Duty Session 329: Karluin Reclamation - Labyrinth

This room should look familiar to all involved. After disabling the trapped stairwell and securing a safe route through the (now less) goblin-infested underground of Karluin Keep, the Scale Emblem has finally begun to make headway into the subterrannean catacombs underneath the fortress city. This is the very same place that they had all defeated that strange, high-speed Elemental Machine, and is now where they wait patiently for the rest of the party to gather.

...And for the engineers to finish opening the dungeon's gate.

"I figured it would be a good idea," Prophylaxis says, "To give us all a small distraction from everything that's happened lately. We've pursued the Goblin King to these tunnels, but we've lost sight of him somewhere deeper in." The stone doors swing open, filling the air with the stale scent of a goblin-riddled tunnel system. "If we can keep securing sections of the underground, we can start hemming him in. Eventually, we should be able to lock him down long enough to finish the job."

But, as they all know, this... this won't be easy.

    Amalthea could use a distraction. After the fiasco of the tenth floor boss raid, the old tank has been a bit reticent and surly. And then there was... *whatever* that was that happened on the new year.
    "I am here, now." She says, making her arrival to join the party, shield already lashed to her arm, one hand resting on the pommel of her sword where it's sheathed at her hip. "Well let's get to it, then."

    Setsuna looks around concerned for a moment as Prophylaxis talks and tilts his head. "So we are going to go down into a dungeon to kill a goblin king. I feel like we are missing someone. Someone who hates goblins. " Looking about another moment he shrugs his head and whistles as the skeleton knight catches up to the group. " Ok well if we have everyone, lets be on our way."

Schneider has assembled. This is good for him, though he seems distracted, looking up from a sheaf of papers that he's been examining. "Uh. Yeah," he agrees. Whether he heard what he was agreeing to is hard to say. He's here, but he's not completely here, mentally. Well, there's a lot of projects going on, as Proph said, and it seems Schneider is somewhat overcommitted. Which is probably out of character, but he's abandoned the RP thing long ago, and now he's just trying to, well, get out. The last Tower climb was wildly bad, so hopefully there'll be some way to win here in a way that will buck his spirits up. Because his spirits are currently a few letters of the alphabet down from bucked.

    Merek of course would come to assist, because he wants to do what he can to take care of the goblins. The man wears the spiky ponytail with a nice updo while he takes the time to draw his weapon, and nods a bit to Prophylaxis.

Miho had had some time in the tower she didn't go often. She had just happened to be in this region on some deliveries so making some cash on a hunt seemed like an idea. It might let her get to catch up with a few people. She would look to Prophylaxis for a moment he tail swishing.

"Ain't an easy job if you are taking people from the NWA and beyond for this."

She looks to the old Paladin next as she tries to size the woman up. She also pauses at Schneiderr for a moment.

"Huh nice look."

She also look to Merek and bluntly says.

"You are not allowed to die today Merek."

"No one likes goblins, regardless of which Alliance they're in," Kauchemar replies with a snort. Then gives her head a flick to shift part of her midnight mane out of her face. "And with Goblins comes traps, and who knows what other ancient abominations they've found -this- time in the depths of the place." And the mysteries they hide. Dark dank shadowy places are good for those, too.

"Indeed, the slaying of goblins is a task that we are all responsible for carrying out. There are no borders where goblins are involved. We can be bothered by factional differences when the lines in the land have been soaked in their foul blood." Maybe Prophylaxis has been hanging out with the Goblin Slayer a bit much, lately? Clearly, even if the Slayer is not here in person, he is nevertheless here in spirit.

Into the dungeon the party goes. What they find is... honestly not much. It's a dark, dank, reeking place filled with the odor of decay and viscera. If not for the scent, one could be excused for figuring this place to be little more than a particularly deep cave.

...And then, out of the oppressive dark, an arrow suddenly scythes by Prophylaxis' face. It is soon joined by many more, as the doctor hisses a curse and ducks behind a conveniently placed chest-high wall. "Sentries...! I can't pick out where they're hiding. We need to eliminate them before they sound the alarm!"

    "Goblins are nasty problem." Amalthea replies to Miho mildly. "We'll not turn away any offered help."
    "You okay, Schneider?" She does ask looking a little worried at how distracted he seems.
    But she forges on with the group.
    And then come the arrows.
    As soon as the good doctor says 'sentries!' Amalthea's blade is drawm coming to life with a holy white glow, shining and radiating brightly to help see the goblins so that the group can mow them down.

Schneider looks up to meet Miho's glance, smiles, then looks forward as we move on, nodding distractedly to Amalthea. "Got a lot going on is all," he explains. He has just enough time to add, "-," when the goblins attack. Seems like they were waiting for us? Luckily, Schneider was waiting for them also. Or, well, he's always ready to use FIRE. "GUNZENRO!" he shouts, and flames -everywhere-.

Like, that's kind of an insane amount of flame. It's like a napalm factory decided to have a fire sale and all the goblins want some. More correctly, they don't want it, not one little bit, but Schneider is not giving them the chance to opt out. Looks like today is mandatory fire day at the goblin ambush.

    Setsuna follows along still looking around, " I mean yeah goblins bad, but I still feel like there is someone we forgot to invite. " Still onward they go into the depths of the labryinth and then there are arrows. It is with a quick reaction a of using his skeleton knight as a shield. "Ok its simply enough we simply need light is all. " As he is about to launch a ball of fire at the ceiling to act as a flare, Schneider does what Schneider does. " Oh that works. " Now being able to see he is easily able to help set Goblins on fire.

Kauchemar snaps her upper body to the side abruptly as arrows start zinging through the air. Her acute hearing can hear the twang of bowstrings ahead of them, though it becomes apparent to her that the acoustics of the ruins are making them hard to pinpoint. To which the Nightmare Were Fang lets out a frustrated snort as she squints. "They're purposely keeping out of direct sight and common visual ranges."

Sure, as a creature of dark and night she has good nocturnal vision... BUT it's limited in range. So while she can hear the twang of strings and zing of arrows, she can't see far enough ahead to locate the source amongst the ruins. "Com'n you little cowards! Even I don't hide in the shadows this much, and I'm the living creepypasta stalker."

Miho looks over to Prophylaxis for a moment and nods once. "Agreed almost as bad Oni if not worse for how they spawn like rabbits." She notes as she readies her Katana and stalks out with the rest of the party. She seems to take note of the Goblin Senties and thinks for a moment.

"I'll flush em out."

She takes a deep breath and starts breathing fire in an attempt to flush out the goblins for the others to pick off.

    Merek lifts up a hand while it looks like the flame will give light to the party, "Alright, I'll keep that in mind," he will note to Miho, and nods while he will take the time to begin defending from projectiles that the goblins will use on the party.

/Ostensibly/ they were just supposed to light up the room to make the goblins easier to fight. Technically, they did exactly that. Enthusiastically. /Very/ enthusiastically. What few arrows do manage to get through are deflected by Merek and Amalthea, whose blade also helpfully illuminates the targets for the party to deal with. By the time Setsuna, Miho and Schneider are done supplying enough fire to set a small forest ablaze, all that's left is a fine dust.

...Which Prophylaxis helpfully scatters with a quick wind spell. "Well. That's certainly one way to deal with a goblin. Let's keep moving."

Inexplicably, the sound of EXPLOSIONS did not seem to rouse any further goblin attacks. In fact, there's a long stretch of dank tunnel where the party is utterly unnaccosted by anything even vaguely goblin-shaped, but then...

There, out of the dark, a snaggletoothed goblin guard emerges into the tunnel. It looks about, casting its eyes this way and that, but the party just so happens to be out of its field of vision. Once satisfied, it gives a sharp yank on a rusty chain and... drags a stumbling prisoner out of the shadows after it. More goblins emerge, each escorting an emaciated prisoner deeper into the tunnels. Many of them are landers, some of them... are /newbies./

This cannot be allowed to stand.

"Quickly, while they haven't noticed us," Prophylaxis whispers across the party's local chim. "If we can take out the guards, we might be able to get these people out of here safely."

    Merek looks along to that goblin and to anything else, then he stands up while he draws an alchemist fire potion which he throws along into the goblin. "Ya!" The man then will try to draw along the place.

And no sooner have those words left Prophylaxis' mouth is Kauchemar gone. Gone as fleeting as the shadows around them.

And then she's right in FRONT of the goblins courtesy of some fancy dark warping, and shanking a dagger into the lead goblins neck!

Or that was the idea. Plans never succeed contact with the enemy though, and through some twist of fate the lead goblin turns to yell at his flunkies just as Kauchemar steps into view, miracleously out the way of her blade. Then the other goblins see her and yell, pointing, and the lead turns back around.

"Oh horse manure." The equinoid points off to the side. "Sorry, I must of taken the wrong turn at Alberquercy." Then turns and runs back in the opposite direction as she pointed. "BETTER PART OF VALOR!"

Schneider nods to Proph about rescuing the prisoners. Rescuing prisoners is good. Not being able to engulf all the targets with 10,000 degree flames is problematic, but of course there's a way. "Zarzardo Zarzardo Bakemono!" he begins, but it's not /that/ spell. It's another spell, where the dark leaps out to claw at the goblins and suck their life out messily, spraying blood and gore all over them. And the prisoners. Still, as the goblins are slowly exsanguinated by shadows of raw darkness, the prisoners are led off to the accompaniment of goblin howls of pain and despiar.

    Amalthea attempts to sneak after the goblins and their prisoners.
    But clank clank goes the plate armor.
    There's a stifled curse in the darkness.

    Setsuna looks towards the goblins and then the others before he grins and wraps an aura of darkness around him before he steps into the shadows. If you follow him closely he can just be made out in the shadows before he slits one of the guards throats, pulls him into the shadows and then slinks back along to the shadows to the group. When he reappearsfrom the shadow he looks at the group and ...is that blood near his mouth. No obviously not , he is still human after all.

There are always more goblins, this seems to be a universal truth. She'll also know they need to keep moving as well. She'll open up on the goblins but doesn't have too much luck with knocking them down fast enough. Damn it they got to get those people out of there. They must go faster sadly it does not go any faster. She does keep moving though even if her attempts to pick some of the off at ranged do not go so well.

The good news: The party's rather thorough attempt at launching an ambush catches these goblins utterly unaware! Blades tear through throats and spill thick globules of greasy blood, spells inflict terrible, bloody fates upon all who suffer their touch, and Setsuna might have straight up eaten a goblin just then.

But then--

"Why," Prophylaxis asks, "Did this feel too easy?"

Amalthea is the first to find a goblin surging out of the darkness with a dagger poised to slam into the gaps of her armor. More emerge, pouring out of unnoticed passages to charge at the hostages... Only to turn and jam their rusty weapons into whatever exposed flesh they can find...!

It seems that the goblins have turned the party's attempted ambush into one of their own...!

But they've all been here before. All they need to do is survive.

...And make sure the hostages do the same.

    Merek will lift up the shield with him while he takes the time to try to protect the party, although it doesn't look like they are winning. He does what he can to assist the party.

    Amalthea promptly bashes that goblin's face in with her shield.
    "I see a path." She says amid the chaos of the ensuing ambush while hacking goblins down.

"OH THAT'S NOT FAIR," Kauchemar protests as she has to divert directions -again- as more Goblins start storming into the passage. "These little punks are worse than club raids." The Were Fang turns and slams one of her hooves intot he ground, causing it to shake violently enough to send several Goblins tumbling into impersonating floor carpenters.

Except the rest show no regard for their toppled kin and just climb over them to keep chasing after the Nightmare. "Where's the goddamn Slayer when you need him!"

Schneider is much better on the attack than on the defense, which should surprise no one, so when the goblin ambush does come, his attempt to throw up a magic shield is a matter of too little, too late. The shield protects some of the Landers from a few of the attacks, but Schneider mainly uses his HP as a shield, taking far too much, or, rather loosing far more than he'd like. He's forced to use his sword when it's close-in work, and frankly he's not very good with it. Luckily, the party is here. Or else it would be bad. Well, worse.

    Setsuna and his knight quickly fall back to back as they do their best to hold back the goblin ambush and while they are managing , it is slowly a losing fight. A very slow losing fight but Setsuna is losing. " Need a way out here. Any time now?!"

Things are too easy almost while Miho is making sure to be a tiny little blender, she slices she dices she'll cut the enemy in several different sizes. She'll keep moving, as she does he best to cut down the Goblins and yet there's just enough of a delay things are not looking so good for them keeping both them and the captives alive.

"Damn, how many of them are there!?" Prophylaxis curses as a goblin rakes an oil-slick dagger against his flimsy, robed chest. Red damage indicators flash as his HP begins to tick down... A poison effect!! But at least Prophylaxis has come prepared, jabbing his arm with a helpful healing potion. "Push towards Amalthea! She's found... something!"

Something indeed. With goblins hot on their heels, the party charges after Amalthea and the promise of something /resembling/ safety. Except this is goblin-town, and nowhere is safe in goblin town. The noise of revelling goblins is almost overwhelming now, coming from both the party's pursuers and somewhere further up ahead. They seem to be approaching some manner of goblin encampment, with a variety of grotesque totems lining the path forward. Just as Prophylaxis double-takes to check on the straggling captives, he finds himself face to face with a towering, mask-like figure.

...Which suddenly bursts into putrid, green flames and launches itself at the party with vile, corruption-laden claws. More of those totems ignite in the dark all around them. A security system...!?

If they can't break through, they'll quickly be overwhelmed, but there are goblins behind and goblins in front. Goblins, goblins everywhere...!

Schneider scrambles along with the rest of the party, rushing to what he certainly hopes is safety. But safety's not the first thing we find, of course, because that would be waaay too easy. What we find requires Schneider to make a quick call, and he summons up a small water spirit, which will attempt to glomp onto the putrid green flames, dousing them. It's more effective that one might expect, perhaps, or rather, it's effective enough.

The appearance of the Totem just gets a completely flat expression out of Kauchemar by this point. "Well there's the answer to what horrors they've dug up this time."

Just before she gets utterly steamrolled by it's flame spewing charge. It leans the Were Fang sprawled on the ground, and slightly on fire from the wretched green flames. Guess she got designated butt monkey for abuse for this dungeon.

She holds up one hand with a groan. "Kauchemar have headache in whooole body" Resumes collapsing.

    Leading the group away from the ambush, Amalthea takes just a second to catch her breath.
    Before the group is beset by EVIL TOTEMS.
    She manages to stave one of with her shield, simply brute-force soaking the fire and impact, before another comes at her.
    Reaching into her inventory she hurls...
    A bottle of water at it.
    *~splash~* goes the water.
    *Fizzle...* goes the fire.

    Merek looks to that fire while he takes the time to begin to summon water which he will use to try to weaken the enemy then he nods a bit while he will assist the party.

    Setsuna watches the new goblin security, " You know I bet this is the Goblin's new cook. It slices, it dices, it fries food near it. So what if it all smell bads and glows green. " A duck here and a weave there. A roll there as he ducks under the claws. "Ok so this guy may be a little to slow to be a cook. Maybe a busboy?"

Miho does not want to think about the muck, the smale, she's actually glad for her scales in a place like this. She seems to be oding prettyu well though as things pick up she start to get on the evfasion as well she has no desire to end up anywher enear those horriblke things. Oh gods does she not want to get near those horrible things.

Fire totems are all well and good until they run headfirst into a bunch of explorers with more water magic (and just plain old ordinary water) than they know what to do with. Unfortunately, this still leaves Kauchemar to get verily dogpiled by a full baker's dozen of angry totems. It just so happens that the party is able to dump a swimming pool on her before the burns can really set in.

"Good," Prophylaxis nods, sweeping his staff through a pattern only his eyes seem to be able to discern. In the distance, the remaining totems wink out and deactivate. Apparently, the doctor dealt with the spells animating them. "Come on. We're almost there."

As it happens, the same spell maintining the totems also seems to have held a wooden gate shut. It falls aside as the party approaches, which soon finds itself standing at the mouth of a makeshift goblin workshop. Elemental machines of all stripes litter the ground in various states of disrepair. Several are being tinkered with by goblin technicians equipped with crude tools. All around, small bonfires emit stinking smoke, each surrounded by no less than a dozen goblins. The horde turns as one towards to commotion as, at the other end of the fortress, a distinct crown-wearing goblin disappears into a corridor...

The king is here, but the party will need to fight its way through the goblin horde to get to him. And there are a lot of them. More goblins, it seems, than fish in the sea. Is this why they've had so much trouble exterminating the goblin presence for good? How long have they all been down here...!?

    Merek looks to the goblins while he begins to swing flame into them, though it looks like he doesn't really have the mana to keep with the many that there are while he fights along with the party.

    That sure is a lot of goblins...
    But in an instant Amalthea's blade blazes to life with a roaring fire.
    Her DPS skyrockets as she starts laying into anything with green skin in her path.

Forget how long they've been down here.

They've probably been down here MATING.

No, you don't want to think about it more than that.

Somewhere in the transitions between challenges Kauchemar has managed to get off the ground, on her hooves, and back with the rest of the group. Only to come face to face with even more and more and MORE goblins. Her tail lashes. Her nostrils flare as she snorts.

"Enough is enough. To drop this base, it's time to drop some bass!"

The Nightmare Were Fang digs into her position, opens her mouth monsterously wide, and uses the gaping maw like a giant amplifier to unleash a screaming wail the likes are rarely heard even from horrible creatures like the one she's based on! The enervating accoustic assault, fueled by frustration and anger, is enough to literally make ears blood and melt faces! But most importantly, it's killing goblins. Lots of goblins.

    Setsuna sees the king and shouts out to the group, " Handle the goblins, I will keep an eye on the king. " His eyes glow as he does his best to keep an eye on the king moving around the crowd and constantly staring the king down. Almost staring in that creepy way that people know you are watching them and just don't understand why.

There are more goblins she does not like this she see sthe goblin king trying to get away. Like hell she's going to allow that, she ends up running for the goblins. She takes a deep breath and will just spray fire at them as she exhales she likes being able to do this. She liks it a bit too much.

"YOU WILL ALL BURN IN THE INFERNO!"

Schneider has found his way, with the group, to the fight, though he hasn't been paying close attention. He probably should have, because it's another one of those ... complicated situations.

Schneider's only really got one answer for complicated situations, and it involves fire. Lots of fire.

"Tai-to-ro! Blow this enemy away! Anthem!" he chants, and fire jets out in all directions, splashing as it strikes goblins, incinerating them where they stand. The horde is basically a target-rich environment for him, and he's quite pleased to lay in with fire like fire is going out of style.

Luckily, it never does, does it?

The moment this fight turned from attempted subterfuge into a no-holds-barred battle of absolute extermination, the tide turned in the adventurers' favor. Kauchemar's unrestrained scream shatters the attempted goblinoid charge, causing their vangob to stagger back into their advancing cavalry, tying both up in time for massive artillery spells courtesy of Schnieder, Merek, Miho and Prophylaxis himself to tear massive, gaping holes in the teeming masses. Overcrowding has made them terribly suceptible to such magic, and what was once a devastating horde has quickly turned into a desperate, scurrying rabble. Amalthea barrels through what little resistance remains, blazing a trail at Setsuna's guidance, towards where the Goblin King is still making his escape.

It seems, for a beautiful moment, as if this is the end for the leader of Karluin's persistent goblin problem. But just as Amalthea is about to run him through, the Goblin King is pushed out of the way by what at first glance seems like a towering wall of shining steel... But no, it is a goblin. A goblin that stands nearly ten feet in height, covered in layers of heavy armor. It grunts as its precious king slips away into a concealed passage, the royal guard seemingly dedicated to giving its life to secure its king's escape.

Victory or death, is what this goblin seeks. But maybe, just maybe, if they can kill it fast enough, they might be able to catch up in time...?

By the time Kauchemar ends her Death Metal Solo there's plenty of literal death left in her wake. Except for the King of the Green Slimeballs that manages to slip away, leaving some oversized and overgeared goon to deal with them instead.

Kauchemar looks him up. Looks him down. Looks up again. "Pff. Whatever," she scoffs, and turns as if to leave. "I am done with this ignorious hellhole. Begone."

As she turns she holds up a hand and snaps her fingers. Which sounds less like a click and more like the cracking of ice as little sparkles flick from her finger tips.

The cracking doesn't come from the snapping though. It's coming from the cold chilbain already creeping over the big goblin galoot, directed at making his fancy (for a goblin) armor more brittle and weak.

    Merek lifts up the sanctuary to begin to bring about a healing and a shield for all of the party.

Miho has an idea of who may have made this armour some of the goblins are using. IF she is she has an idea o how that person put it together and thusly? She's going to take it apart. She zooms in using her Katana and there to strike at weak points, she'll also take a moment sometimes to breathe fire to help heat the armour up for others to make use against.

    The Goblin King is right there. Amalthea can practically taste his blood already--
    Only for her to have her target battered aside by the burliest goblin she has ever seen.
    But she spies flaws in that armor, joining Miho in attacking the weak points for massive damage.

Schneider has been fighting and fireballing continuously all night, and it's now that he finds himself in the unusual situation denoted by a sad tone. Out of Mana. He's not used to that, between his class choice and his fighting style, his mana usually lasts longer, but he's got a bunch of projects going, and so he started out much lower than normal. So now, here he is, firing blanks, looking sad.

    Setsuna watches as the king ducks away and he swears. "Frackin' Goblin King got away. " Looking at the giant goblin blocking their path he grins as he looks up at the Goblin. " You're big, he fought bigger. " There is a brief pause as if allowing the goblin to wonder who fought bigger before 'Skull' steps up and as if swinging baseball bat , swings his large sword with both his hands trying to cut through the armor.

No matter how well-geared the goblin paladin might be, he's still dealing with a handful of adventurers who are all keenly aware of how powerful armor can be a weakness as much as it can be a strength. Kauchemar's ice magic flash-freezes the heavy metal plates, and Schneider... is just barely unable to achieve enough firepower to capitalize. Which is when Prophylaxis, who has been noticably holding back this entire time, suddenly bursts into flame and unleashes a positively ridiculous amount of fire. The Paladin's supercooled armor is forced to super-heat, the resulting temperature shock rendering it brittle and of little protection when Miho and Amalthea charge in. Each of their blows carve off another piece of protection, until the goblin is left with a bare body and a few handfuls of metal scrap.

From there, it's a too-simple matter for Setsuna's skeletal minion to finish the job. With Merek making sure everyone's hp remained topped up, this monster never stood a chance.

...But as Setsuna observes, the real prize got away. "We'll find him sooner or later," Prophylaxis says, resolute. "The more of his territory we take, the harder it'll get for him to run away. Besides, we can't exactly pursue much further right now, now when we've still got some former captives to escort to safety."

For now, though, the party can take solace in their victory. And it seems that they don't leave entirely empty-handed, either. That goblin's gear was well made enough to have left quite a few pieces of usable scrap behind, some of which does indeed carry the mark of a certain New World artisan...

Kauchemar picks up one of pieces of armor that didn't entirely break apart into bits. "Consolation prize, I guess." She holds it up a moment. "Huh... I really should use some of this stuff up someday." Followed by a shrug as she flicks it into her inventory, and turns this time to leave for real. "One less goblin miniboss out there, at least."

    Setsuna grabs the piece of the armor and looks at the doctor, " I still think we should just pour molten steel over there entrances and just starve them out. COme back in a few months and kill the one who ate the others. " With a sigh he looks at his skull knight, " Perhaps I should try to improve your armor. Would be nice if you could tank for me. Maybe a skeleton horse too. " Looking back the way he came he looks around, " Anyone see a shorter way out ?"

Miho does a pretty good job with the Goblin Paladin same for everyone else with the fight coming to an end she looks to the Doc for a moment. "Right, I don't want to risk him fleeing into another part of the world either. The last thing we want is him menacing the landers by teaching the goblin population as a whole about what he's learned." She notes with a tail swish. There's people they rescued and it's time to get them out of here she'll fall in tail wishing as he goes.

Schneider feels a bit guilty about his failure to perform. "It's never happened before," he insists, looking glumly to his fellow adventurers. "Just give me a bit of time and I'll be ready again..." But it's probably a bit late for that. Getting out of here's a good plan, too, so he will check out his new acquisition and head out with the others.