The Sands of the Deep

    Misa stops for a moment, turning her head to look towards the patch of sky to the west. She raises a hand to shield her eyes, squinting at the sun that's half visible, peeking in from behind the stoney underside of the floor above. She quietly muses, "It's getting late..."

    It's late afternoon on the second floor of Aincrad Tower. The desert terrain stretches out in all directions from the large scouting party. Despite the desert nature, the weather is still quite cold. And it's only going to get colder as night finally comes. But for now, the lowering sun is some minor relief.

    The scouting party has been walking for hours. There have been a number of encounters with mobs along the way. They've all been in the forms of beasts and monster types. No signs of humanoid ones, suggesting that not even the humanoid mobs want to populate this floor in any large numbers. For those who have dedicated themselves to combat, they've likely been able to keep up well enough with the mob levels. Those more focused on other pursuits may have had a little trouble. But so far the group has managed to succeed in making it across half the floor from its entrance. Unfortunately there has yet to be any sign of the entrance to the boss dungeon and way up to the next floor.

    The party currently makes its way across some soft sand. In the distance ahead of them, rising formations of rock. The current goal is to reach that new rock field as it'll serve as a good place to camp for the night before continuing the scouting mission in the morning.

Prophylaxis, doctor renowned around the world (of Aincrad's first floor, and only really around Tolbana) is one of those people falling into the latter bracket. It takes a good deal of personal attention to coordinate the reconstruction of an entire town and the protection of its new Lander residents! Aside from a brief sojourn into the depths of Alne's sewers to deal with a slime infestation, he hasn't actually done very much in the way of monster-fighting.

But that doesn't mean he gets to slack! The team needs him, and he is nothing if not a team player! It kind of gets beaten into your skull over years in the professional sphere. If you don't pull your own weight and make sure to throw every single drinking contest with your boss, you're soon going to find yourself on the outs.

Also, it's not like he wasn't curious about the second floor of the tower. There could be interesting things up here, after all!!

And so, Prophylaxis has attached himself to the expeditionary force. His usual attire has proven rather effective against the sweltering heat and powerful sun. Loose, baggy clothing really is the best when it comes to a place like this, and it'll keep him warm once the sun drops beneath the horizon, too. "Everyone make sure to drink plenty of water," he reminds the others, "We've still got plenty of supply, so stay hydrated and stay frosty. We're going to be pretty exposed along this next leg, so don't be surprised if something shows up to try and eat us or something!"

    The villain in glasses could be seen slightly out of breath. While he hadn't been participating as frequently in the Tower clearings as those in the SEA, it seemed that this Enchanter had been finding it a slight bit difficult trudging through the desert heat for so many hours. The Pooka enchanter found himself on occasion a bit out of breath even before most of the mob fights. If anything...The mob fights were at least more reasonable in that as part of a supporter class he was able to hold out in the rear lines and focus on buffing while taking a breather in one spot. "I know I wasn't much of a jock back in the real world, but I still can't believe how accomodated some of the others are to this heat..."

    There was probably a bit of mixed review to his presence. On one hand, the Villain in Glasses definitely did help with much of the events in the tower so far including the first floor boss. On the other hand, there was definitely mention of the NWA trying to exclude itself in most aspects of the tower clearing. None the less he had been doing his best to keep up with Misa and her scouting group as they continued scouting of the second floor. It was a rather mixed blessing that his hood seemed rather well equipped to catch the breeze than to be so unbearably thick that it'd just add to the heat. "MMm...Now that I think of it the second floor didn't seem so problematic the first time it was cleared...But on the other hand...It was much more relaxing to do it in air conditioning..."

    The arid desert climate and sandy, rocky, terrain have made things a bit of a slog, but Amalthea hasn't complained once along the way. The old Paladin's had sand in every chink of her armor and filling her boots, but she's kept up with the far younger adventurers all the same, intent on finding the path through the second floor to the boss and to bend it over her knee, in hopes of being one step closer to finding a way home.
    So yeah, Amalthea is here, sword in hand, shield in the other, occasionally wiping the sweat from her brow on the back of her arm.
    "We've already had things showing up trying to eat us since we got here." She notes to Prophylaxis as she trudges across the sand, blue eyes scanning the horizons.
    "Ah. Air conditioning. That'd be nice about now, huh?"

Sand, my god so much sand. Sand getting in places Gwen didn't think her new body had. Nope, she has those places and there is sand there now. She looks back to Misa for a moment.

"I should have made some better outfits."

The good news is she did pack some food for this motley crew of Adventurers. She kept going on and she thinks for a moment.

"It's like that time I went to Phoenix Arizona ... I thought that city was a monument to the hubris of mankind but this place..."

She sighs.

"Tell me about it Shiroe. We need to keep going though..."

    Mizuki doesn't spend a lot of time grinding in the tower. Sometimes she even worries she might be seen as 'not pulling her weight' in the knights, and this is a bad time for that especially when she's been taking advantage of the castle's room and board lately.

    What she was not ready for was a long day in the desert. It's hot and sunny (they're inside a tower, HOW IS IT SUNNY) and basically all of her clothes are pretty dark-colored. She's cycled both between human and beast form and through all of her collected armor sets -- the street clothes, the pirate armor, the ninja gi, even the leather battle bikini she used for like two dungeons and replaced ASAP.

    She is definitely going to get some desert-appropriate clothing for next time, but right now she's in the middle of the desert, and so has settled on: Were form to avoid getting sunburned or getting sand directly between clothes and skin, pirate hat to keep the sun out of her eyes, the black T-shirt from her town outfit as an undershirt, the buff coat from the pirate set, and *sigh* the leather '''pants'''. The end result is she looks like a catgirl pirate who wants to show some leg and got stranded in the desert. (This also reveals that there are stripes on her arms but not on her legs. Huh.)

    "Yes. Water good!" She takes it when offered. Beast form not sweating is a blessing and a curse.

    At least when they run into monsters she's no slacker. Two daggers, ninja magic, and fire breath paired with two-decade-honed gamer reflexes make swift work of many monsters!

    As the Villain in Glasses brings up air conditioning, her ears perk up and she walks alongside him. "Hey, d'you think we could cool ourselves down with magic somehow? Maybe a controlled, modified ice spell?"

And then there's Dareshetani, were-hyena hunter of... well, little enough reknown yet, but he's looking to change that. An expedition into the unknown seemed like an excellent place to test his skills and earn some street cred. His beast form is well enough suited to the environment, and he's clad only lightly in a leather harness that covers his more vulnerable bits, baggy linen trousers and light sandals. He's not sweating, instead dissipating heat through his big radar dish-like ears and panting lightly.

Adventurers grouped near him may indeed also have been experiencing somewhat less of the environmental stress, as he's kept up a semi-regular beat on a small hand drum attached to his belt, doing his best to channel soothing elements of Air and Water through the bardic talents he's been working to nurture. That is, as long as they can tolerate his incessant humming of Toto's 'Africa' without going mad. On hearing the griping of the explorers ahead of him in the group, he increases his pace just slightly to try to put them in range of his minor enchanted aura.

'Out for not fully out' Hamelin member Reika is there too, following the others into the tower... she needed to get her mind off things for now. Hamelin has been... on her tail recently, they don'y appreciate what she's done after all, running away mainly, the rest is sitll secret.

So here she is, tagging along, and fighting the heat. Good think she's dressed pretty lightly. It's a ninja-esque yukata. But it's still hot. She's fanning herself with a paperfan that she carried with her, not really expecting it to be used like that though.

"Water is definitely a good idea... did anyone know it was going to be a desert? Scouts or something?"

    Misa continues to walk along with the others, maintaining her usual nonplussed composure despite the long trek through the desert terrain. Though as Reika questions their knowledge about the floor, Misa does pipe up, "Yes. We've been scouting the floor for days." Apparently someone failed to tell Reika!

    "We're almost to the rocky field. Keep it up just a little longer, everyone."

    Just as it looks like they're getting close, Misa pauses in her steps and she turns her head. She then raises her hand and calls out, "Quiet." As the party quiets, something can be heard. It's hard to tell exactly what it is, the group not having heard the sound yet. But the sound is getting louder... So whatever it is, it's getting closer.

    The louder the sound gets, the easier it is to pinpoint a direction. Misa turns that way, slowly shifting her weapon off her shoulder and out to the side. With a flick, the curved blade of the scythe snaps open. Misa calls out, "Be ready!"

    Whatever it is crests one of the sandy dunes. But even then it can't be seen, as it's /beneath/ the sand. Its presence is only visible by the mound of sand on the surface that's pushing its way towards the scouting party. That mound is rather large, suggesting an even larger object beneath. One might estimate it be rougly the size of a house. Yet despite the size, it's moving fast.

    Misa shouts, "Scatter!"

    The party barely has a few moments to react before the moving mound of sand reaches them. Those who don't manage to get clear away in time will feel like they've been hit by a high powered sand blaster as the mound strikes them.

    After passing through the center of the Adventurer formation the mound turns and begins to circle around them.

Dare's foot slips on a patch of loose sand as he goes to dive to his left, and instead of the graceful animal-like leap he had envisioned, he stumbles and catches himself on the ground with his face as the mound blows past and buffets his hide with stinging sand. On the plus side, at least he's not humming Toto anymore. Coughing up particles, he scrambles to get back to his feet as quickly as he can - whatever was beneath that mound is surely going to be a greater threat than the sand itself. He paws at the side of his face to clear grit from his eyes with one hand as his other reaches blindly for the bow on his back.

    Shiroe finds himself nodding as Gwen tells them they have to keep pushing through, "Hai, hai, guess I'm still feeling a little spoiled. Still even after being in here for over two months I guess you still don't find yourself forgetting the conveniences you had before." It was true, the thought of being able to simply enjoy the internet as he knew it still lingered in his mind on occasion. The convenience of going out and just being able to get a coffee whenever he wanted. Where as now everything truly did feel to be a struggle. He can only nod to Amalthea when she brings up A/C. Actually... "Amalthea...You're not feeling out of it right now?" Wait, was he seriously getting outpaced by an old lady!?!?!!

    It's something he'd rather not think about, and apparently he wouldn't. Misa's call is noticed by all and with it the slow but building sound that continues to disrupt the slight peaceful moment that had enjoyed. The monstrosity that ends up hiding below the sound, plowing through it like felt as though they were being charged by a shark. Yet a shark one might have been at least been able to spot a fin but here...

    In those few moments before they end up rammed by the anomaly, Shiroe finds himself able to propel himself out of the path of the incoming assault. His feet having had to dig into the ground propelled him through magic means to push oof that sand flies as he practically glides across the desert sound in a near straight line with his evasive maneuver. Though while he finds himself able to defend, the lock of an actual target makes it difficult to prepare a counter attack. "Who's got a clear shot on this thing?!"

Gwen pauses for a moment she hears the sound to be quiet and she complies with it, what could be happening? She has some idea it's a desert she knows what could be here in a world of monsters and magic. She doesn't outright say it not wanting to tempt fate, but she does try to block the wave of sand even as she scatters. This does not go very well at all for her she's just dunked with sand hacking coughing and now she's got sand everywhere as she tries to get into a ready stance. How the hell do you do that on sand? It's like the ground just wants to give way the moment you get anything done, she can't help but think about what he said.
#-1 ARGUMENT OUT OF RANGE "No we won't easily forget some of them but a lot I can ... do without."

She's readying a spell rather than engaging as she thinks about it ready to give whatever this is a blast of Holy the moment it makes itself known to her.

Prophylaxis says nothing on the subject of the clothes his companions may or may not have been wearing at any point of this excursion. That would be /rude/ and he is not a rude person. "I /used/ to have Ice Storm," he instead complains, rejoining the conversation on the subject of slapping down a nice cool frost-spell. "And then that damn black wave took away most of the *cool* stuff! I--"

The ground rumbles ominously. Prophylaxis' expression shifts to a regretful grimace full of the kind of guilt that only appears in people who know FAR TOO WELL that they just accidentally brought a whole bunch of hurt on their own heads. "Right. Scatter."

It's a sandworm, isn't it? It's gotta be. It can't be some kind of mole, that would be too good for them. No, they're going full Arrakis here, and either the spice is going to flow or it'll be their blood.

It is, at least, not Prophylaxis' blood. The pulse of high-velocity sand races toward him, and the nimble Cait Sith sorcerer dodges out of the way just in time to avoid being plowed over...!

"I might be able to drag the thing out of the sand with a well-placed pillar, but that's going to be a heck of a long shot if it keeps moving with that kind of speed...!"

She looks to Misa, shrugging "I was... busy, so I might have missed the briefing..." She conceeds, but sighs a bit at the heat. "If we're almost there at least..." She's not complaining too much, there's really nothing to be gained from it. It's not like anyone can do something about it, other than the obvious.

She's keeping the pace though, although she's usually one of the speedier ones, she doesn't want to get ahead of the rest. She looks over her shoulder at the others though "I hope we're going to hallucinate too, is that even possible in a game lke this?"

Getting sandblasted was probably not in the briefing either, and she eeps as she gets hit before she can react, getting pushed back as she shields her face with her arms "That's not an hallucination either!" She's barely keeping her footing.

    "How could anyone ever forget air conditioning??" Mizuki chuckles at the very idea. "But, this world has its own conveniences too..."

    And then her ears rotate forward as Misa calls out. She jumps out of the way as it approaches, then turns and... it stays underground? "Oh COME ON! That's CHEATING!"

    Beat.

    She smiles. "But I can cheat too. Because I've got MAGIC!" She starts making hand signs. "Let ice's sharp blades find their way to my foe! FROST DIVER!" Water magic shoots into and along the ground, spikes of ice rising up from the ground as it travels towards the... whatever it is!

    "Nope." Amalthea is fine and dandy, keeping hydrated and keeping up with the group. "A little sweaty, but nothing a bath can't fix." She replies to Shiroe as she trudges across the sand, pausing when Misa calls for the group to quiet down; she falls to a halt.
    Her eyes narrow, squinting into the distance.
    "The hell is that?" She mutters at the sight of the sands themself making for the group.
    The order to scatter comes and Amalthea curses to herself as it charges the group. Breaking into a sprint to get out of the way.
    Her armor is heavy, full of sand, she doesn't quite break off in time. So what does she do?
    She wheels around and braces her shield; sand scours her shield and and armor as she hunkers down, and she grits her teeth as she weathers through the blast of silt and sand. But there's another problem after it passes.
    It's turning around.
    "Ah hell. It's coming back around!" She calls out the obvious. "Everyone on your guard!"

    The mound continues to circle the group. While the scouting party might be able to reach it with quick bursts of speed provided by attack skills, keeping up with it definitely seems difficult. Which makes outmaneuvering it even harder.

    The mound circles and circles, maintaining its distance from the Adventurer party. Mizuki launches her Frost Diver, the numerous icicles suddenly jutting up out of the ground along the way to intercept the mound. But as they reach it, the ice spikes just pierce up through the mound, before it continues onwards.

    The keen-eyed may realize that no HP bar appeared.

    The mound continues to circle. At first it isn't clear what the thing beneath-if there even is something-is doing...

    But then the party will begin to notice the sand underneath them is getting softer. It's getting difficult to maintain solid footing as the sand shifts around on its own. The problem quickly escalates, the entire patch of sand they're standing on beginning to turn in cue with the mound. It's also starting to slope inwards as the center of the patch drops.

    It's a sand whirlpool.

    The entire party finds itself being pulled down towards the center. The whirlpool is too large to escape with what limited movement options they have available. And soon enough, each Adventurer is pulled under.

    It's a rather unpleasant several seconds as each person is pulled through the liquid sand. But long before they run out of breath, they are all deposited into open air once more.

    An underground cavern of some sort. Rocky in nature, there is a large hole in its side from which sand is pouring in, having dragged the party through it. On the other side of the cavern, several other holes. But these aren't filled with sand, leading instead into tunnels.

    Misa coughs up a bit of sand that had managed to force its way into her mouth and lungs. Before she slowly picks herself up and hoarsely gets out, "Everyone still here?"

    Frost Diver clearly hit... but it didn't do anything?! "Oh COME ON!" And then the sand gets softer, and she scrambles to try and get out of it. "Oh no, is it an antlion?" She's pulled towards the center and under. "This is such a dumb way to d--mmf!"

    So this is what death feels like in here. Falling through darkness. At least there's no pain. Mizuki mentally sighs and wonders if 24 hours of this is enough to drive her crazy...

    ...And then she emerges not in a church but in a... cavern? She clears her throat and nose, brushes the sand off, and... switches to her ninja gi.

    "I'm here." Whiskers and nose seek out any breeze, ears listen for sound, and eyes search for even the dimmest light. What is this place...?

Dare has time to yelp a "Crap!" as he feels his footing continue to slip and slide beneath him, and he realizes that what he'd thought to be a mere patch of loose sand causing his original fumble is actually a spreading menace. He squeezes his eyes shut, flattens his ears and grips his bow tightly so as not to lose it as he's dragged under.

It feels like forever.

Fortunately, in actuality it's only a few seconds before he finds himself again in open air, as he's carried by the wave of sand and deposited on the rocky carvern floor. He shakes his head vigorously, sending a light shower of sand outward from his fur as he moans slightly and again, drags himself to his feet, albeit more slowly this time.

Where the hell are they now? His first instinct is to scent the air, which turns out to be a horrible, horrible mistake as he only manages to draw more particulate back into his nose, resulting in a spluttering coughing mess of yeen who is, for the moment, of no use to anyone despite his otherwise normally decent tracking skill.

Too little, too late. Maybe the idea of summoning an earth pillar out from underneath the horrifying sand-monster could have been a sound one, but they'll never find out now. The ground shifts and liquefies underfoot. Prophylaxis finds himself in a situation he never thought he'd have to deal with...! "This isn't just quicksand... Liquifaction!? It's turning the sand into a fluid. Close your eyes tight and hold your breaths!"

This is, as it turns out, a wise piece of advice. It takes several seconds before the sand-whirlpool finally dumps them out into a subterranean cavern system. The good doctor groans as he forces himself back up, wobbly from the sense of sudden disorientation but...

"I'm fine!" He answers back, turning one of his sleeves inside out to wipe his face clean. "It looks like we might have stumbled into the lair of a local predator. Giant antlion would be a good guess, but it might be something a little more complicated than that...!"

Like a giant sandworm!!

...

He might be clinging a little too hard to his idea of fighting a giant sandworm.

Reika hunngs as what seems like a sandstorm finally dies down, but then it's the 'floor' that seems to give away. She almost falls to her butt, but barely manages to stay up, eeeping as it becomes unstable "It's not getting any better isn't it!?"

And then she vanishes in the sandpool... and only a pair of legs is sticking out of the sand once they come back to inside of the cave. She pulls herself out with a whine, and sputtering sand "That's not a good lunch..." She looks around, blinking as she shakes her hair free of the sand "... Where are we?"

    The group finds it rather easy for the most part to avoid the initial assault of the unknown beast but without some sort of health bar it seems rather difficult to pin an attack on it. Though rather than go in for the attack it just seemed to be continuing to circle around the group. It raised the question of what was it trying to do?

    To which it seems to answer just as quickly. The sand below their feet starts to lose it's hold, as it feels like more and more that they continue to sink. No matter how much the group struggles to adjust themselves, whether through magic or whatever machinations it proves rather fruitless as they all get thrown down.

    Shiroe has to force himself to keep his mouth shut at the direction of one of the others that keep their wits about them during the circumstances as they fall through the floor. Squeezing his eyes shut till ultimately he finds himself splattered on a cavern floor. When Misa finally speaks up, he forces himself to sand himself off, and pray his glasses hadn't been damaged.

    "Uuuugh...I'll manage. Still..." He takes a brief look around, "These caverns...Are they like the ones back in Alne...No...Probably not." He wasn't exactly sure but if he had to make an immediate guests these caverns would have been closer to tunnels. "Oi, before we start looking for exits, let's make sure we're all accounted for! Everyone check your party rosters to make sure you're located near one another. Message anyone that doesn't look like they've fallen through to make sure they didn't fall into some other pit in the sand!"

    It circles around... And around. ... And around again. Amalthea is readying herself for another attack... That doesn't come. Instead, it hits her too late. "Oh. Oh hell."
    It's not coming around for another attack. It's destroying the ground beneath their feet.
    For the record, the old woman curses so colorfully as she's pulled under, it's enough to make even a sailor give pause and blush, right up until the very end.
    Only to be spat out in some kind of underground cave.
    "Still alive." The old Odysseia Knight mutters to herself, shoving back up to her feet before calling out to be heard: "Still alive!"

Gwen is able to not end up getting wrecked. She tries to without thinking fly, but that goes about as well as one would think. She gets a slight bit of lift and then down into the sand whirlpool she goes along with everyone else. Gwen will end up face down she takes a moment to peel herself off the floor. She's got wireframes all over her face as she does so.

"I'm alive and I'm going to need to have Shiruba find a waterfall after this."

She notes as she takes in the location trying to figure just where they are.

"It better not be we don't have a thumper."

    It takes a few moments for people's eyes to adapt to the low light conditions of the cavern. But soon enough they can see. Though there's no obvious light source. The place is just mildly lit up regardless.

    The amount of tunnels leading away from the cavern suggest that this place is actually quite expansive. And finding one's way out could be difficult. Thankfully though the Adventurer party has a number of skills at their disposal.

    Those who didn't fail the rolls, anyway.

    Misa looks around at the cavern, "It doesn't look natural... Possibly dug out?" She nods in Prophylaxis's direction, "Probably a lair." She doesn't guess as to the creature type though. Though she's not quite as geeky as to have her mind go to sandworms.

    Shiroe suggests they check party status, which is what Misa does as she brings up the list. She's studying it as the others go about trying to work out where to go to proceed. As Mizuki and Amalthea search their way through the cavern for anything of interest, they both manage to uncover some odd looking rocks amidst the sand. There are several of them, black in colour, they definitely don't match the more creamy and orange colour of the surrounding sandrock. The rocks are roughly the size of a fist and look like they might be worth something, whether to a vendor or as a crafting material.

    Prophylaxis is the most effective in finding the way to proceed. As he explores one of the tunnel entrances, he can feel the air around it flowing into the tunnel. Probably a good sign of a way to proceed.

    The chosen tunnel weaves and winds around, joining up and splitting with others along the way. But following the airflow seems to be a good direction forward as it grows strong the more they proceed.

    Finally the group comes to the end of a tunnel. Or well, not so much an end as a sudden shift in angle. The tunnel comes to a stoney outcropping hanging out from the edge of a large vertical tunnel. It's quite a drop. So far that what little mysterious light they have doesn't reach the bottom. But their airflow is at its strongest here and is flowing downwards.

    Misa walks up to the edge and peers down, hmmming quietly, "This seems like the obvious way forward... But..."

Reika dusts herself up finally, and hrms as she looks around, moving behind the rest of the group, careful of her footing. "If it's manmade, then there might be traps, or hidden doors or something, right?" That's what she looks over as she lets her eyes get used to the relative darkness.

She thinks as she searches "... doesn't technically everything inside a game should be considered as non-natural anyway? Just a thought."

Dare edges as near to the drop-off as he dares and peers over the edge. His nightvision in this form is excellent but he still can't see the bottom. He makes a popping noise with his lips but can't tell very much via echolocation either. He steps back, and fingers the little drum hanging from his belt. Maybe he can conjure up some magical guidance here? At any rate, the encounter with the invisible sand shark and subsequent near-drowning in the stuff has brought to mind an appropriate tune to try.

"Show me the way to go home," tap-tap on the drum
"I'm tired and I wanna go to bed," tappity tap
"I had a little drink about an hour ago, and it's gone right to my head..."

He imagines he can feel a faint stirring in the spirits of air around him, but it's difficult to discern from the breeze already blowing up from below.

Once her eyes adjust to the darkness of the caverns, Amalthea gets to looking around. ... And she finds some rocks.
    Rocks that are different looking from amongst all the others around here, as she prods one with the tip of her sword.
    "Found some weird stones." She mutters before plucking one up to examine it in better detail for a moment. Though only for a moment before she starts studying the cave itself, trying to make a mental map in her head along the way.
    But it ends up all turned around by the time they get to the shaft tunnel.
    "That sure is a hole."

Prophylaxis may have found the way forward, but he will adamantly insist down the line that it was entirely a matter of luck. One of the side-effects of his present not-quite-human form are a set of rather sensitive ears. His head just happened to be in the right place at the right time to catch a tickle of air moving across those surfaces, and that led him to find the promising passage to potential progress.

Well.

Kind of?

"It goes down before going up...?" The Doctor rubs thoughtfully at his chin. "That's... Possible, I guess? I'm not exactly a spelunker, but-- is anyone else a bit worried that we might accidentally fall back into the first floor or something if we go this way? No?"

He sighs, then drops to his knees and places his hands upon the ground. "I guess... there's nothing else I can do..."

Is he giving up? This is the mythical 'orz' position, isn't it!? Has he surrendered to despair...!?

No! There's a faint rumble and the tell-tale pulse of magic. The earth responds to his call, forming... a descending spiral staircase into the pitch-black abyss below them...!?

"Alright, come along-- but be careful!" He warns, taking the first tentative step. "This looks like sandstone, or limestone. Dunno how sturdy these stairs'll be. Also, don't slip, please. That would be... bad....?"

    Shiroe finds himself walking over to the edge and peering along with Misa. The chasm definitely did have a strong pull of air flow, and while it did seem like their best route... "...It definitely doesn't feel as obviously safe..." He finds himself looking back to her with a smirk on his face, it's not too coy of a smirk, but there's a somber look to it. "Well, at least we don't make it a repeat of last time..." Does she recall what he's talking about? She'd probably recall what he's talking about. Probably...

    "Everyone! If anyone has Earth magic available please come with me, we're gonna try to make a stairway! Any other casters with light magic have that ready to illuminte our path down!" Just as he says this he does turn to Proph who does seem to think something similar to what he was, "It's a possibility, but even if it is it's better than simply sitting here with no other options."

    With that said he raises his staff and invokes some mild earth magic to try and cause pieces of earth to try and shoot out around the edge of the chasm in a spiraling manner. "Make sure to have that light nearby! We'll need to keep casting as we go down. Also be careful to still watch your step! If the air gets too strong you might get pulled a little!" With that said he'd be one of the first few to start walking down this make-shift stairwell. As long as their weren't somehow any flying monsters in this chasm he'd probably be alright...Or as long as no one decided to push him...Either or...

Gwen says "This does look like a lair and whatever made it would have to be big." She notes as she looks about a moment as they head down the tunnel until they reach the ends. She looks at the pit down below and wonders for a moment she starts to reach out with her magic namely focusing upon her magic she seems to trust in Prophylaxis and her own magic.

"Looks like this is the best idea."

She follows up with Shiroe's idea and gets to work at attempting to aid with the forming of stairways and she's doing a pretty good job helping with it.

    Ooh, weird rocks! Mizuki puts them in her inventory for later.

    She follows Misa to the drop. "Is it? Or should we go where the air is /coming/ from?" She tries to follow the breeze to its source, searching for missed side tunnels or cracked, thin walls. Or perhaps something stranger?

    What was once an unclimbable drop down, is now a spiraling staircase down. If a little rough in the design. The combined effort between Prophylaxis, Gwen and Shiroe provides a means for the others to get down too.

    Mizuki chooses to go against the flow though. Which isn't a bad idea itself. She does manage to back track a little to find a few sources of air that are feeding the tunnel. Specifically they are smaller tunnels. Too small for anyone here to fit into. But they join into the larger tunnels at numerous points. Looking into them, they look to head off in different directions. Probably reaching up to the surface at points, allowing the the air to come down through them.

    As for the stone that Mizuki had picked up and put in her inventory, the description is rather short. It simply describes it as 'A stone of life, found within a place where life barely grows.' Not very helpful.

    Taking the newly formed staircase down doesn't actually take that long. Turning out to not be that much of a drop as expected. Was it a trick of the light? Thankfully though this means Prophylaxis's concern isn't going to come true, as there is still likely a fair bit more ground beneath them before the open air of the first floor.

    The staircase comes to an end at the top of another cavern, as there is no more tunnel wall for the impromptu steps to protrude from. Thankfully the drop down isn't too far for the Adventurer bodies to survive. Though there will be some minor fall damage.

    The cavern itself is quite large, larger than the one they had arrived in. At first glance it appears empty. But a close look will reveal more of those black stones clustered around the edges. They vary in size, from that of those encountered earlier to some the size of a large dog.

    It's Reika who first spots a path forward though. Another tunnel leading out from this one, looking to slope upwards. Is that their way out?

    But before the group can go to check, there's an ominous cracking sound. Then another. And another. Soon the black stones begin to break apart, the falling bits and pieces shattering into sparkles of light. From within, creatures begin to crawl out. Six legs, hard shells that seem to split into sections, sharp looking pincers protruding from their heads that give them their name... A name those veterans of ETO will recall, Pincer Scarabs.

    The Pincer Scarabs begin to skitter across the ground towards the party, those pincers of their snapping in anticipation as they try to catch everyone in those powerful snaps.

Today is NOT Dare's day. He approaches the end of the staircase cautiously, but with confidence in his ability to make the simple drop down the remaining space to the floor. However, his foot catches on one of the smaller of those odd, black stones as he lands, and rolls, causing him to stumble back several steps trying to catch himself, before landing unceremoniously on his tail. A bestial yelp escapes his lips as a jolt of pain zips up the bruised appendage.

He's in the process of standing up - again - when the beetle things begin to emerge, and of course isn't it just his luck that he hears the horrible cracking sound of one 'hatching' just behind him. It's pretty much pure instinct rather than strategic planning that has him whip his bow around with an arrow nocked, and he channels a panicky-sounding, "BURST SHOT!" through the weapon as he lets fly, his sole thought in the moment to drive the thing back and away from him.

Shiroe and Prophylaxis chance upon the same idea almost simultaneously. It is at this moment that he doctor locks eyes with this other gigantic nerd and wonders: how many other minds in this world would look at a giant pit in the ground and think 'hey, this is a good place to put a staircase?' Few, that's how many. Is this... the power of kindred spirits?

They descend to the next layer, necessitating a small hop down onto quite solid ground. Prophylaxis is very glad to see that there is in fact earth beneath his feet and not just an open sky with Tolbana far below. "Everyone alright? That drop was just far enough to shave a few points off the ol' healthbar. If I was in my actual body, it might have just blown out my knees! Wahahahaha!"

"Hm? Did someone just hear a crack?"

There's a sudden *chomp* as something vaguely insect-shaped takes a bite out of the good doctor's leg. He yelps in pain as his own HP bar tumbles down a few dozen points. "These are... Pincer Scarabs!?" He remembers these! Nasty buggers. With a growl, he plants his palm into the ground and erects a hastily-made barrier between himself and the hungry, hungry bugs. "If this is anything like ETO, they should be weak to fire, so..."

"FIREBALL!"

There is a fireball.

"...Or, wait. Is it the Stabber Scarabs that are weak to fire and the Pincer Scarabs that are imm--"

The fireball passes, and the beetles are... unharmed. "--une. Damnit...!"

A bit of searching later, the idol finds a path... She peers at it, and points at it for others to look at "Does that look like a way out? There's a bit of a breeze, so it must connect to outside..."

But before she can get an answer, she can hear some crumblings near her. She couldn't dodge sand, but rocks she has enough speed to do so apparently. She jumps to the side, and rolls off the ground... or rather another pile of sand (grumble grumble), and stands back up "What are THOSE?!" She's not fond of critters, not in these quantities.

She charges up some dark energies in her hand, and tosses quickly at a group of them, creating a Dark Ball to hurt and blind them. "This days is getting better by the minute!"

Gwen calls out.

"PINCER SCARABS!"

She issues her warning and she's moving to get the heck in the way of the charging monsters from the party. Given Amalthea is here? She's pretty confident in their ability along with any other tanks who might be a part of this.

"You want some of this?!"

Gwen is a wall today as she just aggro a large number of the monster but so far not a single one can get past her defences. She knows she has to tie them down. She will try to launch a taunt to pull them off Dareshetani but she can't leave her position there's just too many of them coming.

"HOLY!"

Gwen unleashes a burst of holy magic on the monster to keep them. At someone launching fireball? Gwen just cringes a bit, thinking back to a game of D&D she was in. Best not to focus on that and more on the monsters Gwen engages int the wake of the burst of holy magic and goes in with her sword. Strange though with how she fights she's not using any real abilities and seems to know what she's doing...

    Down the newly formed stairs and Amalthea soaks a bit of fall damage on the last leg, it's when she spies the stones similar to the one in her inventory that the old Paladin frowns.
    Especially when they start -cracking open-.
    "Lovely." She spits as the scarabs emerge from their eggs, and braces her shield as she takes to the front of the group, battering snapping jaws aside, she flips the sword in her hand to grasp it by the blade...
    And starts using it to just wail on the bugs with the cross-guard and pommel of her sword to bash through that chitinous armor rather than bother with hacking and slashing ineffectively.

The path they end up creating proves to be a rather successful option. The group's efforts fruitful in getting everyone down the path for the most part (with the slightest bit of fall damage they did have to deal with. But nothing too bad otherwise.

    "Everyone remember to watch your step." He looks to Misa to see if there was any chance they had explored any sort of cavern like channels like this one. He doubted it, but figured the look would at least give some sort of indication of what he was nudging to know. Yet, just like most enemy encounters as soon as you try to start a conversation things begin to pick up.

    Gwen's call out makes it quite clear of the type of monsters they're handling but... "What level are we dealing with?! How many do we have a count on?!" There's not much time to do it before they seem to already be on his position. Once again he finds himself applying a defensive debuff to himself to distance himself from the scarabs and let the Tanks handle the defensive. "Watch the pincers! Get behind them if you can!"

    As he makes the statement he deploys Thorn Bind Hostage to ensnare several of the targets at once. The vines reaching out to inhibit the movements of the beasts and even going as far as to try and wrap around the pincers of the scarabs to inhibit their ability to snap at the Adventurers while they'd take the time to try and finish them off.

    The source holes are all too small for anyone to go through. Damn it...

    Mizuki relays this information after catching up to the others. She hops down the stairs several at a time and makes it look effortless; being a ninja cat continues to be awesome! But once down there...

    Pincer Scarabs! "I can see that!" Weak to fire? Mizuki doesn't have time to act on that information as one comes for her with its perilous pincers! Mizuki reacts with ninja speed, though, performing a parry sword arte with one hand and then moving the other into position to follow up with Flower Cut! It's strong enough to mine materials, so hopefully the earth-enhanced slash is strong enough to cut through these things' armor!

    Prophy has less luck. "Oh well. Don't worry, when we find something weak to fire we'll finish it no sweat!"

    The Pincer Scarabs are swarming the party from multiple directions, forcing them to group up towards the center of the cavern, below the tunnel above that had led them here. Misa situates herself within the center of the group, raising her scythe as she activates one of her songs. Musical notes made from coloured light form around her and the rest of the party, boosting everyone's attack speed.

    Dare gets a Burst Shot off, his arrow glowing as it pieces through one, two, three Pincer Scarabs before finally fading. All three burst into motes of light. Prophylaxis follows up with an explosion from his fireball. But as the flames pass, the Pincer Scarabs he had targeted can be seen curled up within their hardened carapaces. With the flames gone, they become active again, pressing forward.

    Reika unleashes her Dark Ball at a group of the mobs, the dark energies ripping into them and causing them to chitter in pain. The after effects of the blindness lead them to skittering around aimlessly, making them easy pickings for the others. Gwen helps to tank many of the bugs, absorbing much of their damage before unleashing her blast of Holy. The Pincer Scarabs in immediate range suddenly open their shells, insect wings rapidly buzzing as they rise up away from the blast.

    Mizuki quickly moves in to parry a snap from a set of pincers, before striking upwards in a counter blow towards the insect's more weak underside. It slices through the bug, quickly killing it. Meanwhile, Amalthea starts bashing at the Pincer Scarabs that get close to her. Her blows shatter their shells, causing red to glow along their soft bodies beneath before they finally finally shatter completely.

    The combat situation is a little chaotic, but Misa catches sight of Shiroe's look. She only has time to give the Enchanter a shrug, before she finds herself jumping away from a Pincer Scarab that made it through. Still, Shiroe's Thorn Bind Hostage wraps up a number of the mobs, making it easier for the rest of the group to eliminate them.

    The party finally wears down the numbers of Pincer Scarabs. But as they are finishing the last ones off, there's a rumbling sound echoing down from the vertical tunnel above. Soon, bits of rocky debris begin to rain down said tunnel before crashing into the sandy floor of the cavern. As the rumbling grows closer, people might notice that the falling debris looks familiar.

    It's the rocky staircase that the group had created.

    Moments later, a massive shape comes bursting through the last of the staircase to land in the center of the chamber. The massive scarab looks to be about the size of a house and is probably the creature they encountered on the surface. It rises up on its spindly legs, before unleashing an ear-piercing screech. As it does so, a HP bar appears above it along with a name:

    'Heim - Destroyer of Worms'

    It's a field boss! It rises back before suddenly jerking forward. A large blob of greenish liquid comes flying out of its mouth. It lands amidst the Adventurer group, splashing them with an acid that starts to eat away at their HP if they didn't manage to handle the attack.

    Unfortunately for Amalthea and Mizuki, they hear some additional cracking sounds right in their ears. Soon they find smaller versions of the Pincer Scarabs crawling across their body, the stones they picked up having hatched within their inventory.

There isn't much time to relax after the critters are gone. It's the daddy that shows up. Through the staircase that they made. Does that mean the path she found was the right one? Well they can discuss that AFTER they took care of the boss. A worm, fancy.

There's a thought about elemental weaknesses, and is Earth weak to Air? She might have given it more thought if she actually played games. But no, she's too casual and scrub. So using some of her magic skills, she invokes a lightning strike, which one might wonder where it appears from, zapping the worm and hopfully shocking it good so it doesn't act too violently.

But it doesn't appreciate it likely, and tries to swipe Reika out of the way, which she jumps back, narrowly dodging it. At that size it probably hurts if she was hit with it, she's a pretty small girl after all! "Calm down, wormy!"

    Whelp, dealing with the scarabs is one thing as Amalthea batters a few into red motes. But that doesn't mean she's forgotten about the egg she picked up.
    Futzing with her inventory and pulling it out, she reels her hand back to huck the thing-- only for it to start cracking open in her grasp.
    he next thing she knows she's going through the absolutely nightmarish experience of having hideous gnashing bugs crawling up the length of her arm and all over her.
    "Dshsgsdggfsdgssdfsgfds!" is the old Odysseia Knight's very normal, very rational, very human response to this.
    It only gets worse when the stone staircase comes dropping down on the group and a world boss arrives.
    "GDGSHDHSGDHDHFDS?!" She says, pointing out the obvious as she flails to get the scarabs off of her while they whittle down her HP.

    Wide-area acid attack?! Mizuki activates Energy Coat, lessening the damage!

    Okay. It's a boss, but it's not like she hasn't fought bosses before! Parkour past it, then backstab it... she probably won't be able to use her claws for rake attacks against something armored like this, but that doesn't mean it won't work, just that it will take longer.

    And then the eggs in her inventory hatch.

    Mizuki is now covered in an Uncomfortable Amount of Scarabs (which is to say, any number of scarabs on your body greater than zero.)

    "AAAAH GET 'EM OFF GET 'EM OFF!"

    She runs away from the boss to try and get out of range of any AoEs while she's distracted, and tries to brush them off with her hands and burn them off with fire breath! (hopefully baby pincer scarabs are more vulnerable)

Seeing his panic-arrow pierce through not only the bug he'd been trying to get off of him, but the two behind it as well, along with the accompanying death sparkles, Dare feels a surge of renewed confidence. His claws curl over his sandals, instinctively digging for purchase in the stony floor, and he drops briefly to a three point stance, one hand on the ground for additional stability as the whole room seems to shake and the earthen staircase crumbles downward from above. So he's also pretty well braced for the earthquake-like rumble as Heim, Destroyer of Worms crashes into the chamber.

Having some wits about him this time, he swiftly channels Air magic into his limbs as he activates his Flashstep ability, and leaps well out of the strike zone of the incoming acid bomb. This also has the benefitting side effect that he's at a good range for some proper archery techniques. He kneels for stability, yanks three arrows out of his quiver and jams two of them into the ground at his feet to set up a rapid fire series of shots, uttering his own personal incantation for his Heartseeker attack, which would be the first line of Bon Jovi's 'You Give Love a Bad Name.' One after another the arrows burst forth with a satisfying rapid twang-twang-twang from the bowstring.

Honestly, that could have gone much worse! At least Prophylaxis, squishy wizard that he is, has all these big strong adventurers around to protect him!

He wonders, distantly, if this is what distressed damsels must feel on the regular...?

His reverie is interrupted, however. This is the problem with being a squishy wizard: you often get so caught up in cycling optimal DPS that you forget to do things like 'check for AoE markers' and 'look up in time to see what's crumbling down on top of you.' "That's odd," Prophylaxis instead says to the familiar chunks of rock falling around him. "I think those are our stairs... Did the magic fail already? Good to--BLARF!"

'Blarf' is the noise a Prophylaxis makes when a World Boss suddenly drops right on top of him, knocking him aside with the impact and then follows up with a wide-area acid attack. He's only just barely able to raise another barricade of rock, but... This /is/ probably limestone after all. The acid eats through rapidly, and droplets splash against exposed skin. The Magus winces as he feels his HP bar fall even further. He doesn't even need to see it to know that he's in a precarious situation, though--

Not /as/ precarious as... those two.

"Uhhhh," he says at the pair of ladies flailing about with bugs creeping and crawling all over their everything. He looks at them, looks to the giant boss-bug standing mightily over them, then looks back at the girls, shrugs, and conjures a tiny marble of flame over a fingertip...

"Hey you two!" Prophylaxis yells at Amalthea and Mizuki both, "Incoming fireball!"

And then he proceeds to hurl an AoE spell right into the midst of all of them.

It goes boom in a deeply satisfying way.

Gwen keeps many of the bugs under control and off her allies she also is able either tie up district or strike down a number of them. More disengage to get out of blast zone of her holy. That's enough for her but there's a good amount of people who know what they are doing here, as they work to ge though these things and get out of this place. The field boss?

Oh hell reflexes kick in as Gwen charges in with no care for her own well being.

"YOU ARE MY FOE!"

She channels power through her body.

"ANCHOR HOWL!"

Energy surges over her body as she forces the Worm's attention on to her and then she strikes without mercy or respite she hacks she slashes and just remains on the creature intending to rend it apart and keep it focused on her. Her wings flare out in this giving off light as she attempts to keep the boss focused on her.

    Heim is not a wormy. It DESTROYS worms! In name, anyway. It's unlikely the devs actually bothered to program any worms in on this floor and actually has this field boss roaming around destroying them. Still, Reika's lightning works equally well, zapping the giant scarab, causing it to start smoking a little. The group could probably do without the resulting smell though.

    Amalthea finds herself facing off against both small scarabs and giant scarab at the same time. A though call. But like most she focuses on the smaller ones. Being smaller, they prove weak enough to just bashing with fists and the like.

    Mizuki is in much a similar situation. She resorts to flames. Which are enhanced by the flames launched by Prophylaxis, which helps to burn the scarabs off the two ladies. Though they're going to smell like cooked scarab for a few hours.

    Dare unleashes a rapid flurry of arrow shots from his bow, causing Heim to rise up on its rear legs in protest when the arrows slam into it with large bursts of light.

    Gwen unleashes her Anchor Howl, drawing the attention of Heim which brings one of its legs down on the tank, attempting-unsuccessfully-to crush Gwen like a bug beneath its bug-foot. But defending against the blow gives Gwen the opportunity to strike back, slashing at it a few times and leaving red glowing marks behind.

    Several rounds pass of engaging the Destroyer of Worms. It strikes back with sweeping strikes from its long legs, unleashing blasts of wind with its massive wings. At one point it even rises up before crashing its body down atop the group.

    But finally, the group is able to whittle the field boss's health down. And with one final death screech, the cavern briefly lights up as Heim vanishes with a flash and rain of sparkles.

    Even as the pile of loot drops down in the middle of the cavern, Misa breathes a sigh of relief. Before glancing at the tunnel exit that Reika had discovered earlier. It would be unfortunate if it lead deeper into this 'dungeon' and on to more fights...

    ... But luckily for the group it doesn't, instead winding upwards and coming out into the rocky field they had been making for. Though coming out they find it dark as night has fallen. At which point they'll be able to set up camp.

Daddy beetle then, not worm. It was dark after all. Let's go with that. But at least it's done squirming now, and noone seems to be missing limbs from the acid spit either, so victory?

She looks over to the others "So uhm... let's try that way out?" She points to the path she found. She's not sure she wants to see what's up the stairs, but then again, they cleared the daddy scarab, so maybe there's nothing else. Or there's more of the smaller ones without a boss to order them around.

She's not sure what's the best option either.

    Being a dire fire tiger were fang may make Mizuki slightly harder for natural flames to burn, but a fireball is still a fireball. She takes damage (and it hurts, good thing pain is dampened in here,) but is free of scarabs. Hooray!

    After that, the ninja cat is able to put her usual battle plan into action, attacking it from behind while the tanks pull aggro. Eventually, it's down.

    "Everybody alright?"

    Eventually they find themselves outside. "Hooray! And it's night! Blessed cold..."

Gwen finds that the boss is finally down after one heck of an effort and takes a deep breath. She will help anyone who seems to need a hand but other than she she'll push their way out of this place just to get a good spot to camp and she then will note.

"I think I can make us something for dinner that actually isn't crackers."

All in all, not bad for a boss fight. Even if it was just a Field Boss and not the actual Floor Boss. "Gee gee everyone!" Dare calls out as he rises to his feet and puts his bow away. He moves toward the rest of the party, although his nose wrinkles involuntarily as he catches the smell of scorched scarab wafting from Mizuki and Amalthea. Those two, he gives a bit of a berth. He tries not to be too obvious about it, but it's pretty apparent.

"I think you're right," he agrees with Reika, after turning his head toward the tunnel and inhaling deeply. Not only does this help rid his nose of the burnt beetle smell, but, "The air smells fresher this way."

He'll give anyone a hand up who needs one, and help to carry the loot out so it can be divvied up fairly. And, in high spirits, as the party makes its way up and out, he sings a bit of John Denver, although he substitutes "West Virgina, mountain mama" for "Aincrad tower, stupid desert."

    Mizuki sings along with Dare. She will always take the opportunity to sing along with a familiar song!

    You know what?
    Between the scarabs and the acid burning her, what's a little fire added on top of it all.
    No sooner than Prophylaxis so much as announces the incoming fireballs, Amalthea leaps TOWARDS is, not away, into the searing heat that fries off the scarabs as she takes some more HP damage, but it's a decent price to pay in comparison to what the scarabs would have done if she couldn't just pound them off in time.
    Pulling off her best impression of a Dark Souls protagonist, she starts tumble-rolling to put out the flames before returning to the battle at hand-- to find that the group's done well enough killing the thing without her.
    "... Well." She huffs, pride a little hurt, before following on the way out and up to what will be the group's campsite.
    "That's it. I've had about enough for one day I think."

Fireball is always a solution. When you're faced with a foe you cannot overcome-- fireball! When you need to negotiate for better prices-- fireball! When you fight the demon lord in the final dungeon-- FIREBALL. JUST FIREBALL.

                                    JUST                                    
                                **FIREBALL**                                

And soon all that's left is a thoroughly well-done beetle and a whole heap of drops. "Nobody pick up anymore suspicious rocks," he says with a huff, "Unless we're going to be cooking them up pronto."

And as it happens, they do finally manage to get where they were going. The rocky outcropping has been claimed, and Prophylaxis is already beginning to unroll a first-aid kit to begin tending to wounds. Bandages and rudimentary antiseptic abound. He's certainly going to need some, that's for sure, but what about the rest of the team?

Dare is a bit banged up and bruised, but didn't suffer any cuts or scrapes that'd need antiseptic treatment. He does go up to the doctor though, to ask, "Any local plants I can take a look for for ya? I mean I know we're in a desert but I've seen some scrub stuff growing here and there, if any of it's useful to help bolster the supplies." Looking toward Gwen he extends the offer to her as well. "Or any herbs that'll help with the cooking? Just tell me what to look for."

    The doctor has a first-aid kit! Well, of course he does. Mizuki looks over it curiously. "I took a first-aid course years ago... if any of it even still applies, I wonder if I'd somehow mess it up just because I don't have the skill for it..."

"If it's anything like my cooking attempts," Dare asides ruefully to Mizuki, "then yeah. My success rate at even something basic as grilled cheese is about 1 in 3."

    Mizuki slumps and sighs. "Mouuuu... ah well, I guess it would help us get into character if it were a game and not our new lives. We're good at other things, but not all of what we were good at... Imagine if it extended to stuff like math and social skills? I guess Negotiation and Etiquette are skills, but they only affect interaction with Landers, thank goodness..."

    She blinks. "Wait. AM I still good at math?!"

    She paces for a bit, trying to think of a suitable test. Eventually she rezzes a stick and starts writing in the sand. "I'll re-derive the formula for the volume of a sphere. I know it's 4/3 pi r cubed, but how do we get there? A circle is 1/2 pi r squared, so we integrate over r from 0 to r and back again... but r in turn is going to be, hmm..."

    "I wonder if that means that someone without Etiquette would never be able to properly communicate with Landers? Or maybe it just kind of... helps?" Prophylaxis shrugs! But more importantly, he has a first-aid kit and that includes having burn cream for the singed cat and grandma.

"I don't think you can just... forget math, just because you don't have it as a Skill..." The Doctor chuckles, "I don't think it even /is/ a Skill here, is it? I've never heard of a Mathematician job."

"Augh, not math!" Dare cries out in mock-horror, covering his ears and mushing them flat against his skull to avoid learning anything. To be fair, his player did excellently in math at school, but as with many things, never ever used it in the years since then.

    Mizuki hmms. "We'll call the radius of the circle slices s. S is... it's the opposite side of the triangle formed where the adjacent side is x and the hypoteneuse is the sphere's radius r."

    She turns to Proph. "Yeah but how do I KNOW? That's why I have to check."

    She turns back to her sand symbols. "So, if it's the opposite side, then..." She starts another diagram. sin theta = o/h. cos theta = a/h. She goes back and circles the opposite side in the first diagram, which makes it messier. "I don't have the angle... Well, okay, I guess I don't need it." She starts a third set of notes. c²=\/a² + b²

    She taps the stick on the sand, thinking.

    She writes. h² = (a²+b²)^½ -> r² = (x²+s²)^½. "Solve for s..." she mutters. "Well, I guess I can square both sides..." r^4 = x²+s² --> s² = r^4 - x² --> s² = (r²+x)(r²-x)

    The line of equations begins to circle around the camp. "Well... s is gonna be whichever root is positive. So we integrate from -r to 0, ... oh wait, a circle is pi r squared anyway! So I don't need to worry about the root, since I'm only using s squared..."

    Most of the camp may just be hearing "Math... math? Math math math. Math. Math. Math math. Wait, math? Math. Math! Fundamental theorem of Calculus! Math math... Noooo, that's not right..."

    She scribbles out the last line of equations and starts over. Oh dear there's more. This time pi actually appears in the terms.

    "...Which equals... ZERO?! Where's my mistake..."

    Anyone who knows calculus can recognize that most of what she wrote is legit at least, so it's not like she forgot math and is writing gibberish. She just made a mistake...

"Ah," Prophylaxis interjects, "It looks like you accidentally took a square root where you shouldn't have? If 'h' is your hypoteneuse and a and b are the sides of the triangle, then h^2 = a^2 + b^2. Looks like you might have rooted the right side early here, no? Unless I missed something?"

    Mizuki blinks. "Oh! You're right!" She scribbles out that and EVERYTHING AFTER IT. h² = a² + b² -> r² = x² + s² -> s² = r²-x² -> circle: pi×(r²-x²)/2 -> pir²/2 - pix²/2

    "So... ah, I messed up integrating it before too. So many variables. We're integrating with respect to X, but afterwards we sub in r and -r..."

    Scribble scribble scribble scribble scribble. "This is just gonna be zero again, damn it! Maybe if I do it in halves? Yeah... we'll just do HALF the area of a sphere, then double it. Which means the volume of a half-sphere is..."

    She writes, speaking entirely too loudly for each term, "pi r cubed over 2, minus pi r cubed over 6! Half minus a sixth, that's a third! So... two thirds pi r cubed for the whole volume? Augh, why is it half..."

"Is there a reason that you're dividing the apparent radius by two in your definition of the circle? It looks like you're trying to define a (r^2-x^2) as a diameter, which would I suppose result in needing to divide by two, but that... doesn't seem right?" Prophylaxis taps his cheek. "The extra division by two in that step would account for you being off by half down the line, too."

Dareshetani groans loudly, then turns tail and lopes off into the desert, regardless whether he's actually been given any specific plant descriptions to look for. He'll bring back whatever he finds and let the healers and cooks sort out anything useful. Very faintly, in the lulls of the mathematics talk, his voice can be heard out in the scrublands as he sings himself a searching song. And also incidentally provides an indicator that he's all right out there.

    Mizuki hmms? at Prophy's suggestion, then points at the diagrams which are, to be fair, not exactly clearly drawn. "No, it's the radius of the circular slice of the sphere at position x, see? r is the sphere's radius..." She redraws the diagram but it's not really any clearer.

    By now she's circled the camp in math. Perhaps monsters will mistake it for magic wards and stay away?

    "...So to get the radius of the circular slice at position x, we measure it as the third side of a triangle where x is one side and the radius is the hypoteneuse. The /diameter/ would be the opposite side of an isoceles triangle where the other two sides are both the radius of the sphere... and I don't remember how to calculate that. I can't do trig in my head."


    The discussion goes on, eventually leading to a solution or giving up in frustration. Maybe it will look clearer in the morning.

Gwen has been quite as she's got a fire set up has a pot out, has used water magic to fill the pot and is currently working on some sort of stew at the moment. She seems pretty happy with things as she works while people keep talking.