Duty Session 499: Obligatory Rat Maze

The Hunter's Guild always seems to have requests to take care of rat problems. Kill ten rats. Race ten rats. Catch ten rats. Why ten? Ratcatcher's Union requires ten rats minimum for rat catching endeavors under subsection 5c of the catcher code. None of that matters much to Souji who put on a blindfold and his challenge was to take on whatever the guild had laid out in small card-like format for him to rest his hand on. Would it be to clutch victories from Gnolls? Perhaps it would mean delving deep into Karluin. Neither! Rats. Not disappointed by the effort, the samurai takes the request as an opportunity to go back to the basics. He isn't the same end-level top-geared Samurai from before the Apoc and the experience may be exactly what he needs to get back to his roots. Plus? Dungeon runs are fun no matter how you look at it.

Requests go out. Party: Assembled. The location isn't too far off from Carmina and the newly established Uruk. No cheese to be found, none at all. That may not be a rat problem, looking at you Riz! The Samurai is friendly to the Landers, but ultimately wants to understand where the problem is and reassure that it is going to be handled. It is a short and fruitful conversation. Souji has this tendancy to have a 'following' behind him where he goes. Today it is 3 Cluck Clucks, 2 Lander Women, and a Mallard. Notably he waves to them before going into the dangerous place, giving the shop at least 2 new customers and some mascot animals.

Flickering torchlight casts long shadows in the cellar beneath the shop. Crates are stacked against the walls in near rows. Everything seemed neat and organized down here. It is clean in a way you normally woldn't expect, without even a hint of dust or spider webs. What there /are/ signs of, is rodent activity. Some of the creates have been gnawed on. Their contents spill out onto the floor. There are droppings in small clusters here and there. A valid cause for shopkeep concern. Rats, its always rats. Unless its snakes.

However, the most unusual thing is the large crack that runs up along the wall of the cellar. It is just large enough for the tallest of Adventurers to comfortably squeeze through. The air from below feels cold and has a fetid small to it. A distant sound of squeaking echoes up from an ancient, spiral staircase that descends into the shadows below. Deeper into Rat Moria, Adventurers!

Goldenblade is always up for a rat hunt, she went on a few of those in her youth. Small, yappy dogs are best for that, if they're brought up as ratters. There were always rats trying to make their home in the barn, and back in the day, a good terrier would spend all day sniffing out rats, and would occasionally bring one to mom, who would dump it in the garbage with a weary expression and pat the dog on the head.

Rats cause all kinds of problems, she knows well, and so she's always good for a rat duty, and when the message goes out, she signs up, and heads on over. "Hey," she calls. She's very not part of the entourage and sighs a bit at the cluck-clucks following Soujiro. Is he just exercising his supper or what?

Well we don't have small yappy dogs but we do have a large mole trudging up to pick and prod at the crack in the wall. Wait, where did that come from?... Oh, it's the one Kauchemar has been working with, the Nightmare Were Fang eventually catching up. Let's just say by the deva's disheveled looks it's probably been a few days since she's had a proper tending to, as seems to be the case for most Strange Moods. "The heck are you doing down here?" She barely notices the others gathered, going straight to pick the Rock Mole up in both hands. "I don't care if you smell something metallic down there or not, you can't just bumrush through a store to go after i--" Pause. Realizes there's a party gathering. Turns her head to look up a bit, realizing they're not just in a store but the store's cellar. Things eventually click together. "--Oh? Rats?" Looks down at the mole. "Of course. Leave it to a horder to track down horders."

"Thanks for coming, Goldenblade. Having you around will make this a breeze," Souji tells GB, "Getting plenty of good use out of your academy drills, too! That one direct strike is very similar to Headsplitter." Also translates as Helm Splitter and two or three other versions of the same. Roughly 'Hit someone very hard over the head'. "It makes me wonder what the new skill and talent progression will look like now!" Because this time around there is a lot more 'freedom' in how martial and magical prowess develops. It could change the landscape drastically. Souji has a smile of excitement for the possibilities. Endless training!

Speaking of training, the Cluck Clucks strut their stuff. Prime dinner in clucking form right there. Not that Souji would ever consume his precious chicks like /that/. "Rats!" the blue eyed samurai echoes to Kau, assuming she is here for the fun and makes sure the Nightmare has the party invite. "Who is this little guy?" he asks, sparkling at the Rock Mole. No! Resist the sparkles, Rock Mole. The Cluck Clucks are already giving the tsundere eyes to the mole.

At the end of the spiral staircase, the light the Adventurers carry flickers over uneven ground. However, it is the stench that wafts towards them that catches their attention before the details of this place become clearer. Details like 'squish' and 'squelch' as the 'muddy' ground meets their feet.

Garbage. Local biome to ratkind! The floor of the chamber is absolutely /littered/ with bits of moldering food that seems to be on the last few shreds of integrity. The smell? Horrific. The rats must be gathering food from above and storing it down here as their own, disguisting, rat buffet.

At first there seems to be no exit. Dripping sounds suggest that there should be one nearby. The Adventurers will need to clear the mess away from the floor of the chamber and get a bit more light into the place in order to find the passage deeper into this particular dungeon.

Trust your instincts, Souji. Perhaps not the ones involving scent right now. "I'll start on the Light situation," the popular samurai says with a nasally voice. Of the way he is dressed, being around garbage really doesn't track. Edo period samurai kimono and rat dump? Quite a contrast. As a martial class, he doesn't provide the Light through any Wave Artes. Instead what he has is a paper lantern item that he takes out of his inventory. Then another. He gently channels in the Light element into each of them and sends the items floating into the room to give the group something to work with.

Goldenblade nods to Kauchemar as she wanders into the party. "Good morning," she says with a chuckle, looking down at the rock mole. "Join us in a day's light ratting?" she asks with a smirk. She smirks at Souji and would have no heartburn barbecuing one of his entourage, but hasn't got the skill for it, so there's no point in even trying. It's one of the weirdnesses of the game.

Following down to a stinky room filled with garbage makes Goldenblade wince, but she's quick with the easy solution: Fire. Fire consumes junk and eliminates odors, eventually, though it tends to be worse until all the odors are burned away.

"It's a Rock Mole. He's attracted to metal," she explains to the Ronin. "The rats horde things, which might include money or scraps of armor. Not really surprised he'd be drawn to an occurance of rat infestation." The party invite is absently accepted. "May as well work on you surveying more manmade structures."

Well at least the room of trash heaps smells bad enough no one is going to really notice Kauchemar hasn't bathed in a while. She whips up a small swirl of water... but it doesn't accomplish much. She squints one eye at her hand. "Must be too much Earth element buildup." As she's been working so much with Earth lately.

Souji's lanterns illuminate the space and give a clear idea of what the group is working with. The breeze in the air has them drift away from the source, being a telling sign of what area to clear first. The smell in the room is quickly cleared up by Goldenblade's first. PURGE THE RAT AND ALL TRACES OF ITS KIND. Wait, that is a different fantasy battle involving hammers of war. Kau's water swirl does enough to keep the fires manageable and from burning up Souji's lantern, but the Earth buildup she mentioned is disrupting the proper flow of things. "Does he have a name to go along with his good taste in music," Souji asks the bard about a mole and the hardcore genre of music he is into.

The area clears and the group is able to find a trap door build into the bottom of the chamber. A deft pull of it open from Souji's stronk arms slams it open with a wood-and-metal 'thunk'. "Trap doors," Souji says with a smile, "classic dungeon stuff." Ok, the young Samurai does get excited about game tropes like hidden doors in walls, trap doors, and secret areas. He would hunt for easter eggs if they involved a particularly hard challenge that required Determination. This is no Undertale, though moving onward does require a drop from a high place to a low place filled with darkness. Maybe it is. Time to get Frisky and jump down. It is the only way!

Souji is a front liner and balance tank class. He hops down first without a second thought about it to reveal that it isn't a long fall at all. It does look like a dead end at first, though. The party finds themselves in a cylindrical chamber with no obvious exits. There are a number of strange things about this room that make it clear to a keen eye that it may not be a dead end. There are unusual gaps in the stone here and there with nearby indentations that look almost like keyholes. There is a strange writing scrawled on the walls that lok as if it may be some sort of language. Instructions for the room, perhaps? Then there is the lute. The pristine instrument rests against the wall almost as if it was left there. A rat peeks out from behind the instrument, sweaking at their presence. It runs into a hole in the wall, vanishing somewhere into the tunnels below.

"Rats" declares Souji in one of many ways that could be taken. Not being a Shiroe with the words nor a bard with music, he dashes after the rat in an attempt to Handle the thing for more information. After all, what do you call an informant that sells out his own kind?

Goldenblade eyes Soujiro and the mention of classic dungeon stuff. She might consider spiderwebs and creaky noises to be classic dungeon stuff, but Boris Karloff's producers didn't have the cash for a non-stop action sequency movie, so she's not used to what Soujiro is referencing. What she is used to is locked doors barring her way. However she's gotten quite good at taking care of that, or rather, she can do it once, using her advanced ninja training, such as it is, on the various locks. There are a lot of them, but her training buff hangs on, or rather, she's gotten done with the last lock before the buff fades. If only just.

Kauchemar climbs down into the next section with her Rock Mole in tow. Though he's starting to get big enough he's not so easy to just carry around, so once they're back on the floor she sets him down. Almost immeadiately he scuffles over to the lute and snuffs at it. Meh. It's wood. He just recognizes the shape because his master also has such an instrument. He does, however, get Kauchemar's scattered attention directed towards the instrument even if she doesn't need it. "Huh... Oh. It's that room, isn't it?"

The Bard draws the skull-topped staff from her back. "I've got this... but you might want to cover your ears, guys." She thrusts the staff up over her head. "NIGHTMARE RAVE!" A deep rumbling bassline emits from the upheld staff, rolling throughout the room. It's followed by an eruption of not quite Light, but illusion magic in the shape of colorful flashing rays like a laser light show that scatter about the room. Certain holes in the stone resonate with the bard's display, glowing faintly when the rays point them out.

The rat that Souji is enticing isn't working. That rat is a Made Rat. He would never betray his furry friends. He squeaks at the general notion. You are too soft, Samurai. Down here, you have to play dirty. Souji doesn't understand any of this because it comes across as an echoing squeak that later is the origin story for Martin Ratface, an up and coming rat in the Rat Pack Mafia. But who needs their help when Goldenblade can pick locks? Between that and the sick beats, the sequence for the puzzle is made clear and key available with deft hands. Souji excites, "That was awesome music," with one of those big vapid smiles on his face. He will be humming that one for a while.

The tunnels continue to weave beneath the surface of the city of Carmina. Sometimes the group fingds themselves coming to places where the path ends in rubble or empty corridors, forcing them to backtrack through the maze-like tunnels. Eventually they find themselves skirting the edge of a large chamber. A massive creature slumbers there. It is hard to tell who makes the wrong sort of sound, but one ear twitches in their direction. Red eyes snap open. The creature's large head slowly turns in the tension of a horror genre.

As the monster stands, it licks at a muzzle filled with pointy teeth. Foam has formed at the edge of the creature's mouth. It's danger rating is unusually high for a creature found in this level of dungeon. It is as if the monster has been affected by a buffing effect. The masive rat starts to charge towards them with a mad scramble of its paws.

Fighting this thing seems like a bad idea. The tunnel is small enough that they may be able to block it off so that the creature can't reach them for the time being or buy them time to escape.

Souji's instincts paid off. Big rat with a 'this thing is strong' indicator over its head? Yes please. "Now thats something that will need a full party or raid encounter!" he says as sometimes the challenges in Elder Tales are right under your noses. Given said noses had to get around all the garbage and refuse. He draws forward and past the creature, drawing attention and preying on the miniboss' shoddy mobility. "Can't wait to see this thing's full moveset," he says, knowing that today will not be that day. He issues a Samurai's Challenge to beast to taunt it, waiting for everyone else to make their way to the tunnel before he finally heads over. He kicks up a rusty greatsword from the ground on his way, sliding in to a stance to hit one of the support beams 'Very Hard' to pinch off the corridor down onto the Mad Rat.

"That is one very big rat."

The idea seems to be avoiding a fight, but rather figuring out how to escape the room without being the monster's lunch. However they have just the right tools in that regard. Goldenblade is an expert in Construction arts after all... and Kauchemar has a mole.

She takes out a lump of dried slag, useless leftovers from crafting but a tasty snack for the metal munching monster that has a sweet tooth for manmade alloys. She dangles it where he can see, then points at the edge of the tunnel entrance. "Knock it down!" The Rock Mole moves with surprising speed compared to his casual languid gait, charging to the wall and slamming his big claw into it and even giving a hard headbutt or two. Sheer force from a monster built for tunneling is enough to tear chunks out of the structure and weaken it into falling apart to block the group off from Ratzilla.

"Good, good." Kauchemar flicks him the metal lump to chomp down. Food bribery is a totally viable training method!

Goldenblade winces at Kauchemar's Nightmare Rave, and she grumbles, "I'd swear that sounds like what my grandkids listen to." Not that she can tell the Beastie Boys from the Backstreeet Boys. She follows along until we find the super rat. It does not have a cape or blue suit, but it's got a threat level that GB doesn't want to deal with as a 3-person prty. She'll follow as Soujiro taunts it and leads the way to the choke point, hoping to bring the roof down to secure our retreat, but he choses the most stable beam in the structure to attempt to bring it down. "Er, probably this one will be better," she says, and she's traded her katanas for a maul which she swings horizontally at a beam. The maul's great mass cases the beam to snap, and she accomplishes Soujiro's plan with a thunder of collapsing masonry.

The rusty greatsword that Soujiro uses shatters with the last remaining part of it's durability. Shards of the object pixelate into fragments as the samurai throws what is left of the object at the Mad Rat's head before it shatters like a snowball. While the large beast takes its paws to his face, rubbing it in an angry squeak-roar, the Rock Mole does it magic. Metallic support struts all but disappear like a hungry Rust Monster got ahold of them. Then the final moments come with a hefty maul. "That'll do it, Goldenblade," he agrees, seeing the maul give a resounding crack in the structure before it pins the beast back. With a frustrated roarnig squeak, the creature is forced to retreat back into its lair. Not going back that way. Onward and outward.

It is not much further down a larger set of tunnels that the group begins to hear a strange sound. Metal scraping on stone gives a shrill ache to the ear. A dimly lit chamber lies ahead of them. As soon as they enter a series of armored ratlings turn in unison, making a sound like an army moving in step.

Each of these creature is small. They stand on back legs with rodent-like features. They wield a variety of weapons of questionable quality and move with an almost militant unison. One of those at the front gives a squaking sound as if commanding the forces. The little army of ratlings charges forward with a high-pitched yell. They crash into the group with pokes and prods from their tiny weaponry. This would be adorable if it didn't hurt so much.

If the greatsword was of poor quality, perhaps these rat weapons are too. Soujiro advances forward and braces for the assault with a hand on the hilt of one of his katanas. It is an Iai stance, prepared to end this in a single blow! Just kidding, it would take several. The weapon draws out in a flash of white steel to cleave the creature's weapons. A follow up attack comes with the draw of his second blade and begins a series of strong, precise strikes aimed to make them little more than angry gerbils.

Now the Rock Mole just contently follows after Kauchemar, satisfied with the snack after a job well done.

As luck would have it the come across the advanced rats weilding weapons. Which means more snacks... except there's a lot more rats than there is one mole, and he's quickly being swarmed faster than he can eat anything. "There's a saying about biting off more than you can chew." Kauchemar conjures a quick burst of wind, barely enough to push the rat brigade back so she can grab her monster minion and get out of the way.

Goldenblade follows Soujiro and Kauchemar through the winding tunnels to the ratlings' training ground. She'll weather the initial assault before she realizes the weakness of the rats' formation. "Unit," she bellows, and one can almost imagine the Campaign Hat on her head, "Atten-hut! Riiiiight face!" This causes more than one of them to stop their attack and snap to attention, then rotate in place to present their non-shield side to the party. Which is the perfect position for them to be run through. By the time they realize they've been tricked, it's far too late, the party having stabbed several rats to death while they were attempting to form up ranks for some inspection.

Weapon after weapon shatters into pixels to the sound of shattering glass and metal from Soujiro's blades. Which is a little sad panda for the Rock Mole given there isn't as much to gnaw on before the disappear. The gust of wind helps give Souji the tailwind needed for some of his strikes. He adapts. Really it gives Goldenblade the billowing-in-the-breeze hero pose for her militant response. Disarmed and morale broken, the ratling's eyes go wide to the sight of the Legend-waitforit-dary Goldenblade's appearance. "Squeak!" they respond instinctively to the firm instruction. Chaos. They disperse quickly after that either through running away or the little xp and loot piles from their defeat.

Through another set of tunnels, the way underground opens into what would now be a familiar, circular room that seems to always designate a boss encounter. Soujiro does as much to make a motion to it. Little gamer references like this are like a game's hidden language.

This particular room is filled with a variety of small trinkets gathered from all over Carmina. There is a personal stockpile of the monster who calls this place their home. The sight of the little kobolds sitting atop his treasure would be familiar to some. He was one of the boss encounters in the first version of this dungeon. Soujiro even recognizes him from previous runs, "Squeak," he says. It calls to the rodent rider. And now the rodent rider must ride his rodent! The kobold darts to his feet and dives onto an absolutely massive rat. Rat mount. Brandishing a spear, Squeak (Rodent Rider LXX) charges forward. He is ready to defend his hoard of treasures from the Adventurers yet again. Today, you no take candle!

Soujiro will take candle if candle is part of the mechcanic of this fight. "This will be a good timing challenge for me. Going to take tank-point," he lets everyone know. His battle methods are easy to pick up on at first which make him easy to play off of in a group setting. The Samurai dashes in, katanas already out as he issues out a Challenge to pull agro onto him. Blades cross as he prepares for parry and deflect timing against a mounted foe. Excellent training. Most excellent!

A kobold, riding a giant dire rat. That's... different. "Well, kobolds are kind of like rat lizards, I guess this is still ajacent to the dungeon's theme." Oh, is he going to try and fight them calvary style on his giant rat mount?

Kauchemar pauses to check on her mole. Who is making a beeline for one of the piles of trinkets, naturally. She raises a hand... but then stops. Actually, this is probably a good thing, it'll taunt the Boss into being careless if his 'treasure' is threatened. "On second thought, you go right ahead you little muncher."

Instead Kauchemar unfurls her whip from her side, giving it an audible crack in the air. She didn't use it much as a weapon anymore, but it was still a useful training tool when one wanted to keep their distance from the monster in question (it was also leather so certain moles wouldn't try to eat it). She cracks it again, and then lashes it to lash it around the Giant Rat Mount's neck. Then digs in her hooves. It turns into a sort of tug-of-war, as while she can't take control of the rat the Kobold rider now has to fight her to keep control.

Goldenblade smirks wryly as she's turned the rats attempt at training on itself. She feels a bit bad, they were becoming more human-like, but ... they would have killed us, so there's no use lamenting. When we finally traipse through the yuck to the final destination, she winces, and complains, "Hey, I've already faced this one. I thought we weren't supposed to face the same thing ..." and then she's smacked down by the son of Rodent Rider LXIX, and after that she's got to try and pull her act together and survive teh beatdown while Soujiro saves the day.

"Think he respawns after a while," Soujiro asks Goldenblade after a clash of his katanas against the lance. "Or maybe its a family thing," he ponders while in combat, yet his focus is sharp. Goldenblade catches a few nasty attacks from the big rat during the encounter, but their health remains in the 'good enough to not retreat' zone all around. The literal cracking of the whip from Kau is in direct contest with Squeak. Tug of war, indeed! It allows openings to begin a return assault, but not as successful as gaining control of the mount during the fight.

Despite being a bit of a push-over in previous encounters, the kobold seems particularly dangerous with this most recent upgrade as a Rodent Rider. The rat claws slash out. The spear prods. The pair seem to have a ton more health than before when paired up. However the Adventurers provide, once again, that they are more powerful than what he can martial against them. Surrounding the pair of rider and mount, the kobold isn't able to escape this time. Squeak's fate is sealed (until his next return). Their health drops. The rider gives one final cry of frustration and anger before both of them explode into pixels of light. It gives the boss arena that glittery 'you did it!' fanfare as a treasure box is left where they once were. Inside is some monster riding gear, one for each member as the Goddesses intended.

Souji happily accepts his loot. "That was a good run," he says as it is put away. The reward is great, but the experience is better. "Thanks for coming Goldenblade, Kauchemar." Notably he has to check the party list for Kau's name as he isn't as familiar with the musical mare. "After a good soak, lets go get some tea. I'd love to recap the strats we used and see about taking out that Mad Rat sometime." Though that is for a different tale at a different time.

"Huh." Kauchemar promptly stows the gear in her inventory. "This will be useful next time I work on my own monster riding... Sure, let me just retrieve..." She stops as the Rock Mole trudges over and drops some random knicknack at her hoofs. It's nothing useful, but it is made of metal. Which could probably be melted down and reforged if a crafter was so inclined. "I.. think this proves the whole treat bribe works," she murmurs as she stoops down to pick up the junk, and flicks the mole another lump of metal refuse. "Yeah, tea sounds good. Clear the sinuses after stomping around a sewer."

Goldenblade looks like she did some unplanned tanking this run, but luckily Soujiro could beat the enemy down before she tanked too much. "That's a lesson," she admits. "You can never take it easy or assume it's in the bag." She sucks air from a flask taken from her pack, which Kauchemar knows exactly what it is, and her HP slowly rises as she breathes deeply. "Let's just get out of here," she grunbles.