Duty Session 262: Threat to the Harvest

As the end of summer falls upon Yamato, the temperatures have started to drop. Despite the sun still beating down from high in the sky, there is a cool breeze blowing, which seems a relief to the Landers who have been tasked with working the fields.

A wide expanse of crops needs to be harvested, largely done by hand or teams that work with grunty or pekos and crude, simple tools. It's a task that takes time, but the yield is important to carry the Landers through to the next Spring.

The Adventurers have been spread at the far edge of the fields, closest to where they run adjacent to the wilderness beyond. These are the most dangerous places, where they might come under attack from all manner of threats.

Goldenblade is waiting here looking alert and well-rested, standing ready for what may come. Could be nothing, of course. But readiness is important.

The end of the warmer days of summer seem to bring a shift in Mikage's mood. It's subtle, the Were Fang usually faced their situation with positivity, but as it shifts back towards colder temperatures, it is a reminder of just how long they've been trapped in this fantasy world.

Still, she takes a breath of the crisp fall air, straightens her shoulders, and tries to push those thoughts out of her head. "We're going to need to get some proper winter traveling gear before it gets too cold." Miki suggests, looking over at Cyrus, "Reinforce the tents, get some winter clothing..." Luckily, they had plenty of funds to support that.

Her eyes look out towards their surroundings, keeping an eye out on things, acting dutifully the part of a guard, her hand resting on her sword hilt.

By the look of it there's still a lot of work to be done getting the harvests in for the season. Of course this many people moving this much stuff at one time is going to attract danger sooner or later.

And that is why Adventurers like Shiruba are here. Also because having to possibly protect people and their work goes in hand with her on-going defense training. She needs to experience as many possible situations as she can, otherwise the skills and tactics she does develope won't have the expanse of options needed to adapt to when those situations change.

Right now she's just doing as one would expect a scout to be doing, prowling around the bounderies of the field, looking for potential danger.

Cyrus is being a wee bit of a lazy bum. He's seated against one of the fences of the farm itself, one leg extended, the other arched up towards his chest. He's eating one of the snacks that Sassaral had left him and Mikage before they went out to protect this place. "She really does make the best food out of the lot of us." He remarks to Mikage.

"I think I still have our low level winter gear from..." Last year. He grimaces a bit as he says it, but he starts getting up all the same, and starts to actually take some active role in surveying the edges of the region.

"To think, they used to have the Merchant Blades to do this all of the time. And themselves. These Cait Sith farmers are /sturdy/. Remember that big ox guy from up in the north-west, where we met that Shalltear woman? That man was /built/."

Another day another duty, so Gwen has arrived, she looks to the poarty as she grins. "This should be a nice bit of fun no?" She does not seem too botherd by the cold and she looks over at Shiruba for a moment. "I should make myself something out of flannel and find something for the rest of you." She beams and is so hapy about this. "The farmers tend to be jacked." She says this with more than abit of a dreamy tone to her voice. She does all this while keeping watch mind you.

Once the Adventurers have taken their positions in the fields, the most keen-eyed might spot that there are already animals who have taken the harvest as an opportunity to graze on an easy source of food. An entire flock of birds seems to have landed nearby, taking advantage of easy access to the grains.

They seem to keep a distance from the Adventurers and the Landers, but there are large swaths of farmland that need to be protected from their greedy beaks. Even now, they seem to be gorging themselves wherever they can, landing and taking flight whenever someone takes notice enough to try to shoo the flock onward.

"Someone needs to do something to keep them away on a more permanent basis, otherwise they are going to continue to be trouble for the Harvest," observes Goldenblade, swatting at the ones closest to her. She nods as Cyrus mentions the Cait Sith farmers, looking around warily herself, spotting Shiruba prowling the edges of the field. She nods gravely as Mikage mentions tasks that have to get done before winter. "Breaking out the kotatsu was the first sign of winter in our house," she shares, and to Gwen, she says, "Flannel is good." She nods about farmers being jacked. "It's a very hard life. That kind of training puts muscles on your muscles."

"I think we might need a bit more than the newbie-level winter gear we used to have." Mikage comments, likely thinking back to those early days after the beginning of the new year. She hadn't started to travel with Cyrus and Sassaral for a few months, having been focused on other tasks, so most of their gear wasn't really suitable for the worst part of winter, regardless.

Glancing over at Gwen, she offers, "We might have to commission some winter clothing from your shop." Knowing that she would likely not mind the increase in business.

Then, the call of the birds seems to draw Mikage's attention. "Let me see what I can do." She puts her fingers into her mouth and whistles, causing a feline head to pop up from out of the fields. "Rama. We have some friends for you." The cat follows Mikage's motion, spotting the birds and... proceeds to start chasing them around the fields as if this were the most fun of games.

"That should burn off some of his energy, at least." She adds.

Animals clever enough to keep a fair distance from the strange people... isn't going to do them much good in this case, and the group includes a few members that specialized in ranged attack.

"Already on it." Shiruba raises her bow and draws back on the string as she channels elemental energy into it, and then releases it to fire a powerful blast of wind to knock the birds away from the grain stockpile. Things that fly tend to be easily discouraged by making the air uncooperative to doing so.

"NO FLANNEL." She objects sharply in response to Gwen.

"I'm sure they've figured out Scarecrows by now. Their lack of them suggests they probably didn't work very well. Thus, is being here. Though one might be able to make a doll that animates over time with some enchanting." Cyrus proposes to Goldenblade as he starts to notice the avians as well. He'd been so watchful out the things outside of the fence, he didn't even think to keep a watch to the skies.

As Mikage speaks more on the topic of winter wear, Cyrus is quick to add; "Reasonable looking winter wear! Nothing too fancy." Says the guy wearing quite the fancy coat.

"... okay, maybe a little fancy. I don't want to look like a bum. So definitely /no flanel/. I'm not some American."

And with that, he draws a set of flasks from beneath his coat and flings them in the air, making them rush around at the birds like angry hornets trying to defend their nest!

Gwen says "I have no ideas there I can help with fending them off till someone else has a better idea." She also grins about Goldenblade liking the idea of Flannel based projects. She just looks at Shiruba and will stat to channel a wind spell to drive off the wildlife without killing them.

"SHOO!"

"Oh come on Shiruba you look cute in it!" Oddly she's not too serious about trying to push Flannel on her adopted little sister.

Goldenblade hrms to Mikage about better than starter winter gear, but looks over to Gwen. She can surely come through on that? Rama scatters birds willy nilly, animals are often better than people for clearing other animals, and the predator-prey relationship amplifies that. Shiruba is able to clear huge swaths of sky with her wind-arrows. Cyrus's air flasks scatter more birds, who have no idea what to make of them. Gwen's wind magic clearls the sky almost completely, even before Goldenblade's smoking torches have begun to really smoulder. Smoking them out would have been a slow process, she guesses.

Birds seem to be the least of the problems that the farmers face with the harvest. While dealing with the feathered pests, a few figures can be spotted, crouched low and moving amongst the edges of the field. They seem to be sizing up both the Adventurers and the Landers, getting counts of how many are here.

The scouts seem to be only an introductory party, likely readying the way for a larger incursion against the harvesting crews. They need to be eliminated or at least scared off before they can gather information to take back to their leaders, but the hardest problem might be finding them.

They seem to move stealthily through the taller reeds and plantlife, sometimes vanishing from sight and making it quite difficult to track them.

"Maybe just a little fancy." Mikage comments, looking over at Cyrus as if she were trying to contain some hint of laughter. The feline did have a tendency to dress a little over the top. It's a stark contrast to the basic traveling gear and Ranger armor that the Were Fang girl tended to wear. "Otherwise, no one would recognize you." She teases.

Then, as her eyes sweep back over the area, Miki spots the scouts moving in the grasses. "Um... guys. Looks like we've got some trouble." With Rama still occupied with chasing off birds, Mikage grabs for her bow, aiming an arrow towards one of the sneaking scouts, trying to make sure they realize that their trespassing hasn't gone unnoticed.

"My appearances are irrelivant to the matt--" Shiruba stops in her adoptive sibling bickering with Gwen, turning her attention back to the area just outside the fields. She squints, but it's her ears doing most of the work as they twitch and angle to pick up the faintest of sounds made by men otherwise trying to be silent. She gestures a few times quickly to the others, pointing in the same general direction as Mikage is honing in on. Then ducks back down at the inside edge of the field, her tail twitching back and forth. She nocks her bow back at the ready, but waits to see how they react to Mikage's more direct approach. If they're smart they'll run at seeing they were noticed.

But they probably aren't, so probably won't, and that's when she'll be ready to pick them off.

"Hey, a man's got to have a style." Cyrus answers Mikage with a bemused little look. She's seen him in common traveler's clothing before. It works for him just the same, but it isn't the 'normal' way he clothes himself. Of course, that fur on his coat he's wearing right now already helps him with the whole cold matter.

That's when he spots the same thing the others do. "We've got company." Darnit, just when he was watching the fence like a hawk, those birds just had to distract him. Curse those birds!

So he picks up a rock and throws it at one of the targets, trying to get them to stand up and get right into the way of one of his allies' attacks!

THROW STONE.

Gwen seems very pleased about how she bothered her little sister but will stop at this point there is a job to do right? Predators to spook and the like. When that is over Gwend oes seem to think there's somehing about she'll catch sight of it calling out. "We got something else skulking about keep frosty!"

Mikage's bow tracks the bandits carefully, and Cyrus's rock draws a vocal 'Ow!'. A couple scouts break and run, and Shiruba's bow picks off a couple more, who also lose their nerve. Gwen's powers of observation roots out another cluster of bandits, while Goldenblade is able to read the lay of the land to catch a group sheldering in a small trench.

The scouts are not the end of the bandit troubles that seem to be facing the farmers. It isn't long until the main group of Bandits make their way out of the nearby trees, armed with swords, crossbows, and cudgels of all sorts. They are dressed in simple armor, likely not expecting to face the sort of resistance that Adventurers usually bring with them, which can be described as a 55-gallon drum of whupass.

The bandits head straight for the largest group of farmers, likely intending to capture or slay as many as they can in order to seize control of the fields for themselves. There is a war cry from a heavier armored bandit at the lead as he raises a sword high, rushing into the fields. Apparently the bandits are making their move: they have to eat, too!

Having been focused on the scouts, it isn't until Gwen calls out that there might be more coming that Mikage shifts her stance, cursing under her breath. There are too many to bother trying to shoot arrows at, so Dawnbreaker folds up as she shifts to holster it against her back.

Instead, she draws her sword and begins channeling dark magic thorugh the runes on the blade, causing them to glow an eerie purple-black shade. Then, she stabs the weapon into the ground, a few flickers of shadowy tendrils coming from where her hand connects to the sord.

The magic coalesces at that moment, blasting into one of the groups of bandits, trying to blind them and keep the group from being able to see the farmers and turn them into targets. "We're the ones you should be worrying about!" She taunts, then waves a hand at the farmers, "Fall back!"

And this is why Shiruba has been focusing more on elemental protection in her training. It doesn't require waiting for the opponent to get right up in your face just so you can use a shield to try and guard yourself.

She stands up when the bandits decide to try and rush in (as expected really) and fires an arrow. It arcs low to hit the ground just outside the field, and from the point of impact several formations of stone erupt out of the ground. The jagged obstruction is meant to hold the bandits back, but some of the stronger and more persistant ones put the effort into climbing over the protrustions to continue. "That's not going to hold them back as well as I had hoped!" Shiruba calls out so her allies know to step in while they have the chance to.

"I've got this." Cyrus hand touches on Shiruba's as the bandits get closer to her, followed by many of the potions he'd launched earlier at the birds to sink into the ground everywhere. Like little missiles, they shatter on the ground, creating these strange crimson markings on the ground.

The moment one of the bandits steps on one of those well hidden red glows, a violent slew of magical chains suddenly wraps over their legs, their bodies, sinching their arms!

"Detonating chains. I came up with this technique a while ago, to deal with exactly this kind of situation. If the enemy tries to attack without breaking out of the chains first, it detonates on them, while restricting their movement." The Alchemist explains to Shiruba, staring at the unfortunate bandit that is wrapped tight in that bundle, whole arcane flames bite into their flesh.

"Miki, do you have your side under control?" The youth then calls out, as he begins to survey more of the region.

Gwen says "Don't make Charisma your dump stat Shiruba!" Oh look it's raider Gwen knows just what she need to do to pull the reaider off the hunters. She'll sprin oyu get in their way flag as many of the farmews as she can as those she's protecting. The Green winds come about Gwen as she calls out.

"ANCHOR HOWL! FACE ME YOU COWARDS!"

The farmers falls back at Mikage's warning as the bandits fumble around, suddenly blind. Shiruba's defensive formations stymie the attackers for a moment, but the rest go around them to advance on a slightly different course. Cyrus's chains capture the bandits handily, and while a few try to fight back, most try to escape. It doesn't go particularly well for either group. Goldenblade slinks up behind the bandits that are attacking the Landers, slashing and stabbing them from behind, cutting them down at unawares. But it's Gwen who pulls the bandits off the Landers. Her shout draws all eyes - even the Landers - and the bandits face her and charge, apart from the ones in the now-flaming chains.

Once the bandits are dispatched, things seem to quiet across the fields. There is a feeling of relief that spreads through the Landers as they return to their duties. Long hours pass without much activity at all apart from the harvesting, only the occasional animal that wanders too close to the edge of the fields and has to be shooed away.

Then, there is a strange feeling, like a trembling of the ground. It starts with one large thump, followed by another shortly thereafter.

Then, everything nearby goes quiet. Out of the nearby forest, a series of lower level monsters begin fleeing in the direction of the fields.

They don't seem to be concerned with attacking the Landers or with the food.

Instead, the Stampede seems to be caused by something else, causing the smaller dire creatures to run for their lives. This is just the sort of thing that could cause irreparable damage to the fields! "The stampede needs to be diverted, either by clever use of monster control, or creating barriers to prevent them from getting to the crops," Goldenblade urges.

Shiruba lets out a whistle at Cyrus' display. "That's really useful right about now.... In hindsight I should of prepped a Thorn Bind Hostage arrow or two." Then shoots a glare in Gwen's direction. "How is that even relevant right now?!" Thankfully that seems to be the end of the bandits, and they can go back to the basic standing guard. Though any adventurer knows that isn't going to last.

Especially when the ground starts rumbling. It's faint a first, enough that she only notices thanks to her astute geomantic senses, but it's quickly growing to a point that anyone could feel the vibrations. Was it something big?

No, it was something many. Many many species that would normally not be rampaging together. "Something out there has terrified the local wildlife! Steer them away from the fields or they'll trample everything, they're too frightened to watch where they're going!"

Shiruba pulls a thin arrow from her quiver, nocks it, and fires in front of the flood of creatures. It goes off mid-air in a startling burst of flash lightning, the kind that is all just brightness and heat, to scare some of the lead animals into turning away from running into the field. From there herd menality follows form, as the creatures following the lead turn to follow their new course without considering anything else because they're too far into the flight part of fight or flight.

"Shit." There are moments where Mikage is not particularly skilled at swapping between elements. She tugs, trying to pull her sword from the ground, but it doesn't seem to give as easily as it should, causing her to have to set her feet and pull harder.

The dark magic starts to ebb away even as she begins to try to channel other magical forces into the blade. "Come on, come on." She only gets halfway through the spell when the stampede gets too close, causing her to have to swipe her blade out early. A bit of earth rises up, attempting to divert some of the monsters.

However, it seems too little, too late. Many manage to avoid the barrier all-together. This leaves her scrambling, "Incoming! I can't hold them back." Hopefully the others can.

With the bandits dead or having reun off Gwen will look around for a moment "Well that should ... Finish ... everything...What's that rumbling?" Shje look up to see a stampeed, Gwen is quick to snap out of it and star chanting useing various earth spells to make natural barriers to direct the stampeed away from at least some of the crops. "What is it with this job!"

Cyrus is expecting some of the previously lain traps to be able to handle the stampeding creatures. But the problem is that there's just a few too many of them. Some might get locked up in those chains, but Cyrus is having to dodge left and right, trying to get out of the way. "I didn't prepare anything to deal with this kind of numbers. But I'm more concerned about what might be coming next!"

The youth gets bowled over by one of the runaway ones.

"Damned... do you think it's Shalltear?! Or maybe an Orc Lord, or a Goblin Champion!?"

Goldenblade finds herself in the unenviable position of being square in the path of the stampede after her little speech. Time to exit, stage left. Like a ninja, she's there one moment, and gone the next, and where she went /to/ is not immediately apparent. Mikage is more aware of the stampede, but is unable to completely complete her barrier before being forced away. It's that or get trampled. Cyrus's traps are quickly sprung, but just can't manage the number of animals in the stampede, and he, too, is forced to get clear in a hurry. Shiruba is luckily able to divert the stampede from the fields, the stampede angling off back into the wilderness with Gwen's raising of earthen berms to redirect the critters.

It isn't long before the source of the stampede becomes obvious. Trees are toppled over in the path of an absolutely massive creature which lumbers out of the forest, neither Shalltear, nor orc, nor goblin, though what can be seen is not any better. The massive thing seems to wobble back and forth on stubby legs, it's exaggerated cow-like features emphasized by enormous buck-toothed fangs: a gargantuan grunty.

It doesn't seem interested in either the Landers or Adventurers, only the food. One massive mouthful takes out an entire swatch of crops as it begins to chew noisily. Anything that isn't eaten, will surely be stomped under enormous feet.

"Something has to be done about the massive grunty menace before the harvest is ruined!" shout the Landers from places of relative safety.

Finally the source of the terrified stampede stomps out of the forest on it's stout stumpy legs. "That... has got to be the biggest grunty I've seen yet. Too bad it's about to make a really big problem out of itself!"

Shiruba digs in the heel of her back foot to brace herself as she brings up her longbow and draws it back to it's full extent. The elemental gems in the arms glimmer and sparkle as their power is drawn, forming an arrow of lightning infused ice in the weapon.

"If it's anything like a normal grunty it's going to be stubborn. Drive it back with everything we've got! ... STORM BLAST"

She fires the elemental projectile for what she's estimating is the creature's center of mass, hoping the extreme cold combined with disorienting electroshock will be enough to slow the thing down.

"It's... a grunty."

Cyrus almost seems disappointed, yet relieved at the same time. "Alright. This we can handle! I'll freeze it in its tracks!" With that, the youth vaults over one of the stampeding creatures, and uses the higher angle to get a nice jump off of its head and flings a small army of potions right for the Grunty.

Potion after potion smashing into its face, along its flanks, creating a chilled area that starts freezing the air all around it, trying to hold the enormous grunty in place and scare it off from further harassing this farm!

"If it continues to stampede, this entire place will be a wasteland. Let's make this quick!"

Trying to recover from the quick jolt of panic, Mikage sheaths her sword and scrambles for her bow, the mechanical weapon immediately expanding from its folded state and clicking into full size. Reaching back for an arrow, she nocks it and tries to follow the charging path of the grunty.

"Let's see how you deal with this." Channeling both her innate storm magic into the arrow, the force seems to cause the relic stone slotted into it to glow as if it were containing that force. When released, it soars in the direction of the grunty, neatly exploding with wind and water magic, crackling with a hint of light as it slams into the side of the grunty.

"Little different than what you expected, huh, Cy?" Miki offers, as the cat seemed to have been looking for the worst case scenario. "This world still can surprise us." More often than not.

Well with the stampeed over Gwen seem reay to cal it a day, but that is not to be. She looks for a moment she stares. "Oh you have to be kidding me..." She stare at the massive Dire Grunty commeth and she ill rush to engage.

"DIVINE WIND!"

Wind surges around her blade as she will dive at the thing intendingff to give it the message it's not welocm here as she ends up attacking it wqith a flurry of wind elemental sword strikes.

"I'm honestly just glad this isn't another crisis situation." Cyrus answers Mikage as the battle continues.

The huge grunty is disoriented by Shiruba's attack, or at least it pauses eating for a few moments. The HP loss is blithely ignored. Cyrus's potions are likewise ignored, though it -is- slowed further, reducing the rate at which it consumes crops. Gwen's ferocious attack nickels and dimes it further while inflicting further elemental effects, and Mikage's storm-laden arrow drops more deluge on the grunty, which freezes quickly with Cyrus's potions, and further slows it. Then Goldenblade's attack comes in, a blazing swordstroke with an intense fire behind it. It shatters the ice, and the frozen bits of grunty, too, for the small good that does.

The attacks from the Adventurers seem to do little to move the health bar of the enormous grunty. It seems to have extremely high stamina and defensive stats. It isn't until it has lost almost a quarter of its health that the creature even seems to realize they are there, lifting a head and chewing before giving a somber sort of moo-roar.

Then, it burps loudly, sending spittle and foul breath through the edge of the fields. Apparently, their attacks had given it an upset stomach. Wobbling on those stubby legs, the creature turns and begins to toddle off towards the trees again, it's cow-like tail swishing behind it.

Thankful for the aid, the Landers share tales that the grunty had been a problem in years before, almost eating them out of entire fields.

The Adventurers certainly pulled their weight in keeping the farmers safe, so they're offered up some of the spoils for their troubles, and there was much rejoicing.

"If it's a repeat threat, something should be done about it...." Shiruba turns to look in the direction the giant dire grunty lumbered off in search of less difficult food. "Though I can see why it's been difficult." She shakes her head a bit. "I agree with Cyrus. This could of been a lot worse than one oversized glutton."

Goldenblade watches the giant grunty wander off into the woods. "Well, we did maybe a quarter of its health with no problem. Just need to track it down and do the rest and hope it doesn't notice us." That'd be the trick, of course. She nods to Shiruba, but surmises, "It's not very interested in people, it looks like. So, maybe it's not a threat to people as much as a threat to crops?"

Gwen says "that was some serious bull but we're done here I want to know how a Grunty got /that/ big in the first place."