Nightmare dances around as it's resisting the attempts to tame it. Wild stallions and all are some of the worst at times.

    The collective efforts finally bear some fruit as Kauchemar helps Giganpor bring the beast down, the magic soldifying fully into the reigns and bridle needed to secure the horse. This is followed by Baroness Wake and her shadows successfully putting the saddle in place that has a near-instant attitude shift on the Nightmare itself!

    Instead of trying to get away, or even attack, it's suddenly so... docile. Just sitting there.

    But the good news? They did it! They captured a monster! And tamed it! The only strange part is that there's now a debuff/buff icon on it. Hard to say which it is, but there's obviously a timer that's quickly gone up to around a day and sticking there at the moment.

    Giganpor breathes a sigh of relief, "Okay, that was fun... at least we didn't get eaten by it, right?" He looks at the others, "That might've been a nightmare of a way to go." He looks around at the group, then pauses as he seems to consider, "... wow... I just realized what this means. We captured this thing."

    "Indeed. But.. for how long?" asks Baroness Wake. She gestures towards the icon, "I'm concerned that after that should expire, things may change. I am a rather optimistic person, yet after dealing with this monster and seeing what it does, I feel hesitant to think that all is settled. What are your plans on maintaining it? Surely it will need to be.. fed?" This creature's mode of fulfilling its needs is so horrific that the Baroness will be quite delighted to not see it again.

    Merek nods a bit while he watches the Nightmare, then looks to Giganpor, "Alright, well it looks like we were successful. That took a lot of looking and research," he notes, while he takes a moment to take a flask to drink from while he nods a bit.

    Hifumi twitches a foot, and with the help of Snapdragon gets the dirt and rocks at least off his face. "Uhm.... little help?" he croaks out. A good portion of his hitpoint bar empty. Sure he wasn't eaten or even bitten but it's been a bad day for the Chloromancer

Kauchemar gives Giganpor a flat look as she lets go of the reigns. "Even for me, that joke was hard to stomach."

Then turns her attention to the icon. "Huh. Never seen that before. You might have to work to keep this beastie subdued."

She clasps her hands together, back to that eerily and slightly morbidly cheerful demeanor. "Well, I certainly did learn a lot. I'm even more horrific than I thought!" She tosses her head back with a sound somewhere between a whinny and an 'evil overlord' laugh.

    Merek looks over to Hifumi and just gives a sigh while he lifts a hand to bathe the man in healing magic.

"I'm not sure I like that thing on its buff bar," Prophylaxis says with a quiet huff. "It looks like some kind of tameness meter. You be sure to keep that thing well-behaved or else it might go on a rampage and eat someone's bunbun. Or a Gnome."

Kauchemar retorts to Prophylaxis. "After the last week? It can eat all the damn bun-buns it wants."

"Bun-buns are friends," Prophylaxis answers with a firm shake of the head, "Not food."

    Giganpor looks at the icon, then over at the others. He laughs, "I can agree. I think I'll feed it monsters whenever I go out looking for things. Not everything's useful, but stuff like wolves or the like."

    Eyeing the icon as it obviously starts to count down, Giganpor experiments a little before frowning as he finally finds what he needs to keep it going. "Handle Monster spells keep the icon up."

    Now that the excitement is over, however, Giganpor looks more towards the northwest. "Hm... I hope the Wave doesn't take too long, I need to get back to the forge and working on those."

    Then he snaps out of it and looks at the others, "Thank you all again. I think with this we can see about capturing other monsters... I just need to figure if we can turn it into a summon or actual pet without the gear now, I think... maybe? Shoot, been a long time since I've done this."

    The Nightmare meanwhile gives a snort, as if it was wondering what kind of master it had now.

    Then Giganpor seems to get an idea before he turns to look at the others, with a small grin on his lion-like face. "So... who wants a ride back towards Fort Ouph?"