Duty Session 124: Goblins in the Rotting Forest

    Wisteria has heard about the spread of goblins, and after her last few trips out to thin the Goblin Hordes she's of the opinion she needs to get some Adventurers together to further the decimation required. She's gathering folks at the Hunter's Guild having picked up one tall friend. "Looks like the problem's gotten worse." she says as she makes another announcement. "Gathering up for taking down some goblins, gotta help keep the creeps from creeping." the tall albino girl announces. For someone who never really played the game side of ETO, she's really adapted to game mechancis since the black wave.

"Right behind you, Wist." The work in Tolbana had reached a point where it was better to leave construction to the hired professionals so Vertina was going to get some adventure time in. That and work on refining her other project. Which would be the arm-guards she's strapping on. Recently she replaced the spikes on the knuckle guards with actual blades, in hopes they'd be a bit more effective for striking things that she might break her knuckles on. "What do you think? I needed something that wasn't bulky but good for both offense and defense, so I've been tweaking this design a bit."

    Baroness Wake just can't seem to get away from the desolation that the last wave brought with it. Though she really, really wishes to get herself back to her home in the Dukedom. As is her way, she offers her greeting to Wistera with an elegant curtsey. "I am Baroness Wake." She looks to Vertina and smiles politely, "It appears that Goblins are on the agenda for the day for all of us, then?"

"I think why even use gauntlets." Syx says, as he flexes his hands, which just have some wraps around them like fighter's tape, "Just get strong enough to punch stuff without breaking your hands." He grins at his fellow Salamander, "Or you know, do like I do and use your whole body as a weapon. Punch, kick. It's all in the mind."

He taps the side of his head with one scaled finger for a second, "So anyway, what caused this whole mess anyway?" He asks, "Hadn't heard about too many goblins in that area."

"Because versatility is an advantage to not be overlooked," Vertina replies to Syx. ".. Besides. I've seen some of the nastier slime monsters out there. I don't WANT to punch those directly. Eeew."

    Wisteria smiles brightly "Pleasure to meet you, and yes, even with the goblin nests we cleared out it seems that something has enough of them spawning and on the march to cause issues." she says. "And swords and wave arts keep your hands out of the goop." she teases Vertina when she hears the slime comment. "Lets get on the road, gona have to hike over to the latest sighting. Can always take pekos, not like I've been hurting for basic cash lately." she says with a shrug

Vertina pffs. "Like I've ever been afraid of a hike." She does that little jog in place runners do to warm up before they actually start running.

    "Pekos may save us some time. If they've been seen there, it's best to arrive swiftly, is it not?" She's eager to get over there and put a dent in some goblins, anyway. It's been a while! "But if the group would prefer the scenic stroll, I'm game for that, as well." Fortunately, the Right Clothes today included hiking books, as well as a gray cloak slung over a form-fitting white blouse and a dark green dress slit for ease of movement.

"I'll go with whatever the general game plan is." Syx replies, "No sense in messing with the flow, especially when I'm not the one in charge, ya dig?" In other words, he's game to just go with whatever the overall plan is and follow Wist's lead

    Wisteria nods, the tall albino girl heading to get Pekos just for the time savings. Then heads on out. When they reach the forest blighted by the soul eater and burned by Adventurers she just shakes her head. "I really hope we find a way to stop these kinds of events from happening." she may want to get home, but she doesn't want to make the 'game' world suffer to do it.

    Upon spotting the goblin scout the tall girl nods. "Okay, lets see if we can figure out where they're coming from." she says "Who wants to be on spook duty, and who's better at creeping. I'm a Shadow so I can pull of either but sneaking is a bit more my style, but I have some arts that can help with spooking him."

    If there's one thing Wake is known for, it is sneaking. Before the Apocalypse, she was known to get where no one could. These days, though she's still quite skilled, off days do happen, and so her attempts to avoid notice fail utterly as she manages to lose focus and reveal her position. She will certainly not speak of this again, though she will take the lesson in humility to heart.

Vertina lets out a rumble at seeing what the condition the forest is in around here. "This.. is not a pleasant aftermath."

Then a Goblin is spotted. There's rarely one alone, so... "Okay, you guys follow him when he runs." Vertina sprints out into the open a bit, then stops. "Hey you!" She points at the goblin, though it's more to make the blades she's wearing a lot more obvious. "I wanna talk to you... and by talk I mean punch your face until you spill your words AND your guts!" That should be intimidating enough, right?

As soon as they spot the goblin, Syx goes to launch himself after it, but Vertina actually seems to have a plan, as far as making it run rather than just beating the tar out of it.

The tall salamander stops himself short in order to keep himself from beating it to death with his bare hands. He'll let Vert's plan play out.

    You might think that an albino woman in white and purple would be hard to hide in all this desolation. Until she makes a few signs with one hand and mutters a quick spell. She grips the edge of her shadow and pulls it around her like a cloak and disapears into the dark background stalking after the Goblin scout.

    The albino werefang pops back out of the shadows when she discovers the Living Tree and checks the door. "Hey guys, over here." she says. "Looks like he's gone into the Syph and Pooka tunnels... might be an ambush." her tone is SO wrong for that, excitment rather than trepidation. "But we gotta get this lock open first."

"A lock," says Wake. She tilts her head slight, looking at it before approaching. With a look back at the others she smiles, then draws out her tools. She never really likes having people /watch/ her pick locks. Much less see how easy it is for her. In her experience, whenever she does this people casually mention all the things that have 'oddly gone missing' over the past few weeks. And she never even steals from players! In no time at all, the lock springs open in her hands. "Well, what do you know.. beginner's luck!" she says playfully.

"Tunnels, huh?" While the others work on the locked door Vertina circles around the tree. "I think you're right, there's no other exits. I'd say in the branches but there's no other trees for them to jump to left."

Vertina stops, and PUNCHES the ground a few times. Enough to make the ground shake in any passages that are below. She's trying to distract any ambushers down there from noticing the door is being picked open.

"Let me try something." Syx says, as he takes a step back, and then runs forward aiming to kick the whole door in.

Only to force himself to stop short as Baroness Wake steps in and picks the lock. He slides to a stop, barely managing to stay upright, "I...Guess that way can work too." He better get to break something soon..

    Wisteria joins Vertina, stomping in time with her punches. The baroness has the door unlocked, but hey the earthquake twins here probably at least shook the goblin up on his way down into any tunnels.

    Once the door is open the albino girl makes a gesture and chants until two small blue ghost flames flicker into life over her shoulders to light the way down. The mass of tunnels leading outward makes her pause. "Hmmm, lets be careful... the tunnels are probably trapped knowing goblins." she says "Lets figure out which way he's gone."

    Feeling more comfortable, now that she's back on pace to live up to her name, Baroness Wake approaches this next problem with her usual set of skills. She strains her senses, trying to detect the goblin. It's haste betrays it, and she stops at one of the seemingly identical passages and smiles. "I think it's this one," she says calmly.

Vertina nods and follows Wist back around the door and into the tunnel underneath. Which of course splits off into many tunnels. "It didn't take the little shits long to take advantage of what the locals left behind," she muses. "Are monsters suppose to be that clever." She takes her chin with a claw-like finger tip. "Though goblins are kinda crafty in general, I suppose."

She gives the others a chance to work, though she's already got an idea in mind. Earth was one of her strongest elements after Fire, so being underground could actually be an advantage.

When Wake's search turns up a path she smiles as she steps past her. "Good job. Let's just make sure it's safe..." Vertina stops, strikes a concentrating pose and takes a breath... And then stomps one of her feet into the ground. This causes a very precise wave of tremors to roll through the soil, vibrations aimed to snap and break any traps hidden in the ground without knocking down the entire tunnel.

Syx watches what Vertina does with her stomp move, "Huh. Neat." He was just going to do something a lot less fancy. He grabs a big rock from the ground not far, and hurls it down the tunnel like a football (the American kind).

He figures that'll either set off some tracks of bash a goblin in the dome and either way that's win-win.

    Wisteria shifts, and suddenly the albino girl is replaced by an albino bunbun woman. She swivels her ears and is just tapping the floor with her foot when the rumble of Vert's stomp and the rattle of Syx's 'football' down the tunnel make her ears fold over and she covers them. "Never... echolocate when sports stars decide to do their thing." she manages in a whimper.

    Heading down the tunnel they find the goblin, neatly brained by the 'football' Syx threw, just as it is disolving into pixelated color. Further down the tunnel she spots the hobgoblins. "Alright... finally a fight I can get behind." she says drawing her katana. "Lets get'em." yup that's her plan, get'em.

    Wisteria's katana begins to glow with an evil looking black light, then she shuffles forward, in a 'sprint' that never lifts a foot off the ground but moves her forward with surprising speed. Then the blade flashes up, the dark energies crackling through the air and leaving the guards dazed and confused as the mind magic trembles through their thoughts like a rampaging boss mob through a room full of clay pots.

'Get them' is always Syx's plan, so he's on board with Wisteria's idea, as he jumps into the fray almost immediately.

There's zero hesitation, clearly the actions of someone who's still treating this game like a game.

He rushes the closest of the two hobgoblins, and grabs hold of him from behind.

Syx twists his body and leans backwards, hauling the Hobgoblin through the air and performing a picture perfect release German suplex on the monster, hurling it through the air to smash into the stone ground below.

Vertina laughs when it turns out Syx beaned the goblin from down the tunnel. It's short-lived as the hobgoblins come into view. "Yeah, now that's my kind of planning." She sprints with the charge, but slows down to watch as Syx charges upon one of the guards. And then does -that- with absolute perfect execution. "Wow, you -are- the real deal!"

She's so busy gawking that she forgets to actually do any attacking.

    Wake will just follow along with Syx. With his enthusiastic start, she finds she's inspired, as well. She's not quite the wrestling type, but she can provide a most sound and potent backhand to the other, quite dazzled hobgoblin, which lands with a most satisfying crunching noise.
    "Well then.. haven't had the pleasure of doing that in some time," she declares. She can't help but enjoy herself. She turns to Syx, "And you, Syx, are very good at that."

    With the guards down the team breaks into the chamber with the goblin shaman and his strange new symbol. The monster cries out in a wet throaty scream for help before he starts gathering up dark magics to sling at the party. A warband of regular goblins piles in from behind. Damn adds in a boss fight, isn't it always the way?

After the various compliments from his suplex, Syx grins from the ground, and then kips up onto his feet in one swift motion, "Had a lot of practice at it." He replies with a grin to the trio.

They move onward, only to find the Shaman and the bunch of adds that come running in as well, "Aw hell nah. Come on!" Syx initially starts the fight with the Shaman, throwing hands and trying to lay into the guy with his fists, but one of the adds gets close enough and Syx snatches up the smaller Goblin, and holding him by the leg, uses him as a flail against the Shaman. Because sometimes you just have to beat a dude with another dude.

Vertina points at Syx. "You... I am going to find something, get you to sign it, and hang it up in the tavern when it's complete so it's OFFICALLY a bar."

But with that, it's time to move on. Into the next room, and some little creep corrupting the forest roots with magic. Vertina growls as she takes a frontline stance. "Hey you! Over here! Your momma was a sock gremlin!" It's arguable if the Shaman even knows what socks are, but it's enough to get his attention to turn on her and start tossing spells at her.

Which Vertina expertly blocks with a few kung-fu stances and using, you guessed it, those bracers. "See, this is why having some extra gear doesn't hurt!" She learned a few things from getting spell nuked in the tournament. And is using that as a distraction for the others to gang up on the weirdo.

    "It's never that easy, is it?" muses Baroness Wake. She steps lightly away from the goblins, and though she's focused on the Shaman, she does note from the corner of her eye, that Syx has again plied his trade with his usual alacrity. It's really quite admirable, the way he uses whatever is at hand to achieve his goals. Even when the only thing at hand is a goblin.
    This all leaves just one thing to deal with. That shaman has got to go. Wake draws upon her own magic, and lashes out with relish, striking the monster down with a crackle of energy.

    Wisteria is a practicion of dark magics herself, then her sword is out and she's defending, the dark magic of her blade however is still dimed from her assault on the hobgoblins, and much of her defense of Syx and the Baroness come at the expense of simply getting her body in the way leaving her a mess of red glowing marks before the goblins are all down. Low on HP the bun sheaths her sword and leans on a wall. "Well... if this is the new goblin threat... we need to do more exterminating. I'll pass the word to the rest of the Scale and see who else can spare the time to grind some of these jerks."

Baroness Wake nods to Wisteria, settling into her usual posture, no longer braced for combat, but standing straight and looking over the fallen enemies curiously. "Leaves in the forest, I'm afraid. And this forest is clearly corrupted," she says gravely. "I wonder just how bad future waves shall become? I understand many are desperate to break out, but how can we even be so certain the tower has anything to do with it?"

Once the goblins are beat into pixels and the fighting stops Vertina brushes some residue off her bracers. "Mmm, that worked better than I expected."

Then glances up at the dying roots at the roof of the chamber. "Yeah... If they get too strong they might start spreading to more populated areas."

Then the salamander sighs a little. "We don't, Miss Wake... but until we get higher, we don't know that it does or that it doesn't, and the only way to find out..." Flicks a hand through her hair. "I mean I'm all for fighting bosses and getting farther... but we were made to push that last Boss too soon, if something like this happened because of it."

"So what you're saying is that we should let these wave things play out before we take each floor?" Syx asks, as he brushes his hands off, "I mean I guess that makes sense. But that means at best we'll have to be in here for two years, if we have to wait a week between each floor.." He muses softly, "And so far we've taken each floor on the first try, when we get to the higher floors I doubt we'll get that lucky. Nobody even knows what's after ten."

Baroness Wake shakes her head in response to Syx. "I'm saying we need to talk about it and start creating a master plan. I don't know the best way to do this, honestly. I think others may have valuable information, but I'm not sure everything has been put together yet. The waves are a threat, and if they shatter the world badly enough, they may take away the support needed to clear the Tower."

    Wistera rubs one of her long ears. "Gilgamesh...says we won't like what we find... but he also admits that the tower has changed since he climbed it last." she says and shrugs "But we can't do nothing." she says and sighs. "Lets get to the pekos and head back, not likely to find more goblins right now."