Duty Session 401: Isle of the Terraformers

    As the war begins to heat up, adventurers willing to do hunters guild quests might be less common than before. For Fukaziroh this is less of an issue. She's been asked specifically to check this place out by more than just the guild, and has been keeping an eye out for a quest involving the ruins of this area just in case. Besides, part of being strong enough to fight involves regular training and Fuka's still looking to improve herself in a number of ways, particularly physical.

    She waits on the approach to the ruins in question, singing to herself wordlessly... and actually sounding pretty good doing it. Not that it's hard to do, but she's a bit more tuneful about it than she might otherwise sound in more combat-focussed situations. Some from Japan, particularly younger people, may recognize the tune as something from a young idol singer; something a bit softer than one might expect from rambunctious Fukaziroh.

     The boat ride here with a different party (well, mostly) was mostly pretty relaxed, with Pela actually trying to be somewhat social and friendly, she even brought ingredients to make a relatively nice meal for the crew and her party members. "...I've been before, the surface is pretty safe." Pela says with a small nod.
     "Air and lightning was useful later... and also just general physical abilities." Pela murmurs absently, her ears twitching as she listens to Fukaziroh's wordless singing. Ah, that's pretty nice. Mmm. She closes her eyes, just quietly listening as she wanders, mostly just following after Fukaziroh.

"Didn't know we even had islands like this around here," Vertina muses. Oh well, doesn't matter. She needs to train in more places than the ruins under Karluin so here she is, the investigate and kick things. If other people aren't doing quests as much, that's just more things for her to kick. Some weird stuff that isn't invaders from another server, or goblins, will be a nice change of pace.

Schneider is here for some last minute training before the conflict with the Palace Landers really takes off. Regular training is a thing he knows from sports, so he does it here. If course how much training is involved in hurling a fireball is hard to say. He will show up for the quest, though, garish clothes, glittering cape and all.

You gotta do quests, man! How are you supposed to GRIND LEVELS and WIN LOOT if you're not running quests and burning down dungeons!?

Even in the middle of a war, you have to be grinding hard. How are you supposed to stay above the PVP level curve if you're not up to date with the latest loot?

That is only kind of sort of why Prophylaxis is here. The other reason is that the rumors circulating about this mysterious place with its even more mysterious machines have drawn his attention. The doctor stands vigil near the entrance to the dungeon, his staff sketching out meaningless doodles into the sand. It's a nice little thing. The others should be showing up shortly...

But huh, who would have thought Fuka to be the type for... sugary-sweet aidoru pop...?

    Rather than taking the direct route, the team manages to find a small tunnel that enters into the facility along one side of the stone outcropping. It is a tight fit for larger members of the party, who might have to feel a little claustrophobic as they wiggle through what was likely some kind of ventilation shaft and out into one of the ruin's inner chambers.

    There is a study chug-chug of mechanical systems and a rush of air that blows in their faces. Humidity hangs around them, water condensed on nearby pipes. Now and again one of the valves gives off a spout of steam, assaulting anyone nearby in high pressure and heat. This is clearly an area of the facility that wasn't meant to be traversed, but they need to in order to continue onward.

    The exhaust ports can be shut off, but only by a skilled hand. Otherwise, it is a matter of reading the timing between blasts and making their way through to safety.

     Instead of leading, Pela had ended up following. Which is why there was a moment of surprise when they entered the tunnels and she heard the hiss of steam. Pela's eyes snaped open and she blinks a few times as she looks around. Moments later, those blasts of steam had Pela scrambling forward, zipping between jets of steam and making use of her small size to avoid the worst of any sort of damage. Of course, she's not really /helping/ the party, but you know. It's fine, right? Nothing wrong with that. Save your own hide! "Ack, evasive maneuvers!" Pela calls out, possibly far too late.

"Wow, this is... some kind of steamworks?" Prophylaxis asks, rhetorically. It's obvious /what/ this is, of course. But... "This is probably the most advanced technology I've seen in this world yet." Well, mostly. There is of course one example that he very specifically avoids bringing up.

He is punished for his hubris almost instantaneously when a blast of steam scalds his back and shoulders, sending the doctor staggering forward and swearing like some kind of lop-eared sailor.

Vertina pauses a moment to stretch her legs. "Looks like I'm getting my training session in right off the bat this time." Once she's warmed up she takes a moment to study the bursts of steam, both in timing and direction they point. Then she's off, ducking and dodging her way through, at one point near the end even dropping down into a slide across the floor to get under one that she didn't have the right angle to zigzag around.

Schneider's skill at evading steam is ... not part of the legend of the immortal sorcerer it seems, and he stumbles through only after getting banged around, well-scaleded, and his hair is all tangled. Well, the last can be fixed, and he channels air like a blow-drier, and soon his hair is perfect again. Too bad his HP has fallen. But that's slowly creeping back up, too. He's hard to kill, this wizard.

    Much as Proph, Fuka believes in regular training, regular grinding, and staying ahead of the curve. She also believes, oddly enough, in a particular young idol singer from Tokyo. One perhaps a bit less sappy and mainstream than the others, but no less sweet. And yes it's a mystery indeed why Fukaziroh of all people would be... basically not much different from any other girl just barely out of her teenage years. It's certainly not the image she commonly presents.

    She actually blushes when she notices Proph catching her singing, and apparently judging her for it. It shuts her up, but she's still a little flustered when it comes time to actually do some work. She can't quite figure out the mechanics of the steam valves, but is confident enough to charge forward.

    "AYIEEE!" she screeches. "HOTHOTHOTHOT!"

    Probably not a good idea, no. In any event the group does get past the steam pipes, more or less intact. It's just not a good sign for the rest of the expedition.

    While there is still the hiss and clank of activity within the ruins, there are also many signs that this place has been long abandoned. Spider webs cling to the walls and dust is thick on most surfaces. The entire facility looks as if it is some sort of combination of stone and metalwork, with ornate pillars that have worn from age and stone slabs with strange wire-like filigree within them.

    As the party moves further into the ruins, there is a strange skittering of metal on stone that first alerts them that they are not alone in this place. In the distance, a single red light blinks. It is soon followed by others as the skittering grows louder. Out of the shadows, a number of mechanical spiders make their way forward, moving with erratic, jittery motions.

    They are flagged as monsters by the system. The red glowing sections seem to act as their eyes. As guardians to the ruins, they have obviously identified the Adventurers as trespassers. The mechanical spiders leap at the unwary, shoot sticky filament at others, and scratch at them with sharp, metal legs.

     Okay, they managed to make it through the steam! More or less okay! A couple of the others were pretty scathed, but Vertina /does/ get a somewhat approving look from Pela. She hadn't met the lizard much before, but she seemed pretty experienced. And, like many of the scale emblem members she'd met, she didn't seem too bad either. "So, uhm. Uh. Spiders. Metal spiders? Uh." She looks around hesitantly, before she lifts up a small sphere, slotting it into a dagger which she starts to use like a torch, warding off the spiders as best as she can. "G...got'cha! Yeah! B...back off, mecha-spider Z!" Pela mumbles under her breath. Totally not afraid of spiders. Not at all. Uh-uh.

"Why are there so many kinds of spider monsters?!" Vertina complains to no one in particular as the mechanical eight legs drop down into the passage.

But these ones have big red 'eyes' that just visually scream 'obvious weak spot'. Eyes are usually weak to light.

Especially when that light is the knuckles of a punch charged with Light being slammed into said weak spot, blowing out the eye and much of the head that once contained it.

This is how the tomboy Salamander solves most immeadiate problems, nothing to see here.

Prophylaxis actually quite likes spiders! Spiders are cute, and extremely useful besides. Do you know how many deadly insects are preyed upon by your friendly neighborhood spiders? So many mosquitos! So many wasps! Aphids and locusts!!! All eaten up by our eight-legged allies.

But there is nothing nice about /these/ spiders.

"Augh!" Prophylaxis shouts, struggling to try and cast through the skittering, robotic horde. "What the heck!? Why are there /robots/ here too!? This is so completely thematically off from everything in Yamato! Who even left these here!?"

Schneider's first response is flame. It's his first solution to nearly any problem. Alas, these things aren't vulnerable to fire. Schneider frowns. So, maybe he can confuse their tracking eyes. He casts a very fast spell, and launches something into the distance. There is a poof sort of noise, and a bright reddish-white light. But it's behind them, so it doesn't do anything to these little pests.

    Fuka's not actually a spider hater, though she might make exception for mechaspiders soon enough. She actually tends to like odd looking creatures expecially if they have big eyes. Big red glowing eyes, however, are a bit more sinister. Suspecting that the mechanical beasties aren't exactly burnable, she nonetheless knows that sometimes the best way to handle some critters is through creative use of fire.

    To solve the problem, Fuka summons up flame. Hot, blinding gouts of flame erupting from the ground, not to block the spidermonsters but to distract and dazzle them. And, if necessary, burn away some of the webbing being shot at the party.

    The party is able to confuse and bypass the little mechanical spiders, though there probably is some amount of required scrapping of some of the more stubborn ones. Still, the group moves on. The hiss of steam is louder in this section of the ruins as the party makes their way further, in search of the elusive 'Terraformers'. It isn't long before they actually spot a trio of them, at the far end of a long hallway. They seem to be trying to take apart a piece of the ruin wall, green shoots growing up from where their machinations have taken hold.

    Spotting the Adventurers, they turn, fleeing further into the dungeon. However, as the group moves to follow, they are stopped by a wall of flame that emerges from beneath them. Someone must have activated a motion sensor or a pressure plate. Whatever the case, the fire remains, blocking their path.

    There is a tank that seems to be some sort of propellant that could be tampered with to turn it off, otherwise, there are the more direct routes of dealing with fire...

     Ah, here was something Pela recognized. As they managed to get past the spiders, Pela holding that electrified dagger the whole time she does, soon they're past, and Pela swaps out the sphere in the socket of the dagger relatively quickly afterwards. It looks suspiciously like something out of a certain game that was popular in the real world, actually. Even if they're not called that same thing. "Ah I remember this, there's a tank, if we burst it or turn it off we'll be able to go forward pretty easily." Pela says with a small nod. And she darts right over to said tank to start working on it as quickly as she can. Turning nobs, adjusting levers, and almost immediately starting to weaken that wall of fire for the rest of the party to handle easier.

Schneider blinks as the little pests retreat, and their rereat is quickly blocked by a wall of fire. He shrugs, having no real fear of fire, and will throw up a magic shield and just walk through. None of this fancy deactivating traps or dousing flames for him.

When you spend a lot of your time finding ways to set chemicals on fire, you learn a thing or two about handling the matter. Sure, there's a tank and shut-offs and all that, but that's the boring nerd way of dealing with the problem.

Since she does deal with fire a lot, Vertina has a few alchemy tricks to deal with it. One she takes out, shakes a few times, then points at the nozzles and pops the cork out. A spray of aggitated liquid erupts from it, coating some of the ejectors in something that stifles the fire at least long enough for her to slip through and maybe someone else to actually turn off the mechanism. "I can't waterbend so I need to keep flame retardant chemicals handle around the brewery in case of emergencies," she explains.

"Gah, these things are no friends of mine," Prophylaxis mutters, jabbing a syringe full of healing goo directly into his arm. "I've heard that they're particularly hostile to anyone or anything with significant amounts of elemental power. I guess I should be flattered that they're so hostile towards me, eh?"

More likely, they might be picking up on the good doctor's connection to one of Yamato's elemental beasts. Perhaps that explains their relatively high aggression...?

At least flamethrowers are generally unable to exhibit aggression or passivity. They're just flamethrowers! They throw flame! Prophylaxis eyes Pela and her strange little dagger for a moment, before heaving a shrug and chucking...

A globe full of... strange, gooey liquid at the flame.

It bursts and quickly begins flash-freezing the area. Apparently, it was some kind of Potion Of Cold. "That should help. Once we can take care of the tank, we should be golden."

"Gnomes left them!" Fuka answers Proph, her voice a mix of amusement and annoyance. "I guess this all makes them... GARDENER GNOMES!" she insists cheerfully. Underground gardener gnomes perhaps. She's giggling to herself even as the group comes across a flamethrower trap.

    "Okay which of you stepped on the pressure plate?" Fuka complains, though suspecting it was probably herself. She's the heaviest-armored person present, and is training herself in physical combat. She's no doubt in the lead. "Ah never mind." she mutters, chanting a quick spell to call up a barrier so people can get close enough to shut off the fuel tanks. "Easy enough to resolve anyways, who cares who stepped on the trap?" she asks, not quite rhetorically. She peers at Proph as the good doctor mentions the hostility towards elementalists. She could include herself in such a group, and no doubt Schneider as well. But... oh well. Something to consider another time perhaps.

    Following the retreating form of one of the 'Terraformers', the group eventually find themselves in a room that seems to look down onto some sort of testing facility floor below. From this vantage point, they can see a large number of the black creatures all moving about an area that has become overgrown and wild, with verdant growth covering nearly every surface.

    But here, things are still mostly intact. It looks like some sort of laboratory, with bits of strange machine parts left corroded by the passage of time and covered in a thin layer of foliage. However, their trespass has not gone unnoticed. A group of 'Terraformers' emerges through one of the stone passageways leading into the room, making a strange humming sound as they move to intercept the intruders.

    These versions of the creature seem... broken somewhat. They jitter and jolt and do not move as quickly or cleanly as the others they have seen. There seem to be a number of possible solutions, from overloading their strange mechanical forms with electricity, to seeing if one of the devices in the room could help disable them. Otherwise, strange sounds seem to cause them to vibrate, so it's possible it could disable them if the right note is played.

     Okay, see, Vertina's solution was a lot cooler than hers, which was just adjusting the mix to make it less able to sputter fire, and /then/ there was also Prophylaxis' method of the potion of cold. She suddenly felt super shown up, but that's fine. She uses her alchemy in different ways. Like her mellowing melonpan. But that was unimportant right now, as they were chasing the terraformers to the same room.
     "...They have normal mechanical enemy weaknesses, air elemental or using the things around here worked last time I was through here." Pela responds, swapping weapons from dagger to a larger sword with a small buckler, and inserting that lightning spell battery into the new weapon. A crackle of lightning later, and Pela is leaping in towards the mechanical beasts, using some simple low-level taunts and entering into tank mode, slashing back at them with swift blows of her electrified sword.

Schneider indeed resembles the hostility toward elementalists. He's a summoner, with elements, but it's never a friendly sit-and-chat sommoning, it's always something dangerous. For the elemental. So, no, they don't care for him, much.

He looks over the jittery attackers, which seem different from the others, and will try to work out what's wrong with them, exactly. That leads to an insight as he looks over the devices in the room, fiddling around with it a bit as it disables these pests in small groups.

"Duly noted," Vertina replies to the tidbit from Pela. To which the Salamander rubs her hands together a few times, fast enough to make static sparks fly. Once she's built up enough of a charge, she clenches her hands into fists, and steps in to punch the nearest Terraformer. This releases the current she'd built up, sending a discharge arcing through several more of the constructs like chain lightning to short them out.

"Hmmm, electricity huh...?" Prophylaxis taps his chin. Technically speaking, he /could/ dump a big ol' spell on top of these little skitterers, but the party seems to have everything taken care of! So instead the good doctor takes the moment to peek around at the various machines and gnomish technical miracles lingering in the area. "Gnomes really built all these, huh? Are they technically Elemental Machines, then? But what were they made for? If they're called 'Terraformers' then it stands to reason that they were intended to rehabilitate or restore ruined environments..."

But what could have caused so much damage as to require such machines...? The Scrapped Princesses, maybe...?

    "The ruins are gnomish, I understand." Fuka notes absently. "I suppose that means the Terraformers are gnomish inventions then. No idea if that makes them Elemental Machines." she says. Such a thing is well beyond her lore level at this point, and that's fine. She's surrounded by smart people like Prophylaxis!

    Upon reaching the broken 'formers, Fuka pauses a moment to admire Pela's solution. "Okay that is a SUPER NEAT weapon!" Fuka says admiringly, watching her go to work. Of course, being a hardcore gamer girl she definitely knows to use lightning against robots, and it happens to be something she's particularly good at. But if she had a LIGHTNING SWORD she could both use lightning and a sword at the same time! That would be pretty sweet.

    Instead she just relies on normal casting, which comes quickly and easily to her due to her remarkably strong connection to air. It might not popularize her with the Terraformers given how Proph seems to think they hate elementalists, but then she's content with not adding them to her friends list.

    Beyond the strange laboratory and testing facility, everything about the dungeon seems to change. The tunnel that leads onward is no longer finely cut from stone, inlaid with golden wiring. Instead, it seems to have been rough hewn out of stone, with rubble lining the side of the passageway. The passageway weaves in different directions and the floor beneath their feet is nowhere near flat. They must be beyond the scope of the original Gnomish facility now.

    A sound of crunching seems to greet them as they step out into a wide, natural cave. Inside, a giant automaton is currently moving huge chunks of earth with massive hands. Rocks are thrown to one side or the other as it seems to be trying to expand the facility, extending the reach of the 'Terraformers' into new places. If the chaos they have seen is any sign of what this could bring, it needs to be stopped here and now.

    The giant machine turns towards them, eyes glowing red as aggression engages. However, it seems to be giving off a lot of steam already. They had caught it mid-tunneling, so it's possible that while some attack, others might be able to overheat the monster's systems and destroy it from the inside out.

     "...I guess so, yeah. ...This isn't the only place with technological ruins like this, so probably this world was high tech and then some calamity destroyed their civilization. It's dotted all over the place, fort ouph's levitation engines, parts of the tower... I'm sure things in other cities as well. Mac Anu in particular seems like it would house that kind of secret." Pela murmurs in response to Prophylaxis. "Also, that cold potion thing was amazing, I will have to trade notes with you later."
     To Fuka she pauses. "The weapon is actually just a sword." She says, after the combat is over and the glitchy machines are dealt with. "The slot has a modular enchantment in it though which allows me to swap out different spell cores in the form of these gems I call 'spell batteries' because honestly I don't know if I can be sued in this game but I feel like I'm doing copywrite infringement." Pela giggles, leaving the enchantment active this time.
     And then... THE FINAL BOSSARU ARRIVES! "...Oh, this is different. And the stalactites aren't convenient this time." Pela says, tapping her lip, "Oh well, tank role isn't any different." Pela nods, before dashing forward to start drawing the attention of the boss monster, swinging fast, but hard strikes at it to chip at its HP while weaving in basic tanking skills here and there.

Vertina stops and looks up. Up at the big rock moving machine. Narrows her gaze at the steam exhaust for a moment. Big rock moving machine that's already pretty hot. She smirks, angry anime girl fangs and all, then kicks off the ground to charge towards the big earthmover.

But rather than attack, she does a diving roll to get under it's attack range and tumble to the opposite side. Springing onto her feet, and promptly jumping up to grab onto the hulking construct's back. "This is going to be a blast." She pulls a flask out with one hand, pulls the cork out with her teeth, and dumps the contents into the machine.

Then leaps off and gets the hell out of there before the combustable concoction ignites from the thing's internal heat and starts burning it apart inside-out.

"Hmn, fascinating," the good doctor murmurs, habitually adjusting his lack-of-glasses. He really does seem like the type who /would/ be wearing Ominous Glasses, but... He's not! And he doesn't! But he still nudges the bridge of his nose like he should be wearing a pair. "Look at this machine. It's trying to expand these machines' domain, but... To what end? Of the elemental spirits of Yamato encountered thus far, Fire and Earth are missing. Could one of them be under this island...?"

If that's the case, then they /really/ cannot allow them to continue their work. The digger's clearly nearly-overheated chassis gives him an idea. These creatures are intended to absorb and utilize elemental energies, which should mean that it should be relatively easy to pump said energy directly into them, even if they should try to resist. Prophylaxis mutters the necessary incantation under his breath, his hand raised into the air. "This hand of mine, etcetera etcetera--"

Suddenly, he leaps forth, planting his palm against the machine's flank. His palm glows with an awesome power, discharging upon impact to pour a dozen conjured flame-spirits directly into the excavator's chassis! "Heat...!"

The doctor leaps back, the digger's armor still marked by his glowing palm-print! "End!!"

The palm-print flashes...!

And then explodes!!

But more importantly, so does the inside of the excavator.

Schneider has heard the term Elemental Machines, but is not clear on what they are. "What's an Elemental Machine, exactly?" Because you don't find out if you don't ask. But when faced with a robot thing that's already halfway to overheating, he hrms. "Ah, this'll be easy," he says, and chants.

"Kaizard, aruzard, kisk! Hansay Glossik! Unleash total destruction! Sage of Hades use the seven keys to open the gates of Hell!" The air fills with dark and arcane energies, and he shouts, "HALLOWEEN!"

The flames envelop the target, and it's hard to say if it's vulnerable to fire, but it's definitely overheating. Overheating is technically what everything does when Schneider throws that spell.

    Fuka sees the giant bot and her eyes seem to light up with delight. "We need to break that!" she insists. Not that terraforming and growing plants is bad, but the obvious destruction of this monstrosity's trail compared to the gnomish facility is not the way she would like to see magic and tech benefiting the land. This is more the way such things go wrong and horribly abuse the land.

    "In your FACE!" Fuka bellows at the Mega-Mover, readying her axe and charging in to tank. Unfortunately it's in fact in HER face, as the machine swats her with massive metal claws. It doesn't stop her long, and she's back up wailing on it with her axe. Denting it about somewhat, doing some chip damage, but not significantly damaging it by herself. Fortunately she's *not* by herself, and the massive automaton goes down quickly before it can squash Fuka like a particularly annoying fly.

    Eventually there is a trembling from the heart of the Mega-Mover, a large red crystal starting to blink as it is overloaded by heat and damage. The massive automaton starts to fall apart, dropping hands and feet, stumbling forward before legs and arms tumble off to the side.

    Then, all that remains is the chest of the monster, the red 'heart' blinking erratically before it explodes, filling the room with dust and debris. The Adventurers are able to protect themselves from the area-of-effect damage, but there isn't much left in the aftermath.

    Within the crushed pieces of metal and rock, there are a few bits of shattered crystal which seem to glow with a strange, inner fire.

    The 'Terraformers' have been stopped here, for now...

Vertina picks up one of the scattered crystals from the construct's destruction. "So, if this was part of it's power source, does that make it it's heart? This thing literally died from a broken heart." From heart burn, but that's not nearly as clever or silly sounding.

     "A burning broken heart filled with our passion, apparently." Pela comments in response to Vertina, scooping up a fragment of the heart. "Hm, this would a good basis for a spell battery." She murmurs under her breath.