<div></div><br> <br>Tis a fine day for adventure! The post has good directions, leading the merry duo out of the city and up to the north, where a small farmstead is settled snugly beside the dense eastbank forest. The crops look tore up, like someone attacked the land with an army of hoes and stampeding cows.<br> <br>Angus is on his knees in the dirt inspecting the torn up crops. "So what do you think happened here?" He calls over his shoulder as he dusts of his pants,grabbing his musket  as he stands up,and looks off towards the Farmstead.<br> <br>"Ah, this is dreadful!" Ixitixl had proclaimed, once they had gotten close enough to see just how thorough the damage really was. He now stands amidst the trampled and broken plants, a hand touched to the tip of his muzzle as he turns his gaze this way and that. "Oh! Um." Angus' querey prompts him to stoop and investigate the footprints in the soil, hoping to potentially identify a perpetrator, perhaps!<br> <br>Nothing obvious lurks in sight, claiming responsibility for the agricultural blight. There is that farm house though, where the victim likely waits.<br> <br>Ixitixl stands back up with a frown and a shake of his head. "Ah... I... I can't tell, but... maybe the landowners saw something." He gestures towads the cottage as he speaks.<br> <br>Angus looks towards the cottage and frowns. "I don't know something feels off here." He shoulders his musket and draws his dagger before looking back at Ixitixl. "Ok lets go check out the cottage but be on guard."<br> <br>The two approach the small house. Knock Knock. The door opens to reveal a badger of fairly average size. He has a Clever Folk seal dangling from a string at his belt. He tromps out to greet his guests, "What do you want? Oh wait, you're from the Freeswords'? Creators bless your souls. Do you have those? Heard you had problems with that."<br> <br>Ixitixl apparently thinks 'be on guard' means 'be incredibly nervous,' because his hand is shaking by the time he's knocking on the door, and he jumps as if startled when it opens. "Oh. Oh, um... well..." He scratches the back of his neck and looks briefly to Angus. "I suppose we... I mean, ah, more importantly is your current problem! ...isn't it?"<br> <br>Angus sighs and lays a hand on Ixitixl's shoulder. "Take a deep breath and calm down. Your hands are shaking man." He turns his attention back to the badger,frowning at the soul comment,and gives him a smile. "Yes we were sent here by the Freeswords. We were told that you needed help?"<br> <br>A thick arm gestures at the field, "My experiment is a wash. I tried to make bugs that would eat the bad bugs, instead they just wrecked everything. Creators must be laughing at me for trying to play their game." He huffs with bitter disappointment, "Now they've gone and stormed off. You have to get rid of them, before they smash another farmer's house and I have to pay for it."<br> <br>"I'm... I'm sorry, you what?" Ixitixl barely even registers Angus' encouragement or the hand on his shoulder, in the face of what the badger has to say. "You... you, uh, created new bugs? That's..." He gives his head a quick shake. "I mean... how? Did you do that..."<br> <br>"Bugs really?" Angus shakes his head as he just can't believe his bad luck,now he's an exterminator it seems. He squeezes his hand on Ixitixl's shoulder and looks back at the Badger. "Alright tell us more about these bugs please so we know what we are dealing with."<br> <br>He shakes his hands in the air, "Not important. I am a busy being, but I can't continue while I know they are out there, destroying things," he huffs, "Go get rid of them, bring back their left hind legs, they're light. You do that, I pay, everyone is happy. They're as big as a wagon. Two were red, one was blue, three... green, yes, green as grass."<br> <br>Ixitixl is left wondering how they didn't see the things on the walk over, given the description. He looks hesitantly to Angus, with an expression that makes clear he's wondering if it's really okay to go charging off with so little information.<br> <br>Angus is standing there, calm and collected, as Ixitixl looks to him. He nods as he notices the look and try to cheer him up with a smile. "Alright we will take care of those bugs for you,but they better be worth it." He wondered how it was even possible for bugs to grow that big as he readies his gear as he looks back to the badger once more. "Ok which direction did they go?"<br> <br>He gestures towards the trees, "That way, into the trees. Not hard to find. They're large, knock small trees over, make a mess. You're on the job? Great! Let me know when you're done." He moves to withdraw into his house.<br> <br>Ixitixl turns his attention to the woods, which suddenly seem awful dark and intimidating to him. Suddenly he turns back to the abode, "Um, I'd really like to know how--" Just in time to get the door closed in his face. The lizard wilts, shuffling his feet as he backs away and starts creeping towards the forest. "Iguessitdoesn'treallymatter..."<br> <br>Angus smacks Ixitixl on the back lightly. "Thats the spirit!" He smiles as they walk towards the woods. As soon as they get out of sight of the Cottage he drops the smile and shakes his head. "Don't worry about it. It's the life of an adventurer,they give us as little information as possible and send us on our way."<br> <br>The duo march out into the forest, following the trail of devastation easily, hopping over knocked over logs and the wide berth of mowed down bushes until the first two of the bugs are found, chewing together on a tree.<br> <br>As it turns out, wagon sized beetles are tough! They batter around the would be heroes left and right, bouncing them off trees before trundling off for quieter eating grounds. So rude.<br> <br>Angus groans as he picks his battered body up off the ground. "What the hell did he use to make these things out of?" He coughs,having just swallowed a hand full of pin needles,and grabs his musket off the ground before turning to Ixitixl. "You ok over there?"<br> <br>Ixitixl lays face down for a while, but eventually his armoured body clambours up to hands and knees, his arms shaking from the exertion. "O-ow..." the iguana whimpers, slowly looking up and around, letting out a sigh of relief when he realizes their assailants have moved on. "Yeah... yeah I think I... ow... um... mostly..."<br> <br>At least, no other forest monster approaches, perhaps scared off by the monster beetle progression.<br> <br>Angus walks over to help the armored lizard up. "Hey careful now take it easy." He grabs his medicine pouch before helping in up,just in case he was actually hurt,and scans the surrounding trees for anymore of those blasted beetles.<br> <br>Their path is clear, but they are not in visual range anymore, having romped off in search of more green  things to chew on.<br> <br>"Th-ank you." Ixitixl murmurs, placing a hand on Angus as he attempts to stand under his own power - just in case. He doesn't topple, however, and finally the hand lowers, busying itself wiping away the dirt and leaves clinging to his armour. "I... I think we need a new strategy."<br> <br>Angus shakes his head as he still watchs the trees. "Well for one we might need some backup." He dusts himself of and makes sure he isn't to badly beat up. <br> <br>Ixitixl smiles impishly, "That... that would be nice, too." He starts gesticulating as he goes on, "But, um, I was thinking... they seemed to have hard backs, like Shelled Clan... and usually if it's got a hard back, it will have a soft belly, r-right? So... um... if we could maybe flip them over... somehow..."<br> <br>Angus gives ixitixl a big grin before patting him on the back. "Now that might just work but what can we use to flip them over." He looks around for anything that could give him insperation.<br> <br>Trees, bushes, vines...<br> <br>Ixitixl follows Angus' lead, checking their surroundings. He's drawn almost immediately to a vine, lifting and pulling on it to check its tensile strength. "You, um, suppose they might flip right over if we set a trap to trip them...?"<br> <br>Angus shakes his head as he eyes the vine. "It might work,we could make a snare trap out of it or something." He looks over and eyes a few trees as he taps the powder horn at his belt as an idea forms in the back of his mind.<br> <br>Angus looks back at Ixitixl, "Alright lets try your idea then." He gets to work cutting down more vines in preperation of making a few new snares to trip up the beetles.<br> <br>Ixitixl is inwardly grateful for all those hours he's spent in the chapel library reading on just about every topic under the sun, as he hacks down a few vines for himself and sets about fashioning them into crude snares. He knows a few basic knots, at least. "I ... um, I hope this is enough..."<br> <br>As it turns, it is. When two beetles return, they get upended, held up by a leg onto their sides, quite awkward and unable to properly defend themselves.<br> <br>Angus smiles as the beetles crash to the ground. "HAH take that you bunch of bugs!!!!!" He claps Ixitixl and laughs. "Good work with those traps by the way we wouldn't have won without them."<br> <br>Dang but they still put up one heck of a fight, being partially restrained! Ixitixl is busy trying to pry his sword out of one of the insects' hides from his final blow on the creature. Surprising, for what a wuss he behaves like the rest of the time, it doesn't seem to bother him at all that he's getting covered in the goo leaking out of the wound in the process. "Oh, um..." His cheeks actually turn a couple shades darker as Angus applauds him. "Th-thank you..." At last the blade comes free, and he sets to hacking off the beetles' legs. "It was... the back left he wanted, right?..."<br> <br>Angus nods as he starts hacking of the other corpses legs with his knife. "Ya back left." He gets to work trying not to get to covered in the goo as he keeps an ear out for the other bugs that were still out there.<br> <br>The legs are, thankfully, as light as promised. It's somewhat amazing that such a light thing could support that huge creature, but there it is.<br> <br>Ixitixl slips his tabard up over his head and quickly fashions it into a pouch for carrying the severed legs. Crude, but effective! As he holds it for Angus to toss his in, the iguana is actually starting to look cheerful. "If we keep this up, it shouldn't be any trouble at all."<br> <br>Angus hands Ixitixl the legs,thankful that he didn't have to hold them,and chuckles. "Exactly especially if you can make those traps again,so want to just repeat the process?" <br> <br>"I... I think that should work. Um, here. W-atch how I do it, and see if you can't make a few of your own. It might go faster if we set up a lot of them..." Ixitixl sets to work on recreating and setting up his vine snares~<br> <br>What started as a basic snare turns into two, then a net, and soon, a strange nest of taught ropes. Even Ixi is not sure what he was going for, but it feels... ready. When the beetles come, they all go flying in different directions when triggered. The poor beetles crash into the ground in a great mass, struggling against the ropes and each other.<br> <br>Ixitixl doesn't know what he did, but it worked! Even so, slaying the critters proves enough of a challenge that he's huffing and puffing... and thoroughly soaked in purple bugblood by the time they're finished. The iguana stops to catch his breath once he's confident the beetles won't be moving anymore, taking off his helmet and holding it tucked under an arm. "We... we did it!"<br> <br>The last giant bettle slain, and the harvested, the triumphant heroes have six bug legs to return to the strange farmer.<br> <br>Angus lowers his musket and wipes some of the bugblood from his eyes before smiling. "Great job there Ixitixl." He smacks him on the back again. "Couldn't of done it without you my fine scaled friend."<br> <br>Ixitixl brandishes a meek smile, and once they've gathered up the desired legs as proof of accomplishment, he even leads the way back, decidedly more at ease now that the immediate threat has passed. His hand is even steady when he knocks on the door of the cabin. "We're, um, back!"<br> <br>The door swings open and the badger farmer comes out. "Already! Great! Let me see," he reaches for the legs, counts them, "Hey, you're missing one. Where's the black one?" Black one?<br> <br>Angus chuckles as Ixitixl knocks on the door and goes to stand beside him. He was actually suprised at how much the skittish lizard has come out of his shell...until he hears about the black one. "Black one what black one?" He titles his head in confusion as he counts the legs again,making sure they had the right amount.<br> <br>"Th-the black one?" And the lizard is right back to cowering. Ixitixl looks back and forth between Angus and the badger several times, settling on the latter at last. "I... I don't remember you mentioning a black one..."<br> <br>"Definately a black one. Hard to miss, more spikes on its shell. Meanest of the lot. I think that bugger's the one that got the others to go crazy. Either way, has to go. No black leg, no reward," he says firmly.<br> <br>Angus smacks his forehead with a sigh. "Oh so now we get the bigger bug." He shakes his head and turns around as he regains his composure,so as not to hav Ixi notice his worry and start to panic. "Ok lets go get that black bug and finish this thing."<br> <br>Ryusho would be wandering up the path as he had been comming to see about this request he had heard about a bit late apparently though, as he looks to the held bug legs then cants his head, "Looks LIke I might be just a bit late to help with this, You all have this mess already delt with I am guessing?" He asks, not knowing they have to head out to get another one it seems....<br> <br>Ixitixl turns away from the cabin with head hung in dismay, not needing to see Angus' shared worry to work himself into a fret. He hasn't forgotten the initial thrashing they took, and if the remaining bug is even stronger... The iguana jolts, startled by Ryusho's voice, and slightly interjects the fox between himself and tengu-dragon. "AH! ...A-ah... um... ac-actually, we, um... missed one... apparently. An... an extra hand would be a blessing straight from the Creators." he conceeds.<br> <br>Angus trys to regain his balance as he is used as a fox shaped shield. He gives the newcomer a smile. "Your welcome to tag along if you want. We can even split the reward in thirds." He was actually happy that somone else could help considering what happened last time with the bugs and this one was supposed to be even worse.<br> <br>Ryusho shifts his position a bit, "Oh, well, If you all need help now, then I suppose I can help with it, I only heard about this a while ago, but I am more then willing to at least help you all finish the job." he says with a smile.<br> <br>Venturing off down the beetle trail, the group recounts their steps up to the last ambush, then push past it. The havoc begins to grow worse with some trees nearly split in half.<br> <br>Ixitixl stammeringly recounts their exploits for Ryusho, how the beetles had initially proven too much for them, until they had started using snare traps to expose the soft bellies of the beasts. Of course, they walk right past this handiwork so Ryu can see for himself... the giant, and I do mean giant bugs are still hanging there, all with one hind leg sawed off. As the carnage gets progressively worse, Ixi grows increasingly unnerved, jumping at every little noise.<br> <br>Ryusho mrphs a bit, "This looks like a bit much for just..you two..Though I am a bit supprised it is just you two, and not more then that since this looks rather...quite bad actually, and you say this black one is supposed to be even more dangerous then these others were?" he says while he walks...<br> <br>Angus keeps quiet as they follow the carnage. He was on alert for this so called 'black bug' as they moved forward. "Ixi might not look like it but he can handle himself." He looks back to give the lizard a smile as they move. "As for me I just got roped into this."<br> <br>The black bug comes into sight not too long afterwards,  just finishing a battle with an equally massive gop. Who even knew they got so large? But the enormous goopy creature is splattered before the fury of the black beetle.<br> <br>Angus aims his musket at the beetle as it comes into sight. "Well looks like we found it and this time no traps to use on it." He glances back at the other two. "We need to somehow get at it's belly it's the only weakpoint...any ideas?"<br> <br>Ixitixl falls behind several paces and doubles over, grimmacing as he hugs both arms around his stomach. "Nnngh--!" Before his companions can even take note to ask what's wrong, the lizard's proportions have distorted, bulging and twisting until he's filled his bulky armour to the point it seems ready to burst at the seams. Appendages sprout from his back, quickly taking on the shape of wings, and at last he straightens up, looking a little fatigued but otherwise none the worse for wear ... and a good foot and a half taller. "I... I'm ready!" the now dragon blurts out, drawing his sword.<br> <br>Ryusho quirks his brow a bit as he looks over the 'little' dragon, well okay, not as little as he was a little lizard, as he shifts and, "...Well hopefully tha doesn't chafe too much down below, If you need I can craft you some armor that should be more flexible so it doesnt...constrict so much upon you when you change...because that does look just a bit...uncomfortable..." He says after a bit...before he looks back, "But I was going to offer to try to use my size to see if I could force it over somehow, or if anything at least get it occupied enough to let someone else get a blow to its underbelly...that is if it is soft like the other beetles.<br> <br>Ryusho would charge forward as the battle wore on, though as the beatle got weakened he would grab it, and rather then tryign to flip it he almost -swings- around onto its back in a way, grazing himself on the spines as he half straddles it just betwen a few of those dangerous spikes as he clings to one with his free hand, the other holding his sword as he brings it down behind the head of the beetle Ramming it down into the chittin plating behind the neck.<br> <br>Ryusho time and time again would bring it down, each time shatterin gmore of the chitten untill it rams through into the softer flesh as he begins to wrench it violently side to side, twisting and digging it in to the hilt as well....<br> <br>With the beetle defeated, the forest quiets down, returning to a state of uneasy peace with the strange new predator put down.<br> <br>Ixitixl stands back on the sidelines with a flabbergasted look about him as Ryusho quite savagely finishes the beetle off. Seeing the creature in the last of its death throes, he quietly and calmly wipes some splattered beetleblood off his face and shakes it away. "Well done, everybody."<br> <br>Angus leans on his musket, as he waits for Ryusho to finish with the beetle,to catch his breath. <br> <br>Angus leans on his musket, as he waits for Ryusho to finish with the beetle,to catch his breath. "So is it dead enough?" He turns to Ixitixl and smiles. "Hey looks like we are finally done."<br> <br>Ryusho would keep using that blade for a minute to make sure it was -dead- before he puls the blade free and away from his companions sling the blade to get the gunk that used to be nervous system, and other vital internal parts in that area off the blade as he begins looking around a bit, and humming, "...You know, considering the beetles size, and the sheer strength of  the shells...I think I might have found a part of my reward being the beetles themselves..." he say sas he shifts, "The thicker part of these shells, could make some damn good protective and very light armor, not to mention some spots migh tbe carvable into weaponry..." He says, with a grin, "..I love my Job Sometimes.." he then laughs, "..I can get so creative...Makes for a wonderful array of weapons, armor, and other things that can be quite effective, though non standard materials..." He says as he begins to wipe the blade off before sheathing it as he begins to check ove rthe beetle, and notes where the weaker spots are, so when they turn this in, he can com eback and begin to basically 'skin' them, to remove the hard chittin shell, for use in ways that could help those who work and protect the city.<br> <br>"Ah, we do need the left hind leg intact, Mister Ryusho... p-please be careful." Ixitixl calls up to the other dragon, and I'm just kinda assuming they did introductions on the walk to find the bug 'cuz it wasn't mentioned. <_< >_> Once Ryu has moved aside he steps forward to hack the leg in question off, commenting, "The... uh... the client didn't mention anything about us not doing as we pleased with the rest of the carcasses, so ... I suppose if you wanted to... I mean, I don't have any use for them, myself..."<br> <br>Angus shrugs as he reloads his musket. "Hey if you can make something out of them be my guest I'm not going to stop you" He smiles actually suprised at Ixi,who is actually talking to someone in a coherent voice.<br> <br>Ryusho nods a bit as he shifts, "Well I will com eback for these after we return the legs, Besides, I need to examine them a bit better and we don't want to leave the client waiting<br> <br>Once the leg is hopped off and returned, the strange farmer is delighted, and pays eagerly for the services rendered. "Oh, and take this," he fishes out a strange beetle hide helmet, and explains in no way how it came to be, "Thanks for your hard work." Slam, goes the door. Mission complete!