Duty Session 274: Grunty Drive

    The sun is warm and the grass is green, even if the cool crisp wind is trying its hardest to take away that warmth. The local village near by had been hiring adventurers through the hunter's guild lately to help move the grunty from one farm to another through a Grunty Drive. In a vast sea of 2000 grunties, stands a large lizardman Were-fang as he talks to one of the farmers. Very soon it would be up to him and whoever else to drive these grunties.

    Sasori Kuro is always willing to help the People of the Land, and when she heard of this Grunty drive she decided to help as there was nothing more earth shaking that the Adventurer needed to attend to. She makes her way towards the individuals planning this herding drive and waits to see just what might need to be done. After listening to the instructions she clucks her tongue against the roof of her mouth lightly and looks at the vast herd of a couple thousand Grunties and tries to figure out the best way to approach the situation. "Well, I could cook the Grunties." She says to herself with a little wry smile, "But that's hardly going to help." As she starts to walk through the grunties carefully she looks at the others, "Any ideas?"

    The farmers look at RIzadoman and Sasori before looking at his compatriots and then back and then laughs as he leaves the sea of grunties in the hands of the adventures. It would appear the farmer didn't have a great opinion of their chances but here they are. As Rizadoman looks over at his partner in crime for this activity he shrugs, " I guess we have to get these things moving forward. I am open to any idea you may have. " Gesturing a talon towards them he shakes his head again, " I was not hatched to be a farmer. " Sighing heavily he looks about , " Well we will have to try to direct them towards where we want to go. Most farmers can do it how hard can it be. "

    Sasori grins at the farmers as they walk off, "Alright, try to keep them from wandering off, it's going to be a bit of running around." She coaxes the first Grunty to move and then the rest start to follow. It's a wrangling thing, but they manage to get the herd moving... At the sound of the wolves up ahead though, she frowns, "If you can lay any traps and are good at it, try cutting off the wolves. I'll protect the grunties with Stoneskin until we can get the wolves handled and chased off so we hopefully don't lose any of the herd they target." That's her plan, and she's sticking to it! Preparing her magic to protect the herd, "Otherise, prepare to fight off the wolves when they come in, whichever you feel is best for you."

    RIzadoman allows Sasori to take lead in moving the herd while he does as requested and takes the role of doing his best to not let any grunties escape. Some do not really listen and have to be picked up and carried back to the herd but in the end as they move on no grunty is lost in the begining of this mission.
    As the herd moves forward Rizadoman and Sasori Kuro can hear the howls of wolves , and they are not far away. In fact only a few moments later the wolves are upon them and trying to steal several of the prized grunties. With a roar of challenge given to the wolves Rizadoman looks at Sasori about to give orders when Sasori gives the same order to him. "Right, yes prepare for combat."

    With her main focus on trying to protect the Grunties from the wolves, Sassori is spready pretty thin! There's a lot of grunties out there, and there's just the two of them trying to herd and protect all the beasties and protect them from the vicious beasties but Sassori does her part. She channels her magic to protect Grunties as they are being attacked, making it so wolves teeth and claws can't find a signficant purchase while she kicks and roars and does her best to try and scare the wolves off. The tiny Salamander not exactly the fiercest thing, but it works for the most part!

    Rizadoman roar of challenge goes heard and a few of the bigger wolves try to take on the lizardman before he grins and takes a deep breath before unleashing a torrent of flame breath from his maw. The wolves that were quick enough end up only with singed fur, the slower ones were not so lucky. Between the fire of Rizadoman and the shield of Sasori's the wovles decide that this food run is no longer worth it and quickly retreat. With a cheer Rizadoman grins over at Sasori, " Good job, thank you for protecting them. It meant I could focus on the wolves. " Looking at the herd for a moment and then it seems he is beginning to count them, " I think we are missing a few. We should find them or we will have to pay for them. I would not hear the end of it from Erufu and Dowafu if I ended up owing money after a guild job."

    "Right!" Sasori announces cheerfully, "Grunties on the run will try to find some place to either have a defensive enclosure or hide, so let's go see if I can find some of the missing ones and get them herded back to the main group here. It's not just the living it down, but, the Landers are counting on us to succeed." She turns and heads out into the woods, gauging the most likely path to find the missing grunties she can and get them back to the main herd so the farmers have all their livestock. At least as much as possible.

    Rizadoman stares out in to vast place that grunties can be and well he looks as best he can and finds one. Yep just one and the escapades that follows him finding that one are so vast and so humorous eons from now when television is reinvented there will be an animated cartoon based on it. In the end he returns to the heard empty handed and is getting ready to take the blame for it to Sasori. At that moment Sasori's own work shows much more success, in fact she even picked up the grunty that escaped Rizadoman. "Oh good you found it." With the grunties found they are able to get the herd moving again.
     Time passes and night falls on the duo , to a point where it is time to set up camp for the night. " We should stop before we face exhaustion. I being the gentleman, will allow the lady to choose what she wishes her task for the night to be. We will need food, somewhere to sleep and of course the only good thing about camping, the entertainment. "

    "I can try to cook something up sure, don't want to hear my singing voice." Sasori laughs with amusement, making sure the grunties stay in an observable area then goes about trying to get things going. Unfortunately when a Salamander cooks without proper tools and preparation, it can go badly, and it does. Sasori's idea of 'cooking' is apparently 'burn it to charcoal' and that's what happens. It is not good. At all. It's going to be an unpleasant night to say the least.

    Rizadoman looks at the burnt food and nods his head as he bites into his portion. Yes it was indeed at some point meat, his tongue tells him that as he swallows it. " Yes yes. Well given this wonderful meal and a beautiful starry night I would suggest we sleep outside. " It has nothing to do with the fact that he is not often the one to put up a tent, it would go worse then dinner , at least that is how Rizadoman sees it, " So then I will begin a hymn. This hymn is an epic battle between a warlord of the scrap princess wars trying to take land from a down trodden village and then these three heros..." Rizadoman continues his story which will have moments of him singing and then more story and then more singing. This would go on for most the night till the fire dies.
     As the morning comes the two are able to finish leading the herd to their delivery point, however the lander they are delivering the grunties to seems to be closely inspecting the grunties before shouting, " This is it ? I was promised the finest grunties of the land! These pieces of grunty crap don't even measure up. However since you did get them here I will pay you a quarter of the origianl deal. " It appears someone is trying to pull a fast one and it is up to the two adventurers to haggle well or get scammed.

    "Hey now, that's a stretch." Sasori Kuro says as she goes up to the Lander, "We both know these are good Grunties here. And a lot of them. So you might want to take a better look. See now this one here? Yeah it got a little roughed up but it's still healthy and you're not caring about the hide, I guarantee you it's still nice and tender and prime cuts." She says, "There's also quite a lot of the buggers too, so no way are you taking these grunties off our hands for just a quarter. Nuh uh, no way. We'll find another buyer. These are worth at /least/ 90% of what was agreed upon, due to the minor damage from the wolves on the way here."

    Rizadoman nods his head as Sasori talks and explains the situation to the farmer. As he steps up and looks at the lander, standing at least half a head taller, a full head if you include the horns, and looks at him for a moment. Then in a loud voice he begins to speak, " We brought the herd here. We fought wolves, we found those that were lost, we did all this and more. We faced rivers and torrents of rain and hail and kept that herd safe. Our efforts to get them here were heroic, and you would dare insult our actions. " Taking a breath and then a smile, " No you will pay the full fee. Otherwise we will report it to the hunter's guild and they will remember the farmers who try to back out of negotiated contracts. " With a smile and threat of involving the hunter guild, Rizadoman stares at the lander for another moment before the farmer lets out a curt, "Fine!" A few minutes later both Sasori Kuro and Rizadoman are awarded a bag of coins for their effort.

    "Merchants." Sasori says to the big lizard after they receive their bags of coins. She bounces the bag in her hand, "Sorry about the cooking, I really should practice more but I didn't think it'd take all night." Her purple cheeks flush a darker purple crimson with a blush and she smiles, "Alls well that ends well yes? At least we have the coin to go get a nice meal, a nice drink, and a bed... and if we're lucky it won't all taste like stale crackers if they've got fresh fruit!" She lifts a hand in a wave and tosses the coins up in their bag and they disappear into her inventory. Poof. "Oh, I'm Sasori Kuro, if we ever go on a trip like this I promise to be better prepared. Thanks for putting up with me!"

    Rizadoman looks at Sasori and shakes his head, " If you are eating stale cracker food then you have not tasted the wonders of this world. " Taking a moment to tie the bag to his belt before looking at her, " I am Rizadoman of the Moon Tree. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintence Sasori Kuro. Without you we would not have been successful. " Taking a moment he looks about and then adds, " Now then I would recommend if you find time to take your way to Dun Loreiag, and find the Isekai Ryokan. An alliance mate runs it, one of the best cooks in Yamato and if they give you anything that taste like stale crackers, it is because you ordered it." With that said he begins to walk towards the nearest village before he looks back at his herding partner, " Coming?"

    "Oh I've had some properly prepared food, just know that not every inn or tavern has it still unfortunately, or they charge a premium." Sasori sighs and then moves to follow along, "Oh, right, I'm with the Silver Swords." She smiles, "It's nice meeting you Rizadoman, of Moon Tree, all official like." She laughs softly, "And yes, let's go to this place of fine food. After that charcoal I whipped up, definitely need something to get the taste of ash and burned whatever out of the mouth!" She'll happily follow along letting Rizadoman lead wherever.