Monster Huntresses

The village is a simple village, a cluster of raised houses surround a platform that centers on a large natural pillar of stone. Wooden walkways run between the dwellings and out towards the sea, becoming great piers that can hold all manner of boats. The village itself is a small one, making it's living primarily off the sea itself by fishing but it is a popular place for merchants to stop by and as such the port is typically bustling but from the deck of the ship on which you stand it seems oddly desolate. A single fishing boat rests at the lowest pier and beyond it, in the village proper, you can see another fishing boat on it's side, clearly under repair.

You knew the monsters had been growing restless of late, that was why they sent you out here after all. The hunter's guild holds a long and proud tradition of sending it's untested hunters and huntresses into these places as a trial by fire where they can start with the little tasks and work their way up to becoming fully-fledged warriors. You know a guild station is already here and has been for some time now, surveying the surrounding islands and sorting the tasks that need to be accomplished by their difficulty. The villagers will have set aside housing for you too, and a craftsman has been found who can make whatever weapons you need from whatever you manage to obtain.

In short, everything that can be prepared for you, has been. All you need to do is hunt monsters.

It's hard not to suspect that it may not be quite as simple as it sounds.

Caitlyn surveyed the scene from the ship, stood upon the deck as it came to dock. She was eager to get started and was sure this village would be a good place to start her career as a hunter. With her basic Bowgun hanging from her shoulder, the short girl steps off the ship, heading into the village itself. She makes her way to the Guild station already set up, taking a look around the village as she went. She was extremely eager to get started, wanting to dive right into a job.

Jacs sat under a tree, enjoying the coolness of the shade on her sun bronzed skin as she let the time pass idly by. She'd arrive a bit earlier and had done some scrounging and exploring before making her way to the island's craftsmen to ask them to fashion for her her weapon of choice, a gunlance. The one she'd brought with her to the island was barely more then a practice weapon and she knew it wasn't up for the task of real hunting. 'Let the land provide,' her teachers had drilled into her and aa she started her career as a proper Huntress she let their wisdom guide her, which was why she'd had nothing to do for the past few hours.

She gracefully rose to her feet, and sunlight played along her voluptuous body, lithe and powerful as it was. "Hey, there, hun," she called out to the other warrior woman. "Come here to be competition or comrade?" she purred playfully as she regarded Cat with her sparkling blue eye. Her small lips curled into a smile as she tossed her head and offered Cat a hand in welcome. "Either way... Call me Jacs... And you?" she asked favoring Cat with an amiable yet appraising gaze with her one hazel eye and one blue one, evidently just as willing to make a friend as a rival.

Cat stopped as she ran into Jacs, stopping in her tracks and turning to face the other huntress. Cat didn't quite have as good a build as Jacs but she was certainly in good shape, granted she showed off very little skin in her current outfit so was hard to tell for Jacs. Brushing the brown hair out of her own eyes, Cat took Jacs hand, shaking it. "Cat, a pleasure to meet you." She replied with a smile, slowly pulling her hand away after shaking. "Honestly prefer to be comrade, prefer not to get in anyone's way. All trying to kill monsters in the end, why fight over it?"

"Good Afternoon Jacs, and hello there honey, Cat you say? Ah, you must be the new huntress then!" The guild woman greeted both of them, trying to draw there attention from potential hostility towards each other. this wasn't her first rodeo after all and she knew how easily two hunters or huntresses working out of the same village could get at each other's throats if they weren't careful. "Now you've both arrived I can finally start giving out the quests!" She chuckled and looked between them. "The big monster out there right now is something called a Lagiacrus, but you two won't be tackling that thing right away." She smiled. "The big guy is stirring up a lot of the local beasts though, Kelbi and Jaggi in particular. Your first goal should be to thin their numbers a little bit.

The woman produced a pair of maps from somewhere beneath her counter and handed one to each huntress. "Kelbi tend to graze in Zones 1, 2, and 3 and you can find Jaggi and their caves in zones 4, 6, 7, and 8." She gave both of them a serious look. "Zone 5 is just a beach and zones 9 and 10 are all water and cliffs. If you end up going there, watch out for Ludroth, there are rumors of a royal one around and neither of you are skilled enough or equipped enough to take one of those out yet."

"Afternoon." Cat replied to the guild woman, turning to face her. Caitlyn listened, opening up the map that was handed to her. It was a fairly simple layout, quickly figuring what she wanted to do. "Avoid 5, 9, 10, got it... What's the scale on this map actually how big is zone 1 for example?" Cat asked, planning on making her way to zone 4 to hunt some Jaggi, taking some Kelbi out along the way.

"The Island is pretty rugged and the space in between the zones is mostly mountains and cliffs, so it's not to scale but the zones themselves are to scale relative to each other... Let's see..." The Guild sweetheart leaned over and pointed at the map. "Zone 8 there is about fifty meters from top to bottom so you should be able to use that to calculate the size of the rest of the zones without too much trouble."

Jacs smiled and nodded at Cat, happy to hear her words and to learn that she wasn't the sort with an ego that poisoned her reason. "Absolutely, the fell beasts are tough enough to deal with, there's no reason we should make life harder on each other," Jacs offered and was about to say more but the guild mistress made her presence known to them.

Jacs flipped her head then dipped it in a polite bow as she turned her attention to their superior. She smiled almost wistfully at hearing the talk of the Lagiacrus, dreaming fleetingly of the day when she would be mighty enough to best it. She accepted the map and looked it over and mused, "it could serve the village best if we worked outwards from it, clearing zones 1, 2 and 3 as the first order of business..." and looked Cat's way to see if such an endeavor would be something she'd be into or if she intended to hunt alone.

Fighting monsters was pretty simple with the proper equipment and training. Getting up on time though, that had always proved to be a challenge to Anya. The red head rushed through the streets, moving her way past the people in the streets and hurrying to the guild hall. She'd just got off the ship, asleep until a random sailor had found her in the cabin. He woke her, and it took her a little longer than she was proud of to remember why today was so important. The fresh class of monster hunters was out and here, chomping at the bit to get out there and prove themselves. This was a perfect area to do so, weaker monsters for them to get their experience, while stronger ones lived further from the village that they could work their way to. Of course, that all depended on if you got to the guild hall in time before all the good quests were taken.

"Here! I'm here!" the girl said in her slight accent, long, red hair settling as she bounded into the guild station. She took a couple deeper breaths to settle herself after sprinting here from the boat. Two other hunters seemed to have shown up, talking to the guildwoman. "Am I too late to get started?" she asked, slight worry in her tone and showing in her green eyes.

The Guildswoman looked surprised at the fresh arrival running up before her brow furrowed and she tugged a little sheet from under her counter. She frowned, muttering something, then reached to a small pile of letters, leafing through them until she found one that made her smile in satisfaction. "Aha!" She smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, I was notified that there would be more of you but they never sent me an complete list, you're Anya right?" She extended a hand to shake as she examined the letter again. "Hm... Well..." She reached under the counter again and pulled out another map, handing it to Anya. "Here you go, and since there's a few more of you you've enough hands that I should tell you that there's a hunter base camp in Zone 5 that you could get started on refurbishing as well, the earthquakes we think Lagiacrus has been causing have done a number to it."

Anya sighed in relief, glad she'd got here before everything had been handed out. Missing the first batch of quests and assignments would be embarrassing. What would she do until the next one? Well, no need to worry about it, she was here. Anya walked up to the counter to shake the woman's hand, giving a smile. "Yes, that's me, Anya Pirokoff," she said, taking the map and opening it to scan the area. As the woman spoke to the group, she looked to the two other huntresses and smiled. "Like I said, I'm Anya, nice to meet the two of you," she said to the two people that it seemed she'd be working with now. They had a real mission now, getting to Zone 5 and fixing up the camp there, along with taking care of any dangerous monsters they found along the way. With the grin that wasn't leaving her face, it wasn't hard to see that Anya was excited.

Cat watched Anya arrive, giving a small dip of her head in greeting to the girl as the guild woman explained to her. She turned her attention back to Jacs as the girl came up with her idea, slowly nodding as she listened. "Sounds fine and dandy, together should be able to clear out those zones fairly well I wager." The gunner replied with a smile, looking forward to starting their hunt.

"Excellent!" The guildwoman clapped her hands together and smiled at the three huntresses. "Well the day is young yet so you should be able to get some work in if you'd like. There's a little temporary camp with a few supplies -medical supplies, tracking markers, things like that. We can't afford more than a few items for each of you to use per hunt but they should be enough for the early hunts at least." She hesitated and then shuffled slowly. "Well, off you go then? If there are any other hunters on the boat I'll do what I can for them since you three ought to have these quests well in hand."

Jacqs nodded her welcome to Anya, tapped just above her right breast and said, "'m Jacqs..." softly so as not to interrupt as the guildmistress was speaking. She eyed the newcomer with an amiable and appraising look then smiled as she turned her attention back to their elder. She got a pensive look as she heard of the temporty camp and what it contained, but looked happy to be receiving the support the village could offer.

"Well... Let's go to... I just need to stop by the weaponsmith for m'gun lance and we can be off, ladies. Mistress, we will do our best for the village," Jacqs said with a happy lilt in her voice as she got up and headed to gather her gear. She cast her eyes back at the other two and said, "coming with... Or meet at the village gate?"

"Will be sure to make the best use of these supplies, thank you." Caitlyn said the to guildwoman before turnig her attention back to Jacs. "I think I'll join you, better than standing around at the gate." Cat replied, reusecuring her Bowgun to her shoulder before following the woman along.

Anya smiled and nodded a greeting to her fellow huntresses, glad to have some people to work with. They seemed as new as she was, so they were in this together. She listened to the guildwoman finish her briefing, letting them know there were some supplies they could use. The guild supported their people pretty well, training them, paying them, the supplies, it was great to have them behind them, especially considering how dangerous their job truly was: killing monsters.

"Thanks, we'll do you proud," she said, giving a nod to the woman before moving to follow her new partners. "I'll come along, be good to look around the village," she said, continuing along with the other two. "So, are you both excited to finally be on a mission?"

The guildswoman waved to the huntresses as they departed before settling back onto a stool with a sigh. "Three new huntresses at once..." She watched as the women retreated towards the island proper. "They're going to be a handful..."

It was only a matter of steps across the village square before the three huntresses were setting their feet onto the stone steps leading up towards where the craftsman's hut stood. It was the only building in the village that was built on the island itself rather than perched above the ocean, a feature brought about by the need for a solid foundation for the forge set into the side of the building. The craftsman was standing at the forge as the huntresses spoke, hefting a hammer that seemed far larger than a person his size ought to be able to lift and a gunlance in the other. "Just in time..." He murmured to himself as the he saw the trio moving towards him. "Looks like I'll finally be able to get to proper work with hunting in full swing."

Beyond the stone hut and forge a solid fence interrupted by a wooden archway perched at the peak of a small pass leading inland beckons towards the first hunting zone marked on the map.

Caitlyn had little business at the craftsmen so decided to leave everyone be for now. Heading for the fences she walked for the main gate, between the archway in the fence. As she reaches the gate she considers waiting for them but shrugs, she wouldn't be going too fast, anyone else should easily catch up... Besides in her mind this hunt should be easy enough.

Cat exited the town and began her trek through the first zone. She pulled out and loaded her Bowgun as she began the hunt. She wasn't expecting much trouble from the beasts in this area, but it never hurt to be cautious.

Walking through the gate takes the huntresses into a wide open area that looks out over the sea. A small herd of a half dozen Kelbi are grazing off to the right where a few low shrubs lurk against a raised ledge while directly ahead one can look over the cliff and see the paths that lead down it's face towards zones two, five and beyond.

To the left of the trail down the cliff, another path winds through the canyons and deeper into the island, towards Zone three, beyond which lie the cave zones four and seven as well as another path along the streambed towards zone two.

Caitlyn moves towards the shrubs near the heard of Kelbi, doing her best to not be noticed by the heard yet. The hunter takes cover in the shrub, taking her time to line herself up, aiming down the barrel of her Bowgun. She patiently waits till she can get a good shot on one of the larger members of the herd. Once she's confident she has the shot, she pulls the trigger, firing an arrow aimed at the neck of the Kelbi. Not even waiting to see if she hit, she reloads again, hoping she's fast enough before the Kelbi run off.

The Kelbi watched the huntress warily as she emerged into the sunlight but were apparently more concerned with their food. It had been some time since hunters and huntresses stalked the beasts of the island and it showed in their laxity even as Caitlyn's bowgun gleamed from the shrubbery at them. Not understanding the significance of the weapon's appearance, the herd remained still until the whip-crack sound of the bowstring snapping forwards echoed through the air and the first of them went down with an arrow in it's neck.

The females and young of the herd began to stampede immediately, proving tales of their surefootedness true as they charged along the edge of the cliff without so much as a single fall. The males however covered for their weaker herd, three of them charging towards Caitlyn's position with horns lowered.

Caitlyn quickly began backing up, firing a second shot at one of the charging males. She hadn't quite expected them to attack, but wasn't too suprised. She just took her shot and tried to reload and fire again before they reached her, still backing away from them as she worked.

The shot took one of the males on the forehead, sending the charging creature crashing to the ground as it's legs tangled. Even if the shot hadn't killed it (for Kelbi were notoriously hardheaded) the fall crippled it at the very least and the way it lay so still on it's side told Caitlyn that it was unconscious at the very least, more likely dead. The other two males leapt the bushes before Caitlyn managed to reload but the abandonment of her hiding place to back away gave her some room yet, space to squeeze off one last shot before they would be upon her.

Cat quickly got her last shot ready, aiming and firing at the closest of the two males. At this points she waited for the last male to get close before rolling to the side. She hoped the Kelbi wasn't great at changing direction mid charge, she needed to buy herself more time or atleast stop it to fight it.

Adeliza was told by the Guild Woman to go and catch up with a group heading to Zone 5, and being a little ball of energy she is, Liza rush out from the building and went running too the gate. Passing people as she ran, sometime going over or under them if they got in the way. Causing quite a uproar of annoy people shouting at her, at least she said sorry to them. Didn't change their attitude though, but she was more busy catching up with the Hunters.

When she rushed pass the gateway and into a open field, which overlook the sea from a cliff edge. Adeliza may have a lot of energy for someone her size, but they're a limit and she just about there as she stopped to take a short breather. Her dainty hands resting on her lap as she pant heavily, then rummage through her pack and pull out an energy drink. She chug it down as she felt herself becoming re-energize and with a long content sigh, Liza stuff the empty bottle back in her pack. But before she could continue though, she heard the faint sound of a bowgun being fired and then another. Being curious, Liza headed toward the source to find someone some yards away fighting with two charging Kelbi. The person fired another shot before rolling away from the one still standing, the other one falling from that last shot.

Feeling the urge to help her out, Adeliza ran down toward them as she unsheathe her blades. Running past the huntress as she charged at the Kelbi, bracing her two swords in a X-shape. Then strike at it with a cross slash once it was in arm reach, following it up with a series of other strikes once her first attack had made contact.