awashlogs | fightin' with the legends of yore

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fightin' with the legends of yore

WHO: Minato, Prompto, and Summer
WHAT: Quest 18, "Steal the Moondrop Heart"
WHERE: A castle in the woods
WHEN: JULY QUESTING
WARNINGS: Probably a lot of Metal Gear Solid jokes? We'll warn in the thread headers.

[Three questers enter the forest, bent on seeking the Moondrop Heart, and unlike other occasions when the woods have been entered, this time their path seems to take them past the trees and through the undergrowth to the cliffs, where they come across a castle just waiting for them.

Though it's reasonably far away at the point when Our Heroes stop, a cursory look in the castles direction does seem to reveal some variety of movement on the walls. If anybody has a way of getting a better look, perhaps they'll be able to figure out more...

Otherwise, adventurers, you are standing just inside the tree line on this adventurin' afternoon, and there is a castle in the distance with a treasure inside. What would you like to do first?

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One sec.

[Even if they're far enough away to have relative safety, Prompto keeps his voice low. It's a stealth mission. He can be stealthy.

He stealthily summons his new sniper rifle to hand and peers through the scope at the moving figures on the wall. What're we looking at, broncos?]

[It appears that there are ramparts! Did you know that ramparts are a thing that actually exist? Well, they sure are, and these ones appear to be occupied.

Given that sniper scopes are essentially made for this very thing, Prompto will be able to make out two of these handsome gentlemen keeping a patrol up on the parapet. The bad news is, the way they're walking their circuit keeps them fairly constantly watching each other, so it would be difficult to take one out without immediately alerting the other.

However, they don't appear to be very creative in terms of their patrol pattern; it's just a steady back and forth movement, with a five-second pause at either end to look around for good measure.]

There are two... imps? Up there, patrolling the wall. I could take out one of them, but the other'd probably raise a stink before I could aim again.

[He doesn't lower his gun.]

Ideas, guys?

[... Imps?]

Mm...

[Minato's definitely just squinting at the distance.]

How far would you say it is, exactly...? I might be able to take out the other one, but if it's too far, we'll have to find another way, I think.

[Also, Minato is bad at this, so do not listen to him like ever.]

Don't look at me, I'm shit with guessing numbers. Looks like it's maybe a football field, though? At least? That's like a hundred yards...but hell, I don't know.

[We are all doing so great at this.]

What are we thinking, here? Try to time it so we take them both out at the same time?

That or find a way to get past without them seeing any of us.

[He shakes his head.]

I'm sneaky, but I'm not that sneaky. Unless one of you can turn us invisible, I say one of us takes each one out at the same time as quietly as we can.

[Hmmm...]

Yeah, sorry, I'm not sneaky at all, and invisibility is not one of my skills. But I can probably manage some magic from this distance to get one of them.

... Uh, it's not sneaky though, I can say that already.

...Welllll...

[He glances at Summer, then scratches the back of his neck.]

Your cloak is kind of... magical, right? Do you think you'd be able to get close-ish before Minato and I take out the guards and then slip in during the commotion when we kill them?

[He thinks about it some more, then bursts out:]

Or can you turn us all into animals at once?!

[WHAT CAN'T BE SOLVED BY MORPHING?]

It's not invisibility, but it's pretty damn sneaky.

[She waves her arms a little beneath the folds of her cloak for good measure, demonstrating just how much the average glance tends to slide away from it.]

...I think I could do three animals at once. Probably. You guys might have to cover me for some of the castle once we're inside, but if we want to go the "walk on the wild side" route, I oughta be able to do that.

[Oh my god.

He....pauses.]

...Seriously? Animals? You're going to turn us into animals?

[He doesn't sound so much incredulous as just...sincerely surprised. Like. He'll roll with this, but this is not what he was expecting.]

Then we don't have to kill anything! We can be mice or little birds, something small that no one will pay any mind.

[Castles are breeding grounds for things like that.]

Probably we should get close first if we're not flying, I don't wanna run all the way there on tiny mouse feet. But they wouldn't pay attention to a handful of pigeons, right?

I am a witch of many talents.

[That gets directed at Minato, with a shrug that almost manages to be sheepish.]

The only downside is I don't know if I can do the local variant of "mutant pigeon". No telling if they'd notice the difference between a normal bird and a six-winged one, but if you guys think it's worth a shot, I'm game to try. It's not the stupidest plan I've ever heard of working.

... Well. Sure, let's give it a shot.

[Minato's never been one to say no, after all.]

It seems like a better shot than trying to take them both out from here.

[Prompto chuckles looks away for a second, rubbing under his nose, because he knows quite a lot about this witch and plans that are just stupid enough to work. But he recovers and nods.]

Okay, so: Get in as far as we can as birds, find somewhere out of sight to change back if we have to? I guess birds'll attract more attention inside than up on the parapets. We can plan further once we see what the inside's like.

Okay. Birds it is. Everybody stick close, and like...try not to get distracted by the urge to, y'know, poop on everything.

[She closes her eyes, seeming to focus in for a minute, and then makes a few rapid hand motions before resting one hand each against Prompto and Minato's shoulders.

It's more of an "abracadabra" than a proper morph; there's no elaborate shifting or bone-rearranging process. But one minute they'll be standing at their normal height, and the next they'll be about six inches tall, beaked and feathered and winged.

Now being part of the local fauna, they are now probably safe to enter the castle! Assuming they don't fly directly over the heads of the guards, they'll sufficiently blend in with the surroundings so as to be unremarkable. And with enough looking, they will eventually come across an open window on the second story of the castle, with a ledge wide enough to support a landing.]

[Holy shit.

That's...that's such a trip. Being turned into a bird is something very new for him, though it's almost frighteningly easy.

Well then. They can flitter their way closer, and Minato's definitely going to go ahead and land on the ledge of that open window, trying to peer inside as best he can with his little birdy eyes.

Though honestly, he's going to go ahead and go in so long as he doesn't see anything immediately threatening, because they need to get inside somehow.]

[From the looks of things, this room is blessedly empty! There's only one door set opposite the window and the room itself is relatively small, so it seems as though this might once have been some sort of storeroom, though it's devoid of anything particularly interesting to find right now.]

[Following after Minato--and more familiar with being turned into an animal--Prompto hops to the ledge beside him, sees what he sees, and then hops further in.

Is the door to the storeroom open? If so, he'll hop across the floor and take a peek to see what our hall situation's looking like.]

[It is currently closed! However, his birdy hearing being generally better than a person's, he is able to tell that the corridor is silent; no footsteps out there that he's able to discern.]

[That's promising! When no patrol presents itself--and those imp guard things didn't look all that light-footed--Prompto turns to the others and makes an "L" with his wings: the previous signal for turning back into people.

Door handles aren't exactly pigeon-friendly to use, after all.]

[Honestly, he is very relieved to go back to human, as cool as it was to be a birdie.

Human time! Mostly so that they can properly open the door, though Minato also wants to poke around the storeroom as well, more out of curiosity than anything.

Is there even anything cool here? (No, probably not.)

More importantly, before trying to open the door he's going to wait and make sure that everyone is ready.]

[Abracadabra! Just like that, they are all human again, and while Summer is looking a little bit wobbly on her feet, everyone appears to be in one piece.

When Minato explores the storeroom, he will find that it's mostly populated with sacks and wooden barrels. From the way that they're stacked, it seems as though this is more a repository for used crates and sacks, as opposed to ones full of anything useful. Kind of like when your grandma has a plastic bag full of plastic bags from the grocery store. You've found the medieval version of that.

However, with enough poking around, he will find a plentiful number of empty sacks and pieces of wood, as well as some rope and a pry bar that was probably used for opening up barrels. A little more poking will also turn up a knife, which again was probably used and abandoned for the purposes of cutting the rope.]

[Prompto keeps his voice low while Minato snoops.]

You okay, girl?

Just a little, y'know. Much easier to play three songs at once than magic three people.

[She says, as she finds a narrow space of wall to lean against, taking some of the weight off her feet.]

I'm okay. Probably not up to burning the castle down if we need a dramatic exit, anymore, but I'm okay.

If need be, I've got the dramatic burning everything down exit covered.

[A thumbs up as he moves away from the storeroom.]

You guys okay to keep going?

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