Duty Session 183: Grunty Drive

    Local farmers in Alne have put out a call to adventurers far and wide to help take their Grunties to market. Outside of Alne stands a field of Grunties being grunties really, with one of the landers talking to Setsuna as they seem to be arguing over something.
     "No I think you misunderstand lad, I am here to help not lead them." Setsuna says as he pushes the shepard crook back into the young lander's hand, and the lander glares and shoves back. "Nope contract specifically says first Adventurer here gets the responsibility till delivery or another adventurer steps up to take it. So all yours. " The lander shoves the crook back, lets goes and runs. Leaving the necromancer with over 2000 grunties to make sure get to market.

    It's nice to be doing the duties, Merek took the post from the Guild, and would walk along to the Grunty Drive. He then nods a little bit to Setsuna while he checks on his weapons, which for today he seems to be wearing his twin blade weapon. He offers potions of defense, then he nods a bit, "Good to see you all." Those that know the man will notice that Shadow Eclipse perhaps really was taken care of.

Goldenblade has shown up for the grunty drive that was advertised. "Hey," she calls out, seeing a few familiar faces. She eyes Merek skeptically as she joins the group, wondering, "You all here for the grunty drive?" She looks around, sees the size of the herd, blinks, and looks at the others questioningly. "Wait, what's the plan here?" she wonders worriedly.

This little grunty went to market?

Apparently, that's what the situation here is, and to be honest, Kotono's not too excited about checking it out. As usual, she arrives with Miyako, although how she feels about it is anyone's guess. "I'm supposed to be an acrobat, not a cattle... erm, grunty herder!" She says with a sigh, looking to Miyako. "I'm only checking this out because I haven't done much in a while." She frowns for a moment. "Then again, I suppose it's better than doing nothing, right?"

    Miyako sighs and shakes her head as she watches it all. "Yeah," she answers Kotono. "I'm not much of one either, but at least I've read a few books on it." And spent time talking with local farmers about it, swapping some songs for their stories.

    She shakes her head as the pair close in on the group, and she starts calling advice to the others. "It's not hard if you pay attention," she finishes.

    Setsuna watches the young farmer run off and even tries to cast magical puppy eyes to get him back, sadly that move doesn't work without being a werefang. Turning back he looks at the gathering adventurers and smiles. " So the farmer said we had to take this mass amount of grunties from here to a small farm where they will be put up for auction. So I guess we should try to figure out how to get all the grunties moving at once, probably shouldn't use fire to do that either."
     Setsuna being Setsuna his smile turns into an impish grin as he adds, "The farmer also said that anyone who wanted to step up and be the leader of this escapade was welcome to it." The necromancer holds out the crook for anyone to take. Whether anyone does or not however the party's first mission was laid out, they had to get these grunties movin'.

    Merek looks to the grunties while he thinks about that, "Alright, all of you follow me," he notes to the grunties, which don't try and follow. Perhaps a few, although they seem to be making their way doing anything else.

Kotono does her best to try to keep things under control, but some of the grunties are wandering away.

Leave it to Kotono!

She's here, she's there, she's just about everywhere!

And one-by-one she's herding the grunties back to where they belong. "Back you go!"

Goldenblade ehs to Setsuna, says, "If being leader means I don't have to wrestle grunties, I'll do it." But it won't get her out of getting the grunties underway, will it? So, she sighs and goes over to one of the grunties, and smacks it on the flank with her bare hand to urge it into motion. This does not have the desired effect.

The effect that it does have is that the grunty bucks, nails her dead in the gut with a hoof, and sends her back ten yards, where she ends up head-down in a water trough. The trough itself cracks after a moment, and water, Goldenblade, and trough all spill out onto the earth in a puddle, with Goldenblade down a good chunk of HP and looking dazed.

    Miyako continues calling suggestions to anyone who looks to be having trouble, finding a high spot to perch on so she can observe the whole situation and keep an eye on things. "Look, just...." and then she watches Goldenblade go head over heels. "Oh, never mind," she mutters, and steps down to walk over and help her up. "You know, they're going to make us pay for repairs to that, right?"

    Setsuna takes a deep breath as he begins to cast a spell and spores begin to spread through the air around Setsuna. However as the spores, and the smell attaches to the summoner, it is obviously the wrong smell. Really the wrong smell, damn he was going to smell bad for a while, who would invent a smell like this really.
     It appears most of the party is having similar luck, and thanks to only Kotono being on top of strays , and Miyako's guidance that they get them moving at all.
     After what feels like hours of walking with the grunties a howl can be heard in the distance before the first wolf is seen. The grunties don't scatter though, they seem resolved to their fate to be devoured if the wolves are not stopped.

    Merek walks along to fight with the wolves, though between swinging that Ragnarok's Wisdom, it looks like there are too many for him to focus on all of them. He gets swarmed while he tries to maneuver along through the enemy.

Wolves? No problem for Kotono! She twirls her blades and says, "Come on, you howling creeps! I'm ready for ya!" She spins around then attempts to dash at the wolves with a swift slash...

Only to find what she ended up hitting were just figments of her imagination. "What? Where did they- What happened?!"

Goldenblade picks herself up, rubbing her gut and staggering a couple steps before she gets her feet steady. She looks to Miyako, shrugs helplessly, "I didn't do it intentionally." She winces as she slowly gets her wind back, and it seems the others have got the grunties moving. She hops along with the group, walking along, finally getting her stride back, though she's still a bit tender. She grumbles about having to pay for repairs.

Some hours later, still walking along, the howls of the wolves are heard. She blinks, but draws out her swords. They're new, it seems, the blades tinted red-gold. So, her name was planned out maybe? What she unleases on the wolves, though, is a pretty high-level attack, the blades wreathed in flame, dealing strikes that drop the wolves' health bars like they had holes in them.

Sometimes, things work out simply. Sometimes, they don't. 'You broke it, you bought it' is a well-known rule. As is 'the easy way is always mined'.

     In this case, however, the easy way has been mined by Miyako. The howls of the wolves alerted her early, and with a grin, she cast her spell, sending energy slithering out into the darkening forest. "Let them come," she murmurs, and smiles thinly.

    And, indeed, the wolves approach, and find snares and deadfalls waiting for them, formed from live trees and vines by the magic of a Druid. "These are not for you to hunt, Children of the Night."

    Setsuna hears the wolves coming and ducks into the grunty heard, staying low and out of sight. Perhaps he got scared of the wolves and was trying to hide? The others seem to go to work on handling the wolves though these wolves are not the easiest to hit. Their coats shimmer and shine and as Kotono soon figures out , some of the wolves are illusions. Merek's flames from his attack burn through the majority of the fakes leaving it much easier for GoldenBlade's follow up attack to burn through a majority of the pack. Miyako's forest magic of traps picks up the majority of the rest, leaving just one last wolf.The last wolf seems determined to get at least one grunty, however Setsuna appears from out of the herd stabbing the wolve with a small stone blade as the wolf turns into a pile of pixels.

     After the battle ends and takes a moment to check on the grunties they would realize they were missing a few. They can hear the grunt of the grunties in different directions, they would have to split up and try to lure the grunties back.

Attempting to get the grunties back is a bit of a task for Kotono. She does her best to try to get them back to where they belong...

But that fails... miserably.

"Well, at least I tried..." Kotono says as she heads back to the others.

Goldenblade is a bit more upbeat after getting to cut loose on the wolves. After getting gut-kicked by the grunty, it felt good to fight those poor wolves. She even got a meat drop. That doesn't usually happen. She'll have to get someone to cook it for her. Seeing the grunties they'd been driving party scattered, she grits her teeth and will try to help rope them back into the herd. Alas, grunties are very stubborn, sometimes, and whatever tricks and craft there is in getting them to cooperate, she hasn't got it. She's much more skittish after she got kicked hard earlier today, and she winds up not being assertive enough to be effective. At least no more water troughs get shattered by her head.

    Miyako was following along with Kotono in the 'retrieve the grunties' jog, and calls out suggestions to her to try to help her with the task. In the end she has to step in directly, despite her distaste for it, and chivvy the beasts back towards the trail herself. "Come on now, Ko-chan, just got to be persistent and firm with them. They're not goats."

    Merek looks to the grunties that seem to be wandering about, then he walks along to try and bring a few to him. "Hey, come on grunties. You all are the best," he tries persuading and beginning to take each one when they begin to come up to him.

    Setsuna sets off to look for one of the lost grunties and when he sees it he contemplates for a moment before a set of vines rise up and grasp the grunty. Using the vines he tugs the grunty back to the group as he sees the others have managed similar success. With Merek's positive encouragement and Kotono and Miyako working together they manage to get all the grunties back together. They return to their long walk.
     After a few more hours and light dwindling Setsuna stops, "Guys I think we need to camp. According to the map we are just now a little over half way there." He hadn't planned to be out this long but at least they could maybe manage to get up a decent camp, " Anyone by chance any decent at cooking or setting up camps? Maybe something to keep our mind off this long ass grunty drive?"

Goldenblade walks along with the herd for the rest of the day, and when Setsuna calls a rest, she slumps gratefully. "I wasn't sure you were gonna stop," she says. Looking around the proposed campsite, she will admit, "I've done camping in my time." She puts her construction skills to use, it seems, laying out a sensible camp, with tents, and a central cookfire, with the tents close enough to be warmed by the cookfire, and clear paths between the tents so lines of sight are maintained. It's a good campsite, she seems pleased with herself.

    Merek looks about the place, and nods while he begins to find a few things that he can cook. He then places that in and begins to make it for the grunties as well as the party. It's nothing amazing, though that should be keeping the people a little happy. There's a shift while he begins to settle in for the night.

Stopping to rest for a while is a good idea. Kotono decides to try her hand at cooking up some foods. "Don't worry, leave everything to me, I'm slicing and dicing..."

Fast forward a few moments later.

"...And I'm ruining our food." She sighs before collapsing to her knees.

        ./~ Oh the night was clear, and the stars were shinin'
        ./~ The moon came up, so quiet in the sky
        ./~ All the people gathered round, and the band was tunin'
        ./~ I can hear them now, playin' "Comin' thru the Rye".
        ./~ You were dressed in blue, and you looked so lovely
        ./~ Just a gentle flower, of a small-town girl
        ./~ You took my hand, and we danced to the music
        ./~ With a single smile, you became my world

    Miyako lends a hand here and there with setting up camp and cooking dinner, but the moment it seems she can get away with it, she's set with her back to a stump up by the fire, guitar in her lap, a song on the air.

        ./~ And we danced all night, to the fiddle and the banjo
        ./~ Their driftin' tunes seemed to fill the air
        ./~ So long ago, but I still remember
        ./~ How we fell in love, at the Roseville Fair....

    The party breaks for camp and it seems that they all come together to at least make it a good night. As Goldenblade puts the camp together, Merek and Kotono cooks a meal. With Miyako providing the songs and maybe some in tune humming from Setsuna. Even the grunties settle in for the night.
     The night comes and goes as the sun rises and they break camp.. Gathering the grunties together and moving out. After a couple more hours of walking they finally get to the auction sight and the head farmer comes out and frowns before shouting, " These grunties look like grunty crap , what the hell did you do to them. I suppose I will take them off your hands at half price." It seems he is trying to get a deal, but he has also made the price negotiable.

Fortunately, if there's one thing Kotono is good at, it's negotiations. She uses her smile and her way of talking to try to get good prices for the grunties. Despite all they've been through, it's always good to end on a positive note.

Goldenblade smiles at Setsuna's humming and Miyako's singing, that's a nice pick-me-up after her less-than-stellar performance today. Merek's cooking turns out to be pretty good, too, and she tosses him the food drop she got earlier, for incorporating into the night's feast. Sadly, Kotono's contribution is not quite as tasty, and she surreptitously dumps it in the tall grass behind her when she hopes no one's looking. She walks the rest of the next day, her step light, though her boots feeling like they've worn through, until we finally reach the end of the line.

As the head farmer offers them such a terrible price, she raises a hand. "Hang on, hang on. Where do you get off calling the grunties crap? Look at these, one hundred percent solid, and not a nick in the health bar." She had to go through the herd to find that one, and all the ones in front are at or very close to 100 percent. She'll parade a few past the inspector to show that the herd is consistently healthy, and in fact the ones most gnawed on by the wolves are surrounded in the center of the grunty group.

    Merek knows a lot about mercantile things, which means that it is easy for him to begin negotiations. The man manages to succeed in it with the merchant, then he walks along to see what people are doing to persuade him as well.

    Miyako is happy to sing the night away, until everyone decides to turn in, and even then she hums to herself for a bit, curling up in her blanket watching the fire. She's got more songs for the trail the next day, everything from cowboys to truckers to fishermen at sea.

    But all too soon things come to an end, and it's time to deliver the goods. To a buyer who has, it seems, decided to be a jerk. "Look, fella, if you don't want to buy them, just say so, we can line up somebody else for this like *that*." She snaps her fingers to get his attention, then backs off, crosses her arms across her chest, and *glares*, while the others 'discuss' it.

    All the others seem to be easing the farmer into a higher price as he seems to be trying to ignore Goldenblade's evidence and the sweet words of Koton. Merek presents the basic facts as evidences and with Miyako threatening to take the grunties else where, the farmer is teetering. In the end Setsuna offers a friendly smile before he uses his own negotiating tactic. "We are tired, hungry and rather annoyed. Cheat us and whos to say what we may do." The necromancer gives a toothy grin as he stares into the lander's eye. " Fine." The farmer then produces a bag of coin for each of the adventurers, paying up what he owes.