Duty Session 227: Obligatory Rat Cellar

It was only a matter of time before a quest like this would appear in Tolbana. It had been built up as a full fledged city, and now it seemed to have attracted some of the more common low-level quests. One of the Spriggans who runs the general store has the distinctive quest marker, which Kita has accepted.

The black mage stands outside the shop, waiting for others who might be willing to take up the quest, since it isn't the sort of thing one normally does solo. She pushes her glasses up on her nose, paging through a book, while the Lander beside her repeats his call for Adventurers.

She looks bored, as if she has been hearing the same intro conversation for a while now.

Cyrus is stepping out soon after Kita, rubbing the back of his head. "Rats." He mumbles. "At least it's something to do while I'm waiting for some of the herbs to regrow, and folk to get back to me on where the new spots are." The Cait Sith is not unfamiliar with Kita.

He glances at Kita and gives her a bemused look. "If your expression is any tell, you are the 'black mage' that the shopkeeper was talking about, accepting this."

Uta walks into the shop, in her usual newbie gear, holding her staff. "Hi, Mr. Shopkeeper! I heard that you have rats here. I would like to buy a pet rat." She hesitates. "...wait, are rats monsters or animals in this world?" She scratches her head. "I... I think I rid a cellar from them once, so... uh... Cyrus! Kita! Fancy meeting you here! Are you here to buy rats too?"

"... why are you buying rats?" Cyrus gives Uta the most dumb-founded look he can manage, not being prepared for that statement. "I thought you were all about the Slimes." He then adds.

"Yep." Kita replies, not even looking up at Cyrus' familiar voice. "If you're looking for herbs, you're better off talking to some of my guildmates. We grow some in the farms outside town, but I'm sure they'd part with some for a price."

The shopkeeper is quick to correct Uta that there is a rat /problem/ not rats for sale, and despite her wanting to buy one, she gets added to the questline anyways. "Well... maybe you'll find one you can catch while we're down there." Kita adds, "Let's get going."

As the party heads down into the cellar of the store, the light above fades. Though there are sconces on the walls, the torches don't seem to have been lit in quite some time. It casts tne entire area in darkness. Boxes, crates, and sacks are only mere shadows. It makes it hard to navigate what is below.

*THUD*

"Ow." Kita mutters as she stumbles into a crate. "We could use some light down here."

"Ugh, I hate these damp and closed off spaces. They're terrible for the bits of fur on me." Cyrus remarks, stepping down along with Kita, while noting; "Well, I imagine that's going to cost me some money. So I guess this trip will be worth it regardless, just to get some more money into my pocket." He explains to Kita.

He then snaps his finger loudly, and a flame appears at the tip of his finger. He uses it to light an upside-down potion, which continues to remain lit and floats out in front of him a little with an occassional push of air magic. It's like a floating balloon candle.

Uta blinks. "Uh? No. I've been wanting a pet pretty much since forever before the Apocalypse, and with the single exception of Zoomies the Turtle, I never got to own one. But /here/...", she beams. And then shakes her head. "...it just happened that slimes were the first time I turned a failure at petting something into the /success/ of owning a lab about them, thanks to Rylen's support. So I kinda went the deep end that way." She looks around. "Oh, hey, it got dark!" She begins singing an operatic aria, to make the gem in her staff glow with light...

Kita mutters, rubbing at her knee before she rises up, tracing a few symbols in the air which ignite with a bit of flame and hover as a ball of fire. "This should be enough to see by, at least."

With enough light to guide their way, it's easy to find the passage that leads onward into the depths beneath the city. It seems common enough for there to be strange, abandoned ruins underneath the various towns of Yamato, and it seems no different here in Tolbana.

The tunnels that lead onward seem to go in all directions, almost like a warren built beneath the city. It would be easy to get lost down here, especially for those who don't have the best sense of direction.

Kita looks to the others, "Any bright ideas?" Clearly, she is not the navigator of the party.

"I guess I've never thought of it that way. But then, I always had a pet at home anyway." And he doesn't really need a cat to keep him company these days. Miki got replaced by a better model Miki.

As they head further down the tight passages, Cyrus notes; "This is definitely not like a Root Town. This place is a lot more... old tech." The young man remarks until they start hitting a lot of split paths.

He takes out a paper and a pen, and just begins to mark down their path so far. "Based on what the shopkeeper said, I think it's that away." He remarks. "I'll map while we walk."

"Trust me, I've been around here a lot in the last days!", she says. "I've been helping Doctor Prophylaxis with his medical research, done some volunteer work for the refugees, came to see why my partially paid intern Setsuna was calling sick twice on his first week of work, and meeting people in dark alleys. Also, I've been trying to figure out why everyone is so tight lipped these days, but nobody would tell me."

She does, indeed, seem to know her way around the place. "It's impressive how the layout of this section seems to follow the dark alleys..."

She turns to Cyrus, "Oh? The tech level is different? I... had never noticed, but then again, I'm bad at noticing things." She blinks. "Hey, you have a floating bottle in front of you. Cool!"

It doesn't take long for Kita to prove just how much she lacks any sense of direction at all. It's possible that in a real world city, with street signs and proper directions, she would be fine, but down here? The Imp clearly looks lost.

"I hate tunnels like this." She comments with a sigh, taking her glasses off and then rubbing them against part of her clothing to try to clear the dust from the lenses.

Luckily, both Uta and Cyrus have a better sense of where they are going in the tunnels.

However, the sound of squeaking begins to sound as they travel further, eventually coming to a domed chamber filled with rats. They seem to scurry over and under one another, making it hard to tell where one ends and the other begins.

"Uh... that's more rats than I'm usually comfortable with." The Imp comments, then starts paging through her spellbook, likely looking for something to help deal with the little creatures.

"Yeah. The Root Towns seem to run on Relic Level technology. What with being created by the Alv. But the regular towns out there have older style stone like these places." He taps on the stone. "Heck, this is even rougher than the kingdoms out there in Yamato. Some of this stuff was built after the structures up above it looks like." He explains as he finishes leading them to... a domed chamber with rats.

"Why are there so many rats under Tolbana? Did a Spriggan start a rat adoption agency?" The youth rolls up his sleeves and brings out two potions of fire. "If you manage to find a rat that survives this barrage, you should keep that one." He notes, right before tossing them and making this entire place light up like a christmas tree... or perhaps more like a garbage fire. Whatever the case is, fire.

Uta stares at the creatures. "Oh, yeah. Monsters. Definitely monsters. Don't even need inspect to recognize the attitude." She sighs. "One fewer suitable candidate for a pet."

"Behold!", she exclaims. "The secret technique of the Musical Moles!" Dramatic shounen pose. "I've learnt this in Mister Starvo's Vegetable Garden!" That said, she launches into a game of whack-a-mole with the rat, with the added complexity that a chase factor is mixed in. Running, slamming, all while mantaing the proper tempo and pitch with each blow to play some upbeat Carribbean-sounding dance tune.

"...Rat adoption agency. That's a terrible idea, but one I should research. And I'll keep one rat, yes. Anyway... good point. I'll have to research the architecture better. Could be interesting."

In order to get past the rats, Kita traces another series of symbols through the air, igniting the mass of rats in flames. It may not seem the kindest of techniques, but it is certainly effective, causing many of them to scatter.

"Well, at least they are easy to deal with." The witch looks back towards the others, then continues, taking care not to step on any rats as they go. "I wouldn't want to try to adopt any of these, they don't look... healthy."

As they move on, the number of rats begins to thin in a way that is clearly suspicious. It becomes more obvious why as they step into a room where a massive rat, nearly the size of a tiger, is having a meal of his smaller counterparts.

When the Adventurers arrive, though, it stands up, squeaking at them in a sound that is far too high pitched for such a large creature. It's body is covered in armor that seems to be almost come out of its fur rather than being something it is wearing. It prowls towards them, huge tail lashing.

"What rats /do/ look healthy? They're plague carriers. Especially in this world... I think. I mean, proper hygiene isn't common here." Cyrus clearly has low opinions, and probably mice too. Maybe it's because he's a cat Cait Sith. Or perhaps he's just not a fan of the quick little buggers that get under feet and are the show of a badly maintained Japanese household!

He then halts as they come upon the sight of the enormous rat. "... that is a big rat. What the heck have they been feeding this one? That's gotta be a Dire rat." He doesn't even bother inspecting, moving forward and tries to get a punch in on its armored fur, trying to create a crack the others can abuse.

"Tower archaeology. That's an interesting field of research, actually," She mentions. "I've done a bit of philology in college, which is... similar, but for languages. Researching the layers of construction materials to establish a timeline of when things were built could help shed some light onto things." She mutters, "Too bad I lack the skills needed for that kind of research..." She scratches her head. "What are they again? Construction... and Cryptography?" A frown. "Appraisal, perhaps?" She shakes her head, to clear it. "I have none of those. I guess I'll have to ask for someone's help there."

"I know, right?" Uta tells Cyrus. "Prophylaxis just mentioned that in his last book. Higyene, people!"

"Yeah, sadly these rats don't look higyenic at all," she replies to Kita. "I doubut these pests will be of much use except for- Lab rats! That's what I could use them for!"

She notices the huge rat, and rushes at him with her staff, to beat it down. "Adventurers! That's what I think they've fed it!"

Where as with the other rats, Kita had played more to her offensive skillset, in this case, she falls back to offering a better defense for the party. She murmurs under her breath, flipping pages in her spellbook before coming to a familiar one that seems to be in her own handwriting.

Drawing a series of runes out in the air, she creates a sort of shield that radiates around party, offering them some protection against the Armored Rat's claws and teeth.

This gives Cyrus the chance to try to dent the armor, and Uta a much clearer opening to attack the massive beast. It takes a bit of time, but they are able to defeat it, causing it to topple over and explode with particle effects.

"Well, if you find one that isn't too diseased, you could always try healing it." Kita suggests, "Just... not any that seem to be growing their own armor." She suggests.

It doesn't take long to reach the end of the dungeon. The fact is, this is a relatively low-level quest and all of them are experienced Adventurers. They find themselves in a roughly circular room, somewhere deep beneath the city streets. All sorts of strange objects have been gathered here. Rats seem to be dragging things in from holes throughout the room.

Then, noticing them, the little monster calls out, "They are mine! All this mine!" He flails, "You throw away, I find, you go! Ours now!" With a hiss, he seems to call out to the rats, the little creatures poking out of the tiny spaces, turning their beady gazes onto the intruders as they turn to rush at them.

"You're going to make Rat Slimes, aren't you?" Cyrus has heard of Uta's reputation. She's got a reputation. And it's often well deserved.

The moment the rat lies defeated, Cyrus takes a moment to stretch, rolling his shoulders. "You know, they may just be rats. But this is a great excercise." He points out.

It's not long before they meet the final rat in the dungeon. Which... talks.

"What? It's talking?" The young man looks confused. "Not taking any chances, that might be a dangerou intelligent monster!" The youth is quick to throw a foursome of slime flame flasks, which attempt to explode on contact around the small creature!

"Yup! I totally am making rat slimes!", Uta candidly admits.

* * *

Into the dungeon they arrive. And Cyrus comments on the monster. "Let's not jump to conclusions. One of the things life has taught me is that the ability to talk only loosely correlates with intelligence."
ta looks up at the Kobold as he launches into his rant.

A long, hard stare.

"...No. Mine now."

A running start, a leap, a magical blast of air, wings are opened to better catch the updraft (it's not flying, it's a little help to an already powerful current that would lift an iman being anyway), two double flips in the air, and up she lands face to face with the Kobold.

"There's room for only one weird monster collector on this continent."

And the massive wuxia battle begins.

"Well, this is certainly new." At least, new for Kita, anyways. She had never seen an ending dungeon chamber that looked quite so much like a hoarder's nest. Turning her attention to the Kobald, she shakes her head, "I'm afraid that isn't how this works."

Then, she begins to cast the same fire runes as before, but as the spell nears completion, she adds a few others to the mix. It begins to shift in color, becoming a strange, dark purple. Grabbing at the runes with her fingers, her hand seems to be encompassed by a fireball, which she then tosses towards the collector.

It explodes nearby, catching some of the objects on fire as well as doing quite a bit of damage to the kobald. It has the secondary effect of frightening many of the rats.

"You're not welcome in Tolbana." She shouts, defensively.

The Kobald's health is quickly depleated by the onslaught of attacks, and it topples fom the pile of gathered things. "Your fault! Dirty Landers. Filthy Adventurers!" The creature looks at them, then darts towards one of the piles of trash. The next instant, it is gone. Clearing some of the debris away reveals a hole that seems to delve further beneath the city.

It seems that the monster has escaped, for now, but he did leave some of his treasures behind, including a treasture chest that seems to contain a strange herb which the rats seem to respond to.

"Well, at least it's something." Kita comments. "I might have to send some of the newbies down here to clear out some of this junk and see if there's anything useful."

On the plus side, the herb seems to have some of the rats lingering nearby, which might just allow Uta to catch one.

"Looks like you've got some work ahead of you, if you are going to deal with a Kobold. Where there's one, there's always more." Cyrus points out, as he spots the treasure chest. "I'll just take some points to pay for some herbs. You folk can have the rest." He remarks.