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[RPG] [Log Horizon] Faceplanting right into the Database

Reader mode
Minako looked at the slice after hearing Tamomo and took an experimental bite. A little chewing and tasting later, though, she deposited the remains in her hand to dispose of.

"Sarasa, dear, I don't think you'd deliberately troll us at this time... but whatever this is, it certainly doesn't taste as it should. Comparing it to cardboard might be doing it a favor."
 
Player: Sarasa

"A pity."

Sarasa slowly and carefully ate her own slice, leaving not even a crumb, and then she wrapped the remained of the loaf and returned it to her inventory.

She walked onwards to the town with no further comment.
 
I finished my slice of the cake - waste not, want not and even if it didn't taste well, who knew when I might wind up short of a meal - and followed Sarasa towards the town. Whatever was going on there, if anything, might as well find out now rather than later.
 
Tamomo wrapped up her slice of cake in the hopes that something could be done about the taste later on. She then followed the others to civilization, hoping there were some kind of answers for them.
 
Aeltara nodded, offering a soft "Thank you" to Sarasa as she took the piece of cake. It couldn't possibly be worse than - oh, wait. It was. "Yeah, cardboard sounds about right." She paused, looked down at the offending thing that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike food. Shrugged. "Too hungry to care." She finished eating it in a few bites. "Hopefully that won't be a commonplace occurrence. Shall we into town?"
 
GM Post

Minako took a few moments to go through her own packed food, checking out if anything else exhibited the same flavoring issues and quickly realised it was, sadly, not an isolated phenomenom. Sighing, she went back to eating Sarasa's offered slice.

"We're screwed, it's not just her cake. I hope it's just the food we already had..."

The group, other than any further comments about the flavor issue, then headed towards the city and the opened gates. Upon arrival at the gate the guards did not challenge them, merely observing the group. Either they didn't know they were adventurers or were used to them. Possibly both.


Does anyone stop at the gates to talk to the guards or carry on?
 
I paused at the gates and looked at the guards. Down at the guards. How tall had I made myself? It was strange to tower over them from this perspective.

"Excuse me." Hopefully my smile wasn't too intimidating. "Are there any problems or local laws I... that my companions and I should be aware of?"
 
GM Post

drakensis said:
I paused at the gates and looked at the guards. Down at the guards. How tall had I made myself? It was strange to tower over them from this perspective.

"Excuse me." Hopefully my smile wasn't too intimidating. "Are there any problems or local laws I... that my companions and I should be aware of?"
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Both guards looked at you but only the closer one replied.

"That I know of, there's no problem in particular. No drunken revelers going about and no monster attacks."

The other guard interjected, "There might be a goblin warband nearby. We have scouts looking for them."

"Right, but the goblins aren't here."

"Telling the adventurers about it is still a good idea."

"Ad- oh."

"The priests are always looking for the items to keep the seal strong, too. I haven't heard them bitching about low supply in months, though."

"Right, right. Talking to the High Priest might yield some quest for you, honored adventurers."
 
Tamomo listened quietly. A goblin war band? How many goblins did that require, and what level were the goblins? Was it an open world event, or some kind of low level raid?

She spoke up when the guard appeared to have finished. "Excuse me, sirs. How serious is the threat of a war band? Or who would I talk to find gain more information?"

It could be nothing, but might it be like one of those isekai stories where heroes are brought over right before an impending doom arrived? Actually... no, that was way too chuuni.

There were way too many questions that needed answers.
 
GM Post

Garahs said:
Tamomo listened quietly. A goblin war band? How many goblins did that require, and what level were the goblins? Was it an open world event, or some kind of low level raid?

She spoke up when the guard appeared to have finished. "Excuse me, sirs. How serious is the threat of a war band? Or who would I talk to find gain more information?"

It could be nothing, but might it be like one of those isekai stories where heroes are brought over right before an impending doom arrived? Actually... no, that was way too chuuni.

There were way too many questions that needed answers.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

"For the city, not much. If they caught a gate by surprise they might wreak some havok until the guard reacts and kicks them out. Otherwise? They're a concern for villages and travellers. Typical warband is a few dozen goblins plus some warg scouts, I think."

Which, come to think of it, wasn't that about what the group faced earlier?
 
Player: Sarasa
When several of the others stopped to question the gate guards, Sarasa failed to notice - just as she failed to notice exactly where she was going. Her thoughts were fixed to that one moment - the moment when Minako spat out that bite of seedcake. How could she? How could she? But no answer came to the maid.

Her feet traveled onward down street a step at a time through the gaps between pedestrians. They felt leaden. Her hands kept clenched upon the broom, white-knuckled. They shook. Her eyes traced the patterns of the roadway. They could not meet the gazes of the townsfolk without revealing the anger and shame burning within – a conflagration that slowly extinguished itself.

Why did Sarasa feel so empty? Oh. Oh. That was why.
 
"We should be able to handle that if we run into them," I noted. It was fairly much what we'd... oh. "Actually isn't that a pretty fair description of the ones we met earlier? I suppose there could be more than one of course."

At least the seals didn't seem to be in any immediate danger so we shouldn't run into too many issues here.
 
GM Post


While the gate discussion happened, Minako noticed Sarasa moving on and went to follow her, letting Tamomo and Draken-Sis to their talk - if anything important was found out they'd share, she supposed.

Sarasa seemed to be behaving a bit oddly to her, but she didn't really know... and it was the weirdest day ever. It was bound to do crazy. After a while, though, she broke the silence.

"You okay?"


Back at the gate, though, there was the realisation that, indeed, they'd probably nuked the warband. Whether they chose to divulge that fact or not was less important than noting that, hey, the Meido and the Priestess were getting away! Would they go after them or let them go on their own and phone in later?
 
Tamomo nodded at Drak's words. "Yes, I think the goblins and wargs we killed match the description. We might have some form of proof. Hold on, please. Is there anything specific they would be carrying?"

She gave Drak a suggestive look, not certain how much he grabbed of the loot. It was a situation where the kitsune thought using the menu would be easier and she began scrolling through her items. Sure, she was a horrible pack rat, picking everything of possible value up, but it still occasionally was useful for those odd quests requiring some knickknack or such. Hopefully now was such a time.

She absently noted two members of the party walking away, but wasn't especially worried as contact was only a thought away now.
 
I shrugged. "I don't recall specifically. Gold isn't marked out particularly but there was the usual trash loot..." I joined Tamomo in searching through my menu for items.

"Did the warband have any particular distinctions?" I asked the guards. "We ran across what might have been them. If so, then they shouldn't be a further concern but it's possible there w ere two groups." I did not want to re-enact Lina Inverse's black dragon issue from the first episode of Slayers.
 
Player: Sarasa
She wasn't sure when she had stopped walking down the street, but she must have at some point. The meido tilted her head as she pondered, causing her flower crown to catch the light just so.

And then she heard HER.

Sarasa tensely fought back the impulses that circled around in her head like a kettle of vultures.
"Min... Mi... Miss!" She fought to get the name out but settled on something easier. "Something is wrong. With maid or world. Needs apology. For spitting out seedcake. Sincerity not important, but words are. Before something terrible happens."
 
GM Post

The guards looked at each other and shrugged. "I don't think so? Those monsters all seem to look the same. They're not, but they don't carry banners declaring who they are or serve."

As far as loot went, there was nothing more than some gold and a couple potions and scraps which could be salvaged for materials by someone with the right skill. But as far as identification, they would turn out no good.


Away from the gate, the kannagi looked at the meido, processing Sarasa's seemingly strange reaction.

"I'm sorry," she said. "It was rude of me. Even if it tasted... bad, I reacted poorly. Please forgive this silly priestess."

She meant it, too, as she'd come to realise how... tactless she'd been.
 
"Okay, I guess we'll keep an eye out when we leave in case there's another group. I mean, unfortunately there's almost certainly going to be more of them eventually..."

Giving up on that conversation before I vented even more dignity I followed the others into the city.
 
With a reward a bust for now, Tamomo waved farewell to the guards and decided to wander around and get a feel for the place.

Through the party chat, the foxtail alerted the party. "I'm going to explore here a bit. Let me know if anything comes up or we want to meet up!"

The town should be a safe zone, so aside from possibly a pickpocket, there shouldn't be anything to fear, and there could be quests!
 
GM Post


The town was indeed a safe zone... in a manner of speaking. While it was not like Akihabara and other player hubs wherein PK would be quickly and violently crushed underneath giant armored hulk fists, it had a most definite lack of hostility. It did, in fact, have lots of people. Way lots more people than anybody could remember seeing in the actual game, in fact, as they went about their lives.

Draken-Sis and possibly Tamomo found Minako and Sarasa not too far in town, though it was their call whether they stopped by them or went on.
 
Player: Sarasa
Sarasa shuddered at the impact of Minako's words and quickly sought to balance them. Three. Three words would do it.

"You. Are. Forgiven."

Her shoulders relaxed as if relieved of great weight, and then, after taking a few deep breaths, the elven maid bowed formally towards Minako as they stood in the street.

"Thank you for stopping me. Thank you for apologizing. Thank you, Minako, for for believing me enough to do so."
 
"Hi," I greeted Minako and Sarasa as I caught up. "Sorry, I got caught up talking with the guards. They didn't mention anything that seems likely to bother us."

Looking around at the town I wondered: "Do you think if we buy food here it won't be affected by whatever curse affected that cake of yours Sarasa?"
 
Tamomo idly noticed Drak had met up with the others as she moved off in another direction. There was too much city to explore and the party was literally a thought away from communication.

She picked a street and slowly meandered down it, checking out vendors, NPCs, and players to get a feel for the atmosphere. At food vendors, she bought a sample of everything they had available. Finished meals, raw meat, and vegetables, fruit, spices. The cost mattered little when your bank account had several million gold. As she tested each food item for any kind of taste, she felt another regret of crossing over. Spreadsheets were god, and instead of using one for this test, she had to buy a blank book to track what had taste and what didn't.

She didn't forget to ask the various vendors where one could find some kind of sage or priest who might know or have a way to know what had happened to them.
 
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