Duty Session 172: Goblin Scouts in the Field

This world does things to you.

One of the things that it did to Uta, among many, was to cast her as a medical professional. And when you work in a hospital, one of the things you learn is to adapt to a flexible sleeping schedule when the need arises.

That is how Uta managed to wake up before the crack of dawn. She equipped her trusty newbie gear and snuck away from Baroness Wake's camp. She left an apologetic note about "needing to carry out a duty or two for the Hunter's guild" (without specifying which) and slipped off with the assistance of her racial Sneaking skills and elemental Dark cloaking.

"There we are," she says, as she arrives at a rest stop where Pekos are exchanged. "I... I think Wake had told me something about herself that might be relevant about how hard it would be for her to track me, right now..." she mumbles while rubbing her temple. "...dang brain. Don't fail me now. Just /remember/ it." She sighs. "Ok, today is one of those days where you don't cooperate, eh? Fine. I'm sure it wasn't important anyway."

Confident, she approaches the area where the Hunter's guild members get ready to assist a cart.

    One must get up very, very early in the morning to evade the notice of Wake. Especially at her own camp. Factor in that she had this great idea for a new outfit for Uta to use when she assists in the next diplomatic mission (she /will/ be helping, she just doesn't know it yet), and you have a very stalky Baroness. Not just stalky, but essentially invisible.

    The Baroness emerges from the shadows near Uta. "You know, it occurred to me that whatever it is you are working on might inspire some new ideas for me," she says to Uta. "Oh, and also good morning!" She holds out a hand, offering a neatly wrapped package, "Tae wanted you to eat a decent breakfast when you inevitably tried to sneak away."

Goldenblade has come in response to a Hunters' Guild notice. There's more goblins around, it seems, and there's some need for protection. She smiles as she spots Uta and Wake, and will head on over, guessing that she's part of whatever's going on. "Hey," she calls out, and will make her way closer. "How's it going?" She's munching a bit of something. Menu food, but she's had worse, and it'll keep her from starving to death. Anything else is luxury.

Among the members of the Hunter's guild is one Kita Blackthorne. The gothically dressed Imp leans against the side of the cart, looking as if she were not entirely invested in her current situation. In fact, she seems to be working on some drawings that look to be of plantlife. There seems to be a 'master page' which she is copying the artwork from, duplicating it onto additional pages behind it.

It's familiar voices that have her looking up, pushing her glasses up on her nose as she offers a faint smile to the arrivals. "Good day." She offers, closing the book and tucking the pencil behind her ear before using her delicate fingers to stow the sketches into her inventory. "I heard there was some coin to be made in this quest so..." She shrugs, shifting her weight.

"Though, I'm not exactly a fan of goblins. So I'll probably lurk towards the back of the group. Goldenblade usually knows how to handle the melee fighting, anyways." Kita offers.

Uta jumps at Wake's words, startled. "Cerulean!", she blurts out in what was supposed to be a greeting. "...I mean, good morning Lady Bombast! What a surprise to see you here! I-" She looks down at the package. Up at Wake. Down at the package. "...I am that predictable, aren't I?" She accepts the package, taking it with both hands, and bows in gratitude. "It will be a honor and a joy to partake in this delicious offer as soon as the time is ripe."

Her stomach growls.

"The time is ripe," she announces with a solemn nod, and opens the package to take care of it.

"Hey, Goldenblade!", she greets as the person mentioned approaches. "It's going well. How's life treating you?"

Kita makes her appearance next, and Uta's response to her is, "It's okay, Kita. I'm not really sure of how to handle the fight myself. That doesn't stop me from fighting anyway."

The party begins their march forward, with Uta leading the way. Not a long time after they left, Uta's staff, which she uses as a walking stick, triggers a trap. "...Oh no," she says, terrified, as she pulls it up to study the item. "I hope it didn't chip away the lacquer job. These enchanted items cost a fortune to repair!"

"I'm just not so fond of getting up close and personal." Kita replies, shaking her head as she lightly tips the brim of her witch's hat downward, "Especially with goblins."

Perhaps it is that hesitance that has her lingering back, even as Uta seems to trigger one of the initial traps. "Uh..." Her eyes dart around with uncertainty. Mages are not exactly the most skilled at trying to evade such things.

At first, she hops over what looks to be an obvious pitfall... except she lands right in a less obvious one. The Imp ends up just barely able to catch herself on the edge, dangling downward. Her wings flap ineffectually. "Uh... little help!?" Her voice squeaks as she tries to hang on to the damp earth.

Goldenblade grins to Kita, but nods. She's an in-your-face type. "That's me," she says with a chuckle. She smiles to Uta, and replies, "Oh. I'm busy as anything. All kinds of things going on. But I like to keep busy, you know?" She doesn't hang out idle very well.

She will head out with the party, and when Uta finds the trap, she will peer carefully around. Traps! Why did it have to be traps? She's not good at finding them, except by stepping on them. But she's helluva fast when she needs to be. So fast, that she leaves a trail of flames where she's been, not unlike certain deLoreans. She keeps ahead of the traps, and she leaves a scortched trail others can follow, besides.

    "I'm afraid, my dear Uta, that you are pretty easy to anticipate. But we all love you, so it just means we are better able to offer our adoration in our own special ways." The Baroness laughs gently, reaching out to set a comforting hand on Uta's shoulder. "But I assure you, your stealth is quite good. Had I not been waiting, it would have likely proven quite difficult."
    She offers a curtsey of greeting to both Kita and Goldenblade. "How delightful that we can be together on this little holiday!" It's unclear that Wake knows how vacations really work, but perhaps facing danger is just an amusement to her after spending so long working on diplomacy.

    Confronted with traps-and lots of them-Wake sighs. "I guess we'll be tip-toeing through the daisies, then. Goldenblade, could you.." She trails off, smiling as the trail of fire springs ahead. "Yes, that, exactly!" Still, there is a little bit of picking through the path to do, but after the fire does its work, it proves trivial to make the way through.

Uta blushes a bit at Wake's kind words and gesture of affection. She doesn't say anything but "Thank you," but her gratitude is sincere, and it's clear she's touched.

"Good that you keep busy, Paula," she replies to Goldenblade. "Given how busy you keep yourself, I'm surprised you went for a human as a race, as opposed to a bee cait sith." She frowns. "Or do bees count as monsters in this world, thus making it more like... a bee were fang?" She looks away, tapping her chin. "Do we even have bees? Or do we have something like... I don't know, buzz-bugs? What with the alternate naming for-" She turns to look at where Goldenblade was, which now shows only a trail of flames.

She begins to subconsciously hum a music theme by Alan Silvestri and not really knowing why, when Kita's call for help comes. "Oh! Kita! No, here I come!"

She rushes to her friend's help, only to discover that, well, traps are chained to the ground. Otherwise they wouldn't be much help. And since she was holding tight onto her staff as she was running, she's pulled back and thrusted to the ground. Where four or five more traps snap and cover her ind flashing red marks. Her HP bar takes quite a beating. "...Oooouch... little help here?" Despite her plead, she has begun attempting to free her herself. In an attempt to lighten the tension, she begins making small chat with Kita. "Yes... I am also not a big fan of Goblins to be fair. I've heard stories. Very scary stories. I have zero or less intention to find out if they're accur-" Uta turns. A party of goblins armed with rudimentary weapons must have heard the noise, and are heading for the party. "...Oh no."

Luckily, it doesn't take much help to pull Kita up over the lip of the pit, where she ends up staring at the injuries that Uta has sustained in the process. "I'm... afraid I don't have healing magic." Knees scraped and dress muddied, Kita offers the Spriggan a hand as she gets to her own feet, looking a little worse for wear for the encounter with the traps.

She freezes when Uta murmurs that 'oh no'. Turning, Kita is quick to lash out with an instinctive magical spell. Usually, she utilizes her spellbook, but in this case it is such a fast reaction that it comes as a simple blast of dark magic that sizzles from her fingertips, slamming into one of the goblins. "Don't let them get too close. Uta is injured."

Goldenblade gives Wake a thumbs-up gesture as they team up to get the party through the traps safely. She blinks as Uta uses her fullname, which she doesn't normally use, or sometimes remember. As to why she chose human, she says with a shrug, "I never felt like I needed to be something different." Whith Uta and Kita calling for help, she shouts, "Use my backtrail!" The scortched earth and sprung traps may provide a clear way.

That little obstacle avoided, she proceeds onward with the rest of the party, falling quiet as we spot the goblin scouts. This is where she does just what Kita had said she would, and rushes in, both swords drawn, and starts stabbing goblins. They're not tough, these scouts, nor well-armored, and they're quick work for her and the rest of the party with comparitively little effort. Well, they're pretty capable, as adventurers go.

With a stab stab here and a stab stab there. Here, a stab, there, a stab, everywhere a stab-stab. Goldenblade, she had a fight. E-I-E-I-O.

    Goblins? Wake takes one look at them and bursts into laughter. If they had a clue at all, that would be a hint of how bad it is to be here now. As little practice as Wake has had lately, some rust would be expected. But honestly, it doesn't show.

    The laughter ends and Wake is just right on the enemies, doing her best impression of Bruce Lee. In quick succession she reduces several goblins to pixels, then looks very disappointed that there simply aren't dozens more to face. She didn't even get to break a sweat.

    "You know, I was really hoping for goblin hordes or something. I need a work out here! How can I maintain my girlish figure if these guys skimp on the numbers?" Wake's grumbling is interrupted as she switches tack, "You know, I am not sure what the ideal clothes are for goblin battles.. perhaps orange?"

Uta tries to speak to Kita in as soothing a tone as she manages through gnashed teeth, "I do have some healing magic, but it makes no sense to cast it until I've removed all the traps, or their serrated edge will keep inflicting damage." She winces and moans as she opens another trap and the jerky movement makes the point of contact with a different trap glow brighter. She yells a muffled scream of pain, but then turns to Kita. "Don't worry...", she says, smirking at her "It's just a flash wound." Her words are reassuring, but her heart is pounding with terror at the approaching threat.

Once freed completely, Uta begins singing a strange song, kind of like a slow pop. When her staff glows, she traces a vertical line with the light, then an arc of a circle, before moving it up again. The light traced by the symbol moves to envelope her, and her HP bar raises.

After she repeats the ritual a second time, most of her health is back. With a smile, she explains, "It's a little thing I've been working on. I'm not sure what to call it, but the current working name is 'Nothing Repairs like two Us'"

Uta stares in disbelief at Wake, "...you /want/ to face Goblins?! How..." But when Wake does short work of most of them, she decides it's safe enough to jump into the fray and punch a few of her own, joining the Baroness in a dance of pain. "Wow, I didn't know you were good at melee as well. Maybe we should exchange tricks."

Once the goblin gang has been dealt with, the party can proceed further. Along the way, they meet a different kind of menace: an outcast Goblin, wearing armor. Bigger. Tougher. And ready to start a battle.

Goldenblade ehs to Wake and wonders, "Orange? This isn't a chain gang, you know..." Having made short work of the goblin trash mobs, she follows the others pausing as we encounter a much more menacing goblin. Armed, armored, bigger, he looks ready to fight, so Goldenblade will oblige him. "Time to take out the trash," she says, both blades whirling around, ticking off HP from the goblin with each twirl. She's relentless, dodging back when he advances, but striking fast whenever there's an opening.

    "I like hitting things," Wake says to Uta, sounding quite cheerful to share. "I have a lot of stress to address at the moment. And besides, did you see what they were /wearing/? So drab and predictable. I'm offended to fight enemies with such a lack of concern for their appearance, but I will do what must be done. And the scraps of armor they put together? The stitching quality is deplorable."

    It's hard to tell if she's serious or not. But then another goblin shows up. "Oohhh, he's bigger! I bet this will be so satisfying." Something has her in such a chipper mood today!

    She is humming something softly as she darts in to slam her right and left fists in swift succession. A moment later, the inevitable counter attack comes, but it's so slow to Wake that she attacks again, her right foot pushing off the left knee of the goblin and throws her skyward, doing a backflip and kicking the Goblin's jaw as hard as she possibly can on the way.

    "Now /this/ is more like it!" she gushes in excitement. She sounds almost bubbly!

A person can certainly be told not to worry, but usually it has the opposite effect. The goblin attack, however, keeps Kita from focusing too much on anything other than trying to keep them away from herself and Uta. The Imp certainly doesn't have the attitude of a fighter, even her tail twitches, showing some of those inner nerves.

There is a few spare moments where she can catch her breath, but not long before the armored goblin shows itself. "Alright... let's see if we can manage something."

This time, she utilizes her spellbook, swiping a few runic symbols in the air and then forming it into a condensed ball of elemental magic. There are hints of sparks at the edge as she chucks the ball towards the goblin's armor, trying to zap it from the outside.

Goldenblade's swords do a good job at docking down those HPs, and soon Wake is providing her own contribution to this endeavour.

Uta is all caught up in conversation. "Wow! We have a lot in common! I didn't know I liked to hit things back home, but now that I'm trapped here, I have discovered just how enjoyable, and at times even therapeutic, it can be." She lets Wake take the first go at the Goblin, listening to her explain her point. She doesn't say much, but an expression of worry passes over her face. Is... is getting punched by Wake a possible outcome of not respecting her exacting fashion requirements? This makes the situation even more tangled than she originally imagined. And to think she used to believe that she had things hard with /Gwen/...

Once Wake is done, Uta will jump in. "See, I like to punch things...", and she demonstrates by throwing a fist at the Goblin, which grabs it. "...Kick them..." She jumps up and wraps one leg around the arm that is holding onto her fist, and takes that as leverage to send a kick to the Goblin's jaw. Again, the Goblin is quick, and grabs the Spriggan's kicking leg with his other arm. "...but my favorite part?" With her free hand, she slams her staff on the Goblin's helmet. "Hitting things with a stick!", she beans, and the loud clanging noise of the blow is accompanied by a dramatic dock in the monster's HP; he lets go of Uta to grab his head, possibly in pain.

Kita's ball strikes true right at this moment, and shatters the monster in a shower of polygons.

Uta cheers on the whole team, and on Kita in particular. "See? You saved the day, congratulations! Now..." She goes serious and looks at the path ahead. "...how about we try to scout goblins scout before they scout us? Like... some sort of... counterscouting?"

Goldenblade nods to Uta about scouting, though she's got no particular skill at it. Still, goblins aren't neat creatures, and following the trail of empty soda cans, snickers wrappers, and discarded cigarette butts is not much of a challenge. Well, that's how Goldenblade is sort of imagining her tracking. She's actually following junk the goblins have left behind, so more like old pieces of cloth, discarded chicken bones, and the like. Either way, she manages to make her way through.

"Hah... I'd hardly call that saving the day." Kita replies, tucking her hands around her spellbook. The Imp certainly has some self-depreciating qualities about her, especially when it comes to fighting. "But thanks, regardless."

While her attire might suggest she cares about appearances, Kita doesn't seem bothered by treking through the wilderness with mud across her dress and splattered on her legs. So, it may look surprising when she crouches down, looking at the area around them, even going so far as to touch her fingertips to the dirt.

"I'm not an expert with tracking, not by a long shot, but... looks pretty obvious that they went that way. Tracks, refuse..." She scrunches her nose, "The smell..."

    "It's nice when a problem has a direct solution, isn't it?" Wake says to Uta. "I mean, after spending hours upon hours negotiating and bowing and persuading.. it's just so nice to simply hit a problem until it stops moving!" She laughs playfully, reaching up to brushing her hair back.

    "Counter scouting?" She grins at Uta, gives her a most amused look, and turns her attention to searching. Tracking could work, but she's better at just using her eyes, ears, and nose to figure out where things are. Coordinating with the expert work of the others on the team, it's not long before she does catch sight of something of use.

    "Wow! You see that?" She points off into the distance. "The way the land slopes, and the play of light on the landscape.. it gives me a solution to this horrible dillemma that's been wracking my brain for some time. The bodice should be a simple green, not something elaborate!" A pause, "Also I think the shape of the land indicates a cave."

Uta just follows the rest of the group at this point. They seem to have everything figured out. First Goldenblade leads the way through following the trash, then Kita follows the dirt (and the muddy state of her otherwise elegant-looking dress gets Uta to cast a few worried glances between Kita and Wake -- how is this going to end up?), and finally Wake announces there's a cave ahead.

The team proceeds that way, and sure enough, the source of the Goblins has been found: the cave Wake expected is indeed there, and once the team is inside, well... an arrow flies by the team. Uta turns towards the direction the arrow came from.

It is a mistake: a bunch of goblins emerges from the /opposite/ direction right at that moment, and most of them seem to target Kita and Uta in particular, probably recognizing them as the team's casters, hence in need to be subdued first...

Goldenblade rushes to defend Uta and Kita. It turns out to be a mistake, she's a DPS-type, and she's absolutely no good at defending others. Well, sort of no good. She's excellent at drawing aggro, and at taking a beatdown, HP falling faster than a brick from a skyscraper. Which is kind of misleading. A brick falls as fast as anything else, gravity affects all things equally. It just hits super hard when it lands on your face. That's what she actually feels like. Brick in the face. Facebrick.

As an arrow flies past, Kita is almost immediately on the defensive. The The fact that even more goblins join the fray, seemingly lead by the ranger that fired that arrow... well, it puts her into immediate fight or flight mode.

And for Kita, the default is: FLIGHT. Her eyes go wide. Her fingers quickly draw out runes into the air which extend into a bubble around herself as she backs up, dodging, blocking, and otherwise just getting the hell away from as many of the goblins as possible.

It isn't every effective in eliminating them, but it does have the effect of distracting them, leaving them vulnerable for others to take them out.

    "Oh look, more of them." Wake is.. is that giggling? She can't help herself. She races at the ranger, somehow striking without slowing down. Sure, it's not enough time to eliminate them as she runs through, but she does at least break wrists, ankles, fingers, you know, leaving each with something to remember her by!

    Since she's inspired at the moment, she leaps over the last bit of distance, falling into a deep crouch and then jumping straight up to bash the ranger with an uppercut.

    When she lands she bounces on her toes. And that's about the time the unthinkable happens. Wake notices that the goblin got blood on her clothes. Her eyes draw to slits and she goes into an all-out assault. It's not nice, but it is remarkably aggressive and apparently quite deadly, too.

The Goblins have identified Uta as a caster, which means that her skill as a melee fighter comes as a surprise to them. Headbutts, knees in the sides and roundhouse kicks to the face are distributed liberally, and once she's taken care of the goblins meant for her, she follows in Kita's wake delivering the needed amount of damage. She's about to rush in Wake's support, only to notice... the blood. And the reaction. In a terrified 'NOPE NOPE NOPE' scramble, she heads to provide some help to Goldenblade instead. That should be less deadly than accidentally ending up between Wake and Those-Who-Stanied-Her-Clothes...

Once the cave has been cleared, and the last goblin eliminated, the party emerges into a field. "...we did it! We actually did it! We got rid of them!" She turns towards the other adventurers. "This calls for a celebration!"

Goldenblade looks relieved as Uta comes to relieve her. "I guess I goofed that one up," she admits, but the others are more than capable of handling the fight, it seems, and then it's all over. "Looks like we won, yeah," she agrees, and smirks about the celebration. "I'll buy you a beer back at the Crescent Inn?" she suggests.

    When the ranger is reduced to pixels, Wake turns a baleful glare on the last two goblins near her. They look back at her for a moment, then immediately turn tail and race away. It's actually frustrating, cause Wake really wants to hit them some more!

    It takes a moment, but she slowly, with great fear in her eyes, looks down to examine The Right Clothes of the day (a long skirt slit for ease of movement, a tight fighting, short sleeve top, and a pair of boots that fit like a dream, all in complimenting tones of dark blue). She reaches down to the offending spot and plucks at it, drawing away a tiny red leaf.

    "Oh. It wasn't blood after all! Thank goodness!" Wake turns to examine the others, blinking a few times as she lets the little leaf fall to the ground. "Disaster averted, there! Everything is okay! How are you guys doing?"