Festival: Finding What Was Lost

In this time of remembrance, it is not uncommon for people to look for anything they can to use as a token for some lost friend or loved one. In this case, a pair of young children have come forward to the Hunter's Guild, begging for help for some momento of their father that they might be able to use for the family's remembrance rituals this year.

The man had been a historian, studying an ancient ruin, but had been caught unawares by monsters and killed. He had left behind a young wife and two children who seem to be struggling to get by. The Guild has taken on the request of their own good will, not forcing the children to make any sort of payment, but still offering a reward for any Adventurers willing to lend their aid.

The group who has chosen to answer the call finds themselves deep in an overgrown forest in the north of the Fourland Dukedom. The first signs that there had once been civilization here show in a few scattered rocks that form the rough outlines of buildings that have been reclaimed by nature.

A man from the Hunter's Guild stands, wearing a cloak and a face mask, his expression wary. "The monsters inside are proving troublesome, so it's good you're here." He looks towards the ruins. "The kids' father was studying deep in the heart of the ruin when he died, so that's where you'll likely find something, if there's anything to find." He sounds doubtful.

"Good luck." He is not planning on risking his life by coming with them, that much is clear.

    Giganpor looks at the children, then at the represepentative from the Hunter's Guild. "Just point us in the right direction. And do no worry about payment."

     He hefts his hammer-axe spear, moving forward as he does and making sure he has his shield on. Human form for the moment as he looks around. The Were Fang probably has a bleeding heart, but it's obvious that in this case he's doing this out of the kindness of his heart rather than anything else. Those kids deserve to be able to honor their family, after all.

    It is what that in mind that he sets off, the shadow behind him taking a brief horse-like shape for a moment before settling down as he marches forward into danger. His eyes stay peeled either way as he moves along.

    "I am glad for this world, and being able to do something for those two. I hope that they and the wife will be fine with whatever we can bring back. Whether it be for good or ill, they deserve to at least know what happened to the man." He says to the rest of the group. "Taking payment from a family in grieving, or even for such a task is not something I will do here."

Yeowang has joined the adventurers who have gathered at these ruins to seek out a memento for this young family to remember their father. She looks around the deep, overgrown forest warily, nodding to the Guild representative about the monsters. "What sort of monsters?" she wonders, though in truth, it's unlikely knowing in advance will help her much. She's not educated about the monsters in the game. But knowing may help some of the other gamers, many of whom do study these sorts of things. She will follow Giganpor into the breech.

    Merek takes the time to adjust that dark attire which he wears, the scarf wrapped along his features while he watches the place. There's a nod along to the man, "We will do what we can," he mentions, then he takes a look to Giganpor, "It's the Guild which pays us anyway, not the people," he then adds. "Anyway, it's nice to try assisting people, you're right."

"Do we know what the topic of his study was?" The vixen asks curiously, tails flicking behind her. She toys with a folding fan, though she's conscious enough of everyone else that she isn't clacking it loudly. There's still a soft click now and then, though, as the star patterns on it appear and vanish. "And what kinds of monsters can we expect?"

Still, even as she waits for the answers to those questions, she looks around at the other adventurers. Her silver gaze sizes them up, as her ears twitch atop her head. All those familiar faces get nods in greeting, and soft smiles, from Estelle. Even some she's heard more as voices over the Chimlink get a tip of her head.

"Any memento would work, I suspect, Giganpor. I imagine that the more we bring back, though, the better for the family. Perhaps we can even get the man a belated but beloved burial?" Her tone is thoughtful.

    Setsuna couldn't resist the call for help on this one, it struck heart cords that he had been trying his best to bury and could no longer resist. With this request and the trip to the memorial the other night the necromancer could tell it would be a lot of feelings like this for the week to come. Setsuna turns his head towards Giganpor and says nothing about his declaration of taking no pay, he could understand the feeling behind the man's words. He begins to head towards the ruins before looking back at the guide, and is about to ask a question but Estelle beats him to it.

    Two children who lost their father and want something to remember him by? Needless to say, on hearing the tale, Amalthea is here.
    The old paladin took up the job without much of a second thought. Though something has had her oddly reticent since her arrival, a grim expression etched upon her features, one hand resting on the pommel of her sheathed blade as she follows the Hunter's Guild representative into the forest with the impromptu party that formed up.

    Yuuki wanders along through the forest with the group that had shown up for the event quest. Thinking about the backstory behind the quest, she has to admit, "Not the most uplifting reason for a quest. But I guess that goes with the event holiday. Still, there's monsters so it should be fun regardless!"

    Yuuki then nods along in agreement with Merek, "It's a quest. Hunters Guild pays us for completing quests. It's the way of the world. And how some of us earn a living!" It's true. Yuuki doesn't have any crafting or business side stuffs going on. So quest rewards and monster drops are all she's got to go on!

    Meeting up with cloaked masked due, Yuuki simply grins, "Not a problem." She draws her sword from its sheathe, "Just lemme at 'em and we'll have that memento in no time!" Yuuki quickly rushes forward towards the indicated monster infestation area!

    Mizuki's face falls when she reads the quest description. That's so sad! ...Although, whenever she starts empathizing too much with NPCs, one of them does something that kind of messes up the 'they're all people' hypothesis...

    She shows up to the meeting point in her midnight-purple ninja gi with long red scarf. She mutters to herself, "Landers don't drop their inventory on death, though, do they? So it would depend on what was in his drop table..." She scratches her head. "Of course, if it's a quest, it doesn't have to follow the rules..."

    She gives Giganpor a surprised look when he turns down payment. And then nods to Prophy. "I didn't know there was a ruin here either. I wonder what we'll find there... what the man was looking for..."

    She looks back to the hunter's guild representative. "Of course, we'll bring back anything we find that belonged to him!" Others are asking the questions about monster intel and such already.

ANCIENT RUINS! LOST HISTORIANS! CHILDREN IN NEED!

An excuse to go poking around old places full of lore and ancient, monster-infested treasure!!

It's basically all that a body needs to stop indulging in the mushroom samba and set forth without hesitation. "Of course, of course. I hadn't even realized there was a ruin here to begin with, to be quite honest! It's the least I could to find whatever the man might have left behind. Fufufufu~"

He might in fact have said 'fufufufu~'

The shady doctor does not have glasses to adjust, but there's a sense that he would definitely have been doing so just now if he did. And if he /did/ have glasses, you can bet that they'd be practically glowing with inexplicable lensflare from out of nowhere.

But the real reason the Doctor of Tolbana may have come and dragged several of his loyal minions along for the ride is...

"W-wait, Yuuki! You're not even designated tank here! YUUKI YOU'RE GIVING DPS CLASSES A BAD NAME AGAIIIIN~"

...There he goes, running off after the Absolute Sword to make sure she doesn't get herself exploded too badly.

Miho had taken this job as well? It seemed like something that needed to get done. Bodies are not left in this world normally, so the quest is to find something he may have dropped before or due to his death. She understands needing the ability to mourn all too well so she doesn't even argue about the price to take more. She does not blame their contact for not wanting to risk his life for this. He doesn't get back up and Miho accepts that. She will look to Estelle and Giganpor for a moment.

"I agree just anything that was his, gear, a personal item, something the family can use to a focal point for their mourning..."

Edge of the Ruins

The forest has all but taken over what must have once been a thriving city. The stone remains of foundations stick up from tall grasses. Some of the rocks are overgrown with vines and mosses that could only have developed here over many years.

Animals seem to have taken over the far edges of the ruins. Large insects hover, looking like dragonflies but in an array of unusual colors. Their haphazard flitting about seems to halt as the Adventurers step foot on the ancient road that lead up to what seems like a temple at the heart of the ruins.

Then, their wings begin to vibrate, sounding like an irritated buzz. First one dives in their direction, then another. All too soon it becomes clear that these insects are quite territorial and don't seem to have any sense of self-preservation when it comes to driving away intruders.

They have thick, barbed stingers that, if they find flesh, will dig in and inject a strange venom.

Challenge:
Option 1: Evasion vs 10
Option 2: Shield vs 10

(OOC: Upon failure, your Adventurer is injected with with insect venom in a location of your choosing. The area turns an alarming shade of green and begins to swell. The injury feels warm to the touch and irritatingly itchy. You will be distracted by the itch for the remainder of the scene. This is represented by a 'poison' status effect.)

    Setsuna walks towards the ruins and really is not paying much attention to the bugs until he hears the buzzing right by his ears. As a standard reaction to such things he over reacts a little as he swats at it and then sees it is one of those bugs with a stinger and proceeds to over react. Trying his best to run away from the bug, he obviously had to have gotten away. Then he feels the stinger stingy his right arm and there is a the obvious red pixels of damage. Wincing as the bug finishes stinging him he looks at it and rubs trying to massage the irritation away. As his arm begins to turn green and swells he turns to the Doctor. " I think I have a condition."

Yeowang moves into the ruins with the others, and grimaces as we're quickly swarmed by bugs. She panics, she hates bugs, one thing that may seem out of character in her otherwise very capable demenaor. So, rather than swatting them away or dodging them, she gives a very girlish squeal of alarm and she flails at the bugs while hiding her face and trying to back away.

This is not a particularly effective strategy, unfortunately, and she winds up bitten, or stung, several times. Her left arm, which she was using to try and fan away the bugs, starts turning yellow, then green, and quickly becomes swollen as the venom takes hold.

    Merek looks to the flying creatures while he begins to weave along and takes a moment to bring up his repelling shield. He then watches while he makes a way along and looks to the party, "Alright, we can do it!"

When it seems no answers are forthcoming, there's a sigh from Estelle - but she does follow along with the main group, as they press deeper. She does study the shape of the ruins around them quite keenly, though, as well as the unusual creatures within it. Soft hums leave her lips as she considers it all, trying to match the shape of the buildings to any construction style she's seen before...

But the buzzing of the insects interrupts her thoughts, and she looks up at the source. And the spreading sound of agitation amongst the colourful insects, alongside the obvious aggression. She considers the onrushing swarm for but a moment, before reaching for her stand-by defense - in its snappy, personal form. "Scutum, shield of the skies, I bid your veil now arise!"

Silver light shrouds her, fending off their stingers as she tries to dart through and avoid further swarming. Setsuna's words have her glancing over, though, and she gives a soft hiss. "... I'll try to patch that up when we have a calm moment."

    Bugs. It's always bugs.
    When the huge insects turn hostile, Amalthea pauses for a beat.
    Before her armor and shield come alight with a soft white glow. It boosts her defense as she bats away a particularly large, nasty, looking bug that makes a beeline right for her.
    With a nasty splat it smooshes nastily against ehr shield like...
    Well... Like a bug on a windshield.
    Boy has she been quiet for some reason, occasionally casting irritable glances from the corner of her eye or over her shoulder.

Rituals, festivals, reminiscence, remembering the dead, and ruins. This situation might as well have been made to attract Proteus to it. She arrives with the others, looming in her cloak (but no mask, she goes for the shadowed hood look) and she nods, giving a polite bow to the Hunter's Guild member before rushing off with the others.

The flitting, mysterious Imp Archaeologist moves in on the edge of the ruins with the others, and as they come diving in, the Imp leaps away in one direction, then rolls in another. "Stupid bugs." She mutters, flicking her hand out to bat smash one, and then another away from her. "Move! Move! We need to get to the edge of the territory. Smoke can usually drive flying insects off. Prophylaxis, do the thing." She calls to the Shady Doctor as she steps along forward through the chaos.

    Giganpor, thinking perhaps insects don't like cold, causes his shield to glow a bright blue. That unfortunately ends up with him being stung in the shoulder while the frosty armor is forming.

    With that swelling, he growls a bit as he reaches up to grab the offending insect that gets away, but settles for itching instead. "Oh, this is going to be annoying..." He reaches up to scratch at the stung area as he continues forward.

    "How about water instead!?" He calls to the others, "I mean, insect wings don't work so well when wet! The smoke might just irritate them and have them come for us!"

So they get to the edge of the ruins and things are going well so far until the bugs show up. Very large bugs, bugs so large? The lizard part of Miho's brain is screaming kill them, kill them. She will attempt to use her blade to deflect and drive the bugs off but it does not work to well for her one of them gets her with a stinger and inject some sort of Venom into her. It hurts the area near the base of her neck swells up and it is starting to turn green. It's also itching as she finds she has a poison status effect on her hud,

"We need to kill thee things ... with fire... oh gods it itches..."

She will try to get Prophylaxis attention...

    Yuuki just calls back to Prophylaxis, laughing, "They're not a good tank if they can't pull the aggro off me!" She's only half serious. Hopefully.

    Yuuki bursts through a set of thick branches and onto the ancient road. She slows to a stop, looking around curiously at the buzzing going on. She then turns her head in the direction of the dragonflies as she catches sight of them. She grins, "Wow, those are some big bugs!"

    Yuuki is eyeing them up when the Adventurer group finally triggers the insect assault. They come zipping in, starting to harass everyone. Yuuki finds a stinger piercing towards her, to which she jumps out of the way to avoid, "Whoop!" Another comes in from another direction, Yuuki ducking under that one, "Try again!" A third one comes in, Yuuki raising her blade to parry the stinger to the side like it was an enemy sword, "No dice!" Yuuki follows on from her parry to strike out at the dragonfly that attacked her.

The party is briefly treated to an odd sight as they make their way into the depths of the ruined city. (Was it always here? Was it ever marked on anyone's maps? Have any other players explored it yet? Are they going to find Proteus just falling casually out of a puzzlebox-shaped trap up ahead or something?) Specifically, that there are... two doctors.

One is mirroring the other perfectly, and seems to be positively buzzing with activity.

No, really. That particular Doctor Prophylaxis appears to be literally giving off a pale blue glow and smells distinctly of ozone. When one of those dragonflies gets close enough to try and bite at the much more attractive-looking Prophylaxis, they are instead treated to a big ol ZAP of electrical energy as the Electrical Fuzz stored within goes off.

He had improvised, apparently, upon noticing the presence of those insects. They tend to be poisonous, after all. Or carry terrible jungle fevers.

"Oooh, yep, that's sure a big ol' bug bite," he says at the sight of Setsuna's swollen limb. "Looks like it might have the potential to go gangrenous too, if we're not careful. Good thing you have me along, eh? Hold still, I've got a needle..."

Poke!

The poison status is removed! But... he's still itchy...

And JUST THEN, the devil (imp) that Prophylaxis invoked suddenly appears!! Not falling out of a puzzlebox, necessarily, but still. "Mmm, I agree. Hold on everyone. I'll treat everyone's symptoms once I'm done burning out the disease."

His eyes... glow ominously. They burn crimson, in fact, like blood that flows.

"I'm doing the thing," he announces, as a wave of sweltering heat radiates from the magus' flowing robes as the illusory Prophylaxis vanishes with a fizzy *pop*, the mana used to fuel its existence cannibalized by its own caster. "Ye swarming pests, vehicles of pestilence and disease, hear me and know the voice of your destroyer. I who walk in the full fury of winter without fear, I whose inner flame burns heaven and earth alike, call upon the burning spirits of the world to rise at my command...!"

Suddenly, Prophylaxis...

HAS BECOME A FIREBALL!?!?

"Begone, insects!" He demands, slamming the butt of his staff into the ground. The aura of surging flame surrounding him races outward, incinerating dozens of swarming bugs in an instant...! The sight and smell of their fellows abruptly catching fire seems to dissuade the survivors from approaching any further.

"Hrmph," Prophylaxis harrumphs, no longer ablaze. "Now then, I have a few doses of antitoxin to go around, but please be judicious with their use. If it's just a bit of an itch, I'd prefer to hold onto them until we run into some kind of deadly megaspider or something."

    As the ruins come into sight and they get a hint of their extent as Mizuki climbs a tree to look... "Wow... when they said ruins, I figured maybe a single compound of some sort, maybe even a dungeon, but this... this looks like it was a big city! Why haven't we heard more about it??"

    Soon enough though, there are giant insects! "Ha! Big bugs just means they're easier to hit!" Also, she has fire! But even ninja cat reflexes aren't enough to completely avoid hits... after shooting down one of the last ones with flame, she stands triumphantly... and then looks behind her. She shrugs, walks on, and looks behind her again, tail lashing. She reaches and feels around the back of her head as if trying to brush something out of her hair. Then she's scratching... When she sees the icon on her HUD, she approaches Prophy, "Dooooc?" And then turns her back to him, spreading her hair apart to show the big green bump on the back of her head, a little to one side. "Is it bad? It reeeeally friggin' itches."

The Temple Moat

The insects only seem to be concerned with the outer reaches of the ruined city. That and the fact that Prophylaxis has dissuaded them from following by liberal use of fire. This leaves the Adventurers to push further into the overgrown expanses closer to the temple. More of the buildings seem to still have some remaining structure, though none are fully intact. Any sign of who might have lived here seems to have been long destroyed by the encroaching forest.

As they approach the temple, they come to what looks to be a man-made canal of some sort. Once, this must have been a beautiful place, but the water is green with algea and the smell that comes off of it has a distinct odor of rotten eggs.

At first, there looks to be no direct way to cross, as the old wooden bridge has fallen into disrepair. Slats still cling to either end of the roadway, but seem to give way under the slightest of pressure.

Challenge:
Option 1: Earth vs 10
Option 2: Construction vs 7 (Trained only)

(OOC: At least half of the party must succeed in order to create a workable bridge to cross to the other side. If they fail, the party has to swim across the fetid water. They gain the 'filth' status effect, stink lines, and smell of rotten eggs. This will linger for days, despite menu-washing.)

    Merek looks to the filth of the muddy water while he nods to the party, then he begins to weave the magic, bringing about what looks like a rock field which begins to create a bridge. "You know, these quests aren't ever easy," he notes, "I wonder what person planned all of these things."

    Giganpor, seeing the problem, hums. Then he puts his weapon away on his back as his shield glows green. Turning, he moves to grab the nearest tree and literally pull /that/ down to start the makings of a bridge. Another follows as he rolls them together. "Someone make sure these things won't roll, please!"

    Seriously, all that blacksmithing really helps your strength whenever it calls for it, doesn't it?

    And Giganpor is pretty much the big man around, anyways. So falling a tree? Not a problem!

Yeowang manages to get pulled out of the swarms of bugs and stumbles off with a green, puffy arm to show for her efforts. She makes a concerted effort to compose herself, and finds the party already working on a way to cross over the ... moat, she can't help but think. Normally, she'd be Miss Organization, helping people work the effort in a coordinated way, but perhaps the bug venom has left her woozy. She's pretty much useless at the organization thing, so she'll at least try and be useful carrying wood, but it turns out the toxin has her more lightheaded than she expected, and she drops the wood and is wracked by the shakes for several moments, unable to contribute.

    Setsuna takes the antitoxin and quickly takes a swig of it before passing it around. It stops the swelling and that was the important thing, he could deal with a green itchy arm for a few days, Uta can try to extract the rest with her slime leeching idea or something. Looking at the doctor he simply states, " Thank you." With the bugs left behind and Setsuna simply scratching the ever living hell out of his arm , and contemplating a skeleton arm to go with his skeleton leg he comes upon a moment of distraction.
     The smell makes his eyes water and the hand scratching at his arm goes to cover his nose and mouth instinctually instead. "Oh wow, what a fascinating new smell we have discovered. " Watching as Giganpor lays down trees to use as a bridge he places his hands on the earth, to summon pillars to lock the trees in place. " Ok this won't hold forever though, we should make it quick."

Estelle can't help but shake her head, at how... dramatic Proph is about it all. It does have her lips quirk in a smile, though - even if the wave of fire he has causes her to, reflexively, pull tight and try to duck out of the way. Some instincts never go away.

Still, then they're on to the next hurdle; a moat she definitely doesn't want to swim across. So when Giganpor starts dragging down trees, and Setsuna works to summon pillars... she moves to help in much the same way, adding some extra pillars and a bit more support with a quick chant; "Oh Bull of the Heavens, I beseech thee! In this time I need I make my plea! With the ancient gods' might, raise, raise the land to the heights!"

Astral horns appear before her, making a heaving gesture upwards, and the fetid waters part around more rough stonework.

    Moving on from the big nasty bugs, Amalthea... Pauses.
    The fetid sulfurous water makes the old paladin's nose wrinkle, but she doesn't say a thing, simply snorting and looking over the ruins of what used to be a bridge.
    That's not going to hold much weight is it.
    Giganpor gets to work and...
    Amalthea does absolutely nothing.
    "I wouldn't call it a new smell. Makes me think of sulfur." She asides to Setsuna, tone more coarse than sandpaper before she...
    Conveniently, and seemingly belligerently, does nothing helpful.

    Yuuki ducks as GIANT EXPLOSION burns or otherwise scares off the remainder of the bugs. She looks a little disappointed, having been having fun ducking around their charges and doing some swordplay against their stingers. But it's true that this way is probably more efficient. Plus they have an actual quest to finish. So moving on!

    Yuuki walks along with the group, stopping at the edge of what looks like a moat. She peers into it and her nose wrinkles, both at the look and the smell. Seeing the broken bridge, Yuuki looks at the others, "Please don't tell me we have to swim across..."

    The others seem to have some good ideas though, using a combination of earth, wood and construction skills to try and make them a path across. Yuuki tries something similar, moving over to pick up a surprisingly large rock. Impressive, with her small stature. Must be her strength stat. She is a physical fighter after all, she must have some points spent in it!

    Yuuki throws the rock into the moat. It sinks under the surface... Apparently not big enough. Yuuki looks around for a moment, before moving over to where the others are having more success to cross with them.

Look, you have to get just a /little/ dramatic when you're a wizard! Otherwise, what is even the point? You just wiggle a staff around and magic comes out? Pffah! Elaborate incantations are where it's /at!/

"You'll be fine," The Doctor tells Mizuki, still vaguely smoldering from the after-effects of his spell. He brushes a stray ember away from where it had landed on his shoulder, then reaches out to apply a syringe to the green swelling. It's a little painful, considering the location, but that's what you get for quality medicine.

Onward! The party approaches a...

Oh.

Eugh.

"N-no, I think this may be what's left of an old sewage channel?" Prophylaxis chokes back an awful, retching noise. "Ugh. Ugh! No. We are not swimming through that. We are doing this the /civilized/ way."

Apparently the 'civilized way' involves conjuring enormous stone pillars out of either side of the gap, causing them to crash together in a makeshift bridge foundation that just so happens to catch the logs that Giganpor is toppling.

Miho gets behind Prophylaxis' plan to deal with the source of her suffering she's trying to not scratch the back of her neck. How did it get to the one non-scaled part of her neck. She watches her companion with some level of glee as the doctor? Does his /thing/. It brings joy to Miho's heart to see many of the bugs just be incarnated by the force of the good doctor's magic. When that setlt she's still dealing with the itch but the strange green swelling and the status effect is removed. Dear god, it itches still.

It could be a lot worse she could have everything else to go with it. She set out using several Earth Sword arts it doesn't go so well even with how intune with the element of earth she is. Thankfully she isn't doing this one alone.

"This just ... it's like that plague god, from that British war game, came here..."

Proteus scrambles on, with bugs being run off by the power of Prophy 'Wickerman' Laxis. Maybe when they release the gacha version of ETO, Proph will appear as a 3 Star Caster. But they make it past the bugs only to be faced with a nasty bog-like canal. "Suddenly, I am /really/ regretting FullDive." She comments, glancing over at the others. She points at the broken bridge. "We should be able to salvage the pylons over there." She says, pointing at the wooden mess. There has to be supports down there SOMEWHERE. Her hands gesture, inputting an Ability. V S M

Her magic surges out, and her hand rises. "Come on..." She says as she tries to seek out a stone plinth or something to force to raise. "Everyone, let's move this together. Get this assembled so we have something to walk on, because like hell am I swimming across this thing today." It's perhaps no surprise that she keeps doing things that Prophylaxis has ideas analogous for.

    Mizuki considers the overgrown ruins, prodding a vine-covered wall. while scratching her head irritatedly with the other hand. "Does anyone have archaeology skill?" She'll try seeing if she can use Appraisal on the wall to get any lore text by chance.

    As they approach the canal, she gives an "Eughhh!" of disgust, and eventually drops out of were fang form. "Ugh, it still stinks up close..." She uses air magic to get herself some fresh air to breath, and then works on earthbending a bridge with the others!

The Temple Grounds

The temple grounds are made up of a square shape, with a pyramid-like structure that extends upwards in the center. Beyond the moat, there seems to be less plantlife, though a few stray vines have managed to crawl up and seem to be spreading across the outer edges of the temple.

A long staircase leads up along the temple, though sometimes the rock does give way underfoot. Some statues which exist along the path almost seem as if they are watching the Adventurers, the eerie eyes seeming to follow them. It must be a trick of the light... right?

Soon, they reach a flat platform which is flanked on either side by two sphynx-like creatures. When they try to move beyond them, they are stopped by a magical barrier that the two statues seem to be emitting.

A vibration hums through their feet as a disembodied voice rumbles, "Show us your strength."

Challenge:
Roll any element concept vs 10

(OOC: At least half the party must succeed to impress the magic within the sphynx trial. If the party fails as a whole, they are given a status defect called 'Sphynx's Curse'. You do not know what it does. Yet.)

    Mizuki crosses the improvised bridge with ninja agility, eager to get away from the smell! Once they're clear, she shares: "So, I tried Appraising the walls to see what I'd get, and it said that this rock wasn't local. It was quarried far away and brought here." She looks around. "THIS MUCH stone was brought here from somewhere else...? This has to be more than even a giant pyramid's worth, right...?"

    And then they come to an invisible wall and are asked to show strength! Mizuki scratches the back of her head. Annoying itch, annoying test... "Alright..." She walks up to the forcefield and pushes on it with all the might she can muster! ...nothing.

    "Argh!" She scratches the itch again. "It's man, alright? It's man! He crawls on four legs as a baby, then walks on two legs, then uses a cane when he gets old. Three legs in the evening!"

Yeowang manages to get across once others have set up a makeshift bridge, and she heads deeper into the Temple grounds, following the others, looking left and right warily. Well, wild animals are a danger. But it turns out that two sphinx-like guardians want her to show her strength.

She takes a deep breath and pushes the nausea and iching of her green arm to the back of her mind, working though a kata that looks a bit like Tai Chi, but which causes air to swirl around her. Swallowing her discomfort, she incresaes the pace of her kata, until after two minute, her movements end with a punch into the ground, from her good arm, which causes it to freeze solid, and then a food-long crack appears where she struck the frozen ground.

    Giganpor shrugs, considers, and goes with an old favorite. He doesn't get to use it as much, but well. Might as well!

    The hammer-axe spear glows blue before he swings at the barrier, a blast of water shooting out. Unfortunately, his just rebounds off and he stumbles back a few steps.

    He huffs a bit, then sighs, "I think I'm spending too much time in the forge lately. I'm getting rusty."

    Merek looks to the magical barrier while he takes a moment to lift up a hand, bringing about magical flame while he blasts that into the shield. Well, it is a classic element to try, all the same he manages to do a lot.

    Setsuna is quite impressed with the ruins, and was not expecitng the pyramid structure not the staircase going up. " I am impressed these stairs still stand. " Walking up, he is very child like touching some of the statues here and there , still scratching his ar every now and then. Finally when he gets to the barrier and hears the voice he looks around, " Show us your strength first." Yes Setsuna was taunting the disembodied voice, he does this. It does appear others are trying to impress the voice though so Setsuna pulls up a shield made of bones and dark energy to protect himself from anyone showing off. He totally wasn't doing what the voice said.

"... Fascinating." comes the vixen's murmur about the barrier, and the Sphinxes guarding it. They're not something she expected to see in Yamato, but there is a greater diversity in the game's creature selection...

She 'wastes' time watching and considering the barrier, meaning several others unleash their elemental fury upon the test before she joins in - and she pats Giganpor on the shoulder, before that. "I'm sure you'll get back into practice. Your forgework has some interesting implications and possibilities, after all." She notes, before snapping her fan open and holding it high.

"Mul Uga Mushen, your cry heralds the rain. Through you I invoke your master's domain. Cry, cry, to set the heavens alight, as I guide down a fearsome smite!" She adds her own burst of lightning to the torrent of magical power, Corvus flashing into life above her for a brief, thunderous instant as the electrical fury lashes out.

    Ah the bridge is done.
    Amalthea simply crosses it.
    "Mizuki dear, I don't think this is that particular riddle." She says gently as the voice demands a display of strength.
    Finally, Amalthea draws her blade; the sword quietly singing against the lip of its scabbard a she wields it.
    Scraping the tip along the ground to kick up a spark, her blade is suddenly engulfed in flame.
    Before she chokes her sword like a baseball bat and heaves every ounce of her strength against the barrier, the blazing fire reflecting in her glowering eyes.

With a lot of teamwork and some very dumb luck the party is able to get across the moat of the plague god. Without going for a swim, that improves Miho's day a little bit as they hit the temple ground she would find their way through the temple and has to wonder, how much of a badass was the man they come to find momento was? Given he'd have had to get past these two things right? She looks at the sphinx-like creatures for a moment.

"All right then let me show you what burns under the surface..."

She will draw her blade it heats up and she launched an attack for the barrier with her blade.

"TWIN DRAGONS!"

The burning blade will be launched with everything the small Salamander can muster at it as her blade meets it there are sparks and fire!

Mizuki raises an interesting point. The stones here were quarried from elsewhere and brought all the way to this temple. Fascinating. "Hmmm, you know, given everything, I'm somehow being reminded of Angkor Wat. You know, giant insects, temple lost in the middle of an overgrown jungle, moats everywhere... Though I suppose the /pyramid/ doesn't exactly fit, does it?" And neither do... those very sphinx-like things squatting like gargoyles at either side. Prophylaxis frowns and taps his (still wadded-up) staff against the barrier. "What, you want us to just blast this to pieces? Fair enough, that's doable."

"Yuuki," The Doctor calls, fiddling with a set of knots keeping the head of his staff all bound up in cloth. "I said I'd show it off at an appropriate time, didn't I? Well!" The swaddled binding falls away and flutters off in the breeze, revealing an ornately carved headpiece atop a length of dark wood which seems to crackle periodically with arcs of electricity. One green gem glows at the rod's zenith, while a yellow one sits at its nadir. Wound all around the length of the shaft are strange devices and ornaments that seem to resonate when the wind blows through them /just/ right. Lightning crackles from the base of the staff, up toward the emerald at its tip, then again leaps up high into the sky above. The clouds grow thicker and darker overhead as Prophylaxis raises his rod high. "They're calling me out! So this seems like a good a time as any!"

A thin trail of electricity leaps up into the sky in the blink of an eye. Prophylaxis swings his staff in a downward arc, with the green crystal leveled at the barrier barring their progress. With a smirk, he invokes the words: "CALL LIGHTNING!"

The world fills with light! A bolt of all-consuming electricity lances down from above and smashes right into the barrier like the gavel of an angry judge! "Fufufu, and this is just the beginning of my new staff's journey. What other powers will I eventually unlock...?"

    Yuuki happily walks across the makeshift bridge the others managed to put together. It's a good thing they did too, otherwise she might have had to abandon the quest. Probably preferable to swimming through that muck...

    Heading further into the temple, the structures appear to be getting more grand. Including a long staircase. Though really once you've seen one temple in a game you've seen them all. Stiil, Yuuki stares at the statues as they walk up the stairs past them. She's expecting mobs to pop out from behind them at any time!

    Coming to the platform, Yuuki seems oblivious to the magical barrier ahead when she walks into it. She bounces back to fall onto her ass, groaning quietly while wondering what hit her. However, hearing the sphynx-like creatures, Yuuki is immediately back onto her feet, sword drawn, "Strength? I'll show you strength!"

    Yuuki starts swinging and slashing and stabbing and slicing and dicing at the barrier.

    Nothing happens.

    Yuuki finally stops with a confused look, before looking extremely crestfallen, "It's a magical challenge, isn't it?"

    Yuuki turns to her magical side-kick, her eyes lighting up at the sight of Prophylaxis's new staff's form, "Yesssss! That's it! Teach them to never oppose us again!" Lightning flashes and thunder booms!

    Merek looks to the walls, while he places a hand upon one of them, then he nods to Mizuki, "The only stone which was moved to here were for the prominent places. The place looks to be pretty old, rain damage... It's been around about a while, that said... It's unlikely we will know the way it was amid original makers."

Moving along un-stanked, Proteus glances over to Mizuki as she calls for an archaeologist. It's not exactly a /common/ profession, given that it doesn't exactly give a lot of directly-relevant skills for adventuring (like crafting skills). The Imp kneels down and begins looking over the ruins, her hand flicking. ( * #

An Arcane Eye pops into existence over her shoulder as she looks over the remains, and frowns. "I can't get much out of these." She mutters, looking over the material. "This spot isn't made with the same stone as that one. It looks like some portions were intentionally constructed with stone brought from somewhere else. But I can't figure out what kind of stone it is." She sighs, emitting a note of frustration. "If the Black Wave didn't happen..." She sighs. "Well, I can't keep blaming that. I should be better than this."

Still, they move on and are confronted by a construction that's far more interesting. Proteus's eyes go wide, her mouth widening into a toothy grin as she looks over the challenge of the Sphinx. She gestures to one side, then another, and then chuckles in response to the challenge. "Knowledge is power." She says, simply. Another Ability is activated: ( U

And an Arcane Bolt lashes out, firing at a precise location in the barrier in an attempt to disrupt the integrity of the field.

Into the Forgotten Temple

Seemingly impressed by the power shown by the Adventurers, the barrier shimmers once before disappearing completely, the eyes of the sphynx pair going dim as stone once more. The open passageway into the temple descends down a dark set of winding stairs that seem covered with a fine layer of dust and dirt. It kicks up enough of this debris to cause some people to sneeze or cough as they descend into the temple proper.

They come to a open chamber which is supported by a series of pillars. Strange writing can be seen along the walls, something that those with a keen eye for scripture might be able to find meaning in. There are also a number of strange symbols which seem to be from no language at all. Finally, there appears to be a number of additional symbol plates scattered across the nearby floor.

There is a raised dias with notches along the top surface which seems as if the symbol plates are supposed to fit into.

It looks as if the group will have to work together. Those with scripture will have to read the riddle: "When lost in darkness, look to the guiding light to show the way to the hidden depths."

Others will have to find the missing symbol stones and determine what they mean.

Challenge:
Option 1: Searching vs 8 (Success finds symbol stones)
Option 2: Cryptography vs 8 (Success translates symbol stones)
Option 3: Scripture vs 8 (Success gets the riddle)

(OOC: One success is required in all aspects of the challenge as well as a majority. Failure will result in the room's puzzle attacking the Adventuring party, filling the room with a purple gas which adds the 'Toxic Cloud' status effect. They will feel violently ill immediately and weak for the remainder of the scene and two IC days afterwards.)

    Merek looks to the symbols upon the pieces, then to that dias while he picks up a few pieces to place them into it. "That, should be right, do you all think?" he asks. Of course this will be a group thing, though he seems to be successful with his piece of the puzzle while he nods to the party.

    Setsuna watches the sphinx statue as they walk by it before coming to the next puzzle. " To think one man made it pass all these trials by himself. Can you imagine?" It really was impressive a Lander could do it. As he looks at the lines a dark aura hovers around him as spirit orbs float around him for a moment. " Those that died here while trying to figure out the puzzle says it has something to do with being lost in darkness and needing to find a guiding light or something like that. Anyone else have more to it ?"

Yeowang passes in when our demonstrations have satisfied the guardians and follows the group into the open chamber. There is strange writing on the walls, and while she's no intellectual by training, she's found that this game world has given her some affinity for the hieroglyphics used in many of the old ruins. It seems to be a team effort, more than a few linguists among the party have started on different sections of the writing, and she chooses her own. When she's worked out her section to her satisfaction, she will consult with Estelle and confirm her reading before presenting it to the group. Only when that is combined with the others' efforts can a solution be reached.

    Giganpor looks around curiously, then decides to call upon someone that can at least give a light. "Come forth, Flaris." His shield glows red before a cat that looks to be on fire pops out and lands near him from a summoning circle. "Flame Pillar, please. We need some light."

    The little cat gives a 'meow' before coughing up a fireball that turns into a pillar of flame to give them some better light to see by. Unfortunately, it might make it harder because of the shadows it gives off as well. Oops.

    Giganpor notices the missing symbols at least, commenting, "There's pieces missing. We probably need them."

    "I know, but I figured it was worth a shot... maybe they ask that riddle later and it would sequence break us through..." Mizuki replies to Amalthea, scratching that infernal itch. Soon she comes to the same conclusion as Yuuki. "Ohhh, it was a magical challenge." The spells on display are very impressive! She claps for them, and then onward they go!

    To a puzzle room. "I kind of feel like I'm on Legends of the Hidden Temple or something. Alright, let's see here... there must be some order we're supposed to put these symbols on the dais, based on the pattern of those symbols on the wall..." oh, someone explains, it's a riddle. "Well... there must be some pattern that answers it... maybe we're, like, assembling a rebus...?"

    With the magical test passed and the party moving on, Amalthea can't help but chuckle.
    "And what team would you be on, Mizuki? Red Jaguars?" She teases mildly.
    Moving on though...
    "I found a rock." Amalthea declares as she holds up a symbol stone.

    Mizuki scratches her head. "I don't remember the teams, it's been a LONG time." Beat. "Wait, that's American TV! Are you a foreigner too?"

Prophylaxis preens just a little bit at Yuuki's praise. Not that he's actually the side-kick or anything, he's at LEAST the mysterious doctor-y mentor figure who knows more than he's letting on and is conspicuously absent for most of the boss fights for reasons.

Except... not that last one, since he's actually got a pretty good track record with boss fights, in all honesty.

Regardless, moving on!!

As the party advances, Prophylaxis spares a glance toward the silent sphinxes. "I wonder how they managed to make those-- and to instill them with enough awareness and power to halt our progress. It's not quite on the level of what Kita could carve, but... I mean, that's a hard bar to clear." He rubs his chin thoughtfully, wondering just how far around the perimeter of the temple that barrier must have stretched. Clearly, it hasn't been able to keep out the wind or the rain, judging by how worn down the pyramid itself is.

Regardless, it's something to keep in mind. Into the notebook it goes...!

The party is soon upon yet another challenge. This one is apparently some kind of... Actual /proper/ riddle. There should be a sphinx around administering /this/ challenge, darn it! "...Needing a guiding light, huh?" The doctor thinks for a moment, then makes his way over to the panels. "Mm. What do you see, my arcane eye...?" He asks, covering one eye with the palm of his hand, while the other glows ominously and peers at the assembled symbols. "Maybe something like... This one? Hmm..."

Time for DECIPHERING!!

"My first instinct is Polaris." Estelle admits, when she reads off 'guiding light'. "But it could be a number of things, admittedly, based off of context clues." Her hands spread, indicating many of the symbols around them. "So, there is little I can contribute beyond that, at this point, unless anyone wants some actual light or another pair of hands dealing with their portion of things."

The vixen will move quickly to help with that, of course, if anyone does ask. Even as she makes little notes about the symbols in a journal, just to keep track of various things.

    Yuuki smiles smugly at athe Sphynxs as she walks past the now disabled barrier. Not that she actually did anything to help with that last challenge. But really when your side-kick succeeds, don't you also succeed? Yes. Yes you do.

    Moving down into the temple proper, Yuuki takes one look at the strangle looking symbols and runes and-"Yeah, no, you've got this, Prophy." It's okay Yuuki, there's strange symbol plates that apparently missing that you can look for!

    "Of course, first thing with strange temples like this, you've got to search every nook and cranny. Devs LOVE to hide treasure chests and hidden items in just the most out of the way places." And so Yuuki does so. And spends so much time doing so, that she doesn't have an opportunity to actually search for the plates themselves. Whoops!

    Mizuki gives prophylaxis a curious look. "What do you mean, awareness? The statues don't need to be alive, they just need, like, the magical equivalent of a motion sensor. Maybe not even that! Maybe there was a little pressure plate in the floor we didn't notice. ...Although, even that... are you saying there might be a way to MAKE objects that cast spells that way? Hmm..."

There is a new challenge head okay what is this she would find the walls are covered in something strange. The wait is that script? She thinks she can read it she has an idea about what it could be after thinking about the riddle.

"What is the moon?"

The Sphynx Challenge turns out to be something they can resolve through a combination of finesse and main force. Except for the Absolute Blade, whom Proteus observes has basically zero magical skill. But such is the price of hyperspecialization. "Sleeping Knights in a nutshell." She sighs to herself, smiling and shaking her head. "Come on, everyone! We've won through." She points, and they roll right along.

Once inside, the next room makes Proteus' eyes gleam even more, her gloved fingers twitching. She grins. "Oh /love/ this kind of thing." She says, beginning to putter around looking for clues. The rest of the group pull together the symbol stones, and Proteus immediately helps out deciphering the inscriptions. She points and confers with the others, gesturing... And then she hums... Then takes out a coin, flipping it. "That one goes over there." She points, after seeing the result.

The Dig Site

At last, the party finds themselves wandering deeper into the temple, finding yet another set of stairs which leaves them in a chamber that is dark and partially filled with rubble.

There are tools which have been scattered around the room, many of them broken. There are shovels, chisels, brushes, and other tools one might expect from a Lander archeology team. In fact, there is enough to suggest quite a large exploration team had been here. They seem to have been trying to unbury the rest of the temple, gathering whatever artifacts they could find along the way.

To one side seems to be a blood stained bag, filled with finer tools of a true expert. The floor and wall look to have been splattered by gore, though there are no bodies that remain. Landers do not leave bodies behind to rot. Perhaps there is something inside the bag they could bring back?

Just as they move forward to search the bag, there is an ear-piercing cry that seems to cause the entire chamber to tremble, dust and debris raining down from the ceiling. A massive creature unfurls itself from the darkness above, landing hard on the chamber floor.

The creature is identified by an INSPECT as: FIEND BAT. It has huge ears, folded leathery wings, and long fangs. The cry seems to be some sort of sonic attack, the exact sort of thing that could bring the entire place down on them. They need to finish it off quickly if they want a chance to escape alive.

Challenge:
Option 1: Physical vs 10
Option 2: Magical vs 10

(OOC: At least half of the party must succeed.)

    Merek looks to the new creature, and nods a bit while he throws the potion explosive. Which, then begins to smoke field along the place. It doesn't do what it generally would want to do.

    "Red Jaguars, Green Monkies, Purple Parrots, Orange Iguanas, and Silver Snakes." Amalthea recites matter of factly to Mizuki. "My daughter used to watch that show when she was younger." She says before arching a brow. "You didn't know? I thought you would have figured it out when I gave my Name to the elders of Zumfit." She does remind mildly while the others work on the puzzle. Just speaking with Mizuki seems to have put the old Paladin in a better mood from whatever had her so sour earlier.
    With the puzzle cleared and the group moving on... Hearing the ear-piercing screech of the FIEND BAT immediately has Amalthea taking to the fore of the group.

    "ANCHOR HOWL!"

    She declares, defiantly spamming her taunts as she smoothly slides right into the act of pulling Aggro for the group.

The puzzle is sorted, plates put in the right spots and their passage assured. Estelle just wishes she could have done more for it... but! They're onto the next area, and this is something that catches her attention quite firmly. The scattered relics, the many tools and doubtlessly many notes they'd made...

... oh, and the screeching, angry Fiend Bat that seems to be annoyed with their presence, and probably dealt with the archeology team when they ventured here. That does need dealing with. The Astrologian looks around at the ground, considering what talents are here at play, and nods simply. There's one major course of action, here, given what she is.

"Hero of the Twelve Tasks, I call upon you as many masks. Imbue their bearers with your might - oh Hercules, help them burn bright." The incantation is solemn, hands - included spread fan - raised towards the heavens. And, in response, starlight shimmers around the other members of the group, super-imposing itself over them as constellation versions of themselves. Echoing their strikes, and enhancing them. Giving them a bit more protection...

In the wake of that, she hangs back - hurling little bolts of stellar fire and arrows of light, monitoring the situation to react as needed.

    Setsuna is glad to see the signs of the Landers, if nothing else because it means he will be able to bring back something for the kids. Then the loud screaming bat swoops in and Setsuna makes out the blood splatter and makes a rash assumption. " Damn thing. You didn't have to kill him!" With a firey rage he generates a lance made of magic and launches it straight at the bat as hard as he can.

    With the puzzle solved, Giganpor shakes his head as he grumbles. "Definitely getting rusty..."
    Well, two can play at the sound game. And Giganpor's hammer-axe spear gets a green glow.

    Crouching, the Were Fang shifts forms for a little extra boost before leaping upwards. "RIDDLE OF STEEL!" He declares as he swings the large weapon at the Fiend Bat.

    He misses the Fiend Bat, but does succeed in taking a chunk out of the wall! And probably bringing part of the ceiling down just a bit more. Whoops.

Yeowang nods as the party wanders deeper into the temple, taking stairs deeper in, to a dark chamber filled with rubble and scattered tools, chisels, brushes, and the like. As some in the party move to investigate a blood-stained bag, she hangs back, and it's good that she does!

When the Fiend Bat screeches its attack, she winces, but she then circles around to it's back, coming up behind it as it attacks party members. Her movement is tactical, designed not to trigger warning senses, and when she's ready, it's a spinning roundhouse kick straight into its back from her concealed location, striking hard, mercilessly, leading with her best attack in hopes of ending this encounter as quickly as possible.

    Mizuki tries to remember Amalthea giving her name... does she mean her real name? "You did? It must have slipped my mind..." This character doesn't have cybernetic audiovisual recording implants OR a hidden tablet they record every important conversation on. "Wait, does that mean you might have family in FM World too, if we can ever get there?"

    As they start finding archaology tools, Mizuki wonders, "Wait, how did that guy get past all the hazards to reach here...?" She'll appraise the broken tools to check ownership... "There was a whole TEAM here... did none of them survive? Oh wait, I guess someone must've, and that's how they knew..." But when someone goes for the bag, BAT! "Ah, damn it! Come on, some of us must have PLAYED Ocarina of Time, how did we all forget to LOOK UP?!" She scratches at that damn itch again. Amalthea's already tanking. Mizuki glances at the pixels that screech took off her HP bar... although, with the building threatening to collapse, damage from the monster might not be the biggest thing they have to worry about! "Just hold its attention... we'll take care of the rest!" Mizuki circles around to backstab (and back-claw, and back-rake...) while the monster's distracted, then runs and guns with thrown kunai and a fireball when it's in the air!

High Stakes Combat Archaeology is always a fun time. And what kind of archaeological expedition would be complete without at least one person with a PhD poking at mysterious symbols until they make sense!? Even if Prophylaxis has no idea what the ancient text actually says, thankfully, Proteus is here to help--

Wait no that's a coinflip YOU DO NOT DECIDE THESE THINGS ON A COINFLIP.

And so Prophylaxis flips his own coin, and upon seeing the result, nods and does as he's told.

'Cause you always want to go best two out of three, just to be sure.

ONWARDS! The temple's inner chamber is finally revealed, and what they find is... Honestly more somber than revelatory. The scattered tools and rampant bloodstains say all that needs to be said about what happened here. "This must be the place," Prophylaxis murmurs, following the trail of blood to its source. A little bag, covered in blood. With a frown, he adds the bag to his inventory for safe keeping, "Good question. Clearly either the traps activated after their scuffle set off some kind of sensor, or these archaeologists were far more capable than we had thought. Regardless, stay on your toes. We haven't encountered /any/ monsters since the insects outside, and the door to this chamber was sealed, so whatever killed them is probably still--"

An ear-splitting screech sends the doctor reeling. With a grimace, he looks up to find... A truly massive, truly malevolent chiropteran creature. "...This was your doing, wasn't it?" Its leathery wings beat menacingly, but Prophylaxis is not intimidated. He fixes them with a glare that could turn blood to ice--

No. Wait. That's actually a Frost Shock spell he's casting on the bat's wings, freezing the webbing solid such that the ductile tissue shatters to pieces on its next beat.

At the same time... An orb of fiery orange light has ignited atop his staff. "The sentence is death. Begone, monster. I banish you to the shadows from whence you came, and scatter the very darkness from whence you spawned! FIREBALL!"

Fireball ensues.

Miho is useless on the riddle but she doesn't take it too badly, it's not how she thinks really. Give her something to work with her hand something to design like a tool. Then she's your lizard girl, she's just glad they are able to get past it she will start looking around the site. The tools might be something to recover but for now, there's something else to worry about. There is a creature here she doesn't take long to inspect it, draw her Katana once more and launch herself at it, her blade burning with the fire of her very forge.

"FORGE'S WRATH! YOU WILL DIE NOW CREATURE YOUR TIME IS OVER!"

    Yuuki fails to find any treasure. But that's okay. Sometimes there just isn't any to find. Besides, it looks like the others have successfully solved the puzzle. Time to move on. And Yuuki has a feeling that-

    The room shakes, dust falls. There's a screech!

    -Yes, it's boss fight time!

    Yuuki grins in anticipation, quickly starting to run towards the boss. She gives Amalthea a thumbs up as she rushes past the tank already glowing from the effect of the Anchor Howl. Now Yuuki can wail on it all she wants!

    And wail she does! As a dark wind surges around her, boosting her speed, Yuuki starts to jump and flip around the flying bat. Her sword lashes out with each pass to cut through the creature's massing, leaving numerous streaks of red behind as she tries to inflict as many wounds on the bat as she can while her Sword Arte remains active.

There is a reason that Adventurers were sent on this task, as it is certainly far too dangerous for any Lander to have succeeded. They are able to fell the giant Bat before those sonic cries could topple the entire temple on their heads. It gives one last flap of those giant wings before bursting into particles of light.

In the aftermath, the temple falls silent again, though there are a few squeaks from somewhere high in the domed chamber above. Perhaps smaller bats that are nowhere near brave enough to try to attack the Adventurers.

They have time, now, to look through the bloodied bag, finding a series of tools that look as if they have been steped on by the massive creature. They are broken and in bad states of repair. However, what they do find is a small locket. Inside is a tiny braided bit of hair, a button, and a rock. These were likely keepsakes from the archeologist's family. This seems like it would be just the sort of thing to return to them.

    Amalthea need not be told twice to hold something's attention.
    She's completely fine playing main tank in raids, so she's just as comfortable in situations like this, butting heads-- literally at points- with the Fiend Bat while everyone pumps their DPS into top gear against the monstrous bat.
    But when it's over and the Fiend Bat is felled, Amalthea breathes out a slow breath through her teeth and plants her sword's point in the ground in front of her.
    A celebratory thumbs up is shot Yuuki's way, before she shakes her head to Mizuki.
    "I'm afraid, my famly would be here in Yamato." She says. "My daughter married a Japanese man and moved to Japan. I followed some time after to meet my granddaughter. ... My daughter and son in law must not have been logged in during the Apocalypse but." She murmurs, rubbing at the back of her neck. "I was going to meet my granddaughter online. I never got her character name in-game so I didn't have the chance to add her to my friends list..."
    But then she clicks her tongue and shifts to a less stinging topic.
    "Well regardless. We should bring that back to the family. They'll be wanting it."

With the bat down and out, Estelle begins investigating proper. She'll leave others to handle the bag of tools and trinkets that they came for; the place is safe enough that she can start investigating the Dig Site itself, beginning to poke around and see what there is to be seen. "Good work, everyone." She says aloud, as she does it. "That went rather smoothly, all said and done."

"... What do you think brought them here, though? Lore? Riches?" Her tone is musing, tails swishing energetically and excitedly. There's a new mystery to investigate! Little silver flames are thrown up, helping to light her work, and a journal and quill are brought out to make notes and rough maps of where everything is already.