Research & Duties

    A quest is sent out to any and all interested. The location it bring those willing adventurers was to that of a Graveyard located in the Ninetails Dominion. A place that has been having nothing but trouble as of late with undead, binders, and vampires.

The one whom started this grand quest, is that of Katherine Tanzer, an imp Magus who has not really been herself as of late and seems to be after something that might be in this mystic, dark place.

    The female imp waits leaning against on old, dead tree as she peers at her clawed fingers. Her lavender glowing eyes seeming to be studying them with an edge of boredom, as she pays no heed to the fog that rolls around her hoof feet.

Once others start to arrive though, she stands up in her full and gives a respectful curtsy to all. A smile crossing her lips, as she flicks some of her hair to the side, another hand coming to rest on her hip. "Hail my fellow adventurers! Are we ready to deal with this dark, nasty tomb?"

She then turns away from the group, with a flick of her imp tail, as she looks around, before back at them over her shoulder. "I dare not know what we may find, but /do/ keep an eye out, hm?" Then she gives a wink. "After all, I must find the right specimen for my experiments and thus," She turns on her hoof with simple, dancer ease, pointing her claw at the group, "Why I have asked for all of your help! It is easy to dig through a tomb, when there is more than one hand after all."

    Merek has decided to come while wearing his usual dark attire, with light dark armor which he wears. The man sheaths the Shadow Eclipse upon the back which would be along the shield. It has a sigil like an eagle on it, upon the hip a magical rod focus. There's a nod along to Katherine, "Of course. It will be nice to make the place safe for the people again," he notes.

Schneider has arrived in a swirling of cloak and his hair blowing back dramatically, in local defiance of any prevailing weather. Heading over to Katherine, he smiles widely, offers a, "Hey," of greeting. "Ready for the tomb? Oh yes, bring on the dead folks, this ought to be fun. We'll bury them," he declares confidently with no basis whatsoever.

This infested graveyard quest keeps turning up it seems. Never in the same place, never quite the same experience. Or so she's heard. KAuchemar has only been through one such duty once, so she's come to explore farther. Necromancy is a side-step of her niche of creepy and macabre monster pursuits, so she's got her own interests in doing so as well. A fangy smile is given towards Katherine. "Research, hmmm?"

Vengeance! Vengeance shall be had! Prophylaxis demands vengeance! Not only did the ghoulish horde utterly fail to run into close proximity to the EXTREMELY FLAMMABLE OIL BARRELS he had set up right in the path of their charge, they also somehow managed to evade his carefully aimed nukes! And that is just plain awful!

Thus, vengeance. The zombies kicked in a town full of villagers, so it's only appropriate for him to walk into their house and set it all on fire.

This may be disproportionate retribution, but they're zombies so w h o c a r e s r e a l l y?

"I have heard the call, and thus I appear," says the somewhat spookily-dressed Doctor of Tolbana. His breath mists ominously around a maw of bestial teeth and fogs around his bright red eyes. "Let's get this thing rolling. There is a woefully insufficient number of walking corpses exploding at the moment, and I aim to fix it."

As of late, Mikage has jumped at any opportunity to explore something new. It is a distraction from the issues that lurk in the Ninetails Dominion. The Ranger appears, wearing her fur cloak, walking with her lynx at her side, and likely tailed by Cyrus. "This should be an interesting." She comments.

"Maybe I can find some new materials to work on developing that bow design." Though, she does sound as if she has her doubts. Still, there could be something of interest here in the graveyard.

As she approaches Kat, Miki inclines her head to the woman. Often times, she doesn't agree with her views, but she tends to try to treat everyone kindly until they prove otherwise. "Ready. Hopefully we run into something interesting."

"It certainly should be interesting." Cyrus answers Mikage, while tapping his shoulder with his cane. There's a long sigh that escapes from him for a moment, while looking at the graveyard ahead of them. "This sure is a foreboding place though. I wonder what created this place. After all, these graves never actually contained Landers. Just things they left behind."

He then glances at Prophylaxis, who is going on about detonation and fire. It's good to know things have not changed too much in the last few days. There's certain constants one gets used to in their daily life. He'd be worried if certain details like that changed.

"I'll be aiding with support and healing." Cyrus points out, before raising his hand at Uta. "Hey Uta. What are you doing here. This place doesn't have any slimes." Pause. "Does it?"

    A young female Spriggan in newbie gear confidently strides into view, holding a white magical staff shaped like a caduceus. She's wearing some weird nurse's uniform slash martial artist's gi kind of getup. Those who know her will notice that she's not wearing her usual nurse's cap with a musical note, but a leather hat instead.

    A thing of note is that she's not only striding, no, as she passes by she hits her staff against dead tree branches, and by doing so she plays out a xylophonic accompaniment to a famous movie theme about an adventurer fond of using a whip and wearing a hat similar to the one she's donning right now. The head of her staff glows a different color as she strikes the items and produces the notes, and its handle also glows different colors in different points as she operatically sings the main melody.

    "Here I am. Uta Furore, Adventurer, but my Tomb Adventuring name is 'Kansai Furore'", she proudly proclaims. And then stiffens, hand shooting to her ear. She must have received a Chimlink.

    As it is typical for Uta, she looks like she's spaced out for a moment, then she concentrates to get back to Earth, quietly mouthing something to herself a few times, like when one has /heard/ something, possibly over the chimlink, but the brain hasn't caught up yet, so one keeps repeating the sentence to oneself: 'Your name is Uta. Kansai was the /slime/'

    "Shut up, you're not my dad!", she exclaims while looking down and away, hand still pressed against her ear. "Disabling chimlinks for duty. Over and out."

    "...sorry, we were saying?", she asks the group, with a blink.

    At Cyrus's question, she smiles wide at the mention of slimes, but then forces herself back into seriousness. "I... It isn't relevant, really. I am trying to diversify my obsession to have a more well-rounded life. For instance, I remember that Mikage said, early on in the game, that people will certainly obsess over hats, so..." She points at her leather headgear. "Ta-daaaaaaaa!"

    Katherine grins right back at Kauchemar, "Mmmmhm. The continued scholarly adventure from the research you and others helped uncover. I am making it more then meer study," She walks up to Kauchemar and smiles as she gets that mischievous look in her glowing eyes, "I am /making/ it a reality."

Katherine turns to look at Cyrus as he asks Uta about 'slimes', "Perhaps ectoplasma eaten by slimes?" She gives an idle shrug, before looking over to Prophylaxis, "Like your entrance there," There was a fanged smile. "Worked on it long?" With a wink, before her attention seems to shift. Everyone was here, it was time to get serious.

    As the group goes to start to move around the tombstones, they may start to hear snarling and barking. It would not be long till several canine zombie hounds come walking out from the fog. Bone muzzles, with flesh hanging off their maws. Teeth snapping in endless hunger.

The hounds of 'hell' charge toward the group with ferocity. Katherina catches a glimpse of them, before she sees them charging toward everyone, "My," She smiles. "Hello pretties." Her hand raises up, as flames start to spiral around her finger tips, before she swings out her arm and sends out a rush of flames for the hounds leaping toward her.

Schneider joins the others walking through the graves, smiling in a confident manner bordering on smugness. Clearly, he thinks highly of himself, though given his low level, its hard to imagine where the confidence comes from. The confidence of the untested, it seems. He peers at Uta's odd arrival, but doesn't pass comment, he can't think of anything to say.

His mute bewilderment does not last long, the arrival of Zomby Woofs forces quick action, and he poses dramatically, one hand extended, shouting, "Gunzenro!" in a defiant tone. A flash of fire shoots from his hand and engulfs one of the hounds, and it yelps, breaking off it's attack and running in circles until the fire consumes it and it vanishes in a puff of pixels.

"I am glad it has inspired a greater pursuit in your fields of interest, milady." Followed by a quip of "There -was- an undead slime monster in the sewers, so anything is possible," Kauchemar chimes in on the response to Cyrus. "Though if there was, I'd dare say we'd be more likely to see flan than slimes in such an already despairing place."

The conversation on what they may encounter has to be put on hold though, because they have their first encounter -- zombie dogs.

Of course, being a summoner she's just going to use her magic against zombie beasts. Or at least, that was an idea. Turns out the dogs are much faster than zombies should be and she doesn't get long enough to wind up the banishing spell before the beast is almost upon her. "Bad doggy! Bad! No biscuit!" she snaps, even as she turns and scrambles. Not to retreat, but to try and lead the zombie dog chasing her into the fire attacks being flung about by others.

"Ghostrings...? I suppose so - maybe." Cyrus answers Katherine Tanzer as she mentions the possibility of Ectoplasm being eaten by Slimes. "Slime biology is a mystery to me." He then glances towards Uta, who seems to be talking to the air. Chimlinks are like those hands-free dongles that people used to wear. It was always awkward when someone would be talking at the air with one of those in - and you could not see the dongle.

Now, nobody can see the dongle. Though he still wonders sometimes... how the Chims are related to these Chimlinks.

"A hat..." Cyrus repeats. "Alright. Yes, I'm glad you are broadening your horizons. Shall we?" It isn't long before they meet the ghoulish hounds. His reaction is automatic. Maybe he reaches for those fire potions because Prophylaxis is here - having primed his brain towards Fire.

In truth, they were just the easiest tactical option to reach for - as he throws a twosome of small potion bottles to his enemies as they rush towards the team - detonating upon their bodies.

He then looks to Kauchemar. "I agree - flans seem more likely. But you are right - I do believe to remember some undead slimes down in the sewers."

Mikage's fingers run along the top of some of the tombstones as they walk, perhaps her silent way of paying respects to whatever Landers are honored here. Others might find such markers eerie, but she simply regards them as part of the cycle - life and death.

Rama, on the other hand, seems unnerved. His fur is slightly puffed up, a low growling sort of sound in the back of his throat. It's signal enough that everything isn't quiet in the graveyard. "Easy..." Miki offers, holding her hand out before him.

That is when the zombie dogs appear. They aren't particularly frightening to her, so she reaches back for the bow slung to her shoulder. It looks like a common weapon, the sort of thing that is sold at any basic weapon shop. She's been going through bows as of late, not quite able to find one that can handle her magic channeling.

From a quiver at her side, she draws an arrow, aiming it at one of the dogs and then releasing it, the shaft sinking right into the creature's skull.

"Practice has little to do with it. Do you think that I practice posing in front of a mirror for hours on end?" Prophylaxis answers, still inexplicably swaddled by a haze of fog-- or maybe smoke? His hands appear to be smoldering, at least, almost as if he's preparing to cast some kind of spell-- but it hasn't manifested just yet. "Mine dramatic charisma is simply the right and privilege of all self-respecting sorcerers who dare to claim the title...! Also, experience. A lot of experience. You get better at entrances the more of them you make."

But! Then! There are undead dogs. Prophylaxis begins to incant a particular spell, one that is intimately familiar and dear to his heart. He doesn't get to finish it, though. Everyone else has already begun blasting! The air is full of smoke and fire! Prophylaxis makes a somewhat disappointed face and merely adds a handful of flares and cinders to the swirling firestorm.

"I remember that undead slime," he goes on to say, casually flicking more flame into the all-consuming inferno. "It was about as unsanitary as anything I've ever seen. Really, spirit-sludge seeping into the drinking water of Alne? How could anyone have ever let it get so bad!"

    Merek looks along to the zombie dogs while he takes a moment to place a hand about a wrist, then he holds a hand up, before he begins to fire at the creatures while the magical runes form, "Firebolt!" He strikes along into a few of the undead, which kills them while he nods along to the party.

Cyrus remarks aside; "Well, I mean, Adventurers have only been around for a short while in Yamato in recent history. I imagine that Alne has gone completely unused. Not to mention that the place is enormous."

"Thanks, Katherine! I actually worked on it while the other people were entering the area," she smiles. And then she... stares. Just stares to Prophylaxis.

    "...I like your style. Maybe you could teach me something about how to make an entrance. I mean, there's always something to learn..."

    "A hat," confirms Uta, nodding at Cyrus, proudly. "And yes, slime biology is utterly fascinating, if you ask me," Uta begins. "In fact, it's amazing how many different manifestations it can take, starting from a single form. It's so mutable... which reminds me. I have been meaning to collect basic information about slimes. Some sort of... Introduction to Slimology, if you want. Been looking for a book about them, but haven't had much luck so far. I'm still hopeful, though. Anyway, in case there is nothing available and I need to research what makes them tick... isn't Alchemy the science of mutation? I was thinking that maybe an alchemist..." She slowly turns from facing Cyrus to facing Merek, "...could probably assist me in that task?"

    Kauchemar is addressed next, "I don't like the ghost slimes. And we don't speak of the flan. The flan is..." She scrunches her nose in a way that says a lot. "...yikes."

    These discussions are interrupted by zombie dogs. "Ack, no! Someone told the dogs to play undead and they took it far too seriously!", panicks Uta. She squats, points her staff at the incoming zombie dogs, intones a jingle, and a burst of magic shoots out of her item, directed straight at two of the lunging canines.

    Fire seem to be the choice of magic from most, as area lights up with flame magic from here and there, zombie hounds exploding into pixels of light, as they are banished back into the great beyond.

Some are not so fortunate however, as they find the hellish undead hounds getting up nearly in their face, making it hard to cast off spells or in general get off any offensive attack.

Though once the hounds are dispatched, it wasn't long till a large shadow looms overhead, the sound of flapping wings, before a combined mixture of animals cries from above.
    Katherine didn't have time to look up, but she did have time to quick step with magic out of the way, as a massive creature slams down on the ground. Dust and fog rising into the air from the horrible monster that comes to great them all.

A creature that is that of a Chimera, but far worse-- an undead one as it roars out and moves in for an attack against the party that is before it.

The Magus imp sneers under her breath, "... If only it was more ready..." But her attention turns in attempt to gather up her magical energy and try to blast the monster with dark flings of magic, while staying on the move.

Schneider eyes Prophylaxis, guesses he shouldn't mention his own mirror-posing time. He did that a lot, actually, it's important to create the proper wizardly impression. After torching a few zombie dogs. He hrs at Uta, noting her expertise at slimes, wondering where that motivation comes from? It takes all kinds, he muses.

Following the others to the Mausoleum, he pauses when the monstrous chimera zombie attacks. "Well, that's a thing," he remarks, and points a finger up at it. "Zako ... Damero!" A bolt of raw energy shoots out, impacting the zombie, shrinking its health bar. "Hah, take that," he shouts defiantly.

    Merek looks to the chimera, while he takes a moment to lift up his weapon. Seeing that all the party members are doing well, he would begin to reserve his mana while he swings along into the creature, then makes a way along and nods a bit as well.

Kauchemar doesn't mind a bit of legwork, but after that unhappy romp to avoid becoming dogfood Kauchemar has to stop and lean against one of the taller memorials to catch her breath. "So far so good!" Just to try and keep the rest of the group in high spirits even she's a little winded now. "Now there should be some manner of building serving as an entrance to the crypts below."

Which there is. And the easiest way to spot it is the undead monstrousity that comes to land in front the of structure and roaring with ill intent, tattered wings blocking part of the already darkened sky.

Well after dealing with monster dogs that simply do not want to cooperate, Kauchemar isn't having it. "Oh do be quiet," she growls and snaps her fingers. A thorny vine shoots out of the ground to grab the beast around one of the necks to choke off it's cry. Followed by several more following, grabbing onto whatever limbs and body that they can.

"Now, if you would be so kind, the dark lady has -work- to do and your rotting ass is in the way. So. Move." Kauchemar gives a dismissive wave to the side as the vines pull to force the creature away from the entrance, as well as hold it down for the others trying to attack it.

Zombie dogs are one thing, but the sight of the chimera is something that causes her to still in her path. Mikage raises her fingers to her lips, a silent signal to Rama that it would be better for them to move quietly. The two don't seek outright conflict with the beast, knowing that there are likely more important tasks ahead of them.

So, the two seem to almost blend in with the shadows and darkness around them. For now, she saves her energy for whatever else might come.

"It's quite simple really," Prophylaxis answers Uta's request with a relatively mild flourish of pyrotechnic sorcery. Fire dances between his fingertips before he CLENCHES HIS HAND INTO A BURNING FIST. "The first step is to find that place within your heart that sings a dirge of despair and anguish at the injustice and unfairness in the world and which quietly fosters the collective grudge of all evil that you have ever witnessed done unto yourself or those who you care about. You find that place, and you nurture it, but you do not give into it. You simply pile up frustration after frustration, doing your duty diligently but ultimately thanklessly, failing at times despite your best efforts. You dry your tears and those of the ones who you could not help, and you gather up all that anger and self-loathing into a singular, smoldering ember that burns WHITE HOT in the pit of your soul when you so much as cast it a glance. You train your mind and soul to never surrender to the fury. It builds and builds and then when you finally pass through the crucible of inner torment, you will find that the passion and presence of the most mighty of sorcerers flows from your steeled soul like water from a gushing spring!"

"That's step one," Prophylaxis adds as he opens his hand and casts a beam of scalding-hot flame straight through one of the Chimera's bestial visages. "Step two is *vocabulary.*"

"I can probably help you with this, if that's what you need. But I note that I tend to travel a lot with miss Yurei and Sassaral." Cyrus answers to Uta. "So, I could do some things on the road, or whenever I am near... whatever place you want to do this research." He expresses to her, while trying his best to hold back the laughter about Uta's little undead pun.

Glancing aside to Katherine, overhearing her, the Snow Leopard inquires; "Working on a new technique?" As his cane comes down and he looks up at the enormous shadow. The others are starting to sneak around, but Kauchemar is trying to silence the thing.

As their support, he decides to try and do what a support should do. He follows in Kauchemar's footsteps and calls out; "Thorn Bind Hostage." Pointing his cane at the ground, causing it to tremble, and then burst up towards the chimera, trying to grasp it. But all he manages is to bind is maw - more than anything else, while he keeps moving along - and increases his pace in order to not get mauled by it.

    "It is okay, I am on the road a lot. I might send you samples. Feel free to swing by the Quick-Feather Peko Ranch, your one stop solution for all your mount and monster related services. Great prices all year round, and unbelievable discounts for Armorsmith's Week!" After delivering the whole sentence in a single breath, she inhales with a rasp. "By Giganpor's Hammer, what savings!"

    She listens in utter rapture at Prophylaxis. "...I like your style, Doctor. Which reminds me... would you be interested in taking an apprentice and mentoring a newbie nurse? I am finding more and more fascinated with Tolbana every passing day. You know, a town where no lander will treat you differently because you're a Spriggan feels... pretty refreshing."

    "Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes." She scratches her head "...and goats." She squints. "...annnd lions? Oh my." She grabs at the rim of her hat, and tilts it dramatically. She begins humming the theme song from earlier, clenches her staff, pulls it back, then thrust-rotates it forward, kind of like the movement one makes to cast a line with a fishing rod.

    And waits.

    And blinks.

    "...oh, right. I have a staff, not a whip," she whispers to herself. She narrows her eyes, and pointing an accusing finger at the chimera (but not extending her arms too much, keeping them relatively close to her body), she hisses, "I have only one thing to tell you. One thing."

    It's a moment, it's a blur, and she's pressed against the walls of the tomb, hidden by the shadows. "Nope, nope, nope!", she exclaims, and attempts to sneak her way past the monster. Being a Spriggan usually helps in that kind of endeavour.

    Katherina at one points makes a poor misstep, and gets slammed by the beast. She curses under her breath as her eyes narrow. Oh yes, she may come back for this creature later. Maybe.

Meanwhile, some were choosing to sneak around the Chimera, others were taking it head long be it by magic or by weapon in hand. Unless you were Kauchemar, who's vines wrap around the beast near the end, attempting to and successfully yanking it over to the side in order to clear the path for where the party needs to head to next.

    As the group moves, the imp goes to catch up looking over to Kauchemar as she does, "That was most impressive, if I must say, Lady Kauchemar."

Her attention then moves over to Cyrus who asks /what/ she is working on, "You would like to know hmm?" As they walk, she casts a flame ball on her claw as she holds it up like a torch to light the marble stairwell the party needs to walk down.

    Also silently hoping some others may do the same, as they go down the dark, marble stairs to whatever awaits them down below. During this walk, Katherine starts to explain to Cyrus. "I am working on a device, no, a staff. A staff that will allow me to control an army... Or perhaps something akin to it."

Her lavender eyes look over to him, which also seem to glow in the darkness, "Trap soul energy, force them to be soldiers to protect the people of the land. That sort of thing."

Though any further description of /what/ it all entails is held off when they come across a woman at the bottom of the path. A woman, who slowly looks up, her jaw unhinges as this zombie lets out a blood curdling loud scream; An endless scream. Dark, nasty black tears running down her face as she does.

With this scream, the group of can see hoards, upon hoards of zombies coming directly for them!

    Merek looks to the side while he notes Katherine, then he seems to think about it, "No, we will not be using soul energy. If you need to control things by force, with souls, that is against what we stand for completely," he would note. "It doesn't matter why you want to use it," he then draws a shield to begin tanking the undead while he swings a weapon along into the creatures.

Schneider hrms at the approach of the screaming figure. Clearly a zombie when she faces the party, he acks as a wave of zombies arrives. This calls for defensive measures, and he raises both hands, calling in a confident tone, "DAMEDO! Magic shield!" And indeed a magic shield appears, protecting him from the depradations of the adds as he strikes them down one by one with his sword. He'll let the others deal with the main enemy as he hacks down the adds. The occasional flash of fire can be seen, as he takes out the adds one by one.

"You know... we do need a Peko for our crew. Do you guys by any chance also offer the construction of Peko-drawn carts?" He asks Uta. "It would be super useful for when me and my crew is on the long roads." He glances at Mikage. "It won't help with the whole sea-sickness thing. But it'll give our feet a bit more of a rest." He offers to her.

"... what's armorsmith's week?"

The youth rolls away from a strike, and then carries on with the party. "Yeah. I mean, curiousity killed the cat and all that, I suppose." He motions at himself, being a snow leopard Cait Sith. "I promise I am not a Chuuni."

"A single staff that can control an army? Seems unlikely, right? I mean, maybe there's a Relic out there like that. But I assume you're talking about Enchantment, right?" The youth at least knows quite a bit about some of the typical crafting systems in the world of Alba.

He raises his brow as she looks at him with those glowing eyes. "Trapping... soul energy?" He tilts his head. "You mean like, poltergeists?"

Cyrus slows as they come across the woman ahead of them. "Hey, I thought we were the only Hunters on this quest. Miss, please don't try to steal our rew~" Followed by his grabbing his sensitive feline ears as the witch screams at them.

"KAUCHEMAR!" He shouts because has no idea how loud he's being. "CAN YOU SHUT /THIS/ ONE UP TOO?!" Before he grabs a set of earmuffs he used to wear during the winter, puts them on to dull out the sound, and then grabs a series of fire potions and throws them in a wall formation in front of the zombies!

While she and Katherine may not see eye to eye, Mikage usually leaves each person within the Alliance to their own devices. Hearing more about her plans, however, makes the Ranger give the woman a wary sideways glance. She usually isn't prone to confrontation, at least not in such a direct manner, so she just presses her lips together as they continue onward.

It is, perhaps, a surprise, that Merek is amongst those who are so vocally against it. With his cursed sword, she would have thought such plans would be in his wheelhouse. Then again, she doesn't know as much about the man and his purposes as one might think.

Those thoughts, however, are drowned out by the ear-splitting sound from the monster they are next faced with. The urge to clap her hands over her ears is strong, and Rama actually does crouch to the ground, putting his paws over his ears.

Standing protectively in front of her pet, Miki sets to the task of not only trying to cut down the screaming zombie, but those that seem to answer her call. She draws her sword, channeling magic into it, then swiping three times into the air. Where the sword passes, it forms into three discs of concentrated magic, like small storms condensed into dangerous blades. "Focus the screamer, or it's just going to call more!"

She then extends her arm out, flinging the blades towards the monster.

"And here *I* am suppose to be one of the dark and edgy ones!" Kauchemar remarks on Prophylaxis' long-winded triade, followed by one of her eerie braying laughs. "Though... there is some wisdom to that methodolgy. If one succeeds all the time, they have no point left to grow. No reason to keep trying. No--" She's interrupted by the screaming as they come to the next chamber, ears laying back enough to disappear under her mane. "Gah! What dis-chord is this?" Not to mention the scream seems to attract zombies. Well that is something she can do things about that so they don't have to fight through entire waves of undead. She pulls out her lute, and with a few strums to warm up starts to play. Something that is both eerie sounding, and yet a bit up on the tempo to both drown out the screams and keep with the party's fighting rhythm.

o/~ It's close to midnight and something evil's lurking in the Dark.
Under the moonlight, you see a sight that almost stops your heart! o/~

That's when she grins wickedly, and directs her auditory acanery directly at the white-clad screamer to suppress her summoning call. And leans over to get face-to-face with that horrific visage.

o/~ You try to scream, but! Terror takes the sound before you make it!
You start to freeze as horror looks you right between the eyes -- You're paralyzed! o/~

Kauchemar steps back a bit at that, and fingers rake strings hard enough to even make the medevial instrument do a bit of a bass drop, still directly at keeping the screaming witch at bay.

o/~ Cuz this is Thriller! THriller night! And no one's gonna save you from the Beast about to strike!
You know it's Thriller! Thriller night! You're fighting for your life inside a killer, thriller tonight! o/~

"Pfah! The bitterness of defeat is a taste that nobody should ever get used to savoring. When life and death hang in the balance, when one's hands and mind are the only things standing between one's charges and the eternal embrace of the grave, every pain must be taken to assure success! To accept failure as a matter of course..." Prophylaxis grimaces. A pained look flashes across his eyes for the briefest of moments before-- it's gone again. Vanishing into the lingering glimmer of firelight. "...Life is fragile. A doctor must be willing to give his all to ensure the wellbeing of his patients. The degree isn't just a piece of paper, it's a promise and a responsibility."

He glances toward Uta, then, and shrugs. "I wouldn't object to having a nurse in the clinic. If you're willing to put in the work, there's always people coming down out of the tower with new and exotic diseases and debuffs that need to be treated. But we can discuss employment later, there's... business to take care of."

Offense is Prophylaxis's specialty. Or rather, crowd control is. But this is a bit much. It reminds him of the time with the ghouls a few weeks ago, with how utterly brazen these walking corpses hurl themselves forward with wild abandon. He bites back a yell when one of them wrenches at his arm, and reciprocates by blowing its head off with yet another bolt of flame.

They're all too close now for him to deploy a proper crowd control spell. Next time, though...!

    "...I am not sure," admits Uta at the question about whether carts are sold. "I would have to ask Rylen. But... uh... hey. That..." Her eyes pop wide open, and her smile slowly, sloooowly widens. "...I could get me a Grunty and a mobile home! Perfect for my on-the-road lifestyle!" She thinks some more. "I know one of my early mentors, Mr.Miyoda, runs a swampside used cart lot, tho'. You know, short, squat adventurer with pointy ears and a semi-goatee, looks like your stereotypical Okinawan alien telekinetic karate mentor from movies... speaks in broken Japanese despite /being/ Japanese because he loves American movies... Or used to, at least. I wonder if he's still in business. Haven't seen him in ages."

    "...and I don't know," she also admits at the question about Armorsmith's week. "I think it must be a holiday someone is trying to make happen. I don't think it's gonna happen."

t"That is fine, Doctor. It'd be a part-time deal, I don't think I'd be draining your finances too much."

    Not to be the one that lets a good opportunity to go to waste, Uta joins in with the song, providing an operatic support voice, discreetly harmonizing around Kauchemar's lead.

    The tune is notorious, but she's not really familiar with the lyrics... so she improvises something that sounds close enough for the purpose. Operatic singing usually ends up being its own thing enough that most people do have trouble telling apart the exact lyrics, and as loong as it scans and the phonemes are close enough, nobody's even gonna notice.

    And so she goes.

    "o/~ 'Cuz this is trailer... trailer night!
    No one has better savings on a beast unless you hike"

    'Cuz this is trailer... trailer night!
    You're looking for a ride, with Gwen's a tailor trailer tonight! o/~"

    Hey, a little subliminal product placement never hurt anybody, right?

    As the zombies come in, the Magus imp shifts her stance and joins in with Schneider in creating a magical shield, in this case, trying to use bother of her hands to not only protect herself, but the others as well.

Her teeth grit tightly as it drains her mana to do this, but she needs to get /stronger/. She needs to become more powerful and master over her weaknesses if she was to do this. To do everything she was planning.

However, the shield at last shatters and the imp Magus then has to do some fancy hoof work to avoid the incoming zombies. One though manages to get ahold of her. Its claw fingers wracking across her face. With red lines angrily glowing, she lets out a low growl at the very creature that placed them there.

Her hand then stretches out, reaching for the zombies face, before dark magic is summoned like green flames and she blasts the zombie away, while rumbling something in silence.

    Once the hoard was dealt with, the Lady Magus then touches the slowly healing cuts on her face. Here eyes slowly narrow as Merek speaks, before turning to face the man wielding a cursed blade. "Dear Merek, let me remind you clearly and fully." Her head raises up ever so slightly, as those lavender eyes just stare at him with their glow. "Your opinion matters little to me and as a reminder, you, have no commander over /what/ or /how/ I do things."

Then she continues to walk on. "/No one/ has command over me."

    From there, the group will find themselves in the next room. Two large doors before them. There guarding the doors were two skeleton guards, with four limbs, and massive shields.

Katherine looks at these undead before the group, as her eyes scan the room. Though as she looks around, she speaks to Cyrus once more. "The way is possible. There are ancient tomes that others helped me find that go into great detail once all are read over."

The imp then looks at the Cait Sith directly, "A staff which channels your own arcane energy in order to do this. I already have it created." Her eyes then look to the two skeletons before them. "I just-- need to fine tune and perfect it."

    As the group goes to move in closer, one of the bone warriors tries to speak, but his jaw falls over. The other points to a sign of some kind, a riddle that most be solved to pass. While there /is/ other options, solving the sign is the safest way and something that Katherine goes to work on.

"Okay, what."

Who would make door skeletons? Prophylaxis is familiar with the old dirty trick of hiding an exploding zombie behind a locked door with a dagger and ordering it to plunge the knife into its own heart to blast the intruder with a spray of gross, disease-ridden ichor. But skeleton doors? What the heck!?

One of their jaws drops off. Prophylaxis regards it with a look of... pity? And also a twinge of disappointment? "I... Okay. So there's this chicken-scratch on this sign here, and we're fortunate because it's actually just really bad penmanship from what I can tell. I think it's saying that we want to go left."

There's a beat as the doctor wedges open the door. He shrugs at Uta, "Sure. Why not? Like I said, could always use the additional manpower."

As it turns out, doctors are really good at reading some really awful handwriting. They have to, if they ever hope to make out anything on their own prescriptions.

When it comes to dungeons, Mikage tends to be one of the ones who focuses on the more direct route, leaving puzzles to others. It might be due to the fact that she tends to be the DPS for her party, which means that she usually focuses on offense.

So, she leaves it to the others to see if they can figure out a way around the puzzle. Rama, unfortunately, doesn't seem to understand the instructions. The cat wanders into the incorrect door, perhaps pured by something he smells. A moment later, he comes yelping out, his tail a bit singed for his trouble.

Miki winces, "Stay with me, Rama. Don't go wandering." As the two share a health-bar, the damage shows by her name.

Schneider continues through the tunnels, coming to the doors with the riddle and pausing. "Now that's an interesting thing," he observes, and rubs his chin. "Yes, quite the conundrum." He squints at the text and ponders it for some time before selecting a door. "Yes, it should be this way," he agrees, and selects left as well.

Well the words are wrong, but Uta does still match the flow of the song, so it's an A+ for effort. And it does help in keeping the screams muffled so there's less zombies for everyone else to fight through.
Afterwards Kauchemar gives Uta a pat on the back. "Thanks for the backup." Before moving on with the party.

She figured that would be the end of her streak of shenanigans for the venture, but not so, not the way her eyes light up when she sees the two bizarre multi-limbed, multi-skulled guardians at the doors. A riddle? Pfff. The nerds can deal with that.
Kauchemar resumes playing her lute, this time something more plucky and playful sounding as she... wanders off, around the chamber? To the point she's barely on the edge of view to the rest of the party. Or the guards.

And then she's abruptly right there next to the left guard's side. "Mahna mahna~" Then quickly darts back as it turns skulls to peer at her, only to move quickly enough to be at the side of the other on the right to repeat "Mahna mahna~" and then merrily prance away from him again.
Only to, via quick moves and shadowy trickery, pop up right between them! "Mahna Mahna!~" Then ducks down just as quickly as she shadows away, hoping they'll turn and hit each other. Or at least not pay attention to the others figuring out the sign.

The 'Mahna mahna' bit continues with her literally dancing around the two guards to keep them occupied until the party knows which way to move on.

"Interesting." Cyrus remarks. "I'll be interested to see your research when you are done - if you are willing to share. I prefer to do things myself. But I can see such a thing being quite useful." He notes.

He then glances aside to Merek. "You do realize that this is how all Monster handling spells work, right? Or are you going to say that Summoners shouldn't be a class?" Still, he spots that wariness on Mikage. And that - that he can understand.

What such things can be used for might be dangerous.

He then looks at the skeleton guarded door and squints his eyes at the riddle. He ends up scratching his head at that one. "I can't really make any sense of that." He points out.

    Merek nods a bit while he would look to one of the doors, then points to that while he would begin to think about words from Katherine. "The point really is that we already have one to deal with, and you're using the souls of the people to do it." There's a look to Cyrus, "Yes, though the control monster spells don't use soul energy. Not to mention, what will it be when the staff doesn't work and all of them are freed. It's not something to play with." There's a nod while he begins to walk along into the next area.

    The icy tension between Katherine Tanzer and the others is so palpable that... on a scale from "zero" to "it's so obvious even Uta would notice it", it falls smack at the "it's so obvious even Uta does notice it" end.

    Uta, however, does little except showing a little concern. And clear confusion at what 'soul energy' is. She has missed most of the initial conversation, and what little she heard means pretty much nothing to her. Must be advanced gamer stuff. She's heard arguments about tactics and strategies and which classes are the best and who would win in a fight between people she has no idea of who they are. So she's learnt to just nod a lot and slip into the background.

    And that's exactly what she does. She keeps herself close, practically in the guards' face all the time, either one guard or the other, to provide a further distraction to Kauchemar's antics. She segues each of the Muse's "Manha manha~" with a cheerful "doo doo doo-doo-doot" or a longer version thereof, with an appropriate melody every time. Further distraction!

    Katherine studies the script before them, alongside some others. Her focus is fully on what she is doing, or at least seems so. However, her ability to translate it fails, perhaps because Kauchemar is distracting.

Perhaps because of her annoyance at Merek.

Perhaps the fact her mind is not where it should be, given she wants to get back to working out the kinks of her staff. The more time it takes after all, the more lives are in danger of such monsters as these.

Luckily the others can pick up where she is failing at and the party manages to move on. The only quip that Katherine has back at Merek is a simple one, "Are you so sure of that?"

    As the group moves to the next room, they find themselves in a chamber that lights up with blue flames. A single book sits here and as the party moves closer, those monstrous mismatched eyes open.

It was not long after does the book itself open and starts to flip through pages, until it lands on a page. From there the pages glow brightly, until mirror images of each of the party members seem summoned before the book.

Each standing their, seeming like dolls. Till their heads all raise up at the same time, a creepy smile crosses their lips, and they all charge forward, attacking just as their own originals would attack!

Schneider proceeds to the heart of the tomb and looks around thoughtfully. He puts up a shield to stave off the attacks of his twin, then dashes to the lectern and flips pages quickly, eyes trailing over the twisted text. "A counterspell, that ought to be here," he declares, and indeed, it's close to where he expects. He begins reading in a stentorian tone, chanting each arcane syllable, enunciating clearly each strange and horrible phrase and sound. It's a strange script, but Schneider is a strange man, and the words seem to crackle as he speaks.

They have reached the heart of the tomb.

That's about all Prophylaxis needs to understand. He can feel it, the scent of <<boss fight>> in the air. The musty scent of a flesh-bound tome that is almost certainly some offbrand necronomicon. His own clone barely has a chance to materialize out of the dark magic swirling out of the book when--

"Finally," he sighs as if a burden were suddenly slaked from his shoulders. Prophylaxis extends a smoldering, smoking fingertip toward the malevolent grimoire and speaks those two syllables that he loves with all his heart. "Fireball."

It's not just one. Each fingertip flicks outwards with an incantation of the word 'fireball.' Each time, a little mote of orange light, barely the size of a rosary bead, sails towards the tome of ancient and forbidden knowledge at the heart of the tomb.

Each and every one of them explodes. Each explosion adds to the last, growing progressively larger, hotter, and more spectacular until at last the blast threatens to burst through the ceiling and the mound of earth and stone heaped upon it, becoming a pillar of fire-colored light that stretches high into the clouds...!

"I've got more," he declares, ominously closing his hands into fists. As he does so, the oddest of sounds seems to reverberate through the air. It's as if his hands just went *cha-chik* like they were a pair of pump-action shotguns being reloaded. "Come on, get back up, evil clone of me. I have too much self-loathing to work out and not enough opportunities to do so."

    "I don't know, you do what you will," Merek then explains to Katherine, "At least think about it before you think it's a great idea." With that, he would take a look at the mirror images, then he nods to the one of him, while he shifts the blade upon the back, then he begins to punch into the doppleganger of him, "Ragnarok's Wisdom!" The man nods along with the party.

"Okay, that is creepy." Yes, Mikage can walk through an entire tomb, without batting an eye, but a book that looks like it is made out of human skin stretched in a cry of horror? That, that is creepy.

What is more creepy, is looking at a mirror version of herself. Not only herself but... Cyrus. She looks to the real version of the cat, "I'll take yours. I've kicked your ass before." With that, she rushes forward, putting herself between the real and fake versions of her companion.

Luckily, she is quite good at dealing with his methods of attack, but her own double seems to also be drawn by her movement. A couple of powerful shots, channeling light energy through her bow, is enough to drain most of the initial health off of the phantom-cat.

    Uta stares in disbelief as her mirror image assumes fighting stance, mirror-staff pointed at the original.

    "No, it cannot be..." she stammers. "This means that... the real antagonist... the real enemy that is holding us back, and that we have to fight before we triumph is... /ourselves/!"

    A squint. "...well, ourselves except me. There's Kauchemar, the Doctor of Tolbana, Cyrus, Mikage... but I can't find myself in the- OH NO YOU DIDN'T!" She lowers her center of gravity, staff tilted forward in a fighting stance. "So we meet again, Game Mascot! And for some inexplicable reason, you seem to have stolen my hat?! How dare you! I do not take kindly to people who steal MAH HAT!"

    She grabs the rim of her own hat, the one that the game mascot supposedly stole, and with a determined stare, she challenges her. "You have no idea of just who you have picked a fight against, Mascot." Her movements are quick, sudden, and before anyone can blink, she... she sprints in a completely different direction. She leaps in mid-air, balls up and spins in mid-flight, flying above the other mirror images, and lands just in front of the book. "...I'm the kind of nerd that, when invited to a dance party, will stand in a corner and check out the library."

    Quick, time to find the counter-spell, before the Mascot does-

    Wait.

    Seems like mirror-Uta is somehow looking around, determinedly yet confusedly. "...where is the game Mascot?", she asks, in an otherworldly, dark voice. "Come back, I have to vanquish once and for all!"

    Uta stops for a moment, to glance back at her mirror image. The glance lengthens into a disbelieving stare. "...Seriously? She thinks /I/ am the Game Mascot?!" Then she turns to peruse the tome, with a snort, a chuckle, and a shake of her head. "Poor, poor little thing, I'd tell her, but... she's so adorable in her delusion. I think it's better if I just leave her in her mistaken beliefs..."

    When she returns to read, she notices that... the book is on fire? "Oh, snap! Gotta do this quickly!"

Cyrus guffahs at Mikage, both for the ass-kicking comment, and for the suggestion that this is a good tactical move. "How about you take the Cyrus for me - since you did such a good job kicking my ass last time. Besides, these are Monsters - they won't work together properly. I'll support you from the rear."

One might consider him being a bit of a coward. But these are not creepy half-human spiders! These are doppelgangers. And his tactical insight here should be exact. The youth immediately throws two potions at Mikage, raising her defenses and speed.

He then takes out a small flure and begins to play a Hero's Song for Mikage, to ensure that she can output maximum DPS without having to consider self-buffs -- allowing her to fight without having to consider anything but her attacks. He misses a few heal opportunities here and there, but he is keeping things up as well as he can. Notably, he never confuses Mikage for being the wrong Mikage.

Into the final chamber, and a book. Just a book. Which starts to flip open and 'read' itself. "Yeah, that's never a good sign..." And sure enough it's not, as it conjures up duplicate images of the party, herself included... and Kauchemar already has her instrument read with a devious look in her eyes. "I know imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, but toots, you're nothing but a pale wannabe. You wanna get up in my scales though? Fine." She starts to strum at an almost frevered pitch. "Just try to keep up!"
Are the licks hot? Hot enough that there's actual embers crackling up and down the strings.

o/~ Will I wake up? Some dream I made up? No I guess it's reality...
What will change us? Or will we mess up? Only chance to connect with fate...
Say a prayer for me (Say a prayer for me) Say a prayer for me (Say a prayer for me)
I'm buried by the sound... o/~

A plume of flames erupts from the end of her lute from the fiery chords, hissing towards her doppleganger as they scatter smoldering ghostly fires around the other's hooves.

o/~ Of a world of human wrecakge! In a world of human wreckage! When I'm lost and I'm found and I can't touch the ground... o/~

Kauchermar strums several chords in rapid succession, the crescendo erupting with the flames turning into a bonfire of flames to engulf and consume the imposter were fang.

o/~ I'M PLOWED INTO THE SOOOOOOOOOUND o/~

    Katherine stares at her mirror image, her eyes narrow dangerously, as does the other. There was a slow head raise from both, a crackling of magical energy.

Then at the same time, they both fire a powerful dark blast of magic at one another, the only difference is, the real Katherine Tanzer lets out a powerful yelling roar. One that sounds of defiance and pain.

Her magical energy swirls around her body, the arcane continues to gather more and more, until she overcomes the others magic and blasts it into non-existence.

    The Magus imp, slumps her arms by her ide, sweat on her brow, as her legs look ready to fall from under her. She watches the others defeat their copies, and the book take off to the skies. She watches as the pages fall and weakly snatches one from the air.

Her eyes skim it, before rolling it up, as she whispers. "Useless..." Then goes to inhale a shaky breath of air. As she goes to rest her hand gently on her forehead, she tries to take another deep inhale, before facing everyone. "Thank you for helping me with this quest... I could not have done it without each one of you."

    Katherine then looks over to Cyrus, "And-- if you /do/ wish to help me complete this experiment of mine, I need some assistance with fine tuning the enchantment runes, along with heating up some of the... materials to help make things fit in place. Perhaps even a little bit of... pharmaceutical touches."

Her head tilts ever so slightly to the side, a few bangs laying over her face. "Only if you are willing though..."

    Merek would look to Prophylaxis, then he nods a bit, "I am working to possibly make a Resurrection Crystal, I need to find people, especially the Pharmacists of the world, willing to assist with that," he notes, then he takes a look at the page, while he nods a bit, placing that into a pack.

    Uta looks up from looking at the Disturbing Page. "...oh?", she asks, kind of distractedly. "I do practice Pharmacy. and as said, I'm looking for someone who can practice alchemy. Maybe you could help me with my slime research, and I could help you with that? I'll be pretty honest with you, though: I fear a resurrection crystal might not be within our reach at our current level of knowledge, and that we might be wasting our efforts."

Cyrus motions his hand a bit. "I am afraid that Pharmacy isn't in my wheelhouse. I've got Alchemy down. But Pharmacy tends to be right now." He explains. "Most of my healing potions are the standard ones I can make. Others, I've bought." The youth explains. "I just tend to buy in bulk. What with how many I go through."

He then grabs the item that's appeared for the team, and looks at it for a bit. "This could come in handy later..." He sends it into his inventory. "Alright, I'm heading out of here before any more crazy undead show up. This should be good enough for the Hunters Guild. I'll see you all later."

"My bars are on fire and you just got burned!" Kauchemar quips at the end of her performance. It's a fire pun and a musical pun, that's how you can be sure its the real version that survived. "Now, for my next number..." She points the head of her lute towards the book, only for it to flap away into the nether. "... Welp. I guess that book didn't have the -spine- to face us on it's own."

She grabs one of the pages flitting through the air. Stares at it. The flaming spectacle frames that form when she's using her divination or other paranatural abilities form around her eyes... but in the end her eyes just go crosseyed.

"Don't stare at it too long. It's like staring into the void until it stares back..." It's dropped into her inventory with the other various nicknacks she's picked up the last few weeks.

    Katherine frowns a little as it seems Cyrus can not help with none of the three tasks, or at least triggers on the one task. Her thumb claw gently comes up to her lips as she bites on it in thought.

Then she walks after him for a moment, getting in front of her, with a smile on her face. "Well, my dear sir, should you ever find someone who /could/ help with the three tasks I need assistance with," She slides around him. Her tail trying to touch his own. "Do, let me know hmm?"

Then the imp starts to walk off with that normal, typical Katherine sultry walk. As for Cyrus-- he will probably find a friend invite thrown his way.

Prophylaxis' (floppy, fuzzy) ears seem to perk at the notion of a ressurection crystal. "Reaching for something that seems beyond our current knowledge is precisely how knowledge grows. Alchemy, Pharmacy, Herbalism as well. I'm proficient and able to assist in all three regards. Just let me know if there's anything I might be able to assist with, so long as you promise to allow the method to reproduce whatever resurrection item we develop to propagate across the entire playerbase."