Duty Session 324: Travel with Triffids

The Triffids were just like the worst thing. Especially whenever you get who knows what going on with those, and the giant bun-bun. Giganpor had decided to gather a group for another try at them. The routes were still going good, after all, and the things were still moving around from what the Tower said.

That had resulted in his making the call and getting dressed in his armor as well as getting ready for this one. Hopefully! He wasn't sure what would happen this time, but he was willing to give it a try!

On one hand they succeed and actually find triffids this time. On the other hand... well at least they know what's coming this time. "Either it's monsterous weedwaking, or more bun-bun retribution." She's still not sour about last spring's event, oh not at all. "I mean, certainly prefer the former, but I'll look at the silver lining of the latter as well. Harder to be disappointed that way." Regardless, she's got her Binder posessed shield out and ready.

Yeowang has done the triffids question before, she knows it's hard. But challenges are what shapes you, right? So when the call goes out again for a group to try to defeat the triffids, she signs up without hesitation. When she shows up, she offers Giganpor a nod of greeting. To Kauchemar, she nods, "Either fight is hard, I imagine. This quest is listed as quite difficult. But I am at the point where I need to challenge myself with more difficult tasks if I am to grow stronger."

Unlike some of the others, Mikage doesn't exactly have a strong knowledge of exctly what this quest is about. The Were Fang Ranger has been occupied as of late, with her training in Byalan dungeon and other associated activities around there.

"So, we're trying to find something, right?" She asks, crouching down and lightly scratching Rama behind the ears. "This little guy is the best tracker I've got." Especially as Mikage has never been seen in her actual Were Fang form.

"See if you can find anything out of the ordinary." Miki instructs the lynx who runs off, his nub tail wiggling as he sniffs around. A little bit of elemental energy radiates off him, crackling at the girl's fingertips as well.

Jazz has been her typically distant self but she does tend to respond to calls for help. When Gig's went up, and it turned out she was close enough to respond, she did so. That's why she's here. A quick greeting and then she's got her nose in a scroll, making charcoal notes on a map. Updating.

Giganpor nods at the others, "Right... let's see if we can avoid the giant rabbit this time?" He says with a chuckle, "It's still a pain, but yeah..." With that, he starts looking for the tracks and even going to his Were Fang form to help out. His poleaxe is stuck to his back so he can better move around and get things going. And he's sniffing as well. Cat senses for the win, right?

The writhing marks of the Triffids are definitely there. And there's the dense foilage that many might be acquainted to by now. The one that always makes people lose track of the blasted things. Not this time, though, right? Even Giganpor is trying to keep an eye on the tracks and make sure of where they are going. No distractions, all focus.

Yeowang understands that she, as a hunter, is expected to be able to track, but it's not part of her skillset from RL, so she's not entirely accustomed to it's use. She nods to Giganpor, though, about skipping the rabbit. "That rabbit was dynamite," she laments. In the sense of explosive power, obviously.

There's a lot of menu-fumbling and squinting at the ground, and not much actual useful results from what she's done. This is unfortunate, but it's been par for the course in her use of the hunter skillset. One of her self-imposed tasks is to improve those skills, but she has not achieved a great deal yet.

"Welp, no way to find out but getting to it." Which is whay Kauchemar is doing, taking advantage of her monster senses since she doesn't have any fancier tracking abilities. But in this case, that seems to be enough, as after a few sniffs of the air (horses have highly developed olfactory senses) she makes a face. "I smell something that is very much not the normal foliage. Bleah."

"Uff!" Jazz squawks (cutely) as she trips over a root and face pants into a bush. There is some comical flailing of hair, hat, tentacles and legs and feet. This is what happens when you're paying attention to updating your maps and letting the scouts scout.

As they track through the foliage, it Rama continues to give off a few sparks as he weaves between regular plants in hunt of the Triffids. Mikage scrambles behind him, "Interesting." She is picking up bits and pieces of information about the quest from the others. "Well, if we don't run into it, all the better. Still, good to know in case I drag Cyrus on this quest at some point."

When it comes to how to deal with the monsters, Mikage may not be quite as suited as some others, however. For now, she chooses simply to stay out of the way, following behind Rama in order to stay clear.

Fortunately there is a good thing that there are trackers for Jaz, as they keep on the trail for once. Giganpor even uses his armor's roar to do a sort of sonic pulse and clear some of the foilage for them. It's with some trepidation that they finally follow the tracks. And find a grove of the Triffids. Said Triffids are looking very hungry, tentacle waving plant monsters with giant maws.

Giganpor looks at them, then at the others, "Okay... so they are actual giant plants."

That said, now they have the problem that said plants are now trying to eat them. And the jaws are probably big enough that it could be one bite even for the abnormally tall Giganpor.

"Why, what were you expecting them to be?", Kauchemar snarks aside to Giganpor. But isn't too mean about it, because there's other things to worry about. Like said giant angry plants trying to eat them. For all the good it does, as she nimbly sidesteps one of them trying to lean in and chomp down on her. "Get it while it's focused on me!" she calls.

And then "PBBBBBBBBT" loudly at the triffids. "Over here! Your momma was a fungal growth!"

Yeowang is relieved that the others can lead them to the giant plants. She finds her own lack of hunter skills to be embarassing, but it's not something she did in real life, so she's got no basis for doing the tasks. Not that anyone else in the game was a naturalist or outsoorsman, but she perhaps has that idea. Otherwise, how do others do these things?

When confronted with the triffids, though, it's a fight, and fighting, she's entirely OK with. And while defense is technically her weakest skillset, she seems to make do just fine, remaining a step ahead of any plant-monsters as she engages in some pruning, over the objections of those being pruned.

"Rama, don't let them get too close!" Mikage warns, scooping the lynx out of harm's way a moment before the little cat ends up snatched by one of the tendrils from the Triffids.

"Stay with me." She sets him down and begins to move between 'safe' points, utilizing her natural speed to avoid having to deal with them directly, and joining Kauchemar in acting as a distraction.

"I guess all that practice against the hydras does come in handy now and again." She huffs.

Recovering from her trip, Jazz stops dead next when they finally come upon the triffids she stops dead.     
"Oh, come on. I hate tentacles," says Jazz, her tentacles twitching with agitation. Lightning crackles to life at her fingetips, generating sparks she uses to ignite the triffids.

Despite Giganpor running into some trouble as he doesn't bring enough fire (seriously, all that water element!) the group manages to burn and evade it's way through.

And then the things start to heal themselves. Triffids are emitting some sort of glowing pollen that flits between the group. Dark magics, ranged attacks, or even some Earth magic might help in this case. And Giganpor looks to the others, then at the Triffids. "Seriously!? You guys been watching that giant bun-bun and trying to one up it!?"

Giganpor sighs and looks at the others, "At least it's not the freaking pest this time."

Taking a look back at the health bars of the Triffids, there is a mild look of surprise that shows on Mikage's features, "Huh, they're smart enough to heal each other." Sure, there were monsters that had some level of intelligence, but she likely hadn't expected these to be among them.

Without any strong dark magical abilities, or way of negating health generation, Miki simply falls back, grabbing for her bow and deciding to just try to keep up with the damage generation. It isn't the most effective way of dealing with the problem, unfortunately, but it may buy some time while the others negotiate a better solution.

Then the things start to heal. "Yeah, I don't think so," Kauchemar snorts, remembering that damn healer rabbit. "We will be having none of that." She stomps a hoof to the ground, and summoning rings of icy blew appear, spinning to line up their ruinic markings. "You just need to CHILL OUT" There's a rush of cold air blowing back her mane and cloak as a frost elemental rises from the summoning and starts blasting the triffids with it's frigid breath, freezing them off faster than they can heal up.

Yeowang blinks as the triffids start healing themselves. That's a problem! Our sustained DPS by itself can't seem to handle that, so a change in tactics seems to be necessary. For Yeowang, that's a shift to a more stealthy tactic, remaining undetected and taking advantage of that to DPS the triffids, drawing them away from the healing pollen clouds so they don't regenerate quite so fast.

"... guess I know what I'm doing," replies Jazz as she observes the health bar regenerating. She remains where she is, hiding behind the others like a proper support class character, and proceeds to summon torrent of water after torrent of water, delivering tiny, poisonous jellyfish into the mass of vegetable matter that serves to retard their healing. Her hair seems to have a life of its own, now, arrayed around her like she's floating beneath the waves herself, luminous eyes narrowed in concentration.

While the rest are busy tossing out some shadow, frost, and whatever Jazuhanzu just tossed out, Giganpor winds up with his poleaxe. "TOMAHAWK..." There's the warning for the others even as he leaps upwards and spins to gain a bit more momentum, "... BOOMERANG!" The equivelant of a giant freaking buzzsaw takes off as Giganpor comes back down. Said plants do not like it, nor the fire, frost, and everything else the party throws at them.

By the time the buzzsaw poleaxe comes back for Giganpor to catch with one hand, it's obvious that the Triffids are not happy. At all. The plant monsters go literally berserk. Every single piece that can attack the party is now coming at them. Like crazy.

Giganpor can only hunker down behind his defenses it looks like. He calls to the others, "Well this is nice! I think they are angry!"

Yeowang faces the angry triffids with the brunt of her martial arts training. Hard kicks, mainly, including a big roundhouse that gets neatly intercepted before she can deliver the brunt of the force. She spends the remainder of the fight struggling in the grasp of the triffid, using hard elbows and knees like a kickboxer for close-in blows that seem to keep it distracted, at least, until one of the others can bail her out. Dragging herself free of the plant, she looks around warily, trying to guage if we're doing well or getting our asses handed to us.

They have certainly made the plants angry. Mikage doesn't like them when they are angry. The fact that she shares a health bar with her animal companion means that when either of them are lashed out against, it causes a dip in their combined health. "Rama, retreat! Get out of reach." She commands, hoping to keep the damage isolated to her.

She pulls up the hood of her cloak, channeling magic through the enchanted fibers and then seems to almost 'flicker' whenever the tendrils come too close to her. It seems to increase her speed, allowing her to get out of the way, giving her time enough to apply a little bit of healing light magic while they are kept at bay.

"What I wouldn't give for one of Cyrus' acid bottles..."

The triffids go into a frenzy once they've started to thaw out again. Lashing and thrashing and in general being really rude. But Kauchemar just stands admist the chaos. She taps a hoof, snapping her fingers a few time to get a rhythm going, and then summons her ghostly sword to that hand to go with it's companion shield, and smirks. You all know what time it is, kids.

o/~ Turn up the music lets get out on the floor. o/~ That's right, it's Musical Number time. o/~ I like to move it comin' to give me some more.
Watch me gettin' physical, out of control. The people watching me.. never miss a beat.
Still the night, kill the lights, feel it under your skin.
Time is right keep it tight as it's pulling you in.
Amp it up, can't stop, it feels like an overdoooose o/~

There's a pause.

And then there's a phantasmal BASS DROP as Kauchemar erupts into motion, using her speed and grace as a dancer to almost literally flicker in and out of view as she weaves through the Triffids, around their attacks, and strike back with her sword and shield. All while keeping with the beat of her song.

o/~ Evacuate the Dancefloor! I'm infected by the sound!
Stomp this beat on a killin' spree! Hey Mr. DJ let the music take me underground!o/~
o/~ Evacuate the Dancefloor! I'm infected by the sound!
Stomp this beat on a killin' spree! Hey Mr. DJ lets tear this place right down to the ground! o/~

Jazz, it would appear, does not like these things at *all* herself. She still stays towards the middle of the party, secure where she is, and proceeds to let the others mostly protect her. In turn, she protects them. Wear tendrils and vines strike, Jazz throws up a shield of ice that covers the person in question at their more vital points. Ice armor is the thing, it seems, and she's taking full advantage of it. Her focus isn't complete, but it's working. She just seems ... marginawlly disinterested, somehow.

With the efforts of the group, the grove of triffids finally starts to fall. It's Kauchemar's dance number that gets the triffids finally down to nothing. And then comes, of course, the one thing that could be worse than the grove. A nice, big, ugly one half again as tall as the grove members. It noticeably has deep blue petals and thorns on it's grasping tentacles. And it's moving faster than the other ones! The most noticeable thing about it's appearance? Everyone's health starts to drop before it even attacks and a toxic looking poison symbol pops up.

Giganpor brings his pole axe to lay over the top of his buckler as both glow a bright green.

"Right... boss time, I guess! Let's finish this and see what this is all about!"

Giganpor moves forward after that, his poleaxe glowing as he charges the Alpha Triffid.

A wince shows on Mikage's features as the poison takes effect. It is not an unfamiliar feeling, but unpleasant all the same. She grips her bow tighter, "Well, that would certainly be the source of the problem."

With Rama having retreated, she is left to depend on her own Ranger abilities. Luckily, those are relatively powerful on their own. Grabbing for an arrow, she aims it, channeling storm magic through the shaft and down to the point where it condenses.

Then, with a powerful shot, it flies towards the Alpha Triffid, exploding into a whirling vortex of magical storm energy, lashing out with water and electricity in unison as the Elemental Machine lines on Dawnbringer flicker with the mana expended in such an attack.

Yeowang looks up warily and says, "I have a bad feeling about this," she says, but charges in none the less. Her big fighting move is on cooldown, she'd just used it, and with all her other special moves on cooldown, she's left with her native fighting skill. Well, sort of. The game divides things in a way that real life doesn't, it seems to her, and so while she's overall quite brutal in a fight, generally, the skilset for exactly the way this fight falls out isn't exactly in her wheelhouse. Or, rather, it is, but she's not nearly as strong in it as she is generally. So, she's spending more time getting smacked around than she's spending doing the smacking. Teamwork, she tells herself. Every time she gets smacked, it's an ally not getting smacked. But it's not reassuring as her HP bar dips into the red.

Triffids are dropping left and right and that's when the Alpha finally reveals itself. Kauchemar isn't done with her Dance Dance Devestation though, moving like a musical whirlwind to engage the pistil packing monstrousity. Her ghostly armaments buzz around her to increase the reach, but that unfortunately means she doesn't have the shield at hand to keep the toxic limbs (HAHA) at bay. "It's fucking summer camp poison oak all over again," she growls, mostly to herself.

The Alpha Triffid is clearly presenting a problem for the others when Jazz gets the clearly brilliant idea to summon her own plants from the earth. A thick wave of kelpy vines launched at the creature, but well, plants don't work too well on other plants.

"Dang," she replies. "Worth a shot, right?"

Despite all the troubles, there's still a good thing whenever you have a Giganpor around. He can tank with the best of them, and deal out just as much damage. Especially as he's continiously smashing in the thing's face with the glowing green hammer end. Like crazy.

Eventually the darn thing falls due to some fluke shots, a hammer to the face, and a lot of arrows and slashes. The group finally fells the troublesome, overgrown, and faster Alpha Triffid.
Itsfterwards, Giganpor looks over at the party. He is breathing a bit heavy, and most of the parties HP is low. But they did it!

Blinking as he notices the drop, which is a bunch of seeds, Giganpor has to stare at it. Then looks to the others, "Well, we can let the Tower know where to go to find these things at least, and get these materials back to the Tower, too."

He sighs, "So, who's ready to do the drudge work and start getting what we need out of this place?" Giganpor puts his poleaxe on his back, pulling out some sickles and bags.

Yeowang is looking very much worse for wear by the end of the fight. For all that Giganpor was tanking, she managed to draw considerable abuse. But we won, at the end, so it's mission accomplished, regardless. "You carried that last fight," she tells Giganpor. "I clearly need to do more training." But she nods about getting out of here, replying, "I am entirely ready."

After many battles, this is likely the lowest in health that Mikage has come in a long time. It certainly leaves her regretting that she hadn't brought her own personal healer along for the journey. Then again, her protective nature and fondness for Cyrus is enough to be thankful that he isn't here.

When the monster falls, Rama returns to her side, nudging up against her legs. "I'm okay. Nothing some rest and a few potions won't fix. You did good, buddy."

Then, she looks over towards Giganpor, looking a little bit puzzled at his comments. "Do I want to know what these things have to do with the Tower?" She asks.

The idea of having to haul materials has her groaning, "Yeah, I'll help."

Kauchemar pants a couple of times, then gets back to the matter at hand. "No one wants to do gruntwork after all that." Which is why she summons some Binder posessed gardening tools to help with digging up the roots and whatever else it was the Mages wanted off these things.