Duty Session 548: Isle of the Terraformers

:leads the party with the minimum confidence necessary to move forward at a steady pace. As his third quest ever, second leading, he is a little nervous. Well, not as nervous as with the Vampire, though... the gnome pulls himself out of the headspace of past failures and leads the party up to the domed entryway... "I thought these were supposed to be ruins. Did I read the request wrong...? Aren't Ruins usually abandoned? Why is there so much steam?" Anxiety starts to build up slightly in the tiny gnome's chest.

Upon said entrance is a very large stone door, complete with magic locking mechanism. "I, ah... Could definitely try to work on the enchanting, but... Well, maybe someone who is more knowledgable should try instead?" He looks over at Haru with admiration in his eyes.

Yeowang has come to the Isle after some discussion on the chimlink and speculation about what else might be found here. Whatever the conditions and surroundings of the ruins may be, she tells Dosbox, "This isn't a very good simulation of reality. But if it doesn't meet your expectations, that simply means you weren't expecting what the game designers put here. But whatever the case, we must deal with what we find."

She will move forward and examine the door, and its carvings. "I see," she says, and will look more closely, and then explain.

Ayame was on one of the spurts of adventuring, and she had a vague hope about the Isle, chattering as she went "... well, ruins are usually abandoned by the original inhabitants, but that just means that others can move in" She chatters away, her steps quick, constrained by the fitted pencil skirt that nevertheless allows for smooth motion on the worked, albeit messy, floors of the ruins.

"I did tell you why I wanted this fire crystal, yes?" She asks them, mostly directed at Haru "The very last I need. Going to try to make a wand with all six elements in harmony. Just to see."

She looks unimpressed at the room, lifting her petite nose and peering through her half-moon spectacles "Honestly, people need to start leaving notes for when things are there to help" She chuckles "I wonder if I could leave advice for those who follow me, sometimes"

"Not wrong," Haru offers the gnome. The trip to the island south of Yamato did not sus out much conversation from him. He used his in-transit time to cover logistics for NWA. How much food is going into Shibuya. Restocking the HQ with paper. Three correspondances to the guilds that make up the alliance. One envoy to Carmina and Uruk. When he did get a break, he was spending it on the deck, watching the horizon or the sky to clear his mind. "The ruins should be abandoned," he continues on, "however they are not." A point gestures to the secretarial Sylph that has the right of it. "Machina left behind that are more of a hive mind. New monsters. Dungeons and ruins have a way of gathering inhabitants. The Hunters Guild thankfully keeps tracks for regularly 'cleaning'."

As the group begins to look around, the silver haired artificer looks towards Ayame and her mention of the crystal, "I look forward to seeing that design. That is a complex circuit. Less so for balance. More so for keeping them properly shielded and still safe. Otherwise you'll have an explosive wand and explosion wizards are going to want a copy." Haru looks to the gnome again, "Go ahead, I'll supervise. There is no amount of skill that won't trump luck and fortune. I've been here before." And on that note, he steps on one of the circuit, a line carved beneath the dirt, that deactivates the flow of mana. "And still it is like saying one knows every strand in a ball of yarn," he yare yares, fixing the break before helping Bory/Dos with his findings.

Dosbox smiles brightly as he bounces toward the door, "Yessir! Just watch me work! I'll show you what I can do!" He takes a couple seconds before reaching into his pack and producing a palm-sized gem. He channels some magic into the gem to make it glow before setting the gem against the lock of the door. The energies on the door brighten, and with a hiss, the seal on the door opens ever so slowly, "Heh! Just needed to make it THINK I had the right key, am I right?

With the stone door behind them, DosBox waddles forward, having to move doubletime in order to keep at a steady pace for everyone else. They follow the tunnel, passing several empty rooms along the way, when suddenly, a big metal sphere rolls out all 'Super Battle Droid' Style and transforms into a Mechanical Guardian.

DosBox begins to sweat a little. "I just want to remind everyone I am one of the squishy supports..."

Yeowang is a squishy person, but so when Dosbox encounters the big metal sphere, she will step forward. She's probably as squishy, in game terms, but she has a kick like a mule that means that her squishiness often does not come up. On the other hand, when big metal spheres can take a pretty brutal kick and not shatter, her squishiness is demonstrated. She loses HP fairly easily, not backing down or avoiding counterattacks when she should be in order to lay in more DPS. It is not super-effective. Somethings require more than just a simple kicking.

Ayame unslings her shield, looking ahead with a resigned sigh "Honestly" She murmurs, as she twirls her wand in her fingers and traces a rune, a shaft of light emerging from it before the Shielded Sylph slips in front of the party, methodically beginning to tank in a series of firm blocks and strikes with the glowing beam of energy from the wand

"It's just a hurtful stereotype" She murmurs, as the blows rain on her shield, boots digging into the floor "That tanks like to get in front of the fight" As she strikes back, not even mussing her hair

"And anyway" She calls back to the others "I have no intention of making anything useful to explosion wizards. You're dangerous enough, Haru" She says with a nod. Compliment? Maybe.

The super battle droid gets an appraise, literally, from Haru as he runs a finger along the silver lining of his monocle that covers his right eye. The purple lens is so thick that his eye behind is hidden. Purple half-sunglasses, yo. White text begins to scrawl across it. "Stay at ranged and you will be fine," he lets Bory/Dos know. "Yeowang is a skilled close combat fighter and Ayame's tanking skills are more than a match for this. A two in the front, two in the back formation is nominal," he informs. Normally this sort of thing is Shiruba's deal as an expeditionary leader in Silver Sword, but all leaders have field training.

The way Haru casts his Wave Artes is not through a staff or a wand. He has four golf ball sized orbs that float around him. The earthen one of green lights up as he channels into it, a quiet chant in psuedo-Latin before the ground pistons stealthlagmites at a forty five degree angle to pummel and push the beast back. "Is that a pun," Haru asks Ayame before stomping out another pillar of stone, "Hurtful. Tanks. Tanks getting hurt." He hums, another pillar pistoning out, "Though there are a few that are a little /too/ into it." Darkness, Im looking at you, where-ever you are. His focus returns, "Me? Im a crafter. Harmless." KA-DOOSH as a sharp pillar cronches through the guardian. Ignore that.

Dosbox watches as the three of them seem to be making short work of the machine when DosBox notices an opening...

"Earth Bump!"

DosBox causes the floor to raise 1 inch in a small mound, which unbalances the machine just enough for Ayame to knock it back, where Haru had prepared the final Earth Pillar to end all Earth Pillars. Well, to end the Guardian anyways.

The party moves from one danger to the next. Dosbox notes the pressure plates that line the hall (after he steps on one) that cause a series of blades to extend from the wall and start whirling around. Useful if you want to make ground meat. Not so much if you want to be alive. From amongst the blades, a dark creature rises from a crouching position and regards the group before rushing away down stairs beyond the traps.

"Uh... We should follow him, right? After we... take care of this." Dosbox gestures to the room sized blender with a nervous smile.

Yeowang looks through the blender, and at the escaping terraformer. How to proceed? She's at a loss. There's no room to pass, or any obvious way to disable the device. And we're losing ground by the moment. Finally, she says, "I suppose needs must," and dashes through the blades, hoping to limit her exposure to the whirling death, passing through at the cost of a lot of her HP bar. Not the best trade she's ever made, but a calculated risk. And she's through, if substantially worse for wear.

"I would never make puns" Ayame says with a deadpan tone, adjusting the set of the little half-moon spectacles on her petite nose "It would be just awful of me to slip them in while I arrange Lady Bombast's paperwork in an attempt to keep her engaged" There's a flatly amused look there, briefly, before she nudges the fallen machine and trots along, quick little steps, shield outstretched
... and goes right into that killing field. Blades fly! Spikes poke! Darts zoom! Ayame ... yelps, swatting shields into midair with her wand and scurrying on as fast as she can, even if she sustains a good quarter of her HP and a good amount of dull red lines across her exposed skin; which there's a little more of, following that assault.

Haru is of general mind that 'forward' is the correct direction. It involves traps. Traps are no fun. It is time to roll up those sleeves and get these noodly arms to work. "We should. I have to give the designer credit. It is a good placement of a trap with a guardian nearby," he says as he recalls something from Goldenblade and, in general, physics. The man with the monocle begins to collapse down the slits of the blade traps for the ones that come out from the walls and skirt along that path. "But she is not engaged anymore," Haru says to Ayame as he shuffle shuffle shuffles. Shibuya Shuffles. "She is married now."

DosBox and crew, with the power of teamwork, manage to step on every trap on the way. More than once, DosBox almost loses a limb. The gem attached to his hat is cleaved from the point, but he narrowly manages to re-acquire it. Still, the diving motion to save the gem does not save DosBox from diving down the stairwell. An almost comically long series of grunts and cries of pain follow as DosBox hits every step on the way down. With a final, "OOF!" Dosbox finally finds the floor. He emits a low groan as the rest of the party join him there

What the party has just entered is a vast open room, the walls hidden by foliage. Many creatures like the one before dart in and out of the forest; out of the blender and into the hornets' nest, I suppose...

Yeowang looks on at the huge room fill of plants and Terraformers. Not the ones we want, though, and no point in fighting them, not with the thrashing her HP bar has taken. She will duck down and pull up the hood of her coat and sneak forward, avoiding the enemies in this room, slipping forward undetected to the end. The Palace Landers have made hoods and headwear unfashionable in Yamato, but for tyhe moment, a dark hood is necessary to hide her mane of pale blonde hair, and she can slide the hood down when she has passed.

"Yes, I rather suppose I did fail in keeping her engaged. Goodness knows there isn't any linguistic ambiguity you're exploiting there" Ayame says with a little look to Haru, shaking her head a little as she twirls her wand in her fingers, a little violet light emerging that begins to slowly knit together the worst of the injuries. And to her flesh as well. Appearances are important to the refined sylph, trotting along.

Healing lights are a wonderful thing. They do rather mean you stand out like a sore thumb when stealth is called for, though! What might have called for stealth becomes instead, for her, a running battle through the caverns, as she slices barriers into existence, parrying, and near running as fast as she can to make it out and past! Oh well. At least she's a good distraction.

There is a time to fight, a time to sneak, and a time to sneak-fight. There is time for tea, yet it is not tea time. Haru is more of a coffee guy anyway. "Attempts to bleed our resources through a thousand cuts," says the Artificer who hasn't brought out any big Wave Artes yet. No need to! The pace doesnt call for it, unlike things like the Gnoll situation months ago where everyone had to be on their A game. He brings his D game. DARKNESS. Whatever you thought it was, he brings his Dark game, as the four ioun stones hover high above the group and keep them under a velvety blanket of black mist. The enemies that get close will be disoriented, making it easier to sneak around or dispatch the few that break through the enchantment. "Enchanters are exploitative in nature, no?" he asks Ayame, stopping to let a blind terraformer monster run past him blindly. Then he walks on while watching Ayame run ahead. Tank life.

Dosbox mutters some line from The Dark Knight about being born in darkness in a very Chunni manner. It's pretty cringe. That being said, the Gnome is able to obfuscate his party from the bad men with his shadow powers, cloaking their bodies and muffling their footfalls. Those shadows merge with Haru's making the four completely invisible.

Quickly and quietly leaving the lab behind, they enter into a large, natural cavern, where a massive machine seems to be moving earth, as if it were digging. "We should... Probably stop that, right...?" Dosbox asks, visibly sweating. As if to answer the question, the massive metal monstrosity turns to them with glowing red eyes, ready to destroy the four. "Uh... I guess we don't have a choice now, huh...?"

Yeowang smirks to Dosbox as he seems uncomfortable about facing the metal monstrosity. She, herself, steps forward as she did earlier, but this time with a measure of greater preparedness, and she steps toward it, then leaps, delivering a flying roundhouse kick that rings its bell pretty hard. As the fight continues, she maintains the aggressive pressure, delivering hard kicks, while concentrating on avoiding the counterattacks a bit better.

"I mean, stopping that would be a wonderful idea" Ayame agrees, continuing to step forwards and take point. It's the prerogative of tanks to get their faces kicked in at every opportunity, and still come out of it looking amazing. Ayame is definitely managing the first one until, as the thing draws a bladed arm back, she twirls her wand - a pretty stream of light emerging. Aww.

Wait, no. Those are bugs. Mechanical ones, in deference to the location

And now they're swarming the machine, while in turn lightly ticking up the health of the party. Ayame included. She looks smug, as she continues to send bursts of energy and fire against the monstrosity, drawing strength from the little bug-gears.

"You're an exploit" She accuses Haru blithely

Mecha sense is tingling. Mecha battle mode, engage! "It appears the terraformer is expanding the facility," Haru says as he pushes up his half-glasses on his face. The half Shiroe. "Some space, if you will," he says as he steps away from the fight and throws his hands up to direct the four stones above him. They all drop in a line as if metal pulled to a strong magnet, crunching into the earth. "Terra, your services are required once more," as his nearly full mana reserves take a healthy chunk out to pull out one of his two greater summons. Rocks whip back towards Haru and form thick legs. A torso with a gem core. Arms of diamond drills. Four meters tall before the Earth Elemental is fully summoned.

"Thank you, Ayame," he offers back as the stones that were once in the ground offer a staircase up to the top of Terra, where he stands in a captain's cockpit. "All exploits need vulnerabilities to exploit," he says as a finger runs along his monocle. The relic lights up, white semicircles rotating around the center. A steady stream of information floods his eye and causes the boss' key points to light up in a dull, aching red. He chants: "Terra. Magna. Fortis. Trabem. Conuenerunt. Tenebris. . . Annihilatio!"

A beam charges at the center gem as the drill arms split in half, spinning. His ioun stones drift towards the center of the charge, one high, one low, creating a circle around the core with the aid of the new arm configuration. The remaining two orbs float forward to aim, like a magical railgun. Target: Locked. And then the final word of the chant: Annihilatio.

A raw ray of mana, crackling to umbral light, rips forth to the critical hit zone of the boss with enough force to tear off several health bars.

Dosbox sends electricity through the ground and up the machine's legs, frying some of the electronic bits inside, but with Haru's... uh... exploit, Dosbox realizes such was unnecessary. There is a hole where the creatures middle once was. The arms fall uselessly to the ground as there is no longer anything connecting it to the rest. the legs remain freestanding, and the head hits the floor with a loud clang. The head starts to beep loudly, and shortly after a proper explosion erupts from within, though everyone managed to come clear of the blast before they were harmed... And what remains are the fire crystals Ayame had been looking for... "Oh. Uh... Grats, Ayame. Epic loot drop! Y-Yay!"

Overkilling the boss is always necessary! Have to send the right message to the other monsters. Not that they listen. Because that wouldnt be a fun dungeon run with an empty dungeon. "Nice, didn't have this one yet," Haru says as he collects his share. "Crystals are an Enchanter's best friend," he says as he then looks to Ayame, "and its a big day for you! Looks like a little exploitation was all you needed."

Ayame looks ... supremely satisfied. Even for her! The Smug Sylph scrabbles until she plucks out one of the glowing remnants of fire crystals, and she quickly picks one up, taking a box from inside her pack and setting it onto her shield, which is suddenly supported by a small, watery figure. Summoners, right?

She flips open the box, showing them off. The Air Elemental Shard. The Water Elemental Shard. The Earth Elemental Crystal. And now, the Fire Elemental Crystal. There are also a Necrotic Gem, and a Phase Crystal to the set, as she delicately sets the last in place, giving a happy, content sigh.

"That was excellent work" She nods, a satisfied tone, before she looks across to Haru, Yeowang, and Dosbox, her voice softening "Thank you" She says seriously. "Last one. I'll need to see about getting to work to get a wand made"

Yeowang smirks as she dusts herself off in the aftermath of the fight. There's no kill like overkill. But she smiles to Ayame as she seems to have gotten what she wants. Yeowang doesn't understand the drops most of the time, so just stashes them in inventory and forgets them. But she says to Ayame, "Glad you could find what you needed."

Dosbox blinks at the crystals, "I dunno... Those might look better in a gauntlet, to be honest." He takes his and puts it away in one of his many pockets. "I mean, grats on our victory over the Terrorformers.... Let's... Get out of here before the cave collapses...?" DosBox offers a healthy suggestion as he scurries back the way they came, where he will head to the surface, then to the hunter's guild, and then after, to the nearest alehouse.