Safety First

There was dueling, there was meeting with the delegation from the Rosenheim Kingdom. And now it's time to get ready for another adventure: heading back to the Palace Lands to find the elusive Exploding Slimes.

Preparations have taken up a large part of the last days, and now it is time to check out the next item on the list: safety.

Certainly, if you are heading to a volcano to deal with an unknown explosive monster, there's no doubt that you must be the kind of Adventurer who puts safety first.

Wait, that sounded wrong.

"Here we are," Uta states as she reaches the front gate of the complex and the bottom tip of her staff, used as a walking stick in peacetime, is placed on the ground. "Goldenblade's Academy. I hope she can help us."

Shiruba takes a moment to look down at the list she made. "I know Goldenblade has developed several defensive techniques, maybe she'll have some general precautionary advice." She turns her head towards Uta. "We haven't been able to find out if the volcano is actually active or not, so there's the potentional of extreme temperatures as well. Keeping cool will be paramount... and if it's hot enough water and ice magic might not be as receptive as usual." She makes a slight face. "I'll have to be wary about bringing an animal companion along with, too."

Goldenblade generally considers Uta the sort of person for whom 'safety' is not so much a byword as a thing to disreard whenever interesting thigs happen. But Goldenblade's years in RL construction, where a steel beam can no-kidding smash your head if you're not careful and no respawn, have made her somewhat more cautious. Not to say she's a shirker. Only that she doesn't pull the mask off the ol' Lone Ranger, or any of that.

When found at the Academy, she is working on her current project, which is more speed, and while that seems difficult to believe, it seems she may be achieving it. She has a sort of maze set up of small rocks on the parade ground, and is dashing through the maze at quite high speed, but so carefully as to not disturb a pebble. When on some rare occasion she does so, she stops, sighs, and starts again. A pushbroom-like thing is used to change up the pebble maze a bit, too, so it's never the same twice.

Interestingly, she /does/ have some new defensive techniques, but she's not sure how much they will help in volcanoes.

Uta gives slight nods in acknowledgment as Shiruba speaks, and ends in a sigh. "...temperatures. As much as this is going to hurt, well-" Deep inhale. Wince. "...we'll have to visit Gwen and obtain appropriate wardrobes for each possibility. As much as I'm not really a fan of the aesthetics, one has to admit that her Arabian dancer outfit worked /great/ for keeping cool in the Westelande desert when we went fighting glass golems with Jazz, Atif and Pela..."

The duo eventually reaches Goldenblade's training grounds. Uta is careful not to disturb the session in progress, but as soon as a mistake is made and it's time to start over, the Spriggan raises her staff a little and waves it. "Hey, Paula!", she calls out. "Do you have a few minutes for a humble traveller and..." She looks at Shiruba. Then back to Goldenblade. "...another humble traveller, I guess?"

Shiruba watchs for a few moments. "I don't quite get what she's doing." Then Golden finally disrupts some of the gravel. "Maybe some kind of reflex training. Or control." She holds her hands up to her mouth to make her voice a little louder. "If you want I could make you bigger walls with geomancy!"

Goldenblade looks over as Uta calls out, and indeed pauses and will head over to speak with Uta and Shiruba. She chuckles as Shiruba offers geomancy, but says, "Hardly necessary. Now some of this might be useful when I get back to real life, though, but this is easy enough for me." She gestures with the broom. "And no, it's essential that the pebbles are small and easily disturbed. That way I can tell if there's so much as a breath out of place. Speed isn't the only component to defense, precision is important also. If you avoid one danger only to land in another, what good have you done?" She smirks. "It's not enough to rob one alligator of his meal only to feed another." Well, that /sounds/ like something an old person would say. Who knows?

Shiruba oooohs, nodding her head in agreement as Goldenblade explains what she's working on. "I see now! I have similar techniques for hazardous terrain or dungeon traps, but they focus more on being cautious and patient that quick and evasive." She stops a boot on the ground for effect. "What good is bypassing the icy surface if doing so sinks you in deep snow? I've adapted that to other methodology." Hopefully it can hold up against crossing lava and such. As for why they're here she leaves that to Uta to explain, since it's her expedition. Shiruba is juse here to make sure Little Miss Easily Distracted doesn't overlook anything.

Little Miss Easily Distracted is currently transfixed by a particularly shiny pebble off in a corner.

It is only when Shiruba stomps her boot that she snaps back to attention. "Magnesium! Fifty-three! The Tokugawa Shogunate!" Uta rattles out. "...wait, this is not school. Well, it is /a/ school, but-" She shakes her head.

"Paula, we have come here to ask a very important question." She closes her eyes, inhales, raises a finger-

"-Wait, are those pebbles for Evasion training? Reminds me of-"

Uta shakes her head. "-that was not the question. I mean, that was /a/ question, but-"

She clears her voice and tries again. "Do you know anything about explosions? And the best way to avoid being damaged by them? We are going on an expedition on a volcano, to find the elusive Exploding Slimes..."

Goldenblade nods gravely at what Shiruba says, discovering her plan, and she nods about the focus on detection. "Alas, I don't have a hunter's ete for syuch things," she laments. She ahhhhhhs as Uta finally gets to the point, and summarizes, "You're looking for a gas-free engineer?"

She explains, "In construction, and related fields, you can get toxic or explosive gasses building up. When they're heavier than air, they sink into cellars and enclosed spaces, like tanks underground." This is like the basic safety speech she had to sit through every year for fifty years. She's pretty good on it. Though as she goes on about detecting gasses and things like safety lanterns, it becomes clear her main thrust is not avoiding damage in an explosion, but actually preventing the explosion from happening. "Forced air is your friend, of course," she explains. "We used to have to line up special non-sparking fans and special ducting, but I imagine Air magic can do the same thing to clear and disperse gasses before they get to a dangerous concentration."

"Or in this case, sink into the tunnels and caves within the mountain." Shiruba actually adds that to her notes. "Even if the volcano itself is not active there will likely be geothermal vents or such, so noxious fumes are still a potential danger. That's good advice..." She pauses a moment, glancing from Uta to Golden and back. "Paula?" She tilts her head in an uncannily 'curious dog' fashion, having not picked up on someone using something other than Goldenblade's 'adventurer' name before. "I didn't know you had a 'normal' name... well what passes for normal names around here. But yes, Air is one of my strong suits, and I believe Uta and Fuka are good with it as well."

Uta, once again, nods in acknowledgement as Goldenblade delivers her safety spiel, and taps her lips when there is an opening to get a few words in. "Uh, interesting. Indeed, Shiruba, I was focusing on the exploding slimes themselves, but didn't really consider volcano fumes. Those can be quite toxic, and I don't want another Gorge of Death situation. Those toxic caves-" She makes a face. "No, thanks. Yeuck."

When Shiruba tilts her head in the 'curious dog' expression, Uta lights up. "Oh, -man-, you've never inspected Paula? Do it! Trust me! It's worth it!"

"...And yes. It turns out the random character generator spat out a build ranking pretty high in Air prowess. Who would have thought?"

Goldenblade smirks as Shiruba discovers her fullname. When inspected, her full fullname actually overflows the fair-sized box it normally goes in, even at the smallest typeface. "It was a copy-paste thing," she explains, using the technical term she was taught. But as far as normal names go, Japanese, unlike Americans, generally call one another by family names unless they're very close, so going by Goldenblade, which when she's inspected can be seen to be her character's family name, or at least a significant chunk of it. Which is correct, if a bit formal. Well, she's old.

She smirks as Uta recommends the inspection also, and nods at the air magic. "My advice would be to keep positive air pressure, which means air blowing out from where you are, at all times. Some gasses stink, but some don't. Natural gas has sulfur added, when it's used in housing, but in nature, ir's odorless, so the first you detect it is the explosion."

Shiruba huhs after inspecting. "Huh. I don't have a habit of inspecting people I already know well, so I guess I never noticed." She adds the 'odorless' to her notes... then pauses. "... Oh. OH. I get it. That's why old documentaries about mining showed things like small caged birds. Their small bodies would be overwhelmed by the undetectable gases before humans would, giving them a warning when they died. Yes?" She looks at Goldenblade for confirmation she's remembered that right. Then back at her notes. "... Well, we're not going to expose an animal like that, it'd be cruel. But I can probably find some detection magic," she glances at her wrist, "Or maybe get my scanner Relic to pick it up."

"Or a monster..." Uta mumbles while looking in the distance, sounding distracted.

"That's it! We need a miserable, worthless, expendable being who is but a blight on this world, good only for sucking up resources and making Adventurers' lives miserable. Something that won't be missed once it's gone." She navigates through her menu, as if for pulling up the direct chimlink option. "I think Setsuna will fit the spot nicely."

She is quick to close everything with a flick of her hand. "Just kidding! I'll see if I can find a dire canary or something along those lines."

Back to Goldenblade, "And if I remember correctly, some volcanos pump out sulphur. I think Mount Aso was one of them, right?" Uta mumbles while rubbing the bridge of her nose. "Oh, great. Not only we have to worry about nature not putting sulphur into gas, we also have to worry about it putting too much sulphur into air. Why can't nature just-"

A stop. "...well, nature or the game's mechanics. Ridiculously accurate mechanics, if you aske me."

"...speaking of curious mechanics, Paula, do you remember princess Leira Lorelei from the Rosenheim Kingdom, who came to visit us in Eas?"

Goldenblade nods to Shiruba, "And that is, in fact, the origin of the phrase 'A canary in a coal mine' to refer to something fragile." Alas, that only survived into the 20th century in a song by the Police, and 21st century kids won't even know that. She nods about detection magic, "That's probably a suitable plan," she agrees. "Though to be sure, I think one of the Alliances has a coal mine. Is it ours?" she asks Uta. Because she doesn't pay a great deal of attention to geopolitics. "You could test your detector there."

She recommends against using another adventurer, though, saying, "You can't guarantee another player will succumb soon enough to warn others." She smirks and nods about volcanoes pumping out sulfur, but says, "In that place, it won't be a gas indicator." As far as remembering the Princess, she thinks back. "Vaguely? I was in Eas to propose another project entirely to Barsoness Wake and only met the Palace Landers accidentally. I don't suppose I had much interaction with them.

Shiruba shoots Uta a look when she jokes about Setsuna being expendable. Then using a monster bird. Shakes her head. "No, we can just use magic and our own wits. No need to put an animal, or monster, purposely at threat. Though if you can convince one to come along on it's own, that's different I suppose." She shrugs. It's not a matter that needs to be pressed.

Not when another interesting topic comes up. "Oh, Eas got visited by Rosenheim and the Princess." She snorts softly. "Lucky. We got visitors to Shibuya too... but it was mostly a bunch of naval pricks that, while there was no fighting, tried to flaunt and intimidate us with their big warships and arrogance." She sighs, rubbing the back of her head with one hand. "I guess some of the Palace Land kingdoms still have resentment towards Adventurers willing to do their own things."

Uta taps her lips. "Funny, the Rosenheim Kingdom flexed their naval muscles a lot as well. Their ships were visibly... ah... 'neutered' with pink poms covering their weapons to be non-threatening during 'this particular visit'... but... you know. It was clear that they /politely/ wanted to project the same image of military superiority."

She lets a few seconds pass, while still tapping her lips. Tap. Tap. Tap.

"And what the Queen did..." She begins to pace around in circles. "She just looked at me and called me 'curious', she looked at Baroness Wake and Tae and commented how well they go together. I might be mistaken, but I have this hunch that she's been using a relic to gather information about us merely by looking at us. That kingdom has got all our reputations figured out by now." She sighs. "If not more..."

Goldenblade arches a brow to Shiruba at impressing players with their big ships. "If they could have brought their ships to Eas, I would have been entirely impressed," she agrees. Eas being quite far inland and uphill. "As it is, they came in a giant cruise ship-sized vessel. I didn't know wooden ships could be built on that scale. I suppose magic was involved." She shrugs at the Palace Landers, and says, "Well, the Communist Chinese have a very different mindset in gaming than Japanese. And Westeners," she adds, knowing we have a lot of Americans on the Yamato server as well. Including herself, technically, though since she's been in Japan since the late 50's, she generally thinks of herself as Japanese. "I can only imagine they'd react differently when trapped in a game."

As far as what she thought of them, she says, "They were curious, and surprised, I think, to see how we'd gotten along and done for ourselves. They did not expect us to have a positive relation with the Yamato Landers."

"So they were a bit more subtle about it.... Then again, since they did before state they didn't want Yamato influencing their culture too much, I guess they wanted to show they had some bite to back it up. I would hope neither side would want to actually go to war, but nations are much like territorial beasts. Raise the hackles, flash the teeth and claws, show that you're not someone to mess with... so you don't actually -have- to fight."

Then waggles a finger at Goldenblade. "That is a good point. Between the 'Adventurer War' as we've heard it called, but not detailed very much unfortunately, and the Palace Adventurers apparently more interested in their own activities than 'dungeoneering' like many of us do to help the Landers out, like I said resentment probably still held."

"Different culture and different circumstances," Uta adds. "It would appear that the Palace Land got no holographic message during the Apocalypse. They were not told to climb anything."

"Adventurer war? I must have missed that bit," Uta says with a frown. "Was I distracted? I probably was. Was I trying to figure out what the Queen was up to? Almost certainly. Was I jealous she had a cool relic that allowed her to float around as she was swimming in the air, carefree and unrestrained, while I have these huge massive wings that get in the way of everything and DON'T FREAKING WORK? I- I will neither confirm nor deny," Uta mumbles.

"Point is- as if we didn't have enough troubles with the Towers, the Undead, the Waves, the Ants in Westelande, and goblins all over the place, now we also have to worry about the Palace Landers."

Goldenblade has actually been over to the Palace Lands, however briefly, and agrees, "Their adventurers do seem to have a poor relationship with their Landers. You can hardly blame them for looking at us with a skeptical eye given their past. That said, I'm not in favor of isolationism, exactly, but I'm not sure what we gain over there? Is NWA trying to lay a claim the way Scale claimed the Tower?" she wonders, looking to Shiruba.

She points out, "I don't think we have to worry about them so much. They're hardly looking to expand here, when so much of their continent is untamed and unclaimed. She hrms about them not climbing their Tower, though. "They have their own Tower, but don't climb it? Strange. But if they do start trouble over here, we can just climb their Tower and see how they like Waves. If their Tower makes waves. Their Tower might not contain an exit, after all."

Goldenblade is suddenly struck by an idea. "What if ..." she says, "What if, in Yamato, our exit was through the Tower, but in the Palace Lands, they thought that to get free of the game, they had to fight their Landers? Maybe win sometning from them?"

"They're not exactly -huge- wings," Shiruba notes. "And you do fall slower so it's not like they don't do -anything-." Typical Uta, off on a tangent.

"Well for what little I know about the Chinese, I would guess a lot of them maybe don't -want- to leave, either... and probably why they've bucked against the Lander 'control' of their activities. They wouldn't want to escape one social oppression just to subjegate to another. Or what they saw as another. So tensions between the two groups."

She shakes her head a bit at Uta. "I don't think we have to worry about them directly. Just be cautious of our activities when in their region. Maybe find a way to improve our image so they understand we're not the same kind of people as those that seem to have wronged them before. But... it's politics. I -am terrible- at politics... They didn't get any strange messages like we did?" That gets her thinking again. "Would explain why their Tower apppears to be untouched... that and the extremely high monsters in that area."

"At first I thought they just didn't /see/ the message," Uta says in response to Shiruba's hypotheses. "You know, after all the Babel Tower is one week removed from Dol Dona. Maybe their message was projected on the tower just like ours was -- and they were one week away from seeing it. But no," she frowns. "No message at all seems to have been projected on the tower. Why did we get a message, and they didn't?"

"I don't know what their motivation was, but I do remember the Adventurer who accompanied the Queen saying that the Queen had given her... purpose? A new purpose?" She scratches her head. "What was the exact wording..."

Uta snaps her fingers. "'The Queen gave me a delightful purpose after a few months.' That's what Yuri Ullen said"

Goldenblade nods about Uta's wings, and says, "You know, they're nowhere near big enough to fly with. Think about how broad a hang glider's wing surface is. That's how much wing a person would need to fly. Without magic, I mean." She suggests, "If you can expand your wing area, maybe that's the way to go?" Or is that a different type of creature? She gets the werefangs and Cait Sith mixed up all the time.

She hrms at Uta's speculation, but can only shrug about their message. "Maybe their message came a different way, so that they don't think of it the same way?" She nods about the new purpose. "If we knew what the /original/ purpose was, that'd be an insight."

"The Queen and her kingdom seem to be more receptive of Adventurers.. at least the ones willing to cooperate. They just seem to have less that are interested in going out of their way to be helpful and fight monsters, unlike many of us." Shiruba nods at Uta. "So having one of the few that are willing to assist you would be a -big- advantage. To have one as a personal ally, even more so." She rubs her chin thoughtfully. There was other things, but for now her group has agreed to keep it to themselves until they know more.

Goldenblade nods thoughtfully as Shiruba explains about the Queen. "I wonder, did their adventurers sail away someplace else? Or just ... I can't even imagine what else. If they couldn't disconn, did they sail to another server? Yamato was unavailable, I heard, but maybe another?" She thinks, guesses, "Or, what if ... what if their players -did- find what would allow them to leave the game? And the ones that wanted to, left? That'd explain why there's so few adventurers."

Shiruba shakes her head a bit. "More questions we don't have answers to, or even clues towards. All we can do is keep our eyes and ears open for more information." She looks down at her notes in one hand, and pulls out a copy of Proteus' deduced directions in the other. "Hopefully this suppposed volcano is far enough out of the way none of the Kingdoms will feel like interfering with the expedition. Not like we're not doing anything to threaten them or their positions. Just keeping Uta's slime ethusiasm burning."

Goldenblade nodsd grimly. "All we really ever seem to add are more questions. I'm not sure at what point our questions will start getting answers instead of more questions, but the Enlightenment started in Europe in the 1500's or so, after the Black Plague, and Albert WEinstein and a lot of those level of answers were the early 1900's. So, we might have 400 years to go."

It's all more speculation, of course.

"So, if you want, I could come with you. I'm not a gas-free engineer, but I can help generally."

"Maybe not but you are in general reliable and sensible, I doubt Uta would object to having you along.... Speaking of," Shiruba glances towards the Spriggan to see what's distracted her now. She's been quiet for a little too long than Shiruba is comfortable with.

Goldenblade looks over to Uta as well. Hopefully she's not drinking the mopwater? Well, there's not too much that's dangerous in the training ground, but given Uta's distractability, it could be anything. A pretty rock, a bird flying overhead. She peers.

Uta, seems like, has merely been spacing out this whole time.

"What? Oh. OH. Sure, feel free to come along. The more, the merrier! We could use a safety expert."

A pause.

"We gotta keep pushing, indeed. We won't get any answers if we don't keep pursuing the questions."

After a moment of thought, she adds, "Oh, and have I mentioned that, apparently, The Queen said that the Alv 'left her' many gifts? Which includes her relic? Not sure what that means, exactly, but..."

"Her Relic... could mean the city in itself." Shiruba replies. "She mentioned they took residence in an Alv city to make their capital."

Goldenblade smiles as Uta agrees to invite her on the trip. "Thank you," she says with a wide smile. She's less sure of safety expery, but ... maybe? She nods about pushing, though. "Standing around never got anyone anything," she agrees. As far as Alv gifts, she says, "Were you able to examine it? Did they give it to her personally?" Which would mean she'd met Alvs. "Do you think all relics might be Alvish?"

"I'm not sure yet," Uta says. "I had a relic named Enkido's Scale, which was a scale of the Great Dragon Enkido." Had. Past tense. "I don't know if the Alv treated it in any way."

"The only relic-maker Adventurers seem to have encountered is Bondrewd, and he's an Alv. That much I know. As for the others..." She shrugs.

"I tried to appraise her relic. But I'm not trained in that. I came up empty. Not even the name," she grumbles.

"I should go and poke Lin about that, though, you have a point. He can determine the names of who crafted items, and by learning the names of who made them, perhaps..."

"It is hard to say," Shiruba replies. "My glaive belonged to a hero of one of the wars, but that says little of who may of made it before then. Same for the whistle." She chuckles a bit. "But answers so easy would not be any fun to explore, either." She looks down at her list, then tucks it away in her inventory. "Uta, I'm going to head back to the Marina and make sure our supplies and such are loaded properly for sailing back to the Palace Lands."

Goldenblade hrms thoughtfully about others who've made items. "But if adventurers /can/ make relics, that's good," she asserts. "Though, if it's just Alv adventurers, that leaves us back where we started, I think." She hrms about not appraising, but it's not like she can appraise, either, so that's not much help. "Appraising seems like a more important ask than we originally thought." Meaning maybe she can develop a technique? This -is- a school, after all.

But that's a line of speculation that can go anywhere. She looks impressed at a glaive that belonged to a hero, and that seems to give her some speculation also. "I am nearly always ready to sail," she says. She keeps a go-bag for rapid responses like that. "Let me know when we depart."

"Alv Adventurers? Never heard of such a thing," Uta says with a frown. "If you can prove me wrong, let me know. And-" She makes an amused 'pfffft' noise. "Adventurers even getting -close- to learning how relics are made? No way. I don't think we'll ever get there. If you ask me... it's the kind of thing that's way out of our league."

Uta nods to Shiruba. "We should really be going." Back to Goldenblade, "Thanks again for your help, Paula...", she says with a bow. "Your advice will be heeded, and we'll be glad to have you along for the ride. See you then." She turns to head towards the exit.

Goldenblade can't disagree with Uta, but it's an interesting thing to speculate. Things that were impossible one day may be commonplace in a year's time. Aviation and cars were both like that. She bows her head as Uta and Shiruba depart, and will get back to her evasion training.