Duty Session 546: Totally Typical Tomb

The Secretarial Sylph is busy doing not very much at all, lounging at the outer limits of the abandoned graveyard. Her shield is slung onto her back, and her wand is stuck into her prim bun, casting a violet light over the mists which refuse to leave the fencing of the place of entombment.

Nevertheless, she gives a small, gloved wave to those others approaching, a small smile on her pleasantly pointed face, taking her moments to look at the nice, friendly area; and then the malevolent graveyard. From one to the other, amused by the stark contrast

There he is, the man, the legend, the west wind bri-- wrong universe! Soujiro Seta is a prominent member of the Aincrad Liberation front, donning reds and whites of the Blood Knight in his otherwise light hearted approach to adventure. That is to say: Do it. Often. Train train train. Tea. More fun. Sleep. When there was a call to action to go down in some tomb space? Thar he is, approaching a graveyard and giving a wave to the secretarial sylph that you do /not/ want to see do a glasses pull (or, more accurately, you do). "Ayame!" he greets warmly, "I'll switch to an offensive stance with you around. Im counting on you to tank it up." Hes a flexible samurai like that.

Meanwhile, Borywick (affectionately called DosBox), has failed to do his daily calisthenics today, and is rigid as a board, following behind at a little bit of a distance, "Y-you can count on me for support! Super Support is what I have been called before. Ah... Once." The nervousness is obvious in his voice as he is quite alert, looking for the best rock from which to hide and support his allies.

Ayame chuckles as she unslings the shield, and plucks the wand from her hair, twirling it in her fingers and sending shadows flickering around her as she beckons them in.

"Nice to meet you!" She offers to Borywick "Call me Ayame. Secretary to Lady Bombast, but frankly, if I don't get out at least every few weeks, I feel horribly antsy" She chuckles, her steps light and quick as she moves into the graveyard, taking point almost absently. "And of course" She tells the Samurai gracefully, bowing her head demurely "I'll try my best not to disappoint you" She assures. With a look over her half-moon spectacles that might be classed as 'judgemental'.

It is not long, though, before the trio hears the Dooting of the Flooting. Or the trumpet. Stood on guard outside the mausoleum, the Skeletal Trumpeter has long ago played his heart out, his liver out, and is doing his best to keep going. He could not carry a tune to save his life - but he's trying!

Departing from his normally shrill, anxious voice, Borywick Rockborer calls out in a deep, thunderous tone as arcane darkness wells up in his hands, "NIGHTMARE SPHERE!" The skeleton is wrapped in eldritch terror made visual as his bones begin to shake with fear.

Baby Shark doot doot... no! No shark! Trumpet skeleton. "Glad to have you aboard," he lets Bory know as he practices his 'long' game with the skeleton. That is to say he focuses on taking parts of the environment, like that thar tombstone, and he-yucks it at the skeleton. Environmental effects are fun! Crash! Is it effective? Questionable? Is it fun? No question. Especially when he takes a scattered skeletal bone to throw it like a hand axe at one of the other skeletons.

Ayame conjures a quick set of barriers with flicks of her wand; closely-knit script leaping into the air ahead of her to trap the sound of the Bony Boy with the Best Beats. It merrily continues to pipe away, even as a tombstone slams into it - the trumpet mangled, and turning to face the trio, before said Nightmare Sphere catches it. It quakes! It shivers! It ... falls apart in fright. Quite literally.

Ayame chuckles, trotting towards it and nudging it with her boot "Well, that was something" She says "Not a bad sound. Maybe we should encourage our friends to start a music group. There are enough of them who sing, after all" She chuckles, continuing past the mausoleum.

There, the remnants of a ritual circle - damaged, sparking and outright dangerous, suggest what might have caused all this!

"They appear to be enjoying their afterlife," Souji offers with a smile as they bid the undead farewell. "Its inspiring to think that our Song-focused friends can look forward to it," he says as he drums out a tune against a gate during the way forward. To. A. Ritual Circle.

"I'll keep a lookout on this one," the samurai says as this area screams 'puzzle'. Of the things he does, puzzles isn't one of them. He enjoys them! More Shiroe's thing. Guard mode, engage!

Borywick follows the arcane script of the circle and instantly finds the mistake, "Ah! I see what happened here! This sigil here means Mighty Mooks, not Mighty hero! Let me... just..." He takes out a tiny hammer, which glows at his touch, and with a tiny littly swing downward into the air, the circle begins to glow. With another tiny swing, the the glow of the sigil alters shape. With one more swing, the glow itself seems to alter the physical sigil underneath it. "Do you... Ah... Want me to try to activate the circle? It would prolly be pretty easy."

"I ... wouldn't recommend it" Ayame says after a moment. She prodded the circle with her wand, dragging magical squiggles from it and dangling them in mid-air. Then, running the wand around the rim of her round shield, runes light along the edges as the Sentinel Shelter awakes, and she purses her lips

"I'm not a fan of messing with magical circles generally" She explains with a shrug "But this one? Left half-finished in a graveyard? Not so much" She chuckles, moving to take her quick-stepping self to the front once more, nudging the doors open with a pencil-skirted hip and trotting downstairs.

The smell hits first. Rich, heavy, heavy, dank and sitting on the marble. Ayame's wand flickers, faltering as they descend into the tainted magic. And the moaning - it had been on the edge of hearing, but as they descended, the horror of the hundred-headed-hunk-of-undeath is shown, flailing in the room!

It is the smell that hits Soujiro first. A big ole frown on his pretty face. "This could go with an upgrade," the samurai says. Fighting a big mass of zombie flesh? Totally up his alley. Making the adventure fun and not stomach turning? More important. He draws out tea leaves from his inventory that have earthy, refreshing scents to them. First he gets a handful of those in the air and THEN he brings the fiiyaaahh in the form of a nearby torch infused with tea-goodness. So far the samurai has not drawn out either of his katanas, using the environment like he is going for some sort of achievement or TRAINING.

DosBox looks down on the quivering mass of abomination and fights back the urge to wretch. "We need to kill it with fire and squish it. Yes. Yes yes yes. That would be the best option. Like a really big, nature-defying bug." Borywick takes out his tiny hammer and, with a small tap on the wall, sends an emerald line of magic up to the ceiling. New cracks form in the ceiling, that same glow shining out. Finally, after waiting for the flames of Soujiro to connect, he strikes the wall gentling, sending down a cluster of rock from above in the most controlled manner possible for a massive cave-in.

Ayame joins in the fire - the sylph letting out a hiss of shock as her wings buzz frantically, leaning back before she digs her boots against the steps and leans out with the shield. Another run of her wand around the rim of the Shelter, and fire is disgorged from it.

Flamethrower. Nice.

The mass of flesh burns under the combined assaults. One remaining head, decayed and groaning, survived, charred and blackened - and then is promptly crushed under falling rocks.

"Not bad" Ayame nods back to the group, smiling faintly as she picks her way through the burnt mass. The reason for the knee-boots becomes clear, since it means she worries less for her footing as she pushes on.

Then ... a puzzle room. A black flame, atop a plinth with a brazier. And a strange voice

"Looking for a way out? There is but one. The way lies forward, beyond that door. There burns a fire no waters can douse. How will you fetch the key before the flames devour all the air in the room?"

Ayame looks irritable. Puzzles may not be her thing

Borywick looks as though the door has offended him. "Seriously? The hinges of the door are on THIS SIDE! All I have to do is MEH MEH MEH," He taps each hinge with his hammer gently, forcing out the pin which holds the hinge together, "And you could probably just PUSH the door to the GROUND."

This is one solution to all puzzles that applies universally. Soujiro steps up to the door that is barring their path and applies a graceful amount of force. That is to say he LUNKs his way through the situation with stronk arms and a bottomless reserve of athleticism to force the thing open. "Wouldn't be a crypt without a death trap or two," he says cheerfully as a hingless door is no match for SAMURAI ARMS. Katanas sold seperately.

Ayame is busy leaning on the door. This is entirely not her thing. Puzzles seem to bore the straight-laced secretary, who shakes her head as the others work their way through it, providing commentary that's not awfully cutting! "People who want to keep the hinges on this side, away from something on that. Which probably means we're facing something worse further in" She notes. A positive beacon of hope, Ayame.

As the hinges are tapped, and then the door flattens to the floor, Ayame stumbles - giving the two an amused, somewhat annoyed look, as she regains her footing "What, we're NOT going to suffocate in there?" She huffs "No fun at all!" She chuckles, continuing her advance.

The steps lead down to a single room, with an open coffin on a plinth, surrounded by flickering torches. Ayame's wand casts that glow, but all this means is the light strobes from white to violet as from the coffin emerges ... a pale, eerie, elegant ... gnome. A gnome. Really? The unwanted undead begins it's bouncing assault, leaping away from the party, to the opposing wall, clinging like a spider for a moment before launching an assault!

Rather than using one of his myriad of spells, rather than sending a support spell to steel his allies, rather than defending himself with magic, Borywick screams like a little girl at the sight of a REAL *$#!-Mothering vampire. He grabs one of the torches off the wall and HURLS IT AT THE DRACULA WITH ALL HIS MIGHT... which only goes half way to his target and lands on the ground with a soft clank.

Soujiro Seta draws into a lower stance once the boss has made itself known to the party. Hand on the hilt of one of his katanas. That draw stance looks strong and it is enough to give weight to the air around him. The darkness gives way to an aura of light. The charge up of an attack that a big bouncing vampire could evade if he is bouncy enough.

He is not.

Soujiro barely seems to move at all when he is seen on the other side of the vampire. Naught but a motion blurr that a blink of the eye could miss. Animation frames one would have to slow down to a fraction to see his vault forward in a slice when he draws out his blades. Both katanas are left extended as the samurai holds the pose before the damage is finally inflicted in scores. Soujiro Seta. Blood Knight of the Aincrad Liberation Front. Boss Slayer. Chick magnet. Cluck clucks every where are cheering.

Ayame, meanwhile, let cast a spell that coalesced light from the flickering glow around them; one, two, four, a hundred, a thousand points of light swirling as they latch onto the bisected boss, draining the beleaguered baddie of HP and restoring it to the party in gently pulsing waves of healing.

There's some irony here, as the vampire is bled to death, finally collapsing into a shard of polygons before the corpse fades out.

The Sylph sashays forward, smiling a little and poking through the remains "Mmm. That was interesting" She frowns a touch, picking up one of the fangs thoughtfully "This ... this has interesting attunements. What do you two think?"

DosBox clears his throat, hoping no one heard his less than hero-like actions just now, "Ah, yes, ah... While the fangs do look rather nice, on the whole, I would say that they.... SUCK? EH? EH?" DosBox waggles his eyebrows at the two of them as if to say, 'You see what I did there?'

Soujiro Seta gives Bory the honorary smile of popular guy at school that accepts everyone who they are. Including dem puns. His own fang vaporized upon pickup due to the Laws of Alba restricting the bind on pickup quota as stated in the Elder Tales EULA. It doesnt bother him. The adventure itself was the real treasure. "I think if anyone can find a creative use, it would be thoughtful," to Ayame, "and crafty," to Bory, "Adventurers and Craftsmen. Like those shark fang necklaces?" It is summer time, mah dudes and dudettes.

"I'm not sure, but I'm interested" Ayame muses. Dosbox gets a long-suffering look at the pun, and the sylph lifts her nose slightly. She is Not Engaging with Foolishness. She does sling her shield on her back and stick her wand in her hair, though, helpfully letting her examine it more closely "I'm sure there's some use for it. This is resonating nicely with my own interests" She explains, tucking it into the pocket of her shirt, before looking around.

"Well. I think we're done. Shall we head on up and out?"

Borywick wilts somewhat under the look delivered by Ayame; regret oozes from every pore as he sheepishly puts his fang in his pocket, spending some time gazing down at the floor, "Ah, yes. We should. The adventure is over, so we should most likely report to the Hunter's Guild, right?"

Soujiro Seta gives the thumbs up to that one with all the nonverbal nuance of a smile and heading outwards. "I'll tank on the way out," he lets them know so they can take it easy on the way back home. Plus he needs to get that tanking training in today!

"I suppose it was too much to hope for a fire crystal" Ayame sighs, nodding and following Seta to make her way back up and out with them "Do let me know if you find anywhere with one!" She chatters with a grin and shrug. She gives Borywick a faint grin and nod across "That's it. Not sure how many you need for the next rank, but it's a good habit to get in. Let's get you on and up!"