Quest Time With Dosbox And Uta!

The lake around Eas shines a calm crystal blue color of its namesake. Fir trees dot the region and the crisp mountain air sings of nature. It is a perfect place for a cabin, a campsite, and a dock to go fishing off of.

| The ideal is shattered when the fish fight back.

A trail around Crystal Lake is marked by skirmishes with the Sahuagin, aquatic monsters known for savagery. Drag marks go off the pat and into the water where the less fortunate met their end. The trees are scarred by tooth, claw, and trident from resistance. The deep blue waters no longer evoke tranquility, but instead a veil which predators could ambush the unprepared.

The trail towards the entrance of their lair is obvious, as if to provoke the bold to seek these monsters out and dole out despair against their might.

"Give a fish a man, and he'll slaughter for one day," Uta begins, delivering a speech to the assembled adventurers. "But teach a fish to man the battlestations, and you have a slippery situation on your fins," Uta begins. "Beware, team: here we are not dealing with a bunch of cowardly creatures. They're no chickens of the sea. They are going to be the tunas of the lake. And that's where we've come full circle, like the letter O. O for tuna. Velut Luna. Statu variabilis." She sighs, leaning on her magical staff. "Ah, Orff. Carmina Burana. The classics." She shakes her head. "Anyway... where was I... oh, right. Any questions?"

When Fish Back Part 2: Fishingtown Foofighteroo. Haru is here too. After a recent trip to Eas, he is only more interested in the situation going on here. Murlo-- Sahuagin in a Lake? Whats next? Kaiju Slimes? Don't answer that.

"Uta," the silver haired Wave Arte Wielder waves, "that is making me hungry. Mixed feelings about murdering my meal." Of course he wouldn't EAT a monster fish. Probably. There are possibly scenarios that he would. Have you /see/ the food drops? Best not to ask how and where it comes to be. The young man stands in epic chuuni fashion along the trail. That is to say: He is hanging out.

Long ago Jenny was playing World of Warcraft, it was very early on she was playing with her parents but she'd run off to quest, she was lost around Goldshire. Then came the lake, then came an unending wave of Murlocs and much red headed screaming at the game.

Today there were fishmen they had to be purged they were near Eas which was utterly unacceptable.

She's clad in her heavy blade armor, she looks focused and lioke she could kill something.

"So we got Fishmen we should watch it, they tend to call others for aid we need to prevent them from doing that and burn out the source of the infestation..."

Dosbox raises his hand as Uta asks for questions, "Does anyone want to go for sushi after? I am a big fan of sushi." DosBox is raring to go on this mission, and as always, he isn't exactly sure what the mission entails, but he makes up for that in enthusiasm.

Shiruba gives a sharp whistle as she holds out one arm and after a moment her falcon comes to land on the offered limb. Windburn settles, kwas and spreads her wings wide. Shiruba nods, and feeds the raptorial a bit of jerky before turning back to the group. "She says there's tracks and signs of fighting all around the lake. So they're not just converging in one location." One can only presume that the spread wings was some manner of 'everywhere'. "We're going to have to cover a lot of area until we find more specific clues to their movements."

Kaydon's arrival along with Shiruba isn't unexpected, since he tends to follow her around, as she leads him with promises of money. However as he stands there, listening to Uta, he just listens. Interesting. He has suspected for a while that she is playing a bit, more than anything else...But he's still so unsure. There's no proof.

"So right now we're just trying to find them, and then once we do we can drive them out. Sounds reasonable." He says to Shiruba as he moves around in front of her. DOsbox gets a glance.

"Haru," Uta replies with enthusiasm. "...yeah, that's making me hungry too."

"We will make sure these fish don't make too much of a ruckus," Uta nods to Gwen. "I'm sure we'll manage. It'll be like shooting... some animal... in... some container." Metaphors are hard in a pinch. "Fish are involved in fashion, right? Stockings and stuff?", Uta offers to Gwen. "So I'm sure you'll ace this!"

"These are migratory fish, yes. Teach a fish to bird, and MAN! Do you have a slippery situation on your hands. And fish that tastes like chicken, likely."

Uta's stomach growls. "...I do want sushi...", she mutters, quiet but not enough to remain unheard.

"Yes! That!", Uta exclaims, pointing at Kaydon. "Step 1, find fishmen. Step 2... we'll burn that bridge when we get to it. It's probably underwater. Which will complicate the arson. But knowing the playerbase of ETO, I am positive that we will not let such trifles stand in the way of a good fireball!"

Once that Question Time is over, the party ventures in.

The first beast that greets the Adventurers is not a Sahuagin at all. It is a hulking golem made of scales, bone, limestone, and malice. A crude '13' is etched into the largest torso rock serving as its core. It stands as a sentinel before the yawning cave behind it.

Beyond the Guardian is the entrance to the monster's den where the boss and answers await. The golem is crudely constructed yet durable.

"...A number? Is this some sort of... billiards ball?", she frowns. "Are we dealing with a pool shark or something?", Uta shakes her head. "No, no, it's a lake. It'd be a lake shark. A lake pool shark?"

:looks a little confused. "Huh. An Earth golem. Wasn't expecting that." He gives a shrug before throwing his hand back dramatically, as if to send some imaginary cape to flow behind him.

"Well, your LUCK has run out, as you've come across BORYWICK "DOSBOX" ROCKBORER, THE SUPER SUPPORT! EARTH MASTER EXTRORDINAIRE!!!"

He waits for a couple of seconds, "Get it? Because 13 is an unlucky number?" He clears his throat, "Nevermind. As Uta so kindly put it, let's play POOL..." He pulls up a large ball of rock all earth bender style, and sends it into the golem, destabilizing it for anyone else to wail on it.

This thing again. Haru has come across it one before and he makes the observation of, "The thirteen on this area is going to bug me until we figure it out." Vertina brought it up first. Where are the first twelve? Do fish just like that number? Crash! Smash! While Haru is contemplating big brain things, there is a battle going on around him. As to be expected from a man with a monocle. "Precisely, Uta. /Are/ we dealing with a 'pool shark'? A Lake Shark? Last time I ventured out here we were stalked by a big fish in a mask. Maybe the nonviolent solution was to play a game with them." Crash smash!

"This may be the bouncer," Haru observes as he is sprayed with pebbles from the back rows. He coughs, raising his hands and letting the stone debris form into a solid chonk of stonechonk. Meteor Striker variant from Vertina or Laharl. Arms go up. Arms go down. Ka-doosh. One big crashing stone back at the golem.

Gwen looks over to Kaydon. "Been too long since we partied my dear Devil Dog." She's grinning as her spirits pick up and she looks over to her Sister. "Also good to see you sis! I have some outfit ideas for you! No flannel is involved..." She now tunrs her attention to the dungeon.

"I can make us all something after we're done here!"

"Oh you have got to be. Kayton I'll need you as Off tank!"

With that she charges in.

"Uta, you're trying too hard with the fish metaphors." Shiruba sends Windburn back into aerial recon as the group starts to move on. "You need to scale back and catch them naturally, or you'll go green at the gills."

Farther delving into that matter is brought to an end as the peregrin makes her warning cry for danger. Shiruba tenses up, already having her magic longbow at the ready by the time the golem of aquatic minerals and fossilization emerges. "Not the kind of monster I was expecting. But," she draws an narrow tipped arrow from her quiver, nocks it in her bow, and fires it at the golem.

Specifically it's a high piercing arrow and she's aimed for the center mass of the rock making up the amalgamation's body, intending to crack and weaken it, so it won't be able to support the rest of it's weight.

A big rock..Fish thing, "Huh. You know with a name like Crystal Lake I guess I was thinking there'd be more machetes." He says, though he only takes a moment before he springs into action, driving forward to try to strike the beast with one of his swords. He doesn't think he needs to break out the gunblade yet, though the damage he delivers isn't quite up to snuff.

What do Earth golems do?

What do Earth golems ALWAYS do?

No, not the part where they make low, rumbling, crackling sounds as they move. Of course that happens. That's not the part we're interested in.

No, no, also not the part where they make the ground shake and tremble at every step, possibly causing debris to detach from the wall and ceiling. Yes, that happens too.

They -punch-. A fist heads for a terrified Uta, and slams where the floor meets the walls with the violence of a rocket-propelled locomotive; the Spriggan -barely- manages to jump out and tumble to safety a short distance away. "HEY! -You-'re supposed to go into the side pocket, not me!"

Uta snaps to direct her attention to Haru. "Or perhaps one needs to sing a duet with the masked fish. Phantom of the Underwater Opera."

"Pool! That is an excellent idea, Borywick," Uta exclaims, just as Dosbox's ball of rock bumps the golem into rolling through the floor, right where Haru's big crashing stone deflects it again. Trick billiards! "It certainly looks good at bouncing..." Uta comments, before turning to Gwen: "...Are you making us something to eat or something to wear?", Uta asks, feigning insouciance.

If the monster survives this, it'll have one heck of a story to tell. "I used to be a bouncer, but then I took an arrow to my center of mass." Silence. "...And an Adventurer to the knee."

Yes, because Uta takes the opportunity to counterattack, and deliver a flying kick straight into the golem's leg joints.

Kaydon's blow may not be what he was expecting, but it does dock some HP. Lesser damage is still damage... and considering how much the other adventurers have weakened it, especially Shiruba's structural meddling, that little damage is enough to dispatch the threat.

The legends about Water Temples being the worst are true. The door deeper in is immediately recognizable by a XIII on the keystone, an ornate aquian door, and a trident-shaped keyhole that bemoans further puzzle solving will be required to get access beyond it.

Corridors lead away from the antechamber where Undine or excellent swimmers would not struggle to do the platforming necessary to obtain a piece of coral. The less aquatically inclined may struggle. The struggle bus continues on with the assembled pieces being fragments of the backup key that need to be assembled before it is used.

A skilled appraiser will need to discern the properties whereas one good with puzzles and cryptography are needed to determine how they connect to each other. Finally a crafter is needed to forge it as a whole piece before it is used on the door.

There is the dread and sensation that the party is being hunted while they solve the challenge.

"...Shiruba? Seriously? I thought that fish puns were more of a tank thing..."

The Golem was unexpected, but it's handily dealt with so the group can approach the door it was guarding. Windburn perches on the peak of the frame, but this is a problem Shiruba is going to have to tackle herself. But it can't be too terrible of one because she actually smiles a bit at it. "Good thing I studied Saunguin runics when we were dealing with the other underwater ventures." She puts a hand to the door, reading the runes both visually and sensing the history behind them with her loremaster abilities. The combination allows her to quickly decipher them and rattle off a sequence of engagement for the specific locks and greebles.

Phantom of the underwater opera. "That is very Eta, Uta. We could be going about it all wrong. Lets speak to Elly about having a show over the lake," he says. Cirque de Eas, featuring 'O', the watershow. "We are on the clock," Haru says, "last time I was here, there was a big bad that interupted us before we got through this gate. He did have a machete." He gets out his field kit for accessory forging from his inventory. It is a small chest that extends outwards for makeshift work that comes across in adventures. Magical. A small bubble appears around it and ejects all the debris in the area, creating a clean, steril working condition for materials that are often so precise that a grain of sand can impact the outcome.

Haru then stands up after the workbench is built and starts on evaluating the door itself. "Feeding in sensory data," he says as a finger runs along the silver rim of his purple monocle. White lines begin to appear across it. Text that he can read, as Appraisal in isekai is always OP. "Crafting speedrun edition," he says as he gets to work, feeding in Shiruba's commentary into the design. Two Silver Sword leaders in action. Take a picture. 404 Error: Screenshot function not found.

Kaydon may also be using this as a field test, because after the fight is over, he takes the sword he had been using, grabbing it by the blade in his gauntleted hand, and flexing it until it snaps and turns into pixels.

"Can't put anything out there that won't hold up." He explains, if anyone in the group happens to be curious. He pulls a totally different blade out of his inventory after a few swipes, and locks it back onto his back, "I don't think I'm going to be a lot of help here." He says, as he looks to Haru, "But give me a few things to do and I'll see how I can help."

Gwen is down with taking out the golem she will smile a bit at Uta's antic also watching Dosbox using his magic in interesting ways. Things are going good so far and she's grinnding when the thing goes down.

Things are going go until they find the way to the water temple. Water Temple? She can only recall a mmory of as a young child and her dad yelling at the TV about some Adventure Game's water temple and the horrors within. She gulps and starts to look around and she seem to be able for once to figure out some aspet of the puzzles which she relays to the party.

Dosbox watches and waits. DosBox could probably help. Heck, he's REALLY GOOD at what Haru is doing. But that's just the thing. Haru is doing it just fine, and... "Oh, you should probably rotate Piece B 2 degrees clockwise..." Dosbox interjects. Where was I? Oh, yes. Haru will probably do it better than he ever could, so there was no point in him helping at all. DosBox sighs, making circles on the ground with his toe.

"Don't fret about the monster with a machete," Uta reassures Haru with a flick of her hand. "I know ju-jitsu."

Shiruba, the rune whisperer- wait, no, it's more like, 'runes, the Shiruba wisperers.

And Gwen. Can't forget Gwen!

The Runes, the Shiruba and Gwen whisperers, murmur their secrets to those capable and willing to listen to them. And thanks to that information, and Haru's accessory forging can proceed with a more informed direction.

As for Uta, her full attention is devoted to something relevant to the situation at hand.

"...That's a nice weapon, Kaydon. I've never seen anything like that. What is it?", she asks, completely failing to pay attention to anything else.

But all this would have been in vain, if people had forgotten to rotate piece B 2 degrees clockwise. See, 'piece B', whose full technical name is "'Underwater Sahuagin Block type 'B'", has this property where you have to first rotate it once. It won't work. Then you have to rotate again. It won't work. THEN, when you rotate it three times, against all odds, it will work.

The kind of reality warping effects possible only in fantasy worlds like that of ETO.

The party gets on the other side of the door as an aberration of a Sahuagin with a mask on comes into view. It shambles towards them. This prompts a quick shut of the door once on the other side. Bang. Bang bang. Silence. The party is safe from the menace.

The main chamber is filled with pools of water with silver and golden fish swimming in them. The floor is smooth and slickened rocks from the regular splashing from these pools. No monsters roam here. It appears to be a quiet and sanctified place that stretches far back to a singular circular door made of coral as hard as any known metal. The familiar XIII is proudly etched into it.

Something is clearly not right with this place and the active schools of fish here glint in the light to direct the Adventurers to clues as to what that is. A trained fisherman or animal handler can lure the fish to them and inspect for clues. Otherwise magic or athletic hands are required to catch them and interrogate out their fishy secrets.

"...Glad you could tackle that, Shiruba."

The approach of another figure doesn't go unnoticed, mostly thanks to Windburn perched atop the doorway. She makes her alarm cry again to let the party know their time is limited. Fortunately the combination of skills present is able to open the gates, and she swoops down to follow everyone else inside. The doors slam shut in the nick of time.

Inside is pools of fish. Not a big surprise, but something in the fish themselves catchs Shiruba's eyes. "Hmmm." Fortunately she has a great fishing partner, sending the falcon to divebomb one of the pools and snatch a fish in her talons, bringing it back to Shiruba to inspect. The huntress picks up the fish, and tosses the bird another bit of jerky for a job well done. Then inspects the fish to see if her hunch of it's unusual nature is correct. "Let's see what secrets you hide."

Dosbox whistles to himself as he begins to gather fish one by one, putting each of them into a waterproof bag. It doesn't seem like he's gathering them for the secrets they hold though. "o/~ Sushi Sushi... Come see my sushi... Hang out with me, it's the place to be... Suushiiiii... o/~" Ah... No secrets are coming from DosBox's efforts.

"That's a lot of fish." Kaydon says, as he looks down at the various groups of pools.

He takes a look a round, though when he hears Uta's comment he grins, "This one should be a bit better than the other. It's a new blade I'm working on. I might try to put out a more mass produced version sometime." He says, as he takes a knee next to one of the pools, "Hmm." He dips the blade into the water, and uses it to slide one of the fish around where he wants it to be, until he flicks the blade and knocks the fish into the air, grabbing it out of the air with his other hand, "Okay. Lets see what the deal is."

Uta is on to something. Haru /does/ know ju-jitsu. Haru does a little stance towards the end and realizes that Elder Tales has stripped anything remotely close to martial prowess from him. 1 damage to the air! Shoulder throw to the air! Arm bar the air! Haru looks like he is inventing a new dance move. The Eas Extra dance was born today.

Ten minutes earlier: Haru provides Kaydon guidance on where to help out. Notably it is in transcription and fielding the coral materials to himself and Dos. Dos is doing just fine without Haru, and noticing the foot scuffing he quickly puts Dos to work on the right side of his workbench. He can make the 'teeth' of the key while Haru builds the rest of it. Haru is not against teamwork. That and unsolicited advice and interuptions is going to slow things down. Gotta be lean. Gotta be agile. Gotta be...

...back in the present a lean and agile Haru is not getting any progress on this whole 'I can do kung fu' thing. One day. "This is new," he says upon stopping in the room with all the pools. "The gates are hiding a very special spawning ground for," he looks into a pool, "fish?" Sounds fishy. Very fishy. He hums and summons out Won-qu, which is a large dire-wolf sized ice floof he occasionally uses as a mount. "Won-qu, help me dissern this fishy situation." The elemental, which notably is a /summon/ and not an /animal/ and thus has no will of its own, looks at Haru like 'No, not going to do that'. Haru spends the next ten minutes in the background arguing with his summon, who is more interested in flopping next to a pool and occasionally dunking his head into the water to reflect 'helping' the same way a Husky is 'helping' by not 'helping'.

The Puzzels are over for the moment, working with Shiruba was honestly very fun. She's actually laughing at this point she looks over to Kaydon and muses for a moment.

"mmm I should consider a better sword or maybe armor, I'm not sure." She will worry about that later as she keep on pushing though and she honestly likes her life like this.

She will be wary as they get into dealing with this issue.

"Is it me or is something really fishy down here?"

At Windburn's signal, Uta rushes in with everyone else, and after the door are slammed closed, she catches her head while leaning with her back against the closed gate. Anxious breathing.

"Borywick, no cooking the evidence," the Spriggan admonishes. "Remember, there's increased reports of monsters with anomalous properties in their code. We might be dealing with something malicious. We might think we're going fishing. But it's actually phishing." A scolding frown. "No ingesting suspicious code."

Haru simply gets a stare of reluctant approval. It's like a stare of disapproval, except you cannot bring yourself to disapproving. In fact, you can't help but approve of what is going on. Despite the pressing circumstances.

"Oh, yes. Better swords and better armor are always good for people who... actually use them, I suppose." Squishy Clothie Support Life!

As for Uta's contributions, she... just wanders around. And just happens to be wherever fish spontaneously jump out of the water. And sneeze at the right moment to accidentally catch a fish in her mouth. Like a frisbee. Weaponizing obliviousness: success!

The fishes yield their secrets to their Adventurers after a short or exhausting effort in acquiring them. The metallic fish are gathering small objects from the lake for the Sahuagin. The objects are occult in origin and appear in enigmatic format.

These enigma fragments are highly coveted by the Sahuagin. A light is first seen from the pools that glows brighter and brighter before the monsters burst forth in a primal scream. There are the bloodthirsty fish people Adventurers know and slaughter! They are wearing particular headgear now. Lamp helmets? It makes the fish fighters look like a cult worshiping Lantern Fish. It also makes them a cut above the rest as the light bursts in flares to blind and also throws bolts of divine energy fueled by their zeal.

The party is stuck in ranged combat unless they can evoke strong Dark magic to reduce the effect of their lamps. A trained Diviner can better understand the origins of this holy assault and guide the team to victory.

A few shakes manages to dislodge the bit of metal from the fish. Shiruba squints at it, tossing the fish back into a pool as it is no longer needed. "There is a certain aura of occultness from these bits. Are the fish guarding them? Or maybe farming them?" Heh. Fish farm. "This location is definitely of some vital nature. You would think it would be more guar--"

Cue the arrival of the Cultists in their lantern fish headguard, and the slinging of attacks both physical and magical.

"--As I was saying." Shiruba steps back and readies herself, drawing several arrows from her quiver. Its time to do what Ranged DPS does best -- kill things before getting too close to allies. Considering they have two less direct combat oriented party members here, she makes it a priority to shoot fishmen getting too close to Dosbox or Haru. She knows Kaydon and Gwen can handle the frontline, and Uta will... be Uta. Windburn takes wing to assist, flying around and blasting bursts of air and dirt with her wings to harass the cultists farther and keep them from focusing on the two crafters.

"I'll be more than happy to hook you up with a new blade, Gwen. I'm not the armor guy though, unfortunately." Kaydon replies, after the fish give up their secrets to the team. Stuck in ranged combat, Kaydon knows he's not going to be very helpful as a fighter int his instance, so he switches over to the Jaeger, the gunblade coming to life, so to speak, as he steps in front of the ranged attackers.

He trusts Shiruba and Haru to be able to rain hell down upon these fish, all he has to do is keep those energy blasts from hitting the back line, swatting them down out of the air with the gunblade.

Dosbox dejectedly starts putting the fish back one by one, "Okay, but I still want sushi after." He pouts a little before he notes the fishmen guards begin to advance. He adopts a smile akin to the evil one you see on the Grinch in that one old christmas movie... What was the name of it, again?

At any rate, DosBox begins shooting the fish he caught at the Sahuagin like bullets: one second Dossy is levitating a fish, the next second a fish tail is poking out of a fishman's torso.

There is a curious look at the things the fish are collecting. Haru is intrigued. A glance is given to Shiruba with a hum. "Very odd. I conclude... lamps," as the statement is cut off by cultists.

Lamps? I love lamps. Haru gets slapped with a divine energy. Love of lamp is dead. I hate lamps. "Uta," Haru says as he hides behind the shieldy shieldersons of the group such as Kaydon and Gwen. "Darkness intro?" They have been practicing for this.

Spoiler alert: They really haven't.

"Prepare for trouble," chuuni's Haru as he gathers up the Darkness(tm) in the area. It sweeps like a black velvet pulling in from the corners where the lamps cast their shadow.

Cue: Make it double.

"To protect the world from annihilation."

Cue: Haru forgot, anything'll do.

"Uta, I think we need a faster version of this," the caster says as he is getting rained on with divine bullets while doing the bit. Brilliant strategy: shoot the monologuers. "Curtain call," he says with a snap of his fingers, causing a flood of darkness to swirl in a dire wind across the arena. With a somber howl it dims down the lamps to a faint candlelight, debuffing the 'divine divers' with the power of chuuni justice.

Gwen looks to Dosbox and smirks.

"We should hold off there untoil we're finished." She notes and she ponders her next fashion idea at Uta's words. The seeds of a strange mood may have been planted right there. The idea the fight is going to happen gets a grin on Gwen's face as she's just going to barrel on in again.

"We will have to talk on that later Kaydon."

The fight is on once more as the fishmen have to be stopped.

There's ranged fighting, there's melee fighting. And then there's fighting fire with fire. Or, out of metaphor, fighting fish with fish. Like shooting fish in a barrel. With other fish. Someone might be expecting the next level of Weaponforging Strange Mood: fish gun. Swordfish Gunblade to follow for Legendary level.

Haru: 'Prepare for Trouble'

Uta: "Make It Double."

Haru: 'To protect the world from annihilation'

Uta, who also forgot. "And.... uh...uh... uhnnnnnleash on you terrifying obscuration." There. Not bad for being improvised.

Haru: 'Uta, I think we need a faster version of this,'

Uta turns to Haru, and recites, still serious, "And once we do, our opponents dismiss."

Beat.

"Wait, wait, that wasn't in character, was it?" Rub her temples. "Yes, yes. We need a faster version."

And that is a good idea. ALWAYS shoot the monologuer. That's why Haru and Uta are setting this whole shebang up as a two-people deal: it technically is not a monologue. They are no fools.

No pity for the fool.

...okay, technically, Uta may have been a bit of a fool by having given Gwen ideas. But still, the point stands: no pity for the fool.

The fighting outside of the circular coral-metal door has alerted the inhabitants of the Adventurer's presence. It hisses to life and sinks inwards. The circular door rolls away to reveal new Sahuagin. Big Sahuagin. Angry Sahuagin.

These monsters are clad from head to toe in the self-same coral-metal as the door. Shock troopers all of them as their natural savage strength permits them the fortitude to launch into combat on the order of a tall, thinner Sahuagin in a blue jumpsuit. The Bossfish steps back, as bosses do, to let the minions do the mincing.

A fight with a singular boss may be preferred after finding the Aquarmarine's armor is so thick that it's ineffective unless imbued with elemental effects. Lightning works slightly better, but Water is just as bad as physical attacks.

The stocky creatures seem more inclined to push the party back over defeat them as if the hissing and clacking from the room beyond the door needs them to bide for time.

Dosbox jump out and shouts, "Meowth, that's right!" Before he misses the landing and faceplants into the Earth. It takes a couple of seconds for him to get up, brush himself off, and reassess the situation.

"... Yeah, you need to practice doing that faster though. Monsters aren't going to stand around watching like anime protagonists do," Shiruba adds after the display. She's nerd enough to get what they were going for.

Meanwhile, more heavily armored fishmen have emerged on the fight scene. "I guess they decided to change from drowning us in numbers to drowning us in defenses." Shiruba shifts her stance, raising her aim up instead of directly at the new enemies, and drawing back on Thundersnow Howl without an arrow in it. This utilizes the bow's magic to form an arrow out of electricity in itself, which she fires into a high arc.

And it detonates in a way, which sends several bolts of lightning infused with divine energies crashing down towards the Aquamarines. The only drawback to the attack is that it's still a little erratic, because it's lightning. But that's going to be uncomfortable for them to just be around, hopefully, even if it's not directly scoring hits.

"Are you guys.." Kaydon shakes his head, but keeps on doing his best to defend the team as they do their poses and speech.

Eventually, they find themselves facing off against armored sahagain shocktroopers. These he knows he can deal with. While they may be resistant to non-elemental attacks, Kaydon has found a way to combine a sword arte with a magic arte, using those cartridges for his gunblade.

He closes the distance on the first one, slamming the blade downwards with an explosion of fire magic, channeling through the blade. The explosion rocks the room, but Kaydon moves to the next armored monster after the strike, following through one after another, to rock each of them with an explosive strike.

Gwen says "To unite all people's with in our nation. To Denounce the evils of truth and love..."

An idea hits her, a cosplay idea she can drag all her frineds into. This would be a thing of glory but it would have to wait for a bit till later. It will have to be done however her nerdy demands it now. With that aside Gwen will now launch into a chain of powerful air magic via her shield which really does clash with her outfit, not that she seems to care about fashion when her friends well being is on the line!

"They didn't have appreciation for the theatrics," Haru asides to Uta on the in and out of character thing. He motions to Dos, "Gwen gets it. Bory gets it. Exploring and exploiting are part of the adventure. Having a good time is the other." Now, Haru is very straight-man thin-lipped no-real-smiles. Fake smiles for days, which are worse. So to speak of fun? Gasp! Someone check to make sure he isn't possessed.

He is not.

Then there are these stocky marines storming bolts of death upon them. "Armor powered by coral," muses the Artificer, "fascinating." A glint in his monocle. "I accept this challenge," he brushes back some of his silvery hair. "Everyone, I respectfully ask that you remain two steps to the left or the right of the earth mecha-mental. A beam of concentrated arcane energy is not the sort of feeling you want at your back."

Both of Haru's hands open up as he begins to chant in an ancient tongue. The stray coral from the last fight snaps to a central location, magnetically creating a large boulder. One that gets thick, bipedal legs. Two arms with whirling drill-like arms. Haru steps up a ladder into the riding station of this war walker as it hums with energy. "Terra. Magna. Fortis. Trabem. Conuenerunt. Tenebris. . . Annihilatio!" The Wave chant comes with an increase of energy so much that it can be felt crackling in the air around the party. The drill-like arms of the elemental, Terra, split in the center to reveal whirling cannons. The central core opens up, humming with energy. Haru's four ioun stones line up a rail-gun like aiming system for the energy as it points down at the stocky marines. KADOOSH. The energy fires off, searing one of the marines into nothing but boots as it sweeps from left to right. Such Devastation! This was definately his intention!

"...Who's Meowth?", Uta asks. But it's too late. Dosbox is temporarily unavailable. Try calling back later.

"It's ART," Uta retorts to Shiruba. "Art does not come cheap. One SUFFERS for ART!" Her expression turns intense, as she raises one hand, fingers curled, but not closed all the way into a fist. "Finding the right motivation, emotion, -gesture-! That is a process that cannot be rush- sec-" Punch, twirl, duck, sweeping kick. Spring to stand again with a uppercut and a spinning, flying leg split, each foot destroying a few jaws of approaching shock troopers. Uta lands again, and continues, "This is a process that -cannot be rushed-. It's -ART-!"

"I am not sure what you were about to say, Kaydon, but I think that we guys were precisely ...'ing."

Uta's eyebrows knit a little bit in concentration, as she considers Gwen's words. "...no, no, that one is too bland. It'd never catch on," and she flicks her hand in dismissal.

Oh snap! Haru has broken out the ANSI! Time to hit the deck! Something that Uta does immediately. She leaps to flatten herself against the ground, and closes her eyes, as the impact shockwave washes over her prone form, arms crossed over her head. Only then she dares lift her chin, and open one eye to peek out.

A hard fought battle! Majestic Air Artes! Blades! Tactical Air-Ground Gnomes! Divine Bolts of Lightning! Holy Fried Fish, Batman!

When the fight is won against the Aquamarines and the party is able to advance beyond the door into a vault before the Bossfish, Zora, can complete her plan to flush them or drown them.

Its time to lay down the Law on this Dungeon Boss.

The party emerges into a room that is filled with curiosities that glitter in ways light should not glitter. Hanging suits where these objects are infused into the Aquamarine armor are in half completed states as well as a mask that references earlier, failed attempts at working with the material.

The smart and fierce boss, Zora, grabs her trident and prepares to defend the last bastion. A fist full of the glittery substance is smashed against the weapon as it hums with power.

Those that know what Laws of Alba have been violated can greatly reduce the power of the Trident. Everyone else is in for an all out brawl with the Lone Sahuagin and her temporary OP weapon.

The final chamber could be a treasure trove. Or it could be the Little Mermaid's eccentric collection of useless knick knacks. It's probably a split of both, really. But amonst the curiousities and dinglehoppers is one angry sahaugin explorer, and she's ready to punish the interruption. As long as there's no singing maps we should be okay though.

"Why are these bosses always horders?" Shiruba groans, even as she readies her bow once more. "Some of this stuff probably belongs in a museum!" As one would expect an Archeologist to say. "If that's what you've been harassing the locals for.. despicable. Monsters like you give us serious explorers a bad name!"

Just like that the ethusiasm is replaced with intensity as the wolfgirl is once again in Super Serious Shiruba mode. And like several monsters before her Zora is going to find out just how bad of a thing that is, as the barrage of Ranged DPS shots being rained on her is unrelenting.

Dosbox missed the part where they were still in combat from having faceplanted so hard into the earth. "Whoops..." Fully battle-ready now, DosBox does the same thing he does EVERY time he is face to face with a dungeon boss: he breaks out the copyright infringement.

DosBos begins to form a massive black orb of destruction over his head as he begins his chant. "I pray to the darkness, merge your strength and mine, and deliver doom equally to the fools that stand in our way! DRAGON SL-- Er... Nightmare Sphere!!!!"

He hurls the mass of dark energy, and puts on a pair of expertly made sunglasses, complete with a capital D on the side before saying, "Vamanos, fishy."

Ultra these marines are note and with the full wrath of the part. She will be standing over the fallen shortly as they explode into light. Haru's spell casting does get Gwen's attention. The party moves on and she will behold the boss as she neters. She notes, and she'll pause for a moment she halts for a moment her eyes narrowing.

"That thing should not exist..."

She notes she does have a sense of what it will do and warns the party as she engages the monster.

"ENOUGH WITH YOUR RULE BREAKING!"

Haru had his fun with the whole Magitek Beam earlier. This time around he takes a support role by stepping back. "Check your displays," he tells the party as the overlays for combat begin to flash. "Information overload is about to commense." Database database. Hacking in the database o/`

Focus. Haru closes his blue eye as the purple monocle lights up in a way that makes a DBZ scouter look like a toy. White text flashes across the screen as the boss is systematically scanned for vulenerabilities. Strengths. Techniques. Date of Birth. Astrological Sign. The important information, such as weaknesses, is then flooded over to the party members in easy to read forms like: Weak against being stabbed in the throat. -or- Vulnerable to raw arcane attacks. The system effect is everyone is doing significantly more damage while the boss is under this debuffing assessment.

Kaydon doesn't understand Law. Not on the level that needs to be able to sense what's wrong. What Kaydon CAN do, however, is make sure that Zora has someone to pay attention to. He reloads the Jaeger after the Aquamarines go down, sweeping the weapon around behind him and resting it on his shoulder for a moment, "You figure out how to beat her, I'll keep her occupied."

He clashes with the sahagain, Gunblade against Trident, feeling the rush of power from it, which knocks him back, though he holds his ground close enough to re-engage. Haru's scan starts sending tons of information through to him, which just helps. It's weak to being stabbed in the throat? Should have opened with that.

Kaydon ducks under a strike with the trident, and wheels around with the gunblade to smack the trident to the sahagain's left, allowing him to release one hand's grip and bring the hidden gauntlet blade up to stab Zora in the throat.

"What... what is this? Necromancy?", Uta frowns at the glittering suits. "Are... are the Fish People trying to... bring back -Disco-?!" Shocked Utachu face. "That makes so much sense! Disco pufferfish, hanging from the ceiling. Covered in a glittering suit. Spinning."

No. It does not make any sense at all. But let's not tell Uta.

Haru disseminates information to the party: a case of TMI which is allowable in polite company.

Except that 'Zora' might not be considered polite. Mostly the part wher she tries to kill the Adventurers.

There is Gwen, who, thanks to her knowledge of the Law, can better engage the monster; Kaydon, taking a blade to Zora's throat; historian of boss battle will recall a similar technique having been used at the Macy's parade for the Thanksgiving of 1997, finally bringing an end to the reign of terror of the boss simply known as << Barney >>. Dosbox, who, thankfully, manages not to break copyright Law. There's enough breaking of the Law of Alba going on here, and it's important to keep lawbreaking strictly on the boss's side, or that might throw off Gwen's senses. Shiruba's unrelenting ranged attack; even Uta herself is snapped back to pay attention to the battle at hand, when her interface is flooded with information.

At first, it's overwhelming for her. So much text. So much information. Her eyes dart, fibrillate, she begins to breathe faster, hyperventilate-

-she reaches for her squishy red stress ball, and-

No. She deliberately puts it away. She lets the information flow over her, overtake her. Make her panic. And with a scream, EXPLODE Dark Magic all over the room: Magically eveloped by Void, she acquires the appearance of an utterly Black silhouette, too terrifying to gaze upon, and she explodes in a myriad of twitching, contorting tendrils of sheer Darkness that envelop any flashing, glimmering, shimmmering item of clothing in the room, and wrap around Zora, further holding her in place.

The final blow is delt to Zora as the trident is knocked from her hand. Without it, she is barely any stronger than a trash mob. There will always be a Zora in this lake, a simple Sahuagin that grasps upon unearthly power and uses it to ascend to greatness. To be challenged by the Adventurers of this world. This Zora, however, was unable to withstand the might of heroes. She is shattered like the breaking of so much glass as the party is greeted with experience, coins, and items that shower the area. They are now free to explore the vault uninterrupted. Their findings? A concerning cache of Enigma Pieces that served as a catalyst to this adventure.

Gwen is in for a heck of a fight but the odd thing is Gwen is clearly having fun.

"I will send your kind back to Azeroth where you belong!" Yes she does not like fishmen but she's having fun with this as Zora would find out Gwen is like Iron and knowing about the dangers of the item that this 'murloc' has? Allows gwen to be ready if she has to she'll invoke her own system protection to deal with this, this isn't quite needed as the party take them down and she stares.

"Someone better tell the Baroness about this..."

As soon as the boss is defeated Shiruba lets out a sigh of relief. "I'm reminded way too much of the Gnoll cultists for comfort," she mutters. But goes to sift through the various bits of treasure and trinkest loitered about the chamber, until someone catchs her eye. ".. No. Oh no." She digs in a little deeper, and her ears droop as she pulls out an Enigma Piece. She is very careful to not jostle and accidentally activate it. Last thing they need is Tri-Edge starting to show up. "Guys, I think we might have an interesting problem on our hands."

Dosbox looks scared as Gwen brings up the Baroness, "I didn't do anything, though! Honest! I was just... I mean... What are we telling the Baroness about again...?" Dossy looks Hecka Nervous.

Haru offers to Gwen, "Weren't the Zora in Legend of Zelda?" Thats right, isnt it? The fish people. Though this is while Uta gets a standing ovation for unleashing the darkness. Make all that information your fren! "It did feel similar," he tells Shiruba, "Hyena People. Fish People. Undead People. Waiting for Demon People and the elves next." He looks to Gwen for a moment. To Kaydon. To Shiruba. "Though we do have winged races, so perhaps we are that group." Dont think too deeply on it. Haru changes his thinking to the enimga pieces. "I think I have enough to go back and have a chat with a certain someone now. Secrets can't stay locked away forever."

Shiruba shakes her head at Dosbox. "Not anything you did." She holds up the Enigma Piece. "This. This is bad news." Haru mentions talking to someone. She can probably guess who. "You do that. We'll make sure Wake, and the Hunter's Guild knows so they can better prepare future parties for having to deal with possible unusual circumstances."

As the boss is defeated, Dark Uta's breathing decelerates to a more normal rate. The Darkness dissipate, like smoke in the wind, leaving an Exhausted Uta to fall knee-first on the floor.

She looks around, lost, as if in a trance, and then... and then...

...she pipes up to attention all of a sudden. "Oh, hey, Enigma Pieces! Cool!"

Someone has not been informed about all the details of the Enigma Pieces, it seems.

"So... is this how monsters have been getting ridiculously powerful of late?"

She rubs her chin as she plucks one piece for herself. "This, Borywick," she states, and sweeps her hand at the stash of pieces. "These things here. If I understand correctly, these things can unravel reality. And then re-ravel it. And not merely in a sort of cat's cradle, this is the cat's pyjama. The bees' backward-bending knees. In four-dimensional spaaaaaace."

Dosbox's eyes go wide. Little sparkles appear as he picks one up for himself and pulls it REAL CLOSE to his face. He says, in a small voice, "I like cats."

"I'll trust your judgement on that, Haru." Kaydon replies, "I just know we'll need to make sure that this place is secured. We can't allow them to keep rebuilding their forces here. Which means a lot more runs through this." The gnoll rubs his muzzle a little bit, "Better safe than sorry."

Haru has good judgement. The best judgement. Though when Shiruba says 'You do that' it gets an eyebrow raise for a moment. It goes back down. "Not wrong. Several people will need to know. Shoot me a copy of the report when you are done with it. I'll need to talk to William about this matter as we were both here and," a tap against the vault they are in, "a touch concerning given its proximity to Eas. Then you'll need to do as Kaydon mentioned to keep the perimeter secured. One to keep the forces contained to this area of operation. Two to keep unsanctioned personnel from wandering on in and becoming an issue. Your bird is perfectly suited for aerial recon here. Can't think of a better candidate. Counting on you." Nonplussed, he heads on over to Uta and Dos, having a light conversation there as well about the Enimga pieces before looking to Gwen. "Mind escorting me back to Eas, Gwen?" Tank and Caster. Final Fantasy 8, confirmed.