Forest Retrieval

Adventure #1
 * Recommended: 4 People.
 * Difficulty: Tier 1
 * Objective: Retrieve the Red Box from the Forest

WALKTHROUGH (Please note this is a work in progress.)

"Your makeshift party browsed through the job board, coming across one that stands out in particular. Someone at Hentai High lost something of theirs. Something precious. It was contained in a small box, plastic, red in colour. The problem is..... They can't go find it themselves. They dropped it in the Yokai's Forest and currently.... Something is sending a small group of Yokai haywire. These Yokai are hostile on sight and have sent multiple students.... And even a couple of teachers to medical. Your party signs up for the mission. The group sets off from the job board, heading to the forest. The group arrive at the hedges that separate the forest from the school. A feeling of dread would wash over everyone as they drew closer. Whatever was driving the Yokai crazy.... Could be felt from outside too. A fog wall masks the entrance to the forest. Looks like the only way to see in, is to go in."

The only path is forwards and inward. Make any party preparations necessary, such as using buff items or summoning pets.

"The fog wall ripples as the team passes through it, entering the forest. It takes a few moments for their vision to adjust to the new lighting before they can take in the sights. A mass of trees stand on either side of the party, tall, branches spanning out far above. The sun wasn't reaching here, so things were basked in darkness, yet, somehow there was a strange glow emanating throughout the forest. Not enough to clear away the darkness, but enough for the team to see the immediate vicinity. It looks like they can choose where to go, straight forwards, deeper into the heart of the forest, left, deeper into the trees on their left side or to the right, where a pungent smell was starting to waft through the trees."

Straight forwards

Left

To the right, as mentioned, has a pungent smell. The Yokai Flower, a Permanent Item that helps block out bad smells, is required to take this path:

Without the Yokai Flower, you receive the following text when attempting to go right:

[PLACEHOLDER]

With the Yokai Flower, you receive the following text when attempting to go right:

(West of Pool)

''The party decides to head to the right, where the pungent stench is emanating from. The dense trees part, forming a little dirt pathway between them, heading into the distance. With each step further, the stench gets stronger. Powerful, horrendous...... Sickening. It was hard to pinpoint the location of the smell and exactly what it was, but one thing was sure. It was the stench of death mixed with something unknown. The smell kept ramping up as they got closer and closer to..... Whatever it was. As the stench got progressively worse, another smell would start to mix in with it. Something.... Fresh. Something..... Lemony. The new smell itself seemed to originate from someone in the party. Whatever was making the new smell, was starting to make the horrible stench slightly more bearable. The party would forge forwards, the two smells mixing..... Fighting for priority. The smell emanating from the party would get stronger as the stench got stronger, but at a faster pace, eventually getting to the point of overpowering the stench completely. With the stench overpowered, the party managed to finish travelling along the path, coming up to a large bog. Was there always a bog this big in there? Likely not..... Yet here it was. Crazed Yokai, a bog that shouldn't be..... Something was happening here. Something bad. The party's footsteps would have to grow more careful as the ground below their feet would start to sink. It was hard to tell if pressured, how deep they'd actually sink. Any fights on this ground would definitely pose a major disadvantage. Soon, they'd come across a massive pool, water all brown. Even through the friendly fresh lemony smell they had overpowering the stench, it'd lash back with a vengeance. Temporarily, it'd overpower their smell, hitting them in a massive wave. Rot. Sewage...... Death. It was taking everything they had to stay conscious, the stench was unbearable. This was the source. This pool. Whatever was in this pool was causing this stench. The lemony, nice smell would once again take priority, quickly adjusting to the new, stronger wave of smell. This leaves the party free to explore the immediate area. Each Player gets to 1 point to choose an action. Examine options are free. All movement options cost 1 point. Moving is done separately so it may end up in the party being split. >Examine Water >Examine Ground >Examine Pool >Examine Bush Movement >Head to North of Pool >Head to South of Pool >Head to East of Pool >Stay here >Wade into the centre of the pool''

To save on examining the items, the following descriptions are provided.

''>Examine Water ''The water is a murky brown, small bits float in it, mostly of black, dark red and dark green colours. It looks thick, possibly difficult to swim in. Also would probably kill someone if they drank it. >Examine Pool ''A large mass of water in the centre of the clearing in the trees. The area is similar to that of a bog, with waterlogged ground. The pool seems to be the source of that terrible smell. It was also probably majorly deep. Probably not a good idea to try go into it.'' >Examine Ground ''The ground is soft, giving way under even the softest of footsteps. It is soaked through by the water from the pool. Here and there, chunks of what looks like bone and flesh lie around.'' >Examine Bush ''A prickly bush stationed nearby the west side of the pool everyone started on. Small bits of flesh hang off it, as if someone or something had run into as they were running towards, or maybe away from the pool.''

Any player moving to a different location seems to trigger combat, though that may have been triggered by heading to south of pool.

Start of Combat:

''The ground around the pool begins to shake. The water ripples wildly at four points, one on each side of the pool. Large forms, tall and fairly thin in nature, fatter more towards the water, erupt out of the pool at each ripple location. Water cascades from each form, finally giving vision of four large tentacles, black in colour and covered in bone spikes. They'd flail wildly, before slamming down on the ground near them, attempting to attack the party.''

Four Bog Tentacles spawn at the four cardinal points of the map (North, East, South, West). Each seems to have the same stats and attacks.

(South of Pool)

''... heads to the south of the pool, splitting off from the rest of the party. Upon arrival, they find this part of the area littered with entire bones. The pool had been so big they couldn't be seen from the end they'd entered at. The ground here was a little harder than the other side, meaning it was easier to move in.''

(East of Pool)

''... moves to the East, the ground would be boggier, making it a bit harder to move on. They'll suffer an accuracy penalty when making attacks.''

(North of Pool)

''... on the North side, it'd get even worse, the ground almost impossible to move through, their feet sinking into the mud. Accuracy would decrease even more here...''

(West of Pool)

''As they moved to the west, it'd get slightly better, but not much. It was similar to the east side. A slight decrease to accuracy.''

Each Bog Tentacle has the following stats:

Bog Tentacle HP: 12<#<=15 Attacks: Swing at (Player) Damage: Moderate Blunt/Piercing Effect: None Range: 30m+ (If you can hit it, it can hit you.) Swing at (Player)'s Legs Damage: Moderate Blunt/Piercing Effect: None (Exact HP, Weaknesses and Resistances Unknown. Targets were attacked using Electrical damage. Enemy did not go down after two 6-Electrical damage attacks, but did after two 8-Electrical damage attacks. 5 damage, plus 4 fire, plus two 3 damages from an ongoing Fire DoT defeated one.)

The Bog Beast HP: 24<X<=36 (8+8+6+8+6) Attacks: Damage: Heavy Blunt/Piercing Range: Its attacks damage all characters on a given area/side of the bog. Notes: An optimal strategy would be to split up, if at all possible, to avoid multiple targets being hit by the same attack.

Taking down the Bog Beast will end the encounter: As the last strike hits the beast, it lets out a loud wail, ringing throughout the forest. The beast sways, its eyes rolling back to show their whites before it collapses onto the east side, no longer moving. The party is now free to once again explore the area should they wish. 1 move point each. After everyone has moved, they'll automatically leave anyway.

Returning from the right path: (Player) returns to the first area they had entered originally. It looks like they can choose where to go, straight forwards, deeper into the heart of the forest, left, deeper into the trees on their left side or to the right, where a pungent smell was starting to waft through the trees

The Left Path: The party decide to go left, among the trees. There's no defined path, so navigating among the increasingly dense trees was difficult. As the group continues on, they'd start to notice something. Long, barely seeable strands of silk would hang between trees. The deeper into the trees they went, the more strands there would be.

Before long, full trees would be coated in silk, thick webs spun between them, large spiders crawling along, turning to stare at the party as they passed. It was getting harder to walk without disturbing the webs....

Finally there'd be an opening in the trees, they'd open into a circley area which was surrounded by extremely thick layers of web, almost like walls blocking exit of the area. At the far back would be a cavern... Or at least what looked like a cavern, made purely of web. It was fairly big in size, a wide opening and it seemed to trail off, the inside becoming too dark to see past after a point.

Spiders would crawl down from the walls, moving in front of the cavern, blocking the way in. The webs around would start to wobble as a clicking sound would come from deep within the webbed cavern. It'd take a few moments before a large black spider leg appears at the entrance. It bends, pulling forth another leg.... And another. Soon a black body follows, along with.... Half a girl. And that half is completely naked. The half spider, half girl emerges from the cave, long, black hair flowing down her back. Yellow, piercing eyes would stare at the party. The Dryder's thin lips would part.

"And why pray tell, have you come to MY part of the forest, pests?"

Diplomacy: Do not offer the Dryder a Yokai Essence. This will enrage them into attacking before you can have a turn to react.

Dryder 4+8 fire+6 fire

The Center Path

This path leads to the ending; be sure to have completed any optional side paths first.

''The party decides to head straight, heading for the heart of the forest. The forest in front of them was easy to traverse, a dirt path down the centre, heading forwards. After a few minutes of walking, it'd become apparent that things were getting darker. It was strange, even the glow that has enveloped them was diminishing, the party's ability to see, hindered. A strange cackle would drift through the forest around them, moments before a mass of tentacles launch from behind a tree at them.''

Attacking the tentacles will make the illusion disappear.

''The tentacles get struck, disappearing into thin air..... An illusion. It seemed the entire thing had been an illusion, the party had just stepped out of the Yokai's range, freeing them from it. The healthy glow, letting them see would come back. With the forest back around them, they could easily spot the dirt trail, beginning to follow it again. The path would lead on for a while, before ending in a clearing, entangled with vines. Large roots ran along the floor, towards a large flower in the centre of the clearing. It was closed, petals a bright red in colour.''

''As the party approached, the petals would part, opening and resting in the ground. In the centre of the flower was a girl, unclothed, but covered in various vines and leaves. Her hair was a bright green in colour, messy, twigs and leaves dotted around in her long hair. She was currently curled up, face towards the bottom of the plant. It'd be a few moments before she stirred. Her head would turn to look towards the party. Her sparkling green eyes would blink as they stared at the group, as it registered that there were people there, she'd move. She's slowly start to get up. As she did, she knocked something in the petals. Something hard to see originally because it was red itself. It was a small, red box. The girl would stand, turning towards the party, watching them unblinking. Her front was barely covered, her bare stomach on show. Two petals would cover her breasts, while various vines would entwine to cover her nether regions. The plant girl would say no words, instead, lifting an arm and point her index finger straight at the party. There'd be a rumbling, before roots would unearth themselves and begin to whip at the party. She may not be talking.... But she was up for a fight.''

Plant Girl:

HP: <22 (8+8+6)

Attacks: (Unknown)

Rangers can exploit the Plant Girl's inability to hit at long range by using a Scrap Great Bow to bring their range to 30m:

''The Plant Girl lets out a squeal. Her large roots flailing above unpredictably.... waiting for (Player) to get close before they could attack...''

When defeated with Fire damage:

''The plant girl lets out a squeal, thrashing about. Her flailing knocks the box out of the flower as she drops back to her knees, the petals closing up and hiding her once again as the whole plant starts to burn up.....''

Obtaining the plastic box ends the quest:

''The party grab the box, which seems to have no way to open it. Small, red, plastic. It fits the description however so this should be it. They retrace their steps and leave the forest, returning to hand in the box.''

POTENTIAL LOOT:

Regular Rewards: each member of the party chooses one of the following. In addition, each player will receive Skill Tome 2 for their specific class.
 * Sharp Root - +1 PATK - Perm Item
 * Magical Root - +1 MAG - Perm Item
 * Hardened Petal - +2 HP - Perm Item
 * Mana Infused Petal - +2 MP - Perm Item

If finishing Adventure 1 as the first adventure, each player will receive: If the party completed the optional Bog Beast battle, each player will receive Skill Tome 5 for their specific class. 
 * ID Card Rank 1 - +5 Max HP, +2 Max MP