Beginning of Morning’s End 2660 AC

The sounds of a rickety carriage echoed through the forest carrying four individuals. A man of burly stature equipped with a large cannon. A short girl with red hair with a rather devilish smile. A short haired hooded gremlin with a knack for getting into trouble. And finally a young unconscious girl who seems to be held hostage given the bag dragged over her head as well as the rope binding her hands. However the carriage driver appeared to pay no mind to the seemingly criminal act unfolding in the back of his carriage.

“Oh boy I can’t wait until we finally get to Oclana, the moment I get my hands on that herb is the day that I make up for my cursed growth,” Nazuko exclaims.

“Yeah well I can’t wait to try out my new Ice bombs,” Ryder states while holding a circular object that radiates frigid wind.

“And I’m just here to have fun, burning anything that gets in our way,” Nerva says joyfully.

These three characters chatted along as the carriage took them further and further away from the capital city of Colonus.

“Mmmmm!!!, Mphhhh!!!, MMMMNNN!!!”

Muffled noises could be heard coming from the restrained young girl.

“Oh I think the hoe’s finally awake, for a second I thought she was gonna be out for the whole trip to Oclana.”

“The sleeping potion she drank wasn’t that strong, I only fed her enough to knock her out for a day. I don’t wanna end up carrying her the whole trip, she’s too fat for that.”

“So are you gonna remove the bag or do you want me to do it?” Ryder asks.

“Nah just give her a minute. I think it's fun to see her squirm a little,” Nazuko says evilly.

The girl in question continues to struggle a bit until she manages to pull the bag off her head albeit with a bit of difficulty due to her pointed ears and witnesses 2 of her party members +1 sitting before her.

“Nazuko! What the hell is going on here! Where are we! Why am I tied up ?!!!” Remi demands.

“Ah good morning, well technically it's good afternoon, but you’re finally awake!” Nazuko greets her as she pulls out an apple and starts to munch on the sweet fruit.

“Ah! I remember now I tasted something weird in my drink and I passed out. You drugged me didn’t you,” Remi accuses.

“You may be wondering why I drugged you, well it's because I knew you wouldn't choose to go on a sidequest with me willingly, so I decided to bring you here by force. Plus I couldn’t have you off doing hoe things to Will,” Nazuko informs.

“And why am I tied up?”

“She thought you would try to attack her the moment you got free,” Ryder answers.

“Even if she did try to attack Nazuko I got her back, this hoe’s got nothing on me,” Nerva states.

“Well I really want to now, you can’t just kidnap people and expect them to go along with it. This is enough, I'm headed back to Colonus,” Remi declares.

She summons her wolf and has it bite off the ropes binding her hands and feet before looking around at her surroundings.

“Yeah well we’re already halfway to our destination and it's at least a week long walk back to Colonus, so I wouldn’t recommend doing that,” Nazuko tells her.

The veins on Remi’s head slightly bulged hearing this comment signifying the increasing amount of irritation she felt.

“Ugh fine, where are we even going anyway and what was this ‘quest’ you mentioned, not that I’ll choose to help you with it.”

“Azura mentioned some kind of special herb in Urbossa’s Valley that will help me gro- I mean will sell for a whole load of money, yep money, definitely money,” Nazuko corrects.

“The money sounds nice, but Urbossa’s Valley that place is located in Oclana and I’d heard the rumors are that place is extremely dangerous. Also Ryder why would you agree to coming on this quest and secondly why aren’t we using the airship?” Remi complains.

“To answer that first question, this trip gives me a chance to try out a new type of bomb I’ve been developing, secondly the airship is being fumigated. Remember that time we had to land in the swamp to find that Bartrem guy? Well apparently some termites got in and ate up a giant hole in the cockpit. So that needs to be fixed as well as damage from the time we got shot at when we first came to Ayana,” Ryder elucidates.

“Ahh damn, once you get used to traveling around in an airship nothing else can compare. How long until we finally arrive in Oclana?”

“Well at this pace maybe about a day and a half,” Nazuko answers.

“Do you even have an idea of where to even begin looking for this mythical herb or what it even looks like?” Remi questions.

“Nope”

“Figures. We’ll just have to do some scouting when we get there, maybe ask some of the locals if it even exists.”

“I know it exists, it has to...” Nazuko mumbles.

3rd Day of Morning’s End 2660 AC

These four figures journeyed along the path to Dreden, bickering every bit of the way. The place that stood before them was a small city that was surrounded by a vast vineyard that seemed to stretch on for miles. As the large vineyard suggests, Urbossa’s Valley was a place that made its living primarily off the wine that it sold to the other states. So much so that the place is often nicknamed the valley of drunkards, as even the general scent of the city made people feel buzzed. The four adventurers arrived in the center of the small city, left to bask in the scent of wine as their carriage departed behind them.

“Alright now that we’re here I guess our first move should be to go gather information, given the nature of this place a popular bar would be a good place to start,” Remi decides.

“Hey who made the hoe the leader of our party,” Nerva notes.

“Yeah I’m the one who’s the leader here. Sooooo as my first decision as the party’s leader, we should probably start with gathering information. Let’s go visit a popular bar,” Nazuko affirms.

“Wow Nazuko you're really taking charge, I’m impressed,” Ryder comments.

“That was exactly what I just… Ugh nevermind,” Remi grumbles.

They continue to stroll through the city before coming to a circular, stone building that has vines growing along the sides. Barrels of wine were being stockpiled onto a carriage in the road, giving the impression that the place was a winery.

“Jeez with all this wine around I think I could really use a drink,” Remi exasperates.

“Hey no drinking on the job, you do enough of that back at the guild,” Nazuko states.

“Oh come on we’re standing in the middle of a city that’s famous for its wine, and you're not curious at all about what it tastes like. I hear some of this stuff can go for a fortune back in Colonus,” Remi argues.

“Well, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to take a little drink, but the herb comes first, you hear me.”

“With all the gold we got from our last quest, I can finally start spending it on some high valued items, I wonder if I can afford their best wine here.”

“You know I hear some of the grapes in the local vineyard even explode inside your mouth, I want to be able to taste the explosion,” Ryder says.

Entering into the stone building, the place seemed to remind them of the guild, but without all the fighting and magic being expelled. People were seated throughout the building, all of which were drinking alcoholic beverages. The majority of people here seemed to be amongst the upper class indicated by their decorated garments.

“Alright Remi go ahead and talk to the person serving drinks at the bar, they’re sure to tell us something useful,” Nazuko commands.

“Wait, why do I have to do it?” She asks.

“Because I said so, and you already did it before. Don’t you remember that fishing village that we destroyed in Ayana,” Nazuko notes.

“Yeah and that entire fiasco ended terribly,” Remi shudders.

“Will isn’t here to destroy the place this time, so there won’t be any flying dinosaurs that we have to worry about.”

“You know that doesn’t make me feel any better, instead of a tornado, I’m expecting something to explode instead.”

“If it's an explosion you want, you can count on me,” Ryder claims before proudly smirking.

“No giant explosions this time, we might actually get arrested if we do that here! Ugh I wish Azura were here,” Remi groaned.

Remi walks over to the bar, calling over the bartender to get a drink.

“What’ll you have, miss?” the bartender asks.

“Hmm, I’m kinda new to this place, so I’ll have to ask for a recommendation. What’s the best wine you serve here?”

“I’d recommend some of our Spiced Oclana Brandy, but unfortunately we’ve been having a bit of a monster problem in the vineyard, so we haven’t been able to distill any of it lately,” the barkeep informs.

“In fact, it’d be a great help if someone took care of it. We’d be willing to offer them a great reward, but alas there’s no one but drunkards in this region so we’re lacking help. We even sent out a request to the guild.”

“Oh is that so, in that case I might be willing to help out with that, for a price that is,” Remi says.

“We have plenty of gold if that’s what you're interested in or perhaps I can offer a few free bottles of our best wines?”

“That’s tempting, but I’d prefer money and some information. Prepare to answer all of my questions when I return. Those monsters are as good as dead,” Remi boasted as she finished her drink and paid for her drink.

Remi walks back to Nazuko, Ryder and Nerva who are examining one of Ryder's bombs.

“Ryder what does this bomb do?” Nerva asks.

“Ah this one’s a cluster bomb, it splits into a ton of mini bombs. I can’t wait to use this one in a real fight,” Ryder says as his eyes appear to be shining.

“Good, you'll have an opportunity to try it out soon,” Remi suddenly says.

“So what did the bartender say? Did he tell you where to find the herb, what it is, or what it even looks like?” Nazuko questions.

“Uh no, but I did accept a job to exterminate a few monsters out in the vineyard,” Remi answers.

“Remi, that seems entirely unrelated to the reason why we’re here,” Nazuko states bluntly.

“Look there’s a process to these things, even if he knew where this incredibly awesome herb was, do you think he’d just tell us? No that’s what, this way he’ll owe us and tell us everything we want. Plus we get some money out of it,” Remi adds.

“Seems like it would be easier to just beat it out of the guy if he refuses to talk,” Nerva claims.

“We can’t do that, we’re not you and we can’t commit crime for no reason,” Remi reasons.

“The way I see it, this just gives me more things to explode. This will take less than a few hours to do with my new bombs,” Ryder boasts as he rubs his cannon like it was a baby.

“Ugh, part of me wants to agree with Nerva, but the other part of me says Will would be upset if I was arrested again. Fine, we'll do the job and come back here as quick as we can,” Nazuko relents.

The four adventurers venture on through the vineyard looking for traces of monsters, but find nothing but plants.

“Ugh we’ve been walking around for the past hour and we still haven’t found those monsters yet. Are you sure that the bartender said there were monsters around here?” Nazuko complains.

Remi continues walking forward behind her spirit wolf whose nose is to the ground to sniff out monsters.

“I know for sure that’s what he said. Just watch my wolf sniff them out in no time,” Remi assures her.

“We totally should have just beat that guy up earlier,” Nerva states.

“How about I send out a few bombs in the area to root out any monsters in hiding,” Ryder suggests as he prepares his cannon, aiming it upwards.

“It hasn’t been that long yet, there’s no need for such extreme measures,” Remi says as she pushes down Ryder’s cannon.

“Ahh screw the elf hoe I can find these monsters faster on my own,” Nerva says as she walks away in her own direction.

“Well there she goes, given her personality, if she finds them first she’ll burn them all before I can explode any of them. I think I’ll go search in this direction,” Ryder informs as he walks off in the direction opposite Nerva.

“Hey wait, I know it's somewhere around here, I can feel the aura changing,” Remi argues as he walks into the distance.

“And two were left,” Nazuko comments.

“Let me guess you're going to go off on your own too?”

“Nope, I believe in you.”

“What?!”

Hearing this Remi stumbles as she hears this blasphemy.

“You heard me. I believe in your ability to attract monsters. Here’s what’ll happen, something will attack you from behind and then I’ll save you and then call you useless,” Nazuko predicts.

“Ah there it is, I knew you couldn’t be nice or encouraging. It seems you're also of small character!” Remi insults.

“Hey, that small comment is uncalled for. Maybe if you do something that’s deserving of praise I could be compelled to think otherwise, but right now that’s not the case,” Nazuko tells her as she sticks her tongue out at Remi.

The pair's bickering is interrupted by the sound of a wolf howling.

“What’s wrong boy, did you finally sense the monsters?” the elf girl guesses.

The spirit wolf immediately headed in the direction Nerva ventured as the two girls followed.

“Heh it seems Nerva has a better monster sense than you do Remi. I should have followed her from the beginning.”

“She just got lucky that’s all. I bet she can’t even handle them without us,” Remi asserts.

The two girls follow the speeding wolf as it races through the vineyard. The sight of smoke can be seen as the two come ever close to the red headed girl.

“Nerva are you alright, the hoe’s doggy sensed monsters here,” Nazuko informs as she unsheates her dagger.

“Nah, there ain’t no monsters here. I just smelled this really crappy plant and I burnt it because I couldn’t take the smell,” Nerva says as she turns from the plant to face the duo.

The burning plant in question has purple leaves with the edges seeming jagged like teeth. A red bulb of the flowering plant is emitting a rancid yellow liquid that’s dripping onto the ground.

“Huh, that can’t be. I'm sure my wolf smelled some signs of a monster here. I could tell from the signs he was giving me,” Remi argues.

The spirit wolf simply prowls around in a circle as if trying to find its prey, quietly growling.

“Maybe your wolf’s just defective or something, monsters usually do smell shitty like this plant,” Nerva says as she continues burning the plant behind her.

“Maybe you should stop burning that plant now I think I can sense something coming,” Remi notfies as she surveys the area.

“Give it a rest already, you said that half an hour ago,” Nazuko states.

“But this time it's stronger though!”

As Nerva continues to burn the rancid smelling plant, the plant recoils as it starts to shrivel under the effect of the fire. The red headed girl is too distracted by her flames to notice the ground begin to rumble. Suddenly the same kind of plant Nerva was previously burning erupts from the ground and swallows Nerva up. The difference is that this plant is much larger than the burning plant. Two more additional plants sprout up next to the one that swallowed Nerva.

“See! I told you so Nazuko, I felt it!” Remi celebrates as Nerva is eaten by the plant.

“Rrrrr, yeah, yeah, shut up and kill the plants already,” Nazuko concedes.

Nazuko speeds forward in a burst of light partially cutting the stems of all three plants. Remi’s spirit wolf dashes forward and crunches down on the stem of one of the plants causing the bulb parts to fall to the floor. Yellow liquid rapidly leaks out of the defeated plant that melts into the ground like acid.

“That yellow liquid is acidic, does that mean Nerva is-” Remi begins.

Suddenly the middle plant that swallowed Nerva erupts into flames as a pillar of fire is unleashed from the bulb of the plant.

“FUCKING PLANTS! I knew there was something up with that shitty smelling crap!” Nerva yells as her entire self is enveloped in flames protecting her from the acid.

“Ah nevermind I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up,” Remi lamented.

The final remaining plant begins to send out a torrent of acid at the three fighters. A shield of water magic is conjured by Remi to deflect the incoming acidic projectiles while Nazuko dashes out of the acid range and the plant's field of awareness.

“Nerva watch this new finishing move Akane taught me, it’ll look really cool,” Nazuko yells.

“Oh damn you’re gonna try that thing,” Nerva says as she starts getting hyped.

“Just do it already,” Remi says as her water shield continues to be pelted by acid.

A large amount of magical energy is drawn into Nazuko as her body starts to glow with light. Nazuko uses this energy to create light swords that surround the monstrous plant in every direction.

“Vorpal Blade”

A massive barrage of light swords rip apart the monstrosity from every angle reducing it to pieces. Due to the speed of this attack, any attempt to escape is rendered useless. To a spectators point of view it would seem as if it were simply an explosion of light, but a trained eye would be able to count the sheer magnitude of light blades produced by this attack.

As the light blades fade, no trace of the monster could be found, even all the acid the monstrous plant produced was obliterated in a blink of an eye.

“THAT. WAS. AWESOME!” Nerva cheered.

“Heh, heh, heh, how was that Remi? Feeling inferior?” Nazuko brags.

“Very flashy, would have helped if you used it against Archer,” Remi comments.

“I didn’t know it at the time, I learned that when training with Akane after the rebellion was dealt with,” Nazuko notes.

“Still I wonder if that move would work against her,” Nazuko silently mumbles thinking of a certain person she encountered in the assault on the Man of Stone’s hideout.

The trio however pre-emptively celebrated their victory as three more killer plants emerged from the ground appearing even bigger than before.

“There’s still more?!” Remi complains.

“You could throw a million plants at me, I’ll burn them all!” Nerva aggressively yells as she produces flames in both hands.

Right as they begin combat once more a large round object lands right at the roots of the three killer plants.

“Get back you three!” Ryder shouts.

The sound of Ryder’s voice is enough to inform them on what’s about to happen. The three girls quickly jump back to escape the radius of the inevitable blast. However, instead of Ryder’s usual fiery explosions, a surge of ice freezes each plant in the area, encasing each monster in a block of ice.

“Heck yeah it worked,” Ryder celebrates seeing the result of his new ice bomb.

“Damn, with all that ice for a second I thought sis was here,” Nerva says.

“That better be the last of them, I really have no interest in botany,” Remi jokes.

“My ice bomb froze that plant all the way down to its roots underground. It should have killed any other plants hiding underground,” Ryder informs.

“Also before I forget-”

Ryder takes out his flintlock pistol and blasts the frozen plants, shattering them to pieces.

“Alright now we can go get the information outta that barkeep and finally get what we came here for,” Nazuko excitedly says before rushing off in the direction of the city.

The short girl immediately starts to run, before suddenly falling over due to colliding with a metallic sounding object.

“OW! What the heck is this stupid box doing here?” Nazuko rages.

The steel box appeared to contain several ampoules or small vials of black liquid as well several needles used to inject the liquid.

“I wonder what this stuff is being used for. Are needles usually used to take care of plants?” Remi ponders.

“Hmm, I know what this stuff is,” Ryder interjects.

“Oh really, it kind of looks sinister. Like this stuff isn’t natural?” Remi suggests.

“I think it smells like a certain type of monster blood mixed with nitric acid. I know because this mixture is highly volatile and used in poison bombs. If injected into a living creature it could kill them or if they are strong enough turn it into a monster,” Ryder informs.

“So some asshole is injecting plants around here with that crap,” Nerva says making the connection.

“I’m surprised you got that,” Remi says, questioning Nerva’s intelligence.

“We should really destroy this stuff, but I’ll take one of these vials to see if anyone in the city knows what’s up,” Ryder decides.

“Ugh, who cares about who’s doing this to the plants, just destroy that box and lets go,” Nazuko directs.

Ryder places a nearby metal lid on the box, picks it up and chucks it into the sky. It only takes one blast from his cannon to cause the contents of the box to blow.

“Finally that takes care of that. Let’s go get what we came here for,” Nazuko commands.

Having taken care of the monstrous plants plaguing Urbossa’s Valley, the bombastic party leaves the vineyard to return to the city, hoping to find more information on this mythical herb.