Duty Session 291: Is It Wrong to Pick Up Slimes in a Dungeon?

Poisoned water sources are not something an Undine is happy to hear about it, regardless of his past. So when Nami hears that the sewers are once again infested, he decides to go make some waves.

Standing near the well he looks about the assembled group and smiles, doffing his hat and placing it over his midsection to bow, his free hand flourishing out to the side.

"Greetings Good folk! I am Nami Seifuku Shu, and good it is to see your faces. Here, I trust, at the behest of the Hunter's Guild to rid the Alne sewers of their little problem?" As he stands he puts his hat back atop his sea-foam green hair and dances a quick three-step before clicking his heels together merrily.

"Fuhenna Kodoku no Kuroyuri." The Imp with the increasingly baroque getup offers, their blonde hair layered and coiffed, their gown three layers of chiffon and lace deep at least, with puffed upper arm sleeves and frilled edges to the skirts that come in three edges - ballerina style, at the knee, and at the ankle. All this and they still manage a plunging neckling and an inverted V-shape cut that give them freedom of movement and bare an almost indecent amount of leg. "And this is Shitsuyona Hagosha no Tate Ayame, my sibling." They introduce the curvacous sylph by their side. "...So, yes. Here to do our part."

Slipping her shield from her back and grasping the punch grip, Ayame slips a wand from a holster and nervously twirls it in her gloved finders. Standing close to Kuroyuri, she nods to her sibling and offers a small, quickly amused grin, her shoulders relaxing and wings settling from a frantic buzzing as she's introduced "Thank you" She offers politely "I'll be glad to take point and let you all do what you do. If that suits, of course"

Proteus has always been concerned with Alne and what's beneath it. Hearing that someone is out and about to go through another trip down into the sewers to keep the constant encroachment of monsters at bay, the Imp simply quietly insinuates herself into the group and follows along.

She nods at the greeting, smirking toothily at the mention of seeing her face, tilting her head up from under the shadow of her hood. "That's why I'm here, yes." She confirms. "Some things need constant maintenance, at least until the local ecology is thinned out enough that the slimes won't clog the pipes again."

She shrugs, and smirks faintly. "I'm called Proteus. A pleasure to meet you, Nami." She glances over at the others, arching a brow at the overly flowery arrival of Kuroyuri. "You... might regret wearing that down here." She points out. "But we'll see, one supposes."

Schneider has signed up for a quest to take part in a quest to help clean the water supply, so he arrives, nodding a greeting to Nami. "Hey there. Good to meet you, I'm Schneider; Dark Schneider." He seems pleased with himself, and nods to the others as he takes a look at all the volunteers. "Good to see you all. I don't think I know most of you?"

Shaking his head to Schneider, Nami starts to make his way over to the well, chattering pleasantly as he climbs the rope down with a sailor's expertise and grace, "I've spent the majority of the last 10 months on the seas, or beneath them, so I haven't really met many people. I've been keeping tabs on the steam-ships though. How exciting is that!?"

As the cadre descend into the befouled depths beneath Alne, shapes can be seen moving just at the edge of the darkness. As the last of the party arrives, the globular shapes begin moving closer, 'ooing' and groaning with malevolent intent.

"We've met," Kuroyuri offers to Schneider. "I'm pretty sure there was fire." They give a nod to Proteus, then shrugs. "...I'll figure out something." Then they take up position behind Ayame, and offers another nod to Nami. "The Steam-ships do seem pretty exciting." They agree, moving carefully. And drawing their conductor wand at the malevolent "ooh" ing. Narrowing their eyes, they begin making a complex sigil out of the air, which begins sprouting thorny, dark and glossy vines.

There is a chuckle from Proteus at the mention of the steam ships. "Those caught your eye? You have a talent for identifying good work. They're going to revolutionize the waves... And possibly eventually give us a way to start standing against the Leviathans. But that's... future planning. Ten months on and below the waves, though? You must have many stories to tell, Nami..." Proteus trails off as they move down to see the creatures beginning to menace them.

"... Whisperings...?" She mutters, looking over the creatures. "A manifestation of undead slime, it looks like, almost. Uta would have a fit." She flicks her hand, and a small window opens, the Imp gesturing with a series of symbol inputs: ) - O

"Begone!" She calls out, thrusting a hand out as a brilliant blast of Light energy in the form of the Holy ability washes outwards to crash into the creatures.

Schneider descends with the others into the darkness. He smiles to Nami and nods to Kuroyuri. "In the Tower, I think?" And he laughs about fire. "Oh there's -always- fire," he says, idly watching as the little slimes float closer. "Slayer, slayer, dark thunder of Balmor! Bal Volt!" he shouts, and there's a small blast, and the area immediately around him is free of slimes. "Oh yes, lots of fire," he laughs.

"I remember the fire" Ayame says, a momentary haunted expression flashing over her face. So much fire. So much. Then she grins and shrugs and keeps moving "I understand the appeal of them, but I'm a little wary of some of the changes we all seem to be in a rush to make. Long term concerns, I suppose - and some of the projects we're all rushing on seem to just be replicating what magic can naturally do"

She eyes the slimes as her heeled boots stop their clicking, and she stops, murmuring and absently conjuring a barrier in the air. Or trying to. Sure, it keeps water out.

Shame these are undead slimes, but just wander right through. Ayame blushes and shakes her head, muttering

"A few!" Nami shrugs in response to Proteus' prompting. "I've been working as a guard on merchant caravels." He chuckles, "Which is more than a little ironic, if you were to know anything about my history."

Distracted by the conversation, one of the whisperings manages to land an attack on Nami before he notices just how close they've gotten. He jumps back, a patch of glowing damage on his shoulder.

Ayame's defense fumbles like a freshman wide receiver used to warming benches.

Kuroyuri's thorn bind hostage holds the monsters in thrall while Schneider goes darkside on the ghastlies, and Proteus banishes with light. A brief moment of fighting later and the last of the creatures is banished into a cloud of pixels.

"I'll have to pay better attention." Nami promises as he gestures galantly for Ayame to take the lead, as she had offered. Looking around, Nami blinks at the feline goops. "Okay, these... are actually kind of cute." And as if on cue, he asks of Proteus, "Who's Uta?"

"She's... Uta..." Kuroyuri struggles to find the words to describe the Spriggan. There's a supportive pat against Ayame's shoulder as Schneider mops up, and then it's onwards and... Downwards? Deeper into the sewers, where the Imp tip-toes as best they are able - and when there's rats and cat-slimes, they're even using their wings a little - fluttering above, and bouncing off one of the slimes, airily. "This reminds me of... Something." They admit, furrowing their brow. "But I can't remember what."

Schneider smirks to Ayame at remembering the fire. He's smiling, though, seems he's pretty pleased with the amonut of fire. But, cat-slimes? What even is that? A blast of fire is ineffective, so he summons a small water elemental, and it sweeps along the sewers, splashing the cat-slimes. Turns out that cat slimes in the sewer are not much deterred by water elementals. At least not the small ones, which are the best he can summon. Who knew? It was a good plan, though.

"No idea" Ayame tells her sibling, eyeing the slimes approaching. Her expression softens a touch as she continues chattering, wiggling her fingers and describing runes in the air "I was never one for games in the same way as you" She continues, chattering away "Uta's ... Uta. Yes. Very Uta. Such slime" And the spell emerges, sliding into the world to pick up and capture one of the slimes in a delicate bubble of force. Amaye looks pleased "There. Something to take to her. I'm sure she'll approve."

"Mmmm... I believe I remember something about you being a pirate and a PK?" Proteus replies. Her tone isn't judging, just matter-of-fact. "Well, circumstances changed for us all after the Black Wave. It's kind of hard to be a PK or Pirate when you're broken down to Level 1 again after all, and the leveling curve is completely reworked to make it much harder to powerlevel." A pause. "Unless you're Tri-Edge, of course. But then, who is?" She chuckles a little at that... But it might be hard to miss the haunted, gallows-humor edge to that laugh.

They move on past the Whisperings and soon find themselves in a squeaky, rat-infested area of the sewer. Proteus doesn't seem to pay it any mind until the arrival of the Tabby Slimes. They look cute, but Proteus pointed looks away when one of them manages to land on one of the rats. "... Ahem. Yes. Cute. But Uta... She is a Spriggan who has a somewhat singular affection to slimes. She's trying to explore the nature of Slime adaptation and behavior in excruciating detail." Another pause. "For some reason, she seems to insist on hugging them as well. Yes, despite taking damage from the contact." As she speaks, her hand flicks out again, attempting another suave Ability-activation: <NYA!>

A moment later, there's a muffled "MMMPH!" as Proteus is knocked straight over, her loquaciousness muted for the moment as the Tabby Slime splorts right onto the Imp's face, and she struggles to yank the all-too-comfy looking catslime off of her face as her HP bar humiliatingly ticks down a few notches.

Ayame grins at Proteus, and asks politely "Want a hand?" To the slime-faced woman, before she wafts her captured, bubbled slime to knock the attacking one off - just like snooker. Then she perks up "Hey, want to try something cool?" She asks, before taking aim with her wand ...

... the runes on the walls are not pockets to drop the slimes in. That doesn't stop Ayame blasting her captured slime into the mage-slimes, bouncing them around the room with a tittering, cheerful giggle that only grows in intensity "Oh, that's wonderful!" She grins

"Ugh... they're even killing the rats. I'm not sure if I could kill them..." says Nami, "But, if there is one thing I know, it's that cats hate water." And then he makes a finger gun and begins pointing it at the cats. Every time he hooks his thumb down, a little spray of water shoots at the slime-tabbies, who run away and hide under things.

Nami's chest puffs up a bit, "Oh... you've heard of me, then? But yeah, that was... before. Things definitely changed."

Maybe the slimes think Schneider's water elemental is just a funky shaped one of them, so they bat at it and play with it instead, doing cute little slime butt wiggles, which are EXTRA wiggly, before pouncing, and then seeming surprised when they catch nothing but a face full of water.

Ayame meanwhile uses Thorn Bind to capture one of the kitten slimes and shove it in her magical luggage.

I /really/ hope that everything that comes out of that isn't covered in some meta-combination of slime AND cat hair for the next few days. That would just be -terrible-. ;-p

Proteus makes Uta proud as she gives the neko-goo a propper kiss, but nobody dares to laugh...

Without covering their face with their hand, at least

And next, it's the room of Slimeworts! Griffengoos fighting Huffleflans and Poringclaws fighting Slimerins. It's a magical slime battle-royale!

"Well, this is... Better?" Kuroyuri suggests. Wrinkling their nose at the captured slime. "Careful with that," they inform Ayame. "Now, these slimes are... Weird. And magical. And -" And then one shoots a magical slime bolt towards them and with a sudden gesture they blink past it and the other slime, beginning to wave their wand around, 8-bit music starting to play as they throw out bolts of darkness.

Schneider grumbles a bit as the slimes play with his water elemental, which is helpless to do much about it. Fortunately, the others are far more effective, so it's not a critical failure. But it's with renewed determination that he proceeds with the group to the room of magical slimes. Spells? That's more his speed! How about ... "BAL VOLT!" A thundrous sound slams down as flames surround the magical slimes, then .... something happens. It's hard to say what, but it seems like an impact. Or, feels like an impact. But the slimes now take much, much more damage per hit than they had been taking.

The Tabby Slime is /very/ affectionate. <Nya.> "Mmmmph!" <Nya~> "Mmmph mmmphgl!" <Nya?> "MMMPH!"

The attempt at a conversation is promptly ended by Ayame as she bloops the slime right off Proteus' face with a purrfectly executed bank shot. <NYAAAAA!> The slime is knocked away, and the gooped and somewhat embarassed Proteus rolls back to her feet, muttering. "How am I supposed to maintain my poise when things like that keep happening..."

She does, however, answer Nami. "Yes, I heard a little bit. But I didn't keep track of you very much, honestly. Once I got to Ezzo, I basically didn't want to leave. There was just too much to learn and explore there. An entire continent full of ruins and ancient civilizations..." She grimaces. "And then we lost it all..."

Perhaps her situation might explain the extra-grumpy expression on the Imp Archaeologist's face as she enters the next area. She only takes one look at the battle royale before gesturing. "I've no time for childish puzzles." She declares, runes lighting up in sequence as she activates the self-cleaning system of the cistern. An Ability entry window pops up, and this time Proteus gets the entry:

                                   ( ! J                                    

Dark rings of runes circle around the slime mass as they are drawn together, sealing away their attacks and making them easy prey for the others as the Arcane Lock clamps down on the lot. "I swear, these slimes pick the strangest places to frolic..."

Nami blinks a few times at the cacophany made by Schneider's Bal Volt spell. "Mop..." he plugs his nose and squeezes his mouth shut, trying to pop his ears, "Mop... That can't be good. I wonder if tinitus is a status effect?" He shakes his head and watches as the team starts targetting and destroying various slimes.

He turns to Proteus and nods a bit, "Yeah, I sometimes wonder if we'll be able to go to Ezzo sometime in the future. In the meantime, my priority is figuring out how to fight or avoid leviathans. Do you have any idea how much loot there must be left behind when the Undines had to flee their Empire?"

Then Nami begins chanting, making whirling motions with his hands, and a waterspout comes up from the ground to slam the wizardly slimes into the ceiling, before falling back down. "Bidet, mates." the sailor smirks, as Ayame bounces her captured slime off the runes in the room like bumpers in a pinball game.

And then the team is travelling to the next room and suddenly.

*KERSPLOOSH*

Everyone now looks like they said 'I don't know' while doing a guest star appearance for a Nickelodean show.

Schneider looks pleased with himself at the impact of his Bal Volt, chuckling at nami's reaction. But the slimes go down quickly enough after that, and he'll follow the group down the passageway to the next room. Ugh, this looks awful, and a quick FIRE spell does nothing. "Ah. /Holy/ Fire, then," he says with a chuckle, and, well, it's not something he's great at, but even the forces of Light bend to his will. It's very willful. He raises one hand like he's holding a lantern, and the holy light shines down, causing the slime to burn and smoke and slowly dissolve.

It's a good thing that there's magic for many things, including cleaning, because facing the huge slime thing with waves of tainted water has - for the most part - the Imp fluttering wings and creating glowing sigils that makes little bursts of air to carry them aloft. They can't handle the stains right now, but they can try to dry a little and blast air against the massive slime. Panting, now, as they dance around, trying to move behind their sibling again.

"Far be it from me" Ayame asks Schneider, as she darts forward to fling her shield at the Flan - and then uses her wand to hammer it into the massive slime repeatedly, by bouncing the trapped slime against it - chattering "I'm noticing a little bit of a trend. Is fire a favorite of yours?" She asks, all innocence.

She winks to Kuro, stepping before her sibling, shielding them, as she continues to bat her shield into the thing, sending the slime on the bouncing journey of a lifetime with her wand

"Working on it." Proteus replies. "The barrier on the land keeping the corrupt elements sealed in, however, is something of a doozy. I don't have a solution for that yet. But I will. Eventually." She frowns for a moment, and shakes her head. "Still, I would be interested in having you and the other Sleeping Knights at my side when that happens. As for the Undine Empire..." Proteus shrugs. "Likely mountains of loot. But not being able to breathe underwater is something of a problem for most of us. Not you, of course, but..." She just gestures, seeming to indicate the rest basically explains itself.

The next room is something Proteus was prepared for. Her hand was already in place, sketching out her solution. Her nose tells her everything she needed to know. It's a familiar stench... + ^ S *

KRAK-THOOM! Proteus promptly vanishes from her position, teleporting across the entire room as the nasty mess splashes downwards onto her prior position. She promptly warps back, another tempestuous blast of air heralding her motion as she rebounds back and forth, shattering the continuity of the hideous Black Flan, suppressing it for the others to crush it with their firepower before she drops at the other side, collapsing to one knee in exhaustion. "Gggh... That spell takes so much..."

"A lot of ships' captains are Undines, but they give out water breathing potions to non-undine crew. Seems to be an easy enough way to handle it, no?" Nami shrugs, "Perhaps something more permanent could be figured out. Some sort of magically steam powered submarine?"

And then the sliming starts, and Nami gets it as bad as anyone else except Proteus who was ready for it, and is covered now in a film of filth. In retaliation he draws a small hand crossbow from his inventory, braces it in both hands, and takes aim at the black flan. "EMPYRIAL ARROW!" he intones before loosing a bolt of pure light directly into the mini-boss.

Ayame uses her floating shield to ring the flan's bell like it's 12 o' clock *BONG,BONG,BONG*

Shneider maintains DPS with his Holy Light, proving that he's not /all/ broody darkness. He's got a bright side, too!

Kuroyuri's air blasts help to pummel the enemy into oblivion

"It's raining... it's a poring! The old king is snoring..." Nami sings whymsically as the final boss drops into the area.

Schneider arches a brow to Ayame, but smirks. "I am a fire sorcerer, yes." Inspection identifies him as a 'Rune Knight', which is a sort of half-armored battle-caster, but that's just what the game says. The other thing the game says, though, is when Fire doesn't help much, he's pretty much on his own. He summons a small earth elemental to face off the king slime, and it does it's best, but there's only so much the waist-high elemental can do against the huge slime. It mostly gets mashed.

The Imp might as well be a Sylph - maybe that's why they keep calling Ayame their sibling - by the way they're twisting, turning, shifting through the air. At some point or another they managed to unequip then re-equip their dress, now dry and clean and Kuroyuri is still doing those wing-assisted, air-blast powered jumps, with little void balls of darkness fired at the Poring King. "Ugh," They grunt. "This is RIDICOLOUS. This better work out - and that slime of yours better not lead to any trouble, Ayame!" They warn, doing a backflip to land behind the tanky one again.

Ayame smiles a touch to Schneider, as she tugs the shield back to her hand and shakes it clean "I understand. You enjoy it most? Nothing wrong with that. I'm ... well, I didn't specialise. I regret that a bit" She chuckles quietly, and then bats her lashes at her sibling "Would it? Would I ever cause you trouble?" She asks, before she looks at the small earth elemental the Fire Sorcerer summoned.

"You mind?" She asks, stepping forward and adding further material to the elemental; before she simply rushes at it, and passes into it - the material forming around her like a suit of armor, as she bashes with her shield at the slime king, keeping it busy

"Easy enough way to handle it... Until it runs out. But a steam-powered submarine..." Proteus reaches up and taps the side of her head. "I like the cut of your jib, Nami." She chuckles. "Maybe someday I'll tell you about what happened last time I used a diving bell..."

The Black Flan is dealt with, only for the King Poring to immediately drop into the area. "... Why does this slime have a boss meter?" Proteus asks, moments before she backflips. Apprently she rested off the exhaustion debuff. "That thing looks like it's seen a lot of battle. Well, let's put an end to it. Everyone, let's go. We have the solution for this creature..." Her hand flicks through the air, tracing yet another series of runes: V S M

A moment later, there is a KER-CHUNK as a piece of the cistern suddenly slams forward, smashing into the slimy suzerain and squishing into it, flattening the thing. As an individual strike it might be lacking, but it does work to help cut off the creature's movement abilities so the others can hammer it down. "Now! Finish it!"

The pretty and petite Sylph manages to tank the great King of Porings with the help of Schneider's elemental's armor. That's one way to make sure the Poring doesn't get in your pores!

Kuroyuri's dark bolts and airborne escapades keep the foe busy and confused, while Nami puts away his crossbow and instead draws a cutlass in each hand. He's moving around the monstrous monarch so quickly that it can't turn to defend, leaving soft *booms* in his wake.

Proteus matches Nami aliteration for aliteration, and when then Patriarchal Poring's health gets low, a chunk of the sewers itself flattens the foe with finality.

DUTY COMPLETE

And a small tarnished jewel appears at the feet of each adventurer.

Kuroyuri exhales, and picks up the jewel. "...Needs polish, but not bad. And now we have clean water again. So we can wash. And drink. I love it when everything comes together like that. Well done, everyone!"

Schneider signs, grimaces. "Clean water sounds good," he agrees. "I'm gonna need more than a menu-wash, I think."

Once the gelatinous general falls, Proteus grins, sharklike, and draws up her cloak around her with a flourish. "A job well, done, everyone." She adds her congratulations to the others. The tarnished jewel from the crown is swept up and promptly vanishes into her Inventory. "This will come in handy for later..." She murmurs, then looks to the others. "Well, we got through that mostly intact. Maybe we can stop by Uta's and pick up some slime-wash. Or just a nice, long, hot bath." She chuckles. "The things we do to protect our plumbing."

Ayame bashes her way clean through the King, bouncing off the wall as the elemental armor sheds off her, shaking herself out and looking pleased. Also, picking up the jewel "Yeah. There are hot springs on one level of the tower - definitely a place to go sometime. Or work to get them in town - they'd be popular, after all" As she examines the jewel with a thoughtful look, before tossing it in the air and catching it

With a negligent twirl of his hand, Nami creates a six-foot tall geyser of water that forms a perfect arch. "Feel free to wash up before you exit. I think I can even..." he squints a little and brings his other hand up, creating a flame beside the waterspout to give some warmth to the cleansing font. "There we go."

Kuroyuri gives a bow of thanks to Nami, and goes for the carwash (Impwash?) treatment before they move to leave. "It was good to meet you all, and an honour fighting beside you. I hope we get the chance to do so again." They declare, as they wring out their sleeves.

Ayame smiles and dips a polite curtsy "Very much. I'm sure we'll work together in future" She notes, escorting her sibling out and away