Duty Session 175: Clearing Castle Eas

    With the call for adventurers to clear Castle Eas going out with the blessing of the Hunter's Guild, it didn't take long for Wake to arrive at the foothills. In fact, she has a camp right here at the origin point of the duty. It's good to take a break from her endless critique of the ideal things to wear for the next meeting with nobles. But the lay of the collars is still in the back of her head as she stands ready.

    Speaking of clothing, today The Right Clothes are designed for a difficult journey. Though the fit is skin tight, there's a wonderful stretch to the body suit that Wake has on, and the pants that go with it are just loose enough to be comfortable without adding offensive sound to her motions.

    Merek seems to be thinking about music, and bringing the man to be singing to himself, while he takes the time to adjust all his equipment. There's a shift of the sword along the back while he takes a moment to pull the hood up to his features, scarf adjusted along the face.

    Wisteria is always down for checking out new places, and a new castle that will be overrun by Adventurers soon... THAT needs to be investigated for glitches and errors before it becomes occupied. So of course she's happy to help clear the place out. The tall albino girl arrives wearing her usual purple kimono and bouncing on her toes looking excited.

Schneider always wears the right clothes also, though as he only has one outfit, the right clothes don't actually change day by day. On the other hand, men's clothes don't vary the way women's clothes do, so that may be the reason. He may also be the only one who thinks he's wearing the right clothes. White tank-top and black leather pants -are- classic anywhere, though, so he may have simply stumbled into a good deal.

But he's showed up to the advance camp where they said a mission was being offered, so he will show up, smile winningly, and wait to see what's in the offing. He introduces himself as, "Schneider. Dark Schneider."

    Setsuna took up the offer from the hunters guild and made the trek to the meet up spot for the castle, stepping into the camp and looking around. " So thats the castle we have to go clean up right?" He says as he looks towards Castle Eas, " Any idea what we may run into in there?"

And not far behind the future mistress of the castle is her Favorite Nightmare. Kauchemar has both personal and professional interest in the Castle Eas affairs, so here she is.

Not like it would of taken her long to find out Wake was ready to move on with her plans, she's the one that usually ends up running the messages to get the word out for her.

    No doubt weeks of planning have gone into this. Weeks of preparation. Identifying the threat. Locating a suitable location for a base of operations. Setting it up. Creating the Hunter's Guild request. And no doubt Yuuki managed to avoid all of this work through one excuse or another.

    But that doesn't mean she's going to avoid the actual event itself! Hell no. She wouldn't miss it! So it's no surprise that she's here, currently sitting on a log, wiping her dark blade down with some oil while she waits for the rest of the group to arrive.

    All the while the Imp grins, saying out loud to no one in particular, "This is going to be great! So many mobs to kill. And we get a castle out of it at the end!" Yuuki pauses and looks at Wake, "Well. YOU get a castle. But I might borrow it from time to time."

Prophylaxis is here, dressed as he always is, looking vaguely like at any moment he's going to pull open a flap of that vaguely labcoat-like robe and reveal a selection of questionable drugs, miscellaneous brightly colored herbs, far too much ammunition and possibly one or more varieties of rocket launcher. But he does not, because he's not here on *that* kind of business.

Although he does look somewhat like he hasn't slept particularly well in the past few weeks.

"These kinds of places... Always have pretty decent loot, right? Hidden dungeons missing from the map and all."

Beat.

"Castle reclamation, huh...? Mm. If anyone gets hurt, please let me know. I'm working on a few experimental treatments, you see..."

Clearly Setsuna didn't hit him over the head hard enough the other day.

It's not that Syx doesn't like to do these kinds of things, he's just usually busy with things that aren't, trying to clear some weird castle. Like trying to clear the tower, but that's stalled out. So instead he's found himself tagging along with the others on this particular adventure, though from the way he's walking with his hands in his pockets, clearly his level of interest has not quite been piqued yet. Once he gets to the part where he gets to punch some bad guys though, he'll be a lot more into it.

    "We should expect orcs. Lots of them. With luck, the shaman won't decide to spin up a hurricane to greet us," says Wake. "Oh, my apologies, I should start properly." She dips into her customary curtsey, now elevated to something of artform with all her recent practice. "As most of you know, I am Baroness Wake." She makes a point to not expect others to remember her name. She surveys the team that has joined her and smiles, "I greatly appreciate your help with this. Today we will take a critical step not just in aiding a cause near to my heart and forwarding my dream, but helping those who have lost their homes and seek a secure refuge. The wanderers of Ezzo and many others will know peace here." She looks over to Yuuki and says, "Remember our first conversation after the Apocalypse? Really glad you are here to take yet another step along the way with me." With that, Wake turns to the work at hand.

    Initially, the path upwards is easy going. Eventually, though, the hills climb in eanest, eventually approaching a bridge. Wake, having been here before, is able to warn the party, "We should be cautious, a bridge lies ahead. When last I was here we met some resistance. Nothing deadly, but it could have gotten out of hand since we did stir things up quite a bit in that little trip."

    It seems that there is more trouble here now, as orcs are set on the bridge, armed with heavy tools and readying themselves to bring the whole thing down. Worse, they bear torches and are readying to burn the timbers. The fires are being set at this exact moment!

Schneider arches a brow at the mention of a castle. "That sounds pretty cool," he says. Also demonstrating that he did very little in the way of researching what this was supposed to be about. The self-styled Exploder Wizard mainly just needs to be pointed at a target, and fire happens. The orcs are a good example of a target.

However, there's something a bit more urgent that needs taking care of: The bridge is -on- fire. Well, that's not a complicated thing, is it? He reaches out, arms outstretched like holding a large beachball, ad he says solemnly, "Kaizard, aruzard, kisk! Hansay Glossik! Unleash total destruction! Sage of Hades, flood the world! GOGO!" Water from the river rises up like a rogue wave, twenty feet above the bridge surface, and falls onto it, sweeping away fires in that section, sweeping away the burning timbers and dousing the torches.

    Setsuna looks at the bridge and frowns at the matter as he sees the state of the bridge. Others here could worry about the orcs, he was going to focus on trying to make the bridge sturdy enough to cross. "Mother of nature, listen to my call. Vines and roots are needed here." His magic activates as vines and large roots begin to wrap around the bridge, pulling it all together into a single stable piece for now. It would likely hold for them to pass, but the vines and such would vanish once the magic ran out. " Ok bridge is stable, lets cross soon."

Kauchemar pauses for a moment. Then makes a face at the Orcs trying to demolish the bridge. "Guess they figured out what route we took before," she muses. "And a good thing we came when we did."

She tries to summon up some of the water to hurtle it at the fires, but some of the orcs are actually quick enough to step in the path of her water spray to shield their torches from being put out so easily. That's annoying. "Ugh, these monsters pick the worst times to actually be smart," complains the were fang with an aggitated snort out the nostrils.

    Seeing the bridge and it's status in danger and hmmms then nods her head and chants under her breath weaving a few deep green earth runes in the air before she stomps, several times. Each stomp of one small sandeled foot causes a pillar of stone to shoot from the ground below the bridge to prop it up. "There we go.. summoned stone doesn't last but it should at least make crossing possible." she draws her sword ready to charge into the orcs and start taking names after finishing the prerequisit rump kicking.

    Merek looks to the flame upon the bridge while he takes a moment to shimmer into being what looks like it's a blade of water into a hand. With that he swings that along to cover flames with water while it shimmers an electric ability along that. He then walks along through that bridge while he then would nod.

Onward they go, into the orc infested valley. If he remembers correctly, there's a mountain past the bridge, and then the place where some jerk turned the sky against them after the party got done murdering a warband of orcs. Prophylaxis makes a sound produced by every school teacher ever after discovering that their students decided that today was going to be the day they flipped every single desk and chair upside-down.

Because there are orcs on this bridge. Trying to set fire to it, like they almost did the last time. Prophylaxis sighs and taps his staff against the ground. A ball of stone obediently bursts from the earth-- and with a second tap, begins hurtling toward the orcs standing on the bridge.

As it builds up speed, the boulder also accumulates mass. Eventually, it grows almost large enough to knock the bridge over on its own! But not quite large enough. Instead, the effect is something like a bowling ball landing a perfect strike, except all the pins are orcs and the ball is a boulder.

    Yuuki jumps to her feet as the quest begins. She raises her sword into the air, "Onward! To adventure! And hopefully some good loot." The climb starts!

    And soon enough they encounter their first obstacle. A bridge. A familiar bridge. "Hey, didn't we almost burn this down before?" Well, looks like the orcs have learned from that encounter! As they appear to be trying to destroy the bridge themselves! Rude. Of course Yuuki isn't about to let htem! Which is why she picks up a random hammer lying near the bridge.

    Three months ago, Yuuki put a hole in the side of a landing boat when she tried to help fix it.

    Now, Yuuki is able to successfully hammer a nail into the wood without a repeat! Progress!

Driving off Orcs is one of Syx's specialities. Without much choice on how to do it, however, he opts to do something a bit less orthodox. Weaving in and out of the fires, he moves to close in on several of the orcs, and then scoops up one of the bricks that they had sledgehammered off of the bridge.

Kicking one of the sledgehammers up into the air, he then procedes to throw the rock upwards, snatch the sledgehammer out of the air, and then smash the brick with the sledgehammer, creating a veritable shotgun blast of rocks at the group of orcs.

    The orcs notice the adventurers just moments after they themselves are spotted. With harsh voices their commander orders them to hurry with their destruction. This results in some clumsy strokes of the hammer and swift application of fire to timbers.

    The fires, however, are swiftly overwhelmed as Merek and Schneider both douse them thorughly. As a happy side effect, the orcs themselves are also soaked through, and their torches reduced to worthless sticks.

    The hammer wielders fare no better, honestly. They initially swing at the bridge, but when Setsuna's magic calls up the very power of nature to protect the works, the orcs try their hand against them. Many a useless swing batters at vines and roots and nothing at all is achieved. One orc has been lowered along the side of the bridge and takes swings at the rising pillars of earth, only to have his handler let out a shriek of fear at the approach of the adventurers and let the line go loose. Armored as it is, the plunging orc is unlikely to have a pleasant swim in the waters below.

    Seeing matters are well in hand, Wake's blasts of water are directed at the orcs themselves, and she smiles as Prophylaxis opts for another elemental power to deal with the orcs this time. That it nearly damages the bridge doesn't count! What really matters is the most satisfactory way it sends orcs flying off the sides. Unfortunately for the handful of orcs that managed to get thrown up and land back on the bridge, Syx is still waiting to deal with them. They are blasted to a cloud of erupting pixels by that deadly shrapnel.

    The sight of Yuuki with a hammer is.. unexpected! "I didn't know you could do that," Wake murmurs. "Learn something new every day.." Onward!

    The terrain after the bridge ascends more aggressively, in a winding ribbon that cuts back again and again as it goes. Clearly this was a road meant for the passage of goods and carriages at one time. While it has not fared perfectly, it is in remarkable condition, considering the long passage of year. Eventually, the top is crested and a pass of sheer sides is found. "Last time we relied upon a secret way to return rather hastily. There's no reason we cannot use that again. I left a marker.. but.." But it's no longer there. "Bloody orcs found it, obviously.. we'll have to look for signs on our own."

Schneider smirks as the orcs are washed away from the bridge and drift toward the falls, frantically swimming shorewards. "They won't bother anyone again soon," he predicts. "Particularly if they go over the falls."

Climbing after crossing the bridge, and climbing the path, he blinks as they're told they'll have to find the path themselves. The words sound something like, "Blondobs Ession, MACE!" And ... something like a path is shown to him.

    Climibing the terrain as they go up towards the castle, Setsuna trudges on in the middle of the large party. At the mention of their secret path being lost he nods his head, " Spirits that dwell within the land, I summon you here , guide us along are path." Small sparkling orange spirit orbs would float up from the ground providing a clear path to the secret way in.

"I guess the Champion has more skills than fighting. Imagine that." Though when you think about it, a lot of weapons started as tools, and swinging a hammer or axe would be good for both strength and precision, so maybe it's not so weird after all.

Meanwhile the Party moves on. There was that secret path they used before, but as Wake noticed, the markers are gone. "I would hope the Orcs just cleaned them out without realizing what they were there for, or we might have bigger problems on our hands down the road... But I guess we need to find it again." The summoner makes a few gestures, and after the flickering of a summoning circle her Tabby Slime appears. Kauchemar crouchs down to mutter something in one of it's cat-like ears. The slime nya-plorts in return, and bounces off into the surrounding environement.

Minutes pass....

Kauchemar looks at her wrist, then remembers there is no watch for her to be wearing to look at and under what's taking so long.

Until there's a scraping scraping scraping sound, and she turns around to look at the Tabby Slime trying to drag a large rock around. "... That's not what is meant by look under every stone. I probably should of phrased it more literally, in hindsight." She sighs, and walks over to pick the slime back up. "Good effort, but not exactly the result I was looking for. I guess you still need some training to be a search aide."

Taking out Orcs is always one of the favorite things to do. Six tosses the sledgehammer over the side of the bridge once he's done using it as a makeshift weapon, "Takes care of those jerkoffs."

Now Syx ain't exactly number one when it comes to magic. But he does have a few tricks up his sleeve. Primarily tricks involving fire. He holds up his right hand, and forms a rather sizable ball of flames in it the group searches for the hidden entrance, hopefully providing some kind of light for the others to use to look.

    Merek looks to the pass, while he nods a bit. The man begins to use magic which shifts the ground along. The man assists that party with finding the path.

    Yuuki stands up, grinning at Wake and Kauchemar while spinning the hammer around her finger, "I'm full of surprises! And, well, I don't know about EVERY day. But I do try and learn something new now and then. When I'm bored."

    With the innocent bridge successfully saved from the horrible orcs, Yuuki continues forward. She already knows the way, having been up here before. Though when it comes time to find that secret entrance...

    Yuuki blinks, "Secret entrance? O-Oh... Right... That..." She totally remembers. Really! Thankfully, Yuuki has her Searching skill to back up her totally not terrible memory. And after a bit of looking around the area, some clues begin to light up in her view. She waves to the others, "Hey, guys! I think it's somewhere in this direction!" A good place to start, anyway!

"Yuuki is a multitalented young woman," Prophylaxis says with just a slight hint of vicarious pride in his tone. "You would do well not to underestimate her." Especially not because she's short. That just means she's at the perfect height to stab you in your kidneys!

The orcs are knocked flying from the bridge in a most satisfying way. The doctor seems quite pleased with himself over it, but that smugness is not to last! Because it turns out he was right. There is in fact a mountain to climb ahead of them.

...But this time, he's not so lucky in finding an appropriate path to follow. Whatever the orcs did, they really wrecked the way they took the last time.

"Hopefully they didn't knock enough rocks free to put us at risk of a landslide, but..." His caution possibly prevents the good doctor from being quite as effective at finding his way than he otherwise would have been. But maybe that's in part because he's also sticking relatively close to Yuuki in case of an orcish ambush...?

It's not safe to go alone, you see. She should take this (Doctor of Tolbana).

    Wisteria closes her eyes and chants drawing dark sigils in the air until she finaly says "Omen." and opens her eyes, glowing darkly as she looks around trying to locate the best path to take with magic.

    Finding lost entrances isn't always the easiest of things. And the pass is hardly small. Other than knowing what side it ought to be on, Wake can provide litte by way of general guidance.

    Fortunately, others are quite able to narrow things down. Starting with Schneider and Setsuna's work, the party draws closer to the target, guided by magic and the elements.

    The Baroness is waiting for the others to get them even closer. As she loiters, she laughs softly at the antics of the tabby slime. "Felines are ever known for being quite independent in their interpretation of orders," she observes tactfully. "And regardless, it's quite an adorable creature!"

    With the search area shrunk considerably, Syx's light and Merek's magic further break things down. The party can draw still closer with Wisteria's magic, until at least the place looks quite familiar to those who were here before... and while Yuuki's general direction at first seems general, it actually ends up being almost perfect. It's exactly what Wake needs to identify the door, in the end. "I really should take pains to remember the way this time around." Stupid orcs ruining her efforts last time!

    Now that it's found, the party is able to open the secret door. It swings open effortlessly, once one is able to locate it and makes the attempt. And once stepping inside, Wake realizes something. "It's a lot more confusing from this end." It's not exactly Moria from Lord of the Rings, but it's a pretty remarkable work nonetheless. Certainly there are enough twists and turns and ascents and descents to keep one merrily lost for weeks on end, or at least until their food runs out. Clearly the markings here mean something. Hopefully someone present can make heads or tales of them!

Schneider eyes the symbols here, all uncanny and mysterious. He reads one: "Library ahead, 25 yards." Another one reads, "Study on left." He says to the others, "These are pretty typical runes, you know." Apparently they do, because several other party members are reading them with no difficulty. "Not a problem."

    Merek looks to the writing while he nods a bit, "This one looks to be about the man that tried to eat the castle," the man notes, while he then takes a moment to adjust the hood back, pulling his scarf along while he takes a moment to lift up what looks like a lantern.

Kauchemar nods her head as she follows the group in. "It does look different from this direction, doesn't it." She hmms and takes a few steps forward. Then closes her eyes, and instead of her usual death metal scream proceeds to make a much more somber and ominous sound from deep in her throat. She continues to do so in intervals, while pacing her way down the passages. She's using the combination of sound off the rock and how the dark-infused waves interact with the patches of dark magic as a sort of arcane echolocation to help find her way.

    Yuuki will definitely have to remember where the entrance is for next time. Yup.

    Moving into the not-Moria, Yuuki squints in the darkness. Until she remembers she's an Imp. Darkness is her friend, peeps! Activating her inherent Darksight skill, Yuuki glances around, "Ahh, that's so much easier. Hmm... Looks like it's this way!" Yuuki walks off down a path...

    For a few seconds, before walking back, "Nope, dead end." Another look around, "Ah, definitely that way!" She walks off into another passage...

    And loops around back onto the main path again, "Did I say definitely? I meant definitely not."

    Hopefully no one is actually following Yuuki.

    Setsuna enters the tunnels and he can feel the magic everywhere, it is sending a chill down his spine as he looks about. So many options and yet he wasn't sure which way to go. Even his attempt to gather up the magic and turn it into something of use but he simply seems to be fumbling with the magic, " I am glad others are having success here, as I don't have a clue." With his defeat admited he just follows along for now.

Hey you know what does a good job of giving off light? Fire. And Syx has a huge fireball. He hucks it down the tunnel as far as he can manage once they discover the hidden passage, in order to use it like a veritable flare for them to see.

He's sure it's fine and it won't trigger any traps or bring any bad guys down on them.

It might be a good thing that someone is in fact following Yuuki, because that someone actually knows how to read the ancient gobbledegook that might tell them how to get back to the others! Or maybe these passages are some kind of ridiculous Benny Hill-style hallway and there's only really one way that leads to instant death, one that leads to their actual destination, and everything else just loops around on itself?

"You know," Prophylaxis says as he emerges from that same side-corridor, "I'm actually kind of impressed. I don't think I even noticed us turning around back the way we came there. Must be some kind of magic." Or just a really weirdly coded area? Prophylaxis shrugs and brushes some aeons-old dust off a set of words etched into the stone. "I've no idea what this is specifically trying to say, but it does look like there's an arrow pointing left at the next junction?"

It's too bad they couldn't mark the way they took the last time they were here.

    Wisteria pulls out her little black book and flips through it, compairing symbols and taking notes. The tall albino girl is surprisingly good at this kind of thing for a self proclamed jock.

    "I'm rather fortunate to have brought a group that could handle most raids to this encounter," Wake says gently. The presence of such a team is encouraging to say the least. Even if that weather shaman(?) dared to stick their nose in the business this time, she doubts it would end well for them.

    Indeed, it seems obvious that Schneider, Merek, Wisteria and Prophylaxis can read these symbols as easily as they can the game's menu. Perhaps they are aided by the very brilliant fireball launched along the straight path by Syx. Which fortunately doesn't start some kind of deadly fire!

    Wake makes a mental note of the cryptographers for future consideration. After all, cracking a code and building a secret code are complementary skills. She'll have a need for both someday.

    While Kauchemar's dark magic steers the party safely along the path agreed-upon by the others, Yuuki's able to umm.. ensure that other paths of interest are studied. Yes. That's certainly what she's very deliberately doing. Also enjoying something less than desirable results is Setsuna. "No doubt there's enough confusion here to make magical means tricky. I think some things may even run into old warding spells. Fortunately it seems we're making good progress," says Wake.

    "A pity we didn't mark the way we took the last time we were here." Huh, seems like someone else was just thinking that.. Funny how she doesn't bother marking the way this time, but rather just holds aloft a globe of light to drive back the shadows.

    The reward for getting through the mine is the dramatic view of Castle Eas, itself. Perched on a waterfall, the fortress is more than just a fortress. Even as ruins, it's breathtaking spires and domes can be seen amonst the spray. Baroness Wake takes it in for a time before allowing urgency to again drive her to hurry forward. The gem is in view, but so are orc fires. Before the party can enter the castle itself, the gate must be taken. There are orcs archers ready to fire and though the doors are broken, a heavy portcullis remains to overcome.

    "It's time to drive this filth from Castle Eas!" cries Wake. She's positively fired-up now that she stands on the threshold of what she considers her rightful home.

As the party makes it's circuitous path to the main gate, Schneider grimaces as it seems to be held against us. "More orcs," he says with a sigh. Not that he's afraid of a fight, of course, he's quite the scrapper, truth be told. When the enemy is sighted, he holds up a hand, chanting, "DAMEDO! Magic shield!" It's fast to cast because when you need protection, you need it in a hurry, and his magic shield indeed deflects the slings and arrows of outrageous orcs. They mad.

    Merek looks to the orcs while he takes a little bit of cover he finds to avoid bolts from that crossbow. The man begins to adjust his gauntlet while he takes a moment to shimmer into being what looks to be magic, which affects the mind of the orcs to make them easier for the party to fight.

    Wisteria smiles, it's not a friendly plesent smile, it's the smile she puts on for kendo matches. It's a smile of confidence and determination. Then she shifts, her fur growing and long ears appearing, and the smile goes from disconcerting to actually frightening with it's ragged rows of razor triangle sharklike teeth. "Finally, a fight. If I can't get glitches, I can at least get some fun." Then she's off, launching into the air and bouncing from one air rune to another with a rolling boom of thunder. When her large sandled foot lands on the parapet her sword flashes free and the first of her foes fulminates into flashes. Then she's off into the crowd on top of the gate, the feral hungry predators smile flashing the whole while.

    As the arrows whiz by Setsuna's head his eyes glow with magical energy, " I really hate being shot at. " Firing magical balls of energy at the orcs and putting a few down as he looks at the others. " I almost feel sorry for these orcs. You'd think by now it would be recognized that if the hunter guild sends us. When we find someone to attack, we will wipe them out." Setsuna continues to unleash shots of magic as he speaks curious if the system's AI really could put out such an association.

    "Left? No, it's definitely right." Yuuki gets grabbed by the sleeve and pulled left by Prophylaxis amidst objections.

    Which are quickly silenced when it becomes obvious it's the right way. Yuuki pouting for a bit.

    At least until they exit the cave and come into view of the castle. Finally. Yuuki whistles in appreciation of the sight. Even if it is a bit ruined and orc-occupied.

    But now comes the fun part!
Yuuki joins Wisteria in grinning at the sight of the orc fortifications. She draws her sword, calling out to the rest, "The one with the least kills buys the drinks!" And then she's off!

    Yuuki leverages her speed and acrobatic prowess to make her way up the side of the wall. Rope? Psssh. Who needs it.

    Reaching the top, she launches herself into the air, before falling down on a group of orc archers up there. At which point she starts to dash between them, blade lashing out to slice into them, turning them into pixels of light before she continues on to the next.

Kauchemar is a Messenger by secondary trade, she's had to learn plenty of tricks for navigating unorthedox places. You make friends with Darkness and you can find it's help in many places others would be lost and confused.

Though once they're back outside the dark can't do so much directly when it comes to sieging gates while under fire from Orcs and their oversized and likely overcompensating projectile weapons. Kauchemar snorts, and draws her Binder Shield off her back and into play. A shield makes sense at a time like this, right? Well, yes.

It's not being used as you would expect though.

" o/~ Losing faith with every stare, but fight on I don't care... Can't tell if this is real, or just how I feel...
Try so hard, and get so far... but in the end does it really matter? o/~" The possessed shield can move on it's own and that is what Kauchemar takes advantage of, flinging it into the air. "o/~ But it's too late for me to say, I've got to save the day... o/~"

"o/~ AND NOW YOU ALL WILL SHATTER! o/~" Kauchemar's voice goes into that demonic subtone just as the Binder Shield is slamming into one of the crossbow ballistas to smash it and hurtling the debris back at the Orcs manning it.
Then comes back to the Nightmare Bard to catch. A certain superhero would probably be impressed by that display.

And so the party emerges from the twisting underground labyrinth into the light of day. Prophylaxis is glad to see that the sky isn't an ominous, swirling tempest today, but he quickly realizes that today's forecast isn't entirely free of rain.

It's just a different kind of rain. The kind that's made of arrows and is even more capable of murdering you.

At least he's not soaked to the gills today. This is a mistake that will cost those orks dearly. "I've got this," Prophylaxis says, the air around him inexplicably and ominously beginning to take on a distinctly vermilion hue. Embers rise amidst the swirling heat haze as he gathers the scattered sparks into a swelling sphere atop his staff. "O' flames of heaven's wrath. O' hallmark of destruction's passage. I call upon thee and swear myself to thee. Paint the world in the colors of twilight and apocalypse, and reveal to all those who stand before us the origin and end of all that is!"

                             --==FIREBALL!==--                              

Prophylaxis hurls said fireball... into the air immediately above the orcish garrison. He waits, patiently watching until the orange globe has sailed into position immediately overtop the largest concentration of orks. Then, he taps the end of his staff against the ground.

The fireball exploes then and there, perfectly placed to cause maximum damage to everything it can reach.

"Watch this." Syx grins a little bit as they stand before the entrance to the castle. Now he gets to show off what he's really good at. As soon as the crossbow bolts start to rain down on our heroes, he blinks out of view, a crack of thunder behind his movement as he practically reappears at the gate. He grabs the base of it, and starts to lift.

It looks like it's taking a lot of effort, but he's going to haul up the gate and make enough room for the rest of his party to get themselves through there. Maybe if he lifts hard enough he can break the portcullis and keep it from closing

    The orc archers are surprisingly organized, led as they are by a competent captain. Some gutteral cry which must mean 'loose' is heard again and again, and each time a positive halestorm of arrows come towards the adventurers.

    The thing is, though, that the arrows prove utterly useless. They land with great force, admittedly, but that force is utterly absorbed by Schneider's shield magic. All the party has to worry about is tripping on the otherwise useless projectiles that harmlessly fall to the ground.

    There's honestly little time for them to be frustrated, considering how swiftly they start taking on casualties. They clearly didn't expect someone to simply join them above the gate. A few have their blades out just in time for Wisteria to cut them down, and soon the archers are in a full-on panic on that side of the parapet, arrows fired with such haste that more strike their own than could even threaten her.

    The orc captain, who really wishes to face this new threat directly, hesitates, slowed by Merek's magic. It sure would have been useful for him to do something about the person up here killing his men, though. He should really see to that sometime...

    Speaking of orc death, Setsuna lights up the knot of archers behind the captain. Half of them blaze like torches. Well, if torches only burnt for a few seconds and then burst into pixels.

    With so much trouble befalling his men, the captain finally snaps out of the mental cloud impacting him. Just as Yuuki cuts him down, which really puts the situation in perspective for the captain. For roughly the time it takes for the system to churn him up in a burst of pixels.

    With the captain down, the archers fall into disarray. The strongest group left draws out their swords and rally together. With a cry they direct their wrath towards Wisteria. Or would, had Prophylaxis not chosen that moment to reduce them to ash. And really, it's not even ash. The fire leaves behind a section of stone that looks as if it were thoroughly cleaned. Whatever pixel burst was there was covered by the brilliance of the fire.

    Still, there were a lot of orcs here, and they do have considerable weapons to use against the invaders. Or at least had them, before Kauchemar had to go and wreck everything. Without a ballista to fire, there's a considerable group of orcs just standing there, looking confused. The confusion doesn't last long, though. Wisteria and Yuuki are still up there, and there's obviously no way in Hades that those two are going to leave anyone still walking with paying for drinks on the line!

    If they weren't mindless enemies, Wake might pity the enemy. But they are and she doesn't. Instead, she marches forward toward the portcullis, heedless of any feeble darts that might be launched, as they can only be turned aside by the shield. With Syx handling the hard part of getting the portcullis off the ground, Wake's able to use air magic to lift it the last few feet and slide a beam in place to prevent it from slamming shut.

    The last race from gate to the Dome of Stars is hasty. The Baroness knows the way, though she hasn't been inside this place in some time. Thankfully the port to the online game was extremely faithful. Pushing past the front door more like one returning home than one trying to invade, she and the rest of the party are soon left facing the current lord of the keep. It is a titan of an orc with red armor, a sword that's entirely too large for anyone to wield, and probably a smell that is deadly enough to drive most away.

    Setsuna looks at big and ugly as he turns back to where the party came from and grins. He lets the others run in and start the fun as he has his own fun with the half burnt corpses. "Ashses to ashes , dust to dust, rise up and work for me." The fallen orcs stand up as he ushers them towards the boss orc. " Go on, take your grievance out on your old boss." The fallen orcs run in to face the big boss orc as they take vengence on no vacation time, no pay raises and especially, no dental.

Schneider holds his shield as the party dispatches the orcs easily. It's quite a strong party, and he doesn't need to hold it long, or against strong counterattack.

The orcs slain, he and the others will advance into the castle slowly. He follows Wake and the others, and sees that titanic orc, wincing at the huge thing, and the smell, like the devil's armpit. He chants, "Brain, Brain dead. Obey your blood oath, come forth from the land of Avalon. Fire of Gehenna, become a fiery blast and burn everything around us! EXODUS!" As he chants that last syllable boldly, he holds out his hand, extended, and launches a fireball into the horrible orc in red armor. The fireball causes a satisfying drop in the enemy's HP.

    Wisteria grins launching herself into combat. In her usuall display of speed and power. Rushing forward with a leap that then turns into a pinballing around from air rune to air rune while slashing at the boss. Her blade flickers with a black flame that flares occasionaly when she strikes the boss. The black light making the giant orc pause and shake off the stunning magic. The pauses bring openings for the rest of the party to exploit.

The group really has come quite far, so maybe the choice in lyrics was meant to be tongue-in-cheek? Or maybe there are still lingering questions and concerns beneath what is turning out to be a fairly successful venture. No one really knows for sure when it comes to the mischevious equestrian Were Fang.

Of course it all matters little in the exact moment, as the group walks into the chamber that is one of their objectives only to be accousted by an orc of ill repute and equally cliche choice in edgelord armor and overcompensating weaponry. There could be some witty remark here about his appearance, or the stank he's infested the otherwise beautiful decor with, but there isn't. Instead, Kauchemar just keeps on with her singing.
" o/~ A strange world right in front of your eyes~... But who knows what is the true or the lies~ ... o/~ "

And then the Nightmare is... gone. It's not a true teleport, but she moves with such arcane speed the transposition has a similar feel to it.

"o/~ Somebody told me that this was a dream. o/~"
She moves around the dimly lit edges of the chamber, occasionally flickering in and out of view from the star-like shimmers surrounding them. The distortion of her rapid movements causing her voice to seem to come from undeterminable directions.
"o/~ Trapped in a world we never had seen
And all you can do is dance along... o/~"

That's when Kauchemar comes back into clear view, directly behind the massive red-armored Orc.
"o/~ To the NIGHT.MARE'S. SONG! o/~

And that's when her whip comes out, punctuating the end of the number with its thunderous crack as she snaps the weapon across the monster's back. It doesn't matter if the whip itself doesn't penetrate, the enervating darkness that oozes from it certainly will.

    Merek looks to the boss of the place while he takes a moment to consider. He nods, then begins swinging along with the weapon to draw attention from that armored man. "Alright," he notes, then he begins to wave that weapon while he swings a fist, "Ragnarok's Wisdom!"

    FWOOM!

    Fireballs and other spells explode around the wall as Yuuki weaves her way through what remain of the archers. She doesn't mind. She's used to fighting up front where all the ranged attacks are aimed. It's just another thing she has to evade!

    As the last of the archers is vanquished, Yuuki leaps off the wall to land in the courtyard. Just as the others make their run towards the large hall. For some reason called the Dome of Stars? Sure. Walking inside, Yuuki whistles. Though she clarifies, "That's a big orc boi." Yuuki grins as she readies her sword, "Hope he's as strong as he looks!" She's then off and running, straight into the bosses swing!

    But as the oversized sword comes smashing down towards her, Yuuki jukes to the left, letting it pass just beside her. It crashes into the ground, at which point the Imp jumps. She lands on the edge of the weapon, running up it. Then the boss's arm. She then leaps upwards, rushing straight past his head as her blade lashes out towards his neck.

While Prophylaxis would normally be glad to go on wacky misadventures through the dank, dark underbelly of the world with his favorite gremlin in the world, today is probably not the best day to be getting lost in the caves. Maybe next time, Yuuki. Maybe next time.

"Mmn," Prophylaxis nods as the aftermath of his earthshattering kaboom showers him in a spray of harmless sparks and dying embers. "Good explosion today. Let's move on, shall we?"

Yes. Let's move on. Fortunately, Wake seems to know this place like the back of her hand. Unfortunately, someone else does too. The orc warchief they encounter is... A sizable challenge. Or would be, if this party were not made up of a bunch of crazy people who would, in any sane universe, be pretty high up on the raiding leaderboards.

That big guy is a big target, and he seems primarily built for melee, that means that the application of the right debuff is probably all they need to clinch this victory! Prophylaxis' eyes glint. He raises his staff and roars, "ELECTRICAL FUZZ!"

Nothing.

Prophylaxis pauses. He tries again! "ELECTRICAL FUZZ!" His staff goes *bzzt* and sizzles. The magus frowns and flips open his own status window, only to notice...

<<FATIGUE>> in great big letters under his own (unusually depleted) mana bar. He frowns, ducks a sword to the face, and fishes around in his inventory for a potion to fix the problem.

...Maybe he shouldn't be adventuring on such relatively small amounts of sleep? Maybe he just hasn't found the right mixture of caffiene and mana potion to keep himself going perpetually yet.

By the time he's done self-medicating though, the fight is probably going to be over one way or another. But maybe he'll have just enough time to get in a quick magic missile before the orc finally keels over...?

Ah yes, finally. This is what Syx excells in. Once the portcullis is out of the way, and the group has engaged with the orcs, Syx can really go to work. And go to work he does. The fighter is moving like lightning and striking like thunder, grabbing orcs and throwing them, hitting one with his signature finishing move and reducing it to sparkles as he hits with the weapon.

He suplexes another one through a wall, shattering both the wall and the orc in the same strike. He's all over the place, smashing orcs with strikes and laughing the whole time. This is his element, and it shows.

    The orc is surprisingly agile, considering its size and weapon. It's also highly aggressive. Recognizing Wake as she entered first, it decides she's the primary target. The Baroness isn't a tank by any use of the term, but it is something of a novelty for the enemy to consider her the biggest combat threat in the group. Though the amusement wears off when its first attack blasts through her attempts to ward it off with apparent ease, taking with it more than a little of Wake's health. Far more than a little. Was it mentioned that she is no tank?

    Before the monster can press its advantage and lay the woman low, it finds itself lit on fire by Schneider and surrounded by apparently disgruntled, undead former employees who, en masse, prove far more dangerous to their boss than they did to his enemies. There's just a moment in the midst of this where the orc is a full-on torch from the fire strike, but there's a strange sound of rushing air and the fire is drawn into the creature's armor. Before the boss can do more, it is repeatedly stunned and slashed by Wisteria. The boss roars in frustration, it's focus thankfully turning away from Wake to swing at the wisp-like Wisteria.

    With each attack, the huge orc's red armor glows a little brighter now. Here and there, tongues of flame lick out of it, lashing out at any who are unfortunate enough to be near. The damage isn't great, but the power seems to be growing.

    As much health and strength as the orc leader has, it seems to have little by way of magic. Kauchemar's dancing about leaves it turning this way and that, finally spinning when it's /sure/ it knows where she will be next. Which is perfectly, absolutely, wrong. The whip's dark magic no doubt leaves a most hideous weal in the back of the fierce enemy. And its sword swings out in a huge cleave, forcing those nearby to scatter or be skewered. This is where most of the former employees are dishonorably discharged from his service.

    This is also a good time for Wake to not be nearby anymore, and she retreats into the shadows. Dying would spoil everything. It's a relief when Merek demands the orc's attention. Sword raised, it charges on towards him, only to be drawn-up short by the utterly unexpected charge from Yuuki. Still, angry orc just wants to swing at /something/, so here goes! There's this moment where the orc simply loses track of his enemy, though. Then she's up his sword and it's really abundantly clear that he's located her when she chops into his neck! There's not much left of him at this point. But his armor is now bright enough to illuminate the entire place. Which probably means something.

    This would be a really great time for Prophylaxis to finish things up with a huge pyrotechnic display. But someone forget to hit the ETO equivalent of Starbucks and so the orc is still standing.

    When fire isn't available, there are other options. Syx's approach to orc management is definitely meeting with good results. There are random orcs here and there on the way, and so the brawl goes on right into the Dome of Stars itself. It's not clear if Syx is aware that his final blow has left the boss dead or thinks it's just another orc to fight, but just before that armor goes critical, the last blow reduces the enemy to pixels.

    When it's distracted a little away from Wake, Merek begins swinging those fists along into the creature while he works with the party in finding the boss along to Syx, then nods a bit while the man works the finisher along.

Schneider looks around as the orc fades out, pixels slowly vanishing. "Ah," he says. "That was pretty easy with such a capable force. And is your castle clear now?" he asks Wake. "Only I think there's a fair amount we didn't get to..." But he shrugs. He offers, "I can keep going if you want..." But then he looks at his mana bar, and adds, "After a rest." Another moment to think, and he says, "But it's not safe to rest here, is it? So we'll have to retreat and come back?"

    The undead orcs turn in to digital dust as Setsuna walks in to the room and looks at the mess, " Very impressive." He kicks around the armor for a moment before he finds a medallion and slips it into his inventory. " Well this was certainly fun." He smiles as he looks at the others , " So whats next here? "

Kauchemar coils her whip back up as the boss falls under the combined assault of the Adventurers. "What a hot head. But you all did a fine job of orc-estrating his defeat." She glances off to the side for a moment. "But we best be wary. Orcs tend to fill power vaccums very quickly. This is probably not the first time they're head honcho is going to need his ass obliterated before we can properly claim the castle as a whole."

That said she walks over to check on Wake. "You okay m'lady? That was quite a vicious blow you took for the sake of your dream."

    Yuuki flies past the orc boss after her slash, falling to the floor once more. She lands on her feet, spinning around and skidding to a stop to watch. The boss is glowing! Is it going nuclear!? That would be a terrible end to this castle reclamation attempt.

    Thankfully any attempt at self destructing, or whatever it was, is cut short!

    As the boss vanishes into pixels of light, dropping his loot, Yuuki raises her sword and jumps into the air, "Wooo! Yeah! Woo!"

    But then the others begin to raise some good points, causing Yuuki to tilt her head, "Wait... How many times do we have to do this until the castle is ours? Hopefully it's not one of those super annoying grinding quests meant to keep you busy until more content is added later."

    The Baroness envisioned she'd give a rousing speech at this point of the quest. But since this is a repeatable duty it's probably best she doesn't. That can wait for the final in-game event. Anyway, between the attack she ate up and the last flame that she only just put out on her left elbow, she isn't exactly feeling like an amazing liberator.

    Still, she's most grateful for this team's help, and she does her best not to hobble to the middle of the Dome of Stars. In her mind, she sees it as it was and as she looks at the reward, she smiles. "Of course... the Mark of the Rose. The token of the most valiant knights of the castle." She looks up from the medallion and studies the faces of those who have made this victory possible. "Words are a feeble tool with which to express my appreciation for all of you this day. And though we know this isn't done, it is started. It is inevitable. The Castle Eas shall stand again."

    Turning to her favoritest of nightmares, the Baroness nods, "My apologies to trouble you, dear friend. I let excitement overrule caution. I fear it may not be the last time." She laughs softly and looks up at the Dome for a time. It's not enough, but it will have to do for now.

    "I'm not sure how many times this will need to be done, but we cannot stay here long. The enemy still has more to throw at us. We will go back the way we came. For now, knowing we've dealt them a serious blow will do. There shall be more to come!" She has no intention of letting up.

    "This reminds me, though.. Yuuki, if you are going to accompany me to meet with the Dukes, we need to talk wardrobe. I have to get the diplomatic matters settled before this place is cleared." Aaaaand now would be a good time to flee!

Look, you try keeping track of your various status bars while simultaneously juggling a dozen different projects, with some kind of strange unnatural mental influence punching your brain at all hours too. It's rough! Prophy has it rough. But the orc has it way rougher, and soon topples over dead, even without his assistance.

A VICTORY FANFARE presents him with his loot even as he's quaffing a potion to fix some of his... myriad issues.

"If the number of orcs we've encountered is any indication, we're going to need to come through at least a few more times before we clear all of them out," he says, quietly admiring the platinum emblem that appeared in his inventory. "I'd be glad to give you a hand again if you need it. But for now, I think we should probably head back before reinforcements show up. As you might have noticed, I'm sort of running on fumes at the moment."

Beat.

"Oh, is Yuuki going to get dressed up? Hm, that's a rare event indeed...!"

    Wisteria whips her sword in a circle that is ingrained even if she's never had blood on a katana in her life. Then rests the spine on her wrist and then sheaths her katana with a smooth practiced stroke. The black flame dying away. "Anyone see anything...odd?" she asks "I didn't spot anything in any of the places we traveled but I've only got one set of eyes." She says with a smile, full of razor death. Then she shifts back and she's just a tall albino girl with a friendly smile.

    Merek takes a moment to nod to Wake, "Alright, we should take a little bit to clean up, while we deal with the many orcs," he notes. The man would incline then walks along to with the party assist.