After a surprise lunch detour in Starlight, she and Blue Raspberry (and Charles) are joined by a new friend, Cirice. Her zest for all things new and interesting amuses Astrid, and she's entertained Cirice with plenty of stories about her adventures with and without Blue Raspberry. Behind them, Charles clumsily treks through the sands, hardly able to keep his footing. There is a certain capability that can't be programmed into a Blixtbot^TM. He's already fallen down once and had to be lugged back up by Astrid. Luckily, she doesn't struggle with lifting the automaton. It's definitely not the first time she's had to help him through uneven terrain. 

Wind whips at Astrid's bangs while she and her companions walk along the beach. The skies are clear, bright blue, and speckled by fluffy white clouds. The waves lap against the shore and give the scene a serene feeling. They're not here on the infinity beach surrounding the Crescent Isle for an obligatory beach trip, though. They're here searching for harpies - winged women with ear-splitting screeches and talons that rip and tear easily. The sea breeze catches something dark in the sand, lifts it, and flutters it along the beige sea. Astrid runs after it and grabs it. A large bird feather with a jagged edge. They're getting close, she thinks. 

Standing up, she looks back at the group and shows them the feather. "Found this!" 

---

Renown Quest Page

Cirice had been watching Astrid struggle with her little metal servant creature for sometime, unsure of what it was and bewitched by its stumbling, faltering trek through the sand. She'd never seen something so strange and exotic before and finds the automaton as fascinating as her new friends. Perhaps its the heaviness of the metal that's making the little guy sink into the sand? Blue Raspberry doesn't seem to be having similar issues so she supposes the smaller creature isn't as impressive as the metal-clad adventurer. She wonders how hard it is to move in all of that armor, and how stifling it must be to not feel the wind. The coastal wind is wild and familiar, she loves the way it plays with her flowing skirts and hair but it seems to be causing Astrid some trouble with her bangs. She starts to ask her if she'd like them braided back out of her face and around her horns when the younger girl runs off after something.

"Found this!" Astrid exclaims, holding up the strange large feather. Cirice has never seen anything like it, the birds on the south of the island are much smaller and sleeker. 

"I've never seen a feather that big before. I'd heard that there were some scary birds out here, but I didn't expect them to be that big. You said they're called harpies? Wow..." She looks at the feather closer, "As I was coming north some of the people here said to stay away from the docks outside of the city... I think theres quite a few fishing villages near here. Maybe we could ask if they've seen the harpies?"

Blue Raspberry walked through the sand. Their heavy metal armor did make them sink into the sand a bit more than they otherwise might have, but it wasn't enough of an issue to cause them any real trouble. They had trudged through swampland in this same armor. That had been considerably more difficult.

The knight was excited to go on the hunt for harpies. They were joined by friends, including Astrid, and would be helping to rid a community of a problem that had been plaguing them, like a true adventurer. Of course, the ooze was also wondering what a harpy tasted like and was excited to find out. Would they taste more like chicken, or more like human? Well, they weren't supposed to eat people, as Astrid reminded them on occasion, but if they were monsters attacking people then it would be fine, right?

As they daydreamed about eating a harpy, their attention was suddenly pulled back to reality by Astrid holding up a feather and calling out to the group. They listened to Cirice as they walked up and looked at the large feather.

"Ooh, that sounds like a good idea. I love fishing villages. They always have such good seafood." they replied enthusiastically, nodding their helmeted head vigorously.

"I can hold onto this." Blue Raspberry said as they took the feather from Astrid and slipped it into the top of their cuirass to store away for later. 

---

Space Pocket

Letting Blue Raspberry take the feather, Astrid looks around and up toward the nearby cliffs. That'd be a perfect place for a bird-like creature to perch and have a good view of the surrounding area. Nearby fishing villages make for a good target for hungry harpies too. Hauling fish onto land is just easy pickings. "I think the fishermen get hit the hardest," she says. "So near a fishin' village is a good place ta start really lookin'. Bet we'll find more feathers on the way, too."

With that, she continues the trek through the sands and keeps an eye out for more feathers. After some time and with all of them looking together, they find plenty of feathers. Except for keeping one particularly nice feather, Astrid offers the rest to Blue Raspberry. "Seems like there's a lot over there," she says, pointing towards a dark area of the sand sprinkled with dozens of dark feathers. Astrid looks up at the cliffs and shields her eyes from the sun, trying to get a better look for anything notable on the cliffside. A few distant clusters of sticks speckle the cliffside. That must be the nest, but there don't appear to be any harpies there - at least not from this angle. 

Cirice follows Astrid's gaze up at the cliffs and tries to see what she sees. She has done quite a bit of not-so-subtle mimicking of Astrid and Blue, trying to learn as much as possible from them as she follows them around. Astrid appears to be younger than her but really seems to know what she's doing and Cirice wants to follow her example, as well as impress her, Blue and Zarius. So far she hasn't learned a ton about adventuring, nor gained any honor or glory, but she's feeling pretty optimistic about this situation.

She squints at the cliffs, not exactly sure what she's looking for and then she sees the nests and points. "Oh look, are those nests? But... How could we get up there...? Hmmm maybe we can climb!" She starts to run towards the cliffs but stops. "Wait... I don't see any birds up there. Maybe they're out? Should we go and check?" 

As she wonders aloud of the harpies' whereabouts, a loud, piercing cry sounds overhead and a large shadow passes over them, heading for the cliffs. "Ah! Look! Is that one? Let's follow it!" She starts running off towards the cliffs with reckless abandon. 

With Cirice rushing off toward the cliffs, Blue Raspberry picked up their pace to follow after her, but running in heavy metal armor on sand wasn't a particularly speedy way of travel. Cirice didn't seem to be paying the ooze much attention at the moment, as distracted with the figure flying overhead as she was, so this seemed like a good opportunity.

They dropped to all fours and morphed their shape into that of a huge, blue wolf, large enough to be ridden on comfortably. They'd even made sure they were as solid as possible, with actual fur instead of just being vaguely canine shaped ooze like they sometimes made themself when they shifted their form in a rush. With this form, they could catch up to Cirice on the sand easily!

They didn't think about what Cirice would think after finding out that it was the knight that turned into the wolf, only concerned with her actually watching it happen. They also hadn't thought about needing to get up the cliffs afterward. Maybe the form of a large bird would have been much more practical, but not thinking things through fully tended to be Blue Raspberry's specialty. They turned their head unnaturally far to look at Astrid, lowering themself onto the sand to offer her a ride before taking off to chase after their Elven friend that had gotten a bit ahead of them.

---

Shapeshifter's Plate

Suddenly, Cirice is off, taking off across the sand as fast as her feet will carry her. Then Blue Raspberry shifts into a wolf, and she grins at the familiarity. "Get ta cover, Charles! We're goin' duck huntin'!" With that, she jumps up onto Blue Raspberry's back, and they take off across the sands and easily catch up to Cirice. Behind them, Charles scrambles through the sand to take cover closer to the rocky cliffside. He falls in the sand a few times before making it over there. 

When Astrid and Blue Wolfberry catch up to Cirice, Astrid looks down at her. "Oi, ya ran off! How're ya plannin' ta catch up ta that thin' stumblin' through the sands like that?" she asks. There's a big grin on her face as she fearlessly rides the big, blue, and slightly sticky wolf. Astrid offers a hand down to Cirice so that if she takes it, she can pull her on the back of Blue Raspberry without them having to stop. "Let's follow it ta where the rest of 'em are huntin'! They'll be easier ta take down if they're not all flyin' around near their nests!" Gripping Blue Raspberry's fur, she hunkers down for the ride. 

"WHOA! Where did this big wolf come from?!?" Cirice exclaims, taking Astrid's hand and clumsily scrambling up behind her, nearly falling off at first and holding onto her back for dear life. "Sorry, I got too excited and wanted to follow it... Your plan makes more sense though. But where's Blue?!? We shouldn't leave him behind, should we??" 

Cirice frantically looks back behind them to try to find Blue Raspberry but only sees Charles the little bot fella tumbling and struggling alone in the sand, she worries for her strange new friend but then considers... "Wait is Blue the wolf? Blue?? Is this you??" She pets its hide, the same color as his hair and finds the slight stickiness a tiny bit off-putting. 

This was a turn of events she didn't foresee. Certainly not something she can do. Is this a normal human thing, like eating without chewing and coughing up spoons, or is it odd? As she wonders the harpy lets loose a piercing cry once again and takes flight, disappearing over the other side of the cliffs. "Oh no its leaving! Can we catch up to it?" 

The wolf is fast, but the harpy seems faster, unimpeded by the sand unlike the wolf and flying high in the air on such powerful wings.

Blue Wolfberry looked back at Cirice and Astrid on their back with a smile in response to Cirice's question, their tongue flopping out of their mouth for a moment before looking forward again. They ran as fast as they could to try and catch up with the flying harpy, but the sand underpaw didn't help.

With the harpy flying over the cliffs, the group lost sight of it. Blue Raspberry didn't stop their run, headed straight for the cliff. With a leap, they landed their paws onto the side of the cliff, but instead of falling or springing off, they just stuck to the rocky surface like a spider. Their paws were a bit goopier than usual, the slimy liquid sticking to the cliff and holding the ooze in place. With that, they began running directly up the side of the cliff, completely vertical.

Astrid and Cirice had to hold on tight to the fully vertical wolf to stop themselves from falling off, but the slight stickiness and the thick fur providing something to grab hold of helped. As they ascended, the sounds of screeching and voices started to be heard from above. With one final leap, the group bounded over the top of the cliff and directly into the middle of a battle.

A flock of harpies was assaulting a group of people. As the huge, blue wolf suddenly appeared over the side of the cliff, both groups were surprised, and turned their attention to the strange sight. One unlucky harpy got far more of a view than the others as the wolf's maw closed directly over it before the beast landed on the ground.

Frantically kicking legs and twitching wings were quickly slurped up, the harpy vanishing and the wolf showing no visible signs of having just devoured it at all.

Blue Raspberry hadn't been expecting a harpy to be right there as they jumped up onto the cliff, but they enjoyed the unexpected meal. That is, until they realized that may have been a person and Astrid had told them not to eat people unless she called them a big jerk. Oh, and Cirice had probably seen that... Oops...

---

Slimy Hands

Above them, the harpy crosses the cliff. Ahead of them, the cliff approaches. Blue Raspberry shows no sign of stopping. The cliff grows ever closer, and Astrid's concern grows deeper and deeper. "Blue? Blue??" Still Blue Wolfberry doesn't stop. "Ohhhh, crud!" She's jolted forward as Blue Raspberry crouches then she's thrown backwards, nearly off his back, as they lunge forward and leap onto the cliff. Astrid reaches back to help Cirice stay on, and the stickiness of their fur makes it easier to hold on. "Blue, this is not what we were ready fer!" She shouts, desperately trying to stay connected to the wolf. 

The group bounds up the cliffside until they crest the top, and Astrid and Cirice are nearly thrown off onto the grass at the top. The half-dwarf totally misses the fact that the wolf consumed a harpy on the landing. Tumbling into the grass, Astrid pushes herself up and sees the flying women attacking a group of locals just outside of the village perched up here at the top. She quickly gets to her feet and pulls out her battle hammer and reaches for her war hammer. Which is... not on her person. Shoot, it must have fallen during the ride up! Astrid holds her hand out and wills her war hammer back to her hand. After a few seconds, it comes flying over the edge of the cliff and into her hand. With that, the battle is afoot.

Lightning arcing off her war hammer, Astrid hefts it and sends it flying, spinning through the air, towards the harpies. The group of bird women scatters and turns their attention to the two small girls and the wolf. A much easier target. 

"Over here, bird fer brains!" 

Cirice bites back a terrified scream as Blue Raspberry starts running up the side of the cliff. She holds tight with all her paltry strength, trying hard as she might not to lose her grip and fall to her probably death. Astrid's words are carried away by the wind as the smaller girl helps Cirice stay on the wolf's back. This would be incredible if it wasn't so scary. This is certainly abnormal. Blue can become a strange goopy wolf and scale vertical surfaces like a spider, clearly he's a powerful adventurer with incredible skills. 

As they sail over the edge of the cliff and into the fray Cirice loses her grip and lands, dazed, in the soft grass. Her vision stops spinning and she lifts herself up off the ground just soon enough for her to see the blue wolf swallow a harpy whole, not even a feather left behind. Well this explains how easily he's swallowed food and dishes she supposed, her surprise and adrenaline keeping her from freaking out. Mother Moon what is going on?

Astrid recovers much faster than she does, obviously raring to go. Suddenly theres a hammer flying out of nowhere into her hand. Then lightning and... She's off. Taunting the harpies away from the villagers and towards them.

Cirice watches this all as she scrambles fully to her feet. The harpies are coming their way, a whole flock of them it seems. Cirice hastily whips off her gloves, the runes on her arms starting to glow with violet light as she gets ready to protect herself. Besides she can't have her friends protect her, she has to pull her own weight. The best defense is a good offense, she remembers someone telling her once and she raises her left hand, fingers splayed, the light from her tattoos collecting in her palm and a beam of the violet light arcing out to strike the nearest harpy as it comes swooping towards Astrid, the  smallest target. The beam strikes the creature in the chest, her feathers turning black and crumbling off of them, leaving a patch of cuts and sores against the now naked flesh. 

"Take that scary bird woman!" She shouts, "Mother Moon protects!"

The harpy lets out an angry shrill cry, making Cirice cover her ears to stop her eardrums from bursting. 

Many of the Harpies were quite reasonably upset after witnessing one of them slide into the maw of a giant wolf and vanish. They swarmed the new attackers, many of them raising their taloned feet to rip the dire wolf apart, but none of them were prepared for the sudden sparks of lightning arcing off of Blue Raspberry and connecting with their legs or wings. Some of them dropped to the ground, one of their wings numbed by the shock and unable to fly properly. A staticky feeling clung to them afterward, making them wary of approaching the wolf again.

The ones that didn't fall continued their approach and swung their talons at the wolf. Blue Raspberry jumped to the side to avoid their strikes, but several scratches appeared in their fur. A bit of blue liquid leaked from the wound and splattered on the ground, the scent of raspberries filling the air.

A bit angry now, the ooze wolf leapt up and snatched another Harpy out of the air by the leg. They swung down and cracked the harpy against the ground, knocking it out before slurping it up like a large, bird shaped noodle and swallowing it whole like the one before. Again, right after doing so, they opened their eyes wide and looked at Cirice who was also looking at them. Ah, she definitely saw that.

---

Lightning Armor
Static Stature
Charged Particles

A beam of purple light streaks past Astrid and strikes a harpy right in front of her. She glances over her shoulder to see Cirice and grins triumphantly, shouting, "YEAH! There ya go!" Her hammer flies right back into her hand only for the shrill shriek to make her nearly drop her hammers to cover her ears. "Shut up!" Astrid roars, gripping both hammers and slamming them into the chest of the harpy. The ribs crunch beneath the flesh, the harpy loses her breath and ability to use her wings, and she falls to the ground gasping helplessly. 

Another harpy screeches and rushes past Astrid towards Cirice. "Oh, no ya don't!" the half-dwarf shouts. Suddenly, with inhuman speed and her body sparking with electricity, Astrid dashes to put herself between the harpy and Cirice. Something about the half-dwarf makes her especially difficult to focus on, as there seems to be a trail of afterimages following her. The deep stormy blue cuirass glows faintly. The harpy struggles to land a hit, and Astrid throws her war hammer up at the harpy then, when it dodges to the side and isn't expecting it, she throws her battle hammer over the harpy. A cord dangles from the battle hammer's pommel and crosses the harpy's wing. Gravity does its thing and drags the harpy down to the ground. Astrid holds her right hand aloft, and her war hammer sails back into her grip in time for her to bring it down on the harpy with a loud thud and disgusting splat. 

Only a couple more to go.

---

Bullet Dash
Diplopia Armor
Always There

This is fine, everything is fine. Cirice tells herself as things go insane around her. Harpies are swarming around the Blue wolf, blue blood (?) splattering on the ground, and the wolf just slurps another up like a piece of spaghetti. Before Cirice can even be horrified about that Astrid obliterates another harpy right in front of her face, splattering brain matter and gore onto Cirice's face. The crunch and snap and splatter of this combat is more than she expected, bile rising to her throat as she watches events unfold. 

"Y-you just..." She sputters at Astrid, "Oh goddess..." She's in shock, this is shock. A cold numbness has started to wash over her and her hands and feet feel far away. But there isn't time for that. Combat isn't going to stop because she's freaking out. Her eyes meet Blue's and she seizes what courage she has and runs over to him. 

"Blue! L-let me help you!" Her hands glow with soft silvery light that spreads up the markings on her arms as she holds them lightly against the various cuts and scratches in his fur. The wounds begin stitching themselves back together as she focuses, trying to keep her mind from wondering about the strange raspberry scent coming off the gashes.

Another harpy swoops in towards them as she works and without thinking she raises one of her hands out at them, the silver glow turning a malevolent violet as long, wicked claws rake across the creature, tearing nasty gashes in the flesh of their wing. The harpy falls before Blue, prone and unable to get aloft again, trying to not get slurped up instantly like its sisters. Once Blue is fully healed Cirice puts her back against him, terrified but ready to help defend against the last of the bird creatures.

Blue Raspberry felt better, the wounds on their simulated hide stitching shut. They had no time to thank Cirice for her help, Harbies still swarming them and now the Elven woman next to them as well. Lightning continued to arc from them and connect with the Harpies, helping to fend them off, but some still managed to approach. The giant wolf snapped at them with their jaws to keep them away.

After finishing with her healing of the ooze turned wolf, Cirice brought one of the Harpies down with her magic to land right in front of the waiting maw of Blue Raspberry who happily slurped the struggling creature up like a noodle. At this point, knowing Cirice had already witnessed their eating habits, they didn't try to hide them anymore. Blue Raspberry snatched Harpies of the air left and right, devouring them with reckless abandon. They'd just try their best to explain themself to Cirice after the fight was over.

They were careful not to hurt Cirice who had her back against them as they leapt and reached up for the Harpies screeching and swarming around them. They looked over to see how Astrid was doing with her own swarm of Harpies. The two lightning-cloaked monsters surrounding the poor Elven girl were decimating the Harpies.