Duty Session 554: The Deadly Caves Of Toxic Death!

The Adventurers reach a section of desert which looks just like every other section of desert: dunes as far as the eye can see. But by going off the route travelers usually follow, through an especially inhospitable stretch of sand teeming with scorpions and snakes, one can reach a previously invisible narrow ravine, whose presence was hidden by mirages. "I, Mister DesertGuide, welcome you to The Gorge of Death", announces the Salamander Lander from the Hunter?s Guild as he points to a number of openings at the bottom of the ravine. "You will find the entrances to the caves down there." He gestures towards some pickets close to his feet, to which bits of rope are tied; the rope disappears past the edge of the cliff. "This rope ladder will get you to the bottom of the ravine. Go there, and rid this place of its worst vermin. Good luck!"

Who responds to the call to adventure? Soujiro does. He responds to every call. Is it 2 AM and you want to talk about how a series ended on a cliff hanger? Souji answers. If you want to train first thing in the morning under waterfalls? Souji answers. If you want to go into a cave of obvious, toxic death, for the sake of 'Lets see what is over there?' Souji. Answers. "This should be fun," the sword saint says, "good test of how the poison resistance training has paid off!" Also known as 'I ate bad food' trope. He has had so much /good food/ lately that it takes heaps of 'actual poison' to balance out the training needs!

Mister DesertGuide gets a very flat expression in return, both for that very simple exposition and for the unimaginative name.

"Soujiro, you have a very unusual definition of 'fun' sometimes," the fox woman decides to just comment to the samurai instead, or her authorian tastes are going to needless rip the NPC for the lack of creativity. Then after a moment Daiyu relents. "Though it wouldn't hurt to get a larger sample set of what toxicology is present in this location." Alchemist stuff. And curiousity. Curiousity is what usually draws her into these things that a sensible woman would try to avoid.

Miho has been dragged out of her forge more and more these days to advanture, it's a good way to get materials. It also serves to keep the smol smith socialized too. She seems in good spirt clad in her lady samurai gear with a grin on her face.

"Oh this could be fun I think! It is an adventure after all, right?!" Her tail is moving lazily and seems to show she's relaxed and in a good mood.

    Asuna is here! Cause if Souji's going, you know she's interested. Wandering around a desert is fun, anyway! Of course, she's fresh from a pick-up of new goodies from Gwen's place, too. Which is why the Samurai is rocking a totally new look: she's cosplaying as Faye Valentine. Sure, she never saw the anime, but she was goaded on by Morri. Once she put it on, though, it was too late. Asuna doesn't back down, no matter the situation. Even if that situation is dressing in shorts that barely go over her hips and a top which barely covers anything else. And what's with this red jacket that doesn't seem to serve much of a jacket's purpose, anyway? Ah well.

    "So down the pit we go, then, right?" asks the Flash. "Sounds like a good idea to me! I hope I get a chance to show you some new moves I've picked up, Soujiro. I went to Shibuya to learn about their new dance craze and it turns out it's good in a fight!"

Daiyu gets that token smile from Soujiro that says 'I may be unusual but I love who I am, I love training and I love all of you' which is about the same is when you call your doggo weird for rolling around and it loves itself too much to take it to heart. "I bet Proph and Uta would be interested in that information," he says, always thinking of others. Not so much the study of poison, but he won't knock it. Poison is an important debuff in combat! Right up there with Slow and Vulnerability effects. To Miho, the samurai hypes, "Yes! Adventure!" Both hands in the fist clenching 'yas' pose. "Adventure costume," he double hypes over to Asuna. "Dance moves? I love to dance!" Of course Souji loves to dance, he embodies all things fun and pure, "cant wait to see it in action." Training!

After descending the rope ladder (or feather falling), the Adventurers take stock of the caves. Greenish wisps of vapor waft out of some of the caves, and pool for a moment before a gust of hot desert wind dissipates them. Those are the caves with the more dangerous creatures, but the better rewards. In order to access them, the team will need to be ready to face a hostile atmosphere, either through special potions, antidotes, or plain old holding one?s breath for a long time. It is rumored that unnaturally gifted armor forgers can improvise a one-time breathing protection, but this is way past the skill level of all but a few people in Yamato.

What does Soujiro go with? Holding his breath. One deep inhale of 'good' air and he is kicking up that O2 meter. Training. Training. Cough cough. T-t-training.

Daiyu doesn't trust that rope ladder, so she just fox parkours her way down the rocky wall to make her way to the bottom. Once there she takes a wary scope of the situation. Without previous preperation, the best she can do is produce some general-purpose antitoxin potions she keeps in on hand. Hopefully it will be enough to make way through the heavier noxious fumes.

Miho takes a look at ASuna as she comes in, she knows the char too. "Oh woah so you do cosplay on all your runs?" Her tail moves back and forth a bit. "Think you could help me It looks like it be fun to do!" She grins at this oh no Asuna what have you done?! "Given menu fittings can i borrow an old one for this run?" She loosk eager or god Miho has stars in her eyes about this.

Once that's ressolved she'll move on and she'll start moving to hold her breath, it doesn't go so well near the end for her...

    "I wish Klein were here. He'd love this... adventure costume!" Asuna smiles at Soujiro. "I really want to see you dance. I bet your friends would love to join, too!" By which she means the girls who follow the samurai around everywhere. They are sweet hearts, really. Besides, they love her cooking, and weirdly, one of the ways to Asuna's heart is loving the food she makes.

    She's rather surprised by Miho's request. The samurai looks thoughtful as she considers her options. She doesn't want to provide something /too/ racy, here. And she did specify an old cosplay. "I have just what you need! The first one. The cosplay that started the whole thing." And with a quick trade, she's sent a Lara Croft outfit Miho's way.

    This being done, she glides down the dubious rope ladder with ease. It's not like she has to worry about a skirt at this point!

    She sets herself softly down into the network of caves. Well, when it comes to foul air, she can fight fire with fire. In this case, fiery spices, which happen to help resist the negative effects of the vapours that are thick down here.

There is that smile from Soujiro as he sees Asuna and Miho bonding over cosplay and equipment. These are vital things! Speaking of vitals, he is quick to request an antitoxin from Daiyu to protect his own vitals when the O2 gets too low. The sword saint doth not suffer from pride. He does suffer from wrath. *.*

The Adventurers venture into one of the more challenging caves. The the air swirls around in a vague greenish hue, its flavor carries hints of wasabi with an aftertaste of bitter almonds. The first thing that faces the adventurers is far too steep an upwards incline. The wall is crawling with critters: scorpions scuttle up and down, snakes slither in and out of cracks in the rock, and spiders the size of rats compete to destroy each other's webs when one of them builds too close to the other. No big deal for the creatures, but the party will need to build some reasonably sturdy structure to climb forward: attempts at using simple grappling hooks or basic rope structures will result in the spiders mistaking the rope for a rival's web, and swiftly melting it with acid. Luckily, it seems that there is some sort of previous structure in place, which indicates that someone has been using these caves in the past. Perhaps the Gnomes? One can also help by circulating the air towards the entrance, still relatively close.

"Rock climbing," Soujiro says as he he-yups up the incline, "I love this stuff. The Adventurer body can do all sorts of things like those inclines that are /backwards/ if your physical attributes are high enough," he sparkles in constant marvel at how cool all the Adventurers are. Years later, still in awe of how they are mini super heros.

"Do not put your hands on any surfaces carelessly," Daiyu notes upon seeing the scorpions and snakes creeping about. "The less we have to deal with anyone getting directly poisoned, the better." She turns. Her attention zeros in on Miho, whom she doesn't know well but knows the Salamander is a smith. She learned a fair share about various NWA members from things around Shibuya while it was... occupied. "Can you do something about this structures?"

Then with a brief flourish she opens both her warfans. They shimmer with a faint glow as she activates an enchantment to interact with elements more precisely... and then uses them for what fans were originally meant to do and circulate away the nausiating air from their position.

    "Maybe a bit of fresh air will do the trick," muses Asuna. And air is actually a good element for her. She throws lightning all the time! She loves lightning, really. She could go on and on about how awesome it is and the way thunder works and oh yeah her air attempt didn't really work at all.

    "Well."

    "That was embarrassing."

    Fortunately for her, she has teammates to save her bacon. Speaking of which, she really should cook up a nice meal for everyone after this. She thinks she has some meat that would be a great breakfast sausage...

Miho grins at Ausna for a moment anbd she'll take the outfit, she'll menu equip it. Other than the height she's got the pefect figure to pull off Lady Croft and she's grinning as she looks at herself with it. She's forgot about all her misery in holding her breath as she moves in deeper. She's really loving the outfit too she seem chipper as they are going in deeper.

"Oh this can be fun and yes, I can lift a /wagon/ now." She gets a feral grin. #-1 ARGUMENT OUT OF RANGE
She'll be climbing and making use of what was left by the gnomes or someone else as she goes. She will note which workings are safe to use and what not. She also wiggles it as she goes up, yes she's having fun!

As the party ventures inwards, the gas gets thicker, and the air takes on a yellowish tint and the aroma of rotten lemon. The whole cave consists of smooth, black rock organized in opaque cubes of crystal. It's like a warehouse stacked with obsidian crates. A relatively uncommon monster is leaping about, one which experienced players of Elder Tale Online will recognize: dark purple, spherical body, about the size of a small Adventurer; short legs with long feet, huge, malevolent eyes that take up most of its face, and instead of a nose, a long tube which keeps pumping out yellowish gas at every leap. Its name upon inspection is << Toxic Jumper >>', but the playerbase has always jokingly referred to it as 'Dire Q*Bert', especially given how it moves by hopping about, and covers the patches of rock where it lands in colorful poison. The creature is too poisonous, and evasive too fight directly; the Adventurers' best option is to rush to the next cave by not being squished by its venomous feet, or to somehow affect the crystals in the cave through Earth magic. Artistic minded people (or Loremasters) can glean this individual's specific aesthetic preferences in his jumps, and therefore guess where it?s going to land next.

Since Soujiro is a gamer, he recognizes the icon and lights up in the process. It would be wonderful to fight this thing, but it is clear that the environment isn't suitable for a battle. It is more a puzzle fight! And so Soujiro engages in puzzles by adjusting the crystals arund him with a mighty stomp or punch. Not so much 'magic' unless being stronk is magical.

Daiyu on the other hand doesn't get this reference, at least not in the limited amount of time she has to try and analyze it. Instead she goes straight to her strategical thinking. "We need to keep moving." With fans in hand she whips up some air power again, this time using it to conjure an illusionary mist to help conceal their movements from the monster. It attacks by jumping and stomping, which she's calculating to not be the most accurate means of doing so. Not being able to see it's prey does seem to confuse the monster for a bit. Hopefully long enough for the group to escape.

    When the going gets tough, Asuna relies on her team mates. A lot. She's just having issues, and though this room is fun (I mean, it's Q-Bert, and even Asuna thinks its kinda cute!) But it's not as cute when it hits her with some poison on her way through.

    Luckily, Asuna is able to slip into the cover Daiyu has created, thus preventing further mishaps. She has to rely on a potion, as well. The poison has quite the bad kick.

    "Thanks for the cover, Daiyu."

    Asuna appreciates help. Meanwhile, in her head, she's beating herself up for blowing two attempts at cool stuff in a row. It's just not acceptable to her. Not at all.

Miho is having a ball it seme she's in good spirit as she pushes on through and she seems to know her earth arts as well. she's headiung deeper and eeper wioth her friend and she's loving this. She may have to ge this costume for a casual/workout outfit for herself. She keepo going and she pauses as she's able to use he skills to deal with the monsters.

"I don't think I haver ever seen this path here. I wasn't even aware of it! Everyone doing all right?!"

The party pushes on. The air is now an intense orange with a piercing reek of sulphur. The malodorous vapors thicken faster than expected, eyes start to water, and a feeling of nausea begins to overcome the Adventurers; the nature of the fumes this deep in the cave hadn't been anticipated at the beginning of the journey, so the the potions and antidotes prepared back then are of little help. People are starting to feel seriously ill, so they have to pause for a healing session, as well as for preparing new antidotes and breathing potions. All of this while suffering the oppressive atmosphere. This is not going to be trivial.

Soujiro has high spirits despite the logistics here are not in favor of a safe recovery. One of those 'stand in poison while your cooldowns come off cooldown' where you do what you can. He keeps this 'everything is going to be alright' attitude about it, though, doing little stretches during the break session and keeping good vibes over the fire in the lungs and sourness in the tums.

Daiyu lets out a mutter, her tails lashing with annoyance. "We need to proceed with caution." She puts a hand over her muzzle as she coughs, because always the polite lady she is. "I do not have counter serums for many of these poison effects, they must be unique to this location."

    "They are.. unique, aren't there?"

    Asuna has come to dislike this place. Really! It's stinky and dirty and these caves are just no fun at all. She aches for a chance to fight with a bit more room, or to maneuver where she could, for instance, breath.

    "Just have to.. get a bit further and we're going to get through this thing! We've got this!"

    Sure, things look bad. But Asuna doesn't have any quit in her.

Miho is pushing on past the vapors herself and is doing ell enough okay she's not but she's alive and still in good spirits and knows they will have to push forward into this mess as they go. "Aye but we can't stand still we'll just get chipped todeath if we do."

She look about pausing for a moment. She gets an idea pulls some items out and soaks a rag in them and ties it about her face as well as finding she has few breathing potions which she'll hand out but it may not be enough.

The next section happens to be a maze of twisty little passages, all alike. When the Adventurers reach it, the source of the unusual gas becomes apparent: a bull-like creature with metal scales. A Gorgon, whose appearance is glitchy and unstable, keeps puffing out reddish-orange clouds of petrifying breath at every snort and grunt; if adventurers fail to get out quickly enough, they could end up with one or more limbs turned into stone, with a matching << Petrified >> status effect for the relevant body part. The composition of the monster?s halitus is not the standard one for a its species, as if its strange condition also altered its chemical properties. Every now and then, the monster glitches through walls, which adds an extra layer of difficulty to the escape. Too dangerous to fight directly, people will need quick thinking to avoid the creature through the complex pattern of stone corridors -- or who knows, maybe a Tailor has some thread in their inventory, and can pull an Ariadne.

Soujiro has none of these things. He loves combat and combat accessories. Unless this glitched gorgon wants tea, he is on the 'keep up the offensive against the glitchmode'. Which he has a particular berserk button for glitches, after what happened to his friends on the 10th floor. Souji always gives it his all, but this time its personal as he focuses on tracking the attack pattern to no avail. Must be using a rand function!

    Asuna is having a rough run today. But she can think mean things about her own performance later. This is, as they say, not the time. Fortunately she is able to keep her cool in the moment. Unfortunately, it doesn't lead to a wonderful success.

    When you get right to it, Asuna is a samurai monster expert who likes to cook. This is just not her thing. So yes, it goes poorly. But onward! There is another round and hope springs eternal!

A monster? A Glitched Monster?!?! This is not good.

"We need to keep moving, don't give it a chance to corner us." Vulpine ears twitch and turn as she tries to hone in on it's movements even with it passing through the actual scenery around them. After a moment Daiyu pauses briefly to point. "It's movement is avoiding that direction. It's reasonable to presume that's the way to the boss, it would try to hunt away from a stronger creature."

Miho was not aware of something isn't right, something is broken here and she does not want ot deal with the Gorgon this screams bad candy. She has heard stories about Floor Ten after all and is going to try to use the terrain against the thing to hopefully attack it or avoid it when they can. It's the best she can do and it goes very, very badly. Not so baldy that everyone dies but she's cursing in a very unlady like fashion. Yes blame her uncle for teaching her how to curse like this...

The atmosphere, deep red by now, is so saturated with miasmic fumes Adventurers might be wondering if there is any air left in it. The nature of the poison changes again so, as expected, the previous potions and antidotes start to fail; supplies are running low, and there just is no time to prepare more. The Adventurers won't survive for long if they don't get out soon. Queasy and exhausted, they finally stumble upon the final room: a tall, wide cave, where a most impressive monster lurks: body of a large lion, with clawed feet, face of a monstrous humanoid with sharp fangs, and the tail of a scorpion. It is rumored that it is such a powerful monster that it can swallow lower-tier Adventurers with one gulp. As the group steps into its domain, the chimeric creature hisses, rears its tail, and launches towards the party. The fight will be tough and lopsided, and not in favor of the Adventurers.

"Asuna," the sword saint says in his 'I am going to wreck this boss like its the final scene in a samurai movie', "I need you and Miho on the offensive. Give them everything you got. I'll hold its attention throughout the fight. Daiyu, magical support." Its Boss Battle time! The Samurai vaults in with a strong opener to hold onto hate even after an initial DPS burst in the monster's face. His raw evasive abilities only serve to frustrate the huge creature, putting his martial prowess in the forefront as his staying power in the lead tank role is impressive. A Dauntless spirit that rises to the challenge of a fierce battle. Fighto!

    "Offensive? You got it!"

    Asuna has offensive options here. Magic, physical, or... well, let's face it. How often does she get a chance to capture a friggin' monster like this?

    Knowing how Soujiro is going to fight and trusting her companions to keep the pressure up, the Flash dedicates herself to preparing a series of snares that will first hamper, then almost paralyze the enemy. This includes things like a weighted net to slow down that tail and shackles that a touch of wave artes will affix to the floor. Were she not with such a skilled group, the risky moves would get the enemy's full attention and likely get her sent back to prayer, so to speak. But with her friends here, she's hitting with almost every snare and grinding the enemy closer and closer to a full halt.

At least a Manticore is something more familiar. Just that they're not in the best shape thanks to the adventure getting down here. They'll need to work fast.

"On it." Daiyu actually folds one fan and puts it away so she has a hand free. While the others take the fight to the boss she moves quickly back and forth, making sure to stack anti-poison and enchantment buffs on the others as best as she can.

But this requires her to regularly be within the big manticore's attack zone. So she does a lot of ducking under and slipping around it's attempts at strikes to do her work on support, with all the speed and grace one would expect of a skilled vulpine.

Miho is a bit roughted up but she's in good enough spirits still, she has a grin on her face.

"I can do that I'll slice it and dice it!" She'll ready her Naginatia in hand and will wait for Souji to get the monster's attention she looks to Asuna with a grin. She will enjoy this and Daiyu has proven themselves so far so she has no issues as she charges in. Her strikes are powerfiul earth shaking, just how /strong/ Is Miho antway?!

At first it appears that the fight might be too much for the Adventurers. Those claws rend flesh, the stinger inflicts excruciating burns which only worsen with time as the poison enters the bloodstream, and more than once someone comes this close to being gulped down in one go by the creature -- and even with missing, just being grazed still docks a massive chunk off the victim's HP bar. It is only through sheer determination, teamwork, and wanton violence that our heroes succeed in taking down the monster. It shatters into polygons and drops its large stinger, which goes to join a few others strewn around the cave. Exhausted on the verge of collapse, the party collects its spoils, and begins to investigate a small draft of fresh air in the cave. It might point to an abandoned emergency exit.

Is Soujiro excited about the victory? Oh yeah he is! Final Fantasy style fanfare fist pump and even though there is no BGM in Elder Tales Online now, he can hear it in his head. Even hums it out a bit. Loot: Gained. "Now /that/ was a great fight. Its what is great about Elder Tales, you never know what taking the route through the poison marshlands will lead you to, and we have a treasured memory together of overcoming it." The real treasure is the friiieeennnndddship!

    Asuna grins over at Soujiro. Honestly, no matter how rough things get for her, it's impossible not to be happy with him around. She's definitely gotten banged up along the way, but with the stinger in hand, it all feels worthwhile.

    "Great fights deserve great celebrations. I'm going to race ahead. I know a place not too far from here where they'll let me cook up something for us. I'm looking forward to it!"

    Granted, she's a bit wobbly, but even a wobbly Flash is still the Flash. She will race on her way out of here, chimming directions back to the party. Anyone who wants to join is going to get fed well!

Miho is bouncing up and down happily afte they win and she laughs "That was quite the run and oh Asuna where could I get an outfit like this!? I'd like to get my own!" Oh god what have you done Asuna, you have picked up an action cosply student!

"That was... an interesting experience," Daiyu's more composed attitude still agrees with the excitement over the victory. "Some of those monsters were very... distinct." Maybe someone can explain the 'Toxic Jumper' to her later. She'd probably find it facinating. "But let us take our spoils and extradite ourselves before another creature shows up. This chamber almost looks like it could be a nest." Or whatever you'd call it for a creature that's part lion and part scorpion.