Duty Session 346: The Phantom Colosseum

The party gathers at the hastily put together dock (Really, a plank of wood and two large logs that have been shoved into the ground) to board the hired boat to take them to the Atoll. The captain of the boat is waiting there, ready to ship out once the party has gathered and prepared for their journey to the atoll.

"I, Mister Seawolf, don't like this," the Lander begins, stroking his white beard. "The weather looks uncertain. I'm not sure we should be leaving today. Maybe we should wait until tomorrow, when the weather conditions will, hopefully, improve..."

With his only good eye, he casts a telling glance to Uta, who sighs. Coins tingle inside the small pouch when the Spriggan extends it to the Captain. "Now?"

"I'm not sure... the weather suddenly got better, but I still have this hint of a bad feeling..."

A second pouch is extended. "/Now/?"

"Now the weather is juuuuuust fine," grins the seaman, treating the onlookers to the glint of his gold tooth. "Let's get ready to sail!"

    Merek looks along to Uta while he takes the time to adjust the beltcape which he wears with the hood pulled up. About the waist and attire looks to be that strap which he wears, alchemical things placed in it. He nods along to the Lander and begins to board, "Alright, well it looks like we are going to be on an island for a little while."

"And this is why we're making sure she hires someone to handle finacial issues for the lab," Kauchemar remarks to no one in particular from her usual lurking at the back of the forming group. Business negotiation is not Uta's strong suit clearly, but she insisted on being 'in charge' so the Nightmare kept the matter to herself. Instead taking a moment to tuck her midnight glamrock mane back so she can pull up the hood of her cloak and be ready for any cold sea winds.

Goldenblade joins Uta and the others, looking down at the makeshift dock with a sigh. "Give me a few hours, I could make something here that'd survive the next storm," she says. But the Landers here don't seem interested in that. She can only shrug at Uta's financial arrangements. "As players, we generally have to do for ourselves most of the time. Though I suppose it's convenient when we can employ an agent to do those things for us."

What could go wrong with another adventure with Uta? There shouldn't be slimes here so it should be okay. She seem to be in a good mood. Her tail is wishing she beaming jut about however? She looks distracted like she's thinking about something else. She's even muttering about weapon foring and wait was that an enchantment formula...?

She looks to Seawolf for a moment listening to him.

"Well then we should head out and didn't think about it that way Goldenblade."

"You really didn't need to bribe the guy." Syx says as he watches things play out in front of him, "I could have just held him underwater by his ankles until he took us on the trip." It definitely would not be the first time Syx threatened a Lander. He still doesn't kill them, since they are still all unique people, but that doesn't mean he won't THREATEN to do so in order to get his way.

"Looks like so, Merek!", Uta replies, puffing her chest and planting her fists on her hips. "It's going to be great and- hey, nice strap! It really becomes you."

She turns to Kauch and Goldenblade, and her confident posture deflates. "L-look, I don't have the Mercantile skill in this world, okay? Might... might eventually learn, but- yeah, the Slime Lab is expanding, and we need some permanent accountant."

Uta watches Miho with interest. She approaches her, and even waves one begloved hand in front of the Salamander's face. "Wait, wait, I'm not the least attentive in the team? What's going on today?"

"Let's not do that," Uta replies to Syx, with a hint of worry. "He's a ship captain, with the power he wields once we're out at sea, he could do horrible things to us. Like... I don't know, randomly marry us to each oth- wait, can Sea captains can celebrate marriages in this world?"

A mostly unremarkable journey marked by sudden, beautiful singing. On a sandbar nearby, the song of several sirens singing in chorus can be heard, attempting to draw in the party! While in theory they could continue to just move past without too much worries, it becomes much more difficult when the young adventurer who had been helming the boat suddenly finds themselves drawn in! The party will have to deal with these sirens, and fast, or they'll be forced to swim to the Phantom Atoll instead of traveling by boat!

    Merek would take the time to prepare his gear, and waits along the boat to watch them set sail. Eventually, when they come upon singing and sirens, the man looks that way and will begin to draw the sword from the back and takes the time to begin swinging into the creatures to try to keep them away.

Goldenblade boards the boat, leaving the makeshift dock behind. Her palms itch with the desire to work on it, to make it less ... makeshift. She nods to Uta, "We all do the best we can," she consoles her. She's just been around the block a few more times. You've got to get something out of seventy-five years. Turns out, what you get is experience. Sadly, that's only useful in the parts of the game that are coded realistically. So all of the magic and fantastic stuff baffles Goldenblade completely.

She enjoys the trip, as much as she can, when suddenly, the sound of sirens. Well, that's a problem, as she wasn't expecting them and hadn't brought wax for everyone's ears. On the other hand, the sahaugin are attacking, and that's a valid target. Blades out, it's stabbing time, and she goes all-out on the monsters, the limited space only hampering her effectiveness slightly as she slashes and stabs fiercely, running the sahaugin through as the appear at the gunwhales.

The sound of music gets ears to immeadiately perk, and Kauchemar is on her hooves, scowling. She knows exactly what kind of aquatic monsters would be using that tactic and it's not good. So she's just going to have to do something about it. "Someone get the helm under control." She pauses to crack her knuckles. "I'll take care of this.."

She doesn't just raise her voice to drown out the hypnotic tones being used by their first obstacle. She does so picking a specific set of lyrics that will get into heads as a proper warning to help undo the cognitohazard already gripping some of the boat crew.

o/~ For the people all said beware, you're on a heavenly trip
The people all said beware, beware you'll scuttle the ship
And the devil will drag you under
By the fancy tie 'round your wicked throat
Sit down, sit down, sit down you're rocking the boat! o/~

Miho thankfully is able to focus somewhat on the task at hand s she could get thingst to help her growing project. So that keeps her from wandering off to the nearest forge. She would look to uta for a moment.

"Oh sorry I was thinking on a project of mine to make better magical weapons."

She looks a bit sheepish at Uta. Miho looks at Uta.

"That would turn into a very strange harem if that happened Uta. Though could you keep up?"

Miho behaves after that point fight the Sirens but given how her mind is wandering? She doesn';t do so well...she could use a little help!

Syx sits back in the boat as the group travels along, although as he hears the sound of the sirens, he hmms a little bit.

When they come into view, he rises up, and pops his neck, looking like he's getting ready to throw down with them in an epic fist fight.

That's when he starts doing air guitar and making music to back up Kauchemar's lyrics.

"That's what I was saying, Miho!", Uta replies. "A most undesiderable turn of events!"

Uta snaps at attention at right about the same time as Kauchemar. The Nightmare is quick to take the lead, so Uta swiftly segues into trying to direct the seamen to sing the back-up chorus to Kauchemar's song. Anything to keep their minds of the other, more dangerous harmony. It's a bit like herding cats, but she seems to manage it. Barely.

That is when Syx's air guitar brings a massive boost to the Spriggan's efforts. The Landers in the crew mutter to each other, about this majestic performance they had never seen. Is it music? Is it dance? They cannot tell. But soon they are all doing it. Syx might have started a trend.

All this, combined with Merek's successful efforts at keeping the Sirens at a distance (which weakens the intensity of their song) makes it so the party makes land on the Phantom Atoll, the captain of the ship they came in turning around to return back to the relative safety of the base camp. Making their way towards the colosseum, they find a sprawling town around the main entrance of the colosseum that is almost... /too/ quiet. Not even the sounds of native wildlife are audible.

"I don't like this. I don't like this one bit," Uta mumbles, as she stops just outside the village. "Look at this place. There's a compost pile there. Outhouses over there. A fountain down the line... and not one slime in sight. That's not normal." She hugs herself and shudders, rubbing her hands on her upper arms. "This place gives me the creeps. Let's look for another entrance."

No obvious entrance into the colosseum is visible short of swimming, though, so the party has no other choice but to head into town. Halfway through, the owners of the island make themselves known, as an ambush is sprung! From all sides, Sahuagin appear and begin to attack the party with spears and magic! There's enough that the party's best option is to break through the ring surrounding them and run for a more strategic area to fight them off, or just make a break for the massive bridge that leads to the Colosseum entrance.

Goldenblade is bebopping along to Kauchemar's song, she's of course seen Guys and Dolls in the theater, and though it's been some time, she quite enjoyed it. "And the people all said beware, you're on a heavenly trip," she sings another verse badly.

But her off-key reverie is cut short by the appearance of more sahaugin, and she brings her blades up. But she was a bit too distracted by old show tunes, and is fighting a defensive effort, and it's all she can do to keep the swords and spears out of her guts, so she can't contribute to the party's effort.

    Merek looks to the enemies when they will come upon them, and takes time to begin to shield all of the party the best that he can while the people fight.

Ahh, fish men. Great. This time Syx can really cut loose. No need to worry about getting close to the sahagain like with the sirens.

This time Syx does spring into action, diving straight into the group of fishmen and delivering massive punches, powerful kicks and rather insane looking grapples and suplexes.

Miho would later comment back to Uta with a bit old evil grin about her reaction to the harem thing but not sya a darn word on it. Also the whole little issue of her having to deal with the horror of no slimes.

"You sure about that Uta? Not everywhere had slimes right? Still I don't like this much at all myself..."

Muho will seemingly pull a large warhammer from her inventoy and set to using it to try and break through the ring. Tiny little lizard lady, big damn hammer...

It's an impromptu performance, with impromptu backup, but sometimes that gives the best performances. What matters is it handles the problem and they can move on. Though not without Kauchemar stopping after stepping off the boat and turning to bow to the crew. "Thank you, thank you, you've been a wonderful audience." Before heading off with the rest of the group.

And right into an ambush of Sahuguin. "I thought something smelled fishy." Oi, now is not the time for puns girl.

The fishmen leap into battle... they strike out with their weapons... which only pass through darkness as the Were Fang seems to disappear from their sight when she slips through the shadows around them. But far from gone, as her voice can still be heard with a haunting echo.

o/~ I run on the Wrong Side of life... I'm the one you fear when you hold your wife.
I run where the darker crowd runs... In the rain swept streets where the black rain runs. o/~

She briefly steps back into view, only to step back and disappear when several of the magic-uses turn and fling their spells at her departing shadow instead of the rest of the party.

o/~ I play where the darker kids play... I'm the one that goes out when you end your day.
I dance where the darker crowds dance... in the pitch black clubs in a clove stained trance. o/~

By the time she's finished Kauchemar has deftly shadow dodged her way to the opposite side of what was suppose to be a trap.

Uta spins her staff; air currents spiral around it. "One tornado, coming right u-ARGH!"

She's jumped on, and beaten to pulp.

Well, not to literal pulp -- but she gets a bunch of HP docked nonetheless.

Eventually, the party succeeds in their battle, and moves on.

"The Colosseum...", Uta mutters in awe as she crosses into the ruined building. "Look at this structure...", she whispers, as she runs a hand on the stones, almost afraid to touch them. "It's a masterpiece. A triumph of architecture. A joy for the eyes..."

Uta, abruptly, spins in place and delivers a roundhouse kick to a fishman who tried to sneak on her from behind, sending it to THUD against the opposte wall

"...and it's crawling with fishmen! Let's run!"

The team will flee, but the place is teeming with fishmen. They pop out at every corner!

After what is probably just ten minutes, but feels like an eternity, they descend a stair covered with intricate runes and designs.

"...Water! Why does it have to be wat- wait. Wait! I'm underwater!"

Uta turns to the rest of the team, all excited! "I'M UNDERWATER! AND I CAN BREATHE! THIS IS THE BEST-"

That is when a sudden current blasts against the team, and drags them all around, and their oxygen meter begins to deplete.

    Merek will try to assist the party with the healing magic, although it doesn't look like it assists a lot while he tries.

Goldenblade makes it out of that fight with her ass intact, but by the loss of HP she's showing, that ass ought to be in a sling. But she follows along gamely and slips into the water with the others, her mail coat acting a bit like a weight belt. She fishes in her inventory for a small flask, opens it, and takes a deep suck on it as bubbles bubble up. Her oxygen meter bumps right back up to full, and she passes the bottle around to the others to share, so we've got one less problem to worry about.

Syx is strong, he makes no atempt to hide it, so when the group gets swept up in the rapid current, he lets it take him so he can get ahead of the group proper. Once they've found the right corridor to get back where they need to go, he plants himself against the current, digging his claws of one hand into the stone and catching the group as they are swept towards him, tossing them down the right path, before following suit once he has gotten the last straggler.

Miho is doing demo work while she mutters enchanting formulats under her breath, Miho is working on two things at once from the looks of it. Then comes the fishmen oh dear it's time to run. Miho hauls tail with the rest of the party.

"Well it could be...."

She nds up under wter in short order and sh look to Uta and will be tyring to get move with current hoping it leads to a way out...

Kauchemar doesn't miss a beat with her performance, once again seeming to meld with the darkness of the ruins at just the right moment to avoid another bumrush of fishmen. Then as they're looking all confused, she steps right back into view and BELLOWS with such volumenous force that it sends them reeling over dead from the shockwave. She dusts her hands off. "THAT is how you do a proper Jumpscare."

The not so merry chase eventually leans to a flooded passage of some kind, which the dark mare takes to with little issue. For not being a hippocampus or selkie she deals with water extremely well.

And then things take a turn. Running out of air isn't so much of a problem as the changing currents slamming people into the walls and making them breath harder. But you know what they say about not changing tides.

So instead Kauchemar delves into her summoner bag of tricks, and calls forth a large jellyfish, which she grabs onto (or is grabbed on by, it's hard to tell) and letting it's pulsing undulations help carry through the powerful water flows.

She ut-uts at Syx before he can grab her as they swim by. "Don't touch, it's poisonous!" She's probably the one he doesn't need to help, anyways.

Uta's already battered HP takes more hits, and it's mainly thanks to Goldenblade's Oxygen Bottle if she's not dead already. With a slosh, she swings her staff into postion, which leaves a trails of bubbles, and as she sings a tune (which ends up soing vaguely gurgly), a green and red blast of energy depart from the gem atop her weapon, which allows her to suck HP out from the local flora, fauna, and monsters, and replenish her own. She keeps doing this until Six tosses her down the right path.

The party manages to get back to the corridors of the Colosseum, swimming against the current or reversing the current entirely, or however else they manage to get back into the Colosseum. Regardless, they are there, and they eventually get to the bottom of the underwater layer of the Colosseum, a massive underwater cave that is lit with bright fungus and glowing spheres of coral attached to various points in the roof. That bright light reveals a rather unfortunate sight most likely. It seems that the Sahuagin were having a tournament right now! And the party just entered through one of the gladiator's entrances! And the gate closes behind them, while the crowd of Sahuagin jeer and screech at the party. Which is forced to fight in the tournament, through several rounds of ever-increasing numbers that they have to fight and endure through! A healer would be invaluable here, or just overwhelming firepower.

Kauchemar shakes some water out of her mane once they're back in the normal ruins, finishing off with one last flashy hair flip to get it back in order. "Everyone still alive and breathing? Good. Because I don't think we're back in the shallows just yet." Considering they've found themselves right into the middle of a fishman tournament. "You know, this is probably the most expected thing to find here, being a colosseum."

She shrugs, and with a snap of the fingers darkness flickers around her, from which her posessed sword and shield emerge. "You two deal with this." The two weapons tilt as if glaring at her with the gemstones fixed in their bodies. "I'll see to it you get shined up with the fine grade polish you really like when we get home."

That is what it takes to cohere cooperation out of the monster weapons, and the sword gleefully hurtles itself flying into the fracas to fillet as many fishsticks as possible while the shield remains near Kauchemar to fend off attackers.

Goldenblade swims along with the group, winding up in this underwater arena. She looks around, and is surprised to find out that we're the main attraction. Well, if that's the case, she'll demonstrate why her class is called Blade Dancer. Hint, it's less about the foxtrot and the waltz and more about stabbing bad guys hard.

So, there -is- a bit of twirling and ballet-like zipping around, twirling around bad guys to run them through from behind, and other acrobatic efforts, and there are certainly blades involved, as these monsters are quick to discover, her gold-toned blades taking away their HP in big chunks. For get net-and-trident, her twin swords are entirely effective at stabbing bad guys to death.

    Merek looks to the place and along to the crowd, while he nods a bit, taking the time to swing the weapon of his along into enemies while he works with the party as well.

Once the group gets back up on the surface, Syx takes a moment to shake himself off, and glances at Kauchemar, "Venomous. Jellyfish are venomous, though I suppose they might be poisonous too now that I think about it. Anyway!" He then turns to look around at the gathered crowd, "Oh hell yeah. This is my jam."

As long as somebody keeps his health topped off, he'll go to town on any and every sahagain who gets with range of him. Doesn't matter how many waves they send his way, Syx will have answer for it

Miho is lucky they get out of the underwater trap alive. Miho greecily glups down the air as he body gets what it was missing. Once that is handled? Miho would be looking around to get an idea of where they are. Away they go again deeper and deepser into this place. Soon Miho sees there's a whole lot of Fishmen.

She readies her Katana and will fall upon the fishmen.

"Come you market rejects! I shall end you here!"

"I get tired of trying to explain the difference to people. Everyone understands 'poisonous'," Kauchemar quips back to Syx.

Uta, as the squishy healer of the group, keeps towards the back of the group, and, as her staff requires, keeps chanting and singing, the magical item resonating with tendrils of light that spin and dance all over it, focusing in the gem, and emanating towards the rest of the group to keep their HP restored.

And when magic fails, she also lobs healing potions at people.

And when the occasional fishman thinks he can defeat the caster easily, that's when he gets served a karate jab to the jugular, followed by a couple of spin-kicks and chops.

And plain old being stabbed with the pointy end of the stick, while healing magic emanates from the other end.

All of this without skipping a beat in her singing.

The party fights through a long and hard battle, managing to come out victorious, though how battered and bloodied they are is debatable. Even members of the crowd joined at some point! When the final Sahuagin is defeated, breaking into red fragments of code, a silence falls over the Colosseum, and all of the Sahuagin begin to beat their spears against the ground in a rhythmic beat. On the other side of the Colosseum, a massive metal grate lifts with clanks that reverberate through the water, ending in a final loud BOOM! Suddenly, a massive octopus-like creature comes out from the other side, humanoid in appearance with four massive tentacles, long spindly arms, and a head that has no mouth, just a series of gills and eyes. Through its translucent flesh, one can see an eerily human-like body. The party readies for what they hope is the final fight!

    Merek takes one of the potions along his belt which keeps alchemist fire within it. He will throw that, there it explodes. This, of course, will benefit all the party. You can teach an old dog new tricks if that new trick is the many ways which you can use fire.

"And here I thought we actually got through something water themed without dealing with tentacles that weren't of my own summoning, but nope." Kauchemar shrugs. "Can't win them all... ohshit." She barely has time to grab the Binder Shield and hold it in front of herself to hold back a barrage of pummeling tentacle punchs. "I can't cast any magic under this kind of pressure!" She's pumping most of it in keeping the shield summon stable so she doesn't get completely clobbered. "Someone kalimari this thing already!"

Goldenblade has been saving her best moves for the boss, and here it is, right on time. She takes a whetstone and runs it once down each blade. It's not so much the act of sharpening as the use of the whetstone item, which vanishes when it's done. The blades glow fainly when she's done.

Her attacks, then, swing and strike the monster, wearing a bit of glow off the blade as she strikes with that part of the blade. But her next strrike uses a slightly different part of the blade, to take advantage of the sharpness buff there, and the next strike takes a slightly lower point on the blade. In this way, her strikes with different portions of each blade each use her sharpness buff before it wears out.

"You want fried calamari, you're gonna get fried calamari!" Syx calls out as he rushes headlong at the octopus beast. Flames whip around him as he activates the Ragnarok's Wisdom ability. He leaps into the air, slamming himself bodily into one of the tentacles and sending it crashing to the ground.

Syx goes full ham on the beast, swinging flaming strikes and generally cutting loose since this is the final fight and he knows he doesn't need to play around.

Miho is wonding how much more there is to this place. Her mind wanders a bit she needs to get back to work the project must be finished. She will at Syx words about fried calamari? Start breathing /fire/ between sword attacks she keep going fighting her way to the thing with tentacles.

"...I already been slimed I AMD NOT GETTING TNETACLED!"

She lunges at the thing snapping out of herr fey mood long enough to bring her full ire upon the creature.

Out of healing potions, with her magical healing buffs on cooldown, and with the element of surprise blown (by now everyone in the Colosseum knows she's a competent melee fighter, not just a squishy caster), Uta resorts to the next logical step: getting the heck outta dodge. As the Champion attacks, she begins her trademark multi-step evasive maneuv-

Wait, no, she got punched in the face as soon as she moved, and got sent flying in a parabola which ended with her slamming into the opposite wall.

This doesn't deter Uta, who, after rubbing her head and getting back to her feet, charges once mor-

Punched, slammed against the opposite wall.

This goes on over and over- but hey, at least, she diverts some attention away from the Champion, allowing the others a better window for striking.

After a long and difficult battle, the party is victorious over the Colosseum Champion! Upon its defeat, the Sahuagin start to swarm in, screeching in outrage and anger. The champion that was formerly their foe unleashes a wave of water to knock the Sahuagin away, leaving the party an escape route. As they flee, it bows towards them, and the party finds their pocket a little heavier with some sort of token.

Goldenblade looks pleased with herself after the fight, though she takes one last hit from her oxygen bottle before putting it away. She takes a closer look at what we got, some sort of token? "Looks interesting," she observes, stuffing it back into her inventory. "But now we'd better get out, huh?"

Kauchemar watchs what unfolds when the crowd turns on the monster... only for the monster to turn the crowd. "This is why you don't piss off the Heels, huh?", she remarks mostly to Syx, who would actually understand being a wrestler. But Goldenblade is right, they probably don't want to stick around any longer, or that crowd might recover and come back after them for winning. "At least he's a more gracious loser than his former masters."

Miho looks at the fishmen as they turn on their own champion. It's time to go, she'll find an item in her pocket as she pulls out. This could be useful later.

"We need to get going, and who'd have thought a monster could be a good sport..."

"This is most perplexing indeed," Uta comments to Miho as she runs next to her. "Monsters aren't our friends. They don't work /for/ you. They just follow their instincts. I wonder if this sort of 'sportmanship' is an ingrained instinct for this particular individual, or..." She turns towards the creature, and attempts an inspection from afar... only to resume her running immediately after.

Uta, as she keeps running, mumbles, "It's a Monster. It inspects as a Monster. How. That's not supposed to happen."