The Lagiacrus.

Hokay Journal. Hokay. Seriously.

So while I've been taking on quests and living in the village all this time I keep hearing about this terrible leviathan creature known as the Lagiacrus. This God of the Seas apparently has kept Moga village wrapped in a wave of terror since ancient times. Until now I've only heard mention of it, but when I was finished up a recent quest, I heard a terrible roar behind me, and when I turned to look - 

This thing was gargantuan. Bigger than anything I've seen before. Capable even of swallowing me whole! My first instinct was to run away but it quickly chased after me and as we were both in the water it caught up in a flash. Battle was inevitable. 

It seemed to be playing with me at first - thinking I must be some sort of bug or toy. In an effort to daze it I unleashed a powered up hammer-blow to the space between its eyes and it recoiled in pain. This gave me enough time to get out of the water and back on land. As I started running I looked back and saw it put its head above water and glare at me with a deep hatred before swimming off itself. 

I turned in the quest I was doing (a simple egg-retrieval affair), and then a villager ran up shouting.

The Lagiacrus had been spotted racing around the island and coming straight towards the village. 

Everyone was depending on me. I had no clue if I could do it - but it was too late for doubts. I had angered the beast and now it was time to deal with the consequences. All the villagers' lives were on my shoulders!

I ran out and met the monster some distance away from the village to keep the villagers safe. What proceeded was definitely the biggest challenge I've faced yet. The Lagiacrus was super fast, resisted my weapon, rampaged through me as if I was a bug whenever I started to make carves into its hide, and when it became enraged it could charge up electric crystals attached to its spine that would surge the water around it with paralyzing electricity - it could do this to send out a wave of stunning damage or fill its body with lighting and charge through the sea like a bolt. It could even shoot out a ball of concentrated electricity underwater to zap me if I was far away.

There was no good solution! Every other minute I had to retreat and hide behind some underwater pillar to heal myself and rub salves on me to cure myself of the electrical shocks coursing through my body under the waves. It was a nightmare - and frequently when I would hide for too long trying to heal the beast would just start breaking apart all the supports and ruins in the area making it impossible to hide behind anything at all. This raging god was fueled solely by fury. 

After an unknown time the Lagiacrus turned his attention away from me and got on land, heading for the village. I started to panic then and chased after it with renewed fervor. 

On land I had an easier time of handling the beast, as it was not able to as easily overwhelm me with its electric attacks and could not get underneath and around me in the blink of an eye. It could still stomp over me; but on land I had the leverage to stand my ground and smash back with my hammer. 

The battle turned when at one crucial point I swung a mighty super-pound and connected with the beast's protruding mouth; surely shattering a few teeth. It was stunned and so I rushed in to its underbelly and began just hacking away at its legs and soft underbelly; eventually tearing off chunks of its hide. Its howl was enough to be heard back in the village I was later told. 

At this point we both knew it was a battle to the death and began fighting tooth and nail for our very lives, throwing everything we had at eachother. The new bloody target I had painted on its belly being my one goal for every swing. 

We were both tired; exhausted beyond our limits; barely able to keep going. It reared back to shower me in electrical torture just as I brought my hammer through its ribs. 

With one last, horrible howl, it shuddered and slumped to the ground, collapsing to its side. I stood back as I watched it fall. 

The Lagiacrus is dead. The village is safe. That's all for now.

Bag that Baggi!

Hokay-ay. Ah great, even I'm starting to get tired of this.

So I get to the Tundra and my first quest there is to slay 20 beasts known as Baggi. These guys are cousins of the more tropical Jaggi that I've dealt with in the past, but they have thicker skin to compensate for the colder climate and are a lot fiercer - being more predatory than their scavenger relatives.

They've been giving hell to the locals so I don't mind taking down their nest - it's not a particularly glamorous mission but it gets me acclimated to the area (and holy crap journal is it cold - I had to constantly keep refreshed with a hot drink or else I could just feel my stamina going down in a flash). Right as I'm about to finish though Cha-Cha tells me there's a big monster to the North so I sneak up and see what I can see.

Another "Great" version of a pack. This one equipped with a nice mohawk. -and also the ability to spit up a weird sludge that overwhelms the senses and knocks a target out - sending them unconscious. I see it put a small herbivore creature to sleep and let its pack-mates start to go to work on it, and I prepare my attack.

Since it's eating I thought I'd have a good chance to sneak up, but with its whole pack in the area I get spotted sooner than I'd like. Apart from it's knock-out bile it moves and attacks similarly to the Jaggi and the Wroggi, but its pack of Baggi are much more numerous than the other predators and a lot fiercer as well. This was definitely a battle against a whole team with the big bad captain at the head.

Still - through all my battles I've only been getting stronger and more skilled. Even though this was my first time fighting this beast I was able to predict its moves a few times and plan my hammer swings a few seconds early to make sure it slammed right into the beast's skull just as it was charging - causing it to flinch and get stunned; and even once to get knocked into the air and land on its back.

After about a ten minute battle the beast lay dead, and what few members of the pack remained scattered.

I might want to make a new set of armor from this guy. I do like blue...

Revenge!

HOKAY-AY!

Today started out great journal! Today started out with a big dose of revenge!

It's the Qurupeco! Yeah apparently that's what it's actually called. 

Oh and you might notice I look a little different, that's because I also got...

New armor yay! All this came from that big monster Barroth. Don't worry, I made sure to clean off all the mud.

Anyway! So unlike last time, I was hunting the Qurupeco alone. While this big birdy might not seem that threatening, it has a lot of extremely annoying qualities that make it a much bigger threat than you might think.

For starters, it's the first Monster I've had to deal with that can fly and hover - and my hammer is more suited to working WITH gravity instead of against it.

The front-edges of its wings have a type of flintstone on them too; and it strikes these together to generate sparks of fire that generate a serious flame!

Finally, Its vocal chords are so evolved that it can perfectly mimic any other Monster's cry - meaning it can call for help with the cry of any species' sound, bringing in anything from Jaggis to Great Jaggis to Royal Ludroth to FREAKING DRAGONS like what happened the first time I fought this guy.

Anyway, after cracking off both his wing-tips, his horned-crown, and pieces of his knees, he finally gave up the fight.

Completing alone what I could barely do with a full hunting party felt absolutely great. I fully felt a sense of achievement and progression. I tell ya journal - not many other jobs give you this feeling.

Of course, not many others put you face-to-face with gargantuan spiky-angler-fish of death either...

This...lovely guy is was Gobul. His life was spent hiding under the seafloor waiting for fish to come investigate his lure, then he'd pop out and SWALLOW A WHOLE LAKE.

I don't really need to say more about how he attacked - just looking at him should tell you enough. Those ridges on the back of his body? They hide spikes that he can extend. -and his light can be charged to stun all the fish (and hunters) in the area. Just a really nasty, nasty guy.

...but - with such a big body, he sure did have a lot of surface area for my hammer to swing-down on. Compared to some of the other Monsters I have had to face recently...this guy was actually pretty easy.

With Gobul's demise, I had gotten enough Monster Kills to warrant a Guild Rank upgrade! Seems they were getting pretty impressed with ol' Rivet Sky: Monster Hunter, and they want me to check out some new lands!

Up next: The Tundra!

Journal Side Entries: Bad Battle Memory

Heeeeeeey Journal.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmilk.

Sooo...I feel I should apologize to you.

First off - because this rambling little bit here is gonna be (shhh) a lttle meta again.

You know those drawings (?) really-REALLY-vivid details (?) PHOTOGRAPHS I put in these entries?

Well...the ones with action shots are gonna be a lot less frequent. It was easier to pull off with small time critters; but when each battle is a life-or-death struggle every second...fumbling with setting up an extra machine to get a nice shot while also trying to save my skin and defeat a monstrous monstrosity ..of...uh...a monster (well that one got away from me) is just REALLY hard journal.

Like...here's a few failed shots.

Now, this shot wasn't totally ruined thanks to the shadows at play which at least imply that these creatures coming at me have a much more impressive side-view than head-on view; but when I pressed my "Take-Photo-Right-Now" button their beautiful shining fins were glowing in the brilliant desert sun as they dashed in and out of the sands. If it weren't for the shadows you might think these sand-dwelling Marlin were worms with mohawks.

This one was particularly painful (literally, too, as you can see). When I hit the "Take-Photo-Right-Now" button the big creature you see in the shot (known as a Barnaby Jones okay fine it's known as Barroth) was in full profile, looking to the right with its mouth open and drooling in exasperation. I had no idea that it had enough agility in it to whip around and up-end me with its head-shovel-thing and send me rolling all in the time for my camera to take the photo.

Finally...

While trying to fight the Lazy Icarus Lagiacrus with some other hunters I tried to capture a picture when I was taking a break and healing up - but then it decided to roar and I think it broke my action-camera because you can see it took a really crazy picture with a lot of weird errors and stuff. So it's clearly broken now.

SO THAT'S MY LAME-O EXCUSE FOR NO MORE ACTION SHOTS. 

Bye-bye Journal I love you!

Hunting 3 Monsters (Ultimately?)

HOKAY-AY!

So this time Journal, I fought three new monsters! I'm getting progressively more badass!

The first one up was a real ass named the Great Wroggi who lived in a new area called the Flooded Forest. I hadn't even encountered a regular Wroggi, but my recent successes filled me with confidence.

When I got to the Forest I had Cha-Cha use his instinctual powers to inform me of where the monster was, and then I quickly hunted it down into a clearing in a high part of the forest above the water.

The sacs on their necks would fill up to the size of their bellies with poison before they would belch out their toxic packages...great.

Entering the clearing; I saw a scene of the Great Wroggi and a pack of its lesser children coughing up poisonous vapors onto a large herbivore, causing it to choke and die without ever laying a claw on it. Even far outside the visible cloud of purple miasma, the stench was almost overpowering.

Strength wise, this creature was pretty much the same as a Great Jaggi, but the incredible threat of the toxins made it a nightmare to deal with. It was constantly filling the air with disgusting fumes and when it wasn't, its pack was sure to be doing so. I ran out of antidotes in less than a minute and so had to focus on ending the battle as quickly as possible. It was a quick but brutal battle that I wouldn't want to repeat.

I still don't feel clean after a swim, two showers and a hot-springs bath. Though frankly that might have to do with the next monster as well.

Barroth.

For size scale - I came up to almost his knee.

When I found him he was literally rolling around happily in the mud. It's seriously a mud-monster. It seemingly got stronger by using mud. The insect-monsters loved him...great.

As I was getting dirtier and sicker by the moment I was at least able to channel my anger into my hammer swings and break off his hard shelled armor piece by piece; eventually bringing him down. At the end of the battle I had pretty much knocked off his entire forehead.

Finally; my last quest for today was from a noble who wanted me to capture alive a creature known as a Royal Ludroth. Apparently the noble wanted to keep it as a pet.

Hearing that, I expected this thing to be small and cute - like, say, a poodle or something. Maybe with a frill? Some kind of crown decoration?

NOPE!

Okay, so this was pretty much awful. This was by far the hardest battle I'd ever had. Moving between land and water, this creature was quick and deadly. Whenever I was in front it'd lash with quick snapping jaws - whenever I was to the side it'd just start rolling over me - whenever I was behind it it'd just whip it's tail around - and whenever it felt like it it'd just rampage around throwing water-blasts from its mouth.

I couldn't get in close; and when I did it would quickly retreat. It took over half an hour to finally get it start showing signs of weakness and being tired.

As it started retreating I set up traps and finally, after a marathon of a battle...

TRANQUILIZER BOMB!

You know...he actually does look cute sleeping like that. 

Great! Great! Great!

HOKAY-AY!

Time for a new quest! I'm taken to a new location that's really hot and sandy and told to kill a Great Jaggi. I tell them that sounds "Great" 'cause so far the Jaggi haven't been a problem at all. They're basically big angry chickens. 

Okay, a much more apt description would be that they're raptors, but since you're a journal and not a badass Monster Hunter, I wanted to give a description that would make them seem less dangerous. I've been knocking them around like silly so calling them raptors just doesn't sound right. 

-so as I walking through the hot sun-drenched desert thinking this was going to be another easy quest, wondering what was gonna make this particular Jaggi so "Great," I heard a freakish howl and saw this coming at me. 

Those ones to the side? Those are the "Just Okay" Jaggi.

This nasty alpha beast was not only huge, but could summon and command the other Jaggi and Jaggia in the area. It was then that I realized I was all alone this time. My confidence started to fall. 

The battle lasted around fifteen minutes. It was constantly back and forth, with us taking turns seemingly to retreat and heal up every few minutes from the fierce battle. Its relentless attacks of teeth, tail-whips and body-checks were tough, but not as tough as the stream of its lesser-Jaggi pack that I needed to focus on before I could deal with the main beast. 

But my advantage was my trusty hammer - and my aim! Every time I did have a chance at the creature I made sure I swung hard and I connected straight into the beast's skull. Probably half my hits made the beast flinch or fall over, and sometimes I'd knock it out cold for up to thirty seconds where it'd just be stumbling around seeing stars! After a few smacks to the head it would shake me off and run up a hill and through a narrow cave opening - moving to another area that I'd have to find. (thankfully I had tagged him with a tracker so I could follow him on my map)

Finally after a long and awesome battle and after using up nearly all my supplies, I noticed it was limping and drooling and its frills and head were all torn up from my repeated mashings. This was it. I did one final smash and the beast gave its final cry, then it was over. The rest of the pack barked and yelped at me for a few seconds, then scattered. 

I had won my first true Monster Hunt.

After carving up the Great Jaggi I started thinking that I really should start making some new armor for myself...and this little guy's such a nice shade of purple-ish...

FANTASTIC!

Back at the village, there was apparently an uproar as something was causing a panic in the woods. "A half-man, half-monster." They tell me to go check it out, and I figure why not. 

The "Pixie" turns out to be a creature called a "Shakalaka." This one in particular named Cha-Cha.

Cha-Cha.

Cha-Cha apparently is on a journey to make masks...or hunt monsters...or just journey? I didn't really understand. Cha-Cha apparently has a lot of jobs and switches jobs a lot. -and apparently Cha-Cha has had a lot of interesting and varied jobs in the past before finally winding up here fighting monsters now. 

Cha-Cha? I think you and I are going to be BEST FRIENDS FOREVER.

Journal Side-Entries: Monster Hunter Snap

Heeeeeeey Journal.

So.......I just woke up.

Milk hangover.

I know I need to cover some other stuff but reeeeeal quick I wanna jot down this idea I just had.

'cuz it's a reeeeeal good idea. It's seriously good Journal. Way better than anything you ever had.

Don' get me wrong - you're a great listener, but we all know I'm the brains of this operation.

...

...anyway.

So I was thinking about those battles I had. The one with Flippity-Floppity-floo and Buggaboo.

Now...this is gonna get kinda meta but don't worry it's just for a moment.

See, when I was running the hell away  tactically survering the postion  luring them towards me, I realized I was getting some good shots, even if my camera was pretty poor.

It reminded me of a few of my previous jobs.

See, I always liked mosnters - even as a wee-kiddo. So actually my first ever job dealt with them!

This job involved photographing monsters in the wild. You'd get paid for how many different monsters you'd snap photos of, and you'd get better rewards depending of if they were doing something exciting or cute or whatever. It was a sweet gig, but frankly it was a bit too easy for me. These little guys were just TOO eager to please. They were all kinda divas ready to pose. I wanted a challenge.

I GOT IT.

This job didn't mess around. This was for some sort of snuff magazine I guess - the checks came in the mail and I never ever saw the production. Maybe they were just sent to some private collector? Anyway, here I wasn't shooting cute little monsters...in fact, I'm not even sure what I was shooting - they were all speaking some foreign language and I never got a translator. I think they were possessed little girls? Demons? I dunno.

Anyway, they would start attacking me with crazy swarms of death-bullet-magic the moment they saw me, and my job was to take pictures of their attack patterns! I got bonuses for capturing myself in the shot, capturing a visible Magic Circle around them which meant they were charging up, and an EXTRA bonus if one of their bullets were singing me!

Me taking a picture of me about to take a picture...w...woah.

Needless to say, the adrenaline quickly died down and I realized this was just a bit too extreme for me. I soon moved on to other things.

But now that I'm a Monster Hunter, I'm remembering both jobs and the pics I took yesterday and thinking there might be room here for someone to make some cash!

These monsters are huge and awesome - and with teamwork the monsters will usually be focused on the damage dealers. Maybe the guild can send a group of four or so Hunters to take down a monster and then send a Photographer in to try and take Action-Shots of the heated battle! There could even be competition among photographers - leaderboards or public forums where people vote on the best photos!

I know my photo of Que-Que-Maru was blurry as all hell but it was a great action shot!

-and yes, that's me running the hell away from that thing.

Just an idea I had as I try to wake up.