Duty Session 150: Spinner's Deep

After the efforts of many Adventurers to finally clear out the creatures from within the mines on the Isle of Beginnings, the Landers are finally able to return to their work. However, the first miners have reported an unusual room within the first levels of the mine.

The room seems to be the source of the previous infestation, but now shows a strange glowing arcane circle that refuses to allow them to pass. The Landers have reached out to the Hunter's Guild, seeking capable Adventurers to find out what lies beyond this strange device.

What is certain, is that the spiders in the mines now known as Spinner's End, had to have come from somewhere. Danger lies on the unknown path ahead. Are you brave enough to face it?

Difficulty:    Moderate
Rec. Party:    3+
Rewards:       2
World Rewards: None

Wisteria
Overworld - 7 - 0 - 0

    Wisteria has done her usual, called friends and setup an open party at the Hunter's Guild. The tall albino girl hanging out while the party assembles. Waving and greeting folks as they arrive. "Hey." she says with a smile.
Vertina
Overworld - 7 - 0 - 0

Once again where Wisteria is on an adventure, Vertina isn't far behind. Opening the tavern was a big success, but she's hired a staff from the refugee citizens of Tolbana that are perfectly capable of tending to it while she's off having a fun time with her friends. "Been down here once. Always interesting to see if we turn up an alternate way or not."
Kotono
Overworld - 7 - 0 - 0

Adventure calls! And Kotono is there to check it out! Blades in hand and swift as ever, Kotono is quick to arrive with a smile on her face. "Spiders may be scary to some, but I ain't afraid of them!" She twirls her knives a little and grins. "Bring 'em on!"
Miyako
Overworld - 7 - 0 - 0

    Miyako has been watching the Hunter's Guild postings while she's been about her own explorations, and when news went up of a new Quest she had to check it out. She's been waiting for a group that she knows she can work with to pull this one, and with Wisteria and Kotono involved, she's up for it. "Good to hear, Ko-chan. Can we capture a few? I want to see if I can make some spidersilk cloth."
Prophylaxis
Overworld - 7 - 0 - 0

Spiders!! Spiders are always fun. Spiders are always there, lurking deep underground, waiting for you to fall into their carefully laid webs so that they can devour your insides...!

But all in all, Prophylaxis still rather likes spiders. They're better than mosquitos! And fleas! And ticks! In fact they often eat all three! So all in all, he can't hate them too much.

So he's not here to fight spiders, he's here for the tasty, tasty loot that spiders often keep hidden in this strange new world. "I hope everyone brought their spidering gear! Just be sure to avoid getting bitten too many times. I have antivenom but not /that/ much antivenom."
Wisteria
Overworld - 7 - 0 - 0

    Wisteria nods "Yah, we'll have to see, keep an eye out for weirness if we hit anything that you did see you know the drill... find the glitches, find the easter eggs, find the places we're not suppose to go." she says with a laugh.

    Wisteria laughs again and stretches "Well lets head on down to the mine, and see what this level gated fun is hmm?" she gives a bit of a twirl "And hopefuly I'll get the last thing I need to finish off my armor, if not well you know me, I'm always dungeon diving." she smiles and skips,kicking off an air rune and a second lifting her up and back before she lands. "I can't wait to have just the best curses I can stuff into a p;eice ofgear ready to trigger whenever someone attacks. It'll match up with my sword and give me time to get an even better one made." She leads theway down to Spider's End and past miners. She waves to some as they heads towards the old 'level block' section of the mine.
Vertina
Overworld - 7 - 0 - 0

"Oh THAT is what you meant by cursing it. To make it curse others." Vertina rubs the back of her head with one hand. "I only heard parts of the conversation. It got to be a pleasantly busy night!.. Nice to see the miners are getting this first area back up and running."
Miyako
Overworld - 7 - 0 - 0

    "Yeah, she's been on about that for a while now," Miyako pipes up as the group trudges down a mine corridor towards the site. "I didn't quite grok it at first either, it's just.... ok, whatever, a bit weird." She shrugs and walks on with the rest. "Mmm. Eggs."
Kotono
Overworld - 7 - 0 - 0

"If you think you can handle it, then that's on you," Kotono replies. "I'm not too keen on capturing monsters, although maybe I should learn it since you never know when it might come in handy?" She follows Wisteria into the mine as well, giving a nod to the miners as they head down to the older area where nobody dares go unless they're brave and strong enough to handle what's inside. "Eggs... not the type that should be scrambled!"
Prophylaxis
Overworld - 7 - 0 - 0

"I used to wonder how long they need to go until they dig too deep and too greedily, unleashing a horror the likes of which man was never meant to confront, but then I remember that it's probably just going to be more spiders," Prophylaxis shakes his head with a quiet sigh. "Oh, well. Maybe they'll uncover a long-lost Gnomish city or something. Did you know that they used to have entire fortress-homes deep underground?"

Of course they know. Everyone knows that. Dwarves are going to be dwarves no matter what kind of media they appear in, or what they end up called!

"We ran into one of those old towns the last time we were down here. It was spider infested, of course, but still. It makes a man wonder whether we're going to end up discovering what happened to the old Gnome hero from back during the Scrapped Princess era sooner rather than later...!"
Kotono
Overworld - 7 - 0 - 0

Once it was a boss chamber, now it's just another room.

A room full of strange runes and things like that. And odds are those runes have some kind of hidden meaning to them. Curious, Kotono tries to look at them. "Maybe I can look them over and get an idea of what they mean?"

Unfortunately, this is not a situation where Kotono can read the runes. Try as she may, she winds up a bit frustrated before shaking her head as if trying to keep a cool head. "Gotta stay focused."
Wisteria
Overworld - 7 - 0 - 0

    Wisteria nods her head "Yah, dungeons and lost cities and stuff. Way more the kind of books I use to read than all the video game stuff." she smiles "That and you know time travel and other stuff around the Ido period and the Meji Restoration and other such things." she shrugs a little. When the teleporter comes into view she nods "Ooh good I was kinda worried it'd still say I was too low to go in." she sticks her tongue out playfuly. "Now, to do the lost city puzzle thing." she laughs and gets out her notebook from lots of dungeon delving.
Vertina
Overworld - 7 - 0 - 0

"Right. So last time we had to.. activate this somehow. It was kind of random who got it to work so." Vertina didn't do well just with spiritual energy last time. This time she tries her elemental attunements, but none of them seem to want to trigger the platform properly. "Damn this thing is picky," she grumbles, crossing her arms and huffing into her bangs.
Miyako
Overworld - 7 - 0 - 0

    Miyako nods and hrms, peering at the runes. She takes out a sketchpad and copies down some of them, writing possible meanings next to each as she considers it. She takes several minutes before she reaches down to try something herself, pushing some magic into a different configuration, but that too fails to activate anything.
Prophylaxis
Overworld - 7 - 0 - 0

"Mmm, I seem to remember this one. Let's see..." Prophylaxis murmurs, pulling a Mysterious Liquid out of his labcoat. With a flick of his thumb, he uncorks the stopper and pours the lot of it over one of the runes inscribed into the ruin walls. Little by little, he works from one symbol to the next, pouring more of that acrid-smelling substance into the cracks. Apparently it's some manner of poison, judging by the label on the stopper.

...It might take him a bit to get to all the glyphs he needs to activate, but it does seem like he's leaving a series of glowing pictographs in his wake.
Wisteria
Overworld - 7 - 0 - 0

    Wisteria looks over it, adjusts the settings acording to her notes. Then nothing happens. "Hmmmm you know sometimes." she takes her enchanted sword and jams it into a spot where things were kind of stuck before and then just slams a curse in. The portal flickering into life. "Duno how long it'll work but." She shrugs "Sometimes you just gota duck tape your armor back on and finish the tourney." Once they're through the portal and into the crumbly area she looks around. "Yahhhh... wishing we brought Golden.. she's good at this kind of thing." she says of the obviously unstable tunnel.
Vertina
Overworld - 7 - 0 - 0

"The only failure is when you quit trying," Vertina chimes in. What matters is the portal activates for whatever reason, and they arrive in the crumbling area. "This place still gives me the creeps. Okay, no Golden, so we gotta do this on our own." Vertina grabs a portion of one of the walls, and drawing from the terrestrial environment around them for strength wretchs it free of it's foundation and shoves it into place under one of the weakened spots of the ceiling. "It won't hold forever but it'll do for now."
Prophylaxis
Overworld - 7 - 0 - 0

"Here again, huh...?" Prophylaxis murmurs as they enter the half-collapsed tunnel. How many teleporters are set up to send adventurers into death traps like this one? The good doctor makes a sound of mild disapproval before he gestures at the crumbling stone with the head of his staff. Translucent, violet brambles erupt from a short-lived aurora, lancing outward to try and brace the tunnel open, but...

"That won't last long," Prophylaxis grimaces, then hurries forward to scramble through what little open space he can push himself into. "Come on, if we move fast enough we might get through before the whole place comes down ontop of us."
Kotono
Overworld - 7 - 0 - 0

Doing her best, Kotono grabs some nearby wood, old as it may be, and uses it to try to keep an exit available for the group. "It's not much, but it's better than nothing," She says as she steps away nervously. Fortunately, her workmanship holds up strong.
Miyako
Overworld - 7 - 0 - 0

    Miyako does her best to help with shoring up the tunnel, following directions from those with a better understanding of the task. "This stuff is pretty fragile," she mutters, and then jerks back as her grip goes straight through one piece. "Oh crap," she calls, "Look out...."
Wisteria
Overworld - 7 - 0 - 0

    Wisteria tries to pick up and carry a beam into place, only to have the tunnel start caving in. "Uhm... run!" she says as she scrambles out. Once everyone is out and the dirt settles it looks like there is a tight little path the party can squeeze through to get back to the surface later so long as the teleporter stays turned on. "Well... at least it isn't a total loss?" she offers

    Wisteria blinks when they make it into the little stopping point only to find an Adventurer in need. "Oh! I was hoping someone would come along. My party was killed by the spiders. I've been bitten." There is pain written on their face. "Our healer had the antidote potions, do you think you could lend a stranger a hand?" The Adventurer asks, eyes pleading.

    "OOH yah sure." she says as she hears them. "Doc you got something?" she starts going through her own inventory.
Vertina
Overworld - 7 - 0 - 0

"Ugh, I'm starting to not like this place." Vertina mutters. Fortunately she's very good at running, and she still barely gets by without getting her tail caught in anything collapsing. Then she stops, pants a few times, and finally notices that they aren't alone in the room. Another Adventurer in danger? "Wow, this place is nasty if it got a whole party." She walks over, hands glowing faintly with spiritual energy as she puts them on the Adventurer's shoulder.... And nothing... She frowns. "... The poison is too deeply routed for me to simply purge with healing light."
Prophylaxis
Overworld - 7 - 0 - 0

Prophylaxis does indeed got something. The doctor's grimace tightens further as he approaches the wounded adventurer. "Don't worry," he says, reassuringly, "I'm a doctor. Hold still for a moment please." He produces a syringe out of his pack and, after finding what passes for a vein in this new world, presses the needle into the other adventurer's shoulder and depresses the plunger. His eyes tighten a bit as he watches the wounded explorer's condition fluctuate... "Too many poison stacks. I'm able to stop your HP from dropping temporarily, but we're going to have to get somewhere safe so I can treat this properly. Wist, we should probably cut this trip short. This one's not going to last long if I can't work, and I don't like our chances waiting around in a collapsing tunnel with spiders lurking up ahead."
Kotono
Overworld - 7 - 0 - 0

"This is not a good place, maybe I should've passed on this," Kotono says with a frown as she continues forward. "I wonder what else..." She pauses as she spots the nearby adventurer. "Oh my, let me see..." She frowns as she tries to chant a light magic spell, but it's no use. "I'm sorry... I can't do anything..." She seems genuinely sad.
Miyako
Overworld - 7 - 0 - 0

    Miyako shakes her head and lets the healer do her work. "Sorry, I don't have any antidotes either. Used the last one ..." She trails off, remembering the last time she needed one - several days ago - and her intention to restock - except she hasn't gotten back to town yet since. Oops.
Wisteria
Overworld - 7 - 0 - 0

    Wisteria check "Stupid potion shortage." she says as she fishes around in her inventory but comes up empty. A soft rumble indicates the full collapse of the tunnel behind them. "I'm pretty sure if we go through that one we can double back and get to the teleporter again." she says to Proph. "I've got a good sense of direction, I'm always mapping these kind of places." she says.

    She helps to move the wounded Adventurer. "Come on let's get you where Doc can fix you up huhmm?" she says heading around through the tunnel she indicated previously.

    This path leads to more webs "Stay sharp." she says "Spiders are sure to be between us and the exit." she says One hand on her sword. When the field of underground grass and the herd of grunties. "Well... that's... just disturbing." she says at the grunty geting swallowed "I thought spiders did the whole slurping things up, not swallowing them whole..." She leans the Adventurer in a space that's safe and draws her sword. "But I guess it doesn't matter, it's time to fight." she grins shifting into caerbannog form, long floppy white ears and horrible razor smile.
Kotono
Overworld - 7 - 0 - 0

"I've got to keep going," Kotono says to herself as they keep going. Wisteria has the wounded Adventurer, so hopefully they can tend to them when they get back.

Things are getting a bit sticky now since the webbing is getting thicker and thicker. Which is only natural since there's a lot of spiders here now. And they definitely don't look friendly.

"You want your spidersilk, you're gonna have to go through them," Kotono says to Miyako before readying her blades. "Although I'm willing to help you cut it up a little once we take care of them!" The girl rushes in, letting out a martial arts-styled yell as she uses the tips of her daggers primarily to attack the spiders.
Miyako
Overworld - 7 - 0 - 0

    Miyako nods to Kotono. "Well, that's one down," she murmurs, then sketches a series of runes in the air as she casts a spell. "Okay, spider, time to make like an egg, and fry," she mutters, as a series of quick little bolts of lightning zip from her hands to slam into the arachnid.
Vertina
Overworld - 7 - 0 - 0

It's a shame, but at least it's an Adventurer like them. If the poison does make them die they'll respawn. If it had been a Lander, that would be... let's not try to think about it.

"It's about time!" Vertina is right on top of the matter. At least until the spiders eat the grunty in a disgusting manner. "Ugh, I forgot how horrible and wrong that is." She takes a deep breath and spews out a gout of flame. That the spiders wisely jump away from. But that's okay, she's aiming more to burn through the webbing so they can get out of this area!
Prophylaxis
Overworld - 7 - 0 - 0

Of course it wouldn't be as easy as just turning around and making their way back to the teleporter. Prophylaxis continues producing increasingly frustrated noises as he continues administering what triage he can. There might be a potion shortage, but Prophylaxis is a /doctor/ damnit, he's not about to let something like 'not enough medicine' defeat him now! He's got enough stock in his pack to start shoring up the wounded adventurer's HP bar at least. The stopgap measure he employed might fade sooner rather than later, but if there's enough HP in the bar, then this poor soul might just have a chance...!

But the spiders aren't going to give up their meal so easily. And yet, when the swarm of creepy-crawlies sweep in, what they find isn't an overworked, exhausted wizard-doctor.

No, they find a glare the likes of which could halt an army in its tracks. Fury and determination blaze in his eyes as, with one hand, he shoves another syringe into the adventurer and, with the /other/, he... Instantly flash-freezes a full third of the swarm in a single, wrathful Frost Shock. "Not. While. I'm. /Doctoring,/ you damn insects!"
Wisteria
Overworld - 7 - 0 - 0

    Wisteria growls and then she's off, and anyone who's fought the caerbannog(this one or the original mini boss) will recognize the fighting style. Her feet leave little air runes as she starts to charge and bounce off of things, like a pinball made of white fluffy rage and sharp sharp teeth... or in this case steel. The katana slashing through bodies, "Attercop attercop..." she taunts them... someone has read the classics if nothing else. When the team has slain the spiders she comes down from the pinball rage to pant softly and help Doc get the Adventurer back on their feet. "Come on, we can't be too far. I can almost smell a teleporter ahead." she says.

    Things start getting weird and glowing, drops of acid making walking a dodging lesson in an dof itself. "Ooh look... boss battle... told you I smelled a teleporter." she says with a smile that seems to be intended to be playful but is chock full of triangular razors in multiple jagged rows.
Kotono
Overworld - 7 - 0 - 0

The boss may be teleporting in and out of sight, but Kotono's not about to let that get the best of her.

With her reflexes and her intuition, the girl dances around the room, seeming to pop up just about everywhere the boss reappears. "He's over here! Now over here!" The girl calls out as she gestures to her comrades. "We can get him!"
Vertina
Overworld - 7 - 0 - 0

A spider. That telports. "Okay. THAT is just making spiders way more creepy and weirder than they need to be."

Vertina cracks her knuckles in the palm of her hand, both igniting with red hot flames as she does so. "But I know exactly how to deal with this sort of speedy evasive foe...." She strikes a pose briefly, then puts both flaming hands together and
"RAGNAROK'S WISDOM!"
slams them into the ground! The surge of fire energy is unleashed like a shockwave radiating around the Salamander, making getting close to her extremely dangerous, phase shifting or not. "You don't give them anywhere to evade to!"
Miyako
Overworld - 7 - 0 - 0

    "Why do the teleporters down here work, but not the Chaos Gates?" Miyako wonders. Unlikely to get an answer, she watches the boss spider teleport and snarls something under her breath before getting control of herself. "Right," she carries on. "AOE attacks, everyone. KILL IT WITH FIRE!"

    Then she remembers she doesn't -have- any Fire magic. Oops. Again. Ohwell. If not Fire, then Ice. She rattles off a quick series of runes, chanting under her breath, calling up a glistening cloud that suddenly spits out dozens of sharp little fragments. "ICE RAIN!"
Prophylaxis
Overworld - 7 - 0 - 0

AOE attacks are something Prophylaxis is known to have in spades. He is, after all, one of the foremost users of that favorite standby of all proper wizards, the ever-beloved fireball. But right now, he's got other things on his mind. "We'll get you out of here," he promises as he heaps the fallen adventurer up over his shoulders. A mage he might be, but he's got the strength to carry this much burden without trouble. The trouble is...

There's always a risk of something being in the way in a situation like this. The others pile on the phase spider, and while it's occupied, Prophylaxis turns his attention to the space between himself and the teleporter.

It's /that/ empty space which he hurls his fireball into-- out of an abundance of caution. He would never put it past a dungeon like this to hide a set of invisible adds in the wings to support its equally invisible boss monster.
Wisteria
Overworld - 7 - 0 - 0

    Wisteria smiles, a teleporting giant spider with acid fangs... yes please. As the fire and ice start going through the tall bun starts moving. Fast shuffle here, where is the spider not here yet but that fire wave just passed where it was, she swings. Black crackling light follows the path of her sword, it's mind numbing curse stopping the spider long enough to let fire and ice slam into it. Then she's shuffling away, past this ring of fire, just in front of that wave of frozen shards. Her blade catching the monster and making it pause just long enough to let other attacks slam into it. The bun kites the teleporting beast with her speed and leaps, locking it down with her curses long enough for others to do more damage. Wisteria, the most violent support class possible.

    When the wall of light stops progress after it drops. She looks a bit disapointed but then remembers the other Adventurer. "Ooh right..." she says and points to a tunnel "That should get us back to the teleporter pretty quickly."
Vertina
Overworld - 7 - 0 - 0

Yeah, let's not forget about the sick adventurer. "Better grab whatever loot it dropped and get the heck out of here. Get him fixed up so he can greet the rest of his party when they respawn." Vertina grabs one of the bits of crystal and then sprints for the tunnel back to the beginning.
Prophylaxis
Overworld - 7 - 0 - 0

"Already on it," Prophylaxis says, approaching the lip of the tunnel even before the instruction is given. He's already seen that wall of light several times now, after all. No point in rushing through a thing that's level-locked. "Don't worry," he assures his erstwhile patient, even as he shoves (yet another) syringe into the poor adventurer's pincushioned arm. "We'll get you right as rain in no time. Once I'm able to set up somewhere to work properly, I should be able to synthesize an antidote... Or at least keep you alive until the poison DoT runs its course."

...Is death a better alternative at that point?
Kotono
Overworld - 7 - 0 - 0

"We did it!" Kotono says as they make their way out. "That could've gone a lot better, but at least we made it through." She gives a thumbs up to everyone, then looks to Miyako. "I could go for a cheeseburger and a root beer after that! Care to join me?"
Miyako
Overworld - 7 - 0 - 0

    Death is never an option, is Miyako's opinion. She never did like the XP penalty. And she's managed to avoid it so far since the Apocryphalypse. She waits with Prophylaxis and the rest until the rescued adventurer seems to be recovering.

    "We did make it, yes. Despite all the... muck... and the spiders." She taps a few keys on her menu, invoking the auto-clean function. And makes a note to find an inn with a bath-house. "Burger and root beer sounds good, Ko-chan, yeah."