Duty Session 508: A Pirate's Life For Me

Its a fine day for Adventure. Treasure. Action. Pirates. Boats. Rum. Nix that. The rum is all gone. Even without the rum there is a pirate adjacent request coming out of the Hunter's Guild. Naval activities in the Fourland Dukedom have been on the rise from, and this is the real clickbait here, it is from undead. Undead pirates. Haru Nox of the Silver Swords is having none of this. There is a whole war theater in the Fourlands that relies on naval activity. The undead want to capitalize on this, mm? Want to grow their ranks because wartime gives a whole lot of fresh material to work with, hmm? They want to recreate the myth of how glass was created by sailors that built a campfire on the shores of a land that was high in... nosir! That isn't possible! The temperature of a campfire is too low!

Strange Mood Haru sent a request out to get to the bottom of this mystery and clear up the waters for upcoming war operations. It was about as clear as anyone in a Strange Mood can make it. That is to say: Rambling. He is at the shoreline of the docks, grabbing a fist full of the sand and rocks there as the ship captain waits for boarding. Waiting is a kind term. Impatiently grinds his teeth in his old age where teeth are a premium. "Last call, all aboard," he bellows, adding in at a normal tone of voice, "to a cursed island of undead, ye crazy landlubbers." Adventurers. Can't live with them, can't live without them. Because they keep coming back after death.

Yeowang is a Silver Sword, but not in a strange mood, luckily, which means she's on hand to forcefeed and forcewash Haru when needed so he doesn't starve or stink too badly. She'll accept the party request, she knows it's important to manage both the Palace Landers and the world threats, so neither gets out of control, so she'll break off from spying to hunr down ... "Undead pirates? So, like, buried at sea, then woke up? Was the ship sunk, and then resurrected?" She is weak on the game-world logic at the best of times. On the other hand, she can kick a zombie so hard its head goes forty meters, so a useful person to have around.

Mikage is likely the last person that most would expect to come on any sort of Naval Adventure. It's well known amongst Silver Sword and beyond that the Were Fang is quite prone to sea sickness. On the other hand, she is one of those who has the most experience in and around the Byalan island, having trained in the dungeons below for over a month last year.

The young woman can be seen chugging a potion and pulling a face as she steps onboard the boat. She blinks, looks at Haru, then stows the empty potion vial back into her inventory. "He's not quite all with us, is he?" Rama gives an audible yowl, padding beyond to perch somewhere, likely atop something that one of the sailors actually needs. Because cat.

Looking to the captain, Mikage offers, "I promise, if I have to puke, I will project it over the side of the ship this time." This time? What the heck did she do last time?

Haru is washed, fed, and force-napped in no particular order during the 'get on the boat' and 'arrive at the destination' parts of the trip. His contributions are that of a mad scientist that just crashed, occasionally rolling around the deck during choppy waters. The captain keeps an eye on Mikage's seasickness during that time and for Yeowang he offers. "Let me tell you a tale of this island," as it is completely made up heresay that has nothing to do with the actual lore of this place because sailors make things up all the time, "a tale of the S.S. Minnow. She was sailing out these waters on a normal trip, yes she was. Naught but a three hour tour. Twas this very island that a storm veered them to. Wrecked them there." He looks off into the distance. Never to be heard from... "Never to be heard from again, ye might think?" Out of my head. "Worse. Every week, perhaps a fornight, we would get a letter in a bottle. An episodic update on their life stranded on this island. As," with dramatic pause, "zombies."

The surface of the island is quiet. Only the sounds of birds and other animals can be heard in an unsettling island melody. The captain adds his own note with the loud splash of an anchor into the water. Rowboats are lowered to the Adventurers to allow them to reach the shoreline. A reminder is given that he does not wish to stay long. The rumors of this island are not the kind that keep a seafaring man long on its shores.

The group is tasked with locating the entrance to the pirate's lair. There is a cave nearby that looks as though it may lead deeper into the island. Those with keen eyes or a good sense of direction may be able to find the secret entrance that the pirates use. However someone will have to get the entrance open once it is found.

Haru is no stranger to the 'find a thing' part of Adventuring. Investigation is right up there with 'beat something up' or 'solve a puzzle'. However. Haru's origins are that of a crafter and his skillsets match it. What does a crafter do when they roll up into a new area? They harvest everything. Every-thing. For Haru this has him kneeling down and taking soil samples. Not just sand, but rocks. "Interesting," he says raising it to a monocle. Does this tell us about where the entrance is, Haru? Probably not, but even a broken clock is right twice a day.

Yeowang gives Mikage a sympathetic look as they board and she makes that promise to the Captain. That doesn't bode well. She's got an iron stomach, which one might not guess from her hoity-toity demeanor. Well, sometimes stuff just is. She will remain abovedecks, but out of the way, she's sympathetic to people that need to get work done, and takes the time to gather up her long blonde hair into a ponytail, then coil it into a bun, which is wrapped tightly and skewered with a hair spike to hold it in place.

She listens intently as the Captain explains about the island. It's clearly flavor text, but Yeowang is not an experienced enough gamer to dismiss it. She also is far too young to get the Gilligan's Island references.

On the island, she will help search for the pirate lair entrance. But it is hidden, and hidden well, actually, beyond her ability to find it. She will follow along wherevre the party wanders. She's used to fighting in a ring, not where enemies hide from you.

Rama pops up next to Mikage after having been shooed away from his seating place. The Ranger leans over, half-listening to the strange tale being told as she whispers to the cat: "I think I know where all the rum has gone." Rama seems to give a sagely nod in response. Either the cat understands her, or... he's just been trained to agree in these situations for comedic effect.

Thankfully, other than looking a bit green throughout the trip, Mikage manages to hold down her food. There is a distinct look of relief as she disembarks, though, more than happy to be on solid ground. Rama joins her shortly there-after.

"Well, I know that if we go that way, it leads to the regular dungeon entrance, so I don't think that's what we're looking for." Mikage motions in one direction. Crouching down, she touches her companion on the back and asks, "See if you can sniff anything out?"

Rama heads forward, starting to sniff around, and then... ends up inhaling what looks to be a bit of dust. He then proceeds to start sneezing, over, and over, and over again. "Uh... I think my cat is broken."

Leave no stone unturned, Haru. However none of those stones hold the secret to where the entrance to the Pirate's Lair is. It puts the party in weird places on the island. Yeowang would experience the whole 'I think we missed the intentional path by a longshot' effect after a while. Rama gets that whole inhalation of dust that could be bone dust! But it is likely island pollen by a particularly active species of flora. Cat broken. Sniffer debuff. If the party is going with the game logic of 'You never follow the correct path, you do the offpath first for the treasure and optional content' then they are nailing it. This may not be that kind of Adventurer, though.

The group is unable to locate the entrance to the pirate's lair. At all. That means Adventurers get to do what they do best: Improvise. Current Improv has them opting to delve into a cave and try to find a way inside from there. Down is a generally good direction, isnt it? It is dark and there is no natural light after a minute of travel into the deep, dark darkness of deepdark descent. Also, they are wet. The caverns are flooded and narrow. The party will need to work their way through them carefully to get deeper into the island's underground systems and find a way into the pirate's lair this way.

Haru, the Accessory Forger, the Enchanter, the Summoner, the very physically inept Adventurer traverses the water with the power of magic! That is to say he creates air bubbles in a gentle rotation that doesnt overtax his deep Mana pool. How-ev-er, this is a man who is Strange Mooding and likely to get distracted by the sediment collected in the cave. Obsession is a strong thing.

Yeowang continues searching until all the obvious clues are examined. "I think the entrance must be that cave," she says. "It's the only thing we haven't explored." But that's more easily said than done, the cave is flooded and narrow and dark. On the other hand, she is unshakably confident that the cave holds nothing more dangterous than we are, so advances forward confidently. Where Haru is physically weak, she was a national-level athlete before joining the game, and retains that in both physique and inclination.

She can hold her breath for quite a long time, and will lay a rope to help us get through underwater stretches, until we emerge at another stoppage.

Sploosh. There is nothing quite like that feeling when you step into water and it soaks right through and into your socks. Shudder. Waterproofing isn't exactly the best in this time period, so there is a squelching, gross feeling as Mikage tromps through the flooded cavern. Rama, on the other side, is more than happy to go splashing around, occassionally still stopping to sneeze adorably.

"So, I've never been in this part of Byalan. Then again, there weren't any hydras here so I pretty much focused on the dungeon levels where those were." Mikage draws out the blue orb that she has often been seen moving between her two weapons, raising it up slightly. "Let me see if I can't shed a little light on the situation for us, get a better view of what is going on."

When she raises the orb, it begins to glow, lighting the area with a faint blue hue of color, but making it nearly as bright as daytime.

Did Haru say he was providing Air bubbles? As in plural? That may have been the intention, but have you SEEN the composition of minerals here? It is high in silica. Haru quickly forgets to cast or recast the Air spells to get samples and record where they were found. A big reason for Adventuring is to see new places and find new materials so for him this is like finding super loot. Fortunately this doesn't impact Yeowang in the least. The air spell is optional for someone with that kind of swimming skill. And knowing where they are going? Mikage has that down. The area looks as bright as day down here now. It goes as far as illuminating deep into te water which Haru appreciates as he collects more materials from Byalan. He is splashing around in the water as much as Rama. At least they are enjoying themselves and, hey, free shower for Haru.

The party moves deeper into the caves. It seems that the excavation on the pirate lair has caused one of the walls of this path to collapse, blocking the way forward. There doesn't appear to be any way around so going through is the only option. The party will need to move the fallen debris out of the way in order to proceed and brace the wall back up in order to ensure it doesn't collapse again after they pass. That would block their escape route. That is bad.

Speaking of bad, Haru leans up against the debris. His ear rests on the rock. Haru Nox, Stone Whisperer. No, just taking a brief nap after all that swimming. He wakes up. Jacket sleeves are rolled up. It is time to put these noodle arms to use. Then he sees it. A little glimmer beyond the debris. Want. A hand gestures out as four golf-ball sized stones begin rotating around him in a slow orbit. "Terra. Vocare. Terebro. Numerus. Terebrare. Hostis." The orbs move forward and ka-thunk to the ground as if magnetized suddenly. The ground rumbles as a large earth sprite emerges, drills whirling with some sick Metal beats to the whirling. "Onward, Terra!" he stands dramatically, pointing at the earthen debris as water drips from his hair. If Terra /could/ eyeroll, she would. But she is a Monster bound by Haru's wacky will so away she goes.

Mikage places the still glowing relic into the handle of her sword, meaning that it continues to offer a glow as they continue deeper into the dungeon. She seems to follow closer to the rear, perhaps using her Were Fang senses to try to make sure they don't end up jumped by the supposed 'undead' that lurk here.

It isn't until they come upon the fallen wall taht she stops, looking at the debris and seeming to consider her options. "Alright... let's see if this works."

Normally, Mikage's connection with nature is utilized for things like stealth, but at this moment, it is needed for more direct applications. She starts pulling rocks from the collapsed passage, lining them up along the way behind them, making it so that there are potential hiding spots in the future for whomever goes this direction a second time.

At the end, though, she seems to be breathing a bit harder than normal, perhaps a little exhausted by hauling rocks around. As for Rama, he just perches on one of them. Lazy cat.

Yeowang has gotten here, and takes a look around, and considers the landslide. She's very butch, in general, but not really in the lifting rocks sense. She is blazing fast, and of course kinetic energy is MV-squared, so a fast punch hits more powerfully than a heavy one. But her amazing physicality is not weighted into the brute lifting power needed to easily clear the landslide. Clearly Earth magic is what the task calls for, but magic in the game confuses her so much, and she avoids it when she can, including now, when it might be useful. On the other hand, she's not -that- good with it, so maybe it doesn't matter. She grunts and grimaces, but can't lift away the heaviest rocks, she'll leave that to Haru and Mikage, and just take the smaller pieces as and when she can.

Rock meet drills. Its super effective. Haru has elevated himself up to management as he has his summon do the work with 'expert supervision'. Terra, you can expect high marks in your next performance review. It leaves ton of stray rocks for Mikage and Yeowang to haul. Rama too, albiet 'hauling' for the cat is more like 'napping'. Tactical resting. It is a lot to keep up with when Artificed elemental summons are in the mix, proving taxing for Yeowang towards that later parts and everyone has to dip in their Mana pools for this one. However the result is a beautiful passage that is reinforced for the return trip. Onward!

An unusually thick forest of seaweed blocks the cavern. There doesn't seem to be anyw ay around it. The team will need to figure out the best way through. Someone cold cut through it with a blade. That could take a while. A skilled herbalist or alchemist could use an herbicide to clear a path as well.

"I wonder," Haru says as he cuts a small sample of the thick seaweed. Only in Elder Tales could you experience seaweed this thick. It is practically a forest! The Artificer's delve into Alchemy is generally for Enchanting Catalysts, but it gives him the foundation to experiment with some herbicides.

Yeowang is hot and sweaty and a but disshevelled at the end of the gruelling labor. She looks like she just got done with a hard workout, which is pretty typical for her, and she looks disappointed with herself and her stat selection as she advanced. It is what it is. Carry capacity is related to strength, but she chose hitting power, which doesn't help carrying rocks. Who knew?

But then there's a forest of seaweed, and she sighs. What does she even do here? She's got a machete, but it's only good for two or three hacks before it won't cut through the dense foloage.

So, out comes the whetstone, sharpening it up for a few minutes, but the edge she putus on it is not good for more than a couple whacks. So it's the whetsotone again, but at this point, she's spending more time re-sharpening the blade than using it. And she only has so many whetstones.

Finding themselves in a sea of seaweed, Mikage scrunches her nose slightly. "Makes me wish I would have brought Cyrus along, he knows all about plants and alchemical solutions to them." She pokes at one of the plants, watching it wiggle slightly. "I might have something..."

The following is a series of Mikage pulling various potions out of her inventory, trying them on the plants, only to have no effect whatsoever. Apparently Cyrus has not outfitted her with an anti-seaweed potiion. "Okay, next time I am bringing my alchemist. I don't care if he hates this plaec or not."

She takes out her sword and starts to hack at some of the seaweed. "Time to handle this the old fashioned way, I guess." Rama proceeds to chew on some of the seaweed, but starts spitting it out afterwards. It's not terribly effective and leaves them walking through spit-up cat-chewed seaweed scraps.

Close but no cigar. Haru's delve into alchemical applications is held short by the obsession of his glass application. Somewhere in the mix he thinks about how to /grow/ flora, not destroy it. At least he is thinking positive. "I got it!" annnnd in no time he regrows all the samples he takes away. "The lens of the glass can act as an amplifier for what we consider UV rays in photosensitive flora for..." he begins to ramble academically while Yeowang and Mikage do all the hard work. So. Much. Weedwacking. Someone needs to invent a chainsaw.

The team finds their way deep into the underbelly fo the pirate's lair. Instead of finding the pirates, they come across a giant enemy crab. It has somehow managed to get a large portion of the cursed treasure embedded in its shell and a gig on Flight of the Concords. It clacks its claws at them as they near to give them warning to back off. That gold embedded in its shell shows that it will fulfill the goal of the mission even without running into the pirates proper. Gold is gold. However the group is still going to need to fight it in order to get their prize from its carapace.

Haru, the man with the monocle, notices that there is a lot of shiny. Its practically blinding. If only they had a magical fishhook. He improvises with something completely different. The four ioun stones around him begin to pale away from their typical quicksilver appearance. The gloss is replaced with a matte black and white alternating set of dots as the color begins to drain from his Avatar. Black and White. Noir Haru. An artistic accent color shows on his vibrant blue eyes and regal amethyst lens. His movements look glitched, moving in half-frames around the battle to avoid the attacks from the giant crab. Perhaps if the Wave Artes user is as anti-shiny as possible, it will remove agro!

After being all but useless most of the fight, there is almost a gleam in Rama's eyes as he sees the giant crab. In slow motion, the camera zooms in on the cat as he licks his lips. A moment later, the lynx is zooming across towards the enemy, chomping into one of the legs and clearly attempting to make this giant monster into a snack.

Mikage's eyes widen ever so slightly, and then she can't help but laugh as she draws out her bow, swapping the still-glowing stone into place and activating the elemental machine parts which extend it into its full form: Dawnbreaker.

"Looks like Rama has this andled, but let's give him some back up." No, she doesn't /actually/ think the lynx can take it down on his own, but it is an amusing thought.

So, she raises her bow and starts to channel energy into an arrow, one that carries with it the impact of a massive wave when it strikes, cracking into the crab's shell and perhaps leaving an opening for the others to do more damage.

Yeowang perserveres grimly through the forest of shrubbery, too flexible to just kick down, too abrasive to cut reliably, but eventually it /is/ gotten through, and we find ourselves not in a pirate lair, but in a giant crab's lair. "Well, I guess we made a wrong turn /somewhere/."

On the other hand, giant crabs are a thing to fight, and fighting is like the one thing she's good at in this game, so she will step up and fight.

The monster is clearly not used to small attackers that can actually hurt it, the shell is quite hard, but Yeowang knows a thing or two about focusing energy at a point. She places her fist on the carapace, and BAM, like a centerpunch, right where her fist was sitting is now a hole leaking pixels. Her defense is only soso, she's not built, character-wise, the way she is in RL, but this is a game, and she does what she can. Which includes punching the hell out of a giant crab. When Mikage cracks the shell, she will add in attacks to the vulnerable bits. It's gross, but she needs a shower anyway, so might as well go as hard as you can, right?

It turns out that not being all that shiny disinterests the crab, opening Haru up to unleash plenty of magical attacks at will. These come off in the form of debuffs to support Rama's hangry assault. Reduction in defense and movement speeds. Increase in deliciousness in every chomp. The Dawnbreaker bow finds its mark creating cracks across the carapice like it was an eggshell being cracked. Add in the seismic punches from Yeowang and this boss is barely a showing of a fight given its constant stun-lock state and damage assault. So Shiny!

There is a heaving crab-sigh from the shiny crab. It raises its claw and is felled by the weight of its injuries and very, very heavy carapice. Also because it lost its legs in the fight. The beast hits the found loudly as it stops moving. It gets to experience True Shiny by erupting into light and pixels. The cursed treasure falls to the floor of the cavern with the monster defeated. This allows the group to gather up as much of it as they can carry back to town. Not Mac Anu per say, but one day thats a viable location. The Hunters Guild request to handle the pirates is not exactly complete. They still threaten the area. However leaving with a lot of loot is always a suitable win for an Adventuring party.

Haru is still looking around for pirates after the crab is cracked. "I think we ended up in the wrong cave," he observes in an almost Uta-like response to the situation and Yeowang's observation.

At the end of the fight, Rama rips off one of the crab legs and begins parading it around as if it were his prize. Apparently, it is a bad idea to get on the feline's bad side when he is hungry. Mikage crouches down, taking the leg from Rama and giving him a ruffle of his headfluff, "Uh, thanks big guy. You can go eat some of the rest, okay?"

Happy with this proposal, Rama goes off to gorge on giant crab meat while Mikage does that magic of using the inventory system to stow something far too large to normally fit anywhere. Off the crab leg goes into hammer space.

"I think you're right, Haru. On the plus side, we cleared the path to get back and there weren't any monsters, so we should have an easy time getting to the boat." As she says this, Mikage realizes... "Oh crap, we have to take the boat back, and I only brought one sea-sickness potion." Is she looking a little green at the prospect already? Yes, yes she is.

Seeing Rama gorge himself on crab meat is not helping.

Urk.

Yeowang nods to Haru about the wrong cave. "If we come again, we'll have to go more carefully and see if we overlooked anything," she agrees. "But next time." For now, she'll collect up a giant crab leg which got torn clear in the fight, which seems to have useful properties. Possibly related to Crab Imperial. Though the catapace does blend kind of well with the environment, maybe there's some insight there?

But, either way, it is time to go. "If there's nothing more to do, let's get moving?" She winces as Mikage reveals her lack of seasick meds for the return trip. "Maybe you can sleep?" she suggests.