Duty Session 289: Obligatory Rat Cellar

"All I'm saying," Kuroyuri tells a dubious Ayame. "Is that cleaning a cellar of rats is like, a rite of passage for any Adventurer." The tall Imp is stood by a Lander merchant - who is flagging at people for them to join in. "And, anyway, I figure I can be party leader this time. I got to get used to it eventually." They note, adjusting their flowing, chiffon-y skirts and the straps of their rather plunging gown. "And this Lander owns a general store, so I bet there's some good stuff."

The Lander is showing all the signs of prosperity - bald, shining pate. Rotund form. Nice shirt and leather-y apron. He's also repeating his little quest text as it were, complaining loudly about the rats.

Ayame makes a little face, unslinging the shield from her back and fixing it to her left arm, twirling the wand in her right hand and tapping the two upper corners of the shield, a glow spreading slowly over it "I bow to your greater knowledge of the MMO genre" the Sylph says dubiously, her ears lying flat and suspicious as she studies the imp briefly before they perk back up "But if they want us to collect rat tails, I am absolutely out." She notes, peering at the door

"Really, are the rats back again?" That's what paniced shopkeeper in the street usually means, and sure enough it is. Vertina sighs, takes out a flask of liquor, and shoves it into the Landers' hands. "Here. Go drink some of this to calm your nerves," then gives him a nudge off to the side, "Go sit down, and let us Adventurers handle this." She turns and wanders over to the rest of the gathering numbers, dusting her hands off. "Last thing we need is some anxious Lander trying to follow us down."

About a week ago, Robert was excited for Scale's new campaign about revamping their reputation through Good Deeds.

Now? Not so much. Where has it landed him? Rats. Yes. A cellar -full- of rats. Because just one of the critters is not enough. Oh no. There must be a giant tangle of tails and little feet and wiggly little noses and glittering little eyes. He is so enthused he doesn't even bother to advertise his affilitation. Vertina's doing a good job of that anyhow. He just shows up, checks his equipment, and announces his presence. "Hi." Thanks Bob. He's too busy eyeing the cellar with a twitchy sort of dread to say much more than that.

    Rizadoman was getting antsy, any time now the hourglass would begin to tick down and the wave would be coming. So here he was trying to get rid of the anxiety by keeping himself doing something. Approaching the group as they gather he hears Vertina comment about the rats. " It has been many moons since I have enjoyed my mothers rat stew. Perhaps we shall get something tasty and I can make a giant pot for the entire New World Alliance. I am sure Hifumi would help me. If I can get it right can even have it at the carnival." Giving a toothy grin, he tries to be social but the fact his fet don't ever stop moving shows he is anxious to begin.

"Oh, does he do that often?" Kuroyuri asks of Vertina, looking over the tall Salamander woman. "Hi, I'm Fuhenna Kodoku no Kuroyuri, and this is my sibling, Shitsuyona Hagosha no Tate Ayame," They offer. "We were going to go down the basement," They explain. "Well, as soon as we have enough people at least. Would you like to come?" They peer. "And maybe we'll have some other friendlies too."

Sure enough, there's Robert and Rizadoman, and the Imp gives them both a wave of greeting. Robert also gets a smile of recognition. "Hi Bob. Time for adventure? Time for adventure." They answer their own question, then bows. "Ayame, take the lead please."

They, then gather the group behind them(?) and lets their sibling take the lead into the dusty passage, while the Lander Merchant settles in a corner of his shop to drink the nerve soother that Vertina was so kind as to provide. "That was nice of you," Kuroyuri offers quietly to the lizard woman - and then there's...

Spiderwebs. And spiders. And other scuttling things.

"...Oh geeze, do they ever clean down here?"

Ayame nods a welcome to Robert, and palms the wand, lifting her shieldarm in welcome to Rizardoman and Vertina "Hello there" She offers brightly "I think they're, like, quantum rats. They might or might not be there, but opening the cellar door means they definitely will be" There's a trace of amused sarcasm there. "Hi. I'm Ayame. Let me take point if you need" She suggests cheerfully

Descending to the cellar takes a little for the sylph in heels and a fitted skirt, but once she's down there she considers. "Let me try something" She says; chanting, before a flicker of light erupts from the end of her wand; spreading, filling out, until it takes the shape of a heavy sword. "Not so much, they don't" She tells Kuroyuri, using the shield to brush the webs away as she moves in, and the blade to light the darkness - and cut webs. Handy!

"Time for adventure," 'Bob' dutifully echoes Kuroyuri, coupling his words with a tragic expression that would put Buster Keaton to shame. He offers general nods to the rest of the party, eyes flickering upwards to generally consider the prospect of quantum rats. If rats are quantum rats, does that mean that the uncertainty in position leads to teleporting behavior?

Wait! This is no time for such musings. He falls into step behind Ayame, and totally lets her do all the hard work of clearing cobwebs. For his part? He just lifts his hand, executing a continuous air spell that keeps loose bits of web away. And doesn't do much more than that.

"Not necessarily, but I've been on enough jobs that do involve an escort to know having it happen is a pain in the tail." She replies, said tail flicking a bit for emphasis, and then she bows briefly. "You can just call me Vertina." There's rats to beat up so she doesn't feel like going into long introduction speeches. "Keeping the Landers calm and out of danger makes it easier to get the meat of a Duty done."

They venture down into the cellar passages and after one whiff she wrinkles her nose. "I bet if they cleaned they'd have less of a rat problem," she retorts wryly.

Oh well. Vertina clenches her fists to deploy the direclaws on the back of her battle gloves, and uses them to slice her way through the spiderwebs.

    Rizadoman takes up the rear of the group as they head down into the dusty cellar. In response to the comment from Vertina the lizardman adds, " Perhaps they were attempting a rat farm. Something to provide extra funds for his business and it got out hands." With a clawed swipe he slices through several layers of webs and maybe even a few spiders to go with it. His eyes fall on Ayame, and Kuroyuri to see how they were doing. They were newer to the alliance, so it was worth keeping an eye on them.

Kuroyuri is taking up the rear, as Rizardoman and Ayame handle the majority of the webs. "Yeah," They agree with Vertina. "Spiders do seem to be the bigger issue for now." Watching as Bob sweeps with his wand, and glancing at Vertina's gauntlet with curious interest. Which means they don't really notice until they walk into a face-height web until the deed is done. There's some "Ack! Phbbt!" And they're blinking, sweeping, and touching at their face, getting the web away. Then there's a loud shriek as they notice the spider on their nose, and suddenly, Kuroyuri is in the lead, arms flailing, running headlong into the tunnel that the clearing exposed. They are mostly flailing around uselessly in circles, and have not even noticed the door - and so far it's mere luck that they have not stepped on a plate.

A murmur, and Ayame hands the glowing 'sword' off to a skittering, near-invisible shimmer in the air, who proceeds to use it like a flashlight, zipping around and highlighting the various traps, pointing at them to help the Sylph and others avoid them.

And she chuckles a little, as she steps along, being careful of her feet "I'm not a fan of spiders. But hey, maybe it's where we get silk in this world?" She suggests. "I don't mind escort quests, but then -" She hefts her shield, and winks back "When you're a tank, every quest is an escort quest" With just a hint of teasing back at the group behind her

"Shit," Robert doesn't say. He wouldn't be so crude. But it's the clear implication of the wide-eyedness in his expression as Kuroyuri sweeps on past. And there it is. He's abruptly broken formation and, with a blast of air underfoot, is sent hurtling towards those plates. "Ayame, can you get the other side?" he questions, attempting to sort of...funnel Kuroyuri away from any potentially party-wiping traps. He's not great at it. But he's making a valiant and somewhat competent effort.

"And this is where the mission gets interesting!" Vertina is always up to a bit of challenge, even if it isn't necessarily fighting. The Salamander takes off with such speed you wouldn't be remiss to mistake it for an actual dragon taking flight. Not that she flies, but she gets pretty close when she hops up and runs across a length of wall to avoid traps on the floor, only to leap off to dodge the wall spikes, kick off from the other wall, and hit the ground in a rolling landing that smoothly segways into a slide to get under the last few triggers before springing back onto her feet without a scratch.

    Rizadoman still does his best to keep no from falling behind so as people move forward he stands behind and removes a few more cobwebs before following behind. As he approaches the hall which others have already found out is trapped filled and Rizadoman leaps up stabbing his claws into the ceiling as he does his best to climb over the potential traps, as long as no one decided to booby trap the ceiling. " We are going to start getting to the fun part soon, I can feel it."

It is not Kuroyuri's day. They stumble while sneaking/running in circles yelling, and land on their behind, getting stuck in a hole where one of the floor tiles slipped away. Thank goodness they didn't fall further in! Vertina is far more gracious, as Robert manages to get the fallen Imp to their feet and stumbling forward again, avoiding any further traps - helped by Ayame's searchlight function on her wand. Handy, that. Rizardoman's approach is unorthodox, but a ceiling crawl is one method the designers apparently didn't account for.

"Thanks," Kuroyuri manages to Robert, as they catch their breath. Looking to Vertina. "You've done this a lot?" They venture - then smile to their sibling. "hey, now. You can escort me any-"

And then the door creaks open, and the group slips in and here are the rats. The rats in the walls. The rats in the ceiling. The rats on the floor. They are, so far, fighting each other more than they are fighting the group. So far.

"What the...?" Kuroyuri blinks.

"I have no idea" Ayame says, as she gestures and the light blade returns to her hand. She holds it off to one side and begins to spin it, twirling the wand in her fingers, and spinning out curling beams of violet-tinged whiteness that cut through the hordes. Though she does have the grace to look somewhat confused "I'm really not sure this counts as interesting. Or fun. Or if so, remind me never to come over for an interesting board game with the two of you" She winks, though, nodding to Robert as she continues to fling shards of the summoned lightblade at the hordes, sending them scattering "This is ... yeah. I feel I should be negotiating for peace. Somehow."

Vertina turns back to wink at Kuroyuri. "Half the fun is being able to do things you couldn't do in the real world, right? At least not without extensive movie rigging and special effects."

Next up, a room so full of rats fighting rats that there's barely room for the Adventurers to get in, and there's only five of them! "Boy am I glad we don't have to clean this room afterwards." She closes her eyes to focus a moment, making a few rapid hand gestures to attune her ki properly. There's a brief flicker around her, short yet bright enough to blind the rats nearest her.

"Mirage Phase Jutsu!" Then one rat gets punted across the room by a Light inffuse kick as Vertina.. correct that... as several Vertina dart off into the room. The mirage dopplegangers, being a bit of her own ki focused, move with enough realism to catch the attention of rats, but only poof into motes of light when struck. The diversion lets the real Vertina cross the chamber though, punting and stomping on rats along the way to help clear a path through.

SpritesHero just offers a brief dip of his chin to Kuroyuri before ducking back behind the safest cover around. Which is to say, Ayame, who doubles as a handy-dandy sort of flashlight. There's no wading out into the fray from him. No grand theatrics. No earth-shattering rat-conquering heroics. Nope, he's on clean-up duty, which means he's just knifing any stray rats that get overlooked by the others. Not that this is difficult, given how disoriented the rats seem to be once Vertina passes through. "Maybe we're not doing this correctly," he opines to his surroundings. Or possibly Ayame's back. "Maybe we're supposed to be....like...trying to use them to play Go. Or Chess. But how does that even work when they won't stay still?".

    Rizadoan steps in and groans as the floor is crawling and shakes his head as the smell of battle and blood fills him . With an animalistic roar the equivalent of a giant kaiju begins to walk through the rats with a strong stomping motion as he goes. He is going to have to wash his feet and as he strikes out with a claw here and there, it is a destructive march from one end to another. Looking back at the others trying to find a deeper meaning, "Sometimes a rat is just a rat." With that said he continues his march.

Kuroyuri has not had the best day so far, so when they finally come upon the rats, the Imp is cackling menacingly, drawing out their conductor's wand and forming a sigil in the air as low music begins to rise around them. Is that a villain theme? A leitmotif, perhaps? Either way, the sigil sprouts thorny vines with green leaves, and the shadow-infused plants begin to wrap around varied rats and crush them, burying them in overgrowth. "...What?" They ask confused of Rizadoman, as they catch his statement, hurrying after now, rueful. "Oh, yeah," They agree - looking to Vertina's teleportation with a curious gaze and then glancing over to Bob. "...What we need to place them?" They asks, and shifts their conductor wand to hold up a group of black and white rats to look. Which is about when Ayame reaches the next room, and the roar of the metallic monstrosity rat makes every other rat still alive chitter and slip away.

As for feet and their need of washing, thankfully both blood and bodies is evaporating into pixelated mist before dissipating.

"Oh." Kuroyuri notes, as they follow, a little confused, bringing up the rearguard into a room full of twisted metal - and a rat covered in twisted metal. Oversized. Eager. Bloodthirsty.

"...Is this the boss? I think this might be the boss."

"Boss or miniboss?" Ayame says. There's a trace of nervousness in her voice, before she grins and runs on tiptoe to the armored rat, chanting and incanting as she darts forward to slam her shield on the ground before the Armored Rat reaches her - and then dragging earth up from behind it to lodge it firmly in place.

The sound of an armored rat hitting a firmly lodged, meticulously crafted shield is 'Boooooooooooing'.

Ayame just laughs, a long and joyoush peal of amusement at the sound ringing through the room

Vertina does a mental check. Pigtails flick as she shakes her head to Kuroyuri. "I think this is only the sub-boss. But there's one way to find out!" She's a good DPS, letting the Tank(s) get into position on the boss.

And then she puts those strong legs of hers to good use, literally leaping -over- the front line. One foot lands on the armored rat's head just long enough for her to hop off again, land behind him, and spin around to thrust both sets of direclaws through the seams of his armor and into his back. "I guess this is why Rogues like to do it from behind!"

Huh. "Yes, I guess you -could- use that spell to keep them in place," he responds to Kuroyuri, the last downward stab of his knife...oh horror...resulting in an explosion of pixels. Yes, the knife hit its 0 durability mark, and just as the plated rat comes into play.

Condemned to fighting without his weapon, Robert darts around behind the immobilized yet still disturbingly large rodent, winds up, and sends his metal-booted foot crashing into its butt. Unless it's male. In which case the foot connects with something a bit more sensitive. Does that count as an attack? Apparently yes, yes it does.

    The twisted metal of what one might call a rat causes the lizardman to tilt his head as he looks at Kuroyuri, "It's possible it is the boss. It is certainly a different type of rat. However I suspect it dies just the same." Charging towards the giant metal plated rat he moves in looking past the rat to Vertina. "Stay behind it then, I will keeps its attention. " His claws strike out as he continues to try to draw the rats attention, though happy to share with Ayame.

"Hang on!" Kuroyuri is a Symphonist, which means they mainly offer support. Now, their mind is working in overdrive as they glance to the scrap iron twisted and scattered around the room. "Ayame! The iron bits have teeth and catches! Here!" They use their conductor's wand to send a blast of energy, which twirls a bit of iron, and sure enough, that lets Ayame shield-bounce the angry and frustrated (and now losing its back armour-plating thanks to Vertina) into a vulnerable position where even the unarmed (but booted!) Robert and... Yes. Yes, the Rat's bollocks counts as an attack. It even lights up as a critical. And Rizardoman, well, he manages to taunt the rat off of Ayame just in time for her to get in another shield-slam.

Under their concerted efforts, the plate-rat soon evaporates into pixels and a tinny victory tune, but - that makes a door slide open, to a deeper, darker tunnel.

"...Oooh...." Kuroyuri points, and moves behind their sibling, letting Ayame take the lead (or at least the lead before Kuroyuri).

It is a rat maze. But adventurers always go left, which eventually leads them to a circular room with... Garbage. And rats. More rats. More More Rats.

And a kobold, which sort of looks like a humanoid version of the plate-rat from before if the plate-rat had gone to an actual, if untalented, armourer.

The Kobold screeches at them in a chittering high-pitched language, and the rats watch as the Kobold draws them in with his magic.

He also has a big club seemingly made of an oversized femur.

"Yeah, well, sentinels do it with protection!" Ayame responds to Vertina with a grin as she stands and shakes off her shield. "That was, genuinely, pretty weird" And she nods to Sprite, as well, before shaking her head "Seriously, repair your gear before you do a duty. You know that by now, right?" She asks, before looking at the SymphonImp, smiling to Kuroyuri "They ALL have teeth and catches!" She notes

Then she steps through, and looks at the Kobold. She looks at the others, and at her shield. Then she looks at her wand "Yeah, no" She says, spinning the wand and taking a breath before the wand begins to spew fire towards the kobold. It doesn't stop for some time.

The kobold looks...kinda intimidating, for a Kobold. It has a big stick. It is screaming something at them in its Kobold-voice. It even has its fort.

Robert? Doesn't care. The fort looks flammable. The kobold looks flammable. The kobold's rats look flammable. So what does Robert too? Oh yes. He just lifts his hand and bathes rats, Kobold, and trash-heap alike in a steady stream of flame. He doesn't even let the poor Kobold finish its monologue. Villains everywhere would be proud of him. Take that, rats. "That wasn't my gear" he retorts to Ayame, over the sound of wooshing flames. "That was the dagger I use to eat."

Vertina laughs as Ayame joins in on the off-color humor. But the time for celebrating amusement is short and sweet, as sure enough that was only a sub-boss. For the real boss is... a kobold horder.

"Oh, this little asshole again. How many times do we have to kick your thieving butt out of here?!" Vertina takes off with another burst of speed, this time one with such intensity that it leaves a surge of fire in her wake.

Which she puts to use by running circles around the kobold, forcing him to swing through the flames and burn himself as he tries to hit the much faster and agile Salamander.

    Rizadoman looks at the source of the rats, " So this little kobold is the source of all the problems?" Looking over at Vertina with a questioning look. " Are you sure the last thing was not the boss and we simply did the fights out of order." Then the swarm of rats appear to be proving the lizardman wrong, so he does what he is known for when he is all out of cheese." On ancient nagas, I pray for your blessing, may my fire cleanse this battle field as once yours did. " With his prayer spouted he rears his head back and launches a rather large fire ball at the kobold, taking some rats out along it's path.

Kuroyuri decides to get in on the action, chanting and making a fire sigil in the air and - the spider from before crawls down on their nose again, and the Imp lets out another shriek, which jostles the careful form of a fire spell and means that they get rocketed back as the sigil explodes outwards like the afterburn of a jet engine. Thankfully, their fire would just have added to a burning ring of fire, a wave of fire, a wash of fire and oh god there's so much fire.

So much fire, and the rats flee and scamper, the fortress disappears in pixellated smoke, and the HP bar of the boss is rapidly blinking downward as the DoT effects of FIRE is draining the life of the Kobold. He makes another set of squealing threats, shaking his bone at them, and then leaps backwards, onto a platform, and disappears down a rube goldbergian path which eventually takes him out in an exit far above.

Victory music chimes and DUTY COMPLETE blinks above a small wooden treasure chest that's surprisingly untouched by the fire.

"AND LET THE GRATE HIT YOU IN THE ASS ON THE WAY OUT!" Vertina shouts after the kobold horder. "Ugh. I give it a few days before he tries to sneak back in though. Kobolds are almost as annoying as Goblins."

Ayame twirls her wand, and blows on it, holstering it, before she settles back and laughs "Oh, that was nuts. I do enjoy the occasional fire spell, but I wasn't aware I was in the presence of a number of pyromaniacs. I'm not complaining, though" She grins at the group "Thanks for the help. And good meeting you all"

"Likewise, as always." Kuroyuri gets a bit of a worried look, and Robert's gaze skitters over towards Ayame as though to ask something. But the question remains verbally unasked, and Robert turns around to make his way out of the smoking remnants of the Kobold hoard. Fire may solve many problems, but the consequences are always a pain in the butt. Robert doesn't aim to hang around and endure them if he doesn't have to.

    "They are indeed annoying things, I am ashamed to admit that they are a distant relative of mine." Walking up to he treasure chest Rizadoman retrieves the reward before looking over at Kuroyuri, " Do you know how to report the information to the guild girl for the credit of things?" It was a simple thing, but for all he knew this was the first job done for the hunter's guild and Guild Girl was a friend of his. Best to pave the way for new people to learn how things are done.

"I'm fine. This is fine." There's only a little fire in Kuroyuri's hair and they're not sitting in trash surrounded ENTIRELY by fire. And besides, the fire is going out. "Let's uh... Ooh, saplings." They move along with Rizardoman to the chest. "...I think so but if you want to show us the help would be welcome," They assure him. And shoots a small grin to Ayame "It was a goodly amount of fire," They agree. Sighing a little at Vertina, and giving a nod. "And we - or someone else - will be back to see it shut down again." They proudly declare.

And with that, it's a gentle fade as the group makes their way back to the Merchant's Shop that started it all.