Duty: Tome Raider

The old gates at the exterior of the garden surrounding the Library Tower creek a few times as Daiyu pulls it open with one hand. The other keeping her everpresent parasol resting upon her shoulder as usual. Gives her head a slight shake. "You would think someone would at least oil them by now. A shame this place has been left so long." But that is all the more reason for her to take a look inside, both for her efforts to learn more about Yamato and better understanding how the Adventurers here operate. "Once everyone has prepared we can proceed in."

Schneider is here, both as defacto Scale librarian and, well, he hasn't got much in the way of duties with everyone scrambling to help the Palace Lander Rebels' project. He hasn't been able to help so much with that, but he can help here, so here he is. "I'm ready," he declares to Daiyu, and looks out over the grounds as well.

As far as the disrepair goes, he says, "There's so much to do, and only so many players who care. So many have just given up. Last year, we met a village of players who had gone native and completely given up on going home, or even playing the game."

Shenmi is trailing behind Daiyu at a short distance. He's observing the structure, holding the lapels of his jacket, but saying little. "I think you'll like it inside. Or hate it." Silence. Slight headtilt, slight quirk of his eyebrow. "Possibly both."

He does however listen with interest to Schneider's narration. "You have? This is... interesting. Is this village somewhere in Yamato? Within the tower?"

"Perhaps someone will take over this place someday and restore it to its former glory." Carbon offers, from where he is sitting near the gate when Daiyu opens it and he hears that loud creaking. That'd make it impossible to sneak anywhere like that.

The archer rises up and moves to join the rest of the group, "What are they doing then?" He asks to Schneider, "Just sitting around wallowing?"

The Fourth Floor is, as all floors of Aincrad Tower are, ostensibly under the protection of the Scale Emblem Alliance. They won't claim to rule over the entire thing, of course- the many municipalities inhabiting the tower's floors are all independent, if linked by a common pact of economic cooperation centered on the great exchange on the Fifth.

Occasionally, they do ask for aid, and the Scale is eager to do what it can to assist them to speed their unceasing climb.

This is one such day. Prophylaxis has appeared alongside the others on this particular outing. He busies himself with loading a series of syringes into his gauntlet, but otherwise seems to be unconcerned about the challenge ahead.

The real reason he's here, of course, is to observe some of the Alliance's newest members. His attentions are focused on one fox in particular-- not that he doubts her loyalties, of course. He's just hardly had a chance to know her outside of the crown's manipulations. "I'm ready whenever you are. This shouldn't be as bad as the gnolls."

"Not everyone has the resiliance of mind and spirit to push on." Daiyu replies. "But yet, they have made their own effort to cope, even if it was in making no effort at all." She steps through the gates and starts down the main walkway. Some of the pathway has been cleared to make it easier for investigations to be made, but for the most part the gardens are left overgrown. Most likely having more interest at what may lie within. "Hopefully the interior will be in better shape."

As they approach the main doors it is easy to see the vines that have once more grown over them to hold the grate panels shut. "How obnoxious." She snaps open a warfan in one hand to cut through, but before she can the thorn-toothed heads of the botanical terrors binding shut the doors rise from the bushes. "Uh." Daiyu takes a step back, closing her parasol in the other hand. "This may take more than simply cutting through."

Schneider explains to Shenmi about the village he'd encoutered, "It's in Yamato, I honestly don't recall where, to be honest. Baroness Wake may recall, she was there also. The Palace Landers were raiding for supplies, and we stopped them, but the players wanted nothing to do with events, even after they'd been involved against their will by the Palace Landers. They'd gone completely native, even had kids."

To Carbon, he says, "They were farming, mainly. That's all most people do, at this economic level. Most Landers, anyhow. I dunno, maybe the Players think of farming as like a minigame?" Not that Schneider's player knows about Farmville or the multiple versions of Farming Simulator or the farming minigames in other MMOs, or the literally hundreds of faming games available to modern gamers. "Apparently it's something people want to do?" He can only shrug.

He nods at what Proph says, helping out inside the Tower is a Scale thing. He doesn't know Daiyu very well, but he kind of doesn't know -anyone- very well in this game. It's hard to get close to people in this strange environment. It's more about the adventure than the social, he guesses. "Coping, yes, I suppose," he agrees with Daiyu.

He follows Daiyu onto the grounds and spies the botanical barrier. This sort of thing is not much of an obstacle to the likes of self-styled Exploder Wizard Dark Schneider, and with a casual, "GUNZENRO!", he hurls flames into the foliage, which burns intensely for a few minutes, but when its done, leaves a tangled and unpassable mess of gnarled and twisted brambles.

"Plants don't remember they're weak to fire, do they?" Carbon wonders, as he draws back an arrow. At first he considers launching a flaming arrow into the middle of the thorny vines and teeth, but he instead changes his mind mid draw.

Instead his aim angles upwards, and he looses an arrow, which launches through the air before splitting into multiple spikes of rock and lancing downwards through the plants, trying to clear a path.

With raised eyebrows and his hands still holding his lapels, Shenmi sucks in his lips and looks down and away. "Yup, told you you'd hate it," he remarks, casually, at Daiyu's disapproval of the current state of the library.

He, once again, listens with interest to Schneider's story. "I can understand people cracking under pressure, to be fair," he remarks, in agreement with Daiyu, but doesn't dwelve deeper into it. "Still, that story is fascinating. Going native, starting families..." Silence. "And I'm impressed at how important farming is considered in this game, yes, just like in the real world."

Vines! He shifts to a more combat-ready position, and starts moving his hands to cast an incantation. "Time for a fireb- wait, no!"

Not fast enough. His hands are grabbed, immobilized, and he's unable to finish the spell.

A village where the people have gone utterly native? Prophylaxis hadn't heard of this one! Though he /has/ been somewhat preoccupied with making sure a certain statue was (over)built on time. "Mmn. Not sure how I feel about that, personally. I wonder how many times those people have died in this place? How many memories they've lost since they've come here...?"

The way is barred by a gnarled mess of vines. The good doctor tut-tuts, his fingers curling in an arcane gesture. As if on command (because it is), his gauntleted hand bursts into flame. When he touches it to the vines, that flame rapidly spreads through the tangle.

"A simple fire spirit conjuration," he explains. "Turns out, they rather like being offered kindling."

Daiyu puts her collapsed parasol away to draw her second warfan, and the edges of both ignite in flames. Fire alone wasn't enough to blast through the overgrowth, but she adds it to a sharp edge to help Carbon drive back the creatures while Prophylaxis burns the rest of the way through the scorched tangle created by Schnieder's spell. Then turns back to cut Shenmi free as well, tsking softly. "How many times have I told you monsters care not for your theatrics?"

The group can now continue inside. Daiyu's eyes almost immeadiately fall upon the tanuki statue, smirking a bit at the cultural aspect of it's presence. "A guardian that requires something other than a fight?" She gives one of the arms a nudge, which moves a little. "Ah. A collection mechanism. Interesting." Eyes quills lying in the basket, then the sake bottle hung from the other arm. "Mayhaps more offerings that monetary are possible."

Schneider nods grimly to Shenmi about the events. To Proph, he says, "I don't think they've died very much, to be honest. The Palace Landers were trying to keep the operation secret, so they couldn't risk sending them back to their Temples. Not sure apart from that, but they were certainly capable of dealing with the farm village-level threats they faced. They had good relationships with the local Landers."

Coming up to the entrance, he eyes the collection plate with quills in the basket, and hrms. Turns out he has a few, himself, and he will select the finest of them and place it in the basket. There is a pause, but it seems that it's sufficient.

Oh, it's this one again.

Prophylaxis regards the guardian of the tomes with an understanding nod. He digs around in his pockets for a not-so-small collection of coins before dumping them into the basket. "I don't mind if it's meant for preservation of rare books. If only we could clear this place out properly, I'd love to have a real look around to see what we can find."

"So, Daiyu," he asks, canting his head, "How are you feeling? Have our accomodations suited you well?"

"The ones who went native?", Shenmi says in response to the Doctor. "Probably not enough, if they still know themselves to be Adventurers, as I... seem to deduce from context?" A questioning glance is cast to Schneider, as if asking for confirmation.

"/I/ care about my theatrics!", Shenmi replies, pushing his hat lower on his forehead.

And as if for proving his point, he walks over to the Tanuki, shows the front, back, front of his hand, reaches behind the Tanuki's ear, pulls out a coin (one of the old timey long, elongated ones!), and drops it into the Tanuki's hands.

Which don't budge by an inch.

Carbon is trying to be slick, it seems, as he puts a coin down on one of the hands, and as soon as it moves down, but before it can drop the coin away, he tries to use a bit of sleight of hand to snatch the coin back, only to find his wrist grabbed by one of the other hands.

It refuses to let go until he deposits a second coin to the hand that was grabbing him, and he mutters something under his breath, rubbing his wrist as he walks away.

Daiyu picks up one of the quills, considers it. Then pulls out a parchment, which she writes out a short but elegant haiku on. "I have done well," she replies to Proph while doing so. "Assisting the project for the statue has kept me occupied." Places both in the basket. The combination is enough to trigger the mechanism and unlock the doors to allow the group past.

"Ah, now this is more like a library..." the moment of impressiveness quickly fades as she eyes one of the stacks of books so neatly organized. "... Even I am not that obsessed about precise placement." With a snort she turns to examine the directory, using the power of her Relic spectacles to read the faded writing. "We need to go farther up." She glances back at the book stacks. "We should hurry before whatever did -that- finds us."

Schneider probably maybe had not briefed the Alliance on that particular adventure with the village of players that had basically given up. It was with a very mixed inter-Alliance group, and the results hadn't seemed particularly noteworthy at the time. Which might be why the briefing is not buried somewhere in Scale's archived notes from various missions. "Not very much," he agrees with Shenmi. "After all, they Inspected as players, and recalled it, themselves. They just wanted to do that instead of the grind."

As for figuring out where to go, he will follow someone who seems to know where they're going, and step in all the traps they avoid.

"And I also did say that you would have liked it," Shenmi grins.

He then turns to Schneider, casually. "That sounds a lot like... what is it called..." Shenmi snaps his fingers a few times. "Yamato's New World Alliance, right? Are they affiliated with them?", he asks, with sincere interest and curiosity.

He nods at Daiyu's suggestion. He pulls out a deck of cards, which, with a sweeping motion of his hand, he spreads them to float in the air in front of him as if they were on a table. He picks a few, his hands hovering at a short distance from them, and slides them around this virtual vertical wall. Tap, tap, tap a few, and they flip around, front, back, front, each time they flip showing a card different from the one before.

After a bit, he nods, and with one last, wide, circular sweep of his arm, collects back the original deck. "That way!", he points, and heads exactly there.

"Mmm, then I guess it must be the same kind of state of mind that drives so many members of the New World," Prophylaxis surmises, "But yes. If they have not died enough to lose their status as Adventurers, chances are that they still remember the old world. Maybe the memories that remain are simply... unpleasant ones? Or maybe they've found a better life here, otherwise?"

The doctor shrugs. For all those who /aren't/ in that boat, there is the Scale Emblem.

"Oh, good. I'm glad to hear," he answers Daiyu, propping open a book as the others chart a course through the maze of tomes. "Have you had a chance to visit the library in Tolbana yet? I daresay we're quite a bit more organized than... all this."

It seems he's leaving the others to find the way forward. Prophylaxis knows when his talents don't necessarily apply!

The feline were fang looks at the maze of books, and the stacks blocking paths, and quickly picks out a good way out. Although he's not going to solve this like any normal maze. No, he vanishes back into the shadows, and quickly starts to climb, scaling one of the shelves and scrambling along the tops of them where he can find room.

His path rejoins the group a couple of times, which gets a mild grunt out of him before, on the third time, he just opts to stick with the group.

"Possibly because the one in Tolbana is actually maintained. Seems like someone needs to clear this place out and clean it up."

Shenmi reads the cards and points out the way. As the group winds through the maze of books and shelves some ominous moaning can be heard. As much as her ears twitch and turn Daiyu can't determine where it's coming from, and that concerns her. So she conjures some illusionary mist to conceal the party's movements until the finally find the stairway winding up to the higher levels. It has not taken long for the pair to readjust to working together it seems.

Once they are one the way up she replies to Prophylaxis "I have, Doctor. As well as the Libraries in Eas and Shibuya. I am pleased efforts are being made to document and preserve such sources of knowledge..." She trails off, ears perking up again. This time at the buzzing descending the stairs towards them. "Really?" she asks of no one in particular. As the swarm of bees come into view their buzzing gets more obnoxious and distracting, almost like the spelling out of words being distorted by static. Spelling bees.

Daiyu groans, ears splaying back. "As an author I am both amused and distressed by this play on terminology..."

Schneider shakes his head about NWA. "It's not the same, really. Or it's a more extreme version, maybe? It's not just not wanting change, they don't want to do /anything/. They don't take risks, they don't do quests, nothing. It's like they've given up. At least NWA inter ... acts with the game world." He doesn't quite say 'interferes'. He obviously left them well enough alone, and they have not come to the attention of anyone else since then, so they're either alone in that opinion, or everyone else has done an even better job at remaining low-key.

He grumbles and says, "Tolbana had better be in better shape than this." He's the Librarian there. At the onslaught of spelling bees, he will attempt a magic shield, but magic shields protect against the slings and arrows, and fireballs, of outrageous fortune. They don't protect against bees so much, to Schneider's discomfort. "Ow, ow. Ow!"

"Hmm, true. They do still adventure. At the very least, they are not content to simply take what the world gives them for granted. If it weren't for them, the quarantine would likely not have gone down so soon." For better or for worse. "But regardless, I'm glad you've found our library to your liking. Have you tried the bathhouse yet? It's quite--"

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

"Hrmph," the doctor scoffs. He lifts a hand, a wall of crystalline flame whirling to life in the party's defense. A full third of the Spelling Bee swarm slams into it and sizzles to death in a chorus of hiss-pops, like bugs flying directly into a zapper. "Rude."

Carbon's perfect for fighting these Bees, as he's already predisposed to keep his distance. So he moved as soon as the attacks began, staying far enough away to avoid the worst of the buzzing effects, and looking for groups of them.

He fires a broadhead arrow into a cluster of the bees, the force behind the shot causing a whirlwind effect that pulls the bees with it into the wall, causing them to burst into pixels, "Keep moving, don't get bogged down fighting too many of them!"

Shenmi is all business at this point: firecrackers (as in, there's fire and there's cracking), a mixture of fire, air, and light magic. It may seem like sheer chaos, but it's actually timed to confused the bees' senses. A low key sophisticated defense, which combines Animal Handling, Light, Fire, Air, and Song.

But to the uninitiated, it's just a lot of flash and bang... that happens to work.

"Quick, into the next room!", he urges.

For her part Daiyu pulls out one of her alchemical vials and throws it into the swarm of bees where it bursts into a cloud of thick smoke. It has the same effect as a beekeeper using smoke to clear bees from a hive, making them disoriented. Which is farther escalated by Shenmi putting his showmanship to something more useful. A few manage to get after Schnieder, but most of them are too confused and either fly into the flame barrier or are blown away literally by Carbon's shot. The stairs are clear for the Party to hustle up to the next floor before more bees come to bug them.

"This floor appears to be more organized," Daiyu remarks as she steps out onto the floor, though after the previous encounters her steps are cautious. Not that it stops her from picking up one of the books and opening it. Then another falls at her feet. She looks down. Then looks up, just in time to swat another one flying at her with a tail. Which bumps against a shelf. And several more books burst free, flapping their covers like wings or tumbling across the floor. "Ah, spellbound by Binders. This is the sort of monster I would of anticipated!"

Schneider is luckily saved from bees as the party drives them off. He continues on, climbing stairs and in the shelves is beset by the attacking tomes. But he chants quietly, something about smoke on the water, and fades from view. For the technically minded or those with keen eyesight, he's simply redrawn the room without him in it, as invisibility is a much higher level spell, but when he remains still, there's almost no difference. This gives him ample opportunity to observe each book, check the frontispiece, review the table of contents, and file it appropriately.

Now these books aren't at fault for being posessed by Binders, so Carbon knows it's not the right thing to do. So he turns to a trick that Shiruba taught him, taking a pair of arrows coated with pitch.

He dips the arrows into the purple flames of a torch around the edge of the room, and with the arrows burning with the mystical purple flame, he unleashes the shots into the books, the mystical flame driving the binder out of the book. Then he needs to quickly put the book out before it burns.

What Shenmi does is more like indirect corralling: he does shoot bursts of flames, narrow, carefully focused (and timed), so that there is one (and only one) obvious way to dodge it. Which the Binders, of course, will take... in such a way they're directed -exactly where he wants them. Likely, towards a different member of the party, who can then proceed to process them in a more proper way.

There are a handful of benefits to having some manner of doctorate. Chief among them is the ability to read scientific literature without your brain literally leaking out through your eyeballs. Prophylaxis isn't actually out of practice in this regard; he has, after all, been responsible for many medical breakthroughs throughout Yamato.

And so when a Binder tries to shove its forbidden knowledge directly into his eyeballs, he just... snatches it out of the air and begins flipping casually through the pages.

The book writhes as he does so. It seems... Flabbergasted? Violated!?

Daiyu attempts to cast a spell to disperse the spirits posessing the books.... but it's a grim reminder that her magic isn't as powerful as it was when she had the Crown as some of the Binders are momentarily stunned, but it doesn't stop them for very long. Fortunately the rest of the Party is more than capable, using flame to drive the book monsters back and coral them away from the path, while Schnieder and Prophylaxis are more successful at disabling the forces animating. "Quickly, the stairs to the final floor!" Up they go, one more level.

The final floor is a bit more depressing, having gone long unused. Daiyu frowns, brushing her fingertips over the dusty work station. "A shame. Passages lost to the passage of time."

There's a drip. A plop. Then several more as black ichor drips from above, dribbling down the workstation as she backs away and pooling on the floor. It sloshes around, several writing utensils caught up in the flow, to where they become the jagged teeth as the blob of ink swells up to proper size and emits a gurgling snarl.

"Disgusting." Daiyu pulls up her parasol, and draws the sword hidden within it. "This corruption shall be dispelled." She slices a inky tendril that reaches for her, but then it just oozes back into the mass. "... That is going to be a problem..." She channeled swirls of water around the sword and got back into the fight, hoping it would help delute the creature's viscous body.

Schneider had, it seems, misremembered the requirement for librarianship here. This isn't a challenge his scriptural expertise can best. On the other hand, there's always violence. That seems to work just fine on most monsters, and so he will try a little bit on this one.

"Deep Doomsday. To the spirits of land and air, bound by the pact, fulfill your obligation now." It's not clear what spirits he's commanding, exactly, but when he invokes the final word, "MEGADETH!" these spirits come out and play hell with the inkblob. The fireburst burns intensely, boiling the liquid bits, and vaporizing anything that was once solid inside the monster. It's a wonder it doesn't blow the walls and windows out, but that's down to Schneider's power and mastery of the intense spell, contained by his willpower and whatever dark forces he commands. Spirits of land and air, maybe, but it's fire that happens to this blob. So much fire. Oh man, so much fire.

Mages like Schneider are the reason that Carbon loves his backline position. Moving to avoid strikes by the blob creature, dipping in and out of stealth in order to drop any potential aggro.

The water use by Daiyu gets him to do the same, focusing physical artes into his arrows to deal water elemental damage, washing away the ink instead of his arrows going straight through like they would have without that extra oomph.

"Ah, I remember you," Prophylaxis says of the terrible Ink Slime. He wonders briefly if Uta would choose to try to adopt the thing rather than destroy it. But she's not here, and it's not giving them very much choice. "Right, last time I was here, I defeated this thing with paint thinner. No such luck today, I'm afraid. Instead..."

The air chills. Prophylaxis takes in a breath as a thin coat of rime coats his skin. With a single step, he sends a crackling, ice-blue chasm of bittermost cold racing towards the inky blob. On contact, it flash-freezes, rendering it solid and vulnerable for everything that is to come.

Including, for instance, shattering into a bajillion pieces upon being superheated by Schneider's spell. That'll do.

Long streaks of ink shoot out towards Shenmi, like cursed murder spaghetti. The Conjurer's eyes glint with intensity. "By the Symbol of one of the Most Renown Gambling Establishments in Lumina Cloth, Begone!", he exclaims.

He stands on one leg, twists his back and neck in what is as close to an S shape as it is for a human, and-

WOOSH! An aura of flames bursts into existence around him, in the shape of a bird-shaped lawn ornament.

"FLAMINGO KALLAMORE!", he exclaims, and the shape flows forward, to burn all the tendrils that had the misfortune to lunge that way.

The assault of water and ice Artes is enough to destablize the giant ink blob's composition, allowing the magic and magic cards launched at it to burn their way through it's health. All while dodging inky tentacle whips and chomping oozy jobs. But the thing is steadily whittled away, until the last few strands of it ooze down between the boards, leaving the writing utensiles it had consumed behind.

"That was... interesting." Daiyu sheathes her sword. "And I must admit, rather exciting." She walks over and stoops down to pick up one of the books, frowning as she finds its pages empty. "That thing has been feasting on the ink. A shame." The book is discarded, and she picks up one of the discarded impliments. "I guess these shall do for a prize. Shall we be on our way out?"

Schneider stands amid the carnage of the aftermath of the battle, such as it is, and will use his Library-based skills to help Daiyu to sort through the detritus. "It's a thing that's important," he agrees with Daiyu. "And we can come back at our leisure and sort through the remaining books downstairs."

"You loved it, and you hated it. Of course you were going to find it exciting," Shenmi comments with some moderate amount of laughter. "Glad that I still remember your taste. Been out of practice for a while." He cracks his knuckles, "Gotta get back into the swing of things. And yes. Let's be on our way out. And go celebrate this in a fine dining establishment. Or just dining. I'm famished."

"Yeah, we'd best clear out, before something else decides to pop up and try to make us leave." Carbon replies to Daiyu, "And some food does sound great, especially if you're buying." Carbon jokes to Shenmi, with a bit of a laugh.

"Ah, how many years of knowledge have been consumed by this creature...?" Prophylaxis asks, rhetorically, waxing poetic for a brief moment. But then his attention turns to the practical. "Well, it'd be a shame to waste so much ink. Especially magical ink. Collect what you can, all, and let's be off to Tolbana for a soak in the baths!"

Nothing like baths to wash off any lingering inkstains...!

Shenmi grins at Carbon. "Me? Buying?" He reaches into his jacket. "How about..." A deck of card appears, and, holding it in a proper mechanic grip, he begins shuffling. "...we make this a bit more interesting and let a little game decide who's buying? Hm?"

"Seems fair." Carbon says, knowing full well it's probably not. After all if he was doing it, it wouldn't be, "What's your pick?" He inquires, moving closer to try to get a better look at the deck.

This particular deck seems to be of a uniquely exquisite quality, but otherwise, it does not seem to bear any particular markings or anything like that. He places the deck on the closest surface, and spreads it out, all cards facing down, the back to the observer. "I don't know... nothing too fancy, I'd suggest. Highest card?" He offers.

Daiyu just smirks a bit at Shenmi. It's nice to see that much of him hasn't changed.... as annoying as the mannerism can be at times.

"Highest card sounds perfect." Carbon replies, as he takes a look at the deck one last time, before he reaches a hand up and takes the top card off the deck. He doesn't turn it over until Shenmi draws his own.

Shenmi proceeds to draw his own. "Ready? On the count of three. One, two, and..." as he says "three", the card is flipped.

It's a nine of diamonds.

Carbon turns his card over at that three, and his shows a picture of a woman.

Queen of Hearts.

"Looks like dinner is on you after all."

Daiyu can be heard snickering in the back, trying to hide her smirk behind one of her fans.

Shenmi looks down. Looks up. Looks down. Up. "Oooooooooooh," he says, with a knowing smile. "I seeeee...."

Looks like some -Lander- will have to pay for this eventually... some Lander who will find his pocket a little lighter.