Duty Session 303: Travel with Triffids

    June is doing one of the things that June does. She's just shooting off invites after picking up a quest from the Hunter's Guild. The werefang woman just inviting anyone who doesn't look busy or looks like they might be useful hunting down some giant plants that are going to be wandering through the forests. "Hey, hi, how are you?" she says in a bright chipper way even as she's just walking along picking people almost at random to invite to the party. When someone agrees she sends them the quest info and keeps on trucking, gotta getout to the coast after all.

    "June, dear, hello."
    By now Amalthea knows just who to expect when she gets a random invite at the Hunter's Guild. Well, right now the old Paladin doesn't have much on her plate at the moment so she accepts the invite and the quest and gets to following.

A random invite from June is nothing new... It's that it's an invite for a Duty she's never seen before that got Shiruba's attention. Finding something new to explore sounds like an expedition in the making so the wolfgirl came as soon as she could.... After stuffing her face with what she could from the carnival food stands. Can't go adventuring on an empty stomach!

Goldenblade is one of the randos invited by June. She actually knows June, so she accepts, though in truth she probably would have accepted anyhow. She's eager to try out her new skill. It should be interesting! She has high hopes! So, she'll follow June along, forming the core of what will soon, she's sure, be a grand parade. "Hey," she calls a greeting to some of the others that wind up joining us, and to the ones that had joined previous to her. "How's it going?"

    Setsuna was here at the local hunter's guild doing what anyone would do in Setsuna's position. He is showing off the cute three headed cerberus puppy. He is so cute and all three heads like to bite and chew and just adorable, also he has a super powerful attack the 6 eye puppy dog stare. However in the middle of it all Setsuna gets a quest popup. It is an interesting quest, and in the end seems like just a quest to kill weeds. Looking at the puppy he considers a moment and then accepts, " Hey guess what my little demon buddy. You are going to be allowed to dig, and the doctor won't yell at you for digging up his herbs. No he won't , nope nope nope. Aaaaawww who's such a cute demon puppy." He gets distracted getting kisses from his puppy before he accepts, he would be along momentarily.

Kaydon happened to be working on one of his projects and talking to Shiruba when she got the invite to come to some duty neither of them had heard of. So he tagged along for the ride, "So what is this all about anyway?" He asks, as he wanders along with her.

Since they stopped at the carnival before they left, Kaydon has a plate full of funnel cake to chow down on.

    "Oh hey, it's you!" Mizuki recognizes June when she arrives at the meeting point and holds her arms out in offer of a hug.

    She also sees... well, a lot of other people she knows! "Wow, I don't think I've ever seen this big of a party outside of a floor boss. Those triffids won't know what hit them!"

    Merek walks along the forest while he nods a bit to June, "It's pretty good to see you," he will offer, while he takes the time to adjust the black leather strap which he wears low slung upon the hip, which looks well made and it seems to be pretty new to him. He does watch the place from the hood which he wears, then he takes the time to check on the potions that he keeps upon it as well.

    June smiles wide and wraps her arms around Mizuki "KITTY!" she says petting the werefang behind her ears and just carrying the cat girl along with her... sure they're the same size... but June is just a bit rediculously strong. "These triffids are normally in the ocean. But with the Undines not being able to hunt them we need to catch them while they're migrating to their spawning grounds." she says "So it's technically a flower picking expedition?" she grins at Kaydon. She smiles at Golden and Amalthea as well as Shiruba "Hey hey girls ready to make daisy chains?" she asks sweetly even as she bodily carries Mizuki and pets the cat girl.

"Huh, I didn't know we even had triffids here, so this should be interesting." Shiruba murmurs as she follows along. With Mizuki here to take all the fluffy petting she's free to just do as she usually does.

    KITTY!

    Mizuki smiles, tail twitching, at the petting... and then looks confused in the exact way a cat does at being unexpectedly picked up... and then her ears blush a bit as she realizes what happened, and opens her mouth to object, hesitates, and closes it, purring but looking kind of tsundere about being carried. And then she's being asked questions and being petted. "I... uh..." she stammers, as the objection 'not a girl' is rapidly silenced by 'people will think you're weird if you admit that' and then 'will they though' and what finally comes out is "...aren't triffids like huge? A daisy chain would be the size of a sumo ring or something, wouldn't it?"

    Setsuna comes up to the group holding his puppy as he looks at the group and he smiles, " So it sounds we are picking flowers hmm? I guess many hands make light work it seems. " Setsuna retrieves a backpack from his inventory and slips the puppy into the bag and then tosses the pack over his shoulders. This was only going to be viable for another month or two, so best to make use of it. The cerberus trio does seem to keep making noises in Mizuki's general direction, trying to put on an aggressive front.

    Amalthea can't help but chuckle as she watches Mizuki get bodily lifted. And petted. A lot. And follows right along.
    "It should be an intereting experience, at the very least."

Goldenblade vaguely remembers the Triffids movie. When it came out in '62, there wasn't such an entertainment glut that you wouldn't watch something just because it was on. It made it to TV in Japan soon enough, maybe '68 or '70, and that's where she'd seen it, but all she remembers are plant-like aliens, and something about blind people. Well, it was 40-some years ago. She follow, in any event, she'll go along to see what this is all about. And maybe try out her new skills.

"Somehow I doubt anything is going to be that simple." Kaydon says as he takes his blade out of the scabbard on his back, "So I'm going to just..Keep this at the ready. You know, just to be on the safe side."

He does offer a bit of a grin, though. He's not much of a botanist, so this'll really come down to the others if it's really just picking flowers.

    June leads the party to the edge of the water where the Triffids comes ashore. She looks at the beach "That looks to be the spot." she says pointing to the triffid tracks. "This is a high level quest soooo... hopefuly we can keep track of them and take them down." she shrugs "If not well, it's still a good thing to try the Mages say they need the supplies." she grins.

Goldenblade can just about find plants in a forest. Asking her to find /specific/ plants anywhere is already not going to happen. Asking her to track specific plants in a forest is not going to work out. It'd be like trying to track water at a beach. She looks around, for the show of it, and to show she's making an effort, but it's halfhearted and kind of lacksadasical. She looks around to see if the others are doing any better, but it seems things aren't going well.

    Merek looks around a little bit and nods to the plants, "These are new, I've not seen them, I don't think that I'll be able to assist," he admits to the party. Then he begins to check on the place to make sure it's safe while he walks along.

    Amalthea begins searching for signs of Triffids.
    She finds something! Successfully, she holds up--...
    Wait no, that's just a clump of seaweed.
    "..."
    Slowly Amalthea puts it down and says NOTHING.

"Looks like they're already on the move." Shiruba ventures into the forest... and quickly finds the rootprints hard to distinguish from the rest of the growth about the ground. She frowns, and keeps moving on while trying, but this is a monster she's not very familiar with and thus is having difficulty properly picking up a trail.

    Mizuki's ears turn towards Amalthea and blush. She heard that chuckle, dammit. Why does this feel so confusing?!

    Fortunately, soon they're on the trail of the triffids, and June presumably sets her down. She drops to all fours and sniffs along the ground, searching for the scent of triffid, then stands up. "I think I've found the trail..." She starts heading inland, occasionally stopping to sniff around again and make sure she picks up the trail.

    Ah yes tracking and hunting, something Setsuna had been doing in some ameteur form in one way or another for the last year. So this should be easy enough, , however the problem is he has never really hunted plants before and seems to keep losing the trail here and there. It appears he will need to learn how to hunt something that isn't an animal or humanoid at some point.

Kaydon is already in his were fang form, so he tries to use his senses to track down the triffids. However it seems that he's getting more sand and water than anything else.

He coughs a few times and then sneezes, "Oh damn. What the hell."

    June nods to Merek "Normally they are hunted by the Undine I guess when there aren't giant monsters that have taken over their undersea kingdoms or whatever." she says with a shrug "Hopefully we can figure out how to track them and hunt them down, I mean that's the quest after all." The frumpy woman in the barbarian finery crouches down and nods "OKay well lets follow the kitty and keep your eyes out for damage to the soil or trees to help track them." it seems like the triffids have an almost preturnatural ability to travel through the forest without leaving traces. Almost like the trees are helping their bloodthirsty kin.

    Even with the werefangs leading the way it doesn't take long for them to reach a clearing that the pary is almost certain will have the Triffids. When they enter however a giant stone armored bunbun charges from the trees in great ground thumping bounds ready to ravage the party.

While the party moves along, eventually finding their way to a clearing, Kaydon comes to a dead stop as they spot the massive bunbun, "Damn."

He's never seen something that size with that kind of armor, and made of stone no less. Still, armor has to follow principals, wether stone or steel, so he takes a knee and begins to look at the bun. He grabs his knife and draws a quick sketch of the bun in the dirt.

"Here, here and here." He jabs the knife three quick times, showing anyone who's willing to look where they should focus their attacks.

    Merek looks to the bunny with armored plating upon it, then he lifts up his brow. "That's a stone bunny," he notes, then he takes the time to begin to unsheath his weapon while he will lift up a hand to draw about a shield upon the party to protect people.

Goldenblade follows the others around cluelessly for some time until we happen upon the right track, possibly by accident. But it's not a triffid we're facing, it's an armored bunbun. Luckily, she knows a thing or two, or possibly three, about armor, and she's able to strike it in places where the armor's not nearly as effective. "Got a hole in your armor, eh?" she taunts as she stabs away. "Take that! And that! And some of this, too!"

"Looks like we've got hunting competition!" Shiruba braces herself, and a burst of wind kicks up around her, scooping up little bits of forest detritus as it swirls about. It's almost like an Aero spell but more potent, the bits of wood and debris giving the wind barrier a bit more presence to push back against the angry armored bun-bun with.

With the storm barrier holding the creature at bay Shiruba has a chance at the center to focus and calm herself, getting ready for when it's time to go on the offensive. Right now that training on both defense and mental clarity with her mentor looks to be paying off though.

    Setsuna looks at the bunny and tilts his head from left to right as the cerberus puppy begins to growl and then whimpeers and hides in the backpack. Setsuna steps back and looks at the backpack, " No offense my buddy, I wish you were the knight right now. " So what does Setsuna do at this moment, he ushers in some basic earth magic to kick up dirt and rocks in the direction of the monster, trying to blind it. However that darn armor really protects the thing.

    That's no Triffid.
    Coming to the clearing, Amalthea expects plant monsters.
    That's a big bunny.
    "Uh."
    ...
    "Uhhhhhhhh...!"
    Yeah that's a big bunny.
    She braces, raising her shield to defend as she eyes a weakness in the creature's stony armor-- but is too busy trying to defend and hold its aggro to get her own attack rotations in.

    Follow the kitty? "I have a name..."

    Mizuki sees SOMETHING big charging and puts some distance between her and it before she gets a good look at...

    "...Is that a dire bunbun?! ...Is it wearing a CROWN? And armor?"

    She throws fire and kunai from the back lines, then moves in, trying to backstab it and getting kicked for her trouble. She just can't get past that armor! She gets to her feet. "Alright... the bigger they are, the harder they FALL!" She tries activating Stone Catapult to fling the dire bunbun into the air! Even a little... hopefully its large size means it'll take high, physics-based falling damage when it hits the ground, right?

    June looks up at the first thump "That is... NOT a plant." she says shifting forms, the frumpy woman suddenly an iron scaled cow girl. Her long horns glint in the dappled afternoon sunlight shining through the trees. Then the shadow fist gathers up power and rushes in, her iron fists, and hooves flying, slamming into the stone plates hard enough to do some impact damage through the massive armor rating. She keeps up the pummeling.

    Having been turned back by the sheilding of Shiruba and Amalthea. The bun king circles around for another attack, moving around the outside of the clearing before charging back at the party each pass a thunderous affair of charging armored bunbun.

    Amalthea just barely managed to fend it off with her tanking prowess. It's kind of shameful- an experienced Aincrad Raid tank almost getting bodied by a freaking big bunbun. But she manages.
    It's when the big bunny starts to charge that she's given a little breathing room... Until it starts rushing BACK to the group.
    Amalthea curses the fact that she has no real means of ranged combat in this moment but...
    Long ago, during an attack on Tolbana, she had spent 90 Job Points on an esoteric Squire skill. It is now that she chooses to use it.
    Kicking a good, chunky-sized, rock up from the ground into her hand she narrows her eyes.

    Skill:
        Anchor Howl
        Taunt
        Curse Violently
        >Throw Stone

    Amalthea hurls the rock as hard as she can--
    It pelts the side of the bunbun's head for a WHOPPING 1 point of damage.
    "Ah hell."
    Amalthea proceeds to turn and running like hell was on her heels.

Goldenblade has weathered the ambush, and now it seems the fight has devolved into some charging and circling back phase. By dint of tapping her longest cooldown, she manages to stay half a heartbeat ahead of the bunbun. "This is definitely the hardest duty I've done," she comments breathlessly, panting as she scampers and dashes, and stays only just barely ahead of a smacking. "Taunt it off me!" she cries, which is great, because it means that she's starting to understand some of the game mechanics. Unfortunately, it's not actually tauntable in this phase or something. Or her panicked flight is acting as a taunt, maybe?

Kaydon's plan to roll out of the way at the last second before the bunbun runs him over fails spectacularly as he gets trampled by the creature.

He lays on the ground, not really moving for a few seconds, "Oww.." He mutters, as he pushes himself up to his feet slowly but surely, "Not dead yet.."

    Setsuna is doing his best but he hadn't expected a boss fight like this, it was certainly a tier above. Seeing the charging pattern Setsuna draws a quick and dirty magic circle that is suppose to be substituted for a pit fall trap the moment the bun bun moves into it. However as the bunbun runs by , the pitfall doesn't work. So what doe the wily Setsuna do, he goes and stands on the trap confused for a moment. He even jumps on it, and it goes off and he barely manages to avoid falling into his own trap.

The results of Shiruba's defensive focus come through moments later as the wind barrier dies down, and an arrow screams through the air under her guided aim and with such cyclonic force that it spins like a drill to bore between two sections of the weird naturalist armor the bunny king is wearing.

    "It's not dead yet?!" Mizuki backs off again, she's DPS she can't tank damage!

    She stares, briefly, at June's transformation. "...are you a GORGON? I don't suppose you got the breath weapon and it works on bosses, did you?!" For now, the were-tigress stays at range, spitting larger fire attacks that can hopefully find cracks in the armor!

    Merek will keep on fighting with that bunny, while he takes up an alchemist's fire potion which he swings along into it, while it explodes about.

    June waits for the bun to charge and then she charges it from the flank. But it seems that the iron cow girl has flunked flank... or at least the flank of this beast is stone and then one of it's huge back legs kicks out sending the shadowfist flying into a tree where she spends some time groaning before pulling herself to her feet.

    "I uhm... well yes I have a breath weapon... no it's never worked on bosses... I haven't figured out how to make really work well at all yet." The party does get the bosses hitpoints going in the right direction but just as it drops under half a white bun bun running at flash forward zips from the trees trailing golden sparkles. It leaps boops the bunking on the snooth with all four paws, and the then zips back off into the woods. The bunking starts regenerating, and drifts back up towards three quarters before the effect ends. Then each time the party gets it's hitpoints down again, out comes the little healing bun to start the cycle over.

"What the.." Shiruba's head snaps to the side to watch the bunbun bolt by after undoing her potent strike. "The little bastard!" She fires a few shots off after the speedy fiend but it zips and zaps through the woods out of the way.

    Amalthea hurls another rock.
    It deals another amazing 1 point of damage.
    "I am trying to taunt it!" She calls back "But the damn thing keeps healing!"

After a couple of times from the small bunbun running out of the woods and healing the big one, Kaydon thinks he has the pattern figured out.

Pulling off the boss for a second, he pulls his knife off his belt, and flips it up in his hand so he's holding it by the tip of the blade. As soon as the HP bar ticks below half, he hucks the blade, sticking it into the small bunbun as soon as it emerges.

Goldenblade acks as the bunbun kind starts regenerating, and it's going too fast for her to corral in melee. She pulls out her bow to see if she can keep that HP down with ranged attacks, but she's never really practiced with the bow. She's not particularly good, and normally it doesn't do much for her. It certainly doesn't here, her arrows hopelessly begind the fast bun, or leading by too much when it turns abruptly.

    Setsuna draws his dagger and glares at the bunny as a third eye appears on his forehead. " Ok fine you damn hop along bunny. Catch this." With a practiced flick Setsuna throws his dagger at the rabbit, but his hand is not as strong as the knight nor are the necromancer's throw as precise , so it glances off the armor and stick in the ground. With an exhausted sigh Setsuna looks around, " I think we may need to back of and better prepare for this, before we have to spend 24 hours reflecting on our failures. What do others think?"

    "Oh my god WHAT? Are you KIDDING me? We have like a split second to target that thing!" Mizuki complains! Still, once the pattern is clear, as the main boss nears 50% again, she shouts, "Anyone who can target fast monsters, get ready! Watch for the boss to hit half health..."

    This time, the moment the king bun takes the hit, Mizuki starts the series of hand seals, dark energy suddenly engulfing her body. As she sees the healing bun she finishes and aims, the energy shaping into a copy of herself which leaps towards the bunny and then decoheres into a wave of darkness, washing over it!

    Merek looks to the bunny while he begins to lift up his potion which is poison, then he throws that into the bunny.

    June gets back into the fight, and once folks figure out the pattern June gets ready. She gathers lightning around her fist, the electricity skittering around her iron scales until she throws a punch. The lightning arcing out she doesn't manage to take out the bun but the little healer drops just before it gets to the woodline.

    And that's when the party sees the real final form. A red aura blazes up around the bunking and it roars it's fury into the sky. The stone plates drop away from the great beast, and the already fast giant bunbun nearly doubles in speed, and then starts using that stone crown as a battering ram to smash aside shields, crush armor, and deal massive damage on each of it's charging passes.

    So the bun bun reveals its final form.
    Amalthea pulls out her trump card!

    "Anchor How--"

    WHAM.
    Before she can pull up her greatest taunt, she's batted aside, ragdolling into a nearby tree before she lands face down.
    "... I'm okay..."

"I've got this!" Kaydon holds up his sword to the sky, "Anchor ho.." He never finishes the cast as he gets smacked hard by the bun and thrown to the edge of the arena, rolling end over end several times before he comes to a stop. It's not pretty.

"... THAT WASN'T ARMOR IT WAS WEIGHT RESTRAINT!" That's about all Shiruba manages to shout at the stone plates being released and the King Bun putting the Tasmanian Devil to shame as it tears through the forest and the party alike. "Shit shit shit!" the wolfgirl yowls as she's forced to move more than she can shoot as trees topple and overgrowth kicked about. "Why the hell is the Hunter's Guild worried about the Triffids when THIS THING is running loose?!"

And then just as she's getting a bead on the creature... she trips over one of the stone plates that fell off of it, taking a humiliating tumble to the ground instead.

    Merek will keep on fighting while they will work to win, when it all looks like it is finished, he will nod a little bit, "That was... Well, an interesting fight," he will note.

Goldenblade sees the final form of the boss, and takes a big breath. Maybe she'll show him -her- final form. Or at least her latest move. Striking her blades together, sparks showering around, she charges and slams them into the boss. The blades are doing extra damage now, it seems, but as she strikes and bobs and weaves, the question is, will it do -enough- extra damage? This guy is hella tough, and she's fighting with all she's got, ticking his HP bars down with strike after strike, dodging aside the counterblows, ducking under sweeps.

    THE BOSS'S FINAL FORM? (BGM change? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcCrHZAKfPI )

    "Ha! We got it!" Mizuki cheers as the healerbun goes down. "Oh, it's turning red? Hopefully we've almost--" WHUMPF. Mizuki's charged and flung into a tree. "Glad I can only feel 20% of that... Someone... slow it down for just a moment!"

    She stumbles to her feet. She takes a martial arts stance and punches the air, then LEAPS as the pillar of stone rises up, propelling her upward! "EARTH!" She's already doing ninja hand signs. "AIR!" When she reaches the peak of her jump, she double-jumps, triple-jumps, and quadruple-jumps... as the spellcasting rings surround her!

    "Let ice on my body mirror ice in my veins! Ozocubu's Hulk Hands!"

    Fortunately, it's the incant that matters and the spell goes off despite her naming improvisation! A sheen of ice starts to grow on her body, but then it all goes to her hands, all the mass of a full suit of armor becoming a pair of oversized gauntlets instead! "WATER! HISSATSU! METEOOOOOR SPIKE!" As she falls towards the bun she brings down her ice-encased hands, hitting its head with her gathered momentum and getting free momentum from creating ice in the air she didn't have to launch! PHYSICS, bitches!

    The gauntlets shatter from the impact, leaving Mizuki straddling the creature's neck and holding on desperately to its fur! Hopefully it's about to die, or she's in for a rough ride!

    Setsuna looks at the bunny as the armor falls away. " Finally something I can work with. Watch closely pup. " Setsuna forms a magic circle under himself as he begins to cast, " Ash and Dust, find your form. Spirits and souls take up your swords. I call you back to this world to slay the beast that slayed you. " From the ground two skeleton minions rise up as they run to charge and tackle the beast, ripping at it and doing their best to slow it and make it bleed.

    The bunking enters his rage, and June counters with her own, holy light gathering around her and she charges in at him. Her fists and horns flashing back and forth. Great golden slashes rippling out to smash into the now unarmored bunking. That hits hard, and the rest of the party is doing their bit, in the end the party manages to take down the bunking. However in so doing the clearing is so thrashed that they are NOT going to find the trail of the triffids now. But hey... consolation prize, those heavy stone plates remain instead of sparkling away and they look like they'll have some use. "Good fight...gona have to bring the other knights out here and see if we can't find these triffids." She sits down producing her kiseru out of her inventory packing aball of tobacco into it and lighting it to puff it to life and breath smoke into the sky. "That... was a GOOD fight." she lays on her back looking up at the sky through the leaves.

After eventually picking himself up, Kaydon groans heavily and puts his weapons away, "Somehow I think we kinda got lost.." He mutters, "Feels like that thing should be the primary target." He rubs the back of his head with a hand, "Hurt like hell. Glad we were able to take it down."

Shiruba gets up off the ground, dusts herself off... and then pries the stone lump she tripped over off the ground. "I've not seen a monster use stone like this as an armor before." Into inventory it goes, maybe a use can be found for it later.

    The boss shatters into polygons under her and Mizuki drops to the ground, landing on her feet. "Wow. Can't believe that actually worked... It was a long shot, but lucky I actually hit with it..." Still, she's grinning like the cat that ate the canary. "Good job, everyone!"

    It seems that now is resting time. "The other knights? I guess, but-- oh right there's two guilds named like that." She walks over to June and curls up on the ground like a cat to rest. Within arm's reach. In case there will be petting.

    Look, she's stuck as her catgirl character so she may as well make the best of it, right?

Goldenblade smirks to Kaydon, eyes her HP. "I'm glad, too," she agrees. "And yeah, that thing was a major achievement. Like as bad as a level boss, or close to it." As to whether she's up for this again, she replies, "Yes, but not tonight. I need a couple days to heal up from this. I think that's by -far- the hardest one I've done. And now, I'm going to sleep for 16 hours, and soak for eight."

    June puffs on her pipe, letting smoke curl up into the air. "Anyone else drink?" she asks producing a gord from her inventory, her free hand stroking Mizuki's head and rubbing her ears lightly as she lays in the grass. Seems she's perfectly happy to have herself a little lay down. That fight hurt... and on top of that it was actually tiring. A real out in the wild boss fight and not some tower adventure. June is practically glowing with joy. She takes a swallow from the gourd and then sets it next to her to take her pipe from her lips all without stopping her petting of Mizuki.

    Setsuna licks his lips at the offer of the gours before a deep breath and self control, "Only when I am not myself, unfortunately today I am. " With it said he retrieves a canteen of water to drink from before he gets up slowly. " So then shoul we head back? I'm heading back, before that thing respawns. " He says no more as he begins to walk towards the path they came and back towards the hunter guild to have some words.

Goldenblade will take a hit from June's gourd, this mission was absolutely worth drinking about. She takes a few healthy gulps, and will pass it along, or if no one wants, she'll put it back where June left it. And then she'll follow Setsuna. "Oh hell, no, if we're here when that thing respawns, we're toast."