Duty Session 225: Totally Typical Tomb

The Undead presence in the Ninetails Dominion has continued to be a threat. Even with the Merchant Blades and the Peko Army working together, there is always a need for accomplished Hunters to push through and clear out regions that have been occupied by the Undead Threat.

One such region is a small ruined castle from a time long since past, before the monster crisis had been forced upon the Yamato region. Arriving on Peko Drawn cart, Rylen and Cyrus arrive in front of a ruined Portcullis that gives access to an area that has been so trampled by monsters in the past, it is no longer a village. It is in fact naught but a graveyard now.

Tombstones stand everywhere, as Cyrus and Rylen get off, and Cyrus unhooks the Peko and gets it to clear some distance. "Alright, this might be a bit rough with just the two of us. But I am confident in our ability to deal with Undead." The Cait Sith notes to Rylen, while glancing back to the graveyard.

"... this is sure eerie looking. The mist certainly is not helping our visibility going forward. Best be on our guard."

Rylen has been spending a great deal of his time in Ninetails as of late, enough so that he rarely gets back to the mainland and his home. Then again, this seems to be where he is needed most. SOme might say that he is playing the 'hero', but someone has to, don't they?

The sight of the graveyard has him looking curious, hopping down from the cart to walk beside it for a moment. "A little challenge in fine. So long as I don't go getting my fool self killed." The Pooka chuckles in his usual easy-going manner. "I have at least one person who would kick my rear end if I did."

He makes a small sound in the back of his throat, nodding as he pats the peko and then steps forward. "We'll just have to depend on your feline senses then, won't we?"

"At least one huh?" Cyrus remarks. "I suppose I have at least one or two who would get upset at my disappearance as well. They might even get mighty grumpy." He remarks, rubbing the side of his head for a bit. "But I'm not too concerned about this for right now. Nothing stops us from running away. Let's just keep a watch on our health. I really rather not scare Miki like that."

He continues forward, only to spot white bone suddenly portruding from the ground. Cyrus is a bit too aware of this world to fall for that kind of trick. "Don't count on my feline senses too much, but doesn't that look like a skeleton's arm to you?" He asks, before grabbing a potion and holding it ready. "Think you can unbury it?"

"A fellow as dapper as you? I'm sure you've got a few hearts you break every time you leave town." Rylen teases, giving the cat a playful wink as he continues into the graveyard. When he mentions a particular name, the elf chuckles to himself, "See?"

As for those who would be concerned, well... "Xan is far more likely to be angry at me than anything else. That's the problem with having friends who are Salamanders. They tend to react to everything by blowing steam." Friends. Right... friends.

As the bone is pointed out, Rylen steps forward, "Sure, I can take care of tha--" He is just about to cast a spell when the bone rattles and becomes a full fledged skeleton. Followed by a couple more forming nearby.

"Looks like you were right. Luckily, I should be able to take care of this, no problem." He starts to go through what looks like a martial-arts kata, except at the end of each strike, a stone or rock or clod of earth is sent flying into the nearby skeletons.

"I am not that kind of heartbreaker I am afraid. I may look like this, but I stick close to my hearth." The feline answers Rylen as he joins in on the stone based assault. His potions hit the ground, and moments later he's motioning his fingers out. Creating a swampy area beneath the skeletons, which keeps them stuck in place while Rylen is throwing rocks at them and shattering them with remarkable ease.

"Nice." The moment they are dispatched, Cyrus gives him a thumbs-up. "I honestly don't know many Salamanders in my close proximity. I imagine there's a relationship between Salamander players and the Scale Emblem Alliance." The catte proposes to the Beastmaster Pooka.

They soon come upon what is the remainder of a shambled mansion. The moment they get close enough, a series of armored skeletons 'job' out from the rotten front door, down a set of stairs, and get into formation.

"Is it me, or have monsters been getting smarter?" Cyrus mumbles. "I'm not too great at dealing with armored skeletons, but I can try to keep them off of your back." He proposes to Rylen.

"Ahh, too bad, that." Rylen chuckles to himself. "Then again, I'm pretty loyal, myself, so who am I kidding?" He shrugs. Despite the dire looking circumstances they find themselves in, he seems completely at ease. The Pooka is certainly an odd individual.

"Not sure. I know my kind are pretty rare. I suppose not so many people were interested in playing elves. Either that, or because we were one of the few races without any kind of special ability." Some have wings, some have animal or monster traits, but Pooka? They just look like elves.

The armored skeletons don't seem to surprise him, raising his brows. "They have been. People have been reporting it for months." He admits, walking confidently up into the thick of the skeletons and starting to bash at them with fist and foot.

He has no qualms whatsoever about being a front-line fighter, and seems perfectly built for this kind of thing.

Cyrus makes a bemused sound as Rylen notes that's too bad, and gives him a friendly head-motion. Not a wink, not anything suggestive. Just a friendly nod. The youth is on the more traditional side of things himself. But he's quickly learned to accept the many walks of life all around him.

"I dunno. Pooka have some interesting things. It's probably just not something the Scale Emblem would easily find. They have some interesting history in the Eastal Free League. Tied to the Sylph and the forests there." He explains to Rylen as he runs in with him.

The youth uses his fists and footwork to halt strikes. Casting the occassional magical protection on Rylen. The cat gets some scrapes and bruises for his attempts though, it's certainly not perfect. But that doesn't take away the fact that he can just heal afterwards. And those Skeletons, after getting decimated, most certainly can not.

"Sure, but... formations?" He answers Rylen. "It's like someone has been training them." He ducks out from another Skeleton and kicks its feet away, letting Rylen finish it off. And soon they're entering the main hall of the mansion...

Finding a mish-mash of ugly zombie bodies growing together. Strange red lines of magic seem to run through them. "Let's get this over quick before it gets worse!" Cyrus is quick to deploy multiple fire potions onto the mass, trying to burn them away before they have a chance to do... whatever giant zombie mounds do!

"This looks like it was someone's experiment."

"I'll be honest, the lore of this place never really stood out to me, at least not until recently." Rylen smirks, "Now, it hits a little bit closer to home." He motions around them, "I've spent most of my time up here in Ninetails Dominion, at least before we got trapped here, anyways. These days, I have more reason to travel."

When Cyrus seems surprised by the formations, Rylen all but laughs, "You haven't spent much time up here, have you? We got used to seeing undead in formations months ago." They have been dealing with the problems in Ninetails for quite a long time, and gotten used to the way the behaviors have changed.

Following Cyrus in, Rylen's expression changes for the first time, shifting to one that is slightly disgusted. He raises a hand to his nose, looking at the zombie pile. "Yeah, I have no interest in sticking around. Let's go."

Rylen summons some stone to help them across, making it easier to avoid the writhing mass below.

"I mean, I have been around a few times for this mess. But I guess that was before Authur showed up, or whatever that guy's name is." He has been listening in on people talking about the undead matter. "They seemed a lot less organized back then. Capturing people from farms and villages." He glances aside as the writhing mass gets dutch-ovened in stone and fire, and proceeds down a set of stairs.

"A riddle..." Cyrus then spots the two headed Skeleton with the shield, and stares at the door. The door is half falling apart. "Let's just ignore the puzzle and head on in. What's that thing going to do, bite at us?"

Its jaw falls off from one of the heads.

"... pfft."

Puzzles are not in Rylen's usual wheelhouse. He doesn't have any of the sort of skills that usually help to decypher those sort of things. "Not my game, I'm afraid." He looks at Cyrus and then shrugs.

"After you, sir cat." He bows, allowing the more 'tanky' member of the party to deal with any issues that might arrise from them failing to figure out the puzzle part of the chamber.

"I mean, it looks broke~OHSHIT." The skeleton suddenly swings at him, chopping off a small chunk of his ear. "Ow!" Wait. "Wait, right, doesn't hurt. But still, ow! Leave my ear alone." He holds his ear and grunts at the Skeleton as he moves on past, looking behind him, before looking out forward at...

A demilich, declaring; "You dare disturb my sleep?!"

To which Cyrus just grunts, "Shut up! Someone just hurt my ear!" At which he grabs a series of potions, as the Lich holds up its arms and begins to form a massive black orb of magic.

"You heard the man. No one should mess with a cat's ears." Rylen states, as if he found the whole situation quite amusing. It is, somewhat.

"Do you want me to take care of this?" He asks, looking over at Cyrus. Then, rubbing his hands together, the Beastmaster steps forward, stomping as he goes in a display that might look silly at first.

Someone with keen eyes would realize that he is sending up small sprays of debris into the air with each step. Lifting a hand, he clenches it into a fist, and then seems to pull at something invisible.

That is when the heat hits. The roar of fire as a rain of fireballs made of earth, falling at high speed, come raining down onto the Lich.

"Wh, yeah. You take care of it. I'm just going to heal myself for a bit here. I heard someone recently lost a leg permanently, and I am not taking that risk." He remarks. It's the kind of rumors that is so rediculously vague, it's barely useful.

Two potions later, his ear is looking a-okay again. Something that the Lich can't say for itself. The rain of fireballs coming from just below the ceiling slam into its body time after time, until the entire monster is just... eradicated. There's nothing left of it other than those tell-tale shattering tiles of light.

"Damn... nice technique. I've never seen that one before. Some kind of... earth and fire combination?" He inquires with Rylen as he walks to the monster's corpse and picks up a bone, and then tosses a second one to Rylen.

"Permanently?" Rylen pauses mid-step, which luckily doesn't disrupt whatever spell he's casting, "I didn't think that sort of thing was possible." It shows how little concern he actually has in regards to the Lich and the danger it might bring.

When it is over, the Beastmaster dusts his hands off, "I'd heard of a meteor spell that was possible at higher levels, so I started to try to figure out how it could be done." He opens his hand, "Earth, plus fire."

He shrugs, "Probably not the only way of pulling something like that off, but it seems pretty effective."

"I mean, it's just a rumor. But I'm not taking any chances. I know they say that women like scars, but this isn't some anime." Cyrus answers Rylen as he looks the way back, then back to Rylen. "Earth plus Fire. Honestly, pretty ingenius." He notees. "And definitely effective - and impressive too." He then motions for Rylen to follow. "Let's get out of here and check if the Peko ran off or not. I figure you'd like a comfortable cart ride back."