Duty Session 379: A Clucking Disaster

During this... interesting time of year, it appears that some unusual quests have also revealed themselves. In this case, there is a local farm that seems to have asked for help, reaching out to Adventurers to help with an issue with their Clucks.

"I wonder what happened here..." Mikage comments as she sees the chaos that has befallen the farm yard. The place is strewn with feathers, the birds literally all over the place. There are farmers trying to deal with it, but they seem to be struggling with the wayward birds.

"At least it isn't Bun-Buns, right?" She asks her companion, seeming glad to have remained clear from any potential run ins with the ravenous little beasts. At least... so far.

"Look, as long as it isn't Bun-Buns, I'm good." Cyrus answers Mikage. "I was there when they attacked Alne a few days back. It was /not/ a good time. Luckily, I was able to remain above street level and use my potions to keep me and some others safe. I hear the people at the walls and in the main street had it even rougher." The Cait Sith explains to her.

He rolls his shoulders and tugs his coat further closed, doing up some of the buttons, while looking across all of the feathers everywhere. "Last I recall, Clucks are nowhere near as dangerous as that." He points out. "I assume they just need some of them chased and caught?" He asks, looking over her shoulder to see if she has a written version of the quest on her.

It is a young boy, who appears to the the son of the farm's owner, who ends up being the 'quest giver' in this particular case. The lad rubs at his nose, "I got the ones out of the house, but there's still a bunch hiding in the barn." He looks at the two Adventurers, "This way."

As they arrive, he opens up the barn, lifting the heavy bar, "These little Clucks are really good at hiding. Can you try to find them all and flush them out so we can grab them?" There are multiple levels to the barn, and plenty of room for them to hide.

Mikage starts with the search, but for every Cluck she finds, there seem to be three or four more hiding. In the end, the boy has to come in and help. "You guys really aren't so good at finding Clucks, are you? No Clucks at all." He shoos one out of the barn.

Mikage coughs, "I guess not." She looks over at Cyrus.

The young man nods at the young boy. "We'll see what we can do!" Cyrus notes and seems pretty confident in his ability to find a few Clucks. Surely, the kid just didn't look very well. As such, he heads on into the barn and begins looking around. Looking in haybales. Underneath benches. On top of rafters.

He looks in a lot of places, but he's having a lot of trouble finding any clicks. Eventually, the young man has to come in to help them find those Clucks, and Cyrus lets out a long sigh as he heads back down to meet up with Mikage.

"I guess Cluck-herding isn't one of our strong suits. The more you know, I guess." The Snow Leopard notes to Miki and pats her shoulder.

Luckily, the boy happens to be pretty good at rounding up Clucks, and it doesn't take long for him to show the two Adventurers how things are done. They manage to empty out the barn, although there are a few suspect places where some might still be hiding. Still, better most of them than none at all.

Eventually, they find their way back outside, the boy looking a bit tired. "Could you help me round them up? Or at least see if you can reinforce the pen? They keep escaping." He motions towards a large pen which is enclosed, meant to keep in the Clucks. There is some damage in certain places, making it hard to contain them.

Mikage ends up choosing to try to help with the repairs, which she isn't particularly good at. In the end, she gets trampled over by three Clucks who manage to escape before she manages to use a bit of Earth magic to seal up one of the holes. "Uh, no wonder you guys are having so much trouble. It's like a storm hit this pen. They're getting out all over."

"At least I didn't try to repair it." Cyrus remarks, "It would have looked worse." He has been busy trying to negotiate the Clucks to get into the pen themselves. Trying his hand and convincing them, shooing them, or otherwise trying to strategically maneuver them into the pen. He's successful from time to time. But with the thing being as broken as it is, they just jump right back on out. And Cyrus isn't good enough at this to make them actually stay.

Eventually, he lets out a long sigh. "Okay, we are not having any luck at this." He complains to Mikage. "What the heck happened here to get this pen in this kind of bad state anyhow?" He inquires.

"Yeah, you see, there's a bit of a big problem around here..." The boy starts to explain, only to have his words cut off by a bunch of Clucks managing to escape. Soon enough, he's off to round them up again.

In the end, it takes a long time to patch the holes and catch all the Clucks. Enough that it leaves both farm hands and Adventurers a bit exhausted. Mikage leans against the fence, trying to catch her breath, when the boy suggests... "We need to calm them down so they don't keep trying to escape. Papa used to play music for them, so maybe that would work? They like to dance!"

At which, he tries to lead them through a very, very embarrassing looking dance. One which Mikage is able to follow, somehow. She's not a very skilled dancer, but her natural grace in movement manages to make the motions look smooth, even if they are ridiculous.

"Oh come on!" Cyrus makes an exasperbated sound as the Clucks try to rush out of the holes again, and the boy is forced to round them up again. The youth lets out a long sigh, and nods. "Okay, right. Music. I can do that."

Cyrus picks his little recorder flute out of his inventory, shimmering it to life, and begins to try and play music with the boy's suggestion, trying to follow the tones. He manages the tune, but perhaps the Clucks do not like his choice of instrument!

Despite not enjoying Cyrus' musical accompaniment, the Clucks do seem to calm down. Which is good. It allows the farm hands a chance to catch their breaths and try to figure out what to do next.

"I hate to ask more of you, but we could really use some help with cleaning up the rest of the farm." The boy asks, looking at them with a pleading expression, "The buildings are trashed, some farm land got dug up, and the fencses need repairs. Whatever you can do to help... please?"

He asks, "I'll stay here to keep an eye on them to make sure they stay put this time."

With that, Mikage nods, letting out a tired breath, "Guess I'll help with the planting, it can't be that hard, right?" She asks. It isn't exactly something she's skilled at, but luckily all it takes is a little guidance and she can follow the example of one of the farmers and put seed in the ground.

"Honestly, we've been practically useless. So asking us to do more is hardly a big ask." Cyrus proposes to the boy, admitting that this farming youth most certainly knows more about how to keep a farm than he does. He did used to live outside of the city back in the days, but those youthful days are far behind Cyrus. Not to mention, he was never a farmer's kid.

"I think I can at least help with the planting. I may not be so great with the manual labor, but I know enough about herbs and plants to be useful." Cyrus proposes, joining Mikage. Taking the guidance, and helping identify the seeds, throwing a few bad ones out due to his knowledge of herbology. He's not as fast working as Mikage though.

In the end, they find out the answer as to what has been plaguing the farm all too soon. While working in the fields, they see a shadow that passes overhead. There are shouts from the farm hands, as if they have seen this before.

A cry sounds from above, which sounds like a deeper version of the usual Cluck sound effect, and it starts to send the birds into a panic. A moment later, a giant Cluck lands atop the barn, flapping massive wings and sending torrents of air around it. "Shit... that's a Dire Cluck, isn't it?" While the Lander farm workers seem scared, Mikage doesn't seem all that bothered by the presence of the monster.

This is something she can handle. "Hey, Rama?" She looks over, to where her animal companion is suspiciously spitting out a few feathers. "Looks like dinner is waiting, mind pulling that one down from up there so Cyrus can take a shot at it?"

Rama seems all to happy to do so, leaping at the monster, latching on to one leg, and forcing it down off the barn so the alchemist might have an easier time blasting it.

All while the Landers seem to be in a panic and their Clucks have escaped... again.

Cyrus has been feeling particularly useless during all of this. Luckily, Mikage is a bit more familiar with life on the lands and outdoors, so she's been helping make up for all of that. So when there's that cry and shout from the Landers, Cyrus stands up and almost seems extatic that something as 'simple' as a Dire Cluck has arrived.

"Finally!" He remarks. "This I know how to deal with." He grabs hold of a potion bottle and flicks it about within his hand, trying to figure out a good angle to tackle this issue at. Luckily, Rama manages to leap at the Dire Cluck, grabs it by the leg, and pulls it off of the barn.

"Thanks Rama! Now, quick, jump out of the way!" As the potion is flung, and Mikage quickly becomes aware of Cyrus' hidden irritation at all of this. As the potion detonates in a violent arcing arcane power that starts to /consume/ the Cluck and wears it away rapidly. Clearly, one of his highest level techniques at play - not having the patience to let that Cluck even consider getting away.

Rama is quick to move out of the way, not wanting to be blasted by Cyrus in the process. Mikage pushes to her feet, joining in the attack that eventually brings the beast down. There is relief on the part of the Farmers, which only lasts a few moments before they realize that they are back to square one.

"Uh... looks like we're in for a long day." She murmurs to Cyrus, already tired of Clucks, it seems. "Let's go round them up again." She sighs, "Rama, come on. You can help this time. I don't think they'll notice if a few go missing."

With that, she collects the meat that the Dire Cluck had dropped, and then goes to finish the quest. At least, she hopes to, evetually...