[Hanako] Chapter 13: Start of a Journey

[Asta]

After getting a clean volley into the slaver, Hanako quickly fished another round from her pocket and slid it into the rifle's chamber. She took a moment to aim, and pulled the trigger as she exhaled.

Attacking same Slaver, Rifle, vs AC:

Rolled 1d20+16 : 4 + 16, total 20

Damage:

Rolled 1d10 : 7, total 7

[Throndir]

You managed to hit again. Though, the slaver noticed you, pulled out his bow and fired an arrow. It managed to hit you.

Roll phys resist save requested.

The other slaver fired a bolt, and he managed to hit you as well.

Second phys resist save requested.

At that, Kari dashed off, chanting a spell as she did so.

"Mine Goddess, Darkness. Thou bringeth thy pain to the hearts of man. May thy sinful claws tear and rip asunder. 《Grasping Rend》!" At that, the ground underneath the slaver turned dark, as 5 sharp spear-like fingers appeared from the ground. They all tore into the slaver's flesh, piercing and cutting into him as the slaver cried out. It took only a second for his cries to be silenced.

Trudy fired off her rifle, but missed.

Hanako to take turn.

[Asta]

Physical Resist:

Rolled 1d20+6 : 10 + 6, total 16

Rolled 1d20+6 : 2 + 6, total 8

"Suffer the agony of Fire's scorching lick, Yakedo!

Hanako rattled off a spell aimed at the remaining slaver, and attempted to break his line of sight by putting one of the tents between them. With luck, he would try to find a new angle and blunder his way into Kari's deadly range.

Fire vs AC:

Rolled 1d20+16 : 5 + 16, total 21

Damage:

Rolled 1d8 : 6, total 6

[Throndir]

Minor background setting thing! But reminder, that divine elemental magicka invokes the element at the beginning like a prayer, since the magicka system is basically a prayer to the elemental goddesses. Practical Elemental Magicka doesn't have that requirement.

After the second arrow hit, you felt your eyelids get heavy. And a moment after that, you fell unconscious.

Physical Resist save requested. Roll a second one too, just in case you fail this first one.

[Asta]

Phys. Resist:

Rolled 1d20+6 : 2 + 6, total 8

Rolled 1d20+6 : 10 + 6, total 16

[Throndir]

Location: Elstergen City to Southern Mining Camp - Slaver Camp
Date: Day 16 - 8 PM

You soon woke up to the sounds of a crackling campfire and the scent of cooking meat. Trudy was seated near you, taking care of some sort of cooking. There were other individuals around the fire too. And it took you a moment to realize they were the other slaves. Each of them had their collars on still however.

"Hanako! You're awake!" At that, the other slaves in the camp looked over to you. You noticed they were all eating what looked to be some sort of meat. The slaves were 4 demihumans, 2 humans, with the last one being the most unique among them. With a closer inspection you realized that her skin wasn't actually green, though, the amount of leaves that had covered her before made it seem like it. Her hair itself looked like they were made out of leaves.

She was absolutely beautiful.

Mental Resist save requested.

[Asta]

Mental Resist:

Rolled 1d20+6 : 5 + 6, total 11

"Mrrrgh. Some kind of sleep poison on those arrows." Hanako said, groggily. "I take it you two handled things well enough without me."

She turned to the collared people, and the peculiar plant woman in particular. Years of anime and RPGs tell me... dryad... Probably.

"Good evening." she said, after a pause.

[Throndir]

She continued to smile pleasantly at you, her eyes locking with yours. You noted a hint of a blush on her features as well. But that moment of reverie was interrupted, and it was then that a small pebble flew in the air, hitting the leafy-girl straight on the forehead. It was from Kari who simply frowned at the dryad-like girl.

"H-hey...!" The girl complained. Kari rolled her eyes.

"We handled the rest of the bandits. Twas not a problem for thy companions. Tis the tree nymph that thou should be more wary of. I hath told her not to use her wiles against thee when thou wakens."

"It was just a habit..." The girl mumbled, puffing her cheeks, and looking away from Kari. "Strong willed ones still ignore me anyways. And the slavers instead just figured they'd get a fortune off of me."

"Besides!" The tree nymph said, picking herself up, and walking towards you almost alluringly as she swayed back and forth. "I wanted to thank my saviors... personally." Her eyes looked over to you again. And again you started to feel drawn towards her, but then another pebble interrupted that feeling.

The tree nymph frowned, running the spot on her head where she was hit.

[Asta]

Hanako cleared her throat. "You certainly caught me off guard. Please refrain from trying to entrance me in the future. My friends wouldn't take well to it." she nodded in the direction of Trudy and Kari appreciatively. "So..." she began again, trying very hard not to stare at the nymph's ample endowments, "Whom do we have the pleasure of liberating today?"

[Throndir]

"Zinnia!" The tree nymph replied. "I come the grove in Lassetaure... I and a couple of my other sisters have been sent to try finding other dryad groves..." She paused for a moment as if considering something, but she slowly moved her eyes from you to the rest of your companions, then to the slaves in the background, then back to you. Eventually she just shrugged, and from her hair she pulled out what looked to be small bag made out of leaves.

"The grove in Lassetaure won't last for very much longer... The other dryads agree. The elves do what they can to help us, but... it's not looking very good." She then gently opened the bag, and inside looked to be a variety of large bulbous seeds. They moved slightly when the moonlight and campfire's light hit them. "Dryad spores from Lassetaure. I'm to find another dryad grove, and see if they're willing to help raise them. It's the dryads of the Lassetaure forest that make it home after all... and this way... my people would still live even if our forest is burned down." Zinnia said bitterly.

[Asta]

"I see..." Hanako replied, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. "I'm Hanako, this is Trudy and Kari." She motioned to the girls as she spoke.

"I don't know much about dryads, but I would probably look elsewhere for a new home. I'm sure you've noticed that this country has been overrun by demons and their collaborators like to take slaves. I wouldn't say it's the safest environment to resettle. Have you tried Isikawa? My understanding is they've resisted invasion so far. In fact, a group of mine will be heading that way soon. We could probably help."

[Throndir]

Zinnia nodded. "Isikawa neighbors Lassetaure. Some of my other sisters went through there to the other lands to the south and east..." She sighed when you told her about the demons. "I thought there might be a grove here too... But..."

"There isn't actually a lot of magical monsters and creatures in Refedoria... We had some, but many of them have started to become endangered or even extinct by hunting... I've heard of dryads and tree nymphs... But the last sighting of one that was ever recorded was almost 3 centuries ago in our world... If it didn't come from this 'shifting' which brings new lands here, then I don't think you'll find more dryads... I'm sorry."

At the news the dryad quieted.

"Well... Are you going to Isikawa?" Zinnia finally perked up, staring at the three of you hopefully.

[Asta]

"Well, that's the plan. Wouldn't be for a few more weeks at most, if there aren't any... complications. If you wanted to come along I don't see why you couldn't." Hanako answered, and looked over at Trudy and Kari to see how they'd respond.

"Thing is, we're sort of in the middle of a little trip that requires uhh... discretion, and no offense but you certainly... make your presence well known." she coughed and again tried not to be distracted by Zinnia's figure. Hanako wondered idly if the dryad had charmed her again, but figured that if that were the case Kari would have pegged her in the head with a rock once more.

[Throndir]

"A few weeks... Well, that's just about the time needed for some of my sisters to travel to the other countries, that's not too bad... And I'd rather not make the journey to Isikawa by myself again, it was already difficult the first time around." Zinnia explained. "How about if I follow? Or... well... Is there a place where I can... hmm... wait for you?"

[Asta]

"If you don't mind hiding out in the woods or something while we attend to business where we're going, you can ride along with us I suppose. I can't imagine it will take too long to do what we came for." Hanako replied. "I can leave you with some protection probably. Also, I need to get you, and the rest of the people here out of those collars."

Whenever this conversation finishes Hanako is going to go about freeing everyone from the collars.