Kharg's Stomping Grounds

The group with Kaen, Wuppo, Taro and Seijo would have had a relatively easy voyage to the forest although as they left the last official path laid out by the tains men, they would cross into the unknown plains called Østfold before entering into the southern part of huge forest betweeen them and the ocean to the east. However as they did they did, they would have to not only be careful about the creatures that lived here but also the bandits that sometimes roamed these forests as the crooked city of Svarthafen lay only just a little bit more to the south. Right now the team would need to find a proper way through the forest where pathways were quite sparse.

Seijo's part in their travels had mostly consisted of keeping a relatively safe distance from the beast that traveled with them. Being assigned to work with such an eyesore was insulting, but he did what he could from instigating an argument. After all, at the very least they might get the beasts to kill one-another, and save everyone the trouble of having to deal with it. Yet as they reached the beginnings of their destination, he listened quietly to Kaen's questions, although turned his one-eyed glare towards Wuppo as the dumb brute fumbled through its broken attempts at speech.

"Be silent, beast, you will speak when spoken to. If you can call that butchering grunt speech at all." After a moment of scanning the area himself, with Izanami watching him placidly, he gave a curt nod. "Visibility will likely be low, even from the treetops. If it is a giant we're hunting, we may be quicker finding it, than it will be finding us. I expect the distance it navigates is fairly wide, which means bait may not catch its attention so soon. In fact, we might catch the attention of the nearby bandits first. They'll know the land better than we do, but I doubt they'll go near Kharg."

After a moment of consideration, however, he added "If we do find bandits, try and capture one alive, if possible. They probably have ways of avoiding the monster, and if they can avoid it, it means they at least somewhat know where it is."

Kaen sort of understood the ramblings of the ogre "He does have a point. If it as big as you say than this a thing is than it would probably create it's own way through the forest. Kinda like you getting into buildings with small doors." He pointed out asthat he continued the walk looking for signs of the apparently massive creature.

Kaen sighed at Seijo's attitude towards Wuppo. He had slowed down a bit now walking beside Seijo. Not much of an opinion of him yet, but treating any being the way Seijo does is something Kaen cannot stand for "Look. I can probably guess you aren't a fan of Wuppo here but he is our version of a walking a tree. Whenever you like it or not. Besides I'd image Hizashi-sama has a reason for sending him." Kaen sighed again "But I agree it might draw a few bandits. Which is fine. Two birds with one stone. They might even know where it could be."

Kaen looked over at the young monk "A spotter might be useful. With a big beast I'd imagine it's path could be spotted by breaks in the tree line... Just don't fall." He said walking up to Taro. Keeping pace with him. Kaen chuckled to himself at this band of Tawakoshi misfits they assembled for this hunt, but who knows it might forge new alliances.

Kaen turned to Wuppo "As a hunter yourself what would a beast like this hunt for?"

Seijo's rudeness didn't seem at all out of place to Wuppo. For the longest time, humans fit into two categories for the ogre; humans that were afraid of him, and humans that tried to kill him. This was simply the result of being the only thing like himself the small number of villagers near his cave had ever seen. However when Wuppo's friend, 'Da Wize Otta', declared Wuppo a protected being, another type of human cropped out of the declaration - humans that hated him. In the instant that Wuppo had learned friendship, he'd also learned hatefulness, as the ones that would have tried to kill him before were now unable to. This is what Seijo was to Wuppo. A human that would have tried to kill him before, but was now happy with being rude and hateful instead. To the ogre, it didn't seem like a bad trade-off at all.

"Hmmm.." Kaen's words seemed to spur Wuppo on to deeper thought as he continued to scratch his chin with his rock. "Wuppo big! Most big fing in wood near Wuppo cave. Dis furry big! Most big fing in wood here. Wuppo an' big furry da same.." he looked around again briefly. "We'z fine da big furry here like we'z fine da Wuppo at him cave. You'z fine da Wuppo sleep, or you'z fine da Wuppo eat. Wuppo not make da sleep when not dark.. So Wuppo eat! Wuppo like da eat."

The irony of comparing himself to the beast the party was hunting for after Seijo had called him a beast was completely lost on Wuppo as he appeared to be trying to think like Kharg. Wuppo once again smelled of the air, and what might be a faint smell to a human unmistakably and distinctly filled his giant nostrils.

"Dis!" he exclaimed loudly and pointed his scratching rock off to the party's left. "Wuppo smell da eat! Dem burny bits! Dem little furry! Dis way!" In his excitement at the prospect of finding Kharg, or perhaps just food, Wuppo seemed to be struggling more than usual with his speech. The ogre stomped through the underbrush with assured purpose to follow his nose, not unlike a determined hunting dog might once it had picked up a scent... If hunting dogs were bipedal and 10-feet-tall, that is.

The tension toward Seijo was palpable. Though Taro couldn't have cared less as long as they got through the hunt, he was starting to doubt that was going to be the case with the man's attitude. He would have to watch him, just a bit.

In the meantime, he chased down after Wuppo, taking in a breath to try and get a whiff of what he was speaking about. Low and behold... there! What did he call it? Those burny bits. A fire. So the bandits were closer than they could have guessed!

"Seijo, Kaen," called Taro, trying to get their attention. "Wuppo is going to be loud no matter what he does, right? Much louder than us. No one is even going to look at us with him nearby. Shouldn't we use that to our advantage?"

With a grin, he pointed up ahead. "Let's skirt around, lay low, let Wuppo stroll into wherever this camp will be. He'll draw all the attention and then we can pick them off."

As Wuppo rushed forwards towards the smoke he would very quickly find that not all the ground trembled as he ran - in fact suddenly the ground seemed give in beneath his large weight distorted around him as nothing but air stood between Wuppo and a twenty feet fall down into the pit. A pit the had clearly been constructed for this very use with a net covered in leaves and branches to lure the unaware 'prey' into this prison of dirt with vertical walls of hard-to-climb clay.

The trap seemed to trigger the awareness of the Tawakoshi team as the bandits were closer than they might have thought before. An arrowed rushed forwards and tore through the shoulder of Izanami landing at an almost 45 degree angle in the the ground indicating the approximate whereabouts of the archer to in one of the trees. Other arrows were fired shortly after towards both Taro and the suspicious mist that had gathered with Kaen as center and it would seem that at least a handful archers were out for them.

As Wuppo's giant feet laid heavy pounding footsteps through the trees, suddenly something gave way under his immense weight. The ogre found himself free-falling twice his height down a hole that was at least 15-feet across to the other side - far too wide for him to grab the other side as he fell. Wuppo yelled as he toppled over forward into the hole, and instinctively put his arms out in front of him to break his fall. He landed (more like flopped) painfully down onto the clay floor beneath. His outstretched hands hit the ground first, which collapsed to hit his chest and face against the ground, and finally his legs and feet. On the ground, Wuppo groaned and rolled on his back. He crossed his hands over his chest and held his arms in sort of a 'self-hug' as he simply lay there with the wind knocked out of him for a long moment. His first clear thought was for the condition of the jade green silk jacket he had been given to keep him warm, but that was quickly drowned out by the sound of the others above. This wasn't a hole he simply fell in - it was a trap. An ambush.

Wuppo got to his feet, perhaps a little wobbly at first, but steadied himself on the wall of the hole. He looked up, and jumped with his arms outstretched towards the sky, but alas the hole was too deep for him to grab the edge and pull himself out. The ogre looked around, and found nothing in the hole but him and the rock he'd been using to scratch himself with. He picked up his rock again, and scratched his chin in thought. Suddenly, he looked at the rock in his hand, and then up at the wall of the hole he'd fallen into. It was natural hard-packed clay, and would be nearly impossible for him to climb.. but he might be able to give himself a leg up by hammering something into it.

His right hand reached down to his side for his club. Wuppo never went anywhere without his club, and didn't even need to look down to pull it free of the short length of homemade cordage he used to keep it tied around his waist. He gripped the club in the middle of its length, and reached as high above his head as he could. With a grunt he jammed the handle (the narrowest part) into the wall of the hole. He then used his rock to pound the head of the club several times, beating it into the wall like a hardened wood spike. Once the club was beaten into the wall of the hole enough, Wuppo dropped his rock and grabbed onto his club - now stuck in the wall - with both hands. He pulled himself up, using his bare feet to help scrambled, kick and push his way up to his club. Wuppo couldn't jump very high, but was strong enough to pull himself up to his club, and loop one leg around the wooden handle sticking out of the wall. From there, it was only about another 6 feet to the top of the hole, which he was able to reach up and, with a little stretching and pushing, grab with one hand. One hand gave him the ability to get the other, and Wuppo pulled himself up again - using his feet to push against the club and finally get him back up to the surface once more.

The ogre crawled out of the hole, remaining on the ground for the time being as the ambush was now in full swing.

Kaen groaned at them suddenly losing a tactical advantage. Luckily Taro had a trick up his sleeve using the winds with such mastery, Kaen was actually impressed. He had debated on introducing Arashi, his younger sister to Taro, maybe they could learn new tricks from each other seeing as she could manipulate wind as well. Kaen tossed the thought aside for the time being as he now had a job to do. These bandits picked the wrong group to ambush.

Kaen smirked under his hood, his eyes glowing like gems in the light of a fire. He started to run, in a zig-zag pattern as to avoid further arrows. He clapped his hands to gather pulling some fog from his kimono, he circled it in the air, it looked to get even denser in the ball and he threw it up in the air. He looked to where Taro went "Spread it out!" He said keeping the fog just above Wuppos height of 10 feet. Covering the trees, hopefully limiting the eyesight of the hidden bandits.

Kaen pulled the water from his swords gem and hovered it by his left hip, he reached into the ball of water pulling a sliver of now ice out and threw it in the general direction of the arrow, he kept throwing ice arrows until he reached Taro. "And here I thought we were hunting something." Kaen chuckled as he was now side by side with Taro, taking cover behind a tree. "Let's see if they will move positions."

By the time the bandits' arrows were on the way to Wuppo, the ogre was already stretching to reach his club still stuck in the wall of the hole he'd just climbed out of. With some wiggling and a good overhand smack, he managed to be able to pull his club free of its dirt prison. Wuppo wouldn't know how close he'd come to being hit by the arrows, or that Taro had likely saved him from serious injury - if not his life. Wuppo stood, and only now could assess the condition of his brand new jade green padded silk jacket. It was dirtied, and had some tears in it from his fall and subsequent climb back up. The ogre bared his teeth in a quietly building rage, and looked up to the trees as the thick fog set in just above his head.

Club in hand, Wuppo moved with purpose over to the stand of trees he'd seen the bandits in just moments before, and breathed deeply in through his nose, and out through his mouth. His nostrils flared as he did it again, sucking in as much air as his lungs could hold before exhaling through his mouth, all the while looking up at the dense fog.

"Wize Otta gives Wuppo nice fing!" he said in his loud booming voice that echoed off the trees, "Nice fing make Wuppo soft!". With the last word in his sentence, Wuppo swung his club at a tree. His white knuckle grip on his bludgeoning instrument bashed into the side of the tree, shaking it and and cracking a hunk of its bark away.

"Make Wuppo warm!" he was almost shouting now, and held his club in both hands as he continued his assault on the tree. He used his ogre strength to bash the tree again in the same place, spending wooden splinters in all directions as the wood under the bark began to yield.

"YOU'Z HURT WUPPO, AN' YOU'Z HURT WUPPO SOFT GREEN!" Another two-handed swing from the enraged ogre just above Wuppo's waist, and the tree's structure was compromised with a cloud crack. Wuppo threw down his club angrily, and charged the few feet between him and the battered tree. His feet dug into the earth as his shoulder impacted the trunk above the place the ogre had been bashing it, and after a moment the tree finally relented. Wuppo tackled the tree to the ground, going down with it himself.

Wuppo got to his feet again, scooping up his club in the process. He began the process of climbing over the underbrush and limbs of the now downed tree. "Wuppo SMASH! Wuppo make POT! I'Z STUFF YOU IN POT!" he continued his barely coherent ranting, shouting at the top of his lungs as he moved towards the top of the tree - not even yet sure if there was a bandit in the foliage to suffer his wrath.