Duty Session 272: Obligatory Rat Cellar

Another day, another cellar. We've all been here before. Even if it wasn't -here- here. Zork and Colossal Cave Adventure probably had rats in cellars.

The -why- we're here can change. Adventure? Loot? An urge to answer a call to aide? It all boils down to the fact that when the call went out, we were all in the neighborhood and decided to be here.

An aging and balding gnome in an apron stands before the ladder heading into the cellar, wringing his hands in agitation. "Oh dear, oh dear, they're back! Please, brave adventurers, can you clear my cellar of the rats, before the eat me out of business?!"

Or out of sheer nothing else to do. It's been a while since Kauchemar poked one of the cellars, and she was feeling... well something was better than nothing and someone was looking for a quick dive into one so why the hell not. If nothing else she can poke fun at all the cliches it likely involves.

    June is... fickle... random... mostly she just has some issues, but one of them is impulse control so with the sound of a rats quest of course she'd wander over. The short frumpy woman in her barbarian finery smiles and waves. She at least has met these people and can stay quiet, quiet means she won't wander off into embarassing territory and random low level quest means she isn't likely to do much beyond running on instinct so she's happy to just go with the flow.

Nodding to the familiar form of June, "Hello again," the salamander offers simply before turning to Michio turns to the figure of Kauchemar. "And well met. I am Michio Asa, Ki Master. Thank you both for answering the call." He gestures towards the ladder, "This should likely be an easy endeavor, but..." He looks almost sheepish admitting this next part, "It is my first time acting as leader of a duty since the Apocalypse."

Turning next to the shopkeeper, Michio bows slightly from the waist, "We will help you." And with that, he descends the ladder.

As the group descends, they're enveloped by inky blackness. The sound of rodents scurrying about can be heard, and each must find their own way to deal with the encompassing gloom.

Kauchemar drapes forward in a fanciful bow to Michio. "Kauchemar Tenebrae, at your service." She stands and turns. "Rat Cellar, hmm? Shouldn't be too hard. Shall we?" The group makes their way inside with Michio taking the lead.

And descend into darkness. "Hopefully it is just rats and not grues." But she's already in her Nightmare Were Fang form (she usually is). Most people don't realize that equines have exceptional hearing and olfactory senses, which is exactly what she uses to navigate into the darkness.

    June nods to Michio. She follows down into the darkness, and then just starts to glow. A soft white aura of light. June might be strange, and as likely to punch a bartender, or grab someone's butt... but she is still a holy class and that means light magic.

"Tenebrae, hm?" Michio inquires, though more in a sense of idle curiosity than actual inquisition. About halfway down the ladder, as darkness closes in, the Salamander reaches up and snaps his fingers, kindling a small glowing sphere of fire to illuminate the area around him. He leads the way over to a doorway in the room at the base of a ladder and extends his hand toward it. The sphere of fire follows his gesture, then zooms around to light the sconces in the hallway. Offering a soft grunt the salamander turns to his compatriots, "If that is not a trapped corridor, I'm a Spriggan Princess."

"As much as you would make a cute princess, it is probably indeed trapped. Common trope for even the most basic of dungeons." Kauchemar chuckles softly as she leans forward a little. "You know what they say about traps though. Sometimes the only way is to spring it yourself."

She bursts into motion, already posessing considerable speed, which is boosted farther by the surge of water that erupts behind her like a liquid rocket. The propulsion forward sends her barreling down the corridor master than any of the traps can fire on her.

    June looks down the hallway. "Ooh well, yes this does seem to be a trap." she says and then starts to move. She doesn't have the speed of Kauchemar's gallop... instead she moves, almost like she lacks bones. Graceful sometimes almost impossibly so, she walks down the hallway, dipping out of the way of this dart, falling into a roll that takes her past that spinning blade. An almost drunken step to one side and a smashing block lands beside her instead of ontop. Then a stagger to the right avoids a slash. She continues that way, halfway between a dance and a drunken stumble until she's leaning on the wall just past the last trap smiling like a cheshire cat.

Seeing the other two Adventurer's make it through the hallway, Michio nods in satisfaction. He then takes a few steps back, and instead of running across the floor, he actually runs up one of the side walls, circumventing the trap sensors. He comes to a rest on the other side of the hall and nods, opening the door to the next chamber.

"Kuso! What is that stench?!" He covers his face with one clawed hand and reels as though punched in the face. Hopefully Kauchemar is able to 'rein in' her enhanced senses before she gets too close!

"Ugh, a nest. Filled with such foulness." Michio says, glancing to the other two as if to see how they want to handle this room.

    June gahs at the smell and then she's moving, her hands and arms going through gestures that build up air until she completes the move and a steady wind starts blowing the stench away from the party, radiating out from the woman making her hair and fur cape both flap lightly.

Oh if it was only so easy. "Gaaaaah" Kauchemar slickly slides to a stop, putting one hand over the end of her snout. "This is horrid, even by the standards of vermin."

With the other hand she makes a few arcane jestures. "Gleaming moon, send forth your tide to purge this putrid infestation!" She swings the arm to thrust it out, and the sound of waves crashing can be heard briefly as water swirls up before her into a vagely brutish humanoid form. The elemental just as quickly cascades forward, slamming into rats and nests alike and sweeping them away into other depths of the cellar sewers.

"If there is one advantage to being a summoner," Kauchemar quips as she dusts her damp hands off together, "It's not having to do such dirty work yourself."

With a grimace of anticipation for what waits ahead, Michio nods, "That does look useful indeed. Unfortunately, I must take a more direct approach."

Thankfully the others have done such a good job of clearing both the air and the ground of the majority of filth. This leaves Michio able to focus on defeating the remaining denizens of the next room without getting too much foulness on him. He takes a crouching position, and then he's moving through the room with such rapidity that small pockets of thunderous air are left in his wake, sending rats flying, broken, before they shatter and disolve, joining the ones washed away by Kauchemar into some digital(?) afterlife. "I'm glad I was joined by companions with such skills as yours. That could have been... much less pleasant."

With that, Michio opens the door into the next chamber, wherein the group sees the slathering figure of the dire rat. Its beady eyes survey each of the combatants and its jaws drip red-flecked foam. The creature's head lowers to the ground in a clear fighting stance as its tail swipes slowly back and forth.

The monsterous rat rises. Kauchemar reachs up with one hand afterwards to readjust her glam-rock mane, though as the bangs drape back over one side of her face her eyes can be seen glowing ominous. "Is that how you want to play it. Well then, let's jam!" Lightning cracks loudly as she strikes a pose, and starts to air guitar furiously.

" ~ You can't kill the metal... The metal will live on
Punk-Rock tried to kill the metal... But they failed, as they were smote to the ground
New-wave tried to kill the metal... But they failed, as they were stricken down to the ground
Grunge tried to kill the metal..." the nightmare throws her head back with a demonic laugh. "Hahahahahaha! They failed, as they were thrown to the ground! YEEEEEAAAAH! ~"

As she continues her vigorous faux strumming the ground before her glows and rumbles, dust rolling as several zombified forms sporting the remains of spiked leather armor, torn clothing, and brightly died hair rise from the ground. Then shamble forward, mobbing around the dire rat and starting their own undead mosh pit, beating at the beast with their flaily limbs and bone breaking gyrations. All while Kauchemar continues her performance.

o/~ No-one can destroy the metal. The metal will strike you down with a vicious blow!
We are the vanquished foes of the metal. We tried to win for why we do not know! o/~

    Smiles seeing the rat uncoil. "ROUSes? I don't think they exist." she says and then launces herself forward dashing into a shadow, bounding off a wall and then leaping on the back of the best. Her body covered in iron scales, horns grown and snout gleaming. Then her iron clad fists start slaming into the beasts back. "I do not envy you the headache you will have when you respawn... But for now... rest well, and dream of large does."

Michio seems taken aback for a moment by Kauchemar's outburst. He looks as though he was going to launch an attack at the dire-rat, but between the swarm of skeletons and the wrecking-bull that is June, the salamander instead decides to take a supportive role. He makes a circular motion with his arms, then brings his elbows towards his body. Thorny vines sprout from between the cracks of the stones which the tunnel is comprised of, surrounding the dire rat. "There will be... noooooo survivors..."

As the rat shatters into dust, the party progresses into the next room.

*CLICKITYSNAP, CRICKITYCRACK* The sound of bones is accompanied by a wave of pure, dark, malevolence. "And there's the boss. Y'know, he looks just like the bone rats from that crypt duty, just bigger. Lazy developers reusing models."

The zombies likewise eventually crumble back into dust and decay, the magic animating them spent. Kauchemar bows to Michio and June. "You've been a wonderful audience... but let's not dwadle here, less he respawn."

Respawning minibosses is the least of their worries though as the next room brings them face to face with the final boss of the run. "Now that is the sort of rat you'd see on a death metal album." Kauchemar snaps her fingers, and the shield leaps from her back. She doesn't catch it though, instead the shield hovers before her with supernatural energy of its own, moving in that close orbit to deflect several of the bone rat's attempts to strike at the Nightmare Were Fang. Animate weapon? Yes... and no. The way an eerie wail emits from the shield as it moves, it's clearly posessed rather than just substitutionary locomotion. The Binder spirit haunting the shield moves with almost its own dance-like motion to keep intercepting attacks.

    June smiles "Nah, when you get up close you'll see they made him of smaller bones that just make the same overall shape as the Tomb rats.... hey big boy... remember me?" she says grinning, her snout full of fangs rather than blunt cow teeth. She snorts green toxic fog and starts pawing at the ground with one hoof. "Round two! 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 chants, the prayer wrapping her in light and setting a halo between her horns. And then she's charging, a holy roller, like a tiny freight train packed with priests, lacking breaks and headed for a Gwar concert.

As Kauchemar takes the roll of tank, and June cues up Ozzy Ozbourne, Michio steps into an archer's stance, his left arm extended and his fist out as though he were holding a bow. "Light within, banish the darkness before me!" As his right hand moves up to his left, and then pulls back to his cheek, crackling light energy ignites the gloomy cellar as pure ki energy forms into a bow. Centered in the bow is an arrow, also formed of life-force, which streaks out in a flash towards the skeletal rodent. Thanks to Kauchemar's positioning, the arrow careens into the rat, knocking it up and right into June's glowing horns. The poor creature never stood a chance against this party's cooldown abilities, and it crackles into dark energy before disipating away.

"Well done, friends." and Michio walks up to the altar that remains in the room. "We've not only aided the shopkeeper, but it looks like we have cleansed this holy place of a dark taint. Mayhaps the Burning One will bless us, and this town."

    June snorts "Hopefuly we kept it going, I've fought that one before it comes up now and then but I always feel bad leaving a shop keeper with rats in the basement." she says and shrugs her iron scaled shoulders.

"All in a days work for an Adventurer." Kauchemar gave the shield a pat before returning it to her back. Binders were fickle spirits, much like cats, and she tended to treat her weaponized ones in a similar manner. It helped keep them under control. "Rats aren't good for anyone's business. And if there's no business, there's no supplies for more important quests."

"Indeed." Michio says in response to Kauchemar and June's comments. Ever the loquacious one. "Thank you for the opportunity. If either of you need help in the future, please keep me in mind." He looks thoughtful, "Will either of you be attending the Festival in Carmina Gadelica?"