Duty Session 519: Fireball Solves Everything

A Lander from the Hunter's Guild is awaiting the adventurers at the end of a beaten path, where vegetation begins to reclaim a long forsaken area. After a bow to the assembled Adventurers, the Lander briefs them on their mission: "There are a number of abandoned temple-like structures dedicated to The Burning Goddess throughout the forests of the Eastal Free League. It is believed that at the heart of each of them lies a brazier carrying special Igneous Stones, rumored to be particularly apt at stabilizing flames. They are in high demand, and the Hunter's Guild offers rewards to anyone who can bring a few back." He hands the team a map to the nearest cture, and a map of the structure itself. "Good luck, noble Adventurers."

It was a pretty standard debriefing. There is no need to add 'if curt', because it is not that rare for Landers to get straight to the point and be done with it.

Shenmi is studying the (admittedly very rough and vague) map, with a slight frown. "Well, my fellow Adventurer," he addresses Schneider during his approach to the structure proper. "It would appear that we are mostly on our own right now"

Schneider has arrived at the place where the Hunters' Guild is assembling adventurers for this special mission. Schneider is here because now that the Palace Landers are gone, he needs someone to blow up while his Flight School is under construction. He nods about good luck, but tells the Lander, "No luck is involved. This is all skill."

He will look over the map with Shenmi, and agrees, "It looks that way. Shall we proceed, then?"

"Proceed we shall, indeed!", exclaims Shenmi, who, now able to see the destination, folds the map and slides into a pocket of his jacket.

The party finds a one-story circular structure built out of stone. Run down, smothered by plants and moss, it takes the Adventurers some time before they can free the main door from the vines. Still in place after all this time, wards made of wood and colored strings, etched with ancient script, protect the place against trespassers. Powerful enchantments.

Shenmi paces around the wards, studies them, rubs his goatee. He hunches over and squints, then take a couple of steps backwards, leans away, arms crossed, and finally turns to Schneider. "The Gordian knot approach?", he asks with a grin.

Schneider follows Shenmi to this odd structure, and he looks it over curiously. He adjusts his coat a bit and the breeze draws back his hair dramatically. Or /a/ breeze draws back his hair. When you're a wizard, breezes happen when you like. But the runes and wards and things pique his curiosity, and he seems to be putting his thinking cap on when Shenmi suggests an alternate solution.

"Of course," he says, extending one arm boldly and chanting, "Gunzenro!" There is a brief, but intense conflagration, and the problem is no longer a problem. Godrian Knot solution, indeed.

Shenmi begins to conjure some flames himself, but the sudden and unexpectedly potent conflagration erupting from Schneider's arm startles him, reducing his own attempt to a sputter of smoke. "...Well, I guess my contribution is redundant at this point," he grins, as if he meant to do it all along.

Shenmi pushes the charred, smoking door open, the hinges welcoming the Adventurers with a long creak. "After you," he bows.

Inside the building, it does not take long to discover a trap door leading down a musty stairwell. Torches flicker; long shadows are cast against the walls built out of uneven stones as the party descends a long flight of stairs. At the bottom lies a massive oaken door riddled with padlocks.

Shenmi rolls his hands up. "Hold my beverage of choice," he gloats, miming holding an imaginary glass and passing it to Schneider, while he wiggles the fingers of his other hand. "This is a job for the well-versed in the noble art of sleight of hand."

Schneider looks over as Shenmi seems in the process of doing something when his Gunzenro scorches the door, or what remains of it, and he will follow Shenmi inside, looking around curiously. Following down the stairwell, he smirks as Shenmi rushes to the door, and goes about his locksmithing thing. "That's quite a skill you have," he says earnestly. When Shenmi is finished and steps aside, Schneider says, "But let me show you another way." And there is an earth-shattering KABOOM and Schneider's Gunzenro spell again reduces the currently unlocked door to charcoal.

"I'll take this side," Shenmi decleares, approaching his half of thelocks. He holds his right hand up, and flips it twice: palm, back, palm. One blurry flick, and- is that a lockpick? Where'd it come from? He grins, moves his other hand up and down next to the original one, to attract the audience's attention, and then, twirl! He gets at it, lock after lock, with a quick, expert movement- disappear entierely? They don't just open, or fall to the ground. There's picking, a clacking sound, and among the flurry of Shenmi' shands... the locks are just gone. Like that.

He steps back and with a bow, gestures at the remaining half, as for saying, "All yours".

We already know how this ends.

As the Adventurers bring their light sources into the next room, a blood-chilling sight meets them: the walls and ceiling are covered in dire bats. They seem to be asleep, and that is a good thing: they are far too numerous to fight, so the adventurers' best bet is to sneak past them, possibly shrouded in a spell of Darkness. Or, you know, wipe the whole lot out with fire.

Schneider follows Shenmi through the smoldering portal to the next room, and looks around at all the bats. "That sure is a lot of bats," he remarks casually. He looks around, considers at some length, though it's not clear why because he plays the same card he's been playing: "Gunzeno!"

The fire bursts overhead, and the bats that don't disintegrate into pixels flap away on flaming wings, only to pixellate some rounds later as the D-o-T catches up with them.

"/Was/ a lot of bats," he corrects himself.

"One has to appreciate how favorable to Fire Artes this area, is" Shenmi comments, amaibly, as he throw his own flames around. "There are days when you just want to go out and throw a fireball or two, and, well, this is the life."

The Adventurers reach what, according to the map from the Hunters' Guild, is the antechamber to the inner sanctum. The smell of mildew is overpowering, the floor is littered with puddles, and the silence is broken only by the occasional drip of water. If, that is, we don't count the screech from the tangle of monster vines which has taken root in this room: vegetal tendrils attempt to grab at the Adventurers, too many for mere physical beating and slashing. The stench makes it hard to fight, so some aeration could come in handy. Perhaps one could concoct an impromptu weedkiller, or someone familiar with plants might be able to identify some weak spot of this species. Given the level of humidity in this room, fire looks like an unlikely solution, but that is certainly not going to stop some Adventurers from trying.

Yes, I'm looking at you, Schneider.

Schneider smiles and nods to Shenmi, and admits, "It's kind of a relief, to be honest. A lot of dungeons seem to be made half out of asbestos for the number of things Fire doesn't help with. I'm kind of glad this place is pretty normal." Normal compared to what is not explicitly stated.

The humidty and general dankness of the air indeed /imply/ to Schneider, and he glances back to Shenmi, that fire might not be the most efficient way to solve your problem. But he has a saying: 'If Fire can't solve your problem, you're not using enough of it.' Schneider, however, does seem to have enough.

He chants, "Kaizard, aruzard, kisk! Hansay Glossik! Unleash total destruction! Sage of Hades use the seven keys to open the gates of Hell!" Taking a deep breath, he intones, "HALLOWEEN!"

And that certainly seems to be enough fire. Perhaps only -just- enough, but the intense explosion seems to suck in the manky humidity and the green wood and everything else, and absolutely consumes it, leaving a cloud of heavy black smoke behind, and debris, but nothing larger than a coin.

"I agree about dungeons feeling like they're made of Asbestos. Especially the part where they seem actively bent on killing you," Shenmi jokes.

It doesn't take long for the Conjurer to guess what is going to happen, and he helps with the humidity in an indirect way: he extracts two packs of cards, crosses his arms, fans the decks open, and flings them in the air, directing the colorful swarm of flying rectangles with wide, sweeping gestures, like a conductor. Carefully controlling their trajectory, he directs as much humid air as possible into the previous cave: hopefully this will lower the bar for Schneider's.

And it seems like, it worked.

This is it, the inner sanctum. The central brazier is frozen over, as are torches all around the room. The room is bathed in a chilly blue tint. Some sort of tall, lanky, icicle-nosed creature with a perpetual grin has taken residence in the innermost chamber of the temple. He seems to be some sort of Snow or Ice Golem? Somehow he's wearing a straw hat, glittery shirt, carries a walking staff made of crystal, and rambles on about his skill in turning things into snow through simple skin contact, and how he refuses to acknowledge days whose temperature rises above a certain threshold. His attacks consist mainly of icy blasts and generating vortexes by spinning around. To make things harder, he's protected by a gang of minions that look a lot like him, only smaller. One can try to counter his elemental attacks with equivalent, or opposite, elemental techniques. To note that his cold-based powers make him especially resistant against fire.

Schneider hrms to Shenmi, he's not clear on how being made of asbestos makes a dungeon actively bent on killing him. "For me," he explains, "The monsters in a dungeon are usually a much greater problem than the dungeon itself." But Shenmi's effort in channelling away the humidity may have been essential in burning away the vines.

Proceeding on, he and Shenmi proceed into the inner sanctum, where Mister Cold Miser does his little dance with icy blasts and wintry spirits, and Schneider shrugs off-handedly. The phrase that comes to mind is .... but it's not important, is it.

Schneider chants, his voice dark and fell, "Deep Doomsday. To the spirits of land and air, bound by the pact, fulfill your obligation now." He points, he commands, "MEGADETH!"

There is a bolt of pure fire, as if the heart if a star was lancing out, and when it strikes the Ice Golem, it begins to crack and melt, the heat growing more intense rather than less as the moment lingers, the Ice Golem melting into a puddle of inert water.

Shenmi fights fire with fire -- or rather, Ice with Ice. His approach is more indirect, deflecting the attack meant for the party by controlling the element of Ice itself. A rather unorthodox way of tanking, but one that gets the job done.

The battle is long and difficult. Despite the chill gnawing at their bones, the Adventurers take care of the minions and move on the main boss; Blow after blow, which result sprays of ice and snow from the boss, the HP bar is chipped away, until the Snow Monster is melted.

"Well, looks like we did it!", grins Shenmi with his hands on his hips. "Good job, fellow Adventurer!", he congratulates Schneider, as he removes his hat, and flicks it upside-down to work as a container. "One... two...", he counts, as he plucks the Igneous Stones from the still frost-covered brazier and just plops them into his hat with a dull sound. "...Hm. There are so few that they will barely cover the mission quota for the Hunters' Guild... they weren't kidding when they said they were rare."

If anyone were to be concerned about Bao -- no need to! Right now, he peeks his twitching nose out from Shenmi's jacket, and looks around. His noggin is safe from having rocks dropped on top.

"...But these icy crystal shards," Shenmi comments, reaching out for the remaining fragments of the Ice Monster's stick lying broken on the ground, "...they might be useful for- OW!" Shenmi jerks his hand back, and shakes it. "It's -cold-," he complains, invoking a low-level fire spell to warm up the affected area.

Schneider fights ice with fire, and as everyone knows who's pumped propane into a freezer, fire beats ice. He just pours in more and more, it's like an unending torrent, until the floors run clear with ... water, actually, but its the fact that the icy minions are discorporating that's important.

He gives Shenmi a thumb's up, "Indeed, it looks like we won," he agrees, and will let Shenmi look through the loot. He's new to gaming, and he hasn't got the hang of it completely, even two years into the game.

He does note the rabbit, seeminly unharmed, puts in a cameo as Shenmi burns his fingers on the super-cold shards. He will prepare his inventory and plunk one straight in, sucking at the ice-burn his fingers suffer at even that short exposure.