Duty Session 251: Is It Wrong to Pick Up Slimes in a Dungeon?

    Vafrum is standing by the old well, his sleeves have been rolled up and he is poking some of the goop with gentle care. Those predatory gold eyes staring at it all like it is something horrible, evil, and he doesn't want any of it!

Alas, if one is to make money of any kind. One does have to get their hands, feet, hair, and other parts sometimes dirty. As such, the charismatic Trickster waits for others to arrive.

Goldenblade heads over to where Vafrum is poking around in a well. The Blade Dancer makes her money the old fashioned way - she kills bad guys for the ... whoever it is that gives quests, she supposes. "Good day to you," she calls to Vafrum. Her gear is not dirty yet, at least, but today's adventure has not yet begun. There is time enough for that.

It's always strange to find Syx just showing up to things like this. But occasionally word goes out that someone needs help, and Syx shows up because it's a payday, and more importantly for him, a chance to really mess things up. In a good way. With his fists!

He has arrived in time for the crew to enter the well, it sees, "Well well well. What do we have here."

    Vafrum sees who he gets and hrms softly, "Yes, good day. Well, time is wasting and time is money!" With that, he hops up on the well, before taking hold of the rope and then goes to drop down carefully into the depths of the dark well.

His eyes glow gently in the darkness. Once Vafrum's boots touch the ground, he /almost/ steps into one of the green slimes that are bouncing and bobbing about.

They seem to not care about the sign of the adventurers as they eat whatever food they find that has been discarded in this place. Though the smell is not great, given rotten food and who knows what else may be down here.

"Oh joy. This shall be wonderful fun." Then brushes a bit of his hair to the side, as he moves to avoid another slime that comes inching its way past him. He sneers his teeth, but hasn't transformed yet. Waiting for the others to catch up, though it seems Vafrum's idea to get around the slimes is just trying to avoid them the best that he can.

Goldenblade will hurry along after Vafrum, carrying a backpack full of rocks. It makes her steps slower, or that's what someone might think. It makes them more difficult, and her footfalls heavier, but she actually moves along pretty quickly. As they enter the sewers, she looks around, holding a sword aloft in one hand, wreathed in flames like a torch. The slimes that are in the way get a quick cut with her other sword, but the ones farther away are ignored.

It seems Syx is just going to walk through the pile of slimes, having no intention of letting them slow him down. He's way too powerful to allow the slimes to stop him. They're just basic slimes after all!

If they do attack, they'll receive a swift kick into the wall from Syx. They're far too small to superkick though, so a regular kick will have to do.

    While the others have better success, Vafrum does not as he finds himself running into more slimes against his boots than avoiding them.

Vafrum is not pleased and his eye gently twitches, though his hairs on the back of his neck stand up on end as his attention turns to a more pressing matter the further down the sewer they go.

A sound of a predator!

More importantly Hunter slimes that don't seem overly happy with the adventurers being in their tunnels. They have a choice on how to deal with these growling, blobbing hunter slimes. They can either hide, attack, or become the true hunter.

Given how Goldenblade and Syx handled the last, Vafrum decides to hang back as he motions to them, "You two have fun!" Then ducks out of sight; Or at least tries too.

Goldenblade does have fun, or at least makes herself useful slicing up the slimes that get close. "I'm amazed they don't keep this place cleaner," she remarks. "Though I don't guess they have bleach in 55 gallon drums." That might not work on the larger hunter slimes that come after them as they proceed deeper in, but Goldenblade has their number. Or, rather, their fire. Her swords BLAZE and the slimes are quickly brought to a boil. "If I could do this all day every day for two weeks, we might clean this place out. On the other hand, XP on the hoof." She shrugs, not looking a gift horse in the mouth.

Syx is going to indeed have fun, "I could probably do this solo if I wanted." He muses, "But nah, I'm kidding. There's probably a boss at the end that would totally smack me down. Lets go!" And go he does, as he again rushes forward, counter-hunting the slimes and making sure they soak up all that wonderful XP and coin they drop. He's showing no signs of slowing down.

    Vafrum stays hidden till the two do what needs to be done. He slowly peers out to see if everything is clear and then goes to play catch up. For a Werefang, doesn't seem the Trickster has any desire to fight.

"The completion of this quest will give experience far more than just the monsters themselves, though I admit," Vafrum says looking back to where Goldenblade hit sliced some of the hunters, "I am just after items from here to sell off for bags of gold that I'll need later."

He also took note of Syx's passion for kicking monster bottom and hrms softly. "Yes... Nasty boss I am sure, but at least we have you and Goldenblade here, hm! The true heroes of the hour!"

The group does eventually arrive in a much cleaner area of the sewers, but here they are greeted with cute, little magical slimes that are floating about. They cast spells at one another and sometimes off into the distance as well.

One of those spells hits the wall, causing a rune to light up. The trouble is, where they needed to go was in the midst of all this casting.

Vafrum inhales deeply and goes to make a few hand gestures as he whispers some words to himself, seeming to be working on a magical spell to get himself by and perhaps, aid the others as well.

Goldenblade smirks to Vafrum, and she says, "You can can the bullcrap and the kissing up. I'm seventy five years old and you can't sell me whatever it is you're selling." Oh the other hand, her sword slashes are not working on the slimes they face now. Nor is her fire. Well, let's go through the possible alternatives. A small bottle is brought out with a valve on top, and the air that comes out forces bubbles into the slimes' bodies, aerating them. Which, it turns out, is very bad for them. The bubble-infused slimes are also quite vulnerable to whatever's in the bottle, they stop moving pretty shortly after being enbubbled.

"I'm with GB over here." Syx replies, "I just do this stuff because I wanna you know, beat the living shit out of some bad guys."

And you know, that's not something he can do with this next challenge. So he opts to go ahead and use his Lightningstep ability to warp out of the way of the magic shots.

He teleports around a few times in order to get the shots to start to hit each other on the walls. He's pretty sure it'll work!

He hopes it'll work.

    Vafrum doesn't reply to Goldenblade right away, instead his focus seems to be on the spell he is working on. The Trickster slams his hands together which creates a harmonic that seems to shove the magical spells directly back at the slimes, while knocking them aside.

This also means pushing them into whatever Goldenblade and Syx may be planning or giving aid for them to hit more accurately. Once that spell is done though, he chuckles softly with a smile on his face. "Beautiful." He nearly purrs out.

His eyes then look over to Goldenblade as he goes to make his way down the tunnel well to wherever this now may be leading them. "I have zero plans to sell you anything, actually. My contribution to you was early on. Remember that road? I paid for those workers by the bag of golds I gain from selling the items located here to lander treasure hunters."

"No, my only 'sell' to my fellow adventurers is my assistance in their projects and plans. You know the old saying, I scratch yours-- you scratch mine. That is how I work with all of you." Though he tilts his head faintly, "However, business partnership is also never out of the question either."

"So, you see!" He says to them both, "Right here we are all getting what we want! You two get to be heroes, defeating monsters, and I get a possible treasure to sell to some lander for profit."

Yet this talk comes to an end as Vafrum is suddenly hit hard by the smell of what is down here. His nose curls and he quickly takes a few steps back, "Augh!" There is almost a growl in his throat, a holding back of his own magical power to just transform in sheer disgust--- or perhaps by what he is sensing and what they will all see.

A grotesque slime that has corrupted the very waters and seems to be no friend to anyone, as it quickly and without patience moves for the attack!

It is here that Vafrum stops holding back and actually transforms into his Dire Raptor form with great speed as he shoves off his dinosaur like feet, moving to shred his claws directly into the slime! Perhaps even being a distraction for the others.

Goldenblade nods to Vafrum about the road. "The road to Eas, yes. Those laborers were helpful," she agrees. "Thank you for sending them, and I'm sure more will be needed in the future for other important works. We're working on a Library now that we've broken the monster lair in Eas, and soon, we'll start rebuilding the whole place. Castle, town, grounds, and all. A bit at a time, of course."

The corrupted slime draws a look of distaste from her, and she fades from view like the better sort of ninja. Her blades strike from stealth, the air of their passage whistling sharply and cutting like knives. She slashes, but when the slime turns on her, she vanishes again and cannot be found, only to strike again from another angle.

Syx moves fast, and when he does, it's often to strike harder. He doesn't do stealth like Goldenblade, no. Instead he's striking out with several powerful kicks to the slime. Now normally slimes are hard to punch or kick, and each time they do so, you might wind up stuck.

Syx has figured out a good way around that though, because he can focus enough force behind the strikes to disrupt the slime, creating a cavitation inside of it to do extra damage and allow him to extract his limb before it gets caught.

He uses this technique to good effect on the big black slime, intent on causing bonus damage by striking from behind and the sides.

    The group working together defeats the horrible slime monster! Goldenblade Ninjas about with timing slices, Syx moves in with punches and kicks in powerful strikes!

Soon the way was clears, into a high arched ceiling in a large circular room. It is here a new monster arrives, as it builds itself together in an oozing, beady eyed fish-like monster.

Its mouth oozes with dripping mucus, as its long arms have fingers that also goop down ooze. Within its form are faces of the dead being seen and then unseen as they move around.

The creature moves its mucus arms in attack, trying to slash and smother the adventurers!

Goldenblade faces off this new slime, and once again, physical cuts and fiery slashes don't seem to do much. She ducks and weaves to avoid its pseudopode, trying different tactics, until finally she gets the idea to use the flat of her blade. The thin slices she'd given before closed up as soon as the blade had passed through, but when she attacks with the flat, the impact is more of a splat, and when she pushes through, it's a much wider channel now, and it doesn't quite close, which allows her to lop off chunks of slime at a time.

    Vafrum watches as the new monster rises. He waits for his time to move in after Goldenblade and Syx make their moves. When he does he uses magical around his own attacks to help penetrate the monster.

It dies with a rumbling, blurping roar, before vanishing into specs of light. Once the light clears, the group will find themselves completing the quest and each with an item given to them.

Vafrum looks over the coin, turning it around in his fingers, before pocketing it. "Well, thank you both! I do hope we get a chance to work together in the future." As he says this, his form is already turned back into a man once more.

"Till then my friends! You both take care."