“I’m tempted to try my luck with the vision vines,” Boden said, shifting uncomfortably in the heavy wool cloak he wore over his armor. “Can barely breathe, and we’ve only started.”

  His hood was up, cinched tight with a leather drawstring, and the same wax-coated wool wrapped around his nose and mouth. Gloves and long pants tucked snugly into his boots completed the ensemble, leaving his eyes and the bridge of his nose as the only exposed parts of his body.

  And it was eighty-three degrees with air so humid that it felt wet to the touch. To make the trek even worse, Hans insisted that everyone carry a mace either in addition to their preferred weapon or in place of it.

  The entire party–Hans, Gret, Mazo, and Zalora–were similarly attired. Zalora, a White Mage lizardwoman who sometimes hunted with the group, was the only member not bothered by the heavy heat. Her cold blood made it quite comfortable, actually.

  The job was to eradicate an outbreak of vision vines in a forest similar to Gomi’s except this region never saw snowfall. The nights that locals described as “chilly” were normal summer evenings in Gomi, the kinds of nights where every window was open and you slept face down on top of your blankets to stay cool. As a result, the old-growth trees in this area were surrounded year-round by dense, lush plant life, several varieties of ferns and shrubs, for example.

  Despite the heat, the water-resistant wool was a necessity, as contact with vision vines was deadly if the exposure was great enough.

  Vision vines were incredibly difficult to eradicate for that reason, but there were also several more reasons:

  They had a chameleon-like quality where they took on the appearance of the plants they grew in, around, and over. A vision vine growing up the side of a birch tree, for example, would take on the speckled white of the bark before weaving itself through the branches and leaves. When it managed to cross from one tree to another high in the canopy, that section of plant would adapt the new growth of vine to match the new tree.

  Thanks to that camouflage ability, a vision vine could wind through a significant area of forest before locals recognized the problem. Locating the entirety of a vision vine was challenging enough, but the hardy species could grow a new root system if a segment was detached from the original vine, further complicating the problem.

  If the last two feet of a grapevine were severed from the whole, it would wither and die. A vision vine would send tendrils toward the forest floor in a race to set new roots before its nutrients ran dry. Sometimes the vine wouldn’t have enough stored energy to survive the attempt, but more often than not, it succeeded in reestablishing itself and soon resumed its spread.

  Resiliency was frustrating, but all weeds were known for being hard to kill.

  Vision vines were not omnivorous and did not actively seek prey the way a ya-te-vao might, but their method for spreading seeds often led to untimely deaths for anything unlucky enough to brush against their leaves. The seeds themselves were small and flat, covered in small barbs to catch the fur of a passing creature and ride off to a new section of forest to germinate. Dozens of plants used a similar mechanism, like cockleburs and beggarticks, but the vision vine produced a psychedelic oil that transferred along with its seeds.

  A deer would push through a batch of vision vines, cover itself in seeds, and then lose its mind. A small exposure to the oil could leave a deer wandering the woods for a few hours, entirely oblivious to any need to eat, drink, or avoid predators. A heavy dose left the animal to roam until it died of dehydration.

  So the combined traits of a vision vine meant that it could spread incredibly far if not destroyed quickly, but there was one more problematic trait: their seeds could lie dormant for years before sprouting. A forest might not see a vision vine for a decade, and then suddenly it was infested.

  Adventurers weren’t always needed to deal with a vision vine problem, but the creatures the vines attracted often required more than a civilian could handle. The hallucinogenic oils didn’t affect birds or most reptiles, so birds sought out the vines for protection, and then snakes sought out the birds. In the worst cases, monsters who were similarly immune deliberately used the vines to their advantage as well.

  Boelen’s Bane was one such monster, a giant variation of the less dangerous python species colloquially referred to as Boelen’s Python in honor of the Druid who first documented the species. There was no proof that Boelen ever actually encountered Boelen’s Bane, but the snake earned its name for having a similar iridescent quality to its scales, giving its deep black body with small white rings a shimmer in sunlight.

  They didn’t get as large as a titanboa, but the largest ever recorded Boelen’s Bane was thirty-three feet long. The snake Hans’ party fought was twenty-six feet and three inches long. The monster was big, highly resistant to bladed weapons, and its scales had qualities similar to celestial steel in that they reflected most magic and absorbed what they couldn’t. It wasn’t venomous, but its teeth were as long as a human hand in many cases, perfectly capable of perforating an important organ or two with a swift strike.

  Boelen’s Bane, however, was an unwieldy name for casual conversation, so adventurers called them boe-banes.

  In his pre-run research, Hans identified boe-banes as one potential threat that might accompany vision vines in this part of the kingdom. Some varieties of kobolds were immune to the effects, but none of those had been seen nearby for some time. There were also old stories about orcs worshipping vision vines and using them in a number of rituals, which supposedly included dosing themselves before battles. Orcs were always a threat, but this forest was too far into the kingdom’s interior for their presence to be likely.

  “I think I found it,” Mazo said, breaking a long silence. The party halted in the forest.

  No one was in much of a mood to talk other than to grumble about their discomfort or to offer to share their waterskin when they finished a glug.

  The halfling used the tip of a knife to separate a vine from a wide hemlock trunk. She inspected it for herself and then held it in place for Hans to do the same.

  “So we’re in the right place,” Hans said, attempting to trace the path of the vine up into the canopy. “Let’s fan out and get this done.”

  Because vision vines didn’t die when they were cut apart, the only effective method for killing one was to find its source and drown it with an herbicide. From there, the poison would travel through the whole of its body, rendering every vine dead and inert.

  Finding the source of a vision vine was painfully dull and often frustrating. Like any other vine, this plant grew in whatever direction was most advantageous, so there was not necessarily a true epicenter. That meant a trail of vines that grew progressively thicker could run west for several trees and then cut north and then west again, seemingly at random.

  Hans’ party had a process, though. When they found one node, they fanned out in a circle and called out diameter measurements when they found another vine. The largest measurement became the next node, and on and on and on they went in perpetual, sweaty, itchy misery.

  “Quiet!” Boden hissed suddenly.

  The rest of the party froze and listened as they scanned their surroundings.

  Hans heard the faint creaking of a tree branch straining. In the absence of wind, as was the case then, only the weight of something large could produce such a sound.

  Boden pointed straight up with a small pumping motion to emphasize his wordless message.

  “It won’t come down when we’re all bunched up,” Hans whispered.

  “Must have a taste for dwarf,” Boden quietly added. “Use the Hans plan, and let it come after me. I’m ready.”

  The rest of the party nodded and carefully distanced themselves from the dwarf, each attempting to leave a direct route back to their ally. As soon as the boe-bane dropped to strangle Boden, they needed to be on it with maces, smashing through its tough scales. With enough of that natural armor destroyed, Mazo could strike with her magic while the rest of the party switched to blades.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  “All monsters will use their environments to their advantage to some degree,” Hans explained to a guild hall full of adventurers, “but beast-type monsters aren’t like goblins who move into a cave and set up traps. They evolve alongside their environments, often to the point where the environment itself becomes a sort of threat. A mountain lion is a master of choosing the perfect ambush spot while a moon lion does all of that at night when moonlight makes it functionally invisible.

  “A boe-bane interacts with vision vines in a unique way. If a boe-bane feels threatened and any part of its body is touching a vision vine, the entire vine changes its camouflage to look like the body of a boe-bane. That little shimmer it has under the sun? That can look like movement when branches shift and light moves over the vines. A young boe-bane will use that defense to run and hide, but an adult boe-bane will look to kill anything within its domain that it deems a threat. If you’re already tripping because you brushed against a vision vine, that’s not terribly hard for it to do. If you’re not tripping, it will still feel like you are because most of the forest looks like the body of a monster. If you lose sight of the real snake for a moment, you’re in trouble.”

  “Con-” was the only syllable Boden got out before the boe-bane cinched its body tight, squeezing the air out of his lungs.

  Hans beat the rest of the party there, and his first blow with his mace transformed the forest into a tangle of boe-bane bodies in every direction. The bestiaries said to never take your eye off of the real boe-bane, so Hans kept his focus fixed on the keg-round body while he swung his mace again and again.

  Gret arrived next, rope in hand for the next phase of the plan. The boe-bane thrashed angrily but didn’t release Boden. The head, however, had not revealed itself. Those fangs could arrive at any moment and come from any direction, as the whole forest seemed to writhe.

  Pausing to sketch on the chalkboard, Hans drew a series of circles to represent tree trunks and then indicated where his party was positioned when the snake first dropped to wrap Boden.

  “We were lucky that Boden spotted the boe-bane before it attacked. That gave us the chance to set our positions before the fight instead of trying to wing it. We knew that it would flail like all hells as soon as it was threatened, and with that much weight, it could easily take any of us off our feet before we could do anything productive. Accounting for that, Boden positioned himself here.”

  Hans pointed out that Boden’s location was nearby two trees with a narrow distance between them.

  “A snake is flexible, but when it’s attacking, its body is more tense. If I stood here between the trees when it was already occupied with strangling Boden, it was much less likely to hit me. Now if you’ve been in any of my large-enemy classes, you’ll have heard me talk about framing. Boden wasn’t stronger than the boe-bane, but he had his arms tucked in close and his forearms up to buy himself a little bit of space. He would still suffocate eventually, but framing delays that.”

  When Gret appeared, he called “rope!” to signal the party was moving into the next phase of the plan. Hans stopped attacking and pressed himself against the closest tree to give the Rogue space to join him in the same protective pocket.

  Boden gasped “rope!” in reply to indicate he was ready but added a frantic nod when the pressure turned his words to a whisper.

  An iron hook was tied to the end of the rope that Gret tossed to Boden. When he saw the dwarf grab the hook, Gret yipped loudly to be certain Mazo and Zalora heard, signalling the Mages to execute a planned sequence of spells.

  Zalora cast Grease on Boden at the same time Mazo cast Glue on the rope.

  The boe-bane’s continued constriction squeezed the slippery dwarf free, shooting him out onto the ground, iron hook still in hand. Boden sought the same cramped safe area as Hans and Gret and slapped the hook on the other end of the rope the moment he was able.

  “On!” Gret yelled.

  Mazo cast Harden on the rope at the same time Zalora cast Beacon on the snake. As they feared, the boe-bane’s scales could reflect that spell as well. So Zalora turned into a glowing Beacon instead of the snake.

  The plan didn’t hinge on Beacon succeeding, but it would have made life easier if they needed to track the monster for some reason.

  The real key was to keep the snake wrapped in rope.

  “That was the most difficult part of the fight,” Hans explained. "As long as the rope held–and we were very worried it wouldn’t–the boe-bane couldn’t escape. Next, Mazo summoned an earth elemental, and Zalora buffed it with Strength. Mazo ordered the elemental to grab the rope and hold it steady, like a fisherman keeping tension on the line. The poor guy got tossed around a little bit at first but held tight. Then, Mazo commanded the elemental to yank any time the body pulled out of our melee range to help bring it back within reach."

  “If you’re picturing the rope wrapped around the boe-bane like it was a string on a finger, that’s not what happened. Remember, Boden was actively being strangled, so the snake’s body was wrapped three times around. The rope went in the top, came out the bottom, and then hooked, so it was kind of like tying a knot in the snake itself. When it tried to slither away, it had a big bunch in it that wouldn’t fit through most branches.”

  In the end, Mazo expended her mana to keep an earth elemental up at all times, so when Hans and Boden finally exposed the flesh beneath the boe-bane’s scales, it was Gret who skewered it with a rapier. One stab wasn’t enough to end the fight, however. The moving target made it a chore, but the party repeated the process for over an hour to finally bring the beast to rest.

  “From there, it was back to playing detective to find the origin point for the vision vines. Any questions?”

  Tourni from the Whiters party raised his hand first. “You all were Irons for this?”

  “Correct.”

  “Wouldn’t that have been a high-Bronze or low-Silver encounter, at a minimum?”

  “Also correct. This job changed our fortunes in a big way. The payday was good, but it showed upper ranks that we were serious, so we got picked to join a lot of high-Bronze jobs as a second party. We started taking more low-Bronze jobs, too. Before, the Guild would have vetoed our request because of our experience level.”

  Shaking his head, Tourni said, “I know you’re all for real, so I believe the story, but…”

  “But it seems highly improbable. To put it kindly.”

  Tourni chuckled. “Yeah.”

  “One of the takeaways you all get from training in the dungeon is how much of a difference tactics and preparation make in an encounter. We have Irons running Silver encounters down here because of how much pre-hunt work we do. That doesn’t mean you should disregard encounter ratings–because you definitely shouldn’t–but those ratings assume a certain level of surprise. They’re harder to apply to a carefully crafted set of tactics.”

  “The tactics you described were smart, sure, but still.”

  Hans looked around. “Is Mazo still here?”

  “No,” the halfling replied.

  Grinning, Hans asked, “Do you mind chiming in on how we prepared?”

  Mazo sighed. “It’s been years, and he still lords this job over us. We thought he was crazy for wanting to prep for a boe-bane. They weren’t common to the area, and none had been spotted, but he bet his share of the job on it and made us rehearse this maneuver in a barn for two days before we went out. We gave him so much shit every minute of our practice, but he was right, and we had the timing down because we practiced.”

  “Let the record reflect that the Great Mazo said that she was wrong and I was right.”

  When the laughter subsided, Hans called on Pogo.

  “How did you know a boe-bane would be there when no one else did?” he asked.

  “Research and deduction,” Hans answered. “The locals figured out that the vision vines had spread pretty far already, and the disappearances confirmed it, but that’s all they were. Disappearances. They never found any bodies. A forest is a big place, but five people were dead. No one stumbled across a corpse or found an arm or leg carried away by a scavenger. If someone were lost in the woods, that’s what you would expect.

  “Any other predator in the area left evidence, but boe-banes didn’t. They consume their food whole and dissolve it in their stomachs. Its presence was unlikely, but it was the only monster immune to vision vines and large enough to eat a person. At a minimum, we needed to be on the lookout for it.”

  Hans answered a few more questions about what kind of maces they carried and where they got the wool cloaks to avoid the vision vine oils. He wrapped up the job debrief with a reminder that the guild collection of stories like these steadily expanded. Anyone could use the card system to look up a job by class, monster, location, or tactic–which was “snare” in this case.

  “Must have felt pretty good to win that bet,” Terry said as the class dispersed.

  Mazo cackled immediately.

  “What am I missing?” Terry asked.

  “Boden and Mazo saved some of the oil and gave it a try back at the inn,” Hans answered. “You know how awful managing a drunk friend can be? It was like that but a hundred times worse. Boden ended up breaking a bed and a door, and Mazo nearly burnt the place down when she thought she saw a centaur and tried to kill it. We were banned from every inn in town after that and gave up a big chunk of the payday to cover the damages.”

  Open Quests (Ordered from Old to New):

  Monitor for independently grown sections of dungeon.

  Complete the next volume (Bronze to Silver) for “The Next Generation: A Teaching Methodology for Training Adventurers.”

  Establish a Hoseki-grade library in Gomi.

  Prepare the first collection of job debriefs for publication.

  Learn to help your advanced students as much as you help beginners.

  Adapt.

  Enjoy it.

  Prepare the Association for spring.