Duty Session 247: Karluin Reclamation - Town

Even with the defeat of the fifth floor boss, Karluin is still a monster-infested ruin filled with precarious traps, ancient dangers and just plain old fashioned half-collapsed architecture. Though dilapidated, the goblin settlement in the area is deeply rooted and will need a good deal of effort from intrepid Adventurers to clear out... But it'll all be worth it. Once reclaimed, the fortress of Karluin will be a second or third home for Adventurers making their way up the tower. It's not like they have much choice; the way up is right smack dab in the middle of the old fort, and leaving it to rot will just make getting to the sixth floor that much more difficult.

The long task begins with exterminating monsters still lurking in the castle-town surrounding Karluin's mysterious central keep. Only then can the walls be secured and progress can begin on securing the fortress' heart.

Difficulty:    Medium
Rec. Party:    4+
Rewards:       3
World Rewards: Free Karluin's Ground Level

Setsuna
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    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. Whistling to himself as he makes notes in his journal, and then looking back at field reports and then back at his journal. " Where do monster's come from when there is no nest? " It was a question to himself but then again the other question was this, how far down did each floor go.
Goldenblade
Aincrad Tower - 1 - 0 - 8

Goldenblade has considered the depth of the floors also. As to the goblins, she replies to Setsuna, "Maybe there's a nest that you just haven't found. The number of goblins we've faced on this floor, they're either coming from a nest here, or from a higher floor." She's closeby, doing pushups. A lot of pushups. Her rock-filled pack is closeby.
Mizuki
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    Mizuki is here again! "I'm sure we've had that conversation before, although, I don't know the answer... maybe they have a respawn chance based on how many we've killed so far... or maybe they breed? I mean, not like... eww, but like, animals in Minecraft or something." She scratches her head. "Actually I really hope it's not the second one, if two monsters can make a third just by touching every few minutes we'd never get rid of an infestation this big..."

    She looks at Goldenblade, "Oh, I guess that makes sense too... but wait, aren't we watching all the stairs now? Or do you think there might be other, secret connections between the floors?"
Vertina
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The crunch of bare feet on rubble is heard a few moments before Vertina sprints up to the group. The salamander pauses to lean against something for a moment, catching her breath. "Sorry, sorry I'm late! Had to make sure a few things were situationed before I could take off for an adventure for the afternoon."
Setsuna
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    Setsuna laughs when Goldenblade mentions coming from higher levels of the tower, " If these goblins came from anything above floor 7 they would monster chow. Damn thing is crawling with monsters that would snack on a goblin like chex mix." Standing up he stretches and yawns before looking at Mizuki, " I mean that would make sense, but yes Monster breeding rituals are not something I wish to think of." Looking over at Vertina he shakes his head, " No worries, don't need to be sorry. Not like the goblins are going anywhere."
     Approaching the camp line he shouts to those behind him, " Ok people time to hit the goblin killing quota of the day. First one to kill fifty goblins, gets to put there next round of drinks on Prophylaxis' tab at the Dragon Larder." With the bribery said he points forward and starts to lead them out. nitial 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.
Vertina
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Vertina laughs in response to Setsuna. "Easy to make that official when I'm here! Considering all the work he keeps coming up with for us its only fair~"

And with that she takes off, remembering the gauntlet of goblin archers from previous attempts. She zigs and zags and hips and hops, but doesn't make use of any of her more advanced abilities because they might need those later on. So she still takes a graze of an arrow or two before she finally makes it into the cover of the ruins. "Well! That's still quite the warm up." She smacks a fist into the opposite palm. "What's next?"
Goldenblade
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Goldenblade looks intrigued as Setsuna mentions what's on floor seven, if obliquely. "That's interesting. So, what -is- on floor seven that's so dangerous? And with goblins how they are, I can see them living underground, so that whatever monsters are there never see them. Of course, they could be doing that /here/, too." She looks up as we depart the camp amid a goblin raid, and she says wearily, "I'll meet you on ahead."

That said, Goldenblade drops a smoke bomb and is gone. Presumably, she'll meet the party a bit later? Seems she's taken a play from Akatsuki's playbook.
Mizuki
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    "But I don't like alchohol..." Mizuki complains.

    Goblin archers. It's always goblin archers! She rezzes a shield from her inventory to absorb the first volley, then dashes out from under it, spitting plumes of fire at the groups of goblins while cutting down those she can catch too far out of position!

    "Phew... underground? Come to think of it, how much of an underground can there BE, when each floor is, well, a floor... I wonder if space-warping weirdness is going on..."
Setsuna
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    Setsuna has been practicing on his dodging coming up with five rules of dodging. Dodge, duck, dip, dive, and then he forgets that last rule and couldn't even have dodge a wrench little lone a barrage of arrows. Vertina seems to manage a bit better and Mizuki well she might as well be twirling an umbrella in the rain. Those arrows don't even come close to her. Goldenblade simply appears safely on the other side.
    Walking away from danger though, they walk themselves into the unknown, and are now rather lost. They appear to be 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."
Goldenblade
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Goldenblade meets the party at the edge of town, and walks in with them, eying the wreckage warily. There's a few close calls where she steps away from collapsing masonry, and another where she's got to help clear the way so the party can proceed. "What you really need here is a bulldozer," she comments, looking around. "You could have a thousand goblins -living- here, and never know. They're not rocket scientists, but they're crafty and can lay low when they need."
Vertina
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"That's why the venue includes fruit juice and such, Mizukichi." And now comes the annoying part. This time however Vertina is a bit more prepared, as she takes a moment to equip her battle gloves. "I don't know about bulldozer..." She steps up and punches a big hole in the rock. "But how about some jackhammers?~" And continues to do so, alternating punches with her fists to pound her way through the rock and debris fast enough to put a certain red echidna to shame.
Mizuki
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    "Do they have sweet tea?" Mizuki wonders, and now... "The layout is different each time, somehow... how can this be anything but a randomly-generated dungeon...?" Sharp were-fang senses make her cry halt before a building falls down in front of them, or suspect that a pile of rubble is thinner than it looks because she can smell air blowing through, allowing them to dig a shortcut...

    "A bulldozer? Or explosives? The goblin slayer guy got explosives somewhere, didn't he?"
Setsuna
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    "I don't know , truthfully I would carpet bomb this play with earth pillars and fire bombs till even the rubble was molten slag. Then rebuild on top. " Setsuna adds to the conversation as the two do their best to work through the rubble. Setsuna looks over at Mizuki and nods "Yeah he had explosives, could just have been gunpowder. I mean that stuff isn't hard to make, just some nitric acid, a little sulfer, charcoal. Boom you got gunpowder. " Setsuna says it nonchalantly as he does his best to look for any other shortcuts but they go unfound.
    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. To be fair given enough time it seems like whoever is trapped will be freed soon.
Goldenblade
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Goldenblade nods to Setsuna, "Bomb it flat, pave it and rebuild. Sounds like a good strategy to me." She looks around as we arrive at the friendly camp, and mutters, "We always get stuck helping these idiots, and get sidetracked from our own quest." With a frown, she will attempt to look helpful while not actually helping very much. Digging some debris out with a shovel, but then the just falls off the shovel as she goes to dump it on the pile of waste debris. So, then she's got to police up her spilled debris. She's trying not to make it obvious, but she's being less than helpful.
Vertina
Aincrad Tower - 1 - 0 - 8

Vertina kicks some remaining rubble out of her way. "How often do people keep getting struck down here?" Dungeon mechanics is one thing, but these are other Adventurers as well. If the Goblins have gotten THAT good at trapping people, it's all the more reason to violently disarm the little bastards. "Well then." Vertina walks over, winds back and arm... and then pauses a moment. Looks up. Looks down. "Uh. I'm not carpenter, but I learned a thing or two building the tavern." She points at some cracks in the rubble, where the glint of metal is barely visible. "I think there's a support strut in this mess, if we smash that the whole tunnel could come down on us."
Mizuki
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    "Wouldn't carpet bombing not work if they live in tunnels _underneath_ the ruins...?" Mizuki asks. "Oh, sure, you make it sound easy, but where do you just find nitric acid and sulfur lying around?"

    "At least we're never the group stuck here delaying someone else..." the tiger-woman points out, and tries to move the rubble aside with raw strength but, more just falls down...
Setsuna
Aincrad Tower - 1 - 0 - 8


    Setsuna looks at the others and shakes his head, " I am almost positive that the world is being shaped by these quests and duties. We set it up and then its like the world within this group is stuck in a loop. Who knows maybe those adventurers don't even really exist out side this incident?" Setsuna himself looks at the pile for a moment and shakes his head and turns to look at Mizuki, " I mean sulfur you can find around any volcano, which if this is based on Japan there should be a few. Nitric acid, that's trickier. "
    With the inability to help any more than they did the group is forced to go off down the eerie looking alley way. The alleyway ahead is rather small , it has just enough room in a 2 by 2 formation. Nothing could ever go wrong in such a situation is what no one ever says, nope instead if someone was going to spring an ambush it would be right about NOW. Goblins drop down surrounding the party, their blades dripping with poison as they charge in hoping to take advantage of their smallish stature and close quarters.
Goldenblade
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Goldenblade says to Mizuki with a sigh, "Well, if we can imagine carpet bombing, we can imagine armor piercing bombs that penetrate fifty feet of earth before exploding." She shrugs. "Though I guess we'll have to figure out some way with magic." To Vertina, she says, "I think this little standoff has been going on for weeks. We can't muster enough to break through, and the goblins have ample numbers to hold a choke point."

So, we head down into that chokepoint rather than the usual way, and it turns out to be an ambush. That was a good plan.

Goldenblade's blades hardly have room to work in these close quarters. On the other hand, there's almost no place to dodge, and so it's a matter of speed and sword work and getting steel into goblins before they can stab her with their noxious blades. Two goblins are impaled as they try and drop on her, she flicks them off her blades, and she stabs the next one that gets close right in the chest. With the length of her swords, she's got a reach advantage, so when she prevents them from getting close, they can't touch her, and it's all her way after that.
Vertina
Aincrad Tower - 1 - 0 - 8

Vertina stops in the alleyway. Looks at the goblins swarming into it around them. Cricks her neck to one side in a slow, audible manner.

"Finally, we get to the -fun- part," she adds, with a wicked smile of teeth that seem sharper than usual even for a Salamander. You know that sort of 'Angry Anime Girl' smile. Though if someone looks closely they might notice one of her hands going to dip into the alchemical jar on her belt.

Multiple goblins rush her, they stab... and it is somehow ineffective as they can't get through the protective ki aura around her. She just grins that vicious grin more. Then she grabs one of them around the neck, holding the squirming green bastard up close to her face as the dip of her claws in Goblinbane starts to burn into his flesh. "Do you little assholes even understand what payback is? No? Then allow me to demonstrate!" The alley confides limit her room to move as much as she would like but the Salamander Martial Artist still manages to wuxai her way up a wall far enough to kick off, twist in the air, and CHOKESLAM the goblim in her hand on top of several of his comrades, pixilating the whole group.

"That... is payback. For the fallen." She takes a moment to pick up the daggers dropped in their death and carefully put them away so they can be destroyed later, regardless if they're Giganpor's work or not. It's less weapons for them to retrieve and reuse either way.
Mizuki
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    Mizuki blinks at Setsuna. "Umm, that should be REALLY easy to check, we can just ask about their names when we get back to Tolbana or the castle. We just gotta be careful how we phrase it, how'd you like it if someone were asking around whether YOU" she pokes Setsuna's shoulder "were real?"

    She scratches her chin. "I thought gunpowder needed something called saltpeter? And that you could get one of the components from... pee, of all things..." She blinks. "Wait, does using the menu mean we're constantly disappearing nitrogen out of the environment? Doesn't that do bad things? I guess it doesn't matter, since plants and animals can just spawn or be called by magic..."

    As they wander into the spooky alleyway, Mizuki asks, "Hey, does anybody else feel a sense of deja--" and suddenly there's a knife in her, "NOT AGAIN!"

    She grabs the goblin that knifed her and rips its throat out with her teeth, then turns to face the other goblins and roars at them, swiping at those who come close with her claws and the knife pulled out of her chest... but soon she's stumbling, feeling weak, able to defend herself as long as she doesn't get surrounded but not able to fully contribute her job as DPS.

    Once they're away from the immediate fight, she appraises the dagger for poison. "Ugh... that's nasty... why do we actually have to feel this... can we rest for a bit...?"

    She falls to her knees and rezzes a healing potion to recover her HP, then if allowed, lies down for a bit.

    But no matter how long they wait, she doesn't feel like moving on... eventually she stands again, grumbling, but forces herself onward.
Setsuna
Aincrad Tower - 1 - 0 - 8


    Setsuna walks slowly and keeps looking all around, the one other time he had been this way they had ran in to an ambush, obviously it won't happen again. Then it happens again as Goblins drop down trying to flank them. The one coming up from behind hit a wall of shadows to protect the group. " Here they come."
     The ambush does prove Goldenblade was right, it was a good idea to go this way, simply because for the first time this quest run they got to kill Goblins. This is of course exactly what Goldenblade does and does well , many goblins fall to the blades that are not gold. Vertina as well seems to quickly dispatch the Goblins that come after her as she slams one into the pavement, breaking the pavement and pixelating the goblin. Even Mizuki unleashes her animal nature and literally rips the throat out of one of the goblins.
     As the alleyway ends the party gets a look at quite possibly what could have been described as a hive of goblins. Ahead of them is a broken down, beat up, slum a building and armed to the teeth with ranged goblins. If the adventurers are to loud, to noisy, or to flashy they will be caught, If they can get close enough without being spotted then they can bring the whole thing down. Setsuna smiles and looks at Vertina, " I'd say that building has at least fifty goblins."
Vertina
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Vertina still has that 'Angry Anime Girl' sharptoothed smile when she flashes it at Setsuna. "Perfect~. Let's do this!" No surprise the daredevil tomboy takes off at an eager pace with the target now ahead of them. But what about the guards one might ask. The mage spotters? Vertina isn't exactly known for stealth after all.

She is however known for being evasive, and that's exactly what she does, sprinting her way towards the slum tower with such determined speed that it kicks up sparks of flame in her wake (in a manner Goldenblade would certainly recognize). This actually works to her advantage, as it's the crackling sparks that get the attention of any would-be intervention, and they miss the Salamander bolting past in the diversion.
Goldenblade
Aincrad Tower - 1 - 0 - 8

Goldenblade wipes the goblin blood from her blades with a rag, and resheaths them. Setsuna will be pleased to know that her continued use of fire magic on the blades has already caused them to turn a sort of goldish tone. Not that she needed fire magic for goblins, that would have been overkill. She pauses at the end of the alleyway, and takes a look out at the path forward.

She nods about the building ahead, and will ninja her way forward. She ducks along, hiding behind a row of old crates, and advances quietly, right up into the face of a goblin patrol. So much for stealth. Her sword slips out fast as lightning, and the goblins' eyes go WIDE. They hold their hands up, nod, and decide to patrol someplace else.
Mizuki
Aincrad Tower - 1 - 0 - 8


    Mizuki looks up at the crowded slum, and whispers, "Oh no. I remember this... last time they chased us and we had to fight... an elemental machine?" It was a redcap, but memory's not perfect.

    At least she has no issue quietly sneaking, even sick, apparently!
Setsuna
Aincrad Tower - 1 - 0 - 8


    Setsuna takes a slower approach as he mumbles some words and wraps himself in the shadow before he simply walks off hidden in the shadows. Vertina is a blur and one of the scouts swear they saw something but the mage in charge smacks the scout upside the head and the scout goes back to looking. Other scouts do get spotted but get the idea and the intimidation check of GoldenBlade's succeeds. Mizuki takes the sneaky path of shadows and together they all make it safely.
    As they get to the shanty, they can see that the building is made mostly of wood, and is poorly built altogether. It was surprising the thing was still standing. The real problem is that it is so big that if they do this wrong they will get caught in the rubble, or worse caught under the building itself. As they can hear the goblins coming they know they only have a few minutes so time to think quick. "Time to embrace the Scale's motto. Fire, fire everywhere."
Vertina
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"Already on it!" Vertina quips as she skids past the group to apply the brakes. While at the same time stiring up a bunch of dirt and rubble, which quickly catchs on fire as well as she hooks it with her foot. Using her elemental powers she pulls it together, bopping it back and forth a few times like a soccer ball, then scoops and lobs it up with her foot. The other foot plants into the ground hard, heel serving as pivot point to whirl herself around.

"METEOR STRIKER!" Followed by the *THOMP* of her spinning foot connecting with the flaming ball of rock and sending it hurtling hard into the slum tower. It smashes through the outside wooden wall with little difficulty, leaving a hole steadily burning larger in its wake. There's a second crash as it slams into something inside, bounces a few times, and sends shrapnel of smoldering rock flying around into infrostructure and goblins alike as it breaks apart.

Vertina thrusts both fists into the air. "GOAL!"
Mizuki
Aincrad Tower - 1 - 0 - 8


    Mizuki chuckles as Setsuna comments on the scales' proclivities in battle. She takes a deep breath... and then coughs, sputtering flame. Still, she can cast it the normal way... she holds out her hands and says the words, casting FIREBALL into the wreckage.

    Then she tries as best she can to power through escaping, running even though she feels so weak and tired... at one point she falls next to a piece of interesting-looking wreckage and grabs it before getting up and running again.

    Once they're safe, she identifies the piece of wreckage. "'A simple and singular piece of an Elemental Machine', it says... the words are capitalized, like they're a proper noun. What's an Elemental Machine?"
Goldenblade
Aincrad Tower - 1 - 0 - 8

Goldenblade gets to the shanty and looks over their target. "So, this is what we're here for?" she whispers. She looks over the target again, and murmurs, "These people have never heard of fire safety. One match and the whole thing will go up." And who better than Goldenblade to supply that match?

Or in this case, she draws her blade, summons her power, and the whole blade bursts into flame. She places the burning sword against the wooden structure until it catches, then slowly moves along, setting several more small fires. The firts one's growing nicely already, her fires always do, and the rest are crackling merrily as they consume the wood'.
Setsuna
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    Setsuna embraces his enchanter nature as everyone else rains fire on the building Setsuna simply begins to enchance the fire. Turning the flame into a nice pretty blue color as it burns hotter and hotter. As he looks at the others he nods, " We should get out of here." Setsuna doesn't wait around to find a safe spot to watch the bonfire from and grins at the flames, " It really is the simple things in life you enjoy." With that said he kicks at some of the wreckage and picks it up dropping it into his invetory, that really needs to be sorted. " So then drinks?"
Mizuki
Aincrad Tower - 1 - 0 - 8


    The adrenaline of running for her life wearing off leaves Mizuki feeling like crap again. She groans, "Can one of you carry me? I'm really not feeling so good... I just wanna sleep... and not like a cat, like, I'm sick and I hate it..." She drinks another potion to keep her HP up. "Here, I'll make it easier..." She detransforms, becoming a 5'1'' human with an oval face whose expression is perhaps a bit more readable as 'sick and tired' now. (Moccasins appear on her feet, which is perhaps an odd choice for a ninja outfit, but they're comfy, dammit!) She holds out her arms, speaking without energy, "C'mon, I'm a little girl, I'm not that heavy right?" She's too tired to care about saying such things...
Vertina
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Vertina steps over and slips an arm around Mizkui, hooking it under her arms to let the other girl rest partially on her shoulder. "Don't worry Mizukichi, I've got you." And is more than strong enough to carry the weak were fang.
Goldenblade
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Goldenblade nods to Setsuna about getting out of Dodge. "Let's get out of here," she agrees. She will not complain about drinks, either. "I've had enough of goblins, thank you very much." She will check her six and exit the area warily, avoiding the notice of the little vermin.

Eying Mizuki, she sighs, but drops her backpack. It was filled with rocks and metal scrap anyway. But by the time she turns back, Vertina has her. She shrugs, picks up her pack, and proceeds on along.