SP-F5 - The Traveller (Quest) - COMPLETE!!

[Mack 0]

Mack appeared in the public portal of the main city on the fifty floor of Aincrad and quickly cleared out of the way so as not to receive a rude shove from the next player to come through. As he moved down the few steps from the portal and into the small plaza that housed it he pulled a simple balaclava up over his nose and mouth to keep the sand out and lowered a basic pair of sunglasses to help address the glare of the sun. Desert, why did the floor have to be desert? The hulking smith hated the hot, dry, and arid environment of the desert. Some place cold would have been much better. Heading off through the town, Mack began to seek out the town's quest board that would fill him in on the various activities he could engage in on the fifth floor as well as the loot and benefits he could expect to gain from completing those quests.

Edited August 18, 2015 by Mack

[Mack 0]

Reaching up with the back of one of his massive hands, Mack wiped the sweat from his brow and continued to examine the quest board. As he was still in the process of selecting a quest to engage in a heavily wrapped and cloaked woman came stumbling up, nearly fainting, and all but collapsed against the hulking smith. Opening his inventory up, the bulky man produced a bottle of water and he passed it to the NPC. When the woman had taken a good long drink she explained that she had just returned from the blistering sands of the desert, that she had lost a precious cargo, and that she needed someone to go out, track down the cargo and bring it back to her in the city. Then a quest window popped up.

[Mack 0]

Mack considered his options for a moment. Based on what the NPC woman had just told him, the quest seemed pretty straight forward. Go out into the desert, hunt around, find the lost cargo, bring it back. How hard could that possibly be? It didn't even sound all that dangerous. For all he knew, he would only need to go about a mile from the main gate of the city to find what it was that he was after. However, there were other considerations that needed to be made as well. Beginning with the fact that he was way up on level five. That meant that the monsters would be tougher to kill and more dangerous and, given the twists the game had already thrown him with the Gemini quest, there was no telling what this one might entail. For all he knew, it would take several days to find this lost cargo and return with it to the NPC.

In the end, however, the promise of yet another skill that he could claim and which he would not have to pay any skill points to use was too great of a prise to pass up. Reaching out towards the menu box with his right index finger, Mack tapped the "accept" button.

[Mack 0]

ID: 27557
CD: 2

Stepping through the main gates of the city Mack was immediately blasted in the face by a harsh northern wind and a spray of sand. Instinctively, he reached for the balaclava at his throat and tugged it up over his mouth and nose. Then, as he stood there in the wind and sand he activated his inventory and tapped through the items until he had activated the Angelic Sheath. The armor was nearly all white, which would help to reflect some of the heat, it was also full body armor offering the best protection. Finally, it had a hood and a full face mask which the blonde man promptly snapped into place over the balaclava offering one more barrier against the wind and sand. Tugging the hood up over his head, which let his eyes slip into the shade of the hood to protect them, the axe-man set off across the shifting sands.

[Mack 0]

ID: 27559
CD: 5

As Mack trudged through the sand he was careful to keep his eyes focused in every direction but directly into the sun. His combat deployments to desert environments early in his Army career had taught him that. As had his combat training. He also watched the sand for any movement beneath its shifting surface. He knew, quite well, that there were plenty of animals, and other things besides, that liked to conceal themselves beneath the surface of those misleading sands before exploding up in an unsuspecting sneak attack. Mack was not about to be caught in such an ambush if he could avoid it and he was certain that the game's programmers would have included those kinds of nasty surprises for the players.

[Mack 0]

ID: 27568
CD: 2

As the sun climbed higher and higher into the sky, nearing noon, Mack began to consciously look for an area where he could take shelter. He knew that it was beyond stupid to try and travel in the desert between the hours of roughly ten in the morning through about three in the afternoon and he strongly suspected, based on the amount of sweat that was coming from his body, that it was past ten in the morning. As he topped the nearest mountain of sand his grey eyes spotted a small rocky area about a quarter mile distant. Setting his course, the blonde man made a straight line path for those rocks. His clear intention was to try and seek shelter in the rocks, grab some water and food, and then settle in for a nap. It would be easier, and much cooler, to travel at night.

[Mack 0]

ID: 27810
BD: 6 (4+1 Charm+1 Concentration)
MD: 1
CD: 6
Mack: 31/31
Sand Draken: 18/24 (-6 Dam.) (Base Dam. 3)

As he entered the craggy rocky area, Mack was able to enter the shade for the first time in hours and the temperature difference was certainly startling. The blonde warrior was on the verge of removing his face mask and peeling back his hood as he leaned on Guillotine as a support staff when a small sand explosion took place right where he would have been if he had not stopped walking when he did. A massive winged creature, at least twice the size of Mack, burst from the sand with a hissing battle cry. The beige and tan creature took a couple of steps and leaped into the air, snapping a mouth full of wicked looking teeth at Mack. In a flash the smith went over to the ground backwards, lashing up with Guillotine in the process. While the sand draken missed, the bearded axe found its mark and, as the creature turned its head to regard its next tasty meal it flew nearly head first into the side of a rocky outcropping.

[Mack 0]

ID: 27833
BD: 3 (2+1)
MD: 10
CD: 2
Mack: 27/31 (-4 Dam., DM 1)
Sand Draken: 18/24

As the sand draken tumbled from the air after running smack into the side of a rocky outcropping it hit the ground with a rumbling thud and another small explosion of sand. Picking itself up off of the ground, the creature hissed and opened its mouth wide in Mack's direction displaying a glittering array of teeth. Then the animal sort of belched and a vaporous steam emerged. Mack didn't think much of the attack until he began to cough and hack. "Poison, cheater," he snarled, reeling backwards, as the poison slowly ate into his heath bar for a few points. Regaining his equilibrium, and clean air as the breath weapon began to dissipate, Mack narrowed his green eyes at the lizard and prepared himself to strike again.

[Mack 0]

ID: 27838
BD: 7 (6+1)
MD: 7
CD: 6
Mack: 27/31 (-1 Dam, DM 2... did bad math the first time I got hit)
Sand Draken: 12/24

As the sand draken advanced, on the ground this time, towards Mack its clawed feet dug up furrows of sand. As the creature came into range the axe-wielding warrior charged forward and swung the blade of Guillotine laterally across his body. The blade bit deep into the side of the lizard creature's head and it hissed angrily in protest. Then, to show the white armored warrior just how small he was in comparison the the tan and beige colored tank one of the animal's fore paws shot out and smacked straight into the side of Mack, sending him sprawling. His armor saved him from the worst of the attack, but he was still knocked head over heels.

[Mack 0]

ID: 27839
BD: 11 (10+1)
MD: 2
CD: 5
Mack: 27/31
Sand Draken: 4/24 (-8 Dam., will bleed out even if I miss in each of the next two rounds)

As the sand draken advanced on him again, the blonde warrior decided that his best bet for getting close enough to land a critical strike on the sand draken's beige and tan scaled head might be to play dead. Going limp and remaining very still, the white armored man's only movement was to tighten his grip on Guillotine and tense the muscles of his arms and shoulders. When he sensed that the creature was close enough, Mack exploded into motion, just as the draken had moments before. Guillotine scythed through the air and slammed into the side of the draken's head with enough impact to snap the head around as Mack used the momentum of the strike to spin himself back to his feet and prepare to finish the fight.

[Mack 0]

ID: 27847
BD: 5 (4+1)
MD: 9
CD: 6
Mack: 25/31 (-2 Dam, 2DM)
Sand Draken: 2/24 (-2 Bleed)

As Mack was spinning back up to his feet the sand draken matched the maneuver and just as the white clad blonde warrior was looking up a beige and tan battering ram, that was the draken's tail slammed into his chest. Even though he was a big man, Mack was blasted backwards off of his feet and he flew several feet before plummeting back to earth and plowing up a nice deep chasm in the sand. Picking himself up out of the sand the axe-man was shocked to see that he had managed to hang on to Guillotine, the weapon still clinched in his hands. It was time to crush this rotten lizard once and for all.

[Mack 0]

ID: 27849
CD: 5
LD: 3

With a bellowing battle cry, Mack charged across the rocky sand, flashing in and out of the shadows cast by the craggy peaks of stone with Guillotine raised high over his head. As the tried to run down the Sand Draken the creature swayed on its feet before keeling over and evaporating in a stream of pixels. "NO!" The smith bellowed in frustration and swung Guillotine into the ground repeatedly where the draken had keeled over. "COME BACK AND FIGHT LIKE A MAN," the hulking brute roared, wanting to land the last blow. But, it was all for naught as the massive dragon-like creature was long gone, leaving nothing behind except for some crafting materials.

+1 Crafting Material

[Mack 0]

OOC: It finally got me.

ID: 27895
CD: 1
Mack: 24/31 (-1 Fatigue)

Mack carried on out in the sun, kicking and slashing at the area where the sand draken had disappeared into pixelated nothingness for several more minutes. Finally, exhausted and with sweat pouring down his face, the hulking smith put Guillotine back in its sheath across his back and began trudging along the slightly uphill path that would take him to the cave that the sand draken had called home. On entering the cool, in comparative terms, shade of the cave Mack swiped a finger in front of him to open the player menu. From his items, he extracted one of his breads and one of the bottles of water. Plopping down with a soft grunt on the floor of the cavern, the blonde man removed the face mask and peeled back the white hood that made up Angelic Sheath, then he began to devour the food and water.

[Mack 0]

ID: 27897
CD: 5

After he had finished wolfing down the bread and downing the water with it, Mack climbed slowly back to his feet and took in his surroundings in the cave. The mouth of it was situated pointing to the west, which was good because that meant that the sun would eventually funnel itself directly into the mouth of the cave. That would work as an adequate wake up call when it was time to leave and start on his journey again. The cave itself was nothing special. It went back into the ground perhaps a hundred and fifty feet. No doubt, it had been a bit of a snug fit for the sand draken. But, judging from the small bones and other detritus littering the cavern, it had clearly been the home of the lizard creature.

[Mack 0]

ID: 27898
CD: 12
LD: 19

Rolling his head around on his neck, Mack heard an audible popping sound as the vertebrae loosened up. Grunting, he began to search the cavern to see if it was possible that there might be a little bit more loot to be found. It was also a wise thing to do just in general, in order to avoid any potentially nasty surprises from any A.I. mobs that might be lurking in the deep shadows of the cave. As he moved about the cavern, Mack kicked at and toed various piles of small bones. Sure enough, luck was with him and, on the fifth pile he checked he uncovered a small chunk of some kind of metallic ore. How the item had come to find its way into the cave, the blonde man couldn't say. Nonetheless, he picked it up and added it to his inventory.

[Mack 0]

ID: 27899
CD: 8
BD: 9 (7+1 Charm+1 Concentration)
MD: 6
Mack: 23/31 (-1 Dam., Mit. 2)
Black Adder: 11/18 (-7 Dam., No Bleed Bonus)

As Mack continued to make his way through the small cave in the rocky outpost situated in the desert he didn't succeed in finding anymore loot that was just lying around. However, when he kicked over one small pile of bones near the back of the cave a black, triangular head that belonged to an adder lunged out at him. The serpent sank its fangs into the axe-man's left calf as he unslung Guillotine from his back and brought the axe to a ready position. "This is why you always check first," the axe-man grumbled to himself as the Angelic Sheath saved him from the worst of the serpent's bite. Swinging the bearded axe down in a fair approximation of a golf swing, the blonde warrior launched the serpent to the very back of the cavern, before following along after it to press his attack.

[Mack 0]

ID: 27900
CD: 8
BD: 9 (7+1)
MD: 7
Mack: 22/31 (-1 Dam., Mit. 2)
Black Adder: 4/18 (-7 Dam., No Bleed Bonus)

Following after the black viper, and not bothering to retreat to the mouth of the cave to either retrieve his face mask from where he had dropped it or to pull up the hood of the Angelic Sheath, Mack stalked after the slithering adversary as it hit the wall and fell to the ground again with a wet thud. If the animal had been unhappy to have its home kicked over in the first place, it was now roiling mad. As Mack swung Guillotine down in a chopping motion at the snake it reared up and struck at him with its fangs. This time, Mack's blade sliced into the back third of the animal with a downward stroke as it, in turn, sank its fangs into his right calf. At least now the axe-man would have a matching set of puncture wounds.

[Mack 0]

ID: 27904, 27906
CD: 6
LD: 17 (+90 Col)
LD: 2 (No further loot in cave)
BD: 10 (9+1)
MD: 2
Mack: 22/31 (-1 Dam., Mit. 2)
Black Adder: -4/18 (-8 Dam., Bleed Bonus Irrelevant)

As the snake pulled its head back and bared its fangs, preparing to strike again, Mack raised Guillotine high into the air. Had he not been inside a cavern the polished steel blade would have glittered in the sunlight. The snake's forked tongue darted in and out of its mouth a couple of times and then, before it could strike again, Mack brought the blade down on the snake, neatly severing its head which rolled a few feet before disappearing into pixels. Kneeling on the site of the dead serpent, the blonde blacksmith retrieved a bag with a bit of col in it plus a snake hide that would be suitable for crafting something out of. Adding both of the items to his inventory, Mack completed his sweep of the cavern and, finding nothing else, headed back to the mouth of the cavern.

+1 Mat
+90 Col

Edited August 17, 2015 by Mack

[Mack 0]

ID: 27923
CD: 10

Satisfied, at last, that he was the only living thing in the cavern, real or digital, Mack settled himself down in the mouth of the cavern a little bit outside of where the sun was currently casting light. The hulking blonde warrior roughly estimated that, by the time the sun was falling across his face and waking him up, that it would be in the early to middle part of the evening. At that time the temperature would be dropping again and it would be appropriate to resume his trek across the desert. With a little bit of luck, he'd be able to find and retrieve the cargo and then return back to the city early tomorrow with it to complete this quest prior to the current time of the day. Still, that meant either camping out or traveling at night, neither of which were prospects that exactly thrilled Mack. But, there was nothing for it, and so he laced his fingers together and put his hands behind his head before going to sleep.

[Mack 0]

ID: 27926
CD: 11

Having napped for several hours in the cool shade afforded by the cave, Mack woke with a slight start as the rays of the evening sun crossed his field of vision. It took him a moment to fully snap awake and to remember where he was. Then it all came back to him. Sitting up, the blonde man rubbed the sleep from his eyes and then picked up the face mask that was part of his armor and re-applied it over the balaclava he was wearing before pulling up the hood on the armor and getting to his feet. After a few moments of stretching, to come fully awake, Mack exited from the cave out into the glare of the desert's evening sun, resuming his journey across the shifting sands to find the lost cargo.