[center][img]https://www.mariowiki.com/images/thumb/b/b2/Koopa_Troop_artwork.png/658px-Koopa_Troop_artwork.png[/img] [h2][color=FD0000]The Koopa Troop[/color][/h2] [b][color=FD0000]wordcount:[/color][/b] 3,110 (+3) [b][color=FD0000]Bowser: Level 5 [/color][/b] EXP:[color=FD0000]///////////////////////////[/color]/////////////////////// (27/50) [b][color=SpringGreen]Bowser Jr: Level 3 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=SpringGreen]///////////////////////////[/color]/// (27/30) [b][color=DeepSkyBlue]Kamek: Level 3 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=DeepSkyBlue]//////////////[/color]//////////////// (14/30) [b]Level 5 Tora[/b] - (11/50) EXP and [b]Level 4 Poppi[/b] - (10/40) EXP [b][color=FD0000]Location:[/color][/b] Land of Adventure: Canyon Forest [/center] The female Baurun nosed around the forest with the rest of the herd. Occasionally it used its tusks to dig up plump root vegetables but mostly it was gorging itself on herbs, berries and other easily accessible nutritious plants. Out the corner of its eye the boar like creature spotted something red and shiny moving. Its eyes darted to the movement only to find an apple now laying in the grass some way away from the other swine. The delicious, and normally inaccessible treat. The Baurun nonchalantly wandered over in the direction of the fruit so as to avoid alerting the others of the existence of its prize. Once there it carefully edged closer to the fruit, jaws opening wide to grasp it when suddenly. [i]*boom*[/i] The pig startled at the distant explosion, flinching away from the fruit just in time to avoid having its skull pierced by a long energy claw that came spearing its way out of a neary bush. The extended finger remained pointing at the Baurun for half a second before it squealed and hurriedly backed off. [color=SpringGreen]”oh come on!”[/color] Yelled bowser jr as his head popped out of the bush, which was followed moments later by Kamek and Bowser’s heads. [color=SpringGreen]”Stupid stupid explotions!”[/color] he continued, but any additional complaints were drowned out by the rapidly increasing sound of hooves pounding dirt floor. [color=DeepSkyBlue]”I recommend we flee”[/color] Kamek suggested, before taking his own advice and turning tail. The two royals were hot on his heels as the Baurun herd rallied to defend its attacked member, becoming first a trickle and then a torrent of muscle and fur that stampeded after the turtles invading their home. [color=FD0000]”Useless minions, left us with the hard job,”[/color] The rather small Bowser breathlessly bemoaned as he rapidly fell behind his two flying relatives as broom and clown car they weaved through the dense trees before escaping out into the open air. [color=FD0000]”Almost. There”[/color] he grunted to himself before the horned Baurun smacked into his back. Armored shell and forward momentum kept him in once piece, but the king was nonetheless ejected from the forest rather than escaping it. The king tumbled out of the woods flailing wildly before a clawed hand stabbed into the ground, arresting his rolling exit and he began to grow rapidly, dark magic and enlarge spell gripping his body now that he was free of the cramped forest. He quickly enlarged to a size where he dwarfed both the Baurun and trees alike before roaring angrily at their pursuers. The buff swine seemed unimpressed. This was, afterall, the third time they’d chased the koopas out of their home and they would not be leaving the safety of the forest any time soon. After a bit of snorting and hoof stamping they returned to the woods while the king struggled to control his temper. [color=DeepSkyBlue]”Remember to refrain from using your fire Sire. we’ll need the plants un incinerated after we handle the Baurun. So the last thing we want is a forest fire.”[/color] Kamek reminded his king from where he hovered. Once the swine left he lowered his wand and released the spell he had caste upon Bowser. [color=FD0000]”I know”[/color] Bowser growled as he shrunk back down. [color=DeepSkyBlue]”and we can’t just demolish them all because we need undamaged sprites”[/color] [color=FD0000]”I know!”[/color] [color=SpringGreen]”Gah! we’ve been at this for ages”[/color] jr complained from his clown car, leaning back in frustration with his nose to the sky. [color=SpringGreen]”and whoever keeps blowing stuff up ruined every plan you had”[/color] He paused for a moment to think before declaring: [color=SpringGreen]”So I’m gonna go deal with that instead of wasting any more time!”[/color] The prince pushed himself upright, grabbed the controls of his car and turned it up and away, flying towards the canyon. [color=DeepSkyBlue]”Young master it’s only been 5 minuits! Have more patience, we’ll think of a winning plan soon enough”[/color] Kamek called after him before sighed and pinching the bridge of his nose. [color=FD0000]”Come on.”[/color] Bowser grunted, before stomping off after his son inorder to make sure he didn't get hurt by whatever kept blowing up. Up and ahead jr had flown down into the ravine, following a rough path down its side a ways underground. After a minute or two, he discovered what he was looking for. He had not only found out what was making the explosions, but he had found two of their minions(Tora & Poppi), one of whom was being followed by a strange cubic four legged green creature with a very tall torso. Seeing an opportunity, and missing the fact that Tora was leading the creeper rather than being chased, jr pressed down the control stick of his clown copter and swooped in to the rescue. As he approached he flicked one of many switches on its control console, causing a single arm to extend out one side of the car. Rather than the usual boxing gloves or more dangerous power tools this arm instead had the [url=https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/warframe/images/c/c0/U10InfPrimary.png/revision/latest?cb=20130914111405]Synapse[/url] living rifle mounted on it. Or, perhaps more accurately, growing on it. [color=SpringGreen]”Take this!”[/color] jr cried as they tumbed a trigger on the control stick, causing a series of wires running along the arm to pull the flesh trigger of the gun without having to handle the disgusting thing. A beam of lightning shot out, streaming wildy through the air as Jr struggled to aim his new lopsided weapon setup. Rather than being properly focused on it’s target the continuous electrical beam slashed across the creeper several times before it ran out of energy and needed to recharge. As the meat gun was pulled back into the clown car it became clear that rather than being harmed the monster seemed to have had absorb the energy, being engulfed in an ominous [url=https://gamepedia.cursecdn.com/minecraft_gamepedia/0/0d/Charged_Creeper.png?version=2665a046fbac57fdee3b57c258453757]Blue aura[/url]. [color=SpringGreen]”Uhhhh. I meant to do that!”[/color] Jr insisted as he hovered there unhelpful. Though somewhat surprised to be joined by an unexpected ally at this juncture, Tora and Poppi appreciated his help, right up until it became clear his efforts hindered rather than helping. At first Tora thought that Junior was merely mucking up his work, unaware of his strategy, but when the creeper lit up with crackling electric power, it became clear that the Koopa’d done something much worse. “Uh oh meh,” the Nopon said, raising his shield and hunkering down behind it. Poppi responded by going full throttle, glowing gold as power surged into her Masterpon’s defense, and just in time. [i]KOOOM[/i]! The charged creeper detonated with a deafening blast, throwing Tora and Poppi back like a football and a bowling pin. Their defenses mitigated the damage done to them, but the surrounding environment wasn’t so lucky. So enormous was the creeper’s explosion that, when the dust cleared, a circular cavern a couple dozen feet in diameter had been carved into the surrounding stone. Now looking more than a little worse for wear, Tora glanced around blearily. “Urk. Is Poppi okay?” Pulling herself out from under him, the artificial blade nodded. She looked less than pleased, as though she’d seen this exact event coming from a mile away. When she turned to glare daggers at Bowser Jr, however, she found herself distracted by the wealth of ores and gems lying about on the ground, including a few her team had yet to encounter. Tora noticed her silence and followed her gaze. Poppi noticed and turned away, but it was too late. With a look of vindictive glee on his face, the Nopon scurried over and scooped up a green crystal in his wing. He held it up to the light filtering through from the ravine and watched it glow a beautiful emerald. “Meeeh, so pretty-pretty,” he said, grinning as he started to dust himself off. “Tora call that job well done.” A thumbs-up went Junior’s way. “Littlepon very big genius!” [color=SpringGreen]”Heck yeah I am!”[/color] jr replied proudly as he hovered down to the crater to inspect the riches revealed. [color=DeepSkyBlue]”Young master are you alright!”[/color] Kemek called as he caught up with the prince. [color=SpringGreen]”Yeah yeah I’m fine.”[/color] Jr waved kamek off while another picked up one of the crystals. [color=SpringGreen]”Turns out all the explosions where the marshmallow blowing himself to dig stuff up.”[/color] he explained as he examined his prize Jr looked at the green glowing stone thoughtfully, then began tossing it up and down as he looked at the crater, then at another of the green monsters lurking in the distance and then finally at Kamek. A grin split his lips while he rubbed his hands together. While the prince had been scheming his father arrived, stomping across the canyon floor to join the group. The king took a moment to take in the scene before flicking a hand towards Tora and Poppi. Heel the Rabbid materialised on his shoulder, rna down his arm and then hopped down to scrub away their very mild injuries with a few bursts of healing energy from its backpack. [color=FD0000]”What’s going on here?”[/color] the king asked as his minion worked its magic. [color=SpringGreen]”I’ve got a way to rake in the ore and gems fast as lightning!”[/color] Jr announced triumphantly. [hr] Whatever alien thoughts a creature that existed only to explode where interrupted as the creeper was splattered with ink. With a hiss it turned to face its attacker, finding a floating vehicle with two arms sticking out the side. One had a super soaker filled with a black liquid while the other was engulfed in an organism that suddenly blasted it with lightning. Whether it was pleased about the fact that it became supercharged by the attack or was even aware of the charge was unknown. Nor was it clear if the face jr pulled while sticking his tongue out at it registered at all but it began to chase after him regardless. The living mining explosive successfully supercharged and baited jr turned his car towards the nearby cliff face. Atop it, hiding behind a pile of rocks, hid the rest of the party. As the sound of jr’s heli car came closer bowser and kamek’s heads popped out behind their barricade. [color=FD0000]”Hit it!”[/color] the king commanded and the mage obayed [color=DeepSkyBlue]”cats eye and rotten fungus, this spell will make you humongous!”[/color] Kamek waved his want in a circle and then sent a blast of magic down into the canyon towards the creeper. After a couple of heartbeats it struck the creature. For a moment nothing happened. Then the creeper began to grow. And grow. And grow. The determined stroll became a series of thumping stomps as it continued its way through the new tunnel towards them. Tora and Poppi’s eyes grew wide. Having collected the last of their ores and crystals, they fled as fast as they could. Poppi took off once she had enough headroom, flying out of the hollowed-out zone to hover in the open space of the ravine. She extended a hand, and Tora jumped to take it before the two boosted upward to a safe distance. [color=SpringGreen]”Goombart! Now!”[/color] jr yelled as he joined the party, landing his flying cart behind the rocky formation and joining them to keep an eye on the proceedings. At his command a lone goomba scurried out from where he had been hiding in an earlier created hole. “Hay! Hay! I’m walking here! Look at me! Hay” the unlucky goomba striker shouted at the titanic walking bomb as he changed its side and tackled it’s now massive leg. “Hay you lanky Bobom wanna be you wanna go!” the goomba yelled as he picked himself up before seeing the creeper looking right at him. “Hiss” went the creeper, its green flesh pulsing white “Ho boy” Once, twice, thrice, went the flashes, growing faster and brighter each time. Yet the fuse was also burned down more slowly and far more ominously than a normal sized creeper would have done so. While the prince and mage watched the impending detonation with manic yes bowser grabbed them both, pulled them down behind the rock and wrapped his arms around their protesting forms, placing his shell and the rock between them and the creeper as the flashes became a blinding strobe light. [b][i]KABOOM[/i][/b]!!!! The ear-shattering noise heralded the arrival of a cataclysmic explosion. Tons and tons of stone turned to dust, filling the tunnels, the ravine, and finally shooting out into the forest itself. It took a good while for the dust to begin to settle, and when it did, a hundred-foot diameter sphere had been hollowed from the rock. Water, stained gray, pooled in the bottom, collecting the resources displaced by the blast. Not only metals and gems, but a few spirits gathered together there, accidental byproducts of the devastation. There were [url=https://static.planetminecraft.com/files/resource_media/screenshot/1246/Bat_4136983.jpg]bats[/url], [url=https://www.pngfind.com/pngs/m/433-4332895_blue-goomba-haunted-areas-blue-goombas-are-goombas.png]underground goombas[/url], [url=https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/2007scape/images/1/1f/Cave_slime.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/350?cb=20151113022740]slimes[/url], [url=https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/dragonquest/images/4/47/DQVIII_-_Metal_slime.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/200?cb=20151003082329]more slimes[/url], and a strange [url=https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/soulsplit-rsps/images/c/cc/Cave_crawler.png/revision/latest?cb=20131116200810]creature[/url]. As the air continued to clear, Tora and Poppi returned, Poppi’s jets causing some billowing as she arrived. Her sack of materials was at the ready, and she went to work. Tora, however, waved the others over first. “Meh meh meh! As exciting as that was, Tora not think we should try again. Is more than enough goody-goodies anyway.” With that he joined her, hurriedly stuffing stuff into his sack. The koopas went down with them. While the others picked through the rubble for loot Jr summoned his squads of koopa troopas and goombas to hurriedly gather up as much of the goods as possible for him, the minions dump them into the clown car's interior while the boy himself absorbed the blue goomba sprites to add them to his army. Some worrying rumbles continued well after the blast’s shockwave would have died, and the Nopon suspected that what remained of the ceiling might not be holding up for much longer. His suspicions proved correct when the ceiling began to shed. At first, only little pieces fell down, but soon chunks began to rain as well. Tora looked up, only to get bopped on the head. “Ouch, meh! Time to go!” He flung his sack over his back, turned tail, and rushed back toward the way leading up. Poppi and the koopas followed behind with goods in tow. They made it with only a few moments to spare. Enormous slabs of rock and dirt smashed into the ground behind them as they ascended, leaving the cave-in behind. Noise filled the air, and tremors the earth, until an entire section of the forest itself collapsed into the ground, trees and all. Granted, plenty of forest remained, but the manmade disaster still rattled the heroes through and through. Panting, Tora wiped dust from his eyes and brushed it from his feathers. “Meeeeeh. Tora not think simple mining job get so big or dangerous.” Poppi eyed the koopas and their accompanying sorcerer. “We are thankful for help, but help so dangerous that Poppi cannot condone. Please be less reckless.” Still, she bore a weary smile. “Did smith ladies also send to mine?” [color=SpringGreen]”No way that was amazing!”[/color] jr replied as he began sorting through the assorted loot his minions had gathered. An unfortunate amount of the items where regular stones but there were still plenty of goodies. [color=DeepSkyBlue]”It was perhaps a touch excessive.”[/color] Kamek admitted sheepishly as he dusted off his robes. None of the koopa troop were concerned about the unnatural disaster they had wrought in the slightest, but the cave in had been a bit too close of a call for Kamke’s tastes. A small bag of sprites gathered from the crater hung from the front of his broom which he picked through as he explained that [color=DeepSkyBlue]”We were mostly passing by during another quest. We’re doing some work for the guild in town, trying to get in their good books so we can use their knowledge and contacts to track down the area boss. To do so we and the rest of the team are doing quests to climb their ranking system and reaping some quest rewards in the process.”[/color] The mage picked the quest cards out of a pocket and showed them to pair. [color=DeepSkyBlue]”we need to do two of these before they condone us going after the ‘Terror of the plains’ quest. The saurian it mentions might be a guardian of Galeem, or it might just be a strong miniboss. Either way it’s a good way to gain influence in the area while powering up in the process.”[/color] [color=DeepSkyBlue]”We came here to the forest to do part of the ‘Food for the hungry’ Quest. There's quite the extensive grocery list involved that people are handling into various parts of as they come across them.”[/color] kamek explained as he began crushing the cave slime sprites, fishing for the slime gelatin item on the list. [color=DeepSkyBlue]”but we came over here to investigate the explosions. Then helped out seeing as the ladies left their quest with the guild.”[/color] [color=FD0000]”AND BECAUSE NEEDING TO USE ’PRECISION’ TO TAKE DOWN THE BEASTS IS A PAIN IN THE BUTT”[/color] Bowser complained while the hammer bro’s picked through the massive fistfuls of materials he had brought up out of the crater. [color=FD0000]”I’M NOT BUILT FOR PRECISION! I’M BUILT FOR CAUSING DEVASTATION!”[/color] [color=DeepSkyBlue]”That too. The boar and bull like baurun have been proving quite the tricky opponents to take down properly”[/color] Kamek explained. The news left Tora and Poppi thoughtful. “So to hunt, need precision?” Tora confirmed. Frowning, Poppi said, “Not our strength, either. In fact, of all of former friends, masterpon and Poppi probably least precise. Primary output is blunt force, after all. If only friends Morag or Zeke were here…” A sigh escaped Tora. From time to time his friends escaped his mind, but he never really forgot. Rex and Pyra, Nia and Dromarch, Morag and Brighid, Zeke and Pandoria...how much longer would it be before the lot of them reunited? The urge to resume his search struck him, but he had a duty to uphold. Since Bowser’s group helped with his quest, he needed to return the favor. He put his mind to the task, reviewing the grocery list handed to him, and after a moment of consideration said, “Would be best to use lance or arrows. Or firearms.” A glance at Kamek’s bag prompted a third idea. “Maybe break spirits until we get one. But no, meh. Precision take skill too. Better to get plants and eggs and things, then find someone with right skills to tackle beasts.” Everyone concurred, and split up to scrounge the forest for less-mobile goods. Even with the cave-in, the ravine provided a good chance to drum up cave commodities like mushrooms, and the field of wild wheat waited to the forest’s south whenever the crew moved on. [hider=loot] Troop crushed 5 cave slimes, 2 metal slimes, 1 cave crawler and 1 creeper sprites and aquired: [url=https://gamepedia.cursecdn.com/minecraft_gamepedia/1/16/Slimeball.png]Slime Ball[/url] x6 Gooey, bouncy, sticky, edible? Is there anything slime isn't good for? [url=https://gamepedia.cursecdn.com/minecraft_gamepedia/9/93/Bottle_o%27_Enchanting.png]Bottled Experience[/url] A glowing tincture of distilled knowledge, muscle memory, and familiarity. It tastes like aged blood, sweat, and tears, but if it grants 3 EXP, does that really matter? [url=https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/runescape2/images/3/30/Cave_crawler_skin_detail.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/350?cb=20120511034713]Cave Crawler Skin[/url] A sturdy, water-resistant hide that can be prepared with salt and tanned it make high-quality material [url=https://gtalogo.com/img/2773.png]Bomb[/url] Heavy, but can be rolled around a little. The fuse lights itself once it's dropped, and it will only blow up when the fuse runs out, not on contact. Good for blowing up rocks and opening sealed doors [/hider]