Palace Lands: Within the Shadow

As the party arrives after days of straight travel and rest to the tower they'd spotted a while back during their original outing to find fresh water, they are met by incredibly tall mountains. They are standing at the base of what looks like a mountain range, encircling the colorful and massive tower.

Certainly, compared to Aincrad, it is far smaller. Yet, it still casts its own shadow towards the 'east'. A term that Jazuhanzu had found out a while ago to be a rather confusing term.

The area is still highly dangerous. Yet, those skilled at hunting have noticed that the levels and danger of the monsters have been falling off ever so slightly. The area around them is plains for hours on end, with the occassional forest. It's all green, but the hills that lead up to the sharp and tall mountains that surround the tower are rocky and rough.

Still, it provides an opportunity to climb higher and get another look at the lands around themselves.

    Merek looks about the place, and along the plains while he takes the time to adjust the belt which he wears, then he looks to the party. "Well, I wonder if the tower will be like the one in Yamato. I don't even know if this thing will bring Waves. Well, it would be pretty nice to meet the people if we find anyone actually."

It was a strange tower, but back then they didn't have time to check it out. Now the group has finally made it. Kotono (and Miyako, naturally) have finally arrived.

"Wow, I never expected it to be this big. I mean, sure it looks smaller when you're far away from it, but even then I never estimated it to be this big." She looks to Miyako briefly and says, "This is definitely something else."

    "... If it -did- cause Waves..." Miyako shakes her head. "Gah. What if -every- server-continent-whatever has one? Are we 'making waves' with five or six other worlds full of idiots who won't listen or even think about alternatives to killing us all?"

    She sighs and shakes her head. Returning Kotono's glance, she nods. "Aincrad's big, too...." But, well. Sometimes you just need to do what you -can-.

Any opportunity to head out into the unknown wilds around Seeker's Landing is something that draws Mikage from her studies. She's been working under Shiruba and Jazuhanzu, trying to map out the area, with some success, but the high levels of the surrounding monsters has made things a challenge. At least, for now, they have a group with them, meaning that they can likely take on much of what the land has to throw at them, so long as they don't run into a raid boss or something.

"It... doesn't look as tall as Aincrad, not by a long shot." Mikage comments, even as Rama nudges against her legs and then starts to sniff at the surrounding area.

There is some sort of communication between Ranger and her companion, "If we stay away from the caves, we should be relatively safe." She offers, crouching down to stroke the lynx's back. "Rama can smell some monsters and animals nearby, but it seems like the dangerous ones are mostly isolated to those caves, and we can avoid the visible ones on the plains."

It may be shorter but it is still quite tall from their perspective... and considering the innards of their own tower, probably is -not- an indicator of how big the interior of this one actually are. Shiruba points towards the shadow its casting. "Remember, 'east' is were compasses will point here instead of 'north'." She remembers when Jazu explained that to her a long time ago while showing off the simple compass she had managed to make. "We're not sure WHY the magnetic fields of this world are that way, but they are."

Then she unfurls her map. She had only been able to estimate distance from their previous spotting of the tower, but she had calculated it would be a few days' worth of travel and seems to not be far off. She jots down a few additional notes.

Then turns her attention to the mountain range in itself. Eventually, to check the tower more closely, they're going to need to find a way to pass through the range. So while others are looking for a vantage point, she begins going over the general lay of the foothills. Last thing they need is getting lost. Or surprised by an unnoticed monster nest. If monsters even 'nest' here.

"Still, don't wander off alone," she comments over her shoulder. "Even a high level single adventurer won't last long solo here."

She may or may not be giving a look towards a certain shire before returning to her geographical analysis.

Yeowang has joined the party and is on the periphery, hoping to shoot some game to resupply our larders. The level has come down a bit, though it's still difficult for her, with her poor mastery of the hunter's skillset, to bag game of any level. She's tall for a human woman, but that leaves men and the taller player races with a better view than she has. What she brings is a fierce concentration and acute tactical senses.

"There'll be ambush points in the hills," she warns, pointing out the area. It's well away, for now, and she keeps her attention mostly on the nearby grassland. "They seem to have a lot of compound monsters here, so I wonder if we'll see something like goblin-centaurs, or if regular goblins are bad enough."

    Scrawl, scrawl, scrawl. For a majority of the long trip to this Brand New Tower (tm) Arashi had been focused on her own map-making, wanting to get as much of it drawn up as she could for finishing later. It's kept her focused, but not very chatty, for the duration. At least she wasn't really being growly or unhelpful to anyone. She'd compare notes and offer suggestions for the other map makers along the way while occasionally checking for a glow on Starshadow. No such luck thus far. It was making her wonder if the shards she was seeking for her weapon were only over in Yamato. Time would tell, likely.

    With the new tower much, much closer, the dire-shire makes sure to get a proper scrawling of it, guesstimate the size, and then she'd wander on over to Shiruba to compare notes. There wasn't going to be any wandering off from her. Only quick climbs for vantage points to get more details jotted down in her own map-making code. "Think there's a tunnel to that place, somewhere?"

As the group continues to discuss the tower and the surrounding areas, there's a large creature that steps out from one of the caves - well away from them. It doesn't seem to notice them, as the enormous thing slowly steps out. It seems to be some kind of... fat... humanoid thing. There's slime slothing off of its body, as the misshapen and almost mutated looking thing slowly begins to move down the hill in penguin-like waddles downwards. They will notice that the grass on the hill that it approaches dies the moment this disgusting thing - about the size of an Orc - gets within a few feet of the greenery.

In the meantime, some ratgulls chitter above their heads.

Yeowang pauses, stopping dead as she sees movement, though it's some ways off, and doesn't seem particularly interested in it's general surroundings, or at least not sufficiently interested to look around and spot us. Or if it /has/ seen us, not interested enough to so anything about it. Crouching down to make herself less noticable if it does glance this way, she will the grass-killing slime man warily.

"Wait, is that just out here where the monsters are higher level, or on this other server in general? If it's in general, do the players in this server form much larger parties for everything? Has anyone seen a player? Or a Lander?"

Kotono notices the movement, and widens her eyes a little at the sight. Fortunately the creature hasn't noticed them yet, and she decides to let it be for now. "I used to think that exploring was a fun pastime, but at the same time I realize you have to be careful all the same." She runs a hand through her hair. "Good thing I didn't come here alone."

Gwen is out this time with the party to check things out and get a better view of the tower that's up ahead. She has concerns about it. If this tower causes waves as well? The whole of Alba could be in deeper trouble than it already is scoping it out. She looks to her wings for a moment sighing at how useless they are most of the time. At least they look awesome she muses. She will start to look for a spot where she could climb up.

"Don't panic we'll have to find out first before we panic about things."

She pauses for a moment and stares.

"Right, that's rather nuts but it could be worse Shiruba, right?"

Gwen nods in agreement to Shiruba for a moment

"I can't be everywhere at once I'm afraid."

She then pauses at the monster.

"Why is there a servant of the Plague God here..."

She makes a face mutters something about purging daemons to herself it's mostly a joke or some western thing Gwen likes.

Gwen will start to make towards the monster for a moment.

"IT's sitll fun, it's better than being another office drone..."

"Or we make one ourselves, with enough people that can use Earth magic." Shiruba replies to Arashi. "Following a pre-existing one would be easier... but not easier if we run into anything occupying it."

From her position between where she and Gwen have joined her Shiruba points up towards the mountains. "Because we are definitely not climbing anything higher than the foothills. Even from here I can see icecaps on the peaks."

The wolfgirl looks down at her map again, then leans a bit to look over at Arashi's. "... Is it just me, or does it almost look like the mountains were purposely placed to encircle the tower? Or that the tower was precisely placed in a crater amongst them..."

"I think the hybrid creatures are mostly animals." Mikage comments, motioning a hand at the creatures chittering above them, which seem one part rat, one part bird. "They certainly make Rama a little uneasy."

But what makes the cat more uneasy is the movement from one of the caves. The cat's hair stands up as it turns towards the movement. "That... is not normal." Her attention seems split between the humanoid creature, and the tower, perhaps trying to get some kind of understanding from what Shiruba is suggesting.

Eventually, it's the potential danger of the slime creature that seizes her attention more. Her hand reaches back for her bow, but she seems to hesitate, uncertain if it is wise to show aggression to an unknown creature.

    The warhorse considers this for a moment, then shrugs, "Considering this is apparently another server? I think it would be strange if there's no path to a very-obvious-dungeon in the distance." Game mechanics! Plot convenience! All those things designers use so you can get to the big-bad's home. Wouldn't be much of a game if you couldn't get there at all!

    A glance is given the peaks, the tower, and everything in the vicinity of the mountains. Squint. "Seems that way, though. I'm sure-" Monster. Walking kills everything around it? "... do we have antidotes and remedies on hand..?" Arashi isn't drawing her weapon, but she's also not going to be naive about that beast wandering off on its own forever. .. Wait. "Where did it come from, is that a cave?" Scrawl on map. Compare things...

Though the creature, looking slimy at a distance, is definitely dangerous, it continues to not notice them. It isn't see-through however. It looks more like an Orc that has slime coming from its body from filthy pustules and the like. Moving at a sluggish pace. Eventually, it kneels at the edge of the field, and begins to eat the earth itself. Digging into it with fat fingers and just eating the ground itself in this utterly disgusting display.

Arashi will notice there's actually quite a few caves in this area. As Mikage has pointed out, there's a few that Rama refused to go inside of. Some containing animals, and presumably, some containing far more dangerous beings. Which would make a trek upwards even more dangerous.

Still, if they climb further up, they might get a better view of the world around them. In the meantime however...

A ratgull lands on top of Yeowang, begins to nestle into her long hair as if it was prime nesting material, and lets out squeeking bird noises.

    Miyako hmms softly, pausing as the group spots something. "It's still fun," she advises Kotono. "And you get to see all sorts of interesting things." She smiles lightly and reaches a hand up to squeeze her friend's shoulder.

    "It -does- kind of look like a crater." She pauses, then adds, "Or maybe a caldera." She pauses again after that, then shakes her head. "Don't think it's a caldera, though. Doesn't seem quite right." She shrugs. "I'm not terribly fond of mountain-climbing either."

    Merek looks to the creature, then to all the ratgulls while he nods a bit to the party, "Well, interesting." The man begins to climb, "I'm not sure what to think of the wildlife."

Gwen does not like this this reminds here too much of the Plague God of the Grimdarkness minions. She does have some idea about the thing she'll try to inspect it to see what she gets but she know she might get a face full of Chinese but it's sitll worth the attempt. She does not move to fight it but she seems keen to follow it to seew what it's up to.

"I... think we should leave whatever that is alone for now." Mikage seems wary of delving too much closer to it, especially as they don't have any idea of what sort of abilities it has, outside of being disgusting. Rama seems to agree, hiding behind her legs.

For now, she sticks with the others, moving to get a better vantage point amongst the nearby surroundings.

Shiruba is so focused on her analysis of the mountainrange that she doesn't notice the creature lumbering about enough people comment on it to get her to look up.

Almost immeadiately she makes a face of disgust. "That looks like the semi-degraded monster costume from a super sentai show's cheap budget season. Gross."

Yeowang gacks as the ratgull nestles in her hair. She knew she should have pinned it up before this trip, but it takes so much effort, and it didn't seem like it'd be necessary. She knows better, now. But how do you get rid of ratgulls in your hair? She's not sure, it's never happened to her before.

The first thing she does, though, is hit the deck, so that if the struggles create a commotion, it at least won't be her that gets spotted by this slimy monster. The next is an attempt to punch or grab the offending batgull. Hopefully it's not tangled, though she's got enough hair that tagling could become a problem if it struggles much.

Yeowang manages to grab the animal right behind the neck, stopping it from biting her or making too much noise - untangling it from her hair as it fails to flap its wings. It isn't long before it is still and just pretends to be dead like a fainting chicken.

    Hrm. "Well, if we don't have any of those things we better keep distance from that... thing." With a few others starting to seek out some vantage points, Arashi will do the same. Announcing, as needed, to keep away from that green, slimy, ugly, deadly, orc-thing.
    When Yeowang gets a gull on them, Arashi considers action before the creature is taken care of in one swift motion. "...Well that was quick.." she muses before turning back to the problems at hand. The monster, and figuring out this tower.

The crew begins their ascend high up the foothills of the mountain, rising up slowly. Arashi is keeping here eyes out for things, spotting quite a few cave openings.

After a good hour walk going up the hill, things are starting to get rough. There's sharp pieces jutting out, and the monsters are getting notably more dangerous. They spotted a group of five of those same creatures off to the side, eating from a dug out earth patch, with one of them casually eating another one's arm. While it was still alive.

Above them, they've started to hear dangerous squawks of what appear to be Griffins!

Yeowang will take her new batgull prize, such as it is, and bash it as quietly as possible against a rock on the ground until it disintegrates into pixels. It's bad form to release an animal that's attacked a person. It will do so again, and she might not be so lucky again. And she will also find if it drops anything useful, which is always helpful to know in an exploration situation.

She proceeds upward with the party, soon finding herself close to the front, scouting out good routes and holding her hand up to pause when monsters are spotted. Lucky, none are too close. Not yet. But the griffins getting closer are worrying.

    Ok, folks are climbing up. Nasty orc thing is staying put. Arashi decides now is the time to catch up with everyone. Right after a few more map-scrawls. OK ENOUGH. Climbing time begins now. "... Griffins?" .. Griffins like eating horses in -particular- in lore. .... this could be bad. Maybe this place isn't gonna be entirely lore accurate for griffins. She hopes.

As they reach higher up, they also spot the moutntains to the south-west. Most notably however, after some time peering, Miyako, Shiruba, Arashi and Mikage spot... smoke?

There appears to be smoke rising up from behind the mountains to the south-west they'd just spotted past the tree line!

There is a certain amount of innate teamwork that comes with the Ranger and Animal Companion pairing. Places where Mikage might have trouble, Rama is able to leap across, carrying a rope and securing it to allow Miki to traverse. There are even places where the cat has to grab her by the shirt and haul her up. "Thanks." She ruffles the cat's ears.

Then, breathing heavily, she looks around, wincing at the sight of the stranger creatures, just before spotting the griffins. Those get a wide-eyed look from the Ranger, who may very well be a fan of them.

So enthralled, that she almost misses the wisp of smoke in the distance. "Does... anyone else see that? Not the griffins but... just beyond the edge of the mountains?"

While she starts climbing with as much ethusiasm as everyone else after a bit Shiruba starts lagging behind a little. She's using her geomancy to keep a firm grip on the mountain, but it's clear even with being part mountain wolf she is having a little trouble when she can't just parkour from ledge to ledge like she often does. This is not the time to be indulging in cliff jumping. So she takes her time, even if she takes a little longer than the more purly physical members of the group.

Once they're up though, Shiruba has her eyes on the horizion past the mountains. Something catchs her attention, and after she's braced herself firmly on the rock she points in the direction after Mikage speaks up. "Yes! Over there!"

For someone who's an acrobat, Kotono knows you need strength as well as flexibility. Fortunately this girl seems to have the climbing skill down pat.

It's when she spots the smoke that her eyes widen. "Something's up for sure," She says while narrowing her eyes. "I don't know what that's supposed to mean, but something tells me it's not natural."

    Climbing's done! With it done, and the other orc-things given a wary glance, Arashi slips her way over toward Shiruba before realizing, hey, higher up, scrawling time! A glance out toward the horizon is given and then... blink. "Smoke?" Mikage asks, Shiruba confirms, and Arashi gives it a third confirmation. "Yes, I see it too," she muses giving the sky a glance, the orcs, the -tower-, and then the smoke again. "... Hell. We have options to consider now.."

    Miyako strides casually up the hillside, and then the group gets into some serious climbing. She did say she didn't care for it, but, not much choice. She keeps a side-eye on the Slime Orc, but has to focus on the surface being climbed. "Griffin mounts would be nice, if we could," she muses. "Maybe we should look into it." She shrugs, and goes back to climbing.

    Eventually, however, she pauses, shading her eyes as she looks out to verify something she thought she saw. "Yeah, definitely smoke. And too small for a wildfire."

    "Option 1, Tower. Number 2, the smoke. Number 3, griffins. Number 4? Things that .. I -think-... are devourers? I highly suggest we do not even go anywhere near them without supplies." Pause. Map scrawl because she spotted something, then Arashi glances at Shiruba. "The tower isn't going anywhere, but that smoke could be ... someone? Anyone else have a thought?"

    Merek looks around a bit, then he nods to people. "I was thinking the smoke too, we should see if people are in need," he will note to the woman, then looks to the party.

"Agreed." Mikage offers a nod towards Miyako. The idea of griffin mounts is certainly appealing, especially in a world where flight seems to be heavily limited since the Apocalypse. "Probably best we study them first."

Her gaze shifts towards Arashi, "I think it's best we avoid the devourers, definitely. As for the smoke..." Her blue eyes are drawn towards that again, the Ranger seeming thoughtful. "Either natural fire, or something manmade, perhaps. I mean... I did notice a slight fall-off in the monster difficulty as we got away from Seeker's Landing, so it's possible maybe there is a settlement in that direction." The monsters still seemed quite difficult by Yamato standards, though, so... the root town would have to still be a fair distance. If there even was one...

Yeowang looks around into the distance. There's a lot going on, even of what she can see, and she keeps her voice down as she asks, "Is /this/ what we came to find? Do we investigate further? Do we need to make a plan?" Arashi listing off our options draws a nod, though she asks, "Smoke?" She missed that.

Our resource run has changed modes if this is going to become a fight, and in preparation for the possibility, she will gather her long hair up into a ponytail, which she hopes will make it a bit less attractive to batgulls, as well as being less in her way if things turn into a fight.

"Smoke is our strongest indicator of civiliation," Shiruba chimes in. "It's definitely worth investigating, if we want to find out more of this region. We need to see the Landers and Adventurers here eventually."

"If there is someone in need, we should check it out." Kotono pauses then frowns. "But it could also be a trap. We need to proceed with extreme caution."

Gwen is now making he way to go to climb but things does not seem to be ogiung well for Gwen She doesn't spot anythin of note, worse for her? She lose he grip and she start to fall she's force to flare out her wings to slow the fall enough so she can find a new hand hold and cling to the surface. "Oh fo the love it ..." Well her wings are not so usless now. She'll get back to climbing and pauses at the Griffins.

"Just one of those days..."

As they continue to discuss where to go from here, one of their 'Options' suddenly descends with a loud squawk, bringing its talons and beak to bear as it rapidly descends from the sky and tries to sweep its sharp extremities towards the Adventurers with lethal amounts of strength behind their attack! The creature, red in feathers, is absolutely enormous! With the head of a lion, and the body of a four legged eagle? Notably, those who inspect the Griffin in that moment note: Anzû. As it sweeps back around for a second assault! Clearly that first move around was just a first warning, trying to threaten them out of its territory. Notably however, after avoiding or otherwise shielding against the initial claw attack, pillars of lightning follow right behind it, punishing those not looking out!

Shiruba sits down on the mountain rocks and pulls her map back out, quickly scribbling down more notes and details. Mostly on direction and estimation for the smoke in the distance. That's their first real lead on other people in this la--

She snaps her head up at the squacking. "Shit!" Eyes widen briefly... and then all the fur on her neck and tail stands on end. That's enough of a warning that there's a charge following in the air. "Look out!" She quick-casts one of her magic barriers, using it to deflect some of the lightning away as well as the shockwave of the griffon's passing. "I think it's time we head back down from the mountains!"

As much as she might be eyeing those Griffins, it looks as if they have noticed the Adventurers in return. Miki just happens to spot the shadow in time to duck out of the way of sweeping talons and the surrounding lightning. Rama's fur stands on end from the electricity, though.

"I... think that might be a sign that we've worn out our welcome." She suggests, then eyes the health bars of the party, wincing. "Looks like we could use some healing thrown around." The Ranger glances at Merek, since he does have a tendency to enjoy playing the healer role.

"Tanks should watch our backs. Let's move before we get turned into bird food."

Yeowang was trying to work out what our best plan forward when a named Griffin comes down on us, and takes her completely by surprise. Her attempt to evade the claws and lightning are a case of too little, and too late. She finds herself down most of her HP just from the one attack, and will need no convincing that we ought to retreat. It was tough getting up here, it's going to be hell getting back down fast enough for the griffin, but she will absolutely make the attempt. If it wants us gone, maybe running away will satisfy it. And on a less cooperative note, she doesn't /have/ to outrun the griffon. She just has to outrun her party members.

    Miyako shouts in near-panic as the black-level critter dive-bombs the party, throwing herself to the side and barely catching herself with her wings long enough to grab hold of something. "Ko-chan!" she shouts in shock, surprised as her friend is hit. "Get out of there!"

    She has no desire whatsoever to get close to the griffon, but for Kotono, she would, rushing up as fast as she can to get to her friend and pull her away from the monster.

As the party begins to retreat, the Griffin seems to stop following them. Almost like the creature is abiding to some invisible territorial line. It harasses them for a while, scaring them down the mountain. Enough so that the lumbering glob-like humanoids move as quickly into their caves as they can. Refusing to try and stand up to this singular crimson avian with the lion head!

    Given some time while the other discuss the options Arashi listed, the warhorse tries to scrawl a few more notes for their map before they're pulled out of their map-focus by Shiruba actually shouting an explitive. Considering the tone, Arashi just takes a step and -thunders- out of the way of the Griffin's assault and the wake of electricity that follows. "I think it noticed us!" And then the health bars start to drop. "... OKAY IT IS TIME TO -GO-." Tanking? Nope. Daring to challenge? NOT EVEN REMOTELY. "Seriously folks there's no doing this right now. That thing is elite on the level of _NOPE_. Get going!" That said, Arashi absconds. Quickly.

    Merek looks to the people that are taking the creature's strikes, while he begins lifting up the shield with him. The man comes to the base of the mountain area with them, and nods a bit to the party.

Miyako comes in a little too late... Kotono is caught by the griffon and badly hurt. By the time Miyako gets her, Kotono's in pretty bad shape. "Get me... out of here... ungh... hurts..."

Even the Devourers don't want to mess with the Griffin. That's all the more reason to make a break back down the mountain as quickly as they can. "Shield those already injured! We're not losing anyone tonight!" Shiruba... there's a noticable shift in her voice as she calls out, having gone from cheerful explorer to full on Guild Leader mode. Making sure everyone else is safely on their way down. "Follow the angle of the slopes and slide if you have to, just keep moving!"

It's a good thing some of the more fight happy people weren't along, though.

Gwen is using herr own power to fend off the buards variosu tanking spells and several uses of Anchor Howl seem enough to help keep her friend and allioes safe for the most part. She does look for a moment as they move to fall back. Another thing comes after then and she won't forget this strange being if she can she'll inspect it but not if it puts her in danger. It's time to get out of here.

"We need to leave people!"