Duty Session 436: Slime Machine

The Hunter's Guild had raised the call for assistance; even as trouble tightened on the land, life went on. And slimes. Always, slimes.

Ayame leant back on the wall outside an old building, her shield still on her back, twirling her wand in her fingers. Every so often, she lifted it to her eyes, studying the gem atop it, before shrugging and getting back to twirling. No wand-bun today! The muggy heat came from the north, carrying a delicious coolness briefly, along with the faintest hints of moisture.

But then, if there are slimes down there, there's got to be water. And cool! That's got to be good, too!

Schneider has been working on various research topics after the retreat at Mac Anu. But right now, he needs to find out a few things, and he'd like to blow off some steam. But blowing a few things up. This is normal behavior in Scale, and should not be seen as atypical. He nods a greeting, smiles to the wand-twirler, and says, "OK, what needs to be set on fire?" because that's his main job, as he sees it. If fire hasn't solved your problems, you're not using enough.

Slime. Slime never changes. It was Slimes that brought the digestion of previous undissolvable material into the world of alchemy. It gave rise to an era of innovation and Slime Labs. Research that would bring Yamato into a new era. But Slime? Slime never changes.

Haru is is humming a tune that is close to copyright infringement involving Pekos and a waltz. A hand to his button up collar as he loosens it. Hot wind. "This weather," he says as he summons his black cat. The six-pawed monster stands on the white-haired human's head and immediately begins to conjure up a parasol create some cooling shade. "Slimes?" the monocle man asks Ayame. Its always slimes after all. That never changes.

     For Miyako, the day started with her being dragged out of the tavern she was renting a room at. She's spent the past few days traveling around, gathering information, talking to Landers about things that happened A Long Time Ago. Frankly, it's been next to impossible to get her to focus on anything else. She'd finished talking with the locals a few days ago and had spent the last three days holed up in the tavern, writing, re-reading her notes, and scribbling things out to write more.

    But someone managed it. Someone noticed that Ayame was putting a group together, and decided that Miyako needed to do something other than obsess over whatever song she was working on.

    That somebody is going to be sleeping on the couch tonight.

    Because Miyako is here, with Ayame, grumpily eyeing the rockfall.

    "... are we supposed to dig? Or blast our way through?"

"I assume we need a lot of stuff set on fire" Ayame tells Schneider with a grin "I wondered if you'd been at work on the weather. It's broiling out here" She lets out a little huff, kicking away from the wall and unslinging her shield, nodding to the group and letting out a sigh to Haru "Seems so. I assumed someone had let our resident expert establish a secret lab, but no such look, it's actually a real case" She grins, heading on down and lifting her wand to shine a soft lilac light on the surroundings.

Entering into the dungeon, the party will come across a place that looks plain, though there are a few pipes that seem to extend into the walls all throughout it. The only way forward looks like a fallen rock slide, and the only way out will be mining it out, whether by skill or magic. Though perhaps one might find an alternative route, if they were to look between the many fallen rocks.

Out of the sun? It is, mercifully, a little cooler. Though there's a lack of a breeze at all

"Well, I'm not digging" The secretarial sylph snarks back "Not by hand, anyway"

    Miyako looks at Ayame. Looks at the rockfall. Looks at Ayame.

    A pacing Spriggan is a grumpy Spriggan.

    "... there," she says, pointing to a particular spot on the rockslide. "There's a space here. If you can widen it..."

Schneider smirks to Ayame about the weather, and says, "I think it's nice." He says this with his fancy coat and shirt buttoned up to his neck, but he's a Westelander and the heat is nothing to him. But into the caves, it's darker, and he peers at the rockfall skeptically. A fireball does nothing, rock doesn't burn at the temperatures he can reach, so he will summon an earth elemental. Sadly, his elemental summoning is not so great, and the elemental he summons is six inches tall, and carries off tocks the size of a fist. While waiting on this to achieve some effect, Schneider sighs and digs by hand.

The trip to the underground means shade and shade is where it is at right now! Haru gives his cat a pat on the head. Eve, the cat in question, is not an animal. Eve is a monster. She squints those red eyes of hers and sassily bites Haru's hand when being dismissed. Faint red damage lines exist. A love bite, for sure. Nothing to read into here. Catte being Catte. The glassy orb in the Artificer's hand glow up as he looks over the arcane writing lines along the walls. "Gnomish?" he considers, not a scholar in the linguistics of this world but the writing is flantastic.

"Shortest dungeon ever," the Enchanter observes as they come across the rockslide. "I declare this a victory and a speedrun. One hundred percent Slimes handled. Endpoint achieved."

Fun facts about Haru: Aquarius, white hair, likes long walks on the beach, and is good at Earth magic. The Artificer raises his hand and takes a small rock upwards with a little bit of mana. "Spoke too soon," as if he knew that was the case, clearly. A foot stomps onto the ground, and he funnels in a series of mana into the slide to move they away like rogue balls in a ballpit. Probably taking Scheider's summon with. Accident, I swears!

Ayame nods to Miyako, moving to grip her wand firmly and tap her wand. "I'll see what I can do" She grins, before muttering and prodding the back of her shield. A breeze flicks up for a few moments, doing nothing but shifting the stifling heat about, before a tiny figure of baked earth clambers out from the magic circle of her shield, groaning and shedding dust as it lumbers towards the rockslide, stuffing itself into the gap and stretching itself out to widen the gap, just as asked. Then, it hi fives Schneider's elemental, and collapses into dust under Haru's assault

Ayame just laughs "I think they were friends" She opines, before readying her shield and heading forward

As the party walks to the next area away from the fallen rocks, they are greeted with a scale that takes up the middle of the place. Old pipes seem to be broken, that were once part of the machinery. Upon investigation, it is clear that these scales are meant to be filled with water to balance them, but with the old mechanism broken, they will need to use their own physical ability to maneuver the dial that opens the stone and metal door to the next area.

A mural decorates the walls, the writing worn to the point it can't be made out, but it's clear that it is a dedication to the elements.

"... I'd really hoped the water here still worked" She offers with a sigh "This is ridiculous. And are you looking for achievements?" She asks the Artificer

"That was adorable," Haru says and in one of those 'I just saw a fuzzy panda' tones and not the 'psshaawww' sort of way. "I'll have to have them meet Terra. She thinks having company around rocks." Because she is an Earth sprite. Eh? Ehhhh?

Deeper into the dungeon they go. What they will find, nobody knows. Besides Slimes that is. Slime never changes. Haru is not rushing the process, taking the time to investigate how things work. Mechanisms are fasinating and he looks over the dials and valves and wheels and... is that a mural? Quick turn. The human stands at the mural that decorates the wall, "Oooh. This is nice." He does the photographer thing where the index and thumb are used to create a mock frame. "I could see this hanging up in my house." Its true. Very modern. Retro modern. A glance over to the valves. "Alright," he takes off his navy jacket and ties it off at the waist so his arms are free. He has a swimmer's build so... svelte. Stretch. "Its a job for noodle arms," and with hands on the valve he begins to turrrnnnnn. Hrrrrkk.

Schneider's tiny elemental falls to pebbles at the high five. He sighs. But he shrugs and nods to Ayame, and will move along with the group, now the path is clear, he will proceed to the ... water puzzle? He waggles his hands around, summons another tiny stone elemental, and it places itself in such a way as to force the water into the right direction. Mostly in the right direction. There's a bit of splash.

    "It is clearly -not- a job for noodle arms," says Miyako as she steps in to where Haru is pushing uselessly at the pipes. "This is a job for a professional plumbing contractor team, with blueprints and tools and new parts and and and." She reaches out to take hold of the pipe in question. "Or, well," she adds, slowly bending it into place, "I can do this." She squeezes the broken end a bit to narrow the stream, letting it get enough sitance that the water falls into the proper place on the scale. "Like that."

Ayame gets busy, tapping the pipes with her wand and coaxing out streams of dusty, murky water to dance from one broken pipe to another until they land in the bowls, which creeeeeeak. Creeeeeeak.

Haru's Arms of Noodle strain! More water is produced as he sweats! Sadly, his enthusiasm is matched only by inefficiency, until Miyako steps in to squeeze pipes. Ayame flicks her wand to capture that escaping sweat and add it to the bowls, until the scales groan again, creak like the ends of an empire, and finally ... balance.

Mechanisms bound into life! Things twirl! Water spills! And doorways creak open, exposing a ramp that leads ... down. As the party descends, it becomes clear why this place was claimed to be filled with slimes. The ground is covered in oil slimes, the walls seem to be covered in the thick material, and it's difficult to tell what this place used to be. It's no secret to the party, if they want to make it beyond the next door, they will need to clear away the slimes or capture them.

The question is, can the party manage to corral the slimes, and take care of them at one time? Old scorch marks from a fire a long time ago mark indents along the floor that could be set alight if they were to gather the monsters there.

Schneider watches as the mechanism is worked, and will follow the party down to where the oil slmes slime around slimily. "Well," he says, "I can see this won't be a wasted trip anyhow. It'd be interesting if we could capture some to use as lamp fuel, but for now ... GUNZENRO!" That being his base fire spell, the one he can hurl all day. So, the slimes are slimy, but they're also oil slimes. At first, it seems like it's just a flash of fire and then over, but soon one of the slimes starts smouldering, and another catches fully on fire, and soon there's a merry little conflagration going.

There is a slow turn to the Spriggan as she informs Haru of the proper way to handle plumbing situations. His face turns red, determined to make this whole valve thing work. Effort doesnt always mean results! Meritocracy is a lie! Slime never changes! Sweat sweat. Maybe thats what the water challenge really means, can you prespire to greatness? Finally he exhales with a, "Phew. Every dungeon is a new chance to get a good workout up. Upper body strength, go." He will take credit, but gives Miyako a wink in recognition that it was all her. Or did he blink? Its only one eye so it can go wither way. Maybe he is going to pass out. Run a Pharma check!

"Down down down we go," Haru says thoughtfully. Its also a statement of fact, but it can still be fun. A finger runs along the oil, "solid viscosity! This works great as lubricant as well as flammable!" And thus begins Haru's quirky start at talking to monsters again. If Eve was any indicator, it is unusual, but it gets results.

    Miyako hmms softly as she surveys the next room. Lots and lots of oil slimes. "Well, I sure as heck wouldn't want to try to fry anything in this stuff," she muses. "At least, not anyhting I wanted anyone but Palace Lander nobility to eat." She shrugs and produces a staff, then tries flipping the slimes towards the indentations in the floor. She clearly hasn't used a staff much. Or at least, not recently. Her aim is wildly off.

Ayame adds her efforts in corralling the slimes. There is scampering. Little faint blasts of air from her wand makes the slowly spinning slimes shift and slither in different directions as she helps Haru study and talk to them. Smoke rises as the slimes bump into one another, merrily spreading the fires from one to another and seeming not to care as several shrink and fade to nothing, burnt up, before the rest get the hint and slink away. One of them glomps onto the end of Miyako's staff and refuses to let go, slowly slithering up it merrily and making Happy Slime noises. Still, the way is cleared. Mostly. Aside for the Staff of Serene Slime Sounds.

Once in the next room, it doesn't look like they are clear of slimes yet. A series of spinning windmill posts create a maze, many paths leading into a gathering of slimes that seem ready for the party. The only way to make it by this, is to either inspect the paths to find a way through, to decipher what the clues on the wall means, or to use an elemental air magic to begin changing it to the best path directly. It is clear that everyone will need to work together.

"That" the secretarial sylph says "Is a lot of slimes. I do not want Uta making sad eyes at us if we hurt them, so we keep it quiet or act nice" She chuckles nervously, moving to peer at the clues and poke them with her wand.

Schneider looks around at the slime-bor-ree, and sighs. "This game is so weird," he says, but will read the clues, thoghtfully, because they're not in any normal language. But Schneider is a librarian, in his free time, and oddly, knows about this sort of thing. The clues are studied, and he proceds along the path that he feels is correct. Turns out he's right! Go, Schneider!

    "Weird is as weird does," the Spriggan answers Schneider. "You're the one playing it, after all." She smirks as she reads over his shoulder. "That one says to go this way," she announces, and moves on in the indicated direction. "And this one says to eat a kumquat... wait, no, that's not right. It means - DUCK!" And she drops to the ground and rolls under a bit of low ceiling, rather overdramatizing it.

Protecc Slimes! Haru is one to try to keep them from being fully nuked along the ways. Poor little monsters. Meanwhile your brethren are lamp fuel. Its ok little ones, its the circle of life. You, too, will one day BURN. Professor Haru, out!

The Artificer continues along to the next room which is a slimeless one. "A-mazing," he offers, putting a finger to his monocle, "ideally we keep the slimes in a safe place. But its a sort of ecosystem. Not every slime makes it, they are designed that way in their ecology." Something something predator prey. Something something that slime is adorable no one should dare harm it even if it melts your face off something something Maze. He takes the very different approach that could be considered 'cheating' by using his relic to just point to the haxed parts of the answer. Zip zoop goes his monocle.

"Hey, you're right" Ayame responds cheerfully to Miyako, pointing at the repeated bits of text "And it's repeated, see? Duck, duck, duck - what's this one?" She asks, peering at it and asking Schneider. A sigh a moment, after locking eyes, and she groans "Goose. That was awful" She decides, following along after the other two readers with heavy little steps. She does, though, manage to avoid cracking her head, and pointed to one of the doors marked with a Dreaded Honking Avian "That one." She suggests

At the end of the dungeon, pipes move throughout the walls, and an old machine stands broken. The walls stand above the party as they may note ancient writing, but before they can really take the time to examine the place for any puzzle, from the machine there is a sound, and from that is a slime that slides out of one of the pipes. It begins hostile and comes for the party.

It might look like a simple enemy to fight, but it soon becomes clear that this is no ordinary slime. The first to interact with it in any way, will see it begin to change. Then what once was one slime becomes two. These two begin to grow into a white and black slime that grow into bigger versions of themselves. Afterwards, they grow hostile to the party. It becomes clear that they are two of a kind, any inspect would note that one has a weakness to light and another to dark. It is up to the party to use all their combat ability to clear the slime twins away and make it to the next door in the dungeon.

"Oh, for - wait, is this - is this a tank fight?!" Ayame practically squeals, rushing forward to engage one and drag it against the wall!

Schneider has to admit to Miyako, "Well, yes, but the advertisement didn't say 'Get stuck in video game, logout disabled, spend your whole life here.' I had stuff to do." With that said, he proceeds to the next chamber, and the diving slimes set out to make this an all-hands evolution, and a set-piece fight. As off-tank, he's somehow stuck in the tank role, and he will try to perform. But he's either distracted or not up to the task, and he's taking way too much damage, his cloak failing to shield him when he needs it to. If it wasn't for his crazy regen rate, this Rune Knight would be a Floor Tank, but he manages to keep the slime's attention while everyone else is usefully beating down the slimes, so all is good in the end, even if he looks like he's been rode hard and put away wet.

"Now if I know anything about twin style boss fights," Haru says, and he doesnt, "its that you have to defeat them at about the same time or one enrages." Sounds about right. So Haru alternates bolts of arcane energy while keeping an eye on their respective healths. Pew pew for you and a pew pew for you. The Enchanter is a back of the line style fighter so he keeps it comfortable back there, especially since Ayame has the tanking thing down. After a while he begins to tap his foot to the pew pews and start thinking of a nice beat to instrument the beat down with. Goodness gracious great bolts of magic.

    "Well, you may've had stuff to do out there, but I had stuff to do as well," Miyako jibes. "More important stuff, like sleeping, and complaining about the dental work I'm never going to get done now because this body doesn't need it." She pauses and adds, "Folks have been brushing their teeth since we got in here, yes?"

    She eyes the twin bosses and, rather casually, sketches a pair of runes, one with each hand. Each produces a small sphere of shadow, that she tosses into place, wrapping each of the pair in darkness.

Ayame busily blasts one with light magic, dragging the darker slime against the wall as she ducks behind her shield and keeping it separated from the lighter slime. And she giggles as she goes. The tank seems quite happy to have found something to do! Schneider gets close to knocked over, and by the time the slime bubbles and pixelates, he's wet with more than sweat.

Ew.

Haru and Miyako seem to have the right of it as he alternates the attacks and she debuffs them both, and they're rewarded by little bursts of ooze that jump to the centre and combine from the two oozes - blasted quickly and easily as they combine to something bigger, but just as fragile!

And as the door opens after the fight with the twin bosses, it becomes clear that they have won. The next room is clear of any enemies or even puzzles, and a reward waits for each of the party. The machines within this room are like all the ones before, and broken. There's no indication that they would work. But it's clear this place once was an important place to the gnomish people, and any that came before. An old door begins to lift at the side, and will permit an easier way back to the entrance of the dungeon.

"... doesn't menu cleaning work?" Ayame asks pensively

"Brush, stretch, hydrate," Haru offers to Miyako on the whole topic of 'even if your avatar doesnt need it, self care is best care'. There is a slow turn to Ayame with a, "... does it?" Does it really? DOES IT?!

The Artificer stretches upwards and takes a deep breath, "A bit healthier to enjoy what is versus what was or what could be. Dream of the past, reach for the future, live in the present." He goes on. "Swim in the water. Cook with a fire." Ok, its fairly certain he got these from fortune cookies now. "Your lucky numbers are 3, 15, 42, 69, and 73." There it is.

Schneider smirks to Miyako, and nods to Ayame. "Menu cleaning /does/ include teeth brushed, and no one's complained about my breath, either." Which is what he does now, to get most of the yuck off of him. "But it's a soak in the bath tonight anyhow, because even with menu cleaning, a soak in the bath feels nice."

    Miyako hmms to herself, nodding, as she surveys the room of broken machinery. "Yeah," she muses. "Especially after one of these." Slime dungeons do tend to be messy. But that's because squished slimes get -everywhere-. "I'm glad it works on clothes, too."

    The spriggan looks over at Haru. Pauses a minute, as if starting to say something. Then shakes her head.

Ayame just chuckles at their responses, slinging her shield to her back. Not dropping it to inventory, but keeping it handy. "I prefer doing it the old fashioned way anyhow" She sighs, traipsing for the new way out "I'll report back to the Guild. I need to see how close I am to promotion" She grins back weakly "And I'll clean up when I get to an inn!"