[SP-F9] Bandit Camp

[Mack 0]

Mack stood on a small rise of land overlooking a small encampment comprised of four sleeping rolls. The red headed giant had been contracted to address the problems of a small group of NPC bandits that were controlling this particular patch of the ninth floor. Ordinarily, that wouldn't really have been much of a problem. But, this stretch of the floor also happened to be one of the prime hunting spots on the ninth floor. Mack knew, of course, that this was a quest. But, it was one of those quests that needed to be periodically wiped out in order to prevent any inconvenience from befalling the actual players of Sword Art Online as they worked, floor by floor, to clear the game and escape from their digital prison. Rolling his head around on his neck, Mack limbered up and then reached back over his shoulder to wrap his hand around the haft of Invictus.

[Mack 0]

ID: 50492
MD: 9 (One Roll for All Bandits, we all know Mack isn't stealthing this)
CD: 7 (Regen Activates)
Mack: 121/121 (21-66=1 DMG, 1x4=4) (Regen: 54) [29/29]
Bandit 1: 70/70
Bandit 2: 70/70
Bandit 3: 70/70
Bandit 4: 70/70

Making precisely no attempt whatsoever to conceal his presence from the bandits in the camp, Mack walked at a steady and sedate pace down from the precipice where he had been observing the bandits. He knew it wouldn't be long before... and there they were. Spotting the mountain of a man headed for their camp, the four NPC bandits came tearing out of their camp brandishing a wide array of weapons. A warhammer, a longsword, a pair of hand axes, and a whip. "I don't even want to know why he has a whip," Mack muttered to himself. Simultaneously, the bandits attacked. Each of them landed successful critical hits, then the regenerative qualities of St. Michael's Fingers kicked in and Mack watched as exactly nothing happened to his health bar. Dropping Invictus to the ground at his feet, the massive warrior settled down in the grass. It was clear this was not going to take much effort on his part, he may as well let the computer generated mobs wear out their energy bars first.

Edited March 8, 2016 by Mack

[Mack 0]

ID: 50493
MD: 3 (Miss)
CD: 8 (Irrelevant, full health)
LD: 19 (Found a Mat)

Mack: 121/121 [29/29]
Bandit 1: 70/70
Bandit 2: 70/70
Bandit 3: 70/70
Bandit 4: 70/70

As he sat cross legged on the ground, Mack used his shovel-sized hands to root around in the dirt like a small child. Since this was going to take awhile anyway, he couldn't see any reason not to poke around for a few mats while he waited on the bandits to tire themselves out. Really, they were like the buzzing of flies to Mack. As he poked around occasionally he'd dart his head to one side, and on one occasion he simply reached up with his left hand and caught the arm of one of the bandits as they swung an axe before shoving the NPC roughly away. Somehow, they all managed to miss every single attack aimed at a completely stationary target. The Force was not with them, clearly. Within a few seconds though Mack's probing fingers found a crafting material, some kind of metal ore, and the item disappeared into his inventory.

+1 Mat

Edited March 8, 2016 by Mack

[Mack 0]

ID: 50494
MD: 1
CD: 8 (Irrelevant, full health)
LD: 20 (+1 Mat)

Mack: 121/121 [29/29]
Bandit 1: 70/70
Bandit 2: 70/70
Bandit 3: 70/70
Bandit 4: 70/70

As the bandits continued their futile attempts to cause some kind of damage to the man that was responsible for leading the Crimson Blades Strike Team, the front line combat and scouting unit of the Knights of the Blood Oath, Mack calmly ignored the attacks and continued to search for crafting materials. After all, this was supposed to be one of the prime farming areas on the ninth floor. Ducking his head as a sword strike went whizzing harmlessly overhead, Mack continued to shovel around with his hands in the dirt. Soon enough his grubby dirt-caked fingers encountered something solid and he pulled another piece of ore from the ground to add to his crafting supplies.

+1 Mat

Edited March 8, 2016 by Mack

[Mack 0]

ID: 50510
MD: 5 (Miss)
CD: 1
LD: 18 (+1 Mat)

Mack: 121/121 [29/29]
Bandit 1: 70/70
Bandit 2: 70/70
Bandit 3: 70/70
Bandit 4: 70/70

The bandits continued their futile assault. At this point, Mack wasn't even really bothering to try all that hard to dodge their blows. Of course, even though the mountain of a man was barely moving at all, except to root around in the dirt for crafting materials like a truffle hunting pig, the bandits still managed to miss on their attacks time and time and time again. By this point, Mack was ignoring them completely, though he knew that when he decided to actually attack the group of bandits would rue the day that they had decided to attack him. Until then, the attacks were still kind of cute. Poking around in the dirt, Mack scooped a bit of digital detritus out of the way and discovered yet another crafting material.

+1 Mat

Edited March 8, 2016 by Mack

[Mack 0]

ID: 50516
MD: 5 (Miss)
LD: 4 (No Mat)

Mack: 121/121 [29/29]
Bandit 1: 70/70
Bandit 2: 70/70
Bandit 3: 70/70
Bandit 4: 70/70

Hunching up on his knees, Mack continued to excavate in the steadily growing hole that he had made with his hands in his continuing search for crafting materials. The bandits, meanwhile, were growing increasingly angry and frustrated with their inability to hit a target the size of the axe man who was, for all intents and purposes not moving. Four more attacks resulted in four more misses from the NPC's. Then they uttered varying strings of words that were not, generally, repeated in polite company. "I can't believe Kayaba programmed you with that language," Mack muttered under his breath, continuing to dig with his hands.

 

Edited March 8, 2016 by Mack

[Mack 0]

ID: 50519
MD: 5 (Miss)
LD: 14 (No Mat)

Mack: 121/121 [29/29]
Bandit 1: 70/70
Bandit 2: 70/70
Bandit 3: 70/70
Bandit 4: 70/70

Mack continued his ever present search for crafting materials as the bandits continued their futile attempts to cause him harm. At this point, the fight was looking increasingly like the three stooges trying to conquer a mountain. Or, in this case, the four stooges. For the umpteenth time, the bandits launched a massive broadside of attacks, somehow managing to again hit nothing but air even though Mack obligingly sat stock still and didn't so much as twitch even in the tiniest manner. As the bandits scarpered off again to regroup, Mack returned to his search for crafting materials.

Edited March 8, 2016 by Mack

[Mack 0]

ID: 50521
MD: 10 (Roll once for all 4)
CD: 4 (No Regen)

Mack: 117/121 (22-66=1 1x4=4) [29/29]
Bandit 1: 70/70
Bandit 2: 70/70
Bandit 3: 70/70
Bandit 4: 70/70

"Oh no, here they come again," Mack muttered to himself, sitting back on his haunches as the bandits came flying in pellmell once again to attack him. "If even one of them were," he continued, as the first bandit buried an axe in Mack's head. "To hit me," the second bandit plunged a sword into the ginger man's chest. "It would," the whip wielding bandit landed a solid lash across his broad shoulders. "Hurt slightly," Mack concluded, glancing at his barely impacted health bar as the final bandit slammed the war hammer down on his skull. "Are you four done now," Mack asked dryly, returning to the search for crafting materials.

Edited March 8, 2016 by Mack

[Mack 0]

ID: 50531
BD: 10
CD: 5 (No Regen)
LD: 12

Mack: 117/121 [11/29] - Explode Catapult 3x3x13=117 DMG
Bandit 1: -47/70 (-117 DMG)
Bandit 2: -47/70 (-117 DMG)
Bandit 3: -47/70 (-117 DMG)
Bandit 4: -47/70 (-117 DMG)

"Alright, enough of this," Mack growled, rising to his feet. Slowly and easily, while the bandits were still regrouping for their next futile and idiotic assault, Mack brushed his digital dirt covered hands off by clapping them together a few times and causing the dirt on them to dissolve into digital shards. Stooping in a slow and deliberate manner, he wrapped his right hand around the leather wrapped haft of Invictus and brought the weapon up into his hands and when rolled his neck around, popping the vertebrae. Without any warning to the bandits, Mack sprang forward and swung Invictus through their entire formation from left to right before reversing his grip and repeating the process from right to left and then slamming the butt cap of the weapon on the ground to hit all four bandits with a powerful shock wave. The NPC's never had a chance as they dissolved in a shower of pixels.

Edited March 8, 2016 by Mack

[Mack 0]

"Well, that was short and... pointless," Mack rumbled to himself, sheathing Invictus at his back once more. There didn't seem to be too much left to do for this quest. The bandits were dead and gone and wouldn't respawn for some time. That meant it was time to head on over to the small bandit camp and poke around to see what other loot they might have. According to the quest description he had gotten from the NPC these bandits had been camped in a prime hunting spot. Odds were good that they would, therefore, have some good loot. All Mack had to do was go through the personal belongings of highly impersonal characters generated by SAO's game engine to see what he might be able to find.

[Mack 0]

Moving at a pace that could be called many things, but speedy wasn't one of them, Mack made his way across the volcanic mountainside in the direction of the bandit's camp. As he picked his path through the area he kept his eyes on a swivel in case the game engine decided to spawn a few random mobs that he would have to deal with. After all, this was a prime hunting area that the computer had been monopolizing as part of the quest. So, now that it was temporarily open once again there was no telling how quickly the Sword Art Online game engine would begin spawning new creatures to be slaughtered and Mack didn't really want to be taken unawares by a rampaging pack of hell hounds, as a random and very specific example, given the floor he was on.

[Mack 0]

OOC: 3 Turns out of combat, Full Energy. Thanks to survival I had full HP after 1 turn out of combat.

ID: 50639
LD: 8 (Nothin')

Strolling leisurely into the midst of the now quite deserted bandit camp, Mack took a look around. All things being equal, there seemed to be a suspiciously small amount of stuff hanging around the camp. "Oh well, may as well start with this first bedroll and area and work my way around the outside of the camp," the enormous red-headed man muttered, clearly talking to himself since there was no one else around to hear what he had to say. Taking his time, Mack sifted through all of one of the bandit's belongings, but in the end there was nothing of any great value to be found among all the stuff.

Edited March 9, 2016 by Mack

[Mack 0]

ID: 50779
LD: 12 (Nothin')

Finding nothing in the belongings of the first of the four bandits, Mack moved on to paw through and examine everything that the second of the four bandits had possessed. "Junk, junk, crap, junk," the massive axe wielding knight said, mostly to himself, tossing things away from him one at a time. Everything was such a low level item that it would only really be useful to a merchant that could recycle it. Mack was not about to fill his inventory with useless junk just to take it back to Grave to recycle. If Grave wanted junk to recycle, Grave could find it on his own. Sighing, Mack scanned the area again as he abandoned the search through the belongings of the second of the bandits.

Edited March 9, 2016 by Mack

[Mack 0]

ID: 50785
LD: 18 (+1 Mat)

Sighing more from boredom than anything else, Mack turned his attention to the belongings of the third of the four bandits. One by one things were tossed helter skelter of the mountainous man's shoulder until he finally found something of worth. This bandit apparently had a thing for fur blankets. Uncured fur blankets. Gross. Still, the hell hound pelt would make for a serviceable crafting material, so Mack tapped the item with the pointer finger of his right hand and then watched as it disappeared into his inventory to join the other crafting materials that he already had banked. At some point, he would need to re-open his shop.

Edited March 9, 2016 by Mack

[Mack 0]

ID: 50790
BD: 9
MD: 1
LD: 13

Mack: 121/121 (11/29) Explode Catapult (3x3x14=131 DMG)
Dire Wolf 1: -6/100 (131-25=106 DMG)
Dire Wolf 2: -6/100 (131-25=106 DMG)
Dire Wolf 3: -6/100 (131-25=106 DMG)
Dire Wolf 4: -6/100 (131-25=106 DMG)

Loot: +4 Mats, +2500 Col (25x4 Kills @ 100 HP)

Mack was just finishing his search through the belongings of the third bandit when the sound of growling caught his attention. The sound of more growling than there should have been. The sound of growling that wasn't coming from him. Tossing the third bandit's final item backwards over his shoulder, Mack turned to see what all the commotion was about. Sure enough, the game engine had spawned four dire wolves behind him. Four exceedingly large dire wolves. Four dire wolves that could have killed the four bandits he had just faced. Reaching back over his shoulder, Mack drew Invictus from its sheath and promptly sprang forward, activating his largest area effect sword art, the Explode Catapult. Invictus flicked out and slammed into all four wolves twice, before a shock wave from the weapon hit the creatures a third time and they exploded into pixels leaving behind four crafting materials and a hefty bag full of col. "Good hunting spot."

+2500 Col, +4 Mats

Edited March 9, 2016 by Mack

[Mack 0]

ID: 50922
LD: 10 (Nothing)
+3 Energy, out of combat

With the dire wolves having been dealt with there was nothing left to do except to return to the task of sorting through the bandit camp to see if there was any other loot to be had. There was, of course, a small problem with that. Mack's attack on the wolves had resulted in a shock wave that had thrown the camp into complete disarray. Mack wasn't even honestly sure where it was that he had left off in searching through all the things that the bandits had in the camp. Sighing to himself, Mack picked up the nearest item and tossed it backwards over his shoulder. At least now everything was in one massive pile. Surely that would speed up the process.

Edited March 11, 2016 by Mack

[Mack 0]

ID: 50925
LD: 14 (No Loot)
+3 Energy, out of combat

One by one things went sailing backwards over Mack's shoulder. Frying pan. Bedroll. Food items that probably would have made someone in the cooking profession wet themselves. Rusty armor. Even more rusty weapons. A pet gecko because... why not? Fire wood. A tent, who knew those even existed in Sword Art Online. Some miscellaneous jewels and baubles that had no real value because they were fakes. A coon skin cap, which seemed very out of place in a game designed and programmed by the Japanese. An item labeled simply as "Magic Wand" that was equally pointless since the game had no magic engine. "Where did they get all this crap?"
 

Edited March 11, 2016 by Mack

[Mack 0]

ID: 50927
BD: 6 (5+1 Concentration)
LD: 7

Mack: 121/121 (0/29) Explode Catapult (3x3x13=117 DMG)
Dire Wolf 1: -2/90 (117-25=92 DMG)
Dire Wolf 2: -2/90 (117-25=92 DMG)
Dire Wolf 3: -2/90 (117-25=92 DMG)
Dire Wolf 4: -2/90 (117-25=92 DMG)

Loot: +4 Mats

There were only a very few things left from the massive pile of gear to sort through when Mack looked up from what he was doing just in time to spot the appearance of yet another small four wolf pack of dire wolves just as the game was spawning them into the area. "Definitely a good hunting spot," the massive axe-man muttered to himself, wrapping his fingers around Invictus and springing immediately to attack the wolves just as they finished spawning. Once again Mack activated Explode Catapult, and once again Invictus flicked out and slammed into all four wolves twice, before a shock wave from the weapon hit the creatures a third time and they exploded into pixels leaving behind four crafting materials though, this time, there was no accompanying col.

+4 Mats

Edited March 11, 2016 by Mack

[Mack 0]

ID: 50929
LD: 5
+3 Energy

+125 Col (Quest Reward: LDx5 Col, LD=5, 5X25=125)

With the second pack of wolves having been dispatched, Mack once again turned his attention to the small pile of belongings that had belonged to the recently deceased bandits. Dog collar. Leash. A bar of soap. Several feet of rope. "I don't even want to know," the mountain of a man muttered to himself. Finally, at the very bottom of the pile there was one small pouch. Picking up the tiny leather pouch, Mack jingled it for a moment. Sure enough, there was clearly some col inside. Tapping the pouch, the axe-man added its contents to his own inventory. It wasn't much, but every little bit helped.

Edited March 11, 2016 by Mack

[Mack 0]

+3 Energy, out of combat

"Well, I don't see too much more damage that I can do around here," Mack said to himself as he flung the last of the bandits' belongings backwards over one of his shoulders. All of the things that had been in the camp were strewn about in an unbelievable mess. Not that such was any concern of Mack's. After all, within a few hours the game's engine would be resetting not only the bandits but their entire bandit camp. The time counter for the reset would begin as soon as Mack left the area, if Sword Art Online's engine was anything like those used by similar games. Shouldering Invictus, Mack began to trudge back in the direction of town and the accompanying teleportation portal.