Duty Session 309: Obligatory Rat Cellar

In each of the starting cities, there are at least a couple of poor merchant landers who have developed mysterious rat problems. This is clearly bad for business! A worried looking Lander stands outside their shop, rubbing their hands together, looking anxious, flagging down any passing Adventurer they can find to help.

Difficulty:    Easy
Rec. Party:    3+
Rewards:       3
World Rewards: None

Ayame
Dun Loireag - The Highland City

Neatly presented and primped, Ayame advertised outside the store by standing with her shield slung over one arm, the other twirling her wand and occasionally firing little light shows into the air, arrows pointing down at the Lander's store.

For his part, the Lander seems to be more concerned about his basement. Every few minutes, he potters to the front of the store, and goes "Please, Adventurer. The rats in the walls. They scrabble and squeak and I cannot sleep. Please, adventurer, help me" before he potters off once more, muttering about a beating heart.
Uta
Dun Loireag - The Highland City

By now it should be pretty obvious what Uta looks like. Tattered menu-crafted peasant's dress, covered in goo and holes, bags under her eyes, grumbling stomach, and << Filth >> status effect (in glorious Smell-O-Vision). Today she's also trailed by a gaggle of slimes. Constantly muttering and humming that song, she occasionally picks up one of the slime, performs some sort of medical examination on it, scribbles something in her notepad, and walks on.

When she passes in front of the shop, she stops. And abruptly asks Ayame, without greeting or anything, "-did he say something about slimes in the basement? No, wait, don't bother answering. There might be slimes anyway. Can't lose this opportunity," and she moves to dart into the shop.
Ayame
Dun Loireag - The Highland City

Ayame just groans as Ayame bustles past and in, and looks down at the slimes burning their little hoppy marks into the floor of the shop "Don't worry" She tells the Lander who looks on in horror "A little soap will clean it right up. And the Spriggan, too" She mutters under her breath, glancing around down the shop for potential reinforcements in the Art of Wrangling Slime-Obsessed Spriggans.

Meanwhile, something has prompted the Lander, who is now muttering, as he begins to scrub at the slime-marks with soap "... they must know I did not do it, they must know it was the rats, the slithering, scurrying rats whose scampering will never let me sleep. Please adventurer! Let me sleep. Ah HUH ah huh."
Shiruba
Dun Loireag - The Highland City

"... I take it Uta is still in her 'mood'," Shiruba murmurs as this is the scene she walks in on. "Is she looking to buy slime kibble again or something else?"
Uta
Dun Loireag - The Highland City

Uta, as it is typical of her by now, ignores everyone else and addresses her gaggle of slimes. "Ok, class. We are going to engage in some dangerous activity known as Rat Duty. This is your first time, so please stick behind the highly trained professional carefully selected by the Hunter's Guild. And remember the rules: rule #1, always do what Uta says. Rule #2, no eating weird stuff unless Uta says so. Rule #3, if, despite rule #2 you end up eating weird stuff, immediately wobble over to Uta so she can study you. Understood?"

The slimes just wobble and do their thing.

"Good enough," she mumbles, and heads straight for the next room.
Ayame
Dun Loireag - The Highland City

Ayame sighs, and she gives Shiruba a faintly embarrassed look "Sorry for Uta. She's still a little ... obsessed, don't mind us" She tells the Lander, casually stepping over him as he loops through the 'ahUHahhuh' sobbing sounds, scrubbing the floor clean.

"Uta, wait up!"

As Uta descends, though, not waiting, the Plopping of Slimes announces her arrival to the ... duty cellar. Tiny insects scuttle through the webbing and drape far enough to reach from floor to ceiling, trapping dust and occasionally more things. Like slimes. SCuttling sounds in the walls and behind crates, of claws on stone, combine with Ominous Squeaking. OMINOUS SQUEAKING.
Shiruba
Dun Loireag - The Highland City

Shiruba points a finger at Ayame. "That's what I meant by 'mood'. I've seen this happen to several friends at this point."

That explaination, and seeing Uta conducting her cluster of slimes like a school field trip, is enough to get a faint sigh out of the wolfgirl cait sith, draw her bow and quickly take off after the duo. "Don't let them stray too far ahead. In that state of mind she's unlikely to notice much danger." Pause. "Even for Uta."

Thankfully the first thing they come into is just a cellar of dust and cobwebs. Shiruba skids to a stop, gives Thundersnow just a partial tug on the bowstring to generate a small amount of air elemental energy, and 'fires' the burst of pressure down the cellar to clear away a bunch of the dust collecting webs from the wayward Spriggan and her Slime Class.
Uta
Dun Loireag - The Highland City

Uta trudges on, scribbling down on her notebook. "No eating the bugs. We have plenty of bugs at home. No, we are looking for more interesting things for you to digest." One Tabby slime stops and wobbles sideways towards the noises in the wall. "No, no going hunting for rats. There will be enough later on," she chides, not even lifting her head from her notebook. Instead, she gives her wings powerful flaps as she proceeds and -- that seems ridiculously effective in getting rid of any sign of cobweb she might encounter on her path.
Ayame
Dun Loireag - The Highland City

The dust whirls up as Shiruba fires that blast of air down the passageway, sending it spiralling and vanishing in a little pixellated storm as it blasts against the far wall. A number of the dangling cobwebs are sent twisting and twirling in the breeze, and then twirling another way as Uta adds to the clashing air currents, cleaning the dust away with the efficiency of a bath. Which Uta direly needs. The cobwebs, though, aren't removed, only set to dancing.

A strand of which snags a slime, which is light enough, and porous enough, to be sent into a spiral as it swings from the dusty cobweb. While slimes cannot, of course, speak, there is still, somehow, a tiny sense of an 'eeeee'

Ayame, meanwhile, just groans, brushing things aside with her shield and pushing on down with the others "You might need to hurry to catch up" She tells Shiruba reluctantly

The ceilings lower, as they walk, meaning light sources cannot be held as high, lending a sense of oppression to the twisting tunnels. The Sylph moves on, trying to hurry to overtake Uta, as the maze-like caverns constrict around our heroic trio ... and slimes.
Shiruba
Dun Loireag - The Highland City

Look, it's an underground maze passage. This should be easy enough.... Normally.

Normally doesn't involve having to try to herd a heavily distracted Uta and slime entourage through it as well. Which extremely slows down how efficiently Shiruba can actually navigate a way through the confusing path. Because she has to keep backing up, getting Uta, making sure the slimes are following, making sure Ayame doesn't get side tracked... and then even she has trouble remembering which way she was going.
Uta
Dun Loireag - The Highland City

"Most fascinating!", Uta exclaims, as she reaches for the aethereal slime. At first it is a bit awkward because she does not stop flapping her wings as she approaches, sending the slime to dance further around, but after two or three suche episodes, she catches on, and stops her built-in fans, allowing her to gather this precious specimen. As Shiruba pointed out, no attention is paid to her surroundings. She just engages in a continuous zigzag of switching corridors...
Ayame
Dun Loireag - The Highland City

"I'm glad you like it" Ayame has absolutely no idea how to find her way down here. She's a Sylph! They're attuned to the sir, to breezes, not to dusty cellars under the earth, with confounded squeaking growing in volume constantly, surrounding them, claws scurrying and scraping and tails slithering across the cold stone, the rats, the rats in the walls!

And then in the chamber ahead, as they spill out into a domed chamber with rats, rats, everywhere!

On the walls
on the floors.
Dropping from the ceiling! Rodents Galore!
Shiruba
Dun Loireag - The Highland City

"Uta," Shiruba raises her voice not enough to be yelling, but it's definitely the 'in command' tone she's developed as a Guild Leader, "Keep your slimes on task, please. Don't let any of them slip off."

That's about the best she can hope for keeping the Spriggan under control, keeping her to focus on whatever she's fixating on in a useful manner.

So she can deal with rats more directly. She draws three arrows from her quiver, holdint two between her fingers as she nocks one and draws back, aims, and fires.

*SHRRT* The tip of arcane crystal carries enough piercing force that it lances through *multiple* rats before wedging in the wall, pinning them there. Which she does two more times.

"I wonder if Hif ever considered Tasty Rat Meat Shiskabobs," she muses idly at the sight.
Uta
Dun Loireag - The Highland City

Monsters are not your friends. Monsters don't care about you. They only follow their instincts. And a slime's primary instinct?

Feeding.

So, when a copious amount of food appears, the little flock of monsters disperses all over the place, due to the unfortunate circumstance of the food having legs and being capable of deambulation. Just as Shiruba is done giving her order

"No. No. WAIT!", Uta calls out to the slimes, but the endeavour is up there in difficulty with herding catgirls.

She might not be doing a great job at keeping her slimes together, but whenever she passes by, a karate kick here, followed by a twirl and a kung-fu punch to a different rat, help thin the rodents' population. "Working on it!", Uta replies in a similar tone, not lacking respect but being just louder enough than usual to make sure her reply is heard over the ruckus.

Over time, however, she does seem to manage to get the little group back under control...
Ayame
Dun Loireag - The Highland City

"Well, you know what, screw THAT" Ayame declares, crouching behind her shield and simply laying down a slowly advancing wall of fire. There are many squeaks, sad and forlorn, as rodents become crunchy and ratlings burn. And then pixilate, helpfully leaving nothing behind.

Shiruba's efforts combine to send shafts of burning rodent hurtling down the corridor ahead, briefly illuminating it. Once more, on the edge of hearing, there's that sense of 'eeeeeeee', felt rather than heard, before pixellation happens, tinged with the reds and yellows of the flaming rodents.

Uta punches! Uta uses Kick! It's super effective! She does have noticably more content slimes by the end of it, though, practically purring as they finish off the enemy. Noticably fatter slimes. One might even say ... thicc. They continue to poing behind her, far more lethargically now, heavy slaps against the stone.

But it's from that briefly illuminated tunnel that a snarl can be heard. As the trio and their little accomplices explore deeper, the lights of their flames flicker against the crude armor of the massive rat-beast, which rears up! An HP bar flicks to be visible; the little heart at the end pulsing, audible with a beating sound, growing more rapid as it charges and snarls defiance!
Shiruba
Dun Loireag - The Highland City

At the sight of the armored rat at the end of the next portion, Shiruba just nods at Ayame to do her tank thing. Then darts off to the side, to get a better vantage point for herself. What for, one might ask?

Pinning in their enemy, one could say. Shiruba half-circles to the side, then draws back one of her newer Spell Fletcher arrows in her bow and fires. It hits the floor just behind the armored rat as he's engaged with Ayame, and an arcane barrier shimmers to life from it. Giving the rat nowhere to retreat from the other combatants. Creative magic shield use.
Uta
Dun Loireag - The Highland City

"Bad slimes. No snacking outside designated meal times." Uta picks one up, not... really making an /effort/ to, because adventurers have to be quite fit due to their lifestyle, but she does show the slime turns out to be heavier than expected. The blobbly little thing even has bulging cheeks and a small mouth as it's lifted. "...that's it," she declares while the slime plops back to the floor. "It's exercise time for you guys." She sinks into thought. "I wonder what kind of gym equipment I could build for the likes of you. I mean, a barrel thing as a hamster wheel would work, but... anything more complicated would require some sort of limbs, which you clearly lack-"

The Armored Rat makes its Angry Armored Rat noises. Uta would normally not even bother, but this time, she gives it a glance. "Oh, right"!, she exclaims, punching her palm. "Ok, class. Time to attack that one!", she orders, as she snap-points at the mid-boss.

The slimes' eyes collectively turn toward the rat monster and-

All of them bounce at the creature!

Except one, which bounds the opposite way.

There always is one, isn't there?
Ayame
Dun Loireag - The Highland City

Ayame nods, crouching and digging in her heels to prepare for the impact. Moments before the Armored Beating Heart Rat smashes into her, her shield flares into magical life, flashing bright and making the beast stumble into her!

Shiruba's arrows flash to life, pinning the thing into a box with no real way out. The beast clambers back to it's feet, roaring and intending to attack ... before a barrage of slimes descend.

What follows is too painful to watch. It's a slow death, as each little impact of a rat-plumped slime drains a sliver of HP and sends the rat staggering. It rights itself, before another impacts! The heart beats faster and faster, until ... until it bursts, and the beast vanishes in pixellated shrieks.

Stunlocked by slimes. What a way to go.

Ayame stands slowly, staring at the two "Well, that was, uh ... inventive" The slimes keep bouncing slowly, even the one in the opposite corner. "Shall we?" She pushes on, trying not to look at the horror of the slowly pulsing slime monsters. Who look far, far too happy.

Eventually, finally, they come to a room with a vaulted ceiling, piled high with bones. Far too large for one rat, or even a hundred, a thousand, as dark magics flare, bringing together a shrieking storm of swirling sinew and cartiledge, as the Giant Bone Rat Boss rears, snarls, and swipes its tail, sending little bones flying!
Shiruba
Dun Loireag - The Highland City

"Never underestimate the cute ones," Shiruba sums up the armored rat's fate, before heading into the final room.

Which is full of bones. Lots of bones. Lots and lots of bones.

But before the wolf in her can get excited there's a surge of dark magic bringing the pile together into a giant skeletal rat. "Okay, that is a bit different..." After which Shiruba takes a step back to brace herself, pulls a brightly fletched arrow from her quiver and draws it into her bow. Takes aim....

Knowing aiming at specific bones can be a difficult task even for a skilled archer, Shiruba instead takes her aim and fires the arrow right between the monster's bare ribs. Then sets off the elemental embument once it's 'inside' the creature, causing it to explode into a powerful fireball.
Uta
Dun Loireag - The Highland City

Uta stares, those bags not really making the stare much more appealing.

Her health bar, as it is customary for her in this period, is in the low yellow. She wobbles and says nothing as the rat boss launches into its display of dangerousness.

Her stomach growls. She doesn't seem to care.

"You are in the way," is all she says to the monster, and after some menu swiping, her staff shimmers into existence. She intones a tune which alternates between high and low tones, which cause lights to dance on the handle and the jewel atop her staff to flash in different colors, and soon-

ZAP. A blast of red magic is shot from the staff's gem at the skeleton, while a blast of green magic is zapped back at Uta. The monster's HP decreases steadily; little blobs of red magic travel along the red beam, pass through the gem, become green, and after a short trip through the green beam, end up replenishing Uta's HP.
Ayame
Dun Loireag - The Highland City

Ayame charges in, lifting her wand and flashing lights as she begins to unwind the dark magics animating the thing. The bone heart beats, and beats, and then explodes as fireballs cascade and the explosions roll. Uta adds her own explosions and zaps as the staff's beam flashes and changes color, and Ayame continues to unwind the dark magic.

And then the thing explodes, scattering little bone discs everywhere. Ayame yelps as one sticks in her hair, and then peers over her shield. Then a cough "Well" She mutters "Thank you. Can you, um, see about maybe dumping water onto Uta for me?"