Duty Session 563: Spinner's Deep

For many, the way down through Spinner's End is familiar. However, the mine is now clean and well lit, with supports shoring up the walls and ceilings. All evidence of the spider infestation has been cleared out. Landers pass by as they travel down into the mines, offering their thanks to those who had previously helped to clear the mines. The sounds of hammers and picks on rock echo as they walk. Life has returned to the mines due to the efforts of the Adventurers. Occasionally, there is a bark of a guard dog and the scampering of feet as they run to join their newly returned masters. The pathway has been cleared for them...

Nothing is quite like heading down into a mine to do adventure! Soujiro has a bounce to his step and a smile on his face. "It is always interesting when the developers make dungeon 'tiers'. There was a clearing of Spinners before this one and now we go deeper!" he says, having not had the joy of clearing the first one while doing Ezzo stuff. Spinner's. Moria. Similar, right? Watch out for Balrogs / Balor / YouShallNotPass -ing.

Dosbox nods excitedly, impressed, "That's really great! I mean, when you think of it, though, does that mean this game is still in development, like people are still actively adding code, or is it like an AI thing?"

Thalia signed up for this trip into the deeper mines. Why? -Training-. Despite things seeming to turn around for the young lady, she still wants to get stronger. Soujiro's whole thing is training, so this should be very educational!

"Deeper dungeons mean better loot. ... Usually," she says as they advance downwards.

Schneider has done the previous Spinners dungeon that resulted in our objective being opened. So the way is quite familiar to him as well, and he will smile to the more experienced Alliance-mate and nods to Sooujiro about tiers. "That's so, but I am quite curious about what remains to be cleared in the current section of the dungeon. There is another section, but it is not available. Are we not high enough level? Is there content we missed? More objectives? More monsters to clear?" This is not a problem for Mr. Mass Conflagration, of course. He shrugs to Dosbox and Thalia about the loot. "I always wonder about the loot. I am rarely able to figure out what I should do with it." His cloak is an example of when he figured it out, but otherwise his inventory is packed with loot that he has no plan for.

Souji still thinks of parts of Elder Tales as a game. Or really just 'how it works'. Its not physics, its the physics engine! "I don't know. I think the AI is maintaining it? And things like Travelers, Kunie, Goddesses. Just fancy in-game names for the developers in games," he says with a 'its all good not knowing for sure, can still enjoy it'. Thalia gets an excited smile, "Exactly. Tougher enemies and better loot." The simple thoughts of a Souji goes, "The edible loot you can eat." Food.

Once, this room must have been a boss chamber. Unlike other parts of the mine, the walls are finely hewn, with strange patterns etched into them. There is a large mural that looks to show a variety of different arachnid creatures. It almost looks as if there are figures bowing before them in worship. At the center of the chamber there is a slightly raised dais, which a circular platform sits. Carved runes appear along the edge of the circle, though they do not seem to resemble any known language in Yamato. The same runes appear throughout the room in various fashions. There might be clues to the runes in those words on the walls, but the teleporter seems to also respond to sound as well as magical energies being channeled into it.

"Magic," Soujiro makes the obvious observation, "and our party has two very good Arcanist on board. We will have this thing up and running in no time, right team?" Still the samurai does his part in checking out the runes. It isn't his thing, but it doesn't mean he wont get lucky and find the 'ON' rune somewhere. As fate happens, he does.

Dosbox seems really distracted. He is, in fact, not looking at the runes at all. He shimmies up close to Soujiro and whispers quietly, "Hey, Soujiro, you know a lot about women, right?"

Thalia does like food, but she prefers Stuff. Because you can make things with Stuff. She flitters about the room, looking at runes and channeling a little magic at them.

One of these runes starts to glow, and the Spriggan gets excited. Until it looses a low grade blast of electricity right into her face. She flies back, landing on her butt on the floor with a grunt. Her face is sooty, her hair a spiked mess.

"F-found a t-trap."

Schneider is a wizard, but he's an exploder wizard, so traps and puzzles aren't his thing generally. On the other hand, he's also Scale's librarian, and puzzling out clues is not complicated for him. Particularly if this is the same one he saw last time he came through here. He will go to the right places and do the right things almost without thought because, well, this part, at least, was re-used code from some previous section of dungeon. "Like this," he will explain.

"Women," Soujiro asks Dos when it is prompted. This is the man that has a flock of lander ladies around him, a command unit of cluck clucks, and a mighty mallard. "The hairstyle looks good, Thalia," he says, offering a hand after the trap situation. Back to Dos, "I know a lot of people who happen to be women." He is too pure for this world. "Like Asuna, Taka, and Thalia here."

By skill or luck, the runes of the Arcane Teleporter eventually activate, surrounding them in a blow glow before they emerge in a dark chamber, lit only by a few sputtering torches that are held in sconces and encased in spider webs. A feeling of moisture hangs in the air, the sound of trickling water from somewhere further into the darkness. Wandering further from the entryway, the tunnel continues until it seems to stop at a dead end. There, at the end of the hallway, is a strange statue. Carved into stone, a being that looks vaguely humanoid stands, although much of the features are covered by robes. Rather than a human face, it has long pincers, a series of glossy eyes, and monstrous plating. A thin, clawed hand is extended from the statue, pointing towards an altar set before it. It appears, that to continue further, the Adventurers will have to offer up some sort of sacrifice.

"You were not asking about woman because of a sacrificial altar, were you? Because thats out of the question," Souji says, not willing to do a blood ritual with Thalia here. He, instead, goes off to hunt for something to put on there. Like a mouse. A male mouse. A mighty male mous-- nope. He isn't going to sacrifice a living creature. Your move, altar.

Dosbox smiles sweetly to Thalia as Soujiro helps Thalia out of a put fall, still seemingly ignoring the dungeon as he talks to the Madam Master before him. And the rest of the party could PROBABLY USE HIS ATTENTION. He whispers again to Soujiro, "So like... Let's say you tell a girl she looks young and cute, but say she could be 75 IRL. Do you think that would be... a bad thing?"

Schneider would clearly like to think the teleporter was activated by his correct activation of the magic. But where we find ourselves leaves him blank. "It wants a what?" He searches through his inventory, but nothing seems to be a suitable gift or sacrifice or whatever it's looking for. He is perhaps distracted by Dosbox asking Seta how to attract women. "If you have to ask, you don't have what it takes," he tells Dos forlornly. As for here, he repeats to Dos, "I was told by a gamer friend that there are no women in games. If there /were/ women in games, they're married already. If they're women and not married, they're lying about something major. Best not to worry about it."

Thalia takes the hand up, smiling slightly at Soujiro. "Thanks," she says before she tries to get her hair to lay back down a bit. It's not working. She shocks herself with static electricity trying to do it and sighs. "Guess that's going to be like that, then."

At least the teleporter goes active and they reappear Elsewhere.

The altar, well. She's a little more willing to sacrifice something alive to it, so she starts hunting for a rat, or a bat or something, but she comes up dry. "I mean, I could bleed on it, I guess."

"If you think they look young and cute, then telling them your honest feelings is a good thing!" Soujiro says, leaving avatar and player gender out of it entirely. People like feeling good! "So long as you are mindful to that person's feelings." It is less about what you say and more what you mean. He looks over to Schneider and protects the honor of imaginary people everywhere, "Schneider! Your friend shouldn't spread rumors like that. Women play games." It just happens a lot of them end up around him. For reasons. Sparkly reasons.

The tunnels appear more roughly carved the further the Adventurers travel into the depths of the mine. There are long scratch marks in some places, as if something huge had scraped the stone as it passed through. Eventually, the way opens into a small chamber, which looks as if it has become a stopping point for Adventurers who are exploring the dungeon. Sitting against one wall is a pale Adventurer. Their weapons and armor have been set next to them, head resting back against the wall. Upon seeing your arrival, their head lifts, "Oh! I was hoping someone would come along. My party was killed by the spiders. I've been bitten." There is pain written on their face. "Our healer had the antidote potions, do you think you could lend a stranger a hand?" The Adventurer asks, eyes pleading.

"You are safe with us," Soujiro says in a My Hero Academia style 'because We are here' shenanigans. Healing starts with the mind! Then it moves to magic and potions. Of which Souji has a few and goes through his inventory to hand one out without a second thought. Such thoughtfulness. Sword Saintliness! Perfect Potion found.

Dosbox begins to sweat anxiously; the person dying from poison might as well be a WALL to Dossy, he whispers quietly while side-eying Thalia, "Okay, so, what if I already said the stupid thing, then? How do I make amends?"

Somehow, they bypass the altar and get into more tunnels. Thalia is comfortable in the dark, though she could do with a bit more space. Her eyes flicker towards Soujiro and DosBox as their conversation, her ears burning. She's flighty, not foolish.

As they get to the adventurer, she looks horrified and sympathetic. She begins to cast what looks like a minor summoning ritual, a magic circle appearing in the air. It seems to be going well until a cobweb wafts across her face, and she gets blasted out of the magical flow, flailing at it. The magic circle crackles ominously, but thankfully doesn't backlash. This time. It seems to crumble away to motes, and she sags a little.

"It's not my day."

Schneider shrugs as Soujiro defends women. "Oh, you're safe. You have zero romantic intentions towards your women. That's /why/ they hang around you. You're safe." As we find this injured Adventurer all alone, he raises a hand up, and lights a light that makes it seem bright as day. This lights up the area considerably, and makes it much easier to note the dim status effects that are harder to read. This allows for a more accurate and effective diagnosis to happen, and his magic, not specifically tuned to healing, can nonetheless have a positive effect. Few people remember that although he bills himself as an Exploder Wizard and pure DPS, he's actually a balanced hybrid class, the Rune Knight, one of the rare ones, but able to fit nearly any niche.

The inability for Dos to see the person they are treating as a person gets concern from Soujiro. And the question is like asking for how to make a goldfish fly if attaching wings with superglue didnt work. "Talk to them," is all the advice he can offer. "Listen to them," he adds in, as thats not the same as talking. On that note he thumbs up to Schneider, "I do like the people around me feeling safe," as he completely misses what 'safe' means in that context. An encouraging smile given to Thalia.

The ground starts to become thicker with spider webbing the further the Adventurers delve into the depths of the dungeon. The waycontinues to descend downward to a set of spiral stairs which lets outinto a truly horrifying sight. A strange underground jungle has formed here by some miracle of dark magic. Strange plants glow with eerie, purple and green leaves. Pools of black sludge seem to burble at times, bubbles rising up from them and popping with an acidic hiss. Spiders move amongst the leaves, each nearly the size of a human being. They stop to drink from the fetid pools, as if they were lacing their pincers with poison. They, too, have an unearthly glow to them, as if the taint of this place has become part of them. However, the Adventurers are not part of this strange environment, and the spiders sense that. Soon enough, they turn eyes on the Adventurers.

Time for a fight! Soujiro draws out his blades. Gotta keep people safe in Tank Mode. The two katanas get a sharp glint to them as he does just that, giving space between the ranged party members and the spydairs to do their thing.

Dosbox sees Soujiro draw his weapons and blinks a couple of times, "Oh, right! The dungeon!" He looks around and notices SWEET JESUS SPIDERS! With a quick upward sweeping motion, he makes earthbenders cry with jealousy, sending an earth pillar into one of the spiders, and the spider, in turn, is sent to the ceiling. SQUISH!

As they move further, she tries not to listen to the conversation between DosBox and Soujiro. Though she is rapidly understanding why the samurai is incredibly popular with women. He's just so -nice-. A good person is attractive, regardless.

Anyway, they move into a room full of spiders. Giant ones. Luckily she's not arachnophobic. "Boy, they're big. I think i'll try something..."

Dark energy coalesces around her swords as she draws them, her concentration deep and focused. She takes a step forward and spins one blade in her hand, the edge leading. As the tip skims the ground, a small wave of magic bursts from the tip and skims along the ground in an unfamiliar technique.

It fizzles about five feet from her.

"Oh -come on!-"

Schneider smirks as Seta misunderstands him, but draws a positive conclusion from it. To Dos, he says, "Treat them like anyone else you'd interact with. Then they'll form an opinion of you that isn't based on you putting on an act." The sight of horrible spiders recharging their poison glands does not disturb him unduly, he simply stands back and casts, "Fiery Power Blast of the Damned!", which comes out as fast as he can say it, and it's a tiny mana draw, so he can spam it, and it hit the spiders pretty hard, knocking them back a few steps with each hit while eating HP in large bites.

The environment begins to grow more and more strange, the walls glowing faintly with an eerie green color. Drops of acid seem to hiss from the ceiling, falling on the unwary who dare to pass further into this tainted place. At first, it seems like they are heading for adead end, but the wall lifts as if it senses their arrival. It opens into a boss chamber which looks suspiciously like the onethey had left in the mines above. However, the coloration of this roomis more unearthly. The strange etchings on the wall all glow with thateerie, acid green. Standing in the center of the chamber is a massive spider which seems to be an unusual shade of white. Flickers of blueseem to move across the creature's entire body. As soon as the fight is initiated, it /blinks/ out of existence onlyto reappear halfway across the chamber. Whatever this monster is, ithas a very dangerous teleportation ability. The Adventurers had bestbe wary if they don't want to be caught unawares.

A fast boss spider? "Phase spiders," Soujiro recognizes them from gamer lore. He is excited to square off against one. It will be a good test of his reflexes. His body lowers down as Kogarasumaru goes into its saya, sheathed and ready to strike. The tension builds. When the spider appears again to attack Thalia, he executes the Sword Arte. Don't blink, or you'll miss it. Also, for the spider, if you DONT blink, you'll be hit by it. The Phase Spider does not Blink away, getting a big red damage line across its body as Soujiro appears on the other side of it. His secondary katana comes out to deflect a sword-like mandible. The entire exchange leaves it dazed and open to a barrage of beatings. "Thanks for distracting it," he tells Thalia, as it was hard for Souji to pull agro on something he couldn't target until now, "lets finish this." All-Out Attack. Looking cool, Joker.

They move on, and the Spriggan starts to get a little nervous. It's awfully creepy down here. She's glad she has her swords in hand. As they come into the room with the Phase Spider, she boggles for a moment, eyes shooting wide as it flickers around the room. She looks worried for a second, then grins.

"Oh. I can do that."

She bounces in place for a moment, trying to discern a pattern to its teleports. With a sharp inhale, she vanishes in a flicker. She matches the spider's blinking around the room with her own, reappearing near it and striking with her blades, only to follow it as it teleports around. Take that, giant bug!

Dosbox clears his throat. The party is at the end of the dungeon, and he's been talking about GIRLS the whole time. "Sir, yes, sir!" He replies guiltily. He feels the need to make amends... So with this next one, he's going all out.

Rising off the ground a couple inches as he begins to pump an uncomfortable amount of electricity through his body, as if he were a battery, DosBox's eyes start glowing bright yellow as he says in his uncharacteristically baritone voice,

"UNLIMITED POWER!"

Emperor Palps would be jealous of how much force lightning is lighting up this spider. More importantly, the constant shock is making it hard for the phase spider to... You know. Phase. This opens up a great opportunity for anyone to finish the job.

Schneider huhs. "Phase spider? What's one of those?" Schneider very weak on the lore, minus what he's specifically studied, le leaves odd gaps in his knowledge. Mostly around game-typical stuff, as he is very much nor a gamer. Apart from now that he's stuck in it. On the other hand, big spiders, he has a solution for. It's the same solution he has for most problems, admittedly, but it's a good solution.

"Deep Doomsday," he chants, and light dims around him. "To the spirits of land and air, bound by the pact, fulfill your obligation now." He takes a breath, points, shouts, "MEGADETH!"

A thunderous conflagration slams into the spider, burning away HP like snow in a supernova. He holds the attack on the jumping spider as it moves until the massive conflagration is spent and the spider, still on fire in places, now has much fewer HP.

Little by little, the Adventurers are able to whittle down the health of the Phase Spider, dodging attacks and striking out at it when it appears. One health bar goes down, then a second. At the very end, with the last shred of health, the creature turns and tries to flee, clawing at the wall. Then, as the last strike falls, it bursts into colorful dots of light. Where it had been standing, the wall crumbles away, revealing a barrier of light. However, the Adventurers are unable to pass through at this point. An error message pop up which says: "Adventurer Level 25+ required to Enter." A small treasure chest lays where the Phase Spider had vanished, containing a number of crystals which look as if they share the creature's unusual properties.

By now the Adventurers are past 25, but there is another barrier blocking. A glitch?! Coding Issues? A matter of national security?! Unknown! Souji doesn't know, at least. He goes to pick up his loot but the system also lets him know that the UNIQUE that he is trying to pick up doesnt allow a second. Fair enough! "That was fun," he asides to the victorious team, "especially the Phase Spider. I am going to go back and check on the Adventurer we came across before. Make sure they are doing OK. Then tea after." And more training. "Welcome to join me," he openly offers. There are no redshirts to him, the nameless Adventurer, who only HAPPENS to have the Adventurer Name Rhedd Shurte when inspected, needs a helping hand.

Dosbox nods a couple of times, "Yeah, I might. Your tea is the greatest, Soujiro!" He turns to Thalia, swallows, and jogs up to her, "Hey, uh... Sorry for saying you might be old. I mean, you look 22, for sure, and you don't look 75, like, at all."

Schneider breathes out with a whuff as the last fire is thrown at the target and it bursts into pixels. "Sweet," he says at the victory notification, but at the blocked from progressing, he sighs. "We must have missed some side passage. But I guess it's well-hidden and everyone else has missed it, too." He nods about it being fun, and nods about Seta going back to check on the guy partway through. "It should be OK, we cleared the path, so he should be able to make it through before things respawn." But he will rejoin for tea and hanging out.

The spider falls, and Thalia droops a little bit from exertion. "That went well," she says as she sheathes her two blades.

She eyeballs the crystal a second before slipping it away, just in time for DosBox to come over and apologise. She stares at him for a long moment, silent. She wonders, exactly, what to say. She crouches down to look the Gnome in the eyes. Her usualy sparkly violet eyes are more than a little sad.

"Listen," she says, her voice quiet enough that hopefully only Dossy can hear it. "I accept your apology and, honestly, most people would have laughed. I," She hesitates. "In real life, I was hurt in an accident. I lost the use of my legs. It ... It ruined me. So I'm probably a little oversensitive, so i'm sorry if I made you feel bad. You're a nice guy and didn't know, so don't feel bad on my account, okay?"

By the time she rises back to her feet, the cheerful mask is back on. "Great job everybody! Let's get out of here."