Vinexa thought over what she might need for the journey and after a moment said, "I should have everything that I need already, at least enough for the next five days anyway." She waited with Sona and any others not making a purchase or telling someone where they were going and waited impatiently.
Sona smiles at the Palico's description of himself. While yes, he was a large cat, still, to her he was like the size of a toddler or maybe just bigger than that . She doesn't press the issue and instead, gives the little guy a light pet on the back. Fortunately for him, at the moment, she has long nails. She is gentle, however, and well experienced at petting animals; in particular, cats. Her petting is short, and she seems all about her business, but not impatient like Vinexa. When the Ronso returned from telling others where he was going, as well as Tribim, she heads down the path, following the palico. When they get closer, she points out:
"I hear...pops. Fireworks. Something. Do you all hear that? It's up ahead of us?"
Perhaps it was her long time spent outside that gave her ears to hear such things when others couldn't? In any case, she moves forward cautiously, letting the larger more hulkier, action-ready sorts of the group lead the way.
Tarka sighs and grumbles audibly to his immediate party around him.
Then it would seem that the Licktoads have intercepted our path to Mr. Proudfur. Since we hear them first, I imagine that they did not mean to do so. Perhaps we can chart a safe, wide berth for now and pass by without their knowledge?
Vinexa realized about then that she actually didn't have her pack with her at the moment so she said, "Oh shit! Just a moment!" She ran off to where she stayed in town incredibly fast before returning with her pack. She bent over, her bosom heaving, as she placed her hand on her knees and panted. She looked up a bit sheepishly and said, "OK, now I'm ready."
Once they were on their way Vinexa stayed behind Tarka so his bulk would make her presence less obvious. It would make her fights much easier if she used the big Ronso as a distraction so she could sneak around him and attack unexpectedly.
"What if perhaps the Licktoads are attacking Mr. Proudfur?" she asks Tarka. There is worry in her voice. She has seen some fireworks, and has heard of their great use back home, but is she ready to fight those using them? She isn't sure. "I am ready to sneak onward if you wish? If so, keep your eyes open for traps. If I recall, their kind enjoys them."
Waiting until Tarka and Vinexa rejoin them, Tribim leads the team out of town, an old fishing and hiking trail that branches off from the southern Lost Coast Road. He explained "Meuwster Shalelu grrreat hunter of meowsters, Meow, she made this meow shortcut." He waives with his tail the general direction they were going. "Meow meuw has visited Prrrrrrroudfur before. meow Muggle know meow brinestump marsh better than any meow."
Hearing Sona's question, Tribim listens carefully, to see if he can hear the fireworks. Asking "How meow close do fireworks meow sound?" Turning to Tarka he hypothesized, "Meuwster, If Fireworks were meow closer, wouldn't Fireworks be meow louder." He points down the path that his master Shalelu had cut, " Prrrrrrroudfur house, meow, right through meow there."
Turning he nods in aggreement with Sona, "Meow, check on Prrrrrrroudfur he is meow a friend."
Oh! Oh! He is right there! Then... you're right. We should take a look. the Ronso responds boisterously.
He takes on a calmer demeanor and tries to focus and listen harder.
The party presses forward onto the trail to Proudfur's home, with Sona taking point and creeping through the undergrowth. The sounds of explosions become louder with each step forward--and soon it's followed by the deranged cackling of goblins and the angry, sputtering curses of what can only be a very distressed moogle.
Rounding a bend in the trail, the group spies a ramshackle two-story building under siege by what looks like a group of seven goblins. Two of them have several wooden tubes next to them, all aimed at the building before them--and with a loud BANG, a ball of white fire shoots out of one of the tubes and misses the house by inches. Four more goblins wave crude dogslicers and shout in their harsh, squeaky language as they cavort about, with one last goblin laying into the house's door with a long horse-chopper.
The goblins haven't made much progress, but they're making quite a racket. They haven't noticed the party yet.
When they start to get closer and she hears the distant laughter of goblins, she will cast her mage armor spell on herself, ensuring she is protected.
As they draw even nearer, and the image of the goblins comes into sight, she will step forward to protect the home of Mr. Proudful.
"Stop it at once!" she orders as she casts a spell.
If there is a cluster of goblins together, she will target their lighting of their fireworks and will use the raw energy of flame to explode it upon them in a detonation.
His ears twitching in surprise, Tribim did not expect the demure girl to be the first one to challenge the goblins. Looking up at the boisterous Ronso as Sona blasts the goblins with fire. Letting out a Felynes war cry, he drops to all fours and sprints forward intent on attacking the nearest goblin.
Tarka looks just as surprised as Tribim at who went first.
Hah! She's got spunk little cat man. Let's not let her spirit go to waste!
The Ronso rushes forward with Tribim, but his targets are the wooden fireworks tubes.
Okay friends. Now you will learn my secrets. When you think of a large Ronso, you think of hefty polearms and absolute strength. I, however, do impressions of monsters! Cactuar needles!
Once he's within 30 feet of one of the wooden tubes, he strikes the stance and tilts forward, launching a barrage of 1- to 2-inch organic needles from somewhere on the top of his furry head.
Hearing the fireworks and seeing the goblins ahead Vinexa cursed herself for not casting this spell ahead of time. She chanted and gestured and protective magic formed around her like armor to protect her from the fight to come.
Sona leaps into action, setting the nearby fireworks ablaze with a burst of magic. There's a sharp hissing noise before the fireworks explode in rapid staccato bursts and flashes!
The two goblins let out a screech of surprise, but while the explosions were quite powerful, they're more battered by debris than singed.
The needles leaping from Tarka's head pierce through the goblin's head and neck, causing him to gurgle in agony before falling over dead!
The other goblins turn at the sound of the explosions!
Vinexa moved quickly towards the goblin most isolated from the others and when she reached it lashed out with the claws of one hand.
Ha! Pesky goblins should not be shooting fireworks at someones' home! Now your toys have been taken away!
He rushes towards the next closest goblin, launching another battery of ten needles.
Without hesitation, the young mage moves from where she was standing when lighting the fireworks, to a new location almost as if she were lining herself up for throwing something. A moment later, as one of the goblins scurries around outside of combat, she holds out her hand, and in it nothing. Then, with the exertion of power and chanting words, a ball of water appears floating there, as if it were held in a pot for gathering water, but without the pot. A moment later instead of being idle, it instead is swirling with the rage of a mighty river. The next moment, she takes aim and throws it!
Rising to his rear paws, tribim attacks the goblin he had neared, scratching and biting with tooth and claw.
Sona's water ball catches a goblin squarely in the jaw and causes its head to spin at an angle heads were never meant to. There's a loud CRACK as the goblin falls!
Vinexa's claw swipes at a goblin, but even in its startled state it's able to evade.
Tarka's opponent dodges and weaves in between needles, but several still stick into his bulbous frame!
Tribim falls upon a goblin with a furrocious furry of swipes, leaving the goblin's body bloodied and shredded beneath him!
The remaining goblins let out a screechy battle cry and leap to the attack! Vinexa's opponent swings his dogslicer through the air...
...and it misses her, the blade whistling through the air next to her!
Tarka's wounded and burned opponent raises his dogslicer and throws himself at the massive Ronso!
He manages to score a hit on the Ronso's thigh!
The goblin with the horsechopper levels it at Tribim and runs at the palico!
He clumsily plants it right into the mud next to him!
"Meow" Pleased with himself as he downs his first goblin, before he can claw the ears off, Tribim see's one of the other goblins charging him with a horsechopper. Ready to dodge the wicked looking weapon, Tribim is surprised he doesn't even need to as the goblin plants it in the mud beside him. Giving a very feline frown as the horsechopper splashes mud on him. Glaring at the goblin for getting mud on his fur, Tribim growls, "Grrr nasty Grrrroblin." moving closer he attacks the clumsy goblin with tooth and claw.
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The goblin has barely enough time to regret provoking the feline before Tribim purrees him into a bloody mess.
Oh, the cat made pudding! Gross!
Tarka proceeds to the next goblin, taking his now very-familiar cactuar stance.
Even though it manages to twist and flip, the goblin is helpless before Tarka's onslaught of needles and falls, looking like a very green and very unpleasant porcupine.
As the goblins move into combat, Sona narrows her trained focus. It has been a while, but she readies her orb of violent water once more. "Wait for the right moment..." she reminds herself from her old lessons.
When a goblin jumps backward, she mistakes it for that moment and lets the torrent go early. She should have waited until he was about to swing his blade when his focus was elsewhere. The water goes off and cascades into the jungle/forest behind them. "Are you watering plants??" she asks herself.
Vinexa deftly dodged her goblin foe before she lashed out with both claws.
gobbledygook
Vinexa's first swipe rakes across the goblin's face--and causes it to scream loudly and stagger backwards, away from her second swing.
The last goblin standing drops his dogslicer and flees into the swamp, blubbering and yelling in pain.
A haggard, yet high-pitched voice comes from inside the house.
"Goodness--are they gone, kupo?"
--3 dark blue potions in filth-coated vials;
--5 suits of small-sized, swamp-stained leather armour;
--4 small dogslicers;
--1 small horsechopper;
--30 gil each.
Sona quickly checks to make sure each of the goblins are actually dead, and in doing so, helps the group gather their bodies to be burned as well as to pilfer their collectibles. When a voice calls out, she perks up. The mage almost nearly forgot about the homeowner. Embarrassed, she refocuses her mind.
"For so long now you've been scrambling to get what you can to survive...How could you forget to check on him?"
"Yes! They are gone! Come out if you can. Are you hurt?" she calls loudly back.
While waiting for the moogle to come out, she examines some items that appear magical to her.
"Oh...these are cure potions. Is anyone hurt?"
"I'm... I'm alright, kupo." The voice says, gradually approaching the house's front door.
The door swings open to reveal a short, plump, white-furred moogle dressed in patchwork leathers and toting a backpack. The moogle waddles out of the doorway.
"Oh my. You're quite thorough indeed." The moogle nods.
Crinkling his nose, Tribim spits out the goblin blood, then began to clean his claws on the swamp-stained leather armor of the second goblin he killed. Picking up the creatures dogslicer, he cut the goblins ears off. Moving to the first goblin he killed, slicing its ears off as well.
Tucking the ears in his bandolier he notices Sona was collecting the bodies, "Meow Meuwster Sona, Prrrrease remember meow ears."
Shaking his head 'no' a Sona's question Tribim noticed the moogle waddling out of his doorway, Looking up toward his friend, Tribim waives, "Meow Meuwster Proudfur, meow remember me....ow?"
The moogle tilts his head (or, rather, his entire upper body) at Tribim when the palico speaks. "Oh?"
"Oh, yes! You're Ms. Andosana's student, are you not? Tribim?" The moogle does a little hop. "It's been quite a while since the two of you last visited me."
He then looks to the others. "I'm Walthus, kupo. Walthus Proudfur."
Ah, right. I'd almost forgotten. We're supposed to collect ears.
The ronso makes a disgusted face before picking up the horsechopper to help round up the evidence.
Oh heh, it's good to meet you Mr. Proudfur. Do the goblins bother you often? It must be a pain!
"Oh, not really--used to be that goblins were smart enough to leave me alone." Walthus frowns and hops on the spot twice.
"Of course, once the little pests got their hands on fireworks, they suddenly thought they were invincible." The moogle looks up at Tarka.
"Sir, maybe we could take care of your injury first?"
Pleased that the moogle remembered he and his master, Tribim smiles, "Meow, yes, meow much time since Meuwster Shalelu and me-ow has visited Meuwster Moogle." After pocketing the ears of the goblins he had killed, Tribim begins to clean and sharpen his claws on a dead log. As Tarka and Walthus discuss the goblins, Tribim adds, "Meow, reason Meuwsters here, to Puuurrrrrrswade goblins, to meow leave." He looks at the claws on his right paw, adding "Or meow die." He then starts to sharpen his claws again, asking "Where meow Goblin's camp?"
There are a number of things she has had to do that were not very appealing since living homeless. Side jobs that were not something a reputable woman would want to be seen doing. Emptying night buckets and disposing of dead things all for a little bit of coin. It was another such thing to be asked by Tribim to cut off ears. Thankfully she is not alone in doing so.
"They may have eventually set your home on fire!" she comments quietly to the moogle as she winces and cuts through an ear with a small dagger she produces from her waist at the back. After cutting, she cleans her blade.
As she finds money, she will split it for each of them .
"Yes," she mirrors the moogle's concern. "If no one has any healing magic, you should drink this. I think you are bleeding?" she points out to the Ronso and hands him one of the potions.
"They may have eventually set your home on fire!"
"Oh, perhaps, kupo." Walthus nods. "But it's still a soggy swamp. It'd take them a LOT more than that."
"Where meow Goblin's camp?"
"Well, you got a map, right? Lemme see it." The moogle flaps his little wings and rises up into the air. He dips his nose into a pouch around his collar and pulls out what looks like a red inkpen.
Once he's shown the map, he makes a few marks on it. "There we go."
Vinexa felt better after striking the goblin and taking a bit of his soul for herself. It was invigorating even if it was from a goblin. She always worried that she would become too fond of the rush, the way it felt for the hunger to be relieved and she knew as long as she felt concern that she was probably safe.
Her ruminations were cut short as they approached the hut and met Walthus Proudfur. She smiled, her sharp canines flashing, and said, "Hi, I'm Vinexa, nice to meet you Mr Proudfur." As those better with directions obtained them Vinexa found herself wondering what a moggle's soul tasted like. The goblin had been kind of ikcy, she wondered if moogle would be fluffy and light. Realizing she might be looking at the moogle hungrily Vinexa turned her gaze away and looked around and then went to check the goblins, just in case one was still alive somehow, she knew she could feed some more that way and likely not get caught and she was till quite hungry.
"Sir, maybe we could take care of your injury first?"
Tarka suddenly looks down at his injury in surprise.
Oh! I mean obviously I noticed when it happened, but I got so caught up being a cactuar that I forgot about it! If it's no trouble, yes please and thank you! If it's much trouble, I can instead be a plant and harness the power of the sun!
Tarka takes the map next and looks at the markings.
Very good. Thank you! Do they know that you know where they live? Or will they be surprised by us arriving?
Looking curiously at Tarka, she asks, "And being a plant...would...heal you?"
-----------
When he takes the map, instead of looking over his shoulder, she gathers the weaponry of the goblins. With some spells, the notches and nocks can be smoothed out and repaired. With other spells, their tarnished look can be cleaned. With a little bit of work, she can get them perhaps worth something to sell. She will take the belts or tie cords of the goblin's waistbands and will bind the weapons and small suits of armor together into one bound mass safe for carrying. She then places it on her back like a backpack. The bodies are now ready to be burned, should Walthus wish them to be.
It is at this point she will now move to observe the map. Upon seeing the various paths, she is curious about something:
"Would you say that moving straight through the woods here to the camp is safest and fastest, or almost going back to town along the road and then taking this other path would be quicker? What is this terrain here?" she motions to the map in between the circles.
As soon Walthus asks for the map, Tribim whips it out of his pack and holds it out for the moogle. After Walthus circles the area in red, Tribim turns the map around where he can see it. nodding his head "Meow, Thank you Meuwster Walthus." Putting the map back in his pack, he looks around to see what needs done.
Seeing Sona picking up he goblin gear, he decides to help assemble the weapons and tie them into neat little bundles. Once they were ready, he offered. "Meow, Me-ow has plenty of room in Me-ow's pack, would Meuwster Sona like Me-ow to carry Prrrrlunder?"
Once the gear was packed away, Tribim whips out the map, looking at it while Sona traces her finger across the swampy area, Tribim pauses trying to remember exactly what that area was like.
Yes! Just as the sun heals the plan, it can heal me due to my taking on the powers of plan creatures!
-----
While he looks at the map...
"Would you say that moving straight through the woods here to the camp is safest and fastest, or almost going back to town along the road and then taking this other path would be quicker? What is this terrain here?"
"Well, depends on how well you can traverse swamp terrain." The moogle shuffles around. "If you've got someone who knows what they're doing--one who knows how to recognize sinkholes, knows which earth is packed dirt and which is quicksand, and how to cross rivers without bein' swept away by the currents, goin' a straight shot from here to the goblin village would be faster. If you don't have someone who can do that, you'd be better off taking the long way around."
Tribim and Tarka remember that Brinestump Marsh is much like any other swampland--the only really unique things about it would be the Licktoads and perhaps the urban legend the locals call the 'Soggy River Monster'. Tribim in particular remembers his days tromping through the marshlands at Shalelu's side, picking off goblins and learning how to effectively avoid the many hazards of the swamp.
Between the palico and the ronso, the party will likely be faster proceeding directly through the marsh rather than backtracking.
Yes! I can recognize sinkholes. I say where to step and where not to step. If you don't listen, we won't jump in the quicksand after you! the Ronso sternly bellows.
He turns back to the moogle.
But will you be okay here after we leave? Should we help you fortify your home, or set traps for the goblins? He eyes the moogle over his tusky expression, clearly looking for some level of confidence. If it's not there he really does mean to help him protect his home somehow.
Despite Tarka's enthusiasm, she seems hesitant to enter the swampland. She just met these folks after all. What if they just have strong egos? She will slink back and let the others decide in humility.
"If we light these here on fire, will you be able to contain the blaze? Do you wish something else be done with them?" she gestures to the small stack of goblin bodies amassed with combustibles. She didn't stack them too close to his house and nearer to the marsh, further from the grasses and forest.
'Will you be ok?' Twitching his ears in surprise, Tribim nods in agreement with Tarka. He'd not thought to ask Walthus if he felt secure or not. The Moogle had been here for so long, Tribim hadn't even consider the fellow migh have concerns. "Meow, Me-ow will help set traps for meuwster Walthus if needed"
He gestures towards the south by south east, "When Meuwsters are ready Me-ow will go that way." Once everyone is ready to go, Tribim will lead them towards the goblin encampment.
Walthus hops from foot to foot. "Well, I reckon I'll be alright for now..."
He stops and flaps his wings once before looking up at Tarka. "...but if you'd like to help, I suppose a few traps around my home wouldn't hurt at all..."
"If we light these here on fire, will you be able to contain the blaze? Do you wish something else be done with them?"
"Oh, don't you worry, kupo." Walthus shakes his head. "I've got some water magic--I can contain any blaze that starts."
Tarka scratches his chin thoughtfully while thinking about it for a moment.
Come to think of it, Tribim the little cat man may know more traps that I do. I was thinking of some simple covered pit traps? Perhaps I can generate some of my cactuar needles to place upright at the bottom.
He looks between the moogle and the Palico to see what they think.
"Well...I wouldn't make them very lethal traps. You never know who may come by and fall into them," she comments concerning the traps.
With the Kupo's assurance he can contain the blaze, she will light the bundle and bodies on fire. If nothing else, it will help the goblin camp in the distance think that their goblin allies were successful in lighting the house on fire. While she watches it set alight, she focuses on her MP recovery.
Sona will slide off her footwraps and will slide them into a pocket, then will move barefoot through the swamp after the others. As she does, she is silent, merely meditating on recovering her power.
"According to the map, I think it's this way?"
As he aided Sona in dragging the bodies to the pyre, Tribim turns back towards the Ronso as Tarka calls him 'cat man.' Shaking his head, "Me-ow knows how to take apart traps, and me-ow might be able to assemble traps from parts." He gestures towards the yard, "Not much for Me-ow to make traps from." He shrugs, "Unless Meuwster Tarka wants to dig pit traps." Gesturing towards the south by south-east again. "Me-ow thinks Meuwsters should find goblins and Purrr-vent another attack on Meuwster Walthus,"
When the group is ready, Tribim takes point and begins to lead them towards the goblin encampment.