Duty Session 226: Goblins in the Rotting Forest

It was not hard to tell where the forest started to faulter on the enervating effects. Shiruba paused, crouching partially in what scraggly brush remained, her ears already erect at attention. "This is the area the goblins interfering with the woods' recovery have been seen before. Keep your senses sharp." A flick of the wrist draws her bow from inventory to be ready. It's clear she's done this enough to be wary, hopefully that will be helpful to the others looking to investigate this matter. The longer this corruption lasts, the more impact it will have on the rest of Eastal's ecosystems.

Yeowang will follow Shiruba carefully. She doesn't know the area, nor the issue very well, but she's here to learn, and so she's paying close attention. Keeping her senses as sharp as she can, she considers drawing her own bow, but she's only so-so as an archer. It's mainly for catching food. So she remains poised and alert, both hands free, which is ready-to-fight, for her.

"So, uh, what's going on here, again? Explain it to me as if I had never heard of the events that led to this disaster..." Uta says, her eyes wandering around the damaged flora, "which, well, is pretty much what has happened."

It's Uta as usual for you. Newbie gear, staff at the ready.

"... Mmm. You can feel the taint here." Estelle murmurs, kneeling down to examine some of that black-purple tint to the soil and grass, and looking up towards the leaning trees. "The Waves have scarred this land. It only leaves me more worried for what could come of them." There's a shake of her head, and a sigh, and she clutches her wand a bit more tightly in hand. Her silver eyes swivel around the area, tails swishing behing her in agitation. "I can only hope tonight's Raid goes well, and what follows is more gentle. Any idea what we can expect, Shiruba?"

"This is the area the 3rd and 4th Waves happened at the same time, and the Soul Eaters summoned during it contaminated the land with their presence before being destroyed," Shiruba keeps the explaination simple, for Uta's sake. Because it's Uta. Her tail flicks a few times as she creeps forward. "We're looking for goblins. There's a band of them trying to foster the corruption in their spite against the Eastal races."

    Akatsuki is here. One minute she wasn't. The next, she just appears; hanging upside-down, from a nearby tree branch.
    "I am ready." She says, simple, curt, and to the point as she drops down from her perch, flipping upright to land on her feet in a crouch.

There is one more soul joining this little crew. A certain Elf, (Pooka but she'll never call herself such). She would be right by Shiruba for a moment as she looks over to the group. "Don't take the little green skins lightly. They are not smart but they are not idiots either." She checks her bow and has already used the new anti goblin poison on her arrows ahead of time. "They also love traps and will poison them all." The things she's learned from a certain Lander about the goblins. The archer looks over Uta for a moment. "You are the slime lab's owner right?"

Uta nods a lot. "That leads me to my next question. ...Whati s a Soul Eater?" Uta says, as she continues following the group. She turns to Estelle. "I care about this land as well. I technically am a citizen of it, and I suppose I have a particular responsibility towards it."

"...Hi..." Uta says, with hesitation. She pulls up her inspect menu. "...Akatsuki it is, right? Pleased to meet you. I'm Uta Furore, Aerialist, Musical Kung-Fu Nurse, Slime Enthusiast, Chairspriggan for life of the Royal Society for the Appreciation and Study of Gelatinous Creatures, collector of- wait, I'm speaking too much again, aren't I?" Head canted downwards, eyes glancing out of her black pixie bob falling over her forehed, she lets out a weak, "Sorry, will never happen again." That said, she clams up, and follows the party.

And that is when Erufu joins in, "Oh, yes! That's me! I'm Uta Furore, Aerialist, Musical Kung-Fu Nurse, Slime Enthusiast..."

The group continues into the forest, and once there -- a scout! A single, lone goblin scout. There seem to be no others around, so some one-on-one tactic, or simply trying to get past it unseen, seem the be the best course of action.

"The last wave had Soul Devourers, so I'm not sure. Those were... giant, floating monstrosities. Like a fish with a terrifying half-human face and arms." The Vixen flicks her wand around in a vague shape. "They bled a dark miasma that ate into everything around them."

And then Uta is being Uta, and the fox can't help but shake her head with a smile, even as she keeps her eyes roving for danger. "Estelle Mancer." She introduces herself in kind, after the spriggan. "Astrologian." Much briefer and to the point. Still, she tenses a little, tails curling, when she sees the Scout ahead of them. "... do we take it down, or make it run so we can see where it goes?"

Still, she knows that keeping most of them on the down low is likely best - who knows if it has friends out of sight? And so she does start chanting, softly. "Oh quiet Chamaeleon fair, hide us from the enemy's stare, shield us from their questing sight, that we may avoid a vicious fight." There's a vague shimmer around the group, as the Aggro Reduction buff goes into effect - and in its wake, they're all a little... translucent. Which is only a help, not a true solution, but...

Aha, there's a lone patrol. Perfect. "He'll lead us back to wherever they're hiding. They've taken over some of the former tree-homes of the Sylph and Gnomes. Be ready to move, but keep a low profile if you can." Shiruba crouches down, draws an arrow in her bow, and fires. The shot wizzes through the air, barely buzzing the goblin's left ear, and thwumps into a decaying tree trunk. It's an intentional missed shot, meant only to scare the goblin into fleeing back to whatever hideaway they're using.

Erufu says "A horrible monster from what I now but nothing else. Erufu is my name, Uta." She will then look over to Estelle for a moment and cringes. "Very nasty sounding monsters Ms. Mancer. I say track it to where it goes, it will make for the nest I suspect." With that the Pooka will fire off a shot after the Goblin and follow after at Shiruba for a moment and follow suit taking a shot at the goblin as well.

Yeowang introduces herself simply as Yeowang, tho Uta and any others she doesn't know. She nods to Erufu, she seems to know what she's doing, and to Shiruba, who's her senior in the guild as well as a quite capable person worthy of respect. Yeowang certainly doesn't know about sneaking, she's normally one to stride in bold as brass into any situation. But sneaking and stealth are not her forte, and when we're supposed to sneakily follow the goblin, she's not particularly helpful. If she'd needed to analyze his stock options, she'd be more in her specialty. Or kicking him in the head. She will instead follow the other party members, who at least seem to have followed along correctly.

    In contrast with Uta's lentgthy introduction, the Assassin's is very brief.
    "Akatsuki. Ninja." She says terse and brusque. The ninja seems to have a habit of keeping her eyes fixed too long on whatever she's looking at, to the point where it almost seems like an intense stare.
    "-Quiet." She hisses brusquely at the sight of the goblin and-- seems to become one with the shadows, vanishing from sight, save for her arm making several pointed gestures at the goblin. Which Shiruba handily frightens into bolting like a rabbit.
    Akatsuki follows in silence, footsteps making not a sound as she keeps on the goblin's trail.

Uta shudders at Estelle's explanation of Soul Devourers. "...I wonder if the dark substance is what made those Dark slimes so violent and aggressive... I should perform more research on the one I have managed to acquire for my lab."

After Akatsuki's words (well, /word/, singular), Uta stops. "Oh. Right!", she whispers. It's a split second. She darts, there's a flutter of leaves, and Uta is- wait, where's Uta? She's -gone. And not a noise can be heard around.

She went full Spriggan.

The goblin hisses and makes screaming noises at the shots falling too close to him for comfort. He looks around, but doesn't appear to spot anyone. His next action? To sprint in the distance, and dive into an abandoned Living Tree. Seems like people will have to investigate a possible Underground Tunnel he went into...

Yeowang hurries after the goblin when he dives into the tree. She puts her hand against it, concentrates, and with a lot of willpower, the earth itself begins to peel away, allowing the party to continue pursuit. It seems strange to her, rooted in the mundane realm as she was, but this seems to be the way of things in this fantastic world.

The hunt is on! Shiruba springs into motion as the goblin runs, living up to her inspiration species very good in chasing after their quarry. Just as expected, he disappears into one of the old house-trees to try and barricade them out. Which is why she actually darts a bit past the tree before squatting down and tilting her head to put one ear closer to the ground. With that and her hands in contact with the earth she can sense things that aren't visibly seen at the moment. "I can faintly hear footsteps and shouting within a hollow space. There's definitely tunnels here."

    Off goes the goblin, running into one of the old tree-homes, shuts the door and locks it.
    "Tch."
    But a ninja will not be dettered. Akatsuki takes to a knee and has a peek through the keyhole. Before she quickly produces a set of tools.
    "This will be done in a moment." Is all she says as she starts futzing with the lock until there is a satisfying ~click~.
    "Door's open."
    Everything about her screams efficiency, even down to her curt manner of speech as though she were choosing words for maximum economy.

Erufu is chaing after the goblin she is certain she's able to keep up with it as she's going after it soon she'll be using her own elemental affinity with the earth along side her own skills with tracking to try and suss out. Where the entrance to the tunnel is.

"They were rather vicious, yes, and came down in numbers." There's a shake of the vixen's head, and she puts the memory of the wave aside - especially since Uta says something far more worrying, at least to her, in the wake of that. "... o-oh. Did you now? Who told you about them, may I ask?" There might be some internal screaming going on, as memories of people saying NOT TO TELL UTA surface.

... still, they also come upon the Living Tree, and she frowns at the closed and locked door. But they're not out of options, and she spends a moment just looking for another way in - feeling out the Earth around its roots, even as others handle their own way. She's made no appreciable progress by the time the lock is open, though, and so merely gives a nod to Akatsuki. "That was fast. Good work."

"Oh, uh..." Uta replies to Estelle. "...I don't remember. It's been a while since then... now, sorry, there's a thing I need to do."

She darts off, and,*SLAM*! The door to a Living Tree is kicked open, and in rushes Uta. "I got you, you filthy vermin! Let me- wait."

Uta stares around. The tree is empty. No tunnels. Just a single room. Empty.

"...dang, wrong tree." Off she rushes to join the rest of the team...

There she is, with the rest of the party. "Sneaky goblins! Just let me catch one, I have some being skewered with arrows to avenge..."

She looks around the tunnels, and when her eyes settle on a particular one, she exclaims, "Merek!" She slaps her forehead. "I remember now, Estelle! It was Merek who told me." She turns to Estelle with a bit of a wistful look in her eyes. "I'm so, so grateful to him. If he didn't keep me in the loop about things, nobody would! Olympus is AWFUL at writing reports. I haven't seen a report of a tower push or a wave of calamity, ever. Or... anything else that is that people do. If Merek didn't take some time to keeping me up to date, I... well..."

Shiruba returns to the front of the tree to find Pocket Ninja has already opened the lock. "Good work! I don't have to dig us a way in."

Sure enough, the tree conceals one of the tunnel entrances. And then the tunnel splits off into more tunnels. "Mmmm." Shiruba pauses, then growls out a grown as she covers her nose with one hand, and points with the other. "That passage has the strongest stink of goblins." Whine. "Sometimes hightened senses aren't all they're cracked up to be."

Yeowang has followed the goblin down the passage but it seems they've followed a bit too far back, and we've lost him. She peers at the ground thoughtfully, looking for signs of passage, and nods as what she finds agrees with Shiruba's skilled nose. "Yes, that way," she concurs, and will head that way, looking alert.

"Ahhh. I see." comes the slightly... /off/ tone, in response to who told Uta about them. It's gone in her next sentence, though. "And, yes, reporting can be a problem. I had to cover the last Wave for the New World Alliance, but I'm not sure how... typical it was, since I wasn't active for the Waves before it. I'll see about getting you a copy, if I do it again." She doesn't say anything about why she wasn't, but just presses onwards into the tunnels, taking a moment to look around and consider.

The vixen is, however, terrible at tracking - unlike Shiruba, her nose is mostly normal. "A gift I thankfully seem to have missed." She comments to the other Cait Sith, before following the trackers' leads. Their skill means she doesn't even have time to start divining the way...

    With the lock handled, Akatsuki simply nods to Estelle's words of thanks and puts her tools away as she moves on. Dropping into the tunnels belo, she takes to a crouch again and runs her fingers over the ground before she finds what she's looking for.
    "These footsteps are fresh." Leading conveniently down the path the others have found.

Erufu see Uta almost got it but it still gives her an idea. She will with the rest of the party fin the way as they end up in the cave, the place is a bit of a maze and her ear twitch. It's almost constant as she's trying to keep alert as she continues to track the creatures she looks for signs of passage and will tip off the party when she does find some.

"We could use to have a newspaper set up at some point...or work with the local bards who carry the news." She notes to Estelle. "We should get moving."

"You're probably thinking of Messengers, Erufu," Uta corrects. "If you give a dry report to a bunch of Bards... you're going to get a bunch of very exciting and engaging ballads out of it. But those come at a price. The price tends to be accuracy..."

"But a newspaper would not be a bad idea, now that you mention it. If a printing press was widely available..."

The scout manages to evade the party, and dart through the tangled maze of passages with uncanny ease and speed. If Shiruba has already been here, she'll remember: there is a specici underground chamber he's most likely headed to, guarded by two hobgoblins. This scout has been slippery, and is this close to arriving at its destination! If it does, the team might be in grave danger!

"...I'd be grateful for that, Estelle, thank you!", Uta replies to the Fox Cait Sith. "Anything that gets me involved in things is appreciated!"

Dispatching the goblin is easy. Dispatching these guards is difficult, the more so because it must be fast and silent. Well, that's always advantageous. But she's a team player, at least, and rather than attacking directly, she uses one of the strange skills she's got to freeze the targets, leaving them particularly vulnerable, so they'll take extra damage from the others' atacks.

    That goblin doesn't get far. Not from Akatsuki at least.
    One minute he might think he's home free... In the next second Akatsuki emerges from the shadows behind the runner.
    A small hand clamps down over the goblin's mouth, causing it to flail in a muffled panic.
    Until the sharp end of Akatsuki's kodachi appears from between it's ribs, from where she stabbed it cleanly in the back, red light appearing from the wounds before the goblin goes limp-- and explodes into little more than pixels.
    But then she backs up, motioning for the group to be quiet. There are bigger, nastier goblins a head, indicating 'two of them' by holding up two fingers, before she slinks into the shadows once again.
    Only to appear as quick as a blur, dealing high DPS to the hobs with backstabs while the others hold their attention.

Erufu is a very fast Elf, so she is quick to move, she will draw her dagger and set to work. She move fat leaping up to stab one of the hobs before pulling back to leave it open for the other's to assault upon. It's nothing to what Akatsuki does at all the nin is quite in the zone as she does stupid amounts of DPS but the Pooka grins. "Nicely done! I see why the Devil In glasses has you in his guild!"

Once the goblin scout is taken care of Shiruba stops, drawing an arrow back in her bow, and firing it farther down the passageway.... and it audibly tinks as one of the guards manages to swat it out of the air instead of getting hit. Shiruba growls in annoyancing, and resumes sprinting to catch up with the rest of the group before the hit the main chamber. "We're getting close to the end now."

"I'll keep it in mind, then." The Astrologian confirms, nodding to Uta. Even as she considers what they're heading into... and walks right past where Akatsuki killed the goblin with supreme efficiency, entirely unaware the petite Ninja perfomed so well. Such is the skill displayed. Still, she's great at being the distraction the Imp needs for her backstabbery.

Her magic is large and obvious, on the attack; "Vela, the wanderer's sail, I call upon the winds you jail. I turn-" The silver light builds around her, prepares itself in the caged stormwind to lash out and tear the goblins asunder. And... she's beaten to the punch once more, as everyone else dog piles the duo, leaving the "them to a mighty gale, and loose them with freedom's wail." and unleashing them to... well, chip away at what little is remaining.

Uta would be gaping in awe at Akatsuki's skill -- point is, Akatsuki was so quick, silent, and well hidden that Uta completely missed the killing.

As someone once put it, if you're a famous ninja, you're doing it wrong.

"...who's the Devil in Glasses?", Uta asks once again, as she proceeds into the corridors.

While everyone is busy dealing heavy DPS, moderate DPS, or plain distracting the goblins with their awe-inspiring techniques, Uta simply walks up to one of them and /punches/ it. No martial arts, no strange wuxia acrobatics. Just a plain punch.

"I learnt this from Vertina," she explains.

The hobgoblins' HP bar eventually reaches zero, and they shatter in a shower of polygons.

As the party moves into the chamber, what the two hobgoblins were guarding becomes visible: an inexperienced Goblin Shaman, with tattered robes decorated with unusual insignia. He's performing some sort of ritual which destroys the plant life whose roots lie above him. He lets out a screech, calling forth a group of goblins to attack the adventurers, while it blasts the group with its arcane magic.

"... Huh." comes softly from Estelle, as they walk into the ritual chamber. Her gaze sweeps along it, studying the layout - even as the boss screeches and turns towards them, unleashing its minions. "Well. Let's deal with this. I don't want to see what they'll do to the woods, if this keeps up. It's probably only making whatever the Waves did worse."

Still, the Arcane barrage - and even the many, lesser attacks of the minions - are an issue. So she reaches to her common solution to such things; "Scutum, shield of the skies, I bear you now to protect my allies. A bulwark of stellar might, to guard in the darkest night." This time she keeps it quick, gets it up in time. Silver light coalesces around everyone, wrapping them in protective, stellar power. Weakening the many blows, and warding away some of the spells.

Then she keeps to the back, and starts taking potshots with lesser Artes, throwing them into the crowd to help take some pressure off.

With the guards down, Yeowang will advance on the goblin shaman. The ritual he's performing can't be good, but we have casters for that. What she's for, here and now, is raw DPS. She taps her self-buffs and does her best attack sequence, and lays into the goblin shaman's flunkies with roundhouse kicks that'd impress Chuck Norris, then follows up with lightning-fast punches that hit hard enough to break bones. Or at least to crack boards, but that's supposed to be about the same thing. When the flunkies are dealt with, she will engage with the shaman, and there is a savage beatdown going on, full of her familiar mix of styles that exemplifies her MMA performance.

    Akatsuki will never be famous.
    She would not want it any other way.
    With the hobgoblins defeated the the party moving on, she looks askance at Erufu.
    "I am Lord Shiroe's personal ninja." She says matter of factly, and nothing more.
    Then it's into the boss room. Akatsuki joins the fray as soon as magic starts flynig and swords start swinging.
    But her DPS is a little low this time around thanks to her big damage dealing skills still being on cooldown.

"This is it." There's a lot going on in the room, but Shiruba immeadiately has her eyes on the center of it. She pulls an arrow from her quiver, this one with a head made of some manner of dark crystal. "Hey, goblin scum!" The crystal starts to shimmer with a bit of arcane energy. "Mother Nature called... And she wants PAYBACK," the wolfgirl snarls, and fires the Earth embued arrow without remorse.

The arrow nails the shaman in the shoulder. Hits hard and plunges deep, causing him to howl in aggrivation and disrupt his spells, making it easier for others to finish him off.

If anyone happened to check his status they'd see a status effect for an aggrivated wound and his HP slowly ticking off similar to someone behing struck with a move like Gut Ripper.

A Goblin swings a punch at Uta, but his hand swooshes through thin air. The Spriggan is gone. While he looks around in confusion, the Spriggan pops up from behind him and smacks him with a large rock. He shrieks and turns around, only to see no one there. He looks left, and Uta pops out at his right, and slams him in the stomach. He turns to punch her, but she's not there. She's at his right, and jabs him in the ribs with her staff. A chase ensues, and every time, Uta seems to just disappear, to reappear elsewhere and smack him again. "This is fun!", she exclaims.

Erufu looks to the other 'ranger' for a moment "We are we should be ready to deal with the most cunning of this nest." Once the hobs are little more than shards of light the Elf will move on. Her bow ready and it's a good thing too. She will move in swiftly the moment she sees the Shaman she'll line up a shot with her bow and lets a shot fly. "BURST SHOT!" She is also growing more impressed with Estelle's abilities as well and might need to hit her up later for some ideas she has. For now, however, there's a goblin who needs to die. She will also have to talk to Shiruba about the bow later...

The Goblin Shaman and its hench-Goblins are destroyed at the Adventurers' hands, and the roots are largely saved from corruption. With a bit of Light magic, Pharmacy, or even some potions people have around, they are in time to save this part of the forest.

"We did it!", Uta exclaims, and she goes to collect whatever is left behind. "What... is /this/?"