Duty Session 394: The Tides of Summer

    It was a wonderful day the beach, in fact it was rather peaceful moment and easy to forget the entire war thing going on. This is exactly why Rizadoman is here today, hoping to just relax and hide from all the trouble. That is until a loud horn is blown alerting the people of the beach that something is coming. At the sound of the warning Rizadoman , standing in only his Fundoshi he looks out towards the water. "So it once again returns..."

Yeowang is here on the beach also, in embroidered silk fundoshi and halter, enjoiing a moment of sun before bad things are going to happen. They're coming, but they're not here right now. Her own long-term training has reached a conclusion, or at least a pausing point between major efforts. So, she's relaxing right now, in what she feels is a well-deserved respite, when the horn sounds.

She rises up with a sigh, long hair spilling out loose behind her as she looks around for the source of trouble. Recognizing the familiar bulk of Rizadoman, she will head over toward him, following his glance out to the sea. "What is it?" she wonders. But we will find out soon enough.

Haru is not part of the fundoshi fun crowd. The white haired man is wearing breathable linen shorts of the dark blue variety highlighted with an accent of silvery belt threads and embroidery design. A pair of sandals rest on his feet and the rest of him is bare. He is reclining on a towel on the beach when the horns an shenaniganry begins. Really with the weather being what it is, he was enjoying a nap. "Errmmm mmmm mmm," he says groggily as he sits up, a natural beach goer with a swimmer's build that was getting a bit of a tan until now. "Well send it back," he says with a stretch of the arm upwards.

    June is wandering about, visiting places she's been, hunting out texts and engravings she's read before. And somehow she ended up at the beach. The small iron scaled cow woman is showing signs of rust and other neglect. She isn't even dressed up like Red Sonja, instead she has on a loose shirt, a leather apron, and she's wearing a pack full of inks and paper, her ofuda case bouncing on her hip. When the horn is blown she looks around shaken from her internal revery by the sound of imminent attack or doom or maybe it's free gelato day at the four seasons... she isn't sure but she's looking.

The beach is a great place, a place where you can unload your burdens and float weightlessly on the water, in the hopes of attaining that same levity of spirit. One can only dream. The water has always been a comfort to Gallant in this life, just like it was in a life best forgotten.

Once the swimming and the floating was done, the Were Fang lion spent a good amount of time on the sand, gathering his thoughts until the inevitable quasi-slumber overtook him.

The horn wakes him up with a start and, out of reflex, switches his beach-wear for his armor and weapons via a quick menu change, even as he is kicking himself into attention.

Twin blades in hand, the lion trots over to where he sees others gathering and frowns.

"Unexpected guests are the worst. Especially when they don't RSVP," he says, his muzzle curling into a half-smile, finally blinking the slumber out of his eyes. "I take it that politely showing them the door won't work?" He twirls his right blade, and his grin widens a little, "I hope, at least?"

    Inrit didn't really know why he went to the beach. And it really shows as he does not seem dressed for swimming whatsoever! In fact he specifically silently walked onto the beach wearing his robe and sat himself behind the life guard's platform with his back towards the water. His wings were folded up in such a way that someone might think they aren't as big as they really are, but still very obvious rainbow coloration. His staff set beside him and knees hugged up to his chest.

    Of course when the horn sounds the fairy boy would be visibly startled, jumping and suddenly flaring out his butterfly wings and then stumbling to his feet. He holds up his staff but clearly doesn't actually even know which way to aim it! But soon enough recognizes the group forming that does seem to know what's going on and drifts towards them, but doesn't say anything, just seems generally shaken already.

    The calm before the storm finally breaks as the people begin to run from the water in response to a white foam rising up from the surface. Who knows what is behind the foam but at the end of the day the masses don't care, there was a loud warning and then panic. There is always panic. Rizadoman shouts to the the adventurers on the scene, " We need to get everyone under control, before people get trampled. We also need to get everyone out of the water. "

Haru begins to shake the cobwebs out from his waking brain to the commotion of Landers making their way around in chaos. "No," he says in a comically deadpan voice, "stop. Walk, don't run. In an orderly fashion. Off the beach. Don't kick. Don't... bite." His hazy blue eyes watch the hysteria with a growing concern for the sort of damage that this can cause. Its serious stuff. The Artificer is having trouble taking it seriously and it comes out in his less-than-effective tone of voice.

"Yeah?" the young man says as a swath of Landers run by him, "Whats in the water?" Is it Sharks? Did he pick Shark Week to visit the beach for some rest and relaxation? Haru takes a hand to his cheek and slaps it a couple times to get the blood flowing. Hops a little bit. Limbers up. One of those 'risen from the dead of sleep' awakenings.

    June blinks, hears the call to get people out, and she pulls out an Ofuda, writing something on it she slaps it onto her chest. The spell flaring away in a burst of light magic "Everyone, move your asses, don't push, don't shove, pick up anyone who trips and falls. You're imanity not some damn monster horde!" she bellows at the people, the radiance and self assurance helping to keep things organized... if not less terrified.

    Inrit looked so totally beyond overwhelmed, especially seeing everyone else breaks their composure and starts panicking. Inrit was panicking first this isn't fair! But hearing an order to get everyone under control seems to on some level snap Inrit out of it. But even then he just begin chewing on his lower lip for a moment before taking a deep, shakey breath, closing his eyes, and starting to hum a tune. At first shakily and like he's on the brink of crying, but slowly steadies, as Inrit does too. The tune rising from a hum to a soothing song. Or something close, as his voice was not totally steady. The calm was a thin act he's really just hoping inspires others. The song was actually just as much to sooth himself as it was to sooth anyone who hears him.

Yeowang kind of expected a panic, and sighs a bit. People are reliable, it seems. She, on the other hand, is an iron beacon of calm amid the scrambling beachgoers, helping people who've fallen to their feet, shouting orders and organizing the foot traffic in a firm and authoritative voice. One has the impression this is not her first rodeo.

Soon, she has the section of beach within her earshot scrambling out in good order, hurrying to be sure, but not trampling anyone, nor leaving people behind, with those that need help being helped to get out of here. She'll help people get moving, and anyone carrying stuff that slows them down, she'll chivvy them on their way unburdened. "You can come back and pick it up later," she'll tell them.

Crowd control? He can do crowd control! Although he prefers dueling, Gallant knows that the protection of the innocents is also important.

Thus, he turns on his heels and starts moving towards the landers, arms waving like the most enthusiastic crossing guard ever.

"You heard 'em, please do not panic, and above all watch where you're go-"

He should have taken his own advice into consideration, as his foot steps into- of all things- a /bucket/, and the next thing he knows he is face first in the sand, with sand up his nostrils, coating his nose... it's everywhere. He spends the next few seconds sitting up, coughing and dry-heaving to get rid of the sand that is trying to go down his windpipe instead.

    Rizadoman does his best to lead the people out of trouble, but when you look like a seven foot tall kaiju, near the beach, near the whole trouble of whatever is happening, well it doesn't matter how soft you speak. Fortunately others have got this covered , the people doing their best to negotiate with the crowd manage to calm them and get them out safely. Even Inrit's humming seems to calm a few small children near by that were panicing. Moments past and the evacuation is moving at a much more orderly rate. This is all a good thing as low level monsters are begining to get washed up on the shore and starting to go after people.

As the low level monsters crawl up the beach, Yeowang takes a blanket and whips it around in the sand, creating a small sandstorm as she backpedals across the beach. This has two effects. The smaller crawlies are physically hurled back into the breakers, the trail of the beachgoers is obscured by the freshly brushed sand, and the brushing throws a low cloud of sand in the air in front of the crawling monsters, which seems to cloud and confuse them. Is this a sandstorm? That means it's time to burrow, now to feed.

Yeowang walks backwards down the beach, churning the sand, then reverses and does it again, so the sand doesn't stay settled for long, and the crabs and crawlies don't really get a chance to orient on the last of the fleeing beachgowers, who drop everything and scrable to get going PDQ.

    June looks at the the monsters, snorts, and then bellows. The lowing of a Gorgon is something most low level monsters know to avoid, because who wants to end up a small pile of gravel being eaten by a cow?

The more dilluted version of Haru's personality goes well with engaging with the monsters as they begin to wash up onto the beach. Crabs and wriggly bits. "Alright," the young man says as his sandles ease against the sand against the chaos of screaming Landers running around for their lives. He squats a bit to a particularly large crab monster that looks at him with the spindley eyeballs. "Hey. I think you've got the wrong beach," he says as he motions a hand. The crab clack clacks with his pincers. It shuffles left. Right. "If you go," the young man points back into the water and much further down the shores, "that way, there is plenty of debris to scavenge." Clack? "Yeah you don't want to mess with the Landers or Adventurers. You want a meal, not to be a meal." Clack...

The crab shuffles away. Its crab-like party shuffles with it. One down, dozens more to go. Haru's leg gets a tentacle monster wrapping around its ankles, "Hey. No. Boundaries," he informs the creature. It makes a question mark symbol into the sand as the Artificer works on the next monster for a relatively peaceful resolution.

    Inrit was focused on the song until he opened his eyes and saw all the scary things crawling onto the beach! And for once, he seems like he knows exactly what he has to do! And it's ask spirits for help again! He suddenly raises his staff and begins, "Spirits of Dark, grant me your aid, shield my friends from sight, leave my enemies blind!" The tip of the staff would become engulfed in a swirling lack of light which Inrit launches forward, spewing out a dark cloud to create some sort of magic smoke screen with his staff like a flamethrower.

Gallant finally gets his bearings and makes it a point to do better than fall flat on his face. One has a reputation to think about, after all. Fortunately, handling monsters is something he does have knowledge of, and he makes a beeline for the nearest group of crabs extruding towards Landers. Twin blades out, he proceeds to clash them together, producing a ringing sound that catches the crustacean's attention, pivoting towards the vibrations. The young lion proceeds to clang and move, drawing the creatures towards him, providing something to focus their attention on- the flash of the blades and the bell-like ring, the lithe figure darting in dangerously close to the claws, and then back again. His technique is decidedly different from Haru's, but Gallant gives the Artificer a broad grin, appreciating a creative approach- Haru is using persuasion, whereas Gallant is kiting and frustrating. When the magic smokescreen enters into play, he lets out a laugh, "Oh, this is nice! We're playing them like fiddles!"

    Rizadoman has to make up for his poor performance of helping the people as he steps up to the monsters and lets out a lard roar before he slashes through several of the monsters with his claws and then simply grabs one of the small fishlike monsters and bites it's head off. This only causes more monsters to run away and even faster upon seeing June. Meanwhile the monster handlers are quick to handle the rest. All under the cover of the sandy smoke screen. It is quite a sight. However it becomes obvious the monsters were only trying to flee what is coming, for a brief moment a shadow can be seen at the surface before a giant wave suddenly rears up before coming crashing down to the beach. How will the adventurers avoid being washed out to sea.

    June seeing the wave coming opens her case and starts quickly writing ofuda, one after the other she starts tossing them to the ground. Each burning away in a flare of green magic before a large stone wall starts to form following the line of spell seals like a zipper running down the beach.

Yeowang is not one known for using magic, but that's a giant wave coming, and she's desperate! She's also not very good at it, her control is poor, and she can't get that much sand moving at once, but she digs out a trench just in the dry side of the sand, piling up the sand she's dug out just up the beach, making an improvised seawall. She drags the sand from further and further out, so that the wet sand cements the dry sand its piling on top of and the difference between the sea and the water is that much greater. She can only do it for a narrow section of beach, she's got to hope the others have the rest of the beach covered, and soon the wall is actually pretty tall, though it's hard to say, with the distance, just how big the incoming wave is. It's taking a while to get to shore, at least.

    Inrit was far from calm but it seemed like he was helping! Hard to see past all the darkness he's spewing around. But the other darkness would get him to look up past the dark gas and he would almost seem to respond to the tsunami with shock and horror. Visibly shaking with mouth agape before he raises the staff again in a way that almost looks like he is hiding behind what is effectively just a stick in his hands. He'd look aside and squeeze his eyes shut as he begins once again, shakily, "Sp-spirits of Light, grant m-me your aid." He'd squeeze the staff a little harder, "protect my friends from harm, form a barrier to stop the water." The seeming prayer would be answered by those spirits as his staff ignites with a holy Light, which, Inrit can feel without even opening his eyes, and he wastes no time, aiming the staff blindly in the direction of the tsunami. He seemed like he expected the shield to break and get hit anyways and was bracing for impact more than anything, "Divine Shield!" Inrit's spell being focused into a specific named technique seems to help make it stronger as the Light shines even brighter, before firing out of the tip of the staff and forming a large protective barrier of light.

Haru offers a wave to his new Monster friends that are living their best Monster life that is not here. The wave of his hand begins to slow when he sees the magnitude of the creature in the water. "Maybe less hungry and more fleeing from that thing," the Artificer observes in the thick of it all. Based on his current approach to things, the white haired man having any sort of martial or magical prowess would be a surprise. It would be more in theme that he used a giant parasol to stop the incoming water. Alas, nothing so grand as he summons his orb and equips it, a small glass-like ball that fits in his off hand.
    "Terra. Obice. Litore." the magic wielder says as sand kicks up around him in rune-like formed lines around his hand. He directs the ropes of charged magic back into the earth where a series of sand-and-rock levees burst upwards to shield and dampen the incoming tide of water. One of these Haru wisely ducks behind before the wave makes its fall.

Gallant stops cold when the leviathan rears its ugly... fin. Or whatever bodypart that was. The passing of one of one is not something to take lightly, for it brings disaster in its wake. And that is what is being visted upon them now.

While his impromptu team-mates work towards creating a barrier to mitigate the impact, the Mystic draws upon his ability to summon the forces of the elements.

Water. He has always felt at home in the water- it has soothed him and it has been a refuge, a consolation and the source of many of his greatest joys and deepest sorrows. Water was life.

Dropping his swords, he crosses his arms at the wrists across his broad chest and bows his head, an ethereal breeze tossing his mane as he intones-

"From the river to the sea,
from valley low to mountain path
thy bounteous calm we beseech of thee:
Assuage thy rage, dispel thy wrath
And cast away calamity!"

The spell sealed, he focuses his intention to move not against the wave, but with it, to try to channel some of the force and momentum of the water in different directions, to diminish the glittering giant some.

    Large walls are formed along the beach made of earth and light and even trying to drain some of it off all helps with the final start being that Rizadoman grips his claws into the earth wall and pushes against the wall bracing it more. The wave washes out with little damage done to the beach and all the adventurers are safe on land still. It would be a great way to end this trouble, if it was over, unfortunately it appears more monsters are moving onto the beach. A group of armed fishmen looking to capture people and drag them out to sea for dinner.

Yeowang spots the incoming fishmen at range, and decides instantly that she'd like them to stay at range. For good, if possible. She pulls a bow and arrows from her inventory, nocks one, and lets fly. But she's a poor archer. But she's not /just/ an archer, as no one here is just one thing, and she takes a deep breath and a zephyr springs up around her. She nocks another arrow, and there's perhaps a magical coruscation around the tip. She raises her aim, pausing with a fair amount of upangle, and releases.

This time, the arrow flies true, and if one looks closely, the arrow seems to /pick up speed/ as it travels, so that when it hits, the fish-man is knocked from his feet. The same coruscation seen at her eye as on the arrow, and she draws another, and with only a moment's aim, releases again. This arrow strikes true as well, taking another fish-man in the chest, and he disintegrates into pixels. In this manner, she manages to thin the wave of attacking fish-men.

Glistening, wet creatures crawling out of the water. Hostile intent is undeniable, and it is clear that these monsters will not be so easily turned away by cajoling and the tricks that are effective with lesser monsters.

Gallant bends down to pick up his swords and then glancing at each one of the happenstance companions. "You are all pretty fantastic, by the way," he says with a rogueish grin, "What do you say we make kabayaki out of these annoyances before they make a meal out of us?"

As the fish-beast approach and Yeowang begins to cull their ranks, the twin blades flash once, to slice at an incoming arm, and then he steps back and the blades begin to glow a deep vermillion, casting his fur from gold to orange by their reflected light.

With a swing of his muscular arms, the swords are swung upwards until their tips face the sky, and an angry red-white streak of twin lights erupts from them and vanish skyward.

And then there are clouds that weren't there before, the overcast sky hanging over the beach with an angry blood-red tint, which only intensifies a second later as a percussive barrage of lightning erupts from the clouds, raining upon the aquatic beasts as they surge forwards.

With the waves crashing against the barrier, Haru takes a moment to lean against it. It is still like a day at the beach, only magnified up some. The water drips from his white hair as he steps out from behind the coverage to see the oncoming fishermen looking to wrangle up some Landers. "Alright," the Artificer says, pulling out a degree of offense at the sight of the Landers being handled that way. "Venenum. Fulmen. Piscis." A series of sand filled bolts circle around the Artificer and are launched like barbs against the creatures, giving them a sedative that causes many to drop to sleep.

    June notices the fish men after the wals crumble away in the wake of the wave. June shake shes her head "No no, look I have things to do." she says and starts writing Ofuda after Ofuda. Throwing each of the papers, causing them to turn into streaking arrows of light punching through and shattering monster after monster into dispursing pixels.

    Inrit was relieved the wave didn't crush him. Eventually relaxing and opening his eyes, but he quickly goes from relieved to 'maximum nope'. Once again he seems terrified of the coming threat. Taking a shaky breath and raising the staff again, "Spirits of Light, grant me your aid. Stop these monsters from hurting my friends, bring down your wrath upon them." And once again the staff seems to answer Inrit, and Inrit once again doesn't waste it, bringing the staff down and aiming it at the fish men, "Pillar of Light!" Inrit's staff would flash, then from the sky itself, at the speed of light, a pillar slams down like a hammer from heaven. Burning the scary monster caught within it.

    The fishmen charge in and the first wave is put down quickly by the ofude of June, and the pillars of light from Inrit. The second wave quickly falls to the attacks of Haru and Yeowang, arrows and barbs ripping apart the fishmen. Finally the remnants are cleaned up by Rizadoman and Gallant, Gallants blade ripping apart the creatures and the flame breath of rizadoman scorching them to ash. It appears for a moment they are successful before the giant shadow they saw earlier reveals itself. A giant octopus, that towers above not only the adventurers but the nearby the village itself. It appears the real threat has appeared. " We can not let that beast get off the beach. Everyone attack!"

"Hey!" Gallant calls out, as his leg is caught by one of the monster's tentacles. His attempt to hack at it with his blades is interrupted by the other tentacle wrapping around his waist and elevating him. His legs kicking in the air, Gallant snarls, "Okay, I am not on board with the way this particular thing is going! Ah!"

He winces in pain as the tentacles begin to constrict, and pull him towards the monster, no doubt to end up as a snack. Another squeeze, and his health bar decreses significantly, eliciting a cry from him. He is not likely to survive a third squeeze.

Fortunately, he is still holding on to his blades, and as he is dragged forward, he strikes the blades together, swiping the edge of one along the length of the other in a fast movement, eliciting a spark. That spark hovers in midair for a second and quickly grows in size, until the lion has a massive ball of roiling, coiling elemental magic that coalesces into fire, hovering at the tip of his sword.

"I've changed my mind!" he says, wheezing in pain, "I think I want takoyaki instead!"

And then he lets the fireball fly. He might be too close by this point, and might end up getting caught in the conflagration, but he's willing to risk it.

Yeowang fires the last few shots as the last of the fishmen are dealt with. And then, as the the next crashing wave plops a monstrous octopus up on beach, Yeowang grimaces. If that thing inks her, it's going to be quite a collosal pain in the ass. What she doesn't view it as, is as a threat. Most girls in the east tend to get grossed out by tentacles, she's observed, the westerners she's met less so, though more from non-familiarity, octopus not being as big in the western diet. But it's not so much a giant octopus to her as a great heavy-bag on the beach, and she's going to beat the hell out of it.

She leaps in to attack with a flying roundhouse kick that has some thinking idly of Chuck Norris jokes, she certainly takes a respectable chunk of the monster's HP with the one attack. She then proceeds to calmly and clinicly punch and kick the hell out of the huge monster, spinning kicks, brutal jabs, the occsional elbow because everyone ought to know a bit of Muay Thai, all while spinning a step ahead of the grasping tentacles. The ones that get too close she summarily smashes, they are then drawn back, not to emerge.

Go all in. A VERY reasonable request coming from Riz and all of the stuff happening. Haru gives the man a thoughtful nod of agreement and a grin. He is dripping with water from a tidal wave. He has talked to crabs. He has put raiders to sleep. All in all, its a good beach adventure. Holding his orb up he begins to chant the natural enemy to water enemies: electricity. "Fulgar. Inspiratione." He is one word short of his chant. A squint at his enemy. "Lolligo?" Wrong word. The spell fizzles out in the cast, literally, with sparks and everything. He looks at the creature through his monocle to Appraise it for future casts, though with the assembled fighting power, he suspects it wont be necessary.

    June is a raid player, use to working with the Sleeping knights... but she's not the strategist by any stretch of the imagination. So when she hears commands about taking down a boss monster. She acts. The iron plated minotar like woman charges into the surf, head down iron horns slashing side to side, she starts smashing her horns and iron clad head into the beast over and over again.

    Inrit seems to completely go into some sort of shock upon seeing the Mega-Octopus. Mumbling something incoherent to himself, only some words being audible. "-just keeps going-." He would step backwards, skidding in the sand on shaky legs and ending up on his back. But he'd begin a familiar prayer, "spirits of Light, grant me your aid. Make it go away!" He'd thrust the staff towards the octopus, and right as his arm reaches full extension the staff would spark with light, before also firing that light as a projectile.

    Rizadoman looks at the giant octopus as he reaches into his inventory and retrieves a shield . It breaks apart into two blades, linked together by a chain, as he points one of the blades at the octopus before charging in , running up a tentactle to slash at the main body multiple times. This is followed by Yeowang and lands a powerful kick pushing it to the ground. The light of Inrit piercing the piece from above and the magic of Haru and Gallant strikeing it from the side. Finally June seems to charge forward and charges straight through the octopus , running right out the otherside. In the end the beast falls dead and as if a moment later all the cooks in the village have arrived to make quick work of this giant supply of takoyaki. Soon it would be time for a feast for everyone.

Injured, but still whole and alive, Gallant makes his way back to the beach, his mane and fur stained with the monster's blood and slime. He probably smells like a port at high tide, but he flashes a grin as he approaches Rizadoman.

"That?" He says, sheathing his blades behind his back with a swift but pained movement, "That was fun."

He casts a cursory glance at the army of cooks.

"Do you think we'll get freebies for helping? That worked up quite an appetite."

    Inrit, seeing the octopus fall would just kinda collapse completely. This was far more than just going outside his comfort zone. And he's reacting much like he didn't see this as any sort of game. But after a moment of being limp, he'd suddenly stand up, then dust himself off, and walk over to Gallant specifically. He'd put on a smile and try to look friendly. Happy even. But he's still shaking and won't look anyone in the eyes. "Hi! May I heal you?"