Duty Session 159: Still Water Bandits

    With all the Undead trouble in the Ninetails Dominion, some focus had been lost on the sea trade and that had lead to the number one problem of any trade. Bandits and pirates. Especially with Adventurers taking them on so much in Alne or other areas.

    Apparently whoever was in charge thought they could get away with setting up a camp pretty close to the trade routes. Of course, this couldn't be allowed to happen! And the Hunters Guild was currently stretched pretty thin, so they put out a call to take care of it for some Adventurers who wanted to do something besides bash in Undead Bones and the like.

    That has resulted in Giganpor putting out a group call once he scouted the area. These bandits looked familiar, but Giganpor's been busy. So he was currently crouched down the road and off to the side as he waited, his hammer-axe polearm currently sticking in the ground with a hand on it. And he was in human form, too! And armored!

Goldenblade has joined Giganpor on this mission. Got to keep busy, that's the ticket. She doesn't sit still very well. No sooner had she finished setting up her training academy than she's off on another adventure. Those that participated will have seen it closeby Crescent Moon HQ, and of course it's open to everyone. "Ready to go," she announces quietly.

    Wake is quite delighted to do something that doesn't involve undead. She's had her fill of the bloody things lately. It seems you can't swing a dead cat without it turning into a zombie and attacking you. Why would one want to swing a dead cat anyway?

    In any event, the Baroness makes her usual entrance, simply showing up right in front of Giganpor. She slides into her usual curtsey and says, "Giganpor! Goldenblade! It's a pleasure to see you. I trust both of you have been well?" A slight lift in her tone twists that statement into a proper inquiry.

    Today, Wake's Right Clothes have sorted themselves as an unusually billowy blouse and dress slit on either side, just above the knee. All her clothes are a blueblack shade. On her feet are a pair of sturdy boots of the same shade. It's a very monochromatic day, it seems.

It has been a long time since Kita has stepped foot into anything resembling a real adventuring party. The Imp has largely kept herself sequestered in Tolbana or Alne, working on a number of different building projects for Scale Emblem.

Yet, here she is, against her better judgement. "I'm... a little bit rusty with the combat system, so I'll stay to the back of the group if you don't mind." It's not just that she's rusty, it's that the idea of going into a fight has her feeling more than a little anxious. Something that only shows in the slight hint of a twitch in her fingers. Otherwise, she looks the picture of calm.

The girl tips her witch's hat to the others, then takes out her spellbook, tucking it against her side.

    Uta has been here for a bit now. Well, here-ish. She has been quiet, but pacing around nervously, staff tapping rhythmically on the floor. She didn't stay in the area, but coming, and going, and coming back, and going again. She has returned one last time, after Baroness Wake. "So, I've looked around," she finally says. "No ninjas to be found. Which means the ninjas we got are really good ninjas." She scratches her head. "I mean, I didn't know much about the internet or gaming before coming here, but people whom I knew who were into this sort of thing mentioned ninjas and pirates a lot, so... it's a gaming logic thing, right?" She turns to look at the various members of the team. Goldenblade and Giganpor she had already met earlier, but Wake? That's a new one. "Oh! Lady Bombast! What a honour! Will you be joining us today? Did you bring your own ninjas?" She cranes her neck left and right, and with a frown, she concludes, "I don't see any." Wide smile. "Good! Means your ninjas are top notch too! I wouldn't expect anything less from the likes of you!"

    "Oh, no need to worry, Kita. I'm sure you'll do great." Neck craning, thumbs up. "See? Your ninjas are really good too!"

    Giganpor looks over at the others as they arrive, "I'm doing good. Figured take out these bandits so we can keep trade going and all that."

    Shaking his head, he moves to stand, "I've actually scoped the area. Problem is, they fortified this place crazily quick. And don't worry about any rust. It'll come to you. I guess I'm the resident tank in this case." Then comes the ninja comment.

    Giganpor looks at Uta, "You're the only ninja."

    Then he looks to the others, "Well, first problem is that we can't exactly go in the front gate. But I'm sure there's probably an entrance somewhere we can use besides that. There's some ruins over there. I think the camp was built on top of one. I did see some old gate we might be able to use, mostly unguarded." He motions off that way, starting in that direction.

    "Problem is, I couldn't figure out how to open it before everyone else got here, but it looks like a back door instead of us having to face who knows how many pirates and stuff."

Goldenblade has no clue about pirates or ninjas in pop culture. In her day, pirates were fellows who sailed around in ships, robbed merchants, made people walk the plank, and like that. Ninjas were assassins who were in general not nautical. She has no clue why they might be associated. So we proceed on, searching for an alternate entrance to the bandits' lair.

When we find the back door, she will deftly slip her lockpicks into her hand, and head over to the door. She'll move to one of the locks, she knows Wake will be taking one of the others. "I still wonder at the skills the game has granted us," she observes as she's eventually rewarded with a *snikt*.

Kita manages to gives a smirk of a smile to Uta, inclining her head towards her, though it doesn't seem as if her words really settle in. The Imp steps forward along with the others, taking a look at the possible modes of trying to enter the camp.

"I could give it a shot..." She pulls a couple of simple tooks out of her inventory, but almost immediately it becomes clear that the lock she's looking at is rusted shut. It doesn't move even the smallest bit.

"Why isn't this..." *SNAP* The thin tool breaks off, leaving it partially sticking out of the lock. "Well, that wasn't very effective." She mutters, pulling the brim of her hat down a bit to shade her eyes.

    "I'll make sure to pass along your compliments to my ninjas," Wake says to Uta. "Or at least, I will whenever I get some." She makes a mental note to get some ninjas. She's not sure what she'll use them for, but perhaps there will be some pirates to fight in sneaky fashion.

    The Baroness is used to locks opening when she works on them. Having this one be so defiant is remarkably frustrating. "You know, sometimes I swear this game just hits me in waves of bad results. It's almost bipolar at times." Translation: this apparently easy lock is simply beyond her skill and fortune at the moment. She looks over at Kita, who is clearly having the same issue. "Well, onward, in any case.. just not in this direction."

    Uta blinks. "...I'm a ninja?" She scratches her head. "Uh. That explains why I'm so good at sneaking... man. I'm so good a ninja I've managed to even hide it from myself."

    She goes straight for the runes, and frowns in concentration at them. "So, let me see... uhm... ah, here. This is a copula. Iiiin... the past tense, good... while this is an adverb... location. Demonstrative. Ah... this last one is tricky... seems to be a name... will have to decypher it letter by letter..."

    Seconds pass, and when understanding seems to finally dawn, her lighting up plunges into an immediate groan. "It says 'Kilroy was here.' Useless junk..."

    The group has the leader searching for a clue to the locks, and then a bunch picking the locks.

    The good news is that there's a lot of lockpicks among the party. The bad news, and the part that will make everyone feel stupid is the redundant locks on the thing. Apparently only Goldenblade's lock needed to be picked. And the door opens dramatically. Further inspection shows that the other two locks were, surprise, already opened rather than just duds. Apparently if the Bandits knew about this or some Adventurers had been through before, they realized picking that many locks takes too long.

    Giganpor was still looking for a key or some sort of clue to the locks whenever the door opens and he sighs, "... freaking locked doors. Why can't they just let us bash them in?"

    Once they head through the tunnel and into the camp, well... apparently these bandits aren't doing too well. The most noticeable is that there's like nothing of the same sort. Different monster races all around. And they have had much better days of armor and clothing. Hovels and tents have been set up in the ruins. The worse part... a team of bandit scouts just spotted them. And are heading right for them no less! Shouting challenges and all!

    Giganpor brings his shield and weapon up, "Ugh... again! Well, at least bandits in this game aren't that stupid."

Goldenblade manages to get the her lock open, and is a bit surprised when she's the only one that needs to. She shrugs, and falls back on her oft-repeated mantra, "It's better to be lucky than good." And today's just another day that she was luckier than she was good. Still, progress is progress.

Except it's a sort of dubious progress when our progress takes us straight into a fight. Blades slide out, and she squares off against the attackers, stepping into the fray aggressively. She's a DPS-type, killing enemies before they can kill you is her way. Or maybe that's just her direct personality? "It'd be easier if they -were- stupid," she says to Giganpor, blades flashing out to strike one, then the next, alternating attacks as she whittles down their health bit by bit. And then it's what's technically known as a dogpile, with the whole party laying into the bandits far too fast and hard for them to do anything about it.

    "Seriously?"

    That's all Wake has to say about the door. Just.. just.. for real?!

    By good fortune, she doesn't have too long to ruminate over that. She also can't wait to tell Yuuki about it. It should fuel some really biting commentary between them for years to come.

    "So some half-starved bandits are charging us. I'm seeing this right? I think they are trying to exist as a counter to your assertion, Giganpor." Not that she doubts her eyes or that most bandits are fairly smart as enemies go. It's just surprising to be charged by a motley band. Also, they prove to be inadequate to the challenge. It's nothing particularly fancy or pretty that Wake does. It's really all about driving a blade into the chest of one bandit, then driving on with so much force that even as that one bursts into pixels she's stabbing the unlucky bandit right behind it.

Seeing the door open without the need for either of the other locks, Kita just looks to Baroness Wake and rolls her eyes, making a frustrated motion at the door. "It's not worth trying sometimes, is it?" She murmurs.

When they come through into the camp, the sight of the bandits is enough to have her raise a hand up towards her nose. They certainly look as if they have seen better days, and she has no interest in smelling the unwashed group. "How about you all just stay back." She suggests.

Then, making a quick series of movements of her fingers, she traces out runes in the air which form a dark aura of protection around her, a force that seems to cause the bandits' attacks to simply bounce off the shield. "I'll leave the fighting to you guys." Because they are getting a little too close for comfort.

    Uta assumes a fighting stance, and as the scouts come for her, she unleashes a majestic bo dance on them. Jumps, kicks, staff twirls that end in hitting an oppoenent on the face and immediately segueing into smacking another on the chest, ducking, sweeping legs, jumping over opponents. She's a blur, a blur of punching and kicking and hitting with a staff. Not one single blow reaches her.

    When enough monsters have dissipated or run away, she looks around with her guard still up. "...I think I took damage drom the smell...", she comments, with a grimace.

    The good news is the party's definitely not 'rusty' on the combat. Not even Kita, who said she was. The resulting combat is... well... not pretty. For the bandits. Between a good tank getting their attention and some serious DPS, it's over before anyone really realizes it with the bandits disappearing into lights.

    And they make their way into the camp to be seen again. This time by... a thin, wispy looking gnoll?

    The thing, or woman giggles under her breath, "Forsaw your arrival." She wipes her nose on her sleeve, snot following. "You not hurt me. Yes?"

    Then she starts to scramble around the group, finding a bunch of herbs in her obviously mismatched belongings. A chipped plate is produced from somewhere before she sprinkles the herbs over the plate, holding it out with an expectant look on her face. "What do you see?" She asks of the party.

    Giganpor looks at the others, then shrugs, "Well... I'm not the diviner type." He mentions to the others.

Once the scruffy scouts are dealt with, Goldenblade will proceed, along with the others, deeper into the camp. The soothsayer draws a hrm, and she says, "I remember this. This sucked." She glares at the Soothsayer, who she recalls can't be attacked, and grumbles sourly. She points to a card at random, but it's not the right card. She glowers, but there's not much she can do. Hopefully the others are better at the mind tricks. The gamey stuff is a bit too complicated for a retired bricklayer.

After fighting off the bandits, the sight of the strange gnoll sooth-sayer is enough to draw a curious look from Kita as she pushes her glasses up on her nose. The creature is very well disgusting, and it causes her to recoil ever so slightly. "I don't think I want to get close enough to hurt you."

She does, however peer towards the strange array of herbs that are laid out, as if trying to make any sort of sense out of it. "It looks as if your time here is coming to an end. The fates seem to think you might find better fortunes elsewhere." Pointing a finger, she adds, "See, this cluster of herbs means you should consider travel in your future."

She's completely making it up, anyone with real divination abilities would be able to figure that much out, but it sounds convincing.

    "I really hope those aren't supposed to be horsd'oeuvres," Wake says evenly. Yuck. She also sees plate full of weeds that have probably been sneezed on. Or worse.

    Wake has no divination skills inherently, but she does have something that can help her anticipate what is to be. It's not an ideal magic, admittedly, but it does give her the ability to focus and read beyond the contents of that plate. Hopefully way beyond the contents of that plate.

    Uta looks down at the herbs. "...Hmm." She closes her eyes, and intones a song. The gem encased in the head of her staff glows bright, then the light subsides, but does not go off. "I see..." she begins chanting, and with every sung note wisps of colors emanate from the jewel. The melody picks up, and colorful tendrils envelope the strands of grass; while the srands do not move, the dancing, changing colors of each strand, in tune with the music, creates a woven picture of sort, and the changing of color makes it look like... something ain to a paiting-effect animation.

    "It says that people broke into the door at the entrance of the camp." She nods. "You should go there and replace the locks, they've totalled them."

    Giganpor shakes his head, then considers. A summoning circle appears as he listens to what the others have to say, and Giganpor shifts up as the circle drops over him to turn him into his slightly larger Were Fang form.. The diviner thing is a bit of a mind game, but well... Giganpor apparently feels bad for the creature. "You know, there's a Gnoll camp not far from here. Oh, stop using that one. It's poisonous to just about everything."

The gnoll diviner hums, looking at the group. Kita's words get some nods as she looks at the herbs, "Oh, dearie, thank you. I didn't notice those. My eyes not as good as they used to be!"

    Wake doesn't get much, but well... she does hear something like a song.

Then Uta gives the perfect excuse to get the hell out of there for the gnoll, "Ah! That you are right, dearie. Thank you!" The gnoll gathers up her things, and heads off. Yep. Really heads off.

    And then the party encounters what Wake foresaw a bit. Strangely, a lot of th e bandits are now avoiding the Adventurers. They know they aren't a match. But there is a smart one or two.

    Some sort of bird-like monster is one of them and sees them. And starts to play a song. One of the ear-worm songs that gets stuck in your head. A lot. The problem is it's a confusing one, too, and that's probably what he's aiming at. Getting rid of that song might be a good one. Like, seriously soon.

    Giganpor looks annoyed by it as he eyes the bird-like creature, "... that gets old quick. So who wants to stop him while I keep us unconfused hopefully?"

Goldenblade gahs as the party makes it past the soothsayer, no thanks to her, though she smirks as Uta gives the soothsayer some news of her own. She looks to the others in the party, grumbles a muffled apology, then proceeds onward, chuckling as many of the bandits scatter rather than face adventurers. That makes her feel good, at least. Then, we stumble upon a bird-bard, and that awful song he's playing. Stunned, she sinks to one knee.

"That's an /awful/ song," she complains. "Well, at least it's not rap." Benny Goodman is more her era, so really anything after the 1940's is blah for her.

Dealing with the bird-bard is problematic as rushing him just results in him flying away, so she sheaths her blades and draws her hunting bow. She nocks an arrow and fires. She's not as good with is as she is with her swords, and she'll never win a contest, but she gives it her best, firing arrow after arrow at the flying bard, hoping to end that awful song. Sadly, she hasn't got the hang of leading the target, or else the bird-bard's motions are too erratic, she's constantly sending arrows where the bird was a moment ago.

    Okay, all we have to do is deal with this music. Wake knows how she'd like to shut that creature up. She draws upon a new magic, seeking to lash out with magic rather than shield. Let's see how good that creature sings with thorns in its hide..

    Unfortunately, that obnovious song is infuriating. It's so repetive. She wants to simply walk up and break that instrument over the creatures head. She wants to.. drat. Her focus slides too much from the work and her spell fizzles away.

    "Next time I'm just throwing a rock," she mutters.

As they walk away from the strange gnoll, Kita murmurs under her breath, "I can't believe that worked." Oh, it's not the first time she has lied through her teeth, but convincing someone that she has some kind of mystical insight is another matter, entirely.

The sound of music catches her ears, though. The little musical creature is observed for a moment, the girl tipping her witch's hat upwards before she stows her spellbook and withdraws what looks to be someone's attempt at an accoustic guitar. Obviously, whatever lander made the thing, they'd never seen one before making it.

"Oh, you like that song, huh? How about this one, instead?" Kita begins to strum at the guitar, drawing out the chords to what sounds like a rock song. At least the instrument is in tune, and it does help to drown out some of that ear-worm.

    Uta starts to beat her foot at Kita's rocking. "Oh, I think I can provide some backing vocals!" And she launches into the vocals. She wouldn't do a bad job at it, were it not that she somehow gets distracted by the bard and... ends up singing some sort of confusing thing that sort of bridges both songs, adding to, instead of detracting from, the confusion.

    The good news is that Kita manages to keep herself awake.

    Giganpor calls out Auris, the light bird-like elemental to both heal and protect them from the confused status enough that the group can, with some pushing by Kita and Giganpor, get past the bird-like creature. Eventually they leave it behind because boss stairs come with a door! Once all the party is in, the door gets slammed closed. But not before a fireball and a loud squawk is heard on the other side from Giganpor.

    Giganpor blinks a few times, then looks to the others, "Next time I just fireball something that annoying. Harpies and now a music bird thing."

    The trip up to the boss's room is pretty uneventful. Wooden stairs and all. Once they get up there, a large, muscled lizardman is sitting up there. With a pirate look. Tri-corner hat and a wicked curved sword at his side, too! He slowly gets up. "You've caused me a bit of trouble."

    Long teeth show as he speaks, stepping down towards the Adventurers. The room's got one hell of a large area, too.

    "But your journey ends here." He draws his weapon, the edge of it igniting with fire as he sweeps it in front of him. Flaming pirate sword, anyone?

    Giganpor shakes his head, then looks to the others, "Hope that song's stopped confusing. Boss time!" He hefts his hammer-axe, holding his shield ready.

Luckily Kita and Giganpor are able to get us all past the bird-bard. Another poor showing for Goldenblade, she'll need to practice her archery more. But proceeding along brings us all to a set of wooden stairs leading to the final boss. She glares at the lizardman, and squares off as he taunts them. "Can't end here," she replies. "I'm double parked. How about we kill you quick and get out of here?"

Putting words into action, she launches herself at the pirate, then as he swings at her, she turns a sharp angle, and dashes off at ninety degrees, avoiding the blow entirely. She slashes him with both swords, whittling down his health bars as she dodges and avoids his counterstrokes, leaving a flaming trail of footprints in her path.

"Definitely not my style of music." Kita mutters, obviously not caring for those who just try to get catchy things stuck in your head. That kind of music doesn't have any soul. She extends her arm with the guitar, stowing it back into her inventory. It's not often that she brings out her musical talent, but she certainly has it.

As for the final boss, well, Kita just rolls her eyes at dialogue. "Really? That's all they could come up with?" When the lizard sweeps out that blade in front of him, she draws up another of those shields of dark magic, which causes some of the flames to flicker around her but none to get through. "I'll try to keep him off of us as much as possible." Because she feels far more comfortable behind this bubble of magic, than in melee range of an attack.

    Uta... kind of does still look confused. "A pirate lizard!", she exclaims, upon seeing him. "A /cliche/ pirate lizard!", she exclaims, rolling her eyes. A sigh, then she smiles. "Ah well. I guess this means I get to be cliche too. Might as well engage in a bit of guilty pleasure..."

    The spriggan, wings springing up straight, points at the pirate lizard in a dramatic fashion, the kind of pointing that calls for a foreshortened perspective and a whip-cracking sound in the background. "Your pirating days are over! For we have brought the ultimate punishment onto you!"

    Uta stares at the pirate, stern, and finally exclaims, "NINJAS!" She crosses her arms, and smirks smugly. "Oodles and oodles of invisible ninjas, ready to strike from the shadows. You will- wait, wait, Giganpor said /I/ am a ninja! It's time to strike!", she says, and lunges for the pirate. Not that she is very effective in her confused state... but at least she mostly swings at thin air, rather than taking actual damage.

    Uta said ninjas? Well, in a pinch, Wake will have to do. She's been holding back, but this time she isn't going to. She wraps herself in shadow and fades from sight, only to emerge a moment later almost on top of the boss. Rather then simply stepping from the shadows, though, she draws them into her blades and lashes out at the enemy, burying the weapons to the hilt in the enemy's hide.

    "Never much cared for pirates," she whispers to the lizard man before he gets a chance to properly die.

    At first the pirate lizard is trying to swing at Goldenblade, stepping all over the fire trails she's left like crazy.

Then there's a sudden golden glow from Giganpor. And his hammer glows with a bright green. "RIDDLE OF STEEL!" And that hammer-axe is swung hammer first straight into the Lizardman Boss. Enough that it takes it's attention off of Goldenblade and looks at the resident Tank of the group. Who swings again and again.

    Kita's shields catch a lot of the Boss's blows aimed at Giganpor as the thing continues to step all over the firey trails left by Goldenblade. And while Uta's swing hits thin air... Baroness Wake's don't.

    Once the enemy is down, Wake ends up finishing it off with what amounts to an epic shadow-filled backstab as the thing seizes up mid-block. Something that allows Giganpor to add to the damage, and even Uta to do so as the thing falls finally. Pieces of weapon drop all for the party to pick up as loot along with the usual.

    Giganpor looks around afterwards, the golden glow fading as he hefts the hammer axe. "So... everyone alright? Healing needed other than Uta's confusion?"

Goldenblade whews as that fight is ended with Wake's ninja-stab, settling the Pirates vs Ninjas thing for the moment in the ninjas' favor. She's breathing hard, but smiling, and she calls back, "Hanging tough. How's everyone else?" She cleans off her blades out of habit, though there's no pixelly mess on them, and re-sheathes them. "That was a good run," she says. "Touch and go in a couple places, but it looks like we pulled through."

"Not a scratch." Kita replies, checking over herself and seeming to give a sigh of relief. "Though, that's largely because I was able to play defensively." She dusts off her dress, taking a step forward to collect that piece of metal. Delicately, she flips it between her fingers, trying to get a good look at it.

"I appreciate having good front-liners. Sometimes the enemies don't exactly follow aggro rules and it gets a bit rough for squishy mages like me." The bit of metal is tucked away into her inventory.

    Wake steps back and sheathes her blades with a satisfied nod. "Any fight you walk away from and your enemy doesn't is a good one," she notes.

    "I'm doing just fine, thankfully. Though I wouldn't say I handed-in my best performance today. I will say, though, I greatly appreciate your tanking, Giganpor. I should really master a style that lets me stay behind you for the whole fight."

    She looks over the rest of the party, ready to contribute her admittedly small skill in healing if anyone appears hurt. Seeing everyone seems to be in no immediate danger, she will collect the reward and tuck it away for later.

    "I like what you did with the soothsayer though," Uta compliments Kita. "Nice thinking on your feet. And you'll have to teach me that song for next time. Was really catchy." She bows to Goldenblade. "Thank you for opening the lock that let us in. And Baroness..." She bows to Wake. "We are indebted for your delivering the final blow. Most masterful and impressive." She straightens up. "And above all..."

    She takes a slow, deliberate turn, and just as slowly and deliberately, she bows to Giganpor. "Our leader, for organizing this." She stands there, head kept low a moment, than returns to stand. Silence. "Oh, oh, of course!" She turns again, to face away from the group, and starts to bow all around the room. "Thank you, ninjas. Wherever you are... we would never have made it without you."

    With everyone alright, Giganpor relaxes a little as he holsters the hammer-axe behind his back at an angle. Then he blinks a few times, shaking his head as he looks at Wake, "Actually, that's my preferred style. Hit them so hard they look at me rather than the one stabbing them. I'm better on the front lines than support these days."

    Giganpor looks at Uta, then looks at the others, "She always like this?"

    Wake turns from Giganpor to Uta and smiles.

    "Yes, I suppose she is," the Baroness says. "And we love her for it."