Duty Session 613: The Secret of the Maidensong Isle

    "I mean... It must have been a marvelous fort once," Lauren remarks, trying with everything she's got to say *something* nice.

    The truth is, after having been dropped off at the dock, the party of adventurers finds themselves with a map, which Lauren was only too happy to vote Goldenblade hold, and a beach that looks stunning by any comparison, and a giant fort that squats over all of it. The squalor of the place casts literal shadows and a palpable sense of, if not gloom, then certain something that does not appear to support tourism.

    "Perhaps one day we could renovate it?" Lauren asks of nobody in particular.

"What an interesting place," Kotono says as she looks around. "Although I, personally, feel that it should be left as it is. It's most likely a historical place that's left to be meant as it is." She proceeds to do a few stretches to loosen up. "I'm sure it'll be a great place to explore."

Goldenblade will take the map and look it over, indeed, with an eye to renovation. "This world is very like ours, in that there is nothing that we've found that can't be repaired or rebuilt, barring a few specific examples. And people, of course. But rebuilding this place is certainly possible. We just need a zillion tons of stone and an army of laborers. Or a few steam cranes."

She shrugs to Kotono, and says, "Interesting if you are into the Early Decrepit' period of architecture. I mean, the beach would be gorgeous is we bulldozed the structure completely. But I think rebuilt is the nest best thing."

    For a ruin, "Why is the metal on that great door so polished?" Lauren asks with a level of suspicion only the eye of both an imp and an artificer would have.

    But it is difficult to gain an answer, because that high polish is *blindingly* brilliant, which obfuscates the ease of navigation. Options exist.

Goldenblade follows Lauren to the door, looks it over thoughtfully. That's the considering eye of a construction worker used to getting through recalcitrant doors, and walls occasionally, by use of a sledgehammer. And indeed, the sledge comes out now, a mundane tool designed to batter the hell out of obstructions until they are no longer obstructive. She steps up, hauls off, and WHAM strikes the door with her full considerable power. The door does not open, but how many more blows it can take is limited, whereas the number of times Goldeblade can swing her sledge is not, for practical purposes, limited.

Following the others inside, Kotono walks to the door and hrms. "I think I can handle this!" She says as she takes out her blade... and finds herself reeling backwards from a hit that barely does any good. "Ouch..."

    Lauren will assist Goldenblade's efforts by snuffing out that insufferable source of illumination. Shadows wrap around her hands like dust, and she blows a single kiss that pours like black sand, absorbing and snuffing out the light.

    BOOOM! Goldenblade's mighty efforts succeed in exposing... a scene of almost mystical wonder. The dust stirred draws the eye to the cold brilliance of light refracted by ice.

    Ice -everywhere-.

There's some magical energy here. Kotono thinks she can handle it herself. She conjures up a few spell runes and tries to cast a spell...

Only to realize she doesn't know what kind of magic she actually needs, and is left feeling a bit on the lost side.

    True to her nature, Lauren raises her arms until enough magic has coalesced into that same cold shimmer of rainbow frost, and then cast her hands down.

    Steeds of frost arise from the ice, one gallantly gesturing for Kotono to grab hold. Lauren swings herself over the second mount and charges at a true tidal gallop that ripples across the floor, her steed's mist coalescing into the air. And a third, of course, for Goldenblade, should she desire any such assistance.

With Lauren's shade on the door, she can choose better points to strike with her sledge, and soon the door is no longer blocking the way. Goldenblade is not one to be denied entry, she has an arsenal of ways to get in, subtle and not-so-subtle.

Once inside, she will take a long and considering look at the frozen harp. Her experience with song consists mainly of her son watching Robotech, and she remembers finding it wildly idiotic that so much could get done by singing some song that the producers would try to sell 45's of. So she doesn't have much truck with the Music that seems to make this game go around, despite the fact that it evidently -does- have a concrete and meaningful effect. "Bah," she says, and there's other ways to get the stairway to come out that doesn't involve her utter lack of musical talent.

    "An ice chute?!"

    Lauren. Is. Livid.

    "Just what kind of nonsense is this?" She's asking of Goldenblade, because what appears to be anger is truly fear, absolute fear, in the eyes of the imp. This is the opposite of everything in her nature. Horses are water, ice, /controlled/. A slide into slushy half-dark?

    "If you think--" She begins, but her gesticulation is her undoing as, one and all, they are forced to take the bumpy, slick ride down the winding ice chute.

    "SON OF A BIIIIIIIIIIIIIII--" Lauren screams at the top of her lungs.

Going down a slide? Looks dangerous, but there's no other option. "Didn't know they had a playground here," Kotono comments as she begins riding down the slide. There are obstacles in the way, but fortunately the Spriggan is able to evade them. "Wow, this is some playground!"

Goldenblade snorts as Lauren fails to obey the first rule of workplace safety, keeping track of the environment and where you are in it at all times. "So, that'll be a safety message," she says, the same mantra that follows all workplace safety incidents. She goes much more slowly, and says, "Those bumps and edges have to hurt." Gouts of fire are produced to blunt the spikier knobs, though perhaps too late for Lauren.

    Lauren lands on her feet, and the imp pauses, only to dare move again when she makes eye-contact with Goldenblade. As if assured that the gods won't strike for what seemed an incredibly unlikely succession of maneuvers.

Goldenblade offers Lauren a shrug as she makes eye contact. No blame, but there is definitely amusement. She's going to have to live with that. Anyhow, we all came through OK, that's the important bit. The magic and mirror bits are more fluff she doesn't understand, but she does know that between the ninja and the caster, it's /her/ job to tank whatever happens in the mirror until we can find where we need to be. Well, Goldenblade is about as tough as old tree roots, and about as hard to get off your lawn, and she can protect the others as long as it takes to get the thing done.

Sometimes Kotono is good at searching, but sometimes she's not.

This time, she manages to find what she's looking for. Not that it makes much difference, but it is a small victory for the Spriggan. "Well, I did something right at least!"

    It is Lauren's turn to ruin things, because the dark imp... is not light. And all that happens is fire, which says a lot about Lauren as a person. And it costs structural support, which leads to the current predicament.

Sometimes, using the blades is the best strategy.

Slice and dice. Slashy slashy.

Kotono manages to break through using her blades.

Goldenblade gives Kotono a thumb-up for her effort in finding our way through that wierd place. "You're doing fine," she assures the Spriggan even as we find ourselves in a Twilight Zone episode. Goldenblade's patience expires at this point, and she fades from view as phantasmal shadows of adventurers can be seen. But they're not really there, are they? Goldenblade none the less winds up at the destination, unscathed, her path unseen. But she made it, that's the important bit.

    Spite. That's what remains, and it's a spiteful sort of magic which spins round and round Lauren's hands, until-- that impossible moment where the fibers have yet to catch, and remain in limbo-- cold becomes heat. Room temperature, in fact, and Lauren is left with a smirk. "Shove it up their damn chute," she can be heard muttering to herself, apparently still suffering ego injury after The Chute Incident.
    And here, the secret of Maidensong Isle: tragedy. The ghost of despair, locked away for so long that context seems almost impossible.
    That is, except for when the siren attacks. That is a definitively hostile-- "unnecessarily bitchy", Lauren would say-- action that leaves no doubt. They need to survive.

    Snakeeyes! But it is Kotono who saves the day, and also Lauren's now actually wounded ego from certain death!

Goldenblade understands being frustrated by a mission, though she tells Lauren, "Relax, we've got this. It's just ... a horribvle monster impersonating a queen and some treasure." When it grabs at Goldenblade, it's tentacles don't even catch her shadow, which is long gone by the time it strikes. Goldenblade is in full ninja mode, herself, which is a bit different from most ninjas. Blade Dancer is mostly a light class, but Goldenblade is, by inclination, a tank, and she's at best a Heavy Ninja, if that's even a class. The blade work is all there, and she moves like greased lightning, but when she needs to take a hit, she's a rock, solid and steadfast.

Kotono tries to use an air spell, but all she does is bring up a breeze. "Well, that wasn't suppose to happen," She says with a sneer. "I've got to do better next time..." She sighs. "At least I made it through."