Caerbannog Hunt

    By word of mouth, and a note posted Hunter's Guild Wisteria has let it be known that in celebration of the Bunbun festival she's setting out on an expedition to find the Caerbannog. The boss monster that was used in the creation of her Were Fang type. She's gathered people up in Dun Loireag. She's rented peco peco for herself and some of her friends, and there are plenty of peco to rent for everyone else coming along.

    Wisteria stands up on a crate near the stables, the tall albino girl with the geometric tatoo of a bunbun on her neck and the samurai getup announces. "OKay looks like everyone's here. It's a long ride so make sure you've got food and a bedroll just in case." she says with a wide smile "I've only been able to find reference to one place where the Caerbannog spawns, hope everyone brought their best weapons and wave arts and some healing potions." she hops down easily from the crate to head for her peco and mount up. She gets out a map to check the route she's marked and gives everyone time to get settled and ready to head out.

Vertina is here to help her friend with her life goals! That and she is curious to see the thing that Wisteria is based off of. Something that can be that cute yet that terrifying in battle has to be worth the effort.

At the mention of best weapons she adjusts the straps to the bladed knuckle guards she's wearing. "Don't know about the 'best' part, but I did come armed." She's still experimenting with the fist weapon design.

Not that Vertina would object to hiking on foot, but that would be exhausting keeping up with everyone else so of course she's going to use one of the rentals. It does no good to go all the way and then be too tired to actually fight!

    Merek would come with his own Peko Peko, which is black-furred with a smoky gray coat, along with what looks to be his sword as usual, dark attire on with the scarf which he wears as well. The man looks around a bit and pets his magical pet mount. It's the one that won him that race a while back. "I brought defense potions if you want one for everyone. It's called 'Wave Defense'." There's a check of his belt which he wears, "It's a bit of gold but probably worth it, if you want to pay for them or we can put in towards them." There's a nod to the woman.

    Baroness Wake has just finished arranging for the rental of her steed. After considering the creature for a moment and judging it to be of seemingly easy temperment, she mounts it with carefully concealed uncertainty. She has swapped out her usual, fine rainment for a warmer dress, cut for riding. Over this, she has added a cloak. She draws the creature over towards Merek. She calls to him, "Fancy meeting you here. It sounds like you've been busy." Looking off at Wisteria, she adds quietly, "And we're all going to have our hands full if this creature lives up to its reputation."

Goldenblade has a rented peko and is riding it poorly. But she's here and riding. Sort of. "I hope that's not too important," she chimes in. "I've got a lot of projects going on, and I'm maybe not all here." She smiles nervously, "I'm mostly on, though, don't worry!" As far as her best weapons, she pats her left hip. "I've actually got a small upgrade, after leaving one buried in the last boss."

She chuckles, admits, "Hopefully we can find this thing you're looking for, though. I'm sort of a scout, I guess. Not a great one, but OK." Her character has the skills, but as a gamer, she's entirely newb.

    Miyako is glad to be fully healed from her misadventures of the previous evening, and demonstrates it by occasionally bursting into song as the group rides along. Her mount - a rental, like most of the group - is placid enough for now, but her seat is as unsteady as most new riders, which would explain why she doesn't get out her guitar to add to the travelling music.

    "Thanks," she offers to Merek. "I'll take one of those, sure." She opens a trade window to retrieve some gold to pay him with.

    "So," she muses, a few minutes later. "Has anyone actually seen this critter before?"

Also renting a mount, Kotono rides along with the others, staying close to Miyako. She doesn't seem too interested in the song but she does nod along to the rhythm. Like Miyako, she's got both hands attached again, and it's a good thing too since it's hard to do a cartwheel with one hand! (Among other things, but that's just one thing.)

"I'll take a potion too," Kotono comments as she gets herself some gold to pay for the potion with. "Don't want to risk going in unprepared again."

After storing her potion, Kotono proceeds to do a little light stretching, although it's more of an idle thing than actual limbering up for anything. Still, can't hurt to be prepared, right?

    Of course Mizuki is here to help her friend Wisteria! She's already been briefed and is ready with a rented peko and adventuring supplies.

    Well, as ready as one can be considering... "After seeing what normal 'bun-buns' are capable of, I have to wonder what a field boss version will be capable of..." Furthermore, they're going into the mountains of Ninetails. Mizuki isn't exactly sure where Eddga spawns, but she expects it to be in mountains /somewhere/ -- it may well be that they'll end up running into her origin, as well as Wisteria's.

    Defense potions are offered. "Nice! Yeah, I'll take one." After the bun-bun fight, Mizuki is not screwing around!

    "Someone, sometime, must have seen it, if the game's going to try to make sense of Wisteria's existence. Maybe we should ask around sometime about landers involved in the creation of were fangs... but I certainly haven't seen the beast of caerbannog. I mean, outside of the movie, obviously."

    Merek would drink a potion of his own as well, then nods a bit to people, while he begins to adjust the peko peko to follow along with people, then he gives a potion to each person which would ask.

Gwen is no longer in the Casino bunny suit she was wearing earlier. Given what she'd heard she was a bit on edge about this hunt she didn't want to leave the likes of Goldenblade alone on this. She had a rented peco of her own. She's sitting on a fairly large peco given her stature. She seems in good spirits but as always she seems to be distracted at this point. "Is there anything else we need to know?"

She'll take the offered potions.

    Wisteria hugs her tall lizard friend. "I'm sure it'll be fine." she says with a laugh. She also steals a Mizukichi hug as she leads on from peco peco back. She has a map and she's even got the skills to back it up it seems. Out the gate and through the flower filled fields with nice roads for a goodly distance along. Passing through small villages and farming communities. "You'll be fine, and I've got the route to where it's suppose to spawn so getting there should be the easy part." she grins brightly at Golden.

    Wisteria suddenly changes, the tall albino girl on a peco suddenly an even taller albino bunbun girl on a peco. "It'll look something like this." she says sweetly, and then smiles, her mouth a horror show of ragged triangular razor teeth in multiple sharklike rows. "But smaller and faster and meaner." she winks one red eye before shifting back to her human form as her peco starts freaking out a little and almost dumps her in the road. "Ninetails has a whole magical division on studying monsters and stuff it's how they made the Cait Sith and Were Fangs." she says "That's why I started in Dun Loireag when I went hunting. I duno if it spawns anywhere else but it's suppose to spawn on like the only craigy mountain on the island." she laughs and shrugs. She's happy to trust in her research and luck, besides, worst thing that happens in her opinion is she gets to map a mountain.

    Baroness Wake accepts a potion from Merek. "I am sure this will be most useful. You have my thanks, my friend!" She keeps up easily enough with Wisteria and the group. Or rather, the creature doing all the work does. Either by intention or lack of skill, Wake finds herself riding near Goldenblade after a time. She waves and calls out, "I'm happy to see more familiar faces on our little holiday ride into the face of grave danger."

    Merek nods a bit to Baroness Wake, then he takes a moment to prepare for following with Wisteria. "Indeed, it looks like a lot of the lore takes on new meaning when we play politics. I would not like to ask why they created whole new species, all of that." To anyone thanking the man, "You're welcome!"

Vertina 's hands are busy guiding her ride, so she returns the brief bun hug with her tail instead. Then nods to the magic knight. "Thanks Merek." She nods down at the jar strapped to her belt. "But I've got my own alchemy if I need anything. Give them to the people that can't make their own."

Riding riding riding. "IT makes sense. How far would they possibly go to get samples for making Were Fangs?

Goldenblade smiles to Baroness Wake, amd says, "It's good to see you as well. I'm glad to see you getting out and about. Hopefully things will start moving along for you." She chuckles about the holiday ride, and nods, "Yes, it should be interesting." She smiles to Gwen, and only has a bit of difficulty handling the rented peko. She's unsteady in the saddle, but not as bad as all that.

Gwen seems a bit on edge with this whole thing still. She wasn't part of the big purge at the farm, yet she'd darn well heard about it from some customers.

"That does make sense to me Wistewria." She notes, the towering woman. She seems to settle in and seems ready to go. "Right don't be afraid to pull out if you need to and if it comes to it I'll buy people time."

    "Mountain, huh?" Miyako muses, and double-checks her inventory to be sure she has warm clothing. "So long as it's just the one boss critter we should be fine, it's the adds we need to worry about."

"I'm sure we can handle it," Kotono says as she looks to Miyako and smiles a little. "I was a little unprepared last time, but this time I'm ready for just about anything!" She twirls her knives a little as if to emphasize her point.

    Mizuki hugs Wisteria in turn! And then they're off. She gives Merek a confused look. "Whaddoyou mean? Cait Sith and Were Fangs, at least in lore, have increased physical abilities that make them better able to fight monsters. Haven't you ever seen any scifi story with a super-soldier program? ...Except here, it's a fantasy world with endlessly respawning monsters to fight, so wars with /eachother/ aren't the only reason to genetically engineer supersoldiers..."

    Beat.

    "I breathe fuckin' fire!" Mizuki concludes by spitting a brief plume of flame into the air for emphasis.

    "...What I wonder is what lengths the landers had to go to to take viable flesh samples from boss monsters like the Beast of Caerbannog and Eddga. Bosses are hard enough for US to fight, and we have infinite lives..."

    Wake nods to Goldenblade, "Things are moving along well, and honestly, how could I stay back when someone might need some help?" She notices all the brandishing of weapons and asides, "Though I'm not really certain you have much need for me. Still, perhaps my particular talents will prove useful before all is said and done." She directs her attention over to Gwen, "Fancy meeting you here. You are certainly a woman of diverse interests and skills. I feel more confident with every passing moment, myself."

    Wisteria nods "That's what I was thinking, I mean it was when they were first being overrun with monsters and they were all desperate for soldiers to fight." she shrugs "So Were Fangs got made from what they had, I'm sure there's lots more Were Fangs who are from the most common monsters that attacked, but then they wanted some really strong ones and since we get traits from our monster half finding minibosses makes total sense."

    Leaving the farms behind the expedition starts to move into the hills, it's taken most of the day and some time later just before reaching the forest on the route Wistera pulls up her Peko and stops near a stream. "This is where we'll camp, it's a long way." she says "This is why I said bring food and bedrolls." she says happily as she dismounts the sun low in the sky "We should get to the craig by evening tomorrow if we get an early start." she says happily and starts pulling camping stuff out of her inventory and ties her peko to a long spike she drives into the ground. "So who wants guard duty?" she says still bright and chipper. "It's still bunbun festival never know when a horde my roll over the camp... or maybe we'll get attacked by gnolls or goblins or a house sized peko (that happened once).

    Baroness Wake slips from her mount when they arrive. After she has secured her beast, she examines her camping supplies. Warm bedroll, extra blanket, and a considerable pack of food. With everyone accounted for her, considers the question from Wisteria. "I'll take a shift," she decides aloud, raising a hand as well. "I have a rather fond relationship with the night. Also, I have extra food. Hand made, of course, for any who might need it."

Vertina pulls to a stop, hopping down and finding a tree to tie her peko to for the night. "Pff, bedrolls." She crouchs and smacks her fist into the ground to use her, for lack of better words, earthbending to flatten out an appropriately sized area for herself. "You know how hard it is to find sleeping gear for... actually you would." Laughs a little awkwardly, hard to make tall jokes when you're not the only tall person here. "Never mind." She flops down on her spot and kicks back.

Goldenblade chuckles to Baroness Wake about things moving along. "Indeed," she agrees. "This sounds like a good way to help out. As far as needing people, everyone has a way to contribute, from what I've seen on missions." When we stop to break camp, she slides off her peko and grimaces, walking off the stiffness of being in the saddle. She'll unpack the camping gear she'd brought, and look for a good place to lay out her gear. She'll do the basic peko caretaking that was explained to her when she rented it, and offers, "I'll take whichever watch you like." She's got menu food, but it's not awful for a couple days. She ate nothing but for the first month or so.

    "I will take a shift as well," Merek notes, while he climbs from the Peko, and takes off the gloves. Then he's finding a nice place to settle in while he leans back with a sigh, pulling his bedroll along. There's a look to the skies, while he takes a bite of the biscuit which he brought with him, rations from the city made by a few Adventurers.

    Miyako slides down from her mount with a sigh of relief. "I'll take first watch," she announces.

    That said, she steps a few feet away to find a flat place to set up a small tent for herself. "Anyone bring cooking gear?" she asks, casually. "And, hmm," she muses, looking over to Vertina. "Maybe you can clear some space for a fire?" she asks the 'earthbender', then moves to start gathering firewood.

Gwen mutters hoping it doesn't take too long she does have a project to finish. She is comitted now so she can't really back out and leave people hanging now can she? Gwen had packed for the trip, she'd even brought cooking supplies with her. So at least there'd be non mush food for this merry band. "I did Miyako I'm a Maid job class after all!" She looks to Vertlina "If you could that would be a big help Vertina."

    "It seems we have no lack of volunteers," notes the Baroness. "Might I suggest, delicately, that our best fighters get the bulk of the rest? I'd rather expend my energy tonight, knowing that our best and most enduring will be at their very best in the morning. While that is being figured out, I will do a bit of scouting to see what's about us. If there is trouble, I'd like to catch it before it draws too near. I promise to return shortly."

"I'll take the last watch I suppose," Kotono says. "If I get enough sleep in advance I'm sure I can get up a little extra early." She looks to Miyako and says, "Aside from my knives, no real cooking gear." She shrugs. "Well, let's see what we can do, hmmm?" She joins Miyako in gathering wood and anything else she can find.

    With Kotono following, Miyako carries out her search for firewood, picking up deadfall and watching carefully for tracks of animals that might commonly pass through the area. "Anyone able to set up some sort of perimeter around the camp? I'd rather not have a herd of deer or something crash throuhg the area while we're asleep."

Vertina looks up from the spot she made. "Hmm? Oh, I suppose I could." She rolls over and gets back onto her feet. "Everyone step back a moment." She closes her eyes as she focuses and strikes a pose, entire form shimmering slightly.

And then with a growl she slams one fist into the ground with much more intensity this time. Dirt and stone split apart, cracking edges forming as the land is split into a decent sized trench encircling the area they're setting camp up, save for a small area for people to walk across with the wood and other supplies.

Vertina stands and dusts her hands off. "Perimeter made!"

Unfortunately, Kotono is not good at chopping wood, but she does help with what Miyako can't carry by herself. "A perimeter would be good," She agrees. "We can't risk having our guard down for any reason. Who knows what might be out there?" A smile is given to Vertina. "Well, thanks!"

    A horde may roll over the camp? "Gods, let's hope not." Mizuki opines. "I'll take a shift, since I can see in the dark. You can just tie my peko to another one while I nap during the day."

    Wisteria smiles at Vert "Yes I do." she sticks her tongue out playfuly "And think about poor Gwen." she says nodding to the woman. She grins and starts taking out little metal spikes with small crystals attached to them she paces out the parimiter of the camp every ten or fifteen feet she puts on one of the spikes in the ground. The tall swords woman speaks quietly to her self, her fingers making several gestures that leave runes glowing a black light in the air above each spike. She chuckles a bit at Vertina's take on perimeter. "Moat very classic." she says still walking on the outside of the crack placing her spikes. When she gets back around and crosses back into the camp she sits down and pulls out several small bags and a little crystal. She sprinkles powders that seem to melt into the crystal. Then finaly she makes several gestures over it and the runes in the air sink into the crystals on the spikes and the crystal in her hand starts to glow black. "There we are, perimiter alarm." she grins. Shadows... slice dice and twist the wave arts into places they shouldn't really go.

    Merek would watch while people find a place to set up the camp, then he finds a place to begin working his own plan. He settles about into an area which he can work in peace, then begins working with cooking, taking time to make what looks to be a local fish he found, along with potatoes which he bought from the market, making the classic like fish with chips, then brings that to the party. "I made a few things to eat while we wait!"

Gwen makes a face at Wisteria. "Look you'll get campfire food but it's better than menu crafted right?" She grins a bit and then starts whisling some song or another. She seem in a good mood as she works way the food isn't quite the best. Gwen id pretty distracted, but it could be far worse and she's not charging for it either. She's paying attention to what she hears while she works away. "Well come and get it it should be done soon." The food is mostly some sort of stew but at least it has taste.

The night is quiet for the most part, a neatly defended camp with people making the best of things, some good food some okay food, guards, a moat, a spell alarm. Shortly before breakfast a horde of bun buns run towards the camp. Gwen is easily able to notice them coming even before the black crystal in the center of the camp flashes white and makes a loud chime sound. Folks were comfy and well fed, and everyone was able to get plenty of sleep. The horde of bun buns doesn't seem especially terrible in that light and hey they have to cross a moat before anyone even has to do anything.

Gwen calls out th warning about the horde of buns that are coming in. These ones are nothing like her pet Avalon at all. She seems ready though for troubnle and she'll start using magic the moment she can. There's a horde, they have prevented her from making up for dinner last night. She's not very happy about that, she'll just start with the attack.

"GALE OF SWORDS!"

Gwen opens up with arcing wind elemental sword strikes and odens't seem to be holding back at all on them as she just goes after any Bun Buns who get past the moat.

    Merek looks to the incoming bun buns, not liking that at all. He's fought them, he will begin to shield along the whole of the place with a full rock cradle barrier which shimmers along from the soil of the ground to protect the party and also the camp. He does look to Gwen, "It'd be best we don't engage away from others of the party, they tend to come in entire hordes and also they can take off your limbs for status effects as well."

Goldenblade wakes up to the alarm, and crawls out of her tent still in her gambeson, the thick leather and padding under the mail coat she normally wears. She looks around to see what's going on, steps up to the well-setup camp perimeter and unsheathes both her swords, rolling her shoulders and assuming a ready stance. Sword tips bobbing in the air, she gets ready to take on the oncoming horde, or swarm, maybe, watching it cross the moat as she psyches herself up. "This isn't near as bad as the other day," she tells herself, and prepares for the bunbun swarm. She'll take on any that get past that outer barrier, concentrating on preventing any from penetrating out defenses and getting into the camp.

When you're a ninja-style, it pays to be sneaky. So Kotono's keeping an eye out for potential trouble from sneaky spots. She's slipping around and moving swiftly to keep any possible enemies on their toes... if they have any that is! "This is actually kinda fun," Kotono whispers to herself, not wanting to wake the others. "And it's helping wake me up too!"

    At the warning from Gwen, Baroness Wake rises. She calls out, "Thank you for the warning, dear! Someone please do mind our steeds!" She then simply vanishes. Wherever there are shadows, she seems to find a way to strike, a pair of dull blades slicing through the enemies before she fades into thin air once more. It's the first time she's allowed herself to go all out like this in a while, and she can't help but rather enjoy the opportunity to let loose.

Plenty of food and rest, and Vertina is up on her feet in an instant when the warning of approaching hordes is made. "Now this is my idea of a warm-up!" Which is what she does, taking advantage of buns falling into the trenches she made by dropping searing hot flames on them! "I almost feel bad for roasting something so cute, but they're dangerous buggers in large numbers apparently."

    Miyako rolls over as the alarm sounds, and mutters a curse as she scrambles out of her bedroll. "Why does it always have to happen at dawn?" she asks of no one in particular, then gets her head up to where she can see the oncoming horde. "Not again..."

    Awake enough now, she rattles off a series of runes in the air, a sphere of darkness forming in her hand that she hurls out into the crowd of rabbits. "Drop dead, stew-meat!"

    Wisteria joins in on the defense orbs of dark magic flashing out to confuse and confound the buns. She doesn't really like fighting buns so she's oddly gentle with them compaired to her usual attack without mercy style. She bounces around and doesn't even take on her were form for the fight it isn't really all that bad a battle after all.

    The party is easily able to handle the horde and hey plenty of bunbun eggs to go around for those who are collecting eggs for the festival.

After its all said and done Vertina scoops several of the bunbun egg drops out of the trench. "Ah, perfect." Drops them into her inventory. "I'm going to hide these around Tolbana when we get back, so the refugees that can't travel far can still enjoy the holiday."

    Mizuki's watch passes uneventfully.

    God this is boring. WHY DID SHE VOLUNTEER FOR WATCH DUTY. She is left with only her thoughts and not even a book to read. ARGH. She's relieved to finally go to sleep after.

    Only to be woken up to the smell of breakfast and a loud alarm. She equips her ninja outfit and peers out of the tent.

    NOT AGAIN.

    "NO." She says, firmly, and runs towards the moat. "No, no, no. Not again." She does some waterbending-like martial arts moves, trying to make the water wash up out of the moat on the other side and sweep away the bunbuns!

    Once everything is taken care of and folks have a chance to 'bathe' at the stream and breaksfast is eaten everyone get's packed up and Wisteria leads the way into the woods. The path through the woods is much less well defined but peko back is better than trying to march through all that undergrowth. "We should make it to the spawn location before dark, but it's still a long way to go. Just keep your eyes peeled and be on guard never know what might attack in the forests around here espeically so far from the cities." she seems perfectly cheerful that they might be attacked by monsters. The albino girl is positively a little nutty... but then again she is an Odysian knight and those solo explorers are all a little nutty right?

On the trail again... Fortunately Vertina isn't a bard so she doesn't try to actually sing anything like that. "It would keep the trip from getting boring." Yup, them Odyssian Knights are all a bit on the nutty side when it comes to the potential of a good fight of some kind.

Goldenblade washes up after the fight is done, pulls her mail coat on, breakfasts, and gets ready to head out. She's a bit better on pekoback than she was yesterday. She's slowly getting the hang of it, and can ride with just one hand on the reins most of the time. She looks left and right as we ride along, staying alert for danger, her bow laying across her lap, mostly ready.

    Merek begins following along with Wisteria, while he nods a bit, once finished with the Bun Buns. The man seems to content in taking a moment to examine the whole of the place.

    Wake cleans up, not missing the chance to wash away any unpleasant reminders of the battle. On the trail, she remains a tentative rider. Still, she manages to eat onigiri in the saddle without falling off or losing control of her steed. There's clearly something to this concept of steering with legs alone. Not that she's particularly good at it. She shares, of course, with anyone who wishes to ride and eat, explaining, "My fiance loves to cook. Her greatest enemy in the game is the empty stomach, you might say."

    Bathing in the river? In this weather? Forget it! Even if it's not freezing, the environment is still at temperatures reserved for refridgerators, not bathtubs! And a fur coat doesn't protect against water! Using the menu is fine. She notes that Goldenblade goes for it anyway, and wonders if she's the sort of old man who goes in freezing water every winter and claims it's healthy. Probably.

    At least there's freshly-cooked food! Someone in the party has Cooking, right? That's always a treat!

    On the road again. When Wisteria mentions 'you never know what might attack' she looks alert for awhile, but she can't keep it up all the time, and may eventually fall asleep on the back of her peko. At least unlike a car it can just keep walking in line with the other birds...

with eveyrthing handled at this point Gwen will pack her things up and get on the road. "Honeslty this more feels like pest control. Very dangerous devour you whole pet control mind you." Every day that passes? Gwen more and more finds things less a game and become less and less the OL she was before...and more the wandering Knight.

    Uninterested in continuing without a bath despite the weather, Miyako takes a quick plunge and is out within a couple of minutes, huddling in clothes and blankets by the fire to warm herself after it. She welcomes hot breakfast food eagerly, especially a hot beverage, and devours it rapidly.

    And then, finally, we're on the road again, and she sits astride her peko only slightly better than she had the previous day.

    The trip through the forest is unfortunatelly pretty boring ... well for the Odyssians anyway given there are no monster attacks. The trip is however eerie, thick mist rolls in and out, foggy morning woods. The party occasionaly stumble across what seem to be maintained bushes and in the distance the occaional cry of Ni seems to drift in.

Leaving the forest and entering grasslands once more, these sadly without nearly so many roads. The Pekos seem to be holding up well however. Stepping from the foggy woods and into the sun the party can see off in the distance what must be the final destination. A lonely mountain there with foot hills around and farmland beyond. Hours of travel along the plains with the sea off to the south as the sun moves overhead and finaly infront of the party. Reaching the mountain the party is forced to leave the Peko behind to climb further, and off in the distance they can see a tall thin imp fighting ... well what it's fighting is impossible to tell but there is plenty of fire and explosions involved.

    At long last the party comes to a huge cave mouth, the area strewn with bones and torn armor. Obvious set dressing given that nothing actually LEAVEs a corpse to rot down into bones.

While Kotono isn't sure about bathing in such cold temperatures, she decides to bite the bullet anyway and take a quick bath. It's quick, but it focuses on scrubbing up as best as she can since she doesn't want to risk getting too dirty. After that, the shivering girl uses her warm clothes and blankets alongside Miyako to warm up. "Extreme... but worth it..." She says through chattering teeth. A nice breakfast helps too.

After that, they're off again. Only to arrive at a huge cave with bones strewn, and that makes Kotono bite her lip. "I think... we've found it?"

    Merek looks to the reins of his peko while he nods a bit to the party, "Alright, this looks like the place, the potions should keep you protected enough to manage, I will offer a front line," he notes, while he begins to dismount, then he takes a moment to watch the cave entrance. The man pulls a cloak about him.

Vertina has plenty of fire to keep herself warm on a cold spring morning. Or she'd probably be dozing off in boredom on the trek. When they get to the mountain finally and have to climb for themselves she promptly perks up to tackle the task. Turns out her choice in weapon also makes for good climbing assistance, as she can punch the knuckleguard blades into the rock to help climb and make hand and foot holds.

They finally find themselves outside a suspiciously decorated cave, and the Salamander hunches down by some rocks, tail twitching a bit with anticipation. "Look at all those bones. Someone really wanted to establish the atmosphere of 'Don't mess with this thing lightly'." Or recreate a certain movie scene.

Things are pretty boring when all is said and done. She looks to the rest of the party as they reach the cave, she pauses for a moment. This world is strange and she pauses all the tell tale sign of there's a bos sin here. For a moment as she leaves her mount behind and moves to go take point.

Gwen can also be heard muttering something about spam? Over and over...

Goldenblade follows along, riding, though she'd be more comfortable walking. Though she'd have to have jogged to keep the pace, and she couldn't do that. The bath was cold, though she thinks of it as brisk, and it's a better wake up than bunbuns or alarm clocks. Her own inner flame keeps her warm, she channels that when the water seems cold, but for the ride, she mostly just keeps her eyes open on watch.

When we're led to the mountai and must leave the pekos behind, she won't complain, she's eager to be back on her own feet. Seeing the huge cave mouth, she eyes it suspiciously and asks, "Do you want me to go forward and scout?"

    "Goldenblade, dear, I'm not sure I'm comfortable with the idea of you going into that cave," admits Baroness Wake. "At least not without backup." She looks to the bones strewn about, "Besides, clearly this rabbit's dynamite." She manages to deliver that line with a straight face. "If this thing kicks my butt I'm going to be so embarassed now."

    Miyako slides down from her saddle with a relieved sigh, taking several minutes to walk about and stretch her legs before doing anything else at all. Even the bones strewn about elicit little comment beyond "Yup, boss critter alright."

    She swipes her hand across her menu, producing a canteen from inventory and taking a long drink. "Okay, that's much better," she finally pronounces as she's able to walk straight once more. A second swipe across the menu retrieves her familiar naginata, and she walks back to rejoin the rest of the party.

    "It's certainly worth doing things other than kicking," she comments to Wake with a wink.

    Foggy woods? "We better not be about to wander into Avalon... wait, even worse, this better not be some Lost Woods puzzle where we go in circles forever!" Mizuki exclaims. They don't SEEM to be going in circles, though...

    And then... the beast's lair looks just like it did in the movie. "That's not exactly encouraging... but if it's a monster in the game, it's designed for us to have a way to beat it, right?"

    When Goldenblade offers to scout, Mizuki holds out a hand. "Woooah, let's NOT split the party now, okay?"

    Out of the cave hops a bunbun. Just your usual bunbun, nothing special. White, red eyes, long ears, adorable little pearly horn. It just casually hops about, nosing at a skull here or a humerus there. And then the boss battle music starts when the bunbun's head lifts and it lets out it's terrible war cry, and blurs into motion. The damn thing moves like a white streak of light, bouncing off of bone, stone, ground, shimmering air runes... it seems that Wisteria might lean on her caerbannog herritage for combat more than people might have thought. Inspect labels it a miniboss 'The Beast of Caer Bannog'.

    Merek looks to the boss while it streaks along all of them, the wind of the speed knocking his cloak back a bit. He then shifts forward while he swivels away the sword of his, then he begins to chase the Bun Bun. The man swings along with his fists to begin slamming them into air, creating ripples of the flame that begins to roll into a wave along the creature.
    The flames begin to dance along while striking into the creature and creating an explosion of the lights that begin to shimmer along the entire field.

Goldenblade shrugs about going in alone, "Backup's fine," she agrees. She looks over the bones, but she doesn't see any obvious threats, so she shrugs off Baroness Wake's proclamation about rabbit dynamite. "What rabbit?" She's too old, Monty Python was something her kids liked, she never had much to do with it. She holds when Mizuki advises against splitting the party, though, and asks, "So, what do we do?"

That becomes obvious, though, when the tiny bunbun comes out with miniboss flags, and she blinks. "What in the world?" But if it's a fight, she's not going to hesitate. She almost got swept away by a wave of bunbuns the other day, and her sympathy for tiny cute bunnies is nearly nil at this point. But even so, she's not prepared for the savagery as it leaps at her throat. Her HP drain rapidly in gouts of pixels, and it's only with great effort that she can get her hands around it and yank it free, hurling it clear. "Oh, that rabbit," she says weakly to Baroness Wake, drawing both swords and wading in with a nervous expression.

Kotono is quick on her feet, meaning the bad bunny doesn't get the best of her. That's the good part.

The not good part?

Despite her best efforts to try to catch the bunny with her blades, she just ends up slashing nothing but air. "Awww!" She cries out in frustration, before shaking her head. "Gotta keep at it," She says.

'The Beast of Caer Bannog' the Inspect says. Even though it doesn't look any different from any other Bun-Bun she's seen this week... Yet something about it makes Vertina's spine tingle. Maybe it's that 'wuxia danger sense' she's mentioned, because she's already tense when the creature suddenly goes into a blurred frenzy.

"Ally oop!" The rock beneath her feet briefly distorts to slingshot the Salamander into the air, trajectory over the Boss's rampage before it can ravage her. Nimbly she twists midair, feet catching against the peak of the cavern mouth, and kicking off again. She drops to the ground near the boss bun-bun when she sees the opening and swipes at it with the knuckle blades, then quickly draws back into a defensive stance with the guards up and ready to protect herself.

    Baroness Wake usually likes it when she's right. Apparently accuracy in this case only draws distaste from her. In the face of this threat, she springs out of the way. As is her wont, a moment later she's in the shadows again and then lashing out from them with her most devastating attack. In the back of her mind, she knows her strike is nothing at all like it was been before, but it doesn't matter. She has no intention of running away.

    Wisteria flashes into action, shifting into her caerbannog form and it's obvious now where her fighting style comes from. Her feet bouncing off air runes, off the ground. She's just zipping about like a pinball much like the damn boss seems to be doing. A green light wraps around her arms before she takes a slash at the white ball of doom that seems to be everywhere at once.

    "Oh thank everything there's only one," Miyako mutters as she watches it approach, giving her naginata a twirl. "Right then." As she continues to twirl it, the blade seems to trail a spray of water behind it, more visible when she hops aside from the caerbannog's charge. "Oi! Watch where you're going, long-ears!"

    Once she's reached secure footing again, she lashes down with the blade, sending the water-jet lashing out at the rabbit-beast. "Die, flufferbutt!"

Gwen is now moving in as she blocks the savage assault from the horror bun. She knows what this is the kin of. She knows what it did to those knights! She will move in carefully and will make a rapid fading attack with her sword on it.

    There it is. Mizuki stares at it. She's... NOT going to quote the movie when many of the people here are probably going to get mauled. She just readies her weapons... and then there's that 'SQUEEP' sound and it's jumping all over the place! Goldenblade's bitten, luckily she's a PC adventurer... "Are you okay?!" and then the rabbit leaps right onto Mizuki's throat while she's staring in horror. It leaves her on the ground, gurgling with a hole of red light on her neck, before the potion's effect kicks in and heals her.

    "Right then." She kips up and ROARS a challenge at the beast, then watches the rabbit move with her eyes. It's moving among her allies, too fast for fireballs. But it can't actually change course in midair. She just needs to wait for it to make a long jump, and then--

                                   --STAB!--                                    

The Caerbannog bursts through Merek's flames in what seems to be almost a tunneling vortex, it's HP bar registering damage but for a single normal sized bun bun that should have been a fatal shot and this seems to have just iritated the little bugger. The bun flying past the knight to latch onto Golden's throat, the savage war cry muffled by it's maw full of woman. When it is finally pulled away the wirework 'wound' looks like someone tried to remove a large chunk of art asset. The little bullet of flur blurring past Kotono as it tries to take Vertina only to be dodged and have red lines 'opened' in it's hide. Baroness Wake and Wisteria both manage to catch the blur with their own savage slashes before it's onit's way towards Miyako only to take that water blade. The beast of caerbannog bounces off Gwen's defense using it as redirect point taking a bit more damage in the process but letting it blur off towards Mizuki. It takes the feline in the throat before bounding away again another red line appearing and fading with Mizuki's fierce counter.

    The bun however only seems to be down a third of it's health after all that, and it's speeding up but getting even more erratic in it's movements.

Goldenblade catches her breath, her HP bar shrunken, but her spirit undeterred. She looks to the Baroness, who must have known somehow, that rabbit really -is- dynamite. But we're here to fight it, and she won't hold back, wading in with both swird flashing, every time she can get an opening she swings at the tiny target, careful not to strike her allies though with everyone crowding the tiny target, it's difficult. She slashes with heavy blows at the fierce bunbun, shocked at how much its health doesn't go down with each stroke. This thing is indeed a monster.

    Merek looks to the Bun Bun while it begins to attack, then he swivels upon a hip to shift his cloak into the way, taking the time to absorb all of the damage. Then he summons a firebolt, "Firebolt!" The green flame of course would move to slam into the creature, then he nods a bit while he follows along the party!

Is keeping near Goldenblade as she right along side her guildmate and friend and sh head in again striking in time wioth them. she will again fade back and keep blocking it's attacks. Though iot's doing a number on her shield.

    Wake moves as swiftly as she can, but this round goes to the rabbit. Or would, if not for Merek's most greatly appreciated potion, which foils the attack at the last possible moment. Fortunately, a failure to dodge doesn't distract her in the last, and her next attack comes in fast, furious, and just barely accurate enough to find the mark. She watches the health of the others out of the corner of her eye and it drives her to grow ever more focused. The only way she can protect the others is to do all she can to give this rabbit the Holy Handgrenade treatment.

When the going gets tough, the tough get flowing...

Or something like that.

Kotono gulps her potion quickly, and with ease she is able to avoid the incoming attack from that evil rabbit, while at the same time she spins around with her blades outstretched like a whirlwind. "Yeehaw!"

There is always something satisfying about striking a solid hit on a boss. But it's not enough to slow the ballistic bun-bun beast down for very long. But with her defensive stance already in place Vertina can quickly shield herself with the knuckle guards with a few quick deft moves of her arms to intercept the Caerbannog's blitzing attacks. The sound of rapid feral strikes against metal ring up and down the mountains with each block.

The creature's speed and frenetic movement are going to make it hard to hammer down any precision blows easily, so the Salamander opts for a different approach. A few focusing kata movements and then she strikes a pose as she shifts back to an offensive stance. Flames seem to erupt from her own being to engulf her fists. And then she extends her arms and slams her fists together.

"RAGNAROK WAVE!"

A twist on the technique instead sends a massive shockwave of flame radiating out from her, aiming to catch the creature in it's erratic movements by giving it little room to maneuver around the attack regardless of how fast it may be!

    Slipping aside from another charge of the caerbannog, Miyako lets out a laugh as she sees the crimson marks of wounds on the thing and the decreasing HP bar. "Roast rabbit for dinner, yessireebob!" She starts to twirl the naginata above her head, whipping the water-trail around after it, until it starts to sparkle in the sunlight and freeze into ice crystals. This time when she lashes out, with a shout of "ICE RAIN!", the ice crystals splinter into thousands of shards as they storm down upon the beast.

    Mizuki manages to stab the bun... only for it to come right back at her! It's rapidly chewing through her forearm... this would be excruciating pain in real life for sure, but with the dulled pain in the game Mizuki can soldier through it! Still, she flails her arm for a fraction of a second, "AAH!" before having a realization. She takes a quick deep breath, and then tries to roast the rabbit (and her hand, but she's losing it anyway) point blank! The flames color the entire battlefield with their orange, glowing light for a second or so. "HA! GOT YOU RIGHT WHERE I WANT YOU!"

    The boss is still bouncing around like mad taking bites here and there where it can. The beast manages to bounce off Merek who is saved from a nasty bite with his potion, might have even been a nasty as a moose bite, you never know. Ricocheting off to slam into Kotono but not getting a good bite on her either, that potion has turned out to be handy, when the beast is flung off by Gwen's sheild to smack into Broness Wake and only fail to take a chunk out of her due to those potions. It takes advantage of a missed step by Mizuki to take a large bite of her arm... and hitpoint bar. The fireball taking the hand and bunbun flying. The hand pixelates way and the bun is slammed into the wave of fire thrown out by Vertina. Wisteria's blade slashes into the bun and it stops, for just a second the thing seems down but it's just the effect of that nasty mind effect slowing it down because it's off and bouncing again.

A second of those terrible screatching battle cries fills the air the bun bun's eyes glowing red, and dark lightning flickering along it's fur as it speeds up even more. This wasn't in the movie... but it is a game boss... and the party has it under half health.

More acrobatics and more slashing of the blades. It's not easy for Kotono, but she's keeping herself going as best as she can. "Sorry to do this to you!" She cries out as she helps finish off the evil rabbit, "But cute isn't always a good thing!"

    Merek begins to swing his demon blade, which is the name which he gave to the Shadow Eclipse. The weapon pulled back into both hands away from the back, he begins sweeping that into the Bun Bun while he shifts back a bit, then swivels forward to bring the weapon into it. The magic in it seems to be keeping the blade a lot more powerful than it should be, each swing like a Wave Arte itself while he fights with the party.

    It seems that the critter has become so cross, it's made a mistake, and Wake not only is able to avoid it's attack with ease, but it leaves her in the exact position she needs to counter. She lets her weapons do the talking, and her attack comes in a searing series of slashes, her blades appearing to move so quickly that they ignite, both tearing hide and scalding skin.

Thje boss is bouncing all over the place, Gwen leaps into the air bringing her blade down again at the thing connecting once last time even as the boss screams hopefully this assault will end it.

Goldenblade manages to rally after almost having her face chewed off in the beginning of the battle, blocking it's counterattacks with her blades, forcing it to back off or be sliced. Unlike a sword-and-boarder, she uses her left blade as a shield, but it cuts enemies of they strike it too aggressively. She blocks one onrushing torrent of ferocious bunbun with one blade and stabs with the other, draining HP bit by bit.

    Miyako deftly steps aside from yet another attack by the raging rabbit, and laughs once more. "Take your head off, will you? We'll be taking -yours-, ye scurvy rat!" She takes several rapid steps leaping after the creature, still twirling her naginata overhead, although the water-trail is gone now. "This'll learn ye right!" She closes in on the rampaging rapscallion, and brings her blade down in a hard swing that sends the blade twirling again, this time with its path intersecting the creature!

"Keep it up guys, it's going into it's final Phases!" Vertina cheers in support. Seeing the beastily boss cloak itself in lightning of some kind to add to it's rampage, she digs her heels in and channels her own ki into forming a protective barrier for herself. The bombastic boss attacks rebound off the spiritual shield, sparks crackling around her as it disperses the electricity.

Watching the creature as it speeds around the area in it's frenzy, she waits for it to come after again. She steps forward and pivots, bringin the other leg around in a high arc--
"HAMMER STRIKE!"
-- And hopefully into the Caerbonnag with one of her powerhouse kicks before it can veer away from the collision! It is about the same relative size and shape as a football isn't it.

    Mizuki sends the rabbit flying, which is /really satisfying/. Shame about her hand. Someone here can fix that, right?

    The ninja cat ninpos up some frost armor, and water wells up from the ground around her, aiming to slow the bunny if it tries to bounce off the ground near her.

    When it comes for her she shouts, "HA! YOU'VE ACTIVATED MY TRAP CARD!" and raises her remaining hand, the water rising up around her to hopefully sweep up the bun before she swings her hand down and the water collects into a mass in front of her, hopefully with the bunny inside.

    And then any badassedness of pulling that off is somewhat undermined by her panicked-sounding shouts of "HIT IT! HIT IT NOW!"

    Wisteria bounces out of the way of her progenitor monster and standing on a tall rock she starts going through a more complicated spell. "THORN BIND HOSTAGE!" she shouts as the spell finishes, dark black and green vines covered in poison dripping thorns lash from the ground to try capturing the boss.

    The Caerbannog bouncing from place to place, trailing black lightning. It doesn't slow down but the streaks it seems make it easier to target and ti's berserk fury seems to be leading to mistakes. Vertina's kick slams into the side of the crackling bun. The white and black blur bounces and is caught in a ball of water, and then the black and green vines dive into the ball wrapping the creature in spiked poisoned growth. This allows the reast of the team to go to town, finally knocking the last sliver of red out of the HP bar. The Beast of Caerbannog drops to the ground and explodes into globes of pearlescent light leaving behind... eggs... yup golden eggs with pearl like lines making a cross around it's middle. Someone on the coding team went all out with this reference it would seem.

    Merek looks to the place the Bun Bun that all of them defeated was, nodding a bit while he takes a moment to look to the egg. He puts away the Shadow Eclipse sword while he picks up the thing. "Well, that's nice," he notes.

The battle is completed, and now the eggs are all about. Kotono makes sure everyone is getting a fair share while getting one or two for herself. She looks to Miyako and gives her a thumbs up. "We did great!"

Goldenblade whews as the Beast finally falls into a pixellated corpse, panting softly as she catches her breath. "That was ... surprising," she observes, and she'll claim an egg as reward, presuming there's enough for everyone. "Hopefully there's not more of them."

Vertina fistpumps in the air. "We did it! Hope Wisteria doesn't feel too bad about us beating up her distant relative," she cheers and laughs, and collects one of the peculiarly decorated eggs for herself. "That's pretty fancy for an egg."

Gwen looks to Goldenblade "I hope not, we should go. I don't want to linger here very long. I don't like this place."

    Wake scoops up an egg, holding it aloft, and intones with formal stiffness, "Lord, bless this Thy hand grenade that, with it, Thou mayest blow Thine enemies to tiny bits in Thy mercy." She grins and turns to the others, "I love it when the game has an homage to the classics."

    Miyako's laugh has an almost hysteric edge to it as she sees the critter disappear in the familiar shower of pixels. "Revenge is sweet!" She grins and picks up an egg, then adds, "Revenge is profitable!" And picking up a second and third egg she doesn't bother to stifle a snicker. "And it will be DELICIOUS!"

    Wistera hugs Mizukichi from behind "Ack your arm... we're gona have to get you a new one... like do we need healing spells or like...do I need to make you some enchanted gauntlet of awesome?" she asks. It's obvious living in this world is skeweing her idea of 'normal' just a few months ago this whole thing would have probbaly left her a sobbing mess.

    Baroness Wake sighs softly, putting away her share of the loot. She directs her attention towards Merek, first, "Thank you for that potion, my friend! It's a true life saver. You know, it made me think how helpful that would be for everyone to have before battle. I know I prefer having my skin in one piece after a fight." Speaking of which, after that she's going to see who she can help with a bit of healing.

    Even after the deadly bun goes down, Mizuki's left on edge, full of adrenaline, breathing hard. It takes her a little while to calm down as the ice armor melts.

    She just smiles a little and lets out a 'hehh' breath at the sight of the holy hand grenades, taking one for her inventory and appraising it well enough to read the description.

    "Well... that was certainly something, Wisteria." she gets hugged! "This happened with the floor 2 boss too, remember? Healers can fix it. Although a robot hand WOULD be pretty cool... I've actually been meaning to ask you for suggestions about what'd be a good enchanted weapon to get."

    She tries to turn around and hug Wis back when she gets the chance, snugging her friend bun. "So... what now? I guess we should make camp for the evening..."

    Wisteria nods "Yah I know, I'm sure I can enchant something cool for you if you want." she says "Lets head down to the Pekos and we can make camp down in the farmlands, not likely to be much in the way of monsters there right?" she hugs Mizukichi again and smiles all razor fangs "My monster was really cool right? Like that was a hard boss fight even if it's just a mini boss out in the middle of no where."

    Mizuki holds up her stump but smiles good-naturedly. "'Cool' isn't the word I'd use for something that tried to rip my throat open and bit off my hand, but it's a fight I'll remember and not in a traumatizing way, so close enough I guess."

    Beat.

    "...How do you feel about fighting something with fire magic, that summons bears, and is resistant to hitstun?"

    Wisteria grins and squeezes Mizukichi "For you Mizukichi I'd fight all the bear summoning fire tigers."

Vertina stares at Wisteria. "That's a thing?..." Then smirks "Because it sounds like an awesome fight!"

    Mizuki can't help but grin back, "Aww, that's one of the sweetest things anyone's ever said to me!"

    She shrugs to Vertina. "Eddga the Thief is out there somewhere. The pipe-smoking, talking tiger who's been around since ancient times, despises the civilization that encroaches upon the mountains' wilderness and attacks all trespassers."

    Mizuki continues, "I never actually fought him in the original game without a high-level guild at my back slamming him with so many AoEs he couldn't really do anything and the bears died instantly. Now, though..." she waves the stump. "...I doubt we'll have it so easy."

    Wisteria smiles at Vertina "Yah, who do you think they used to make Mizukichi, she's a boss monster too." she says playfuly.

    Mizuki scratches the back of her head with her good hand. "I just wanted to be a kitty monster, and I liked his colors." she waves her arm out to the side vaguely. "Having fire powers has been /pretty sweet/ though!"

    Wisteria nodnodnods "I didn't even know what a Beast of Caerbannog was except that it was a bunny." she says with a grin showing off those terrible teeth. "But I looked it up after and then well hunted it down just now so I'd know what it was like and stuff."

Vertina laughs. "You'll get no argument from me on Fire powers. I picked a Salamander after all."

    Merek would look to be watching the skyline while he writes along in a scroll, taking the time to make a few notations, while he seems to be distant.