Duty Session 339: Karluin Reclamation - Labyrinth

Once more, into the depths!

The Scale Emblem, devoid of anything to do but grind <s>boars</s> goblins for loot and EXP until they manage to massively overlevel the tenth floor boss, has been relentlessly raiding the Karluin underground. Now, another such expedition is set to begin, this time led once more by the Alliance's supposed command corps. Prophylaxis stands near the gate to the underground maze, his staff resting against his shoulder. The air is dank and damp and smells vaguely of petrichor with the faint but sharp tang of goblin-filth. It's dark, almost oppressively so, and the cait sith magus has prepared a set of lanterns for the party to take into the depths.

"So," he says to those gathered, "Everyone ready to do some spelunking? There are supposedly some fairly ancient ruins down in here, and I'm of half the mind to see what we might be able to find /other/ than goblins. Of course, if we run into goblins, that's fine too."

    To be fair, grinding boars is a valid means to get to level 60 and attain the Sword of A Thousand Truths.
    Amalthea has not yet gotten the Sword of A Thousand Truths yet, but she is here; wrapped up in her cloak, th old tank purses her lips in thought.
    "Ruins, huh? More than just goblintown you mean? Should be interesting."

Vertina cracks one set of knuckles into the palm of the other hand. "Whatever it is, I'm ready to punch or kick it into submission." It doesn't take a whole lot to get the Salamander revved up for some dungeoneering, fighting and looting. Mostly due to how much of a daredevil she already is. "Usually seems to be goblins or weird Alve forgotten automatons, though."

    A recent entry into Obsidian, Fukaziroh's been proving her worth on various dungeons and other adventurer guild duties. To her, a mission such as this isn't a grinding milk run either. It's pushing her limits. Still, she's proven useful before and intends to do so again! All according to keikaku.

    Even so, something in her can't help but provoke a little mischief before things get too serious. "SIR!" she calls out, addressing Prophylaxis and saluting. Neither of which are required or even asked for. "Why are we spelunking? The guild request mentioned a mission of cave exploration!" she adds, trying her best to seem earnest and deadpan serious. It may not be entirely successful.

    Setsuna was here, after being lost in the damn maze after getting himself nearly blown up by a peko, well it's been a interesting few days. The necromancer had left his pets down on the first floor , he had to learn to fight his own fights at some point. " Spelunking yes if that's what you want to call it. Most people would call it slaughtering an entire kingdom of it's residences and trying to take their home. It's only ok though because they are monsters. So lead the way Doc. "

Schneider replies to Prophylaxis, "I'm not supposed to go spelunking, my mother said that I'd go blind. But I'm good with fighting goblins." He's here in his new coat and feeling pretty positive about things, even after dying on the tenth floor. That sucked pretty hard, but it's made him even more determined to beat it the next time. Grinding levels is his best plan as well, though, or rather his only plan, so here he is. "These goblins are toast," he promises. And with his spell selection, is probably a prophecy also.

"They're Goblins, Setsuna," Prophylaxis deadpans right back at the monster tamer. "I'm not for slaughtering them because they're monsters, I'm for slaughtering them because they're /goblins./ There's an entire damn moon full of the bastards, so it's not like there's any risk of running out any time soon. I just don't want them hijacking the train and using it to murder any of our neighbors. The fact we get a city out of it is some really nice gravy."

But everyone else seems to be all for the task of GOBLINCIDE, so onwards they go! The gates to the labyrinth slide open, pulling the ancient stone slab aside. What they find behind it is.......

...Another door!?

This one looks like it's a more recent, if ramshackle construction. And also locked. "Huh, do they know we're coming from this direction?" Prophylaxis taps his chin, then shrugs. "Alright, everyone. Looks like the goblins have another door for us to work through. Let's start tearing it down, but keep your eyes open for an ambush."

You never know, with goblins.

Schneider's answer to locked doors is, of course, FIRE. "GUNZENRO!" he shouts, and sends raw fire toward the door, where it strikes like physical force, burning off the outer layers immediately and leaving deep scortchmarks as evidence. The metal bits are heated to glowing, and ping nicely as he steps back to appreciate his handiwork.

Vertina pfff. "They're going to need more than doors to keep us out." Vertina walks up, raises one of her strong kicker legs, and gives the door a good smash with her heel. "COMIN THRO--OOOW!" She jerks back, hopping a few steps on her other foot while clutching the one she kicked with. "What the freakin' hell!?" The door may be ramshackled, but that means it's probably barred up on the backside to reinforce it, and she unfortunately kicked one of the supports.

    "Mmmmm." Amalthea keeps to herself on the topic of goblin genocide. She simply opts to inspect the new locked door.
    "I think I can handle this--" She says, pulling a pin from her hair.
    Before others begin demolishing the door.
    Amalthea just slips her hair pin back into place, a large bead of sweat forming on the side of her brow.

    No one seems to bite at Fukaziroh's supposed ignorance of what Spelunking means, but gives an appreciative smirk Schneider's way when he makes his own comment on the subject. Yeah no, she's not entirely innocent. It puts a bounce in her step as she marches along with the group, arms swinging entirely too enthusiastically.

    Her answer to the door is considered. Fire is nice, yes, but she doubts she can exceed Schneider's attack. Lockpicking is worthwhile, but ... huh, the door's barred from the other side or something? Or hey, who knows? She shrugs. "I ain't gonna kick that, not when it's glowing." she says. Of course she's also a puny Sylph who probably masses about as much as dandelion fluff, so kicking doors down is probably not her best idea. Instead she winds up and whacks the door some with her monstrously huge battle axe; much sound and fury signifying little.

    Setsuna looks up into the sky, only to see the ceiling but it's obvious he is tryng to see the moon. "I am just pointing out , we don't know how this could long term effect the ecosystem of this world. What if goblins have some resistance to a disease that we need in a year and all the ones near byare gone. Now we have to get to the moon and back before the world all dies off. " He is trying to be serious really, but there are cracks to his expression of a smile. Stepping at the door he looks over at Vertina and the others not working other methods, " Just one good push it ccan't stop us all right?"

"We can always get more goblins if that turns out to be the case," Prophylaxis groans and answers Setsuna. "It'll be /fine./ It's not like goblins wouldn't stab you in the back the moment you get done trying to negotiate with them, anyway."

Perhaps he's been hanging out with the Slayer for too long.

You know, there's something to be said for subtlety. It doesn't take long at all for Amalthea to pick the lock, the old, rusty thing falling to the ground with a solid clang. By any metric, the door should be /open/ now, but...

...There's... a wall behind the door.

...

Fire is applied, setting the entire thing ablaze, but from there, it's a matter of physically pulling apart the remaining support structure.

It takes... an obnoxiously long time. What dark forces did these goblins invoke to build this wall!?

But time is all it takes. The party finally manages to break through, and makes it a little further into the depths, when suddenly...

There's a sound of chains being dragged across the ground. Up ahead, there in the dark, there are a handful of goblins leading a troupe of captives all bound up in chains deeper into the tunnels. It doesn't seem like the party has been noticed yet, so...

Time for... an ambush of their own?

Sneaking? Oh man did you bring the wrong Salamander.

That and Vertina is still annoyed at having to break down the rest of the wall the hard way. So much so that she picks up a few of the pieces of rubble and just chucks them down the passage. Long range counts if they can't see where they're thrown from far away, right?

Right?

    That door totally had it coming. Well, the door, the wall behind it, ALL had it coming. Fukaziroh and the others go to town, eventually managing to reduce it to rubble that can no longer block their way. A little tired and somewhat annoyed at goblins, Fuka marches on.

    The sight of goblins earns her a little grin. Stay back and launch spells? NAH, the only good spells she has are too likely to hurt innocent captives. Instead she chants a few quiet words. "Stealth" she says dramatically. Not that she has much in the way of stealthy spells, but the shadows around her do seem to darken slightly. It's enough to allow her to get close, and her axe should help take care of the rest of the matter! "Fukaziroh, freer of the enslaved!" she cries out as she pounces, Chopstick leading the way!

Schneider simply applies FIRE to the door /until it opens/. It'll happen /eventually/, and it's not like he's going to run out. Not of the milder sort of everyday fire he's using on the door. But a wall behind the door? "Well, they tried." As to damaging the ecosystem, he says to Setsuna, "It's a game. There is whatever the game designers write in."

So, ahead there are goblins with prisoners. That makes fireballs a bad plan. Unless the prisoners are made of asbestos. Guessing that they're not, Schneider will creep forward quietly, drawing the dark about him like a cloak, and sneak up on the goblins, until he's just about right on top of them. Then a wall placed lance of fire consumes one almost entirely, but it's too late for them to run, and they're too busy defending themselves to take a moment to slaughter the prisoners, which can happen if they have time.

    Well at least the door issue is handled. But beyond that, the sound of chains and captives up ahead makes Amalthea scowl.
    Landers. Lowbies. It doesn't matter to her; the fact that the goblins would be monstrous enough to take people captive in such away has the old paladin Very Displeased.
    It's almost surprising how she can move so quietly in that heavy armor she wears, dark cloak blending into the shadows, before she's suddenly behind a goblin.
    With one hand covering its mouth so it can't make a sound, there's a quiet hiss of a sharp exhale as she drives her sword through the thing's back, causing all the air to rush out of its lungs before it reduces to red pixels.

    Setsuna looks at the wall behind the door, "Who would put a wall behind a door, what idiot would think hey we have a door here but we wanted a wall." With a groan and annoyed at the time loss Setsuna happy when they can proceed. Then of course there is a patrol of goblins coming. With a mutter of words he steps back into the shadows and is gone from sight. The moment a goblin walks by he has every intention of slitting it's throat.

Clearly, there's only so much that goblins can do to keep adventurers from tearing through their carefully-mapped tunnels. Worse, they keep doing things to /piss them off./ Just walking a bunch of captive landers and newbies out in front of a bunch of bloodthirsty adventurers, it's almost /begging/ to have the hammer of god come down and slap them upside the head.

Or in this case, a tossed rock that beans one across the skull and has all the rest of the goblins suddenly on alert. It doesn't help them.

What follows is a veritable slaughter. Amalthea drives her sword through one goblin's heart, as Fukaziroh buries her axe into another's brain. Before the remaining escorts can shout for aid, a burning lance pins one to the wall and a dagger out of the dark slits the third's throat. Prophylaxis quietly emerges to usher the captives back towards the front door and out of harm's way. All in all, it's a well executed ambush, all goals are achieved.

...And then the goblins spring /their/ ambush.

The Goblin King is a shrewd tactician, and has trained his underlings well. For the price of a quintet of goblins, he has lured the adventurers into a trap that could see them all laid to waste. A small horde of green, snarling faces emerges from the nearby tunnels, stabbing with poison-laden daggers and tearing with filth-encrusted claws...!

But there are only so many times a goblin can pull an ambush like this before the adventurers grow wise to their tactics. Perhaps they can still turn this one around...?

    Has Setsuna learned how to raise a shield of dark energy to protect himself from goblin ambushes? No not really, in fact it is a very poor shield when a goblin can stab a blade through it. Fortunately Setsuna is getting more resistant to their toxins, so he has that going for him. Which is nice.

    Fukaziroh fends off goblins with frantic swings of Chopstick, fortunately not putting the rest of the party in too much peril from sweeps of the heavy blade. She holds the haft close, choking her swing, and lets others more suited to physical confrontations take the main brunt. As a result she's actually able to spot something others might miss. "There!" she points with the head of her axe. The goblins are ambushing from all around, but she's spotted what she thinks is their true point of origin. A tunnel a little more travelled, a little more guarded.

A goblin jumps of Vertina's back, but before he can gouge her neck she reachs over her shoulders to grab the back of his jerkin, jerk him off, and spins around to throw him back down the dark passage. The collision with other goblins can be heard. Even as more keep swarming out with their rusty poisoned weapons.

"Finally." Vertina flexes her arms at her sides, deplying the direclaw blades from the backs of her cestus. "This is the part of dungeon delving I excel at!"

The floor beneath her seems to rumble as she launches off of it, hurtling into the horde to slam her heel into another one's face with much more success than she did witht he door. She twists on the impact, so she can land on her feet, and parry a knife by spearing the goblin's wrist with her direclaws. "We are not trapped in these ruins by you...."

She twists to snap his wrist, then rips her claws free and grabs his knife to turn and plunge it into another goblin's eye, then rip several more apart with the direclaws in quick, vicious succession. "YOU'VE TRAPPED YOURSELVES HERE WITH US!"

She's happy with committing goblin genocide on levels that would make Slayer proud.

Since we're escorting the prisoners back, Schneider has shield spells ready, and he drops them as needed to protect himself and his allies from the goblin ambush. He uses his sword, which he's not very good with it, but that doesn't matter, it's enough that he can protect himself and his share of the prisoners while the party makes short work of the unufortunate ambush.

    Unlike the last time she was down here... This time... This time Amalthea is ready for the 'ambush' that follows.
    Taking up a position at the fore of the group, the old paladin starts spamming every taunt and hate-generating skill she has to hold attention on herself while the group lays into the goblins.
    "Not this time you little blighters..." She mutters, bashing a goblin's face in hard enough with her shield toe reduce that one to pixels to.
    Until Fuka finds a path.
    "Everyone push for that tunnel, now!"

The Scale Emblem is, at least, getting *incredibly* good at countering goblin ambushes. Truly, the Slayer would be proud with the way Vertina transforms the tunnel into a maelstrom of blood and viscera. They're helpless to do much of anything but pound away at Amalthea's shield as they're torn to so many ribbons and soon disintegrate into plumes of red light. They're /ready/ for this ambush, even Setsuna and Prophylaxis, who have the poor fortune of being riddled with most of the poisoned weaponry, are prepared.

...More the latter than the former, because Prophylaxis has learned to pack /many/ antidotes.

Funneled away from the Scale encampment by Schneider's quick thinking, the goblins that survive retreat down the very same corridor Fuka managed to pick out in the murk. It is indeed more well-guarded than the others, but there's little stopping the carnage now...

At least until the party finds themselves staring down a set of makeshift fortifications, setting up a ramshackle kill-box manned by a full dozen goblins. The wooden gates slam shut as the last of the survivors makes its way inside, leaving the Scale (plus one) little choice but to break their way inside. Already, they can hear goblins preparing for battle on the other side of the wall, but...

That's fine.

They'll just rip and tear until it's done.

    "Ugh. Goblins make me SICK!" complains Fukaziroh as the group continues slaughtering their way through the ranks of the enemy. "Or is that just the poison?" she muses thoughtfully. Either way she's going to be just fine with some basic healing and antidoting... so far at least!

    Taking it easy a bit as the group continues on through goblin tunnels, Fuka's eyes light up when she sees the fortifications. "CHAAAAARGE!" she cries out, suiting deed to voice, and yet carefully staying behind some of the bigger, tankier fighters as she does so.

    No matter really, as once the line of adventurers hits the goblin fortifications Fuka's quick to move in and start hacking away. She only really needed the shelter of tanks from the missile fire, and can take care of herself just fine in a murderous melee. Or, for that matter, take care of her share of goblins.

    A fort. A goblin fort. Under the ground.
    And the party is funnelled into a killbox.
    Amalthea's shield is brought to bear, once again storming forward and spamming her taunts to hold as much hate as she can while the others tear their way through.

    Setsuna really hated the small confines of these caves. They didn't let him move around and when he tried he kept bumping in to people so all he could do is try to manage his shield and hold out long enough for others to do the killing. Another slash from another poison dagger, oh hey this one at leaast makes him feel kinda floaty. Probably a tranquilizer based poison, this isn't so bad.

Schneider grimaces as our rescue/assult operation stumbles into the goblin's main fortification. "DAMEDO! Magic Shield!" he casts, the better shield to make sure it holds up, protecting himself and the rescuees while the hitting people smash the hell out of the goblins. How /Schneider/ fell into the role of defense is a matter of speculation, it was not part of his plan. But he /can/ play any role, so go teamwork.

Vertina is already on a goblin pixilating rampage, she's not slowing down now!

She dashes through, ignoring arrows and slings fired in her direction as she screams a warcry that could rival the roar of dragons. Then leaps onto one of the fortifications, encasing one fist in earthen material and smashing it through the wood. It's messy, but it's effective. She grabs one of the Goblin guards hiding behind it by the neck, and yanks back to slam him into the wood several times before he finally dissolves into red spray and motes. Leaving Vertina to happily smash the rest of the way through the structure, sending other goblins fleeing as the barricade collapses around them. "YOU BETTER RUN YOU LITTLE GREEN BITCHES!"

There's ittle stopping the Scale Emblem (+1) at this point. Beyond just handing out healing items, Prophylaxis aids in the defense by amplifying Schneider's barrier. Crude arrows clatter against the protective veil and fall to the ground uselessly. What few manage to get through instead plink against Amalthea's formidable armor. They're desperate and vulnerable, utterly failing to expect Vertina's advance on their fortifications, nor the ultraviolence that she brings to bear. With the goblin ranks in chaos, Fuka is free to tear through the barricade basically unmolested. Soon, the wood gives way, and reveals a vast underground chamber...

...Full of goblins.

"Kill them all!" Prophylaxis orders, flame dancing atop the head of his staff. "Burn this camp to the ground! The more we defeat, the fewer there will be to stand in our way. Cut them down and advance!" It looks as though the goblins are salvaging some of the local Elemental Machines for their own purposes, but now they're all far too busy trying to mount a defense against the unstoppable force that just kicked down their front door.

It's going to be a long, messy slaughter-- but given who's here to administer it, it's unlikely there's going to be much blood left by the time they're done.

    Setsuna felt good, stumbling around here and there as he walks along with the group and shivers as little as they get to the goblin chamber full of goblins. "It's to cold in here , I'm going to turn the AC off." With out giving a moment hesitation he lashes out with fire everywhere. It was all in an attempt to warm himself up fortunately it causes him to sweat off the poison and will be much more coherent in a moment.

    "BRING IT!" Fukaziroh yells, seemingly lost to a berserker rage from the presence of foul goblins, overdoses of poison and antidotes, or possibly both. She raises her axe, awaiting the charge of seemingly endless goblin hordes.

    Only to abruptly grin, spin the axe point-down, and use the haft of it like a staff to point at the largest concentration of mobs before her. "Gonna AXE you all to BURN!" she cries. There's a reason she sought the fireball spell. Her axe fighting is kind of her specialty, the prime skill of her primary class. But she specced into enchanting so she could enhance her axe abilities, to blind and handicap her foes. And after that, she knew her one glaring weakness was the likelyhood of getting overrun with foes. Hence the great gouts of fire she lays about her, flame echoed by most of the party. It's quite impressive actually. Unfortunately it also causes a lot of smoke and dazzle... and they might well just lose track of the Goblin King while slaughtering the minions.

The Doc says to burn the camp. "Gladly!" Vertina smiles in a way that shows small yet fierce fang-like teeth like only a half-dragon girl can. Though she does give the camp a thoughtful look. "This is going to take a lot of fire though."

Which is why she pulls -two- of her flasks from inventory, one in each hand, removing the corks with her thumb claws. Proceeds to double-chug both at once. Discards the empty flasks.

One flask of flammable alcohol and volatile alchemical ingredients is her -normal- means of amply her fire breath. When she goes for two, the resulting conflagaration is intense, entire waves of scorching flame washing out across the goblin compound as she exhales. Not to mention the extra chemcials make it cling to anything it falls upon, goblin or structure. It's like turning her breath into a magical napalm flamethrower.

    You know what happens next?
    After breaking through the fortifications and into the teeming mass of goblins... As soon as Prophylaxis says 'kill them all', Amalthea's sword lights on fire.
    And she proceeds to wade right into the goblin horde, expression grim, as she cuts down greenskin after greenskin.

Schneider laughs as we burst through the barricade into /more goblins/. "Well," he says, a smile on his lips. "I think I see a solution for this." And that solution is fire. "GUNZENRO!" he casts, and fire leaps into the goblins, burning them by the dozens. "GUNZENRO!" he launches over and over, each strike taking out a group of the goblins. There's more, but he's got more where that comes from.

Let it never be said that the ability of the Scale Emblem (and friends) to reduce a battlefield to ash, ember and fading memory was ever in question. Goblins flash-boil and pop like grease and gristle hotpockets left too long in a microwave. They barely have a chance to scream before being set aflame by one of the many dozens of spells being flung into their horde. Where they charge in, they are met by Amalthea's burning blade. If there's any joy to be had in this carnage, it's that cooked goblin smells significantly better than raw, for how little time their charred corpses retain physical form. Soon, there's little left of the goblin encampment but dust in the wind.

If the Goblin King /was/ here, he is certainly either long gone, or buried under the mounds of ash. Either way, this camp has been eradicated.

...Mostly.

Shadows descend from the cavern ceiling, each brandishing a wicked-bright sickle and malevolent grins filled with too many rows of jagged, rotting teeth. The aura of menace they exude is unmistakable-- these are redcaps.

...There are many more of them here than there had been on the streets of Karluin. Has the Goblin King been keeping this many in reserve for a reason, or has he been getting... reinforcements from somewhere...?

It matters little. Prophylaxis looks to his party and then to the redcaps. "Finish it," he orders. "We're not done until these monsters are all dead and gone."

The goblins have misjudged the party if they mistook our eagerness to slaughter goblins for a failure to pursue the king. Scale did precisely what it meant to do, which was KILL MORE GOBLINS. Schneider, in particular, is in entirely good spirits as the elite goblin assassins attempt to take advantage of some perceived weakness in the party.

A better question might be why Schneider knows holy scripture, but in mastering sorcery and power to the level he has, he seems to have done so. The Red Caps are known to be weak to it, so of course Schneider will take advantage, speaking runes that can't be heard as he chants out the Holy scripture that will cripple them and leave them entirely vulnerable to a damned solid pounding.

"And keep the change, you filthy animals," he quips, because tha's what you say after you've just beaten the snot out of someone who thought they were about to work you over.

    Fukaziroh blows out her entire stock of mana on the goblin horde, drunk with firepower, and is ill-prepared for the sudden assault of deadly magic-wielding goblin assassins. Ill-prepared, however, isn't unprepared. She raises her axe. "You FOOLS! Never underestimate the power of a tiny battle fairy!" she shouts.

    Then, Fukaziroh proves why her primary class is Heavy Blade. Given how much magic she generally uses on these dungeons, it might come as a shock just how effective she can be in melee despite her small size. Then again, the shock might also be how she lunges forward with a thunderclap, using the dregs of her reserves to power her first strike, then continuing to hew away at foes that, while kind of scary, are actually smaller than she is.

Vertina huffs and pants a few times. That effort took the breath from her, literally and metaphorically speaking. Exhausted, sure, but that was only her fire power. Not that it doesn't stop her from leaning against a bit of smoldering wreckage. "Well that's a lot less Goblins to worry about." Being an athelete she's got a good deal of stamina to spare. Doesn't mean she's beyond taking a break at the chance, though.

A break that's broken when a sickle cuts into the rubble she's leaning against, Vertina jerking away from it with split-seconds to spare. It's that whole sixth sense thing martial artists have. "Guess there's still some trash left to take out!"

The Redcap pulls his sickle free, and leaps at her again with an angrish goblin jibbering!

Which gets interrupted as Vertina spins around, whipping up one of her legs as it start to glow with a supernatural sheen. "KI BUSTER!" The divine infused foot SLAMS into the Redcap's midsection, intercepting his pounce and obliterating him via STAB weakness damage.

    Setsuna looks at the red caps as he gets a little clear head and takes a deep breath. " Well ok I will admit, there are some goblins that just need to die. " Setsuna walks up to one of the red caps and makes some hand gestures trying to say they are about to go mono v mono. The red cap takes a moment before it swings at Setsuna and Setsuna responds by tackling the red cap and they both blink away.

...

...
...

...Setsuna reappears from somewhere wearing the red cap's cap. What happened to the previous owner, only Setsuna knows.

    With goblins slain only for more skilled red-cap wearing goblins to emerge, Amalthea turns upon the green-skinned blighters.
    Though her DPS is a little lacking, once again she spams her taunts to hold their attention while the others handle them more properly.
    But when all is said and done, she sheathes her sword and heaves a slow breath.
    "We'll have these caves cleared yet."

A few months ago, even just /one/ of these creatures would have given a full party of adventurers trouble. Now, after having slain so many goblins (and possibly acquired an Alliance-wide buff to combat against goblins in the process), the Scale Emblem is as unstoppable before them as they are before the Redcaps' common brethren.

With holy words on his lips, Schneider recites divine scripture that causes each of the vile assassins to cringe and recoil, their unholy auras dwindling away. Bereft of their protection, they're easy prey for the others. With a single kick, Vertina shatters her opponent into so many glowing shards of light, and frees herself to pummel any of the others that still stand. Fukaziroh becomes a (relatively) tiny blender of exhausted, adrenaline-driven fury that does not stop until her foe is a bloody smear. The Red Cap tries to deflect the fatal blow with its scythe, only for Chopstick to cleave clean through the vile steel and the goblin behind it in a single blow.

She is tired, but victorious.

Elsewhere, Amalthea engages her own assassin in a battle of attrition. The Redcaps are used to swift, lethal engagements, but bleeds her dearly before she can deliver a killing blow. Regardless of how easily they have been dispatched today, it's important to remember that these monsters are lethally dangerous indeed.

Though perhaps less dangerous than Setsuna, who...

Disappears into Heaven-only-knows where and does God-only-knows-what to his own dance partner, only to reappear wearing its cap. As for Prophylaxis...

He lashes a boulder to the end of his strange metallic tendril, wielding it like a clumsy ball and chain. It isn't until the goblin goes to deflect what appears to be a clumsy blow that his ruse is revealed. The stone cracks on impact, each spiderwebbing fissue glowing the colors of fresh magma... Before exploding into a makeshift, magical cannon shot directly into the Redcap's skull.

It falls and disintegrates, and the cavern is finally silent. Each of the monsters has left behind a token of the adventurers' victory today, though-- a bloody, red cap soaked in dark magic. It'll probably be useful for... something or other, surely.

While Fukaziroh is doing a great job being a Redcap grinding blender, Vertina steps in to help just to be sure the axe maiden doesn't get overwhelmed.

By helpfully grabbing one of the Redcaps that try to back away from Chopstick, and with a sly "Now where are you going? She's still axing you to play with her~" shoves him back into the unrelenting arc of the weapon. That's another one dead... and his cap comes off in her hand as he dies. Huh.

Vertina takes a look at it. Sniffs at it... and then blarghs loudly as she holds it away from herself at arm's length and between her fingers. "Gag! I thought I smelt alcohol on it... but I smelt too many OTHER things I don't WANT to know what they are, too."

It's promptly thrown into her inventory... though maybe she'll try to wring out whatever booze is stained in the cloth with the blood to see if it's anything useful....

Schneider smiles as the party puts paid to these Red Caps, smashing them, and hard. So hard. So very hard. Schneider plows the last couple Red Caps with fireballs while the party pounds the hell out of them.

Picking up the red cap that falls from one, he stuffs it in his inventory without more than a cursort inspection.

    Setsuna looks around at the empty room as he takes the cap off his head and yawns a little as he looks at the doctor. " So now what? Do we keep going? " It's a question as he looks around still in decent enough shape, ignoring the poison from earlier having ate half his health bar. He's fine though, really.

Prophylaxis stands astride a mound of smoldering remains of what used to be goblin and looks to Setsuna, then shrugs. "Ehhhh? I'm pretty satisfied with the amount of goblin slaying that we've pulled off here today. How about we just head home for the day and call it a win?"