Duty Session 502: Convoy Escort Quest I

There is no job too small, too insignificant, too poorly paid and too low experience that it isn't worth doing at least *once*. Why? Completionism. Broading horizons. Going back to the basics. There is a series of reasons that would fit and none of them are brought up by Souji beyond 'Training!' The Samurai has a thing and it beats the other thing as a small horde of cluck clucks and lander women are following him around. It makes the caravan just outside of town wonder if they need another wagon. Alas, he bids his group goodbye. One at a time. This could take a while.

The job itself? Simple escort. With the war against the Palace Lands, supplies are under higher risk. It used to just be monsters. Now it is monsters and PvP threats. Although the Guild can't afford to pay more, the relief it gives to the war effort is not unnoticed. It is going to be a long trip over rough terrain. The lower level Adventurers here are relieved to see more senior ones join the fray.

There may be no job too small or insignificant to do once for completionism, but Goldenblade /grinds/ them, though she wouldn't know the term. She'll do the same quest over and over again because ... well, that's complicated. Mainly, having grown up before television, she'd become accustomed to finding her own entertainment. And then again, she was raised to not spend all her time sitting around, she prefers to be active. So. Here she is, ready to do /another/ convoy escort, as if it were a single and unique thing in the world. It kind of is, but it's kind of like other escort quests, at least as far as the guild is concerned. It doesn't bother her that they won't reward her for this. She does it because she wants to.

Vertina had recently been training with Soujiro to teach him some of her techniques, so she was along for the trip. Mostly to see how Shoujiro puts what he's learned into action. And because it's fun to help friends out. Between the war effort and Ninetales still recovering from the Undead Army disaster, there was no shortage of helping things to do.

And with Asuna helping out at the Tavern there's someone she can trust to handle things and give herself a bit more open time for adventuring.

Just need to make sure she stocks plenty of fruit juice beforehand to keep that red panda of hers placated.

The group doesn't have time to get into position before a blustering merchant stops them. They've seen adventurers. You don't look the part. "You there," he points to Soujiro, "this is not /that/ kind of caravan. This is serious business. Where is your armor?!" Soujiro looks to the merchant. "You have a point there. Rest assured, I can don it before an enemy can strike me and light travel is good for..." before the merchant cuts him off. He doesn't want /reasons/ he wants /results/. Goldenblade gets a stern look, seeming to /completely forget/ the Legendary power that is Goldenblade while in his tantrum, "And you, a builder! We need fighters, not road pavers." By now he is fuming, going down the line to the junior Adventurers calling them short, scrawny, or weak. "We are at war," he practically yells in Vertina's face as his face goes red, "and this is all you can assemble?"

The merchant goes to the caravan leader and begins his case, "I have delicate, sensitive merchandise on this caravan. Losing it would ruin me. RUIN ME, you hear me? We have to wait until we have quality guards, quality Adventurers. I can't risk the fate of my business on this circus act!" The caravan guard is used to merchants being a little anxious, but this man is off his rocker. He looks to the senior Adventurers here to help lend credibility.

"Sir," Soujiro says with those kind eyes and warm smile that comes with a healthy amount of sparkles, "let me put your fears to rest. Among the group here are those that have faced countless monsters and are accomplished duelists against other Adventurers. Things are going to be alright." It is not settling down a horde of worried Adventurers in Act 1 of Log Horizon, but it does come with Souji Sparkles.

Vertina just rolls her eyes at all the objections and what not going on. Talking nicely to people really isn't her thing. You start something in the Tavern and she's morely likely to literally throw you out until you sober up rather than try to talking down. So she just focuses on a putting that same strength to use in getting the wagons loaded up and ready so they can get going. It's got some manner of actions speak louder than words to it, showing that they're ready to do this no matter how tough or minial the tasks may be.

Wait until they get to the real trouble. Then these people will see they shouldn't be so fussy

Goldenblade frowns at the merchant, ahems, and taps the badge she wears, the living scale that symbolizes her rank in the Westelande military. She doesn't command troops, it's kind of an emiritus thing, but it's not given out for building. It's not given out for commanding troops, either. It /is/ given out as a mark of their faith in her ability to meet expectations and come through in dire circumstances, and she draws about a foot of one blade, just enough for him to see the golden sheen of living fire that dances inside it. "Believe me when I say we can and will perform your task without fail. You may trust in us." Besides, there's no one else here to do it. But she gives him a stern look. She met some GI's on leave back in the day, and they called it their Military Bearing face, and it was sort of a joke to them. But it should do for the Lander to show him she's Serious Business.

It helps when you have a literal Legend in the party. Soujiro's calming voice, confident demeanor, and 'I understand your feelings' attitude only goes so far. Even when bolstered by Vertina's display of physical prowess it falls short to address the merchant's comfort level as 'Only Goldenblade is the capable one here' plus 'get me a group of Goldenblades' which isn't a realistic request. No one is getting a group of /Legends/ on an entry level escort quest. Time is wasted negotiating down the merchant until the caravan heads on out.

The Caravan doesn't get more than half a mile down the road before trouble shows itself. Monsters. Hungry monsters at that. They wait in ambush on a hill, seeking easy prey. This convoy looks to fit the bill. As the lead wagon rounds a band, the party sees a monster scout. The scout sees the party. They share a deer in headlights moment together. The tense silence is broken with a, "AAAaaawwowowoowrrraaaarraammaahhaa," and various other sounds that even the translator struggles with. What is worse is the sound is repeated back to the scout in a chorus of voices.

These goblinoids are common monsters, but they have bows and the high ground. Even light sabers struggle against the high ground, Anakin. The carvan? Sitting duck targets, much to the offense of the not-present mallard that follows Souji around. This is going to be difficult.

Ranged combat. Soujiro's red armor materializes onto him with an equip as his shoulder blocks out an arrow headed towards one of the Landers. A second is cut in half from the draw of his katana. "Protecting the Landers," he lets the party know over the party chim. That might assume 'shielding' them, but he does it in a very Swordsaint Way: With Light. His blade glows and bursts blinding light back at the archers, intercepting arrowfire with light-imbued blades. See, the lightsaber reference showed up after all.

Goldenblade rides confidently along in the wagon, looking out for danger, but she's only got one set of eyes, that anyone knows about, and as a Blade Dancer, she's got no shield to hide behind. She'll take the hits then as she charges them, closing the distance under their withering and quickly panicked fire. Because she keeps coming despite taking all they can dish out. When she is among them, blades lashing out like whips of fire, the ones standing fast and surviving Sourjiro and Vertina's magic are scattered. This is more than they want to deal with.

This is exactly what Vertina was thinking. Let's see how they act after they've had a spot of trouble to be saved from.

At the first monsterous sounds the Salamander monk vaults down from the wagon she was riding on, sprinting up next to Soujiro. "Fortunately for them, I'm the best defense is a strong offense sort."

She makes a quick hand gestures to center and channel her ki, drawing it into a sizable pulsating sphere between her hands. She lobs it over her head, then plants a heel to pivot on and spin around, catching the orb's descent with a roundhouse kick and sending it arcing high and fast enough to land in the middle of the monster archer ranks.

Where it detonates, pixilating those closest to it's impact and blinding others, who end up shooting their clanmates or themselves in the confusion.

The party makes short work of the assault with Light and Might. The caravan still things lightly of the Adventurers, but now it is for a better reason. The caravan takes a quick assessment of lost life or goods before moving onwards. A few hours pass without incident. Miles of nature go by, giving an unspoiled view one would be hard-pressed to find in the real world. Souji's smile looks natural in a place like this. Like it draws from these awe inspiring moments of the world to recharge his own Light and share it with others in a genuine way. He makes sure to spend time with the lower level Adventurers to point out the landscape. The taint of the demoralizing merchant seems to melt away after an hour or two of this treatment. Good for the soul.

The sun sets in the distance. Camp is set up. Everyone assembles to eat dinner and the quartermaster opens up the crates of supplies set aside to feed everyone on this trip. A loud groan is heard from the wagon with the supplies. The food is spoiled and rotten. Something must be done or everyone is going to bed hungry tonight in an effort to ration across the entire trip.

"I have always wanted to get better at Hunting," Soujiro takes this frown upside down as an opportunity. "You get much better drops that way. Mind showing me a few tricks along the way?" he asks Goldenblade. Always. Training. "We'll be back with fresh food," he lets Vertina know. Sure, he doesn't /know/ it will work out, but Soujiro doesn't work off of 'knowing' but 'believing' and its contagious.

Goldenblade nods to Soujiro, and says, "Well, you're in luck. I've got a fishing pole right here, we can catch some fish and bake them right up. just got to find a stream..." The next two hours are spent traipsing across the countrtyside looking for a stream, to no avail. "I was sure I saw one over this way as we were hiking," is uttered several times, but no stream is forthcoming.

"You two be careful out there." Which is just being polite, between the two of them they shouldn't really run into much trouble. While she could hunt as well, Vertina has another skill that's going to be necessary to be make the best of the bad situation. She walks back over to the Quartermaster and the supplies just as he's about to dump stuff out. "No, wait!" she quickly grabs the crate he's hefting, lightly pulling it back down to the ground. "It might not all be useless. Some things can be cooked out. Or used in other ways." She takes an alchemy flask out of her inventory and hands it to the Quartermaster. "Go pour that in the water barrels, it'll clear out any contamination they've picked up from the food spoiling."

Then she gets to work actually sorting through the foodstuff, picking what can be used still, or she can cleanse through cooking and alchemy. Some of the stuff isn't safe for the people to eat but can be fed to the wagon pulling Grunties so it doesn't go to waste.

By the time Souji and Goldie return she's actually managed to make well with what she could. It's just a matter of portioning and cooking what they bring and no one has to sleep on an empty stomach.

Plus she did have a backup, but fortunately didn't need it.

Soujiro seems intent on doing some fishing with Goldenblade. Big smile on his face. "I used to love fishing with my family," he says, "and here, who knows what could pop up? Sea monsters. Treasure chests." His excitement and love comes out in a way that isn't 'extra' or 'cringe'. Genuine. Like he belongs here. Likewise he belongs 'over there' as they walk. The Samurai phases out and in so quickly to strike the wild game while they travel that the two still end up with quite a haul. No fish, but plenty of fresh meat for Vertina to cook up. The caravan celebrates with fresh local meat cooked by a chef along with plenty of recovered food from the travel rations. People pay good money for this kind of culinary experience. Soujiro of course hands out some tea afterwards because Soujiro is all about that Edo period tea-and-Samurai look. So refined. So elegant. So Souji.

It is the second day out on the road and the convoy is on track and on time. There were bumps along the way, but that is the true Adventure. Random encounter tables. Problems to overcome. The friends you make along the way. The enemies you leave in pixels. Speaking of complications, the next problem is one that everyone sees coming from a mile away. Literally. One mile. It is a Giant Dire Peko as big as a house running right for them. The dust cloud is kicking up behind them with the sort of 'Nani?!' associated with someone stealing a wild animal's eggs. Going around it isn't an option. Trying to deal with it by bribing it with food? Not an option. In Soviet Elder Tales, Food is You. This rule also applies to the Yamato Server.

Know what is more comical than one dust cloud? Two. Soujiro is already running full steam ahead at this thing in 'You shall not pass' fashion. He isn't being a goofball, he is trying to pull the fight further away from the Caravan. Something of /that/ size could accidentally damage the wagons. The technique is a Solo Dash, something Samurai do to get up in melee range. The duration of the skill comes to a close as he rips his katana from its saya, taking all the momentium from his running and ending a rippling force of Sword Arte energy out to collide with the Giant Dire Peko, the GDP, to knock it down a few pegs without causing an economic crisis.

And Vertina is almost literally on Soujiro's heels thanks to her own speed and agility. Though when he stops to swing his Sword Arte the Salamander martial artist doesn't. But she does use Soujiro's stationary stance after his swing to her advantage, taking a light jump to briefly land on his shoulders, and vault fully into the air from there.

She needs the extra height to clear his attack, and get closer to the Giant Peko's eye level, so she can slam both her fists in a raw hammerblow upside it's temple to knock it silly.

Goldenblade's unsuccessful fishing trip is at least not a crisis, though she's not happy with herself and goes to sleep in a grumbly mood. She's not mad at anyone. But Soujiro wanted to go fishing, and she hasn't been fishing with her sons since the 1970's. Heavysigh.

The next morning dawns and there's things to do to get underway and she does them, last night in the past, and she smiles as we get back underway. Only to stop and look up at the Giant Dire Peko. "Well. I know what's for supper tonight," she says, and charges. There is a fight, but she's not going to lose to drumsticks the size of a golf cart here for the plucking, and after a savage melee, it's all over but the cooking.

RIP GDP. It may look like a hard won battle, but it turns out like a Dark Souls fight when you go back to the starter bosses after being super powered. No contest. News will make it back to the caravan that the Giant Dire Peko has fallen and it causes the merchants to panic for Mercantile reasons before the caravan leader explains the GDP is a monster, not the Gross Domestic Product. If anything, there is some more meat for Vert to cook up!

The second day of traveling draws to a close. It was an eventful day and one the convoy is glad to put behind them. Tomorrow the caravan reaches its destination. Tonight? Tonight there is a problem.

The pack animals have had enough of the rough journey. They aren't settling down for the night. If they do not get rest they will not be in a state to pull the wagons tomorrow. To make matters worse the noise is keeping everyone else up. It looks like the group will need to step in again if they dont want to be pulling the wagons themselves. Don't ask Souji, he might be into that under the name of 'extreme training'. So either the part needs to calm the animals down or find some suitable replacements.

Leave no chick behind, thats Soujiro's motto, and what is a Peko if not a big Cluck Cluck? The kind hearted Samurai spends time with the riled up birbs, soothing them with pets but most importantly listening to what is going on. Its been hard, hasnt it? Goblins attacked you. We probably just murdered your Peko God just now. I know. Have a treat. Treat yourself. Now LETS TRAIN.

Goldenblade grumbles as the animals get rowdy and won't settle down. One of the animals seems to be the least settled, and when some of the others calm down a bit, it's that one that stirs things up again. Goldenblade saw this in a movie. She goes up to the animal and sucker punches it with all she's got. It's not clear who's more surprised, the Landers, the Players, or the animal itself. But it crumples, having been sucker punched /hard/.

The other animals take one look at Goldenblade and quiet down immediately when she looks over at them.

Of course there's always one that has to run off and be a pain in the ass. Fortunately grunties aren't all that fast, but Pekos are another story. One runs off even with Soujiro coddling the others, so Vertina takes off after it. And while she has little to no formal training in the matter of wrangling animals, she's done it enough time helping on the Alliance grunty ranch and Syx's farm to make the best of what she can do.

Which is catch up to the bird, put it in a headlock (I did say she learned from helping Syx on his farm after all), and after a 'Big Dust Cloud of Violence' manages to wrestle the bird into submission and outright carry it back to the convoy. By that point the Peko has been so tired out that it falls straight to sleep once she sets it down.

Beasts of burden burden a lot for beasts. They are simple minded and just want to wark and kweh a little bit. Does anybody listen? Technically yes, no one has a choice, but /really/ listen? Souji Sparkles calm the frazzled down. 'No!' warks one of the birbs. 'We will not STAND for this injustice!' That bird is likely a Karen and not Haru's Karen. It mimics the merchant from earlier. It demands to be heard! Demands: Not met. It is quickly taken out by Goldenblade and suffled away from the scene to much silence. A fresh Peko is pushed into its place by Vertina. Soujiro transitions the awkwardness right back into casual comforts. Teamwork! The caravan is ready for the morning now.

"Oh! This is that quest for escorting the convoy, right?" says a voice of a local Adventurer. You are so close. SO CLOSE. The destination is JUST over the hill. And then these other adventurers who are throwing fireballs at squirrels see you and come over to you. "You don't mind if we join up, right?" they say with a casual sort of 'look, its easy xp and cash that I didnt have to work for' way. Be a pal, pal.

You do mind. You worked for this. Gobbos died for this. THE GDP FELL FOR THIS! You haven't suffered all these challenges just to have some randos come in and muscle in on your quest reward that you'd have to split even more.

You mind. You mind very much.

For as friendly as Soujiro is the expected, on brand response might be thought of 'Well shucks fellas, lets all hug it out and go get that reward together.' Shocker. Souji takes a firmer tone here, "No." Simple. Direct. He lets the uncomfortable denial settle on their ears. When they start to be all 'hey, lighten up', the Samurai cuts them off with his natural presence, "Experience is more than a number. We saw the world. Accomplished things. A reward for just showing up has no value. To you. To the world we inhabit." He points back to where they came from, "So if you want the reward, the journey to it starts back there, not right here."

Goldenblade blinks as these wanna-be's try and muscle in on our duty after all we've been through. She's inclined to just give them a thrashing, but she's not a PVPer, and there's risks there, too. What she does say is, picking up from Soujiro shooing them off, "Anyhow, we're just the vanguard. Our boss, with the moneybags, is just a couple hours behind us, down the trail. You'll have to talk to him if you want to join up. You can follow us if you like, but you won't get paid."

Getting paid is the goal of these scammers, so after Soujiro sends them off and Goldenblade lies to them, they scamper off looking for some fictional caravan boss. And from this, they will learn that you don't guard a caravan just by riding in a wagon for a couple hours.

And once again it shows that Vertina isn't really the Let's Talk It Out sort. So she let's Soujiro and Goldenblade take care of that, giving the would-be hanger-ons a piece of their minds.

"What they said. What's the point in the reward if you don't work for it?" The tall athletic Salamander does step in to provide some additional leverage once they are done though. "Not to mention slipping in at the end of the journey will do nothing to garner your reputation, if anything it'll give you the opposite results. Both with these hard-working Lander operators, and with the Hunter's Guild that manages assigning of Quests and Duties as a whole." She uses her height to lean forward and narrow her eyes intimidatingly at one of the men. "Is one payoff really worth getting yourselves black balled from any and all future endeavors that might have even better payouts?"

And then, just to back up that they are not letting these men in, releases a pressurized wave of air. Nothing to hurt, just to push the men back away from the convoy so they get the hint. "If you want the gold and the experience, start from the beginning like everyone else!"

The scammers scoff and do the whole 'I dont need this noise' because they are clearly too good for it. They have squirrels to murder. With fireballs. Yeah. Important stuff.

At last. It is over. Escort missions are the bane of gamers, but you did it. The convoy reached its destination and you're more experienced for the... experience. The reward helps. It is a nice reward in monetary form and the gratitude of those you were escorting.

"I guess I was wrong about you," says the merchant from earlier. The anxiety has drained from his face. "No. No guessing. I was wrong about you. You are all capable Adventurers. Please accept my heartfelt apology for my earlier behavior. Without this delivery I would have been ruined," he says, bowing to the group. Straightening up he says, "It is only fair I pick up your tab tonight at the tavern. Drinks are on me." The Adventurers cheer!

"That was fun," Soujiro offers to Vert and Goldenblade amongst the good cheer. "Now I have the urge to go fishing for a bit before joining in the good cheer. Welcome to accompany me."

Goldenblade smirks as the bumps scamper off to kill more squirrels. Some people don't get the game. She nods gravely to the Lander as he apologizes, and will let him pick up her tab without complaint. Free eats are best eats.

She nods to Soujiro, and says, "Yeah, I've got a better fishing pole somewhere, but I must have put it someplace ..." She shrugs. "It frustrates me that you can't do things in the game that you could do in real life."

Vertina snorts softly at the scammers beating a hasty retreat. "Figures. As soon as someone stands up to them they wimp out. I hope one of those squirrels bites them in the n--" Her insult is cut off by the caravan master shouting that they're in the home free. But they're talking about squirrels, it's not hard to figure out what she was going to say.

"Actually, fishing doesn't sound like a bad idea at all. To unwind from this venture... and I can make us something to eat on the way home if we're lucky enough to catch anything." That's one of the advantages Vertina has as a cook, she also has the gathering skill to go with it. Or at least one of them. Meat is arguably the most important one though.

Truly goblins were a menace. Seriously. The little buggers were known even in the Palace Lands perhaps and for that reason, it was something that Gao felt he could at least get his feet wet far as doing the dungeons and such in Yamato. That had lead to his being where he is, and putting out a small call to see if anyone wanted to kick some goblin teeth in a lot more than what had perhaps already happened.

That being said, Gao himself looks as unassuming as always. The only thing he had said was 'look for the kasa' as far as meeting up and he was just at the moment sitting and having a drink while he waited on everyone. Of water or some other concotion that at least had a bit of flavor to it.

The Tower wasn't a place Shiruba spent much time in, but helping clear out goblins from a dungeon and reduce another location their problematic presence can come from is enough to draw the wolfgirl up from her various other activities. Being a tracker she has little trouble finding the location Gao was refering to, giving the master of HEALING PUNCH a brief nod as she arrives.

Haru is here with Shiruba on his eternal quest to make glass a thing. Goblins are crafty, if not nasty little gremlins, so why not check into Karluin? The last time he was here it was enlightening and he was having a good time. Double plus. The Artificer is looking over notes when he arrives with the other Silver Sword Commander. Important notes. Notes about notes. That say things like 'see the notes on page 5'. Haru may accidentally be scribing a chose your own adventure book without knowing it.

    Looking somewhat worse for wear, Fukaziroh has been hanging around the tower in general and Karluin in specific, researching what she needs while in the area for other, unrelated matters. The usually-neat sylph seems to be in one of those states, not exactly foul-smelling or suffering a debuff due to lack of sleep but not quite so shiny-bright as she often is. Not that that'll stop her from grinning, or participating in clean-up runs and such. She makes a point of checking the quest boards regularly, whenever she actually thinks about it, which is usually just after being forced to break for food or sleep.

    She shows up at the designated time and place, looking around, peering right past others already present. "Anyone seen a kasa around here?" she asks, scanning. "Seriously what the hell is a kasa? And why are we supposed to look for one?" she muses.

Olympus doesn't have as much of a presence in the tower as Scale does, but that doesn't mean Carbon stays out entirely. After all there are several unique monster spawns in the tower. And in order to ensure the tower was safe for those spawns to be hunted, they needed to get rid of the damned goblins.

Word had gotten out that the dungeon heart had been destroyed, and now these clean-up runs through the Karluin labyrinth would be needed. The whole thing would need to be cleared, in order to make sure there weren't any goblins lurking in some of the deepest, darkest corners of the massive maze. If there's someone who knows a thing or two about deep dark corners, Carbon is your man. The stealthy archer has found himself joined up with Gao's group, "Is there anything in particular we should be looking for?" He seems to be directly the question towards Haru, "I take it you still haven't found quite what you need, but it may help to have some idea of what to keep an eye out for."

Haru looks up on the comment of 'What are you looking for' from Carbon. Haru is rather composed for a person who doesnt eat or sleep much. He makes a copy of one of his pages and hands it to Carbon, "I'm looking for raw minerals, limestone, soda ash, quartz, obsidian, earth mana enriched minerals and water." Knowing a bunch of that is jargon, the page shows what some of those things /could/ look like in Elder Tales. "Known alchemical catalysts. Also looking for /unknown/ alchemical catalysts for enchanting variants in glassmaking. The Towers holds a lot of interesting secrets there. Also. Towers look good with windows so. Glass."

Gap laughs, "This is a kasa." He taps the edge of his hat, in answering to Fuka's question.

"Oh? You are looking for something in here?" He asks towards Haru. A nod is given to Shiruba, but obviously Gao is curious on what Haru is doing.

As he speaks, he reaches over to push open the door to get things under way. That's when there's an arrow whizzing by his face not long after they enter the darkness. Glaring into it, Gao sighs, "Arrow traps? So... what was that American movie?"

Then there's more arrows coming and Gao blinks, "Maybe not arrow traps." He's now forced to move out of the way and he looks over at the others, "So anyone have a bright idea?"

Shiruba tilts her head for a moment at Carbon. "Been a while since I've seen another archer I didn't know." She's probably about to make a proper introduction, but it's interrupted by an arrow whizzing by after Gao opens the door. She takes a few quick steps back as the arrows fly. "Looks like they're not vacating without a fight." Wolven ears lay partway back as she raises Thundersnow Howl and draws back on the bowline. There's no arrow in the weapon as she does so, instead one made of lightning takes form from the magic longbow's elemental abilities, which she fires streaking forward. Midair it bursts, sending multiple bolts of electricity arcing out to strike down several of the sentries.

Haru is, indeed, looking for something in Karluin! He is all too happy to tell Gao about it as they head on in. "I am. Currently I am deep into research on that of glassmaking using Enchanting and Alchemical methods local to this world. It is a world affecting project that could impact food with agriculture, the arts with stained glass, and travel with viewports, and expansion with hermetically sealed environments." A hand gestures as an arrow lands in it. Rude. So rude. He was explaining things. "So I am looking for variants in minerals and mana to different areas that can be used in sourcing the," he gets another arrow in his other hand as he gestures with that one but keeps going, "much more accessible material out instead of it being a luxury material. It could become a commodity." He ducks the next arrow.

"Stop interupting," rawrs the Artificer, taking the red damage lines in his hand and pointing them at the dimly lit distance where the arrows were. Salvos of firebolts are released. Dakka Dakka Dakka.

    "Oooooh, Kaaaasa~!" Fuka beams, drawing out the word. "I thought it said casa, like, my casa is a great place to live!" she explains. Though with the way she's grinning, she doesn't sound sincere. Probably just making a joke of it all.

    The joke's mood lasts until, well, they start getting shot at. Fuka frowns. "This isn't fair!" she complains. "Those cowardly little arc..." she pauses, glances over at Shiruba and Carbon. Then abruptly changes her mind. "... goblins! Let's light them up!" she says instead, chanting, directing her power outward. She gets a pretty solid idea where the archers are shooting from by tracing the ripples from their shots backwards, and then lights it up with return fire of her own. Or return lightning, as the case may be! Not an extreme amount of firepower in this case. Goblins aren't known to be super tough. But enough to make with the frying!

Carbon defintely knows who Shiruba is, hard not to know one of the leaders of New World after all. The chance for a proper introduction will have to wait, however, since the arrows immediately begin to rain down on the group. The were fang archer shifts his position and begins to return fire, aiming in the same general area that Haru just blew up with fireballs. Well at least that one specific Goblin probably isn't getting up after that.

As the group makes it's way into the arrow swarm, the returning fire is met with yelps but not quite enough. Gao himself actually opens his robe and swings it off to block a few arrows before revealing that he is a Were Fang.

It's a bit of a blur what happens, but he suddenly grows to a seven foot tall insect man of a shield for those unfortunate enough to have bad aim. And then he makes it even more interesting in that he pulls a sword that suddenly expands and enlarges to practically be a tower shield on it's own right as he marches forward. The arrows start to ping off the overgrown sword and give off what almost sound like bad music notes.

"Now I remember why I hate dungeons! No place to avoid the arrows!" Gao says as the party makes it past all of that.

At least the goblins finally fled under the hail of attacks from everyone.

Not long after they go down the tunnels is another surprise. Another adventuring party. Only... it's a bunch of Landers? Very much unprepared Landers who are looking far, far worse for the wear. The magic caster even has a fever and one's running around with a freaking great sword. Not that Gao can comment after the size changing sword he just pulled out.

Gao sighs before looking at the others, "Any other healers? I can do something for the fever, perhaps."

Haru, Craft Commander is crafty. He heads to the sections that were superheated with fire and lightning and quickly turns to cool it with a Water Arte. Samples are taken from the quenched state and added to his inventory along with a note of how it was obtained. Late on he will take these to a workshop to fill out theories. Science.

Speaking of science, these people could be helped a lot WITH science. Or at least healing. Not Haru's department. His last name is Nox, that should be telling enough. Then again... ...his blue eye lights up. "No, but my sister is a healer." What is Glass has applications in medicine besides the obvious ones in needles. A finger snap. The techniques are mostly similar. Haru gives the mad scientist grin to the Lander. We can rebuild him. Better. Stronger. Glass Limbs. In truth, someone ends up needing to stop the Artificer before he violates a Hippocratic Oath.

Shiruba doesn't let Gao finally showing off he's a Were Fang distract her from electrifying goblins out of their way so they can get down into the tunnels proper.

Where they come across an obstacle other than more goblins. Looks like they weren't the only ones trying to clear out the dungeon. Or they were trapped down here for other reasons. It's not an important point really.

Shiruba politely nudges Haru aside before he gets any crazy ideas. "Ok, fair warning, I am a bit new at this..." she whispers, even as she tries to draw on what little Light she can sense in this dark dungeon and apply it to one of the wounded Landers. But this is precisely what she put the training in for, to be able to help more people like this.

    Fuka's a pretty good mage, or at least a flexible one. Skilled at all elements, master of none. Fortunately she's good enough with air to continue to electrocute goblins, and despite the injuries suffered by the group they're able to cut through the archers eventually.

    When the group moves on to find injured and poisoned Landers, Fuka frowns. What are THEY doing in here? They could DIE here! And they're not even good at this... Still she sighs and nods. "I can help heal. Poison's not my specialty but..." she begins to chant, softly and carefully. She nods to Shiruba and begins to harmonize with her casting of light magic. Light glows softly from her hand, purging and healing as best she can. She's talented enough to do the little heals at least, and hopefully it'll be enough!

Now Carbon himself doesn't have anything in the way of magic, he can't heal any of these Landers that they have stumbled across. But he does have health potions that he carries around, and he pulls a few out of his pouch in order to hand them out. It might not be enough to bring them back to full, but should be enough to stabalize them until they can get to a professional healer.

Gao sighs, then looks at Haru. He recognizes madness. Same thing as drunkeness. You don't need a debuff to deal with that. He hits Haru upside the head lightly with a hand. "Stop whatever crazy scheme you have in mind."

Moving behind the mage, Gao hums as he feels for something it looks like. He pauses, then looks past the mage. "Oh, stand clear of his front." He says.

Then he focuses as he brings a hand back that starts to glow. And vibrate a bit. A low hum coming from his very hand itself as it seems to grab something as it curls into a fist. "HEALIIIING...." And just like the technique says, he actually does literally punch the mage in the back. Hard. One can almost literally see the debuff wash out along with a bit of whatever the mage ate recently go spewing out in one big glob against the far wall. "PUNCH!"

Gao checks over the mage afterwards, then shrugs and looks at the Landers. "So, what can you tell us about what else is down here? Oh, and he will be fine."

Palace Landers. So crazy, right?

After some warnings and other things, the party has continued on and found a goblinw ho... is acting pretty odd. It's more paranoid, alone, and looks to be headed somewhere kinda important.

That has Gao raising an eyebrow before he looks at the group and makes a shushing motion before motioning at the thing and where it went.

Shiruba lets out a sigh of relief as her training with Light under the Baroness, with help from Fukaziroh, was enough to help people recover. "You best make your way out of here when you can," she says afterwards. "We'll take it from here." That Gao punches someone to heal them is odd, but honestly it's been two years, she's seen some pretty odd techniques already.
Time to move on. Shiruba almost immeadiately spots the paranoid Goblin as Gao does, and silently nods to him to confirm that she did. Lifts a hand to gesture to the party to follow her, and goes into what's recognizable as a canine 'stalking' even if she's on two feet instead of four. The attention forward lean and erect ears give the same impression as she trails after their new quarry.

Carbon had already noticed the goblin, but when Gao points them out, the stealthy archer gives a nod, "I'll keep close to him. You all follow out of sight." He says, activating his stealth and vanishing into the shadows.

It's easy enough for him to stay out of sight but still close to the goblin, to follow it to whatever its final destination is. And know he could always take it down if somehow he does get spotted.

    Fuka, still sustaining a slow heal-over-time group effect that can help everyone here, not just the injured landers, snickers at Gao's technique. She's actually seen Healing Punch once before. "Some day I would *love* to learn that. Healing Punch!" she demonstrates in a way that shows she's not terribly good at either. Competent perhaps, but not good. She probably lacks the disciplined stillness of mind of a Godhand for actually performing such a technique, but ... that doesn't stop her from considering the whole thing hilarious. Besides, 'stop whatever crazy scheme you have in mind' could just as easily apply to her sometimes. Not that she'd be offended to get smacked for it. That too is kind of hilarious.

    Less hilarious, once the group goes on their way from the fortunately-healed Landers, is the furtive goblin. Fuka points, clearly not being sneaky. "Don't let it get away!" she yells, bursting into a straight-line run after the goblin. So, not being evasive either. And paying no attention to the turns or twists along the way, so likely she'll end up lost without others showing her the way out. Nope, not a tracker either. Hopefully someone can rein her in, quiet her down, and get her thinking before she rushes in... before it's too late!

Haru is nudged behind Shiruba and whacked by Gao, but it doesn't stop him from theorizing. "Prothestics are nothing crazy. But if..." he thankfully gets distracted with his own line of thought that keeps him AWAY from the Lander. Lander is safe. For now!

A paranoid goblin? Alone? Haru barely noticed that as he went down to pick up a particular stone in Karluin. Limestone, here? Curious. What about this here mortar? The Advantage of having a distracted Crafter is that he isn't going to blow the covert cover. Unless there is a full LeeRoy Jenkining towards a rare node somewhere. Cue stealth scene. Nin nin nin.

The reigning in comes in the form of Gao. Who flash steps the two back to the party each time they get lost. Seriously, he's a Godhand. They get freaky strong when they want to. And well, at least it keeps them on the trail.

Once they get to where they are going, however, is whenever they realize one thing. Tunnels are not good for surprises when they go straight to enemy fortifications.

A large wooden palisade with a variety of goblins armed with a variety of ranged and melee weapons.

That would be where Gao looks at the group and shrugs, "I guess we have some work to do. Anyone able to punch a gate down?"

He whips off his robe again as he starts forward in his were fang insect-man form. A closer look will reveal that it looks like he's got a beetle theme going. The shapeshifting sword is pulled out again as he starts towards the goblin group.

Shiruba is already looking the palisade gate over, even as goblins start moving into position to make their last stand on the defensive structure. She nods to Gao with a smirk, even as she reachs behind her back to pull a few pitch-tipped arrows out of her quiver. "I've got an idea to make doing that easier."

She strikes the tip of an arrow against the ground to ignite it, lets that tip ignite the others, and then starts firing them one by one into the structure. Starting it on fire? In a way. She's specifically aiming for spots where it will not just burn the wood, but the materials holding them together, which becomes more obvious when one of the archer platforms collapses from the flame, dumping several Goblins off into the fire.

Can anyone punch a gate down? Haru rolls up the sleeves of his navy jacket. "Hold my potion," he lets Gao know. Everyone knows that Haru is the pinnacle of physical strength. Just look at those arms. Firm noodles, them. A good running charge is all the Artificer needs. Windup and...

THONK

Haru shakes his hand as the arrows rain down around him. Those movements do well to evade the arrows as he rolls back. "Right. Not made of glass," he says, shaking his hand off from the natural red damage lines. What he /does/ have is a relic. A relic specifically that looks for weaknesses. "But here, here, here and here are all structural weak points," he says as his purple monocle lights up, white semicircles slowly turning around the center of the lens. The caster marks the points with little paint-dots from a basic Jet Spray Arte.

    Fuka has the grace to look sheepish as she's prevented from acting like a complete LOON. No, she can't really blame her Strange Mood on this, though it is kind of driving her to finish as early as possible. No, this is basic bad-idea Fuka, which just happens from time to time. Fortunately it doesn't keep the group from continuing to follow and stealthily track the goblin right to a set of fortifications.

    She looks over at Gao. The beetle form doesn't seem to bother her, though she does seem curious. Fuka shrugs. "I could always try?" she says. Punching isn't really her thing. But she does have a massive and powerful sword! She hefts it and follows Gao, looking to dish out some harm.

Now Carbon may not be physically strong enough to break down the gate, but what he can do is make sure that he takes down those weakpoints in the door. Arrows are launched from his bow with the precision needed to strike past the armored parts of the door and hit the mechanisms holding it up inside.

It's the kind of perfect shot that will bring the door crashing down, clearing a path for the team to advance further. He takes advantage of Shiruba's burning arrows to places his shots into the exposed weakpoints.

With the gate being handled... except for Haru. Who is being weird.

That leaves Gao to clear the way. And seriously, Godhands live for this thing sometimes. He ends up being a one man army through a lot of the goblins. The last one ends up just beheaded and the bodies are just laying out a clear path for the others to follow. All from a seven foot tall beetle man.

Gao stays in his Were Fang form as they pass the gates.

The main problem is that they can see the goblin wearing the crown way across the cavern. Where there are a LOT of goblins in the way. A lot of them.

Gao's pincers click a bit as he says to the others, "I see one wearing a crown! Someone get glass boy to focus already so we can get to it!"

Seriously, though. That's an absurd number of goblins. At least thousands, maybe? Hard to tell!

That is a LOT of goblins. Carbon remembers this particular fight from the last time he was here, as he takes his position near the other part of the group. He uses precision shots to try to take down any goblin that looks like they might have any sort of leadership or heiarchy above the masses of goblins.

While that may not help take down large groups of them, it will hopefully put the groups into disarray from having their leadership taken down.

Haru is weird. Gotta think outside the box! "Crown?" perks up the Artificer like someone told Link from the Legend of Zelda that there was pottery nearby. There is the small matter of all the goblins in the way. Hordes of them. Bunched up so neatly and tightly packed. It would be shame is someone dropped an area attack on them. "This shouldn't a problem," he says confidently. Keep in mind, he also sounded that way when he punched a wall.

"Ignis. Pluma. Ambiente. Ardeat. Nos." the Artificer chants, four ioun stones circling around him with the color of burning embers. They rise upwards above him, igniting and creating a burning ring of fire. What comes through is not Johnny Cash, but the next best thing: a fire birb. The blazing beast swoops in as she is summoned, giving a dry gust of heat with every wing flap. Haru points at the horde, "Burn them all," with a glint in his purple monocle. The fire sprite cries out, soaring across the battlefield and raining down feathery pinions like missiles below to the helpless gobbos. Each one lands like an infernal nail, reducing goblins to ash and burning those that were saved an instant death. Like burning away a big sheet of paper. A big sheet of goblin paper. "The crown is getting away," the silver haired summoner says like he didn't just nuke the battlefield, hopping over ash and pixelated dead goblins to carry on.

    Fuka, having waded her way through entire swimming pools worth of goblin blood, seems to be in desperate need of a bath. For once, this has nothing whatsoever to do with a Fey Mood. She's a pretty competent killer though, and at least no one gets to tell her to pick on someone her own size for once.

    She tilts her head at Gao's request, frowning. Yeah, she's the wrong person to force anyone to focus. It's just not her style. Fuka shrugs, then eyes the mass of goblins. "Right. Needs more killing." she agrees. Fortunately she has just the thing, and enough mana to pull off the devastating attack! She begins her chant, calling heavily on runewords of earth and fire, combining the elements into one of her strongest attacks. Were the ceiling not so low she might be calling down something like Lord of Vermillion, given how that's something she can channel even more power into, but instead she tries something a little different... and perhaps, in these tunnels, something even more effective!

    Raising her hands, Fuka elevates little balls of stone from the ground. Little stone balls that glow with inner heat. They shoot forth and explode, tearing into goblin ranks with devastating shards of stone! To which Fuka giggles, then begins to cackle. "I LOVE that spell!" she cries out madly. All the explosions, all the time!

"Keep an eye on that royal jerk!" Shiruba barks (almost literally) as she sprints to the front of the fray. She's already lining up another shot, even as she skids down onto one knee to brace herself. Then fires, her arrow whistling through the air to interrupt a goblin archer. Her arrow splits right down his before he can even shoot, spearing into his chest while sending wood fragments from his arrow and bow shattering with the impact into several of his goblin gangmates.

Another shot slams into a goblin charger, sending him crashing backwards into other mooks, and on top of one of the jury-rig crews, knocking several of their scavanged materials on top of them.

Sometimes the best way to take care of large groups of enemies was to take advantage of the environment as well.

After the rather pyromaniac display from Haru, precise shots from Shiruba and Carbon, and a Fukaziroh making her own freaking cannonballs. Well, there's not much for Gao to do but wade through and mop up. He doesn't even have to change the size of his sword and... is it playing some merry little tune as he moves his fingers?

After all that horde, it's a bit anticlimatic whenever they finally catch up... just a bit too late.

Doors slide shut behind the fleeing goblin king and a much, much bigger goblin than even Gao's big were fang form moves in the way. And it's got Adventurer gear on!

It's a Goblin Paladin of all things from the looks. And it's huge and big enough that this will definitely end up an endurance test. Boss battle time!

Gao looks at the others, then sighs, "Almost caught it."

Then he looks up at the goblin paladin. Blinks. And looks at the others, "I'm going to have to tank this, aren't I?"

Haru is familiar with this guy. It may be the last time he sees him. Not a problem for Haru. Something wearing paladin armor and being anything but doesn't settle well with him. Lots of actual Crusaders would have perished to put that set together. "The crown eludes us, this time," he shakes a fist. An accessory forging fist. It shakes. As to the need to tank it, Haru looks to Gao, "If you'd like. Knock yourself out. Not literally, of course. And if you are looking for weak points they are here," he extends his hand out to the paladin. A series of arcane circles surround the boss. Data begins to ping off of his equipment. The durability is shown, weaknesses to elements and damage types. Origins. Flavor text. Creation date. Way too much information. "Pick any of those, his equipment is really falling apart," the Artificer says, cleaning his monocle in lieu of doing the typical glasses push-up Shiroe move.

    Of course Fuka's in a good mood now. Violence and explosions go well together, and are a pleasing aesthetic to the action gamer! It's a shame the goblin king gets away, but then... oh well! They've done pretty good, and that's really what counts. Thinning the numbers of goblins, now that they won't respawn, is a wonderful thing indeed.

    Fuka looks at Gao as he makes his pronouncement. "You tank it, I'll spank it!" she exclaims. Then makes a face. "NOT like that! I am so not into goblins." she complains. "Uh, you attack it, I'll whack it? No. You block it, I'll... AUGH!" she shakes her head, raising her sword. "I'll freaking hack it to pieces, that's what I'll do!"

A Goblin. In paladin armor.

Shiruba's tail lashes a few times behind her. Seeing the attire of a divine warrior touted around by such foul creatures would of tweaked her even before learning more intricate matters of Light and divinity.

Then again, if monsters can worship their own gods, it stands that one could devote... yet, this corruption and mockery of the concept is still rubbing her hackles wrong. She squints, trying to peer more deeply into this matter for a moment. Then she hits on the same matter as Haru is.

"Tch. Such ramshackle armor," she mutters, even as she lines up a shot. Rather than shoot the armor she shoots into the gap between the misfitting plates, snapping whatever straps were holding it together and knocking it off! She'll keep doing that, if they can pick apart his defenses the heavier hitters can get through to pummel him.

Carbon's blades are quite easy to use when he's up close. Sure he might be better at range, which is why he can close in the distance and strike from the shadows on the paladin.

The big guy finds himself being hit from behind by Carbon's dual swords, the black clad cat dancing around, striking with those blades, disappearing back into shadows, and striking again after several hits, before retreating back to let the others close in and strike.

The obvious weak point and aim of the party is definitely spot on. Before long, that armor starts to fall apart quite literally leaving a lot of damage needing to hit the goblin itself.

Gao, unfortunately, has had better days. The goblin's strength is breaking his rhythm so he isn't exactly tank worthy. Plus, he's a healer, dang it! That's probably the only reason he's not down and out now. By the time the goblin paladin falls and the group can divide up the obvious armor loot, Gao's literally covered in red lines and his health is probably about a small bit from the red zone.

He gives a bit of a groan before looking at the others. "Next time, I call for a tank as well."

Shiruba raises a brow as Carbon hacks the wannabe paladin from behind. "Am I the only hunter that went full Ranged combat?" It's more of an observation than any sort of complaint though.

"What matters is the dead is done Gao. A lot less goblins, including some of their bigger threats, no longer an issue. Even if the wannabe king got away." Shiruba picks up a couple of the armor pieces for herself. Never hurts to hang onto such things, if nothing else they can be purified and reforged into something else, much like the things recovered from the Undead army were used in her bow. "Ugh. I'm glad this place is getting cleaned out but the thought of such filthy creatures loitering around these ruins still stings the Action Archeologist in me."

    Fuka's style is as straightforward as it gets. Big sword, big swings. Less technique, more brute force. If she weren't so good at delivering brute force, and if her weapon weren't literally built for her, she wouldn't be nearly so effective... but there you have it.

    That's not to say she fights without tactics. She engages and disengages, moving and blocking as needed, and in fact helping take some of the pressure off Gao on occasion with a ringing blow on goblin armor. She takes hits, but her own armor's up to the task of keeping her out of the red. In the end, the outcome is inevitable.

    After, she smiles at Gao. "You did fine as a tank!" she says cheerfully. "But if you'd asked, I'd have tanked it. It worked out just fine though!" she claims, before turning to the loot to see if there's anything in there she can make use of. Hmmmm... perhaps!

Haru makes an observation as he is already going around the room and looking for inspiration in the familiar room. It never hurts to check again with a fresh perspective. "I think several people chose that specification for the Glass Cannon aspect, Shiruba. So the thought of going full ranged over melee was an afterthought. Strike hard, strike fast," he says as he picks up a rock. The thing is tossed over his shoulder. Not a suitable mineral. "Silver Swords has plenty in that category as strikers," he looks over to other commander, "but only you and Mikage seem to shine in the Ranged department there." Meanwhile Haru is an Enchanter and a Summoner. Debuffs and elemental critters. Spells for days. "Didn't find what I was looking for," he admits, making another note in the research journal. "I hear there are elemental machines around here too. Machina in general are useful to Artificers."

"It helps being able to cover range and close quarters." Carbon says to Shiruba after the fact, "I am going to need to learn some of those techniques from you though. A lot of the ones I have seen require magical prowess, however."

Now that the fight is over, he does introduce himself proper to Shiruba, "I am Carbon of Olympus Alliance."

Gao looks at Fuka afterwards, sighing. "Go figure."

He changes back to his human form after a moment, then actually punches his own hand. "HEALING PUNCH!"

He looks thoughtful, "Hm... perhaps I should work on my dodging a bit better. In any case, thank you all. This was... an experience at least. Not a lot like this in the Palace Lands these days. Or if it is, it gets rather swarmed by certain types."

Pulling back on his robe, he buttons it up as he looks thoughtful, then looks over at Fuka. "Oh, if you wish to learn the Healing Punch, just come find me. I joined up with the Scale Emblem Alliance recently."

"That's true. And I do have my animal friends to get in close for me when necessary." Shiruba replies to Haru. Then turns back to Carbon when the Were Fang introduces himself properly. "That is true, but I have specifically honed a few techniques that do not for the sake of not burning through all my mana. I would be happy to share some of those with another archer." Then she bows appropriately, her tail curling up slightly to maintain her balance. "Shiruba, Spell Fletcher and Moderator for the Silver Swords of the New World Alliance."