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

Uta
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Spinner's End is unrecognizable. Clean, well lit, support beams, Landers and the occasional guard dog.

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."
June
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    June looks at Uta "It's a mine, you take things out not put them in." she says with a little smile. The smol barbarian queen... well she dresses like one out of fiction... she looks more like a librarian who's wandered down to mid life crisis and checked out all the books. "And from what I've heard there are spiders deeper down but nothing about slimes." She doesn't carry a weapon but for those who've met the werefang they know that weapons aren't really needed, or her style.
Gwen
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There are no spiders, Gwen doesn't tlike this she's been here before, yet it's not quite over yet for her she muses. She has to wonder though what she has to deal with this time. She's got Uta along and June as wll thoughj she doesn't know June too well and will try to solve that issue. "Well we cleared out, before. Yet we still have problems here. No slimes but maybe you could feed some spider bits to your slimes Uta? A sfor you June good to meet you."

Gwen is postively monsterously hughe in comparison to her two companions. 5R
"Still we should have fun with this, right?"
Uta
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Uta is holding her trusty white staff: shaped like a caduceus, with two snakes curling around it in a double helix, it is topped with a round gem encased in a ring, two wings deprating on the sides.

"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?"
June
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    June smiles "I've deciphered a bit... well one word and two phonemes." she says and shrugs a little. "The chaos gates are written in the same language." she says as she walks "Do you want to know the best part?" she asks her eyes twinkling hands behind her back as she nearly bounces on her toes.
June
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    Looking at the portal June pulls a small item out, a series of rings that she sets spinning and flipping past each othe rwith a flick of her finger. She watches the rings and the portal at the same time and then stops the rings puts it away and starts aligning things with a will. Someone is inspired as to what needs doing to get it set correctly.
Gwen
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Gwen says "We'll see how it goes, and I onlyu know of june in passing." She pause at the mention of the text. "Okay ytou now have my attention on that June. I'd love to hear more about it if you got the time." She'll try to translatetings but they don't go so well for her with the telepoters and she's at a loss on them.
Uta
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Uta looks downright flabbergasted."It gets better?! How can it get better than- Oh, that reminds me! Someone once hypothesized that this kind of thing might respond to music. I wonder if..."

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..."
June
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    Once June has the teleporter set she smiles widely "The best part is..." she licks her lips "Enne." she says the word and it's just sounds, no translation comes through like it isn't a word at all. "Isn't it great?" She giggles and does a little dance before getting on the teleporter pad.

    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.
Gwen
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Gwen gets lucky she finds a mining pick and will find some ore of suitable quality to leave on the alter. "I'm going to offer some ore, I dont' feel like blood for the blood god and all that." She will set said ore on the alter and will step back. "Hopefullyt his will play out right?" She looks to uta for a moment "Yes we have it's quite th trush isn't it, Uta?"
Uta
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The offers of June and Gwen cause a side door to crack open. Each offer makes it open a little wider. Right now, it's /barely/ wide enough that people can pass through. It might be an uncomfortable squeeze, but it's feasible.

"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..."
June
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    June smiles enegmatically and boops Uta's cheeks with her fingertips. "I do... it... IS what we're hearing when things are translated." she says "Well that's my theory anyway. I think it's the language being used as the translation medium and so it can't be translated."
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.
Gwen
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Gwen has some issues getting though the door her frame catches on it ina rather comical way. She'll end up flailing for a little bit as she gets caught and might need her friends to push her though. One way ot anotehr with a comical pop Gwen gets through the door and would find she's soon string down some creatures. She's going to try to sneak by and it goes ... poorly as the towering woman? Trips...
Uta
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Uta rushes towards the door, and, yes, pushes Gwen through. Screaming.

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."
June
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    June looks around and then shifts, iron scales snaping out to cover her body even as her snout grows and her horns settle into place. There now she's a poison breathing iron skinned minibull woman... that's got to have some effect. She rolls her neck and lets out a bellow before stamping a hoof hard into the soil and then trusting in the poison resistance of her parent monster charges in to start laying waste.
Gwen
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Gwen is saved by Uta for a chance she smilkes a bit at her friend. "Thanks I owe you one... and wait there's thre...." She shakes her head clearly having a battle of will to not gather crafting materials like this, now is not the time for it, and she darn well knows it. She howver has an idea tioo clear up the field she'll ready an attack o hert own and then calls out.

"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..
Uta
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June's stomping seems to intimidate the spiders. Part of the swarm flee, but part still attack. With little effect, in part due to Gwen's massive blast of air, in part due to June's combat prowess and resistance to poison (mostly the one involved in bites and clawings, given how little is left in the air after Gwen's cleansing technique). Uta stands at a distance, and vocalizes a tune which makes the handle of her staff light up in sync with the pitch of her song, colored lights moving up and down as does the frequency of her voice. On the final note, a blast of light leaves the gem, blinding the last remaining spiders, and making it easier for Gwen and June to shatter them into a million colorful polygons.
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!"
June
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    June starts pawing at the ground with one hoof, building up for another charge it seems and then... she starts praying. "Oh light of the heavens, spirits of purity, empower this servant with the blazing light of your wrath. Let us bring light unto darkness and crush the minons of darkness under hoof." she growls her eyes flashing as a golden halo of light gathers between her horns. Then the iron clad bovine is charging. The glow of holy light giving her strength as she starts to smash her horns into the armor clad spider man... man spider... spitaur?
Gwen
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The Battle goes well all thing said she puts her anchor howl to use to keep the spider warrrio under control. She does think abotu UTa's word as the battle is over adnd she's looking to her comabions an grin forms on her face.

"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..."
June
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    June looks down at herself, currently covered in iron scales "I don't know... I mean sure my gear was ruined in the Apocolypse and I should trade up for better... but I worked so hard to get this set." she sighs.
Gwen
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Gwen Says "It doesn't mean you can't use it sitll but I think you need some variance and maybe something that will work for both forms?" She ntoes to the werefang...
Uta
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Uta squints at Gwen. "Wait a minute. Now, now, wait just a minute there! Are you... are you blackmailing me? Or bribing. Which ever one is. Fashion in exchange for materials and help and support with projects and the like?"

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.
June
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    June smiles... it looks weird on a metalic cow snoot but she does it anyway, and her teeth are more fangy less cowish. (in english if Gwen has been using it) "I'll be happy to look, or have you look.. whichever.. I guess I just don't want to give it up for it's nostalgia... back when I was actually ranked and kicking ass." she says and sighs switching to Sindarin "And not waiting for months on a beach with thousands of other sudden newbs and landers..." the tone and pitch indicates she's speaking to herself.
Uta
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Uta turns to June. "It... it must have been terrible to wait on those beaches all that time... still, yes. It shows that you're quite the legendary fighter-" She stops, and looks down at herself. "Hm. While I'm still sporting the same things I was wearing on my first day..."

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.
Gwen
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Gwen says "Can't be Ezzo anymore no one's tagged to that anymore. Still I get it, it's a damn shame what happend and I fear it could spread in time." Gwen doesn't even seem to be too put off byut hing she looks to Uta nad june for a moment "I'm Gwen Pendragon Sylph Holy Knight what was before doesn't matter anymore honesly."

She looks to Uta nd jine "Humm I could make something with this...."
Uta
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Uta blinks at Gwen. "...make something with... the shell you mean?" She picks up the Armored Shell left by the recently defeated boss. "I suppose it could be used to make armor..."