Duty Session 32: Obligatory Rat Cellar

    As she's been doing lately, Wisteria is hunting up people who are willing to just run through the random starter quests, rats and spiders, over and over and over as she tries to get her farming guide assembled.

Reika ran some rats before, but when they strike again, she's always willing to give a hand. Plus she's carrying that sparkling new 'Hamelin" guild badge, she was appointed as a recruiter. It's nice to be recognized for what you can do~ But that doesn't mean she's idle meanwhile, she still does things to try to learn the game better "So those rats are back huh."

Shiruba enjoys exploration and strategizing against monster tactics so she's all for helping a fellow analyzer in making things a little easier for the stuck newbies that don't have the experience long-term and just stuck back at low levels adventurers like herself do. That and she is curious herself about how the Duties change or don't, so the best way to experiment is to do them repeatedly. "Rats this time, huh? At least this time I can try to be better prepared."

Lately, Mikage seems to be more than willing to tag along on the various quests offered by the Lander NPCs. Even if she's been through them before, there are subtle changes which have been interesting to explore. That, and it is an excuse to further level her experience. As is common, lately, her pet lynx has not been left behind, his training still a work in progress.

"This one seems to pop up every now and again in the different cities." Miki nods in Reika's direction, not really thinking too much about her guild marker. The ranger doesn't have a guild affiliation at all at the moment, which isn't too surprising. Many people's guilds ended up in flux after the Apocalypse.

    Wisteria is taking this whole Knight of Odyssia thing seriously. Sure she's an MMO nerd... but she's also a national sports champ. Since getting stuck inside she's been directing that same obsessive dedication to getting out. This is just a step in that direction. More resources, more bodies who've leveled means more people to help in the tower and less time the tower climbers have to put into things like dinner.

    "Thanks for coming on another of these." she says to Shiruba. The were fang bunbun is all chipper info gathering. "So anyone else run through a few of these? If we hit something new, or if we hit something you've done. Please chime in with that info, if you've done it please let me know how you got through it previously." she says brushing her hands off, and then turning her back to the building. She gives a friendly smile to the party... which invovles showing far more ragged razor teeth than should exist in a bunny mouth.

"Yeah, ran a similar duty when we were collecting funds for the ships," Shiruba replies, ponytail swishing as she nods her head. She was already energetic, but the were-bun's ethusiasm was still infectionous. "I'll let you know when we come across anything new or familiar but changed."

Reika raises her hand "Same here, I was in a rat exetermination that early on as well, although I really didn't understand what was going on at the time, mostly just tagged on and improvised."

"You got it, boss." Mikage gives a sort of relaxed salute towards Wisteria. "I ran this once a while back, but my pet got me into a bit of trouble, so I'm leaving him behind, today." She looks towards the cellar, cautiously. "I'll let you know if anything is different from what I remember." Her hand rests on her sword, giving a nod.

    Wisteria nods her head, long ears swaying. "OKay, lets go take care of this poor lady's rat problem." She says opening the cellar door. Her cute pink nose wrinkling at the dry dusty air as she decends into the dim room. "OOh hey look... come for the rats, stay for the giant spiders." she says tightening her grip on her katana and scabard.

Shiruba snorts softly at the dusty air. "Dust and cobwebs in a cellar. This is pretty standard to the duty so far," she notes. Nothing she needs to draw her weapon for, Shiruba just conjures up a little air based wave artes to blow some of the dust and sticky webbing out of the path. "Try to avoid that thickly clustered spot over there though, it might be a nest or something else we don't need spilling open."

As the party descends down into the cellar, Mikage's nose wrinkles at the familiar scent of dust in the air. She reaches up to pull a bit of cloth over her nose and mouth, trying to avoid coughing and making the problem that much worse. "This is pretty much what I remember." She explains, trying to keep a distance between herself and the nearby, web covered walls.

"Reminds me of some parts of Spinner's End. I know some people thought that these spiders might be a linked to those, somehow." It was a rumor she had heard. Nodding to Shiruba, she follows suit, using her weapon to focus some air magic down along the same direction in order to open a path forward.

Reika nods to Mikage "Very familiar. But if its a game it's not too surprising, I guess? I mean quests respawn, along with monsters, allowing more people to clear them in their own way and time." She nods as she keeps moving on, using her air control to help steady the oxygen supplies for the team, avoiding it being stale, and probably smelly.

    Nods at the confirmation of dusty chamber with spiders as a starting point is pretty common. She takes a shuffle step forward, her katana sliding free in a sweeping cut, air collecting along the edge of the blade and swirling ahead of her to finish cutting a path through the dust and cobwebs.

    The combined gusts of wind actualy clear a dusty 'wall' of webs exposing a cut stone passageway. "Well... that's not ominous." she says with a giggle. Then leads the way down the passage, checking and making sure she doesn't come across any tripwires or loose tiles until they come to a rune inscribed door. "Anyone see this one before?" she asks as she starts trying to puzzle out the runes.

Shiruba shakes a few lingering bits of dust and web off as they make their way through, then stops and looks up at the magic door. "No, this is new." She squints, leaning a bit closer. "But, these glyphs are fairly common in Elder Tale as a runic language representing magic." She taps her fingertips on one of the sigils and it lights up. "This is probably some manner of combination. Like a giant magic keypad lock. So we need to figure out the right order to activate them."

"It's possible. At the very least, they're likely the same models as the smaller spiders in the mines. I'm just glad it isn't in quite the numbers as there." Mikage shivers, clearly remembering a very uncomfortable amount of the smaller spiders.

As they pass through into the next room, her expression shifts to one of confusion and unfamiliarity. "This one is new to me." The girl glances back, "There was a room with traps here, last time." And because of that, the Were Fang is a little bit more cautious about stepping forward towards that rune-marked door.

"This looks like a mark for magic. Maybe if I..." She steps back, extends the point of her sword towards the rune on the door, and then starts to channel  magic through the weapon. It causes both her blade, and the corresponding rune to light.

Reika hmms as she nods, looking around "I don't remember that either, but it looks like a relatively simple lock. They wouldn't make something without a key to it in a game, don't you think?" She looks around, and thinks "Maybe the runes have to do with the direction we're going to?" She doesn't know what runes mean either.

    Wisteria nods her head and sits on the ground using the tip of her knife along with some whispered conversation with Shiruba and Mikage's arcane channeling and some input from Reika to write out a password on the floor. "Okay... I'm pretty sure that's it." she says and stands up tapping out the password. The door swings open silently. "Well there we go, that definately goes on the guide." she says with a laugh. "Password probably changes each time but I'm sure if we run through enough times we'll be able to find a pattern." she licks her lips and leads on.

    The sounds of the rats cause her long ears to lay down along the back of her head. "Oooh that's just.... terrible." she says and then they're in the land of Yin and Yang rats. "Okay... decision time. I can probably buff the black ones, or I could try and clear a path through them all... what do you guys think? Anyone run into this? Have you tried buffing one side or just muscling through?" she seems almost as excited to puzzle this out as she is disgusted by the sounds and bloody brawl.

Reika hmms "You're thinking about it wrong I think. It's not that which one we should do, it depends on our skill set. Basically, different solutions depending on different people in the party." She honestly doesn't really know the game that much, but sounds logical that a power heavy group would just kill things, while a lighter group would sneak through. She uses one of her ability, Dark Wave, quietly, blanketing the area around them in darkness.

Through the magic door, down the tunnels and around the bend, and to the room filled with hideous black and white rats fighting with each other. Ears perk at the strange sounds ahead and Shiruba holds up a hand to get the rest of the party to pause for a moment. "Saw this one last time," the wolfgirl quickly chimes in. "The rats are fighting each other, so it's best to try and get through the room without aggro-ing them or both sides will swarm us."

She makes a quick arcane gesture in the air and chants "Guardians of the night protect me -- Eclipse Cloak." A thin shimmer like walking through a moonbeam sheaths her as Shiruba casts her version of Energy Coat as protection against the small bites and scrapes before hurrying her way through the swarm of rats. It actually blends in really well with Reika's casted darkness.

"Hmm." The analysis seems to get Mikage thinking about the exact state of these dungeons as well. "It seems like some things repeat, and some things don't. Though, I'll take the door over the trapped hallway any day."

The squeaking of the rats is both hideous, and familiar. Mikage pulls her hood further up, then shakes her head. "Last time, some of the boys sort of barreled through this place. I'm not sure if it was the right way of handling it." There were certain types of players who did enjoy the rushing head-first into situations like this.

With the others casting darkness magic, Mikage favors just ducking her head and running, trying to avoid the rats as much as possible in order to get through to the other side. Perhaps she simply isn't as proficient in that element of magic as the others.

    Wisteria nods "Well I'm trying to put together guides here, see so I'm looking for ways to advise people to build their party, how to bipass challenges, how to tweek the system." She again grasps her sword, and with a slow chant she calls on the darkness to curse and destroy her enemies. A slash of the blade sends a wave of black coruption through the white army of rats. The black army starts winning the battle giving everyone space to go around behind the black lines. "Better than running through the middle right?" she says with a big grin showing all those ragged razor fangs.

    She heads on away from the battle, the black rats are almost sure to win now. She starts to pick her way around half eaten rats. "Ooh this will be ... good." she says with some level of sarcasm. "Yah... well at least this proves that if I can find a giant bunbun for a mount... it will be terrifying in battle. Boss fight!"

"I'm all for gathering more information. We don't know how much things have changed with the expansion." Mikage nods, seeming glad enough that they had capable dark magic users with them. "Not only that, but there are a ton of new Adventurers who won't really have any idea what they are doing going into quests like this." She scrunches her nose, "I'd rather not see them eaten alive by rats."

Beyond the chamber of oddly colored rats is the area that seems to serve as a sort of mini-boss. "I think it was an armored one last time. It certainly wasn't as angry as this one, either!" The last bit is said with a higher pitch of her voice as she dodges the charging rat. Drawing her sword, the Were Fang crouches, moving around and using hunter's tactics to try to get behind it.

Since there are a number of them, it's easy enough to find an opening once it is distracted, moving in to slash at the rat's flanks with her sword.

Reika hms and nods "Yeah, it looked different last time, so I think there's some variation... random or location?" Hard to tell, maybe a combination of the skills they used to get here? She draws her twin blades from her back, and works with Mikage into slicing it open, using her Twin Cutter move, which makes for a flurry of swipes as she flanks it with Mikage.

"Can't always choose your teammates in a pick-up group," Shiruba agrees. "But knowing the tactics needed will help anyone make the most effective use of who and what they have at hand. People can adjust based on their group to be more efficient.... Oh boy."

She stops as they go from rat hordes to one giant rat, instinctively crouching down in a ready position. A flash of movement already has her bow at ready, the other hand reaching for her quiver. It becomes more apparent why she prefers the belt quiver to a back one, she can reach it faster and more readily. "Watch out, a monster that big usually has extended striking range. Keep your distance, or get up close inside it's reach."

She opts for the later, firing arrows at the giant rat's neck and shoulders trying to hit the weaker spots between muscle and nerves.

    Wisteria's ears flick and turn, and she leans into her Caerbannog nature trying to jump into combat. Only to get shouldered out of the way by the ROUS. She goes spinning off to the side before trying to get back into combat. The werefang not contributing as much to this fight as she has to the other bits of the Duty so far. She shakes her head, and when the rodent is taken out she smiles. "Well... that went uhmm swimmingly." she says and shakes her head. "Come on, no completion notification so... it looks like we keep heading deeper down these tunnels."

    She blinks when eventually the tunnels lead out into... a different cellar? "Well... I didn't know we had petshops selling rats here." she says in a slightly snarky way looking at the fat Lander who's the cause of this particular infestation of rats.

"This is similar to how it ended before," Shiruba remarks as they walk into another cellar that is occupied by another merchant tending to hordes of rats. "Using rats as industrial sabotage." There's a bit more explaination to that, but first, they need to deal with the actual matter at hand.

Rather than go for an arrow though the wolfgirl uses her cunning, and pulls a flask from her inventory instead. She gives it a few good shakes to activate the contents, and then throws it at one of the clusters of rats and cages. The resulting mixture it releases when it shatters is rancid and horrific to smell. It's suppose to incapacitate things.

But Shiruba may of underestimated just how putrid these rats are, they don't seem to be phased very much...

Reika ews a bit, watching the man at work "Here's the real boss..." Although she's probably more wimpy than rats, he certainly can't be allowed to keep going. It's part of the game though, so lander or PC, they are going under the blade. She doesn't charge in though, as Shiruba throws something at the lot instead. "More ew." But as the man probably panics, he gets sliced in different directions, the small group likely can handle this kind of creep easily.

"Oh great, this guy again." Mikage mutters as they step into the final boss room. Yep, she has seen this enemy before. "You'd think they would learn, but then again... Lander AI."

Rather than trying to talk to the merchant, she takes her sword and swipes it in the air. It leaves a glowing arch like the curve of a bow. Reaching out, Miki takes it in one hand, then draws an invisible 'string' with the other. As soon as she does, the entire spell takes shape, forming into a sort of glowing archery set, the arrow aimed at the merchant.

"You want to go home and re-think your life choices." She threatens.

    With threats of real violence and the stench of chemical weapons the Lander falls to his knees blubbering about how he was just trying to get more buisness because no one would shop in a store full of rats. Wist shakes her head "I'm not even going to sully my blade on someone this garbage." she says "Earth, come to my call and make my enemies tremble before me." she says and stomps her foot, the resulting miniquake dumping the rat cages sending the rats swarming the Lander and up into his shop. The man running off chasing the rats to try and save his goods and perhaps reputation.

"I still say this wouldn't be a bad idea for sabotaging the competition... but this duty executes it poorly. Draws too much attention to what's going on, and noisy people are going to investigate."

Shiruba provides a little economic analysis, as one would probably expect from a Cait Sith.

Not as much loot to be had when you already did the Duty, but it's still experience and more entertaining than sitting around doing nothing.

Reika sheaths her blades back, now that the Lander is subdued. No need to push it any further after all, it's just part of their pogrammng... even though the programming seems to be an odd concept when you interact with them now. Maybe this one is just stubborn. "Another job well done, and less rats on the street."

As the merchant runs off, Mikage slowly lowers the bow. The weapon remains flickering in her hands for a few more seconds, and then seems to dissipate back into the ether. "Waste of a good spell." She mutters to herself.

She glances over at Wisteria, "Hopefully that was a little bit enlightening?" Her head tilts, looking inquisitive. "Saw a few things that were new, a few that I've seen before." Rolling her shoulders, the Ranger glances back down the tunnels. "I'm going to head back. Every time I'm down here I feel like I need a bath afterwards."

The girl reaches over and dusts cobwebs and rat fur off of parts of her armor. Her boots probably aren't in great shape, either, after trekking through the underground.

Reika walks after Mikage, heading out as well, now that the area is mostly clear... they did leave a few rats back there, but they can avoid them again likely "So are you looking for a guild?"

    Wisteria "Yah, thanks. This has been a big help, gotta run it a few more times in a few more cities." she says "So... you know if you're ever in need of something to do." she says with that blender grin of hers. She heads off to get the duty turned in.