Duty Session 372: The Phantom Colosseum

    The fog is thick this early morning, sitting heavily on the ocean water. It is eerily calm as the boat sails out of the fog up to a makeshift dock. This is the starting point to head out to a nearby island to handle something fishy that is occuring. Waiting where the dock meets the beach is one tall lizardman, standing with a look of disgruntlement on his face. " I hate the sea more and more these days. " The hunter's guild had given him the time to show up so he wouldn't miss the boat, it is likely others would have the same info and would show soon.

    At one point Fuka would agree about hating the sea, but she's no longer holding a grudge from her voyage to the Palace Lands. She's been back and forth a few times, helping ferry supplies and carrying messages, and no journey was nearly as disastrous as that first. So she shows up for this one jolly... rogering.

    "Yaaaarrrr!" she calls out upon seeing Rizadoman, waving. "First Mate Fuka reportin' fer Booty!"

Silversword's Songstress Bun Tank: Allynna walks along the beach, looking to Riz she stops and blinks. "You look like someone put soy in your cheerios.. you gonna be okay big guy?" She asks as she brings up her menu and changes her gear to her tanking set, full Plate Iron armor with a black full length surcoat over that, the coat sports the Sigil of the Silver Sword, and hooked onto her back is her peide and joy, Dual Razor, as well as a broadsword resting at her hip.

"Fuka... it's Duty before booty, unless your Duty is to pleasure that booty..." She says with a giggle.

"It isn't so bad," says Prophylaxis, renowned (??) physician and de-facto commander of the Scale Emblem Alliance. "The sea is a hard mistress, tempestuous and violent sometimes, calm and generous others. But the roar of the waves and the toss of the tides are not something I tire of so easily."

He is, after all, something of a self-proclaimed man-of-the-sea.

...

...In spite of lacking any meaningful sea-faring skills...

Yeowang shows up soon, as predicted. "Good morning," she calls in greeting. Her long hair is coiled in a loose bun on her head, the excess falling in a ponytail behind. She looks severe in her black pants and coat, with white blouse underneath, but she's cordial enough with her Guildies and those she's adventured with these last months. "I heard there was a duty that needed doing," she says. "So I am here." She looks at Proph very skeptically.

"Come on, sailing isn't that bad Riza," Shiruba remarks as she steps off the boat. "And that was nothing like the trip we made to first locate this place. Though I doubt the rest of the venture is going to be as calm as the dock is."

Another day, another adventure. SO here Miho was ready to head out once more she eyed the fod a little bit her limial ring seeming to glow a bit as she did so.

"I'm not sure you could handle my booty, Fukaziroh."

She seemed in good spirit and she looked next to the towering bun.

"Hi there I don't think we have met before."

The Salamander swishes her tail a bit.

"I have the best tail on this boat and everyone knows it."

    Rizadoman looks at Allynna, " Fortunate even if they did I do not partake of such things. A warm bowl of oats in the morning is perfectly fine though. Fortunately no one put soy sauce in them either this morning. I was just thinking about all my experience with the sea lately." . Looking at the boat Rizadoman takes a deep breath before stepping in to it. " All aboard who's going!" Once everyone was on he would have the captain push off and take them to their destination.

     As the group begins to get close to their destination, they can hear singing. Not just any singing some rather good singing. The type that would put some of the adventurer singers to shame even. Shortly after the singing starts though the party would find themselves drifting to a nearby sandbarge, populated by several sirens. If nothing is done they will soon crash.

    Fuka peers dubiously at Ally, then transfers that dubious look to Miho. "You guys are so dirty-minded." she comments, in a manner that were this a just world, she'd burst into flames outright. Then she shrugs. "Prof, you know who else can be a hard mistress?"

    She pauses a moment, then shrugs again. "Not me, certainly. Calm and generous, I am, all the time!"

    Fuka's definitely tempting lightning bolts from the sky with her current level of blasphemy. Yeah she's in a fine mood today, and it continues while she's on the boat with the others.

    She even starts singing sea shanties, even before the sirens draw close. All to help ensure everyone's good cheer. She's actually a decent singer, if a little vague on the notes... though that could also be just her desire to harmonize when others join in.

Well if Fuka is going to start singing, so is Allynna, if only to try and couter the siren's song

"Blackened was the banshee's wail"
"These boot will never fill her jail"
"So you crawled into an empty boat"
"For the Gulf of Mexico"
"Till Cortez came an' when so did you"
"From the ashes charred and blue"
"Smellin' like a salty dog"
"Back from Hell where you belong"

As we get closer and hear the singing, Yeowang at first pays it little mind. She has no idea why songs have such a central role in this game. It seems silly. Or else an excuse to get big name singers involved in the game for more PR. But she recognizes the danger of the sirens, and will jump ship to fight the sirens, who are not quite ready for her direct methods, many of which involve a boot to the head or else a kidney-punch. And so, the sound of sirens becomes, with the aid of a mark-one/mod-one beatdown from Yeowang and the others, the sound of silence. Much nicer. She will return to the boat afterward.

"Yes," Prophylaxis answers without missing a beat, "The medical profession."

What does he mean? Does he mean anything at all? Is there even a scrap of hidden intent behind his words!?!

Any meaningful revelations will have to wait... For after this next encounter. The moment the sirens start singing, Prophylaxis is on that like stink on skunk. One opens her mouth, and finds a sphere of pure arcane force slamming into her fishy teeth. "Ugh. Tune them out if you can. The last thing we need is someone jumping overboard."

Miho has her hand on the hilt of her Katana now, not due to the party. It's more due to being on edge to what might befall them. She know they could be jumped at any time. The singing starts up and she finds things going badly. she'll leap into action calling back to Fuka.

"We can aruig about it later!"

She'll work to start securing things and crew as quickly as she can. She also seem to be trying to turn the muysic out muttering teh song lyrics to Mazinger Z of all things as she works.

The singing is good. In fact, it's too good to Shiruba. She remembers encountering Sirens on their discovery voyage, so seeing them try to intercept new arrivals is anything but a surprise.

In a flash she's got her bow out, a few arrows in hand, and procees to snipe shots at the Sirens to silence them for good.

    Rizadoman looks out at the sirens and as the doctor mentions people jumping overboard, the lizardman does so. Alas a few air bubbles come to the surface and then nothing. However the ship does appear to be slowing down in drifting towards the barge and even turning. The captain makes some cursed sound and seems to be fighting back trying to keep heading for the sirens though. Fortunately the others have done what they need to break the spell. The duo countering the song, and the others trying to prepare for impact, or handling the sirens in a more direct approach.

     Eventually the boat docks at its intended destination and when people get off, they can see an exhausted Rizadoman at the back of the boat looking a bit worn out. " Let us be glad it is only a rudder, " is the only comment the lizardman will make about it. As they make their way to the colosseum they enter a quiet town. A town that is just tooooo quiet. Before anyone can even mention its a trap humanoid fish monsters leap out and begin to attack the party. Perhaps this is just a test before you are allowed to participate in the colosseum or perhaps it is a sign that outsiders aren't welcome. In the end all it boils down to is monsters are attacking the adventurers, what is an adventurer to do.

What an adventurer is to do, when faced with attacking fish people, is defend herself. But given the numbers, it's more easily said than done. Yeowang's martial arts experience, extensive as it is, is almost entirely 1 vs 1, and so she's a bit overwhelmed by the masses of attackers. When she concentrates on putting one down, the two adjacent land hits on her that force her to back down. All in all, it's not a good fight for her.

A fight... oh this makes for a happy bun. "Hear that guys.. I think it's go time!" She says as she unhooks her shield, and with a click it splits into two halfs, one on each arm.

"Repelling Shield!" Is shouted as Allynna wades into the comming attackers, her blocks and bashes causing damage before she clicks another device on bpth of her shidls, and blade start to spin at the edges of them as she goes on the offensive. "DUAL RAZOR: HAZZARD CUT!" She says as she starts to become a whirling meatgrinder but. "IT'S TIME FOR SASHIMI!!"

Too quiet is too accurate. It's not hard to see the wolfgirl is on high alert despite the calm, the way her ears are fully upright and twitching, listening for even the most minute hint of--

Fishmen leap down upon the party passing through!

"--A trap!" Shiruba barks, even if it's already obvious, even as she backjumps away from the sudden emergence of fiendish fishy felons. Sparks crackle up and down Thundersnow Howl as she pulls back on it's line, forming an arrow out of lightning and firing it at the monster that left at her! It's a direct hit, not only electrocuting the gillman struck, but forking off from that hit to zap several more of the would-be ambushers!

They may of been trapped, but the enemy may end up regretting who they trapped when they fight back.

    Fukaziroh's a bit surprised Rizadoman, of all people, jumps overboard. She's busy singing though, trying to counter the enchanting voices, and doing a pretty decent job as promoting dissonance, letting others take care of the sirens in their inimitable way.

    When he returns, she smirks. "Glad you decided to join us again! Who knew a sweet sweet song was the way to Da Man's heart! Ah, I shouldn't be surprised. So many people fall for sweet sweet song~" she teases.

    She probably keeps it up too, unless the giant lizard snaps at her for the teasing. At least until it's time for battle once again! Or to flee madly perhaps! She raises her arms, chanting repeatedly the words to simple air magic, swishing her hands this way and that to deflect the incoming fire. Well, some of it at least. Not all of it. Imagine her surprise when a flung spear sinks into her thigh. "HEY! I WAS USING THAT!" she shrieks.

Liz jumps overboard in direct contravention of Prophylaxis' warning about people jumping overboard! Damnit Liz, you could warn a guy before leaping to your certain demise!

Fortunately for everyone involved, Liz survives and thus only gets a bit of a stink-eye. UNfortunately, the shore where they make landfall is infested with fishmen, and not the fun, Lovecraftian kind. "Ah, if only these Sahagin would be a bit more hospitable, but I guess they'd just be up to some fishy business if they weren't directly after our heads."

Prophylaxis pauses.

...And then hurls a lightning bolt at the Sahagin swarms, because everyone knows electricity beats water.

    Sticks and stones won't break his bones, so Rizadoman doesn't even worry about the teasing words of Fukaziroh. Instead he is looking forward eye on the prize when the fishmen attacks and the attack glances off a red patch of scales as Rizadoman grins and taunts the fishmen. He continues to taunt and watches the attacks of the monsters glance off the ever growing patch of red scales , until the lizardman is covered in dragon scales. Rizadoman would leave it up to the others to actually take care of the monsters, this was good practice for the newer additions to the alliances. Though the spear in Fukaziroh leg does cause Rizadoman to look over at Shiruba and Prophylaxis, "Sometimes I wonder if as guild leaders need to disappear to do our own thing and let the newer generation handle things like these." Where ever Rizadoman could have picked that up who knows, perhaps Bear knew.

    With the fishmen dead the party can enter the colosseum and the damage inside the hall is extensive. Several times they would have to squeeze through collapsed sections. Finally they reach a stairwell filled with water, and the only way to go is down, into the depths of the water. The moment everyone is at least waded into the water ruins begin to glow and a strong currant begins to drag people down into who knows where. At this rate the party will drown.

The good news is the party does not fall to the monste singer and overall the crew is able to keep going. She woll keep on guard for what might come next. She would fin it's not too long before something else befalls them there's monsters. She draws he Katana dives into the triggering anchor howl as she goes.

Yeowang is sucked down into the vortex with the others, and she quickly realizes that she's being sucked into underwater eddys that will strand her while her oxygen meter's running down. She wants no part of that, so she fights to at least stay with the current, and will wind up swept along rather than stranded. That's better than the alternative!

Shiruba rolls her eyes slightly at Rizadoman's concern. "Oh, relax. It's not like we're holding their hands or trying to prevent them from doing anything out of misplaced concern. Then I'd start to worry. Besides, she got a spear in the thigh, not an arrow to the knee, she'll be fine." And there's a doctor right here.

As they make their way inside Shiruba frowns at the sight. It always sadded then explorer to see such locations gone to disarray from monster habitation. So much history was likely already lost. "The fish infestation has done nothing for the atmosphere of the place.... and I don't mean the stink in the air." She shrugs, and jumps into the deeper water. She can use her own familiarity with the element to ensure the current doesn't throw her around... too much... hopefully.

Allynna dives into the water and tries to swim, only to fail because she thought she could control the water's currents with her magic, but... water spells arent her forte.

Fuka takes an arrow to the knee-- or rather, a javelin to the thigh-- causing Prophylaxis to pause and frown. "Hold on, emergency medical procedure underway," he says before promptly strolling over and tugging the offending weapon out of her leg.

This is probably not good medical practice, but the generous application of bandages and healing potion that follows... probably /is?/

Once he's done, provided she stays still to let him finish, the party can move on to--

Oh.

Hey.

This seems familiar.

"Well, no time like the present," Prophylaxis says with a shrug, before promptly jumping into the raging current.

...And ends up being swept (safely, thanks to a bubble of protective water magic) away into the depths of the earth. That's... Good?

    Complaining loudly about her injury, Fuka rolls her eyes at Rizadoman's comment. "You older generation leader types can't abandon us, I mean if you do, who will be there to carry us? Who will carry ME?" she asks.

    She gets her answer when Proph ruthlessly extracts the spear. She winces, but she's actually relatively stoic about it. "I guess I deserved that!" she says with a weak laugh. Fuka's not enough of a fool to move around when the Doc is tending to her injury, though she's fool enough in many other ways. "Thanks, Prof!"

    Before long she's good to go once again. It's good treatment, enough so that when the group gets swept out into the current, she can actually swim rather strongly. But the group seems to be getting carried away with things so she takes a breath and goes along for the ride. What's the worst that can happen?

things go onward Miho is mostly quiet for the most poart as she too like the otherdives in and it just goes badly for her it goes really badly. Glub glub glub...

    Rizadoman wades half way into the water and takes a deep breath, it was going to be fine right. The moment his head is underwater though the current picks up and away the lizardman goes. As does the rest of the party, some in a more safe manner then others but in the end the lizardman just hears what Shiruba had said moments before, it's fine.

     Just when oxygen bars are starting to hit that dangerous zone the current lets them out onto the deck of a sunken ship. A few fortunate air bubbles provide a moment to catch their breath, but it won't last long. They are going to have to find a way to safety before they drown.

Yeowang is swept along with the current, her long hair trailing behind her like a fan. But the real problem is her air indicator dipping down into the This Is About To Be Bad area. Finding herself spun out onto the deck of a sunken ship, she snags a spare bubble in the area, for the small relief that gives her guage, looking around for a better, or at least a longer-term, air supply.

Some time later Miho is down under the water being swepot awya almost she'll atempt ot swim and evne with that in mind she'll try to use her tail. Like a type of lizard she saw back on TV some time ago. She's hanging on to he rbeath as best he can but things are slowly going side ways she' got to finds those air bubble uses them and keeps on going...will she be able to keep up with everyone else?

Too bad they don't have Goldenblade and her air bottles right now. They will just have to make do on their own. Fortunately while swimming and diving may not be her strongest suite, Shiruba knows general survival and the need to find more air pretty quick. So when she bumps against the sunken ship she seizes the oppritunity to grab onto it and pull herself inside. Sometimes if the pressure is right in constrast between water and air it won't fill places and leave breathable pockets. That has better chances than blindly searching for caves or bubble vents in unfamiliar waters.

Allynna is swimming to that safe peice of land, and decieds that she needs yo be a hero too, so she grabs Miho under her arm and starts to swim wit hthe other hand.

    Perhaps surprisingly, Fuka's actually keeping her calm while almost drowning. Those who don't know her well might expect flailing and panic. Those who do know her know this isn't exactly her element. But nonetheless she kept a good bit of air in her when she'd started to take the plunge and she's always been an athletic girl. Even in her previous life, she did more high-energy physical activity than most people... and it translates to being able to act while holding her breath relatively effectively.

    When she's grabbing a desperate breath with the others she pants out a quick few words. "Saw ... passage... follow..."

    Fuka takes one last gasp of air, then strikes out back into the water, figuring that it's better to try it than to remain behind and surely run out of air.

Water levels are always the worst, no matter in which context they might appear. Prophylaxis emerges thoroughly waterlogged and critically low on breath, but alive. After a few gasping lungfuls of air, he promptly... flops over and sucks in a half-dozen more before finally deciding he's had enough.

"Well," he says with a groan, "That sucked. But it looks like we might've found something worthwhile regardless. This entire place smells like secret pirate gold...!"

But first they'll need to find it.

...And also not die.

At least he can help with the former! And possibly the latter. He crushes a small blue crystal in one hand before setting forth boldly back under the water. Perhaps there's some kind of... hidden cavern or something like that nearby...?

    Into the underwater cavern Rizadoman goes, the salt water not doing anything for his scaley skin complexion. Quickly the lizardman begins to swim with the strength of his ancestors making his searching of the cavern much easier. It should be noted that others with a prehensile tail would normally just call it using ones tail to swim ,and not strength of one's ancestors.

     All the searching does reveal a passage, and through this passage is a cave and at the top of the cave is...air. Yes air, wonderful and more importantly breathable air. Well not really wonderful, more stale. actually. Though there seems to be some wisps of air coming from behind that giant boulder. The first to approach said boulder would find , thats no boulder but an angry crab that is going to pinch your cheeks in ways that one aunt never could.

    After a relatively frustrating dungeon, Fuka rolls her shoulders seeing what awaits them in the cave. "I'm feeling hungry now." she says, grinning maliciously. "And that armor looks tough, but you just have to aim for the weak points!" she hefts her axe onto her shoulder, stepping up and then hefting the weapon in both hands. "And from where I'm standing it's nothing but weak points! GET THE HOT BUTTER READY!" she cries, and swings into battle.

Yeowang will follow the group into the pocket of air, wheezing and gasping hard, sucking down air while she can, stale as it may be. She's in no position to be picky and will not complain. The appearance of a giant crap /is/ worthy of complaint, though, or at least consternation. If it's not one thing, down here, it's another.

But she will analyze the crab as the others attack, checking out its range of motion and its responses before wading into the fray herself. Metaphorically. Her attacks, then, rely heavily on the insights she's gained. Where to strike for best effect, where to stand that the claws won't easily go. Now all we need is for someone to steam it up with Old Bay and it'll be a feast.

Shiruba doesn't have much luck diverting through the ship in finding air pockets, but where she comes out of the sunken hull just happens to point her towards the cave and with some quick doggy paddling (no comments) she makes it there before her air meter drops entirely. Does leave her sucking air heavily for a few moments once she's on rocky ground to get her lungs filled, followed by a shake to keep her floof from matting down soggily before standing.

Just in time for the giant crab to make itself known. And a threat. "Oh, bother." That big probably counts as a Dire Beast monster, so she can't use her handler skills on it. With measured caution she sidesteps it's attempts to hammer her with its claws, which puts her just close enough to pull out her hunting knife and stab it into the joints of one of it's legs. Usually those are less dense and durable than the shelled body.

Allynna sees the crab, and raises both her shield.s "IT'S ALLY TIME!" Then she charges the crab, only to get knocked back. "Oof!"

Miho sees a crab, Miho's stomach growls and she gets an idea. She'll look over the thing's shell. She draws her Katana and makes ready.

"It has it's weaknesse follow up where I strike it."

She notes and with that? She takes off, no sword arts are uyse as Miho hits joins and other linkages without mercy for this thing. She will call out with each strike hoping to guide her comrades own follow up attacks.

CRAB BATTLE. CRAAAAB BAAATTTTTLLLLLE!!!

Prophylaxis is going to be of no help here, sadly. Hucking fireballs at the thing's carapace doesn't actually seem to be helping much. Clearly its elemental alignment is too far into 'water' for him to do much with fire spells.

But hey, that's what the party is for, right? Crack some shells, guys!

    Rizadoman looks at the crab before him and draws his twin blades as he dashes forward and carves a giant weak spot that then burns with flames for a moment,searing a groove into the top of the crab. "There is where to attack it Fukaziroh!" IT doesn't really matter where Fukaziroh strikes it or where the lizardman thinks the weakness is, the armor is already crumbling thanks to Miho marking the spots on where to attack. Shiruba and Yeowang are able to quickly pierce through all the frailed shell to get to the meat of the problem and finally when the crab is on its way to being pixels the good doctor takes the time to cook the thing from inside. THere will be crab tonight, and people can keep the shell as a souvenir.

    There's something to be said for wielding a giant freaking cleaver when it comes to jointing up dinner. They're not actually going to eat this, right? Riiiiight? Well, first they have to kill it.

    A few minutes later.

    "I needed that!" Fuka sighs happily. She was fairly on the ball, really, dodging and rolling and keeping up with the crab when it scuttled sideways. Not too shabby at spotting the weak points either, though even if she wasn't good at such things she'd have had plenty of assistance to show her where to strike. A good fight, good teamwork... good people. These are the true pleasures of life!

Teamwork makes the dream work! Or something like that.

After it's over Shiruba picks up one of the pieces of shell that were busted off by all the armorbreaker attacks, takes a crystalline arrowhead in the other hand, and scratchs it a few times against the shell, leaving no marks of scuffs. "This stuff is pretty tuff, that's for sure." She tucks both away again. "Good job everyone."

Yeowang nods to the others, looks over the piece of shell she's collected. "Interesting," is all she says as she tucks it into her inventory. She looks a bit bedragged at this point, we probably all do, after going through the underground torrent and everything. On the other hand, the steamed crab is nice. Cooking here is so not what she's used to. It's been very difficult.