Duty Session 335: Reclaim the Peko Fort

    The hunter's guild had brokered a request on behalf of the Peko Knights, apparently one of their forts on the border of the undead army's territory had been taken over. So a quest had gone out to meet up with their representative under the cover of night. In a small grove of trees just outside the line of sight of the fort, stands one peko scout who appears to be jumpy as hell. This is the type of job that only the lowest on the totem pole gets , and so this new recruit is pretty frayed around the edges.

    Setsuna is one of the first to arrive and the scout quickly turns over the entire waiting for people to the guy who will come back to life if they die. " Look they are doing something crazy on the top of that tower and normally we could handle some stupid undead but... the things that come from the top." The scout shrudders. " Handle whats at the top and we will take care of the rest." With that the scout takes off to safer pastures.

    Amalthea has been... Largely quiet since the fiasco of the tenth floor. The old Paladin is finally breaking her reticent absenteeism by being here, now.
    "Right then. Let's get on with it." She murmurs, fingers drumming on the hilt of the sword at her hip.

Schneider shows up shortly. He's wearing a new coat, a flashy one at that, with a bit of 17th century dandy sort of look. Perhaps Gwen has been busy? Or maybe it was a drop from some oscure quest? Either way, he arrives, his flair for the dramatic muted because night time and maybe trying not to be ambushed. He smiles to Setsuna as he arrives and nods agreement with Amalthea. "Indeed. Let us do this thing." He attempts to pose dramatically, with indifferent success.

"Well, fortunately, that /is/ what we excel at," Prophylaxis says with a quiet shrug. Ever since the tenth floor, he too has been somewhat... withdrawn. But unlike Amalthea, it has apparently been due to a very pointed inquest into... something. Something he has yet to inform anyone about. But he has been busy, travelling in and out of the Tower at odd hours of the day. He's tired-- almost as tired as he had been during his first Mood. But as far as anyone has been able to tell, he's not being affected by any kind of strange status effect.

This madness is all of the Doctor's own make.

"It'll be nice to have a break from the usual fare," he says with a fatigued sigh. "Let's burn through some skeletons, shall we?"

    Setsuna watches the guard run off and then tosses his cloak on to the skeleton bodyguard of his. " It's ok Skull he wasn't talking about you. No I don't think he realizes it is better to shatter your kind either. I am sure he understands it takes a super hot fire to burn bone. This isn't really the time for that though." With a sigh Setsuna shakes his head at the skeleton who is just standing there, and made no sound. The necromancer continues to talk though as if they are besties. With a turn to the group Setsuna looks around, "Ok I don't want to wait for anyone else lets get going. Last one there has to pay the tab at the tavern. Oh and lets not get caught, n reason for them to start killing us before we get inside." The group must now get from their current position to the walls of the fort without being caught. Whether that is using local mist and fog to hide themselves, shadows, or simply being extra sneaky and hide among the curves in the ground.

Schneider has a solution for stealth that has nothing to do with sneaking. Which is good because he has no talent for sneaking. What he does have a talent for is overwheling firepower. In this case, it is him chanting darkly, menacingly, "Kaizard, aruzard, kisk! Hansay Glossik! Unleash total destruction! Sage of Hades use the seven keys to open the gates of Hell! HALLOWEEN!"

And the spell he casts begins darkly, but builds up energy as it approaches the camp in the distance in a parabolic arc. Even this far away, the huge flash of the fireburst can be seen, and the explosion felt as it shakes the air, and one imagines people panicking and running around madly and/or on fire. What doesn't happen is people looking around for small parties moving up quietly still some ways off yet, not raising a fuss.

    Amalthea looks at Schneider.
    "What's with the getup?" She asks, but leaves it at that as she looks to the good doctor.
    Briefly, she rummages through her inventory, before offering over a canteen.
    The contents smell like coffee. It is, unfortunately, not hot though.
    "Ever since Merek managed to grow the stuff, I always keep some on hand."
    Moving on though.
    "It's fine, drinks are on me." She volunteers as the group gets moving and she-
    Pulls a Jedi mind trick.
    She picks up a stone.
    Throws it in a random direction away from the group to call attention away from them as they move.
    It totally works.

Coffee!! It may not be hot, but that is easily fixed. The doctor's hand glows as he grasps the canteen, and its contents soon begin steaming. He tosses back a mouthful and then another and a third after that, before finally giving it back. "...Thanks. That helps a whole lot."

Coffee is the cure to many of humanity's ails...!

"You're just not thinking creatively enough, Setsuna," Prophylaxis chides with as much good humor he can conjure (which admittedly isn't all that much, considering the circumstances). "If you rapidly heat the air in the marrow, bones can be made into bombs! For example."

But before he has a chance (or excuse) to demonstrate this theory, the team finds itself enshrouded by mist. In many ways, this is actually quite advantageous. The undead up above can't actually seem to see them in all this soup. "Mmn," Prophylaxis lifts his staff, which seems to have... grown, recently. A pair of new decorations are mounted to either side of the main crystal at its zenith, which even now begin to radiate a chill, freezing wind.

...Which only reinforces and thickens the fog surrounding them. "Keep your heads down," he says with a hushed whisper, "Watch for arrows."

    Setsuna wraps himself in the shadows and moves slowly behind the other more aggressive sorts. With the help of the doctor's fog and Amalthea's rock and oh yes the GIANT EXPLOSION OF DARKNESS, none of the party members are seen as they casually stroll up to the wall of the fort. " Ok you are right, I was not thinking creatively , so mister creative thinker. " Turning Setsuna gesture's to the wall. " How do you plan to solve the wall ? " Yes that is right Setsuna is putting it all on the doctor to come up with a creative solution, "OH and no disintegration." He says as he looks at well mostly everyone, Amalthea isn't known for being a disintegrater.

Schneider smirks as Amalthea notices his coat. "Pretty cool, huh?" he asks, clearly pleased with the acquisition. It looks like something that should be returned to Adam Ant, all lace and fancy braid and cuffs and frilly edging. Having snuck up under cover to the wall, he contemplates how to climb 9 meters straight up. He's not nearly as physical as he was in Real Life, sadly, but there's always magic. "Ba Ko Raven!" he casts, and floats gently up, lifted by arcane levitation, depositing him on top before the brief spell fades out. Not enough to fly, but enough for that quick boost.

    "Do I look like a Mandalorian bounty hunter to you?" Amalthea notes with a mild chuckle.
    Before she goes through her inventory again.
    She lets the doctor keep the coffee, she has plenty more where that came for as she pulls out...
    ROPE.
    DAGGER.
    >Action>Inventory>COMBINE...

    ROPE+DAGGER Will make SHITTY GRAPPLING HOOK.

    Create this item?
    >Y/N?

    Amalthea has made a shitty grappling hook. Which she hurls up the wall and uses to start scaling.

Oh no, his creative mind is being challenged! Prophylaxis stares at Setsuna, then looks to Amalthea and holds his arms up, "Amaltheaaaa, carry me please."

She's the tank, it's her job to carry the party. Right? RIGHT??

    Amalthea pauses mid-climb... Scoots down... Hauls Prophylaxis over her back. And resumes climbing.

"Yaaaaay," Prophylaxis says from over Amalthea's shoulder, dangling like a ragdoll. But he still has time to shoot Setsuna a smirk

    Setsuna shakes his head at the doctor, " That's not exactly solving the problem. That is relying on others to solve your own problems. " WIth a sigh he reaches out and uses earth magic to add comfortable hand and foot ledges form himself and his skeleton buddy. Up, up , up they go and while it may be that he is a little slow he gets up to the top as well out of breath. " Damn...I ... think...I .... need ...more....cardio." He really is in poor shape it seems. Looking over he sees stairs down into the courtyard and just slowly moves himself down, kicking a discarded helmet off as he does. There is a loud BOOM

     It appears on the wway out the Peko knight's mined the courtyard and judging by the swiss cheese of the ground and the recent explosion not all of the mines have been found. If someone was good at puzzles they could probably figure out the placings, a light foot, or even knowledge of such traps would help as well. The tower they need to get in to stands in the center of the court yard. In times like these the only warning is to give is to watch one's step.

Schneider looks over the minefield ahead, and nods gravely as he says, "I think I've worked out the cues." He takes one step forward and explodes. The explosion catapults him into the air, where he lands heavily on another mine, exploding again, catapulted up again. He repeats this process two more times before the catapulting him clear of the mines, down most of his HP and looking disshevelled and worse for wear.

"The power of friendship is still a power, Setsuna," Prophylaxis answers with a knowing nod as the party makes its way into the courtyard... And the literal minefield that it has become. Of course, before Prophylaxis can complete his analysis, Schneider has already taken a step forward into a bomb, forcing him to take a moment to administer some first aid...

Whereupon someone else might also set off a mine, leading to yet more distraction. It's only when EVERYONE is done exploding that Prophylaxis can finally take a breather and explain: "They expected zombies to shamble straight for the tower. So we can probably find a spiral that's safe to walk from the outer perimeter to the inner one without setting off any more explosives."

    Once she's set the doctor down at the top of the wall Amalthea surveys the path beyond.
    "Mines... Watch your-"
    She takes a step forward.
    There is an explosion.
    A chunk of the Tank's HP drops precipitously as she coughs.
    "Ow."

    Yes who would ever let some undead just wander through thee court yard. Setsuna would never , oh wait he did, and like that Setsuna's bodyguard is being blown up and Setsuna's hp is dropping. Fortunately the skeleton knight is still in one piece but Setsuna aches. " Right follow the doctor this time. " Setsuna grabs the skeletons hand and leads him around the mines. Shaking his head as they get to the door. Setsuna tries to walk in and well it's locked. "Ok so we are locked out of the tower. No problem I am sure if..." An arrow strikes the wall next to him as Skeleton archers line the perimeter of the courtyard and draw their bow. It's almost like this was a trap. " Ok so a small problem. We might want to hurry. "

Schneider is feeling much better after some help from the Doc. His own regeneration is surprisingly robust as well. So there may be something to his legend of invulnerability. Or, well, that's how he built this character because of how Dark Schneider was in the anime. But sometimes the tail wags the dog.

He raises both hands when the party is attacked, and chants, "Damedo! Magic Shield!" And his magic shield appears, though under the barrage, it's duration is very limited. Will it be enough? Will it hold while Amalthea works the lock? It seems so, luckily!

You mean...

Lockily.

...

For his hubris, Prophylaxis takes an arrow to the shoulder that he needs to spend precious seconds healing before turning to lend his support to Schneider's successful barrier spell. Sometimes, even narrative puns deserve only the swiftest and fiercest of punishments.

    Arrows.
    Arrows always make things worse. And as one spangs off the pauldron of her armor, Amalthea frowns. Especially when she hears 'the tower is locked'.
    "Cover me for a moment, gentlemen." She requests, pulling a pin from her silvery hair...
    Which she uses to start fiddling with the mechanism of the lock.
    After a moment there is a delightful little clicking noise.
    "Alright, that's done it, everyone inside!"

    Setsuna has the ultimate shield technique as an arrow lies through the air Setsuna uses it, raising his hand...and taking the arrow through the hand. Another arrow and Setsuna repeats the technique. Unfortunately he can only use it twice. Looking at Amalthea as his wounds bleed pixels he seems a little eager but is happy when the door swings open. It's a good thing too as more and more archers are lining up. Quickly they get inside and shut the door as the door is filled with arrows. That poor door died so the party could live. Now to the next enemy, the stairs.

     After the long stairwell up to the top of the tower, they come out on the roof of the tower, and they are surrounded by vampires. Cultist vampires, who were in the middle of a summoning spell it seems. How do you know they were vampire cultist, because that is what it says when you inspect them. How do you know its a summoning spell, because you are standing in the middle of a roof top size summoning circle. How do you know they are coming to kill you? That is becauuse one of them said something villianous to that effect. So now it is time for Scale to do what they do.

Schneider holds the shield up as everyone scrambles inside. This is not quite what he'd planned when in character generation, but it's not bad how it's worked out, and it turns out to be quite useful in unexpected places. Like shielding the party from the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. He can't protect Proph from the fallout for his puns, alas, there's no spell that strong.

Hustling up the tower after the others, he emerges on the top and makes a split second decision. Mind you, for Schneider, Fire is always the first choice. "GUNZENRO!" he shouts, his basic fire enchantment, and FIRE washes over the cultists. Continuously and gratuitously.

    Up the stairwell only to be met by vampire cultists.
    Amalthea flips her sword in her grasp, the blade glowing hot white with holy light as she raises it to show off the cross-shaped hilt.
    "Back foul beasts of the night!" She declares.
    Unfortunately these must not be Christian vampires, as they ignore the cross and she's forced to default to her usual tank tactics while on the back foot, resulting in a lackluster DPS for the encounter.

Hey look, vampires! Vampires which have conveniently arrived /after/ Prophylaxis has finished healing everyone's gaping arrow wounds.

Vampires... which are inconveniently looking to use the party as summoning fuel.

"Hey Setsuna," Prophylaxis begins, his staff-unwielding-hand glowing with an awesome power. "I'll give you that skeletons are probably resistant to fire, but did you know that Vampires are definitely not?"

To demonstrate, Prophylaxis extends his glowing hand and unleashes a cone of castigating flame, burning a good chunk of the swarming vampires to ash in an instant.

    Setsuna looks at the vampires, and then looks over at the skeleton knight as he touches the sword. With that the sword lights on fire and he gives a few hand motions. " Take their heads." With that the skeleton knight charges in with the flaming sword slashing away as Setsuna watches. " They definately are not. In fact they make good kindling if you ask me. " With a grin he watches the destruction around.
     When all is said and done the last vampire cultist lays on the summoning circle dying before the knight takes it's head and blood drips out on the summoning circle. The blood activated summoning circle. A moment later there is a loud crack , and a pop and then an imp and a giant spider appear both look very confused. Then they are pulled into each other and are mangled and made into a drider, and then as if to make it an added touch the magic finishes it off by literally turning it into an undead drider. The carapace wears the skeleton bone like armr as it chitters forward hungering for living flesh.

Schneider's first inclination is to use Fire, but that seems to do no good. Magic, likewise, turns out to be ineffective. After a number of false starts and ineffective strategems, Schneider is reduced to hauling out his starter sword. That, sadly, he turns out to be not particularly good with.

    The vampires are dead! Yay!
    The thing they summoned... Still comes into the chamber.
    "Oh, nads." Amalthea mutters at the grotesque sight of the spidery beast. But she steps right into tanking position.

    "Anchor Howl!"

    And pulls all the hate onto herself so the others can DPS the thing into the ground, even with their starter swords.

Oh.

Oh, well, that is certainly a horrible spider-ghoul-shaped-problem, that is. Prophylaxis stares at it for a good long moment before Amalthea hurls herself into its terrible aggro radius. "Well," he decides, lifting a peculiar crystal out of his inventory, "About a good a time as any."

He crushes the gem with one hand. The sound of glass shattering reverberates through the air. Prophylaxis... takes several leisurely steps forward, with the only indication that something is wrong being that his eyes are approximately the size of dinner plates.

...And that he's seamlessly evading each of the monster's sizable cleaves with the absolute minimum of effort, until he's close enough--

To stab it through the thorax with his gauntlet's extending tendril, the limb burrowing deep into its body before erupting out of the back of its skull.

"Job's done," he says, stepping away and withdrawing his artificial tentacle. "Or, mostly. Undead are always hard to gauge."

    Setsuna looks at the the drider thing and tilts his head. " I never though of using summoning magic to make monsters." What an odd concept, staring for a moment before he uses his wn summoning magic and how does he use it. He summons a giant rock , to drop the giant rock on the drider. Cracking the armor and allowing weak points to show. The drider moves to attack the summoner before turning to instead attack Amalthea. Meanwhle the good doctor seems to attack the weak spots with the skills of a surgeon and the thing falls dead leaving only the bones to be collected. As if bby some magic all in it self, killing the monster seems to have cleared the mist and fog for a moment allowing everyone on the tower to see something. There off in the distance if another fort , flying the Helena's flag. The fort is surrounded by her army as they practice and prepare. It is easy to see that just because it is winter, the undead have not been hibernating.

Schneider looks up as the fog clears, showing another fort in the distance. "Well, there's more work ahead of us while we train up for the Floor Ten thing," he says. "Wish I knew what to do about that..."