Duty Session 295: Karluin Reclamation - Keep

Night has set. The sun's warmth is gone, leaving the air chilly save for around the campfires that dot the plaza. It's certainly not a quiet camp; adventurers and landers bustle around here and there. Some play music. Some sing. Some laugh and tell jokes, whether of this world or home. Nobody seems particularly interested in posting lookouts. Perhaps scouts are posted closer to the keep. Perhaps it's just a criminal oversight that only works here. If it works at all.

Speaking of the keep, its hulking mass is visible as a forboding darkness that blots out a square of stars on the western horizon. There's activity there, too. Torches can be observed to move to and fro along the ramparts, no doubt belonging to goblin scouts. As those torches past, light can be observed to glint off the metal surface of spear-heads. Those walls are well-manned indeed, and this will likely be a tough nut to crack.

Goldenblade is here as well, and cold be damed. But her mail coat may be limned with fire, or her inner fire burns hot, maybe? She certainly has no qualms about using it to warm the air, surrounding the little camp with flames enough to kill nightvision for hundreds of yards. She, too, looks out at the keep, but she has an eager look. She wants another shot at it.

Sitting next to one of the campfires, Tenko appears to be meditating. It's always hard to tell with the kitsune were fang because she has her mask on, but she's sitting cross legged and isn't moving, so one can defintely assume that she is meditating while the plan is put together for the next assault.

SpritesHero looks a bit less eager. And not because of the cold. He's well-cloaked in fur. No, his reluctance seems to stem from the keep itself. Or, more to the point, the lack of any obviously good ways to tackle the darned thing. "I hope those scouts get back soon," he comments to nobody in particular. "I'm sure as hell not walking up to those gates and asking for bed and breakfast."

    Setsuna is back on the fifth floor today, with all the wonderful colors of grey and dull that seems to come in this place. As he approaches the camp and looks towards teh keep he sighs heavily. " If the scale's motto is to burn things with fire, why int he world do we not just cleanse this entire foor with fire. Salt the earth tactic." Approaching the others he looks at Robert and Goldenblade, " So you want to kill some goblins hmm? "

Goldenblade smirks at Sprites, suggests, "We could go scout, ourselves?" But she's scouty, so that's an option for her. She nods to Setsuna. Like the Scaleys, she is a Fire person. "But if you burn it, you can't put it to use yourself after you capture it. I assume that you're trying to capture it to use it yourselves?"

"We may have to do just that," Robert responds, with a nod of acknowledgement to Goldenblade. "I mean, they've been gone for several hours now. So they should have extensive information when they get back. Unless they're dead. We'll give them a few more minutes to come back. But I'd like to hit these goblins about an hour before they have their shift change." Setsuna's approach is greeted with a grin, and an offered arm. "Hey. Good to have you here. And yup, it looks like it's another round of pruning the endlessly respawning goblins. Can't let them get out of hand, or they start harassing merchants." And murdering landers and stealing children, but...Robert's priorities have always been a bit skewed. His gaze shifts, for a moment, to Tenko, lingering on her questioning. But he doesn't interrupt. "Any of you done this before?" he queries. "What's a good approach?"

Goldenblade nods to Sprites as he discusses our options. "Yeah, at least they're not armed and armored by players. What a mess that was." she sighs. But she nods a greeting to Tenko and Setsuna, and agrees, "Any dead goblin is good. Sadly, no one's invented Agent Orange yet." Maybe that'll be the next major Scale undertaking? As far as good approaches, she shrugs. "Been too long since I was up here, I'm following you guys."

    Setsuna looks at Robert for a moment as he considers how best to answer him before he nods his and gives a whistle. With the click clack of bones a Skeleton knight approaches and picks up a piece of fruit. " Well the best approach to killing a goblin, I find is to go through the eye socket. " With that Setsuna stabs a dagger into the fruit. " Big eyes, right into the skull. " With a moment to listen to any response he looks around a little, " That is what you were asking right? "

As more Adventurers show up around her, Tenko rises up to her feet, seemingly done with her meditation. "I have been spending time here helping where I can. However it seems like we're butting our head against a brick wall without much success." She turns to look the group over, "This group looks like it should be able to handle itself. Excellent."

Often late to parties, but Goldenblade's fire is a beacon worth investigating. Phaedra approaches, Tenko says some particularly wonderful words! "A group that can handle itself? Sounds perfect for me." Wait, is she just.. inviting herself along?

"Ah! Theeere they are!" The party's patience is finally rewarded as a goup of...tacticians approach. Apparently the scouts returned a while back. The information has been compiled, summarized, incorporated into a thick bundle of information, maps, figures, you name it. And yes, there's one packet for each adventurer. There's also an intimidating and audible 'thump' as the dossiers are deposited on the table. -Some- folks, probably Scale, naturally, are being overachievers.

"Uh." says Robert, as he begins leafing through his packet, probably not expecting something -quite- so thorough. "Welcome! Let's take a few minutes to scan what we've got, then set out. Anyone see anything promising?"

Goldenblade looks up as the scouts return, uneaten, and deluge us with info. "Gah, information overload," she complains, with four maps and two hands and trying to take it all in. She finally rolls her eyes and lets the others work out a plan. She's not a tactician, no how. "So, I'm all ears," she says.

Tenko is primarily an artist for her job, but she is also a scribe. So she pulls her papers out of her pouch, and begins to take notes with a feathered quill. Somewhere deep down inside of her, she wishes that Scale Emblem would invent a ballpoint pen.

She looks through, taking notes, and hmms faintly, "Based on this information there must be some way the goblins are getting out from under the bridge...Which means we would be able to get IN that way."

Phaedra sits herself down with a dossier like she belongs there, and starts rifling through the pages. A lot of it is boring, most of it's dry, but she's a bit used to that. It doesn't take so long, before.. "I think there might be something under the bridge. Goblins have been leaving from it? I have no idea where the bridge is, though. I'm not always the best with directions."

    Setsuna picks up some of notes and squints at it before he sighs heavily. Setting it down he looks at another and does the same and the same and the same , each time picking up the paper, looking at it, squinting at it an then setting it down. " Ok so problem number one here is that the doctor wrote all these notes up. Does anyone read doctor?"

"Bridge it is," Robert decides, unfurling the map with a practiced sweep of his hand. He dramatically sticks his dagger into it. The action might work well in the real world. Not so much in this one. It yields a red gash and warnings about durability reducing and the like. Robert just gets this sort of a glazed look. He totally intended to do that, right? Right. "Looks like we've got a plan of attack. Sounds like a tunnel quest, so standard formation please. Melee in front, ranged in the rear. Try to avoid fire in enclosed spaces, just in case." His dagger is withdrawn and tucked into place on his belt. "Everyone ready?"

It's a short trip down to the bridge. But it's not entirely obvious where, precisely, that infernal entrance might be. It definitely doesn't help that it's dark out, though perhaps the darkness serves to conceal them from the goblins up at the fort. "Fan out. Look for anything suspicious," he suggests.

Phaedra said she was terrible at directions, and it appears to be true! While she should be looking for secret entrances, Phaedra's instead getting distracted by whatever the local plantlife might be. She is.. definitely not focusing on the job at hand!

Once the party has located the door, Tenko takes a knee in front of it. She pulls a kunai from behind her back, and wedges it into the lock. By applying the right pressure in the right location, she knows she'll be able to force a lock like this open. Sure it's not quite as much finesse as an actual burgler's kit, but it should serve their purpose.

Goldenblade follows the others to the bridge, now that the route is decided. As to what's inside, she says, "I seem to remember the inside being a gauntlet, so be ready to run when we get inside." As to refraining from fire .... she shrugs that off. "If fire's not working for you, you're not using enough," she repeats that old mantra.

At the site, she examines where the foundations go into the water, and gives an immediate, "Hssst, over here," as she finds what she's looking for as if it had been on one of the maps and she'd understood it.

    Setsuna follows along, his skeleton knight hovering near by as they move under the bridge. Looking about for a moment he approaches what appears to be a lock, and fortunately having been doing this stuff for over a year he has found many keys. However after many attempts none seem fit what he had hoped to accomplish and looks about. " So who is the rogue of this party? As apparently I have the wrong keys. " Looking around he was unsure on what to do in this situation fortunately it seems Tenko is on it.

"Yup. Theeere it goes," Robert observes with not a little pride when Tenko pops the door open. He's there already. Though he'd found it, he went off to retrieve Phaedra from her distractions. And now he's back. "Eaaaasy does it," he comments. Because everybody wants a back-seat lock-picker. Goldenblade gets a bit of a shocked look. Presumably over the gauntlet, rather than the fire. The fire's something he's heard often enough before, after all.

The doorway leads down a slippery, wet set of crudely-hewn steps to a tunnel that's a bit too small to be walked through comfortably. And a bit too stinky to be breathed in for long. Ugh, goblins. The vermin reek. Fighting in here is going to be rough for sure. Pray that not much fighting is needed. Abruptly there's a twang, and Robert leaps backwards...hopefully not into anybody's arms...like a scalded cat. "Traps," he warns, eyeing a dart quivering in the wall. Yes, Robert. That wasn't obvious enough.

"....ughhhhhhh. Why did it have to be poison darts?" Phaedra grumbles, but she's already looking ahead to the next challenge. "I can probably help move these, if someone figures out where they go?"

SpritesHero emerges from the tunnels somewhat the worse for wear. Thankfully pain is only at 20. This means he's not writhing around on the ground in agony. It does, however, mean he's toddling around with a couple perky darts poking out of his butt. Which is also a bright red from the damage gashes. He pops a cork, downs a swig of potion, and passes it around. Poison neutralization, presumably. And now that they're in a (somewhat) safe place, he sets about rectifying his porcupined tushy.

    It really was a slippery sloap from here, well a set of slippery steps. The necromancer follows along carefully and watches almost about to say something before the devil inside him says no wait its a learning moment. The twang and the dart in the wall and Setsuna claps, " Ok so we got traps that shoot poison darts. No problem. " Setsuna takes a deep breath and rushes forward and yeah he got a dart here or there but he was ok. As he gets past the traps he watches his HP still going down as he turns back and he watches the knight lumber along getting hit over and over.

Goldenblade called it, it seems, there is indeed a gauntlet just inside the door, and leading a considerable distance inside. Unlike her normal dash in this situation, which is so fast she leaves flaming footprints, she opts instead to find a shadow and melt into it. It's hard, at this point, to accurately track her progress, and the traps and things are easily avoided as she's quite careful as she proceeds to be in no one's line of site ever. Reappearing at the end of the gauntlet, she peers at Sprites and says, "That looks like a pain in the ass." Because granddad jokes.

Despite stating that she'd be best with the physical work, Phaedra can't help but try to.. puzzle out the puzzle. "Ah!" is exclaimed right as it gets solved, and the wall disappears. "Good job, everyone!"

    The party gets past the traps and enter the room of blocks and torches that need to be moved and lit in the right order. How did Setsuna know this, is it because he is a puzzle addict like a certain duck imp. Nope it's because he has been here before. "Ok last time I was here it was that block there that needed to move and we need at least those two torches lit and to stay lit until we get through secret passage B. If we go through A there is a constantly boiling cauldron of oil we all fall into. I DO NOT WANT TO BE DEEP FRIED...again"

Goldenblade wrinkles her nose as we get to the goblins' ready room. What they were getting ready for is a mystery she is fine with never solving, but for now, there's a ton of refuse blocking the rearranging of blocks that seems necessary. That, at least, is easily solved. Using the magical words, "Monday is burnable trash day," she holds out both hands and concentrates, and an inferno engulfs the goblins' stuff, which is quickly incinerated. It looks like a remake of Farenheit 451.

Tenko goes to work moving the blocks around as the paths are cleared. Behind her, several balls of fire appear, dancing wildly like foxfire, as they move to several of the blocks and assist with moving them around to get to the right locations.

"Har har," Sprites replies to Goldenblade with an elaborate roll of his eyes. His snark turns into a grimace as yet another dart gets pulled free. This one has an added, comic, toilet-plunger sound effect. Sprites's gaze lifts to the heavens. Or rather the ceiling, as though to ask 'Really? -Really-?' But he settles in to work his part of the puzzle gamely enough. Probably because it involves fire, and fire always makes him feel just a little bit better. "Anyone else feel like we've got more than just goblins here?" he wonders, observing the ball phasing away. "Goblins never did seem to be puzzle fans to me." At which point he steps forward to head down yet another flight of stairs. "Deep fried, you say?" he asks of Setsuna, the hairs on his neck standing on end as glyphs begin to flare into existance around him. "Run for it!" he yells. He bolts foward, haphazardly tossing bits of dark magic everywhere as though to desperately hope he's clogging sensors.

Goldenblade shrugs about more than goblins in here, and she replies smoothly, "Of course. We're here, too." Another granddad answer. She follows along gamely, though, until Sprites does /something/ wrong, she's not clear on what, and suddenly everyone's sprinting like mad. Goldenblade is good at that. She's crazy good at that. You might be excused for thinking she's time travelling as she leaves a Delorean-like trail of flames as she sprints for safety. She's not here to get mangled, no.

Phaedra gasps as the beams of light shoot out, chasing after Goldenblade! She's nowhere near as fast, but she does manage to raise little earth-shields to protect the party from the worst of the lasers.

Tenko somehow manages to navigate the lasers. It's not the prettiest approach, to say the least, but she doesn't get totally oblitterated by them either. She may be a bit more scorched than she'd like, but that's better than the alternative after all.

    Setsuna watches as people begin to trigger lasers and he watches counting off numbers in his head. "Ok I got the timing down. " Then Setsuna raises two rather strong shields from the ground made of the bones of those who didn't make it past the laser trap and walks casually along as the laser hits the shield. It's how any proper person with shielding abilities would deal with such a setup.

The party emerges, more or less not-too-blasted-to-bits, into the boss room. How do we know this is the boss room? Well, obviously because the doors slam closed, cutting off a retreat. And there's some sort of mechanical...robot-thing. That looks suitably complicated to be a boss.

Robert's leadership deserts him at this point. He just sort of keeps his back against the door, and stays as still as possible. Maybe the boss won't aggro yet? The hope is a vain one, though, for it seems to be powering up. "Uh," he offers. "Ideas? Anyone fought this one before?"

Goldenblade finds herself ill-equipped for this challenge, and she hangs back, where she can see the blindingly fast crescent boomerangs and have enough time to dodge them. She is no use to the party as she can't work out the pattern in order to avoid them, and she's not magical enough to do magical things to the monster. She can shoot it with a bow, but that doesn't seem to help, even when she -can- it, which isn't very much.

    Setsuna watches the monster as it begins to move quickly around the room and then he looks down and smiles as he sees the shadow. Drawing forth his dagger that still has fruit goblin guts on it he flicks it off before he tosses it at the knight. A click of the tongue and the knight rushes forward and leaps to stap at the monter's shadow. Yep the dagger is stabbed into the shadow and with it the monster seems to freeze in midair. It's quite impressive even as it appears that the monster just seems to hover there a moment. Setsuna looks over and grins at the others, " Do as you wish."

There really isn't much time left for planning, before the thing is on them. It's chaos. Crescent boomerangs everywhere, and the robot itself is no slouch. Robert's busy trying to predict it's movements, when Setsuna abruptly causes the thing to freeze. "Right there!" Robert yells, his future-sight at predicting the position of stationary objects coming into use. "Nuke it!"

Tenko is not exactly equipped for fighting something that fast, not when she's primarily a melee based fighter. She tries to predict where the golem will pop up next, but her attempts to strike it are met with failure far more often than success. She will need to work on her predictions, or perhaps find a way to slow time in order to give herself and others time to strike this creature.

Once the others give their proper predictions, however, she is able to unleash with her katana onto the creature, and give it the full force of what she has, to bring its health down to nothing.

Magic bursts from Phaedra's fingertips almost at the same time that Setsuna traps the thing. It's.. possibly uncertain what the spell does, because it sure doesn't damage the construct! It does, however, make absolutely certain there's no recovery from Tenko's attack!

And just like that, the construct's hp streaks towards zero like elementary school kids heading out to summer vacation. Moments later, it vanishes in a burst of flashing polygons, leaving the chamber colder, less vibrant, more barren. But also way more safe.

Robert walks up to the far wall, grimaces, and kicks at it a few times. "Right. Think that's it," he comments. "I didn't see any goblins, but we may as well get word back to base. They asked us to keep an eye out for advance base locations. Fantastic work, all. It's been a pleasure, as always."

And yes, Robert -did- say 'as always'. In spite of the fact he hasn't actually met two of the party members before.

    Setsuna fetches the crystal that fell from the boss and looks at it, blows on it and the crystal blows back before into the inventory that is in desperate need of sorting . Looking at Robert at the mention of Goblins, " They are around probably watching us with their beady little eyes. Come on lets head back. " With that he whistles and his knight falls in line as the two begin to walk back along the path they came. If only at the end of the boss fights you teleported back to the camp, that would be cool.

Goldenblade nods to Sprites, says, "Thanks, Bob. Sorry I couldn't do much with the last boss." She figures she helped with enough of the rest of it that she's OK, and pokes around, grabbing one of the shards, peering at it, and tucking it into her inventory. "No idea," she mutters, shrugging. "Nice working with you, yeah," she agrees, then adds, echoing Setsuna, "Now lets get the hell out of Dodge."

"One does have to wonder if the goblins have mapped out the traps...Or if perhaps we missed a path that would lead to their nest." Tenko muses, as she holds the air crystal up to her mask for a moment, before putting it away, "We'll need to try again, no doubt." She turns to the group and bows deeply, before heading for the exit.

"I'll head back with you, if you don't mind! There'll be plenty of time to poke around here later, afterall, and the goblins could be anywhere." Phaedra heads out after the others!

Regrettably, the world is a cold, harsh, and unforgiving place, devoid of mercy for our poor Adventurers. And yes, that means they get to walk back. Past the (hopefully by now deactivated) traps. Robert bows to Tenko in return. "It really is a rather odd setup," he muses, following along. "So many un-Goblin aspects. Definitely worth investigating in more detail."