Life After the Apocalypse

Grace just nods in acknowledgment and stays silent like the cat-man said. She looks to the wilderness and tries to learn what she can. Perhaps she see signs of movement, or hear something heavier than a bug…

Isbjorn shuts his mouth as instructed by the catfolk Maxime. Funny that burly as he is, it wouldn't really help much in this situation, and he doesn't really have much experience in fighting in the real world in any case. So he tries to calm his mounting nerves from the imminent danger by going over the the crash course of 'game mechanics' he learned before, hoping it will help him successfully harness the ice magic he currently possesses.

Fren crouches and sees the giant shade. He unsheathes his sword and makes a grin. "Want us to bring that thing down?" he wispers to the Catfolk.

Raquel draws her katana and crouches against the wall, seeming to disappear into the shadows...

Clara readies her pistol, but realises her vision is incredibly limited due to her height. She silently scolds herself. "Should have made a character as tall as that Maxime over there."

>>>The low stone wall, roughly a meter tall in most places, shielded the Adventurers from direct view of the dark bulk in the fields...if indeed it were looking. The sweet fragrance of the AleBalm blooms mixed with the sharp scent of freshly turned earth in the wake of...whatever that is...making it's way through the fields. Though moving only at a speed equivalent to a brisk walk, the bulk moved implacably towards the village in a sort of writhing motion not unlike an enormous snail.
>>>Grace poked her head up above the wall long enough to get a good sense of the thing. Bards, being excellent scouts, have in-game skills and abilities that serve a Party well when used in situations much like this one. Just as a Status Box appeared when Grace had first seen Adanna and John Louis, this thing had one too...


King Triffid Lv: 20

Rank:	Party 2
Castle	HP:	???	MP:	???
Crown	HP:	???	MP:	???
Knight	HP:	???	MP:	???
Def:	???	MDef:	???

Tags: [Plant] [Monster] [Nature] [Elite]
Resistant: 🌊 🪨
Vulnerability: 🔥 ❄️
Attacks: ???
Defenses: ???

A Triple Threat monster.


>>>Um, what's a Triffid?" the Sorcerer asked hesitantly.
>>>"It's a monster that spits poison and kills..." the Catfolk replied, spitting on the ground in disgust.

>>>"Worse than that..." BradL33 interjected. "Those things leave spores or seeds or something in the ground behind them. Unless we kill the big one, those are going to start sprouting out of the ground at sunrise and this whole area will be infested."

>>>"Are you seriously expecting us to fight that thing, that's the size of a lorry mind you, in the dark of night?" Guy said incredulously. "Are you mad or just suicidal?"

Grace whispers, "I don’t know what Level 20 means, but… he’s Level 20 and also a King."

Atalanta is very happy to have chosen Cat Eyes as his level up choice.

Atalanta, now in game mode, whispers back to Grace. "Well we're level 11, so its already stronger than us. I'm hoping the King is just part of its name, sort of like King Tomatoes."

Looking at the others, Atalanta continues to whisper. "Sounds like we are going to have to fight that thing, or the village is in really big trouble. So we need to come up with a plan."

Isbjorn's face turns grim when he hears about how awful this Triffid is, especially the potential of it sprouting more monsters. They have to act quick. He immediately whispers to the group, "While its speed isn't that fast, It would still be safer if we could catch its attention and lure it away from the village."

Isbjorn then gestures to himself and to Arga, who he recalls is a sorcerer like himself, although with fire. He then adds, "If 'Vulnerability' is what I think it means and doesn't have some other game connotation I don't know about, then me and Arga can target its fire and ice weakness with our magic. We definitely have to kill it as quick as we can so we don't have to deal with this Triffied multiplying even more."

"I don’t want it to multiply. One looks impossible enough." She’s ready to play—but keeps her voice low and instrument silent until the party is ready. "Lure how? If music’ll draw its attention, say when."

From somewhere nearby, the hidden Raquel whispers, "Once it passes by, I'll sneak up and attack it from behind. If we're lucky, it might have a weak spot I can hit for massive damage."

Clara also whispers, hoping the big monster cannot hear them. "Isbjorn is right. Before we do anything, we need to lure it away first. We wouldn't want Arga's fire magic to burn the field down either. What if the missing villagers are hiding somewhere nearby like we are doing right now?" She turns on her UI and skims through her skills. "I have Taunting Shout to grab its attention away from other people just in case. I also took 1 level in enemy scouting to study the enemy, but this looks like a boss monster, so that may not be very useful."

>>>"I've got plan." BradL33 whispers. "But you're not gonna like it." He peeks over the wall one last time and sighs, steeling himself to deliver the news. "That thing is bad, bad news and the maximum number of Players in a Party is six. There's enough of us here for two full Parties and I think we could take that thing down...but not as two separate Parties. We'd be cutting our healing capacity in half and running the risk of doing damage to the other Party with Spells that way." He grimaced at even voicing his suggestion, "We could try to escalate it up to a Field Raid by going in as a Half Raid Party. Two full Parties makes a Half Raid and we're in a Zone where a Field Raid is possible... The downside is that the King Triffid gets bumped up to a Raid Boss power level but there should be enough of us to spread out the extra damage." He looked around at the others, "I think these field walls would contain the spread of any fire that Arga starts but maybe having the field on fire might actually help us."

>>> The Guardian turned to his Enchanter companion, "You can't be serious about us actually fighting a kaiju houseplant"!" He was far louder than he should be, "We make YouTube videos for chrissakes, Antonia..." He reverted to using her real name in anger.

>>> She groaned, struggling with her own anxiety, "We used to make videos." She looked at the others, at Maxime, ready to take on what could be certain death and her resolve wavered back and forth. "Look, I don't know what happened to bring us here or why it happened...but we're here now. We can't just run and run and hope to find someplace safe to ride it out. There isn't any place like that unless we fight for it. This place is nice, G."

>>> His face belied how flabbergasted he was at what he was hearing, "These 'people' aren't real...this place isn't REAL..." He looked at her for a tense minute. "FINE! Okay, okay..." he relented at her glare. "Guess we'll find out if getting killed sends you home or not." He threw his hands up in exasperation.

"Then let's hope nobody dies."

From what Isbjorn could figure out from Bradley's words, it would be better for everybody to team up, even if it meant the monster would grow stronger. He's a bit hesitant, but he trusts the boy's game knowledge, so he seconded his proposal.

He also frowns at Guy's flippant words. He's sympathetic, really—this whole situation is shitty all around. But he'd rather not find out if this is all a dream or whatever that they can wake up from by dying. Still, he keeps his mouth shut. Isbjorn doesn't have it in him to tell the guy he can back out, since they need all the help they can get.

"Let's do it. We work together and take it down," Raquel whispers, ready to enact the raid plan.

When Guy says ‘these people aren’t real,’ Grace says, "Let’s face it. We come from a world where people act like strangers are just NPCs in The Game of Life. Flip off another driver, yell at the waitstaff, talk at people on social media.

"If being in a fantasy world means people really look out for each other, PC or NPC, then that’s a world worth fighting for."

She’s on board with the raid plan, since that’s the plan that allows her healing song to cover everyone (except herself).

>>>"Hooo..." BradL33 let out a pensive sigh. "Lemme get the Party set up and we'll go for it. We all have to rush it at once to escalate it up but we have to manage our Aggro on that thing." He looked at Arga and Isbjorn specifically. "Let Guy, Calamity and Atalanta draw its attention. If it fixates on Arga, Isbjorn or Tina first we're toast. I'll run healing for a bit so Fren and Grace can get some attacks in and then we'll switch out if need be... Maxime, Piff, Raquel, do what you do best but be careful. I don't know what this thing is really capable of."

>>> The goth Assassin glared at BradL33 but left her protests at at her nickname to a low growl as she pulled the enormous scythe out if her relatively tiny bag. Her hands shook as she held it, a grim look of determination in her eyes. "I'm not going back. No matter how this turns out." she shot an icy look at Guy.

>>> "It's entering one of the small fields. Now is the time to catch it, if we are to fight it at all..." The Catfolk was seemingly agitated at how long it was taking for the Adventurers to get things in gear. He clearly didn't understand what they were trying to manage with BradL33 poking around aimlessly in the air. He was just anxious to attack before the monster got any closer to his home & family. "Who wants to live forever, eh?" and he impatiently leapt gracefully over the low wall and ran atop its cobbled length straight at the dark form of the King Triffid.

>>> "Me. I do! I want to live forever..." Guy piped up indignantly before he noticed the Catfolk had sprung over the wall and was away. "Bloody hell..." To his credit, Guy grabbed his enormous mace and vaulted over the wall, hot on the heels of Maxime.

>>>"Guess we're doing this..."" BradL33 jumped up and followed the headlong rush.

---

Grace leaps over the wall. She hadn’t thought of a good Bard battlecry, but suddenly she thought of Vasquez, the tough space marine woman from Aliens, yelling—

"LET’S ROOOCK!!"


Grace’s tactic is to rock musically with the healing song!Wait… I don’t actually know this song. Her fingers hover over the strings. Big thing gonna kill everybody. Think fa—

Oh! The new one by Collective Soul! It’s called ‘Mother’s Love!’ Close enough—


Her baroque theorbo emits rainbow colored notes as she improvs an acoustic cover.

No tears to cry
No voice to sing
No purpose for you
No reason for me
Guess we're all misunderstood
To what we can and what we should
Still, I find above
All my strength from mother's love…

"Wow this is my first MMO raid. Hope I won't disappoint!" Clara leaps forward and lets out an unrealistically loud howl at the Triffid.