Duty Session 12: Obligatory Rat Cellar

TEN MINUTES AGO

An old miller Lander is grumbling and raising a hand, shaking his stick, "You Adventurers need to get them rats outta mah cellar, you hear me? What are ya good fer if not that!"

NOW: Nevarri slowly makes her way down the steps into the cellar, sighing... Dressed in her level 1 attire, a red tunic and skirt number, she sighs a little bit, "I had some of the best glamours though... I can't re-apply them until I get my gear up, which means leveling, which means these duties... If I'm going to be doing exploring, may as well look good..."

She glances at the ingame time, "Shouldn't take too long..."
She looks to the others, "So how has you guys been holding up?"

"Honestly, I'm surprised people on the outside haven't worked things out already." He shakes his head sadly. "I'm getting a bit worried. I can't imagine what my wife and son must be feeling."

He unslings his shield from his back. "Well, focus on the now I guess. Maybe this will lead to some new clues."

He then looks down at his equipment and grimaces. "I also feel the loss though, I spent good hours getting my loot only to lose everything!"

"...oh fine, just fine." Jazuhanzu is whispering as she enters the cellar, having been drafted among Nevarri and Zorik with a slightly dazed look on her face. "Just confused as to what we're still even doing here. Someone should have unplugged us by now." She is still somewhat bemused by the circumstances she finds herself in.

"...what is this, a D&D campaign?" She glances towards Zorin, sympathy written all over her face at his words about his wife and son. She wiggles her fingers experimentally.

"So, ah... this might be a bad time to talk about having no idea what I'm doing except for the fact that I have no idea what I'm doing."

Glances over to Jazz with an understanding nod. "Everything has changed. I'm not sure how much our experiences mean now? Those instincts may even be detrimental if we assume something only to find out it is no longer true." He shrugs slightly, "We are all trying to figure out what's going on and what to do. We're in this together."

As they continue to head down Zorin stares into the blackness further down. "Not sure if you guys can see in the dark, but I'm going to need a light or something if we are going to go much further."

"I don't think 'Unplugging' would be such a good idea." Nevarri responds to that one niggling question, "The Dive Gear alone does a whole lot of direct-to-brain work that removal without properly logging out would be very jarring. I know from experience, and that was before this all happened."

The salamander looks up ahead into the increasing darkness. "The fact that it feels so real, that you can see things with your own eyes, and not just recieving simulated input into the brain... What would pulling the plug even do to us?"

She comes to a stop, and narrows her eyes. "It's too dark... Better get some lights going..."

"I know I'm supposed to have some kind of wand here," remarks Jazz. She reaches into her long coat and feels around for a moment before she lets out an 'ah'. She produces a feathered wand. Yes, it's a feathered wand, with brightly colored plumage and what not.

...actually, on closer inspoection, it appearws to just be a feather duster.

"... oh /come on/!" She groans and puts it back into her coat and then wiggles her fingers about, hands spread out to either side. With a bit of work, she manages to barely conjured her own flaming ember of light that moves up to circle around her head, her spotted and scaled flesh shimmering with bioluminescence.

"Thanks Jazz" Zorin grins at her as they are now able to continue downward

Looks over to Nevarri, "I haven't really researched the hardware much myself, but I do remember there being some safety algorithms built in." He hums to himself in thought a moment, "Though? I don't really remember seeing many details around it either. Nevertheless, no matter how many safeties there were I clearly remember reading the explicit warnings that you should never remove the dive gear from a user unless they go through the logout process."

As they reach the bottom there is a clearly large tunnel in the one side of the otherwise fairly regular cellar. Zorin looks in puzzlement at what clearly is an extensive tunnel. "I don't remember that NPC saying anything about a tunnel network?" Turns to look at the others with a slight frown, "Those tunnels look pretty irregular. Without any light I suspect they could be quite confusing." Then in realization he turns to Nevarri, "I don't suppose you have the supplies to make a map while we check this out?"

Nevarri giggles as Jazuhanzu flusters with the fire spell, "Let me help you out with that one." And with a flick of a wrist, a bright flame flares into existence in her palm, "I never really took advantage of my race and class build before, but being a Salamander Elementalist does have its perks." She giggles as she walks alongsize Jaz in order to help provide light.

Soon the tunnel split happens, and she blinks a little and hmming, "I wonder if..."

"I can draw a map okay, but this is like a frigging Tardis, right?" Doctor Who, after all, was all about being bigger on the inside than it looked. Producing her sypglass to get a look down the long hallway, Jazz sets about grabbing her fountain pen and parchment to draw a little map, to say nothing of leaving marks on the walls just in case.

The fire continues to ember its way around her head as she does, muttering. "Gonna die in a cellar full of rats because of COURSE I am."

Nevarri looks over Jaz's shoulder to check her work, and hmmms, "My profession is Archeologist, so I've got Cartography too, so if we can..." She puts in her thoughts quietly to Jaz, glancing up to the various other tunnels, before pointing at one set on the map. "I think you might be on the money with this one. It seems to make the most sense..."

She raises her palm full of fire back up to gesture to the tunnel route represented. "Have more faith in yourself. Maybe it'll help if we talk about our classes so we can figure out what we can do. I'm a Sorcerer/Summoner, so my title is Elementalist. I guess that makes me a blaster."

"That's a good idea." Zorin nods to Nevarri with respect and a chuckle at the quip, "Best we get a clearer idea of our abilities. I'm an acolyte/crusader also known as an evangelist. I'm focus on divination in order to have a reactive defense, but at this level I'm mostly a tank."

He then turns to Jazz, how about you, Undine?" and then as an afterthought, "Also thanks for keeping track of things with the maps. I would have been hopelessly lost down her myself."

She's about to answer Nevarri and Zorin when the squeaking they've been hearing on occasion begins to get louder. "Oh, /that's/ ominous," replies Jazz, her voice rising cutely in pitch. To be honest, she sounds like the tweest of anime girls wheen she's talking. So twee.

"Augh! Cruelty to animals is one of my triggers! I don't WANT to kill rats..."

...but then the horde of rats is surging towards them out of every nook and cranny as they step into the next room.

Jazz flails her arms around wildly, fingers wiggling, as she panics. Immediately, blue-purple glowing stalks begin to sprout up from the earth. Seaweed? Here?

It would appear so, thoiugh it's more phantasmagorical in nature than real, given its spectral colorations and appearance. It begins to bind and clutch the many and varied rats that trample through them. "AHHHHH!"

As the rats start to rush towards the party Zorin steps out in front, readying his shield as best he can against the rodent swarm and calls out, "Blaze of the Burning One shield me, FIRE SHIELD!" as his shield gains a new layer of seemingly composed entirely of flame.

Many of the rats look malformed, sickly, or have open festering wounds which become all the more apparent as charge. The glowing .. plants? Zorin isn't quite sure what they are, but they erupt from the ground striking, crushing, and strangling many of the rats, but there are too many. Zorin slams his shield down on the ground to try block as many as he can, and some slam up against the shield, shrieking as they burn, but many more start to jump over or scrabble past on the wall, falling down to bit and gnash at his armour.

Zoring grits his teeth in pain and tries to club the rodents with his scepter as tiny glowing damage indicators can be seen on him.

The swarm is sudden, but Nevarri's bright blue eyes are already onto the biggest cluster of the swarm of rats, and on reflex she whispers an incantation, staff whipped out in front of her and the head of it glowing bright with flame.

"FLAME DART"

A streak of flame lights up the room and pierces through clusters of rats, engulfing them with flame, poofing into XP and coins, as the rats scatter.

Between the combination of defense and attacks from the Adventurers, the swarm screech and skitter off into the darkness, leaving the adventurers to their devices again, for the moment.

"Woah... I actually did that..."

Grimacing as he stands up and holds his scepter to his chest muttering a few words under his breath as a dim glow surrounds him, healing some of his wounds. Rotating his shield arm in a circle to confirm it is good he nods and turns to Nevarri and Jazz, "Wow, am I ever glad you guys are here with me." Frowning slightly he turns forward again. "I think for this next little bit we should remain quiet as to not draw as much attention."

As the skittering slowly subsides there seems to be a faint gurgling moan coming from further down the tunnel. Whispering softly he continues, "Seems there is more for us just around the corner."

"...oi, I wonder what's /next/?" groans Jazz, nose wrinkling as she turns away from the roast rats. She looks somewhat grossed out. Okay, a lot grossed out.

One might even say... 'green around the gills'.

Which is how she winds up dry heaving in the corner. This is a lot more real than anything she's used to, after all, clearly, "oh my god the smell," she moans. "Hrrrk." She'll need a moment to recover, but she eventually does.

"Oh my /god/ I am going to kill you, Benji... This is all your fault." Whoever Benji is, she's clearly fond of them from the way she says it. "Okay, okay." A hand is held up. "I'm okay, I'm okay-- nope!" Hrrrrrk.

Finally, she's okay. And then it's forward time.

When they turn around the corner, the lot of them find themselves in the strange, cloth covered lair of the Thrall Rat, the larger rodent perched at the top of its its perch. Its eyes glow bright red when the adventurers step into its domain, and there's that brief sensation as the party is cut off from the rest of the world, by themselves against the Boss.

The Ratt Thrall screeches and charges for the players, foaming at the maw and getting ready to tear into its enemies, a rat cornered.

Nevarri goes wide eyed, and raises her staff up, fire gathering up at the head once more as she readies another spell!

"FIREBALL!!"

A small streak of fire centers on the rat king, followed by a MASSIVE ball of flame engulfing it!

The Thrall Rat shrieks and flails widely as the flames eat into it. Hair burning away, skin searing, the smell of burnt flesh and filth. It is clearly weakened, still burning, but it rushes forward nevertheless.

Eyes growing slightly wider Zorin shouts and points his ruby scepter in the direction of the monstrousity, "Burning One entrap and purge my enemy, FLAME PRISON!" and bars of flame appears is if from the air to surround the beast. It throws itself at the cage, causing on greater burns. It is clearly weakening, but still struggling.

Quickly, Jazz tries to wrap up the giant rat with more seaweed -- go with what's worked so far, right? But it... doesn't. The rat chews through it and she stumbles back away from it, tripping over her own feet in the process and then scrambling back. When Nevarri *destroys* it with fire, she's left heaving again because /oh no that smell again/.

"...nggh why did they have to make this SO REALISTIC."

Nevarri takes a breath of relief, "The world always had a stylized aesthetic, so it never seemed so real before. It can't be helped at this point I guess..." She looks to her companions and nods, "But anyway, let's get out of this hole. We've cleared out the rats and everything. that should do it... Let's head back---"

Using the maps and markings and lights they had set up on their way to this point, it would have been a simple matter of backtracking all the way to the exit... But there's one additional path out of the laior, "Wait, a lair with a back exit means some kind of escape route. Let's head that way..."

So with some flame upon her staff, Nevarri takes the lead here, as she guides them through to... Cellar of the mill? The stairs up lead up into another merchant's shop, causing Nevarri to blink, "Wait, how can this be the mill we came from?"

"That's because it isn't!"

Attention would be drawn to another, fat, mercantile dressed lander, and he looks pissed, "Do you adventurers have any idea how long it took me to feed those rats and sic them on my rival~!?"

Turning to glare at the self-proclaimed mastermind behind this entire mess he shifts his glasses up higher on the bridge of his nose. "In a time of confusion and hardship you turn to creating chaos from within?" Shakes his head in sadness. "What did I expect of an NPC. Apparently too much."

Pointing his scepter at the indignant merchant he declares. "There is nowhere for you to run. Come with us so that we can pass you over to whatever you NPCs have for law enforcement."

"...okay, look. How about you not let the rats out of the cages and we won't PUNCH YOU IN THE FACE?"

Jazz is threatening him.

This works better when you aren't cranky as hell, barely five feet tall, skinny as a skinny thing, and /adorable as hell/ like that in the first place. The tentacles that hang from her head twitch madly.

"Oh god, this is such bullshit, I can't believe I agreed to do this in the first place ugh!"

Nevarri takes a breath and raises a hand, to gesture to the others to hold up and dial back on the threats. "We could strike you down, and haul you to jail... But I think there's a better fate for you."

She reaches up and pushes her glasses up her nose, causing that menacing GLASSES GLINT. "Your fate is your reputation going down the drain. How do you think people will react if they find out your shop was filled with hordes and hordes of rats? It's unsanitary, and I'm sure health inspects could shut you down for it."

She smirks, "So you may as well shut your shop down now, leave town, and never come back. Just hand me your merchant's sigil... And Leave. Or we'll tell everyone about the conditions of your shop."

SUPER MENACING GLINT.

    The Merchant REELS BACK at the MENACING GLASSES.

"EEEEE! I'M SORRY! EEEE!" She stumbles around, smacking into cages and accidentally releasing the rats in the process, before fishing out his Merchant's Sigil and handing it to Nevarri, before running off screaming, being chased by rats the whole way.

Nevarri just smiles, "And that's done."