Duty Session 360: Spinner's Deep

Yeowang was in town to watch the tournament, it was something she used to participate in, back in RL. But she's had to start over again here in the game, where the base adventurer level, while past that of a 6-year old beginner, was not up to where she was at nineteen and winning MMO championships. Which is why she's not participating - she's afraid she'll try something she's used to doing, and the game either won't keep up, or won't score it, or something else will make it not work. But she's working hard to catch up. She's been training hard, and part of the training is doing missions.

So, when this mission came up, she put out the word and attempted to gather a party, and here she waits, to see who shows up. At the mission entrance, down in a cave. The first part has been cleared out, and life has returned to the mines, though deeper down, things are not clear.

She is prepared for fighting, her long hair tied up in a thick bun atop her head, her heavy jacket unbuttoned since we're down in the cave and out of the winter air, and she's doing some basic stretches and calisthenics as she waits for more party members to assemble.

Going to tackle a dangerous mission with less than optimal numbers? Sounds like you need someone clever, or someone that's braver than they are smart!

Vertina certainly fits the bill. It's not like she's stupid or anything. But the Salamander shaolin soccer monk definitely has more guts and brawn than she does mental prowess.

"So, this is the spot huh?" She pauses a moment to tug and adjust her clawed cestus. "Just point me at what you want smashed or set on fire."

    Mizuki is, y'know, doin' stuff! Like sleeping. And fighting monsters. And worrying about how long she has before this 'dysphoria' thing that allegedly happens to crossplayers begins to happen to her. She could use something to take her mind off that.

    And a revisit to Spinner's Deep fits the bill! "Vertina, good to see you again!" She offers a hug. "We've seen what's down there once or twice... how many versions do you think there are?" She also nods in greeting to Yeowang, "Haven't seen either of you in awhile..."

    Merek walks along and into the place, while he follows along with Yeowang, Mizuki, and Vertina. The man wears the beltcape about the waist with a hood along his face, taking the time to check all of his equipment including the twin blades which he wields, while he nods to people, "Alright. Well, let's see if we can find anything."

Yeowang smiles to Vertina. She would prefer to think of herself as at least somewhat clever in addition to being fighty, but her bravery level almost certainly exceeds what she considers her limited in-game skill, which is one of the reasons she's here: training. She nods, "This is the spot," she confirms. "I've just started training a new move," she explains. "I've seen it done in real life, but I've never done it, myself, because it's a bit showy and slow, but it hits very hard. In real life, I used a mix of punches and kicks and focus on speed, but here in the game, I'm fighting things much bigger and tougher than people, so I find myself concentrating on the hardest kicks and doing much less punching, and speed is not as important." Which is not to say she's slow. Just not as fast as she was in RL. "So, I'm working on a butterfly kick, which is more acrobatic and showy than I'm used to. But hits like a truck." She nods a greeting to Merek and Mizuki, "Hello to you both, too. Good to have you with us. Are you all ready?"

The room we're in used to be a boss chamber, with finely hewn walls with strange patterns etched into them, and etchings of figures bowing to spiders. There is a slightly raised dais in the center, with carved runes around the edge of the circle. It's no known language, but appears in several places in the room. There might be clues to the runes in those words on the walls, but the teleporter seems to also respond to sound as well as magical energies being channeled into it.

"So we have to charge this thing up, is that the challenge?" Vertina shrugs, and starts testing her various elemental powers, but nothing seems to pick up just right. It probably wanted pure magical energy rather than specific ones.

    Merek looks around a little bit, and will take the time to work on cryptography to read old writing, then he nods a bit while he works on changing the places to make sure that the teleporter will work for the party.

    As Vertina explains her new move, Mizuki is impressed by her passion! "Oooh, that's so cool! Being a martial artist IRL and being able to design cool new impossible moves... Ooh, if only I'd gotten stuck in a game where I could make magical computers that break the rules computers normally have to follow, or something..." She looks at the teleporter. "Ready as I'll ever be... Hmm. The puzzle is slightly different than before, but the same methods should work..." She starts fiddling with the runes.

Yeowang has expressed confusion with the magical parts of the game, which she finds troubling and doesn't normally do well with, but she actually has the power, and she manages to use it successfully, surprising herself as much as anyone. There's a trick to it, which unfortunately she can't explain to Vertina. Mizuki is much more of a mystery solver, and with Merek working a separate section, they are able to merge their results and get the teleporter activated.

The party winds up in a dark chamber, and their light reflects off crumbling buildings above and in the distance. Wandering through the ruins, it almost looks as if some sort of civilization once dwelled here in the underground. Thick webs cling to the buildings, smaller spiders skittering away as they head through the city. There is a silent, eerie feeling, as if the entire area is a graveyard.

The main road of the village ends at a tunnel which slopes slightly downward. However, when the first step is taken, rocks begin to tumble from the ceiling. It seems that this ruin is no longer structurally sound. It will take some work to ensure that they not only can safely move forward, but have a way back out of the dungeon.

    Merek looks along the chamber and takes the time to watch the place, nodding to people. "Alright, I will do what I can to assist, I am not that great with that kind of thing," he will admit. With that, he will take the time to begin assisting.

Vertina eventually just steps back and let the others figure out the puzzle. "Butterfly kicks are pretty spectacular to see, when pulled off correctly. But be careful, yeah? Just because we're more durable in this world doesn't mean you can't wreck yourself with an ill timed execution." Then the way onward is finally opened. Hurrah!

The Salamander snorts softly as they pass through the villiage. "I'd almost forgotten about how creepy this place can be. And this is just the..." she stops sharply, pulling her foot back. "Crap, the rock isn't stable. Um.." She looks around a moment, and seeing little to use, pulls a couple of kunai out of her inventory. When she jabs into the rock, then hammers with her fist to bend the blades and form braces. She might not be the brightest of the bunch, but she can improvise sometimes.

    "Yeah!" Mizuki cheers on Yeowang, "Isn't it cool what we can do in here?" And into the undercity they go! "Well, this is cool... I don't want to see what made those webs though..."

    Go go gadget earth-bending! Mizuki uses earth magic to help prop up the ceiling. "We're so cool now!"

    But for how long will this body continue to be a blessing, before it becomes a curse? Mizuki looks worried at the thought, and forges on for something else to pay attention to...

Yeowang follows up to Mizuki, from her comment before, "I'm not really developing /new/ moves. The Butterfly kick is used in Kung Fu and Wu Shu and other styles. I'm just working on incorporating it here. Which I'm not sure how cool it is, and has its own ... issues." She laughs and nods to Vertina. "Issues," she agrees. She will demonstrate a slow, starter version of the technique, which involves a leaping spin, and then extending her legs as she falls sideways. It looks interesting, anyhow. As to the wreckage and collapse we encounter, she's managed a construction company, but she doesn't understand what they do. Luckily, Vertina seems to understand what to do! And Mizuki's earthbending is wildly useful. Yeowang and Merek are left trying to back up Mizuki and Vertina as they identify what needs fixing.

The tunnels appear more roughly carved the further the Adventurers travel into the depths of the mine. There are long scratch marks in some places, as if something huge had scraped the stone as it passed through. Eventually, the way opens into a small chamber, which looks as if it has become a stopping point for Adventurers who are exploring the dungeon.

Sitting against one wall is a pale Adventurer. Their weapons and armor have been set next to them, head resting back against the wall. Upon seeing our arrival, their head lifts, "Oh! I was hoping someone would come along. My party was killed by the spiders. I've been bitten." There is pain written on their face.

    Merek lifts up a hand when he notices the man in need of healing, then he activates that relic with him, making the sigil of the magic appear along the entire area, then it begins to heal all the people, from the man to anyone in the party, then he's nodding a bit while anyone else takes the time to heal as well.

There's Merek with his fancy healing relic. But while he's got that covered, she can focus on more individual necessities. Even after removing the poison their bodies are going to need time to recover, which they really don't have the luxury of waiting around for. So she puts her own training to use, drawing on her ki and channeling it through what the world recognizes as the Light element to give the poor guy a boost of both physical and spiritual energy back.

    Mizuki watches Yeowang's explanation with interest, not that she knows what a 'butterfly kick' is to begin with.

    Seeing an adventurer, she smiles and starts to greet, "Hey there!" only for her face to fall when she sees the status indicator. "Um..." Her knowledge of games tells her she needs a green herb or better, an anti-toxin potion! She doesn't know shit about medicine beyond that! "Umm..." she brings up her inventory and, scrolling through it, finds a green potion, one of the ones Uta crafted from drops around Alne way back when. "here you go..." she offers it to him, then gives him a hug to help him feel better. She's like a living theme park mascot now, who wouldn't feel better from a giant fluffy kitty hug? With others applying their own healing techniques, she comments, "There, you'll be all better in no time, see?"

Case in point for Yeowang not understanding the magic system is how she attempts to help the poor fellow and fails miserably. You wouldn't realize she was a cofounder and basically chief operating officer of the Red Chain organization, the Red Cross analog they've developed over here. Treating snakebite isn't helped by cutting the skin and squeezing out the venom, though that's only really useful as immediate first aid in any event, and likely too much time has gone by. Merek uses the correct kind of healing, luckily, to neutralize poison and Vertina boosts the fellow's recovery considerably. Mizuki luckily has the right components to make all this go better.

We move on.

The ground starts to become thicker with spider webbing the further the Adventurers delve into the depths of the dungeon. The way continues to descend downward to a set of spiral stairs which lets out into a truly horrifying sight.

A series of spiders with extremely long legs seem to be making this place their home. They click pincers together as they make delicate steps across an expanse that seems to be a field made of some kind of grass which doesn't require sunlight to grow.

There seems to be some intelligence to these monsters, as they seem to be keeping a herd of grunties as food. Just as the Adventurers make their way onto the fields, one descends onto a fat grunty, causing the creature to squeal and cry out as blood sprays. The spider lifts the kill, then chomps down on it, swallowing the still living grunty, whole. "Well, this is going to be a fight, it seems," Yeowang observes.

"Yes, yes it is." Vertina clenches her hands into fists and the temperature around her is already starting to rise. "But that's why we're here!" As eager to fight as ever, she leaps into the fray without a second thought on the matter. Though it's not entirely without consideration of tactics. As she charges the Salamander releases a burst of flame from her mouth to push the spiders back. Then leaps through the fire herself, drawing it with her with her mystical kung-fu to turn the onslaught on punching and kicking she unleashes on the spiders into a bombastic blaze.

    "Reminds me of the, what were they, Silt Striders from Morrowind?" Mizuki whispers at the strange spiders. A fight? "I don't think so, we can just sneak around them, can't we?"

    And that's how she ends up speared by a spider-leg, frantically spewing fire at the creature!

    Merek lifts up the potion with him, and will take the time to throw that into the spider while it explodes along into flame, then he's taking the time to assist the party.

Yeowang adapts her movements and tactics to the situation, moving up behind the spider Vertina's flaming. Letting her distract it, she picks her moment and her target carefully, then delivers a devastating punch in it's blindside that stuns it for long enough for Vertina to finish it. When Merek chooses a spider to incinerate, Yeowang is firing arrows into it's abdomen from behind it. The monsters are taken down by the group's efforts despite Mizuki's struggles.

The environment begins to grow more and more strange, the walls glowing faintly with an eerie green color. Drops of acid seem to hiss from the ceiling, falling on the unwary who dare to pass further into this tainted place. At first, it seems like they are heading for a dead end, but the wall lifts as if it senses their arrival.

It opens into a boss chamber which looks suspiciously like the one they had left in the mines above. However, the coloration of this room is more unearthly. The strange etchings on the wall all glow with that eerie, acid green. Standing in the center of the chamber is a massive creature that resembles a spider, but rather than an arachnid head, there is a humanoid torso there.

Armored plates cling to the chest and arms, though it is hard to tell if it is metal or some sort of natural defense. A helmet blocks the face from view, allowing only the sight of glowing red eyes behind the mask. "Let's do this," she says quietly."

Once the spiders are dead Vertina steps over to break the leg pinning Mizuki with the claws of her battle glove. "Shouldn't let them walk all over you girl." The remains of the leg are tosssed away without a second thought, because they've got more monster spiders to kill yet.

Or in this case, some kind of spider centaur thing. "These have a name but I can't remember it. Doesn't really matter anyways!" She smirks a bit and nods to Yeowang. "Go high, I'll go low."

She lunges forward, ducking under one of the armored spider-taur's swings, and comes out of the roll directly underneath him. Exactly what she wanted, as she bellows some manner of mantra and thrusts both Direclaws upward into it's squishy underbelly that isn't so well armored because that would limit the spider legs' mobility.

    Merek will use the power of that dark magic in the twin blades which he wields to swing along into the boss while he will fight along with the party.

    Mizuki gives Vertina a sort of apologetic look as her tall salamander friend comes to free her from the spider leg.

    Shouldn't let them walk all over you girl.

    A sort of confused surprise passes over her face for a second, before she shakes it off and gets to her feet. "R-right, thanks..." She replies softly, and sort of trudges after the group, thoughts returning to heavier things.

    You're an imposter. And when dysphoria catches up with you, what'll it have all been for?
    I just... thought it would be fun to be cute...
    And that's gotten you embarassed, and confused, and what the hell is your relationship with Wis? How do you think that's gonna work once you're out of here?
    It WAS fun though! Once I stopped worrying... And... that's why I'd better enjoy it while it lasts. While I'm here.

    A drop of acid singes the floor near Mizuki and a little bit splashes on her, bringing her out of her reverie! She cringes away from it standing on one foot and hissing, fur bristly. After a moment, watching where she steps, she walks on, commenting, "Not liking the looks of this place..."

    Acid(?) Spider-taur-thing?! "Was this the boss that was here last time?" She summons up armor, and falls into pretty standard DPS tactics, using her frost armor when she takes a hit for being daring but otherwise letting others draw aggro while hitting it with only minor fire attacks, then sneaking around and backstabbing it. Rinse, wash, repeat!

    "I think this happened last time, too... yeah, definitely got these plates before... Everyone okay?"

Yeowang is not in the least intimidated by this strange and massive monster, and she nods to Vertina, leading in with her own best attack, a high flying roundhouse kick that takes down quite a large chunk of the boss's health right off the bat. Vertina's Direclaw Cestus strikes for considerable damage with each low hit, slicing through it's vulnerable underbelly messily. Merek uses the dark magic in his blades to DPS it further, making it screech frantically. Mizuki fights it hard as well, her frost armor protecting her from its counterattacks. "I dunno, this is my first time through," Yeowang admits to Mizuki.

Little by little, the Adventurers are able to whittle down the health of the Spider Warrior, powerful attacks seem to find the gaps in the creature's armored plating. One health bar goes down, then a second.

At the very end, with the last shred of health, the creature leaps backwards, causing the floor to rumble and some stones to drop from the ceiling. It is as if it were trying to bring the roof down onto them. Then, as the last strike falls, it bursts into colorful dots of light. Where it had been standing, the wall crumbles away, revealing a barrier of light.

However, the Adventurers are unable to pass through at this point. An error message pop up which says: "Adventurer Level 25+ required to Enter." A small treasure chest lays where the Spider Warrior had vanished, containing a number of armored plates which resemble those that the creature had utilized as armor.

    Merek looks to already have the reward for the dungeon, while he nods to everyone. "Alright, I will try to assist if anyone needs anything. And you all be well," he then waves to Mizuki, Yeowang, and Vertina, then he's walking along away from the place.