Duty Session 223: Karluin Reclamation - Town

    Yuuki, your friendly neighborhood alliance leader, has sent out an order for Adventurers to raid to the monster nests of Karluin! Because Prophylaxis has been hinting at it being a place she might like to have some fun in a totally not-obvious way to get her to help clear it out. However it seems Yuuki screwed up the order, cause practically no one has shown up! That or nobody likes her.

    Nah, it can't be that.

    Regardless, Yuuki is currently standing beneath the large guarded gate, jogging in spot to keep herself warm in the colder climate of this particular level. Because Yuuki is always wearing the same thing (it's her trademarked style!) and it's not very well suited for cold weather. But she'll warm up once the fighting starts!

    Yuuki rubs her hands together, breathing into them while she looks around, waiting for people to show up.

Yeowang has shown up, despite not being part of Yuuki's guild. She felt she needed to face greater challenges than the newb adventures she had been challenging outside, solo, and so when she saw a call go out, she found her way here and has volunteered. Her long blonde hair is done up in a loose bun, and she's dressed for the weather. She looks ready to go, and she nods to Yuuki when she arrives. "Is this the adventuring party?" she wonders.

Cartwheeling and somersaulting into the area. Is it a gymnast? Is it a circus acrobat?

No, it's the ninja-styled young lady known as Kotono! Wielding a dagger in each hand and moving like the real life acrobat her player was, Kotono arrives quickly and skids to a stop in the snow. She looks to the imp who put out the call and gives her a slight smile and a greeting gesture with her left hand. "I got the call, I presume you sent it out?" She at the location they're taking on, and her smile increases. "Looks a bit challenging, just the way I like it!"

And then the cold begins to apply to Kotono, and she proceeds to do some jumping jacks as well as a few backflips to keep the blood flowing.

Upon Yeowang's arrival, she nods and says, "As far as I know, this is it!"

    "Look out beloooooowwww!"

    The bizarre call comes from above and off to the side, where a trail of crimson and gold streaks through the air, arcing out from some higher tree nearby.

    With the approach of the red-gold meteor, the shape of it becomes much more clear. A red-scaled and -haired Salamander in loose clothes with a golden scarf wrapped along his neck with a length of it flapping in the air behind him while he falls down towards the three gathered near the gate.

    "I'm heeeee-"

    And upon one scaled foot landing on the ground-- it's immediately sent sweeping out forward along slippery ice and swinging upwards, flipping the Red Salamander's whole body aroudn through the air.

    "....-re?"

    A few flips along his own axis through the air, before he finally ends up making contact with the ground, spearing face-first into a snowbank and sinking into it to roughly his midsection. Leaving two legs and one thick, scaled tail propped up and facing the sky.

Hey!! Prophylaxis showed up! To be fair though, it'd look kind of bad if the guy who spent all that time NAGGING YUUKI'S EAR OFF about this goblin-infested hellhole didn't make the time to come. Besides, he doesn't need too many excuses to want to burn goblins out of his new house. Hanging out with his favorite Imp is a nice bonus!

The good doctor waits near the raised portcullis, looking... quite cozy, actually. He's added a scarf to his usual ensemble of doctorly attire, as well as a pair of mittens. his staff... Is looking a little worse for wear. It looks like he'd snapped the thing in half at some point and just sort of taped it back together!

(Because he did. Because he used it to stake a vampire through the heart. It was super awesome.)

"So...! Looks like we've got quite the party," Prophylaxis says with a smile. "I hope you all brought your sneaking shoes, because with any luck we'll finally have an opportunity to get close to a bonafide goblin shanty...!"

Beat.

"To burn it to the ground," he clarifies. "That's the best thing to do to a goblin shanty."

    Yuuki grins and waves as people begin showing up and asking about the party, "Yup! This is the one!" She grins at Kotono's determination, "That's the spirit! It's no fun if it's not challenging." Prophylaxis is here too, Yuuki replying, "I dunno. Knocking them down is fine too. Especially if they're the ones that are built really tall and unsteady like!"

    Yuuki starts sending out party invites, until a certain Salamander suddenly comes flying in, tumbles through the air and then lands in a pile of snow. Yuuki tilts her head, humming quietly then saying, "I'd say an eight for effort, but a four on the landing!" She swipes her finger. A party invite window shows up beside the half buried Atif.

    Once the party is established, Yuuki pumps a fist into the air, "Alright! Let's get this party started! Those goblins aren't going to see us com-"

    FWAP! An arrow embeds itself in the barricade next to Yuuki, who jumps in surprise, "Wha!?" Several gutteral cries come from further inside the town, joined by the cries of several wolves. Looking that way, the group can see a number of Goblin Riders (in that they're goblins that ride, not something riding goblins) charging down the broken and cracked street. A wave of arrows is loosed from their bows, beginning to rain down on the party!

    Yuuki acks, jumping left and then right to avoid them, "They're on to us! Scatter! Scatter!"

"Nice landing," Kotono would say to the Salamander with a slight smile before they headed into the area where things were happening...

And then they began to really get pointed out.

"Uh-oh, I don't think we're wanted here!" Kotono says as she takes a couple of running steps before dropping to the ground, curled up into a ball and rolling on the ground to avoid being hit.

Unfortunately, her technique fails.

When she gets up again, she finds there's an arrow in her left forearm, and it's only now the pain sets in. "Oww..." She grumbles as she removes the arrow. "At least I didn't take it to the knee."

Yeowang steps neatly to one side to avoid the careening Atif, though once he's come to a stop, she'll head over to help him out of the snowbank. "You okay there?" she wonders. She shrugs to Proph about sneaking, though to be honest, most of the common assumptions of the game boggle her.

When Yuuki calls out to scatter, she'll give his hand a yank, hoping it's enough to pull him out of the snowdrift before she darts for cover. She finds a bit of cover, and makes herself as small as possible until the barrage has finished.

"This one is both tall /and/ unsteady. Somehow the thing hasn't toppled ontop of itself yet, but it's probably just one good push and-or inferno away!" Prophylaxis chirps with all of the improbably cheer of someone who may or may not view a ZONE RAID with certain hyperviolent swordswomen as a welcome break from his normal full-time job.

"Why, I'd wager that a good cannonball would be sufficient to knock the thing over--" Atif smashes into the ground!! Prophylaxis frowns behind his fluffy muffler as Atif carries further on into a nearby snowdrift.

"...I dunno, gonna have to subtract points for the dismount," The doctor deadpans as Yuuki SETS OFF TO ADVENTURE.

...And immediately almost gets an arrow through her face.

"Yep, this is about right," Prophylaxis nods, as sure in what is going on as he is about the ground beneath his feet. "Hold on, I've got you...!" He lifts that half-broken staff! A pale white light begins pouring out from its head in sputters and spurts, before finally coalescing into a translucent barrier around the front end of the barricades. "I really need to install some stake-barricades for next time..."

But against mounts like these, such measures would only do so much...!

    The Salamander's tail twitches visibly over the snowbank, before the half-lizard leverages himself to rolling through the snow... so that his upper body is popping up instead, spitting out some snow out of his mouth while wiping even more from his tanned cheeks. "Fwah! I'm okay!"

    He does accept Yeowang's hand for the help, at least, sheepish as he might be about it. And when his green eyes land on Yuuki, he chimes out, "Heeey, Yuuuuuuki! It's been a long one!" with a cheerful finger-wiggling wave. One that's extended to Kotono and Yeowang right after, for he's never met them before.

    "Hi! I'm Atif! It's nice to meet you!"

    The introduction comes with a *way* too bright of a smile.

    Out of the snowbank, he has just enough time to accept the party invite, before... an arrow swoops through the air just half an inch past the mess of his crimson hair. "...Oh no. It's fine, just make a run and serpentine! They're not that accura--"

    His words tumble off into the distance when he makes a quick, dodging step to the side... which happens to be in the direction of Yuuki.

    While she's dodging in the exact opposite direction.

    The end result is a surprised "WAGH?!" from the Salamander when the two collide, and the tall Salamander ends up falling over and tangling into a comical roll across the ground with her.

    The sudden barrage of arrows before they've EVEN ENTERED THE DUNGEON catches Yuuki off guard. She starts to run around, avoiding the arrows as best she can. And it's working! The arrows whiffing past her.

    Until she loses track of her positioning and accidentally runs right into Atif. Colliding with the Salamander, Yuuki crashes to the ground with a grunt. She instinctively goes to say, "Sorry-" only to immediately be peppered with a few arrows. Yuuki cries out, "Hey! No fair! We hadn't started yet!"

    Yeowang manages to avoid the the arrow fire, finding a nice barricade to hind behind. Prophylaxis brings forth the power of magic to provide cover for the party, though unfortunately some of them have already taken a few arrows. Satisifed with their small victory, the Goblin Riders make a turn and disappear down a side street. Though their victory cheers can still be heard for a little while longer until they fade in the distance.

    Yuuki rises to her feet once more, pulling those annoying arrows out of her body and dropping them to the ground, "I'm going to get those guys, just you wait!" Yuuki glances around at the party, "Like, right now! Let's go get 'em, everyone!" Yuuki leads the party forward into the town!

    It's not long after the party heads into the town proper that things start to get bad. Bits of broken buildings dot the main street, half destroyed structures line either side of it. There's one structure which is still standing with only a single corner foundation intact. It seems almost physics defying. Probably best to avoid that one. Infact, if the group isn't careful about making their way through, things could get very dangerous!

    Yuuki glances around at the sight, "Man, this place is a mess!"

Once the skirmishers have been driven off, Yeowang will nod a greeting to Atif. "Yeowang," she says, introducing herself to everyone else, as she's new to the main game activities, having spent far too much time trying to overcome the game system. It, alas, is not as responsive as she'd like.

On the other hand, it offers her skills she hasn't got in real life. That would be a bonus, if she was actually much good at them, which is seems she isn't. So, she can find tracks, but she can't really follow them for more than a couple steps. Frustrating!

Kotono bites her lower lip a little before she gets to work with searching. It takes a while and she does seem to get a bit frustrated at times, but she doesn't give up at all. She stops to wipe her brow a few times, but finally discovers what she's looking for. "Hey! Over here!" Kotono yells while beckoning to the others.

She also takes the time to look to Atif. "Oh, sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Kotono." She smiles a little. "Not the best time for introductions I know, but oh well."

"I'm going to want to patch those wounds up," Prophylaxis notes with a wince and the ominous unraveling of a roll of bandages. "If you'd please hold still for a moment while I make sure those arrows weren't poisoned..." Because of course they might be poisoned. These are goblins! GOBLINS ARE JERKS!!

"It's pretty bad, huh?" He asks in Yuuki's general direction before nodding towards what looks like half a building toppled onto another half of a building except it landed in such a way that the geometry is just kind of... Not quite /clipping/ but damnit there's no way that should be stable.

It probably isn't.

"You all can deal with the navigation, can't you? I've got too many wounds to patch up." He's a perfectly ordinary City Doctor, not some kind of map-reading navigator! At least you can trust him to show up for boss-fights, but actually getting to said boss-fights? Nahhhh that's for young people to take care of.

    "No no, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Atif mumbles back over to Yuuki when they manage to roll along... only to get *thwipped* by one, two, three (ha! ha!) arrowss to his side. "Ow! Ow! Ow! No! Stop that! RUDE!"

    At least he manages to lift himself up to his feet pretty quickly after, and make for a run with the others, yanking out arrows out of himself as he goes. He doesn't want to be a pincushion for the rest of this!

    "That could have probably gone better..." He lets out with a low sigh. But with Yeowang and Kotono offering their own introductions now, he immediately switches to another cheerful smile, holding out a hand in a wave to them. "Hi! No, no, it's just as good a time too! Nothing makes better new friends than the challenge of a quest!"

    Atif apparently likes meeting new people.

    Either way, the Salamander follows along with the others. He might have some expeience with hunting, but apparently he elects to leave the actual tracking and path-finding to the others now. Though, when a particular pile of rubble blocks part of the path and ends up rolling to a collapse... The Salamander is quick to jump and sweep in, sweeping his own arms in to catch a particularly large piece of debris and keep it pushed up and in agains the wall to avoid everything from falling over.

    "Oooof! It's okay, it's okay, I got iiiiit!" Nevermind that his legs are very visibly shaking there while he keeps supporting all that weight. "...U-uhm though m-maybe, um... k-keep going? I mean I got it but it's kinda heavy maybe go through now oh god this is really heavy!"

    "Thanks!" Yuuki grins at Prophylaxis as he bandages her up. Not that she needed it, she's totally tough enough to tough it out. Still, her HP bar appreciates the medical attention.

    As the debris starts to get thicker, Yuuki rubs her chin as she looks over the broken mess ahead of them, "It's a difficult path through... But this is where some of my recent training is really going to shine!" The imp takes a few steps back... And then she's off and running! No Yuuki, careful, cautious movements! Stay with the group! But no, she's doing it her way.

    Yuuki vaults over a piece of debris, just barely avoiding some large wooden spikes formed from it. She clambers up a few large pieces, then jumps from broken support to broken support, clearing the gap of jagged stone debris beneath. She then finds herself facing a large broken pile. Too difficult to clamber over... But there's a still mostly intact wall to the side! So Yuuki turns, planting a foot on the wall and then starting to run up and across it to rise above the debris pile!

    However, as Yuuki runs across the wall, it begins to crack under the pressure of her footsteps. The crack quickly grows, outpacing Yuuki and rushing ahead to a battered stone doorframe barely holding together. If Yuuki doesn't beat it, she's going to be trapped in there! Yuuki presses forward and leaps off the wall, skidding towards the broken doorframe just as it's about to collapse!

    The rest of the party continues on as their suicidal leader has other ideas. Kotono manages to do a good job of searching out a path through that's relatively safe, with some assistance from Yeowang while Prophylaxis is busy help to patch people up. Their path is almost cut off though, until Atif steps in to take one for the team and get crushed in the process. Or rather he will be, if the others don't hurry up through. Which just leaves Yuuki...

    Said imp comes skidding out of the collapsing doorframe into the same area as the rest of the party. But in that moment, Yuuki's trusty headband comes off, falling to the ground behind her! Yuuki reaches back, grabbing for the headband and pulling it to her just as the stone crumbles onto that spot.

    Yuuki stands up in front of the rest of the group, triumphantly slipping her headband back on, "Piece of cake!"

    Turning to take a look at their current situation, it seems like they've stumbled upon some competition! Aren't public dungeons annoying? Other people always getting the kills ahead of your group. This group seems to be having a bit of an issue though. Or rather half of a group. Two Adventurers in specific, discussing their situation, "Why should we help them? It was their fault for rushing forward." Judging by his attire, he appears to be a healer type.

    The other one replies, "Maybe, but if we don't help, they'll be stuck for hours." This one's equipment suggests a bard, probably specialized in buff support.

    The healer scoffs, "Serves them right. Aren't you sick of pulling their asses out of the fire? They should have taken the side path like we told them to!" The healer motions down a side street.

    The bard considers, "Well........"

    Yuuki watches the scene play out, glancing at the downed building, then down the sidestreet, then the downed building... To the others, Yuuki says, "It WOULD take a while to dig that up..."

Yeowang will try to help the people here, though her expertise is questionable. Still, her father owned construction companies, among other things, and she did occasionally tour them as a visiting manager. Mostly she watched Power Point presentations and was briefed at a high level, and her actual construction knowledge is almost non-existent. However, this is quite like a project she was briefed on once, and she attempts to share some of the main points, which turn out to be pertinent and helpful. Who knew?

Do you want to know what it takes to give a doctor a heart attack?

THIS.

THIS IS WHAT IT TAKES, YUUKI.

"Oh god," Prophylaxis blanches and follows after Yuuki with his eyes and his feet and his TERRIBLE ANXIETY. "Oh god, oh god, oh god, she's really going to jump it, isn't she? Oh no--" 'OH YES' says Yuuki Konno, owner of the game's most terrible devil-may-care attitude and basically Z E R O self-preservation instincts. "Oh nog, what are you even doing, that wall is about to--"

The crack spreads. Prophylaxis squawks, "Look out!!"

IT COLLAPSES!

Her headband... flutters to the ground...

.......

Oh wait nevermind, she's fine. She's totally, one-hundred-percent fine. You know who's not fine? THAT DOCTOR THAT JUST RUSHED IN AFTER HER. It's only the miraculous intercession of a certain Salamander hero that manages to keep him from being SQUASHED LIKE A BUG.

"T-thanks," Prophylaxis stammers up at his Atif-shaped rescuer as he scrambles and scrapes his way to safety. That was too close. Way too close!! A moment later and he could have been cut off from the group, left to the mercy of a bunch of murderous goblins-- or worse!!

Like, you know, what happened to these adventurers up ahead.

"...Ah," he says, thoughtfully, as the other team squabbles amongst itself to try and figure out whether to save their moron DPS that charged boldly into a bunch of collapsing buildings without paying heed to the world around them. LIKE A CERTAIN SOMEONE. "...You know, there might be a way around if we try the alleyway over there. We might be able to get through to that trapped team way faster than if we tried to clear the ruin out by hand."

Sometimes, an acrobat has good strength as well as flexibility. Sometimes physical work is their thing.

Not for poor Kotono.

Try as she may, she just can't do it...

    "You're okay, you're okay, just..." Atif mumbles to the good doctor while he holds up all that debris. Legs shaking more. "....Just please go through now....."

    And once everyone's finally cleared it, the Salamander slides after them and lets all the rubble finally go with a heavy groan of relief. Even if he ends up leaning over slightly with his arms just kinda... dangling down. "Oh heavens above my arms are gonna hurt forever after that...." Do you even get workout cramps in here? Huh.

    Coming upon the adventurers in a pinch, though... well. It doesn't take long for Atif to act after hearing the exact nature of this particular plight. Even while the others are considering the option of circling around... there's a sudden red streak of the Salamander swooping right past everyone, and...

    "It's okay!!" He calls out, turning briefly away from the pile of debris to flash a single thumb.up to the two adventurers from the Other Party! "We'll save them!"

    And no matter how ill-adviced it may be on accoutn of time contraints, the Crimson Salamander is... indeed, rapidly hauling piles of rubble out of the way, digging through things with almost shocking speed. Even more so with Yeowang's surprisingly-adept direction! Though it may very well still take much too long, even with his single-minded intent to... well. Help people, apparently.

    Bard says, "You know what? You're right! Screw 'em. Let's go." Just as Atif starts digging into the falling structure, with Yeowang providing some impressively helpful Powerpoint support, the Healer and the Bard walk off, apparently not caring anymore as they move to find their way out of the damaged town.

    Kotono is trying to help Atif dig the other half of the Adventurer group out, but she's struggling. Yuuki walks up and pats her on the shoulder, "Don't worry about it. I'm sure they'll be alright. We'll just have to draw all the goblin attention so they won't go after the other group!"

    Yuuki then moves on, walking past Atif before grabbing his tail and starting to drag him along, "Come on, Hero. Let's go sacrifice ourselves to the goblins so the others will be safe."

    As the group begins to move down the street, they hear some voices filtering in through a bunch of broken buildings, "Dude, this treasure chest is awesome!" "I know right!? And to think, we would have had to split it five ways!" "Rushing ahead was a brilliant idea! Now those two fools get nothing! Hahahahaha!" "Hahahaha!" "Hahahaha!"

    Moving on. The group find themselves walking down an ever shrinking side street. Whoever designed this part of the town is terrible at city planning! The tight walls are made even worse by the numerous amounts of pots and boxes strewn about.

    And the SMELL! Oh god the smell. Yuuki holds her nose, "I've been in the insides of a sandworm... ... This is worse." A pot breaks! The goblin hidden inside tries to shank Yuuki with a knife coated in sickly green. She imp acks, just barely twisting out of the way, finding it hard to avoid the knife with so little room to move, "Way worse!"

    And it doesn't end there! More pots begin to smash, box lids flung open, window coverings shattering into wood fragments as goblins swarm the group! They're even dropping down from the rooftops above! Will our heroes survive this horrible ambush!?

It is, in fact, too involved for Yeowang to complete directing the rescue efforts, and she'll rush out after the rest of the party as they disappear off into a narrow alleyway. She's about to make a comment about how we could have helped them when the goblins spring their ambush. She's an unarmed fighter, which is always extra tricky when fighting armed opponents, particularly when the armed opponents are weilding rusty knives.

She fights off the ambush with viscious punches and kicks, sending goblins flying, but she's not fast enough to keep from getting cut several times in the effort, the wounds appearing, glowing, but more critically, she's starting to be overcome by the weakness and dizzyness associated with the Poisoned debuff.

Goblins... why did it have to be goblins?

No time for questions now.

"Stay away from us!" Kotono yells as she goes after the nearest goblins, using her daggers to hold them off.

Yes, there's the risk of being poisoned, but Kotono's too fast for that.

Eventually, she's able to hold off some of the goblins to help her team get through.

Something tells Prophy that those crazy runaway DPSers are going to be juuuuust fine.

Sometimes there is no justice in the world. Sometimes the rogue that jumps ahead, steals all the loot and leaves an empty treasure room and then turns around and claims that there were really just a bunch of empty chests in here, honest, gets away with it. "It's fine," Prophylaxis reassures the BRAVELY HEROIC Salamander with a few gentle pats to the shoulder. "It's fine! Really. We might run into them sooner rather than later anyway, and just think of all the good we can be doing by slaughtering goblins instead of worrying about a few adventurers who are /probably/ okay anyway!"

You can even hear them, laughing into the wind about their good fortune...!

But that's them. This is us. This... is an alleyway that Prophylaxis really, truly, does not want to have anything to do with. The entire place smells like a backed up port-a-john at a curry-eating contest. That can only mean one thing...

GOBLINS!

Do imps have a special imp ack? Apparently they do in fact have a special imp ack!! Prophylaxis grunts and pushes in-between Yuuki and the nearest dagger-stabbing gobbo. His staff flashes with more of that translucent light, wrapping the both of them up in protective shield bubbles. The effect expands to catch the rest of the party in mere moments, but even /that/ might be too slow for some of them...!

"Shout if you get stabbed!" Prophylaxis advises, already fishing a series of syringes from the depths of his labcoat. "Alternately, gurgle loudly if you get stabbed in the lungs! I'll get to you as soon as I can!"

    "Ack!" yelps Atif when he gets pulled by his tail. He fights it for a moment at first, eaching for the rubble and all. "But, but, but... They're..." He protests still, for a few seconds, before relenting. Shoulders and arms drooping. "... I guess..."

    The Salamander doesn't really look happy about it either way. He keeps tossing looks back over towards the direction of the trapped adventurers forlornly (no matter how much they might be overjoyed by treasure there). It's just how he is.

    It doesn't really change much even when Prophylaxis assures him, even if he does let out a heavy sigh and a murmur of, "I hope you're right..."

    Well, if nothing else, the goblins are a fitting distraction from all that, at least! The Salamander squeaks from surprise when a pot next to him... bursts with a goblin?!

    "Argh no get away from me!!!"

    This apparently earns the goblin a swift fist to the face before the Salamander slides himself forward -- and right past two poison-coated daggers.

    "I'd rather do NEITHER!!" He yells back to the good doctor's advice, turning in a quick spin to send his leg smacking into the two goblins that made the brave effort at a stab. The spin continues, though, and works to lift his leg up high--

    And slam down again, with a powerful shockwave that shakes the ground and sends loose objects - and goblins - in his immmediate vicinity flying into the air!

    Punch! Kick! Ka-pow! Bam! Yeowang is trying her best to fight off the goblins in her stretch of the corridor. And she's doing a good job. But there's more and more of them! One gets a lucky hit in. Then another! Soon there's a few cuts on her body and Yeowang is starting to look not so good. But Prophylaxis's shield washes over her, helping to blunt further goblin strikes.

    Kotono's daggers flash through the air, neat slicing through goblin flesh to leave behind streaks of red. Clang! Clang! Her weapons deflect the poisoned knives, keeping them from touching her and delivering their deadly poison. Goblin bodies fall to the ground to shatter into pixels of light.

    Atif gives some powerful punches and kicks of his own, before unleashing a shockwave to send the goblins flying into the air! They quickly come crashing down to the ground, many exploding into light from the impact damage. Others fall on their own poisoned blades, leaving them to cry out in agony as their HP depletes, before also turning into pixels of light.

    Finally Yuuki presses ahead, her sword lashing out to deflect stupid goblin poison knives and stab them in their stupid goblin bodies. As Prophylaxis's shield washes over her, she calls back to the group, "Come on, we need to push through!"

    Finally the group bursts out of the tight alley into a much larger street. Yuuki leans forward, hands on her knees as she catches her breath, "Phew! That was... Quite a workout!"

    Yuuki turns around to check on the others, "Everyone okay?" She notices Yeowang's look, "You don't look so good..." She glances around. It's not exactly a safe place to rest. But she does notice the goblin shanty town. A structure that looks like someone took a whole bunch of wood and tin sheds, piled them all on top of each other, then propped them up with absurd looking supports. It makes one question the sanity of goblins. If they aren't already.

    Yuuki hmms, "I think we're almost done." She looks back at Yeowang, "Think you can push through until then?" They're going to have get closer to bring down that monstrosity of a goblin camp. Preferably without being spotted.

Yeowang grimaces at Prophylaxis, and mutters, "Yeah, I've been stabbed." Or at least slashed. Nothing deep, but she's definitely poisoned, flushed and sweating heavily despite the cold. She's leaning on a wall to keep herself steady, and doing her best to keep herself together and with-it. It's not easy. To Yuuki, she nods, "It'll take more than this to beat me." Though, from the look of things, not -a lot- more.

That said, /just/ sneaking isn't -too- much effort. Well, not so much sneaking as zipping along too fast to be noticed. She, looks both ways, creeps to the edge of cover, then zips with blinding speed from cover to cover, traversing the distance with an absolute minimum of exposure. She does sink to one knee at the end, eyes shut tight as she tries to regain her bearings and trying not to puke her guts out.

Sneaking is usually not a problem for Kotono, and this is no exception. She manages to keep herself low to the ground while making sure she steps deliberately to avoid being seen. At one point she nearly makes a noise, but she stops mid-step to avoid drawing attention to herself and the others.

"Maybe I should've gone barefoot instead?" Kotono wonders to herself before shrugging. "At least I'm through."

"Pffft don't be such a baby. A little poison in a big, strong Salamander like yourself-- why, your metabolism would burn right through it! Ahahahahaha!" Prophylaxis laughs! It's a funny joke! Not so funny: the fact that Yeowang /did/ in fact get poisoned. Quite a bit, for that matter. The doctor grimaces at the pugilist's many injuries, and moves over to begin dressing her myriad wounds. "Hold still. The more you move, the more easily the poison is able to circulate." At least until he's able to apply a few doses of antidote (in syringe form!) to the afflicted areas. The effect is... Not /quite/ immediate, but there's a sensation of warmth that radiates each injection site. "Okay, you should be alright. Let me know if you're still feeling unwell after a few minutes and I'll apply another dose."

Goblin poison is nasty. Nobody wants to know what they actually put in the stuff. It's /gross/ to say the least. Everything to do with goblins is gross. How they look, how they make their poisons, how they live...

Case in point, that shanty over there. Prophylaxis frowns at the towering, teetering structure and raises his staff. A dark haze begins to flow outward, concealing the party...

And then the staff makes a long PHTTHTHBHHTHTHTHTTTT sound and the spell abruptly sputters. "Uh," Prophylaxis stares at his staff. He whacks it against a nearby wall a couple of times! Still, no go. "...Yeah I think it's about time I traded the old thing in. Hm."

    Atif *stares* at Prophylaxis. He STARES. He doesn't even know what to say about that particular joke. "I mean..." Is the only thing that eventually comes out, before he shakes his head and points vaguely at Yeowang. He doesn't say it, but the wild gesturing does carry the distinct sense of 'go help her!!!' in it.

    The Salamander wipes some dust off of himsel after the shockwave-inducing impact either way. Understandably, he decides to keep himself quiet when the time for STEALTHERY comes. THoguh he does channel his cheer into nods given to each one of the party members before he goes sweeping on through the town. The Salamander is an agile one too, it turns out. There *was* a reason for why he swept to the gates in a wild leap in the first place -- parkouring, leaping and climbing his way through from concealed position to concealed position.

    Strange how someone who is usually so loud can be so stealthy. With that golden scarf, no less!

    Of course, Yeowang shows that, even while poisoned (though recovering thanks to Prophylaxis), she's able to breeze through this area undetected. Zipping like the wind from cover to cover, shadow to shadow. The goblins have no hope of seeing her, their tiny brains processing too slowly to even be able to perceive movement like that!

    Kotono's excellent acrobatic expertise clearly proves helpful with stealth sections like this, letting her move silently around difficult obstacles to help hide her from view.

    This would of course be much easier if they had an accomplished spell caster who could sheathe them all in a cloaking spell to reduce their visibility.

    They have Prophylaxis. 'nuff said.

    Atif's movements through the building ruins around the base of the shanty town are just as expertful as Yeowang and Kotono, getting him right up to one of those supports.

    As for Yuuki. She can stealth! She can totally stealth! She's an imp! She's got the Sneaking skill to prove it! All it takes is moving cautiously and-Yuuki trips over something with a somewhat loud THUD. She groans, before freezing in place. She looks up, checking the goblin monstrosity for any signs of scouts spotting her... There are none! Lucky! Yuuki scrambles across into a shadow, taking a few moments to breathe after that failure. She stares back at where she fell... There's nothing there! What did she trip on!? An invisible wall? Bugged terrain geometry? Yeah, definitely. That's Yuuki's explanation.

    The group finds themselves up close and personal with the main supports of the goblin camp. They've been able to go without being spotted, which means they've got an opportunity to deal with this without too much fuss! And just as both Prophylaxis and Yuuki predicted, they've got a few means to accomplish their goal. Some suggest fire. Some suggest physical force. Some suggest trying to help the supports to get in touch with their inner feelings so they can overcome the feeling like they are holding their weight of many on their backs. Those people are usually laughed out of the party.

Let's get physical, shall we?

Slashing with those blades...

Slicing and dicing anything that gets in her way...

Or not...

Once again, Kotono blows it...

Yeowang is holding herself up mostly by willpower at this point. She's been through harder trials, but not /much/ harder, and she's never tried to do it while suffering from poison. Prophylaxis is here, luckily, and that's dealt with before too long. "Thanks," she tells him, and nods about complaining later if she's still sick. Not cured too soon, though, as it becomes apparent what we need to do here where we've snuck up to.

Once she's pretty much sorted out and the worst of her symptoms dealt with, thanks to Proph, she takes a look to see what we're here for. Now that she can look out without the world spinning too much. This is actually pretty straightforward, just breaking some rather crappy-looking wooden support beams. Not that she's a demolition specialist, her friend DalDal was the one that liked to show off breaking boards with her powerful kicks, but she always had a harder kick than the shortstack, and she tries to demonstrate it now, spinning around and delivering a hard kick to a thick support beam. Now if she were in perfect health, that beam would have split, but she's still a bit woozy from the poison, and it's taken somethig off her kick, which is not enough to really contribute to the cause.

They made it through... barely...

Kotono is hunched over and gasping for air, looking a bit on the wounded side... but she still gives a slight thumbs up. "That wasn't... the best... but at least we made it..."

    Atif stares down at the rooftop and the gaps on it that show the goblin encampment within.

    Atif props his chin on his fist, thoughtfully. Considering the options here. He quickly peeks off over to Yuki, and... gives a firm nod, before bumping his fist to the open palm of his other hand.

    "Yosh! Let's do this!"

    And apparently doing this involves... fire suddenly bursting out over his head, as if his hair was suddenly replaced by fierce, upward-pointing flames!

    Followed quickly by fire wreathing his arms and legs, too -- even his tail! Furious flames burning bright when he leaps up to the air, spins around and drives right back down to slam his fist against the roof with a glorious explosion of flames!

    "D'RYAAAAAAA!"

"Fufufu, don't feel ashamed to laugh! It doesn't caust you anything!" Oh no. He's one of /those/ kinds of doctors, isn't he? Prophylaxis saunters off before he can be summarily punished for his grievous misdeeds, but it's all well and good anyway.

Because! They finally manage to sneak close enough to the towering goblin shanty to do some serious damage to its foundations! This is a rare opportunity!! "The last time I came this way," Prophylaxis explains to a recently tripped Yuuki, "I ran into a goblin that would have given even you a run for your money. Speed-wise, that is. I don't think a scythe is particularly comparable to a sword... But regardless! I'm glad we didn't run into it this time."

Plus it means they can topple a tower full of goblins. What fun! Prophylaxis looks to the wooden foundations surrounding him. A wicked smile creeps slowly across his face as he lifts his staff high! "O' admonishing inferno, arise by my call! I summon thee, fires of the abyss, consume my enemies and render them into naught but impotent ash! FIREB--"

                         PHTHBHBBBBBTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT                        

...A tiny little poof of flame is all he gets.

H-hey, sometimes your rod just doesn't feel like performing. It happens to everyone!! Prophylaxis blushes and mutters a litany of excuses none-the-less. How embarrassing...!

    It's just some flimsy wood and metal scrap supports, right? They look like a stiff breeze could cause them to shatter and bring the whole thing down, right? WRONG!

    Turns out the goblins actually know what the hell they're doing when it comes to building tall towering structures. Who knew?

    Kotono tries a rapid series of slashes against one support, expecting it to be sliced and diced like last night's carrots. But no go, her daggers bouncing off the metal scrap which proves to be of surprising strength.

    Yeowang tries a good, solid kick to the support she's at. Hoping to cause the wodden structure to shatter and break under the impact. Instead it holds, the feeling of the impact reverberating back through Yeowang's body, kind of like when you knock your funny bone into a table and feel that weird fuzz all through your arm.

    Atif calls forth the FIRE, launching himself upwards! His fist hits the roof above them, the floor of the first level of the disturbingly badly built tower. Flames rush forth from the impact, catching the wood alight and beginning to spread. This is when the goblins finally realize their beloved tower of sheds is under attack! Alarms begin to sound. Goblins starting running back and forth, throwing buckets of water on the fire, trying to put the flames out before they spread across the whole structure. But they can't fight it fast enough! One of the main supports is already burning, breaking apart with the satisfying crackle of burning wood.

    Losing one of its supports, the giant tower slowly leans, loud groaning sounds beginning to echo through the area. But the tower's tipping stops, still supported by the rest.

    Yuuki groans, moving a hand to her face as Prophylaxis continues the puns. Just imagine, she's had to put up with years of this! Still, Prophylaxis mentions a powerful goblin foe! Which makes Yuuki look conflicted. On the one hand, powerful goblin foe she could have fought! On the other, causing a giant tower full of goblins to topple over! Tough call. While she's trying to make it, Prophylaxis goes to unleash his own flames on the tower. But his flames turn out to be about as effective as his puns. Seriously dude, you need a new staff!

    Finally, Yuuki decides that she might as well go with the tower toppling. She fights tough foes often. How often does she get to topple a giant tower!? Yuuki draws her sword, the weapon lighting up, before she swings it with a cry towards the closest support. The blade strikes, unleashing a large shockwave that ripples outwards and across the beam. Cracks begin to show in the wood, until the entire thing shatters in a shower of splinters!

    The tower tilts some more in another direction, the groaning growing even louder! But, once more it stops. The three remaining supports that the others failed to destroy managing to keep it upright.

    They've failed.

    Horrible laughter echoes down from the tower above. A deadly looking goblin jumps through a hole in the floor above the group, landing in the center of the party. He's wearing a cap, dyed a strangely familiar looking red. Blood red. There's a sneer on his ugly face, apparently amused at the party's failed attempt to bring the tower down upon them. He raises the menacing scythe in his hand towards them, before sweeping it to his side in a threatening manner as he prepares to fight them.

    Unfortunately, the blade accidentally slices through one of the remaining supports. Separating it into two. That was the metaphorical straw. The rest of the supports break under the weight that they can no longer hold. Seeing this, Yuuki calls out, "SCATTER!" She starts running!

    The entire tower begins to fall, rushing downwards. The deadly goblin is too shocked to react quickly enough and is soon crushed under the massive weight. What follows is a cacophany of crushing wood and scrap metal.

    It takes some time for the dust to clear. So much time in fact that Yuuki can actually be heard before she's seen. Not that that's hard, "WOOO! THAT! WAS! AWESOME!"

Yeowang will admit, given her failure, that perhaps the poison's still getting to her, but it's not as bad as it was, and when the tower starts to fall, it seems like now is the time for making oneself scarce, and she'll hit Proph up for another shot later as Yuuki's admonition to scatter is what she's taking action on now. She ducks and weaves and gets the hell out, following Yuuki. Yeowang is not quite as enthised as Yuuki is, it seems, but she's glad that we were able to succeed. "That was difficult," she admits.

    After the flames have fizzled out from around Atif, he... just kind of is left to stare up at the structure still standing. And listening to the laughter up above. "That... can't be good..." He admits.

    He doesn't really kno wthe story behind the red-capped goblin, but when the scythe-wielding Boss drops down, Atif, too, drops into a fighting stance--

    Only to end up staring at the supporting beam the goblin inadvertantly cut. "...Did... did you just...?"

    And as it turns out, it doesn't take much more than one scream from Yuuki to get the lizard hauling ass, either! With a panicked yelp, he sets off into a run, just barely managing to get out of the way of all the collapsing wood and debris.

    "I MEAN..." He calls sidelong to Yuuki, thus, while they continue their mad dash to ANywhere But Here. "I GUESS THAT WORKS?!"

He's working on it! Or rather, he has an artisan working on it. The point is that he's got a replacement staff in the wings and it'll only be like a /day/ before it gets done!!

But that doesn't change the fact that he maybe should have brought a backup today instead of hoarding resources like the miser that he is deep down inside.

Seriously. If they could have just burnt down one more support, that whole thing would have collapsed like the house of cards it was born to be. But...

Instead, they face a familiar foe. Prophylaxis stares agog at the grinning redcap as it descends upon them. "How many of you are there...?" And here he is with a half-working staff and a poisoned martial artist to keep watch over. The magus readies himself for battle, even as he's sure Yuuki is getting MAXIMUM HYPED for a super goblin boss fight.

...And then the Redcap learns that maybe a scythe that can cut through anything is not the sort of thing you want to be carting around near your house's foundations. The blade cleaves through the third support beam with almost effortless ease, and the whole thing goes sideways.

Literally. It's falling sideways.

"Uhhhhh," Prophylaxis! Did not plan for what to do when the thing actually started coming down!! Yuuki says to scatter. Prophylaxis goes to do just that, riding away on a rushing wave! He manages to get out-- barely. A piece of shrapnel nearly impales his new muffler to a wall. Instead, all they're left with is a cloud of debris and a pile of assorted goblin construction material. Maybe there's something there that could be worthwhile...?

But, more importantly, they failed... And then succeeded! Who would have guessed!!

"...Haaah, that was too close," Prophylaxis sighs and flops back onto the ground. "...It was pretty awesome, though, wasn't it?"