Duty Session 385: Obligatory Rat Maze

Flickering torchlight casts long shadows in the cellar beneath one of  the city's shops. Crates are stacked against the walls in neat rows. Everything seems neat and organized. It is clean in a way that you normally wouldn't expect, without even a hint of dust or spider webs.

What there are signs of, is rodent activity. Some of the crates have been gnawed on, their contents spilling out onto the floor. There are droppings in small clusters here and there. No wonder the poor shopkeeper is upset!

However, the most unusual thing is the large crack that runs up along the wall of the cellar. It is just large enough for the tallest of Adventurers to uncomfortably squeeze through. The air from below feels cold and has a fetid smell to it. A distant sound of squeaking echoes up from an ancient, spiral staircase that descends into the shadows below.

Allynna stands at the top of the stairs in her adventuring gear, which is plate armor with a black full length sur-coat over said armor, a metal tiara on her head and smoked shades over her purple eyes. "Bun in a rat maze... there HAS to be a dad joke laying around somewhere." She says as she unhooks her rather large shield.

Vertina stoops down and picks up one of the droppings between two fingertip claws. "Yup, definitely rats." She sniffs it. "Pretty fresh, too."

Then she licks it. And immeadiately regrets it by the expression of disgust she makes and groaning while flicking it across the room. "EW! I have no idea why I just did that!"

Pause. "... I've been tasting a lot of things I normally wouldn't taste lately..."

Someone is clearly in one of -those- strange moods. She's mainly here on the compelling drive to look for ingredients or new ideas.

    A friend of Fuka's told her to do the sorts of things she usually does. That if she wanted to be more like her usual self, she should do those activities her usual self does. Well okay, it's not so much that a friend told her to do this... she told the friend she normally does other things when not obsessed with an enchantment project, and her friend just reminded her she hasn't done anything like that lately. So, to be more like the person she wants herself to be, Fuka's gone back to the Hunters Guild to pick up an assignment.

    Of course she DOES have a project to get back to, so she picked the easiest, fastest mission she could think of. The Obligatory Rat Maze. It was either that or the sewer level, and since she just managed to get herself clean, she's not at all eager to do THAT one again!

    She isn't licking rat droppings at least! Fuka makes a face at Vertina. "You know, I'm hungry but I'm not THAT hungry." she notes, her stomach taking the opportunity to voice displeasure by growling. Yeah, she skipped lunch. And breakfast. And ... when was the last time she ate? Oh well at least she's clean and doing a dungeon run!

Haru offers a smile as he holds a rickety brass lantern in one hand that gives things a warm hue. The human leans in, looking over the refuse about. The startle at special samplings being tasted and flung. "Its good to expand your palate?" he says, not truly sure if he believes that extends to all things. The lantern swings towards the sound of water. The dripping.

The young man stands there but is focusing on something. Nothing. It looks purposeful, at least. "I could eat," he says, not really tracking that he is in the middle of a run so it'll have to wait. "A hot cup of coffee. Some sweets," he continues, helping to pull away from the less than appetizing surroundings. Ultimately he is here to do something different. Break the mold. See new people. Do new things. A brief look at the assembled gives a wordless nod to that checklist.

    With Aincrad's tenth floor boss defeated... Scale Emblem Alliance's hardcore raid tanks have a lot of time on their hands. And one such tank has decided to get on out and do something a little more fun after mapping out the entirety of Floor 11.
    Amalthea is here; the old Paladin smiling gently as she follows Allynna at the fore of the group.
    "There probably is. Don't expect me to be the one cracking it though." She says with a light chuckle, pausing to watch Vertina.
    It is... Difficult for the old tank to maintain her smile at the sight of what Vertina just licked, expression faltering briegly before she forces it back up.
    "Vertina dear, I don't think..." Pause. Nevermind. She probably can't stop a strange mood with gentle words. "Ah... Nevermind..."
    It is on hearing the sound of Fuka's tummy grumbling that Amalthea rummages through her inventory... And produces a cookie.
    "Here. This will help."
    Because grandmas give people cookies. It is what they do.
    Another cookie is produced for Haru should he want it as well.

    "You could eat a hot cup of coffee?" Fuka asks with exaggerated incredulity. Her stomach growls again. "Actually so could I. The cup especially! And SWEETS, oh god yes!" she moans. She stares at Amalthea when the older woman offers a cookie, abruptly taken aback. Then FLINGS herself at grandma. Scooping up the cookie in a raptor-quick motion mid-fling. "You're SO NICE!" she says enthusiastically, aiming to glomp the heck out of Amalthea.

At the end of the spiral staircase, the light the Adventurers carry flickers over uneven ground. However, it is the stench that wafts towards them that catches them even before the details become clearer. The ground seems to squelch underfoot.

Garbage. The floor of the chamber is absolutely littered with bits of moldering food that seems to be on the last few shreds of integrity. The smell is horrific. The rats must be gathering food from above and storing it down here as their own, disgusting, buffet.

At first, there seems to be no exit, but a dripping sound suggests that there is one nearby. They will just need to clear some of the mess away from the floor of the chamber, and get a bit more light in the place in order to find the passage deeper into the dungeon.

"Okay so this torch is doing nothing... allow me friends!" Allynna says as she clears her throat, about to start singing to cast one of her stronger spells. causing light to spill outward from her illuminating the whole area.

"When you think all is forsaken"
"Listen to me now"
"You need never feel broken again"
"Sometimes darkness can show you the light"

Then Via her Chimlink: "Vertina just licked poop."

Vertina eyes all the trash at the bottom of the staircase. "Oh good, something to clear that last mistake off my tongue."

No, not by eating it.

But exhaling a plume of flame from her mouth to help light the chamber and burn away some of the trash also burns the lingering taste of her previous erratic behavoir from her mouth.

    Strongest spell? Fukaziroh shrugs, allowing Ally to do her thing. After a moment she begins a soft chat, repeating a single word over and over again in the runic tongue, raising a finger. Her finger begins to glow. A simple spell, not nearly as powerful as the tank's, but then magic comes somewhat easier to an Enchanter and this one costs her but little.

    She too could have set the room on fire, but hey she wants to clear this place swiftly, not wait for things to burn. "There's bound to be a passage or something. We just need to find.... okay that works too! Fire is always a solution when you hang around with Scales. Or me for that matter!" she grins. "Or Tina there!"

    Never mind Fuka's glowing finger. It'll stop soon, but not before the party begins to move onward into the maze.

There is a flick of his blue eyes to Fuka. Could he eat a cup of raw coffee beans? Smile. Haru takes the milder approach of walking over for a cookie. That is, when he can get one under the crusade of sweet hunting. "Thank you," he says in good manners to the tank. He is quick to take a small bite out of it. "Its good." As are all gifts. Sweet and delicious. Munch munch. Crunch crunch. He stands towards the back as the brunt of the work starts in on the obstruction. Eyes flick to the drip, but just as quickly flick back to the party. "Wow. You all really know your stuff," he says after the last of the cookie is downed.

A finger points over to where he hears the drip. Haru focuses on it. "I'll help, too," he offers with a calm sort of drive at enthusiasm. A trace of three wavey lines of blue carve the air in front of him, "Patet Aqua," as they become small streams, sneaking out for cracks. The source. And also to make sure the ground is nice and walk with the temp changes. Like a steamy spring day when the water mixes with the fire for steam.

    Amalthea can't help but chuckle as Fuka so readily accepts her cookie. To the old woman's credit she takes the glomping standing and stoic, lightly patting the girl atop the head. That's when she produces something else from her inventory.
    It's a thermos. And she cracks open the cap, the scent of warm coffee wafting up amid all the moldering badness.
    This too is offered to Haru if he so chooses. But when it comes time to move on; the old paladin draws her blade from its sheath.
    Striking it along the nearby wall to kick up a spark, the sword suddenly catches fire. Very gingerly she taps her flaming sword to the mess on the floor, setting it partially alight to help clear the path.

Through skill or luck, the group is able to find a trap door built into the bottom of the chamber, leading off into darkness below. There is no choice but to jump. There is a distinct sound of water rushing through the tunnels below, and the Adventurers find themselves dropping into what appears to be an underground river.

It weaves them through tunnels, running them dangerously close to rock formations. The group is swept along at high speeds, forcing them to have to utilize their defensive capabilities to avoid slamming into various obstacles that loom out of the darkness in front of them. Eventually, they'll find themselves coming to the end of a very wild ride, being spat out into a small pool at the edge of a deeper set of tunnel passageways, but not before having to deal with a very dangerous water slide.

Allynna looks at the slide with a smile and takes her shield off. "Bun Tobogan!" She says with a smile as she dives onto the side with her shield acting like a boogie board of sorts, the only sound one can hear is a very gleeful "WHEEEEE! ouch, ouch... stupid... mother... damnit... ouch!"

    Fuka was actually talking about eating the cup itself. They're made from dirt right? Good nutritional content? Maybe not... but in any event the cookie made it unnecessary. The little blonde sylph seems to be in quite a good mood now, diving right into the trap-door opening apparently fearlessly or just mindlessly. She IS wearing some decent armor at least. Though much of her is covered by a fashionable coat, she's got heavy gauntlets, boots and greaves that mean maybe throwing herself headlong into battle isn't necessarily a stupid idea.

    Diving headlong into a river, on the other hand? That's not necessarily a good idea when wearing armor. Still, as the river sweeps her away she nds up rather glad she's got it, as she's well-protected from the bumps and turns and only has to worry about keeping her head above the surface. Something she's able to do with fair ease thanks to a rather surprising amount of bodily strength for a relatively small figure. "Two!" she cries out happily as she's swept along, offering up no particular explanation. "That's TWO today! HAHAHAHA!"

Vertina peers down the hatch at the gurgling sounds below. "Water... why did it have to be water?" Not that she's aquaphobic or anything, it's just the one element she doesn't really have a grasp on like the others.

But she's also a thrillseeker, even in the addled state of mind, so it doesn't hold her back for long. "Time to make like an ice cube in a cocktail. Bonzai!" She leaps in, managing to land in the water... only to get swept away with the current and tossed around. She bobs a few times, then gets slammed into a wall. And shatters.

It's okay, it was just a decoy. Same with the one that gets tossed over the side of a turn. Or the Vertina that's crushed into a rock.

The real Vertina eventually topples out of the end of the ride, having used her mirage dopplegangers to push herself away from the obstacles and let them get destroyed instead. "Well, that's okay." She grabs her ponytail and rings it out. "I don't remember the last time I took a bath so I probably needed it."

Haru is all for the coffee. His face lights up at the idea of having a cup. The boldness of a dark roast. The sting of a milder blend. A deep whiff to appreciate it. "That smells divine. Are you sure you are not a guardian angel?" he asks as he takes his turn with the sip and onward to the path and the river ahead.

The dark unknown doesn't cause Haru pause. It is not without a rush of excitement, but it is an adventure. Its time to be a little reckless. The water snakes follow with him to help him slide down but the event is far too wild and chaotic for him to get anchored on the rhythm below. Like a surfer trying out a board for the first time, it is the water that carries him, not the control of the element. The spell itself is broken and merges in with the flow. And eventually it ends. Drenched. Head shakes to get the droplets out of it. Well at least everyone is appropriately drenched for a drenched trope!

    Amalthea can't help but chuckle.
    "Being a guardian is my job." She says mildly. "An angel though... Well I'm far from perfect."    Into the trap door and... That sounds like water. Lots of water. Rushing water.
    Amalthea unslings her shield from her arm.
    "We should---"
    In goes Allynna. Amalthea can't help but wince at the sounds of bumps and ouchies. But she clears her throat and hops into the water...
    On her shield.
    And the old lady proceeds to shield surf down the underground river like a total pro.

The tunnels continue to weave beneath the surface of the city. Sometimes, the group finds themselves coming to places where the path ends in rubble or empty corridors, forcing them to backtrack through the maze-like tunnels.

Eventually, they follow the trail of the rats down into what appears to be the remnants of an ancient catacomb. However, there are no signs that this has been used as a place of worship in many centuries. Instead, it has become infested with piles of debris which are swarming with rats.

This could very well be where many of the rats that find their way above, come from. And yet, there are large scratch marks etched into the stone that suggest something bigger may be at play. Right now, there seems to be too many rats to risk drawing their attention. Even as low level monsters, in these sort of numbers, they could easily overwhelm the most capable of Adventurers.

Allynna looks to Fuka and frowns. "Quiet you, else I'll give you an Onee-chan hug, you wouldn't want that would you?" She says before looking at the rats and sighs, slipping her shield onto her back before she raises her hand to cast a darkness spell, well, hopes to anyway. "Licking poop, and not bathing... Vertina.. are you okay? Do you need an Onee-chan to help you?"

    "Oh no!" Fuka says overly dramatically. "My one true weakness! Hugs!" she claims in a performance with absolutely no fear of being Oscar-worthy. To her credit, she DOES say this rather quietly at least. She's obsessed, not any more crazy than she normally is.

    Unfortunately that's about the best that can be said for Fuka's stealthiness at this point given her armor and ... general lack of subtlety. Normally at this point in a rat dungeon, she's used to someone deciding to mass-incinerate the rats or swarm them with life-sucking darkness. There is, however, too many of them for the fire spells she commands. Even her most powerful air magics can't really threaten this sheer mass of tiny vicious bodies.

    She's also, as it turns out, not at all in the right frame of mind to predict rats. So in the end she ends up being helped through by those wiser and sneakier than she is. Hooray!

It's not called the Rat Maze without reason. Looks like they finally found the rats.

"Is that really important right now?" The Salamander retorts to the tanky Bun. "With all these rats aro--oof!" She trips over one of the nesting piles. And rolls over just in time to see a rat poke it's head out. Quickly she grabs the rat out of reflex to keep it from squeaking... only for several more to also poke out of the pile.

Followed a moment later by several curses as the Salamander just bumrushes the rest of the way to escape the swarm spilling out of the nest.

Not a perfect score, with Haru washing up at the end unceremoniously. A push up from the ground and shake. Wringing out his clothes so they are not as damp and heavy. "Hopefully nobody catches a cold from that," Haru thinks aloud and the smile returns. His shoulder is a bit sore from where it hit rocks. Nothing worth mentioning. The stealth requirements lend to an easier state of things. Darkness comes easily enough for the sights to be dimmed from the adversaries while the group advances. A flick of shadow there. A veil here. All very support in origins with the occasional needle-like shadow dart from the rat that signs off the Metal Gear Solid '!' alert when spotted. Go to sleep, rat.

    "... I think Vertina needs more than an onee-san to help her." Amalthea muses.
    This probably needs a grandmother's touch.
    But for the time being, the dungeon at hand is a little more pressing, as the rats here are so numerous...
    Amalthea pulls out another cookie.
    This one smells like peanut butter.
    And she hucks it AWAY from the group-- sending a large swathe of rats skittering in the direction of the cookie to help open up a path beyond.

It is not much further down a larger set of tunnels that the group begins to hear a strange sound, like metal scraping on stone. A dimly lit chamber lies ahead of them, and as soon as they enter, a series of armored ratlings turn in unison, making a sound like an army moving in step.

Each of these creatures is small, standing on back legs, with rodent-like features. They wield a variety of weapons of questionable quality, but seem to move with an almost militant sort of unison. One of those at the front gives a squeaking sound, as if they were commanding their forces.

Then, with a high-pitched yell, the little army of ratlings charges forward, poking and prodding at the Adventurers with their tiny weapons. It would be adorable... if it didn't hurt so much.

Wrong move, as Allynna removes her massive shield, and then it splits in two. "They think they're a threat!" She says with a gleefull smile as she then steps foward, and her shield has blades pop out o the edges of it and act like a pair of chainsaws, Yes... she has a dual chainsaw shield. Rushing into combat, she cackles with delight! "Dual razor: Hazzard storm!"

"Allynna dear. They probably can BE a threat if we're not careful." Amalthea points out. But it's a moot point as she takes to the fore of the group and starts spamming her taunt skill rotations.
    "Anchor Howl!" She declares, holding aggro for the group to hold the ratlings attention while everyone lays into them.

    Traipsing along behind - there are TWO tanks here, Fuka hardly needs to lead - Fuka hasn't even drawn a weapon yet. She remains upbeat if not manic, ready to respond to any threat in short, merciless fashion.

    The threat, however, is also short and merciless. Also ridiculously cute. "Awwwww, fuzzy little ratmen!" she coos, bringing up her hands with palms outstretched as if to command them to stop.

    They don't stop, naturally. But then, Fuka didn't expect them to. With a glint in her eye, she begins to chant nordic runewords of air and storm, of distance and of quantity. By the third repetition of the syllables, lightning begins to erupt from her outstretched fingertips, and she palpatines the living hell out of the lot of furry, cute, murderous ratlings.

"Okay, they're walking upright in armor and weapons. That's weird."

It's not the most astute observation, but you can't say it's not right. One of the rats tries to poke at the Salamander with a rat sized spear.

And the spear snaps when Vertina chops it at the middle, using her own knowledge of how weapons are balanced to find the weakest point to do so. "In this case..."

She then picks up the rat by the back of its armor, turns around, and drops him to punt across the room. "Size -does- matter."

There is an initial uneasiness in Haru when the action shifts to an assault of armored rodents. He takes a deep breath which could be seen as graceful, but in truth he is conflicted. For a moment he zones out and hears the sound of metal on stone against the cries of his party. He blinks. Smile.

The caster takes a step back as the water that soaked him is drawn off in small droplets. Its one way to dry off, for sure. "Armor breaks easily enough, though," he says as he extends a hand out to send a flurry of small droplets forward that freeze in flight, "Fractionis Glacies." It gives the field a crisp, winter feel to it as they pin into the enemies like small needles. Harmless at first.

Turning his hand upward, Haru does the Shiva snap, erupting the shards into a flurry of diamond dust that exposes the rodents to the already massacre of assaults from the party. Pretty snowflakes everywhere.

Through another set of tunnels, the way underground opens into what would now be a familiar, circular room that seems to always designated as a boss encounter.

The room beyond is unusually dark, enough so that it is hard to see much in the way of details. It is a supernatural sort of darkness, that even the most keen of Were Fang eyes can't easily pierce. An oppressive darkness that seems to come with a feeling of being watched.

Then, two red eyes flash open at the other end of the chamber. They offer just enough light to give a vague idea of a rodent-like muzzle, surrounded by dark mist. When it begins to move, the monster seems almost amorphous, made out of some sort of dark, elemental smoke.

Where it lashes out, the Adventurers are left feeling cold, as if all light were sucked from the world.

Allynna frowns. "Rat shadow... let's deal with his magic." She says as she tosses both her sh9ields down, sticking them in the ground as she starts to sing in order to cast Thorn Calatime.

"You would never break the chain"
"Listen to the wind blow, down comes the night"
"Running in the shadows, damn your love, damn your lies"
"Break the silence, damn the dark, damn the light"

Allynna keeps singing, attempting to hold the beat in place and cause damage over time as she continues her cast, singing more as apparently a lute found it's way into her hand.

"And if you don't love me now"
"You will never love me again"
"I can still hear you saying"
"You would never break the chain"

"Listen to the wind blow, watch the sun rise"
"Running in the shadows, damn your love, damn your lies"

The room is dark. Unnaturally dark. Impossible to see through.

So Vertina closes her eyes, and doesn't bother with sight in the first place. It takes a little longer than usual to put her focus in place, thanks to the disjointed state of mind, but she pushes through the distractive thoughts at least temporarily. Chi wells up inside of her, creating a faint glow around the Salamander... just in time to reflect off the shadowy form as Vertina snaps up a glowing hand to catch a punch aimed at her. "No." She lets go, the creature recoiling from it's antithesis element. Until Allynna's magical grasp starts rooting it in place.

Vertina leaps into the air, twisting her body gracefully to drive her chi-infused foot into Kageratto with a diving kick that would make any Kamen Rider proud.

    With the armored ratlings handled, it's time to move on. And in the next chamber is the biggest, baddest, darkest, rat of all.
    "Ah, that certainly is a rat. Made of shadows." Amalthea murmurs, as her sword comes alight, glowing with white holy light. Once more she spams her taunts to hold the rat's attention while laying into it with her sword.
    But her DPS is lacking while she's so focused on being on the defensive for the sake of the group.

    "Not bad!" Fuka cheers when Haru pulls off one of the spells she herself picked up for anti-armor duelling. It's definitely a nice one, particularly when driven by the air racial bonus she commands. "Water seems to be something of a specialty for you!" she notes, a glint in her eye. Because, of course, she's currently obsessed over a project involving how to channel water mana in a particularly useful way.

    Fortunately for Haru, the dungeon isn't interested in letting them talk shop as it were. There's a boss to end still, and they're just going to have to deal with it! The little blonde looks rather annoyed as the darkness floods around them, bringing a chilling halt to her chatter. She's not out of words however. "Water isn't exactly my specialty. Air is. But you know what else I'm really good at?" she asks rhetorically.

    Dropping back, making sure she's behind Amalthea and Vertina, Fukaziroh begins to chant. A completely different spell from the previous one; where it used the words for storm and lightning and area, this one uses opposites. Constraint, defense, range and... "FIIYAAAAAAA..."

    She doesn't end the spell in one of her traditional fire balls however. Given those in tight proximity and the ongoing chill of darkness, she has a better spell in mind. "WAAAAL!" A line stretches from her finger and she points a brilliant line of flame out. Drawing the finger across the room, she bisects it with a curtain of flame, both burning the boss and radiating enough heat to hold the chill of darkness at bay for some time.

The familiar darkness of that an edgelord must bathe in to obtain ultimate edge is upon him. Haru's first instinct is to warm up. Maybe get some hot coco after all this. Its fun when he is causing the cold but its not so fun when its drawing the light out. He has used Water, Shadow, Air/Ice, and its time to round out the elements with some Fire. "It's. Something. Alright. Ignis," is what he says as his teeth chatter, failing to give the fire form or purpose as his hand draws circles to warm the air to no avail. To draw out flickers of light. It is all artificial in the face of the source. Chatter chatter. He will have to leave the fight to the professionals on this one. Sometimes faith in your companions is all you need to win the day! Translation: Thanks for the carry.

At first, it may be hard to notice, but soon the Adventurers realize that each hit they take, causes the chamber to grow darker and darker. It saps not only their life force, but their will to continue fighting. Luckily, realizing this gives them the ability to fight back.

Bringing light and magic into the chamber seems to cause the strange, mist-rat to retreat more and more into the corners and shadows of the chamber. As the monster's health drops, it shrinks in size, becoming little more than a twisting mass of smoke that tries to lash out ineffectually.

Then, as the last blow is cast, there is a squeak, and a pop as it seems to fade from existence. What is left behind is little more than a bit of strange mist that hangs in the air. Something they might be able to take a sample of in order to research later.

Allynna smiles and takes her vial, will probably add it to the box of random stuff in her room back at the guild hall. Turning to look at the rest of the group, she gives a thumbs up. "Yosh! Good work, oh and vertina, I was serious, if you need a big sister type, I'll be there. Thea, it was fun as always, a pleasure!" She says before she picks up fuka and haru, one over each shoulder. "Okay you two, let's go get some food, I know an awesome ramen place!"

Vertina snags some of that misty shadow essence in a vial. This is what she came for, something that might prove useful as an ingredient later. Of course that also gets some of those obsessive thoughts trickling back in as she considers what she could do with it.

"Nani?" She glances over her shoulder at Allynna. "What are you going on about now?" She's already slipped back into the Strange Mood distractedness. Someone's probably going to have to lead/drag her out so she doesn't get lost.

Haru normally has such good posture. A nice noblise sort of gravitas. Nope. Not now. A shadow mist rat will do that to you. Its enough for him to catch his breath as the cold itself was making it hard for him to breathe. The shadow vial is taken only moments before getting yoinked. It is juggled from hand to hand until grasped, finally put away before he loses it. "Ramen sounds good," he says, the young man of little more than cloth and svelte build. A hand waves to the others, "Thank you for having us. This was fun. We should do it again sometime." Smile.

    Breathing a sigh of relief, Fuka releases her flame. It leaves afterimages as it vanishes, bright purple streaks across her field of vision. She shakes her head, trying to clear it, also trying to recover from the rush of a rather enjoyable series of fights. Sure she's obsessed, but her obsession isn't the whole of her.

    She does want to get back to it though, not just because she's obsessed but because it's something important. Not just important to her. So she's about to wave goodbye when she frowns instead.

    There's something about Haru's smile that gets to her. As someone who uses a mask, a very social mask, she's quick to notice ... something. But before she can say anything, Allynna scoops her up. "Hey!" she complains, struggling. Not, to be sure, struggling anywhere near her full physical capacity. Just struggling for the sake of not appearing to give in too lightly. She only relaxes when food is mentioned. "Alright, you get a pass for that. *NO ONE* manhandles me without good food first!" she insists.