Duty Session 342: Reclaim the Peko Fort

June being June has picked up a party quest without a party, but hey someone is always around right? So she shoots of random party invites until enough people decide to join her in working liberate the Peko fort from the undead forces. The frumpy woman in her best barbarian princess getup just in it for the win it and if she can't find some Sleeping Knights who aren't busy... well other adventurers aren't like out of the question so just invite anyone is her motto.

Schneider is around in the area, working on some tactical plans and when a random invite comes in from a familiar source, he'll accept it. "Hello," he says to June, following her and flipping his cloak dramatically behind him. He chuckles with amusement, and asks, "So, who are we ending today?" It's taken as given that we are not here to deliver ice cream or takeout, nor are we here to walk grannies across the street. He grins widely, and his teeth glint in pure /cool/ power.

Erufu is always looking for supplies, she has a project for a new bow she wishes to get forged. However that will need materials or thing she can sell or the materials. SO here the Elf is with a big old grin on he face.

"So we got to liberate this place from the undead? Sounds lkike a plan to me."

She pauses looking at Schneider for a moment.

"A wizard are you I take it?"

As luck would have it not only did Shiruba get June's party requests, but she was actually back on this side of the worlds. Initially for her training in animal husbandry, but she had been meaning to check out this fort that Setsuna thought would be important to the defense against the Forgotten army while she was, so this was as good of time as any.

She arrives on the quick feet of her Peko. But as soon as the wolfgirl is off his back she sends Tradewind off to backlines where he won't be in immeadiate danger. She's not comfortable with bringing him directly into battle. Yet.

Though when she sees who else is here she smiles a bit. "Hello Erufu! I wasn't aware you'd come back for a time as well."

Tenko being the wanderer she is has found her way to where June is looking for a crew to help her with the Peko fort. The kitsune appears, practically out of nowhere, looking at the gathered group, "It's good to see the travel between the two realms is getting easier. Perhaps eventually we'll be able to speed it up." She says, noting Shiruba and Erufu.

    June smiles at everyone "Thanks for joining in, gotta keep the undead hordes at bay right? I mean if we don't then it'll just be undead everywhere and that'd be boring as hell." she shrugs as she leads the way out to the meeting point. The scout announcing "Oh damn I am so glad to see you all. I thought I was going to get stood up and have to wait out here all night...alone." He seems jumpy "Anyways, normally we would handle this ourselves but there is some weird summoning magic that is happening on the top of the tower that we? well we need to ask you to handle. It's really simple." he points to the tower with a magical glow at the top. "Just get to the fort, over the wall, across the courtyard and you can get into the tower. Stop them from doing the magic up there and we can handle the rest. OH and since I have met up with you I am not sticking around. Just let the hunter guild know if you succeed." he says before dashing off into the night AWAY from the fort.

Shiruba looks up at the tower... and by the time she looks back down the scout is already making haste away now that his job is done. "Can't say I really blame him."

She sighs softly, then steels herself and draws her bow. Though her gaze briefly drifts again, far far away.

Time to make sure no one else has to suffer like you did, Gabby.

Shiruba's grip tightens on the weapon, causing a glimmer in the crystals imbedded in the arms that serve as elemental barreries of a sort. "Let's do this."

Schneider chuckles as Erufu, nods agreement. "A wizard indeed. And you, it seems, are an elf? An elf named Elf? Curious. I, myself, once dated an elf. Half-elf anyhow." His tone gets sly as he adds, "Half /daaaaark/ elf." Poor Arshes Gwen will have a lot to live up to, now! The others get various levels of puzzled look, but he's trying to make a go of the RP thing!

He chuckles as the contact delivers his report and bails. "Well. Looks like it's up to us. But that's always the case, isn't it?"

Erufu says "Just some supplies send some letters to Goblin Slayer and a few others. Also see about getting a commision started. Then I'm off and away to the land of Dragons once more. Undead yeah that's something we shouldn't ignore at all. I'm Erufu good to meer you!"

the Pooka seems very chipper it seems and she's ready to go as she pulls out her bow nodding to the Lander.

"Got it and ahve a good trip back!"

    Merek walks along and with the party, nodding a bit to the people that are there. The man wears the dark attire he often does, with the hood up and a beltcape about the waist. He does wear a strap along the waist, "Alright. It'll be nice to test a few skills."

    Step one, sneaking up to the outpost. This will be a easy... June is positive, the look-outs don't even have eyes. She strokes Shiruba's flufftail "Don't be too impulsive okay? Stay safe." says the woman well known for her drinking smoking, and ending up in bad situations for not actually thinking through consequences. "Okay everyone, lets get in, stop the magic and let the peko knights take this place back." she says with a somewhat manic grin.

    Merek will begin to weave the wind in front of him to provide a cover to his sneaking while he draws along with the party. The man nods a bit, trying to assist in guiding a few of the people. He keeps a hand upon the hilt of a weapon at the hip.

Schneider nods to June about our goals, and will head out, whistling jovially and looking around, setting out on a cool adventure. He looks around at the others, skulking and sneaking and ohs. "Was this supposed to be a hiding thing?" he asks. "I thought we just went in and blew it up?" Schneider and Subtlety, not on the same page in even the most abridged of dictionaries.

Shiruba is absolutely unsurprised to see the fog that typically accompanies the Forgotten Army coating the perimeter. However she's started finding ways to deal with this. She reachs out with her own wind magic, to feel the fog. The feel the air within it shift, particularly when someone else moves through it. Doing so allows her both to keep track of the rest of the party, and to avoid the skeleton guards patrolling it while they approach the outer walls.

Once again the undead are a major problem, as the kitsune takes a good look at what's in front of them. It's hard to make everything out but the group seems to have the right idea with clearing the fog. At least that will give them a good chance at seeing everything they're up against from those damn undead.

Erufu wonder what might await the in this place. It will not be long before she knows the truth of it. She Will take a moment trigger a bow art as she draws he bow and fires it into the mist cauing a strong wind to follow in it's wak which would help to clear the mist so the pary can see what is ahead.

"There we go!"

    June opens the ofuda case on her hip and with a brush quickly writes a few words on a strip of paper for each person and sticks them to everyone's back. The little papers burn away in a flare of air magic that seems to pull fog towards it, helping to cloak everyone and pull the fog behind them to keep a big open space from forming and giving away their path.

    Once they get to the wall it's a tall wall of stone, looks like it's time to climb. Or leap or whatever wave or sword art or physical ability will let them get up the tall wall.

Schneider hrmphs at the wall, he has a spell for this as well. "Ba-co RAVEN!" he shouts, and is catapulted up at high speed. It's not flight so much as a huge magically-powered leap, and it takes him to the top of the wall. In fact, it takes him over the wall and past it, now falling quickly! He panics and yanks a cord on his backpack, and ... what seems to be a parachute flops open. It's a bit low for a full parachute landing, but what happens is the chute fills with air, slows him initially, and there'd be a cycle where the chute would collapse and he'd fall, but more slowly, and it'd open properly. What happens is, the initial slow happens, and then BAM, he's on the ground, tumbling forward, wrapped in white silk and shrouding, from which he frees himself with some difficulty. He climbs out of the parachute harness and starts cramming the white silk back into the pack. It'll never open properly that way, but he can re-pack it properly later. This is just to keep moving.

Shiruba looks up at the wall. "Hmmm." She reachs for her belt quiver, but it's not the grappling arrow someone might expect to see. It is an arrow though, and she does shoot it towards the top of the wall.

Turns out it's one of her Thorn Bind arrows, magically sprouting vines from the point where it hits to dangle down the side of the wall, giving her something to grab onto and pull herself up. Not the fastest means but she's aiming more for not being too noticable more than anything else.

    Merek will take the time to begin to climb, while he nods to the party, "We should probably be mindful of scouts. If there are any," he will note, and watching people to see if anyone needs any assist as well.

Erufu seems to be in a good mood so far as they move onwars the elf has no trouble with find hje way to climb up the wall and with a bit of wall jumping she end up up and over it laughing. 5R
"That was a lot of fun."

With Tenko being a samurai, she doesn't need magic to climb this wall. Instead she breaks out something that should allow her to easily dig into the wall, her own kitsune claws. She hops up to the side of the wall and digs them in. Once she has purchase on the wall, it's easy enough for her to scale it.

    June moves to the wall, and pulls out one of her ofuda, she writes on it in a crisp neat hand with her brush and slaps it on the ground, a pillar of stone lifts her to the top of the wall when the paper burns away in a flash of earth magic.

    Once they get to the top the party is able to see down in the mined courtyard. "Well... this will be interesting." she says fishing an amulet out of her scalemail bikini.

Schneider looks at where the parachute has set him down, and hrms. He looks over the ground thoughtfully, kneeling down and squinting with one eye held as low as possible. Satisfied, he says, "I think I see the pattern, you may follow me if you're not sure." And then he will proceed in a kind of twisty path through the hazardous area. Because apparently being an Explosion Wizard grants you insight into the placement of land mines.

Shiruba finds one of the ladders down the wall, grabbing the sides with her hands and bracing her heels against them instead of using the rungs, allowing her to slide down more quickly than climbing would.

Once on the ground she turns around, and lets out a soft whistle and the scene of carnage. "The Peko Knights did not make this place easy to take over." She knows a few things about traps, being a hunter. She also knows a few things about runes and how they can be used for triggers instead of traditional tripwires or foliage cover due to her sorcerous side. Between the two, isn't that all that hard for her to find a way around what remaining traps might still be active. One goes off... because she shot it with an arrow to set it off intentionally when she could find no way to circumnavigate it.

    Merek will begin to look for the pattern within the maze of the mined place. He then nods a little to the party, taking the time to show at least a little of the way.

Erufu has no issue getting off the wall and she'll pull it off with a three point landing, she's pretty much showing off but there was somerhign the knights left behind for the undead. She stops for a moment and will look over the courtyaard. She's a tracker and hunter by trade after all. She then smiles, very clever Knights she thinks she'll end up hopping skiping and jumping her way though to avoid the traps that she suspects are here.

Tenko's area of expertise is not in trap avoidance. That much is clear when she manages to step on one of the mines. It detonates under her, taking a huge chunk of her health out in one go. It makes her stop in place, after she gets back to her feet, and then take a bit of time to heal up while the others perhaps sort out the best route through the minefield.

    June taps her amulet and it breaks apart in to rings that start to spin, leters and numbers and odd runes glowing in sequence. Then June's eyes glaze a little and she chuckles before bounding off the wall to land in a crater, then she leaps from crater to crater until she runs out of them and then jumps between traps until she reaches the far side. "Half the work was done by the horde." she says

    When they get to the tower they find many a lock and a sturdy door. She smiles "Well... did anyone bring keys... or?" she shifts to an iron scaled bull woman rolling her neck. "Do we bulldoze?" she grins showing off sharp teeth.

They couldn't manage to go undetected forever. Or more likely the sentries are specifically watching for those approaching the tower and they crossed their sight lines.

At the twang of bowstrings Shiruba turns around and then plants her foot to the ground. "Excuse me guys but I need to..." She throws up her arms and a blast of wind sweep through, cycloning around the group to knock several of the arrows right out of the air.

"Brake wind!"

Then glances back over her shoulder. "I don't think we have time to be fussy about how, June."

Having passed through the minefield, Schneider and the others proceed to the base of the tower. "This seems to be our destination," he observes. Unfortunately, it seems there is some pressure on us that makes entry into the Tower somewhat urgent. He used his superleap getting here, so it's either fight a whole undead army, or get into the tower PDQ. A patrol rushes up as we contemplate the lock, and he casts, "DAMEDO! Magic Shield!" The shield springs up, and he uses it to protect the party as the door is worked on. "You'd better hurry," he urges, holding his shield and lobbing fire as best he can. The shield is quite solid, so there's as long as the spell lasts to get through the door.

Erufu is moving along pretyty well she doesn't end up falling prey ot the traps but as they reach a bit of an impass? She will scope out the locks and pause did she hear bones rattling? She die she'll turn her bow and star to counter shot the skeletons the thing is she was thinking more abnout her companions than herself. It does not go so well for her in this case...as she takes seveal hits.

    Merek will try to dodge arrows with the shield which he uses protecting him. Then he nods a bit to the party, trying to protect all of them while he does as well.

Tenko's own attempts to get through the door are not as good as she would like. The locking mechanism is too new compared to what she's practiced on with her usual method. She resorts to switching to one of her small blades, to try to wedge it between the door and jimmy the lock that way. It's not very subtle, but since arrows are rainingd own around the group, subtle is out the window anyway.

    June makes a running charge and slams into the door. Which creaks and buckles but stays standing... it takes more tries, and more than a sliver of HP for the iron clad bull girl to manage getting the door open but thanks to everyones cover at least no one was seriously injured. Once the door bursts open and the team heads up the stairs. Only to find the vampire cultists ready to make with blood sacrifices.

Schneider peers skeptically at the vampire cultists. His expression says that this job is a bit under his paygrade, but he will be dutiful and incinerate the recalcitrant cultists to death. "GUNZENRO!" he shouts, and one of them is consumed almost entirely. He is not happy about it. "GUNZENRO!" Another one goes up like he was made of straw. "They really needed players for this mission?" he asks June as he incinerates cultists off-handedly. "It seems like, y'know, overkill?" At least it is when Shneider's using Fire.

A cult?! A VAMPIRE CULT?!

"Oh this is just all sorts of sick and wrong..." Shiruba growls under her breath, scowling as she composes herself. "You wanted a blood bath, you're going to get it, but it won't be with ours."

She draws several fire imbued arrows from her quiver, the others held between her fingers as she nocks on in her bow. "I made a vow to a friend I would not let others suffer your wicked whims, and I am going to see that vow through to the very throne of your Queen one day..."

She fires, one after the other, as the cult zealots charge. "But if I have to start with taking out the trash like you, so be it!"

The downside is her number of fire arrows are limited, so hopefully her party mates will be able to put out some heavier firepower. Literally. "Don't let them spread us out! We're strongest together, supporting each other!"

    Merek looks to the vampires while he will try to use fire magic on them. The man takes the time to follow along with Shiruba, assisting the way that he can, "Ya, I agree with ya!"

Well she's been shot up a bit but she will live, what she die not expect was one a cult and two them having a party of some sort. She will start to move, her bow is readya nd she'll start taining arrows at the cultist it doesnt' go as well as she'd like but she is at least distracting them.

"Yes, keep them seperated!"

Tenko was not entirely sure what she would find inside of the tower once they were finally inside, however what they did find is not anywhere near what she would have anticipated.

Still she's quick into action as the group strikes, rushing forward, her three tails whipping behind her as they each generate a ball of foxfire. She launches the blasts in three seperate directions, wind magic powering behind the fire in order to propel it with more force, to really strike home on multiple targets, "Take them down fast!"

    June smiles at Schnider "We don't turn into vampires and end up joining the cult." she says to him. Her fangs on display even as she starts praying. "Oh light of the heavens, spirits of purity, empower this servant with the blazing light of your wrath. Let us bring light unto darkness and crush the minons of darkness under hoof." she growls, her iron scales start glowing, a halo of holy light gathering between her horns. Then she charges in, her iron claws, and fangs and horns smash into bodies. That light burns and and sents red rents of 'damage' indicators through the vampires. Until she's stomping at corpses that pixelate under hoof. "I hate vampires... always trying to be sexy till they're trying to chew your throat out."

    A lightning strikes the circle of blood and the Alpha Wyvern goes all dracolich. "Move your asses!"

Almost like the cultists were intended to provide the blood if they couldn't kill any victims. Ugh. That makes her spine shudder enough for her tail to bristle.

"Well that explains the ritual..." Shiruba draws a crystal tipped arrow from her quiver. "Creating more monsters to do their bidding." She draws back, and fires. But not at the now undead wyvern.

She fires it at the ground, from which a formation of dark stone crystal rises up. She does this again and again, creating formations for herself and others to take shelter from the monster's attacks behind. They appear to be made of obsidian and onyx, they can stand up to the heat of some unholy fire breath.

Schneider has spoken too soon about the job being too easy, it seems, but ... what the hell is this? "Alpha Wyvern?" he reads. "How the hell did these scrubs summon that?" But the answer becomes clear very quickly. The answer is 'Not very well'. It seems to be dissolving as we watch, but not before laying out some serious attacks. Schneider summons his magic shield, throwing it up desperately, and it's knocked down by the power of the blow, but he summons another before the writhing monster hurls more death his way. Can he keep shielding until the monster completely dissolves? Taking advantage of some of the others' shields when his is on cooldown, and shielding others when he can, it does look like he can hold out. "Whew!"

    Merek will take the time to begin to defend while he nods a bit to the party, "I think if we can defend until the summon spell is up, we will be able to win!" he notes.

Well the clustis are taken out and no longer a threat to any0one but she's got a horrible feeling about it.

"Win or lose their master was to get its blood it was only a question of whom got it..."

She gets he bow reayd again a new arrow notched. THere's no way she has the skills top stop what's comming She watches in horror as the wyvern becomes udnead. She curses in elvish wait tolkin Elvish? She may just have done so.

SHe's now on the move tdrawing it's ire and keeping on the move it's time to dodge tank.

"Over here come get me!"

Or at least let herself hold out one way or the other this would be over soon.

"Spread out!" Tenko calls to the group, as she moves to one side, evading attacks as they come on, "Don't bunch up, that breath weapon could take out a whole group at once!"

This will have to be a battle of attrition, as the group keeps the wyvern at bay while they evade its attacks. She is rather quick, as opposed to her performance in the minefield earlier, sliding and dodging around strikes from the claws and breath attacks.

    "Damn used my prayers up." the metalic woman mumbles. "Stupid move Junie." she says in Elvish, very certainly Quenya to those who know it. "Move your ass Junie." she continues in elvish her steps snaping against the stone as she accelerates. Trying to dodge and she does so at first until the wyvern's tail catches her in the midsection and off the tower she goes plumeting to her demise... well to a significant HP drop and some time staring up at the sky before she rushes back up the stairs to find the party having weathered the boss battle, and to find the ritual circle breaking apart into dark crystals. June scoops one up... "I think I know where to find myself a gelfling." she says in a playful tone "Yes skesies my dear I think I do." she teases before bumping her hip against Erufu

That's the thing with summons. If you can't outright beat them, you can outlast the magic bringing them into being.

In this case it takes longer, being summoned by a ritual rather than one spellcaster, but the persistance of the Adventurers seems to win out this night in the end.

Shiruba walks over to pick up one of the shards of crystallized dark magic, turning it over and watching the shadowy essense within slosh about. With the other hand she takes out one of her own arcane infused crystalline arrowheads for comparison. "Interesting..." she murmurs, and tucks it away. "Good job guys, but think we've done everything we can do here for now. Let's return to the Army's camp and get this reported to the Hunter's Guild."

The summon can not last forever and it's a good thing a she can't dodge forever she final.,y come to stop and she end up getting a hipbump. She reutn the favour and smirks a bit.

"SO that's your plan huh?"

She'll scoop the up he own sn then smirks a bit.

"So not a bad run. We could make back to my Inn and get something to eat or rest there."

Schneider is standing there panting after a frantic bout of Shield Or Die, which has left his shield entirely sore. Looking around, he sees no more horrible melting monster, and guesses, "We won? Niiice." He grins, collects the ... what -is- that?" He shrugs a bit, stuffs it in inventory. He will investigate it later. But an inn sounds nice....

"You've got an inn? That's pretty cool," he says. "Like with real food and beer and all?"

    June laughs "Hey, I mean where else am I suppose to get immorality." (she said what she said) "Lets get something to eat and drink and smoke and see about a hot bath." she scales vanish leaving her just a somewhat frumpy woman in barbarian finery with a worryingly low HP bar just starting to recover.