day 117 :: Core Event

[bastionpc]

Who: Everyone who wants to participate
Open: Open
When: Day 117
Where: Prosper Bluff --> Jawson's Bog
What: The PCs go hunting for a core, and get caught up in a dangerous situation
Format: log, action, etc.
Warnings: Some threads will contain triggering material. Those threads will be labeled as such in the headers.


[Some time has passed, and more people have arrived. It seems as though things have been turning around since the last hunt for a core. So when Nathaniel comes to tell everyone that another core has been located, and that they'll need to go get it, his somber attitude might seem a bit strange.]

Alright everyone, I'm getting an energy spike in the general area of Prosper Bluff, so I'm pretty sure a core is there. Unfortunately, I can't get an exact location on it, just a general area, so you're going to have to go down there and root it out yourself. It should be somewhere on the bluff, which will make for an easy recovery, since most monsters stay away from that area.

However, there is a chance that the core might be a bit further East, in Jawson's Bog. If it is, just leave it there. It is not worth risking your lives to go in there to get it.

[Everyone is free to talk to Nathaniel before leaving, if they want, or they can just be on their way. Either way, the NPCs will be waiting for them to return.]




Threadtracking:

Preparation thread
Prosper Bluff
Jawson's Bog
Jawson't Bog part 2
special group goes here

Comments

[yinyangfox]

[ Following along the main route and keeping in sight of the others was easy enough, and Seimei felt confident that as a group they were doing well enough, all things considered. No senseless bravado, no rushing into danger.

Yet.

Now the bog, and Nathaniel had warned them. Still, he had not arrived entirely unprepared, carrying spells written to cleanse the air - with any luck, though that was sparse of late - and of course, Taisan.

The shikigami hovered nearby, flapping his flaming wings lazily with a complete lack of interest until issued orders. ]

Well. I appears if we want the core we have little choice but to proceed. I volunteer, of course. I have spells that may help but I refuse to send others in armed only with uncertainty.

[ He withdrew a small stack of ofuda from a sleeve, gesturing vaguely. ]

Anyone that goes is welcome to try.

[windgod]

[Ippo stepped forward, his jaw clenched just as tightly as his fists...Nathaniel had specifically requested that even if the core /was/ here, that it simply wasn't worth the risk in finding it to traverse through here. Ippo hardly wanted to put anyone at risk...but the core's were far too important to just let them go without at least making an earnest attempt at getting it.]

I volunteer as well...I might not look it, but I'm pretty quick on my feet when I need to be. The only real question here...is should we all go in, or should we only send a small group in?

[There might have been safety in numbers...but if what Nathaniel had said was true; then it would be even more difficult for a large number of people to get in and out without incident.]

[yinyangfox]

Personally I prefer a small group. Besides the fact that we cannot afford to treat anyone as expendable, we are less likely to attract undue attention if we travel in a smaller party.

However, that is only my opinion.

[ And Seimei was well aware of how little some people valued that. ]

[windgod]

No...I definitely agree with you; in a place as narrow and confined as a forest, all of us in there would make getting around and handling problems that much harder.

[A bit of a doof Ippo might be, but he understood the folly of getting oneself stuck in tight quarters...it would be no better than being stuck in the corner while someone wailed on them. However, Duke had a good point there...it would be beneficial to have a second team ready in case something went awry with their expedition.]

Yeah...that sounds like the best course of action here; let's just hope things don't come to that.

[individuates]

[raising his hand] I think two small groups could work. There's no real way of knowing how long it will take, though.

[glancing down at the anklegator tensely circling his and Seimei's feet.]

And, uh, I don't know if anyone heard Nathaniel mention this earlier but apparantly it's not just the bog we have to worry about - there's something there that gives off a toxic gas as well.

[freedom_engineer]

If you wanna head in, I won't stop you. Heck, I'll keep base camp up if you need a fallback point for some rest... But I think it may be a bad idea.

[He's tired, he's headachy, and he remembers the mission briefing.]

We don't exactly have the equipment to go muck diving...

[Still, he's looking ahead into the swamp just the same, letting his scanner do its work...

[superdrowningskills]

I agree that a reserve team should be formed.

[And look who's finally speaking up.]

I have some measure of resistance to toxins, so I believe I would best serve on the initial Core retrieval.

[Don't ask how he knows he recovers from toxins quickly. You probably don't really want to know.]

[yinyangfox]

I don't agree with a second team. If a group goes in and doesn't come out, what would be the sense in sacrificing a second group of people?

[ He frowns, looking off to the side in thought before holding up the ofuda again. ]

I made these in order to cleanse air around the wearer. My written spells have been effective thus far, so aside from personal doubt I have no reason to believe these will not work as well. Anyone going is free to wear one but I will not insist.

[ He shrugs, pressing one of the papers to his own chest and whispered a soft word. The paper sticks when he moves his hand away. ]

And I do not worry about the swamp muck, personally. [ He lifts a foot, gesturing to the ground beneath him, where there is no footprint. ] I am unlikely to sink.

[windgod]

Hmm...I'm not entirely sure about all that, but what I do know is every second we spend here, its another chance for some creature to get its hand on the core. Whatever we decide...we should probably make it fast.

[Ippo didn't want another warehouse incident...it was best to get the core before they had to drag themselves into any unneeded battles]

[superdrowningskills]

Inadvisable as a second team might be, it is a necessary move given that some would likely enter after a certain amount of time if they believed that the first team may be in danger, even when advised not to. If it comes to that, there should at least be a plan in place that will reduce casualties as much as possible.

[You can't deny he's right.]

[individuates]

[He bends down, gently rubbing the anklegator's snout and horn. Tama-chan could go in there with the others and run back if there's trouble. She could. She's a native and quite likely to be immune to whatever the Skyway has to throw at them. She may well run in herself, but Kaoru's not going to send her in there, he's not even going to raise the possibility. She's still just a baby.]

While I agree every second we discuss this is a risk, it's a much bigger risk to just rush in there without figuring anything out. I know it seems counter-intuitive, to send a search party and then a search party to search for the first search party that might have got in trouble - and possibly risk them both - but... so, what, we send one group and if they don't come back we shrug it off and leave them to their fate?

...so we have air-purifying o-fuda, that takes care of the gas, at least. [he hopes...]. Aside from treading extremely carefully, how do we avoid getting sucked into the bog? [really, he has no idea. Outdoorsy Kaoru is not.]

[bastionpc]

[There is one thing to note about the bog: while the ground is low, and sound carries decently well through it, there are a lot of trees. It can be difficult to see anything over a distance, and thus it might be difficult for groups that split up to find each other again.]

[blackblooded]

I.... [And here Crona speaks up, from the back of the group.]

I have soul perception.

S-so if we go in and get lost, I can find our way back to the other group.

[yinyangfox]

[ He nodded, holding up the spell he'd been using earlier. ]

This detects life forms of any kind, so not terribly dissimilar. With this, it is my intention for us to avoid as many inhabitants of the bog as possible. Crona-san can guide us using the soul perception. And if I leave any manner of enchanted thing behind, I can follow that back - I can sense any manner of magic. So breathing spells left on those for group two would be especially easy to track.

I simply believe the less people we risk the better.

[ He frowned, glancing at Kaoru with an unreadable expression. No, of course he didn't want to go in there and risk himself, especially if there were the slightest chance he couldn't come back. However, he wanted to risk the boy even less, so the choice was obvious. ]

Between Crona-san and myself our back-tracking should not be the problem. It is what we might face out there that I am more concerned with.

[notduchess]

Does the magic have to be active for you to sense it?

[ Duke was kinda.. just starting to get really amused. Could this be why so many other knights didn't like working with civilians? ]

I do have magic, and I do hold some with me, should I need to cast.

And I'm sure I've said this before - I have both healing and fire magic.

[ The knight shrugs. ]

Wherever you want me.

[blackblooded]

That seems like a lot, you know? Using it that much. Sometimes if you use abilities too much, they stop working.

[windgod]

Yeah...it wouldn't be any good if any of us ran out of juice in the middle of the bog... The beat we can do is play things by ear and try not to over exert ourselves. I think that of even one of us starts to feel like we can't keep up, we should just pull back from there... Does that sound agreeable?

[Ippo would be the first one to admit that he had absolutely no clue about anything related to magic...but it surely couldn't be something springing forth from an endless supply. If even one of their group fell to the wayside in there...well he shuddered to imagine the consequences.]

[superdrowningskills]

...Agreed. The situation is not so dire that we should risk the entire party should one prove unable to continue.

[As much as he'd rather proceed in alone, he knows that the others could never be convinced of that course of action. Therefore, this second course seems the next best way to keeping as many alive as possible, given how few of them there are.]

[freedom_engineer]

Okay then.

Remember to notch some trees as you go. If you guys don't get back in an hour, I'd like to have an easy way to find you besides blindly feeling around in toxic gas.

[notduchess]

[ The knight gives a thin smile, and settles back in a way that makes the sword belted to one side a bit obvious.

Not going to say anything, but just waving them to do as they like. ]

[bastionpc]

[For the people going into the bog, it's a very mucky and gross place. Any lingering monsters stay well up in the trees, and the only things on the ground are Pincusions and the like, all of which shoot huge thorns if anyone gets close.

Speaking of which, watch out. A couple pincushions will start doing that.]

[windgod]

[Damn, these things were firing off like machine guns! If it hadn't been for the training in dodging and weaving he'd been given with the softball machine; Ippo might be in a pretty precarious situation. However, thankfully so, Ippo was able to get the plant's attention and effectively weave to and fro through their needles with perceived ease...though he couldn't keep this pace up for very long. Hopefully this would allow someone else to get around them and chop them into salad before that happened.]

[superdrowningskills]

[Fortunately, this is easily enough time for Alucard to reach and finely dice the first of the plants before the others have a chance to realize what had happened. He's not immediately going to go for the next one though, since that's just a recipe for getting unnecessarily injured.

Oh the things you learn how to fight when raiding Dracula's castle...]

[blackblooded]

[Crona chooses to dodge the needles instead of attacking. If the group can move past, they won't be a problem.]

[yinyangfox]

[ Seimei said nothing, giving out his spells to any that approached for them. He was not responsible for these people, and cared very little if their ignorance or arrogance led them to refuse, even if it was not guaranteed to work. It wasn't as if he was some charlatan selling fake charms.

Making certain Kaoru was taken care of, he entered into the bog with everyone else, staying well behind the others who saw fit to forge ahead, all the while holding his spell intended to warn early about living creatures.

Taisan, of his own volition, would occasionally attack a Pincushion with his flames. Unlike his master, he had personal interest in some of the travelers. ]