Day 2: River Belle Path
"They say that wicked monsters prowl the road along this river bank, but no one ever sees them. I asked the elder why this was so, and he responded, 'because anyone the monsters find is promptly eaten.' But it is long since anyone met such a fate. For nowadays, people take another route, far away from the old spooky road. Only we walk the old way now, travelers in the Crystal Caravans."
Kura remembered hearing this from her mother when asked about the closest source of Myrr to Kiryu. Everyone else had heard similar stories, mostly to keep their curious adventures away from harm. But now for the first time, they were planning on entering the River Belle Path. Sonluth had woken up early and had started to prepare breakfast when Kura sleepily emerged from the caravan.
"Do you ever sleep?" she asked with a yawn.
"I do, when I know its safe to." Sonluth responded.
Kura plopped down across from Sonluth and stared into the fire. She was obviously a little nervous about the first outing with the caravan and was going over some of the swordplay tips her father had given her before she left. Her concentration was broken as Khajit emerged taking a bite and chewing loudly on a stripped apple.
"Our first complete day of adventuring is here." He said in between chewing. "You guys ready to grab some treasure?"
"Yeah…" Kura responded haphazardly. Sonluth didn't initially show any response at all as he finished preparing the caravan's breakfast. By now the others had started to wake up as well as the camp soon became quite active as the group started planning out their actions for the day.
"We need two people to remain here with the papaopamus while the rest of us search for the myrrh within the area." Sonluth said as he finished up eating.
"Well, I have intention of being left behind." Khajit said. "So I'm with the team venturing down the path."
"I wouldn't mind going either." Andy spoke up. "I'm sure there are lots of things in there I can take back to the shop to sell. And I'm probably better versed in things arcane then the rest of you."
"Ok, that's the full team for now." Sonluth said.
"How? I only count three people so far." Khajit interjected.
"Kura will be the fourth member." Sonluth responded.
"What? Why?" Khajit asked. "Did you two have a tender moment early this morning that she automatically gets a place?"
"No!" Sonluth said forcefully. He took his spear and stabbed Kura's nearby shield. "See that, we need that type of defense going into an unknown area."
"That's all well and good." Khajit said, "but can she effectively use it? After all if we take Trix or Bernny, then we can do a lot of evading and we won't need to worry about needing defense."
"I'd still rather have some form of defense." Sonluth responded, "but if Trix wants to go and Kura wants to stay, then I have no objections."
"I don't mind staying…" Kura responded. "I want to go, but I'll let you guys scout ahead."
"You make that sound like we are lab rats." Andy remarked.
"Well you are." Kura said. "You are going somewhere we've never been to, and all we know about this place is what our parents told us."
"I'll stay here with Kura." Bernny volunteered. "So Trix you can go if you want."
"Sure… I suppose." Trix responded. He didn't really like Kura's logic, although it did bear some truth to it, but since he was being made out to be the fourth member, he went along.
"Ok, now that that is settled, we should move out ASAP." Sonluth said picking up his spear. "We should be back around mid-afternoon."
"So around 3pm?" Kura asked.
Sonluth nodded. "Yeah."
Trix and Khajit ran to get their Solid rackets, while Andy grabbed his Wave Hammer. Sonluth always had his spear at his side and was ready to go instantaneously with his Partisan. The quartet then set off down the pathway leading down towards the River Belle.
The papaopamus started getting restless as the group walked off, so Bernny went over to calm it down. He spoke softly to it and pet it until finally, the papaopamus calmed down enough to settle down and rest for a bit.
"Wow, that's pretty good." Kura said in awe.
"Nah, its what I've been raised to do." Bernny said. "My family are ranchers, and we deal with this stuff all the time."
"True." Kura said with a shrug. Then she added, "I'm going to make some medicines in case they need it when they return." Bernny acknowledged Kura and he started to prepare food for the papaopamus.
Meanwhile, the exploring quartet had reached the River Belle Path proper. They looked down the final slope that lead down to the river.
"Not much going on down here." Khajit remarked.
"Well, still be on your guard." Sonluth remarked as they headed down near the river. Sonluth started running point, but Khajit was in the lead with Sonluth.
"I'm not letting you get everything!" Khajit yelled as he went a little ahead of Sonluth. Sonluth just ignored him and let him go a little ahead, since he knew there was no stopping Khajit. Trix and Andy were a little behind Sonluth, just outside of his partisan's reach. Trix was being careful as he was holding the chalice that protected them from the Miasma.
Soon a treasure chest came into sight, and Khajit bolted off to get to it first. By the time the others got to it, he had already taken everything out of the box and was looking over it.
"You know, there are some traps around stuff like this." Sonluth warned Khajit.
"Yeah, but I got reflexes fast enough to avoid it." Khajit responded. "That's also why I wear light clothes like these instead of heavy armour like you."
"So what did you find?" Trix asked, changing the subject.
"Some gil, and these small little round things." Khajit said. "They look shiny, so I think I will keep them."
"Let me see them." Andy asked. Khajit was more then a little hesitant to part with his new found treasure, but he finally relented and allowed Andy to look at it.
"This is magicite." Andy said after a quick glance. Another quick glance told him his companions had no idea what he was talking about, so he continued. "Magicite allows us to cast magic by alchemic means. They are only good around the myrrh tree they are located around. However, there can be found more permanent means by crafting special alchemist rings to make the magicite stable enough to use anywhere."
"Umm… ok, I guess you can keep that one." Khajit said.
"But what spell is it?" Sonluth asked.
"This one is blue, so its blizzard." Andy explained. "Others commonly found are the purple magicite thunder, the red magicite fire, and the green magicite cure. Rarely you can find the white magicite clear, and the yellow magicite resurrect. You can also combine these to form stronger versions of the spells."
"Sounds easy." Trix commented. "But we should move on before we waste too much time."
"Agreed." Sonluth said. As they were about to move off a small squirrel-like creature suddenly appeared and attacked Andy.
"What the!" Sonluth exclaimed as he turned to face the sudden ambush. By the time everyone else was on guard, the Mu had borrowed back underground. It then re-emerged in the middle of the group and sprang an attack at Khajit. Khajit dodged its attack and the others then began attacking it before it had a chance to borrow back underground. Just as they were about to finish it off, another Mu sprang up from where the first attack occurred. Its attack would have landed if Andy didn't cast a blizzard spell that stopped it dead in its tracks.
"Thanks for that." Sonluth said to Andy. Khajit found a key that was dropped by the Mu. The key was small enough to carry, but due to its weird shape, it made fighting with weapons a little difficult. They were just going to leave it, when Trix spied a gate in the distance and surmised the key was for the gate. Sonluth picked up the key, since Trix was already carrying the chalice, Khajit refused to carry anything that would hamper his treasure hunting ability, and Andy needed to keep his hands free to cast. The quartet ignored the two Mus that popped up on their way to the gate, since their fighting force was down by two. As Trix had suspected, the gate did indeed open from the key, but the Mus were not about to let them past. However, having experience from the initial Mus, the group easily dispatched the current duo and continued to press on. Most of the enemies they found were Mus, although they also ran into a few goblins. However, between Khajit's agility to dodge their attacks and Andy's blizzard spell, they too were not much of a challenge for the caravaners. Near the end of their current path, Khajit was still bragging about his latest victory as a small house came into view. There were no nearby monsters, which they found odd. They cautiously approached the house when something hailed at them from behind.
"THIEVES KUPO!" someone yelled behind them. They all whirled around and prepared to attack whatever it was behind them. To their surprise it was just a little mog.
"You gotta be kidding me." Trix muttered.
"Put your weapons down." The mog ordered. "This is my house, and you're trying to attack it!"
"No we're not." Sonluth responded. "I'm wondering why there is a house out here in the middle of all these monsters."
"Us mogs are immune to the effects of the miasma. As such, the monsters think we are one of them and leave us alone." The mog explained.
"Ah, ok." Trix responded.
"Oh, before you go, here take this." The mog said as he handed them a card. It looked like a blank table, then the mog put a little stamp on it. "This will help the other mogs identify you as caravaners. They will offer you a safe place to hide out in and give you stamps. We give people something nice who can collect them all."
"Gotta get them all? Sounds like some horrible children's game." Trix remarked as he accepted the card.
"Oh, and the myrrh tree you're looking for is down a small path on the left. You probably didn't see it because it was hidden by some small bushes." The mog said.
"Ok, thanks." Trix replied.
"You're welcome, kupo!" the mog said. It then waddled over to the house and went inside. Then it yelled out the window as the group walked off. "Beware the claw Kupo!"
"What did it say?" Sonluth asked.
"Something about claws." Trix responded.
"Probably a warning about the goblins." Khajit said with a shrug. "But we've dealt pretty good with them." The group didn't think any more on the matter and they retraced their steps back to where the mog had said the hidden path was. They found it with little difficulty, and after dispatching the few enemies that remained, they arrived at a tunnel. Andy healed everyone with the cure magicite they had found and they proceeded down the tunnel.
At the end of the tunnel, there was a large field. At the far end there was a majestic rainbow formed in the mist of a waterfall. At the other side of the waterfall, they saw the myrr tree. The group excitedly moved towards the tree when suddenly something burst out from the waterfall and landed on the field between them and the waterfall.
"What the hell is this wildlife on?" Sonluth blurted out as he saw the size of the crab in front of them.
"I don't know, but this isn't a good sign with all those spears and swords in its foreclaw." Trix remarked.
"I don't think its going to let us through without a fight." Andy said.
"Here it comes! Get ready!" Sonluth yelled as the crab proceeded to engage the group. It jumped into the midst of everyone and scattered the group. Trix was still carrying the chalice and had to dive out of the way with it. Sonluth was dangerously close to the edge of the protective area of the chalice. Trix wanted to get closer, but the crab turned its attention to him as he tried to move closer to Sonluth. Trix was forced to evade a few physical attacks as the crab zeroed in on him. Khajit launched a flurry of attacks that got the crabs attention, allowing Trix and Sonluth time to safely move closer together. Andy fully healed Sonluth, and then began healing, but was rapidly falling behind as the group was struggling to find an opening in the crab's defenses.
"This is why we needed Kura!" Sonluth yelled. "Her defense would have been most useful right now."
"OK, fine, you win this round." Khajit said. "But right now, let try take care of this crab first."
Just as Khajit made that remark, Andy was able to use a blizzard spell and a large part of the fore claw broke off, nearly falling and hitting Trix. The battle was taking a lot out of the group, but seeing that happen gave them a second wind to redouble their efforts in killing this current foe. After getting in a few more hits, the crab was showing signs of desperation, and was casting spells of its own. One of these spells caught Trix off-guard and hit him, causing him to drop the chalice. Seizing the opportunity, the crab leapt in the air and was about to crush Trix when a combination of Sonluth's skewer attack and Andy's blizzard attack knocked the crab away. The crab staggered as if trying to recover, and then collapsed on the ground.
"Did… we do it?" Trix said in between heavy breaths.
"I think we did." Sonluth replied. "But lets get this over with before it decides to wake up and continue this battle."
"Good idea." Trix responded. The group made their way over to the tree to collect the vital drop of myrrh. Then just as Andy predicted, the magicite went dark and became useless. They were then forced to virtually limp back to the waiting caravan, where Kura was more then a little shocked to see them in such bad condition.