Duty Session 126: Totally Typical Tomb

    Wisteria is doing something she's well known for, the tall albino girl is hanging out in front of the Hunter's Guild recruting a party. "Off to clear graveyards! Who wants to clear graveyards? Undead are wierd and causing trouble, so who wants to go punch them in their dead faces?" she announces holding the general notice of rewards for clearing infested graveyards.

Goldenblade is, as is her wont, just wandering around doing fetchquests. She has not realized that they no longer give XP. She does them because she does not sit still well. But hearing a call for adventurers, she will pause and head over to Wisteria, calling out, "I'm interested in your quest. Can anyone join you?" Because it's polite to ask first.

    "Wisteria, hello, how have you been?"
    That warm voice belongs to the old Paladin, Amalthea; who had just been happening to make her way to the Hunter's Guild for her own reasons before pausing to consider.
    "Well if you'll take another, I'll gladly come along." She decides after a beat's thought.
    And there's Goldenblade as well, "Ah, fancy running into you here, too." Not that she sounds surprised.

    Mizuki's there, too! Probably being a part-time headrest for Wisteria. She mumbles, "The last time I saw undead was actually pretty terrible..." But that's no attitude for tiger and bunny, right? She closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, and smiles before opening them again and beaming out at passerby, waving and calling out to accompany Wisteria's recruitment attempt. "Zombies! Skeletons! They already died once so you know they're killable! Big groups for lots of XP! They're turning Lander villages into horror movies, so let's turn the tables so THEY'RE the ones realizing the adventurer is coming from INSIDE their house!"

    "Ah... hi Goldenblade, Amalthea." She can't help looking a little more somber recalling their last encounter with the undead. "This time'll be different..."

    Wisteria squeezes Mizuki gently and nuzzles the top of her head. "We're gona kick their boney butts." she says "Yah Golden it's a clear quest so like anyone's welcome." she grins, in human form so it's just a friendly expression. "Hiya Thea!" she says brightly "See Mizukichi with a great tank we're already on the right track." she says "I ran across one of these places not far off so I came back to get a party." she says letting Mizuki go if only because it's hard to walk AND use your smol friend for a leaning post.

Goldenblade smiles to Alamthea, calling out with a chuckle, "Hello! Ha, yes, long time, no see." She peers at Mizuki, nods quickly. "Zombies ought to be pretty easy as long as we stick together, don't go off on our own, or like that." Her experience comes from early horror movies, apparently. She nods to Wisteria, and says, "That sounds good. I'm up for this, then, and with my new move. It's kind of awesome. Well, for me." It's not an earthshattering move, but it's kind of slick, and she's pleased with herself. "Anyhow, I need more stuff if I'm going to build my Academy."

    "This time will be very different." Amalthea agrees quietly with Mizuki, recalling that EXACT incident quite well, herself.
    Briefly, very briefly, the old adventurer's expression shifts into a frown. But she reins it in and clears her throat.
    "We're going into their home turf this time, which means we'll have to be extra careful." She cautions as she drums her fingers on the hilt of one of the two blades at her waist. "But I'm ready whenever you all are."

Mizuki just nods to Amalthea before walking with the group towards the graveyard. "Is there any new intel on the undead?"

    Quietly walking along wa different path , plucking a soft, haunting melody on her guitar, Miyako walks along. "Hmmm, well... let me see if I remember this one..." And as she comes into closer viwe of the group, she shifts to something more upbeat.

        Don't you know, you never split the party?
        Clerics in the back, keep those fighters hale and hearty
        The wizard in the middle, where she can shed some light
        And you NEVER let that damn thief out of sight.

    She shakes her head and stops playing as the group approaches the graveyard, sliding her guitar back into inventory. "Hey, Mimi, Goldie, Wisty. And... sorry, can't remember your name," she directs the last to Amalthea with a slightly sad smile.

    Leads the way to the infested graveyard. Spotting Miyako along the way she waves. "Hey, we're gonna go clear a graveyard of undead infestation, up for some undead slaying?" she offers and continues leading the way figuring Miyako will follow along if she' sdown for undead raiding. When the party arrives at the gate everything seems eerie and unsettling. Fog has rolled in an a light mist dampens the gravestones. Getting closer to the graveyard the light dims, getting gloomier and gloomier like a very over cast day or late twilight.

    The grass is green and lush as if well fed but exposed earth is nearly black like rich freshly turned earth. Trees in the graveyard look almost like skeletal hands clawing at the dark sky.

Wait, who's that?

Is it another monster?

Is it an NPC who's lost?

Nope, just good old BlackRose, who happens to be here once again. She seems a little out of breath, but she's still ready for battle. Looking to the others, she says, "Don't count me out!"

    "Mmmmm..." Amalthea muses, thinking for a moment. "Apparently they have vampires." She replies to Mizuki. "I made a report and Xander was kind enough to add his insight to it as well. You should read it when you get a chance, if you haven't." Said matter of factly.
    "It's Amelia." She says for Miyako. "Though most call me Amalthea these days."
    Her lips purse as they start to mreach the graveyard and the fog rolls in.
    "Ah. There's that fog again." Muttered almost irritably.

Goldenblade hrms to Amalthea about last time, and she wonders, "Have you faced them before?" Was she there? She doesn't pay attention well, or she does, but pays attention to the wrong things. So much goes on, and she can only keep track of so many details. "Any recemmendations?" she wonders. It may help us if we plan. Then again, maybe not.

She smiles to Miyako, "Hello, hello! Are you joining us, then?" she wonders. She smiles as Black Rose arrives also, greeting her with a smile. She looks around warily as we proceed to the graveyard, to find these undead who are causing trouble. "Vampires?" she wonders to Amalthea. "I didn't think to bring any wooden stakes..."

    Heading through the front gates the party is confronted by a small horde of skeletons. The clattering bones making an agressive rush towards the party. The boney jerks reaching out with fingers ending in sharpened bones and trying to bite. Generally the best thing is to just hit them hard and with heavy blunt objects, they tend towards the fragile side.

Goldenblade perhaps did not do her best prep for this mission. It -was- something of a last minute decision, and she fights off the skeletons as best she can with her swords, but it gets complicated when she hits one hard enough for the blade to lodge in a bone. She stands her ground as they come at her, though, smashing and twirling, blades leaping out from her grip to smash skeletons all around. Unfortunately, her health bar sinks faster than the tally of enemies.

    Miyako nods, flashing a smile. "Amy, then." And someone else joins the group and she grins wider. "And Rosie! Perfect timing, we're just about to go kick some zombie patoot. Good to have you with us."

    She nods to Goldenblade, as well. "Yeah, count me in," she answers. "Vampires? Wooonnnnnderful. Another teenagehood chuuni fantasy ruined. Ah well."

    As the group enters the graveyard, she produces her naginata and gives it a twirl, feathers flying behind the blade. A few quick jabs of the blade form runic shapes in the air that glow with an internal light, like the purplish shade of an ultraviolet lamp... and stumps of stone explode upwards from the ground below to smash at skeletons near her.

    "We have dealt with the undead before." Amalthea answers matter of factly. "In the Ninetails Dominion. The undead are razing Lander villages, killing Landers and making them undead." Said before she pauses. "They use actual tactics and should not be taken lightly, if you go to help out over there."
    And then the skeletons come.
    "Here, let me take aggro." The old Paladin says when Goldenblade starts to have issue, Amalthea unslings her shield and bull rushes into the horde, using her shield itself as a weapon to bash, smash, and crush bone while the old tank spams her Taunts and gets in there.
    "Hah, Amy it is then." She chuckles at the nickname in the midst of the melee.

    Mizuki smiles at the song, bobbing her head to it as she listens with interest. She hadn't heard it before, but gets the idea immediately. "Hey, sometimes being out of sight is my job! Probably not today though, need to stick together..."

    Hey, it's BlackRose! ...Has Mizuki even seen her before? They must at least be aware of eachother as fellow Odysseia Knights, right? "Long time no see, how've you been?"

    As they approach the graveyard, she wonders aloud, "Wait, why are there graves at all? People don't leave corpses in this world -- necromancers have to use a special ritual on the still-living to make undead. So what is there to bury?"

    The catgirl chuckles a little at Miyako commenting that this world is ruining her vampire fantasies.

    And then there are skeletons. Not exactly suited to stabbing or clawing, but as a ninja she's skilled in commanding every element but Light! She's just straight-up earthbending at this point, doing martial arts moves to make spikes of rock just up from under the skeletons!

"I got lost alongthe way," BlackRose says to Miyako. "But don't worry, I'm always rearing for battle." She smiles a little as she follows the others into the graveyard.

And, of course, it wouldn't be a graveyard without some kind of undead enemies to deal with. BlackRose was expecting zombies, but skeletons will work too. Unfortunately for them, BlackRose's sword will prove to be their literal undoing as she uses her blade to hack them to pieces. "No bones about it!" BlackRose comments with a slight smirk.

    Wisteria is a blade bun, she isn't best suited for skelletons. "Wouldn't skeletons have to be a summon? OR do they like melt all the meat off of something to make it a skeleton? The graveyards are well.. memorial yards, even without bodies people still want a place to go and be sad and talk to the spirit of their lost loved ones." she says.

    "Not sure about why undead gather here but that's like part of what the Hunter's Guild has us doing right?" She starts in with stomping earth pillars into existance under skeletons, the sudden shock shatering them. When the party has finaly reduced the whole horde to flinders she looks around. "I guess the center of the graveyard is as good a place to look as any?" She says heading on towards the mausoleum that makes a nice centerpoint of the whole graveyard... mourning ground?... then she notices the brick wall in the side of a hill. "Anyone else have adventurer senses tingling?" she asks pointing the wall out.

    "Didn't you get the board message? They're made from living people... well, landers, by ritual. So I guess yeah, they do melt all the flesh off." Mizuki replies after bashing skeletons with stone.

    And hey, there's an Obvious Destructible Wall. Mizuki even pulls out a spare dagger and stabs it to hear if it makes a distinctly hollow 'ting' sound. "Hmmm. I guess this is pretty obvious shmuck bait but robbing tombs is kind of an Adventurer thing, right? Not like they're using the stuff anymore..." with Goldy leading the way with her knowledge of construction, Mizuki uses earth magic to shape earth and stone as needed.

Once the skeletons are put down, Goldenblade eyes her sadly hurting HP meter and gives Amalthea a grateful look for bailing her out of that melee. "Bit off more than I could chew, I suppose," she muses, and proceeds to the Mausoleum. She grimaces at the physical condition, and says, "Hang on, hang on, this is a thing I can do." She sets to work, messing with the crumbling stonework as if she indeed knew what she was doing, bit by bit disentangling the interleaved stone and wooden support beams from the wall containing the door. "Let me make us a new entrance," she mutters as she re-lays the stonework, now with arched passageway, finally slapping the side, which seems only trembles a bit. "Not bad for a few minutes' work, eh?" she says proudly. "Who says real life skills don't work in here?"

The skeletons had a few bones to pick, but BlackRose took care of them easily. Now onward to the next challenge!

A wall... a wall that looks suspiciously easy to break. But it seems that Goldenblade is more interested in using construction skills. Shrugging a little, BlackRose decides to use her sword to help carve up a few things.

    Miyako peers at the bricked-up entryway and shrugs, reversing her naginata to try to smash through it. She stops before making a strike as others show their masonry skills more adept to the purpose, however, and stabs the blade into the ground to start moving bricks at the direction of the experts.

    "If we've learned anything about cooking, real life skills do work here." Amalthea points out before dipping her head in a nod. "You'd do the same for me, I'm sure." Added as an after thought.
    Though she does give the wall a good solid KICK to help loosen things up for Goldenblade who seems to have this well in hand anyway.
    Yep. A good kick. Suck a good kick that she limps away from the wall quietly with a grumble.
    Totally a really good kick, no one say a word.

    Wisteria joins in with Mizuki on helping to shape earth and support the tunnel at Golden's instruction. Once the tunnel entrance has been repaired it seems to lead down into the earth until it reaches another tunnel, this one of finished if ancient stone. That tunnel leads on to a small hall with an intricate mosaic floor, one wall has a myriad of small holes in it. An obvious trap with obvious influence, someone on the dev team watched movies while coding.         "Well... I'm not sure about the undead, but this definately feels like we found a dungeon at least?" she tips her head and chuckles a bit.

Goldenblade nods to what Amalthea says about real life skills, and turns to concentrate fiercely on her stonework as Amalthea limps off after ... loosening up some more stones for her. She's totally not snickering. Just please don't look at her face just now. After a moment and some deep breaths, she'll thank the others that loosened some of the stonework up for her. When she can speak without snickering.

Coming to the hallway with the suspicious holes along the side walls, she nods gravely about finding the dungeon, takes a deep breath, and crouches down into a sprinter's position. She takes off like a shot, and leaves a flaming trail behind her as she dashes across, zigzagging around the darts and leaving them all behind her. -That's- fast.

    Those holes in the wall sure are a thing.
    And looking down at the markings on the floor, Amalthea purses her lips.
    "Oh. How did this go...?" She mutters as she takes a step. "J--"
    And sets off the drap, darts spanging off her armor, causing her to QUICKLY step back.
    "... Idiot." She mutters to herself. "In Latin the name of God begins with an I." Grumbled as she starts stepping across the mosaic much more carefully and doesn't set it off again.

    "But only if you also have them on your character..." Mizuki points out. And then... it's an obvious Indiana Jones dart trap. "Hmmm..." while she's considering the mosaic on the floor, others rush past. "Hmm. When she stepped there and there, there were no darts..." after working out the path with Amalthea, she runs right across. Speedily, not leisurely. In case they're wrong.

Even BlackRose isn't perfect... she tries her best to avoid those darts... but it doesn't quite work.

"Ouch! Ouch!" BlackRose says as she takes a few hits. It's not exactly pleasant.

    Miyako has to agree. "Yeah, it -does- have that kind of dungeonish feel to it," she answers, peering at the carvings on the walls and floor. "Hrm," she muses, and then starts humming under her breath.

    With one last eye on the mosaic tiles, she carefully places a foot, and nods. "Right then!" She flashes Amalthea a little grin. "It's as easy as pi!"

    With a little chuckle, she skips across the mosaic, hopping from one foot to the other in a seemingly random pattern. "Careful Rosie! Get your antidote potion out!"

    Wisteria looks and comes to the solution... or A solution using a different path than Thea. The girl shifting into bun form and bouncing across on tiles that have colors in a pattern that seems important to her for some reason. Then she's across and dart free. Tada. She holds her hands up for applause but then it's a group thing.

As the party heads down the tunnel it devolves back into rough cut stone, slick moisture dribbling down the walls and a smell of damp earth. Then they walk out into a room, the confines are tight, and a careless arm, tail, or other appendage brushes the keyboard. A loud honk of what sounds like outrage comes from the pipe organ and one of the large stones in the floor tumbles away down a pit that looks... unplesant to fall down. "Anyone have piano lessons?" she asks quirking one bunbrow.

She should've paid attention in music class. BlackRose nonetheless does her best to try to figure out what the music is supposed to be. Unfortunately, she doesn't quite get it, and as a result things don't go very well...

    Simple enough! Mizuki's gone through the trapped hallway in the rat dungeon so many times...

    Now they find... music? Mizuki leaps away from the falling floor as others touch the organ, then finally gets a close look herself. "Man. Now I really wish I'd learned how to sight read..." Still, she makes an attempt, humming something that sounds... actually pretty musical! She sits down to play, muttering, "If C is here... how did it go again... G clef is on G..." And then, to her own amazement, her fingers move across the keys not with the nervous, uncertain caution of a beginner but with practiced-looking movements as she plays notes as easily as singing them. After reaching the end of the song so that a secret passage can open or whatever, she simply stares at her hands in wide-eyed amazement.

    "...I need to find a working piano... or harpsichord, or whatever they have here..."

Goldenblade scoots from tile to tile as they fall away, finally getting to the exit with a not-too-hard leap from a tile before it, too, falls away. "Well, that was interesting," she says, moving on hastily.

    Amalthea...
    Just waits for a good moment after watching part of the floor fall into the abyss.
    Nope. She's not going to try and leap across that in her heavy armor.
    Before Mizuki begins to play.
    Earning an approving nod from the old Paladin.

    Miyako continues humming as the group walks on to the next chamber, but comes to a stop as she spots the pipe organ. "Oh snap," she says, grinning. "Someone's been paying attention to the classics, I see." She chuckles and starts over to the instrument, leaning in close almost at the same time as Mizuki.

    And then, leaning too close, she accidentally brushes a key, and another floorstone falls in. "Oh crap," is her reaction, then Mizuki starts to play.... "Harpsichord's a bit more likely... Piano's gonna need cast iron for the frame. But can be done."

    Wisteria isn't musically inclined, but she is, one fast bun. And as the playing happens and tiles fall, she zips around the edges of the stones, grabbing anyone who might look like they could take a tumble. When the last note is played and the door opens she sighs in relief. "I'm very glad we managed that." she says and panting climbs through the door into the tunnel.

    The tunnel leads out into a large cavern with a .... Pirate Ship? "How do you even get a ship down here?" the bungirl asks before leaping up onto the ship to look around. "Looks like uhm.. treasure and a big ol' skeleton pirate boss?"

Skeletons in the closet? That's one thing.

Skeletons on a pirate ship, that's another thing.

"Looks like we're not welcome here without a ticket to board," BlackRose says as she brandishes her sword. "Unfortunately, I don't think they had ticket vendors way back then, so I guess we'll just have to deal with this the hard way!" The sword is wielded with precision as BlackRose attempts to show she means business!

    Mizuki follows the others through the secret passage. How do you even get a ship down here? "They must've used a noclip cheat." Mizuki replies, dryly. "Wait, are pirates my natural enemy?" She pinches the front of her ninja gi and pulls it slightly for emphasis.

    And then she's swinging down to the ship on a convenient rope and joining the battle, blocking attacks with her dagger and kicking pirates with were fang strength until she can loot something heavier to smack them with! "Yarrr har-harrr, mateys! Your booty be ours today! ...I know, I'm a ninja, but pirates get all the fun lines! What am I gonna say, 'Believe it'? 'My eyes may be blue, but I've got Samurai Spirits'?"

Goldenblade looks around the room, spots a place up near the roof that could bring beams collapsing down oonto the ship. She climbs up there with some difficulty, shimmying across a structural beam, and getting to the spot on the ceiling where she can bring tons of stone crashing down on the enemy. Just as she's about to strike with her sword, since she's got no sledge, she slips from the beam, overbalanced, and falls to the ship's deck, where she groans, "OSHA." Well, there was no safety rail to clip a harness to.

    Right, so getting past the bone organ and moving along, Amalthea pauses at the sight of... "A pirate ship. Huh." Murmured as the group makes way onto the deck and spots the giant skeleton and all the treasure.
    "That." The old paladin says motioning her sword at all the treasure. "That's bait." Mused before the skeletons arrive. "--Don't touch the captain's share of the treasure and he won't be joining them." She says hurriedly, battering a skeleton in the face with her shield... BEfore...
    Amalthea thinks fast.
    ... "PARLEY!" She calls out, loud and clarion.
    Fact: Amalthea has no intent of parleying with the undead. But it might give them a beat's pause that could gain the group the upper hand in the fight.

    And then there was a /ship/. And Miyako /grins/. Wide enough to split her face, like one of those creepy horror anime characters. "So long as Harrison Ford isn't the ticket-taker," she reminds Blackrose as she charges right alongside the pinkette, her naginata a-twirl as she bashes at skeletal pirates.

    Split off from Blackrose's side by the horde of undead pirates, Miyako laughs giddily as she sprints along the ship's rail, reaching up to grab hold of the ratlines and climb aloft in quick hops. "Helmsman! Make your course for FUN!" And she just /has/ to try the stupid 'slide down the sail with a knife stuck in the fabric' trick, because of -course-. And just as Amalthea calls for Parley, the knife hits one of the battens, jars her to a sudden stop. The force of it makes her lose her grip on the knife, and down she plummets to lie sprawled on the deck, surrounded by bones that quickly fade into the usual sparkles of disappearing monster corpses.

    "It was a load bearing boss!" Mizuki calls out as the cavern starts to collapse, music from Super Metroid immediately playing in her head. She starts to run as fast as she can, then slows down to help the others, putting were fang strength and speed to use helping them along if needed. She'd feel bad if anyone didn't make it out of here, after all!

Goldenblade pulls herself up slowly, then faster as she realizes the place is falling apart. Scooping up an armful of treasure, she zooms for the exit, putting on a healthy turn of speed for someone that's been mangled the way she has. "That was a kind of tough one," she observes. "For me, anyhow."

    Wisteria grins spotting the treasure. "Oooh hey treasure!" she says laughing as the real fighting starts. This is what she's here for. Weird side quests, battles, finding things that don't belong. She's as happy as a bun in a carrot patch, or a caerbannog in a field of pesants. She's bouncing from railings, swinging from ropes. Her sword slashing around, black energies crackling on the enchanted blade. "Now THIS is what Odysians do! This is in NO way the intended boss for a graveyard. It's weird side content! This is where we find glitches and bugs, and rare loot!" she says laughing brightly. When the last of the pirates goes down and the cavern starts to collapse she shouts "Loot on the run!" the bun scooping up gold into her inventory even as she rolls for a suddenly exposed tunnel. Some earth pillars shooting up to keep the tunnel open for the rest of the party to panic exit through. The collapsing cavern crushing the ship (and the boss who never activated) sends the boss defeat message. "Captain Cyclops William?" she tips her head and then giggles when she actually gets the joke and keeps up with the group who exits from a tunnel that collapses behind them just outside the graveyard, which no longer seems to have that eerie mist and darkness clinging to it.

    Miyako picks herself up from the deck and dusts herself off, reclaiming her knife and her naginata and running her fingers through her hair just in time to see the last of the pirates vanquished. "Nothing wrong with seeing new content, Wisty. I like the idea myself, new music especially, but this is definitely cool." She picks up a couple of small items from the deck as she rejoins the group... and then notices the roof starting to fall in. "Ohhhhh crap."

    Grabbing what she can in accordance with Wisteria's suggestion -- loot on the run -- she leaps up to grab a convenient line hanging from one of the spars and swing herself to the tunnel entrance. "Devs LOVE stupid punny names!"

    Skeletons smashed.
    Loot collected.
    Load bearing boss defeated...
    All in all now seems like a good time to go as that cannon goes off and the cave's structural integrity starts to become questionable.
    Snatching up a satchel of coins on the way, Amalthea sheathes her sword and breaks into a dead sprint, heavy armor clattering all the way.
    All in all... She's proud of her Odysseia Knights. And everyone else, too really, chuckling as she slows to a halt once out of the collapsing caverns.
    "Hahhhhh... If only my younger days were spent like this." She chuckles.

Things are getting out of hand, so it's best to just take some loot and run away. She also grabs a line and swings on it as well. Unlike Miyako, BlackRose sees it fit to let out a Tarzan-esque yell. "Don't EVER call me Jane!" She says.

    Wisteria grins, all triangular razor fangs. "Well time to turn the quest in." she says "If you see more graveyards like this, just remmeber if it's misty and spooky, there's a reward for clearing it of undead."

    "Roger that," Miyako says, grinning. "Misty, spooky, undead. Round-file 'em." She grins and reaches up to clasp Blackrose's shoulder. "Shall we go spend some of our ill-gotten booty? I crave a burger or four."

Goldenblade grimaces, rubbing the small of her back, and nods, "Burgers sound good," she says, "If you don't mind me tagging along? I need to eat something to get my HP back. I might be able to do bricklaying, but I can't figure out the healing thing, other than by eating food."

Grinning at Miyako, BlackRose nods. "Burgers sounds nice right about now!" She gestures ahead and says, "Lead the way!"

    Miyako nods. "That's three, shall we go for six? Mimi, Amy, Wisty?"

    Wistera shrugs "I've gotta go turn the quest in, maybe meet up later?" she says and hugs Mizuki from behind.

    Her youth, huh? Man, hearing Amalthea say that is a reminder of how lucky Sam is to be in a world where immersive VR became a thing. Well, until it trapped him.

    Honestly this is more interesting than being an IT guy... still, it'd be nice to see his family from time to time, or play OTHER games, or something...

    "We didn't even clear the /graveyard/" Mizuki points out when Wis's words bring her out of her reveries. "We cleared the inexplicable underground pirate ship UNDER the graveyard."

    "It's not ill-gotten! We earned it! ...Wait, did you say burgers? DID SOMEONE MAKE BURGERS?! I want a burger!"

    Wisteria points to the graveyard. "We went in, we fought an undead boss... sorta.. thanks Thea... and now, no dark mist, no evil feeling. I'm gona call that clearing it." she sticks her tongue out.

    Miyako shrugs. "We certainly cleared /something/, we got the victory pop-up. I say Wisty's right, it's done, it's burger time."