”Sounds easy enough. We’ve dealt with large monsters more than once. So where can we find this swamp thing and where do we need to lead him to.”
Phil manipulates some of the ground with his hands to craft a makeshift table of stone above the embering campfire. 3 points exist on the map a star, a X, and a circle, Tony begins by pointing at the star. This is where we are, north of where we plan to capture this beast. South west is the capture point marked with the X, South East is where the monster can be found lurking though it shouldn’t be hard as this thing makes way too much noise to be sneaky. Usually fallen or muddied up trees and areas above the swamp indicate it’s presence as it’s constantly oozing. the other hunter chuckles when Tony says ‘oozing’ and Tony perks up and smirks, Haha you like oozing huh shut up, and makes a motion to jokingly hit him. Anyway.... our plan is to drive the beast westward into this large opening in the swamplands, we will be waiting in the canopy of trees that overshadow this part of the forest and bring down the large monster net we constructed. Marshall if you could go over tactics with them?
The hunter who is now named Marshall begins, We have found that one of the best ways to drive this beast is by using water based attacks or things that cause its muck to fall off, freezing it off, washing it off. Though other traditional means might not work as well like lightning or fire that would just harden it. The beast is very violent when it is subjected to making mud change consistency so be wary. This isn’t your run of the mill monster and if it’s taking this many people to stop it I would suggest being as prepared as you can be.
Tony cuts in, We plan to give you a cut of these earnings as I don’t feel just the information would suffice in payment, so make sure you’ve got your big boy pants on. Just let us know when your ready and we can all leave to our planned spots.
Nasar taps his chin in thought on how to approach this creature ”Well this definitely sounds like we should be sticking with using ranged weapons to fight this thing. Would be easier to lure it to the trap whilst staying out of harms way.” He then looks at Lily ”By chance, did you bring alchemy equipment to make some items? Some liquid ice sounds like it’d piss this thing off quick and would be something i can use with ease.”
Lily laughs a bit nervously and scratches the back of her head, Aha yeaa I do have my stuff on me but... I’m not entirely sure how fast I can make that. Plus I’d have to scavenge reagents from the forest that I’m... she looks around at them and pulls out her notebook, I accept this challenge to make it within the days end, but I’ll need my teams help to gather the reagents. While I prep the alchemy station I’ll need something with insulation properties. Can you guys get me fur from a bear or owl bear? she draws up a small twig with berries that resemble cherries but of a dark brown color and hands it to Nasar. I’ll also need bog berries from some of the flora around here. 2 handfuls would suffice. Just beware of anything that would want to eat those things or you will have trouble on your hands. she gives a thumbs up to make sure they are cool with helping.
Nasar takes the picture, gives it a quick once over and puts them into pockets. ”Bear pelt and some berries, could be worse. Shouldn’t take us that long to find.” He looks to the rest of the team ”Ready for another round of the swamp.”
Nasar, Gensis, Marissa, and Deract all head out in search of the reagents. After around 2 hours of looping around various pieces of the bog they catch the sound of rustling leaves as if something were traveling overland.
Deract glances at Nasar and looks around trying to locate the entity but shrugs as he is unable to locate it, Nasar however can tell the being is North a few hundred feet away. Marissa slowly pulls out her morningstar ready for a fight.
Nasar follows then bright idea and draws his blades out too as they make way towards their hunt. He looks back and speaks to Marissa in a hushed tone ”Try to not turn the bear into a statue or we’ll have to find another one”
However as they make the approach the rustling stops and in an instant a large grey wolf jumps the foliage and pounces on Deract as he screams in surprise. He kicks the wolf off and stands up and draws his blade, What the H*%L!! A wolf!! more barking can be heard not far off. Genesis takes a backstep to get out of the fray. Marissa swings her mace at the dog but misses ever so slightly as the dog is agile on its feet.
Nasar laughs a bit even though there is a looming threat of dealing with a wolf pack ”Aw come on man I know you’re lonely but you don’t need to start getting intimate with dogs” Nasar takes a short step to the angey doggo and goes to cut it to bite sized pieces. ”Hmmm some wolf pelts sound interesting. Hopefully they dont get stained with too much blood”
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The dog is shanked and stabbed and quickly drops as the other 4 dogs jump the foliage and quickly surround the team, they all take a few steps around as Deract holds the dead bloodied dog by his neck with his shank acting like he will stab it again. Don’t try no stupid s*&+ dogs or else that’s curtains for Clifford!
The dogs tread through the boggy marsh as they stop and prepare to pounce before one of the dogs howls in agony as a tentacle shoots up and drags the dog down effortlessly quieting it in mere milliseconds. The other dogs see another piece of the pack go down and run in retreat away from the party.
In the murky water Nasar spots a large squid-like tentacle monster underneath a bog tree ripping the dog to shreds with its razor sharp beak in its center.
Marissa shrieks in fear of the unknown. Eek!! What the heck was that?! Deract let’s go of the dog and gets some distance so he’s not dragged under as well. Genesis looks very worried as she also can’t see underneath the black water.
Nasar positions himself away from the tree squid as he alerts the team to what he saw. ”Underneath that tree! There’s a freaking squid-lookin thing that’s feeding off that dog. It’s not a bear nor does it have a pelt so I’m all for getting the hell out of here.”
The team readies to move away but as they begin to tread away from the swampy area the water splashes upward as the squid thing swiftly dashed towards Marissa, it closes the 30 foot gap with immense speed as she tries to golf swing the squid out the water. She slams at a tentacle but not before it wraps another around her arm with her shield. She grunts as she struggles to hold herself up from the strength of being pulled down. Holyyyyy SHIIIIT SOMEBODY HELP ME!!
Genesis starts preparing a spell and Deract backs up to fire off bolts of dark energy at the water below. Deract yells out, Hes like camouflaging I can hardly get a read on him!?
Nasar stays close to Marissa as his team backs off and starts hacking at the tentacle grasping Marissa as its the only clearly exposed part. ”Since its taken shelter under the tree, maybe if you cause some damage to its hiding spot it’ll flee...or get pissed and expose itself.”
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Nasar manages to get 2 attacks in before he hacks the tentacle off and it dangles on Marissa’s arm. Nasar hears bubbles behind him before hearing a splash as a tentacle shoots out the water at him!
Nasars waist is enveloped by the tentacle as it squeezes him to kingdom come and he feels the pull of it trying to drag him in the water.
Nasar slips under the murky water as quick as he saw the tentacle grab him. With one last gasp of air he is plunged into a dark mix of muck and water. Nasar can hear the sounds of things flying in the water after him as Marissa plunges her morningstar into the beast.
A giant spark of light illuminated the dark water as 2 bolts of lightning zap the water! Nasar feels the water move as the beast evades attacks silly nilly but he knows the beast is to his side at all times.
Hm trapped under water with a beast trying to kill me, so this is what Marissa felt like during that aboleth fight. Gods I hate when this happens! Help someone just to end up in a bad scenario of my own.
Nasar while holding his breath readies his blades and begins cutting into the beast the best he can.
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Nasar manages to stab the tentacle just enough to sever it leaving him no longer grappled. The monsters blood fills the surrounding area as it attempts to dash away through the water in retreat.
Nasar waildly swings his kukri towards the hostile Cthulhu baby before it can fully get away.
A nice fire sounds great right now. I just want to get out of these wet clothes and dry off while getting warm. If only we weren’t in a swamp we could catch some fish and roast that over the fire too.
Nasar manages to catch and sever another tentacle as the monster flees for its life with the limbs it has left. The team is left in silence as the dead wolf next to Deract bobs in the water. Deract let’s out a groan, Danggit I didn’t get a chance to get a soul gem. I’m taking that bears soul when we take him down!
Nasar spits out some swamp water that inevitably got into his mouth and starts wringing out the ends of his cloak and also his hair.
”Really starting to get confirmation that I don’t like the swamp. After we find what we need and get back I’m getting the hell out of these clothes and getting dry. Last thing I need is catching a cold or getting some gross swamp fungus from getting soaked and not probably getting cleaned. C’mon let’s keep hunting”
They continue walking for a bit more and now Nasars cloths have gotten dry albeit very muddy and rugged. After about an hour they come across a small clearing that actually looks like a part of a river in a forest. Two small black bear cubs the size of air conditioning units wade in the water attempting to catch any fish that jump out.
Nasar looks at the bear cubs much of the same way that you'd look at some smol puppies. He speaks quietly as to not interrupt the fishing. "Awwww look at 'em. They're trying their best. We just need to be careful, if there are bear cubs, the mother wont be far away and she'll probably be the combined size of two half-sized horses." Nasar glances over at Marissa to see if his comparison caused her brain to short circuit yet.
Marissa’s head let’s out an imaginary gasket fire as she squints in thought. The stack overflow soft resets her brain and she blinks and looks at Nasar and raises her morningstar, Well... hate to do it to em, but let’s get it over with.
Nasar sighs while grabbing hold of his kukri and cutlass, ”Yeah, let’s make this quick. Maybe we’ll get this done before the mother shows up.” Nasar is ready to kill and skin the bear cubs.
As the group begins walking out of the forest talking there talk the bear Cubs take notice and tread through the river to the opposite side letting out cries of protection. They move pretty fast for cubs. Genesis drops her arms in dismay, Oh great... and she starts casting Acid Arrow to shoot them from afar.
”Well the adult bear should be here any moment now, just gonna-“ Nasar crosses his arms and stands on the riverbed waiting for the parent(s) to show up. ”-yea this wont be long.” Nasar takes this short moment to enjoy the sounds of flowing river water, acid arrows being thrown and terrified bear cubs.
I guess it has been a while since Ive stopped to enjoy the sounds of nature. It’d be nice of Gen didnt have to be so loud with her incantations but can’t win them all.
Genesis flings an acid arrow to try shutting the bear Cubs up but not before the big mama bear the size of a Ford F150 comes charging out the forest brush and rushes to its kids. The acid eating away at one of the cubs fur prompts the mama bear to stand on its hind legs and let out a roar to defend its kids. It snarls at the team on the other side of the riverbed.
”Yes yes you are very big and loud. Fighting animals are so boring, they don’t talk back and give me nothing to go with.” Nasar uncrosses his arms and gives his blades a twirling flourish. ”Let’s go Marissa, you and I shouldn’t have much trouble with one bear.” Nasar readies to charge the bear alongside Marissa when she’s ready to.
Genesis raises a hand and her shadows hand raises in an afterimage prepping another spell, I’ll help from over here, things that are bigger than me aren’t really a good idea if it gets too close.
Deract swooshes his tail around. Aww yea I’ll take the babies.
Marissa looks at Nasar and gives a nod before she charges the bear across the 4 inch deep clear water. She is met with the bear slamming its paws down but she narrowly side steps it and swings her mace dragging it across the bears maw. The bear let’s out a roar before it attempts to grab Marissa in a bear hug with its teeth out. She manages to stop the hug.
Nasar follows close behind and moves up to the bear. As he closes in he attempts to tumble by to position himself to flank the bear with Marissa.
After his attempt to gain superior position, he tries to cut into the bear with his kukri.
As Nasar gets close and tumbles around the bear he sees an insane amount of filth and nastiness on the bear from trying to survive in the swampy area. It turns to roar at Nasar before swiping into him with all it’s got.
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Nasar manages to trade blows with the bear as it bites into his arm and claws at his shirt. Saliva and muck cover Nasar’s wounds as they sting in pain.
Marissa effortlessly wraps her arms around the bear jumping on its back holding him hostage. HOWS THE BEAR HUG BI$&H!? the bear let’s out a roar in anger.
Nasar looks at his fresh bite and claw wounds and lets out a sigh ”That’s gonna get infected isn’t it...guess that’s on me for fighting a swamp bear. WOAH WAIT YOU’RE WRESTLING THE BEAR!!? This is amazing!!”
”Ladies and Gentlemen this bout is sponsored by Magnimar Royal Weather Service and Environmental Protection Agency. ANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNND NOWWWWWWWW!!!! THIS IS THE MOMENT YOU HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR! IIIIIIITTTTTSSSSSSSSS TIIIIIIMMMMMEEEEEE FOR YOUR MAIN EVENT OF THE EVENING! THIS MATCH IS ONE ROUND TO THE FINISH! FIGHTING OUT OF THE BLACK CORNER! SHE IS A FORMER SWORD AND BOARD FIGHTER WIELDING A FRESH MORNINGSTAR AND NEW ENHANCED ARMOUR, SHE MAY BE OUT OF HER ELEMENT TONIGHT BUT IS NOT HESITANT TO BRING PETRIFYING FEAR TO HER ENEMY. SHE IS THE EARTHSHAKER, MARISSSSAAAAA BELLLAAAAAAAADONNNNNAAAAAAAA. AND HER OPPONENT, FIGHTING OUT OF THE MUDDY CORNER, SHE IS DOING EVERYTHING SHE CAN TO PROTECT HER KIDS, SHE WEIGHED IN AT AN ASTOUNDING 2 HALF HORSES AND IS ARMED WITH SHARP TEETH AND RAZOR CLAWS. SHE HAS THE HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE FIGHTING IN THE SWAMP SHE CALLS HOME. SHE IS THE FEARSOME, MAMAAAAAA BEARRRR.” Nasar pants a bit as he did that speech all on one breath. After collecting himself he positions his blade to get a nice slice into the bears back. ”MARISSA STRIKES FIRST BY LANDING A BEAR HUG! WILL MAMA BEAR BE ABLE TO BRRAK HER GRIP AND RETALIATE?!” With that being said, Nasar goes to slash the bear.
Marissa chuckles as she grips up the bear and lurches back lifting the bear off its feet. It squirms for a second before Marissa pulls off a wild suplex leaving her body arched backward and the bears feet lifted up in the pinned condition. Take THAT!!
Genesis’ eyes open wide as she witnesses the giant move pulled off. Deract looks back at the fight as he slashes up the kids. What in the hell!?!
”SUCH A POWERFUL BRIDGING BELLY-TO-BACK SUPLEX TO PIN MAMA BEAR TO THE GROUND! WHAT WILL SHE DO NOW? CAN SHE RECOVER FROM SUCH A DISADVANTAGEOUS POSITION BEFORE MEETING A SWIFT END?” While the fans at home wonder what could happen next...
Nasar happens next.
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And with Nasars last 3 strikes the bear stops flailing in Marissas grip and slumps its legs downward as it expires. Genesis flings her last acid arrow at a baby that sends the kid falling down and Deract looks back at the mama bear and yells, OH YEA BABY!! as he whips out his talisman.
Nasar crouches at the bear so he can get to work skinning it for its fur. ”Marissa if we can pull that off in the team tournament, not only will the crowd love it but it’d be a super easy KO.”
As Nasar starts skinning the bear Deract runs up beside him like a kid at a toy store and funnels the remaining life force out of the beast into a crystal. His giddy demeanor hasn’t been seen like this in quiet some time so it’s refreshing to see him so back into the groove with being 3 different Deracts and all...
Marissa brushes some dirt off her armor before giving Nasar a thumbs up and smiling. I’ll have to throw my weight around on these opponents more often if it means I can immobilize a few of em. Good follow ups Nasar and I like the little intro I got, she crouches and holds the bear steady as Nasar finishes his deed.
Genesis holds up her robe as she passes through the water and joins the party holding her sketch of the bog berries. So next in the list are these. Buttttt none of us really have the knowledge to tell if any berries that look like this ARE this... I mean they look like cherries for Rovagugs sake.
Marissa chuckles, Make Deract taste test em.
Deract nods before turning sour. Yea make Deract tast- heyyyy I ain’t tasting nothing I don’t know...
”Well im no plant specialist but i don’t think we have to worry about finding cherries in a SWAMP. Odds are if there were multiple berries of similar appearance Lily or the hunters would have told us so. Just keep your eyes peeled for berries that match the description we were given and we’ll pick what we find. Worst case scenario Deract can taste test them.” Nasar finishes removing the bear’s fur and folds it and rolls it up best he can. ”Well Marissa, seeing you wrestling the bear gave me this weird underground fight feel that the shadow arena does. Plus I wasn’t concerned about us fighting these bears, we’ve dealt with worse. Now let’s get a move on, we find those berries then we can get back to the camp.”
Deract motions to the water and takes a second to wash the blood off his claws. They then set off back into the swampy marshes where they come across various kinds of berries and fruits. Deract plucks a very spikey looking green fruit, Ahh yes I remember these. Apples...
Genesis snatches it from his hand and holds it, Give me that! That’s a durian you impish dipstick. Smelly little things it’s odd that it’s in a bog.
”These things don’t grow in swamps, im more used to seeing them in jungles...If this is here I wonder what other fruits we can find...but maybe Deract should test it. Might be correct, could just be an apple in disguise.”
Genesis hands Deract the durian with a smug grin and he snatches it back and goes to take a hearty bite. It squishes between his teeth and the foul odor emits around the whole group, he sniffs and nearly gags as he mumbles eating the putter and inner parts. Its... custardy...
Marissa gives a worried look as they continue onward and find some hanging fruits that do look like cherries.
Since they aren’t being rushed, Nasar takes his time searching for these not cherries.
”Deract be careful to not eat any more ‘apples’. Probably some poisonous plants around here.”
The team combs through the area picking up berries and surveying them and oddly enough finds a body riddled with bee stings barbs and swollen puss bubbles all over its exposed skin. He spots a bush full of the berries and flowers but also collected some berries from a tree 40 feet away that look more pink than reddish so Nasar isn’t entirely sure which berry is the right one.
Deract looks up at a beehive that has bees swarming all around it. Those are the things that have the honey right? I read a book one time about a bear who loved that stuff.
Genesis waves a finger. Dont you dare those bees will get angers and you’ll end up like that guy over there...
Deract groans in dismay. But it’s just beeeeees cmon!
Nasar keeps examining the berries, getting frustrated that he cant decide which berries are the right one. ”Deract stop and listen to Gen. She’s smarter so if she says to not mess with the bees then don’t mess with the bees. I’m not up for dealing with a swarm today anyways.” Nasar walks over to Genesis to get a second opinion ”Are these too pink? I’m not great with these subtle color differences.”
Genesis looks at them and looks to Nasar and shrugs, No clue, just pick em both and take them back to Lily she will know she’s the reagent master.
Marissa looks at the bush and goes to grab the berries before moving back, Uhhhh there’s a crap ton on bees in this bush, there all over the flowers. I’m not up for getting stung.
Nasar scratches the back of his head and starts digging into his pack, growing a bit frustrated for once that he can see in the dark without assistance. ”Bees...uhhhh does anyone have a torch or some way we can make a torch? I have a plan on how to deal with these bees but I don’t have use for torches so i dont have any. Marissa do you have any torches at all?”
Genesis raises her hand, Torch, flint, and tinder on deck. and she pulls the stuff out and hands it to Nasar. What did you have in mind?
Nasar takes the torch and flint, and begins explaining his thought process. ”Well bees move as groups based off of scent. So if Marissa would approach the bush the bees would start releasing a pheero-no...a phera-s$&%. this is like the ah-lem-bic all over again. they release a FAIR-A-MOAN they acts as a signal to tell all the bees there’s a threat and to start attacking. But with the smoke from a torch, it messes with the bees ability to pick up those signals and they stay relatively calm. There still could be a couple that get ‘angers’ but a handful of bees beats dealing with a whole swarm of them.” Nasar finds a nice tree safe of any bees and scrapes off some bark to stuff into the torch. ”Even with the wood being wet, after a bit of time on fire it should get some more smoke out of this torch and we can proceed.”
Genesis nods as Nasar makes his campfire-beehive contraption from Minecraft. He sets it alight and the wood smokes methodically as planned, the bees look sedated as they float around carelessly around the flowers pollinating as usual. The berries are free to take. Wow! That’s really ingenious! A pheromone inhibitor made simply of smoke.
Deract waves away the witchery going in here. Listen Nasar Gensis knew how to say fart-trenome therefore it was her idea. But good job putting it into practice. Let’s head back to camp! and gives him a thumbs up as they finish up.
They head back to the camp where they are greeted by Tony and the other hunter around Lily’s setup like gulls to a fish school. She seems visibly annoyed but they seem not to care. Phil sits by the fire and welcomes them back as they enter camp. Lily asks the crew, Everything come out o- why do you smell like smoke?
Nasar starts offloading the bear pelt and the berries they harvested ”Everything went well more or less. We smell like smoke because we ran into some bees.”
Lily nods in curiosity as she does not realize what the relation between bees and smoke is. She looks at the 2 sets of berries and hands the redder ones to Deract, These are for you. Go fishing with em or something.
Deract plucks one from his hand and inspects it as Nasar can see Lily smirking. Yea right! Like I’m gonna let the lousy fish have these! and he throws one in his mouth which almost instantaneously turns sour from the taste. She kicks back in laughter as Deract spits out the glob of disgusting berry. His voice hoarse with disgust. WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!!??
Lily rolls on her back laughing as does Gen and Marissa. That was a foulberry!! Used only for stinky types of poisons and bombs. Taste good!?
Deract scrapes his tongue with his nails in horror.
Lily gets up after having her laugh. Well good on you guys for finding the goods. Let me get to work this should only take an hour or two. Judging by the sun though we should start the hunt tomorrow so we are all top notch. Sound good? the hunters nod in agreement. of course you two agree...