Duty Session 432: Tome Raider

    It's the mountain range on the fourth floor, and it looks like there is a library tower there. People have entered it before, that said it's the first time for Merek, who has gathered people and will be tackling it himself with them. The man checks the map and nods a bit, "This is the place." He wears dark attire, with the hood pulled back, spiky ponytail notable while he watches the party, "We don't know what to expect, so I want you all to work together! I see we have a Palace Lander with us. Would you like a copy of the map?" he asks the Uncrowned.

Goldenblade has showed up to challenge this obstacle because challeging obstacles is what she does. She looks to Merek, nods about it being the place, and eyes Shenmi, who she's met before. Well, it should be OK, she's brought her A-game, she's rested and ready to lay the smack down, as her kids used to say. Do they still say that? She hasn't heard her grandkids, but they don't come over very often. Books concern her only as far as they're a portable way to start fires, but she recognizes that people occasionally write down important things. Of course they also write damnfool things, so we shall see which of those we find.

The aforementioned Palace Lander introduces himself, "Shenmi Jingren, Conjurer." He removes his top hat and bows, clearly showing the top of his head. "Uncrowned, as you can all attest."

She straightens up, and with a smile, extends a hand towards Merek. "Why, thanks. I think it would be useful, yes."

Chikako is a rough-and-tumble kind of girl, but she has been around for a few quests and has met people. Still, she's been off with her IRL friends for most of her time since the Apocalypse. Where they are right now... well, if you ask, maybe she'll tell you. Or tell you go to hell.

    "Good to meet you, Shenni. Wrek, Goldie." She waves a casual hand at the group. "I hear tell there's stuff to be smashed in a library?"

    Merek hands one of the maps to Shenmi, with a nod to him. "Good to meet ya. This will let you navigate the tower a little bit, at least where the most important places are if you want to get back to civilization." He then looks to Goldenblade, "Good to see you. Glad we get to work together again." To Chikako, "It's a pleasure to meet you, I am Merek." There's a nod and off they go to the challenge.

    They walk through the garden, that should be pretty simple. And then it looks like the thorn bushes all come at them, "Ah... Well, that's. I thought it would at least wait til' we got into the tower. Well, let's do a little gardening!"

With dramatic gestures, Shenmi points at the ground and-

Wooosh!

Balls of flame conflagrate around his hands, elongate into columns, and are projected at the ground, in blasts. Fwhoom! Fwhoom! Fwhoom!

An okay technique, but not terribly impressive for Yamato Standards. When the Palace Landers said that one of the things they wanted most was training, become stronger... well, this is probably what they meant.

Goldenblade nods to Merek, they've worked together before. "Been a while," she observes as they walk in to the yard, and are assaulted by shrubbery. She idly wonders if the Knights who say Kni wanted this kind of shrubbery, and if so, what they would have done with it? Maybe, like here, it'd be a defensive topiary?

Shenmi may be impressed, though her performance is fairly modest, it's entirely effortless, almost negligent, waving away the attacking vegetation with a dismissive wave that consumes them with sheets of fire. None of them get remotely close. She points, BOOM, points again, BOOM, and you, and you, and you, BOOM-BOOM-BOOM. Nothing left but smoking charcoal.

Chikako grins. "Wall of thorns, hey?" she asks, surveying the garden. "Easy enough." She flicks a grin over at Shenmi. "Cute fireworks."

The petite girl with the horns grins wider, and then produces a massive iron club from her inventory... and simply /smash/es it into the ground before her. The very earth trembles where it hits, and the wave of dirt and rock smashes through the thorns to clear a Chikako-wide path. "Simple, see?"

    Merek watches while all of them manage the thorn bushes. Some are better than others at it, but ultimately all are effective, Shenmi's flame is supplemented by the flame and earth of Goldenblade and Chikako. Merek meanwhile, well he uses the knowledge of plants to spray an alchemical bottle on the things. Then he nods while he follows along with the party.
    Next, is the mane frame. There's a place that scholars would use for meetings, though it's old and it looks like it's been a long time since anyone has been here, except perhaps other adventurers. There are golems that begin to move to the party, and it looks like they need to make for the door!

Chikako smiles as she saunters down the pathway she blasted through the brambles. "Here we go round the mulberry bush, the mulberry bush, the library bush..." she sings, in the key of Off. And then it's onward and inward and up - wait, are those statues moving?

They ARE moving! "ROckbots! Cool!" She tucks away her club and runs up to engage one, just trying to push it out of the way while the others get past.... but in her human form she's just too small and slight to really impede a golem of its mass. So her feet leave a nice little divot in the floor as it keeps pushing her back towards the entrance.

Goldenblade seems to have been left with the job of forcing the door, so the door will get /forced/. She's clearly done this before. In fact, forcing doors is a common task for her. Because some people idiot pile of heaps of junk behind a door, then brick up a room and no one can get in. Well, it's construction, not rocket science.

She'll take a few steps back, then lean in and shoulder-charge in, hitting it right by the catch and slamming it open (and stumbling in after, because it wasn't as stuck as she thought it was), so that everyone can follow her in.

"RUN FOR THE DOOR!", Shenmi urges, swinging his full arm to compel the party. "I will hold them!"

One of the lions leaps for him, and he, grabbing the brim of his hat with both hands, ducks just in time. A twirl, and he's facing the lion-golem that has just turned, and is growling at him. "Hmmm. This takes me back..."

The lion darts towards Shenmi. One bound.

A grin from the Conjurer. "Let's see if I still have it..."

Two leaps.

Shenmi shoots one fist up, vertical, and a circle of flames explodes from his closed fist. His other hand shoots forward, is opened, his eyes intense, mesmerizing.

And whoomp! For the third leap, looking like it's guided by Shenmi's free hand, the lion leaps right through the hoop of fire.

"HA!", he exclaims, excited. And now that the lion has slammed right into a wall, sending radial cracks around, Shenmi darts to reach the rest of the party.

    "Good work guys!" Merek will call to the party, then he moves along. Goldenblade is able to make the door open up for them, Chikako manages to hold that one back from the party but can't focus on all of them. Shenmi does manage to distract the lion mane with. Circus party. Merek himself lifts up both hands so that he can bring about a shield so that nothing else will get through to the party.
    When they come by the door, there's a maze. They can take a moment to relax, it looks like a puzzle, one that's going to require a lot from the party to make it by. "Well, I don't know that we will have time to take the books."

In the meanwhile it looks like the lion mane will try to follow Shenmi through the door. It doesn't, because it can't enter that door, all the same it will wait for him.

With the lion distracted, Chikako is able to get past it and through the doors to the interior of the library. Once she gets a look at it, she pauses in her tracks. "I wonder if they have a manga section?" she asks of no one in particular. She pauses to look at one of the walls of books, and... oh, now that's interesting. She reaches into the wall and plucks out a book and starts to read. Must be something interesting.

Maybe she found the manga section? In any case, it seems to have her rather fully occupied, for now, calls to follow the group through the path to the back of the library going unheard until she stops reading to laugh. At which point she closes the book, stuffs it into her inventory, and runs off after the others.

Goldenblade is more than able to handle any maze. She's agile and blazing fast, checking blind ends and alternate routes before working out which way to go. The path she takes is made of short sections followed by pauses for consideration, but not long pauses. She knows there's a trick for mazes, but there's ways to build a maze where that trick doesn't work, so she'll stick with trial and error and just running through each route with blazing speed, leaving a mark on the floor or each path that turned out bad. Finally, she's made it to the end. "Whew!"

"Hmmm. Curioser and curioser," Shenmi comments over the rhythmic clacking of his shoes, unfazed, as he paces around the ever-twisting corridors. "Seems like we have some spatial misdirection going on, hm? Well..."

He crosses his forearms, and with a flick of his thumbs and indexes, two fans of cards spread in his hands. He throws them dramatically, in the air, the cards spin around him, fast at first, but eventually slower and slower. Some Air-based technique?

"Let's see...", he says, and muttering to himself, his eyes dance around, index finger drawing patterns in the air as he makes sense of the configuration. "Gotcha," he says, raises his arms, and all cards zip back, to be one neatly stacked deck in each hand. "This way," he points, and heads there.

    All of them manage to navigate their own way. Although, Chikako manages to get any book she would want to find. Probably no manga, though fantasy adventures are possible. Merek walks along and will find the way a little bit, then it's up to Shenmi and Goldenblade which navigate the place with divination and skill. Merek does nod a bit, "You all seem to know what you're doing. What'd you find?" he asks Chikako, and smiles. "I'd definitely like to talk a little bit with you about books! Well, after the mission."
    Then it is the spelling bee, they are trying to teach the party, and it looks like they will need to navigate away while also keeping away from that distraction while they walk!

"And now, ladies and gentlemen!", Shenmi declares, his voice sounding lound not by virtue of screaming, but skillful projection, "prepare to be amazed, astonished, astounded! For The Amazing Shenmi is here tonight, ready to perform for you!", he flicks his hat off, twirls it, and-

How does it hang in place right in front of him? Is it a trick of the air? Invisible wires?

He somehow produces two magic wands, black with white tips, and launches into a deafening drum roll, using the hat as an instrument, which... seems to confuse the insects?

Chikako's answer to a swarm of bees is a subtle one! As subtle as... well, as an Oni ever is.

First off, she stands there leaning on her club, watching Shenmi put on a show. "Nice," she says, and then adds, "Can you pull a hat out of a rabbit next?"

Then she walks up the stairs. Any bees come near her, and she just swings her club in their general direction. The simple wind of its passing is enough to deflect them away from her.

It's really that easy.

Goldenblade is not /quite/ agile enough to slash bees out of the air with her sword. On the other hand, she's got this handy oxygen flask, right. The end is designed to be breathed through, but what it mainly does is put out oxygen when you twist the lid. The other thing about oxygen is that while it's not explosive exactly, it helps other things go WHOOSH very hard, and just a tiny spark and BOOM, cloud of dead and stunned bees that can be stomped on.

    Well, Chikako manages to swing the bees away, and Goldenblade manages to make a blast that brings a few of them to the ground. Shenmi and Merek will sing, and while it looks like Shenmi is doing an interesting drum roll, the other seems to to try to sing the plot to Bee Movie. "I think that will work!"
    When they come to the next challenge, it looks like the books are wanting to fight the party. Not that it isn't all that interesting, it definitely means that crimes against books might need to be commited!

Goldenblade is, in fact, entirely capable of book burning if properly motivated. And books flopping around, flying at us, animated and attacking, is certainly proper motivation. So, okat. She holds both hands out, a double handed version of what she always thinks of as the Stop in the Name of Love pose, and breathes in slowly, and releases it as fire, flames bursting from her hands in sheets. -That- works just fine on books. "Hope none of those were ones we needed...."

Shenmi reacts instinctively as the book forces itself into its hand. "Oh, no you don't," he states, calm, level. As a Summoner, he immediately knows what he's dealing with. "There's only one way to deal with you."

His hands turn bright red, orange...

FWHOOOSH!

There the book goes, in a conflagration.

Chikako doesn't like burning books. She's not all that great with fire magic, either. So she doesn't bother. She snatches books out of the air, one after another, then starts batting them with her club. Finally she resorts to her least-favorite method, magic. "Thorn bind hostage!" The spell grows tendrils of light from the floor, grabbing at the books and pulling them out of her way. "Enh, just gather up what you can, let the meganecchi sort it out." She lets the tendrils deposit the books into a sack and proceeds onwards.

    Merek draws forth with power of flame in hand, and swings along the books. Between all of them, they are able to make it to the next challenge, and it looks like everyone is successful. When they come to the ink stained library, there's an ooze which begins to come to the party. It looks like it's powerful and consistent, and it will take a bit of work to make it managable. The party needs to think!

Shenmi shoots gusts of water at the gooey inky blob, but his attempts alone are... disappointing. It seems like more support will be needed to deal with this challenge. Way more.

Goldenblade is faced with a horrible ink monster, and slashing at it with her swords just gets them inkstained. That's not much use. Well, she can channel the ink, maybe, and with a wrench of will that surprises even her, she manages to achieve some manner of control. She uses it pretty brutally, twisting the monster with what she considers magic powers, though it's just elemental conrtol. Because it's better to be lucky than good.

Onwards! Upwards! Forwards! To the top of the roof, to the top of the wall, smash away, smash away, smash away all!

Chikako laughs merrily as the group finally reaches the third level of the Library. And... it's a workshop! For book people. How... bookish. Well, darn. Not much in the way of treasure here. The actual books were more interesting.

But hey! An inkmonster!

"Aha! I've read this comic!" she calls. "Watch this!" And then... she /grows/. Shedding her human guise for the crimson-hued amazonian true form she hides behind it. (And a quick motion to tuck the horned headband away in her inventory as her real horns emerge below it.) Then she looks down at the sludge oozing towards her, and list her hands...

And, like a certain hulking green comic-book monster, slams them together in a 'clap' that echoes K-THOOM! off the walls of the room, sending a massive wave of air and sound at the ink-beastie. Splashing into its liquid form and spattering it all over.

    Merek and Shemni don't seem to be managing that well on the creature. With assistance from the two other adventurers, Goldenblade and Chikako, they are able to weaken it so the first two can assist with the creature easier, which eventually they win. When they do, it looks like old ink in a container will be their reward, as well as knowledge they can find in the library. "I am going to take the time to look around a little for writing," the man notes, while he takes a look along to Chikako. "Ah, wow." He tries not to be that distracted, and will look to the party, "Thank you all for coming with me!"

"Thank you for leading us, kind sir!", Shenmi states with a bow. He observes his reward, turning it in his hands. "Quite an interesting specimen, indeed. I am sure this will prove u... u... Achoo!" He rubs his nose. "Someone must be talking about me somewhere, eh?", he jokes to the Adventuers of Yamato.

Goldenblade looks pretty impressed with Chikako, taking a step to the side. She nods to Merek, but for herself, "I have things I need to do," she explains, and will hustle out. That's just how she is, always busy. She doesn't sit still well.

Chikako shrugs. "Have a great day, then, Goldie," she says, her voice booming from her expanded voicebox and lungs. The club that looked so large and unwieldy in her human form is an easily-swung truncheon, now, and she leans on it casually as she watches Merek poke around for bits of glasses-people-type treasure.

"So," she says, turning to Shenmi. "You're one of those Palace-Lander type people? The ones that /aren't/ crazy mind-controlled killer zombies?"

    Merek nods a bit to Goldenblade, while he thinks about it. "Take care," then to Shemi and Chikako, "Aye, he is one of the Uncrowned." Which he then adds, "I want you to know I will do all I can to protect everyone, including the people that are from the Palace Lands. I don't like the idea of soldiers made with mind control technology."

Shenmi isn't one to make much of a fuss of thing. Oh, sure, he's been observing everything around him, but he always kept a dignified composture, refraining from any comment. Even when the Oni-like woman became a, well, proper Oni-woman.

He bids goodbye to Goldenblade; Merek gets a hint of a sigh of weariness, a slight slump of the shoulders, and "It is nerve-wrecking. People like you and I... twisted into..."

He gestures.

He then turns to Chikako. "I would be one of them, indeed." Shenmi says with a hint of a bow. "Can I be of assistance in any way?"

As she departs, Goldenblade says to Shenmi, "By the way, I own the training Academy in Carmina Gadelica Marina. It's open to anyone who's not an ... an enemy, and you seem pretty decent. It's closed down for the war, but afterwards, it's open to all."

"Just curious," the Oni rumbles. "I didn't get to go over and have a look, see the place. We had a bet on, my pals and me, about what it'd be like. I think they've been reading too many Wuxia manga, myself." She shrugs. "Stuff out of the movies, like flying around on swords like surfboards, perching on treetops, weird alchemists searching for eternal life, that kind of thing."

She settles down (on the floor, since none of the chairs will fit her frame and none of the tables look like they'd support her weight) and pulls out one of the books she'd trapped on the floor below. "Got a few thousand coin riding on the answers."

Shenmi lets out a dignified chuckle. "It is Elder Tale Online," he says. "Of course we have all of that and more." Some thought, some stroking of his goatee. "Or... had, before... you know..." He gestures. "In any case, based on what we could see here in Yamato, we would not be surprised if Yamato had something along those lines." More thought. "Except the flying around on swords. There can be some -approximation- of flight, illusion, mayhaps, but true flight..."

    Merek looks along between people, and will nod a little bit, "A lot has changed. We don't even know what the world even is anymore," the man offers. Then a look to Chikako, "When we learned about what things do to people when you're killed... Well a lot of people actually told me to not get killed anymore."

Chikako nods. "Yeah, 's a cryin' shame. I think folks here are ticked off about that more than they are about anything else the Black Wave did to screw us all over."

She nods to Merek. "Yeah, I heard that too. Crazy times. Then I spent a few days rackin' my poor brains tryin' to figure out what I'd lost the first few times I punched that ticket, never did manage to figure it out." One of her friends probably dragged her off to a dungeon or something. (The kind where you kill monsters, silly, not the other kind.)

"Do not die," Shenmi reiterates.

He looks between Chikako and Merek. "You two... died? I... I am sorry." He says, somber. A little bit of silence. "But yes, hopefully we arrived just in time to prevent worse. Do not die. Do not let them take over your churches."

    "Twice, and data drained another time, I don't know what was taken then. And... I once had a bit of the data that makes me up eaten by a dark sword which I wielded for a while," Merek will explain to Shemni, and to Chikako.

The Oni-girl nods. "Yeah, folks say I get a bit reckless in a fight. Been tryin' to get better." She shrugs. "Sometimes you just gotta take risks, though, right?"

She pauses and looks over at Merek. "Hadn't heard about that last," she says. "Evil sentient swords? You know the rule, never trust anything with more teeth than the Osmond family."

Shenmi listens with silence and respect to Chikako's comment. Seems like he's heard numerous stories like that before.

"Data... drained?", Shenmi blinks at Merek. "I'm sorry? What does that mean?"

    Merek looks to the strap which he wears, then he nods a bit to Shenmi, "It's a Power. Which is granted by special access to the system. Data Drain lets people drain the data from people, and from monsters. Mine, lets me seal the power, and it lets me read minds," the man explains, "Well, the one I use was crafted by the Blind Goddess."

"Never did run into that before myself," Chikako says, "But I've heard stories." She looks over at Shenmi and considers. "Ever run into the term 'cosmosphere' before? Folks've said they get messages about that when it happens."

Shenmi taps his chin. "Cosmosphere... Cosmosphere... no, never, alas," He shakes his head. "It would seem that you in Yamato know more than I do." There is some hesitation. "Although, maybe Tian knows something we don't. That Adventurer keeps surprising me with the amount of stuff they're privvy to."

"Mmm, well. It seems to be one of Those terms," Chikako comments. "Something about our relationship to this world, the game code, and everything else. Not really sure yet." She shrugs. "Hey, something I wondered about, though," she asks. "When stuff went nuts back in the Old Country," IE, the Palace Lands, "What did the Root Town Guardians do?"

    Merek will listen, although he doesn't really comment. The man looks to each of them, "I am interested to know," the man notes.