Duty Session 213: Karluin Reclamation - Town

    On the outskirts of Karluin, up at the fifth floor Setsuna sat in the fortified camp waiting for others to appear. In front of him was a roughly sketched map that captured the progress so far on cleaning out all the goblins in the area. It was his turn to watch over some of the clean up on the floor, and since the goblins have been getting rather rowdy today he had put out a call through the hunter guild for more adventurer presence. Whatever the reasons might be for someone to be here killing the goblins, the bottom line was that it was better to deal with the goblins up here before they figured out how to flood the lower floors with their numbers. Pulling tight his winter cloak as the wind blows he sips his hot tea and waits eagerly. They would come soon, he was sure of it.

Vertina does a few warm-up stretchs while waiting for other people to come join the fun time of beating up goblins. She's got so much fire energy in her the Salamander doesn't appear to be too bothered by the icy cold very much. "I've got some drinks and antitoxins mixed up, just in case." She stops stretching and pats the vials on her belt. "Can never be too careful when it comes to goblins, they can be nasty little assholes."

Though their numbers seemed inexhaustible, Prophylaxis is sure that they're slowly making progress in turning back the tide of greenskins infesting the ruins of Karluin. When word trickled down through the usual channels, he was among the first to respond. It is, after all, his responsibility to see the city cleared out and restored for use. Reneging on that duty so soon would be absolutely unacceptable!

And so the Doctor of Tolbana arrives, wrapped in slightly thicker robes than usual. Karluin is damn cold, after all. "Setsuna. Let's see if we can't put another dent in, eh? At this pace, I'm sure it won't be long until we have the entire city under our control...!"

This is only a lie if you think in any timescales shorter than glacial.

"I have a few methods of aiding things, alongside buffs and healing artes." Estelle comments, even as she looks over the map on the table. One hand absently adjusts her own cloak now and then, its lower edge shifting as her tails flick and curl beneath it. "I have heard many things are unusual about the goblins here, though..." Her silver gaze tracks up to Setsuna and Proph, as their words speak of familiarity. "How true is that?"

Otherwise, the fox seems ready. Her posture isn't easy, but it isn't overly tense. Her hands are toying with the silver length of an opal-tipped wand. And her gaze flicks, now and then, towards the town itself.

    June arrives to help out, the little middle aged woman in her Barbarian cosplay might not look like much, but some people have seen her in action and know that under that bookish facade rests a rage machine clad in iron and breathing literal poison. "Hi I'm June, uhm Junko, Arima Junko..." then her language shifts to those who know it, one of Tolkien's elvish languages Sindarin. "You're doing it again Junie, don't over share... no one cares they just want some muscle on a quest." she takes a deep breath switching back to Japanese and bows hands in front of her. "I was stuck in Ezzo and I'm still rebuilding, Please take care of me." she says like she's a junior student or employee just entering a new class or job.

    Setsuna looks at the other scale members and grins as his eyes fall on the Doctor of Tolbana, " We have to clear all these goblins out before the Baroness clears out the orcs. Got to get our fort first." Friendly competition always made things more fun after all. At the mention of drinks his eyes fall back on his tea as he sips it determined to steal a little more warmth, " I don't suppose in all your brewing Vertina you have found a root beer recipe have you? Maybe Cola? "
     Taking a moment to stand as the other gather he retrieves his staff from his inventory and does his best to answer, " Well I don't know about the rumors but they are definitely a higher level then you'd find on the ground floor, likely due to the association with the floor boss. Stick close, work together and we should hopefully not come so close to wiping this time, also avoid the redcaps." The Necromancer wasn't holding back the truth it seemed before acknowledging June, " Welcome to the party June, we are here to kill goblins and chew bubble gum and I don't think anyone has recreated bubble gum."
    The party sets out from the camp , into the rubble of the fort, and initial reports said that the area was cleared however only a few minutes out of the gates the sound wolves can be heard before arrows begin to rain down on the adventurers. Goblin Archers seem to be taking evasive hit and run patterns to try and weaken the party without directly engaging. Given the tactics at hand it is likely that the riders will disperse if there tactics are proven to not work.

"They're certainly more organized than usual," Prophylaxis admits to Estelle, his hand firmly attached to and rubbing at his chin. "And their gear is unusually high-end compared to what goblins usually carry around. /And/ they've got some pretty damn strong commanders waiting in the wings... All in all, it's less like the usual sort of goblin infestation and more like trying to root out an occupying army. It's going to be a rough, bloody slog, but it's the only way we're ever going to safely secure the floor transition. So we don't really have much choice."

He nods to June as well. It's another person he recognizes! "Indeed. Welcome to the Tower of Aincrad. Have you had the chance to stop by our cathedral in Tolbana yet?"

Pleasantries exchanged, the party sets out... And are immediately set upon by a squadron of goblin outriders. Prophylaxis' lips draw into a tightly set line as he swings his staff into the hail of arrows... And conjures a glimmering, translucent-white shield into being to deflect the first barrage. "Damn. They must still have some way they're getting through the barricades. Maybe they have underground routes...?"

Vertina looks up at the sound of wolves crying. "I thought you said this wa--" Because the goblin archers are riding in on wolves, thus the noise. "--Oh." Pffft. "Guess the games are on!" She jumps up atop a piece of debris, and uses her battle gloves with some slick martial arts moves to deflect several of the arrows shot at her. "Hah! Is that the best you've got--ack!"

The goblin just charges his wolf into the pile of rubble she's standing on, sending the Salamander tumbling over the other side.

"Right, moving on." Vertina rolls onto her feet, and scrambles off in a different direction than the outriders are going.

    June nods her head to Doc "I have, they don't have any ancient writings sadly I am hoping maybe the Tower does." she says and then she's moving in a blur the small lightly pudgy woman seems to be one of those physical types and her class is obviously stronger than her obvious self scanned avatar indicates. Then she manages to step on the edge of her fur cape and goes tumbling right into the path of the outriders and managing to take quite the pummeling.

"Does she know about the competition?" Estelle asks, amused, at Setsuna's comments on the Baroness' work. There's a shake of her head, with a soft smile, but she follows along - listening to the sitrep as it's provided, and nodding along. Turning it around in her head, given Divination's requirement for pattern recognition and interpretation.

"... Mmm." comes the vixen's soft noise of discontent, though, at the sudden baying of wolves and the cries of their riders. She looks up, ears flicking, as she tries to consider the angles of their approach - and then hisses as arrows start raining down as well. Her wand snaps up, alongside a rushed chant for Scutum's Protection... but the rushed nature is evident, the shield hazy and weak. It doesn't help much as the combined arms tactic of the goblins forces her into quick retreat, angry red lines in evidence.

    When the doctor had said it was going to be a bloody slog he wasn't kidding. Setsuna does his best to run to cover trying to bounce from the good doctors shield to a pile of rubble but has an arrow slice across his leg and he growls in pain. Looking back towards the camp he considers retreating and starting over before the riders cut them off. " Quick down this way. Prophylaxis , keep that shield up and cover our retreat. Estelle merge your shield with Doc's boost his shield. " Moving over to June and Vertina Setsuna does his best to help them to their feet pointing them to the path they were taking. Arrows still whizzing by. Where Setsuna was leading the group he had no clue, but it had to be better then being pin cushions.
     The group of adventurers have found themselves in one of the worse off sections of town. Buildings are more rubble and could fall at any moment. What use to be walls obscure their vision and any wrong turn could force them down a path that they hadn't planned to go. " Stay close and shout if you see something about to kill us."

    Once they get into the maze of buildings, June pulls out a small knife, more a kunai than anything and starts marking buildings they pass with complex sigils. For those who know them, they're dwarven runes, traditional first leters of words in Khuzdul. Each mark a way for her to tell when and which order they passed things, which at least keeps the party from moving in circles.

"Well, I think I know how they managed to get around us now," Prophylaxis mutters as he steps over a pile of ruined building. His footing gives way and the good doctor nearly sets off a chain reaction of sliding rubble, but manages to catch himself so that only /he/ ends up slipping and falling onto his backside. The doctor grunts an pushes himself back up, struggling to get on top of a chunk of rubble to better survey the surrounding area.

...It doesn't work out very well at all.

"If we end up getting lost and redcapped again," Prophylaxis huffs, "I will be very sad."

Go around? Why bother? Especially when they've probably got goblins on their tails. "No time to take more detours!" With her clawed battle gloves on Vertina just starts punching and hammering her way through some of the collapsed debris.

*WHAM*

Until she comes across something that's frozen so solid in the cold it's more like heavy metal than ice and rock. She punches a few times and barely chips it. "That's a dirty trick!" she can be heard shouting from... wherever she's gotten herself into. Now she has to find a difference way to get back to the ground. "This is one of the reasons goblins suck!" The ice probably isn't their fault, but the ruins are, and that's enough for her to have something to cuss about.

Estelle does have cartography skills. It's just that she's only seen the one glimpse of the map back at the fortified camp, and the current... situation and collapsed buildings mean it's confusing to try and apply it in the moment. So she does, even as she follows orders and works her shield into the Doctor's, reinforcing it to let them escape without too much injury. "... Yes. These are /not/ the tactics I'd associate with goblins, especially not in urban warfare. They've mostly been swarm tactics or ambush, before, not... coordinated assaults like that. It bodes ill. There's something else at the heart of this..."

She shakes her head, taking a deep breath now that they have the chance for it. Navigation is slower and more careful. "Perhaps I should perform some divinations, try to get an idea of who or what is spinning this trap..."

"It's worrying. We even took out their leader, and the damn things are still acting with way too much cohesion. I'd be willing to bet that the Floor Boss was ruling via pure brute force, but now that he's out of the picture, they've got someone who's way better at actual coordination and leadership. In other words, we traded a Goblin Warlord for a Goblin King." By some miracle, the party manages to negotiate the ruined section of town and make it back into somewhere that more closely resembles actual negotiable terrain rather than a junkyard of collapsed buildings...

Sans one party member.

"...Setsuna?" Prophylaxis asks the empty air and the dotted Setsuna-shaped outline where the necromancer should have been. "...Damn. Of all the places for us to get seperated..." They can turn back and look for him, and Prophylaxis is about to give the order to do so, but--

"Help!" Someone up ahead is also in need. An adventurer, at that, working at what appears to be a collapsed house alongside a demolition team... In a manner that Prophylaxis is finding distressingly familiar. "We've got a team lost up in the rubble ahead. If we don't get this rubble clear, there's no telling how long they're going to last out there."

Prophylaxis makes an uncomfortable face, then glances over his shoulder, back at the ruined building, and...

"...Okay. We clear this blockade up ahead, rescue those adventurers, and then double back for Setsuna. If we chase two rabbits into the bush, we'll catch neither, and the more hands we have for the search the better. Get that rubble cleared, let's move!"

Vertina manages to find the rest of the group, but it seems they've gotten seperated from Setsuna in the process. "Well, at least it's not some Lander escort mission. Setsuna can handle himself for a bit. Doubling back now would just get us farther confused." She stretchs out her arms with fingers interlaced to crack her knuckles. "Better off to finish going ahead first."

She gives the pile of rubble a couple of punches, and finds it to be less wedged in place than what she ran into earlier. She motions towards Proph and Estelle. "You fragile casters stay back a bit." She's not worrired about June, the Were Fang is tough stuff. The Salamander martial artist turns back to the rubble, balancing up on one leg to use the other and kick into the debris repeatedly, her powerful legs doing a good impression of a jackhammer.

"... A poor trade, indeed. Force for tactics. A straight, forceful blow can be redirected, but one aware of that tactic and knowing how to counter..." There's a shake of Estelle's head, and another side. Her tails flick in agitation, as they continue prowling. The sudden call for Setsuna has her looking around, though, eyes narrowed. But their flight from the ambush was chaotic, and they could have been lost at any point. "Hrm. That does sound like a plan, though."

"... Fragile is a good word for me." The vixen admits, when Vertina calls for the casters to stay back. So she does, even as she tries a gentle touch with Earth magic to help shift the rubble a little - sadly, though, it's /too/ gentle, and things just... settle back into place, in the wake of her Arte.

June nods her head to Vertina. She steps up shifting, the iron scales crawling her body until she's a small bull woman covered in iron and breathing out puffs of green mist. She watches Vertina until she sees the combo coming to an end and then pawing at the ground with a hoof she charges forward and slamming her horns into the weakspot created. Growling she just keeps plowing forward, her hooves gouging the ground as iron knuckled fists slam repeatedly into the stone.

Legs like jackhammers and a raging bull charging at full speed sees entire chunks of rubble being blasted aside and turned into so many flecks of ash and dust that there's barely anything for either of the 'squishy' mages to really do much of anything. In mere moments, Vertina and June, alongside the desperate diggers of the demolition crew, have successfully cleared the rubble...!

And not a moment too soon. A silhouette emerges in the dust clouds, a lanky elf-looking fellow in dark robes and a wide hat with a built-in eyepatch practically leaps out of the cleared ruins...

With a small, clearly gnomish healer slung across his shoulders, unconscious, covered in red streaks and rapidly losing health.

"Help!" The caster cries, "We were ambushed by a bunch of goblins and our healer took a poisoned dagger to the gut. Bert's still back there holding them off, but I don't know how long he'll last...!"

Indeed, beyond the busted barricade, there is a scruffy looking axe-wielder swinging his massive weapon into a horde of goblins. But his HP is ticking down rapidly, too-- a clear sign of multiple poison stacks. The goblins are just waiting for him to finally falter so they can pile on and take him down...!

"Move," Prophylaxis orders, his staff blazing with arcane might. "Quickly, take those things down before they do too much damage! I can handle healing, but I can't bring a corpse back to life!"

They get into the next room, and it's already quite the brawl going down. There's not a lot of time to think about what to do, but that's okay, leaping first is something Vertina is good at, for good or for ill.

She darts forward, snapping a quick "On your right!" to warn the axeman. Then drops into a low slide to slip under his swinging axe, because that's the last direction the enemy is going to be expecting someone to come from. Not that she does it to attack directly. As soon as she springs onto her feet in front of the axman she throws up her arms and creates a barrier of aura infused flame to knock away the nasty little blighters. "Step off!" Flame Shields are good for making enemies think twice about attacking... or regret doing so.

    June rushes in where only fools tread, sure she shoves the guy with his axe back but she just takes his place as a damage sponge, there just isn't enough room for her to get the sweaping charges and bull rushes she usually relies on to take out groups of enemies.

There's a relieved sigh when the two adventurers come out from behind the now-cleared rubble, but their words stop that in its tracks. She bares her teeth a little, clutching her wand, and starts forward with the others. They don't have time to waste, with posion and swarms involved. "I'll handle debuffs, after, to clear the poison - you focus on his HP. But, for now... I'll clear the path."

Her wand snaps out in quick, sharp gestures, her voice clear strong; "Corona Borealis, borne by the Princess of the North, your glacial winds I call forth. Bring along a blizzard's ice, paying forth the tundra's price." Silver light gathers in the opal at the foci's tip, throughout, and then she makes a sharp, slashing gesture that sweeps wide - and an ice-filled torrent of wind and snow washes along one flank of the goblins, coating the horde in frigid death.

Even with reinforcements, the goblins make the party work for their win. The battlefield is complicated with the need to protect those injured adventurers, and it isn't long after June rushes in that the axeman seems to finally dip below a critical HP threshold and collapses onto the ruined street. He only survives because of June's timely intervention. She loses chunks of her own HP, but nothing life-threatening for the time-being.

Vertina follows up, rushing in to erect a barrier of flame around the two beleaguered warriors. A couple goblins are obliterated outright, while the others struggle to find a way past the flames and are so distracted that they hardly notice Estelle begin casting until it's too late. A wave of frost and cold washes over the goblin flank, freezing them solid as their fellows on the opposite end of the wall begin to shiver as well... But there are still too many...!

That is, until a barrage of what look to be telekinetically propelled scalpels suddenly bury themselves into several of the goblins. Prophylaxis hurls another set of knives into the air and sweeps his staff into them. Glowing with arcane energy, the medical tools become deadly missiles and tear through the final flank, giving the rest of the party ample opportunity to shatter the frozen goblins and end the battle.

...But that only marks the beginning of another fight: one to save lives.

"We ran into something huge further up ahead," the caster explains, laying their healer next to the fallen axeman. Prophylaxis is only half-listening as he begins examining the two fallen adventurers and administering a full series of potions to both. "It was some kind of... Machine? I don't know what it's doing here; we signed up for goblins, not giant robots. But we got plenty of those, too. We escaped the giant but ended up cornered here. Please, we need to hurry, I think it's still--"

There's a sound up ahead like a building collapsing into dust. The caster looks into the distance with his one uncovered eye. "...I think it's still following us."

"... Well, I don't like the sound of that. But I haven't liked the sound of /most/ of this, so far." The vixen complains, even as, with the goblins scattered, she moves to assist Proph with the patients. She keeps her voice soft, to prevent it from carrying and catching more attention - even if it might be too little, too late - and invokes Monoceroes to start clearing poison debuffs, leaving Proph to handle the work of healing proper with his potions once they're not losing any further health. Playing nurse to his Doctor, just this once, as they triage the injured between them.

    June pants, puffing green poison from her muzzle and then she turns back when the danger is over and there are wounded. And a strange thing (well for those who haven't really seen her in holy avenger mode, she starts praying. "Oh Lady, fill this vessel with the cleansing light, drive back the darkness. Battle the poisons within, and the wounds without, that these warriors may again stand and help to trample the darkness, drive back the beasts and monsters that threaten those who stand beside the Beautiful." She begins to glow with a golden light that slides down into her hands, which she begins touching the wounded and poisoned with, the light leaching out of her hands with each touch until she's healed all that her spell can manage.

Vertina raises a scaly brow. "Giant robots? Why would there b--" She stops as something rumbles in the distance. "--Right, I need to stop asking things like that." Pigtails bob as she shakes her head. "First thing first." She takes some of the antitoxin potions she had prepared, and infuses them with restorative aura energy before passing them out amongst the wounded. "This will help get you back on your feet. If not enough to fight, at least enough to get yourselves somewhere safer."

She's not a super healer medic like Prophylaxis is, but if there is one advantage she does have, it's that with both Alchemy and Brew at her access her potions taste better than old castor oil.

"Don't worry, we'll save your friends," Prophylaxis promises with the sort of surety in his voice that suggests absolutely no doubt in what the outcome will be. He's a doctor, and he has talented assistants to help him.

How many times has he made that promise a lie with a straight face? How many times has he weathered the tears and the pain when he inevitably fails? It doesn't matter. When speaking to loved ones of the injured and ill, you must always ease their pain... And speak honestly when there truly is no hope. But when there /is/, when there's still a chance, it must be clutched as tightly as it can be.

The others all use magic to heal these wounds. Estelle cleanses the poison stacks one after another. June's light sooths the angry red gashes, even as Vertina pours antitoxin potions down the throats of the injured, clearing yet more of the poison from their bodies. Prophylaxis...

Is almost like he's become a different person. His hands are a flurry of motion, trading scalpel, suture and syringe almost too quick for the untrained eye to track. He is utterly silent except when he barks orders clear and crisp, directing the others to heal certain wounds while he addresses others. Systematically, injury after injury is eradicated until at last the triage is complete and he takes a step back and allows himself to breathe. "...Job's done. Good work, everyone. The patients will survive."

The caster's eyes well with joy. "Thank you. Thank you so much! I know death isn't permanent for us, but..." Prophylaxis shakes his head. "You guys just keep back. We've got a missing person of our own-- if you want to pay us back, take some of the demo crew and head back to look for him. We'll take care of..."

A building collapses nearby. Prophylaxis turns toward the crumbling ruin. "...This thing."

Repeating his thanks, the caster retreats alongside the demolition crew, the two fallen adventurers in tow. Out from the collapsing building stomps a behemoth of might and metal. It stands easily twelve feet in height, and grips the better part of a one-story building in a single arm. Its eyes gleam from under its helmet's visor. With effortless ease, it hucks the rubble at the party before charging in. Its other arm is equipped with a massive power shovel, and it wields it like a deadly weapon, smashing ground and crushing walls with every swing...!

"This is... an elemental machine?" Prophylaxis thinks aloud, dodging back out of the way of one of the giant's massive swings. "I was /wondering/ what was causing all that noise the other day... Maybe it was this thing on a rampage? But what's it even doing here!?"

One thing's for sure, they'll need to defeat it if they want to save the town...!

Vertina just stares for a moment. "I'll be damned, there is a giant robot... Looks like some kind of contruction equipment gone berzerk." With that the Salamander darts ahead. "I'll get it's attention away from you caster types!" She's not really a tank, but she knows what she can do. As she runs forward she does some quick hand gestures. "Mirage Phase!"

And then there's like a half-dozen Vertinas running and jumping off in different directions. The rampaging machine swings around, and one poofs in a cloud of smoke and light motes as its struck. Another as it's hit with a thrown rock. And anothe--

"Oof!" Nope that was the real Vertina that just got snagged in the shovel, which is then used like a catapult to throw her across the area.

The Salamander lands somewhere not in immeadiate view, but there's an audible crash and a cloud of dust billowing from wherever it was amongst the ruins.

There is a kind of satisfaction in saving lives, even if it's a sad one. That they were cornered and injured so badly in the first place... the vixen shakes her head, giving them all one last Inspection as Proph chats with the Demolition Crew's Caster to keep them informed, and get them all moving somewhere safer. Her ears flick and twitch, at the sound of something growing closer, and so she's already turned towards it when the massive machine busts onto the scene. She eyes it for a moment that seems longer than it is...

And then darts back, giving herself some more space, as she begins to chant. There's a wince, too, as Vertina gets launched... but she'll deal with that after. She needs to finish the Chant; "Vela, the wanderer's sail, I call upon the winds you jail. I turn them to a mighty gale, and loose them with freedom's wail."

Wind howls around her, making her cloak and dress billow and swirl, and then with her wand she guides it - slamming the drill of focused, shimmering air into one of the machine's leg joints, scouring away at the metal in that most delicate of places.

"... You alright over there?" She calls to the Salamander, in the wake of it.

    June scuffs a hoof. "Alright, lets do this thing... doesn't look like holy is the route to go... lets see how it likes an elemental counter." She makes several hand signs and chants under her breath until glowing swirling vorticies of wind gather around her horns. She switches to elvish again "You have this Junie, things haven't gone great this quest.. but show them you're still a top fighter and not just some scrub who was stuck on Ezzo." Then she's charging, roaring and snorting green poison fog, she slams into... a rock thrown by the elemental machine. It barely slows her down but puts her far enough off course that the elementaly charge construction bot can read her iron scales as a usable material, scoop her up in one hand, and throw her bodily at the party as a projectile.

"Construction equipment...?" Prophylaxis looks thoughtful, then seems to have an epiphany. "You may be right. If it was designed to rebuild Karluin, but found that it was still infested when it woke up... That might really screw up whatever programming it's supposed to be running." Maybe it sees /them/ as no better than the goblins? If that's the case, the only thing to do is to take the machine down.

Which they do. Eventually. And with great sacrifice.

It should be to no surprise that this Elemental Machine is absolutely devastating in close-quarters combat. It's made to tear down buildings-- chucking adventurers around like hot potatos is well within its capabilities. Vertina and June nobly sacrifice themselves as distractions and end up being turned into humanoid projectiles. The moments that the machine spends aiming and hurling them at the two casters give Prophylaxis and Estelle a few critical moments of breathing room...!

The two fighters sail overhead as Estelle darts in and drives her wind-drill directly into the thing's leg joint. Metal screams and sparks fly as she tears through its knee, sending the entire thing off balance. Its own weight is turned against it as it collapses into a nearby building... and the distinct scent of ozone begins to fill the air...

Prophylaxis sweeps his staff down like a judge's gavel. A crackling bolt of lightning streaks down from the 'sky' above and smashes into the fallen machine. It makes a screeching noise like a failing modem before vanishing into the column of electricity and dispersing into so many motes of red light.

"...Is everyone alright? June? Vertina?" Estelle is fine, and in fact is in the perfect opportunity to grab the crystals of earth-aspected energy that seem to congeal out of the Elemental Machine's shattered remains. Their reward for their victory, it seems.

"...I wonder where it came from," Prophylaxis murmurs. "If there's one, there might be more. Maybe it came from the catacombs...?" But if so, then how many of them are still down there...?

"...Anyway, we stopped this one's rampage at least. Let's head back and see if we can't track down Setsuna. We didn't kill a goblin leader, but this was still very well done. Good job, everyone."

"Mainly my pride is bruised!" Vertina calls back after a moment. Truth be told that landing wasn't very pleasnat, but she's going to keep her tough tomboy exterior intact all the same. Considering the crippling accident she endured in real-life, anything she can get back up from is fine, she'll deal with it.

It does take a bit of time for her to trot back to the group, and by that point the machine is wreckage. "Well, that was exciting at least." She's a thrillseeker, that's good for her even if her attack effect got foiled. "... I might need to start a list of things I've been thrown into, though."

    Swearing, inventive swearing about physically impossible tasks with family members in compromised situations comes from a pile of rubble. Those who are paying attention and not just 'listening' to the translator will note it is in the gruff tongue of the dwards of Tolkien's Middle Earth. A bit later the pile shifts and a very scuffed and redmarked iron scaled bull woman drags herself out of the stones. "Some days... It doesn't pay to be a brawler." she says in Japanese, followed by a heartfelt sigh that is joined by a spray of green poisonus fog from her muzzle.

"... Healing spells for you both, anyway." The vixen declares, turning her gaze from Vert to June and back again. Even as she gives in to curiosity, moving over to the wreckage of the elemental machine. She's careful about any lingering charge amongst its fragment, but glowing gold did catch her silver eyes...

... and so she hands a shard off to the others, even as she chants softly to invoke Monoceros for more direct healing, Light topping up their HP some. "More of those running amuck would be.... ill-fortune, Prophylaxis, and so I hope there aren't. I'm glad it took some damage from its rampage before it reached up, so I could take advantage of its joint."

"Good! Everyone, except Setsuna, is all accounted for. HP totals don't look too bad, and we managed to save a bunch of hapless Adventurers too. Not bad for a day's work. But..." Estelle brings up an excellent point-- and quite possibly jinxes their operation to deal with a small army of malfunctioning construction robots. "With my luck, there's going to be an entire underground vault full of those kinds of things," he answers with a tired shake of his head.

The doctor moves to inspect their loot. It's always good practice to collect their just rewards before scampering off, after all. "When we were fighting the floor boss, it blew a hole through the plaza and exposed this... enormous system of underground tunnels. I don't know how far they go, but they'll need to be cleared before we can safely reclaim the city. I'd bet money that this machine crawled out from under there. There /probably/ isn't enough space for them in the castle-keep."

"Appreciated," Vertina replies, and isn't going to turn down a bit of extra healing either way. "Well, if there ARE more down there... maybe they can be found and scrapped before they activate? I don't know, we've got plenty to worry about as is." She takes one of the shards they found, and hmms softly. "The Earth feels strong in this.."

     Suddenly over the Chimlink for the party they would hear Setsuna's voice. "So I got really lost and ended up back at camp. I went ahead and put the kettle on assuming no one died. " It was the least he could do after all.

    June nods her head "Thank you for the healing." she says even as she burns some of her own holy power to raise her own HP a bit more. "Well if there is a secret supply of old magic tech... let me know if you come across any writings." she says smiling showing off teeth that are more fangy and less flat cow than one might expect from the bovine muzzle... but then there's the iron scales and poison breath sooooo there is that.

"... Ah, good to hear from you. And something warm would be nice." Estelle replies over the chimlink, before nodding to the others. And shaking her head at Proph. "Send scouts down first. The type who know when to turn and run. Otherwise... good luck." There's a firm nod at that, and she tucks her own shard away.

"And you're both welcome." She returns, for the 'thank yous'. "But we should probably start heading back - that thing was loud, and there are probably more goblinsd headed this way. We don't want to be swamped..."