Duty Session 498: Fireball Solves Everything

Shenmi has already taken this quest, so he is the one who is leading the party to the appointment with the Hunters' Guild representative. It is a relatively recent development for him not to stay at the back to the group the -whole- time, but at least take the lead while the situation is relatively safe.

A Lander from the Hunter's Guild is awaiting the adventurers at the end of a beaten path, where vegetation begins to reclaim a long forsaken area. After a bow to the assembled Adventurers, the Lander briefs them on their mission: "There are a number of abandoned temple-like structures dedicated to The Burning Goddess throughout the forests of the Eastal Free League. It is believed that at the heart of each of them lies a brazier carrying special Igneous Stones, rumored to be particularly apt at stabilizing flames. They are in high demand, and the Hunter's Guild offers rewards to anyone who can bring a few back." He hands the team a map to the nearest structure, and a map of the structure itself. "Good luck, noble Adventurers."

Goldenblade plays along with the local religions, though she feels uncomfortable doing so, and assembles at the quest start-off point to start off the quest. "Oh, hey," she says, recognizing Shenmi, and says, "So, some kind of Fire Temple? Sounds interesting. I'm not entirely clear on how religion works here, to be honest, but if it's called the Fire Temple, I'm assuming fire will be happening?"

She's arrived in her normal adventuring garb, mail coat and breeches, leather boots and belt, a katana on each hip, and a ferocious expression. There's a sort badge on her chest, a mark of honor from Westelande, it looks like a scale from a dragon, but still alive. She wears a pack on her back, and looks eager to get moving. At seventy five, you never know how many Fire Temples you have left.

Haru has not taken this quest yet. He is nothing if interested in new developments in the greater world. Compared to the Beautiful One or the Blind One, his exposure to the Burning One is more limited. He shows up in his standard navy jacket, blue jeans, and four floating ioun stones. Very casual traveler.

"I wonder what they are made out of," the Enchanter says. Haru considers if he really /does/ understand the religion here. He looks to Goldenblade, "You know, me either on the religion side. This may illuminate that more." Because. Fire.

Shenmi flicks one of his hands. "Eh, I've never been much for religion myself. Something about three goddesses. No doubt the developers have woven some events related to this, but I hope we'll be out of this place before we find out." He rubs his knuckles, probably cracking them as silently and quietly as possible. Not a sound is heard, in fact, nor the movement gives anything specific away. "Myself, I'm here for the rewards and the training."

He grins at Haru. "I'd guess they're mad eof stone, but you're right. We won't know until we try."

The party finds a one-story circular structure built out of stone. Run down, smothered by plants and moss, it takes the Adventurers some time before they can free the main door from the vines. Still in place after all this time, wards made of wood and colored strings protect the place against trespassers. If someone could read their ancient script, or knew the enchantment which gives them their power, they could probably understand how to best deal with them. Knowing the exact rules which regulate their activation and removal could also hint at the proper defusing procedure. For the impatient, burning them all down at once is also an option.

Goldenblade knows a bit, and will explain to Haru, "The Burning One is assiciated with war, mainly, I assume because of how flame destroys. And wealth for some reason, though maybe that's because to get wealth, you have to take it from someone else? She's popular in Westelande," she adds, "where I'm from."

Confronted by a vine-covered door, her first inclination is to cut through the vines, but these are /her/ blades, and at a thought, they burst into flame, and now they're both cutting and burning, and that's working out pretty well for getting through the mess.

Made of stone! So true. Haru grins back to Shenmi on that one. "Your analysis rocks," Haru puns on in.

"I've found the religion here more fascinating as of late," the young Artificer says. Young, but with the silvery hair and monocle he comes off as more mature than he is. Or holds himself that way. "Sounds a lot like a person heavily involved as of late," he asides to Goldenblade. "If you have some local temple recommendations, I can put them on the list to visit."

Now Haru knows Enchantment well, but he isn't crutched to it. If this is about the Burning one there is only one TRUE option: Fire. His floating stones turn a bright red color like that of embers, sending out a series of small flares across the area to burn them all down. "When in Rome," he says with a smile.

"Also," Shemi adds to Goldenblade, "I think it's 'burning' as in impetuous, determined. Personality wise?", he attempts. Then shrugs. He looks down at the scroll he received from the Hunters' Guild. "Here it says something like 'temple-like structures', to be exact, not 'temples' I wonder if they're actual temples, or... something else?" He looks up. "That said, they do seem to be dedicated to this Goddess, and have an unusually low cooldown on Fire Artes."

He takes some time to observe the Wards, and grins at Haru's suggestion, "Do like Nero?" He turns towards the structure himself, and each of his hands is envolped by red blasts of Mana, soon discharged on the wards. "Fireball!"

The Gordian Knot approach works like a charm, and the Adventurers enter the building. It does not take them long to discover a trap door leading down a musty stairwell. Torches flicker; long shadows are cast against the walls built out of uneven stones as the party descends a long flight of stairs. At the bottom lies a massive oaken door riddled with padlocks. The more roguish types can try and pick the locks, while Accessory Forgers can try and tamper with the hinges. Maybe those adept in the art of woodworking can find a way to cut through the wood? Of course, a well placed fireball can always burn the door down.

Goldenblade huhs, shakes her head to Haru. "I don't know anything about it," she claims. "That's just what you kids call flavor text, I read it somewhere or other. I don't know much about the actual practice at all. I was a bit uncomfortable with it at first, but it's just a game here, so it's not really venerating false gods. Which anyhow, the ones here are a bit more responsive than in real life." She sighs a bit.

The trapdoor leads down, so she goes down, until they're blocked by that great foe of all dungeons, the locked door. A few minutes with the lockpicks ought to solve that. ...

...

...

Ought to, but she can't quite get it to work. Finally, she grumbles and backs off.

"Like a /burning/ passion," Haru considers as he starts picking apart the word. He continues on with that in mind, "Though when you consider the root of the element of Fire, that is an element of passion and determination. So it comes around full circle in elemental theory." Good thought times with Haru and Shenmi. "Temple-like? Those are fascinating too, because it may emulate religion without being religion. That sort of mimicry is," he laughs, "interesting from a sociology perspective. Someone who built it may have been a fan." Brain mode is ON right now. "Ha," he gives a short laugh about Nero during the burnering.

"Flavor text," Haru says to Goldenblade, "what made you uncomfortable about it?" Trying to learn more about Goldie instead of inject his own opinions on the matter. He is trying to be a better listener. BUT! He will always be a burner. "Fireball!" he echoes with Shenmi, adding in his own elemental fire to the effect. As an Enchanter his effects are due for broad strokes, and he does lament not doing the accessory forging but when in Rome, Nero, when in Rome!

"Mimicry, or actual temples," continues Shenmi. "I guess more research is needed to determine -what- they actually are. Anyway...."

"Oh, let's see, let's see..." he goes. "These are tricky ones, uuuh, nicely done, considering the technology level. Hmmm." He wiggles his fingers, and- uh, has that lockpicking set always been there?

He start with the first lock-

And frowns.

He spends some time on it, scratching the little metal bits to and fro inside the keyhole, closing one eye and attempting to look inside, then trying again...

As the door burns with Haru's fireball, the slight dilation of the metal seems to do the trick: the lock eventually clacks open, and Shenmi dries his forehead with his sleeve, and huffs. "One down, nine more to go..." he comments. And resumes the task. "...these locks are -hard-..."

It takes him some time, but eventually, he manages to open all but one of them.

He quirks an eyebrow, looks at the rest of the party, looks at how structurally damaged the door has been due to the fireball burning...

Kick! SLAM! The last bit of durability of the door is chipped, the lock is broken, and the Adventurers are good to go.

As the Adventurers bring their light sources into the next room, ablood-chilling sight meets them: the walls and ceiling are covered in dire bats. They seem to be asleep, and that is a good thing: they are far too numerous to fight, so the adventurers' best bet is to sneak past them, possibly shrouded in a spell of Darkness. Or, you know, wipe the whole lot out with fire.

Goldenblade explains to Haru, "Well, we're enjoined not to pray to idols and to have no other gods but the Lord." She almost certainly means the Judeo-Christian one, if she's referencing /that/ Commandment. "But I think in a game, it's more 'following through with gameplay' or 'roleplay' or whatever you call it, I think it doesn't really count as veberating." Because he asked, she doesn't normally bring up RL religion at all. But back in her day, people actually took that much more seriously.

The bat-filled room gets a considering 'Hrm' before she douses her torch and vanishes into the darkness. Even from Haru and Shenmi's light. She will move forward under the cover of darkness and unnatural sneaking skills, to the safer area, past the bats.

Flying things need flying friends. Haru's subclass is a Summoner so what does he do? He Summons. A quick chant out as his Ioun stones begin to slowly swirl in a circle ahead of him. They leave a blade of fire like a portal of flame that widens out until a fire birb flies through. "Rachel, show us your passion and help against those bats. The situation is Dire," he directs. The bird flaps its wings, giving the area a hot gust of wind every time. Rachel is not amused by the pun. The Fire Sprite is bound to help, engaging in aerial combat with the bats while the group is free to sneak or further engage. However the health is shared with the summon and Haru is taking more than a few nicks and cuts to his health bar during the engagement.

"Ooh," Haru gets it as he winces from a virtual gnawing on his sides from Rachel, "I never really thought about it that way." And today he learned something new about Goldie, or Goldie's Player at least. "So its like acting in this case," he says in a more whispery tone to where-ever ninja GB went to with those skills. He whispers out, "Thats fascinating. Does that apply to entertainment idols at all? Like Himari?" Idol Tanuki.

"It's all acting, indeed. Like playing Julius Caesar in a tragedy, and pretending to worship his gods," Shenmi remarks to Goldenblade, dismissively. "Plenty of writers of various religions made up their own gods for worldbuilding and storytellign purposes. It's a game, with mechanics. We're just pushing buttons, not expressing sincere forms of belief."

"Fireball!", he exclaims, towards the bats, charring a number of them, but... not enough.

SCREECH, SCREECH, run and chase, and with short breath and a shorter HP bar, the party finds itself in the presence of the next challenge.

The Adventurers reach what, according to the map from the Hunters' Guild, is the antechamber to the inner sanctum. The smell of mildew is overpowering, the floor is littered with puddles, and the silence is broken only by the occasional drip of water. If, that is, we don't count the screech from the tangle of monster vines which has taken root in this room: vegetal tendrils attempt to grab at the Adventurers, too many for mere physical beating and slashing. The stench makes it hard to fight, so some aeration could come in handy. Perhaps one could concoct an impromptu weedkiller, or someone familiar with plants might be able to identify some weak spot of this species. Given the level of humidity in this room, fire looks like an unlikely solution, but that is certainly not going to stop some Adventurers from trying.

Goldenblade nods to Haru about Acting, when he can see her again. "The relevant texts are that you don't have any gods before God, and that you don't make images of anything in heaven, or on the Earth, or in the Waters. But they mean not to worship the images, so as long as you don't go too far in your otaku-ness, you're probably OK with /entertainment/ idols." She won't even get into the inter-sect disputes about what constitutes a graven image, that's a whole discussion by itself. She nods to Shenmi about playacting, but says, "Some folks won't even playact that, but that's a much more strict interpretation."

Confronted with the humidty and vines, a couple hacks with her sword is enough to let her know that just the blade isn't going to cut it. So, she channels fire through her blades, which has given the steel that interesting gold color in the first place, and with the blades burning like lightsabers, she cuts through the growth without too much trouble.

Haru is no stranger to wearing a mask. Wear them enough and you forget to take them off. Now is not the time for big questions of existance. No time for a crisis unless the crisis involves burning things for the Burning One. More Burn for the Burn(ind) God(dess). Though it is clear that the divine powers that be are displeased by Haru's attempts at tomfoolery tomburnery. With his Fire Sprite Summon, Rachel, still out, he chants out, "Ignis. Pluma. Ambiente. Ardeat. Nos." That is the cue for hundreds of burning feathers to fill the room. The damp room. Not enough burn. Noo!

"You know me, once Im in, Im all in. In for a penny, in for a pound," Haru says as he is not /exactly/ sure that is how it goes given the currency difference. "But I wonder if some people do get really devout about it. There is the whole Light element, after all," he says to Shenmi, thinking of those that play up Holy types and Holy to the Goddesses. "Think that is also button pressing based on an abstraction of game logic?" Notably he should be paying more attention to the Earth issues. But Earth is Haru's friend! It would never strangle him and toss him around like an angry Hulk... right? It would, Haru. It would. Especially considering the featherstorm attack desummons the birb.

"Some people get far, far too deep down the bun-bun hole of poppycock that this videogame feeds the sensorial center of our brains," Shenmi begins. "Some say that if you like sausage and respect the law, you shouldn't see either being made. Well, I -manufacture- 'Magic' and the 'Supernatural' for my shows...", he says, those two words pronounced in a way that makes it obvious that they are supposed to be in quotes. He doesn't say outright to avoid offending Goldenblade's sensibility, but it isn't hard to guess that he doesn't believe in anything beyond the Physical world. "They've set up a very clever system of smoke and mirrors to create the illusions of some sort of actually working religion in this world. It is impressive how it's finely woven into the mechanics."

The plant! It attacks! Shenmi whips out two decks of cards, fans them into a circle, one in each hand, and shoots a fusillade of hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades at the vines, cutting them into pieces as they try to reach for the party.

The Adventurers' torches are the only source of light for this room. The brazier in the middle is unattended, a large number of Igneous Stones just lying there! As soon as the stones are removed, the walls rumble, and dust and rocks begin to fall from the ceiling. As the cliche demands, the structure starts to collapse! Adventurers need to rush back to the surface without being squished by the falling rocks, or killed by any monster that might still be lingering!

Goldenblade nods about people getting devout about it. "Just like in real life, some people need to feel there's a guiding force protecting and watching over them. I'm sure there are plenty that have done like Wake and devoted themselves to one or another of the Goddesses," she says. "As far as /should you/? That's up to you, I suppose. I don't know that personifying the elements helps at all, but I guess if it works for you, go for it?" She nods, smirking as Shenmi describes some people as taking things too far. "Everyone needs a hobby," she comments with amusememt.

The last challenge is ... that there is no last challenge. "Well, damn," she says with a sigh and will just go up and start collecting them. That's when the place starts collapsing, and she grumbles as she pockets one more stone and hightails it out of there. Alas, that was one too many, and she's smashed hard by collapsing ceiling, taking heavy damage, even as she seems to blink away from a major collapse, only to be partially buried by another one. "A hand, please?" she calls urgently.

Fire has abandoned Haru in his time of burningdom. During the Fire Festival no doubt! For shame. Shammmmmme. Fire rock? No shame. Haru gets one of his rocks as he responds back, "Isn't that the basis of belief?" He asks this to Shenmi, "A facet of what we consider and construct as reality." He notices the rumbling, "Yeah, GB. It depends on what you believe in. When everything is crazy it is good to believe there is order. Even if it is just chaos. Or believing that none of it matters and live life to the fullest because there is no greater meaning." The rumbling as he puts the rock away, "Or if you were falling in one of those bottemless pits in a freefall, believing that you will reach the end of it. Despite nothing telling you that actually will happen and you could just be falling forever." Rumble. Ok, enough philosphy time. "Whelp. I /believe/ we angered this place."

Run! Run! Or you'll be well done! He starts to work on a Wave Arte chant of the best proportions but gets bonked by a rock. Again. Again. The chant never really finishes. Its enough that he makes it out, walking in a far-from-straight line over towards the partially buried Goldenblade and taking the rocks off, one noodle armed rock removal at a time. "It On. Out you will be in no time." Or eternity from the size of the rocks Haru removes.

Shenmi was already collecting his share of Igneous stone, and grinning at the number -- not enough to fill one's inventory, but there's definitely enough for the Hunter's guild, and for one or two to 'accidentally' slip into an Adventurer's pocket. "Why would the place be angry?!", Shenmi grins, as, with a sweep of his arms, he creates a barrier of fire and sheer magical force over himself, rocks incinerating or being deflected as they fall. "Is the place angry because we didn't fireball enough?" With a chuckle and a mock roll of his eyes, he suggests, "Well, we'll have to come back and fireball more, I guesss!"

Shenmi screeches to a halt when someone in the party needs help. Haru is already on it, so what he does is try to shield the duo from falling rocks using his Fire Barrier.

Goldenblade isn't exactly freed by Haru's manly muscles, but he shifts the debris enough for her to pull her trapped limb out. "Good enough," she tells him, and will scramble like mad to get out, Indiana Jones style, under Shenmi's shield. Except that Jones wasn't down most of his health bar by the time he reached safety. Still, it's success, of a sort. "Gah, that was a rough ending," she admits. "Everyone OK?" For herself, she pulls out a small cylinder and huffs deeply from it.

Haru has a 'Concussion' debuff in his status screen for a long time. It makes the running escape look like one of the party members had too much sake in the classic 'run from the boulder' scene. Thankfully it doesn't crush him thanks to the Shenmi minigame of shield the party. "Fine I am," wobbles Haru still with the grace of a baby duck. He taps the side of his head, "Wear off this will. Then great I will be." The wobbly Artificer looks back to the temple, "Angry it was. Not enough fireball we used. Is required the right fireball, perhaps. Not pleased, Rachel is, alas." He makes flappy arm movements with his broken translation to reflect his fire birb.

"Next time," promises Shenmi, as he catches his breath. Low HP, not good! "Next time we'll fireball this sucker... to the Red Moon!" He shakes his fist at the temple.

"Well, ok, not -this- particular sucker," he corrects. "We've already robbed this one Blind- I mean- we've already collected enough specimens Burning from this one. We'll fireball a still inviolated sucker that looks like this one... to the Red Moon!"

There, that does it.

"So, shall we go eat something?" Silence. Pause. "I'm... a little low on coins, so I could use a little loan. However, I'd gladly pay you Tuesday for a meal today." A pause. "And a night at some inn."