Duty Session 553: Slime Machine

The glow of fire casts flickering shapes on the rocky walls; a section of wall previously immersed in sheer darkness now begins to glow with a warm yellow -orangish tinge, as a flame is drawn closer to it. Strange symbols appear.

The camera pans, slowly, rotating to show what's on the opposite side; on its way there, it briefly shows the corridor that leads to this place, the shape of a stone arch, rectangular, and keeps moving until it finally settles on Shenmi's face, equally lit by the magical flame he's holding aloft, levitating just above his hand.

"Ancient writing." Old Gnomish, for those who know. Shenmi is not the Scriptural type, so he doesn't know. "It looks old," is all he can offer. His head turns to look at the camera, which, well, actually means looking further down the corridor. "Seems like we're on the right path. Our exploration shall continue that way," he declares, and the pattern of lights and shadows shifts all over as the flame-holding hand is swept to indicate the direction.

Fortunately just behind Shenmi is a more scriptural type, adjusting her spectacles with one hand as she reads over his shoulder. "Old Gnomish," she confirms the unspoken exposition. "But no indication of what the location was initially intended for." Par for the course for such dungeoneering. Vulpine tails flick a bit behind Daiyu, as she politely doesn't spoil Shenmi's ethusiasm by pointing out there really isn't many options on which direction to go save in, and out. She just wants to enjoy being in action together again.

Yeowang has joined Shenmi from the direction of civilization, such as it is in this game. Yeowang is an urbanite by inclination, but also a perfectionist and if the game requires runs into places like this, then she will go. She is, after over two years in the game, accustomed to the privations of living in the wild, and duties, and doesn't complain, though her camping kit is decidedly upscale comnpared to most adventurers.

She will offer a quiet, "Hello," of greeting as she inspects Shenmi and Daiyu. She's not sure of the etiquette surrouding inspecting of players, but she inspects everyone she doesn't know. What she learns from it is questionable, but her game mechanical skills have been called into question before, and she will admit that the game confuses her badly sometimes. Like why is a place like this here at all.

On the other hand, her martial arts skills are one hundred percent authentic and she fights like the champion she is, or was, since she hasn't been around to defend her titles.

She will come over and peer at the ancient writing, because sometimes it resolves itself into readable words. She's not even clear on why, but perhaps because she does know several languages, the game is just slow to render it in one she can read? "Old Gnomish?" she asks. She was behind the door when Lore was handed out. Or possibly down the hall in the gym.

That's what Shenmi is all about, after all. He may be pointing out the obvious, but dang is he doing it with -style-.

"Well, that's why we're here for, isn't it?" Shenmi asks with a grin, as he looks over his shoulder to Daiyu. "Finding out more about the place. Knowledge seems to be valued over at the Hunters' Guild," he continues, returning to look ahead of him while the party's steps echo through the corridors. "Or, well, at least valued by whoever commissions these quests through the Hunters' Guilds. They're pretty much a glorified temp agency, after all."

"Why, greetings, Lady Yeowang!", Shenmi replies to Yeowang's simple 'Hello', enthusiastically, with a tip of his hat. "Please feel free to join us. We're going to solve some ancient mysteries and maybe recover artifacts; and if that is not the kind of things that tickles your fancy, we can trade some of that in for some sweet sweet currency." He grins. "I know -that- tickles -my- fancy..."

Entering into The Fallen Rocks of the dungeon, the party will come across a place that looks plain, though there are a few pipes that seem to extend into the walls all throughout it. The only way forward looks like a fallen rock slide, and the only way out will be mining it out, whether by skill or magic. Though perhaps one might find an alternative route, if they were to look between the many fallen rocks.

Yeowang is, perhaps, known as a financier, but it is not a major motivation. Just a skillset. And an enabler, since she always has good clothes and good food, even in the hardest times. She -is- a bit of a princess, if one not averse to hard work when it must be done. She smiles at Shenmi's greeting, and nods about solving mysteries. Artifacts she can take or leave, but coins are an asset and... well, here, artifacts /are/ a kind of asset, if one she isn't quite sure how to manage. /Solving/ the mysteries is not really her thing, she tends to punch mysteries in the face.

Take the fallen rocks. Not a great mystery, but she can carry rocks away from the rockslide area to clear a path. This is not a hard thing, mentally -or- physically, and she puts her back into it to make it happen.

Daiyu simply gives a nod in greeting to Yeowang. Her composure is focused as usual. Other than a brief eye roll as Shenmi provides more than enough flash for both of them. Though this is entirely why he's the showman and she was just the lovely assistant.

Proceeding farther, the pipes immeadiately catch her attention. They are a bit of an anachronism, but that isn't uncommon when it comes to ancient Gnomish or Alve locations she has learned. She has also learned that it is rare that they are 'decoration'. They serve a purpose.

An ear flicks, likely trying to listen to the contents of a pipe and which direction it may be moving. Then fox woman lowers the parasol from her shoulder to close it, then point in a direction. "The pipes flow in that direction, behind--" Yeowang is already moving the rocks. "--the stones, yes."

"Say no more, Daiyu!", Shenmi smirks. He got this.

Hard work, by the book, so dependable it barely attracts attention to itself and gets results.

This is so not Shenmi's style.

His approach to the fallen rocks, of course, is to walk a bit left, right, study their relative position; and once Yeowang has removed a particular stone that seemed to trouble him, he grins, walk off to a side (but still close to a boulder), straightens his posture, and with a flourish of his hand, declares, "Ladies and Gen-" Silence. "Ladies!", he reprises, as if nothing happened. "Back in Lumina Cloth, they callled me the Pool Shark. And that was not because of me biting onto swimmers outside the casino!" Grin.

A flick of his hand, and a magically evoked long, thin spike of rock shoots out from a nearby wall, to hit a boulder; there is a chain reaction, and like pool balls, the boulders clatter around, hitting no-one, luckily; and once he's done, there is an opening. He turns to Yeowang, and bows. "Thank you so much for so beautifully setting up the playing field properly. I could never have done it without you."

As the party walks to the next area away from the fallen rocks, they are greeted with a scale that takes up the middle of the place. Old pipes seem to be broken, that were once part of the machinery. Upon investigation, it is clear that these scales are meant to be filled with water to balance them, but with the old mechanism broken, they will need to use their own physical ability to maneuver the dial that opens the stone and metal door to the next area.

Yeowang nods as Daiyu confirms her choice of directions, and looks impressed as Shenmi completes the rock-shifting like a pool shot. "Very well done," she tells him, and she will follow onward to see what challenges will come next. Some kind of scale? "This will require some teamwork," she says, and will be the part of the team that undertakes the physically challenging bit. Because, though her build doesn't show it, she's quite butch, hard daily training and heavy calisthenics have left her with a quite-capable physique and imoressive stats, easily able to perform the physical manipulation necessary to get this device to work correctly.

"Of course the skills you've kept sharpest are the ones you can wager one," Daiyu remarks to Shenmi with a faint hint of what could be a teasing tone in her voice as she steps past him to investigate the next room. Now that they were under way her curiousity was kicking in more. For much the same reason as these jobs being done: Knowledge. That and experience are two of the best resources an Adventurer can have.

Ears flick erect once more, drawing Daiyu's gaze upward to the broken pipes. "Mmmm. You two check the scales." And with that she takes a bounding leap up the remains of mechanisms.

Remember, foxes are the only canid that can naturally climb. Though this is clearly more a parkour stunt than strictly climbing, but it counts.

Eventually Daiyu nimbly perches near one of the broken pipes. Notices another one is only a trickle. "Ah. Blockage from the damage." She grips the bottom of her parasol's shaft to unsheat the sword concealed in it, which she leans over and shoves into the pipe. Twists it around a bit, then pulls it out. Flakes of rush and grime follow, then a larger splurge of water.

"My dear, knowing how to make a cue ball dance -is- a valuable skill in this world. If your resume gets rejected? Make sure to pad it with some billiards certification. Never fails," he smirks at Daiyu.

"Definitely," Shenmi confirms to Yeowang. Head tilted up, he's already stroking his goatee as his other finger is following the ducts. "I know a little about irrigation systems. And I think that with a little elemental help, we might be able to drain just enough water to..."

"...if not outright -activate- the device, at least make it -possible- to open it with some hard work on the valve." He gestures. "It'll still be a lot of work."

Shenmi then shoots one hand up and forward, balling the other in a fist at a short distance from his waist; intense look, and a long, thin, blue-white flame shoots up, looking like a welding torch of sorts; not the work of a master crafter, but enough to get the job done: some large pipes give, some of the collected water pours out, and goes fill different basins; mechanisms are shifted. "...Dang it, that's not what it's supposed to be like. We're short on water. Is it clogged?", Shenmi comments. "We'll never-"

GUSH.

Shenmi turns, to see Daiyu up there, having liberated this critical pipe. He smiles, doffs his hat, and bows in silent acknowledgement and gratitude.

At this point he does look satisfied with the hydraulic readjustment, and luckily, Yeowang -is- buffer than she looks: with effort, the door is eventually opened, and the party can press on.

And it is after the scales that it becomes clear why this place was claimed to be filled with slimes. The ground is covered in oil slimes, the walls seem to be covered in the thick material, and it's difficult to tell what this place used to be. It's no secret to the party, if they want to make it beyond the next door, they will need to clear away the slimes or capture them.

The question is, can the party manage to corral the slimes, and take care of them at one time? Old scorch marks from a fire a long time ago mark indents along the floor that could be set alight if they were to gather the monsters there.

Yeowang smirks as Daiyu offers backhanded praise to Shenmi. But her expertise at the water-device is clear, and impressive. She smirks as Shenmi mentions padding his resume. "I don't have that requirement, at least," she says, though she doesn't seem entirely happy with that idea. But the slimes we find as we move on are a problem she can deal with.

Yeowang deals with them by kicking them hard. Not to death, but when they're lower on HP, then they're easier to capture and a bit more docile. It's not unlike the heavy bag work she's done, except if you're too slow, the slimes will eat you. She is not too slow.

Daiyu returns the sword to it's hidden sheath and makes her way back down. "While there was little doubt our athletic friend could move the device, it was still necessary to ensure it would balance in that position once there," she explains. "Though it is likely over time more flith from neglect will clog the pipe again. After we've completed and departed."

On to the next room. And they finally come upon the slimes mentioned in the quest title. And scorch marks. That's enough to catch the attention of one familiar with elements.

Daiyu flicks open one of her warfans, and makes a grand (for her) gesture of striking it across the ground to create several sparks and ignite the edge of the weapon in flame. "We don't need to defeat them all, just to clear a pa--" she stops as one of the slimes spits at her, dousing the flames on her fan. "--That was unexpected."

"You call that a -flame-?"

It's Shenmi's turn to tease. "Tsk-tsk. We need to work on your Elemental skills. You couldn't set an oil slime on fire." It's obviously all in good fun. Nobody could honestly expect an oil slime to somehow be able to douse a flame. Kudos to the little blob.

Grand gesture involving a rotation of his arms in front of him. "But enough dilly-dallying. It's SHOWTIME!"

He stands on one foot and raises his arms, in a position similar to the crane kick, except he also manages to bend his neck in a funny way. "The symbol of the most Iconic Casino in the Palace Lands: the FLAMINGO KALLAMORE!"

WOOSH. He bursts into flames, flames that surround him to form the shape of the iconic bird, in a burning shell; and the flames shoot all around the area, catching the oily trails of the slimes on fire, and forcing them to be corralled in a very specific corner. The corner where Yeowang already was. "Up to you, teammate!", Shenmi shouts.

Once in the next room, it doesn't look like they are clear of slimes yet. A series of spinning windmill posts create a maze, many paths leading into a gathering of slimes that seem ready for the party. The only way to make it by this, is to either inspect the paths to find a way through, to decipher what the clues on the wall means, or to use an elemental air magic to begin changing it to the best path directly. It is clear that everyone will need to work together.

Daiyu chuffs softly, but it's all part of the act.

It's swiftly put aside as they enter the next room, and the remains of script on the wall draws her attention. "Look, they left instructions." Hard to read? No problem. She pinches one side of her spectacles between two fingers and the lenses shimmer briefly, revealing their Relic nature. The ability of the Glasses of Orth is specifically this, reading 'the writing on the wall' even when old, faded and forgotten. After a moment she starts rattling off details on how the wind turbines and gateways are interconnected.

Yeowang nods as Daiyu explains about the pipes. That's one of many subjects on which she freely admits knowing nothing. She's not crafty or technical at all. But she dances between the flaming slimes agilely as Daiyu is forced to scoot quickly and use her warfans defensively. Shenmi's flashy display corrals the weakened slimes, and there she can finish them all off. Easy work.

She will proceed onward with the others, and hrms as we get to a more complicated room with a much more complicated layout. But there are clues, written on the walls, and they are, with a bit of effort, intelligible. She nods to Daiyu, and agrees, "If these directions were left in good faith, we should be safe." She does n;t seem to be entirely sure of that, but she will follow them.

Shenmi may be prone to improvisation, but that does not mean he's not perfectly capable to follow instructions when necessary; after all, stage magic involves a lot of reharsal, discipline, and getting a lot of details right. His main contribution consists in redirecting the flow of the windmills; Yeowang takes care of all the rest, and soon, this room is cleared as well.

At the end of the dungeon, pipes move throughout the walls, and an old machine stands broken. The walls stand above the party as they may note ancient writing, but before they can really take the time to examine the place for any puzzle, from the machine there is a sound, and from that is a slime that slides out of one of the pipes. It begins hostile and comes for the party.

It might look like a simple enemy to fight, but it soon becomes clear that this is no ordinary slime. The first to interact with it in any way, will see it begin to change. Then what once was one slime becomes two. These two begin to grow into a white and black slime that grow into bigger versions of themselves. Afterwards, they grow hostile to the party. It becomes clear that they are two of a kind, any inspect would note that one has a weakness to light and another to dark. It is up to the party to use all their combat ability to clear the slime twins away and make it to the next door in the dungeon.

Teamwork makes the dream work, as the saying goes. Onward to the final chamber.

And a boss slime... no, a boss pair of slimes. "Yin and Yang," the vulpine murmurs under her breath as she flicks her warfan open again. "They are synchronized. Symbiotic. They need to be defeated together so one does not empower the other."

Her other hand briefly dips into her inventory. Then comes back with two small spheres held between her fingers, one pearlescent white and the other pitch black. She flicks them into the air... and uses her fan to paddle them in the direction of the slimes. Upon impact they discharge a bit of magical energy akin to which color they are and ricochette off. At which Daiyu moves to strike them again and repeat the technique.

With would appear that while Shenmi played pool, ping pong was this woman's game of choice. It is China's national sport, after all.

Yeowang was, as she has mentioned previously, a title-holder in Korea in martial arts before she came to Japan for university. If there was any doubt of that in anyone's mind, her performance here must certainly eliminate any possible doubt. She leaps up toward one slime, spinning in midair to land a devastating kick, then recoils back and deals the same kick to the other. She will continue the fight, trading targets with each blow so that they fall together. She has had the nature of this sort of task explained to her, and she goes for the most straightforward solution. Perhaps not the easiest. But the one she can do.

Shenmi, Master of Illusion, Inter-Server Man of Mystery, ironically lacks the Dark element.

He's ready to compensate for that with a ridiculous amount of Light, when all of a sudden, oil slimes begin to pour in from the sides.

And pour. And pour. And pour. And don't stop.

"There are too many!", Shenmi yells over the machine-gun firing of ping-pong balls from Daiyu, and physical devastation laid down by Yeowang. "I don't think we'll be able to collect all the specimens the Hunter's Guild wants! Let's finish up this one, and cut our losses! The ones we already have should hopefully suffice!" Their reward will likely be docked due to quota bracketing, but, hey, they'll still get paid.

That is when Shenmi doffs his hat, twirls it, and points the opening at one of the slimes, eyes darting left and right, intent on studying the HP bar of both. "Stead.... steady... NOW!"

KA-BOOM! In an explosion of smoke and confetti, Bao in a tiny monk outfit, with mandatory Yin-Yang symbol and with the limbs so arranged and sewn to make him look like he's meditating in the lotus position, is shot spinning towards the weakest of the two slimes; the bun-bun strikes true, shattering the Light Slime, an effect which causes the Dark slime, no longer empowered by its twin, to also explode into polygons soon.

There is no time, Shenmi exclaims, as he gestures frantically for the rest of the party to get out of the room; Bao, who somehow seems to have been released by the monk outfit, is already hopping like crazy towards the Conjurer.

Yeowang is on a roll with the hard attacks and mows through the smaller slimes without pause, though she takes some ddamage. She's a glass cannon, so to speak, though she continues the fight, unaware of her declining health bar. Finally, though, when Shenmi calls to back down, she will reluctantly comply, because she's totally a team player in these matters. "These complicated mechanics confuse me," she confides even as she makes her escape. "But as you say, we probably have enough."

"Agreed. Time to cut this investigation short." Bao, as much as a bother as he can be, also has his times of being useful. This is one of them. Somehow. Shenmi just makes it work. It becomes apparent that the Light Slime was supporting the Dark half, as the Light dies Dark loses the buff to its HP, which the trio had managed to lower enough to go into the negative.

"Sometimes it is best to not think too hard about it, and just do," Daiyu replies to Yeowang, even as she uses her Enchanter abilities to cast a quick speed boost on the group to help hasten their departure.

And as the door opens after the fight with the twin bosses, it becomes clear that they have won. The next room is clear of any enemies or even puzzles, and a reward waits for each of the party. The machines within this room are like all the ones before, and broken. There's no indication that they would work. But it's clear this place once was an important place to the gnomish people, and any that came before. An old door begins to lift at the side, and will permit an easier way back to the entrance of the dungeon.

Shenmi lies against the wall, panting after the run. He may be the one shouting the orders, but he does pay careful heed to Daiyu's words -- she has, historically, been the strategic brain of their adventures. "Well, there we go. We did it." He begins counting on his fingers. "Based on my estimates, with the slimes we've caught, and information about the ruins we can provide, we should be rewarded at least... let's see..." A lot of fingers move, in a quick blur of mathematics, until he declares, "...a big bag of money."

What? That's a perfectly legitimate unit of monetary measurement in ETO!

"It is enough." Daiyu is only minorly winded in comparison... but she's also remained active doing these things longer than her partner. Not that she wants to think about -why-. Her weapons are folded and tucked away. "If they desire more future expeditions can be made. That place appeared to be a means of... coraling slimes, rather than spawn them. Containment. Possibly even collecting of materials. I know a few alchemy recipes that could utilize slime... slime." She nods a bit at her own theorizing. "But age and lack of maintenance has allowed the previous contents to... propegate. Something to be investigated later."

Yeowang doesn't really count money by the bagfull anymore, if only because she has so much cash throughput on a daily basis that there's no need. Anyhow, the bank employs people for that. But she seems pleased that the task was done. That level of effort and task sccomplishment is what motivates her.

After our escape, she is barely breathing hard, she is in superior physical condition, and gives the impression that she could continue indefinitely. But as far as the care and feeding and alchemy of slimes, she has zero idea and cannot contribute at all. As far as the age of the structure, that also draws a shrug. She is neither a builder nor a handicrafter, with no creative skill per se. But she knows when to listen to others, and is listening carefully now.