Duty Session 393: Convoy Escort Quest I

Schneider has gathered together everyone not in a tizzy about the coming conflict to take care of urgent business so it gets done prior to the coming conflict. The urgent business is ... getting this caravan to Dun Loireag from Bell Falls East, a microscopic town in ... uh, the middle of nowhere. So, maybe the name's not far from truth. Bell Falls proper wasn't much, if it comes to that, but at least there was a cow in the road. Schneider has shown up to help, it looks like a lot of adventurers are on higher priority missions. But this needed to be taken care of, so here he is. Here to guard the supplies that may make the difference in surviving the coming conflict or not. Maybe.

    Another. Escort. Quest. Sure. This should go better. It couldn't be WORSE than the last one Nariko went on? Right? ... Right??? ........ Riiiiiiiight. Still, at least the fighting Tiger Werefang was here to help. "Where... are we going again? Bells Falls? ... Never heard of it..."

    While Fukaziroh is certainly focussed on the upcoming threat of looming war, she's always been one to keep a certain level-headed perspective about herself. Yes, in spite of how she often acts. Preparation is one of her keys to strength, and one form of preparation is regular trips to various dungeons and quests. Besides, Schneider is always fun to overwhelm a mission with. He appreciates big, showy magics... and since she's not spending hours every day pouring her mana into a spell array, she can actually pull off spectacularly big artes herself. Maybe not quite so many, maybe not quite so showy... but still darn good.

    This mission appears to be one of guarding a convoy. Not glamorous, but certainly a useful mission needing to be done. Doubly so before the threat of war drops.

    "BELLS Falls?" Fuka asks, abruptly dismayed. "I thought the sign read BALLS!" she sighs. "We're not lost are we? I hate being lost!"

Schneider says to Nariko, "We're taling it all the way to Dun Loireag. These are supplies for the city. They said they needed them to get there ASAP." He smiles as he sees Fuka here, they've run together successfully a few times, and he explains, "We're in the right place. Bell Falls East. I'm not exactly sure I could point to it on a map, but the caravan we're here to escort is right there." He points to a ramshackle conveyance pulled by possibly the oldest grunties in existence. They have long white beards that drag on the ground.

The convoy owners look about the same, two of the most destitute, ramshackle, elderly Landers you'd care to meet. One says, "I don't know if you're the adventurers we really need. The last time we hired adventurers, they had much better gear. They were much more skilled also, I think." These guys need to be convinced that this is the right party for the job.

    "I ... still don't have a clue where that-" Interrupted. Some nosey merchant wants to say she isn't good enough? .. AFTER THE LAST TIME. Oh hey there's a nice rock over there. It gets punched. Rock cracks. "Good enough?!"

    "Better gear?!" Fuka exclaims, scandalized. "Better than THIS?" she slaps her vambrace, a truly epic piece of gear. Then she whips out her great axe and twirls it in a way most likely to send everyone diving for cover. "Better than THIS? You underestimate the might of the TINY BATTLE FAIRY!" she cries.

    Fuka considers shooting off a fireball, or calling down lightning from an empty sky, but... no. "You must be blind, old man! Besides, do you really think you're going to find better than us?"

    The question is kind of blunt, and rather telling. Better adventurers exist, but they're off doing other things right now. Time is of the essence. How long can the merchants wait?

Schneider hahs at the Landers and launches raw fire into a fan in the air until the sky is sufficiently filled with fire that even the normally docile grunties are edging around nervously, and the Landers are forced to admit that maybe he can be useful. Nariko's rock punching forces reluctant nods from them also. They're hoping she won't hit -them- in the face. That would hurt. The Landers seem less impressed by Fuka's impressive gear, making them wildly poor judges, indeed. "Seen better," says the one. "Just last week," agrees the other. But it seems the weight of opinion is in favor of using the party after all, so they set out.

The convoy proceeds slowly enough that the party can sleepwalk and keep up, but it's OK, the caravan, the one wagon that is, gets all of half a mile down the road before stopping abruptly. One of the wheels is stuck in a wagon rut in the road. "Dang blamed ruts in the road!" says one of the Landers and slaps the back of the grunty with his straw hat. The grunty ignores this. The other one looks to the party as if it's their job to fix this.

    "... Seriously?" Comes the deadpan reply from Nariko to the gazes of the caravan folk. "We're here for attacks, not for chores! BAH!" Stomp. It is a damn sturdy stomp, too, getting the ground to tremble a bit to try and break up the ruts and maybe help bounce the wheel a little forward.

    Maybe Fuka should have shown the Landers her necklace. It's truly powerful indeed. It's a relic after all, ancient and very *very* persuasive. It would *change their minds*. But no, Fuka has a problem when it comes to using manipulative magic like that against people who aren't actually hostile. So it's for the best that her companions had more than mere persuasion going for them. Which is part of why she wanted to join them!

    She doesn't hold a grudge though, so when the caravan is stuck in a literal rut, she steps up and plants her axe in the mud, head-down. Chanting softly, she directs the earth to solidify underneath. Were she a petty mage she'd just earth catapult the wagon out of the rut, preferably with riders. As it is though her magic is gentle and subtle. Two words rarely attributed to Fukaziroh!

Schneider will use the fantastic magical power in his magic cape to look very cool. It actually has a pretty good strength buff for no discernable reason. Well, he liked the look of the cape, regardless of the stats it gave. Nariko's shifting of the Earth eases the wheel out of the bad position, and with Schneider and the grunty pulling, they actually get the wagon moving again. Schneider looks put out. Fuka's subtle magic may have helped the process also, it's too subtle to tell.

The cart moving again, the hours creep by interminably. the sun sets, camp is set up, food is shared out, but .... there's a few tasks that need to be done before the party can settle in for a well-deserved rest. And these Landers are clearly not going to do a damned thing.

    Fuka's rather not impressed by the nature of the journey thusfar. The hardest part has been impressing grumpy grandfathers. "I think instead of showing off combat skills, we should have shown off prybars and shovels and hammers!" she snarks. "Do either of you have prybars, shovels or hammers?" she asks dubiously. "This is the WORST prepared convoy I've ever seen!" she scowls, then waves a hand in stark dismissal.

    "You guys can handle the work here." she says. Perhaps she's talking to the other adventurers, perhaps the merchants. "I'm going out into the woods to take a s... er, to commune with nature. And to keep an eye out for bandits and wolves. See ya!"

Schneider manages to help repair the wagon a bit. Just basic stuff, but he seems to be getting along OK. The one ancient merchant shakes his cane at Fukaziroh and says, "Of course we don't have that junk. That's /your/ job, of course." Apparently the last player group that helped these guys really spoiled them. Nariko is successful in foraging enough brush and cover to make some lean-to's that we can shelter under for the eveinng and sleep out of the weather.

The second day out on the road dawns after actually a decent night's sleep. They continue on for almost an hour before there's someting in the road up ahead. They continue on closer until it resolves into a giant freakin' peko, the size of a house. And now heading for us!

    The attitude of the elders makes Fuka a little despondent, but not enough to make her able to help out when it comes to setting up camp. Still, it's in the back of her mind regardless.

    A giant Peko arrives, and Fuka's still remembering how these merchants think she's weak and unhelpful. Two things Fuka *never* wants to be thought of as. So the Peko is a blessing in disguise. She howls in glee, charging out. "I'll keep it busy. You guys KILL IT!" she yells, invoking a tanking arte to raise aggro while at the same time buffing her defense. She hammers at the big birdie too of course, but the damage she causes is nowhere near in proportion to the aggro she generates. Nowhere near what the other adventurers are likely to be able to put out.

    "What in the world is -in- the wagons that we have nothing for the issues at hand? NO TENTS?!" BAAAAH. What in tarnation. Well, no tents means they need a lot of wood, twigs, and the like, for some makeshift tents. "Better hope it doesn't rain," she mutters as she sets to work.

    A giant Peko in the road? "Hey. HEY! We gotta go through here!" ... Seems the peko didn't like getting yelled at. It's charging them! That.. doesn't cause Nariko to move. Instead, she rolls her neck, shoulders, and slowly slides into a stance, hands at the ready. "Fine. I broke a rock earlier, your funeral." Fuka draws aggro, so instead of taking the initial blow, the were-fang moves up, takes a breath, and then throws a wicked punch at the Peko. That should take care of -that-.

With Nariko taking the lead on beating down the Giant Dire Peko, Schneider will fireball the monsrous thing, because that's his solution to everything; but the dire peko is apparently not affected by fire. Or lighting. Or raw sorcery. Schneider will draw his sword, it's a starter sword, he doesn't use it much, and rush in. "What the hell." Luckily, Fuka's tanking stance keeps the attacks off him, and she holds the aggro the entire fight, which doesn't take too long, what with Nariko beating it /hard/.

After the giant dire peko drops, with plenty of steaks and chops for a reward, the day is uneventful. The old men do go on about giant dire pekos not being what they used to be, but that's just old men talking. "You remember back a few years ago? The giant dire peko ate half the party. Not like giant dire pekos nowadays..." However as the party makes camp the second night, the grunty won't seem to settle down, thrashing and tearing up the turf, chewing on its lead, and being recalcitrant. The old men ahem and point this out to the party.

    "HUH imagine that!" Fuka snarks, though she's feeling good enough about the fight that her snark doesn't carry quite as much bite as it could. "That other adventuring party must've been WEAK to have a little CHICKEN like that eat half the group!"

    The combat high carries Fuka's mood through the rest of the journey's trudging, or at least the day's trudging. Still she can sympathize with the drudgery of the slow journey. The animals in particular seem almost as old as the merchants, so even with their painful pace they're probably exhausted. "I'm gonna try to perk them up." Fuka says. "Hey porkchop!" she greets a grunty cheerfully, reaching out to caress the beastie's chin. "You aren't exhausted right? If I have to haul this wagon, you're going to be dinner!"

    Thing is, she's saying this nice and friendly-like. It's kind of hilarious, like she's the grunty's friend. They can't understand words after all, just tone, so she sounds like she's being friendly and that's what counts. Kind of. If her eyes weren't so keen at this point, perhaps...

    Now what? Annoying Grunties? What a surprise. "Hey, hey! C'mon!" She even changes into her -human- form to try and calm the beast down for a moment... nope, nothing. Back to Were-Tiger. You all saw nothing. "Well I tried. Meh!"

Schneider has nothing that can help, his knowlege of peko racing is entirely circumstantial, that is, non-existent. Also, he's not wearing his peko racg hat, which might have helped. He never thought of it, and it's too late now. The agitated grunty does calm a bit when Nariko changes out of weretiger form, and there's no indication that Fukaziroh's kind tone and awful words have calmed it, but anyhow it's still agitated enough and breaks free of the tether after a few more tugs. "Crap," says Schneider, and will stop its escape with a well-placed fireball! Sadly, this is a bit /too/ effective. The grunty vanishes in a wash of pixels, not even dropping anything.

The next day dawns with the Schneider and Nariko sharing the load, dragging the wagon along, with Fukaziroh helping by steering and glaring at Schneider. Amusingly, the players together are as fast as the grunty was. Things are actually going well for a change, apart from having to drag the cart, or at least there's less opportunity to think about what a crappy duty this is. The city is finally visible in the distance, on the horison, and as the wagon draws closer, the bridge over the last river comes into view. And as we get closer, it becomes apparent that the bridge is /out/.

    "I .. can't believe.. I'm pulling... this stupid WAGON.." grunt, grumble, nag, nak, BOO. She's still trudging along, though, until they find their way to the river. "... Nope. NOPE. Nope nope nope. Screw that." For a moment she drops the hitch, stomps over to the water, channels a bit of magic into her bracers, and then basically PUNCHES the water with both. It starts to freeze shortly after.

    Fuka would pull - she's actually quite strong for her size - but hauling is more about mass and attitude than strength. And while she's got plenty of attitude, the diminutive sylph lacks mass and her attitude is currently directed at punishing Schneider for the incredibly bad judgment of killing porkchop.

    She'll forgive him by dinnertime, no doubt.

    At the water crossing, Fuka seems bemused by Nariko's efforts at punching the water. Still it seems to work, and she's gotten some newfound appreciation for freezing artes over the past month or so. Shrugging, she starts a chant filled with the nordic runewords bearing winter's chill, shoring up the river in places and freezing the riverbed itself to provide footing for the cart to cross.

Noriko's storm surge freezes into place where the road surface was, forming a new bridge of ice, and Fuka, in between glaring at Schneider's poor decision making, manges to reinforce that structure. Schneider, though, is an Exploder Wizard, famous for his /lack/ of Water, Ice, or Cold magic. What not a lot of people remember is that he /can/ command golems, and a giant one made of riverwater surges up under the bridge to make a walkway with its hands, which are frozen in place by Fuka and Noriko's magic. This winds up supporting the icy span quite enough to support the wagon, which then is dragged ignominiously across and into the town, where the mission is finally completed. Luckily, the pay is very good. Seems the cargo was pretty vital after all.