Duty Session 557: Sher Kar Challenge

    The deserts of Westlande. Dry, dusty, and generally unpleasant for those who are not habituated to them.

    But when the call comes for adventurers to carry out a monster extermination, there is never a shortage of takers. One of those is the Spriggan Bard, Miyako. "Alright, then," she says, placing her stamp on the mission sheet. "Giant ants... well, ought to be something interesting, at least."

    She turns to look over the group who've gathered, taking in a familiar face, and a few rather new ones. New to her, at least.

    "For those of you who haven't worked with me before, I'm Miyako Blacklily, my usual partner Kotono is supposed to get here tomorrow from what I last heard. So I hope at least one of you is a good melee DPS'er. Prferably more than one..."

Yes, Kotono is Miyako's usual partner.

No, she's not arriving tomorrow.

Instead, she comes in quickly shortly as soon as Miyako finishes talking, although it's just as she mentions getting here tomorrow. "Tomorrow?" Kotono asks, looking around with a confused look. "Did I time travel or something?" She scratches her head. "Did I get here yesterday?" She smirks a little.

EARLIER

Thalia Maxwell, Nero Idol and speedy swordspriggan was hung over. Hung over and in need of a bit of an influx of cash. She squint-walked herself to the place, and stamped a random mission sheet, grouping her with other people. A few moments later, she actually looked at what she signed up for.

"Aw man! Not this again!"

NOW

The lightly clad woman is grumping around at the gathering spot, muttering under her breath as Miyoko makes her speech. She sighs.

"I'm Thalia Maxwell, and I was just here the other day. It sucks down there. Be ready for giant ants and other weird things. And I am your passable melee DPS'er."

Dosbox has been running into ants left and right for the past week. At the beginning of the week, he was on the other side of Yamato, and for some reason, the same ants were there. Even the leader of his Alliance wasn't able to figure out how they got there. And now, because of Uta's HORRIBLE sense of direction he was back over here. She mentioned something about getting snacks at Pela's or something? Long story short, DosBox was lost, but he got a message that someone needed assistance, and the SUPER SUPPORT is always here to help!

"I am very good at support from a distance and doing the opposite of that melee thing, sir. Ah, ma'am. Ah... Which do you prefer?" DosBox is visibly sweating; he's terrible with new people.

Arms folded behind her back, Ameia shifts her weight, looking at Miyako without much of an expression. She's already recognised Thalia and Dos from their previous encounters. In fact, she recalls running this same quest with Thalia not too long ago, though they hadn't completed the objective yet. That, she imagines, is why they're both here now.

As usual, she's wearing the wrong outfit for this kind of mission, but it never seems to bother her. If she's going to stoop to pest control, she may as well be fashionable while she does it.

"I'm Ameia, I was also here the other day," she says. "I'm a mage. I can provide support, or blast things if needed."

I've been through the desert with a horse with no na -- no wait, that doesn't work, she totally has a name.

Kauchemar is here, unphased by it being a desert because she's a big tough Were Fang equine and also having hooves means she doesn't have toes to get sand irritatingly stuck between. "So I take it this coming of age right the locals enjoy is still having a nasty critter infestation?" She shrugs, drawing her staff with one hand. While her shield floats at the other side, like Binder posessed objects tend to do. "Guess we'll just have to make a mountain out of this anthill for ourselves."

    Miyako chuckles lightly and waves to Kotono. "Speak of the Ninja, and she will appear. Good to see you, Ko-chan." She surveys the group briefly, nodding. "Pleasure to meet you, Thalia, Ameia, ... beard-guy. And either is fine, I'm not fussy about pronouns and I'm not a drill sergeant. So whatever works for you."

    She does note two mentioning that they've recently done this quest. "Good to have a guide familiar with the territory. Exploring is fun, in fact it's great, but when dealing with monsters it's best to have a clue what to expect."

    She keeps up the upbeat mood as much as she can on the trip out into the desert, and offers frequent thanks for the ability of an adventurer's Inventory to store plentiful water and the like.

    Soon enough, however, the group approaches the ritual grounds, and the first ant pits hove into view.

    "Alright, here's our first batch of targets. Any hints on weak spots to look for?"

Kotono gives a chuckle as well as she waves back to Miyako. "I'm special like that." She looks to the others and says, "There are ants here, so I hope nobody's afraid of insects." A pause. "I know I'm not."

It's a good thing that they can pack plenty of water. Kotono has to stop for a sip of water a few times but she keeps up pace with Miyako.

Eventually they arrive at the first set of targets. "OK, this is just an example of what we're going to be dealing with. So keep your guard up!" Kotono grips her kunai tightly and narrows her eyes as she contemplates her first target.

Thalia troops with the group through the sandy scrub, wishing she'd brought a hat or something. She'd look terrible with a tan. Luckily this is a video game.

They reach the ridge looking down towards the ant pit and grumps. "Well, the last time we were here, I ran down and hit them in the face while Ameia here blasted them. If someone is a better tank than me, I volunteer you to do it instead of me."

Dosbox blushes heavily, "Ah. Right! Sorry! I am Boriwick Rockborer, but my handle is DosBox. I, ah, like legacy systems. Used to, rather. There aren't any computers here." He laughs nervously, scratching the back of his head. "Ah... I think the part between the head and the... thorax? What's the middle chunk called again? The part where we have necks? That's a good spot to hit them on, from my experience. The one time I fought giant ants. Heh." DosBox starts revving up his metaphorical arcane engine as his hands begin to glow a little.

Ameia leans forwards, looking down at the ants. "You just want to shoot them with whatever you have," she says. "It's hard for them to climb up the ramps to get to us, so they're essentially insects in a big barrel. It makes it easier if you throw some bait down there, which is what we had Thalia do last time."

To block out the harsh sun, she's carrying a black parasol in one hand.

Kauchemar taps her fingers against the shaft of her staff and an ominous glow can be seen within the eye sockets of the horned skull that tops it. "Yeah, we have a vantage point, but we're going to want to be quick to take advantage of it before they get a chance to respond. And the gnome is right. That or the face directly. Eyes or antennae to screw with their sensory perception."

A little bit of a smirk curls her lips. Those here that do know the Nightmare know what she's probably thinking in the regard to that matter.

Dosbox creates a small frisbee looking blade of magic in his hand and starts to give it a spin. He hovers his other hand over the circle of magic and throws the hand out, toward an ant. The frisbee, however, takes an unexpected curve and slaps it in the back end rather than catching it with the edge on the neck, as was his intention. "Uh... I think I made it madder."

Kotono twirls her kunai a couple of times and smirks. "Ants? Not in my pants!" She rushes towards the nearest one, attempting to deliver a flying kick to it in hopes of showing it that Kotono's in charge here!

Or at least that's what was supposed to happen...

Instead, Kotono just barely misses striking the ant, and she's forced to do a rolling technique when she hits the ground to avoid hurting herself. "Why did that have to happen to me?"

True to form as she starts down the ramparts Kauchemar fires several bursts of sonic energy from her staff to scatter the giant ants. Though it's probably less the sound directly and more the way the soundwaves vibrate the air as they that disorient the ants more as they're sensative to such things more than they are by loud noise. But it seems to work, as the ones she does hit go bonkers, scramble, and collide into each other as they can't get directions straight from the sensory distortions.

Thalia has learned from the last time she was here. Instead of racing down the ramp to kick the ants in the face, she instead stays on the ridge and tries something out.

She draws both her weapons, steel ringing on the scabbards. She gives them a twirl and concentrates, trying a NEW TECHNIQUE. Dark colored energy blooms on the blades, and she quickly slings them in a circle at the ground. Each sword looses a wave of energy that ... peters out well away from the ants.

"Maaaaaan!"

Ameia, still holding that parasol, uses her free hand to toss magical bombardment down on the ants. She's finger-gunning as she pokes holes in heads, legs and carapaces, turning her targets into swiss, ant, cheese, which... doesn't sound very appetising.

Up on the safety of that ledge, she's a bit like a sniper, preventing the insects from swarming their melee party members. "It feels like there's more here than last time," she comments.

    Miyako nods, making a note of Beard-guy's name. "Dosbox, right. Okay. I agree, blasting them is a lot better than getting into close combat. Because close combat sucks. Even if you're specced for it." Not that that's stopped her from indulging in it before.

    She rolls her eyes at Kotono's bad joke, shaking her head as the melee specialists get into grips with the ants. She takes some time to watch each of the new folk, familiarizing herself with their abilities before she adds her own strike. A series of runes scrawled across the air, followed by a wave of a fan through the glowing characters, and a bolt of shadow lances out to finish off one of the ants.

    "So, where to next?" she asks, walking up to the rim of one of the ant-holes. "Down and in, find the hive? Or something else?" She looks over at Thalia and Ameia, since they'd mentioned having followed this quest before.

Ameia looks into the mouth of the cave and puts away her dark sun-shield as they enter the shade. "If you can figure out what the most used tunnels are, they'll lead you to important locations in the nest. Last time we found the egg chamber that way," she says. "I don't see why it couldn't lead us somewhere else, though."

Thalia is not having a great day. Her efforts against the ants were, while spirited, kind of useless. She huffs to herself, still holding her swords as they make their way into the tunnels.

She, like last time, starts to explore the walls of the tunnel, pressing an ear to them to try and hear things. She frowns, narrowing her eyes.

"Yeah. I've got nothing."

Kotono's still feeling a bit grumpy after messing just now, so she's trying to clear her mind with another sip of water as she approaches the next area.

"Great, another which-way area," She says while rolling her eyes. "Maybe I can figure something out." The Spriggan looks around carefully, scrutinizing everything...

Only to wind up discovering that this place is nothing special. "Why did I get out of bed today?"

The group makes their way into the tunnels afterwards... and quickly it becomes apparent that despite people's previous experience there is little telling what goes where. "They've also likely dug out new tunnels since previous visits," Kauchemar points out. Considers a moment. Then taps the butt end of her staff to the ground. After a moment a few cracks form, then a hole, out of which several mole-like monsters pop their heads out of. "Time to do what you were taught to, boys," she says with a general wave towards the passages with her staff. The Rock Moles nod, and scamper off in various directions to explore deeper into the underground maze. They have better subterrainian navigation skills than most of the Adventurers.

A shrill cry and the sound of nashing claws or pinchers echoes from one tunnel, and Kauchemar flinches briefly from the loss of mana as one of her summons is dispatched after finding the very bad choice in directions. "Not that way. Defininately not that way."

Dosbox listens to the singing voices of the mountain, and tries to paint with all the colors of the wind, but then he remembers that movie was kinda low key cringe, "NLG", as the youths nowadays say, so he just touches the ground and grabs an earthen ley line with his magic. It splits in two places, and given that Kauchemar said it wasn't one of the choices, DosBox casts that line aside and starts following the other one. "Ah... This way, then? Maybe?"

    Miyako nods quietly and listens to the advice of the experienced among the group, lowering her head to survey the floor and pausing occasionally to look up and about for any oncoming ants. ... and to admire certain fine-figured fellow Spriggans, of course.

    Unfortunately the ants aren't the only thing in the tunnels, as the party is about to find out to its dismay.....

Ameia comes a little prepared this time, having read up on a mood-altering spell that would work on the Sher Kar. She holds up two fingers and moves it in a circle. It's not a part of the spell, but it helps her focus, she supposes. "You... do not... want to eat us..." she says to the Sher Kar. "You feel... satiated!"

Looking for the Sher Kar which were most affected by the entrancement, she quickly shuffles her way past them and through the crowd, trying not to aggravate them too much. It seems to work.

Kauchemar has no intention of trying to tussle with Sher Kar - The Sher Kar. And while being a Summoner she's not familiar enough with the monsters to try.

But she has her other monsters. She puts the remaining Rock Moles to work, who drive their claws into the ground and set off a series of vibrations. Not enough to knock the tunnel down, just to shake the ground and kick some rocks about, forcing the physically oriented Sher Kar - The Sher Kar to keep their distance long enough for her to hurry past their trigger zone.

Dosbox does his best to do exactly as the other sneaky sneaks do, and he's doing a horrible job at it. He kicks a pebble. An ant looks directly at him. Dossy goes motionless and tells the ant, "Don't you worry about me none... I'm just a rock." Well, Rock Gnome. Close enough. Unbelievably, the ant keeps moving, and DosBox DOESN'T EVEN WET HIMSELF THIS TIME!

Thalia, being who she is, decides to tangle with the Sher Kar. She flings herself at them, striking to wound, but, well...

A moment later, she's on her butt in the dirt, having gotten pretty thrashed by them before her party members can sate them or fend them off better. She gets to her feet shakily, expression downcast. Her former vim and vigor starting to fade.

"I'm...I'm pretty useless today. I'm sorry."

Finally they found their way through, no thanks to Kotono...

But frustration is the least of her problems now as she finds that there aren't just giant ants in here. The Sher Kar are also here, and they are looking a bit hungry. They don't care who someone is, they'll eat just about anyone.

Fortunately, Kotono is feeling lightfooted today, and this time she manages to sneak by without drawing any attention. Finally, she does something right!

"Discretion is the better part of valor," She whispers to herself with a smirk.

    Miyako fades into the shadows, silent in the way only an experienced sneak can be. Circling the cavern and the group of Sher Kar, watching those who get too close to the creatures. Smiling lightly at Ameia's little chant.

    And when Thalia falls back, Miyako is there to pull her away from the monster. "Let's keep this quiet," she murmurs, "We're not supposed to kill them unless we have to, right? Save it for the ants."

    Of course, there are plenty of ants to be found, practically crawling straight out of the walls as they close in on the adventurers.....

Dosbox does his best to provide his allies with a little support, but that little encounter with the ant in the last room has him quite shook up. His rock cradle spell slides off like gravel, as does any chance for him to save face on this expedition.

After doing some sneaking, it's time for some combat!

This time, Kotono's got her kunai at the ready, and she's ready to do some slashing and dashing along with some slicing and dicing!

"Yaaaah!" Kotono calls out as she does what she does best. "Never underestimate this Spriggan!"

Seeing the guard ants approaching, Ameia is quick to shield the others in her party, casting physical wards over Kotono and Thalia in particular, who are the most up close and personal with the ants.

"Try not to get bitten," she says. "The venom will probably really, really hurt."

"Feels like this bug hunt is drawing close to a conclusion." Kauchemar rests her staff against her shoulder. And raises her other arm, bringing her Binder Shield to bear instead. The gemstone in the center that serves like an eye flickers, giving the impression of scowling somehow.

And then the entire shield ignites, bursting in a blaze of hellfire to drive back the monster ant guards and set them aflame as well when their attacks collide against it. It's like a fiery bulldozer pushing through a pile of bugs, and Kauchemar just saunters behind it like it was a stroll in the park for her.

Miyoko helps Thalia up, and she smiles wanly. "T-thanks...," she says as the group presses on. Her attitude and spirit have taken as big of a hit as her health bar has.

It takes another one.

Here in these tight quarters, her maneuverability isn't as good as it usually is. She tries to use hit and run tactics, but she keeps getting smashed into the wall, or the dirt, or the wall again. She manages to roll free, but she's beat up and looks utterly despondant. A massive change from when she got here.

    Miyako looks out at the oncoming mass of ants and nods. "Either we're near the center, or we're going to turn back anyways, because we're about to get chewed up." She shakes her head and produces her fans again, ready for the fight. Tight quarters melee isn't her forte either, but she seems to have it in hand, slicing when the ants get close and lashing out with bolts of shadow when she can get distance.

    Soon enough the reason for the mob is clear: The tunnel leads straight into the egg chamber. "Welp. This is as good a place to blow everything up as ever," the Spriggan muses as the swarm heads towards the adventurers. "Who brought the Fireballs?"

Dosbox feels like he's been getting walked all over this entire expedition, and he's about ready to burst. "Oh, I didn't bring any fireballs, but I brought something else." He begins to levitate off the ground a couple of inches as his entire body begins to crackle and spark with electricity. "I brought..." And with a copyright breaching lift of his arms, force lighting leaps from his fingertips, shooting tine after tine of lightning into the larvae as he shouts in a booming voice,

"UNLIMITED POWER!!!!"

They move through, ending up in the egg chamber again. She sighs, shaking her head. All that to end up in the same place? Lame. "Oh boy. Eggs again."

The ants come once more, but it seems that Thalia has recovered some of her vigor. She seems to slip through shadows, kiting and dodging the ants as she moves through the chamber. She's doing it again. Evasion tanking.

At least this time it's -working-.

"Not fireballs." Kauchemar lets the Binder Shield float at her side and redraws her staff. "But I did bring some heavy bass to drop!" Gripping the staff like a rocker would their stand mic Kauchemar takes a deep breath and then bellows with the horrific banshee-like voice her species of Nightmare is capable of. Combined with the power of a Bard and the elemental machinery incorperated into the item, it's not hard to see where the Grindcore Staff gets it's name. It amplifies the auditory assault to the point the sonic shockwaves hit resonance frequencies, causing eggs and the heads of ants alike to explode just like that old Scanners movie.

Now you see her...

Now you don't!

Kotono decides that it's better to avoid conflict here, and she dodges here and there to avoid getting caught. "You can't catch this Spriggan!"

Ameia puts a hand to her forehead as she experiences that very strong sense of deja vu. They've... ended up exactly where they did last time. Was there no other room in this nest except for the egg chamber? Oh well. She can just burninate them all.

"I've got home-made napalm, does that count?" she asks, holding up a glass bottle filled with a thick, clear fluid.

After a decent wind-up, she tosses the bottle into the swarm. It turns out to essentially be a grenade, and it explodes, splattering all the creatures around it in sticky, burning goop. It looks like a gruesome way to go out.

    What is it with this life and its total lack of fireballs, Miyako doesn't complain aloud. She just keeps the thought to herself as she engages the swarm, casting swaths of shadow across the bug-monsters that leave naught but drained husks behind. "Close enough," she answers Ameia, watching some of the swarm burn. Then she vanishes into another shadow, reappearing in position to cast more shadow over another swarm.

    Soon enough, there are no more of the bugs to harass the adventurers, the egg chamber laying defenseless before their wrath. "You got any more of that napalm?" Miyako asks of Ameia. "I'm feeling Ripley-ish today. Burn it all."

"A good idea," Kauchemar agrees. "They won't be able to rebuild their colony numbers as quickly if the chamber is unsuitable for laying more eggs. And one advances to be the new queen to lay them."

The ants routed. Or burned. Thalia sheathes her swords, panting heavily. She wasn't good enough today. She was -carried-. She bows deeply towards the group at large.

"Forgive my uselessness in this. I was...a danger to you all. Thank you for making sure I came out of it alive."

She straightens and just turns to go off by herself, plodding her way out of the nest and back into the desert.

Dosbox sighs with relief as he touches down on the ground. "There. That made me feel better." He uses what's left of his mana to help Amelia's fire spread, as commanded by the leader of the expedition. After this, it was back to the wagon. ROAD TRIP!!!! WHOOO!!!!

Kotono smiles a little. She made it through in the end. She looks to Miyako and says, "We make a good team!" She then gestures to the others. "And all of you too!"

Ameia rubs her nose, trying to ignore the stench of smoke, burning insects and napalm as they leave the egg chamber. "If I'd known we were going to end up here again, I'd have brought nuclear waste or something instead."

Even so, she tosses a few more vials of napalm into the chamber, turning the place into a big oven. In this tight cave system, that hot air and smoke doesn't disperse but rather rises upwards, making the whole nest uncomfortably hot, and also difficult to breathe in.

"Congrats everyone, but uh, let's get out of here before we get sick from smoke inhalation."

    It doesn't take long for the group to make it to the surface, once the fire is set in the egg chamber. Miyako nods and claps Kotono on the shoulder, but looks worriedly after Thalia. "Hey," she calls after the other Spriggan. "Don't quit before the victory party."

Thalia stops, not looking back for a moment. Her wings flutter a little. She's silent for a moment before she turns back around. It looks like she's trying very hard not to cry. No matter that no one has been hard on her or belittled her, the performance in the tunnels that she gave was clearly weighing on her.

"I ... I don't want to be a burden. I don't know if I should ... go to the victory party."

Ameia pulls out her parasol again, having no intention of getting a tan on their trip back to civilisation. She looks at Thalia and tilts her head. "The only reason you shouldn't go is if you have better things to do. Feeling bad about yourself doesn't sound like a good candidate for that. And anyway, it's not about the outcome. Your presence improved our chances of success, didn't it? So, you contributed."

    Miyako shakes her head. "Well, that's a prime load of bullshit," she says, walking over to slide an arm around Thalia's shoulders. "You were there, you fought, you took the same risks as the rest of us, we all made it out alive. That's what counts."

Dosbox looks ahead at the idea of a victory party with mild terror, much like a Vietnam vet experiencing flashbacks from the war. When he was running with his old... Friends... Victory party meant playing a game of 'Kick the Gnome'. "I uh... I think I have to get back to the wagon, guys. Heh. Adventuring waits for no man, eh?"

Thalia almost reflexively pulls away as Miyoko gets into her personal space and slides an arm over her shoulder. She doesn't, though. She goes quiet, listening to what the others have to say and just nods.

She smiles slightly, obviously forced. "Alright. I'll go."

    Miyako nods and steps away before things get Awkward, and it's time to get back to town. Onwards!