Duty Session 160: Still Water Bandits

The continued push up the Aincrad Tower is always in need of supplies. Always. The various nations of Yamato have access to resources and manufacturing capabilities that Alne just can't hope to match, so much of what is brought up the tower is first brought in from elsewhere. As a result, the trade lines that move those supplies have only grown thicker and more lucrative as the myriad adventurers continue to push upwards...

Which in turn means that there is no shortage of bandits and brigands who might seek to take advantage of those tradelanes. If allowed to pillage unchecked, the price of goods and services will quickly become far more than what some adventurers (especially newbies, unaligned persons and so on) can afford...!

And so, Prophylaxis of the Divine Dragons has put out a request to tackle one such group of bandits. On an island not far from the Aincrad Tower, a certain group of would-be pirates have set up shop. On that same island, a party of adventurers gathers on a hill near the shore, overlooking a bustling freebooter encampment and a ship flying the Jolly Roger.

"It's like a hydra," Prophylaxis sighs. "Cut one bandit band down and two more take its place. But just letting them run rampant isn't viable either... So, let's clear these out, shall we?"

"You know me Doc. I'm always up for beating up things that need beating up," Vertina replies while she's strapping on a pair of metal reinforced battle gloves. These are noticably more refined than the ones she's been seen with previously, with sharp hooked blades affixed to the back of the knuckles. "Besides, it'll give me a chance to test out my work before I finalize the build with the actual high quality materials."

Pirates. Why did it have to be pirates?

Some might think that, but not Kotono.

"I hate pirates, they talk funny, they wear weird clothes, and they always cause trouble!" Kotono says with a scowl on her face as she checks her blades. "Arr, we be up to no good!" She says in a mocking voice before returning to normal. "Just lemme at 'em, I'll teach 'em a lesson!"

It isn't just the climb up Aincrad that is in need of supplies. The fight against the Undead in Ninetails is enough reason to send Rylen out to look for various quests. Anything that might be useful can be put into support of the defenses, or at perhaps traded for other needs. So, that is what has lead the Pooka Beastmaster to join the others, looking down towards the bandit camp below.

"It's certainly worth clearing them out. We might even find something useful in their treasures." Rylen cracks his knuckles, the Beastmaster wearing his usual sleeveless shirt and jacket over it, "I'm just looking forward to fighting something other than undead, for a change."

Schneider has joined up with Proph and the ad hoc adventuring party and looks over the pirate encampment. He's one of the newbs that is affected when pirates raid the supply wagons, resulting in increased prices in Aincrad. So he's got a bit of personal interest. "Let's take them out and take their loot," he agrees, with a nod to Rylen. He's a lowbie, he's always on the lookout for upgraded gear.

    One moment she was not there.
    In the next moment she was suddenly among the group.
    Akatsuki appears, breaking stealth a little too close into Prophylaxis' personal space, in a crouch; one hand on her knee, the other resting on the tsuka of her kodachi.
    "I heard pirates were disrupting the trade routes." Akatsuki says plainly.
    "I will destroy them."
    The party has gained one ninja.

Gwen would look down at Akatsuki for a moment she nods.

"Then we are of the same mind then."

She looks her over and has ot wonder did someone lose the lotto on the random option? Yeah that's likely it either way she starts to get fashion ideas looking at this new person named Akatsuki.

"So I'm ready to go for this hopefully cleaing up the trade issues will help on the cost of certain goods and get us some good will with those who work these routes."

"Good, agreed. I don't think anyone will mind if we loot whatever unmarked ill-gotten-gains they have lying around. Might be a better idea in the long term if we secure crates of goods from known artisans or specific nations but--" Suddenly a ninja! Prophylaxis does not jump out of his skin because that would be undignified, but he does startle a little before staring at this strange small creature. "Oh, you're the ninja from the time with the plants," he says, nodding. "Good. The more the merrier." He shrugs, then sweeps one arm toward the bandit camp in the distance, "Shall we then?"

It turns out that having a ninja around is going to be very useful indeed. Before the party even gets close to the camp, they encounter an... issue. There are a couple of lizardman guards walking along a (very highly regimented) patrol route in the jungles surrounding the encampment. Fortunately, they're not exactly hard to predict, but lizardmen are known for being quite perceptive, so care must be taken regardless...

She may not be an actual ninja, but Kotono knows how to be like one. She sneaks past the guards with little difficulty, each of her footsteps deliberate and slow. "Nothing to it," She whispers with a smile.

    "What time with the plants."
    Akatsuki denies everything.
    She did not risk life and limb to rescue her only cute kimono. That never happened. She will deny it to the day she dies.
    Almost immediately, a blushing ninja vanishes from sight.
    She re-appears a little further up once the lizardmen have passed for the moment and signals for the group to start moving up. With a finger to her lips, indicating 'quiet'.

The sudden appearance of a very stealthy ninja is met with a flick of Rylen's gray eyes in her direction. His usually calm nature means that it takes a lot to draw out more reaction than that. With an incline of his head, he moves along with the others, knowing when it makes sense to stay quiet.

"Ahh, lizardmen." Rylen comments to himself, sounding like someone appraising some particularly interesting wildlife. "Let's make sure they don't see us..." He touches his fingers to the ground, causing a bit of dark mist to rise up in the area. Oh, they might realize something strange is going on, but it would at least offer the party some cover to their approach.

Schneider starts as Ataksuki appears in the middle of the group. But sneaky is immediately useful as the group is compelled to sneak past the outermost guard perimeter. He has no clue about sneaking, unless it means smaller fireballs than usual, but alerting guards now would be bad, even he can see that. Just barely. So, since he has no native sneaking talent, nor magical skill in that direction, he will allow himself to be led along a route than not even he would be noticed. He steps in a bucket partway along, but luckily, no one is alerted. He's ready to fireball anyone that looks ready to shout an alarm, but luckily this doesn't come up.

Vertina isn't per say startled but she does step aside to make room for the ninja that wasn't there a moment ago. Only for her to disappear again just as quickly. "Well, we know who has that strategy covered," the Salamander murmurs. Whatever, there's loot to be found and bandits to kick around. Onward!

She may not necessarily be stealthy, being a 6 foot tall tomboy dragon-girl. But she is quick on her feet and quite flexible despite her height. That's enough for her to crouch low and dart between the patrols when they're looking in opposite directions.

Gwen gets the idea of what they need to do now. She has a look of dread on her normally cherrie face. She's got to be stealthy all six foot three of her in full plate. Has to be 'stealthy'? Oh this was going to be a thing she casts a spell, which doesn't work out too well she has no afflity for darkness and it just goes fizzles out. The vanish spell she was attempting just doesn't work and she's forced to try and creep on as best as her large frame would allow her to do so...which isn't very well. Clank, clank clank.

"Hm? I could have sworn this was the same name... Unless I mistook you for another small ninja girl...?" Prophylaxis' brow furrows. Is his memory failing him? No, that incident was just more traumatizing than it had any right to be, so a little bit of fuzziness is probably expected...

Prophylaxis is of similar mind to Rylen, it seems. The two are able to conjure an obscuring mist that seems from afar to resemble a sudden and freak sandstorm, under which the rest of the party is able to sneak through... Even if some members of said party end up making a colossal racket along the way. Some of them, like certain ninjas, are able to get through without making even a single sound... Which puts them in excellent position when the party emerges from the haze and finds themselves discovered /anyway./

"Oh," Prophylaxis says as a gaggle of angry, impoverished beastmen shamble out of their ramshackle hovels, squinting their multitude of eyes (many of which are in fact missing) and brandishing rusty, tetanus-infested weaponry. "Well, that's kind of a downer. I suppose we're going to have to fight anyway."

But at least they don't have to deal with lizardmen! In fact, none of these pirates seem to be of any singular, unified group of beastfolk. There's all kinds here, from bugmen to bestial catfolk, to some poor bastard that looks like an upright platypus. They all look desperate, hungry, and altogether bloodthirsty, though...!

Schneider brightens as the sneaking thing, which he is horrible at, turns into a fight. Which, it turns out, he is also not good at. He casts GUNZENRO at various targets, who are always standing somewhere else when the spell lands, and it's with increazing frustration and strained voice that he casts, broiling the ground quite seriously and sending fireballs into nearby structures, which luckily aren't set alight by the brief flash of flame.

Looks like there's no escaping one way or another from a fight. Fortunately, Kotono's not about to back down from THIS! Her blades are twirled and there's a determined smile on her face. "C'mon, one and all! I'm ready to take you on!" With that, her blades become blurs as she slashes through the enemy mobs.

"Maybe they aren't as successful a group of bandits as we'd thought." Rylen comments as they spy the first signs of the squalid surroundings. The bandits, themselves, don't exactly look to be in the best of shape. From his tone, it's easy to tell that the Beastmaster feels a bit sorry for the lot of them.

That translates into him not being exatly t he most heavy-handed in fighting with them. Something that the bandits soon use to their advantage. He soon finds himself surrounded by a group of three, "Really? Listen, guys, I'd rather not have to kick your asses today, so why don't you just let us pass and..."

*stab* Rylen looks down at yet another hole made in his jacket and into the flesh beneath. Sigh. "Fine, we're doing this."

Vertina was doing good though the assistance with the sandstorm mist was appreciated, being something a lot of Salamanders would be familiar with. She trots out on the other side, just to stop as they come upon a bunch of hovels. And ragged looking occupants in a miserable state of being. "Doc, you any good at ethusinization? Might be best to put these poor souls out of their misery."

Even as she's making witty retort Vertina flicks sparks by scraping a foot on the ground, and bumping the ball of fire they form around a few times from foot to knees to get it to grow to a reasonable size.

"Pyro Striker!" Then kicks the flaming sphere into the head of the first beastman to try and rush her once it's properly soccerball sized.

    There was no kimono. Nothing happened.
    It is perhaps a good thing that the beastmen pirates emerge as a distraction... As pathetic as they look, offering a fight.
    That is kind of depressing. Though Akatsuki does frown when sneaking is no longer an option, she draws her kodachi in a smooth motion and darts amongst the group, blade flashing, fast and merciless.

Gwen looks to Prophylaxis for a moment and tilts here hed a bit at him.

"Another one?"

She looks on ahead and back to the mission at hand. As the pirates come in they would run into Gwen as she gets up in the mix and will do her damnest to keep them tied up for everyone else.

"Come on your mangey seadogs don't any of you have a fight in you?!"

"I really don't like to think that what I do is really 'euthanasia,'" Prophylaxis says, apparently a little uncomfortable with the idea. "Besides, someone has to make sure you lot don't end up contracting tetanus." To this end, Prophylaxis weaves together a protective spell around each of the relatively less defensively inclined members of the party. It's not a very /good/ protective spell, mind, but it saves Schneider and Rylen from taking too many wounds at least...!

"I'd wager that these scrubs are so low on the totem pole that they hardly even qualify for a share of the booty. The bosses can afford a ship, can't they?" Fire /spells/ may not be tremendously effective, but Vertina's pyrosphere does reduce the platypus man to a pile of red pixels, while Akatsuki, Gwen and Kotono take a much more direct approach, striking and tanking in melee until the scouts are beaten into full retreat...!

"Good job, everyone. Looks like we can keep go...ing?" There's one more. A milky-eyed gnoll with fur the color of freshly fallen snow. She is tellingly cronish, hunched over and walking with a limp. "Foresaw your arrival," she says, beckoning the party over to peer into a little cup full of... a variety of crushed-up herbs. "Am a soothsayer, yes? Tell your fortunes in return for life. Now... What do you see in the herbs...?"

Schneider is saved from taking a spear in the face by Proph's spell, and he smiles weakly. "Sorry about that," he apologizes. "I'll do better next encounter," he swears. The next encounter, though, is with the soothsayer, who predicts misfortune and a disfiguring disease in his future. This is not his day, is it?

In that initial moment, the gnoll soothsayer ends up getting just a little too close for comfort and Rylen takes a half step back, raising his hands. His nose twitches, likely getting more than a noseful of gnoll breath in the process. He coughs, not quite managing to be polite as he turns his head away.

Then, with the cup of herbs shoved out in front of them, he straightens, trying to get a look at what is being offered out. Unfortunately, Rylen isn't skilled in that sort of magic. "Uh... is that oolong? No wait... Rooibos." In the end, he ends up attempting to guess a type of tea, but even at that, he's quite a bit off the mark. The Pooka clearly has no gift for divination.

"Looks like they're specifically put in these shoddy shakes to be in the way. Can't be trusted to do much else." Not that they were very good at being guards either but that's besides the point.

A gnoll! Vertina briefly tenses, but it turns out to be some manner of mystic? That's weird, though not as weird as the necromancer gnoll back in that other duty. "Hmm." She relaxes, and sits down opposite the bleached gnoll. Stares at the burning herbs for several long, quiet moments. "The future lies with danger, but it is not unsurmountable." A toothy grin follows. "Good! It would be boring if it wasn't a challenge!"

She might be the only one to feel that way, with the difficulty the rest of the group is having with a matter that doesn't evolve punching in facess.

"Don't worry about it," the good doctor says reassuringly. "If I had a hundred yen for every time I'd gotten frustrated in the heat of battle and ended up with a spear in my face, I'd be rich! It's fiiiine."

"Fufufufufu, very good, very good. Good luck be with you all now, I am thinking. Destiny is known, but now is not fixed, yes?" The ancient gnoll snickers, her lips pulling back across a set of pockmarked, jigsaw teeth. "Best be on your way now. Foresee great challenges in your future, fufufufu~"

"For the record," Prophylaxis asides as the soothsayer scurries out of the party's way, evidently having averted a more hands-on encounter with her, "I'm /pretty/ sure those were bergamot pods. So it was probably earl gre--"

                                   "Olé!"                                  

There, in the middle of the road, is... a small bird. It hops from one leg to another, strumming a lute furiously with its beak. "Tell me, adventurerrrrs! Have you ever danced with ze devilbird in ze pale moonlight!? Squawk!" It's a parrot. Or at least, some kind of weird parrot beastman. But the song it's playing is... Extremely ear-catching. It's the kind of tune that finds its way into the brain and just does not leave...! "What is with this place?" Prophylaxis groans, "Let's just... blow him up too, I guess?"

Gwen shoots Prophylaxis a look it's not a kind one but she says nothing and turns her attention back to the matter at hand.

"That would make sense the fodder who are lucky to get their rations. That would make a lot of sense. Aye I can keep going."

She now pauses for a moment the Gnoll is not hostile she'll lower her weapon for a moment she'll pause for a moment as she looks into the herbs for a moment whatever she sees.

"A world I don't wish to retrun to."

She notes

Vertina stands, and bows politely to the gnoll soothsayer. Simply out of respect from one diviner to another. Then moves on with the rest of the group.

Until they eventually find.. a bird? A minstrel? A minstrel bird? That song is a bit catchy though. A little -too- catching, as Vertina sways for a moment before shaking her head sharply. "No! Shut up!" She throws one of her bundles of alchemical power at the bardic bird but it is probably use to having projectiles slung by annoyed listeners and effortly dodges out of the way.

    And now the gnolls have soothsayers.
    As the white gnoll mixes a bowl of herbs for the group, Akatsuki... Vanishes.
    She returns moments later.
    "I see several patrols, most will stay out of our way. Those and one strange bird playing music."
    Oh. ... Oh she was supposed to look into the bowl, not wander off and scout ahead.
    "... Ahem."
    She might have wandered off and scouted ahead.
    That's actually what happened.
    You know what, a blushing ninja vanishes again really fast and isn't too helpful when dealing with the flamenco bird.

Schneider is on a low note as his misfortune is confirmed by the soothsayer. He's muttering darkly now, but not eldritch curses. Just general complains about how he could have been a power forward, but no, he had to try this new game that guys said was cool. And now there's some damned bard, playing some damned music. To hell with that! And to hell with conserving his power, he'll go all out on this guy. "Brain, Brain dead," he chants darkly. "Obey your blood oath, come forth from the land of Avalon. Fire of Gehenna, become a fiery blast and burn everything around us! ... EXODUS!" And he shoots a bloody great fireball right past the parrot and into the sky, where it explodes dramatically and does nothing.

Kotono stares at the herbs and closes her eyes for a moment. Then she reopens them. "I see... that things will go well for us... It's kind of a sixth sense thing..." Kotono blushes a little. "I mean, not exactly sixth sense but something deeper."

With a glance towards Prophylaxis, Rylen raises his eyebrows, "Ahh. I could never tell the difference between teas. There's a reason I don't tend to do the cooking." No, he tends to leave that to his companions, even if that usually means food that is a bit more on the charred side.

Then, the strange sound of music catches his ears. It's enough that he turns towards the small bird, trying to shake the repetative spell from his head. "It might be a bit hard to sing when you have a beak full of rocks." He stomps the ground with one foot, summoning up a boulder, then punches it forward, sending it towards the little bard.

When you can't do anything else about the music in your head, at least try to smash it.

Given the Gnoll does not pick a fight? She'll leave them be there's no reason to pick a fight you don't need to right? Speaking of fiught now comes a new foe a bard for a moment as she looks at them.

"A batman referance?! Dang."

She would then stalk forward as she shart to chant a spell.

"ELECTICAL FUZZ! BOO GO HOME!"

She calls out to the Bard.

An earworm? It may not be a real worm, but it's still annoying as one!

Fortunately, despite how annoying that song might be, Kotono simply manages to tune it out by humming a tune of her own.

It works!

The song doesn't bother her at all as Kotono focuses on her humming.

Unfortunately for the party, this bird... He's just too good at guitar...! It's too small of a target for too many attacks to hit home while it strums frantically at its guitar. The song plays on and on, reverberating through the explosions and the giant boulders hurling through the air, and even through the chattering of the creature's beak as it's momentarily frozen solid. It's too late, though, the song takes hold and the adventurers are stricken with a terrible debuff indeed. For a while, the world goes hazy and cloudy, and movements become sluggish and only half-conscious. By the time it fades, the party is... elsewhere.

"Oh," Prophylaxis says, as some kind of amorphous liquid-creature bubbles up out of a grate in the ground. A single eye is suspended within a body of pure water-- an elemental, of some stripe. "The Master has sent me to deal with you..." The Elemental blurbles, as spouts of water begin blasting up around the party in vicious geysers of hydraulic force...!

"That damn bird led us into a trap...!" Prophylaxis snarls as he egins weaving another spell. "I think the eye-thing is its core! Lock it down and kill it dead!"

Schneider sighs as the others manage to ... where are we? He was stunned by the music, and kind of failed to pay attention to what's going on. He hurries to catch up, and then suddenly, it's some water elemental. Well, he knows how to deal with a water elemental, right? Boil it away until it's a steam elemental. It's a different flame spell he casts this time, not that the difference is meaningful, this time a wall of flames appears surrounding the elemental. The elemental really seems to be constrained by it, or maybe it's just moving with him, but bubbles appear in the elemental as he starts to boil away.

The dazed feeling from the bird's magic takes a bit to fade. Despite his best attempts at shutting the creature up, it had been too little, too late. However, it does seem that the bard had lead them right to the end boss.

Shaking his head to clear the song, the Pooka turns to the water elemental, smirking slightly. "I think you've picked the wrong group of people to threaten." A quick series of movements, shifting his stance and launching a number of rocks up into the air, is followed by a lift of Rylen's hand as the rocks begin to tumble back down towards the ground, bursting into flame in the process.

One by one, the makeshift meteors slam into the elemental, giving a sizzling hiss as they hit the water.

Taking to the air, Kotono uses her speed and acrobatic abilities to deal with these elementals. "Sorry, but I'm afraid YOU'RE the ones who are going to be washed out, not me!" She says as she takes out the enemies with great skill.

Vertina shakes her head a few times. "I haven't been that out of it since the time I burned the wrong herbal--" The story trails off as the proclimation of the forming elemental gets through the haze in her head, and a surge of adrenaline helps shake more of it off. "But who is trapped with who?" she retorts to the Doctor, the thrillseeker being too excited at finally having another fight to care about it being a trap or not.

Flames crackle to life as the Salamander leaps into the fray, licking along the claws on her gloves... though every time she swipes at the Water Elemental the flames fizzle out. She growls a bit through a fangy grin. "Oh, is that not tough enough for you?"

She twists to scrap a foot backwards, causing mist to rise as the floor being wet is not enough to stop the flaming aura around her foor from flaring up even stronger.

Then spins back towards the elemental as she raises that leg up high. "RAGNAROK'S HAMMER!" And SLAMS the flaming roundhouse kick into the elemental, steam spraying around her as the intense heat and flame rapidly evaporate the counterpart element composing the foe's body!

The bird bard is quite the danger but in the end they mange to not fall to them. Howeve did the bard get away? She's basically drugged by the song, what happened? She doesn't know but soon there's a water elemental in her face. 5R
"...Tell your maste we will find them."

Then Gwen is charing at the Elemental launching into a series of attack with wind charged sword strikes.

The water elemental was clearly not expecting this much firepower-- in some cases quite literally. Burning fists and fireballs boil away large sections of the elemental's liquid form. Makeshift meteors plunge into the watery depths and flash-boil the elemental's contents, unleashing clouds of superheated steam. Prophylaxis works to mitigate any incidental damage, casting arcs of gelid light into the steam clouds to freeze them solid before they can rejoin the elemental's diminishing mass. Finally, when there's nothing left but the creature's core and a singular globule of water, Akatsuki lands the finishing blow, and the monster disintegrates into a haze of red pixels...

...Leaving a handful of bright, blue crystals on the ground where it had fallen. Each one pulses with a faint, inner light and seem to be aspected, to nobody's surprise, towards water.

"...Well," Prophylaxis huffs as the gates to the arena slide open, revealing a camp that seems to have been thoroughly evacuated in the course of the party's battle with the elemental and their prior stupor, "...Looks like the boss got away." He shrugs, shaking his head. "Well, at least we've disrupted their operations here. I doubt they'll be causing trouble for at least a little while, but it may be best to see if there are any other encampments in the area, too..."

    Even stealthed there's no escaping the beck and call of that bird's guitar. The flamenco was just too strong.
    When Akatsuki comes to she immediately checks herself for her weapons and is glad to find them right where she left them.
    So when the water elemental appears to take out the group...
    The ninja vanishes again.

    "ASSASSINATE!"

    And aims for the elemental's core.
    "... Pirates exterminated."
    All the better to prove that ninjas are superior.

Vertina picks up one of the gemstones, turns it over in her hand a couple of times, then shrugs and drops it in her inventory. She can't do a lot with water but you never know when the properties might come in useful at some point. "Well at least we stopped a bunch of pirates from doing pirate things. That counts for something."