Duty Session 263: Threat to the Harvest

Scythes glint, flashing in the afternoon sun as they level the golden expanse of wheat that stretch over the acres wedged up against the glittering river beyond. Behind the swinging scythes come Landers gatherers, backs painfully bent, their fingers swishing through the fallen blades of wheat to stuff them into large, burlap sacks. Their progress is slow, painstaking, but it's also the last day of harvest. The prospect of tomorrow keeps them pressing onwards.

The air is sweltering, oppressively so. The majority of large animals have gone to ground, in search of any elusive shade, and the only activity other than the field-hands and their escorts is a veritable army of industrious grasshoppers, singing their hearts out.

It's hot as hell, which is why Kotono is wishing she had a better outfit to wear then her usual attire. Virtual or not, the heat is still getting her down. She fetches her flask of water and takes a sip as she looks to Miyako. "I would hate to be training in a place like this," She says as she wipes her forehead. "My gymnasiums got hot, but not THIS hot!"

    Miyako nods to Kotono as she watches the the edges of the field, keeping an eye out for any danger that might appear. "Yeah, I've always hated the heat myself," she agrees. "But we're getting paid for it, and from all I hear they really do need people on guard, so..."

"Could be worse." Kaydon says to the others in the group, as he rests against one of the fences.

"I've been in 130 degree deserts...130 Farenheight, not Celsius. Nobody'd be alive if it was C." He has to remind himself this is still a Japanese server. "So what's the plan anyway? Just wait for the event to kick off?"

Despite not really getting 'paid' for this, Giganpor had decided to volunteer for the harvest bit. That, and someone had to kick him out of his forge once in a while, He may have come along unwillingly, but he was there. The armored man was just settled on a handy log off to the edge of the fields, watching the Landers work. His trusty hammer-axe spear was leaned on one shoulder, and he had his buckler already equipped, too. Otherwise? Well, the normally loud Giganpor was fairly silent, and looking very thoughtful.

    Rizadoman was not a farmer, however he suffered a problem. He could not sit by while others worked, it just wasn't who he was, so here he was in the fields providing any services that doesn't ccause him to need to use a farming skill. It would be really bad if he pulled some of the harvest and it turned to ash or something simply because he couldn't farm according to whatever magic the system law was. Besides it helped to ease his guilt about the ruined festival the other night.

The sleepy afternoon air is rent by a sudden shriek, and then another. Is it an attack? A kidnapping? Are there damsels in distress to rescue?

No. What does descend upon the remnants of those golden fields is a swarm of large, black and beedy-eyed birds. Far from anguish, the shrieks are those of absolute delight. It's not a particularly formidable swarm. But it's definitely a mischievious swarm, judging by the alacrity with which it begins snapping up wheat kernals, the challenging way in which it eyes the Adventurers, the devil-may-care attitude with which one particularly spunky bird kicks its partner in the tail-feathers.

With the incoming birds, Giganpor looks up from what he is doing. Sighs, then shifts into his Were-Lion form. Taking a deep breath, he then roars loud enough to scare off the birds. Eyeing them, especially whenever they try to come for him possibly, he roars again. With enough force to send the birds tumbling in the air before settling back down.

Kaydon is caught off guard as soon as the attack begins. He snaps his eyes back open, "What the hell?!" He jumps up to his feet again, and grabs his sword to attack the birds and fend them off. He's not as effective at hitting the birds as he'd like to be, trying to swat them out of the sky with the flat of the blade.

    Miyako shakes her head and pats Kotono's shoulder. "Looks like we've got our work cut out for us." She smiles lightly. "You stay on watch for anything else coming in, ok?"

    She runs out into the field, waving her arms at the crows. "Come on you bleeding buggers, geroff!"

    Rizadoman watches the birds for a moment as an old memory of a cartoon comes to mind of a flock of crows always coming to steal some poor farmers vegetables. It was only thanks to the King of the WereForms loud roar to snap o him out of his thoughts and gets him into action. With a deep breath he to follows Giganpors example and lets out a similar roar of a predator asif challenging the birds to dare try and steal this food.

"I guess you could say that," Kotono says as she looks at the birds coming up and out. "Don't worry, I've got this!" She watches as Miyako goes one way, then Kotono goes another, taking out a spell rune and invoking an air spell.

With that, a large blast of wind comes out, heading at the birds in an attempt to convince them to go elsewhere.

SpritesHero, similarly exhausted by the heat, had been grumpily carrying out his duties. Talking to others? No sirree. Too darned hot to talk in this weather. Occasionally he scans the treeline for incoming abuse. What he does not scan is the air overhead, and he's rather caught by surprise by the incoming swarm. "Bugger bugger bugger," he continues to grumble. Not that he's about to actually -move-. Too danged hot. This is what ranged magic is for, right? Right.

Are the bids part of a vast criminal conspiracy? If so, they're certainly doing a pretty good job with their part of the deal. A few get clipped. A chunk gets bowled over by a blast of wind. The rest prove themselves to be admirably good at nimbly hopping around, dancing between magic blasts, and all the while snagging bits of lunch. "Aw! Aw! Aw" cackles one, shaking its wing mockingly at the adventurers.

And during this fiasco, whether by collaboration or opportunism, the real threat approaches. Shadowed figures slide between the river's reeds. Hunched over figures make their stealthy way through the tall, sun-dried grass. So far they seem to be without a specific target. They're not converging on any of the wheat, or the Landers. No attack is mounted. They simply watch, shifting positions. Waiting.

"Something's going down," Kotono says with a slight frown as she attempts to look closer. "I'd better go take a look..." She crouches down and attempts to sneak in towards where those figures were seen...

Then she stops suddenly, and lifts her foot to look at the sole of her shoe.

"Oh great! I can't believe I stepped in THAT!" She says with a scowl as she attempts to find something to wipe her shoe off on.

    While Kotono is dealing with her little land mine, Miyako is still running around playing scarecrow. Waving her hands and shouting, looking ridiculous. Not even (apparently) armed, not that that means much.

    Then she trips, falling flat on her face. In the process of getting up she freezes, spotting a rustle of grass that shouldn't be there...

"Yeah, yeah, get away, yeh wee sh...varmints," Sprites continues grumbling, launching the occasional blast of magic in the general direction of the nearest offending bird. He's not particularly paying attention to anything else. Well, other than his tongue, which he's apparently still having some difficulty keeping civil. It's entirely by luck that that he catches sight of a flicker in the grass. He squints. Looks even more annoyed. Blasts a bird out of spite.

    Rizadoman looks at the birds as they run away with a grin and then looks back to where the birds came from. Staring into the reeds for a moment he watches for a moment. " I think something is coming. " Fortunately Rizadoman does not have to fight whatever it is alone. He reaches into a pouch on his belt and ... has apparently not restocked on fangs of nagas . So he stands there missing the component he needs for his spell and simply must wait for whatever it is.

Perhaps noticing that the adventurers have managed to clue in to the presence of their scouts, a large force emerges from the nearby tree-line. They're a motley crew. Second-hand clothing and armor that's been patched up, a wild assortment of ill-favored, poorly maintained weapons, some of which look to have been fashioned out of whatever was at hand. But it would be a mistake to underestimate their intent. With a unified shout the line, headed by a heavily-armored and armed mountain of a man, surges forward. And no, not towards the bags of goods which have been heaped around the field. They're targeting the Landers, who abruptly begin screaming and scattering, leaving the defense of their livelihoods to the hired help. If the force is not stopped, chances are that there will be many fewer mouths to feed this winter.

Twirling her blades, Kotono says, "All right, bring 'em on!" She says with a smile. "Bandits, huh? I'll have to teach you guys a lesson!" Kotono rushes towards them...

"Wah!"

Only to fall flat on her face as she trips over an unseen stone in the ground. "Ahh!" She hits the ground hard, and while she doesn't land in what she stepped in before, she still hits the ground hard. She pushes herself back up and wipes her face, scowling deeply. "Why me?!"

Eyeing the sudden presence in the field from his keener ears, Giganpor hums then stops his foot at the earth. The nearest one ends up with an earth-like vine smacking them, followed by another as the harvest starts to fight back for the moment on the interlopers preventing the harvest itself. He's still fairly quiet otherwise during all of this!

    Miyako stays there on her knees, concealed by the tall grass, as she prepares a spell for the onrushing bandits. She scribes her spell-runes in the air, a quick sequence of glowing characters drawn by the simple motion of a finger and pressure of mana.

    The spell completed, the runes fade to black, then swirl together and out towards the bandits, wrapping their heads in shadows to muffle their vision and distract them with hallucinations. "Enjoy your trip!" she calls out to them, standing.

Spotting the heavily armored lead bandit, Kaydon is quick to maneuver his way in front of him. Gripping his blade in both hands, he positions himself on an intercept course. He figures that if he takes the leader down, the others may get the hint and flee.

No special techniques, no magic. Nothing fancy. Just pure combat skill put on display as he clashes with that badnit leader.

SpritesHero neatly ducks behind a barrel of water, using it as what limited cover he can as he fires quick, short bursts of magic at the rapidly approaching bandit line. Being quite aware of his own...uhh...combat shortcomings, he focuses on thinning out the ranks of bandits, and is quite happy to leave their leader to more capable hands.

Giganpor is quick to move, leaping and vaulting his way over the fields to get to where he needs to go. Namely into the midst of the incoming force as his buckler comes up to toss people around and keep them from the Landers doing the harvest. It does help that he has a giant axe as well, as he ends up tossing people around with it and the hammer end back and forth repeatedly. Not a single bandit gets by, although the one that almost does ends up with a shield to the face. At least in his area, the Landers are safe!

    The lizardmans eyes fall on the bandits and he growls in anger. "Not again." Rizadoman runs towards the bandits and puts himself between the bandits and the landers. " I will not let this harvest be ruined by the likes of you!" Spreading his arms out he actually even manages to stop a few from running past him, at this moment his body was the shield.

The line holds, the assailants are routed. Once big and ugly goes down to Kaydon supported by combined fire, the rest abruptly lose their nerve. Morale shattered, they sprint back towards the tree-line, leaving their casualties behind them.

And that is all, for many hours. The sun dips towards the horizon, the temperature begins to drop. The laborer are just beginning to bundle their tools and head back to their homes, when suddenly...silence. The grasshoppers stop their chirping, and for a moment the world seems to hold its breath.

It starts slowly at first. A few mutated mice. Some rabbits. A bobcat. There is a rumble, then, from the forest, and the treeline shifts as a swarm of smaller, furry critters bursts forth, terrified, rampaging towards the crop-fields.

Kaydon's not much of a magic user. But he is able to at least channel it through into his blade. That's the usual way he works with his attacks.

He spots the incoming stampede, and he drives his blade into the ground, focusing earth into it as he slashes upwards, creating a wall of stone to protect the field and to re-direct the creatures away from the field.

SpritesHero really doesn't have much to offer, here. Not to the others, anyhow. He's quite capable of taking care of himself though! Besides, what's he supposed to do? Nuke a bunny? Okay, maybe it's a dire bunny, but even as a Divine Dragon there are just some things that one doesn't do without expecting to get the stinkeye for ages afterwards. And so, he hops up onto a cart where he begins dusting himself off to look as presentable as possible for whatever is incoming.

    Once the bandits are dealt with, Miyako takes to patrolling the edges of the fields, wandering about and eyeing the grass for any sign of motion. The first few small creatures receive a taste of her naginata's blade, produced from inventory with a swipe of her hand, but then bigger ones start arriving and she has to leap out of the way to keep from being run down!

Getting back into the swing of things, Kotono is fortunate enough to be able to use her swift agility and acrobatics to her benefit as she avoids being caught in the stampede. "Well, at least it seems something's gone right for a change!"

    Rizadoman watches the little animals charging towards the farm and runs in front of the group and shouts loudly, "STOP!" Only for him to be ignored so all Rizadoman can do is literally grab any animal he can and start to try to toss them in a different direction. Every drop raises the ocean right?

Looking thoughtful, Giganpor grins a bit in the feline way before moving forward towards the stampede, and just roaring at them. At least his edge of the entire thing turns inwards as he continues to roar, being the bigger predator as he forces the monsterous animals to run and turn the entire stampede by force to go away from the fields. At least that's his plan!

The surge continues, unabated, turning from a swarm to a veritable flood. And nothing, not even a single dire snake, pays even the slightest attention to Lander or Adventurer alike.

The why becomes readily apparent. With a crack, first one distant tree topples, then another. The forest parts before the oncoming assailant, bending where it can, breaking where it cannot. The last curtain of branches is swept aside, revealing a massive, if ungainly, grunty. Spying the harvested wheat it bellows in delight, eyes sparking, and rushes forward. Perhaps it is a blessing that it is probably a vegetarian. The Landers hold no interest for it. It simply opens its fanged cavern of a mouth and barrels towards dinner.

This giant thing looks tough. Kotono attempts to use an aerial attack to try to teach it a lesson in respect...

Except her attack goes wide and she ends up driving her blades into the ground, leaving her doing a makeshift handstand... before she drops to the ground. Embarrassed and frustrated.

In the end, the Adventurers come out on top.

Kotono sighs as she looks at Miyako. "All's well that ends well, right?" She says half-sarcastically. "That could have gone a LOT better if you ask me."

    Recovering from her leap away from the first batch of creatures, Miyako pauses to just *stare* at the giant grunty. "... ok now that's just not fair," she quips. "This is just..." She shakes her head.

    And then it's time for more runes. Got to keep the gruntzilla out of the fields. She plants the butt of her naginata in the ground to free one hand for the spellcasting, sending a swirl of discordant sound twirling around the creature's head to distract and debilitate it.

"That is a big freaking grunty." Kaydon says, as he wipes his brow off with one of his hands, "But you know what. A job is a job! Come on!"

He runs towards the massive Grunty, his Damascus Blade flashing and swinging as he tries to slash away at the creature, landing several blows to the beast.

It seems no matter how much damage he tries doing, the creature just seems to be ignoring it.

Giganpor sighs, then brings his hammer-axe spear to rest against the ground as it and his buckler glows green. Then he leaps up and actually smashes the hammer end into the grunty, at least slightly delaying it before doing so again. And again. The Were Lion gives a roar at it as it seems to ignore him and continues to waylay it with glowing weapon until it at least looks at the resident tank.

    Rizadoman's jaw drops as he sees the giant grunty, and finally all he can say after looking at it for a moment is rather breaking character for him, " I can not believe someone made a kaiju grunty." It is really all he can think for a moment before the situation finishes processing. Suddenly he is back in action as he looks into the sky, " Oh ancient nagas I pray to those who have fallen before. " With a sudden charge not only is Rizadoman planning to grab the grunty by the horns but also two skeleton lizardman as well, ready to help him in his cause.

SpritesHero is really kind of phoning it in at this point. Yeah, he kinda ducked out on dealing with the bandit lord. Giant grunties? Even more of a heck-no. He stays at a relatively safe distance, firing off an impressive barrage of...dark bolts and the like. Most of which miss miserably. The rest of which miss spectacularly.

As for the Grunty, it does not really seem to notice. It hangs out. It munches. It lounges. Eventually it clues in to the fact that something seems to be -hurting- it, at which point its slow brain churns. Heaves. Rolls over. Possibly gives it indigestion, judging by the earth-shattering stink-of-a-burp that blasts forth from its gut. With a waddle it ponderously pivots, aiming back towards the forest, and departs from whence it came. Fuller. Happier.

But not as full as it could have been. Bags of wheat remain, perhaps not in the same orderly piles that they were before, but they remain. And more importantly, enough remain. The Landers will make it out of today with enough to keep them fed for the winter. Thanks to you, no children will go hungry. Thanks to you, no families will have to decide between survival and keeping their livestock. Thanks to you, they will have enough seed for next year's planting. Their thanks are effusive, and they do not seem to particularly mind that grunty-steaks are not on tonight' menu.

Once the Grunty heads out, after having eaten it's fill, or at least enough to want to leave, Kaydon just watches it go, "What the hell."

At least the majority of the food is safe. It's probably good enough, he thinks, "I don't think you can beat that thing.."

    Miyako nods. "Gruntzilla," she declares it. "Ko-chan, I'm in a mood for burgers." She walks over to join her friend, humming 'home on the range'.

    Rizadoman sighs heavily as the beast falls and performs the usual adventurers right of loot gathering. After placing the horn in his inventory he looks bacck at the fields and goes to get back to work. Still plenty more to harvest.

For his part, Sprites seems to be a bit on the green side. Which is to say that he's off in the rushes, desperately trying to forget the stench of that grunty. He'll probably just sneak off at some point once he's finished emptying his own stomach, and washing out his nostrils. He'd really rather not stick around after all this.