Lancerjackets are native to the deep forests to the south of the town, where the air is dryer and the shade is heavier due to the dense canopy of trees. Lancerjackets typically come in 3 sizes, with some overlap, infants, which are about the size of your hand, adolescent, which grow to nearly the size of a full grown mans forearm, and then adult, adults can get up to the size of a full grown mans torso, to include their head.
Lancerjackets also have large nearly foot long stingers, and mandibles as sharp and as strong as a blacksmiths iron clamps, however they are very slow creatures, and fly in predictable patterns that are easy to either dodge or block, even for the likes of Oliver.
Oliver reviews his notes on the creatures in his bestiary, while Aria and Gideon look over his shoulder.
Oliver attempts to subtly adjust the books position, to allow the small fragments of light escaping from the canopy. Only for it to be instantly block by the two hovering heads.
"Mmmm" Oliver lets out a low hum of annoyance, but it doesn't seem Aria or Gideon notices as they continue to block his light.
"What's this note here?" Aria asks, reaching her hand across Oliver to press her finger into the books pages.
"Don't touch it!" Oliver shouts as he slams the book closed and pulls it out of her reach.
Aria raises an eyebrow "what was that about? It's not as if it is a diary" she scorns, clearly offended at being denied the ability to touch the thing she wanted to touch.
"No, its not, but I don't want your dirty fingers smudging the ink or wrinkling the pages!'
"Its just a book" she notes with a passive aggressive tone.
"Its not just any book, its my book."
"I figured, given you were the one in possession of it"
"No, not…I'm writing it, and I want to maintain its condition as best as possible" Oliver explains as he reopens the handwritten tome.
"You wrote all this?" she asks, clearly still annoyed but having enough decency to keep her hands away from it this time.
"I am still writing it" Oliver explains as he flips back to the page containing the information on the Lancerjacket.
"This note was crossed out, because its a very common belief that Lancerjackets carry venom in their stingers. But I've done a lot of tests and studies on them and its not actually true"
"Its not?" Gideon butts in. "I've gotten stung once in the arm and let me tell you, it sure as hell felt like there was venom in there"
"Right, that's what a lot of people say, but I did a lot of investigating and this is what I found" Oliver's voice rises with enthusiasm as he flips to the next page, where there is a highly detailed sketch of a close up view of a Lancerjackets stinger drawn from multiple angles, as well as sketches of its cross sections and dissected elements.
"Lancerjackets use their stingers to kill their prey, but the stinger itself is actually made up of really strong, compact fibers, its like a huge clump of strong hair, or fragile fingernails almost. As Lancerjackets get older, their stinger breaks apart in small, nearly invisible fractures, which creature these barbs and pockets of void space inside them. As they kill creatures their stingers accumulated all sorts of bacteria and diseases and dirt and grime."
"Oh? So you're saying when you are stung, its not that it is poison, but an infection?"
"Right, its an infection, that helps get spread through your body by the hundreds of fibrous tears the stinger makes in the skin. They don't have any venom sacks in their bodies and no other part of them has those properties" Oliver explains further.
"So the herbalists selling Lancerjacket anti-venom?" Gideon asks.
"All a scam, its just relabeled medicine used for every day infections"
"You will anger a lot of apothecaries if you every release this book" Aria notes, as she glances over the detailed descriptions and drawings of all the other monsters and creatures in the book.
"I plan on angering a lot more people too as I learn more. I think its important to keep adventurers as informed as possible. Once I run out of pages in this book I plan on selling it to the guild in exchange for ranks, so I can learn even more about the more dangerous monsters." Oliver brims with enthusiasm and energy, smiling wide.
"You're quite smart, aren't you?" aria teases only partially.
"I… am not good at much, but I'm well studied, and I'm a good planner, so I'm hoping if I really excel in those areas I can make up for my failures in others"
"Why not just stay in school?" Gideon asks, no longer interested in reading, and distracting himself with listening and watching the forest.
"Because the schools are wrong most of the time. A lot of the commonly accepted books on monsters and their behavior are written by academics and scientists, not adventurers. They just all sit around and agree with one another in exchange for more research money, even if that research is bad"
"You're a good guy, you know that?" Gideon says with far too much sincerity for Oliver's taste, causing him to blush.
"I…try my best" he admits, "though its not altruistic, it is for money…"
"If you are good at something, never do it for free" Aria quickly retorts.
"Spoken like a true aristocrat" Oliver chuckles.
"Its why my family has money and Gideon's does not" she shrugs.
"It looks like we are getting close" Gideon nods.
After nearly 15 minutes of walking through progressively denser and darker forest, they finally see the first signs of the elven village in the distance.
Their quest giver, on paper, had mentioned discretion, and a meeting place away from the village itself. This was a little disappointed to both Gideon and Oliver who had never seen an elven village up close before, but Aria had insisted it was nothing worth losing sleep over.
Still, even from a distance Oliver and Gideon try and get a look at what its like inside the village as they skirt around its parameter from afar to arrive at the landmark meeting space mentioned on the quest.
The village is built into the canopy section of the tall trees. The trees themselves are fairly large, the smallest among them being well over 150 feet or so. each of the ash-oaks are thick in the branches and trunk as well, with a sprawling network of tightly woven and interconnected branches like the weave of a basket high in the sky.
Along the canopy branches, are tightly bound sections of fiber rope, knitted together in tight mesh weaves and uses as suspension bridges, section of flooring, and even wall. These tight weaves are paired with the tanned and stretched hides of megafauna native to the forests, as well as stacked and sewn leaves of native megaflora creating a collection of lean-to style tends, passageways, and rooms atop the canopy.
Its possible there are finer details unable to be seen from such a far distance away, however to Oliver and Gideon's untrained and straining eyes, it looks more akin to a treetop shanty town of densely packed suspended tents, or like a military camp that has blown away and got caught in the canopy.
"Hoping for artistic majesty?" Aria teases, sensing the twos disappointment.
"Not majesty….but…" Oliver starts
"Not shit either" Gideon says what Oliver couldn't.
"Elves are….simple creatures. Primitive, almost as bad as Orcs, just not as violent"
"That's rude," Oliver injects.
"Its true. The only civilized elves are the sun elves, the rest are like this" she motions vaguely to the distant village.
"In the stories they are depicted as sagely…wise…" Oliver notes as they leave the view of the village and turn off to their actual meeting place.
"Pleasant spiritualism perpetuated by academics who receive funds for "cultural exchanges", if they ever admit publicly they are nothing more than…dimwitted savages they wont receive any more gold for the sociological studies" aria drones, likely not the first time she has had to shatter the mystical illusion.
"I Like to think we are civilized" an accented voice speaks softly from not too far ahead, causing the party to stop in their tracks.
"Ahh…I didn't mean-" Aria stammers a bit, not used to being so directly confronted.
"Its alright" the voice says again, revealing itself to be an elf. Either a masculine female, or a feminine male, the androgynous elf is slender and tall, nearly as tall as Gideon, but only about a third of his total mass. They walk with measured, graceful steps, though not the same kind of grace that Aria has. Aria walks with practiced and courtly movements, meant for ballrooms and throne rooms. This elf instead moves with the familiar footfall of someone who has memorized every inch of the forest floor and retraces the same steps with confident motion, an illusion with is instantly broken when they trip over a stray pebbles and stumbles forward, landing harshly on their stomach and face.
The party winces in unison, as they look between one another.
Gideon moves to help the elf up, extending a hand, which is promptly taken.
"Are you…crying?" Aria asks.
The elf quickly wipes away the tears building at the corner of their eyes.
"Sorry, that was really embarrassing" they blush hard.
The elf has tanned, dark skin, the color of tree bark, with shortly cropped white hair that swoops across their forehead and ends at just below their pointed ears. They wear a simple collection of thin, small white cloth pieces for cloths. Bound together and held to their body with tribal beads and colorful bands. The same beads and stringy adornments also drape from their long neck, arms and legs, likely denoting some kind of station of profession.
"Its' fine, it happens to everyone, especially Oliver" Gideon says as he throws a thumb backwards to Oliver.
"Hey! Don't use me as an example" Oliver protests, though its very true.
The elf nods and seems eager to forget the moment of embarrassment. They extend their hand to Gideon "this is custom right?" they ask.
Gideon answers by shaking the elf's hand perhaps a bit too aggressively, though its unintentional.
"Ah, I'm glad I got it right. I'm sorry but I've only ever had minimal interaction directly with humans before" they smile a soft smile.
"Its alright, I Apologize for my disparaging comments" aria says without a hint of embarrassment, though she does blush slightly, only enough for Oliver to see.
The elf shakes their head "I…understand. It may look that way to outsiders but we do have a very rich and beautiful culture. If…this quest wasn't meant to be a secret i would offer to show you my home, despite what many people think we do enjoy having guests and sharing out culture"
"Maybe after this is done then" Gideon smiles wide "so about this quest" he shifts the subject quickly, picking up on the uncomfortable moment.
Gideon may be an idiot, but he has his moments.
"Right! The Lancerjackets. I can show you where they are at, its hard to navigate the deep forest if you aren't born here. And I am happy to help you during the fight. I am quite the capable healer. They state, happy for the shift to talking about the job. "I couldn't hope to do it myself, and…i really need to make sure they are gone before-"
"We know" Oliver speaks up, reassuring her and preventing a lengthy explanation for something they already figured out.
The elf is grateful for this, and nods their thanks "here, its this way"
"What's your name?" Gideon asks, as the party takes to following the elf.
"Ah! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to keep it from you, I forgot after I fell on my face" the elf blushes from nose to the tip of their very long ears. "My name is Riven"
Following Riven, the party makes their way through even denser forest. The roots of the trees carve through the soil in writhing waves and tangled balls. Forcing the party to take to climbing over some of the larger segments, slowing down Riven quite substantially as they have to stop and wait for everyone to make it.
It takes the better part of an hour, not for the distance, but for the difficulty of the terrain blocking their path. Eventually the party arrived to a section of a large cliffy hillside. The forest continues on much further than they can see, however the she cliffy hill blocks their progress further.
A huge tree has grown from the side of the shark greyish cliff. Its roots half exposed spreading down and out in a huge tangle of thick wood, where the sound of violent buzzing can be heard from deep within.
Upon further inspection, the cliffside itself, hidden under the roots has huge holes. And in the deep shows cast by the roots, movement cant be seen crawling underneath.
"Here it is" Riven says with a nervous tenor. Placing their body low to the roots.
The party follows their lead, lowering themselves to observe the cliffside hive. "How many are there?" Oliver asks in a low whisper.
"Its a large nest…nearly a dozen or more I think." Riven clarifies.
"Damn, that's a lot" Gideon counts on his fingers.
"Nothing we cant handle" Aria smiles. "What's the plan?" she looks to Oliver.
Oliver lets his mind settle as he looks over the landscape and thinks.
The party sits and waits in silence, having gone through this process a number of time now, enough to know Oliver works best in the quiet.
Oliver tries to work through all the options. After the absolute disaster that was the Kobold fight, he strains his brain to its limit to work through every possibly outcome, to avoid another disaster. He had made the mistake before, of overestimating his own intellect and underestimating animals. At their core, while certain behaviors can be measured, when you corner a creature you add an element of chaos. A cornered animal can do unexpected things…he won't make that mistake again.
"Alright, got it" Oliver opens his eyes. And the party listens intently.
"The root system work through their hive inside the cliff. Which means there is likely venting tunnels above on the top side, as well as these entrance and exit tunnels along the cliff face. Riven, you know the forest and these creatures better than we do, I want you and Gideon up on the top of the hill to locate as many of the venting tunnels as possible, and start plugging them up with large rock and stone."
Gideon gives a big thumbs up and grins his understanding, and slaps Riven on the back, who looks determined but not at all confident. "I will try my best" they say with a nervous chuckle.
"Aria, ill go with you to the tree, I will use my very…limited magic to dampen the tree and wet the wood while you light it on fire, the fire will work through the dryer section of wood and avoid the wet wood, the fire will start working through the roots and smoke out the rest of the tunnels. Some of the Lancerjackets will die from the smoke and the ones that escape will be disoriented. Gideon you pick them off as they come out of the cliff side. Once its cleared we can enter the caves and finish off the rest"
"Sounds good" Aria smiles a crooked smile, as she often does moments before they start killing. It scares Gideon and Oliver both.
Riven scans through the underbrush of the top side of the hill, with Gideon stumbling along behind. Oliver wasn't wrong, in that they did in fact know the forest and the Lancerjackets better than they did, still, Riven was scared.
Riven was not nearly as good as Oliver was seeming to believe. Not all elves are good trackers or scouts after all. Riven swipes some tears forming around their eyes and sniffles. The last thing they want to do is let down the only people who accepted their quest, but Riven was really starting to get nervous.
"So you're a healer?" Gideon asks, breaking the silence and causing Riven to jump slightly from the sudden sound.
"I am." Riven confirms.
"Like magic?"
"Yes, magic." Riven smiles softly.
"How do you become a healer?"
"I was taught by my mother, Elves are very in tune with the magic of the world, it comes very naturally to us, and i come from a long line of healers, my other siblings are also healers in the village"
"Are you a dude? Or a chick?" Gideon asks directly.
"Ah- sorry, I know its hard for Humans to tell the difference, I am-" Riven stops mid sentence and points to a hole in the ground "there is a vent, lets get it plugged"
Gideon forgets the question almost instantly and grabs a massive boulder with relative ease, and sets it over the hole.
Relieved at being able to find at least one, Riven focuses more. So far so good, they wouldn't let down these people.
"Are you sure your magic is strong enough to keep the fire from spreading?" Aria asks as she begins to heat up the tree by placing her hand on its bark. Spreading from her palm, fire licks up at the edges, and turns the bark from brown to black, and from black to charcoal as the head spreads.
"I'm not…totally confident, but if I can't manage it I know you can. I don't want to burn down the whole forest after all."
"Hmm" she shrugs as the fire spreads, Oliver attempts to use what minimal magic he has access to, to keep the tree at the very least damp, forcing the fire to spread throughout the other parts of the tree, taking the path of least resistance, seeking out the best fuel.
"Maybe you are a different kind of mage? I've never met anyone so magically inept in my entire life" she says curtly.
"Would you believe me if I told you I've tried every kind of magic, and they were all worse?" Oliver shakes his head in shame.
"I would"
"What the hell Aria"
Aria shrugs "you are magically pathetic, I'm not surprised the others are worse"
"Do you have to be so mean about it?"
"I'm just telling you how it is. I didn't think I needed to sugarcoat my words for you. I can talk to you like a child if you prefer" Aria offers.
"You know what, maybe i would like you to be a little nicer"
"Awe…I'm sorry, of course you can do better! If you just train as hard as you can you can be a hero one day!" she says with so much enthusiasm it makes Oliver a little sick.
"Ugh, never mind, I prefer you being bitchy more" he sighs
"Never say I didn't give you the choice" Aria snickers.
The ground feels as if it is alive. It vibrates and hums in a droning buzz that shakes the bodies and the nerves of the party standing above.
"Here we go!" Gideon beams a smile as he charges to the gnarled mess of roots near the edge of the cliff, and waits.
And waits
And waits
The air around Gideon turns into a vortex as the force of the swarming Lancerjackets erupt from their hive and out into the open air. With a roar, Gideon's longsword carves a path through the air, as it splits open the yellow and black stripped exoskeleton of the Lancerjacket, sending out a fountain of yellowish green goo. He laughs with pride and confidence, as he brings up his shield, one Lancerjackets needle like stinger shattering against the hard metal, only to be bisected with Gideon's follow up. Gideon looks behind him, a twinkle in his eye, as he watches a Lancerjacket stab Riven straight through the shoulder with enough force to send the elf off their feet.
"Oh SHIT" Gideon yells as he turns
Riven screams as the giant insect drives its iron like mandibles into their shoulder.
"Aria!" Gideon roars, as he turns his attention to the monster.
Before he can close the distance he is swarmed, and is forced to bring his arms down to his sides to protect his soft, lightly armored flanks as 3 of creatures bare down on him in buzzing rage.
The Lancerjacket holding Riven several inches off the ground explodes from the back as Aria lets off concentrated blast of fire. Riven falls to the ground in a clump, their frail and light body offering little protection from the impact.
Without thinking, Gideon throws himself at the elf, using his body to cover Riven as the pursuing insects stab at his armored back.
"They will break their stinger on his armor! Its-" Oliver barely get his words out, before Aria clears the distance to better aim her next shots.
"Aria get back here! You don't have armor, he will be alright!" Oliver calls after her.
The tree in front of him licks with fire, without Aria to control the burn, the building fire is too much for him to counteract alone.
"Shit shit shit shit!" He moans in baleful worry as he desperately tries to channel as much of his pitiful magic into the tree as possible to stop the fire, but it isn't enough.
Aria presses her tongue into her canine as she moves her arms like that of a dancers, heat an energy building around her like a crucible, until the space in front of her rages in a suspended inferno.
With a flick of her wrist the ball of condensed flame streaks through the air and detonates inches above Gideon, who is thrown from his place on the ground.
The Lancerjackets explode in a shower of gore, their insides turned to solid from the heat, the moisture cooked out of them. Flying debris still on fire lands around Gideon, who is still clutching Riven in his arms to protect the elf.
The tree in front of Oliver ignites, the fire having become unmanageable for him.
Oliver panics, backing away from the fire as it carves its raging path inside the trunk of the tree. "Aria help me!" He calls,
"Must I do everything she complains as she walks towards the burn, and with a snap of her fingers extinguishes it.
Gideon stands, grunting in pain as he rubs his hand along the back of his freshly burnt hair.
"Are you alright?" He asks Riven, who quickly touches their own shoulder.
Green light, like fairy fire builds around the wound as the flesh and muscle repair itself.
"I will be alright" Riven sighs, splaying out on the ground and breathing deeply.
"Gideon! Are you alright?" Oliver calls out as he runs over.
"Yea, I'm fine. The back of all my hair is burnt off though, no thanks to Aria" he scowls.
"Oh? You should be thanking me, moron" Aria narrows her eyes. "Or need I remind you that It was I who killed them all?"
"They would have all broken their own stingers on his armor, you didn't have to do that. You could have picked them off one by one" Oliver protests as he and Gideon help Riven off the ground.
"Hmph" Aria huffs and cross her arms with a dramatic flip of her hair. "I'm going in to clear the rest of the Lancerjackets. You two can stay and lick your wounds, don't worry, I'm used to carrying this party" she dismisses the others with a flick of her hand and wanders off into the carved out cliff side.
"What the hell is her problem?" Gideon asks with a grumble.
"Here, let me heal you" Riven offers, as they bring their hand up to Gideon to repair the bruises and strained muscled. "It wont bring back your hair I'm afraid…"
"That's alright, I've been meaning to cut it any way" he smiles.
"Aria? No idea….if she had just listened to me it would have been fine" Oliver grumbles.
"No, its my fault. I'm not very good at fighting, I should have ran away the second the fire started, I'm too easy of a target"
"Yes that would have been-" Oliver starts, but gets cut off by Gideon.
"Nonsense! It's my job as the party tank to protect my teammates, I got…too carried away in killing those things, I forgot to do my job, really its my fault."
While not entirely wrong, Oliver still cant help but feel partially responsible himself. He should have better instructed Riven, and better kept Aria in check, not that that is an easy thing to do, but if she had just listened to him when he told her not to go off like that the major damage could have been avoided, he thinks.
Riven's ears twitch, and they turn their head deeper into the forest.
"Oh no…we need to hide!" Riven says softly as they look around.
"What the matter?" Oliver asks, trying to strain his own hearing to see what caught the elf's attention.
"My village scouts are coming! They must of heart the shouting and the explosion. If they see you or me they will know we interfered! We need to hide quickly!" Riven looks nervously around. "They can track us above ground, they will probably already know we are here…ahhh!"
"Inside the hive, go!" Oliver whispers as he makes a break for the entrance.
The party runs and slides to enter the cave system under the roots, only to run head first into Aria.
The party collides in a ball of flailing limbs and armor and gear.
"Damnit! can't I get a moments peace!" Aria cries out, and goes wide eyed as the others collectively press their fingers to her lips
"SHHHHHHH!"