Palace Lands: Explosive Counterslimers

As the crew step off of the small boat that managed to get them through the water channel leading north, they've been witnessing a healthy monster population to Lander population ratio. In that there are not many monsters remaining in these lands. And the ones that do exist, are easily taken care of by the local farm lands.

Notably however, the lands to the west do not contain much in the way of Landers, due to being a tundra region that has grown naturally duo to the geography of the area. Getting closer, surrounded on all side by large mountains, they land on a more modest inclined. Interestingly, the incline is almost rounded and smooth. Nature-made, for certain. But it leads up towards the top of the mountain in a way that shows exactly how this place must have formed over time. A large lava-spill.

"The Volcano isn't active at the moment, but be careful of the geysers." The Adventurer - who has helped them get here by boat - remarks. "And of course, be careful of the Slimes in this region. I understand that some of them are quite old." And with that, the crew is left to head up towards the Caldera.

Strapped to Uta's back through a wicker encasing and a system of leather strips and buckles is a demijohn, working as a 'backpack' of sorts. It contains a few 'base' slimes, ready to be morphologically directed. It would appear she picked relatively small specimens, to fit as many as possible into the container.

"Remember, team: we're here to find the Exploding Slimes," the Monster Handling Musical Kung-Fu Nurse begins, as she does her best to gain traction over the smooth terrain. "That is our primary goal and target. Ideally, we should find a way to have Exploding Slimes at the Slime Labs too -- and we have three options here. Option one, the preferred one, we figure out what primes the slimes into exploding. Hopefully it is some easily transported volcanic rock, far easier and less volatile than an exploding moster." A little pensive, she casts a distracted glance around her. "This place is smooth as a pebble, though, so I'm... not exactly sure if we'll find anything like that. Maybe we can try breaking off soil samples for experimentation." She resumes looking ahead, as she climbs further. "Option two, which, apparently, we might have to fall back on, capture a few specimens of actual exploding slimes. Option three, anything else we come up with on the spot that is neither option one or two. That is it. If you want to tackle some other task, you'd better- wait."

Uta freezes. She pats herself down, opens her menu, skims through her inventory, and finally slaps her face. "Curses! I must have forgotten it back at the camp! That random bearded wizard guy was -so insistent- I toss his ring into the volcano..."

After a moment of standing perfectly still, Uta flicks one hand in dismissal and, hands on the strap of her demijon, she leans forward and resumes walking uphill as if nothing had happened. "Ah well, I'm sure it's not so important, I'll just give it back to the old man and I'm sure he'll find another party to take care of his garbage disposal or something."

    Between the boat ride to the palace lands and then the boat ride to where they are now Setsuna has proven that his Cerberus has mostly gotten over their motion sickness problem. The large three headed animal trots off the boat, now starting to push the boundaries of large dog sizes, as their owner Setsuna walks out after them. " Uta I am sure the old man will change his mind. That ring looked quite precious. I am sure with a little cooling off he will change his mind. " Stretching a little the necromancer looks towards the volcano, " Yes we are here for exploding slimes, not to try to find a wyvern or even a dragon to handle. Nope definately here for the slimes. "

    Fukaziroh is looking exceptionally dapper today. She hasn't been much help on navigation, so instead she's declared herself to be morale support. As such, she's wearing something that looks suspiciously like a tilley explorer hat.

    "Remembah." she claims solemnly. "Geysers can be dangerous. So if you see one about to explode, just stick your thumb in it!"

    This is, of course, not what you do. After a moment for everyone to reflect upon this, Fuka sits back to consider Uta's advice. It is probably better than Fuka's. "I can think of one thing that makes slimes explode." she interjects dramatically, grinning with mischef. "So yes, capturing them! It's a good thing you have me along. I am an expert in exploding things, as you all surely know, and I can get in the way and hopefully stop the rest of you getting hurt. If Prof is willing to heal me that is!"

    She pauses, considers, then shrugs. "Uta, you need to beware of geezers! I hear this area's full of them! And if one of them is giving you a ring, OH MY!"

Goldenblade looks around as we land and are briefed by the Guide. She considers the terrain and the landscape, nodding as the Guide explains about the geysers. And the slimes. Old slimes. On a whimsical note, she imagines them for a moment with long grey beards. She blinks at Uta, and the forgotten sidequest, but shrugs. At the mention of taking samples of what the slimes might need to be primed, though, she looks down at the smooth rock at our feet. She will attempt to channel earth to pull some of it up into a fist-sized lump that can be taken back. She then looks up at the air, noting any sort of haze that might indicate volcanic gasses, though this far away, it looks pretty clear. That, technically, is why she was brought along. Fifty years of industrial safety lectures on toxic gasses and gas-free engineering.

"It may also be gases or fumes emitted from the depths of what was the volcano," Shiruba chimes in as she steps off the boat. "Remember Goldenblade's cautions, there may be geothermal vents feeding the area even if the volcano itself isn't active." The wolfgirl cait sith has a notable addition to her attire. That isn't really attire, it's the Bun-Bun sitting on her head. The critters tend to be good at surviving, mainly by being able to eat almost anything, and having really good senses, even if they're not the most combat heavy animals. They're also one of the few Beasts that aren't combinations in the Palace Lands, so it's something that might be easier to accomidate to the new area than the bird she'd also been working with. So she hopes. This isn't really the time to be trying to work with a new and unfamiliar creature.

What do you do with an exploding slime? Prophylaxis supposes that they could be used for something similar to nitroglycerine, but then why not just make nitroglycerine and feed it to a slime? It seems extraordinarily dangerous to go out into the wild to find a creature whose primary feature is blowing itself to kingdom come. Do they multiply when they explode? Do the little slime blobs eventually grow up to become full-sized slimes???

"How do we even keep one of these things in a box so it doesn't explode on us, anyway?" Prophylaxis asks, rhetorically. He's here, of course, because leaving this particular band of adventurers alone on an island of exploding slimes is a good way to cause a volcanic eruption, and he'd really rather not have something like that on his conscience.

"I mean, I guess we could just... freeze them or something? Does that kill exploding slimes? Hmmmn."

It seems the doctor is rather deep in thought, but at least he seems to have little trouble following along with the rest of the party.

"Why does that feel like a reference?" The Adventurer who got them here asks, giving Uta a bit of a look. The youth then shrugs and returns to the boat. "I will be waiting here for about four hours, and then I will head out and assume you folk died to slimes or a Geyser." He warns, before adding; "There's no Wyverns here - this zone is way too low level for that. And I don't think anyone has seen a Dragon here ever."

As the crew starts heading up, they spot a few unusual slime shapes hopping about. Largely ones that have absorbed part of the local fauna. A twosome of 'turtle dove' slimes hippity-hop up along the hill. But the moment anyone gets near them, they quickly dive into the nearest crevace and refuse to come out.

Getting further up, they finally spot one of the slimes at the edge of an active geyser. Its body looks like black stone around a glowing red inner slime body. Some of which drips on the ground, constantly cooking and boiling the ground beneath it. And as the Geyser activates, it jumps in and lets itself be rolled and spun by the Geyser, launched further up towards the mountain's Caldera!

From here, they have a beautiful view on the far off city of Naval Monte. Even at this distance, they can see the enormous towers of the 'Root Town'. If one can call them towns, really. Flickering blue lights blinking at the top of the multiple towers. It truly gives a different view of the place than when they walk within its streets.

    Setsuna cast a glance to Prophylaxis, " You didn't bring the anesthesia? I guess that will make it harder." A sly grin appears on his face as he thinks his own comment is funny before starting up the volcanic mountain, not to bummed by his dreams in digital life being put on hold another day. With a whistle , Demon comes running and looks at Setsuna, Uta and off into the middle of nowhere, before running on ahead a little, staying in sight but enjoying the new territory that will be claimed by them, Demon.

     Eventually they seem to find what they came here for, " Perfect now all we need to do is grab it and throw it in a bag, maybe shke it a little and we can..." He trails off as the slime jumps into a geyser and rides it all the way to the top, finishing up his statement " Or we wait for the next one." Looking back at the others it seems like the necromancer is going to continue to run his mouth but notices the view, " Well thats a sight."

    When Fuka spots the unusual slime, her eyes widen. "Is that an *exploding* lava slime?" she asks. "If we want it harder, I guess we have to cool it down!" she notes, cracking a grin Setsuna's way. "We can do that! I'm not sure if that'll help us get an exploding slime back to the lab but I don't think we want to carry one that's dripping lava either. So it's all good!"

    Fuka's staring at the geyser consideringly, which might make some people nervous. "We have to follow the slime right?" she muses. "Or at least get higher up the mountain... so are you thinking what I'm thinking, Uta?"

Goldenblade is intrigued by the geyser slime. Now that's definitely interesting! And of course that makes her think of Geothermal power, if there's a way to tap into it. But she knows next to nothing about geothermal power, so that will have to be a project for another day. But there's a large town, away down there, there might be a way they can benefit ... but no, these Landers are opposed to new ideas, so scratch that plan.

She nods as Uta mentions exploding slimes, though she wonders, "Do they explode and die, or do they somehow survive the experiece? Like a claymore, exploding in one direction only and the bits on the non-exploding side are okay?" Maybe propelled away at speed, which would make it a useful survival mechanism, she muses. On the capturing plan, she wonders, "If you put it in inventory, /could/ it explode?" But you can't put living things in inventory, she thinks? "Or, no, I guess that woudn't work..." Sadly, Frodo will have to fill in for Uta, going to Mount Doom.

As Setsuna declares us to have met our quarry so soon, she notes, "I don't know if that's an explosive slime. It looks more like a Geyser-slime." She nods to Fukaziroh, "Or lava slime."

"Dragon? Wyvern?" Uta asks Setsuna, puzzled. "Wait, do you know something I don't?" -- Luckily, the Adventurer is quick to set that part straight.

"Good point, Shiruba. We might have to collect samples of liquids and gasses. Do we have an alchemist in the party?", she asks, looking around. Goldenblade gets an approving nod as she collects samples, and Propylaxis gets a "We don't know, Doctor. This is uncharted territory. It might be that this is the first, exploratory mission, and we might have to come back at a later moment. Creative thinking, however, is welcome. If anyone has any idea that will make sure that we don't have to return, just say it out loud."

All color drains from Uta's face at Fukaziroh's comment. "Wait- geezer- ring- you mean- AGH! I completely missed the subtext!" She looks downright terrified at the revelation. "...the old man wanted to marry the volcano! And I threw a wrench into their wedding ceremony! I- /THAT'S why he referred to me as the ring-bearer!"

Uta does, indeed, attempt to chase the slimes, but her current harness does not exactly afford her the agility she normally sports.

There is admiration in her eyes at these local varieties of slimes (this being the Palace Lands... is a 'turtle dove' actually a turtle mixed with a dove?), and after all the chasing, and stopping with pursed lips and a quiet 'ooooh' of admiration at the creatuers' gyser-based transport system, she takes a moment to sit and admire the city in the distance. She reaches into the folds of her gi/uniform, and almost touches her fountain pen, pensively while looking at the city. "No, no focusing," she says, finally. "I'm afraid the city might be too big, or too far away. Last thing I need right now is a headache before this mission. Or worse. Must make sure to do it on my way back, though."

Assuming, that is, that she'll get back from here on her own feet, and not by respawning in the Church of Fort Ouph.

"I'll assess the temperature of the Geyser," she says. "I'm a Godhand, so probably the most fit for these feats of agility. And in a pinch, I can heal myself if I fall somewhere weird."

If thermometers are a thing in this world, it is likely that Uta might have one with her as part of her portable Pharmaceutical and potion-mixing equipment, so she'll try to measure the temperature that way. If not... she'll have to go with more 'crude' assessments to see how dangerous it would be for an Adventurer to take a ride on the Geyser.

"I am not sure I am thinking what you are thinking, Fuka. What are you thinking?", and to Goldenblade, she says, "We don't know yet, Paula. We'll have to find out. But I'm pretty sure you cannot put a slime into your inventory, since it has an HP bar instead of a durability bar. That's why I have to deal with this cumbersome demijohn," and she jabs one finger behind her back.

Haven't seen doesn't mean not present, but Shiruba doesn't bring that point up because we need to keep this a professional (haha right) expedition without people getting too paranoid or some what. There's enough on people's minds.

"Or it may just be a large release of heat and energy that's -like- an explosion, but they don't actually destroy their body." She watches the turtledove slimes retreat into tiny places even her Bun-Bun couldn't dig into easily, and leaves them be. Instead she turns her attention to watch the gyser erupt, ooohing and aaawing at both it, and the slime using it as a catapult to get farther up the mountain. "Well, that confirms that there are indeed slimes here."

Uta, lacking a proper thermometer, does the crude version by sticking her arm into the Geyser as it blows. At first, her hand is pushed back and she gets just a feeling of the heat. But the moment she stuffs her hand in it, her hand immediately glows red and she quickly starts losing HP. She doesn't feel any pain however. Though Prophylaxis might spot this is because she is immediately afflicted by the status effect of 'Third Degree Burns' and 'Burning Up', the latter being a poison-like effect that starts dropping her health fast.

    Merek walks along with the party while he nods to Uta, "I wonder why a slime like this is at the Palace Lands, not at Yamato." Then, she is putting a hand into a geyser. Well, that's about what a Uta will do.

"If all they do is release a pulse of flame and concussive force, then wouldn't they be more like... I don't know, heatwave slimes? Sirocco slimes?" Prophylaxis continues to muse as if lost in a world of combusting blobs and the taxonomy thereof. But then Uta sticks her hand into a damn thermal vent and the doctor ends up COMPLETELY MISSING the amazing view of Naval Monte.

He has to rush over and yank Uta out of the Geyser, then immediately administer several syringes worth of various healing and anti-burn potions. "What the heck, Uta? Those geysers can produce steam in excess of two-hundred degrees celsius! You're lucky it didn't catch your face! Hold still, I need to wrap some bandages..."

<PHARMACY POWERS> activated, Prophylaxis does his best to make sure Uta doesn't lose an arm. Or too much more of her HP bar, at least.

The creature bounces further and further up, as Prophylaxis has to deal with Uta's injury on the way up, delaying the party a little. The Explosive Slime literally landing on Geyser to Geyser, almost like it's done this a hundred times before and figured out the right angles and everything to bounce all the way up to the mountain, leaving the Adventurers in the dust and disappearing into the Caldera.

When the crew gets up there finally, they find a beautiful region. There's an abundance of green along the top of the region, as the slime heads downwards towards the large pool of water that has formed within the Caldera itself. The water has this beautiful emerald green color to it that is sure to amaze and surprise.

The slime isn't alone. It seems to form up with a group of about five of them, which all hip-hop along the edge of the water, seemingly eating some of the rocks there.

    "Well I *was* thinking it looks like super fun to go exploding up the mountain with a geyser lift but now I think we're going to need heat protection first!" Fuka notes with some dismay. It looked like such a FUN idea though!

    "Okay, not sure if that thing can do that from lots of practice or the geyser trampoline is an automatic thing." Fuka muses. "But looks like we have a choice! Charge on up the mountain the slow sweaty boring way, or try to figure out how to shield ourselves and take the fun express way! So who knows how to keep us from major burns? Besides Prof?"

Goldenblade blinks as Uta sticks her arm in the geyser. "Ah, the water is probably about 120-130 degrees," she estimates. "The steam could be several hundred, of course, no real limit, though it will cool as it expands." Averaging out to the figure the Doc mentions. The fact that you can walk that off is what makes this truly a fantasy world, for her.

As we get to the top, and look down into the caldera, she hrms. "It looks like the slimes are interested in that green rock. That may be our slime food." She will look around for a more accessible chunk of it, to pick up, or possibly a safe way down to get some?

So there was sn explosive slime to find. She dare not leave Uta on her own or with anyone else on this. She felt an overpowering urge to make sure Uta was kept safe in the latest of her zany adventures. She was alongside Shiruba looking down at the Caldera and staring.

"It's like this place was made just for Uta...."

She also had a Pith helmet like some kind of British explorer to boot. Wait where did she /get/ that?

    Setsuna shakes his head as he watches the exploding slime geyser vault up and up , " Uta we don't have any environments at the lab that can replicate the geyser activity it is getting here. " The monster handler already knows what is coming, just wants to make sure to hear it mentioned. As they reach the top and spot the the green lake with the slimes around it Demon begins to run forward before Setsuna whistles it back, " Now now don't need to startle our quarry. All we need is for them to all dive in and then we have a swimming challenge on our hand."

As the group reachs the edge of the caldera Shiruba crouches down there to look over the view before them. "Wow. It's like the whole crater has become it's own little slime friendly ecosystem." She turns her head when the green water is pointed oout. "That's worth investigating... Preferrable without disrupting the locals." She joins in trying to spot any other more excessable formation of the green that won't put them in so much risk of the slimes.

She tilts her head a bit to look at Gwen, and can't help but stifle a snicker. "Why am I not surprised..." She's probably talking about the Pith helmet.

Uta looks the other way during the whole duration of Prohylaxis's medical session.

There are no words from her. Only shame.

Once the party reaches the top of the mountain a safer way, Uta taps her lips at Setsuna's comment. "Actually, Setsuna, I might have a vague idea for a starting point. Maybe not at the Lab, but -somewhere-... maybe..."

"Or for the slimes, Gwen," she comments. "Which- well- I- I don't want to argue that. Shiruba is right though, no disturbing the locals. And yes, Paula. I'd like to try feeding a sample of that rock to a slime, and I have an idea of how to do that without 'disturbing the quarry', as it was so eloquently put, but first I need to gather some information."

There is no real need to, but as a form of safety-blanket-like gesture, she reaches into the folds of her uniform/gi, and runs her fingers on her fountain pen, while she takes stock of the main elements in the scene, and focuses on them, to glean information. The slimes. The rocks. The water.

Not having gleaned much from her analysis, Uta begins to unstrap her demijohn. "Okay, and this is where the SCIENCE with a capital SCIENCE comes into play."

She swings the container off her back, to rest on the ground; she uncorks it, and extracts one (1) small specimen of Basic Slime, and places it on the ground. "I've kept them hungry," she explains with a whisper.
Stopper, swing demijohn on back again, strap-- and extend one hand to magically project her will onto the minute monster, to make it move towards the rocks the other slimes are eating, and eat one.

When you're exploring the wilderness, you probably want someone who makes maps with you.

Proteus is today's cartographer. She had interviewed with Uta by making a drawing on a piece of paper of a stick figure of Uta, then making dashed lines to a mountain with smoking clouds, and then more dashed lines to a generic slime with explosion marks around it.

She was hired immediately, as predicted. You just do things differently with Uta. And so she's been coming along with the others, helping to direct the path to the volcano and also making sure her maps are up to date. The /actual/ map she's working with is actually quite meticulous, though the notations on it are cryptic. And there's no key.

She doesn't say a whole lot as she moves along with them, attempting to keep her obligatory Mysterious Level up as she takes samples and examines the area intently. They might be here for slimes, but a monster-laden volcanic area might have signs of much more as well. Several samples of volcanic rock are acquired, and the Imp also keeps a close eye out for potential deposits of obsidian or liquified materials of rarer sort... And most importantly, signs of habitation by more than just slimes. The Imp picks her way around the area, trying to keep out of the notice-range of the slimes.

"Do /not/ jump in the water." Proteus warns, actually interjecting in the shenanigans.

    "Oooooh!" Fuka responds, awe-struck. "I get it! So if that works we won't have to try to cart an exploding slime back with us! We just have to take the rocks and feed them to a slime back at your lab!"

    At that, Fuka shrugs. "I'm both impressed and a little disappointed. Because trying to get exploding slimes safely across the sea would be an ADVENTURE!"

Uta's little slime hip-hops forward towards the slimes, slowing down a little bit as it gets closer. The other slimes hip hop towards the slime, but seem to ignore it after a bit. Eventually, the slime begins to try and chew on the Rock as directed by Uta...

Then suddenly EXPLODES, and light drifts up from where it was just moments ago. Did the rock not sit well with them?

His medical treatment complete, Prophylaxis does a big ol 'harrumph' and puts his various tools and medicines away. "You'll be fine, just be more careful next time."

But the party is well on its way, and it soon crests the top of the mountain. Prophylaxis is silent for a moment as he takes in the beauty of the place, only snapped out of his reverie when the others bring up the weird color of the water.

"That's normal for volcanogenic pools," Prophylaxis explains. "Volcanic activity brings various minerals to the surface which, when dissolved in high enough concentrations in pools like this one, can produce a number of beautiful colors. All the greenary is probably due to rich volcanic soil, too. But without taking a sample and testing it, I won't be able to tell what exactly is making the water the color that it is, or whether it might play a role in evolving our slimy friends."

"Fortunately, I might be able to make that happen," he says, as his gauntlet produces a long, snaking, metallic tendril. He kneels to get a decent angle and deftly extends the almost lifelike wire toward the pool, where it begins taking a few syringes worth of samples for later examination.

...Meanwhile, he also presses his free hand to his Moonlight Flower, and quietly whispers to the grasses at his feet. Do they know how these strange slimes are made, or what causes them to change from 'basic' slimes?

    Merek looks to that rock and along to Uta. "Well, interesting." The man nods a little bit while he takes the time to wave to Proteus. Taking notes, watching. "I wonder if you will be able to bring a exploding slime with you safely, Uta."

    Setsuna watches the slimes for a moment and steps a little closer when he hears Proteus's words, " Why ?" It may seem like a stupid question but it is worht asking and then suddenly BOOM as his head quickly swivels and sees the poor slime now a crater. Taking a moment he looks at his Cerberus, "Do. Not. Eat. The. Rocks." Taking a step forward as he looks over at Uta, " So we want some of those rocks without going into the water for some reason?"

Prophylaxis begins to ask questions of the plants, kneeling down towards them while his syringe drifts lazily towards the pool. The syringe begins to pull in the stuff, when suddenly, Prophylaxis falls over and goes still. Being partied, the team immediately will spot that his health is beginning to rapidly drift down! Yet, they don't see any red glow on him for the source of this damage!

Goldenblade is considering her industrial safety role more fully now that we're here. In as much as her qualifications consist of 50 years of lectures related to construction, it's only teangentially relatable here, so there's not much she can do directly. "Is the air toxic over there?" she wonders. "We could try channeling air to clear it." Which is something she'd suggested as a tactic in her original meeting." She's not great with air, but to lift the bad air, she will try to channel the bad air up and out, away from us, letting the good air behind us fill it in.

On one hand, she said to not disrupt the local wildlife. But Shiruba can't really just sit here when there's a whole crater to examine, either. So while others are dealing with testing slime feeding theories and examining the water, the cait sith meanders a bit to the side, a bit farther down the slope, and sets about just doing a general survey of the caldera. She'd be a poor explorer if she didn't so some manner of exploring up here, even if it's just in a general sense of studying the location in itself while other people are occupied with it's occupants.

Until Prophylaxis collapses. Then her own curiousity is forgotten as she quickly scampers back over to him. "Dammit! Pull his doodad out of the water!" She grabs Proph's arm with the gauntlet the syringe thing is attatched to and tries to pull it free.

    Merek will lift a hand while he begins to put a Heal Over Time spell on the doctor with Sanctuary and protect him while he works. "Alright." The man nods to Shiruba, while she takes that time to assist with the syringe.

Shiruba rushes forward, kneeling down to grab Prophylaxis. Grabbing his arm, trying to pull on the syringe. It is pulled from the water, followed by Shiruba going down not a second later. Collapsing to the ground, her health rapidly depleting in addition to Prophylaxis'. Goldenblade is using air magic to try and clean the area, and Merek is trying to heal Prophylaxis, but it seems their combined actions were not quite enough to stop Shiruba to go down - though she lost consciousness later than Prophylaxis did.

Goldenblade's forced air slows down Proph's HP loss, and she keeps it up while shouting, "Pull him back to us, please, pull them both back, but /don't/ go down, yourselves. Use a grabber or a rope or hook or something," she suggests. "Or, y'know, some of that magic stuff you all have?"

In no surprise for thinking more about someone else than herself Shiruba hurries in to grab onto Proph and help pull him free without really considering farther than that. Spur of the moment reflex to help. She gets his thing free of the water, but split seconds too late sees what really happened on her own HUD before collapsing as well. This is what she gets for not thinking with her head,

Gwen stares at the exploding Slime and watches Shiruba rushing she will start to move as well a second slower than her friend. She's going to race after he friend and try and grab her. Then sling her over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes and pulling back.

"I got you!"

Gwen joints, trying to grab Shiruba. And very much the same as Shiruba, the moment she grabs Shiruba and begins to lift her... Gwen goes down and collapses on top of Shiruba, entangling the two of them awkwardly. Similarly to Shiruba, it took a bit longer than it took for Prophylaxis to go down, but Gwen doesn't even get a single step out.

A slime explodes.

A slime eats something and suddenly explodes.

A slime eats something that does not sit well with it, and suddenly explodes.

"Proteus. Doesn't that remind you of -something-?!", Uta suddenly exclaims, even attempting to grab the imp by the shoulders and leaning into her face. "We /need/ samples of those rocks. We need them appraised. You know what kind of item those rocks could be!" She turns towards the party, and gestures frantically. "I need those rocks appraised. Alchemically analyzed. Pharmacized! I think we might have hit something -big- here!"

And there goes Doc. And there goes Setsuna. "Okay, okay, seems like what happens with high voltage current. One person gets paralyzed, anyone who tries to pull them out and touches them becomes part of the circuit, they all end up paralyzed.", Uta reasons, the adrenalin rush somehow seeming to make her think faster. "It is paramount we don't touch them. DON'T TOUCH THEM!" Uta grunts. "And a medical inspection requires /physical contact/." She flicks her menu open, materializes a squishy red ball, and begins to squeeze it over and over. "Argh. So, if I attempt to assess their aliment, I risk the same fate."

Pace, squeeze, pace, squeeze. "Wait. Maybe-"

Attempt one, she focuses on Doc and, from a distance, attempts to Stone Catapult him away from having his 'tentacle' dipped in the water.

    Setsuna suddenly turns towards all the hustle and bustle of the doctor suddenly passing out, and there is only one thing that can be said at a time like these, " Healer Down!" It's ok though Shiruba is already about to retrieve, oh no wait Shiruba is down too. "Aroo down as well." With a heavy sigh Setsuna summons a pair of skeleton minions and as they are forming together Gwen also goes down there and collapses, "For the love of... NO ONE ELSE GO DOWN THERE." With a heavy sigh Setsuna motions to the skeletons to start dragging the trio back up to where he is standing. Looking at his Cerberus , " Good trio for not going down there."

    Merek will begin to lift up both hands while he shifts the field of his healing magic. "Alright, everyone please don't. Touch it, alright!" The man offers a look about the place then nods while he speaks, "Healing Force Field!" Then it looks like that magic of his will extend along an entire field of the place to heal the party. "Alright!"

    Fuka considers charging in to the rescue, but she's not sure even with the aid of magic she'd be fast enough. It's not clear to her if it's the air, the water, or some bizarre presence that's causing her friends to fall asleep. But she's got to do *something* and not risk making things worse by adding to the pile of soon-to-be-corpses!

    So, Fuka decides to sing. "I need a hero, I'm holding out for a hero to the end of the night~" - hey, it works right?

The moment that the Skeletons finish pulling Gwen, Shiruba and Prophylaxis out of the area and back to the people, their health quickly stops dropping. And with Merek's healing ability, it isn't long before their health rises back up and the trio begins to wake up. Prophylaxis is the last of them to wake, seemingly far worse off. All three of them feel like their lungs and throat are burning, and keep coughing - each cough hurting more, tears coming from their ducts and their eyes feel like they're burning. If it wasn't for the pain dampening, this situation would be too much to deal with.

Prophylaxis wakes with a start, but immediately regrets it. He hacks and chokes and coughs while shoving syringe after syringe of healing potion into his arm. It seems he'll be... at least a little bit. "D-did I get a sample, at least?" His voice is... raspy.

As one would expect, after being exposed to something like... that.

Gwen is pretty tough she thought she could do it. She was wrong possibly dead wrong as she moves to bend over to pick up Shiruba? She'll collapse falling on top of her in a very awkward position she does catch sight of some sort of warning about poisoning before she falls unconcious. It seems Gwen could not tank this in the end. Good thing no one has a cmera though as the way she's tangled up with Shiruba is quite embrassing.

Shiruba manages a hoarse groan as she starts to come to. Her Bun-Bun, who had not chased after her thanks to a healthy instinct to avoid danger, comes over to nudge against the cait sith's neck to help stir her. She coughs, raising an arm to rub at her wet burning eyes. "Sulfrr.. sulfrr dioxide.." she manages to croak out between coughs, gasps for breath, and teary eyes. If she'd taken a moment to remember some of Goldenblade's warnings! But oh well. Sometimes heroes just don't think before they act, because that'd stop them from acting.

No one took pictures of her and Gwen piled together hopefully. Good thing no one has video recording anymore! Morri wouldn't let them hear the end of it.

    Merek looks to the people that he brings up with the magic, then he nods to each of them. Then he takes a look along to the water while he seems to consider, then rocks. The man takes the gloves of his, then he walks that way while he takes a scarf which he wears along his face, then he begins to try to take samples with the vial.

Uta rushes over to Prophylaxis. "Doctor, I do not trust myself to touch you, yet -- but maybe we can keep a compartimentalized approach. We consider you, Shiruba and Gwen as 'potentially infected'. I need you to perform a check-up on yourself, and the rest of the 'potentially infected' group. Then we can decide on a course of action."

Uta turns to Shiruba. "Sulphur? I had called it!", she says, with a snap of her fingers.

As Merek begins to approach downwards, binding that scarf around his face, it isn't long before he goes down. He got a bit further than Shiruba and Gwen. But it turns out that the porous fabric of a scarf is by no means good enough to hold back a gas like this, and Merek loses consciousness - starting to rapidly lose health.

    Setsuna hears the words from Shiruba and looks at the other, "Its not a touch thing, it's an invisible poison cloud. So you put your head it in and down you..." There is a thump as Merek goes down and Setsuna sighs, " Yes like that." Taking a moment he turns to the doctor, " Can your little tentacle thing grab Merek from here? My skeletons are on cooldown and I am not sending Demon down to retrieve them." Looking at the others he takes a deep breath, " Likely as well the lake is letting off that poisonous gas as you get closer the stronger it is going to get."

Shiruba manages to sit up, and reachs over to give Gwen some support to do the same. "Com'n, sis... breath... get the good air back in your lungs." Then grabs the corner of her cloak with the other hand and uses it to wipe her face again. Stupid eyes burning and tearing and making it hard to focus on much more. Bun-bun sits in her lap to be general comfort animal.

Out of the corner of one tear blurred eye she sees Merek moving down towards the water, but can't croak out any sort of warning. So it turns into a sigh.

    "I can grab him... maybe..." Fuka says dubiously, considering the distance and the knowledge that it's a poison gas. So, no inhaling? She can probably do that. Rush in with the use of magic, scoop Merek up, zoom out. She pauses though, seeing that others have better options. Good, she doesn't want to be part of the problem!

Still choking back tears from badly inflamed mucous membranes, Prophylaxis shakes his head at Uta, "It's-- it's fine. Hydrogen Sulfide, Sulfur Dioxide. It's gaseous, not-- not contagious." But then Merek goes down because that was about due to happen, wasn't it? Prophylaxis grunts at Setsuna, because come on man he /just/ got back up. ;_;

"Those... those plants. How are they surviving in this kind of atmosphere...?" Prophylaxis grunts as he goes to snake his tendril around Merek's leg to drag him out of the danger zone. "We need samples of those too. Ugh... But they might not survive outside of a hyper-acidic environment...?"

Though Proteus might just beat him to the punch, rescue-wise...!

Proteus is thinking for a moment about the situation, watching the cavalcade of Prophylaxis and Setsuna fall to unknown forces. She looks at the way the slime exploded. The green rock. The way their HP is dropping for seemingly unknown reasons.

The Imp's eyes widen. "Get back! GET BACK AWAY!" She looks at how they start slowly recovering, their symptoms... "Something is either poisonous or radioactive there." People begin figuring out that the problem is likely some form of sulphur, and Proteus shakes her head as Merek pulls some very Merek shenanigans.

"Look, you need to be careful with this. We'll have to give that area a wide berth unless you have some way to cleanse the air and protect yourself. And by the looks of it, you need some serious gear for it." She says, squinting at how Merek fell over. This stuff is not smoke, it's much, much worse. She quickly sketches an Ability in the air as Merek drops, trying to use it to launch Merek back into the safe zone, provided other people don't get stuck in with their attempts to keep the death-prone Adventurer from dying ignominiously. V . S M

Literally, as a Stone Catapult tries to fling Merek back towards the group. "Catch!" She calls out to the others.

    Merek is pulled back while being launched into the sky a moment, then he rolls about before the man will land right next to the party. The man grunts, while he begins to wake up from the fact he has met the ground. "Aye. Appreciate it," then he coughs while he takes the time to roll along to try and stand up. "That's... Ya, Sulfur Dioxide. And Hydrogen Sulfide. We are standing in a natural acidic environment."

    "Oh I see! Sooooo.... poisonous gas. Suuuper poisonous gas. Probably all around the water right?" Fuka muses. She doesn't even snark, tempting as it was, because she was concerned for her friends. "Soooo... how do we collect the stuff we want without breathing or going too near the poison? Or how can we detect the poison to know how close we can safely go?"

Gwen is going to owe a certain necromancer once as she's pulled out of the gas zone. It doesn't take too long with Shriuba's help. She'll start hacking then sputtering as her body tries to clear her lungs as fast as possible. It wants that oxygen damn it takes a bit before she's cleared out her lungs enough to say something. "..like trench ...warfare....Guess I was pretty...stupid." She's also lost her helmet and she's not going back for it either...

"I think-- I think the plants," Prophylaxis grunts as Merek is pulled to safety. "The plants are the key. Look at where they're growing. Nowhere near the lake. If it's safe to stand on them, then that's probably our border line. Ugh."

But that still leaves the question of how to get the rocks safely. Maybe more stone catapulting is called for?

Oh good, Merek is safe again. "Someone keep him from doing anything too Merek again." Shiruba coughs, still dealing with the uncomfortable side effects. Though she does finally get to her feet, but leaning against Gwen still. "I don't know if even my defense spells would be able to withstand that. We need to get the water or the Slimes to us instead of going to them."

    Setsuna watches Merek eat dirt and get sent flying, which is a new thing because tthose are usually in reverse order. Taking a moment to figure out a path forward he looks at his three headed friend before adding, " Well monsters that don't breath seem to be ok. If we wantt the rocks we could wait for my skeleton cooldown to finish and send them down tto collect samples of the rock and water. As for the slimes, well anyone have anchor howl?"

Gwen says "So what I should sit on him then?" She notes half serious about it. She looks to Setsuna for a moment "I owe you one..." Gwen says "I have it."

Uta sits in thought. "Instead of forcing the slimes towards us, how about we coax them here? Do you think it is possible to re-create an environment similar to that toxic one, but in a controlled manner, so we make it desirable for them to come this way?"

    Merek will take a look while he stands up, then he walks a bit along to take the time to lift up a hand. With that, he does try to shift away a little of the sulfur, while he takes the time to look to Uta, "If you can do all of that, I can do a plan."

"We could try to retrieve a few rocks and use it to feed a slime outside of the toxic environemnt," Prophylaxis suggests, "We've got plenty of earth-moving magic. Heck, we could even grab one of the slimes that way."

Goldenblade says, "Can't one of you magic people just magic the samples back up to us?" That seems kind of obvious to her. "Like, moving eartj kind of thing?"

Uta thumbs at the slimes in her demijohn. "We can try. That was my original plan, actually. But I pretty much have exactly one Earth-moving skills available at the moment." She looks around. "Anyone else has any?"

Prophylaxis nods, pushing himself upright. "Let's give it a try then. Uta, Setsuna, get ready to do your thing. Someone get ready to erect containment of some kind to keep it from exploding /on/ us if it decides to. Ready?" His staff whirls into his hand as he whispers the necessary Words of Power under his breath. He slams the earth-elemental end into the ground and turns it like a key. The ground underneath one of the slimes churns and boils, before bursting like a geyser of earth, hurtling the explosive gel toward the party...!

    Fuka salutes, moving into position to body-block an exploding slime should it be necessary. Or to fascinate it, or something. Either way, she stands by ready.

"The usual process of containing a slime is going to be less than useful here." Proteus mutters. "And we aren't getting near that lake without a great deal of effort. So, if we can't get close to the slimes, let's bring the slimes to us. Let's see just how social they are."

Proteus asides. "This is a horrible idea, by the way. Be prepared for a horde of angry explosive slimes." She flicks her hand, bringing out the brass cube she carries with her. "Paradox. First alignment." Before their eyes, as the cube spins in her hand, the object clanks and clatters, creaking as parts of it press in, twist, and unfold in an overly complicated manner. The box's contents unpack into an array of gears and levers that reshape and snap into place to form a sort of crude steampunk-like bow. A wire is brought down on tensioners to string the weapon, and Proteus... Sees Prophylaxis launch things. "Well, here we go." She mutters, stepping back. Significantly.

An explosive gel is launched by the Stone Catapult, Prophylaxis aiming for it to land right near the party.

BLOOP.

It lands safely on the ground, its eyes dizzing and spinning for a moment, the creature wobbling left and right, before it stares up at them... and then suddenly makes this angry adorable pouting face. It quickly begins to glow and seems like it's about to explode right in range of the team!

           __             __
           \ \           / /
            \ \         / /  
            / /         \ \  
           /_/   ______  \_\
                /_____/      

    Merek will take the time to take off his shirt, then he ties that about his waist, and nods a bit to the party. "Bring me a slime, I will get you the information you need Uta." He then claps both hands together while he begins to relax into a stance. "Alright, you might want to." The man reaches to pick up Uta and will then place her in front of the slime, "Do your thing!"

    Setsuna looks at Gwen and oepns his mouth as Prophylaxis is already on the move to do something , "Well worse case scenario Gwen, the idea was to taunt the slimes and run till threat is loss. Then we can scoop them up as they try to return back home. " Then he sees what Prophylaxis is up to and watches the incoming explosive slime as it lands and make an angry face. There is a brief moment of pause as he watches the slime.

Having gotten most of her wits back together Shiruba start preparing a defensive spell in case Uta can't calm the slime down.

Goldenblade is not taking a chance on this, as soon as the slime looks about to explode, she will dive for cover. It may not be necessary, but it's better to be safe than sorry, in her book.

Uta groans so loud one might fear the volcano is about to erupt. "Oh for the love of- the -rocks-. I asked to catapilt the /rocks/!" She thrusts a hand forward, and focuses the whole amount of magical energy normally needed to summon a whole horde of slimes into controlling this single specimen. "Do not explode, little one!"

"Quick!", she snaps to the party. "Setsuna, Capture it!"

    Setsuna looks over at Uta and frowns , "Ok , keep it as calm as you can. I had a cousin once who tried to do something like this and they lost a arm. " Setsuna throws his dagger into the shadow of the slime before he looks at the slime and begins to do his best to wrap it in magic to contain it. As he does so he begins his best to make his own calming soothing ssshhh sounds as if he is trying to calm a disgruntled cat.

Gwen nods get Setuna's plan and for the moment. Gwen sees they have other things they are going to have to worry about, outcomes her shield as she makes ready to act should the slime explode. It looks like they might have it in hand but she'll be ready to take a lot of the blast or as much as she can. Thankfully it looks like it's not needed.

Gwen mutters something about bored jarheads and explosives as she watches this...

It looks like Uta and Setsuna have the slime situation handled. "So... do we still want some of the rocks, too? Or is the slime itself enough?"

    Fuka looks over at Shiruba, shrugging. "Might be a good idea. Think you can get some if I point out which ones are useful?" she asks, picking up her axe and readying it. A soft chant of a few arcane syllables later, she smacks the butt end of the axe down, sending out a pulse of power which she uses to analyze the local rocks, looking for a few significantly-special for explosive power that aren't, hopefully, within the poison gas cloud.

Uta seems to manage to calm the creature. And it goes from:
__             __             _____              _____  
\ \           / /            / ___ \            / ___ \
  \ \         / /     to     / / ._\ \          / / ._\ \
  / /         \ \           <  \_____/         <  \_____/
/_/   ______  \_\           \_____\    ______  \_____\  
      /_____/                          /_____/          

And with Setsuna working his magic, it seems to calm down. The angry explosive light that was charging up quiets down. However, the other Explosive Slimes are now hopping and rushing their position! Hip-hop-hip-hop!

                  ._.
                  | |
                  | |
                   \|
                   __
                   \/
           __             __
           \ \           / /
            \ \         / /  
            / /         \ \  
           /_/   ______  \_\
                /_____/      

All of them starting to light up, coming in defense of their comrade. It seems like their captured slime isn't going to explode any time soon, but who knows how volatile its mood and emotions are!

Goldenblade picks herself up off the ground when the explosion doesn't happen, but is just in time to see the other slimes arrive. "I think our mission may be complete here?" she suggests, and prepares to run from the many slimes. That seems like the right move?

"I would like a few rocks, if possible," Uta continues. "This one specimen is... ah... volatile. Not sure if we can get it to divide in captivity before it blows up. And we can't really kill it to get drops. No, rocks are the way to go. We-"

"Oh for crying out -loud-."

Uta snaps to Merek. "Merek, you told me you have acquired some strange song-related writing, right? If it's like Erufu's... Quick. Let's lullaby! Together!", she urges, and she herself begins to intone a quiet, slow, soothing song at the slimes, using a vocal technique normally used for percussive violence for a different purpose: projecting the song over the widest area possible.

"Oh, oops," Prophylaxis admits, maybe those fumes have had some longer lasting influence on his poor noggin than he wants to admit. "Well, I just thought, Proteus was about to shoot them. So. Uh. Let me take care of that."

Another earth-moving spell! Pillars of stone shoot up from several of those tasty-to-slime stones, sending them hurtling closer to the party. "Grab 'em and let's go! I don't want to get caught in a chain slimesplosion today!"

    Merek looks to the aggro slimes while he takes the time to begin to sing. "Memory, turn your face to the moonliiiiight, let your memory lead you... Open up, enter in... If you find them, a meaning of what happiness is. Then a new life... Will begin. MEMORY! ALL ALONE IN THE MOONLIGHT! o/¯" That does seem to calm the slime that's with the party, not the ones that are coming by.

Look at that, they can even actually express that ! with their slime and rock and .... ooh crap, not a time to get distracted by cute monster expressiveness. "I think Goldenblade might be right... but yes, samples." Shiruba consider for a moment. Trying to get closer isn't a good idea, between the fumes and the other slimes getting worked up. But how can she from here... Oh. Of course. "Give me just a moment!" Her hands start to glow as she draws Earth element into them, which would normally channel into one of her arrows. But not this time. This time she just uses it to try and draw some of the rocks Proph kicked up into her grasp with the geomancy.

    Fukaziroh considers the oncoming slimes briefly, then shakes her head. "We got a pacified slime now. If we fight its siblings it might un-pacify. Let's just get out of here!" she suggests, scooping up a rock and getting ready to leg it.

Gwen looks to see what Merek is doing she seem a bit concerned but does not move to stop. She's more making sure to look over the slimes and then back to her companions.

"I would suggest we listen to Fukaziorh and get out of here with the prize." She does not want to fight a bunch of exploding slimes. It would end in pain and suffering like a wave of infested Terrans...It's so time to get out of here.

Uta sees that the slimes do not seem to pacify as a result of singing to them. "Oh well. Running away it is, yes," Uta mumbles, turns to run -- and trips.

She slams her face on the floor, glowing red, and a tingling sound can be heard next to her. "...oh. THERE's where it went!", she exclaims, as a golden circle somehow falls out of her hair.

She holds up the ring, and holds it against the sun. "I had put it into the folds of my cap and then forgot about it!" One practiced flick of her wrist, and the item disappears towards the lake with a glint. "There. NOW we can beat it!" She turns, and begins to run.

    Merek will nod a little while he begins to follow the party and Uta.

Things devolve into an assault by slimes. Proteus looses a couple arrows to try to slow down the front of the horde of explosive goos, and turns to run. "This was somewhat abortive, but I think we got most of what we were looking for." The Imp commments. "Unfortunately, it looks like they're coming in too dense of a pack to pick up any more. Hope that one sample is enough for you, Uta." Without wasting any more time (and resisting the urge to transmute a rock into something hilariously basic and throw it back at the sulphurous slimes), she rushes away.

They'll have to come back later when they're better prepared.

Shiruba catchs some of the rock. She gives a whistle and her Bun-Bun hops up onto her shoulder. "Fuka is right, we might make the one we want to keep mad if we hurt the others were it can see it, let's just run for it." She turns and starts making her way back up to the edge of the caldera away from the slimes. "But now we know about the gas and stuff," she points out on the way. "If and when we need to come back we can be better prepared for it!" Such is how exploration goes.

Rocks fall! Nobody dies! (Even though it was a near thing. How would he ever explain that half the party died to a lake?) "Let's go," Prophylaxis says, shoving his rhyolite sample into his inventory. "Before they explode and set off the volcano."

As the team turns to run, one of the slimes gets in range enough to start its detonation. It goes:

                            
              .__             .__    
            __|  |___       __|  |___
           /__    __/      /__    __/
              |__|     /\     |__|    
                       \/            

Right before it detonates! A burst of lava exploding every which way, soaking the area and covering it in dangerous heated stone. After which the slime looks smaller and lower level, and looks all dizzy and is wobbling a bit left to right, temporarily stunned. The ground beneath it rumbling a bit, trembling...

It seems they got out safely.

This time.

    Setsuna looks at the other slimes and then hears it is time to go, with out a moment thought he scoops up the explosive slime and one of those handy dandy rocks. With slime in arms and magically handling it he gives a sharp whistle as he calls Demon with him and away he goes, then there is an explosion and lava and oh no the volcano erupted, we are all dead. Wait no he is still alive right now so he keeps running, with the new danger slime.

When the consensus seems to be getting the hell out of Dodge, Goldenblade will take off as well. Moving to help Uta when she trips, because not leaving anyone behind is important! With the slime exploding behind them to send them off, she will make sure everyone's moving, hustling down back to the boat.

    "Do you really think they could do that?" Fuka asks Proph. Not like she's doubting him; more like she's considering just how spectacular that would be. An entire volcano exploding, how exciting!

"No exploding volcanos while -we are still on it-." Between the Scales present and Miss Explosions, Shiruba feels a need to just make sure that is entirely clear, as cool as it might be.

Gwen says "What is wrong with these slimes it's like they are trying to become raid bosses over here." She shudders at that idea it's like the old theroy a murloc would be the final boss of world of warcraft back in the day.

    Fuka glances over at Uta. "If you ever find a boss king slime mob, I'm totally going to help you beat it and claim the crown of the slimes!" she promises gleefully.