Duty Session 154: Goblins in the Rotting Forest

    Burnt grass and branches crunch underfoot as Ainkli pauses on the edge of the rotting forest. She adjusts her tower shield in her right hand, and hefts her silver staff onto her left shoulder, her face set into that melancholy sort of expression as she views the edge of the forest's devastation. She breathes a little sigh to herself as she waits for the others to arrive and prepare for the expedition.

    Ainkli Bluetongue sent out invites for this little jaunt into the Rotting Forest, prefacing it with her promise to be the best healer/tank she can be, for someone jumping into the fray a little late by most standards, the invite sent out to the Scale Emblem, then to Odysseia Knights, and then to Ninetails... General grabs for attention came after, putting out feelers for interest. She tries to be thorough about it.

    "Seeing this is almost enough to give someone doubts about what they're doing," she murmurs to herself. "Almost..."

This is why it's good to get a few names in your Friend list -- easy recruiting for Duty jobs! Especially when someone is still close by the area. Which is entirely the case when Shiruba arrives. "It's a good thing you called when you did Ainkli, I was getting ready to head back to Ninetails soon! But not soon enough I can't help."

Though once she sees the state the forest is in, her chipper mood fades and a solemn grimace settles on her features. "I was there," she continues in a more stoic tone. "At the battle that caused this corruption." Her tail gives a shivering flick. "To think the goblins are trying to twist it to their own uses chills me to the very bone."

    Crunch, crunch, crunch goes the burnt ground as Setsuna trapes through the brush haphazardly. Magic caster robes really didn't suit all this walking. Perhaps it was time for a change. As Setsuna meets up with the others he lets out a long whistle, " Wow. So what exactly caused this again?" He had been out of the loop in events until only recently. Especially events outside of Ninetails.

Ever since the last Wave, the rot eating through Eastal's wooded heartland has been of no small amount of concern to the Doctor of Tolbana. That the Tower Climb could conjure massive boss monsters to attack root towns is one thing-- such enemies could be defeated with enough preparation and a strong enough player response-- but the fact that the Waves seem to be leaving long-lasting effects on the world itself is... Problematic, to say the least. To continue the Climb efficiently, the Scale Emblem needs as few distractions as possible, and for its supply lines to remain hale and hearty. Such sweeping, deleterious effects as a rot-infested forest are... Something of an issue.

Moreover, he wonders whether this specific world-change is perhaps tied to the nature of the Fourth Floor Boss... but that's something to deal with later.

"I was hoping someone would put a group together for this," Prophylaxis says, prodding a rotting lump of wood with the butt of his staff and a noticable grimace. "Things have gotten so much in the way lately that I hadn't been able to find an opportunity to do so myself. Thank you for the advance notice, Ainkli. Let's be on our way?"

    Miyako has answered a ping on her own friendslist, having interests in Eastal -- and also remembering this particular battlefield. She pauses a moment to look over at Setsuna. "The Waves. Some /thing/ those bastards brought through." She sighs softly and taps her menu to bring out her naginata. "It's just..." She shakes her head. "Foul. It's time something was done about it."

    Of the Odysseia Knights one of the people to respond is Amalthea. The old Paladin arrives, shield slung to one arm, resting a hand on the pommel of one of the two swords belted at her hip. As busy as she is, she can never turn down a request from one of her own, and that's what has her here this evening as she surveys the burned land and frowns briefly before uniting with the gathering group; a fair amount of people she already knows here.
    "Ainkli, was it?" She says. "Pleasure to meet in person." She greets before putting on a warm, if somewhat tired, smile. "Hello, everyone. I'm ready whenever you all are."

    The crunching noise continues as they wander through the burnt-out remains of the forest. Ainkli had begun without more than a "Let's go," but had spared a nod to those that had greeted her. She seems more than ready to stand at the front of the group, prepared to take any attacks that might come toward the group. Which don't come immediately, not when they find their first source of activity.

A single goblin, a gangly member of the species, is spotted in the distance keeping an eye on them. It believes itself not spotted at first. Ainkli speaks meaningfully back to the group, "Probably best to try to follow it to the source. I'll distract it." And then she starts jogging toward the scout's position, her shield lifted up to deflect any errant attacks it might throw to dissuade this tactic, her armor rattling and footsteps thudding. She growls thunderously as she approaches, like a great big freight train in the shape of a lizard.

When they find a lone goblin Shiruba frowns a bit, crouching down and drawing her bow. "A lone goblin is probably a scout. It won't fight. Follow it when it runs." She notchs a normal arrow, and as Ainkli stomps towards the goblin she fires a shot to arc short and land right at the Goblin's feet to help get it's attention spooked.

    Miyako smiles and nods to Ainkli, watching the goblin as it sprints off. "Right," she whispers, gesturing to the others. "Stay back, but keep it in sight." She grins and pads off through the forest, stepping carefully so as to avoid making noise and startling the goblin further.

Prophylaxis is a wizard, unfortunately, and not the kind who actually packs illusion spells on the regular. Sure, as a magus and enchanter, he COULD probably carry those sorts of things around, but that's not really his style. Everything Prophylaxis does is geared toward locking down a bunch of enemies (or a single enemy) and blasting the ever living crap out of them!

Thus, sneaking, not entirely high on his list of capabilities.

Still, he's a damn sight better at it than someone stomping around in full plate in the middle of a forest... Though it does mean he's probably going to feel any given arrow to the knee a lot more keenly than most of the others. The Doctor of Tolbana sticks to the trees, darting from one rotting husk of wood to the next to try and avoid the goblin scout's watchful eyes.

The tanks can go spook it, he'd rather avoid dealing with hostile attention so early on into the trip.

    Funny. For someone stomping around in full plate in the middle of a forest... Amalthea can move pretty silently when she wants to, as Ainkli rushes the goblin to spook it, the old Paladin slips amongst the trees, using the cover of the tank-lizard's movement to mask her own stride.
    Was that a shit eating grin she just shot at the doctor? Nahhh.

     Setsuna does his best to follow others leads, however he really didn't come prepared to sneak around. Most duties in the scale alliance have a much more, fire at will style. " So then we just follow this guy back?" He says outloud at a normal voice and then realizes its quiet time so suddenly ducks down and looks around, "Damn newb, not knowing when to sneak and whisper." Setsuna simply responds to his own comment with a grin and follows others lead on when to move and such.

    The initial tactic is quite successful. The goblin scout was far too distracted by the scary people to realize that some people had broken off to track its movements, and so it goes sprinting off into the woods to avoid them and leads them closer to its den. Ainkli herself had stopped after it had started running in earnest, and turned to catch up to the trail of the sneaking fellows so that she wouldn't be lost in the forest. She keeps her glum demeanor, despite their apparent short-term victory.

    Their trail runs into a hitch, though. They find a thicket that even Ainkli's armor struggles with, the Were Fang pushing at the pokey branches and frowning as it gets in the way of her movements. She lifts her staff and chants a few words. "Winds of the East, come to call..." She tries to use Air magic to push and cut at branches some, to make a better path for herself and the group.

    "Blech...!" she blurts out when a branch slaps her in the face.

Shiruba quickly sprints off once the Goblin is on the run, being the Hunter she is having little trouble following and keeping a reasonable following distance. But it gets to be a little rougher going when it disappears into the thorny overgrowth of thicket. "Are these natural or from the corruption..." she wonders, even as she draws another arrow in her bow and fires it into the overgrowth. When it hits the ground it releases the elemental energy charged in it to make a small cyclone to rip away a portion of the brambles so they can find where the Goblin is trying to hid.

    Moving quietly doesn't mean much when the quarry threatens to get away. Amalthea picks up her pace when they get to the thicket, drawing her blade and starting to hack away.
    Only to hit a rock or something on the other side of all the brambles she was hacking at.
    "Well it's not this way, that's for sure."

"Plants usually grow thorns to keep things from eating them, so I'd have thought that a dying wood would have fewer thorns, not more. It could very well be that whatever is corrupting the land here made them grow unnaturally, though." Prophylaxis shrugs as he follows up behind Shiruba, already weaving a spell together to help clear the path.

It's not fireball, this time.

Burning the entire wood down around them might help clear out some of the rot, but it does them no good if they want to find where the goblins are hiding. Prophylaxis instead resorts to a more... controlled spell. He taps his staff into a thicket of brambles, and a wave of wintery frost suddenly races outward, freezing a large section of vines solid. Then, with a quick kick, he shatters the lot. "There, that should get us a little further."

    Miyako pauses briefly as she walks along after the fleeing goblin. "He can't have got far," she mutters, watching as Shiruba takes her shot. A flick of her hand and a few runs, and in her sight, the air currents around the thicket become visible, taking on colors, that roil and change as others take actions. "Don't worry," she adds. "Tunnel entrance.... /there/."

    Setsuna is glad he didn't cause the team to get caught, when they come across the thicket and brambles. The human looks in the direction Miyako points and nods his head. He slashes his staff in the air as a blade of air is created and cuts a path for the adventurers. " Our path awaits us." He gestures towards the entrance allowing others to lead.

    Turns out, most of the party had a similar idea: Use Air Magic. With the exception of Amalthea, who runs into issues when her sword clangs and sends up a spray of sparks. Ainkli visibly flinches from the sound, and turns on reflex to see it's only her, and gently laughs at the comment. Their combined efforts track down the cave entrance, though, with some relative ease, and so the party filters down into the dark.

    Only to find themselves at a literal crossroads with no Goblin Scout in sight. Ainkli puffs softly, then chants, "Secrets of the Stone..." And taps the bottom of her staff on the ground. She doesn't look terribly confident about her contribution at this juncture, but at least she's still trying.

The little party finds were the Goblin slipped into the caverns below, but almost immeadiately are confronted with figuring out -which- one it is. "I knew the Goblins prefered underground and that's why they fight with the Gnomes and Pooka so much, but not all of these can be natural." The wolfgirl crouches again, resting her hand on the ground. But it's mainly to balance herself as she leans forward, her ears angled up and twitching to try and pick up any sounds. There's some scuff and boot marks on the rock, but nothing really indictive until she stands up again and points. "That way. I can hear movement... But that may mean he's no longer alone, so be on your guard."

    Miyako pauses as the tunnels split up before them. "Welp." She squats briefly, hands on her knees, peering at the tunnel floor. "This is going to be interesting." She pauses a moment, then nods. "Tracks go that way," she finally decides, pointing at the same tunnel as Shiruba. "Yeah, be ready for a fight."

    Setsuna looks from one path to the other to the other and then looks back at the party. "I mean how fast can goblins dig? Has that ever been tested? Maybe they have some weird tunneling magic." To help determine the path he looks down and smiles, "The goblin just tracked the outside in..." Placing his hand on a small spot of dirt and mud Setsuna speaks, "That which has rotten and burned. I summon life back into you to guide us along our path." Small speckles of green grass can now be seen in constrast to the tunnels. To confirm the others choice and readies for combat as others suggest it.

    Amalthea's shoulders lift into a shrug, still offering Ainkli that warm smile as the were-fang laughs. Can't always find the right path, eh?    Entering the underground is one thing. Losing the blighted little goblin in the passages though. That's not good. Amalthea spends a beat pursing her lips before she examines her surroundings. Much like Shiruba she takes to a knee.
    "Footprints. These are fre-. Yep."

"Is it so surprising that they dig their own tunnels? Goblins have many of the trappings of civilization, you know. Clothes, tools, weapons, religions and poisons. If a den of goblins grows populous enough, they're more likely to try and expand their existing den than to just move into another, larger cave unless they think they can make a sizable upgrade." Prophylaxis' eyes shine ominously in the firelit tunnel, the glassy, crimson things reflecting the glow of torches and magic lighting alike. "It does present a problem though. Which way do we go...?"

Earth magic is actually one of those things Prophylaxis does /better/ than fire. He prefers fireballs, don't get him wrong, but the unique blend of everything that went into his character generation means that he's better at chucking rocks at people's heads... Or in this case, sending a nigh-undetectable tremor pulsing through the stone and the soil, and then picking it up as it returns to produce a makeshift mental image of the surrounding area. Earth magic! It's useful!!

"I /think/ I've got an idea of where to go," he murmurs, then points down a seemingly random tunnel half-covered by what looks like a crude wooden totem, "That way. Pretty well-hidden, huh? They might have intentionally turned this place into a maze to set up ambushes too, we should be careful."

    Ainkli's spell doesn't divine much, getting a frustrated knitting of her brow for a moment. But then the others more than make up for her failure, tracing their way through the tunnels to a spot where some Hobgoblins stand watch, ready to impede their progress further into the caverns. The pair of goblinoids lift their weapons and snarl toward the intruders, advancing on the group in preparation of driving them off. They're very big compared to the smaller Goblins!

    Ainkli has a good reply to their growling, though. A stern phrase. "Anchor Howl." A burst of light shines up from around her, making her the focal point, a proper tank initiating the battle. If they attack the rest of the party, they're sure to get bludgeoned for their attempt.

    "Bring it," she speaks, steady and vicious, unlike her usual glum demeanor. It's time to fight, guys, to see what these Hobgoblins have been appointed to guard!

Shiruba pauses at the opposite end of the tunnel as the guards are spotted, since from a distance is her best range. She notches back an arrow with an obsidian arrowhead, mutters something under her breath, and fires. Halfway down the tunnel the arrow magically splits, forming two bolts of darkness instead, that expand to engulf the senses of the two guards. "Get them while they're blind!"

"Hobs, huh," Prophylaxis wrinkles his nose, and only half because of the awful smell. Ainkli advances to serve as primary tank, and Prophylaxis is more than willing to let her do so. What's he going to do with his squishy caster build? Soak one or two hits and then turn into a literal meat shield!?

He thinks for a moment on what to do in the present situation. On the one hand, these are hobs and hobs burn real nice (as do most goblinoids), but on the other... They're in a tunnel, have several melee classes, and there's no telling whether there's going to be a small goblin army waiting behind door number one over there, and there are only two of these hobs to deal with by comparison. Fireball... would be something of a waste.

So instead, Prophylaxis' hands weave a complicated gesture as a ring of frigid, wintery air briefly sparkles around his neck like a frosty collar. "O' distant lady of winter, I call upon your memory and with your blessing smite my foes with thine frigid wrath...!" His HP ticks down ever so slightly as he focuses on finishing the spell... and finally directs the head of his staff at the further-back hob with a shout, "FROST SHOCK!"

Instantly, the hobgoblin is frozen solid, his meager armor shattering from the sudden temperature drop. He's not /dead/ by any stretch of the imagination, but for the moment, one of the hobs is out of the fight. "Focus on the hob that's still standing! Let's take this one at a time!"

    Miyako chuckles lightly as the darkness engulfs the hobgobs. "Well, if you want to make it /easy/," she mutters, lifting a hand to scribe a few runes in the air. "I mean, it's not like we couldn't have just taken them easily." She shrugs and completes the spell, slashing her hand across the runes to send them out at the creatures in a wave of shadows. "Nah, let's just blast them all at once."

    Setsuna's magic continues to lead him all the way to the goblin as the group assassinates him with ease as he looks at the guards. "Through there huh?" As the attack begins Setsuna smiles, "Finally no more sneaking." He unleashes a wave of magic and throws it down the tunnel, no element, no special spells, just plain raw magic. Meant to shove the still standing hobgoblin far out of the way. "Its much more fun to blast them all at once," The necromancer says in response to Miyako.

    Following the smaller goblin, of course, naturally, leads to bigger goblins. The two hobs that start advancing on the party.
    "Anch--"
    Ainkli beats her to it.
    That's entirely fair, and it makes the old Aincrad raiding tank chuckle to herself as she lets the younger tank-healer take the aggro, opting to maximize her DPS in the heat of the moment, instead, while the Hobs have their attention on Ainkli.

    With a combo of magic and judicious tank work, the party handily defeats the pair of Hobgoblins. Ainkli spares a moment doing a habitual inspection of everyone's HP as the shards from the second Hobgoblin fade into the air, disappearing like digital smoke. She smiles to Amalthea, briefly, having recognized the woman almost using the same ability in the heat of the moment. "Thanks, good thinking on your toes. Aggro management is important," she says to Amalthea, pleased the woman switched tracks so quickly.

    "Alright." A grim nod, and she turns to enter the next chamber... There, they see a sight of dark magic, a shaman in the process of tainting the forest further with its terrible magic. "That's not okay at all... Hey guys, remember that symbol on the shaman for later, it might be important," she says, and steps into position to start the fight without another thought on the matter, even as the goblinoid caster lets out its cry of alarm and reinforcements can be heard incoming. "Alright. Go time again...! Amalthea, you got the rear? I got the shaman!"

    Setsuna lets the others leave the tunnel and calls out the attack and waits. He waits until all his party members are out of the tunnel before he sits down and crosses his legs. Necromancy was originally a ritual magic, just everyone now and days uses it as a quick spell. So he preps and takes the moment to cast as his magic circle appears under him as he closes his eyes and just breathes for a matter of moments, to steady himself. "I reach to the farthest fathoms of the earth, the soul of the fallen are needed here. Come and reap the enemies , come and save the land, come and do my bidding."
     Skeleton warriors begin to pour into the chamber from the walls themselves as they begin to target all the goblins and hobglins they can. It was almost as if they were cognitive , picking targets left and right. Anything the others missed, Setsuna's minions would cover. Eventually the spell would fade and anyone who checks on the necromancer may see his mana is at an all time zero.

Time for the showdown. "Get ready," he says as the door swings open, revealing... A shaman in the middle of some foul ritual. The Magus' eyelids flicker open-and-shut like a camera shutter at the sight of the emblem on the goblin's tabard, perhaps trying to commit it to memory just in case it becomes important at some point in the near future. "Sounds like he's got some friends. I'll take them out--"

It seems like a simple task, setting fire to a whole bunch of goblins and their high priest in an underground chamber full of flammable things and nowhere to run, but as Prophylaxis is spinning up that favorite spell of his, he notices... The roots. There are so many of those roots, almost as if the entire forest might somehow be connected to this one chamber in a deep and meaningful way. With a hissed curse, he low-balls his conjured explosive, the projectile sailing into the swarm of goblins and exploding close to the rear of their formation. Only a handful of the creatures are caught in the blast, leaving the vast majority unmolested and Prophylaxis' MP bar at dangerously low levels.

"Damnit, can't be reckless with AoEs in here!" Prophylaxis shouts, reverting to hurling veritable magic missiles into the still swarming goblins, "I'm sticking to basic magic projectiles for now!"

Hopefully that'll be enough...!

The Wolf Cait Sith's ears snap up, not at the Shaman's cries, but at the sound of movement in the other passages because of it. "Don't let them surround us!" she barks, almost literally. This is why she is all too happy to let the Tanks take the lead and be a wall.

She reachs for her quiver, but after a moment of thought grabs a handful of the guality normal arrows she gets from Miho for times like this. There's enough spell slingers in the room, she needs to be the archer that is the core of her classes. "Get that Shaman!"

One of the first goblins to run into the room keels over and pixelates as an arrow criticals right through his chest. "I'll help hold these punks off." Another staggers as an arrow is put through his knee, shattering it. A third gets shot in the eye, causing him to swing wild and slam one of the others behind him. Arrow, arrow, arrow, almost every one a precise and vicious shot even without magic.

"THIS IS FOR THE FOREST YOU CRETIANOUS CAVERN CRAWLING CLODS!" the young wolfgirl howls, letting some of that rage and frustration out.

    Miyako just shakes her head. She's been getting sick and tired of goblins lately. Wiping out one or two at a time... boring. This is more like it.

    Laughing maniacally, she leaps forward, slashing at the shaman with her naginata, only to watch it duck out of the way and flee. Still laughing, she keeps chasing the little (REDACTED) around the cavern as she continues trying to cut it down, watching it trip and stumble and duck and weave out of her way.

    "Stand still and DIE you stupid goblin!" she yells at it. And eventually, someone - someone else, unfortunately - 'persuades' it to do just that.

    "It would have just been a fiasco of a tanking blunder if I stole aggro." Amalthea says matter of factly. "And... Far be it from me to steal a youngun's thunder, right?" She adds with a knowing wink Ainkli's way.
    Into the next chamber though, as soon as the shaman lets out that screech, Amalthea is on her guard.
    "Right, I'll take the rear. Nothing will get past me." She says solemnly as she readies herself.

    "ANCHOR HOWL."

    Now it's her turn to glow brilliantly and attract all the aggro onto herself as she tears into the adds that pour into the room.

    Ainkli is not suitably prepared to deal with a foe using Arcane Magic on her, which serves to throw her way off her game, enough that she can't keep the others from getting hit by the Dark spells. The party ends up in a pickle halfway through. The goblins are surging in, and it takes active effort not to be forced to retreat in the middle of the fight. By the end of it, Ainkli's HP is actually looking kind of gnarly, and she has those cartoonish little teardrops around her eyes.

    She's pouting. She doesn't feel good about her contribution toward the end. But the goblins are cleared out, and when more don't show up to replenish the mob, she begins casting Light magic and using her Pharmacy skills to repair the roots. "I'll work on collapsing the tunnel entrances later, so the little blighters can't just repopulate the caverns in this area. We don't need more in this area of the forest. But I doubt this is the only cavern out here to deal with in Eastal..." Knowing Goblins and all...

    "Huh." The reward they scrounge for this is interesting. She spends a moment inspecting the token, and then stores it away for later in her inventory.

    To wrap things up, Ainkli makes sure to collect everyone onto her Friends list, so that she can contact them later, sending them each an invite.

    With the goblins handled, Amalthea sheaths her blade and... Kneels, picking up one of the left over icons, brow knotting. "This is..." She murmurs.
    "If it's the same thing Merek's used, and what was handed over to those mage tower people... This is an Enigma piece." She says.
    "Specifically the kind that allows you to see afar, or even into the future."

Shiruba picks up one of the items left behind from defeating the shaman and his minions. "Oooooh this is where Merek got it from."

There is, for a moment as she stares at it, a question she could ask of it. She'd seen what this Enigma Piece does. It would...

No. Shiruba stuffs it away in her inventory.

She is going to do that with her own skills, her own determination, and fulfill the promises she made to do so! Otherwise it would just be a shallow succees with little purpose to it.

"I can help knock down tunnels, I've got some good Earth shaking arrows." Other endeavors are still going to have to wait a bit.

"Mmmmmn, I don't think I've actually /got/ any medicine for plants," Prophylaxis says, peering at the rather sickly-looking roots winding through the ceiling of the tunnel. "Got plenty for animals and people, but this? I'm going to need to whip up something special for this," and not with the equipment and ingredients he has on hand. The Doctor of Tolbana shakes his head slowly and goes to claim his prize...

Something that seems very familiar to his eye. "This is... an oracle....!"

The crystal ball disappears quickly into the Magus' inventory. "We'd best hang on to these, in case we ever need a question answered in a hurry."

    Setsuna walk out of the tunnel slowly , he kinda dropped all his magic reserves on that last spell as he walks up and looks at the group, " Glad to see everyone made it." He takes his loot as well and blinks, " Hey this is pretty nice." He shows very little emotion about it as he places in the inventory, he would jump up and down excited about it later, when the exhaustion debuff was gone. " So then whats next? " As if he was in any state to keep going.

    Watching the shamandie, Miyako smiles narrowly. It's been a chase, and she didn't even get the final kill. Ah well. SHe shrugs. "At least this bunch won't be up to any more shenanigans," she says, and reaches down to pick up a bauble from the ruins. "There any more around?"