Duty Session 31: Spinner's End

The Landers in the Town of Beginnings seem to have a never ending string of trouble that comes their way. A few of the local Lander blacksmiths have complained that they are struggling to get the raw ore that they need. Apparently, the nearby mines have been overwhelmed with beasts and monsters, making it hard for the miners to continue their excavation efforts. It blips as an optional side-quest with a reward of improving the available resources in the Town of Beginnings.

(OOC Note: There are two possible duty-end rewards for this quest.)

Wisteria
Overworld - 13 - 0 - 0

    Wisteria gathers up Mizuki-chi and tries to sweep up anyone else she can to take down into the Spider mines. She nods "Okay so .. while I haven't managed paper or pen yet, I'm taking notes... well trying to. Keep your eyes open for anything we can use to skip sections, exploit monsters, or otherwise make this a safe and fast repeatable thing. I'm trying to get a farming guide put together to help feed and armor all these refugees." And setup a format for doing this kind of thing going forward so that as she levels she can keep making guides to help with the tower climb and keeping everyone equipped. "Ooh and hopefuly someone can swim... sometimes that's an issue and I'm just... the WORST when ti comes to swimming."
Shiruba
Overworld - 13 - 0 - 0

Shiruba nods. "I like the way you think." Sounds like Wisteria prefers working on similar methods as herself. She has her bow at ready but not drawn with anything until it proves needed. "And stay together. Last thing we need is one person wandering and triggering part of the mine encounters we could otherwise avoid."
Mizuki
Overworld - 13 - 0 - 0


    Mizuki nods. "Good thinking!" as Wisteria talks about finding exploits. And then... swimming? "I know how to swim but I wouldn't do it in combat. Also Gwen hasn't invented swimsuits yet."

    She tilts her head. "Why do you ask? Did you have to swim in this dungeon before? There wasn't a swimming section when I ran it..."
Wisteria
Overworld - 13 - 0 - 0

    Wist nods her head. "Yah, had this whole tunnel full of water. Jaz had to bubble me and roll me through it." she blushes, well the inside of her bunny ears goes a bit pink. "Also, fire is really effective in any of the fights where the room is full of webs. There's lots of dark places so if you have dark, searching magic, or stealth skills they can help too."
Gwen
Overworld - 13 - 0 - 0

Gwen seems down for another dungeon she could use more experience and materials, right?

"I'm very much up for it and I have been in here. Seriously speed running?"

A deep sense of uneasy builds up in her experience with people trying to speed run? Well, it's too late now and she'll have to do her best to see to it they all get through this intact.

"I have been in here before I have some idea about it the dogs are just hungry and tend to leave when given some food."
Wisteria
Overworld - 13 - 0 - 0

    Wisteria leads the way to the indicated mine opening, even if others have run this before, it was her idea this time so she'll lead the way. Once they head in past the abandoned mining camp area outside they head in. Spider webs dangle and the fleshy hairless beast with huge teeth is there as she expects. "Alright, several ways we can handle this..." she offers without offering specifics. Her hands going to her sword as she takes a stance.
Shiruba
Overworld - 13 - 0 - 0

"It is nice that the Duties don't just repeat themselves over and over. That would get a little too easy to predict."

Sure enough instead of hungry dogs or water traps they find the sorting room, and some grotesque creature guarding it. "How is there something -creepier- than the spiders?", Shiruba mutters, even as she pulls an arrow from her quiver into her bow and fires to try and get the thing out of their way.
Mizuki
Overworld - 13 - 0 - 0


    Mizuki frowns when Wisteria mentions an underwater tunnel section, then nods at Gwen. She is ready for dogs.

    That is not a dog.

    "What IS that, a giant naked mole rat?!" Curls of flame start to accompany her breath; She waits for Gwen to draw aggro, then spits a fireball at it to knock off a chunk of health before diving into melee, stabbing with her daggers and raking it with her hindclaws. "It's just one monster. We can take it down by the book, nya!"

    "Have any of you ever seen this thing here before?!"
Gwen
Overworld - 13 - 0 - 0

There were no dogs this time, she's kinda glad about that. What's she is not glad about is this new monster she'll chant a spell as she sees it sending bursts of fire at whatever horror this horrible toothed thing /is/ She doesn't want to know really and after her spell is launched she'll move to keep herself between it and the rest of the party.

"Yes I have been here before and no I have not!"
Wisteria
Overworld - 13 - 0 - 0

    Wisteria sweeps her sword out of her scabard, the blade igniting into flame... however she seems to have either said her enchantment incorrectly or failed to give it enough juice. Rather than the raging flame to frighten the monster off she gets a barely flickering torch. She isn't much assistance but luckily Mizuki-chi and Gwen manage between them to finish the thing off.

    "I dunno exactly what it is, but it's a real pain.. yah I've run into it before. We managed to kill it last time too. Gonna have to try scaring it away or feeding it... maybe like the dogos?" she shrugs and leads the way down the tunnel. "Well this is new for me... anyone else run into this cave in before?" she asks as they aproach a well webbed up portion of scree and boulders packing the tunnel.
Mizuki
Overworld - 13 - 0 - 0


    Mizuki picks up any meat drops. They have taste, dammit! "I dunno... the dogs are animals, that was clearly a monster." She walks with the group to... a dead end! "Yeah, this happened last time too." She starts feeling around the wall, sniffing at the air. "I think it's... this way?" She stomps her foot dramatically, making the loose earth jump aside! ...Revealing solid cave wall.

    "Okay, maybe not that way..."
Shiruba
Overworld - 13 - 0 - 0

Shiruba glances back at the room as they move on. "Well whatever it is, let's hope that's the only one down here." Ugh. That was nasty.

That little horror is followed by a climb down for some time, and a tunnel caved in with rocks. "Yeah, we got this one last time we were down here. Be careful, there's webbing stuck between the stones." As she's replying Shiruba is patting her hands along the rocks, until she finds one and grabs onto it. Channels some of her Earth wave arts into trying to smash it free to make a larger opening.
Gwen
Overworld - 13 - 0 - 0

Gwen says "Doesn't seem like this thing wants food."

She notes as they move deeper in and now they have a new issue the way is blocked she's seen this before and the last time she used Earth Magic to great effect. This time it does not go so well for the Sylph Holy Knight. She does her best but it's clear this time she's struggling with her magic.

"We'll have to figure out what else we might have to deal with this time."
Wisteria
Overworld - 13 - 0 - 0

    As everyone is working on the wall of stones, Wisteria stands in her standard combat stance. Her hands on her kitana. Then she's chanting to the earth, and with a few fast shuffles and a combined, draw/slash of her katana the stones are pushed back with a wave of quaking earth until the wall collapses and there is a large enough gap to climb over without getting stuck in any webbing. "There we go." she says with a grin, full of far too many razor fangs.

    She looks around the room "Okay... been in here, there's a secret trapdoor somewhere." she says "Last time we stumbled into it... literally..." she sighs "Lets try finding it on purpose this time? That hurt like heck."
Shiruba
Overworld - 13 - 0 - 0

Making the earth move to get past the landslide leads them into a large square chamber with no immeadiately apparent exits. "Oh, this is new~" No one here should be surprised that Shiruba is actually a bit excited at this. A new exploration puzzle has been put in front of her after all. Wisteria can at least fill in a bit on what they're looking for. "Got it..."

She crouchs down, tail swishing as she flexes her legs and wiggles a little to prep herself. "Northern Winds guide my stride -- Flashstep!" A puff of air in her wake flutters through dust and cobwebs as Shiruba uses some wind magic to check over the room at a faster pace.
Mizuki
Overworld - 13 - 0 - 0


    Eventually a way through is found... to /another/ dead end. "Oh. THIS was what we ran into last time."

    ...

    "...I think." Again, she sniffs around the walls trying to find an air current.
Gwen
Overworld - 13 - 0 - 0

Gwen has done this room before and recalls where the passage out was last time, she expects it might have moved, but it could be a lot worse right? She's in luck it has not moved and she's got an idea to try and force the lock she'll use ZAP, to try and just brute force the mechanism she's no thief after all, right?

"Looks like the lock hasn't moved this time!"

Gwen seems very chipper.

"Good thing I brought a key with me!"
Wisteria
Overworld - 13 - 0 - 0

    Mizuki discovers where the door is, managing to search out the small air gap. Then as Gwen zaps the lock there is a click, but still no door opening. When Wist recognizes a stone formation. "Oooh this is the one I got shoved into last time... bruised my poor chest." she says "I think it takes the lock and the lever." she says pushing on it with her body without the bruising impact. The door snapping open. "Be quiet going this way... last time it rolled us down a slope into a big nest."

    Leading the way at a quiet sneak the Caerbannog were fang stops at the edge of...yup the spider nest. "Last time we almost made it across then there was panicing and we just set everything on fire. That worked but I think sneaking past might be best for speedrunning." she says in a whisper.
Shiruba
Overworld - 13 - 0 - 0

Ew, spider eggs. "Agreed," she whispers back. "Be careful. Spiders sense their surroundings through their webs. Disloding too much webbing will be like setting off tripwires."

Easier said than done, with how thick in webs the room is, and there's also the eggs to worry about.

Shiruba tries to draw more on her nocturnal side, and stalk through the darkened areas of the room to avoid notice while trying to not disrupt the webs or egg nests too much.

It's probably not going to go as well as she's hoping. The webs are -everywhere-. She doesn't want to think about places they're going to be sticking to afterwards....
Mizuki
Overworld - 13 - 0 - 0


    Mizuki sniffs out the secret door for others to pick! Once again, these animal abilities are helpful... Sam's not sure if he would have chosen were fang for a long-term character, but being part animal sure has been helpful... But it also seems to push him away from the common experiences of others.

    It makes him feel a little bit more like if he was just born this way with experiences humans don't understand... which should be great for RP and Lore and all but is a little bit frightening when he thinks about it... so he tries not to think about it right now.

    The next room is full of cobwebs. "Oh no, nyat this again... wait. It's not a million spiders, it's just... eggs? I agree with sneaking past so we don't get overwhelmed."

    She's a cat ninja, and moves through the room silently, agilely stepping past tripwires and making it look as easy as walking.
Gwen
Overworld - 13 - 0 - 0

It's a spider nest there are too many spiders here it's time to quote a mostly forgotten boss of yesteryear as she chants a fire spell? She cries out.

"BY FIRE BE PURGED!"

IT doesn't go so well there's a lot of spiders she might get some but there's may just too many for them she will try to burn as many of the things as she can as she moves in. Sadly she's not so good at ahem sneaking about too much armour and she's too big.
Wisteria
Overworld - 13 - 0 - 0

    Wisteria again takes her sword, and with a quick draw, she sends a wave of darkness, running in it's wake as it cuts webbing cleanly and leaves her shrouded so that she doesn't get spotted. The others sneak acro... and then the panic fire starts. Why do the panic fires always start. She really needs to include a note on her pamphlet that says 'either use a flame thrower, or bring people who don't panic at baby spiders'. They all make it through with no major injuries or having to fight through the spider guards just a few babies around.

    "There should be a giant boss spider up ahead, last time she was a massive tank." she offers as she heads towards the boss chamber hands on her kitana. The area opens up into a horror that looks like someone decided to make a were fang Jorogumo. "Yah not this one..."
Mizuki
Overworld - 13 - 0 - 0


    "Shit, hurry!" Mizuki urges when Gwen starts burninating the spidereggs.

    At last, they reach the boss room. "Alright, finally!" Mizuki is ready to face the giant spider again; she figured out the pattern on the first try after all, blocking venomous attacks with a shield spell and then retaliating when it was open.

    "This isn't a giant spider! Have you faced this thing before?!" She opens with spitting a fireball before the group can spread out... and then runs around the boss arena shouting "Gweeeeeeeeen! Aggro theeeeeeeem!" zapping the spiders with a jolt of electricity to briefly stun them whenever they get close.
Shiruba
Overworld - 13 - 0 - 0

Stupid spiders. Stupid webs. Shiruba would almost regret agreeing to doing this again if it wasn't for the silk being potentially useful to her friends' crafting plans. But at least they found the boss room!

"This is an entirely different boss than we got last time Gwen," she notes. The spider-woman starts a summoning with her book, but as magic swirls around her claws and the ethereal arachnids take form the wolfgirl's attention is drawn to something other than the boss directly. There's a sly shimmer in her eyes as she smirks, showing a fang tip between parting lips. "Tsk tsk. You overlooked something didn't you?"

She draws back the bowstring and forms an arrow of magic energy with it. She takes aim, but then shifts a bit from the boss to fire her glowing energy arrow at the crystal the boss is drawing power from. Being a former console gamer and weak point exploiter, Shiruba can't stop herself from shouting as she does so.

"SHOOT THE CORE!"
Gwen
Overworld - 13 - 0 - 0

Gwen looks a bit embarrassed.

"Look it was a lot of spiders and burning them out worked last time."

She doesn't argue any other points and will have to think about other things.

"I'm on it."

There's not enough time to get Anchor Howl off but she can quick cast earth pillar to get the Spider Summoner's attention to keep it on her a massive pillar of stone will rise up trying to slam into the summoner as Gwen calls out.

"On me discount Drider!"

Then she hears Shiruba shout out Shoot the core and she smiles.
Wisteria
Overworld - 13 - 0 - 0

    As the battle rages, Wisteria notes she doesn't have time for a big spell and it's not the kind of boss where she can really get in close and personal. So she does some of row A some of row B. She leaps with a caerbannog's speed, one zeta clacking off the stone pillar. Then a flash of her sword and an arc of arcane energies slip from the blade to smash into the crystal Shiruba pointed out. Then turns to continue the group effort. Mizuki-chi kiting the spawn adds, Gwen distracting and tanking the boss. While Shiruba and Wisteria take out the crystal and turn on the boss leaving her sprawled out before she and her spiderlings disolve into pixels. She stops looking at the circle. "Damn.. this one is level ten to go on too." she says before turning to help divide the loot.
Mizuki
Overworld - 13 - 0 - 0


    That's right, Mizuki is 'kiting the adds', not 'drawing aggro', that's her story and she's sticking to it.

    Honestly, it was a calculated risk which seems to have paid off this time.

    She groans at the summoner's last words. "Why couldn't they just TELL us the powers we're dealing with, then?"

    She hmms at the strange behavior of the circle. "...Was it this one or the rat summoner that did this before...? Is there some plot about spiders, or some plot about human-monster hybrid summoners...?"

    She stretches. "At least this time I don't have to go wash countless spiders out of my hair and fur..."

    Mizuki sheathes her weapons and picks up the silk. "Hmmm..." She turns to Gwen, "What do you think you could make with it?"
Shiruba
Overworld - 13 - 0 - 0

With Gwen tanking the boss itself and Mizuki drawing the adds away Shiruba can focus on taking out that crystal with Wisteria and getting the quota for Video Game References filled.

Once the boss and her minions finally collapse she turns to grin at her best friend. "See, told you this would be a more interesting night. And you still got something useful." She takes some of the threads, watching them glimmer for a moment. "I wonder if I could make a better bowstring out of some of these..." The report that again farther progress is barred until they level up more doesn't phase her much. It was the same last time.
Gwen
Overworld - 13 - 0 - 0

Gwen is pretty intent to keep the spider caster under control and she does well enough to keep it from getting too out of control and she's a bit beat up a little bit, but nothing too bad. She seems to be pleased with the drop she gets from the boss and the level lock?

"Looks like it's still in place for the moment. We can come back later to see how this plays out. I'm going to use this on some of my projects."
Wisteria
Overworld - 13 - 0 - 0

    Wisteria shakes her head "No last time it was here in the spider cave but with a giant tanky spider and not a creepy spider lady." she says "I'm planning on using the shell from the old one as a do (samurai breastplate), and then using these." she says shaking the silk "As my lacing." she says with a smile "It'll be awesome."
Mizuki
Overworld - 13 - 0 - 0


    "You still have the other one?" Mizuki looks over at Wis. "I was expecting to get the same thing again, figured maybe it could be turned into armor somehow. This... I dunno." She shakes her head. "I just have no craft skills in this game at all..."
Shiruba
Overworld - 13 - 0 - 0

Shiruba nods to Wisteria as she tucks her share of the loot away. "That sounds like a good idea, actually. Learning to use what this world can provide is another step ahead in surviving."
Wisteria
Overworld - 13 - 0 - 0

    Wisteria nods "Come on lets get out of here, faster we leave and turn in the quest faster the dungeon resets and can be run again." she says "I think I can work out at least a newbie guide to the spider mines... might need to run it a few more times to get the speedrun down." she just throws out gaming words she's heard... she isn't really clear what speedrunning is just going fast, and farming is just obvious enough she knows it means killing the boss lots for it's loot.
Gwen
Overworld - 13 - 0 - 0

Gwen says "That it is Shir. We'll nee to grind back up not only our levels, but also our crafting right? Nice to be able to actually support yourself." She laughs a little bit and looks over to Mizuki now for a moment. "I used mine up to help fix part of one of the rescue ships myself. You don't have a profession Mizuki?"
Mizuki
Overworld - 13 - 0 - 0


    Mizuki nods at Wis; she seems to have used the gaming technology correctly enough.

    Then she stuffs the silk in her inventory and looks to Gwen. "I do, but, I'm a thief."

    She blinks, then covers her muzzle with her hands. "Oh no. I'm a khajiit stereotype!"

    Then she lowers her hands again. "Maybe we can find some bad people for me to steal from?"
Shiruba
Overworld - 13 - 0 - 0

"A pure speedrun is probably going to be hard when you have things like that sneaking room and the rockslide that literally force you to slow down." Shiruba rubs her chin thoughtfully, her own analysis of the dungeon churning. "But honing how quickly you progress through the other rooms would give you more time to deal with the trickier aspects, so it evens off in the end mostly. At least we know more of the variations in rooms that can occur."