The start...

(So much for my time off. My mind hyper focused and now I can't stop writing! Leave me a comment to let me know what you all think yeah?)

We walked through the gate, entering what looked to be a entrance to a large valley in the mountains. We saw a single path leading down through the tree's, but beyond that we saw what looked like a monk's temple, and further out beyond that we could just make out some type of large metal door leading into a mountain. With the three of us being able to see the same thing with the party HUD, we waited a moment before the notifications popped up.

Objective available! Make your way through the Mountain area and into the next zone.
Objective available! Take out the enemy Monastery. Bonuses available for each boss defeated, the more enemies beaten the greater the rewards.
Objective available! Find the Hidden Cache's of resources. These can be traded through the inventory system for resources that will aid you in the outside world.
Objective available! Find the enemies ritual and disrupt it.
Objective available! Locate and defeat the Red Cloaked Enemy.

Okay... So quite a bit to do it looks like. This place also seems to be more on the low tech side so probably not any computers to make use of or to download info from. "So how do we wanna do this? Just head in and work our way through?" Seeing the objectives and the sheer size of the place it was Shiva that suggested we may not have enough forces to simply go charging in, she instead suggested we try to gather info and learn where the targets were or what we can about these enemies and their capabilities first. "Alright, I have something that can help with that I think..." Was my response, followed by me reaching down and summoning some Tiny Earth Rats, I heard and saw Shiva and Jade both jump a little at seeing them dig out of the dirt, just for a moment.

"These are wonderful for gathering info, best part is the info is relayed back to me right away. I guess we just wait here for the time being, make whatever preparations we can then? Oh here! These should help keep us in contact." I asked before sitting down on a large slab of stone, the Earth Rats scampering off, faster than I thought they'd move honestly, from there I handed out some comm devices that would help protect their ears as well. Shiva and Jade discussed tactics and strategies, mostly with each other as they waited for any information to come back through the relay. It took a bit longer than I thought it would have with how quick they moved, there was even a few that got destroyed and needed to be replaced. Thankfully the few enemies that had noticed the moving rats made of dirt weren't able to figure out what direction they were coming from.

It took nearly an hour, not cause the rats were slow, but with a LOT of info that was relayed back to me Shiva had me direct and investigate numerous area's further. Thanks to this we found well over a DOZEN Cache's but got no credit for it yet as we had to physically get there for it too count. We also found someone with a Red Cloak relaxing in what looked like a private guest room, not in the monastery but hidden behind a stone door where the rats found a modern looking building, almost like a private retreat. Further investigation told us that the person inside had traded them something they had needed in exchange for a safe place to hide out, apparently there had been a lot of heat on him from stealing some artifact they had wanted. We saw weapons on him as well, a pair of pistols... I felt something was off here though, so I sent a rat out to basically squeak at him with another watching from a more hidden place.

I watched as he pulled the trigger and blasted some sort of magic bolt out of his gun that destroyed the rat, from there I pulled the rats back from his Safehouse and moved them on to the next place. With every bit of info relayed that I could find through the rats we began to move into the area, Jade and Shiva separating to take out as many of the enemies as quietly as possible while I was asked to hang back and help send them more intel. Our teamwork took a bit of time to work out, Shiva having us start slow to try and get used to working together. It didn't take too long thankfully, I was able to relay info to them faster and faster as they moved through enemies. Shiva breaking bones or necks in particular as she moved through them rather quickly, meanwhile Jade was cutting her way through the enemies she was lead to.

It took us around an hour to get through just half of the monastery, thankfully it was surprisingly easy going for that time. Unfortunately that was the point where Shiva encountered a named enemy, a boss fight starting that Jade arrived in time to join in on. I was too far to help them myself but I DID find I could send my elemental summons inside to help, only to find it wasn't needed. Shiva and Jade making short work of the boss fight against whoever this Lord Dark Wind was. The fight didn't last long, from the start he called forth Samurai's to help him fight against Jade and Shiva. They didn't help much as it took not even 10 minutes for them to cut through the grunts and overwhelm this Dark Wind guy. I wasn't able to focus much on it though as my Summons found another 2 boss fights. One further in the monastery that Jade and Shiva were heading towards, the other though far outside, a while away from where I was. Once Lord Dark Wind was beaten though? The boss outside began to head towards the temple, and I was between it and getting inside.

"So bit of bad news, we got a couple more boss fights coming. The temple's been blocked off and I can't get inside, one of the bosses is heading my way, and the last one is further inside ahead of you two. I don't think the temple will open up until their dealt with either..." I sent through the comm device, hearing Jade suggest they head back and try to get to me only to be cut off by Shiva. "We likely won't get there before he's in the fight. If the temple IS locked down and we can't get out, then we'll have to deal with the other boss before we can go help him anyway. We'll continue on. Do whatever you have to in order to survive alright?" Well it was nice to hear they were concerned. I had to pull most of my summons away, but was able to leave a couple following the assassin women. Meanwhile I sent the rest of my summons to try and learn what the boss heading my way was capable of... I wasn't expecting a simple LOOK from the boss to turn the water snake I'd sent at it into solid stone though... A moment later and despite the distance I saw the name of this boss appear in the top of my view...