Duty Session 249: Spinner's Deep
After the efforts of many Adventurers to finally clear out the creatures from within the mines on the Isle of Beginnings, the Landers are finally able to return to their work. However, the first miners have reported an unusual room within the first levels of the mine.
The room seems to be the source of the previous infestation, but now shows a strange glowing arcane circle that refuses to allow them to pass. The Landers have reached out to the Hunter's Guild, seeking capable Adventurers to find out what lies beyond this strange device.
What is certain, is that the spiders in the mines now known as Spinner's End, had to have come from somewhere. Danger lies on the unknown path ahead. Are you brave enough to face it?
Difficulty: Moderate
Rec. Party: 3+
Rewards: 2
World Rewards: None
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And most importantly, No Spiders.
Uta turns into a side tunnel, stops, and scratches her head. "...I am not sure how to rate these sewers. They are not as nice as the ones in Root Cities, what with their polished surfaces and all, but on the plus side, there's surprisingly little sewage. For a non-root-town sewer, it's kinda nice... but then again, no slimes at all. Hm." She scratches her chin. "...The lack of slimes is a serious mood killer here. I think I'm going to give it two point five stars out of three."
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Gwen is postively monsterously hughe in comparison to her two companions. 5R
"Still we should have fun with this, right?"
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"Oh, hey, June! That..." She frowns in concentration. "That's an excellent description of a mine." She turns her head as she hears her gigantic friend enter the room. "Gwen! That is one /excellent/ idea! I am absolutely going to do that."
As she begins to walk down the cave, she turns to June. "Do you know each other already? If not, June, this is Gwen. She does fashion. She's very good at it." She turns to Gwen. "Gwen? This is June. She's helped us a lot with the library. She's great at it. Especially with difficult scripts."
Eventually, all that walking will lead people into a room with a raised dias, and mysterious symbols all around. "Ha. Just as we were speaking of mysterious scripts- OH! That reminds me! June, have you heard of the people who went to see the moon through a telescope for the Firefly Festival, and found writings in a strange script, as of yet undeciphered?"
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That said, she begins to vocalize a tune with her operatic voice, and as June aligns enough items on the teleporter, the dias finally appears to respond.
A glow surrounds the party, and when it subsides, they find themselves in a clammy dark chamber with sputtering torches.
Some sort of monstrous idol is carved in the stone, covered in robes. A clawed hand points towards an altar.
Uta stares ahead of herself, in apparent shock.
"I..."
She gulps."I... have... teleported..."
She clenches her fists. "That was SO COOOOOOOL!"
Someone might point out that since her Root Town is Fort Ouph, this shouldn't be /that much/ of a surprise, but...
She shakes her head. "Oh, right, wait. Gotta offer something here, I think. Let's see..."
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She looks at the alter "Hmmm..." she goes into her inventory and pulls out a big 'meat' item and drops it on the alter "That's often a requirement of dark alters... sacrifice of life or offerings of meat." she says with a little shrug. The woman keeps her own bag full of meat when she travels so that she can get real food made when she's in towns.
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"Oh, Merek mentioned that word to me", Uta replies to June. "He said he managed to decypher it, even though, now that I think about it, I don't think he told me /what/ it's supposed to mean- wait." She frowns. "Now wait just a minute, right there." She spins and points at June. "...if he managed to decypher it, why wasn't it translated?" She narrows her eyes at June. "...Do you... do you happen to know what it means... and it doesn't translate?"
She shakes her head. "Anyway, uh, back to the task at hand. Oh! Speaking of Merek..."
She swipes her hand in the air, navigates through her menu, and jabs at an option. Something shimmers in her hand.
A potato.
She taps at her menu again, and her nurse's cap shimmers away, replaced by a leather adventuring hat. Her gaze achieves intensity, and as she lowers her stance, she assesses the weight of the potato in her hand, staring at the altar.
Eventually, she attempts to swipe a small golden statuette of some sort of... is it an idol? From the altar, placing the potato in its place.
As the vegetable is placed on the altar, there is a click.
And a giant boulder rolls down towards the party.
"Oh SNAP!", yells Uta, and rushes to squeeze through the partially open gate.
Eventually, the team will find themselves goign through a large corridor with scratch marks on the sides. When that is done, they find themselves in a taller chamber, full of webs. "...shhh. Let's try and avoid those pesky creatures..."
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When the party finds itself crossing a web... well June is just a little spider herself it seems. Moving from strand to strand with easy grace, nothing like a monk when you need precision.
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The ground starts to become thicker with spider webbing the further the Adventurers delve into the depths of the dungeon. The way continues to descend downward to a set of spiral stairs which lets out into a truly horrifying sight.
A strange underground jungle has formed here by some miracle of dark magic. Strange plants glow with eerie, purple and green leaves. Pools of black sludge seem to burble at times, bubbles rising up from them and popping with an acidic hiss.
Spiders move amongst the leaves, each nearly the size of a human being. They stop to drink from the fetid pools, as if they were lacing their pincers with poison. They, too, have an unearthly glow to them, as if the taint of this place has become part of them.
However, the Adventurers are not part of this strange environment, and the spiders sense that. Soon enough, they turn eyes on the Adventurers.
"Which would be a bit odd -- I mean, the whole point of an intermediate language would be specifically so it can be translated to ALL other languages. It... it makes little sense if you ask me." She objects, but she doesn't sound so sure herself.
She moves to catch Gwen when she trips (even though 'catching' might mean 'providing an iman mattress to flop on'), and continues, "...Now, now, Gwen. Rule number one. Don't look down. Don't let be tempted by all the webbing. It's not fabric and it's not good for making clothes."
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"Divine wind!"
No she's not about to blow herself up she's lauching into a brutal series or air elemental sword attacks on the monsters, and the wind might help break up this horrible posion in the air..
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Uta pffts at Gwen. "Gwen, I just owe you one less. Of all the things you've done for me... all those outfits you've given me-" She seems to realize her faux pas. "WHICH I PROMISE TO WEAR ONE DAY! HONEST!" Quick! Quick! Divert attention, "Oh, which reminds me. Rylen's been giving me lessons in how to handle monsters. Have I already mentioned I need a monster handling outfit? Gloves and all? Which I will need to have Enchanted?"
The environment begins to grow more and more strange, the walls glowing faintly with an eerie green color. Drops of acid seem to hiss from the ceiling, falling on the unwary who dare to pass further into this tainted place. At first, it seems like they are heading for a dead end, but the wall lifts as if it senses their arrival.
It opens into a boss chamber which looks suspiciously like the one they had left in the mines above. However, the coloration of this room is more unearthly. The strange etchings on the wall all glow with that eerie, acid green. Standing in the center of the chamber is a massive creature that resembles a spider, but rather than an arachnid head, there is a humanoid torso there.
Armored plates cling to the chest and arms, though it is hard to tell if it is metal or some sort of natural defense. A helmet blocks the face from view, allowing only the sight of glowing red eyes behind the mask.
"Oh, /finally/!" She smiles wide and cracks her knuckles, while her wings shoot up and flutter in excitement. "Time to FIGHT!"
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"You know uta if you wore the things I gave you more often I could find the time to help you harvest more materials for making new breeds of slimes."
She then loosk to June.
"You fight well but I hate to say this you are more of a fashion diaster than some poor fool at the start of burning crusade."
Her gaze falls upon June.
"The Red Sonja look isn't bad but I think it's a bit of diaster here you should come by my shop later I have some idea to help you out..."
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Uta squiiiiiiiiints at Gwen. Hard. "...I would say that my dignity is not for sale, but... well, there are multiple things to say, here, so here they are, in no particular order. Two, I can always use material for slimes. Especially rare or unusual ones, like samplese from those flying Wyverns on the Seventh Floor of the tower. I'm /so/ getting some of those samples. Four, I-" she whimpers. "...I'm working on too many projects. I need help..." Back to a normal voice. "Two-" Deadpan: "My dignity is totally up for sale." She sighs. "Three, your creations are quality items."
The first, most important reason, however... is that Gwen is a good friend and now Uta feels somewhat ungrateful at taking all those outfits as presents and not supporting her friend's creativity more. But she doesn't openly admit it.
At least, not yet.
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Uta sighs. She and navigates through her menu. A few gestures, then, biting her lower lip, she hesitates: her finger hovers in the air, and then, "...heeeere goes nothing...", she mutters under her breath.
As she taps the last selection, she shimmers, and moments later, she's wearing one of the outfits Gwen made her: a shoulderless "gi dress", with arm-length gloves and heeled almost full-leg boots. She's still got a nurse's cap on her head, but this one is pire white, with no markings on it. The whole getup is white with black trimmings, but when it catches the light jsut right, it gives off silvery reflections.
She glances down at herself, just enough to give her a once over, then it's immediately back to Gwen. "...soooooo, about those materials?", she asks.
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She looks to Uta nd jine "Humm I could make something with this...."
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