Duty Session 275: Spooky Scary Skeletons

Even as Adventurers begin to gather at the edge of the desert, there are already signs that the festival has had an impact on the environment. There are shambling bodies moving across the sands, occasionally obscured by a shifting sandstorm or passing dune. Usually, undead are not common here, except in a few dungeon locations, but it seems that they have wandered beyond the confines of their usual territory.

These seem haphazard and random, rather than the organization seen in the Ninetails Dominion. Despite the time of year shifting into fall, the heat of the desert still radiates, causing the horizon to flicker and the sun to bake even the most steadfast of travelers.

"The largest concentration seems to be towards the oasis." A Hunter's Guild guide informs them, "So, head that direction and kill as many as you can. It should slow them down from reaching the city." The guide, apparently, is not coming with them. The heat and danger of the desert awaits...

    A strange occurance of undead in places that they don't normally appear?! What does the hunter guild do first, they ask the necromancer where he has been and what dark forbidden rituals he has been doing. So of course here Setsuna was at the edge of the desert watching the shambling things from a distant. " So over that hill and through those sand dunes, is the oasis of the undead , you ever seen anything like this?" The necromancer turns to his skeleton knight and the knigth shrugs then mimes pondering r a moment before shaking it's head . Setsuna sighs, " Sometimes I miss when you could talk, despite that coming with the whole trying to kill me bit." Setsuna would wait now and is rather glad he didn't bring his mount, gettings sand out of wolf fur was never fun.

Undead are a problem everywhere, it seems. Until recently their threat has been confined mostly to the Ninetails Dominion, under the command of a certain vampiress who has long since overstayed her welcome. At least this particular undead uprising doesn't have an overarching overlord to coordinate it into anything more than a shambling swarm-- a natural disaster that can, in fact, be punched in the face.

Or magic missile'd in the face, as it so happens.

Taking a break from his usual business putting out fires (and setting other fires), Prophylaxis of the Aincrad Tower has decided to make a trip out to the sweltering sands of the Holy Empire Westelande. Technically, he's still putting out an undead-shaped fire today, but it's a little bit different from the usual fare. It's always good to blow off steam after a stressful few days, after all, and this is no different!

"Looks like quite a walk," the doctor says, adjusting his wide-brimmed, mushroom-like hat. "Did everyone bring plenty of water? I've a feeling it'll be good to have on-hand in case we get stuck out in the middle of the desert."

    Meanwhile, Sasori Kuro has heard of the call for adventurers to protect Landers from evil (possibly just misunderstood) skeletons and has signed right up. Arriving at the location she studies the others, offers a wave of her free hand, black scales showing as her sleeve slips down to her wrist a bit but her other hand remains hidden in the sleeve, on the pommel of her katana. "Well they may not have voice boxes. We could pantomime, charades, draw little figures on the ground, try to communicate and if one tries to cut our heads off then we know it's not reasonable, as far as skeletons go." Sasori offers brightly to Setsuna. She humms a little song to herself, looking off in the direction of possible spookyness and her tail swishes slowly behind her in a way that only emphasizes her thoughtful expression.

    "Better to hot than to cold." Sasori Kuro says to the good doctor with a smile, "But I guess can only get so naked... maybe should bring something frosty, just didn't imagine skeletons would care..." She looks thoughtful again, swiping nothing to try and manage her inventory and abilities.

Arriving at the appointed rendezvous point, Michio strides up with only his worn gi and his medicine pouch hanging from his belt. The desert sands don't seem to bother his salamander's clawed feet, and he nods to the hunter, turning a brooding gaze in the direction of the oasis.

Looking around a bit, Michio nods to Setsuna and Prophylaxis. "Hello again. I'm not sure we ever really got to introduce ourselves. I am Michio Asa." He then hmms thoughtfully. "I did not bring extra water. But that shouldn't be much of a problem for me. We salamanders can go a long time without."

He then looks over to Sasori Kuro, tilting his head by way of greeting. "Well met."

"Water. Why does it always have to be water?!", complains Uta in response to all the recommendations about Elemental choices as she approaches; she is well known among the circle of people who go on duties with her for lacking water magic and, well, tending to be on the receiving end of Water Artes. And not faring very well afterwards. What she is *not* known for is changing outfits, so it might be a surprise to people that today she's in a desert outfit with an "Arabian Fantasy" vibe to it.

She catches Sasori Kuro's words about attempting to communicate, and promptly replies, "Rule number one of Monster Handling: Monsters Are Not Your Friends. They are not pets, they cannot 'love' or even have feelings for you. They are driven by instinct, and are uncaring at best and downright hostile at worst."

After a moment of hesitation, she blinks. "Uh... oh. Hi Setsuna. Doctor!", she bows to Prophylaxis. "Michio...", she bows to him as well. "And- oh! New faces. Hello! I am Uta Furore, Aerialist, Musical Kung-Fu Nurse. Pleased to make your acquaintance!"

Even at a distance, it is easy to see the wandering figures that have begun to make desert passage that much more dangerous. The omnipresent heat and the dry air have taken regular ghouls and turned them into desiccated creatures.

Looking as if they were formed from a number of the usual races, their skin has dried in such a way that it clings to the bones underneath. It has a paper consistency, sometimes flapping like cloth in the wind, revealing the skeletal structures underneath. Some drag along shriveled lines of strange, dark organs that look more like rocks than the entrails they might have once been.

Hollow eye sockets peer out into the endless sea of sand. They groan as they shamble, seeming to take little notice of those around them until they come too close or make too much in the way of sound. It's possible that they could sneak by them, or at least round up a few so they aren't as much of a problem to the passing travelers.

    "I'm Sasori Kuro, or just Sasori, or just Kuro, however you want to go with it is fine with me." The diminutive purple and black salamander introduces herself to the others after she is done fiddling with her choices for this adventure. As they get going onto the adventure Sasori looks at Uta, "I wasn't the one wanting to communicate, but it is an option, monsters might not be monsters. They might just be mistaken as monsters. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder right?" But then they are approaching the horde, of sorts, and Sasori starts to go wide, whispering, "I'm going to make sure none of them get out of our line of sight, wouldn't be good to miss any and then have stragglers wandering into the town." She smiles and zips off at a low crouch run, which is pretty low, for the tiny salamander.

The great thing about outdoor adventures? Lots of plants to call upon. Maybe it's a bit early to start throwing cards out, but Michio doesn't care. As he sees the group of ghouls careening across the sand, he draws upon one of his artes to cause the roots and cacti of the area to wind and bind the ghouls. "That should stop those ones from being a nuisance."

When given an opportunity, Michio makes an aside to Uta, "Where's your tiger and your flying carpet?"

    Setsuna nods as Uta gives a lesson in monster handling, " Yep , handling monsters is done through a magical method of suppressing the monsters will. Effectively they become blank slate and act on your will. " The skeleton knight of Setsuna's is nodding it's head as his owner talks. " Anyways lets move on. " As he moves with the group aand watches a few of the undead that they are trying to get around he smiles, " At least I have practice for this." With a little bit of earth magic Setsuna creates a hollow hole under the sand of one of the skeletons and it gets pulled in by the sinking sand, as Setsuna watches he looks over at Prophylaxis, " This reminds me, any word about any tigers around Tolbana?"

"Uta, fancy seeing you here," Prophylaxis says warmly, then nods in agreement. "Yes, unless you know what you're doing, don't try to negotiate with monsters. We've not found any that actually have the temperment to sit down for a nice chat that doesn't end in them declaring war."

"Prophylaxis of the Tower, Doctor of Tolbana," the Magus answers Michio with a smile. Cast into shadow by the wide brim of his hat and tainted by the supernatural spookiness lingering in the air, it might come across as just a little bit ominous... But really it's just that it's /hot/ and he's wearing a hat to keep it from getting much worse. "Thank you again for assisting with the tower climb the other day. But for now..."

Uta sallies forth. The doctor peers at the shambling corpses, their skin withered and drawn taut over their dessicated frames. Each one seems like it could burst into flame at even the slightest spark, but to do that now would be... Problematic. "Maintain a wide berth," Prophylaxis recommends, weaving a simple spell of wind and earth to rouse the sands into a whirling shroud around the party, concealing them from the eyeless sight of the shriveled corpses. "We don't want to tip off the horde until we're stuck in enough to make a real impact."

"Not yet," the doctor answers Setsuna, shaking his head. "Though if it's anything like the last time, they'll show up with hardly any warning, so we just need to stay vigilant."

Uta nods at Setsuna and Prophylaxis's explanation, and then adds, "Believe me, Sasori. I used to be like you." Uta /still/ goes gaga over and pets the slimes -- but we won't mention this right now. "As the Doctor correctly said, many attempts were made to communicate. None ended well. Some don't even bother to declare war, they go straight for the kill. In addition, recent events seem to hint strongly at monsters possibly being built with a specific intent for destruction in mind..."

The skeletons come! Michio's plants do a good job at stopping, binding, obstructing, and in some lucky occasions even bursting up and catapulting undead. Sasori's maneuvers are also a success, whereby she manages to keep a close eye on them (and their hands off her). Prophylaxis's air magic successfully shields the party from harm -- except Uta. Who had snuck off to attempt some trademark Spriggan Sneaking, only to trip onto the /only/ jutting-out rock in the current area, falling face-first and working pretty much as a doormat as the undead are slowly taken care of by the rest of the group.

Further beyond the first shifting sands, there are more dangerous undead lurking. At first, the sound comes at a distance, like drum beats across the empty landscape. Then, as they crest one of the dunes, the source of the sound becomes clearer.

A group of rattling skeletons march together in time. The steady footfalls of their bone feet against the sand are rather rhythmic to the ear, likely keeping them moving in time. It almost appears as if they might have once been a military regiment, wearing tattered remains of Westelande colors in places.

The moment the Adventurers get into range, the back line begins grabbing pieces of bone from their own bodies, hurling them as projectile weapons. The hollow bones make strange sounds as they fly through the air. The front line of skeletal fighters rush towards the Adventurers, utilizing hands and feet to lash out at anyone they can reach.

However, for those musically inclined, there is a pattern to their attacks. It seems to move with the same rhythm they had been marching out earlier.

    "We can do that..." Sasori says, "Or we can disrupt their lines and bunch them up for easy disposal." She darts off to the side and then cuts in towards the back line of the skeletons. Suddenly running behind them she triggers a bit of magic and the light touches of her toes and balls of her feet on the sand suddenly generate hammering impacts that send the sand thrumming out in rippling waves and mini-sand tsunami's. Each step generates it's own beat as she runs, coaxing the sand to smash into skeletons and push the back line towards the front.

    The damage is minimal but it knocks the skeletons off balance, disrupts the cadence of their throws and their charge, and sets them up for the other adventurers to deal with more efficiently. Thoom-thoom-thoom. She may be small but Sasori doesn't believe in doing things in small ways! "Line them up, and knock them down."

    Setsuna looks at the line of skeletons charging in as he considers sending his knight out to fight for a moment before shaking his head. " You know after fighting the queen's undead these just feel like they are missing something. " With a flick of his wrist he sends several rocks magically launching from the sand to take down the skeletons as he simply shakes his head. Looking at the two unfamilliar faces he adds, "I am Setsuna Kibo by the way. Local necromancer and weirdo of Scale Emblem."

"Who knows? Maybe there's a potent Sage of Negotiation out there whose mad trance is all about trying to convince Monsters to get along with Landers and Adventurers?" The possibility of that is sadly slim to none, however. Prophylaxis isn't going to get his hopes up, certainly. Not when there are so many other things occupying his attention.

A band of undead javelin-throwers (and other assorted projectile-throwers) appears out of the sands, and Prophylaxis... actually just keeps maintaining his sandstorm, but he kicks a bit more sand into said storm to more effectively knock aside those strange, osseous missiles. Nothing's better than an efficient and successful use of energy and attention!

As the group comes within range to confront the next challenge, Michio grunts as one of the bones *clonks* off his noggin and goes careening away. "Oh, so that's how it is?"

The Ki Master takes a stance, knees slightly bent, elbows drawn into his sides. As he focuses his life energy, a green glow surrounds his body. After a moment of this, the salamander takes a step forward, and the glow refocuses itself in his foot, as life force surges through his body and into the earth, causing a rippling wave of sand to overtake the marching foes.

Uta looks, as she is wont to, distracted. She taps her foot at the rhythm of teh march, mouthing and barely whispering "tam, tam, tam, tam" as she does so.

She eventually beams in excitement. "Hey, this is my jam!", she exclaims, and throws herself into the fray of the march where, with acrobatic wuxia pirouettes in the air to dodge flying javelins, she leaps from skeleton to skeleton, hitting them with her staff on her skulls, legs, arms, to produce a melody as if she was playing some sort of mobile target xylophone.

Uta's blows, along with Setsuna's rocks, Prophylaxis' sand, and Michio's... also sand, helped by Sasori's off-balancing, keep chipping away at the monsters, and one after the other, they shatter into a million polygons.

It isn't long after the encounter with the Skeletons that the group spots the first hints of structures within the desert. Ancient, stone buildings seem to have been half buried, etched away by wind and sand. Any identifying marks seem to be long gone, but they mark the entrance to the green of the oasis, beyond.

There are guardians here, as well. Skeletal hands scramble up from beneath the sands, dragging dry bodies, wrapped in linen along with them. The mummies seem to be wearing a strange necklace upon each of them, emblazoned with the symbol of a beetle.

They are faster than their ghoul brethren, making quick movements towards the Adventurers with clasping hands and dirty, sharp fingernails. Their dark, gaping mouths seek to bite at exposed flesh, even as dark magic lingers behind their empty eye sockets.

    "Oh right!" Sasori says with a laugh as skeletons go tumbling down, shattering under the combined attacks of the group to threaten the People of the Land no more, at least for a while. "I am part of the Silver Swords." Which would explain why she is so happy protecting Landers at the very least. "It is nice to meet you all, and thank you for taking the time out of your busy days to help deal with this small menace to the locals."

    Continuing forwards, they travel on through the heat and sand, neither of which seems to bother the Salamander lass much, until they get to... that. "It's like an undead-palooza, what's next, vampires?" She places a hand on the pommel of her katana and then charges forwards. She definitely doesn't do things half way. Sasori draws the sword in a smooth motion, calling forth fire to bring the blade alight and alive and becoming almost fire in and of itself. She dances within the mummies and cuts them down, and those that she reaches and aren't cut down, they still go up in flames. Even the parts that hit the ground are burning. Sassori whirls through those that reach her, and for all the grim nature of it, she is grinning, "You won't hurt anyone, and you, and you..."

"The scarab necklaces. Destroy them!" Michio urges the party, before rushing forward to take his own advice, dodging flailing mummified limbs and snapping rotten teeth to grip scarab marked pendants. Some he rips off and stomps, others he simple melts in his palm with a surge of fire.

    Setsuna looks at the mummies as they rise up, "Oh these are new. I suppose this is because I don't really go hunting different undead types. Also we can only hope it is vampires, they aren't to much of a pain to deal with." The speed is unexpected to and it is really insulting to his necromancy title that this is the first time he really interacted with mummies. Drawing his weapon he slashes the air leaving behind a wave of flames that unfortunately miss the mummy he was aiming at.

Mummies come alive and burst from the sands! Prophylaxis' expression tightens beneath the rim of his hat. "Scarab pendants, symbols of rebirth huh? I'd ask why there are Egyptian mummies in Yamato, but given everything else, I don't think it really matters, does it?" Besides, these creatures are basically ambling piles of fresh tinder, all dry and bundled up in flammable cloth just waiting for someone to come by to set them all on fire.

Someone such as... The Doctor of Tolbana.

He strikes the sand with the head of his staff. A wave of roiling flame pulses outward from the point of impact, slamming into the rising dead and setting their bone-dry bodies ablaze in a grotesque mockery of a cremation rite. Impermanence of the immortally embalmbed god-body has nothing against this kind of firepower.

"Well, this is technically our job as adventurers," Uta comments. "So, well, this is exactly the kind of thing we're supposed to be busy with?", she wonders, even looking up and tapping her lips.

She turns towards the approaching mummies. "Oh my goodness! We have a civilization which, presumably, embalmed their deceased! The signs appear to be there, even the /scarabs/ are a clear parallel to ancient Egyptian iconography! I wonder if there is some sort of embalming ritual which, similar to the undead turning, can produce mummies instead of skeletons or vampires. We must preserve and study this uniq-"

Uta almost chokes in shock when the Doctor, instead, lays firey waste on this archaeological discovery. She just... stares, lip quivering, watching such potential go to waste.

Leaving behind the ruins at the edge of the oasis, the party continues into the lush landscape that has grown out of this rare water source. Leafy plants sway in the hot, desert air, but there seems to be no evidence of animals, despite the fact that this would be an ideal watering hole.

The monsters are surely the reason for this, and the direct cause soon shows themselves. A faintly glowing, undead monster floats in patrol around the edge of the water. The creature lacks legs, being only a floating ribcage with arm and head attached above it. It makes an eerie sound as it moves, almost like faint screaming.

Wearing a tattered hood, it hides a face made of bone with red energy radiating out of where the eyes should be. Each time the creature stops, it looks around slowly, eyeing for signs of outsiders.

Seeing them, it reaches out a bony hand, summoning a large, obsidian scythe, which flies through the air with remarkable speed, seeking to cut the Adventurers down to size!

    "Hopefully the ruins will survive enough we can investigate, and maybe find a dungeon beneath just to clear and make sure the People are truly safe after this. Be horrible if it kept popping up nasties after we left and they kept savaging the People." Sasori looks at the figure that comes flying at them, well, the reaper. "That's... not good." She whips her sword out and focuses her magic into the blade.

    It takes a moment for the sword to begin to glow red, then white hot. Heat shimmers off it and Sasori bounds forwards and quickly slashes the earth. The cut in the ground lengthens, widens, grows and grows as flames shoot up in a wall to help protect the party and give them time to manage the reaper!

Turning to Uta and seeing her reaction, Michio leans over, "At least he didn't try to eat them. That's what they did in Europe, you know."

And then the next challenge is on the group. Seeming to be out of fancy tricks, Michio just charges the floating creature. He ducks under scythe blows and throws punches at the figure. Frustrated as the thing keeps floating just out of range of his punches, Michio growls and crouches down, then propels himself upwards, flipping his body over and kicking at the reaper.

    Setsuna is in ah at the reaper, " Oh my gosh ,its wonderful. Just look aat that awesome scythe of it and how it is coming right at us and charging us right down to cut us to pieces." So apparently Setsuna is a enamored with the opponent but it doesn't stop him from doing his duty as he summons a large wall ofbone and dark energy is raised to protect the group as best as he can. " I will have to leave it to someone else to put it down. "

"What?" Prophylaxis asks at this gaping Uta. "Look, they were going to try to eat us. What was I going to do, /not/ destroy them? Besides, the archaeology is fine, and there are /probably/ goign to be more mummies here if you come back later. Relax! If you're interested, I'll even help excavate the place. Maybe there's a dungeon down there? It's fine."

It's fiiine.

Nevermind the slightly scorched relics of a long-lost civilization.

...

Finally, they reach the oasis. It's... quiet. Too quiet. Almost like the very stench of death in the air has driven away all the animals and monsters that would normally use this place as a watering hole. It isn't long before his suspicions are confirmed. A specter emerges from the scrub, wielding a wicked scythe. Unfortunately...

...It has no legs, and is wearing a voluminous cloak.

Prophylaxis points his staff at the creature and whispers a spell. A vast wall of wind suddenly slams into the ghostly reaper, arresting its charge and threatening to send it spiralling off into the horizon if it doesn't dedicate its efforts to staying grounded. "Destroy it while it's pinned. If we get through fast enough, we might be able to avoid any more patrols."

"Will do!", exclaims Uta, and inhales. She begins to intone an operatic aria, which progressively raises in pirch and grows in a crescendo of intensity; tendrils of light dance on her staff, then depart from it and are absorbed by the Spriggan, until--

...the musical enrgy is released in one last note, a tonal blast so powerful it booms into a shockwave of rippling air, blasting against the reaper weakened by Michio's successful kick and pinned down by Prophylaxis.

Its HP having been reduced into the 'dangerously red' area, the reaper gives a cry of defeat that sounds like the screams of many people and animals being melded together. It floats away from the party, out over the water. Then, something strange happens. It begins to crumble to dust.

Then, there is a sudden pulse of green light over the water's surface. Rippling from the water, a new enemy appears with an even larger health bar. With billowing robes and magic crackling at its feet, the Lich raises one hand and sends out a pulse of green light which seems to resurrect many of the same undead they had already defeated, summoning them from the surrounding sands.

The dancing skeletons approach in lock-step with shambling ghouls rising from the water - waterlogged, but no less dangerous. The Reaper Skeleton's bones being reconstructed, and a new bone scythe forming! Mummies rise once more, launching their bandages at the players, trying to crowd-control them down!

This is certain to be a hard fought battle, as the undead forces wade in upon the Adventurers, and the Lich follows up its necromancing abilities by raising its green gemmed staff! Green light begins to draw from all living things nearby, sucking away their health slowly, and restoring its own!

    Is Setsuna drooling? No he couldn't be drooling right? Not over some monster, that would just be weird right? No instead he just watches the lich raise an army of undead, draw life from every where around them , incuding themselves. Even his skeleton leg gets itchy to jump off the stump of his left leg and go and join the army of undead that is trying to kill them. " Its a beautiful thing. Pity." Looking over at his knight he grins and begins to cast, " Ashes and Dust, Bones and Soul. Rise up and fight for me. " Two more skeleton minions appear and Setsuna sends the trio of skeletons into the hoard of undead to fight.

    Sasori Kuro looks at the horde of undead that are coming up out of the ground, out of the water, out of the very air itself as dust and crushed bone reforms and she swallows once, mouth suddenly dry. She takes her katana up in a double grip and then takes a few steady steps forwards. Her steps pick up pace, growing quicker, and more determined until she is charging forwards at a full sprint, "I'll do what I can to thin these things out and keep them off your backs so you can deal with /that/ thing!" She shouts and then the Salamander is diving into a horde of skeletons.

    They pile over her trying to get at her and Sasori disappears but then there is an explosion of fire from where she was standing and undead go flying, usually in pieces. Sometimes not, but Sasori isn't staying still. She sprints off again, towards another cluster, doing her best to incinerate groups of them where she can, but there is so many... it is not a fight she can win on her own... especially with the big bad I am stealing your life force doing it's thing.

    Each second weighs on Sasori like years as she feels her life being drawn from her, steadily depleted. Faster than the more minor monsters can do while replenishing the health of the main lich. She fights on though, trusting that her distraction, for that is really all it is, at least gives the others time to finish off the boss of this undead horde. "If there is a dungeon... we are so... going to clear it..."

"Uh oh..." Michio sees the dark energies being released by the Lich, and doesn't like the look of them one bit. As tendrils begin to animate and re-animate undead, Michio raises his hand out towards the undead menace and yells, "NIGHTMARE SPHERE!"

The necrotic energy stops moving towards the undead, and instead begins entering into Michio's palm as a growing sphere of darkness surrounds both the Lich and the Ki Master.

Dark, angry, greenish light pulses through the Ki Master, but with an effort of will, he manipulates the energy to his own ends, and then suddenly he launches himself at the Lich, his hand glowing with a more pure and life filled green as he punches at the enemy.

"Setsuna, no, down boy," Prophylaxis groans with the stale resignation of someone who knows that his words are probably falling on deaf ears. That boy ain't right, let me tell you hwat. Still, the lich is a formidable opponent-- one which could have only been made /more/ formidable if it were just a jewel-encrusted skull, but given the circumstances Prophylaxis is willing to consider this one a dire threat nevertheless. It throws the collective might of its undead legions against the party, mummies and marching skeletons and more. Its staff shines with life-sapping light...

But it does not steal any from Prophylaxis.

...Because Prophylaxis seems to have /caught fire./ The lich drains flame and heat away from the smoldering magus, but that only serves to set its own body alight. The Doctor of Tolbana takes a meaningful step forward, tongues of fire roiling off its body like coronal arcs leap from the surface of a star. "Burn," the Doctor commands, extending his hand toward the legion of the dead. His body flares, glowing with the colors of the setting sun as a barrage of incandescent firebolts erupt from his incendiary aura, each one precisely aimed to smash into a single undead opponent.

...Except for the dozen that slam into the lich himself, fusing into a sphere of fiery force that ruptures and explodes on the spot. A makeshift point-blank fireball...!

"Oh, no, you don't!", Uta frowns, determined, and SLAMS her own staff to srike the ground. "Two can play at this game!" She turns to Michio, "Hey remember that Parasitic Link technique I had told you about? Watch this!"

Uta begins to sing a song, one which alternates between a dark and ominous call and a breezy and majestic response; light and darkness dance on her staff, and accumulate on each side of the gem atop her winged staff; eventually, as the song progresses, one side of the gem glows unbearably green and the other unbearably red, and when the last note is struck, red energy shoots out and SLAMS against the lich, engulfing it in a red aura; lighter red blobs flow through an equally red beam of magical light; meanwhile, the other 'green' side of the gem had shot equally out, and struck Uta, the caster, enveloping her in a green aura; as the red glow passes through the gem, it becomes green before progressing towards Uta, raising /her/ HP bar.

This continues for a while, until the Lich is completely drained, thanks to the contributions of the whole party, and the gem on its staff shatters into pieces, which land at the adventurers' feet.

As its body shatters, the dark clouds that had gathered overhead are cleared, and the region is saved from this dangerous foe.

    With the undead defeated, all the horde that remained and threatened to overwhelm Sasori disappears into dust and ash and she breathes a sigh of relief, "Good job!" She calls out towards the adventurer's who took care of the heart of the problem while she dealt with the symptoms. Her blade once more goes into it's sheath on her hip and she brushes herself off, trying to straighten her clothing out and make herself presentable, "Going to need a bath after this." She says to herself, "And a drink." She meanders around, prodding at things with the tip of her toe, going to look at the ruins and the glyphs and symbols she can't make heads or tails of, then meanders back towards the others and bows deeply, "I apologize I was not of better assistance today. Thank you for all you've done."

    She blinks and then retrieves her small piece of the gem from the staff. "Interesting, I can use this." She holds it up to the clearing sky to check it's opacity, "Maybe a headband, or a choker, or a ring..." Sasori muses thoughtfully, "Or I can use it's energies to enchant something else maybe. Better hold onto it and not be hasty."

    Setsuna doesn't wait for congratulations or cheers of success, the necromancer is already looking for anything the lich may have dropped. If it could raise the dead then it could potentially compete with the Queen, and even better may be the key to learning that technique. Sighing as he picks up a shard of the gem and stares at it for a moment. Yes it is perfect, the power in it is still there if not diminished, it doesn't matter if the raise dead skill isn't there though, he already has means to do that. As if on thought the skeleton knight rises from underneath a pile of corpses with a monster roar for a moment before Setsuna just shakes his head and makes his way back over to the group. "So I guess with this the shadow festival has really started."

"Hrmph," Prophylaxis harrumphs as the Lich dissolves into piles of tasty, tasty loot. "Well, hopefully it doesn't mean those Ninetails undead are going to be getting any nastier. The last thing we need is for them to suddenly get a massive buff while everyone else is busy doing festival things."

Prophylaxis glances towards Setsuna with a frown. What is that necromancer planning...?

(Probably nothing good.)

Uta blinks. "The... the Shadow Festival? It's now?" She panics. "AAAAAAAAAAH! I DON'T EVEN HAVE A COSTUME!"