Duty Session 515: The Phantom Colosseum

     Their guide to this place that needs the monsters cleared out, has placed together a rickety raft. One of the members of this adventure was Katherine Tanzer, an imp with all the curves in all the right places, and clothing that didn't mind showing off those assests.

Her hoof foot gently tapped the vessel questioning how well it would hold up, at least till the others arrived who all got a warm smile on those dark limps and a little wave, "Hello my loves! You all ready for this little, adventurerous trip?"

"A rickity boat sailing for a island infested by aquatic monsters... this is perfect more my aquaphilic training!" As usual Vertina is pumped up for some action.

Yeowang has arrived at the meeting point for the quest. She's got her long blonde hair done up in a thick bun, and a dark coat and breeches, with low boots, and she looks entirely like an adventurer, apart from lack of weapons and armor. Those who know her, of course, know that lack of weapons and armor is just her style. The rickety boat draws a skeptical expression, but eventually a shrug, and she ofers, "Good afternoon," to the other adventurers. She nods about being ready.

    Wisteria leans on her friend, the tall albino human smiling "I duno about that, but I have a new curse to test and adventure is the best place to test them... or worst... or something." she shrugs "But friends and battle and new curses is always a good time."

"Adventurers. Setting up their own fighting Arena," Shenmi says. "I just have to see this. This would have been unthinkable in Kallamore... no, it still -is- unthinkable." There is a glint in his eyes, which- dies out when his gaze meets the rickety wooden bridge. He gives the 'structure' a couple tentative nudges with his polished black shoes. "I suppose we are not off to the greatest of starts." He looks up and around to the rest of the party. "But a start it is. One has to start somewhere."

     The rickety craft is boarded by all and soon they find themselves on their way! It was not to far in however, as they move closer to their destination the fog starts to thicken and they find themselves greeted by angry ghosts.

Katherine winces at the angry spirits and raises her hands, "Easy now, we mean none of you harm. Let us past and we shall be on our way." Her hands flickering a bit with magic, trying to use her magical arts to assist in calming them.

Vertina sways with the rocking motion of the craft. It's hard to tell if she is trying to keep her balance of match the movement of the waves. When the ghost pirates try to board she leers to one side to avoid an attack, but she she tries to counter strike she doesn't quite have the sea legs balance yet and her ki punch swings short.

    Wisteria gets her charts out "Hey from my previous trip we can avoid a lot of these guys." she says showing the better route to the captain.

Yeowang boards the craft and buries her skeptical expression as we get underway. The journey continues, and she watches the horizon as we travel, noting the appearance of the strange spirits' island as we get closer. The ghosts of old sailors past draw a frown, and she calls out, "Spirits, you have come to us, but we do not have what you seek. But you can find what you seek, but you must do this..." And she will spill a load of BS, but the ghosts seem to buy it, and the boat can continue.

"...and your card was the five of clubs, wasn't it?" The ghosts of the sailors don't speak, but those expressions might be read as, "How did you do that?" "Do it again." "There must be a trick." "OF COURSE there's a trick."

"Now, now, let me do it again...", Shenmi grins, as he shuffles the deck again in front of the small gaggle of sailor ghosts. A swift motion of his hand, and he fans the deck face-down in front of the sailors. "Now, pick a card, any card..."

One skeletal hand reaches forward, hesitant...

     With skills of conversation, failed attempts of murder, map showing, and card tricks. The group makes it to a destination, just not the destination they were aiming for.

Getting off the craft, they find themselves running into an old man who wants to Parley. He will show them the way, if they can impress him. So what is Katherine to do?

Use her womanly skills of coarse!

The imp begins to give the man a dance that is almost sensual, while the others do their part. This is her form of 'physical' negotiations.

Vertina comes prepared for situations like this. The man looks as starved as he does parched. So she pulls out a couple of yakitori skewers in one hand and a bottle of booze in the other. "I have your 'parlay' right here."

Yeowang joins the party ashore once everything is sorted out, and will follow along until we're stopped by the shabby man who wants a drink. Well, she doesn't drink liquor, as those who know her are aware, but she has deep pockets, and the sight of some gold, and some more gold, has the pirate's eyes locked, and she says, "I'm sure with a bit of cash, you can find as much liquor as you please." The pirate seems to agree, and she is permitted to pass unaccosted.

And while the others keep providing the Man of the Gone Rum with stimuli, Shenmi adds further confusion and distraction to the already confusing and distracting mass of people trying to interact with this individual. Confusion and misdirection meant, of course, to direct the 'audience' exactly where Shenmi wants it to look. Or go.

     The 'parley' works and what was that haze that Katherine put around that man and why when they walked away he seem to be talking to himself? Maybe it was the booze and all that jazz.

Either way, into the building they go! Which was a horrible maze, until it wasn't. Katherine made a bit of a face at the water. "Oh, why did it have to be swimming. Hmph!"

She moved her way to the water and with her magicks she dived into the water, but was she skinny dipping for that moment? Surely not! Though hard to tell with that magical energy about her.

Yeowang looks around, but it looks like we're going to have to brave the torrent. She dives in, and is zipped along almost instantly pulled from view. She's not skilled particularly at diving, but she's a very stong swimmer, and she bounces off the underwater obstacles and rides the rushing water to its destination. The water soaks through, she makes no effort to avoid the wet or water, swimming through the dark and on because there ought to be air at the other end.

This time Vertina doesn't hesitate before diving into the flooded passage. She tries to feel the current moving through the flow, tries to follow it through... but in the enclosed quarters the current is a lot stronger than what she's practiced on and it still tosses her around rather roughly the entire way through. But at least she succeeds at not drowning herself.

"This is a most undesiderable development," comments Shenmi as the room is submerged and currents drag them all over the place. Somehow, however, just as he's about to slam into a wall, he casts a counteracting jet of water that steers him away just in time. It's quite enjoyable to watch. After a few of these magical bounces, he begins to smirk. Is he considering incorporating this into a show routine?

    Wisteria has a history with water... and true to form sinks like a stone and then finds herself fully at the mercy of the currents and assistance from friends.

    Things didn't look good in the watery depths of the ruins. The team found themselves eventually swept away one way or another, crashing into sunken boats, wanting them to join them on their watery grave.

Kat wasn't having any of that, so the magus tried everything she could to escape the depths. This was not going to plan at all!

Slammed into a sunken ship deck is an understatement. But at least Vertina is able to grab onto some jutting planks to keep herself from being swept away farther in the current, and snag Wisteria before she's swept past. Fortunately keeping her focus under pressure (both figuratively and in this case physically) is something she has trained, and once she's able to brace herself long enough to cool her nerves and take in the situation, she gets a flash of insight. Wiggling around to get her legs properly under her and against the deck she squats, gives Wist a launch back into motion towards the air pockets she sensed, then kicks off the deck to follow herself thanks to phenominal leg strength and the so-so swimming skills she'd developed.

Shenmi seems to share in that insight, and he himself beckons for anyone who has not been snagged by Vertina to follow him. Some swimming and a bunch of HP bar depletion later, he heads in the general direction of what he believes to be safety.

    Wisteria is ... bad under water. It's really only thanks to Vertina that she keeps getting air. "Thanks." she offers to her friend smiling genuinely... the albino girl looking a bit bedragled and ... for someone so athletic it's clear that in neither world has the girl actually learned to swim.

Yeowang finds herself at the endpoint of the whirling water, but not out of the water. This was not how she expected things to go. She will follow the group, since they seem to have an idea of where to go. She follows, swimming with mighty strokes toward the sestination. There is a barrier, she sees closer to, but a mighty kick makes very short work of that, and the impediment no longer imedes our access to the air pocket.

    The team manages by grit and grim (and possibly saving Kat along the way), to find a means out of the water, only once in the cold ruins, are they greeted by a demonic crab!

Kat uses the power of her staff to bring to life done rumble in attempts to slam the creature, but given her exhausted state.. Others will fare far better!

Yeowang makes it to an underwater cave, finally! Panting for air, seeing spots for the rush of oxygen, she looks around. A cave, fine, but .... oh, what's that? A massive crab monster? Well, if it's a fight, then it's a fight, and she certainly won't back away from that. Moving in closely, her first punches and kicks are mostly deflected by the heavy armor, and she frowns. But heavy armor's not a problem, it just requires a different strategy, and while pincers dash in and out, she adopts a sort of philosophical stance, paying close attention to everything going by. It allows her to sidestep attacks with effortless ease, and her blows always connect with vulnerable places on the target. The damage from her punches and kicks now seems to be quite telling, and inasfar as can be determined, the crab seems unhappy with this.

Finally they get back onto dry land, and more importantly, to an actual fight. Vertina thrusts her fists in the air briefly. "About time!" And merrily into the fray she goes. Though it's not without some plan of action. Her movements are kind of like they were on the boat, swaying and staggering erratically. But on solid ground her unsteady footwork is much more under her own control, and she easily zig-zags around it's attempts to destroy her with it's big crab claws.

Only to apparently trip.

Except the 'trip' is entirely intentional, as Vertina throws herself into a couple of the mangrove crab's legs, knocking the creature off-balance as well so someone can find that sweet vulnerable spot.

Shenmi does attempt to take cover and hide, but the crab is too fast, too precise, too secure in its own domain. How dare these squishy non-crab creatures come disturb its eternal slumber! Or afternoon nap. Same thing. Pincers shoot at breakneck speed, and Shenmi is interrupted mid-technique, slammed against a wall, where he has another epiphany: given how low his HP got, he'll just hide behind that rock, thank you very much, until the rest of the party has done most of the work. He has no intention to respawn in the Palace Lands...

        Victory!!!

Everyone defeat the evil crab and helps further the freedom of the colosseum into adventure hands! Huzzah!

Sadly someone will need to carry the Lady Magus, Katherine Tanzer back, as she has fallen to the ground, apparently spending the last of her mana trying to help. Using up all your mana is a pain n' a half!

Time to celebrate!... Until Katherine collapses. "Shit, did it get her?!" She runs over, but it turns out it's only mana depletion rather than severe injury. "Oh, she just burned herself out." She digs an alchemy flask out. "I've got mana potions, but she kinda needs to be awake to drink one. We should get her somewhere safer."

    Wisteria... has hated this trip... so much swimming... so much water... so much worse than she rememebered. Now there's a monster, so screw that thing. The girl charges in, her sword slashing out in a flash of steel, biting into joints and then she's past before turning on her toes and charging in again, slash after slash and even the occasional stab into spaces in the shell. The tall girl working to break the monster down as she fights.

Yeowang has helped defeat the crab monster, and took almost no damage because of the technique she used. But not everyone was so lucky, it seems. She will look to the others, then grab one of Katherine's hands in hers, and pulls her across her shoulders, getting one under her ribs and lifting her bodily into a fireman's carry, weight balanced as she prepares to head out.

As soon as Vertina mentions that Katherine needs carrying, magically appears out of nowhere. A reverse Disappearing Act. "With your permission, my ladies, I would volunteer to carry our depleted friend to safety." He removes his hat, pulls out a bun-bun, and pointing at him with determination, he states, "You get a day off when this happens, Bao, okay?"

With Bao stuffed safely back into the hat, he raises one hand to walk towards Kat, but-

Well, seems like Yeowang already took care of that. Snap.