Do Your Karluin Labyrinth Duty!

    "I tell you, we've gotta check the labyrinth again! I've known a few games to have the bosses retreat half way through and then show up in one of the locations you've already been to."

    The Karluin Goblin King has fallen and with it, the dungeon heart. This area of the tower is slowly being cleared of goblins. No longer able to restore their numbers with the heart destroyed, it's only a matter of time until all the goblins are destroyed and the area is free.

    There is one thread that's still hanging though: The fate of the Goblin Queen. Having escaped from the battle for the dungeon heart, she's as yet unaccounted for.

    Yuuki, in her ever thoughtful gaming wisdom, has gathered a party to dive into the Karluin Labyrinth, reasoning that it'd be a good place for the Queen to hide. And even if they don't find her there, it still needs to be cleared out anyway!

    The party moves their way into the underground, Yuuki at the head of course. Pointing forward into the deep dark, she exclaims excitedly, "Let's go find those goblins and show them who's boss!"

Yeowang had meant to run this duty for a while, but since word came that the goblins were broken, she figured that it'd be going away soon. But since it hasn't gone yet, she's come here to run the mission, so she can get credit for it. And as part of her training, too, now that her ankle isn't giving her trouble anymore.

So, here she is, in her training gear, simple top and a man's style of coat, her hair mostly coiled in a thick bun atop of head, the excess falling down her back in a ponytail. As the mission purpose is explained she nods slowly. "Fighting goblins is never bad," she agrees, doing a few last loosening up exercises as she prepares for the mission.

"Even if not," Kauchemar adds after Yuuki's boisterous remark, "There are still plenty of Goblins who will not give up simply because their King and Queen are dead. If anything," she pauses to give her mane a hairflip out of her face, "there is a power vacuum they may try to fill..."

Then she whistles, ghostly flames circling about her hooves, then spiraling together to make a summoning circle that her Binder Shield emerges from. "So we need to kill them before that can happen."

Allynna follows along with her guild mate and giggles. "Fuka, relax, and let me go first, I'm the 'Big Bad Bun Tank', so I should go first so I can turn them around and you can use that axe to clap some cheeks." She says, her humor lately has gotten even worse, though it might have to do with her being worried about Merek, who is one of her best friends, though, she treats everyone like a friend. "I brought some ramen for after the dungeon... as a celebratory treat!"

    So haha the Goblin Queen escaped.
    This is not a 'haha' situation.
    When called to search Karluin's underbelly once more, Amalthea... Rises to the occasion. That's why the old raid tank is here. And from the looks of it she's already going through a few maps she's made of the labyrinthine underbelly of the fortress, and a few maps that others have made as well, doing her best to commit them to memory.
    "I'll try to keep us from getting lost while down here." She says in a mild tone.

Gwen has become a far less common sight for Scale. Gwen had had something terrible happen to her in the Tower after all. The boss did something to her, something she can't get back. Worse she doesn't know what she lost. Just something she can't replace. Still, she was an contact to SEA in the end so she would still show up from time to time. Also how the heck do you tell someone like Yuuki? No. It's like kicking a puppy really if you do. She also would look to Kauchemar for a moment. She also now pauses for a moment at Allynna.

Gwen looks to size the other woman up grinning some more.

"Oh I have some dumpling that could go with it afterward! Also always good to have another tank about!"

The only slightly less tall woman beams at Allynna.

"We have music with Kauchemar here too!"

    Fuka's just here for loot and fun. Clearing dungeons is nice perhaps, but she didn't come here planning to do anything so grand. She came here on a whim, hearing the call go out and having nothing better to do. Besides, she likes several of the group here and she's a social quester at heart!

    She grins back at Ally, already in banter-mode. "Maybe *I* should go first, show you the tanking abilities of a MIGHTY BATTLE FAIRY!" she boasts, clapping the flat of her axe over a stoutly-reinforced bracer with a clang. Then she shrugs. She's been on a kick to prove herself physically, to take more of the Heavy Blade role rather than play the safer utility role. But of course, fighting on the front line as DPS counts just fine for such physicality.

    "Weeeellll.... since you're offering ramen, I'll let you take the lead." Fukaziroh offers magnanimously. "Though I would totally kill for ice cream. Ya know?" It's been an itch she's been wanting to scratch for over a year now. It's really starting to bug her. Maybe not really to the point of murder, but ... it's a drastic thing and drastic measures might not be far behind!

Killing goblins is always, *always* a worthwhile endeavor. Even without the Dungeon Heart continuously replenishing their numbers, there are still more than enough of them to cause trouble if left to their own devices. Even if they /don't/ track down the Goblin Queen under the ruins of Karluin...

Well, more dead goblins is a net benefit anyway, isn't it?

And of coure, Prophylaxis isn't about to let Yuuki go into the dark, goblin-infested underbelly of the Scale Emblem's new conquest without his support. The magus adjusts a couple of shiny new amulets where they dangle around his neck, their function still an apparent mystery... For now.

"There's still a ruin full of Elemental Machines down here," Prophylaxis adds, "If we're not careful, we might end up down there again. But we haven't fully explored it either, so in some ways, it wouldn't be... /too/ bad if we end up there?"

Allynna looks at Fuka and giggles. "Pound for pound you are the toughest of all of us Fuka.. pound for pound." She says before looking to Gwen and smiling. "Me and Thea co-tanked the boss fight. We managed to down the king, but the queen has a poopoo moment and left... I'ma find her and put both my shields through her ugly face." She says but keeps a happy smile, more big tough tanks is always nice. "Name's Allynna, I tank for silver Sword, and I sing songs and make sure Merek and Fuka don;t die."

    Merek of course would be about when Allynna mentions that, taking the time to check the equipment with him, and nods a little bit along to the woman.

    Yuuki nods sagely as the goblin clean up is mentioned, "That too."

    FOOD!? No wait. Kill goblins first. Then food, "Excellent! Finish quest, then victory feast. Sounds like a plan."

    Heading further into the dark underground, Yuuki laughs confidently, "Not to worry. I'm sure my fine tuned sense of direction will get us through this just fine." She turns down a branching corridor...

    ... A few moments later she returns from the dead-end and goes down the other path, "Was just checking for chests." She continues forward.

    Soon the group comes to their first obstacle! Is it an army of goblins? Some slithering monster from the deep dark? Some grand wizard threatening to destroy the world!?

    Nope. It's a door. A plain, simple door. No magic runes. No mysterious sphinx head asking riddles. Just a door.

    Yuuki staaaaaaares.

    Still. It's in the way. What do you do?

    Merek looks to the door while he thinks about it, then he nods. The man lifts up the potion with him and will take time to throw that into it. It explodes. This is the main way to deal with doors.

Allynna smiles and walks up to the door, pressing her shield against it. "Okay, so pick the lock, melt the beam, and I'l shove this thingy open." She says as she waits for the others to get those in check. "C'mon thighs.. don't fail me now..."

    Finishing the quest and then getting food sounds like a grand idea. Yuuki taking the dead end earns a chuckle from Amalthea, right up until the point the group hits... A locked door.
    "Oh. They locked it again." She murmurs, reaching into her hair to pull out her trusty hair pin.
    "This will just take a second." She says, kneeling at the lock to start fiddling with the tumblers until the group hears a soft click.
    "Go for it."

Yeowang nods at the cautions from Proph and Kauchemar, and will follow the party to the mysterious, looking it over curiously, thoughtfully, as everyone sorts out what they can do and how they can help. It needs several things to make it go, and one of them is fire. Now she's not great at this magical fire business, but since it looks like others have failed, she will have to maybe help and cover the gap. We can't all fail, right?

Well, it turns out, you can, actually. Luckily, Merek has the solution. So to speak.

    Fuka watches Yuuki head off down a dead end and return. "I'm sure that's the direction we want to go!" she says, not without sympathy and also not without a mischevious grin. "But the shortest path is not always a straight line, young padawan!"

    She follows along, and the group comes to another dead end - this one a locked door. "Y'know, I think these doors are unfair." she complains. "The last one, we had to disassemble the entire freaking WALL to get past it!"

    She considers her options. Of course she's got a pretty big axe. Fuka also has flame. She looks at her hand speculatively. This is the time for it, right? She's not relying too much on magic... right?

    Fuka ends up staring at her hand long enough that others will surely get the door open before she sets anything on fire. Choice paralysis sucks.

Gwen looks over to Fukka.

"Oh Fuka you should drop by my shop sometime I have a few things for you!" Gwen beams at this. "Well, technically I am a battle fairy too you know." Gwen is taking this in good spirits and she looks over Allyanna.

"I'm Gwen Pendragon. Owner and operator of The Chainmail Bikini +1 and main tank for Cresent Moon. Worked with Thea? That is more than enough to not doubt anything about your abilities she won't suffer someone who can't do their job."

Then at the mention of Merek she will reply. "Good to know there are more people helping to keep my friend and business partner alive. Also someone as spirited as Fuka!"

As things progress she looks to Thea with a grin.

"You should come over for dinner sometime."



All other thoughts are shut dowen as she see there';s toruble ahead. A door a locked door.

"It's locked..."

Gwen will sheath her weapon and just try to force the door open with raw muscle power.

Kauchemar tilts her head towards the conversation between Allynna and Fukaziroh. "Oh, so the Queen escaped." She hmmhmms, nodding her head. "She will likely try to rebuild her own base of power, then." She lets the Binder Shield float at the ready at her left side. "Goblins that survive the erratication of their clans tend to move on to new ones, either to join, or in this case, likely take over. Still a shift in power we can avoid by finding her, and cutting down more of their populance in general."

But first, they have to get across the proverbial threshold and into the deeper passages. "Pff, doors." Being of an equine disposition it is little surprise what Kauchemar does. That is left a leg and slam her hoof down hard, aiming for one of the hinges in hope of knocking it loose so there's less to keep the door locked in place.

"Well, either way we go should be fine," Prophylaxis answers with an easy shrug. "Though with this many people down here, we're going to need to be careful that we don't get split up. It's easy to lose track of one another down a corridor, or a hole, or something else. So, caution please."

As if that'll ever stop the likes of Yuuki! But what might just do the job is...

This door.

"Ah," Prophylaxis says at the re-locked gate and frowns ever so slightly. He hucks a fireball at the thing, but it seems almost... half-hearted?

Was he looking forward to roasting more goblins!?

    It seems that Allynna has the right of it! The door has been heavily reinforced, complete with lock and giant metal bar too big to move. It's going to require a combined effort to get past!

    Amalthea picks the lock. Yuuki could have done that. She's an expert lockpicker! When the mood strikes. But the old tank beats her to it. Simple enough.

    Yeowang and Prophylaxis try to burn away the metal bar, with Fukaziroh watching on while thinking about how she will help. But it seems like this stuff has some serious heat resistance. It's not until Merek brings out the superhot potion that the bar finally begins to slag, soon melting it half and sliding off the door. Yuuki idly wonders if that potion would make for a good hot sauce...

    But with the metal bar and lock dealt with, all that's needed now is to get the large doors open! Gwen and Allynna start pushing. The door begins to groan as it slowly creaks open. Kauchemar kicks one of the hinges off to... Help...? Meanwhile, Yuuki waits impatiently for the obstacle to be cleared, before finally getting too impatient and walking up to help push!

    Finally the door swings open just enough for the party to file in one at a time! Hurrah!

    The party continues deeper into the labyrinth. Already it's starting to branch off more and more. But thankfully Amalthea already has maps prepared so it keeps the party on track!

    Unlike the Lander party that they come across.

    Yuuki blinks in surprise as they explain their situation, before asking wildly, "What the hell are you even doing in a place like this!? Are you MAD!? What could possibly bring you out to a dangerous area in the freaking TOWER!? Don't you have ANY sense of self-preservation? This was stupid! You guys are SOOO not equipped to be out here. And-"

    This beratement continues for some time, the other party looking rather bewildered by it. Until finally Yuuki shrugs in resignation, "These guys must be bugged."

    Regardless, they are still in need of help. What with their DOTs and debuffs. Of course, you could always choose to not help...

Allynna sighs and parts Yuuki on the shoulder. "We should be treating them like people..." She says as she tries to cast a healing spell, only for it to miss the person she is casting and healing some stepped on bug. "Really?.. friggin really?" She says as she has the urge to just stomp the damn bug.

    Fuka sees nothing particularly wrong with using a huge two-handed weapon in goblin tunnels. Of course she has plenty of options if swinging her own weapon goes awry, so she isn't worried. And she's clearly not as ill-prepared as these Landers. Still, she can't help but feel Yuuki's being a bit harsh. Sure, it's for these fools' good... and they ARE being idiots over their head. But she winces nonetheless.

    She sighs and raises one hand, chanting softly and channeling a little healing. This doesn't count. It doesn't count at all! She's not using her magic in battle, just to help out some unfortunates! She's still rather hesitant though, and as a result barely emits a trickle of light. She frowns at her hand, then glares at it. "Okay, this is getting annoying." she scowls. "N-no, not you guys!" she adds to the Landers. Hopefully they can escape. They might not be super-grateful, but Fuka does wish them health and good safety at least!

Kauchemar snorts softly. "No surprise they'd have developed a poison specifically to ruin a caster's mental fortitude. Goblins are deviously clever... for monsters." She leans a bit closer to the suffering mage. "I am no expert, but it's likely the poison is some manner of irritant to the sinuses, complicating a condition similar to hayfever to make it hard to concentrate and enact complicated Magic Arte somatics. Which is something easy to make out of the various fungi and mold spores one would find in such deep dank locations like these ruins." The nightmare shrugs as she steps back. "Or at least that's what I would do if I was going to try and poison a spellcaster."

Yeowang will try and help the party we encounter, but her sports medicine solutions don't really work with HP damage or conditions. So, she's kind of useless. It's frustrating, but she knows the game is the sum of many parts, and no one player can master them all. That's why we're compelled to run these missions in groups. If they were easy, it'd be solo content like the starter missions were.

"Please forgive my small, angry colleague," Prophylaxis says to the poor, much-abused band of Landers. Does anyone truly deserve a furious Yuuki ranting at them? Prophylaxis thinks not. And it would also reflect rather poorly if the erstwhile leader of the Scale Emblem would let a bunch of Landers straight-up /die/ on his watch while he has anything to say about it.

"She's just baffled that anyone would come to a place like this voluntarily, other than ourselves, of course. Now, let's see what can be done..." Fortunately for these Landers, Prophylaxis is one heck of a healer. Doctoring is, in fact, his actual in-game profession! Which means he's packing a surfeit of healing items to administer and strip away the worst of those debuffs and DoTs. Hopefully he doesn't have to burn through too many of them, though. The day is still young and there's much dungeon ahead of them, after all.

    Oh dear. Injured Landers.
    "Ah..."
    A hand gently sets on Yuuki's shoulder to calm the im amidst her berating of the beleagured land folk.
    "In their defense, many groups aren't always adequately prepared for their first time through a dungeon." She says, kneeling by one of the Landers to try and tend to their wounds.
    Only to make a face on realizing she used the last of her healing items in the last raid. So she tries to do the Paladin Lay On Hands thing-- only to grumble at the fact that it's still on cooldown from use earlier in the day.

Gwen is through the door with everyone else and sem to be in good spirit until they find people. A chance passes over and she shoots a look at Yuuki. She goes to aid the Lander and will give them as much care as she gives anyone else.

As Gwen goes about aiding the lander she's also giving them advice on how to fight in locations like this the need for backup weapons and carrying spare potions of healing and antidotes. She also tells them the horror of that party wipe in the goblin cave she was in.

"They are all in your terms playing on hardcore ironmode."

As she keeps convering and aiding the Landers.

    Merek will take the time to assist with herbology medicine, while he walks along with the party and will look and generally assist people.

    A warm light shines around a squished bug on its last legs. The healing spell heals it for fifty times its max HP, causing it to come back to full health!

    A voice booms out from the insect, "THANK YOU MORTAL. FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE, I SHALL GRANT YOU A DIVINE BOON."

    Just kidding. That doesn't happen. The bug just skitters off before it can be crushed again.

    On the opposite end of Allynna's overhealing of a bug, Fukaziroh's attempts barely manage to restore a small sliver of HP missing from one of the other party's fighters. Who tries to awkwardly thank Fukaziroh, though clearly struggling to do so enthusiastically given the result.

    Kauchemar provides a very reasonable and seemingly highly accurate diagnosis of what is ailing the mage! The mage looks relieved, waiting for treatment. And continues waiting, as Kauchemar proceeds to walk away. Helpful!

    Yeowang hands out some sports drinks to the Lander party. They drink them, curious as to both the taste and the purpose. Especially as it doesn't seem to actually do them any good... Just like a real sports drink!

    Amalthea kneels down next to one of the Landers, who looks grateful for the assistance. Only for Amalthea to realize she has no assistance to give! Yes, I'm sure the Lander will appreciate those apologies far more than any actual healing.

    Prophylaxis, Gwen and Merek come to the rescue. The combined medical efforts helping to restore some of the Lander party's health.

    Ultimately though, the Lander party doesn't seem particularly enthused by the efforts of the Adventurers. And so once they've received their treatment, they bid their farewalls and quickly wander off back in the direction of the exit.

    Yuuki wows once the Lander party is gone, "Not even a hint, huh? Told ya. They must be bugged." Time to move on!

    Further on in the depths of the labyrinth, the group are moving slowly through a large cavern. Adorning the cavern walls are a number of raised outcroppings that look like they have tunnels leading off them. They seem to cover all sides of the cavern. The way forward for the Adventurer party seems to be on the other side of said cavern. And between them and said exit?

    A number of chest high walls.

    Entering into the cavern, Yuuki holds her fist up to silently stop the group. She looks over the layout of the room and then says, "I think..."

    Goblins begin to pile out of the secondary tunnels! They jump off the platforms into the cavern properly, armed with various types of melee weapons and looks of murder in their eyes!

    "... It's a trap!" Yuuki draws her sword as the goblins charge the party!

Allynna frowns and pulls out her shield. Taking a stance before being absolutly overwhelmed and trying to get in an attack with her second shield but to no avail. "Get thease green snot bags off me!"

One did not need Divination to know what was eventually going to come. Kauchemar knew it, and had already been preparing for it as they worked their way through the passages. "Just as a heads up, I'm not the one causing that tingling sensation crawling up your spines. That's just primordial anticipation of the inevitable--" Cue the swarm of goblins erupting from nearly every direction. "--Ambush!"

The Binder Shield swings in front of her to block a first wave of attacks. After seeing the mage before Kauchemar wants nothing of what they could possibly be shooting. Behind the shield she finishes the sequence she was preparing, and then just grins wickedly at the Goblins as the haunting sound of galloping hooves echoes through the passages.

But it's not her hooves doing the galloping.

More goblins charge.. only for one to stumble as some kind of webbing shoots out of one of the shadows to snare him. It drags him closer, as at the same time a demonic equine that is similar to but not the Were Fang emerges from the darkness. Disstends his mouth open disportionately wider than should be possible for any creature to do so, and slurps the webbed goblin up whole, like it was the meatball in a plate of spagetti. Clamps his mouth shut. Snorts smoke from his nostrils and turns to glare at Kauchemar.

Who only shrugs. "They're Goblins, of course they taste terrible. What did you expect? But now that you've been fed, go trample some instead or something."

The Nightmare steed glares at her some more... while idly kicking a goblin trying to run up behind it with a back leg. Then turns and walks back into the shadows and disappears, clearly annoyed that he was expected to feed himself on such creatures.

Kauchemar shakes her head. "I'd complain about him being picky... but I can't say I blame him. They're probably filthy and full of disease and shit."

"Could just be that they have no idea what's up ahead, too. Landers are many things, but most of them can't see the future. Or in the dark," Prophylaxis shrugs and packs away his now quite-depleted stock of healing items. "Well, whatever. I'm just glad they're getting out alive. Now..."

Oh. Small chest high walls.

Prophylaxis' lips curl into a frown as his deeply ingrained GAMER INSTINCT screams inside his skull. This, he thinks, looks remarkably like a FIGHT ROOM.

His suspicions are confirmed almost immediately when GOBLINS start flooding out of the various side-tunnels. Is this their final hold-out? "I've got you," the doctor shouts, one of his amulets glinting with an inner light as a powerful shield buff wraps around the entire party, turning away the lesser knives and crude weapons that the goblins seem to have been reduced to. "Careful now. They probably still have poisons. Shout if you get nicked!"

    Merek looks about and tries to find a place to go through, though it seems that he's probably going to follow the people into the place.

    Fukaziroh feels pretty glum right about now. She can take her own failures with a grain of salt and laugh about it, but now she failed a group of hapless landers too. That just leaves her feeling bad. So when the group gets ambushed by a bunch of nasty goblins, this cheers Fuka up immensely! It's uncomplicated physical combat and she gets to avenge... well, no one really. It's just uncomplicated physical combat.

    Of course she DOES bounce her axe off the ceiling once or twice, but fortunately she's reasonably well-armored and gets away with being not too badly stabbed and poisoned. When she's tackled by a goblin she shows she has a mean knee as well as a mighty battle axe. And one might even feel sorry for that goblin if it weren't, well, a goblin. Anyways she needs some help but this time the relative failure leaves her beaming and sunny in mood. Murder is far more fun than moping!

Sports drinks /are/ helpful. They just don't help these adventurers. Well, unless they've lost electrolytes or something. They have been working pretty hard, fighting goblins, and they could probably use water and salt and such. It doesn't help their HP, but they're still better off for it. Possibly.

When Yuuki shouts that it's a trap, Yeowang is ready, and the first goblin that steps close to her gets kicked in the teeth hard enough to make its little head spin. They're not really tall enough to punch, so it's low kick, low kick, low kick, and she sends them alternately flying back in the direction they came from, or else exploding into pixels. There's a lot of them, and it's a kind of complicated fight, so she doesn't waste any effort on where they might have come from. It's a wild melee, but she wades through it like an MMA champion.

    And then.
    Goblin ambush.
    Amalthea starts wailing on the green tide but for every one she strikes down another like three or four pop up.
    "Argh."
    It's not a very dignified sound as her DPS seems to be lacking for this encounter.

Gwen looks at Yuuki again for a moment.

"They are safde and Yuuki? This is a world of it's own not some game far as I can tell. It can be gamey but..."

She shakes her head. "Not the time for this let's move."

Thing turns out to be a trap and Gwen will launch herself into the goblins hacking and slashing them. Some even up getting crushed underfoot by Gwen after a shield slam but there are too many.

    The battle that results from the definitely-not-obvious-ambush actually turns out to be a rather tense one. Individually, the goblins aren't a significant threat to the group. But in the numbers that have managed to pour out of the side tunnels, they manage to overwhelm quite a few of the group. Getting some hits in, the poisonous weapons apply a poison DOT onto their targets.

    It takes QUITE a while for the group to finally beat off the goblin assault, the reinforcements trickling until there's no more. Yuuki is the one who strikes down the last of them, the goblin vanishing in a cloud of glowing pixels.

    Yuuki phews and grins, looking much happier, "That was a challenge!" She looks over her fellow party members, some of who are still suffering from the poison effects, "Shall we continue?"

    Easier said than done though. While there is the main exit on the other side of the cavern, it turns out to be a dead-end. A trick, to corner any parties that try to run instead of fight. Which just leaves the various side-tunnels... But the question is, which one really leads to the source of the goblins and which go elsewhere?

    Yuuki uhhhhhs... Then points down one tunnel, "This way!" She starts walking forward, confident in her decision.

    Yuuki is still confident in her decision, even after it becomes obvious that this is NOT the correct path.

    As the group walk past several tunnels, they hear unnerving sounds from further within. Sometimes it's the low growling of some creature. Other times it's the familiar clanking of weapons, though very faint suggesting it's far off in the distance. You swear that walking past one tunnel you hear someone screaming...

    Perhaps it's time to question the path chosen by the party's fearless leader?

Allynna hooks her shield over her back once the fight is over, and decides abit of divinity is needed. Or just.. help to find their way, so she takes out her lute and begins to play a song that hopefully, the song itself will echo though the tunnels and allow them to know their way.

"~The Road that we walk, is lost in the flood, here pround angels bathe in their wages of blood, at this the world's end to we cast off tomorrow.~"

    'This way!' Yuuki says.
    The group follows. There's a scream in the darkness. Amalthea frowns.
    Digging out her maps she's scrawling quickly on the page. At times she pulls out... A spyglass?
    That can't be helpful in here can it?
    Except it can when she uses it to SEE THROUGH WALLS at points, making more marks on a map.
    Before she tap at the necklace on her neck and...
    It calls up a mini map.
    An actual, honest to goodness holographic mini map. THAT SHOWS HIDDEN DOORS. Which she shows to Yuuki and works with the SERIOUSLY LUCKY imp to help work on finding a path out.
    "Let's try these paths, this way, dear."

    "You know, we're probably lost." Fukaziroh says cheerfully. "We're going to wander around in circles and die. But at least we'll die TOGETHER!" she says happily. "None of you are cannibals right? Because that would make this really suck."

    She shrugs, not sure where to go or what to do. She is, however, rather skilled in some esoteric magics. And right now she really doesn't care about her self-imposed challenge to avoid the use of magic. So she begins a low chant, using powerful protective magics that also have a slight aspect of guidance and advice to them. Just a little divine intervention or something.

    She concentrates, and actually gets a sense of guidance from the spell. She moves in that general direction, pulling up alongside Yuuki and Amalthea. Then she frowns, looking at them. Then she slows down again. Turning, she triangulates. Huh... her feeling seems to be telling her to follow Yuuki and Amalthea. Well okay, sounds fine to her!

Well, that could of gone better... it also could of gone worse. Though fighting off the Goblin horde has also gotten them a bit lost. But a large monster population traversing about can also be a benefit at times like this.

Kauchemar stops, murmuring to herself and closing her eyes. She reachs down one hand to rest upon the scroll bound to her belt, causing it to flicker and 'audible gleam' a little.

Then her eyes flare back open, entirely engulfed in their psychedelic lavander glow as spectacle frames of ghostly fire ignite around them.

"o/~ One more dance... One more night... Another chance to make it right. Follow back from where you came...
Set us free, the night's begun. And this has gone on far too long. We will end this were it began, according to plan o/~"

Then she turns a bit, and raises a hand to point down one of the passages. It is in fact towards one of the hidden doors that, had not it been for Amalthea's magic minimap, wouldn't even of showed up. "That path has been used many times, I see a great forboding presence beyond."

The battle drive the party onward she's pretty worn down and even beat up. To the point, Gwen's downing a potion or two after the fight.

"We have little choice if we want to clear this place out."

She notes to Yuukia as she heads deeper she'll fall in with the other tanks as they do this musing.

"Keep your eyes peeled there may still be other major strains of goblins who survived the fall of the nest remaining."

She sighs a bit and looked about.

"Did you hear something scream?"

She pulls out some parchment and goes over what might be a map of the area trying to find her way.

Yeowang is not good with directions, particularly in undergroud mazes. It never figured in her business management background, nor in her MMA training. Luckily, /everyone else/ can work out out just fine. She sighs. This game is so frustrating some times. Why is she the only one that has trouble? That's okay, really, in this case, she can simply follow the party and wind up in the right place. It seems like everyone but her understands what's going on. It's frustrating. On the other hand, not everyone can execute a flying roundhouse kick, so she guesses it's a tradeoff.

    Merek will take the time to assist with mapping the place and will follow along with the party.

On the bright side, even the poisoned folks are probably going to be just fine. After all, they have a doctor on their side!

Unfortunately, Prophylaxis does not have a cure for being hopelessly lost.

"Well, this could be worse," the doctor says, his brow knitting furiously. "But I've seen this intersection before. Last time we were here, we went to the left and... got ambushed by a ninja robot," he shakes his head slowly, "Obviously I'd like to avoid that if possible, so I vote we go right. After that, we'll have to play it by ear."

But hey, 'knowing the map layout' is technically divination, isn't it? Basically? Though perhaps it's closer to cartography...

Ah well, same difference.

But then Amalthea pulls out a... minimap. Prophylaxis pauses at the holographic projection and furrows his brow thoughtfully, "Well. That's neat. Where did you get a hold of one of those?"

    Yuuki stops along with the rest of the party. There's some doubt as to which way to go. Yuuki looks fake-hurt, "I wouldn't mislead you guys!" Still, it's time to work out a better way to go.

    While Amalthea brings out some tools and starts to logically work out which way to go. Yuuki starts pointing in the various directions available to them. Those who were at the fight with the Goblin King and Queen may recognize the look on Yuuki's face as she silently recites off a rhyme in her head.

    Just as she's seemingly about to finish off, Yuuki's headband shimmers even so slightly in the dark of the tunnel.

    Yuuki finishes pointing down one tunnel. At the same time, Amalthea shows her the results of her cartographic talents. The two agree!

    And not just them!

    Through various magical and logical means, most of the party agree to the same path. Democracy at work, people!

    "Alright! With that settled... On we go!" The party continues forward.

    And it worked! The group of Adventurers head down the path, which stops branching off. They also encounter no dead-end. Which likely means that they've chosen correctly. This seems especially true as they come across their next obstacle...

    "ANOTHER FREAKING DOOR!?"

    Yuuki crosses her arms in annoyance, "One day I'm going to have to have WORDS with the dev that built this place."

    Regardless, the group needs to figure out the complex lock on this door if they hope to make any further progress.

The supernatural glow is fading from Kauchemar's eyes just as they finally walk into the room. "Dang." It didn't hold long enough to actually use it on the puzzle lock. Oh well. The best she can do is help supply magica to charge the mechanism, but after pumping mana into the farseeing Divination she doesn't have a lot to spare at the moment.

Yeowang knows Jack about locks or really anything technical. That's a thing you hire experts for. A manager's job is to manage, and to know -when- to hire people to do things, and when to select people for which jobs. But the game doesn't give her the option to call out, or to bring in an expert, so she will have to go with her gut on this, and so she will. Proving that even a blind monkey will occasionally find a nut.

    Merek will take the time to assist with the magic device, while he uses the magic to work on that. Then he's nodding a little along to the party.

Allynna looks at the door and decides that enough is enough and casts Thorn Calamite, with a boost to it from her lute and singing.

"Beneath the gazing stars"
"Vales deep and forests dark"
"Betrayed by loyal hands, Her wrath stirred"

"Bound fast unto our fate"
"One path, one burden great"
"Yet ever do our aching souls point Heavensward"
"Ever rings out our song"

"Yes, ever do our aching souls march Heavensward"
"As they've done for so long"

The music causes her vines to writhe and rip at the door glowing with each high note and the thorns cracking the doors frame with each low note.

    "Never doubted Yuu for a moment!" Fukaziroh lies. But she lies to herself as well, so it's okay she's totally sincere. Thing is the way she's grinning, she doesn't *look* sincere, so it's really not convincing at all. Anyone's guess if she's teasing or sincere, at this point.

    Also at this point, Fukaziroh just doesn't care any more about magic use, so she's quick to begin a chant when the group approaches the door. She brushes her fingertips across it, forcing air mana outwards, feeling the tingle of magic channels activated. "This ring... connects to this one here and here." she murmurs. "That ring has activation points... here and here." she points out. Not trying to solve the puzzle itself, but showing others where she believes a couple of linkages are supposed to go, letting them do the fine manipulation and actual puzzle solving.

Well, isn't this a lovely change? There's a door in front of them. A very door-shaped door, but not one with a conventional lock. The design and complexity of the door is something that Prophylaxis hasn't yet seen anywhere in Karluin. "Now, now. Whatever this is, it's clearly important enough to put behind one heck of a door. The only things I've seen that are remotely this complex in Karluin are the Elemental Machines. While this is probably not an Elemental Machine Door, we should still take care."

The Doctor has just the medicine for the job. He pulls a clear, sky-blue crystal from his inventory and crushes it, the magic sealed within refreshing his mind and sharpening his senses. With eyes that glow a pale blue light, he stares at the locking mechanism and begins turning the rings this way and that. Slowly, a pattern begins to emerge...

But he'll probably need some help getting it before that medicine wears off.

Gwen looks to Yuuki for a moment.

"I'd hope you would not mislead us."

She notes before giving up on her map reading. It's good thing others in the party fair better than she did. There's another door ahead Gwen just stares at it for a moment she has an idea. She will ready her shield an channel magic into it. Magicl enerry bleed out and doesn't seem to attack the door but fills evey crack as if trying to power or weave some spell to get it open.

She pauses at the music from Allynna and seem to approve.

    "Seventh floor, Aincrad tower. It was a lucky drop." Amalthea answers Prophylaxis as to where she got her new toy.
    "I kind of went ham training there a while back looted it off a fire breathing T-rex with weird dorsal fin thingies." She says. "Between that and the giant iguanas that swallow you whole, I'll call it a win." She says as the group moves on.
    She...
    Does not touch the thingy and will let people of more keen dungeoneering skills handle the one lock she can't pick with a hairpin.

    It's a group effort! Allynna's vines begin pulling at the door, causing some rings to start turning. Others are turned more intentionally by Prophylaxis, with assisted guidance from Yeowang and Merek. Finally, Gwen channels magic into the door, causing the rings to light up.

    A few of the others, Yuuki included, simply watch on with what little they can do to help. Not that Yuuki minds. Who needs magic? Psh. She could totally just use her sword to destroy the door if she wanted to. But she'll let the others get the satisfaction of solving the puzzle.

    Once the rings are finally aligned correctly, the entire door glows with light! It then opens on its own...

    Revealing a grand tomb full of treasures!

    Definitely a boss fight room.

    Yuuki whistles as she walks into the tomb, "Now THIS is what I'm talking about." There's definitely some nice looking treasure here. And where there's a nice looking treasure-

    One of the graves slowly slides open, a large spectre rising up out of it. The clockwork equipment it wears and holds whir to life, starting to tick along. It floats over to the center of the room, bringing its heavy clockwork sword up and stabbing it down into the ground. A shockwave visibly releases from the impact, washing out over the party.

    As if summoned by the move, numerous magitek turrets lower out of the ceiling and turn to aim at the party.

    Yuuki grins as she slowly draws her sword, "Let's do this!" She leans forward and then dashes forward towards the Clockwork King! It lunges forward at the same time, the two swordfighters' weapons clashing against each other in flashy display of light!

    All the while, the turrets begin to rain down magic bullets on the party!

What rises from the mausoleum entombment gets even Kauchemar's brows to raise a bit. "That does explain the complicated lock though." A pause. "Definitely the forboading presense I sensed..." Then the turrets start to emerge. "... Those, I did not."

But as the guns open fire she deftly sidesteps them, and brings up the Binder Shield to intercept the gnomish phantom's strike. "I don't how much ability to comprehend left in you." She pushes off, spins around, and brings the shield back up to block more magic bullets. "You're already dead. Your former kingdom has been overun with goblin filth. Those are who we were trying to hunt down, we uncovered this place by accident. So, if you wouldn't mind, you can just kindly--"

She steps in, grabbing the shield to combine it's resiliance with her strength, and use it's own spectral attuniment to be able to actually strike the unliving king to shove him towards his tomb at the back of the mausoleum once more. "--STEP OFF."

    Sprectre gnomes!
    These are apparently a thing, with their clockwork armor and their turrets.
    Amalthea proceeds to draw fire from several of the turrets while the others handle the ghost gnome, hunkering behind her shield as it gets peppered with fire.

Yeowang zips forward as the turrets take aim at where she'd been standing. But she's a step ahead of where they're aiming, delivering punches and kicks to the clockwork armored figure. She backs away when the machines' aim gets too close, and will circle around to strike from a different angle. Overall, she's quite tactical in her beatdown of this clockwork/undead thing, whatever it may be. Whatever it started as, it's winding up as a doormat, with her boots all over it.

    Merek will take the time to use the magic repelling shield to protect people in the party while he walks along.

    "Oh hey, treasure!" Fuka enthuses. Of course the real treasure is the friends we made along the way... right? Or is it the goblins we murdered? Or the tunnels we ... yeah okay, treasure.

    But FIRST! "Of course there's a boss battle! Did anyone else have clockwork spectral mummies? on their bingo card?" Fuka complains. She hefts her axe up high however, only to curse and duck as magitech turrets deploy and begin throwing chunks of speedy metal.

    Between Amalthea and Allynna, Fukaziroh knows the group has the boss well-tanked. And of course she knows the firepower and speed of the others. The remaining problem is numbers. "Don't mess with the TINY BATTLE FAIRY!" she cries out, charging the first turret, leaping into the air, and delivering unto it a mighty tackle with her reinforced arm-guards leading the way. Thanks to her protection, not even magic bullets do any serious damage before she smashes the turret from its moorings.

    "I'm gonna AXE you to STOP SHOOTING US!" she bellows, swinging for the next turret like it were a pinata.

Allynna pretty much spent most of her stamina when she sang that last song, and her shielding isnt as good as usual, even a yawn. "Damnit.. I overdid it wit hthat last song..." She says as her bun bun ears start to droop slightly.

What is revealed when the door slides away instantly puts all thoughts of goblin hordes out of the doctor's head. "This..." Karluin has always been something of a mystery. Who built the massive city? Why did it have so many Elemental Machines? There was clearly a civilization that thrived within its walls, ages ago. They built its walls, its towers, hollowed out the vast labyrinth beneath it, and then simply... disappeared.

Apparently, they've found something of an answer to at least some of those questions.

"Amazing..." Prophylaxis says breathlessly... As one of those sarcophagi stirs, disgorging a clockwork spectre that Prophylaxis readily identifies as gnomish. Of course it was gnomes-- they sure built every other non-alvish civilization around. But this one seems to be under some kind of... misunderstanding.

"Ah, yes. It's our mistake. We just saw a door on our quest to slay a great deal of goblins and decided to see what was within. This is your tomb?" But what is the point of taking so many riches with them to the grave?

Well, it matters not. The turrets must be dealt with. Prophylaxis' breath frosts on his lips as he sweeps a hand out toward the elemental machines. A wave of chilling fog washes outward at his command, sucking the heat and warmth from each of the turrets... Until finally, they frost over completely, moisture flash-freezing in joints and crevasses until they are rendered utterly immobile. "We mean no harm! Please, settle down and let us discuss this!" If it can, of course. Ghosts are kind of iffy when it comes to sapience.

Things are going well enough with the group as they push in andf find ... loot so much loot. Gwen halts, it's never that easy, she readies her weapons it's clearly going to have something guarding this place. She turns out to be right as turret power up and open upon them. She also notes the clockwork king whom she takes a moment to charge it casing spells while she does not attempt to engage the King, more intercept attacks and keep them off the party.

"I hope your right Prophy!"

    The Unliving King pushes Yuuki away after their initial clash, the Imp flipping in the air before landing on her feet and skidding back to a halt.

    Free of the initial engagement, the King turns his attention on Kauchemar. Much to the nightmare's expectations, the King does not speak. Whether it has any intelligence is up for debate. Perhaps it simply sees these intruders as needing to be squashed and talk to that end meaningless.

    What is not up for debate is its strength. It rapidly floats over in Kauchemar's direction, swinging its large weapon, but it bounces of the shield. Shortly afterwards, said shield smashes into the King, forcing it to float back a fair distance.

    While initially the turrets had been targeting the party evenly, Amalthea proves successful in drawing many of their fire for a short moment. No doubt in the hopes that the battle will be ended before her shield is whittled away to nothing by the barrage of magic bullets now raining down on her.

    Yeowang charges in on the spectre after it's knocked back by Kauchemar. She's able to get in a few punches and kick while it recovers. But it proceeds to counterattack with its large weapon, swinging it towards the martial artist. But she deftly avoids the blow, relocating to continue raining more blows down on it.

    A number of the turrets fire at Merek. But they find their bullets halted by a shield, where they hover in the air for a few moments before suddenly flinging back in the direction of the turrets. Peppered by their own magic rounds, some of the turrets begin exploding left and right!

    Even more turrets are exploding. Clearly not built for withstanding melee attacks-no doubt why they were placed in the roof-their designer obviously didn't account for TINY BATTLE FAIRY! Fukaziroh's leaps taking her into range of the turrets where she mercilessly slices her weapon through them, or smashes them, or otherwise ruins what is some very intricate and interesting clockwork technology.

    Poor Allynna is feeling a little worn out after the last battle. Maybe she needs an energy drink! If only someone here had some to spare~ Oh well. The bun does her best to draw the fire of turrets while others deal with them, taking a few magic bullets for her efforts. But she'll live.

    While trying to talk to the Spectre King is all well and good, you might want to try that when your fellow party members aren't currently in the process of trying to murder it! Still, Prophylaxis provides some firepower in the form of ice, freezing a number of turrets which then proceed to shatter as Fukaziroh strikes them.

    Much like Allynna, Gwen appears to be look a little worn out after the goblin ambush and subsequent multi-hour jaunt through a labyrinth. Perhaps the party should have taken a short rest? Too late now though as the tailor does what she can to keep those magic bullets the turrets are firing from reaching her allies. Saving one or two from losing a little of their health.

    The battle with the Clockwork King continues! Yuuki charges it her blade quickly growing in size as darkness forms around it. Her Void Blade clashes against the King's Clockwork Blade, the two struggling against each other as they lean into it. Yuuki grins as she stares the spectre down...

    That is until Prophylaxis continues trying to convince the King that they're not there to rob, or kill him. To which Yuuki turns to look at the physician, "Really, Prophy!?"

    Yuuki and the King break apart again, at which point it raises one of its boney hands up to stop the fight. Yuuki stops mid-step, looking a little bewildered.

    The spectre's dark eyeholes stare at Prophylaxis for a moment, before it bellows out some words in an ancient language. It then gestures to a pile of treasure, containing numerous elemental machine parts. Everyone gets the sense it's willing to part with a small amount of its horde.

    Yuuki looks a little disappointed, wondering, "Can't we just kill it and take the stuff anyway?" It seems like the boss battle has ended though as the Unliving King slowly floats backwards towards its grave, returning to it once more.

Maybe it's a matter of mutual ghostliness (or rather, Prophylaxis has experience with ghosts, so clearly there's a ghost-connection there right!?), but the doctor and the ancient spectre seem to come to an understanding. Prophylaxis exhales slowly, as if a great weight was lifted from his shoulders. The old king returns to his grave, and it looks like they get loot for the trouble.

But poor Yuuki... poor Yuuki didn't get to kill a boss today. He pats her shoulders consolingly, "I promise I'll come with you to fight another one, but..."

His finger traces up to point toward what look to be at least a half-dozen /other/ sarcophagi, "I'm pretty sure he wasn't alone. /And/ we're kind of going to be living in the guy's city soon, and I'd prefer to avoid some kind of ancient gnomish clockwork curse? We'll go murder some monsters some other place though, promise."

"Not every victory is the death of the enemy sprawled before you, Yuuki," Kauchemar replies with a gleam in her eye at what's been offered. "This fight of attrition could go on for some time... and we have other more important fiends to foil, like finding that Queen Goblin."

She walks over to the stack, picking up a part with one hand. The other hand pulls out a remnant of Elemental Machinery she already has from a long time ago. "Yes, yes, these are similar enough to be authentic. Let us not insult the unliving's gracious offering by being rude."

She stows the shield so she can pick up as much as she can, and turns to leave. "Not our originally intended target, but a succeesful venture all the same."

Yeowang is used to victory by her opponent capitulating, so she has no problem acceping this ending. She will collect up the offered treasure and bow formally to the opponent. It was a good match," she says simply. Looking over the parts is something else entirely. They look useful, though she can't imagine what they'd be useful /for/. Still, into inventory they go.

    Merek will take the time to take that reward, and be about a way.

    Fukaziroh can certainly sympathize with Yuuki. Beating an enemy senseless is much more fun than apologizing for looting his resting place. And of course she's got her temper going, and reveling in the destruction that is turret hell. But having helped buy the group time, she settles down as the remaining turrets disengage and she looks around, both disappointed and pleased.

    "It's okay, he's terrified we'll kick his undead ass!" she boasts. "I mean, assuming ghosts have asses. They don't, do they? Oh well, so we just... what, we convinced him we were mostly here to kill goblins that were defiling his tomb? Okay I can call that a win too!"

    Especially since she sees what their reward is. Ooooooh, enchanter crystals! SCORE! She's not particularly interested in random parts, but figures some of it will be useful in crafting some gear later. It looks valuable and exotic and that means POWAH BAYBEE!

:Seem pretty pleased with how things hve turn out she will bow when all thing are said and done and she'll pull out iwth the rest of the party taking what loot she was allowed to grab.

"We can go elsewhere if you just wish to rest I don't see an issue." WQith that Gwen will head out intending to never come back to this tomb.

    "Rest?!" Fuka exclaims, dismayed. "You guys promised ramen and dumplings! And ice cream!" Okay they definitely didn't promise the last, but try convincing a distressed battle fairy of that! She fought hard!