Duty Session 265: Karluin Reclamation - Keep

Karluin Keep is an imposing structure, visible from every street corner and thoroughfare. It's just as ancient as all the other buildings in the old fortress, but considerably more vast. Its stalwart masonry makes it almost impervious to direct assault, and there's only one main entrance into the keep itself-- one defended by an imposing gate and a pair of turrets that, even from a distance, you can tell are bristling with goblin defenders. For now, we gather in one of the larger plazas near the citadel, where local adventurers have set up a number of tents which house makeshift supply depots and kitchenettes. Soon, your assault on the keep will begin, but for now there's a moment to rest and prepare.

"So you're wondering why I've called you all together, then?" he asks. He's always wanted to say that. "Another run on the goblins, of course. Let's go over the intel, and then hit them hard!"

Gobliiiins...!

The continued goblin presence in Karluin means that Prophylaxis has seen no end of work. There's always goblins to fight, shanties to obliterate and castles to raid, but these are all /his/.

He really, really wishes they weren't, but them's the brakes.

"I'd like to make a try for finding the leader of these goblins if we can," the doctor says with a tired shrug. "We haven't had much luck yet, and I'd like to deliver a decisive blow to their leadership sooner rather than later."

Shiruba has actually spent the last several days in the Ninetails highlands, helping guard various farmlands while they worked on finishing out the harvesting season. And by helping guard we mean helping with the actual work because her new mentor believed some physical work would also help toughen her up. When Shiruba told the old panda about what was going on in the Tower, he decided she should keep venturing up there too, because Goblin traps and trickery were good practice for defense tactics as well as shield work.

So here she is, having just strolled into the base camp as Prophylaxis is making his proclaimation. "Sounds like I wandered up at the right time."

    Setsuna yawns as if he had just woken up as he looks in the direction of the Keep and then back to the summoners of this so called quest called Goblin Genocide. "Goblins again? But we had goblin yseterdaaaaay." He lets out that last word as a whiney sound as if to imitate a kid who didn't want what was for dinner. With another yawn he looks from Prophylaxis to Schneider and nods his head, " Ok so I may wish I had purchased some of Merek's coffee. I could really use a cup right now. " Taking a moment he smacks his face a little as he tries to wake himself up for this and looks at the Keep. "Ok I'm good."

Prior to actually embarking on the mission, it's the intel briefing, sponsored by Scale Emblem Alliance. For all your Towering needs, choose Scale! Schneider smirks to Setsuna, and says, "Forget coffee, they need to invent Red Bull." He smiles to Shiruba, about having shown up just in time. "Indeed, you have!" He nods to Proph, and says, "I've been through a couple times, but hopefully, third time's a charm!"

There's a number of useful documents in the dossier that's provided, including the most likely tactics and enemy types we're likely to run into, and basic maps of the castle and its lower floors.

At the mention of coffee Shiruba takes out a flash and offers it to Setsuna. "Might need a little warming up but I tend to keep some on hand these days." Normally she would go right for the maps but she gets pulled into the other discussion going over documents before she can do much else, and while she's far from clueless the format just really isn't in her wheelhouse as it were. "Who knows what -else- could be down there that the goblins have stirred awake. Like that construction construct before."

"Here's hoping," Prophylaxis says with a long sigh. "Though with all the caffeine addicts we've got hanging around, it makes me wonder if I should dedicate my time to formulating an energy drink...? I don't think I've got the necessary expertise, though." That's more like Vertina's thing, isn't it?

...

Well regardless, it's got Prophylaxis distracted enough to accidentally misfile a good half-dozen reports, forcing him to double-back and review stuff he's already looked over. How awful!

    Setsuna blinks and takes the flask and just holds it under his nose for a moment. The smell of such a thing , is that a tear in Setsuna's eye? Taking a deep breath he takes a swig of it before he looks down at the documents. " Oh imagine that , coffee is really brain juice, this stuff makes some level of sense today." Handing the document back to Shiruba he licks his lips and looks up to the Keep. "Lets just storm the dance thing, straight on."

Schneider tries to keep up with the flow of information, but the number of reports compiled by adventurers who've already scouted the routes is beyond his ability to track, even with Shiruba's help. Proph is more organizing and planning outside that box, and Setsuna seems to have it all under control, thanks to the power of caffeine.

the party proceeds onward to the so-called 'dragon bridge.' Flanked by two turrets on either side and a ramshackle and hastily repaired but never-the-less imposing front gate, even approaching the keep will be difficult and fraught with danger. Goblins fire down with bow and crossbow alike, and upon getting close to the gate, pour over a tub of boiling oil down on your heads! "If we don't break through the door quickly, this could get painful in a hurry!" Schneider warns.

Ah yes, the boiling oil bridge. Why did they call it dragon bridge again? Was it just that the Scale Emblem kind of has a theme going? Prophylaxis wonders if maybe they should rename it Boiling Oil Bridge, considering... The boiling oil.

Maybe they should think about it, eh?

"I really wish we were on the /other/ side of all this firepower...!" Prophylaxis grunts and pushes through the onslaught with uncanny celerity. With a shout, he strikes a gauntleted fist directly into the front door... And actually manages to force it to budge! Incredible!

Also concerning, because that means there's one fewer hands available to try and divert that boiling oil...!

Shiruba does not like being hastily prepared, but she's dragged into one conversation then the next and thent he group is pushed out on their way before she can actually get back to what she wanted to look at and she ends up just huffing into her bangs in frustration, but keeps the grumbles to herself and trudges on.

"Then don't stop moving!" she quips back to Prophyaxis, even as she's running down the bridge and firing bolts of water and ice into the cascades of oil. But there's more of the stuff than she can effectively freeze/douse long enough to make more than a dent in the pour. "Just go!" Adrenaline or whatever these bodies run on as an equivilent is a marvelous thing.

    As they step on the bridge the no longer caffeine deprived Setsuna grins at the arrows as he creates a shield of darkness , where the arrows end up going no one knows. It appears he can do this and walk to as he continues to move towards the door and even seems able to protect the team from the shadows. "Take your time with the door I got this. " The necromancer continues to cover the group with a shield as he patiently waits for the others, a little of that oil is marking his shield of darkness glow orange though, so a little hurry may be good.

Proph gets the door open by brute force. So, maybe it wasn't stuck as tight as we'd thought. Or else adventurers busting it down twice a day had left it in poor shape? Setsuna is able to shield everyone from the goblin archers, meanwhile. Schneider, however, is an exploder wizard, his control over water is not the best, but he makes the attempt with Shiruba to divert the oil, because that's what the party needs. Sadly, the party needs a bit more than he can provide, and we all spill into the entrance, only barely ahead of being broiled alive, and unhappy. At least Shneider is unhappy. "That could have gone better," he mutters.

And then a goblin fires a bow at us -inside-, and it becomes abundantly clear that there are very cleverly designed murderholes all along this passageway. Arrows fly relentlessly from seemingly every direction. The only way to safety is back out onto the bridge or straight ahead into danger.

"There's kind of a /door/ in the way!" Prophylaxis complains, but manages to bust a path open regardless-- even if they are all suffering the after-effects of all that awful boiling oil by the time they're through. Maybe the party shouldn't have asked the noodle-limbed wizard to handle opening the gates...?

Winded and busy with healing, Prophylaxis is only barely able to conjure a spell to help ward against any incoming projectiles. He gets an arrow to the chest for his trouble and needs to spend even more time addressing /that/ injury before they can move forward. Goblins: They're kind of awful...!

    Setsuna doesn't let a few arrows stop him as he forms a ball of electricity, "Cover your eyes." Instead of the giant bright flash of the normal electrical fuzz that one would use in a duel. Instead he uses it as strobe light, bright lights rapidly flashing down along the murder holes, hopefully distracting their shots as they go through.

'A smart warrior is more dangerous than a strong one.'

While they seem to have a similar idea Shiruba is much more versed in the magics of using wind and the environment in situations like this. She arms Thundersnow Howl, charges a rather large shot of elemental air in the enchanted longbow, and fires it down the murderhole corridor. Not only does this knock back multiple arrow shots, but it blows a cloud of dust and fog down the corridor, obscuring the very small holes the Goblins have to see and shoot through, while Setsuna's strobing effect reflects off the frost to get better blinding angles. "Quick, while they can't see clear enough to aim!" she yelps before charging down the pathway.

Schneider chants, "DAMEDO! Magic Shield!" and the shield springs up to deflect the arrows of the goblins behind the wall as we run deeper. Sadly, the shield runs out before the goblins do, and the party is peppered with arrows before we can get clear. Luckily, Setsuna's electrical fuzz and Shiruba's air-arrows spoil their aim, and Proph is dropping mad heals, or we'd have been slaughtered.

The next problem is that this is approximately where our maps stop being helpful. The interior of the castle is a veritable maze of barricaded corridors, and while our goal is the throne room and whoever might be leading the defense of the keep, finding it is no easy matter.

"Well, that sucked," Prophylaxis groans, plucking another arrow from his arm amidst a storm of fuzzy red static. A quick healing potion fixes that well enough, but... Then they come to a crossroads. One that doesn't appear on any of their maps.

Prophylaxis... Smiles.

"I came prepared," he explains as he drops into a sprinter's stance. Electricity arcs from his extended heel. With a *pop* of coruscating lightning, he disappears into a flurry of ultra-fast motion, sprinting down one corridor after another. Each time, he finds a dead-end or a way forward and reports back, leading the party bit by bit deeper into the halls of Karluin Keep...!

Once they're through the murderhole gauntlet Shiruba pauses, needing to catch her breath so she can focus properly. Once she's cleared her mind she leans against the wall, though this time to feel it through her geomantic powers. "Hmmm." She walks a bit farther, puts her hand against a different wall. "Don't go that way, it's a dead end." She takes a few more steps. "That one has been purposely collapsed to block it. We'll need to find a path around it... look for signs of the goblins moving about or working, they'd have to have a way to get by their own obstructions."

    Setsuna considers a moment whether he should call upon his own spells and use them to help track the location. However at the end of the day it seems it doesn't matter he found some tracks. Yes judging from this the guy they were tracking had a skeleton leg and a boot. Yes and of course they came this way and should be around here somewhere.

The maze is complicated, but the party makes it through with Proph zipping through the maze at super speed, and Shiruba keeping track of where we are in the maze, and where we want to go. Schneider and Setsuna attempt to help, but it's not needed. Luckily. The only trouble is that the place is locked up tight and reinforced by a series of sturdy, if jury-rigged, fortifications. "Gah," sighs Schneider. "This game is getting harder and harder. Most things get easier when you practice, but this game seems like it's getting harder faster than I'm getting better." Which is not a very Schneider thing to say. He's not a very good roleplayer, it seems.

"I'm just glad the hobs are as big as we are, if not bigger," Prophylaxis says to Shiruba as the party manages to find its way. "The littler bastards could just sneak through the proverbial vents otherwise, and we'd have no way to follow them." Instead, they find their way somewhere... important.

There is a door in front of them. Unfortunately, it is an absolute /beast/ of a door. How many locks did they fix that thing with? How many pieces of furniture did they chop up to get enough material to reinforce it with? Far too many, in both cases. Whatever is back there was worth enough to board this thing up /strong./

Prophylaxis has an answer to that.

It involves 'lighting himself on fire and then using all that extra heat to throw an exceptionally large fireball directly at the door.'

Oh wait, no, that's exactly what he does. Whoops!

    Setsuna looks at the door and frowns at it heavily. "Its OK I think I can do something about this. You see they reinforced the door but obvioously they forgot the reinforce what is around the door." With that Setsuna magically levitates some of the stone floor and throws it at the wall next to the door. Unfortunately for the necromancer his construction knowledge is as good as his tracking sklls and in fact they did reinforce the wall around the door.

"Let me try." Shiruba also tries to weaken the stone and mortar around the door, but as she's used a lot of her geomancy already on this venture she can't do much more than maybe make some cracks and creaks. "Good grief, they REALLY reinforced that doorway."

Schneider is, luckily, able to solve this problem with the one thing he's good at: Fire. If Fire doesn't solve your problem, you're not using enough. Well, in this case, he's used just the right amount to burn through the barricades without incinerating /us/. Proph's version of that does involve setting himself on fire, but the end result is burned obstacle, so it's all good, right? Setsuna hurls some debris right into the thickest part of the wall, where it doesn't do much. Shiruba's assistance does not help much, sadly.

Sitting in a resplendent throne is a goblin of unusual but not tremendous size. What sets him apart, however, is the noble cut to his clothing and haughtiness to his demeanor. His presence is undeniable, as is the sparkliness of the gem-encrusted crown he wears. The king himself does not seem like an extraordinary challenge, aside from his intelligence and charisma among goblins-- it's the small horde of elite goblin soldiers that stand between your party and the king. A powerful shield wall of hobgoblin knights encircles the king himself, their massive pikes raised to receive any charge. They're backed up by a teeming mass of goblin irregulars, knights and foot soldiers wielding all manner of weaponry, and who are themselves supported by a rear-guard of crossbow snipers.

Never fails, when you need something really broken rely on Scale Emblem's prodiginous application of fire, fire, and additional fire to just burn a way through.

They get into the next room and "That is a -lot- of goblins." Pause. "I'll have to tell Slayer's crew this is where there's a lot of goblins hiding." But right now it's their matter to deal with. With a snarl Shiruba stomps a foot to the ground and uses the last of the geomancy energy she's stored up. "Stoneskin!" It swirls around her as vines and roots grow to pull things together and form a coating of earthen material over her, and then reachs out to the rest of the group as well. "This spell won't last long, make the best of it!" Even with the additional protection this is going to be a rather drawn out fight.

    Setsuna walks into the throne room, kicking at the door as they pass, and a damn rock falls to strike his toe. It didn't hurt but it proved the Keep was out to get him. However for now there were goblins and not just any goblins, but his majesty and his amazing hobgoblins that go for your knees. As the others charge forward his eyes glow with magic as he looks at the King, but before he can get a shot off of magic he is waylaid by hobgoblins. "Go for his neck, it's a weak point." Its all he can say before he is swarmed by a sea of goblins.

Wow, uh.

Well, this certainly explains where all the goblins were hiding. Apparently 'in this room, specifically.' Prophylaxis hisses back a curse as a barrage of arrows dig into his torso. A moment later, a shield spell is cast to absorb the rest of the volley, but the damage has already been done. "Damnit," he murmurs, even as Shiruba's spell fortifies his defense further. "Kill as many as you can! Even if we can't get the leader, we can at least thin their numbers a little bit. Area of effect spells, cast the biggest you've got!"

Which at this point, may not be much. That Goblin King is not someone to be underestimated...

It is, as Shiruba predicts, a drawn-out fight. The goblin elites are tough, and the hobgoblins are tougher, and the teeming goblin irregulars are a gigantic pain. Shiruba's shield comes up, and she fights like hell, but there's so many enemies, it doesn't seem like this is going to work out well for us. Goblin Slayer would tell us, the heroes don't always win. Setsuna is full of good advice, which doesn't include advice on how not to get buried by goblins, which is what happens to him. Proph makes an inportant discovery - the goblins were all here, which is not super helpful to know it /now/. He calls for A-O-E's, though, and Schneider delivers:

"Brain, brain dead... Obey your blood oath, come forth from the land of Avalon. Fire of Gehenna, become a fiery blast and burn everything around us!" There is a pause of bated breath, then a commanding, "EXODUS!" There is a wash of flame that engulfs the goblin irregulars, and scatters the ones that aren't incinerated. The goblin elites are all singed, and fighting back against them is suddenly easier when they're all one or two hits from red pixels, themselves. The hobgoblins stand tough in their pikewall. but their shields don't help much when their world is on fire, and slowly they pop off one by one, from fighting or damage-over-time. Unfortunately, when we look up, all we see of the goblin leader is his regal cloak fluttering in the breeze as he leaps down into what seems to be a goblin-sized emergency escape hatch? Or possibly the chute to what used to be a human-sized toilet. It leads down into the dark underbelly of the citadel, and the party is far too battered to pursue him further, so it seems the King will be escaping today, to your chagrin. On the other hand, there is a fair amount of gold left behind, and Schneider will start scooping it into his inventory.

By the end Shiruba is battered and bruised, and that's even with the extra protective magic. Her chest heaves a few times to catch her breath, even the wolf is too tired to chase after the fleeing fat rat of a goblin. "That's... less goblins, at least." She's starting to understand why Li Ho insists on working on endurance as well as technique, after that slog of a fight against overwhelming odds. She trods over to help gather as much of the treasure as possible before they leave.

    Setsuna curses as the king gets away. " Damn it." The necromancer finishes off the goblins around him and takes a pot shot at one of the other goblins running away that misses. When they are all gone Setsuna takes his time to help Schneider distribute the gold. It seems he has certainly burned through his coffee buff as he takes a moment to yawn before continuing to bag the gold for others.

The Goblin King gets away. The upside: there are many, many dead goblins to show for it. And a fairly heaping helping of loose gold coinage to smooth over any hard feelings. Prophylaxis sighs, sagging into a pile of treasure like it was some kind of couch. "I hurt bad," he complains, "But at least we... kind of won."

Even if the King still lurks the halls. They'll catch up with him sooner or later, he's sure. That's how these things tend to go, after all.

"...We can't underestimate him, I think," the doctor concludes with a frown. "Someone cunning enough to lure his opponents into a place like this before hitting them with abundant reserves... Is a difficult foe. Especially if they're also slippery enough to get away on top of all that."