Duty Session 239: Karluin Reclamation - Town

    On the outskirts of Karluin, up at the fifth floor Setsuna sat in the fortified camp waiting for others to appear. In front of him was a roughly sketched map that captured the progress so far on cleaning out all the goblins in the area. It was his turn to lead some of the clean up on the floor, better to deal with the goblins up here before they figured out how to flood the lower floors with their numbers. Worse of all it was slowing progress to go up as well, on top of well just about any other problems with letting goblin's in your tower. So he had put in notice the Hunter guild that another cleaning party would be held today and was sitting and waiting to see who showed.

Yeowang has shown up for the Karluin goblin hunt. She's not the fightiest person in the game, she's only recently gotten beyond the newb quests and started playing the main part of the game. And she seems like as much of an organizer than a fighter, judging by her actions. Or, more correctly, she's not a great fighter /in the game/. But she moves with the fearless attitude of a person used to being entirely capable of facing whatever comes at them, and only recently has she gained a mure wary outlook. The newbie quests hadn't exposed her to much danger, so her poise under stress conditions has not been put to the test. Not very hard. She nods to Setsuna, arriving at the meeting place and offering a nod. Her hair, normally quite long, has been wrapped up in a thick bun at the back of her head, so that it's out of the way, and she looks like all business.

Shiruba takes a moment to test the string on her bow, muttering something about how it's only a few more days under her breath. This well-worn weapon was soon to be retired, once Miho finished the final steps on her new custom one. But for now, it would still do. Her tail flicked a few times as she goes over the stock in her quiver, and a few other pre-quest checks. While she has no particular care towards the tower itself, you had goblins infesting ruins and that just rubbed the archeologist in her all sorts of wrong ways. "As ready as I'm ever going to be."

It's been a while since Kaydon went out to do one of these, short of the one for the event that happened the week prior. He's tagging along behind Shiruba, "One of these days you're gonna have to get on me to get back into the forge." He muses to her.

    Merek looks about the place while he takes the time to adjust that dark attire which he wears, then he draws the weapon from the back, it looks like a greatsword which is made with a special material.

    Setsuna smiles as he sees everyone shows up and stands stretching and giving a whistle as a skeleton knight comes out of a tent, on the inspect it reveals Setsuna's the owner. Before anyone asks he smiles and answers why the knight was in the tent, "If I leave him out here he scares the goblins." Taking a moment he looks between everyone and then says, "On behalf of not only myself but the Scale Emblem Alliancce, we thank you for coming. So lets get to it."
    The party sets out from the camp , into the rubble of the fort, and initial reports said that the area was cleared however only a few minutes out of the gates the sound wolves can be heard before arrows begin to rain down on the adventurers. Goblin Archers seem to be taking evasive hit and run patterns to try and weaken the party without directly engaging. Given the tactics at hand it is likely that the riders will disperse if there tactics are proven to not work.

    Merek lifts up that whole greatsword of his while they make a way along, defending from anything that might try to come at the party while they're making their way along like outriders. The man nods a bit, "The whole thing is a battlefield, you need to be prepared."

Yeowang follows Setsuna and the party out into the area, looking around warily. Almost immediately beset by archers, she runs a zigzag course, trying to take evasive action to avoid the harrassing fire. She owns a bow, and will return fire, but it's not really a factor. She maintains her evasive action, pulling out the stops to avoid taking hits, herself.

    Merek lifts up that whole greatsword of his while they make a way along, defending from anything that might try to come at the party while they're making their way along like outriders. The man nods a bit, "The whole thing is a battlefield, you need to be prepared."

By this point Shiruba has gotten accustomed to goblins being aggressive little buggers right off the bat. But these ones, they're actually on top of the game, having positioned themselves where they're actually hard to shoot back at. "Ugh. I remember when goblins use to be filthy and dumb!" She whips a few winds around herself to try and deflect arrows, but they're coming in too many flurries from hard to counter angles for her to keep up with. "We need to find some cover, fast!"

"Man this is crazy!" Kaydon calls out, moving to try to get cover, and using his sword to try to deflect any attacks coming his way. It's not as successful as he would like when he manages to stumble his way through the battlefield. Normally he'd go fight them himself, but that's not the objective here.

    Truthfully Setsuna should have given more warning, like by the way goblins are camping the camp. Damn spawn campers. Either way though like clockwork here they come and as he is about to shout things like get to cover , everyone is already doing it. As he sees a path he points to it shouting, " This way!." With Yeowang being an elusive target and Merek able to deflect the arrows well enough they are able to get away though.
    The group of adventurers have found themselves in one of the worse off sections of town. Buildings are more rubble and could fall at any moment. What use to be walls obscure their vision and any wrong turn could force them down a path that they hadn't planned to go. " Stay close and shout if you see something about to kill us."

    Navigate is good, although Merek decides upon another of the paths. The man lifts up his weapon while beginning to swing that into rocks, "Alright, we'll make a way if there's not a way." It even looks like he's making progress with that.

Yeowang's evasive action takes her into the ruins, where she takes cover in the rubble. The walls obscure our vision, but they hide us, too, until we're ready to strike. She picks off the one that follows us in, and the rest stay clear. She manages to avoid the collapsing masonry and will keep close to the other party members. "This is definitely challenging," she agrees. "I was here before, and it has not gotten easier, I think."

Once they've got a bit of cover Shiruba takes a few deep breaths to recompose herself and focus. "Well that was a rude welcome... but when are goblins ever not rude?" She shrugs, and looks around. "Hmmm." Wanders over to inspect one of the walls. Looks over her shoulder as people start just trying to dig a way out. She rolls her eyes and walks back to the group. "The ethusiasm is appreciated, but guys, you might just dig us into a bigger problem if you're not careful." She points up at some of the building ruins. "You take out the wrong structural support, and any one of these could come down on us."

Then she wanders back and forth again a bit. Pulls out some parchment and her quill. "We came from this direction... the goblins would be positioned here... and here... strategically they're putting themselves between the entrance and whatever they're trying to keep to themselves..." She stops, and points. "If you're going to dig, dig that way. It should be in the same direction we were originally intended to go."

It's Kaydon, so he's most likely going to just plow through the rubble and slam open paths with his superior strength. It's his usual way of doing this. Shiruba is the planner and the cartographer, so when she says dig, that's what he's going to do.

He uses his blade to cut through stone and other rubble with no problem, this can cut other steel blades, after all, so stone won't pose any issue at all to him.

    Setsuna looks around as his eyes glow and is still lost, to many tracks, to many possible paths. It was really in the end to hard to tell which way wasn't back into the way they came. Fortunately the others are moving so Setsuna can follow and just talk, knight in tow. " Yeah the goblins here are a breed of their own and we still don't know what is making them such pain in the ass when it comes to where they are getting their weapons and such. They are better then goblins normally have is all I know. " Setsuna adds as he sees the team has opened up a path and then a large crashing sound is heard.
    The adventurers finally make it to a friendly camp, a stop over for people to rest and such. However it seems there is a problem, as several people are working trying to clear a cave in. The one leading the effort turns to look at the group, "If you can help we need it.. The path collapsed, people are stuck inside. If we can clear it back up it should be easier to go deeper in and clear things out from the heart. Any help you can spare, we need." It seems that this isn't the only path to get around but it would be the easiest path if they could clear it, plus the people matter too.

    Merek thinks about it a moment, and well. He knows the one way to save the team from that whole building in the way. The man walks up to it, then he takes a potion from that belt, beginning to wrap a few materials on it. The man places that next to it, while he begins to light it with fire magic when walking away, snapping his finger, followed with a full on explosion. "This is why I CREATED ALCHEMIST'S FIRE!"

Shiruba looks at the cave-in, and just grins a little. "How about plenty of precision firepower?", she quips, drawing one of the arrows with a crystalline tip from her quiver and nocking it in her bow. "Just give me a little room..." She raises the weapon as she draws back, squinting down the shaft of the arrow to take aim while Merek is setting his alchemical explosive. When he walks out of the way, that's when she fires. The arrow hits the rocks and digs in deep, making the stone crack and fragment so it's easier for the firebomb to blast apart.

Yeowang arrives with the others at the people clearing the debris, and she will pitch in. It's hard work, grunting with the effort of the chunks knocked loose by Shiruba's explosion, pitching everything clear to make space. "What's past here?" she asks the people clearing the cave-in. It's laborious work, and not what she's accustomed to, but she's willing and able to make the effort to help these folks out.

"Step back." Kaydon says, after being directed at the path they need to clear.

Holding his sword down to his right side, the markings on his arm begin to glow, turning flame red, as he channels the heat through his blade, which glows with the fury of the forge.

He once again unleashes a powerful series of blows at the rubble, the strikes cutting deep burning marks into the rubble, designed to melt the stone out of the way where it isn't outright shattered by the blade.

     Setsuna shakes his head, it's like every day some adventurer gets caught under some rubble up here. Given the time he is sure one day it will be him behind the rubble. Suddenly though between the explosions of Merek , and the biggest stone being pierced by Shiruba. Kaydons technique blows away chunks of rubble as Yeowang pitches in removing that which is left behind. The best Setsuna manages is to make sure more doesn't fall.
    As the path is cleared finally there is a large cry of triumph and cheering that last for only a moment before one of the trapped adventurers run out. The healer runs out begging for help, her hp is almost gone and a full stack of poison says she won't last much longer. Then you have the knight still surrounded by goblins, and he won't last much longer then his healer friend The party will need to act fast to save them.

Yeowang blinks in alarm as it seems we've cleared the debris out just in time. Panicked adventurers beset by goblins, though, can be solved by doing what she does best. No, not corporate administration, it's the martial arts thing. Ten years of MMA at the highest levels, but goblins are vicious and tenacious and fight hard. It takes all of her skill to keep them off the injured adventurers and to keep herself safe as well, pounding the little terrors with swift kicks and hard punches until they burst in a cloud of pixels one by one. She's sweating and panting by the end of it, it was a tough fight. She fights hard while the other party members work their piece of the combined tactical fight.

    Merek looks to that demolition crew assisting, while he nods a bit to the knight. The man draws the weapon which he uses, taking the time to find position to protect. "Alright, I will shield him, you all take care of the fight!"

Times like this it is just best to not let the enemy get the chance to do much. Shiruba starts firing off frost arrows as quick as she can, locking down goblins and slowing their movements before the can close in too tightly. "We'll hold them back long enough for you to get out of the immeadiate danger zone!"

"Got it!" Kaydon calls out to Merek, as he rushes forward, moving to put himself between the knight and the goblins. With Merek drawing their attention, it allows Kaydon to really go to town, the Damascus Blade flashing and cleaving through goblins.

His swings are wild but seem to be doing what they need to, shattering goblin weapons and goblin bodies with each swing. He's really going to town on them, to try to drive them back and clear the area.

    Setsuna's hand glows with magical energy as he looks at the knight, " Go take the goblin heads. " As the skeleton knight charges in , it is also like the knight gets a glimpse of a possible future and begins to fight harder as well. The shield of Mereks holds back the goblins long enough for the others to pick off the goblins at their own pace. A few arrows here, a few punches there, even a flash of Damascus steel, and the goblins run.
     With the knight saved and the goblins driven back for a moment it seems like they have a chance to breath. Until both the knight and the healer drop down, as do several of the constructions worker. It appears from inspection there is some poison that is quickly putting them down. The adventurers must perform triage and do their best to save everyone while not wasting time. If only they had a doctor.

    Merek is the next best thing to a doctor. An alchemist, who knows what plants to bring to people. The man offers a little marigold in poultices, while he takes the time to work on each person he will be able to, nodding a bit, "We should be able to save people," he notes, while he keeps the weapon upon the back.

Yeowang blinks as the fighters fall, and the inspect shows their status effects. She knows a bit of first aid, mostly what would be called sports medicine in the real world. She's got a couple self-heals, but nothing that can help these folks. She tries, but she's got no training for the kinds of help these people need.

Just so we're all clear, Kaydon is NOT a healer. He has some minor heal spells that can't really do much but restore a few HP, but it might just be enough.

So he does what he can to cast them on the injured tank after the fight is over, but for the most part leaves the heavy lifting to those who have much more skill in that field than he does.

Shiruba puts her searching skills to use and rummage up some stuff to help tend to the people that are lagging behind. "We're probably going to have to just find them a safe spot to wait for us to finish." Since they don't have an actual medic with them at the moment.

    Many people were not a healer, but Setsuna does not even play one TV but he tries. As he looks at a man complaining of stomach pains Setsuna nods and looks at the Lander, "Ok I can tell you not feel the stomach pains. Deep breath." As the Lander takes a breath, the Skeleton knight knocks the lander over the head , out cold. " Yep worked well."
     The others are better doctors as thanks to everyone else, Kaydon's magic and Merek's herbs help. Shiruba manages to even find some antidotes for the potion to apply. Evevn Yeowang's first aid helps makes a few comfortable, and in the end everyone learned a valuable lesson. Setsuna is not allowed near patients.
    The party appears to stabilize the sick and injured and move into a hallway of the building, that leads to an alleyway, that leads to town square. Standing there in the middle of town square in a rather large mechanical figure , standing twelve feet tall at least. Wearing a thick hard hat on it's had an a square jaw, with glowing red eyes as it continues on a rampage trying to destroy the city.

    Merek looks to the boss, while he seems to think about it. "I think we can counter with magic," he notes, then he uses the power of the Wind Element to begin drawing into that creature, which will assist the people with fighting.

"Everybody spread out!" Kaydon calls out as the building explodes and rains debris down around them. He takes a few moments to look over the robot, or whatever one might want to call it, he considers for a moment or two, "There's a few weak points!" He calls to the group.

"The gem in the chest, or the joints at the shoulders! Aim for those!"

Yeowang helps the few she can help, but it's not a great deal of help. More like comforting them until a real person can help them. She's only got the self-heals, alas. But when the party moves on, she will take her place at the front. She understands she's a melee type.

When we encounter the giant mechanical figure, she guesses this is probably one of the major sources of the problems in the area. She quicky triggers her cooldowns and sidles around behind the thing, spreading out as Kaydon advises. Weak points? Sounds good. She takes a breath, then concentrates, delivering a spinning back-kick with devastating force into one of those joints. The blow comes out of nowhere, as far as the elemental machine is concerned, and it can't brace itself, taking heavy damage from the fierce blow.

"That's... a big robot..." Shiruba has a moment of awe, and then gets to work. She starts firing off various lightning arrows, hoping to hit somewhere that will short out whatever magitek it is operating that overgrown excavator before it can trash all of them in the process. The gem does make a nice big target, though she's got to keep moving to not get crushed in the process.

    Shields made of bone and dark energy fly through the air as one hovers around Setsuna, the other appears in the knights hand as it charges straight towards the machine trying to take it with a mighty hulking roar. With Kaydon directing the fight and Merek's wind magic weakening the robot. Yeowang's fist put heavy dents into the machine and the knights blade rips away armor. Shiruba brings the lightning down at the end and fries it inside out. The gem rolling along the ground and shattering for all to pick up.

"Well," Shiruba comments as the shattered bits of gem fall to the ground. "That is certainly not what I would of expected to find in the ruins of a tower city, to say the least."

Well, at least that's over. Kaydon wanders over and grabs one of the stones, "That was...Different." He looks towards some of the others in the group, "Must have been a construction golem that went rogue or something.."

    Merek looks to the piece, which he picks up, then he nods to the whole of that party, "Alright, I am wondering what kind of work that it will take to clear all of the place."

    Setsuna nods his head as he looks at the destruction and sighs, " Yeah goblins with tactics and wweapons better then adventurers. Elemental machines, and this is on a cleared floor. " He adds as he looks about then over to Merek, " Don't know but we are trying to. So as long as it takes. " Looking about he kicks one of the goblin blade the machine killed, " Happy to have help though. Always happy for help."

Yeowang catches her breath when the fight is over, looking around warily in case there are any more of these things. "Who knows why any monsters are anyplace?" she wonders. "It's how things are programmed. But if you could work out the programmers; logic, that may provide insight." To Merek, she says, "I expect it will take a lot of work." She bows her head to Setsuna, "I am trying to get back into shape, but you can't duplicate ten years of training in six months."