War of Dragons 2: Act of Rebellion - Dark - 4
This is an Dark (team) event in the Act of Rebellion line. Each session of Act of Rebellion, players choose one of the following 6 actions in order to resolve the War of Dragons plot. When attending, come with a vote on one of the following items:
1) Improve Camp Black
2) Improve Camp White
3) Improve Camp Wrath
4) Engage with Rosenheim Kingdom
5) Engage with Thor Kingdom
6) Engage with Kallamore Kingdom
Notes:
> Each action will create a chance to improve the state of the Palace Lands. Each will have a long term effect within the conflict.
> Each action will stop the next Light & Dark event in the Act of Rebellion line from chosing that option next.
> At the end of each month, there will be a retaliation event from the Palace Lands.
> Attendance to a Dark team event excludes that character from showing up at the next Light event and vice-versa.
> Take note of this event time, as it's intended to ease EU time attendance.
The Palace Lands - -10 - -13 - 0
This is where.
Deep beneath the ground, amongst ancient and forgotten Gnome ruins, the monsters roam. And today, it's also where the Adventurers roam.
This isn't the first time the adventurers have gotten this close. In fact, thanks to a previous exploration, they have a route that avoids patrols and comes out into a really well hidden area.
There's multiple 'dugouts' hidden in the massive region that lays between the tunnel's exit, and the doors of Dol Dona. Powerful monsters slowly roaming the area, and as least one dangerous one hidden beneath the ground.
The gates of Dol Dona, the size of aircraft hangar doors, lay closed to protect the city from monsters. The question is, how do they get in? Especially knowing that the gates are protected with a second set of gates - and the ability to burn all that comes between.
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But that's not important right now. Right now, she's standing here with Yamato adventurers trying to figure out how to get into an aircraft hangar. "Generally, there's a smaller door for people," she relates her own experience on this matter. "They won't open these huge doors for one or two people, I expect." And she will look around for a smaller, subtler way in.
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DosBox surmises, "Well, have we thought of digging? I know that there is a wall around the city, but is there a wall.... UNDER?"
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Tucked away into this well-hidden area, where the Monsters and Adventurers roam, she peeks out to the gates of Dol Dona, and retracting to sit on the ground with her back against a rock, she whispers, "So, what was the plan, again?", she asks the others. "We wait for someone to show up and we see how they get in? Or... something else?"
Looking down and mumbling, she adds, counting on her fingers, "I can possibly Loremaster the last time someone entered this place, but we risk not finding anything useful, and/or hitting some form of protection that leaves me useless for the rest of the mission. Alternately..."
Her fingers run idly on the pendant of her necklace, "...I could try invoking Kein-Eintrag's once-a-day ability to produce a mini-map, and see if there's any hidden nooks and crannies of interest that lead inside. But again, it's a once-a-day shot we might consider whether we want to use at the outset, or save for later."
"The question is, -where- would we dig, Borywick?"
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"Moria this is not."
She notes and looks to Dosbox humming
"Yeah we might as well keep that in mind."
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They're not left by boots or feet however. Instead, monster tracks go into what looks like a very narrow 'tunnel' a good ten feet from the ground. Notably, these prints only go 'in', but none seem to come out.
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Completing her investigation of the outside of the disused way reveals an interesting thing: "Monsters go in, they do not come out. I file that under wildly suspect." She smirks. "Whether it is a trap made by the city dwellers to catch game or a secret way for monsters to enter the city, there's no way to tell. Only that it seems to be one way traffic."
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Uta intones a melody; tendrils of light and magic dance around her staff, coalesce into the gem atop it, charging it up in luminosity. After a while, a quick swipe, and, bam!
The intention would be to summon a slime. Meant to go into the 'entrance'. Hopefully people will be able to determine what's going on through observation, by sensing what happens through the magical link, or...
"...I'm about to Handle this slime into going in. Anyone has any idea of something we could put into it to help guide us, or understand what's going on on the other side?"
Looking down and away, she mumbles, "Note to self: make a slime-cam to go explore narrow tunnels." Some silence. "Actually... hmm. Magical limnk... Dark Magic...."
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"A slime-cam? That's an idea...." Miho will move to pick upt the slime and boost it up as quickly as she can!
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Plort!
A Tabby Slime with a coin on the front lands into the hole with the familiar noise of a vatful of jello with a single coin stuck on its surface dropping on the asphalt. Let's face it, we've all done that at some point or other.
Guided with subtle flicks of her wrists that slightly correct the angle of her staff, as well as modulation in the magical chant she's intoning, reflecting into a modulation and control of Mana, the Slime begins its advance, the magical tendrils of light tightening and releasing it as it goes in, kind of like a pet being given more leash.
As the slime slides deeper into the movie-style air vent, the Arcane Chant which uta is vocalizing takes on a more compelling- wait. That sounds suspiciously like the Mission Impossible theme!
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The Slime lands in the small opening, coin in 'hand', and turns for a moment to look in the direction of the Adventurer team. Hop hop...
Then turns and begins to move.
Yeowang able to listen in and direct Uta. At first, it's hopping over the surface of what sounds like earth. Eating some greenery on the way that is in the way. The sound of the food dissolving rather audible from the coin's link.
Hop-blob, Hop-blob, Hop-blob, Hop-blob.
Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh-whoosh. The sound of something spinning rapidly. Like metalic blades? Spinning at intense speed.
"Blop?"
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The Chant gets dimmer, deeper, more complex. But still compelling. Uta's eyes turn pitch dark, terrifyingly so. Among the tendrils of Light and Magic, distinct elongated blobs of Darkness, like lightning-fast dripping tar, shoot towards the Slime.
Without turning her attention away from the hole, one of Uta's hands detaches from the staff; it points to the ground, its fingers part.
Magical, ethereal smoke seeps from them, and swirls downward, to form a gauzy, transparent rendition of what the Slime sees: the ultimate cooking robot. It slices, it dices, it makes Julienne slimes. With lightsaber fans. Ok, laser fans.
All that the scene is missing is the infomercial voiceover, and someone looking absolutely ridiculous by trying to cut a steak with a hammer, and accidentally ending up slipping and poking themselves in the eye.
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"I'm not sure..." She stands back her tail swishing as she waits, listens and watches with intrest.
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Uta begins to summon various slimes, attempting for both slimes primed optimally for gunking, and for unprimed ones to be created on the spot if the summoning does not allow for that complication.
Between Miho and Uta's own equivalent physical prowess(es), slimes get tossed up as quickly as they get made or primed. Of course, other people are welcome to help!
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Or at least, so Uta thinks.
The aethereal Slime-O-Vision shows that the first herd of slimes are effective at getting the mechanisms jammed. The fans slow down, but do not halt completely.
"That should be compatible with some thick monster. Good, this is viable. Folks, time to go in while it lasts!", Uta calls, beckoning with rapid gestures of her arm. "We're going in and seeing if that air vent leads into the city. I can summon slimes as we go to gunk the mechanisms. Those who can climb, climb up into the hole," she points. "Those who can't climb-"
Her eyes fall on Borywick.
"Well, pick someone else in the party to be tossed into the hole by?", she offers, politely.
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A few unfortunate slimes perish on the journey forth, but the Adventurers manage to shuffle veeery slowly onwards. Slimes pushing them along when near the slow-moving laserblades.
Until they finally come out on the other end, in the midst of the undertown itself, in an area that is just a maintenance house & venting system that is so filled with dust - it clearly isn't being used or maintained at all.
But staying in Dol Dona is dangerous without a plan. But they've got this far!
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"If he's up for it..." She will grins as they head onwards past the blade, she gets the idea to stay here is a bad idea but she takes a look around at how this has just been left to ruin.
"Tch just like I'd exepct it to be here...."
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Very appropriate for a crafter.
Not long after that, with a running start, she'll take a jump into the hole.
Consensual hand holding has been unlocked!
Also, Gnome Toss. The new sport sensation for Alba?
"I would say that we've pushed our luck enough," Uta declares, once she emerges with the team on the other side. "The goal of our mission was to find a way in, and we did," Uta says, gesturing around. "I'd say we drop Yeowang's coin around here somewhere and collect some intelligence that way. Maybe draw a small map of the area around. And then we head right back the way we came from, and report back to the nearby Uncrowned Camp. Maximize benefits of our current situation. Minimize risks until new orders. And possibly a proper plan."
The Palace Lands - -10 - -13 - 0
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Touching her necklace, Uta activates a holographic mini-map for a brief moment, which she jots down on a notebook with what looks like a fountain pen. She quickly points at her work in progress, and then, after drawing a circle in the air to include the party, with her middle and index fingers, she mimes running. 'I'll sketch the area we are in, then let's vamoose', pretty much.
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"Old and rusted but it's clearly a air filtering system... if they have that I wonder if we could introduce something into it to weaken the city...Some sort off sleeping gas..."
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