Duty Session 131: Totally Typical Tomb

The Hunter's Guild is well known for giving out a number of quests across Yamato. In this case, it seems that a local graveyard has been attracting undead attention, meaning that a call was put out to Adventurers in an attempt to clear the place so it can be used by the Landers for their memorials.

Fog and mist roll over the graveyard, giving the area a spooky feeling. It's hard to see very far, meaning that each arriving Adventurer looks like a ghost appearing out of the gloom.

Kita is one of the first to arrive, the gothically dressed Imp looking as if she fits in with her dark clothing and witchy attire. She sits atop a grave marker, her tail twitching, looking relaxed even in such a setting. There is a torch lit nearby, likely the beacon to summon Adventurers to the quest spot.

"If there's anyone else out there, we're gathering over here!" She calls out. "Can't see anything in this fog."

Vertina on the other hand in her martial artist gear doesn't blend in so well, but that rarely concerns her any in the first place. "Welp. Whoever designed this place sure got the atmosphere right." Idly she makes sure the straps on her arm gear is tight. "But I'm in the mood to punch something other than nails into boards!" The work on the tavern in Tolbana has kept her busy and the Salamander hasn't been out doing things as much as she usually is because of it.

Goldenblade signs up to take part in this graveyard undead-fighting mission. She's eager, it seems, to be at the enemy. "Looks like another graveyard," she observes as she approaches Kita in the torchlight, coming out of the mist. She's dressed in traditional adventurer garb, mail and heavy boots, with a sword on each hip. "How are you this evening?" she wonders, trying to work out where she knows Kita from. She's definitely worked with her, but can't come up with where. She smirks to Vertina, and says, "Well, we're here to fight zombies, right? Good place for it."

    A tapping sound is heard coming down the path to the graveyard, getting closer , rhythmically growing louder and louder until a figure can be seen in the mist approaching the torch before finally Setsuna can actaully be made out. Apparently the human had been tapping his staff on the ground as he walked , if anyone asked the reason would absolutely not be because he had tripped twice already due to the fog.
     Approaching the torch and looking at the others he gives a nod to GoldenBlade before looking at the others for a moment and giving a friendly smile. "Greetings, I hope we are all successful on this fun jaunt through the graveyard. Also thank you to whoever was calling out, I almost didn't see the torch light."

    Miyako doesn't come to the tower often - she has several reasons - but she doesn't want to miss being able to see it. So today she is there, taking a mission from the Hunter's guild just to have an excuse to be there. "Yeah, 'just' another graveyard." She shrugs and walks along with the rest, her head on a swivel as she constantly peers about. "Sometimes I think they're just here to give the necromancers an excuse."

There's the sound of footsteps, albeit rather quiet ones, as Kotono comes dashing in. Swift as a ninja and lithe as one too, she tries to keep a low profile as she approaches. She's either getting too into character or just doesn't want to be spotted by the mobs. Who knows?

Before the group knows what's happened, there's a young ninja-like girl beside them.

"I'm a fan of the atmosphere, myself." Kita chuckles, leaning forward lightly as she perches atop the grave marker. Her stormy blue eyes look over to Goldenblade, fingers gloved fingers pushing up her glasses. "Better. Finally dragged myself away from Tolbana for a few days." As the group begins to gather, she gives a nod to the others, hopping down.

"Alright, let's get going." The witch grabs onto the torch and begins to lead the way into the fog.

As they begin walking monst the graves, there is a sound of low, unearthly growling. Paws tread along the ground. It would be easy to mistake these for a common animal, but as soon as they step into range of the light, it becomes clear that these are not ordinary dogs.

Flesh is hangs off of their bones, the white showing through in some areas. Much of the face is missing, leaving only hollow eye sockets. Snarling muzzles peer hungrily towards the Adventurers. More and more join out of the fog, surrounding the group, jaws snapping and teeth bared.

Goldenblade follows Kita towards the graves looking around as the sound of growling becomes apparent. She draws both blades as the zombie dogs attack and as she stands ready, flames start to lick up and down the blades. When they close, she slashes at one, the follows up with a second strike, and the health begins to drop quickly. She continues to slide quickly between the dogs, left and right, up and back, slashing with both flaming swords as the health bars continue to drop. "So far, so good," she observes, hacking a head off and stabbing another through the middle.

    Miyako steps to one flank of the group, humming a tune under her breath as she gathers shadow-flames around the blade of her naginata. She watches the zombie dogs as they close and bites her lip, then shrugs. "Life is only what we choose to make it," she sings softly. "Let us take it, let us be free...." And as the dogs approach, she swings the blade down, unleashing a crescent of black flames that lashes out to rip straight through one of the creatures.

Vertina steps around a couple of crumbling tombstones, and jumps a third like a hurdle. She stops after that, tail giving a twitch at the sounds coming from the fog, followed by the ghastly decomposing dogs that are the source of it.

"Just like those!" she answers Goldenblade's previous comment. She clenches her fists, which ignite into flames around the bladed fist weapons. Waits for one of the zombie dogs to leap at her with it's gaping drooling maw... and slams one of her ignited fists into it's head, stopping it cold. And lighting it on fire.
Which she follows with a quick spin kick to knock the now alight zombie dog back at the others to scatter them, or they risk catching on fire as the creature burns away until it finally dies and pixelated dissolves.

    Setsuna lets the more physically imposing adventures go first as he takes up a natural spot near the rear. It is this decision that gives Setsuna the moment he needs to call upon a small spell to light the top of his staff on fire. It is really just a simple torch spell, but for zombies it works great. Using the lit staff he swings out at one of the zombie pooches and catches it broadside feeling it crumple to the ground. He then touches the lit end of the staff into the body lighting the zombie dog on fire. " Well if this is all that is ahead of this should go quickly."

Dogs, why did it have to be dogs?

OK, Kotono is not afraid of dogs, but zombie dogs are a completely different story. These dogs do not look friendly and Kotono does not want to get too close to them either.

"Looks like I'm gonna have to heat things up a bit!" Kotono focuses some flame magic into her daggers and prepares to strike...

Only to have the flames go out. Causing Kotono to do a double-take before saying, "Oh no!"

Realizing she's about to be made into doggie chow (virtually, but still) Kotono does her best to hold off the dogs as best as she can.

"Well, you lot have certainly seen better days." Kita murmurs as the dogs begin to emerge from the fog. She steps bcak slightly, more than happy to let melee fighters like Goldenblade take the forward position. Being a mage, she is definitely more comfortable well at the back of the party. "I usually hate the sound monsters like this make, though." Why does it always sound like kicking a puppy?

Sure enough, as Goldenblade stabs into one of the dogs, it lets out a heartwrenching whimper. Stupid sound effects designers. Miyako's flames envelop one of the dogs easily enough, sending it yelping before the flesh burns away, the bones sparkling into colorful pixels. Vertina follows suit, striking with those flaming fists, lighting the another dog ablaze. Kita flips her spellbook open, using her fingers to draw out a few runes and then flick her hand to cast a firebolt at another of them. Yet another goes down under the staff of Setsuna.

The only one who seems to have trouble is Kotono, but luckily the rest of the party manages to band together and stop the dogs from turning her into kibble.

As the party continues, they come upon what looks to be a mausoleum at the center of the graveyard. However, it looks as if some sort of ritual had been planned here. However, it seems to have been interrupted and the the implements of the magic cast around the area. Perhaps the party can manage to piece the spell back together?

Goldenblade looks around after the fight with the zombie dogs, and is puzzled. She can see the magical paraphenalia littered around, but she's got no concept of what it is, what it was intended for, or what it might do. But it's laying out all over, so she starts cleaning up. A scruffy graveyard is just going to hurt more people. She puts things back in what would seem to be their logical places, and generally smartens the place up, if this can be said for a graveyard.

Vertina scrapes one of her fist weapons against a grave marker as if cleaning it off, even though that's not really necessary. It's a habit for keeping weapons in proper order. At least the sound it makes scratching against the stone fits the environment if nothing else.

She strides over to see what the others have found, squinting at the ruined markings and a lot of things that don't really make sense to her other than what it visibly is. "Some.. kind of ritual?" She stares a moment more, then blinks as if she'd stared at something too long. ".. Ugh. The spiritual signatures of these lines are all off wack!" Her 'magic' is more of the spiritual ki kind, and something in the ritual's remains really jives badly with that. "This... disrupted something it should not, and we should probably move on before whatever comes back."

While she's not entirely sure how she's able to do it, Kotono is able to assist with some magic of her own. Like Vertina, it's almost like 'ki' thanks to her ninja-like style. It works, but don't ask how it works, it just does. And it leaves Kotono with a smile of confidence on her face.

    "Yeah," Miyako mutters, "Something is /really/ messed-up about this. I can't tell what they were trying to do here but whatever it ended up as.... eugh." She just shakes her head and backs off from the 'ritual' site. "Either we get out of here, or we burn it, make up your mind."

    Stepping infront of the ritual site Setsuna begins to look around , his eyes falling on the magic circle and stares at it for a few minutes before tilting his head. "This doesn't look right. " Without really negotating with the others Setsuna pulls out a piece of charcoal kinda shaped into something close to a righting utensil and starts to fix things. "Either someone was trying to be very smart or someone didn't know what they were doing." Looking up at Vertina he nods his head, " I don't think they were trying to do something bad if I understand what they were going for." Setsuna looks back down and continues to fix up the circle.

Kita falls into step next to Goldenblade, "You've got good eyes." She states, plucking a few things out of the other woman's arms in order to help  her with setting up the ritual. "That one, though, that's just a rock." She notes. Vertina is able to adjust a few of the structures so it has a more positive energy flow. Kotono adds to it with her own ki energy.

Miyako is left watching as the others prepare the location. It is Setsuna who finally completes the ritual, causing a glow from the summoning circle.

As the ritual is finished, a ghostly form flickers briefly to life within the ritual circle. He raises a sword in salute to the Adventurers. "I know my task. I will begin my patrol." it seems that the spell has created a guardian, which should mean a bit less of the undead meanace, perhaps.

However, just beyond the edge of the ritual circle, there appears to be a strange door. It has the look of a puzzle to it, with twisting shapes, partial letters, and other odd mechanical devices that make up the lock. It looks as if they will need to decode the strange device in order to open the door and continue onward.

Goldenblade is buoyed by her previous success at working out the mysterious runes and will see if she can puzzle these out as well. This is worse than buying those chairs and getting the instructions in Chinese and Norweigian. She could have handled Japanese or English, but now she's going to have to puzzle it out from context. Though there's a difference between puzzling out assembling a desk and this. But she'll have a go. She sings quietly, off-key, "The leg bone connected to the ... finger bone..." And that's about how good she is at deciphering this.

A sealed door with strange shapes and things like that? Sounds like one of those famous puzzles you see in video games and movies. Oh wait...

"Well, let me see," Kotono says as she looks carefully over the door and its shapes, then looks nearby and apparently finds something that gets her attention. "A-ha! I've got it!" She goes back to the door and helps to get it open. "Ta-dah!"

    Setsuna watches the spirit begin his patrol and can't help but feel a little proud that he was able to help in this situation, normally he just stood in the back for these things and swung his staff around while others did the real work. However as he stands and approaches the door behind the others, he looks at the door and sees the letters. What the heck could that mean, thats not a word that he knew. He simply sorta nods his head and...oh good someone else got it.

This is the part about dungeons that Vertina isn't really fond of -- puzzles.

Especially puzzles that aren't obvious what they're suppose to be.

She stares. TRies to make sense of the runic markings on some pieces, shapes on the others, the bits interconnecting them... and doesn't get a whole lot out of it.

She takes a step back and closes her eyes. Takes a deep breath.

"STUPID PUZZLE!" And then just blindly punches some random pieces with her frustration!

    Miyako nods and leans over Kotono's shoulder as the ninja-girl works on the puzzle. "Yeah, you've got it, I think... wait, no, push that one another half-turn... yeah, that's good." She grins and squeezes the girl's shoulder. "You're good at these," she adds. "I'll have to keep you in mind for a few projects."

While Goldenblade's attempts at manipulating the door end up causing more harm than good, and Setsuna stands behind, trying to figure out the wording, the others are able to get the pieces to shift into place, some by more unorthodox means than others. "I think this one has to go here, but it seems to be stuck." Kita makes a sound of effort, pulling on a piece, only to have Vertina's frustrated punch knock it free. "Oh, thanks!"

Kotono and Miyako work together, managing to get the last few pieces into place, eventually spelling out an old word that roughly translates into 'passage'. The letters sink into the door as a series of clicks announces the unlocking.

What lies beyond the door is a room that looks to be filled with treasures. Though, as any good Adventurer knows, such things are often too good to be true. There is a red energy that surrounds the area, but will they realize that the treasure is trouble? Or will the party fall victim to the curse?

Goldenblade trudges forward, a bit bummed that her help was not needed for the deciphering. Well, there's a reason she never went into archaeology. And she could never get the hang of the whip. Upon finding us in a room full of loot, though, she says, "Now this is more like it," and starts to pick through the pieces, looking through the choicer items. Completely unknown to her, she's accumulating stacks of CURSED, and when she puts a nice piece in her inventory, it promptly vanishes, leaving begind Disgusting Glop. "This is nicer than a lot of the loot I've gotten, actually," she says, not realizing that a statement like that should raise flags.

Let there be light.

Kotono manages to channel her light magic throughout the room, and it seems to work apparently to Kotono. "I've got it in me, I don't believe it." She says with a smile.

Vertina just shrugs as the piece is jarred loose. "Sometimes percussive maintenance works?" is all she really has to say.

The next room is full of treasure.

Too bad, or maybe good, that Vertina isn't really into treasure. Not to mention something feels off about this place in general. "Hmm." Still, she's curious enough to reach for a pile of coin--

"YOWCH!" And jerks her hand back as sparks fly just before she touches anything. "That stings." She sticks her fingers her mouth like someone would do after touching a boiling pot.

Whatever Curse is on that treasure reacted badly to the natural amount of positive energy a Godhand has flowing through them, giving her a zorch but getting her to jerk away before actually picking up anything to catch the Cursed effect.

     Setsuna enters the rooms and looks around in shock at the treasure, "Wow." Greed gets the better of him and distracts him for a moment as he approaches the treasure wondering what all of it would net, his mind slipping off to thinking what it would be spent on. Only as he reaches out to take something himself does Setsuna's Enchanting-Senses trigger, "Stop!" He shouts, unsure if it is to late, "I got a bad feeling about this stuff, I think it's cursed."

    Miyako groans softly as she eyes the pile of treasure. "Wonderful," she mutters. "A trap room. Can you be any more obvious?" She shakes her head. "Nobody touch anything," she says, just a few moments too late. "At least half of this stuff is fake crap, and if you keep this up it's likely to drop more monsters in our lap."

The treasure is something too good to be true. Vertina figures this out quickly. Unfortunately for Goldenblade, the moment they begin to walk away fromt he treasure with their new-found gold in hand, they begin to take health damage. It feels like pins and needles, each one reducing her health.

"This is trouble." Kita offers, "Besides, it's not even real gold. The shine isn't right. It's probably painted on..."

If the warning isn't enough, Kotono's light magic at least manages to stop Goldenblade's health from dropping further. However, when it washes over her, the gold coins turn into little more than ash in her hands.

Beyond the treasure room, looks to be the heart of the tomb. It is yet another richly appointed chamber with a large memorial stone and elaborate mourning shrine. Upon it is the image of a Salamander in samurai armor.

Here, they encounter their second ghost of the evening.

"Greetings young heroes. You have this opportunity to prove to me that you are worthy of the legacy of a hero." The ghost draws his blade, looking them over, then prepares for battle. This will be a very tough battle.

Goldenblade ehs as some of the others comment on the treasure. "What do you ... oww!" but when she checks and finds her inventory full of Glop, it's click-delete-click-delete for a few minutes as she clears it out. "Stupid fake loot. What's the point? It just wastes our time." Which is what she's grumbling when Samurai Salamander makes an appearance. She'll square off, and prep her best moves, slashing down with concussive blows from both swords and quickly unleashing about as much DPS as she can manage, starting to noticably impact the health bar right away.

Twirling the blades and getting into her fighting stance, Kotono says, "This should be exciting!" The ninja girl swiftly moves around and attempts to strike at her target with great nimbleness... But unfortunately she barely manages to even get a grazing hit. "Aww..."

Vertina steps into the elaborate final chamber, and immeadiately points at the image of the Salamander samurai on the shrine wall. "Now this is more like it!... If it wasn't likely to be seen as disrespectful I would totally take that painting and hang it in the tavern once it's finis--"

She's interrupted by the spirit of the warrior himself appearing, and issuing a challenge to fight him. "I didn't think this could get cooler, but it just got cooler." Then remembers her manners, and puts her hands together and bows to the spirit. "We shall honor you and your memory in the way of our people..." Then she's back up into a fighting stance "In battle!"

Goldenblade takes the direct approach, while Vertina goes for the Monk methodology, moving into flanking position with the other warrior and unleashing her trademark heavy kicking strikes. Then using her arm braces to try and hold back the Heroic Spirit's own savage blows. "Who knew ghosts could hit so hard!" She sounds like she's enjoying the challenging fight.

    Setsuna looks around the treasure room "Such a waste." Following behind the others they continue into the next chamber to find a ghost, and not the friendly time but more the I am here to challenge you kind. As the warriors run forward Setsuna steps back. He was in a graveyard, he might as well make use of it, "I , Setsuna, call upon those who have fallen to this warrior. I give you a chance to seek revenge." Raising his staff he strikes the ground and a magic circle appears under him as his the system in acts his spell. In the corner of the room, bones of the warriors who failed this challenge, or more likely decoration, rise and form back into skeletons. "Go and take your vengence," Setsuna commands as the skeletons charge in to provide support to those already engaging in combat.

    Miyako arches a brow as the ghostly spirit demands they prove themselves. "Again?" she asks, calmly. As if she's been asked such things many times before.

    She shrugs and swipes her hand across the menu, replacing her naginata with her guitar, and settles down to sit on the floor with her legs crossed, the instrument in her lap. As the others move to engage, sound builds up behind her, an oddly familiar sort of synthesizer sound sliding up and down the scale as an evil laugh sounds somewhere behind her... then she launches into a lively series of chords with a horn blowing behind them.

        When there's something strange
        In the neighborhood
        Who you gonna call?
                GHOSTBUSTERS!

    Her eyes dancing with mirth, she continues the song, a minor illusion supplying the backing instruments and vocals as she directs most of her magic to supporting the fighters as they take on the ghostly opponent.


        I AIN'T AFRAID OF NO GHOST!

It becomes obvious why this ancient hero was so worshiped, even in death. He moves with remarkable skill and speed, ducking around each of them for a time, making for quite the difficult opponent. Then, however, the blows begin to land. It starts with a powerful slash from Goldenblade's swords which manage to slice off a piece of his armor. Vertina follows up catching him in the stomach with a powerful kick.

Is that a ... smile on the ghost's face? Perhaps he is enjoying the fight just as much as they are. He zips by Kotono, health at about half as he turns to face the others, sword raised. Skeletons rise up around the hero, causing him to have to take time to dispatch them, allowing a few more blows to land in the mean time. Kita joins in, shooting a fireball which slams into the hero's back.

Miyako's song seems to buff the party, allowing them all a last surge of energy. Blows land from all sides and his health finally drops.

"Congratulations, young heroes. Take my favor and go forth to raise your own legend in this world." With his health depleted, the spell that bound him here seems to break along with it. He vanishes, fading away, the fog lifting in the graveyard.

Goldenblade looks around, panting hard after the fight. She's in pretty good shape, and she's smiling as she looks over the small token she's won. "Well," she says. "This was a bit harder than the last tomb. There was a bit more excavation last time. This one wasn't falling apart, for one." She chuckles, tucks the card away. "Still, a win's a win, right. And we got some interesting stuff done. And cleared out the undead out of this tomb, so the Landers won't have their uncles crawling around."

By the end of it Vertina is panting hard, but her health dipping seriously towards the danger levels has her smiling in spite of it. These were the kind of fights that she lived for. The risk, the excitement, the rush of combat...

And the thrill of having a very capable team at your side doing so.

"Good job!" She gives her head a shake to flick strands of hair that came loose from her odango-pigtails out of her face. "I don't know about you guys, but I prefer a fight you have to work hard to win."

"That was a great fight!" Kotono says as she twirls her daggers before sheathing them again. She then looks to Miyako and says, "I'd say we're a real powerful duo! We really give them a good song-and-dance, don't we?" She smiles, hoping Miyako joins the joke.

    The song finishing almost in perfect timing with the end of the fight, Miyako rises easily to her feet as the ghost fades from view, slinging her guitar over her back. "They do seem to be more worthwhile than the easy ones, sometimes, don't they?" she asks, agreeing with Vertina. "Of course, an easy one means nobody gets hurt... on our side." She shrugs.

    The bard winks at Kotono, grinning playfully. "You did well, too," she says. "Ever think about taking up ballet? I hear it's all the rage among the local nobles."

    Setsuna sighs heavily as he lets go of the spell holding the skeletons together and they collapse back to just a pile of bones. Likely they would even reset themselves back where they were found at some point. He claps his hands together and gives a small mental prayer to the spirit as it is released, more out of habit then anything. As he looks on to the rest of the group, " Thank you all for the help, I would never have even made it past the front door. " He says to himself as he approaches the ghost tomb. Always a chance there is a hidden broken sword with the spirit bound to it, sadly it appears not this time.

Kita looks down at the token in her hand, lightly flipping it over. It has a feeling that reminds her of another item that she has in her inventory. The one from the first floor of Aincrad tower. Wordlessly, she tucks it away, "It was certainly interesting. Though I'm glad I didn't have to get into melee. I'm better when I can hang back and do support DPS." The black mage may just be a little gun shy around the undead.

"You guys were amazing, though. Wits and brawn to win the day." She lightly tips her witch's hat forward, "I'm sure the Hunter's Guild will be glad to hear about our success." Closing her spellbook, Kita gives a very typical Japanese bow to them, before she starts to wander back towards the exit of the graveyard.