Duty Session 110: Spinner's End

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

Difficulty:    Moderate
Rec. Party:    3+
Rewards:       2
World Rewards: Increases in mining efficiency in Town of Beginnings.

Merek
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    It's the mines, a sorting room to begin the journey. Merek walks along into it, longcoat pulled off of him while he adjusts the dark leather armor which he wears, beltcape about the waist and Shadow Eclipse on the back. He speaks to the party, "Alright, we're going to assist Carmina Gadelica with trade, while we do it, we have the benefit of doing more missions for the Hunter's Guild, making more money and finding a little bit of nice equipment. Level, does not matter, we are onwards." When they come upon that fleshy creature, it begins to look at them, then it hisses while it begins to walk around looking at them.
Goldenblade
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Goldenblade has volunteered for this mission to help the locals. She nods to Merek as he explains things, following along with a steady stride. She acks at what we find in the sorting room. "What is that?" is quickly followed by, "Kill it with fire!" And that's her plan, lobbing flasks of pitch she'd bought and torches, and when the flaming mass ignites, more pitch. The fires she sets burn fiercely, but she's got a lot of fire. It's not magical, but it must seem that way as much as is generated. How many flasks of oil has she bought?
Kita
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Since arriving at the mines, Kita has been mostly a quiet presence. The female Imp has her sketchbook in one hand, spellbook underneath it, seeming almost as if she were enraptured in whatever she is drawing rather than really paying attention to what is going on around her.

She does, however, move along with the others as they enter the mines. It isn't until a creature hisses that she looks up, flips open to her spellbook, and casually as you please, starts to draw runes in the air. "See how you like this..."

A blast of fire lights the room, launching at the creature from her fingertips. It doesn't seem as if she is putting particularly much focus into it, and as soon as the spell is done, she is back to grabbing her pencil from behind her ear and adjusting her sketch.
Syx
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"I don't know what the hell that thing is," Syx replies, as Goldenblade says to kill it with fire, "But I can definitely help with that part"! He immediately rushes forward, both of his fists engulfing themselves in flames. Headless of anyone else's attacks, he jumps into the fray.

Dropping down from above onto the creature, he rapidly delivers a haymaker punch with his right hand, before wheeling around with a hook from his left. He's a trained boxer, the moves are fluid and stiff, with a ton of impact behind them, trying to crush the creature and light it aflame in one go.
Merek
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    Fire. Fire. Fire! The pitch oil catching fire for Goldenblade, with the slinging from Kita's rune blast, and fists of Syx, the creature catches on fire while Merek keeps blasting away with firebolts. The scent of that flaming creature seems to permeate the place, before it shimmers up into pixels. When finished, a nod offered to all the party from Merek will note they are making their way forward.
    Boulders are in the way, covered in webs. Looks like it is up to the party to move the pieces away so they can keep on forward.
Goldenblade
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Goldenblade will set to the tsak of clearing the path forward as best she can. She is good with the earth, it seems, her background in construction in the real world making site maintenance a thing for her. "Got to keep the paths clear," she says, trying to keep as free from the webbing as she can. "Lift with your legs, not with your back," is her mantra as she shifts the rocks. But she winds up stuck to one webbed-on rock, and then her task is sidetracked as she tries to unstick herself from the rock without losing too much skin. "Anyone have any rubbing alcohol?" she asks. But ... is that even a thing here? She'll probably have to find an alchemist.
Kita
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Like before, Kita almost seems distracted as they continue deeper into the mines. At one point, she actually summons a bit of fire at her fingertips, using it to light the book when they walk in darker sections.

Somehow, she manages not to walk right into the rock slide. Instead, she just looks up, extinguishes the small fire, uses her fingers to push her glasses up along her nose, and then starts using earth magic to toss the rocks to either side.

"If the roof is this unstable, we should be cautious..."
Syx
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Oh yes, this is exactly the kind of thing that Syx is built for.

The hulking Slamander moves up to the biggest boulder, and takes advantage of the sticky coating to get a good grip on it, "Clear a path!" He calls out to anyone still behind him, as he flexes and lifts, arching his back as he goes.

With a bit of effort, he hauls the boulder up, over his head, and releases, sending it flying and crashing down behind him. With the biggest one out of the way, it should be a simple task for him to clear the smaller boulders with his fists, literally punching rocks into rubble.
Merek
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    Merek will begin to assist with clearing the path, which means the man takes the time to use the magic of the Earth to break rocks. Kita will manage to push them to the side. Goldenblade, she makes a little progress but nowhere near enough to carry it all. Still, along with the others working, she manages as well as anyone else. Syx? Syx somehow begins to suplex more boulders than anyone can even move with magic. Rocks properly yeeted away, the party walks forward.
    The next challenge is a chasm in the deep, from it there are echoes of what can only be foreign sounds, rolling lava, whispers. Attempting to deter the party, some intelligence is at work, and all of the team would need to work together for the next of these many challenges. Merek nods a bit to the party, "I can see why Landers are not managing the mining well."
Syx
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As the group approaches the chasm, Syx takes a second to look down into the hole, kicking a small rock down into the pit, "Huh."

Other folks might build something or try to find a way to put together a makeshift bridge. But Syx doesn't have time for that. He takes a moment, flexing his back leg, and then launching himself across the chasm in a flash of lightning and a crack of thunder behind him.

He essentially reappears on the other side of the chasm, taking a moment to pose because why do this kinda thing if you can't look good while you're doing it?
Kita
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As the party continues forward, it is some small miracle that Kita doesn't go walking right off the edge of that chasm and into whatever lies below. Her toe catches on a rock, which causes her to look up.

"Really?" The girl closes her book, stows both the sketchbook and spell volume, and then takes a few steps back. She isn't exactly athletic, but it seems better than trying to build some way across.

The Imp takes a running jump, little wings flapping ineffectually, and then lands with a small stumble on the other side. She manages to catch herself, then dusts her dress off and takes back out her books. She may just be a little single-minded at the moment.
Goldenblade
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Goldenblade will back up to the far side and sprint for the edge, taking a huge leap from the very farthest edge. Arms windmilling as she sails through the air, braid streaming out behind her, and she flies in a flat arc. She lands heavily on the far side, grunting with effort as she takes a few steps from the momentum.
Merek
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    Merek walks along forward a bit, while he begins to shift upon his hip, sweeping the hip he begins to run to the wall, stepping upon it he then does a series of moves while he takes ahold of one of those rocks, then lands on the other side. Everyone does their own cool version, and all of them succeed, it's definitely a unique way to do it. "Wow, you all did pretty well."
    Then when all of them come upon the Spider's Nest, a few of them asleep, while the sacks begin to drip with a liquid. A few of those rocks glow, ancient darkness seems to permeate the place, what could possibly be forward in the place. Quiet hisses of the sleepers take in the place. Shadows dance on the walls, reching to our companions. Merek looks to them, while he nods to everyone, "You all choose your own way, I need to do something. I can't allow these creatures to breed." With a shift of the hip he pulls up the hood while he slides on his clawed gauntlets. There's a rage in his voice while he permits the flame to take him in, rolling across him he begins to swing into the fray, those hands wreathed in flame, as is his weapon while he dances along.
Syx
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The Salamander is not backing down from a challenge, even if it's sleepy spiders, "Come on you ugly bastards!" He calls out, most likely waking up the spiders in the process.

He takes a flying leap towards them, this time channeling the flames into his feet as he aims to dropkick one of the spiders with a burning flying kick.

Not content with just going after one, he goes after the second one with his flaming feet, trying to drop onto it with a flaming scissor kick, aiming to blast both of them with flaming kicks and reduce them to their component sparkles.
Kita
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It isn't until Kita steps right into the remains of an egg sack that she stops, realizes just where they are at, and curses under her breath. Lifting her foot out of it, she shakes off some of the webbing. "Right... spiders." As if only realizing that they'd seen signs of spider webbing throughout the tunnels.

She starts to trace out the same sequence of runes as before, but they only light briefly before fading. Confused, she taps at what must be her HUD. "How did my Mana end up being this low?"

So, instead, she takes out a potion and starts to drink it, knowing she can't help the party much until her mana recovers.
Goldenblade
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Goldenblade will slip through on her own, staying quiet in the darker corners, making her way through to avoid the spiders. When Merek tells us to choose our own way, she'll nod and sneak by, though she looks surprised when everyone else is all with fire. "If we were attacking, you should have said," she complains. But she's gotten through, and the spiders are dealt with, and she shrugs.
Merek
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    Merek manages to sweep along through a lot of them, Syx meanwhile manages to blast a few of them away. The sparkles seem to dance in the cave, and Goldenblade manages to sneak through. While Kita's mana does run a little bit low, by then most of the spiders don't cause a lot of issues. Merek does look to the woman, "Well, I apologize, I figured I made it clear." He nods a little like he's apologetic.
    Eventually, the party makes it to what must be the boss, the spider woman watching all of them. "Ah, so Adventurers come, the darkness rises amongst the land, you come and try to take what belongs to us, these ancient lands. Ah, but you all don't know the truth." The mandibles click while the ethereal spiders begin to chase after folk. The queen keeps on casting magic on the party, while Merek prepares to heal the team best he can.
Goldenblade
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Goldenblade finds herself facing off against the boss monster, and it's all about magic. She grimaces, and tries to use some wit and lore on spiders to aid the fight. But she knows pretty much nothing about spiders, so it's more like, "Hey, you should ..." But no.... "Watch out ..." No, that won't help. "Look o-" Too late. She's not much help, is she?
Kita
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For a long moment, Kita stares at Merek, "Why would you be apologizing? It's not your fault. I'm supposed to be keeping track of my own stats." The fact is, she hadn't cast nearly enough spells in this dungeon to be out of mana, so it's likely that the Imp had been running low before even entering the instance. How could she not have noticed that?

She seems, for the moment, at least, to be back to her senses as they reach the final boss. Enough so that she's watching her mana bar, waiting for enough of it to recover to be able to actually cast something.

"I'll try to slow them down." She explains, drawing runes in the air and then swiping her hand downward. The runes light onto the floor, causing strange, skeletal hands to reach up from the ground, grasping at the spiders and their summoner.
Syx
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Without much to offer in the way of magical abilities, Syx none the less is going to try to fight the summoner himself.

He has to try to punch his way through one of the spiders, however. And in doing so he's going to have problems, because physical attacks are less effective, and his fire powers are good, but they're mostly there to augment his physical prowess.

He ends up swinging pointlessly at the spider a bunch of times. But at least he's doing a good job of keeping it distracted.
Merek
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    Merek manages to keep the party healed up while all of them fight. Goldenblade offers a little assistance, while it's a fight for magic, it is possible that she can fight along. Kita slows them with magic, it's then up to the two. Syx does manage to keep them distracted. All of them are on the defensive, and support, though working between all of them, it's possible. Eventually, the party manages to fight back between all the support keeping them up.
    "You will not have this place, I will be back!" Then rocks begin to fall, the place seems to be not stable, though there is a tunnel which opens up. Silken threads fall to the floor also for the party to pick up from the treasure places that appear about them. The team has only one option before the lair begins to fall in on itself, and that's to take off into that tunnel, which will eventually lead all of them back to the plains of the hill the mine was at. "Come on!" Merek then calls to everyone.
Kita
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Kita had warned earlier that this place might not be stable. So it's no surprise that they have to make a quick escape into the tunnels. It isn't until they emerge again into the light of day that she has time to examine their 'prize'.

She turns the thread in her hand, then sighs to herself, tucking it into the pages of one of her books, "Not remotely what I need. Damnit." The blue-haired witch sighs to herself. "I'll just have to keep looking."
Goldenblade
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Goldenblade wasn't much help in that fight, but she'll accept the rewards, and she'll definitely dash off with Merek as the place falls in. Not stable? Yeah, very not stable!

She stops to take panting breaths once we're out in the open, and she says, "Well, that was unexpected." By her, anyhow. She looks over the reward, shrugs. "I don't know what any of this stuff does," she admits. "I just collect it."
Syx
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"That's it?" Syx says as he looks at the new item in his inventory, "I mean I guess that's better than not getting any drops." He looks to the rest of the group, "Y'all are pretty good."
Merek
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    When all of them come from the tunnel, Merek looks to them and seems to think on it, "Crafting, trading. I use it for chemistry," the man notes, while he seems to consider the sun in the fair weather. "Three months since we came here, I wonder if we will ever escape." The man pulls back the hood while he sighs thoughtfully. There's a nod to Syx, "With the Obsidian plate, I am trying to take on more missions. Anything I can do to make the place safer, we all have our own motives, still we all need to work together." He's definitely a bit outlier for a Granduer from the New Alliance. Consistently altruistic for a world which is like a game. "You all did well, my shop will be opening this week, if you all ever want any potions, just ask, I'll make deals."
Kita
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"I'm looking for things that can help me with something I'm designing." Kita explains, flipping open her sketchbook to look at the drawing she has been fiddling with this entire journey. It looks to be some kind of statue. "Alchemical ingredients mostly. I can manage the rest of what I need, but those are hard to get a hold of."

The Imp looks up, offering a brief, distracted smile, "This was probably the easiest dungeon I've ever been in, so that's kudos to all of you. My thanks."
Goldenblade
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Goldenblade ohs to Kita, peers at the sketchbook she's showing. "What sort of stuff do you need?" she wonders. "If I've got something that can help, I'll pitch in, yeah." As far as easy, she admits, "It was kinda hard for me. More magic, less fighting than I'm used to. Magic's not a thing I really get." She shrugs.
Kita
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There is a blink of surprise when Goldenblade inquires about the project, "Something to honor the people who experienced the hellscape that was the Ezzo Empire during the Apocalypse." Kita explains, allowing the woman to get a view of what looks to be a statue of a person rising from chaos and destruction. It is rough, and likely an early draft.

"Mostly, alchemy or medicine. There's some effects I want to accomplish that would need some unique inputs." She turns to another page and seems to start the design all over again. "I should get back. I have to work on this."
Merek
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    Merek lifts up a hand to manage the HUD. Which he uses to send Freind Requests to the party, then he nods to each of them, "Ya, I can assist too," he notes to Kita. "That's nice of you. It's... I was with the first ships that came to Ezzo when we were exploring to find a way to travel there."
Syx
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"I'm gonna get back to finding monsters to fight." Syx says, "Y'all know how to find me if you need monsters punched." He gives the trio a thumbs up, and then wanders off, back to go beat creatures into oblivion, as he's prone to do.