Duty Session 310: Abandoned Springs

Back at at the Onsen, after a good time cooking in the hot waters, Cyrus managed to strike a conversation with the strange 'Lizard' that runs the place. Supposedly, there was once a rival onsen across another hill, that has been overrun by monsters. Through the Hunters Guild, there's quest to go there and clear it out.

Giving thanks, he's dragged a few folk across the hills, since they were close anyhow. It's a bit late in the evening, and it's still a trek out the mountainpass to get there.

Cyrus is using a potion of light to help light the path forward, making sure people don't fall down unfortunate rocky sides or get ambushed by monsters. "Just a quick in and out." He comments to the others.

After a night of rest and relaxation, it is no surprise that the local quest line had caught Mikage's eye. These limited time events were always something she had an interest in. Afterall, there is that fear of missing out.

"Quick in and out." Miki confirms. "Though... let's be honest, I'm less than chomping at the bit to get back to Byalan." She admits, perhaps a little sheepishly.

Rama gives a big stretch, and a shake, then falls into place with the others, his nub tail waggling.

Yeowang is here to do the hot springs mission that she's been told about. The Japanese do love their hot springs, so she's gone to see if she can help them out. The late hour doesn't bother her, she was just here doing some calisthenics and some research, and working on support for her projects. She, herself, carries a small magical crystal fastened to a wristlet like a bulb that sheds light over a small radius.

"I certainly could use the extra gold to at least replentish my potions before we go back to that damp place." He notes as they head up along the road towards the Onsen far above. Stony rocks and trees hang over their path, making the entire road a bit hard to tell where they are going.

Cyrus keeps looking at this very old map that he'd been handed by the old crazy 'Lizard' at the other place, but when they come to a split in the road - with cart tracks on one way, and a more stony path on the other, he's left scratching his head.

"I can't make out on the map which way to go. Miki, can you figure this one out? I figure the carts would make sense, for Onsen supplies... but... for all I know, it goes to a farm off way in the distance."

Yeowang looks over Cyrus's shoulder as they all examine the map, and she will point out the direction she thinks they should go. "It /is/ confusing," she admits. "It's a very poor layout if they want to attract customers. If I were running an onsen, there would be a bright, clear trail, with signs and markers." She shrugs, you get what you get, she's found.

"I guess." Mikage reluctantly admits as she falls into place with the others. "Maybe if we didn't travel so much, we'd be able to build up some sort of funds so we weren't always scraping by." Then again, the Wyld Hunt had been nomadic since they had come together after the Apocalypse, so that doesn't seem apt to change anytime soon.

"Uh..." The idea of finding which way to go is problematic, as the paths all seem to look similar to her. "Rama?" She asks, looking down at the lynx. The little cat sniffs a bit, walking around in circles, but then starts off down one of the paths.

It might look as if he knows where he is going, but no... the cat is actually trying to lead them towards a burrow of bun-buns that are down one of the side pathways. Apparently he is thinking with his stomach.

"To be fair, this place hasn't been traveled to in a while from my understanding."

The team ends up picking the wrong road. And it takes some really annoying backtracking after they end up on a confused farmer's doorstep, who wants them to leave alone the burrow of bun-buns, who points them in the right direction. It's late at night, so at least the air is cool out, so it's not too much trouble. But it's exhausting to walk the hills like that, and a bit of a morale struggle.

Once back on the right road, they finally end up in an overgrown garden. "Did we go the wrong way again?" Cyrus asks, only to brush his hand along an old sign indicating the Onsen is along the road, further up. "Looks like we are good. But the vines here are a mess."

He rubs his head a bit, looking at the various plants. "Some of these are easy to get through. But careful, those purple ones are itchy plants. And those ones over there are actually monsters, they will try to poison you with a paralyzing fungus." The Cait Sith points out.

"I'll let you hunt, later. Besides, you don't want to tangle with a whole warren of bun-buns." She tries to explain to the lynx, who just lets out a huff of air and follows along begrudgingly.

"Sorry about him." Mikage offers as they seem to arrive in the right place. The plantlife is not something that she can particularly do much about, however. "Let me see if I can slice my way through."

So, she does just that, and it seems fine at first. Except that after a few slashes of her blade, the weapon seems to get stuck. Apparently, behind some of the mundane plants are a few that are monsters. One grabs on to the blade, holding it in place, while another tries to snake around her ankles.

Yeowang nods to Cyrus, agreeing, "This is definitely the 'road less travelled', as it were." She sighs as her suggestions are not quite enough to keep the party on the right route, and when she sees the writing on the unusual stone, she points it out. "It says here," she tells the group and explains how she's arrived at her conclusion in more detail this time, hoping they'll heed her recommendations this time.

She smirks at Nikage and nods, "Yes, let's not deal with the bunbuns on top of everything else. That'd be very challenging."

Though Mikage's attempts at hacking the world may not be as effeective as it normally would be - the overgrown vegetation being so rough, it's managing to catch her blade and make it hard to hold onto - Cyrus and Yeowang finally manage to work together to get through. Especially with Yeowang finding that piece of writing hidden away in the garden area.

Cyrus ends up distracted and having to help Mikage out of the creeping Monster plants that try to capture her, using a new alchemical concoction to remove the vines from her. "Huh, so this stuff doesn't just work on Hydras." Something about Byalan has driven some bad inventions.

Once further on their way, they soon find the abandoned onsen. Or at least, the stone wall that restricts access to it.

"We could try climbing over. I don't think I know how to open a lock to be honest. Maybe if I just..." He starts conjuring a bit of magic into a flask, then throws it at a wall, hoping to create some stone steps.

So far, things have been pretty unsuccessful for Mikage. Luckily, she's used to having bad days. Rescued from the plants, she gives a nod of appreciation towards Cyrus, and then seems to follow his lead, allowing him to deal with the plants.

The wall, however, is a bit much, it seems. "I'll see if I can move some stones..." She suggests, not sounding too confident at this point. Using some of her natural earth magic, she manages to move some on the outer edge of the wall...

Which unfortunately starts to topple in their direction, causing Rama to have to scamper backwards. "Sorry buddy, you okay?" She bends down to check her companion, sighing to herself.

Yeowang has no training in lockpicking, but we do have to get to the other side, and the door is shut quite solidly. She hrmphs, and concentrates on using the forces of the earth to burst through the wall. Of course nothing happens, and she frowns. The magic doesn't come, though, as is too often the wont, and she can only shrug. Hopefully the others can get it? "Climbing over would almost seem the better option," she says, but there seems to be something preventing her. The wall, it seems, is a bit too smooth for that. "making a ladder would take a long time also," she muses....

The way over the wall is a rough adventure. Cyrus earth steps stick for a bit, but don't reach high enough. And while Mikage and Yeowang are definitely helping, it ends up costing them far more mana and work than they anticipated to keep the steps up like that.

"Boy are we having a bad luck day. We must be more exhausted from dealing with Byalan than we initially thought. Maybe another day back at the nice Onsen would do us good." He offers to Mikage. Another chance to profess!

Once over, they have to dig into some manage potions to recover from the exhaustion. "I never thought a wall would end up being such a problem." Cyrus complains, kicking the wall after having gotten over it, at which point he jumps back on one foot. Stubbed his toe. "Stupid wall." Stupid cat.

Looking back at the large courtyard, he sighs. "Okay, so, monsters. What's it going to be? Undead again?" He begins to move foward, only to see those frog-like eyes staring at them. "Kappa?" He asks. But no, they are frog-men! Using spears to throw at them.

"Hey! Stop that!" He calls out, trying to use the nearby waters to capture spears and lead them away from his allies.

"Maybe we're just too used to the sort of things Byalan throws at us, so it has us a little rusty for regular quest problems." Mikage answers, shrugging her shoulders as they eventually find their way through to the courtyard.

The frog-men are, at least, something that Miki can handle under most normal circumstances. "I'll distract them so you can DPS." She moves closer, trying to draw their fire, using it as an opportunity to work on her own evasive techniques outside of her usual dungeon delving.

Rama, on the other hand, just hides behind Cyrus.

Yeowang is not winded when the reach the onsen, proper, but she's a bit worn down. But her physical condition, always excellent in RL as well as here, serves her well, and when she spots the monstrous kappa trying to drive us off, she's having none of that. Deftly avoiding their attacks, she delivers savage kicks and powerful punches, bare-knuckles, which is of course forbidden in tournaments precisely because of the damage she can do. The kappa, alas, are not permitted to cry foul, and this is definitely not tournament rules.

Thanks to their cooperation - and actually getting to do the thing they are best at; battle - the team manages to drive off the monsterous frog men. They run into deeper parts of the onsen.

But this is when a red-and-gold furred creature moves out from one of the buildings.

The high level monster grabs a support beam, and throws it at the trio, before jumping to it, grabbing it once again, and trying to sweep them! It's a difficult boss!

"Get back! That one does a lot of damage." He inspects it. "The Monkey King?" It's an actual massive Dire Ape of sorts.

"Let's scare it off with a lot of focused damage in a short period of time!" At which point he pulls out an /arsenal/ of potions, and throws them all forward in one go!

After having dodged spears, Mikage is quick to roll backwards, crouching near Cyrus and the others in order to get a view as the boss monster makes themselves known. "I've never seen that one before, and my old guild used to spend a lot of time up in the mountains." Then again, things have changed a lot in Yamato.

"I'll see what I can do about the damage." She reaches back, grabbing for her bow and placing the blue stone into it, extending the sides of it. An arrow is placed inside and she aims it towards the Dire Monkey, firing a shot which seems to burst into a series of points, casting water magic along with the attack.

It floods forward, trying to knock the Monkey King backwards, away from the springs and back towards the wall of the nearby mountain.

Yeowang smirks wryly at Cyrus's suggestion. "You mean attack and DPS it hard and fast?" she says, having picked up a bit of the gamer lingo in her time here. She's not expert at it by any means, but it is a precise communications tool for certain situations. She'll fight him using her by-now-familiar style of mixed-martial-arts strikes, punches and kicks, throwing brutal punches and punishing kicks, and nothing is held back as she kicks him in the head, dazing him as she slips around to throw kidney punches and throat strikes. It's all HP damage, unlike real fighting, but it adds up regardless.

The battle is rough. But luckily, with the plan of pumping out as much DPS as possible early on, the crew manages to persuade the Monkey King to start looking the other way! It doesn't go as quick as they might have liked it - but they end up not too severely injured by the end of it. Nothing that a few healing potions won't cure.

When the battle is done, the creatue is leaping off into the distance.

"Phew" Cyrus calls out. "I'v eseen his type before, but never that named monster. Maybe it's new with the expansion of this world." He remarks, before leaning against one of the wooden buildings.

"Hopefully that will be enough for them to clear this place out properly and secure it. I wouldn't want to deal with that kind of battle again soon."