Back to list

Recruitment through Bribery

Scene details

Setting: Using the marmot meat obtained from the hunt, Reize and the group prepared the food anticipating the arrival of the Catgirl gang. However, they come across a new inhabitant in the isle who has a mission of her own...

Log


  It's always sunny at Zel'rik Archipelago!

  The shimmering light provides the sight of the blue sky, few parts covered by the clouds hanging on the afternoon. As the light remains, the cool breeze washes across the shoreline. The particular region remains as mountainous as the rest of the shoreline. However, this part is off where the ocean touches the sandy beach.

  At the beach is a built-up fireplace, kindling and crackling in the air. Hanging over are large slabs of the marmot meat, cleaned and cured as much as possible. However, erupting from the fire and around the meat is still the remnants of emanating dark aura, likely an after effect of a certain vampire's onslaught of rage. The meat hangs over a set of sticks, forming a spitroast.

  Sitting on the ground, Reize is humming to himself. The young boy, currently the scarfless explorer, is wearing his sleeveless red shirt and gauntlets, with the adventuring pants and boots. He sighs as he spins turns the stick to have the meat change sides.

  "Well, we have lunch and also dinner!" He muses, "I'll see if there are some good vegetables around later."
 


 The aroma, at least, seems uncompromised by dark magic. The scent of roasting meat has begun to pervade their little slice of the coast, the blaze of the fire similarly luring the eye, positioned so that the large boulders that festoon the shore are least likely to obscure one's sight of the makeshift banquet.
 "I wonder..."
 Ivo, clad in the charmingly ragged castaway version of his garb, is a short distance away examining some rudimentary driftwood racks lashed together by dried palm fronds, on which part of the hide of the megamarmot is drying. Different portions are being tanned using different easily obtainable methods -- salt water, solutions of pulverized bark, other animal products -- and being experimentally compared. All alike seem to pulse with (comparatively faint, at least) dark energy from a recent vampire bombardment.
 "...does this constitute a form of enchantment...?"
 He is holding up the sensor on Hauteclare's hilt to the hides, as though trying to evaluate them, but it looks like their shipwreck and related ordeals has discombobulated the delicate instrument a little. Detection of magic may be a little difficult for him until he has the proper means and laboratory setting for repair.
 Detecting catgirls, of course, would be difficult even in the best of circumstances. But as Ivo noted before they began this little ploy: even if our heroes cannot see or sense them, they're almost certainly watching -- or at least smelling.

Ruidosa La Crima rolls 1d20.
Comment: Fishing Mini Game
Roll(s): 16. Total result is 16.

Ruidosa La Crima is doing the fishing minigame....!

She got something! Pull pull pull pull....!

La Crima caught a CRABFISH. It isn't a crab, it's a fish with tiny pincer fins. Ruidosa sighs and places it into the basket of similar fish and pulls the basket to the fire and frowns.

"Sorry the meat is glowing." she says.

"And maybe evil. I dunno. Probably not."


  As the scent of the roasting meat enters his nostrils, Reize lets out a sigh before he reaches to his satchel. He rummages for a few packets, then he places them over the fire-roasted meat. These spices should add some more flavor to the meat, especially as the flames sear into it.

 After adding some of the rub to the meat, he brightens and he looks over towards Ivo. "How's it looking on getting everything together so far?" He cants his head to the side. He looks over at Ruidosa, who caught a very pinchy fish.

 "I am sure it'll have some good flavor!" Or Reize's stomach will hurt, unknown yet.
 


 "That megamarmot had a mean charge," Ivo cheerfully observes to Ruidosa. It seems he's healed from being bodily flung onto a whole cactus, though there are pinpricks in the back of his clothing as subtle evidence of the debacle. "Your magic saved the day, no question." Stepping back from his evaluation of the hides and approaching where Reize tends to the meat, his tone turns joking, inevitably. "And if we have created Evil Meat, it's the perfect bait to lure out any evil force that lurks on this seemingly idyllic isle."
 Smiling a little ironically, his gaze turns inland, sweeping up to the distant volcano and its treelined cliffs.
 "Though I'm not sure we've encountered anything I'd call 'evil' here."
 ELSEWHERE ON THE COAST
 An especially surly tortoise extends its head out of its shell, squints down the coast as though having noticed something, and then eventually withdraws its head again.
 HERE
 "I... don't think."
 He glances back to Reize, smile now sincere.
 "Thanks to Fabroxo, Argent, and Laineth, er, joining us," he euphemistically refers to their rescue attempt turned immediate and apparently deliberate shipwreck, "basic alchemy is a cinch, much more so than I expected it would be. I think we should be able to make leather for waterskins and other uses in the near future. But for anything more complex or for higher quality material, we'll need to construct some facilities. Maybe we can find a good cave in one of the bigger boulders here, or figure out some way to make ascending one easier."
 Some of them can fly, after all, but it's one thing to get up onto those big volcanic boulders and another to ensure that everyone else can.
 "There are some proper trees growing up on some of them, due to the higher altitude, no doubt," Ivo observes, now looking up at one of the enormous rocks along the coastline, the product of ancient volcanic activity. "If one of us got up there and lowered a sufficiently long rope, maybe we could build a ladder or rudimentary elevator system... hm?"
 The Cosmopolitan, backlit by the blazing beachside bonfire, thinks that he sees a flicker of movement at the base of the boulder he's been pondering. The corners of his lips curl up again.
 "This meat sure does smell good, Reize," he says loudly and rather too casually. "I don't know how we're going to eat it all!"

Ruidosa La Crima has a bushel of fish! Cats and catgirls like fish, right?

"Yes Ivo. I don't know. How we'll eat. All this delicious food. By ourselves!" she says, more loudly above normal speaking voices but not yelling it as she starts to clean fish a little bit away from the group. FIsh need cleaned to maybe be dried later or preserved.


  The Evil Meat, as Ivo called it, continues to radiate a dark, ominous energy. While the meat looks nicely tender, it's unknown as what the energy that pulses would do to the body that consumes it.

 Reize, on the other hand, doesn't seem to mind it. He cleaned it as much as he can and he thinks it should be safe for consumption.

 When Ivo gives an update, the boy blinks with a look of surprise. "Eh?! Argent and Laineth are here as well?!" There is a pause. "Oh, and Fabroxo... your friend, right?" He scratches his head. The young man nods accordingly regarding the waterskin. "Actually, I should be able to stitch something together with that large marmot's hide." He gives a proud look, then he rcacks a grin.

 Giving a bright smile, he looks at Ruidosa and Ivo. "Oh, we're not!" He gives a very knowing look, "We're going to use this to those catgirls in and use it to make peace with them as well! It'll be a big community gathering!"

  • Character: Iris
  • 7 months, 1 week ago


 What perils, what travails, have found our heroes here? Sea serpents! Storm-tossed seas! Catgirls, apparently! Luckless but not pluck-less, Reize and company have bravely turned the story squarely into the DLC summer adventure because if this were the main story the serpent would have eaten them and they'd be in the biological-themed dungeon trying to get out of its stomach right now. Probably.

 Certainly, other than the natives and our heroes, this isolated space away from the world cannot hold any NOPE hold on a second

 Ivo and Ruidosa did indeed discern rustling sounds and perhaps even shadows in the darkness. And then there's even a ghostly little green and red flicker, like a pair of Christmas-happy fireflies. The rustling intensifies. Have the catgirls found a cache of laser pointers?! Obviously not, they'd have been immobilized if that were the case, QED.

 Nope, what emerges from the undergrowth -- seemingly heedless of the meat, the fire, and probably most disconcertingly, the people -- is a young woman (non-cat version) out for an apparent stroll.

 Of average height and build, with short but wavy brown hair streaked with every color in the rainbow, she's dressed in a sleeveless white work shirt, black fingerless elbow-length gloves, and a pair of rugged workman's pants. She's got a sword belt, but interestingly, it currently holds the handle of a pickaxe rather than a sword, and in her palm-up hand float two little rune stones: one green, one red, with the red one circling the green one.

 They are fascinating little trinkets, right? Which might be why the woman is staring at them with a furrowed brow as she walks through our heroes' camp. Without turning to, looking at, or speaking to them.

 "Hmmm. Farther this way, I guess?"

 Y'ALL SHE'S LITERALLY GOING TO LEAVE WITHOUT ACKNOWLEDGING YOU AT ALL.


 "Yeah," Ivo says in response to Reize's surprise, sounding oddly ambivalent about the presence of their friends. "Well, I encouraged them to introduce themselves, but, you know, they've been occupied in their own ways."
 PREVIOUSLY
 "I, uh, appreciate your alchemical advice," Ivo is saying, "but perhaps if you could supervise, or otherwise assist..."
 He watches in silence as Laineth, clad in a makeshift bikini, reclines on an even more makeshift beach chair, sipping from a coconut, while Argent dutifully fans her with a palm frond.
 "...or I could just... take care of it."
 NOW
 "More or less."
 Ivo meets Reize's radiant smile with a very slight smile of his own, face a little too tense, as his gaze searches for Ruidosa's, as though seeking solidarity in the face of their fearless leader's boundless earnestness. Slowly his gaze drifts back to Reize, his mouth opening very deliberately to speak.
 "I--"
 And then Iris strides right in front of his field of vision.
 Ivo basically repeats the bit, gaze drifting to follow the rainbow-haired young lady, before his gaze returns to Reize. He is silent, mouth hanging open a few moments more, and then at last he speaks.
 "Look, Reize," he quips, "we found you a friend."
 One wonders what he could possibly be implying.

Ruidosa La Crima opens her mouth. "Reize! You can't just blurt out the plan like that!" she says. "Look, all this did, was summon some rainbow haired girl anyways." she says. "Maybe SHE has a eatworthy boat!" she says as she stands and starts chasing after the girl. "Hey, hey you!" she yells.

"How did you get here and where's the boat!" she yells. Chase chase chase.


  When Ivo's face visibly shifts, Reize looks at his older friend in confusion. Was it something that he said? And of course, Ruidosa jumping in has him shirking back, "Acck! Sorry!" He flails. However, seeing the vampire quickly get up and call out to the person gets Reize to look over. They found Reize a friend, huh?

  The boy, giving a cheerful smile, calls out with a voice that pierces through the sky, "Ooooooi! Come and join us! There is free food!" With a bright smile, he remains seated near the fire, waving one hand out excitedly while he keeps turning the spitroast to continue letting the meat cook. He can see that the meat has browned sufficiently.

  "Oooh! It's almost ready!" He beams, "Lunch and dinner~!"
 

  • Character: Daiby
  • 7 months, 1 week ago


Someone approaches, from the opposite side of the stage -- er, beach clearing -- as Iris.

Daibenzaiten aka Daiby is returning along a path that crosses through a somewhat rockier patch of the shoreline, where she had been up to some kind of business. She is, just this moment, pulling up the front of a sling-fashion top and retying it behind her neck.

That part is probably just to move units of the DLC.

More compelling is the half-dozen of jewel-bright little wiggling objects moving ahead of her in the sand, because whether or not they're specifically visually-gorgeous and super-poisonous snakes, *they sure look like them.* "Oh, hello!" Daiby calls out, even as the serpents begin to gravitate towards Ivo, staring at him with their beady little unblinking eyes.

  • Character: Iris
  • 7 months, 1 week ago


 Are people screaming? There is definitely a note on the as-of-yet nameless woman's face that says that artillery fire might have only just vaguely caught her attention, so it's probably for the best that there's screaming in the long run. Thankfully, Ruidosa ("BOAT!") and Reize ("MEAT!") manage it; Iris (for it is she) stops in her tracks and turns to her left, seeing everyone present as if for the first time which is, technically, accurate.

 "Oh," she says, offhandedly, closing her hand around the two floaty stones and putting them in a small bag on her belt. "People." Said in the same blase tone one might hear someone use to say 'oh, a pidgeon' in a public park.

 There's a second while she takes in the group -- young boy, pale lady, himbo -- and tilts her head a bit. "Didn't know there was anyone else here. I'm good on eats, thanks all the same, and boat's gone, used it to build a little cabin after the shoals tore it up. What can you do, right?" Another beat. "Well, be seeing you." This is technically true; it's not as if it's a huge island.

 AND THEN SHE TURNS TO LEAVE? Thankfully (maybe?) Daiby's arrival puts an actual physical object in Iris's path that prevents immediately leaving, because snakes. "Oh, another one. Y'all together, or...?"


 Ivo, grinning, hands on his hips, watches as Ruidosa prudently chases down the new arrival and Reize radiates welcoming energy. He can rely on them to do what needs to be done on those fronts. It's not that he's feckless or unhelpful. He's just smiling and nodding in the background, as though he were a translucent image on the horizon, watching the children grow.
 Well, Ruidosa is much older than him, but still.
 "Even if the ploy to attract our erstwhile Reizenapping rivals failed," he says to himself, "we may have lucked into yet greater fortune. All's well that ends well."
 He smiles and nods, by all appearances utterly unaware of the towering and muscular tiger-eared woman who currently stands right behind him, having appeared in utter silence, drool pouring like a fountain from her mouth. It is of course Zuna, the brawn of the Catgirl Mafia, followed at some reluctant distance by Flechette, the brains of the operation. Her grey cat ears are down as though wilted, her matching bob cut unkempt, elegant high-slit dress somewhat tattered and impractical stiletto heels dangling from one hand, reduced to treading the beach barefoot.
 "Forget the food," Flechette says, visibly startling Ivo. "Have you found some fabric, or even a sewing needle?"
 "Food," Zuna repeats, not forgetting it.
 "Zuna, look at it," Flechette interjects, sounding exhausted, as the roasting meat glows with dark energy.
 "I *am*."
 In the background, the shadowcat, their little Meowth equivalent minus a capacity for speech (so far as anyone knows), sneaks up to steal one of Ruidosa's fish.
 "You're most welcome here, ladies," Ivo gallantly says to the catgirls, who respectively ignore and tolerate the tone, before turning back to grin and wave to the ever charming Daiby, his adored and admire Cosmpolitan senpai. "Daiby! Come meet our new friend!" he exclaims, gesturing to Iris. Friendship acquired, introductions pending. "Are these old friends or new species?" he asks in a curious and lively tone, gesturing to the little snakes that lead her way.
 Flechette arches her back, already unkempt hair poofing out as she glares at the approaching and very venomous looking little serpents. Zuna is staring at the meat. That's how bad it is.

Ruidosa trails off. "Dammit." she says as she slacks and turns around and starts to walk away back to the firepit. Before she stops. "Wait. What are YOU doing here? Stuck too? We're all trying to get off and the more the better." she says.

"I am. Ruidosa La Crima. Duchess of House La Crima." she says.

Reize Seatlan rolls 1d20>=10.
Comment: Detect fish thief?
Roll(s): 7. Total result is 7. This is a failure (by 3).


  When the stranger finally stops to face them, he watches to see her reaction to the invitation to the food. After all, they are all stuck in the island, so the more the merrier, right? However, it doesn't seem like the person is too interested in sticking around.

 Truth of the matter, Reize is not too bothered by it. After all, the main objective is to get the catgirls that kidnapped him in and have a 'truce' of sort so that they can survive. However, the thought of another person does get in the boy's head. What would another person be doing out here? "... I guess we could ask her if she got stuck here herself later if we see her again."

 However, it looks like that Ruidosa is handling that diplomacy in his stead. He cracks a grin at her, happy to see that the vampire is their mediator.

 Fortune now favors him as the sight of Zuna and Flechette are nearby. When Zuna is eyeing the meat, the boy cracks a grin. "Well, you're welcome to some of the meat! It's too large for us all to eat!" He procures a knife that's a bit small, but enough for severing the meat. "Join us for a feast!"

 ... Didn't they have another member with them?

 Naaah.

 Meanwhile, Reize is blissfully unaware of the said third member stealing his fiancee's fish.
 

  • Character: Daiby
  • 7 months, 1 week ago


"Most of them were travelling with us," Daiby informs Ivo, "but that one there who's coming up to you is local!" That snake, who has bright sapphire-blue scales on a flecked background of more matte sand, is in fact slithering up to Ivo with a hopeful expression. Presumably, the snake wants some meat too!

It's a small snake - think a young cornsnake. That may not be reassuring given the relative statistics on potency of toxin.

"It's lovely to meet you," Daiby says to Iris, in a deliberate parenthetical. She has bigger concerns!

  • Character: Iris
  • 7 months, 1 week ago


 Okay, this is a lot to take in.

 "Yeah this is a lot to take in," Iris says aloud, predictably. In her defense, she's not wrong. In a matter of mere moments, this has gone from 'our heroes have a delightful meaty campfire' to including

 -- Iris herself, admittedly
 -- Giant snake-haver lady
 -- Catgirl Laurel and Hardy
 -- Fish thief (unnoticed)

 Iris takes this in for a moment, bringing a hand up and rubbing the back of her neck for a second. Eventually, she can only think of this to say: "You know, for a deserted island I got stranded on, this place isn't looking particularly deserted." WELL OBSERVED, IRIS. "Of course I got 'stranded' halfway on purpose, but I'm gonna guess none of you are here looking for pyrolytic ventite. And no," she says, turning to the catgirls, acting on some innate sixth sense, "before you ask, you can't eat it." A pause. "Well, I suppose you could try but I imagine you'd regret it."

Ivo Galvan rolls 1d20+3>=10.
Comment: Metallurgy knowledge check
Roll(s): 18. Total result is 21. This is a success (by 11).


 "This is Reize," Ivo amiably asides to Iris as he attempts to carve some megamarmot meat off of a spit with his sword (look, tools are limited) for the still-drooling Zuna, "and I'm Ivo. We were shipwrecked here recently ourselves after a little tour of the Twilight Canyon." He casually references one of the most dangerous places in the world, the canyon that cleaves Granse from Verdios on the western continent, legendary home of the gods' strangest creations and remnants from their Primordial War. "We're looking to repair our magitech engines -- and determine how to get past the sea serpent lurking out there."
 It's more like a giant flying fish meets a coatl, but the core of the matter is that it is pissed off and, so far, our heroes have no idea why.
 "And this is Zuna and Flechette," he says, playing the host and introducing their rivals, "whom we met along the way." As in, they kidnapped Reize and fled to the Twilight Canyon, to which the party pursued them. Details, details.
 "Zuna," Flechette is saying, "don't--"
 The barbarian woman tears into a hunk of roast meat voraciously. As she chews, its dark glow can be seeing pulsing behind her chomping fangs, until she swallows.
 "Good," she asserts approvingly, before eating more. Ivo raises an eyebrow curiously, Flechette looking queasy in the background, before looking back to Iris -- whereupon his other eyebrow shoots up too.
 "Pyrolytic ventite," he murmurs. It only takes him a moment before his eyes brighten. "Here? But of course, this place is called the 'Isle of Blessed Winds'... I assumed it an ironic designation, but if the weather patterns were an aetheric phenomenon, then... it's entirely plausible there would be deposits in the volcanic lava tunnels. Fascinating! With the right facilities, we might be able to not just repair the engines but *improve* them."
 Our resident dilettante is getting all enthusiastic now, almost, but not quite, as enthusiastic as Zuna ill-advisedly chowing down. Then again, she may have the highest Constitution score here.
%"If you're going inland," Ivo observes to Iris, "you'll have to pass through the cactus forest." As in, the big desert. "We're tanning leather to prepare to transport water over long distances. Why don't we make the trek together? At the very least we can establish campsites for mutual use."
 He dangles the prospect of unlocking fast travel, or something.

Reize Seatlan rolls 1d20>=12.
Comment: Tanking the Dark Energy with Each Bite
Roll(s): 18. Total result is 18. This is a success (by 6).


  It looks like one of the snakes wanted a slice of meat as well. Reize takes a moment to look over the bright sapphire-blue snake, offering out the meat to the reptile.

 The explorer finally lifts his head up towards Iris as she mentions about the ore that seems interested in. He listens to Ivo talk, raising an eyebrow out of curiosity. "Oh?" The young man is curious about the ore, then he cracks a grin, "You know, this sounds like something that would be wonderful to find!"

 After cutting a slice of the meat for himself, he takes a bite of the meat. He starts chewing. Mmph, good.

 Ow. There is that sensation of dark energy going down his throat and in his stomach. There is the sensation of the dark energy going to the core to his bones. There is the sensation of the dark energy going--afajshasdhasjdakdhasjkdhasjhdaswhy?!

 His fiancee helped with the 'seasoning', so he is chewing it happily.

 Ow. It burns. Ow. It hurts. He can take it.

Ivo Galvan rolls 1d20>=12.
Comment: For science, and/or impressing vampire ladies
Roll(s): 19. Total result is 19. This is a success (by 7).

  • Character: Daiby
  • 7 months, 1 week ago


The snake looks at Reize. A snake, of course, is rather unexpressive - but the snake's jaw hangs open, instantly giving the snake a Happy Face, as it sidewinds over and reaches up to take the scrap of meat from Reize! It is then swallowed. The piece of meat visibly bulges the snake out. That's how it be.

"And all of this on a beach front? Goodness! There's so much WONDER in the world," Daiby says, beaming to Iris. "Were you hoping to find a deposit and bring it back to Cosmopolis, or, I suppose, whatever fetched you a good price?" She, at least, has no interest in rocks.

She does look momentarily concerned as Zuna devours visibly dark-glowing meat. But she seems fine.

  • Character: Iris
  • 7 months, 1 week ago


 Now there's an interesting question! And thus Iris turns to Daiby to answer first, before considering Ivo's more lengthy statements. "Well, that's what these are for," she says, taking the little green and red stones out again and letting them float in her palm. "Runic lodestones. I've been following them looking for a deposit, but uhh... well." She shrugs, stows the stones again, and inclines her head at the volcano. "Been trying to triagulate, but it looks like it's the volcano or nothing." Of course it's the volcano. Why wouldn't it be the volcano.

 A pause, and then something seems to hit Iris in the proverbial back of the head on a significant time delay. "Sorry, I never said who I was, did I?" she adds, looking between all the Our Heroes gathered here. "Call me Iris. I don't have a story quite as impressive as... all that," she says, tilting her head somewhat at Ivo. "Grandmother's notes said the only place I was going to find that ore is here, so here I am."

 She seems to consider the prospect of working together a bit, bringing a hand to her chin. "I imagine it would be faster to be in a group if there's some awful thing in all the desert like a land shark or a giant antlion or something." Why would you speak those into being, Iris?! "I just... well, you know. Charts said 'deserted island' so it's not like I got here and said 'let's hunt down the locals'."


 "Very impressive," Ivo is remarking, gaze drifting to Iris's lodestones as he carves more of the suspicious but apparently survivable meat. "I've often found myself wishing I took that elective on runes. Did you, Daiby?"
 Her studies may have been more focused. On snakes.
 "If I could kindle a hot enough fire in an aetherically stable environment," he chatters on, "I could possibly blow aetherglass again and start producing my elespheres, but I never imagined at the Academy that I'd find myself in circumstances where pre-socketing forms of aetheric infusion like runes or enchantment would be--"
 He trails off, seemingly distracted by the glowing meat in front of him. Zuna is tearing into another hunk alongside Reize, kidnapper and kidnappee peacefully side by side, while Flechette subtly snacks on what may or may not be a fish that the shadowcat may or may not have retrieved for her.
 "Hmm."
 Ruidosa warned him that her estimable mother, the Lady La Crima, who happened to have joined them for this venture alongside her sister Tranquila, might be in need of a... blood donor in the near future. One wonders if this dark energy, should it corrupt his mortal flesh, would make him a more appealing prospect.
 "Well, thanks for the meal."
 There's only one way to find out! For science, mostly, probably!
 "Ahh-- mmn."
 Ivo chews carefully.
 "No," he eventually murmurs, "I think it's just your average debuff."

> Ivo has been Poisoned. He is now taking damage over time.


  Here it is, Reize eating with someone who was previously the enemy. However, they are banding together in food. The young explorer finally opens up with the former kidnappers. "Given that we'll need to get off this island, we'll need to band together to find parts to repair the Romancing SaGa." He muses, "We may be able to solve a few mysteries about this island while we are here as well!"

 He gives a thoughtful look, looking over the meat. He sucks in another breath before taking another bite and chews.

 Ugh.

 > Reize is now taking damage over time.

 He looks back over towards the catch that Ruidosa had, "I wonder what fish she ca----..."

 It's gone.

 "---Ah."

  He's unaware that Flechette is subtly snacking on the said catch.

  To Iris's earlier remarks about some landsharks or antlions. "We'll deal with them as we go! We already had to deal with a giant marmot!"