Duty Session 117: Bun-Bun Festival

Every year, there are certain seasonal events that get run throughout Elder Tale Online. You would think, that because Easter isn't exactly celebrated in Japan, that there wouldn't be such an event... but here it is. Complete with bun-buns, colorful eggs, and a complete lack of religious overtones.

Outside Fort Ouph, a bit of farmland has been set aside, unplanted. A number of landers have gathered around, just before sunset, excited for the prospect of the special event to come. There are carts full of herbs, others with food stuffs. Chairs and tables have been set up.

A number of Adventurers have also gathered, drawn by the limited time event. Mikage is among them, the pale Were Fang and her white lynx standing off to the side, looking curious. "I don't remember this one from last year. Wasn't it some kind of event to kill mobs that dropped eggs you could use as glamour currency?" She comments, reaching a hand down to scratch at Rama's ear.

Shiruba was on her trek back to Shibuya and made a stop at Fort Oomph to check in with both New World members stationed there and their Eastal contacts on preperations for the incoming Calamity Wave. But being focused on work did not stop her from noticing the duty pop up on her departure, and she detoured a bit to investigate the event amonst the still clear farmlands.

She was making a bit point about not stressing herself out over the multiple looming problems, and having some fun at one of the spring events sounds like a fine way to do just that.

She notices the never transformed Were Fang and waves. "Hi Mikage, Rama!" Pauses to glance around. "If you're here, and Rama is here, meaning he's not catsitting and Cyrus is here somewhere too?" The two/three are usually out together after all.

"Honestly, I don't remember. Last year, I was too busy being inside of the Tower all the time for most of my play. By the time I was looking into the Landers and all that Lore stuff - I think it was past this event's time." He explains to Mikage as she asks about the event. He's left his cart behind for the Duty today - choosing to load himself out with a few more potions instead.

The tall Cait Sith is standing next to the paler of the two, leaning both hands on his cane. He glances aside as Shiruba approaches. "Yep, I'm here too." He remarks, raising his hand politely. "I'm indeed not catsitting. Though let's be honest, when Rama is involved, I'm fairly sure the catsitting one is Rama." Because the lynx would be refusing to get off of his lap.

"How've you been, Shiruba?" Cyrus inquires. "Here for the event too, I assume?"

Raising her hand in greeting, Mikage calls out, "Shiruba, hey!" As if she needed to make an excuse for why she is participating in this yearly event to a superior in the guild, she offers a sort of wry smile, "Thought I'd take a break from prep work and try to see if the event drops are anything we can use for defensive purposes." That, and she probably just wanted to experience the event.

"Oh, Cy? Yeah he's around so--" And there he is. She stops mid-sentance and just motions towards him, then shrugs with a faint laugh.

It's at that moment that the sun touches the horizon and the landers seem to all move into action as if this were a completely scripted event. "This way!" One calls out, motioning at the Adventurers, "We need to plant these herbs! The smell summons the bun-buns!" Mostly, it's the adults that head out for the manual labor of working the fields. The children hang back, looking on excitedly.

Shiruba laughs, in part because she didn't realize that remark had double-meaning until Cyrus responded. "You're probably right! And yes, yes I am. Even busy Guild Leads need to relax and have some fun." She has no intent of turning into some stuffy desk jockey that's just giving out orders and not out doing things amongst the people she's in charge of.

So the first matter is planting bait for the bun-buns? Should be easy enough. Shiruba follows after the Landers, and notes the field rows set aside for the planting. "Let's see..." She crouchs down, resting her hand on the ground near the dirt. "Mother Gaia, open your embrace and accept your children." A discharge of Earth magic follows, splitting the row open for others to plant the herbs in.

It was unusual to see Shiruba do magic directly rather than enchanging her archery, but there you have it.

Cyrus moves forward along with some of the adults, noticing the herbs they are using. "I think I've got some of those on me right now." He remarks to Shiruba and Mikage, and begins to help them plant more of them. Spreading them out. If Mikage and Shiriba look closely, they'll see that the cat is 'cutting' small channels along the leafs of the herb, causing the green lifeforce of the herb to drip out, making the smell of it get that much stronger.

"I'm glad to see you taking it easy. It's easy for folk like us to completely overwork ourselves." What with being from Japan and all that.

"At least, this seems to be one of those casual player events." Which means, the chance of losing limbs due to bun-buns is unlikely. Mikage lowers her hand to the dirt, letting her fingers move into the earth. She joins Shiruba in using magic to help create furrows for the plants. A bit of magic glows from her fingertips, causing the earth to rumble and open in areas along a straight line.

Once most of the plants have been put into the earth, a strange scent seems to fill the air. It's not unpleasant, almost like a spicy form of mint with herbal notes. There is even a little animation that rises up from the plants as the scent wafts into the air.

Just as the Lander had said, this seems to act as a lure for the nearby bun-buns. Though they aren't in large enough quantities to be a treat, and the herb seems to keep them calm, the little furry creatures start to hop out of the grasses, moving in to nibble on some of the plants and roll amongst the leaves.

However, it seems to have a secondary effect, too. As the bun-buns begin to drop... eggs.

"That's our signal! Let's round up those bun-buns!" Landers with nets start to try and scoop up the little furry creatures, while children laugh, chasing the hopping animals around the farmyard.

"... some kind of drop-enhancing herb?" Cyrus remarks as he witnesses the approaching Bun-Buns, and the follow-up there-of. "... they're laying eggs." He grimaces just a little, looking at this with weird shock. "But they're mammals... why would they lay eggs?" Cyrus isn't that close to the American community, so the whole idea of bunnies laying eggs during easter is entirely lost on him.

He jolts a bit when the Landers call out that it's time to round up the Bun Buns. "The bunnies, not the eggs then?" He asks, before he shakes his head and begins to move forward. "Alright." The youth grabs a small flute he's got in his pocket...

And begins to play it, trying to calm the Bun Buns and lure them towards the cages. Though the horror of bunnies dropping eggs may cause the occassional shrill note.

"Yeah. I heard about the whole ravenous kerfluffle event." And that's all there is to say on that, because here come the much less crazed bun-buns to nibble on the plants. "Awww, they're so cute~"

A few of the Lander children look a little concerned when Shiruba takes out her bow and arrow. But rest assured it's with no ill will, as Shiruba skillfully fires her shot towards one of the groups of bun-buns and the arrow magically bursts open into a cluster of vines and thorns that fall over the group like a net. The bun-buns would probably just chew through the vines if they weren't distracted by the herbs, making the cluster easy to scoop up and leave the eggs behind.

"Rama, you know what to do?" Mikage looks down at her pet, who licks his lips as he looks at the bun-buns. "No. No eating them. Just gather them up. Go!" Looking a bit upset at that stipulation, Rama races off into the fields. He helps the Landers by chasing the bun-buns into cages, though it is very clear that the lynx would really like to make lunch out of them...

With the bun-buns mostly gathered up, put into pens and cages, the children are finally allowed to have their run of the farmyard. Apparently, it is safer to send them out only /after/ the bun-buns are captured.

Laughter rings out across the fields as children run amongst the rows of tilled soil, searching under plans, near fences and through the tall grass in search of eggs. "Would you Adventurers be so kind as to help the children? The town uses the eggs as important ingredients, so we need to gather up as many of them as we can find."

Already, children are crying out in success as they raise their hands, holding up colorful eggs.

Shiruba is not sure what you make with brightly colored eggs. Rainbow omelettes?... Maybe she doesn't want to know, on second thought. That doesn't sound like it would look very appetizing.

She does hurry out into the field to help the kids, darting here and there. But she's better at tracking moving creatures than searching for immobile objects and it shows.

"Oof!" Especially when she 'finds' an egg by tripping over it and going face-first in the dirt. But a kid is quick to collect the egg and run off with it happily, so she'll take the moment of embarassment for their sake.

Cyrus nods his head as they are asked to help with getting the eggs. However, Cyrus knows well enough that kids get super competitive if you start taking such things in a search like this. So instead, he takes out this small little glass ball, and starts looking around himself.

He then starts approaching kids while saying, "I think I saw one there." And "Have you checked in that bush yet?" He is not gathering them himself, but he's starting to move the children across the field like a master strategist - spreading his troops out over the battlefield of egg hunting!

Noting Shiruba having fallen over, the tall male works his way over to her, and offers out his hand to help her back up.

Mikage crouches down as Rama returns to her side, patting him on the head, "Good boy." She slips him some kind of meat, likely from her inventory. "Think you could help me find some eggs?" The lynx's tiny stub tail wiggles as he runs off to join the children. He noses one egg, rolling it out where it is visible, and Miki picks it up. "Yep, just like this one. Find some more, Rama."

Once the eggs are all gathered, they are placed into the nearby carts. There have to be hundreds of the little colorful things. The children seem particularly happy about this. Perhaps they are used to make something for the youngsters? It's hard to tell.

"Ahh, good! That's an eggcellent haul this year!" The leader of the Landers hooks hands into his belt-straps and then grins at the Adventurers. "Now we get ready for the banquet. Would you folks mind lending a hand?" He asks.

Landers begin to break out travel cookery equipment, lighting cooking fires, and chopping up food they had brought along. It looks like there are a number of different places where the Adventurers could lend a hand with the preparations.

Shiruba accepts the helping hand up. "Thanks." She dusts herself off a bit afterwards. "The kids are happy and that's what counts."

Now the adults need help with preparing the meal. The wolfgirl's ears perk up a bit. "Sure thing!" she replies, and heads over to were Landers are skinning and removing bones from meat for the stew and such. She pulls the small hunting knife from its sheath strapped to her leg and gets to work helping, using a Hunter's skills in field dressing and bettering the quality of animal reminant drops. "Don't throw the larger bones away," she comments. "They can be used for flavoring broth and such by boiling." She may not know Cooking but she's learned what remains can be made use of so she can keep track of what to collect for others.

"Of course." Cyrus answers Shiruba, before turning.

"Oh no." Cyrus dreads. "Cooking." As the pots and pans come out, he's reminder of the conversation he and Mikage had not so long ago about helping Sassaral with their cooking. And so far, things have been pretty disasterous on that side. Luckily, they can cook basic things at least.

"I guess I can try help make some drinks, what's the worst that could happen there, right? Just make some tea. Pour some leaves into water..." He knows how to do that at least, as he joins amidst the Landers and begins to try and help them out on their prep.

With the searching overwith, Mikage and Rama come over to help the Landers who are preparing the meat. One would think that a wild animal would be a bad thing to have around a cooking fire, but Rama pokes his nose into some of the meat and actually drags out a piece, shaking it and then dropping it into the dirt. The Lander, momentarily upset, goes to shoo him away, but Mikage raises a hand to stop him. "No, it's okay. You wouldn't want to eat that one, anyways." She crouches down, taking a knife to split it open, revealing that the meat had a strange color. "See if you can sniff out any more bad meat, buddy. We don't want anyone getting sick."

With the meal preparations a success, the Landers begin to set the tables with food. Everyone seems glad for the end of the day and the start of a banquet. However, things don't go quite so peacefully.

Out of the nearby woods, comes lumbering a giant rabbit-looking monster. When it walks, the ground trembles. There are screams from the Landers as they flee. The monster looks to be drawn by the eggs, moving over towards one of the carts and starting to eat them, one by one.

Luckily, this mechanic makes his a relatively 'easy' fight, since most of the time, the giant monster's back is turned towards the Adventurers.

Cyrus is still in the middle of helping one of the older Landers to make some more tea, when he hears the scream. His snow-leopard ears perk and twitch a little, their rounded bodies turning towards the insufferable sound. "What the..." Only to discover that a giant Bunny Monsters has appeared.

"What? What is it doing..." And going for some of the carts.

"Oh no you don't! We worked hard to get all these eggs!" Talking about the kids who are near him, no doubt messing with his tail. The male gets up and motions his hand. "This will just be a minute."

Stomping towards the enemy bunny and taking out a few of his potions - of which none have been used so far really.

"Hey Bunny!" ...

"FREEZE."

A foursome of blue icy looking slim potions are flung through the air right in the midst of the bunny trying to eat an egg, sent in a nice arc in order to explode on top of its head - possibly even freezing it in the middle of it attempting to eat that egg.

Shiruba reachs down to idly pet Rama as he helps. "Good boy." Chuckles a bit. "He can likely smell bad things in the meat that we can't," she helps explain to the Landers. "Natural evolution to ensure he doesn't eat anything that'd make him sick."

But it's all fun and games until a giant bun-bun interrupts the party. "That... is a big rabbit."

She scurries to get clear of the food area, rearming her bow. But just as she shoots the giant bun-bun hops to munch on the eggs, the shaking of the ground enough to throw off her aim and the magic arrow thunks into the side of the cart instead of the rabbit as Cyrus freezes it.

Rama nuzzles his head up against Shiruba's hand, giving an audible purr at her praise. However, in the next instant, he turns his head towards the distance, growling. It's obviously not aimed at her, but at the massive creature lumbering their way.

Frozen in place, the large rabbit is an easy target as Mikage draws her magical bow back and fires an arrow shot into the back. Apparently this is a very casual event, as the rabbit bursts into colorful dots of light, leaving only a few handfuls of eggs lost.

"Well, at least most of them are safe." Mikage offers, the bow vanishing as she lowers her hand. The Landers, oblivious to who did the most damage, come back out from their hiding places, offering out congratulations to the Adventurers. The banquet is saved! There are plenty of eggs gathered!

The group is invited to join in the meal, and each are handed a small package that looks to be made up of bun-bun ingredients, likely gathered well before the event. "Here. You have our thanks!" Then again, it suggests that the gathered up buns may just become reward packages like these, at some point in their future.

Shiruba stows her bow away. "That's what matters." Not who did the most damage to the beast, though she's a little annoyed she let herself be thrown off so easily. But it happens.

There's more interesting things to worry about, like the food! "Yay~" Little Miss 'Wolf It Down' is practically on the Landers' heels to the meal. Maybe since actual people helped prepare it the food will actually taste like something! Not that the bland taste of generic menu food ever stopped her appetite.

Cyrus, similar to Shiruba, seems to be pretty driven by food. "Sweet, food." The youth is glad to join in with the crowd, but first joins up with Mikage to make sure she's not hurt. He's her supporter after all, one has to make sure one's DPS is doing alright. "Looks like you didn't get hurt. Well - we gathered some eggs, and saved the day. Not a bad day." He notes. "Let's join them."