Duty Session 596: Crystal Lake

    "Well... It's a good night for a swim." The flippant rebuttal from Lauren the imp, artificer, dressed in weather-proof jodphurs rolled into boots. "Anyone have any particular affinity for fish we need to deal with before we start?" She asks.

Jayu is practicing punches and kicks again as they move. Travel time is not idle time; No XP Wasted. "I have somewhat of a traumatic experience involving sushi, so if we eat fish, I'd prefer it fully cooked. Apologies." One of his punches ignites mid swing, and then goes out.

Soujiro Seta trek out to Eas for this one. It has a nice lake. Beautiful place to make camp. Beware monsters in hockey masks. "I like how they taste," Souji explains with a sparkly smile. "We should go fishing while we camp here. Who knows what we will fish up." LIke treasure chests, true game logic.

    As it turns out-- "Oh, a golem," Lauren says with something like admiration. "But they did a very poor job. The craftsmanship is terrible," She notes, as if this were the real issue with the hulking monstrosity guards the path forward.
    "I mean, even a basic artificer..." Lauren mutters.

Soujiro Seta has no idea about the craftsmanship of the golem situation. He does know that it is relatively easy to dodge. Like a Dark Souls player that can see the telegraph from miles away. The samurai tests his timing with near misses and counter attacks. "This is fun." The authentic smile confirms.

Jayu practices some bobbing and weaving as the Golem makes him a priority target. He continues to practice punches and kicks, now at the golem. "I mean, it makes a good practice dummy."

    And with that out of the way, the party trudges through the Water Temple. It's dimly lit, wet, and something somewhere is forever dripping. Video games make no mention of the moss on the walls, or the way light tends to be absorbed. Like sound.
    "Of course there's puzzles," Lauren says, glancing between Jayu and Souji.

Soujiro Seta is not good with puzzles. He is someone who lives in the here and now. Not much on lingering in the past or pontificating the future. He starts really hard at this situation with a head tilt to the left. The right. "Not seeing it. This is more a Shiroe-senpai thing. He would have this thing knocked out in a jiff."

Jayu laughs nervously, scratching the back of his head, "Well, we just need to take our time on this, right? It's not a timed puzzle, after all,"

    Neither does Lauren appear to have the patience with puzzles, which is why she chose to fail her attempt at appraising that which appeared valuable.

Jayu gets to continue his dodging, punching and kicking practice, though two of those three seem to be having no effect. "I... REALLY hate uncooked fish..." He mutters under his breath.

    "All I see is water, I'm gonna be real honest," Lauren says, straightening up.

Soujiro Seta takes up arms. Notably his holy blade, Kogarasumaru. Behold its lightsaber like majesty that is not doing nearly enough damage to this dang fish.

Soujiro Seta, on the other hand does not need to see anything. Why? He has SOUJI EYES. Clear blue divine eyes that can see /things/ mortals cannot! That is to say, he has good battle instincts. And his instincts tell him everything he needs to know about the battle. "Looks like one of those things you have to hurt with specific weapons and tactics. Like a boss mechanic."

    After collecting evidence, our heroes find themselves putting together a likely clue: the giant monster did it.
    "Fortunately, I can tailor," Lauren notes.

Jayu whistles the song 'Always Look on the Bright Side of Life' to the Lander while he tracks down Jayson. "Oh, look. There he is. We could probably get the jump on him if we work together, right, FRIENDS?"

Soujiro Seta has a hand at keeping his weapons maintained as a samurai. "Miho is really good at this stuff. She showed me tricks I can use here." He will do the lrzd proud by forging, or reforging, the axe they will need in the upcoming battle. "Thats right," he says with axe in hand, "we can hack at this for hours. Its great training!" Where some people see an endless slog of combat, Souji sees 'oh look, a training dummy that doesnt break down'.

    "I can't believe the sweater gambit worked," Lauren says, eyeing the new, angrier Jayson. "I mean, not when you're relatively flat chested."