Shibuya Spelunking

    For the past couple of weeks, Miyako has been leading teams in exploring the catacombs under Shibuya. So far the teams have noted monster lairs, traps, and a wide variety of chambers and corridors. Fortunately it's not a sewer, so explorers don't have to deal with the smell - it's just a bit musty, usually.

    "So, right now," Miyako explains, "We're just mapping things out. If we come across monsters, we'll only engage if we're sure we can handle them quickly -- noise echoes and spreads down those corridors, and attracting more than the party can handle is ... well, I'm sure none of us cares to deal with the XP penalties for dying and respawning any time soon, yes?"

    Once the party has made any preparations they feel necessary, she leads the group down through already-explored areas. The corridors are mostly brick and stone, and even your footsteps seem to echo loudly in the otherwise-silent halls.

    Merek nods a little bit along to Miyako, while he takes a moment to adjust the potion belt which he wears, as well as the scarf that is worn upon his features. The man follows, looking to the place while he begins to take a look at the place while exploring.

    "Why are these here? Ancient mines? Burrowing monsters? Ruins?" Mizuki wonders, trying to make sense of the catacombs. "Some strange, magic geological process?" She shivers when Miyako talks about dying. "I'm sure we're smarter than that."

"I'm sure we can handle this," Kotono says with a smile as she twirls her blades. "This is gonna be easy as pie!" She grins to Miyako before her smile fades. "Although yeah, the XP penalties would not be good." She shakes her head. "Especially since I've gotten so high recently."

    Miyako hmms softly, casting glances about as the group walks along, keeping an eye out for anything that has changed along the way. She frequently consults a map that's been sketched out on a bit of parchment, making brief marks on it as the group passes intersections. Each intersection is marked on the wall with a chalked rune of some sort, clearly quite recent, probably left by her previous expeditions.

    "No one's entirely sure, really," she answers Mizuki's question. "It's fairly clear that they were actively in use at some point, inhabited even. Li Gan's workshop is down here somewhere, although we haven't found the connection between the new HQ and his section of the tunnels yet."

     She lifts a hand with a quick "Hsst!" as the group approaches another intersection. "Stop here for a moment," she murmurs, "There's a nest nearby. Some sort of twisted goblins, we backed off quick when we spotted them the first time through this section. Lucky we spotted them before they did us, there's a lot of them."

    She looks around at the group for a moment. "I'd like to try to get closer and see if we can learn anything about this lot, they're decidedly nonstandard. But I'm not sure how good you are at sneaking around. You up for it?"

    "I am not that great when it comes to sneaking," Merek admits, while he nods a bit to Miyako. "I will keep watch," he states, then he finds a place to begin watching while he waits.

Kotono nods to Miyako, smiling a little as she speaks. "You seem to be quite the expert on this," She says with a slight chuckle, only to cut herself off as Miyako stops everyone. After she explains what's going on, Kotono looks around and then says, "I'll try to check it out." She crouches down. "I've got a knack for sneaking."

    "In use by who? For what?" Mizuki echoes questions that surely remain answerless.

    She lowers her voice at the warning about goblins, ears twitching as she listens for any noise. "Twisted goblins? Twisted how... they're bad news, we have to stop them from spreading..." Beat. "I mean, not necessarily right this second, but we need to get a hunting party together after this."

    Oh, they're going looking for the goblins? "Sure..." She nods, and smiles. "Cat ninja."

    Mizuki stalks off down the tunnel.

    Miyako nods briefly to Merek. "If anthing comes up either tunnel, duck into this corridor and throw a rock or something. Make a noise but not something that'll attract a lot of attention, right?"

    The others seem more prepared for a stealth mission, so they proceed down the corridor a ways, following several turns.

    "And yes, Ko-chan, I've been down here several times," she explains quietly. "As for the goblins, you'll see shortly."

    She falls silent as the group gets closer to the goblin nest. It seems to be a tribal encampment of some sort, maybe fifty or more of the creatures, set in a large natural cavern that the tunnel system intersects. 'Twisted' is perhaps the right word to describe them, or perhaps 'enhanced' - they seem to be larger than normal, sporting impressive horns sprouting from their foreheads. At the moment they seem to be just dealing with everyday life as one might expect - some wandering around aimlessly, a shaman instructing a trio of youngsters, warriors sparring, et cetera. The whole chamber is lit by several fires the goblins keep running, as well as outcroppings of phosphorescent fungi.

    Miyako stays by the intersection, shading her eyes with one hand as she peers out into the cavern, and motions for the others to do the same.

    Merek finds a place to watch, and nods a bit to Miyako. It's probably best he didn't follow, with the man making noise with each maneuver while he takes the time to begin writing upon the map which he takes from the pack. He then picks up what looks like a rock, to keep to use if needed to bring the party.

For Kotono, it's almost like she's walking on air as she moves with slow, deliberate steps. Every step is done perfectly so that she makes no sound whatsoever. She ducks behind whatever she can, keeping an eye on the goblins while remaining attentive for any possible new threats.

    Dozens of goblins of an unknown type? In territory the goblins know and they don't? Mizuki's eyes widen and she shakes her head at Miyako.

    'Wait.' She whispers. 'Think about this. Whatever we do, we need a way out. We can watch them... maybe we can lure just a few out? So we can see how they fight. But we need to stop them from calling for help.'

    Miyako bites her lip as she watches the goblins at work, focusing in on the group sparring in one of the 'fields'. "Those look like better-made weapons than goblins usually carry," she murmurs, missing the fact that they're also larger and heavier. Still, it's enough for her. She motions the others back from the intersection, and tip-toes back towards where they'd left Merek.

    Soon enough, the trio meet up with Merek, who has had an uneventful wait. Miyako takes a few minutes to update her map data and take down the observations shared by the others before the group moves on. "Yeah, we're going to need a major raid to take that bunch out," she decides.

    Several minutes later, the group comes to a heavy door blocking off the corridor. "Alright, this is where we enter unknown territory. Nobody's been past this yet." She doesn't approach the door, though, staying several yards back. "Who's the best lock-pick among us?"

    Merek nods a bit, keeping people informed while he waits. When all of them will be back, he watches the place. "Alright, I will follow," he notes, waiting to see which people will lockpick.

Tiptoeing along with the others, Kotono follows Miyako along. "No way we'd be able to take them out, just the three of us." She shrugs. "Oh well, best we keep goign." It's when they arrive at the huge door that Kotono widens her eyes at its size, before smiling. "I know a bit about lockpicking."

    Hopefully they can still exfiltrate if needed. Mizuki observes the goblins' combat techniques to see if they seem like particularly competent fighters.

    And then they leave the goblins and she can heave a sigh of relief. Mizuki's ears perk up. "Lockpicking? Finally, the Thief job is useful!" She gets out her picks and moves to help the others.

    Miyako squats with her parchment, watching and taking notes as Kotono and Mizuki get the door unlocked. "Goblins with actual training, decent weapons, and training more shamans... going to need a damn good raid for that. Or multiple groups to kite them a -lot-." She sighs softly. "Thanks for noticing that, Mizuki."

    The only complication in getting the door open is the set of dart traps. "Ffffffffff," Miyako bites back a curse as she drops her parchment and tumbles back with a dart buried in her arm. A second strikes Merek, leaving him feeling rather woozy.

    "Gods-rotting traps all -over- the damn place. Keep a sharp eye out from here on in." Miyako remains seated on the floor for a couple of minutes, plucking out the dart and digging through her inventory for an antidote potion.

    Merek begins looking at the door while he sees if he can assist. Then that dart will strike him. The man nods a bit while he watches, "Well, that's not wonderful. Maybe it's like the place within Alne, the Traveler's City."

The locks fall rather easily, but apparently, dart traps are also a problem. Kotono stops to keep an eye on Miyako as she tends to her injury, her blades drawn, while at the same time she's looking around for any other potential threats.

    "But who trained them? The demon in glasses?" Mizuki wonders. "I'm just glad we didn't rush in."

    Mizuki ninja-dodges the darts, but can't save the others. Sadly, she has no access to healing magic. She... keeps working on the lock, tail swishing as she wonders what might be on the other side...

    Fortunately, the darts are the only traps on this particular door. The corridor beyond is much the same as the rest, though the layer of dust on the floor is thicker. The most unusual feature is several doors set into the walls, about fifteen to twenty meters apart on either side. Each is marked with a metal plaque stamped with a rune of some sort, the ink or paint once put onto it to make it stand out now faded and chipped.

    "Oh fun," Miyako mutters as she gets to her feet and proceeds in with the rest. "Alright, keep it quiet, we don't know where any monsters might be in here. And watch for traps."

"Traps can be anywhere, even in places you'd think impossible," Kotono says as she steps lightly, watching where she puts her hands and her feet. She keeps her eyes peeled as well, looking for anything that might appear out of the ordinary. "Not seeing anything, but be ready just in case."

    Merek nods a bit while looking to the nice runes that are presented to all of them. The man walks up to a few, "Alright, I think if we arrange that," he notes, then he begins working with that.

    Mizuki glances over the hall beyond. Doors with runed... labels, and dust indicating no one has been here in a long time. She moves from door to door, looking at the runes and trying to see if any of them look familiar...

    Miyako walks along with the group, careful to place her feet in the steps of those going before her, to avoid traps. Like the pressure pad Kotono discovers about six doors down. "I know I've seen these runes before," she comments, noting down each in turn. "I want to get as many of these as I can, then compare them to my records, see if they match anything." She looks down the corridor, eyeing the distance visible. "Let's go down... An hour, say? If we haven't found anything else interesting by then, we'll head back."

    Exploration further down the corridor reveals a few traps and dozens of the same doors, each marked with another familiar rune combination. Cross-corridors crop up every so often, but seem featureless to what can be seen from the main hall.

    "Okay, dungeon, I can take a hint," Miyako eventually complains. "I need my books, and then I need a drink. And some music. It's too damn quiet down here."

Kotono sighs a little. "I was hoping for better myself." She nods to Miyako. "I agree, a drink sounds like a good idea, along with something tasty to eat." She looks to the others. "You can come along if you like."

    "Ya, I will come with you," Merek then notes to Kotono and nods along to the party.

    Mizuki gasps when she recognizes the alphabet. "It's the same script as on the chaos gates... and skill tattoos!" She takes down notes on the position of the doors marked with each rune. "Don't you think we should check behind some of these?"

    "Not without taking a look at my records to see if I can work out the runes. You're right about the gates, too... which means this may be connected to the people who built them." Miyako stretches her arms then resumes walking. "No, I want to come back with a larger team, more supplies. Make sure that the map data is available if someone has to come down after us with a rescue raid."

    "Hmmh." Mizuki hmms at the thought of these ruins being left by the gate-builders. "Yeah, that's a good idea. Come back with more people. I'm glad you're sensible enough for that. If we had some more reckless people today we could've all died..."

    "And that would be intensely annoying, yes. So, dinner's on me tonight, tomorrow we start putting together a new party for the next trip." Miyako carefully closes the big section door as the group passes it, letting the lock click back into place. "Just in case," she explains, and then it's back down the corridors and eventually the surface, the sunlight, and the sounds of people and forest and city.