Duty Session 282: Obligatory Rat Cellar

Uta hesitates.

Her gloved hand hovers on the handle of a store door in the main square of Alne. Her teeth press lightly on her lower lip, her fingers wiggle, she leans forwar ever-so-imperceptibly, but then balks.

"You have a responsibility, Uta," she tells herself. "A task to carry out. And no matter how much you're worried about this... it's the right thing to do. You can do it. There's nothing to be worried about. You have vanquished monsters many times your size. You can do this as well." She inhales deeply, pushes the door open, and over the obligatory chime, she announces, stiff, "GWEN! I've come for that promotional modeling gig I have to do as payment for you curing my Pumpkin Pox!"

The bearded shopkeeper of the general store just stares at Uta.

Uta stares back at the shopkeeper.

Awkward staring persists.

"...Gwen's clothing shop is a few doors down the road, isn't it?", Uta asks, Embarrassed.

"Yup," confirms the shopkeeper.

Sighing softly, Michio turns to the spriggan woman. "Some day, Uta, I'm going to find you some sort of magical map and compass relic that grants cartography. Your sense of direction is terrible." He looks from the shopkeeper to Uta, then over at the cellar, "As long as you're here, want to help clear out some dark and dank tunnels full of icky creepy crawly things?" Michio smirks wryly, then looks around at the others who, presumably, actually showed up for the duty. Goldenblade and Shiruba he recognizes, but he spends an extra moment scrutinizing Ayame.

"Huh... Silver Sword." he softly mumbles offering the woman a polite nod of his head. "Well met. Michio Asa."

Then, without waiting for a response, he turns to travel down the hall and gets a face full of webbing. "GACK!" goes the salamander.

Browsing through a few adventuring clothes - that is to say, heavy duty, warm - Ayame sighs and looks up at Uta barging her way in. Two fingers push her half-moon glasses back, and she smiles brightly "Hello!" The sylph offers "Would that be the same Gwen my sister is mdoelling for? Please, we're about to help out here, come with us" She sighs, setting the sensible jacket back and shrugging her own long jacket from around her shoulders, freeing the shield strapped to her back. She carefully lays the jacket over the merchant's counter, with a "- Do NOT sell this while I'm gone" She gives the others a resigned smile, strrapping the shield to her arm, over the shirt, and reaching down; drawing out a small ribbbon from the knee-length pencil skirt to open up a slit partway "Ayame. It's a pleasure" As she lifts the shield in front of herself, using it to bash her way through the webbing without letting it touch herself

"Uta, you've been to Gwen's store dozens of times, how are you -getting lost- getting there?" As luck and fate would have it Shiruba just happens to come walking from that direction. Not really a surprise considering Gwen's family is pretty much hers short of an actual adoption by this point. "But since you're here, you want to help us out?" It's a question, but at the same time Shiruba pretty much grabs the smaller slime otaku and pull her away from the annoyed shopkeeper. Solving two problems at once, getting Uta unlost and keeping her out of trouble.

The webbing is a small task in comparison, as Shiruba just summons a blast of cool northern winds to blow the spider silk and dust out of her way.

Goldenblade is on the rat cellar mission also, and smiles to the others as we proceed downwards. She introduces herself to Ayame as "Goldenblade," because her name, when someone inspects her, overflows the box. On task, now ...

"I've done this one before," she explains. "But I heard something about doing it in every city as a part of some global accomplishment thing, so re-running it here." She nods to Michio, smirks at Uta turning up buy accident, and will proceed down to find the rats. And exterminate them. Blades out, hack-and-slash, it's a quick operation, to the point, and the rat noises are no more.

"...I don't have a bad sense of direction!" protests Uta as she is dragged along. "I can tell you that Gwen's store is exactly that way," She points and does nail the direction, even managing to adjust her hand to keep the indication stabilize as she's taken further down the corridor. "Breg Epona is exactly there! Mac Anu? There!" Point, point. Not perfect, but the right direction (as good as someone without the Cartography skill but an acceptable sense of irection would manage). Also, the currents of air she generates (since her pointing doubles as Air Artes) manages to destroy webbings as they pass throught the corridor. "It's just that I... get... ah... distracted," she mumbles. "I follow random trains of thought and lose track of the world around me for a bit, it's all."

"Hi Paula!", exclaims Uta in Goldenblade's direction. It's the first word of her endless name as it turns up on inspect. "Do we win anything if we re-run it?"

"Uh... Uta Furore, Musical Kung-Fu Nurse, pleased to meet you," the Spriggan says at Ayame, and bows. "Oh, your sister is modeling for Gwen as well? That's a surprise!" She turns to Shiruba, "Shiruba! Why didn't you tell me you had a sister?"

The cellar opens up into a short, stone passageway. The walls are made of crumbling, rough-hewn stone. It was clearly built here in ages past, but left forgotten. Bits of rubble lie close to each wall, likely having fallen from the arched roof. As the Adventurers come to the end of the passageway, the way forward is blocked by a strange door. Runes are marked around the edge of the doorway, giving off a mysterious light. The runes react to touch, but clearly must be selected in the proper order to open the way forward.

"Gwen IS my surrogate sister Ut.. aaah nevermind." As the group progresses the passage becomes less cellar-like, and more like some kind of forgotten tunnel. "Looks like they found underground structures and just connected to them to save time in constructing sewers... Wait, are global accomplishments still a thing?" Shiruba blinks a moment, but then shakes her head to get back to the matters at hand. Like magically locked doors. "No one worry, I've seen stuff like this in dungeons before." The wolfgirl strolls up to the doors to inspect their runes. "These are like a combination lock, usually. They need to be activated in a certain order to engage the doors to open. And there's just enough of us to do so, and pick up if someone else faulters an entry."

Shiruba takes a piece of carcoal from her cartography kit and uses it to mark an order for the runes, then activate the first one herself.

"Shiruba isn't my sister!" Ayame smiles to Uta "But thank you. I think Gwen is busy recruiting everyone to model for her" She grins. A glance around, and she tugs a slender wand from the back of her shield. Wand and Board in Accord. Murmuring to it, it lights enough for her to examine the runes, stepping forward slowly and then glancing to Shiruba "I take it that Uta is easily confused? Does she have someone who looks after her?" There's a small concern there, as she begins to activate the runes with small bursts of magic, following Shiruba's ordering of them.

"And I'm not sure about global achievements" As her wand flicks burst after burst at the runes, dancing through those orders. "Though it's a nice idea. I think rat-infested cellers just ... materalise wherever adventurers gather. Maybe we summon them" She looks thoughtful a moment. Then grins slyly.

Goldenblade is always confused when Uta addresses her by her actual name. She's the only one that does it. It's not wrong, but she's not used to it. "I don't think so," she explains to Uta and Shiruba. "But if we do all the starting quests in every capital city, there's some perk that opens up, I think." It's rumor and speculation, but ... it could be.

When confronted by runes, she nods and agrees with what Shiruba has done, and will follow up appropriately. "Easy peasy." Or, she's done it before and remembered it.

From beneath his gi, Michio withdraws a strange pendant of interlocking circles hanging from a simple steel chain. As Shiruba begins etching a pattern, the device is brought up before Michio's face. A soft humming tune can be heard emnating from the relic and suddenly it expands, creating a sort of telescope for Michio to observe through. After a few brief seconds, the salamander nods, then looks down at Shiruba's markings, "Yep, that's the right one to start with. Then that one, this, that, and finally here. Is that what you had?"

"Modelling eh?" Michio frowns down at his ragged, road worn, and discolored gi. "I've been thinking about getting a new outfit. I haven't met this Gwen person yet. Maybe I should." Then to Goldenblade he adds, "If nothing else, you gain some Hunter's Guild standing each time you complete one, so there's that."

"I am perfectly capable to take care of myself, thank you very much!", Uta protests. "I might need a few reminders every now and then, but then, who doesn't?" Uta materializes her staff from her inventory. It's a white affair, inspired by a caduceus: coiling snakes, which point at a gem encased in a circles, with wings departing from the sides.

She vocalizes an elusively mysterious, yet pleasant aria, and the gem on her staff changes colors. Tendrils of light interwine with the music, depart from the gem, and go to touch different runes, which light up. Uta keeps her singing and moving around, where her staff directs her, never interrupting her singing.

The combined efforts of the adventurers open the passage to the next area, and in they proceed."Or is it the other way around? Are we, perhaps, secretly summoned by rats? I think- ERGH!", Uta exclaims, turning away with a slightly greener tinge on her complexion. "What. Is. This. SMELL!"

It is the smell that hits the Adventurers first, even before the sound of squeaking and scurrying claws reaches their ears. The stench is enough to turn even the most stalwart of stomachs. This seems to be the place the rats have made their nest, and it is filled wall to wall with rotting food, trash, and the decaying bodies of other animals. The rats are spread out among the refuse, making them a better target for ranged combatants, though it might be better to focus on getting rid of some of the stench instead, before the party ends up retching.

"Yes, Ayame. Gwen appears to be recruiting everyone. At this point, I am wondering if there is anyone left in Yamato that Gwen HASN'T recruited." Then, to Michio, "Oh, absolutely. You shold go visit her. Her outfits are very comfortable. She did this one for me...", she says, pointing at herself. "And that was before she went Moonlight Tailor! You should see what she can do now!"

"Oh gods," Michio groans. "I remember that smell."

The salamander makes a soft gagging coughing sound, then steps back a few paces, covering his face as he goes.

Turning away from the room of malodorousness, Michio begins to inhale. And continues inhaling...

And just keeps inhaling. It's like fucking Kirby over here...

Chest and cheeks puffed out, and veritably glowing from his lungs filled not just with air but ki energy, Michio makes his way back to the doorway and BLOOOOOOOOOOOOWS, sending nests and rodents flying, and blowing the stench down the corridor.

Goldenblade proceeds on with the others, pausing as the reek is detected. "Uh, that's so far beyond awful..." She removes her cloak at this point and starts to wave it up and down, fanning the fumes further along the passageway. "This must be an eddy in the airflow," she surmises, "so smells accumulate here. If we push it along, it will start to circulate and dilute."

Considering a moment, Ayame whispers a sing-song rhyme, sketching a figure in light on the back of her shield - then breathing over her wand, over the image, sending the light forward and out, filling with water. No more than perhaps a foot high, the little WaterMaidElemental curtsies and begins to scrub. Where the remains go? Into a little thimbleful sized bucket. And there's always fresh water. The sylph looks amused, and somewhat smug.

"She hasn't recruited me yet" As the little watermaid mops industriously to stop the smell at the source, and only Ayame's little twitches of her fingers showing the control of it. It started around her own boots, and then along and around, and she begins to breath a little better "I've not visited her myself. Though I should - I don't want to rely on my suitcase if I don't have to, after all! What is her speciality?"

Shiruba has done this enough times to be ready for the foul aromas that accompany rats. "You don't want to know," she replies to the people asking about what the horrible stench could be. Once again she manipulates her storm magic, sending cool blasts of wind down the passage to clear away the stink and it's rodent sources. That should make it easier for Ayame's summon to scrub her way through!

"That's different," Shiruba comments. "I haven't seen someone do summoning like that before."

"Goddesses," Uta corrects Michio. "I know it's just an exclamation, but... I don't know. I feel like that when in Rome..."

Uta goes wiiiiide eyed at the tiny maid. "Oh my goodness she's so cute!", she exclaims. "She's just like a little Jazuhanzu! Oh man, Jazz /so/ has to see this one!"

"That's the key, Paula! Recirculate! Well, here comes the airflow!" Uta spins her staff faster and faster and faster, so fast it becomes a blur, crackling with lightning, and like an electric fan kicked at top speed, it pushes a current to recirculate the air around, and knock all those rats away.

Once the air is breathable again, and the place not revoltingly filthy, the party pushes on. Staff slung over her shoulder, Uta chuckles at Ayame. "I knew you hadn't visited Gwen yet the moment you said she hasn't recruited you. Anyway, her specialities are," She looks ahead, and begins to count on her fingers, "Towering over people, tanking, adopting stray adventurers, cooking delicious meals, crafting fashionable outfits, sticking people in fashionable outfits by bribing them with delicious meals..." she hesitates, and turns to Shiruba, "Am I forgetting anything?"

Leaving behind the distant cries of the rodent hordes, the Adventurers press forward into a room which the smaller rats seem to be avoiding. Here, the bodies of smaller rats are strewn all over, looking as if they have been? partially eaten. At the far end of the room is a large twitching mound of fur, which slowly uncurls into the largest rat most anyone has ever seen. Blood drops from a gaping maw filled with sharp teeth. Red eyes stare with murderous intent. The ground shakes slightly as it steps forward on massive clawed hands, roaring a sound that causes the walls to tremble.

Michio nods to Uta, "Ah, right, sorry." then shoots an arrow of honed life force at the dire rat.

Goldenblade nods to Uta as we recirculate the air. "That's a fact. Wish we had an air handler like home. Plug it in, it'd clear out a space in half a minute." Some kind of construction device from real life, she probably means. Then it's a huge, horrible rat. Out comes the shortbow, and it's plinking time. Her DPS is pretty weak as an archer, it's not her primary thing, but she can help! At this range, she can shoot very precisely, too, or she could if she were better. But it's enough to slowlt drain its HP.

Shiruba doesn't reply, but she's blushing a little and trying to look in the other direction awkwardly after the 'bribing them with delicious meals' comment.

Fortunately there is a diversion from the topic in the form of a dire rat trying to impose their progress. "Just when you think rats can't get any uglier." She takes a breath to compose herself. Then in one fluid set of motions draws an arrow from her quiver, nocks it in her bow as far as the line allows, and fires it into the center of mass of the monsterous rat's torso.

"I think I might be glad I've not met her yet" Ayame says with a slightly worried laugh "I'm not perhaps that susceptible that sort of bribery, I thought" The little summon has been wandering after her, scrubbing away her footsteps - and on seeing the dire rat, she grins. Another twirl of the wand, and she mutters a spell - the bones spilling out of her tiny maid's bucket locking together inside the rapidly growing elemental. Before it begins to beat the rat with a mop made out of a dozen little rat femurs.

"Huh" Ayame comments, watching that.

"Oh, yes. It's bad enough in normal days. I love these water summons, but there are times I'd want just some good cool air at home while I slept, you know?" She sighs. Bonk bonk bonk goes the skele-ele-maid.

Uta helps by forcing her will onto the dire rat, and directing it where the others can hurt it the most. Where 'forcing her will' is... not some magical mental link, mind you. It's a more mundane 'hitting with a stick'. But, hey, it works!'

"Does she have a name?", Uta asks Ayame, pointing at the elemental maid.

The maze of rat-filled tunnels and passageways exits, at last, in roughly hewn, circular room far beneath the city streets above. Refuse of all sorts has been gathered here, forming piles that line the stone walls. Rats scurry between the towering stacks of discarded garbage. This must be the source of the infestation. Sitting atop a pile of trash is a small, yellow-scaled Kobold. He seems to be sitting on a pile of dented, discarded armor left behind by Adventurers. The rats weave in and out of these places, using them as makeshift homes.

"They are mine." He chitters. "You throw away. I find. You go! Ours now!" He hisses, then makes a sound that seems to call out to the rats, the little creatures poking their heads out of all the tiny spaces, turning their beady gazes onto the intruders.

"Are you /insane/?!" Uta yells up at the Kobold. "Collecting filthy creatures found in sewers? Only nutters do that sort of thing!"

Michio does another big inhale similar to earlier, but this time when he exhales he brings his hand before his mouth. Thumb and forfinger form a ring while the other fingers form an arcane sigil. As the ki master exhales, his breath ignites, blasting the kobold in a cone of flame.

"Says the girl that hunts slimes in the other sewers," Shiruba murmurs under her breath. Then stomps a foot into the ground and causing whisps of frosty mist to hiss up around her. "Cold of the north protect me... Winter Warden!" The frost grows thick as it settles, forming a coating of ice and snow over the Cait Sith. Some of the rats swarm her, but trying to bite through the icy defense only gives them a debilitating case of brainfreeze, leaving Shiruba unhindered in taking a few potshots at the Kobold.

Ayame shakes her head "She does not" She smiles with a little shrug "Maybe I should give her one. What do you think?" She asks. Though as the hoard begins to gather, Ayame puts that shield to use; diving forward, and planting her shield firmly against the earth. Hard, in fact. Slamming it down and raising a wall of earth around herself and the group, the ground lifting and curling in minuature shields.

She also makes a little face, plucking at her stockings as she does so and grumbling. That's far more important than the damn rats and kobald.

Goldenblade peers at the rat, chuckles, "We throw away, you find. Well, that'll be a lesson to us. We'll have to burn our garbage." And with that, the world is flame. It's the one thing Goldenblade seems to be known for, more than her golden blades, is overwhelming fire. She uses it in her attacks, sometimes, but other times, it's like her swords ooze gasoline, and everything she strikes catches fire and lights and burns horribly. It's a gift, really.

"Hey, slimes are a perfectly legitimate kind of creature to collect, thank you very much!", Uta replies to Shiruba. "They are adorable, versatile and I am sure there is plenty to be discovered by studying them!"

"You do what you feel is right, Ayame. I was just curious."

Uta contributes to the battle by starting to vocalize a song again -- a crescendo, which gets higher in pitch and more powerful in intensity, until the last high note is BLASTED out in the form of a shockwave which makes the whole air around ripple!

It hits the rat just at the same time as Goldenblade's latest flaming swing of her sword, Michio's cone of flame, and Shiruba's occasional attack -- while Ayame and Shiruba's combined effort keep the group safe from incoming attacks.

The kobold tumbles from his place atop the discarded refuse of Adventurer society, rolling down until he lands hard on the floor. The remaining rats scurry into their warrens or flee into the tunnels. The collector turns to them. "Your fault! Dirty Landers. Filthy Adventurers!" He glares at them. He looks to be hovering on his last few HP, the health bar blinking red. The kobold looks between them all, and then darts towards one of the piles of garbage. The next instant, he is gone, having dived into a hole beneath it. A tunnel that seems to lead further down, into the depths of the underground beneath the city. A small, plain looking chest is left behind, seemingly containing some sort of herb that only grows here in the underground.

Shiruba is already nocking another arrow in her bow and taking aim as the Kobold Collector dives for cover. She fires anyways, but it just collapses the pile he hid behind to reveal the tunnel it was hiding. She lets out a sigh of frustration as she lowers her weapon. "Why does every sewer dungeon have deeper levels that no one knew about? I know cliches aren't necessarily bad but come on!"

"Set up for a later boss?" Ayame suggests, standing and smoothing out her skirt, brushing dirty off her shield "But that's interesting. I'll need to see if I can find a use for that plant. It doesn't really match anything I do"

Goldenblade leaves off the attack as the kobold retreats. Collecting her reward, she says, "We don't want a completely lopsided win. If we kill =all= the monsters, we'll be super bored and there won't be anything to do." Which explains why she's got no heartburn about this one getting away. "Anyhow, he was easy. If we face him again, we'll smack him down again."

Shiruba gives her fellow Silver Sworder a pat on the shoulder. "Hang onto it. Even if you don't have a use for it, a Project may come up that take advantage of it's properties."

Uta watches as the Kobold leaves. "Sooo... uh... I guess that... uh... now I have to go fetch the outfit I have to model for Gwen, huh?" She turns towards the rest of the team, "Hey! I have a great idea! How about we do the rat cellar all over again?!"

"Someone might think you were trying to avoid modelling for her" Ayame laughs "Is her stuff really that bad?" As she wanders along out with the others

Uta replies, "Oh, no, goodness, her stuff is great! I'm just... shy!"