In the Dark

Schneider has put together a party, explaining that he's searching for a monster that lives and thrives deep in the darkest dark, and by fighting it, he will understand the dark a bit better. This sort of vague guidance passes for a mission briefing in games, and it seems to have been enough to send Schneider, with such party as agree to follow him, off to find some huge, monstrous bat.

Schneider has the tracking and general outdoors capability of a goat, without the goat's skill at living off the land, but he's been provided a map that leads us, after a bit of wandering, to a cave. The cave is, at least, quite dark as we look inside. "I suppose this is the place." It is the only cave we've seen in 2 hours of wandering, covering a few miles. It does seem to lead preceptitously down into the hilly terrain.

Familiar with both the arts in darkness and with the duties of scouting made Daiyu a reasonable choice for such a task. They have a map and find the cave amongst the hills in a reasonable amount of time so she won't say anything about Schneider's outdoorsman skills or lack of therefor. They do have a potential back up if navigation becomes a real difficulty. "The probability is high. But we won't be able to confirm until we actually enter."

Llyn knows Schneider is working hard on this bit of spell craft so she's come along with Daiyu. Why would she? Well she's medical support at the very least. She'll bow a bit. "I have come along to make sure no one ends up on a trip to a church!" She beams a bit and follows along.

Schneider leads the way into the cave, and it quickly turns a corner, spiralling downward, and as soon as the cave mouth is out of sight, the darkness is absolute, implying that this is, indeed, the right place. "Not going to the church is good. I don't much like it, myself." Having been twice.

Darkness is normally not an impediment to Schneider, and the party can hear, and feel the flames that Schneider lights. Because he tends to go overboard. Interestingly, there is no illumination provided by the flames, something that seems to confuse Schneider as well.

He attempts his Signal Flare spell, one that's become well-known throughout Yamato and uses Light magic as well as Fire, but no illumination results. This confuses him, and he will look to the others, or rather, turn to face the direction he recalls them standing in before we lost sight, not that anyone can see him, either, and asks, "OK, any ideas? This is going to make proceeding awkward..."

"A church trip would be... bad." Especially in the case of herself or Llyn, so we will do so to avoid it. Fortunately they both have some magic healing ability.

Daiyu watchs as Schneider tries to use a spell that's become familiar, but to little result. "Dark is the absense of Light in this case. And enough of it will suppress the latter," remarks the foxwoman as she steps past Schneider. Her movements are barely visible silouettes in the dark. The twitching of tails. More importantly, the twitching of ears. The narrowing of eyes that don't need much light to begin with thanks to her partial monster heritage as a Were Fang. She is trying to get some read on the situation with senses that do not rely on light or dark.

Llyn says "I don't like it either for even more reasons." She notes with a bit of a grin. She'll chant a spell and follow along watching the signal flare for a moment. Then they end up in the dark she'll take a moment to look around to see what she can do it might not go so well.

"It would bne very bad..."

Schneider is lucky to ge travelling with a werefang, Daiyu's spell gives her a sort of radar-like intuition about our surroundings, and while it's dark to eyesight, she can avoid running into things. Llyn has, presumably, been on dark ship decks on overcast nights, when finding things by feel is the only thing that can be done, and she does it, Schneider's not sure how.

Schneider seems puzzled for a bit, but finally selects a spell he thinks may work. This spell has no words, or none that can be heard, as it's intended to be used subtly. He turns back into the cave, now that his companions seem to be navigating OK, and will continue to explore deeper. "Let's see what may be found...."

As we proceed into the utter darkness of the cave, navigating by our various means, the smell of bat becomes apparent, and Schneider grunts in disgust as he steps in something. "Ugh." But this area, which may be an empty or unused nest, may hold some clues about our quarry.

OOC: Hunting/Tracking/Searching/anything that might help find clues in the dark may be checked. Schneider will be using Appraisal.

Once she's got a sense of how to proceed, Daiyu unfurls two of her tails to flick back, occasionally brushing against Llyn and Schneider to keep track of where they are. To be sure they keep together even as they can't clearly see each other.

Her nose crinkles at the smell of guano and other bat related aspects. "Definitely the right cave", she mutters. Not wanting to risk getting too far ahead of the pair she instead sends out some shadowy images of herself to cover more of the cavern's area without the dreaded splitting up.

Llyn by dumb luck is able to find her way forward and she has skill in pathfinding. So she's making use of that slowly attempting to find her way forward maybe she should make use of Divination magic but for now she's pushing forward.

"So we got the right place far as I can tell.."

Schneider searches the area for any clues that might be present in what seems to be an abandoned nesting site. Bits of fur, old bones, and other feeding detritus are found quickly. "This always seems weird to me," he says, looking over the things Daiyu found. Or not looking, but magically assensing. "Mobs always despawn when they die. But the game generates these .. parts.. as clues or hints. I've seen it before, it confuses me. But based on the size of the bones, I think we'd be a big meal for the bat that lived here." Lynn, meanwhile has found the way a large bat can go deeper into the cave system. It will require some climbing, but is navigable.

Once we are able to enter that higher passage, following it back is easy. The passage itself widens as we continue, and opens into a truly huge hemispherical chamber that opens past the range of anyone's senses. It's at least several hundred yards in circumference. There is a suspicious sort of sound here. Clearly, something is going on, but what?

Daiyu shifts her perception to one of the mirages, and makes a face. "Found remains of a meal. Picked clean to the bone." She nods to Schneider's assesment though it's probably never seen in the dark. "A grim reminder that this world is still a game. Just one that has become all too real in other regards." Foxes are natural climbers so she has little issue with the way up and farther in that Llyn has found. "You navigate on land as well as the waves."

At the larger cavern Daiyu pauses a moment. The darkness was almost suffocating, even to those familiar with it's nature. So instead of fight it, Daiyu tries to make use of it, investigating farther while keeping notice of her by whatever may be lurking within it hopefully minimal.

Llyn Says "Yeah i find it creepy when I see earth style remains." She notes before she'll start to ficuys as they head on deeper and deeper. She's relying heavily on her other senses but most notably her magic. She will open up again using her magic to see in this dark place for anything that might be of use. "Oh at this rate I'm going to get a swelled head Daiyu!"

Schneider quickly comes to understand where we are and what must be out there, and he uses his magic to hide our presence as quickly as he can. "Roots of shadow, tendrils of light," he chants. "Smoke over water, fire in the sky." The last bit comes out boldly, but the sound vanishes abruptly past the immediate presence of the party. "DEEP PURPLE."

Normally, the spell is mainly concerned with hiding people from sight, but since we're exercising senses besides sight, mostly magical senses, the spell is focused on that, and the bat seems placated for the moment, resuming it's previous activity, which is whatever bats do alone in the dark. Schneider doesn't judge.

Daiyu creeps through the cavern a bit, before stopping and looking up. Barely she can make out the form amongst the rocky ceiling. It doesn't seem to have noticed her. Maybe it looks more for things that contrast against its suppressive darkness more. Maybe it doesn't see them as a threat yet.

She considers. Remembers the cleanly picked skeleton. So it clearly actually eats and doesn't just drink blood like every evil bat cliche ever. Hmmm.

Taking advantage of being unnoticed in the darkness Daiyu goes back to prowling, looking for more bat droppings. They know it preys on grunties. Probably other similar creatures. Maybe by analyzing the quano to see what is or is not digested she can concoct something to be used against it that won't require directly fighting the dark.

Llyn sees the beast in a manner of speaking, she knows they are here to learn, they also do not have the muscle to take something like this on. So while she could use certain spells to help her get a better look over things. She reaches out iwth magic trying to map things by sound, smell and the aid of the goddesses if they could even be called that but what might she be able to assertain about this thing and the darkness here?

Schneider will creep closer, to maybe study the bat more closely, since this is what he came here for, and having given it, as he imagined, the impression that it is alone here. But he's about to learn a bit more, as it senses Daiyu closeby now, and gives what can only be called a sort of screech, though it's more visceral, the subsonics hitting in the gut. It's dropped from the perch where it had been hanging upside down, and is now circling the cavern in a slow circle that it's hard not to think of as the leadup to an attack pass.

Daiyu lets out a hiss as the bat awakening is felt more than heard, like something just caused her stomach to drop. "I think we have outstayed our welcome," she mutters, before making quick feet back towards the passage they entered from, being sure to not run in a straight line as that would be easy for an enemy overhead to follow.

Llyn will make use of a spell neither Daiyu or Schiner has hever seen before she becomes like living water for a moment shifting out of the way of the bat's attack. "Aye it's time to shove off this place!" She'll tuyrn to run making sure she doesn't run in a stright line as well, but she wonders just how longer will it take to flee. "IF we surive this I'll buy the drinks!"

Schneider erks as he sees the bat drops, and chants, "Damedo! Magic Shield!" and not a moment too soon, as the bat's attack energy splashes off his shield. Luckily Daiyu and Lynn are able to evade the attacks. "I don't think we can run faster than it can fly," he says to Llyn. "It seems like it's only vulnerable to attacks based on darkness, though," he calls, preparing his own spell as we prepare to fight back, planting his feet and standing boldly. "It's just a big bat, maybe we just need to hit it hard enought to make it retreat."

"Interesting that Darkness would be weak to itself." Now that they have some distance and it's clear they're going to have to put up some resistance for the creature to back off Daiyu stops and turns. Heels dig in to brace herself, flicking open a warfan in one hand. The other produces small orbs, which she flicks into the air and then paddles towards the creature with her fan. But in the sheer and utter darkness even she has difficulty with a proper aim and the projectiles are more likely to go bouncing around erratically.

Llyn is running she has nothing that would work she's going to turn back anc call out. "I can't do anything against this thing we need to go!" With that knowing she's now able to help with the fighting it's time for her to get out.

Schneider says to Daiyu, "It's not that it's weak to its own element so much as anything /without/ that element gets shut down completely. So that element is just what's left." He chants, "Zarzardo Zarzardo Bakemono! Rono sook! Burning in the depths of darkness, fires of hell! Become my sword and strike down my enemy!" He gestures, the casts, "VENOM!" The swirl of dark energy is horrible, and it certainly costs the bat a lot of HP, but it's not a killing blow by itself. The bat makes another pass, that eerie screech threating to melt our eardrums, though Llyn has put enough distance between her and it that she's out of it. But only because it's circling over Daiyu and Schneider.

It's not even really hearing the sound but it's still enough to make Daiyu's ears pin back on some manner of instict. Quickly she breaks a vial at her feet, and while the visual effect of the mist spewing forth is lost in the darkness it's magical properties still do their job at concealing her movements enough that the giant bat of darkness can't get a bead on her. At some point in the evasive moves she must of circled around, because she comes to stand not far from Schneider once more. She utters something barely audible and raises a hand to release a spell of her own, draining away more health and energy from the monster.

Dark Schneider pulls his cloak up, using it for the cover it provides, and the bat's horrible screech fails to turn his bowls to oatmeal this time. This is the good ending. Daiyu is several steps ahead of the attack - it it can't catch her, it can't hurt her. Schneider senses Daiyu approaching, casts, "Deep Doomsday. To the spirits of land and air, bound by the pact, fulfill your obligation now." He points, casts, "MEGADETH!", and raw sorcerous power lances out. There's a feel and a sound of a huge explosion, but in this inky utter darkness, nothing can be seen. But against the injured and drained bat, Megadeath -is- enough to finish it, it seems, and while there's nothing to see, the In-Combat status that for instance locks out our chims so we can't contact outside the party clears. Out of combat must mean it's dead, right? Or at least retreated? How would we tell?

It is out of combat. That is all that really matters. "A creature of darkness, a master of it... but not immune to it. I see now how this benefits your training." Daiyu glances over at where Llyn was forced to stay out of the fight, and is relieved to see she is still alive. Not that much shows through her stoicness. "I suggest we depart before something else comes along. Alpha predators often have scavangers willing to pick at the remains of their attempted meals."

Llyn is glad she had some heavy hitters on this as both Schneider and Daiyu takes it down. she's going to keep moving though she doesn't want to sty here much longer. Is it dead? Is it gone? She doesn't want to find out.

"I have to agree so how about we go somewhere we can get some drinks?!

Schneider is also starting to see what Daiyu has seen. Or, rather, to understand what she understands. With the bat gone, he will light a fire, but still no light can be seen. "Either the effect had a duration independent of the bat, or that was not the only bat here," he says, his tone worried. He nods vehemently about departing and will do so hurriedly. "That sounds like a remarkably good plan," he says, since he's burned his big spells.

The way out is a bit less confusing than the way in, and the party's workarounds for sightlessness manage to last until they can see the glow of daylight in the cave mouth. Once out in daylight, Schneider breathes a huge sigh of relief. "That was a bit hairier than I expected," he admits. "Still, I definitely have a new appreciation for the dark." He smirks to Llyn and says, "Drinks sound fantastic. Lets do it."

Llyn is catching he breath after they have escaped. "Wonderful i make no promises about not dancing on a table before we're done with it! Come on Dayiu i'd like to see yours and Schneider dance moves!"

Daiyu rolls her eyes at the jokes about dancing on the tables. "You can do whatever you want. But yes, a chance to recover from this adventure sounds like a good idea."