Duty Session 85: Obligatory Rat Cellar

    A notice has been posted at the Hunters Guild
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Help Me protect the Landers and their businesses. Bento lunches will be provided for Adventurers who help clear out rats. <Instructions for which market square to join up in are given>.

    -Hifumi

Some light rat killing sounds like a nice break from construction, and so, after his water break, instead of heading back to the site of Hifumi's inn-to-be, Dare strikes off down the street to meet up with the man himself at the market square previously mentioned. He's whistling cheerfully as he emerges from an adacent alleyway, and testing the tension on his bowstring to get his fingers back into shooting mode from hammertime. He re-slings the bow across his back and lifts a hand in greeting as he crosses the square proper. "Heya. Time for some good old adventurer duty, yeah?"

Oh what is a wandering bard to do in a big Root Town like Loireag? Peddle playing tunes in the market places for petty farthings, usually. Slip her a nice tip and she might even play something that lulls passerbys towards your stall. That's what most Landers see when they see a bard performing on the street, at least.

But it was also a good way to hear the word on the streets. And after overhearing a couple of vagabands muttering about the poster they saw and that paying with food was cheap and lazy, she decided to take a look into it herself. I mean, it might be cheap but if it's real food and not the bland generic in-game cooking, it's a bonus.

Kauchemar is more interest in why someone is putting such time into 'protecting' the Lander businesses. And that is why she is here, lute already in hand. "Sounds like this little foray could use some accompaniment."

Helping the landers? Yes.
Getting free food out of the deal? Double-Yes.

Though her traveling party usually makes due with hunted meat and scavenged plantlife, tossed together by their resident cook, the prospect of having something different to fill her stomach is an alluring thing. The Were Fang girl has made her way to the appointed meeting spot, her hood pulled up over her head. A few suspicious eyes from the Landers is better than outright wariness that comes from her monster blood.

"I don't know about adventure. I'm here for the food." She muses, a smile playing on the edge of her lips. "It will be interesting to see if there's any variations in the rat dungeons in this region compared to those in Alne." She rests a hand on her sword, giving an incline of her head to the others by way of greeting.

    Miyako remembers the -last- time Hifumi dragged her into a rat hunt. And how it turned out. She's rather hoping that this won't be a duplicate of that. Still, she's willing to give it a try one more time. Just to be sure.

    Besides, there's a bento on the line, and she's not going to turn that down. Not when so few people are able to provide Real Food.

    "So," she muses, looking around to some familiar faces. "How's everyone been so far?"

"Look," Dare states sagely, holding up one clawed finger (because he doesn't give a damn if people stare at his gnoll-like appearance; and besides, the locals will have seen him working away at the construction site all morning anyway), "rat-killing is a /time-honored/ task of adventurers across all worlds and genres. It's like, the definitive adventurer thing to do. Also," he grins, "yes. Hifumi is a good cook. That's why I've been helping build his food-eaty-place."

"It's the rat race," Kauchemar chimes in with one of her viper-like smiles. "One of those things every ArPeGe hero does at some point."

    Hifumi is sitting on the edge of a fountain, he seems to love setting up at fountains. His right hand rests on the stone, his fingers idly tapping and stroking the roughness like he's trying to make sure it's still there. He lifts his left and waves. "Hey, glad you decided to take a break and join in, the roof won't clad itself but the Landers need taking care of." he says with a smile to Dare "It's only because of us that this kind of crap keeps happening to them after all."

    "Hey." he says to Miyako "We're actually making some progress, hopefuly she'll be a productive member of society."

    Miyako pauses, takes a look over at Hifumi, and her eyes narrow. "If anything happens to her... well. Do you recall Kipling's tale of the Himalayan peasant and the she-bear?"

    Hifumi lifts both hands in surrender "Hey hey, talk to Gwen. She took point on this."

    Dare's eyes flick curiously between Hifumi and Mikayo, feeling like he's missing some key element to the conversation here, because of course he is. But he doesn't seem bothered by it. He'll just insert himself into all new conversational memes. "I figured it was time to give everyone a break from my singing anyway," he jokes. "But yeah man, I hear you. We're guests in their world as far as I can see. Only right we should earn our keep while we're here."

"I'll take rats over having to slog through the sewers." Mikage replies, chuckling softly to herself. "I have a friend who cooks fairly well, but it's mostly trail food. So it would be a nice change of pace." She looks to Hifumi, then, curious. "If you need an extra hand, after this, I'll see what I can do."

"Aaaaaw, don't be so hard on the slimes." Kauchemar giggles. "... Though yes, having to slosh through the sewer for them is kinda gross."

    Hifumi smiles "If Adventurers weren't here, would any of the duty quests keep regenerating? We know the calamity wave wouldn't have come... not the black wave but the invasion of orcs. That was tied to us, it came when the sands ran out, and they didn't appear until we challenged the tower." he shrugs "So it is very much our responsiblity to take care of things like hordes of rats or spider takeovers or any of the things that directly impact the Landers, and are obviously here for our benefit."

    He reaches into his inventory and pulls out a cloth wrapped box for each Adventurer "Here we go." he says "Bento as promised." He hands them out. "Shall we get started? Usually we all just sit around and eat our lunches once we've finished clearing a quest." he says.

    "That doesn't mean I can't still hold you responsible," Miyako advises Hifumi coldly. Then she looks back to the gathering party and smiles, sliding the bento into her inventory. "Nothing to worry about, we have the Mimimi Trio on the case!" She goes from Ice Queen to Genki Girl so quickly you could almost get whiplash. "Ain't that right, girls?"

"I think I'd need a BATH instead of a free lunch in order to entice me there," Dare grins. "Or both," he adds, accepting his box from Hifumi and tucking it safely into his inventory for now. "Both is good, too." He raises an amused eyebrow at the 'Mimimi' comment. "You hear that?" he asides to Kauchemar. "We can just sit back and relax, these guys have it handled."

Kauchemar accepts the bento box. Takes a moment to peek inside and confirm that it is indeed actual prepared food, simple as bento box contents may be. You don't need enhanced animale-based senses to smell it's real though. Satisfied she tucks it into her inventory for afterwards, and picks her instrument back up. "Yes, let's get on with the show."

Mikage is more than happy to accept that bento box, though it is quickly put away into her inventory with a couple of finger taps in the air, just so it remains out of the way during their upcoming adventure. Then, with a laugh, she loks over at Miyako. "Is that what we are now? I didn't know we had an official name."

Glancing at Hifumi, she nods, accepting enough that the Adventurers had a role to play in what has been happening here. "Ready to go whenever you are."

    Miyako waves casually to Mikage as she saunters a little closer. "Ehhhh, okay, I suck at names, you got a better name for it?"

    Hifumi nods "Come on." he says with a chuckle and heads into a shop that has a candle and sake bottle crossed on the sign. He waves to the proprietor, an older gentleman with small round glasses and a pot belly. A pair of wolf ears says he's a Cait Sith. "See told you I'd bring friends and we'd handle the issue old man." he says with a playful tone.

    The old Cait Sith smiles "Well if I was still in my prime and working with the army I'd take care of the little buggers myself." he offers, the edge of his glasses catching the light for a second. "But now with this old back." and belly "I'll leave the fighting to you youngsters."

    Hifumi opens the cellar door and leads the way down into darkness. Not the 'hey this cellar is dimmly lit' kind of darkness but the 'hey were did my eyes go' kind of darkness. "Uhm... anyone bring a torch?" he asks with a tone of teasing in his voice. The sounds of rats in the distance add a creepy 'jump scare is waiting' kind of vibe to the whole room.

    Miyako is feeling contrary today, and decides to scrape away the darkness with fire. To borrow a line. She raises one hand, drawing some runes as she chants a spell she saw a Salamander use once.

    Energy sputters around her fingers for a moment as the spell /almost/ works.

    She sighs, repeats it, this time focusing more closely and pushing more energy into it.. and a small, ghostly sphere of light forms in the air before her, which she cups gently in her hand. "Dang."

"We could be the Tri-mi?" Mikage smirks again, seemingly entertained by this idea. "Though, I'm not sure that's any better of a name." Her musing ends as they follow Hifumi into the shop. The girl gives the shopkeeper a nod of greeting, pulling her hood down. Unlike the other Were Fangs, she mostly remains in her human form, though the tattoo across her neck identifies her race easily enough.

Descending into the cellar, she seems a bit confused at Hifumi's question about a torch. "Is it that dark in here?" She asks. "I guess it doesn't really bother me." Miyako's fire spell reflects slightly in her eyes, in a very inhuman way, likely able to just innately see better in the dark, even without taking on her full Were form.

"At least there's no spiders this time. I've had enough of them."

The group ventures down into a cellar, and thankfully not a sewer. Kauchemar doesn't want to be reminded of how she was basically walking through mediveal sewage barefoot (hooved).

But the cellar is extremely dark. "Oh, what a time to not be the modernized nightmare that's instantly on fire," she mock laments. Not like she needes it. Vague outlines of shapes is all she needs to see, while her hearing and bardic affinity with sounds filter out the external distracting chittering.

Hopefully no one else will get freaked out by her glowing ethereal eyes in the darkness though. "o/~ Hello darkness my old friend... I've come to talk with you again... o/~"

Dare nods politely to the proprieter in passing as he takes his place in line heading down the cella steps. His ears prick up automatically as he steps into the gloom, like big radar dishes swivelling to pick up the sounds of the skittering, while his eyes open wide to adjust to the gloom. Fortunately, both regular hyenas and the dire/were sorts have excellent night vision, and - especially once Mikage's little ghost light flickers into existence - he's able to make out the outlines of the crates and sacks that would otherwise pose a navigational challenge. "Looks like we can get through around to the right, here," he suggests.

Best to be prepared, too; from the sound of things there are quite a lot of rats or whatever down here. He casually unslings his short bow from his back and fits an arrow loosely to the string, just in case something jumps out at them.

    Hifumi smiles at the little flame in hand and all the werefangs he's down here with. "Well... I guess then." he says and a few complicated gestures leave glowing runes in the air. "Snapdragon come." in a cascade of fire magic a small dragon made of flower pettals, leaves, and twigs appears on his shoulder. "A little light bud?" he asks the dragon who breaths out a little flame acting like a shoulder candle for the chloromancer. "Thanks little guy." he says. Everyone else seems quite capable of seeing or giving a little light. "Come on lets find those rats." he says with a chuckle and heads for the tunnel in the back that would have been hidden in the darkness.

    Then they're in winding branching tunnels. "Anyone bring a clue of twine?" he asks looking around. "If there is a giant Ratotaur in here... I'll be impressed... and depressed." he says with a sigh getting out a nail from the building project and scratching an X on the tunnel entrance they just stepped out of.

Once they're out of the dark cellar Kauchemar pauses, mostly to take a closer look at Hifumi and his new companion. Summoner is her secondary class so she tends to take an curiousity in seeing what other versions conjure up. "Botanical based lifeforms? How peculiar. I do like the pun potential, though."

Right, back to the business of finding rats and... hmmm... she doesn't really have anything for mazes. Being the chaotic creature she is she tries to just go one direction and use the 'always turn one way' trick.

But eventually she just double-backs twice and ends up with the rest of the group again. Rubs her head with a palm. "This is not as easy when you're not looking at it on paper." She decides it's better to just follow the others who seem to have a better idea of how to handle this.

This is the first time that Mikage has seen Hifumi's strange little familiar, and she can't help have her eyes drawn to the little beast. "Summoner?" She asks, unable to resist the curious question. "I have a little lynx, but I've had him since he was a kit. I left him to keep an eye on Cyrus and Sassaral, though. There's still some stragglers among the Orcs so I feel better with them at least a little more protected." Not that Cyrus can't handle himself, but Sassaral is a sweetroll of a Cait Sith.

In the strange winding tunnels, Mikage takes a long moment to take in their surroundings. Crouching, she runs her fingers along the floor, "I think we need to head down this way. It's subtle, but there's some small footprints and signs of passage." She motions down one hall, then gets back to her feet, knowing that the others will likely have some of their own methods of navigation.

So far this quest seems to be matching up nicely to Dare's strengths as a Hunter main. He practically chirps with delight on coming upon a virtual maze at the back of the cellar. Who the heck built this city, anyway? Does the shopkeeper know his building is sitting above a veritable catacomb? No wonder rats keep getting into his storeroom.

AT first, he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, trying to track the scent of Rat to its strongest source. This however results in a snootful of dust, and a loud sneeze. "Uhf," he grunts, rubbing his nose with the back of one hand, the readied arrow dangling limply for the moment between his fingers. He follows Mikage partway down the tunnel indicated and nods. "Yeah, I can see them too." Now that he's actually using his eyes instead of his nose. "This way, guys."

    Miyako hums a soft tune under her breath as she walks along, cradling the little light in her palm. "Hmm," she muses, surveying the marks on the floor. "A lynx, eh? I miss my cat." She hmms again. "Maybe I should try to find one here. If nothing else it'd make dealing with rats more fun." She shrugs as she follows the rest. "I should've rolled a Cait."

    Hifumi smiles "Choloromancy." he says "Druid Summoner build." heshrugs "I love all my little guys, even if they use to be much bigger." he pets the little flower dragon on the head "Isn't that right Snapdragon?" he says with a warm smile. "But you go back now... I think this is going to be a job for one of your siblings." the dragon cascades back into fire magic before he starts drawing runes in the air. "Come Foxglove." a cascade of earth magic and a small purple and white fox appears, made of flower pettals with little black root feet and thorn fangs.

    The little fox opens it's maw in what would have likely been a cute 'yip' in a real fox instead of a flower fox. "Yes little guy we're hunting rats, think you can find them?" he says and the fox joins in on the 'track the rats' path snuffling along and helping with a few turns they might have missed when visual cues were absent.

    The sound of rats gets strange, growing stranger, perhaps coming out of the rain? No it just sounds like they might almost be drowing, while others seem to have found an amp an turned it up to 11. The black and white, yin yang of bloody rat violence is a sight to behold, that one might wish they hadn't. "Well uhm.. we could help one side and then take them out when they're weakened by winning.... or we could just try to go at it with both groups and become our own third faction in this fight?" he says questioningly.

"...What the hell?" Dare murmurs, as he pauses in the entrance to the den to take in the chaos. This isn't just an infestation, this is Rat Civil War. Or possibly he's walked into an episode of Star Trek and a thiny veiled allegory about race relations. Frankly, he could not care less whether the white rats or black ones prevail here.

"I... think we should just get through this and see if we can find out what they're fighting over," he suggests. With a little sneer of disgust, he kicks away the body of one of the rodents that tumbles up against his foot, and starts picking his way around the edge of the fray.

One big black monster of a rat rears up and lunges at him in passing, and gets a swift arrow in the face for its troubles. "Gross," the hunter mutters, as he plants one foot on the body and retrieves his arrow from it with a wet sucking noise. Those things aren't free.

Kauchemar follows Hifumi and his floral fox as the former explains the nature (hahaha) of his summoning prowess. "I see! Does that mean most of them have BARK worse than their bite though?! Hahahaha!" That.. is not an entirely sane person laugh. Try imagining a villianess' laugh mixed with a horse neighing, and a little demonic reverb, and you might get close.

But it gets them through the maze without her getting lost, and that's good enough. Maybe she should look into summoning things besides undead, spirits and abominations.

More to think about later. Right now they're rounding a bend, her ears immeadiately standing erect again at the horrid chorus of unearthly sounds coming from just beyond. Because it's absolute chaos as rat is fighting rat, and the disguisting field of viscera surrounding them tearing each other apart. "Forget dog eat dog world, rat eat rat is a lot scarier."

Nostrils flare as she snorts. "Looks like this challenge will take a little..." She stomps a hoof on the ground and flexes her hands into fists. And charges right into the mass of rats, the slamming of her hooves atop stone and rodent alike rumbling through the chamber like a stampede. "HORSEPOWER!"

    Miyako shrugs. Even if she can't be a catgirl, she's always liked being a Spriggan, too. Now if only the wings were functional...

    "Okay," she muses as Hifumi swaps out his summons. "Gotta admit the fox is cute." She waggles her fingers at it and smiles. And most certainly does -not- resort to baby talk.

    And then we have The Rats From Cheron. "Nope," she replies to Hifumi. "Rats are most definitely not cute." She reaches her hand into the air to inscribe a new series of runs, the characters glowing darkly as she works through the spell, a much longer one than the light spell from earlier. Finally she finishes it. "Darkness Rain!" A shower of needles made out of shadow ripples out into the crowd of rats, slaughtering indiscriminately as she strafes the blast across the room. "We get rid of them /all/."

"Summoners are fascinating. I really love all the little creatures you guys are able to bring to the playing field." By her own appearance, she is also some sort of druid-combination, though it's hard to tell exactly what it might be at a glance.

"One of my old guildmates who was lucky enough not to end up stuck here caught him for me originally." Mikage explains, nodding to Miyako. "I wasn't able to have a cat in real life, so this is the next best thing."

As they step into the room with the distinctly colored rats, Mikage shakes her head, "Yeah, I've seen these guys before. I usually just plow through rather than trying to get involved." That said, that is exactly what the Were Fang girl does. She does her best to avoid stepping on the rats, but it is a losing battle. Squeaks and squeals follow as she pushes her way across the room, knocking them to the side in places.

    Hifumi looks at the rampage of companions and shrugs "Go on Foxglove, have a good time." he says and the little fox becomes a purple blur. Rushing from rat to rat and savaging them in ways a cute purple flower fox really shouldn't be able to. However it seems being made of flower pettals and leaves is NOT a hinderance to it's ability to be a combat beast, just ravaging rats along side the other fighters.

    When the bloody battle is done, Hifumi picks his way across the battle field "Good job guys." he says and as they move past the twisted metal bits he raises an eyebrow... until JuggerRat... Ratternaught? The boss mob charges. "Crap, Fight!" he says scrambling out of the way.

"Huh, looks like they've been dragging goods here from a blacksmith shop?" Dare ventures a guess. Although he can't imagine what the weirdly twisted bits would have been scrap from.

He spots the monster in the helmet at the same moment that it charges as if launched from a spring loaded cannon! "Incoming!" he yelps in alarm. He doesn't have a chance to get his bowstring drawn to bear on the barrelling monstrosity, and instead thrusts his fist forward in a blind punch with the bow clutched in it. He yelps, as his knuckles scrape against the overlapping plates of the helmet, but by pure luck he also feels the already-bloody arrow still braced between his fingers plunge into something soft as the thing practically impales itself on him, knocking him backwards.

It's a good thing monsters just explode into digital gibs when stomped, or Kauchemar would have very digustingly covered in gore hooves by the end. Even as it is she stops to scrape the bottom of one against the frame of the doorway, because it's just the sort of thing you do. "Normally I dance on the graves, not stomp them into them," she quips, but what works works.

It brings them to the next chamber, and one very pissed off, territorial, angry rat in armor. Somehow. "Oh this is more like it," the nightmare croons even as she pulls her lute back into her grasp while others are likely readying weapons. Her fingers strum across the instrument's strings, little sparks of red and orange whirling about them as she does. "Time to bring out one my own dance partners~"

Just as the armor rat is charging the Muse's musical summoning weaves in front of the group, as reddish hues bubble up from the floor as if coming between the cracks to congeal into a large slime blob. Which ignites on fire as it forms. It splatters when struck by the monster, squirting slime all over the armored rat in return. Slime that dribbles its way between the seams of armor to start burning into the rat's skin beneath.

    Onward. Downward. Inward. Gee Whiz. "So long as you're not putting /us/ in them," she mutters to Kauchemar, morbidly. Then breaks into one of her odd Irish songs. "Look at the coffin / With its golden handles / Isn't it grand, boys / To be bloody well dead..." She trails off and stops after that, though.

    And then there is Rattus Unpleasantus. "I'm having flashbacks to bad Marvel Comics parody issues. Iron Rat, anyone?" She dodges nimbly out of the way of its charge and slashes down at it with her naginata, the blade clanging heavily off its makeshift armor.

The familiar form of the armored rat has Mikage bracing herself. It almost feels nostalgic, as if she were taking a step back to her first dungeon since the Apocalypse. "I'll try to hold some of it's attacks at bay." Though her sword is often used as a channeling focus for magic, Miki seems equally comfortable using it for combat.

Keeping the sword raised, she does her best to block whatever comes towards the party, reducing some of the damage. It's enough to hold it partially at bay so those more directly combat capable can do their thing. "What the heck do they feed the rats down here? Steroid pellets?" She mutters.

    Diving to the side saves Hifumi's skin... or at least his bones from crushing. "Foxglove! Get'im." he says with a laugh. The little purple fox starts bobbing and weaving, dipping between the beasts legs and savaging at it' underbelly, then darting out again. As the team fights Hifumi keeps to the side just giving over view and the occasional instruction to exploit a weakness he sees to his fox. In time the armored behemoth collapses and then detonates into pearls of light drifting into the ceiling. "Well, that's ... a new one." he says with a chuckle dusting himself off. The life of a summoner, battle from the sidelines.

    When they come into the room with the scene from some heavy metal album cover. A ratman...werefang? Just mutant rat? Man transformed by some of the magics used to make cait and weres? Anyway the Ratman has a circle of power drawn in blood, thick robes, and the general air of dark summoning. Annnd there we are, the rats are summons no wonder they're so odd. "Well, I guess it's time to take out the threat, at least it isn't sad girls who just need some help and real friends." he sighs his fingers already starting to draw runes in the air.

Picking himself up off the tunnel floor, Dare reflexively sucks on his scraped knuckles and lets himself fall back a little bit in the marching order. You're ranged DPS, not a tank, he scolds himself inwardly.

As they come upon the summoning circle his senses swirl for a moment in confusion. His skills lie largely toward the physical realm, and all of this magic practically vibrating through the air is... it's like... it's like Hifumi's meta text indicated. Like a metal album cover. Well, what's he been honing his rock mojo all morning for anyway? The armored rat from the previous room provides all the rest of the inspiration he needs. He draws himself to his full height and bellows, "I AM IRON MAN!"

He hasn't got an instrument on him though. He can feel wisps of bardic magic gathering around him but makes a mental note that he really ought to at least start carrying a drum he can whip out in a pinch, as he swiftly nocks an arrow and sends it sailing over the party's heads toward the red portal. "Has he lost his mind!" Twang as another arrow is loosed. "Can he see or is he blind?"

It is almost a relief that the person standing at the end of the series of hallways and rat encounters is not... a tubby merchant. Mikage may just be a little jaded. So, the sight of a ratish magic user seemingly summoning rats out of the aether is a joyous change of pace. "Well, this is new." At least for her, anyways.

Turning her sword, she holds it outward, blade pointed at the ground. Blue magical energy starts to focus through it, causing subtle lines and cracks in it to glow. Her breath starts to hang slightly in the air, the temperature dropping quickly. "Forces of magic, heed my call. Ice Rain!"

Shards of ice appear above the enchanter, beginning to fall onto the ground around him. It disrupts the symbols drawn on the floor, spearing them in places and preventing the direct flow of magic that is powering those portals.

    "Oh, not cool, buddy, -so- not cool." Miyako shakes her head sadly as she looks on the mage in his circle. What an annoyance. At least they seem to be at the end of /this/ rat race. "I mean, it could be worse," she muses. "I don't want to think about how, but I'm sure it could."

    She sighs again and starts inscribing runes in the air, once again, her eyes focusing close on the man's ritual circle. "Droch chrich ort," she chants, "Imeacht gan teacht ort. Go dtuitfeadh an tigh ort. Mallacht mo chait ort!"

    And with that, there is a sound as of breaking glass, and shards of light shatter and fall to the ground from the edges of the circle.

And the end of the venture brings them to... the most black metal room Kauchemar has ever seen in a game MMO or otherwise. The hairs on the back of her neck stand on end from the dark magics permutating the room, but unlike most people it makes the nightmare giggle instead of terrified by it. "I like the decor!" Her eyes glow ominously, flame-like wisps of indigo ether flicking around the edges of them. "But I'm still going to kick your ass." Similar dark sparks hiss around her fingers as she starts to strum her lute and stomp a hoof to set the beat for herself. The instrument doesn't have quite the right tone on it's own, but her magic helps add a dark and ominous edge to it to make up the difference, feeling inspired by the appearances of the chamber.

o/~ No one can destroy the Metaaaal... The Metal will strike you down with a vicious blow! o/~

Dark shadows rise up around the Nightmare as she plays, vagely taking the form of a specteral choir.
o/~ We are the vanquished foes of the Metaaaaal... we tried to win for why we do not knooOOOOOOOOW o/~

Their cries rise to ghostly wails as Kauchemar strikes a deep metal riff, and the specters conjured by her metal singing surge towards the rat summoner with their dark disruptive energies.

    Hifumi starts drawing runes in the air. "Well... when you have a heavy metal Rat, after a Heavy Metal rat... You call out the rat catcher." he says "Snakebite Come!" he says the adder made of roots, clad in pointed leaves like scales, with white flowers for eyes and long thorn fangs that drip white venom like fluid. "Go on buddy, kill that rat." he says with a smile "Have a good time."

    As the nightmare and gnoll go heavy metal in a different way, and the Mimi's go magical oposition, the defenses of the Ratman fall and the open portals close with several rat summons charging the party. Durring the confusion Snakeroot slithers close and sinks it's poisoned fangs into the enchanter's leg. It isn't long from there before the low hp high mp boss falls the persistant damage of snake venom. The summoned rats all follow their master puffing into pearls of light, only they leave behind neatly cut steaks as big as they were... all labled 'tasty' when inspected. "Well.. that's good to know." he says pocketing his portion of the meat.

Kauchemar's mane swishes around her head as she tilts it to the side at the rat summoner's mad ranting before he slips into unconciousness from the assault. ".. Really?"

She stoops down to pick up one of the chunks of rat meat left behind. Holds it up as she stands, notices the 'Tasty' flag and sniffs at it. Both with her nostrils, and with her serpentine tongue. "... I almost hate to admit it, but he might be onto something," she murmurs, as she drops the rat steak into her inventory.

"I'm still more in the mood for the Bento boxes, though."

Lowering her sword, Mikage seems to be cautious until the last of the rats vanish. Then she sheaths the blade in the scabbard at her side. "Meat?" The Ranger is familiar enough with meat drops from various monsters, but this kind seems, different somehow?

She crouches to pluck up a piece, sniffs at it, and then looks at it curiously. "It... smells good?" The fact that is called 'tasty' seems to be enough. "I'll probably have Sassaral look at this. She knows ingredients better than I do."

The pale-haired Were Fang nods towards Kauchemar, "Agreed. I think I'll take a bento over rat meat. Still, it's something interesting."

    Miyako was content with breaking the mage's spell, she lets the others have the glory of pounding him and his rats into pulp. She just stands back and watches. Sometimes that's more fun.

    She holds up the piece of rat meat and glares at it, turning it this way and that as if searching for some reason to dismiss the 'loot drop'. "I mean, really. Can it get -any- more disgusting than this?" She still almost tosses it away, before swiping a finger across her menu to slip it into inventory. At least there it won't get rat grease over everything. "Probably make for decent dog bait or something, at least."

    She sighs and mutters some song lyrics under her breath, then straightens and looks about the crowd. "Not all of us like raw meat. And I know exacly zero recipes for roasted rat."

Dare lowers his bow, his nose wrinkling in disgust. "I can't decide if that's better or worse than how the Simpsons did it," he quips. "Milking rats for their 'malk', or... if this guy's a were fang doesn't that make this some kind of cannibalism?"

He stoops to pick up his share of the loot, side-eyeing the 'tasty' tag suspiciously and giving it a very cautious sniff before packing it away in his inventory. Maybe if it's cooked, thoroughly, in some kind of stew...

    Hifumi looks around and finds the obligitory exit to the surface that comes up just a bit down the street from the merchant's shop. "Come on guys." he says and heads back to the top turning in the quest. "You should be all clear for a while old man." he says to the old Cait Sith. "You know how it goes, it'll be one of your neighbors, or in one of the other market squares next time." he grins and shakes hands with the older man and heads on back out into the square to setup on the fountain again. "So lunchtime then?" he says with a smile as he produces his own Bento to start eating.

"As long as it's not made from rat meat," Dare remarks wryly as he digs in his pack to access his lunch box. "I think I've had my fill of that for the day."