Duty Session 505: Karluin Reclamation - Labyrinth

    The Hunters Guild has put out a call for elite explorers, and of course Fukaziroh answers the call! She's elite after all! Well, she certainly thinks she is. And if she isn't she's not about to be the one to bring it up. She stumbled across the quest while checking in with the refugees currently camped out in the lower regions of the tower itself, and of course is often up for a little adventure. Or elite adventure as the case may be.

    Fortunately it seems she is being joined by a suitably elite crew too! Or at least so she's told. For now she waits impatiently, bouncing in place at the last safe checkpoint into the goblin tunnels...

It's always important to stretch before a workout. So that is exactly what Vertina is doing. She was pretty familiar with Karluin by this point, having used various parts of it as a training ground when she had been working on her evasive maneuvers. "Just be on your guard guys and gals. This place is still full of a lot of traps and goblin trickery, and I'm almost certain some of the pathways move between runs, because mazes suck like that."

Soujiro Seta is all about that quest life. Quest life. Training life. Tower life. Life, the game. Life, the cereal. Life: The second lifening. In short, the samurai is there and raring to go delve some dungeons. He stretches in unison with Vertina, mimicing those over the head stretches, knee bends, and generally being a vapid smiling blue haired tank. Like a happy doggo. A happy doggo that is constantly being followed by people. Celeb doggo?

"Sounds like a fun challenge," Souji says with the sort of warmth of said doggos.

    The ninja cat is here! In were fang form as always, with a midnight purple gi and a long red scarf.

    She scampers stealthily through the shadows and drops near Fukaziroh. "Hi-nya!" She grins and waves. "Looking forward to working with nya again!" And... Vertina! She bounces over to hug tall lizardfriend. "Vertinya! Good ta see ya!" Salamanders are warm. Mmm. She lets go after just long enough to be slightly awkward. "So... does anyone have a way to track our path through this maze? I don't think I have a ball of twine big enough... Although... I guess I could follow our scent out..."

Goldenblade is an elite adventurer, and has joined the group. At least the Landers treat her as someone special, perhaps in deference to the insignia she wears as part of the Westelande military. She, ironically perhaps, acts less ostentatiously than Fukaziroh. Arriving in good order, she nods to those assembled and stands ready, her gear already checked. She nods to what Vertina says, agreeing, "There's bound to be all manner of tricks and traps. It's goblins after all." She's not nearly as goblin-hatey as Goblin Slayer, but she's really just getting used to some minority that isn't protectected by this political correctness. Ironically, 'it's not their fault, they were programmed that way' has been said. But on the other hand, it's a game objective and they're just bits in a computer, so why should she feel bad?

She smirks to Soujiro, and says, amused, "Say that -after- you fight them." She shakes her head to Mizuki, "Best not to leave a trail. Goblins /will/ follow that."

If a call went out for elite adventuers, nobody's more elite than Syx, at least in his own head. How true that is remains to be seen. But he showed up once the call went out, after all he was already nearby at his farm.

"Sooooo.." The wrestler says as he approaches the group, "Anybody done this one before? I know it's goblins but like, specifically anything we should be on the look out for? Traps or puzzles or stuff I can't just smash my way through?"

    Mizuki frowns in thought at Goldenblade's words. "I don't like the thought of getting lost in there... do we have another way out? Also, how do you intend to mask our scent, then?"

    She looks to Syx and shrugs. "I haven't done this before. Is this instanced, like the rat sewers and the pirate base and stuff? Then it still might have variations, anyway..."

    Fuka lets out a shrill little scream as a ninja cat pops up out of nowhere, but the grin on her face suggests the scream is entirely fake. "Miki-nya! Awesome, let's do this!" she exclaims. Then frowns at the question about tracking through the maze. "Uh, not me! I could get lost in a closet. Er, a really big closet anyways! I still haven't figured out how the tower's bigger inside than out, so it shifting around... yeah, no surprise there!"

    Glancing over at the wrestler, she shrugs. "I've been going through the goblin tunnels on a few missions already, but no idea what to expect. Like Tina says, it changes. Hopefully not more traps than those damn gnolls use, but knowing my luck I'm going to lose a foot or two. And I'm short enough already!" she claims happily. "But we should get going. Grapes peeled, everyone!"

    Barely through the front door, a swarm of arrows go up from goblin sentries, and they have excellent night vision. It's going to be important to figure out exactly where the arrows are coming from, either using magic or enhanced senses.

Goldenblade! Souji is so happy to see her that he walks over and gives her a punch on the shoulder, "With the two of us in there, those goblins dont stand a chance," with that sort of voice the says 'things are going to work out and we are all heroes'. "Its going to be Legendary," he says with a quiet hype though it is clear that tough challenges really rev him up.

The blue haired samurai menu equips his red armor, plated and suited for the front lines. "I haven't done this one before," he says to Syx with a containment of his excitement as if he remembers that being -too- spazzy isnt very samurai-y. Though he does give Vertina a similar shoulder jab like he gave Goldenblade, though knows she will probably deflect that one with those sweet kung fu skills.

"Arrowfire," Soujiro calls out the rather obvious attack that is going on. It looks like it is battle memory to call out changes on the field. "Hard to see the source," he says, drawing out his blade in a blinding light. Probably too blinding given going form pure darkness to a bright light isn't helpful (possibly to Mizuki and Fuka). Blllliiinndded by the Light. o/`

    Miki-nya? Mizuki considers this nickname... but the moment they get moving, her ears twitch. "Look out!" She dives out of the way of an arrow, then points right towards an archer in the dark. "There!" This is, of course, no help to anyone who can't see the archer anyway.

    And then light and fire magic light up the tunnel. "Gah!" She covers her eyes and curls up into a smaller target "ow ow ow my poor eyes!" She shifts back to human for a bit, managing as best she can, flinging kunai at the illuminated goblins but taking more arrows for her trouble! "Oh, I hope these aren't the painful ones..."

"The only thing you need to remember Mizukichi is even a dumb goblin can be really sneaky." And with that, Vertina strolls into the beginning of the labyrinth. Though it's clear she's been through this before as the first thing she does is hold up a fist as she clenches it, causing light to radiate from around her.

And with the other hand catchs the first arrow that comes flying at her. Sidesteps several more, and throws the arrow she caught back through one of the sniper slots. There's a squeal from the other side of the wall as the goblin behind it is hit, and that's when she makes a dash for the opposite end of the corridor.

Goldenblade is shoulderpunched by Soujiro and she nods, "Good to see you again." She nods again about the goblins not standing a chance, though she amends, "Unless our arms get tired." There are a lot of them, she means, nodding agreement with Vertina. "They're not going to pass fifth grade, but they can still cause trouble."

She says to Mizuki as they head out, "Nothing we can do about our scent, really, just saying a ball of twine would make it a bit /too/ easy for them. As far as a way out, it's in the Tower, the way out is usually pretty clear, once you get to the end." Unfortunately, when we reach the mission area, the goblins are there waiting for us.

"Do they camp here, do you think?" she asks, "expecting adventurers to come by?" She does a hard flourish with both blades, and flame whips off the blades, heading toward the goblin positions, and she continues her attack, such as it is, flames whipping off the blades like a flamethrower now, and searing the goblins en masse. They do not like this, but the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune are consumed in the waves of flame she casts out.

Syx gives a happy shrug when the group mentions their also lack of experience, "Guess we'll just hit it hard and fast then. You know the deal, strike first, strike hard, no mercy!" Yeah he knows those were the bad guys in that movie. They were still cool.

As arrows come sailing in, Syx puts his dodging training to good use, as he slips in between a pair of arrows and rushes at the archers. He launches himself up towards the group, his Buster Gauntlets glowing bright with flames on eitherh and, "Heads up!" He calls out to the others, not wanting to blind them, as he slams his fists together close to the group of goblin archers, sending out a massive flash of light and a loud explosion, disorienting all of them and leaving them open for attacks from the rest of the group, as well as allowing Syx to go to town on them in close quarters.

    Fuka attempts to charge up her arc-ane blade in order to both throw sparks and deal with archers, but any light she manages to project with the effect is drowned out in much more effective lighting sources. No matter really. "I see them now! CHAAAAAARGE!" she bellows, setting actions to words and setting about to scatter goblin archers. Fortunately it's not like goblins are hard to fight, when you actually can see them at least.

    After a bit of light (and fire!) exercise the group moves on, only to find another adventuring party. One that seems sadly unprepared for facing goblins in narrow tunnels. One of them even has a greatsword! Which is a problem, one might suppose, if one actually requires to swing the thing around in order to fight. Fuka isn't quite that poorly off. These adventurers, however, are quite poorly off. Their caster has been poisoned, suffering a dreadful fever from getting cut by one of the goblin daggers. These adventurers, out of their depth, could really use some help. It's the right thing to do, and maybe they can help out in return with some advice on what's ahead!

Vertina lets out a whistle as Syx plays holy hand grenade is a manner of speaking. "I see you got that technique working!" she cheers, flashing a thumbs up before turning and heading to the next room.

Turns out there's not a fight with goblins here, but a fight with time. She frowns. "Where's the doc when you need him..." she mutters under her breath. She attempts to draw up some healing chakra for the poisoned mage, but the nasty stuff the goblins' are using is strong, and she hasn't had a chance to recenter after using it to illuminate her way before. "Nnnh... little help here... I can't subdue the toxins on my own."

Goldenblade moves along smartly when the goblins are sent off to the great bit bucket in the sky. She looks back and forth to the other party members as we encounter another party, and observes, "You guys have had it rough." She will try to help with the first aid, but the kind of first aid she knows is for industrial accidents like mashed fingers and electric shocks and the sort of thing you get on a construction site, and it's basically no use in helping people who have been stabbed, so she mainly stands around attempting to be helpful and doing what useful people ask.

Soujiro Seta is a samurai, Jim, not a doctor! "That sucks," he says upon hearing about the Lander's plight. He sits by the poisoned mage, who for the sake of comedy is a lady and when he holds her hand causes her heart rate to accellerate. Fast pulse and poison? Bad. "Here! Drink this!" he quickly hands her a potion. It is a potion of healing, but that doesn't do the trick. All of his damage mitigating abilities give temp HP or defense buffs! Deeper hand squeeze! Faster DoTs. The vicious cycle continues.

    Do they camp here? "I dunno... that sounds too boring, if they're people now and not just NPCs..." Mizuki observes, once the fight is over. Still blinking away afterimages, she holds Vertina's arm as they walk until her vision is clear, then returns to werefang form. 'Guh.' she comments, softly enough that others than Vertina might not hear, 'In a place like this I feel deaf and blind as a human... is it okay to be this used to being a cat...?'

    They come across the other party. Mizuki's ears and tail droop; she has no skill at healing, and the supply of antidote potions Uta made for her in the days after the Apocalypse ran out long ago. "Maybe I should learn something about medicine in this world..." She does her best to comfort the adventurers with hugs. She is big and fuzzy with soft fur. So soft. That might help them feel better but it doesn't cure anything...

Syx actually does know some healing magic., Sure it doesn't seem like he's the type, but he does have access to it.

He's not great at it, but he does know how to make it work when he needs to. So he does his best to help out the other adventurers that have gotten themselves in over their head, "Damnit Jim, I'm a wrestler not a doctor."

    Fukaziroh is actually a healer, at least in part, but has no skill whatsoever with poisons. Frowning, she attempts to heal the poor caster by forcing light mana directly into them, which is probably slightly less unpleasant than it sounds, but also not particularly effective. They're going to have a hard time getting clear what with their equipment woes and the poisoning, but at least they know to head in the right direction. Probably. Oh well, hopefully their respawn location isn't Mac Anu.

    The group soon finds themselves at a crossroads with what amount to veritable murals of goblin graffiti scribbled across the walls, floor and ceiling. There may be hidden messages in the writings, given the complexities of the tunnels and the need for goblins to navigate through them while avoiding their own traps. To do so however, this will require some cleaning. Not to mention some deciphering. Probably a lot of water, soap, and elbow grease besides.

Goldenblade looks a bit grumpy as we head out from attempting to help the other party. She hates not being useful, and it sours her mood a bit. Which, when he get to the crossroads develops into a weary sigh. "Well, good thing I'm here," she says grumpily. "I can haul rocks. So useful. Two years of playing some game for kids so I can carry rocks." She carries on in that vein as she carries the rocks, but it seems there's a lot more grumbling than carrying when all is said and done.

Vertina hffs softly, but it doesn't take her long to just move on when there's not much else they can do.

"Okay, I need a moment to let my mana regen catch up," she murmurs as she leans against a wall, pulls out a potion and gulps it down. Then out of the corner of her eye notices the markings on the wall's surface. Not that she can read any of it, but she can see it's there. "Hey," she wipes her mouth off with the back of her hand, then gestures at the wall. "Can anyone actually tell what this says? My goblinese is.. nonexistant."

    "You want to try and understand this mess? Nngh... I don't like it. What exactly are we searching for? I'd rather try to sniff it out and listen for it..." Still, if people insist on spending time on this instead, Mizuki uses her sense of smell and cryptography to try and help tell what's been graffiti'd recently from what are actual signs.

    But how is she supposed to make head or tail out of those signs? "I didn't even know goblins *had* a written language until now..."

Soujiro Seta looks at this goblin shenaniganry. "Makes no sense to me," he declares out. So instead he works on keeping the area clean with water, something that will be done for quite some time. Water water soap soap. After a while he splashes a few of the party to keep spirits high during the exercise. Play is vital to creativity and solving problems, after all!

"I didn't know goblins could read and write." Syx says, as he looks at some of the scrawls, "I've got nothing. But I do have this!" He moves to try to force his way past one of the doors instead. Because why try to figure out some weird goblin language when you can just kick a door in and go that way!

    "Are these an actual language? It looks like ... oh! Hey, pretty sure that one's rude. And so's that one. And that one's definitely an obscene doodle..." she muses, either not scandalized by it or completely making this all up. It's not like she understands goblin scrawl after all, or could see it under layers of smoke and grime.

    "This looks like stuff you'd find on a bathroom wall. Ugh, actually, pretty sure all these goblins are perverts. So yeah, no idea which way we should go, but I'm leaning towards 'not that way'" Fuka claims, gesturing vaguely, though not in the direction Syx apparently had chosen. Since he has a better idea, she shrugs and follows along, certainly not having any better suggestion. Lost in a closet, remember?

    It seems this part of the labyrinth is a closet then, because the group is quite lost. Very lost. Corridors branch in strange winding directions, often looping back deliberately to confuse the sense of direction of anyone coming through. Not that this matters to Fuka as she'd get lost in something far simpler. She trudges along with energy if not enthusiasm though, figuring they'll find something sooner or later. Or something will find them instead perhaps.

    Something does seem to be watching the group though. Doorways show signs of recent use. The adventuring group isn't alone down here... so the question becomes, do they hide, do they find their own way out, or do they allow whatever lucks in the depths to find them and hope for the best?

    Hopefully Mizuki isn't one of the ones splashed. "Hey, careful! How would you like having wet fur??" He's human, though. "Well... it sucks. It's like wet clothes you can't take off... and I'm not turning human and taking off my wet clothes, either."

    She tries to picture Soujiro as a wet cat, but instead her mind conjures up the image of a dog happy to play in the water and then jumping all over its owners and getting *them* soaked too.

    After all that, Mizuki can make only the vaguest guesses from the goblin signs. They're down to searching by scent after all. It's not going great.

    Oh no. Oh no oh no. They're lost, just like she feared. Time goes on. More time. When it seems like it's been a couple of hours, the cat begins to snap. "I don't wanna stay in the tunnels forever! I have days of food and water but what then? I don't wanna die again... Starvation and dehydration sounds like a long and miserable way to go... I guess it's more likely goblins'll kill me in my sleep, huh..."

    She may eventually be reminded that if this continues, they may well run into other adventurers, and they can't wander around *forever* when she can smell where they've been. "Oh, right!" That lifts her spirits a bit!

    ...Until the fur on the back of her neck stands up. She's not sure *how* she's sensing it, but her beast instincts are screaming PREDATOR. YOU ARE BEING HUNTED. YOU ARE PREY. She can't gauge her chances in a fight if she can't percieve her foe, so her instincts are telling her RUN. HIDE.

    Her body language shifts, tail lowering, her body crouching/hunching slightly to be a smaller target and to be more ready to abruptly spring away.

Goldenblade is reminded of what Mizuki asked her before, what do we do if we get lost? Well, at least there's no trail of string to lead goblins to us, but getting out of here will be complicated. "I sense it, too," she says to Mizuki. "Let's hope they show up soon so we can beat some directions out of them."

But whatever is following doesn't show up, and she says, "I swear I think it's this way. Sometimes half-built buildings get tricky to navigate around in, too," she shares.

How does Souji like wet fur. A wet cat? Having to remove wet clothes? The samurai looks at Mizuki innocently. Sparkles.

They are lost! Or are they? With good company Souji doesn't think they are all /that/ lost. Trusting in his instincts has led to a few mishaps in the run, but that is in the past. The future is ahead! Which is exactly where he is going, ahead. Samurai tank is in tank marching position. Be it as it may, sheer dumb luck or intuition, the way that he is going happens to be the right one. "Navigating a maze, though, is a fun dungeon function," he informs with a happy little smile. Dungeon maze. Classic crawl material right there.

At least now they're getting back into a section of the labyrinth that Vertina vagely recognizes. In so much that she recognizes that it's a lot of twisting pathes and dead ends and she's still pretty sure the architecture changes on it's own when no one is here. She pauses a moment, he eyes seeming to glaze over slightly. But it's just because she's looking at something other than what's physically before them. There's signs of activity, and a peer into the astral plane gives her hints that aren't visible in the physical realm. Then she points. "Don't go that way. There's goblins setting up an ambush in a turnback, we'd be double dead ended."

She resists the urge to reach over and give Mizuki a good shake. "Calm down girl. Deep breaths. Relax. No one is running out of food while I'm here." Considering she can literally pull food out of a hat if she can't find anything to cook. "Don't be such a scardy ca--" Wait, would that be racist? "Worrier." she quickly corrects, just in case.

The first mistake anyone made was following Syx. Sure he's good at being the first one somewhere because he doesn't think he just does. But that also leads him into situations like wandering through a labrynth endlessly forever.

"Okay. I have an idea. This thing can't be infinite, right?" He says, as he stops in the middle of a hallway, and then starts to enie menie miney mo at the walls.

"We just pick a direction, and I'll smash my way through walls until we find an exit. That's what we like to call outside the box thinking."

Unless somebody stops him he's definitely going to smash through the wall where he ended up catching a tiger by its toe.

    Fuka starts to recognize some features of the labyrinth after a few hours wandering. She's about to say something, when it seems others have picked up on various signs as well. Either that or prayed for answers. Either way they're beginning to move more productively.

    She's actually slightly more bothered by Mizuki's fears than Souji's playful pranks earlier. Not that she begrudges the fears, but they're not exactly comfortable either. Fortunately Vertina has it under control. She almost blurts out something about the goblins killing them in their sleep only if they're lucky... but thinks better of it and keeps her mouth shut. On that matter at least. "Pussy cat?" she offers Vertina at her correction, sounding innocent. Too innocent really.

    Maybe it is indeed a miracle that lets the group find their way out after that series of banter, or maybe long acclaimation to the maze gives them some clues. Or perhaps Syx indeed busts down enough walls to clear a path! Either way, the door they find seems significant enough to signal the end of the maze of twisty passages, all alike.

    On the door is a set of concentric stone rings, each bearing a complex array of lines and curves that seem like they should line up with each other. A classic ring puzzle, it would seem, and not an easy one given all the possible links each ring has to connect with its neighbors. And kicking this door down isn't an option, probably. Clever puzzle solving, magical analysis and manipulation, or experience with intricate mechanisms will be needed to prevail.

    Calm down girl. That warm fuzzy feeling does make it easier for Mizuki to relax, though she stays very close to Vertina, and giggles at the 'scaredy cat' quip. "Okay, okay."

    NO ONE IS CATCHING MIZUKI BY HER TOE WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?

    The sense of being watched is gone, and instead it's a puzzle the likes of which she's seen in dungeons before. Mizuki stares at the rings thoughtfully while others work, her tail up in a ? shape and lazily swishing back and forth. Occasionally her tail twitches faster and then she shouts out "Ooh!" and rushes to move a ring into alignment while the others are working. Good spirits recovered!

Goldenblade peers at the strange door, and considers it. She's a bricklayer by trade, so she's not really at home with devices; they frustrate her. She's never programmed her own VCR, for instance, and when the kids left for college, she just recorded shows manually, sometimes waking up at strange hours to do so. At least during the day, her wife could record things. DVRs, when they came out, were much simpler - ironically, there was less she wanted to record.

But this thing, it's way more complicated than a VCR, and she just watches the others work on it with a puzzled expression.

They can't specifically brute force this lock, but that doesn't mean Vertina can't use a combination of strength and elemental prowess to her advantage. She grips one of the rings, while drawing on some Earth bending to give herself the strength to move the ring. It also allows her to sense the vibrates, as minute as they may be, made as it moves, until it finally turns far enough that it feels like something has caught and locked into place. "I think I got something!"

Now Syx knows subtle isn't really his thing, but as everyone else seems to recognize what they're doing with the puzzle, he stands back a little bit, to give it a good look from a distance, "Okay. So no smashing this one." He says, as he takes a moment to put out his flames and then he brings up one scaled hand, "I have an idea though.." He focuses on one finger of his Buster Gauntlet, and then channels flames through that finger and into the puzzle. It shouldn't damage it, but it should provide enough light from inside the mechanism to help the others locate exactly where the puzzle still needs to click into place.

Soujiro Seta must have his brain working on overtime by keeping in high spirits and engaging in light play as this puzzle hits him like a ray of brilliance. The full light bulb. "Oh, this makes sense," he says without going into what 'this' is per say. Back in the day he saw his father arrest someone who was all about picking locks and this lock looks very similar. Souji takes out jagged metal and begins to file down the edges to start making a lockpick set and a series of tension rods. Turning the rotary still requires other forces, like magic, but once in the right sequence he is able to raise the tumbler with the rake and then hold it in place with the tension. For a moment it looks like Souji is more ninja than samurai. LIES!

"Knew a person who used to do it this way," he tells the others, proud in his metal surgical efforts on the lock.

    Fuka's not sure how a door without a keyhole can be lockpicked, but that's hardly her skillset. Instead she attunes herself to earth, touching a disk of stone different from Vertina's and lending her subtlety to the task. Yes, subtlety! Fuka can be subtle sometimes! "I think you have the right idea!" she says enthusiastically as they proceed to work on solving the pattern by a combination of brute force and igno... elemental knowledge!

    The door slides open to reveal a resplendent tomb illuminated by several glowing crystals in raised sconces. It's also filled with treasure! Piles of it along the walls beside ... well, several sarcophagi. It's interesting treasure, though probably not actual wealth. More like trinkets and knowledge written down, which can be its own kind of wealth! Some tablets show squat humanoids creating great mechanical constructs, and there are plenty of tools and machine parts among the various treasures, more parts than actual riches.

    As the party begins to take in the room, the lights flare with an eerie blue glow. Out of one of the graves rises a gnomish specter wearing a heavy crown. His heavy weapon and full armor are seemingly enhanced with complicated clockwork that still ticks on despite its ghostly status.

    With a mighty roar the specter charges the party, wielding strength far beyond that of his ghostly form. Simultaneously elemental machines unfold out of the ceiling and begin to fire upon the group. A great deal of deadly power to contend with all at once, considering that this is literally not a goblin stronghold and so is not really this group's fight to engage in. Unless they WANT to do so because treasure, of course.

    Mizuki almost forgets why she's here.

    Wait, what exactly WAS the mission again?

    Oh well, machine parts for Scale's researchers to study is a treasure more valuable than any money! ...Wait, what kind of thought was that? As a computer programmer, shouldn't she want to understand them herself? Not that it's worked great, but... is she getting used to not being able to be The Smart Guy in here...?

    While she reflects on that, GNOME CLOCKPUNK GHOSTS attack. "Uhh..." they weren't here to loot, but she absolutely wants the treasure now that she's seen it! Let others handle their part of the fight... Mizuki disappears into the shadows, sneaking around and dodging turret fire... ah, this really feels like she's in a classic platformer fighting a boss! The turrets keep her from taking a direct route, but eventually she re-emerges, leaping out from behind the gnome king! "EDGE OF SHADOW!" She aims her darkness-enhanced slashes at what she hopes are vulnerable bits of clockwork!

It's okay everybody, Vertina has an answer for this. And it should surprise no one that the answer is fire, fire, and more fire.

But it's not JUST fire. Not when Vertina takes out a flask, uncorks it, and chugs down the contents. It's one of her trademark concoctions, a powerful alchemical accelerant. Powerful enough that when she exhales to use her Salamander fire breath, the flames are so hot that they're burning a reddish-purple hue. Not quite the intense heat of pure blue, but definitely hotter than usual. More than hot enough that it actually sets some of the elemental machine defense of fire, or just outright melts right through them.

But what the hell is a gnome doing buried in a goblin dungeon?! Is it just more proof that goblins infested and overran the place?

Soujiro Seta's lock surgical skills will be hailed forever in the halls of history.

Dealing with angry people? Souji is up for that. Angry undead? Mixed. Hes not sure how an undead lord won't see this as a threat while they are also using extreme force, but he does so anyway. You don't need to be logical when dealing with angry words. Here, have some tea. Can't drink it? How about GHOST tea? Its quite frost-tea. Every now and then he has to step away from the conversation to defend himself or others with swords, as it is still quite an active battleground.

As the specter charges the party, Goldenblade vanishes. This may seem like a bad time to vanish from a fight, but those who know Goldenblade might guess that something is up. But the fight begins without her, until the ghostly king is fully engaged with the party. Because once that's the case, Goldenblade can use her very special attack.

...

...

"Assassinate!" And Goldenblade appears behind the ghostly king, and his health bar plummets drastically. She'll continue the fight after that, one assassinate doesn't end the fight, but it took the boss down substantially. Both blades flash as she fights on until the boss can be convinced that this will not end well for him.

    Fuka for one isn't here to loot. Well, not just to loot. "Oh hey that looks like a king under the mountain!" she muses, then yelps as she's fired upon by an elemental turret. "Okay RUDE!" she cries out, trying her best to dodge and dive.

    The group has plenty of physical and magical force to be sure, so it frees her up to do what she does best. Talk! Well okay, maybe that's not what she does best, but it's what she's got plenty of experience and even some skill in! "It's like this, oh gnomely one~" she chants in oldespeak, trying to get through to him. "We're not here to disturb your rest, we were trying to murder some goblins. We have no interest in your garden! Er, tomb, I mean!" she corrects herself.

    Somehow she manages to get her point across, and the gnomish specter ceases his attack, allowing the group to proceed. And even offering them an assortment of machine parts and tools as apology for the attack, so it seems. Or perhaps a bribe for them to not return. Either way, not a problem!

Syx knows how to fight bosses, that really is the main thing he specializes in. So when they finally get a chance to really fight the boss, he goes to work, diving in right away and smashing away at it. Physical, magical, he combines both with his firey punches and flaming suplexes, as he unleashes his fury into the ghostly gnome.

When the fights it to a standstill, he backs off once Fuka manages to talk it down, "Never had a boss just like, stop fighting us because we talked to it."

Soujiro Seta explains to Syx, "Tea solves a lot of problems. Want some?" Especially the ceremonial grade stuff. Delicious.

Goldenblade looks pleased with herself as the undead decides he's had enough and gives over to Fuka's arguement. Looking over the assorted parts and tools we are bribed with ^h^h^h^h^h^h given as a consolation prise, she smiles widely. "Thank you, Great King," she says to the ghost. These will be quite useful in some of her weapon and armor forging efforts. Which everyone seems to forget about. She offers a shrug to Syx, and wonders, "How often do we try it?"

    It's not really that simple. Fuka could have never managed to talk the gnome down if it weren't for the rest of the group's actions. The extreme violence certainly helped, but then so did the tea. She shrugs though. "He's basically a guardian. A good guy. Good gnome... guardian guy going ga ga..." she pauses, shrugs once again. "He probably usually deals with goblins, and we're no goblins! I'd give us treasure and send us on our way too!"

Vertina has no idea what half these parts do, but loot is loot. She grabs several that look like they might do something interesting, because no one is going to pass up this sort of thing even if they are clueless. "Sorry for disturbing your slumber." She even apologizes to the ghostly gnome, and bows politely, before making a tactical retreat from the tombs before some other surprise comes up.