Duty Session 305: Abandoned Springs

    Deep in the hills of the ninetail domain lies a winding pass that all starts at the beginning of a n old beaten gravel road, outlined by the yellow grass of the coming winter. The hunter guild had posted a new quest, and the meet up point oddly, very accurately, pointed right to the beginning of this pass. Rizadoman could be found at the beginning of the path with a person of the land, who is explaining the situation.

    "We're not entirely sure what is beyond this point. There used to be an old onsen at the end of the trail." A nervous looking Lander fidgets as he stands by the trail marker. The lander would prefer to not have to have to go much further, bad things happened to those that did. "Clear out what monsters you can and report back to the guild. That's the task." He explains, then clears his throat.

    "Best of luck to you all." Just as he speaks, a chill wind blows in their direction, causing the Lander to huddle deeper into his coat and traveling cloak. "You'll need it." He whispers.

Being part mountain wolf Shiruba isn't too bothered by the chill or the rugged terrain looming ahead of them. If anything, she's excited. Going exploring in places people don't often tread is something she does rather enjoy doing. You can see the anticipation in the eager swishing of her tail and her lupine ears being perked attentively as the Guild rep explains the task ahead.

One does wonder why the onsen was abandoned in the first place, but that's just another mystery to look forward to investigating.

Idly she gives the string of her longbow a tug to double-check the tension, turns her arm a little to check the Relic device strapped to her wrist, and nods. "Ready to move out." An ear flicks at the final whisper, but she decides to not pay it much mind. Instead she goes into scouting mindset and moves to take the lead. Though still cautiously close to the two tanks present so she can easily step back within their safe perimeter if necessary.

"Yeah that's not ominious at all." Kaydon says, after the Lander gives the warning and a cold wind blows at the same time, "Where's the creepy ambient music to go with it?" He sighs and shakes his head, as he hefts his sword and turns towards the path. Just because he's confident with the team they have doesn't mean he won't roll his eyes at cliche gaming tropes.

    A new Hunter's Guild quest is a surefire way to get Amalthea's attention. And after the incident from the night before involving nearly getting bodied by a way too big BunBun, anything was probably... Better than hunting down some mobile plants.
    "What was that?" She asks of the Hunters Guild associate, having barely caught him whisper under his breath but not quite hearing it.
    "Eh, it should be fine. I'm ready when you all are."

Onsen-hunting! It's practically a vacation compared to handling the absolute horror-show that is the ninth floor of the Aincrad Tower. Prophylaxis, being in the area of Ninetails /anyway/ after a certain meeting with a certain lizardman the day before has decided to tag along and lend his aid.

He might have invited along an old lady or two, too.

"We'll be fine, don't worry about it!" Prophylaxis says of the ABSOLUTELY DEFINITELY ominous words spoken by their Lander guide. "I'm sure the worst we'll need to deal with is some kind of horrifying vampiric hotsprings gorilla or something similar. We all remembered to pack our stakes, yes? Good!"

    Rizadoman had heard it all often enough, however he brushes it off , " I am sure we will be fine. " With that he looks at the others and motions forward before ushering them alone. " We should move on before it gets night. I would rather not be in the hills and mountains at night. "

     As the group travels the path it would quickly begin to split and merge and shift, it was hard to say if they were still on the same path or a different one. It would be up to those who had good senses, good eyes , or overall a good sense of direction to keep the group moving in the right direction. Otherwise they may indeed not make it to their destination for hours, if not days.

It seems at least Kaydon has a decent idea of what they're doing. Maybe people don't come up here very much but animals still do. He takes a knee, and despite not having a skill in tracking, he has actual real world tracking experience, and it can work in a pinch. He takes a knee and picks up a leaf, looking over it for a moment or two before hmming softly to himself, "Pretty sure it's this way." He motions to one of the paths, but looks to Shiruba for confirmation based on her maps.

    Up into the mountains it is, then...
    Leave it to Amalthea to already have out a sheaf of parchment and some charchoal, marking down paths and trails.
    Every now and then she pulls out what looks like a simple spyglass and peers through it down other forks in the road.
    "Okay, between Shiruba and I, we should have a decent map in a moment." She says amid conferring with her Spell Fletcher friend now and again while scribbling on the paper.

"So while I have everyone relevant here," Prophylaxis says, striking up conversation because he's the kind of player to see a bunch of branching paths and feel the need to explore EVERY SINGLE ONE just in case one might be hiding a hidden treasure or timegated future sidequest-related item, and this way he can distract himself. "Amalthea, our New Worldly friends over here have asked us for a boon. Perhaps we should spend some time at the onsen hashing out the details and exploring the feasibility, hm?"

This is exactly why Shiruba was quick to take the lead. One might even think she expected this kind of challenge. She pauses along the path to inspect one of the splits, the crouches down to rest a hand on the ground, ears forward and eyes narrowed a bit. Despite the length of time the bath has been abandoned she still finds the small traces she needs to determine between the pathways, eventually getting back up and starting to walk again. "This way. This path is the one that has signs of wear from use." She points off to the side at some rock. "A cart wheel scuffed against there." Then points to another off-shoot. "The elevation of that path goes back down rather than climb farther up." Then points in the opposite at an upward slope with the other hand. "That might go up, but there's the distinct whaif of fresh dirt in the air coming from it, suggesting some manner of collapse or landslide." She glances back, seeing Amalthea marking things down, and smiles. "Good thing they brought us along to keep them on track, huh?"

    Rizadoman's senses quickly betray him as he is not familliar with the mountain smells and seems to be constantly tricked by a gust of wind carrying some strange scent here or there. So he decides to do what the other dragon wanna-be is doing and leaves it to those more skilled in the matter. " Yes I could see this festival being a beneficial time to simply sit down and discuss things. A retreat into the mountains to work out all the details."

    The adventuring party did manage to find the right path and are lead into a garden that has grown well above and beyond what anyone had ever planned. However one can see the beauty of it all if they use a little imagination. Back in the day it was probably wonderfully nice to just sit here and enjoy the sound of the waterfall, with the mountain flowers for comfort. Now thick vines block the path up towards the Onsen house, and need a proper gardener, or maybe just a weed killer. Though if someone could make out the words on a plaque pointing out the secret entrance to the garden, all the better.

Kaydon tilts his head a little bit as he hears them talking about discussing high level alliance stuff. He pauses for a second and looks at the others, "Wait." He realizes that each of them is in a leadership role in their guild and alliance. Except for him. "Huh." How does he keep winding up in places like this? He shrugs, at least a little bit, and turns to face the veritable sea of vines in front of the group, "Built something just for this." He puts his sword away, and then pulls out a machette out of his inventory, and begins to hack his way through the vines, "I'll probably stick around just to hear what's going on."

    "Aye it's a good thing isn't it?" Amalthea says with a chuckle, replying to Shiruba amid scribbling more down on the impromptu map. Before the good doctor catches her attention. "Oh? A boon is it?" She muses. "What ever could it be?"
    Well, hashing it out at the hot springs is fine by her as they continue along! ... Continue along into the immense and dense overgrowth.
    Amalthea puts the map away, she'll have to do the rest by memory from here as she draws her blade and begins hacking right along with Kaydon to start up a new path. "Handy." She comments at the sight of the machete.

"Though if we do have another cross-alliance meeting, it needs to have a little more structure to it." As others muse over congregating and consider how to deal with the overgrowth Shiruba notices a bit of stone surface uncovered with some markings on it. She walks over to investigate, then pouts. "Darn, this is script writing, not the arcane runes I'm use to decyphering. I can't tell what language this is in, either."

    "Well, the short of it is that they want to have something of a Lander-facing embassy in Alne and Tolbana," Prophylaxis says with a shrug as if inviting a Lizardman to fill in the details. "But yes, I think it would be a nice opportunity to figure things out, this little excursion. Or at least to feel out the feasibility?"

Prophylaxis knows nothing about the arcane script on the sign, but this is entirely because he's busy inspecting the overgrown plants and taking a number of cuttings for his own future use. He whistles cheerfully as he tucks away a variety of exotic samples, fruits, flowers and seed-pods before neatly hacking away some of the more resilient brambles at hidden weakspots. Soon the path is a little more clear, and a little less thorny.

    Rizadoman approaches the plaque standing behind Shiruba and towers over her, reading over her head. " Hmm it says there is a hidden path here that leads up to the house, just behind the waterfall. " Turning back he is about to wave the group this way, when he sees all the hard work they did. " Good job everyone, you cleared the path lets make use of all that hard work. " The secret pathway goes unused it seemed. As they continue up to the onsen, Rizadoan adds to the discussion, " You make it sound like we are trying to spy on you or something. No no, this is something we are trying to do in all the lands. To find out how to best help the people. "

    When the group manages to make their way out of the garden they come to the most dastardly of challenges. Yes it is the type of challenge that would keep out hoardes of people, and stand the test of time. An old locked gate, with a single lock. No no don't try to climb it , or shake the chain hard enough to break. It won't work. One must either pick the lock or destroy some of the gate, or connecting stone wall to make it pass this structure and finally enter the courtyard of the onsen.

"Hey Amalthea, let me see that map you made." If allowed Shiruba will take it, and make the secondary route down on it. "That could be useful later... But it doesn't hurt to inspect the long way around for other potential dangers, either."

By that point they've reached the walls and gate. "Hmm." Shiruba tilts her head back to look at the walls. Don't try to climb it? What explorer listens to nonsense like that?

She grabs on, and despite finding very little in the way of finger holds or even minute roughness in the exterior takes a few rockclimbing movements upward... and then slides down again. "This wall is intentionally made with the exterior surface smoothed down to prevent monsters from climbing over it." She lets go and drops back to the ground. "We'll have to either get the gate open, or just break through the wall..."

    "Well that certainly would make things interesting to say the least." Amalthea muses on the topic of an embassy for the Landers. "We'll have to definitely talk this over." She says with a nod, before frowning at the mention of another cross-alliance meeting.
    "Just don't put me in the same room as Giganpor and we should be good, I think."
    She also hands Shiruba the map!
    Moving right along though the group finds theor way to the gates and finds them...
    "Ah... Locked." The old Paladin murmurs on testing the entryway. "Well I have just the thing for that."
    Kneeling by the lock, embedding the tip of her sword in the dirt to stand it up, she digs into her hair for an old hair pin and stuffs that into the mechanism. A few testing probes, a twist, and a flick of her wrist yields the scraping sound of rusted metal before an audible click.
    "Door's open."

"Oh no, not a metal gate!" Kaydon says, as he mockingly holds his hands up to his cheeks, "We're doomed! Doomed!"

He puts the machette away and then pulls out his sledgehammer, before running at the door, which swings open as Amalthea deftly unlocks it, and Kaydon goes running straight through the now-open door, "Huh. That hurt a lot less than I thought it would."

"Ahahaha, perish the thought! It's only spying if someone does something under the table, no?" Prophylaxis answers with a wry smile. "Regardless, we can hash out the details once we get somewhere safe, quiet, and ideally well-stocked with refreshments." In other words, somewhere that isn't this abandoned old mountain road, which seems even more poised to collapse into a heap of rubble by the moment.

Not exactly the best place for a conversation.

The sooner they get to somewhere with more stable ground the better. Unfortunately, there's a gate in the way, and though Amalthea is probably going to have an easy enough time unlocking the thing, it's still an open question as to whether or not the prolific rubble will afford enough clearance to actually wedge the thing open.

Prophylaxis has a solution of sorts. He approaches the gate and takes a knee, pressing his hands to the path. Slowly, earth shifts and moves aside, clearing and flattening the road under the gate until it seems like it should be unobstructed. "That should help somewhat," the doctor says with a nod. "And don't worry, I don't think Giganpor is going to be put into any situation where diplomacy is called for any time soon."

    Rizadoman raises up the earth and is about to slam it into the gate when suddenly the gate creaks open and he drops the earth magic with a sigh of relief. " I would have hate to damage the property so glad you were able to get the lock." With that said he follows the others in to the courtyard. The lizardman also stays quiet on the conversation of Giganpor, and doesn't ave the heart to mention that he hopes the lion werefang runs the Ninetails embassy.

    The courtyard is large and spacious with several buildings designed for many purposes. Obviously the main house is up ahead of the groups. Several of the hotsprings are visible due to the buildings around them in some state of disrepair, and it is true , the once dried springs are bubbling up wth new water. From the mud and murk of the hotspring rises a new problem though, frog warriors. Spears , tridents, sharp boads, all being wielded as the frogmen approach, ready to croak the adventurers.

Look, frogmen. "... Well at least they don't make that obnoxious noise." Shiruba draws back on Thundersnow Howl, manifesting bolts of frosty water and firing them. The frogmen quickly block with their shields, though getting knocked back from the pressure in the aquamantic blows they're avoiding taking any direct damage. "Looks like this duty got a bit... ribbiting."

    "Aye, well I've got a few tricks up my sleeve~." Amalthea replies to Rizadoman.
    Into the gates then and the party meets a squad of angry frogmen.
    Shiruba makes a pun.
    Amalthea groans.
    She gets into tanking position and starts her tanking rotations, but her DPS is a little lacking today as she tries her best to hold aggro and fend off the amphibian beasts.

As long as Giganpor stays far away from the Tower, Prophylaxis is happy. And as long as they have someone to mind the local Trouble Shooting Office so that nothing unfortunate happens by accident. That would be nice.

But that's a later problem. A present problem is FROG MEN. Fortunately, Prophylaxis has a solution. "Shouldn't you all be hibernating right now?" The Doctor asks, "It's in the middle of winter, you know? Go to sleep. Here, let me help."

He reaches out and squeezes his hand into a fist. Suddenly the temperature plummets for /everyone/, but particularly the frogmen. Several are flash-frozen in blocks of ice, others are covered in a fine patina of rime. If they don't hibernate soon, they'll freeze to death!

And that would just be awful.

"Augh they're so slimy!" Kaydon clearly is unhappy with some of the attacks that the frog men use, but with his sword and using it to throw water at them to try to clean them off, he does eventually manage to drive them all the way off, "We're at a hot spring! How the hell do they manage to be so gross?!"

    Rizadoman launches a ball of fire from his maw as it collides with the ground and before the fire can spread of the frogman sprays water at the fire, putting out the flames. The Frogmen charge in to the battle and while some are flash frozen, and a few are just happy to be cleaned off and run away. Overall more seem to just keep rising up. Among them, four toadier looking ones seem to be extra competent in combat.

    The frogmen aren't losing, they would probably eventually but it appear at the moment they even have an upper hand. Then suddenly they stop and croak at each other before fleeing. Why are they fleeing you may wonder? It must have something to do with the glimpses of red-gold fur that is moving behind the buildings. Moment later the wearer of the fur is visible as a large monkey-creature, with a metal headband around it's head and holding a large support post as a staff weapon looks down at the group. Without waiting another moment the beast launches in to battle landing admist the group , spinning the makeshift staff with skill and sweeps it out at the adventures. A popup reveals just what is happening as it reads: 'The Monkey King has appeared.'

"Aren't you supposed to be on the China server?!" Kaydon yells at the Monkey King as he shows up and begins to wield his makeshift staff at the group. This time he won't get interrupted by a giant bunbun trying to crush him to death. Bringing his Damascus Sword to bear, he slams it into the ground, while focusing on the Monkey King.

"Anchor Howl!"

Now this'll leave the Monkey King with no choice but to attack him, lest he take a massive blow from Kaydon's own weapon. Of course the timer on this isn't very long. It's a good thing there's another tank that can pick up the slack as soon as Kaydon's timer ends.

"To avoid hibernating is probably why they invaded a hot spring," Shiruba points out. Then pauses as the frogmen panic and flee, even though they might actually have an advantage. "Monsters... don't just run away. Especially not.." Her ears flick up, and instinctively she turns to look at where the sensation of movement is coming from. "... That's a big monkey."

Swiftly she turns and plants her foot, throwing up an arm. Winds howl through the old structure as they come together and swirl around her, forming a cyclonic barrier of air. Just in time for the column staff to slam against the meteorlogical shield.

At the center where it's still calm Shiruba focuses, taking aim as she brings up her bow and draws some of that storm energy into a projectile. Patience is a virtue, as she waits both for her defensive tactic to end, and for the tanks to get the Monkey King's attention on them. Then she fires the literal bolt of lightning at the giant creature's backside.

"Japan and China have shared a lot of culture over the generations," she retorts to Kaydon.

Dealing with a monkey is probably better than fighting an army of toads on most days. But this is not merely a monkey, this is the Monkey King, and Prophylaxis (as well as pretty much every other person in East and Southeast Asia) know EXACTLY what the heck this guy's deal is, and why he's a problem.

Also: "When I said there'd be a hotsprings monkey I DIDN'T MEAN IT SHOULD BE THE KING," Prophylaxis complains, because honestly he brought this upon himself. The King's powers are great and varied, but famous enough that Prophylaxis knows to keep an eye out for one in particular. Self-replication is a trick that he should be capable of, thus in-between hurling magic missiles at their foe, Prophylaxis stores up mana and prepares to cast his favorite area-denial spell the moment the raid boss decides to split up...!

And then: "Why the heck is this guy even here anyway!? Isn't the Monkey King more of a Chinese thing!?"

Does this mean there's another gate to the Palace Lands somewhere in the area...?

It may be worth investigating...

    When the frog men disengage, Amalthea realizes something is off. Something is very off. They wouldn't have fled like that without reason.
    That reason shows itself in the form of The Monkey King.
    "... Uh."
R    ...
    "Doctor is this that vampiric gorilla you mentioned from before?"
    Nevertheless he lands swinging, and that means Amalthea is quick to take up tanking position with him.
    "Kaydon, alternate aggro with me, everyone else maximize DPS!"

    "Anchor Howl!"

    That makes two Anchor Howl debuffs the Monkey King will have to deal with as Amalthea lays into him with everything she has. He may be a raid-tier boss, but against a seasoned squad of combatants like this party it should be fine. Right?
    Right???

"I DIDN'T KNOW THERE WAS AN ACTUAL HOT SPRING MONKEY BOSS WAITING FOR US!!" Prophylaxis protests, strongly. This isn't his fault!!

(This may in fact be entirely his fault)

    Rizadoman raises his arms to protect himself from the column as he looks at the Monkey King and releases a roar at the monkey. "No ape will defeat me. For I am one of the mighty warriors of my tribe and will not cause my naga ancestors such grief." With his speech said Rizadoman faces off against the beast, with just his teeth and nails. Lightning striking around him as despite Rizadoman's claims don't seem to overcome the power of Anchor howls distracting the king. It is the fireball that seems to drop the raid boss to it's next health bar.

    As the Monkey King fights, that staff seems to start to defy the laws of the system. It grows, it shrinks, it bends, it really was just a normal support column right? Either way they manage to eat away enough of the monkey king's health that he steps back and pulls at his hair in frustration. With an annoyance glare at the adventurers, the Monkey King climbs on to the main house and howls into the air. A moment later he leaps high into the air and seems to be running on a cloud, or maybe it is just a cliff side covered by the mist and fog. Either way the Monkey King will live to fight another day.

Shiruba pants a few times. Even with her improved defenses that was a harrowing fight until the Monkey King finally disembarks. "I.. don't think.. anyone is going to be using this onsen again for a while..." She walks over and picks up one of the tuffs of hair from when Monkey King was yanking on it before withdrawing. "This might be useful though."

    A little breathless by the time the Monkey King decides it's time to retreat, Amalthea slowly sheathes her sword.
    "That... That was a raid-tier boss."
    And they came in as a small PARTY.
    "I get the sense it's going to take a few trips before this spring can really be put to use."

Shiruba hads Amalthea back her map. "If we turn this in with the quest, the Hunter's Guild can arrange farther expeditions up here more easily. Maybe someone can put a bigger party together to deal with that Raid Boss more thoroughly."

"Yeah that thing hit like a truck." Kaydon says, as he rubs the back of his head a little bit, putting his sword away, "We're defintely not the right size group to take care of that thing. I don't know how many folks we'll need.." He mutters a little bit to himself.

"I wouldn't object to lending our aid," Prophylaxis asides to Amalthea as the Monkey King zips away. "If he's anything like the stories say, then it'll definitely take a small army to take him down. Why's he /here/ though? I mean, other than for the hot-springs that is."

    Rizadoman watches the direction the Monkey King is running. " Why does a king go anywhere. " With a sigh he looks arond the rest of the hot springs with a wish that he could take a few minutes in the hotsprings. A mucky one would be best. " Because the king wanted to ." With a chuckle Rizadoman begins to make his way back. " Come on , we should go find a hot spring that isn't monster infested and really begin to enjoy the festival."