GMBeetle - RPLOG
From Rusted Promises
Participants
Date
20/11/475
Log
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.
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.
"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!
Nothing obvious lurks in sight, claiming responsibility for the agricultural blight. There is that farm house though, where the victim likely waits.
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.
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."
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."
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?"
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?"
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."
"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..."
"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."
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."
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.
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?"
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.
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..."
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."
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.
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.
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?"
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..."
At least, no other forest monster approaches, perhaps scared off by the monster beetle progression.
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.
Their path is clear, but they are not in visual range anymore, having romped off in search of more green things to chew on.
"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."
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.
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..."
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.
Trees, bushes, vines...
